More Money Pissed Away

What will it take for taxpayers in this city to get truly ticked off? Every time the daley machine announces a budget shortfall ($100 million this time), they ALWAYS raise fines, fees, sales taxes, or they threaten layoffs and cuts to city services. We've seen the "city that works" and trust us, it is about the most inefficient manpower operation in existence. How many guys does it take to replace a fire hydrant? We watched 7 guys do it once down southside way - two never left the truck and another didn't even pick up a tool.

Now, our favorite "Hired Truck" reporters Tim Novak and Steve Warmbir, shed light on another typical machine scam. If Crate & Barrel had a set of bar glasses that you could mix your rum-and-cokes in, would you make 8 separate trips to buy each one? Only if you were a freaking moron.

Well, evidently, the city is run by morons (surprise!). When the city wants to acquire a parcel of land that is tax delinquent (in fact NUMEROUS parcels of land, all adjacent and all owned by the same entity), the city has an outside law firm, the politically connected firm of O'Keefe, Lyons and Hynes (gee, not TOO many politically connected names there, eh?) to mail out, serve, and process individual claims against each and every parcel of land. The firm charges the city by the transaction, so instead of getting that complete set of bar glasses in one trip, the city is paying for 8 separate trips. To top it off, the firm gets the judge to treat it all AS ONE TRANSACTION since the owner is the same and the lots are adjacent and the lawyer isn't in court all day.

Go read the link in paragraph two, for it is good reporting. If Novak and Warmbir read this thread, follow the money boys - see who at O'Keefe, Lyons and Hynes made contributions to the democratic party of cook county and chicago. We'll bet that would get VERY interesting.

UPDATE: Blackhawks lose 4-3 vs. Columbus. Columbus has been giving the Blackhawks fits since they entered the league a few years back.

This Just In!

A wind-whipped 17,000-acre wildfire raced across hills and canyons along the northwestern edge of Los Angeles Thursday, threatening homes and forcing hundreds of people to evacuate. The fire was burning Thursday evening toward Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Calabasas and Agoura.

Residents were advised to evacuate their homes, but hundreds have stayed behind to try to save their homes with garden hoses and bucket brigades. "Where's Bush?" asked Calabasas resident Thurston Howell III. "Where's the military? Where's FEMA? Why didn't the government stop us from building our million dollar homes in this tinderbox?"

Mumford Nelson Rockafelter XIV accosted reporters and camera crews in the neighborhood demanding answers. "We expected a flyover of Air Force One at the very least. Why are we paying such high taxes if we aren't going to at least get the impression that the president cares? Sure, my wife Miffy and I voted for the other guy - you know, that French dude, but if those people in New Orleans can get a flyover and two visits, we should be getting at least that much."

Some were understanding. "We know the president has a lot on his plate recently, what with two hurricanes and the war and all." But far more people in this bluest of the blue states were much less charitable. "It seems obvious what this is all about," said Pierre Johann Twillifutter IV. "George Bush isn't out here with a shovel and a hose alongside my mexican gardeners. He hates rich white people."

Weekend posting

Yes, it's only Friday, but might as well give everyone a heads up. Posting may be light this weekend. Check in a couple times to see. We've got a few posts planned, but circumstances may intervene.

In the mean time, use this open thread to start Friday off. We have a VERY IMPORTANT post planned for Monday. Early Monday. We expect it to be one of our biggest comment generators yet (current record holder being the "Best Bosses" thread with 222 comments and still going strong - check it out in the right hand column). It will also be among the more controversial posts, so hold on tight. Tell your buddies to check us out Monday because EVERYONE is going to want to read this one and just about EVERYONE is going to have info to post.

White Sox Finally Win

Congratulations to the Chicago White Sox. Though they did just about everything they could in the past few weeks to avoid winning the title, they finally succeeded. We can't say we're baseball fans and we won't pretend to be. We also aren't bandwagon jumpers. But we will salute the Sox for being in first place for something like 170+ straight days - from day 1 of the season if we aren't mistaken. Anytime you can put together string like that, you deserve a moment in the sun. Hopefully, it's the beginning of a title run, then we can all get some overtime and get back to what really matters:

Quick Hits and Sarcastic Commentary

Living up to our moniker: Opinions. Observations. Ornery Human Beings

• Time to buy that locking gas cap someone was telling us about. Too bad this goof wasn't smoking as he siphoned. A Darwin Award missed.
• A victory in the fight to keep the Ground Zero memorial free of anti-American tripe. Too bad it took hillary clinton's disapproval to get republicans to act - but no one ever accused a clinton of not being able to read public approval polls.
• Frank Main writes about the Media Alert we referenced yesterday on the CPD website regarding cameras in the squad cars. No word on whether the cameras will be activated for stops involving white cop/white citizen, black cop/black citizen or only in the cases of cop/man of god.
• Another victory in the fight against democrat obstructionism. John Roberts sworn in as, hopefully, the court begins a march to the right.
  

Hit Counts Climbing

We blew past 31,000 total visitors earlier today. We're averaging 666 visits a day (AHHHH - the number of the Beast!!) and the hit counter shoots past 700 a day on a regular basis. Total page views are well past 170,000 with an average of over 4,300 A DAY! And some time in the next few days, we'll have 300 total posts up.

We have no way of measuring our performance against the FOP Lodge #7 website as they don't have a hit counter, but we'll bet on some days, we're leaving them in the dust. We're certainly becoming a popular site. Again, our thanks to everyone who's visiting. Tell you friends and see if we can't get 1,000 or more visitors daily. The more visitors and contributors, the better the site.

Again with the BS

We just deleted about a dozen or more comments in the Camera Program thread because for some reason, some of our more tiny brained readers think it's ok to switch every single topic to sex in Washington or speculate on the abilities of certain persons.

Again, knock it off. We're sorry you couldn't get any in Washington. Maybe you need some of that enhancement surgery and the women will seek you out instead of rejecting you. In the meantime, grow up and go to Dugan's - plenty of star chasers there.

As to dragging named persons into every single thread, you sure seem to be begging for us to get shut down by a harassment lawsuit. See that little orange letter "e" up in the lefthand corner? Click it and go get your own blog - it takes 5 minutes and it's free! You can indulge in your self delusional fantasies to your heart's content, all thanks to the power of the internet. Otherwise, knock it off.

The Management.

(not so) Hidden Cameras?

If you go to the CPD Intranet Homepage (available only on DEPARTMENT computers) and scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, there is a button labeled "Mobile Video." If you click it, it brings up a series of MediaPlayer windows, all of which appear to load, but won't play. The labels for each window are what is interesting. There seems to be one for OEMC, another for the Intelligence Van, a third for the Marine Unit, about 6 or 7 windows in all. Are these things going to be live video feeds for the labeled locations? Anyone know?

And what's the purpose of letting everyone know they're out there?

Camera Program

If you go to the Department's main web page (accessible to everyone here) there is an ALERT button that you can click on and read all about the new Pilot Camera Program (we aren't sure how long these alerts stay up, so check soon). They're outfitting 12 squad cars with cameras and looking to get federal grants to equip more.

We just wanted to opine that $5,000 per car seems a bit steep, especially in light of the shrinking size and price tags of decent systems at Radio Shack and Best Buy. Was this a no-bid contract, signed with all due political haste and in the absence of legit oversight? Who is the vendor? We're betting that even in the midst of huge federal investigation, there are still some things that never change, and that would include a connected company getting more money thrown their way.

Killing a Promotion Rumor

Promotions seem to be among the more hotly debated issues on the job today. People can argue about profiling, training, experience, but in our opinion, nothing comes close to the depth of feeling exhibited during a promotional process. And the most outspoken people of all are the one’s who aren’t even being promoted! Even the feds want to be involved in our promotional processes. Let’s address a rumor to start. We don’t think the city will be discontinuing promotional exams for detective, sergeant or lieutenant in the near future, the reasons are as follows:

1. Contract issue. The city has negotiated with the respective unions to a 70/30% or an 80/20% rank score/merit process and it’s either written into the contracts or there are “Letters of Understanding” that dictate it as such. The city can’t just walk away from these agreements.
2. Precedent. The city has done it this way for so long, it has become the norm. The union and the city can tweak the agreements as they stand, but a wholesale abandonment of the advancement process isn’t in the cards.
3. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, the city would have to reveal the criteria necessary for officers to achieve a promotion. What would these be? They already dictate how much time and how much education you need. Now what? You must write (x) number of parkers/movers. You must process (x) number of DUI’s, have (x) number of felony pinches, have (x) number of court hours ... does anyone see where this is headed? QUOTAS. Merit based on an open and transparent set of numerical goals. It ain’t going to happen boys and girls.
4. Bad things happen with political choices. Remember the county building fire? Merit fire lieutenant couldn’t make it up the stairs and turned back leaving 6 people to die in the smoke. As surely as god made little green apples, “merit” contributed to those peoples deaths.
   
5. The political winds. Remember this thread? Barack Obama stated words to the effect that the people of Chicago deserved the most qualified employees the city could hire. Patrick Fitzgerald stated "Every resident of Chicago has the right to compete fairly for a better job if he or she is qualified, without regard to political affiliation or whether they do campaign work. [...] And the residents of Chicago are entitled to the best qualified laborers, plumbers, foremen and inspectors." (Emphasis added). Citizens aren't going to stand for it.

So it seems highly unlikely the city will be able to completely do away with promotional exams, even though they would like to. And yes, we are aware that they did away with the captain rank as an exam position, but we understand that the captain's union negotiated away the exam process to secure other benefits in expectation of no more captains ever being made (there were only like 20 captains left when they stopped filling the rank for a decade). We can't see them ceasing to fill the Lieutenants or Sergeants positions to play hardball with the respective unions. Opinions?

Wednesday Quick Hits

Why buy the sun-times when you can read the interesting stories on-line?

• "Hired Truck" prepares to take down it's first aldercreature. Wambir and Novak write about aldercreature carrie austin leasing out space to a "Hired Truck" front company. How far will this go?
• The trial of the millennium begins for george ryan. He's already been smearing scott fawell for flipping on him. Fawell was expected to do his decade and shut the hell up like "quarters" boyle is doing for chicago pols. Good help is sooooo hard to find.
• Traffic aides ticketing jaywalkers? Not while daley is mayor! The streets are once again safe for everyone to disregard "walk-don't walk" signs. In a strange twist however, the hall is contemplating selling "passes" for hitting up to 3 pedestrians a year - kind of like a hunting permit.
• And commander sullivan is getting the royal treatment. Here's the times article; here's the channel 7 article - video; Ladies and Gentlemen - May we present your newest candidate for Deputy Superintendent?
  

Did we hear this correctly?

Is anyone watching the Channel 9 News? We just saw the story (see the sun-times and tribune stories - registration required at the trib) on the mayor assigning new powers to the Inspector General and signing Ms. Brennan's request for whistleblower protection. We THINK we just heard that as part of the whistleblowers protection, city workers can face discipline of they DON'T report corruption. We are attempting to locate this portion of the story online right now.

But in the meantime, far be it from us to disobey a direct order from the chief executive of the city. The mayor has kindly agreed that whistleblowers DON'T need to leave their names, which also happens to be standard policy on this site. So please, use this open thread and anonymously report all the corruption you can think of involving city officials, including violations of the Shakman decree. Someone will forward the whole thread to the Inspector General at a later date.

Where is the Accountability?

Remember all the coverage of the Katrina disaster and the press reporting all of the rapes and killings and violence in the Superdome? And everyone and their brother beating the President with the various sticks thrown out there for general consumption? We even recall some people on this board accusing certain ethnic groups of being unable to behave in the face of a largest humanitarian disaster to hit this country in years.

Turns out, it was mostly bullshit.

Read this story here. And this story here. All those murders? ZERO. The six bodies in the Superdome were 4 natural deaths, one OD and one suicide. The rapes? NOT EVEN ONE can be confirmed. In a dome full of tens of thousands, there ought to be (no, strike that) THERE WILL BE one honest witness to come forward, but no one has. The one attempted rape that witnesses recall was thwarted when other citizens beat the tar out of the attacker themselves. Check out this quote:

• "I think 99 percent of it is bulls---," said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Lachney, who played a key role in security and humanitarian work inside the Dome. "Don't get me wrong, bad things happened, but I didn't see any killing and raping and cutting of throats or anything. ... Ninety-nine percent of the people in the Dome were very well-behaved."

Compare that quote to this one:

• In interviews with Oprah Winfrey, (N.O. Police Chief) Compass reported rapes of "babies," and Mayor Ray Nagin spoke of "hundreds of armed gang members" killing and raping people inside the Dome. Unidentified evacuees told of children stepping over so many bodies, "we couldn't count."

All lies. The only shooting in the Superdome was a soldier who shot himself in the leg when attacked in a dark locker room. Go read the above links. Then read them again. Then ask yourself first of all, where is the media accountability? How can the media get away with reporting out and out falsehoods that most likely diverted necessary manpower from rescues to non existent emergencies?

Secondly, how about apologies from the mayor and police chief of New Orleans for spreading stories that they knew couldn't be confirmed. And from people like Oprah for giving them a platform for it. And people like that goofy rapper throwing out incendiaries about the president not caring about black people. Way to stereotype your own people!

And third, if you were one of those posters we mentioned in the first paragraph, people who couldn't wait to believe the BS coming out about the people in the Superdome, wipe the superior smirk off your faces and wonder why people are so quick to believe the crap the media feeds us.

The General Tommy Franks?

This seems a bit of a stretch, doesn't it? We thought John Thomas was the Tommy Franks, but whatever.

Nelson, knock it off

You are getting annoying and are contributing nothing to posts. Grow up. Go get your own blog.

Hey, look! They agree with us!

Despite the liberal bent of the sun-times, their op-ed page actually makes sense 2 days out of 7, which almost makes them moderate. Today is one of those days, and they actually agree with US! The "Commentary" headline takes the city to task for actually thinking that they'll be able to ticket pedestrians and they bring up a lot of points that we did back in this thread.

Do you think they're reading this blog? No, we don't either, but it just goes to show you that sometimes the media can actually think logically. Wierd.

One of the Stupider Headlines

In the slum times today, the FBI is being criticized for waiting almost 24 hours to go into a farmhouse in Puerto Rico after a shootout with a subject wanted for an armored car heist in Connecticut. The subject opened fire on the agents as they arrived to arrest him for the 1983 robbery.

Boo Hoo. So a fugitive lay bleeding to death after HE SHOT at the feebs. Big freaking deal. If he's willing to buy chips in the game, he's going to suffer the consequence should he lose. Give us a break. So the FBI didn't rush in and heroically disarm a violent suspect without using any force. They're wrong? C'mon people - either we're allowed to enforce the law to the utmost (which would include returning deadly force with better aimed deadly force) or we might as well disarm and let the law of the jungle prevail. Sure, if they had a robot to go in and check the jagoff's pulse and blood pressure, maybe the media would have a point, but it doesn't appear this was the case. Why throw good people (yes, some feebs are good people) into harms way to preserve the life of a scumbag? The scene was secure; he couldn't escape; wait him out.

If it was up to us, EVERY SUSPECT who shot at the police would be REQUIRED to bleed out on the street corner as a warning to others.

Newest Rumor

A sergeant class is rumored to begin on the 24th or 31st of October. There are currently 100+ openings available, so figure an even hundred at this point. No word yet on if/how long the "detective familiarization" portion of training might be. We've heard both yes AND no. We've already stated our opinion and the opinions of others regarding the man hours burned up on 90 days of "familiarization" would be. We talked to a detective lieutenant who said that "we could teach them everything they need to know in 2 or 3 weeks tops," but the city will do what the city wants to do.

HOWEVER, it was brought to our attention that unless the Sergeants are accounted for (sworn in) by 16 December 2005, the city could stand to lose out on sizable Federal grant monies for the 2006 calendar year. Unless (heaven forbid) the city would LIE to the Federal government regarding their actual numbers to secure the funds? They wouldn't do that, would they? Calling Peter Fitzgerald! Calling Noelle Brennan! Calling Frank and Fran! This could use some investigating, eh?

Hurricane Relief - Lend a Hand

We have adjusted the time stamp (actual post time of 9:45 am) on this post so it will remain at the top all day - any new posts will be below. Scroll down for updates.

As noted in the comments section, CPD is joining forces with the Orland Hills PD to collect items of clothing and toiletries for officers in the hard hit Gulf states following the two hurricanes. The collection point is Lot "C" at US Cellular Field on Tuesday and Wednesday, 26 and 27 of September between 0700 and 1800 hours.

More info at the Illinois FOP site and the Chicago FOP site. Among the items being sought are: POLICE ITEMS: Uniform Pants (not wool!), Uniform Shirts (patches removed), Belts, Shoes, Flex Cuffs/handcuffs, Rain Gear, Boots, Latex Gloves, Watches, T-Shirts, New Socks, New Underwear, PERSONAL TOILETRIES: Deodorant, Toothpaste/Brushes, Toilet Paper, Soap/Body Wash, Lotion, Band-Aids, Razor blades, Sun-Screen, Hand Cleaner, Baby Wipes, Paper Towels, Mouth Wash, Combs/Brushes, Hair Products, Shaving Products, Feminine Hygiene Products, OTHER ITEMS: Clothing for Men & Women & Children (all ages and sizes), Water, Antiseptics, Batteries, Towels, Sheets, Waterless Hand Sanitizer, Insect Repellant, Aspirin.

There is also information at both sites about how to donate cash which will be forwarded to State Lodges to help police officers DIRECTLY.

UPDATE: Blackhawks win 3-2 vs Columbus. Yay!

So What do you Want to See?

We spent about 90 minutes surfing the web today, and there isn't much out there this weekend that piques our interest. How about you guys? Anything come to mind? Bears lost, Cubs and Sox won (magic number is 5 or so), Blackhawks are playing right now. We're just waiting for the soap opera that is the police department to open for business again come Monday.

Stupid Republican Tricks

It has been said that we are a little "rightward" leaning. Guilty as charged. It has also been said we are apologists for anything republicans do. Not so. We've taken issue with a number of republican positions. Here's another, and if this is true, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist better resign.

This report in the Washington Post claims that Frist put his stock portfolio in a "blind trust" upon taking office. In this trust were a number of shares in a health care company that were sold a month before the stock nosedived, allegedly on direction from Frist. So this "blind trust" evidently wasn't completely blind as Frist knew what was in it (he has been issuing misleading statements concerning it) AND the fact that he was dumping shares along with other company bigwigs a month before the slide looks a lot like INSIDER TRADING.

So much for Frist's chances in 2008. Maybe he'll even get the Martha Stewart treatment. (story from Captain's Quarter's)

Quick Hits Open Thread

For a lazy, rainy Saturday:

• Two more sentenced in "Hired Truck."
• In a related development, a number of Sun-Times reporters were honored, especially Tim Novak and Steve Warmbir for their work on the "Hired Truck" scandal. We are admirers of their work, but we wonder how legit these awards are because (a) Frank Main won one and (b) Sneed was named journalist of the year. A gossip columnist as "journalist?"
• And the Federal Monitor Noelle Brennan is urging the mayor to "issue an executive order prohibiting retaliation against city employees who cooperate with her investigation." We're not sure what this means. Can she really have no idea how this city operates? Nothing is ever done in the open like that, especially the hirings and firings. We sincerely hope that she isn't among the naifs that seriously believe that Fitzgerald's list of cooperating witnesses "just happened" to be released to the corp counsel, mayor's office and city legal department. Ms. Brennan is beginning to remind us of Kevin Costner's character in "The Untouchables" who needs a severe schooling in Chicago-style political corruption.

Someday, this will be worth money

We used to be quite the artist back in the day. Our work won prizes, ribbons and recognition nationwide (well, maybe locally - Mom put a lot of it on the fridge). We'll post an example below:
As you can see, we've censored any identifying characteristics of ourselves, Mom and Dad so as to preserve our anonymity. We don't want to give away too much at this time. But you can obviously spot the talent: everyone has five fingers, everyone is wearing clothes, we all have hair. Talent, pure and simple. (Click on the pics for larger versions)

Anyway, inspired by an anonymous comment in the "What is that Whistling Noise?" post, we decided to break out the pencils, drawing ink and our limitless talent. We spent quite a bit of time drawing this cartoon for our White Sox fans. We present "Team Titanic":We are aware of the predilection of artists to sign their art, so just for fun, see if you can spot our initials in the drawing. And yes, we drew it ourselves - both pictures.

Evacuate the City? Ha!

The recent events in New Orleans and Texas, the articles we cited about geological activity out west, and the comments about the commander of 016 being transferred to update a supposedly non-existent evacuation plan for the city lead to this post.

Do you have an evacuation plan? In the event of a full blown emergency/accident/terror attack, do you have a plan to get your family out of the city? Now before we are accused of being some whacked out militia survivalists (which we might be), we live in one of the larger target rich environments of the country. Chicago is a major rail & airline hub, financial center and cultural touchstone of the USA. If something happened, could your family get out? We're assuming, of course, that in the event of a full blown mobilization, we would be staying at our posts (it IS our job after all), but there isn't any need for the spouse and kids to stick around.

What do you pack? What do you take? We're not talking "end of days - the rapture" type events (we're agnostic), but just getting out of the Superdome and above the floodwaters for a week or so - a localized event. If it isn't something you've discussed with your family, maybe you should, because the city sure isn't. Food, spare cash, water are obvious - what else? We're just provoking thought and conversation on a slow news day.

Otherwise, we have a humorous post or two on tap for this weekend. We plan on watching New Orleans flood again after the multiple levee breaks and recall how mayor nagin wanted to put 1/3 of his population back into the "Big Easy" 5 days ago.

UPDATE: Blackhawks lose 5-4 to St. Louis - hissssssssss

Let us save you $10 this Weekend

Don't view any further if you don't want to read a huge spoiler for the new Jodie Foster movie "Flight Plan." You have been warned.

Surf over to DebbieSchlussel.com and read her review. Seems this production has four scary looking arab passengers, complete with evil villain music and such, appearing to lay the groundwork to hijack a plane in flight. But it turns out that the real hijackers are a flight attendant and a Federal Air Marshal! The movie even ends with one of the arabs handing Jodie Foster back her purse that she had lost during the battle to save the plane. Shame on you for suspecting the arabs! You racist! You bigot! Everyone knows that flight attendants and air marshals are the epitome of evil. Go read the review - Ms. Schlussel rips hollywood a new one. (hat tip to Little Green Footballs)

UPDATE: Blackhawks win 3-2 in a shootout vs the Minnesota Wild

UPDATE II: Of course, bleeding heart liberal roger ebert gives this tripe 3 1/2 stars. What a moron this guy is. The Tribune's Michael Phillips gave it two stars.

Now THIS is going to be hilarious

NOTICE: To any one of our readers who happens to be in contact with various members of the media, clergy, lawyers, or federal government employees - please forward this post where ever you want to. Really, we insist!

Frank Spielman of the slum-times displays an all to common affliction rampant in members of the general public at large, the media in particular and the city administration specifically: they have no idea what it takes to enforce the law. We're not talking a uniform, a pair of cuffs, and a willing body. We're talking the ability to enforce the law as written by a duly authorized agent of the state

Example: today's article in the times says that the director of the Traffic Management Authority is writing legislation to allow traffic aides to write tickets (ANOV's) on pedestrians who cross against the signals.

• So what if the offender refuses to stop? As Illinois Law is written, the traffic aide has no authority to restrain an individual for a MCC violation, aside from citizen arrest powers.
  
• What if an offender resists? The rules for the City indemnifying traffic aides against liability are (as far as we can tell) non-existent. Wouldn't you like to be THAT lawyer representing the offender in an unlawful arrest civil suit against the traffic aide? Ka-ching!
  
• What if an offender doesn't have/refuses to produce identification? ANOV's REQUIRE that ID be produced and a name check be run. Traffic aides cannot (legally) run names and lack powers of arrest should an offender refuse to produce ID.
• What if an offender flees? Foot chase in the Loop? Traffic aides have a hard time using a radio as it is - can you imaging CW1 alive with a bunch of foot chases every morning?

This is a BAD idea all around. The local and state hoops that have to be jumped through are damn near insurmountable. This is just smoke being blown up citizen's rear ends in an effort to look like someone is doing something - besides getting indicted at the Department of Aviation. Oops, Fran must have missed that story. Again.

What is that Whistling Noise?

So which photograph most accurately defines the Chicago White Sox?


Train Wreck? Collapse? Bomb?

Hey, there's always hockey. (By the way, Blackhawks dropped a 4-2 preseason match to Calgary last night)

Lots of posts

We posted a good 5 or 6 threads in the past 14 hours, so we're going to take it easy Thursday morning. Be sure you scroll down through the posts - we've covered department, local and national politics, science, FOP grievances, and Ira's. Quite the spectrum, eh?

We'll be back Thursday afternoon, so check in a couple of times. We made a run at 900 the other day and are regularly surpassing 700 hits daily. Anything that doesn't fit into the above categories can be put in this open thread.

Democrats Against Reform

You need ID to buy liquor. You need ID to cash a check. You need ID conduct all sorts of business these days. So why are members of the democratic party AGAINST having to show ID in order to vote? Isn't voting among THE most important undertakings a citizen will ever undertake? The states are even proposing to waive the usual fee for indigent citizens to get ID- IT'S FREE!!

This is especially troubling in light of the recent revelations in New Jersey of 6,500 people voting twice and OVER 4,700 PROVABLE INSTANCES of dead people voting. And the recent Washington state governor's election where King County kept finding ballots until a democrat won. Not to mention the completely insane voting practices in Wisconsin where 1,200 votes came FROM A SINGLE ADDRESS and a couple of thousand felons voted! Chicago pioneered the practice of "vote early - vote often" and refined the recruitment of the "zombie voting bloc," but in light of modern technology reducing the possibility of fraud and in the new reality of a post 9/11 world, presenting a valid ID to vote seems like a logical next step.

We guess the democrats can't win on ideas, political philosophy or ability anymore, so they better steal their way to office as long as they can.

Casablanca - Chicago style

"I'm shocked, shocked to find out that gambling is going on in here."
"Your winnings, sir."
"Oh, thank you very much."

This extraordinarily funny scene from one of the greatest movies of all time comes to mind as we were reading today's slum-times article by fran spielman. In it, mayor daley is described as "not pleased" at the name change Marshall Field's is going to be undergoing and the mayor "found it somewhat jarring" to learn that the company so long synonymous with State Street shopping would vanish from the retail landscape.

Nothing at all about how "somewhat jarring" citizens of the city and visiting pilots found it when earth moving equipment carved giant X's in what was once a runway. Or how taxpayers were "somewhat jarred" by a park that was supposed to cost $100 million suddenly cost $350 million. Or the "jarring" feeling that keeps coming back whenever fees, fines or taxes go up or scandals arise.

"Somewhat jarring" is what happens all the time in the real world fran. Welcome to it.

Ira's to close Sunday

We're not sure if it's closing down Saturday night into Sunday or Sunday night into Monday. We're sure someone will let us know in the comments. In the mean time, go, quickly, have a drink with Bench and the crew before the final curtain comes down.

So, with Ira's closing, where can a copper drink in 012 now? And don't say Dugan's.

Open thread for a Question

What the F#$% happened downtown? Starks is on the outs and Williams is now the man? It was alluded to at the FOP meeting that part of it had to do with the 004/006 District shift changes. Supposedly, the Supe didn't know about the changes and when he found out, he blew a gasket? Info please.

More stories from the FOP meeting

So we were sitting at the meeting, or maybe we were talking to one of our communicants who was sitting at the meeting, it's so hard to remember nowadays, and the Financial Secretary relates two stories of grievances gone good. Goofy good.

Story #1 - Copper is on the medical and gets caught working. Big oops, but not as big as it used to be evidently. Copper gets suspended pending a Police Board hearing. Misses part 1 of the recent BIS D2A exam. Copper WINS at the Police Board and files a grievance that he wasn't permitted to take part 1 of the test. Arbitrator's position? Tells the city to "assume" the grievant passed part 1 and allow him to take part 2. Copper passes part 2 and is now in the top 400 or so with a so-so shot at getting promoted. Wild, eh? But that's not the wildest story.

Story #2 - Another copper is suspended pending a Police Board hearing. Misses part 1 of the BIS D2A test. Files a similar grievance. While awaiting the Police Board hearing, misses part 2 of the test. Out of luck? Oh no. Arbitrator rules that the city can't be expected to conduct a separate test for this individual officer but rules that as soon as they promote a class of detectives off of this list, the grievant officer is ENTITLED TO D2A PAY FOR THE DURATION OF THIS LIST, EVEN WHILE HE DRIVES A BEAT CAR! Is this a great country or what?! He didn't even take the test, doesn't have to go through training, seems free to bid anywhere he wants without restriction, AND GETS D2A for the next 4 years or more. Wow! Who is this guy? Because he is going to be buying us beer for the next few years. We sure hope he decides to earn all the overtime he can during his stint at the higher rate.

SCC Blog - Science Edition

Did you ever read something and think to yourself, "Hmm. I just saw something like this not to long ago." And then it slips your mind until something happens to bring it all back? We were reading this article about Vancouver Island moving 3 millimeters TOWARD Japan in the last few days. This is a complete reversal of its usual drift toward the east and could hint at a BIG earthquake in the coming months or years (up to 200 years). Or it could mean nothing. But the day before, we saw this article on CNN about a 100 square mile bulge rising almost an inch and a half a year in Oregon.

That's a pretty large movement of earth - and that triggered a memory of an article a few years ago about the Yellowstone Caldera in National Geographic Magazine. A quick search reveals this recent article about the last time the Yellowstone Caldera blew up. It left a crater 30 miles by 50 miles in the ground - that's about 7 times as big as the entire city of Chicago. Combined with the recent Pacific tsunami activity and such, hmmm.

How do you prepare for something like that? Maybe we shouldn't read as much as we do - we get nervous. But that's ok, we'll forget it tomorrow unless something else triggers another thought. Ignorance is bliss we suppose.

FOP Denies Connection to SCC

We'd just like to add FOP President Mark Donahue to the list of locally famous people who have (sort of) mentioned our blog. Hi Mark! The club now is you and Frank Main of the Sun-Times.

If anyone attended the FOP meeting last night, you may have heard Mark mention that there is a blog out there, apparently run by Chicago Police Officer(s), addressing concerns of the rank and file. THAT'S US! Mark went on to say that a number of advertising palm cards were sent out to most of the unit reps and some had the FOP return address of 1412 W. Washington on the envelopes, but Mark said the FOP has NOTHING to do with this web site.

We would also like to set the record straight. We are Chicago Police Officer(s). We amuse ourselves with this blog by addressing the everyday concerns of Chicago Police Officers. We have very little to do with the FOP aside from being members. WE CATEGORICALLY DENY EVER HAVING SENT OUT ANY MATERIAL WITH (a) the FOP logo, (b) the FOP address, or (c) anything in any way, shape or form would associate us with ANY CURRENT, PAST or FUTURE members of the Board of FOP. If the FOP received ANY cards in envelopes with FOP address on it, it was forwarded by someone to whom we sent the original material. Our envelopes were brand new plain white or brand new unmarked tan. No other markings. No other printing. Clean. Spotless. Untraceable. No fingerprints. We even used a clean sponge to wet the glue (we ain't stupid ya know).

It's not that we don't like the FOP Board. Some of them appear to be very nice people and we weren't too disappointed with the most recent contract. We might even shake their hands if we met them. But we don't feel like endorsing any particular point of view, political slate, team, etc. We don't need the political entanglements. The feeble attempts at union bashing on this board haven't generated any interest from our readers, so we don't address it. The news of the expulsion of two members from the lodge generated a collective yawn, although both have e-mailed us for a platform. As a rule, we don't answer e-mail (for more rules, see our archives).

At some point in the future, perhaps we will share our opinion of the union with readers. We might even endorse a slate. But that's two years away and a lot can happen in two years. We will note, however, that we appear to be the only site in existence with an anonymous "give and take" message board and almost 1,000 visitors a day. In two years? We might be gone. We might have 5,000 visitors a day. Right now? We're just having fun.

Once again (for the dumbass)

Evidently, we have a new troll, or a returning troll who has attention deficit disorder. Whichever it happens to be, please read the following links so we don't have to keep repeating ourselves:

1. "OK Dumbass"
2. "Situational Awareness (and 15,000 hits)"
3. "Ahem, children?"

This is a public board. Public. Viewers who aren't the police. Civilians. And some folks have taken it upon themselves (we have done nothing to stop them - we don't really care) to notify out-of-state websites, high profile lawyers, columnists (Frank Main quoted our board!) and reverends of the existence of this board. It's inevitable that others will find out about it. A simple question for the jagoff who keeps asking inappropriate questions about female cops in Washington DC in general and a female supervisor in particular: Why give the police haters an easy mover?

You know why everyone hates inspectors? Because they make the police follow the rules. Sure, some are bigger pains in the rear than others, but why give them the easy mover? Get your city sticker, show up to court/roll call on time, wear your uniform correctly, come clear in a reasonable amount of time, and 99 times out of 100 you'll never deal with an inspector. So why the hell would you (the dumbass) use someone else's blog (ours) to post anonymous claptrap that will be nothing but a hammer to beat us with should a decent Sexual Harassment lawyer (with a background in Internet Law) decide to sue E-blogger to get a list of the IP addresses of our visitors? As we've stated numerous times, if you don't think your IP address is traceable, you are smoking crack. And if you think that a lawyer couldn't compel E-blogger to produce a list, you're ignorant. This is cook county for chrissake. Yahoo just gave up the IP addresses of a bunch of Chinese bloggers who are serving 10 year prison sentences now for revealing state secrets. The racial BS has died down, now let the misogynist crap go away. We've been deleting the comments as we find them.

The Story Everyone Misses

$6.2 million dollars to settle the Ryan Harris case. That's quite a bit of money for a young kid. Does he deserve it? We make no judgments on that one. Do taxpayers deserve to get stuck with the bill? Probably not, but what can you do when plaintiff lawyers look for that "deep pocket" entity to make their pay days and the city just makes it easy for them, settling cases left and right and setting a precedent for big payoffs.

And that's hardly the whole story. Among the coverage here, here, and here, we found this ABC report (if it's still posted) that states:

• The city settled the 7 year old lawsuit for $2 million and paid the private law firm of former corporation counsel and mayoral friend Brian Crowe an estimated $3 million to wage a six-year legal battle against the other boy's claim. (emphasis added)

  "I think it's well spent money on their case, and I have a law firm with some very, very talented lawyers, and just the fact that I was the corporation counsel, the fact that I know municipal law, I don't think should penalize me or my firm," said Brian Crowe, attorney for city. (emphasis added again)(Just so no one is confused, this is referencing the February 2005 settlement for the first kid who sued.)

So even in one of the city's (and the department's) more trying episodes, the mayor's guys are still getting their cut to the tune of $3 million. The Channel 2 report quotes a juror that "five of us were for the City" which tells us that the city was operating from a decent position and may have been able to swing it closer to the previous settlement of $2 million like the first case had they gone to the jury. But anything to get the mayor's bad publicity off of the front pages and back on governor ryan we suppose. Too bad taxpayers are on the hook - oh wait, that's US!

700 and climbing today!

Keep those hits coming people! This is becoming THE place for CPD info, just like we advertised.

UPDATE: 750 as of 10:10 PM

UPDATE II: 780 on the day! (counter is on EST)

Crap crap crap! WE FORGOT!!

Today is "International Talk Like a Pirate Day!" We can't believe we forgot it! Oops, we mean "Aaaargh! To arms, to arms, me lads and wenches! Prepare to weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen! Whar be that scurvy dog what calls heself leftisthebest? It'll be the plank or a rope swing from the yardarm! Aaaargh!"

Crap. We could have had fun with this all day long. The above website has "get your own pirate name" links and all sorts of pirate phrases to use as you prepare to board and pillage traffic stops tonight. Go. Visit. Now! Aaaargh!

UPDATE: use this post for your best pirate jokes as a couple people already have.

Ok, somebody please tell us

... what the hell happened in 005? Who's the dead guy? Why are the goofs trying to get into the wagon? Was there a 10-1? Why didn't anyone get arrested? Post it here people.

Oops! He did it again!

Darn it all! Looks like G.W. Bush just pulled off another stunning foreign policy triumph. North Korea has promised to discontinue it's nuclear weapons program following 6 nation talks. Of course, North Korea promised the same thing to Clinton in the 90's and ran full speed ahead on a weapons development program, so you can't trust them any farther than you can throw them. But in the face of everyone on the left saying "Chimpy Bushitler" is a go-it-alone cowboy who would lead the world to ruin, this is a remarkable piece of diplomacy, and if verifiable, worthy of comparison to Reagan at Reykjavik - you don't back down in the face of threats on the international stage. This would also permit accelerated action on Iran and Syria which, in the case of Syria, will be resolved before Bush leaves office.

Watch the left deny that this is anything meaningful though (conveniently forgetting Clinton's faux pas). They'd deny Bush accomplished breathing every day unless Rove was compressing his chest, but this could be huge news.

UPDATE: North Korea is now saying that they won't surrender any weapons programs until they get a light-water reactor from the US. This is, of course, completely at odds with the document they just signed, but what do you expect from these goofs? An agreement without verification is just a bag of hot air.

Cronin accident

Unconfirmed comment in the last post about D/C Cronin being involved in a bad accident in the 016th District. Any info would be appreciated.

Also, any updates on Cmdr. Murphy can be posted here.

Holy Hit Count Batman!

We just passed 500 hits for the 7th DAY IN A ROW. Three of those days (Wed, Thurs, Fri) we actually topped 600 visits, so we've done nearly 4,000 visits in a 7 day period and we are well on our way to surpassing last months 10,500 hits.

Our publicity material is kicking in. Word of mouth is working, too. We'd like to thank a couple of bosses for mentioning us at roll calls but we won't cause them problems by naming names. A thousand visits a day doesn't look as impossible as it did way back in May when we started this thing. Again, thanks to everyone who's been visiting, reading, posting and helping out with stuff.

The Magic Number is ...

versus

Since we have indulged our Blackhawks fetish for the weekend, it's only appropriate that we indulge someone else's White Sox fantasy. In our opinion, tomorrow begins a make-or-break series for the Sox. If they can't beat Cleveland, then they don't really deserve a playoff spot and we can all move on to backing the Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks for the fall and winter seasons. We really don't know why we're doing this thread - we mean, how many Sox fans actually own a computer, let along know how to run one? WE'RE JOKING! Lighten up Francis.

Preseason plus some Quick Hits!

The Blackhawks just wrapped up the first pre-season game of the season - a 5-4 win over the Calgary Flames. We know, we know, the preseason doesn't mean bupkiss, but it's good to see NHL Hockey back. If only they could bring back the "old barn." On with the quick hits!

• Officer to plead guilty to reckless homicide. Don't drink and drive people.
• Ryan Harris case heads to a finale. Did everyone notice that as soon as the city council voted to encourage a settlement, pincham upped the asking price from $5 million to $10 million? Thanks a lot city council! You jackasses.
• Another "Hired Truck" figure sentenced. Hey Frank? Fran? This is what real reporting looks like - learn something.
  
• Blago continues to deny deny deny ... wait a minute, didn't george ryan say almost the exact same thing? EXHIBIT A - Blago says he knows nothing about any state pension deals being traded for campaign contributions. EXHIBIT B - Ryan says he knew nothing about any driver's licenses being traded for campaign contributions. Things that make you go "hmmm" and speculate that Frank and Fran are taking it in the shorts again.
• And the daley endgame continues. After giving away $40 million dollars in "Hired Truck"deals, tripling the cost of the 911 Center, giving away a $6 million dollar parcel of land in Lincoln Park, spending $200 million over and above budget for a $150 million dollar park, building a parking garage that LOSES money downtown, giving away tens of millions to "minority" front companies, the mayor now wants to raise taxes and fees to the tune of $37 million. Get this - one bright idea is a first of its kind tax on delivery companies like FedEx and UPS for $5 million dollars. If we were FedEx or UPS, we'd pull services out of the city rather than pay this extortion and watch the business community howl for blood. Daley is toast.

UPDATE: Blackhawks win Sunday night 3-0 over the Minnesota Wild.

And the Beat Goes On

OK, this is getting wild - we're getting well over 500 hits on a SATURDAY! Too cool. People are really starting to check us out. We also noticed in the comments that in addition to people telling attorney Michael Shakman, Federal Monitor Noelle Brennan, reporters Frank Main, Fran Spielman and maybe John Kass all about our website, people are giving our publicity material to revs meeks, pfleger and jackson. To this we say "hahahahahahahaha."

Oops, we mean "Welcome!"

Seriously though, if the good revs actually want to spend some time here, more power to them. We'd welcome the mayor and IAD if they increased our traffic numbers. Whatever floats their boats. We merely direct them to our "Archives" page and ask them to read the whole site to see what we're about and where we're coming from (come to think of it, that's a good idea for ALL our new readers). We've mentioned rev meeks in about a dozen posts, heartily taking him to task for his recent behavior. Even rev pfleger rated a headline a month or two ago for some particularly softball comments he made. We have also taken a number of race baiting posters to the woodshed and spanked them hard. We are equal opportunity ass kickers so spare us any imagined outrage. Otherwise, enjoy your visit and remember; this is a PUBLIC board, open to anyone who wanders in, and we'd have a hard time proving a post even came from North America, let alone a Chicago cop.

A weekend of Quick Hits

We will be posting sporadically this weekend depending on when the mood strikes us. This has been a SPECTACULAR week for visitors; we topped 500 Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and 600 the past three days. Thanks everyone. Keep checking out the "7 Unseen Wonders" thread! On with the Quick Hits:

• Daley scorns a cabbie dress code. "Are we going to start telling people what to wear to work?" "Do you want the government to be there in your home constantly?" Well, we dunno mayor - you tell US we have to live in your city. You tell US we have to abide by 33 year old rules on and off duty. You require US to divulge conflicts of interest in city business while you lead the most corrupt political system in recent memory. You even make it harder for US to earn a living by cutting OT and killing side job opportunities. Hmm.
  
• This story involves OEMC's ability to answer 911 calls within 10 seconds, but you can expect some fallout to head our way, especially with the ACK, ENR and ONS buttons on PDT's not being used all the time. Big Brother is watching. Big lawyers looking for big payoffs, too
• Blago is looking at his own serious corruption scandal. Do we detect the hand of "the Machine" involved? A little story - we were told almost 2 years ago by people who are "in the know" that Blago is a one-term governor and he was just keeping the seat warm for Lisa Madigan. Seeing the Trib's little magazine profile on Lisa last Sunday and the timing of these accusations, we wonder. One-term is looking prophetic.
• National notes - remember predictions of 10,000 dead? Not even 1,000 as of today. All those cases of cholera and typhoid in the toxic brew of New Orleans? ZERO. Media hysteria, and people are seeing it with their own eyes. Hell, they just announced Mardi Gras should be on schedule. How did we go from a Third World type cesspool to the largest successful relief operation in US history overnight? And today, Cindy Sheehan of the anti Bush fever swamps is DEMANDING Bush remove all troops from "occupied New Orleans and Iraq." What a f$%^ing loon! Wasn't the left bitching that there weren't enough Federal troops to keep order last week? Watch Karl Rove bounce this into an even bigger congressional majority for the Republicans.
  

Said we wouldn't post ...

... unless something popped up. Looks like something might have popped up. Someone is posting in the "7 Wonders" thread about exempt movement and the elimination of the Chief of Patrol's spot. Please use this thread for info on exempt movement and CONTINUE to add to the "7 Unseen Wonders" thread below. There are some great places being written about. Keep it going!

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who called, posted, e-mailed

D/S Strategic Services Charles Williams moves to D/S Patrol Division (maurer's spot)
OCD Deputy Chief John Risley moves to D/S Strategic Deployment (william's spot)
Cmdr. Cronin moves to D/C OCD (risley's spot)
Cmdr. Roti moves to Intelligence (cronin's spot)

So what we have here is a medium sized "piggy-move-up" due to the Maurer vacancy. It looks like they decided that Patrol Division will mirror the command structure of the other Bureaus and Maurer was the last Chief we'll see.

7 Unseen Wonders

Unless something pops up, we're going to leave this post up a large portion of the day Friday.

Today, the tribune revealed (registration required) it's "7 Wonders of Chicago." The winners were as follows: (1) The Lakefront; (2) Wrigley Field; (3) The "L"; (4) Sears Tower; (5) Water Tower; (6) University of Chicago; (7) Museum of Science & Industry. The runners up were (8) Chicago River; (9) Millennium Park; (10) Chicago Blues; (11) Chicago Hot Dog; (12) Theater Scene; (13) Lower Wacker Drive; (14) Chicago Bungalow.

These are some pretty lame choices for Chicago Wonders, but we suppose its good for the tourists. In an effort to shamelessly cash in on the tribune's efforts and to capitalize on our latest publicity endeavor, we would like to have nominees for the following:

"7 Unseen Wonders of Chicago - A Police Officer's Perspective"

We want your stories. People you've seen on the streets. Places you've chased people into or hauled bodies out of. Buildings so fun or funky that every trip there was an adventure. Locations that never made the news because if they did, the mayor would throw a no-bid wrought iron fence up so quick, it'd make the fed's heads spin. Keep it simple - People and Places. We realize these are fewer and farther between than in days gone by, so we'll be expecting the veterans to contribute mightily to the list. PLEASE DON'T give away any good spots that guys might still be using or we'll see Pam Zekman showing up in a unmarked news van.

John Hurley RIP

Sorry for the light posting - we came back from the Hurley wake on Wednesday night feeling shitty. Twenty-eight is too young to die. It is comforting to see how many friends John must have had judging by the attendance at the wake. We hope that everyone who was there (or wasn't there) will help Cheryl as needed in the coming months. When information becomes available, we'll let you know what fundraiser(s) will be held for the Hurleys.

Comments are closed for this post.

600 A Day!

We hit 600+ visitors in a single day yesterday and our page visits topped 3,500. Hopefully, that means that our publicity material is showing up in the districts/units and people are starting to check us out. Be sure to point out the cards if you see any so others can visit and spread the word.

Rally for Mayor Falls Apart

Remember on 01 September when we posted about Fran "the water carrier" Spielman's article about a woman who was organizing a rally to support the embattled mayor? The woman claimed to have no ties to the administration and she would be announcing a date and time for the rally at a later date to tell the Feds to "back off."

Well, thanks to a nifty bit of investigative reporting by the Chicago Tribune's Dan Mihalopoulos and Laurie Cohen (free registration required), it turns out that the woman in question is Janet Murphy, wife of Thomas J. Murphy, a city hall lobbyist who received over $600,000 in lobbying fees and owner of a company that does over $10,000,000 in business with the city. Of course, she and city hall deny coordinating this escapade, and it's probably true (the hall isn't that stupid), but she must be goofy if she thought this wouldn't be traced back to her, her husband, and her husband's business.

And Fran? Just out of curiosity, do you EVER get out the building and actually research your stories? Or are you another "New York Times Jason Blair" type reporter who just fills in the blanks as they pop up with whatever BS the subject feeds you or you can make up? Do you even remember J-school?

An Open Letter to Noelle Brennan

Dear Ms. Brennan (and Aide-de-Camp Kelly),

It has come to our attention that one of our readers (retired Sgt J. Northern) has notified you of this website and he has conveyed information that you will be "monitoring" the site. We would direct you to this post (click here) which is an open letter to Mr. Shakman (Hi Mike!) outlining some information about our site. We would just reiterate that this is an open public forum and everything posted here should be taken with the requisite grains of salt.

This being said, we would like to pose a question to you. If you so chose, you may respond to the e-mail address listed in our profile. It is a mailbox created to receive mail from our readers. We would share nothing without your consent. Or you could post here, but I can't see a lawyer doing that (in fact, we can't see a lawyer writing an e-mail to us. Mike Shakman never writes, but who knows? There's a first time for everything)

We understand that the recently promoted supervisors are having their pay raises withheld pending the approval of your office. This would seem to be decidedly UNFAIR to most of the 70% of promoted lieutenants who passed a recognized civil service examination. This would seem EXTREMELY JUSTIFIED in the cases of the 30% "merit" lieutenants and 100% "merit" captains. As you are no doubt aware, the city has never published its criteria for soliciting, judging and promoting "merit" selections. If they did, we are sure that many more supervisors would attempt to attain the required background in order to advance their careers. In order to strip the veil of secrecy surrounding "merit" processes, will you be sharing the criteria with the public and the Department at large? Or do we continue to operate in the darkness?

Please advise us as soon as possible. We know some of these lieutenants and they're good people. The ones who made it on their smarts don't deserve to be left hanging like this. Same thing with the upcoming Sergeants promotions. Don't leave them hanging. THAT ALONE would make trusting you easier. Otherwise, seeing you as a tool of the administration that has corrupted the advancement process becomes that much easier.

SCC

Aldercreatures just don't get it

Everyone knows that aldercreatures (or alderweasels if you prefer) are tiny men and women with big egos. They posture and preen as if they were on the national stage and attempt to one-up each another in seeing how far they can push the bounds of good taste, common sense, and constitutional law. And they make quite a bit of money doing this, which further inflates their egos and propels them to further heights of insanity. Cases in point:

• Aldermen plan to ban goose liver. What's up with this? Have we solved crime? Poverty? High local taxes? No? Then what are they doing even considering this? If rich people want to spend lots of money eating the filter organ from some bird that isn't even endangered, let them! Collect the sales tax and shut up about it. The city budget is $94 million dollars short so far and we for one are sick of getting tagged with the bill for their inability to control spending. All they are doing is driving the 100 or so people who eat this crap into the suburbs to buy it. The market will always be there, so take advantage of it.
• Touching on yesterday's Quick Hits, the Iraq pullout vote by the city council. What's the purpose of this? The city council doesn't set national policy. Never has, never will, thank god. This is merely a chance for the aldercreatures to get stroked by CNN or MSNBC or some similar national media. And since IL went for john kerry in the national election and the IL republican party is dead, why would Bush care what the city council thought? They've been stealing votes for democrats since the turn of the century anyway.
• And good ol' burton natarus; says the main reason traffic aides aren't getting respect is because they're short; says the old police style uniforms should be restored; says "If you want to know why we're having trouble with traffic, it's because police officers are not writing enough tickets. The Police Department wants to get out of the traffic business." Ah, burton. The aides are bitching because they can't get free stuff any more pretending to be the police. Not enough tickets - are you suggesting a QUOTA? It sure sounds like it. And the Police Department doesn't want out of the traffic business - the MAYOR DOES. Daley undercut the off-duty traffic control proposal the union put forth for special events because daley hates the police, doesn't want police making money, and police don't vote for him anyway. The department has been a drag on the political process since we stopped selling pencils on traffic stops. You want more police? HIRE THEM if you can get around the federal monitor. We're 1,000 short right now.

UPDATE: Good lord! We killed Burton! (actually, he's conscious at last report)

The folly of the "merit" system

Barring a last minute delay, merit packages for the Sergeants are due today. Hence, this post:

As we approach another promotional process (of which 30% will be "merit" picks), we'd like to open the floor to civil discourse regarding the methodology. We realize that no one in power is actually going to listen to us, but maybe someone from the FOP or some future boss with an eye toward reform might remember any decent or thoughtful suggestions that appear here.

It is our opinion that first and foremost, the test results should be published. It is paid for by taxpayer money and we are taxpayers. Secrecy benefits only those who have something to hide and the only people with something to hide are the "clout babies." The FOP should fight for this starting tomorrow. As we understand it in other departments, test scores are readily accessible for viewing AND everyone is told how far down the list they will promote ("we are going down to #475 on this list.") Everyone knows that #476 is out of luck and he probably gets to drink free for a year. Plus, he can start studying for the next one right away.

Secondly, the two part test format has to go; at least the parts where you have to wait for months to even see if you passed part 1 and the "clout babies" not even showing up for part 2. In these days of scan-tron answer sheets, you should walk out of the test site with your results in hand.

And no "challenge sessions." If the city spends $4,000,000 on a test, the answers should be chiseled IN STONE. None of this "massaging" or "manipulating" results to achieve a "better mix" of qualified people. Barack Obama is on record saying that the citizens of chicago deserve the "best qualified" plumbers, electricians and janitors - why not the best qualified detectives and bosses? Obviously, we can't go back to the "Oral Boards." WAAAAY to much political hanky panky went on there as bosses tipped off the "clout babies" about key words and phrases to say to get full marks while the #2 numeric score drops to #118 because he didn't say "banana split" during his interview. We won't even get into the "other oral boards" where someone would tie a knot in a cherry stem with their tongues to impress the brass.

More suggestions? Is there any way to guarantee that "merit" means merit? Any one from other departments outside of this state have info on how they do it? And none of the racial crap that has been popping up recently. Go get your own blog if you have to resort to that BS.

Fact or Fiction?

We noticed in the "Rumors" comments, "paladin" alleges that the newly promoted Lieutenants received a letter saying something along the lines that they wouldn't be paid D4 scale until their promotions had been reviewed by the Federal Monitor. Can anyone confirm or deny this? This sounds like a union issue and they damn well better make good on back wages. Anyone who made it on score ought to be exempt from this. The clout babies can wait for their raises - let them prove they earned it.

UPDATE: We recently received a confidential e-mail (which we have since deleted to avoid complications) that said, among other things, the recently promoted Captains are also NOT receiving their pay raises due to the city's repeated violations of the Shakman decree. The city has said (nothing on paper though) that they will issue retro checks for the salary withheld following mediator approval, but this seems to be a kick in the shorts. Oh well, the city that (sometimes) works strikes again. Frank? Fran? How about a little publicity? Or is this too anti-city for your high minded sensibilities?

Quick Hits for Tuesday

Commenting on the news you might have missed (A Fran Spielman Special edition):

• Traffic aides get no respect, especially since they have to wear new Traffic Management Authority uniforms. Fran Spielman with some hard hitting "Hired Truck" type reporting here.
• Aldercreatures, since it isn't their money, want to give the boy accused in the Ryan Harris murder $10 million dollars. One must wonder how many political contributions have been promised to these creatures in return for their public support. Spielman again.
  
• Spielman also writes the proposed "Traffic Stop Code of Conduct" is running into opposition from aldercreatures hesitant to tack more fines onto motorists stopped for traffic violations. Perhaps they should read the previous article and figure out where they're going to a spare $10 million?
• The city council is again set to embarrass itself nationally (tribune registration req) by voting for the "orderly and rapid" withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Actually, this could be a good thing if it focuses attention on the mayor and the continuing federal indictments of the most politically corrupt system in the US.(not Spielman)
  
• Chicago Police Officer John Hurley returned home for burial (not Spielman)
  

Publicity Blitz

We're sure everyone noticed the "SCC Flag" posted in the right hand column. We put it up 08 September and alluded to it being part of a wider publicity campaign.

Well, the campaign is underway.

This past weekend, mailed to every district rep and (almost) every unit rep, were THOUSANDS of these flags as palm cards. We're sure that our regular readers already have the site bookmarked so they don't have to remember it off the tops of their heads. But there are thousands of potential readers out there who have never seen our flyers or can't remember the website address if they have. Hopefully, these cards will serve as reminders for the site and they'll check it out later. If you see a pile of them around, be sure you point them out to your fellow officers. The more people that visit, the better the participation and the better the site gets.

Another peek at New Orleans

Another look at President Bush and former President Bush touring the New Orleans/Katrina disaster relief effort today:

SEE??!! Bush is catching food for those poor looters in the background - HE DOES CARE ABOUT THOSE POOR PEOPLE! As a side note, we really ought to sign up for that Department offered "Photoshop" course. We could do so much better than this. (Hat tip to WunderKraut.com for the pic.)

Checking the Stats

20,000 visitors! And we're within 700 page views of 100,000, which we ought to hit sometime tomorrow. Keep reading ladies and gents. We'll have a post up tomorrow telling everyone about our newest publicity generator. Combined with word of mouth by you the readers, we are shooting to have 1,000 visitors a day by the end of the year.

P.S. - Bush boy still owes us a party at his studio apartment for the 10,000th visitor. Perhaps Lefty or Shady would like to have the 20,000th visitor party? Or do you guys want to wait until 50,000? Your call.

UPDATE: Well, we underestimated the time it would take to hit 100,000 page views by a little bit. We hit the magic number before 9pm and haven't looked back since. Thanks again everyone.

A quick peek at New Orleans

Secret footage clandestinely obtained by "leftisthebest" and "shady" purportedly showing George Bush (or it could be Dick Cheney) ACTIVELY ENGAGED in sabotaging the levee system in the Big Easy! This ought to lead to impeachment hearings for sure!

Traffic Stop Statistical Study

We are pack rats. We save a lot of stuff, usually magazine and newspaper articles we think might be interesting a few years down the road. We go through it every so often and toss some stuff. The computer age makes this slightly easier as we can save thousands of articles and stuff electronically and finally reclaim our attic.

Case in point: today's sun-times article about racial profiling in 32 suburbs around Chicago. Searching our archives we find an AP article (published in the sun-times no less!) from 25 August 2005 stating that nationally, blacks, whites and hispanics are EQUALLY likely to get pulled over by the police. So, obviously, minorities get pulled over at higher rates where their population is more concentrated.

We've made the argument that the current "Traffic Stop Statistical Study" is nothing more than a witch hunt and only lends a veneer of credence to baseless charges of "racial profiling" when a white sergeant might stop (oh, let's just say) a black motorist/state senator for traffic violations. The "study" serves no point, provides flawed data for BS evaluations, and only gives race baiters and the cult of "victimhood" another stick with which to beat the police. Unless the study takes into consideration the (a) makeup of the police force, (b) the makeup of the neighborhood, (c) the address of the stopped motorists to see if they're from the hood or passing through, (d) the location of the stop [burglars like alleys ya know], (e),(f),(g), you see where we are going? There are too many variables to make any sort of viable finding of racial profiling based on this study - unless you're a reporter trying to make a name for yourself. HEY?! How come Frank and Fran didn't author this one?

Officer killed

Reports coming in of an off duty CPD officer killed in a motorcycle accident on the way back from a 9/11 remembrance memorial. We will update as information becomes available.

UPDATE: The officer has been identified to us, but until we get verification that his family and co-workers have been notified, we won't be posting anything. Please do the same.

UPDATE: Sorry for the delay, but anyone who has been through this process realizes it takes time. Officer John Hurley of the Special Operations Section was killed in a motorcycle accident today while on the way home from a 9/11 Memorial Remembrance. Reports are that he leaves behind a pregnant wife.

Rumors!

Let's see if we remember how to do this - it's been so long since we had a rumor worth publishing. Supposedly, three finalists have been submitted to the Hall this past Friday for the open Chief of Patrol spot. Expect an announcement this week. Any ideas who the three names are? Because that's where the rumor stops. Someone is doing a pretty good job of keeping it secret. We speculated aloud that our money was on Area 3 D/C Dugan. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Meeks unhappy

One wonders about rev. meeks refusing to pursue further action against the department in his little "incident." We mean, if racial profiling is such a HUGE problem in his community, you'd think he'd pursue it to the ends of the earth. If "Junebug" and "Shaniqua" and everyone else is getting stopped left and right by racist officers, this would seem like a sure winner of a case, maybe the stepping stone to a national platform. Unless it was all BS (ding ding ding!)

Though, in his own way, rev. meeks is pursuing action against the department by threatening to register another 200,000 (real live) voters in order to "change the system." Nothing like another completely useless layer of bureaucracy to make things run more efficiently, eh? OPS is run by civilians and is the second most incompetent investigatory arm of the department. The police board is staffed by civilians appointed by the mayor and sometimes will surprise watchers with intelligent decisions. It seems like the exact thing we need is ANOTHER group of political hacks looking over our shoulders while we do police work. Pretty soon, you'll have to have a law degree AND a degree in social services to even get hired.

Fingers, Tiger Urine, Readiness, Viking jobs

Four things we never thought we'd see together in a Quick Hits headline!

• Remember the finger in the Wendy's chili story? Looks like the perps are pleading guilty to Conspiracy and Attempted Grand Theft. No word on how Wendy's civil suit is proceeding against these two brainiacs. We don't think Wendy's will realize countless millions in damages, but you never know.
• Mmmmm, nothing like tiger meat stir fry to get the juices flowing! What was that? How do you say "carne de burro" in chinese? Marinated in ... ooookay. Now we know where those stories get started.
• The mayor says Chicago is prepared for a terrorist attack or natural disaster should it occur on his watch. No word on man made scandals currently rocking city government, but insiders are said to have standing orders that should a breach "unexpectedly" occur in the tunnel system again on or about October 1st, they are to empty EVERY SINGLE SCRAP OF PAPER from their offices into nearby "Hired Trucks" which will dump the load into the river to plug the hole.
• The mayor also said in the same interview that perhaps the Federal government should hire displaced New Orleans residents in a WPA type job where they could earn money cleaning up the city. "I don't think these people want public aid. These people want a job" Other job offers are pouring in from the Scandinavian government, which is looking to reestablish a presence on the Atlantic seaboard and are looking for "looters and pillagers. Experience a must. Pointy hats provided to applicants"
  

Some sort of sick joke?

The winning design for the Flight 93 memorial has been chosen:

















Call us just a little confused, but who the hell chose this as the winning design? Better yet, what raving lunatic DESIGNED this atrocity? Can you see what we mean? Let's change the perspective a little bit - 180 degrees

















Can you see it now? How about another visual clue?














Coincidence? We think not. The title? "Crescent of Embrace." They even have a grove of trees right where the star would be. We thought memorials were supposed to honor the dead, not piss on their graves by glorifying their killers. The Left strikes again. Initial reports say the designer is an avowed communist and professor at USC - we think we assumed that was the case.

Links to the controversy at Michelle Malkin; Little Green Footballs; ZombieTime among others.

A few cosmetic changes

You may have noticed a couple changes to the blog this week. Let us just point out a few of our features and comment on them:

• The SCC Flag graphic - Pretty cool, eh? We (and we mean WE) spent quite a bit of time on it, playing with different design styles and graphics and such. And we (again WE) spent a bit of time deciding how and where to put it up on the site and stuff like that. And we (WE) also have made this the cornerstone of a new publicity campaign rolling out soon to a location near you! Look for it.
• E-mail link - At the bottom of each post, there is a small envelope icon. Click on it and your browser SHOULD open up an e-mail form with a link already embedded into it. You just address it and send it to whomever you wish. It's a nifty little publicity generator for us, and a convenient way for you to send a post you find particularly interesting to your friends ... or to IAD ... or Frank, Fran, Mr. Shakman, or any of our other celebrity readers.

We recently received a request from a reader asking if there was a way to invert the comments section (i.e. newest at the top) so they didn't have to page through 100 posts to find the new ones since their last visit. We looked into it and, unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be how blogs work. We surf dozens of blogs a day (sometimes a lot more) and every bit of blogging software out there seems to archive comments the same way. We understand that it might be easier to read for frequent visitors, and we actually liked the old SCCN version where every response generated an indented reply, but we work with what we have. Sorry. If we ever upgrade, we'll keep it in mind.

About this time next week, we ought to have passed 20,000 visits and 100,000 page views. Thank you. Remember, YOU THE READER and YOU THE COMMENTATOR are what makes this site work. Otherwise, we're just burning up electrons in the great internet void. Thanks again.