Historical Art Genre Takes Political Turn - Artist Jon McNaughton

"You can look at a picture of an artifact for days and still not know it. But examining it in your own hands reveals its texture, its substance and how it works,. . . There has been too much distortion over the years. I believe the more accurate the presentation is, the clearer our image will be of our heritage. It is a far better way to honor our ancestors." Don Troiani -historical artist.

A former Federal officer sent me an e-mail with the controversial art of Jon McNaughton attached.

I immediately was reminded of the Revolutionary and Civil War presentations of Don Troiani. Several of his works appear on the walls of Fox's Pizza Resaturant at 100th & Western Ave, depicting the Irish Brigade at Antietam being blessed by Catholic Chaplain Father Corby of Notre Dame. And Clear the Way - the Charge of The Irish Bridage at Fredicksburg*


The work above by Mr. McNaughton presents President Obama standing on the U.S. Constitution to the applause of a few former President, but a general attitude of shock and dismay from most. Most significantly is the center piece of the work - The Forgotten Man on the bench.

This is very good representational art. The painter identifies the theme, heroic or forelorn, and places the sweep of history's personailities and events into a framed context.

I expect, Mr. McNaughton to take more heat than any Guggenheim sponsored dabbler who toseed execrement at the Virgin Mary, or descrecrated the Torah.

Some folks demand to tell us what is correcrt; hence the gent on the bench.


*On a cold December day, 1862, the 28th Massachusetts, part of Brigadier General Meagher's Irish Brigade, fought a valiant but suicidal assault at Fredericksburg.

http://www.historicalartprints.com/aboutus.php

Obama Paloozza II, or Grant Park Reducks

The Obama Campaign 2008 resembled a Leni Riefenstahl (or was that Reni Liefenstahl?) production and McCain/Palin Campaign was like Wagon Train without Ward Bond.

Obama had doric columns in his Denver Parthenon and John McCain showed up somewhere.

Obama was on a half-shell high above Olympus and Strobe-lighted and John McCain had a Polaroid Land-camera album of his carrier days.

Obama had Campaign Stuffed with gold and McCain had old gum, lint, popcorn kernels, toe-nails, and some coins found in the couch in the rumpus room.

Barack Obama wanted to win big like a kid on Star Search; McCain thought it might be nice.

Thus, we have The Making of a President 2008 for Dummies.

Now, we are hip deep in an the orchestrated Orwellian howl-hootenanny 2012. President Obama will face Someone. It could be a new Thomas Jefferson, a new Roland Burris - Someone 2012's got my vote.

I am backing and voting with all of my heart and soul, time, treasure and talent, for Someone 2012!. Someone was, is and shall be better choice than President Obama. If John McCain had tried even a little he would have been President, but he allowed Governor Palin to do all of the heavy lifting.

I like Barack Obama in same way, that I like many Illinois politicians. Barack Obama comes from the Protected Panjandrum species - Ald. Brendan O'Reilly, Sheila Simon, and Chris Kennedy. They are the " Where the Hell Did He/She Come From?" only a hen-scratch better than the Ain't They Greaters. They come fully funded by someone, or some group and get appointed or slotted into an easy to win race. Obama v. Keyes e.g.


I dislike a very few - Mike Quigley, Forrest Claypool, Tony Preckwinkle and of course Jan Schakowsky. They are Ain't They Greaters -moved from post to post and office to office, more to get them out of town, or out of the way than anything else.

Then there are "What Can You Do?" goofballs - seemingly harmless dopes who have the backing of far more competent persons. These officials, like Blago, Sen. Roland Burris, Sen. Dick Durbin and former Gov. Pat Quinn, never fail to disappoint.

President Obama, in my opinion, will go down in history as the worst President since James Buchanan and just slightly worse than Jimmy Carter. However, given the GOP's tendency to do political seppuku at any moment, he has a slim chance of holding onto the White House in November. President Obama helped only the Abortion Industry - Planned Parenthood in his term of office. Oh, and he allowed a Navy Seal Team to rub-out Osama. Hell, I could have done that, bit no one asked me.



Oh, really?, say thee.

Sure. Without citing the Corporate Sponsorship of Obama Bundler and Hyde Park Mogul John Rogers ( ex. of Desiree Rogers), explain Arne Duncan.

Take your time and use all of your notes; this is open book.


Dave Axelrod is planing another Grant Park Obama-palooza Obama Palooza II. Like Lalapalooza, perhaps the Obama Campaign will asked to pay for the park, finally.

I wonder if the bill from 2008 was paid. Probably written off by Daley, in exchange ofr the Distinguihsed Harris Professorship at U of C.

Presidential advisor David Axelrod said Thursday that the location hasn't been discussed.

"But, you know, our [campaign] headquarters is here. The president's heart is here. So, you know, I think that will help guide our decision-making," Axelrod said.

Axelrod said he would like the festivities to be in Chicago.

Remember these?


* "Press File Seat - $935 (includes 1 Press File Credential, seat in heated Press File Tent, Power, Cable Television, High Speed Wired Internet Service, Catering)"

* "Radio Position - $715 (includes table space and chair behind the riser, power and an ISDN BRI line for radio -- comes with two credentials)"

* Obama's top donors--not the masses who donated the $5, $10 and $25 the campaign brag about--will have VIP access throughout election night and received an early heads up a week ago to plan to spend Election Night in Chicago.

Now, did the Obama 2008 Campaign up on all of the Grant Park Obamapalooza I?

Before, what just might be . . .
check the ledgers.


Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/politics/Obamas_Bill.html#ixzz1lKeSib49

http://chicagoist.com/2008/10/21/obama_goes_ticketmaster_on_media.php

Leo High School: The Walgreen's Building at 79th & Halsted - No Story Here, It's Under the Rubble Getting Hauled Away

Since Tuesday afternoon, the heavy traffic on 79th Street between Morgan and Halsted is . . .absent.

Yesterday, Leo President Dan McGrath and I walked over to CVS on the south side of 79th at Halsted. Dan and I frequent buyers at CVS. The Ladies told us that once the building collpased and the demoltion began that the Occupy Walgreens were looking for new habitats. These are famous Chicago Rattus Norvegicus* Occupiers. Business was way off all around the commercial hub.


The Liberty Tax dancers were now taking up positions in front of Leo High School, as well.

This morning, when I pulled into the faculty lot on the south side of 79th Street just west of Leo High School, I was asked by a young guy where he might pick up a bus. He needed to go west. I tyold him that his best bet was to hike over to the Halsted Terminal at about 80th Street.

I could have stretched out in the middle of 79th Street and taken a nap, it is that free of traffic.

Our west parking lot is part of a complex that includs an artifically turfed practice field enclosed by Rickie Daley wrought iron. There was once a monastery whioh housed the Irish Christian Brothers until 1991. In 1995, Leo President Bob Foster demolished the monastery at a huge cost to Leo High School, in order to keep the neighborhood safe. Foster then ordered his staff to find a means of acquiring the entire block of empty, or struggling buisiness buildings between the site of the monastery and Morgan Street.

That was accomplished by 1998.

All the while the building that collapsed on Tuesday was owned by the Nation of Islam,whicj also had buildings and a huge restaurant on the north side of 79th Street including the still unoccupied and operated Salaam restaurant, as I recall. On the south side in the Walgreen's Buildings there were a few offices with Final Call signs above 79th Street that were occupied . In 2004, the City of Chicago aquired the buildings, built the same year that Leo High School opened -1926. Leo is no where near collapsing.

These buildings were built! However, they do come with aresponsibility to maintain what was built. They are quality constructions and bitch and half to demolish.

In fact, Heneghan Demolition which Leo High School contracted to demolish the delapidated monastery and business block to its west, is doing the demolition at Halsted. They do painstakingly great work.

It took Heneghan an entire summer to take down the Irish Christian Brother Monastery - that place had more reinforced concrete than Hitler's Bunker.

That beautiful old building was neglected for as long as I have worked here at Leo -1995 - at the moment. There was a tree growing out of the roof of it.

Bob Foster kept Leo High School vital and its campus healthy. When the monastery built in 1950, by Father Pat Molloy of St. Leo Parish for use of the Christian Brothers, was abandoned, Bob Foster did not want its shell to become a hazzard in waiting. Bob Foster acted and Leo High School added to the health of the Gresham neighborhood.

The opposite is true of the terra cota facade of ownership and responsibilty for the Walgreen's Building that collapsed and injured four people.

As the saying goes, "$hit happens." It happens all of the time and the truth about the blocked streets, re-routed buses, interruption of commerce and the rat-catching due to the habitat relocation will be hauled away in the trucks of the Heneghan Demolition Company.

*Norway Rat -These “super rats” can reach 16″ in length. Each female rat can give birth to 20 pups in her lifetime. Some factors affecting rat populations in cities include continuously mild winters, weather-related disasters, and encroachment of their habitats by new urban development. They have been living rent free in the Walgreen's Building for decades now.

Cappy Dick says, " What is the Number of Cop Convictions for Police Torture Proven in Court?"

" Burge tied my shoes too tight! It was Hurtful! It was Wrongful! Where's my Money, Flint?"


Tortured is the logic of the wrongful conviction, Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers, Hep-cat columnists and kittenish editorial boards. If you believe hard enough, really, realy hard enough and can quote from John Conroy it is satisfyingly verifiable and therefore true. Every convicted thug is a victim. Anything used to convict Mr. Kill-all is torture and we all hate torture.

Torture is magical!

After the actual torturers and murderers of two Chicago Police Officers (Fahey & O'Brien), the celebrated thugs the Brothers Wilson, became the Mumia-lite for Chicago's Progressive Machine, Leftists became 1%-ers - Jon Loevy, G. Flint Taylor, Locke Bowman & etc.

Today, Police Torture that now includes, any form of interrogation hit the Illinoi Supreme Court, which vote 6-o in complete agreement with popular opinion.

The court’s 6-0 decision represented another milestone in the long-running saga of Burge and his crew of officers, who repeatedly have been accused of torturing African-American suspects in the 1970s and 1980s at a South Side police station.

Defense attorneys had feared that any break in the court’s tough stance would lead to the kind of abuse seen during Burge*’s tenure. Prosecutors had hoped that the court would issue a ruling allowing them to use tainted confessions when the other evidence against a suspect was overwhelming.

“We believe that this type of coercion by the state ...constitutes an egregious violation of an underlying principle of our criminal justice system...” the court wrote.

The vote in the case was 6-0 because Justice Robert Thomas did not take part in the case.

Here's aquestion for the court - when has any cop ( Burge, Beavers, or Brezyak) been convicted of torture?

Waiting ................................................................!


I find it wonderful, that people of faith continue to firmly believe in that which can not, nor ever will be proven.


*In October 2008, Patrick Fitzgerald had Burge arrested on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury in relation to a civil suit regarding the torture allegations against him. On April 1, 2010, Judge Joan Lefkow postponed the trial, for the fourth time, to May 24, 2010.[1] Burge was convicted on all counts on June 28, 2010 and sentenced to four and one half years in federal prison on January 21, 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge

Your Morning Smear of Obama "Yeah, Butter" - The New Anti-Catholic Meme

Planned Parenthood (Abortion) Made President Obama

Progressives are "Yeah, but" -ters. Yeah butters.

No matter what evidence is placed before a Dewey Doctrinaire there is always "Yeah, Butter" -

"Yeah, but . . . Bush created the mess."
"Yeah, but . . . We are to blame for Islamic Terror."
"Yeah, but . . . Catholics are homophobic racists."
"Yeah, but . . . Don't you care about the children? They are being born, People!
"Yeah, but . . . Police ALWAYS torture murderers"
"Yeah, but . . . 1%-ers like my Dad made me a 99%-er in a cardboard box in Oakland."
" Yeah,but . . . Where is the Catholic Church's outrage at the Republicans' support for war, the death penalty, and tearing great big gaping holes in the social safety net?"

To which I generally cock an eybrow and query, "Pardonnez-moi, mais avez-vous été sniffer de la colle?"


Today, the Boston Globe's Joan Vennochi offers the latest meme -slather of "Yeah, Butter" - concerning Obama's HHS Choice Mandate.

Catholic Institutions without regard to Catholic values must pay for abortifacients, condoms, and birth control pills as part of any health care plan.

Here is the "Yeah, Butter, du jour.

But not all employees of Catholic institutions are Catholics. Why should their employers impose their religious beliefs on them and deny coverage for birth control and other medical care? As long as those Catholic institutions are getting taxpayer money, they should follow secular rules. That’s the Obama administration’s argument, and it makes sense.

Well, gee. How does Joan assume that? People are hired without reghard to race, creed or color, per Federal Fiat.

Therefore, she can only assume that some employees might not be Catholic.

Joan says, "Obama isn’t trying to undermine Catholicism. He’s telling Catholic leaders they can’t regulate the beliefs of those of other faiths."

YEAH, But!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Girl, Please!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone has a but! Did I spell that correctly?

Emersonian Irony: Breast Cancer - No Longer a Woman's Health Issue

Consistent Progressive Moveon.org will take a shoe-horn to out of step Breasts Cancer Battler Susan G. Komen.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines RW Emerson

The Dowagers and the Lefties have a collective hinder binder due to the Susan G. Komen For the Cure Foundation's wise and sweet decision to deny Planned Parenthood -Abortion America - future grants. John Dewey called that an unsatisfactory result.

No one, not a Pope, not a bishop, not any Thomistic philosopher is as goofily consistent as a Progressive. The Progressives will never disappoint and always live up to low expectations, because once Progressives have an idea visit their closeted collective mind, no force on earth can change the Outcomes, consummatory experiences, as old John Dewey taught them. Dewey taught that ethics and values are mere hypotheses.

Butting their horny heads against facts, let alone the more metaphysical verities, hurts like hell, but can not stop a Progressive. Now, Breast Cancer is trumped by Abortion -surgical and chemical - as a woman's health issue.

So, cordedly uncomfortable are the collective cougar thongs that Moveon.org is soul-patching its knit hat wearing Trotskies out in defense of national infanticide.

Moveon.org launched a campaign Wednesday against the “the world’s largest breast cancer organization” Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

“Susan G. Komen for the Cure just cut all its funding to Planned Parenthood for breast health screenings, bowing to anti-choice pressure and making breast health care suddenly inaccessible to many women,” the liberal group wrote in an email to supporters.

Komen announced Tuesday night that they will no longer be awarding the abortion provider Planned Parenthood with grants due to a new policy prohibiting Komen from giving to institutions under investigation by government bodies.

Planned Parenthood is currently facing a congressional investigation into whether taxpayer funds went toward abortions.

Ouch.

The trolling menstrual minstrels offering comments across the blogosphere and former print news sites will be all carpal tunnelled up clicking and sending tropes and memes.



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/01/moveon-org-launches-campaign-against-susan-g-komen-for-the-cure/#ixzz1lE6bQvHs

Leo H. S. Retires # 91 Football Jersey Don Flynn and Neighborhood Says Goodbye to a Landmark

Leo 58, St. Ignatius 54 was the final score of the varsity basketball game last night in Leo's iconic Brother Finch Gym (3rd Floor).

The St. Ignatius Freshman and Sophomore teams soundly beat our Leo Lions by 9 points apiece, but the gents of the varsity saved Leo from a an Iggy Sweep.

They had help from the spirit of # 91 Donald F. Flynn, Class of 1957. Don Flynn went home to Christ in October after decades of powerful support to his teammate Bob Foster and Leo High School. Don Flynn was a self-made mega-millionaire, who never forgot that he was a poor kid from St. Kilian's Parish.

On the football fields of Shewbridge and those defended by Mount Carmel, St. George, St. Rita, Fenwick, Mendel, and before a crowd of tens of thousands of fans in Soldier Field, Don Flynn scared the livers out of scores of Catholic and public school football players.

With Don Flynn's passing, Leo marked the passing of great heart and meaty set of hands always ready to give more and more. Therefore, before the start of the varsity game, Leo President Dan McGrath paid tribute to Don's brother Bob, his son Kevin and his wife Susan and his four grandchildren, and Don's faithful and long-time secretary and friend Yvonne Sperandeo, as well as thirty plus friends and family members and permanently retired Leo football jersey number 91.

Having bested the Lions at the lower levels, St. Ignatius gave the varsity a contest Don Flynn would be proud of - taking an early lead in the double digits. By the start of third quarter, the Lions methodically chipped away at those numbers and gave Leo and the Flynn family a well-earned victory.

East of Leo, the old Walgreens Building on the south east corner of 79th & Halsted collapsed onto Halsted. Four people were injured, but no loss of life, thanks be to God. The men and women of the Chicago Police Department's 6th District are keeping people safe as they always do.

79th Street has changed since the early 1900's when that beautiful terra cotta bedecked building dominated the corner - Franks Department store was torn down years ago. Leo helped the city of Chicago take down a bock of abandoned buildings between Sangamon and Morgan Streets. St. Leo Parish was closed and a treatment center for veterans stands under the Lombardy bell tower of the church. The Chapel of St. Leo in Leo High School that once hosted the over-flow crowd of Catholic worshippers is now the cafeteria for Leo students who dine under a crystal chandelier that once loomed above the altar with the north wall allowing light through stained glass windows dedicated to Our Lady.

The mission remains the same. Leo students, like Don Flynn, have the opportunity to rise above circumstances and challenges.

Things disappear and sometimes collapse. The spirit of Catholic values are here to stay.

St. Cecilia Pray for Us - A Musical Collaboration Unites America's Michael Moriarty and Chicago's Dan Robinson

Let us pray. O Eternal God, who gave us, in the person of Saint Cecilia, a powerful protectress, grant that after having faithfully
passed our days, like herself, in innocence and holiness, we may one day attain the land of beatitude, where in concert with her, we
may praise you and bless you forevermore in eternity. Amen.

Two great musicians are working on the prayed for premier of an original work. Michael Moriarty*, celebrated actor, musician, composer and defender of unborn children has written a string quartet - musical presentation that usually consists of two violinists, a violist and a cellist. The work from the time of Haydn has four movements. Dan Robinson**, director of the St. Cecilia Choir of St. John Cantius, has taken Mr. Moriarty's work, transcribed the manuscript and played it through to determine that it should be presented in public.

Michael Moriarty, most known as a stage, screen and television actor, symphony for strings was first performed in St. Louis and again at the New York City. Of this work performed as part of the Bachanalia Festival at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan,CAROLINE STOESSINGER, the cathedral's artistic director said,
"Bach said he wrote music for the entertainment of the soul. Michael Moriarty is an entertainer who writes in a contemporary idiom, influenced by jazz and highlighted with memories of 18th-century counterpoint."


I am working to scare up some funding ( a modest $ 7,000-$8,000) in order to secure a venue, pay musicians for rehearsals and the concert. During my post-Leo hours, I am hitting up possible patrons or a solid corporate citizen (Bank or Business) in order to help this collaboration between two talented men some funding.

If you love music and you appreciate the labors of talented people, let's pray to the Catholic Muse of Music - St. Cecilia. Not only that, if you have any ideas about helping to bring this work to life here in Chicago - leave a comment. Thank you!

Everybody!(repeat after each line) Pray for us. Saint Cecilia,

Saint Cecilia, wise virgin,(Pray for us. Saint Cecilia, & etc.)

Saint Cecilia, whose heart burned with the fire of divine love,
Saint Cecilia, apostle by your zeal and charity,
Saint Cecilia, who converted your spouse and procured for him the crown of martyrdom,
Saint Cecilia, who by your pleadings moved the hearts of pagans, and brought them into the true Church,
Saint Cecilia, who did unceasingly see your guardian angel by your side,
Saint Cecilia, who mingled your voice with the celestial harmonies of the virgins,
Saint Cecilia, who by your melodious accents celebrated the praises of Jesus,
Saint Cecilia, illustrious martyr of Jesus Christ,
Saint Cecilia, who during three days suffered most excruciating torments,
Saint Cecilia, consolation of the afflicted,
Saint Cecilia, protectress of all who invoke you,
Saint Cecilia, patroness of holy canticles,
Saint Cecilia, special patroness and advocate of all singers, musicians, authors, and students,

*

Michael Moriarty's Music
New CD
[5-7-00] A Voice in the Wilderness (working title) -- Michael will be in the recording studio soon!

Great Find:
An album, "The Highest Standards" from the mid-80s contains a song, "You'll Never Walk Alone" featuring Michael playing the harmonica.

Production Company: Plug Records
Producer: David Lahm.

Michael Moriarty's Jazz CDs
Reaching Out
Sweet 'n Gritty
The Michael Moriarty Quintet Live at Fat Tuesday's April 12, 1992


The New York Times has called Michael Moriarty "a jazz pianist of considerable skill."

Michael Moriarty's Classical Tape
The Music Of Michael Moriarty
Symphony For String Orchestra, conducted by Michael Moriarty
Psalm For Solo Violin, Nina Beilina - Violinist
The Kaufman Symphony For Chamber Orchestra
Simplicity
A CD with William Feasley, guitar & Vladimir Lande, oboe
From a review:
"The little-explored combination of oboe and guitar has managed to find a
small but unique repertory for itself. The sharp, dark overtones of this kind of
ensemble work best with lyrical modern music, as in Ibert's dramatic Entr'acte,
Karl Pilss's lovely neo-classic Sonatine, and a serious, ruminative piece (Simplicity)
by Michael Moriarty (yes, the actor!)..."

**

St. Cecilia Choir and Sine Nomine Ensemble
Daniel V. Robinson, Director

In addition to serving as one of the directors of the Sine Nomine and St. Ceclia Choirs at St. John Cantius, Daniel Robinson is music director of the Great Lakes Dredge and Philharmonic Society in Chicago. He has also guest-conducted the a cappella ensemble Bella Voce. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and graduate degrees in music from Stanford University. He studied conducting with Robert Shaw, Clayton Krehbiel, John Ferris, Howard Swan, Weston Noble, and Richard Rosewall. He was founder and music director of Basically Bach. Previous church choir work includes stints with the Harvard University Choir, the Harvard University Summer Choir, the First Unitarian Church in Danvers, MA, and the Stanford Memorial Church Choir.

My Own Anti-Abortion and Traditional Marriage PAC Anti-Endoresements

This is gal is all Personal PAC. I'm agi'n it.


I would like to thank the Infanticidal Dowagers and their handmales at Illinois Personal PAC, a subsidiary of Planned Parenthood Abortion Industries, or Kidz R Dead! This group of wealthy secularist harpies and dandified fops provided a swell palm card on whom to vote against in the March Primary.

In my neighborhood, Rep. Kevin Joyce (35th D.) was a fierce warrior for women and children and therefore opposed to Illinois Personal PAC. In fact, Kevin Joyce, now the Athletic Director for Ave Maria University, demanded that his replacement be anti-abortion.

I was disappointed to see the name of the candidate for my Illinois (35th) Representative District accepting an endorsement for Personal PAC - Fran Hurley. Love the young woman! Can't give her my vote. Choice, as they say, is about health. I have two other vote choices - Andy Hodorowicz and Anthony Martin. Don't know Anthony, but I know the Hodorowicz Family. Great folks.

This last Saturday, the former Employee of Year for Texas Planned Parenthood Abby Johnson* spoke to anti-abortion voters and citizens in Oak Brook. Abby Johnson, author of Un-Planned her story of the abortion industry that is Planned Parenthood smartly challenged the myth that Planned Parenthood is anything but an abortion mill universal.

Fran Hurley should have attended Speakout Illinois 2012; Kevin Joyce would have done so. Accepting an endorsement by Personal PAC is a deal breaker.

However, it does provide a swell reverse palm card for Illinois voters!

Here is a list of candidates for whom one should not cast a vote -ever . . . for anything.

2012 Primary Election Endorsements
Personal PAC Endorsements
March 20, 2012 Primary Election

Additional endorsements will follow in the coming weeks

Cook County
Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court: Dorothy Brown (D)
Cook County Recorder of Deeds: Karen Yarbrough (D)
Cook County State’s Attorney: Anita Alvarez (D)
Illinois House of Representatives

HD 001 – Daniel Burke (D)
HD 002 – Edward Acevedo (D)
HD 003 – Luis Arroyo (D)
HD 004 – Cynthia Soto (D)
HD 005 – Ken Dunkin (D)
HD 009 – Art Turner (D)
HD 010 – Derrick Smith (D)
HD 011 – Ann Williams (D)
HD 012 – Sara Feigenholtz (D)
HD 013 – Greg Harris (D)
HD 014 – Kelly Cassidy (D)
HD 016 – Lou Lang (D)
HD 017 – Laura Fine (D)
HD 018 – Robyn Gabel (D)
HD 019 – Robert Martwick (D)
HD 021 – Rudy Lozano (D)
HD 024 – Elizabeth Hernandez (D)
HD 025 – Barbara Flynn Currie (D)
HD 026 – Christian Mitchell (D)
HD 027 – Monique Davis (D)
HD 028 – Robert Rita (D)
HD 029 – Thaddeus Jones (D)
HD 030 – Will Davis (D)
HD 034 – Elgie Sims, Jr. (D)
HD 035 – Fran Hurley (D)
HD 038 – Al Riley (D)
HD 039 – Maria “Toni” Berrios (D)
HD 040 – Deb Mell (D)
HD 043 – Keith Farnham (D)
HD 044 – Fred Crespo (D)
HD 050 – Kay Hatcher (R)
HD 056 – Michelle Mussman (D)
HD 057 – Elaine Nekritz (D)
HD 058 – Scott Drury (D)
HD 059 – Carol Sente (D)
HD 059 – Sidney Mathias (R)
HD 061 – Ed Erwin (D)
HD 067 – Charles Jefferson (D)
HD 068 – Carl Wasco (D)
HD 071 – Mike Smiddy (D)
HD 078 – Camille Lilly (D)
HD 080 – Anthony DeLuca (D)
HD 084 – Alex Arroyo (D)
HD 084 – Stephanie Kifowit (D)
HD 084 – Carol Cheney (D)
HD 085 – Emily McAsey (D)
HD 092 – Jehan Gordon (D)
HD 097 – Tom Cross (R)
HD 098 – Natalie Manley (D)
HD 103 – Naomi Jakobsson (D)
HD 114 – Eddie Lee Jackson (D)



Illinois Senate
S 01 – Tony Munoz (D)
S 02 – William Delgado (D)
S 03 – Mattie Hunter (D)
S 04 – Kimberly Lightford (D)
S 05 – Annazette Collins (D)
S 06 – John Cullerton (D)
S 07 – Heather Steans (D)
S 08 – Ira Silverstein (D)
S 09 – Daniel Biss (D)
S 09 – Mark Levine (R)
S 10 – John Mulroe (D)
S 11 – Martin Sandoval (D)
S 13 – Kwame Raoul (D)
S 14 – Emil Jones, Jr. (D)
S 16 – Jacqueline Collins (D)
S 17 – Donne Trotter (D)
S 20 – Iris Martinez (D)
S 22 – Michael Noland (D)
S 23 – Tom Cullerton (D)
S 26 – Amanda Howland (D)
S 28 – Dan Kotowski (D)
S 29 – Julie Morrison (D)
S 30 – Terry Link (D)
S 31 – Melinda Bush (D)
S 39 – Don Harmon (D)
S 40 – Toi Hutchinson (D)
S 42 – Linda Holmes (D)
S 46 – David Koehler (D)
S 52 – Mike Frerichs (D)
S 57 – James Clayborne, Jr. (D)

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District
Debra Shore (D)
Stella Black (D)
Kari Steele (D)

Judicial

Judge of the Supreme Court – 1st District, Fitzgerald Vacancy: Mary Jane Theis (D)

Judge of the 1st Appellate Court – 1st District, S. Cahill Vacancy: Mathias Delort (D), Mary Brigid Hayes (D)

Judge of the 1st Appellate Court – 1st District, Gallagher Vacancy: Marguerite Anne Quinn (D)

Judge of the 1st Appellate Court – 1st District, S. O’Brien Vacancy: Jesse Reyes (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County, Moran Vacancy: Russell Hartigan (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County, O’Mara Vacancy: Diann Karen Marsalek (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County, Pucinski Vacancy: Lorna Ellen Propes (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County, Simmons Vacancy: Michael Forti (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County, Stewart Vacancy: Deidre Baumann (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 8th Subcircuit, Chiola Vacancy: Celia Louise Gamrath (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 8th Subcircuit, Cole Vacancy: Brad Trowbridge (D), John Ehrlich (D), Helaine Berger (D), Ellis Levin (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 8th Subcircuit, Durkin Roy Vacancy: Deborah Gubin (D), Sharon Finegan Patterson (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 8th Subcircuit, A Vacancy: Laura Liu (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 9th Subcircuit, Epstein Vacancy: Mary Trew (D), Abbey Fishman Romanek (D), Larry Axelrood (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 10th Subcircuit, Locallo Vacancy: Thomas Allen (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 12th Subcircuit, Rochford Vacancy: Andrea Schleifer (D), James Murray (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court - 16thJudicial District 2nd Subcircuit, A Vacancy: John Dalton (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court - 19th Judicial Circuit 2nd Subcircuit, A Vacancy: Patricia Fix (D)



Additional endorsements will follow in the coming weeks - I will be looking forward to them!

If it is Personal PAC, Terry Cosgrove's Powerhouse of Planned Parenthood Plunder, I am against it. Nothing good comes from abortion or those who accept their bloody nonsense.

HT to a commenter at 19th Ward.com

Illinois DCFS Grants Abuse - granted by the Illinois Progressive Machine

Your Illinois Progressive Machine's Steve and Eydie

Some years ago, both Chicago newspapers and the blow-dried blow-hards on the idiot box took up the sanctimony and faux outrage over some Father John Smyth* who could not say no to helping any child and the fact that Illinois Department of Child and Family Services heaped the work of caring for children on his broad shoulders. Illinois "thought" about the children -Oh, My God!!! They are being cared for at Maryville and so many mental health professionals linked to the Illinois Progressive Machine are doing without!

Recently, in the wake of post-Blago hand-wringing there have been a few morsels in print concerning the looting of tax-payers' dollars via grants to DCHS providers -absent Father Smyth. Perhaps it had more to do with the fact that Father Smyth wore a stiff collar and black suit, but I tend to think that some in the media were upset over the confusing spelling of the man's last name.

An easier to sell more familiar Smith contracted up for grants without oversight.

A new Smith emerged - Dr. George E. Smith - a mental health professional with at least four companies doing a husky business with the State of Illinois.

Back in October, Chris Fusco and Dave McKinney trotted out the tale of old school improprieties that were long in place, but rocked a tad when State Sen. Ricky Hendon abruptly resigned following his impassioned work on Greg Harris's Religious Freedom and Civil Unions legislation -

While introducing Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, Hendon told the crowd that he had "never served with such an idiotic, racist, sexist, homophobic person in my life... If you think that women have no rights whatsoever, except to have his children, vote for Bill Brady. If you think gay and lesbian people need to be locked up and shot in the head, vote for Bill Brady." Hendon's remarks were immediately disavowed by Governor Quinn, among others, and Hendon was sharply criticized by members of the Illinois media. Hendon later tried to apologize to Brady on the Senate floor, but Brady would not accept his apology

One hand soaps up the other and hearty foam makes for lathery larder of opportunity!
Gay Lesbian Transgender BiSexual and Questioning issues and agenda link up with public pension deals, woman's need to commit infanticide, avoid the death penalty, right wrongful convictions and make sure that needy children all over Illinois provide mental health professionals the opportunity to lift at least $18 million dollars in grants to nowhere. If it is Progresively sanctioned it is costly, useless, and divisively combative, it always seems.

Rep. Greg Harris got his Civil Unions and immediately conducted a Father John Smyth on Illinois Catholic Social Services -stripped Catholic Charities of the right to direct adoptions of children by a husband and wife. Thus, clearing the path for more systemic opportunities, like those enjoyed by Dr. George E. Smith, it seems, and other Progressively networked grant grabbers.

Let's take a gander at this weekend's unconnected DCHS dots by Tribune Investigative reporters. Rickey Hendon seems absent since October and just who were the legislative God Daddies at Chicago State University anyway? One mght ask.

But Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza said the wrongdoing may go further, as the state only investigated contracts Smith held dating back to 2008. Smith has been doing businesses with the state since 1986.

“This investigation could literally have taken us another year-and-a-half or two to uncover,” Meza told House lawmakers. “There had to be a point at our office where we decided that we thought that even though we did not fully uncover every piece of misconduct that Dr. Smith may have engaged in, we had to issue the report.”

Pressed if it was possible that more than $18 million in tax dollars were misspent, Meza said, “I think that’s a fair statement…we may never know.”

The Illinois attorney general’s office is investigating in an attempt to recoup some of the money, and federal grand jury subpoenas have named some of Smith's companies among records sought from state agencies, including Diversified Behavioral Comprehensive Care.

Meza said the investigation’s scope was limited partly because agencies are only required to keep documents for three years, a timeline lawmakers said they will push to extend.

Legislators also said they will also seek changes to the state’s Ethics Act, which prevents many cases of wrongdoing by state workers from being made public. The allegations against Smith’s were laid out in a report that contended former DCFS director Erwin McEwen failed to properly oversee grants. McEwen and Smith are longtime friends, and McEwen eventually refused to cooperate with investigators.

Under the law, reports are made public if it leads to an employee being fired or being suspended for three or more days. McEwen resigned, but a lower-level employee was suspended for five days, leading to the report’s release by the Executive Ethics Commission.

The commission could have redacted the majority of the report not dealing with the suspended employee, but decided to make the findings public.

Lawmakers also lashed out against Gov. Pat Quinn for not firing McEwen when the administration received the initial report last May. Instead, McEwen was allowed to stay on the state payroll through September.

Quinn general counsel John Schomberg said the administration wanted to give McEwen “due process” and “provide for additional transition time” as it searched for a replacement.

Schomberg said ethics laws also placed the governor’s office “between a rock and a hard place” because if they fired McEwen, they were not allowed to say why until the report was made public.

It was an argument Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, found lacking.

“What does one have to do to get fired working for Gov. Quinn?” Franks said. “If it was the private sector you would have opened yourself up to lawsuits for absolutely negligence. And I think that’s what’s happened here.”

What does it take to get fired by Governor Quinn?

Why, the Okay of Terry Cosgrove, Barbara Flynn-Burris-Currie, Greg Harris, Dawn Clark-Netsch, Dr. Quentin Young and the legion of lesser lights of Progressive Illinois, you silly man.

By the way, Diversified Behavioral Comprehensive Care. ain't that a company name that just cries out for Progessive approval?

However, the smoke screen is up and wafting cover for these committed ninnies and their attendant swag-grabbers -everyone is huffing and puffing about Speaker Madigan, the only competant adult in Springfield.

If the news media was in anyway concerned they would look carefully at the Progressive Machine and witness some real villians at work doing some lusty looting.

No outrage over this here financial mess at DCFS from any Public Guardian? Well, judge not the protected few and thou shalt be a judge, I reckon.

*

Murphy has called Maryville "a financial mess," and two monitors for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services have called for a financial audit of the institution, which got $62 million last year from taxpayers. Maryville also has a $100 million endowment.


Smyth said he welcomes any scrutiny of Maryville's books and plans to comply with other demands the monitors made in a report that criticized the institution's treatment model as outdated. DCFS Director Bryan Samuels said Wednesday the monitors' suggestions must be met within 60 days or the state will remove 160 wards it has at Maryville's main campus.


"I have no problem with the 10 or 11 things DCFS has put into the contracts," Smyth said. "We'll meet them within 60 days, and that's plenty of time."


Those issues include the audit, staffing levels and better employee-retention policies for Maryville

http://chicagoist.com/2010/10/24/rickey_hendon_blasts_bill_brady_cal.php
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/10/quinn-disavows-hendon-comments-rips-brady-on-social-issues.html

http://www.rickross.com/reference/maryville/maryville1.html

Google Adsense Subtracts Catholics - Obama Counts on It.

In Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), the $22-billion-a-year online-advertising Goliath, Obama appears to have found a corporate kindred spirit. Google executives, led by CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, are scary smart and supremely self-confident (much like the President himself), and despite their company's growing power, they depict themselves as advocates for consumers.

"What we shared is a belief in changing the world from the bottom up, not from the top down," Obama told Google employees during a 2007 visit to its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Money.CNN.com

Google refused to allow advertisements on a Catholic Blog because Catholic was 'negative and pornographic.' Photos of Our Lady? Saints?

Can this be merely a coincidence? I have been using Google Blogger for a few years, as a writing pad. My penmanship, once rather nice, thanks to the Sisters of Mercy, deteriorated through decades of teaching, which requires the signing of quick-notes that began in 1975Please admit Gabriel Horn to 6th period, as he was enjoying full, rich flavor of Virginia tobacco in the second floor men's room, he should have been much more industrious and gone into the faculty men's room near the boiler room which goes unoccupied, until Sherwood changes the oil on # 3 bus, takes the Kankakee Daily Journal in with him and occupies that august currule chair until school dismissal. Thank You Hickey, English. and devolved to G.Horn >6th> PFH( indiscernible as a Doctor's note).

I write, as has been my practice, each and every morning. I don't get paid - I don't do ads.

Most Bloggers pick up candy and smokes money by offering Ads -on Google via AdSENSE.

The information highway offers more than communication and information. It is the Sears Roebuck of the World. It is also Slippery Dan's House of Knockers and Rumps.

Pornography has been with us since paleolithic man* smeared stuff on cave walls. Art is often pornographic and intrusively offensive like the Mapplethorpe and his disciples, which always manage to find cave space at the Guggenheim. I am an unsophisticated man.

I like Dogs Playing Poker and Pool, but I appreciate the contributions made to Art by people of Faith -Cimabue, Raphael, Giotto, Tintoretto & etc.

Art is always political and so, it seems is Google. I read this in Chicago Now of the Chicago Tribune.

A few days ago I put in an application to Google AdSense to be on my blog. What that means is there would be an ad on my blog, and if you click on that ad, I would get paid a little bit. I don't get paid now, so I thought it might be worth a shot.

I waited patiently as other bloggers got approved within hours in some cases or days. I finally contacted them and this was the response I got:

"Your ads are not serving to your site is because we have noticed you have
negative or pornographic content. Please remove this content and allow 48
hours for ads to begin serving. If you believe that your site has been
flagged incorrectly please let me know.

The Good Folks at Google

The blogger continued -

I've been writing this blog since November of 2010. I've never used a swear word in the headline. I've never put up an inappropriate picture. I have, however, written about being Catholic and what that has meant to me, my family and friends.

I have written about abortion and the scandal within our Church involving sexual misconduct by our priests. I wrote about my great niece making her First Communion and I've written about our choir's struggles to find another parish after our Pastor forced us out. I've written about the new translation and a myriad of other topics related to my Catholic faith.

Potentially negative, non-family safe or offensive to their advertisers? It that's the case, I have two words for Google AdSense and they are not God bless.

Filed under: Catholic, Religion

Nevertheless, I found this on Google -

“Fear Factor” producers’ plans to serve fresh glasses of donkey semen to contestants on the next episode had NBC execs so concerned … they gave serious thought to killing the stunt, TMZ has learned.
Sources involved in the production tell us the stomach-churning stunt was shot last summer — but NBC honchos were having a tough time swallowing this one as the air date approached.
We’re told the challenge involved teams of twins drinking the full glass of donkey semen — with a glass of urine thrown in for good measure. Contestants had to drain both glasses in order to move on to the next round.
Our sources say NBC execs had multiple pow-wows in the months after the stunt was shot … but eventually gave FF producers the thumbs up.
Calls to NBC were not immediately returned.
The episode airs this coming Monday — and yes, we’re told multiple contestants actually do (gulp) drink up.

Like I said, I am no sophisticate - De Gustibus Non Est Disputanum. I have yet to see Fear Factor, Jersey Shore, Kardshian Anything, Hard Core Porn of any kind.

Google cites Catholic Blog content as negative and pornographic. President Obama finds Catholics and the Catholic Faith equally as offensive and is on the offensive in support of Planned Parenthood and Gay Marriage. I am glad I take no Google coin - more so now.


What we shared is a belief in changing the world from the bottom up, not from the top down - Take down Catholics and the rest is easy.




http://www.ghanamma.com/2012/01/fear-factor-donkey-semen-makes-nbc-question-taste/

*

The cave man used the tools he found at hand. His pigments were ochre and manganese and iron dug from the earth and mixed with animal fat. Or charcoal, perhaps left from the same fires which burned to light the darkness of his cave. His canvas was the walls, floors and ceilings of his cavern home, often in large seemingly communal chambers, often in the deepest most difficult to access recesses. Occasionally he used stone or flint tools to engrave or carve a bas- relief. He sometimes employed the natural variation in the surface of the walls to achieve a three dimensional effect.

His subject? The things he knew best; the animals upon which he depended for food and clothing - his very existence. Those same animals which could mean danger and death. There are bison, deer, mammoth, ibex and wooly rhinoceros. Fish and horses and bear. He painted and he engraved single figures, animals in pairs, whole compositions. He overlapped lines or superimposed new figures over those of an earlier time or age. He painted too, human figures: male, female, anthropomorphic figures more crudely rendered than animals. He sometimes used his own hand as a stencil. Most intriguing of all he painted signs. Non- representational forms, repeated over and over in never-ending variation. These have been variously interpreted as sexual symbols, counting methods, architectural structures, lunar variations or depiction of plant life.

His style? A sense of freeness, a flowing, often sensitive line. An ease of composition. A oneness with his work. This early man, working by the light of charcoal fires or crude oil lamps often in the deepest, darkest recesses of his cave, produced an art form which seldom has been equaled to this day. A universal style - for similar drawing and identical themes are found in caves many hundreds of miles apart - symbols which continued, little changed, for 10,000 years.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/21/technology/obama_google.fortune/

Robert Emmett Tyrrell's Prescient Eye on Newt

Publisher Bob Tyrrell toyed with the idea of running for Mayor of Chicago, at the time that Rahm Emanuel was forced to go in his attic by Queen Sister and other local activists. The Fenwick Alumnus was kidding on the square, as he'd be a carpet-bagging interloper who spent most of his recent years in Washington D. C.; or was that Mayor Emanuel?

R. Emmett Tyrrell publishes the American Spectator, a marked contrast to the elitist friend of the working man The Nation, which has been a sanctimonious rag from the time it splashed ink at the order of William Lloyd Garrison.

Bob Tyrrell, though a Washington pundit, is a genuine West side Chicago-type of guy. He can spot a phony in crowd on Wiltshire Blvd. - "Them."

Our media, on the other hand, love phonies. The media are the 'Ain't They Great' cheerleaders. If a pick-pocket rails against Bosses, The Machine, Systemic Racism, Police Torture, and Reform, that cut-purse is born-again baptized a Progressive Aint He Great Icon.

If a nickle snitching GOP hack plays Bi-Partisan, he becomes a Patriot. Phonies abound, because most folks are pretty nice and they are far too busy working to make up the lost taxes looted by the Patriot and the Progressive to give them an earful.

I am a Democrat, but will not vote for President Obama - BFD. One man & one vote against Astro-Grassroots. I am voting against the horse, in order to dump the DNC cart ( Planned Parenthood, ACLU, SEIU, LGBTQ, LSMFT)

I could care less who the GOP Nominee happens to be, though I would prefer it to be Rick Santorum.

If the GOP nominee is Larry the Cable Guy, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Henry Waxman, Charlie Sheen, President Obama's Uncle Omar, Christine, or Rosie O'Donnell, Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Billy Paul, Billy Joel, Joy Behar, Joel Osteen, Framin' Eamon, The Badger Boylan, Wallace "Gator" Bradley, Vernon Supreme, Clyde Oakes, Newt, or Mitt he/she will have my complete support and vote assured. It is that important.

Mr. Tyrrell called Newt out years ago. and linked Newt to Bill "Bubba" Clinton - our first and only Black Hillbilly President.

After Newt’s and Bill’s disastrous experiences in government both went on to create empires, Bill in philanthropy and cheap thought, Newt in public policy and cheap thought. As an ex-president Bill has wrung up an unprecedented $75.6 million since absconding from the White House with White House loot and shameless pardons. I do not know how much Newt has amassed, but he got between $1.6 million to $1.8 million from Freddie Mac, and he lobbied for Medicare Part B while receiving, according to the Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney, “Big Bucks Pushing Corporate Welfare.” Now after a lifetime in Washington he is promoting himself as an outsider. . . . Back in 1992 I appeared with Chris Matthews on some gasbag’s television show. Was it Donohue? At any rate, I said candidate Clinton had more skeletons in his closet than a body snatcher. It was a prescient line then, and I always got a laugh. I can apply the same line today to Newt, though he has skeletons both inside and outside his closet.

Conservatives should not be surprised by the scandals that lie ahead, if they stick with him. Those of us, who raised the question of character in 1992, were confronted by an indignant Bill Clinton, treating the topic as a low blow. To listen to him, character was the “c” word of American politics. It was reprehensible to mention it. By now we know. Character matters. Paul, Santorum, and Romney have it. Newt has Clinton’s character.

Santorum and Romney have character, but President Obama will hand Romney his lunch, I am afraid.

Like I said, this election is far too important not to lose. R. Emmett pointed to the GOP phony, Newt. He is a phony and seems as comfortable being one as had President Clinton.

President Obama does not know, or believe that he is one. If character matters, . . . let's see.

Vernon Supreme Compared to President Obama Vernon (Vermin?) Supreme seems far less dangerous.

Whereas Fifty Alderman Voted Unanimously for a False Statement

Citizen Richard M. Daley and Ald. Joe Moore cheeks to jowls.
Alderman Joe Morre (D-49th Ward) is a silly goose. His fois gras ordinance stands as a national laughing stock that eclipsed even Blago in his salad days of infamy.

Here is a false, WHEREAS in Joe Moore's Torture Ban Ordinance -

WHEREAS, former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and Chicago police officers under his command tortured scores of African-American men, which resulted in false confessions leading to wrongful convictions and imprisonment; and . . . we get to and shortly.

Not one Chicago Police Officer, let alone Jon Burge, was convicted, let alone proven to have tortured anyone.
Perhaps, Joe might have said," WHEREAS, we the undersigned agree to the firm collective belief that "former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and Chicago police officers under his command tortured scores of African-American men, which resulted in false confessions leading to wrongful convictions and imprisonment," but that might not be chilling enough to inspire genuine citizen resolve to hang torture-ers and systemic racists universal!

Instead.

Jon Burge went to jail because of a slick legal maze created by Flint Taylor and used by the Feds under Fitzgerald.

Perjury Conviction - Yep.

Torture Convictions -Zero.

Therefore, WHEREAS Above as presented and voted upon is false, misleading, disembling, and nevertheless accepted.
Whicj leads us to "and WHEREAS" -

WHEREAS, the City of Chicago and its taxpayers have paid and continue to pay millions of dollars to defend lawsuits arising from those torturous acts;

and

Whereas, drop the nonsense, save the taxpayers some nickels and do some actual work.

At the end of the 19th Century, a French Army Officer was sent to Devil's Island, because Everyone Knew He Was Guilty. His wrongful imprisonment was overturned. I wonder if the Center for Wrongful Convictions might not want to look into Jon Burge's Federal Perjury Conviction, because there are ralroad tracks all over the place.

Jon Burge and Wrongful, Hurtful, Race-ful Law Enforcement we shall have with us always, because there is too much money for pettifogging Cadillac Commies at stake.

http://illinoiscat.wordpress.com/torture-free-chicago-resolution/

City Council Unanimously Votes Ban On Torture -Another Meaningless Bit of Self-Puffery by 50 Needy People

Sister Benita Coffey and the Coalitions she represents.

This morning, Chicago Tribune's opinion page featured another in the endless shower of Police Torture screeds. This was written by Bendictine Sister Benita Coffey and has all of the value of a Confederate $100 Bill.

Here is a taste:

Last week, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed a resolution against torture, a symbolic act, at best. Torture is inhumane, banned by the United Nations and most civilized nations, and is contrary to the core beliefs of the world's major religions.

So why are the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the Illinois Coalition Against Torture and religious communities like mine lauding this as a historic event? We shouldn't have had to ask our elected officials to pass legislation proscribing torture. It seems to be basic common sense, instinctive human behavior to abhor torture. To inflict cruel and inhuman treatment is beneath us as human beings.

While applauding our city's leaders for making Chicago the first city in the nation to condemn torture, we are certainly not seeing our goal anywhere near being accomplished. This is one deliberate and necessary step. It will indeed be a long road to raise the consciousness of the general public that torture is a reality; it is happening and likely will continue until we demand that it stop.

If memory serves, Sister, Jesus joined no Coalition. Plenty of torture going around, his cousin got himself beheaded and all, but Jesus never signed up with the Sicarri, or Zealots, in their Coalition Against The Stooge Puppet King Herod and Roman Imperialists Masters and Crucifiers. Like Free Mumia, I recall that the crowd that demanded Jesus get a tune-up by the cohort prior to crucifixion, demanded Free Barabbas! Now, those folks were committed activists, Sister.

Sister decries the fact that the media paid not enough attention to her and the various coalitions. Sister, we have more Coalitions than Mount Carmel has football championship trophies and yet kids are murdered with impunity because lawyers get fat overturning convictions on meme that police torture, lie, intimidate and use saracasm.

Sister Benita Burge's Up -

The day also presented the opportunity for us to address another type of torture — prolonged solitary confinement. In Illinois, the Tamms Correctional Center is a supermax facility that incarcerates inmates in solitary confinement, often for months or years at a time, which mental health professionals define as torture. Here in Chicago, to our shame, former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge and officers under him tortured some 200 suspects to the point of confessing to crimes they did not commit. These victims were imprisoned while most of those who tortured, except Burge, who was convicted of a related crime, remain free.

Mental Health professionals? Incarceration of crazy thugs is torture - health care provided, educational opportunities abound, legal access to Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers, no to mention shelter, meals, and wardrobe; unlike the victims of these thugs, incarcerated under dirt until Judgement Day.

Sister Benita brings it home to Council and the Coalitions -This resolution declaring Chicago a torture-free city is a momentous occasion. We can be proud that our City Council can be called on to stand by its word and demand accountability if such violent treatment should ever again occur.

Sorry Sister, this is but another sanctimoniously meaningless bit of self-puffering from 50 people doing nothing meaningful, Sister.

Jon Burge was convicted of perjury after years of media bear-baiting and legal legerdemain.

G. Flint Taylor and legions of other fatuous opportunists have made fortunes by playing media, do-gooders and generations of young people completely unaquainted with the facts of the murders, arrests, convictions and subsequent judge shopping by Peoples Law Office, MacArthur Center for Justice, Loevy & Loevy.

There has been absolutely no proof of torture - hundreds of allegations and millions of dollars in payouts -but not one win in G.Flint Taylor's column.

Jon Burge was trapped in a legal maze created by time, judge shopping, media complicity and collective memory loss.

When torture appears, deal with it. That has yet to be proven. Truth is not something "We Can All Agree Upon." That is John Dewey.

There is much to pray for, Sister. Good people are up to their elbows helping young people read, write, add and subtract and somehow know that other people want to help them without lining their own pockets.

Praising a hollow and popular gesture like this means nothing and actually keeps the problems on our streets more than healthy. By the way, schools need teachers. I have not seen a nun here at Leo High School, in the heart Chicago's killing fields, in years. Facta Non Verba.


N. B. - do read Gregory Koger one of Sister Benita's Coalition Guys.

Here is Sister Benita's coalition pal's coda-“What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers.”—Karl Marx

And his Mission Statement:

The world today cries out for radical, fundamental change. . .
But the cruelest fact of all is this: IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY! For here is the glaring contradiction: in today’s world the production of things, and the distribution of the things produced, is overwhelmingly carried out by large numbers of people who work collectively and are organized in highly coordinated networks. At the foundation of this whole process is the proletariat, an international class which owns nothing, yet has created and works these massive socialized productive forces. These tremendous productive powers could enable humanity to not only meet the basic needs of every person on the planet, but to build a new society, with a whole different set of social relations and values…a society where all people could truly and fully flourish together.

—Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

Here are the City Council Coalitions, Speakers and Advocates:

Speakers at the press conference and hearing included: Congressman Danny Davis; Flint Taylor, attorney with the People’s Law Office who has been instrumental in seeking justice for the men tortured by Chicago police commander John Burge; Dr. Frank Summers, psychologist who lead the fight within the APA to bar psychologists from participating in interrogations and torture in Guantanamo; Cherif Bassiouni, United Nations war crimes expert; Melinda Power and Margaret Power, Illinois Coalition Against Torture; Mary Lynn Everson, Marjorie Kovler Center; Sr. Benita Coffey, representing the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT); Laurie Jo Reynolds, activist with Tamms Year Ten; Mario Venegas, Chilean survivor of torture under Pinochet; Mark Clements, Burge torture survivor; Mary L. Johnson, mother of a Burge torture victim and inmate at Tamms Correctional Center, as well as several other mothers of Burge torture survivors; and Wallace “Gator” Bradley, who spoke to the use of torture in the federal ADX supermax prison.

http://gregorykoger.com/ Charming Coalition.

Tales of the South Side - Police Officer George Newell and the Temptations

The "Classic 5" lineup of The Temptations: David Ruffin (bottom left), Melvin Franklin (top left), Paul Williams (top right), Otis Williams (bottom right), and Eddie Kendricks (center) circa 1965.

Chicago Police Officer George Newell* is a man of parts - husband & father, public safety professional, Leo Alumnus and civic minded neighbor.

I did not know until last night that George also drinks deeply from the Pierian Spring.

"You have two books out, Hickey."

Indeed, and read by tens of people.

" I wrote a study of the Temptations, the Temptin' Ts. This woman from a publishing house in New York liked my proposal and I submitted the manuscript: six hundred pages with notes and photos."

Hey, that's wonderful George. You are among the Leo Literary Lions, Dr. Lawrence McCaffery of Loyola authored many books on Irish history, Paul Somers is the author of the history of Lake Michigan Aircraft Carriers of WWII, Dr. Jack O'Keefe has published two best-selling novels and former Fire Commissioner Jim Joyce has a book about life on 79th Street in publication. You are standing in tall company with your brother Lions.

" There's a problem."

There always is in bringing any book to full-term, George.

" The publisher has a problem with my book. I love The Temptations!"

Who could not?

" I concentrated on the early years of the group. I tried to make a case for the cause of the many splits and personnel changes in the group, substance abuse, creative shifts in the R & B genre, the clash of ego, the train wreck of celebrity, the racism in the recoding industry."

All good topics of focus. What was the problem? Were they looking for a substantial treatment on some other point of discussion?

" No, they liked where I took the ideas fine."

Were there problems with point of view?

" No. not at all."

Was there a problem with your format?

"No, I handled that well - one-inch margins on all sides;double-space;courier or new courier font; no smaller than twelve-pitch; no more than 26 lines per page all that was fine."

What did they tell you was the problem?

"It was just my Pagination . . . running away with me!"

Uh,huh.

I continue to be a Ball of Confusion, much like the world today, Hey. Hey.

The hook slipped nicely into my gills; set with authority. George boated another fine bass-hole.

In the sobering words of the Dublin prose genius, Flann O'Brien, " out such events weaves the pattern of what I am pleased to call my life."


*

Newell, 45, of Morgan Park, has lived in the 19th Ward for 15 years with his wife and son, who attends Morgan Park High School. He grew up at 95th and Sangamon streets and attended St. Margaret of Scotland Elementary School and Leo High School. He has been an officer for 20 years, including the last nine with the 22nd District. He currently works as a school resource officer at Percy L. Julian High School.

19th Ward.com

Pat Quinn Will Name Jan Schakowsky to Kirk's Senate Seat

President Obama grabbed the box of nickels before the outraged Jan and the two flannel-mouths could snag it.

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) joined Governor of Illinois Pat Quinn in announcing that the U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded $186 million in high speed rail funding to finance track and other improvements on the Chicago to St. Louis corridor between Dwight and Joliet. Earlier today, the Department of Transportation notified Congressional Appropriators that they have reprogrammed $400 million of the $2 billion in funding that was rejected by the governor of Florida.

High Speedrail's Connect Midwest is the Place to draw the likely conclusions in Illinois.

Following the flowers, cards, and stuffed animals, the stroke-surviving U.S. Senator Mark Kirk can expect a visit from Governor Pat Quinn and Lt. GUV & 5-String Banjo Sheila Simon. It will begin with -

Guv Christian " Hey Mark! How's the guy? Terry Cosgrove sent his best. Listen, you ain't no Gabby Giffords and we really need to make play for the spot. Boy, that is some good looking Salisbury Steak and green jello. Thought it was a piece of leg-o-lamb. Anyway, since you'll be laid up and all, I'm naming Jan Schakowsky to your spot."

Lt. Guv Plucky Simon "Ain't she great? Just great, really terrific, couldn't be better, I'll give her Dad's ties. . . ."

Guv. Christian -" What's that Mark? You're not making sense. . .gotta go. Get some rest. Thanks for the help in D.C.!"


In the Land of Lincoln, where if it is goofy, or contra natura things MUST be evolved -you know -chic, dashing, elegant, exclusive, fashionable, high-class, in, in vogue, mod , modish, posh, select, sharp, superior, swank, swanky, tony, uptown - it makes no sense at all to appoint someone from the GOP to Kirk's seat in the Senate.

Remember all that flapdoodle that Pat and his boss Rod the Convicted had when they went and named Roland Burris to President Obama's Seat? Lord Ha' Mercy! Same Party, Same Race Same Gender, as Senator/President Obama! Huge Mistake!

Well Governor Christian Quinn, Praise Jesus, has an opportunity to use his cookie sheet intellectual depth and after thinking above the envelop will realize that naming a woman from the opposite Party, opposite gender and another race, makes perfect sense, as does Gay Marriage, borrowing more on the debt, giving raises to political cronies and appointing Terry Cosgrove to anything.

It is time; Illinois is evolved! Illinois demands a woman with the same capacity for clear Quinn-esque thought and ubiquitous own-horn-blowing.

Quinn could appoint Congressman Quigley, Kirk's Damon to his Pythias, or Damon to an Affleck, depending upon your own personal cultural context, but that would be too patriarchal and Old Boys-ish. Dawn Clark Netsch, with panties a-twist in high dudgeon, would give Governor Christian a sound dressing down, make no mistake -not to mention the ire of Carol Marin and Toni Preckwinkle.

Nope, Pat Quinn is as predictable as a doctor's note in a pot-head's pocket. He will go with Jan Schakowsky as Illinois' First Non-African-American Woman Roland Burris!

What go possibly go wrong with that?

Ask the High Speed Rail Boys!

Gee, I hope this early prediction spoils not the prize.

A Church the World Hates Welcomes All- Father Tony Brankin

If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church which the world hates.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

The priest from El Paso . . .Illinois, who studied for Holy Orders at the old St. Viator's College ( Olivet University) in Bourbonnais, Illinois, and became the Bishop of Rochester, NY, as well as a television celebrity in the 1950's was a good one. Fulton J. Sheen, like the magnificent athlete/priest/bishop Bernard Sheil of Chicago is pretty much banished from popular imagination. Who they?

Well, they were no Bill Maher, or Simon Cowell, nor were they self-proclaimed community activists. Neither was Jesus. He was an apprentice Jewish carpenter and the Son of God.

Shiel and Sheen were energetic servants.

The world is beautiful. It is people who want to advertise for profit who throw up the hideously intrusive billboards along life's highway.

The TGIF Obama Presidency is the Mandate America Administration. Last Friday, always trot out bad news on Friday, mandates that "private insurance provide contraception and the abortion pill for ‘free’, which means insurance rates will go up and that all Americans will end up paying for it, no matter how disgusted you are by abortion."

Our popular culture comes not from building cathedrals as community, developing a synthesis of great thought from the ancients on of the Gospels, or Scripture. Rather, popular culture happens to be what is on an editorial page crafted by group think artisans, or what is available on cable. Oprah is Aquinas and Bill Maher is Chaucer.

Students are walked away from Western Civilization and begin the study of history at the end of the 19th Century. Truth is "a proposition is a plan of action and that it is only judged true when that plan of action has proven successful when put into action." Truth is a moveable feast.

Truth is tougher, it seems to me.

Last week in the Parish bulletin of St. Odilo's in Berwyn, IL, Father Tony Brankin, a Chicago Catholic priest, musician* and sculptor, offered this:

The people in charge of the culture—the newspapers and television—even the modern professors in the universities and seminaries—anyone who owned a microphone or stood in a pulpit or sat at a desk in a classroom told us that the
Catholic Church was no longer to be considered the One True Church. They told us that the Catholic Church did not have a special position in the mind of God nor in the hearts of the people. They persuaded us to believe that the Catholic Church—even though historically we knew that it was the one that Jesus Himself had founded—had no more authority than any other group or club or organization. They told us that every teacher—every speaker—everyone—all groups—all opinions—all teachings were equally capable of being right or wrong.

Oh, and it worked. We have all been damaged by this campaign against the uniqueness and authority of the Catholic Church. As moderns we have been made to think that possibly all religions are equal. How many times do we hear them say on television or in some movie or in some discussion on the radio that all faiths are paths to heaven—and that none is better than another? The problem is that if we hear this enough—we begin to believe it. We think that maybe they are right. It sounds so gentle and simple to say all religions will take us to God —Blah blah blah.

In fact, we have been brain-washed into thinking that we cannot even discover the Truth—either about God—or about His will for us—or about anything for that matter. The movers and shakers of our world, you know, the celebrities and politicians, as well as the ones who write the commercials and the scripts of all the shows we watch—the ones who teach us and our children what is important and what is not important—they want us to believe that we cannot find any kind of truth—because truth—they would say—does not even exist.

You say something long enough and loud enough and with enough of a crowd behind you and it becomes Truth, in the Dewey mold: Gay Marriage is same as Marriage, Choice is Woman's Reproductive Health, Promiscuity as no consequences, only treatments, and 1% is way too many.

Catholics are not homophobic, do not hate women, nor are they slaves to a Roman Master, of German parents, who wears a funny hat.

Father Brankin is not a priest that the media invites to share opinions on WLS, WTTW, or with the columnists and editorial boards of our surviving newspapers. Truth is a hard and answers are easy. You need an Progressively cached activist priest or nun, who fights for gay marriage, better and more abortions, and the ordination of women for easy answers to Dewey's agreeably verifiable conclusions to inquiry.

Father Brankin, like Bishops Sheil and Sheen, takes the tough road and beauty of living outshines the billboards, slogans and memes and he concludes with an invitation to all, not a mandate, a welcome to unity -

There are elements of truth in many faiths. If someone who is not Catholic believes that Jesus Christ is God and Man and the savior who died on the cross and rose from the dead—well, of course, that is correct, and that will help that person get to heaven. But if someone who is not Catholic denies things that Catholics believe, well, that might make it more difficult for that person to get to heaven. If, for example, a Muslim believes that God wants us to destroy our enemies and that a person
will go to heaven if he commits suicide and kills many people along with himself—how is that the same as saying that it is God’s will to love our enemies? In other words how does suicide and ritual murder help us get to heaven in the same way that loving our enemies gets us to heaven?

Again, suppose someone says that they don’t believe what the Catholic Church teaches about life and love. They believe, for example, that there is nothing wrong with artificial birth control. Well, they will have a very difficult time explaining to their children (or even to themselves) why pre-marital intimacy is wrong or why extra-marital intimacy is wrong—or even why abortion is wrong or why gay marriage is wrong. And if they do not believe what the Catholic Church teaches about life and love—basically that love is very much about having babies—then they will be forced by the logic of their unbelief to accept every other kind of immoral behavior—
unfaithfulness and promiscuity and a life of sin, homosexual behavior, pederasty, incest.

Not believing in Catholic truths necessarily makes it more difficult for non-believers to save their souls. I am talking about all this today because Wednesday we begin “Church Unity Octave week”. This is eight days in which
we are asked by the Church to pray as fervently as possible that those who are outside the Catholic Church may—to put it simply—become Catholic.

We pray that atheists may come to believe in God—that Pagans may learn of the true God. We hope that Jews will accept Jesus, and that Protestants (the so called “Christians”) would begin to understand the fullness of Revelation as
it is found in the One True Church, the Catholic Church. Most of the time—because of modern influences—we think that Catholics must relate to other religions by simply
celebrating our differences. But that is really not enough—nor is it honest.
People need to know—for their own sake— that there is such a thing as Truth—and that there is a true God and a true religion—and all of it will be found in the Catholic Church. If we love our brothers and sisters——then we should want them to get to heaven by belonging to the faith that will help them get to heaven.

We must do everything possible—prayer, example, and willingness to witness to the Truth of our religion—in order to bring them to the fullness of truth—in the One True Catholic faith. Because in that Oneness is Truth and in that Truth is salvation .

Life is beautiful without the billboards obscuring the view.

* edited update thanks to Leo Man Bob Hylard:
pat ..as you know fr.brankin is also a devotee of irish music as well his sculptoring..i'm happy to say my daughter lynn has one of his handmade irish harps.[ a beauty ]..my mother-in-law lived in st.thomas more and was totally dedicated to the man ..fr.brankin would sometimes borrow the harp to duplicate its' style for another would be harpo marx..lynn is quite good at the harp but it's too heavy to carry downtown for street music...


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