Random thoughts about Illinois

I had a dream last night about Chicago. I lived there for five years and had a lot of fun. But thinking about it leads to random thoughts:

• Has anyone on the Democratic side proposed a solution/exit strategy for the Iraq War yet? Are any details on the table? If W has any gumption at all, he should call out the D's on this big time next week. I'm thinking he doesn't. Remember, W - to the Democratic Party, cooperation = capitulation and bipartisanship = capitulation. If any of this means anything, you have to fight, not only in Baghdad, but also on Capitol Hill. The main mastermind behind D strategy these days, Cong. Rahm Emanuel, is a former Clinton operative who now represents a portion of Chicago.
• The name is Rezko. He is a typical Illinois sleazebag real estate developer/swindler, of the sort that run rampant throughout the Land of Lincoln. You may not have heard of him yet, but you will, because he is a friend of Barack Obama. Watch for it later this year....
• Someone brought out the name Robert Maynard Hutchens the other day, in connection with the search for the new head football coach for the Gophers. Hutchens was the president of the University of Chicago in the 1930s. Back in those days, the U of C competed in the Big 10 Conference and Hutchens precipitously removed the Maroons, the original Monsters of the Midway, from the league, citing the untoward effects of athletics on the campus. The next prominent use for the U of C's football stadium was as the site of the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. Eventually the Maroons returned to collegiate sports as a Division III school, originally competing in the same conference as my beloved alma mater, Beloit College. It's a different world and the U of C suffered no ill effects from leaving the sports big time. But whenever a football program has issues or scandal, someone always has to bring up Hutchens. Just thought you ought to know who he was.
• Apparently the family of the Sioux tribe that gave the University of Illinois the Chief Illinewek outfit they use at sporting events wants the outfit back. Apparently these folks now find Chief Illiniwek's antics disrespectful. I guess there's no such thing as respectful antics, so I can understand that. Guess that means that the U of I may need a new mascot. I'd suggest they change their nickname to the "Fighting Aldermen," with a new mascot dressed in a Guys and Dolls suit, sporting a fedora and a diamond pinky ring. Instead of a war dance, the mascot could symbolically shake down a merchant.

And the Bears still suck, too. Can't wait to go back and visit, though....