Here comes the crap from the apologists like (anonymous) 4peacenow for Democratic party politicians like Joe Moore. Really, what prevented Moore from putting his neck on the line? Did he really think Cline or da mare's poodle Ms. Mecklenburg would have had him hauled off in cuffs? And if they had, what would he have staked himself to, but the willingness to stand on principle? He could have been a hero, made national news, shown himself as a stand-up man for the people. Instead, on Saturday, he offered himself as a speaker anywhere but where he was really needed. This is an unfortunate syndrome among local elected officials who have been rolling on the laurels they build on their association, however tenuous, with truly popular electoral movements that made Harold Washington mayor and seated enough aldermen to finally break the monopoly (briefly) of the machine hacks that held this city in their venal grip.

Unsurprisingly, the machine continues to run this city, gentrifying thousands of working class people out of Chicago, busting their 'own' unions, and fattening their friends at the public trough. There is one interesting distinction in the approach between Daley I and Daley II -- the latter is much more deeply committed to catering expressly to the corporate elites. One unfortunate if unintended consequence of the Shakman consent decree is that da mare no longer exercises the kind of total domination over the majority of City workers his father did. Daley's response to this demise of total control over an enslaved patronage army has been to fire the disloyal army, to the great benefit of his cronies who pick up the contracts for the newly privatized work.

When Moore proffers his support, as he did again this year, and again lets the peace movement down, he serves this agenda -- the same agenda by the same crooked bosses that have cancelled constitutional rights in this city.

And who is Sherry Mecklenburg? She is the wire to the 5th floor, the hatchet girl that ensures that da mare's wishes are carried out, the on-site hack whose job it is to ensure that the top cop brass fix the set on the street to Daley's marching orders. It's interesting watching her call the shots on the ground, interesting watching how the police brass on-site takes it, interesting to watch how much they resent their own slavery to Sherry's onsite orders and da mare's machine, not that they'll ever break ranks, because like Joe, they're too wired in, reap too many benefits, have too much at stake.

Why the hostility to public protest? Because any indication that Daley does not have total domination of his streets suggests to the business class that Chicago might not be such a great place to site confabs like the G8. Those pesky protesters sort of screwed that up for Richie when they had the audacity to march with police permission on Lake Shore Drive two years ago.

What's really disappointing to me is the sector of the 'progressive' movement that plays in the electoral arena, but seems to have forgotten the reason to do this -- do get people in office who actually have utility to the rest of us. When it counts. When our basic rights are under assault. When people are being arrested for flyering -- flyering -- on Michigan Avenue.

Because that's what's really at stake here. Our core rights. No elected official's job, no illusory political back-channels, no slick dance for a largely unrealized benefit (not) is worth sacrificing our rights.

Ms. Mecklenberg is, of course, indifferent to the corrosion of the constitution, and happy with the master she serves.

But neither Mecklenburg or the unreliability of our 'friends' is really the core problem here. The core problem is not even our corrupt mayor -- as many mayors are in towns from Cicero to Cincinnati -- that is perfectly happy to comply with the extremist agenda of a federal administration bent on deploying a truly fascistic infrastructure throughout the country. Certainly Daley -- who kicked it up with Bush for St. Paddy's day this year, just another small marker of their affinity -- is more than hell-bent on securing those precious homeland security dollars. In fact, Daley and many pols of both parties are more than happy to blow with the prevailing winds in Washington because impediments like the Bill of Rights get in their local ways, too.

The core problem is the complete lack of accountability of a larger political system to the basic needs of the vast majority of Americans who are taking it on the chin. A cop camera on every corner, and no irritating homeless people or pesky peaceniks passing flyers on our central corridors, not in this town, no. And the consequences? $2.1 billion dollars less for housing, healthcare, education, public transportation, and the host of other needs that are being sacrificed to bankroll the imperial agenda of the Bush regime and their co-conspirators -- including da mare and anyone who lacks the backbone or the basic decency to challenge this rush to disaster.

Well, guess what? You don't force accountability or advance popular power by sitting down and shutting up.