Rahm, Cutler, and Bobby Kennedy

I've been checking the local papers pretty relentlessly, waiting for word from our state supreme court. Nobody, but nobody seems to have any solid predictions on how they'll decide whether or not Rahm is eligible for candidacy under the Municipal Code.

My take: I've read the decision, and the dissent, twice. The majority opinion is based almost completely on the fact that the wording of the "Service to the United States" exception indicates that a resident loses and regains 'residence' upon leaving and returning for service.

The (implied) differentiation between 'active' residing and 'official' residing in this part of the statute is where the majority gets their reasoning.
It strikes me as a narrow reading, but certainly fair. This is a situation that will hopefully educate folks about how complicated statutory interpretation can be in a situation without any clear precedent. I'm not too smart, and I've read this thing over and over, and it's complicated as hell.

If I were a judge, I'd err on the side of promoting open democracy, with an expansive (permissive?) reading of 'resident." Clearly the dissenting judge does too, though her dissent is overly aggressive and shrill.

However, Rahm is a practitioner himself of political hardball. It is not out of the bounds of fair fighting to attempt to disqualify him. I would not be opposed to his being declared ineligible for candidacy.

This leads me to Jay Cutler, our Bears starting quarterback, and his well-deserved reputation as a sullen jerk. Criticism of his injury were disagreeable, and dishonorable. But it would have been different if he had been playing well, or even playing at a mediocre level.
When your only known quality is your performance, you leave yourself with no built-in shield.

Aaron Rodgers could throw five picks and leave with a hangnail, and still be huzzah'd by the
entire state of Wisconsin, because he's proven that he wants to do well for his fans. Jay Cutler has done nothing to earn any reserve of goodwill, and will continue to be judged solely by his play, because he seems to want it that way.

I've been reading a book by Jules Whitcover called 85 Days: The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy. It was written in 1969, and it's remarkable how different it is to read contemporary accounts as compared to historically-distanced accounts.
It's pretty much Whitcover traveling with RFK, and seeing a rapid transformation from "ruthless Bobby" into a folk-hero of the poor, blacks, and Mexicans.
It's interesting how close Kennedy's pre-campaign reputation has in common with the reputation of Rahm. Cold, ruthless, effective.

It would be impressive if Rahm decided to be a voice for the poor as RFK chose to become. Little chance of that, but we can hope.

2010 Streetie Awards

As always, the Streeties honor the best things discovered by the author in the award year----- though these may not be new to the public, they were new to Taylor Street in 2010.


Movie: The Town

Seriously, this was a cool movie.

I liked a lot of movies this year, and the recently-viewed Black Swan and True Grit were both very good in their own ways. But The Town was the movie that hooked me from the start. Inception may well be a better film, but The Town's full embrace of its genre conventions had the intended effect of making me ignore some of the cliches. Even the unsatisfying last shot couldn't kill it.

Album: The Suburbs, by Arcade Fire.

There were a LOT of great albums this year for people like me: the National, Broken Social Scene, Band of Horses, New Pornographers, but this one by Arcade Fire sticks with me the most even though I may actually listen to it less than the others. I think because it's about something, but it's not rigid in its message ---- the suburbs are neither an absolute good or bad, they just are where the narrators are from.
As an aside, I think that while High Violet has a few of the best songs the National have ever written the album suffers from tracks 2-4, which kill the rhythm for me. As a whole it's their weakest since Sad Song for Dirty Lovers. Thank goodness for tracks 5-9.

And of course Bruce's The Promise and Ryan Adams Cardinals III and IV , both double-platters, were important records for me personally, and are what I'll be listening to nonstop for the next few months.


Song: "Need You Know" by Lady Antebellum. This is an odd choice, mostly because it's a "pop-country" song, which is a genre I don't tend to spend a lot of time with. But I think it transcends its category (it hardly qualifies as country), and is an excellent pop song. The singers have strong voices, the lyrics are laudable for the fact that the narrators are clearly not going to be happy ever after. This song does not get old for me.

TV Show: Party Down.

Unfortunately canceled but available through Netflix, this show featured a cast of unstoppable actors who will be making comic gold for a long time, and luckily we got to see them together for two seasons. Adam Scott and Lizzy Caplan together would have been enough, but Jane Lynch, Ken Marino and Haverchuck from Freaks and Geeks make it legendary.



Politician:

President Barack Obama once again was one of the few grown-ups minding the store, and wisely spending his first two years in the nitty-gritty of passing landmark legislation: The ACA, the DADT repeal, the food safety act, and repeated extensions of unemployment insurance, keeping millions of families out of poverty during the recovery. Firing Stan McCrystal was yet another sign that the president may well be made of steel.

Legislation: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or, colloquially, "Obamacare." Enough digital ink has been spilled by me on this.

Actor: Joseph Gordon-Leavitt. His work in the very different 500 Days of Summer and Inception may well have teed him up for a role in the third Batman film. He's shown himself to be not only a commanding romantic lead and character actor, but also a humble guardian of the public's affection.

Actress: Hailee Stanfield, the kid from True Grit. Not a creepy woman-child, nor weirdly trading on her little-girlness, she brought the intensity as Mattie Ross.



Book: Bomb Power: Presidents and the Modern Security State by Garry Wills.

A solid exploration of how the United States became what we are today by means of the atomic bomb. Wills hasn't written anything frivolous in his life, and he continues to be a serious and honest broker.

Best Journalist (reportage): Tyler Hicks, photographer, New York Times.
(Copyright Tyler Hicks and the NYTimes)

His work in Afghanistan has continued to stun me this year. The above is from an ambush.

Best Journalist (opinion): Jon Chait of the New Republic.


Congratulations to all of our 2010 Streeties winners. Recipients are eligible for one fully-paid meal at Dunlays On the Square, courtesy of the Taylor Street editorial staff.

Bear down Chicago Bears!

For Christmas Kristin got us tickets to see the Bears take on the Packers at the world-famous Lambeau Field, on January 2.

As you can guess, January 2 brings cool temperatures in middle Wisconsin. It was around 20 for the game. Not much wind, but incredibly cold when sitting on metal seats. The two beers I had actually made me colder I think, and they started to form beer-cicles on the cup.

Weather is not what makes a time great though, so it was pretty amazing. Lambeau is deserving of its reputation as a glorious place for football. Very cool.

And good golly, Wisconsinites! They dress in full-body snowsuits for these games. Almost all of them. Either camoflauge or hunter orange. It was impossible to tell women from men. Packers games are like college game days. We paid ten bucks to park our car in someone's side yard a few blocks from the stadium. There are little ranch houses across the street from the stadium. Green Bay has a population of 102,000, and somehow manages to sell out every game every year.

As per usual, every single Wisconsinite I came across was friendly and kind. Easily America's nicest state.






Too bad the Bears lost, but a very awesome Christmas gift. Kristin's toes didn't get feeling back until an hour in the car with the heater on; lucky they didn't fall off.


Oh, and fried cheese curds. So tasty.