Chicago Sun Times Wants Catholics to Shut Up - Abortion Is A Great Way For Woman to Look Better and Get Empowered!

A woman's right to choose means that she should be empowered to have Old Doc jam a sharp or blunt object into her wombed child; yank the corpse out and toss Junior's guts into a can unencumbered by civil, moral or ethical constraints whatsoever.

The Chicago Sun Times a wad of thinning sheets of howling opinion and bugger all thought slicked up some encomiums from its three readers in reaction to Catholic Bishops doing their jobs:

Catholic Church forgets other 9 commandments
Comments

November 13, 2008

I love stories about the abortion issue and the Catholic Church. The last time I checked there were 10 commandments, not just one.

They pick and choose our politicians to punish for their personal beliefs on commandment No. 5 ("Thou shalt not kill"), yet they overlook all the other ones.

How about commandment No. 6 ("Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife") or No. 7 ("Thou shalt not steal")?

Are these lesser offenses in the eyes of the Catholic Church?

Sean Lowry, Beverly

Stay out of politics
Please, as a Catholic, I ask if there isn't someone who will tell Catholic bishops to get out of politics?

Their moral stance is fine when it is applied to their religion, but not to a whole country. After all, it was not God who told us that abortion was wrong, but a group of cardinals who voted that a child was given a soul at the moment of conception rather than at the moment of birth, and it only won by one vote.

Arlene Cozzi, Lake View

George should step down
Cardinal Francis George needs to step down. Any person who does not protect innocent children needs to be replaced. He has allowed pedophiles to have close contact with children for years. That shows that something is really wrong. This is just another example of what our society thinks of children. Our laws do not protect them, because they cannot vote. So our politicians turn their backs on them.

Lea Tomassone,

River Grove

Yep, powerful commentary.

Here's the AP on the Catholic Bishops Stand on Abortion:

Cardinal Francis George told a gathering of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Monday that continued support for abortion rights will undermine any advances in social justice that come from a new president and Congress.

George, president of the bishops group, said: ''we must all rejoice'' that an African American will be in the White House for the first time in a country that ''once enshrined slavery'' in law.
But he said the U.S. still violates universal human rights by keeping abortion legal.

''The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice,'' George said.

His speech didn't directly address the policies of President-elect Barack Obama, who is Protestant, and Vice President-elect Joseph Biden, who is Roman Catholic. Both men support abortion rights and take other stands that differ from Catholic teaching.

At a later news conference, George said bishops are preparing to lobby the Obama administration on policies that diverge from Catholic teaching on marriage, abortion and other issues.

AP

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The Chicago Sun Times while sinking like a doughball in the gullet of a Kankakee River Channel Catfish, fights for a woman's right to cosmetically get rid of excess weight brought on by sexual relations. Abortion is no more than liposuction, if one has no moral root. In my experience, the only women who have ever argued stridently for abortion seemed to be as willing to toss husbands, unruly pets and even their unaborted children. Too much bother. 'Get that Duck out of MY Oven!'

The Pink T-Shirts of Planned Parenthood stayed in the wearhouse this Campaign Cycle, but the fashionable and smart ladies who Salon will be out in full howl and the Chicago Sun Times will whine its way into oblivion.

Father Bob Barron had nice explanation that would be lost on the threeMetro Chicagoans getting their Shouts Out with the Sun Times above - you see the Catholic Church is not the Democratic Party! Troubling, LuLu?

The problem here is that the social teaching of the church flows necessarily from and is subordinated to the doctrinal convictions of classical Christianity. We care for the poor precisely because we are all connected to one another through the acts of creation and redemption. More to it, we worry about the marginalized precisely because all of us are cells, molecules and organs in a mystical body whose head is Christ risen from the dead. And our work on behalf of social justice is nourished by the Eucharist, which fully realizes and expresses the living dynamics of the mystical communion.

Read more - read something -http://www.catholicnewworld.com/cnwonline/2008/1109/faithculture.aspx

Abortion is an evil. Parse up a Nuanced storm.

Camille Paglia on Sarah Palin - Cammy You are My Kind of Gal! Well, Gal Pal Anyway. . .Look, I'm with Sappho Too. . .

Camille Paglia is great teacher of literature. I was OK. Ms. Paglia is a common sense Feminist; I am a devout sexist. Ms. Paglia is a devotee of Sappho (attracted to women) and so am I!

I'd buy her a beer the size of Connecticut

Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover. The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle. A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology -- contradicting Democratic core principles of compassion, tolerance and independent thought. One would have to look back to the Eisenhower 1950s for parallels to this grotesque lock-step parade of bourgeois provincialism, shallow groupthink and blind prejudice.

I like Sarah Palin, and I've heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is -- and quite frankly, I think the people who don't see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn't speak the King's English -- big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns -- that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World.

As for the Democrats who sneered and howled that Palin was unprepared to be a vice-presidential nominee -- what navel-gazing hypocrisy! What protests were raised in the party or mainstream media when John Edwards, with vastly less political experience than Palin, got John Kerry's nod for veep four years ago? And Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, for whom I lobbied to be Obama's pick and who was on everyone's short list for months, has a record indistinguishable from Palin's. Whatever knowledge deficit Palin has about the federal bureaucracy or international affairs (outside the normal purview of governors) will hopefully be remedied during the next eight years of the Obama presidencies.

Cammy, when and if you hit Chicago, I'll spring for steak that would gag Keith Olbermann and shut-up Chris Matthews . . .for a moment. We'll double! We can even take in some South American tunes.

Hickey is Going All Metrosexual! Hell, I Thought McCain Would Win -Time to Get Right With Those Who Salon!

I went halves on three kids, but does that make me a man - Oh Hell no! Being a man was learned - I thought - by watching real men love their wives, care for their children, remember God's hand in all things, meet obligations, honor commitments, stoically take set-backs and affronts, dust one's self off when failure does a smash-up on our egos. That sort of thing.

I'm off the hook! Not in the modern sense of being 'really keen,' but in my old male sense of -unencumbered by obligations.

Here's the word from the lovely Nancy Morgan!

The Girly Men are back. With a vengeance. And I expect they'll be granted a front row seat in any and all national conversations for the next four years. They are the new and improved version of men. Designed by feminists and launched in a successful frontal assault on America's outdated notion of masculinity.

Gone are the masculine heroes of yesterday - the John Wayne's and the General Patton's. Gone are the the testosterone laden warriors and the outdated dudes who think their job is to protect women. They've been banished to the fringes of the 'politically acceptable', along with all the men who don't shave their chest hair. (And they don't even have 72 virgins to console them. Virginity has been banned as, well, unacceptable for any self-realized woman. Or girl.)

The new improved Girly Men are marching, (mincing) in lockstep in front of anyone who will watch, patting themselves on the back for having 'evolved'. These men have swallowed whole the feminist mantra that This Is What Women Want. A new, sensitive man. A man not afraid of feelings, a man in touch with his inner self who has the, yes, the raw courage, to shed the shackles (whew) of masculinity.

No longer will these men have to battle for their place in the pecking order by the old (brutal) traditional means. It has been decided by popular vote that feelings will now determine social ranking. Acerbic wit will replace arm wrestling. Tears will replace stoicism, dialogue will replace confrontation and liposuction will replace rippling muscles.

Thank God! I have been sucking in my, what used to be refered to as 'gut,' Amber Waves of Lard. I can now get a full body tan - and well do I need that . . .once I ask Seth to razor and wax all the hair off of me.

A New Age marked by a Dionysian sensibility has hugged the Nation. This New Age of Theban Maleness will allow much less attention to manly details like making my son Conor wipe up the assorted sauces, spices, condiments and clean the sinkful of pots, pans and skillets.

'Hey, look, Bub! This is not what being a man is all about. You do not leave a mess for your little sister to clean up, much less your silver-haired Pappy. Take care of your own messes.'

'Like you, I suppose.'

'Indeed. Look, Sally, this is not a debating society get busy.'

Now, I can get mellow. 'Conor's sloth might not necessarily lead him into membership of Order of Chaeronea, but it sure is nice not to level up the old testicle barometer to full Dad Rage Levels. Chill, Daddy-o!'

If Putin wants to incinerate Poland, let the man Dance! Babies? I got three! Let a woman liposuction some life out with those unwanted rolls of lard with Dr. Gaddam Gupta! Chill, baby. Christmas is for squares. God is a nap. Time for Sex in the City! I can have Clare's 8th Grade girlfriends in for a sleepover and play re-runs to show them just what women need to appreciate! It's all good.

I can feel breasts sprouting! Hey, at this point I'll have Knee Knockers by 2012!

What Golden Age this might be! I am going to rent some Will and Grace - never saw that; get me a full length mirror; get in some sweet quality time with the Metro guys at a really Happening gym. Cry, again. Watch Oprah! Look concerned while silently saying 'As if!' Read less and watch more! Chill.

I wonder if they have just the right oils at CVS.

My Dad - Guam in 1944 and St. Cajetan's Vet Services 2008

My Dad, Pfc.Patrick E. Hickey USMCR, a machine gunner with Able Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines was photographed on Guam in July, 1944. He was 19 years old at the time and a veteran of the Bougainville Campaign in the Solomon Islands in 1943. The following year he would go to Iwo Jima and return to Guam where he 'checked caves until he came home in November 1945 - he had the Points. Yesterday, the kids of St. Cajetan School in my Morgan Park neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, honored the Veterans of our Parish. My Dad is featured at the beginning of the video and had trouble standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

St. Cajetan Parish is honored by the service of about twenty young men now deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

He met a 'young guy' who served in the 3rd Marines during Operation Desert Storm and told him 'Semper Fi, Mac.'

Thank you to St. Cajetan's School!

Click my post title for great Southtown Star coverage of kids giving touching tribute to our heroes -Old and Young.

Katha Pollitt - Palin Hater for America and One Ugly Broad! Chicago Tribune Thinks She's Swell!

Katha Pollitt is one ugly woman - this past Halloween the kids at the door gave her candy; in Katha's photo album there's only negatives;beauty is only skin deep but ugly is to the bone (Dangerfield. New York).

Click my post title for the article - it is pretty standard hate stuff but very badly written and certainly worthy of the Chicago Tribune editorial board.

I read Miss Pollitt's op-ed piece with great interest this morning. The Tribune did not provide a photo of Miss Pollitt but I managed to match the face with the message. Miss Pollitt is also not all that bright it seems to me thata demitasse would fit her head like a sombrero. Miss Pollitt is also rather . . .shall we say offensive? I've come across decomposed bodies of two fishermen tossed up on the beach at Holland Michigan that were less offensive than Miss Pollitt.

Miss Pollitt would scare a starving dog off a meat wagon, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As Progressive are wont to say 'Who's to judge?' As I am wont to say, 'Me.' That is one ugly broad. Beauty works it's way up from the heart and Miss Pollitt's words of unnecessary invective match her tiny heart.

But shucks, don't take my word for it I am a dedicated and devout sexist.

My favorite Lesbian/literary critic Camille Paglia thinks not much of Miss Pollitt*. as well.

Feminist author Camille Paglia described Pollitt as a "whiny troll, an unscrupulous and unreliable critic and a cultural philistine...She's a good example of the phony prep-school/trust-fund leftism suffusing the incestuously interwined Ivy League cliques who run the corrupt East Coast literary and magazine establishment."[6]

Yet, the Chicago Tribune's editorial board sees fit to use a 'whiny troll' to smear Sarah Palin. Pollitt is a feminist. One of those feminists who can not seem to develop a happy life and Billy-bedamns any woman who is everything that they are not. Pollitt tosses hate on Sarah Palin like Englewood Napalm ( a horrific concoction of boiling water and bacon grease that is infamous for branding domestic disputes.

Sarah Palin will be fine. The Radical Feminists are scared witless - I believe that is the word I wish - of Sarah Palin.

The Chicago Tribune has become as sad a joke in journalism as the soon to closed Chicago Sun Times.

Katha Pollitt is married ( her second and his third) to Marxist critic Steve Lukes.

Sarah Palin is Governor of Alaska and happily married to the man she met in high school.

This is list from Mother Jones by Katha Pollitt Her Ten Must Reads - Yeah, I'll get around to those hits . . .when it snows in the Philippines.
Katha Pollitt is a columnist for The Nation magazine and author of Reasonable Creatures: Feminism & Society in American Culture at the End of the Twentieth Century (New York: Vintage, 1994). In the early 1980s, she reviewed books for Mother Jones. Her choices, listed chronologically:

1976 Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture & Society, by Raymond Williams (London: Oxford University Press). The great Marxist scholar of English literature analyzes the history of 131 crucial words, from "aesthetic," which has always meant the opposite of "social" and "practical," to "work," which did not always mean paid employment.

1978 For Her Own Good: 150 Years of the Experts' Advice to Women, by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English (New York: Doubleday). This feminist classic is still the most elegant and spirited dissection of received medical wisdom -- a.k.a. sexism.

1983 Imagined Communities, by Benedict Anderson (London: Verso). A brilliant and erudite investigation of the concept of national identity -- a modern invention whose psychological power lies in denying that it is one.

1984 Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, by Pierre Bourdieu (Cambridge: Harvard University Press). With subtlety and sophistication, the great French sociologist analyzes the way social and economic classes are shaped and preserved by myriad tiny but amazingly precise differences -- from preferences in food and art to body language and hairstyles. The data are French, the implications universal.

1984 Not In Our Genes: Biology, Ideology, and Human Nature, by R.C. Lewontin, Steven Rose, and Leon J. Kamin (New York: Pantheon). Three prominent scientists debunk genetic determinism and sociobiology so thoroughly it's amazing The Bell Curve got published.

1988 A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux). A beautiful, furious essay about the author's native Antigua, tourist mecca and postcolonial slum -- the modern world in a nutshell.

1990 City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, by Mike Davis (London: Verso). I learned something from every page of this bold social history of Los Angeles as the prototype of a new kind of city, the world megalopolis.

1991 Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, by Susan Faludi (New York: Crown). The book that woke American women from their Reagan-era "post-feminist" nap. Faludi shows how the media operates as a kind of Möbius strip, endlessly recycling half-truths and distortions to "prove" that feminism has made women miserable.

1991 Mao II, by Don DeLillo (New York: Penguin). A Pynchon-like writer leaves his study to explore a world of cults, terrorists, dilapidation, and drift. A tragic meditation on post-modernity as alternating currents of isolation and mass hysteria.

Adolph Reed Jr.'s essays are not collected in a book, but he is the smartest person of any race, class, or gender writing on race, class, and gender. (His writing appears in the Progressive and Village Voice.)


Rather have my gums scrapped, Katha!

Cammy, with words such as yours about Katha ('She's a good example of the phony prep-school/trust-fund leftism suffusing the incestuously interwined Ivy League cliques who run the corrupt East Coast literary and magazine establishment.') I am proud to call myself a Lesbian too!

George Will - Irony's Sycophant a Swell Contrast to St. Augustine

Unlike the radicals on the right who want to upend American traditions, Will seeks to conserve them. Despite his habitual caution, however, even Will seems to have made at least one concession to modernity that may leave some of his admirers reeling. The bow tie has vanished. For the cover photograph of “One Man’s America,” he’s donned a necktie. New York Times Review of Books by Jacob Heilbrunn

Heck George, Tucker Carlson did that years ago!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/books/review/Heilbrunn-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&oref=slogin

George Will is Irony's Sycophant - wordy parser posing as an authentic voice. Shoot Will required research assistants, from what I hear, to scoop up baseball facts and figures in an attempt to become 'a real fan.' Now that's ironic. Today George Will worms his words through the loam of the new Washington, D.C.- the New Athens built from the Spartan helots of Daley's Chicago. Will wants in.

The door might be open to a parser. Thus, Will explains conservative America rotting like the corpse of a Marine gunned down in the surf off Tarawa in 1943:

More irony: September's financial storm probably sealed Obama's victory by raising the electorate's anxieties while lowering its confidence in Obama's opponent. John McCain's responses -- suspending, sort of, his campaign; ratcheting up his rhetoric about Wall Street "greed and corruption" -- suggested a line spoken solemnly by the Capitol Steps' George W. Bush impersonator: "Uncertain times call for uncertain leadership." But the storm's aftermath -- $1 trillion or so of government resources siphoned away -- will severely constrain Obama's presidency. So, this year the conditions conducive to the election of liberals, with their baroque plans and rococo dreams, have put a polar frost on most such ambitions.

Indeed, Obama's first problem will be drawing lines to circumscribe bailout promiscuity. The Bush administration, having executed a swan dive, or perhaps a belly-flop, into the financial sector, now seems to be flinching from extending the interventions into the industrial sector. Democrats in Congress, feeling their oats and hearing clamors from local corporations, will be Obama's first affliction.

Some of the Republicans' afflictions are self-inflicted. Some conservatives who are gluttons for punishment are getting a head start on ensuring a 2012 drubbing by prescribing peculiar medication for a misdiagnosed illness. They are monomaniacal about media bias, which is real but rarely decisive, and unhinged by their anger about the loathing of Sarah Palin by similarly deranged liberals. These conservatives, confusing pugnacity with a political philosophy, are hot to anoint Palin, an emblem of rural and small-town sensibilities, as the party's presumptive 2012 nominee.

These conservatives preen as especially respectful of regular -- or as Palin says, "real" -- Americans, whose tribune Palin purports to be. But note the argument that the manipulation of Americans by "the mainstream media" explains the fact that the more Palin campaigned, the less Americans thought of her qualifications. This argument portrays Americans as a bovine herd -- or as inert clay in the hands of wily media, which only Palin's conservative celebrators can decipher and resist.

Which George Will offers to. . . to offset, with milquetoast oil, and usher in a backdoor to principle! The Lap Dog's Return! George Will is seaching for a warm lap and a comfy chair. What a jerk!

George, the bovine herd? Well, Will there are herds and hoards. Hoards sweepin change. Herds remain static until herded, or is it lead? Ironic, that.

In Roman Hippo, a suburb of Carthage, the Bishop worried about Change and Hope as the Vandals and the Goths swept out the corruption of Old Rome. Augustine was no George Will. Augustine, was rooted in conservative principles that outlasted the Vandals and the Goths and took a hard look at political change as merely a vanity.

George Will is all about vanity. Augustine wrote:

CHAP. XVII. -- NEVERTHELESS THERE IS TIME PAST AND FUTURE.

22. I ask, Father, I do not affirm. O my God, rule and guide me. "Who is there who can say to me that there are not three times (as we learned when boys, and as we have taught boys), the past, present, and future, but only present, because these two are not? Or are they also; but when from future it becometh present, cometh it forth from some secret place, and when from the present it becometh past, doth it retire into anything secret? For where have they, who have foretold future things, seen these things, if as yet they are not? For that which is not cannot be seen. And they who relate things past could not relate them as true, did they not perceive them in their mind. Which things, if they were not, they could in no wise be discerned. There are therefore things both future and past.

George Will denies these points. The Irony being - that is a very good thing.

Keep yapping Georgie, someone will pick you up!

N.B. - Speaking of Principles and parsing for wiggle room: Nancy Pelosi, one of the Goths in Congress tried to parse St. Augustine over Abortion and received a clip on the snout from Bishop Chaput.

In the summer of 2008, this aspect ( condemnation of abortion) of Augustine's thoughtt (i.e., the gravity of abortion vis-a-vis the ensoulment of the fetus) was used by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, in defence of her pro-choice political stance. She quoted one of his works, in which he wrote:

"The law does not provide that the act [abortion] pertains to homicide, for there cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation.'[64]

In the week following her comments, she was corrected by numerous American bishops, such as Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver, who wrote: "In the absence of modern medical knowledge, some of the Early Fathers held that abortion was homicide; others that it was tantamount to homicide; and various scholars theorized about when and how the unborn child might be animated or "ensouled." But none diminished the unique evil of abortion as an attack on life itself..."[65]

Now, That's Ironic!

American Catholics - Time to Ask Where We Go to Mass - Grant Park or The Parish Near You!

Archbishop Charles Chaput wrote in his recent book, Render Unto Caesar,

“The point we must never forget is this: We need to keep fighting for the human person, starting with the unborn child and extending throughout life. We abandon our vocation as Catholics if we give up; if we drop out of political issues altogether or knuckle under to America’s growing callousness toward human dignity. We need to keep fighting. Otherwise we become what the Word of God has such disgust for: salt that has lost its flavor.”

The Sun Times, Chicago's Progressive Independent Voice of Chicago, is fighting for Gay Marriage. No children result from gay marriage - a biological imperative - but the Sun Times hammers home 'It's about the Children.' Which is the burning issue? Gay Rights it seems. Third Trimester Kids die every day thanks to Advocacy of a Woman's Right To Choose having a doctor jam a spike into the babies skulls and yank out the corpses with forceps, but the real heart-tugger comes when Randy and Andy ( gender Neutral handles) can not obtain a Cook County Marriage Licence from Dave Orr.

In Arkansas, voters barred unmarried couples from becoming adoptive or foster parents in a state that doesn't have enough foster homes. This action comes despite a recent study showing that same-sex couples play a critical role in the world of adoption because they will take the kids who are the hardest to place -- older children and ones with special needs.

So, a supposed pro-family measure winds up hurting children.

Now that sounds Urgent!

Stop the Presses!

That is because marriage is between two people of opposite gender - a union that is intended - great lawyer-word INTENT - to propagate the species, or more feely -Families.

Gays enjoy sex to express love between two people of same sexual gender ( Man to Man; Woman to Woman). Everyone else expresses their love with sex in hope of having children and raising them according to that union.

The expression of love comes in many forms - sex is one and a powerful one. In our times ( between the 1960's and today) one of the most powerful expressions of love has become politics: Advocacy Politics pick and issue, get behind it and votes will pour in.

As Chicago Sun Times Advocacy Columnist, Neil Steinberg said today in his column on Chicago: The New Athens,

One thing this election has taught me is that there are lots of facts, an infinity of facts, and too many people seize on just a few, puzzle pieces that fit neatly into their puzzled minds. Then they ignore the rest, staring at one pebble in a field of boulders.

The father and son singing might not be important. But it's something I'll remember for the rest of my life.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
-- Ambrose Bierce Devil's Dictionary.

It is time for principles to skip politics. Catholics, like me, need to take a long hard look at ourselves and ask, 'What do I believe? What do I share with my children? What is worth holding on to and what is worth letting go?

I listened to Catholic Journalist Raymond Arroyo last night and pointed out the liturgical nature of the Obama Celebration - almost a Mass it was! Thousands of people took Communion with President Elect Obama.

The Obama Liturgy in Grant Park on Tuesday Night and all that it means might be a good start to begin my examination of conscience.

We all live together to be sure, but we go Hell on our own.

Yes, indeed. Abortion has Advocacy. Gays have Advocacy. The Unborn are on their own.

Leo Veterans Observance -Friday November 7 at 11AM -Leo Piper David McKee Leads the Way

Leo High School's David McKee '46 - the Dean of Stockyard Kilty Pipe Band - opens the Leo Veterans Observance tomorrow by piping in the Colors.

Come over to Leo High School -Leo High School site of Veterans Observance on Friday, November 7th, 2008 @11:00 A.M

Contact - Mr. Pat Hickey -Director of Development (773) 224-9600,ex.#16

Leo High School, Leo Alumni Association, Windy City Veterans, The Burbank, Illinois Unit of the Marine Corps League, The Veterans Leadership Program, American Legion Giles Post #87, & Chicago Commission on Human Relations will hold a special Veterans Memorial Observance at the Leo War Memorial in the school’s courtyard. , Leo High School President Robert W. Foster & Vice Principal Frank Wilson (USMC ret.) will direct the observance which features presentations by Veterans, wreath - laying by Richard Furlong, President of the Alumni Association , Mrs. Rochelle Crump - Veteran and Asst. Director for the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services.

It is the Veterans who make this event special.

Leo High School erected a memorial in 1965 to the many Leo men who have died serving America in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam and the Windy City Veterans of Chicago updated the engraved names and constructed permanent lighting for the memorial. Last year more than two hundred persons joined the 220 Leo students in honoring America’s war fallen.

John Fardy (Leo 1940) was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic sacrifice during World War II. Mr. John Houlihan (Leo ‘41) served in the Marine Corps as did Mr. Dick Prendergast and twenty (20) more of his classmates from the Class of ‘43. Many Leo men have been decorated for heroism, including Mr. Jim Farrell (Leo ‘61), Mr. Jack Farnan, (Leo ‘63), and Mr. Jim Furlong ( Leo ‘65), all members of the Leo Hall of Fame and highly decorated Vietnam Veterans. The late Mr.Thomas Stack (Leo ‘61) organized the first welcome home to the Veterans of Vietnam. Mr.Tom Stack won two Silver Stars and three Bronze Stars in Vietnam.
Another highly decorated Vietnam Veteran, Gen. George Muellner, USAF (ret.) graduated from Leo, flew more than 600 combat fighter missions, commanded many fighter commands, and developed the STAR communications weapon system for Operation Desert Storm. Gen. Muellner is now the VP for Boeing Corporation’s Stealth Projects. Chicago Police Officer Eric Lee ( USMC) was killed in the line of duty several years ago and is remembered in Leo High School's Hall of Fame.The Veterans Memorial Observance, as always, will be held in the school courtyard located on 79th Street.

President Barack Obama -Congratulations, Mr. President Elect!

In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first. Harry S. Truman

President Elect Barack Obama won the greatest political victory of modern American History.

President
Barack Obama
349John McCain
163 Senate
Democrats
56* (+5)Republicans
40 (-5)
House
Democrats
251 (+20)Republicans
172 (-20)
Barack Obama Elected President
****************
· President ·Obama/Biden 52% (349) McCain/Palin 47% (163)
7:00 ET Obama McCain Obama McCain
Georgia (15) 46% 53% (99%) South Carolina (8) 45% 54% (94%)
Indiana (11) 50% 49% (99%) Vermont (3) 67% 31% (89%)
Kentucky (8) 41% 58% (100%) Virginia (13) 52% 47% (99%)
7:30 ET Obama McCain Obama McCain
North Carolina (15) 50% 49% (100%) Ohio (20) 51% 47% (94%)
West Virginia (5) 43% 56% (99%)
8:00 ET Obama McCain Obama McCain
Alabama (9) 39% 61% (99%) Massachusetts (12) 62% 36% (96%)
Connecticut (7) 60% 39% (96%) Mississippi (6) 43% 57% (99%)
Delaware (3) 62% 37% (100%) Missouri (11) 49% 50% (100%)
DC (3) 93% 7% (100%) New Hampshire (4) 55% 44% (84%)
Florida (27) 51% 49% (99%) New Jersey (15) 57% 42% (98%)
Illinois (21) 61% 38% (95%) Oklahoma (7) 34% 66% (99%)
Maine (4) 58% 40% (78%) Pennsylvania (21) 55% 44% (99%)
Maryland (10) 61% 38% (97%) Tennessee (11) 42% 57% (98%)
8:30 ET Obama McCain Obama McCain
Arkansas (6) 39% 59% (94%)
9:00 ET Obama McCain Obama McCain
Arizona (10) 45% 54% (97%) New York (31) 62% 37% (99%)
Colorado (9) 53% 46% (80%) North Dakota (3) 45% 53% (97%)
Kansas (6) 42% 57% (97%) Rhode Island (4) 63% 35% (98%)
Louisiana (9) 38% 60% (96%) South Dakota (3) 44% 54% (98%)
Michigan (17) 57% 41% (97%) Texas (34) 44% 55% (96%)
Minnesota (10) 54% 44% (98%) Wisconsin (10) 56% 43% (96%)
Nebraska (5) 41% 57% (99%) Wyoming (3) 33% 65% (100%)
New Mexico (5) 57% 42% (98%)
10:00 ET Obama McCain Obama McCain
Iowa (7) 54% 45% (99%) Nevada (5) 56% 42% (73%)
Montana (3) 46% 51% (88%) Utah (5) 34% 63% (99%)
11:00 ET Obama McCain Obama McCain
California (55) 61% 37% (73%) Oregon (7) 56% 43% (58%)
Hawaii (4) 72% 27% (99%) Washington (11) 57% 41% (52%)
Idaho (4) 35% 62% (85%)
1:00 ET Obama McCain Obama McCain
Alaska (3) 36% 62% (81%)

Sarah Palin is Unfamiliar with Morons - The Prank and Obama's Crowd

Decent people try to think the best of people. That is why pranks work and scams get fulfilled. Mean and tightfisted persons are never duped by Homeless Veterans with the Styrofoam cups and their legs tied up under their thighs.

The prank or scam is the rubric for the mean-spirited cheap shot crowd - the Olbermann/Maddow mavens.

Sarah Palin is a very nice person. Nice persons are treated badly by louses and sneaks and toted as 'chumps' by their confederates.

Obama has legions of such matching souls. He can have them. They worked against him when he ran against Bobby Rush. They mocked him as 'a white-boy' in the Chicago news media. They pranked Obama and Obama embraced them. he can have them.

Sarah Palin is hated by these louses of both and the more dubious genders, because she is a successful, effective, loved and happy person. She'll be fine.

Barack Obama look who has your back!

A Montreal comedy duo who made a prank telephone call to Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin got their 15 minutes of fame Monday on U.S. network television.

The Masked Avengers (Justiciers Masqués) were flown to New York City for an appearance on CBS's morning show to talk about their weekend phone conversation with Palin that made international headlines.

Posing as Nicholas Sarkozy with a bad Pepé le Pew accent, comedian Marc-Antoine Audette chatted with Palin for several minutes on Saturday about hunting, politics and Carla Bruni before coming clean.

Palin played along beautifully, Audette told Early Show host Harry Smith.

"Once we started making jokes, she didn't seem to mind, and she didn't seem to be aware of the fact we were making jokes," he said during his live appearance on CBS.

"We were like 'Oh my God this is gonna be long.' "

Harry Smith - you are a two fisted, gold-plated . . .Madcap. Love to get your ear some time Harry.

VOTE - 4,200 Americans Gave You That Right With Their Lives In the War on Islamist Terror!

You Vote! 4,200 kids who died giving you that right will not be able to do so. You have no excuses! They won in Iraq! John McCain had the Courage to let them do just that.

Vote! Vote McCain/Palin!

Hollywood Fears McCain Victory! 'Pack The Range Rovers - It's McCain!'

Now here is a Congress of Cupcakes wildly supporting Barack Obama! Ready to take flight to Italy, Canada, Michael Jackson's Never-Never Land, and or bite their Orphelia Sandia Down pillows, are the solid Americans of Hollywood! Count on it! These mouth breathers are as good as their words and collective sense of commitment!

A HIDEOUS new affliction is creeping through the ranks of America's creative community.

The further Barack Obama edges ahead of John McCain in the million and one polls that are coming out the more pernicious the nagging fear becomes.

What if he loses?

Barely a left-wing pundit, barely an Oscar-nominated softie can sleep a wink these days for fear of the race riots and international humiliation that will ensue should "The One" be defeated on Tuesday.

They think he's going to win, of course, but their hearts still bear the scars of 2000 and 2004.

The comedian Chris Rock is at least capable of joking about it. "If Obama loses?" he replied to a question from talk show host Bill Maher. "Well, that Wednesday after election day, anybody … any activity in your life that involves black people, it's not going to get done. If you're at the airport? No one's going to get your bags."

But for others, the dread is nameless and paralysing. Erica Jong, author of the 1970s feminist bible Fear of Flying, has developed a new complex in recent weeks - the fear of an Obama flogging.

"If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me," she told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera last week. "My back is also suffering from spasms, so much so that I had to see an acupuncturist and get prescriptions for Valium.

"Yesterday, Jane Fonda sent me an email to tell me that she cried all night and can't cure her ailing back for all the stress that has reduced her to a bundle of nerves."

The American shock-jock Rush Limbaugh, on hearing this last detail, had a direct, if crude, response. "Maybe you should try getting off your back, Jane!" he roared. (The two are not friends.) Hollywood in general is on red anxiety alert for an Obama loss.

Crack teams of chiropractors are at the ready, and Nissen huts full of qualified shrinks and aromatherapists line Rodeo Drive to soothe the tortured brigades of the psychologically wounded should "The One" be robbed of victory.

Actress Susan Sarandon has already issued a veiled threat to the public.

"It's a critical time, but I have faith in the American people," she told Britain's Telegraph newspaper with a touch of implied menace in June this year. "If they prove me wrong, I'll be checking out a move to Italy. Maybe Canada, I don't know. We're at an abyss …"

Sarandon's words qualify her for membership of a small but committed group of Potential Canadians (PCs) in American artistic and creative circles.

Barbra Streisand vowed to emigrate to Canada in 2000 if George Bush were ever elected President, an undertaking she refreshed four years later at the prospect of his re-election.

But she was still sufficiently resident in California on September 16 this year to host a $US2500 ($3800) a head fund-raiser for Obama at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

The actor Alec Baldwin and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder made similar threats in 2000, as did Robert Redford in 2004, but none has since enriched the Canadian cultural scene.

In fact, Canadian immigration records show that arrivals from the United States actually slowed in the six months after George Bush's re-election in 2004

Gee, If McCain backer felt the same way and Barack Obama won on Tuesday - there would be no one left to do any of the real work! Well, Lah Dee Dah, Gertrudes!

Media Morons Harass Obama and His Little Girl

I would not and did not vote for Barack Obama to be President of the United States. I voted for John McCain and Sarah Palin. However, the same imbeciles of the news media who have swept Obama's campaign into American history could not allow a loving Dad the opportunity to take his little girl Trick or Treating. These clowns - print, photo, TV and Web - have all the dignity of a bust-out drunk sucking on a tossed bar-rag. The Obama family deserves better.

By Matt Spetalnick

CHICAGO (Reuters) - It wasn't quite a Halloween nightmare on Obama street, but journalists on Friday drew a rare flash of anger from the normally unflappable Democratic presidential nominee.

Barack Obama had taken a break from the campaign trail for a few hours of Halloween fun at home with his family four days before the election, but ended up visibly annoyed when news crews dogged their footsteps in their Chicago neighborhood.

"That's enough. You've got a shot. Leave us alone," Obama told reporters as he walked down the block with his 7-year-old daughter Sasha in her costume on the way to a party at a neighbor's home.

Obama, usually cool in public during a campaign that has turned him into the frontrunner for the White House, did not disguise his irritation when his surprise walk caused news photographers and camera crews to scramble for position on the sidewalk.

He grew especially testy when a Polish television cameraman tried to approach them.

"Come on guys, get back on the bus," he pleaded with journalists, many of whom had accompanied him from the airport to Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.

Obama, wearing sunglasses but no costume, and his daughter, dressed up as what campaign aides said was a "corpse's bride," then broke into a sprint, leaving the journalists behind.

Secret Service agents and vans followed closely behind, and stunned trick-or-treaters broke into shouts of "Obama, Obama" as he rushed past.

There was no neighborhood trick-or-treating for the Obama family. "He didn't want to cause a disruption to the neighborhood," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Instead the family attended a Halloween party behind closed doors at a friend's home. Obama's 10-year-old daughter Malia had planned to dress up as an "evil fairy," the campaign said.

The fact that Obama took time out for Halloween showed a candidate feeling confident about his chances on Tuesday, with polls showing him leading Republican nominee John McCain.

Obama flew straight from a rally in Iowa to Chicago, where he stepped onto the airport tarmac with a pumpkin -- brought on a campaign swing through Florida -- under one arm.

After the brief stop at home, he planned to be back campaigning on Friday night at a rally in Gary, Indiana.

Vote McCain/Palin - Read Pat Guest and Understand Why!

Pat Guest is a young husband, father, Queen of Martyr's parishioner, small businessman, and until recently a Chicago Democrat and voting for John McCain. Pat and I had a gentlemanly disagreement during the 19th Ward Aldermanic election last year and proved himself to be an articulate, thoughtful and witty counterpoint to my more splenetic and tribally coded voicings.

Pat Guest established a wonderful Website 19th Ward Blog and today articulates the very powerful principles underlying a vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin on Tuesday. Here's Pat Guest:

American Principles Under Attack

Surfing through the cable news channels last night I was struck by what I heard. There has been a steady escalation of attacks on fundamental American political institutions and principles. But recently, the liberal press (MSNBC predominately, followed by CNN, and excluding Fox which everyone understands to be a right-leaning network) has become increasingly bold and overt in attacking Capitalism and Conservatism. Rachel Maddow took the opportunity to declare the failure of Capitalism when Alan Greenspan testified before Congress and admitted that perhaps he had made mistakes. Socialism and Egalitarianism have become popular topics for the likes of Chris Mathews and Keith Olbermann. Of course, they don’t use the word Socialism, but they are almost giddy when they proclaim the death of Free Market Capitalism, Federalism, and Conservatism. Our liberal friends have used the current capital crisis to promote extreme left-wing, anti-American philosophies. And, ashamedly, the current President is asleep at the wheel.

However, our current financial situation is not a result of the failure of an economic or political philosophy. At the root of the crisis is greed and criminal behavior on the part of CEOs and politicians of both political persuasions. People should be going to jail for lying to investors and manipulating financial figures. Where is the Congressional outrage? This is the same Congress that spent millions on investigating steroids in baseball. They even considered perjury charges against some of the baseball players that allegedly lied to Congress; how about investigating the criminals who lied to the American people and ignited the biggest financial catastrophe since the Great Depression. We have to remember that the two institutions in the eye of the financial hurricane are Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – quasi governmental organizations. This is not a failure of Conservatism. Nor is it a failure of Capitalism, or as Barack Obama refers to it,”…a failed economic philosophy”.

Nationalization and Socialism are not the solution. We can only hope, that if Obama is elected, and the Congress is controlled by a Democratic super-majority, that the American people will see what lies beneath the left-wing liberal rhetoric and reject it.

Patrick D. Guest

Vote John McCain/Sarah Palin - for the reasons articulated by a very fine American - Pat Guest!

The Obama Coup - Voter Suppression, Racism, McCarthyism Charges Worked Against Hillary Clinton

Obama might be staging a Coup - a Corporate Coup made up of Media, Leftist Academics, and Corporate Opportunists who own the Media. That was a thought posed by a low level government employee at this morning's coffee session. Interesting thought.

'Look, Obama cried Voter Suppression against Hillary in January! It worked. Obama cried 'Racism!' every chance he got against Clinton. It worked. He cried guilt by association with the Wright Stuff and it worked great. The Media knocks down any and all charges against the guy, before the questions are asked of him. A real National Three-Card Monte!'

Could be. Sure enough CNN's Candy Crowley reported on Voter Suppression - Obama cries foul and tips off the Refs before anything takes place.

The story
A prominent supporter of Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday compared Bill Clinton's appeals for his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, in South Carolina to the tactics used by a former Republican strategist that are infamous within Democratic circles.

When asked about the comparison, the former president reacted with disapproval, saying it was a distraction from what voters really cared about.

In an interview with CNN, Dick Harpootlian, a former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party and an Obama backer, said some of Clinton's recent remarks on the campaign trail were appeals based on race and gender, meant to "suppress the vote, demoralize voters and distort the record."

Could be a Coup. We'll see Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. I have faith in the American voter.

I Voted McCain - For Those Of You Voting Obama, Expect This If He Wins

I voted for John McCain - early, but just once. My two voting age children did as well.

I believe that Senator Obama is an ambitious guy - fair enough. He took a path that seems like a sure thing: Powerful Advocacy Issue PACs, George Soros's millions, the American News Media, University Loudmouths, and an all too compliant Democratic Party.I still have faith that most American voters will side with John McCain.




Here is what you can expect from an Obama Presidency, thanks to the Brilliant Dr. Charles Krauthammer -


(1) Card check, meaning the abolition of the secret ballot in the certification of unions in the workplace. Large men will come to your house at night and ask you to sign a card supporting a union. You will sign.

(2) The so-called Fairness Doctrine -- a project of Nancy Pelosi and leading Democratic senators -- a Hugo Chavez-style travesty designed to abolish conservative talk radio.

(3) Judges who go beyond even the constitutional creativity we expect from Democratic appointees. Judges chosen according to Obama's publicly declared criterion: "empathy" for the "poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old" -- in a legal system historically predicated on the idea of justice entirely blind to one's station in life.

(4) An unprecedented expansion of government power. Yes, I know. It has already happened. A conservative government has already partially nationalized the mortgage industry, the insurance industry and nine of the largest U.S. banks.

Click my Post Title for more

If you think times are tough today, vote for Obama on Tuesday and really pile it on!

19th Ward Blog Responds to Neil Steinberg's Slur of Mt. Greenwood Residents

People who lead good lives, care for their children, their elderly, their property, their community, and many, many people outside of their neighborhood do not deserve the cheap and cavalier insults of a columnist like Neil Steinberg.

19th Ward Blog's editor and publisher Pat Guest responds: 'Neil Steinberg is an irresponsible hateful little man. Read his outrageous column in today’s ( Oct.29th 2008)Suntimes.'

That was about the nicest way of putting things. In bit of reverse satire Neil Steinberg wrote:

Obviously, you want Obama elected—the nation will soon realize what it has done, the pendulum will swing the other way—your way. At long last! Ausgerechnet jetzt!

Persuasive stuff. But if I know you—and I do—about now you’re asking yourself: “Hey, wait a second. This guy’s a Jew. Why would a Jew be looking out for the best interest of the Iron Fist of Righteous White Anger, Mount Greenwood Corps?”

'You' meaning racists. Cheap and cowardly. Hey, that's not an altogether unfitting logo of the Sun Times! Well, it ain't cheap - $.75 still means something to people who work for a living - like the people in the Mount Greenwood Community.

Wendy Button: Obama Speechwriter Serves Notice and Supports John McCain -In Full!

Wendy Button talking to the Haircut Mac Daddy

So Long, Democratsby Wendy Button

Wendy Button is a writer in Washington, DC. She has written for Senators John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Mayor Tom Menino of Boston as well as other national and international leaders. She received her MFA in writing from Bennington College and is currently writing the CNN Heroes Award Show to air Thanksgiving night.

A speechwriter for Obama, Edwards, and Clinton on why she’s voting McCain.

Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I’m a woman writing in the election of 2008, “very emotional.”

When I entered this campaign, it was at the 2006 Edwards staff Christmas party. My nametag read “Millie Worker.” When former Senator John Edwards read it, he laughed and said, “That makes you like my parent.” He went on to say, “Would you please come down to Chapel Hill so we can talk about what’s coming up.” I sat in John and Elizabeth’s living room for two and half hours. I left North Carolina, energized about politics for the first time in months.

Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates.

I didn’t hear from anyone for three weeks.

When I finally received the official offer, it was the kind of political offer that said, “Go away.” That happens. It’s their campaign and I just assumed that I had been pushed out. The problem was that I had canceled a number of freelance writing jobs because I had assumed that when John said, “Start right away” I would. I needed a job right away and so I took the one in front of me with Senator Barack Obama.

When we first met, Obama and I had a nice conversation about speeches and writing, and at the end of the meeting I handed him a pocket-sized bottle of Grey Poupon mustard so he wouldn’t have to ask staff if it was okay to put it on his hamburger. At the bottom of the bottle was the logo for “The South Beach Diet” and he snapped, “Oh so you read People magazine.” He seemed to think that I was commenting on his bathing suit picture.

I helped with his announcement speech and others. I worked in the Senate when he was in D.C. One day after a hearing on Darfur, we were walking back to the office. I was still hobbling from a very bad ankle injury and in a very kind and gentle way he offered his arm when we approached the stairs. But later in debate preps and phone conversations and meetings, I realized that I had made a mistake. I didn’t belong. No matter how hard I tried, my heart wasn’t in it anymore.

See campaigns get complicated when you’ve written for so many Democrats. Not only had I written for Senator Edwards, but I had also been Senator Hillary Clinton’s speechwriter. Senator Joe Biden is a “good looking” man and his care after my father almost died from an aneurysm is the kind of kindness you never forget. When I saw Edwards at a traffic light in D.C. about a year after our meeting, he asked for help and I did and it was an honor to help him with his concession speech. And when the primary ended, it was a privilege to help Michelle Obama with a stump speech, be considered as a speechwriter for the V.P. nominee again, and send friends in Chicago ideas until the financial crisis hit. This is what the Democratic Party has been for me; it’s family. Now, it doesn’t even feel like a distant cousin.This drift started on a personal level with the fall of former Senator John Edwards. It got stronger during the Democratic National Convention when I counted the substantive mentions of poverty on one hand and a whole bunch of bad canned partisan lines against Senator John McCain. Some faith was lifted after Senator Hillary Clinton’s grace during a difficult hour. But that faith was dashed when I saw that someone had raided the Caligula set and planted the old columns at Invesco Field.

The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”

Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.

As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”

The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations.

Our economy is in the tank for many complicated reasons, especially because people don’t have enough money. So let them keep it. Let businesses keep it so they can create jobs and stay here and weather this storm. And yet, the Democratic ideology remains the same. Our approach to problems—big government solutions paid for by taxing the rich and big and smaller companies—is just as tired and out of date as trickle down economics. How about a novel approach that simply finds a sane way to stop the bleeding?

That’s not exactly the philosophy of a Democrat. Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates. At first, certain Democrats and the press called Senator Clinton “dishonest.” They went after her cleavage. They said her experience as First Lady consisted of having tea parties. There was no outrage over “Bros before Hoes” or “Iron My Shirt.” Did Senator Clinton make mistakes? Of course. She’s human.

But here we are about a week out and it’s déjà vu all over again. Really, front-page news is how the Republican National Committee paid for Governor Sarah Palin’s wardrobe? Where’s the op-ed about how Obama tucks in his shirt when he plays basketball or how Senator Biden buttons the top button on his golf shirt?
Info RSS Wendy Button is a writer in Washington, DC. She has written for Senators John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Mayor Tom Menino of Boston as well as other national and international leaders. She received her MFA in writing from Bennington College and is currently writing the CNN Heroes Award Show to air Thanksgiving night.

X Close
Oh right, this story goes to the sincerity of her Hockey Mom persona. What planet am I living on? Everyone knows that when it comes to appearance, there’s a double standard for women politicians. Remember the speech Speaker Pelosi gave on the floor the day of the bailout vote? Check out how many stories commented on her hair that day and how many mentioned Congressman Barney Frank’s.

Here we are discussing Governor Palin’s clothes—oh wait, now we’re on to the make-up—not what either man is going to do to save our economy. This isn’t an accident. It is part of a manufactured narrative that she is stupid.

Governor Palin and I don’t agree on a lot of things, mostly social issues. But I have grown to appreciate the Governor. I was one of those initial skeptics and would laugh at the pictures. Not anymore. When someone takes on a corrupt political machine and a sitting governor, that is not done by someone with a low I.Q. or a moral core made of tissue paper. When someone fights her way to get scholarships and work her way through college even in a jagged line, that shows determination and humility you can’t learn from reading Reinhold Niebuhr. When a mother brings her son with special needs onto the national stage with love, honesty, and pride, that gives hope to families like mine as my older brother lives with a mental disability. And when someone can sit on a stage during the Sarah Palin rap on Saturday Night Live, put her hands in the air and watch someone in a moose costume get shot—that’s a sign of both humor and humanity.

Has she made mistakes? Of course, she’s human too. But the attention paid to her mistakes has been unprecedented compared to Senator Obama’s “57 states” remarks or Senator Biden using a version of the Samuel Johnson quote, “There’s nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus a man’s thoughts.”

But thank God for election 2008. We can talk about the wardrobe and make-up even though most people don’t understand the details about Senator Obama’s plan with Iraq. When he says, “all combat troops,” he’s not talking about all troops—it leaves a residual force of as large as 55,000 indefinitely. That’s not ending the war; that’s half a war.

I was dead wrong about the surge and thought it would be a disaster. Senator John McCain led when many of us were ready to quit. Yet we march on as if nothing has changed, wedded to an old plan, and that too is a long way from the Democratic Party.

I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It’s wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party’s talking points—that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he’s President Bush—are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument…doesn’t mean they’re true. After all, he is the only one who’s worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges.

Before I cast my vote, I will correct my party affiliation and change it to No Party or Independent. Then, in the spirit of election 2008, I’ll get a manicure, pedicure, and my hair done. Might as well look pretty when I am unemployed in a city swimming with “D’s.”

Whatever inspiration I had in Chapel Hill two years ago is gone. When people say how excited they are about this election, I can now say, “Maybe for you. But I lost my home.”

Obama Dumped by Wendy the Writer for John McCain

Hh/t to News busters!

Get this Obama Speechwriter Wendy Button* had enough of the Empty Suit of Hope and is now backing John McCain - The Real Deal! All in Wendy's word!

Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I’m a woman writing in the election of 2008, “very emotional."When we first met, Obama and I had a nice conversation about speeches and writing, and at the end of the meeting I handed him a pocket-sized bottle of Grey Poupon mustard so he wouldn’t have to ask staff if it was okay to put it on his hamburger. At the bottom of the bottle was the logo for “The South Beach Diet” and he snapped, “Oh so you read People magazine.” He seemed to think that I was commenting on his bathing suit picture.

I helped with his announcement speech and others. I worked in the Senate when he was in D.C. One day after a hearing on Darfur, we were walking back to the office. I was still hobbling from a very bad ankle injury and in a very kind and gentle way he offered his arm when we approached the stairs. But later in debate preps and phone conversations and meetings, I realized that I had made a mistake. I didn’t belong. No matter how hard I tried, my heart wasn’t in it anymore.

...The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”

Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.

As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”

The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations.

...Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates. At first, certain Democrats and the press called Senator Clinton “dishonest.” They went after her cleavage. They said her experience as First Lady consisted of having tea parties. There was no outrage over “Bros before Hoes” or “Iron My Shirt.” Did Senator Clinton make mistakes? Of course. She’s human.

But here we are about a week out and it’s déjà vu all over again. Really, front-page news is how the Republican National Committee paid for Governor Sarah Palin’s wardrobe? Where’s the op-ed about how Obama tucks in his shirt when he plays basketball or how Senator Biden buttons the top button on his golf shirt?

...Governor Palin and I don’t agree on a lot of things, mostly social issues. But I have grown to appreciate the Governor. I was one of those initial skeptics and would laugh at the pictures. Not anymore. When someone takes on a corrupt political machine and a sitting governor, that is not done by someone with a low I.Q. or a moral core made of tissue paper. When someone fights her way to get scholarships and work her way through college even in a jagged line, that shows determination and humility you can’t learn from reading Reinhold Niebuhr. When a mother brings her son with special needs onto the national stage with love, honesty, and pride, that gives hope to families like mine as my older brother lives with a mental disability. And when someone can sit on a stage during the Sarah Palin rap on Saturday Night Live, put her hands in the air and watch someone in a moose costume get shot—that’s a sign of both humor and humanity.

Has she made mistakes? Of course, she’s human too. But the attention paid to her mistakes has been unprecedented compared to Senator Obama’s “57 states” remarks or Senator Biden using a version of the Samuel Johnson quote, “There’s nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus a man’s thoughts.”

...I was dead wrong about the surge and thought it would be a disaster. Senator John McCain led when many of us were ready to quit. Yet we march on as if nothing has changed, wedded to an old plan, and that too is a long way from the Democratic Party.

I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It’s wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party’s talking points—that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he’s President Bush—are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument…doesn’t mean they’re true. After all, he is the only one who’s worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges.

Watch your back Wendy! If they went after Joe the Plumber with such hate, I imagine that Bug-Eye Bill Burton will be drooling to impugne your honesty and talents.

*Wendy Button is a writer in Washington, DC. She has written for Senators John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Mayor Tom Menino of Boston as well as other national and international leaders. She received her MFA in writing from Bennington College and is currently writing the CNN Heroes Award Show to air Thanksgiving night.

A speechwriter for Obama, Edwards, and Clinton on why she’s voting McCain.

The Nuanced View from an Obama Supporter -One More Reason to Vote McCain!

Here is the point ofview on an educated and committed Obama supporter.

The Republican Party is just a bunch of white racists. It is filled with a bunch of Angry White Guys (and Gals) who think the 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration Act ruined America because it made it a lot harder for whites from Ireland, England, France, Germany, Italy, etc. to immigrate to the U.S. and made it a lot easier for the Chinese, Indians, Jamaicans, Mexicans, Egyptians, etc. to immigrate to the U.S. What these racists don't GET is that the 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration Act (Thank You Senator Ted Kennedy) greatly increased Diversity in the U.S. which has made OUR Nation stronger and a much more multicultural place to live. Before 1965 Whites of European descent made up 88% of the U.S. population. Now whites only make up 65% of the U.S. population and by 2042 they will only make up 49% of the population. By 2100 Whites of European descent will only make up about 30% of the U.S. population and only 3% of the World Population. The 2008 Election is just a turning point in American History though. By the end of this century white Europeans will be out of power in the United States(FINALLY!) and then we can finally end WHITE PRIVILEDGE and can get REAL Affirmative Action, REAL Reparations, REAL Change, and begin to redistribute wealth and property back to those who deserve it. Unfortunately, these Changes won't take place until the White Kids in Strollers and Elementary School today are in their 60's and 70's. The World is Flat. The white racist Republicans just don't seem to get it!