Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
Vi Daley, the Chicago Alderperson representing the 43rd Ward (Lincoln Park), today was the third of her colleagues to announce that she would not be running for re-election.
The Chicago Tribune reports that her reasoning sounds very similar to the colleagues who went before her:
Daley, 43rd, said she still plans to remain active in the community, but is moving on so she can "concentrate on things I like to do."...
Daley, who is no relation to the mayor, said she it would have been a tough re-election contest, but she said her retirement is "more about my future and wanting to slow down. . . . It's a very demanding job. We are basically working 24/7."
Alderman Daley was forced in to a run-off last election with current Democratic Committeeman Michele Smith, and may have decided to get while the getting is good. Smith, as of posting time had not announced for the job, but many of her supporters expect her to run again.
Chicago Magazine reports that the ex-wife of Republican nominee for the US Senate, Mark Kirk, thinks he has been under the control of a "Svengali-like" consultant, and that has been the source of much of his problems lately.
Her marriage to Rep. Mark Kirk (R-10th Dist.) may have ended amicably in June 2009, and the two may remain friends today, but Kimberly Vertolli said that she will not "advocate" for her ex in his Senate run because she fears he is too influenced by a "Svengali figure" in his life-a former staffer named Dorothy "Dodie" McCracken.
Vertolli, 37, a former naval intelligence officer who was married to Kirk for eight years, told me in a telephone interview last week that she loves him and "want[s] him to be happy," but she says that McCracken-Kirk's press secretary during his first term-is "trying to control Mark and the direction of Mark's campaign." For example, Vertolli blames McCracken for the congressman's support of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which bans openly gay people from serving in the military. Vertolli, a lawyer now living in the Virginia suburbs of D.C., added that Kirk assured her, "when the issue came up again, he's going to do the right thing and support overturning that policy."
According to the piece, Vertolli won't support Kirk politically, due to the rightward turn in Kirk's policies of late:
CF: So at this moment, with that promise, is it your intention to support him and campaign for him?
KV: No, I will not because there's a person who is a very pernicious force on his team who is wielding a disproportionate amount of negative influence on him. As long as she's there, I can't be his moral conscience.
Confirming long-time rumors, Chicago Alderperson Mary Ann Smith, of the 48th Ward (Edgewater and part of Uptown), has let the Chicago Tribune group report that she is retiring.
Smith, who chairs the Parks and Recreation Committee, has been on the council since 1989. She was the first of many aldermen Mayor Richard Daley got to appoint.
Smith confirmed that she won't seek re-election in her North Side ward and told the Tribune she would explain why later today.
Current rumors are that State Rep. Harry Osterman will be the choice of the Regular Democrats in 48 to succeed Ms. Smith. Mr. Osterman's mother was Ms. Smith's predecessor in the office, which Ms. Smith was named to after Ms. Osterman became Mayor Richard M. Daley's head of the Office of Special Events. No word on any independent challengers.
Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.) will introduce legislation Thursday placing a permanent ban on the federal funding of abortion.
While a 24-year-old law - dubbed the Hyde Amendment - already ensures taxpayers don't subsidize abortions under Medicaid and all other federal health programs, the law is temporary, forcing Congress to pass it each year as a rider to broader spending bills.
The Smith/Lipinski bill would permanently solidify the funding ban across all federal agencies.
Also interesting is that Jan didn't "whip" the rest of the IL liberal crowd, which usually votes as a pack, into a No vote on this altho she herself voted against. I would love to be a fly on the wall.
Johnson continues to intrigue.
QUESTION: On Agreeing to the Resolution
H CON RES 301 YEA-AND-NAY 27-Jul-2010 6:00 PM
BILL TITLE: of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Pakistan
As predicted elsewhere here, Helen Shiller, Alderman of Chicago's 46th Ward, has decided to retire, rather than run run for re-election.
Announced in Chicago Sun-Times' columnist Laura Washington's 8/2 column, Shiller, originally one of the most independent Alderpeople in the council, lately, one of Mayor Daley's staunchest allies, has decided to retire after almost 24 years.
I am so dispirited that some of these obvious ones get by me. At least there were more no votes this time. That's progress. If I miss votes that you think I should highlight shoot me an email. I hope Johnson is running scared.
Link to Full Vote - More Afghan War Funding H R 4899 2/3 YEA-AND-NAY 27-Jul-2010 6:11 PM
QUESTION: On Motion to Suspend the Rules, Recede from the House Amdt, and Concur in the Senate Amdt
BILL TITLE: Making emergency supplemental appropriations for disaster relief and summer jobs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes
Oil began leaking from the 30-inch line Monday, moving from Talmadge Creek into the Kalamazoo River, which flows from near the city of Battle Creek into Lake Michigan. The pipeline normally carries 190,000 barrels of oil per day from Griffith, Indiana, to Sarnia, Ontario. The leak was stopped Tuesday.
Near Marshall Michigan. The Kalamazoo River enters Lake Michigan at Saugatuck.
We haven't really talked much about the summer psycho-drama that was the Rod Blagojevich trial. Which seems appropriate, since it failed to live up to the blockbuster status that Illinois Republicans hoped for. After all, linking Blagojevich with Democratic candidates was the linchpin in their campaign strategy.
Regardless, how long do you think the jury will take? Predict a verdict and tell us what you think in comments.
A coalition of anti-war organizations, officials, and candidates are trying to draw attention to two votes likely to occur today in Congress. One is on yet another "supplemental" appropriation for war, this time $$33 billion for Afghanistan. The other is H. Con. Res. 301, which calls for the U.S. to militarily get out of Pakistan.
I wrote over a year ago on the unending increase in war spending and a better plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nothing since has dissuaded me from believing that our apparently-unlimited checkbook for war wouldn't be much better spent here in the U.S. How can we possibly tolerate the fiscal crises of American states and cities, the breakdown and shutdown of needed services, the layoff of critical employees, while pouring billions upon billions into the sand and rock of Central Asia? The outing of Pakistan intelligence's relationship with the Taliban, the wikileaks, and the revelations that billions in oil money has simply disappeared only reinforce that the combined war effort, besides being a drag on the economy, is insane entanglement in the stickiest of webs.
Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul are spearheading the 301 resolution, which, among the Illinois Democratic delegation and would-be Democratic delegation, has at this posting drawn only the support of David Gill.
It's increasingly difficult to reconcile any Democratic claim of commitment to progressive principles with continued support for costly, unsustainable war that prevents real domestic progress. In an election year, these are uphill votes, but this is opportunity for progressives to let their representatives know where their district is at.
Supports a REAL national health plan (IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL), delivered by single payer.
Supports withdrawal from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan NOW.
Supports labor and reinvigorating the union movement.
Supports public funding for federal campaigns.
Is pro-choice.
Supports real immigration reform that does not criminalize the 12 million immigrants living here now, including a humane pathway to citizenship and working with the international community to boost the economies of these immigrants' home countries to give them more incentive to stay home -- rewriting NAFTA and CAFTA would be a good place to begin in this effort.
Lake Effect News, the local news page for the Northside Lakefront, run by the former editor for several Lerner newspapers on the same beat, Lorraine Swanson, writes a story on the latest D2 (campaign finance) filings for several Chicago Aldermanic campaigns starting from the 46th Ward and heading north and west.
A taste:
(Berny) Stone, the Chicago City Council's oldest alderman, showed $8,033 in campaign cash as of July 1. During the same reporting cycle in 2006, available cash in Stone's campaign fund was double that amount at $16,499.
Contributions to the Bernard L. Stone Campaign Committee during the 2007 election cycle surged to $309,045, when Stone won a contentious runoff. In 2008, Stone lost the coveted democratic ward committeeman post to State Sen. Ira Silverstein (8th District).
Silverstein has said that he is mulling a run for the ward alderman in 2011. Silverstein reported $47,552.00 in available campaign funds on July 1.
In 1964, the Republican Party nominated Barry Goldwater, who appealed to activists, but was a weak general election candidate. In the long run, the Goldwater movement infused the GOP with energy that helped the party in later election cycles.
What if the Republicans approach the 2012 elections the way they approached the 1964 election? Instead of nominating a strong candidate for the general election the GOP goes with someone like Ron Paul, Michelle Bachmann or Sarah Palin.
What if Obama decided to be the VP nominee in 2012 and had his delegates nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton?
We are getting about 800 visits a week. It gets better after the summer and around elections.
Update: Last week of July 2007 1,700 visits - July 2008 1,300 visits - July 2009 1,200 visits
For some reason the week of June 23 we jumped from 800 visits a week to 1200. But I think the lack of posting is having a definite effect on the visit numbers. See comment below for more history.End update
We have $2,500 in the bank. We probably should give some of that away. Post suggestions in the comments.
