Let's see, Rahm Emmanuel backed by Mr.Obama and Mr Clinton or ....Gery Chico?

    If the machine backed Gery Chico he would still be Gery Chico and not Mr. Mayor.

    We live in the age of celebrity, Mien. If California elects as a governor a movie star with absolutely no qualifications for the officer, why should Chicago be any different?

    In 20 years Phil, Mattrade, and St. Croix will all be voting for Lindsay Lohan instead of my candidate who wants to raise property taxes.

He just didn't fuck the "rich" as badly as many of you seem to want.

and there have been many "closet Republicans" among union members for decades. I know several of them from the Detroit area myself.

I actually voted for Jerry Brown back in the 70s, and only because he dated Linda Ronstadt (lol). You trash my alma mater, and now my future voting record. Just for that, I'm going to put a curse on FTO and that ridiculous thesis of yours.

I've voted for turned out to be only actors.

The only actor or actress I would vote for is George Clooney, but I guess he's not going to run! Too bad the reason he gives is holding him back.! It seems like he should get extra points on the macho meter for that!

No longer a worker's legitimate agent, unions today are a coerced political machine.  Chicago is still living in the early to mid 20th century politically.  The rest of Illinois can't keep propping this town up.  

Kinda explains why Democrats are running away from the States they were elected to represent in recent days.  Illinois has become the corruption sanctuary for Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio Democrats in the pockets of Big Labor.

-- Modified on 2/23/2011 3:12:19 PM

Unions are, indeed, political.  But they're not the factor they once were.  Only 6.9% of US workers are represented by a union.  The percentage increases to 35% among public employees.  Yes, unions almost always support Democrats.  But among the old, industrial labor force, lots of blue-collar guys go their own way and vote Republican anyway.  A buddy of mine works for his town's highway department and is a union guy.  When I asked him, "Why do you support Bush?  On taxes and the economy he's screwed the working man every time?"  His answer was, "Yep, I know that, but I like his stance on defense and the war on terror."  He and his friends all vote Republican and have for a long time, despite their union's support of Dems.  So reality isn't so black and white as you suggest.

-- Modified on 2/23/2011 9:12:26 AM

maybe true of the rank and file, but not true of Big Labor and those that run it. It does take a high percentage to influence an election when you have the money and brute force.

Bet on me and Duke instead of UCLA first.

     I went to bed a farsighted shareholder of Frontier Oil and woke up a shareholder of Holly Corporation, as well as the recipient of a special dividend 7 times higher than your Bank of American Dividends LOL.

  Refiners are in play, especially refiners who get their oil from someplace other than Libya. I think FTO is going to miss tomorrow but with the Brent-WEst Texas differential they HAVE  to make money next quarter.

-- Modified on 2/23/2011 3:47:27 PM

What you said is true for most elections. But you have to be a cog in the machine here or at the very least not against the machine.

back in 2008. What did I learn from the lesson? Don't own refiners, and for God sakes, don't own shares in airlines.

I feel for you, because Holly buys Frontier, and you get absolutely no premium for it. It was a merger of equals (OUCH!). I don't care if FTO can handle sweet crude, sour crude, or sweet and sour chicken (that's for GaG). Higher oil prices are not good for refiners. Oil is just an input cost. They have to pay for oil at whatever the going rate is. Higher oil eventually means less refining. Oil @ $100+ is great for Exxon, Chevron and Gag, but $4 a gallon isn't good for refiners. Go back on look at FTO, TSO, VLO, HOL, and look at what happened when oil went from $147 to $30.

I wonder if my thesis (see my post to Charlie re a correction) pans out.

I need to get back to Vegas for March Madness. Love betting on college BB. And if history tells me anything, don't bet on Duke.

Duke is ranked #95. UCLA #29 SDSU #9 and ASU #1. This is the only poll that really matters. Actually this is a great poll. The only reason ASU is #1 is they make the weekend trek to Vegas to work the strip clubs.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/445863-college-footballs-hottest-fan-bases-ranking-all-120-schools#page/1

chicken anymore than he likes refiners, and I do believe you meant to say NUMBER ONE Duke.

for a couple of unnamed reasons:

1. He knows he'll get more done on his pet projects as an outsider than in.
2. His love life would be examined even more minutely than it already is.

I'm being obvious here, but those are pretty good reasons to stay out of politics!