Can the Democrats re-unite? Who is really going to win the US Election (Part 7) | 64 comments (64 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

reality check time (4.00 / 4)

Uhm, really hate to be the bearer of terrible news, but not very much has changed. Ok, nothing has. I know you are now going to give me a lecture about how I wasn't even alive in the 60's so what do I know. What I know is I've been really really active in Chicago politics in recent years and anyone will tell you ... nothing's changed. No clue what Obama accomplished as a community organizer. I don't see much to show for it (though that doesn't mean efforts weren't made - trust me, it's pretty futile and thankless work being a reformer in this town!) and I work on the blighted South Side. Still, I don't know any other community organizers who live in mansions on property bought for them by say, Rezko. There's Chicago for you. Even the anti-machine candidate (yeah, right, whatever) is tied to someone being prosecuted for patronage. It's in the effing water here. I'm telling you.

Organized labor is organized and does labor, and the new Mayor Richard Daley rules the city like a personal fiefdom. Chicago politics is barrel-chested strongmen wielding truncheons on political opponents, then go home to shower, shave, and don a tuxedo to attend a $500 a plate dinner with the President or Senator. It is connections that counted, and your loyalty to those connections. They STILL have a saying:

we don't want nobody nobody sent.

Don't take my word for it. Call Mark Pera or Jesse Jackson jr.

Sorry. I really am.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 05:14:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 0)

poemless:

I work on the blighted South Side.
<snip>
Chicago politics is barrel-chested strongmen wielding truncheons on political opponents,

Didn't have you figured for the trunchon wielding type ;-)

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 05:38:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 1)

I know. Maybe if I picked myself up one I'd have better luck on the winning elections front... ;)

Don't know why you included the mention of working on the South Side in that quote.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 05:54:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 1)

Because there was where you said you worked in Chicago politics.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 06:04:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 1)

I said that's where I work. But politics is not my job. It's what I do when I'm not at work.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 06:18:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 0)

Ah so amateur truncheoneer then ;-)

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 06:21:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 0)

I just don't get paid to lug one around. :)

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 06:24:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 0)

but make up for it with enthusiasm ;-)

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 09:34:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 1)

I have a nice single fit buddy who's a cop by traing, right up here. Decent cyclist too.

He gave up the cop part though, now he's an elementary school teacher.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 06:27:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 0)

What is this in response to? I mean he sounds nice... I pretty much run in the other direction when I see teachers, though. Sorry. I have a teacherphobia.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Sat Mar 29th, 2008 at 02:33:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 0)

it was in response to you saying you needed to pick yourself up a cop.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Mon Mar 31st, 2008 at 09:54:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 0)

You want her to cop on?

"It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Tue Apr 1st, 2008 at 05:54:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 0)

What's cop on?

Learn something new, hopefully, every day...

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Wed Apr 2nd, 2008 at 11:18:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 0)

Slang for getting sense - as in she should cop herself on and stop....

"It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Apr 2nd, 2008 at 12:52:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 0)

Heh. Hadn't heard that one.

Irishism?

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Wed Apr 2nd, 2008 at 01:08:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 0)

probably - not sure of its ethnographic extent - I thought it might be more widespread which is why I used it

"It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Apr 2nd, 2008 at 01:17:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (none / 0)

Sounds like Obama has had some good training for taking on the top brass when he gets into the Oval Office. Maybe you should get a job with him. Tell him Jesse Jackson jr. sent you.

"It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Thu Mar 27th, 2008 at 09:34:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

reality check time (none / 0)

It would sound like it if it were true. The problem, as far as I know -- up to a few weeks ago when Obama and the Tribune did a big interview -- is that it doesn't seem to be true (not that this has stopped Clinton and the Hillaryis44.com crowd from desperately trying to pull a pony out of it). Community organizers, I'm guessing, don't make that kind of money, but famous young senators receiving $2m advances on their books on top of two hundred grand a year -- not counting the first book's sales taking off after the '04 convention, or wifey's (higher) salary -- can probably swing it.

When the sellers and the papers finally came forward and basically said that Clinton was full of shit, the story went away.

Maybe poemless has seen news I haven't (obviously I don't live in Chicago and so don't have access to the local news every day), but Rezko seems more a Magic Pony Plan from the crazies than anything else.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Fri Mar 28th, 2008 at 07:54:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: reality check time (4.00 / 2)

I haven't lived in Chicago for over twenty years; I visit my kin every once in a while. So, I'm also sorry to learn that not much I wrote about has changed.

by NBBooks on Fri Mar 28th, 2008 at 12:09:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Can the Democrats re-unite? Who is really going to win the US Election (Part 7) | 64 comments (64 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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