[OccupyCU] Fw: Mike Klonsky: Sun-Times tells Karen Lewis to "tone it down".

[David Johnson]

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog



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From: arlene gloria hirsch <arlenegloria at sbcglobal.net>
To: Core Riseup <core at lists.riseup.net>; Chicago Teachers Solidarity Commitee <chicago-teachers-solidarity-commitee at googlegroups.com> 
Sent: Thursday, May 8, 2014 2:07 AM
Subject: Mike Klonsky: Sun-Times tells Karen Lewis to "tone it down".

On Wednesday, May 7, 2014 11:02 PM, Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog <noreply at blogger.com> wrote:

      SmallTalk   
      Sun-Times tells Karen Lewis to "tone it down". 
      Posted: 07 May 2014 07:49 PM PDT
      In the eyes of the Sun-Times editorial board, CTU Pres. Karen Lewis has gotten too uppity and disrespectful for Rahm's Chicagoland Plantation. In yesterday's editorial, the board told Lewis in no uncertain terms, as only a parent could scold a child, to "tone down your rhetoric." Problem is, Karen Lewis is a grown woman.What nerve she has, an African-American, female school teacher, marching right in to the Billionaire Boys and Girls Club, otherwise known as the City Club and calling for a “LaSalle Street Tax.” Doesn't she know that the wealthy traders who gamble daily at the Merc will blow their tops and flee the city if their pot is raked by a half-penny tax of every trade? It's certain that they'll all pack up their North Shore abodes and set up shop in umm err...DuBuque? And it will all be Lewis' faultNot only that. They say Lewis used unseemly language, insinuating that the corporations are motivated by greed. The board gives Lewis permission to say some things...
        Go after their policies. Go after the way money can buy influence. But to go after their motives, to suggest they’re mere greedy billionaires looking to make another buck, isn’t helpful. 
      No Karen, warns the board. It's not helpful, especially to the Mayor, who obviously feels threatened because you wouldn't even agree to extend the contract a year past its expiration date to help him through a non-confrontational election. And who but Karen would ever suggest that the giant corporations and billionaires like Rauner, Pritzker and Griffin are motivated by greed. Why that's absurd. Isn't it?We're all waiting anxiously to see what happens if Karen  doesn't obey the Sun-Times' admonition. Will she be grounded? Allowance cut? What? 
      Standing room only for Karen Lewis at the Hideout 
      Posted: 07 May 2014 06:43 AM PDT
           
            The Hideout 
      Last night was political junkies' standing-room-only night at the Hideout. CTU President Karen Jennings Lewis was on stage, being interviewed by Reader writers Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke. What a step up from last month's show when former Ald. Dick (aptly-named) Mell hijacked the conversation and left me double-tasting my beer.Lewis had just come off her roof-raising speech at the den of inequity they call the City Club, where she tore the mayor a new rear end. That's not hard to do these days when all you've got to do for fresh material is pick up the Sun-Times, DNAinfo, the Trib or turn on WBEZ. Yesterday it was about Rahm's limo speeding through red lights in school zones (was he flipping the bird out the window to passersby?). Or was it his snub of Whitney Young's Lady Dolphins? Using $60 million in TIF funds (Joravsky's favorite topic) to open another selective-enrollment high school (Barack Obama College Prep) for his Lincoln Park base? Or maybe the resignation of his deputy comptroller hired by Rahm's former money man and convict on-the-lam, Amer Ahmad.Or you could have just settled for another Tribune Rahm is an arrogant asshole story.
        Emanuel has stretched the continuum in opposite directions. His arrogance is oversized for the record he has amassed. He's beyond bossy. He's a walking personality disorder. But his audacity exceeds his accomplishments. That's a dangerous combination.
           
            Could he beat Rahm? 
      We need to throw a pity party for the army of Rahm flacks who have the 24-7 job of damage control. Even another round of Chicagoland won't do the job. Not when every driver in Chicago (especially me) is yelling "F*CK YOU RAHM!" as hub caps fall off and axles crack as they bound over another unfilled pot hole. I wish I had a piece of Pep Boys' action.All this and more led to Karen's best line of the night. After being asked about the prospects for the 2015 election and assessing the chances of Preckwinkle (She would mop the floor with Rahm) or Fioretti (Has a more difficult challenge but could also win), Karen cracked: "Bozo the clown could beat Rahm!"She's right.  Problem is, Bozo hasn't announced yet. I think he's waiting until after the November election. 
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