CHICAGO – The new documentary film is called “A Tale of Two Missions,” and it’s focused on current conditions in Chicago Public Schools.

One “mission” is led by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is working hard to provide fresh opportunities for kids stuck in failing city schools.

The other is led by Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, who is determined to kill the expansion of school choice in the city, so her union can keep students (and the tax money attached to them) trapped in subpar neighborhood schools.

And now, just as the documentary is released to the public, Emanuel, Lewis and their respective teams have started negotiating a new labor contract that will go a long way toward determining the future of Chicago Public Schools.

The current teachers union contract expires June 30. Negotiations on a new pact are expected to take months, perhaps even beyond the expiration date of the current contract.

Lewis had made it clear that teachers want higher salaries and more expensive benefits, despite the district’s estimated $720 million budget deficit and the continued threat of layoffs for young teachers and cancellation of student programs.

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“A Tale of Two Missions” – a film by Juan Williams and Kyle Olson (and directed by Chicago-based Andrew Marcus) – tells the story of competing cultures in American education through examples from Chicago.

See the internet-only abridged version here:

While the fight for school choice rages across the nation, perhaps no better example exists than that of the Windy City.  Traditional alliances are breaking down.  Both political parties are pushing for education reform and expanded school choice.  The status quo is under attack, because most reasonable people understand that thousands of Chicago students are trapped in failing schools.

But the education establishment, led by the radical Chicago Teachers Union, is not willing to give an inch to allow better choices for underserved students. And the union still has enough money, influence and legal standing to make reform efforts difficult to implement.

The film features the Noble Street College Prep charter school and the amazing results its teachers and leaders are delivering for students and parents of Chicago.  It also exposes the entrenched educational establishment bent on stifling school choice options and preserving its monopoly on state education dollars.

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You may recall when Hillary Clinton said the presidency is no place for on-the-job training. Three years into his term, Barack Obama seems to still be struggling to get up to speed, now having to replace his Chief of Staff, Bill Daley, to the surprise of most. Daley is deemed to have been the wrong man for the job. Also, Daley was not a first year choice, he replaced Rahm Emanuel only a year ago, suggesting that Obama was still making bad staff decision two years in.

The Washington Post’s Jena McGregor brings the bad news.

The revolving door at the White House is swinging again, and this time, Chief of Staff William Daley is on his way out. Many seemed to be taken off guard: Obama says it wasn’t easy news to hear. Others said official Washington was surprised by the news.

They shouldn’t have been. It seems painfully obvious that Daley was wrong in the role….

His departure calls into question Obama’s judgment when picking one of the key posts for his administration. While addressing the relationship with the business community and Republicans may have been an important task in late 2010, it wasn’t necessarily the right one for the president’s chief of staff. That post is, in effect, the White House’s chief operating officer—the person responsible for being the president’s most senior adviser and the person in charge of all West Wing administrative and operational matters.

Daley, considered of the moderate, Clinton-wing of the Democrat Party, was heralded as the right man for the job by Obama and the Democrats when he brought him in. Or, perhaps he felt he needed him to curry favor with Wall Street to raise cash for his coming re-election campaign. Whatever the reason, Daley never caught on and, for his job of governing America, Obama simply picked the wrong man. He couldn’t even get along with Harry Reid, let alone Republicans.

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It looks as if the Obama Administration has a major “green” problem. The firm responsible for Solyndra, RockPort Capital, and several other major companies directly connected to the Obama Administration have received in excess of $4 billion in government assistance. This cronyism includes millions in tax breaks (one conveniently preceding a $10 million investment from WH Economic Adviser Jeffrey Immelt’s General Electric), stimulus grants, loan guarantees, and government endorsements that gave credibility to a firm’s untested product. With the release of more White House emails, it looks as if the Obama Administration’s problem is more than just a few bad loans.

In 2009, another RockPort investment, Satcon technologies, partnered with SunPower Corporation and Exelon Energy to build a 41-acre solar array in Chicago. SunPower, recently covered here, is the recipient of a controversial $1.2 billion DOE loan guarantee. SunPower also worked with Satcon on another government-funded solar project in Hawai’i.

Meanwhile, the DOE has doubled down on their loan program with a $646 million loan guarantee to Exelon Energy (who own the SunPower/Satcon project in Chicago). Exelon bought out the Antelope Valley Project from First Solar Energy after First Solar missed the DOE’s loan guarantee deadline and was denied an extension. In another interesting appearance, Jeffrey Immelt’s GE Energy Financial just bought out First Solar’s Desert Sunlight project after receiving a DOE guarantee for a portion of their $1.46 billion loan. It’s probably more than a matter of coincidence Exelon arose out of an $8.2 billion merger advised by Rahm Emanuel in 1999 and that White House political strategist David Axelrod is a former consultant for Exelon. Furthermore, Exelon executives were major contributors to Obama’s 2008 campaign, bundling several hundred thousand dollars in campaign contributions.

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Last week, Capitol Confidential reported that Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is considering hiking taxes on non-cigarette tobacco products in an effort to bring in more revenue from tobacco users who have apparently rejected heavily-taxed cigarettes in favor of cheaper options such as rolling their own or using products such as snuff.

On Monday, it emerged the Cook County Board endorsed Preckwinkle’s tobacco tax proposal by a 10-7 vote.  The Cook County Board is set to take a final vote on the proposed budget on Friday.

Now, it is being reported that separate to this proposed tax hike, Chicago aldermen are looking at their own tobacco tax hike. From the Chicago Trubune:

Two aldermen looking for last-minute ways to head off painful budget cuts proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel floated the idea Wednesday of extending the city’s cigarette tax to other tobacco products.

Ald. Matthew O’Shea, 19th, and Leslie Hairston, 5th, brought up that option at a City Council meeting in an effort to soften spending cuts at city libraries, mental health clinics and the 911 center.

[...]

Aldermen and administration officials weren’t sure how much new money could be raised by broadening the tobacco tax — as Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle plans to do so she can raise $12 million for the county next year.

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We’ve always assumed that public schools exist, first and foremost, to benefit the students of a community. But that’s clearly not the case in Chicago. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been pushing the idea of adding 90 minutes to the school day to improve learning for children in the city’s deeply troubled school district. He has managed to convince teachers in 13 schools to accept the longer day in exchange for cash bonuses, but the radical Chicago Teachers Union doesn’t like this idea. Union President Karen Lewis and her comrades have been going around trying to convince teachers to reject the proposal, according to a story in the Chicago Tribune.

When that strategy didn’t work, the union complained to its friends at the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board. In a quick decision, the board ruled 5-0 that the city was violating labor law by “luring teachers with inducements and hampering the efforts of union representatives… Because of this irreparable harm, it is necessary to immediately restore the status quo,” the board wrote in its ruling. The board will not seek to have the longer days cancelled in the 13 schools, but it has asked the Illinois attorney general to go to court to seek an injunction to prevent more schools from extending the school day.

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UPDATE: Rahm offers talks, Occupy leaves…

President Barack Obama’s friends in Occupy are clashing with Obama’s former White House chief of staff, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in an ongoing protest at Chicago’s City Hall.

Activists are staging a sit-in outside Mayor Emanuel’s office, demanding to speak with him about dropping charges against Occupy activists who have been arrested for various offenses, including battery against a police officer.

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President Obama promised to have the most transparent and ethical administration in our country’s history.  His White House web page on ethics claims they have “the strongest ethics standards in U.S. government history.”  It may be true, but having high standards means nothing if you consistently fail to meet those standards.

Follow along on the latest Solyndra revelations:

Steve Spinner was a major fundraiser for the Obama Campaign in 2008.  He became a loan adviser for the Dept. of Energy after President Obama took office.  He was married to a partner at the law firm of Wilson Sonsini, which was representing Solyndra in its loan application.  He had signed an “ethics agreement” in which he said he would not engage in negotiations about the loan for the company.

There you go.  A fine example of the Obama Administration’s “strongest ethics standards” in action.

So, what did Mr. Spinner do with regard to the Solyndra loan?

Yet throughout Solyndra’s loan process, Spinner worked hard to defend the company from criticisms inside the government, including questions from climate czar Carol Browner’s office. He pushed to get a final decision on approving the loan in August.

“How f***ing hard is this?” Spinner wrote on Aug. 28 an another department official. “What is he waiting for” Will we have it by the end of the day?”

Do those sound like the words of a man who had recused himself from working on the Solyndra loan process?

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[Ed Note: This is the first post to run at BigGovernment. It was published two years ago today. It still seems relevant.]

In 1995, President Bill Clinton stood before the nation and proclaimed, “The era of big government is over.” The following year, the federal budget deficit stood at 1.4% of GDP. Thirteen years later, in 2008, the deficit had doubled, to just over 3% of GDP. This year, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal budget deficit will equal 11.4% of GDP.

As George Will would say, “Well.”

This is the real source of our “summer of discontent.” Yes, millions of Americans spent the month of August holding Tea Parties, attending town halls, organizing, marching and protesting against ObamaCare, i.e. Congressional and Administration proposals to reconstruct the entire health care sector. But to suggest that health care alone is at the root of this backlash is to miss the forest for the trees. To paraphrase Democrat strategist James Carville, “It’s the big government, stupid.”

Since last September when the financial markets stumbled, we’ve seen a Wall Street bailout, government takeovers of AIG, Citigroup, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GM, Chrysler, and numerous banks. The Federal Reserve has opened its discount window to almost all-comers and has taken the unprecedented step of aggressively buying up the federal government’s own debt. Congress rushed through a “stimulus to nowhere,” moved closer to a “cap-and-trade” remake of the energy sector and openly talked about higher taxes and more regulation.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel famously said that, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” Ronald Reagan said, “Government isn’t the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” The administration has turned this observation upside down, proclaiming that Big Government will lead us to a better world. In August, we heard America singing, “Enough!”

The mainstream media and politicos from both parties were caught flat-footed by the push-back from average citizens. Each news-cycle brought a new theory for the protests: “astroturf,” angry “mobs,” distortions and misinformation, kooks and conspiracy nuts, and, inevitably (and perhaps most offensively) racism (MSNBC amazingly even cut the head off a black man holding a gun to make the point that white racist extremism was behind the entirety the protests).  The elites have convinced themselves that, once Congress is safely cocooned on Capitol Hill, and engaged in some Kennedy-esque legislating—a tweak here, a nip-and-tuck there—ObamaCare will be back on track and the Administration can continue its march to reshape America.

The elites are whistling past the graveyard. The ground has shifted. It could just be that deficits above 10% of GDP are the new $4 a gallon gas, i.e. the tipping point that awakens the silent majority and recalibrates political dynamics. Americans are setting aside parochial self-interest and reaching to reclaim the legacy of the Founders.

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In June we reported on newly elected Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel using his clout to bring the 28-member NATO meeting and G-8 Summit to town in 2012. Also, in bringing the meetings to Chicago, the city will likely be confronted with the usual large-scale protests, which are most often comprised of violent anarchist revolutionaries.

The Chicago Tribune is now reporting that activists in Chicago are indeed planning large-scale demonstrations in Chicago, and have filed requests with the city to obtain protest permits.

From the Trib:

Activists are planning massive demonstrations to coincide with the G8 and NATO summits in Chicago scheduled for spring 2012, with crowds of protesters likely to reach “tens of thousands,” organizers said.

More than 160 members representing about 50 groups from across the U.S. and Canada gathered Sunday at the Chicago-Kent College of Law to discuss strategy and start planning two large-scale protests and a march during the weeklong joint summit, which is set for mid-May 2012.

Chicago could see crowds of protesters similar to the 35,000 or so activists who descended on St. Paul, Minn., during the 2008 Republican National Convention, said Joe Lombardo, co-coordinator for the New York-based United National Anti-War Committee.

Chicago activist Joe Iosbaker, who helped organize the RNC protests in 2008, and radical gay rights and anti-war activist Andy Thayer, whose homes were raided by FBI agents in October 2010 for suspected ties to funding Hamas and other terrorist organizations, are helping to organize the protests.

According to the Trib, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy recently stated that the department is preparing for “mass arrests” of protesters during the summit.

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Federal prosecutors are taking their second shot at former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who is facing 20 criminal charges, including one count of attempting to “sell” former President Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

The first time around, prosecutors short-changed their own case by refusing to call key witnesses to the stand, including former Obama chief of staff (and current Chicago mayor) Rahm “Rahmbo” Emanuel and Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. Blago, for his part, never took the stand. As a result, the jury deadlocked on all but one count—lying to the FBI. This time around, however, all three have been on the stand and under oath.

The prosecution has rested its case and Blago has testified in his defense. He was described as “combative and argumentative” during cross-examination by prosecutors. Now a jury will decide the fate of former Governor Blagojevich.

Judicial Watch’s blogger Irene Garcia has been on the ground in Chicago covering the Blago re-trial. Irene’s experience includes 13 years as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times. So Judicial Watch has a great onsite resource, reporting details that the other media will gloss over during this important Chicago/Illinois/Obama corruption trial. Here are some especially exciting excerpts from her detailed reports. (Click here to read them in their entirety):

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While gang mobs are now a daily concern in Chicago, it is time for the everyday citizen to take control of what is occurring in our city. We have reported on the Memorial Day beach closing and gang mob activity over the past week and half, and the problem has since grown, causing the mainstream media to finally start paying attention to the episodes of violence and gangs attempting to dominate our streets.

Mayor Emanuel’s first response to the beach closings was to conceal and dismiss this issue. The issue is now at the forefront in a battle over our right to live in a society with as little crime as possible. The mainstream media’s decision to finally press the mayor, is not achieving any results. The mayor and the acting superintendent of the Chicago Police Garry McCarthy have stated they will get everyone of these looters, robbers, and attackers. But they have also stated, that the city is broke and can not afford to add adequate police to a force already depleted by at least 2000 officers. The attacks are now occurring on a daily basis, multiple times a day in a number of areas in or near downtown Chicago, and the lakefront. This is a great threat to our citizens and our guests.

It is time for the citizens to take on the responsibility of keeping our streets safe. We must make due with the tools at our disposal. And while we could all start carrying firearms, which would get us fined and arrested if caught, and our expensive personal protection devices (guns) confiscated from us, we are not without less costly options. If the police sincerely want to catch all of these violent criminals, we can help them. Twitter provides us all a way to stay in touch and on top of the issue at hand.

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Convicted fraudster Robert Creamer, husband of Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), has announced that he is opening a nationwide political consulting firm, Democracy Partners.

Democracy Partners already “has offices in eight cities including Washington, D.C., Chicago, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, San Francisco, San Diego, and Portland, Maine”–and, presumably, a budget running into many millions of dollars.

Schakowsky & Creamer at the White House, November 2009

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The Middle East is in flames, China will shortly rival our military power, trade deals needed to help our limping economy continue to lag, and the Washington Post reports the Administration is now engaged in a major diplomatic effort to improve relations with their own cabinet secretaries?

The lowlight:

“News this week of the first departure of a Cabinet secretary from the Obama administration comes amid a wide-ranging effort under the new chief of staff, William M. Daley, to repair badly frayed relations between the White House and the Cabinet.”

The “solution” includes the creation of a new “Cabinet Czar”…

“At the same time, the White House recently created the position of Cabinet communications director, appointing media adviser Tom Gavin to the job. The goal, according to the official statement, is ‘to better coordinate with and utilize members of the Cabinet’ and is a ‘high priority.’”

…even as the Post reports that part of the problem is the current “czars.”

“Part of the problem, people on both sides said, has been an abundance of issue specialists – the ‘czars’ – who manage matters on the environment and the economy within the West Wing. ‘The White House loops people out. The czars keep people from getting in,’ said one senior Democratic official who has fielded such complaints from three agency heads. ‘The level of frustration is pretty high.’”

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Tim Carney to discuss unions, Wisconsin and the influence of special interests. Then Pejman Yousefzadeh discusses Chicago’s new Mayor, Rahm Emanuel.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Obama’s top funder also leads the nation in White House visits
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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Dan McLaughlin to discuss why the 2012 presidential race won’t be a repeat of 1996, and tonight’s State of the Union.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Why 2012 Is Not 1996
Too Moderately Moderate
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For something like 24 hours, the rule of law prevailed in Illinois. The state’s Supremes put a quick end to that. From the Chicago Tribune:

The state Supreme Court today issued a stay of the appellate court order knocking Rahm Emanuel off the ballot and ordered Chicago election officials not to print any ballots without his name.

“It is ordered that the emergency motion by petitioner Rahm Emanuel for stay pending appeal is allowed in part,” the order stated. “The appellate court decision is stayed.

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There wasn’t a rotting 2 ½ foot deadfish in sight as Rahm Emanuel played the “victim’ card once again at his Chicago press conference on Monday. “I have no doubt that we will, in the end, prevail in this effort,” said Emanuel after the Illinois Appellate Court ruled, in a 2-1 decision to boot him off the mayoral ballot on the basis of residency. Or lack thereof.

Now Chicago is in a state of chaos.

With a $12 million warchest – earned in part from 27 out-of-state donors contributing $50,000 a piece – the private backing of Mayor Richard Daley, the blessing of the mainstream media, and a 44% support in the polls, Emanuel has been considered all but a shoe-in for Chicago’s next commander-in-thief.

He still very well may be. Emanuel’s campaign filed papers Monday night with the Illinois Supreme Court to request a stay to allow the Chicago mayoral ballots to be printed with his name and for an appeal and brief by his attorneys to follow.

A number of things could happen: (1) The Chicago Board of Elections could still print Emanuel’s name on the ballot. If the Supreme Court rules not to reinstate him, then they could place a sticker over Emanuel’s name; (2) the Chicago Board of Elections could perform as ordered by the Illinois Appellate Court and leave Emanuel’s name off the ballot; or (3) Rahm Emanuel could mount a write-in candidacy, the success of which would still depend on whether or not he is ruled to be a legal Chicago resident by the Illinois Supreme Court. The Chicago Board of Elections is now in a tizzy since early voting was scheduled to begin on Jan. 31, and absentee ballots were supposed to be mailed this week.

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