Grapes of greed

Seth Anderson1 Comment

Save Ten Percent with Pippin

The corrupt Illinois legislature is back in the news, with the out-of-state wine ban we’ve mentioned before about to take effect.

For some reason, the state legislature decided that Illinoisans should not be allowed to have wine shipped to them from Internet wine shops and out-of-state wine stores. On June 1, the law will strip Illinois wine lovers of the right to buy wine from out-of-state wine stores; that’s a right they’ve had for 15 years.

Why do such a silly thing? How about $6.3 million. This is how much Illinois liquor distributors have paid in campaign contributions to Illinois politicians since 2000. You see, liquor distributors don’t like it when they don’t get a cut of the sale. When you buy that special bottle of wine from an Internet retailer, the distributors don’t bring it into the state, so they don’t get a cut of the sale. So the liquor distributors wrote a law, found a few friends in the legislature to introduce it and voila . . . you lost your rights.

It turns out that in the course of losing your right to access the wines you want so distributors can have their profits protected, Illinois has given up millions of dollars in tax revenue that would have come from taxing Internet sales of wine. Hey, who needs a few roads fixed any way? And who needs more funding for schools? Priorities, you know?

[From Mmm, grapes of greed — — chicagotribune.com]

Here are the main villains in this tale:


According to FollowTheMoney.Org, a Web site that tracks state campaign contributions, this law’s lead sponsor, Rep. Edward Acevedo (D-Chicago), has received $32,000 from alcohol wholesalers since 2000, including $10,000 since the legislation was introduced last year. Senate sponsor James Clayborne Jr. (D-Belleville) has received $85,000 from alcohol wholesaler interests since 2000, including $15,000 since the legislation was introduced. Since 2002, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has received more than $500,000—just from alcohol wholesalers in Illinois, $50,000 of which was given to him since he signed the bill into law.

More on this topic here, and here (and my own pages, more, more, and probably elsewhere. )

Lieberman and Graham, Conflicted

Seth Anderson0 comment

Random Colored Lights and Moon
[click to embiggen]

McCain supporters feign surprise that they are expected to follow the candidate’s public policy announcements. They thought they’d be able to continue being as corrupt as before, and nobody would pay attention. Notice – neither paragon of virtue, Lieberman nor Graham, decided to step down until after reporters asked uncomfortable questions.

Senators Joseph I. Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, prominent surrogates for Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, stepped down Wednesday from their positions with an independent group that released a pair of Internet advertisements attacking Senator Barack Obama on Iraq.

Mr. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Mr. Graham, Republican of South Carolina, were both on the policy advisory board to the organization, Vets for Freedom, which on Wednesday released its second Web advertisement in less than a week attacking Mr. Obama.

The senators’ positions with the group, which describes itself as a grass-roots advocacy organization pushing for victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, seemed to place them in contravention of new conflict-of-interest rules released by Mr. McCain’s campaign that specifically prohibit anyone “with a McCain campaign title or position” from participating in a “527 or other independent entity that makes public communications that support or oppose any presidential candidate.”

After inquiries from reporters, the senators released a joint letter to Vets for Freedom on Wednesday saying they had requested a leave from their positions to come into compliance with the new policy.

[From Lieberman and Graham, Senators for McCain, Leave Group After Ads Attacking Obama – NYTimes.com]

Remind me again why Holy Joe Lieberman is a Democratic Superdelegate? Didn’t the DNC strip Zell Miller of his status after Senator Miller fulminated in support of Bush? Shouldn’t Lieberman lose his chairmanships too? He obviously has little in common with the Democrats anymore. I wonder what Connecticut voters think of him now?

—
Ooops, my mistake, Lieberman has been stripped of his super delegate status.

Thanks to Zell Miller, there is a rule to deal with Joe Lieberman.

Lieberman’s endorsement of Republican John McCain disqualifies him as a super-delegate to the Democratic National Convention under what is informally known as the Zell Miller rule, according to Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo.

Miller, then a Democratic senator from Georgia, not only endorsed Republican George Bush four years ago, but he delivered a vitriolic attack on Democrat John Kerry at the Republican National Convention.

The Democrats responded with a rule disqualifying any Democrat who crosses the aisle from being a super delegate. Lieberman will not be replaced, DiNardo said.

Rinse, Lather, Repeat

Seth Anderson0 comment


“What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Scott McClellan)

Gee, where have we heard this routine before?

As President Bush’s press secretary, Scott McClellan was a dutiful practitioner of the swift, efficient and highly coordinated strategy the White House typically employs to take on Mr. Bush’s critics.

On Wednesday, Mr. McClellan got a taste of life on the other side.

As news of Mr. McClellan’s new tell-all book — in which he calls the war in Iraq a “strategic blunder” and accuses Mr. Bush of engaging in “self-deception” — dominated the airwaves, the White House and a tight-knit group of former aides pushed back. They sought to paint the former press secretary as a disgruntled man trying to redeem his own reputation after long remaining silent about concerns he is suddenly taking public.

The result was a kind of public excommunication of Mr. McClellan, waged by some of the people with whom he once worked most closely, among them Karl Rove, the political strategist; Frances Fragos Townsend, the former domestic security adviser; Ari Fleischer, Mr. Bush’s first press secretary; and Dan Bartlett, the former counselor to the president.

Their cries of betrayal served as a stern warning to other potential turncoats that, despite some well-publicized cracks, the Bush inner circle remains tight. Their language was so similar that the collective reaction amounted to one big inside-the-Beltway echo chamber.

[From Ex-Aide Turns Critic; Chorus Strikes Back – NYTimes.com]

Impossible to have any sympathy for McClellan, as he piled on other ex-Bushites when they were promoting their tell-all books. Hard to have any sympathy for McClelland also because such revelations are much more useful when still employed by the Bush juggernaut, not after being fired.

—

Ezra Klein has more anti-love for Scotty:

There are no revelations in Scott McClellan’s new book. No fresh information, no new insights. Just the tinny bleatings of a man who abetted a lying, disastrous presidency because it seemed like a good gig, but doesn’t want his name maligned by the historians. But truthtelling is powerful and redemptive when it’s hard, as it was for Richard Clarke, who broke with the administration when it was powerful and popular. They smeared his name, of course, Implied that he was lying. They asked, “why, all of a sudden, if he had all these grave concerns, did he not raise these sooner? This is one-and-a-half years after he left the administration. And now, all of a sudden, he’s raising these grave concerns that he claims he had.” Those words, of course, were Scott McClellan’s.

links for 2008-05-29

swanksalot0 comment

Blog Change

Seth Anderson1 Comment

I installed WordPress 2.5 last night, and have been playing around with it for a few hours. Seems so much more responsive than Movable Type, at least at the moment. I don’t know if that is because I have over 4,000 entries in MT, or because WP uses PHP, or if WP just is faster. MT gives one more control over the layout (templates for every page, archive, index), but this control also makes MT much more complicated to configure. I never did get the category archive to work properly, and gave up after struggling with the formatting for hours. Also, about every 3rd post made in MT doesn’t complete the first time, I have to repost up to five times to get a proper response (though, this could be webhost-related, but then doesn’t happen in WP).

Not sure what will happen in the near future, but for now, new content will be found here more likely than here. The only change is “/mt” to “/wp” at the end (http://www.b12partners.net/mt/ to http://www.b12partners.net/wp/ )
Please adjust your bookmarks and RSS feeds accordingly. (I’d suggest keeping both active at least for a moment: a bit wishy-washy of me, but I have a lot of time invested in Movable Type.)

publishing failure
case in point – even publishing this entry took 4 attempts in MT, and 4 seconds in WP.

Also – if you notice anything weird, please let me know (comments not being accepted, page loading oddly, Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria! anything)

Corking the Wine Trade

Seth Anderson1 Comment


“Parker’s Wine Buyer’s Guide, 7th Edition: The Complete, Easy-to-Use Reference on Recent Vintages, Prices, and Ratings for More than 8,000 Wines from All … Wine Regions (Parker’s Wine Buyer’s Guide)” (Robert M. Parker)

Idiots in the legislature, State of Illinois edition

When the Supreme Court struck down state laws barring individuals from buying wine directly from out-of-state wineries, one lawyer called it “the best day for wine lovers since the invention of the corkscrew.”

Though they enjoy a new liberty to buy from out-of-state vineyards, Illinois oenophiles will no longer be able to order directly from out-of-state wine shops and other retail merchants — something they have been doing for the last 16 years.

It looks as though about 500 California vineyards that are not officially registered as wineries won’t be able to sell to individual buyers here either.

Meanwhile, Illinois’ largest vineyards, unlike their smaller counterparts, won’t be able to sell directly to stores and restaurants: They will have to go through wholesale distributors. That rule is bound to increase the price of a drink.

What gives? The governor’s office proclaims that the bill “represents an agreement between Illinois wineries and liquor distributors.” State Sen. Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago), a sponsor, boasted that it will “advance our growing wine industry.”

Notice anything missing from those pronouncements? Only the needs of ordinary wine drinkers. The clear intent is to protect the profits of favored businesses — and never mind if consumers, and the state’s most successful wine producers, lose out.

Even some of the retailers who are being protected from out-of-state competition have spoken out against the new barriers, fearing they will provoke retaliation from other states.

“Bills like these are bad for consumers,” Brian Rosen, the president and CEO of Chicago-based Sam’s Wines & Spirits, told Crain’s Chicago Business. “If every state’s borders were open to wine sales, we could sell $50 million in wine a year outside Illinois.”

[From Corking the wine trade]

Harry’s Hot Dogs in city’s meat grinder

Seth Anderson0 comment

Harrys Hot Dogs

Sounds like a politically motivated use of eminent domain to benefit a local developer to me.

Elephants at Showman's League

Hot dog joint in city’s meat grinder :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State:
It’s the City of Chicago vs. the hot dog vendor. And vs. the carnival workers. And a Giordano’s restaurant. And throw in a travel agency too.

All have operations in buildings at 300-308 W. Randolph that City Hall wants to see torn down. The Daley administration wants to replace the three low-rises with a small park that would enhance a 46-story office building the John Buck Co. will put up next door.

All have operations in buildings at 300-308 W. Randolph that City Hall wants to see torn down. The Daley administration wants to replace the three low-rises with a small park that would enhance a 46-story office building the John Buck Co. will put up next door.

Buck has tried to buy the Randolph properties but has been unable to reach a deal. Tuesday, the city’s Community Development Commission gave the Daley administration authority to acquire the properties by force.

The hit list includes an unusual sliver of a building at 300 W. Randolph owned by the Showmen’s League of America. Notable for the elephants on its facade, the building contains the league’s offices and has a ground-floor business that’s been around more than 50 years, Harry’s Hot Dogs.

All the businesses involved, including a Giordano’s and Greaves Travel LLC, would have to close or relocate to accommodate the city’s will.

Connie Buscemi, spokeswoman for the city’s Planning Department, said the Daley administration was acting on long-term plans to beautify Randolph Street. She denied the city was doing favors for the Buck firm

Uh, yeah, ok.

Jonathan Fine, president of the group Preservation Chicago, said protecting the businesses is the last thing on the city’s mind. Fine said the city is trying to force the creation of a plaza that benefits Buck.

Tearing down the Showmen’s League building destroys “a little piece of history at the same time,” Fine said.

A fraternal group for itinerant carnival workers, the league was founded in 1913 and chose William “Buffalo Bill” Cody as its first president. Executive Secretary Rick Haney did not return calls Tuesday.

Harry’s Hot Dogs is owned by Harry Heftman, who wouldn’t comment about the condemnation. Said by acquaintances to be “in the vicinity” of 98 years old, Heftman is a slightly built man who still comes to work every day, making sure the lunchtime rush gets moved along.

I’m all for the City of Chicago adding more green space, but this isn’t the right place to do so.

(h/t Phule)

Elephants detail at Showman's League

Harrys Hot Dogs Help Want Ed

Breakfast Drinks Selfportrait

Seth Anderson0 comment

Breakfast drinks self-portrait

Not really for breakfast, more of a brunch item. Self portrait only if you view the ‘large’ version. Also some buildings reflect in the glass. Lightly photoshopped, to add a little depth. Updated to www.flickr.com/photos/swanksalot/26046688/ via the magic of Illustrator and Photoshop