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* Purchase tickets here for the December 16th performance of “No-El, Or How the Blagojegrinch Stole Christmas” - Our Capitol Fax holiday party

* Sun-Times Editorial: Sharpton’s anti-Chicago Olympic sentiment could backfire

So Sharpton is willing to jeopardize the economic benefits that the Olympics could bring to the African-American community, the same people most victimized by police brutality? His demands expose the New Yorker as having a singular, narrow focus, one that ignores recent Chicago Police reforms.

* Tribune seeks access to state police files of Blago fundraising probe

* Aaron Chambers: Attorney General put in a tight spot

* Tribune Editorial: How to avoid Stroger’s taxes

All through 2007, Stroger’s allies didn’t hold him to his “solemn oath.” Many of them figured budgeting for 2008 would be like the good old days: They’d harrumph and whine about how impossible it is to cut Stroger’s $3 billion-plus budget — and in the end they’d get their way.

Maybe they will. But county government has been inexorably approaching this bitter showdown for several years.

* Zorn: City torture payoff reeks of bad message

Hobley, who had no previous criminal record and was employed as a medical technician at the time of the fatal fire, became one of the cause celebres in the local campaign against capital punishment. When former Gov. George Ryan commuted every death sentence in Illinois in early 2003, Hobley was one of four inmates to whom Ryan granted a full pardon and immediate release.

If the U.S. attorney’s office is able to revive the case and convict Hobley on federal charges related to the same crime, Feuer said that Hobley’s damage claims against the city would be far weaker and his cash settlement from a civil jury would be far smaller.

* Over 200 CPS teachers certified as ‘masters’; more here

More than 200 Chicago Public Schools teachers were certified as “master teachers” in 2007, the second-highest total of any school district in the country this year, Mayor Daley said today.

Certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is the highest credential an educator can earn.

With 208 “master teachers” this year and 860 total, Daley’s goal of having 1,200 of the most qualified teachers by the end of next year is well within reach.

* More farmers seeing wind as cash crop

* Do state troopers get enough training?

* War Room: “Oh Dana’

At a White House press briefing on Oct. 26, a reporter asked [UIS Public Affairs Reporting grad] Dana Perino about Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that a U.S. plan to base parts of a missile shield in Europe was similar to the events that led to the Cuban missile crisis.

Perino’s response: “Well, I think that the historical comparison is not — does not exactly work. What I can say is what President Putin went on to say, which is that the president and President Putin have said that we can work together on this.” […]

Appearing on NPR’s “Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me” over the weekend, Perino said she “panicked” when she got the Cuban missile crisis question because she wasn’t exactly sure what the Cuban missile crisis was. “I really know nothing about the Cuban missile crisis,” Perino said. “It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I’m pretty sure.”

Perino said she went home that night and asked her husband, “‘Wasn’t that, like, the Bay of Pigs thing?’ And he said, ‘Oh, Dana.’”

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 9:42 am

Comments

So those of you who knew Dana way back when…. Is she that ignorant of recent history or is she just pretending to be? And, please, age is not an excuse for not knowing about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Comment by Stuck with Sen. CPA Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 9:51 am
I watched Dana attempt to handle questions about the impending CIA tapes inquiry the other day and it was like she was in some kind of haze. WH Press Secretary is about the hottest seat in the political world but c’mon. On the plus side at least I didnt have to look at that arrogant bald jerk Ari Flischer.

Comment by bridgeport bombtrhower Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 9:52 am
That last item messed up. There was a film about that too recently. Oh Dana!

Comment by Levois Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 9:53 am
the olympics bringing economic benefits to the african american community???? what might those be??? low income housing for them once the olympic village clears out??
please. daley on the news last night was even funnier. i am quoting from memory here, “these are the olympics. they are not tied to any other issue. they stand alone from all the local political and economic squables. look at china they are having the olympics. is anybody doing anything about china trying to hold the olympics???”
the monumental ignorance of this statement is astouding. 1) yes, the olympics are going to be tied to every issue here in chicago. companies will get what they want from the city in return for cutting checks for the olympics.
2) people are trying to use the olympics in china as leverage over china’s support of the government of sudan and by extension the conflict in darfur.
sad.

Comment by b-dogg Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 9:58 am
Rich the Salon link, salon uses a cookie which if you back arrow it cancels the back arrow and redirects back to their site.

That said, I do not know which is worse, that our schools produced an adult who has never heard of the cuban missle crisis, or that such a person is at the white house and invovled in politics!!

Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 9:59 am
[…] December 11, 2007 in Media, President George W. Bush, Republicans by robnesvacil Salon’s War Room reports on White House spokesperson Dana Perino being apparently little more than a bobblehead… Rich Miller adds a little extra identifying info that leaves me embarrassed for UIUC’s sister school to the southwest. At a White House press briefing on Oct. 26, a reporter asked [UIS Public Affairs Reporting grad] Dana Perino about Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that a U.S. plan to base parts of a missile shield in Europe was similar to the events that led to the Cuban missile crisis. […]

Pingback by Sad Day for U of I schools « Illinois Reason Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 10:07 am
It’s hard to understand how anyone involved in politica and public affairs would nor know about the seminal event in the Cold War which had the greatest Big Bang potential.

Putin’s analogy is essentially correct. I think he has a legitimate concern. We shouldn’t be installing missiles in his back yard - we already have sufficient alternative nuclear deterrent capabilty.

Comment by Captain America Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 10:09 am
Cut Dana some slack. Bush probably never heard of the Cuban Missle Crisis either.

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 10:11 am
” … and I think the Cold War was when we had a bunch of troops at the Bulge without enough winter clothes, but we beat those Russians anyway, so Cuban missiles shouldn’t be much to worry about …”

“Later, a well-intentioned by naive Jimmy Carter continued the missile crisis by encouraging Castro to put his prison inmates and mental patients into warheads and firing them at Miami. Just as we did then, we shall now prevail.”

“Oh, and 2 + 2 DOES equal 22!”

Sheesh, is that pathetic!

Comment by Snidely Whiplash Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 10:23 am
(but naive, that is)

Comment by Snidely Whiplash Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 10:25 am
“Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!”

Comment by Anon from BB Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 11:00 am
Come on, guys. I went to school in the 70’s and 80’s in central IL. Our history text books were so old, they barely included Korea and certainly not Viet Nam or any events of the 60’s. Had I not read material or watched documentaries on my own, I would also not know about these events as my college history was pretty much ancient and rennaissance history.

Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 11:29 am
Cuba? I thought he was an actor…You know…”Show me the money!”

Comment by Pot calling kettle Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 12:12 pm
She may be dumb, but she’s pretty hot.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 12:22 pm
Anon,
That is, after all, what’s important!

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 12:37 pm
it could have been worse, she could be discussing water boarding….”oh I think playing in the ocean and surfing are lots of fun, so we support water boarding…”

Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 12:41 pm