I support the house passing the Senate Bill. It would sure be lovely if the 43 Senators who support passing a public option through reconciliation would morph into 51. Of course the now problematic House needs to pass reconciliation language and if it doesn't have public option language then the Senate support is moot. Mind I'm not saying I would support opposition to a House reconciliation bill without public option. I'm just saying if I had my druthers...
So along comes this cute stunt by Alan Grayson of a four page bill that would amend Medicare to allow anyone who doesn't qualify now to buy it as health-care insurance for themselves (and family?) Too easy, too simple and too obvious for passage? Yeah most likely.
The Texas teachers’ pension fund recently paid Chicago to receive a stream of payments from the money going into the city’s parking meters in the coming years. The deal gave Chicago an upfront payment that it could use to help balance its budget. Alas, Chicago did not have enough money to contribute to its own pension fund, which has been stung by real estate deals that fizzled when the city lost out in the bidding for the 2016 Olympics.
if that deal works out fo the Texas teachers that's fantastic, but the fact that they had to find something so exotic to give them a little payoff is pretty startling, and there aren't going to be many of these days to go around.
And it's also yet another example of an Olympics bid damaging a city's economy. Just imagine how bad things would be if they'd won!
Make of it what you will. As for my reading of ClusterStock, what can I say? I guess my dirty little secret is out.
According to Talking Points Memo, Dan Lipinski (3rd) and Jerry Costello (12th) may be among the 12 votes Bart Stupak claims to have ready to sink health care reform (such as it is) unless his attempts to bar women from using their own money to buy insurance that would cover abortions is part of the final deal.
Over at Daily Kos, RenaRF and deaniac83 have details on action plans. If you live in their districts, please let 'em know what you think:
There's a lot of nostalgia about the coal industry in Illinois but the coal companies don't hesitate to embrace change. One change they enjoy is that reopened mines are no longer union, despite all the blood spilled to organize the industry.
But more than that, the industry is quick to reduce the size of their workforce by mechanizing operations. The amount of coal mined in the United States steadily increased over the past twenty years, even while the number of coal mining jobs dropped dramatically.
Rio Tinto is connecting its Australian mines to satellite links so workers more than 800 miles away can remotely drive drilling rigs, load cargo and even use robots to place explosives to blast away rock and earth.
The company's Perth operations center, which relies on banks of high-tech equipment to manage one of the oldest and dirtiest jobs around, is a harbinger of new techniques that are allowing miners to go to more remote places, dig deeper and get ore to the market more quickly. It also aims to save Rio Tinto money by using fewer workers and keeping them out of harm's way.
Imagine that? Illinois could keep spending millions of dollars subsidizing the coal industry and there's no guarantee that one day most mining jobs won't be inside Peabody headquarters in St. Louis. Or, Murray Co could do it from Ohio. There are already less than 4,000 people employed in Illinois coal mining and even new mines won't hire many workers.
If someone asked me which Illinois newspaper is most hopelessly in the tank for the coal industry I'd think of the Southern Illinoisan or the Belleville News-Democrat. So I have to give the Southern Illinoisan credit for covering Jeff Biggers' book reading in Carbondale.
On the environment, Biggers said clean coal is a marketing tool that was created in the late 1800s to sell coal. He expressed disappointment that President Barack Obama is on board with clean coal. "We have been market-ing clean coal for over a century, and that offends me," Biggers said.
And I'm impressed that they printed this line that contradicts so much industry propaganda normally found in downstate newspapers.
He said the job issue is a myth because coal mining is a "boom and bust" industry and that it reached its peak in 1918. Biggers said instead of more coal mines, there could be jobs in other forms of energy such as wind. He said even if the wind turbines do not go up in Southern Illinois, they can be made here.
That's an important point since the state has spent millions promoting the myth of clean coal and the coal industry wants us to spend more on subsidies and rate increases. They're promising to revive the Illinois coal mining industry but thanks to more efficient mechanized methods, most of the old jobs won't come back anyway.
Taxpayer dollars funded a "cost estimate" recently completed to build support for the carbon capture and gassification plant proposed in Taylorville. I'm sure environmental groups and others will respond to it soon. I'm skeptical after looking at their claims of CO2 reductions. The report doesn't acknowledge the possibility that the plant will displace evening wind production and new central Illinois wind farms.
It's rare to hear anyone contradict the coal industry in downstate Illinois so Jeff Biggers is a refreshing necessity.
Companion bills to restore the Illinois primary to the third Tuesday in March, i.e., somewhere between March 15 and March 21 depending on the calendar, rather than the first Tuesday in February, have advanced in both the Illinois House and Senate. Sen. Deanna Demuzio's SB 355 passed the Senate unanimously on Feb. 25 and Rep. Elaine Nekritz's HB 4964 cleared the ethics and reform committee on a 9-0 vote and is calendered for third reading after short debate. Each bill also contains text adjusting back to February the time after which a legislator may not publish a newsletter, i.e., state-funded printing and mailing that obviously helps an incumbent.
The news accounts linked to above indicate that at least some legislators would prefer a primary even later than March, and that Demuzio would be "open" to it. Would have been nice if the bills were crafted that way.
Under the pending legislation, the 2012 primary would be held on Tuesday, March 20, three days after a Saturday St. Patrick's Day. While Feb. 2 was a rotten date, I have no nostalgia for mid-March either; that still puts the big petition drive, filing, and any ballot challenge between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and means that there are mounds of frozen slush to clamber over for most of the door-to-door and goin'-to-meetin' season.
David Orr, who has to fund any overtime incurred during the filing/challenge season, has argued that there are higher costs associated with a winter primary (March 15-21 is still winter) and suggested May, June, or August. Sen. John Jones was quoted as saying all of his county clerks agree. The IVI-IPO supports a May or June primary; I've long felt mid-to-late May makes the most sense. You lose folks after Memorial Day and as schools start to let out. Pat Quinn last year suggested a primary as late as September, as seen in some other states.
The primary date is not an issue that stirs most souls but, like gerrymandering, it is one of those many small things that adds up to big advantages for the existing power structure, which is stacked against the average citizen. Perhaps some brave rep will introduce a floor amendment, before this bill becomes law, changing the date to the third Tuesday in May. We could at least get on record who does or does not support that.
You may only see another or two in your lifetime. That's pretty grim I know, but that's my current sense. With all the scientific evidence amassing for the reality of climate change, that's the feeling that seeps through to me.
I called last summer the summer from heaven it was so nice. I have been calling this winter and the previous one typical. Typical winters or normal winters for Chicago. But really I think this and the previous were/are extremely cold and snowy winters for Chicago. The new extreme, one that is about to be replaced by a warmer extreme the next time.
If you were around for the really cold snowy winters of the late seventies then you think this as being a typical winter. You think of the winters of five and ten years ago as warm. The winters of the seventies got down well below -20 degrees Fahrenheit. That's what I am talking about. And that was before real feel numbers. Those were actual degrees.
With the retreat of the Glaciers and especially with the retreat of the arctic year round ice pack and the retreat of the arctic permafrost so has there been a retreat of really cold winters from Chicago.
See the reason that this winter has been so extremely cold (the current extreme) is because of an el Nino in the Pacific and because of an extended solar minimum for sunspot activity. Oh it's likely a lot more complicated than that. But the trend is likely real as well.
Me, I am bracing for a tipping point in the next five to ten years. I'm fearing a roaring back of what regular folks understand as global warming. The stuff that a majority have been propagandized into no longer believing in. They see global warming as meaning really hot summers. But really it's not so much extreme daytime highs but rather more not so cold winters and warmer nights. Averages that slip under the radar of human minds that evolved to spot obvious anomalies in patterns. Boiling water spills on skin rather than the slowly rising temperature of the cooking pot.
But in the next five to ten years the pot could quickly tip from an almost boil to a roiling boil. I worry about the huge methane stores trapped beneath disappearing permafrost. Methane stores that are as greenhouse gaseous as carbon dioxide. I worry about the next sunspot activity maximum that when combined with the reality of the steady march of rising CO2 in the atmosphere could disrupt satellite transmissions as well as make a snow-less Chicago winter. Likely several in a row.
Until finally there comes the next new extremely cold Chicago winter where the total winter snow fall goes above twenty inches and on one really cold day the mercury drops to an extremely cold ten degrees. Ten degrees above zero.
Oh likely I have the science wrong and sometimes I worry too much. But that's the writing I see on the wall.
(Full disclosure, my daughters Anna and Mollie do part time work and volunteer work with Quest.)
More disclosure is that I am not a theater reviewer and my theater experience is essentially non-existent. I did a review here a few years back on Quest's Peoples History of the U.S. In that case the subject matter was obviously political so I produced a political review. Evolution/Creation has a political component as well as you might imagine.
First let ME state categorically that you should go see this work. Since admittance to Quest productions is by donation when you leave, you can be assured of it being priced right. Don't be fooled by that though. This is a thoroughly professional production. It is being produced through March 28th on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm in the Saint Gregory Social Hall at Ashland and Gregory (1609 West, and 5500 North). Parking is available.
This is an original play with original music written for its ten piece orchestra and fourteen member cast. Opening night was this Friday the 19th and it is already Jeff recommended. (See the non-equity Chicago Jeff Awards listings.)
Avant Garde and experimental have meanings beyond my experience but they certainly seem to apply here. The audience is divided into two groups and each group is directed to a separate set of seats facing each other with the stage between. The stage itself is divided lengthwise into two parts with the orchestra stretching stage right to stage left and separating either side. Whereas normally in theater the curtain comes up after the overture to reveal the stage, in this case the curtain comes down after the overture to hide the orchestra and the stage on the other side.
If that is confusing don't worry. The point is that one set of music will be played twice to two different plays and the audience switches sides at intermission. One play is Evolution while the other is Creation. The artistic director, Andrew Park, who has been working on this project for several years had this to say about the conception:
Last year, I traveled to London and watched the revival of the 1955 play Inherit the Wind. This classic show tells the story of the famed Scopes "Monkey" Trial of 1925. For me, the London production felt unbalanced. Kevin Spacey played the lawyer defending Evolution in the classroom; he was level headed and quick-witted, multifaceted and specific. David Troughton played the prosecuting attorney fighting for Creation-only education; he was passionate and dogmatic, predictable and verbose. Whether by accident or choice, the production took sides.
The production is multi-media. Besides the acting, music and singing there is a lot of puppetry. To me puppetry is three dimensional cartooning and that is certainly the way Quest uses it here. The ensemble successfully brings all these elements together into an entertaining performance. One mark of an effective production is when you continue to ruminate on the show well after you've seen it. That was my experience. Again I recommend you see the work yourself.
After the break the politics. Since Park wants balance I will present balance, but perhaps not his idea of balance. So lets call this moment before the jump the SPOILER ALERT. Since balance will require some negatives to go with the positives, you would perhaps do better to return to this post after you've seen it so you can compare notes with me. If you are involved with the production itself then I would recommend you come back after the play has run. Here's why: what I am going to do is the classic shoulda, coulda, woulda. Folks working on any production know only too well the things they woulda done if only they coulda.
One parting positive word for you all thinking of seeing it: spectacle. It is quite a spectacle in the true sense of the word. Go see it.
Fox News has its style issues to be sure but they picked up on a practice that was, in part, at issue in the recent campaign finance disclosure complaint filed by Joe Laiacona and Rudy Lozano.
As many of you know, getting what remains of the fourth estate to stand up, take notice and actually report on these things is difficult and, as we saw with the Cohen campaign, sometimes impossible.
Kuddos to Joe and Rudy for starting this and for attorney Rich Means for carrying it forward. There's a lot more to this story. I hope Dane Placko does a follow up, though I would prefer he drop the "madigoons" attribution when he does.
