The rabid ferrets

Obama is trying desperately to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff by putting more Medicare and Social Security cuts on the table and letting all but all but the super-rich off the tax hook. Boehner tried to cover his ass with House Republican loonies by coming up with a ludicrous "Plan B." But as Krugman writes in a great NYT piece, Obama was once again "saved from himself by the rabid ferrets." 

Hopefully the union leadership of the We Are One Coalition will be saved from themselves by pension-grabbing ferrets, Quinn and Madigan.

What's That Smell?

Finally, as we head into this wet, cold, Chicago weekend, I'm wondering what that foul odor is, emanating from Byrd-Bennet's supposedly independent Commission on School Utilization? Is it the already-composed (decomposing) secret list of "underutilized" schools to be closed in black and Latino Communities and handed over to charter operators? Or is it Frank Clark's consulting deal with the Civic Consulting Alliance?  Or both?