As you can imagine, tonight’s event is canceled due to inclement weather. We’ll let you know when it is rescheduled.
Filibustery
An excellent presentation on the filibuster, courtesy of Newsbound, a new news enterprise out of San Francisco.
Filibustery: Episode One from Newsbound on Vimeo.
Del Valle endorsed by Latino county commissioners
From the Chicago Sun-Times:
He may be behind in the polls and in fund-raising, but on Friday, City Clerk Miguel del Valle picked up the endorsements of both Hispanic commissioners on the Cook County Board.
“He knows what it takes to build healthy neighborhoods, to bring vibrancy, to put people to work,” Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia said. “If we’re looking for integrity, if we’re looking for independence, and accountability … Miguel del Valle is the best choice.”
Garcia represents the largely Mexican-American 7th district on the Southwest Side. Edwin Reyes represents the more Puerto Rican 8th District on the Northwest Side. Both endorsed del Valle Friday. Del Valle is also backed by the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization.
Del Valle reported raising a mere $60,000 Thursday, showing he is being out raised 200-to-1 by Rahm Emanuel and 50-to-1 by the other Hispanic candidate in the race, former School Board chief Gery Chico.
Should del Valle pull out and endorse Chico? Chico is showing twice the overall support in the polls, though Hispanic voters appear equally split between the two.
“He is not running as a Latino candidate,” Garcia said. “He has strength in that community, but he is well-respected everywhere.”
Emanuel’s big-dollar donations from Steven Spielberg and other movie industry moguls don’t make him unbeatable, del Valle said.
“This amount of money is an obscene amount of money,” del Valle said. “We knew that from the beginning, that Rahm Emanuel would raise big dollars in Hollywood and on Wall Street and in other parts of the country. There are a lot of big-money interests out there counting on Rahm Emanuel to protect their interests. This is Chicago. We should not be picking a mayor of the city of Chicago based on what Hollywood star or what Hollywood tycoon is able to provide … funding for the mayoral candidate.”
Chico was endorsed this week by the Fraternal order of Police, the union representing Chicago cops.
More endorsement info can be found at Del Valle for Mayor.
Lecture Tonight at East-West University
AUTHOR AND LABOR LAWYER SPEAKS AT EAST-WEST
Thomas Geoghegan discusses economic crisis from labor perspective
CHICAGO– (Jan. 11, 2011) Author and lawyer Thomas Geoghegan will present a lecture titled “We’re Deep in Debt – What Would Keynes Do?” as part of the East-West Perspectives lecture series on Tue., Jan. 18, 2011 in the Fourth Floor Auditorium at East-West University, 816 S. Michigan Ave., in Chicago. The event begins with a reception at 6:30 p.m. followed by the lecture at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free, and the event is open to the public.
Mr. Geoghegan is a Chicago author and lawyer. He has represented unions and employee groups in plant closings, public-interest lawsuits to restrict the sale of handguns, enforce child labor laws and require public health measures for the homeless. In 2009, he ran in the Democratic primary for the open congressional seat vacated by Rham Emmanuel.
Mr. Geoghegan is author of Which Side Are You On? Trying To Be For Labor When It’s Flat On Its Back, nominated in 1991 as one of the five best non-fiction works by the National Book Critics Circle. His other books include The Secret Lives of Citizens: Pursuing the Promise of American Life; In America’s Court: How A Civil Lawyer Who Likes to Settle Stumbled Into A Criminal Trial; The Law in Shambles; and See You in Court: How the Right Made America a Lawsuit Nation. He has contributed to The Nation, In These Times, The American Prospect, The New Republic, the New York Times op-ed page, among others, and appeared on CNN, CBS Sunday Morning News, and PBS’ NewsHour.
Mr. Geoghegan’s latest book is Were you Born on the Wrong Continent?: How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College.
East-West University is a private, not-for-profit, and non-denominational institution of higher learning in Chicago’s South Loop. East-West is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), and provides affordable, quality higher education to students from all ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.
Spectrum Culture
Spectrum Culture reviews Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?
[D]espite repeated and rueful admissions that France is infinitely sexier than his chosen subject, he doesn’t advocate a Parisian model (or mass expatriation, either). Instead, he chooses, and encourages us to emulate, the Germans: and while that may sound as dry, stiff and uptight as you can possibly get within the otherwise vibrant European continent, there’s a good reason for his choice. Geoghegan wisely anticipates that many Americans may resent being asked to read about Germany (a “dreary place” compared to Paris, “even if the baked goods are just as delectable”); but, as he puts it, “maybe you’re exhausted as an American, and while you want to be competitive, you also want a life.” Enter the “German model,” a system that fosters an economy as competitive as China’s, a large, industrial, worker-controlled labor force, broad civic engagement, green business practices and some of the strongest print media industry left on the planet.
Dreary and dark though it may be at times, Geoghegan insists, passionately, that Germany works. Not perfectly, perhaps, but in a fashion designed to cultivate livable, balanced and – shoot – even lucrative, informed and economically stable lives.
Christian Century Recommended
To be called a “European socialist” is a political smear these days, but Geoghegan, a Chicago labor lawyer, offers a spirited defense of the European political model. He focuses on Germany, a country that is more competitive in the global market than the U.S. and that offers its workers much more in wages, health care, education, pensions and vacations than comparable U.S. workers get. It turns out, Geoghegan says, that the Europeans beat us at both capitalism and socialism. They enjoy a high standard of living, work less and get six weeks of vacation besides. What’s not to like?
Connect with Tom
I have to believe them. Click here to see for yourself.
I’d rather be Parisian
Anne Kingston from McCleans.ca writes about “Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?”
Lately, though, that continental drift seems to have been eclipsed by a more focused continent envy. Economic instability, coupled with the realization that “quality of life” is on the skids in North America, has given rise to an I’d-be-happier-elsewhere feeling evident in two new books: Thomas Geohegan’s Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life and Steven Will’s Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age. Geohegan, a Chicago labour lawyer, started work on his book 10 years ago, inspired by Germany’s generous worker compensation (including a standard six weeks of holiday) and vigorous work ethic—two factors, he contends, that contribute to that nation’s current status as the world’s most competitive economy. What impressed him was the “dignity” accorded workers in a society that views work as only one facet of a well-lived life. It’s a template he would like to see imported to North America: “We need the European model because we don’t have a way of speaking about raising our standard of living except in terms of money,” he writes.
