hey chicago – wake the f*ck up.
fellow citizens, this is what’s been happening in your my our city – just this past week:
- chicago cops covered for an off-duty officer who drunkenly ran over a kid and killed him – the second such incident for cpd in a f*cking month. and even then, “da mare” didn’t seem half as upset as he was with the people protesting the land grab in grant park.
- illinois legislators quietly worked to underminean improved public records law suggested by governor quinn.
- a tape surfaced with u.s. senator burris promising moneyto ousted/disgraced governor blagojevich (technically before he was ousted, but the disgraced bit may have still been applicable at the time).
- a cook county judge threw a family court lawyer in lock-up for no apparent reason.
- illinois senate democrats (i.e., those same cats that promised reform last december) watered down a campaign finance bill so that it would still be double what the feds allow – and yet continue to claim that reform is on the way.
just how corrupt does this town have to get before people actually start standing up to these clowns? what has to happen to get some reform and accountability in our government? does the tax rate have to jump to 11% ? 15%? do the cops have to plow down your neighbor’s kid? yours? does your state senator have to actually mug you in person? what’s it gonna take, chicago, before you – at the very least – pick up a d*mn phone and start raising some h#ll?
any time you want to have that conversation with your alderman/mayor/county official/rep/senator/governor, i promise you – you’ll find all the ammo you could ever need right here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/corruption
update (5/29): never underestimate what chicago pols are capable of in a single week. yesterday alderman isaac carothers (29th) got indicted for accepting a huge bribe from a developer. for the record, this would be the 31st alderman to be convicted of corruption in the last 36 years (the sun-times has the breakdown in a sidebar). well done, chi – you’re almost battin’ .1000.
also, let it be known that after chatting with the staff of my state senator and representative yesterday, i’m confident that newspaper reporters know more about my elected officials’ agenda than they do.