Poor People as Battle Shields

From Today's Trib's endorsement of Claypool,

Instead, Stroger uses poor people as battle shields, pretending that criticism of the payrollers he employs is an attack on the impoverished citizens they're supposed to serve.

During a telling moment in January 2005, Stroger let slip his vision of how to cover the county's exorbitant personnel costs. At the time, he wanted authority to levy new taxes on cell phones, pagers and other telecom devices. Asked if Cook County provides any services whatsoever to the citizens he was seeking to gouge, Stroger replied with welcome candor: "We would like to get their money from a tax."

That's what it's all about at Cook County: We would like to get your money from a tax. Because we have more cousins to employ. Because our campaign donors need more contracts.

I knew Ubi Est Mea was the slogan on the shield but didn't realize poor people were the shield. Makes sense though.

Cross Posted at Illinoize