1) What metal is the major component of the nickel coin?
2) In what neighborhood is the Chicago Park District park, "Rogers Park." located?
3) What color is green plaster?
4) Every year the Lincoln Square neighborhood holds a "Maifest." In what month in 2010 did they hold that festival?
5) You are traveling through the Panama Canal from the Caribbean to the Pacific. Do you end up further east or further west than when you entered the canal?
6) Which avenue is further west in Chicago, Western or Central?
7) You are in Detroit. You need to get to Canada as quickly as possible. Do you head north or south?
On August 28th, volunteers from all over the nation got together to knock on doors on behalf of Democratic candidates. Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois' Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat once held by Barack Obama, came to Chicago Heights to talk to its volunteers before heading out the door.
Newsflash: voters are angry. Democrats will try to knock on 200,000 doors tomorrow and I'm betting some of them will be surprised.
I got a glimpse of that today. I was out running errands in my "League of Conservation Voters" shirt -- which almost everyone misreads as "League of Conservative Voters" -- and the check-out lady asks me, "so who do you vote for?"
Now I have to say that I was taken aback. I mean, I don't usually have checkers try to engage me in political discussions and I almost never know what shirt I'm wearing (guy, so who cares what clothes I have on -- I figure I'm lucky when they "match"). But after a momentary pause, I say, "I'm voting Democrat."
They better not build that mosque down by Ground Zero, we're being told, not just because it's insensitive, but because we have no idea what they'll be up to down there.
I mean, where did the money come from?
Who does this Imam hang out with, anyway?
And, at a time when our Nation faces more threats than ever, why would we let these Muslim madmen situate their "terror command posts" anywhere?
Well, I don't know about all of that...but I do know a place where lots of these Islamic terrorists go to obtain the equipment and supplies they need to support their particular craft, and I decided to make a bit of an undercover visit to the spot, so that I might "observe and report" on what goes on at this specific location.
So put on your dark glasses...and let's go see what we can find out.
19th Ward Alderperson (Beverly and Morgan Park), Ginger Rugai, has decided not to run for re-election to the Chicago City Council, she told the Chicago Sun-Times City Hall beat reporter, Fran Spielman. She claims (like the others) that it's not that she feels a backlash coming, but, that, 'it's time'.
"I feel good about it. I'm not sick. I'm not too old. I still have a lot of energy. I'm not afraid of a campaign,'' the 64-year-old Rugai said. Beverly and Morgan Park residents "know I'm a fighter and they know I'm a survivor. There's no smoke and mirrors in regard to this. It's just trusting my instincts that it's time for me to move on and look to a new challenge. And it's good for the ward to have a new life as well.''
My plan to work this summer in support of relief efforts was nixed by virtue of an age requirement. Most organizations requried volunteers to be 18 years or older and while I made the cutoff (with an ample margin), my socially conscious daughter did not so we stayed close to home. I've remained in touch with several of the organizations on the coast and received this call for volunteers. I thought some PSB readers may be interested.
Vi Daley, the Chicago Alderperson representing the 43rd Ward (Lincoln Park), today was the third of her colleagues to announce that she would not be running for re-election.
The Chicago Tribune reports that her reasoning sounds very similar to the colleagues who went before her:
Daley, 43rd, said she still plans to remain active in the community, but is moving on so she can "concentrate on things I like to do."...
Daley, who is no relation to the mayor, said she it would have been a tough re-election contest, but she said her retirement is "more about my future and wanting to slow down. . . . It's a very demanding job. We are basically working 24/7."
Alderman Daley was forced in to a run-off last election with current Democratic Committeeman Michele Smith, and may have decided to get while the getting is good. Smith, as of posting time had not announced for the job, but many of her supporters expect her to run again.
Chicago Magazine reports that the ex-wife of Republican nominee for the US Senate, Mark Kirk, thinks he has been under the control of a "Svengali-like" consultant, and that has been the source of much of his problems lately.
Her marriage to Rep. Mark Kirk (R-10th Dist.) may have ended amicably in June 2009, and the two may remain friends today, but Kimberly Vertolli said that she will not "advocate" for her ex in his Senate run because she fears he is too influenced by a "Svengali figure" in his life-a former staffer named Dorothy "Dodie" McCracken.
Vertolli, 37, a former naval intelligence officer who was married to Kirk for eight years, told me in a telephone interview last week that she loves him and "want[s] him to be happy," but she says that McCracken-Kirk's press secretary during his first term-is "trying to control Mark and the direction of Mark's campaign." For example, Vertolli blames McCracken for the congressman's support of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which bans openly gay people from serving in the military. Vertolli, a lawyer now living in the Virginia suburbs of D.C., added that Kirk assured her, "when the issue came up again, he's going to do the right thing and support overturning that policy."
According to the piece, Vertolli won't support Kirk politically, due to the rightward turn in Kirk's policies of late:
CF: So at this moment, with that promise, is it your intention to support him and campaign for him?
KV: No, I will not because there's a person who is a very pernicious force on his team who is wielding a disproportionate amount of negative influence on him. As long as she's there, I can't be his moral conscience.
Confirming long-time rumors, Chicago Alderperson Mary Ann Smith, of the 48th Ward (Edgewater and part of Uptown), has let the Chicago Tribune group report that she is retiring.
Smith, who chairs the Parks and Recreation Committee, has been on the council since 1989. She was the first of many aldermen Mayor Richard Daley got to appoint.
Smith confirmed that she won't seek re-election in her North Side ward and told the Tribune she would explain why later today.
Current rumors are that State Rep. Harry Osterman will be the choice of the Regular Democrats in 48 to succeed Ms. Smith. Mr. Osterman's mother was Ms. Smith's predecessor in the office, which Ms. Smith was named to after Ms. Osterman became Mayor Richard M. Daley's head of the Office of Special Events. No word on any independent challengers.
Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.) will introduce legislation Thursday placing a permanent ban on the federal funding of abortion.
While a 24-year-old law - dubbed the Hyde Amendment - already ensures taxpayers don't subsidize abortions under Medicaid and all other federal health programs, the law is temporary, forcing Congress to pass it each year as a rider to broader spending bills.
The Smith/Lipinski bill would permanently solidify the funding ban across all federal agencies.
Also interesting is that Jan didn't "whip" the rest of the IL liberal crowd, which usually votes as a pack, into a No vote on this altho she herself voted against. I would love to be a fly on the wall.
Johnson continues to intrigue.
QUESTION: On Agreeing to the Resolution
H CON RES 301 YEA-AND-NAY 27-Jul-2010 6:00 PM
BILL TITLE: of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Pakistan
As predicted elsewhere here, Helen Shiller, Alderman of Chicago's 46th Ward, has decided to retire, rather than run run for re-election.
Announced in Chicago Sun-Times' columnist Laura Washington's 8/2 column, Shiller, originally one of the most independent Alderpeople in the council, lately, one of Mayor Daley's staunchest allies, has decided to retire after almost 24 years.
I am so dispirited that some of these obvious ones get by me. At least there were more no votes this time. That's progress. If I miss votes that you think I should highlight shoot me an email. I hope Johnson is running scared.
Link to Full Vote - More Afghan War Funding H R 4899 2/3 YEA-AND-NAY 27-Jul-2010 6:11 PM
QUESTION: On Motion to Suspend the Rules, Recede from the House Amdt, and Concur in the Senate Amdt
BILL TITLE: Making emergency supplemental appropriations for disaster relief and summer jobs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes
