This blog has moved to samanthaabernethy.wordpress.com. Just in case anyone was actually reading it.

I love this city.

Well, last week I had to complete my final projects. I was physically, emotionally and creatively exhausted. The only thing keeping me sane was the excitement of taking a break from it all to check in on the storm surrounding Gov. Rod Blagojevich. I wanted so badly to blog about it, but I had grades to earn.

Alas, I look forward to continuing this blog, despite the fact that I’m no longer doing it for a grade. Expect more snarky commentary on the disastrous state of Illinois politics. Can’t wait!

Mayor Daley at a City Council meeting in November

Yesterday the Mayor had some constructive driving advice: Slow down. The cutbacks in the Chicago city budget hit the Department of Streets and Sanitation pretty hard, which, in turn, will affect snow removal this winter. The Chicago Reader today reported that this is the smallest winter cleanup budget since 2004. Snow removal is no bargain:

“That was only 1.5 inches, 2.5 inches of snow. It’s almost half a million dollars just like that,” Mayor Daley said.

That’s a lot of tax dollars. The main arteries won’t be affected as much as the side streets will be, so be prepared. So if you want to recession-proof your commute, don’t drive. And if you were thinking about parking your car, don’t. Or at least watch out for snow removal zones or quadrupling parking meter fees or the increased parking garage taxes. Oh, and don’t run red lights

But again, this is what has to be done to keep Chicago’s budget afloat without raising property taxes, which is great and all, but there are other costs incurred to us through all of these other “nickel-and-dime” taxes. The thing is, a lot of these things are aimed at inconveniencing area drivers, which could backfire on the city if people do actually start to choose public transit over driving in the loop. But like Daley said when he introduced the budget earlier this fall:

“Make no mistake: This is no ordinary year or years.”

***By the way, I’ve noticed a spike in new readers, so thanks for stopping by!

The Chicago Tribune ran a story yesterday that warned Chicago drivers of the perils of messing with the Obamacade on the highway. Apparently there have been some incidents of people driving aggressively in an attempt to avoid the inconvenience, so people need to be reminded of why they shouldn’t let their road rage bubble in this particular incidence:

“Stay calm, slow down and don’t try to aggressively engage or get away from the motorcade,” Zahren advised.

And always remember why the windows are open in the security vehicles leading and tailing the president’s car: To give the sharpshooters inside a clean shot.

They also touched on something I discussed recently, regarding the difference between maneuvering the motorcade through Chicago, as opposed to DC.

In fact, the need for drivers to show deference to the presidential motorcade is more of an issue in Chicago than it is in Washington. That’s because in the nation’s capital, streets are completely cordoned off for the presidential motorcade, officials said. Other cities have different security protocols.

Well, in the article, they mention that southbound Lake Shore Drive is shut down when Obama travels on it. In two years in DC, I can’t remember a single instance when I was delayed because a major artery was closed to traffic for Bush, but perhaps that is purely coincidental (DC-ers, chime in if you have an anecdote!). And also, like I said before, they surely have a well-worn system in place, so the presidential motorcade is less noticeable to residents. Perhaps that is how things are going to be in Chicago soon:

When asked how the Chicago Police Department is balancing Obama’s security with the interests of drivers, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said drivers must adjust. “Presidential motorcades may be a permanent fixture of Chicago’s traffic routine,” she said.

While I’m sure Obama has no plans to move the White House to Chicago (could he?), we will be seeing more of his motorcade in the years to come. So even though the security makes us nervous, it’s important to remember they are there for everyone’s safety and they’re not going away anytime soon, so just deal with it!

Since everyone else has been passing around the Palin turkey gore-fest video, I’ll go ahead and post the one I prefer that includes Keith Olbermann’s commentary:

But if you can only watch one clip, this one is definitely more cheerful. President Martin Sheen in The West Wing, chatting it up with the Butterball hotline, which, by the way, really exists. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving!

The Medill newsroom is conveniently located across the street from where Obama’s transition team has been meeting the last couple of weeks, so it’s been very interesting to see the motorcade coming and going all the time. Everyday I can watch Chicago police block off a chunk of Clark Street to let the motorcade out, pausing rush hour traffic by car AND by foot, so the motorcade can move along.

There has been a lot of discussion of the cost to the city of Obama’s presence here, dating back to the day he announced Obamapalooza. Lately that discussion has centered around Chicago’s thinly-spread police department. The police here do a great job of maintaining order with what they have to work with. Daley’s relationship with the police department always been somewhat tumultuous, appeasing them when he needs a favor and throwing them under the bus when it helps him secure votes.

As for the issue of whether Chicago’s police force is being over-burdened by the presence of the president-elect, our favorite Mayor had this to say:

“This is a great honor…We’re excited about him being here. This is his transition. He could go to Washington, D.C…He’s not going to buy right into Washington. He’s here and he has people from all walks of life coming here. It is putting us on a global map more than anything else.”

More than anything else? Sure, I guess you’re right. And if we want those Olympics, Chicago better get on that map quickly, no? Oh, and good move dissing Washington, D.C. Yes, Daley, do go on…

“In Washington, D.C., the Secret Service [would] be doing most of this — even outside the buildings. We’ve taken that responsibility and they’re going to reimburse us for that… We’ll utilize resources from headquarters and the training academy until next week. [After that], off-duty officers will be compensated at time-and-a-half, to be paid by the federal government. This is a temporary measure that does not take any officers off Chicago streets.

Well, for starters, in Washington, the President does not leave his house that often. He has a sweet commute from the living quarters to the West Wing. Whereas here, The Obamacade clogs up the downtown area twice a day, plus they patrol outside the Federal Building all day. Also, after living in DC myself for 2 years, I never noticed the presidential presence nearly this month. It’s obviously a well-practiced plan by now

But now I have to wonder: Why would the police presence be needed at all? Why can’t the Secret Service cover all of it on their own? They have been carrying Obama all over the country for quite some time now, so I think they would probably be relieved to only cover his movement between the South Side and the South Loop.

Also, if the police officers working are actually “off-duty” and will be paid overtime, doesn’t that mean that our police officers are working more than usual? Isn’t it true that if one were suddenly working a lot of overtime, it might cause one to be a little more tired? How would that not affect their work? I certainly hope that these officers aren’t being pressured into taking extra shifts because it’s difficult to ask even more from a group of people who already work so hard to keep us safe.

During Barack Obama’s historic victory speech, he thanked his family for their support, and he added a special promise to his girls: Sasha and Malia would be getting the puppy they had hoped for. Surely it will be the easiest campaign promise for him to keep.

The media immediately latched onto the story, along with a slew of other stories to tell us about our soon-to-be First Family. The Chicago Tribune speculated the next day on which breed would be a likely candidate. They later ran a photo slideshow retrospective on Presidential pets.

The main question is no longer Republican v. Democrat, but rather pure-breed v. rescue dog. In a Obama’s first press conference as president-elect, he expressed interest in getting a “mutt like me.” You can cast your vote at ElectObamasDog.com. You can also lobby the Obama’s to purchase a rescue dog by signing a petition at PresidentialPoochPardon.com.

The Obama’s were faced with some bad news the next week, though. Since their older daughter Malia has allergies, the search for the dog had focused on those breeds with a minimum of dander. However, media reports from allergists showed that “there is no truly ‘hypoallergenic’ dog.” Fortunately, the Washington Post hosted a chat with an expert on pet adoption, researched the best way to live with a pet when you have allergies, as well as created a photo gallery of options.

The hunt for the dog recently met another setback, though. Sadly, on Sunday, Nov. 16, in an interview with 60 Minutes, Barack and Michelle Obama announced that in order to be “responsible” pet owners, they would not purchase the dog until after they were settled in their new residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It seems the media has been doing more dog debating than the Obama’s have.

“Everybody’s in the same boat in this economy. No one is outside the boat — except the federal government. There’s no layoffs in the federal government. They print money.”

I love this quote because he manages to use and mis-use a cliche, while placing blame on any entity of government other than the City of Chicago. Oh, and the grammar. It’s just beautiful. Très Daley.

I received the email, and I had a golden ticket to Grant Park last week.

"I have a golden ticket..."

I wish it were golden. It was actually a crummy piece of paper that I printed out, and it didn’t look or feel nearly as exciting as if it were the cold, thick cardstock of a Ticketmaster stub.

My *real* golden ticket, crumpled and shoved in my back-pocket, not sealed in a scrapbook.

But this is what we have come to expect from the campaign of our tech savvy president-elect, branded with a symbol nearly as recognizable as the golden arches by now.

On the way, the Obama campaign conquered every form of social media, (with the exception of Second Life. As far as I know, the Ron Paul supporters won that one.) The web presence helped to instill a sense of belonging and ownership in Obama’s supporters.

The launch of the campaign naturally launched a website, and then added his own channel on YouTube, which saw the addition of music videos from supporters.

Obama made “friends” on Facebook and MySpace. Then you could follow his blog or his twitter or check out his pictures. Obama turned into a friend you met on the internet more than a stuffy politician. Brilliant tactic.

Oh, and the marketing doesn’t end there. You could also buy merchandise from the online store (huge discounts now, BTW) and download an application for your iPhone, and in case you ever forgot to donate your money or wanted to continue to donate in death, you could set up a monthly automatic donation from your checking or credit card account.

Well now that The Candidate has become the President-elect, we have a new site to check out: change.gov. And I’m curious to see how they redesign whitehouse.gov, too. It’s good to see that he’s still my friend on Facebook, though he no longer needs my vote, but he still hasn’t twittered since Election Day. It makes me wonder if our President will bring the social media into the White House with him for the next 4-8 years.

I once had an awesome editing instructor who taught me, “Never try to quote Mayor Daley directly.” I thought he was exaggerating. How foolish. The more I watch Chicago politics, the more I wonder how he finds these ways of saying things. If he drove a car like he constructs a sentence, he wouldn’t be able to back it out of the garage.

The most astounding thing about the way he speaks is that when you listen to him, he makes perfect sense. I sat through a 30 minute speech at City Council a couple of weeks ago, and I understood what he was saying. He sounded coherent, and at times, almost eloquent! Alas, when I returned to the newsroom and wrote out the quotes, I realized that what he had said was not intelligible. And that speech was scripted! The written word just is not friendly to him.

Now let’s add in the unpredictability of a press conference. Oh, and then there is the unpredictability of Daley himself. He has been known to venture into long, confusing rants, and at times he might even explode. Recently, things got interesting when a reporter asked if Obama’s rally is a burden to the city:

“It’s not a burden! This is not a burden! Let’s not say a celebration is a burden of who is going to be the next president of the United States, who hails from Chicago and his family. This is not a burden. This is an excitement. This is a celebration. We’re very proud that he comes from Chicago. We’re very, very proud. And this is a moment of celebration.”

Check out the rest of the exchange here on the Trib website. And look for more posts on Daley’s language!