Schmich and Awwwwww! Pulitzer Howitzer Mary Schmich Fires at Mitres

   

To say that the Catholic Church is not a democracy is to state its very nature: for Catholic believers, it is the institution founded by God to implement His will on earth. For those who believe this, it is the end of the discussion. If you do not believe this, why be interested in what the church thinks or says about anything?

An interesting aspect of these discussions is the way selective interpretations of the Second Vatican Council – which the Association of Catholic Priests, for example, claims as its principal inspiration and motivation – are employed to consider matters relating to the church as though to a political party. John Waters Irish Times April 20, 2012

The sisters are stunned by the news, sad, weary, worried.

And, for public purposes, they are mostly silent. . Pulitzer Possessor Mary Schmich

It seems nuns got stunned when Pope Benedict XVI and the lads in Pope City told Catholic Nuns here in the States that they are on the wrong side of issues, as far as the Church teachings are concerned.  Some nuns prefer the Progressive, NPR, DNC, and Secular doctrines which demand abortion, that women be ordained priests and the call for a general absolution of all same-gender sexual dalliances.  Not a huge head-scratcher that, let alone a stunner. 

Navy S.E.A.Ls shoot Osamas and Somalii pirates without a reference to the M.K. Gandhi rules of engagement. I am sure that if some S.E.A.L.s were stunned to learn that killing is their vocation, they would be referred to the H & R folks at GreenPeace.

Not stunning.

I was no where near stunned with the news that Chicago Tribune columnist and Brenda Starr narrator Mary Schmich won a Pulitzer.  Mary Schmick was cited because  "Schmich's stories resonated with readers and won over the Pulitzer jury, which cited her "wide range of down-to-earth columns that reflect the character and capture the culture of her famed city."

Okay.

I always thought that of Mary Schmich as the Kathy-half of the Tribune's Eric & Kathy Show - Eric Zorn being the Eric half - you know, those e-mail terms of endearment and just plain NPR fun engagement?

Mary Schmich grabbed a Pulitzer.  God bless her.

President Obama grabbed Nobel Peace Prize after his apology tour and beer summit with a cop, because "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future." I am not stunned when a no bid contract to a Canadian rail car company that buys wheels made in China gets a limited bit of attention, while Chicago media  wets its britches over the dead blond kid with the sport coat flipped over his shoulder, because the guy who punched him dead has Clout DNA.

The Chicago Tribune editorial board and its columnists like Eric Zorn and the always laughable religion writer Manya Brachear are firing shots at Catholics in order to keep our heads down and mouths shut.  Manya produced an idiotic report of faux outrage and a possible tax-suit against Peoria's Catholic Bishop Jenky who preached about the continued war on Faith from the Obama regime.  Manya hooked up with Huffington Post columnist and veteran Democratic operative who happens to be the regional head of the Anti-Defamation League and no less a goofball than the Rev. Barry Lynn, a mainline Bill Moyers approved parser on matters of Faith and government.

When Manya's dribblings were laughed to depths of the Trib's cyber pages, the deep thinkers trotted out a Pulitzer howitzer to fire at mitres!

Schmich and awwww!

I am only stunned when I bring home left over carrot cake from Gibson's and open the fridge to learn that it escaped my son's gullet.

Stunned nuns are a whole nuther kettle of smelt.

Let's see who's stunned . . . "Please don't quote me," one Chicago nun said after she shared her feelings Friday. "Please don't quote me."  Stunning.

Yet, again!  "It's not cowardice," said another, asking not to be named. Un-named stunned nuns.  

In Pulitzer worthy balance. Ms. Schmich names an un-stunned nun:

Not all nuns feel that way. Sister Anne Flanagan, who belongs to the Daughters of St. Paul, thinks the Vatican has a point.
"It's a signal of how important religious women are to the ministry of the church," she said. "The Vatican is saying get back on track on some of these issues; don't lose the value of what you're doing for the sake of a dream."
She admits she's in a minority

That said our 2012 Pulitzer Proprietress quotes Sr. Donna Quinn, who is more responsible for media attention than any one nun by with her helping Planned Parenthood murder more Illinois babies and bragging about it. Schmick quotes Quinn from an earlier pronouncement about condemning the Church that houses, feeds and insures Sister Quinn.

As Sister Donna Quinn of Chicago was quoted saying recently, "You cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube."

Now, that's Schmich and Awwwwww with a huge layer of WTF??????????????

You follow?

Me neither.  We don't get stunned much unless we hang around with septuagenarian contrarian nuns and when we find that left-over piece of Gibson's carrot-cake somehow escaped the maw of our twenty something sons and daughters.

Ultra -Slaughter by Planned Parenthood Trends Up - Our Dowager Holocaust Gets an Ultra Sound from Jill Stanek

More babies are alive and kicking because of this lovely woman -Jill Stanek

While Eric Zorn beefs that new Ultra-Sound Legislation is Ultra Creepy, because it warns expectant mothers lured into an abortion mill by presenting her with her child.

That will sure kill off a Choice to kill the child; unless of course one is doctrinally prone to clubbing baby harp seals, tossing kittens into a Weber, or shooting baby ducks and chicks with a 12 gauge.

A heroic nurse from Oak Lawn, Illinois, Jill Stanek has done more to help save children from the flames of a Planned Parenthood crematorium, than any battalion of firemen could hope to save with her work at Life News.com and her own website linked belwo. Jill Stanek has made Planned Parenthood's abortion lust her personal vocation. God Bless this heroic woman. Jill Stanek rubs the jelly and holds the paddles to Planned Parenthood's swelled belly.

Abortion is what Planned Parenthood is all about - making money off of the slaughter of children. WaPo Pulitzer recipienet Eugene (Eugenics) Robinson told MSNBC empty vessel Rachel Maddow that conception is "insane." Eugenious's Insane Clown Posse includes our own Abortion Mencken Eric Zorn. Zorn warns fellow Insane Clown Posse Patriots-

This month Republican majorities in both chambers in Virginia's Legislature passed one of the strictest mandatory pre-abortion ultrasound bills in the nation — a measure that's certain to require women seeking early-stage abortions to submit to being vaginally penetrated by a condom-covered electronic probe before the abortion is allowed to proceed.

The procedure is called a "transvaginal ultrasound," and it's the best and sometimes only way in the first stages of pregnancy for physicians to obtain images that "contain the dimensions of the fetus, and accurately portray the presence of external members and internal organs of the fetus," as the bill requires.

Such ultrasounds are common medical procedures. But make no mistake. The proposed regulation, which Republican Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell previously indicated he will sign if, as expected, legislators send a final version to his desk next week, has nothing to do with the practice of medicine.

OMG, E! But make no mistake, Goernor Quinn will never sign such legislation here in Personl Pac Man, Terry Cosgrove's Illinois. Until Quinn sent back to his Spartan kitchen to whipup some tasty eggs in his forty year old skillet, Abortion is safe and sound -Ultra Sounds notwithstanding.

In Fact Abortion Industry USA -Planned Parenthood is fat and sassy -abortions account for 51.5% of its income and lards in another hefty 46.5 % from Gummint Muny. In a very recent Article in LifeNews Steven Ertelt reports on the pregnant financials at Planned Parenthood.

Check the charts E.



Abortions are UP UP UP! Ultra-Plenty! Kids shell out dollars at the behest of skeletal but botoxed Cougars and cashmmere wrapped Dowagers who read The Female Eunuch and other feminist tones, along with their issues of Cosmopolitan and the Neiman Marcus catalogs and with the same intellectual gifts and rigor.

“By comparing PP’s abortion income with its clinic income, we get a much more accurate picture of Planned Parenthood’s business model. In 2010, Planned Parenthood’s abortion income was 51.5 percent of its clinic income.”

Government funding accounts for 46.5 percent of Planned Parenthood’s income — to the tune of $1.3 million per day,




It is pretty hard to parse an ultra-sound. What's on the screen is what a woman is expected to kill there, EZ. T'ain't so easy.

http://www.jillstanek.com/http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2012/02/ultra-creepy-new-ultrasound-laws-are-the-shame-of-the-ultra-right.html

The Tribune Water Boy Has a Blinding Flash of "N.S.?"

Eric Zorn, the Garbage Grid Grinder and Water Boy for Team Rahm-a-Lama-Dang-Dong had an Epiphany after watching WTTW - Winnetka Talks To Wilmette.

Like, the movie goers nodding with conviction to the sight of Charles Foster Kane's Rosebud Sled incinerating to a cinder in Xanadu,CA, Eric Zorn realizes that . . . Public Unions cost money!

After months of mouthing the Mike "Michigan Fats" Moore Meme in Wisconsin and throaty preachifying about Union Solidarity, The Water Boy now knows what any blue collar tangible citizen has known for decades about Time and Half for Overtime and Double Time and a Half on Birthdays.

Solidarity Forever . . .well until now.

Talk about many happy returns! Earning $50 an hour if you usually earn $20, just because it is Your Special Day.

And who pays for these gifts? Riders, the same folks who are looking at fare increases or service cuts if the CTA doesn’t get its costs under control, in part by winning work-rule concessions from its unions.

Kelly, who was seated next to Claypool on the WTTW set during the contentious conversation, went on: “If a guy is working and is getting paid for eight hours and he works on his birthday, he gets an additional eight” hours, he said. “If you do the math, that’s not 21/2 times. There’s nobody out there who gets 21/2 times.”

Well, almost nobody. During a follow-up interview Tuesday, Kelly said that when his members are called to work an overtime day on their birthday or employment anniversary, they’re paid double time and a half, but he estimated that “it doesn’t even happen 100 times a year.”

Still. WTTW moderator Eddie Arruza asked the question on everyone’s mind: “Why do they get paid extra on their birthday anyway?”

Eddie Arruza and Forrest Claypool tag teaming a guest on WTTW? -Ouis!Naturalmente, Mes Amis!

Progressives always do a pile on a target-guest, like two geeks emerging from their latest locker-stuffing at the hands of jocks and cool kids and then jumping like WWF Heroes on poor little Tobie, the ADD lite weight, but Summer School Valedictorian. Nobody bullies like Progressives.

Well, I'll be dipped and rolled, says the Water Boy! EZ has been been doing any number of cheerleading routines for the Smart Garbage Grid and most recently Bump-Up The Water Rates and Get Your Own Bad Selves a Meter from the top of Rahm's Progressive Propaganda Pyramid.

Eric only reports and comments on what he is given. Today, he must react on what he saw and the strain to his very soul is hurtful to witness and, obviously, facts must be brought to his attention.

Public Unions, Eric, are paid for through taxes. Public Unions are as old as the 1960s when Lefties in New York got JFK's Okey-Dorky to hammer Tammany Hall. Tammany Hall ( the Democratic Ward Machine) is gone and Public Unions have all but murdered the Middle Class.

The Skilled and Industrial Trades Unions and their membership, not tweedy mopes with milky hands and earnest big-hearted, but two-faced activists, fought and bled for Labor Rules.

The Public Service ( teachers, City, State, Federal workers) aped the gains made by Real Labor. Eric does not twist Forrest (Rula Lenska) Claypool's nipples for bashing the Civil Rights of Workingmen. I listened to that tin-horn mope make promises to Union Men, trying to unhorse Joe Berrios two Springs ago, all over the south side - Forrest, Boss Toni and Easter Bunny Quinn. Eric the Water Boy, instead, gets all pissy about Union Bargaining Chief Kelly doing exactly what he was employed to do (stand up for his Local)and then mocks the rank and file's benefits bargained for with political hacks and their progressive propagandists in the first place.

As a Progressive, Water Boy, you demand to go east and west on Western Ave., but that is not, in truth, how traffic flows.

Instead of coming to a realization that Public Service Unions are not a really great idea, though they create a swell post-Shakman Patronage Army.

Eric's outrage over the obvious is charming, even whimsical. Harry Potter's magic wand works just fine on the big screen and on cable, but when your little digits tear open the packaging and you try it out - you must contend with your magical imagination.

Double Bubble and Double Time and a Half, little Muggle with the Water Pail, has been around for a very long time.

So, the next time Michigan Fats and Big Ed want to get a bongo circle in Madison, WI, or Zuccotti Park, ask the Two TeleTubby Trotskys - 'Who's paying?' It's easy let me do this slow -

Private Sector -labor good! - only so much money to bargain for.

Public Sector -labor(PACs) not so good! - Tax well's drier than All Things Considered.


The Skilled Trades and Industrial Unions who helped make the American Middle Class fought for decades to earn those rights through Collective Bargaining with Management.

Water Boy! The Game's Afoot and you're all tangled up . . .here, start with this knot . . .then over . . .over that's it . . .Over not under . . . under is opposite of over . . .that's right over, but upside down . . .we'll come back and see how you're doing.

Eric Zorn is the Water Boy! He's Carrying Water for Anti-Catholic Progressives Who Want Chicago Transformed to an Urban Center

You will do your work on water,
An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it. Rudyard Kipling


Nothing smells as bad as water-soaked newspapers. I had an uncle who saved newspapers in the corner of his basement, going back to the Mayor Edward Kelly Administration. The problem was that Tupperware technology jumped over Uncle Mossie and he kept his treasures bound in twine. Compounding that problem was the fact that Uncle Mossie's basement leaked like Congressman Mike Quigley to the Sun Times.

When Uncle Mossie shed his mortal husk, I was tasked with cleaning out the old guy's basement - the smell would gag a maggot. Decades of seepage soaked the Daily News, Chicago Sun, Herald American, Kerryman, Southtown Economist, New World and their offspring. There were no Chicago Tribunes, as the Trib was a Scab, anti-Catholic rag. Uncle Mossie was a daily Communicant and rock-solid member of the Lather's Union.

Water and newspapers don't mix, unless one is going into the Homegrown mushroom business. Worms love newspapers soaked in water.

Change of Subject!

You kids been reading Eric Zorn lately? The banjo-plucking ink-slinger Progressive columnist is knee deep in the wet-stuff. Late this summer Eric was busy lugging the garbage out for Mayor/Coach Rahm on the Garbage Grid Plan that passed with the City Budget. Eric loves the Grid!

What passes for journalism in Chicago is a person with keyboard, a phone, Blackberry, or a lot of time on his/her hands to take lunch and an elected official, activist, Good Government appointee, or unelectable appointee with a deal.

These holier-than-a- cheapskate's -undies columnists roll out the ink with the agenda leaked into their ears by the above-stated scammers.

The Catholic Church is an obstacle, or should be, to Progressives. Progressives love Abortion, government hand-outs to designated groups and individuals, Homosexual Marriage, and Public Education . . . Oh! And Taxes! Lots and Lots of Taxes forked out by the middle class helots with all of those damn children!

The Catholic Church is one big-assed mainstream faith with many, many, many members in Chicago. The Catholic Church is very visible in Chicago. The Catholic Church operates the very best schools in Chicago for no public cost to Atheists or Progressives. Catholics no longer need to be courted much less appeased about anything in Chicago.

Progressives have a vision for Chicago, a smaller, cleaner, more efficient, Green, childless, and really fun Urban Center, and that vision is taking place. The problem is getting rid of the middle class homeowners and their rotten kids. Garbage collection and water go hand-in-hand. The Garbage Collection Grid is coming, middle class Wards will be re-mapped and smart sized, and water is going to cost families a lung. It's all there in the University of Chicago Urban Planning chit-chat linked by clicking my post title.

Rahm Emanuel is the Progressive Mayor and all he needs is a water-boy. Like a good coach it seems that Coach Rahm has an energetic pencil-necked go-getter in the always dependable Eric Zorn.

Today, Eric the Water Boy continues the coach's management of water distribution and finds an easy target in Alderman Ed Burke. Alderman Burke, it seems to me, views the new water mandates to be what they are - overture for the exit of the middle class from the planned Urban Center Chicago.

Alderman Burke takes issue with the two edged sword soaked in the wet-stuff. You see not only is the water issue a dodge to squeeze the middle class out of Chicago, it is also a swell hammer to bash in the head of Cardinal George for objecting to Gay Marriage, Abortion and all of those other nasty Catholic doctrines.

I believe that taking away the free Chicago water from Catholic ( and others) Institutions is the threat by Rahm to Cardinal to lay-low until President Obama is re-elected, Gay Marriage gets enacted in Illinois, and Planned Parenthood can kill babies without being called on it

Here's the Waterboy -Eric Zorn!

And if the City Council wants to start diluting the proposal by handing out exemptions, it ought to start with institutions that don't proselytize and don't mix so many babies with so much bath water.

If they give churches favored status over charitable groups, lawsuits will be sure to follow and all the potential savings will go swirling down the drain.

This dandy imprimatur for Rahm's Water Torture came last Saturday - Saturday, October 15, 2011

He's going to get that question a lot in the coming weeks. Last week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced an aggressive schedule of annual water-rate hikes as he rolled out next year's city budget. The increases, he said, are necessary to pay for badly needed repairs to our aging pipes, catch basins and pumping stations.

On average, he said in his speech to the City Council, the extra cost in the first year "will equal about five cups of Dunkin' Donuts coffee a month," a clever, middle-brow way of expressing $120 (a medium cup of joe at Dunkin' Donuts is $1.96 in my Northwest Side neighborhood).

But Emanuel suggested that residents could significantly dull the pain "by switching to a free water meter, as Amy and I have done. In fact," said the mayor, "those who switch to meters will pay less next year — even with the fee increase. Let me repeat: Switching to a free water meter means you can pay less next year — not more."

Two Days prior that moist towelette for the Coach was this sensitive whiff of weakness on the part of City Council Council Floor Leader Pat O'Connor.

I think what he was trying to say is when we exempt churches, all of us must pay slightly higher water bills to compensate the system: We pay for our own water, then we all chip in a bit more to cover the cost of giving churches water at no charge. Paying twice, as he puts it.

So if we charge our houses of worship for water, those houses of worship are going to have to ask us for more money. So we'll still be paying twice.

The critical difference, however, is that, under the current system, those city dwellers who don't attend a city house of worship -- those who go to the suburbs are who simply aren't churchgoing people -- are compelled to chip in.
If I'm understanding O'Connor correctly, his idea that "it's the same pockets that are paying for it anyway" makes no sense whatsoever.

Oh,Damn them Catholics!

Eric Zorn the Water Boy! Why, you little squirt, you!

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/10/burke-all-wet-in-his-request-to-keep-free-water-for-churches-and-church-schools.html
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/08/grid.htmlhttp://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/10/thats-still-a-latte-money-for-water.htmlhttp://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/10/free-water-word-salad-from-ald-oconnor.htmlhttp://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/10/water-meter-pitch-may-not-be-such-a-bad-deal-after-all.html

Vouchers: Eric Zorn Calls it "Pixie Dust" But He Calls For A Stall to Avoid Getting Pinned!

A Stall gets a warning, then penalty points awarded to the opponent and then disqualified.

The financial losses in Indiana this year to public schools and the gains to parochial schools will amount to rounding errors.

But that enrollment limit will grow to 15,000 for the next school year, then the cap will come off the year after that.

So give it a few years. We'll then be able to study firsthand the largest and most ambitious voucher program in the country and see whether, this time, pixie dust has somehow conquered fear and history.

Eric Zorn in chair of Public Education Team Fish.

Pixie Dust? So a State like Indiana denies Gold Dust to the education lobby ( teachers unions, bus companies, vendors, cafeteria's serving tax-funded mandated healthy-choice meals to kiddies, special ed co-ops, and etc.) and therefore a social injustice is prefabricated. Well yeah.

Inquiry, science, data, tests and measures, expectations and outcomes, graphs, and logarithms are pulled out of the John Dewey sandbox and put on display by Diane Ravitch. Awed quiet descends upon the cowed masses. Eric Zorn trucks out the Dewey sand buckets, shovels and rakes once again.

However, Eric Zorn and the opponents of School Reform ( see education lobby above) are not crowing victory and going for the pin on the wrestling mat of public debate.
Nope, Eric Zorn is coaching the pencil-necked geeks on the mat to 'fish' off and stall. The referee gives a warning and then calls penalty points against Team Zorn - Point Vouchers! Stalling! Points get added to the lustier and more honest opponent and eventually The fish of Team Zorn get disqualified.

For a clear assessment of the Milwaukee Voucher Program, click my post title and scroll down to pages nine(9) and ten (10). The lads explain the math. John Dewey, the Daddy of Public Education demands that inquiry is the Alpha and Omega - where you want an argument to end is the beginning of all inquiry.

One very cogent critic of Diane Ravitch's Inquiry states this

Vouchers have seen at least modestly positive results for test scores in several studies, and have boosted graduation rates and college attendance everywhere that question has been studied. (The latest study of Milwaukee found that students who received vouchers for all four years of high school graduated at a 94% rate, compared to 75% for equivalent students who stayed in the public school system. The college attendance rates for the two groups were 54.4% and 34.5% respectively.)

In the overwhelming majority of studies, vouchers have also boosted the performance of public schools as well.

"They do allow more privileged constituents to divest from the education of Milwaukee's inner city children."

It's very odd to describe the recipients of vouchers as "more privileged," given the income limitations. Are you one of those people who classify impoverished inner city residents into the "privileged" and "not-privileged" simply based on who decides to pursue a voucher?

Indiana had the political will enact school reform by making school vouchers and school choice a reality. That scares the bejesus out of the education lobby that is so thick (literally and rhetorically) here in Illinois.

As soon as Charter schools became a reality in Illinois, SEIU and the Chicago Teachers Union went judge shopping and politician corralling in order to 'allow' the unionization of Charter Schools ( Ralph Ellison Charter just west of Catholic Leo High School), in order to bring the blessings of public education to Charters and make them ultimately disastrous public schools.

Catholic, Dutch, Jewish, and Independent schools outperform public schools. Leo High School, where the only privileged person in this hoary structure is me, serves African young men from Englewood, Gresham, Brainerd, Grand Crossing, Chatham and a white kid from Canaryville and sent every one of last years graduates off to great schools armed with scholarship based upon achievment money. Our ACT scores rose by 4.5% points in the last two years. It is not brain surgery, nor is it Pixie Dust.

Public Education is a disaster because it has, nor wants, fairness. All Public Education wants is more tax-payer dollars.

The Stall is for fish in wrestling - kids that are too timid, too weak, and too unskilled to grapple on the mat. The Stall sometimes employed to avoid outcomes - a pin, a decision, a loss. Pixie Dust? Naw, just the rules. If you can't compete, you lose.

Stalling (you get one warning before you are penalized and points are awarded).

The first and second time you are penalized, your opponent is awarded one point. The third time you are penalized, your opponent is awarded two points. The fourth time you are penalized, you are disqualified. (Except for illegal starting position or false start - you are cautioned twice, then one point awarded for each infraction, but you will not be disqualified. In the event of Flagrant Misconduct, you are ejected from the match on the first offense, you lose the match, and 3 team points are deducted).


http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/09/heres-some-school-choice-for-you-lets-choose-to-wait-and-see-on-vouchers.html

Crawford Has Innocence Project's Protess Media Pals Copping Pleas

The big onion, that is the Innocence Project's David Protess and his methods, is peeling away. More so the choir Protess not only preaches to, but writes the libretto for, Chicago's media seem to be hiding or copping a plea.

Michael Miner of the Chicago Reader, a pioneer news organ that has made challenging investigations, arrests, interrogations, indictments and convictions of every African American career criminal over the last three decades its centerpiece-even maintaining the canon of John Conroy (no longer working for The Reader) on its main page, presented the work of Pulitzer Prize winning newsman William Crawford - Chimera.

Chimera takes a second look at the role of Protess, Innocence Project and the Chicago Media in its crusade to free violent recidivist criminal Anthony Porter at the cost of Alstory Simon's freedom.

David Protess was 'relieved' of duties with his thirty year post as director of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism Innoncence Project, over ethics issues concerning his direction of student investigators.

Eric Zorn, a Protess acolyte, has an interesting comment on yesterday's article by Mike Miner. Miner, himself, appears to copp a plea having been a devout Innocence project choir boy now appearing to help peel the Protess onion.

Why is Crawford so sure Porter is guilty and Simon innocent? His analysis relies far too much on pugnacity and sarcasm to persuade anyone else half as much as it's persuaded him. But he does give us reason to think the original case against Porter might have been stronger than anyone who knows of the case only by its reputation supposes — and that Protess’s team of investigators (most of them students) did a rather superficial job of looking into it.

But Crawford’s strongest argument is implied: Porter is guilty because Simon is innocent. And in trying to get readers to accept the idea that Simon would confess to a murder he didn’t commit, Crawford accuses the Innocence Project of manipulation and misrepresentation — the kind of tactics Protess is now being held accountable for, as in this long article in Thursday’s Tribune, and this one in Wednesday’s Daily Northwestern.

Oh, heavens! Not pugnacity and sarcasm? Sarcasm? Personally, I think that sarcasm flavors the sauce that has been poured on the facts that manage to find their where into print in Chicago.

Crawford offers much more - real analysis and actually journalistic leg-work, as opposed to a chatty call over to the Medill School for some copy.

Crawford describes, largely in Simon’s words, a visit to Simon’s home in Milwaukee by Paul Ciolino, a private investigator for the Innocence Project. Crawford writes:

.Barely conscious, Simon was awakened from his stupor around 6:30 a.m. by two men, armed with guns, who identified themselves as ‘police investigators’ from Illinois. They accused Simon of having murdered two individuals years ago in Chicago’s Washington Park.
The uninvited guests [Ciolino and an assistant] told Simon that Inez [Jackson], his ex-wife, and "other witnesses" had signed statements alleging that Simon had indeed committed the murders. Despite protestations from Simon that the two men were "crazy" and that they leave his house at once, Simon said the two so-called police investigators then slapped a video into a portable player. As the tape rolled, a black male appeared on the screen, claiming to have been a witness to the Washington Park murders. The unidenfied man — who much later would be found to have been an actor hired and scripted by Ciolino — said Simon was the triggerman.

Simon’s intruders then piled on. After playing the video and producing a copy of Inez’s signed affidavit, and that of her nephew, Walter Jackson, and others also incriminating Simon, Ciolino pulled a pink rabbit out of a black hat. The private eye glanced into a mirror hanging on Simon’s wall and spotted a news report flashing across Simon’s TV, which was otherwise not viewable. The TV was turned to Milwaukeee’s CBS station, which was broadcasting a news report in which Inez is seen asserting that Simon had committed the murders…

The surreal, outrageous events unfolding around Simon that morning, in his own home, triggered a well of fear within.

“Ciolino kept tell me that they had all the evidence they needed to convict me. That I was going to go down for these murders and end up on Death Row, and there was nothing I could do about it. After seeing this story on TV, I was no longer just angry, I was scared to death. For the first time, I believed that I was actually going to be charged with committing the murders,” Simon stated in a sworn affidavit.

Now the icing on the cake. Ciolino told Simon that all Protess wanted was to free Porter, that when Porter got out, millions of dollars would be flying around from book deals, Hollywood movies and the like. And Simon would be sharing in the largesse. Simon had to move quickly, however, because Chicago police were on their way to Milwaukee at that very moment to arrst Simon and return him to Chicago in chains to face the music.

“He [Ciolino] convinced me that he was actually trying to help me by giving me a way out before the police got to my house to arrest me. He said that if I gave a statement saying I did the crimes in self-defense, that he would get me a free lawyer, that the professor would make it so I would only have to serve a short time in prison, and that when I got out, I’d be taken care of financially and would not have to work again,” Simon alleged.

If Simon agreed and confessed, Ciolino promised Simon that a Chicago lawyer, a veteran member of the defense bar by the name of Jack Rimland, would take Simon’s case. And Rimland would take it free of charge. Simple as pie.”

And Simon, who’d been insisting on his innocence, eventually “caved.”

To underscore his account, Crawford quotes from a laudatory 2002 Chicago magazine profile of Ciolino by Bryan Smith. Here’s Smith’s account of Ciolino’s showdown with Simon:

Ciolino has been threatened with subpoenas and indictments more times than he can count by people who make their living finding reasons to throw people in jail. As a result, he knows he has to do everything by the book.
He danced close to the edge in the Porter case in getting Alstory Simon, the suspected real killer, to confess to the murder.

Showing up unannounced at Simon's house in Milwaukee, Ciolino said that he was a private investigator and that he had a videotape of a witness who said Simon had committed the Washington Park murders. The "witness" was actually an employee of Ciolino's. Watching the bogus video, Simon remarked, "Man, that guy wasn't there. He ain't no witness."

'Yeah?" Ciolino shot back. "How do you know that if you weren't there?" At that point, recalls Ciolino, "he looked at me like, 'Why did I open my mouth?"' Afterwards, Ciolino convinced Simon that if he confessed on tape, things would go easier for him. "We just bull-rushed him, and mentally he couldn't recover," Ciolino says.

So there was a phony videotape of a “witness” to the murders. And as my article mentions, Simon did wind up with Jack Rimland as an attorney. And he got 37 years not two.

So was Crawford wrong about any part of this encounter?

Ciolino calls it a “fairy tale.”

There was no mention of two years, no mention of a movie deal, he says. Simon asked for the name of a lawyer and Rimland was one of three names Ciolino gave him. The CBS newscast, which Crawford suggests was a setup, was “just dumb luck.” But it was because Inez Jackson had confessioned on TV the night before that Ciolino visited Simon early the next morning. “You go late at night or early in morning. If I’m up there at noon, [by then] Inez has a couple of bullet holes in the back of her head,” Ciolino says.

He tells me he happened to run into Simon in prison years later. Simon thanked him for doing him a favor. “I’m out of here in 15 years [with good behavior],” Simon said. Ciolino says to me, “Porter was going to be smoked! Somebody think Rimland did a bad job for him!” He goes on, “I’ll tell you what I’ll tell anyone else. If anyone thinks I’d tell a lie for Anthony Porter they don’t know anything about me. I’ve yet to meet the guy I’m willing to fall on my sword for. I didn’t care about Anthony Porter particularly as a person. It was all about what happened. And there was no way Anthony Porter committed that murder. Alstory did that murder, there ain't no question about it.”

I should add one thing. Paul Meincke of Channel Seven visited Simon in prison back in 2006 and reported that Inez Jackson now claimed “she was coached and coaxed into fingering her husband with promises of money from future book and movie deals on the Anthony Porter story. As for Simon himself, Meincke tells me today that he came away from Simon’s cell “with the distinct impression he could have been telling the truth. He seemed to be fairly genuine.” Meincke says a photographer with him had the same reaction.

Here is Eric Zorn's reaction:

Eric Zorn:
Simon's multiple admissions, apology to the victims, etc. make it hard to credit the idea that he was simply acting to go along with some scheme, but, as I wrote (and as you noted I wrote) it would have been better for Simon to have gone through the plea process with a lawyer who had no ties whatever to those with a stake in the outcome of the Porter case. Just seems like common sense. As does, by the way, my suggestion to Simon and his new attorneys that they release Jack Rimland from any bonds of attorney/client privilege so he, Rimland, can tell us his version of this story.
One last thing -- I reiterate my suggestion to Mike Miner that his blog also contain his columns. It seems perverse and very 20th century to separate them.

Posted by Eric Zorn on May 6, 2011 at 5:33 PM | Report this comment

Most flavorful

Chicago Media Bullies Illinois Supreme Court - Ignore the Law Give Us Rahm!

Hey Kids! Calling all the Soul Patched, and Knit-hat deep thinkers! Eric Zorn says, Let Rahm run and then change the Law! Sounds fair . . .fairly stupid. Like a little kid saying 'don't punish me for burning down the garage, sell the car.' Adorable. Get this,

I'm not a lawyer, but my answer would be a definite "yes." Democracy can be messy, sure. But it's weakened and insulted by any restriction that says voters, collectively, aren't wise enough to decide on Election Day who is and who isn't qualified for office.

Let Rahm run. Then repeal Arnold's Law.

I'm no iconic columnist, but my answer would never be a definite anything. That is why I am not an iconic columnist and tend to have the general good opinion of my neighbors. Like most of us we work very hard at doing our jobs and not being a horrifically festering pain-in-the ass.

With the exception of John Kass, Chicago Ink Icons are railing against the possible exit of Rahm Emanuel from the February ballot ( Rahm stays on the ballot for Monday's early voting).

The Tribune wants Rahm on.

Burt Odelson argued solidly and the Appellate Court ruled 2-1 against Rahm and the Tribune, ABC 7 & etc. started kicking dirt on the two judges.

Now, the bully ragging Media is on the seven Illinois Supreme Court Justices. I know one - Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride - and no amount of nonsense will sway his rock-solid integrity. The guy is the template for Justice. As to the others, let's see.*

Having just tossed the front-runner off the ballot in the biggest city election in decades, they then refused to certify the case as worthy of expedited Supreme Court review. Fortunately, the high court recognized the emergency. The appeal is now fast-tracked.

This decision will have ramifications far beyond Emanuel. It will be a precedent-setting ruling about ballot access for candidates who follow the rules. Will the Supreme Court thread a needle to keep a candidate off the ballot and please his political opponents? Or will it give Chicago voters their choice of qualified candidates?

The justices must be guided by the law, by the record and by their obligation to preserve the integrity of the electoral system — not for Emanuel but for every candidate, every voter and every election.

The Tribune has been cork-screwing into the loam under an editorial leadership that makes Perez Hilton seem like Clayton Kirkpatrick.

Let's remember this is a Democratic Republic and not a Mediarchy - Rule by the Ink Slinger. Laws and really Stupid Laws get enacted because of the Press - the nanny-state was spawned by the press. PR and the Media gave us Roe v. Wade and 500 million children born ( Kermit Gosnell in Philly) and unborn were slaughtered in the Cosmetic Holocaust. Arnold's Law in Illinois, to quote from Eric Zorn, came about when public fever was sparked in the press and politicians got calls.

Back off, icons and ink-slingers. Rahm stays on the ballot, or regroups for his next venture based on our Justices and their reading of the LAW.

*

Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride, D-Rock Island, 57, elected 2000. He spent 20 years in private practice in the Quad Cities handling environmental, labor and employment law before ascending to the state’s high court. He narrowly survived an effort by business groups and Republicans to knock him off the court in last year’s retention election.


Justice Charles Freeman, D-Chicago, 76, elected 1990. Freeman is the court’s first African-American justice. He worked as a prosecutor and an assistant attorney general before becoming a judge 34 years ago. He administered the oath of office to Mayor Harold Washington. Last month, on Freeman’s recommendation, the Supreme Court appointed the wife of Emanuel’s main attorney, Mike Kasper, to a vacancy on the Cook County Circuit Court. Freeman is a native of Richmond, Va.


Justice Bob Thomas, R-Wheaton, 58, elected 2000. Thomas was a kicker for the Chicago Bears. Mike Ditka and other Bears backed him when he ran for his seat on the high court. He earlier served as an appellate judge in DuPage County. Thomas is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a native of Rochester, N.Y.


Justice Rita Garman, R-Danville, 57, was a downstate prosecutor, legal aid lawyer and an attorney in private practice before becoming a judge 34 years ago. An Aurora native, she got her law degree from the University of Iowa.


Justice Lloyd Karmeier, R-Nashville, Ill., 71, elected 2004. Karmeier served as state’s attorney of downstate Washington County and also spent years in private practice before being elected a judge in 1986. His 2004 Supreme Court victory over Gordon Maag broke all records for campaign spending: business groups supported Karmeier, while trial lawyers lined up behind Maag. Karmeier got his law degree from the University of Illinois.


Justice Anne Burke, D-Chicago, 66, elected 2008. Burke, wife of Ald. Edward Burke (14th), who supports Emanuel rival Gery Chico, served on the Illinois Court of Claims and was appointed special counsel to the governor on child welfare services before being elected to the appellate court. She is a graduate of Chicago-Kent College of Law. Before going into law, Burke helped found the Special Olympics. She also served as acting chair of a national lay commission set up by the Catholic church to investigate allegations of priest misconduct.


Mary Jane Theis, D-Chicago, 60, appointed last year. Theis is a former assistant public defender elected to the bench in 1988 and elevated to the appellate court in 1994. When Judge Thomas Fitzgerald announced his retirement last year, he suggested to his fellow justices they appoint Theis to replace him. Theis is a graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Law and the daughter of former Judge Kenneth Wendt.

Abdon M. Pallasch

Tough Times Ahead for Forrest Claypool - Just Like Romeo and Juliet -Hey,Hey, Hey!

Let me not to marriage of two-timers admit . . .I was with him . . .I was with her ... I think you're swell well you can go to Hell.

Shucks, Forrest Claypool a career political appointee is running as an Independent.

Seems to me he called in the compliant corporate media ( today, I played in Eric Zorn's sand box for giggles - I was up early and later waiting for a confirmation on a grant) and Eric Zorn provided a thick porridge of tofu and whey about the UnFairness of the Petitions Needed by Independents in Illinois. I think its swell. Makes for a muscular Grassroots Army of the Willing! Builds Character and what-not.

You see, Forrest is running against Joe Berrios for Cook County Assessor and Joe Berrios happens to be a grand guy and genuine political servant. Forrest Claypool pops up when a spot opens, or gets appointed. He can be seen almost nightly chatting up Cheshire-Grinnin' Why Ain't Forrest Winnin' Carol Marin on WTTW. The last few elections Forrest got all timid and loped off to the woodland glades and glens. Forrest Claypool has miles to go before he sweeps . . .any votes. He needs scads of signatures and that requires folks armed with clipboards and pens. No Fair. Tough.

That is why there are farm teams in baseball and amateur flying clubs. Independents demand that be treated like Boys of October when they have not yet hefted a wiffle ball bat and Ace Jet Jockeys because they para-sailed. Politics is an art and not finger painting. Sad, to be sure. Tragic?

Well, Romeo and Juliet had their troubles but they were a beautiful couple. Forrest Claypool is the man he is today thanks to his long and lucrative association with the Regular Democratic Party Organization of Chicago and Cook County.

Joe Berrios can get signatures . . .Oh, that's right. He does not need them.

Eric Zorn's "Long Knives' Comment to Commenter:Hurtful Anti-Irish Catholic Hate Speech

Oh, wow. Hate Speech from Eric Zorn?
Following a dignified and rather sober question from an obviously intelligent and patriotic reader, the fiery Zorn let's fly with what can only be described as a Hate Trope!

Behold the exchange and avert your eyes, if needs be, as the second in 1-2 Zorn Knockout combination hits home.

Why is it "cowardly" to challenge bad petitions? If a candidate can't follow the law to get on the ballot, why should he or she be exempt from challenge?

I wonder if Eric would find an objection cowardly if a candidate for, say, governor filed petitions with 2 signatures? In the absence of a challenge, he gets on the ballot.

ZORN REPLY -- I'm pretty clear in the column: I think ballot-access fees are the way to go and that those who want to get on the ballot and make a good-faith showing of intent and energy and interest should be allowed on the ballot.

Get ready to watch the long knives *come out to knock Claypool off the ballot. And you know the motivation: Fear. Plain and simple fear. Mr. "Reformer," you ought to know that.

Posted by: Reformer | Tuesday, May 04, 2010 at 11:11 AM

"the long knives" is that not anti-Irish Hate Language? Madigan, Burke, Daley????????

Long Knives was a Native American euphemism for the US Cavalry of who the largest demographic were Irish Catholics, a minority group long considered 'close-knit, tribally racist and politically dominant' - Why this is nothing more than Hate Speech! Oh, Wounded Knees, Indeed!!!! Brush up your Ward Churchill! This is Hateful, hurtful. Hozanna Hannah!

Hath not a Mick feelings? Hath not Harp a Home? Hath not a Raw Jaw children?

He hath.


We know Hate Code, Eric. Joe Medill was a master. These are much better**!




* Long Knives

The full complement of the 7th Cavalry in June 1876 was 43 officers and 793 enlisted men. Of that number 473 were native born and 320 foreign born. The two largest foreign-born groups in the regiment comprised 129 Irish and 127 Germans. The remaining 64 foreign born were drawn from 14 other nationalities, including six Italians. These were: 1st Lt. Charles Camillus DeRudio (a k a Count Carlo Camillo Di Rudio) of Company A; Private Augustus L. De Voto (a k a Augusto De Voto) of Company B; Private John James (a k a Giovanni Casella) of Company E; Private Frank Lombard (a k a Frank Lombardy, Francesco Lombardi) of the regimental band; Private John Martin (a k a Giovanni Martini), trumpeter of Company H; and Chief Musician Felix Villiet Vinatieri (a k a Felice Villiet Vinatieri) of the regimental band. Two of the six were married. As might be expected, given that the pay of the era made it virtually impossible for junior enlisted personnel to wed and support a family, they were the two highest ranking: DeRudio and Vinatieri.

Unlike native-born Americans, Irish and Germans, the Italians were too few to constitute a group or subculture in the regiment. They were individuals who had come to the United States for a variety of reasons, both political and economic. In many cases the latter flowed from the former. Irish and Germans constituted major immigrant groups during the 19th century. Both nationalities immigrated largely for economic reasons by the mid-1800s. Socially, the Germans were more acceptable; they frequently were skilled craftsmen, and a very large percentage were Protestants. The Irish were much less socially acceptable; they were mostly unskilled, usually dirt-poor and Roman Catholic. In 1876 they constituted a clearly defined minority group that suffered very real social and economic discrimination. The Italians shared many of the social disadvantages of the Irish as well as some unique to themselves. They, too, were Roman Catholics; they were poor and, as southern Europeans, tended to be short and swarthy, and thus further removed in appearance from the northern European norm. Further, they came to the new country speaking a foreign tongue. The only advantage the Italians had over the Irish was that they were so few that they were not objects of such organized discrimination.

http://www.historynet.com/the-7th-us-cavalry-regiment-fought-in-the-battle-of-the-little-bighorn.htm

They live on beasts only, and live like beasts. They have not progressed at all from the habits of pastoral living. ..This is a filthy people, wallowing in vice. Of all peoples it is the least instructed in the rudiments of the faith. They do not yet pay tithes or first fruits or contract marriages. They do not avoid incest.
- Giraldus Cambrensis/Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland, 12th Century

How godly a deed it is to overthrow so wicked a race the world may judge: for my part I think there cannot be a greater sacrifice to God.
- Edward Barkley, describing how the forces of the Earl of Essex slaughtered the entire population of Rathlin Island, Co. Antrim, 1575

Marry those be the most barbaric and loathy conditions of any people (I think) under heaven...They do use all the beastly behaviour that may be, they oppress all men, they spoil as well the subject, as the enemy; they steal, they are cruel and bloody, full of revenge, and delighting in deadly execution, licentious, swearers and blasphemers, common ravishers of women, and murderers of children.
- Edmund Spenser, A View of the State of Ireland, 1596

And first I have to find fault with the abuse of language; that is, for the speaking of Irish among the English, which as it is unnatural that any people should love another's language more than their own, so it is very inconvenient and the cause of many other evils. ...It seemeth strange to me that the English should take more delight to speak that language than their own, whereas they should, methinks, rather take scorn to acquaint their tongues thereto. For it hath ever been the use of the conqueror to despise the language of the conquered and to force him by all means to learn his.
- A View of the State of Ireland

I have often said, and written, it is Famine which must consume [the Irish]; our swords and other endeavours work not that speedy effect which is expected for their overthrow.
- English Viceroy Arthur Chichester writing to Elizabeth I's chief advisor, Nov. 1601

The time hath been, when they lived like Barbarians, in woods, in bogs, and in desolate places, without politic law, or civil government, neither embracing religion, law or mutual love. That which is hateful to all the world besides is only beloved and embraced by the Irish, I mean civil wars and domestic dissensions .... the Cannibals, devourers of men's flesh, do learn to be fierce amongst themselves, but the Irish, without all respect, are even more cruel to their neighbours.
- Barnaby Rich, A New Description of Ireland, 1610

All wisdom advises us to keep this [Irish] kingdom as much subordinate and dependent on England as possible; and, holding them from manufacture of wool (which unless otherwise directed, I shall by all means discourage), and then enforcing them to fetch their cloth from England, how can they depart from us without nakedness and beggary?
- Lord Stafford, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in a letter to King Charles I, 1634

So ended the fairest promise that Ireland had ever known of becoming a prosperous and a happy country.
- Sir William Temple, about 1673, (the export of wool from Ireland to England was forbidden in 1660)

In all countries, more or less, paupers may be discovered; but an entire nation of paupers is what was never seen until it was shown in Ireland. To explain the social condition of such a country, it would be only necessary to recount its miseries and its sufferings; the history of the poor is the history of Ireland.
- Gustave de Beaumont, French visitor, 1839

Ireland is like a half-starved rat that crosses the path of an elephant. What must the elephant do? Squelch it - by heavens - squelch it.
- Thomas Carlyle, British essayist, 1840s

...being altogether beyond the power of man, the cure had been applied by the direct stroke of an all-wise Providence in a manner as unexpected and as unthought of as it is likely to be effectual.

The judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson, that calamity must not be too much mitigated. …The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people.
Charles Trevelyan, head of administration for famine relief, 1840s

[existing policies] will not kill more than one million Irish in 1848 and that will scarcely be enough to do much good.
- Queen Victoria's economist, Nassau Senior

A Celt will soon be as rare on the banks of the Shannon as the red man on the banks of Manhattan.
- The Times, editorial, 1848

I am haunted by the human chimpanzees I saw along that hundred miles of horrible country...to see white chimpanzees is dreadful; if they were black one would not see it so much, but their skins, except where tanned by exposure, are as white as ours.
- Cambridge historian Charles Kingsley, letter to his wife from Ireland, 1860

A creature manifestly between the Gorilla and the Negro is to be met with in some of the lowest districts of London and Liverpool by adventurous explorers. It comes from Ireland, whence it has contrived to migrate; it belongs in fact to a tribe of Irish savages: the lowest species of Irish Yahoo. When conversing with its kind it talks a sort of gibberish. It is, moreover, a climbing animal, and may sometimes be seen ascending a ladder ladden with a hod of bricks.
Satire entitled "The Missing Link", from the British magazine Punch, 1862

This would be a grand land if only every Irishman would kill a Negro, and be hanged for it. I find this sentiment generally approved - sometimes with the qualification that they want Irish and Negroes for servants, not being able to get any other.
- British historian Edward Freeman, writing on his return from America, about 1881

...Furious fanaticism; a love of war and disorder; a hatred for order and patient industry; no accumulative habits; restless; treacherous and uncertain: look to Ireland...
As a Saxon, I abhor all dynasties, monarchies and bayonet governments, but this latter seems to be the only one suitable for the Celtic man.
Robert Knox, anatomist, describing his views on the "Celtic character", 1850

The Celts are not among the progressive, initiative races, but among those which supply the materials rather than the impulse of history...The Persians, the Greeks, the Romans and the Teutons are the only makers of history, the only authors of advancement. ...Subjection to a people of a higher capacity for government is of itself no misfortune; and it is to most countries the condition of their political advancement.
- British historian Lord Acton, 1862

You would not confide free representative institutions to the Hottentots [savages], for instance.
- Lord Salisbury, who opposed Home Rule for Ireland, 1886

...more like squalid apes than human beings. ...unstable as water. ...only efficient military despotism [can succeed in Ireland] ...the wild Irish understand only force.
- James Anthony Froude, Professor of history, Oxford

Eric Zorn and Mark Brown Parse for Scott Lee Cohen and Progressives Everywhere!

If you get passionate by what a columnist writes, seek a mental health professional!

Some commenters have remarked that I seem "Bitter, Angry and Nasty! or wildly partisan. Nah, I'm cool. It's a stone groove here among my hard-working and thoughtful neighbors. No one talks policy (Tax, Law, & etc) but standard common sense English. The 19th Ward air is as sweet as a chocolate dipped Holloway Slo-Poke carmel sucker!

However, I get giggley-amused when I read our iconic Chicago columnists!

Scott Lee Cohen wanted to be our Lieutenant Governor and Mark Brown had the goods on him . . .but determined 'No Big Deal.'

So, Scott Lee Cohen who operates a couple of wildly successful pawn shops, dead-beat Dad-ed for a number of years, tuned-up a hooker, dropped out of the Democratic Campaign after counselling with real elected officials, went on WLS Radio and saw the window of opportunity crack open a bit, announced that he will run for Governor of Illinois as an Independent.

An Independent is a person who can not get three people to vote for her/him, but has the ear of our corporate media columnists like Chicago Sun Times' Mark Brown and Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn . Carol Marin must be ginning up a swell feature for WTTW, as we opine.

Eric Zorn immediately parsed Mark Brown's pontifical dismissal of "The Scott Lee Cohen Saga." It's all good, Dude! No Media fault here, there, or anywhere!

Today EZ parses more peculiar Progressive Petunias:

One way to open up the process is to convert to a ballot-access fee system as used in primaries in two-thirds of the states, according to Winger's data.

In Florida, for example, if you've been following the wild politics down there, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist will simply pay a $10,440 filing fee to run as an independent in November against presumptive Republican primary winner Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek.

No tedious and costly door-to-door solicitations followed by an even more tedious, costly and often outrageous petition challenge.

Does this clog the ballot with wealthy, vain and/or kooky candidates? Does it merely confuse voters? It hasn't really been a problem, said Tobin said.

And as for the argument that filing-fee systems discourage low-income candidates, well, perhaps. But no more than the costs of running petition drives, hiring election lawyers or running a successful campaign discourages low-income candidates.

If Scott Lee Cohen wants to spend his time and money putting his record and his plans in front of the voters, let him, I say.

And for those cowards who will try to thwart Cohen and Claypool by challenging their petitions? They're just pitiful.

Oh, Let's do lower the bar! Ballot access! This is another Progressive 'Change the Rule Because I Can Not Get Signatures' gambit.

These goofs and pinheads demand that Machines (effective politics at the precinct and Ward level)get taken apart and then demand grease for some boob who could not otherwise attract a rally in a phone booth.

The fact remains - Progressives ( Rahm, Forrest?, Quigley, Schakowsky) depend upon that mean-old machine with all of its gears bells and whistles. Until, the time that no one cares to give them their time and talents to amass the signatures.

Yeah, lower the bar and give some more 40 Watt gushers a chance to 'make a difference' on MSNBC and generally louse up the economy and public safety even more.

Politics is an art and not finger painting -unless you happen to be Jan Schakowsky, Mike Quigley, or Forrest Claypool.

These Policy Playdough Artists only get into politics through some quid pro quo or timely appointment. They are panjandrums, like Shelia Simon and Chris Kennedy. No one at the Ward level gives a fat rat's ass what they think or hold dear, because helots know that these beauts would never raise a finger - well maybe a finger -let alone the receiver of a telephone on their behalf.

Most Progressives that I know would not give a penny to starving blind girl with rickets. I am a devout empiricists.

Scott Lee Cohen can pay for petitions with the lunch change in his jeans. He is still a Jewish Lad with a Redneck Name and much redemption to mill.

As to the Progressive Policy Priesthood? It is still given far too much serious attention by reall effective elected officials. Time for real statesmen to ridicule the dopes in public life and chase them back to the Salon.

Eric Zorn's Reply to Speech Before the House of Burgesses

Tea Partier Pat Henry -

No man, Mr. President, thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging.

And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained — we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!



They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable — and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Eric Zorn -

Mr. President, my esteemed colleagues, especially the fiery cry-baby Mr. Henry, what do you really want? " These voters are "big babies," as political journalist Michael Kinsley wrote in the introduction of his 1995 book with that title: "They make flagrantly incompatible demands — cut my taxes, preserve my benefits, balance the budget — and then explode in self-righteous outrage when politicians fail to deliver."

A nicer term of art for such people is "symbolic conservatives and operational liberals," said retired SIU political scientist John Jackson, now a visiting professor at the Simon Institute. "I read most of the major polls routinely," he said. "And my long-term reading of those polls certainly seems to indicate that we want it all while damning the government and taxes." "We want Washington and the states to fix all of our problems now," as Slate's Jacob Weisberg wrote earlier this year. "At the same time, we want government to shrink, spend less and reduce our taxes."

Weisberg's essay was titled, "Down with the people: Blame the childish, ignorant American public — not politicians — for our political and economic crisis.What to do? Hope that our leaders find the courage to treat us like adults, and hope that we find the wisdom to appreciate it. When you are being robbed, Man Up! Pay Up! Buck Up! It's the Patriotic Thing! A BFD! Listen to Joe! Joe Biden!

Racist Babies! Look around, do you see any women, blacks, or Pacific Islanders in this House of Burgesses? Dude! What's all this Great Britain Stuff? Context and Narrative, you cry baby!

Thomson Gitmo Guest Haus ? Eric Zorn Hysterical about Imagined Fear? He Skips Naked Into Ruth's Mini Club - So To Speak.

Eric Zorn, not an original thinker and part of the PC herd of sheeple being prodded with the staff to counter opposition with a buzz-word du jour - fear.

Senator Dithering Dick Durbin, no stranger to group think is the Good Shepherd on this venture to bring 200 Terrorists to Carroll County in order to:

1. Improve the lives of 506 people in the town of Thomson, Illinois
2. Improve the quality of life for America's Guests who have been maltreated in Guantanamo by GW Bush and Dick Cheney
3. Give Eric Zorn something to say
4. Ensure that Eric " A Nation of Cowards" Holder has some cover for his Law Firm that specializes in getting terrorists off the hook
5. Ensure that former Governor Pat Quinn gets single digit numbers in the Democratic Primary.
6. Improve Melon sales in Carroll County

Eric Zorn is doing his level best to help make Thomson Illinois the Gitmo Guest Haus our President needs, because no other State will step-up.

EZ is puffing out his metaphorical 24" chest and straiting the muscles and sinews of his 6" neck attached to that chest with challenging words directed at the GOP who say no the move. Well I am a 19th Ward Democrat and I think moving any of hombres from GITMO to ANYWHERE is a Bone-Stupid idea. If it ain't broke don't monkey with it. Gitmo is the absolute best place on earth for these melon-devouring scumbags.

Get this -

And, yes, there's a risk associated with operating an open system of justice, whether we're trying mobsters, gang bangers or violent extremists. But that's just one of the risks of living in a free society, risks most of us are glad, even proud to assume.

Yes there is a risk when you take all of your clothes off, pour honey all over your head, don an Indian Headdress and skip buck-ass naked south on Halsted Street from 79th Street and decide to pop into Ruth's Mini Club Lounge at 83rd Street and Shout "Miss Scarlet! Eat that Barbecue and stop acting like Field Hand! and Come over and Kiss Mr. Rhett!"

That too is fraught with peril, Eric. Courage Camille!

Save us the "Gitmo was the Recruiting tool of Al Queda . . .' Really, girls? Where are there any Al Queda Recruitment Center Posters or Be Al You Khan Be! commercial on Al Jazeera?

EZ and the Fear Tossers need a handful of Midols.

Their Agenda is a National Trainwreck on Health Care, the Economy, Environment, Foreign Relations, and Hanukkah. When your numbers are way done, it is a good idea to ADD some support, but the Progressive Plan reequires more subtraction on the way to self-pity.

President Obama has done everything that the Amateur Hour White House Crew ( thick with Progressive Chicagoans) advised that he do and as a result -he is going down as the Millard Filmore of the New Millennium. Hell, even Jimmy Carter is looking good by comparison.

*
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Sen. Meeks No Longer an Isolationist on School Vouchers! Welcome to the War

Senator James Meeks has been the Joseph P. Kennedy* Ambassador to School Reform Isolationism and a powerful voice for tossing more tax dollars to the Chicago Teachers Union and hapless Public Schools.

Blocks from Calumet High School, now morphed into a hybrid Charter Academy/Warehouse, and few more from the 60 million dollar Simeon High School, Leo High School - a Catholic High School ( 100% African American Males)-commands the respect and direction of families seeking a path to success for their sons.

Leo High School is tuition driven and depends upon the giving of its largely white, Catholic and aging Alumni. White Alumni giving to Leo High School stands at 99.9%, though more Black Alums are giving in recent months.
Ninety Three percent of Leo's graduates go on to colleges and universities and the balance to the skilled trades unions and the military.

For decades Catholics and other private school families ( Jewish, Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, Muslim, and Independent) have called for School Reform through a universal voucher system. The Public School lobby has defeated any and all efforts. One of the Public School Lobby's most passionate and articulate voices - Rev./Senator James Meeks has pushed down efforts to bring about genuine Reform through Vouchers.

Like Ambassador Joe Kennedy in 1939-40, while Ambassador to Great Britain, Senator Meeks has called for Isolationism on Vouchers. Now, the Senator has witnessed the toll upon our society that this Isolationism has wrought. Like Joe Kennedy, Senator Meeks has had a Great Awakening!

the Chicago Teachers Union has figured out a way for teachers to not be evaluated on obvious criteria, such as how well they perform in the classroom.

Nobody wants to be held accountable, but the blood of every child is on our hands.

We must also decide whether Mayor Daley should continue to preside over the Chicago schools. Since he assumed control of the district in 1995, the Blackhawks have had nine coaches, the Bulls have had eight coaches, the Cubs have had five managers and the White Sox have had three managers.

For the first time in my personal and political career, I am exploring the idea of vouchers and charter schools to help facilitate choice and enhance academic performance. Why should we continue to make investments in a system that is bankrupt and weighed down with bureaucracy?

We must begin making decisions that are in the best interest of children, such as mandatory teacher evaluations. Since the will to change the system is nonexistent, we should allow students the flexibility to attend schools outside their district. What once worked before, such as the local school councils, may have run its course in today's competitive environment.

They say the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. We can no longer afford to have the blood of every child on our hands.

Welcome to the War Senator! Already the Isolationists like Eric Zorn ( using free Market tropes) are attacking Senator Meeks and 'Blaming the Parents!'

My problem with voucher-based education is that it relies on a level of parental involvement that's manifestly missing and on a free-market system that is failing the inner-city already. Not that there is any easy answer, but these communities need jobs and affordable housing, far lower single-parent birth rates and, yes, calm, safe focused classrooms in which students can learn and teachers can teach.

Since the will to change the system is nonexistent, we should allow students the flexibility to attend schools outside their district.
Interesting idea, the logistics of which boggle the mind. Even if we could pull it off, though, and allow certain, motivated students to flee, the basic problem they are fleeing -- joblessness and its attendant poverty -- will remain.

If PNG Zorn is against you, Senator, you are on the right path!We can use your voice, spirit and energy. Let's make Genuine Reform Happen in Illinois! Let's Kick Open the Doors for Vouchers!


* Old Joe Kennedy thought Adolph Hitler would 'not be such a bad guy' and just another guy doing business and after all Old Joe said during the Battle of Britain, "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here, [in the US]."

Mayor Daley Follows Eric Zorn's "Civility of Abortion Rule"

The mayor said protesters can express their opinions but “should not harass and scream and yell” at people going into medical facilities. “There has to be some civility left in our society," he said.

When a reporter noted that some aldermen voted against the measure, citing their religious beliefs, Daley, who is Catholic, said, “My religion is very personal.”

The mayor's decision to sign instead of veto the abortion protester ordinance comes as his office today said it would halt a telephone survey it was conducting on the controversial ordinance.

Religion is so very personal that it must shut up and be civil! There are Abortions being demanded by American Progressives.

Mayor Daley is only following the admonition of Eric Zorn's Change of Subject Guide to Civil Abortions.

So Civil! Civility demands that we toss $ 500,000 at a school to dole out to activists and Cease Fire boondogglers, when a child has his head caved in by a plank and that when Catholics try to prevent a child from having its skull crushed by a "First Do-No-Harm' physician with a Hegelian Absolute sensibility - Catholics and others must not speak. Keep a Civil Tongue!


Eric Zorn will always take the Progressive Hegelian Absolute over the doctrinal and tribal convictions of citizens who see Abortion to be the killing of children. The very best American People -Margaret Sanger, Roger Baldwin, Studs Terkel, Gloria Steinem, Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann and Mayor Daley jettison religious conviction for an Absolute that requires the death of a child.

Why only this week Eric Zorn warned Mayor Daley and Mayor Daley jumped!

Foes of abortion-rights in Chicago ought to be relieved to know that they'll continue to have the First Amendment right to "protest, counsel, shout, implore, dissuade, persuade, educate, inform and distribute literature" on the sidewalks outside abortion clinics, despite new restrictions imposed on them in a measure passed Wednesday by the City Council.

They're not.

Instead they're mounting protests and threatening lawsuits claiming the new ordinance infringes on their freedom of speech because it forbids them from getting up in the faces of patients and employees at the doors of the clinics.

Specifically, the law creates a 50-foot buffer zone around entrances to all medical buildings. Protesters still are allowed inside that zone, but can no longer come within 8 feet of people going in and out for the purpose of approaching them to offer counseling, education, prayer, opprobrium or leaflets that would fall under the loose heading of protest statements.

It is Civil to Choose to Crush a Child's Skull and Suck it from a Woman's Womb. There are T-Shirts ( sold at all of the recent Democratic National Conventions - in Hot Pink no less) that attest to the civility of Abortion.

The City Council's 'Bubble Law' that keeps Anti-Abortion far away from women getting a very civil reception at Planned Parenthood Abortion Mills and Counselling Centers is just the ticket for the Civilized Act of Killing Children in the Womb.

You see it is all about the Absolute Will of the Progressive that is important - the Will to Kill that Child in Woman's Womb is only an adjunct of the Absolute Will - This Absolute nullifies religion. It nullifies the universality of literature ( Deconstruction & etc.) God's Law becomes merely 'Your God's Law.' The same logic moves Progressives to weep unashamedly over the maltreatment of dogs and laugh uproariously at the convictions and courage of Abortion protestors. They must be silenced.

Mayor Daley's balanced political tight-rope walking requires the tight ropes ratcheted up by the Progressives who can absolutely move a crowd of activists to fill a City Council Chamber -can't have that. Keep a Civil Tongue! We Have an Abortion to do!

It is easier to insult the core beliefs of the majority of citizens who do not have the time, nor the level of inherent incivility to fill a City Council Chamber.

The Civilized Smashing of a Baby's Head makes perfect political sense - for now.


http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2009/10/bubble.html