Only Steve Rhodes' Beachwood Reporter Studies the Thug Dictator Lobby of Illinois

The REV- "Shakedown . . . I mean Shake Mr. President"


Auld Bob -"Rev - You had me at Shakedown!"
The REV -" Is this the Lobby?"
Auld Bob " No . . .The Liberry!"

"They called themselves the 'Chicago connection' and appeared confident that their contacts with Illinois politicians would help persuade newly elected President Barack Obama to lift longtime economic sanctions against leaders in Zimbabwe, according to federal charges unsealed Tuesday," the Tribune reports.
"The two, Prince Asiel Ben Israel and C. Gregory Turner, were charged with violating federal law by lobbying on behalf Zimbabwe's longtime president, Robert Mugabe, whose violent and oppressive regime has been the target of U.S. economic sanctions since 2003." Chicago Tribune via Steve Rhodes' Beachwood Reporter: By Steve Rhodes / Posted on August 7, 2013

 Bob Mugabe . . .

Dadirai was at home alone when Mugabe's thugs arrived. They descended on the woman, hacking off one of her feet and one of her arms, before setting fire to the dying woman in front of her house. "That was not isolated case," the shocked head of the delegation Marwick Khumalo said after his return to Harare.
It is part of a new strategy on the part of Mugabe's henchmen. Instead of just hunting MDC party officials, many of whom have gone underground, they are going after their family members as well. Last Monday, for example, they caught Abigal Chiroto, the 27-year-old wife of the newly elected MDC mayor of Harare, Emmanuel Chiroto, along with her four-year-old son. They set the house on fire and disappeared with the woman and child, before releasing the boy at a police station.
Abigal's body was found a few days later not far from her house. She still wore a blindfold and her body was so terribly battered that her brother-in-law could only identify her by her clothes and hair. Aus Dem Spiegel -By Jan Puhl and Toby Selander 2008

That was in 2008, the advent of Hope & Change Worldwide. In 2013, Old Bob Mugabe, at last glance, had exactly $ 217.00 in National Treasury of Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, named for Cecil Rhodes who was Diamond Digger who funded Rhodes Scholarships awarded to such luminaries as Rachel Maddow, Susan Rice and former Congressman Mel Reynolds. Old Bob Mugabe went from Jesuit seminarian to Black Liberation theologian to Marxist to Witchdoctor Thug Bandit Chief while amassing friendships with Rev. Jesse Jackson, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Brand Obama's Foreign Policy Wiz Susan Rice.

Here in Chicago, where Mikva's Hyde Park Mafia Embraces the West Side Vice Lords, the MacArthur Foundation, Billy Ayers and his odious Old Lady, Medill School of Journalism, the Center for Wrongful Convictions, South Shore Bank, WTTW, and both newspapers in one huge Global Hug of Progressive Coalition building, one might imagine that there might be some follow-thru on reports that Illinois Lobbyists for Old Bob Mugabe's Machete Coalition in Zimbabwe. . .  might, just might mind you. N.B. This terminal verbal,  dangling over the pavement was, for our friends of Welsh ancestry.

Old Bob is a color-blind thug and master of diversity in butchery, if not a wiz at accounting -

Children as young as eight are being beaten by Robert Mugabe's henchmen as he hunts down opposition supporters, it emerged yesterday.
White farmer Roy Bennet, an MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, told how three youngsters, aged eight to 12, were beaten by police trying to find out the whereabouts of their MDC-supporting parents.
In another incident, a magistrate was dragged from court, beaten and paraded through the streets.
Mr Bennet said: 'What is happening in Zimbabwe is not a white and black issue. It is an orchestrated attempt by the president to destroy the opposition. It is not land reform - it is the suppression of another view.'
Mr Bennet, who faces arrest for speaking out, said Zimbabwe was experiencing a level of ethnic cleansing 'not seen since Kosovo'. Opposition to Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party was being crushed by any means - from mutilation to starvation, he added.
Hundreds of Mugabe supporters ran riot yesterday in the eastern town of Chipinge, evicting white businessmen and looting their premises.
The violence came as it emerged that Mugabe's wife Grace had chosen the farm she wanted to take over.
She apparently marched on to the Iron Mask estate 30 miles from Harare last week and told the owners John and Eva Matthews, who are both in their 70s, to quit.
More than 90 white farmers, all charged with failing to leave their land, had their cases heard in courts. Among those given 24 hours to vacate their farms was Dennis Streak, father of Zimbabwe's cricket captain Heath Streak.

Here in Chicago, only Steve Rhodes ( no relation to Cecil) and his wonderful Beachwood Reporter has bothered to connect the Race-Grifters/Political Hypocrites/Feebs and Dummies  Coalition-

But here's the interesting part:
"According to the charges, Ben Israel and Turner attempted to persuade undisclosed federal and state government officials - including an Illinois state senator and two U.S. representatives from Chicago - to push for the lifting of the sanctions. The two reached a consulting agreement with Zimbabwe officials to be paid $3.4 million, authorities charged, but it was unclear whether they received any money."
So who was the state senator and who were the U.S. representatives?
"The 56-page criminal complaint described in detail how Ben Israel and Turner allegedly enlisted the support of a 'State Senator A,' who hoped that the election of Obama would cause the U.S. to take a fresh look at Zimbabwe.
"That same state senator wrote in a 2009 letter that he had made a 'commitment' to Mugabe and could use his leadership position with the National Black Caucus of State Legislators to organize a delegation to travel to Zimbabwe and fight for the removal of the sanctions, according to the complaint.
"Records show that state Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, chairs the international committee of that caucus. Efforts to reach Trotter were unsuccessful Tuesday. His attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, said he had not seen the complaint and had no comment.
"Ben Israel and Turner were successful in arranging for State Senator A and several other lawmakers to meet with Mugabe and other top Zimbabwean officials during several trips there in 2008 and 2009, according to the charges."
And the reps?

At least Steve Rhodes bothers to ask*.

Treat Yourself to the Best! - as the old Mail Pouch Chawin' Baccy Ads once boasted -Read Beachwood Reporter and support it with a modest but significant donation or One Big-Assed Grant!

* Steve Rhodes and I loudly disagree with one another on many issues (Burge Mythology & etc.); however, Steve Rhodes has more integrity than the combined editorial boards of NBC, The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times.  

Illinois Same Sex Marriage is More Important Than Poor Kids In Albany Park and Everything Else

In his column this morning Mark Brown concludes,

 " One day soon, the Illinois Legislature is going to make it legal for gay and lesbian couples to get married in Illinois — despite the Catholic Church’s opposition.
But there will still be poor kids in Albany Park who need help fixing their bikes.": markbrown@suntimes.com Twitter: @MarkBrownCST

You see the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) cut its grants to the lllinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) because the ICIRR's board of directors was touched by Same Sex Marriage Illinois, a  much broader coalition of money, influence, ink and iconoclasts, to fully support same sex marriage in its fight for immigrant and refugee rights. The Chicago Tribune published a letter that excoriated Francis Cardinal George and CCHD for what it  regards as a heartless neglect of the poor. The letter’s signers were Chicago Aldermen Proco Joe Moreno, Danny Solis, Patrick O’Connor, and James Cappelman; Cook County Commissioners John Fritchey and Larry Suffredin; and Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza - huge Catholics, Huge.  Like the Castro Brothers (Cuba, not Ohio) the signers are all about the Church, poor and really helping folks - Salvation Army and such.

The poor kids in Albany Park got $20,000 in grant money from CCHD.  $ 20,000 would help five poor kids from Englewood get a Leo High School Education.  Twenty thousand bucks is about half a payroll for Leo High Schooll employees every two weeks.  Nothing to sneeze at, $20,000, but the board of Directors of Illinois Coalition for  Immigrant and Refugees Rights (ICIRR) listened to Rick Garcia, Rep. Greg Harris, Personal PAC's and Governor Pat Quinn's Boss Terry Cosgrove appeal to evolved reason.  The Same Sex Marriage Heart trumps all other vessels.

Going from the heart of that meaty criticism, Mark Brown yanks on the heart strings with case-specific philippic aimed at Cardinal George, CCHD and unevolved Catholics in Illinois and it's a good one, worthy of two-hour WTTW special  narrated by the Ann Landers of homosexual journalism -Dan Savage. Here's the Sun Times' pilot



I wonder if Same Sex Marriage Illinois will fund those industrious kid in Albany Park? Maybe a grant from Henry Van Ameringen, Fred Eychaner, Personal PAC Illinois, or Northern trust Bank will ensure that poor kids in Albany Park kept them wheels rolling.

My bet is not.  Why would they apply money meant to secure the doctrine that Marriage is just a semantics exercise toward a non-systemic enterprise operated for the purpose of helping a few urchins?  That is what the Catholic Church is for, after all.

I remember my Mom telling me, Be careful of what you ask for.  No kidding.

Shortly after Same-Sex Marriage Illinois won the Civil Unions battle,  Catholic Charities ended almost two hundred years of care for Illinois orphans and support of childless married couples ( a guy and a gal).   Same Sex Marriage Illinois, a broad coalition of money, influence, ink and iconoclasts, makes the Vatican Bank seem like parish savings and loan during the Depression.  It is powerful and has purchased the legislature ( is that too cynical? Nah.) the Governor, the Illinois Supreme Court, The AG, the Media and people who equate conscience with watching Will and Grace/Glee/Bill Maher and of  course WTTW.

Francis Cardinal George Archbishop of Chicago has been treated with shamefully great disrespect by Same Sex Marriage Illinois, but maintains his dignity and good humor while defending the Church.

It is intellectually and morally dishonest to use the witness of the Church’s concern for the poor as an excuse to attack the Church’s teaching on the nature of marriage.  Four weeks ago, Pope Francis wrote: “…marriage should be a stable union of man and woman…this union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgement and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation, whereby spouses can become one flesh and are enabled to give birth to a new life.” In other words, when it comes to marriage and family life, men and women are not interchangeable. The whole civilized world knows that.
Those who signed the open letter in the Tribune proclaimed their adherence to the Catholic faith even as they cynically called upon others to reject the Church’s bishops. The Church is no one’s private club; she is the Body of Christ, who tells us he is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Because the signers of the letters are Catholic, they know that in a few years, like each of us, they will stand before this same Christ to give an account of their stewardship. Jesus is merciful, but he is not stupid; he knows the difference between right and wrong. Manipulating both immigrants and the Church for political advantage is wrong.

The big picture in the matter of Same Sex Marriage Illinois was artfully captured in this paragraph by Tina Korbe in 2011 concerning the Illinois Legislature's Civil Union codicil requiring all Illinois adoption services recognize the sanctity of homosexual couples:

The decision of the Illinois legislature to initiate the requirement in the first place — knowing it would hamstring Catholic Charities, which provides essential services — demonstrates an appalling willingness to allow an adult agenda — the mainstream acceptance of gay behavior — to supersede children’s interests. The spokesman for the state’s child welfare agency has said he thinks the child welfare system Catholic Charities helped to build is strong enough to withstand CC’s departure. But it’s hard to believe the shuttering of so many CC affiliates won’t make the burden of finding a home for children in need even greater.( emphasis my own)

I don't recall Mark Brown or other columnists bewailing the plight of the many hundreds of those young bairns.

" One day soon, the Illinois Legislature is going to make it legal for gay and lesbian couples to get married in Illinois — despite the Catholic Church’s opposition.
But there will still be poor kids in Albany Park who need help fixing their bikes.":

Yep. The Illinois  Same Sex Marriage Coaltion could care less.

Chicago! In The Words of the Late Rufus Thomas -"Look Out For the Bull!"

Who Runs with Bulls?  Hemingway reported on the running of the bulls in Pamplona, as did James A. Michner, but neither ink-slinger put on their Keds in a race with Mr. Bull and the lads.  Who runs with Bulls?

These guys - 

As if the desultory violence in Chicago was not enough, 

we will soon have an opportunity to watch Tick Heads, Stoners, Posers, Occupy Chicago Veterans, Coked-Up Venture Capitalists and other cases of arrested development get their Sun Also Rises On.

The Great Bull Run, modeled after the festival that takes place each year in Pamplona, Spain, will hold its inaugural run next month in Richmond, Va., and will hit at least eight other cities before arriving at Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney on July 12.
Organizer Bradford Scudder decided to create the U.S.-based event to give thrill-seekers a chance to run with bulls without having to spend the time and money to fly to Spain.
For a fee starting at $35 , participants can enjoy a bull run followed by a rotten tomato fight, another Spanish tradition.
The Great Bull Run website warns participants that the race is "the real deal" and that participants "accept the risk that you might be trampled, gored, rammed or tossed in the air by a bull." Participants must pay an insurance fee, and medical staff will be at the site.
To minimize risk, organizers said they will use less aggressive bulls than the ones that run in Spain.

 I read Hemingway's canon of Bull-fighting tomes ( Death in Afternoon & etc.) and taught the Sun Also Rises.   Even my Breathing for Credit sections understood, as well as the Honors and AP English sections, that running with the bulls or jumping into the corrida with Old Toro was not a great idea . . ., but that was before we Elected President Obama and now two guys can have children and American exceptionalism means closing shop world wide.

I still believe in Rufus Thomas.




Rufus Thomas would have made a splendid Commander in Chief.

On Monday, Only Doug Kershaw Will Do

Editing the Leo Handbook for 2013-14, waiting for Joe Furlong (Leo '56 & CFD Bn..Chief: Ret.) to drop off a huge check for the Lions Express to Opportunity vehicle campaign are nice tasks.

The only thing better than Leo Men, Leo Alumni and Incoming Revenue on any Monday is a Rampaging Lion or a . . .










The Ragin Cajun!!!!!!

Our World Needs Boats Full of Tough Greeks in Narrow Waters

I had a long chat with a pal living in Canada.  We talked bout everything from Leo High School to Libya, Chicago to Cairo, and DC to Moscow. We agree that neither of us could have imagined the condition of our planet today, controlled as it is by bullies and grifters. Chicago's Mayors ( Daley & Rahn) refuse to hire more police officers, but will gladly hand one million dollars over to wife-beating gang-banging pensioners to combat spiking homicides, rather than support cops sued for doing their jobs.   Putin gives asylum to a traitor and bullies our President six ways to Sunday all the while luring his victim into committing ground troops to Syria according to Putin's time table.

My friend asked me " How can you continue to live in the most corrupt city in America?"  I love it here.  Sure,  there is an astounding set of policies and those who support those dictates that ignore the murders by decrying despair as merely 'gun violence.' Sure, there are friends of mine who continue to devoutly believe that President Obama  is working to help the American Middle Class by doing everything in his power to obliterate it.  Sure, people who want my continued vote listen more carefully to Planned Parenthood PACs than people. Those folks 'evolved.' However, these are my people.  I am no stranger to bad choices, but with time, prayer and attention to circumstances have managed to defeat despair.  Likewise my evolved neighbors and friends.

 This Evolved Sensibility tells them that sticking with social sciences is the only sure means to alter chemistry, biology. physics, economics, and theology.  History is diminished.  Literature is deconstructed. Faith? Meh! Therefore, President Obama makes more sense to the evolved, who can parse away abortion and procreation, than history and common sense.

President Obama 'restored' America's standing in the world to pre-War of 1812 heights: thirty American embassies are closed only a three years after what cynical gents like me called his World Apology Tour.  Catholics for Obama helped HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebillius make war on religion by calling it Health Care.

We are yet a free people.  The world has always had bullies and grifters.  If we read history we know this and try to live accordingly.

Iran is a threat to world peace and so North Korea and so is Al Queda and so is Planned Parenhood and so is Vlad Putin and so is . . .Iran was called Persia up until the 1960's.



At one time a piece of work by the name of Xerxes hand whole world in his hands. Xerxes was a one man European Union.  There were Greeks for Xerxes who wanted a share in his New World Order that rolled over Babylon (Iraq), Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia ( Dafur & etc.) and most of Greece.

Xerxes armies slaughtered the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae only after only losing twenty thousand souls.  Xerxes how ever was a master of soaring rhetoric and political theater.  He ordered the burial of the twenty score thousand Persian dead, cut the head of Spartan King Leonidas from its corpse and left the rotting bodies of the Greek slain in the pass they had defended and encouraged Organizing for Persia to conduct tours of the battlefield for the more timid Greek populations.

Most Greeks did not buy the cam into the Persian media campaign and understood that a few tough Greeks could make a difference.    They abandoned Athens to Xerxes and went to across the pond to Salamis.  Should they fight, or flee,  or evolve?

When the commanders had assembled at Salamis from the States which have been mentioned, they began to deliberate, Eurybiades having proposed that any one who desired it should declare his opinion as to where he thought it most convenient to fight a sea-battle in those regions of which they had command; for Attica had already been let go, and he was now proposing the question about the other regions. And the opinions of the speakers for the most part agreed that they should sail to the Isthmus and there fight a sea-battle in defence of the Peloponnese, arguing that if they should be defeated in the sea-battle, supposing them to be at Salamis they would be blockaded in an island, where no help would come to them, but at the Isthmus they would be able to land where their own men were.
50. While the commanders from the Peloponnese argued thus, an Athenian had come in reporting that the Barbarians were arrived in Attica and that all the land was being laid waste with fire. For the army which directed its march through Boeotia in company with Xerxes, after it had burnt the city of the Thespians (the inhabitants having left it and gone to the Peloponnese) and that of the Plataians likewise, had now come to Athens and was laying waste everything in those regions. Now he had burnt Thespiai 3101 and Plataia because he was informed by the Thebans that these were not taking the side of the Medes.
51. So in three months from the crossing of the Hellespont, whence the Barbarians began their march, after having stayed there one month while they crossed over into Europe, they had reached Attica, in the year when Calliades was archon of the Athenians. And they took the lower city, which was deserted, and then they found that there were still a few Athenians left in the temple, either stewards of the temple or needy persons, who had barred the entrance to the Acropolis with doors and with a palisade of timber and endeavoured to defend themselves against the attacks of the enemy, being men who had not gone out to Salamis partly because of their poverty, and also because they thought that they alone had discovered the meaning of the oracle which the Pythian prophetess had uttered to them, namely that the "bulwark of wood" should be impregnable, and supposed that this was in fact the safe refuge according to the oracle, and not the ships.
52. So the Persians taking their post upon the rising ground opposite the Acropolis, which the Athenians call the Hill of Ares, 32 proceeded to besiege them in this fashion, that is they put tow round about their arrows and lighted it, and then shot them against the palisade. The Athenians who were besieged continued to defend themselves nevertheless, although they had come to the extremity of distress and their palisade had played them false; nor would they accept proposals for surrender, when the sons of Peisistratos brought them forward: but endeavouring to defend themselves they contrived several contrivances against the enemy, and among the rest they rolled down large stones when the Barbarians approached the gates; so that for a long time Xerxes was in a difficulty, not being able to capture them.

The Athenian Themistocles was like an old timey big city Tammany Hall politician who could toss bribes with the best of them in order to stop Xerxes.  He was surrounded by thoughtful, safe, considerate somewhat evolved community activists and elected officials who wanted to go along to get along retain their interests.  Themistocles understood that most people are blinded by self-interest, ignorance and timidity - who am I to say? types.

Themistocles heard them out -

So when they were gathered together, before Eurybiades proposed the discussion of the things for which he had assembled the commanders, Themistocles spoke with much vehemence 36 being very eager to gain his end; and as he was speaking, the Corinthian commander, Adeimantos the son of Okytos, said: "Themistocles, at the games those who stand forth for the contest before the due time are beaten with rods." He justifying himself said: "Yes, but those who remain behind are not crowned."

Themistocles went all NPR for a while -

60. At that time he made answer mildly to the Corinthian; and to Eurybiades he said not now any of those things which he had said before, to the effect that if they should set sail from Salamis they would disperse in different directions; for it was not seemly for him to bring charges against the allies in their presence: but he held to another way of reasoning, saying: "Now it is in thy power to save Hellas, if thou wilt follow my advice, which is to stay here and here to fight a sea-battle, and if thou wilt not follow the advice of those among these men who bid thee remove the ships to the Isthmus. For hear both ways, and then set them in comparison. If thou engage battle at the Isthmus, thou wilt fight in an open sea, into which it is by no means convenient for us that we go to fight, seeing that we have ships which are heavier and fewer in number than those of the enemy. Then secondly thou wilt give up to destruction Salamis and Megara and Egina, even if we have success in all else; for with their fleet will come also the land-army, and thus thou wilt thyself lead them to the Peloponnese and wilt risk the safety of all Hellas. If however thou shalt do as I say, thou wilt find therein all the advantages which I shall tell thee of:—in the first place by engaging in a narrow place with few ships against many, if the fighting has that issue which it is reasonable to expect, we shall have very much the better; for to fight a sea-fight in a narrow space is for our advantage, but to fight in a wide open space is for theirs. Then again Salamis will be preserved, whither our children and our wives have been removed for safety; and moreover there is this also secured thereby, to which ye are most of all attached, namely that by remaining here thou wilt fight in defence of the Peloponnese as much as if the fight were at the Isthmus; and thou wilt not lead the enemy to Peloponnese, if thou art wise. Then if that which I expect come to pass and we gain a victory with our ships, the Barbarians will not come to you at the Isthmus nor will they advance further than Attica, but they will retire in disorder; and we shall be the gainers by the preservation of Megara and Egina and Salamis, at which place too an oracle tells us that we shall get the victory over our enemies. 37 Now when men take counsel reasonably for themselves, reasonable issues are wont as a rule to come, but if they do not take counsel reasonably, then God is not wont generally to attach himself to the judgment of men."

Still no good -  he went all Mark Steyn on the lads -

61. When Themistocles thus spoke, the Corinthian Adeimantos inveighed against him for the second time, bidding him to be silent because he had no native land, and urging Eurybiades not to put to the vote the proposal of one who was a citizen of no city; for he said that Themistocles might bring opinions before the council if he could show a city belonging to him, but otherwise not. This objection he made against him because Athens had been taken and was held by the enemy. Then Themistocles said many evil things of him and of the Corinthians both, and declared also that he himself and his countrymen had in truth a city and a land larger than that of the Corinthians, so long as they had two hundred ships fully manned; for none of the Hellenes would be able to repel the Athenians if they came to fight against them.

Finally, Themistocles unloaded common sense on the waxed-up ears of the timid -

62. Signifying this he turned then to Eurybiades and spoke yet more urgently: "If thou wilt remain here, and remaining here wilt show thyself a good man, well; but if not, thou wilt bring about the overthrow of Hellas, for upon the ships depends all our power in the war. Nay, but do as I advise. If, however, thou shalt not do so, we shall forthwith take up our households and voyage to Siris in Italy, which is ours already of old and the oracles say that it is destined to be colonised by us; and ye, when ye are left alone and deprived of allies such as we are, will remember my words."
63. When Themistocles thus spoke, Eurybiades was persuaded to change his mind; and, as I think, he changed his mind chiefly from fear lest the Athenians should depart and leave them, if he should take the ships to the Isthmus; for if the Athenians left them and departed, the rest would be no longer able to fight with the enemy. He chose then this counsel, to stay in that place and decide matters there by a sea-fight.

Xerxes outnumbered the Greek Fleet by three to one.  Xerxes' fleet was smashed. The bully retreated.

Our Canadian/Chicago phone chat included a very poor redaction of my reading of Herodatus.  The guy on the other side of the wireless network is a very smart man and understood what I was trying to say about our world seemingly controlled by pagans, narcissists, bullies, incompetents and grifters - Now when men take counsel reasonably for themselves, reasonable issues are wont as a rule to come, but if they do not take counsel reasonably, then God is not wont generally to attach himself to the judgment of men."

God helps boat loads of tough Greeks in narrow waters.

EU Turf Covers Ireland - Irish Turf-Cutters Prosecuted - Wankers v. Kerry Bogmen

The legal basis on which SACs are selected and designated is the EU Habitats Directive, transposed into Irish law in the  as amended in 1998 and 2005.  The Directive lists certain habitats and species that must be protected within SACs. Irish habitats include raised bogs, blanket bogs, turloughs, sand dunes, machair (flat sandy plains on the north and west coasts), heaths, lakes, rivers, woodlands, estuaries and sea inlets. The 25 Irish species which must be afforded protection include Salmon, Otter, Freshwater Pearl Mussel, Bottlenose Dolphin and Killarney Fern.

Bollocks.

Ireland is a geological specimen, a zoological 'no-go-zone' and a political map for Euro-Ninnies and Eco-Facists.

The shape of geological Ireland (including the Six Counties held by Perfidious Albion) is that of a bowl -High all around and low to the middle.  Been that way since the Ice Ages, or there about, and like any bowl it fills with water.  To say that Ireland is a swamp, a marsh, or bog is not a strech.

When living creatures, cows, sheep, swine and Eejits wander into the bog they become. . . . shall we say . . .mired in the muck and without a carbon foot-print with opposable thumbs handy and a good stout length of rope, they will die, sink and become bogland.  That is what Mother Earth has planned for her kids . . .goats go out in the bog as well.

Like here in America, the dweebs, nerds, eejits and thickos who excelled in the earth sciences developed into Ecology Minded Bores at best and Eco-Fascists at worst.  The Eco-Fascists is quite happy with the murder of unborn child, but weeps tears of blood at the news of two North Kerrymen cutting turf.

Turf-cutting is a practice not unique to Ireland,but as culturally vital as Mass and Pints with the Lads after.  Cutting-turf is an ancient art developed out of necessity for survival.  No turf; no heat; no heat; no Finbar.

Turf is cut and stacked to dry.  Dry turf becomes peat.  Peat is ignited, like any good old fossil fuel and peat becomes heat.  Heat warms home and heats the stove.

Eco-fascists are not peat cutters.  They are upper middle class bullies with degrees from Trinity, or University College Dublin in the earth sciences, or political sciences, or journalism.  Though thickos they have somehow managed to amass power via politics, the pulpit, or print.  When Ireland decided to become a One World Land of Thickos, Wankers and Bollocks it joined the EU.

EU is thick with thickos.  The European Union dictates rules for living like a Wanker, Thicko, or a sound Bollocks.

Ireland complies mightily.

The result is a culture clash. Common sense has no place in the EU.  Diversity, Political Correctness, EcoTheology, Secularism, Marxist Economics and Gender Agendas are all that matters.

The result?

TWO north Kerry men are to appear at Tralee Circuit Criminal Court in October on charges relating to the extraction of turf from a protected bog.ohn O'Connor (50) and Christopher McCarthy (26), each with an address of Kilbaha, Moyvane, are charged with using a machine to extract turf from the protected Moanveanlagh bog near Listowel last May.

At Listowel District Court the book of evidence in the case was served on the men, who are fully contesting the charges. They were once again supported by members of Turf Cutters and Contractors Association (TCCA) from north Kerry, Clare, Kildare and Galway, including Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan (pictured right), who was in court for the proceedings.

At a previous court sitting, State Solicitor Ed O'Sullivan alleged that National Parks and Wildlife Service officers and gardai found Mr O'Connor and Mr McCarthy operating turfcutting machines on Moanveanlagh Bog on May 20 of last year, two months after a ban on cutting turf in Moanveanlagh was introduced. The investigation continued on May 21, 22 and 24, he said.

"Further inspections were carried out and found that turf was still being cut on different parts of the bog by personnel using the exact same machinery," he said.
At the time, Judge Larkin said she would not accept jurisdiction in the case, am on Tuesday sent the case forward to the October sittings of the Circuit court in Tralee.

Like Obama's  Keystone Cops of the USA EPA, if it is a fossil fuel,  it is bad for Saudi Arabia, Wahhabi's, the Sierra Club, Green Industries and Hollywood.  Control of resources by the thickos, wankers and bollocks universal, is control of industry, government and keeping out of the bog.

Scenes from a Marriage 2013 - Two Moms Part

 

" I Don't Even Know You, Anymore"

" Stow it Mac!"

 DENVER -

Colorado's first recognized same-sex divorce is final.
Supporters of Colorado's new civil unions law say the court ruling sets a precedent for gay couples married in other states who want to legally terminate their relationships here without uprooting their lives.
Juli Yim and Lorelei Jones wed in Massachusetts in 2009, where same-sex marriage is legal.
Yim tells the Fort Collins Coloradoan ( http://tinyurl.com/nzqoxwd ) the relationship went sour and she found a new partner in Colorado.

Now, what would Old Ingmar Bergman have to say about this item?  Divorce was said to spike in Sweden when this brooding mini-series hit the TV screens in Home of Suicides.  Needless to say, American audiences could not wait to get a gander.  Now, with Marriage being redefined by intellectual and moral giants Gov. Pat Quinn, Senators Dithering Dick Durbin (Planned Parenthood- IL) and Marque Kirque ( GOP-Lite), this news from Colorado should get lawyers and promiscuous couples all a tingle.



Mr. & Mrs. Juli Yim/Lorelei Jones in a gleeful moment - not yesterday.

Scenes from A Marriage 2013 by Yogi Yorgesen

 Juli Yim (JY)- Sometimes it's like husband and wife are talking on telephones that are out of order.

Lorelei Jones (LJ) -We're pitiful, self-indulgent cowards that can't connect with reality and are ashamed of ourselves.

JY - Affection shouldn't be kept just for vacations.

LJ -Sometimes it grieves me that I have never loved anyone. I don't think I've ever been loved either. It really distresses me.

JY -  I don't know what my love looks like, and I can't describe it. Most of the time I can't feel it.

LJ-Are we living in utter confusion?

JY -Sometimes you ask such goddamn silly questions.

LJ- So what? That's what I've become!

Every body Sing Along!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Toni "The Crypt-Keeper" Preckwinkle Oozes "Controveries" Our Complicit Media Glides Upon and Over and Out!

To Chicago Media ( i.e.agenda-hand-cuffed editorial boards and columnists who try to be someone) types Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is a genuine reformer and smarter than . . .almost as smart as Carol Marin.  That is  Chicago's Complicit Media doctrine with Abner Mikva and the ghost of not only Woody Guthrie, but Saul Alinsky's stamp of approval.

N.B. Chicago's Complicit Media does not include any of the hard working reporters who actually do wonderful, intelligent, gritty and tenacious work. Reports and some columnists like John Kass, Mark Brown, and Steve Huntley tend to be helots like all of us. Real reporters and columnists are not D-List Nick Von Hoffmans. They are Ray Coffeys - they tell the story. Like cops, foremen, teachers, nurses, cabbies and carpenters, they are doing a job.  CCM controls the public pulpit.



That said, if there is a tear shed upon reading one's Property Taxes, a prick of pain in the rump when finding Dept. of Revenue Meter Maid posting a ticket on your windscreen even you parked at a lawful un-yellowed curb sans a Meter Box and no Tow Zone Signs, or erupt like Pompeii in your britches with the realization that Red Light Camera's will shortly phalanx Western Ave. like Myrmidons,  or CTA Ventra Cards Come Sporting Bombardier Red Line Wheels What Don't Fit, you can and may attribute those irritations to  Chicago's Complicit Media -CCM and the fine pass-along political players they endorse, protect and feed.

Reporters report the news and the best columnists present both side of an issue.

The Chicago Sun Times' Dan Mihalopoulos reports

 Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has fired a top county ethics official who was trying to punish Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios for putting relatives on his payroll.
MaryNic Foster was quietly dumped from her $110,355-a-year post in May after five years as executive director of the county’s Board of Ethics.

Now, lookee, here, Dan!  Toni fired a Goo-Go?

With Preckwinkle’s support, the ethics board had hired attorney David Hoffman, the former City of Chicago inspector general, earlier this year to press its case that Berrios should pay $10,000 in fines and fire three family members.

Berrios, who also chairs the Cook County Democratic Party, has ignored ethics board rulings against him. He maintains that the county’s ethics rules apply only to the Cook County Board, not to the assessor or other countywide officials whose positions were established by the state of Illinois.
Foster said top aides to Preckwinkle didn’t give her a reason for removing her from the post she’s held since 2008 — a job that’s exempt from rules that ban political considerations from influencing county hiring or firing decisions. 

Now, that does sound familiar - The Morgue Lady, Underlings who disagreed with the Old Crypt Keeper on Supreme Court  candidates ( BTB they did not back the loser as CCPresident herself did) , the Cook County Comptroller, Whistleblowers of every stripe, or Orange jumpsuit

However this time Toni is merely 'replacing Ms. Foster with CCM darling David Hoffman - kind of an Eddie Munster playing Forrest Claypool.  Hoffman was all the rage in the waning days of King Richie, Distinguished Professor of the Grift at the University of Chicago.

There's chatter about Toni "The Crypt-keeper's" next bounce up the political food-chain - Mayor? Governor? Senator? President of the United States?  Dare I say it?  Metra, no . . .Out-going Metra Chair Madame??????

Personally, I do not believe that Toni Preckwinkle has managed to one thing that helped p

Toni Preckwinkle is a pass-along political person, who gets elected by dint of CCM protection with the full blessing of Pope Mikva's Hyde Park Vatican.

  

Tales of the South Side - Q (uirke) Erat Demonstradum

A Cajun, Tommy Quirke ( D' 68) and a Nova Scotian walked into a bar in Cardiff. . .over by Wales.


Tommy Quirke  never really experienced anything first hand in his life, as far as his converational skills could reveal. The amiable De La Salle Institute grad  T. Q. always referenced something heard on  the Q.T.
e.g.

Person -" Hey, Tommy did you notice that your fly is open?"

T. Q. - " No, but Butchie told me all about when I was coming out of the John."


Tommy Quirke  had, what one might call,  a Rich and Vicarious Life.

Recently, Tommy Quirke went on holiday in the United Kingdom where he charmed three vacationing gents like himself with Chicago Twice Told Tales ( at least)  .

In the beautiful Welsh costal town of Cardiff, T.Q. shared the vista taken in by millions from the Arthur of legend along with a Scot from Canada and a Cajun from Louisiana. They repaired to a pub and sampled the craft brews. The view was fantastic, the beer excellent, the food exceptional.

"Y'ken," said the Nova Scotian, "I still prefer the pubs back home. Why in Sayn Edmund's there's a wee bar called McTavish's. Now,the landlord there goes out of his way for the locals so much that when you buy 4 drinks he will buy the 5th drink for you."

'Aiyee! Mo chagren !" cried  the Cajun, " Getting down to my salle bière in  the Bayaou Teche,  Le Pecker Rouge, the barman there will buy you your 3rd drink after you buy the first 2."

"Ahhh, that's nothin," said Tommy Quike. "Back on the south side a' Chicago , there's Ryan's Bar, over by the Midas shop. Now,  the moment you set foot in the place they'll buy you a drink, then another, all the drinks you like. Then when you've had enough drinks they'll take you upstairs and see that you get laid. All on the house!"

The Scotian and the Cajun  immediately poured  scorn on the South Side Irishman's claims. But, the bold Tommy Quike swears every word is true!

"Well," said the Canadian Caledonian, "Did this actually happen to you?"

"Not me myself, personally, no," said the reliable Quirke, "But it did happen to me sister."

Quod Erat Demonstrandum.

The Varginha Dialogues - Words That Really Matter Avoid Body Parts

I was told by a woman sometime after the death of my wife in 1998, that one sure cure for my blues was buying a ticket to see the Vagina Monologues: ' Eve Ensler is a genius.'

I'm not all that bright. I failed to see the connection between a play that celebrates a woman's gear and my sense of loss, grief, anger, confusion and loneliness.  Maybe, I should have taken her advise, because I self-medicated by gambling like and idiot out of Tolstoy for too long.  Well, I am a male. I find it odd that the very people who gab about female castration are the first to condemn Israel and demand abortion 24/7 on my dime. Me, I don't chat body parts.

Notice above that I refused to use the V aside from it place in the Ensler text.  I am no prude, but I refuse to go all second wave feminist.  Words have meaning, context and most certainly place. Am I uncomfortable talking about a woman's gizmo?  Certainly not.  I do not refer to my own coital apparatii by the latinate and stick to the language of the sixth grade male awakening ( Glory Be to God!).

The Old Avenger has no place in public.

Due to my proclivity for ignoring articles, plays, poems, or chit-chat featuring the Female Johnson, I very nearly missed a delightful AP report on Pope Francis' visit to Rio Slums  -Despite heavy security and a cold rain, Francis waded into the cheering crowds and hugged and kissed residents young and old before blessing the altar at the shoebox of a church that serves the community. He prayed before a replica of Brazil's patron saint, the Virgin of Aparecida, and met with a family in their squat yellow home.
"He gave each of us a rosary, he took photos with everyone and embraced each one," said Diego Rodrigues, a 26-year-old friend of the da Penha family who received the papal visit. "I think everyone but the pope was speechless!"
Francis brought a message of hope, following in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II who visited two such favelas during a 1980 trip to Brazil and Mother Teresa who visited Varginha itself in 1972. Her Missionaries of Charity order have kept a presence in the shantytown ever since.
Like Mother Teresa, Francis brought his own personal history to the visit: As archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio frequently preached in the poverty-wracked slums of his native city, putting into action his belief that the Catholic Church must go to the farthest peripheries to preach and not sit back and wait for the most marginalized to come to Sunday Mass.
In remarks to a crowd of several thousand Varghina residents, who slushed through a muddy soccer field to welcome him, Francis acknowledged that young people in particular have a sensitivity toward injustice.
"You are often disappointed by facts that speak of corruption on the part of people who put their own interests before the common good," Francis told the crowd. "To you and all, I repeat: Never yield to discouragement, do not lose trust, do not allow your hope to be extinguished. Situations can change, people can change."
It was a clear reference to the violent protests that paralyzed parts of the country in recent weeks as Brazilians furious over rampant corruption and inefficiency within the country's political class took to the streets.
Francis blasted what he said was a "culture of selfishness and individualism" that permeates society today, demanding that those with money and power share their wealth and resources to fight hunger and poverty.
"No amount of peace-building will be able to last, nor will harmony and happiness be attained in a society that ignores, pushes to the margins or excludes a part of itself," Francis said.

Rather than a shower of reports and round-tables on the Pope's dialogues with the poor, Americans are bombarded with news accounts, interviews and press conferences dedicated to Anthony Weiner's Tamale Textings and the effect that is having on his odious wife. That sin of omission is because the Pope and Catholics are dead set against abortion and defend the marriage between man and woman. 

Like Trampas in Owen Wister's novel The Virginian, America's corporate media sponsored by the Progressive Democratic National Party use language to deconstruct our common spirit.  The Virginian, like Pope Francis employs the gift of words to bring people together.

"Events like this, with the pope and all the local media, get everyone so excited," said Antonieta de Souza Costa, a 56-year-old vendor and resident of Varginha. "I think this visit is going to bring people back to the Catholic Church."
In the last two decades, the church has lost legions of faithful in the country, most of them poorer Brazilians who have switched to Pentecostal evangelical congregations with a huge presence in Varginha and most other slums.
The Varginha slum butts up against what until about six months back was the largest "cracolandia" — crackland — in Brazil, where hundreds of crack cocaine users gathered under a train overpass and used the drug openly night and day. Crumbling brittle shacks still give the area a bombed-out feel.

The Pope dialogues and the American media monologues endlessly.

I'd attend any Varginha Dialogue and will continue to the . . . . other Monlogue a huge pass. 

Religion - Grifters in Soros Paradise

Some feather-brained theologians equate Jesus with Che Guevara or a Scalp-hunting frontiersman.  Many more Chicago news media members tell only part of a story in order to fall in line behind editorial boards.

Jesus as I recall was Jewish preacher with Pharisaic tendencies who ran afoul of the Sadducees, King Herod, and Roman Procurator for Judea Pontius Pilate, was scourged, crucified and buried in a cave.  Then He rose from the dead and appeared to many contemporary eye-witnesses performed post mortem miracles and ascended to Heaven and a few weeks later, the Holy Spirit appeared to confirm the Triune God after that people of all races, incomes and proclivities took vows attesting to His Being - as Son of God.

From the late 1950's up to now, over-educated stiffs and well-heeled grifters decided to do to theology, in particular Christianity, what they have managed to do to government, entertainment and education.  The other day I read about a Progressive Evangelical workshop for the New Evangelicals for Socialism.  Here's a taste -

 Although historically justice has been understood differently, from “sevenfold retribution … where if someone hits you on the cheek you slit their throat … [resulting in] spiraling violence,” to “one for one kind of retribution,” Alexander stated Jesus brought a new “revolutionary” way as the “Che Guevara Jesus, the nonviolent revolutionary Jesus.”  This Jesus, as opposed to the “Colonial Settler Jesus” Alexander joked he asked into his heart at a young age, advocated “turning the cheek of equality, turning the cheek of respect, staying engaged in the conflict and in the problem and working toward hopefully transformation and a solution.”

He concluded: “I’m hoping that the next … few decades, the next few years, already starting that the European North American lighter pigmented folks that are this way because we live further from the equator and create the color hierarchies … that we can listen to and learn from the churches around the world … Skin pigment being a tie to privilege is a serious problem. Amen?”

Nah.   Historically justice has been understood differently, just as anything is understood differently by one whose cultural context is limited to Ward Churchill.  Che-sus of Nazareth?  Dan'l Boone of Bethlehem?

Evangelicals for Social Action are the Soros funded catchers mitt of the indigenous peoples seeking liberty in America from South and Central America and of course Mexico.  Like other quasi religious Political Action Networks funded by the beetle browed Bolshevik George Soros man and God are but one fabric in the quilt that is the Soros grift- academic freedom, political reform, eugenics, abortion, gay marriage, race and poverty as well. Interestingly, all of Soros mini-PACS come in exactly the same format as Move-on.org and Organizing for America.

Today in the Chicago Sun Times,  a Soros news feed was slipped on the desk of Francine Knowles for a hit piece on Cardinal George.

The source of the story is a Soros Funded PAC called Faithful America - The beef du jour stems from a petition generated by the Soros operation for  Be All -in For Gay Marriage Faithful America demanding that Cardinal George refrain from saying Mass today at a conference for Gay Catholics at St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein - owned and operated by Cardinal George.

But Michael Sherrard, executive director of Faithful America, which launched the petition drive, contends “priests and therapists will be trained in dangerous and debunked techniques that don’t cure homosexuality but do contribute to suicide and depression.”
He added, “By appearing at this conference and celebrating mass there, Cardinal George is implicitly endorsing practices that cost the lives of gay and lesbian youth.”
George responded in an email: “Courage is an organization of homosexually-oriented Catholics who support one another in their quest for holiness as homosexuals. I haven’t seen their program, but their literature speaks only of spirituality, not of therapy.
“When national Catholic organizations meet, the local Bishop is often asked to offer Mass for them. That’s the only reason I’ll be there. (It’s called loving your neighbor.)”

Faithful America's mission statement says " Love They Neighbor, No Exceptions,"  yet its members like Move-on.org and Organizing for American have ready made comment trolls to bash the likes of Cardinal Dolan and Cardinal George and Catholics in general. Ms. Knowles dug deeply to unearth all of persons and organization deemed objectionable to Faithful America, but offered absolutely no information about Faithful America in words or deed.

This is bad reporting at best or most likely a very slanted editorial piece without the courage of conviction.

The Sun Times has very good reporters, and a ditsy editorial board and just plain in-the tank columnists with the exceptions of Steve Huntley and Mark Brown.  

The goofs get passed off as sober and thoughtful petitioners.  They must have an image of a John Gielgud Jesus - old John was as Gay as Christmas.

 

http://www.faithfulamerica.org/about/

To Name the Prince - Add Timmy Guts.

All babies are alike, so long as they managed to stay out of the way of Planned Parenthood and educated butchers like Dr. Kermit Baron Gosnell.

There is no ugly baby.  They are all precious -male, or female; king, or commoner, healthy, or afflicted.

A miracle comes to pass that changes this tired old planet with new foot prints to be and perfumes the atmosphere with breath and cries echoing God's contract with mankind.

At 4:25 PM CST, we got the news that the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a little boy weighing in at 8 Lbs, 6 ozs, Well done, Kiddo.  If Prince Willie is any kind of a man and all signs point to the positive, he was there at the miracle and I hope he helped a bit.  Child-birth is the most humbling experience a male can endure.

The Little Guy Royal has to be yet named, or announced to the public. I am sure the Windsors have the little man's handle all wrapped up.

I imagine, like my own family, there will be pressure to maintain geneological cognomen templates We Hickeys follow the naming frames of the Batty-Lars of Crinnie Hill Castleisland, County Kerry: Identified by the the sept of Hickeys generated by Bartholomews/Laurences; thus, Batty's son Larry married Nora and their first child was Laurence & etc. the other twelve followed pattern as well.

The Little Guy Royal will no doubt be named according to his lineage, or in recognition of the four kingdoms - George, David, Patrick Andrew & etc, or the Teutonic Carpetbaggers of Bradenburg Victor, Louis, Albert,  Edward.

In time the little man will be publicly known by the names chosen for him and many more will follow. That is our all too human fate.  Our deeds often brand us.

One of the coolest names that I have ever encountered in my two score years belonged to one Timothy Devlin of the vast Red Devlin Clan,west of Damen Avenue at 78th Place.  Timmy-Guts Devlin was few years younger than me, but had reputation for fierce daring-do that would have made Errol Flynn pale timorously when challenged to follow Timmy-Guts anywhere.

Timmy-Guts would enter burning box-cars on the CSX rail lines that commanded Rum Valley at 79th Street in order to retrieve treasures untold and immeasurable, because they were there.  Timmy-Guts Devlin scared mad dogs away from his little sisters and climbed the Rheem Water Tower long before he entered Little Flower Grammar School.

Timmy- Guts Devlin was the template for anyone claiming a pair.  The Young Royal might be well served with name Timothy somewhere in his official handle - the world could use another Timmy-Guts.

Driving the Race Fueled 1978 Obama: "Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me 35 Years Ago"

Let me expand on my thoughts a little bit . . .First of all . . .President Obama is as genuine as as an Illinois Pension and the current cover of Rolling Stone.  That is why he has been so successful in our culture that honors 'the unexamined life.'

Deftly avoiding any contact with authenticity is the American Gold Standard for political and cultural apotheosis. Barack Obama managed to do just that with a great deal of help along the way.  What passes for political reform is merely the elimination of common sense, accountability, genuine empathy and competence for group ascent and mulish antagonism to any and all dissent from accepted doctrines and practices.  To chants of " Ain't He/she Great? X  (infinity and not a side-ways 8 -the old lemniscate) any selected carbon foot-print becomes as a god - no questions asked or allowed.

Yesterday, deftly mincing by the many political and ethical land-mines( IRS, Holder, Benghazi, Cairo, Syria, Snowden, Detroit*) laid by Team Obama themselves, the President weighed in, yet again, with his narcissistic POV on matters racial




He could have been shot while atop of George Zimmerman in a gated community in Florida having purchased Skittles and Arizona Ice Tea thirty five years ago. That would be in 1978; however, Barack H. Obama was in Hawaii with Choom Gang smoking Maui jig-weed, shooting hoops and dating blondies. There was, then, racism. There is, now, racism and it is a mighty two-way street with a big-assed cul de sca at each end.

Here is visual evidence of Obama Agonistes 1978





"We go play hoop." - the Demosthenes of DC, circa 1978.

A constant diet of bullshit (hot/cold/wet/dry)  should be avoided.   Examine, challenge, remember, learn and do as a healthy alternative.

* I heard a Chicago cop paraphrase Obama - "If Obama had a city, it would look like Detroit."  Now, that is authentic.

IRS Scandal Inching Closer to Valerie Jarrett's Fingerprints?

“I love coming to Asheville,” Obama said at a Linamar factory plant, where he stumped today on his post-State of the Union tour. He told the crowd that “after this whole presidency thing,” he and Michelle Obama will be “looking for a little spot, you know, to come on down, play a little golf, do a little hiking, fishing, eat barbecue.” February 2013

The Oval Office: Sometime in not all-to-distant future, or about all the future that will be left . . . "Well I'm gonna to go then! And I don't need any of this. I don't need this stuff, and I don't need *you*. I don't need anything. Except this.

[picks up an ashtray]

And that's the only thing I need is *this*. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray... And this paddle game. - The ashtray and the paddle game and that's all I need... And this remote control. - The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that's all I need... And these matches. - The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control, and the paddle ball... And this lamp. - The ashtray, this paddle game, and the remote control, and the lamp, and that's all *I* need. And that's *all* I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one... I need this. - The paddle game and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches for sure. Well what are you looking at? What do you think I'm some kind of a jerk or something! - And this. That's all I need.

[walking outside]The ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, and this magazine, and the chair.

 [outside now] And I don't need one other thing, except my dog.. . . I don't need my dog."

One day President Barack H. Obama will depart the White House, but there is so much to occupy Americans like myself. 

• Zimmerman?  Meh. My old ear drums are still bleeding from our National Discussion on Race, when old Henry Lou Gates lost his keys and President Sparklefahrts dipped his toes in the quiet waters of Cambridge Police 911 call. Stupid!  A few beers later and all was forgotten . . .by this Nation of Cowards.

• Snowden?    I hope the poor SOB can get some Mitchum in that Moscow Airport.  Man, he's gotta be ripe.  Well,  it is Russia and Old Shirtless in Saint Petersburg don't seem to mind.

• Rolling Stone? A great cop took care of that one.

• Metra Illinois? Already in the Illinois  memory hole.

• Motown?  President Al Green has left the building.

• Cairo?  In the national  memory hole 

• Benghazi? Getting warmed up.

• IRS?  Boiling like a pot of Englewood napalm and set to burn some scamps. R. Emmett Tyrell writes about the last six months of scandals oozing out of the pores of Brand Obama  

Congress also ought to be looking into the Obama Administration’s subpoenaing of journalists’ records and the allegations of a State Department cover-up of irregularities by our ambassador to Belgium. Then there is the NSA disaster. It now appears that the dimwit Edward Snowden walked off with a vast horde of intelligence. We are even hearing that he has in the cozy confines of the Moscow airport the manuals for keying into NSA intelligence gathering projects. How did he get them? Who is responsible?

All of this incompetence took place under President Obama’s watch. Now comes word that the president is popping off about Trayvon Martin again. Initially he blustered, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” With the acquittal of George Zimmerman he is saying we can “honor Trayvon” by putting an end to “gun violence.” Still worse is his outburst this past May on sexual assault cases in the military. Commenting on them he — the president of the United States and commander in chief of the military — pronounced that the accused should be “prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged…” You can be sure that his outburst put in jeopardy sexual assault cases all over the country. Thomas J. Roming, a former judge advocate general of the Army, told the New York Times, “His remarks were more specific than I’ve ever heard a commander in chief get…. Every military defense counsel will make a motion about this.”

Yeah, but didn't  Motown Barry look just smashing back in Denver, betwixt those swell Attic columns, though?  He did. Wasn't that a time?

For NPR and Bill Moyers, I am sure, but have never cottoned to national figure who demands that goons like Dr. Kermit Baron Gosnell ( Dr. Talented 10%) be allowed to spin the spinal cords of living children in defense of women.

Of all of the indications of the hapless misanthropy that is Brand Obama, nothing takes the cheese like IRS scandal.  Any self-respecting meth-head with a rudimentary understanding of English and a GED, like Eddie Snowden, knows that IRS was unleashed upon the Tea Party, Pro Israel, Anti-abortion, or America-Ain't- Bad 501 (c) 3 applicants to show Americans the might of the Brand and the lash waiting all dissenters. That means, Valerie Jarrett, Chicago Slum Queen, Obama Minister Without Portfolio Bully-Broad.

President Obama doesn't waffle-up in the AM without Valerie Jarrett's say-so.  Why Ms. Jarrett has become such a powerful force in American public life is easy to explain - politicians need access to money.  She is a crazy aunt with oodles of boodle that a daffy family will allow to not only pick out the curtains, but schools for the kids, cable shows, menus and toilet paper.  Valerie Jarrett operates off-camera, but pushes Commie Sit-com stars of the future into the full focus - Anita Dunn, Van Jones, Kevin Jennings, EPA Mini-Czar Salazar and IRS general counsel and White House go-to-guy William Wilkins. No less a past-Obama fan than Peggy Noonan writes:

The IRS chief counsel is named William Wilkins. And again, he is one of only two Obama political appointees in the IRS.
What was the chief counsel's office looking for? The letter to Mr. Werfel says Mr. Hull's supervisor, Ronald Shoemaker, provided insight: The counsel's office wanted, in the words of the congressional committees, "information about the applicants' political activities leading up to the 2010 election." Mr. Shoemaker told investigators he didn't find that kind of question unreasonable, but he found the counsel's office to be "not very forthcoming": "We discussed it to some extent and they indicated that they wanted more development of possible political activity or political intervention right before the election period."
It's almost as if—my words—the conservative organizations in question were, during two major election cycles, deliberately held in a holding pattern.
So: What the IRS originally claimed was a rogue operation now reaches up not only to the Washington office, but into the office of the IRS chief counsel himself.
At the generally lacking House Oversight Committee Hearings on Thursday, some big things still got said.
Ms. Hofacre of the Cincinnati office testified that when she was given tea-party applications, she had to kick them upstairs. When she was given non-tea-party applications, they were sent on for normal treatment. Was she told to send liberal or progressive groups for special scrutiny? No, she did not scrutinize the applications of liberal or progressive groups. "I would send those to general inventory." Who got extra scrutiny? "They were all tea-party and patriot cases." She became "very frustrated" by the "micromanagement" from Washington. "It was like working in lost luggage." She applied to be transferred.
For his part, Mr. Hull backed up what he'd told House investigators. He described what was, essentially, a big, lengthy runaround in the Washington office in which no one was clear as to their reasons but everything was delayed. The multitiered scrutiny of the targeted groups was, he said, "unusual."

What happens in the White House does not stay in the White House. Detroit Happens. Syria Happens. ObamaCare should not happen. Things happen because almost twenty years ago, Barack H. Obama, community activist, Woods Fund Executive Director, and neighborhood guy of Bill Ayers attached himself to Valerie Jarrett,Real Estate player and Slum Queen.  She's the crazy aunt who makes uncle Jeremiah Wright seem like Justice Clarence Thomas, in my humble opinion.

The IRS Scandal was far less bloody and foolish than Benghazi fiasco of 9/11/2011, but will prove mortal to Obama's last place finish in History's list of American Presidencies.  It is not Obama's fault, nothing is.  We voters drank the Cool Aid, Smoked the Hopium and felt the tingle up our thighs. We may soon realize the poor guys was just a Jerk with a sharp crease in his britches.

Will we learn from this side History?

Metra Board - If the Tribune Editorial Board Demands Your Resignation, It Is a Great Sign to Stay Put

Alex Clifford was plucked from sunny California and plunked down here in the Land of Lincoln where the weather and the politics shifts with the prevailing winds.

The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board would tell Newton that apples grow up from the rich and fertile soil, where toothsome maids gather up the fruity orbs with their delicate alabaster fingers and swaddle them in winsome aprons. Like the BGA, the Chicago Editorial Boards, are where clueless go to strangle common sense and abort the obvious.

The Metra Board, like other Illinois institutions fraught with problems that became editorial grist (CPS FAIL/Cop Bashing/ U of I Pay to Play & etc.) looked to a coast for a Champ.  We got a Ruth Love and Jody Weiss and a Michael Hogan - ubi sunt?  California Alex is yet with us. What passes for Illinois Intellectual Titans never stop to ask, " Will avocadi grow in Peotone; peanuts in Prospects Heights, or cranberries in Hegewisch?

Yesterday, Alex Clifford unleashed his Shakman Avocadonado on the Tribune Editorial and our Blue Ribbon Illinois Obtuse.

To say that California Al unloaded incontrovertible opinion is to do him damning praise.  His opinion was monumental.  The breaking of this wind no doubt sailed away the lithe, but singularly unpleasant husk that is Andy Shaw of the BGA clear in a popcorn field in Iroquois County, shook the mighty jowls of Thundering Dick Simpson.

The Tribune Editorial Board, captained by that former Wildcat disc jockey, Bruce Dold, went all Dutton Peabody in response to the Californian's allegations and  imprecations of Shakman Sinning!

We've seen little to suggest ( apples growing out of the ground again!)  they were unhappy with Clifford's job performance but plenty of evidence that they were aware of the behind-the-scenes acrimony involving O'Halloran and Huggins. One board member gave Clifford a heads-up that there weren't enough votes to renew his contract, then joined in the vote to send him packing.
Four of them have since written letters of recommendation to help him find a new job.
What good are any of them? They're supposed to be keeping the trains running, not taking care of politicians and their pals. But they're patronage employees themselves, handpicked by pols. They do what they're told in return for the paychecks they're clearly not earning. Getting rid of them is a nightmare; we learned that after the last scandal, which seems like yesterday. It takes eight board members to oust one, and it's not even clear whether the pols who appoint them can replace them mid-term. All of this is leading, once again, to talk about a legislative overhaul of the entire four-headed transit system.
Board members, save us all a lot of grief. Resign. Chicago Tribune Editorial

Well they have certainly gotten to bottom of things . . .as always.  Mark Brown of the Sun Times and Phil Kadner of the Southtown Star (Liberals unencumbered by limited I.Q.s) ovver thoughtful insights on the Metra testimony of California Al: each linked above.

California Al could not blossom and grow in Illini loam.  Andy Shaw of BGA, Mickey Shakman of Shakman Enterprises, and the Tribune Editorial board saw a mountain in this molehill, an opportunity bash somebody  and apples growing up betwixt them beans and corn.

Hoooooooooooeeeeeeeey!