June 19--The comment salon at Change of Subject online has been aflame over the standoff in Springfield.
IronMike100 writes: "Democrats can pass any spending and tax bill they want. So why don't they? Because they know it will be political suicide, especially for suburban and downstate Democrats."
He makes a good point. The Democrats hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly and, assuming some decent party discipline, could have preserved or implemented tax rates and expansions to fund their spending priorities while balancing the budget.
But House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton want Republican votes on budget deals in order to blunt the inevitable partisan attacks. That may be good political gamesmanship, but it lacks the courage of convictions.
Tom0942 writes: "Every time there is talk of a government shutdown, liberals wring their hands because what really happens is that nobody ever notices that anything is different, and the public starts to figure out that government is too big and needs to be pared down."
Liberals wring their hands because they know the first people to feel the pain of a government slowdown (essential health and safety services never actually shut down) are the already disadvantaged. And they know that as slowdowns drag on, they increasingly and disproportionately hurt middle- and lower-income earners in the private as well as public sectors.
Me, I love the idea of eliminating wasteful government spending, and to the extent that Gov. Bruce Rauner works to find it and surgically remove it, I'm 100 percent with him. The problem, however, seems to be that identifying significant waste and bloat is quite a bit harder than the slogans suggest, especially now that much of the easy cutting has been done. I keep waiting for readers to help, since the governor can't seem to find more than a few modest cuts that don't create real problems.
JROppenheimer writes: "Rauner is agreeing to increasing revenue if the Democrats give him some structural changes that are critical to turning Illinois' finances around. Clearly Rauner is willing to compromise; I have seen nothing but the usual 'dig in your heels' rhetoric from the Democrats."
Clearly our political leaders are locked in a battle to see who can appear most reasonable and most caring. Also clearly, many of you see Rauner's offer -- "give me the union-weakening laws I demand and I'll sign off on some tax hikes everyone knows are necessary so we don't have a draconian budget" -- as a compromise position. I don't.
Headculies55 writes: "Comrade Eric Zorn is in his Communist mode where socialism solves all of society's problems."
Thanks to all -- or most -- for taking the time to write.
Small gain, small setback for Simon
Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas Byrne wrote yet another chapter in the ongoing saga of Alstory Simon, Anthony Porter and Northwestern University with a 15-page ruling released Thursday that contained good news and bad news for Simon.
The good news was that Byrne, ruling on Simon's request for a certificate of innocence, concluded that Simon was not guilty of the 1982 double homicide to which he repeatedly and earnestly pleaded guilty in 1999. Also good news for Simon was that Byrne swallowed whole his rococo tale of coercion, bribery and conspiracy -- in which he was the patsy in an evil plot hatched by Northwestern University journalism professor David Protess to abolish the death penalty by framing an innocent man.
Without even so much as an "allegedly" or "claims," Byrne, who did not hear from any doubters during the recent proceedings, credulously presented Simon's disputed version of events: That he falsely admitted on TV and in open court to committing the murders because he thought he was going to get rich off the celebrated exoneration of former Death Row inmate Porter, who had earlier been convicted of the same murders.
The bad news for Simon was that Byrne also concluded that Simon didn't deserve the certificate of innocence he needs to receive financial compensation from the state.
The reason? Byrne wrote that Simon "actively participated" in the scam "in hopes of a quid pro quo that involved immunity for a murder case in Wisconsin and promises he would receive a large sum of money upon his timely release from prison. ... He lost that gamble."
The finding that he's a hapless con man won't help Simon in his pending lawsuits against Northwestern, Protess and others.
If you're interested in this never-ending case, mark your calendar for the evening of July 11. Following a 7:30 p.m. screening of the new pro-Simon documentary "A Murder in the Park" at the downtown Gene Siskel Film Center, I'll be participating in what should be a very rambunctious panel discussion.
Participants and I will examine the role in this case of the media and advocates for the falsely accused, who will be represented by Rob Warden, former director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern's law school.
D'oh!
A clever new tool at Time.com uses baby-name popularity charts through history to tell you what your name would have been if you'd been born in a different year but your parents had chosen an equally popular name.
For instance, an "Eric" born in 1958 would have been "Homer" at the turn of the last century, "Charles" in 2014.
For literally minutes of fun, check out this link: http://ti.me/1FkwoEV.
On the download
"The Gist" from Slate offers a taste of what radio will be like when podcasting reaches critical mass. For about half an hour every afternoon, host Mike Pesca, an irreverent motormouth with roots in NPR, cracks wise on current events, interviews often timely guests and drifts into comedic bits such as his recent riff on what an all-sports radio station would sound like if it were devoted to the discussion of children's toys.
I haven't skipped even one since it debuted more than a year ago.
Re: Tweets
I enjoy the lacerating satire of "Mrs. Betty Bowers," the fictional, name-dropping evangelical known for bragging of her intimacy with the divine.
"I'm so close to Jesus, he uses my birthday when he plays Lotto," for instance. Or, "I'm so close to Jesus, we bought investment property together."
Last week, a tweet from @BettyBowers (ghostwritten by Andrew Bradley) picked up on this theme: "I'm so close to Jesus, the rest of the Trinity calls me 'Yoko' behind my back" -- and made the list of 10 finalists for Tweet of the Week at Change of Subject online.
"Please vote for me for Jesus' sake!," Bradley then tweeted to his more than 21,000 followers. "I was created in His image. So if I don't look good, HE doesn't look good!"
The appeal succeeded. @BettyBowers won with 60 percent of the vote.
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Read the losers and comment on this column at chicagotribune.com/zorn.
