The great city of Chicago prepares to greet an influx of anti-trade protesters.

Eager not to have a repeat of Daddy Daley’s 1968 fiasco, Da Mare has threatened to sue any individuals or groups who cause damage to city or private property. Here’s the kicker, though: “City officials also announced that parking will be banned from 6 a.m. Wednesday until 6 a.m. Saturday in two large areas: from Wacker Drive to Congress Parkway between Michigan Avenue and Canal Street; and from the Chicago River to Oak Street, from Lake Michigan to Clark Street.”

That seems a bit over the top. That’s a huge expanse of territory downtown, inconveniencing everyone just because of the possibility of unrest. I dunno about that.

Apparently, gun manufacturers must not only provide safety locks with their guns, but they’ve got to be able to divine the future as well. Such is the basis of Chicago’s suit against gun manufacturers, which was OKd by an Illinois appelate court yesterday.

Didn’t Smith & Wesson know that they had to hire the precogs from Minority Report in order to sell guns in Chicago?

After running a series of stories about how UAL Corp., United Airlines’ parent company, has landed itself in the crapper, the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board comes to the solid conclusion that it needs to bailed out.

More specifically, United wants a $1.8 billion-dollar federally guaranteed loan. They’re in such bad shape that the only way they can convince any lender to give them money is to have the feds backing them up. Yep. Sounds like a hot investment. Of course, the Sun-Times editorial board argues that if United goes under, we’re all doomed. Gee, I guess people will just stop flying in and out of Chicago if United goes bankrupt.

Doesn’t the fact that United is being outdone by smarter, more effective competitors like Southwest and JetBlue mean anything? That perhaps United’s way of doing business just doesn’t cut it anymore? That perhaps we’d be better off having them disappear?

The most fallacious part of the argument is as follows:

The airline is a strategic asset to the nation. Having a solid U.S. air transportation system is important enough that the government has kept foreign carriers out of local service by law. What good will that be if we allow our local carriers to wither and die, victims, in part, of an unprecedented meltdown in their industry sparked by terrorism?

Good point; we should allow foreign competition. And, yes, Chicago may suffer a little if United goes under and more people connect through Denver or Atlanta, but the nation as a whole will not suffer one bit. But taxpayers will suffer if United defaults on its loan and the feds have to pick up the bill. The Sun-Times is being just as provincial as the steel-producing states’ newspapers which argued that upping steel tarriffs is good for the country.

The New York Times reports, “The Central Intelligence Agency, using a missile fired by an unmanned Predator aircraft, killed a senior leader of Al Qaeda and five low-level associates traveling by car in Yemen on Sunday, American officials said today.”

How’s that for a change? Actually going after folks with a known connection to the Sept. 11 attacks and who pose a continuing threat to U.S. national security. Interestingly, while Dubya cannot wait to personally strangle Saddam, White House officials would not say whether Dubya had “personally authorized” this action.

(Also posted to Stand Down.)