MazelTov, Doug and Christine!

I love weddings. My own in 1983 was a dandy - I married the lovely and strong Mary Elizabeth Cleary at St. Mary's Church in Kankakee, Illinois. My tall red-headed French/Irish bride was stunning in an old fashioned bridal gown that might have been worn in the 19th Century by a French bride in Martinton, or L'Erable. Mary was crowned with a garland of white flowers. My God she was beautiful. Lisa Goodman, of Brides Compleat in Kankakee decked me out in a cut-awys black tux, but I still managed to look like Riddles Barlow. My massive southside Irish family arrived by the bus loads from Chicago and packed the tiny Church on Washington Street, behind the Dean's Ice Cream plant and south of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.

My cousin, Father Bart Winters officiated along with Fathers Ken Yarno, and Irwin Savela of the Viatorians. Follwoing the Sacrement of Marriage and the wedding Mass we repaired to the Knights of Columbus, St. Viator Council across the street from the Kankakee Court House for a wedding party that danced well into the following day. It was reported that several guests maintained the festivities for a good 48 hours. My Kankakee and Chicago families merged and bonded in way that launched fifteen of the happiest years of my life. Mary went home to Christ in 1998. My three kids periodically brouse the wedding pictures.

Tomorrow, I will attend the wedding of my friends Doug and Christine who will be blessed in the dual Jewish ceremonies of the erusin and the nissuin - the former sanctifies the couple and the later launches their life together. This takes place under the Huppa -the Bridal canopy. The last Jewish wedding I attended was between my cousin John and Robin. That one raised the bar on fun and beauty.

Doug is Jewish from birth and Chritine was bpatized a Catholic but converted to Judaism. Christine was from St. Justin Martyr, over the tracks at 75th Street from my house in Little Flower, and hung out with the 69th Street Loafers. The beautiful woman who allows me to be seen publicly in her company sings Choral Music with Doug and Christine.

Tomorrow the wildly happy couple bonds with God, family and friends. Any God centered activity launches a happy outcome - happy in the purest of meanings - not Charlie Sheen happy. Happiness requires effort, humility, and selfless love. we are most unhappy without those virtues, it seems to me. God blesses our pain, as well as our pleasure. The Seven Blessings recited by the rabbi and friends seals the deal. Doug will smash the wine glass with his right foot to approving shouts of Mazel Tov, in remembrance of life's twists and turns and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. "If I foget thee, O Jerusalem . . ."

Not a chance. Mazel Tov!

Like Gay Activists Against Catholics, Chicago's No Dibs-ers Activists React and Take the Parking Spots

Marc Felion, Andy Thayer and Fausto Fernós at the Recent Feast of Fun sans Breeders


Like Gay Activists planning to shut down Mass at Holy Name Cathedral on February 13th, No Dibs-er Activists staged a protest on 108th Street Between Artesian and Rockwell. To chants of I Steer! We're Here! Get Used to it! No Cairo Chicago!Freedom!!!!!!!!! No Dibs-er Activists grabbed spots cleared by helot homeowners following the Blizzard of Ought Eleven. Tensions mount! M.O.N.T. E. Mount!

Lisping Utility Activist Andy Thayer* is calling on the massive throng of Gay Lesbian Transgender, Bisexual, Mule Lovers, and Questioning Chicagoans to stop Catholics and their . . .galling worship and Faith. Andy Thayer is an energetic and ubiquitous microphone and bullhorn aficionado (Gaza/Gay/Guacamole you name it and Andy is on it like a Chimp on Oreos) objects very, very strongly to Roman Catholic teaching. Andy Sayer. . .I mean Thayer. . . should be sure to bring along the throngs of devout Gays of Gaza membership to be sure to have a veritible Rainbow of Inclusion - The millions of Muslim Fans of the Gay Lifestyle. Then it will be a real Gay Marriage of Faiths and just not Unitarians and the usual assortment of faux-Catholic glue-sniffers.

I like Civil Unions. Andy Thayer has not even taken the bows off of that legislative package and demands Marriage. Patience, Prudence.

Get this -

The leadership of the Catholic Church has opposed every LGBT rights measure ever proposed in this state - whether for equal employment, housing, access to public accommodations or marriage. We find it galling that heretofore they, as a non-tax paying entity receiving millions of tax dollars for its social service agencies, received special rights against those attempting to exercise our 1st Amendment right to protest. The City's refusal to enforce this unconstitutional ordinance against most picketing of religious institutions is a welcome victory for LGBT rights and civil liberties in general.

The February 13th protest will focus on three demands:

*** Oppose the anti-LGBT bigotry of the Catholic hierarchy; support the many pro-equal rights Catholics organizing for change within the denomination

*** Demand full equal marriage rights in Illinois

*** Demand that tax dollars no longer go to tax-exempt religious groups that refuse to commit to equal rights for LGBT people.

For more information about the February 13th protest, email the Gay Liberation Network at LGBTliberation@aol.com

Have fun, Son, but do behave. There's little kids at Mass on Sundays and they might be questioning the goofs using naughty language and so shrill about it.

Andy Thayer is co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network (www.GayLiberation.net), a Chicago-based LGBT direct action group which has been a local leader in gay rights, anti-police brutality and anti-war organizing. As a leader in the local anti-war movement, he's helped organize most of the city's large anti-war protests for the last several years, including a march of 15,000 on Lake Shore Drive at the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He's been arrested numerous times in various protests and was recently found not guilty of two felony counts from a January 2008 protest against the Chicago visit of President Bush. Last May he was among 30 LGBT activists arrested in the 4th annual gay pride demonstration in Moscow, Russia.

Not Cairo, Andy? Seriously. Well, sort of. Not really.

Chicago's Third Big Blizzard Day 2 - Neighbors 1: Weather 0

The thirty below Hawk froze the starter on the ancient but reliable MDT Snow-blower. Fifty- eight year old muscle and lard hefted chunks and blocks of white cake along with the younger bones and sinews of my fireman neighbor. Together we opened parking spots and driveways.

Western Ave. is as open as an old man's fly.

108th Street is open, thanks to 19th Ward Streets and San Superman Steve Riordan. The guy never sleeps. Troops of St. Cajetan eighth graders picked up some dough doing the stoops and stairs and gangways of the elderly and St. Rita bound 8th grader Joe Rohan's crew cleared driveways of single moms and folks caught out in the suburbs who have yet to make it home.

Morgan Park/St. Cajetan 1; Blizzard 2011 ain't no thang!

Neighbors take care of one another and kicked the Weather's Rump . . .again.

Blizzard February 02, 2011 - 108th and Rockwell -CPD and CFD Neighbors Went to Work!

Hickey of Rockwell -“with his broad and jetty eyebrows; his square forehead, made squarer by the horizontal sweep of his black hair. I recognised his decisive nose, more remarkable for character than beauty; his full nostrils, denoting, I thought, choler; his grim mouth, chin, and jaw—yes, all three were very grim, and no mistake. His shape, now divested of cloak, I perceived harmonised in squareness with his physiognomy”



My neighbors, Sgt. Stan Salabura, CPD and Jimmy Foster CFD, did all they could to get to work for us on this snow packed and gale force winndy day - The Blizzard of 2011. Young Brian Hogan of the 107th & Maplewood block used a snow-mobile with a plow attachment to open 108th and 107th Streets at about 5 AM this morning. My son Conor and I are digging out our way to the garage in order to fire up the mighty MTD snowplow. We will be at it all day.

Firefighter Jimmy Foster is a member of the House that lost two heroes - Corey Ankum and Edward Stringer - on December 22nd. Sgt. Stan Salabura is the head of Area 2 Violent Crimes Division - his beautiful bride Becky (stunning in Red and Snow!), Vice- Principal of St. Cajetan Grammar School was out seeing Stan off. These are our 1st Responders. Nothing stops them.

I, on the hand, get distracted brushing my teeth and find no task too important not to find an excuse to make a tub of hot buttered popcorn and watch vintage Japanese monster movies.

Two Calumnies in less than a month: DA: Wife Killed Husband After Finding Hickey

MEDFORD (CBS) – A woman was ordered held without bail Monday charged with killing her husband in Medford.

Police found 34-year-old Troy Burston wounded outside a home on Exchange Avenue at 10:40 p.m. Sunday. He was not wearing a shirt and had been stabbed in the chest.

He was rushed to Lawrence Memorial Hospital where he died.Police arrested his wife, 39-year-old Shawntina Burston.

Investigators say the two had come home from a party and began arguing and hitting each other. She allegedly found a hickey on his neck and stabbed him with a cooking knife.

“This is another troubling incident of domestic violence turned fatal,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said in a statement Monday.

“We allege that the victim was fatally stabbed by his wife during an argument, sadly leaving two young children behind.”

Shawntina Burston pleaded not guilty at her arraignment Monday in Somerville District Court.

I take a back seat to no man as a selfish sinner and banished child of Eve. Nevertheless, I protest the dual calumnies printed and broadcast in the media, these last thirty days.

I have been on people's backs due to my follies, but never on a soul's neck! This I swear! . . . et ne nos inducas in tentationem; sed libera nos a Malo
A few weeks back Hickey was said to have caused a woman's stroke and now a Massachusetts couple's marital harmony has had the dagger of jealousy plunged into the heart of trust, because of Hickey.

I have not been to the Commonwealth since 1982 and I am and always have been a devout and dedicated monogamist. My affections and attentions are limited one woman - in courtship and or the sacrament of matrimony.

Moreover, I would never put asunder what God has wrought. Never!

Law in that Small Commonweal- The 19th Ward and Mayoral Blizzard

Election officials said that as of 4:30 p.m., more than 6,100 people had voted — a total only surpassed on the first day of early voting in the 2008 presidential election, when more than 11,700 people voted.

Jim Allen, a spokesman for the city's election board, said the number dwarfs the 831 on the first day of early voting in the last mayoral election four years ago. He said that suggests not only that more people are becoming accustomed to early voting but also that Daley — who typically won by huge margins — is not running. He said the widely anticipated storm might have played a role, because people see they may not be able to get to the polls later this week.

"We'll probably break 7,000," he said.

I voted yesterday. Yep, exercised the public franchise. After delivering an Ad celebrating for 100th Anniversary of the founding of Maria High School from the Men of Leo ( Sveikiname, Maria!)and chatting with my counter-part in the Office of Institutional Advancement at the great girls school in Marquette Park, I drove to 22nd District Police Headquarters to vote, but learned that the early voting was moved to Mount Greenwood Park Field House on 111th Street.

In the parking lot, I found 19th Ward Committeeman Matt O'Shea, candidate for Alderman, greeting voters and all and sundry. Matt O'Shea is model of what I like in government service. There is not a day in the week that I do not see Matt going door-to-door, attending one of the almost daily benefits for suffering families at Bourbon Street, Beverly Woods, or a local parish hall, watching grammar school sports at Beverly, Kennedy, Ridge, Monroe or Mount Greenwood Parks. The young guy is ubiquitous. Matt asked about my kids and Leo High School. It was colder than a well-digger's rump and it was clear that Matt had been out there sometime.

Politicians talk about working families, in the same way that Disney Corporation does - Family means more money for them. Matt O'Shea is a public servant. There is a huge difference. A public servant knows whom he serves. Matt greeted people by their names -"Mrs. Janusias, I saw Albert at Jewel last week! Congratulations Grannie!; Hey, Jimmy vote your heart. Yeah you too, pal and the horse you bet on - Jerk."

Jimmy was one of few people who seem to believe that every unhappiness - his fat shrewish wife, lazy kids, drinking problem and collection calls on his house phone can all be traced to the 19th Ward.

I voted my heart and head. I read the papers and more importantly I talk to my neighbors - Jimmy included: " They are all crooked, lying, thieving, pension robbing, one way bastards. Can you spot me a twenty? I'm going up to Dingers for a few. Thanks, gotta drown my sorrows."

We all snow. I am an accomplished snow-thrower myself and the real deal is fixin' to drop on us around noon. All we can do is shovel and vote. No one else will or can do it for us.




The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less

by Gerard Manley Hopkins


The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less;
The times are winter, watch, a world undone:
They waste, they wither worse; they as they run
Or bring more or more blazon man's distress.
And I not help. Nor word now of success:
All is from wreck, here, there, to rescue one—
Work which to see scarce so much as begun
Makes welcome death, does dear forgetfulness.

Or what is else? There is your world within.
There rid the dragons, root out there the sin.
Your will is law in that small commonweal...

My Cousin Bart Hickey -B.A.T. Bart's Automotive and Towing -Blind as Bat!

"Intimidator" from Jim Quattrocki on Vimeo.

My cousin Bart Hickey never had sight and never had a beef about anything. His father, Bart Hickey, trained his blind son to fend for himself - " Take out the garbage and then vacuum the basement." I remember watching my tall, tough Marine Korean War sergeant uncle with tears in his eyes, while chuckling with pride as Bartie stumbled with an arm-load of trash out to the alley at 85th & Wolcott.

Watch this video - Bart's brother Brian helped Bart name his automotive business - yes, Bart is a blind garage mechanic. " Bart's Automotive and Towing -Yeah, you know! Blind as a Bat." Bat is often used by the Irish in place of Bart or Bartholomew. Bat or Bateen.

Film maker Jim Quattrocki did this sweet video. Sweet as in nice; not like my son Conor terms something or circumstance to be 'sweet' meaning his full approval. That is for your determination.

Huge Hat tip cousins Deirdre and John.

Thackeray on Swift and Steele: My Morning's Oxymoron:Deeds Not Words in Writing

Facta Non Verba - Deeds Not Words is the motto of Leo High School. It is also a weltansschwang - a world view developing a human temperament and moral code.We can admire the talents and achievements of people without necessarily acting or aping their methods and motivations.

There are some genuinely nasty people breathing our air, folks, and many of them achieve the pinnacle of success and notoriety. Our age of group think censors opinion and inclinations of individuals who might deviate from the group. Most of group think stems from fear of embarrassment or worse. Why must Lady Gaga be accepted as a paragon of talent and taste? I'll let that one dangle.

This morning's task for your Blogger Boy is a return to the opinion of my favorite writer in the English language - not the greatest as that must be Shakespeare and not the most popular as that would be Dickens - William Makepeace Thackeray - author Vanity Fair and arguably the best historical novel of all time The History of Henry Esmond. Thackeray and Charles Dickens were contemporaries, acquaintances and rivals. Dickens is widely read and Thackeray merely admired today and that is unfortunate. Both Dickens and Thackeray travelled in and wrote about America before the Civil War: Dickens hated America and Americans ( called us 'spitting bipeds') and Thackeray loved this wild and youthful land and its people. In fact, Thackeray wrote a sequel to Henry Esmond set in Colonial/Revolutionary - The Virginians.

Thackeray lectured in America and was greeted with wild enthusiasm from Boston to Cincinnati. One of his lectures The 18th Century Humorists ( Addison, Pope, Swift, Steele, Goldsmith, and Congreve) is the source of my theme today - Facta Non Verba.

Thackeray could admire a great writer and still find him repulsive. For Thackeray a writer was no different than a baker, shoemaker, or banker. Each made money from the sales of his product. Thackeray was no better a man because of product - his books, essays, and poems. However, what a writer crafted should help his fellow man in some small way. Here is Thackeray's critical turn of mind.

Humor of the Human Heart - Thackeray's Template:

BESIDES contributing to our stock of happiness, to our harmless laughter and amusement, to our scorn for falsehood and pretension, to our righteous hatred of hypocrisy, to our education in the perception of truth, our love of honesty, our knowledge of life, and shrewd guidance through the world, have not our humorous writers, our gay and kind week-day preachers, done much in support of that holy cause which has assembled you in this place, and which you are all abetting,—the cause of love and charity, the cause of the poor, the weak, and the unhappy; the sweet mission of love and tenderness, and peace and good will toward men? That same theme which is urged upon you by the eloquence and example of good men to whom you are delighted listeners on Sabbath days is taught in his way and according to his power by the humorous writer, the commentator on every-day life and manners.
. . . I have said myself somewhere, I do not know with what correctness (for definitions never are complete), that humor is wit and love; I am sure, at any rate, that the best humor is that which contains most humanity, that which is flavored throughout with tenderness and kindness. This love does not demand constant utterance or actual expression, as a good father, in conversation with his children or wife, is not perpetually embracing them or making protestations of his love; as a lover in the society of his mistress is not, at least as far as I am led to believe, for ever squeezing her hand or sighing in her ear, “My soul’s darling, I adore you!” He shows his love by his conduct, by his fidelity, by his watchful desire to make the beloved person happy; it lightens from his eyes when she appears, tho he may not speak it; it fills his heart when she is present or absent; influences all his words and actions; suffuses his whole being; it sets the father cheerily to work through the long day, supports him through the tedious labor of the weary absence or journey, and sends him happy home again, yearning toward the wife and children.
This kind of love is not a spasm, but a life. It fondles and caresses at due seasons, no doubt; but the fond heart is always beating fondly and truly, tho the wife is not sitting hand-in-hand with him or the children hugging at his knee. And so with a loving humor: I think, it is a genial writer’s habit of being; it is the kind, gentle spirit’s way of looking out on the world—that sweet friendliness which fills his heart and his style. You recognize it, even tho there may not be a single point of wit, or a single pathetic touch in the page; tho you may not be called upon to salute his genius by a laugh or a tear. That collision of ideas, which provokes the one or the other, must be occasional. They must be like papa’s embraces, which I spoke of anon, who only delivers them now and again, and can not be expected to go on kissing the children all night. And so the writer’s jokes and sentiment, his ebullitions of feeling, his outbreaks of high spirits, must not be too frequent. One tires of a page of which every sentence sparkles with points, of a sentimentalist who is always pumping the tears from his eyes or your own. One suspects the genuineness of the tear, the naturalness of the humor; these ought to be true and manly in a man, as everything else in his life should be manly and true; and he loses his dignity by laughing or weeping out of place, or too often.

Jonathan Swift was recently raped by Hollywood with Jack Black's portrayal of Lemuel Gulliver. Dr. Swift, by Thackeray's measure was an absolutely miserable prique. The great Joseph Epstein, in a very recent edition of New Criterion, assessed Nobel Prize winner Chicagoan Saul Bellow in much the same way. Click my post title for Epstein's wonderful study of a literary giant and a human midget. But first read Thackeray on old Jack Swift!


Jonathan Swift *

If I do not love Swift, as, thank God, I do not, however immensely I may admire him, it is because I revolt from the man who placards himself as a professional hater of his own kind; because he chisels his savage indignation on his tombstone, as if to perpetuate his protest against being born of our race—the suffering, the weak, the erring, the wicked, if you will, but still the friendly, the loving children of God our Father; it is because, as I read through Swift’s dark volumes, I never find the aspect of nature seems to delight him, the smiles of children to please him, the sight of wedded love to soothe him. I do not remember in any line of his writing a passing allusion to a natural scene of beauty. When he speaks about the families of his comrades and brother clergymen, it is to assail them with gibes and scorn, and to laugh at them brutally for being fathers and for being poor. He does mention, in the Journal to Stella, a sick child, to be sure—a child of Lady Masham, that was ill of the smallpox—but then it is to confound the brat for being ill and the mother for attending to it when she should have been busy about a court intrigue, in which the Dean was deeply engaged. And he alludes to a suitor of Stella’s, and a match she might have made, and would have made, very likely, with an honorable and faithful and attached man, Tisdall, who loved her, and of whom Swift speaks, in a letter to his lady, in language so foul that you would not bear to hear it.

In treating of the good the humorists have done, of the love and kindness they have taught and left behind them, it is not of this one I dare speak. Heaven help the lonely misanthrope! be kind to that multitude of sins, with so little charity to cover them!

For Thackeray, a kind man should be emulated by his fellow creatures, while a louse could be admired. The kindest man of 18th Century British Literature, in Thackeray's estimation was Captain Dick Steele: playwright, wit, essayist, soldier and patriot.

Richard Steele **

Steele, as a literary benefactor to the world’s charity, must rank very high, indeed, not merely from his givings, which were abundant, but because his endowments are prodigiously increased in value since he bequeathed them, as the revenues of the lands, bequeathed to our Foundling Hospital at London, by honest Captain Coram, its founder, are immensely enhanced by the houses since built upon them. Steele was the founder of sentimental writing in English, and how the land has been since occupied, and what hundreds of us have laid out gardens and built up tenements on Steele’s ground! Before his time, readers or hearers were never called upon to cry except at a tragedy, and compassion was not expected to express itself otherwise than in blank verse, of for personages much lower in rank than a dethroned monarch, or a widowed or a jilted empress. He stepped off the high-heeled cothurnus, and came down into common life; he held out his great hearty arms, and embraced us all; he had a bow for all women; a kiss for all children; a shake of the hand for all men, high or low; he showed us Heaven’s sun shining every day on quiet homes; not gilded palace roofs only, or court processions, or heroic warriors fighting for princesses and pitched battles. He took away comedy from behind the fine lady’s alcove, or the screen where the libertine was watching her. He ended all that wretched business of wives jeering at their husbands, of rakes laughing wives, and husbands, too, to scorn. That miserable, rouged, tawdry, sparkling, hollow-hearted comedy of the Restoration fled before him, and, like the wicked spirit in the fairy-books, shrank, as Steele let the daylight in, and shrieked, and shuddered, and vanished. The stage of humorists has been common life ever since Steele’s and Addison’s time; the joys and griefs, the aversions and sympathies, the laughter and tears of nature.

The laughter and tears of nature is a precious blessing that is, it seems to me at times, a too easily dispensable set of commodities.

*Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish[1] satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet and cleric who became Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.

He is remembered for works such as Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. Swift originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier—or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire: the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.




**

Sir Richard Steele (bap. 12 March 1672 – 1 September 1729) was an Irish writer and politician, remembered as co-founder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of the magazine The Spectator.

Steele was born in Dublin, Ireland in March 1672 to Richard Steele, an attorney, and Elinor Symes (née Sheyles); his sister Katherine was born the previous year. Steele was largely raised by his uncle and aunt, Henry Gascoigne and Lady Katherine Mildmay.[1] A member of the Protestant gentry, he was educated at Charterhouse School, where he first met Addison. After starting at Christ Church in Oxford, he went on to Merton College, Oxford, then with joined the Life Guards of the Household Cavalry in order to support King William's wars against France. He was commissioned in 1697, and rose up in the ranks to captain of the 34th Foot in 2 years.[2] He disliked British Army life, and left the army in 1705, perhaps due to the death of the 34th Foot’s commanding officer, and with him, his opportunities of promotion. It may then, be no coincidence that Steele's first published work, The Christian Hero (1701), attempted to point out the differences between perceived and actual masculinity.

In 1706 Steele was appointed to a position in the household of Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne of Great Britain. He also gained the favour of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford.

In 1705, Steele married a widow, Margaret Stretch, who died in the following year. At her funeral he met his second wife, Mary Scurlock, whom he nicknamed "Prue" and married in 1707. In the course of their courtship and marriage, he wrote over 400 letters to her. They were a devoted couple, their correspondence still being regarded as one of the best illustrations of a happy marriage, but their relationship was stormy. Mary died in 1718, at a time when she was considering separation. Their daughter, Elizabeth (Steele's only surviving legitimate child), married John Trevor, 3rd Baron Trevor.

Steele became a Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1713, but was soon expelled for issuing a pamphlet in favour of the Hanoverian succession. When George I of Great Britain came to the throne in the following year, Steele was knighted and given responsibility for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. While at Drury Lane, Steele wrote and directed The Conscious Lovers, which was an immediate hit. However, he fell out with Addison and with the administration over the Peerage Bill (1719), and in 1724 he retired to his wife's homeland of Wales, where he spent the remainder of his life.[3]

A member of the Whig Kit-Kat Club, Steele remained in Carmarthen after Mary's death, and was buried there, at St Peter's Church. During restoration of the church in 2000, his skull was discovered in a lead casket, having previously been accidentally disinterred during the 1870s.

Sun Times Endorsement of Rahm Emanuel - Convinced Me.

Less than a week after the Illinois Supreme Court allowed Rahm Emanuel to be a native son of Chicago, the Chicago Sun Times editorial board applied the oils to the brow of Rahm and here's why.

As we see it, only two of the six candidates for mayor, Emanuel and Gery Chico, are fully up to the job. Both have the record of achievement, the toughness and the smarts to lead Chicago through what is sure to be a brutal era of budget cutting and government restructuring, while at the same time protecting and advancing those assets and attributes that make Chicago great.

Emanuel stands apart from Chico, however, in his relative independence from city contractors and unions. Because Emanuel largely made his career in Washington, he simply owes fewer people here.

"Relative Independence from contractors and unions ( Oh, bother those nasty contractors and unions)" annnnnnnnnnnnndddddddd "he simply owes fewer people here!" Do he owe a whole passel of folks elsewhere, do he?

Hey, Sister and Brother Rubes! And you think the Wednesday Snow Job will be something?

My path is clear! I'm getting me to the Polling Place at the CPD Morgan Park 22nd District, today to cast my vote for . . . one of the six candidates for Mayor of Chicago!

Tribune Report on Egypt Protest - Solid Work by Reporter Dan Hinkel!

Chicago Tribune reporter Dan Hinkel identified the creeps and professional stooges attempting to hijack the legitimate grievances of Egyptians and Egyptian Americans. International Solidarity Movement (ISM) works with many anti-American and Marxist groups to destroy Israel masked as human rights do-gooders. The Hamas Flotillas last summer was planned in Cairo - Bill Ayers and his odious life partner Bernardine Dorhn have made numerous trips to the Middle East -Cairo in particular. Kevin Clark of ISM coached the naive Rachel Corrie who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer and Chicago Utility Activist (Gay Everything/Hamas/anti-Police) Andy Thayer are constant presence - Kevin Clark was behind the Catholic School Girls assault on Worshipers at Holy Name Cathedral and always manages to escape the notice of the Chicago Media. Nine SEIU/ISM activists were subpoenaed by a Federal Grand jury for work with Hamas and FARC in Columbia.

Today, one Chicago reporter identified the clowns.

"A smattering of socialists, anarchists and anti-Israel protesters joined their ranks, all under the eyes of uniformed police."

Now, let's have a solid follow-up.

Here's Kevin Clark doing his moral high ground medicine show in Chicago last June in solidarity with Hamas. Watch this Israel Hating creep and let's give Kevin some front page attention.

Fr. Tony & The Beatitudes - Protection from All Anxiety: Foreign and Domestic

I went to early Mass at St. Cajetan Church. I usually go to the warmth and simplicity of the more traditional services at Sacred Heart, but was treated to a wonderful homily on the Eight Beatitudes by a young priest from the faculty of the wonderful Mount Carmel High School here in Chicago. Leo Men admire all Catholic schools - Catholic Leaguer rivalries not withstanding.

Mount Carmel is shepherded by the Order of Carmelites, one of the four Orders of Friars in the Catholic Church ( Carmelites, Dominicans, Franciscans and Augustinians) and the young men of Carmel are graced with committed men like Mount Carmel Graduate Father Tony Mazurkiewicz*.

The Carmelites were founded in the Middle East. The Middle East is in turmoil and the world is gripped with anxiety - Coptic Christians were slaughtered during the Christmas season in Egypt, subsequent democratic protests gave way to riots, looting and terror. Tunisia and Yeman are locked in revolution and Israel is again under siege.

American activists have coordinated with Hamas and Islamist enemies of the West in the foolish assumption of solidarity. The outcome of events is in the hands of God, but man's pride demands megaphone loudmouths and sinister political agents opportunities to deconstruct Humanity.

A simple Spanish girl, a Carmelite, St. Theresa of Avila spoke in the Middle Ages, when Muslims and Christians alike slaughtered themselves and Jews, about prideful man.

Father Tony reminded us of this at Mass. In speaking to the Gospel, Father Tony talked about his work that brings Mount Carmel High School students and poor women in Chicago's inner city together. The young men in Brown tutor single mothers in math and reading in order to help single mom's manage household budgets. These young men are living the Beatitudes:

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Verse 3)
Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land. (Verse 4)
Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted. (Verse 5)
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill. (Verse 6)
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. (Verse 7)
Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God. (Verse 8)
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. (Verse 9)
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Verse 10)

Father Tony summed up the Beatitudes in the words of St. Teresa of Avila. "Humility is to keep within the bounds of truth." Father Tony explained that humility lets us know where we stand with God -not in place of Him.

The young men who wear the scapular of Mount Carmel - you shall know them by these signs: Rolled Brown MC baseball caps and the tightly rolled brown cloth scapulars around their necks - helping single moms with poor math and reading skills are genuine activists. These tough kids are giving and helping and will do so all of their lives. One of those kids played football at Mount Carmel and later at Yale - he could have become anything in this world; but did one better.

The Solidarity and Moral High ground public figures could learn much about Justice from the humble young men, like the priest who said Mass at St. Cajetan's and young men he shepherds. Faith and Humility spark action. In Sousa's Semper Fidelis March, the lyrics are anything but politically correct:

". . . For many men profess their loyalty to true democracy yet bow to mockery
and bend the knee to aristocracy, for to live their creed their need is small.
And may men proclaim their worthiness, display their lowliness, disclaim their earthiness.
Oh give us strength to seek true holiness, and in word and deed to heed the call!" Semper Fidelis

Mount Carmel Men, Leo Men, Marines, Simple Citizen Patriots and Priests live the Beatitudes.

May God grant me a little of what it takes and what good people possess.

Father Tony Mazurkiewicz, O.Carm.



*

Mount Carmel graduate Tony Mazurkiewicz, a Carmelite priest, looks at the period in history when he attended the school on the wall at the Convocation Center at the South Side school. (Joseph P. Meier/SouthtownStar)

Enrollment at Yale University.

Again being named a football captain.

Reported membership in the Skull and Bones, a very elite Yale-based "secret society" whose members are believed to include former U.S. presidents William Taft, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

A degree in history from the Ivy League school.

Mazurkiewicz managed all these accomplishments as a young man.

But there can be more to life than a career of power and prestige in political or business or athletic circles.

Just ask the man now better known by many simply as "Father Tony."

The blond, broad-shouldered Mazurkiewicz is a Carmelite priest teaching at Mount Carmel, and like many clergy, he is not concerned with those things. He has taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Mazurkiewicz, 36, instead finds peace in daily prayer, the brotherhood of the Carmelites, teaching students and serving others.

"It's like weaving our lives with God," he said. "It's like a big sewing machine."

In August, he started teaching morality to juniors at Mount Carmel - in the same classrooms where he started his own spiritual journey.

The teenage years

Mazurkiewicz grew up in Glenwood, where he lived with parents Larry and Laura and his sister, Tina.

While he was in eighth grade, he decided to attend Mount Carmel after watching a varsity football game.

Once he started high school in 1988, Mazurkiewicz quickly demonstrated his talents in both academics and football. His Spanish teacher, Father "Padre" Benjamin Aguilar - now a fellow Carmelite - said Mazurkiewicz aced his daily quizzes.

Aguilar also noted Mazurkiewicz's interest in religion and suggested he think about becoming a priest.

"I think I saw that he was just a very disciplined young man," Aguilar said. "He had a lot of energy as well, a lot of passion.

"Whenever I spoke about a religious topic or an ethical topic or a moral topic, he was always all ears. He was like a sponge."

But this wasn't yet the time for Mazurkiewicz to hear his calling. He was focused on his studies and winning football games.

During his freshman and sophomore seasons, he played defensive back and running back for the Caravan. When he moved up to the varsity, he played safety.

"At the time, I loved the hitting," Mazurkiewicz said. "The physical side of the game was good for me to let go of the energy."

Mount Carmel alumni director Jim Civik said Mazurkiewicz was a starter on the 1989 and 1990 state championship teams. His teammates named him a captain for his senior year. School officials said he recorded 115 tackles and eight interceptions during his varsity career.

Don Sebestyen, a former Mount Carmel defensive backs coach who is the principal at Providence Catholic High School, called Mazurkiewicz one of the smartest kids he coached.

"He had a killer instinct," Sebestyen said. "He knew how to use it and bring it on, and you got to game day and he'd turn it loose - I'm glad I wasn't playing against him."

Although he was a hitter on the field, it soon hit Mazurkiewicz that there was a bigger picture. He said his senior year retreat, Kairos, played a pivotal role in his spiritual life.

"It was an eye-opening experience with God," he said. "(But) I wouldn't have considered myself a 'holy roller' then and not even now."

Mazurkiewicz graduated from Mount Carmel in 1991. He was third in his class - behind two valedictorians - and he was accepted into Yale University.

The Yale years

The success Mazurkiewicz had in high school continued at Yale. He majored in history and played strong safety for the Bulldogs.

The teams were less successful than he was used to at Mount Carmel, going 3-7 his sophomore year, 5-5 his junior year and 3-7 his senior year. But Yale sports publicity director Steve Conn said Mazurkiewicz was a team captain there his senior year and he led the defense with 41 solo tackles, 56 assisted tackles and three interceptions.

Throughout his football career, he attended church every Sunday, football wounds and all.

"We'd have running, and then we'd go to Mass," he said. "You'd see a row of guys with ice bags going to Mass."

Mazurkiewicz graduated from college in 1996 with a degree in history. Spurred by his father, a Vietnam veteran, he wrote his senior thesis about the Vietnam War. The paper detailed the Tet Offensive's effect on Marines' morale.

Not knowing what to do upon graduation, he signed up for the Peace Corps. But he didn't follow through, instead accepting a teaching gig at Mount Carmel in 1997.

Later that year, a full-time teaching job opened up for him on the East Coast. He taught Spanish, English and history in Boston in a sixth- through eighth-grade public school run by the Edison Project, a for-profit education firm run by a former Yale president.

While in Boston, he applied to and was accepted into the master's program at Harvard University's School of Education.

"I was looking online at the classes, and most of them were theology classes," he said. "Any conversation about God seemed interesting to me."

Journey to the priesthood

Mazurkiewicz returned to Mount Carmel Hi gh School in 2000 after Aguilar reached out to him. His former teacher suggested he might want to live with the Carmelites for a year in the campus priory - with no obligation.

"The Carmelites have a combination of community life, prayer life and ministry," Mazurkiewicz said. "I had been in so many communities, and this seemed to fit."

Mazurkiewicz wrote a letter asking the Carmelites if he could live with them for a year, and they agreed to it. Once again, he taught at the school and coached baseball and football.

Mazurkiewicz said his parents were surprised by his decision, but they wanted him to be happy. In fact, his mother now works as the secretary to Mount Carmel president Father Carl Markelz.

"My dad was looking for an early retirement with the Yale degree," Mazurkiewicz quipped.

As part of his path to becoming a Carmelite, Mazurkiewicz lived from 2001 to 2002 in a Carmelite home in Houston, living a life of daily prayer and communion.

The following year, he lived, prayed and meditated in a Carmelite home in Middleton, N.Y. He spent six months at Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino, Calif., then worked at St. Agnes, in Phoenix, Ariz., from 2003 to 2005.

Mazurkiewicz enrolled at Washington (D.C.) Theological Union in 2005, earning degrees in philosophy and theology in 2009.

In May 2009, Mazurkiewicz became an ordained priest. He served his first year at St. Raphael Parish in the predominately Latino South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles.

As of August, he is back at Mount Carmel, teaching morality to three junior classes and making recruiting visits to elementary schools.

Outside his job, he likes playing basketball, skiing and fly fishing when he can. An avid reader, Mazurkiewicz enjoys historical books, as well as the works of Hermann Hesse, who authored Siddhartha, which is about a boy's spiritual journey.

Typical of his order, Mazurkiewicz is a humble man. He had reservations about being featured in a story, wanting the focus to be on his Carmelite brothers. Mazurkiewicz lives with them in a Carmelite house at 54th Street and University Avenue in Chicago's Hyde Park community.

Every morning, the Carmelites awaken at 6 a.m. for prayer, silence, Mass and the singing of psalms. The evenings end more or less the same way.

"This has happened for centuries on centuries," Mazurkiewicz said. "To continue that commitment to prayer has been life-giving."

Egypt - Welcome Back Carter Redux: Are the President's Viziers Helping Tack The Bad Guys?

As Tunisia was exploding with texts and Tweets, Tunisian cab driver picked up the lady I love in Chicago's Gold Coast. The cabbie remarked, "This is Historic! I came to America because I could not make a living in Tunis and now with technology thousands of my people are making a change."

Thousands of people have Tweeted the call for change across the Middle East. Egypt, long an American ally is broiling. Yeman, where Islamist terrorists launched the attack on the U.S.S. Cole and established training camps for Al Quaeda, is bursting with protest. Among the thousands of people - not the first wave of protestors - the enemies of man lurk to pounce on power.

Power is what this is all about: political power for the Marxist Islamists. Once the wave of protests begin the cobweb creatures of control scurry out and toss bombs and bricks and bullets. The subsequent crackdowns ensure that the Whole World Watches.

This is Tehran 1979 all over again. President Obama is of the very same intellectual mind-set as Jimmy Carter -empty platitudes eclipse policy and statesmanship.

Thus it is all about The First Person in Chief, "When I was in Cairo, shortly after I was elected President, I said that all governments must maintain power through consent, not coercion," Obama added. "That is the single standard by which the people of Egypt will achieve the future they deserve." Always.

Last evening, President Obama all but tossed Hosni Mubarak to the Muslim Brotherhood - a clique of anti-Western fanatics that has assassinated with impunity and carefully managed a public relations enterprise that British Petroleum could have used in the recent Gulf Oil Spill. Since 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood has employed Fascism in its pre-WWII anti-British Campaigns and morphed Soviet Communism under Gamal Naser to wrest the Suez Canal in 1956 and melded Islam with International Marxism and Terrorism from the constant warfare with Israel and the West into this terrible and bloody Millennium.

In 1979, I watched the over throw of the Shah of Iran via the old timey Network News (CBS,NBC,ABC) and saw President Carter, for whom I worked to become President, dither and mouse the wave of events that brought a Theocratic Despotism and all of the slaughter of the democratic demonstrators who actually toppled the Shah - a louse of the first order. Dr. Carter's Advisers were Ramsey Clark types* - American Navel Gazers who wallow in collective guilt and flagellate scorn on every aspect of the American and Western way of life. These are the tweedy mopes who actually find poignancy in the deconstructive and divisive yowlings of Noam Chomsky and dimmer bulbs like Bill Ayers ( who has made frequent visits to Cairo on behalf of Hamas with his odious life partner Bernardine Dohrn - imagine that) and Ward Churchill. Policy in Education trumped scholarship and esoteric Marxist rhetoric ended discourse in the last thirty years.

Trendy DeConstructionists and semiotic totalitarians* ( homage to Gary Saul Morson NU Tolstoy scholar and Slavic languages expert)replaced serious humanists and the canon became as watered down as Miller Beer.

However, the dangerous coffee-table scribes are academics with genuine talents like Edward Said. I studied Said in graduate school at Loyola of Chicago in the 1980's under Dr. Alan Frantzen. Frantzen was respectfully dismissive of literary text critiques that deconstruct meaning in a book in order to control dialog among people. Northwestern University Tolstoy expert, Gary Saul Morson, calls such clever and fashionable charlatans 'semiotic totalitarians.'

Semiotic Totalitarians emgage in preemptive censorship. They reduce language to signifiers ( Bill Clinton's "That depends upon what 'IS' is.") Thus langauge means anything and nothing. Most recently, President Obama's address on Egypt last night - “We urge the Egyptian authorities not to prevent peaceful protests nor block communications, including on social media sites. . . ."continue to stand up for the rights of the Egyptian people and work with their government in pursuit of a future that is more just, more free and more hopeful."

No matter what Mubarak does, says, or even thinks this White House, which harkened back to President Obama's Muslim lecture in Cairo a couple of years ago will favor "the rights of the Egyptian people and work with their government in pursuit of a future that is more just, more free and more hopeful." The Muslim Brotherhood and the viziers around President Obama ( Hamas friendly, anti-American Exceptionist, and semiotic totalitarian thick) will see to that, I am afraid.

If President Obama is President Carter ( even Vice President Biden refused to call Mubarak a dictator) we may witness the fall of Mubarak, a deconstructed Egypt and solid base of power for some very bad people - the Muslim Brotherhood.


Only last week, a prominent voice of Obama thought, Jim Wall - leftist secularist religion writer ( how's that for deconstruction) called upon the Obama Administration to get more Islmaist and anti Israel.

Obama and Khalidi were close enough so that when Khalidi was being honored before he left Chicago for New York, State Senator Barack Obama was the main speaker at Khalidi’s going away dinner.

That dinner later emerged as a campaign issue during Obama’s primary struggle with Hillary Clinton, when Obama’s relationships at the University of Chicago were first used to paint him as a political radical. Khalidi was linked in that “radical attack” on Obama with Professor Bill Ayers, a former Weatherman, and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s outspoken United Church of Christ Chicago pastor.

When Obama became president of the United States. he unfortunately did not turn to his colleague Rashid Khalidi for counsel on the Middle East. Instead, he continued the practice of his two presidential predecessors, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and surrounded himself not with viziers, but with courtiers.

Nizámu’l Mulk gives a definition in that same Medieval Sourcebook on the subject, On the Courtiers and Familars of Kings which includes this 11th century definition of a courtier:

*to·tal·i·tar·i·an, adj.
of or relating to a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state
sem·i·o·tics, n.
the study of signs and symbols, how meaning is constructed and understood

Capitol Fax Brag - Change History -" No Fact, Just Brag"

Rich Miller has a clearing house of Illinois political news. He also pens prose musings for the Sun Times. Capitol Fax Blog then gins up approval of Miller's columns like Hedley LaMarr whoops up the boys for Governor LePetomain. "I didn't hear a Harrumph, from that guy! ( Harrumph, Harrumph, Harrumph!)

Today Rich Miller portays Civil War historian Shelby Foote with am Illinois factoid that perfectly matches the Media's demand that Rahm be ballot worthy - he is; they did. Even Miller's Civil War guy defeated the vile post-Bellum Appelate Court of Illinois. Here is where Gabby Miller snaps his galluses - them's suspenders, Son - too broadly, over-plays his hand and tosses out facts that are looser than a box of snuff:

A few years ago, former Chicago Schools CEO Paul Vallas wanted to run for office in Illinois but was told he couldn’t. Unlike Judge Smith and Rahm Emanuel, Vallas sold his Chicago house when he moved to Pennsylvania. He registered to vote in Philadelphia and then he voted there. He made his intent crystal clear with those actions, so he couldn’t run for office in Illinois.

Smith and Emanuel, on the other hand, had no intention of ever becoming citizens of another state, and they clearly proved it. Case closed.

If Rahm’s elected mayor, he ought to name a street after Judge Smith.

Well, Suh! Facts are Troub'lim' things - It was the summer of '05 -August 4 to be Preezact and Paul Vallas sold his house in Morgan Park to be sure - some time ter'other when Blago won and Paul went to Philly, but purchased a home in Palos Heights after having rented for five years - loooooooong before he took a charge at running for anything . . . but he was not allowed to do, by dint of "Chicago Circuit Court Judge Raymond Jagielski siding with the Illinois State Board of Elections and Cook County Clerk David Orr, granting their motion to dismiss Vallas' petition to be declared an Illinois resident."
. You see, H'yar, Sharon and the boys, live up this away and Paul commuted on weekends, but the ink-slingers did not see a Judge Smith parallel - No, Suh! You see that election in '06 was Blago Happy Days and Media Hugs! Yes, Suh! Time for my vittles and branch water! Elihu, bring on my spoon vittles and meat provenders! ( spits wad of Mail Pouch Plug)

Rope 'em Rahm Sings - Back on the Ballot Again!

It's not the roundin' up and the ropin' and the brandin' of the cattle , er voters . . . that's the big problem for Jolly Ranchers. It's gettin' 'em to market - hundreds of bone weary miles from the southern tip of Morgan Park to the railhead at Ravenswood. That's where I come in. Political Favor's my name, I mean Rahm Emanuel . . . er, - trail boss.


I'm back on the ballot again
Out where a friend is a friend
Where the Lakefront L'brals feed
On medic'nal wacky weed
Back on the ballot again

Ridin' the high wave once more
Totin' my old Joey Moore
Where you sleep out every night
And the only law is right
Back on the ballot again

Whoopi-ty-aye-oh
Rockin' to and fro
Back on the ballot again
Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back on the ballot again

I'm back in the ballot again
Out where a paper's a friend
Where the Lakefront Li'brals feed
On medic'nal wacky gypsum weed
Back on the ballot again

Ridin' the range once more
Totin' my old Joey Moore
Where you sleep out every night
Trib 'n Times twist Laws right
Back on the ballot again

Sing it Like Gene would! Gene Autry !




Whoopi-ty-aye-oh
Rockin' to and fro
Back on the ballot again
Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back on the ballot again

Wishbone, anyone?

Sun Times Editorial Board's Reality Check - 2012 One Billion Dollar Reality.

2012 - One Billions Dollars!!!!

. . . .We have defended Emanuel’s right to be on the ballot in two earlier editorials, leading some to question whether we would have so forcefully run to the defense of a less prominent candidate.

In truth, probably not, though the same legal and common-sense arguments would apply. But it is precisely because Emanuel is no also-ran in this election — polls show he is the favorite of almost half the voters — that ruling him off the ballot would have been a travesty.

Tens of thousands of voters effectively would have been disenfranchised.

Now let’s get back to what should be the real issues in this election — the quality of our schools, the safety of our neighborhoods, the soundness of our city’s finances.

Although, let’s admit it: This was a fascinating education.

Editor, Please!

Last night I watched the debate and "Working Families" was repeated more times than Charlie Sheen has been taken to the ER.

Working families, like quality schools ( read CPS same-old-same-old), the safety of our neighborhoods ( read anti-gun marches to stop the violence and trot out Burge every three weeks for a hate fest) and soundness of city finances ( read more boon-doggles) add up to President Obama's Billion Dollar 2012 Campaign*.

Rahm Emanuel might make a good Mayor. However, the Hosannas coming from the Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times editorial boards and iconic ink-slingers do the math for us "working families." Working Families like the Pritzkers, God Love 'Em!

Creation of an outside group by an obvious Obama insider, or a major donation from a high level Obama supporter, such as Chicago fundraiser Penny Pritzker, to an existing group.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47596.html#ixzz1CKwzRDOM

Most Chicagoans read and remember - Group Hugs by the Media: Olympics/Small School Initiative/Guns Kill People/Pencils Flunk Students.

With the Reelection of President Obama will come One Billions Dollars for Working Families! The Working Family Mayor will be on the 5th Floor.

President Obama's Campaign 2012 is in the blocks and will be bankrolled by an estimated One Billions Dollars. Chicago is Headquaters. Dave Axelrod is pulling the switches. Rahm Emanuel's service to his country these last two years has paid off handsomely. Andy Shaw is running the BGA. Can't get better than that. Except for Working Families, Cops, City Workers, Home Owners, Firemen, Skilled Tradesmen, Kids and future homicide statistics.



*

Obama and 2012: The first billion dollar campaign?
Rick Moran
It's more than a possibility. Obama spent $750 million to get elected in 2010 and an incumbent president has even more opportunity to rake in the cash.

Chris Cilliza on the reasons Obama might raise that almost unthinkable amount:


First, he collected $750 million while running as a senator. He'll now be running as a president, which should allow him to clean up financially to an even greater extent, thanks to the power of incumbency.
Second, the continued development and maturation of Internet fundraising over the past four years means that the $500 million - yes, you read that right - that Obama raised online in 2008 could well be topped in 2012, noted Ben Ginsberg, a top Republican lawyer who served as an adviser to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential bid.

Third, the growth of a shadow Republican Party of outside groups - epitomized by American Crossroads, which spent $70 million on the 2010 midterms - should help fuel Democratic donations to Obama. (It remains unclear whether a Democratic-aligned outside group - or groups - will form to siphon off some of those donations.)

While the pieces are clearly in place for Obama to crest the $1 billion fundraising mark in 2012, some skepticism remains - even among his supporters - about the president's ability to reach that lofty mark.


That skepticism may be well founded. Certainly the small donations that sustained the campaign through much of the primaries will probably be down as many of the young have lost faith in The One. But that may be offset by many more "bundlers" who will seek to curry favor with the incumbent.


One thing is nearly certain; Obama is not going to raise less than the amount he gathered in 2008. That should put the GOP on notice that they must do a much better job or, as in the campaign against John McCain, Obama will leave Republicans in the dust with his fundraising.

Boss Quigley Endorses Rahm Emanuel for Mayor! Congressman Steps Up, Because He Has To . . .

The big name yesterday was Congressman Mike Quigley. Tribune Editorial genius Bruce Dold handled the debate between Mayoral Candidates with all of the gravitas of a one armed man at a greased pig wrestle off. The seven Illinois Supreme Court Justices ruled unanimously that Rahm Emanuel can and will run for Mayor of Chicago. Yet, it was the career coat holder, Mike Quigley, the Uriah Heep of Illinois and now national politics who took the signet ring and hot wax into his stubby fingers and endorsed Rahm Emanuel - the man who made The Terror of Tiny Town a U, S. Congressman.

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, who replaced Rahm Emanuel in Congress, will endorse Emanuel for mayor Thursday.
In a telephone interview, Quigley said he is backing Emanuel because he believes he is the only candidate who would exhibit “enough grit to stand up to interests” and solve the city’s budget problems.

“You have to be tough enough to say no and make the budget fit reality,” Quigley told the Chicago News Cooperative. ” . . .“We walked through what I meant by reinventing government,” Quigley said. “When I told people that, everybody said to me, ‘Baloney, you guys talked about politics.’ Honest to God, we talked about tax-increment financing. Rahm doesn’t need any help with politics.”

Quigley disputed the notion that Emanuel’s close ties to Daley and other Chicago politicians make it unlikely that he would truly reform City Hall.

“Everybody is an insider,” he said. “I don’t even know what the hell that means. All of the big issues — public safety, education, everything — all fail if you don’t deal with the budget issue. He understands those things.”

Yep, tough enough to " make the budget fit reality." Mike knows from years of tailoring off-the-rack duds and adjusting chairs and drawers to 'fit reality.' Nothing is beyond his grasp.

More so, Wee Mike readily admits that the canard of "insider/reformer" is one tough package of Oreos to open, “Everybody is an insider,” he said. “I don’t even know what the hell that means."


Talk about a Huey Long-esque Slogan "Everybody is an Insider!" Come on in!

It takes a tall perch to look up to Mike Quigley.

Oh, yeah! Rahm will sail into the Fifth Floor Suite!

Stunner - Kanye West Offered No Relief to Australian Flood Victims - West Hates Cobbers!

Ozzys ain't on Kanye's shilling sling. Af'ta all Bush maltreats the Abos.

Bloke I know in Perth sent me this message - Why ain't Kanye West helping the people of Brisbane? He was all over the New Orleans blow.

Fair suck of the sav*! Nothin'? Well, Ole Hickey'll toss a couple of coppers your way, Cobbers! ( click my post title)

To give the Pompous coit his due, Cobbers, Kanye was busy closing Fatburgers in Orland Park, Illinois.

*Saveloy - British, Scottish, Welsh, Australian sausages ( fish and chip variety) akin to hot dogs; thus double entendre like 'Eat Me!' as an exlamation of surprise.

President's Car Stuck in the Snow - Rhetoric, GW Bush, S. Palin, Fox Network and Alderman Ed Burke Admit Complicity

Dang that there Global Warming. Had we but more GE Prodducts like them twisty exploding lighbulbs, we'd be in great shape: Islamist Terrorist would cash-in the C-4 and become Rotary members; Rahm Emanuel would stay on the ballot; Keith Olbermann would find gainful employment; Big Ed Schultz will finally get that Gary, Indiana sized burp-up and I could become more mellow a fellow and see the world through the eyes of a four year old child, or at least a columnist for Huffington Post.

Yep, snow's a coming! Yesterday, the President himself had his Bridgestones stopped in pelting flakes and goo.

WASHINGTON – Heavy snow and icy roads Wednesday night created hazardous condition for President Barack Obama as he returned to the White House from a trip to Wisconsin.

The wintry weather grounded Marine One, the helicopter that typically transports Obama to and from the military base where Air Force One lands. Instead, a motorcade met Obama at the base, and the line of vehicles spent an hour weaving through rush hour traffic already slowed by the storm.

It normally takes the president's motorcade about 20 minutes to travel between the base and the White House.

The president cut short his post-State of the Union trip to Manitowoc, Wis., to try to beat the snow. But by the time Air Force One landed in suburban Maryland shortly before 5 p.m., heavy snow was falling and driving conditions had deteriorated.

Dang, Gibbs will blame the ususal suspects - Tea- Party Grannies, Swedes, Arcola Cheerleaders, GW Bush, the Wasilla Wonder Woman, Moose Lodge 527, and William Bendix.

Cops are Smart Folks - Much Smarter than Politcians. Give City Employees a Tax Break for Living Here.

The late Billy Higgins,CPD, who went home to Christ on January 9th, 2010, was a brilliant man - witty, insightful and honest. He had absolutely no PC blood in his veins and was equally critical of fools regardless of race, creed or color. Billy was an Equal Opportunity Ball Buster.

Billy Higgins caught a murderer in downstate Illinois, at the request of a police department sent to Supt. Terry Hilliard. Billy analyzed the information sent to CPD by the downstate detectives and identified the murderer of a young girl, who was subsequently arrested, convicted and imprisoned for life. Billy was an Area 2 Homicide Detective who along with his partner Det. Martin J. Tully (ret.) held the highest homicide closing records for years.

Cops are some of the smartest people I know. The other day, the issue of residency for cops, firemen and other city workers came up. Only Carol Moseley Braun, of all the candidates clearly and honestly articulated the realities of such a move - middle class flight. By middle class, Senator Braun means white exodus from Edison Park, Sauganash, Garfield Ridge, Hegewisch, Clearing, Scottsdale, Beverly, Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood - that is where white cops, firemen and city workers live.

On Second City Cop Blog a commenter offered this concerning the Residency Issue -

If u have a home in the city , it's the worst idea. Your house will not have a buyer all the police neighborhoods will loose value and sit on market waiting for a buyer for a very long time. How about giving us a tax break instead for living here.

Understatedly elegant and brilliant!

Carol Moseley Braun alone artculated the realities of the residency rule problem, but a cop articulated the solution.

Cut taxes for City Employees forced to live here.

Leo Men Keep the Lion's Roar Robust at This Inner City Lighthouse!

“Oh when those Leo men fall into line ...” and a long, generous and committed line it is!


Yesterday, was a typical day at Leo High School. I got in a little before 6 AM, after treating my readership to a couple of posts - topical and just plain fun. I opened mail from Mrs. McMahon of Florida who sent in a check in remembrance of Tim Sullivan '39 who went home to Christ in December. I had a Leo hat signed by the National Honor Society circulated among the students that will be sent to Mrs. Rose Rita Sullivan for a memorial for Tim Sullivan in Naples, FL. I talked to the energetic and studious Jeremy Clark of the Freshman Class who arrives at Leo shortly after me each day and must be kicked out of the place after his Freshman Basketball duties - Jeremy is an A Honor Roll student and a kid who cannot help exerting his talents over and above the call of duty. Jeremy worked the Veterans Observance in November and is present at every school event and activity. Like I said, the best hours of his day are spent within the walls of Leo High School.

The Walls and infrastructure were built in the 1920s. After Jeremy had gone to class, the chief of maintenance Ronell Reynolds reported that some plaster had fallen. Phil Mesina called contractor Lloyd Fuller who is an older model of Jeremy Clark. Lloyd sent his sons to Leo in the 1980's, drives the basketball team, attends every Leo event and is one of the top African American contractors in Chicago and Leo is in the wallet that Mr. Fuller opens to the "Lighthouse" on 79th Street. Lloyd sent tradesmen before the 3rd period.

Presdent Dan McGrath and Principal Phil Mesina supervised and accessed the damage with the plasterers. Vice Principal Fran Wilson, the Leo High School Gunny, a Marine, educator and Christian gentleman made the academic rounds. All the while the real work of the school was being done by the young and committed faculty - Mike Holmes, football coach and Admissions Director, attended property hearing on three lots Leo will acquire; Ms. Kurta, the Guidance Counsellor reported on college acceptance to Marquette, DePaul, Iowa State, Boston College and University of Illinois for members of the class of 2011; Ms. Aurora Latifi, Leo's Albanian born math teacher and Bookstore Chief, shepherded the gents through the arcana of Algebra and Calculus. I researched some grants.

Ms. Natasha Adams rushed to my cubicle with a UPS Express Envelope. It contained a letter from a Leo Alumnus Class of 1969 who is in the Insurance Business. Here is some of the letter

Dear Pat,

It has been a while since we have spoken, I would like to contribute the enclosed check to Campaign Leo ( our Fall Mailing) to support the great work that all of you are doing at the school. I continue to be amazed by your progress, The School is a lighthouse in the inner city and provides students a good education by Christian adults. . . . Please use these funds to continue your excellent work. . . .

and it continued.

This gentleman is no Bill Gates. Like most Leo guys, he is successful. More importantly, like all Leo Men he is equipped with a massive heart. Leo has guys who give huge sums of cash, but more importantly come to the school and mix with the kids. Frank McDermott is at every Leo Basketball game hours before tip-off . . .of the JV Games. Guys from the 1940's like Jackie Schaller, Lou Knox, Bob Hylard Dick Prendergast, Jimmy McNicholas, Don and Jack Hogan, Bill Koloseike, and Bob Joyce are at every event - like Jeremy Clark, Leo Freshman.

The enclosed check was for $ 25,000. I was gobsmacked. . . again. No wonder I'm slug-nutty.

Leo's Brawny Stalwarts do not 'wait the sign' as the school song goes, but their collective 'might against the foe (poverty, ignorance, cruelty,secularism) is hurled.'

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

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

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

Let Rahm run. Then repeal Arnold's Law.

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

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

The Tribune wants Rahm on.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*

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


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


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


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


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


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


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

Abdon M. Pallasch

When Catholics Might Be Driving Too Fast

The use of the traffic gun, or stop light cameras might have had an impact on American lead-foots, but Catholics have long had an edge over other drivers and divinely were signalled to ease up on the gas.

Devotion has its rewards. Piety just might have negated confrontations with officers of the law who may have offered, " Mr. Hickey, are you aware that you were going $ 50 over the speed limit?" God forbide.

Much thanks to Veteran and Patriot, Iron Mike McQuade of California, USA.

If I Load the President's Teleprompter, Tonight's SOTUS Address

One way to be very happy is to be very rich ( pause)
For then you can buy orchids by the quire and bacon by the flitch. (Do The Mussolini)
And yet at the same time People don’t mind if you only tip them a dime,
Because it’s very funny ( Smile Look around an point to a Republican Senator)
But somehow if you’re rich enough you can get away with spending water like money ( Blow a Kiss at McConnell)
While if you’re not rich you can spend in one evening your salary for the year
And everybody will just stand around and jeer. ( Do the Mussolini again and hold it)
If you are rich you don’t have to think twice about buying a judge or a horse, ( chuckle to yourself and then get real serious)
Or a lower instead of an upper, or a new suit, or a divorce,
And you never have to say When, ( Laugh like Glenn Beck)
And you can sleep every morning until nine or ten,
All of which
Explains why I should like very, very much to be very, very rich.

The United States, America ! Let's Give it up! Thank you!