Christopher Hitchens, Gravity, Cambridge, Obama and the Hot Babes on Vanity Fair

I'm one of those guys who actually reads Vanity Fair as well as looks at the dirty pictures. Vanity Fair is the Victoria's Secret of periodical literature. My late wife Mary never allowed me to subscribe to either fine magazine and she generally purchased Vanity Fair herself at the Kroger in Bourbonnais, Illinois and only allowed me Xeroxed copies of the articles she thought would improve her husband's mind and soul.

Ten years a widower have freed me to scan Vanity Fair, but now I am more likely to become aroused by the pastry shots on the cover of Bon Appetite than by Annie Leibowitz's air-brushed shots of pouting hot babes and nightmarishly aging Hollywood Cougars. Actually it has more to do with the native propriety acquired in my 'close-knit ethnic' Catholic environment than with anything else. I read Vanity Fair, because I am also a Thackeray Geek. William Makepeace Thackeray is the author of Vanity Fair the novel that inspired Tolstoy's War and Peace , Anna Karenina and Mitchell's Gone With The Wind. R'ally, Rhett!

Christopher Hitchens, the boozy Bible battler, is one of my favorite writers and a frequent contributor to Vanity Fair. Hitchens foots a pen, like a Kerry Farmer on methamphetamine toes the turf. ' Look at that Man dig, so!'

Hitchens, who detests all forms of organized religion, is one of the most urbane and gentlemanly voices in any debate. Unlike the more strident ACLU addicted public Atheists, Hitchens sticks his rapier wit through the body of oafish bigots and lightly lettered loudmouths. In this issue of Vanity Fair, Hitchens review Peter Ackroyd's study of Issac Newton from his Brief Lives series, which dispels the popular illusion of Newton, getting whacked by an apple under the tree's shading boughs:

In contrast with this clarity and purity, however, Newton spent much of his time dwelling in a self-generated fog of superstition and crankery. He believed in the lost art of alchemy, whereby base metals can be transmuted into gold, and the surviving locks of his hair show heavy traces of lead and mercury in his system, suggesting that he experimented upon himself in this fashion, too. (That would also help explain the fires in his room, since alchemists had to keep a furnace going at all times for their mad schemes.) Not content with the narrow views of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life, he thought that there was a kind of universal semen in the cosmos, and that the glowing tails of the comets he tracked through the sky contained replenishing matter vital for life on Earth. He was a religious crackpot who, according to Ackroyd, considered Catholics to be “offspring of the Whore of Rome.” He was also consumed by arcane readings of the book of Revelation and obsessed with the actual measurements of the Temple of Solomon. Newton elected to write his already difficult Principia Mathematica in Latin, boasting that this would make it even less accessible to the vulgar. He is still revered in the little world of esoteric and conspiratorial mania, featuring as a member of “the Priory of Sion” in The Da Vinci Code. And secularists and rationalists conspire, too, in their way, to keep his mythic reputation alive. The beautiful “Mathematical Bridge,” which spans the River Cam at Queen’s College, is still said to have been designed by Newton to stay in place without nails or screws or joints, and to be supported by gravitational force alone. When later scientists dismantled it to discover the secret, according to legend, they could not work out how to put it back together again, and had to use crude bolts and hinges to re-erect it. Newton died in 1727, and the bridge was not built until 1749, but rumors and fantasies are much stronger than fact.

Rumors and fantasies are much stronger than fact and that truth is what allows Hitchens such masterful turns of phrase when considering Barack Obama's pitiful progressive patina:

What can it be that has kept Obama in Wright's pews, and at Wright's mercy, for so long and at such a heavy cost to his aspirations? Even if he pulls off a mathematical nomination victory, he has completely lost the first, fine, careless rapture of a post-racial and post-resentment political movement and mired us again in all the old rubbish that predates Dr. King. What a sad thing to behold. And how come? I think we can exclude any covert sympathy on Obama's part for Wright's views or style—he has proved time and again that he is not like that, and even his own little nods to "Minister" Farrakhan can probably be excused as a silly form of Chicago South Side political etiquette. All right, then, how is it that the loathsome Wright married him, baptized his children, and received donations from him? Could it possibly have anything, I wonder, to do with Mrs. Obama?

This obvious question is now becoming inescapable, and there is an inexcusable unwillingness among reporters to be the one to ask it. (One can picture Obama looking pained and sensitive and saying, "Keep my wife out of it," or words to that effect, as Clinton tried to do in 1992 when Jerry Brown and Ralph Nader quite correctly inquired about his spouse's influence.) If there is a reason why the potential nominee has been keeping what he himself now admits to be very bad company—and if the rest of his character seems to make this improbable—then either he is hiding something and/or it is legitimate to ask him about his partner.

I direct your attention to Mrs. Obama's 1985 thesis at Princeton University. Its title (rather limited in scope, given the author and the campus) is "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community." To describe it as hard to read would be a mistake; the thesis cannot be "read" at all, in the strict sense of the verb. This is because it wasn't written in any known language. Anyway, at quite an early stage in the text, Michelle Obama announces that she's much influenced by the definition of black "separationism" offered by Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton in their 1967 screed Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America. I remember poor Stokely Carmichael quite well. After a hideous series of political and personal fiascos, he fled to Africa, renamed himself Kwame Toure after two of West Africa's most repellently failed dictators, and then came briefly back to the United States before electing to die in exile. I last saw him as the warm-up speaker for Louis Farrakhan in Madison Square Garden in 1985, on the evening when Farrakhan made himself famous by warning Jews, "You can't say 'Never Again' to God, because when he puts you in the ovens, you're there forever." I have the distinct feeling that the Obama campaign can't go on much longer without an answer to the question: "Are we getting two for one?" And don't be giving me any grief about asking this. Black Americans used to think that the Clinton twosome was their best friend, too. This time we should find out before it's too late to ask.

http://www.slate.com/id/2190589/

When a writer deflates the nonsense, gravity really does its job. Barack Obama's lightning run at the White House was ill-advised and arrogant. Like Newton, some ugly thoughts and not apples seem to be making history.

Christopher Hitchens - May You Be in Heaven A Half Hour Before the Devil Knows Your Dead!

John McCain: Black Americans Have a Real Choice in John McCain

Heavyweight Boxer Thomas Hayes ( 27-1) is a GOP delegate for John McCain, because the Arizona Senator and American Hero represents the only clear choice for President.

Thomas Hayes is a Leo High School Alumnus, Chicago Police Department candidate, college graduate and Professional Boxer. For Thomas Hayes, whose younger brother is a with the U.S. Army in Iraq, John McCain is only candidate of any party with the capability of leading American forces in time of War on Islamist Terror.

Thomas Hayes will be going to the GOP Convention and supporting John McCain in the election in November. John McCain represents real change for a fighter who knows what life is all about for a black young man in America.

Thomas Hayes will be fighting in New York in June - catch Thomas Hayes on Comcast Sports!

ILLINOIS DELEGATES for McCain ( partial)

. . .
Joyce Gooding
Thomas Gooding
William S. Graham
Kent Gray
Mike Hagerty
Donald B. Hall
J. Sue Hamilton
John Harty
Thomas Hayes
Sean Healy
William L. Henniger
Herbert Hentschel
Roy Hertel
Nora Kathleen Hickey
. . .

Here is an interesting Christopher Hitchens piece on the current campaign:
http://www.slate.com//id/2190589/?from=rss

John McCain: Marty 'See You Next Tuesday' Parrish's Return

The Wholesome Baptist Preacher of Huffington Post who asked Senator McCain a stupid question regarding a loathsome word, objects to the pillory posted last week by your Humble Servant. Click my post title for last week's post.

Boys and Girls, nothing says breakfast like a plateful of Smoked Iowa Landrace Ham! Here is Marty Parrish, Iowa Business Person and self-styled Baptist Theologian and his riposte to my post: Marty, as Horace once said, neither you nor your lines pass the Finger Test.

Ladies and Gentlemen Marty Parrish in Verse!

TheComputerGuy said...
You are a dick.

Rhymes with chick.

See if it sticks.

I can do poems too.

Marty Tarrel Parrish
456

My number is not six six six.

Turd does not rhyme with dick's chick.

Or should a say chick's dick.

Hey, in all honesty, I did not think politics could be this fun.

Sincerely,

I am.

Marty Tarrel Parrish
Cosmic Christ
456

http://martyparrish.spaces.live.com1:03 AM


Marty, may I humbly submit:

To Marty Parrish: A Baptist Biden Boeotian

This mornin is startin'
with rhymes from young Martin,
Who uttered a terrible Word.

This Baptist was reachin'
In the thin guise of preachin'
Gynecological slur how absurd

To a Hero whose wife,
Is his partner for Life,
Young Martin was casting the hideous Word.

The Word does not matter,
The intent or the chatter
Parrish bunted was Nation-wide heard.

A sneaky wee fellow,
Biden Time 'cause he's yellow,
Marty Parrish was tagged out at Third.

Now the 'Change' folks might say,
Parrish meant good that day,
But Folks he's a slimy wee Nerd.

4:58 AM

John McCain: Biden Aide Marty Parrish a Real Melvinna, Paulina, or Lunt!

Here's Marty!
Marty Rhymes with Lunt!
















Way above Phot: That's Senator Neil Kinnock and Marty Parrish - The Punk.

There is an old Chicago joke told by men in taverns, but never in the company of women.

Howard Dean's DNC, Huffington Post and Joe Biden have no such problem. They are, after all America's Elite - Progressives - they are doing things and saying things to protect America from becoming more united, more common sensible, more respectful and more successful. The DNC - held captive since 1972 by the absolute worst people in America - is in the business of failure, victim hood, retreat and playing lick-spittle to Dictators like Castro/Chavez/ and terrorist like Hamas.

Senator Joe Biden's Iowa born aide pictured above with Senator tried to punk Senator John McCain in a recent Blogger phone chat.

Click my post title for Huffington Post's fiction.

A softball by the name of Cliff Schecter ( rhymes with Sphincter) wrote a smear piece on John McCain. That's all these clowns got?*(BTW- I saw a guy toss the book into a trash bin on the Chicago Metra at 91st Street last week) In it he second hands a story about Senator McCain using a terrible word on his wife. That is a very big deal to people who encourage such language, like the sweethearts on Daily Kos and the yamheads who cut and paste their work on Huffington Post

In The HuffPo piece the Hollywood Squares say that the caller is a Baptist Preacher. He is in fact this little twerp on the Obama Blog and at Biden Headquaters.

Q. What Chicago Streets rhyme with Marty Parrish?

A. Melvina, Paulina and Lunt!

Rhymes with Punk.

I hope that Joe Biden and Senator McCain have a 'come to Jesus' moment soon. Marty you'll be scraped off someone's shoes shortly!

HUGE HAT TIP to Gateway Pundit for unmasking Marty Parrish!
Moveon.org - Great Folks Keeping an eye on America's Moral Fibre, Laxatives, Diuretics and other purgatives.

* HuffPo is doing a huge back peddle on Marty's Great Progressive Prank - get this nonsense from the slimey little twerp in the update (11AM) on HuffPo:


At a town hall forum in Iowa yesterday, Sen. John McCain was asked about a story from Cliff Schecter's controversial recent book, The Real McCain, which alleges that during a 1992 campaign stop, McCain angrily called his wife a "trollop" and a "c**t" in front of aides and reporters.

Marty Parrish, a business owner in Des Moines, told OffTheBus's Keith Dinsmore that he asked McCain about the incident because he's concerned about how McCain's temper could impact his leadership.

"A guy who would call his wife a trollop and a c--t just because she had ruffled his hair in front of five guys is not only a jerk, but a dangerous hothead if he ever gets his finger on the button."
"And since the mainstream media has decided to give McCain a free pass, I decided to stand up and, if they gave me an open mike, ask the question that the press refuses to touched. Our country is in a serious crisis after nearly eight years of Bush, and America appears to be oblivious to the danger this guy (McCain) poses to our country."

Now Marty is 'business operator' or how about celebrated Iowa Onanist? Triple A Iowa Farm System Bill Maher and serial beater of the old bishop?

You guys are better than free cable.

John McCain: The Firebombing of John Murtagh's Home by Ayers Weatherman is Getting Legs

H/t to John Murtagh, the New York attorney and professor whose family was victimized by the Weatherman lead by Chicago's radical relic Billy Ayers.

Silvio Canto of My View by Silvio Canto writes this:

Again, no one is holding Obama responsible for what Ayers did in 1970. At the same time, why is Obama hanging around with people like Ayers, specially after what he told The NY Times on 9-11-2001!

Ayers was not convicted because of a legal technicality. He was very lucky. However, it does not take away from the domestic terrorism that he practiced.

Today, Ayers is a college professor with strong ties to the Chicago left. He blessed Obama's candidacy years ago. Like Rev. Wright, Ayers opened a lot of doors for Obama in Chicago.

Again, I don't blame Obama because Ayers bombed a few buildings years ago. Nevertheless, I do wonder why Obama hung around with so many radical lefties.

What was it about the "radical left" that attracted Obama so much?

Get ready for Ayers: He is the next big chicken to come home to roost!

Ed Morrissey has the last word on this:

"As Murtaugh notes, the fact that they remain unrepentant about their terrorism makes it exponentially worse.

Ayers refuses to acknowledge that bombing people like the Murtaughs to subvert the judicial system and to force political change he couldn’t achieve through the ballot is, in fact, terrorism.


As late as last November, Dohrn continued to call for the “overthrow of capitalism”, while Ayers approvingly quoted Mao henchman Chou En-Lai while hysterically warning of an “unimaginable authoritarianism” in the US.

For a politician with no track record, Obama wants us to rely on his judgment.
Working with domestic terrorists who targeted not just public buildings but children like John Murtaugh makes that judgment highly suspect.

Obama claims it ancient history because it happened when he was eight.

Murtaugh feels fortunate that his assassins failed in ending his life at nine.
It’s not ancient history to him, nor should it be for the rest of us."

Mr. Canto presents the case for the more halting journalists picking up paychecks - the point is, as with Rev. Wright, the issue of choosing to cozy up with people who actively parade their contempt for American values. Those who will do and say anything to undermine any and all faith in our government and, more importantly, devalue the historical record in order to conform with a radical agenda that seeks to undo our Republic.

Ayers, Dorhn, and Wright share a comfortable and elite life in the very society they profess to hate. The real villains are those who make their lives so comfortable and insulated.

John McCain: John Murtagh - One of Bill Ayers' Victims Speaks Out

The fact that Bill Ayers continues to trod the terra with liberal palms before him in Hyde Park, speaks volumes about societal hypocrisy, elitism, and academic pusillanimity. The Medill Journalism octopus wraps up Ayers and his odious wife Bernadine Dohrn and keeps them from scrutiny and a long overdue public ridicule.

Here is an account of Bill Ayers's activities as leader of the Weatherman Underground, which killed police officers in New York, crippled Richard Elrod, bombed scores of buildings and got glossed over by journalists.

John Murtagh, a victim of Weatherman bombing terror, speaks out.

In February 1970, my father, a New York State Supreme Court justice, was presiding over the trial of the so-called “Panther 21,” members of the Black Panther Party indicted in a plot to bomb New York landmarks and department stores. Early on the morning of February 21, as my family slept, three gasoline-filled firebombs exploded at our home on the northern tip of Manhattan, two at the front door and the third tucked neatly under the gas tank of the family car. (Today, of course, we’d call that a car bomb.) A neighbor heard the first two blasts and, with the remains of a snowman I had built a few days earlier, managed to douse the flames beneath the car. That was an act whose courage I fully appreciated only as an adult, an act that doubtless saved multiple lives that night.

I still recall, as though it were a dream, thinking that someone was lifting and dropping my bed as the explosions jolted me awake, and I remember my mother’s pulling me from the tangle of sheets and running to the kitchen where my father stood. Through the large windows overlooking the yard, all we could see was the bright glow of flames below. We didn’t leave our burning house for fear of who might be waiting outside. The same night, bombs were thrown at a police car in Manhattan and two military recruiting stations in Brooklyn. Sunlight, the next morning, revealed three sentences of blood-red graffiti on our sidewalk: FREE THE PANTHER 21; THE VIET CONG HAVE WON; KILL THE PIGS.

For the next 18 months, I went to school in an unmarked police car. My mother, a schoolteacher, had plainclothes detectives waiting in the faculty lounge all day. My brother saved a few bucks because he didn’t have to rent a limo for the senior prom: the NYPD did the driving. We all made the best of the odd new life that had been thrust upon us, but for years, the sound of a fire truck’s siren made my stomach knot and my heart race. In many ways, the enormity of the attempt to kill my entire family didn’t fully hit me until years later, when, a father myself, I was tucking my own nine-year-old John Murtagh into bed.

John M. Murtagh is a practicing attorney, an adjunct professor of public policy at the Fordham University College of Liberal Studies, and a member of the city council in Yonkers, New York, where he resides with his wife and two sons.

Click my post title to read more.

John McCain: More Americans Getting On The Straight Talk Express & May Once Belonged to Mary the Mother of God

Happy May Day! This is the Month of Mary Mother of God in my faith. Back in the day, Catholic Churches in Chicago glutted the streets with processions of school children, the faithful, Knights of Columbus, politicians who wanted Catholic votes, and our friends and neighbors. The Church Militant became too self-conscious for socially sensitive Jocist priests trained to be more social worker than pastor. Such displays of faith were shelved. Priests now marched in International May Day Celebrations and the Catholic faithful at Visitation, Sacred Heart, St. Leo, St. Sabina, St. Cajetan, St. Brendan's, St. Justin Martyr, Little Flower, and the people of rest of Chicago's parishes could go scratch themselves. Father Guitar Mass, Knew Best. It was an Ecumenical Imperative!

Now, in their seventies, some of these same Jocist priests trained by Monsignor Hillenbrand in 1940's and '50's might be scratching theirs - feeling kind of forgotten.

Stanley Fish says 'ideas have no consequences,' boys. I wonder if you still might agree with the social Left these day. Billy Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn are doing splendidly. Give them a call this May Day.


Most Americans respect and admire activities in every Faith that bring people together. Americans of all Faiths are putting aside the 'childish things' of the 1960's and moving forward. The stupidities and arrogance that marked the social engineering fascism of the 1960's radicals are nothing if not childish.

Look at Ayers. A spoiled child of privilege who knew that he could always depend upon the power of his family's wealth and influence to get him out of any crime, Ayers planted bombs and orgainized armed robberies. Like any spoiled child, his tyranny over family affection won out. His violent tantrums were crimes against America including bombing and armed robbery. The Childish Thought Tyranny of the 1960's gave him a get-out- of-jail- free card with no expiration date.

The Democratic Party, my Party, like my Church, got itself all mired and muddied with 1960's nonsense and is paying the price in this election cycle. Obama and Clinton are as much a part of the 1960's nonsense as Billy Ayers and Pastor Wright, because they continue to pay lip-service to 1960's nonsense: Choice means Murder the Innocent; Government Payouts on Anything mean Progress; Anti-American Rhetoric Means Patriotism. Childish nonsense.

Service, Dignity, Commitment, Self-reliance, Responsiblity and Caring Stewardship are American Values - grown-up American Values.

America is growing up.

More Americans are turning to John McCain's values - those are our values. About time.

A relatively large minority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (40%) say they have come to feel more favorably toward GOP presidential nominee John McCain in recent days; in a new Pew survey, among all Americans, about as many say that their opinion of John McCain had grown more favorable as say it has recently become less favorable (18% vs. 15%). By contrast, Americans reporting more unfavorable views of both Democratic contenders, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, outnumber those reporting more favorable views in the survey. As is the case with Obama and Clinton, most Americans (61%) said their opinion of McCain had not changed recently.

Read More: Click my post title

John McCain: Wright's Wrongs - Words, No Biggie; Deeds,Might Be Getting Scrutiny

The great John Kass of the Chicago Tribune voices concern over Rev. Jeremiah Wright's mockery of everyone 'different' from him - and that includes the young man that he brought to Jesus.

Wright is doing 'the dozens' on America. As I did in my recent post on the chic Stanley Fish - salon buddy of Bomber Billy Ayers, may I offer some context:

Here's 'The Dozens:'

The dozens is a game, especially common among urban blacks, of exchanging insults usually about the mother of the opponent. Skilled playing of the dozens displays verbal improvisation of great originality and wittiness. It also requires a thick skin: you lose the contest if you get upset. The game is often in a stylized, rhythmic form, and the dozens are considered one of the precursors of rap music. Some excellent examples of the dozens can be seen in the movie White Men Can't Jump.

The term dozens is usually used in such phrases as "to play the dozens" or "to do the dozens"; the form dirty dozens is also common. The word dates at least to the 1910s, but the game was probably played considerably earlier. There are examples of this type of game in several other cultures; in sixteenth-century Scotland, a flyting was a battle between poets who exchanged abusive poems; and in the late ninteenth century, American cowboys engaged in "cussing contests," where a saddle would be awarded to the most abusive participant.

The origin of the term is unknown. Some conjectures include: it refers to a throw of 12 in craps, 12 being a difficult number to match; the original form had twelve verses, each one referring to a different sex act; and that inferior slaves were sold in lots of twelve, the number twelve therefore coming to mean 'wretched; inferior' itself. None of these hypotheses has any solid proof, and the origin is likely to remain a mystery.

Some other terms for this type of stylized insulting are capping, jiving, joaning (or joning), sounding, snapping, and signifying.

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19960903

John Kass illustrates Wrights casting the dozens at the NAACP address that got the ball rolling over Obama.

"If you got some white friends, they'll be clapping like dis, y'all," sang Wright, mimicking bad white clappers, loudly and to much applause, on tape, at the NAACP dinner Sunday night.

At first, I thought it was from HBO's "Def Comedy Jam," in which white people are often ridiculed for bad dancing or pathetic sexual prowess or lack of accomplishment in athletic contests.

But on the wall behind Wright was the NAACP logo, so it wasn't a comedy show. It was a serious event. Amen, reverend.

White folks are a scream! We are a race of fat goofy, greedy bankers, roped off in the lobby of Washington Mutual and Garlic Nosed Legionaries of the 3rd Marines nailing down Jesus, but can't dance. Gene Kelly, my Aunt Fanny!

Accompanied with a cadre of angry black preachers and their bodyguards, Wright played to his core constituency with deep and abiding anger. His anger extends to Barack Obama, it seems to me, and indicated that Rev. Wright might not welcome his notoriety, nor especially the millions of eyes now cast upon his operations as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street.

Wright detestation of America seems genuine enough given the strident game of 'the dozens' he is currently playing.

Play is a two way street. Journalists, other than Bill Moyers, and government agencies just might be taking a careful look at Pastor Wright's ministry. Given the fact that Trinity received millions of dollars from the government that Wright so hates, the game of 'the dozens' might have a genuine smack of Old Timey Irony. Those Faith Based Initiatives are written in stone, concrete, wrought iron and hard dollars.

Click my post title for John Kass.

I Wonder What Bill Ayers Is Doing Tonight: Camelot - No Just Breathing Hard!

Bill Ayers:

I know what you people are thinking tonight,
As home through the shadows they wander.
Ev'ryone smiling in secret delight,
They stare at Hyde Park and ponder.
Whenever bomb blows this way,
You can almost hear ev'ryone say:

I wonder what Bill Ayers is doing tonight?
What merriment is Billy pursuing tonight?
The Haymarket Copper it never burned as bright.
I wonder what Bill Ayers is up to tonight?
How goes the Peoples Power
As Bill stares at Old Sears Tower
Being regally and legally prepared?
Well, I'll tell you what Bill Ayers is doing tonight:
He's scared! He's scared!

You mean the lad who fought a Nation,
Bombed the Pentagon and tried Penn Station,
Goes to be wet in terror and distress?
Yes!

A radical who's so calm in handcuffs,
Even his lawyer wears nice makeup
Faces public scrutiny with fright?
Right!

You mean that appalling clamoring
That sounds like a nickstick hammering
Is merely the banging of his radical knees?
Please!

You wonder what Bill Ayers is wishing tonight?
He's wishing he were in Soho salon-ing tonight!
What occupies his time covering his own backside?
He's searching high and low for some place to hide.
And Obama's expectation,
The Public's anticipation
B.A. must feel about the inquiry to come.
Well, I'll tell you what Bill Ayers is feeling tonight:
He's numb!
He shakes!
He quails! He quakes!
And that's what Bill Ayers is doing tonight.


H/T to:
T. H. White (novel The Once and Future King)
Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe

Hooking Stanley Fish: Terrorists' Salon or Terror in a Saloon?

In general, higher education does not know how to speak for its interests. It offers a stance that is defensive, cowardly and likely to be ineffective.
Stanley Fish


I was reading the New York Times last night - no re-runs of House at that time - and I happened upon Stanley Fish's Blog for guys who wear turtle-neck sweaters under tweed all year round and women who no longer feel the need to shave their legs or under-arms and still see themselves as really 'selling it, Sister!'

Stanley is unreadable. He knows John Milton, but does not know what to do with Milton, because Milton understood that reading was a simple means to accessing something of truth.

Stanley Fish, to most interpretive communities, denies The Humanities to Humanity. Truth for Stanley Fish is a paycheck with alot of zeroes, but in essence, completely subjective.

Stanley Fish and his wife looted the State of Illinois of hundreds of thousands of dollars in Stanley's tenure as Dean of Arts and Sciences at University of Illinois Chicago Campus - the one Bill O'Reilly confused with University of Chicago. Stanley and his Missus, Jane Tompkins were salon buddies of terrorists Billy Ayers and his Old Lady Bernardine Dohrn.

Stanley was writing about his salon days with Hyde Park's beloved bombers:

Confession time. I too have eaten dinner at Bill Ayers’s house (more than once), and have served with him on a committee, and he was one of those who recruited my wife and me at a reception when we were considering positions at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Moreover, I have had Bill and his wife Bernardine Dohrn to my apartment, was a guest lecturer in a course he taught and joined in a (successful) effort to persuade him to stay at UIC and say no to an offer from Harvard. Of course, I’m not running for anything, but I do write for The New York Times and, who knows, this association with former fugitive members of the Weathermen might be enough in the eyes of some to get me canned.
Did I conspire with Bill Ayers? Did I help him build bombs? Did I aid and abet his evasion (for a time) of justice? Not likely, given that at the time of the events that brought Ayers and Dohrn to public attention, I was a supporter of the Vietnam War. I haven’t asked him to absolve me of that sin (of which I have since repented), and he hasn’t asked me to forgive him for his (if he has any).
Indeed in all the time I spent with Ayers and Dohrn, politics — present or past — never came up.
What did come up? To answer that question I have to introduce a word and concept that is somewhat out of fashion: the salon. A salon is a gathering in a private home where men and women from various walks of life engage in conversation about any number of things, including literature, business, fashion, films, education and philosophy. Ayers and Dohrn did not call their gatherings salons, but that’s what they were; large dinner parties (maybe 12-15), with guests coming and going, one conversation leading to another, no rules or obligations, except the obligation to be interesting and interested. The only thing I don’t remember was ideology, although since this was all going on in Hyde Park, there was the general and diffused ideology, vaguely liberal, that usually hangs over a university town.
Many of those attending these occasions no doubt knew something about their hosts’ past, but the matter was never discussed and why should it have been? We were there not because of what Ayers and Dohrn had done 40 years ago, but because of what they were doing at the moment.

( emphasis my own - I just had to share Stanley's sharing of the SALON concept with you Helots)


And, Stan, you wrote this because. . .? I told you Stanley Fish is unreadable! Stan. What was the authorial intent, here? In my interpretive community, a Saloon, - but first - To answer that question I have to introduce a word and concept that is somewhat out of fashion The Saloon. The Saloon is gathering, at a very public place that sells spirits for consumption on the premises, usually on a busy street, of persons who have worked very hard all day long and meet to share insights on assholes at work, assholes in sports, assholes in the news, assholes in education, assholes in and out of Public office and assholes in general.

Billy Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are frequently mentioned with spice and explosive metaphorical flourishes. I mentioned Stanley Fish and was treated to a purely subjective deconstruction of his canon of work by Smash McKenna ( Leo High School'78) a Union Pipe Coverer: ( Meaty hands prayerfully encase a bottle of Miller Lite and byzantine blue eyes dart mischievishly knowing and a deep throated offensive lineman's bark cuts through the offal of less weighty words timidly misting a dewy din of noise at Keegan's Pub -10618 S. Western Ave. Chicago, IL)

'Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost is the echo of human voice, not real genuine voice. I completely agree with Cammy Paglia that Fish is a totalitarian Tinkerbell. Now, I'm not saying there is not a moment or two of real delicate thought, but, generally, Fish is a semiotic totalitarian. I mean, Okay - Milton's blind - Get Me? - and if Milton, say, leaves a Fin ( $5) on the bar and it gets snatched up by Nualla here - Hey, Nualla, Sweetie, get everyone from the street to the shithouse another round -she takes the Fin-icky from the blind old bastard. See? Is it a gift, theft, or slight of hand on a blind man? For Crissakes, Fish would tell kids in his class it is all up to each one to decide. Bullshit, the bitch is stealing from a blind man - not you Nualla its a hypothetical. HEY! What do mean I'm barred, bullshit! Hickey tell her I was talking about Fish. . . Shit you started this. You're an asshole Hickey! Barred til tomorrow? Come on!'

"ideas have no consequences." Stanley Fish

Stanley - sure they do.

Click my post title and don't read Stanley Fish

Stanley Fish SwimsWith Sharks - Thoughts of a Terminally Chic Salon Singer - Meet Elmer 'Zoot' Suite-Yokum, Ed.D. L.S.M.F.T.

Transcontinental Progressive Community College of Hyde Park presents the political musings of Distinguished Adjunct Professor Emeritus E. Z. Suite-Yokum, Ed.D., L.S.M.F.T. on lone from the Berkley School of Tantic Occidental Ministries and Organic Vinyl Recordings Insitute.


Bio: Dr. Elmer 'Zoot' Suite-Yokum is a frequent contributer to Huffington Post, guest on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, and Flava Fav's Flavor of Love. Zoot praised the work of Ward Churchill and was the first scholar of Tru Cred to support his fellow deep thinker. He also condemned the abusive actions of General David Petraeus and US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, against the Iraqi nation. Noam Chomsky says, 'Zoot Suite-Yokum is the only American who makes sense to me.' Recently, Dr. Suite was seen in the company of Huffington Post founder and editor Arianna Huffington at the Sonoma Valley grape harvest and boycott throwing wads of cuutings at video journalist Roy Sekoff who cried hard.

Dr. Elmer 'Zoot' Suite-Yokum:


"I think the ironies of United States deployed treacheries in Vietnam, Nicaragua, Iraq, Iran, and North Korea are self-evident,Lord Petraeus has initiated tyrannically destructive policies, including, but not limited to, the surge proposed on Sept. 11, 2007 in a despicably theatrical manner before Congress,"

"Reagan was a thug and a coward, and My Mother the Car was cancelled due to that facists's interference; he managed to physically diminish a democratically-elected government and throw a nation into civil chaos for well over a decade . . . because the Sandinistas didn't back US trade policies. Gangsta rap often reaches higher than its ugliest, lowest common denominator, misogyny, violence, materialism and sexual transgression are not its exclusive domain. At its best, this music draws attention to complex dimensions of ghetto life ignored by most Americans. Indeed, gangsta rap's in-your-face style may do more to force America to confront crucial social problems than a million sermons or political speeches. Tesors Glue was a pure joy and I slept like a baby all through the Lebananon crisis until I was awakened by the cries of Palestinian women who screamed that I had slept on their coach long enough and had to go and it was bogus, because Cash Mash of I.S.M. had said it was cool to crash there. If U.S. foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, we cannot feign innocence when some of that destruction is returned."There's no way to be committed to non-violence in one of the most violent societies that history has ever created. I'm not committed to non-violence in any way."Freaks are revolutionaries and revolutionaries are freaks"I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough. I want a cold Cisco now."

John McCain: Wright was a Marine - So was this Guy!

Obama's rapid response team wrote that Wright served as Marine; so did Lee Harvey Oswald.

The Founder of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell was a decorated Navy pilot.

Wright is wrong.

Despite his avowed Marxist sympathies, Oswald decided to join the US Marine Corps. He idolized his older brother, Robert and wore Robert's US Marines ring. Joining the Marines may have also been a way to escape from his overbearing mother.[19] He enlisted in October 1956, a week after his 17th birthday.[20]

While in the Marines, Oswald was trained in the use of the M1 Garand rifle. Following that training, he was tested in December of 1956, and obtained a score of 212, which was 2 points above the minimum for qualifications as a sharpshooter. In May 1959, on another range, Oswald scored 191, which was 1 point over the minimum for ranking as a marksman.[21]

Oswald, however, was trained primarily as a radar operator, a job that required a security clearance. A May 1957 document states that he was "granted FINAL clearance to handle classified matter up to and including CONFIDENTIAL after careful check of local records had disclosed no derogatory data."[22] Oswald took the Aircraft Control and Warning Operator Course and finished seventh in a class of thirty. The course "...included instruction in aircraft surveillance and the use of radar."[23] He was assigned first to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Irvine, California in July 1957,[24] then to Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Japan in September 1957. Although Atsugi was a base for the top-secret CIA U-2 spy planes that flew over the Soviet Union, there is no evidence Oswald was involved in that operation.

Oswald was court-martialled twice: initially because of accidentally shooting himself in the elbow with an unauthorized handgun, and then later for starting a fight with a Sergeant he thought responsible for the punishment he received from his first court-martial. He was demoted from private first class to private, and briefly served time in the brig. Later, he was punished for another incident; while on sentry duty one night in the Philippines, he inexplicably fired his rifle into the jungle.

Small compared to some other Marines, Oswald was nicknamed Ozzie Rabbit after the cartoon character. For his steadfast beliefs, he was also nicknamed Oswaldskovich. In December 1958, he transferred back to the Marine Corp Air Station El Toro.[25] The function of Oswald's unit at El Toro "...was to serveil for aircraft, but basically to train both enlisted men and officers for later assignment overseas." One of Oswald's officers, Lieutenant John Donovan, said that he was a "very competent" crew chief.[26] Oswald subscribed to The Worker and claimed to have taught himself rudimentary Russian. At the El Toro base, in February 1959, he took the Marine proficiency exam in written and spoken Russian and his test results were rated "poor."[27]

John McCain: Wright's Oafish Slur of 3rd Marines & Calvary at Guam - for real.

But Mr. McCain took a different approach at a news conference here when he criticized Mr. Wright for, as the senator paraphrased him, “comparing the United States Marine Corps with Roman legionnaires who were responsible for the death of our Savior, I mean being involved in that” and for “saying that Al Qaeda and the American flag were the same flags.” …
Mr. McCain said that he did not believe that Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, shared those views and that he was still against the advertisement in North Carolina. But he suggested that Mr. Obama had made the subject fair play by declaring in an interview shown over the weekend on “Fox News Sunday” that questions about Mr. Wright were “a legitimate political issue.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/the-early-word-mccain-takes-up-wright-issue/


McCain and other Americans should be concerned about Wright's words - here's the real context: 3rd Marines at Guam reported by Cyril O'Brien, later White House Correspondent for the Baltimore Sun and a combat correspondent with the 3rd Marines:


The Taking of Chonito Ridge*
The following is a dispatch written by Marine Combat Correspondent Private First Class Cyril J. O'Brien in the field after the combat action he describes in his story. It was released for publication in the United States sometime after the event (always after families were notified of the wounding or death of the Marines mentioned.) This story is reprinted from the carbon copy of the file which he retained of the stories he filed from the Pacific.

Guam July 24 (Delayed)—The first frontal attack on steep Chonito Ridge was made one hour after the Marine landing.

An infantry squad, led by Second Lieutenant James A. Gallo, 24, 172 Broadway, Haverstraw, NY., approached to within ten yards of the tip. The crest bloomed with machine gun fire. In the face of it the Marine company tried its first assault. The company was thrown back before it had advanced forty yards.

For fifty hours the company remained on the naked slope, trying again and again to storm the Jap entrenchments hardly one hundred yards away. Battered almost to annihilation, the tenacious Marines finally saw another company take the ridge from the rear.

Failing in the first rush the company had formed a flimsy defense line not fifty yards from the enemy. Cover was scant. Some Marines had only tufts of grass to shield them. The Japs were rolling grenades down the crest, and blasting the Marines with knee mortars from over the summit.


Under the cover of dusk the company commander led a second attack. As the Marines rose machine gun fire swept into them. The commander, and three Marines reached the crest. The last fifty feet were almost vertical. The attackers grasped roots and dug their feet into the soft earth to keep from falling down the incline.

The commander went over the ridge. He never came back. The remaining three Marines were ripped by cross fire. One saved himself by jumping into an enemy fox hole.

Beaten again, the company retired to a small ravine, and remained there all night. One Marine, shot through both legs, was asking for morphine. Another's thigh was ripped by shell fragments. A PFC, his dry tongue swollen, tried to whisper the range of an enemy sniper.

At eleven in the morning of the 22d, with little more a third of their original number, the company rushed hillside again.

Lieutenant Gallo led an assault on the left flank of the hill, but was thrown back. Sergeant Charles V. Bomar, 33, 4002 Gulf St., Houston, Tex., with nine Marines attempted to take the right ground of the slope. Five were killed as they left the ravine. The sergeant and three others reached the top of the slope.

The Japs again rolled grenades down the incline. One exploded under the chest of a Marine nearby, blowing off his head. Another grenade bounced off the helmet of the sergeant. It was a dud.

The Marines charged into the Jap entrenchment. The sergeant killed a Jap machine gunner with the butt of his carbine. The assistant gunner exploded a grenade against his body. The blast threw the Marines out of the hole. They jumped into vacated enemy foxholes. A lieutenant who had come to join them was shot between the eyes by a sniper. The sergeant killed the sniper with his carbine.

Unable to hold their positions, the sergeant and his companies returned to the shelter of the ravine. With the shattered remnants of the company they waited for nearly another 24 hours, until darting Marines on the top of the ridge showed Chonito had been taken from the rear.

Field commanders soon came to appreciate the effect these so-called "Joe Blow" stories had on the morale of their men. The stories were printed in hometown newspapers and were clipped and sent to the troops in the Pacific who could then see that their efforts were being publicized and appreciated at home.

* 'Chonito' was misnamed on dated American Naval Maps in 1944 - The Chamorros of Guam called it Chorito Cliff

For more context- click my post title

John McCain: Wright Slurred 3rd Marines and Italians

Pastor Wright's litany of hate extended beyond Italian Americans to the battle honored Third Marine Regiment - the 3rd Marines.

Full Disclosure - the focus of my recent novel The Chorito Hog Leg: A Novel of Guam in Time of War was the 3rd Marines and their magnificent assault of the cliffs over-looking the Asan Landing Beaches on Guam in July, 1944.

Pastor Wright retired to a mansion in Tinley park, IL and lecturing the NAACP yesterday and the National Press Club this morning was a Marine.

National Review's Jim Geraghty reported Wright's 'Crucifixion comments' that also offered an Unchristian slam on Italian Americans, but to sully the 3rd Marines who have won American battle honors at Bougainville, Guam, Iwo Jima, Vietnam, and Iraq is bizarre to say the least:
Wright describes Roman soldiers who mistreated Jesus as "Commandos.. trained in urban command and trained to kill on command... the Third Marine Regiment of Rome," and that Jesus was mistreated "as a prisoner of war."

He describes the Roman presence in Jerusalem as "Operation Israeli Freedom." (So in this America-as-Rome metaphor, is Abu Zarqawi Jesus?)

"It was the Italian Army that led Jesus to Calvary Friday morning."

Here is an all too brief battle history of America's Third Marine Regiment - 3rd Marines:

The 3d Marine Regiment first came into existence during the period of international unrest in the early twentieth century. The regiment was formed 20 December 1916, by consolidating Marine detachments from the various ships in the Atlantic Fleet then at anchor in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The early days of the regiment were highlighted by campaigns in Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

During World War I, the regiment was heavily involved in the occupation and pacification of the Dominican Republic. As the Dominican crises subsided, the regiment’s role in the Republic also lessened.

Between wars, 3d Marines became a reserve unit stationed in San Francisco, eventually being disbanded in 1937.

The 3d Marine Regiment was reactivated on 16 June 1942, in North Carolina, as part of the World War II military expansion. The regiment fought and bled at Bougainville and Guam. Four medals of Honor were awarded to members of 3d Marines for actions during this period.



Following World War II, the regiment was ordered to China to aid in the disarming of Japanese units and to assist the Nationalist government in the occupation of Northern China in an effort to deny land to the communists.

The regiment did not participate in the United Nations defense of South Korea, but continued to actively train in Hawaii and Japan to remain combat ready.

3d Marines was quick to respond to the call for forces in Vietnam, providing security for the Da Nang Air Base in early 1965. The regiment’s experience level and ability to adapt led to many innovations including the Combined Action Company and the Civic Action Program. Ultimately, 3d Marines was to participate in 48 major operations in the Republic of Vietnam.

Following the retrograde of forces from Vietnam, the regiment was initially relocated to Camp Pendleton and assigned to the 5th Marine Amphibious Brigade. During April of 1971, the regiment became part of the 1st Marine Division. Two months later, the regiment was moved to Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, to assume the role of the ground combat component of the 1st Marine Brigade.

The 3d Marine Regiment was one of the first combat forces to deploy to Saudi Arabia in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990. The regiment, which became known as task Force Taro in honor of the state and people of Hawaii, became the first American unit to be engaged by Iraqi artillery, rocket and missile fire on 18 January 1991. Task Force Taro countered the Iraqi supporting attacks by conducting artillery raids into Kuwait as the first ground offensive actions of the war. Task force Taro was instrumental in the recapture of Khafji, was the first unit to advance into Kuwait, conducted the only helicopter borne assault of the war and secured the Marine Corp’s final objective of the war, Kuwait International Airport.

Following the cease-fire on 28 February 1991, the regiment redeployed to Saudi Arabia and subsequently completed its strategic redeployment to Hawaii two months later.

Effective 1 October 1994, the 1st Marine Brigade was deactivated and 3d Marine Division became the regiment’s higher headquarters.

http://www.mcbh.usmc.mil/3mar/History.htm

Senator John McCain slammed Wrights insults of this elite regiment.

Pastor Wright sure seems certifiable - well, maybe not to Bill Moyers

Click my post title for Geraghty's article in National Review.

Bill Moyers Public Money (PBS) Promotes (UCC) Church: Anyone (IRS) Watching?

What would happen if Cardinal George got on PBS and with a Catholic News Host on the tax payer's dime and was allowed to brush away any and all criticism of his influence on a candidate for President?

'Hold the phone, Muriel, it's the Internal Revenue Service! Tell them them Father will get back to them!'

Bill Moyers landed the task of giving Rev. Jeremiah Wright his props in a nationally televised and taxpayer funded interview with more 'Gee, you're swell" gushing than a Van Johnson movie.

I thought Moyers' Man crush bordered on Hannity-esque silliness myself. One bit caught my attention and that was Bill Moyers' 'Our Denomination ' advertisement calling for a national conversation ( read monologue) on race.

I did not see the "this Program was paid for by the United Church of Christ" message. I did pick up on the PUBLIC Television. He's Moyers' and Wright - 'AS You've Never Seen Them Before!'

BILL MOYERS: What does it say to you that millions Americans, according to polls, still think Barack Obama is a Muslim?

REVEREND WRIGHT: It says to me that corporate media and miseducation or misinformation or disinformation, I think we started calling it during the Nixon years, still reigns supreme. Thirty some percent of Americans still think there are weapons of mass destruction. That you tell a lie long enough that people start believing it. What does the media do? "Barack Hussein Obama! Barack Hussein Obama! Barack Hussein. It sounds like Osama, Obama. That Arabic is a language. So that's why many people still think he's a Muslim. He went to a madrasah. What's a madrasah? I don't know, but I know it was one of those Muslim schools that teaches terrorism. The kind of I don't want to think, just tell me what to think mentality is why so many Americans still think that.

BILL MOYERS: Our denomination, the United Church of Christ has called for a sacred conversation on race in America. What are the steps that you think from all of your experience can be taken to move race relations forward?
REVEREND WRIGHT: I think there are many - to start using Bill Jones' paradigm, about how one sees God. Your theology determines one's anthropology. And how you see humans determines your sociology. To look at how we've come to see race, and in others of other races, based on our understanding of God who sees others as less than important. Less than my people. And where in our religious traditions are there passages in our sacred scriptures that are racist? They're in the Vedas, the Babylonian Talmud, they're in the Koran, they're in the Bible. How do we grapple with these passages in our sacred texts? The same way you grapple with Judges:19, where it's alright for a preacher to have a concubine and cut her up into 12 pieces. We gotta argue with our texts that are, as we've been struggling with, battling with, wrestling with, anti-Semitic. The Christian, "The Jews killed Jesus." No, we gotta come to grips with, you know, these texts were written by certain people at certain times with certain racist understandings of others who are different. That different meant deficient. That doing that with adults and starting with kids. that begins the conversation that Senator Obama talked about that we need to have. And re-writing the curriculum in our schools to tell the truth in our schools.

BILL MOYERS: Jeremiah Wright, thank you very much for this opportunity.

REVEREND WRIGHT: Well, thank you for having me Bill. Thank you sir.


BILL MOYERS: That's it for the JOURNAL. We'll see you next week and on line.

I'm Bill Moyers.

Yes, You are!

That's the very same Bill Moyers who who condemned Karl Rove for doing exactly what United church of Christ's former preacher Jeremiah Wright of doing; hence, his Nerf- Ball piece on Wright. PBS - Every American pays Bill Moyers to outsource for his Church.

Karl Rove figured out a long time ago that the way to take an intellectually incurious, draft-averse, naughty playboy in a flight jacket with chewing tobacco in his back pocket and make him governor of Texas, was to sell him as God's anointed in a state where preachers and televangelists outnumber even oil derricks and jack rabbits. Using church pews as precincts, Rove turned religion into a weapon of political combat -- a battering ram, aimed at the devil's minions. Especially at gay people. It's so easy, as Karl knew, to scapegoat people you outnumber. And if God is love, as rumor has it, Rove knew in politics to bet on fear and loathing. Never mind that in stroking the basest bigotry of true believers you coarsen both politics and religion. . . . Rove is riding out of Dodge City as the posse rides in.

At his press conference this week he asked God to bless the President and the country, even as reports were circulating that he himself had confessed to friends his own agnosticism. He wished he could believe, but he cannot. That kind of intellectual honesty is to be admired, but you have to wonder how all those folks on the Christian right must feel discovering they were used for partisan reasons by a skeptic, a secular manipulator.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08172007/watch3.html

Billy, Billy, Billy, Disingenuous hack piece, rather hack pieces.

Click my post title for Bill Moyers' Sermon on UCC. Moyers's almost like a Cardinal in United Church of Christ - Lot's of cattle and No Hat! Need to do something about that. Get Bill a Hat! Tall One!

John McCain: McCain is on the Green!

"In politics, nothing is contemptible." Benjamin Disraeli

Kevin Drum has a beef with the American People - they like, admire, trust and support John McCain. Click my post title for Kevin's Snit -'Why do people like McCain?' He is very much like most Americans, Kev. He actually has a record of accomplishment. McCain is good at his job. McCain does not suffer fools gladly; nor, is he a bully. John McCain's well documented temper is directed at 'equals' - there are no betters. He's a very kind man, though, not above giving a punk, bully, or loudmouth an Old School Tune-up.

Since St. Valentine's Day, The Democratic Party has engaged in fratricide. Progressive Siblings, Senators Clinton and Obama have crabbed and clawed at one another over the shiny toys - Delegates, Super-delegates, and the popular votes including the uncounted ones in Michigan and Florida.

Bosnia, Bat Guano Crazy Uncle Jeremiah Wright, Domestic Terrorist Neighborhood Buds, Billy Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn and Senator Obama's closeted remarks about 'bitter clinging' Americans have put a Democratic Victory in the hazard.

The DNC patina of Unity has been chipped away. A wedge is lodged in heart of Democratic Hopes. John McCain is a Driver.

John McCain is on the Green and putting until November. Kevin Drum and other Soros operatives are howling ancient and toothless canards at John McCain and he is taking his time with these strokes.

The gallery Loves McCain. He can take the pressure. This game is beyond his opponents. Clearly, bowling does not fly with Dean's Dream Team. Tennis is a game for whiny brats. This is the Masters.

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything." Alexander Hamilton

John McCain: Well Hush My Beak- Blogger of the Week?

I am delighted with this Honor!

The Good Folks at McCain Victory, spearheaded by my pal Brad Marston, have honored this site with the McCain Victory Blogger of the Week.

It is an honor to work with talented and patriotic women and men helping John McCain get his message of Hope, Self-Reliance, Dignity, Charity and Service to all Americans.

To Miss Vickie ( The Fairest Flower of Alabama), The Mad Irishman, Tony GOPrano, Brad Marston, and Michael Schuyler - Ain't this been Fun?

Brad, thank you for the kind words linked on My Post Title

Tinley Park, IL and Rev. Jeremiah Wright - Why Tinley?

Above - Crazy Uncle Jere's Retirement Mansion in Tinley Park, IL

Below - The Old Tinley Park Mental Health Facility that welcomed Katrina Victims

Now that is a two tales of one city!

Marathon Pundit ran an interesting piece last week concerning Pastor Wright (ret.) whose building a stately mansion in Tinley Park, Illinois. Jeremiah Wright gave it to GW Bush good and hard for the callous treatment of Katrina Victims and Senator Obama is on record as saying that Wright 'helped' Katrina Victims.

Ok. How? Metaphorically? Rhetorically? Spiritually? Magically? It does not appear that he did so Financially - according to the Katrina Relief National Report.

Sometimes things fall through the cracks.

Yep.

Here's something to do on a rainy day.

1. Click my post title to Atlas Shrugs ( HT to Marathon Pundit)
2. Read the page

3. Click on the links provided and read what is there - more importantly read what is not there.

4. Ask yourself some questions

I did last night after catching a snatch of Rev. Wright on the egg-toss put on by the agenda driven Bill Moyers. I asked myself, 'Self, Why do the good folks in Tinley Park get Bat Guano Crazy Uncle Jere?'

Well for years, 'close knit, ethnic Irish Catholic Beverly was home to Calypso Louie Farrakhan. He had no problem borrowing a bag of Weed N'Feed from some Paddy Chump from Christ the King Parish. Imagine the block Party - Louie topped off with turkey taco salad, marshmallow jello mandarin orange salad and Sweet Tea - yanking out the old fiddle. Louie Moved! Off to Berrian County Michigan! Away from the racist Micks.

Tinley Park, Il was ground zero for the State of Illinois efforts to provide shelter and comfort to the suffering people of Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. The refugees stayed at the old Mental Health Facility on Harlem in Tinley Park. The State of Illinois went flat out to help Katrina victims. I wonder just how Tinley Park was selected as the best site to help the victims of America's greatest natural disaster. Who were the elected officials and appointed board members who pushed the Tinley site? They did a great service to those suffering people.

1. Did Pastor Wright and his church help out the victims of Katrina?

2. How did the Church select Tinley Park, of all places, to settle its Shepherd?

3. Who is footing the bill?

4. Who's Weed 'N Feed is getting borrowed?

Here's start - Rod Blagojevich's State of Illinois Website:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 14, 2005



Gov. Blagojevich expands Hurricane Katrina Victim Assistance Hotline to serve thousands of self-evacuated victims, and the people, organizations and local governments caring for them in Illinois
Hotline hours extended, additional staff answering calls, ensures self-evacuees will have access to full range of resources


SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich today announced that the state’s Hurricane Katrina Victim Assistance Hotline (800-843-6154) is offering a broader range of services and will be more available each day to the thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims who made their own way to Illinois, as well as the individuals, community organizations and local governments that have taken them in. The hotline connects displaced victims to state services available to them, ranging from housing assistance to medical care to employment. The American Red Cross estimates that there are more than 6,000 victims displaced by Hurricane Katrina living in Illinois with friends, family or in other temporary housing. Approximately 430 people traveled to Illinois on flights arranged by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

“In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, thousands of Gulf Coast residents left their homes and found their own way to Illinois. While they are here, we will make every effort to connect them to resources and services - whether they need temporary housing, health care for their families, jobs, food or clothing” said Gov. Blagojevich. “Our hotline will also help the many generous individuals and organizations who are trying to make sure evacuees in Illinois are getting the assistance and tools they need to rebuild their lives.”

The Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) is coordinating the hotline. Hotline hours of operation are being extending so victims can call any time between 9am and midnight daily to find out what services are available to them. Callers will have one-stop access to all of the State of Illinois’ resources for Katrina victims – from emergency food and shelter to more long-term assistance like unemployment benefits and food stamps. Operators from the Department of Human Services will be able to connect callers to information on:
Financial assistance available from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the American Red Cross
Help to evacuees who are looking for loved ones
Enrolling children in preschool, K-12th grade, community colleges and public universities
Energy Assistance that may be available through Illinois’ LIHEAP program to hurricane evacuees placed in temporary or permanent housing
Various healthcare programs offered by the state and federal governments that may be available to evacuees
Temporary and permanent housing available through the states, FEMA and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Employment available in Illinois and through the U.S. Department of Labor
Change of address forms from the United States Postal Service
Other state and federal services and programs including crisis counseling, unemployment, rehabilitation services, developmental disabilities, veterans benefits, seniors benefits, child care, and substance abuse
Caring for pets affected by Hurricane Katrina

The Governor set up the toll-free number as a part of the state’s centralized effort to assist refugees from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama who come to Illinois. The number, 1-800-843-6154, went live Friday, September 2nd, and will stay in service for as long as needed. Displaced victims with access to the internet can find more information on available services at www.Illinois.gov. Users can also find a link on the state website to the federal government’s services and assistance available to those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29th, Gov. Blagojevich ordered all state agencies to respond in a coordinated manner to help recovery and cleanup efforts in the Gulf Coast, and victims coming into Illinois:

Arriving on four flights arranged by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Illinois has received more than 430 displaced victims from the Gulf Coast states. Individuals and families, upon arrival received immediate medical care and were provided housing from the state in Tinley Park, Elgin, Alton and Rockford. The American Red Cross estimates an additional 6,000 displaced victims arrived in Illinois by their own means. Governor Blagojevich announced on September 4th, Illinois is ready to receive as many as 10,000 displaced victims, and has called elected officials, community leaders, not-for-profit organizations, religious institutions and social service providers to match the State of Illinois’ coordinated relief effort to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Gov. Blagojevich deployed more than 1,600 Illinoisans to help Louisiana respond to the devastation resulting from Hurricane Katrina. The deployments include nearly 600 firefighters and 800 National Guard troops.

The Illinois Department of Employment Security is helping displaced victims process unemployment claims and facilitating job searches and job training. IDES and Central Management Services employees have set up remote computer stations in the state facilities in Tinley Park and Alton where the first displaced victims arrived, and are in the process of setting up the same services in Elgin and Rockford, where more evacuees arrived this week.

A group of 100 state employees traveled to Louisiana to help the Louisiana Department of Social Services reach out to victims in remote areas of the state. The volunteers include clerical employees, security personnel, information technology specialists, drivers and mechanics.

The Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has reached out to state-chartered banks and thrifts and asked them to provide free check cashing, eliminate ATM service fees and help establish checking and saving accounts for displaced victims now residing in Illinois.

The Illinois Department of Revenue has extended filing deadlines to taxpayers from counties damaged by Hurricane Katrina and who owe Illinois taxes, until October 31, 2005.

A total of 134 highly trained law enforcement officers from state and local agencies were deployed to Louisiana. These include Weapons of Mass Destruction teams, Tactical Response teams, Underwater Dive teams, a mobile command post, various all terrain vehicles, boats and trucks.

The Illinois Department of Transportation contributed 500 yards of fencing and 500 stakes on two lowboys pulled by two semis that will be in the law enforcement convoy.

The Governor dispatched a total of 52 members of the Illinois Medical Emergency Response Teams (IMERT) to Louisiana to assist with care of the massive number of sick and injured victims from Hurricane Katrina, and dispatched an 11-member Incident Management Team to George County, Mississippi to assist local emergency managers during the crisis.

The Governor ordered the state’s public schools to waive residency requirements and enroll any child displaced by Hurricane Katrina who relocates to live with family, friends or in a shelter in Illinois. To date, more than 400 children displaced by Hurricane Katrina are enrolled in 46 different Illinois school districts.

The state’s 39 community colleges will accommodate any Illinois resident displaced from higher education studies because of the hurricane, while Illinois’ 12 public universities will also take in students affected by the destruction along the Gulf Coast. Students are encouraged to contact admissions offices at each university to being an expedited process to enroll in the institution and to access university services like financial aid.

The Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency have offered free camping and removed length of stay requirements for Hurricane victims at all state parks and historic sites that offer camping.

The Illinois Department of Transportation waived certain transportation rules to allow standard-sized semis carrying supplies and materials to Louisiana to be overweight by up to 15,000 pounds when they travel on Illinois roads. Currently, a standard-sized semi is only allowed to weigh 80,000 pounds when traveling through Illinois. IDOT will also grant emergency permits to companies that need to move oversized equipment to the impacted area.

The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) made available various items through IEMA’s emergency procurement system including 256,000 half pints of water, 8,500 blankets, 18,300 clothing items, and 2,900 dozen packages of cleaning supplies. IDOC has also delivered 3,000 bedrolls to the Red Cross in Hillside.

The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs sent toiletries and food to facilities where displaced victims have been housed, and in collaboration with several other federal and private agencies will send food to the Gulf Coast states.

The Department of Central Management Services made available its Bureau of Communication and Computer Services (BCCS) to help provide communications assistance to devastated areas. Using broadband services, including high speed data transmission to remote areas underserved by local carriers, BCCS can provide relief command centers with uplinks for phone and internet access, and also links to shelters so displaced individuals can call loved ones.

The Department of Human Services sent staff skilled in processing Food Stamps, to help the United States Department of Agriculture implement a Disaster Food Stamp program in 25 Louisiana counties.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture made available to the Illinois State Police the Expo Building on the Illinois State Fairgrounds as a staging area to consolidate personnel, equipment and supplies in preparation for deployment.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Department of Public Health dispatched twelve specialists to Louisiana. The specialists are members of four environmental health strike teams being sent by the state at the request of the Louisiana Emergency Management Agency. Their expertise includes drinking water, sewage, food safety and food salvage. In addition, two IEPA trucks stocked with emergency response equipment and two IPDH vehicles were deployed.

The People of Illinois did pretty proud work. Catholic Charities to which the young men of Leo High School contributed gave $ 500,000. Chicago Police Officers and Chicago Firefighters went to New Orleans.

What exactly did Pastor Wright do , besides raise money for Katrina?

Did that money make its way to New Orleans?

It does not appear on the Philanthropy News Digest. Huge questions. Millions of them.

John McCain: Crazy Uncle Jere Pigeon-Holes All Us AmericanChickens

He's Back! Get Ready! Bill Moyers has Crazy Uncle Jere ready to toss bat guano at AmeriKKKa and 'garlic nosed' Americans. I love garlic. Can't say the same about the deep thinking Black Liberation Theologian building a mansion in Tinley Park, IL., but he sure explains Barack Obama's vision for America. A jigsaw puzzle of demographics - the University of Chicago Tweedy Dumbers will love this vision, almost as much as they love domestic terrorists.

It is clear to me now. The Great Uniter, Senator Barack Obama is a Balkanizer. His spiritual guide, Bat Guano Crazy Uncle Jeremiah Wright made it clear:

"He's a politician, I'm a pastor. We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor," he said.

Let's he's a pastor, Barack is a politician, I'm a teacher, Billy Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are unapologetic terrorists, my boss is a school President, Tommy Ward is a millwright, most of my family are stationary engineers ( IUOE Local 399), Gino Ford is an electrician, Framin' Eamon is a Carpenter's Framer, Terry is a Choir Director, Tom Roeser is a Renaissance Man, Ron Gidwitz is a Philanthropist, Keith Olbermann is Enormous, J.C. Gutierrez is a Contractor, Eddie Carroll is a Roofer, Ben Vereen is a Hoofer, Jim Frogge is chemist, Nick Novich is a restaurateur, Second City Cop is a Police, John Rubery is a Marthon Pundit, . . . Man we will need subtitles and parsing aplenty in Obama's New Politics America.

Worked swell in the Former Yugoslavia.

No sweat. John McCain speaks like a President of the United States.

Click my post title for the return of Crazy Uncle Jere

John McCain: Dick 'Iago' Morris Wants to Help - Take it from Carville

"I follow him to serve my turn upon him."


Othello (I, i, 42)

Francis Bacon, Jean Jacques Rousseau, W.E.B. DuBois, and Joe Morris are all political thinkers cut from the very same cloth as Iago in Shakespeare's Othello, The Moor of Venice. Bacon denounced every patron, beginning with the Earl of Essex, Rousseau the children of his mistress to the streets and certain death as well as Diderot, and DuBois stabbed his mentor Booker T. Washington in the back at Niagara Falls in 1905. Lovely chaps one and all.

Dick Morris could make the trio above and their fictional mirror image IAGO look like Faith, Hope, and Charity on picnic with Prudence.

This guy is a beaut. Today he posts advice to John McCain in the Baltimore Sun. The guy is as sharp as a cutter's scalpel and about as warm-hearted. Senator McCain take the advice and show Dick the curb.

Now, the guy I love is Jim Carville. He is the one Democrat who would cover the back of the person who signs his checks. Like John McCain, Carville is the Real Deal and Carville would never cross the street for sacks of gold over his convictions. He also, like McCain has great taste in women. Mr. Carville would take a bullet for his boss. He's a mensch! Dick Morris is Iago.

Click My Post Title for Dick Morris' brilliant but dangerous advice. Cum Grano Salis, Senator!

Chicago Tribune Insulates Bomber Ayers

What a contemptible piece of hack work.

Today's piece on Bill Ayers, a domestic terrorist is absolutely the most gutless of mewings and as thin as the moral tissue of the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board that no doubt issued the order to the writer and perfumed the adjectives and nouns according to the influence Ayers and his extended wealth bears on Tribune Editorial Thought.

Bill Ayers, a former radical leader turned academic and school reformer, has never been hesitant to speak his mind.

Although there has been no public response from him since his ties to Barack Obama — the two neighbors served on a charity board together for three years — were brought up during last week's Democratic debate, Ayers said Wednesday that he has a good reason for his silence.

Former Radical Leader - 100% False use of nouns and adjectives. What vomit!

Chicago Medill Media Mousepieces - linked to Ayers wealth at Northwestern and University of Illinois - have insulated these enemies of America and propped up their places as citizens of Chicago.

Readers deserve respect. The Chicago Sun Times is reaping the reward for its Editorial idiocies over the last few years and The Chicago Tribune now stands at the edge as well.

Stay friends with Ayers and Dohrn. Their wealth and influence is more important than truthful reporting.

John McCain: The Ex- Con Kite ( check kite) Runner Explains Obama's Pennsylvania Victory!

This yutz is like having free cable! Ladies and Gents, Bob Creamer, convicted check kiter and Progressive Camp Obama strategist, explains the victory of Obama over Hillary Clinton despite the fact that ten percentage points to Clinton seems to indicate otherwise.

That is why Bob Creamer is must - must I tells ya! - viewing on Huffington Post - Hollywood Squares Without Borders!

Here's Bob - The Terra Haute Federal Prison Alumnus:

All that remains for Clinton are more opportunities for her own campaign to be shut down. If she loses Indiana and North Carolina it will be extremely hard for her to continue. But there is no longer any opportunity for her to defeat Obama.

Clinton's may have won last night, but she failed to do what she needed to do to derail Obama's march to the nomination. In retrospect, Pennsylvania will appear as Clinton's Waterloo.

Robert Creamer is a long time political organizer and strategist and author of the recent book, "Stand Up Straight. How Progressives Can Win," available on Amazon.com

(Now, how can you not wet your britches in the presence of powerful political thought like that - unmatched since Machiavelli argued to stab the boss in the back if things looked dicey for the boss) If 'she loses Indiana and North Carolina . . . it will be extremely hard for her to continue.' Drop the Soap and Stop the Presses!!! Bob! If she loses Primaries - it will be bad? People pay you for this and it's not a crime? Now, how can you hate this country , Bob? And Moms and Dads send their Kids to Camp Obama to learn 'the new politics of Hope?' Bob-Beeeee! Bob, The Shank, Creamer!

Bob is married to the lovely, daffy, and hubris topped off Rep. Jan Schakowsky who is dying to take Senator Obama's place in the U.S. Senate by by-passing the electoral process entirely. Now that's Grassroots.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/880337,CST-NWS-senate06.article

Jan makes play for Obama's Seat - You GO! Girl!

"I would be. I certainly would be interested in that. I think it is unseemly and untimely right now to do much beyond stating my interest in that," Schakowsky said Friday in a taping of WMAQ-Channel 5's "City Desk."

Asked if she has a good rapport with Blagojevich, Schakowsky says, "We do have a working relationship, and we have a long-standing friendship. We really haven't discussed this particular issue. I agree with him on his priority of health care and applaud him for the work he has done as the health care governor."

Blagojevich could not be reached for comment.

'It's premature'
Blagojevich's friction with some other Democrats around the state limits the list of obvious officials he would like to appoint to succeed Obama, such as state Comptroller Dan Hynes, who was a runner-up to Obama in the 2004 primary for senate.

Among the more interesting options, Blagojevich could appoint Attorney General Lisa Madigan to keep her from running against him for governor. He could appoint himself senator. He could also appoint Obama ally Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.

Asked if he was interested in the appointment, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. said through a spokesman he was "intrigued" at the potential of Schakowsky being named, but "it's premature to speculate right now on a replacement for Obama."

If she does get the appointment, Schakowsky will face a lively election fight, with opponents likely making hay of the conviction of her husband, Robert Creamer, for check-kiting to keep his public interest group alive.

'It makes you stronger'
Creamer's prison sentence at the federal penitentiary at Terre Haute strengthened him and their marriage, Schakowsky said.

"If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger," Schakowsky said. "Even that experience at Terre Haute, where [former] Gov. [George] Ryan is now, he wrote a weekly newsletter. He looks to the future. He paid the debt he owed -- no money, his time in jail. It made him an advocate for prison reform. There are a lot of people in prison for crimes of substance abuse."

"City Desk" with Carol Marin airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. It can also be viewed at www.nbc5.com/politics.