Posted by
Ed Lilly on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 9:39:11 AM
News out of the Windy City on problems that have arisen with the site chosen for the proposed Olympic Village that is a critical component of Chicago's efforts to land the 2016 Summer Games:
Faced with soaring demolition and environmental cleanup costs and a recalcitrant property owner, the Daley administration has broken off talks aimed at moving the $1.1 billion Olympic Village to the campus of Michael Reese Hospital.
Hmmm. Seems to me that if the Chicago political machine of the corruptocrat Daley family wants something done, it will find a way to get it done. And isn't there somebody with Chicago political machine connections who's in the news about now? And didn't he have an observation about the recent Olympic Games held in Peiping?
Why, yes there is, and yes he did:
Obama, yesterday [8/21/08]: "Everybody's watching what's going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics, Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business, you're starting to think, 'Beijing looks like a pretty good option.'"
Obama's comments on Chinese infrastructure drew some criticism from people who still have a grasp on reality (meaning the mainstream media arm of the Democrat Party ignored it). Summarizing three news stories from China in 2008 prior to the Olympic Games,
National Review's Jim Geraghty noted:
Yes, their power outages, crowds at train stations, and outbreaks of air rage are vastly superior to ours.
Even more appropriate in light of the environmental remediation snafu that has now cropped up in Chicago,
Hugh Hewitt noted the following with respect to Obama's analysis:
Obama's praise for China's Olympics building binge ignores how those structures were assembled, the source and conditions of the labor, the lack of pollution controls in Beijing and throughout China, the many complaints that Chinese infrastructure outside the Olympics zone remains shoddy, the recent record of Chinese manufacturing scandals, including the heparin fiasco which killed many Americans, and of course the catastrophe brought about by Chinese building standards in the region rocked by the recent earthquake.
Can someone with a press pass please get an answer from Obama on why Chicago shouldn't just take the Chinese approach to getting the Olympic Village done and ignore environmental cleanup laws, labor and construction standards, and personal property rights? If it was so wonderful when the Chinese did it, shouldn't Obama be urging the Cook County construction industry to get on board with the same approach?