Rahm Emanuel: C/D? (probably going to be a Chicago politics complaint thread too)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BhcOeaRIMAA7-H8.jpg

uuuuuuuuuugh

people are more pissed at Rahm today than they were at Byrne then.

are a lot of people really pissed at him? i mean, sure, huge numbers of folks in progressive and many minority communities. but i don't get the sense that rahm-hate is quite as widespread as it would appear from reading this thread.

also the problem electorally is not really rahm it's whoever might run against rahm. there just haven't been good high-profile candidates with enough name recognition, personality, and funding prospects.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Woman-Heckles-Mayor-at-City-Birthday-Celebration-248426171.html

my CPS teacher friends were all fired up about that. apparently heckling is the only way to get him to listen. also, he deserves it.

Announcing the James Beard nominees right now:

http://new.livestream.com/jamesbeardfoundation/events/2839907

rahm always keeps himself where the real city action is

but i don't get the sense that rahm-hate is quite as widespread as it would appear from reading this thread.

I thought it was nearly as widespread...? I assumed his closing schools while funding that dumbass DePaul stadium was pretty much writing off huge voting blocs.

(but I'm 800 miles away)

well, this is a speshul pol

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/19/chicago-republican-who-blamed-autism-and-tornadoes-on-lgbt-rights-wins-her-primary/

did any of y'all hear the bold shameless pandering to latin@s that rauner (and the lady who introduced him) were doing during the acceptance speeches last night? whoa. never heard anything like it in this state. quinn is over there talking about how the ford plant has THREE shifts and it only had ONE when he started; rauner and gang are literally screaming MAS TRABAJOS

does Rauner have a chance? I live in the People's Republic of Urb@n@ so I haven't kept up with what the Chi feeling is on this. as a state employee I'm not super keen on Quinn's pension "reform" but otoh I don't know what better options there are

i think so
mainly because quinn is weak

he's not a bad person and he is way better than having an activist republican governor, so i'll vote for him, but he is from another time
rauner is thinking forward more than quinn is, and i can see him getting a significant # of votes

i'm not talking about actual policies here, just demographic courting

hey even the .01% need gardeners

well, this is a speshul pol

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/19/chicago-republican-who-blamed-autism-and-tornadoes-on-lgbt-rights-wins-her-primary/

― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, March 19, 2014 2:22 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

“God is angry,” she told the Herald. “We are provoking him with abortions and same-sex marriage and civil unions. Same-sex activity is going to increase AIDS. If it’s in our military, it will weaken our military. We need to respect God.”

Yep, that'll win her Evanston.

Holy shit that lady won!

She is a ridiculous human being. I can't believe she won the primary.

Even a legit candidate would probably not unseat Jan Schakowsky so I'm going to just sit back and enjoy this political absurdity.

he's not a bad person and he is way better than having an activist republican governor, so i'll vote for him, but he is from another time

This is OTM. Quinn is the definition of meet the new boss, same as the old boss. He just hasn't been caught yet. And as a former state employee, I actively dislike him and would love to vote against him but there is no way in hell I'm voting for a Republican for governor.

i will admit that i voted for tio hardiman on account of wanting to express support for his attempt to run
he got 108,065 votes i think (which was 28%)

is Rahm dead yet

Immortal, motherfuckers.

Think I didn't vote for Governor at all yesterday because it didn't seem to matter.

I went on Rauner's website to see if there was a chance he was a "reasonable republican" and a bunch of his plans seem to be "I will crush unions like a bug and this will fix everything." I hope Illinois doesn't get stuck with the new Scott Walker.

i would advise everyone to consider that possibility
he has a lot of money and is pandering furiously

Yeah, I suspect "pension reform" is a dog whistle for "destroy AFSCME."

He's not totally anti-choice, surprisingly enough.

Yeah, at least he doesn't seem socially conservative. Though if ALEC get their claws into him, it might not matter.

Even a legit candidate would probably not unseat Jan Schakowsky so I'm going to just sit back and enjoy this political absurdity.

― carl agatha, Wednesday, March 19, 2014 1:49 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, think about it this way: jan can save a lot of money on campaigning this year.

pro-choice republicans are pretty common in Illinois, no? and in New England...

governor's race is definitely a "lesser of two evils" proposition. even is launer wins (yikes), my guess is that neither the senate nor the house will turn over to the GOP so at least there will be MAJOR checks on the gov's power. so it won't get as bad as here in wisconsin, where the GOP owns the government right now.

Or Ohio (sob)

I remember very different times.

Or Ohio (sob)

― we slowly invented brains (La Lechera), Wednesday, March 19, 2014 8:18 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

or michigan, right?

2010 was a BAD YEAR.

Amusing to look at what counties Pat Quinn carried in 2010:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Illinois2010.png/403px-Illinois2010.png.

I assume he'll win Cook again. He he'll still probably lose all those other counties as well, but by bigger amounts this time? Who knows.

cook county is worth over 1/2 of those other counties tho

btw did anyone see that CNN online doc or whatever it was about chicago whose ads featured our man rahm in this steely chiaroscuro portrait? i assumed it was trash.

Here's some good links for you guys:

http://pando.com/2014/04/08/revealed-rahm-emanuels-top-donor-bought-stock-in-marriott-just-before-it-was-awarded-huge-chicago-contract/
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117247/contentious-interview-rahm-emanuel

Oops.

That Marriott thing is so shady.

I'd be surprised but it seems like this shit has basically been happening in the open.

lol @ the first exchange in that interview

"We have a great city. The principal reason is the people. We have very strong middle-class neighborhoods."

Somebody show show him this gif

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/files/2014/04/1.gif

Strong, as in strength. As in the middle class triathletes that still live in the city. Duh.

I wonder how many truly middle class people Rham knows.

I wonder if he could distinguish between a middle class person and a banana.

Anyone else get kind of a Gene Simmons/Gallagher vibe from that interview?

I can't even begin to imagine what that vibe would be. Spitting blood on a smashed melon?

Something like that, but verbally.

It's more a desperate-sounding unearned overconfidence combined with dickishly doubling-down when he knows he's completely wrong.

I think he has his own special brand -- everyone who plays as dirty as he does needs to hide it under a unique façade so as not to be confused with other megalomaniacs.
ugh i can't stand this guy!

i agree about the unearned part though for sure

I loved this interview.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/19/chicago-deadly-shooting-guns-rahm-emanuel-2014

Stung by a 16% spike in killings in 2012 that led Moody’s, the ratings agency, to downgrade the city’s debt due to its "unrelenting public safety demands", Emanuel promised a tough response. Amid spending cuts, the former White House chief of staff to Barack Obama has ploughed tens of millions more taxpayer dollars into policing. Sure enough, in January he proudly announced that 2013 had seen the city’s fewest homicides since 1965 and lowest crime rate since 1972.

Yet a startling 7,000-word investigation earlier this month by Chicago Magazine cast serious doubt over the crime-busting miracle of Emanuel and his superintendent, Garry McCarthy. It identified at least 18 apparent murders in 2013 that had either been quietly redefined as “non-criminal deaths” or shunted off the city’s books by other statistical sleights of hand.

Professor Eli Silverman of the City University of New York, an authority on the CompStat-style data systems used by police in Chicago, New York and other major cities, told the Guardian he had been contacted by several Chicago officers concerned about the determination among chiefs to drive down crime numbers at whatever cost.

“The pressure from the top is unrelenting,” he said one had told him. “The defenders of the system always say ‘You can’t hide a dead body’,” said Silverman. “But you can reclassify one.” City authorities deny any impropriety.

They juked the stats.