WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

It’s absolutely a political move, but President Barack Obama’s executive order today allowing Homeland Security to use discretion in deportation procedures when dealing with young undocumented people who have grown up here and are American in all but their legal status was the right move.

First, what Obama’s order will and won’t do, and the politics on Monday.

The law will:

* Put an immediate halt to deportation of undocumented people 30 and under who came to the U.S. before their 16th birthday.

* Expand prosecutorial discretion.

* Create an opportunity to defer deportation proceedings for two years, renewable every two years until the DREAM Act or some variant of it passes, or the president (or his successor) rescinds the order. Not everyone who applies will get deferred action.

* Allow those granted deferred action to apply for a work permit.

* Allow those granted a work permit to apply for a driver’s license.

The law will not:

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It’s a good time to be a writer or reader of comics in Chicago.

Last month the University of Chicago’s Comics: Philosophy & Practice conference brought together comics producers and critics.

New City’s Lit 50, released just last week, included a number of comics writers and critics, including Chris Ware, Jeffrey Brown, Hillary Chute and Anne Elizabeth Moore, my former blogging mate here at WBEZ.

Alison Bechdel has been holding a Mellon Residential Fellowship in Arts Practice and Scholarship at the UofC, co-teaching a course with Hillary Chute and wowing Chicago with public appearances surrounding the release of her new memoir, Are You My Mother? 

And now — if you thought it couldn’t be a greater comics lover’s paradise — Chicago is getting its very own alternative comics expo, the first in 16 years.

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So you think the job report made these last few weeks President Barack Obama’s worst time ever in office? There are only a handful of months before the general election, and there’s not even the vaguest twinkle of hope of an uptick before then.

Or maybe you think it was Scott Walker’s resounding recall victory in Wisconsin, trouncing the Democrats in a badly needed swing state and stealing momentum? The GOP not only retained control of the state, but put on a convincing ground game while draining union coffers that would have gone to Obama in the fall.

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Don’t believe it.

Don’t, for one minute, believe that there’s a silver lining for progressives in the Wisconsin recall debacle.

Don’t buy that Democrat John Lehman’s probable victory over GOP State Senator Van Wangaard means anything.

Don’t get hopeful that conservative hero Gov. Scott Walker’s agenda will be stopped because the Dems have flipped the senate 17 to 16.

Here’s the skinny: The state legislature in Wisconsin isn’t scheduled to meet until January 2013. Which means that in November 2012, when about half of its members are up for re-election, that one vote advantage could be meaningless.

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As Wisconsinites go to the polls today, here are five things to keep in mind:

1. This is the seventh election in the state in the last 14 months. There was the State Supreme Court race in April 2011, followed by state senate recall primary and general elections, municipal elections in February, presidential primaries this past April and another recall primary (including for governor) last month. That’s an election every two months and a political ad about every 30 seconds. Let’s forgive our neighbors to the north if they’re just a little politically fatigued.

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Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president and West African rebel leader, was found guilty of crimes against humanity this week and sentenced to 50 years in prison, making him the first head of state since the Nuremburg trials to be convicted by an international court.

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You may have heard that Congress’ approval rating is at an all-time low. According to some polls it’s as low as 14.6 percent. To give that some context, Congress is less popular than polygamy. (This, perhaps, should hearten those who worry that Mitt Romney’s ancestors will become an issue for him in the general election.)

A big chunk of that disapproval is aimed at the GOP: In some polls, Republicans hit as high as 77 percent disapproval all by themselves. The Democrats average about 60 percent disapproval, indicating that Americans are passing the blame around.

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