Rauner's apology violated first two rules of a public apology

Gov. Bruce Rauner is quite rightly embarrassed his email calling half of Chicago teachers "virtually illiterate" and half of Chicago principles "incompetent" became public. His apology, if it can even be called that, exacerbates the utter tone deafness and insensitivity of his comments, violating two cardinal rules of a valid apology. First he apologized through a subordinate, Lance Trover. It's unacceptable for the transgressor to hide while a paid assistant is forced to release an apology. Second, the apology began with an excuse for the insult of dedicated educational professionals, stating "Significant change can be frustratingly slow; this is especially true in public education. Many of us, at one time or another, have sent hastily crafted emails containing inaccurate or intemperate statements, This particular email was sent out of frustration at the pace of change in our public school system." This rendered the actual apology which followed meaningless.

One thing about failed apologies. They can be corrected. The governor needs to call in reporters and say something like: "My remarks insulting Chicago teachers and principals were insensitive, insulting and wrong. I apologize for them."

Sixteen words, Governor; less than 16 seconds. Then get back to work crafting a socially responsible budget without pre-conditions busting unions, degrading middle class pay for state workers, and cutting desperately needed social services keeping the needy afloat.

North Carolina slices off nose to save face

The North Carolina visage is missing its most prominent feature today after refusing to rescind the state's anti transgender bathroom bill, HB 2. In response the NBA pulled the 2017 All Star Game from Charlotte, home of His Airness's Hornets, saying:
"While we recognize the NBA cannot choose the law in every city, state and country in which we do business, we do not believe we can do host our All Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by the current law."

North Carolina Pat McCrory, officiating at the nose slicing ceremony after conservative legislators refused to overturn their transgederphobic law, proclaimed:
"The sports and entertainment elite misrepresented our law and maligned the people of North Carolina simply because most (NC) people believe boys and girls should be able to use bathrooms, lockers and showers without the opposite sex present."

The economic impact of this most recent cash cow to mosey out of North Carolina has reached a staggering $100 million. Yet, not a single incidence of wrongdoing by a transgender, or someone masquerading as a transgender, to gain access to a girls bathroom to commit mayhem, was ever offered to justify such an economically devastating and self humiliating legislative action.

Besides its nose, decent folks in North Carolina are still on the search for the state brain.

Memo to Melania

We know Michelle Obama. You Melania, are no Michelle Obama.

911: looks like Saudi's did it

It took 14 years but we finally got the 28 pages from the House Senate Joint Inquiry on the 911 Attacks regarding Saudi Arabia's likely involvement in those attacks. No other country; not Iraq, not Iran, not Afghanistan, not Syria got anywhere near the scrutiny Saudi Arabia did. Yet, the only portion of the Report kept secret from the public were these damning 28 pages, that many, especially families of the 911 victims have been demanding to know the truth.

The Bush administration didn't want an investigation in the first place and worked mightily to prevent any scrutiny of Saudi Arabia, from which 15 of the 19 hijackers originated. But the 28 pages reveal numerous connections between the Saudi government and the hijackers, none of which prompted the Joint Inquiry to declare Saudi Arabia's involvement. Nor was there any significant follow up of the leads revealed. Can you imagine if the Bush administration had a single valid morsel of Iraqi involvement, they'd have followed it to the end of the earth. Since they didn't they just made stuff up about Iraq, resulting in hundreds of thousands, including 4,500 GI's, pushing up daisies.

The 28 pages not only contain connections between the Saudi government and the hijackers, they omit any reference to a significant contact revealed by recently declassified FBI and CIA reports. They report that Fahad Thumairy, a Saudi consulate official, brought Khallad bin Attash, a known al Qaeda operative, into the US in June, 2000, so he could meet with Khalid al mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi, two of the 911 hijackers. The Saudi consulate official was able to escort bin Attash through INS and Customs at LAX, likely deflecting otherwise certain scrutiny.

Back in 2001, Saudi Arabia was a valued supplier of oil, huge buyer of US military hardware, and tight friends of the Bush family. Sure was a lot easier to use the 911 attacks to take out Afghanistan, Iraq, and then after being greeted as liberators, taking out Syria and Iran to complete the Middle East Grand Slam. And 15 years later, no matter how many heads the Saudi's chop off to keep domestic peace, America is still buying their oil, selling them many billions in munitions, and touting their loyalty as an ally.

With allies like Saudi Arabia, we don't need enemies.

Cops vs. criminals no zero sum game

To some folks I've dialogued with, the issue of cops versus criminals is  a zero sum game. Any criticism of the police as a group detracts from good law enforcement which protects all us law abiding folks. One even claimed the shooting of Laquan McDonald started out as a 'good' shooting that went wrong only because the officer kept shooting after McDonald was motionless, setting off civil unrest. In his world view excessive   police force on either innocent citizens or non life-threatening offenders doesn't exist.  

That mindset needs to change. Cops versus criminals is not a zero sum game. As we've learned from Chicago's half billion dollar excessive force settlements in the past decade, most of that dough was coughed up by a tiny slice of Chicago's 12,000 finest. Retrain or remove such cops and not only will our disappearing treasury stabilize, public trust of the police will increase, and less citizens will be unnecessarily harmed, or even killed.

We should treat the small percentage of unfit cops like we treat the small percentage of unfit surgeons: we prevent them from operating. We should no more allow an unfit cop to protect our safety than we would allow an unfit surgeon to operate on a loved one. There is one big difference: the good doctors don't depend on the unfit ones to protect their hide on the street. The 'blue code' is not designed to protect the public; it's designed to protect the partners and colleagues of the bad cops who have their back. While understandable, it is not acceptable in  our fractured, assault weapon soaked society. Every segment of society, especially including the vast majority of good police, must work together to weed out the unfit so the vast majority can do effective police work to protect us all. 

Trib's Pence editorial confuses 'principled conservatism' with mendacious politics

Anytime a right wing organization wants to praise the loony, misguided or even hateful policies of a favored politician, they tab him a 'principled conservative'. That theme was on full display in the Chicago Tribune's bizarre piece "Mike Pence a far better candidate than Donald Trump". That title itself is a masterful example of damning with faint praise as Trump represents a hideous political cocktail of racism, xenophobia, misogyny, compulsive lying and vicious personal attacks presenting a bar lower than Hell to exceed.

But Mike Pence flies over that bar because he's a "principled conservative who understands and shares his party ideals... has congressional and legislative experience...and is a disciplined communicator who exhibits a mature temperament befitting his self description as 'Rush Limbaugh on decaf."

Missing from the Trib's glowing endorsement is that Pence failed to pass a single one of the 90 bills he introduced in his 12 year congressional stint. Back in 1997, Pence laid claim to being the last public servant shilling for Big Tobacco when he said "Smoking doesn't kill." The Trib lauds his executive experience as Indiana governor in spite his his misguided and hateful support for an anti LGBT bill which created a firestorm of criticism and $60 million in lost revenue from protesting business. Religious fanatic Pence's opposition to women's reproductive freedom is so extreme that restrictive anti abortion bills weren't enough. He proudly said the fight to defund Planned Parenthood was worth a government shutdown.

If Trump's mendacity is not enough faint praise to lavish on Pence, The Trib Editorial Board is thrilled that compared to Sarah Palin, possibly the worst vice presidential pick in history, Pence actually looks presidential.

America doesn't need Rush Limbaugh on caffeine. Nor do we need, indeed diverse, Mike Pence's version on decaf.

Roskam, Hultgren chief Trump lipstick appliers

The wise adage 'If you apply lipstick to a pig...it's still a pig' surely applies to the Illinois congressmen Peter Roskam (IL-6) and Randy Hultgren (IL-14) efforts to legitimize unfit presidential candidate Donald Trump. Both have offered tepid endorsements of Trump that require applying more lipstick than can be produced by a Max Factor factory. Roskam is unintentionally hilarious when he boils down his support to making the election a referendum on Hillary Clinton and pondering Trump's challenge of 'communicating' to voters their bright future under a Trump presidency. Roskam never utters the 'will vote for Trump' words his Sixth District Trump fanatics are clamoring for. Hultgren goes a tad further saying he'll "support the Republican nominee" likening Trump to Oscar Wilde's transgression 'the love that dare not speak its name.'

Actually, pigs throughout America are horrified to be compared in any way with The Donald. Rather than applying lipstick to a pig, Roskam and Hultgren are applying respectability to a racist, xenophobe, misogynist, insulter of the disabled, and champion of torture and killing suspected terrorists without due process.