POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Rahm: “Legally,” He Can’t Run for Mayor, BUT . . .

From the Chicago Tribune, we finally get an article probing the legality of Rahm's run:

Current state law reads: "A person is not eligible for an elected municipal office unless that person is a qualified elector of the municipality and has resided in the municipality at least one year next preceding the election or appointment."

Everyone knows Rahm was living in Washington, working until recently as President Barack Obama's chief of staff. He rented his Chicago home in the 4200 block of North Hermitage Avenue to developer Rob Halpin, who refused to leave when Rahm wanted to move back in.

I'm on record as saying the residency requirement is ridiculous and that the talented and driven Emanuel should be allowed to run for mayor. But there is one problem. You might call it the rule of law. And there's nothing ambiguous about it.

Twice, he was removed from and then "magically" reinstated to the voter rolls:

According to Odelson's documents, election officials twice sent notices to Emanuel's house on Hermitage Avenue.

Both times, the notices were returned to sender. Each was stamped with Emanuel's forwarding address in Washington. Election officials do not allow such notices to be forwarded to a new address. The election board purged Emanuel from the voting lists for the first time in October 2009, ruling him an "inactive" voter.

But Emanuel's voter status switched to "active" just before the Feb. 2 primary. He voted using an absentee ballot listing the Hermitage address even though the Halpin family lived there and they also voted from that address. Voters purged from the rolls usually present a driver's license, a lease, a copy of a mortgage or other such documentation to be reinstated.

"By some magical means, which I think will come out after objections are filed, Emanuel was reinstated," Odelson told me.

In May, Emanuel was again rendered inactive. Just last month, he reregistered, using a new address on Milwaukee Avenue in order to vote.

So, what do Rahm's people say? He always intended to return to Chicago:

"The board of elections updates voter lists based on a variety of factors — including whether mail is returned from an address. It appears that Rahm may have been briefly placed on inactive status while he was in Washington serving as the president's chief of staff. He continued to own a house in Chicago and it was always his clear intent to return."

And magically, if you're a progressive, that's the same thing as actual residency, if you're on the correct side of history.

*******

In comments, Sarah asks whether Rahm voted in DC. No, he voted in Chicago, absentee. But there's that pesky "and" regarding his residency. He didn't reside in Chicago in the year prior to the election, no matter what he listed as his home address in order to obtain an absentee ballot.

Our little constitutional republic has a brilliant Constitutional Scholar as its chief executive. One would think that Rahm might have been advised that he'd run afoul of the condition, especially given the ruckus that the President has caused by not being forthcoming with a variety of documents. Once again, we are confronted with the spectacle of a lawyer-in-chief who doesn't seem much to care about what the law actually says, when it stands in the way of what he and his cadre want.

Everyone knows that when he ran for public office in Illinois, Obama was particularly ruthless about eliminating any competition by means of any technicality that was serviceable. I don't feel the least pang of compunction for Emanuel.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Diesel: Let’s Make Pretend

Diesel is apparently a brand of hipster douchebag (yes, redundancy) apparel. I didn't know anything about it, except that it was a clothing label, until I saw this piece from the NY Post:

HDs (or "douchesters," if you prefer) are always pretending to authenticity, so it's no wonder they consider clothing a kind of cos-play. There wouldn't be anything wrong with that, except they believe themselves so clever while being so dull. How dull? Much duller than law school.

So, go ahead and wear that stuff, and we'll just pretend you're not a douchester.

While I'm on the subject, in light of Snaqwells' comment from yesterday and Smitty's comment, why doesn't Smart Car just come out with a Coexister model and save people the trouble of bumper stickers?

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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What Kind of Murder Does One Scream . . .

about tampon bombs?

Penn Jillette was confronting crank yankers years ago.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Smittmas [UPDATE]

Richard McEnroe lets The Fightin' Smittiots know what they're in for. NB: Being hanged from a yardarm is especially frightening when it's a high one.

As you know, Smitty's deploying prior to Christmas, so I thought maybe we could put together Smittmas in the time remaining. He's taking a Kindle, so perhaps he could put up a list of wanted books, and we can buy some of them for him.

Let me know if you've got any thoughts on the subject.

UPDATE from Captain Bl Smitty:

Was it Something I Said? would be an obvious choice, if I hadn't already liberated two copies.
Now, I don't know that Stacy has recovered from the BAMBI assault, so maybe helping him raise funds to, you know, Get Smart would be in order.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Yesterday, I Attacked Maura Lee

Was it "maura lee" wrong?

Via Jimmie Bise:

Speaking of nuance, I wonder why Politifact didn't mention that it is nigh near impossible to get fired as a federal employee. When I was a reporter for Federal Times a few years ago, I went through the data and discovered that something like a dozen employees had been fired at cabinet-level departments in the previous five years. Somehow that guaranteed job security "nuance" didn't make it into Politifact's investigation.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Random Thoughts

I think it's amazing that my kids seem to behave best when uncontrolled kids are running around them.  Mrs. Snaqwells thinks they might be stunned into silence.

"The terrorists have won" is the new "Hitler."  Someone tell Godwin.

I really hope Pelosi stays on as the minority leader.  The Democrats may as well just give money to the GOP.

I was glad to see Steele get his post when he got it; but it's over.

I really am tempted, every time I see one, to run one of those "COEXIST" cars off the road.

Adam Wells

Living life at 84 mph and 7000 feet. All I ask is that you don't block traffic, act like a professional, and don't act all surprised when your actions have consequences. Oh, and don't complain about the refs; trust me, they don't care if your team wins or not.

Stupid Criminal of the Month

I know, it's only the 16th, but this is a good one; and it has a personal connection to me.  I'm not going to say how I'm connected, but someone I know was in the process of moving into a bigger home recently.  After being out of the old place a few days, they returned to find the place had been ransacked.  Among the missing items: a wedding dress, lingerie, sports memorabilia, family heirlooms with zero market value, and some personalized Christmas ornaments.  Among the items not taken; televisions, a scanner, and a webcam.

While the police were at the house taking information, they looked in the neighbors' backyard and noticed their backyard furniture had been moved to the neighbors' house.  Yep, not only did the neighbors break in and steal their stuff, but they took their patio furniture and set it up in their own yard; in plain view.  Case closed.

I'm not sure this quite beats the three Ft. Carson soldiers who got trapped in a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado Springs, but it's close.

Adam Wells

Living life at 84 mph and 7000 feet. All I ask is that you don't block traffic, act like a professional, and don't act all surprised when your actions have consequences. Oh, and don't complain about the refs; trust me, they don't care if your team wins or not.

Neil Young, Other Goofy Stuff

Via Stacy comes the story of Neil Young's hybrid car, which caused a fire that severely damaged the building in which it was housed and some memorabilia. The conversion of the car was the subject of a 4 part series, on Canadian TV, I guess.

I'm assured that apart from an inclination toward arson, the car is awesome. I'm thinking maybe Lindsay Lohan could star in Herbie the Firebug when she's done playing Linda Lovelace. Those Li-Los have to stick together.

Via Jeff comes this classic piece by David Thompson, about the metaphorical nature of actual violence, and the actuality of metaphorical violence. I attacked a guy on my blog yesterday, so I know what I'm talking about. My rhetoric was so incendiary that it might have burned down Neil Young's garage. So, if you see me conflagratin' without cogitatin', let me know.

Of course, we're all responsible for what nutjobs do with what we write. An example would be that I write a post about someone I think I disagree with, and then clarify once that person's responded to me, and then a reader actually names somebody in a comment of which I'm unaware, and people then harass that person after Googling up his or her email address. My bad. That is why the author of this obscure novel must go to jail.

This guy seems to have taken Survivor too seriously. And . . . just . . . WTF?

In case I didn't make it clear yesterday that I thought Mike Flynn and his friend were just giving their client their best advice, after it was explained to me, let me make it clear now. If you were one of the people who harassed the friend, that was wrong. He's done a lot of stuff for the Tea Party is a good guy.

Obviously, the donor who changed his mind doesn't deserve to get shit for changing his mind. It's his money, and he's donated a great deal to conservative causes.

My frustration boiled over. We can't let elections like this, with national ramifications, go uncontested. It's not on them. It's on the GOP and the blogosphere, which hasn't managed to push the Chicago stories onto the national stage, with the sole exception of the Blago circus. Our failure to try is a failure both of will and imagination.

What's to be done now? Make life a living hell for Rahm Emanuel by telling the truth. He's almost certain to become Mayor, but I want him to be a byword by the time he takes office.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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