Month: July 2006

What did the Times know and when did it know it?

The New York Times undertook to blow what it called, in its headline, the “secret” international terrorist financing tracking program, for reasons that it never has been able to explain. Initially, there was no doubt about the fact that the Times was exposing a secret; reporter Eric Lichtblau used that word to describe the SWIFT program something like twelve times in the body of the Times’ article. But when the Times unexpectedly found itself under heavy criticism for damaging national security, it took the nearest port in a storm, and claimed that the SWIFT program wasn’t a secret after all. Everyone knew about it! Which, of course, left people scratching their heads over the story’s page one, above the fold placement.

And there’s more on this matter here, but you don’t find it at Romenesko: Your daily fix of media industry news, commentary, and memos, where the perspective — Mainstream gossip and industry developments — does not allow it.

Part of what you will find is this from Eric Lichtblau, written last November to give an idea of just how secret it was — impenetrable until NYT told about it:

[The administration] is now developing a program to gain access to and track potentially hundreds of millions of international bank transfers into the United States.

But experts in the field say the results have been spotty, with few clear dents in Al Qaeda’s ability to move money and finance terrorist attacks.

Few clear dents, eh?  

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While you’re considering this matter, see what happened in similar circumstances long ago, thanks again to NY Times!

 

Beavers an original

Second or third reading of the remarkable “poop butt” comment by Ald. Wm. Beavers, who says he speaks for the Stroger family or camp, when he alluded to county clerk David Orr, who has elections as his official concern, leads to noting his “What does he [Orr] care?” comment.  This was Beavers exposing himself as having not the slightest idea of the abstraction known as the rule of law. 

If Orr is not directly involved in the fight for money and power at the county board, Beavers seems to say, then why is he saying anything?  It goes with an earlier statement on TV by Beavers, for which I cannot find a link, “We can do anything we want” — this as to whether they keep the missing Stroger on or off the ballot, in or out of office, and put son Todd Stroger on or in. 

It’s as if he’s utterly missing the elementary powers of abstraction that divide material self-interest from respect for law or even propriety.  He’s not the only one, to be sure, but he’s the clearest on the point.

Beavers an original

Second or third reading of the remarkable “poop butt” comment by Ald. Wm. Beavers, who says he speaks for the Stroger family or camp, when he alluded to county clerk David Orr, who has elections as his official concern, leads to noting his “What does he [Orr] care?” comment.  This was Beavers exposing himself as having not the slightest idea of the abstraction known as the rule of law. 

If Orr is not directly involved in the fight for money and power at the county board, Beavers seems to say, then why is he saying anything?  It goes with an earlier statement on TV by Beavers, for which I cannot find a link, “We can do anything we want” — this as to whether they keep the missing Stroger on or off the ballot, in or out of office, and put son Todd Stroger on or in. 

It’s as if he’s utterly missing the elementary powers of abstraction that divide material self-interest from respect for law or even propriety.  He’s not the only one, to be sure, but he’s the clearest on the point.

Trustees know shopping!

Oak Park

is the target of a recent lawsuit, filed after officials decided Lane Bryant doesn’t fit the “kind and quality” of shops desired for the building.

Sun-Times reports.

In a downtown known for its trendy shops and clothing stores, Village President David Pope said officials want “a more broad-based retailer” to fill the building rather than one with “a niche market.”

Lane Bryant specializes in clothing for women sizes 14 to 28.

Since when does local government make marketing decisions for developers?

Sperm matters

Tom Roeser does this alderman up very nicely in his blog item about “the lucky sperm club” of public office heirs:

The fastidious, preening Edward, his white hair in a blow-dry pompadour, his chiseled face held high at a jaunty angle, wearing a flowing $150 green tie from Stuart’s on Michigan avenue, acts as to the manor born as he strides up to the altar in a $3,000 suit at St. Peter’s each noon in Lent to receive the sacrament to which he believes he is thoroughly entitled as a Burke.

Alderman Eddie, a.k.a. Mother Burke, our Carrie Nation of the dining room table, is the main character of several whom Roeser names to go with our incipient latest of the breed, Young Stroger. 

 

Poop scoops

Claypool making noises:

Commissioner Forrest Claypool, who lost the Democratic primary to John Stroger, said letting ward bosses decide who’s [on] the ballot shows “a remarkable, almost breathtaking contempt for the voters and taxpayers of Cook County.”

Beavers too:

Asked Monday, [Ald.] Beavers quickly denied there was anything misleading, saying “oh, hell no,” before calling Orr a “little poop butt.”

“What does he care?” he asked.

Orr:

Orr said his office still hasn’t received a signed and notarized “withdrawal of candidacy” form needed to remove Stroger’s name from the ballot.

That’s adding confusion to a situation that has been confusing from the start, causing Orr to call it all “very embarrassing” and “bush-league political stuff.”

And Danny our boy, beloved of some goo-goo libs for no apparent reason:

Davis said he’s fighting “the wheeling and dealing” the Stroger camp has been engaged in since John Stroger suffered the stroke.

What’s the deal on Stroger? Hard to know what to believe

. . . says Mark Brown, who at the end of his description and attempt to figure out the Stroger in Wonderland happenings says something that must be occurring to lots of people beside Tony Peraica:

All I can say for an absolute certainty, though, is that this situation has been nothing but good for the Republican nominee, Commissioner Tony Peraica, who is looking more and more like a contender.

In Oak Park, for instance, lawns were loaded with signs for Forrest Claypool, Stroger’s opponent in the recent primary.  Will those become Peraica signs this fall, even in Democrat Oak Park?

OP spending money

OP business owner Paul Hamer —  has Frame Warehouse on Harrison St. — on retrieving freebies to developers through added sales tax:

People do not realize how small the sales tax pie is that goes to our village. It’s only one percent of the total 8.76 percent collected [that is, one% of purchase amount]. That means a business with a million dollars in sales only generates $10,000 for our community. The total sales tax deposited in village coffers for the entire downtown business district in 2003 was only $350,000. In our $100 million village budget, that’s nothing.

As for the Shops of OP, whose developer got lots of freebie help:

 2003 Actual real estate taxes from The Shops: $ 353,238

 2003 Projected real estate taxes with no public investment: $284.534

 Gross yearly Shops tax increase: $68,704

But there’s also the debt servicing by the village, which has led to a net yearly loss of $263,060

Would the developer have paid $6.5 million of his own money to make $20 million? [counting his recent sale of The Shops for $20 mill]  I think so. There was no need to ever get us involved financially.

Which leads to the question why the village trustees felt themselves competent in this matter in the first place.

The Shops didn’t increase our sales tax base, didn’t increase our real estate tax base enough to cover our costs, and has not led to a downtown revival—all the things that were promised to us.

………………

The TIF district tax hole that previous village boards have dug for us is deep, and it is not totally clear to me how we will be able to dig our way out without severe sacrifices to local public education or dramatic local tax increases.

Lisa v. Blago a no-go

This is almost at the end of the Sun-Times story about feds investigating Blago and friends as in letter to AG Lisa which she released, we assume partly to cover self for not continuing to pursue them with her own investigation.  Such as it was, we are tempted to say:

The release of the letter was not viewed as a positive development within the U.S. attorney’s office. While publicizing an investigation can bring potential witnesses forward, it can prompt people to shred documents, get lawyers and get their stories straight before investigators visit them.

Maybe this should have gone higher in the story?