Never let a good crisis go to waste, even if you have to manufacture one.

"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before." -- White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November, 2008.

Our old friend Rahm Emanuel is at it again. Readers may recall my story from 18 March of last year,

The Gunwalker Scandal: Why? Where did it start? How high does it go? Darrell Issa should ask Rahm Emanuel.

I concluded it with these observations:

My sources indicate that between March and December of 2009, there were a number of meetings, including Eric Holder, Rahm Emanuel and various subordinates. And the bloody-minded policy developed at those meetings proceeded along very nicely, thank you, until the death of Brian Terry, and would have after that, except for some brave ATF whistleblowers.

"A deliberate attempt by policymakers at the highest levels of the Obama administration to subvert the Second Amendment and further diminish the free exercise of firearm rights of honest citizens."

Frustrated by the limitations of politics, the Obama administration decided to change the paradigm. And it worked. Oh, boy, did it work. But in the end, perhaps not the way they intended -- thanks entirely to the whistleblowers.

One of the first people Darrell Issa should call to his hearings is Rahm Emanuel. Provided, of course, that the failed state of Chicago still recognizes extradition to the United States.

Now ensconced in his new kingdom, Rahm is once again showing us his ability to exploit a crisis, even if he has to manufacture one. The lefty Guardian reports -- "Outlawing dissent: Rahm Emanuel's new regime."

On the pretext of policing upcoming G8 and Nato summits, Chicago's mayor has awarded himself draconian new powers.

It's almost as if Rahm Emanuel was lifting a page from Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine – as if he was reading her account of Milton Friedman's "Chicago Boys" as a cookbook recipe, rather than as the ominous episode that it was. In record time, Emanuel successfully exploited the fact that Chicago will host the upcoming G8 and Nato summit meetings to increase his police powers and extend police surveillance, to outsource city services and privatize financial gains, and to make permanent new limitations on political dissent. It all happened – very rapidly and without time for dissent – with the passage of rushed security and anti-protest measures adopted by the city council on 18 January 2012.

Sadly, we are all too familiar with the recipe by now: first, hype up and blow out of proportion a crisis (and if there isn't a real crisis, as in Chicago, then create one), call in the heavy artillery and rapidly seize the opportunity to expand executive power, to redistribute wealth for private gain and to suppress political dissent.

The tyrant's playbook has a limited number of pages and common themes run through all such regimes. Rahm, the crisis maker/exploiter, may be understood in that context. He does what he is.

Rahmses, Pharaoh of Chicago.

I found the above illustration at Driftglass, along with a reference to this Chicago Times editorial which contained this:

In a remarkable victory Tuesday, Rahm Emanuel trounced five opponents. Emanuel won 55 percent of the votes, besting even the most pie-in-the-sky projections. Emanuel is now mayor-elect, poised to take over a dramatically different city from the one Daley first encountered as mayor in 1989. Though a fast and furious five-month sprint, this campaign offered a real education.

"A fast and furious five-month sprint." My, what an ironic choice of phrase.