Sailing to a New Attitude

...man is defined as a human being and woman is defined as a female. Whenever she tries to behave as a human being she is accused of trying to emulate the male...
Simone de Beauvoir

She loves the free, fresh wind in her hair
Life without care
Shes broke, but its ok
She hates california, its cold and its damp
Thats why the lady is a tramp

Doesnt like dice games, with sharpies and frauds
Wont go to harlem, in lincolns or fords
Wont dish the dirt, with the rest of those broads
Thats why the lady is a tramp

rodgers/hart

I am evolving! Let go of all past misconceptions and constructs about Women! Let her row, Dammit! Let Her Row!

To All Deniers and Agenda Driven Activists - Have Someone Explain This Simple Cartoon to You - several times

Click Cartoon by Wiley to Enlarge

This great cartoon was sent to me by a stand-up Californian and Vietnam Vet Mike McQuade. What happens in life becomes history. Let's make sure that people get things right - not what some want to have taken place, or how they want events to fit their 'systemic' view of things, but what actually takes place.

Holocaust Deniers, 9/11 Nutball Theorists ( the Jews Blew it Up!), and so many Police Abuse Activists - notably G. Flint Taylor:

"It's political, it's cultural, it's systemic," said attorney G. Flint Taylor, who represents several former death row inmates now suing Burge and city officials.

Attorney Richard Sikes, who represents Burge in the five civil suits, said after Fitzgerald's announcement that allegations against his client "have been fairly investigated by the special prosecutors who found that charges were not appropriate."

Click the title above for a late-breaking Chicago Tribune story on this - then explain what this cartoon means to some of Chicago's Aldermen ( 28 by the 40 Watt Four: Smith Munoz, Moore and Preckwinkle) - explain slowly and repeat as needed - watch that their tiny heads do not explode - the pop will be startlng to small children,

Judge Lefkow denied the 28 Aldermen the listof names, addresses and phone numbers of Police Officers and their families. God bless you Judge! Score One for Common Sense and Deceny!

"Love Relations" Starring Ed Smith, Toni Preckwinkle, Joe Moore and Ricardo Munoz - See it with a Cop!

Aldermen Smith, Preckwinckle, Moore, and Munoz - Your Places are Reserved for You - to continue to do what you do best on the city of Chicago!


Yesterday and today in the Progressive - Independent Conscience of the City - aka The Chicago Sun Times, Fran Spielman reported on the Four Horsemen of the Metropolice - Ed Smith, author and movie mogul; Toni 'Too Smart' Preckwinkle: Joe 'Goose Guts' Moore: and Ricardo ' It's Printing Now' Munoz, and their announcement that they have Twenty-eight ( 28) Alderpersons ready willing and able to force the City Council of Chicago to place the names, addresses, phone numbers of Chicago Police officers the spouses and children into the hands of Gang-bangers, criminals, arsonists, drug-lords and sociopaths in order to score points with those criminals and clowns they serve: if you demand to place Police Officers and their families in mortal danger, you are either a criminal or a very sad clown.

Aldermen Toni Preckwinkle (4th), Ricardo Munoz (22nd), Ed Smith (28th) and Joe Moore (49th) said they have lined up 28 votes, two more than they need, to force Daley's hand. But the aldermen have decided to take a softer approach before setting up a confrontation not seen since the Council Wars during the 1980s. On Monday, they plan to file a petition to intervene asking U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow to order that the names be released.

In July, the city released a list of complaints filed over the past five years but the officers' names were blacked out. A disproportionate number of complaints were against members of the recently disbanded Special Operations Section, but the complaints resulted in only one 15-day suspension and three reprimands.

The aldermen say a blacked-out list is not good enough to determine whether there are patterns of behavior the Police Department needs to address.

"Not giving out the names is an indication that you are trying to protect people who have committed crimes," Smith said.

"I personally just want to know how many of them, if any of them, are in my police district and patrolling the streets in my ward," Moore said.

Munoz added, "This is about transparency and accountability. Ninety-eight percent of the police officers are good police officers. It's that 2 percent [who] are getting caught abusing their authority that we need to root out. The only way to do that effectively is to have all this information out."

Preckwinkle said it's no surprise that 28 aldermen are prepared to force Daley's hand. Not after a string of what she called "spectacular and disturbing cases" of alleged police misconduct and barroom brawls involving off-duty officers that hastened the retirement of Police Supt. Phil Cline.

FROM TODAY'S PROGRESSIVE - INDEPENDENT CONSCIENCE OF THE CITY - some conscience; some City.


I had no idea Ed Smith produced a a movie - click on the link to it on my post title - it's a veritable Gigi! Wholesome fun for the wives and kiddies!

Smith earned his bachelor’s degree from Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi and his master’s degree from Northeastern Illinois University. Smith has written two books: Love the Town Couldn’t Stop and Looking for Daddy. Smith is also the executive producer of the film, “Love Relations.”

Wikepdia:Ed Smith

Here's synopsis:

Where love and laughs collide.

In the spirit of BARBERSHOP, Love Relations is the story of a shoeshine shop owner and the charcters (sic) around him as they compare the details of their dysfunctional relationships. In four intertwined vignettes, the residents of a downtown neighborhood face up to the follies and fortunes of romance.

Although it is said that "love conquers all," the characters in Love Relations learn that love doesn't always win.

Not just the Spirit, Ed, but the Intent! I think they call that an Homage or Hollywood for plagiarism. Or as Ed Smith might argue - a stick-up man is an entrepeneur.

If Ed says they got twenty-eight (28) you can bet he has four (4) - Joe, Ricardo, Toni and the DeMille of D'Austin!

Back when Chicago had newspapers, these four creeps would be ignored by a Ray Coffey, a Hermann Kogan, a Carl Rowan, or a Nick Von Hoffman - even a Jack Mabley.

Here's a nice idea. Before these four with the help of their liberally compliant Judge Lefkow ( Hickey got this one wrong! Way to go Judge! http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ap-il-policecorruption,0,1825114.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout updated at 11:25 AM 10/25/'07) put Police Officers and their families in mortal danger, have a Night at the Movies with Ed ' Zanuck' Smith!

Police Officers - Give Ed Smith a call and set up a screening of Love Relations - bring the wives, husbands and kids so Ed can have a sit down and movie with the very people he wants to put in harm's way. The popcorn's on Ed! Invite the Progressive Sun Times Staff! They'd be able to follow the screenplay.

I'll give Love Relations Four Dumbs Up! Smith, Preckwinkle, Moore and Munoz - hey, there's room in aisle for twenty-four (24) more!

Give Ed a Call - Openness is how he rolls!

Ward 28:
Alderman Ed H. Smith (producer)
Office: 118 N. Pulaski
Chicago, IL 60624
ehsmith@cityofchicago.org
Phone: 773-533-0900
City Hall Phone: 312-744-3066

Toni Preckwinkle - No Bell -oh Prize - Progressive Dim-Bulb Champions the Morons!

In a tribute to her admirers and constituents, Alderman Toni Preckwinckle wears two different shoes to a ceremony marking her as Progressive Hall of Fame Lock. You are a Prize Toni! A Prize Moron!


We can not catch a breath! We are forced to keep the laughing going in this Burg. Chicagoans have Joe " Winthrop " Moore piously intoning against goose guts - making Chicago a national butt steak of ridicule. Salem on the Lake ! Hey, if We can't laugh at ourselves . . .

Then Chicagoans get the second hand smoke mopes banning cigarettes everywhere, while – in the same breath - bringing the Hounds in to dine on your toes while noshing Al Fresco in the more Banana Republic Hip neighborhoods. Laugh and the World Laughs at You!

Now, there’s Room Temperature IQ and University of Chicago Alumna, Toni 'Prudence' Preckwinckle damning 1976 Nobel Literary Laureate Saul Bellow as a racist over remarks made concerning the dumbing down of literary canon formation ( no – Toni not a bunch of big Howitzers, but the selection of works considered great literature by discerning and knowledgeable people).

Bellow asked, "Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus? The Proust of the Papuans? I'd be glad to read them," The New York Times loves to play gottcha for Cliffs Notes readers like Prudence Preckwinckle.

Last week, The Chicago Tribune reported this latest Progressive Pull-My –Finger Howler! It took that long for THE PROGRESSIVE - INDEPENDENT CONSCIENCE OF THE CITY - The Chicago Sun Times to proclaim a titmouses's thundering opinion - 'Weaallllp, if you don't want Bellow to have street Toni - well, maybe just maybe we can ask the Mayor for something.' Ghosts of Haymarket! Altgeldt's Alsatian Armpit Hairs, that thunders! Wasn't that a Time!

Well, Campfire Girls, The Progressive Conscience can not up the Wattage in Toni's Tiny Brain-pan - Hyde Park is tripping over Nobel Laureates - usually Science, Math and Economic; now, here's a guy who chose to actually live in Hyde Park ( not just grab a sandwich and a Leinie's at Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap and beat it) and Progressive Intellect Toni has declared Bellow 'damned for a witch' - I mean a racist - well same thing.

Last week when the Trib reported on this, I called a distinguished Chicago area literary scholar, retired Northwestern University Professor Joe Epstein. Joe is a frequent guest of Milt Rosenberg’s Extension 720 –WGN 720 AM radio show and a distinguished essayist and editor of The American Scholar.

I asked Joe Epstein about the charge. ‘Bellow wasn't the nicest guy on earth, but he and his remarks are not racist. That's nonsense.’

Joe, too, was laughing at this latest Progressive Witch Hunt. Prudence Preckwinckle gets a pass from too many in the media as an anointed Progressive. This 4th Ward laughingstock pal-ed up with convicted arsonist Fred Hubbard, Junior, in order to wail away about a street sign for his late Black Panther Pop. That was another good one.

Or, how about Preckwinckle’s taking $ 31, 375 from Tony Rezko for helping him float bum- property and then running to Carol Marin after Tim Novak’s article showed us the real estate cockroaches, for a feel good story. Howls!

A crook is a crook is crook is crook – boy, that Gertrude Stein – she had legs like Mike Ditka and pretty much the same inclinations. I’ll never be half the man Gerty was.

Saul Bellow was a mean guy – he was not a racist; a mean guy. Saul Bellow was also a force in Literature.

Toni Preckwinckle? Stop me if you’ve heard this one! I gotta call Joe back.

Progressives - they get out of the joint and they write a book about reforming the Democratic Party! Then maybe someone will read it to them! They kill me. Maybe they should try reading a couple of books - and not just the Cliff's Notes.

Here's a question - How do you get Alderman Toni Preckwinkle off your front porch?

Answer: Pay for the Pizza!

See you in the Funny Paper - The Progressive Independent Conscience of the City ( that kills me!) - Alderman!

Aces Over Kings : John McCain and Nick Sarkozy Over the Other Two Beauts

Vlad's Joe Stalin meets Mahmoud's Al Hitler in a toxic ploy to form Empire: these crumbs worked out the new Non-Agression Pact: Where was Hugo????? He's still stroking the Beard.

The London Times Reports:

"President Putin forged an alliance with Iran yesterday against any military action by the west and pledged to complete the controversial Iranian nuclear power plant at Bushehr."

In 2008, a couple of good guys will tie these clowns in knots: President John McCain and French President Nick Sarkozy. Stay tuned.

Here is John McCain on fighting for Freedom

America needs a president who can revitalize our country's purpose and standing in the world, defeat terrorist adversaries who threaten liberty at home and abroad, and build enduring peace. There is an enormous amount to do. Our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been costly in blood and treasure and in other less tangible ways as well. Our next president will need to rally nations across the world around common causes as only America can. There will be no time for on-the-job training. Given the present dangers, our country cannot afford the kind of malaise, drift, and fecklessness that followed the Vietnam War. The next president must be prepared to lead America and the world to victory -- and to seize the opportunities afforded by the unprecedented liberty and prosperity in the world today to build a peace that will last a century.


WINNING THE WAR ON TERROR

Defeating radical Islamist extremists is the national security challenge of our time. Iraq is this war's central front, according to our commander there, General David Petraeus, and according to our enemies, including al Qaeda's leadership.

The recent years of mismanagement and failure in Iraq demonstrate that America should go to war only with sufficient troop levels and with a realistic and comprehensive plan for success. We did not do so in Iraq, and our country and the people of Iraq have paid a dear price. Only after four years of conflict did the United States adopt a counterinsurgency strategy, backed by increased force levels, that gives us a realistic chance of success. We cannot get those years back, and now the only responsible action for any presidential candidate is to look forward and outline the strategic posture in Iraq that is most likely to protect U.S. national interests.

So long as we can succeed in Iraq -- and I believe that we can -- we must succeed. The consequences of failure would be horrific: a historic loss at the hands of Islamist extremists who, after having defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the United States in Iraq, will believe that the world is going their way and that anything is possible; a failed state in the heart of the Middle East providing sanctuary for terrorists; a civil war that could quickly develop into a regional conflict and even genocide; a decisive end to the prospect of a modern democracy in Iraq, for which large Iraqi majorities have repeatedly voted; and an invitation for Iran to dominate Iraq and the region even more.

Whether success grows closer or more distant over the coming months, it is clear that Iraq will be a central issue for the next U.S. president. Democratic candidates have promised to withdraw U.S. troops and "end the war" by fiat, regardless of the consequences. To make such decisions based on the political winds at home, rather than on the realities in the theater, is to court disaster. The war in Iraq cannot be wished away, and it is a miscalculation of historic magnitude to believe that the consequences of failure will be limited to one administration or one party. This is an American war, and its outcome will touch every one of our citizens for years to come.

That is why I support our continuing efforts to win in Iraq. It is also why I oppose a preemptive withdrawal strategy that has no Plan B for the aftermath of its inevitable failure and the greater problems that would ensue.

From his speech before The Council on Foreign Relations.

'John - Johnny McCain! It's Bizzaneez! John? . . . He Forgives; He Don' Forget ! Come On We'll Go See The Broad!'

John McCain don't need no stinking Hollywood punks. He's a guy from the neighborhoods and has plenty of Pals. Tony Soprano - the New Millenium's Archie Bunker - seems to be trolling for 'what 'his people' believe to be a sure thing. How's that for commitment?

This Mook Gandolfini - don't that mean "the end" of the Gandol in Italian? A Shoeshine Boy! Get your shine-box Jimmy! Get busy. The next President can do without the talents of people who more than likely forget to register to vote - they are very involved.

Click my title for the New York Post story on this non-story - if you care to do so.

Irish Coping Skills Help Meet the Challenge of Flooding

The people of Ireland have endured centuries of Imperial Occupation, Cromwell, Genocide, Famine, Rebellion, Civil War, Third World Status and Yank Tourists.

Now, flooding has hit the resilient people of the Green Isle. Coping skills developed over centuries of hardship have prevented a Katrina-like desperation.

'What's the craic Tim-Joe?'

''Tis wet, so.'

'Tis, that, so.'

Click-link in Post title

Happy 18th Conor! Register to Vote and with Selective Service!

Happy Birhday, Conor!

It is hard to believe that you are 18 years old and it is even tougher knowing that for the last ten years you have become as good a man as I could only hope of being and all without the direct hand of your Mother's guidance.

Your Mom has been with you and that is certain. Mary picked your names - given and middle.

Mary Elizabeth Cleary ( she always went by Mary Hickey after 11/12/83 and said that women who went by Hyphenated names -like Cleary-Hickey- told the world 'Here Comes a Stone Gold-plated Bitch.' ) loved the name Conor and wanted your life marked out with that handle, but you are also named for your Great-Grandfather - Oliver Hercule Duval - Poppi ( I had a lot fun with him about that one). 'Hickey, you're an over-educated stiff and still dumber than than a French Retard.' - Yeah, at least I'm not named for a flower that means Dope, Frog-eater - ' The Irish are the Goddam stupidest looking bastards on earth - and looks don't deceive!'

Oliver was the meanest, toughest, ugliest, smartest and funniest old French farmer that it was my pleasure to spend a great deal of time with. Poppi held you up and said 'Yeah, he's ugly enough to be an Oliver!' You delighted the old guy! He was a WWI soldier who came home and married the 'looks of the family' Antoinette Fortin a redhead from St. George, Illinois. That is your Illinois French Heritage - that gave you your height and looks so thank God for that every day.

I am proud of you! Make no excuses for yourself. You are kind and loyal and that, Conor, is enough.

Register to Vote and for Selective Service. After that you can handle the rest. You have a great name Conor Oliver Hickey; Mary, your Mother with her angelic hand on your shoulder;two wonderful sisters; a large and loving family; and the instincts to be a good man, husband and father. All the rest is side-dishes - empty calories.

Here is the Saint for whom you are named:Read about him! Uncle Bart read some of this when he Bapitized you in the Faith.

Oliver Plunkett was born in Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland in 1629 from well-to-do parents of Danish origins. He was related by birth to a number of families recently ennobled, such as the Earl of Roscommon and Fingall, as well as the Earl of Louth and the Earl of Dunsany. Till his sixteenth year, the boy's education was entrusted to Patrick Plunket, Abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin, and brother of the first Earl of Fingall who later became bishop, successively, of Ardagh and Meath. As an aspirant to the priesthood, he set out for Rome in 1645, under the care of Father Pierfrancesco Scarampi, of the Roman Oratory. At this time, the Irish Confederate Wars were raging in Ireland; these were essentially conflicts between native Irish Catholics and British Protestants. Scarampi was the Papal envoy to the Catholic movement known as the Confederation of Ireland. Many of Plunkett's relatives were involved in this organisation. Plunkett could not have known that, as a result of the outcome of this war, he would not return to Ireland for 15 years.

He was admitted to the Irish College in Rome in 1646 and there proved an able pupil. He was ordained a priest in 1654, and deputed by the Irish bishops to act as their representative in Rome. Meanwhile, the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649-53) had defeated the Catholic cause in Ireland and, in the aftermath, the public practice of Catholicism was banned and Catholic clergy were executed. As a result, it was impossible for Plunkett to return to Ireland for many years. He petitioned to remain in Rome and, in 1657, became a professor of theology. Throughout the period of the Commonwealth and the first years of Charles II's reign, he successfully pleaded the cause of the Irish Church, and also served as theological professor at the College of Propaganda Fide. At the Congregation of Propaganda Fide on July 9, 1669, he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh, the Irish primatial see, and was consecrated on November 30 at Ghent by the Bishop of Ghent, assisted by the Bishop of Ferns and another bishop. He eventually set foot on Irish soil again in March 1670, after the English Restoration having made the political climate there less hostile. The pallium was granted him in the Consistory of July 28, 1670.

After arriving back in Ireland, he set about reorganising the ravaged Church and built schools both for the young and for clergy, whom he found 'ignorant in moral theology and controversies'. He tackled drunkenness among the clergy, writing 'Let us remove this defect from an Irish priest, and he will be a saint'. The Penal Laws had been somewhat relaxed and he was able to establish a Jesuit College in Drogheda in 1670. A year later 150 students attended the College.


[edit] Persecution

St. Oliver Plunkett's headWith the onset of new persecution in 1673 and the college being levelled to the ground, Plunkett went into hiding, traveling only in disguise, and refusing a government edict to register at a seaport to await passage into exile. In 1678, the so-called Popish Plot, concocted in England by Titus Oates, led to further anti-Catholicism. Archbishop Peter Talbot of Dublin was arrested, and Plunkett again went into hiding. The Privy Council in London was told he had plotted a French invasion.

Despite being on the run and with a price on his head, he refused to leave his flock. He was arrested in Dublin in December 1679 and imprisoned in Dublin Castle, where he gave absolution to the dying Talbot. At some point before his final incarceration, he took refuge in a church that once stood in the townland of Killartry in County Louth, in the parish of Clogherhead, seven miles outside of Drogheda. He was tried at Dundalk for conspiring against the state by plotting to bring 20,000 French soldiers into the country, and for levying a tax on his clergy to support 70,000 men for rebellion.

Lord Shaftesbury knew Oliver Plunkett would never be convicted in Ireland and had him moved to Newgate prison, London. The first grand jury found no true bill, but he was not released. The second trial was a kangaroo court; Lord Campbell, writing of the judge, Sir Francis Pemberton, called it a disgrace to himself and his country. Plunkett was found guilty of high treason on June, 1681 "for promoting the Catholic faith," and was condemned to a gruesome death.

On July 1, 1681, Plunkett became the last Catholic martyr to die in England when he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, the last Catholic to die for his faith at Tyburn. His body was initially buried in two tin boxes next to five Jesuits who had died before in the courtyard of St Giles. The remains were exhumed in 1683 and moved to the Benedictine monastery at Lamspringe, near Hildesheim in Germany. The head was brought to Rome, and from there to Armagh and eventually to Drogheda where, since June 29, 1921, it has rested in Saint Peter's Church. Most of the body was brought to Downside Abbey, England, where the major part is located today, with some parts remaining at Lamspringe. Some relics were brought to Ireland in May 1975, while others are in England, France, Germany, the United States, and Australia.

Oliver Plunkett was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years, and the first of the Irish martyrs to be beatified. He has since been followed by 17 other Irish martyrs who were beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992. Among them were Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley, Margaret Ball, and the Wexford Martyrs.

Nevertheless, his ministry during its time was most successful and he confirmed over 48,000 people over a four-year period. Since 1997, he is the patron saint, adopted by the prayer group campaigning for peace in Ireland, namely, 'St. Oliver Plunkett for Peace and Reconciliation'.

Fom WiKpedia

Straight Talking Bloggers for McCain & News For the Media

A number of great sites in support of John McCain for President can be accessed to the immediate left of my Blog - no political statement that.

We people who buy newspapers are constantly tugged, turned, slapped, kicked, pulled, eased into and away from what is called the news. We want news - we want to be entertained - we want considered opinion but we get slanted pieces of the story, self-serving tales of a columnist's trips to hip-spots and we get milled agendas tossed like parade candy.

Click my Post Title for Chicago Sun Times commentary samplers -


Newspapers, particularly those now cork-screwing themselves into the marshy mud and clay of Chicago, seem bent on dividing people, insulting people, angering people, and selectively ignoring people in order to 'stir things up;' or offer a smarmy invitation to 'get into it.' That is why your paper is failing. People who used to read the Sun Times are going elsewhere for news.

We Chicagoans know what policemen, firemen, plumbers, back-hoe operators, clerks, electricians, school teachers, and sales people do for a living and how they live as neighbors. We also know what and how criminals, dope-slingers, phony activists, ghost-payrollers, and lazy journalists operate and how they cause suffering in our neighborhoods.

Tell a tourist - we live here! The poor guys holding the signs in the photos above would be ideal Chicago Sun Times Readers - Chicagoans know how to read and what the words mean.

Sweethearts, you do not want to 'get into it' with any of the talented, tough, caring, thoughtful and athletic young mothers and wives on Campbell, Maplewood, Rockwell, Artesian - let's not even talk about Talman , Washtenaw or Fairfield between 103rd and 111th Streets. You do not want to 'get into it' with these women - they are much too intelligent, hard-working and honest for you to get near the ropes. Trust me, you'll never get out of the ring. Don't go there.

The metaphorical challenge to 'get into it' is very, shall we say, 'High School Musical-ish Marxism.'

There are great Chicago writers! Neil Steinberg, Phil Kadner, Courtney Greve, Stephanie Gehring, Dan McGrath, Kate Grossman all give news and opinion without appearing to play dress-up Kropotkins.

People want straight talk - conviction, wit, and substance. When a newspaper reader buys a horse, don't bring a mule and try to tell her that it's Secretariat.

If you really want to get into it - come off of it!

McCain on Health Care

Here's some some thought on Health Care from the one candidate who can lead America in Time of war with Islamist Terrorism - the guy was right on the War from the get go and the Bush Administration needed to play catch-up. Hillary backed-off her Health Care Plan of twelve years ago and put more mascara on that plans cold sore.

McCain makes sense:

John McCain is willing to address the fundamental problem: the rapidly rising cost of U.S. health care.


Bringing costs under control is the only way to stop the erosion of affordable health insurance, save Medicare and Medicaid, protect private health benefits for retirees, and allow our companies to effectively compete around the world.
Families should be in charge of their health care dollars and have more control over their care. We can improve health and spend less, while promoting competition on the cost and quality of care, taking better care of our citizens with chronic illness, and promoting prevention that will keep millions of others from ever developing deadly and debilitating disease.
While we reform the system and maintain quality, we can and must provide access to health care for all our citizens - whether temporarily or chronically uninsured, whether living in rural areas with limited services, or whether residing in inner cities where access to physicians is often limited.
America's veterans have fought for our freedom. We should give them freedom to choose to carry their VA dollars to a provider that gives them the timely care at high quality and in the best location.
Controlling health care costs will take fundamental change - nothing short of a complete reform of the culture of our health system and the way we pay for it will suffice. Reforms to federal policy and programs should focus on enhancing quality while controlling costs:
Promote competition throughout the health care system - between providers and among alternative treatments.
Make patients the center of care and give them a larger role in both prevention and care, putting more decisions and responsibility in their hands.
Make public more information on treatment options and require transparency by providers regarding medical outcomes, quality of care, costs, and prices.
Facilitate the development of national standards for measuring and recording treatments and outcomes.
Reform the payment systems in Medicare to compensate providers for diagnosis, prevention, and care coordination. Medicare should not pay for preventable medical errors or mismanagement.
Dedicate federal research on the basis of sound science resulting in greater focus on care and cure of chronic disease
Give states the flexibility to, and encourage them to experiment with: alternative forms of access; risk-adjusted payments per episode covered under Medicaid; use of private insurance in Medicaid; alternative insurance policies and insurance providers; and, different licensing schemes for medical providers.
Build genuine national markets by permitting providers to practice nationwide.
Promote rapid deployment of 21st century information systems.
Support innovative delivery systems, such as clinics in retail outlets and other ways that provide greater market flexibility in permitting appropriate roles for nurse practitioners, nurses, and doctors.
Where cost-effective, employ telemedicine, and community and mental health clinics in areas where services and providers are limited.
Foster the development of routes for safe, cheaper generic versions of drugs and biologic pharmaceuticals. Develop safety protocols that permit re-importation to keep competition vigorous.
Pass tort reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits and excessive damage awards. Provide a safe harbor for doctors that follow clinical guidelines and adhere to patient safety protocols.
Protect the health care consumer through vigorous enforcement of federal protections against collusion, unfair business actions, and deceptive consumer practices. John McCain believes that insurance reforms should increase the variety and affordability of insurance coverage available to American families by fostering competition and innovation.
Reform the tax code to eliminate the bias toward employer-sponsored health insurance, and provide all individuals with a $2,500 tax credit ($5,000 for families) to increase incentives for insurance coverage. Individuals owning innovative multi-year policies that cost less than the full credit can deposit remainder in expanded health savings accounts.
Families should be able to purchase health insurance nationwide, across state lines, to maximize their choices, and heighten competition for their business that will eliminate excess overhead, administrative, and excessive compensation costs from the system.
Insurance should be innovative, moving from job to home, job to job, and providing multi-year coverage.
Require any state receiving Medicaid to develop a financial "risk adjustment" bonus to high-cost and low-income families to supplement tax credits and Medicaid funds.
Allow individuals to get insurance through any organization or association that they choose: employers, individual purchases, churches, professional association, and so forth. These policies will be available to small businesses and the self-employed, will be portable across all jobs, and will automatically bridge the time between retirement and Medicare eligibility. These plans would have to meet rigorous standards and certification.
John McCain Believes in Personal Responsibility
We must do more to take care of ourselves to prevent chronic diseases when possible, and do more to adhere to treatment after we are diagnosed with an illness.
Childhood obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure are all on the rise. We must again teach our children about health, nutrition and exercise - vital life information.
Public health initiatives must be undertaken with all our citizens to stem the growing epidemic of obesity and diabetes, and to deter smoking.

Happy 23rd Nora! You Made God's Plan Clear!

Happy Birthday, Nora Love!

Your Brother and Sister are almost as proud of you as Old Dad! When Mom went back to God, it was you who raised them as a Mother! Good Work!

You made God's Plan clear to me, not sharpest tool in the bag, when you mirrored your Mother!

Study Hard.

Treat every person like he/she is the most important person in the world: he/she is.

Accept no excuses from yourself.

Get to work at least twenty minutes before you need to be there.

Work until the job is done - not how you think that it to be, but complete.

Love and you will be loved.

Know that Love is very hard work.

Honor God.

Honor the Elderly.

Honor your Country.

Stand by your friends - they need you, but not as much as you need them.

Give freely to others because everything is only on loan to you from God - We are only God's tenants.

Lay off the cigars.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

McCain is My Guy - But Rudy's 'Push' Seems Compelling

John McCain is the best Man to lead America in our War on Islamist Terror.

Mr. Mike McQuade, Patriot Anchor Steam Quaffer, Vietnam Vet, and Landscape Painter, sent me this compelling photo of Rudy's willingness to take one for the team.

In reality I have no doubt that there would be a former Mayor of the Big Apple trying to beat the A-Train back to the platform and not an erzatz Cub Fan racing its whirling wheels.

Gloves - Gives Kids Esteem

The Illinois Crime Commission, real deal elected officials like Illinois Representative Mary Flowers, the Police Athletic League and sites like Leo High School put gloves on kids who want to take life on and win.


Illinois State Crime Commission/Police Athletic League of Illinois

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, October 08, 2007


Contact: : Jerry Elsner
(p) (630) 778-9191
info@illinoiscrimecommission.com


GLOVES - NOT GUNS


Police Athletic League of Illinois to launch city wide boxing program


Who? Police Athletic League of Illinois and United States
Olympic Boxers

What? Kickoff of a national inner city anti-gun initiative

When? Thursday, October 11th, 2007
12:00 noon

Where? St. Margaret of Scotland Parish School
9833 South Troop Street
Chicago, IL 60643

Why? Because of unacceptable levels of violent handgun
incidents, the Police Athletic League of Illinois will be
kicking off a city-wide program modeled after the
highly touted and successful boxing program at Leo
High School.

Great photo opportunity with Olympic and local PAL-IL boxers along with hundreds of south side children.

Help give American Kids a Fighting Chance! Get in the Ring with these Great People!

Jesse's Shakedown Sleepover!

Jams! Popcorn! Pop! Movies! ( Mean Girls, Legally Blond 1 & 2, Mask 1 &2,Stand by Me, Scary Movie 1,2,3,4, 5) Scary Stories! Mary Worth in the Mirror! Building Cool Forts! at Ickes Homes on Tuesday
This is not about shameless publicity for the eclipsed Patriarch of Pecuniary Power strivers!

This is not an attempt to reap a financial windfall ( well, maybe a book deal, movie, MTV video, corporate sponsorship? Naw. that well done dried up!)

This is not about tinsel and foil symbolic gestures - like Bono and Oprah's Red shopping spree on Michigan Ave. to bring Famine to its knees!

This is about A SLEEPOVER!

If I appear to be making light of this - I am. This will be about as effective as Jesse Jackson gets - and about as meaningful that he has been in the impact on the lives of black Americans these more than forty years. Breadbasket to PUSH - nothing has changed. The Family Businesses have done just swimmingly, but folks are being left in the vortex of Jackson Enterprise Whirlpool. Vietnamese Boat People have kids at Harvard; Mexican immigrant Vietnam Vets see their grandchildren living in Winnetka; West Indian carpenter apprentices moved out of the apartments behind Leo High School and have their own wood trim finishing businesses up in Wicker Park. How's that? Burge didn't whack all those folks - shucks, he blew town before WMAQ's Renee Ferguson's interviewee had his first dope pinch. Real Dopes like Chris Matthews and O'Reilly and Hannity and Skelator Colmes will be glad to prop up Harold Hill of Broken Dreams All Week on TV! Sleep over? Why not.

Here is the question everyone is asking - IS AL COMING TO YOUR SLEEP OVER, Jesse? Invite everyone - not just the cool kids!


Cool time at Ickes - despite the name.


Click Title for Shamus Toomey's Invitation to Media - best believe they'll be jammied up, carrying Twister and the little hands stuffed with plush puppies!



Tribune Update: Oct. 8,2007

Man shot, killed near Ickes Homes
Tribune staff report
7:59 AM CDT, October 8, 2007
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An unidentified man was shot and killed this morning outside a public housing complex near Chinatown, Chicago police said.

The man, believed to be in his 30s, was shot in the head, according to a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The shooting occurred about 5:50 a.m. outside the Harold Ickes Homes at 23rd and State Streets, police said.


Al Sharpton, grab the Greyhoud to Chi - the Old Cut-Purse caught you nappin'!


Further details were unavailable this morning.

Should be a Full Jackson Press on Tuesday! If Pope Benedict gets goosed by Lindsay Lohan, he won't see no ink!

Orestes Brownson: A Guy You Never Heard About in American Education

Here's a long excerpt for an Indian Summer's afternoon read.

Orestes Brownson was born in 1803, the same year as Ralph Waldo Emerson, and orphaned. Raised in New England Calvinism, he was baptized into the Presbyterian Church, converted to Universalism in the 1820's and was ordained a Universalist minister; rejected Universalism for Unitarianism and subsequently joined the Brook Farm Movement of Beecher-Stow, Hawthorne, and Fuller before 1834 when he and Emerson led the Transcendentalist Movement for ten years. Emerson, a man of dubious inclinations and contrarian self-absorbtions, pushed Brownson into a leadership role of the Transcendentalist Society. Emerson continues to be the touchstone for radical American thought.

Bownson, however, was a guy searching for a solid faith and life anchor. Brownson converted for the final time in 1844 as a Roman Catholic. That was his exit from the American Brahmin Caste.

In a Letter to the Protestant Churches of America Brownson coined the phrase that identifies the roots of American Intellectual pretensions - Odinism.

Odinism is tendency toward the worship of diversity in all things - a desire to make the sacred profane and the profane sacred; ugliness is art. Contrarianism in political thought. 'We must hang those who would hang a traitor.'

Brownson saw the proliferation of Journals in the 19th Century - dominated by Protestant or nominally Protestant journalists. These journalists valorized the sanctity of the secular.

Emerson Thoreau, Hawthroen Beecher-Stowe and their intellectual disciples to this day have done a Joe Stalin on Brownson - Orestes Brownson became a 'Non Person' and remains so in American Thought.

Brownson died in 1876 and is buried in the cryp of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame.

From Protestant Journalism in Brownson's Quarterly Review

We distinguish between the journal and the newspaper. The newspaper originated some three hundred years ago, if we are not mistaken, in the commercial city of Venice, and was designed chiefly to communicate such intelligence as was of special interest to merchants and bankers, or, as we say now, to the business classes. Gradually it enlarged its scope, especially when transferred to England, and gave political intelligence, as well as banking and mercantile information; but it confined itself to giving current news, and avoided all political and other discussions. It grew naturally out of the invention and general adoption of the art of printing, and simply superseded the intelligence which had been, from time immemorial, communicated by written instead of printed letters. The newspaper was not only a harmless, but a useful invention.

The journal may indeed publish news, but it is not by any means a newspaper. It is of recent origin, and owes its birth to the French revolution of 1789, that fountain of so many evils, and, to human eyes, of no good. The design of the journal is to influence and control public opinion, and, through public opinion, to influence and control public action. The public to which it is addressed may be a party, a faction, a coteric, or a sect, but its design is always to influence and control the thought and action of its public, whether its public be larger or smaller; and it seeks to do this by discussion, by arguments addressed to reason or prejudice, and by declamation, or inflammatory appeals to passion. The so-called independent journalism, represented by such journals as the N. Y. Herald, the N. Y. Tribune, and the N. Y. Sun of this city, professes to be independent of all parties, sects, and cliques, and to set forth the views and convictions of its management alone, or what its management believes, or pretends to believe, is for the public interest. But it must have popular support, a wide popular circulation, and, to gain this, it must court popular opinion, and study not to outrage popular prejudice. It can afford to have no unpopular principles, nor to support an unpopular cause. Indeed it cannot afford to have any principles, especially any religious principles, for any decided principles are sure to be unpopular with one or another section of the public. It, in fact, has no positive religion of any sort; and whatever religion it favors, is so vague and indeterminate that it is as good as none at all. Its influence in regard to religion is either to encourage infidelity pure and simple, or perfect indifferentism. Its religions is secularism, and it is less really independent and more fatal to all the great interests of society than even the partisan or sectarian press.

Satan never made a better hit than when he invented independent journalism; and the New York Herald, which so admirably represents the spirit of the age, should be, as we have no doubt it is, a great favorite with him. None but a renegade or bad Catholic could ever have founded and sustained such a marvellous journal; nor could even a bad Catholic have done it without extraordinary satanic assistance. The very design of the journal is satanic. It throws the forming and directing of public opinion and action into the hands of men who are responsible only to the laws, and hardly to them; who have and can give no guaranty of their wisdom, who scout all authority but their own, and proceed always on the assumption of their own infallibility, and that of the public to which they appeal. Independent journalism is Protestantism raised to its highest power, the deification of private judgment, and a fitting forerunner of Antichrist. Its power is immense, and its despotism is in proportion to its power. . . .

The greatest difficulty a Catholic reviewer encounters is in convincing Catholic laymen and journalists that catholic means catholic. The difficulty is almost as great as that of convincing certain routinist philosophers that nothing is nothing, not something. If religion is catholic, it is supreme and universal, the supreme law in every department of life, extending to every species of human activity. Whether we eat or drink, whether we sleep or wake, whatever we do, we are to do it for the glory of God. The goods of this life, whether national or political, social or economical, are never secured, or, if secured, cease to be goods,

That Old Boy understood America and the relativism that continues to diminish American Greatness.

Click on my Post Title for link to more on Orestes Brownson.

Finding Police Abuse Where the Sun Never Shines!

The Above presented items - might also have been used in Chicago Police Torture. Jon Loevy and other lawsuit daffy Court Dressers under the glow of St. Ivo of Kermartin would have local Burghers believe.

Again that doughty chap above is noted American Screen Idol Andy Dick and not Lawyer Jon Loevy.

My close-knit ethnic instincts raised doubts about Police use of a refreshing and satisfying alcoholic beverage concocted of fresh pulpy orange juice and a fine domestic vodka.

The Andy Williams/Claudine Longet Family Christmas gathering would be too obvious. Chilling.

The stout Harley Product full of fat guy and an 88 key player piano would induce the right effect upon a larcenous Gastrointestinal blow-hole.

The High quality multi-purpose Wenger Champion Tool -In One might find its place in the cornucopean trick-bag of a Law Enforcement Professional's attempt to exact evidence.

If one were to insert the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, a solid 'Street Worthy' of Chicago might just say anything - just might.

Veteran Police Basher and Sun Times Columnist Mark Brown warned Chicago Police Officers on Sunday that -

It's no coincidence that all of these stories and others like them have converged on the front pages of the newspapers in recent weeks.
And there is no way to overstate what a crucial and dangerous time this has become for the Chicago Police Department and therefore for the rest of us.

The rest of us are concerned. Not so much about our confidence in the Chicago Police Officers, but more so with a newspaper's active complicity in undermining that trust.
Mark Brown wants it both ways - bash the police on a regular basis and group all cops in with Finnigan, Abbate and Burge while delicately protesting like Dolly Varden in Dickens' Barnaby Rudge:A Tale of the Riots of Eighty that he truly loves the Chicago Police Officers whom he continues to bash. Raahlley! The Chicago Sun Times parade of police abuse sagas is as long as the reach of the imagination and lawsuit addicted pettifoggers and their criminal clients in their confederated abilities to exact a lotto ticket out of each and every arrest.

This one does not - dare I make use of one of the most sacred -albeit over-used -olfactory tropes in the Progressive lexicon? - pass the 'smell test.'

My God! What have I done? Now I might find myself wearing patched corduroy jackets and raising a soul-patch above my cleft, and rudely handsome chin(s).

Lawsuit Loevy, the village smithy of the hammering howls of hilarious harangues for his criminally charged clients, has gone into the Craftsman Tool Box in the interests of his own and his client's debit card balances.

The Screwdriver charge ( three days delayed - which the Medill Kids, as well as CST call 'shortly': Dear Reader, click my post title above for the link) sure seems to twist and turn one's imagination. Owww.

Well the jury has been given the evidence. I wonder what else Jon Loevy will pull out of his old Coke and Blackstone in the days and weeks ahead with the help of The Chicago Sun Times

Spike O'Donnell in The Chorito Hog-Leg: A Novel of Guam in Time of War

25. A Homily on Targets

On March 15, 1943, just before Tim Cullen, Dick Prendergast and Jimmy Arneberg left for the Marines after early graduation, Spike O’Donnell walked south on Loomis and turned west on 83rd Street and right off the alley, between Loomis and Ada Streets, a guy creep-ed up and pumped a shot into Spike’s back. The louse tried to put one in Spike’s ear but the goof’s beezer misfired and the skunk jumped into a car and Spike crawled home to his wife Elizabeth and daughter Rita.

All this had to do with Spike’s ‘consulting work’ in the asphalt business. From the time that Spike quit the beer rackets, he had used his political clout to help asphalt paving contractors meet the right guy in Washington, when FDR started bringing the country back from the Depression with jobs. Mike Carrozza who ran the Laborers Union in Chicago was tapped as the paving czar for the PWA and he and Spike trusted and respected one another from the old days. One bright boy, a real clean good-government type, asked Spike’s help in securing the low bid for a three million dollar paving job for which Spike’s fee was agreed to be $ 70,000 the Cook County States Attorney and the Chicago Street Commissioner were already in the pocket of another bidder and tried to freeze Spike’s guy out; so the do-gooder reneges on his fee to get back in the good graces of the other pigs; so Spike gives the lying bastard a slap-around in front of his employees and the States Attorney has Spike pinched. Reason prevailed and the do-gooder louse woke up to the fact that Spike saved his hard-earned cash and thousands of dollars for Father Steve McMahon and Little Flower Parish by walking into the failing bank on Ashland Ave. in October 1929 with a violin case and telling the Bank’s President ‘I want to make a withdrawal – all accounts for Mr. Edward J. O’Donnell and all accounts for Father Steve McMahon and any and all for Little Flower Parish, please And I don’t want to make two trips, see?’ Neither Mr. O’Donnell nor Little Flower Parish lost a nickel in the great crash.

The reneging Asphalt mogul did not press a charge of assault and battery against Spike O’Donnell. But neither did he pay the tough-guy consultant the fee suggested. Mr. O’Donnell made it known that the Streets Commissioner of the City of Chicago was a crook and so was the States Attorney. From September 1942 to March 1943, while Marines fought to keep a foot - hold on Guadalcanal, while Ike landed American forces in North Africa, while millions of American boys were training to fight and die all over the globe, Edward J. Spike O’Donnell of 8234 S. Loomis in Chicago, Illinois fought a jungle war against the craven interests of crooked politicians (those not in Spike’s vest pocket) and two-faced louses who vote Republican - good government phonies.

On the same day that Brutus stuck a shiv in Caesar’s kidneys, 1900 years later; some louse popped a lead capsule just to the left of 53 year old Spike’s spine that lodged in his chest. Fortunately, Spike’s assassin was paid and not honorable and took to his heels when his beezer gave out. Spike laid up in Little Company of Mary Hospital for months with Capt. Dan’ Tubbo’ Gilbert and his boys keeping visitors out on orders from the States Attorney. The Papers screamed bloody murder as most Chicagoans got a kick out of Spike who publicly gave politicians the miseries with his circular narratives, punctuated by jabs to the ribs, and always delivered out of the side of his mouth. Spike O’Donnell was a tough-guy who got tough with louses and crumbs that had it coming, or so the common man held.

When visitors were allowed, Joanie Cullen brought her Mom’s homemade Chili sauce that was sweet and cinnamon zested and went great with pot roast and beef shoulder, a Mass Card from all the Cullens and a big box of candy from Steinberg’s drugstore – now called Steinway Pharmacy. Tim dropped by to tell Spike that he had joined the Marines and Spike wanted to kiss and also clout the kid. ‘Are you soft upstairs? You should be working on airplanes or in the Navy like your brother who wouldn’t know a pipe wrench from a Mary Jane. You clowns are all gonna kill Tojo. Well, pal, let me tell you this. I been shot at – and hit because my back was turned – and it’s no roller skate date at Foster Park. You make damn sure that you know how to operate what you're shooting and you had better keep it oiled and chambered. Now listen – when you shoot at a mug you are shooting at a target and that is all. If you get all Shirley Temple and human he’ll kill you – end of story. When you take off?’
‘The end of April Mr. O’Donnell.’ Tim was impressed by his friend’s frank and forthright – though – unwitnessed, tutorial on weapons and their uses.

‘Ten years ago, when Danny McGeoghan was trying to kill me everyday of the week – over beer sales – he had a nut-job Polack tough-guy jump ship to me. The guy killed about three guys, or so he said, and he wants to get close to me. One night, the guy comes into my house for the pad to old Capt. Somerville, and one of the kids, I forget who it was, comes out in diapers crying about the loud man. Anyway I picked her up and patted her back to sleep and put her to bed. The Polack is staring green at the baby the whole time. I’m not thinking clear, see, so I leave the him in the living – this was in my nice house over at 81st and Wolcott the one the G snatched from me for taxes last year –room and I go down to the basement for some money. I go round the front of the house for some reason and while I’m in the gangway I see him in my baby’s bed room giving the baby a crack. She’s bawling and by the time I come up the front porch he’s back on the sofa - as nice as pie. “Hey Spike that Baby is really giving out since . . .” I hold up my hand and wave it off ‘No sweat Pal.!’
Two weeks later we go down to Momence for some target practice. This guy Meehan has a shit farm south of the Kankakee River, see. We set up targets but the Polack sees these goats having lunch and decides to kill the poor things for no reason. “I tell him nice shooting and ask him to set up a target for me a couple hundred feet from where the dead goats are toes-up. Before he went two feet, four slugs ran into the back of the Polack’s head – nice target. Get me?’

Tim nodded with deep appreciation and conviction as he fully understood the entire tone and temper of the parable, which Mr. O’Donnell offered without homily – take care of your weapons and hit what you aim at. The targets put themselves there.

Lovely La Lumiere School Laker LaLupaloosa!

Away from matters too silly by half - war, goofy media, politics, and lawn care - I enjoyed time with the fruit of my loins for Parents weekend at La Lumiere School.

I taught at La Lumiere School from 1987 to 1994 and cherish every moment that God blessed my life with in the most beautiful place in the Midwest - north of LaPorte, West of South Bend. East of Michigan City in Indiana and just south of New Buffalo Michigan.

My son Conor ( Football Captain and Center #55), of whom I am well-pleased, is a senior ( 6th Form) student at LaLumiere School - noted for Alums: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, Actor Comedian Jim Gaffigan, Director Producer Paris Barkley, District Judge Jim Flannery and Illinois Republican Chairman and one the nicest people on earth Andy McKenna.

La Lumiere School was founded by Catholic laymen in 1963 and continues to be one of the best seconday boarding and day schools in America. Headmaster Michael Kennedy, one of my former students, has developed a remarkable faculty of talented young teachers and coaches and is putting together a very smart capital campaign.

This is a remarkable place. LaLumiere School is well worth a visit just for the breathtaking beauty of the place. It is a great educational investment for any young person. LaLumiere School is a very happy place.

Click on the title of my post for more on La Lumiere School! Better yet - hop in the Dodge and take ride out there.

Lost On Kos -Lived on a Daily Basis: Our Kids Need McCain to Lead

Lost on those of us numbed by the information super-highway's endless shouts, is the continued Honor to Mission lived by the young women and men in Harm's Way.

Survivor, Grey's Anatomy, American Idol and the arrests and rehabs of America's most useless People numb Americans from the consequence of meeting our most important obligations.

The next President must not be the 'health care,' 'education,' 'economy,' or 'global warning' President. The next President must be the person to lead America in time of war on Islamist Terror. That War came home on September 11th a couple of years ago, and since that day too many of us have become distracted.

Focus.

It seems to me that the only candidate capable of leading America in this war is John McCain:

``I am obviously of the belief that the country would be safer with me as its leader,'' McCain added. He said that while he respects his Republican and Democratic opponents, ``this is all about who is best equipped to take on the challenge of radical Islamic extremism which will be with us throughout the 21st century.''

Amid signs of a potential rebirth of his weakened candidacy, McCain is emphasizing his deep foreign policy resume and military background anew - in campaign appearance and, for the first time, in ads - as he seeks to draw differences with GOP rivals Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson.

McCain spoke to the conservative Hudson Institute as his campaign rolled out the first television and radio ads in the early primary state of New Hampshire. The state is a must-win state for the former GOP front-runner whose fortunes plunged this summer. He's seeking a comeback, and, in the ads, emphasizes his war-hero biography and decades-long experience on military matters.

In the speech and in an obvious reference to Romney and Giuliani, McCain said: ``Tough talk or managerial successes in the private sector aren't adequate assurance that their authors have the experience or qualities necessary for such a singular responsibility.''

Giuliani is a former two-term mayor of New York who moved into the business sector after elective office. Romney is a venture capitalist and one-term former governor of Massachusetts. Like Thompson, their campaign speeches are filled with rhetoric about defeating terrorists although their foreign policy resumes are thin compared with McCain's.

``We have to make far-reaching reforms to our government to prepare for the long threat our enemies plan for us, and the cruel and desperate means they will employ to harm us,'' McCain added. ``You don't just talk about or manage such changes, you lead them.''

McCain argued that the next president needs ``tested experience, political courage and strategic clarity to make sound and difficult decisions'' - implying he embodies all three attributes.

From the UK's Guardian: a very Left Wing newspaper - it seems McCain makes sense to its writer; now, is time for Americans to catch-up.

I wish to thank Mr. Frank Nofsinger of Connecticut for sending me the photos of our troops posted above.

Ahmadinejad-- The Persian Outlaw Live at the UN - By Golly!

Polite applause!

'Thank you. We are more polite in my Persia. Aw - Let's all get Country! Am I Right?
Here's the Band - Ya'll!

Dave Hartoonianjamid of Gittar

Cyrus Yoronatabncantdrinkuntilpaidup! Steel Pedal!

Darius HainsleptSinsCarterleft on Bass - Yeah, that's how he rolls Pure Outlaw!

AND! Xerxes Ihattedthethreehundred - Drums and Percussion That Scares Putin the Russian!


Give up, For My Boys!

LET"S TAKE New YORK, BOYS! Yeah!



'I got news for ya'll. Davey capo it to third fret in D - that's about right - We TUNE BECAUSE WE CARE!
yEAH!

Lissey Here, Ya'll, It's been a week of surprises for all of us. We Persians - from Darius to Cyrus- like to give ya'll a homey feeling - Davey I said D - Steel pedal this sucker up! Sorry folks - long week.

Here's a number that'll give you the feelin' that I'm feelin for all of you - in a manly way -

It's called

Got None A That Here!

Ah One, two, ah One two three and Ah . . .Davey its D. Third Fret. Alright here goes.

Bass line D/C; D/C



Its landscape is dominated by rugged mountain ranges/
that separate various basins or plateaus from one another.

Got None a That here/ Got None A that Here
It's Clear not Queer/ Now Lookeee here/
Got None a That Here (Chorus)

The populous western part is the most mountainous,/ with ranges such as the Caucasus, Zagros and Alborz Mountains;/


(Chorus)
the latter contains Iran's highest point, Mount Damavand/
at 5,604 m (18,386 ft), which is not only the country's highest peak/

(Chorus) Sing Out with Me! Like The Weavers! Got None A That Here!

But also the highest mountain on the Eurasian landmass west of the Hindu Kush./ (Yeow!)
The eastern part consists Of Men Who Like Their Pleasure and there Pleasure Likes their Men!

(Chorus) That's Country! That's Kos'in it!

Goodnight New York! And God bless . . .You know what I mean!

Apologies to Wikpedia