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Past Posts

Send Tom to the 2011 SXSW Conference!

Profiles in Failure – Opportunity for Reform

The Chicago Tribune is very frustrated with our state leaders. We in the Illinois Green party share their point of view. We offer the voters of Illinois a simple remedy for the giant piece of hardware that the state leaders have stuck us with. Vote for Rich Whitney and other Green Party candidates in November. Read [...]

Illinois is a deadbeat says Illinois Issues – Time for a change?

In the March issue of “Illinois Issues” editor Dana Huepel bemoans the miserable state of Illinois’ finances and politics:

Shouldn’t the collection of lawyers, business owners, insurance agents and other well-educated professionals who pose as our elected representatives be able to figure out that not paying your bills — creating havoc and untold harm for constituents who [...]

Green Party Condemns "Democratic Machine Protection Act"

On February 23, Democrats advanced Illinois House Bill 6000, which would limit potential challengers in future aldermanic elections in Chicago.  The bill significantly raises signature requirements in every ward, and also gives well-financed, entrenched aldermen a new way to get opponents thrown off the ballot.

Here’s what the Chicago Tribune said in a February 25 editorial:

Here’s a [...]

Madigan Rules Illinois, Supreme Court Hands Rest of U.S. To Corporations

Illinois, are you ready to vote Green? The Chicago Tribune today ran a front page investigation of Illinois Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan headlined “The Madigan Rules” which shows how he abuses his office to benefit his law firm’s clients.

In a first-of-its-kind examination, the Tribune found these two careers repeatedly intersect, and in some cases Madigan [...]

Cook County Schools Chief Arrested, State's Attorney "Shocked"

At the Health Care Forum organized by Illinois Citizen Action and the Emergency Coalition to Save Cook County Health Services, I charged President Stroger and the Daley-Madigan Machine with running Cook County government like a private ATM, dispensing cash, jobs and contracts tofriends, family and cronies. President Stroger was aggrieved and denied there was any corruption [...]

Tribune Advises Voters “Don’t be a sap” – We Agree

For real change, vote Green in 2010.

From today’s Chicago Tribune editorial…

“Half-measures will not suffice to repair our State’s troubled (governing) infrastructure or our citizens’ broken confidence. … Past reform efforts have met with forces just as destructive as self-interest or corruption: apathy, inertia and cynicism.”

— Illinois Reform Commission

To this sorry trio of failures [...]

Examiner Urges Voters To "Throw the Bums Out"

It keeps getting hotter and hotter until you're cooked!

The Cook County Political Buzz Examiner, Kelli Kobor, wonders when Chicagoans will get mad enough to fire Da Machine.

There is no way to put this delicately, so I won’t even try.  Chicago, you are like the proverbial frog in the pan of water that is slowly heated [...]

Make A New Year's Resolution - Fire Da Machine in 2010!

Carol Marin gives us yet more reasons to boot Da machine from its century-long grip on local government. In a story headlined “Political brawl brewing on Southwest Side,” she reports on the challenges to two Machine stalwarts, Cook County Commissioner Joseph Moreno (7th District) and State Representative Dan Burke (23rd District) the influence of Speaker Madigan [...]

Tom Interviewed On Subject Of Corruption

Mike Volpe, the intrepid online political commentator for The Provacateur, interviewed me the other day about the connections between corruption in the city of Chicago and the county of Cook.

He writes:

“I first met up with Tom Tresser when I went to my first Olympics town hall event in the summer. Tresser lead the citizen activist group, [...]

Two County Patronage Workers = $230,000/Year! How Many More?

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Stroger fires two linked to Mike Madigan

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger was sending a message to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan when he recently fired two of Madigan’s top political operatives from their high-paying county jobs, county sources said.

Madigan, like Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, has not made an endorsement in [...]