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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (37815)	7/24/2005 12:53:12 PM
From: paret	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

THIS IS HOW THE LEFTIES DO IT City employs 1,200 tied to Daley groups chicagotribune.com >> Local news TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION By Dan Mihalopoulos, Laurie Cohen and Todd Lighty, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporter Liam Ford contributed to this report Published July 24, 2005 More than 1,200 city workers--most in jobs that are supposed to be free from political influence--belong to a select few groups that have supported Mayor Richard Daley, a Tribune investigation has found. And most of those employees get their paychecks from City Hall departments targeted in a federal investigation of hiring. High-level mayoral allies including former top Daley aide Victor Reyes, Chicago Park District General Supt. Tim Mitchell, Chicago Housing Authority chief Terry Peterson, Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th) and Ald. Patrick Levar (45th) have played key roles in the organizations. Nearly four out of every 10 people who register voters for the pro-Daley groups have city jobs, according to the Tribune's analysis. That contrasts with Jesse Jackson Sr.'s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, which has more voter registrars than the other groups but much less influence in the Daley regime. Jackson's group has only 3 percent of its registrars on the city payroll. The Tribune compared city payroll records with rosters for political groups that register voters. The analysis suggests extensive connections between city jobs and the mayor's political operation, a finding consistent with federal prosecutors' allegations that Daley administration officials rewarded campaign supporters with jobs and promotions. More than 11,000 people are listed as election registrars for 218 Chicago civic organizations. About 2,200 of those individuals are city employees, yet seven pro-Daley groups account for more than 1,200 of the jobs. "Some get more promises than jobs, but a substantial number do in fact get jobs," said Democratic U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, a former alderman and Daley critic. "Otherwise they wouldn't join." Prosecutors allege that Robert Sorich, a top aide in the mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, rigged hiring tests and interviews to favor Daley allies in a "massive fraud" that spanned more than a decade. In criminal complaints filed last week, prosecutors alleged that Sorich directed political armies to campaign for the mayor and for politicians that Daley supported. `Machine' reinvented The Daley administration has maintained that most City Hall hiring has been free of politics under a 1983 federal court decree named for attorney Michael Shakman, who successfully challenged the widespread use of patronage. Under the Shakman decree, all but about 1,000 of the city's 38,000 jobs must be filled based on merit. City Hall watchers say mayoral strategists have reinvented the traditional Chicago Democratic machine, which dispensed patronage through aldermanic ward organizations. Since Daley's 1989 election, most of the ward groups have lost strength and the perks of power have gone to new groups loyal to the mayor. "They're all the building blocks of a political machine," said Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd). "They are given marching orders from the administration on who to support on Election Day." Exact figure impossible Determining a precise number of voter registrars on the payroll is impossible because city officials decline to release addresses of employees. Without addresses, it is difficult to match those on the registrar list with names on the payroll list. Still, it's clear that the Hispanic Democratic Organization, directed by Reyes, leads the list of political groups with members on the payroll. An estimated 500 of its 1,173 registrars are in city jobs. In a written response to questions from the Tribune, Reyes said the group does not promise jobs to those who volunteer. He pointed out that many of the group's volunteers do not have city jobs. Reyes, now a lobbyist, said the organization supports Daley but added that neither the mayor nor anybody else at City Hall directs its activities. In the second spot on the list, with about 350 members in city jobs, is a little-known group called the Lakefront Independent Democratic Organization. State records show the group's founders included Mitchell, a former mayoral deputy chief of staff, and Dave Ochal, now a deputy commissioner in the city's Aviation Department. The lakefront organization registered voters on behalf of Daley in 1995 and 1999, when the mayor ran for re-election, former volunteers said. continue >> Jump to page: 1 2 3 Next page

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (37815)	7/24/2005 1:03:38 PM
From: paret	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

Londoner relives bomb horror on Egypt holiday Manilla Times ^ / Jul 24, 2005 / Lamia Radi SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt: Joanna had hoped her holiday in an Egyptian seaside resort would help her overcome the trauma of witnessing the deadly London bombings two weeks ago. But the horror was replayed for the 25-year-old Londoner when a car bomb smashed into her hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh in the early hours of Saturday. “I would never have believed that I would witness the same nightmare and terror twice in such a short time,” said Joanna, who managed to escape unscathed from the attacks. At least 83 people, including a number of foreign tourists, were killed and more than 110 injured in the quick succession of bombings that rocked hotels and a market in Sharm el-Sheikh, a favored holiday destination for British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Joanna, who declined to give her full name, was near the site of one of the four deadly bomb blasts in London. “I was counting on this holiday to forget the nightmare in London,” she told AFP. “I was in the Ghazala Hotel when the explosion went off. My room was just behind the reception. I was in bed and the bed rocked,” she said, as security forces escorted her and her husband onto a bus leaving the town. The deadliest of the attacks that left a trail of carnage and destruction in Egypt’s most popular holiday resort at the height of the tourist season almost caused the Ghazala Garden Hotel to collapse and killed at least 30 people, mostly Egyptians. According to police and several witnesses, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the luxury seafront hotel, smashing the security barrier before blowing up inside the reception. The Foreign Office in London said several Britons were among the victims. Jimmy and Ann Hayes, a Scottish couple on their second summer holiday in Sharm el-Sheikh, were staying at the Movenpick Hotel, which is near the Ghazala Garden. “We heard a God Almighty blast. The lock popped out of the door, the window frame banged and the glass shattered,” Jimmy Hayes told AFP, as security cleared the debris, the blast sent flying within a radius of several hundred yards. We went out of the hotel like everybody else and I heard another blast, and another and another,” he recounted. “I thought people were shelling us . . . I thought our end had come.” “We were here last year. It’s so nice here and the people are very friendly. Now the feeling has completely changed. We will be scared to come here again, after such a chilling experience,” he added. Saturday’s attacks were the deadliest ever in Egypt, although more tourists were killed in October bombings on the nearby Red Sea resort of Taba and in the 1997 attack in the southern town of Luxor that left 58 foreigners dead. A Briton was killed by an Islamist group in southern Egypt in October 1992 and two British tourists were among 15 wounded in a bomb attack near the Pyramids in June 1993. One Briton was also killed and three others wounded in two attacks in southern Egypt in October 1994.