With Barack Obama bringing an unprecedented level of color to the Oval Office – that is, any at all – many people were hoping his cabinet appointments would reflect the president-elect's diverse background. Those people are going to be disappointed.
Welcome to the real world, where change takes time and straight white men still wield a large share of the power.
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So it looks like Irish bootlegging scion Caroline Kennedy might have this New York Senate appointment all wrapped up. If you've been paying attention at all, you know this is a disaster, primarily because the only political thing Caroline Kennedy’s ever done is be conceived by one of America’s most beloved presidents.
With Kennedy as the probable pick, other Senate hopefuls must be dejected, none more than former The Nanny star Fran Drescher, who’d thrown her unlikely hat into the ring early last month. We're a bit disappointed, too. Franny may not have been more qualified than Andrew Cuomo, but she's definitely as, if not more, qualified than Kennedy. Don't believe us? Let us count the ways.
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"A California official is warning that the state will run out of money in about two months unless a budget deal is struck. State Controller John Chiang said Monday that his office could be forced to defer billions of dollars in payments or issue IOUs. He says the instability of the banking industry has made borrowing money to bridge the gap an uncertain possibility."
And so it begins. The frustrating days when the rock-solid campaign promises of Hope and Change prove but fleeting memories. It's an event that annually appends national elections, one that Americans have come to hate but tolerate, because what can we do?
This year, unfortunately, it looks like the nation's gays and lesbians have been hit particularly hard by the blow of reality.
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The reason Chicago politics is so corrupt is because, in modern American history, it's never not been, which makes it very difficult to clean up. Especially because every politician who says they're going to try and straighten Chicago out ends up lying and cheating worse than the pig who came before him. Imagine trying to clean up a greasy stove with a sponge covered in used Crisco and you'll understand the job of cleaning up Chi-town. Basically, it's the Frankenstein's monster of political machines—a thing, composed of scrap materials functioning for a common cause (money), that will only be stopped if it commits to self-immolation.
Here's the back story: starting about 100 years ago, Chicago's elected officials started to realize they could play the city's increasing number of immigrants off one another for financial and political gain. Shrewd politicians would employ ward heelers, people who implanted themselves into ethnic enclaves and promised government handouts in exchange for votes. "Vote for [insert name of rotten prick here]," they'd say, "and you'll get a leg up on those no-good Eye-talians." This is why so many Irishman became Chicago police officers.
From there, the favors and money flowed as freely as Capone's bootlegged liquor during Prohibition, eventually leaving the Windy City where it is today, with the goddamn Illinois governor auctioning off high offices.
If you're smart, you should be saying, "But that stuff happened in New York, too. Why isn't Albany full of criminals?" Good question! The short answer is: Albany is full of criminals, just like all of politics. (Remember Spitzer, the hooker-fucker?) The long answer comes from Slate:
… machine politics faded away in New York, due in part to external pressure from former New Yorker Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was elected president in 1932.
Boston's pretty corrupt, too, as evidenced by this state senator stuffing a bribe into her bra just last month, but it's nowhere near as bad as Chicago, which has seen dozens of elected officials face criminal cases in the last three decades.
With the "WHY" out of the way, here's some of our favorite Chicago scandals from history.
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Columnist, author and drinker Christopher Hitchens says a Hillary Clinton appointment to the Obama Cabinet would be a "ludicrous embarrassment for the President and for the country." Among other things, Hitchens notes that Hillary Clinton's race-baiting during her campaign for the Democratic nomination – "Senator Obama’s support among … hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again…" – makes her unfit to serve with America's first half-black president.
The Daily Beast lived up to its name this week and shamed PBS's DC affiliate, WETA, into airing early a documentary about the ways the Bush administration condoned torturing the hell out of human beings, some of whom might very well have been guilty of nothing more than being Muslin. Why the hurry? What the Beast (and subsequently the New York Times) took issue with was WETA's assertion that Torturing Democracy, a film that supposedly "connects the dots in an investigation of interrogations of prisoners in U.S. custody that became 'at a minimum, cruel and inhuman treatment and, at worst, torture,'" would, for scheduling reasons, have to be shelved until January 21, 2009, the day after President Bush leaves office. Hmmmmmm.
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Remember when movie people had to exert even a minimum amount of effort and money for the opportunity to become multi-millionaires playing pretend? Well choke on it, taxpayer, because now film crews on the path to get rich don't have to do shit but show up, videotape a dog in a necklace running around California and cash their large checks, and all on your dime! Whaddya mean financial crisis?
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The $700 billion federal bailout is in limbo this morning as bipartisan discussions on the matter unraveled yesterday just hours after the press got word that an agreement had been reached. Talks between the Treasury, White House and members of Congress will continue throughout the day today, and mavericky Senator John McCain says he'll only participate in tonight's scheduled presidential debate in Mississippi if he feels that a deal is impending. What a maverick!
Let's take a look at how effective and necessary a presence McCain was at yesterday's bailout meetings:
It's not based on any particular data point. We just wanted to choose a really large number.
-A Treasury spokeswoman, on where the $700 billion bailout figure came from
Soldiers' blogs leak less inside information than the defense department's official website. A recent study discovered over 1,800 violations of the security policy on government sites.
Best of all, for once we can't even blame the gays or the bloggers! Which only leaves…the government? Now that's just plain anti-American.
[Wired]
Earlier this week, members of the Defense Department announced that—effective as of Monday—soldiers stationed overseas would no longer be allowed to access YouTube or MySpace, citing concerns about bandwith as the primary reason for the new digital restrictions.
Now, YouTube is fighting back against what they perceive to be a miscarriage of justice.
YouTube's cofounders Thursday challenged the Pentagon's assertion that soldiers overseas were sapping too much bandwidth by watching online videos, the military's principal rationale for blocking popular Web sites from Defense Department computers. "They said it might be a bandwidth issue, but they created the Internet, so I don't know what the problem is," Chief Executive Chad Hurley said.
While no one's gone so far as to call this a government conspiracy, YouTube has suggested just enough impropriety to call "bullshit." And we're just glad to be living in a country where people are willing to challenge questionable statements, invoke their First Amendment rights and stand up for what they believe in.
Even if "what they believe in" is off-duty cops accidentally shooting themselves in the leg and overweight boys fighting with broomsticks light sabres.
So, we sort of glazed over this story this morning because we were so inundated with Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, and Jessica Joffe. Plus, we thought it was common knowledge that most reporters were paid by the government. (Kidding, Observers, kidding!)
We'll cut to the chase. 10 Miami reporters who were being paid upwards of $100,000 by the U.S. government (where the fuck are we? Russia?) have been exposed by the good side. Among those who were willing to sell their soul and obviously missed that J-Schoo ethics class include "veteran reporters" from El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language subsidiary of the Miami Herald, along with various radio reporters.
The "journalists" (pictured below) were paid thousands by the White House over "several years" to carry out the duty of undermining Cuba's communist government under Fidel Castro. To the Spanish people so they would vote Republican …. we assume.
John Hanusz of the Daily Journal just leaked some information on the leaked information involved in the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping case. And, not shockingly, but still big news, our trusty Grey Lady has sparked yet another FBI manhunt.
The Justice Department and the FBI are planning to launch a full federal investigation into the confidential memo leaks to New York Times' reporters David Halbfinger and Alison Hope Weiner .
Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys in the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping case are pointing fingers at each other after confidential FBI memos turned up in news reports. Sources close to the case said the Justice Department and the FBI will soon launch investigations into who leaked memos of interviews with supermarket magnate Ronald W. Burkle, Paramount Pictures head Brad Grey and former Disney president Michael S. Ovitz. Those agencies, however, would not comment.
Isn't it refreshing to here Burkle's name in the context of a totally different scandal? The rest of the article, via Fishbowl LA is after the jump. Or, if you have a fancy Daily Journal subscription, click here.
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The government has taken a break from leaking information to the press and worrying about the shit show over in Iraq to harass the family of a "dead journalist."
Jack Anderson, a former columnist for Drew Pearson who wrote the legendary Washington "Merry-Go-Round" column, raked so much mud in the capital, Nixon operatives even threatened his life at one point.
And now, the F.B.I has advanced on their mission to "remove classified material" they believe he accumulated in his forty years of journalism.
Mr. Anderson's family has refused to allow a search of 188 boxes, the files of a well-known reporter who had long feuded with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and had exposed plans by the Central Intelligence Agency to kill Fidel Castro, the machinations of the Iran-contra affair and the misdemeanors of generations of congressmen.
Those opposed to this government invasion include his family, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and George Washington University (where the files are currently being stored). Soon enough (gasp!) the bloggers will be shooting their opinions all over the sphere as well.
We would like not to get tracked down and killed by the government, so, we'll steer clear of any outlandish, brazen reactions. Plus, we can't step away from Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes for too long. We don't want to miss the part where Tom eats the baby.
F.B.I. Is Seeking to Search Papers of Dead Reporter [Scott Shane, New York Times]
