The Bankrupt Leading the Bankrupt

So I again watched Morning Joe, I know, I know. He was very full of himself today. He'd been on Meet the Press, which hasn't involved a political figure meeting the press in decades, to plug not only his new book, which isn't out yet, and not only his show, which is carried on a sister station, but his new self-appointed role as a leader in the conservative / libertarian movement, He still doesn't know if there is a difference. This is more an assumption on his part into the role than an ascension, as the power vacuum, along with the idea vacuum, in the movement is staggering.

So he said some stupid things today, of course, and I had thought about commenting on them here. But then my Chicago Tribune arrived, late again, and in going through it, they really pissed me off. So I decided to dig into them.

What really got to me this morning was when I got around to doing the crossword puzzle. I'm addicted and, if I must say so myself, very good at them. But I couldn't find an answer to fit. Now, this isn't the reprinted NYT puzzle, which will occasionally use symbols or multiple letters in a box, so I was quite confused. I was convinced senility was sinking in, something many of my friends are already convinced has occurred.

After seeing a clue for across that was in the middle of a string of empty boxes, I finally realized that they had a misprint in the puzzle. The clues did not match the squares. Riled, but somewhat relieved, I proceeded to read the comics. Again the senility fears crept in, as many of the strips that are serialized, or somewhat serialized, were way out of kilter. For Better Or Worse was back at Elizabeth's wedding, while on Monday Elizabeth was two years old. Brenda Starr was on a back street somewhere in India yesterday, and today was in a tree house. Maybe my friends were right. But I caught the date on the strips that I thought were in a time warp, and they were as the artists had put in 8-28-08.

I have said in the past that the Trib should mind their own business when it comes to how other organizations run their shops. But I was more concerned with the financial ramifications, I always thought that the Trib had been run pretty well. Operationally, I mean. Their recent changes to the format of the paper are inane, but at least they put the paper out according to the silly format specifications. Now it seems they can't get anything right.

So I had to laugh again at some of the suggestions they've had in their running series on cleaning up Illinois politics. Today they tried taking Mayor Daley to task, which you think would be relatively simple. They're upset that his administration won't release information. I guess things are getting tight with the Tribune budget. In more prosperous times they would simply sue to get this information. I guess that's more of a luxury these days.

Yesterday they laid out their plan to make Illinois government better. Most of them are lame, dried out suggestions, for instance, people need to get more involved. Walking to work this morning I saw a protest outside the Chinese consulate. It was one man with a "Free Tibet" sign. The political involvement these days is pretty lame. The Fox News Teaparties notwithstanding.

But one of the causes of this is the shoddy news coverage we receive. With its new look, the Trib has relegated hard news to the way back of the paper. Or not at all as it comes to the Republican budget plan. The front page is all glitz, glamour and human interest stuff, unless Blago was indicted. Page 2 is Kass, nuff said. Page 3 is made up to look like a pop culture web page. The Trib puts the running of our various governments on the back burner, but gets upset that there isn't anyone excited about it.

One plan that they suggested will probably take root. They want the State Constitution amended to have the opportunity to recall elected officials. Sure, let's take the easy way out. I think maybe it's the gaming culture, but how do you allow a do-over in the running of our very lives?

Say you have a close election where a candidate just ekes it out. In the early part of that term, he disappoints some of his supporters. All of a sudden you've got a majority of people who are against this person. Let's throw the bum out! Have another election. Well first we'd need new primaries.

I want to stop here and ask anyone, anyone to explain to me why the nomination processes for the major political parties are paid for with government funds. They are private institutions, let them pay for them.

So now we've paid for the recall, the primaries and the new general election, and a few months later the candidate ticks somebody else off. Really, that is not that far fetched. Do-Over! And the cycle starts again.

This saves money? No wonder the Trib's broke.