Kathy Kelly's farewell address

Kathy Kelly is an inspiration. This letter is self-explanatory.

Kathy Kelly's Prison Mailing Address:
Kathy Kelly #04971-045
FPC Pekin
PO Box 5000
Pekin, IL 61555-5000

Crossing Lines
By Kathy Kelly
March 26, 2004

This weekend, I'm preparing for an April 6, 2004 entry into the Pekin
FCI (Federal Correctional Institute) in Peoria. I'm one of several
dozen people who, on November 22, 2003, crossed the line at the US
Army's military combat training school in Fort Benning, GA. With
caring friends, I've shared gentle and sometimes nervous laughter as
we try to make the best of a difficult reality. "Will you write a
book?" asks a sweet sister-in-law. My brother can't resist
chortling, "Yeah! A pop-up book!" and then we're off on a string of
imagined pop-ups over which to giggle. Yesterday, a friend joked
about a cartoon he'd seen that showed "the boss" in jail and the
unnerved assistants asking, "How long can we say, 'Sorry, he's away
from his desk.'"

I could be harmed in prison, but that certainly could have happened
to me while in Baghdad or several other places I've traveled to by
choice. I don't feel anxiety beyond normal fear of the unknown.

The cruelty of prison rests in locking up people who are often
already feeling remorse and low self-esteem because of past actions
and then heaping upon them more reasons to feel badly about
themselves and allowing almost no means to improve their situation.
Parents separated from their children, feeling that they've screwed
up their lives, are often snarled at by counselors and guards who say
they should have thought about their loved ones before they started
causing trouble. People who've committed crimes, often nonviolent
crimes which they honestly regret, (mainly related to drug use and
drug trade), shouldn't be free to continue harming themselves or
others through drug traffic. But why take away every other freedom,
and why employ other human beings to act as "human zookeepers?"

I've felt somewhat insulated from attacks on self-esteem while in
prison. I'm proud of line-crossings that protest pouring money into
the Project ELF nuclear weapon facility in northern Wisconsin that
fast tracks Tomahawk Cruise missiles to maim and kill people in Iraq.
Likewise, it's good to be part of the growing group who've crossed
the line at a military combat training school in Fort Benning, GA.
Graduates of the school have been responsible for massacres,
assassinations and tortures. People should be crossing these lines
every day of the week. No shame, no stigma here.

But I do feel troubled because I've been so distanced, in recent
years, from some of the poorest people in our country. I need to
better understand what's happening to them. Am I right when I guess
that the media successfully pressures young people in inner cities to
consume, to buy, to have brand name this and that? Does this
corporate push to buy certain lines of clothing, cosmetics, and cars
push people further into an underground economy because they can't
get a stake in the above ground economies after our education system
has badly failed them? Thinking of how George Fox, who helped found
the Quaker faith, would stand on church pews during sermons and urge
people to trod gently over the earth, seeing that of god in everyone,
I've nurtured a fantasy related to court rooms. Suppose one were to
stand up on a courtroom bench, risk contempt of court, and
ask, "Could we just take a minute to analyze our setting here with a
live graph? How many in this court room are making money in the
criminal justice system and how many are "the raw material" feeding
this system? I'll bet that the people making money would be,
primarily, white and well educated. They're the lawyers, the judges,
the courtroom personnel. And I'll bet that the people feeding the
system, keeping the well paid criminal justice system employees in
business, would be African American, Hispanic, and Asian. If
convicted, the "criminals" could find themselves earning 18 cents per
hour laboring, within the prison industrial complex, for major US
corporations who can hire prison labor without ever having to worry
about paid vacations, benefits, overtime, hiring supervisors, or
renting workspace. The prison industrial complex resembles
enslavement and might be a precursor to fascism.

I want to nonviolently defy this system.

In 1988, upon entering the Cass County jail in Harrison, MO, my heart
sank as I realized how intensely the other 12 women in the cell, a
dingy area called "the bullpen," didn't want to see a new person
encroach on the minimal space allotted to them. Most had already been
there for many weeks. The bullpen was meant to be a small holding
cell area, but because the jail was so overcrowded, the six bunk
beds, exposed toilet, metal table and spray-mist shower with a ripped
curtain became housing for women prisoners awaiting transport. I had
just been released from the hospital following major surgery after a
lung collapse caused by a congenital abnormality. Friends said that
in my prison uniform I could have posed for a Soviet Union poster
charging the US with abusing prisoners. The women prisoners glaring
at me were seeing a 90 pound woman with pink eye, a runny nose,
tangled hair, an obnoxious cough, and a facial rash. Eyeing the top
bunk assigned to me, I wondered how I'd heave myself up there without
stepping on another woman's bed. And how could I stuff the lumpy
mattress I carried into the prison issue casing when I could barely
bend down to tie my shoes? At that point, the most intimidating woman
in "the bullpen" laughed, rolled her eyes, and said, "I don't know
what I did so wrong to be locked up with this white motherfucker with
AIDS!" My heart sank.

I managed to occupy the top bunk and, over the next hours, women
closest to me were curious and then kindly, asking me how I'd ended
up in the bullpen. We found small ways to be helpful to one another.
For instance, I had my "week-at-a-glance" address book with me which
included a small map of the US. Together, other inmates and I found
the various federal prisons to which each of us could be sent. I
started to feel better. Within three days, all of the women treated
me with affection, calling me "Missiles" for short. (I made a mental
note not to trivialize our action in planting corn at nuclear missile
silo sites but decided not to argue with the nickname.) "Missiles,"
said the woman who had first erupted upon seeing me, "I tried my
hardest not to like you, but I just can't help myself --I like you."

Major Nick and Sargeant Roy, the officers responsible to run the Cass
County jail, were stingy beyond belief when it came to spending the
federal money sent to them as reimbursement for housing federal
prisoners awaiting transport. We never had adequate supplies of
toilet paper, paper towel, cleaning supplies, or eating utensils. In
the two months I spent there, only once was a guard "free" to take us
outside for fresh air. Painted battleship grey, with bars on three
sides of the enclosure, and flourescent lights that were never turned
off, the "bullpen" was one of the worst places the prison system in
the US maintained.

One day a woman came into the cell who had been charged with a DUI,
driving unde the influence. Her lawyer came to bail her out the next
day. As she left, I asked if she could leave behind her
newspaper. "Oh honey," she said, "you all shouldn't have to read
yesterday's news. I'll get them to send in today's paper." I politely
said that we'd rather have the old one because when we ran out of
toilet paper we used newspaper. As soon as she was outside, she
slapped a lawsuit against the prison for failing to respect human
rights. As soon as Major Nick learned of it, he stormed into "the
bullpen." "Which one of you all bitches in this here bullpen had the
nerve to say that we do not GIVE you toilet paper?" he bellowed. I
expected a chorus of angry responses, but instead heard, "Musta' been
Missiles. She thinks she's living in some kind of hotel!" I was
stunned. I felt like a general leading the charge who looks behind,
asking, "Where are the troops?" Major Nick polled each woman in the
cell. "Have you EVER had an experience in this bullpen where your
needs were not met?!" Each woman avowed that Major Nick and Sargeant
Roy took good care of them. When my turn came, I listed the items
they didn't supply, told him how awful the slop they fed us had been,
complained about the miasmic cloud of cigarette smoke hovering over
us, and assured Major Nick that he shouldn't run a kennel for dogs
much less a place where human beings lived.

Hours later, after a glass of kool-aid was spilled on the metal table
and we had no paper towel to clean it up, women began
shouting, "Guard! Guard! We need paper towels." No paper towels
arrived. A sticky puddle trickled onto the floor.

Months later, at the Lexington, KY maximum-security prison where I
served the remainder of my sentence, I asked one of the women to help
me understand what had happened that day. She helped me see how much
power Major Nick and Sargeant Roy had over each of the women. These
jailers could interfere with their chances to get "good time," to see
their children before they were transported to a faraway prison, to
see or talk with a lawyer, to meet with a clergy person, to purchase
commissary items, or to get a box sent into the prison with tube
socks and an undershirt. I had plenty of "connections" on the outside
and had nothing to lose, with a relatively short (one year) sentence
and a statement on record that I wouldn't pay any fines. Of all of us
in that cell, I was the most privileged in terms of education and
financial security.

The story has become a metaphor for me. Who had the biggest
responsibility, in "the bullpen," to raise her voice? To whom much is
given, much is required. When we witness, first hand, serious abuses
of fellow human beings, and when we have a chance to raise our voices
and perhaps alleviate their afflictions, how can we keep quiet?

In our world, many of us who live in the US are perched, quite by
accident, amidst inordinately luxurious surroundings, relative to the
rest of the world. We're the luckiest. We're the most blest. And we
have the greatest responsibility to build a better world.

My own logic tells me that when US troops "crossed the line," in
March 2003, they trespassed into a sovereign country, Iraq, based on
the theory and argument that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction posed
an imminent threat to people in the US. Now it's clear that Iraq
didn't pose even a distant threat to people here.

At Fort Benning, GA, we crossed a line onto two feet of government
grass at a place where it's beyond dispute that graduates of the
military combat training school have participated in torture,
maiming, disappearance, massacre and assassination when they returned
to their own countries.

The time-honored method of nonviolent civil disobedience has helped
swell the numbers of people who clamor for closure of the SOA. In
November 2003, 14,000 people processed to the gates of Fort Benning,
solemnly carrying crosses in remembrance of the hundreds of thousands
of people who were brutally and lethally punished by SOA graduates.
New disclosures implicate recent graduates of this military combat
training school in actions that have threatened innocent people in
Central and South America. I remember joining (Rev.) Roy Bourgeois,
MM, and a dozen others for four weeks of a water-only fast, at the
gates of Fort Benning, in 1990. It's been a relief, then and now, to
feel that we're trying our best to prevent any furtherance of a
school that teaches people to terrify and subjugate brothers and
sisters who live in the impoverished countries south of the United
States.

On Monday, March 29, I'll go to Madison, WI to face a one-month jail
sentence for refusing to pay a $150 fine after twelve of us walked
two feet across the line onto the Navy's ELF/Trident transmitter site
located in the northern woods of Wisconsin. ELF (extremely low-
frequency waves) is used to trigger nuclear missiles. The ELF system
is also used to trigger Cruise missiles. Cruise missiles were the
weapon of choice among war planners as the Shock and Awe campaign
against Iraq was developed. On January 26, 2003, the Sun-Herald of
Sydney, Austraila reported, "The US intends to shatter
Iraq 'physically, emotionally and psychologically' by raining down on
its people as many as 800 cruise missiles in two days." "There will
not be a safe place in Baghdad," a Pentagon official told CBS News
Feb. 8, 2003. "We want them to quit, not to fight," said Harlan
Ullman, author of the "shock and awe" attack plan, "so that you have
this simultaneous effect—rather like the nuclear weapons at
Hiroshima - not taking days or weeks but minutes." Mr. Ullman told
the Sun Herald, "You take the city down. By that I mean you get rid
of their power and water. In two, three, four, five days they are
physically, emotionally and psychologically exhausted."

I felt deep dismay, in Baghdad, during that war, as the bombs
thundered down on the city, morning, noon and night. I also promised
myself a nonviolently defiant visit to a military facility that
helped launch those bombs, at the earliest opportunity, upon return
to the US. "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time," is a line
we often hear. I'm ready.

Almost every time I've crossed the border to leave Iraq, I've felt as
though I'm leaving an enormous prison. It takes me about eight
seconds to readjust to having electricity; I nearly genuflected in
front of the thermostat when I returned home after a chilly stretch
of weeks in Iraq last winter. At home, I never worry about bombs
exploding nearby, nor do I wonder how to pay for food, clothing and
rent. People in Iraq and in many of our neighboring southern
countries must constantly preoccupy themselves with ways to survive
circumstances over which they have very little control. Their lives
are directly afflicted by our desires to be "better off" than the
rest of the world, taking other people's resources at cut-rate prices.

In his riveting autobiography, From Yale to Jail, (Rose Hill Books,
1993), David Dellinger concludes a chapter entitled "Prison Again"
with an editorial he published in 1947, after his release from
Lewisburg maximum-security penitentiary. Deploring the bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Dellinger wrote "Without any semblance of a
democratic decision—without even advance notice of what was taking
place—the American people waked up one morning to discover that the
United States government had committed one of the worst atrocities in
history…The sudden murder of 300,000 Japanese is consistent with the
ethics of a society which is bringing up millions of its own children
in city slums."

From previous imprisonment, I recall a world of imprisoned beauty,
and yet most of the women I met landed there because of ugly
circumstances which they had tried to escape through drug use, drug
sales, or both.

Not all peace activists can be part of civil disobedience actions
resulting in prison sentences. But for those who can, entering the
prisons offers an opportunity to better understand how the once
lauded war on poverty has become a war against the poor.

Those of us who 'do time' for crossing lines at Fort Benning and at
Project ELF will be away from our desks, but we won't be away from
our work.

Kathy Kelly is a co-coordinator of Voices in the Wilderness. 773-784-
8065
To learn more about how to become part of efforts to close the SOA,
visit www.soaw.org
Kathy will also spend time in prison for crossing the line at Project
ELF, a US Navy nuclear weapon facility in northern WI which helped
fast-track Tomahawk Cruise missiles that attacked Iraq during the
Shock and Awe campaign. To learn more about the campaign to shut down
Project ELF, visit www.nukewatch.com

Scalia censors two reporters -- he should not be on the Supreme Court

This is ridiculous. Justice Antonin Scalia forbids the press from reporting on his public speeches, and yesterday a federal marshal ordered two reporters to erase their tapes of his speech. A story on the government censorship from a Supreme Court Justice is here.

Stuff like this makes me question lifetime appointments for federal judges.

My column in the Third Coast Press on the amazing Obama victory

I'd refer you to the website, but editor Rik Adamski (who has done a great job leading the team that is creating this monthly paper) is holding off on an electronic version.

Here's the column:

State Senator Barack Obama’s unexpected landslide victory in the Democratic primary election is a political earthquake. It is the most exciting progressive victory in a statewide primary in 20 years and it opens up incredible opportunities for the progressive wing of the Illinois Democratic Party. The majority coalition of the party – blacks, progressive whites and independent Latinos – is in a better position to work against the pernicious effects of the patronage machines that exclude new people, tolerate corruption and thus sap away enthusiasm and identification with the Democratic Party.

First, the amazing numbers. Senator Obama earned more than 52% of the vote – more than 650,000 votes total. More people voted for Obama than all the other Democratic candidate combined – and just about as many votes as all the Republican candidates combined. To reiterate the point, the 1.3 million Illinois voters were split about evenly into three groups: Republicans, non-Obama Democrats and Obama supporters.

In Chicago, Obama earned just below 300,000 votes -- two out of every three votes cast by Democrats -- while most of the party establishment supported Dan Hynes’ campaign. His numbers were similar in suburban Cook County, almost two out of every three votes, with huge margins in white, affluent suburbs. When was the last time an unabashedly progressive black candidate earned the enthusiastic support of whites, blacks, high-income, low-income, Latinos and even some Downstate counties (Obama won Sangamon, Champaign, Jackson, McDonough, Kankakee and Iroqouis Counties)? The answer is: never. This is the first time something like that has happened in Illinois, and it is one of our proudest moments.

Obama represents what is best about the Democratic Party: multi-racial, principled, idealistic and rooted in using government to raise our living standard. His stunning victory is an opportunity for progressives to invest in the Democratic Party with a leader who inspires.

The primary illuminated a disconnect between some of the Democratic Party establishment and Democratic Party voters. The Chair of the Illinois Democratic Party (and Speaker of the House) Michael Madigan, Cook County Board President John Stroger, Congressman Bill Lipinski, Cook County Finance Committee Chair (and Mayoral Brother) John Daley, the older labor unions that dominate the AFL-CIO – they all endorsed Dan Hynes’ campaign.

It’s easy to see the disconnect by looking at vote totals by ward. The city is divided into 50 wards of equal population (about 60,000 people). Each ward elects an alderman who serves in the City Council, but just as importantly, each ward elects a Democratic Party ward committeeman, a non-paid position, but the leader of the Democratic organization in the ward. These ward committeemen are far more important than they appear, because they help to determine the character of the Democratic Party – they are either inclusive and policy-driven, or they are exclusive and patronage-driven. Patronage organizations are the worst aspect of the Chicago Democratic Party as they compel people with government jobs to ‘volunteer’ for a political candidate – and this is a huge turn-off to voters.

Most of the ward organizations that supported Dan Hynes ended up losing – big – to Barack Obama. In the South Side 8th ward, Cook County Board President John Stroger is the ward committeeman. He backed Dan Hynes, but the 8th ward voters did not, casting 15,684 votes for Obama and 649 for Hynes. On the lakefront, from the Loop all the way up to around Foster Avenue, the organizations for the 42nd, 43rd, 44th and 46th wards all endorsed Dan Hynes – and most of the elected officials followed suit. Obama swept the entire lakefront with 70%+ of the vote. (The 48th and 49th ward organizations endorsed Obama). On the Northwest Side, where ever-more progressives are moving in and the long-time residents are flexing more independent muscle, only the 35th ward organization led by Alderman Rey Colon endorsed Obama – all the rest went another way, and Obama still won them all (except for the 31st ward, where the non-endorsed Gery Chico won!).

What this means is that the internal structure of the Democratic Party is changing. Old machine-style politics where ward organizations could “deliver” votes to the annoited candidates is dwindling. An attractive, qualified, progressive candidate that can get his or her message to voters will trump an organization – even when an organization is actively working for another campaign. The overnight forest of Dan Hynes signs is a testament to the sticking power of the patronage organizations – but signs don’t vote.
This is an important lesson, because the perception of invincibility is one of the most powerful tools at the organization’s disposal. If we think that we can’t beat the patronage organizations, then we won’t try. If we think that the only way to participate in politics is through the organizations, then we’ll never get involved. Until the poll closed on Election Day and I saw the results in the 35th precinct of the 43rd ward where Obama earned 122 votes to Dan Hynes’ 18, I believed that the machine could still pull out a victory. I was still intimidated by the organization and would have been happy with a second-place finish for Obama. After all, I surmised, if all the elected officials and the ward organization is behind Dan Hynes, what chance do we have? The machine always wins, so I thought. And that thinking is now obsolete!

The Obama victory is an engraved invitation to every progressive to engage with the Democratic Party. We’ve learned that if voters get enough information about a candidate’s qualifications and positions to make up their own mind, they will usually support the best candidate. Our job as progressives is to get that information about good candidates to voters. And the most methodical way to do that is to take the tools of the ward organizations – become a precinct organizer. There are between 300 and 700 votes in every precinct. You can find out which ward and precinct you are in on your voter registration card. You can get a map of your precinct and a poll sheet listing every registered voter in your precinct for free from the Chicago Board of Elections at their City Hall office on the first floor. And you can start knocking on the doors of your neighbors and asking them to vote for the best candidates.

There is no better way to win elections – and by electing progressive crusaders like Barack Obama, lifting the living standards of millions of people – than by methodically talking to neighbors, giving them information about the candidates and the voting process, and then asking them to vote for the good guys.

In this time of great potential change and progressive reform in the Illinois Democratic Party, we need more precinct organizers who will persistently work on building our majority, one voter at a time.

More Nader reaction

Polis-Chicago found this AP story in the New York Times on Nader's call to impeach President Bush in Chicago yesterday (why didn't the Chicago dailies cover this story?), and kindly quotes my post below.

I think a lot of progressives who have come to understand their role in the Democratic Party coalition take a similar attitude towards Nader voters (for lack of a better term) than Polis-Chicago or thatcoloredfella (who is in the comments section): exasperation. Why don't these people get in line? And vote for Kerry? Or whatever centrist Democrat can beat the reactionary Republican?

First, let's put the blame on our outdated plurality voting system where a candidate need not earn a majority of the vote to win, so similar candidates can (and do) split the vote. Instant runoff voting solves this real problem. And just last month, Berkeley voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum to authorize its use in local elections (here is the campaign website). And to help make this happen, join this instantrunoff yahoogroup.

Polis-Chicago wants Nader to sternly scold his young followers to vote for Kerry in the fall (as if they all will follow his command). I think it makes far more sense to ask them to cast their second-choice for Kerry, since, after all, Kerry is their second-choice. Not their first-choice.

Enough about that. If Nader is right that he can help to frame the Bush Adminstration as a reckless, irresponsible mess with quagmire abroad and rich-get-richer-while-the-rest-of-us-stagnate at home, by saying things that don't seem 'presidential' but make people nod their heads (such as "Bush should be impeached for lying about the reasons to invade Iraq"), then that's a good thing for helping to defeat Bush. Swing voters often like to hear strong, bold language. Kerry is unlikely to deliver that language, because of this odd Beltway tendency to seek establishment approval and seem imperiously responsible.

I really think we should see this as a structural difference in our governing coalition, since cultural conservatives and first-time voters seek establishment acceptance and approval in a hierarchy, so they have no problem joining up with the Republicans and getting in line, so it requires a structural solution. Getting mad at Nader is like getting mad at the symptoms of a disease. Progressives are by nature less disciplined than conservatives, so we need to find a way to embrace that as a competitive advantage instead of always getting hurt by it.

P.S. I was on ABC 7 yesterday at 6 pm (thank you Andy Shaw), and wouldn't you know it, forgot to tape the show. If anyone can get me a tape of the Tuesday newscast, I'll buy you lunch. Or send you $40. Whichever you want.

Nader's speech in Chicago today

So, I went to hear Ralph Nader speak at Columbia College today. He's kicking off his Illinois campaign, and this is his first appearance in the state.

I was the Illinois manager for the Nader campaign in 2000, and I'm not a supporter of the Nader 2004 campaign. That's the background.

The place was filled with 200 or so mostly young, mostly white people. And this is a crowd that represents 1 to 5 percent of the Democratic Party coalition. John Kerry -- or any centrist presidential candidate -- will not bring these people out to vote. These people (many of them first-time voters) need an unalloyed candidate who doesn't seem part of the establishment to inspire them to participate. They need a candidate who can call for President Bush's impeachment for an "unconstitutionally-authorized war based on untruths" in order to register to vote and feel that they aren't selling out.

Of course, the tension is that Kerry is better than Bush for these people, but many of them won't vote for Kerry.

That's where instant runoff voting comes in. Voters get a first-choice and a second-choice.

The crusading candidate can inspire and energize voters, who then give their second-choices to the better ccentrist candidate.

Plus, it's great for a civic culture to have more voices and more choices. Too many topics are taboo in our political discourse. One young bearded radical asked Ralph about Israel-Palestine: whether as President he would cut off economic aid to Israel and whether he would back the "racist two-state solution." Ralph said that he would do both of these things and then mentioned that in Israel, there's more freedom to discuss U.S. policy towards Israel and especially the economic aid we provide than there is in the United States.

I think that's true -- it's a taboo to talk about Israel in anything less than a solidarity song. But it raises another point: more choices help raise more issues, and as democrats, we all should like that. That helps to inform and articulate the public will.

My article on Chicago as a Green City in this month's Conscious Choice is out

So, the April cover story in Conscious Choice is about Chicago as an environmentally-leading city. I'm credited with the story, but the tone of the piece is my editor's, not mine.

But there's no way to tell that from reading the piece (or, I guess, any edited piece).

I can see which paragraphs in the piece retain my tone, and which ones take on the breezy, conversational tone of my editor (such as the lead: "You've gotta hand it to him." or ". . the mayor's intent is clear: I mean business!").

I'm delighted and grateful to Conscious Choice that I had the chance to interview Mayor Daley and write about environemental policies, but I am incredibly uncomfortable with reading sentences that I would never have written under my name. It seems so inauthentic.

I wonder how other writers -- those with editors -- deal with the this professional tension. I mean, I'm appalled that the word "gotta" appeared in an article that I wrote. I feel like one of those public service announcements where a 10-year-old girl's voice is speaking from the body of a 60-year-old man. This article is not in my voice. Maybe I'm just acting like a bit of a prima donna.

I'll link to the article as soon as they update their website.

Too bad Eric Zorn is on vacation; I'd like to know his thoughts on this, since he's got editors. Any other reporters or free-lancers, I'd like to know your thoughts.

Landslide win for smart tax reform! 61% vote to make state taxes smarter (and subsidized by feds)

Just found out the good news: 61% of voters in the 17th precinct of the 43rd ward voted YES to the question: Should we raise the raise the state personal exemption from $2000 to $12000 and for the state to break even, raise the income tax rate from 3% to 4%, which would mean $200 million less federal taxes paid by Illinois residents.

There were 38 yes votes and 24 no votes.

It isn't online yet, but I hope the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners will put it up soon.

That would be a great move. And if affluent Lincoln Parkers are willing to vote for this proposal, then this thing should have some traction!

Big article by Scott Turow on Barack Obama in Salon

Salon has this article on Barack Obama.

Great article on the Welfare Sox and what to do with all that public money

(That's my term -- the Welfare Sox -- since we taxpayers subsidize each White Sox ticket to the tune of $20.20. That's every single ticket sold to a White Sox fan -- we pay $20.20.)

Anyway, here's the article by the Metro Chicago Information Center.

The main point: with the ridiculous amount of government money spent on sports stadiums, wouldn't we be better off spending that money on theatres and orchestras, if the point is to create tourist destinations that keep money in the Chicago economy? We could subsidize each ticket for a Chicago play by $20.20.

Good article on the Dean campaign's fall in The Atlantic

Thanks to Paul Froehlich for the tip, here's a good article in The Atlantic from a Dean pollster (Paul Maslin) on how the campaign fell from front-runner to third-place.

I think they overstate the "problem" of young, out-of-state Dean campaigners in Iowa -- 3500 young volunteers is an asset, not a liability. Looks like my experience in Dubuque with the Kerry campaign fits with this narrative, as the Kerry campaign ran a traditional 'knock on doors, identify your core supporters and get them out to vote (or caucus)' while Dean didn't do that.

With 3500 volunteers, the Dean campaign could have had a precinct captain in every single precinct. And I think people respect a knock on the door (especially in the winter) more than a phone call from regional headquarters. Maybe the Dean campaign should have assigned each out-of-state volunteer to a precinct and had them walk every day. That walking also tends to instill a sense of humility and deference, which also plays well with older voters.

6% tax on income >$250,000 gets a boost from Cindy Richards

Cindy Richards' column in the Sun-Times here promotes SJRCA 20 (the bill is here), which is usually called "The Pat Quinn Amendment" in the press. Cindy Richards neglects to identify the bill number, or the Senate sponsor, Maggie Crotty.

That's probably a sign of a problem for the smart idea -- when it is identified so strongly with Lt. Governor Quinn, and not so much with other lawmakers. I asked Senator Crotty yesterday what's going on with the amendment, and she says that she'll still enthusiastic about it, but I wonder why there haven't been any additional co-sponsors. Maybe Lt. Gov Quinn is hoping to cut a deal to get SJRCA 20 passed at the end of session, but I think he needs some Senators to start helping out. Soon.

Standardized insurance/billing forms

One more thing: why don't we force all insurance companies to use the same billing form? That would save a ton of money.

Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover (later President) crusaded standardization for all sorts of industries in the 1920s: "from milk bottles and auto tires to kitchen plumbing and gas meters" according to this site. We still benefit from his efficiency. In the Information Age, seems like we need some information standardization regarding health insurance to reap similar efficiencies.

Expanding health insurance through the state government

(Instead of getting some work done in the office today, I'd rather write about some innovative progressive public policy on how to expand health insurance. No wonder I'm broke. So, here goes:)

As the federal government is run by the corporate wing of the Republican Party, state and local governments are the places where we can expand health insurance. What are some good ideas out there?

Howard Dean had some good ones. In this interview, Dr. Dean says that states should cover everyone under the age of 25 through Medicaid, and the feds should pick up the cost of all seniors in Medicaid. I like the idea of the state covering everyone under 25 through Medicaid. Apparently, Vermont already covers everyone under the age of 18. Not sure how that happens.

In Illinois, the medical malpractice insurance is driving some doctors out of the state, especially in Southern Illinois. This is a growing issue; here's an article from Alton, Illinois that explains that one of the two Alton hopsitals might close because so many doctors are faced with very high insurance costs for medical malpractice.

So, the Republicans would like to cap medical malpractice jury awards, thinking that if a jury can't award a victim of medical malpractice $10,000,000 or so, then the insurance rates would go down. The Illinois General Assembly can cap those jury awards, and there are groups pushing to do just that, led by the Illinois State Medical Society (here is their fact sheet on the issue). When the Republicans ran state government in 1995 and 1996, they passed a cap on punitive damanges on jury awards, but that cap was declared unconstitutional by the Democratic-controlled Illinois Supreme Court a few years later. I'm not sure if medical malpractice caps would be constitutional under the decision. The Illinois Civil Justice League is a Republican group also arguing for caps and other reforms.

So, if it is possible to impose some sort of medical malpractice cap, what do we progressives get in return? Maybe universal health coverage. Maybe we put a cap on the tax expenditure spent on private health insurance plans to bring in more revenue (in other words, if a company buys a hugely expensive health care plan for the executives, all that expense is deductible from their state income tax, so they pay less in state income tax). We could put a cap on that state subsidy of private plans, to help fund universal coverage through expanded Medicaid.

One problems is that some Illinois physicians get sued over and over again, but they don't get their license yanked, according to this report by Stephen Roth.

The Illinois Hospital Association reprinted a good roundtable from the Joliet Herald-News here. Some good ideas that jumped out at me from the liberal Coalition for Consumer Rights: reduce actual malpractice through a more transparent, more aggressive Department of Professional Regulation that can yank the licenses of bad doctors. They have a report here on that topic. That seems like common sense to me, but just getting sued probably isn't the best indicator of a bad doctor. Then again, what's a better indicator than that? Maybe if we had more evidence of actual mistakes made by physicians, we'd be in a better place to know which doctors are bad. Seems like a smart state policy to force more disclosure of actual medical errors.

Well, that one took a different path. If anyone has other good ideas about expanding health insurance, send them over.

Laugh out loud nickname for Bobby Rush by President Emil Jones

From Kristen McQueary's excellent Sunday column in the Daily Southtown (I'll just clip from the column):

Even though his U.S. Senate candidate lost soundly — and the person with whom he maintains a rocky relationship won solidly — U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-1st) of Chicago attended a unity breakfast the day after the primary.

Rush backed Blair Hull over Barack Obama. Many speculated at least part of the reason was because Obama challenged Rush for his seat in Congress in 2000.

Rush said he backed Hull because they share similar backgrounds, and they built a friendship. Rush stood by Hull even when divorce and drug allegations dragged him down.

Obama, new superstar of the Democratic Party, was the center of attention at the breakfast and thanked Rush publicly for being there.

"It's no secret we've had our differences in the past, so for him to extend himself in this manner is extraordinary," Obama said.

Senate President Emil Jones — who backed Obama — wasn't as cordial when asked later about Rush's attendance: "I should have told him not to come: Bobby 'Price is Right' Rush."

Ouch.

Jones was turned off that Rush got behind Hull — a millionaire who doled out checks to various organizations, including Rush's church, as he sought support for his U.S. Senate bid.

Pat Quinn's referendum on a 6% rate for income >$250,000 passes

Cal Skinner in the Illinois Leader covered Pat Quinn's Taxpayer Action Amendment's successful election on Tuesday in this article, where most voters approved of the plan that would:

a) impose a new 6% income tax rate on any income earned over $250,000 (currently we have a flat 3% income tax rate on all income, so there would be an additional 3% tax on income over $250,000

b) put half that money into an education trust fund that would distribute an equal grant to each school on a per-pupil basis (about $200 per student)

c) put half that money into a fund that would send a check to every homeowner as a type of property tax rebate (projected to be about $200).

I voted for it, but I think it isn't fair to renters, and I'd rather fund a higher personal exemption for lower-income workers than a home-owner check with that extra money.

This requires a constitutional amendment, so I hope the General Assembly puts an amendment like this on the November 2004 ballot. I'd campaign for it.

The opportunity for Jesse Jackson, Jr. to lead Cook County

Phil Kadner has an excellent column in today's Daily Southtown here on how the low-profile race for the Cook County Board of Review where Larry Rogers beat Roger Shaw shows that Congressman Jackson can take on all the Democratic Party stalwarts --Speaker Madigan, Cook County Board President John Stroger, Congressman Bill Lipinski -- and win.

I think there's something new in the Illinois Democratic Party. Barack Obama's stunning victory and Larry Rogers win in the south side shows that Democratic Party voters are ready to support good-government, progressive candidates over machine hacks. I smell an opportunity.

Quick thought: reward for school attendance of state investment in college fund

Problem: high school dropouts (and even missing one day of school) costs us all money, since school funding is tied to attendance.

Problem: low-income people often don't develop any assets, and then don't know to develop assets.

Problem: higher education is increasingly unaffordable.

Potential partial solution: reward perfect attendance with a state contribution to a personal college fund (are they called 537s?) in the name of the minor student to be used for college tuition.

I know we have these funds that parents can contribute to tax-free, but we can also have the state contribute to them, and if the state contributes $1000 to a fund for a 7 year old, ten years later that $1000 becomes more valuable (almost doubles, right?).

Comments and thoughts on this idea greatly appreciated.

Rail investments -- a high-speed network is overdue, cheap and very doable

Chicago is the rail capital of the country. Our airports are hitting capacity. About a fifth of all flights out of O'Hare are to cities within 400 miles (like Milwaukee, Champaign, Indianapolis, Detroit, Madison, St. Louis). This is dumb.

We should have high-speed trains to relieve congestion at the airports and to get more downtown-to-downtown trips possible.

There's a meeting on Saturday of the Midwest High-Speed Rail Coalition. I'm a member and I hope you will join as well (tell them DJW sent you).

And there is a plan (without any money so far) to alleviate the rail bottlenecks in Chicago (the downside to being the rail capitol of the nation is that lots of the tracks intersect). So, the Amtrak from Carbondale and Urbana-Champaign has to go backwards in Chicago, almost within sight of Union Station, costing an extra 20 minutes at least. These delays caused by ancient and under-invested infrastructure would be eliminated by the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE), a join program of the City of Chicago, the Illinois Department of Transportation and the major railroads (since all the rail is owned by private freight companies, not the government). The cost is $1.5 billion. And Congressman Bill Lipinski is leading the charge to get that money.

A news article from an advocacy group on the project is here.

If only we could call Union Station an airport (that uses trains instead of planes), maybe we could get some of the $12 billion (!!) that will go into O'Hare's modernization.

It felt like history tonight

Tonight it felt like we were a part of launching a national statesman.

His speech (which, like all of them, are done without notes or a Teleprompter) felt like a national convention speech. I hope someone transcribes it.

With an entourage and a spotlight and a sense of mission, it felt like State Senator Barack Obama became someone different tonight. And he called it out. I think he felt it too. He said "You have put me in a mood! You make me feel like I can be a better man. You make me feel like we can eradicate poverty. That we can give every child the education he or she deserves. Yes, we can!"

I'm butchering his eloquent, inspiring speech -- more of a call to mission than a simple speech. But it reminded me of Clinton at his best, the way that it enveloped you and carried you forward and made you believe that yes, we do not have to tolerate poverty, and yes, we can end medical bankruptcy and yes, we can invest in people and provide dignity and respect to everyone and that it is all right in front of us -- we just have to grab it together. Because, together, we can. Only, when it was over, you still felt good about the call and the speaker, where with a Clinton speech, you'd feel like you were tricked again by a smooth talker (and marvel at his skill).

Barack Obama has that voice of eloquence and passion and justice. And I think he is even more compelling because he is clearly human. He is no son of a dynasty. He is lucky to be where he is, and so he is authentic.

He reminded us why we are here and the only measure of our success: if we can make the lives of regular people measurably better, we have succeeded. If not, we have failed. Because "audacious hope" in the face of real struggle and real despair and real uncertainty -- that is what we can deliver. Not the "willful ignorance" of President Bush and the Republican congressional leadership that solve poverty and racism by wishing them away. But hope for a better day, by shifting our priorities, away from "protecting the priviliged" and towards decency.

It was from the heart and without notes and I am not doing it justice. If you can send me a transcript of the speech, please do so I can post it here. It made me proud to be a part of the Democratic Party.

The Emperors have no clothes

The Democratic machine does a great job at convincing people (like me) that the one thing it can do is win elections.

And the machine is no longer monolithic, of course, but when several patronage-driven organizations with hundreds of public employees compelled to work on political campaigns all unite behind one campaign, I begin to fear for the opponent.

But I shouldn't.

The organizations can't deliver like they used to.

And their perception of power is what keeps them powerful.

I will no longer accept that perception. Neither should you.

I can't wait to get the ward totals to see which organizations actually produced the most votes.

Or more accurately, which wards have the most active voters, because increasingly, organizations can't deliver votes.

Obama's primary campaign shook up the Illinois Democratic Party. And now the good guys have to invest in the Democratic Party to make it live up to its promise, where it is -- at its best -- a party that makes life better for regular everyday people and gives voice to the voiceless.

Barack Obama called for these principles in his electrifying speech tonight. And the coalition that backed him -- all races, all incomes, all parts of the state -- can take control of the Democratic Party from those who still use it as a business and corrupt the ideals that give people hope.

This is a very exciting time.

Political earthquake. Barack Obama is the voice of a new spirit

I still can't believe it. I just got back from the Obama victory party.

Half a million votes. More than 50%.

A clean sweep. The consensus candidate.

I knew at 7:28 pm, when I got the results from the 35th precinct of the 43rd ward. This precinct in Lincoln Park (a stretch of Lincoln Avenue from Fullerton to Webster) is an affluent neighborhood. (Little fact: my parents lived in the precinct in the 70s before the money came into Lincoln Park). Another fact: Dan Hynes lived in the precinct until a few years ago. This was considered to be prime Hynes territory.

Obama received 122 votes. Hynes received 18.

WOW!

That's not a landslide, that's a movement.

The precinct is probably 97% white, and 95% high-income.

The story was the same all over the state.

Democratic voters hungrily propelled an honest, intelligent black professor to the top of the party heap.

This was an absolute rejection of the machine.

This is huge.

I'm incoherent with happiness.

My prediction of primaries (part of Eric Zorn's blogger bowl)

Dem primary: GOP primary
Obama 33% Ryan 40%
Hynes 26% Oberweis 18%
Hull 16% McKenna 15%
Chico 11% Rauschenberger 14%
Pappas 10% Borling 4%
Skinner 2% Kathuria 4%
Washington 2% Wright 3%
Hill 2%
Turnout: 37% of registered voters