Alderman’s “career” path in reverse

It was a big bold headline in red type atop the Chicago Sun-Times’ website Tuesday morning – “Ald. Ocasio quitting City Council to work for Gov. Quinn.”

It’s the Internet equivalent of that newsboy of old shouting “Extra! Extra!” while trying to peddle papers freshly printed that announce a story so new it can’t wait until tomorrow to get into print.

ALD. BILLY OCASIO, who has served in the City Council since 1993, apparently is willing to “hang it up” in city government after 16 years. The newspaper says he is going to become a “senior adviser” to Pat Quinn.

In their initial brief report (all of two grafs), the paper also indicated that Ocasio has a replacement in mind for himself – Rev. Wilfredo DeJesus. Ultimately, Mayor Richard M. Daley has the authority to pick whomever he wants, which is why the council is so supportive of his goals – he’s picked so many of its members throughout the years.

Now I don’t really know Ocasio. So I don’t know what his motivations are in giving up his elected post that makes him one of the most important people in the Chicago political universe.

I would guess he would say he saw an opportunity to work directly with one of the Top Four political people of Illinois (the mayor, the governor and the two U.S. senators) and couldn’t pass it up.

IT MAY ALSO be that after 16 years in the City Council, he was ready for a change.

But the reason that Ocasio’s “career move” warranted such attention – rather than just a two-graf brief buried somewhere on Page 27 of the Bright One is because it violates the Chicago “rules” of politics in two ways.

It is a move from the city to the state payroll, and it is a shift from an elective office to an appointed post.

When it comes to the Chicago political universe, state government and anything having to do with the Statehouse Scene in Springfield is seen as a training ground of sorts. The Chicago delegations in the Illinois House of Representatives and the state Senate have many younger people (younger being a relative term here) who are holding their first elective office.

IN SHORT, IT is a place to gain experience in the ways of legislative politics and public policy, after which one is supposed to move up in the world. Just like the mayor himself, who served a couple terms in the state Senate several decades ago before returning to Chicago to be the state’s attorney, then later mayor.

Part of what makes Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, unique is that he started his electoral career in Springfield, and became so entranced with the Statehouse Scene that he has never left. Not many elective officials could spend nearly four decades in Springfield without a thought in their head that they’re moving up someday.

Among current political officials, both the current Cook County board President and county Sheriff are former legislators. In my mind, I still think of Todd Stroger and Tom Dart as members of the Illinois House, although Dart actually did terms in both chambers before finally returning to Chicago to run for county office – following his failed bid for Illinois treasurer back in ’02.

A part of me even still thinks of Rod Blagojevich that way, since I remember covering him when I was a Statehouse reporter-type back in the 1990s.

WHEN A CITY Council official moves about, it usually is to a citywide post or a county government office – if not a judicial post such as what became of one-time Ald. Timothy Evans (now the chief judge of Cook County).

Some decide to try for the Washington scene, such as what happened to Ocasio’s predecessor as alderman of the 26th Ward. Luis Gutierrez may have gained national influence and a reputation, but on local matters he was more influential as an alderman.

In fact, I can only think of one other alderman who shifted to the Springfield scene, and that was Rickey Hendon, who used to be one of the most outspoken Daley critics in the City Council before becoming one of the most outspoken members of the Illinois Senate.

Yet the perception among political observers was that Hendon was being “demoted,” in part because he was willing to speak out against Hizzoner Jr.

SO WHAT SHOULD we think of Ocasio’s move? He’s no longer going to be the political big shot of the Humboldt Park neighborhood. Some people will perceive him as the past. But perhaps he has a chance to influence the governor on issues, particularly those concerning Latinos.

That could be important, because there is a perception among some Latino activists that as bad as Blagojevich may have been for the state as governor, at least he understood the need to include Latinos in state government. Those same activists have their doubts about Quinn – although they can’t point to anything blatant that he has ever done to hurt their interests.

And there is the perception among some people (most of whom have their own petty grudges against the alderman) that Ocasio was a little too close to Blagojevich. So perhaps this helps him put some distance between himself and the now-impeached governor.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: The all-powerful alderman is now nothing more than a gubernatorial (http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1569519,ocasio-quitting-city-council-quinn-051209.article) adviser. At least that’s how some Chicago political observers will perceive this move.

Will the alderman alter his website (http://www.billyocasio.com/) to help promote the interests of the state? And how will this move affect the content of the website that touts (http://billyocasiosucks.com/) the behavior of “one of Chicago’s suckiest aldermen?”

A little bit of background bio on the now-former member of the Chicago City Council (http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/citycouncil/ocasio/).

Old copy can now truly live on

If my memory is correct, I once wrote a commentary in a college newspaper that suggested rape could serve as a form of entertainment – for the men, at least.

The commentary had a serious point – that the student body of which I was a part of at Illinois Wesleyan University just over two decades ago had its share of petty gripes about stupid issues and tended to ignore real problems.

I REMEMBER TRYING to point out with the column in question that the overall lifestyle of a student wasn’t all that bad; that there are people who live with far more serious problems than we confronted.

But the piece in question was also intended to be parody. So to ensure that no one could possibly take the column in question literally, I laid the rhetoric on so thick.

I was afraid someone would think I was being literal, so I laid on the absurdities. No one could possibly take on its face value a piece that suggested rape could be acceptable (even though there are people who live in environments where the threat of it is a daily possibility).

I recall that the student body (or at least a few vociferous letter writers) was ticked off at me, and some even called for my dismissal from the student newspaper I wrote for. At least for a week, until some other issue came along to stoke their anger.

THEN, THAT PARTICULAR column receded into the background. For all I know, most copies of that particular edition of the student newspaper (known as The Argus, which inspired the name of this particular website) have long been turned into mulch. I know of a few places that kept bound copies of the newspaper for archival purposes, so maybe somebody who happened to feel a need to thoroughly read copy from 1983-84 would stumble across the piece.

If so, I haven’t heard from them throughout the years.

But now, the wonders of the Internet have me wondering if/when this copy will pop back into my life.

That question came to mind after reading a story published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, about various people who want college newspaper websites to do things to cover up the old copy that might get people ticked off about themselves.

ONE WAS A Marine who thinks his military colleagues would not appreciate his political views from college days, while another is a lawyer who doesn’t like to be reminded that he was once arrested for burglary.

And now, you can add to that category myself, the guy who in theory could be accused of once advocating rape as a form of entertainment.

Despite this, I’m not about to ask anyone at my alma mater to expunge copy from the website that depicts the old issues of The Argus, scanned into the computer so that people can read them in their original form on printed pages.

For one thing, the actual technology doesn’t really remove anything from the Internet. It merely puts up layers that “hides” the old copy, making it less likely that people would stumble onto it.

WHICH MEANS THAT someone who really knows what they are doing (instead of just typing a name or phrase into a Google search engine) is going to be able to find it, no matter what is done.

Besides, the fact is that I wrote that particular piece in question. I ought to have to live with it (along with the follow-up story that ran in a parody of the student newspaper, in which an angry mob forced its way into my dorm room and violated me in every way possible).

That would be my response to anyone who thinks that they’re entitled to have potentially negative copy about themselves removed.

It happened. It was published. Those old archives being transferred to forms on the Internet can only be reliable if we’re assured that we’re reading exactly what was originally published.

OTHERWISE, PUTTING AMENDED versions of old copy on the Internet is a complete waste of time and space.

It also is my basic policy with regards to making changes to commentary published at the Chicago Argus or its sister weblog, The South Chicagoan. I will correct errors, but I will not rewrite the old copy.

That would appear to me to be an attempt to cover up my own mistakes. I ought to have to live with them, just like everybody else ought to have to live with theirs.

Now for those of you who are voyeuristic enough to try to find the old commentary, I must admit I couldn’t find it when I went through the newspaper’s web presence. I have never seen this particular column crop up in connection with a search engine check of my name (which I do periodically to see if anyone is reprinting my copyrighted commentary here without providing me compensation – it happens occasionally).

BUT I ALSO am an Internet amateur. So I’m sure someone more skilled and with much more patience than myself could find it, although I would have to wonder why they don’t have anything better to do with their time than search for a 26-year-old piece of parody.

And when it comes down to the bottom line, I’m not apologizing for writing that column. I still believe that people often get worked up complaining about the stupid trivialities of life, rather than focusing on issues of importance.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: One professional reporter thinks her old college newspaper column about the “hook-up culture” on campus (http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i36/36a00103.htm) detracts from her current reputation.

By and large, I have fond memories of writing for my college’s student newspaper and am willing (http://www.iwu.edu/~theargus/) to stand by just about every word I wrote back then, even if my prose in those days was often too convoluted.

Peterson likely to get lower bond, while case becomes a series of legal issues

I must admit that I was shocked when I originally learned that a judge in Will County set a $20 million bond for Drew Peterson on charges that he was responsible for the homicide of wife number three.

Not that I expected the one-time cop in suburban Bolingbrook to get some dinky dollar amount for a bond. I expected some high dollar total that would be impossible for Peterson to come up with – which would ensure that he spends the next year or two in the Will County Jail while awaiting criminal charges related to the death of Kathleen Savio.

IN REALITY, I would not have been surprised if the judge had just gone all out and denied bail, which would have meant that Peterson would have been among the most heinous defendants awaiting trial in the Chicago area.

Usually, bond amounts are set at levels meant to give trial judges some sense of how serious the case is.

The person who gets a $1,000 only needs to come up with $100, so it is expected that he will cough up the cash and be free while his trial is pending. The person who gets a bond of a few hundred thousand dollars is the one who usually has to have someone put up something of value.

In Peterson’s case, it could very well wind up being that house he lived in with his children by his two most recent wives that winds up being used for collateral to get a loan large enough to post bond.

WHEN A JUDGE starts issuing bonds in the millions of dollars, it is about making a statement and nothing more.

Because the reality is that Peterson, on his current $20 million bond, would need something of value totaling $2 million in order to be released from the county jail. He doesn’t have it, and everybody knows that.

But some judge who presided over the bond hearing decided to go along with the hype that this case has become all entangled in and issue a ridiculously-high dollar amount.

After all, “$20 million” looks better in a newspaper headline than does “bond denied.”

FOR THOSE WHO want to believe that a judge wouldn’t be influenced by such hype, I must admit to wondering if the timing of Peterson’s arrest was caused at least in part by the speculation that he would take a job at a brothel in Nevada – which could make him a potential pain to extradite back to Illinois in the future. (They say the answer is, “no.”)

My point with this diatribe is to say I fully expect that Peterson’s attorneys likely will be able to convince some judge at some point in the future to reset bond at a lower amount.

His attorneys told the Chicago Tribune they think Peterson’s case ought to be compared to other cases with comparable criminal charges, with bond being set along similar lines.

They tell the newspaper something like $500,000 sounds more reasonable to them, which could mean Peterson needing to find something of value of $50,000. His suburban house could easily cover that.

AND SINCE I believe it is likely that Peterson’s bond will be reset in the near future, I am already braced for the thought that Peterson will someday be a free man – walking amongst us and making wisecracks to anyone who tries to confront him about his character (or lack thereof).

What is likely to come about in coming months is going to be a contest of sorts between Peterson and one-time Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Both of them are trying to put up a front, making it appear as though the criminal cases now pending against both of them are having no affect on their demeanor.

We’re going to see who can behave in the most foolish manner – Milorod or Drew?

I also have been thinking in recent days about a point that was brought up on the “Chicago Tonight, Week in Review” program that aired on WTTW-TV last week. Both of these trials could come to a head around the same time. Which one gets top billing if they do?

I BELIEVE THE saga of Blagojevich is more significant, but the tawdriness of Peterson will prevail.

Then, there’s also the factor of trial venue. Is it possible that so many people in the Chicago area are disgusted with Peterson that he can’t get a fair trial from any jury pool put together at the courthouse in Joliet?

Are we going to get the Peterson saga playing out somewhere else, just like one of the Alejandro Hernandez/Rolando Cruz trials from DuPage County had to be shifted to Rockford?

Not likely.

THE POOL IN the Joliet area is tainted against Drew, but it likely is equally skewed against him everywhere else in the country. That is the drawback to hiring a public relations firm willing to engage in trivial stunts to try to create an alternate perception of the way the prosecutors want to portray you.

Heck, the reason Peterson’s attorneys couldn’t be with him in court last week was because they were in New York that day trying to stir up more attention about the Peterson saga.

Peterson may wind up having to take the hit from Joliet-area jurors because jurors in Peoria, Marion, Champaign or anywhere else would be equally aware of his antics.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: News, of sorts, was made at O’Hare International Airport, and it didn’t (http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/05/drew-peterson-kathleen-savio-joel-brodsky-bolingbrook-will-county-bail-homicide-murder-arrest.html) involve any kind of airline disaster – only the media storm known as “Hurricane Drew.”

Why now after 18 months do we finally get a court case (http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/1566578,4_1_JO10_PETERSON_S1.article) against one Drew Peterson?

Peterson, Keyes comprise a pair

Alan Keyes was the conservative pundit who tried to give his political aspirations a jolt at the expense of Illinois, while Drew Peterson is the guy who thinks the fact he was once a cop makes him superior to the rest of us minions – instead of just a pinhead.

If it sounds like I don’t think much of either man, you’d be right. But on Friday, it was a real fight for which one was the bigger goof in the news.

BOTH MEN HAD to deal with the criminal justice system Friday following their arrest, although admittedly Keyes’ criminal case is way less severe than the one confronting Peterson.

The bail amounts both face ought to tell the story. Keyes was one of 22 protesters at Notre Dame University who were arrested on a trespass charge, and he had to come up with $250 in order to avoid having to spend time in jail awaiting trial.

By comparison, Peterson had his bail set Friday at $20 million – a figure that no one expects him to come up with. The point of having such a high bond set in Will County Circuit Court is that the judge was trying to ensure he spends time in jail while he awaits trial on criminal charges that he killed his third wife (never mind what he may have done with wife number four).

Both of these men have been the butt of jokes in recent years. Keyes is the clown who got killed politically when he temporarily became a Calumet City resident so he could run for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois.

REMEMBER HE LOST by a 7-3 ratio to Barack Obama.

Peterson is that breed of cop who’s basically a clown but thinks his badge gives him some sense of moral superiority. So I’m sure in his mind, he thinks he’s the one rational human being surrounded by a batch of degenerates and nitwits.

I’m not saying that all police officers are like that. But there are some who fall into that category. They’re the ones who become overbearing to deal with because they can use their law enforcement power in improper ways.

So perhaps the biggest question concerning the Peterson saga is, “Why did it take 18 months to come up with an indictment?” Either Peterson’s law enforcement connections were willing to look the other way out of a sense of protecting the image of their “profession” or the criminal case we’re likely to hear in coming months isn’t all that strong.

I DON’T REALLY know what to think of the whole Peterson affair. It isn’t a case that I have enjoyed reading about, and it intrigues me to think that so many people in the public think this is an interesting story.

If it were up to me, Peterson’s indictment and arrest earlier this week would have warranted a one-graf news brief, rather than a sense of major news breaking that literally caused WBBM-TV to point out how close they came to having pictures of the actual moment of Peterson’s arrest – as though it would have been a significant scoop.

As much as it is criminal that Kathleen Savio died apparently due to deliberate human activity and that Stacy Peterson remains missing (and so many people believe she too is dead), I can’t say that I find their stories all that sad.

Pathetic, maybe. But not sad.

THEY DID WILLINGLY subject themselves to Drew. The fact is that he has some sense of personality that draws a certain type of person. If someone chooses to associate with Peterson, can we really be expected to feel all that sympathetic if something bad happens to them?

So now, Peterson gets to sit in a jail cell in the facility located on the southern edge of downtown Joliet (although he jokes about getting “spiffy” outfits to wear and “three squares” to eat). And we’re bound to hear much more about him in coming months, even though his saga is one that I desperately want to wither away.

Yet despite all this, I can’t help but think that Keyes is the more ridiculous character on Friday.

He was at the Catholic university near South Bend, Ind., along with other anti-abortion protesters. They are upset about the fact that Notre Dame is dignifying Obama by allowing him to be a part of the commencement program this year.

THEY CLAIM THEY are merely being good Catholics in line with the portion of church teachings (which aren’t even believed by all Catholics) that abortion is never permissible. What it really amounts to is a group of people with a narrow viewpoint that they’re trying to push off on the general public.

In the case of Keyes, I can’t help but wonder if he’s trying to do anything he can now to attach his name to Obama.

Right now, Alan Keyes’ claim to fame is being the guy who once got annihilated politically by Obama. But I’m sure he’d love it if he could become Obama’s permanent opposition.

Think about it. Anytime Obama says or does something, Keyes will be on hand to speak against it. Keep it up enough times, and people will start to think of Keyes as being the equivalent of the president.

PERSONALLY, I THINK it would make Keyes the equivalent of the Washington Generals to Obama’s Harlem Globetrotters.

But Keyes these days is so desperate for attention that he’s willing to engage in stupid stunts such as the one that got him arrested this week in Indiana (trespassing on private property while pushing a baby carriage with a bloodied doll inside).

Somehow, I think even Drew Peterson would look down on that type of behavior.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Drew Peterson will get another chance on May 18 to convince a judge (http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/05/petersons-attorney-goes-on-new-media-blitz.html) that his bond should be set at an amount that he can realistically afford.
Alan Keyes would have to enroll at Notre Dame in order to legally be allowed to protest (http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/05/alan-keyes-among-21-arrested-at-notre-dame-in-obama-protest.html) on campus.

Blagojevich won’t go so low as Drew, but could Milorod still wind up on TV

I guess we know now to what level Rod Blagojevich won’t stoop to. He won’t work in a Nevada brothel, even if it has the potential to pay him money and put him on national television.

That was the big revelation I got out of the story published Thursday that one-time Bolingbrook cop Drew Peterson was considering taking a job at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch.

THE BROTHEL, WHICH operates legally in Nevada, would have considered putting Peterson on their payroll as some sort of security consultant until it was learned that Drew's luck apparently has run out and he now faces criminal charges. But according to the Chicago Tribune, it seems that the brothel originally wanted to hire Blagojevich.

They went so far as to contact his new publicist (the one who thinks it’s a good idea for him to appear on “The View” and do all these other nitwit stunts). But Blagojevich said “no.”

Who’s to say what he would have done. I doubt he would have been in charge of security. He most likely would have made appearances on behalf of the club that employs some 500 girls.

So the man with the pompadour would have turned into the face for a brothel.

I’M GLAD TO hear that he’s not willing to take the job. He may be unemployed and the feds may be trying to take every financial asset he has to ensure that he is busted financially, but even Rod has a breaking point financially.

Although it appears that this particular brothel is the one featured in a “reality” television show that airs on HBO. So I’m sure that some people would not see the difference between Blagojevich bopping around a brothel, or winding his way through the jungles of Costa Rica.

But somehow, I doubt that being the face of a brothel would create the image that Blagojevich wants to have when the day finally arrives that he has to go on trial in U.S. District Court on those government corruption charges.

What is laughable is the fact that HBO says it doesn’t want Peterson on their “reality” show. So if the brothel hires him, he won’t become a mini-celebrity through the show “Cathouse.”

BUT PERHAPS HBO would have liked the idea of Blagojevich being on the air for all those people who are willing to pay premium rates (my brother being among them) for cable television.

So Blagojevich IS the image that television wants to have to promote itself.

All of this back-and-forth makes me wonder about Blagojevich’s ultimate fate. It seems incredibly likely that Milorod is going to wind up doing some sort of television gig (even though the federal judge in his case has made it clear he would prefer for Blagojevich to keep quiet, stay off the air, and pretend to be cooperating with his attorneys as they ready themselves for his defense).

In short, shut up and don’t do anything that might make anyone else look foolish.

BUT WHAT HAPPENS should Blagojevich someday be convicted of some sort of federal offense, and actually winds up obtaining an “Oxford education” (doing a stint at the federal correctional center in Oxford, Wis.)?

Is modern-day television depraved enough in its programming values that someone would propose a “reality” show about the life of a prison inmate? If so, would inmate Blagojevich become the perfect focus for such a show?

Think about it. There are so many potential “episodes.”

Inmate Blagojevich gets processed into prison and has to submit to a humiliating strip search, with little blurs blocking out our view of Blagojevich’s “privates.”

INMATE BLAGOJEVICH GETS a prison “job” on a janitorial crew and has to wield a mop on camera. Perhaps he becomes the one who has to clean up some other inmate’s mess (vomit and/or excrement will be involved).

Inmate Blagojevich has trouble adapting to prison food (which is usually basic staples and influenced more by rural America than anything else).

Inmate Blagojevich winds up finding other former political people now serving prison time for corruption charges. They form their own little club where they talk politics and public policy, but wind up kicking Blagojevich out of their clique when he becomes unbearable with his efforts to dominate the discussion.

Perhaps we’ll even get to see as Inmate Blagojevich breaks the rules and has to be disciplined by the guards. Rod in the prison hold? Rod protesting by conducting a hunger strike?

THESE “EPISODES” MAY sound disgusting and horrible. They are, I sure wouldn’t watch.

But there are people in our society who are depraved enough to find pleasure in such misery, and who also are so outraged with Blagojevich’s behavior that they probably think he deserves such treatment.

In short, this might very well be the one “reality” television show that a majority of the public wouldn’t mind having Blagojevich appear in.

And that probably says more about how low we as a society have sunk, rather than Rod.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: We’re losing our chance to see Rod Blagojevich (http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1559626,Peterson-Blago-Brothel-show-JO050509.article) work as a “greeter” (or perhaps he’d be the piano player) at a Nevada brothel.

Todd, Make up your mind!

Todd Stroger is going to get dumped on, no matter what he winds up doing with regard to an attempt to reduce the sales tax paid by people who shop in Cook County.

Stroger, the president of the Cook County Board, was absolutely correct when he denounced the actions of the county board, which earlier this week voted to repeal the sales tax that they approved last year.

WHEN THE VOTE came down (12-3, with two other county commissioners being absent), Stroger called it “political theater,” and noted that many of the political people who are now so quick to talk anti-tax were among the measure’s supporters.

So it is hypocritical for these government officials to start talking as though they are protecting the interests of the taxpayers when they sure didn’t do anything to protect those interests last year.

It’s sort of like they broke it, and now they want full credit for getting out the glue bottle to try to piece it back together.

Despite that, Stroger is the one who comes off as laughable, and not just because he doesn’t know the difference between “fertility” and “futility.”

STROGER IS THE official who responded to his colleagues’ attempt to score cheap political points for themselves by promising to use his “veto” power to prevent the tax cut from taking effect.

After all, the financial circumstances that caused county government to need the additional revenue last year are still in place. Some might argue that the struggling economy makes them just as severe now.

So there is one sense in which a “veto” would not be an irresponsible act. If Stroger would decide to play the role of hard-liner who makes the unpopular (but necessary) decisions, he might be able to gain the respect of people who are interested in good government.

He’ll never gain the respect of the people who have been bashing him about for the past couple of years – the ones who will add this debacle to the list they are compiling in their minds of reasons why we should have Anybody But Todd as county board president come the 2010 elections.

BUT STROGER MAKES himself look like a bigger fool than these people are because he can’t make up his mind.

Depending on which radio station one listened to on Wednesday, Stroger either is continuing with the hard-line or is reconsidering. He told WLS-AM during an interview that he may let the county board’s tax repeal remain in effect.

One of the problems with using politically strident rhetoric is that a government official has to take a stance, then stick by it.

If he starts flopping about to give himself wiggle room, he makes himself look indecisive. If he tries to do an about-face and change his mind, he comes off as a nitwit.

THAT IS THE position Stroger has put himself in.

As far as I’m concerned, Stroger does not deserve to be lambasted in this instance for holding the line on a tax hike. He deserves to be smacked about a bit because he’s trying to play both sides.

Now the hard-core political pundits have been making a big deal out of the fact that Mayor Richard M. Daley’s brother, John, was one of the county commissioners who voted for repealing the tax hike.

They say it is evidence that the Daley family has lost faith in Stroger, and likely will be giving its support to someone else to challenge him come the Democratic primary next year.

DALEY (THE MAYOR, not the commissioner) on Wednesday called the original act a “very questionable increase in taxes.”

Now I’m not going to say that I enjoy paying the roughly extra penny per dollar so that the county can get its share of the sales tax revenue. I know that I have a brother who occasionally crosses over into Will County when he needs to shop for something so as to avoid paying the Cook tax hike.

But I do have a problem with officials of other government entities dumping on Cook County. For the fact is that the sales tax paid by people who shop here is a collection of shares to the respective municipality, the county and the state.

To listen to Mayor Daley complain about “questionable” tax hikes makes me wonder if he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is, and consider some sort of decline in the city’s share of the sales tax (since city residents pay a higher rate than anyone in suburban Cook does).

I DOUBT HE would make that offer. Does that mean he just doesn’t think any other government entity ought to be allowed to tax, because it might make people less willing to buy things so that the city can get its share of the proceeds?

In short, I’m not stepping up in defense of Stroger in this incident. But the idea that he deserves to be singled out for blame is ridiculous. It took a whole slew of government officials to get the sales tax rate throughout Cook County as high as it currently is.

The idea that Stroger should be the lone official dumped upon is wrong.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: The whole Todd Stroger vs. the County Board fight over tax hikes (http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/05/stroger-now-wants-to-talk-to-fellow-officials-before-deciding-whether-to-veto-sales-tax-repeal.html) is a politically partisan (http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1560810,stroger-cook-county-sales-tax-repeal-050609.article) match-up meant to make politicos look good. It has nothing to do with the good of the taxpayers.

Chicago newspaper “future” could be to provide material for small news outfits

I’m curious to see what becomes of ChicagoNow.com.

It doesn’t exist yet. In theory, it is meant to begin operations some time in June. But it is an attempt by Tribune Co. to create several weblogs and sites on the Internet that people could turn to when they are looking for information about Chicago and surrounding area.

TO ME, IT sounds like someone thinks the future of the Chicago Tribune is to be gutted into parts, with those of particular interest being used to develop several new products of a small nature rather than one giant all-purpose newspaper.

If it means the brand name and reputation associated with Chicago Tribune (which is both good and bad, depending on who one speaks to) lives on, then perhaps this gesture is one that recognizes the future.

While I personally am a person who prefers to read copy off the printed page rather than off a computer screen, I am realistic enough to know that there are some people who are deluded enough that they’d rather read off a screen. The "newsboy" already is an excinct species in Chicago. How long will it be for the printed product he carries? Photograph provided by the Library of Congress collection.

Actually, most of them are merely interested in finding video snippets, rather than reading anything. But, that is their choice. This is a free country. Who am I to tell them to do differently?

BY PUBLISHING THIS weblog (along with its sister site, the South Chicagoan), I am getting just as involved in these types of operations as anyone else.

What should we think of these outfits? I’m waiting to see the quality of the content offered up. In theory, it sounds like they’re talking about trying to get people with some sort of specialist knowledge to write about specific issues.

Yet when I hear that one-time White Sox pitcher Jack McDowell is supposedly one of their “experts,” I have to wonder if this is going to be yet another effort to pander to celebrity trivia.

On the other hand, I also understand they’re considering a weblog about baseball by a White Sox fan who has written several intelligent profiles and interviews for the site http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/.

SO WHILE I like the idea of the Tribune trying to salvage itself for the future, I want to know how much of their content is going to be substantive.

Is the future of the business going to be something along the line of people who can write an intelligent thought or two (or show some sort of ability to garner stories) having their weblog or website become affiliated with a company that can pay them for their work?

Does this mean I ought to be trying to get this particular site affiliated with Tribune Co?

While the paycheck (and I don’t know what kind of compensation they’re offering to people, for all I know, they may be going the route of Huffington Post and expecting people to write for free so that Arriana doesn’t incur expenses for her website) might be nice, I’m not sure I’d want to be included.

I ENJOY THE certain level of freedom of knowing that I don’t have to match a publisher’s ideological bent, and that the only restriction I have on whether something ought to be written is whether it is factually accurate. And in all honesty, I have no indication that the Tribune Co. would be interested in working with me.

But I may have to think in terms of becoming affiliated with somebody someday. Because it may well turn out that the amateur weblogs of the future will be the ones that are largely worthless to read – unless one wants nothing more than cheap one-liners about someone else’s work.

That leads me to the future of the Chicago Sun-Times, whose demise people have predicted for years (I remember one now-retired Sun-Times reporter who was convinced the paper would not live long enough to see the 21st Century).

It would appear there actually are potential buyers for the paper, and all the sister publications it acquired during the past two decades throughout the suburbs. Crain’s Chicago Business says there might be a sale within 60 days.

FINANCEER JAMES TYREE talks of wanting to save a news resource, and says that he’d be willing to put together a group of local business types to buy the paper for the right price. It appears that “right price” includes having the Internal Revenue Service accept some sort of reduced price on the tax debt incurred by Conrad Black – who was always particularly adverse to having to pay the IRS what the company owed to the federal government.

I get the impression that to the degree Tyree views the paper, he sees it as a series of news assets that could be split up into smaller operations – ones that could be covered by the company’s current revenues.

Could we someday get BrightOne.com (or some variation thereof) that tries to carry on the newsgathering legacy of the Sun-Times? Is the Chicago newspaper fight destined to become an Internet battle between BrightOne (or whatever they wind up calling it) and ChicagoNow?

To me, it doesn’t the same romantic feel of newshawks peddling papers, or being able to drop some change into a newsbox to check out the day’s news. Clicking on my laptop will never be as much fun as kicking back and reading newsprint pages.

BUT IT COULD be the way in which the news wars that our city has seen manage to evolve themselves into the 21st Century technology.

And that would be, in my opinion, a good thing for the city and its character.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: In all fairness, I must admit to learning of ChicagoNow (http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?articleId=31702) and James Tyree (http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?articleId=31698) from the same source. Crain’s Chicago Business did the actual heavy lifting of reporting these stories.