The Chorito Hog Leg, Book One -Brings this Era To Life

The above page of the Leo High School Oriole 1944 presents some of the real sources for the fictional characters in my novel . Click this page on and get trip back in history.

This Review of my novel by History Channel Guest and consultant Cyril J. O'Brien appeared in Pacific Daily News:

Book depicts Chamorros going above and beyond
By Cyril J. O'Brien

There's an interesting novel with a different scenario on the liberation of Guam by Chicago, Ill., school teacher Pat Hickey. It depicts the often underwritten action on Chonito Ridge, and describes the Chamorro people as going above and beyond. It relates the battle story through fictional as well as actual leaders as a way of demonstrating the caliber of the people who fought that war on Guam.

A student of the battle, Hickey is well into Able Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, led by Capt. Gary Bundshu in its impossible, day-and-a-half assault straight up to the crest of Chonito Ridge, a cliff overlooking the Asan beaches on Guam. The top was taken late in the second day after Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, secured the rear and flank to let Able finish its ascent and hold it.

Using the Marines' nickname for the ridge, Hickey, in "The Chorito Hog Leg" (AuthorHouse 2007, Bloomington, Ind.) intersperses the story with surprising incidents, heroic actions, including the gratuitous cruelty of Japanese captors on the Guamanian people. The book is also punctuated with bits of holiness of sisters, mothers and girlfriends back in Chicago with rosaries and novenas.

Hickey spices it with some seasoned ribald troop vernacular and surprises you with incidents and anecdotes that could make you lose the course of what is going on.
Hickey also brings in the colorful gangster days that represented the Windy City at its zenith because it is from where the young Marines he describes are from.


Action started at sea
And you may have forgotten how the first combat action of Guam was at sea. Pat describes it: the Japanese Kate spinning a torpedo toward the troop-jammed tank landing ship. (I was on the starboard side where the torpedo beaded).
But a little LCI (landing craft infantry) ship in our assault convey, there to protect the troopship, nosed her bow into the torpedo bound for our ship. It blew off the LCI's bow and killed all on station there. We watched the next morning as a destroyer sunk the remains of the heroic little LCI.

Within the carnage of battle is a conflict arrayed in the book pitting a young man named Tim Cullen against his battalion commander over the possession of an 1860 Army Cold .45 Hog Leg revolver, which can be traced back to a captain who was with Custer. It brings in diversion and other interests, and continues the novel, but makes no "neverminds" to history.

Hickey, well anointed as an author, is a career educator, graduate of Loyola University, Chicago and now with St. Leo's High School in the city.


Cyril J. O'Brien was a combat correspondent with the 3rd Marine Division in World War II, which helped liberate Guam. He lives in Silver Spring, Md.

John McCain: Real Change means Real Choice in Schools

Chicago Daily Observer an alternative Internet newspaper here in Chicago, published by a civic minded gentleman-philanthropist and managed and edited by the great Tom Roeser and John Powers, syndicated my article John McCain and School Choice.


Click my post title for the article in Chicago Daily Observer


School Choice is the bogey-man of Democratic candidates for any public office, because for decades the Public School Lobbies in America have orchestrated powerful chorus of dollars, votes and news media intimidation that drowns out debate, much less action on this vital issue.

Public Schools have inflated taxes and helped erase the once proud American Middle Class while creating institutionalized failure. The only solution to every problem with American Education, it is argued by the Public School Lobbies, is more tax dollars.

Independent, Parochial and Home Schooling have produced competitive students without public dollars, while heaping an extra financial burden upon families who opt to educate their children away from American Public education.

Public Schools have bankrupted State budgets - especially in Illinois. Public Schools are a factor in the low morale of public service employees who send their children to Catholic and private schools. In the City of Chicago, police, fire, streets and sanitation workers - all City employees - must live within the City limits. The choice for a quality education is limited to Catholic and private schools; thus, these same tax-salaried employees must pay private school tuition. The Chicago Public School system is no option for most City employees. Elected Officials who tout the value of Public Schools send their children to St. Ignatius, DeLaSalle Institute, University Laboratory School ( Senator Barack Obama's attend the LAB). Community activists like Reverend Jesse Jackson sent his sons to LeMans Academy operated by the Brothers of the Holy Cross in Rolling Prairie, Indiana.

Who's kidding whom?

John McCain is the only Presidential Candidate who supports real change in Education.

I ask Chicago Police Officers, Chicago Fire Fighters and any and all City Employees to chime in on the issue. Where do they send their children to be educated?

Here is what John McCain offers as true change in education -Change - Yes, we Can!

Excellence, Choice, and Competition in American Education


John McCain believes American education must be worthy of the promise we make to our children and ourselves. He understands that we are a nation committed to equal opportunity, and there is no equal opportunity without equal access to excellent education.

Public education should be defined as one in which our public support for a child's education follows that child into the school the parent chooses. The school is charged with the responsibility of educating the child, and must have the resources and management authority to deliver on that responsibility. They must also report to the parents and the public on their progress.

The deplorable status of preparation for our children, particularly in comparison with the rest of the industrialized world, does not allow us the luxury of eliminating options in our educational repertoire. John McCain will fight for the ability of all students to have access to all schools of demonstrated excellence, including their own homes.

No Child Left Behind has focused our attention on the realities of how students perform against a common standard. John McCain believes that we can no longer accept low standards for some students and high standards for others. In this age of honest reporting, we finally see what is happening to students who were previously invisible. While that is progress all its own, it compels us to seek and find solutions to the dismal facts before us.

John McCain believes our schools can and should compete to be the most innovative, flexible and student-centered – not safe havens for the uninspired and unaccountable. He believes we should let them compete for the most effective, character-building teachers, hire them, and reward them. (Emphasis my own)


If a school will not change, the students should be able to change schools. John McCain believes parents should be empowered with school choice to send their children to the school that can best educate them just as many members of Congress do with their own children. He finds it beyond hypocritical that many of those who would refuse to allow public school parents to choose their child's school would never agree to force their own children into a school that did not work or was unsafe. They can make another choice. John McCain believes that is a fundamental and essential right we should honor for all parents.

As president, John McCain will pursue reforms that address the underlying cultural problems in our education system - a system that still seeks to avoid genuine accountability and responsibility for producing well-educated children.

John McCain will place parents and children at the center of the education process, empowering parents by greatly expanding the ability of parents to choose among schools for their children. He believes all federal financial support must be predicated on providing parents the ability to move their children, and the dollars associated with them, from failing schools.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John McCain: New York Times Readings by Willie Cunningham Delight McCain Foes

'Panama's Where Them Hats is From! Yeah, I'as In 'Nam (110 Reade St
New York, NY)had dinner there; S'what?'

'

Coming soon to airwaves! Old # 69 - Willie Cunningham reads the Times!

Willie Cunningham - which translates to 'smart pig' from the Old Irish - began a series of readings from the New York Times, which endorsed Senator John McCain and then smeared him with cut-and-paste story that Jayson Blair could have cooked up on less money.

These readings delighted fans of Willie and other like minded intellects.

Today's reading is a beaut that questions whether or not the son or daughter of an American Military Serviceman/woman can and should be considered an American citizen with full rights of citizenship - like run for President.

Listeners of Willie were delighted - confused but delighted - as Willie explained repeatedly that what he was reading was against McCain.

John McCain: Willie's Time is Over

Political Science professor Jason Johnson from Hiram College spoke to the Cincinnati Enquirer and told them John McCain needs radio talk show listeners and Willie fans to go his way, "John McCain needs those people if he has any hope of winning in November."

With all hubris an aphid can muster and with the assistance of Hiram College Don, Jason Johnson, and tubby Fox goofball Sean Hannity , Willie Cunningham asserts , that John McCain needs him.

Not even close Willie. John McCain has the support of Americans with both oars in the water.

Willie needed John McCain. Just before the obnoxious jerk screwed up the McCain rally, The Enquirer of Cincinnati reports on Willie's slide in the ratings.

Turns out that Willie is getting thumped in the ratings by an African American rival in the Queen City Area and used to McCain gig to boost his flat-lining career with a verbal bat-biting routine.

WARE RANKS HIGHER THAN WLW RIVALS

Why is WDBZ-AM (1230) talk host Lincoln Ware smiling? Not only is he among "the 100 most important radio talk show hosts in America" in Talkers magazine, he's also ranked higher than WLW's Bill Cunningham and Mike McConnell.

"I beat Willie this time," says Ware, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. host.

At No. 59, Ware was third among African-Americans behind Joe Madison (No. 18) of WOL-AM in Washington D.C., and syndicated Bev Smith (No. 41). Talkers, the "bible of talk radio," called Ware "a leading issues talk host in the urban/African-American genre."

Cunningham was No. 69 for his 12:30-3 p.m. weekday show here, and his nationally syndicated 10 p.m. Sunday show.

McConnell, at No. 84, was cited for his syndicated daytime and weekend shows. However, he's been doing a local 9 a.m.-noon program since weekday distribution ended Feb. 1.

Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity were first and second.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080224/ENT/802240308

Willie, Old # 69, is a lightweight pain in the rump with a face for radio. I caught the turnip brained loudmouth on Hannity and Colmes, while channel surfing. He looks like a nun that I taught with before she got fired for being nuts - Willie makes about as much sense as she did as well. Willie makes Colmes look like the late great Edward R. Murrow - and that is no mean trick.

Sean Hannity called Willie 'A Great American.' Well that is Sean Hannity's America - must have some cumulative GPA and a swell GNP - a national diet of Topps Bubble Gum Wafers.

John McCain: Cleaning up after the Geek!

Bill 'Willie' Cunningham - All about Number One!

John McCain cleaned up after Elephant Man Bill 'Willie' Cunningham's Carnie Barker Act in Cincinatti yesterday. Click my post title for the story in today's Chicago Tribune.

This goof is a template for the wholesale ruin of talk radio. While a brilliant and thoughtful man like Milton Rosenberg continues to occupy a chair in front of the microphone and at WGN 720 in Chicago at the hours between 9-11 PM - snarling mopes like Billy 'The Geek - Watch Him Eat the Head off a Sparrow, Folks!' Cunningham gets buzz time for all the folks who like train wrecks in their personalities.

Yesterday, Bill Willie decided to not do what he had been asked to do, introduce John McCain, a dignified and courageous man who campaigns like the level-headed Americans who will vote for him, and play the 'edgy' goofball, Willie's Schtick, instead.

Repeating Senator Obama's middle name with a scornful tone, Billy thought that he was just the oyster's ice-skates!

Without meeting the Radio Rube and dignifying his remarks with a disdainful look or word, John McCain cleaned up after the would-be Goebbels.


Immediately, the hurt Harlequin whinned to his 'fans' -

Cunningham said later that he stood by his comments at the rally. He told his listeners: ‘”I’ve had it with McCain. I’m going to throw my support to Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Swell news for some Dame who's fixin' to go 0-13.

Now there is some rock-solid conviction! Cunningham unmasks the ugly face of talk radio - Left and Right.

Folks, listen to Milt Rosenberg and give your brain a workout. The flabby lobes will continue to stay glued to Bill 'Willie' Cunningham.

Cunningham says his show will be less political than Drudge. "I try to be an entertainer, to make people laugh," he says. Sports reporter Bill "Seg" Dennison, his long-time sidekick, will appear on the national show to do NFL scores at 10:40 p.m. and 11:40 p.m., Cunningham says.

http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2007/09/bill-cunningham-going-national.asp


This From About.Com

Profiles of Popular and Extraordinary Radio Personalities
Bill Cunningham

Personal: Born in Covington, Kentucky on December 11, 1947, Cunningham is a Republican and is also a practicing attorney.

Radio: Cunningham has been heard on WLW-AM/Cincinnati since 1983. He currently does a weekday, early afternoon program. His daily show is also heard on XM Satellite Radio, channel 173.

Cunningham is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks and does a weekly program called "Live on Sunday Night with Bill Cunningham" which airs 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., nationally. (Launched October 7, 2007)

Claim to Fame: "Voice of the common man"

Awards: 2001 Marconi Award winner for best large-market radio personality

Website: Cunningham's page at WLW's website.

John McCain: Mark Halperin's Help Can't Help - Obama will Unravel On His Own

Mark Halperin's point-by-point analysis - 'not advice' - on how to beat Barack Obama is nice - thanks Mark. Put it in the closet with the fruitcakes and the lint rollers.

Barack Obama's record and Illinois Legislative past with a thick emphasis on ties to indicted Tony Rezko will unravel his campaign on its own. In today' Chicago Tribune it is reported that:

In her ruling, St. Eve said the government contends that Rezko directed business associates Joseph Aramanda and Elie Maloof to make contributions to an unnamed political candidate in late 2003 and 2004 because Rezko had already contributed the maximum legal amount.

The only candidate Maloof and Aramanda contributed to during that time frame was Obama, then running for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. Maloof and Aramanda each gave $10,000 to Obama's campaign.

Maloof of Vernon Hills had supported Obama in an earlier political campaign, and disclosure reports from that effort listed her as a vice president of operations for a Rezko pizzeria management firm. Aramanda is a Glenview businessman whose son received a coveted summer internship in Obama's Capitol Hill office in 2005.

Until his recent legal troubles, Rezko had been a longtime friend and financial supporter of Obama's political career. Prosecutors have not alleged any wrongdoing on Obama's part, but the developments come at an awkward time as Obama faces crucial March 4 primary contests, one day after the scheduled start of the trial.

Obama's campaign says it has given more than $150,000 in Rezko-linked contributions to charity, including the money from Aramanda and Maloof.

"We had no knowledge of any straw donations and have returned any of the donations about which we have any reasonable question," Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement late Monday.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-obama-rezko_both26feb26,0,5062637.story

Even Leftie Mother Jones is piling on to the calls from Illinois Democratic legislative former colleagues who learned to their collective surprise that Obama took credit for 823 pieces of legislation:

In 1999, Barack Obama was faced with a difficult vote in the Illinois legislature — to support a bill that would let some juveniles be tried as adults, a position that risked drawing fire from African-Americans, or to oppose it, possibly undermining his image as a tough-on-crime moderate.
In the end, Mr. Obama chose neither to vote for nor against the bill. He voted “present,” effectively sidestepping the issue, an option he invoked nearly 130 times as a state senator.
Sometimes the “present’ votes were in line with instructions from Democratic leaders or because he objected to provisions in bills that he might otherwise support. At other times, Mr. Obama voted present on questions that had overwhelming bipartisan support. In at least a few cases, the issue was politically sensitive
.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2007/12/6659_yesterday_the_n.html


Barack Obama's Campaign will unravel on its own. Halperin means well, but give him a pass. Keep being John McCain. Keep things respectful - tough but respectful - like you did in Cincinnati when the disc jockey started to sneer at Barak Obama's name. Keep it McCain-like and dignified. Barack Obama's mummy like rhetorical wrapping is unwinding.

John McCain: Howard Dean is a Trainwreck from Way Back

This Goof, Howard Dean, takes a hint like a deaf geek given the brush-off by some gorgeous ankle at a Dance for Swells!

First off Deano - No One ever good news'd me with 'Patrick' - the ears go shut on that salutation.

Secondly, Deano -'In response, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said McCain has done nothing more than Dean did in 2003, when he refused public financing for his unsuccessful presidential bid.

"Howard Dean's hypocrisy is breathtaking given that in 2003 he withdrew from the matching funds system in exactly the same way that John McCain is doing today," Rogers said in a written statement.' Click Toitle for full CNN text.


Deano thinks that Republicans are hateful - From Meet the Press:

Meet The Press / Sunday) Howard Dean in an interview with Tim Russert on Meet the Press admits that he “Hates Republicans and everything they stand for”. Amazing that the Democratic Party is looking to this luntic to save their erroding membership. They must have a death wish! I know they can do better than the Deaniac. Yes — Howard… you are really going to convert moderate Republicans to vote for a Democratic president in the next presidential election with that rhetoric! The crashing and burning is still underway… We suppose it is nature’s way of cleaning house.

Shoot, Howard, my in-laws are Republicans and some of my neighbors. I'm voting for John McCain and I'm Thiiiiiiiiiiisssssss close to jumping ship altogether.

I have not sent a nickle to the DNC sinec Howard Dean grabbed the throtle - BYAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Old Number 2 won't make the sharp turn to left Howard! Trainwreck a'comin'!


Here's Deano's note to me.

Dear Patrick,

There was a lot of talk last week about John McCain's blatant hypocrisy on ethics and integrity in Washington.

Here we go again.

McCain is now breaking the law by ignoring the campaign spending restrictions for the Republican primary that came when he asked for federal matching funds -- funds he used as collateral on a loan that helped keep his campaign going.

But now that the lobbyist and special interest money has started pouring into his campaign, he's trying to back out of the promise he made just a few months ago. They're feeding so much cash into his bank account, this "reformer" wants nothing to do with federal campaign finance laws anymore.

That's why today, we're filing a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission demanding that John McCain be held to the campaign finance laws. Trying to back out shows a total lack of integrity and honesty -- he made a deal with the American people to to abide by the law, and in return, he was guaranteed taxpayer money that he used to back a loan.

Patrick, I'd like you to add your name in support of our complaint, and ask as many people as you can to sign on. American taxpayers made a deal with John McCain -- now that he's flush with lobbyist cash, he wants to pretend that it never happened.

Sign on right now:

http://www.democrats.org/McCainBusted

Here's the background on the situation.

A few months ago, John McCain applied for and was approved to receive federal matching funds. Because he couldn't find enough people to fund his campaign, he was also forced to apply for a $4 million line of credit, which he secured by using the federal matching funds as collateral.

By taking the federal funding, he agreed to spend no more than $57 million until the Republican convention. But so far, his campaign has spent at least $49 million -- leaving him with less than $10 million to campaign with through September.

Now that he's won the nomination and has the support of the Republican lobbyist and special interest machine, he's trying to ignore that the whole thing ever happened. He recently wrote a letter to the FEC telling them that he was backing out, even though the FEC is very clear that any request to withdraw from the agreement must be approved; you can't just change your mind and take it back -- legally, you have to be given permission.

McCain isn't asking because he knows he'll never be granted permission, and he doesn't want to have to accept the funding restrictions he agreed to when he used the money as collateral for a loan. He's ripping a page right from George Bush's playbook: ignoring the laws when they aren't convenient and hoping no one will notice.

Stand up and show him that hundreds of thousands of people have noticed -- he can't change the rules in the middle of the game because he doesn't like how things are going for him:

http://www.democrats.org/McCainBusted

Using government programs when it's politically convenient and breaking the rules when it's not ... remind you of anyone?

Just like George Bush, John McCain thinks he's above the law. McCain poses as a reformer, but seems to think reforms apply to everyone but him.

Time to send him a message.


Howard Dean

Yeah, Just Like Bush, Howard. Like a mirror image. McCain has my message - "I fully support McCain; McCain has my money - which used to go to a Democrat Candidate; and McCain has my vote, again." McCain is a good man - you, Howard, are a piece of work in progress.

Ralph Nader Announces What Everyone Else Already Knows!

Illinois Nader Chair - Buck Teefe calls out Progressives, Libertarians, Roto-Rooter Truck Followers, Doc's Stink Bait Gourmets, Circus and Carnie Alumni, Grub Worm Aficionados and the League of Bathtub Bubble Biters to a Ralph Nader Rally in the Double Wide Phone Booth outside of Custer's Last Stand in Custer Park,IL along the Kankakee River on Rt. 113 - can't really missit -unless you pass it -sometime in the next few weeks or months - whatever.

Click My Post Title for the Nader Campaign Theme song - apologies to John Mellencamp - Ralph is taking a pass.

Nader Says He's Running for U.S. Presidency Again John Brinsley
41 minutes ago



Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who ran for president in 2000 and 2004, said he's going to make another bid for the White House this year.

ADVERTISEMENT

``I have decided to run for president,'' Nader, 73, said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' program today. He said felt a duty to enter the race because the major party candidates aren't adequately addressing the influence of lobbyists and wasteful spending in government.

``When you see the paralysis of the government, when you see Washington, D.C., be corporate-occupied territory, every department and agency controlled by overwhelming presence of corporate lobbyists, corporate executives in high government positions, turning the government against its own people, one feels an obligation to try and open the doorways,'' he said.

Nader risks the wrath of Democrats, many of whom blame him for spoiling former Vice President Al Gore's bid for the presidency in 2000. Nader got 97,488 votes in Florida, the state that decided that election; President George W. Bush ended up winning the state by just 537 votes.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton today called Nader's decision ``unfortunate.''

Nader rejected the suggestion that his campaign cost Gore the election.

``If you look at it analytically, Mr. Gore would tell you that if he'd won Tennessee, everything else being equal, he would've been president,'' Nadar said. ``It's his home state.''

National Vote

Nader won 2.7 percent of the national vote in 2000 when he was the Green Party candidate. In 2004, his independent presidential campaign drew 0.3 percent of the vote nationwide.

Clinton, a New York senator, told reporters today aboard her campaign plane that Nader's decision is ``not helpful to whoever the Democratic nominee is.''

Illinois Senator Barack Obama, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, said yesterday at Ohio State University in Columbus that while Nader is ``a heroic figure'' for his work on behalf of consumers, ``Mr. Nader is somebody who, if you don't listen and adopt all of his policies, thinks you're not substantive.''

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said on CNN's ``Late Edition'' program today that Nader ``would probably pull votes away from the Democrats, not Republicans.''

Republican Welcome

``Actually, Republicans would welcome his entry into the race,'' Huckabee said.

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, a Democrat who supports Obama, said today on ``Fox News Sunday'' that he doesn't think Nader's candidacy will affect the presidential race.

When Nader formed a committee to consider a White House run last month, he said he believed the current contenders weren't standing up enough to corporate interests.

``Look at the major areas of injustice, deprivation and solutions that are not being addressed by the major candidates,'' Nader said in a Jan. 30 interview with Bloomberg News. Among other issues, he cited the need for a ``practical timed withdrawal'' from Iraq, programs to crack down on corporate fraud and a rearrangement of the U.S. tax system.

Nader said last month that he would want to raise $10 million over the course of the campaign. By comparison, Clinton and Obama each have raised more than $120 million in political contributions.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Brinsley in Washington at jbrinsley@bloomberg.net ;

John McCain: Clark Hoyt NYT's Public Editor Throwing to Jim Thome!

John McCain is a Super-Regular Guy - He Don't Worry about Appearances - or needs to.





New York Times has Gotten it wrong Before. BTW -that is not a real Front Page - could have been; but it ain't.



Clark Hoyt comes off as a pretty good guy. Most people who take on the task of listening to the public are just that - good people. They catch the flak for the mistakes, insults, thievery, laziness and mean-spiritedness of people within an institution, or the institution itself.

'Let me speak with you manager!' is about as polite as the howling public gets when something goes wrong or is perceived to be wrong. The very worst people in our litigious society usually have some ambulance chaser in their back pockets when they get to venting as well. 'I'll sue!' has taken the place of 'I am going to give you the beating of the New Millennium' in our politically correct day and age - sadly.

Public editors for newspapers, like assistant managers of Denny's Worldwide, meet the eyeball popped public with good grace and genuine concern. Clark Hoyt issued a pretty fair assessment of the New York Times's pooch-screwing of the John McCain non-story:

The pity of it is that, without the sex, The Times was on to a good story. McCain, who was reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee in 1991 for exercising “poor judgment” by intervening with federal regulators on behalf of a corrupt savings and loan executive, recast himself as a crusader against special interests and the corrupting influence of money in politics. Yet he has continued to maintain complex relationships with lobbyists like Iseman, at whose request he wrote to the Federal Communications Commission to urge a speed-up on a decision affecting one of her clients.

Much of that story has been reported over the years, but it was still worth pulling together to help voters in 2008 better understand the John McCain who might be their next president.

I asked Jill Abramson, the managing editor for news, if The Times could have done the story and left out the allegation about an affair. “That would not have reflected the essential truth of why the aides were alarmed,” she said.

But what the aides believed might not have been the real truth. And if you cannot provide readers with some independent evidence, I think it is wrong to report the suppositions or concerns of anonymous aides about whether the boss is getting into the wrong bed.

«

Clark Hoyt burned one past the batter admitting that 'sex' had no place in the story. No matter what! Swing and miss. Ok that gets Jim Thome's attention and he digs in his cleats for the next one.

Clark Hoyt wizards a change up admitting that the material is in fact eight and nine years old. Thome windmilled that one.

Hoyt's use of Managing Editor's low and outside '“But that was not the point of the story. The point of the story was that he behaved in such a way that his close aides felt the relationship constituted reckless behavior and feared it would ruin his career.” is what gave Mr. Incredible the beach ball that goes sailing over the Center Field Wall at Comiskey Park ( Cellular Field to Infidels).

Clark Hoyt should get a couple of more zeros before the decimal point on his next paycheck. Since the New York Times will be bleeding cash in the next few months do it soon bean counters. Clark Hoyt did some tough pitching today

That is some pretty solid relief pitching, but with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and three men on two strikes are not enough.

A guy like John McCain, who seems indifferent to what people like "investigative reporters" Think and 'aides' want to use against him, appears even more honest to an uncomplex guy like me. Who cares about appearances? Jesus hung out with hookers, tax-collectors, drunken fishermen, Roman gamblers, wine guzzlers, and had an aide who sold him out for appearances sake. John McCain is no Jesus - miles fromit and he is only to glad to admit it, but McCain went through a pretty long Gethsemane.

If a guy worries about appearances, it is time to really worry about the guy and give him a long stare. John McCain is Ok by me.


Click my title for Clark Hoyt's NYT piece. HT to Meghan Mccain for her button photo!

Keith Olbermann, or Capri Sun?

What's the Difference between MSNBC's Resident Old Woman, Keith Olbermann, and the delicious and citrus -packed goodness of Capri Sun?

Well . . . One is a Juice Bag . . .!

John McCain: NYT Flap Builds McCain's Extended Family - Hokey Smokes!

A family is but too often a commonwealth of malignants. Alexander Pope

Our motley collection of McCainiacs ( Republicans deemed moderates and Democrats Deaned away from National Debate like myself) - vastly average level-headed Patriotic Americans are now joined by far-right Protesting Knights - Limgorgians, Coulterites, Buchananlanders, Malkinites, Ingrahamians and Hewittians. Welcome, Cousins! Blood under the bridge, all that other stuff and all! Cold ones in the fridge grab one and find a seat that table.

Everyone is outraged over the rotten display mean-spiritedly sloppy journalism by the New York Times and vested McCain haters.

Vested McCain haters some on TV, some in print ( Huffington Post and Daily Kos, ) some in Government and business are howling- MSNBC and all it stands - for theOld Peacock - takes particular joy in McCain's hoped for but elusive downfall: losers like Scarborough, preening and puffed up fops like Olbermann and Abrams ( whose lawyer Daddy, Floyd, was a shill for the House of NBC and had his butt handed to him during the challenge to McCain/Feingold)and on the other channels nutballs like Beck and Dobbs howl at McCain. Glenn 'Red Rump' Beck brought in a some Body Language Swami to catch McCain in a body fib!

Hey, Moron! McCain was tortured for 5 and half years; can barely move his arms, lost many of his teeth, and suffers having a one leg shorter than the other. Beck seems to have allowed his rump troubles to go to his head.

Nevertheless, it seems that most folks with a basic sense of decency have formed ranks behind John and Cindy McCain.

Everyone loves a fair fight. Everyone but cowards.

Strange family indeed this McCain Tribe. We look like the Waltons compared to those
Families a feuding with McCain.

John McCain: New York Times got Nothing??!!! Zero - Nothing on Page One? Old Woman and Dad and Lad Talk it up on MSNBC - The Tool Shed

I had No Idea that the JO of MSNBC Keef Olderwoman was referred to by his fan as KAYO - Well, ain't that something.


















Rachel Maddow of Air America comforts Keith Olbermann outside of 30 Rock after belaboring the New York Times Pooch Screwing.



John McCain has enemies. Who don't. I got small inconsequential enemies - deadlines, bills, people who drive and pass in and from the right lane. No vast conspiracies or confederacies of dunces in league against this average mope, because like you, dear reader, - both of you - I lead a life of quiet desperation.

My arch-enemies are tree roots in the sewer pipes and the kid at Fat Tommy's Hot Dogs who gives my coupons for two a real Homeland Security Going Over - jerk.

John McCain, a National Hero and the next President of United States has enemies coming at him like fat kids to free cake. Politics will do that.

Last night, MSNBC - The Tool Shed: More Tools Than Sears Outlet; Brought to You by GE!- worked John McCain over. 'It is his cloaking himself in his mantle of purity that will be his undoing.' The Feds still charge for that one? I learned via a poster whom I deleted for excessive profanity and bed-bug logic that Keith Olbermann is KAYO to his score of national fans. Another consonant might precede the O, but that is just me - and I am bad.

The Old Woman, JO, or Kayo persisted in bringing up intimations of a sexual liason between John McCain and the eye candy lobbyist. Kayo has issues best left unillustrated.

Not so John McCain - to those who would charge him with self-piety and therefore deserving of a greater fall than Adam, Here is John McCain about himself.

The Old Woman, Keith Olbermann and his pal Rachel Madcow, or Maddow, gleefully talked up future flytraps for McCain. Then Right after MELTDOWN with KAYO, Pencil-neck Nebbish Dan Abrams trotted out his Dad, Floyd Abrams - the lawyer who blew the challenge to McCain -Feingold and, no fan of John McCain he, tried to paint McCain as smug and arrogant - ( BTW- Dan Abrams! Did your Daddy do some influence peddling to get you hooked up in TV/ He was a Network lawyer - You did not do full disclosure Danny boy! Daddo had history with John McCain over McCain/Feingold!)

Calvin Woodward wrote a great piecee for before the New Hampshire Primary that belies any charge of McCain being anything than a straight-talking and honest man. Imagine Kayo at an American Legion or Parish Fish Fry and connecting with someone's knuckles? Very strong possiblity. Or MSNBC's Dad and Lad, Dan and Floyd Abrams whinning to get 'first chair' at Giovanni's barber shop on 111th Street? John McCain happens to be very much like most Americans. McCain is one of us. Arrogant? Naw, McCain's not on Cable News. Here's McCain:

Who else would refer to the Arizona retirement community of Leisure World as "Seizure World," as he did in his first Senate campaign? Just for fun, out loud? He couldn't help himself. (He won anyway.)
Consider McCain's life as a series of impolitic one-liners, each one illuminating complex threads of the past.

He's had a line for everything and everyone — those he tormented at the Naval Academy as a n'er-do-well midshipman, those who tortured him in Vietnam, his legion of friends and foes in the capital, the "little jerks" he ribbed in a campaign crowd, an "idiot" reporter, his own ego and, these days, his advancing age — 70.

McCain, "the Punk" in high school, has plenty of targets and none more tempting than himself.

It's a quality that sets him apart in the carefully staged presidential race, a replay of sorts of his Navy academy daze. Then as now, McCain verged on flunking out but pulled himself together in the nick of time. He's gone from chump to hero before, and he's trying again.

Then there is today's front page of the New York Times - Nothing! They got a 'ask our reporters' cop-out and new new earth shattering developments. Pathetic, small and cowardly os the New York Times. MSNBC is just a laugh riot of cartoon characters playing at Pundit.

John McCain has enemies: World Islamist Terror, a stagnant economy, and a spineless national news media for generations of history challenged Americans. The caliber of McCain's political enemies is collectively small, self-absorbed, puffed up,cowardly, but it seems no real threat. John McCain will chew through their flabby asses, gnaw on their bones and take the Oath of Office next January.

Four Page NYT's McCain Smear took Four Ink-slingers? Jayson Blair Would have been more Cost Effective!

'Now, get this, not only is this Olbermann really a guy, I guess, . . . No kidding . . . but the New York Times is paying four ink-slingers for this hack job when Jayson Blair could have done it alone! . . .I hear you! So, anyway, this four hundred pound duck walks into a bar . . .'




JIM RUTENBERG, MARILYN W. THOMPSON, DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and STEPHEN LABATON it seems each took a page to do in the 'sensational' eight year old non-story collaged to smear John McCain.

Man Jayson Blair could have done it himself. Remember that beauty?

The New York Times posted this - then:

A staff reporter for The New York Times committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud while covering significant news events in recent months, an investigation by Times journalists has found. The widespread fabrication and plagiarism represent a profound betrayal of trust and a low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper.

The reporter, Jayson Blair, 27, misled readers and Times colleagues with dispatches that purported to be from Maryland, Texas and other states, when often he was far away, in New York. He fabricated comments. He concocted scenes. He lifted material from other newspapers and wire services. He selected details from photographs to create the impression he had been somewhere or seen someone, when he had not.

And he used these techniques to write falsely about emotionally charged moments in recent history, from the deadly sniper attacks in suburban Washington to the anguish of families grieving for loved ones killed in Iraq.

In an inquiry focused on correcting the record and explaining how such fraud could have been sustained within the ranks of The Times, the Times journalists have so far uncovered new problems in at least 36 of the 73 articles Mr. Blair wrote since he started getting national reporting assignments late last October. In the final months the audacity of the deceptions grew by the week, suggesting the work of a troubled young man veering toward professional self-destruction.

Mr. Blair, who has resigned from the paper, was a reporter at The Times for nearly four years, and he was prolific. Spot checks of the more than 600 articles he wrote before October have found other apparent fabrications, and that inquiry continues. The Times is asking readers to report any additional falsehoods in Mr. Blair's work; the e-mail address is retrace@nytimes.com.

Every newspaper, like every bank and every police department, trusts its employees to uphold central principles, and the inquiry found that Mr. Blair repeatedly violated the cardinal tenet of journalism, which is simply truth. His tools of deceit were a cellphone and a laptop computer -- which allowed him to blur his true whereabouts -- as well as round-the-clock access to databases of news articles from which he stole. Emphasis my own - here's my reaction BWWWWAAAHHHHAAAAA!

The Times inquiry also establishes that various editors and reporters expressed misgivings about Mr. Blair's reporting skills, maturity and behavior during his five-year journey from raw intern to reporter on national news events. Their warnings centered mostly on the errors in his articles.

His mistakes became so routine, his behavior so unprofessional, that by April 2002, Jonathan Landman, the metropolitan editor, dashed off a two-sentence e-mail message to newsroom administrators that read: ''We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now.''

After taking a leave for personal problems and being sternly warned, both orally and in writing, that his job was in peril, Mr. Blair improved his performance. By last October, the newspaper's top two editors -- who said they believed that Mr. Blair had turned his life and work around -- had guided him to the understaffed national desk, where he was assigned to help cover the Washington sniper case.

By the end of that month, public officials and colleagues were beginning to challenge his reporting. By November, the investigation has found, he was fabricating quotations and scenes, undetected. By March, he was lying in his articles and to his editors about being at a court hearing in Virginia, in a police chief's home in Maryland and in front of a soldier's home in West Virginia. By the end of April another newspaper was raising questions about plagiarism. And by the first of May, his career at The Times was over.

A few days later, Mr. Blair issued a statement that referred to ''personal problems'' and expressed contrition. But during several telephone conversations last week, he declined repeated requests to help the newspaper correct the record or comment on any aspect of his work. He did not respond to messages left on his cellphone, with his family and with his union representative on Friday afternoon.

Lu Lus One and all!

John McCain:MSNBC's Whiney Old Woman Keith Olbermann & Ancient Non-History

'I will Be Heard! I'm Serious! I throw Paper and Woe Betide the Target of my Wrath! My Earl Grey! Breaking News! Breaking News! It is to be here upon arrival!'




'So anyway, the payoff is, Mr. President, now get this . . . Olbermann . . . is a guy! A Young Guy! . . . Yeah, I know.'

7:30 PM - Wed. February 20, 2008 - I will always remember where I was when Keith Olbermann broke this story - after the New York Times broke it and ran with it about three months after they broke it -in the basement putting away the laundry. My daughter Clare was tossing in another load after a suffering a crushing Volleyball defeat at the hands of St. Bede the Venerable.


My daughter Clare was yelling at me, 'Get more Extra ( laundry soap) when you go to County Fair ( family owned neighborhood grocery store)!!!' - but I could not hear her over Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's Inner Fat Boy in residence and Old Woman( you know - really smart and gifted, surly, kills pet turtles, bites bubbles in the bathtub and such) .

Keith Olbermann is a person that St. Francis of Assisi would leave the side of dying leper, pass up a flock of baby lambs caught in brambles, cross a fiery desert's sands barefoot just to kick his ass. Some folks like that. MSNBC has a huge pen of those pigs.

'This harkens to the Bill Clinton affair - it does - the erie sounds of the words of McCain aides. How will he answer this? How?' Howled the pampered pet doily and lace Old Woman. Both of his guests brushed off the story as old hat and so what. Keith needed a paper bag! He had the Miseries and the Vapors!

In my part of the south side of Chicago, very familiar to Barack Obama, as he spent a great deal of time here in the 19th Ward, a male of chronological years consistent with adulthood, who somehow develops without any capacity to ever Man Up; who harps on the same theme over and over again; bad mouths his betters with rock-solid passive aggression continues to be called an 'Old Woman.' Keith Olbermann is an Old Woman with lungs but no prospects.

'Dad! Get Extra! The Blue Jug and not the White!' Clare yelled from six feet away.

'I'm sorry honey! I couldn't hear you - the geek with the trick hair and puss like a bag of belly buttons was shouting to Jon Alter and Pat Buchanan that John McCain is in the trick bag.'

'Why do you watch that jerk?'

'Why do you watch Raven and Zack and Cody?'

'Dad! Get Extra in the Blue jug and not the white. My school shirts smell like your clothes.'

'Can't have that!'

Jesus! Keith, You Poor Old Woman, I'm Ignoring you. Well, what the hell, so is every one else.

Kids. The New York Times piece - four pages of eight year old non-story is linked above. Click my post title.

Read the Times piece; ignore Oldbermann; listen to your children. It's all about the children

John McCain: Midshipman Jack McCain -The Audacity of Honor

USNA Midshipman Jack McCain
Senator John McCain and his Son Jack.


Meghan McCain has chronicled the Campaign of John McCain through the Valley of Darkness and into the Spotlight of History as John McCain moves to the Republican Nomination for President of the United States. Ms.McCain's blog McCainbloggette has been my personal poaching ground for photos which I applied to my insightful and poignantly poetic musings on John McCain's impact on American History.

Meghan's work has captured the nature of the McCain Family scrumming together in an uphill battle to bring straight talk to the American voters. That struggle , Boys and Girls, is not only Sisyphean in its exertions, but positively Augean as well.

I am really waxing Attic here ( Kean Gas coffee is full octane this AM). Sisyphus was a Titan in Old Greece who was condemned to roll a huge boulder up a steep slope only to be overcome by its weight and the un-Polled Laws of Gravity and be forced to shoulder the rock up all over again. The other allusion is to one of the many tasks of Hercules. He needed to clean the stables of Augeus which required Hecules to divert a river in order to clean out the mountains horse manure. I get the same feeling of exhaustion after listening to Limbaugh, Bones Coulter, Smarmy Maher, Joe 'Where You Goin' With That Gun in Yo' Hand' Scarborough and the Rev. Al' Pin Back them Yarmulkes and Let's Get it On' Sharpton.

McCain struggled to be heard and kept pushing his message with stoic consistancy; in the mean time goof-ball loud-mouths who shill for big money on AM Talk Radio threw out every calumny, traducement, and aversion that they could toss from their cages.

It takes a river of Straight Talk to clean out that mess, but the American people have heard the message of Service, Honor, Faith, Commitment, Courage, and Pride. Americans are good people - goofy at times, but willing to sacrifice self-interest for the common good.

John McCain's Family reflects that American Goodness.

Today, I noticed Meghan McCain's tribute to her little brother Jack, a Midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy and another brother is a Marine rifleman in Iraq. Click on my post title for Meghan McCain's tribute to her brother climbing the gradus
of Honor in the service of his country. Now there is the audacity of Hope citizens - no rhetoric just deeds.

John McCain: What do Rush, Hannity, Coulter, Late Aide Scarborough, and El Jefe Castro Have in Common?

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Que Punditos! Que Caca! Kay Keyser!

Rush 'Sidney Greenstreet' Limbaugh, Joe 'What Dead Girl?' Scarborough, Sean ' Do I Look Fat in These?' Hannity, Ann 'Bones' Coulter and El Jefe Fidel Castro all think John McCain is Disingenous!

Buy that Bearded Conservative a White Owl!

Here's a snatch of Conservative Mini-Tru straight out of the whiskers from Old Fidel himself to the Associated Press:

HAVANA - Ailing Cuban dictator Fidel Castro yesterday denied U.S. presidential candidate John McCain’s claim that Cuban agents helped torture American prisoners of war in Vietnam, calling the assertion “a strange legend.”

“Let me remind you, Mr. McCain: The commandments of the religion you practice prohibit lying,” Castro wrote in an essay published by the Communist Party newspaper Granma. “The years in prison and the wounds received because of the attacks on Hanoi do not excuse you from the moral obligation of the truth.”

Truth and substance - that is what Fidel Castro and Rush Limbaugh and the Blond Viragos and all the other loudmouths are about!

They wouldn't know straight-talk if it shot through that blood-pumping muscle under their bird-like ribs.


Click my post title for BBC account - of El Jefe's Membership in the Pan-American Dittoheads!

John McCain: Romney Bows Out

Mitt Romney is dropping his bid for the White House. Well done, Governor.

Romney quitting presidential race

11:47 AM CST on Thursday, February 7, 2008

The Associated Press



AP
Republican presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during his Super Tuesday primary watch party as his wife Ann watches in Boston, Tuesday. Also Online

More News 8 politics

More stories about Romney

Mitt Romney for President
• official site
WASHINGTON --John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign. "I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney prepared to tell conservatives.

"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror," Romney will say at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

"This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters... many of you right here in this room... have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming President. If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America."

McCain prevailed in most of the Super Tuesday states, moving closer to the numbers needed to officially win the nomination.

Overall, McCain led with 707 delegates, to 294 for Romney and 195 for Huckabee. It takes 1,191 to win the nomination at this summer's convention in St. Paul, Minn.

"I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating al-Qaida and terror," Romney said.

Romney's departure from the race came almost a year after his formal entrance, when the Michigan native declared his candidacy on Feb. 12, 2007, at the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation in Dearborn, Mich.

Over the ensuing 12 months, Romney sought the support of conservatives with a family values campaign, emphasizing his opposition to abortion and gay marriage, as well as his support for tax cuts and health insurance that would benefit middle-class families.

"We need to teach our children that before they have babies, they get married," he told voters at his campaign events.

But he was dogged by charges of flip-flopping, a criticism that undermined the candidacy of another Massachusetts hopeful -- John Kerry in 2004. In seeking to unseat Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 1994, Romney said he would be a better advocate for gay rights than his rival and he favored abortion rights.

Throughout his campaign, Romney was questioned by voters and the media about his Mormon faith. Hoping assuage voters skeptical of electing a Mormon president, Romney gave speech on Dec. 6 in College Station, Texas, that explicitly recalled remarks John F. Kennedy made in 1960 in an effort to quell anti-Catholic bias. He vowed to serve the interests of the nation, not the church, if elected president.

In early voting Iowa, Romney sought votes by casting himself as the guardian of the Reagan-era conservative triad -- a three-legged stool, as the candidate put it -- of a strong national defense, strong economy and strong families.

Fueled by what would grow to more than $35 million of personal donations, his campaign hired top-notch staff in the early voting states, and Romney scored an early win when his organization topped the field at the Iowa Straw Poll in August.

Click Post title for full story

John MCain:John Kass Chicago's Best Voice in Journalism

I've had beefs with John Kass. Heavens.

'Hickey thinks ill of my positions, I sha'nt sleep!'

How a political hors d'ourve, like Angelo Torres, or a main course like George Ryan gets gutted by John Kass's prosaic saw-knife has bumped my ire at times. I believe that friends in need - people who have displayed genuine kindness or concern in personal matters - must and should have my public support. Judy Topinka, nice enough woman, lost me when she ditched Ryan when he became political plutonium along with too many others.
That should not be done.

My greatest level of affection for Harry Truman is rooted in his attendence at Kansas City Political Machine Boss Tom Prendergast's funeral. Harry did not give a good God Damn about the consequences. That is also why I gravitate to John McCain.

John Kass has a job to do and that is to report, comment upon and pound home to readers violations of the public trust. Kass does that well.

Today, John Kass gives a brilliant insight to the McCain Victories in the Super Tuesday Primaries - Here in Illinois, McCain dominated. Illinois people gravitate to people who are good people. John Kass has penchant for knoting some good people into a political construct he calls 'The Combine.' I am too simple for that. I see people as I meet them and encounter their actions for other people. Kass is brilliant and I tend to be a dope. He's smarting me up some though. He may smarten up some really sophisticated people who think and live in doctrinaire cocoons. He might smarten them up enough to devlop a point of view that meets and encounters actions performed by a Man like John McCain for all Americans.


Here's a morsel of some great prose by Kass from today's John McCain piece:

Conservatives can't move forward until they figure out where they stand. And that battle, to define conservatism, is where all this anti-McCain vitriol erupts from.

Conservatives limp along, a disorganized movement, in part because they supported President Bush, who was not a conservative, yet was made one by the party mouthpieces. And, yes, I drank the Kool-Aid too.

Eat some more!
Click my post title for Kass on McCain

John McCain: Well Done Senator and Jim Durkin's Illinois Team!

Jim Durkin and Pat and Julie Brady, Shawn Healy and so many, many more people worked so hard for John McCain that I hit the sack at 9 PM. Got up at 4AM and confirmed my suspicions - that I have had for a long, long time - John McCain will be the GOP Nominee and the next President of the United States.

And here in my own back yard - well deck really. . .
Chicago Election Board
Feb. 5, 2008 General Primary Election




< Back

REP - Altern Delegate Natl Nom Conv 3rd REP
236 out of 241 precincts (97.93 %)
Vote For 2

Kelly O'Brien (Romney) 1,228 14.98 %
Ian Brenson (Romney) 1,059 12.92 %
Nora Kathleen Hickey (McCain) 1,900 23.18 %
William Durkin (McCain) 1,968 24.01 % Anthony Castrogiovanni (Thompson) 71 0.87 %
Richard E. Leja (Thompson) 78 0.95 %
Clifford R. Pitts (Paul) 279 3.40 %
David Pozniak (Paul) 327 3.99 %
Ron Brumfield (Huckabee) 523 6.38 %
Dave Garratt (Huckabee) 459 5.60 %
Saranne Milano (Giuliani) 185 2.26 %
Stephen R. Palmer (Giuliani) 121 1.48 %

John McCain: Sun Times Endorsement - Now it Can be Told - Cheryl Reed, Editor (resigned) Didn't write it - it was too good.

Chicago Sun Times under Editor Reed was an avowed enemy of all Chicago Police Officers and helped create the Thug Comfort Zone in Our City - in my opinion.


La Pasionaria, Cheryl Reed, resigned as editor of the Chicago Sun Times on Monday, after complaining that the paper's endorsements were re-written. I read the Sunday endorsement of John McCain and knew that it could not have come from the Cheryl Progressive Independent Voice of the City - Let's Get Into It ! Reed. No way no how.

Since Reed's July 15th Manifesto, The Chicago Sun Times has helped create a Thug Comfort Zone in Chicago, insulted the very working people who purchased the paper with doctrinaire Progressive non-sense, and daily undermining of public confidence in the American Justice system.

The Talented Ms.Reed will no doubt be snatched up by the radical lawyers that she helped enrich themselves with her editorial complicity. The Sun Times has a long road to recovery - this is a great start.

Click my post title for the history of my unhappiness with this once great paper.

For John McCain

February 3, 2008
Facing an uphill battle in the November elections, Republicans need to nominate a presidential candidate who represents the best traditions of the Grand Old Party: fiscal responsibility, devotion to national security and honest conduct of the nation's business.

Republican voters should consider themselves lucky. They have two candidates highly qualified to occupy the Oval Office: John McCain and Mitt Romney, two principled political figures who could chart a new course for our country and lead it forward with honor.

In a close call, our endorsement goes to McCain, a war hero, experienced player in the U.S. Senate and Washington politics, a principled conservative and a leader with an extra something -- that crucial capacity to stir our souls.

If the GOP's chances in November don't look so good these days, they certainly don't look any worse than McCain's own hopes of securing the GOP nomination just a few months ago. His campaign bank account empty, forced to lay off staff and dismissed as a viable contender, McCain soldiered on against the odds and now appears poised to capture the party's nomination.

His character, political courage and grasp of the crucial issues facing the country guarantee that McCain can energize Republicans and capture the independent voters the GOP will need to retain the White House in the face of the low poll numbers of President Bush.

No one can read his account of the cruel years of torture and solitary confinement in the Hanoi Hilton without feeling a lump in the throat. He never broke.

And anyone who reads his memoir, Faith of My Fathers, understands the foundation on which McCain built a reputation as a politician of the highest ethical standards not afraid to defend unpopular positions and fight for what he believes in. He clung to his belief that the U.S. should increase the troop commitment in Iraq, which caused his early lead to evaporate, and most thought would kill his chances to be president.

McCain is a free thinker who judges each issue on its merits, not on its political implications.

Like the GOP base, McCain understands -- in a way Republicans feel that the Democrats fail to comprehend -- that America faces an implacable enemy in Islamist fanaticism. He articulates eloquently the conservative belief that the consequences of defeat in Iraq would be crippling to the U.S. military's morale, damaging to national security and a signal victory for America's enemies. Like the GOP base, he believes that it wasn't the invasion of Iraq that was a mistake, it was the misguided strategy that didn't put enough boots on the ground. Continued success in the surge will enable McCain to make that argument persuasively to war-weary American voters.

On domestic issues, McCain adheres to Republican orthodoxy that cutting taxes, government spending and regulatory red tape are necessary to preserving a strong economy. McCain risked political suicide last year to promote, unsuccessfully, a reasonable and humane immigration reform package, which included border security provisions, along with a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants.

McCain now says he knows America wants border security first. But he has not hedged on his commitment to treat illegal immigrants with compassion. It may be unpopular in some conservative circles, but immigration reform is of vital interest to traditional Republican allies in business.

While boasting core Republican credentials, McCain also has proved that he can reach out to Democrats and work cooperatively toward meaningful solutions -- a trait in rare supply in today's deeply divided capital.

McCain has also been a consistent and loud voice against pork-barrel spending, he is in favor of campaign finance reform, and he has warned about the risks of global warming.

If he is nominated, as we expect he will be, McCain should make Romney America's No. 2 Republican. Given McCain's advanced age, a vice presidential choice has never been more important. A man of impeccable personal integrity, Romney has amassed an enviable record of accomplishment in the business world, public service and elective office. He built a lucrative venture capital and investment business, valuable experience for a White House faced with today's economic insecurities.

He raised the Olympics in Utah from the ashes and led them to a successful conclusion. And as governor of Massachusetts, one of the nation's bluest states, Romney demonstrated how a Republican leader could work with a Democratic legislature to promote economic growth and tackle a complex issue such as expanding health care. Romney has excelled in everything he has done.

But it is McCain we want to see at the top of the ticket. The Democrats are promising the voters what Republicans see as a simplistic and defeatist way out of Iraq -- just withdraw the troops. Straight-talking McCain sees different realities and declares, "The American people deserve to know that the path ahead will be long and difficult."

Admittedly that may be a hard sale in an election year. But it's what Republicans believe, and in McCain they have the standard bearer who can carry that message to the nation and who stands the best chance of convincing Americans that a Republican president needs to lead the nation in seeing Iraq through to a successful end.

Republicans are hungering for a thoughtful Republican who knows how to get things done. That is evidenced by McCain's wins in states as diverse as New Hampshire, South Carolina and now Florida, where only registered Republicans could vote.

Cast a ballot for John McCain. Cast a ballot that counts.

John McCain: Votes at Precinct 23 of the 19th Ward -Chicago, IL

Without a hitch, voting began promptly at 6:00 AM. Though Frank Noonan and I arrived well before the open at the Quaker Meeting House at 10749 S. Artesian, Mike Regan and his lovely bride were the first to cast ballots - Regan must have come up through the floor. He is a Plumber and Leo Almnus of grit, intelligence and good sense.

There were twenty other voters lined up behind Frank Noonan and me and more coming in. This indicates that once again the 19th Ward will have a record turn-out! Well done!

I cast my vote for John McCain and his slate of delgates,including my daughter Nora Kathleen Hickey of whom I am very proud, as well as for Dr. Sauerberg for U.S. Senate. I also voted for a great guy, Pat Guest to 19th Ward GOP Committeeman; Pat is a brilliant and thoughtful former Democrat who will breathe life into the moribund GOP in my neighborhood. There were other races,but I'll palm them.

Vote Folks! It's that important!


Click my post title for a history of my support for John McCain

John McCain: Alec Baldwin - The Funniest Guy in America -Annoints John McCain as GOP Nominee and Plans His Destruction! You Gotta Read This!

I think Alec Baldwin is the funniest guy on TV bar none. His character on 30 Rock is a priceless caricature of the Republican Suit - a manic Mitt Romney.

But . . . his plan to defeat John McCain in the general election nearly gave me lock-jaw from laughing. Alec Baldwin's post on Huffington Post is Jonathon Swift on crack!

Get this:
(Note - I emphasized the good lines)

Have fun.

Republicans don't care about anything but winning. That's why they put forth candidates like Reagan, Arnold and Bush. By the time they reach the end of their first term, it's assumed they have all the experience they need. Like their nephew at the bank.

Which candidate will have the best chance against McCain? The experienced one or the exciting one? The one who is smart and tough and whose stances on some issues are oh-so-similar to those of the presumed GOP opponent? Or the less experienced, less tested one who has many Americans believing that someone more like them may make a return to the White House? During the Democratic debates, I wanted someone to ask one question. "Do you believe that any of the people sitting in this audience have as much hope of becoming president as you do?" I think that should matter, because the presidency of this country has become the exclusive preserve of legal elites and political or corporate barons. And our country is suffering as the result of it.

Vote on Tuesday. And let's begin the job of defeating John McCain, and his continuation of the Bush nightmare, right now.

Alec- that openner was killer! If Democrats gave one bit of a tinker's damn about winning, they would not have put a loser like Dean in the Captain's Chair at the DNC and they'd still have traditional Democrats - like me - voting at the National level.

The 'the experienced one or the exciting one?' Sounds like a twisted Dad taking young Scapegrace Jeremy to a hooker shop for his 16th birthday. 'Experience or Excitement, Son - it's your birthday, be a man, pick out a winner, Boy! They're all whores, Son, be a Man pick one!'

Corporate Barons! Legal elites! BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAA -Dang! Jaws locked again.

The guy is priceless!

John McCain: John Rubery's Churchillian Analysis

Not only did John McCain run table on endorsement here in Chicago, he hooked one of the nation's most influential and thoughtful Bloggers - John Rubery of Marthon Pundit

John Rubery has south side roots that boosted him to Morton Gove, IL and to the top of the Pundit Tree.

Today, John, not only endorses the most qualified American in the Presidential race, but parallels McCain to another Statesman who also amassed a number of powerful enemies in a lifetime of service to his country -Winston S. Churchill:

Churchill was a disastrous Chancellor of the Exchequer, the British equivalent of Secretary of the Treasurer. Later, Churchill was one of the few members of parliament who supported King Edward VIII in the 1936 abdication crisis. Had his view prevailed, Churchill, and Great Britain, would've had a much more difficult time as prime minister with Edward, who at best could be labeled a German sympathizer after his abdication, and at worst, pro-Nazi. Which is probably why his brother, King George VI, shipped him off to the Bahamas to serve as governor there. The colony viewed as one of the most insignificant possessions of the British Empire.

Widely seen as lazy and worthless as the Prince of Wales even by his father, George V, Churchill, no stranger to aristocracy, surely knew that about Edward. To be fair to Churchill, he didn't know about Edward's German sympathies in 1936.

Yes, McCain was wrong on McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Obama (Just kidding, I made that one up), and in voting against the Bush tax-cuts. And he's wrong on his opposition to drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

But he's right on Iraq, and has been for a while. A retreat from Iraq, along the lines of our 1975 cut-and-run from Saigon, would be catastrophic for this nation--and the world.

John McCain and Lord Churchill were also tirelessly relentless foes of tyranny, terror and enemies of Western Civilization. Not bad.

Cick my post title for the full Rubery!