A Chicago Blog

The nerd in me is really excited to hear about the CTA’s new bus tracking system.  The taxpayer in me cringes at the $24 million we’re going to spend on it. I only use the bus once a week, on Monday afternoons, so it will take me a while to determine the usefulness of this program. In the meantime, I’d love some feedback from those of you who use the buses everyday.

I don’t know why I watch. I don’t. But every morning as my body slowly adapts to its first dosage of caffeine, I watch Morning Joe. Like I said, I don’t know why. I think I like Willie Geist, and not just because he has a bad ass name.

They have Chris Matthews on just about every morning and it’s becoming brutally clear that he no longer pretends to be a journalist, but instead is openly stumping for Obama. It’s quite remarkable really. Here’s a funny YouTube video. I think I’m going to start recording the show to document the insanity.

I am taking part in the Sunshine Blogger project.  Last week I called the Gov’s office to find out who the freedom of information contact is. They couldn’t tell me. I was connected to the press office, but they couldn’t tell me either. This is pretty frightening because it would seem to indicate that the Illinois media rarely file FOIAs.

At any rate, I finally received help from a nice woman named Summer who has promised to make sure my FOIA request gets to the right person. You can read my request here.

Stay tuned. I’ll be posting regular updates.

Or maybe they were just high. The Tribune reports:

Six protesters disrupted the beginning of Cardinal Francis George’s homily to shout their opposition to the Iraq war. The demonstrators—who called themselves Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War, despite their male and female membership—squirted fake blood on themselves and nearby worshipers as security guards tried to usher them from the parish’s auditorium, where mass is being said during repairs on the downtown Chicago cathedral.

Just in case you were wondering, it’s these people. Not until I hear Smith & Wesson is going green will I believe there is a broad-based movement afoot.

Howard Witt notes in this morning’s Trib that immigration has not been as much of a hot button issue so far as most would have expected. Putting aside the fact that Witt continues use the descriptor “anti-immigration” activist, instead of “anti-illegal immigration” activist, he does a pretty good job explaining how the various constituencies don’t necessarily line up along normal party lines. This has been the problem all along for those who are motivated by the issue: that their biggest allies are not the Republican Party, but the union Democrats.

Moreover, Witt notes that the issue is driving up support for Democrats in the Hispanic community. But will this support hold up in the fall when McCain takes on Obama? (or Hillary?) If you’re an immigrant with strong feelings on immigration policy you really have to be asking yourself, who can best represent you? A Republican criticized by his own party for being soft on the issue? Or a Democrat bought and paid for by the unions? It’s a hard question for sure and it will be interesting to see how they decide.

I don’t usually defend Steve Rhodes, mainly because he’s usually transparently liberal. But watching Fox Chicago Sunday this morning I felt the pains of fraternity in my heart. Jack Conaty went after Rhodes on the development of the blogosphere and in so doing showed just how little he actually understands about how it works. Conaty’s criticisms? (1) You can’t make money in the blogosphere and (2) there is no systematic fact checking to ensure accuracy.

On the first point, Rhodes didn’t do himself any favors by not admitting that there will always be some need for the “old” media. That is, the “new” media is never going replace “old” media. But it is going to revolutionize (indeed has revolutionized) how ALL media is done. The proof of this lies in that the very segment following Conaty’s grilling, was on all the different ways Fox32 is engaging the new media with blogs and online video.

Old media can no longer ignore its audience, an audience represented by the new media. Another way of saying this is that media used to be a monologue, now it is a dialogue.
On the second point, Rhodes did a good job in pointing out the key advantage of the new media: that it is self-correcting. While it lacks the hierarchical structure of old media, its intrinsic openness allows errors to be immediately reflected. Though old media make fewer mistakes, without new media those mistakes would survive forever because we have to rely on hierarchical and self-interested media organizations to correct themselves. Empower the audience to respond, the new media creates a check on entrenchment of old media.

While old media assumes it’s audience is passive and stupid, new media assumes its audience is active and intelligent. The truth is somewhere in between. But Jack Conaty should beware that his dismissive treatment of new media is dismissive of his entire audience and this is precisely what old media can ill afford any longer.

Here’s what not to do when blogging. Don’t be sporadic and irregular. Don’t not post for two days, especially when there are a million things to comment on, like Obama’s speech or McCain’s faux paux or T-Mobile’s customer service. Make a deal with yourself. Blog everyday for two weeks. Even if it’s a really simple entry, a link, a quote, a WORD. Discipline, regularity, consistency. That’s the ticket.

Mark Brown is sitting in on the Rezko trial:

But everyone’s ears perked up when Pekin described how Levine told him in 2003 he’d have to share his expected finder’s fee of $750,000 with Mell.

“He said Mr. Mell was somewhat upset because he was not participating in the spoils,” Pekin testified under a grant of immunity from prosecution. He said the plan was for Mell to be “rewarded for his work” in getting Blagojevich elected.

Pekin said a phony consulting contract was prepared with the names of the participants left out, but he said Mell never got the money. “Mr. Mell did not want to go along with it,” Pekin said.

With a little luck this trial will expose the whole lot of them!

He writes:

It’s time for the proven failures who are running the party to, if not step aside, then build a major league farm system. That means support the promising, bright and honest young candidates with money, organization and enthusiasm.

Finally, it’s time to recruit Democrats with a conscience into the Republican cause. These would be the Democrats who are fed up with corruption, higher taxes and waste. There are still a few Democrats around like that. Aren’t there?

It’s truly sad that in a democratic country, starting a new party is almost impossible. Byrne’s comments remind me of just how confined we are politically.