mcgrew's Journal: A tsunami of cartoons

While attention is focused on The Governator's fiscal troubles out in California, none of the corporate media outside Illinois (except the St Louis paper) is talking about Illinois' fiscal woes, all of which have been caused by over a decade of bad leadership. The fact that Illinois now has a Governor that nobody voted for, because the previous Governor was impeached and removed from office and will stand trial on Federal corruption charges, and the Governor before that is in prison for bribery, shows what horrible leadership this state has had.

The Chicago Tripune in the City of Losers (the Tripune owns the only Major League baseball team ever to go a hundred years without winning the World Series) didn't even mention the mass protest in its own capital city, although it covered the protests halfway around the world in Iran. I guess you can't get the Trib's attention unless somebody is horribly killed.

Yesterday a "tsunami of protesters", as the State Journal Wrapafish put it, converged on the Capitol here in cartoon city. There were over 5,000, too many to get an accurate count of. Yahoo news had no mention of it at all, although they did have an item about the President still sneaking cigarettes, and one about a woman with over three hundred rabbits in her yard. The cartoon city's corporate mouthpiece (SJ-R, State Journal Wrapafish) had a Q&A about it:

Illinois lawmakers were met by a tsunami of protesters Tuesday as they returned to the Capitol for a special session.

As July 1 and the start of a new fiscal year rapidly approaches, lawmakers are being asked to prevent huge spending cuts forced by a multibillion-dollar budget gap.

Gov. Pat Quinn's office warns that if nothing is done to fill the gap, 10,000 state workers and up to 100,000 employees of social service agencies could be handed pink slips. More than 140,000 children could lose childcare, the governor says.

St Louis is across the river from Illinois, and the Post Dispatch's online headline read Thousands demand tax hike to avoid cuts in social services, with a photo of three lone protesters holding signs.

Without that additional revenue, the administration has warned, state funding to human and social services across the state -- including child and adult care, developmental disability funding and drug- and alcohol-treatment programs -- will have to be cut by 50 percent. The administration also has predicted massive cuts in other parts of the budget, including the potential layoff of some 10,000 government workers.

Officials said the Springfield rally drew more than 5,000 people, with many of them barred from entering the Capitol because it was beyond capacity. It coincided with smaller rallies around the state.

The Chicago Tripune didn't mention the huge protest at all. Its headline merely read "Quinn wants to raise taxes, borrow and cut" (I can no longer find the story on their web site). The You Nark Times doesn't mention anything either.

But anyway, meanwhile, Madison county IL, down in the St Louis area, has the second dirtiest air in the country, second only to L.A., CA. and its denizens are all going to die of cancer even if they stop smoking, according to the paper.

Here in Springfield, it appears that 11th and Cook is the 13th most dangerous neighborhood in the USA. That's only twenty blocks from my house... but it said

The area of Springfield listed as the 13th most dangerous is bounded by 11th street on the west, 19th street (approximately) on the east, Edwards Street on the north, and Brown Street on the south.

11th and Brown is only a short walk away, about the same distance as Felber's. So is this the most dangerous place, or is Madison and Venice? I'd rather be shot than die of cancer! But then again, I almost got eaten by three rottweilers walking down Brown street once. Luckily their owners noticed and prevented bloodshed.

A neighborhood in Chicago is #2, and there are three other Chicago neighborhoods listed, but oddly the Chicago Tripune didn't mention itat all.

And they wonder why newspapers are going broke. They're going broke for the same reason states and other corporations are going broke - bad leaders.

A Baltimore neighborhood is #5, I guess some things don't change. Back in 1971 or 2 when I was in the Air Force, I had a very good friend named Delroy White. One weekend he invited me to go with him to Baltimore, where his brother lived.

His brother was having a pretty big party; I was the only white guy there. I ran out of cigarettes, maybe about 10:00 or 11 PM. A young lady offerred to walk down the street with me to show me where I could buy a pack of smokes. About four blocks down the street was a bar. "I'll get 'em fo' you", she said. "Um," I replied, "why don't I just get 'em?"

"You can't go in dere," she replied, "Dey kill you!"