Beyond Pulaski there be monsters?

“Flyover Country” is the term East and West coast people call the Midwest - the big expanse of land East and West coasters don’t know, and don’t care about.
For many years, I treated Portage Park as the railroad equivalent to “flyover country”.
Maybe I should call it “roll past” country. When I took the METRA from the Northwest suburbs down town, I probably noticed the big Sears store at Six Corners, and didn’t think much of it. What I knew of Chicago was the Lake Front to oh, maybe..Western Avenue. Beyond California, there be monsters
Now I live here.
I got a good offer - cheaper rent, and an easier commute to and from the ‘burbs.
Oh sure, I won’t be hearing the sounds of Lake Michigan on Summer mornings anymore. Now it’ll be the sounds of the Kennedy expressway, with news helicopters hovering overhead, as they provide video feed for the traffic reports.
Not very prosaic.
That’s OK. I know where the Lake is. I can reach it on the #80 bus.

Waiting for Blanco (to start playing),A memo to the Chicago Fire New Coach

To: Juan Carlos Osorio

From: Don Mac Gregor

Re: Saving the rest of the season after the All-Star break.

Coach, first of all, welcome to the team. I was going to suggest that before each game you should hypnotize the team into believing they are playing MKS Cracovia again. If you saw the inspired, if rough play against the Polish visitors you’d be amazed. However I am reminded of the words of Sherlock Holmes: “When you have eliminated the ridiculous, you are stuck with the practical.”

OK, so it wasn’t an exact quote, but I think you understand my sentiments. I want to talk to you about establishing team stability, personnel consistency and variety in the Fire’s attack. Let’s start off with stability.

It’s no fun working for a company that’s the subject of takeover rumors. I work for a company that was taken over by a multinational. It was an upsetting experience for a lot of long time employees. Who would stay? Who would be forced to move on? People would talk. People would speculate. People would upset themselves with speculation and lose focus.

All media -print and electronic – are filled with pesky talk about AEG’s sale of the team. Not thinking about the Chicago Fire’s future is like trying not to imagine Abel Xavier with a shocking pink hairdo flecked with purple polka dots, and a road hazard orange beard.

You can’t stop people from speculating, after work, but while your players are on the practice field and in the locker room, there should be a “no speculation rule”. Get every player to focus on the things they can control – their performance. Whatever happens with the team’s ownership shall happen. There’s nothing they can do until the end of the season. At least the players now know who their head coach is, now how about if they knew who was in their lineup?

I agree with my colleague John Schulz at Windy City Soccer, that the goalkeeping is solid, so I’ll move on to the defense. The Houston loss shows how dependent Chicago’s defense is on C.J. Brown. If a healthy Dasan Robinson doesn’t shore up on the defense, then you and John Guppy have to go out and buy someone next month. Jim Curtin can’t do everything back there.

I have nothing to say about the midfield except KEEP JUSTIN MAPP on the inside. Your predecessor had Mapp on the wing hopelessly hoofing the ball to a heading-challenged Nate Jaqua for half the season. Then Mapp moved inside, and started scoring. There’s one other thing to remember: Mapp is a very energetic MIDFIELDER-not a forward. Let us now move on to Chad Barrett and his rotating cast of forward partners. Who should they be?

The forward partnership should be Chad Barrett and …someone who starts with Chad every game. You may want to put Chris Rolfe back in front when he’s recovered. I’d like to see another big man. When Jerson Montiero gets healthy, put him in for the rest of the season. We need another big man up front who won’t get knocked off the ball in the same way that Toronto’s Marvell Wynne shouldered Calen Carr out of his way. Whether you pencil in Rolfe or Montiero Chad Barett needs a strike partner whose characteristics he knows, and with whom he can work with game after game. Barrett and his teammates also have to know when to give up on hoofing the ball down the field. This brings me to the subject of variety in offense, and in particular, short passes.

If you saw the second half of the MKS Cracovia game, you saw the visitors slither through our defense with a serpentine series of short passes. Our defense was able to blunt their final attack, but Cracovia demonstrated how a quick series of well executed short passes can advance the ball up the pitch. Contrast this with the recent Houston match where the Chicago consistently sent in centering crosses to the head of-oops- Houston’s Craig Waibel. Watch that Houston game again Coach, and plan for more short-pass drills during practice. QUICK short passes.

Good luck with integrating Cuauhtémoc Blanco into your plans. I don’t know if we can make it to the playoffs, but stability, consistency and variety in attack should get us off the bottom of the standings.

One drought ends. Another? (rolls eyes)

In the interest of preserving my blood pressure, I decided to skip watching the Chicago Fire play DC United. Results here.

I hadn't heard the Grant Park Orchestra & Chorus play in a zillion years. Since our church choir director is one of the basses, I thought I'd see what the fuss was about.
I don't know Mendelssohn from Mussorgsky, but I thought I'd give Elijah a try.
(Actually I do know Mussorgsky. I listened to Pictures at an Exhibition, and NO I don't mean the Emerson, Lake and Palmer version!)

Memo to me: go find a CD of Elijah. This was a great concert.

There were some interesting ironies during the night. I got caught in a rain squall. The rain let up before the performance. The irony? Elijah starts with Israel stricken with a drought.
Near the end of part one the Elijah, whom you may have discerned is an Old Testament figure,
beeches God to bring rain.
I found myself looking up at the sky and thinking,
"Don't get any ideas, Big Guy. This is just a performance."
The night was cool and dry.

Oh yes, and another thing: Elijah starts out with a drought, but all is well in the end. We here how he ascends to heaven on a flaming chariot.
As for the Chicago Fire, they are in a victory drought. The heavens are brass and the earth is iron. Rain?

"He that shall endure to the end shall be saved." Matthew 10:22
But tonight, I chose music, sweetly performed.

More on MAPLight

The Nation posted an article on MAPLight.org.
The site is a good starting point for tracking Federal Legislation, and the interest groups that support and oppose bills as they pass through Congress. Watch MAPLight's introduction video here.

We Need Something Like This For the Illinois Legislature

One of my colleagues heard about Maplight when she went to the Special Libraries Association Convention in Denver.

Maplight not only tracks federal legislation, but the interest groups lined up for and against them. A user can search by Bills in Congress or the California Legislature. Other choices allow you to search Congresspersons, and get a basic idea of who has contributed to them.
Here are two Northeastern Illinois examples: Jan Schakowsky (D-9^th) and Mark Kirk (R. 10th).

Click on the Top Organizations tab for Jan Schakowsky, and you’ll see

Organization of contributor	Contributions
RETIRED	$43,300
SELF-EMPLOYED	$30,700
ATTORNEY	$26,925
AMERICAN FEDN OF ST/CNTY/MUNIC EMPLOYEES	$10,200
TEAMSTERS UNION	$10,000
MACHINISTS/AEROSPACE WORKERS UNION	$10,000
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS	$10,000
UNITED AUTO WORKERS	$10,000
COLUMBIA COLLEGE/CHICAGO	$9,200
SIDLEY AUSTIN LLP	$8,200

Columbia College? Somebody please explain.

For Mark Kirk, the results would be:

Organization of contributor	Contributions
RETIRED	$404,054
LAKEWOOD HOMES	$39,600
ATTORNEY	$33,250
PHYSICIAN	$24,000
MEDLINE INDUSTRIES	$23,050
INVESTOR	$21,200
WINSTON & STRAWN	$20,850
QUICKSET INTERNATIONAL	$20,050
BUSINESSMAN	$19,400
EXELON CORP	$18,100

A user can search by Interest groups. However, the categorization isn’t organization-specific. I tried searching for Service Employees International Union. The closest category I could find was:
“Commercial Service Union” .

This category will list the top recipients of contributions.

I’d say this is a good place to START your research, and then move on to other sites such as Open Secrets or the Federal Election Commission.

Maplight is relatively new. Maybe if they establish contacts in Illinois, they'll have a database on our legislature, too.
Note: I haven’t forgotten the Illinois State Board of Elections disclosure site . However, when I went to check for statements from Kirk & Schakowsky, I didn’t find any.

SICK TRANSIT....one big piss in a wet suit?

Finally, after various mass transit delays. I got to room 302 of UIC's student center, where Monday's CTA Public hearing was being held.I don't know if Ron Huberman or any of the other officials made opening statements. If so I was too late to hear that.I did arrive in time for the Ron Huberman Roast, a/k/a the Public comment period.People were allowed to step up to the microphone, and in a two minute(?) period, allowed to voice their concerns.The list of questions & comments included:
1. How did the CTA arrive at it's cuts, and will the phase in of cuts be gradual?
2. A National Federation of the blind spokesperson who reminded us of the many blind people on fixed incomes who would be hurt by fare raises.
3. CTA board salaries: why so high?
4. Lost revenue due to broken fare boxes. Get a clue, huh?
5. 30 day pass increase to $122.00 could force people to ride METRA.
---CAVEAT: This assumes that METRA doesn't cry poor and raise fares.
---Well, duh! CAVEAT not everyone who uses bus routes, such as the #1 bus lives near a Metra line. That routes, the Indiana/Hyde Park is targeted for a cut. See the rest here.
6.Why pay more for an unsafe ride? One 20 year old female college student tearfully talked about being harassed on CTA trains, and not getting any help from security. She was ready to take METRA.
7.One person who spoke before me didn't have enough time to get to her point. She used most of her time telling the board how many "Chapter 1" -elementary & high school students parents she represented. Which makes me wonder if those Chapter 1 parents could organize a...
8.Boycott??? Someone in the back kept yelling that.
But can you imagine the logistics of organizing van and carpools to get people to their destinations?
And yet....oh what the heck....suppose a half of the CTA's ridership boycotted, and had car & van pools for a month.Make it two months for a symbolic walkout. Nah, it would have to be three, plus informational picketing.You think CTA would clean up its financial act then?Shades of Montgomery, back in the 50's.

"Do you think they're going to listen to us?" someone asked me afterwords, as we waited
(and waited) at the UIC Halsted blue line. I facetiously suggested that we should steal the board member's cars and force all of them to take public transit.I don't know. I think we attendees were allowed to blow off steam. This was our piss in a wetsuit. It made us feel good to get our frustrations with the CTA out of us.But like a piss in a wet suit, it gave us a warm feeling, but will anyone at CTA notice?

Sick Transit, Part 3. CTA, are your trying to lose me to METRA?

I ask this assumption based on two possibilities.
1.The CTA raises its monthly pass to $122.00
2. METRA doesn't raise it's mothly passes.

Heck,it be easy for me to tell my employer to stop paying for the monthly CTA card and switch it to METRA.
Looking at the list of routes to be cut, it appears that CTA is conceding passengers to METRA.
I see they are cutting Evanston routes such as the 201, and the 206.
Not everyone can afford that switch.
How many Evanston Hosptial workers can afford a ten ride Metra ticket to Central street?
How may domestics who ride the Pace 213, after connecting through the purple line can afford a ten-ride Metra ticket to Winnetka from downtown Chicago?
We are many, we reverse commuters. Suburbs, you need us. You need CTA service as much as we city folk do.
More after I've had a night's sleep.