I Love Chicago, But I Hate the Cook County Board

UPDATE: 4/22/2008: Found in today's news, a feature article on Todd Stroger's and the Cook County Board's ongoing shenanigans. I still hate the Cook County Board, but I love being ahead of the curve.

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This is Todd Stroger, President of the Cook County Board in Illinois. Todd was elected president in 2006 after his father -- president of the board for 12 years prior -- suffered a stroke and much funny business resulted.

He's since been a very unpopular figure in Chicago and Cook County. And yet, that didn't stop him from enacting a 1% sales tax hike in Cook County. (He originally wanted 2%.) The tax hike will raise an additional $400 million dollars annually, which will cover an estimated $280 million shortfall and then some. Included with the tax increase is over 1000 new county jobs.

When the tax takes effect in November of this year, Chicago will have the highest sales tax in the nation -- 10.25%.

This is Larry Suffredin, commissioner for the 13th District in Chicago. Larry is the commissioner for my district, and he provided the swing vote that passed Stroger's budget and tax increase. When he last ran for election, Larry promised to be a "reformer" who would stand up to the waste and unnecessary taxation going on in the county.

Suffredin caved to avoid what he called a "total shut down of all services of the County government – including hospitals, courts and the county jail – which would have adversely affected all citizens, especially the most vulnerable." What he didn't mention is that those services would have remained open and operable, with all employees paid, due to court action requiring it. No "shut down" was imminent. Nice work, Larry.

Today, a report was released about patronage hiring in Cook County. Julia Nowicki, the report's author, was appointed to review the Board's hiring practices after the FBI descended on their offices to investigate violations of the Shakman Decree -- a 1994 consent judgment that bans political considerations from most of the county's 23,000 jobs.

Nowicki's report -- the third she has filed since being appointed in 2006 -- finds "there is no information or event that has been presented... that would indicate that illegal political patronage has been eliminated." In other words, the idiot cousins and friends of Stroger and other Cook County officials are still being rewarded with high-paying, do-nothing jobs.

(As an interesting aside, I called John Stroger's office today to file a complaint, and was transferred three times. They finally connected me to the office of Mike Quigley -- a commissioner who voted against the tax increase.)

Here in Chicago, it seems we occasionally take a perverse pride in the wink-wink way things get done, but enough is enough. Cook County has now officially become Crook County.

I Love My Country, But I Fear My Government

This is National Public Radio. Today on Morning Edition it aired a story on the Pentagon's proposed defense budget. At over three-quarters of a trillion dollars, it is the highest it's ever been since World War II. Here's why.

This is the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor fighter jet. After 25 years of development and a cost of approximately $60 billion, the F-22 has finally reached what the Air Force calls "full operational capability." Each F-22 costs about $300 million, and was specifically designed to fight the Soviets in air-to-air combat. Yet with two wars going on, the F-22 has yet to fly a single mission in either.

This is the Taliban, our enemies in the Afghanistan War. The Taliban does not own a single fighter jet. Nor are they likely to ever own a fighter jet.



These are Iraqi insurgents, our current enemies in the second Iraq War. The Iraqi insurgents do not own a single fighter jet. Nor are they likely to ever own a fighter jet.



This is Al-Qaeda, with leader Osama Bin Laden in white, our enemies in the larger Global War on Terror. Al-Qaeda does not own a single fighter jet. Nor are they likely to ever own a fighter jet.


Despite all this, Lockheed-Martin's F-22 fighter program is still very much alive, along with many other big-ticket items which analysts estimate make up about 50% of the Pentagon's regular annual budget. Even though they have almost no value when it comes to anti-terrorism efforts, they are all de facto items when it comes to creating the military's budget.

This is the Pentagon's proposed budget for 2008. It totals $769 billion and is larger than all other countries' defense budgets combined. Yet our military troops are the smallest they have ever been since the end of World War II. And our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan still lack basic equipment such as body armor, and everyday necessities like sunscreen, toothpaste, deodorant, lip balm, soap, shampoo, shaving cream, razors, gloves, socks, pocket calculators, snack food, you name it. You can send a care package to a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan through AnySoldier.com.

This is President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first military general to serve as President of the United States in the 20th century. Shortly after his inauguration in 1953 he stunned Congress by advocating deep cuts in military spending. He said, "To amass military power without regard to our economic capacity would be to defend ourselves against one kind of disaster by inviting another." Eight years later in his 1961 farewell address, he also warned the nation against the unchecked growth and influence of a vast "military-industrial complex." You can watch the video of his prescient address here.

If you're not scared yet, you just haven't been paying attention.

You can listen to NPR's entire report here. Once you do, you can express your disagreement, frustration and horror with the whole damned mess here.