Its a good post on the Daley family and Chicago business. Its a cesspool.
According to the Sun-Times, Billy Daley Jr. is a registered as a lobbyist for Morgan Stanley with Cook County and the State of Illinois. So that’s what he does. It’s actually not such a mystery.
County hires firm employing Daley nephew - Chicago Sun-Times
Morgan Stanley, the New York financial giant that employs one of Mayor Daley’s nephews, has been picked to help the Cook County Board borrow $150 million to get by until the county’s 1 percent sales-tax increase starts flowing into the treasury.
It’s the first deal between the county and Morgan Stanley since the company hired William Daley Jr. — a nephew of the mayor and Cook County Commissioner John Daley — to help win business.
The more things change the more they stay the same. Daley clout isn’t the only problem here though.
He accompanied William Mack, who is the senior manager for Morgan Stanley. He was there in a junior position.”
Mack was a longtime aide to imprisoned former Gov. George Ryan. Five years ago, Mack, granted immunity from prosecution, testified about directing other state employees to shred documents that Ryan and his campaign manager Scott Fawell feared could be seized by federal agents. Mack’s testimony helped send Fawell to prison.
Gotta love the privileges of immunity when exposing government corruption. Todd Stroger, endorsed by Barack Obama, gives business to two guys that came to visit him. One guy admitted to ordering the shredding of evidence to protect himself and George Ryan, and the other guy is the nephew of the Mayor and his brother John on the Cook County Board.
Somebody is going to make a lot of money off the taxpayers with this $150 million loan. Looks like they are connected.
More Bureaucracy to Solve Burdensome Bureaucracy? - Chicago Public Radio
Getting a building permit in Chicago is so complex that it’s spawned a cottage industry of people called expediters. They help real estate developers, contractors and home owners get permits. But recent allegations of bribe taking in the zoning and buildings departments have aldermen wondering if they should regulate expediters. The proposal to do so has jumped from a few pages to more than twenty-five and that concerns alderman Helen Schiller.
So instead of making it less complex and easy enough for a regular citizen to take advantage of, since that is why they are paying taxes to begin with, Chicago is adding more bureaucracy by licensing the cottage industry they created with their ineptness.
Pretty soon the only legal way to get a building permit in Chicago will be through these city licensed “expediters” who will be hand picked by the Chicago politicians that they generously throw campaigns donations to. Bribes today, campaign donations tomorrow. Must everything be a racket in Chicago?
Rules bring reason back to city life - Mary Schmich
I think this is Mary’s way of saying girls rule, boys drool to Reason.
But where some people see paternalism, we weirdos believe that most of Chicago’s rules help turn unruly city dwellers into civilized citizens. Big cities are like big families—put a lot of people into a small space and somebody has to be charged with the power to say “Stop it.”
What they say Stop It to and how they go about treating the people that won’t Stop It seems to be of little concern to those weirdos. I wouldn’t call them weirdos, though.
The only way to enforce a tax on bottled water, or a ban on trans fats or foie gras or indoor smoking or anything else is for the government to hold a gun to their head to get them to comply and hand over their property for a fine or their freedom for a cage or their life if they won’t comply.
I doubt Mary’s stern father ever held a gun to her head to get to comply. The only new “rules” Chicagoans need is one that limits the power and corruption of their government. But we never hear from Mary calling for more rules to tell her favored politicians to Stop It with the abuse of the public trust.
HDO officially folds tent Chicago Tribune
Once the most powerful and feared patronage army in Mayor Richard Daley’s political organization, the scandal-plagued Hispanic Democratic Organization is now officially extinct.
The name may be extinct but their stink lives on elsewhere rest assured.
The chairman of HDO was former top Daley aide Victor Reyes. He has not been charged, although federal witnesses and court records have detailed his extensive influence in city hiring and in the Daley political organization.
Maybe the psilocybin experiment has started in Illinois already. Is that how these Jokers keep getting re-elected?
County Sales Tax Hike Takes Effect Tuesday - CBS2 Chicago
Who do sales taxes hurt the most? The poor. Who hurts the poor the most in the US with the highest sales tax in the US? Cook County and Chicago. And do Chicago politicians wonder why the poverty rate is steadily increasing in Illinois? Nah, they could care less about poverty as their sales tax rate perfectly shows.
