A Chicago Blog

Wow! I missed the game yesterday on account of a trip for my new job. This is the first game of the season I haven’t been able to watch and it sucks that it was also about the most exciting game so far. The Bears scored 48 points! How is that possible? When was the last time the scored that much? The 85 season I’ll bet. Go Bears.

By Joseph L. Bast
President of The Heartland Institute

The front page of today’s Wall Street Journal carries a story titled “At Moment of Truth, U.S. Forced Big Bankers to Blink,” . In the quarter century I’ve been reading the Journal, I’ve never read a news story that was more disturbing.

The article describes the Monday, October 13 meeting between government regulators and top executives from nine of the nation’s largest banks. “On one side of the table sat Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, flanked by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Benanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair.”

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A nice change of pace:

So the other day I criticized Dan Seals for his distortions of Mark Kirk’s voting record. I since discovered that Kirk apparently doesn’t want to defend his voting record and instead would rather go after the trustworthiness of his attacker.

From WeAreIllinois.org:

North Shore Democratic congressional candidate Dan Seals’ campaign on Tuesday defended using an Iraq War veteran with ties to the 9/11 conspiracy movement in a new TV ad attacking Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk for supporting the war.

…

Last June, the Peoria Journal Star reported that Davis wore a black T-shirt proclaiming “Investigate 9/ 11@911truth.org” while sitting at a table at a Peoria library where books, fliers and DVDs supporting conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks were on display. The organization argues the government’s version of the terrorist attacks is fraudulent and offers a “Top 40 Reasons to Doubt the Official Story” and an “Official Coverup Guide.”

Kirk, who was in the Pentagon when the airplane crashed into it Sept. 11, 2001, called on Seals to stop airing the ad.

“I am disappointed that you would center your campaign on a spokesman who believes the U.S. government murdered nearly 3,000 of its own citizens,” Kirk said in his Monday letter to Seals, a Wilmette resident who is challenging Kirk again after coming close in 2006.

The reason Kirk is going after Davis instead of actually addressing the criticism is that voters are generally irrational, more swayed by personal narrative than facts and issues. So I understand the choice. But it tells us something about the state of political discourse in this country. Real discussion involves addressing the strength of your opponent’s criticism. Political discussion though, too often, bypasses the strength of an argument and seeks to have the argument dismissed out of hand. And we’re all worse off for it.

Like all politicians, Mark Kirk is simply a pawn in the political game. The failt lies in us, the voters.

Terry Savage thinks this weeks Wall Street Rally’s merely signaled the end of the beginning of the recession. The panic is over but the recession is in full swing:

If you’re asking about bear markets, historian Jim Stack says the median “bear market” duration since 1929 is 15 months. In 1929, the bear growled for 33 months and attacked again for 42 months, starting in 1938, ended only by World War II. More recently, we suffered through a 30-month bear market, starting from the peak in 2000.

The recession is another story. The average duration of post-World War II recessions is 11 months, from peak to bottom, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. The longest decline came from November 1973 through March 1975, a 17-month recession. The last extended recession ran from July 1981 through November 1982. There was a brief downturn from July 1990 through March 1991.

[Hat tip: Division Street]

It seems like we’ve been here before, haven’t we? Rosemont has put in the top bid for the last available Illinois casino liscene. But will Lisa Madigan let it go through?

Major League Baseball has agreed to start the World Series a little later in order accomodate Obama’s ad buy. From Hollywood Reporter:

To accommodate a half-hour Obama time buy on Fox on Oct. 29, Major League Baseball has agreed to move the start time of World Series Game 6 by about 15 minutes. That would move the start of the game from 8:20 p.m. ET or so to 8:35 p.m.

“Fox will accommodate Senator Obama’s desire to communicate with voters in this longform format,” Fox Sports said in a statement. “We are pleased that Major League Baseball has agreed to delay the first pitch of World Series Game 6 for a few minutes in order for Fox to carry his program on Oct. 29. If requested, the network would be willing to make similar time available to Senator McCain’s campaign.”

I wonder if NBC and CBS would give McCain the same low rate on the block of time? Obama is paying the “lowest unit” rate, which means he’ll spend only $1 million per.

Debates are tonight. Which McCain will show. Tired old McCain? Angry McCain? Happy McCain? Does it really matter?I’m so ready to get this election over with.

Dan Seals has a new commercial running that attacks Mark Kirk for his record on veterans health benefits. I’m not a big Mark Kirk fan but I hate these kind ads. They make claims about voting records that are so convoluted as to stretch the boundaries of accuracy. Both sides do it. And we should be equally critical.

The commercial (below) criticizes Mark Kirk for “cutting” Vet Health Benefits, even though Kirk actually voted FOR a bill authorizing $25.3 billion on Vet Health Care. However, this bill came in under the $27.1 billion authorized by the Senate. Not really a “cut” by my definition … or most any others.

All Congressional bills are a product of compromise and this bill included a number of them, like means-testing for some benefits. You can always find fault with legislation that has been compromised. Always. But the bill had bipartisan support: 149 Democrats and 166 Republicans voted for it. To characterize it as a vote against veterans is intellectually dishonest and represents the worst of politics today.