Project Shield and Cook County - Here's The Grant; Where's the Money

"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered." Self-audit by Irish soccer genius the late George Best


“When you waste Homeland Security money you are less safe,” Congressman Mike Quigley (D) IL. and Former Cook County Commissioner

Ahhhh! The indefinite pronoun You. An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun that refers to one or more unspecified beings, objects, or places. You can mean anyone -even me.

Thus, let's talk about my part in this sordid affair - When I waste Homeland Security money, I am less safe.

I never get my hands on Homeland Security money; I am safe. I am safe because I never waste Homeland Security money. I believe that Senator Marque Kirgue ( R) IL and Congressman Mike "Too Tall" Quigley are on to something ( indefinite pronoun).

Here is the thing, Mike Quigley was a Cook Commissioner through the tenure of Stroger Pere and most of the tenure of Stroger Fil and he made life a bed of nails for both. Nothing got cleaned up, whatever that means, in Cook County government and nothing changed, but the gender and the shoes of the Cook County Board President. During those years of Quigley capers and cavorts, the diminutive plunger tweaked Sheriffs and County Employees and TIFS and managed to get appointed to Congress. Also, during those years, Wee Mike was custodian for the millions of dollars granted to Project Shield - a high tech communications relay for Cook County municipalities and Emergency First Providers - cops, firefighters and EMTs.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle pulled the plug on Project Shield* a few weeks ago.

Wee Mike was with Cook County Board and Kirque was in Congress.

They now are shaking jowls and thundering to the media, "What Happened? Where's the Money

These two lads just dandy little public piglets -Marque and Mike, but that's just me.

Me, I am a simple, quiet, pious man who loves his country and so I read and think about what I have read in order to raise a question or an eyebrow or two about people like Mike and Marque who fervently believe that we citizens are huge dopes. I know that I can be a dope; after all I voted for former Governor Pat Quinn. Early this beautiful January morning I decided to read the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) response to Marque and Mike.

On Page three of the DHS document is a Table -Table 1. of grants to Cook County FY 2003-2009

Table 1. UASI Grant Awards to Cook County, FYs 2003–2009
Project Shield
Total UASI Award UASI Funding UASI Funds Expended

2003 $12,848,927 $12, 399,292 $12,496,924
2004 $16,110,715 $11,303,495 $ 9,730,379
2005 $22,465,000 $15,836,810 $13,867,261
2006 $13,065,000 $5,210,254 $ 3,609,212
2007 $16,548,000 $3,000,000 $ 2,367,876
2008 $15,904,525 $5,331,425 $ 3,567,144
2009 $15,225,309 $5,622,756 $ 0

Total $112,167,476 $58,704, 032 $ 45,638,796
Source: Office of Inspector General (OIG) Analysis of FE

Okay - between 2003-2009 Cook County got between grants and funding a total in the amount of $ 179,871,508, or there abouts and expended $ 45, 638,796 which might leave a husky $125, 232,712. So, if EXPENDED means spent, out of the wallet, somewhere other than here, that must mean that there is a whole pile of DHS grant money somewhere. Don't it?

I gotta believe that the two sinister columns are the funds readily avaiable for use, or looting and that the dexter EXPENDED column represents what actually was used or looted.

Holy David Corzine!!!!

I read this passage again , after I read the conclusion drawn by the audit -

In a letter to the DHS Inspector General, Representative
Mike Quigley and Senator Mark Steven Kirk expressed concerns
about the vehicle used by the President of the Cook County Board
of Commissioners being equipped with Project Shield equipment.
They were concerned that these funds should be used for
emergency responders, not for executive transport.
According to Cook County personnel, Homeland Security funds
were used to retrofit the vehicle with communication equipment.
The rationale for installing this equipment was that the President of
the Cook County Board of Commissioners needed access to
current information to make real-time decisions during emergency
events in the county. We found no specific grant guidance that
would disallow this cost.

Also this tidbit -

Of the 128 municipalities in Cook County, we found that:
• 32 never had equipment,
• 9 left the program after participating in the project, and
• 87 have Project Shield equipment, of which 71 have
vehicle video systems.

We visited 15 municipalities, which included 14 police departments
and 4 fire departments, and found numerous problems, including
equipment malfunctions, unused equipment, and uncertainty on
how to operate the equipment. We could not determine the exact
cause of the equipment problems but noted that many users of the
Project Shield vehicles did not have the necessary training on the
equipment.

The results of our 15 visits identified the following:
• 4 of 15 municipalities returned all of their Project Shield
vehicle equipment,
• 10 of 15 municipalities complained about either a lack of
training or the quality of training provided,
• 7 of 11 municipalities with equipment complained about
current service, and Homeland Security Grant Program Funds Awarded for Project Shield
• 4 of 11 municipalities with equipment were unable to or
unsure how to transmit video from the vehicle to the
command center.
Discussions with police personnel revealed that their primary
interest was to record and obtain video for criminal evidence.
They were uncertain whether they could transmit live video to a
monitoring station, allowing an emergency event to be managed
from a remote location.
We also analyzed trouble tickets (a reporting tool used to track
equipment issues) for the last 3 months of calendar year 2010, and
found that 62 municipalities submitted 122 trouble tickets for
equipment malfunctions, such as the inability to access database
records in the vehicle.

Now the auditors' Conclusion -

Conclusion
FEMA, the State of Illinois, the Urban Area Working Group, and
Cook County did not ensure the effective implementation of
Project Shield. The lack of planning was evidenced by faulty
equipment, questionable locations for the equipment, and inability
to integrate with existing communication equipment. The mobile
video systems were not adequately tested to ensure that they could
be operated effectively during an emergency. Project Shield
expenditures were not adequately authorized, supported, and
verified. The weaknesses can be attributed to Cook County’s
inadequate management of the project, as well as the ineffective
monitoring by FEMA and the State of Illinois.

( emphasis my own)

The Auditors did not use any indefinite pronoun and they used the past tense COOK COUNTY DID NOT ENSURE EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT SHIELD. Mike Quigley was, if I recall, Cook County Commissioner watching every penny from 1998 -2009.
Senator Marque Kirque was . . .well, Rep. Marque Kirque. That was then; this is now?

The lads will employ them indfinte pronouns and this head-scratcher will go largely ignore . . .saving the House of Pain soon to visit Stroger Fil.

Someone will say " You mean Me, too?"

*

Project Shield was previously conceived by Cook County officials and begun in 2004. The objective of the project was to provide situational awareness through audio, video and data communications from police squad cars back to their department headquarters, as well as to the County and to deploy fixed site-cameras at various locations.

Toni Preckwinkle' office June 30, 2011

Quigley was first elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners in 1998. During his tenure he has gained a reputation as a reformer as he opposed tax hikes supported by Cook County Board President John Stroger, and later his son and successor Todd Stroger. He contended the county could operate more efficiently and he presented reports to support the position. Quigley also challenged the practice of finding jobs for Democratic officials with the Cook County Forest Preserve District

Aging of the President - Steve Chapman and A Won'erful Day!

Steve Chapman Chicago Tribune: He (Rick Santorum) thinks America has been on a downhill slide for many years, thanks to feminism, gay rights, pornography and other vile intruders. But where is the evidence that the developments cited by Santorum are producing harmful side effects?

All over the place, Steve. You're tripping on it. Oh, maybe that is something else. Sorry.

Like many conservative columnists ( Kathy Parker, David Brooks, Christopher Buckley), Steve Chapman just must go with Barack Obama. Imagine this at a recent press opportunity, Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune asked these pointed questions to the once boyish and now obviously aging President.

Chapman "Mr. President do you think Rick Santorum is drunk with power or powered by drink?

President Obama "Licker talks mighty loud w’en it git loose fum de jug, Mhmmm.

Chapman - Can you comment on Attorney General Holder? I think that he is simply Yummy!

President Obama " Heah he,he,he, thar Son! Youk’n hide de fier, but w’at you gwine do wid de smoke?"

Chapman - Mr. Presidnet, have you read the new book on you and the First Lady? It sounds to me like some smoking times in the West Wing.

President Obama - "You’d see mo’ er de mink ef he know’d whar de yard dog sleeps an'de Rooster makes mo’ racket dan de hin w’at lay de aig."

Chapman - Why do you still have that perfectly awful man, Biden, as your Vice President? Between us two. . . (sotto voce) Il a cette salope horrible et stridente d'une femme et n'a absolument aucun sens de la mode-sans parler de la conversation intelligente


President Obama - "Ahmm-haw,haw! Appears to me that you's in a powerful bad mood to go to the party. Now! Ter-morrow may be de car-ridge-driver’s day for ploughin’.Mhmmm."

Chapman - Mr. President? How will future Americans perceive your perfectly gorgeous Administration?

President Obama - "You can't run away from trouble. There ain't no place that far. The weather's good; the fishin's fine / Now what do you do with all your time?"

Chapman - I certainly do not put worms on hooks!

President Obama -"Well, sir, you ain't never seen nobody that had humble-come-tumbledness down as fine as what Brer Rabbit had it then. Poor little critter, he learned a powerful lesson. But he learned it too late. But it just goes to show what comes of mixin' up with somethin' you got no business with in the first place. And don't you never forget it."

Mhhmmmm.

Angry Middle Class White Man -Gay Liberation Network's Andy Thayer

Despite an official protest cancellation by LGBT groups, a handful of LGBT-rights activists assembled outside of Holy Name Cathedral Jan. 8 to demonstrate against Cardinal Francis George, who recently remarked that the LGBT Pride Parade could morph into something like a Ku Klux Klan ( KKK ) gathering.

Just six protesters gathered outside of the church as Mass let out. The official protest scheduled by Gay Liberation Network ( GLN ) , Rainbow Sash Movement ( RSM ) and Equality Illinois was called off after the cardinal apologized Jan. 6.The apology did not satisfy protesters, who said it came too late and meant little.

Windy City Times January 9, 2012

"It is totally inadequate," said Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network, referring to the statement posted on the archdiocese's website Friday night. "When it came time to issue an apology he chose the most passive manner to do it. … I would say it to his face."

Andy Thayer Gay Liberation Network and Pan Progressive Spokesman. Chicago Tribune Januray 9, 2012. Now that is one angry middle class white man. Must be a Rick Santorum backer.

Man, I slept like a baby . . .a gray whiskered, long-in-the-tooth baby. I re-read Murray A. Sperber's wonderful Shakedown the Thunder:The Creation of Notre Dame Football (2002) and dropped off into the loving arms of Morpheus. I dreamed the usual stuff - running out of postits, driving to Leo down The Avenue des Champs-Élysées with legendary newsman and globetrotter Lowell Thomas screwing with the radio -"Take your #$%^ing hands off the dial and leave it on WDCB 90.9 FM. That's Frances Faye's "Drunk with Love & Purple Wine." She's more of man than you'll ever be Lowell!"

Shucks, I must be one of them angry white middle class Dudes. Lowell Thomas gave us T.E. Lawrence, raped by a Muslim Bey in a Turkish prison and celebrated poet masochist.

Not really. I ain't mad at no one. I get amused by the more virulent public voices who remain a protected species by the media on account of their Progressive activism.
Likewise, I get the giggles when Ceasefire activist Tio Hardiman, who rakes in the last nickles of the Illinois State Budget to make streets safe for the late Black Disciple King Shorty Freeman. If that makes me angry, I need to see Doctor Vargas and get some blood work done. Heck, No! I leaped out of bed, hit my knees and said the Memorare and Novena of St. Theresa, watched the news, read the papers, showered, shaved, tossed on a handful of Clubman, screamed in agony, brushed the old buckers and tossed on my snappy attire.

What makes one an angry middleclass whiteman? I remember the goof, I heard on Inside Washington, Evan Thomas - "It's interesting that Perry stayed in because there is still this angry, white, middle class male out there that is a seething force, and Romney is not really their guy. It's not clear who is, I'm not sure, I mean, Santorum for the moment, but in some ways, that is a force to be tapped, and nobody's really found a way to do it."

Evan's grandpappy was, not Lowell Thomas , but none other than Norman Thomas sixtime Presidnetial lose rand leader of the Socialist Party of America ( Communist Party USA Lite). Like all happy affluent white guys, Evan Thomas went to the schools of the 1%ers Philipps Andover, Harvard, Virginny Law & etc.

Evan called President Obama a god. He back tracked a bit with this "In a way, Obama's standing above the country, above -- above the world, a sort of god." Sort of god, in this secularist Progressive state, Evan? Well, dog my cats.

I gotta ask; after all of the Gayer than Christmas Outrage against Cardinal George since before Christmas, the subsequent apology by the Cardinal to all fo those highly sensitive sensibilities in government, the media and activism, does this finally make Andy Thayer qualify as an angry middle class white man?

Rainbow Sash, Aglow, Call to Action, and all the outraged sensitive sensibilities who must have theri say, backed away from a Holy Name Cathedral protest yesterday. However, Gay firebrand and Progressive Activism Utility Player -Andy Thayer remained hot and bothered.

Andy works for Cop Hating Ghetto Lottery Lawyer Jon Loevy*, chants against Israel with fellow Gaza Gay Kevin Clark, bugs Mayor Rahm about his plans to annoy NATO/G-8 tourist, writes for Arianna Huffington, helps suspected traitor Bradley Manning, travels to Moscow, HATES really, really really HATES Cardinal George, Breeders, and Catholics and is never studied by Chicago's media newshounds. If you are a retired gang-banger, or self-celebrated activist you are given carte blanche by the Chicago Medill Media.

Ooooooo! Gotta go. Time to record the checks supporting Leo High School from happy, generous, white Catholic middle class guys, scrape the frost off the flivver, fire up the Chevy and pick Lowell Thomas up at Karim's Dunkin Donuts at 104th 7 Westerm.

Lowell had better keep his damn liver spotted mitts off the radio settings, " That's Frances Faye's "Drunk with Love & Purple Wine" for Crissakes, Lowell!!! What would Andy Thayer say?"

*

Loevy & Loevy
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Suite 100

Chicago, IL 60607-1237
Phone: work312-376-8345 / work888-644-6459 (Toll Free)
Fax: fax312-243-5902
Contact Us
http://www.loevy.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
..SummaryAttorneysStaffFeesOffice Information.Summary.Law Firm Overview
We built our firm and we pick our cases to achieve justice. We take on a case only if it fits with our sense of righting a wrong.
We focus on protecting constitutional and civil rights and whistleblowers and we currently have an eclectic mix of cases involving wrongful convictions, police brutality, excessive force, unjustified police shootings, False Claims Act/qui tam statutes, unlawful arrests, class actions, illegal searches and Fourth Amendment violations, employment discrimination,, and First Amendment violations. Each of our cases makes a fascinating story.
HISTORY OF THE FIRM
Jon Loevy started the firm in 1997 after leaving the international law firm Sidley & Austin. Since founding the firm, Jon has been joined in the partnership by his wife, Danielle Loevy; Arthur Loevy, who graduated from the University of Michigan Law School; and Mike Kanovitz, a Cornell Law School graduate who joined the firm after practicing at a class action law firm in Washington, D.C. Today, Jon Loevy and Mr. Kanovitz are widely recognized as among the nation's leading civil rights attorneys because of their accomplishments as trial attorneys, having won multiple jury verdicts of more than $1 million. Since 2008 alone, Mr. Loevy and Mr. Kanovitz have secured jury verdicts of $21 million, $16 million, and victory for a class of more than 100,000 people.

Areas of PracticeCivil RightsClass ActionsConstitutional Law Discrimination Employment Law -- EmployeeWhistleblowerWest Practice CategoriesCivil Rights, Class Actions, Constitutional, Discrimination, Employment, Whistleblower-Qui Tam
...
Attorneys.Loevy, Jon
Thompson, Tara E.
Mandel, Aaron S.

Kanovitz, Michael
Partner Loevy, Danielle
Swaminathan, Anand

Horn, Gayle
Keen, Roshna Bala
Petersen, Pier

Loevy-Reyes, Mark
Mazur, Elizabeth
Art, Steve

Ainsworth, Russell
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Steinback, Rachel

Liskow, Samantha Anne
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Real Jazz "The End of An Affair" by Nick from New Jersey and Julie London

Here are two wonderful interpretations of a beautiful song - one by Jazz guitarist Nick from New Jersey* ( click my post title for more of this talented artist).



Now here is a sexy and ironic application of genius by the gorgeous and under-appreciated Julie London.




I heard this song performed by Amanda Carr and it was superb! I could not find a good link however.

Mr. Nick Funicelli - pure soulful fingers.

MACANIGOTASEE? Remember the Legion of Decency? Thought so.

Before we could go to the Highland Theatre at 79th & Ashland, our Moms checked the New World for the ratings -MACANIGOTASEE?

A: Morally unobjectionable
B: Morally objectionable in part
C: Condemned by the Legion of Decency

This system was modified in my teens to this

A-I: Suitable for all audiences Bambi
A-II: Suitable for adults — then, with the introduction of A-III — suitable for adults and adolescents Kissin' Cousins
A-III: Suitable for adults only Guns of Navarone
A-IV: For adults with reservations later modified to a these - Hard Days Night

B - Out of the Question

C- Are you out of your mind? Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill Kill? Where's the soap? Did your Uncle Bart tell you to ask me? Uncle Donny? Sy? Which one? If not you're going to have a good month of pulling alley weeds, Boyo!

Movies are part of our lives and most of us only learned of world film via three minute snipettes of " She Done Him Wrong" lodged between Jim Moran the Courtesy Man and Lynn Burton For Certain of Bert Weinmann Ford schpeels - warts went away quicker than those commercials.

The Celluloid Muse was represented by a coat hanger Aeriel, static snow, and cascading images on screen all in stunning black and white and gray and haze. Movies were on TV at night after the news, or afternoon if you were home sick from school.

Color Films were at the Beverly, The Capitol, The Highland, The Colony, The Marquette, and The Coral and that was going to the show. One went to the show with a pack of pals and a buck and quarter to see Hercules Movies, Walt Disney Epics, War Movies, Westerns and 25 Cartoons on certain Saturdays.

No matter the genre, or the studio, parents check the Decency Scratch Sheet.

"You are not seeing Dr. No ( 1962)."

"Nevermind why. It's on the list and its got the Bees ( B ratings).

Saw Dr. NO with a charming assortment of like minded ten year olds and remain plagued by the mental images of Ursula Andress getting stripped Butt Necked by Chinese Henchman, though at the time we coyed and feined sole interest in the guns, the Karate Chops and the sparkling Celtic wit of The Bond ( only one). In point of fact we treasured the dawn of bad impulses.

Bad thoughts became and remain the staple of healthy male life, thanks to my disobedience and healthy disregard for decency.

Nevertheless, I confessed my sin. "Bless me father for I have sinned . . . I sinned against the Sixth Amendment."

" You're Pat Hickey's boy."

"Yes, Father Gerrity."

"Does your Dad know you saw that James Bond movie?"

"No."

"Well, I think he should. I can't rat you out, but you, young man, had better or this sin stays with you. Understand?"

" Yes, Father."

" Anything else you want to tell me about what you did subsequent. . .that means 'after' you saw that movie"

"No, Father."

Thought so. . .you will in a few years . . .repeatedly. Okay, You tell your Dad and he'll probably let me know and that way you'll be square. Say five Our Father's and Ten Hail Mary's . . .Now, let's hear a good Act of Contrition."

The Code of Decency was right. Dr. No and the thousands of subsequent soft core flesh and saliva epics that followed its wake on the Big Screen caused this healthy and imaginative tube of testosterone to have more than his fair share of "bad thoughts." One about every sextastic twenty seconds and always interrupted by Life's Commercials brought to me by Jim Moran and Bert Weinmann Ford.

Bad thoughts are healthy. Realizing that there are limits to my internal wiring as well as 'outward signs of indignity' is even healthier. Impulses need arrest. To say the least.

The Legion Decency was Okay.


*

A Brief History of the Legion of Decency

By Rick Kephart


The Legion of Decency was formed in the 1930's to combat immoral movies. People took a pledge, in church, against bad movies. They pledged not only never to go to any morally objectionable movie, but never even to go to any movie theater that had ever shown a morally objectionable film!

This was very effective in discouraging Hollywood from making movies which would earn the disapproval of the Legion of Decency. And the Legion of Decency's ratings were very strict, much more strict than the modern Catholic Bishops' movie rating system (which has been sadly ineffective in influencing the making of movies).
Catholics used to be united, strong and strict, and then they were a powerful force to be reckoned with by the movie industry!

Around the end of the 1950's, things began to change. The emphasis was taken off condemning bad movies, and a deliberate effort was made to make The Legion of Decency more `positive'. The pledge gradually faded out of use, until it was finally completely forgotten.

By 1975, the Legion of Decency had ceased to exist. It was replaced by the Bishops' new Catholic rating system. That ended the Church's influence on the movie industry. Movie standards continue to drop.

In researching the history of the Legion of Decency, this disturbing bit of information came up:

I called the library at St. Charles' Seminary for information about the Legion of Decency. Whomever I spoke to had heard of it, but knew nothing about the pledge. He looked it up in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, and told me what it had to say about the Legion of Decency.

In 1957, Pope Pius XII issued an encyclical called Miranda prorsus. The Encyclopedia claimed that the encyclical called for the Legion of Decency to be more positive, to put its emphasis on promoting good movies rather than condemning bad movies, and have more respect for people's consciences. In response to that encyclical (so claims this Encyclopedia) the Legion of Decency changed, very gradually (with no definite date). Eventually, it went completely out of existence, to be replaced by the rating system we now have.

I asked the person on the phone if he knew where I could get a copy of that encyclical, so I could read it myself. He said he thought it was most likely out of print.

But I found one, and read it.

There is nothing in the encyclical that could lead anyone to think he was calling for the Legion of Decency to change what they were doing! It not only vigorously condemns bad movies, but also immoral TV shows and radio programs. It would form a good defense for exactly what the Legion of Decency was doing, if it were considered honestly.

I doubt the author of that article in the Encyclopedia expected anyone to actually read that out-of-print encyclical to see if what he wrote was true.

People do tend to claim that Pope Pius XII said things which he in fact never said.

end of file

High Speed Rail Is Here!!!! Hello? Anybody?

These guys are letting us get to St. Louis from Chicago quicker than the time it takes to knock off the Asian Babe in an old spy movie, well not really. You see, the Oriental knockout usually gets clipped about an hour into the movie and high speed rail at best takes five hours.

Executive Director Richard Harnish (in blue shirt) meets with consultants: (from left to right) Dave Goldin, President of Goldin Media, Inc.; Dan Johnson-Weinberger, President of Progressive Public Affairs; and Laurent Pernot, President of Platform Public Affairs, LLC. Four Guys RailRoad - that's High Speed Railroad. Instead of getting to St. Louis in 5.5 hours, outrageous!!!!! You can now get there in a Green Friendly, Shovel Ready, Unprecedented, Rocket Fast four hours - that's a saving of 1.5 hours, Rubes! Time is money and HSR is making you all rich!!!!!!!!!


Ever met a High Speed Rail enthusiast? I have, when I worked in LaPorte, IN and later in Hammond, IN.

Hare Krishnas, Mimes and Squeegee Capitalists are more fun to be around and make much more sense. They'll take whatever change you have on you; HSR Geeks want your dreams.

Four guys in Logan Square have convinced Pat "the Dreamming Guv" Quinn that he too can be a railroad tycoon. He is already Martin Luther who nailed his tongue and his tie to Holy Name Cathedral back in November - I awwl A CristhYun! Theses Guv, theses.

Now, thanks to postman Ray La Hood*, President Obama's token Republican and Dept. of Transportation Rail Spinner in Chief, dropping off a check for $1.4 billion the dream we all share . . . of going between Dwight, IL and Pontiac State Prison will take only minutes, where now it takes you . . .minutes.

The full cost of the High Speed Boondoggle is $ 4 billion. So that means we are on the hook for only $ 3 billion! I give you a buck and you give me three and we all benefit! Not only that we shave an hour off a train ride to St. Louis.

Let's see; I have taken exactly . . .NO trips via train to St. Louis. Drove. Needed the car in St. Looey -Grant's Farm, Busch tour and all that stuff - LeClade's Landing, Dinner at Stan Musials. . .

So here's your President Obama High Speed Rail Logan Square Front Men
Midwest High Speed Rail Association:

First their vision, which is really President Obama's and therefore something we must have yesterday!

Our Vision
President Obama has created an exciting vision for high-speed rail in America, proposing that 80% of Americans be served by high-speed trains by the year 2036. Perhaps no region in the U.S. is better positioned to capitalize on this vision than the Upper Midwest. Leveraging a diverse manufacturing, agricultural, and business services economy anchored by nine major metropolitan areas, high-speed rail could have a transformative impact that would unify the Midwest into one the world's most powerful economic regions.

That would mean:

•Building four 220-mph bullet train routes to put 43 million people within 3 hours of Chicago, with the first demonstration route completed by 2020.
•Modernizing existing Amtrak service by 2020 to deliver convenient and comfortable service at speeds of at least 90 miles per hour.
•Creating strong connections to local transit at modernized railroad stations.
Together, these projects will revolutionize how we travel, and create more than 1.1 million jobs across the region

Here is the current Public transportation packages for Pat " Green Dwarf" Hickey's Green Friendly Public Transit Trip from my house to St. Louis Cathedral, St. Louis MO- Google Travel offered about six suggestions - here is one:

Transit directions to Cathedral Basilica-St Louis
(314) 373-8200

Depart: 107#$ S Rockwell StChicago, IL 60655


Walk to Western & 108th Street
About 5 mins (0.3 mi)
Beta: Use caution – This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths.
1. Head south on S Rockwell St toward W 108th St
43 ft
2. Turn left onto W 108th St
0.2 mi
3. Turn left onto S Western Ave
59 ft


Walk to Western & 108th Street
About 5 mins

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Western & 108th Street Stop ID: 8455
49ABus towards 135th
2:51pm - 3:05pm (13 mins, 23 stops)
Service run by Chicago Transit Authority - Buy tickets
Route Information - transitchicago.com
Penultimate stop: Western & York

Bus - 49A - South Western - Direction: 135th
Service run by Chicago Transit Authority
2:51pm Depart Western & 108th Street (Stop ID: 8455)
3:05pm Arrive Western & Vermont (Stop ID: 8478)
Route Information - transitchicago.com
Ticket prices

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Western & Vermont Stop ID: 8478
Walk to Blue Island-Vermont Metra
About 3 mins (12 mins to make transfer) (0.1 mi)

Walk to Blue Island-Vermont Metra
About 3 mins

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Blue Island-Vermont Metra
RITrain towards Joliet
3:17pm - 4:03pm (46 mins, 9 stops)
Service run by Metra
Route Information - metrarail.com
Penultimate stop: New Lenox Metra

Train - RI - Rock Island - Direction: Joliet
Service run by Metra
3:17pm Depart Blue Island-Vermont Metra
4:03pm Arrive Joliet Metra
Route Information - metrarail.com

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Joliet Metra
Walk to Joliet Union Station
About 1 min (1 hour 2 mins to make transfer) (26 ft)

Walk to Joliet Union Station
About 1 min

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Joliet Union Station
Lincoln ServiceTrain 305 towards St. Louis Gateway Station
5:05pm - 9:45pm (4 hours 40 mins, 8 stops)

Alert.

Alert.
"Amtrak recommends arriving to the station at least 30 minutes before scheduled departure." - amtrak.com
Service run by Amtrak
Route Information - amtrak.com
Penultimate stop: Alton Amtrak

Train - Lincoln Service - 305 - Direction: St. Louis Gateway Station
Service run by Amtrak
5:05pm Depart Joliet Union Station
9:45pm Arrive St. Louis Gateway Station
Alert.
Route Information - amtrak.com

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St. Louis Gateway Station
Walk to Civic Center Metrolink Station
About 1 min (10 mins to make transfer) (223 ft)

Walk to Civic Center Metrolink Station
About 1 min

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Civic Center Metrolink Station
MetrolinkTrain towards Shrewsbury Lansdowne I-44
9:55pm - 10:03pm (8 mins, 2 stops)
Service run by Metro St. Louis
Penultimate stop: Union Sta Metrolink Station

Train - Metrolink - MetroLink - Direction: Shrewsbury Lansdowne I-44
Service run by Metro St. Louis
9:55pm Depart Civic Center Metrolink Station
10:03pm Arrive Central West End Metrolink Station

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Central West End Metrolink Station
Walk to 4430 Maryland Avenue, Saint Louis, MO 63108-2402
About 15 mins (0.8 mi)
Beta: Use caution – This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths.
1. Head east toward S Taylor Ave
Take the stairs
0.1 mi
2. Turn left onto S Taylor Ave
0.5 mi
3. Turn right onto Lindell Blvd
0.2 mi


Walk to 4430 Maryland Avenue, Saint Louis, MO 63108-2402
About 15 mins

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Cathedral Basilica-St Louis
4430 Maryland Avenue
Saint Louis, MO 63108-2402

OKAY Totals between 7 hours and change and 8 hours and change.

Now here is selfish Carbon Gunboats Paddy Hickey's Trip by my car

302 mi, 5 hours 14 mins I-57 S, I-72 W and I-55 S
300 mi, 5 hours 19 mins I-57 S and I-70 W
293 mi, 5 hours 20 mins I-55 S
Driving directions to Cathedral Basilica-St Louis 3D2D

(314) 373-8200

- more info »

107%^ S Rockwell StChicago, IL 60655

1. Head south on S Rockwell St toward W 108th St
0.4 mi
2. Turn left onto W 111th St
0.8 mi
3. Continue onto W Monterey Ave
0.5 mi
4. Turn right onto S Marshfield Ave
210 ft
5. Take the ramp on the left onto I-57 S
120 mi
6. Take exit 235B to merge onto I-72 W toward Decatur/Springfield
78.7 mi
7. Take exit 103A to merge onto I-55 S/I-72 W toward St Louis/Jacksonville
5.3 mi
8. Slight left onto I-55 S (signs for St Louis)
73.9 mi
9. Merge onto I-70 W
Entering Missouri
18.8 mi
10. Continue onto I-64 W
2.2 mi
11. Take exit 38A to merge onto Forest Park Ave toward Grand Blvd
1.3 mi
12. Turn right onto S Sarah St
0.3 mi
13. Turn left onto Lindell Blvd
Destination will be on the right
0.5 mi

Cathedral Basilica-St Louis
4430 Maryland AvenueSaint Louis, MO 63108-2402

Home again -given the fact that there are not - well legally anyway -high speed buses my journey VIA HSR will take SIX( 6) hours. I drive and it is 5 hours and 20 minutes tops.

High Speed Rail - 3 Billion Bucks to shave an hour off a trip to St. Louis that I don't take.

No thanks.

Quinn and HSR Dudes: "Too late; already done. Eat it Hickey (literally and figuratively) and like it."

But I am probably missing the bigger picture - how will HSR help the four guys in Logan Square. The important thing about HSR, like so many really important tax-payer burdens, has absolutely nothing to do with your thoughts on the matter. It is a High Speed Railroad, after all.


*

The Illinois Department of Transportation has published the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the development of high - speed rail passenger service between Chicago and St. Louis. The FEIS evaluates alternatives and documents potential impacts of the higher speed rail project on natural resources, noise, air quality, historic and archeological sites, farmland and communities along the corridor. It is a key step toward implementing improved rail passenger service in Illinois.
The proposed action will provide high-speed rail passenger service between Chicago and St. Louis along the current Amtrak route. South of Dwight, the maximum operating speed will be 110 mph. North of Dwight, the existing maximum operating speed of 79 mph will be maintained. No physical improvements and no changes in operating characteristics (i.e., number and speed of trains) will be made north of Dwight. With these improvements travel time between Chicago and St. Louis will be reduced from approximately 5.5 hours to approximately 4.0 hours.

Custer Park to Braidwood, now boar . . .arriving!

Two Guys - One Back from Vacation and the other Still Working

“We’ve done a lot but we’ve got a lot more to do,” he said. “That’s why we need four more years.” President Barack Obama in Ohio yesterday.



Axelrod - " So, nice vacation and Holiday Season?"

President - " I guess."

Axelrod - " S'a Matter?"

President - " The wife asked what I planned to do today."

Axelrod - " Wha'd you say?"

President - " Nothing. I told her nothing."

Axelrod - " Th'ad a problem?"

President - " Not really."

Axelrod - "Wa'd she say then?"

President - " Aw . . .she said, 'You did that yesterday!'"

Axelrod - "And?"

President - " I told wasn't finished yet."

Axelrod - " Good one. I'll see you in Chicago on the 11th*."

President - "Really?"

Axelrod -" Yeah. Been scheduled awhile.. . . You know . . . shovel ready. See you."

President - " I guess. . . Shut the door; Okay?"

*

President Barack Obama heads home to Chicago in less than two weeks to raise money for his 2012 campaign.

Obama lands in the Windy City on Jan. 11 for big-buck fundraisers at the homes of media mogul Fred Eychaner and Bear Stearns executive Stuart Taylor, according to the Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet.

The visit is Obama's 10th since he was elected president.

Obama celebrated his 50th birthday at the Aragon Ballroom in August and began his fundraising campaign in Chicago in April. First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have visited separately for fundraisers as well.

Obama's 2012 headquarters is stationed at the Prudential Building, which faces the site of his 2008 victory rally. It's not known whether he'll visit the headquarters.

If he feels up to it.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Obama-Returns-to-Chicago-Jan-11-136387653.html#ixzz1ial0lbId

Space, Time and Material + Earnest Effort - Forethought = An Existential Conundrum

Immediately, prior to this, the very last contract for the now defunct Two Guys Epimethean* Cement Finishing and Pavement Solutions, Roy, the assistant and junior partner, found a beautifully framed mirror lying on the street. Roy carried the mirror over to his boss Clyde, " Hey, I know this guy!"

Clyde, grimmaced while also peering into the reflected image and condescended to note, " Of course you know him, moron, it's me! Now, let's get these barriers posted. They won't get in by themselves."

"Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny." Eddie Carrol, Roofing Contractor, Philsopher and Boulevadrier


*

The names for the four temperaments are unrelated to the humors, but go back to Nietzsche's use of Apollonian and Dionysian and to a similar appropriation from Greek mythology, Promethean ("Forethought") and Epimethean ("Afterthought"). The Epimethean does seem to be the most conservative of the temperaments. While Nietzsche would see the Apollonian as the most aesthetic, its possible asceticism now contrasts with a hedonistic or a rationalistic aestheticism with the Dionysian or the Promethean, respectively. Again, the details of this may be found in the Keirsey & Bates' book.

Henry Van Ameringen's Truth Will Out Bothered and Bewildered By RSM and LGBTQ Liberation Plan to Protest Holy Name

Bullies are always loudest when most frightened. The Gay Activist Movement capered nimbly in the wake of the KKK analogy ambush-cookie cutter outrage.

Cardinal George did not equate gays to the KKK. Nor did he say that gay activists are KKK members. The Cardinal said, "You don't want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism,"

The gay community heard this meme these past two weeks: "Though he has come under fire by LGBT advocates over a comment he recently made comparing Gay Pride Parade organizers to "something like the Ku Klux Klan," (emphasis my own)

Nope. Didn't say that at all.

However, I will. Some gay activists are very much like the KKK of old - read the comments in the newspapers and on any website like Huffington Post and then explain these comments to Dane Placko of FOX WFLD, our local Ted Baxter, very, very, very slowly.

One such wildly anti-Catholic and gay friendly rampart in the Cardinal George contretemps is Truth Will Out (TWO). TWO is funded by NY gay philanthropist Henry Van Ameringen, scion to the fragrance and sweetener fortune. Henry Van Ameringen is a founder of gay national super PAC -The Cabinet, dedicated to Homosexual Marriage.

TWO has been howling like Lear, (" I will do such things -- What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be The terrors of the earth! You think I'll weep
No, I'll not weep") since the last Sunday of Advent!

The Roman Catholic Church’s toxic obsession with homosexuality manifests itself in countless ways. The most recent anti-gay outburst came from the Chicago Archbishop, Cardinal Francis George, who foolishly compared the LGBT community to the Ku Klux Klan.

George’s offensive remarks came during a dispute over the scheduled starting time of the annual LGBT pride parade. The June 2012 event was originally set to begin at 10am, but a priest bitterly complained that this would interfere with morning services.

So roiled are juices of Rainbow Sash Chicago and the Andy Thayer/Kevin Clark multi-purpose Gay Liberation Network that they have planned a massive protest for this coming Sunday at Holy Name Cathedral.

TWO editor and columnist Wayne Besen ( also of Huffington Post and MSNBC) set forth a national petition drive, bought a full page ad in the Chicago Tribune ( always happy to slap a Mackerel Snapper), demanded the resignation of Cardinal George yet, now has a turd swimming in its punchbowl:

The Gay Liberation Network and the Rainbow Sash Movement, an organization of LGBT Catholics, have backed this protest, which has all the makings of a potential PR disaster. If the controversy switches from a debate over George’s KKK remarks to a FOX-fueled media frenzy about Bert and Ernie our message has been lost. If the protest becomes unruly, disrespectful, blatantly anti-religious, or if mass is disrupted the support of the sympathetic middle that believes George went too far will evaporate.

I’m not necessarily against a demonstration if it will keep the issue alive. However, let’s be honest and acknowledge that it is a risky venture that must be carefully planned and exquisitely executed or it could horribly backfire. Do we really want to hand FOX News and the Vatican a gift on a silver platter?

In the past, the Gay Liberation Network has organized important demonstrations in Chicago. Indeed, I worked with them on a successful protest against the Radio Hall of Fame when it inducted Focus on the Family’s James Dobson. They are good people who care very much about the LGBT community. Rainbow Sash also appears to have our best interests in mind.

I am sure that both organizations comprehend the gravity of this situation and understand the global ramifications if events spin out of control. While Cardinal George is fully responsible for sacrificing himself at the altar of idiocy, poor choices by the LGBT community could sadly lead to his unlikely resurrection.

(emphasis my own)

Hysterical but hardly historical.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/29/cardinal-george-stands-by_n_1174531.html

Our Times and Our Manners - Belloc Called It Decades Ago

Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2011!

This new year brings an opportunity to continue doing the same things over and over, or getting the old noggin out of our rumps.

Time Magazine dedicated all eight of its pages to the Person of Year - The Protester.

Gee.

For an entire year our supine and not-all-that-bright national media -Meme'd steadily about the Protester from the charred cabbie in Tunisia to the endomorph Michael Moore whose circumference barrier ed New York, Madison, WI and Pasendena, CA.

Demanding is Protest.

Savages Demand. People acquire. They acquire patience, fortitude, courage and charity.

More than eighty years ago Hilaire Belloc was considered the equal to GB Shaw, Lord Russell, Wells, Waugh, Yeats, and Orwell. Along with GK Chesterton, this Catholic man of wit and letters nailed down the nonsense.

Since 1964, most Catholic Schools took Belloc and other Catholic writers out of its canon of literature in the foolish yield to 'relevancy' and political correctness and a nod to Oprah'seading list. Had Belloc and other Catholic intellectuals been featured and studied with greater authority by better trained teachers of literature, social studies and especially theology, more Americans would appreciate his gifts.

Belloc understood Occupy Wall Street in his meditation Wall of the City - voila!

The Barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. Discipline seems to him irrational, on which account he is ever marvelling that civilization, should have offended him with priests and soldiers .... In a word, the Barbarian is discoverable everywhere in this, that he cannot make: that he can befog and destroy but that he cannot sustain; and of every Barbarian in the decline or peril of every civilization exactly that has been true. . . .We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile.

Cops understand what Belloc knew in his heart. The Barbarian demands; the citizen acquires, contributes and shares.

Happy New Year. Let's leave the Protester, the Barbarian, the Demanding Parasite in the rear view mirror.

The Great Smella . . . Musculus

The olfactory senses. The smell of warm bread, baby's breath, lilacs in Spring, a football lockeroom three weeks into the season, Gary, Indiana, Darling Rendering at 36th & Ashland, and a dead mouse each have their own hegemonic allure.

I am and have been in my cubicle at Leo High School this morning and I detect the faint, but noxious aroma of a mouse who has passed.

Instead of loading Campaign Leo, foundation donations and memorials into their respective Excel spreadsheets, I am avoiding the urge to beat it the Hell out of here by offering this verbal response to Nature's course.

I shower and shave and talc and deodorize my manky frame out the necessities of good corporeal hygiene and my love of my fellow man - sometimes twice daily, if a fair woman with whom I am acquainted deigns to walk out with me.




I usually apply a liberal splash or two of Pinaud-Clubman after shave, which gives me the scent of a trip to the barber and not a bath in sissy water. As my job requires some level of good-grooming and relative proximity to gift prospects, I try not to offend the senses, well one of them anyway.

The dead mouse is undoubtedly located in the silver metal trap behind Ms. Adams door in the dexter cubicle. It will be hours before, that door can be unlocked and the newly disintegrating carcass of Wee Mousie disposed of by Ron Reynolds Chief of Maintenance.

Learned recently that the good folks of Pepsi Co. have a mouseably dissolving product - Mountain Dew:

An Illinois man sued Pepsi in 2009 after he claims he “spat out the soda to reveal a dead mouse,” the Madison County Record reports. He claims he sent the mouse to Pepsi, which then “destroyed” the remains after he allowed them to test it, according to his complaint. Most shudder-worthy, however, is that Pepsi’s lawyers also found experts to testify, based on the state of the remains sent to them that, “the mouse would have dissolved in the soda had it been in the can from the time of its bottling until the day the plaintiff drank it,” according to the Record. (It would have become a “jelly-like substance,” according to Pepsi, adds LegalNewsline.) This seems like a winning-the-battle-while-surrendering-the-war kind of strategy that hinges on winning the argument that “our product is essentially a can of battery acid.”

Odd legal tac that. Our product rots mice, but cools the throat and sweetens the tongue like a passage of Calvin to a Presbyterian.

It's not easy being me.

Now, I will ascend the stairs to the second floor, find my key to the faculty bathroom and toss what cookies I possess.

Rainbow Sash Catholics Demand Abortion - How Catholic Is That?

The Rainbow Sash Movement outs Catholic priests who refuse them the Eucharist - e.g. A Rainbow Sash member proudly wears a Rainbow Sash indicating his/her/trans active homosexuality - an out ward sign denying any sin - up to the communion rail; if the priest refuses to offer the Body of Christ, the denied goes back to the pew and stands. However, if Father McGoalong places the wafer in the the palm or on tongue, the satisified sash wearing activist deigns to kneel.

The Rainbow Sash Catholic denies the Sacrement of Penance/Reconciliation -that is for self-loathing gays and breeders.

Our culture welcomes everyone, especially the really stupid, obnoxious, self-absorbed and pathological loud mouths. As a result, time, treasure, talent and police details must be wasted on these rare birds.

The Rainbow Sash Movement is part of a larger fabric that has nothing to do with faith, family and friendship and everything to do with politics and power.

The Rainbow Sash Movement runs counter to the Church - not only on homosexual issues, but also on the abortion industry.

The Rainbow Sash Movement(RSM) believes the time has come for the Women’s Movement and the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender rights movements to recognize that women’s rights are Gay Rights and Gay Rights are women’s rights. “All human beings are born free and equal, in dignity and rights, it does not matter what country we live in, who our leaders are or even who we are. Because we are human we, therefore, have rights. And because we have rights governments are bound to protect them.” Hillary Clinton [as] she gave an amazing, powerful, inspired speech at the United Nations in honor of International Human Rights Day.

In that speech she was talking about lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender persons. But clearly it applies to all human beings, including women. And if only President Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius would take those words to heart and understand that a woman’s fundamental right to birth control is a human right. They need to recognize it. They don’t give it to women, women have it. They need to recognize it.

The RSM recognizes the sin of sexism and homophobia that runs rampant in the Roman Catholic Church it is time to publicly challenge our Catholic Bishops when they spout lies about both women and GLBT people.

We are concerned that the Obama’s administration fails to embrace this simple fact that all human beings have rights. His hesitancy to move beyond his evolving position on Gay Marriage and the issue of women’s health care only underlies his reelection politics over his ethical standards.

Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius in an unprecedented move has overruled a scientific evidenced-based decision of the FDA [Food and Drug Administration]. The FDA’s decision that Plan B, a particular kind of emergency contraception is safe and effective for all women, no matter what their age and should be available over the counter. That is scientific and evidenced-based decision and Sebelius overruled it purely on political grounds. The Rainbow Sash Movement believes this decision goes against not only women’s constitutional rights but also their human rights. To attack the rights of teenage girls to have access to medications that will be lifesaving is just as bad to encourage gay/lesbian suicide rates by silence. Young teenage girls have rights that must also be protected.

The Rainbow Sash Movement believes that the Hyde Amendment should be overturned by banning Medicare coverage of abortion you put the lives of poor women at risk.

For too long the Rainbow Sash Movement has been silent on this issue. Our tone and lack of attention has sometimes alienated our sisters and for that we seek forgiveness. Our new year’s resolution is that we will stand for the human dignity of all people regardless of gender or sexual orientation both inside and outside of the Church.

We particularly challenge our Theologians, and Catholic Media both progressive and conservative to stop their biased based justification for the status quo of sexism, and become the voices of challenge.

We support the efforts of the National Organization of Women and call on our Catholic Bishops in the spirit of the Gospels to Challenge both their homophobia and sexism. We especially want teenage girls to know it will get better.

from Lezgetreal.com

Rainbow Sash is Catholic . . .exactly how?

This Sunday, the Rainbow Sash Movement and the massively funded and media generated gay liberation movement will protest at Holy Name Cathedral. That is nice.

Blow them a kiss and wish them God's Blessing and Peace.

Henry Van Ameringen's Truth Wins Out Buys Full Page KKK Ad

Nixon once said, " We are not in Cambodia."

Clinton once said, "I did not have sex with that woman."

Margaret Sanger once said, "We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members. "

Greg Harris said plenty -

On November 30, 2010, the Illinois House of Representatives passed the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act, co-sponsored by Representative Greg Harris, in a 32-24 vote. The bill grants legal recognition to any couple, same-sex or heterosexual, made up of two unrelated people over the age of 18. It also protects religious institutions, allowing them to still define marriage as they choose.

"We have a chance [with this legislation] to make Illinois a more fair state, a more just state, and a state which treats all of its citizens equally under the law," said Harris on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Immediately the State of Illinois made war on Catholic Charities and the Catholic Church.



"I knew very early that I was gay, so it was very uncomfortable growing up. I don't really have very happy memories," Henry van Ameringen told Advocate.Com

Henry Van Ameringen* one of the five founders of the Homosexual PAC The Cabinet is footing a good part of the bill in that war.

The KKK did not win that war either.

*

ORGANIZATION LISTING

H. van Ameringen Foundation
PREVIOUS
1 of 1 RESULTS
NEXT Contact: Mr. Henry van Ameringen
509 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022-5501
(212) 758-6221 phone
(212) 688-2105 fax
Funding Priorities

HIV/AIDS, Health: Mental, LGBT Issues

Grant Types

Matching/Challenge Support, Seed Money/Start Up Funds, Special Projects

Limitations

No Individuals, No Research, No Cultural Projects Funding

Areas

NY, National, Local, New York City Area and National Organizations (i.e. WILL NOT fund programs outside the NYC area unless the scope of the organization's work is national)

How to Apply

Letter of Inquiry

Average Grant

$12,500

http://www.uni.illinois.edu/og/news/2011/01/step-closer-equality-civil-union-legi

GAY KKK - Tracy Baim and Hiram Wesley Evans: Imperial Wizardry Plays the Media

1924

Roman Catholics - Hiram Wesley Evans, Imperial Wizard and Emperor, Knights of the KKK In 1920, said in this document ( "The Klan's Fight for Freedom") that the Klan's issue with the Catholic was not religious but political. . . . Mental and physical fitness go together and failure in either becomes a public burden. Evans used Eugenics ( Personal PAC Illinois) to point out the number of "defectives, dependents, and criminals" that require the nation's care in institutions. Evans used the figures of Dr. Harry H. Laughlin, a eugenics expert at this time, to point out that these burdens are in the millions. Evans blamed Laughlin's results on the flow of immigrants coming into the country. Evans said, "Insanity and crime are the worst manifestations of social inadequacy." The figures showed that insanity was higher among immigrants. Crime was higher among Negroes, Italians, Greeks and the Balkan people.

2011: Tracy Baim, Editor of Windy City Times and Huffington Post columnist

FOX Chicago Sunday: Tracy Baim and Joe Murray Discuss Cardinal George's Comments on Pride Parade : MyFoxCHICAGO.com

Tracy Baim: Cardinal George and the KKK: Religious Extremists Live in the Midwest, Too


If all religious groups paid their fair share of taxes, I wouldn't be as angry when they spoke out against my right to equality. But when a religious leader like Cardinal George gets a large forum to amplify his prejudice off all our taxpayer backs, it is an unfair system.

LGBT activists are planning a demonstration in front of Holy Name Cathedral, 730 N. Wabash Ave., in the wake of Cardinal Francis George's comments that compared the gay liberation movement to the Ku Klux Klan.
The protest, to be held at noon on Sunday, Jan. 8, is the first scheduled demonstration against George after he told Fox News Chicago that the gay-right movement was at risk of morphing "into something like the Ku Klux Klan, protesting in the streets against Catholicism." George has reiterated his controversial marks twice since the initial comment.

Leading the charge are LGBT groups Rainbow Sash Movement ( RSM ) and Gay Liberation Network.

"The RSM believes he seriously endangers the identity and unity of the Catholic Church by these bigoted actions," RSM said in a statement. "He brings a cloud of suspicion over the Archdiocese's commitment to the 10 pillars of Social Justice that the Church should be promoting."

The groups are asking that LGBT activists and allies turn out in solidarity.

The Klan Activists Loved to Strut Their Stuff in the Streets While Dressed in Flamboyant Regalia.

1924 and beyond - Along with Jews, the Klan believes that Catholics are impossible to assimilate and a threat to their institution. One of the main reasons the Klan believes Catholics are "unblendable" is because, as Evans stated, Catholics thrive upon ignorance.
Unblendable? An affront to the Rainbow that is diversity?


http://www1.assumption.edu/users/McClymer/his261/KlanNotes.html

Cardinal George, Gay Marriage, The Tribune and Critics

"Here's Your Hat. What's Your Hurry?"


Cardinal George was ambushed by Mike Flannery and Dane Placko on Fox Chicago's WFLD newscast just before Christmas. Since then gay activists have howled like King Lear.

The Chicago Tribune has a long history of anti-Catholic bias and holds firm*.

Last week the editorial board of the Tribune termed Cardinal George's analogy that some gay activists are like the KKK bizarre.

What is bizarre is the fact that those activities are very much like the Ku Klux Klan of the early decades of the last century.

Early this morning, I attempted to comment on this letter published in the Chicago Tribune under the heading Cardinal George's Poor Leadership -

4:03 p.m. CST, December 30, 2011
Ads by Google
While Cardinal Francis George is entitled to his opinion, opponents of his nasty rhetoric are entitled to respond, especially the very people he compares to the KKK.

To compare homosexuals (who have themselves been targets of the KKK) to that hate group is reprehensible. Such language coming from a man who purports to be the spiritual shepherd of his church is particularly troubling. For George to be insensitive to the pain inflicted by his comparison reveals much about his heart and mind.

The Catholic Church George leads is not a casual bystander in the struggle of gays and lesbians to achieve the same rights, protections and dignities extended to heterosexuals. Rather, George has mounted a grand campaign to thwart the extension of civil rights to gays and lesbians. He can't claim to be an innocent victim in a struggle in which he leads a charge to keep gays and lesbians marginalized in society.

What he says and does in the church is his business, but when he mounts a soapbox in the public square, he's fair game for criticism. George is a poor example of a spiritual leader.

-- Todd Arkenberg, Arlington Heights

No, Mr. Arkenberg, Cardinal George is a good example of a spiritual leader. Cardinal George is standing for principle over coercion ( financial, political and now thanks to the Illinois Religious liberty and Civil Union Law, legal).

Leadership often gets the leader isolated, imprisoned and executed.


My comments were deleted, blocked, scratched, aborted, or euthanized, by the Chicago Tribune. Several times.


Here is what I wished to post:

Todd Arkenberg, Arlington Heights is passionate in his defense of Gay Activists and their attempts to cloud sexual preference and desire as a basic Civil Right. More so, his attempt to paint Cardinal George as a some kind of bigot is nonsense.

The faux outrage following Mike Flannery and Dana Placko's gottcha moment was orchestrated and pre-packaged. The meme "unfortunate comments" were rolled out by Illinois Greg Harris and Sara Feigenholtz on cue and the petition drive by Truth Will Out funded by Henry Van Ameringen and George Soros's Change.org set the wheels in motion.

The Catholic Church will not allow adultery by heterosexuals, homosexuals, onanists, or any other unique expression of desire be considered anything but a sin. Catholics who commit adultery must be reconciled with the Church through the Sacrament of Penance.

That will not change, no matter what the human heart believes desirable.

Cardinal George's comments equating the activism of some homosexuals to the KKK of the early decades of the last century were spot on - the KKK was mainstream and enjoyed the support of Planned Parenthood's Margaret Sanger. Like Gay Activism today the KKK also enjoyed the support of mainstream Christian Churches and fully 2/3's of all Klan lecturers were Protestant ministers.

Thank God** for a free exchange of ideas in a free American Press.


*

By late 1853, it was frequently running xenophobic editorials that criticized foreigners and Roman Catholics.[7] About this time it also became a strong proponent of temperance.[8] However nativist its editorials may have been, it was not until February 10, 1855 that the Tribune formally affiliated itself with the nativist American or Know Nothing party, whose candidate Levi Boone was elected Mayor of Chicago the following month.[9]

By about 1854, part-owner Capt. J. D. Webster, later General Webster and chief of staff at the Battle of Shiloh, and Dr. Charles H. Ray of Galena, Illinois through Horace Greeley convinced Joseph Medill of Cleveland's Leader to become managing editor. Ray became editor-in-chief, Medill became the managing editor, and Alfred Cowles, Sr., brother of Edwin Cowles, initially was the bookkeeper. Each purchased one third of the Tribune.[10][11] Under their leadership the Tribune distanced itself from the Know Nothings and became the main Chicago organ of the Republican Party.[12] However, the paper continued to print anti-Catholic and anti-Irish editorials.
^ (Wendt 1979, pp. 23, 27–28)
^ (Cole 1948, p. 14)
^ (Keefe 1971, p. 131)
^ (Keefe 1975, pp. 233–4)
^ Rushton, Wyatt (1916). Joseph Medill and the Chicago Tribune (thesis). University of Wisconsin–Madison via Google Books full view. http://books.google.com/books?id=gcc7AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA7-IA2. Retrieved 2007-10-24. and White, James Terry (1895). The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States. James T. White & Company, via New York Public Library via Google Books full view. http://books.google.com/books?id=Td0DAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA224. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
^ Robert Norton Smith (June 10, 1997). Chapter 1, The Colonel, The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick 1880-1955. Houghton Mifflin Co. via The New York Times Company. ISBN 0-3955-3379-1. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/smith-colonel.html. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
^ (Wendt 1979, pp. 57–65)

** Obvious irony is sarcasm.

Tribune Editorial Board Savages Cardinal George and Plays it Safe

Chicago Tribune posted this last month to illustrate the Penn State Scandal -now, wonders about bizzare analogies.


"I knew very early that I was gay, so it was very uncomfortable growing up. I don't really have very happy memories," Henry van Ameringen told Advocate.Com

Henry Van Ameringen is an American angel, scion to a fragrance fortune and leader of the Homosexual Justice League - known as The Caninet.

I would bet a shiny penny that not one member of the Tribune Editorial Board knows who Henry Van Ameringen might be, let alone not see that blitzkrieg of howling, threats and orchestrated faux outrage over Cardinal George's equating some member Gay Activists with the Ku Klux KLan of the early decades of the last century.

America is gay friendly after all. Glee has taught us that. Oprah has spoken ex cathedra. All of the best people believe a the conjugal bed is gender neutral. If two men want to have a baby together it is their Civil Right.

Henry Van Ameringen is the George Soros of the Gay Movement. Mr. Van Ameringen is not alone. He has used the family fortune to help promote gay lifestyles, combat any and all opposition to the gay agenda and punish those in the way of Homosexual Marriage -written by openly gay journalist Mike Cloud and published in Time Magazine:

A few weeks before Virginia's legislative elections in 2005, a researcher working on behalf of a clandestine group of wealthy, gay political donors telephoned a Virginia legislator named Adam Ebbin. Then, as now, Ebbin was the only openly gay member of the state's general assembly. The researcher wanted Ebbin's advice on how the men he represented could spend their considerable funds to help defeat anti-gay Virginia politicians.

Ebbin, a Democrat who is now 44, was happy to oblige. (Full disclosure: in the mid-'90s, Ebbin and I knew each other briefly as colleagues; he sold ads for Washington City Paper, a weekly where I was a reporter.) Using Ebbin's expertise, the gay donors — none of whom live in Virginia — began contributing to certain candidates in the state. There were five benefactors: David Bohnett of Beverly Hills, Calif., who in 1999 sold the company he had co-founded, Geo-Cities, to Yahoo! in a deal worth $5 billion on the day it was announced; Timothy Gill of Denver, another tech multimillionaire; James Hormel of San Francisco, grandson of George, who founded the famous meat company; Jon Stryker of Kalamazoo, Mich., the billionaire grandson of the founder of medical-technology giant Stryker Corp.; and Henry van Ameringen, whose father Arnold Louis van Ameringen started a Manhattan-based import company that later became the mammoth International Flavors & Fragrances. he five men spent $138,000 in Virginia that autumn, according to state records compiled by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project. Of that, $48,000 went directly to the candidates Ebbin recommended. Ebbin got $45,000 for his PAC, the Virginia Progress Fund, so he could give to the candidates himself. Another $45,000 went to Equality Virginia, a gay-rights group that was putting money into many of the same races.

On Election Day that year, the Virginia legislature stayed solidly in Republican hands; the Democratic Party netted just one seat. But that larger outcome masked an intriguing development: anti-gay conservatives had suffered considerably.

(emphases my own)



Henry Van Ameringen and four friends had created the Cabinet -

The group that donated the money to use against Black and the others is known as the Cabinet, although you won't find that name on a letterhead or even on the Internet. Aside from Bohnett, 52; Gill, 55; Hormel, 75; Stryker, 50; and Van Ameringen, 78, the other members of the Cabinet are Jonathan Lewis (49-year-old grandson of Joseph, co-founder of Progressive Insurance) and Linda Ketner, 58, heiress to the Food Lion fortune, who is running for Congress against GOP Representative Henry Brown Jr. of South Carolina.

Ketner's is something of a long-shot bid — her district has been reliably Republican for years — but recently Congressional Quarterly described her "suddenly strong run" against Brown as "the biggest surprise" in this year's House races. Ketner, who was invited to join the all-male Cabinet as a way of diversifying it, declined to discuss her role in the group.

Among gay activists, the Cabinet is revered as a kind of secret gay Super Friends, a homosexual justice league that can quietly swoop in wherever anti-gay candidates are threatening and finance victories for the good guys. Rumors abound in gay political circles about the group's recondite influence; some of the rumors are even true. For instance, the Cabinet met in California last year with two sitting governors, Brian Schweitzer of Montana and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, both Democrats; political advisers who work for the Cabinet met with a third Democratic governor, Wisconsin's Jim Doyle. The Cabinet has also funded a secretive organization called the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), which a veteran lesbian activist describes as the "Gay IRS." MAP keeps tabs on the major gay organizations to make sure they are operating efficiently. The October 2008 MAP report notes, for example, that the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force fails to meet Better Business Bureau standards for limiting overhead expenses.

According to the online databases Opensecrets.org and Followthemoney.org, the seven members of the Cabinet have spent at least $7.8 million on political races since the beginning of 2004, although their true level of giving is doubtless far higher, since Followthemoney.org — which is run by the nonpartisan National Institute on Money in State Politics — does not capture all contributions to PACs (for instance, the Cabinet money that went to Ebbin's PAC in 2005 doesn't show up on the website). The Cabinet spends at least as much each election cycle as does the PAC run by the Human Rights Campaign, the world's largest gay political group. And yet the Cabinet has operated in stealth, without accountability from watchdogs. (The Cabinet does not subject itself to MAP analysis.)

Cabinet spending shows up in races all over the country where pro-gay candidates have a good shot. For instance, Bohnett, Gill and Van Ameringen have given $143,000 this year to New York Democrats, who are within two seats of controlling the state senate. A Democratic New York legislature would likely approve equal marriage rights.

Gay became powerful. Anything with enough money behind it is powerful. The Catholic Church used to be politically powerful. Men doing with boys has been its undoing, but ironically homosexuals argue that such horrific abuses have nothing to do with pedophilia. Likewise, GLBTQ activists and their cowed friend in the media can not allow Cardinal George to point out, quite correctly, that political intimidation by gay activists is not unlike those used by the KKK. They are.

Gays activists are much better organized and funded than the Klan was and though the KKK was very mainstream in the early decades, it never became part of American Culture. Recently, the Gay Lifestyle has as been touted as no different from Ward and June and Ozzie and Harriet.

The Catholic Church is the only insititutional religion stand up to the Gay Activists. So, hostile is the Chicago Gay Community that even Cardinal Bernardine, once remembered as a friedn to Gay Chicago is being excoriated - Here is Windy City Times editor Tracy Baim -

Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago, is not the only person hiding prejudice in the heavy robes of religion, but he is a powerful leader in the Catholic Church, and therefore his words have more meaning and power than your average street preacher or member of the church choir. . . .Other religious facilities have long endured the Pride Parade passing their doors on Pride Sunday, with no "anti-religious" problems reported in four decades. In fact, religious groups, including gay Catholics, have been a part of Pride almost since it began. Ironically, the KKK did march against the Pride Parade in its early years, and many spiritual people helped counter their presence.

But Cardinal George could not let the parade pass by his Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church on Belmont Avenue. He fought back, and did so using a vile comparison to the KKK. The Parade will still pass by the church, just at a later time. The change in time really is not what upset most LGBT people; rather, it was what George said about the KKK. He told FOX News Chicago: "You don't want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.

At this point, an apology is not enough. George has proven that he is out of touch with the progress of the LGBT movement in this city and country, and he should pass the torch to a new generation of Catholic leadership. Like Joseph Cardinal Bernardin before him, George has tried to use the church's power to keep back civil rights; Bernardin lobbied against Chicago's gay-rights bill in the 1980s, and George has spoken out against gay civil unions and women's rights."

Tracy Baim has been joined by the Tribune Editorial Board this morning, offering a simperingly gutless bitch slap Cardinal George.

Hours after Chicago's archbishop raised that astounding notion, organizers of the city's annual gay pride parade announced that they would delay the start of next year's march to avoid disrupting morning Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

That should have been the end of it.

A week later, gay rights groups are still demanding the cardinal apologize — or resign — and George is defending what he calls "an obvious comparison." Is this how anyone wanted to spend their Christmas season?

The gay community wasn't trying to antagonize Catholics when it drew up a plan that would send its floats past the Belmont Avenue church next June. Last year's Chicago Pride Parade drew more than 700,000 spectators, and organizers and city officials agreed it had outgrown its old route. . . .Responding to the blowback, a diocesan spokeswoman said the remarks were taken out of context and suggested people listen to the entire interview. We did. They aren't. George reiterated them on Wednesday, issuing a statement just when things might have been dying down.

"When the pastor's request for reconsideration of the plans was ignored, the organizers invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church," the statement read. "One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940s, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside the American consensus. It is not a precedent anyone should want to emulate."

That's right: As recently as 70 years ago, the KKK openly demonstrated against the Catholic Church. What that has to do with the pride parade is lost on us.

Hours after? The parish and the pastor asked the Gay organizers months ago about altering the times or the route, but after the oily Mike Flannery and the dim Dane Placko played WTTW on Cardinal George and the national network of gay activists, leftists bloggers, and petition drive roll-out via Henry Van Ameringen 's Truth Will Out ( TWO) and the Soros funded Change.org did the orgabizers roll out their cooperation.

Cardinal George, did not roll over or retreat on his analogy. It is correct. Catholics are not hostile to homosexuals. Catholic teaching does not allow adultery to be considered a matter of conscience - it is a sin for breeders, gays, onanists and deep thinkers. No bribe, threat, or legislation can change that.

The Chicago Tribune continues in the tradition of its founder Joe Medill, a wild anti-Catholic bigot. How's that analogy.


http://www.answers.com/topic/international-flavors-fragrances-inc
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/11/08/Gay_Donor_Named_New_Yorker_of_the_Week/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-cardinal-20111230,0,1589078.story

"I knew very early that I was gay, so it was very uncomfortable growing up. I don't really have very happy memories," van Ameringen told NY 1.

To The Manure Borne -Uffish Pipsqueaks and Snooty Bores

The other day in one of my posted musings, so innocent yet piquant, I described a progressive icon as being To The Manor Born.

To the Manor Born suggests birthright and a wholesome patrimony, which in point of fact the cunning and smarmy bastard might lay claim to biological surety, but his manner speaks otherwise.

An Anonymous twerp suggested that I was stupid. My dear chap, we are all born ignorant, but it's the education that we have acquired that makes us stupid.

The Uffish Pipsqueak railed endlessly that " you (me) call yourself an English teacher and the right phrase is To the Manner Born." Not only, my adversary who goes nameless, am I charged with self-proclamation, but also a bad one at that.

The phrase, to the manner born, comes from Shakepeare's Hamlet.

HORATIO: Is it a custom?

HAMLET: Ay, marry, is't:
But to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honour'd in the breach than the observance.

President Obama is great example of to the manner born; He seems Presidential. Like he was born to be President. The same can be said of Charlton Heston as Moses, or Andy Jackson. Martin Sheen makes a good President on the Old West Wing.

People who go to Ireland for a visit often return with lilt and an armory of witticisms. It took weeks to cure my thirteen year old daughter Nora of calling everything she liked 'Brilliant.' My son Conor, on the hand, said 'Dang' all through Great Britain, Ireland and only recently exchanged that exclamation of delight, approval and approbation for WTF!.

To the Manor Born was said to be used sometime in mid-19th Century. Where and how, I do not know nor do I shive a git.

To the Manner Born and To the Manor Born have nice uses and are far more colorful and dainty than the application of the hackneyed "Snob, stuck up, phony."

To the Manner Born is and should be complimentary - it says that someone sure has taken to the climate.

To the Manor Born suggests an intrusive plunger goes where he or she is not welcomed, nor fitting. It was the title of a BBC comedy in which a titled dowager fallen on hard times moved from the Ancestral Manor to a Suburban Estate.

My Uffish* antagonist who called me stupid just might be correct, in the most tangled web of inquiry every twisted by Dr. John Dewey.

Perhaps having dined at that particular bullshit buffet that is Progressive Thought for so many years, the anonymous pipsqueak is to the manure borne.

*“While he stood in uffish thought, the jabberwock with eyes of flame came whuffling through the Tulgey Wood and burbled as it came.” Lewis Carroll . . .not Eddie Carroll the Roofer Philosopher King.