Your personal video can no longer get you put in the pokey by the police

During the two-plus decades I have paid attention to our political people and the way they govern, I have seen some hard-core partisan actions taken. I’ve seen mean-spirited acts meant to single out certain segments of society for abuse.

The high court on Thursday saved us from our Legislature's worst instincts.

Yet the thing that allows me to continue to have faith in our form of government is that it often seems that sense and decency prevail. Someone comes along to do the “proper” thing.

SUCH AS WHAT happened Thursday with the Illinois Supreme Court, which issued a ruling that struck down the eavesdropping laws that were enacted a few years ago that made so much of everyday observation a criminal act.

As it turns out, part of the law was already struck down – the part that made it a crime to record anything involving the police. Legislators who approved creation of that stupid law claimed people were using all those newfangled cameras in their cell phones to catch the police in improper acts.

Which meant the police were under constant supervision that could inhibit them from doing their jobs.

These are the kind of people who think the real problem with that Rodney King police beating in Los Angeles in the early 1990s was that some smart-aleck happened to record it with a video camera.

CATCHING THE POLICE in improper behavior? They were just doing their jobs, some would have us believe.

Now, the entirety of the law is struck down. The people who were eager to protect government officials from being caught in their own incompetence have been determined to have gone too far.

In this case, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of Annabel Melongo, who had objections with a court transcript in a case she was involved with. She had several telephone conversations with a court reporter supervisor at the Criminal Courts Building, and she recorded at least three of them.

In Melongo’s case, she made the recordings because she wanted to make an issue of what she saw as the court reporter’s incompetence. She created a website where she wrote about her problem, and included snippets of the recordings she had on the website.

PROSECUTORS USED THE law to determine that Melongo WAS the problem. She had six counts of eavesdropping filed against her. A jury ultimately could not reach a verdict, and the charges eventually were dismissed.

But because such a high bond was set against this “threat” to our society, she spent about 20 months in jail while the criminal case was pending.

Naturally, this case was filed by the state’s attorney’s office, which claimed that the problem was in the jury that wouldn’t give them a “guilty” verdict. They wanted the charges reinstated.

Their attorneys actually argued before the state Supreme Court that the intent of the Legislature (which was to favor the actions of law enforcement and other legal system types over those of the public) had to be respected, and that trying to alter it was outside of their legal authority.

IT SEEMS THE court didn’t buy into that argument.

“Judged in terms of the legislative purpose of protecting conversational privacy, the statute’s scope is simply too broad,” read the opinion issued unanimously by the state’s high court.

Which many of would have come to the conclusion back when the Legislature (in the Rod Blagojevich days) gave its approval to this measure.

Particularly since if strictly interpreted, it could make any tourist a criminal if – while in the process of taking pictures in the Loop – they happened to catch a glimpse of a cop or two in the background. Which isn’t exactly an impossibility.

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EXTRA: Not sure Rauner gains much from his collection of ‘Dem’ supporters

I’m sure that Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner thinks he struck a blow against Gov. Pat Quinn by offering up a collection of people who call themselves Democrats, yet said Thursday they will back his GOP campaign.

MEEKS: Will he really help Rauner?

Yet I’m not swayed.

LOOKING AT THE list of these Democrats, I see mostly a collection of business executives. Not a lot of names that the general public would recognize.

For all I know, this may wind up reinforcing the notion that Rauner is not like most folks – that he’s part of his self-admitted .01 percent of our society. Quinn could play this into something that reinforces his self-described populist, man of the people, image.

Some have given attention to the idea that Newton Minow – the FCC chairman under President John F. Kennedy – is on the list. The man who told us that television had become a “vast wasteland.” That’s a one-day story. Quinn will get more positive attention come May 3 when he gets to present former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton with the "Order of Lincoln" award.

Personally, I was caught up more with the notion that the Rev. James Meeks was on Rauner’s list.

MEEKS IS THE head of the Salem Baptist Church in the Roseland neighborhood. He has one of those self-described mega-churches. A huge congregation in the thousands filled with people who would do whatever he says.

He’s also the guy who served a decade in the Illinois House of Representatives, and often tried to pass himself off as a political player.

MINOW: Rauner's Kennedy connection?

He often threatened to run for mayor or for governor unless those officials did what he wanted, made it clear that gay rights activists weren’t of much concern to him, and once led a public effort to protest education funding by trying symbolically to enroll inner-city kids into wealthy suburban school districts (then claiming their rejection was somehow racist).

That latter move brought him ridicule. And I don’t sense that the political people who were challenged by Meeks ever felt threatened by his presence. In fact, they usually continued to win re-election despite Meeks’ hostile talk. Will Rauner gain much, if anything, at all by having the reverend on his team?

HE’LL GET A few more votes than Republicans usually get in Roseland. Then again, the Democratic Party operatives in that part of the city probably know how to counter such a move.

Besides, there’s the simple fact that Democrats, by their very nature, are an ornery political group. So many different factions that have a hard time playing nice with each other. The fact that Rauner has a list of 23 Dems who aren’t repulsed by him is more cute than particularly effective.

If anything, I’m more impressed by Rauner’s announcement that his first campaign ad spot of this part of the election cycle is a Spanish-language ad. Reaching out to Latino voters in a serious manner could be a bigger blow to Quinn than anything these 23 Dems could do!

Although if it turns out as lame as when lieutenant governor hope Evelyn Sanguinetti mixed in a few Spanish words into her Election Night introduction of Rauner, even that could turn out to be a lost opportunity.

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Illinois schools did make NCAA tourneys; you’re looking at wrong ones

I have read several commentaries by sports-types all decrying the fact that no Illinois-based university qualified for the NCAA basketball tourney now underway.

We in Chicago or the rest of the state have no rooting interest – unless we happened to acquire a higher education at an out-of-state university.

EXCEPT THAT IT’S really not true. Unless you’re one of those people who are misguided into believing that “March Madness” is nothing more than the Division 1 tourney. That attitude actually bothers me more than the fact that the tournament itself won’t end until early April.

March “Madness” my duff!

Personally, I’m more intrigued by the tourney for Division III, where my own alma mater, Illinois Wesleyan University, has managed to make it all the way to the “Final Four.”

Sure enough, on Friday, the IWU Titans will be playing the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. Remember them. Many years ago, the Chicago Bears held their pre-season training camp on that campus.

IF THE BLOOMINGTON-based college prevails, THE championship game will be Saturday against the winner of Williams/Amherst – the latter of which was last year’s national champion. I’m sure they’d like to have two titles in a row – compared to the last IWU national title in 1997.

Now I know there are bound to be some nitwits who will retort that I’m bringing up a tourney involving institutions of higher learning that nobody’s ever heard of.

Although I’d argue none of them are any more obscure than Wolford College – which would consider it a miracle if it were to manage to beat the University of Michigan on Thursday. That’s a real-live Division I match!

So for those of you who are complaining that there’s nobody local to root for in college basketball, I’d argue you’re not looking deeply enough.

ALTHOUGH THE FACT that the other NCAA basketball tournaments get less attention also mean they breeze right past us. Why else would the Division III tourney be nearly done just as the Division I tourney is starting.

Now if by chance you don’t want to join me in rooting for the Titans (you’re probably one of those deluded fans of Millikin University in Decatur), there were other local schools that managed to get into post-season play.

You have to look to the women’s basketball programs to find them. But they’re there.

At the Division II level, Lewis University in Romeoville and Quincy University both managed to qualify – even though neither made it past the first round of their tournament.

AND FOR THE Division I level for women, DePaul University is actually worth something. They’ll play their first match Saturday against Oklahoma.

That could give Chicago basketball fans something to root for. And it shouldn’t be looked down up. I’m sure the Blue Demons’ men’s program would give anything to still be playing ball this season.

Or any of Illinois’ Division I men’s programs. A part of me thinks they are fantasizing these days that they could be in Illinois Wesleyan’s position. Just one game away from playing for THE championship for the year.

A game that the men likely would remember for the rest of their lives.

ALSO ONE THAT I’m sure the men and women who are playing these past few weeks will take with them as they advance their way through life.

Now for those of you who are just absolutely determined to root for a large-enrollment school, I suppose you can follow the Fighting Illini men’s team as they work their way through the NIT (the ultimate in athletic consolation prizes).

Although by the time you read this, their season may be over as well – they played Boston University on Thursday, with that winner going up against Clemson on Saturday.

I suspect the Illini will be back in Champaign for good following this weekend. Then again, so will the Titans – hopefully with some athletic hardware showing them as winners!

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Admit it. You're thankful I didn't write anything political for Thursday.

Quinn ought not be quiet in coming day

It will be interesting to see just how Gov. Pat Quinn chooses to go on the attack against his opposition; now that he has a real opponent and not just the token “Anybody But Pat” option that passed for the name “Tio Hardiman” on Tuesday’s Democratic ballots.

QUINN: Hard-hitting, or wimpy?

If I were a part of the incumbent governor’s campaign staff, I’d already be striking back as hard now as though it were late October.

THE POINT OF doing something now, perhaps starting right as the early vote tallies came in Tuesday night, is to do something to inflate the momentum of the newly-appointed Republican nominee. Which is what justified the airtime the Quinn camp purchased in the Chicago and Champaign-to-Springfield television markets for last night.

Because momentum is what the GOP challenger to Quinn has right now. In these early hours of the general election cycle, it is a case where the Republican nominee has been in full campaign mode for months.

The adrenaline is still flowing, even as the winner goes about Wednesday morning making the traditional appearances at commuter stations and restaurants to shake the hands of people who voted and thank them for their support.

While also making an early plea to “Vote for Me!” again, one more time come Nov. 4.

LET THIS MOMENTUM continue to flow, and it builds strength. It builds the candidate’s character. It lets him think that he’s a “Winner!!!!!” It makes him think he’s invincible.

This really is a case where perception will become reality, if Quinn and his campaign is inept enough to allow it to happen.

Which is why I’m wondering if all these months of silence by the Quinn campaign were really just that campaign prepping itself to come out with (I apologize for the cliché) guns ablazin’ with a takedown attempt on the new GOP nominee for governor.

Hit him hard and point out something flawed to the degree that by week’s end, the sense of invincibility is shattered. The GOP nominee becomes nothing but a mortal. Heck, if truly successful, you’d have the Republican primary voters wondering by Friday what they could have been thinking when they cast their votes on Tuesday!

VAN PELT: Did early blast help?

A PART OF me still remembers Patricia Van Pelt Watkins. She’s a state legislator now, but I remember Election Night of 2010 when she was one of the fringe candidates with fantasies of running for mayor in 2011.

She came out with a string of Election Night ads (when most people were wondering if William Brady could actually overcome Pat Quinn and if Alexi Gianoulias had a political future) that made her name so prominent I honestly believe it is the reason she got serious consideration for a legislative post in the future – rather than just becoming yet another of the perennial names who get their names on the ballot to keep getting 1 percent of the vote every time they run.

Hitting hard now reinforces the idea that Quinn is serious (the Democratic Governors Association issued a statement Tuesday citing his political strengths) and that his opposition is not invincible. If he doesn’t act now, I’d argue he’s bringing his defeat eight months from now upon himself.

This could be an election cycle that has a serious momentum shift by Friday.

IT ALSO HELPS that Quinn has had so much time, and didn’t need to focus any attention on a primary opponent (what’s the difference between losing 64-36 percent, or 98-2 percent, which could have happened if Quinn had thought Hardiman opposition was essential).

He’s had time to prepare. There’s also the fact that he’s put together a campaign team of experienced operatives. These guys aren’t going to play nice. They’re going to go for the victory.

I’m waiting to see what they have dug up. Let’s only hope it’s not a better-funded take on the organized labor attacks of recent months against Bruce Rauner.

RAUNER: What will we think on Friday?

Those wound up doing little more than making Rauner look like an all-powerful pol out to crush a scared, whimpering weasel of labor union interests. I suspect those broadcast spots  made the unions look ridiculous, while inadvertently bolstering Rauner – like the yellow sun for Superman. Does Quinn have some Kryptonite??!?

NOW I REALIZE it’s a long campaign season. There are nearly eight full months of time to campaign before Nov. 4. Any specifics spouted out now will be long forgotten by then.

But this is more about perception. Either Quinn does something now to show us that his challenger is just a political dreg. Or that he’s just a doofus who sat around all these months during the primary because he had nothing worthwhile to say.

In which case, it will be a long eight months while he sinks lower and lower until he winds up getting consigned to political retirement.

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EXTRA: Rauner wins – does this mean the Cubs will narrowly lose in ’14?

I made the wisecrack recently that the people who expected Kirk Dillard to do a political comeback and win the Republican primary for governor are the same kind who expect the Chicago Cubs to win the National League pennant in the near future.

Would Bruce Rauner actually move into the Executive Mansion in Springfield? It's not like the Winnetka resident with a Chicago high-rise condo and seven other residences across the country needs another place to live.

So does the close campaign we appear to have got this election cycle mean that the Cubs will not be quite so awful, and may actually finish a close second place?

CUBS FANS MAY well be satisfied with that. But for those who detest the concept of venture capitalist Bruce Rauner as governor, his apparent victory over all his GOP challengers is still bound to sting.

With about 10 percent of precincts still to be counted late Tuesday, it seems that Rauner got 40.8 percent of the vote, compared to 37.2 percent for the state senator from Hinsdale who in conceding defeat showed he could duplicate former Gov. Jim Edgar’s deadly-dull monotone-style of speaking.

Other candidates William Brady (14.8 percent) and Dan Rutherford (7.3 percent – and conceding defeat even while some polls in Chicago were kept open late because of morning delays in getting them open) also ran.

I really suspect that Rauner, with his personal ties to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, will be a turn-off in the rural parts of the state, where there are those who want a governor who will put a leash on Chicago’s desires, and not cuddle up to the current version of Hizzoner.

ALTHOUGH IN CHICAGO, Rauner had a 52.43 percent majority among those city dwellers who chose to cast a GOP ballot. And no, hearing Rauner’s lieutenant governor running mate mix a little Spanish into her introduction Tuesday night isn’t going to sway many people to change their vote.

What about the incumbent?

Gov. Pat Quinn seems to have a 71.9 percent share of the vote, compared to 28.1 percent for the soon-to-be forgotten Tio Hardiman.

In Chicago, Quinn got 79.07 percent of the vote, and the Cook County suburbs gave the guv a 79.62 percent share. In short, Quinn did better than that poll that said Hardiman would get a miraculous 36 percent share of the vote.

WHAT ELSE WAS notable about the results that are still straggling in from this Election Day?

Will Guzzardi seems to have succeeded in dumping state Rep. Toni Berrios, D-Chicago, from her Northwest Side legislative district. Some see this as taking a political post from a Latina and life-long Chicagoan, and find some offense in the fact that it was taken by an alleged “hipster’ who has only lived in Chicago a few years.

Personally, I’m more inclined to think this was a vote against her father – Cook County Assessor and county Democratic Chairman Joe Berrios and his policies of putting assorted relatives on government payrolls.

Not that those people have ever been capable of beating Joe at the polling place. So they took it out on his daughter. Not exactly something to boast about!

I HAVE MORE respect for the electoral victory Tuesday of Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, who ran unopposed in the Republican primary and is now boasting of her “Soviet-style victory” that got her the 100 percent vote tally.

There’s also the fact that the Republican Party already is blasting Gov. Pat Quinn for the campaign ads he aired Tuesday night while votes were being counted that remind us of Rauner’s weaselly ways when it comes to the minimum wage.

Personally, I thought Quinn’s initial attack could have been harsher. It certainly wasn’t as critical as the remarks that newly-nominated U.S. Senate candidate James Oberweis made against incumbent Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Tuesday night.

Which makes me wonder if this year’s gubernatorial campaign is going to be between a wimp and a whiner?

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'Chicagoland' ratings that bad? Missing airplane overtakes documentary

I haven't commented on the 'Chicagoland' documentary being broadcast in eight parts by CNN because I've hardly seen it.

Will I forevermore be 'Part Two'-less?

I watched the initial part the day it was broadcast, but missed the second part when it aired Thursday night of last week because I had to work. Earning a living struck me as being more important at that particular moment.

BUT HEY, THIS is the 21st Century. These cable channels air programs over and over and over. Particularly something like this documentary, which CNN is making a big deal of.

It should have been no problem for me to catch a repeat airing some time during the weekend. In fact, it was scheduled to be a rerun both Saturday and Sunday nights, along with early Sunday and Monday mornings.

Believe it or not, I tuned in each and every time -- only to find out that it got pre-empted every single time. The latest trivial details of that airplane that went missing somewhere over the Indian Ocean were put on live every time.

Now before some of you get offended that I characterized it as "trivial details," keep in mind that I say so because we still don't really know what happened there in that incident that caused an airplane, its crew and passengers to suddenly vanish.

FROM WHAT I gather, officials now suspect that the pilots themselves were "in on it," so to speak. But what "it" is, we don't know.

So I really don't feel any more educated about that incident. And I still haven't seen Part Two of the documentary series -- which from the little blurb I read is supposed to continue the tales we in Chicago are all too familiar with.

You know -- 2013 was a particularly violent year, particularly in select South and West side neighborhoods, while there are those who think Rahm Emanuel is Satan incarnate for those inner-city neighborhood schools that were closed.

Although it seems that the most recent Chicago Black Hawks Stanley Cup championship was thrown into the mix in Part Two -- giving us a few moments of happiness while enduring an arrogant mayor and senseless violence.

THEN AGAIN, I also suspect that those people who most got into the whole hockey championship thing were the ones who were least affected by either urban violence or school closings.

I know that the reports indicated the ratings weren't so good for that first part of 'Chicagoland.' They were considered disappointing -- although better than the ratings that most CNN-aired documentary programs get.

Could it be that CNN has that little faith in this series that they're cutting their losses? Why keep re-airing a program that will only be watched by the random few like I who managed to miss it Thursday night?

Even the latest non-details that only slightly advance the missing airplane story were considered more interesting!

THERE MAY BE a few people out there asking why I don't just turn to my laptop computer and the CNN website to watch a program. Part of it is that I don't want to.

I'd rather watch a program on my television screen (26 inches), compared to that (16 inches) of my laptop. I really don't comprehend those people who think that a smartphone's dinky screen is at all suitable for watching anything on video -- not even some self-shot video of one's friends in some way acting stupid.

But there's also the fact that when I go to the website to try to find it, all I can find are little samples and snippets. Which is probably the only practical way to handle video off a television screen.

Definitely not ideal for viewing an hour-long program.

SO WHAT DO I think of 'Chicagoland?' By and large, I feel like it is telling me a story I already know -- because I (and many of you, I presume) have been following it in detail. It's not adding much of anything new to the mix.

I suspect most of those people complaining about it are the ones who want a program that indicts the reputation of Emanuel, and that anything that isn't super-critical will be considered a "whitewash" by them.

Such a review of what is happening in Chicago might be intriguing if it were helping to spread the story amongst more people.

Yet the fact that the ratings have been sub-par, and that it is becoming something not easily watched, makes me wonder if it's failing on those grounds, too.

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Will Oberweis gaffes impact GOP? Will Rauner hurt self more than gov?

I'm sure the official spin we're going to get in coming days (in about 36 hours, once the primary election cycle is complete) is that the political momentum leans toward the Republicans.

Who will rule here? A long ways to go!

After all, it is likely that Bruce Rauner will be the GOP nominee for governor (the only real question is whether Kirk Dillard will finish a close second place, or somewhat distant). He will have all the public attention on him come Wednesday morning.

WHILE NO ONE will have been paying attention to Gov. Pat Quinn, because he didn't have to put any effort into winning his primary bid for re-nomination.

We're going to hear tales about how Rauner (or Dillard, if he really does pull off the political comeback he's been fantasizing about for the past week) is the "It" girl of Illinois politics -- while Quinn is just deadly dull. Nobody will care. How can he top the excitement being generated by the GOP nominee?

If it reads like I'm writing that with a semi-sarcastic tone, I'd say "no." I'm being fully sarcastic.

Because I wonder if we're about to approach the high point of the Republican Party's dreams of returning to relevance in Illinois. I expect it will occur someday. I'm just not sure it's going to be this year.

WHICH IS A shame. Having Quinn and Richard Durbin at the top of the Democratic ticket creates the image of the "same ol' stuff." If Republican operatives had any sense, they'd try to claim to be the political party of "change."

Instead, they seem to be determined to give us the same old stuff. Which is why I'm inclined this election cycle will wind up giving us maintenance of the political status quo.

And that, in large part, is because of the man who really will be at the top of the Republican ticket. It won't be Rauner/Dillard/whoever. It will be James Oberweis, the state senator from Sugar Grove who wants to take on Durbin.

He's also the business executive who has made so many political gaffes in his multiple bids for electoral offices (he's tried running for governor, member of Congress and U.S. senator -- before finally winning an Illinois Senate seat).

I REALLY SEE a situation where he winds up doing something that ticks off the electorate to the point where Durbin will be able to count on a solid victory -- and return to a fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate.

Already in this campaign cycle, he's getting hit about his residence status. Which is in Illinois, although his wife appears to be the type of person who would just as soon be rid of Illinois.

She lives in Florida, and the Oberweises are wealthy enough that they can actually afford to live in some style with two separate households. Not something the bulk of us could ever dream of doing.

It seems that when we all got hit with the most recent severe winter snowstorm, Oberweis wasn't here with us in Illinois. He was in Florida. He says he wanted to be with her for her birthday, and also told reporter-types how he lost his first wife (to divorce) because he spent too much time devoted to his "work."

OBERWEIS AS A devoted husband? Or just somebody who's sticking with us in the Midwestern U.S. because he sees us as a potential electoral opportunity?

I don't consider this gaffe as severe as the one from campaigns past where he flew around Soldier Field in a helicopter, reminding us that "illegal aliens" slipping into the United States could fill up the Chicago Bears' home stadium with a new crowd each and every day.

But these things do pile on to the degree that Republicans don't really seem to think much of their chances of beating Durbin. They're focusing attention on dumping Quinn.

Yet to what degree does the "top of the ticket" harm the rest of the Republicans?

PARTICULARLY IF PEOPLE start viewing the GOP Top as one headed by two candidates who are rich guys who don't live like the rest of us. For Rauner, homes in Winnetka and a downtown Chicago high-rise, along with properties in other parts of the country?

How long until we get gags about the Illinois Republican big-wigs convening at Oberweis' Florida home? Or the ranch in Montana that Rauner owns? Not exactly the image for a political party that likes to brag of its direct ties to Abraham Lincoln and that house in downtown Springfield, Ill.

Plus, it's just a matter of time before one of the men -- if not both -- winds up saying or doing something that gets converted into the next big scandal.

The Rauner opposition during the primary election cycle was so underfunded, they couldn't come up with anything to make stick on him. Which gubernatorial hopeful William Brady seemed to allude to during last week's final City Club of Chicago debate when told Rauner that he'd probably be an unknown lingering in last place if NOT for all that personal money he spent on television advertising to tout himself in the most favorable way.

QUINN WON'T HAVE that same campaign finance problem. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the first negative attack ad (either from the Quinn camp or from Quinn sympathizers) were to come on Wednesday.

Start chipping away at the veneer he has erected, and see if it can start to stick. And if the GOP nature for gaffes continues, perhaps it really all will come tumbling down.

Now I'm not 100 percent sure what to think of the Quinn campaign. The man is more than capable of doing himself in politically. I'm just not convinced that people should get all arrogant about that "26 percent" approval rating we hear about over and over and pronounce him politically "dead."

Let's be honest. There will be at least a few body blows the Republican challengers will have to to cope with that will be completely self-inflicted!

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