17 Comments

"...when we refer to former Florida Gov. John Ellis Bush, *should we ever need to do so again*"

Brilliant.

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Sorry EZ, but criticizing an editorial cartoon for being a "scorched-earth, unfunny hackish partisan attack" is kinda like being mad at the sky for being blue or fact-checking an SNL skit (which has actually been done). i.e. in all cases, missing the point. I have no particular affection for Kelley and my anecdotal impression is that editorial cartoons have generally gone downhill across the board, but being "scorched-earth" and "partisan" is in an editorial cartoon's DNA and an important part of their origin story.

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Kelley is pretty lame, but his cartoons are Noel Cowardesque compared to the word crammed, dead horse devastations of Joe Fournier.

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I strongly disagree, though, as you may know. Joe hasn't been in the Tribune for a long time now.

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I know, but the memories are still fresh enough. And I criticize as someone whose politics are more in line with Joe’s, but he didn’t seem to grasp the concept of brevity, which I think is essential for editorial cartoons, and why I didn’t like his.

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THey were more like little OpEds-- Jules Feiffer-esque. And his drawings were *Chef's Kiss*

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"Enough with pumpkin spice!"

Mary, I couldn't agree more.

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EZ -

Liked this weeks crop of Political tweets, but the regular tweets this week were "meh". Agree with you on the "Chuy" Garcia observation about how news organizations refer to him.

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Hmm. I thought the regular tweets were a notch above this week, but... de gustibus and all that.

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@OhNoSheTwint might want to tweak that first item on her screed: “I’m not wealthy or privileged, but I believe I should help cover the debts of those who are”.

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Are there sometimes tweets with no votes? I think I just rescued my favorite tweet this week with its only vote.

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Never been a tweet with no votes.

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The Safe-T Act should have much more honestly been named the Get Out of Jail Free Pass. Just what is needed, a legislative enactment that will ensure there is a material increase in the catch and release (in)justice system of Cook County that is leading to scores of people being assaulted, shot at and dozens killed by people who have been arrested for either murder or attempted murder and not held in jail just thus far in 2022.

This protect-the-criminal legislation is flawed in many ways, but fatally so in the pronouncement that judges can only hold suspects if they are determined to be a flight risk or a threat to individuals or the community. The catch is that the prosecution has to provide evidence to substantiate either condition, and this crazy legislation specifically forbids the use of past history where the respective defendants have previously failed to appear and attempted to flee justice for previous arrests. How insane is that? Unless a suspect either admits that he intends to flee or is caught with a train or plane ticket out of town, how in the world can prosecutors attempt to substantiate that he or she is a flight risk? Similarly, absent and admission or witness statement by the suspect that he or she intends to harm an individual or members of the community at large, how in the world can prosecutors substantiate this with evidence? The short answer is that and most all cases they will not have the evidence to do so, and under the letter of this law judges will be required to set them free to find new victims, especially among witnesses and previous victims who may testify against them.

This is terrible legislation that was passed in the wee hours by legislators who had mostly not even read it but voted for it at the direction of the Democrat legislative leadership. Once again, Public Safety is sacrificed on the altar of woke progressive craziness.

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I’m skeptical of your claim that under the SAFE-T Act prosecutors will not be allowed to show a defendant’s prior failures to appear in court to show that they are a willful flight risk. Do you have any link or citation to support that assertion?

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Joanie - I am not able to find the article I had read earlier on this, but I found another that provides the following information.

They cannot detain defendants in those cases unless they find the state proves the person is a ‘willful flight risk,’” meaning they are “‘planning or attempting to intentionally evade prosecution by concealing one’s self’…

https://madisonrecord.com/stories/630665837-illinois-state-s-attorneys-demand-changes-to-no-bail-law

How in the world, absent an admission by the defendant that he or she will or plans to flee and not appear, does the prosecuting attorney substantiate this with evidence to the judge? This is a very flawed and dangerous legislative act passed in the middle of the night with little overview that is unquestionably going to lead to many additional victims of violent criminals who will not be held after commission of a violent crime. That is the reason that 100 of the 102 state attorneys in Illinois are publicly opposed to this.

Just thus far in 2022, there are dozens of people who have been shot with many who have died by violent criminals who were let out with little or no bail after shooting someone. The safety act is not about people who shoplift a loaf of bread, it's about preventing the detention of serial repeat violent criminals.

This legislation was pushed very hard by the Legislative black caucus. Crime statistics reflect that black offenders distortionately commit violent crime, and the intent of this is to keep these black offenders out of jail in the misguided notion of social justice, disregarding the fact that the great majority of victims of violent crime are black.

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A pic of a crowd of red hats waving their arms in unison: Are you sure this isn’t UW fans in Madison singing “Varsity”?

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I expect and appreciate all the updates on the threats from the Trump camp in The Picayune Sentinel. I have to admit, though, that I was struck by Ken Burns Holocaust series this week in that Burns and crew pretty much spelled out that the American people have been a motley bunch from the very beginning with a reputation that far exceeded reality. The danger in a Trump, any Trump, is the same as the Germans: people at all levels will follow.

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