THE LONGEST DAY

In his speech from Afghanistan May 1, President Obama said we will not be militarily involved there one day longer than necessary. Since we should never have spent one single day in Afghanistan, we have, as of today, been there 3,862 days longer than necessary. Funny, I can still remember LBJ announcing we wouldn't be in Vietnam one day longer than necessary, and forty years later, President George W. Bush boasting we wouldn't be in Iraq one day longer than necessary. Apparently, for US Presidents, a single day can last forever.


Originally published in the Chicago Sun Times, May 5, 2012

SIZE MATTERS

Folks sometimes ask this relatively affluent person why I'm not a Republican. Answer: my bankroll might be large enough...but my heart is not small enough.

Originally published in the Chicago Tribune online, May 2, 2012

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

It was refreshing, indeed, that it took only one single day for DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin to begin cleaning house in the ethically and operationally challenged DuPage County Election Commission, after accounting firm Crowe Horwath LLC's investigation was published Tuesday.

Alas, a number of good, civic minded DuPage residents have doggedly spent over a thousand days providing DuPage public officials and local media with essentially the same information publically revealed this week. Previously uncovered corruption and mis-management in county housing and water agencies, and quite possibly the DuPage County Forest Preserve Commission tells us that these kind of shenanigans flourish when elected officials and the Fourth Estate fail to pay attention to these unpaid and unsung heroes of good local government. We all owe them our thanks.

Originally published at http://www.dupagepagedemocrats.com/, April 28,2012