I would hate to lose JJ Jr. as a reliable liberal voice in the House, but if he decides to run against Daley, Daley is toast.

Much as I'd like to believe that, the polling currently indicates that Daley's well ahead. More than this will have to change for Jackson to win.

But this is a good issue for him and an absolute disgrace for Daley.

Certainly, it's been interesting to read a lot of good stuff lately about minimum wages and outsourcing.

I remain skeptical, as an independent, because I'm not sure there's a black/white way to pay people.

I believe that pensions, for example, have helped kill the US labor market because, as its population ages, the remaining economy has to become a lot more efficient. As my father once said: "you can't eat tommorrow's dinner today!"

If Americans want to "fight outsourcing and low wages," they can simply be like Ghandi and realize that "you can survive on almost nothing!"

At least for now, Americans still borrow, and therefore, they have not exerted their economic influence. Can you imagine if Americans stopped borrowing?

If that were the case, then policy makers would have to fix the economy (read: move away from financial services) and get people into positions where they can spend more.

Businesses are smart: they only spend if they get a generous tax break!

Rich people are smart: they only spend if they get a generous tax break!

As an example, Minnepolis businesses owners shifted their property tax burden onto the working class without giving them an associated pay raise to cover that cost!

Ultimately, I think that the WWII "wage and profit bubble" will pop and perhaps things will get better when "the market resets?"

Perhaps Mayor Daley is right? because, will anyone ever be satisfied with what they make? Maybe a flattened cost structure would be useful at this point? We'd certainly see that nobody is an island unto themself-- not even the US.

"If that really is true, why shouldn't those communities nevertheless have every right to 'hamstring' themselves?"

Consider car dealerships who locate themselves outside of cities to avoid taxes. What about the companies who "offshore" to avoid taxes?

The Wal-Mart film, the High Cost of Low Cost, showed Wal-Mart building its stores "beyond city limits" in order to avoid taxes.

What's the problem with that? The workers, who probably live in the city, aren't paid enough to pay taxes. Thus, how does that city fund the required schools, hospitals, etc...?

This sort of thing demonstrates that Wal-Mart doesn't want to produce much wealth for a community-- despite what the company claims! Instead, the Wal-Mart's and Targets of this world are the "Pied Pipers of Hamlin."

I think that Daley's suggestion is: we need a level playing field.

I'm pretty certain that New York City, for example, charges their workers a tax even if they don't live in New York City in order to combat the situation where workers use city resources but aren't officially on the taxroles.

I suppose that Daley really should be attacking the taxation system instead of the workers but, hey, the workers don't fight back, do they?

After I became self employed, I realized that companies enforce "W2's" on behalf of the government-- so the companies get tax favors instead of the workers, and I think that Daley would rather have Wal-Mart and Target enforce his taxcode than snub it.

Things may be far from clear now, but as a life long Chicagoan (who has also been very active in politics), I have 2 observations:Daley's postion, like many others he has taken, show why he is George Bush's favorite mayor, and; this one is way more fluid than the CW would have you think.
And, BTW, this mayor was Cook County state's attorney when a (now) very well documented police torture ring was operating out of a South Side police precinct. When questions about it were brought to his attention, like Hastert on the emails and Bush on nearly everything, Daley did absolutley nothing to stop it.

"The U.S. Democratic Party is too stupid to live."

Yeah, I think that's about right! They are certainly taking advantage of their base here in Minneapolis.

When I went to a recent county commissioner's meeting, I agreed with Linda Koblick, an amazing republican, that "stadium funding shouldn't be linked to library funding..." while Peter McLaughlin, a democrat, kept saying "if there isn't a stadium, then i'll see to it that our libraries remain closed!"

As I walked out of "Keith Ellison's victory bash," I saw commissioner McLaughlin and I bit my tounge because he also said "if we don't fund this stadium, our finances will be like New Jersey and life is about thriving, not surviving..." (paraphrased)

In my opinion, if McLaughlin had any sense, he would have supported 24x7 library hours and a strong tutor supported literacy program, with no strings attached, before thinking about buying the Twin's a new stadium and supporting a billionaire.

I certainly hope that the dems become instantly smarter because, otherwise, our government will keep wasting away as it sells off our interests for firesale prices...

Oh come on. It's a Daley in Chicago.

Nothing short of para-military actions could ever topple him and even then I'd give Daley better than even odds at coming out on top.

Your suggested name made me laugh! What a great name.

Although, it was Linda Koblick, a republican, if I remember correctly, who noted that Hennepin County doesn't even reap a single penny from "naming rights"-- none! That's why, apparently, they didn't let taxpayers vote on it because they were going to get stiffed.

She then continued to scold Mike Opat about making a lousy deal on behalf of the taxpayers and let the public know that he wanted to squeeze out the unions and embrace lower paid workers.

Regardless of Daley's political affiliation, he's supposed to be watching out for the workers-- and that's difficult to do these days.

The Hennepin County meeting on the stadium blew me away because Linda Koblick sounded like the sort of democrat that I'm looking for and the sort of democrat that Daley should be?