Rubbing Salt in the Wound: Where are all the advocates of self-esteem when we need them? Probably in our grade schools giving 4th graders A+ for saying 2+2=5. Instead we have the victocrat aldermen in the Chicago City Council turning a remarkable story of success in the minority business community into a Sun-Times story headlined, Aldermen bitter over shrunken set-asides. It is always worth reading these stories to the last sentence (as I found with the paroled cop shooters story).

These set-asides weren't "shrunken." Previous participants in the program have become so wealthy and successful they no longer qualify. That's bad news?

Last year, the city purchased a large number of vehicles at an African-American dealership, driving the numbers up. In addition, six large firms, most of them owned by blacks, "graduated" from the program because they exceeded financial ceilings imposed to satisfy a federal judge. They include a $750,000 cap on net worth and an average of $28.5 million in gross receipts over a five-year period.

It should be noted that the car dealership contract cost the tax-payers of Chicago huge sums of money - The best-bidder for that contract was white (and actually located in Chicago), so we had to pay much more and send our tax dollars outside the city to get a non-white bidder.

So instead of getting more patrol cars for the same amount of money - cars that could patrol crime-plagued minority neighborhoods - one rich black man benefits from this set-aside program. Typical liberal fix that hurts the people they claim to help.