The phony baloney negotiations between Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Teacher's Union.

Karen Lewis vs Rahm Emanuel: Hard core liberal Democrat politican up against a hard core liberal Democrat union leader.  Almost everybody outside of Chicago can see what kind of ridiculous, non-existent confrontation is going on here.  This stupid circus is for only one set of eyes: the dumbest population living in any metropolitan area within the United States of America. 

The Chicago voter.

Chicago, the county in which encompasses Chicago (Cook County), and the State of Illinois itself are all dead broke, penniless, and completely bankrupt.  The Chicago Public Schools have an unfunded pension liability in the untold billions, are deep in the red as to their net assets (minus 1.2 Billion dollars), and the total bleak story can be seen in the Chicago Tribune article "CPS finances tell a grim tale" (chicagotribune story here).

And yet we would be led to believe that the brave, fiscally responsible Mayor Rahm Emanuel is holding the line against these greedy selfish union thugs and their demands of ever more tax money to fund their lavish pensions, existing salaries plus a 31% raise over four years , lax work rules during their 8-month work year of showing up in the classroom from 9 until 3, where 80% of their students can't read, write a complete or meaningful sentence, or add two plus two.

All of the union tomfoolery I mentioned above is true.  What is not true is that Rahm Emanuel is holding the line against union greed: he is completely in the tank with union interests.  The teachers walked out on Rahm's offer of a 16% raise over four years.  Rahm is offering raises to a broken system with money that doesn't exist.  Both of these sides are fiscally irresponsible.  There is no money.  Chicago is broke.  The Chicago Public Schools are broke.  Cook County is broke.  Illinois is broke.

Not so, says Karen Lewis.  "The CPS is awash in cash.  It's just in the wrong hands."  If this were true, which it isn't, what difference would it make if all of this cash that the CPS is awash in were in a liberal Democrat politician's hands, or in a liberal Democrat union leader's hands - none of this cash would go towards the public good.  It would disappear faster than a case of Scotch on the Kennedy compound. 

Regardless, these guys are sparring over how much money they can borrow to pay a pack of worthless, crappy teachers who already make $76K on average per 8 month year, compared to an average Chicago citizen who makes around $46K per year. 

This phony baloney stand off is like watching Al Capone and Bugs Moran holding a meeting in which they are arguing about murder rates in Chicago: Al Capone wants to hold the murder rate increase over the next decade to only 31%, while the righteous Bugs Moran wants to keep the increase in the murder rate to a respectable 16%.   And people in Chicago are all pulling for Bugs, you see, because Bugs is the responsible one here.  And everyone outside of Chicago can see that both positions are outrageous, as the increase in the murder rate is unacceptable regardless of the numbers.  Duh.

You idiots!!  Every damn one of you in Chicago are dumber than a bag of hammers.  These two liberal Democrats, Rahm Emanuel and Karen Lewis, are driving your town into further ruin and bankruptcy.

Everybody in the country can see this except you morons.  Chicago finances are going up in flames, and Rahm and Karen Lewis are arguing about how much gas to throw on it. 

Chicagoans, you all deserve these two thugs.