Chicago Journalism - Sneering or Steering: Rich Miller Sneers at 47th Ward Working Stiffs

Sneering is one of the occupational hazards of journalism. It is also one of the most inexcusable. For no one ever sneered without intending to amuse some by hurting others.

Kevin Myers - The Irish Independent
and then here in Illinois we have snarkly little Rich Miller, Eric Zorn, & etc.

Voila!

Question of the day

Thursday, Feb 11, 2010

* Who were the biggest losers on primary day? No snark*, please, and fully explain all your answers. Thanks.

Rich Miller - The Capitol Fax Blog

Anyone over the age of twelve who employs the term snark in prose should be hand tailored into a tight fitting Pork Chop Suit and placed in an Englewood Pit Bull arena - with very high and greasy walls.

Jesus Christ Almighty! These prissy mopes probably say 'Off the Hook!' and 'It's Money!' and watch Jonas Brothers on You Tube! I tend to sneer at powerful and influential people who nevertheless need to belittle powerless and voiceless people.
I will probably go to Hell for sneering ( an eternity of NPR/Studs Terkel Ramblings & etc), but at least I do not snark.

Snark means you are too tired, wan and Oh So bored to make a snide remark and thus snark. I am vigorous! A vigorous pain in the ass, to be sure, but Vigorous! I readily sneer at powerful and fatuous Puffer Fish.


Snark is one of our Birkenstock neologisms meant to allow one to sneer at someone or thing and somehow avoid a much needed ass-kicking.

Last Thursday, Rich Miller's snark-free Capital Fax Blog asked readers and commenters to tally whom they felt to be The Biggest Losers in the Illinois Primary. This followed the previous Day's Snark Free
catalog of winners.

Snarkless Rich Miller tallied his own losers to include this

- Rich Miller - Thursday, Feb 11, 10 @ 11:19 am:
. . . 47th Ward Regular Democratic Organization: The hacks can’t hack it no more. In fact, they haven’t been able to hack it for years. Ann Williams was the final nail in their pathetic coffin.

Snark, snark, snark (cough) and snark Again!

Euphues - the Anatomy Wit in Illinois needs a proctologist!

I was directed to the Miller Snark-ology by a 47th Ward Regular Democratic worker. This is a guy who takes a day off of work . . .actually many days . . .to gather valid signatures for candidates ( very often Progressive meatheads for whom no one would do a thing, but politics being about addition & etc.), stuff door fixtures and mailboxes, hang posters, put together, deliver and post political signs and speak well of candidates though saying that "Yes, Julie Hamos and Jan Schakowsky did ,in fact, resemble Margaret Sanger on them old gold coins, might have brought up his morning's Red Bull.

I like Ward and Precinct workers. I do not care for Snarking Loudmouths and Quicksilver Bigshots. . . .it's just me.

You see, Ann Williams ( of whom Miller and SEIU/Progressives wildly approve) defeated Dan Farley ( a sound and good man). Hence, the Miller Snarkless, mind you, sneer.

Capitol Fax Blog is the Illinois Must Read!!!! . . . I don't. I gave it a pass a few years ago when it seemed to me SEIU and other paying entities wanted more bang for their bucks and posts were edited accordingly.

I do know, without Rich Miller's assistance, that Alderman Gene Schulter runs a Ward Organization that is Service Oriented - Schulter gets elected and elected and elected and elected. He never seems to want for volunteers and help from many,many, many people. Not only John Fritchey would be no where near where he believes himself to be without the Hacks that can't Hack it, but many other Really BLUE - Ain't She Great Democrats who could not find a Chinaman on 22nd Street.

Rich Miller is a snark - Big Snarker; V.I.P. Way Important Snarker. The Hacks are little insignificant and hard working people who get other people elected. The Hacks just might go a Hunting for the Snark. That'd make some great reading.

*Snark -Combination of "snide" and "remark". Sarcastic comment(s).
Also snarky (adj.) and snarkily (adv.)

Bob Whitfield - Chicago Historian Credits Both Mayor Daleys with Chicago's Glorious Architecture

Mayor Richard M. Daley is hammered by everyone: the Media that licks his hand and then bites the fingers that feed and sustain it; the public employees who work for the City and Mayor; Rainbow of Coalitions that Mayor Daley tries to appease and please; the hacks on the outs and hacks who can never really get in in; the over taxed residents and the guys who begin their drinking day at the earliest possible opening hour.

Mayor Richard M. Daley can't get a kind word that lasts longer than a snow flake on a hot griddle - or a perfunctory "thank you" for a favor granted.

I never had a public job - thank God. I vote and I talk to people who actually vote.

One gentleman with whom I have exchanged thoughts on the Chicago public scene is a southern gentleman and Chicago resident since the mid 1970's - lawyer and architectural historian Robert Whitfield.

Mr. Whitfield is remarkable for his thick resume and experiences as a Citizen of the World - grew up in New Orleans, lived in Paris, London, and New York, but holds Chicago as the greatest City of the Planet.

Chicago is a cultural composite of the best that Europe has to offer, New York apes, and the lesser cities Xerox. Mr. Whitfield attributes this greatness in large part to the architectural glories and the two Chicago mayors who made this possible - Richard J. Daley and his son Richard M. Daley.

Mr. Whitfield has developed a manuscript that cites the two Chicago Schools of Building Design - the one marked by Burnham/Sullivan/Root and the other by Mies Van der Rhoe/Lohan/Murphy & Jahn -culminating in the magnificent Millenium Park.

Mr. Whitfield has met some political opposition from "locked in" architects with great power in getting his manuscript taken to the next level. Hey, this is Chicago! Politics is everywhere - getting your kid onto a T-Ball Team (". . . see Mr. Crotty up at McGuffigan Park") to getting your wife placed away from the kitchen door in a restaurant. If you are Lois Weisberg, no reservations needed. If you have to be the Widow Gert Schatzmann from McKinley Park and Old St. Maurice's over by Archer, we shall see. Oh, so sorry. Gert is S.O.L. - seated out in the lobby ( and you thought I'd make some low-minded, south side gutter-snipe vulgarity).

Mayor Richard M. Daley could use a genuine thank you from a real Chicago Booster - Bob Whitfield. Maybe some one who rides the same elevator up to Five could pass this on.

Pass this on to His Honor.

Click my post title for a few of Bob Whitfield's Favorite Buildings and Loop Streetscapes.

My favorite view of Chicago is the inner drive south bound - at night - coming up on the Field Museum. Glorious City!

There is no single volume history of the First Chicago School of Architecture in the 19th century and the Second Chicago School in the 20th century. Consequently, there is very little public understanding of the powerful continuity between the pragmatic American modern architecture in the 19th century produced in Chicago and the modern architecture produced in Chicago by Mies van der Rohe and the Second Chicago School in the 20th century. Furthermore, I am unaware of any publication which emphasizes the importance of the contribution made by Richard J. Daley and his son as powerful patrons of Chicago architecture in the 20th century. In my opinion, it is very important that the historic record of modern architecture and the city of Chicago be corrected in regard to both of these matters.

Robert Whitfield 2010

Andy Thayer and Why Chicago's Media Refuses to Connect the Dots: Gays Disrupt Catholic Mass and that is Okay - even Heart Warming

Gay Activists who disrupt a Sunday Mass make a heart-warming story for the Chicago Tribune. Only last week, Chicago Tribune Religion ( 'Spiritual but not all that Rules Stuff') Columnist Manya Brachear smeared the Catholic Campaign "Catholics Come Home." Ms. Brachear took an opportunity to portray the Catholic Faith as an oppressive mind set - divorce is not taken lightly in the Church and, for Manya, well, that's just mean.


Manya Brachear would probably not find this incident and point of view particularly mean:

. . . 100 men and women who had gathered outside the cathedral Sunday morning to protest the Catholic Church's opposition to gay marriage and other stances that they see as unjust to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
The protesters waved rainbow flags and shouted slogans like, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, homophobia has got to go!" and, "Holy Name, holy shame!"

It wasn't the first time gay-rights activists have protested on Valentine's Day as a chance to champion equal rights and target the Catholic Church.

Last year, the Gay Liberation Network helped organize a march from the city building in which marriage licenses are issued to Holy Name to show support for gay marriage, said Andy Thayer, the group's co-founder.

"We want to drag the church's bigotry out of the closet," said Thayer*, 49.

Now, that is a non-sequitur for the ages Andy! If the famous bigotry is so evident it must therefore be out of the closet - Everyone knows, Fabulous! Then, how is your protest making the Evident Bigotry public?

Black Churches tend to be pretty up-front about Homosexuals and Homosexuals are not welcome it seems to me. A real head scratcher that one. Andy are Gays/Lesbian/Bisexuals and Transsexuals AFRO-phobic? Hmmmm?

Andy Thayer - please, take your crusade to some Chicago's firebrand African American* Churches and avoid the sting of the charge of Racism in the GLBT Community. Why exclude Black Churches from your civil disobedience?

The Chicago Tribune will never ask those questions - cowards parse and obfuscate.


Here's why. Black Churches are off limits to Progressives. So are Muslims. So are Jews. Catholics are open to hostility in the Emersonian/Thorouean/Progressive Movement. "Hey, hey! Ho, Ho, Homo Bigots Gotta Go!"

Yesterday, Andy Thayer, who works for Lawsuit Lotto Lawyer Jon Loevy - who makes millions of dollars by suing the Chicago Police whenever an arrest ne'er-do-well drops an eye-lash, led a screamingly shrill group of Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/and Transsexual ( GLBT)Activists to the steps of Holy Name Cathedral, It was St. Valentine's Day and what better way to tell the same-gender bedmate in one's life that your impulses are activism than howling at Catholics.

Gays are not allowed to marry in the Catholic Church.

Capitalists are not welcome in the Communist Party of America.

However, Andy Thayer is not only a GLBT Activist, but a stout anti-Police Brutality Activist and a shrill Anti-War Activist. Andy Thayer is there.

The Chicago Tribune makes the planned and co-ordinated assault on American Catholics' Freedom to Worship seem like a spontaneous grassroots event. No Dots are ever connected when a story is meant to present Progressive Agenda tale.

Simple blokes like myself read the newspapers and watch the news and we seem to recognize the network of involvement by Chicago's very few Andy Thayers. Google an Andy Thayer and then count up his press coverage. Errol Flynn on a bender never got such coverage. One must ask . . . oh, one must, because Andy Thayer does not conduct zesty and loud protests at Black Churches on West and South Sides -opting for the Gold Coast insularity and PC protection at Holy Name Cathedral, Could it be that Andy Thayer is coward and hypocrite as well as a celebrated activists of all agendas?

Gotta ask, because Meg Twohmey of Chicago Tribune sure as Hell did not .

Black Churches and their worshippers are militant and devout. Knowing many Black Ministers and their congregants the way I do, I believe that Andy Thayer's organized hypocrisy and closet bigotry ( seems like Andy the GLBT Activists hate Black People) are taking the coward's way out in avoiding 'equal opportunity' protests. Perhaps not.

Andy Thayer goes big target Catholic Church, because Catholics rarely ever push back.
When we do the parsing and obfuscation begins -"Well, How Can Deny Two Lovers the Right to Marry?"

Well, Jasper, hetero sexual ( breeders) who do not seem suited can also be denied the Sacrament of Marriage. They might need to marry outside of the Church while their passions dampen on the way civil disunion - divorce. My editor over at Chicago Daily Observer reminded me of great quote from a Cdobs article that ran last year.

Several Months ago, a Catholic monk wrote a fine piece in the Chicago Daily Observer.
In reaction the New York Times - the Progressive Anti-Catholic Flagship - that could not avoid giving some Trappist Monks a slap in what should have been a 'feel good' story. Brother Stephen wrote

In the progressive intellectual frame, there are only three kinds of Catholics: Unaccountable powerful men (who are quite probably libidinous, and nefarious), ignorant and oppressed masses (preferably with colorful customs and heart-warming aspirations for self betterment), and unexpectedly intelligent and altruistic people who are credits to the race (or to the religion, as it might be). The best we could hope for was a credit to our race story, which is largely what we got.

The Chicago print and electronic media is dominated by a Progressive mind-set that wants to obliterate the fact that Chicago remains a Catholic City Culture. Pounding out Catholic pimp-slap stories like Manya Brachear's or presenting GBBT assaults on worshippers as merely the extension of Emersonian Americanism is means by which Progressive Agenda Victim addicted Editorial Boards reach out to less insightful brothers and sisters.

In response to the smears by Andy Thayer's loudmouths, Archdiocese of Chicago Spokesperson Colleen Dolan gave a rock solid answer to the assault squad of GLBN and Andy Thayer that will have Bruce Dold and his pious band of Progressive Star Chamber Editors rolling their piggy little eyes, "They may not like it, but it's the teaching of the church that marriage is between one man and one woman," Dolan said. "Those of us in the church don't get to choose what the teachings are." ( Megan Twohey Chicago Tribune)


The Church Militant needs to get so.

* from Democratic Underground:


black pastors are speaking out against gays
A growing number of black pastors are speaking out against gays, with many claiming that the "homosexual agenda" is the No. 1 problem facing black America. 4/28

Rev. Gregory Daniels
The Rev. Gregory Daniels says if he 'chose' not to be gay, so can others. And they should, he adds, because homosexuality is destroying black America.
Read More

Face Right
Black Religious Opposition to Gays Rising
By Brentin Mock

Bishop Eddie Long takes to the pulpit wearing a crisp, two-piece suit. Long’s been known to dress down in tight muscle shirts and leather vests when preaching, but for this sermon it's business attire. A flock of young men from his New Birth Missionary Baptist Church near Atlanta surround Long's pulpit.

"We're raising our young boys to be just like the women," he bellows to his congregation, which today numbers more than 25,000 people. "We keep telling men to get in touch with their sensitive self."

Almost 45 minutes into the sermon, captured on a videotape that is for sale in his church's bookstore, Bishop Long grows louder and angrier...........




http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x277951

Southtown Star's Steve Metsch Nails a Great Story! Rock and Roll St. Laurence High School

St. Laurence High School in Burbank, IL ( roughly 77th & Central Ave. over by State Road, what's by the Olde Barn Restaurant) is run by the Irish Christian Brothers.

A young teacher at St. Laurence*, Fine arts director Frank Loulousis, has swelled the arts program by introducing Rock and Roll.

Well done!

Southtown Star Ace Reporter and Solid Commentator Steve Metsch ( an agenda-free writer BTW) nailed a terrific report on this great story.


Here's a taste:

They rehearsed in a room with a poster reading "Live to Play Live."
That they do.
After ripping through "Werewolf," a song by Every Time I Die, Mullen discussed what the club means to him.
"I've been drumming about five years. This club definitely helped me. Playing every day, improving every day, coming back, sounding better and better.

Click my Post Title for the Full Magilla! Great Job Steve!

Go Vikings! * Colors Gold and Black and you gotta love Mitch Ryder!

Chicago Tribune's Seeker Manya Brachear - Tossing Gasoline on a Catholic Votive Candles - Thanks for your Help Seeker

Manya Brachear is the earnest imported Chicago Religion Talent for the "Not to Be Out-Stupided by the Chicago Sun Times" Chicago Tribune. With all of the remarkable Catholic, Jewish and Protestant local talent the Medill Nativists needed to go out of town to get someone to kick at people's faith. Manya is good'un.

Manya likes her religion ( 'spiritual but not really anything too confining')you know -really Richard Gere-ishly Bono-magnifico! Hip.

Kid, this is Chicago. Look around you. Every Block the big buildings with pointy towers and crosses -those are Churches - mostly Catholic. Lot's of Catholics in Chicago, Manya. There are parishes of every ethnic niche - hence the celebration of diversity is the work of our local nitwits. We enjoy Polish, Italian, Czech, Croatian, Ukranian as visitors usually. I go to Mass - on Sundays and Holy Days at Scared Heart an old French Mission with 1,2, 3rd Genration Catholic Americans. I also go to Latin Mass at St. John Cantius on Chicago & Sangamon for devotional giggles.

Polish Masses are rich and wonderful; Lithuanian the same; Italian you bet. Hit Father Gene Smith's Gaelic Mass at St. Barnabas. Attend a real old timey Tridentine Mass at St. John Cantius - pure dignity and majesty, but alas. No condoms will be distributed in keeping with the Planned Parenthood Celebration of National Condom Week.

Manya Brachear belongs to the American Culture that banishes Nativity Scenes and Celebrates the distribution of rubbers. True to her faith, doctrine and paycheck, Manya takes a story that celebrates the return of fallen faithful to the Catholic Church and saddles it with the woe and a litany of wrongs.

In order to return to the pews, Cindy Colman first must grapple with the Roman Catholic Church's failure to forgive, alienating her and her mother from the institution that generations of their family have called home.

"I think I'm still in the process," said Colman, 35 of Naperville. "I'm at that point where I'm coming back to learn more and understand the whole faith … It's true. At my core, I know that."

After fleeing an abusive husband more than 30 years ago, Colman's mother chose to raise her daughter Lutheran. Though she agreed to annul her previous marriage, the Catholic Church insisted on denying her the sacraments when her new husband declined to annul his marriage.

Colman has since agonized about the way her mother has been treated. Still, she yearns to reconcile with the church where she was baptized. She also longs to give her children the foundation she missed.

Agony goes with living. Life is tough. If it is too tough to go Home. Too bad.

Catholics welcome everyone. Every Sunday. No locks, or guards on the doors. I am sure Mrs. Colman regrets chatting with Manya. I always seem to have those regrets with some journalists. Manya is easy to spot however. Manya Brachear is a well scrubbed, wide-eyed unblinking dead-on agendanista. Her prose is the same and almost as flat and one -dimensional.

The Sun Times already listed the rant of some jerk from Riverside. Not to be outdown, Joe Medill's anti-Catholic Editorial Board pushed Manya on the Campaign Catholics Come Home .

Anyone with any brains at the Archdiocese would put Manya's calls on the long hold. You know the one -"Your Call is very important to us, Please wait on the line; your call will be answered in the order it was received; please hold on. . . ." - (bass ostinato)

In-a-gadda-da-vida, honey
Don't you know that I'm lovin' you
In-a-gadda-da-vida, baby
Don't you know that I'll always be true

Oh, won't you come with me
And take my hand
Oh, won't you come with me
And walk this land
Please take my hand

In-a-gadda-da-vida, honey
Don't you know that I'm lovin' you
In-a-gadda-da-vida, baby
Don't you know that I'll always be true

Oh, won't you come with me
And take my hand
Oh, won't you come with me
And walk this land
Please take my hand

Drum Solo -

{Lunch Break}

In-a-gadda-da-vida, honey
Don't you know that I'm lovin' you
In-a-gadda-da-vida, baby
Don't you know that I'll always be true

Oh, won't you come with me
And take my hand
Oh, won't you come with me
And walk this land
Please take my hand

Please wait your call . . .
Give the Tribune and Manya Brachear nothing. They have done plenty. Manya, try burning down a church. It would be so Progressively Activist!

Catalyst Leftist/Progress SEIU/We Got Jitu/How About You? - Tha Soviet Jugganot on Rev. Sen. Meeks by Coalitions Against School Reform!

Progress Illinois Illinois SEIU's Nepotism Workshop for Children of Radicals jumped on Rev./Sen. Meeks.

Senator James Meeks wants Chicago Public Schools to Reform - that means breaking up the power of soviets - LSCs - developed by 1960's radicals Billy Ayers, Linda Lenz, Marilyn Katz, and Mike Klonsky.

SEIU is lead by radical Marxists Andy Stern and Anna Burger. Here in Illinois, SEIU established Progress Illinois for radical Jaimie Kalven's son Josh. It is a clearing house/comic book for radical leftists and spoon feeds Rich Miller's Capital Fax Blog.

Catalyst was published and edited by Linda Lenz, but she took some heat during Obama Campaign for President due to his long association with Billy Ayers, whose career in education was padded by his Daddy Thomas Ayers who ran ComEd.

And you thought Old Timey Ward politics had Nepotism? Hold the phone Gertrude no one packs the job like a Commie!

Well, Catalyst, WBEZ and Progress Illinois are heaping the hate on Senator James Meeks and trotted ot Jitu Brown!

The Medill Radicals heaped praise on this fine gentleman-community activist-educational operative last year.

He was told he was a “giant among men.”

Jitu Brown takes that title very seriously.

“My understanding of it is that it’s the type of man I struggle to be,” he explained of his Swahili first name.

The 42-year-old education outreach coordinator for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization in Chicago received that name over 10 years ago. He was being recognized at an assembly of social activists at Malcolm X College during Kwanzaa. He may have been Aaron before, but he has been Jitu ever since.

“Having a name and trying to be a community change agent, I’m always reflecting on how I carried out my business today,” he said. “I’m much better than I would have been.”

Jitu Brown, ‘giant’ in the community, emissary of change.

Influential Chicago rapper, Jitu tha Jugganot.

“It was hip-hop that was the bridge to bring me here,” he said from a table at the organization on East 43rd Street. “It was this place that helped me develop the perspective to see what music can do.”

What it does, he said, is “connect people that have historically been disconnected.” It gives a sense of place and purpose. It creates awareness.

“Most of all,” he said, “I want to see a wave of young people that really believe in controlling what they produce.”

Brown, an affable, goateed man of substantial stature, learned that at an early age. He and a high school buddy formed the rap group in their South Side neighborhood of Rosemoor that would later become known as Ten Tray. It was the 80s and a teenage Brown had been waffling about what direction he wanted to take his life. There was the Nation of Islam, he said. There was following Fred Hampton, Jr. There was the church.

And then there was rapping.

“We were getting politicized by this music that society expects to be just entertainment,” he said of his early influences, such as KRS-One and Public Enemy. “For me, I just wanted to do something.”

That something started out as rhyme battles in his high school cafeteria, then to competitions drawing larger crowds. In 1991 Ten Tray signed a deal with Smash Polygram Records, which Brown contends was one of the first major label deals coming out of Chicago.

For a short while, Ten Tray lived the dream. They had a video that was on a decent rotation on Yo! MTV Raps and BET, they sold nearly 90,000 units, and they established a solid fan base here in Chicago and on the West Coast.

Yet they barely made any money.

“Our attorney said it was a good deal for a first time artist,” he remembered. “Looking at it in retrospect, we were just a couple of young cats getting taken advantage of.”

Brown had become jaded by the industry but not the message. After Ten Tray’s first album came and went, he took some time off from music and decided to volunteer. A couple of chance encounters led him to the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization. He was with the outreach group for five years before signing on as an employee. Twelve years later, as the education organizer, he visits schools, meetings and events, teaching families to use their voices to have a say in how their children are educated.

His work has galvanized groups to prevent school closings, take control of underperforming curriculums and, as he puts it, beat the system.

“People who are trained to lose are saying, ‘we can do this,’” he said.

Music evolved into a vehicle for Brown to further his work. In the song “Stand Up” from his 2007 self-released album “Necessary Ingredients,” Brown blasts systemic problems in his community through his clever baritone bombast:

“Here’s a remedy /

Don’t run from the ‘hood /

Develop the institutions ‘til they doing some good.”

The difference is that Brown is not only saying, he’s doing.

“He’s really an inspiration to people in the neighborhood,” said Jay Travis, the executive director of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization. “His message has always been one of empowerment and positivity.”

This is what Brown hopes the kids he encounters at work and through his youth music education program, Independents Day, understand – be different, be creative and own your craft.

“Since I met him, he was a positive brother,” said D.A. Smart, an emcee, friend and co-host of the Independents Day workshops. “He loves his people. He always wants to see them be better and do better.”

“He’s such a force in Chicago,” he added.

Brown, a force, a giant, a leader in the community, says he still struggles to live up to his name.

“I’m doing the right thing,” he said before settling into his office cubicle and gearing up for a day of work. “Plant the seeds, and they’ll sprout

Hokey Smokes! "Plant Seeds . . .Hmmmmmm . . . and they'll Sprout?" Now, that is some radical poetry! Honor Bright? They'll sprout. How about get rid of radical leftist nonsense and Schools will Reform with Vouchers and Real Choice? Jitu? Come on Big Guy! You know!

Well, Kids, Jitu don't like Rev. Meeks or his plan to kill LSCs. Next Jitu and WBEZ and Progress Illinois and Catalyst and WTTW will whip out the Uncle James Card! Click my post title Jaimie Kalven's boy Josh is really tuning up the Red Chorus!
They have JITU/Medill/WBEZ/WTTW/SEIU//Chicago Tribune Editorial Board/Sun Times Editorial Board and Every dim-bulb in Birkenstocks and Socks

And all we have are the facts that Chicago Public Schools stink on ice and suck millions of dollars out of the middle classes and kids do not learn and kids are dying by the score every couple of weeks!

Sun Times Attack Sen. Meeks, School Reform in Defense of Local Councils - local soviets wedging open the the doors of control.

A study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research found that the majority of LSCs appear to function well, noting that most do their work responsibly and draw in new resources for their schools.

Chicago Sun Times 02/12/10

Oh, by the way -

In 1991, (Mike) Klonsky co-founded the Small Schools Workshop in Chicago with Bill Ayers.

The Workshop was given at least $175,000 by Chicago’s Annenberg Challenge. This organisation was chaired by Barack Obama, who had been recruited for the job by a group which included Bill Ayers.

They wanted to build Public School soviets - you know grassroots*?

Uh Huh, it appears that the Sun Times is dead wrong again and consistently.

Supporters of this (LSCs) major reform argued that
creating Local School Councils (one of
several major changes brought about by
the Chicago School Reform Act) would
help catalyze substantial improvements in
the quality of Chicago public education

http://www.designsforchange.org/pdfs/LSC_rpt_final.pdfThat was in 1988. How'd that work out?

In 1995, the state legislature modified the
Reform Act to give Chicago’s mayor more
control over Chicago’s Central Board and
central administration as well as the power
to intervene in failing schools. National
publications like Newsweek have asserted
that Chicago’s mayor was given “near total
power over the schools” by the 1995
legislative changes.7 This assertion is
untrue. The basic powers of Chicago’s
Local School Councils have remained
intact to the present, and Chicago
remains the most decentralized big city
school system in the nation.

Uh Huh and that was 1995. How'd that work out? Reverend Meeks responded -

“If you want to go back to prior to 1995, then go back. I will never go back. This school system has changed and is getting better. I don’t care what anyone says.

One of the central changes made by the
1988 law was to establish an elected Local
School Council at each Chicago public

Our Local School Councils were the funded experiment by Bill "The Terrorsist" Ayers, Mike Klonsky and their confederates. Our President Barack Obama, then a young community actiovist lawyer seeking the Progressive imprimatur on his political aspirations served on the three 501(c)3 boards that funded the soviet/grassroots Local School Council Control apparatus that destroyed public schools in Chicago, backrupted Illinois taxpayers and pull thestrings on the Chicago Teachers Unions.


school (except for a few special schools).
Each LSC consists of:
1. Six parent representatives, elected by
parents and community residents.
2. Two community representatives, elected
by parents and community residents.
3. Two teachers, elected by the school staff.
4. The school’s principal.
5. A student elected by students (in the
high schools).
Unique among U.S. cities, Chicago’s LSCs
were given strong powers, including
powers in the following areas:

1. Principal Selection and Evaluation.
LSCs appoint the school’s principal
to a four-year contract and rehire or
replace the principal at the end of this
contract period. And they supervise and
evaluate the principal on an ongoing
basis.
2. School Improvement Planning.
LSCs set priorities for their school’s
improvement through helping develop
and approve an annual school improvement
plan. These plans must focus on
achieving student learning standards set
by the state.
3. School-Based Budget. LSCs help
develop and approve a school budget,
with major control over an average of
$500,000 per year in flexible funds from
the state.

Uh Huh, continuing and how'd that work out?

Here is where Local School Councils began:

The Community Renewal Society (CRS) describes itself as a “progressive, faith-based organization that works to eliminate race and class barriers.” Rev. Calvin S. Morris (left) is the executive director. CRS publishes both the Chicago Reporter and The Catalyst, in which the above announcement was run.

At the 48th Annual Eugene V. Debs – Norman Thomas – Michael Harrington Dinner, Morris was a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Chicago honoree (h/t Trevor Loudon):

Rev. Dr. Calvin Morris was the Executive Director of the Community Renewal Society, a civil rights organization with roots going back to the 19th Century in Chicago, and was a co-chair of Chicago Jobs with Justice, a Labor-Community organization active in supporting the organization of low-wage workers and in support of peace.

The Catalyst was founded by its current publisher, Linda Lenz.

According to her Alliance for Excellent Education profile:

Linda Lenz is the founder and publisher of Catalyst Chicago, a monthly news magazine that covers the progress, problems and politics of school reform in Chicago. She is also the publisher of the sister publication, Catalyst Cleveland. Catalyst is a publication of the Community Renewal Society, a nonprofit founded in 1882 that fights for racial and economic justice. …

Before launching Catalyst in 1990, Ms. Lenz was the education writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and before that an editorial writer for the Chicago Daily News. Following graduation from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she was a political writer and columnist for the Pioneer Press, North Shore.

On August 30, 2008, former Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lenz dutifully penned an apologetic published in the Sun-Times on the Bill Ayers-Obama relationship. Lenz dismissed any connection between Ayers’ years with the Weather Underground and his more recent school reform enterprise, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and the shared relationship with Barack Obama, who was CAC’s first executive director. Lenz writes


In other words, Obama does, indeed, know Bill Ayers as more than just a guy from the neighborhood. So do a host of civic leaders in Chicago.

On his Small Talk blog, Mike Klonsky praised Lenz’s effort, commenting “Chicago Catalyst’s Linda Lenz … gives us the real story on Obama and Bill Ayers and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.” It should also be noted Klonsky’s Small Schools Workshop is “named as a major Chicago Annenberg Challenge beneficiary,” as he and Bill Ayers “[picked] up a bundle — $175,000 –– for ’small school workshops.’”

By the way, Lenz is also a low dollar donor for Obama’s presidential campaign, contributing only $1000 in 2008.

More Obama/Ayers/Klonsky connections

Following Lenz’s August 2008 article, RBO wrote in a since-deleted article that the Obama/Ayers/Klonsky connections continue:

Chicago Catalyst’s largest funder is The Joyce Foundation, upon whose board Obama served for eight years, beginning in 1994, during which time, in 1995, Anne Hallett of the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform, William Ayers of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Warren Chapman of the Joyce Foundation proposed the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.


Mike Klonsky is a former member of Lenz’s Catalyst Chicago editorial board, as is John Ayers, Bill Ayers’ brother.

Thomas G. Ayers (more here), Bill Ayers’ father, was a contributor to the Community Renewal Society, as are: Bettylu Saltzman, whom we learned recently, has been an Obama supporter since at least his run for the Illinois legislature; Obama bundler John Rogers (and an Exelon director), through his Ariel Mutual Fund (more here); Sidley Austin, the law firm which employed both Barack and Michelle Obama and Bill Ayers’ wife, Bernadine Dohrn; Mike and Susan Klonsky; and Trinity United Church of Christ, Obama’s church until recently tossed under the Obama bus. In fact, funders for the 2005-2006 cycle reads like a who’s who list of Obama campaign funders dating from his earliest fund-raising days.
In that same article, RBO included the following video from May 2006 in which Lenz acts as moderator at the National Louis University forum on No Child Left Behind, in which Bill Ayers participated.

The geniuses at the Sun Times site the 1997 finding of the University of Chicago data padding study, yet argue that LSCs must remain. They go further demanding that the Illinois Legislature SPEND MORE to support LSCs of a Trainwreck of a Public School System. Catalyst is the mouthpiece of the radical leftists who dreamed up the school soviets- like Progress Illinois is the SEIU organ. They collectively and cordially hated Paul Vallas who attempted to bring real reform. He knew a soviet operation when he saw one. Kay Lenz and her surrogates hounded Paul Vallas, or rather Mayor Daley, who is not a huge reader it seems to me. These Radicals hate Charter Schools. They hate Vouchers and now they are building up the hate for Sen./Rev. James Meeks. They hate cordially and enthusiastically - nothing personal.

The Legislature should dismiss this bill and focus on efforts that might actually improve the Chicago Public Schools.

The Legislature should and will support this bill and focus on Vouchers and will help Chicago Public Schools.

As long as the Media and the Chicago Sun Times in particular gets its sole nurishment from radical leftists and lawsuit addicted lawyers, it will continue its path to irrelvance.

Supporting Local School Councils and fighting Vouchers? Not so hot, but the Chicago Sun Times is Okay with it. Radical. Radically stupid.


*

Originally, the soviets were a grassroots effort to practice direct democracy. Russian Marxists made them a medium for organizing against the state, and between the February and October Revolutions, the Petrograd Soviet was a powerful force. The slogan "All power to the soviets!" (Vsya vlast sovyetam!; Вся власть советам!) was used by the Bolsheviks to oppose the Provisional Government led by Kerensky.

Based on the Bolshevik's view of the state, the word soviet extended its meaning to any supreme body that obtained the authority of a group of soviets. In this sense, soviets turned into a hierarchical structure - Communist government bodies at local level and republic level[note 1] were called "soviets", and at the top of the hierarchy, the Congress of Soviets was the nominal core of the Union government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), officially formed in December 1922. However, the Communist Party officially played the "leading role" in society by that time; the soviets were in practice subordinate to it.

Later, in the USSR, local governmental bodies were named "soviet" (sovet: "council") with the adjective indicating of the administrative level, customarily abbreviated : gorsovet (gorodskoy sovet: city council), raysovet/raisovet (rayonny sovet: raion council), selsovet: rural council, possovet (poselkovy sovet: settlement council).

The term also came to be used outside the Soviet Union by some Marxist-Leninist movements, for example, the Communist Party of China's efforts in the "Chinese Soviet Republic" immediately prior to the Long March.

The New York Times?MSNBC Global Extreme Weather Snow-Cone Machine!

And I thought that Global Warming was just a hoax - perpetuated by investors and companies poised to make a gazillion Euros on Green Technologies - Like GE which owns MSNBC-The Tool Shed.

The Tool Shed has a new "bore-a-hole- through-me" Clown under its Big Top -Dylan Ratigan. Nice Gen X Handle there - Dylan. Thomas, or Bob it is way cool. Globally Cool - like the Extreme Weather!

America's former VP and chameleon/Lon Chaney Al Gore ( he's a lard-ass; he's taken off the weight; he's a lard-ass with beard; the beard goes & etc) who preceded President Obama in icy Oslo, is getting a trimming from little kids and village nit-wits and defended by MSNBC Tools and village nit wits over the specious Global Warming ( now Global Extreme Weather) due to the tons of snow fallind on America.

Jeff Masters, a meteorologist who writes on the Weather Underground blog, said that the recent snows do not, by themselves, demonstrate anything about the long-term trajectory of the planet. Climate is, by definition, a measure of decades and centuries, not months or years.

But Dr. Masters also said that government and academic studies had consistently predicted an increasing frequency of just these kinds of record-setting storms, because warmer air carries more moisture.

“Of course,” he wrote on his blog Wednesday as new snows produced white-out conditions in much of the Eastern half of the country, “both climate-change contrarians and climate-change scientists agree that no single weather event can be blamed on climate change.

“However,” he continued, “one can ‘load the dice’ in favor of events that used to be rare — or unheard of — if the climate is changing to a new state.”

A federal government report issued last year, intended to be the authoritative statement of known climate trends in the United States, pointed to the likelihood of more frequent snowstorms in the Northeast and less frequent snow in the South and Southeast as a result of long-term temperature and precipitation patterns. The Climate Impacts report, from the multiagency United States Global Change Research Program, also projected more intense drought in the Southwest and more powerful Gulf Coast hurricanes because of warming.

In other words, if the government scientists are correct, look for more snow

.


Avec! Dylan Ratigan! Me and the kids are loading our Snow Cone Machine up with Kingsford Charcoal, Dylan!

With all this flawed logic floating around, MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan took it upon himself to knock down these unsubstantiated claims, specifically referring to a Virginia GOP political ad.

"Here's the problem," Ratigan said. "These 'Snowpocalypses' that have been going through D.C. and other weather events are precisely what climate scientists have been predicting, fearing, and anticipating because of global warming ... In fact you could argue these storms are not evidence of a lack of global warming, but evidence of global warming."

Dylan you genius! You mean to say that I was shoveling coal all week?????

Kevin Myers on Haiti, Free Speech and Our PC Addiction to BS

In Chapter Ten of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises Jake and Bill joke on Irony and Pity - 'they are all the rage back home.'

Jake and Bill, two WWI Veteran Expatriate members of the generacion perdite wax comical on the hypocricies they left behind: "Oh, Give them Irony and Give them Pity. Oh, give them Irony. ... Just a little irony. Just a little pity . . ."

Kevin Myers of the Irish Independant, a true disciple of Flann O'Brien's cant free journalism, indicts the fashionably fatuous with regard to Haiti, PC, Free Speech and BS.

You can say we have free speech -- but we haven't. Example: I can say Americans are loud, boorish, lazy and insensitive morons, and that's fine. If I say the same about Nigerians, I am in jail.

Look, you cry, he's at it again! He starts off quite innocently on Haiti, and look where's finished up!

Quite. I agree. You are looking nervously at the door. I am making you uncomfortable. You wish to leave. I quite understand.

This guy, Kevin Myers, should be required high school/college prep reading in every language and taught cross-curricularly.

Illinois Lieutenant Governor - The Appendix in Illinois Body Politic - Feed it to the Pigs

Don Wade and Roma were straining to equate the only adult in Springfield, Speaker Mike Madigan, to Don Corleone.

Don Corleone was way too chatty to be even remotely considered as a parallel caricature.

Rather, Bricktop, the quietly intimidating London crime boss, and a redhead to boot, would be my choice cinema avatar.

Bricktop asks only rhetorical questions:

'Arold: I think you've let him get away with enough already, Guv'nor.

Brick Top: It'll get you in a lot of trouble thinking, 'Arold. If I were you, I wouldn't do too much of it.

Likewise: He never threatened - he prophesied:

Brick Top: You're on thin f#$king ice my pedigree chums, and I shall be under it when it breaks. Now, f#$k off.

Bricktop:Do you know what "nemesis" means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent. Personified in this case by an 'orrible #$%^... me.

The character Bricktop rid himself and this vale of tears of cumbersome baggage, louts, cheats, transgressors and superfluous appendages -not unlike Scott Lee Cohen or the Office of Illinois Lieutenant Governor -by feeding them to pigs.

Speaker Madigan launched Scott Lee Cohen and intends to do the same to the Office of Lieutenant Governor as well.

Shortly after his primary victory, stories emerged about a 2005 arrest for holding a knife to his girlfriend's throat. Those charges were later dropped. But next came allegations of steroid abuse and other claims of physical violence from divorce records.

Although he initially balked at giving up the nomination, he acquiesced after talking to Madigan, the influential chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, who said he warned Cohen the personal scrutiny he was undergoing would get worse.

Cohen was an unknown until he spent $2 million of his own money to secure the nomination. His candidacy has again prompted questions of whether the lieutenant governor's office is needed.

Daily Herald, or 'erald.

Just like the character Bricktop in the fine film Snatch -

"You're always gonna have problems lifting a body in one piece. Apparently the best thing to do is cut up a corpse into six pieces and pile it all together."

and then -"And when you got your six pieces, you gotta get rid of them, because it's no good leaving it in the deep freeze for your mum to discover, now is it? Then I hear the best thing to do is feed them to pigs. You got to starve the pigs for a few days, then the sight of a chopped-up body will look like curry to a pisshead. You gotta shave the heads of your victims, and pull the teeth out for the sake of the piggies' digestion. You could do this afterwards, of course, but you don't want to go sievin' through pig shit, now do you? They will go through bone like butter. You need at least sixteen pigs to finish the job in one sitting, so be wary of any man who keeps a pig farm. They will go through a body that weighs 200 pounds in about eight minutes. That means that a single pig can consume two pounds of uncooked flesh every minute. Hence the expression, "as greedy as a pig."

Speaker Madigan is no Vito Corleone.

Bricktop, sadly, meets his demise at the close of the film. Sadly, because he is truly the only character in the film with any smattering of genuine character, intelligence and forethought - he is a vicious 'orrible #$%^, but one must be in crime. Politics is no crime; there's no crime in politics!

There are criminals - Larry Bloom, Bob Creamer, Stuart Levine, Tony Rezko, Cliff Kelley, to name but a few - in political life. However, 'as greedy as a pig' should not stamp all in elected office. Speaker Mike Madigan is the only elected political leader in Illinois politics with any character, intelligence, and forethought.

Feed the Office of Lieutenant Governor to pigs Mr. Speaker!

Illinois Justice Anne Burke -Tonight's Guest on the Skinny and Houli Show!

The Chatter is Classic Chicago and the focus continues to be on Chicagoans Who Do for Others. Tonight, Skinny Sheahan and Mike Houlihan welcome the founder of the Chicago Special Olymnpics, Ald. Eddie Burke's Better Half - Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke. Mrs. Justice, I hope Houli leaves a smidgen of the Corned Beef from Lissie McNeill's Pub* - the damn sammiches where the size of Houli's noggin, but their January 27th Guest - a sweet-natured and sensitive guy - got bugger all. Watch you fingers, Mrs. Burke, if you get any grease or mustard on them Mein Host might think their Chicken Fingers.

Our Guest tonight is Special Olympics Founder and Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke!
She's done plenty of "good in 'da hood!"
Tune in this Wed. Night, 6-8PM. 950 AM
Call-in during the show, light up our phone lines-312-329-0950.

Skinny & Houli Show "a smash" on Avenue 950 WNTD AM

Avenue 950 Timeless Cool, a product of Sovereign City Radio Services, rolled out their much anticipated program, The Skinny & Houli Show, on Wednesday January 20th and "Voila", it's the hottest show on Chicago Radio.

James "Skinny" Sheahan, former Director of the Mayor's Office of Special Events and Mike "Houli" Houlihan, columnist for the Irish American News and former features columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, introduce listeners to the quirky characters and stories that give our city its unique charm.

This two hour, freewheeling talk radio dialogue features two of Chicago's most irrepressible personalities, discussing what's happening in the city each week. The hosts dissect the news, politics, sports, and entertainment scene with their trademark wit and introduce a variety of community activists and neighborhood heroes.

The Skinny & Houli Show, in partnership with Special Olympics Chicago, will feature guests who are making a positive impact on the lives of Chicagoans plus a "Special Olympics Spotlight" on an athlete, coach or volunteer for outstanding achievement.

Tune in to Avenue 950 and hear a show that will make you proud to live in Chicago

* Lizzie McNeill's Irish Pub


Irish, Bar Food, Sandwiches - if you can get one.
400 N McClurge Ct, Chicago 60611
(At E North Water St)

Phone: (312) 467-1992

Mrs. Obama, MSNBC and Mr. Creosote Battle Obesity

President Obama is tanking. More Americans are hip to just how really pompous news pundits happen to be - ask Scott Lee Cohen. Sarah Palin is still popular. Iran is near Civil War. Progressive Agenda is everything it is cracked up to be - a Ponzi Scam. Global Warming has given us the greatest National snowstorm ever! Mrs. Obama needs help getting fat kids to lay off the pop, salty snacks, and Mickey D's that their folks sate them with and has MSNBC going Flat out for Her!

MSNBC went Flat-Out for Cap 'N Trade and Single Provider Health Care for President Obama. Mrs. Obama might have done better asking the League of Elk Hunters or Emu Ranchers to lend a hand. As it is . . .MSNBC with Tamron 'Too Smart' Hall and Dave 'Fountain-mouth' Schuester and the MSNBC Tool Shed regulars.


After shoveling metric tons of the new fallen snow, I cable surfed and caught an unlimited litany of guest Fat Pros on MSNBC taking the Tac Du Jour ( Tea Party Secessionism/Sarah Palin/Chris Matthews' Racial View-Finder) on obesity is akin to Terrorism and a dose of the crabs. MSNBC is dedicated to . . .? I'm not sure.

Just replay this scene of Monty Python's Meaning of Life and even the most dedicated lard-asses might opt for the waffer thin truffle.

Bon apetite!

Podcast -January 27th Skinny and Houli Show

Click my post title for my guest appearance on the Avenue 950 AM -Skinny and Houli Show - I got a face for Radio and a mind like Mortal Sin on Viagra.

Guests include Pat Hickey, Crusader for Leo High School and Israel Idonije of the Chicago Bears talking about his latest fundraising project.

Alexi! Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts! Zorba Durbin is going to School You on Coming Clean?

Within this arena, which grows more stable night after day, generations work and love and hope and vanish. New generations tread on the corpses of their fathers, continue the work above the abyss and struggle to tame the dread mystery. How? By cultivating a single field, by kissing a woman, by studying a stone, an animal, an idea.

Nikos Kazantzakis from Zorba the Greek




"I believe he(Alexi) will be more forthcoming. There are some things we do know and should acknowledge. He (Alexi) has not been involved with his family bank for four years.The current portfolio of that bank, only 9 % of those loans reflect loans that were on the books when he(Alexi) left the bank 4 years ago, so the loan package out there now at that bank is substantially different. I think he should come forward. He's talked to me about it what happened there, he's very proud his father started this bank and built it up from nothing. The controversy there whether it reflects on Alexi himself personally or the banking practices remains to be seen, but I've encouraged him to answer all the questions." Senator Dithering Dick Durbin


Alexi, my south sider's response to the Senior Senator from Illinois, were I you, would be -

"Thanks So Mucking Fuch!"

Now! Click my Post Title and Dance! "Come on, my boy!"

Gents, Give Her a Box of Snaps This Valentine's Day

St. Valentine was a Christian Martyr *- don't be one yourself this St. Valentine's Days; Hell, the economy is killer and firing Fannie Mae's into Beautifica's Yap will only make dentists and Lady Plus Three Size Fashions happy. Snaps are economical as well as tastey.

As the eminent philosopher and Leo Motor Pool Chief Al Townsend tells me daily, when I ask, "What's Word, Al?"

"Save Your Money, Hickey!"


Gents, give your Sweetie a box or bag ( depending upon her capacities and general intake) of delicious and fat free SNAPS!

One wonderful Five Star Restaurant located in LaPorte, Indiana - The Heston Bar - offers a gigantic bowl of licorice SNAPS to one and sundry, while awaiting Prime Rib Dinner. These candy coated licorice rotini are the Cat's Nuts! The Offering of SNAPS. I find that most civilized and tastful tribute to their clientele.

http://www.judysbook.com/cities/laporte-in/Food-and-Dining/26658310/p1/t2/Heston_Bar_and_Grill.htm
Flowers wilt and Frango Mints be damned! Buy her a box a Snaps and take her out for a few scoops of ice cold draft beer! Now, you're talkin', Sport!


Snaps: The Original Classic Chewy Candy.

Snaps is the candy with the licorice center, pastel-colored candy coatings, and unique taste. Introduced in the 1930's, Snaps brand candy is the nostalgic confection with a legion of rabid fans. Many consumers remember Snaps bites in their 2-cent classic red boxes, especially eating them on the playgrounds of their youth.

Though attempts have been made to duplicate its proprietary formula, nothing matches the original. With its licorice center, unique flavor and colorful pastel candy coatings, the look and taste of Snaps candy has remained unchanged since the 1930's, making Snaps a true classic.


*

The first representation of Saint Valentine appeared in the Nuremberg Chronicle, (1493); alongside the woodcut portrait of Valentine the text states that he was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II, known as Claudius Gothicus. He was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner -- until Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor -- whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stoned; when that didn't finish him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate. Various dates are given for the martyrdom or martyrdoms: 269, 270, or 273.[8]

The official Roman Martyrology for February 14 mentions only one Saint Valentine.

The Three Amigos Got a Huge Kick Out of Scott Lee!

President Obama -"Boy am I glad we did not step in that One! Gotta go - PlannedParenthood Meeting and Three-on three game with Andy Stern and Anna Burger. Let me know if you hear anything."

RMD - " I gotta send Mark Brown a Box of Lobsters!"

Milorod - " I'm on WLS . . .then I'm taking my books ( The Governor) down to a broker on 48th & Ashland - State Jewelry and Loans I think it is. Mike Madigan said I'd get a fair shake from the guy. God I hate crooks and bosses. I need a nap."

Denzel Washington - American!

Two Leo Men Bob Hylard and Paul Somers passed along this great story about a great American - Denzel Washington:


Denzel Washington, and Brooks Army Medical Center

Don't know whether you heard about this but Denzel Washington and his family visited the troops at Brook Army Medical Center, in San Antonio, Texas (BAMC) the other day. This is where soldiers who have been evacuated from Germany come to be hospitalized in the United States , especially burn victims. There are some buildings there called Fisher Houses.

The Fisher House is a Hotel where soldiers' families can stay, for little or no charge, while their soldier is staying in the Hospital. BAMC has quite a few of these houses on base, but as you can imagine, they are almost filled most of the time.

While Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC, they gave him a tour of one of the Fisher Houses. He asked how much one of them would cost to build. He took his checkbook out and wrote a check for the full amount right there on the spot. The soldiers overseas were amazed to hear this story and want to get the word out to the American public, because it warmed their hearts to hear it.

My question is: why do celebritty goofballs Brad Pitt, Madonna, Tom Cruise and other Hollywood fluff-a -Nutters make front page news with their ridiculous antics and Denzel Washington's Patriotism doesn't even make page 3 in the Metro section of any newspaper except the Local newspaper in San Antonio ?

Calumet Fisheries: James Beard Award Winner and Pride of the South Side!

"The Joint Near the Bridge - over by 95th!" are the directions to a wonderful family owned fried fish operation that has delighted and nourished Helots from all over the south side and northwest Indiana. Calumet Fisheries is a Chicago icon - forget Carol Marin, get boat of smelts!

This terrific fast fish carry-out joint was the back-drop to one of my fictionalized tales of the south side " " Bubs Murtaugh's Shrimp Snack" - enjoyed by tens of people.

Calumet Fisheries own the prestigious James Beard Award for local restaurants.

Here is Chicago Sun times Mary Houlihan's stirring report!

Fans know that the carry-out only Calumet, owned since 1948 by the Kotlick and Toll families, serves some of the best seafood in Chicago. Among its best-sellers are salmon and shrimp, smoked in its natural wood smokehouse behind the store.

"We serve good, solid food that the working guy likes to eat," Kotlick said. "People always come back."

Located at 3259 E. 95th on the west bank of the Calumet River, Calumet has gotten notice before. Anthony Bourdain stopped by in 2008 when he was filming the Chicago segment of his Travel Channel show "No Reservations." That notoriety brought in new business from the North Side, Kotlick said.

"We're hoping this award will bring in more customers who haven't tried us before," Kotlick said.

Kotlick says he plans to attend the May 2 awards event. He hopes there's a red carpet to walk.

"We'll be playing with the big boys that night," Kotlick said, laughing. "If I could sit with a Rick Bayless or a Rachael Ray, well that would be a fun, interesting evening."

Chicago Sun Times


http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/food/2035016,CST-NWS-beard08.article

Governor Pat Quinn Will Win With the Likes of Him! Keep Scott Lee.

Governor Pat Quinn should keep the millstone Scott Lee Cohen. Do not allow this goof to shift your priorities or message.

1. Keep Scott Lee Cohen in the shadows all through the Campaign for Governor.

2. Hammer away at Kirk Dillard who seems to to be creeping up on Bill Brady and might somehow manage to be the GOP nominee - Bill Cellini's guy is great way to deflect notice of the wife abusing, knife wielding mope. If Brady squeaks in - go Helot Working Stiff Trades Union Regular Guy on Him! Do not get near the Purple SEIU goofs - look how that worked out for Blago. Come to Jesus, Moses, Mohammad and Christian Non-Sectarian with the Operating Engineers, the Electricians, the Pipe Fitters, Plumbers, Hoisters, and independent contractors. Tea Party the Hell out of the GOP!

3. Do not get gulled into a Third Party run - it will be a disaster. Senator Stevenson had a different historical context for doing so.

4. Promise to work to eliminate the office of Lt. Governor. Vow to lower taxes and that will create jobs

5. Work with Speaker Mike Madigan on the Campaign and when you win. Speaker Madigan can only help you turn things around. Only Media Loudmouths hate him.

6. Treat the Media Pundits as they would treat you - and have. Give them short shrift and a wide path on the sidewalk. Treat them as you would a panhandler wearing only jock-strap and snow-shoes. Give the person his/her dignity and a very hale and hearty "Thanks for Stopping!"

7. Come back out to the neighborhoods, small towns, and villages. Ditch the Policy Gurus and University phonies.

8. Give Senator Durbin photo opportunities with you but for God's sake never allow him to speak - for you or about anything. Sen. Dick Durbin is about as voter attractive as Scott Lee.

Voters like you Governor Quinn. I like and admire you - I think that many of your associations with the Progressives are down-right goofy, but you are honest, loyal and smart.

Go Grassroots with the Helots.

Brown Journalism - Run, Duck, Dodge! Mark Brown and Carol Marin and More!

Thank you Anne Leary - Backyard Conservative

The Lemmings are following Mark Brown right off the lowest heights of Chicago journalism - Ring Lardner, Ben Hecht, Theodore Dreiser, Charles MacArthur, Nick Von Hoffman, Ray Coffey they ain't.

Anne Leary posted the MSNBC Flannelmouth Meathead Chris Matthews piece linked above (click my post title for shameless mess) where Lynn Sweet, a good reporter gets staked out in the sand needing to provide instant cover for Mark Brown's "Dude" ineptitude. That, by the way, was local neighborhood Yamhead CBS Mike Flannery's Noel Coward imitation when he finally got around to interviewing Scott Lee Cohen. Bon Mot!Oh, rather, Old Boy! I mean, Dude!

Mark Brown was handed Scot Lee's head on a silver platter by Scott Lee himself in the Cohenpawn shop located near where Self Promoting Icon Carol Marin spent her youth - -roughly 47th & Ashland.

Carol Marin, a practiced shameless scribe who can mock Lura Lynn Ryan's appearance during the trials of George Ryan ( Mark Brown kicked Governor Ryan only when he was down and out by the way)and avoid original thought and finger an elderly couple as an IRA hit team on the say so of an ambitious FBI feeder, is parsing Brown in the Sunday Chicago Sun Times and shifting blame on Mike Madigan, Pat Quinn and the Democratic Party.

There is no exoneration for us in the media -- with the exception of my Sun-Times colleague Mark Brown -- for absolutely blowing this story. But also no pass for the leadership of the Democratic Party. Was Quinn warned about Cohen before the primary? Did the all-knowing party chairman, Mike Madigan, really not know?

Clued in or clueless, they look awful.

No Carol, like you Mark Brown is a pompous jerk. Pompous jerks tend to sneer at people and make the very most of their difficulties - that is the reason why people detest the Media - not the reporters, Carol, the smarmy, over paid smiling hypocrites who create the news and refuse to report it.

Brown Journalism needs to take a quick and lively walk off what is left of Illinois high ground - moral or metaphorical.