John Kass on Virtue

Unlike his conservative predecessor, the late Cardinal Francis George, the new leader of the Chicago Archdiocese has taken a decidedly progressive stance on union rights. ABC 7

 I never thought of "the late Cardinal Francis George" as a conservative.  Rather, I  knew and experienced Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. as a priest and a man of rock solid virtue.  I know another such man - John Kass of the Chicago Tribune.

John Kass and I have disagreed even to the point of a good old south side, " Well, @#$% You!" exchange of words.  Friends can do that and I consider John Kass a friend.  A friend is someone who will tell you in thunder and you have abandoned virtue, for convenience.

I was honored to attend a Breakfast Talk sponsored by Midtown Education Foundation at the Gleacher Center center yesterday. The featured speaker was John Kass​.

My take-away from John's thoughtful and heartfelt assessment of our times was the diminished study of Virtue at all levels.

Virtue is learned; you are not born with it.  To be brave you must do brave deeds.  To be kind and thoughtful, you  must act accordingly.  You see, virtues are what used to be called shared truths.

John Dewey strangled Virtue when he put 'shared truth' into the intellectual shredder and our public scholars, schools of Education and public schools have been spreading Dewey's Gospel like Miracle Grow on Hinsdale lawns.

John Kass​ lectured a few score of Chicago's big-hearted business leaders on Virtue and what it means to our liberty.  People who are called businessmen and business women (bankers, investors, traders & etc.) very often are the most vital resources to charity and the group assembled to hear John Kass are just such persons.   I am an old Catholic high school teacher and Catholic and private schools depend upon the kindnesses of these strangers.  I am also very much like these charitable folks.  We are all 'Chumbolones' - self-interested civic idiots who elect and return the absolute worst people among us to public office.

Chumbalones is a plural noun meaning 'idiot' in street Italian and re coined by John Kass.

An executive attending Thursday's breakfast asked John to explain the term, which sprang to his sense while covering a Chicago mob trial.  I will not even attempt to retrace the etymology of Chumbalone here, but offer the following. Chumablones want to appear hip, hep, plugged into the skinny and with it in regards to civics and voting and therefore will go along with the group think.: Obama is great. Jan Schakowsky is great. Dick Durbin in never a fatuous ninny who will go along with prevailing winds blown from Media Matters. Chumbalones will vote in and retain room temperature IQs,  snouts in the public trough and social engineers who could not craft a paper airplane.

We do this, not because we are intrinsically bad persons, but because " We know a guy, or girl   who needs an Obama, a Durbin, a Quigley, a Claypool, a Rahm Emanuel to think well of him, or her and might, just might, do them, and by extension all of us,  "a real genuine solid."

That has been my public sin of commission in the polling booth.

I have voted for public asses (repeatedly in too many cases) knowing full well that they had no business in public life, because a relative, a friend, a neighbor, an acquaintance, or even a precinct captain ( ubi sunt, hodie?) asked me to "Do them a solid."

I knew better and know better than this and I, like all of my fellow Americans, Chicagoans, Cook County taxpayers and citizens of this Land of Lincoln, have reaped the complete and thorough shafting of our democracy and liberty.

Mea Maxima Culpa.

Good God, last night I watched the news and even the Archbishop of Chicago is doing a solid for politics with his most public local labor statement aimed at the mess in Springfield.

I want to thank John Kass for calling me out and challenging me to embrace Virtue and skip doing someone a solid.

Rahm to Chi Media ( Feder et al) - 'Match Me Sidney' Zippo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chicago is back. When Chuy Garcia yanked down Rahm's britches in public on Tuesday ( Feb. 24, 2015) after 7PM, Chicago came back.

The Media in Chicago is not up with the people. The media is the evolved PR man of old - the oily sneak Sidney Falco of the great film "Sweet Smell of Success"  Only the columnists are no longer the bullies demand that Sidney light their smokes - politicians, particularly Progressives like Rahm, Mike Quigley and Jan Schakowsky, are the new Hunsuckers(sic), or something like that.

Watch this clip, if you are unfamiliar with my context model.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OKuEfnl87Sw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 Rahm whips it out and says!

Match me Sneed! Match me, Neil!  Match Me, Eric! Match Me, Mark!  Match Me Carol!

Robert Feder is now the Michael Sneed of the blogosphere. A feed source. 

Rahm's first act in this lates political blood tragedy was to phone WLS and get John Kass the Hell off of the Radio.  People listen to Kass; people read Kass; people believe Kass and theu do not believe Rahm any more than they believe that Governor Bruce Rauner is anything other than " NOT PAT QUINN."

So, Rahm ordered WLS AM ( Cumulus) to do a Rauner on Kass 24 hours after the people told Rahm - NO MAS!

Like long-necked geese, in that old Turkeybird tune, Chicago media creatures beg for crumbs and Rahm fed Robert Feder.Shameless Bob, it seems went all Sidney Sneed when Rahm offered the tasty morsel that Kass was cashiered.  

"John Kass and Lauren Cohn, who bridged the midmorning block between Big John Howell and Rush Limbaugh at WLS AM 890, have been cut from the Cumulus Media news/talk station.

No reason was cited for the move, but the two were told by WLS program bosses that they were finished after they got off the air Thursday. Their show aired from 9 to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday.(emphasis my own)"

Robert Feder fits Michael Sneed's Mumu nicely.

Feder draws no conclusions, but draws the water.  

Bob Feder - Rahm is pissed and pulled a Rauner ( Dave McKinney?) on Kass.  That's it

Kass don't match.

Mayor Prickly, or Toni Preckwinkle? With Whom Would You Share a Pizza and Cold Pitcher of Draft at Vito & Nick's?

Rahm Emanuel can be Prickly*. Polls can be Picky - skewed to serve up just the right conclusion., like every poll conducted by the Paul Simon Institute.  Polls tell us the foregone conclusion to every thing - science, my boy, science.

Now, we helots are treated to a poll conducted to belabor the obvious ( Rahm is just Prickly) and conclude that Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is sweeter than bear meat.“Right now, Rahm is not connecting. If he doesn’t do that, he’s gonna lose,” McKeon said.
Emanuel is raising campaign cash at a frenzied pace — with more than $7 million in the bank already and former President Bill Clinton headlining a mega-fundraiser next month — in hopes of scaring off serious challengers.
He’d better hope the strategy works, according to the new poll, which measured Emanuel’s support against County Board President Toni Preckwinkle — the challenger City Hall fears most — along with three others: Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd); Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis and former Ald. Robert Shaw (9th).
Shaw is the only declared mayoral challenger.
If the election were held today, Emanuel would find himself in a horse race.
The mayor would get 29 percent of the vote to Preckwinkle’s 26 percent. The poll shows Lewis finishing third with 10 percent, followed by Fioretti at 5 percent and Shaw with 3 percent. An estimated 27 percent of voters interviewed were undecided.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points, higher when the results are broken down by demographic factors. More than 39 percent of respondents were interviewed on their cellphones.Chicago Sun Times - The Progressive Praetorian Guard of Chicago

Rahm is a Progressive, Toni Preckwinkle is a Progressive, Ald. Bob Fioretti is a Progressive, Karen Lewis is a Progressive coached by a Socialist - Jesse Sharkey. They each one of them have the personality of a dial tone.

Former Alderman Bob Shaw is not a Progressive.  So, he's got that going for him.  Bob Shaw is a rascal and that can't hurt. Bob Shaw is a fun guy and very comfortable in his own larcenous skin. The choice in this case would be like choosing a night of succotash and warm milk with Bill Moyers, or cards, a jug, a swell Dame and maybe some family friendly gun-play with Bret Maverick.

My test for political office is always determining the intrinsic worth of a candidate based upon past performance - would I care to spend any time with that person?

Would you -female, gay, Catholic, Unitarian, Agnostic, breeder, affluent, financially challenged, male, sixteen inch softball Alumna/i , homeowner, or homeless - care to nail a few squares from a Vito & Nick's family sized 18" Pizza Supreme and an ice cold pitcher of whatever domestic malted grain beverage is on tap with either Rahm Emanuel or Toni Preckwinkle?

Man, I'd rather have my gums scraped a Parkinson's afflicted orthdontis with dirty fingers and world-class halitosis.

Toni Preckwinkle makes Mayor Prickly seem like Bing Crosby on Quaalude.  The two of them must have spent their childhood happy hours torturing G.I. Joe and Barbie and then matriculated to social studies.

Now, I'd grease up my fingers, face and formal wear over piping hot 360 Degrees of Vito & Nick's with former Ald. Bob Shaw any hour of the day.  I have witnessed the way Bob Shaw treats people far less fortunate than himself and it was according to Gospel I hear read homilized on Sunday's at Sacred Heart Misssion Church, St, Odilo's in Berwyn and St. John Cantius.

I'll take a larcenous rascal with shady history who treats poor, helpless and needy people like they are the most important people on the planet and Bob Shaw does exactly that.  I know he might tweak "opportunity" to his personal gain, because he's tell me so.

I know Toni Preckwinkle and Rahm Emanuel would light a box of kittens on fire, if policy dictates, and that they would not leave a nickel left un-stolen from people of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and the United States. They are Progressives, Reformers, BGA Approved and Media Protected Foregone Conclusions.

Poll your neighbors, boys and girls.  The Progressive pole will continue  whack us all between the eyes.

Mayor Prickly is the sobriquette coined by Chicago writer and Vito & Nick;'s habitue John Kass.  At first I thought Mayor Prickly was an homage to Jane Austen, William Congreve and Capt. Dick Steele.

Churches Go Secular and Meet the Wrecking Ball

There is flurry of media stories about the closing of Catholic schools in America.  I don't know if that is meant to trumpet the secular tendencies to cry " We believe in Science and Reason!  We are Evolved and on the Right Side of History and, by Zeus, Bill Moyers thinks well of us!"   That's nice.

Perhaps, it is a an actual call to action.

I go to church. Catholics call it Celebrating the Eucharist.  It seems to me that in congregations where the priest is central to the worship, as Christ's consecrated celebrant, the pews are packed.  In others, where the Rev. Mr. Clergy holds the congregation captive, if not captivated with his stunning personal charisma and NPR homiletic stylings, there is plenty of seating and more than a few husbands pulling the Judas shuffle* after communion. Where the sacred and the traditional hold, the devout can be found.

Catholic schools are traditionally appendages of the parish church, when the parish empties so too the schools. Catholics feel an obligation to provide faith-rooted services to all and the economic realities are of that sensibility are becoming all too real. especially in the inner-city. 

In my years of service to Leo High School in the Auburn Gresham community, I have witnessed the closings of the following parish schools - St. Leo, St. Justin Martyr, St. Dennis, St. Killian, St. Ethelda, St. Thomas More . . .to name but a few as well as Academy of Our Lady ( Longwood) and St. Martin Porres High Schools.  Most of these closing had been the result of racial change and the infeasibility of continued operation due to enrollment and family by-in - paying tuition.

Alone of the above mentioned parishes, St. Thomas More continues as a church and attracts parishioners from far beyond its territorial boundaries.  Father Tony Brankin and his successor maintained the traditional Catholic worship and eschewed the rather sad attempt of some pastors to morph into a non-descript Christian place of worship.  St. Sabina Parish alone, by dint of its pastor's political savvy and personal magnetism thrives as a definitively Black Church. Father Brankin filled the pews without aid of the Chicago media, or celebrity guests. He did so, as does his successor, by maintaining the sacred in the Catholic liturgy -in the vernacular and in Latin.

Father Brankin has managed to do the same for St. Odilo's parish in Berwyn, where it is very tough to find a seat at every Mass. Schools that are rooted in the Catholic traditions do well. However, funding most be provided.  Here at Leo High School, black and white alumni pour funding back to the school that prepared them.  The bulk of the Alumni giving comes from the aging white graduates and much work is going to be needed to find ways of shoring up the loss in contributions from dying patrons.

Leo High School has provided a quality college preparatory education for the sons of Chicago families since 1926.  From 1926 until 1990, the majority of students at Leo were Roman Catholic. From 1991- 2011 less than 9% of the African American student body claimed to be Catholic.  In 2011, 12% of the students are now Catholic.  Here's where it gets tough - 87% of these students receive financial assistance provided by the school or the Big Shoulders Fund. Leo High School struggles to boost its enrollment and attract more families who can or are willing to meet the cost of a Catholic education.

To my surprise, the closing of churches also greatly affect the Protestant churches and it seems for much of the same reasons. Jeffrey Walton offers a solid study. 

Regardless of if they are traditionalist or revisionist, these older churches are leasing their church buildings to pre-schools and other non-church groups and feature graying congregations.

With this backdrop from my local community in mind, Associated Baptist Press caught my attention this week with a story about a church in Decatur, Georgia which is about to be shuttered, demolished, and re-developed into a shopping center. Once drawing 500 persons on a Sunday, Scott Boulevard Baptist Church is now down to less than 50 members, most of which are rapidly aging.To be clear, the congregation, affiliated with the moderate-liberal Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, isn’t dissolving. Having secured a lease agreement with a nearby church, Scott Boulevard will continue on without their facility of 60 years. But the article establishes the downward trajectory of the church.
“Congregational aging, if unplanned for, can be gut-wrenching,” the article reads. “And it’s likely in store for more congregations who fail to track the intersecting trends of giving and aging that eventually forced Scott Boulevard from its property.” . . . 

Scott Boulevard’s story reminded me of two Baptist congregations in my town. One was never large and failed to cultivate children’s programs, by default directing any new families who arrived at the church to another (thriving) Baptist congregation a few blocks north. The small congregation dissolved, sold its building to another church, and placed the revenue from the sale in the hands of a Baptist mission organization. It was a God-honoring exit, but not what they had probably hoped for.

The other church, housed in a large building, once attracted over 1,500 persons on a Sunday. In the 1970s they failed to adapt to changing demographics – namely, an influx of northerners and immigrants – and the congregation is now down to about 50 persons. I am told that every young church plant in Arlington has hopefully inquired about moving into the church building. . . . we note that many fading congregations proclaim liberal theologies that are not in accord with traditional church teachings. But while theological traditionalism is almost always a prerequisite for a large, vibrant congregation, it is not the only element. (emphases my own) 

There must be attention to core values and also attention mission strategies and tactics.  Religion has enough wolves licking their chops in anticipation of a slowed gait; the secular world has replaced faith with science.  That is foolish in itself.  Science (theoretical) is merely a tool to somehow understand the world and practical science a means to tweak problems.  Wisdom begins with fear (respect) for God and that respect is merely means of sorting the tools.

* (Catholicism) The act of leaving Mass early, typically between receiving communion and the concluding rite, without a justifiable reason for doing so. The Judas shuffle is named after Judas Iscariot, who left the Last Supper (the first Mass/Divine Liturgy) early in order to summon the guards to arrest Jesus. This is also known as pulling a Murphy.

Americans Welcome Challenges; Not Mandates

The day LBJ died the American Holocaust was born.

The tweedy old maids and dowager crabs who are and have been Progressive America can only have their will forced down peoples' throats. They never do well at the ballot box.

Academic cheerleaders and spin doctors give heft to the ACLU in its challenges to federal judges, when elections fail to do the will of the tweedy old maids and dowager crabs. They load the debate with historical evidence that sex between two gents is the moral and legal equivalent of a black child getting an education from a Jim Crow public school.

If these same academic sophists trotted out the true history of Progressive America it would begin with Radical Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War and not with Osawatomie John Brown.

Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner ignored Lincoln's Malice toward None foundation to southern reconstruction and mandated a punitive military occupation and reorganization to southern states. The balance of the 19th Century and most of the early 20th Century was a disaster for blacks and whites.

Reconstruction of the South is Progressive America's starting point and the next Progressive victory was Prohibition.

We live in the shadow of the ultimate Progressive Mandate -Roe v. Wade - the victory of eugenics over core human values.

Americans accept challenges and when that challenge is taken up very good things happen.

When Soviet Russia put Sputnik up above the stratosphere, a Jewish U.S. Navy submariner, Adm. Hyman Rickover challenged America to do a better job as parents, teachers and school administrators to shore up our lousy public schools in handling science and math. Good idea! No Mandate, a challenge.

America went to Space.

JFK worried about tubby kids and sent Pierre Salinger and his little brother Bobby, as well as Army and Marine recruits on 50 Mile Hikes.

Good idea! No Mandate, a challenge.

We did more sit-ups, pull-ups, sprints and push-ups in Gym and out of school.

When the dowager feminists of Planned Parenthood demanded to go beyond birth control to abortion they went went shopping for Federal Judges all the way up too the U.S. Supreme Court. Worst idea ever! A Mandate, and a huge challenge to the American soul.

We have a Mandate President obligated to dowagers and old maids.

John Kass, in the Chicago Tribune makes a great study of the HHS Choice Mandate requiring Catholic institutions to violate the tenets of faith.

Do Americans want access to contraceptives, and do some want abortion-inducing drugs? Of course, some do, and arguments have been made in support of such policy.

But should Catholic hospitals be forced by the federal government to provide such abortion-inducing drugs and other birth control in violation of faith?

Most Americans cringe at such a prospect. We see abusive federal power battering the church and we wonder, rightfully: What's next?

Naturally, Republicans will try to take advantage of this, but the problem is bigger than partisan politics. And the feeding of the federal leviathan isn't particular to Obama, as President George W. Bush and the No Child Left Behind Act proved to educators.

With great will and personal charm, Obama pushed through government-run health care. The problem was never with giving care to the needy. The problem was that this policy increased federal power. And now Americans are learning a terrible fact about what happens to freedom as federal authority grows. A line in a Wall Street Journal editorial makes this clear.

"When politics determines who can or should receive what benefits, and who pays what for it, government will use its force to dictate the outcomes that it wants — either for reasons of cost, or to promote its values, which in this case means that 'women's health' trumps religious conscience."

(emphasis my own - The Queen of the tweedy Old Maids his own bad self -John "Outcomes" Dewey!)

Americans are challenged, Catholics and non-Catholics. Living is not a Mandate it is a God's gift.

Cardinal Barry Obama's Church of The Missing Context

"I actually think that's going to make economic sense," said Obama. "But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus' teaching that 'for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.'" From John Kass Chicago Tribune on Preacher Barry

Man, the President will read anything put in front of him "Here, Mr. President, this has you quote from Jesuah, Mathews, Maddow, Luke . . . St. Paul . . .who cares . . .it's biblical and it makes great copy and context for your getting the rich to pay more - the rich. . .no not GE. or George . . .the other rich people . . .pipefitters and Local 150 Operators. Yes, sir it is working perfectly and it is off camera. . . Go get 'em!"


John Kass's column this morning reminded me of that. The President was given Luke 12:48 and today's gospel at Mass was Mark 1: 29 - 39. It's good one.

Jesus, Simon, Andrew, James and John, his Million Loaves and Fishes Quartet, performed a a miraculous cure of Simon's mother-in-law and good woman got up from her fever bed and good the lads some lunch. Jeuss then cured the folks in the neighborhood and cast out demons. People were as screwed up then as they are now, but at least then they didn't drink donkey squirtings on NBC's Fear Factor and call that entertainment.

NBC and GE are huge investors in President Obama's vision of America.

John Kass reminded me of President Obama's Prayer Breakfast preachifying this past week.

The President occupied the podium with Biblical parsings for taxing us much more. By "us" I mean all of us - United States taxpayers. We are blessed! However, I do not believe that Luke's passage (Luke 12:48), all Dewey'd up by President Corinthian Barry Obama at the prayer breakfast is in any way, shape or, form about taxes. Nope that Luke pastoral piece is about getting your ass smote -

"But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." New International Bible

or, King James -"But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

Then there's the Douhy-Rheims used by us Fish Eaters and HHS Traitorous Dogs -

But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more.

You see, them 'stripes' have to do with cuts of the old bullwhip. Deuteronomy 25:3 called for no more forty good-and-sound on the backs of servants and stewards who screwed up.

A whack with a bullwhip can be taxing on the soft, supple milky flesh of young handmaiden. . .sorry. How the mind do race.

Context Folks! Here's the full Luke -

40 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

41 Then Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?”

42 And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. 45 But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

47 And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

(emphasis my own)

No taxes. No 1% and no 99%. Stewards, whips, and portions of stripes for servants who knew their job descriptions, but screwed up.

Luke's gospel tells us that as Catholics, or Christians we come into this world with a set of instructions. That is called VALUES. We get taxed later.

We know that abortion is murder, because the rules we agree to as Catholics, or Christians or Jews, state just that and also that birth control can be a chemical abortifacient - something that causes an abortion. If we know the rules and screw up, we face the "stripes" down the road.

Our Faith is what has been given to us and if we give that Faith over to Political Correctness, Weakness, Self-loathing, or Opportunity, Jesus warned us that "much" would be given.

The President might want to consult with Congressman Jan Schakowsky about taking a whip to the help.

In other news, Carmel of Mundelein Alumnus Rick Santorum is ahead of President Obama in the latest Rassmussen Poll.

In a potential Election 2012 matchup, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is at 45% while President Obama earns 44%. This is the first time in any poll that Santorum has led the president. Several other GOP challengers have led the president a single time in the polls including Rick Perry, Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich. Each man briefly held the lead while they were surging in the polls, only to fall quickly. It remains to be seen what will happen to Santorum’s support.

Santorum gets 78% of the Republican vote and leads by ten among those not affiliated with either major party. President Obama get 83% of the Democratic vote in that matchup. Santorum leads by 16 points among men but trails by 12 among women. As is typically the case in all matchups, the president leads among those under 40 while the GOP hopeful leads among those who are over 40.

More Cowbell! A Romney Victory in August; Obama Win in November

I must agree with John Kass in his very forthright and Chicago-savvy prediction that President Obama will win re-election in 2012. I vote primarily Democrat (locally)and but rarely for the GOP. I consider myself to be a conservative Catholic Democrat ( registered so)and vote for Real Labor (skilled trades and non-public sector labor) candidates with a track record.

For years, It has been my firm belief that the GOP ( local and national) is the Party That Blows Off Its Own Toes. They are best friends the DNC and Progressive Machine have in the world. They add, MORE COW BELL, to Barack Obama's Blue Oyster Cult!

Cowbell = Memes and Attacks -"Hateful, Islamaphobic, militarist, 1%-ers, Rich-lovers! Breeders!Homophobic, Divisive, Sexist, Racist, Sexist, Racist, cowbell, more cowbell!" AXELROD WALKEN - I GOTTA FEVER!!!!

Proof? Dan Proft is on WLS and not in Springfield.

The Illinois GOP could not 'get behind' Dan Proft because he is a bachelor. Instead, they allowed the unpainted furniture King of Bloomington/Normal and the man who makes the best ice cream in America suck the life out of the campaign.

With equal if not more self-loathing, the national GOP is going with our Bill Brady writ- large Mitt Romney.

President Obama is the same man he was when he was elevated to the purple by same Progressive Machine ( Democratic Party with a dash of Sen. Marque Kirque) that made the Woods Fund Activist and Hyde Park acolyte a State and United States Senator.
President Barack Obama will win re-election in 2012.

The reason he'll win?

He knows who he is. And the Republican politicians don't know who they are. They've forgotten what they're about, or perhaps like some isolated tribe, they've lost the language necessary to explain it to themselves.

Their voters know this and don't really believe them anymore.

And that's why Obama will win.

Only Rick Santorum could possibly beat President Obama, but only if he could withstand a public scourging not seen since Pilate ordered the cohort to give the carpenter's kid a tune-up.

LOTTSA COWBELL!!!!!!!!!!!

Rick Santorum is very much like my pal Dan Proft - he plays with five cards and the money boys play with six decks. Sarah Palin is a good person. I liked her. The worst thing that she did, as far I can see and that includes the Russian coast, was resigning as Governor. Other than that Ms. Palin was aces and worn down by the constant whippings from the likes of faux-thinkers Kathleen Parker, Christoper Buckley, David Brooks, Peggy Noonan and Steve Chapman who play in same sandbox as E.J. Dionne and the cast and crew at Saturday Night Live.

Abortion ( the full health package) and Gay (Civil Rights with less humor) issues are the COWBELL Cat-'o-nine-tails.

When President Obama visited Chicago, Pat Quinn, Dithering Dick Durbin and Lisa Madigan nudged their way into openly gay mega-million dollar ATM Fred Eychaner's open but expensive house party. I have no doubt that Pat Quinn's boss Terry Cosgrove nibbled cheese and quaffed some vino there as well.

The money goes only to suppliant hand-mavens and their public office mendicants. Rick Santorum is already getting scourged. MORE COWBELLS! IGOTTA FEVER FOR COWBELLS!

Mitt Romney is no different from the Illinois likes of Sen. Marque Kirque, Mike Quigley's new play pal. More so Mitt Romney is no differnt from the Bush Family which played nicely with the Chicago Progressive Machine.

In sum, it is up to individual voters -Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Muslim, Atheist, Breeder, Gay (universal), to vote their hearts and minds.

Personally, I will vote for whomever runs against President Obama. I still feel that he is out of his depth. . .way out of his depth. So is Senator Marque Kirque, Mike Quigley, Deb Shore, Ricardo 'Rick' Munoz, Dorothy Brown, Sandy and Jesse Jackson, Dick Durbin, Jan Schakowsky, Sara Feigenholtz, Barbara Flynn-Currie, Toni Preckwinkle, Forrest Claypool ( anywhere), and so many, many, many more public plungers.

Don't forget, the same media and PR machines that gave us Roland Burris also created Blagojevich. Judy Baar Topinka anyone? Let's hear from the Greek again!

But Republicans smoke the opposite of Hopium. Their pipes are filled with Dopium.

One bowl of Dopium and you can listen to tough talk about budget cutting and deficits with one ear. And with the other ear, you can listen to talk of another war with Iran and why that's a good thing, and how we can't cut defense spending or the world is doomed.

If you tried doing this without Dopium, you'd go stark raving mad.

Sadly, since I belong to neither group, I've become hooked on another hideous substance: Kasshish.

It allows you to see reality and a bleak future.

And what I see is Obama winning in 2012.

Hopium and Cowbells Brother John!

Another chap, calling himself the Catholic Knight says this-

What we have right now is an entire section of the Republican Party (about 20%) that has rejected the status quo precedents set by previous GOP administrations and congresses. What we have is a political party that is now about 20% more 'libertarian' than it was just ten years ago. We have a party that is 20% more likely to embrace a non-interventionist approach to foreign policy. We have a party that is 20% more likely to want to abolish the Federal Reserve. We have a party that is 20% more likely to embrace states rights and decentralisation. This is why GOP icon Sarah Palin has warned Republicans not to alienate the Ron Paul supporters. For in alienating them, they risk the breakup of the Republican Party entirely. The only GOP candidate bringing in sizable numbers of young energetic voters right now is Ron Paul. It is clear, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the future of the Republican Party is going to reflect Ron Paul's thinking a lot more than any other political candidate. Paul has made his mark on the GOP, and it is a mark that is here to stay, unless of course the GOP rejects it. If they do that however, the GOP rejects its future and consigns itself to a generation of irrelevance.

Tru Dat, Sir Knight! More Cow Bell!

http://www.chicagonewscoop.org/obamas-visit-cboe-ceos-shame-kass-v-brown/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=obamas-visit-cboe-ceos-shame-kass-v-brown

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/quinn-durbin-obama-fundraiser-eychaner-137151703.html

http://catholicknight.blogspot.com/

On Wisconsin: Sit Down, Drop the Drums, Have Nice Cup of Tea

Our Progressive Americans

John Kass has another wonderful fable that sums up DNC ( I will not say Democrats, as I remain, along with nearly all of my neighbors, a Democrat)Grassroots/Planned Parenthood/SEIU/Daily Kos/Progressive political sensibilities. It is a scatological far . . .heart warming juxtaposition of Greek workingman sensibility when confronted with bovine leavings as rhetorical conceits. Click my post title, do, for Gianni Kass' fable.

Within the context of the fable lies an observation not lost on helot Democrats and most Americans concerning the villainizing of the Tea Party and those not hugging the Progressive group-think.

A year or so ago, the grass-roots tea party conservatives were just called weird. When weird didn't work, they were called crazy. When crazy didn't work, they were called racists.

All the donkeys making noise because the tea party doesn't want the government to grope you at airports or spend your money? Amazing.

John Kass Chicago Tribune

John Kerry's recent spiel on Sunday chat shows identifying the Economic Disaster that is Progressive dilettante control of the National Democratic Party sparked John Kass to remonstrate the voice of meme David Axelrod.

Axelrod jumped the shark in making a handsome, affable mixed race back-bench Illinois State legislator a national darling and eventually President of the United States. Since the inauguration of our 44th President, things have not gone all too well for the Nation and the President.

President Obama does teaching moments, American Exceptionalism apologies, accepts Nobel Prizes, vacations, parties, snaps a good salute, and takes credit for the Navy Seal with his finger on the trigger and a Somali pirate, or Islamist madman in his crosshairs, pretty well.

Other than that, not so hot.

President Obama and the DNC are very good at crafting enemies - us; well me anyway. Shoot, I'm harmless. I do self-inflicted mayhem.

President Obama's folks make war on States: Arizona and Alabama for being mean to illegals and Wisconsin and New Jersey for being mean to Teachers Unions, AFCSME, and especially SEIU.

Wisconsin in particular got the full Axelrod. All through the waning winter, Morbidly obese Progressives Big Ed Schultz and Michael Moore led the kids who missed the 1960s, but saw the PBS and History Channel shows on the 60's into exercises of painlessly obnoxious antics in Madison, Wisconsin. I say painlessly obnoxious because the later-day Trotskyites avoid whacks on the fannies, let alone saber cuts from Cossacks in Law Enforcement.

Bongos and Gongs and Drums of all nomenclature were Gene Kruppa'd by dweebs under the Capital Rotunda in Madison. MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS and Journolistas did a months long Spanish Civil War reenactment, until their little arms got tired.

Then the RECALL!!!!!!!!! Not of the Democratic mopes who fled the State for an extended Illinois vacation, but the GOP reps who actually worked for their constituents.

Dang.

MILWAUKEE -- Democrats failed to gain control of the Wisconsin Senate, winning two seats Tuesday but losing four races to Republican incumbents in recall elections that both sides said are a precursor to next year's fight for the White House and Congress.

Two of the six seats contested went to Democrats, but the most obnoxious and almost surrealistic goof in the half dozen Nancy Nusbaum was clobbered.

A union coalition, We Are Wisconsin, used former Green Bay Packers player Gilbert Brown in a last-minute calling campaign urging voters to defeat 24-year Republican Sen. Robert Cowles. Cowles had nearly 60 percent of the vote, defeating former De Pere Mayor and Brown County Executive Nancy Nusbaum..

Nancy Nusbaum, and "Ain't She Great-er*" in the mold of IL Rep. Jan Schakowsky, had two at bats in the Cheese State -one for the Supreme Court and one for the legislature. Nancy 0; Wisconsin 2.

Illinois goofiest Congress critter Schakwosky also took a whack between the eyes with an electoral two-by-four:

Underscoring the national implications, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Chicago, a member of the House Democratic leadership, traveled to Pasch's campaign headquarters Tuesday, where the two exchanged hugs. Schakowsky and some of her political workers were assisting in getting voters to the polls.

Hugs are good, but from Jan?

Sandy Pasch got bashed -

The last race was one of the highest-spending, in the north Milwaukee suburbs, where Democratic state Rep. Sandy Pasch fell to Sen. Alberta Darling, a 19-year incumbent. Darling, co-chair of the Legislature's budget-writing panel, was a key target for unions.

The Progressive who can not win friends and influence others, generally gets a lawyer and sues their asses. If Progressives lose a referendum, or election, like the Gay Marriage BS in California, or the great hanging chads of Florida, they grease in a friendly Federal Judge, or go to court for a recount. I expect the Progressive army of ambulance chasers will pick up some dough, following the road killing in Wisconsin.

If Wisconsin is the national barometer that clown opera MSNBC and dirigible Michael Moore bray it to be, looks to me, like its time for some Tea.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-us-wisconsin-recall-scene-080911-story,0,7741550.story

* Ain't He/She Greaters in Illinois Politics ( usually placed into elected office by vacancies or chicaneries -no opponent on the ballot and generally have acreers due to PAC influence and Shakman friendly clout:

Forrest Claypool
Mike Quigley
Sheila Simon
Jan Schakowsky
e.g.

Rahm, Chicago Needs Catholic Schools - Vouchers Would Be a Great Help

As much as the Gentry Class* ( affluent, professional, college-diploma Progressives) hate to recognize it, Chicago is a Catholic city. Catholics tend to vote Democratic even though Catholics are about as welcome in the Progressively controlled Democratic Party as a Lesbian Methodist Minister at a Taliban goat-roast after Ramadan.

Catholics belong to a Faith that remains committed to the sacrament of marriage and defends life from conception to the Hospice. Ethnic Catholics tend to go into the military, take careers in Law Enforcement, become home-owners and tax-payers. Catholics are saddled with a Church hierarchy that until only recently took its eye off the ball where children are concerned and almost universally kissed the botox-ed fannies of Planned Parenthood and its Democratic Party minions;too many in the Catholic clergy tried to become Unitarian ministers with better perks, tax-loop holes, residences and cover from accountability.

Nevertheless, the pews remain full in Catholic neighborhoods and the children go to Catholic schools that out-perform public schools across the board.

Charter Schools fit nicely in the Progressive pattern of John Dewey education, but aped the veneer of the hall-marks of Catholic schools: selective enrollment, uniforms, uniform discipline codes, Mission Statements, teacher accountability, and do more in the classroom with few dollars. Charter Schools, even the very best ones like the Noble Street models, are not Catholic Schools.

Charter Schools get tax-dollars and Catholic Schools do not.

Because Charter Schools get State tax-dollars, Public Service unions directed by SEIU pushed teacher unions to agitate for unionization in Charter Schools. The door to that was kicked wide open in 2009. Charter Schools are public schools and over the years to come will be dominated by the teachers unions who helped create the mess that is public education.

Catholic Schools and the fewer Lutheran, Dutch Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Independent Schools operate on tuition and money from fund raising. Catholic cops, firemen, streets and sanitation workers, skilled trades union members, nurses and public school teachers in tax-targeted middle class neighborhoods send their children to Catholic Schools - because their kids will receive faith-rooted moral instruction, discipline, accountability, feed-back, and self-esteem.

Empirically speaking, I see thousand of teens wearing Mount Carmel, St. Rita, Marist, Notre Dame, St. Gregory, Gordon Tech, Leo, Maria, and Our Lady of Tepeyac sports wear.

N.B. I must give a shout out to the Green and Gold of St. Patrick High School on the north side in celebration of its Centenial and a Half of service to Chicago!

I have yet to experience the sight of young people sporting Simeon, Dunbar, Hubbard, or Whitney Young caps, hoodies, or t-shirts.

Kids represent. When they are proud of the association with their school's history, record of achievement and street cred they brand themselves, Mom and Dad, Grannie and Gramps and the extended family and neighbors with Maroon and Orange of Brother Rice, Brown and Vanilla Mount Carmel, the Blue and White of Maria, Red, White and Gold of Mother McAuley, Blue and Crimson of St. Rita, the Orange and Grey of Gordon Tech and of course the Orange and Black of Leo.

Today in a very cogent and practically articulated article John Kass of Chicago Tribune offers a sound bit of advice to Mayor Rahm Emanuel - get behind School Choice Vouchers and now. Here is the impact point - Chicago's tax-base send their kids to Catholic schools -middle class families black, white and Hispanic - with great personal sacrifice: they pay tuition twice, because they are required to live within the City limits:

. . . And under the restrictive — and selectively interpreted — residency laws, Chicago schools have a captive middle class. Cops and firefighters and city workers and teachers must live in the city to keep their jobs.

They can't leave town and raise their kids in the suburbs, even if they keep a house address in Chicago. The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that a presidential chief of staff, living in Washington, with kids in Washington, can be considered a resident of Chicago. But don't be naive enough to think this standard would apply to others.

So if students can't be squeezed into top magnet high schools, the parents are compelled to fork over more than they can afford for parochial education. Or leave the city.

This sets up an unequal, two-tiered system, with limited resources. And in a city so historically corrupt, the dispensing of limited resources has predictable and cynical outcomes.

In March 2010, for example, the Tribune reported on the VIP list maintained by Chicago Public Schools. A nephew of former Mayor Richard Daley's lobbied to get a political supporter's two daughters into an elite high school. And there were other reports that Chicago politicians — including a so-called reform alderman — tried to clout their own children into select schools.

Those who win a spot in the excellent magnet schools sing the system's praises and lavish the politicians with praise and votes. And those who don't are abandoned to fate.

Certainly Rahm knows this. And, I'd like to think, it's what truly angers him.

jskass@tribune.com

John Kass is a public school guy, but John Kass is not a member of the Gentry Class. He is a blue-collar ink-slinger.

The Gentry Class control the Media. The Gentry Class controls Democratic Party and very sizeable number of GOP elected officials. The Progressive agendas present a steady diet of empty rhetorical memes - a Buffet of Bullshit.

Most people take a pass on the offerings under these sneeze guards, but their elected officials for whom they continue to vote wolf the offerings down.

Rahm Emanuel needs to serve up Vouchers, Chicago needs Catholic schools and their non-Catholic cousins: Lutheran, Dutch Christian, Hebrew, Muslim and Independent schools.

Chicago is still a Catholic city and Chicago Catholics have had enough from the Gentry Class Progressive Buffet.

* from Joel Kotkin:

Gentry liberalism combines four basic elements: faith in postindustrial "creative" financial capitalism, cultural liberalism, Gore-ite environmentalism and the backing of the nation's arguably best-organized political force, public employee unions. Obama rose to power on the back of all these forces and, until now, has governed as their tribune.

Obama's problems stem primarily from gentry liberalism's class contradictions. Focused on ultra-affluent greens, the media, Wall Street and the public sector, gentry liberalism generally gives short shrift to upward mobility, the basic aspiration of the middle class.

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/dec/02/opinion/op-kotkin2

Same Folks Who Buy Gender Neutral Probably Bought Pajama Jeans and a Hummer

Them ain't cowboy-boots, there Par'd! But, they will take you as far as Miss Kitty's Long-branch and all you might possibly dream!


John Kass beat me to the punch -sorry about the pugilist tropes this early.

Beat me like a four-fingered cousin from Scartaglen, staying with us until she gets her Green Card, because the Prendeville's in Ontario had no room for the poor homely thing.

Kass jumped all over the news about the Swedish Pre-School dedicated to gelding little boys and butching up little girls.

Gender neutrality is the ideal at Egalia, a Swedish preschool that made huge news recently. And it's the kind of news that makes American dads spew their oatmeal at breakfast.

"Society expects girls to be girly, nice and pretty, and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing," Jenny Johnsson, a 31-year-old Swedish teacher, said in an Associated Press story. "Egalia gives them a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be."

I get it, girls shouldn't be nice and pretty. And boys must not be rough and outgoing. It's all laid out by relentlessly progressive experts and bureaucrats, aided by so-called gender pedagogues who hunt down gender differences and blot them out.

Unleashing the gender police on children to snuff out dangerous proclivities toward gender roles tells me one thing.

It tells me that Swedish bureaucrats don't have kids.

It tells me Brother John, if I may call you by that hirsute and sweaty appellation, that these morphadites rarely get out of the bureaucratic cubicle, much less get any such opportunity to pro-create.

The Swedish school will fly, for a while, because America has provided a surplus population of affluent nit-wits with the ready cash to buy Pajama Jeans, Hummers (ever watch a moron try to parallel park a Hummer around 31st & Princeton to avoid paying for White Sox Parking?), Keurig B3000 coffeemaker which lasts about six months, or the Home Juicers at $1,400 a pop. Disposable income and really dumb ideas, like Progressive politics, go hand-in-hand.

The gender neutral, we are all the same, meme is the coin of the realm of the laughable. The laughable are always dead-serious, The rest of us are just too damn polite to scream "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR $%^&ing MIND?" while hosing coffee and bottled water out of the old snot-locker at the latest presentation by Marque Ozzoro and Lotte Vuhlsheet at the recent CAPS, LSC, Altar and Rosary, or League of Women Bowlers meetings.

Let's get serious and start laughing at loud at these mopes. We have a sane world to restore and giggles be a great recuperative implement. John Kass' article is real kidney tickler.

DOPIUM Addicted Illinois GOP Get Heads Up from Tamara Holder

My pal attorney Tamara Holder raises some valid concerns that Illinois GOP folks have whistled away while walking past the political graveyard. A Tea Party candidate for Senate has been ignored, while the Illinois GOP have fired-up the DOPIUM Bowl - see John Kass.

( HOPIUM* is the Obama hallucinogen that brings tears to eyes of worshippers; DOPIUM is the hard core Crystal Meth that trots out Judy Barr Topinka in every election cycle -'It's All Good, G! Polka Time!')

Warning to Republicans


(or those who are considering voting Republican): If you vote for Mark Kirk, you will be voting for a liberal. So, if you are going to vote for a liberal, then make it easier on yourself and simply vote for Alexi Giannoulias, since he’s the real Democrat.

Wait, before you get all worked-up and accuse me, an Illinois Democrat, of trying to persuade the right to lean left, please continue reading because my point has zilch to do with Giannoulias…I simply want to make sure that the person you vote for accurately and properly represents you.

Michael Labno may be your guy, instead of Mark Kirk. Why?

Kirk is a Republican. Or is he? Kirk voted to allow the government to confiscate your legally owned firearm in the event of a national emergency. He is pro-choice, saved millions in funding for Planned Parenthood and was just one of 17 Republicans to vote to fund abortions for female inmates. Kirk is for cap and trade and voted for TARP not once, but twice.

Labno is a self-proclaimed “recovering Republican; three years sober, officially.” He wonders why we still haven’t found Osama bin Laden and is disappointed with the Republicans’ support of the bailouts. He wants small businesses and community banks to thrive again. He is pro-life and pro-guns. Labno owns his positions and he hasn’t manufactured his qualifications or made up outlandish stories to gain support.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/10/07/republicans-beware-mark-kirk-is-a-liberal/#ixzz11ftowC9a

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-obama-1007-20101007,0,4382854,full.column

* from the Urban Dictionary - John Kass' neologism:

Hopium A substance that the media and press abuse, it makes them mesmerized by Barack Obama. For instance, when Obama swatting a fly was a headliner on the news, that camera man was on a double hit of Hopium.
e.g
"Wow did you see the Obama Chia?!"

"Yeah man, wonder if the hair is actually Hopium, I need some NOW."

Chicago Attorney and Journalist Tamara Holder Out-Sneeds the Media On Rahm Emanuel

Tamara Holder out-Sneeds the Chicago Media! Get this -

The one person who has remained tight-lipped about his possible run for mayor is White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. During the past three weeks, he has allowed the mere speculation to make front page news.

Why?

According to my source, it has to do with that one guy who just won’t go away: Rod Blagojevich.

Emanuel needs certainty that the Blagojevich re-trial will not put a wrinkle in his campaign. We know Emanuel was sent by Obama to convey one message to Governor Blagojevich: appoint Valerie Jarrett to my soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat. We also know that Emanuel was an alleged victim in a totally separate criminal charge against Blagojevich who allegedly attempted to extort Emanuel when he was a congressman. According to the complaint:

It was further part of the scheme that, in response to inquiries by a high-ranking state official as to whether the grant money could be released, defendant ROD BLAGOJEVICH informed the official that ROD BLAGOJEVICH wanted it communicated to United States Congressman A that United States Congressman A’s brother needed to have a fundraiser for ROD BLAGOJEVICH.


It was further part of the scheme that defendant ROD BLAGOJEVICH told Lobbyist A that ROD BLAGOJEVICH was giving a $2 million grant to a school in United States Congressman A’s district and instructed Lobbyist A to approach United States Congressman A for a fundraiser.

The problem is that Emanuel was a key witness for the prosecution but was never called in the first trial. Now, because the jury was hung on both the attempted sale of Obama’s Senate seat and the attempted extortion counts, Emanuel’s testimony is required if the prosecution doesn’t want to lose the case again.

Read more: Click Me Post



Two of my favorite Beautiful People are Chicago Tribune's John Kass and Chicago True-Believer Liberal Lawyer and Journalist Tamara Holder.

I have been a pain in the rump to each of these lovely people, because I am pain-in-the-rump with heart made of 100% pure Columbian Coco, mixed with only the richest of cream by delicate and toothsome Swiss Maidens who look like the St, Pauli Beer Girl.

True. John Kass caught the receiving end of my sophomoric barbs with regard to is public lashing of George Ryan and several 19th Ward gents, who I know to be superb human beings. Better people than I would say, 'Well, good people can agree to disagree.' To which I would cock an eyebrow and rejoin, " Is that right,Cupcake?"

I have the training and inclination to stick by friends or people that for whatever reason are unable to fight back.

Tamara Holder was maltreated by my acid tongue, when I attempted to give Chicago Police Officers the benefit of the doubt when they were tasked with clearing drug houses at the Horner Homes, a few years ago. Ms. Holder gave me a tune-up that the Media Mythic Midnight Crew might envy.

John Kass is a Helot Solon - a wise man of the Polis Chicago, who cuts through the treacle-nonsense that accompanies prosings of most columnist, right through to the meat and muscle of the heart of the story.

Tamara Holder has a mind like a Swiss Watch, the tenacity of a Homicide Dick, and the soul of a Poor Clare. Tamara is a Fox News Legal Analyst and columnist for The Daily Caller and . . .sad to say The Huffington Post - the Hollywood Squares of Journalism.

Tamara and John tangled on FOX a couple of months ago during the Blago Trial. They will again.

I am blessed to know these fine folks.

Blago Trial - D-Day Minus One: Tamara Holder and Jimmy Breslin on Fitzy's Case

The Adams Gents get their say and Fitzy's Team will try to compel the jurors to convict Milorad Blagojevich - Illinois's Impeached, Indicted, Tried and . . .we shall see former Governor.

Columnist John Kass, a guy with as sharp a political sense as my own is opaque - I thought George Ryan would dodge a politically concocted and played out trial, has called Blago Governor Dead Meat from the get-go.

It seemed to me that, unlike the George Ryan case for which Patrick Fitzgerald was custom fitted to manage, Fitzy pulled the trigger way too fast on Blago. It seemed to me that he did so in deference to our newly elected President.

It also seemed to me that Congressman Jesse Jackson was being staked out as the Judas Goat on this one. I am no huge fan of Jesse,Junior to say the least, but he never seemed like the porch-climbing hustler that his Old Man happens to be.

Blago? They guy was and remains a political gate-crasher and dim bulb. He was given the pie that is Illinois, because of fear of a Paul Vallas Broom-A-Palooza on politics as usual, were the Attic Brainiac to become Governor of Illinois.

my Pal,Attorney and Fox News Legal Contributor Tamara Holder, who could kick my ass the best day I ever lived, and I agree that Blago just might walk on a conviction.

Here is an excerpt from businessman Al Lewis' site Tell It to Al.com

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that I talk too much,” Blago said.

“This was the smartest move they could have done,” said Tamara Holder, a criminal defense attorney and Fox News analyst who has been covering the trial. “The moment you open Blagojevich up to cross examination, you never know what you are going to get.”

Holder has called the government’s case weak from the beginning. That’s more of a boost than Blago ever gave her.

When Blago was governor, Holder sent him letters pleading for pardons for some of her clients. “He left all of them on his desk when he was impeached,” Holder said.

I wish I could count how many times an editor once asked me, “How would Jimmy Breslin cover the story?”

The legendary columnist is renowned for dodging the mob of reporters assigned to JFK’s funeral and interviewing JFK’s grave digger instead.

Well, there was Jimmy Breslin, covering the trial. But there was no gravedigger for Blago.

“These charges wouldn’t get you five cents in New York City,” Breslin huffed. “I can’t smell money.”

Legendary Newsman Jimmy Breslin is long-in-the teeth that can still gnaw up a storm; Tamara Holder is long-in-the legs and smarter than the Medill School of Journalism - I think that they are on the money - Blago will walk because Fitzy can not Show Us The Money!

On Gore and Blago, Chicago's Own Beauty and the Beast: Hannity FeaturesJohn Kass and Tamara Holder

Al Gore is dodging questions -


Now, I like John Kass and, were I not a dedicated lesbian, I'd say that he was one fine figure of a gent. Tamara Holder is a tough (she's positively beastly to Poor John in this feature) and whip-smart young liberal lawyer. Chicago was well-represented on Fox last night - watch for John's tune-up of Al "Sex Poodle" Gore!

John Kass? Dithering Dick Durbin - Alexi's Zorba the Creep!

Just when WTTW had a golden opportunity to fight the power ( Illinois Speaker Mike Madigan- the only adult in Illinois Government) and allow Carol Marin to smugly snark-out Bosses, Bossism and Boss malapropisms weaving a purple toga ( that's a Roman thing) for Forrest Claypool - the panjandrum ( always appointed rarely elected) Zelig of Reform, John Kass of the Chicago Tribune hosed on the Greek Fire!

Oprah!

Just when will Claypool allow his buddies in the Obama White House to persuade the toxic Alexi Giannoulias to drop out and draft Claypool for a run against Republican Mark Kirk for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois?

"Excuse me?" Claypool asked, as if he hadn't thought of it. "I have no interest in running for the Senate. I'm running to be the next Cook County assessor."

Claypool, the liberal Democrat, is indeed campaigning as an independent for assessor against Democratic Party warhorse Joe Berrios, D-Madigan.

"I'm not considering the Senate," he told me.

But he must have considered it, at least fleetingly, even as he's trying to gather 25,000 petition signatures to get himself on the November ballot.

And so have Democrats and Republicans who want to look past the latest sound bite and the next Claypool suck-up session. I'm sure President Barack Obama and his City Hall guys have thought of it.

Roasted Lamb, by the beard of Zeus! Kass, where's Illinois Senior Senator Dithering Dick Durbin? Boutsokefalos Durbin has been the Greek Mentor to Alexi Giannoulias and took the boy to fabled Hellas for a walk among the ruins and imparted his sage counsel on all things melon, lemon and felon!

Remember? Last Spring - 2009. The Odyssey of Durbin? What wisdoms did he impart to the young Treasurer? What pearls? What skata was Dithering Dick Talkin'?


"I believe he(Alexi) will be more forthcoming. There are some things we do know and should acknowledge. He (Alexi) has not been involved with his family bank for four years.The current portfolio of that bank, only 9 % of those loans reflect loans that were on the books when he(Alexi) left the bank 4 years ago, so the loan package out there now at that bank is substantially different. I think he should come forward. He's talked to me about it what happened there, he's very proud his father started this bank and built it up from nothing. The controversy there whether it reflects on Alexi himself personally or the banking practices remains to be seen, but I've encouraged him to answer all the questions." Senator Dithering Dick Durbin

IOANNES (Ιωαννης) Kass! While our anger is often aimed at the obvious man in power, or the most skilled or the most successful, it is not always the Great Man who is the puppetmaster, but often the Iago, or the Catesby, or the Bacon. Just because Senator Durbin presents himself as a hapless dope, does not mean that he is without his ability to seed folly and influence a young man. Remember what Aristotle said in Rhetoric -

Anger may be defined as an impulse, accompanied by pain, to a conspicuous revenge for a conspicuous slight directed without justification towards what concerns oneself or towards what concerns one's friends. If this is a proper definition of anger, it must always be felt towards some particular individual, e.g. Cleon, and not "man" in general. It must be felt because the other has done or intended to do something to him or one of his friends. It must always be attended by a certain pleasure -- that which arises from the expectation of revenge. For since nobody aims at what he thinks he cannot attain, the angry man is aiming at what he can attain, and the belief that you will attain your aim is pleasant. Hence it has been well said about wrath,

Sweeter it is by far than the honeycomb dripping with sweetness,
And spreads through the hearts of men.

Stay angry, John Kass - IOANNES ( Ιωαννης)!!!!!! NOW!!!! I MUST Dance!!!!!!!!!!!!

John Kass Presents - Rep. Dan Lipinski, a Principled Catholic Democrat

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion. - Aristotle

John Kass is the only genuine voice coming out of Chicago. He is one tough Greek. Kass has carved up people in public life whom I like, understand and admire and that is Okay, because he tends to be fair. John Kass never seems to begin an inquiry with a pre-packaged answer like most of our lazy and self-absorbed and snotty columnists in Chicago tend to do. John Kass is most like us - the helots - the working stiffs. Most of us try to be fair and sometimes when we are focused on a problem we make people unhappy. Tough.

Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.
Aristotle

Like I said, John Kass is one tough Greek. He comes from working class, values working class, speaks working class and gets his hackles up when working class people get abused by Salonistas, Academics, political thieves, hypocrites and incompetents.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
Aristotle

John Kass does not do group think - he's a tough Greek. Greeks continue to gnaw through the bones to get at the marrow and substance of life.

Congressman Dan Lipinski is Polish and comes from a working class family - the trade is government. Like plumbers, pipe fitters, carpenters, electricians, cops and firemen, government workers whether elected, appointed, hired or contracted know the trade, That is something beyond the understanding of the Progressive.

Progressives call Andy Stern of SEIU a labor leader, though he came to exploit workers as an organizer via Academia. Journalists love that because then they too can play at working class and make lots of money off the working classes.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.
Aristotle


Last week, Congressman Dan Lipinski took a heroic stand against Obama Care. Cynics argue that he had "permission" from Axelrod and Rahm Emanual to vote the way he did.

Nonsense. Dan Lipinski showed me and my neighbors that he cared more for his faith and faith of his fathers than the American Quisling - Bart Stupak or to be thought well of frauds, phonies and MSNBC.

Now, SEIU and the corporate media are going flat-out to smear Dan Lipinski. Tough.

Greek tough guy John Kass presents the hard unvarnished truth -here is a tiny bit of John Kass on Dan Lipinski's heroic vote of principle. Click my post title for the marrow.

Lipinski's real problems are that he voted "no" and he upholds the teachings of his faith on abortion. These must surely be considered grievous secular sins in some quarters of the White House.

"And I thought we transcended the politics of the past. What happened?" Lipinski asked sarcastically.

He reports that in his predominately Catholic and conservative district, the support for his "no" vote is running 3-1 in his favor. If that's accurate, then he did the smart political thing by voting "no."

Smart politics or not, Lipinski is part of a tiny minority in his party. That bothers the White House, but it doesn't bother him.

The Weiners (D-NY & MSNBC) we shall have with us always - Dan Lipinski will have our votes.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
Aristotle

Chicago's Voice Returns with Skinny and Houli on Avenue 950 WNTD AM

The only thing sadder than a fat girl playing the song Georgy Girl over and over again, is the sorry state of Chicago's Voice.

John Kass - solid pipes; Steve Rhodes at Beachwood Reporter ditto, but these lads are but rarely heard on the Radio airwaves or over the Idiot Box.

Well cheer up Boys and Girls, Skinny and Houli are coming to Chicago's airwaves!

Cant Free Radio Returns!



Skinny & Houli Show debuts on Avenue 950 WNTD AM


Avenue 950 Timeless Cool, a product of Sovereign City Radio Services, rolls out their much anticipated program, The Skinny & Houli Show, on Wednesday nights from 6-8PM beginning January 20.

James "Skinny" Sheahan, former Director of the Mayor's Office of Special Events and Mike "Houli" Houlihan, columnist for the Irish American News and former features columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, introduce listeners to the quirky characters and stories that give our city its unique charm.

This two hour, freewheeling talk radio dialogue features two of Chicago's most irrepressible personalities, discussing what's happening in the city each week. The hosts will dissect the news, politics, sports, and entertainment scene with their trademark wit and introduce a variety of community activists and neighborhood heroes.

The Skinny & Houli Show, in partnership with Special Olympics Chicago, will feature guests who are making a positive impact on the lives of Chicagoans plus a "Special Olympics Spotlight" on an athlete, coach or volunteer for outstanding achievement.

Tune in to Avenue 950 and hear a show that will make you proud to live in Chicago.
Click my post title for the sound of the current state of Chicago's Voice - get out the Hankies Girls!