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Mr. Hanania,

I was pleasantly surprised to read your column and see that at least one correspondent in the Chicago area remembers how Bobbie Steele maneuvered herself  (in my opinion) to steal a much larger pension from the citizens of Cook County. I wish you had taken a moment to reach the larger audience and remind everyone how she ran for and won re-election to her county position and subsequently gave it to her son.

I don't even see how it's legal for these 'elected' positions to be handed to family members. Of course she only did what she saw Stroger do. If he indeed did appoint his son to his county board Presidential seat. I, for one, believe he was far too ill to make such a decision and his associates and Todd Stroger's handlers made that decision for an incapacitated Board President. I personally do not think the current Cook County Board President is legally seated, and never has been.

The only disappointment I read in your article was your frequent reference to race. It's a shame when we must calibrate our polls and voting practices to assure a certain race wins a position. How is a 4th, 5th, or 6th generation of American, a "mutt", to ever win elected office if the media focuses only on Whites or African Americans or Latinos?

It is time for all this question of race to be put behind us and the election of truly competent budgeters and leaders to be the focus of our elections. The Citizens of Cook County can no longer afford to allow officials to run for, and win, election based solely upon which voting demographic they are going to squander the most of our Taxpayer dollars on.

Thank you for your reporting,

 J.T.

RAY HANANIA REPLIES

Thanks Jim for the comments. I appreciate them and also your feelings about the issue of race … I was hoping to make the point that stronger says race is an issue but the poll shows that race is in fact not an issue with voters at all and that he isn’t trailing a White candidate but rather two Black candidates undermining his contention that he is the victim of racism. I don’t dislike Stroger because of race. I dislike him because he is a lousy government leader. And as lousy government leaders go, he is among the worst.

Thank you

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Dear Mr. Hanania

I look forward to your column every week.  You are the brightest most knowledgeable person in the news industry.  Thanks for telling it how it is and writing so people understand what is transpiring.   Your ideas on a Regional Hospital are outstanding! The world needs more people like you that step up to the podium and "DO THE RIGHT THING".  You are an inspiration! 

Sincerely, 

Bridgeview Resident.

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Dear Ray Hanania

You are an absolute blind clueless uninformed moron who worships a cardboard cutout of Blago and any other person with a D by their name every time you get up in the morning.  Please quit apologizing for crooks.

Mad Conservative Crime Fighter

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Ray

Nice article in the paper today.  Don't forget Cheney got 4 or 5 deferments from the Vietnam War because he was afraid to serve his country but he is sure quick to pull the trigger when it comes to sending someone else into war.

T.P.

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Ray, I listen every morning and I respect your honesty. However, your show has become a total arab-american travesty. enough with the arab american crap every day. You are capable of doing a wide variety of topics. The arabs bring most of the problems on themselves. Wherever there are arab muslims in the world thete is terror and devastaion. Any people that murder in the name od alah or God are sick people. Please cut back a little on the arab crap. I know I can listen out if I don't like it but I am afan of yours and WJJG .

A FAN

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Ray:

Just a quick note to thank you very much for coming to speak to our group "Behind the Headlines" at St. Xavier University. Your comments were both entertaining as well as insightful and informative.  It is quite a feat when you can keep the attention of a group of senior citizens for an entire hour.  I think you succeeded in this with no question.  Our group come from varied backgrounds...... teachers, principals, business people, trades people, law enforcement (me), etc.......One thing we all have in common is to have people come in from all different backgrounds and share their ideas and opinions with us....This, in turn, gives us material to have some very vocal arguments the next time we meet.

Again, thanks very much for coming to visit us.  I'm sure Tom has already expresses that you can come back and visit us anytime.  We'd be glad to have you!

M.S.

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Dear raghead

"Ray Hanania, spokesman for the Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in the Military, told a Chicago radio show the incident would exacerbate existing prejudice. "It's going to get worse. They are going to go after us," he said."

Well you bastards bring it on yourselves with this type of shit. Do us all a favor, pack up, and take your raghead asses back to the fucking desert where you belong. Americans HATE you, and with good reason

Obed Santos

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Fears that Stroger's demise undermines Blacks unwarranted

It tells you something about Cook County Board President Todd Stroger when his best defense on why he should be re-elected (if you consider his last minute swipe into office an "election") isn't that he's a great administrator or cares for the taxpayers, but instead is that it will result in the election of a "White Man."

Race always comes in for failed officials like Stroger when they can't seem to explain away their failed leadership. The fact is that Stroger isn't the best African American candidate in the race for the Cook County Board, but you wouldn't know that from listening to his tightly controlled public appearances. Stroger only goes where he has a friendly audience and doesn't have the courage to go anywhere where his failed policies will be challenged or where he has to defend them.

That is all reinforced by the release this week of a public opinion poll of voters that shows that the leading candidates to replace Stroger are NOT "White" as his allies are trying to assert but are in fact African American. Imagine that. The candidate likely to replace Stroger, the failure, is an African American, according to the survey. (Click HERE to read the Chicago tribune poll.)

The poll shows Cook County Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown, who is African American although you wouldn't know it from the way Stroger's people are screaming, is leading the pack of five major candidates with 29 percent, followed closely by Ald. Toni Preckwinkle with 24 percent, who is also African American. Stroger, the "incumbent" is in third place with an astonishing 14 percent, followed by Water Reclamation District President Terrence O'Brien with 11 percent.

The Tribune poll was co-sponsored by WGN TV, the Tribune owned broadcasting media.

Stroger's problem is that he doesn't know how to lead. Instead of raising sales taxes as a quick answer to the blaoted and wasteful spending of the Cook County government, he should come up with good creative solutions to the county;s troubles. t's that reason, not that he is Black, that makes it imperative that he be removed and retired from office.

Don't feel so bad for Stroger. he'll probably get a legislative pension and a county pension based on his astronomical salary ... remember what commissioner Bobbie Steele got when she served as interim president for a few short weeks so her pension would be based not on her county salary but on the artificial county board president salary.

Tragic. Fortunately many members of the Cook County Board are working hard to expose his failings and fix the county, including Elizabeth Liz Doody Gorman (17th District) who has helped put the spotlight on the unfairness of the Stroger Sales tax and led the fight -- YES LED THE FIGHT -- to repeal or rollback the sales tax which has been undermining small businesses in Cook County.

Should we "fix" or "change" Cook County: the debate might miss the ball

Last march, Nick Valadez launched a group called "Fix Cook County." His web site is www.FixCookCounty.com and the group sought to encourage candidates to step up to the plate and run for public office.

Recently, another group has surfaced called "Change Cook County." But in the end, the two groups might cause Cook County to remain the same. Their web site is www.ChangeCookCounty.com.

Amazingly, Change is similar to Fix in wording especially on the issues of transparency, the accountability and sound financial management.

Valadez is challenging Cook County Commissioner Joan Patricia Murphy in the 6th District. Murphy not only supported Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's repressive 1 percent sales tax, she wanted to go further and impose a sales tax increase of 2 percent.

Of the five commissioners who backed Stroger in the last vote to rollback the sales tax 5 percent, Murphy was one of its chief sponsors. She was matched only in audacity on the board by County Commissioner Deborah Sims in the 5th District -- Sims was the commissioner who flipped flop and couldn't make up her mind. Should she screw the taxpayers of Cook County by increasing the sales or should she stand by the people. Sims, like Murphy, chose to stand by Stroger and the taxpayers be damned!

Challenging Sims is Matteson Trustee Sheila Chalmers-Currin. Chalmers-Currin has a strong chance of unseating Sims, who is best known for the FOX News expose which showed her being driven around in an expensive Cadillac by her chief of staff, who is paid by the taxpayers, too.

But also on the Change Cook County unofficial slate is John Fairman, a Justice trustee. Now, Fairman seems to be a decent person. I don't know much about him because he has only lived in Illinois since 2003. But more surprisingly, Fairman just won a seat on the Village of Justice board as a trustee this past April.

For a guy who no one really knows, his ambitions are getting a head of themselves. Wouldn't you think you would spend time working for the people of Justice first as the newly elected trustee before throwing your hat in for a powerhouse job like Cook County Commissioner?

The candidate I think can beat Murphy is Valadez. And just because a bunch of candidates come together on a  web site doesn't mean much. Valadez has sent out two direct mail pieces that I have seen and is planning much more. I haven't see anything from Fairman in the 6th District except for a sign on an office in Homewood that I drive past often when I take my son to Hebrew School.

The Change Cook County slate has some strong candidates among its ranks, though, including Dr. Victor Forys who many believe is the lead candidate in the Democratic Primary battle in the 17th Cook County District. Forys is facing-off with Patrick Maher, the president of the Orland Fire Protection District and son of a longtime Village Clerk, David Maher. Patrick is a decent person pushed, I think, by a 19th Ward family that insists that every son become a Chicago mayor -- none have by the way. but that kind of pressure takes the nicest people and throws them into losing causes all the time.

The winner of the Democratic primary will then find themselves on the butcher's block facing off against Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth "Liz" Doody Gorman who is an anti-sales tax powerhouse. Gorman, working with a handful of county commissioner, literally shoved the sales tax fight into Stroger's lap refusing to allow him to brush it away. Gorman kept bringing the sales tax fight back every time Stroger so arrogantly slapped it down until last month when the county board voted to roll back the sales tax by half of one percent.

Gorman is a certainty to win re-election despite some strong issues being raised by Forys. Maher can take this experience back to the Orland Fire Protection District where a good leader would trim the fat and bring the district to par with other Fire Protection Districts, or maybe even embrace my idea to do away with the fire protection district as a separate taxing body (one of the highest taxed in Orland Township) and merge it in with the village, cutting at least $15 million in costs and saving the taxpayers a bundle.

Of course, politicians don't listen to the public until it's too late.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

One year after Blagojevich arrest, nothing has changed except the oppression of the taxpayers continues

Many people believed that US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald would be replaced in Chicago by the newly elected president Barack Obama because of Fiztgerald's continued harassment of the Daley Administration's seemingly endless corruption.

But Fitzgerald is no dummy and he trumped everyone when he announced that he was going to charge Gov. Rod Blagojevich with corruption on the unproven assertion that the governor was trying to "sell" the U.S. Senate seat that Obama vacated when he was elected president.

Wow. He not only went after Blagojevich, satisfying the growing political Machine in Illinois that wanted him to leave, but also check-mated Obama. How could Obama replace Fitzgerald in the wake of his taking action against Blagojevich over Obama's old senate seat without looking like he was protecting "corruption" in Illinois?

Never mind that what Fitzgerald did was wrong. People are innocent until proven guilty in America, but not in Fitzgerald's eyes. And, there is a process of prosecution that Fitzgerald side-stepped and avoided in going after Blagojevich to protect his own political career in Illinois. Instead of filing charges, Fitzgerald used the Chicago FBI to arrest Blagojevich one year ago at his home not on charges but on trumped up claims thatw ere not backed by evidence at all.

Imagine if the US Attorney can do that anytime he doesn't like someone? Accuse them of a crime, disgrace them publicly? Say things to disparage someone you don't like and set up a political movement to have him removed from office and never, ever have to provide one real bit of fair evidence in a court room where the target, Blagojevich, can defend himself?

It's a sad day. And worse, the tragedy is that nothing -- absolutely nothing in Illinois politics has changed.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Gorman praises board action to override Stroger veto of sales tax rollback

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                 CONTACT:  Peg Walsh:  773-704-4655                  

           

Commissioner Gorman and County Board Override Stroger’s Veto of Sales Tax Repeal

December 1, 2009 – Today marked a major victory for Cook County taxpayers and businesses as Commissioner Liz Gorman joined with eleven other county board members in voting (12 to 5) to override President Todd Stroger’s veto of the 0.5% Sales Tax Repeal.  The 0.5% Sales Tax Repeal was passed by the county board by a 12 to 5 margin on November 17, 2009 after two previous repeal votes were vetoed by Stroger.  Within days of this most recent Sales Tax Repeal vote the board president, for a third time, vetoed this tax-cutting measure.

During today’s debate from the floor of the county board, Commissioner Gorman, in her remarks stated, “A new chapter in Cook County Government is being written today!  What governmental bodies are you aware of that have successfully repealed a tax?  In this economy, governments are making hard cuts and looking to increase tax and fee revenues wherever possible.

With this repeal, we are being proactive by leveling the playing field for our businesses so that they can grow, compete and create jobs.  This sales tax repeal will return consumer confidence back in Cook County. In turn, this will provide opportunity for municipalities to increase their local tax receipts by rolling back a portion now. 

This vote should be used as a litmus test for voters to hold elected officials accountable.  Not only does this repeal represent a sales tax cut, but it makes a bold statement -- that this body recognizes that taxpayers are not satisfied with the tax and spend policies that have dominated county government for decades and that this county board is serious about fiscal responsibility.  I hope this is the first step in many that will lead to more constructive reform initiatives and tax policies for county government.”

Today’s successful override vote was made possible by new legislation passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor (October 2009) that reduced the veto override threshold from 4/5 to 3/5.  Commissioner Gorman sponsored the county board resolution that urged the state legislature and governor to pass and sign this legislation.  

The 0.5% Sales Tax Repeal will reduce the Cook County Sales Tax from 1.75% down to 1.25%. The Sales Tax Repeal will be effective on July 1, 2010.

Cook County Board votes to defend taxpayers and push Stroger towards the exit

The Cook County Board has voted to override President Todd Stroger's veto of the motion introduced last week by Elizabeth "Liz" Doody Gorman and an array of progressive commissioners to roll back the 1 percent sales tax by half.


It's a huge victory for the taxpayers and the beginning of the end for Stroger who has turned Cook County into a personal patronage haven for his cronies. Instead of leading by example, Stroger chose to lead by shortcuts, addressing budget shortfalls not with cutbacks in his administration or forcing the county's eight executive office holders to cut back their budgets, but rather by placing the burden of his failed leadership on the backs of the taxpayers of Cook County.


Several commissioners deserve recognition for standing up to the Stroger tax tyranny including Gorman, John Daley, Peter Sylvestri, Gregg Goslin and Timothy Schneider. All of the 12 commissioners who voted to override Stroger's veto of the half percent sales tax rollback deserve praise and they are listed below.


Among those who must be remembered at election time, though, include Commissioner Joan Patricia Murphy, a friend of Stroger's legal eagle Burton S. Odelson, and Commissioner Deborah "Flip Flop" Simms. Murphy is being challenged by Nick Valadez who has vowed to represent the best interests of the taxpayers while Simms is being challenged by Sheila Chalmer Currin. (Click here to listen to the podcast of Valadez and Currin discussing their candidacies.)


VOTE TO CUT SALES TAX: 

Elizabeth Gorman, R-Orland Park

Peter Silvestri, R-Elmwood Park

Gregg Goslin, R-Glenview

John Daley, D-Chicago

Timothy Schneider, R-Streamwood

Earlean Collins, D-Chicago

Forrest Claypool, D-Chicago
Bridget Gainer, D-Chicago
Tony Peraica, R-Riverside
Edwin Reyes, D-Chicago
Robert Steele, D-Chicago
Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston

VOTE TO PRESERVE SALES TAX: 

Joan Murphy, D-Crestwood

Deborah Sims, D-Chicago
William Beavers, D-Chicago
Jerry Butler, D-Chicago
Joseph Mario Moreno, D-Chicago

An American tragedy: "It's a Whatever-ful Life"

I figured I'd get ahead of the curve and order something I needed before Cyber Monday. That's the Monday after Thanksgiving. Credit Card companies and banks, who control Americans in conjunction with the rejection letters on "pre-existing conditions" by health insurance companies like Humana, are all about them making money, and profit, not about consumer care or servicing the public. So they decided if the retail stores can have a day to promote and drive mindless consumers in America to spend their loot on one day After Thanksgiving -- Black Friday -- then why shouldn't the online industry be able to join int he spoils with their own day, Monday after Thanksgiving. "Cyber Monday."

It's kind of like the Somali pirates getting together and agreeing that one day is for raping and pillaging American ships and another day is set aside for raping and pillaging non-American ships, which are easier targets, of course, but bring in less money.

So I went online to order two Belkin Powerlibe AV boxes. These are the Internet facilitators that you can plug in to any electrical outlet and then plug in to your Internet box to spread the Internet throughout the house without using the unreliable Wi-Fi that comes with Comcast and other providers who brag about all the things they can do, but never deliver. I think that's the Sprint Cell Phone company motto, by the way. Their Palm Pre Cell Phone sucks when it comes to do anything of significance, although they let you pay them for a lot of worthless "games" and a limited assortment of "apps." Tragic company, actually.

The company I chose was Dell Computers. Not because I wanted to. Dell makes cheap and very unreliable computers that don't last more than a year. Keep that in mind if you purchase one. And that policy of they'll fix it for you. They figure most Americans can't afford basic healthcare -- thanks to the robber barrons at Humana Health Care and Human One who are helping to insure that most Americans can't afford basic coverage so they put off exams until it is too late. So they know you won't remember their empty promises, which are offered only to sell something, not to remember once you have made the purchase.

But, the other re-sellers, according to Belkin, a foreign-owned company that knows about as much as I know about the internet, looked kind of cheesy. Hey, I don't want to get ripped off by someone I don't know, right?

Better to be ripped off by someone you do know. And that has a consistent track record of ripping you off. So I ordered the Dell system, two boxes including one with three ports so more than one laptop can connect -- if I can get the Dell Laptops to work properly, which they don't always do.

They promised to deliver in 3 to 5 days. That was before Cyber Monday. Now, they sent me an email saying that I might not get it for another 10 days, on Dec. 9. Nice. But they got their money. Upfront. As they always do. I didn't promise to pay them and then say, oh, by the way, I can't pay for 10 days. I paid them hard cash upfront as they required. Now that they have my money, I and all consumers are at their mercy. And they could care less about quality so why should they care about service?

The last Dell Computer I got came from a client to manage their online work. I told them tow atch out for Dell, but they said, don't worry, Dell has a reputation. What kind of reputation is what I am asking. The day the laptop came, the screen crashed and the monitor lost its light. Oh the computer is running but you just can't see it running on the screen. Nice, I figured. It has a "warranty.' Which means five weeks of service after we ship it at our shipping cost back to Dell and then wait.

So they can say, we'll have it back to you in five weeks. Only to come back and say, we need more time. Meanwhile, we gave them our money upfront, of course.

This tragedy is an American tragedy. A common tragedy. The public gets ripped off all the time and if there is no political benefit for anyone, people like Lisa Madigan, the Illinois Attorney General will not do anything to help the public. She only gets involved if she is guaranteed a headline in a local newspaper. And not just any newspaper. She doesn't care about the community news media. She only cares about the big newspapers like the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. Why waste your taxpayer funded work time on community media read by the community. Those Sun-Times and Tribune headlines make great campaign brochures when the time comes for them to run for higher office, like Governor. Or Senator, Or who knows, maybe even president.

Because the public has memory lapse issues, thanks to Humana which dumps customers from their coverage all the time because of so-called "pre-existing conditions.' Well, Politicians have pre-existing conditions like criminal behavior and me-first attitudes and no one dumps them from the taxpayer paid payrolls.

SoI guess I have to wait for the extra Belkin Boxes -- I'd buy another brand but that is another issue with the technology manufacturers. None of them want their equipment to work with any other system, so they make them unique so you have to buy their crap instead of some other company's crap when you want to expand your system. nd you complain and they shrug their shoulders, count your money and say, "Whatever."

An American Tragedy. "It's a Whatever-ful Life."