The Chicago Way

Al Capone

Today on talk radio Mark Styne used the term “The Chicago Way” to describe the tactic that David Plouffe, a “political adviser” of President Obama, is using to smear the Republican head of the House Oversight Committee, Darrell Issa (see: Huffington Post Story).  Plouffe zinged Issa on Twitter as “Mr. Grand Theft” and “Insurance Swindler,” referring to 30 and 40 year old possible blots on Issa’s record.  No matter that these charges were not legally pursued in either case, clearly these libels are meant to blunt Issa’s attempt to get to the bottom of the numerous Obama scandals … shades of Bill Clinton’s response to his many dishonors (particularly his vicious and press-abetted smears on the Special Prosecutor, Ken Starr.)

We see the Windy City Way repeated over and over again in the career of the President … often spearheaded by his consigliore, David Axelrod.  First, when Obama ran for the Illinois Senate and then later for the U.S. Senate … for the sordid details in both cases see: US Politics Story.  Even, lily-pure Mitt Romney was besmirched last year as best as could be done … in that he “murdered” the wife of one of his employees … and he tortured his dog on the top of his car.  Now, under the aegis of our President, the Obama administration has been exposed for more Al Capone-type thuggery, but on a far far grander scale … in the IRS’s targeted suppression of conservative groups and the sordid and far-ranging Justice Department wire-tapping of AP and Fox News reporters.  Representative Issa now has the unenviable task of getting to the bottom of these political outrages.

How could anyone be surprised by these Chi-Town methods ... really?

Afterward: See also: Breitbart Story for a more complete explanation of the charges against Issa.

Duncan Donuts

Arne Duncan, our overly-lauded Secretary of Education, has requested that the educational standards that were put in place with "No Child Left Behind" now be left behind in all of our 50 (or is it 57?) states (see The Department of Non-Education).  This is after hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money have been lavished on the Department of Education since 2009 ... including even on a SWAT team that is specific to this department (Arne's Army?).  If you don't believe me on this, please read Mark Styne's comments on this ridiculously spendthrift item ... Swat the SWAT Team.  Even The Barry's 2009 economic stimulus program allocated $100 billion to America's educational lushness (see Government Numbers).

Lest you forget, our Department of Education educates not one child.  All it does is create layers after layers of bureaucratic fluff that mollifies liberals into believing that we are serious about fixing our flawed educational system.  And this is despite the fact that we already are spending more money on educating our children that any other country ... and keep getting sub-par results (see: Spending and Results).  Perhaps the lesson of Atlanta (see: Atlanta Scandal ) should be taken seriously ... effective education cannot be a top-down process.  We must first re-learn how to teach our children and this is not a function of spending more money.  It may well require that we sweep out many of the educational administrators and focus instead on how we teach our teachers (the "what" they teach much more than the "how" they teach) ... and burn everything that Albert Shanker, the former head of the American Federation of Teachers, ever wrote.

Afterward: The reason I say this spiteful thing is that Albert Shanker, past president of the American Federation of Teachers (now deceased),  was once asked why he didn't pay more attention to the slipping educational results for our children. His response was, in effect, "When they start paying union dues." Yuck!!