Chicagoans are used to politicians running roughshod over our city. It’s a war zone today, but not just from the drug cartel and gang shootings that are ravaging our neighborhoods. The politicians from the local up to the federal think they’re little kings, who use favors and privilege to keep our city in the grips of their rule. In the case of banning Chick-fil-A, however, we have the opportunity to shake our politicians up and down and show them just how little they understand about those whom they claim to represent.
Among other things, we still like the U.S. Constitution and would appreciate it being applied within our city boundaries (see the Second Amendment case for reference).
Alderman Joe Moreno of Chicago, who represents a gentrified neighborhood close to the city’s downtown, has used “Aldermanic Privilege” to ban the construction of a Chick-fil-A restaurant because the owner supports traditional marriage based on his Christian faith. Boston Mayor Menino has now admitted he was wrong to suggest he would prevent a Chick-fil-A in downtown Boston.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that he supported Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno’s decision to ban Chick-fil-A because it doesn’t represent “Chicago Values” and besides, the restaurant would be “empty” because of it.
I wanted to test his proclamation about our denizens’ values. So I went to the downtown Chicago Chick-fil-A restaurant Wednesday at 1:30pm to see just how empty it was. It wasn’t.
Well past the lunch-hour rush, the restaurant was still noticeably crowded. It was also clean, the workers friendly, and while I had to wait to be served, the line moved quickly.
If Mayor Rahm Emanuel believes he knows what Chicago Values are, then he must need to explain them to all the patrons of this restaurant. The city of Chicago is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and part of that diversity are a range of religious people, many of whom share Cathy’s view on traditional marriage.
In the meantime, the Nation of Islam has been allowed to open a restaurant, they must pass Rahm Emanuel’s definition of “Chicago Values,” which have yet to be defined. The term remains murky to me and many of my fellow Chicagoans as Louis Farrakhan has expressed anti-gay views and yet his organization has been allowed to do business in the city. It turns out the Nation of Islam has also been welcomed by Emanuel to deploy an “army” of 500 to help police the streets.
Late Thursday the Chicago GOP announced it was filing a complaint with the Illinois Department of Human Rights and Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Yet Alderman Moreno, whose stance has been criticized by both progressives (here too) and conservatives, released a statement, where he attempts to defend his use of “Aldermanic privilege.”
Moreno’s self-described “hipster ward” may agree with his personal view on gay marriage. Whether they agree that the personal religious views of business owners ought to be vetted and discriminated against before they open up in their Ward is less clear. In an attempt to impose his personal views onto his Ward, Alderman Moreno is discriminating against a business based not on the company’s actions or policies but on this individual’s freedom of religion and speech. Adam Serwer at the far-left magazine Mother Jones writes:
Menino and Moreno have it wrong. Blocking construction of Chick-fil-a restaurants over Cathy’s views is a violation of Cathy’s First Amendment rights. Boston and Chicago have no more right to stop construction of Chick-fil-As based on an executive’s anti-gay views than New York City would have had the right to block construction of an Islamic community center blocks away from Ground Zero. The government blocking a business from opening based on the owner’s political views is a clear threat to everyone’s freedom of speech—being unpopular doesn’t mean you don’t have rights. It’s only by protecting the rights of those with whose views we find odius that we can hope to secure them for ourselves.
“We think there’s a constitutional problem with discriminating against someone based on the content of their speech,” says John Knight, director of the LGBT rights project at the Illinois branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. And Illinois law does not demand that restaurants have anti-discrimination policies in place—”It’s a good idea for restaurants to have those policies,” Knight says, but the law doesn’t require it.
Alderman Moreno, Mayor Menino, and Mayor Emanuel’s discrimination hardly sounds progressive with a small “p,” but it does represent the #ChicagoValues Rahm Emanuel has helped foster, and brought to Washington, D.C., in the form of our President Barack Obama.
Now if only Rahm would spell out exactly what views business owners hoping to provide jobs in Chicago are not allowed to hold, we could all adjust accordingly.
Or take our businesses elsewhere. It’s clear Emanuel thinks the patrons of Chick-fil-A don’t share these as-yet-undefined Chicago Values. All Chicagoans can conclude is that Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam do.
A better idea would be for Rahm Emanuel and Alderman Moreno to visit the inhabitants of their city and even the Chick-fil-A that is standing in order to better understand the people whom they serve. And for the time-being, you still have to respect the U.S. Constitution, Mayor Emanuel and Alderman Moreno.
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Comments
Never let a “chicken crisis” go to waste – all the while residents of the City of Chicago are killing each other at a rate of 11 per day – Yup – go after those “evil” businesses who treasure family values, that employ our youth and PAY TAXES!!!
And yet the residents of Chicago and Boston and a whole lot of other liberal bastions, will blindly vote in these politicians. All part of the “Democrat American Dream” in the urban areas – grow up poor and uneducated with “funding” from the government only to be gunned down at the ripe old age of 25 by your local drug dealer. What great values Tiny Dancer!!!!
Nothing could get me to visit Chicago -not even Chick-fil-A.
Values: liberals are retarded.
Does anyone know if Alderman Proco Joe Moreno is related to the former Cook County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno who was just indicted on federal corruption charges? It is a common last name but Alderman Moreno has to have political connections up the wazoo because he was first appointed to his alderman post by Mayor Daley after Alderman Manuel Flores resigned to become chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission.
That’s part of the Chicago Way. On paper it’s a weak mayor system but many of the aldermen were first appointed to fill vacancies by the mayor. Either that or their election campaigns were funded by friends of the mayor. Only one or two out of the 50 are in a position where they can buck the mayor on an issue and not see their sources of campaign cash dry up.
As to gay marriage, The Values of Moreno and Dead Fish are not even LEGAL in Chicago.
Another example as to how fast the liberal agenda moves. Give it a small opening and the left will smash through with a Mack truck at 100 miles an hour.
Make gay marriage “legal” in a couple States, and now every single individual in the entire country that is not a gay marriage advocate in personal thought and deed is an enemy of the State.
Make open gayness “legal” in the Military, and 14 seconds later, the DOD policy of not allowing active duty to march in unofficial parades in uniform still holds–UNLESS IT’S A GAY PRIDE PARADE.
What was normal is now illegal.
What was perverse is now mandatory.
I don’t know where you’ve been but this has been the case for decades in Michigan’s major industry such as auto, they’re full of social deviants, societal subversives, union toadies and 60’s hippies.
example, If Stacy (thighgate) McCain were to say “hey, you know you’re showing a lot of leg” or indicate he’s not a big fan of gay sex peoples, he’s likely have his career stifled in not be thrown out on his ear.
When these types say stuff like “we’re all in this together”, what they actually man is that you’ll comport to their backward idealism in the name of kumbaya or be crushed.
How do you think Jerry Sandusky was able to operate as “just another guy in the neighborhood” for decades.
-Rezko, Reverend Wright & race hustlers, Bill Ayers #ChicagoValues
If these people impede the building of a Chik-Fil-A based on the personal views of the CEO, they will see the biggest discrimination lawsuit in history.
And I say, SUE THE HELL OUT OF ‘EM!
The law suits would sound in 1st Amendment violations, which is what these fools are militating for.
And what’s funny (in a perverse sense) is that all Mr. Cathy said is that a foundation he supports fosters traditional marriages. Nothing more or less than that.
I suppose divorcees should be all up in arms, too…
First Amendment case law and now Corporate free speech rights are well established law of the land.
-to believe this would rise to level of “serious law suits” as you’ve stated is absurd -easy win for Chick-fil-A
Oh, right…!!!
They would be “happy, fun-time” lawsuits for no money, and a walk-over…
which, we all know, lawsuits ALWAYS are when law is “settled”.
So now you believe there should be punitive damages to the offending party after proving that you were right and correct all along.
Interesting, during MMFA #StopRush campaign you argued that the notion of these attacks on First Amendment / Corporate free speech rights as “economic terrorism” was just hyperbole.
Rags, just go away kid -you’re buggin’ me.
Um…
You attacked me.
“Interesting, during MMFA #StopRush campaign you argued that the notion of these attacks on First Amendment / Corporate free speech rights as “economic terrorism” was just hyperbole.”
Boy, are you confused! But, another day…another example.
People in a boycott are not the government. See?
People in a boycott…even a very distasteful one…are not “terrorists”.
Words mean things. Learn it. Live it. Love it.
And…just WOW…you seem to hang on my every word (without comprehension). Should I be flattered?
You just expressed ridicule that a lawsuit uphold something legal and correct is toothless without punitive damages because they were economically harmed.
But then deny that a small vocal group using machinations of government in and effort to harm them is not a form of economic warfare .. “boycott are not the government”
Your arguments only survive in the muck and mire of extreme bloviation and moonbattery … I won’t be drawn into an argument over semantics that your own words don’t even support.
Your long history of hypocritical gasbaggery and arguments with a wide streak of goofay is not “hangin’ on your every word”
But go ahead feel flattered for someone pointing it out if you wish.
I’ll kick in for a new roll of aluminum foil, cuz…just damn!
Let the Prof. know where I can send the $$$, and I’ll get it to him.
You need help…STAT…!!!!
The cost of having to prosecute a lawsuit to defend rights under “settled” Constitutional law is high enough so that many individuals and most corporations will cave in rather than fight them. Politicians know this, and they use it.
I had a ring-side seat to the antics of the Legislature of the State of Maryland passing a ham sandwich — a law their own advisors told them was unconstitutional, as a favor to one of the representatives. It was a law tailored to a single entity, and it passed. The entity complied, because it didn’t want to spend the money on a contest.
A state that has been a single-party stronghold for a while tends to become both corrupt and frivolous in its habits, in my view, because there is no viable opposition to make political hay out of the worst excesses.
Valerie,
The reality here is that this was pretty clearly posturing on the part of the pols involved.
Like Obama’s noises about gun control, it is just a head-fake for the base.
You will note that the players have already either backed off, or started to back off, their positions in the Mushroom Media. At root, they know their limits and they cannot do what they talked big about.
If they did, there would be SERIOUS lawsuits they don’t want to fight.
Um…
You attacked me.
==
No I didn’t, I attacked your Circular Reasoning, while you immediately inferred that I was stupid (without comprehension) and this is clear evidence you’re mentally unable to dissociate whats definitely a matter of argument from a personal attack on yourself… while engaging in ad hominem.
Now after you achieved the type of argument you relish in, devolved to lowest common denominator of ad hominem because you cannot support the garbage you spew.
You declare that I “need help” and somehow now its with the full support of Professor Jacobson who in your mind would facilitate said “help” … “where I can send the…”
More clear evidence of mental delusion.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/27/rahm-backs-down-we-never-said-wed-block-chick-fil-a-from-chicago-says-spokesman/
All is proceeding as I have foreseen…
That’s my point Rags,
First you argue against “threats to coerce or intimidate for political purposes that are designed to produce a state of fear or submission…. intended to damage economically.
Or as many perceive as the definition of economic terrorism.
Then repeatedly call time for “serious law suits” where they don’t even rise to that… then ridicule that securing one’s constitutional rights in court is a toothless win “happy, fun-time” lawsuits for no money, and a walk-over…
I don’t believe there’s any situation where your arguments in the muck and mire of ambiguity and wrapped in weasel wording are ever NOT proceeding just as you have foreseen…
Chik fil A is the antithesis of a govt operation. Clean ,efficiant , prosperous and gives its customers value. That private sector model for success is what govt types really hate. That it further does this in spite of govt interferance is an affront to those govt types.
Chic-fil-A are franchises. They are owned and operated under franchise agreements by locals and staffed by locals. Did the mayor of either city bother to check this out? What exactly are these mayors accusing their local franchisee’s of? Are they trying to run locals out of business? It is too much trouble for the press to ask I suppose.
I suspect they are accusing Chick-fil-A of not first asking them who should get the best situated Chicago franchises. You’d be amazed at how many relatives of alderman, commissioners and department heads own the franchises that operate at prime locations. These owners do little or no work. There will be a 20% owner who actually runs the place.
You may be right. Some franchises require the franchisee to actually run it. I am not sure about Chic-fil-A.
1.I have no problem with gays in fact a few of my friends are gay.
2. if emanuel is talking to his base(gays) to buy votes he’s spinning his wheels democrats have the gays. he won nothing by doing this.
3. However, gays need to sit back and see the big picture. what emanuel and other democrats are doing is bringing America into hating gays for affecting their lives by pushing for ONLY gay rights and not “everyone is equal” rights. Gays have not been disliked but I can see a titlewave of hate coming from straight people for this attack on heterosexual people.
Oh, I don’t know about that-
“Titlewave of hate”?
I can’t imagine that could come from anywhere but the left–The one’s that really don’t care about a gay person per se, but are just useful idiots for the left to destroy American culture and tradition.
No, I think most of us view “gays” as a person first and foremost–and simply don’t care or don’t approve of what they do in their own bedroom.
“Chicago Values” Rahm has taken George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, not as a warning, but as an operations manual.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
“Four legs good, two legs better!”
Ms. Sorock may have buried the lead here. To me, a far bigger story than a few politicians pandering to their bases in what would be an ultimately losing effort to bar a business based on its owner’s religious beliefs is the news that a large American city intends to use Nation of Islam personnel to help police its streets. That is frightening.
What it becomes really is a case of political “grandstanding” for overzealous politicians that like to have what amounts to a private conversation with each other for points.
Normal people dont pay attention to what the owner of a chicken joint has to say about political issues.
No more than they care what the CEO of Arby’s has to say.
Normal people are offended actually when they see an overt attempt to cause some company..an employer crucified and made to fail.
We are alot of things in this country..but we dont wish financial failure on others….to simply advance some silly political point.
Things have a funny of correcting themselves as we have seen with Carbonite after it chose to punish Rush.
As I said yesterday, and I quote,
“Yep. “Chicago Values.”
Al Capone. Lucky Luciano. Joe Kennedy and bootlegging. Lots’a voter fraud. Bill Daley, senior and junior. Jeremiah Wright. Louis Farrakhan. The dead voting. Bill Ayers…
‘Nuff said.
Not representing “Chicago Values”? As Scott Brown said not long ago, “Thank God!””
I say move it to Elmwood Park or Cicero-just outside the boarder and then put an electric counter in front of the place that shows how many workers and tax receipts Chicago has lost on a continual basis. Also an Alderman on the southside said he would glady have them because his area needs the jobs. That would be funny if they take him up on his offer. It’s open season on conservative in Chicago thanks to Clown-In-Chief Rahm. Don’t for get his take down, cheered on by the press, of the guy who owns the Cubs (Ricketts) because he came out against the reelection of Obama. The irony in the Chick-a Fil situation is that being a conservative in Chicago is a lot like it must have been being gay 40 years ago. You don’t go around and broadcast it for fear of retaliation.
Interestingly enough, something quite similar to what you recommend happened some years back. Wal-Mart wanted to open a store at (approximately) Western Avenue and 95th Street; Western Avenue (2400 west) is the western border of Chicago at that point. The city, for reasons that I’ve never understood, wouldn’t allow it. Wal-Mart opened the store at 2500 West 95th Street in Evergreen Park, literally one block from Chicago. If memory serves, more than ten people (probably mostly from Chicago’s south side) for every job at the Wal-Mart showed up to apply when it was initially hiring.
Here’s a link to the Wal-mart site showing the store in question.
http://www.walmart.com/storeLocator/ca_storefinder_results.do?serviceName=&rx_title=com.wm.www.apps.storelocator.page.serviceLink.title.default&rx_dest=%2Findex.gsp&sfrecords=50&sfsearch_single_line_address=Evergreen+Park%2C+IL
Regardless of any actual action against the franchises, (though this kind of attack and threat is already an action) the real effect is that others are warned that life can be made harder for them, if they don’t back the progressive agenda.
Unfortunately, those of us in “downstate” Illinois (everything except Chicago metro area, if you are from there), get our government dictated to us by Chicago. Gov. Quinn only won three counties, but one of the was Cook. So we get probably the most corrupt state in the union, and as a bonus are threatened if we don’t kiss Rahm’s ring.
Bunch of thugs … but they run our government.
The government already has their nose too much in private industry. For example, in Birmingham several years ago there was a McDonald franchise that unknowingly hired a guy with HIV. The franchise owner could not fire him because of his illness. The word got out to the public and the franchise went down the tube because no one would eat there0 I would estimate the HIV guy was probably the last employee let go. Such is the way of the federal government.
And as far as crooked politicians who cater to their cronies go, also in Birmingham a McDonald’s has its own traffic light. The cream of the joke is that this traffic light is about 25 feet from a major intersection but the flow must stop and back up traffice at the real light so a McDonald customer can exit the parking lot. Who would expect a light to be there. People with friends in high places get things they want whether reasonable or notor inconvenient to everyone else.
Stop the war on chicken!
Au contraire, mon ami.
http://www.eatmorchikin.com/
Rahm-arina must have another soiree to attend so out come his special interest ties.
I thought Rahm beat out Boston Mayor Tom Menino on stupidity and hypocrisy, but never count out Boston on that. Tom Menino may not like Chick-fil-A on its opposition to gay marriage, but he did give public land worth over a million dollars to an Islamic group to build a mosque that also supports and condones executing homosexuals.
Tom Menino sort of looks like a chicken!
Turn Rush on right now! He just call “Chicago values” Rahm Emmanuel a Stalinist! He’s on fire!
Ms. Sorock,
With all due respect, “Chicago Values” operationally are that those in charge of the City do not give an obese rodent’s gluts about the law, the Constitution, or what the residents of Chicago believe or think because they know that no matter what they do the residents of Chicago will fall in line and do what they are told.
They have not been disabused of that notion in the entire history of the city, and they will not as far as the eye can see into the future.
I do not know if Chick-fil-A has the stones for it, and yes it would take a lot of money and likely be futile [since we do not live under the rule of law anymore]; but if the law and Constitution had any power left it would be a slam dunk.
The action would cite the Fourteenth Amendment of The United States Constitution, Due Process Clause, and, 42 USC § 1983;where Lochner vs. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case which held that “liberty of contract” was implicit in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In this case we are talking about a corporation which is considered an individual at law.
If the letter that Boston Mayor Moreno sent was on city stationary or the text implied his official position, or if the Chicago Alderman or Mayor Rahm in any way stated that they would use their official position to block a normal part of due process because of the legal political beliefs, stands, or actions of a corporation or its officers/employees; they are a legal free fire zone.
Normally governments and officials would be able to claim sovereign immunity from suit. However in this case it is different.
Under 42 USC § 1983, the violation of civil rights under color of official authority is explicitly exempt from sovereign immunity. The person violating the rights, and their chain of command all the way up as far as can be held to be responsible for the conduct are subject to suit and actual and punitive damages. As is the government entity.
As a retired Peace Office, I have dealt with this. Felons [and their attorneys] were always alleging violations under this to try to get off or to get lesser punishment. They failed consistently. That is why you follow the book.
Mind you, that is for a country where the law and the Constitution apply to all. One can make the argument that such does not obtain inside US borders.
Subotai Bahadur
Lost in all of this conversation is the little-heralded statistic that only 1 million gay people are actually involved in a same-sex relationship.
In a country of 308 million.
http://teresainfortworth.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/falafel-stands-yes-chicken-sandwiches-no/
The gay lobby has done a heck of a job in convincing people that there are a whole lot more gay people in America than there actually ARE.
And the gay lobby is doing a lot of damage by getting in peoples’ faces at every opportunity. One of my daughters is gay – she’s fairly quiet about it; not because she’s afraid of any backlash, but because “being gay” is just part of who she is. It doesn’t define her.
Donald Perry, Chick-fil-A’s vice president of corporation public relations, has died of a heart attack this morning!
Blame Rahm. Sue Rahm personally and the city of shitcago
Many are drawing rather unseemly conclusions. Become public enemy No 1, then keel over with a heart attack (Breitbart-upon announcing he has the goods on Obama)
Personally, I’ll wait for the third shoe before I even entertain the thought…
unlike the “birther conspiracy”, this is the mother of all conspiracy theories…in my opinion.
By their actions against Chic-fil-A, the liberal left shows their similarity to extremist Islamists, who through their actions, burn and destroy Christian and Jewish churches. The liberal left has instituted a war against all religions here in the US. They object to the values and principles that these organizations support.
Hehe imagine the Olympics in Chicago!
An African American male is more likely to be killed in Chicago, then in Afghanistan. http://politic365.com/2012/07/10/chicagos-end-of-days-and-the-end-of-black-press/
It is being ignored. Chicago values.
Chick-fil-a has one less restaurant that will be robbed and in which one less person will be murdered.
[…] wondering… When Rahm Emanual was lecturing Chick-fil-A about “Chicago values” is this what he was talking […]