Friday, October 30, 2015

Let's name it the Michael F. Sheahan Sports Center

The new ice arena is now open and I must admit the place looks good. Ald. O'Shea transformed a long neglected area of the ward into a destination for hockey leagues. A job well done.

Mike Sheahan served as one of the best aldermen in modern times. He also was a great sheriff. I saw him last week at a local football game. He is always concerned about the kids and always interested in their athletic performance. You can't meet a nicer guy. I can't think of a more fitting way to honor a guy who has given so much to the neighborhood. 




Thursday, October 29, 2015

From Second City Cop

And Another Rush to Judgement, any cop that is aggressive has got to be crazy.

  • A deputy was fired Wednesday after video showed him flipping a teen backward out of her desk and tossing her across a classroom, with the sheriff saying the officer did not follow proper procedures and training.

    Richland County Senior Deputy Ben Fields was told of his firing late Wednesday morning, Sheriff Leon Lott said. Lott said he would not describe the now-former resource officer at Spring Valley High School as remorseful, but that Fields was sorry the incident happened and tried to do his job.

    The student was being disruptive and refused to leave the classroom despite being told by a teacher and administrator to do so, Lott said, and that's when Fields was brought in Monday to remove her from the class. She again refused, and Fields told her she was under arrest, Lott said.

    She continued to refuse, and video shows the deputy flipping the teen backward and then throwing her across the room. At that point, Lott said, Fields did not use proper procedure.
  • A South Carolina sheriff said Tuesday that there is a third video depicting one of his officers in a now viral confrontation with a high school student — and in it, he says the student can be seen attacking the officer.

    “There’s a video … showed her striking and punching at the officer,” Richard County Sheriff Leon Lott told CNN. ”Again, our hope would have been that he could have de-escalated the situation without getting physical.”
Well, this simply demonstrates that Sheriff Lott is a fucking moron joining into a rush-to-judgement mentality that completely undercuts any legitimate authority his officers have...or used to have. We can't think of a Use of Force model in existence that advocates "de-escalation" in the face of an assault. In fact, most state laws we know of declare without reservation that a police officer is not obligated to retreat in the face of resistance and is in fact authorized by the State to use whatever force is necessary to overcome said resistance.

So once again, if we could just have a list of actions that officers are required to overlook when performed by a black person, that'd be great. It would save so many problems and progressive society could finally embrace and welcome the criminal element into their homes and hearts.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Morgan Park Sports Center (Park No. 577) | Chicago Park District

The new ice arena is now open and I must admit the place looks good. Ald. O'Shea transformed a long neglected area of the ward into a destination for hockey leagues. A job well done.



Morgan Park Sports Center (Park No. 577) is now open. Chicago Park District

Tax Vote Today

Chicago's City Council will vote today on a proposed budget that includes a massive property hike and other fees to help close a shortfall and address its underfunded pension system!

POS, CREEP, PERVERTED HASTERT HAS CUT A DEAL

Molester

In a plea bargain deal that would spare him further humiliation at a public trial, former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is expected to plead guilty today to one of the two charges brought against him in connection with his efforts to pay hush money to an alleged victim of his sexual misconduct.

Book Review.......Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry

Colin Flaherty, the author of the best-seller, White Girl Bleed A lot, has once again revealed his heroism in his latest, Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry.
Not since Ilana Mercer’s, Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa, have we witnessed such steely resolve in reckoning with the great unmentionable evil of black criminality and violence. 
Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry consists of 511 pages, 944 endnotes, and a super abundance of references to videos meticulously documenting over 1,000 instances of black mob violence spanning just the last few years
From sea to shining sea, in hundreds of cities both large and small, and in everyregion of the country, mobs of (mostly young) black people—males and females—have been busy unleashing reigns of terror upon virtually every other conceivable demographic:

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

I would love to hear the cabbies perspective on this dirty deal

Uber service cleared for pickups at airport as Rahm drives home for his brother. 

photo
You will soon be able to get an Uber at Chicago airports, Navy Pier, and McCormick Place. The deal comes after weeks of negotiations between cabbies, Uber drivers, and the city of Chicago.
Everyone in this battle was motivated by money. Cab drivers say they are losing money, while Uber drivers naturally did not want to pay extra. And finally, the city of Chicago needs money to get out of debt.
The final deal heading to the City Council would charge ridesharing drivers 52 cents a trip. Some of that money will be given to Chicago’s traditional taxi drivers to help them pay fees. 

Monday, October 26, 2015

Speaker Ryan

Not yet House speaker, Paul Ryan is already betraying us by choosing pro-amnesty lobbyist to be his chief-of-staff

Conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage told his listeners this morning that a battle in the war over the future of Western civilization has been lost as millions of migrants from the Middle East who largely oppose Judeo-Christian values and have no intention of assimilating flood the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other nations.
Savage said he received an email from someone who’s far smarter and farseeing “than I am,” saying “It’s over.”
Paraphrasing the email, Savage said that what German Chancellor Angela Merkel is “doing to Germany, what the weakling is doing to England, what the socialist is doing to France, what Obama the psychopath is doing to America, will render this country non-existent in less than 50 years.”
What Savage didn’t tell his listeners is that Obama has lots of help from Republicans.
Paul Ryan & David Hoppe
The Washington Post reports:
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has selected David Hoppe, a former adviser to Republican

Maureen O'Hara dead at 95



Legendary actress Maureen O'Hara, best known for her roles in "Miracle on 34th Street" and films by John Ford, died Saturday of natural causes, her family said.

O'Hara, 95, passed away in her sleep at home in Boise, Idaho.

"Maureen was our loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother

Sunday, October 25, 2015

How Christian is Trump?

As Donald Trump continues to lead the polls for Republican 2016 presidential candidates, how Christian is Trump is a question worth our asking and pondering.
The question should especially be important for Christians who believe that a post-Christian America’s corruption is at least in part due to Americans having turned away from God.
Trump holding Bible
The New York billionaire said he doesn’t know if he’s ever asked God for forgiveness and referred to a communion wafer as “my little cracker” during a religious-affiliated presidential forum in Iowa. He won’t cite a favourite Bible verse. He’s been married three

Saturday, October 24, 2015

I'm starting to think...."this boy is not right"

Donald Trump Skids for First Time in Republican Presidential Race 

Candidate falls behind Ben Carson in Iowa and faces questions about super PACs; Jeb Bush slashes payroll costs

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Burlington, Iowa, on Wednesday.ENLARGE
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Burlington, Iowa, on Wednesday. PHOTO: SCOTT MORGAN/REUTERS
WASHINGTON— Donald Trump is dropping in the polls. Cable-TV networks are no longer taking his rallies live. His assertion he was funding his campaign with his own cash turns out to be more complicated. He blamed an unsavory retweet about Iowa voters on an intern.
It has been the first truly bad week for the longtime Republican presidential front-runner, with a slide in the polls that is the first evidence evangelical voters are leaving him for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
The New York real-estate developer and reality-television star, who rode a series of controversial, at times offensive, comments to the front of the GOP primary race for months, fell eight points behind Mr. Carson in a Quinnipiac University poll of Iowa Republicans released Thursday. He was nine points behind Mr. Carson in a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll released Friday.
For a candidate whose message for months has been that he is the polling leader, the drop to second place in Iowa cuts to the heart of the rationale for his candidacy. Mr. Trump, who talks up his poll standing in every interview and campaign speech, said in a radio interview Thursday that he doesn’t believe he has fallen to second place in Iowa.
“I have a feeling we’re doing much better in Iowa than the polls are showing, if you want to know the truth,” he said on the Hugh Hewitt Show. Mr. Trump’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush's polls and fundraising efforts have been slipping. He's now hoping to better capitalize on his family's vaunted political donor network. Photo: AP
Mr. Trump, who still maintains a lead in national polling, wasn’t the only Republican candidate struggling this week. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced Friday he is slashing campaign payroll costs by 40% and cutting 45% from the parts of his budget that don’t include media buys and voter contact. The Iowa polls that show Mr. Trump fallen to second place have Mr. Bush with just 5% support.
“We are in this campaign to win,” said a Bush campaign memo. “We are unapologetic about adjusting our game plan to meet the evolving dynamics of this race to ensure that outcome.”
On Thursday, Mr. Trump’s account retweeted a supporter’s suggestion that Iowa voters have “issues in the brain” that push them to support Mr. Carson. Mr. Trump later deleted the tweet and blamed it on a “young intern.”
Last Sunday, the Washington Post reported on the emergence of a high-dollar super PAC with close ties to Mr. Trump’s campaign and top campaign aides.
Dozens of independent groups have cropped up to support Mr. Trump’s run for president, some of them showing little activity while others actively solicit contributions. Each is problematic for a candidate who loudly condemns super PACs.
On Thursday night, Mr. Trump reiterated his call for super PACs backing him to disband. “I am self-funding my campaign and therefore I will not be controlled by the donors, special interests and lobbyists who have corrupted our politics and politicians for far too long,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.
“I have disavowed all super PACs, requested the return of all donations made to said PACs, and I am calling on all presidential candidates to do the same,” he said.
Despite Mr. Trump’s insistence that he is funding his bid on his own, his own campaign website, not to mention federal campaign-finance records, show he is indeed raising campaign cash.
His campaign’s website features a large “DONATE” button, and Mr. Trump’s Federal Election Commission report shows that in the quarter ended Sept. 30, he spent only $100,800 of his own money, while raising $3.8 million from what his campaign called “unsolicited” donors, 119 of whom gave the maximum $2,700 contribution. He received 317 checks for $1,000 or more.
The biggest recipient of Trump campaign funds was Mr. Trump himself, according to Trump’s campaign-finance filing. The Trump-owned private aircraft company that flies his 747 was paid $723,400. The next-largest vendor was the company that produces Trump-branded hats and T-shirts, which was paid more than $500,000.

Could it be that the president is a Muslim?

Another Obama mystery: He wore a wedding ring as a single man

In Western cultures, a married person wears his or her wedding ring on the ring or 4th finger. Indeed, the married Barack Obama wears a gold ring on his ring finger.
But what is odd is that Obama had worn a ring on his wedding ring finger long before he married Mooch in 1992, since at least his days as a student at Occidental College, CA (1979-81).
Below are 3 photos of Obama wearing a “wedding ring” at Occidental.
Obama at OccidentalObama at Occidental CollegeObama sitting alongside Occidental College roommate Hasan Chandoo in 1981 (Photo by Tom Grauman, New Yorker magazine). 
Here’s a pic of Obama allegedly (not!) with his maternal grandparents, when he was a student at

Thursday, October 22, 2015

What is Garry McCarthy smoking?

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has joined with other top cops from around the country to push for reforms that they believe could make our streets safer by sending fewer people to prison.
It’s a plan that might sound counter-intuitive, but it’s one that could have an impact on those arrested for low level crimes.
Tana Edmonson is turning her life around working at Felony Frank's, which is the Oak Park restaurant that hires felons and gives them a second chance. 
“I was given a credit card from a friend and we got into it, and she went and called police and said it was stolen,” Edmonson said
She faced up to eight years in prison for theft and credit card fraud, but under a diversion program she only served 18 months.
Still, with a felony conviction on her record, finding work was tough, and ten jobs fell through.
“Once they found out I was a felon, they turned me down after signing the paper of a hiring,” Edmonson said.
In Washington DC, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and other top cops met to call for reforms that would reduce prison and jail overcrowding by reducing or eliminating prison sentences for certain low-level crimes.
“Twenty seven percent of the inmates that are incarcerated in Cook County Jail are incarcerated for narcotic related offenses, less than four percent are incarcerated for gun offenses,” Superintendent McCarthy said.
The group insists this won't compromise public safety, and might actually help it.
“Arresting and imprisoning low level offenders prevents us from dedicating that time to serious offenders and repeat violent offenders,” said Ronal Serpas, the former New Orleans Superintendent of Police who is now a professor of criminology at Loyola University in New Orleans.
McCarthy said he believes it’s time the country started rethinking what constitutes a crime.

Sen. Joseph McCarthy, we could use him today.

The Destruction of Joe McCarthy

mc-office23There are profound lessons for us today in the saga of this misled hero.
by Scott Speidel, Florida State University
* * *
“Average Americans can do very little insofar as digging Communist espionage agents out of our government is concerned. They must depend upon those of us whom they send down here to man the watch-towers of the nation. The thing that I think we must remember is that this is a war, which a brutalitarian force has won to a greater extent than any brutalitarian force has won a war in the history of the world before.
“You can talk about Communism as though it’s something ten thousand miles away. Let me say it’s right here with us now. Unless we make sure that there is no infiltration of our government, then

Wait till next year

With the good talent and superb management, I believe there will be a next year. 

Sadly, I can't say the same for the White Sox.  

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

POS DURBIN, betrayer of the trust

Durbin: We Should Be Prepared To Accept 100,000 Syrian Refugees!

In A Speech On The Senate Floor, Senator Discusses Ongoing Crisis And His Recent Visit With Chicago-Area Refugee Families

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – During a speech on the U.S. Senate Floor, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) called for a drastic increase in the number of Syrian refugees who are resettled in the United States. Durbin also spoke of his meeting last week with Syrian families who have recently resettled in the Chicago area.
   
“We have a history of responding to humanitarian crises. We need to do it again.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Everything that was right is wrong, everything that was wrong is now right!

The ¨Bathroom Bill¨ as it has come to be known, deleted certain measures relating to the usage of a restroom by the opposite sex to help quell protests, but still the bill allows for anyone who identifies themselves as transgender to use the restroom opposite of what what they might be ‘under their clothes’.
After Parker modified the original bill, she drew heat from the transgender community, which she addressed:
“The base ordinance is still the same,” Parker said. “It says you can’t discriminate.”
Afterwards, Parker tweeted a message to address concern over the measure changes:
“To my trans sisters/brothers: you’re still fully protected in Equal Rights Ordinance. We’re simply removing language

Aaron Rogers



There is nothing exciting with the Bears.






FOXBORO, MA - AUGUST 13: Aaron Rodgers #12 of the Green Bay Packers drops back for a pass in the first quarter against the New England Patriots during a preseason game at Gillette Stadium on August 13, 2015 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. (Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)Photograph by Mike Lawrie — Getty ImagesAdidas has scored a multiyear endorsement deal with Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, poaching one of the league’s most highly regarded stars from

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Poor Bears

Actually, Cutler's stats were pretty decent. So much damage done to the team last year..... Meanwhile, go Pack. 

Saturday, October 17, 2015

State pension checks are going to be late.


Now the proverbial chicken is coming home to roost for the State of Illinois.
Elizabeth Campbell and Tim Jones report for Bloomberg, Oct. 14, 2015, that Illinois will delay pension payments as a prolonged budget impasse causes a cash shortage. The spending standoff between Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democratic legislative leaders has extended into its fourth month with no signs of ending.
Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger said her office will postpone a $560 million retirement-fund payment next month and may be late in its December payment as well. But the pension systems will be paid in full by the end of the fiscal year in June. Munger said that the

Rauner cares?

Rauner made $58 million in 2014, tax return reveals as he tries to convince everyone that his shutdown of the state is not about his ego.

Bruce Rauner and his wife Diana prepare to vote in November 2014. File Photo. | Al Podgorski 
 
Business is still booming for Gov. Bruce Rauner and his wife Diana, who reported more than $58 million in income in 2014, according to a joint tax filing released by the governor’s office on Friday.
The Rauners reported $58.3 million in total income on their federal return. Their adjusted gross income was $57.5 million. They paid $15.2 million in federal taxes and $2.8 million in Illinois taxes, according to the filing.


The governor’s office did not release the schedules for the filing, which provide information on interest income, mortgage interest and charitable deductions. But in a news release, the governor’s office said the Rauners made $3.3 million in charitable contributions.

Last October, Rauner’s office released four pages of his 2013 tax return, also without the accompanying schedules. That filing revealed the Rauners took in $60.8 million in income, up from the $53.4 million they reported making in 2012. In 2011, Rauner reported $28.1 million in income and in 2010, $27.1 million.
In October 2014, Rauner was in the midst of a contentious campaign against former Gov. Pat Quinn. Quinn’s campaign at the time questioned why Rauner didn’t release his entire tax return to the public.

Friday, October 16, 2015

It's about time

FBI SEIZES COOK COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT CLERK'S CELL PHONE

Chi-dorothy-brown-20140508
CHICAGO - Thursday, POLITICO's Natasha Korecki reported that the FBI seized Cook County Circuit Court clerk Dorothy Brown's cell phone when they visited her home last week.
The visit, which happened last week, is the clearest sign yet that a probe that initially scrutinized Brown’s husband, Benton Cook III, has expanded to include Brown herself.
One source said the phone seizure was intended to allow investigators to review text messages on the device.
Brown's husband is already under FBI investigation, and Brown is reported to have already been subpoenaed for documents concerning her husband's business registered at their home and a questionable land deal. 

Start with Jesus

“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have placed my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.” (Psalm 14:3-8)

CBN.COM

Sheila Walsh: 5 Minutes with Jesus

SUB187_sheila_walsh_MDMany women struggle to find a few quiet minutes each day to spend time in God’s Word. The busyness of life seems to get in the way. Sheila wants to encourage women of all ages to find the time, just five minutes a day, to read the Bible and slowly absorb the words that will bring life. Sheila recalls the time she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She had struggled with depression for a good part of her life. During her time in the psych ward Sheila shares how she could not read lots of information, but she could read a verse each day and mediate on it. “There are some seasons of life in which you can only read one verse,” shares Sheila. When you meditate on God’s Word it creates a hunger for more time with Jesus.
Over the past twenty years, Sheila has spoken to millions of women. As she has encouraged them in their walk with the Lord she has discovered that many women feel guilty about not spending enough time with God. “God’s time is not like ours, and when we give Him our time, He can do more within us in five minutes than if we spend five hours on our own,” reveals Sheila. She says it is important to start a conversation with God that will continue throughout the day – a conversation that Jesus will use to encourage, guide, and strengthen us.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

What then?

Claypool: No Plan B for CPS if $500M pension reform fails


WRITTEN BY LAUREN FITZPATRICK POSTED: 

Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool talks about what Chicago Public Schools will face if Springfield fails to deliver $500 million in pension reform on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, in Chicago. | Ashlee Rezin/For Sun-Times Media

If Springfield fails to deliver $500 million in pension reform that Chicago Public Schools is counting on to balance its books, new CEO Forrest Claypool said he doesn’t have a Plan B.
Class sizes could go up during the second semester and more staff could be laid off, Claypool told the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday. 


“Look, we’re getting a handle on the finances of the district as they stand now, staffing our personnel on a school by school basis, but I’m confident the General Assembly, given the time to act, will be a partner with us in the end because it’s too important,” Claypool said at CPS headquarters during a mini-junket this week to lobby Springfield and the Chicago Teachers Union to go along with a pension relief plan.
Claypool also could not say when the district plans to release its full budget, which must go to public hearings and then be approved by the Board of Education by the end of the month. But closing schools is not an option this year or next, he said.

Among the new CEO’s many other challenges is ironing out a contract with the CTU that’s currently expired. The sticking point is how student test scores are used to evaluate teachers, a point that led the teachers to strike in 2012


“We’re not budging on evaluations — that ship has sailed, that was agreed to, the teachers were a big part of that process,” he said. “There was a lot of negotiating four years ago over this that’s embedded in that contract and we’re not going to go backwards.”
When talks broke off right before the June 30 expiration date, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said CPS’ “bargaining rhetoric is as empty as their bank accounts.” She said her members were willing to accept a one-year deal with no raises in exchange for some quality of life improvements.
In their first sit-down interview since accepting the mayor’s appointment, Claypool, who has no education background, and Janice Jackson, his new chief education officer, said they intend to help neighborhood schools that are struggling to hold onto students as enrollment dips districtwide.
“The first thing we need to do is ensure stability,” said Jackson, a CPS grad, former principal at Westinghouse College Prep high School and mother of a CPS elementary school student. She promised more help for neighborhood high schools that have seen their enrollment decline along with their budgets in recent years.
“Ensuring that there is a high-quality high school in every community is definitely something I see as part of my vision,” she said.
Jackson said extra money has already been provided to schools that “are either losing enrollment or need support recruiting more parents and families back to their schools. So there are a lot of supports we haven’t publicized,” Jackson said.
And her office will help neighborhood schools market themselves to parents as a good choice, she said.
“Our goal at this level is to help principals promote their schools. But I think principals understand it’s a competitive environment. And that they do have to market their schools so parents select their school,” Jackson said.
Days into the jobs she and Claypool fell into after former CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett resigned in the face of a federal probe, Jackson doesn’t yet have a specific strategy but said that stability “is our priority too.”
“We can’t give a magical date when everything is going to be settled. But I think [parents] should know it’s our No. 1 priority. We’re working extremely hard to ensure a level of stability.”