Archive for September 23rd, 2009
Chicago Olympics decision coming soon
Perfect Chicago Olympics Mascots: the Rat, the Pig, the Weasel, and the Sloth
Everyone we know in Chicago’s been consumed with the IOC’s 2016 decision, which is coming down soon.
Surprisingly, even for us, no one we know wants Chicago to land the Games.
We’re all backing Rio, at least in the circles we keep. We know there are “We Support the Bid” people out there, and we see those “Support the Bid” signs all over town, but the people we’re friends with and talk to regularly in Chicago don’t want any part of the Olympics.
All for different reasons, too.
We, because most of us work with nonprofits, don’t back the Olympics big because we foresee the destruction the fundraising for the Games will bring to the Chicago nonprofit community. Things are tight for educational and artistic institutions already, not to mention the less glamorous health and human services nonprofits in town. What happens when the Olympics are added to the fundraising mix and Mayor Daley and his team lean heavily on everyone in the city to raise the billions needed to fund the Games? Who’s going to suffer?
All the charities and nonprofits that currently depend on private donations to survive. At a time when people are losing their jobs left and right and money’s tight for even the wealthiest people we know, there just won’t be enough cash to donate to all the current nonprofits AND the Olympics too.
Yes, there will be some fundraising nationally from the very wealthy, but the bulk of that Olympics cash is expected to come from Chicago donors. And we are telling you — knowing from personal experience in the fundraising trenches — that there is not enough money to go around.
If Chicago really is awarded the Games, expect museums, dance companies, art schools, and health clinics to close between now and 2016 as they run out of funding while the Olympics coffers bulge.
So, that’s our main reason for opposing the Games here in Chicago: the drain they will have on nonprofits in town.
Other friends of ours don’t support the Games because they know city services in other areas will suffer between now and 2016 as the entire focus of Chicago will be put towards the Games. Friends of ours in the black community, in particular, know the Games will do nothing for the Southside, and will instead draw focus away from the pressing issues the City needs to resolve…but will have the Olympics as an excuse to avoid. A city with high crime, record levels of murders, and a school system in terrible shape should not be distracted by the Olympics.
No one we personally know believes the Games will do anything for the City…we do not believe any lasting new jobs will be created…we do not believe the Olympics will do anythinng to improve our economic standing…we do not think an Olympics legacy will better our lives in any way.
This whole bid is a giant fool’s errand.
And, to be honest, it’s really just a political maneuver by Mayor Daley to keep himself in office. When he started crowing loudly about the Olympics Daley was in bad political shape after renewed corruption and machine-related charges came to the surface again back in 2006-2007. Prior to this, Daley was not a fan of the Chicago Olympics idea because he knew what a boondoggle this would be. But, Daley needed a distraction from his own problems, and the Olympics was a giant distraction timed perfectly to save him politically. There’s enough razzle dazzle there to keep Daley in office through 2016 and beyond, as he will run for his next two terms based on being the spearhead needed to guarantee Olympics success. He will also use the Olympics to divert billions of dollars to every politically powerful person he needs to secure his next two terms. After that, it seems the plan is for Daley to retire and allow his chosen successor, Ron Huberman, to take over as Mayor post-Olympics.
Everything for Daley rests on winning those Games on October 2nd when the IOC announces its decision. Chicago will truly suffer in so many ways if those Games come here, but Daley will stay in office and that’s all he really cares about.
The rest of us, however, care about Chicago itself…so all we can do is hope and pray for Rio to somehow convince the IOC that its crime and transportation problems aren’t enough to stop it from being the first South American city to waste billions on the Olympics.
Here are two sites that share similar thoughts to ours on this:
Americans must stop Chicago Olympics corruption
Mrs. Utopia is a fashion icon after all. For cave people.
So, Jeffrey Scott just showed his new Spring Line at London’s Fashion Week, and we can’t help but notice how inspired he was by Mrs. Utopia’s Wilma Flintstone-wears-used-coffee-filters inaugural gown, designed by drag queen dressmaker Jason Wu (whose other clients, besides our current first lady, include fabulous RuPaul Charles and busty transsexual Amanda LePore).
Here’s what Mrs. Utopia felt was appropriate for the inaugural balls last January:
In what dimension is this appropriate attire?
And here’s what Jeffrey Scott put on the runway in London:
These are hideous, but if Jake Gyllenhaal wanted to stuff his Bam Bam and Pebbles into the number on the far right, we'd, well, kind of like that. Yes, please.
Ironically, Mrs. Utopia would actually look really good in the purple one. Purple and leopard prints look GREAT on her. AND, if she's going to wear crazy and ugly things anyway, she might as well go full out Wilhelmina Slater with it.
We'd love to see all of these at the Halsted Street Halloween Parade this year in Boystown. Seeing them on a day that's not Halloween, not loving it so much.
The green one on the far left would actually look nicer on Mrs. Utopia than some of the things she likes to wear, too. And how ridiculous is that, when cheap Halloween costumes look better than things Vogue and Vanity Fair praise the current first lady for wearing?
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Yabba. Dabba. DON’T!
PS: Another thing we’ve said before that bears repeating: the current first lady is not a fashion icon, no matter how many times the MSM tells you she is. She is no more a fashion icon than the Jeffrey Scott collection’s ready-to-wear and something every woman in America wants to have in her closet. And people never rode around on dinosaurs or kept them as pets, no matter how many times those kooks in Kentucky at the Creationism Museum insist they did (where the Flintstones is shown as historical documentation). Facts are facts, people.
Wednesday Open Thread: September 23rd 2009
What’s on your mind this Wednesday?
Are you watching coverage of the UN today?
How irrelevant is the UN to you, in general?
We still think ultimately Hillary Clinton will end up becoming UN Secretary General…it would be strange for the UN to ever let an American have that post, but we wonder what Clinton will do after Secretary of State, and that spot seems a natural for her, considering her popularity and name-recognition around the world. She’d be a really great Secretary General…much better than the last three we’ve had.
What think you?
