An admittedly "heartbroken" Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th) swallowed hard and accepted a watered-down version of her elephant cruelty ordinance at the behest of colleagues scared off by the ridicule that followed Chicago's now-repealed ban on foie gras."The aldermen experienced a lot of ridicule after the foie gras thing. Big joke..."
Alderman Marry Ann Smith
14 comments:
59 Chicago adults gather in a room once a month and accountability is so poor that the only check or balance we have on their behavior is apparently they don't like being ridiculed
This is another example of Joe just not being bright enough to accomplish anything correctly.
Joe claimed his foie gras legislation was about preventing cruelty to animals. But rather than directly take on the providers of foie gras, the ones force-feeding the foul, Joe tries to tell hard working, tax paying restaurant owners that they can no longer sell what is an otherwise legal product.
Of course it ultimately failed and embarrassed the city on a global scale. (And let's not even discuss Joe's lousy sense of priorities when his ward is in deep trouble.)
As an added negative result, the city council is hesitant to completely support Alderman Smith's attempt to directly address an animal cruelty issue.
See the difference? Ald. Smith did not try to pass legislation banning the sale of circus tickets to Chicago children; she attempted to directly ban cruelty to elephants.
Sorry, but I don't have anything personal against Joe; I do, however, maintain that he simply isn't bright enough or motivated enough to meet the requirements of his job.
"Joe claimed his foie gras legislation was about preventing cruelty to animals."
Don't forget the motivation for Joe's 'foie gras' bill was a $42,000+ donation to his campaign fund from PETA animal rights activist, Jena Krohl. I once asked the Rogers Park, no kill, animal shelter, The Red Door, if they had ever received any support or even been contacted by Joe or his office about the wonderful work they do....the answer of course was...NO! Surprise, surprise.
===Don't forget the motivation for Joe's 'foie gras' bill was a $42,000+ donation to his campaign fund from PETA animal rights activist, Jena Krohl.===
Joe Moore doesn't do anything for anyone without a campaign contribution attached.
Smith said some aldermen withheld their votes because they feared they would be scorned for spending time on this issue, as they were after passing---and then rescinding---a ban on serving foie gras in Chicago restaurants.
There are elephants in the 49 th ward?
The Aldermen (especially but not only ours) are not doing their jobs so why are we paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries, pensions and other benefits? They keep raising our taxes but do NOTHING except line their own pockets and hire cronies and family into city, county and state positions with ridiculously swollen pay grades.
This is really starting to bug me. Is there anything we can do about this?
Can we initiate the process needed to propose a referendum demanding the immediate recall of their most recent pay raise and put a freeze on any further raises until 2012? Can we also prevent such amenities as cars (let them drive their own cars, pay for their own parking or take CTA like the rest of us) and clothing allowances, etc.
This is ridiculous! I'm beginning to see the wisdom in closing down the entire "City Council" set up all together. Yes, we need representation downtown but these men and women are simply not up to the job. We need to investigate alternative measures for representation - ones that enforce true transparency and actual accountability.
- PEACE -
Hugh, where are these 59 adults you're talking about?
There are 50 aldermen & one mayor for life.
If Ald. Smith had proposed an ordinance to protect donkeys, it would have been passed by all Democrat-controlled Chicago City Council. This is an obvious case of political discrimination, and as a result we have Democrats to blame now for the mistreatment of elephants. Ah, but elephants have long memories.
Something more poisonous to the public are the fast food restaurants, McD,KFC,BK..you get the picture and also the junk food that they have at convienent food stores; cheapo chips,soft drinks, once again you get the picture. Why not ban this crap or tax the hell out of it. This way I do not have to pick up the packages that some barbarian throws on my front lawn
That's right 2good4u, just ban or tax more stuff & they won't laugh at you.
You're as bad as Moore!
There is something intrinsically flawed about a system that demands that our elected representatives pass ever more legislation in order to justify their paychecks.
Sometimes it's best to do NOTHING. However, we still have alot to do, so why don't we demand that our lawmakers at the local, state, and federal levels start REPEALING pernicious, useless, or outdated laws?
We can start at the local level with laws that ban this or that thing that was always acceptable in the past.
We can go to the state level and repeal the 1952 legislation authorizing TIF districts... for starters. Then go back through the books and consider the effect every Law @ Rule & Bill & Ordinance ever passed, and consider if we wouldn't be better off without it.
Then, the federal level. 10s of thousands of totally useless and/or harmful laws there.
This will give our elected reps plenty to do to justify their bloated salaries.
And, of course, press for reductions in the number of aldermen and staff and city agencies at the local level, and the sunseting of numerous federal agencies whose commission expired long ago, or are agencies that simply should not exist. HUD and FHA and GNMA come immediately to mind.
I've heard hundreds of pols promise to reduce the size of government, but i've never seen them do anything but increase it. Let's go for real reduction of government. But we can't leave it up to our pols and bureaucrats, because they personally benefit too much from multiplying laws and agencies and departments and staff.
My suggestion is to force feed the elephants.
(Sock Puppeteer said...)
Hugh, where are these 59 adults you're talking about?
There are 50 aldermen & one mayor for life.
They get eight dead people to vote. We are talking about the Chicago Machine, after all.
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