He made us laugh, he almost made us cry, he made me want to give him money to do good things. Former President Bill Clinton is still a rock star when it comes to politics—and last night he put that talent to good use. He needn’t have brought a Chicago-bred hip-hopper along—though I’m very glad he did. Common turned in a charming, intimate performance for donors, VIPs and favored guests (tickets were $100 in advance, $150 at the door), but the high-point of the night had already passed. The people came for Bill Clinton and they got Bill Clinton—at perhaps his very best.

Last night, the former President hosted and spoke at a launch event at House of Blues (which he says gave his foundation a great deal) for his Millennium Network, which supports his Clinton Foundation—an organization which has programs addressing health care, AIDS and development around the world. The idea of the Network is to spark an interest in global change initiatives and philanthropy in young people, particularly young professionals. While the turnout for the event was healthy, it wasn’t wall-to-wall, allowing for a lot of pleasant socializing among single folks during the two-hours of open bar, tuna tartar and mingling before a passionate Clinton took up the microphone.

Clinton is a riveting speaker, warm, likable, but also clear, anecdotal and emotionally affecting—especially when talking about the health-care situation of Africans. When Clinton told the story of a Rwandan woman who forgave a man who confessed that he had murdered one of her sons and offered her his life, some audience members were literally on the brink of tears. Clinton sees possibilities and that’s why he’s exciting—he talked with an infectious enthusiasm about ordinary Americans’ overwhelming ($1 billion) response to the tsunami, Bush’s AIDS and malaria program, and his own foundation’s upcoming efforts in Haiti to increase that country’s fish production and provide households with solar-powered flashlights.

Clinton’s remarks were so dense and thoughtful that I’d like to transcribe the entire talk—but in the interest of timeliness, here are some excerpted remarks that struck a chord with me.

On identity
“If you are a Muslim who loves your culture and loves your heritage and hates terror, how far do you go before you, in the service of your convictions and your country, you wind up being face-to-face having to kill somebody that looks like you and is supposed to think like you and be like you. I am not justifying what that man did. It will never be justifiable but I understand why it broke him. The world is full of people wrestling with these competing identities.”

On his mission
“I’m trying to build a world where we share our benefits, share our responsibilities and we have a shared sense of community.”

The power of the Internet
“Because of the Internet, if we bind together people with one dollar to spend, if there are people that think like they do, they can move the world.”

On change
“Ordinary people have more power to change the world than ever before.”

On his Millennium Network
“I want to create a network of givers. I want everybody on every continent to see themselves as a citizen with the power to change lives.”

On the challenges of rich countries
“Rich countries, the real problem whenever they need to change, is rigidity. The very purpose for which some system was set up is just preserving the system. We’re spending $900 billion more on health care than if we just had any other country’s health system.”

On the challenges facing poor countries
“In poor countries, the problem is not corruption. Although it is a problem, where it exists. The big problem is the lack of capacity and structure so that people that are just smart as we are can have the same thing we had growing up. Everyone of you, even poor Americans, there is a fairly high level of predictability between the effort you exert in school, on the athletic field and in the music room and the result you get. You can’t imagine what it would be like to live in a world when there is absolutely no predictable consequence to anything you do.”

On the surge
“The surge worked in Iraq because we were helping them do what they wanted to do.”

On progress in Haiti
“They were willing to face the truth. They have a very graphic memorial. Only by facing the truth did they acquire the strength to let it go. It’s the only country in the world where once a month, on a Saturday, every single adult from the poorest to the richest in the country goes out and spends a day cleaning the streets to show they are a proud people and will not be ground down by their poverty.”

Former President Clinton is still a beloved man. I’m not referring to the 1,000 well-dressed folk who packed the ballroom at the Palmer House this afternoon to hear the 42nd President deliver a speech as part of the Chicago House’s inaugural Speaker Series. I’m referring to the hovering masses camped on State Street who waited for the President’s departure and shouted names like “Billy Boy” when they finally caught a glimpse of him.

The Chicago House, a social service agency that provides relief for homeless people impacted by HIV/AIDS, was able to book Clinton, who happened to be in town anyway for an event on the eighth. Clinton, who started the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) was no doubt an ideal choice to kick off the series and this crowd was thrilled to have him. He glowed as he entered the ballroom and delivered his trademark thumb gesture before taking the podium. As I gazed upon Clinton from the balcony where they placed the media, and where I gazed upon 1,000 plates of prime rib, fruit cups and cheesecake, I found myself straining to hear him several times, so please pardon the occasional paraphrasing in this post.

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This Wednesday, 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton hosts a fundraiser and official Midwest launch for his William J. Clinton Foundation Millennium Network at House of Blues. Individual tickets for the open bar evening event start at $150. Chicago-born rapper Common performs and President Clinton, famed for his inspiring public oratory, will deliver remarks on the topic of encouraging the next generation of leaders and philanthropists to address the challenges of global interdependence. The Millennium Network seeks to engage and inspire people 45 and younger in the work of the Clinton Foundation, which takes aim at HIV/AIDS, global warming, economic opportunity worldwide, and the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States. $150-and-up, Wed 11, 8pm, House of Blues. You’ll find more information at Clinton Foundation.org.

With the recent economic downtown, major public programs in music, art, and culture around the country risk funding cuts. The TOC blog recently reported, then confirmed the death of the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival. With Chicago City Council meeting this week to decipher the city’s budget for 2010, Chicagoans are wondering, what else is going to get cut?

The thought of not having Movies in the Park, or free concerts at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park next summer is nothing short of heartbreaking. Besides adding to Chicago’s rich cultural diversity, these programs also create jobs and contribute to Chicago’s increasingly tourist-friendly climate. As a preemptive measure the Friends of Chicago Music have started an online petition against cuts to Chicago music, arts, and cultural programs. The petition currently has 750 but they are aiming for a 1000. You too can sign the Save Chicago Music petition.

But, do not run to the picket line just yet. The Department of Cultural Affairs, which takes care of programming at Millennium Park, among other things, received its budget hearing yesterday. As Chicago Sun Times reporter Fran Spielman reported, the Aldermen mostly argued over preferential seating at Millennium Park. But no budget decisions have been made, yet.

Today, I spoke to the Department of Cultural Affairs assistant commissioner Kimberly Costello and she pointed out that all City of Chicago programs, not just cultural programs, are receiving budget reductions. Each department has yet to determine, however, how it will redistribute its budget. In the DCA’s case, no major programs–like SummerDance or the World Music Festival–will be cut entirely, Costello made sure to add. That’s good news—but it doesn’t mean we won’t see some scaling back in 2010.

My first Critical Mass happened to be the Halloween ride, which typically is one of the largest of the year. Those who didn’t come dressed up were in the minority at Daley Plaza, where the group congregates on the last Friday of every month. Costumes ranged from simple masks and face paint to full-on bike-themed constructions complete with subwoofers or real car bumpers rigged to the front of bikes. I saw punks, skeletons, zombies, sharks, various fruits, even a swan that probably took days to create. The mood was very positive and energetic throughout the ride. Pedestrians, as well as trapped drivers, smiled and waved as I road by, and I frequently saw high-fives between drivers, bikers, even cabbies. The ride’s highlight was at the six-corner intersection of Ashland, Lincoln and Belmont, where instead of riding through the intersection, the leaders took the group round-and-round in a circle while blocking all lanes of traffic until bikes filled the entire intersection. Several bikers stopped in the very center of the rotating circle, lifted their bikes above their heads and screamed. It was exhilarating to be part of such a large, devoted group as it took over a massive intersection for a few minutes. I witnessed only a few stranded motorists lose their shit, yell, swear and honk…only to be met with the words that we were instructed to use when confronted: “Happy Friday!”

This morning, hundreds of demonstrators, many of them Service Employees International Union members and other labor reps, descended on the American Bankers Association (ABA) conference taking place at the downtown Sheraton Hotel & Towers to demand financial reform. Jesse Jackson, 49th Ward Ald. Joe Moore and various union leaders led the sign-toting masses up Michigan Avenue, a procession punctuated by snare drum beats and emphatic chants of “The banks got bailed out! We got sold out!”

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One of the perpetual gripes in this city concerns our politicians’ fiscal recklessness. Well, now 49th Ward Ald. Joe Moore is giving a significant part of his financial power to the people.

Moore announced today that his constituents will decide how his $1 million of “menu money,” the funds allotted annually to each alderman for ward infrastructure improvements, will be spent.

“Next year, I am ceding my decision-making authority to the residents of my ward through a process known as participatory budgeting in which all 49th Ward residents will be eligible to vote directly on the infrastructure projects that will be funded in our community,” Moore writes in an e-newsletter. “I’m not just asking for your opinion—I’m asking you to make real decisions about how we spend our money.”

“The 49th Ward will be the first political jurisdiction in the nation to try such an approach,” Moore writes. “If this process works, I will make it a permanent fixture in the ward and hopefully inspire other elected officials to do the same in their communities.”

Starting November 3, community meetings will be held over the next couple of months, which will culminate in a ward-wide assembly for residents to vote on where the money will go.

How do you think Moore’s million should be doled out?

Twenty years ago, in his first Reader article on the Area Two police torture allegations, John Conroy wondered whether “the behavior of the police was consistent with that of torturers, or if the city itself resembled the sort of society where torture might take place.”

The question returned on Monday night, when Conroy’s play My Kind of Town received a staged reading at the Theatre Building as part of the Writers Bloc festival of new plays. Read more »

Valerie Jarrett, one of President Obama’s closest advisers and a key member of his Chicago-in-D.C. posse, got majorly played by the Chicago 2016 committee, the Chicago Tribune reports. Local Olympics boosters insisted the IOC city-selection vote was close, and they were so persuasive that Jarrett pressed the President to go and seal the deal. Of course, the vote was nowhere near close, and Obama got egg on his face during such a shaky moment for his administration that even SNL used last night’s opening sketch to list his fairly shocking lack of accomplishments nearly a year into his first term.

The big question locally has got to be this: After the Olympics debacle, will Obama go out of his way not to look like his administration is helping out Chicago? And if so, did Chicago 2016 in some significant sense screw Chicago (and likely other big cities that would benefit from national urban initiatives) out of future Obama administration assists?

If the administration is politically smart (which, surprisingly, is still an open question), the answer to that question, unfortunately, should be yes. If comprehensive health care reform goes through and Obama gets his groove back, he might have cover to help us out on mass transit, etc. But if not, there’s a logically persuasive argument to be made that Chicago 2016 may have helped alienate this city’s biggest political asset.

Here’s the kicker: The very existence of a Trib story in which Jarrett goes on the record to throw Chicago 2016 under the bus constitutes evidence that the city might be in the administration’s dog house for a while. Move over, Bo.

The Chicago Reader’s Ben Joravsky has been one of the media’s most outspoken critics of the city’s 2016 bid, so I gave him a ring this afternoon to talk about what was missing from Chicago’s plan, what Daley was thinking and whether community groups that organized against the plan will have any lasting effects on Chicago politics. It was dense, fruitful discussion, but Joravsky’s key point was that the city’s plan was fundamentally flawed. Joravsky went so far as to say that Chicago should have either had a more expensive plan that went much further (redeveloping old steelyards on the South Side for example) or a “green” plan that required less development and the use of more existing spaces—such as the Olympic-sized pool at Portage Park. If anyone is interested, I’ll post more next week. Here’s an excerpt from our conversation to ponder over the weekend.

Ben Joravsky: I have two thoughts on the subject of an Olympics for Chicago, actually three. But the first point is that we are such a corrupt and inefficiently run city, in which there is no legitimate public discourse that I truly don’t believe we’re capable of putting on a games. I take a look at how the city’s been run for  the last ten years, and it’s really distressing in terms of the lack of oversight and the lack of discourse and there’s sort of an attitude inherent in Chicago that the way to get things done is to have one powerful person and so we’ll have to live with it whatever  consequences comes from that. And I just don’t think that’s the model for good planning. I truly don’t believe that. Now, people may disagree with me on that and think “Oh, you need a tyrant to do anything these days.” I personally don’t believe that so it makes it difficult to imagine any good plan coming out of Chicago, but that’s said, the two thing I would have liked to have seen is number one—the obvious one, is, if you have a great expanse of undeveloped land in Chicago that is baffling all planners—like some of the old steel yards on the South Side, well why don’t you try to put that to use? Now, the comeback, John, is that that’s incredibly expensive, to which I say “Yes. You’re absolutely correct.” But if you’re going to make an investment of this kind, if you’re really going to use the Olympics as a spark or development, for economic development to change the city, to improve it than it’s not. Let’s spend the money, you get what I’m saying? I don’t have a problem with spending the money if I think it’s going to be a wise expenditure or a wise investment.

John Dugan: That’s the thing— in my ideal version of the Olympics there would be lasting infrastructure.

Ben Joravsky: You know, John, the thing that struck me about this, this Olympic plan from the get-go— I sound like a broken record—internally it’s a schizophrenic plan. On the one hand, they didn’t want to spend a lot of money buying land and having to clear away, or clear away toxins out of land, so in order to save money they went to public land which is parks, and they treated it like it’s undeveloped acreage that can be just easily developed, and they were proud of that. “Oh, our costs will be minimal, because we’re using park land.” Like that in itself is not a sacrifice that people are being asked to make. The second problem though, the inconsistency is that if they were going to take park land, than they have to convince the public that they were not going to deprive the public of a valuable piece of park land. So they would say, “Don’t worry. We’re going to start the construction very late in the process”—which of course no one really believed, “And when we’re done we’re gonna immediately take away most of what we built, so it’s just going to be temporary.” So there is no legacy. If you watched the show last night where Mayor Daley and the Obamas made the presentation to the IOC, one of the gentleman from the IOC asked the question, “What is your legacy?” It’s a fundamental inconsistency, but I think really the IOC agrees with you. They want to see something left over from the Olympics. So it’s sort of like a calling card, you know, a city can say, “Look what we have because of the great Olympics.” The Olympics can then use that as a promotional piece. Chicago wasn’t giving them that. Chicago was promising to get rid of just about everything they put down so they could reassure people that they weren’t gonna lose their parks.