A View From the Sears Tower's Ledge
Illinois Is Getting Fatter
Mayor Blames Violent Holiday Weekend On Booze, Heat
Kuma's Pats Itself On Back With Block Party
Chicagoan Involved In Mount Rushmore Ruckus
Although the week is shorter, that doesn't mean that there hasn't been political news out there to round up! This week, we're making a special dedication to Chicagoist's favorite bad guy, the man that makes us the national butt of every political joke in town, the guy that represents everything that is wrong with our local political system, Todd "The Toddler" Stroger. Without further ado, let's take a gander at his follies and foibles, and all the newsworthy nonsense he's been up to of late:
More Taxes From the Stroger "Administration"? Unlike Papa Stroger, who seemed to like to avoid property taxes, anything goes with this kid. In spite of his campaign "promises" to the contrary, The Toddler told Fox News over the weekend "for years, we haven't taken any of the natural growth [in property values]. We should go to the next level that we can." Forrest Claypool slammed Stroger on the proposal, noting that in the face of several recent scandals in county government, it is arrogant to ask taxpayers to shoulder more of the burden of the waste and corruption going on there. "Todd Stroger needs to get his priorities straight, and he's shown that his priority is protecting the bloated patronage system and the county system full of six-figure salaries for his friends and relatives and cronies," Claypool said Monday. "Now he's saying, 'I want to raise property taxes on people.' ... The president is certainly tone-deaf to be talking about raising property taxes."
Hey Cook County, Good Job Screwing You're Own Employees! If you work for Cook County, getting yanked around by your employer is nothing new. Worked hard to get someone elected? Too bad. Hold an advanced degree in management science? Sorry, Charlie. Now the county has taken it to the next level. Cook County Correctional Officer Vito Zaccaro was stabbed in the neck with a shank by an inmate trying to escape, who wrestled the officer for his weapon (which he didn't give up). Now the county has sent Zaccaro a bill for $3,750 in emergency medical services he received that day. Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's Office has told Zaccaro he can't prove his injuries happened while he was on duty.
Cook County Recorder of Deeds Accused of (gasp) Patronage. Michael Shakman, the attorney who has made it his personal mission in life to restrain the Machine, is charging Cook County Recorder of Deeds Eugene Moore with violating the terms of the so-called Shakman Decree, which bans political hiring and firing. According to Shakman, Moore "has engaged in substantial, illegal patronage hiring, promotion and firing" of employees with politics deciding who gets full-time jobs, as well as summer jobs intended for students. According to former employees, many of those summer jobs went instead to "middle-aged political workers."
Ex-Con on the Cook County Payroll! While we can't directly attribute this to The Toddler, we can blame this one on the political system that created this clown of a political hack. Turns out that a convicted felon was put in charge of handling the cash disbursements for the Cook County program intended to help needy veterans. (And the fact that we even need such a program is pretty fucked up, isn't it?) According to records, Andre Baker was left "unsupervised" as cash, food stamps and bus cards disappeared. County officials admit they never conducted a background check before hiring him as a secretary in the Veterans Affairs Commission office in May 2001. Making this even more shameful is the fact that he remained on the payroll after being incarcerated again in 2005!
Peraica to Introduce a 'No Confidence' Vote Against The Toddler. Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica will introduce a resolution of "No Confidence" in the Stroger Administration at next week's County Board Meeting. Eric Zorn has "blogged" about this, arguing that it makes sense, but probably won't pass. Even Peraica has admitted that it probably won't get far, with the Republican Commissioners on the board ignoring it. He's turned that into his opportunity to flog the rest of the state's GOP for it's utter and complete failure to capitalize on the sorry excuse for Democratic politics that is patronage and corruption in Illinois.
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This is the most embarassing example of local politics I have seen in my entire Chicago life of 45 years. (and we have had our fair-share of wacky local politics)
The whole Cook County governmental system is a joke. And unfortunately, we're the punch line.
nice job kevin
Hey Cook County, Good Job Screwing You're Own Employees!
Good job at screwing you are own employees?
Hey Cook County, Good Job Screwing You're Own Employees!
GOOD SPELLING, CHICAGOIST!
Sorry Kevin, but Toddlers culpability in these messes is totally negated by you're incorrect use of a contraction instead of a possessive. Corruption will reign supreme and Yule have no one to blame but yourself. Hope your happy! ;-)
Hey Kevin (or anyone else that may know),
Is there any news on Toddler's daddy's condition?
Is there any move to change the law that allows candidate's family members to run if the candidate is unable? We can't let something like this happen again.
Jeff, db, and (especially) Cletus: ouch! I hang my head in lexigraphical shame.
Does Cook County have a recall law?
The whole way Todd got the nomination was sleazy, and he's only made it way worse by his actions after taking office.
Hey, why the quotes around "blogged." Very MSM of you, Chicagoist.
Ah, isn't one party rule for decades great?
Remember kids, whatever you do, don't vote Republican!
@Kevin: Just doing my daily civic copy-editing duties.
While you're editing, you may as well fix this: ..."for it's utter..." The correct way would be "its."
And whatever we can do to get this idiot out of office would be fantastic. Just let me know where I need to go and what I need to do.
Apologize not to me, but rather to the millions who will continue to be bent low under the yoke of corruption by you're inability to punctuate properly.
Kevin:
Thank you for continuing to highlight the problems here in Cook County ... and for posting our latest Web video.
I urge all of you to post that video on your own sites and forward it to your friends, family and colleagues.
I also urge all of you to join me for a press conference and rally next Tuesday at 9 a.m. - prior to the Cook County Board meeting, where I will introduce the "No Confidence" resolution. We'll meet in the 5th floor atrium at the County Building.
Thanks for all your support.
Tony
Tony I think you already got the no confidence vote yourself when you lost the election.
Nice try though.
Funny, Ross.
Hey, I voted for Tony just because he wasn't Todd. But it doesn't say much about Tony that he couldn't beat this dolt. (A lot of things don't say much for Tony, but that's besides the point.)
Tony is in the same class as Kerry and Gore, two other would-be reformers who could not beat an obvious idiot.
I don't think things would be much better under Tony he seems to me he is an angry person.
At least Toddler is a joke and funny helping all his relations get jobs. I am surprised we don't change the name to Stroger County, IL
Claypool is the one that go cheated.
I would argue, Ross, we need more angry people, especially citizens. Too much apathy and not enough rage.
Angry people never get anything done people shut them out.
Angry people helped found this country, Ross.
Granted, they were in large part angry rich people who didn't want to pay taxes for the Empire's defense of the colonies, but they were angry nevertheless.
Angry people helped kick the asses of the Southern racists in the 1960s.
Anger and rage over the folly that is Iraq is at least leading more people to consider what kind of mess we are in, and how much willlingness we have to waste even more lives over there.
I see your point, but playing nice hasn't gotten us shit in this state, so what's the point? I don't think violence is the answer, but one can be angry and have rage without descending into violence. Anger and rage can provide focus and motivation for all kinds of non-violent political action beyond simply voting.
You miss the point Tony comes across and a real angry person over all, his life, gay people etc. Not just what is going on in government. He is a divider not an uniter. You can be upset about things but you can't come across as a jerk.
What we need is some straight talking politicians with some real balls that will say it like it is and shine light on the lies and corruptness by facts.
I would have said what a joke the whole old man stroger deal was in the first place and laid the cards on the table.
God, who couldn't see it was like weekend at Bernies.
Further I might add his little march to County Building on election night made him look like a real jerk too and I am sure that even more made people not take him seriously.
But then the voting machines suck here in Cook County and I also think would be better if they didn't give any out comes until they had all precincs reporting. They should all be electronic touch screen with a paper recorder and a receipt the voter gets out of the machine with a serial number to reference the vote.
Vise77, for once, I agree with you. Misdirected anger is what can and will bring this country to its knees and the situation in Iraq is the perfect example. Then again, in areas of the world where we have "played nice," like parts of the Middle-East, it's only led to more problems and ones that I'm afraid, we've only just begun to confront. Plain and simple, in this country and elsewhere, we have way too many idealogies to simplify, even justify, to the point that all parties involved (see: civilization) will agree. It's a true shitstorm.
Back here locally, however, let's deal with the issue at hand: Toddler sucks. Part of me seems to think he was set up in the sense that they knew what was coming. Why not put him out there and let him be the fall guy, after which, we will have someone who the people will welcome after a man who is but true folly - but can you honestly say someone as polarizing as Peraica is the guy to be President? Toddler blows, but Peraica is just an angry man who decided to jump out because the things he wanted just weren't in his destiny if he toed his line.
It's the same thing with Blagojevich last Fall. Nobody on either side of the aisle likes him at all. But there was no alternative. He will be gone, either up the river to jail or voted out (so long as someone can field a viable candidate) in the next election. That second part needs to materialize, however.
The problem with Illinois is that we have two populations: Chicago and the rest of the state. The rest of the state is red red red. The red governors weren't so bad, at least when you toss out that thief Ryan. Yes, I said it: Thompson and Edgar were pretty good and in Edgar's case, I will say almost great. But Ryan really blew that for the reds. What happens outside of Chicago really doesn't matter when we have someone like that in office, because they are at least willing to work with our elected officials.
Now, back to Chicago: you say that Daley is so hated in your circle of friends. Well, in my circle of friends, which encompasses transplants as well as lifelong brothers of the area, the consensus is completely different. People actually like Daley - not everything about him or even all that he's done - but enough to vote for him. And he had 70% of the vote.
When assessed valuation, Cook County obviously takes advantage of the natural inflationary growth...unless Daley has put everything into a Tax Increment Financing District so he can spend it all himself.
Those of you who are quick to dismiss Comm. Peraica just because he fell about 90,000 votes of defeating Toddler need to be reminded that he ran in an impossible year for any Republican. Don't forget, Judy Baar Topinka lost Cook County by about 450,000 votes, while Attorney General Lisa Madigan crushed her hapless Republican opponent by some 900,000 votes in Cook County. Peraica should be applauded for being able to come as close as he did, in a year where his fellow Republicans were taking a beating across the country.
On another point, I wouldn't worry too much about that Shakman suit against Recorder Gene Moore. That's because he probably has as much chance getting reslated this fall (remember, Moore lost his post last year as Proviso Township Committeeman) as Toddler has being named MENSA's man of the year!
Ross needs to get a grip. The election for county board president was not lost, it was STOLEN. Over half of the county ballots went missing for over 6 hours, and did not materialize until well after 1 a.m. the day after the election. Secondly, not one commissioner would second Tony Peraica's No Confidence Resolution against Todd Stroger because all of these commissioners have side deals with Todd Stroger. One commissioner's law firm does business with the county, and other commissioners are seeking high paying jobs for their friends and family. The county is still encumbered by waste and corruption and the only commissioner who has the courage to stand up to the machine is Tony Peraica. It is sad that many commissioners are only interested in talking tough about Stroger's actions, but lack the courage to do anything about them.