Claypool Wouldn't Know the Truth Unless It Came With a Government Paycheck

DNA Erica Demerest photo

Forrest Claypool - say it with me, please " Forrest Claypool."  There; isn't that like a Yoga moment, or cucumbers on the eyelids?

For most Chicago journalists, just saying " Forrest Claypool" is a tonic akin to a seventh grade fat boy getting a Saint Valentine's Day card from a tween stunner - the Hope, Oh the Hope!

You see over the last forty years, Chicago newspapers gave up integrity for access.  Columnists and Editorial Boards care more about the news morsels tossed by a Daley, a Blago,  an Obama, a Rahm, a Mike Quigley, or a Pat Quinn than it does about getting out the full story. Public television and radio, WTTW& WBEZ share the agendas of the elected Progressives who run this city, county and this state and the activists and PACs who help keep them in power, They feed at the same tax-funded trough.

I'm just a working stiff, with a mortgage and a new tax on something I own or don't own every sixty seconds in Cook County. To me, the name " Forrest Clayyyyyyyyyyyypoooooooooool " portends a looming grift - a government sanctioned pinch of my wallet.  Forrest Claypool to my waxless ears is akin to the names of great grifters, cads, bounders, cut-purses and ne'er-do-wells of common culture Reese Kilgore, Butch Cavendish, Velma Valento, Bill Sykes and of course Galworthy's hideous Soames Forsyte. .  Uriah Heep is Congressman Mike Quigley's sole property, though Forrest Claypool would give Wee Mike a run for his money.

Thanks to the capriciously snorting snouts of Chicago's iconic news hounds, Forrest Claypool does not get away with murder, only character assassination of better persons -Amalgamated Transit Union Local #308 Bob Kelly.  Why only yesterday, Forrest Claypool celebrated the continued employment of 65 felons turned CTA apprentices with this -"Despite Mr. Kelly's commitment to end the rail car servicer apprentice program and put his own union members out of work, we've been able to work with Local 241's leadership to find a place for these individuals, guaranteeing them the opportunity to work and put food on their families' tables for another year," CTA President Forrest Claypool said previously." And often.

Robert Kelly has been portrayed in our collective Chicago media as cross between Simon Legree and Sir Percival Glyde, from the moment that the doomsday clock on the Forrest Claypool, Rahm Emanuel, Michael Pfleger CTA School for Felons was announced last March. Though the ex-cons were placed in rail cleaning posts, no one bothered to let the union governing such labor in on the plans.  Kelly wanted the workers placed in the jobs at the Local 308 recommended salaries, but Rahm Pinchpenny Savior and Forrest Claypool chained the workers to Micky D salaries in the name of Saul Alinsky.

But Kelly has said he wanted the CTA to pay the rail workers more money. The 65 rail apprentices are dues-paying union members, but they’re paid a considerably lower wage than their union counterparts, and they don't get benefits.
“What do I say to people when I say you’re going to do the exact same work next to a guy making $25 an hour and benefits, and I'm not going to pay you benefits?" Kelly asked on "Chicago Tonight" recently.
"They're using these people to save money. Give them the right wages, health, pension, benefits. Let’s give these people a real second chance. Let’s do it. I will sign that deal tomorrow, turn these people over, and give them a real shot at life,” Kelly said.

The SPIN fed to the gaping maws of the Chicago news hounds avoids the facts, minutes, calendars and records of Forrest Claypool.  No one from WTTW to Chuck Goudie to Eric Zorn will bother with the facts missing from a good Claypool news feed.

Claypool is such a gutless, sniveller that he and Rahm hired Citizen Michael Pfleger to perform the character hit on Bob Kelly.  Michael Pfleger wrote a Jeremiad on the alleged nasty nature of Bob Kelly in the always complicit Chicago Tribune, followed by an idiotic smear piece about Kelly's daughter winning a scholarship in the Sun Times.  Pfleger led a December protest that included accomplished grifter and activist Rep. Bobby Rush and a score of Pfleger acolytes at the offices of ATU 308, during the Local's Christmas Party. Now, Michael Pfleger has issued a Fatwa on Kelly via one of his FaceBook pages.

Post by Father Michael Pfleger.

Claypool knows enough to duck a working man in an honest forum.  I have never met Bob Kelly, but I have had more than enough personal contact with Forrest Claypool for one lifetime - usually at political fund-raisers for good people in public life who must admit Claypool on the guest list or near their coat tails.  Usually those same people find themselves subject to scurrilous charges on TV or in a column, later to be dropped.

Claypool would not know the truth if it came with a government check.  He does not need to know it.  Forrest Claypool is fine. Rahm Emanuel is fine.  Michael Pfleger is fine.

Chicago?  Not so good.

Robert Kelly?  We shall see.

Don't Be a Butt Flicker; Be A Butt Picker! Show 'Em Your Butts, Illinois Smokers!

Few things make me more astonished to be a resident of Cook County, Illinois than the lengths to which intellectually challenged and socially retarded individuals manage to find huge paying government jobs, especially with the Illinois General Assembly.

I have taught many young people to be good and sober minded citizens in classrooms from Kankakee to Auburn Gresham, even though my humanly flawed soul strays from the path now and then.  I am proud to say that a number of my students have gone on to careers in business, the church, government, the entertainment industry and the arts.  A few have even thanked me for my small part in their achievements and vocations.

A very few have gone on to unhappy lives of missed opportunities and disappointments public and private. One poor chap became a legislator in another State and ended up going to prison for violating the public trust.  He was always a sneaky little bastard.

As the new year dawned, I was compelled to think about the new punitive law in effect at midnight last.  This is the Deb Mell Butt Flicker Public Act:

Cigarette butts
HB 3243, PA 98-0483 Some Illinois residents will likely pledge to quit smoking cigarettes as a New Year’s resolution. Those who don’t may want to resolve not to flick their cigarette butts on the ground, or they could face a hefty fine. Cigarette butts have been added to the litter control act, and those who toss them on the ground could be charged with a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of no less than $50 and up to $1,500.

Now, with advent of the Medical Marijuana Law Illinois ( " . . . Patients must be at least 18 years old to apply for a medical marijuana card through the Illinois Department of Public Health and must prove they have one of 33 serious or chronic conditions specifically listed in the bill. They must have an established relationship with a doctor who approves their use of the drug. Successful applicants will be allowed 2.5 ounces of marijuana per a two-week period. Patients, caregivers, owners and employees of growing operations and dispensaries will all be required to pass background checks Owners of growing operations or dispensaries will be banned from making campaign contributions. "), is a Joint to be considered a Butt?  Is there a The Dude's Exempt Clause?  You know like that compelling scene from Big Lebowski?



( sotta voce - Can't hate Creedence and you can't stop bullshit, in my considered opinion. )

There's more.  A triple- repeat offender could go away to the Iron Hilton and pay up to $25,000 for the crimes committed against Mother Earth, Sanitary Issues, Public Safety and Deb Mell.

I smoke, or did, having resolved with my usual steely will to quit the foul talon-clutch of the Marlboro Man.  Through  my years as a tobacco weed fiend, I managed by dint of good manners and an expansive heart to deposit ciggy refuse in a proper receptacle ( ashtrays public and private, empty beer cans, or field stripped in the manner of a Forest Ranger).  I tended not to smoke in restaurants over the last thirty years and have never once lite one up in the house that shelters my bairns.

Like jaywalking, traffic scofflawing, toxic dumping, drug trafficking, or murdering for hire, I never needed a law or ordinance to know what I should or should not do.  That is because I was not educated in public schools (K-20).  Rather, I was taught by Catholic scholars to be a modestly Catholic scholar - Esse Quam Videre.  

Last spring, while suiting up for the Gay Marriage Warfare and Victory, Deb Mell took the time to amend legislation in the Illinois General Assembly to make sure that butt flickers, a particularly nasty breed of Eco-Vandals, got it good and hard.  Governor Pat Quinn who is always quick to sign his name to any and all idiotic legislation crafted with polling and pie charts from the Paul Simon Institute and fashioned by thought challenged activists and deep feeling snitches like Deb Mell signed this latest law against common sense by Cook County Progressives.

Cook County Progressives awe me.  I have yet to encounter one ( male, female, breeder, LGBTQ, hyphenated Irish, Swede, or Proud Black Brother) that was in any way shape or form an admirable, self-reliant, or nice person.  Yet, otherwise admirable, self-reliant and nice persons who take public office allow them to control Illinois.  Awesome.

That said,  Be not a Deb Mell Law Scofflaw.  Flick no butts from a fixed position, or, God Forefend, moving vehicle.  Don't be Flicker, not for fear of Law's Majesty and Might, butt, because it is the right thing to do.  Be a Butt Picker.  If you, or I, continue to absorb the fumes made fashionable by Walter Raleigh, pick the butt, strip the butt and save the butt for future use -recycle.

Illinois Butt Pickers might want to show Deb Mell and her cosponsors the fruits of being concerned Illinois voters, taxpayers and citizens.

Save your butts and show your butts! Collect your butts in gallon sized zip lock bags; drop them off at Alderman Deb Mell's office, or the offices of Bill's co-sponsors. My own Representative Fran Hurley jumped at the chance to savage butt flickers.

Show them your Butts!  Obey the Law with all of the intelligence and mutual respect it deserves.

Here's who want to see your butts: Show 'Em Your Butts!  It's the Law!
Representative Deborah Mell (D)
Represented the 40th District

Alderman Mell's 33rd Ward Service Office 3649 North Kedzie Chicago, Illinois 60618 Office Hours Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 5:00PM Ward Night: Wednesdays 5:00 PM - 7:00PM The Ward Office is also open the first Saturday of every month, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM. Please call ahead to confirm office hours.  Former Springfield Office: 247-E Stratton Office Building Springfield, IL   62706 (217) 782-8117 (217) 558-4551 FAX Former District Office: 3657 N. Kedzie Avenue Chicago, IL  60618 (773) 267-2880 (773) 267-2840 FAX

Email: staterep40@gmail.com

Years served: January 2009 - July 2013 Committee assignments: Biography: Full-time legislator; B.A. Political Science and History, Cornell College; California Culinary Academy; Mayor Rahm Emanuel Advisory Council for Human Relations; Award for Activism, National Organization for Women; Howard Brown Cornerstone Award for community excellence. Representative since 2009. Representative Frances Ann Hurley (D) 35th District Springfield Office: 252-W Stratton Office Building Springfield, IL   62706 (217) 782-8200 District Office: 10400 S. Western Chicago, IL  60643 (773) 445-8128 (773) 672-5144 FAX Additional District Addresses Email: repfranhurley@gmail.com Years served: January 2013 - Present Committee assignments: Appropriations-General Service; Cities & Villages; Health Care Licenses; Transportation, Regulation, Roads; Public Safety: Police & Fire Commit. Biography: Full-time state legislator and lifelong resident of the southwest community; graduate of Saint Barnabas Elementary School, Mother McAuley High School, and Saint Xavier University; former aide to Alderman Ginger Rugai and Matthew O’Shea; member of the Saint Christina Parish, Mt. Greenwood Civic Association; former director of the Saint Christina Manna Program and volunteer for Christ Hospital’s Ronald McDonald House, Misercordia, American Cancer Society Yme softball tournament, Bucks for Burn Camp, PADS, Marist High School, Mt. Greenwood Party in the Park, and Merrionette Park Youth Softball; lives in Mt. Greenwood with her three children (Nate, Nick, and Emily).

Representative La Shawn K. Ford (D)
8th District

Springfield Office: 239-E Stratton Office Building Springfield, IL   62706 (217) 782-5962 (217) 557-4502 FAX District Office: 4800 W. Chicago Ave. 2nd Floor Chicago, IL  60651 (773) 378-5902 (773) 378-5903 FAX Additional District Addresses

Email: repford@lashawnford.com

Years served: January 2007 - Present Committee assignments: Appropriations-Human Services; Health Care Availability Access (Vice-Chairperson); Health Care Licenses; Small Business Empowerment & Workfo (Chairperson); Restorative Justice (Chairperson); Tollway Oversight (Vice-Chairperson); Veterans' Affairs. Biography: Real estate entrepreneur and founder of Ford Desired Realty, Inc. Received his B.S. in Education from Loyola University in Chicago. Former history teacher and basketball coach for Chicago Public Schools. Licensed Illinois real estate broker, member of the Chicago and National Association of Realtors, board member of the Austin YMCA, board member of Circle Family Care, board member of the Austin Chamber of Commerce, founding organizer of Zawadi Youth Group, and member of St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church Parish Council and Finance Committee. Representative Elaine Nekritz (D) 57th District Assistant Majority Leader Springfield Office: 245-E Stratton Office Building Springfield, IL   62706 (217) 558-1004 (217) 558-4554 FAX District Office: 830 S. Buffalo Grove Rd. Suite 120 Buffalo Grove, IL  60089 (847) 229-5499 (847) 229-5487 FAX Email: enekritz@repnekritz.org Years served: January 2003 - Present Committee assignments: Environment; Judiciary (Chairperson); Personnel & Pensions (Chairperson). Biography: Attorney; Law Degree from University of Michigan. Her experience includes working as a real estate attorney, later becoming partner, with the law firm of Altheimer and Gray. A community activist, she was chairperson of the Village of Northbrook's Community Relations Commission from 1997 to 2002. A member of the National Council of Jewish Women. She resides in Northbrook with her husband, Barry.

Representative Emanuel Chris Welch (D)
7th District

Springfield Office: 266-S Stratton Office Building Springfield, IL   62706 (217) 782-8120 (217) 524-0448 FAX District Office: 10055 W. Roosevelt Rd. Suite E Westchester, IL  60154 (708) 450-1000 (708) 450-1104 FAX

Email: repwelch@emanuelchriswelch.com

Leo High School Rookie Teacher/Coach Kimberly Hickey 5'/100lbs of Heart

Lisa Black of the Chicago Tribune visited Leo High School before the Christmas break and witnessed what I have been blessed to see every day - a school that matters to the students it serves.  Leo High School's eighty plus years of service to Church, city and country matters, because the focus is always on the young men who come here to learn.

Leo has been home to legendary teachers like Brothers Finch, O'Keefe, Birmingham and Coogan of the Irish Christian Brothers ( 1926-1990) and lay men and women like Jimmy Arenberg, Bill Hession, Bob Foster, Bob Swazt, Tom Joyce, George Cummings, Nancy Finn, Jay Standring, Jack Fitzgerald, Tom O'Malley,  Aurora Latifi and Mike Holmes.  There are hundreds of others, but I feel safe in saying the people listed are legends. A legend is someone who comes to work for the sake of other people.

Lisa Black spent a great deal of time in the halls of Leo where the unfiltered opinion of young men rings the truth of the old school's motto - Facta Non Verba.  Leo High School, from days of Bob Foster's leadership, never puts on a dog and pony show for visitors, much less for the probitive eyes and clear hearing of a professional news reporter.  In the words of President Dan McGrath, "Leo is what it is."  Leo is a home thick with family.  Dan is the Patriarch, Mike Holmes the protective older brother, Aurora Latifi the matriarchal Lion Queen, Board Member and boxing Coach Mike Joyce The Consigliere and Leo's Director of Development, the proud but crazy uncle who sleeps on the fold-out couch.  Well, I do get here early.   Our students spend the happiest hours of their days here at school.  I open the doors for many of them hours before the start of the class day.

Into this close-knit family stepped a pretty little girl at the end of last July.  Kimberly Hickey is all of 5' tall and weighs-in at a romping stomping 100 lbs,  after a George Foreman All You Can Eat breakfast. Miss Hickey teaches math and coaches boxing with Mike Joyce.  Read Lisa Black's story about a legend in the works.

Lisa Black's wonderful story of Leo's Miss Hickey will appear in the Chicago SundayTribune print edition in the Chicagoland section ( Dec. 29,2013).

Merry Christmas (prote egeneto) !!! While Quirinius Was Governor in Syria and Then Some

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.   (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius (Quirinius) was governor of Syria.)3   And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.” Luke 2: 1-3 (emphasis my own)

Merry Christmas!  I am at the age . . .no this is not a Viagra commercial . . .of grown kids at Christmas.  On Christmas Eve the oldest child was with her in-laws to be; the male child was at work and the baby child went out to dinner with her gentleman caller's Mom and Pop.  I had taken my lady love to O'Hare Airport for her flight to Florida and Christmas with her family.  I hit the early Mass.

I love the Christmas Gospel of Luke, always have, from the time that I was able put words together.  I had hours of time to enjoy the quiet and peace of Christmas Eve having already spent more than was prudent on gift cards and gift certificates for loved ones - also one of those 'You are at the age of . . .getting things done' harbingers aging male mandates - get something they will like.

Luke got me at Quirinius this year.  I recalled a social gathering a few years back that was peopled by folks of diverse opinion - out of the comfort zone one might say.  Such occasions test ones moral mettle with statements so outrageous that one feels compelled to respond, but decorum dictates a conversational moderation that would flummox St. Francis of Assisi.

As it was a Holiday gathering,  edgy wags found it necessary to challenge the spirit of the season.  A Cliff's Notes Know It All took to harping that Luke's gospel was a key contradiction in the synoptic gospels and further proof that Christianity, faith, the Bible, the Vatican, The Vienna Boys Choir and God His Own Bad Self are fabulous yarns crafted for squares, rubes, dummies and helots.  This particular tweedy-loud mouth exercised his gums with factoids gleaned from other clever agnostic Volvo owners - "If Quirinius ruled Syria in 6 AD, Hooowwwww does one explain the Nativity after the birth, marked by the Census of Augustus sooo necessary to the proof demanded by believers that the historical Jesus must be accepted?"

I knew about Quirinius, Publius Sulpiciius Quirinius.  He was a favorite of Emperor Augustus and distinguished Middle East hand for the Empire.  He served in Syria for many, many years and conducted not one census, but two.

I was under the very strictest of orders commanded by a diminutive woman of great charms and manners not to engage any person on any subject of a controversial nature . . .whatsoever.  My three score and change in size tens treasures readings of not only scripture, but also Tacitus, Suetonois, Dio Casius, Horace, Virgil, and the I Clausius novel of Robert Graves.  So, I had some ammo.  All of my bullets remained in my mental magazine on this occasion and I offered, " Hey, I like Christmas. You try these phlyo doughed shrimps?"  Q.E.D.

The tweedy goof held the floor. I take a back seat to no man, in being a confrontational pain in the rump, but I managed to choke down my prideful bile as well as a number of phylo dough wrapped goodies in deference to the season and the orders from herself.

 I got me a huge thank you for allowing an opportunity to conversationally yank down the britches of a snotty dope.  Quirinius stayed in my guns.  You see, Luke was no slouch. Not only had the physician who attended to St. Paul written the gospel, but also the Acts of the Apostles, in which Luke clearly presents his knowledge of the Roman tax and census table of organization ( Acts 5:37).  It was also clear from my reading of scholars like Dave Miller, PhD, that Luke's use of the phrase prote egeneto (first took place) indicates that there was another census by Publius Sulipicius Quirinius in 6AD - there was a second census. Professor Miller's 2003 essay on the contradictions surrounding Quirinius concluded

In addition, historical sources indicate that Quirinius was favored by Augustus, and was in active service of the emperor in the vicinity of Syria previous to and during the time period that Jesus was born. It is reasonable to conclude that Quirinius could have been appointed by Caesar to instigate a census-enrollment during that time frame, and his competent execution of such could have earned for him a repeat appointment for the A.D. 6/7 census (see Archer, 1982, p. 366). Notice also that Luke did not use the term legatus—the normal title for a Roman governor. He used the participial form of hegemon that was used for a Propraetor (senatorial governor), or Procurator (like Pontius Pilate), or Quaestor (imperial commissioner) [McGarvey and Pendleton, n.d., p. 28]. After providing a thorough summary of the historical and archaeological data pertaining to this question, Finnegan concluded: “Thus the situation presupposed in Luke 2:3 seems entirely plausible”  (emphases my own)

Getting in the last word sure does stroke the old ego, but it sadly affirms the Viagra advertisement's  'this is age of getting things done' . . .artificially.

This is the Season of being better than we usually are three hundred and sixty four days of the yowling year.  Merry Christmas!!! Prote Egeneto - it was the First, but it certainly will not be the last.

Makepeace for Men of Gentle Will

My song, save this, is little worth;

I lay the weary pen aside,

And wish you health, and love, and mirth,

As fits the solemn Christmas-tide.

As fits the holy Christmas birth.

Be this, good friends, our carol still—

Be peace on earth, be peace on earth,

To men of gentle will.

            William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)

Old Bill was the best of men. He died on December 23rd hours short of Christ's birth and the season for which he lived all year.  He was the single parent of two daughters and a very busy gent, but managed to maintain a kindness and genuine humanity every day of the year.

Gentleness is a tough commodity.  Sharp words, cross looks, snortin snouts seem our only responses to the current tempus et mundi.  The sleep of children, the warmth of the stove and the best blood coursing our hearts can reset our human thermostats. I'll give it a go.

Progressive War on Labor: Now, The Creeps Go After a Union Man Personally

“It’s a widely-accepted concept that you’re paid for work performed. It’s only in the Alice in Wonderland world of these crazy work rules that people are paid millions of dollars to do nothing,” Claypool said.

Gutless little twerp Forrest Claypool has Michael Pfleger and Dane Placko beat up a family man labor leader who actually can do his job.

Robert Kelly was elected as President/Business Agent of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 in 2008. Mr. Kelly is responsible for protecting the collective bargaining rights of over 4000 active and retired Chicago Transit Authority workers who work on the rail side. Mr. Kelly serves as a Vice President of the Illinois AFL-CIO and is President of the ATU Local 308 Scholarship committee. He is the proud father of 11 children.

Fox 32 ran another in a very long string of nasty caricatures of citizens.  Dan Placko, is the Ron Burgundy heir to the throne once occupied by Andy Shaw ( ABC clown emeritus and BGA Boss).  Placko gets spoon fed stories by leaders if agendas - in this case Michael Pfleger acting as the sword and shield of Forrest Claypool's CTA.

Over the last few weeks the President of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 has been the target of activist preacher Michael Pfleger.  Pfleger is the priest who answers only to the cameras and his legion of media elves, who owns plenty of Progressive political juice.  Forrest Claypool is the job hopping career grifter who presently draws a tax-funded salary in a political appointment at CTA President.  Claypool by my calculations has not held a political gig longer than five years.

Dane Placko of Fox 32 couldn't find a donut in a police station, but answers the call of his masters:

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
The powerful head of Chicago's largest transit union, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), is coming under fire Thursday after FOX 32 learned his daughter won the union's top scholarship prize last year.
In addition to his daughter, the children of three leaders of the ATU local 308 won union scholarships worth up to $5,000 apiece.
Normally that wouldn't attract much attention, but in light of the fact that the union is now trying to kill a popular program that gives ex-offenders a second chance some African-American political leaders are incensed.

Incensed, I tells you! 

Now, Dane is only a highly paid suit who reads anything put under his nose, remember,  Placko is to reporting as marshmallows are to Kimchi.

Bob Kelly's daughter won a union sponsored scholarship, because Bob Kelly is and has been a member of the union for decades -

Robert Kelly has been a member since October 1, 1986. Employed by the "Authority" on August 27, 1986. Robert has worked the classifications of Conductor, Motorman, Flagmen, Foot Collector, Switchman and Towerman. Appointed a steward in 1997 until he was elected as President/Business Agent on December 16, 2008. Robert demonstrates vision, insight and tenacity in representing Local 308's priorities. Re-elected to a second term on November 15, 2011 winning over 55% of the votes against 4 other candidates

Bob Kelly has fought Forrest Claypool and best the job hopper, since Claypool's appointment (not election, mind you) by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2011.

• Pee Breaks 
• The Bombardier Wheel Scandal -now swept under the media rug
• Ventra
• The Elves crashing the Transit Car in Forrest Park
• CTA Seniority Rules slashed by Claypool
• More Ventra

Now, Michael Pfleger is doing his patented Hillary Clinton speech on the head of a genuine labor union leader.

Dane Placko is always handy.  I remember a few years back when  tried to ambush the Cardinal on his little Sunday chat show, when he made a BS report on two political enemies of Toni Preckwinkle that proved to be nonsense and now going to work for Pfleger Industries Coalition, LLC.

Fox 32 has learned Kelly's daughter was awarded the $5,000 union scholarship in 2012 for an essay she wrote on funding mass transit.
In addition, three other children of top union officials won scholarships in the past three years.
The union represents a total of about 3,500 CTA rail workers
In a phone interview, Kelly told FOX 32 he didn't even know his daughter had entered the contest.
"I was shocked (when she won). But I have no problem with it. I think it's a witch hunt they're engaged in," Kelly said.
He continued saying the essays are submitted without names to an outside panel for judging.
He said only 11 essays were submitted the year his daughter won, and all of those who entered got some scholarship money.
Kelly makes $134,000 a year as union president. The average CTA union worker makes about $60,000.
"She may be very, very smart and very, very talented, very gifted in writing essays and deserved to win. But monetarily, there are probably people more deserving to win," Trotter said.
But it's the 65 ex-offenders about to lose their jobs that has inflamed the situation.

" Fox has learned,"  because Pfleger wrote your copy, you mope. This has nothing to do  with jobs for felon emeriti otherwise Forrest would have placed them in high paying jobs by appointment - like his own bad self.

The only reason Mr. Kelly is taking any heat is because Claypool can't make change, let alone provide change. Nothing that goof has done in his career as grifter has saved a nickel or benefited anyone but Claypool.

Dane Placko slings out more crap than a backed-up Kohler.

Santa is a Soulman - Who Comes to the Back Door.

Do you think this little blue-eyed son of a Norwegian Swede cares if Santa is 'one of boys from Home' as Big Crosby claimed, or as Black as a Polk Brothers Santa, or a Turk from 4th Century Myra (which he most certainly was), or the cousin who has developed Dunlaps Disease* thanks to frequent flier miles on the barstool at Keegan's Pub on Western Ave. and snugs into the three score and three Santa Suit Uncle Jack bought when he and Hots Michaels had the nightclub?





Nah.

I'm a south sider born, bred and bonded-out.  No one ever good newses anyone by ringing the front doorbell, or knocking on the swell Claddagh Ring knocker.  Friends have and should come to back door - closest to the kitchen where the stove and icebox sit.  I don not care if Santa is Meth'd up Hillbilly from Black Oak Indiana, a Muslim rug-peddler doing seasonal work, a jolly rotund Teutonic Falstaff, or Louis Farrakhan's cousin Joe.

Santa is all about the kids. He's a good guy.  Santa comes to the backdoor**. By my template, Santa is a Soul Man who comes to and through the backdoor. Now, with apologies to the legendary Clarence Carter, enjoy BB King's cover of a true Christmas Classic.



* Dunlaps Disease - When Your Belly Dun Laps Over Your Belt

** Back Door Santa:
They call me Back Door Santa
I make my runs about the break of day
They call me Back Door Santa
I make my runs about the break of day
I make all the little girls happy
While the boys are out to play

I ain't like the old Saint Nick
He don't come but once a year
I ain't like the old Saint Nick
He don't come but once a year
I come runnin' with my presents
Every time you call me dear

I keep some change in my pocket, in case the children are home
I give 'em a few pennies so that we can be alone
I leave the back door open so if anybody smells a mouse
And wouldn't old Santa be in trouble if there ain't no chimney in the house

They call me Back Door Santa
I make my runs about the break of day
I make all the little girls happy
While the boys are out to play

That's what they call me, Back Door Santa
That's what they call me
They call me Back Door Santa
That's what all the girls call me

I give 'em all little presents
That's what they call me
They call me Back Door Santa
And I like for them to call me that
They call me Back Door Santa
And I like it and I like it and I like it

 

Margaret Sanger Would Hate This Video. I Love It!

I stand on these principles.



Everything else is just gravy.

H/T - Irish Independent

List-erine - America Needs Generous Mouthfuls to Fight Brain Decay

Two neat guys who had a way with polling and were tops with chicks.

I wrote about Lists and the American writer who tried his level best to debunk them.  To Jean Shepherd, the makers of lists were over-deadlined, untalented and nepostisticly employed  newspaper workers.  They were the , "Freddy, so long as your Dad owns this paper, you have a job.  Here it is; make lists lotsa lists" guys.

Lists parallelled polls. Polling is the adjunct faux science of the social sciences, spawned by John Dewey and the pipe-smokers at the University of Chicago. Polling is conducted with great . . .self-importance . . . and like weather forecasts, gets it wrong, late, or whatever. Dopes love polls and attach great importance to their weight and then attach them to their articles. or blogs.


Illinois was told that Same Sex marriage was a civil right via a poll conducted by Carbondale's Paul Simon Institute.  Named for Garrison Keiller of American political life in the late 20th Century ( Senator Paul Simon a Party hack who had the good sense to be a Lutheran and wear bow-ties) Paul Simon Institute is the incubator of Illinois Policy.  It (PSI) ain't no gall darn 'think tank,' why it's a sho' 'nuff DO TANK!

The Institute's Purpose
Founded in 1997 by Paul Simon (right), a former two-term U.S. Senator from Illinois and one-time candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States, the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute differentiates itself from similar organizations by working directly with elected officials and others to fashion and implement change in public policy. Mike Lawrence (left), was the institute's second director.
Many of these organizations are considered "think tanks," which is not a title that aptly describes the Simon Institute. Paul Simon spoke of his institute as a "do tank" because it seeks--and achieves--positive results and concrete actions based on its work.
Paul Simon established the nonpartisan institute to maintain this fundamental difference from virtually all other organizations of its kind. It does so by asking two important questions:
• Can anything be accomplished by our taking on this project? . . .YES!!!!!
• Is our involvement differentiated from other organizations' work on this subject?  Who Cares, Voters are Stupid Cattle!!!!!
By asking these questions, the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute determines its potential to make a real difference in society before taking on the responsibility to address any given issue.( Emphases and intrusions my own)

Got that?  It's a done deal before it gets polled! Potential, no apologies necessary  to Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas,  determines its own bad self!

That's Polling.  Hard to take it seriously.

Lists are like crossword puzzles and people who live by lists are like doers of cross-word  puzzles - pains in the ass who can not wait to tell you how quickly and deftly they take down the New York Times Crossword Puzzle; thus eliminating cancer, childhood disease, brain tumors and Oscar nominations.

• Ten Disney Characters Who Are not Gay Sub-Texts
• Five Little Explained Notions About Lady Gaga
• Six Reasons Not to Ask Winnie Mandela on a Date . . .besides the necklace and the machete
• Ten Famous People Who Constantly Say "Yoots" from Cousin Vinny
• One Movie Wortha  $12 Entry in the Last Twenty Years

Lists help people without the gumption. Those who refuse to put on their reading big boy pants and tackle Hesiod, Balzac, Thackeray, MacCauley, Tennyson, Arnold, Clausewitz, Lao Tze, or Robert W. Service; go out and talk to people outside of their comfort zones, eat a perforated coal shovel placed over a roaring campfire full of roasted pink Kankakee River craw fish pealed and dipped  a coffee can of melted Land O' Lakes butter, or catch, gut batter and fry a net full of Lake Michigan smelt in late March at Jackson Park Boathouse -them's List Aficionados.

Every time I open a paper, a magazine, or a website, I am confronted with lists.  It little concerns me who is the sexiest man alive. . . you're reading him!

Lists and Polls are for Donkeys -Jean Shepherd Pray for Us!

"I was new to New York, and I suddenly became aware that New York is almost entirely a city that really does run on lists.  . . . has it occurred to you that these lists are compiled by mortals and that they are human just like you are and, in fact, they have many more axes to grind than you?" Jean Shepherd Not on the Top Ten Famous Guys List

If it is not on the list it does not exist?  I once asked a used book store clerk on Milwaukee Ave.  in the Wicker neighborhood for a copy of J.P. Donleavy's brilliant The Compleat Unexpurgated Code. The tatooed twenty something with multiple piercings sneered,  "Ginger Man?  You mean Ginger Man?" I assured the fiery hipstress," No, this is a work of non-fiction Humor. " She checked the publication directory and the screen of computer and assured me " Jay Pee Donnelly wrote fiction. He ain't on the list."

He is.  J. P. Donleavy wrote fiction and non-fiction. In the ironic patois of the trendy and Kathleen Sebelius, "Whatever."

Consult -

The New York Times Book of Lists
Forbes List of Richest People ( World, Nation & etc.)
10 Best Mexican Recipes
!0  Best Mexican Restaurants
10 Best Mexican Bandits
10 Best Muslim Comics
10 Best Forrest Claypool Salaries

Yep, Lists - Capitalists, Communists, Journalists, Franz Liszt and Socialists -all kinds O lists. From Noah to the Southern Poverty Law Center, list makers jot down names and doom others. Lists; they are not on the lists!!!!!  Power mad creeps tend to love mking lists and cehcking them twice -Marc Antony, Santa, the IHSA, Stalin, Mao, Al Hitler, Organizing for America and Nielsons.

Who cares?  Rather, let's make this a declarative sentence;  its seems to me- Who cares most about lists would be people who do not get out much, don't read much, don't know much, and rarely contribute much.
I can name twenty great eating stops within a mile of Leo High School that would never be listed by professional Wicker Park liberals on the staffs of Chicago, or Chicagoist. . . , but Im not gonna.

I have yet to eat at a restaurant gushed over by Chicago Magazine, placed on a list in Chicagoist, or hit upon by dint of a second hand reader of lists. Seek and you shall find. Like Cliffs Notes, so-called educated and cultivated folks do not bother to read the urban, suburban, or rural landscapes in full and opt to be spoon-fed verities concerning where eat, what to think, what to read, what to believe, and whom to love.


One the most literate and under-read writers, was the disc-jockey Jean Shepherd. Shepherd is now only recognized as the author of Christmas Story.  I read my first Jean Shepherd tome, while a freshman at Loyola.  I read Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories, the Hammond genius's collection of eight great short stories that introduced me to Scut Farkas, the Old Man, Schwartz and Flick long before my bride and I caught the Holiday movie as it played in Kankakee, IL at the Meadowview Theatre.  The creator of those wonderful people from Hohman ( Hammond) Indiana living in the actual Hessville neighborhood along Kennedy Avenue had been a disc jockey in New York City which is the national shrine of all lists.  Mr. Shepherd, like your humble correspondent, had a cordial hatred of lists. In fact he concocted a hoax born of this passion.  Jean Shepherd created a besst-seller, without writing a jot - I Libertine!




People listened to his radio show and began to talk about the book that never was.  It became a best-seller, because people who made lists said so.  People who live by lists believe anything e.g. Toni Preckwinkle, Sheila Simon, Mike Quigley, Forrest Claypool, Pat Quinn, Bruce Rauner, Marque Kirque, Judy Baar Topinka were all given birth by procreative act of making lists.  People accept comedy from Tyler Perry.  Religion from Jim Wall, Thought from Bill Moyer, and Happiness from Dan Savage.  No legislation comes to Gov. Pat Quinns desk without having passed the smell test of Paul Simon Institute polling.

A poll does exactly the same thing as a pole, though they differ.



O, List to the lay of this bold Irish Harper . . .