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Sunday, July 8, 2012

Billionaire Intrigue, Political Deception and the Fight for the Soul of the Chicago Public Schools


Billionaire Intrigue, Political Deception and the Fight for the Soul of the Chicago Public Schools:


Billionaire Intrigue, Political Deception and the Fight for the Soul of the Chicago Public Schools

Sunday, 08 July 2012 09:24By Jackson PotterCTU Net | Op-Ed


Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel discusses the Goldman Sachs 10,000 small businesses program with faculty at Harold Washington College in Chicago, September 13, 2011. Emanuel has encouraged teachers to buck their own union by offering them bonuses to work longer hours. (Photo: Peter Hoffman / The New York Times)Nearly one month ago, Joe Ricketts, patriarch of the Ricketts billionaire clan, pledged $10 million to an anti-Obama attack campaign focused on the president's relationship with radical Chicago preacher, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. The revelation exposed a dark undercurrent anchoring the wealth of the Chicago Cubs' new ownership. Tom Ricketts, son of Joe the patriarch and the day to day face of the Cubs organization, has fostered an image as a prominent democratic operative. The image is designed to help the family lobby city Democrats like the Mayor and Alderman Tom Tunney, to increase their profit margins and freeze out competitors on nearby roof-tops and product peddlers in the famous Wrigleyville neighborhood.
The activities of right wing extremists with lots of money, in Obama's home-town, were not lost on the Democratic Mayor of Chicago. Emanuel blasted the move as antithetical to the interests of an overwhelmingly blue