Dick Durbin is not Just a Dope - He is an Apologist for a Cop Killer's Mouthpiece

Politics is all about people. People can be funny, especially when some people get slotted for higher office.  They are tasked by the powers that be and the money that funds their efforts to maintain or increase the pile to do exactly enough within their limited powers and abilities.  Some people in politics, with very limited skills and a complete inability to reflect on their words and deeds do handsomely, at our great expense.

There are people who should not be given the keys to a slop-sink closet, let alone the keys to national power.  Our electronic information highway culture provides the on-ramp for incompetent dopes provided with enough media cover be public persons -Pat Quinn, Jan Schakowsky, Mike Quigley, and U.S. Senators Marque Kirque (R.) and Dick Durbin come immediately to mind.

I knew Dick Durbin was a dope in 1997,  shortly after he was tapped to replace Senator Paul Simon and beat the then hapless Pat Quinn.  Durbin visited Leo on one of those 'inncer city kids' photo opportunity scams so beloved of phonies who never help the place after the pictures have been popped. Before meeting with Leo President , Durbin accompanied me on a tour of the school and stood in the trophy room gawking at Boyle and Ryan Bronzed Shoes from the 1956 City Championship Game and the many, many many football trophies dating back to the early 1930's.  He then spoke with the legendary Leo Teacher Coach, Principal and President, whop played in that 1956 City Championship game about the traditions of Leo Football from Johnny Galvin to Harold Blackmon.  Senator Durbin was introduced to the varsity head coach Mike Holmes whose Lions had made the playoffs only the Friday before and Durbin asked, " Does Leo Have a Football Team?"

Since then the senior U.S. Senator from Illinois has matched that question almost on a daily basis -

• American G.I.'s are Gulag Nazis
• Shilling for the Abortion Industry at Every Opportunity
• Make Gitmo Terrorists become Illinois Melon Patch Kids at Thomson Federal Detention Facility
• Telling Fibs about Telling Fibs That he Heard from Others About the President
• Making Ukrainians Listen to his Empty Prose While Putin Holds a Gun to Their Cousins' Heads
• Making Marque Kirque seem Statesman-like
• Asking the IRS to terrorize Old Ladies Who Like Tri-Corner Hats

I make light of this syrupy drip of a man, but that stops here.

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday voted to block Debo Adegbile, President Obama’s controversial nominee for assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, from being confirmed.
Adegbile’s nomination had been contested because of his history at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund defending notorious cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was found guilty of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid pleaded with the Democratic-controlled Senate to approve Adegbile’s nomination, but enough Democrats sided with Republicans on Wednesday afternoon to block a procedural step leading to a final vote. Fifty-two senators voted against proceeding, while 47 voted for it.

The leading  voice of The Mumia 47 is Dick Durbin



“Mr. Adegbile’s representation of Mumia Abu-Jamal does not mean he lacks respect for the rule of the law,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat. “And it certainly should not disqualify him for this important Civil Rights job. In fact, his willingness to represent an unpopular defendant in an emotionally-charged case demonstrates his appreciation for the rule of law.” (emphases my own)

I took an early voting opportunity.  I took a Republican ballot to vote for Doug Truax in the primary in the hope that at least one good man has the opportunity to run against one of the most useless office holders in America.

I used be amused by Durbin's homespun basset hound pious contrarian frowns as mere pancake make-up for a dope.  Mouthing off Atticus Finch-like pieties about a cop killer's mouthpiece tears the blanket.

This is as low as one should be allowed to go.

Durbin must be voted out.

Leo Wins a Stunner Over Carver at the Robeson Sectional

My right side is beaten black blue having stood to the immediate left of Miss Aurora Latifi throughout the second half of one of the best basketball games I have ever witnessed.  Miss Latifi, Leo High School Math Teacher and Mother Lion, is most demonstrative.  Every shot that went up signaled a pummeling of my right shoulder, arm and wrist. 

The Lions played like . . .lions.  Here is Pat McGavin's report for the Sun Times.

Tuesday night, Leo saw the best and brightest and a future worth getting excited about.
Three Leo sophomores made vitally important plays. Emerging star guard Darius Branch scored 14 of his game-high 28 points in the fourth quarter. All told, the Lions stormed back from an 11-point deficit to beat Carver 74-67 in a Class 2A Robeson Sectional semifinal.
“My team was counting on me, and I couldn’t let them down,” Branch said. “I just wanted to win so badly.”
Branch scored 14 of the Lions’ final 17 points. The only three points for which he did not directly account proved the difference. Sophomore Darias Oliver drilled a three-pointer with 1:12 remaining to push Leo to a 70-67 advantage.. . .The quick and explosive Branch scored 22 points in the second half as Leo (14-13) erased a 44-34 deficit midway through the third quarter. . . .( read more)

I wish I stood next to Terry Bates -  I will on Friday at Robeson for the Sectional Final. 

Putin's Next Move Will be Made by Red China

The issue is not that Putin fails to grasp the promise of western-style democratic capitalism. It is that he and other American rivals flatly reject it. -Brisbane Times

"The foe perceived that something incomprehensible was going on in that menacing Sevastopol. Those ex-
plosions and the death-like silence on the bastions made them shudder ; but they dared not yet believe, being still under the influence of the calm and forcible resis- tance of the day, that their invincible enemy had dis-
appeared, and they awaited motionless and in silence the end of that gloomy night."  Count Leo Tostoy: Sevastapol Sketches

I had coffee with a friend who loves all things Obama.  Let's say, we agree to disagree.  Despite the record of the Obama White House 2008-Present, this gent is yet a'tingle with the tranformative President; even what passes for the geo-political reenactment of Howard Zinn's American History lessons, now so evident in post-Olympic Crimea and Ukraine. My friend believes that President Obama has Vlad Putin "right where he wants him."  In The Ukraine? "Oh, Stop, Hickey, you and your neo-conservative playing Risk with American lives."

Damn me,

Putin is KGB and Obama is . . .autobiographer, Nobel Laureate, community organizer, Cook County Democratic chess piece, adjunct lecturer?

Putin is not in this alone.  Red China is backing Putin's play and while the Crimea has Valerie Jarrett's attention for the moment, I expect Vlad's next move will be played by the Chinese Reds.  

Japan and China both lay claims on Daioyu/Senkaku islands. And China's new zone overlaps with Japan's, which was formed on August 29, 1968. China contests the Japanese air defense zone as illegal, Zhang Junshe, who is with the Chinese Navy, told Xinhua.China also has stirred its South Korean neighbors. A reef called Ieodo in the Yellow Sea sits about 149 kilometers southwest of Korean and 287 kilometers east from China, and is partially covered by the Chinese ADIZ. The Koreans have established an Ocean Research Station on Ieodo. . . .

Jeffrey said the days and months ahead will be vital. If Putin faces few long-term consequences for seizing Crimea, it will set a precedent for China and other regional powers who may be considering establishing 19th century-style spheres of influence of their own.

"The Chinese," Jeffrey said, "are in the same position."

Obama organizes Planned Parenthood, White House Jay Z parties, MSNBC/Journolists play dates.  Putin goes for blood and dirt. Putin does not play.

Sarah Palin was mocked for looking out of kitchen window.  At least, she had the curiosity to take a peek.  Obama strikes me as the kind of guy who looks not out of windows, but into mirrors.

Risk is a game that I have never played in my life - too complicated.  I am a Candyland devotee, if truth be told.

And the Oscar Goes to. . .Eights Years a Disappointing Fop!

Watching theAnonymously Gender Specific Russian Thugs Walk intothe Crimea made me fully appreciate that President Obama has lived up to my expectations. - I skipped the Oscars.

• He's set back race relations with greater ease than Nathan Bedford Forrest could have dreamed
• He's had a wonderful time
• He's a Nobel Peace Laureate
• He shot Osama
• He's lowered the bar for Hillary
• He's 'gotten back to Vlad.'
• He's Guilt Free and UnConcerned
• He's the Egyptian Springs, He's Eyeless About Gaza, the Planned Parent, the Black Liberace,  the Irish Mist, the Chicken Kiev and the Magdalene Sister

Leo High School - 2014 IHSA Basketball Regional Champions!

I got this report from Leo President Dan McGrath at 9:59 PM last night*.

"Beat Epic Charter 84-67. Little sloppy at the end but we played well. Sectional at Robeson beginning Tuesday. "

Congratulations to Coach Noah Cannon and the Mighty Lions!

*   I was absent from the game, due to my obligations as a covert operative tasked with checking the menu of a steak house in Forest Park, Il, in the company of an absolutely exquisite young woman of charms that can only be matched by the excitement of Leo men who witnessed the expoits of Coach Cannon's crew on the hardwood of Bowen High.

One Sentence Alone Indicates the Greatness of 'Professor' Joseph Epstein -America's Montaigne

"Without intellectual courage, even the most charmed of lives lose their allure; unwilling to declare their beliefs, even the most brilliant of men are in the end divested of their gravity."

The above knock-out punch of a sentence comes from the ungloved mitts of Chicago's own Joe Epstein.

In a gloriously written essay on the "Charmed Life" of Isaiah Berlin in last week's Weekly Standard, "Professor" Epstein concluded his assessment of a life lived, but perhaps not really worth all of the schmoozing, name-dropping and plucking appointments.

Joe Epstein recently retired from teaching at Northwestern University and recoiled from my  use of 'professor' as my term of address in greetings spoken, or written.  Joe would say, " I am not a piano player in some Kankakee Cat-House, Hickey."  I also see him as the American Montaigne - the daddy of the essay.  Not good enough.  

Joseph Epstein is the Mohammad Ali of American prose non-fiction.

Toni Preckwinkle is Bone Stupid . . .but at Least as Smart as Karen Lewis and Rahm Went to New Trier.

"We've got in this country such distorted values. In the last 30 or 40 years we've invested all this money in our prison system, and our schools are starving for money." Toni Preckwinkle on America

Inmates get 24/hour care for roughly $ 39.000 per inmate - that's for 365 days per annum.

CPS children attend school for roughly 5 hours and 52 mintes (on the heavy side) at a cost of $ 26.500 - that's for 161 days per annum.

"We ought to invest a lot more in our public schools. You know, feed the kids breakfast, lunch, and dinner; have after-school activities; keep the schools open until nine o'clock in the evenings and on weekends; invest in things like the Boys and Girls Club and the Park District—I mean, everything, basically, to dramatically ramp up the investments in our children." -Toni Preckwinkle on Fighting Crime in Chicago

Toni Preckwinkle is bone stupid.

Then there is Karen Lewis ( read Jesse Sharkey) 

”The labor leaders of that time, though, were ready to kill. They were. They were just - off with their heads. They were seriously talking about that.” -<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Rf-N7Fe_Wc4?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

"The issue is we cannot get a perfect contract. There is no such thing as a contract that will make all of us happy, and we're realistic about that. The other issue, do we stay on strike forever until every little thing we want is capable of being gotten. We don't think that."

"This idea of corporate efficiency that's been pushed toward schools, that's a problem for us. It's not good for kids. I think people don't understand that. If kids are in chaos, their lives are in chaos. Where is the stability?"

"I'm so thrilled that people are going back, all of our members are glad to be back with their kids. It's a hard decision to make to go out, and for some people it's hard to make the decision to go back in." September 19, 2012

Karen Lewis is considered a ripe plum to Mayor of Chicago.

As for Rahm? Meh.  With regard to  Education and Chicago Crime, Rahm versus Toni and Karen is a debate about the difference between horse poop and manure.

"I wake up some mornings hating me too." -Rahm Emanuel

There, I've Said It Again!!!! Toni Preckwinkle is Bone Stupid

Toni Preckwinkle Mayor of Chicago?

Toni Preckwinkle is bone stupid, but that never seems to impede the path of an Illinois Progressive - Dick Durbin, Pat Quinn, Jan Schakowski, Joe Moore, Mike Quigley, Deb Mell. Deb Shore. Proco Joe ad infinitum.

I must repeat this!  Toni Preckwinkle is bone stupid.  I must repeat this in much the same manner as Carol Marin lifts ideas from Laura Washington - weeks late - and Eric Zorn channels the Brothers Klonsky, the Granta versions of Billy Ayers.

 Toni "The Cook County Crypt Keeper" and Zeus Preckwinkle sharing a hilarious moment.

Did I mention that Toni Preckwinkle is bone stupid?  There, I've said again!




That Toni Preckwinkle!  She's the Crypt Keeper and yet she managed to dump all of the corpses on Dr. Jones AND get the Sun Times Editorial Board to help.

Toni Preckwinkle is not evil; she is bone stupid and that always helps as a Progressive. . . anywhere and especially here in Cook County.

I remember Toni, from back in the days when she fell down an open manholes on the way from City Hall to the State of Illinois Building. Wasn't that a time?

I remember Toni when she dumped on Chicago Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow, after he was dead of course, as a racist.

I remember Toni Preckwinkle when she wore shoes from two very different pairs.

I remember Toni Preckwinkle . . .and I would love to forget that she is yet breathing my air.

Nevertheless, Toni Preckwinkle will always be with us, as long as there is a WTTW, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times - Carol Marin lifting thoughts from Laura Washington and Eric Zorn channeling the thoughts of the Brothers Klonsky.

Todd Stroger was seriously challenged, but Toni Preckwinkle is stupid and you can't fix stupid. You an only become a Progressive public money grabber. Stupid people depend upon formulae and always stick closely to the script.  They use teleprompters and memes, because an original thought would die of suffocation with the vapor-locked cavern between their ears.

Marijuana demands to be free!  Dopers allied with academic and lawyers with Progressive crendentials years ago and made legalization of drugs an identity politics adjunct.  Movie like Traffic appealed to the Smart Set -"Yeah, whom do drugs most harm, Hmmmm?"  The War on Drugs is a Drag, because it thickens prison yards, shoots up the community and denies dweebs the freedom to choose to get smoked up and baked. Toni Preckwinkle is doing for dope what Joe Moore did for goose guts.

Today, the Cook County Board President let her inner Toni out at an event dubbed a leadership conference hosted by the most fatuous ninny to sit in the Governor's Chair until Pat Quinn -GOP Jim Edgar and the ears at U of I  pricked up for the War on Drugs:

That’s when she said Reagan deserved “a special place in hell,” a comment that produced a discernible gasp among conferees, according to some in attendance.
She then, jokingly, said, “What, you didn’t like that?” the witnesses said.
Rose declined comment about her remarks or his exchange with Preckwinkle during what had been billed to attendees as an “off-the-record” discussion, though media representatives from the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and WBBM-TV were not told about those ground rules.
Preckwinkle offered no excuses. She later told the Sun-Times, “It was a conference and wasn’t supposed to be a media event, but when you speak in front of reporters it is a media event.”

The woman who wore the jacket for the Crypt Keeper of Cook County, Dr. Jones called Toni evil and Toni Preckwinkle damned Ronald Reagan, long dead of course, to Hell.

Toni Preckwinkle is in no way evil.

Toni Preckwinkle is bone stupid.  Bone stupid makes evil happen.


http://www.suntimes.com/14641564-761/preckwinkle-sorry-she-said-reagan-deserves-special-place-in-hell-for-war-on-drugs.html

Cucumbers, Cops and Chicago Media! Where's the Loevy?

 

I am not surprised that only hours after the revelation of Team Loevy's aiding and abetting Police Torture by a CPD Alumnus, Steve Manning-Mandel, no other suggestions of coming investigations are afoot by the Chicago Corporate Media. In fact, the report itself has been "edited"

Here is January 20,2014 report from the Federal Court at 1:27PM

Mandell said he did “a little bit” of the spying he was being paid for, but was conning Michael by claiming to be doing more work than he was being paid for.
He said he used the computer databases and other tools at the civil rights law firm Loevy & Loevy, where he was working as an unpaid process server, to research half a dozen targets Michael had asked him to keep tabs on.
That’s a potential embarrassment for the highly-regarded law firm, which represented Mandell in a 2005 wrongful conviction case against the FBI.  - BY KIM JANSSEN Federal Courts Reporter February 20, 2014 1:27PM

Here is the "updated" report that is heavier on cucumbers than Loevy & Loevy.  

 In the end, it was the cucumber salad that did Steve Mandell in. . . .He used his unpaid job at civil rights law firm Loevy and Loevy to research Michael’s rivals, he said.  Updated: February 21, 2014 2:26AM  (emphases my own)

That is some update.      The cucumber trumps the computer used by Steve Mandell in the offices of Loevy & Loevy?  Count the number of times Steve Mandell is refered to as ex-cop, or former Chicago Police Officer and then try and find the Loevy & Loevy in the print media these next few days,

Loevy & Loevy are believed to be the arch-enemies of cops who torture, yet have and unpaid cop planning a sophisticated torture and execution chamber under their very snot-lockers?  Can't have that and continue to set the likes of Anthony Porter, Aaron Paterson and other worthies back into the the very communities they terrorized.  Can't have that and expect G. Flint Taylor to fight Gator Bradley for spilled nickels on the court room floor.

Reporters have a tough job. They get the story. They write the facts of the story and then find that their facts must fit the print according to the editorial policy folks.   Hence, Kim Janssen's report from the Federal Court on January 20th found itself 'updated.'

The Chicago news media is invested in the activities of Loevy & Loevy, as much as the elected officials and policy wizards who need to have the police presented as racist, brutal and corrupt.  All inquiry ends there.

Loevy & Loevy make millions of dollars from suits brought against Law Enforcement ( police, prosecutors, judges and the public they serve) and Loevy & Loevy provides capital in coin and court cases that create compelling yarns.  Loevy & Loevy were complicit in a torture plot managed by a man who briefly and infamously had been a cop decades ago.

Steve Mandell is a convicted monster.  Loevy & Loevy are this monster's Frankenstein.

Buried Ledes and The 'Wrongful' Conviction Industry

One cop that Jon Loevy likes

Steve Mandell leaves the Dirksen Federal Building in 2005 with his attorney Jon Loevy. | Sun-Times Media file photo

Unlike this crew, who have managed to completly avoid corporate and complicit media Inquiry altogether.

bury the lede

1. (idiomatic) (news writing style) To begin a story with details of secondary importance to the reader while postponing more essential points or facts. 

Lede - means The Man in Old English, interesting to note.

For years, I have written about the willful ignorance of politicians and the media that helped create Chicago's "Wrongful" Conviction Industry.  

Chicago is a Thug Comfort Zone thanks in large part to this Industry that benefits journalists, Marxist academics and unprincipled lawyers.  This Industry benefits very few people and was founded on wishful doctrine - John Dewey's replacement of Inquiry for Truth.  Begin with a premise like 'all police officers are paid racists, Uncle Tom Go-longs, or sadistic fascists operating for Systemic Racism' and any conviction even for the most horrific and bloody of acts can and will be tried in the media and over-turned.

Generations of Chicagoans have been emotionally, intellectually and spiritually water-boarded with the drip-drip-dripping yarns of electric testicle burners, Houses of Screams that no one but John Conroy seemed to hear, and sequestered testimony by disappearing boy scouts and of course Vietnam chestnuts.  Kids unborn when Officers Fahey and O'Brien were, in fact, tortured and murdered by the Wilson Brothers at 80th & Morgan deeply believe that Jon Burge tortured more Black persons than Idi Amin.

The Peoples Law Office, G. Flint Taylor, Jon Loevy, David Protess, Locke Bowman and Aaron Patterson are the founding founding fathers of Systemic Police Brutality and Wrongful Convictions, Llc.

Today, we learned, thanks to a public heads-up from police blog The Second City Cop, of the co-operation the law firm of Loevy & Loevy provided to a man hired to murder for the mob. SCC was required to dig the lede up that was buried deeply down page.

Former Chicago cop Steve Mandell took the stand in federal court Thursday to defend himself against charges he plotted multiple murders.
The risky move — rarely taken by defendants, especially in such a high stakes case — comes at the end of a two week trial at which jurors have heard how Mandell built a torture chamber on the Northwest Side, where he planned to extort, then kill a wealthy suburban businessman, and how he allegedly planned to kill an owner of Polekatz strip club and his wife.
But then this happened:
Mandell said he did “a little bit” of the spying he was being paid for, but was conning Michael by claiming to be doing more work than he was being paid for.
He said he used the computer databases and other tools at the civil rights law firm Loevy & Loevy, where he was working as an unpaid process server, to research half a dozen targets Michael had asked him to keep tabs on.
That’s a potential embarrassment for the highly-regarded law firm, which represented Mandell in a 2005 wrongful conviction case against the FBI.
Really? Do tell. The Loevys helped him win a suit against the FBI that was later overturned. And the Loevys also have a habit of scoring large payouts in suits against the City. It certainly sounds like Mandell was hip deep in the shit that got him placed on Death Row once before.
Very interesting. (emphasis my own)

Credit Kim Jansenn of the Chicago Sun Times for providing the  Loevy & Loevy info. Perhaps some investigative jornalist might begin to dig deeper into the Industry and the complicity of academics, lawyers and elected officials in creating the Chicago Thug Comfort Zone.

More interestingly a young Chicago police officer, Martin Preib*, has book coming out this month that sheds light on the protected species of the Wrongful Conviction/Police Torture Industry.



New City Communications **offers a taste of Preib's painstaking research and sharp insights -

 . . . a disturbing vision of David Protess and the Innocence Project emerged, as well as of the wrongful conviction movement itself. In 2011, Protess was caught by Northwestern University “knowingly misrepresenting the facts” in a matter related to an unrelated wrongful conviction case. The attorney for Northwestern told a judge that Protess had altered emails subpoenaed by prosecutors. Protess brushed aside the assertion that he had altered evidence, saying it was just a misunderstanding, but it was enough for Northwestern to conduct its own internal investigation. After this internal investigation, Protess was fired from the university and the school issued a public statement acknowledging Protess’ wrongdoing. I exchanged many emails with Protess and some phone calls with Paul Ciolino when I first became interested in this story. But as my questions eventually revealed my skepticism about the Porter exoneration and the conviction of Simon, as well as the manner in which Protess ran the Innocence Project—which he continues to run to this day independent of Northwestern—Ciolino refused to respond to my inquiries. Eventually, Protess, too, stopped responding to me. How deep did Protess’ lying go? How badly were his cases tainted? Perhaps the best people to answer this question are detectives Salvatore and Gray, and Alstory Simon, who wastes away in prison to this day. “I got accused of a lot of things I didn’t do. There were lies said about me in this case. If they’re lying about me, who else are they lying about? What other detectives are they lying about?” Salvatore says. -

It may be a beginning.  Truth is much tougher to swallow than Inquiry.

*Martin Preib is a Chicago police officer and writer. His first book, “The Wagon and Other Stories from the City,” was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2010. His essays have been published in Playboy, Virginia Quarterly Review (winner of the 2005 Staige D. Blackford Award for Nonfiction) and Tin House.  His new book, “Crooked City,” will be available at Amazon.com this month. -

**Newcity.com is a Web site about Chicago. We start with the core coverage found each week in Newcity magazine, Chicago’s only locally owned and operated cultural weekly, where we’ve been covering the turf for more than 25 years, and extend it with your input on this site.  
**

Iwo Jima February 19, 1945- Thanks Dad.

Sixty-nine years ago, my late father was just twenty.  He was a PFC in the Third Marine Division and  a veteran of the Bougainville (1943) and Guam ( 1944) Campaigns. He and his pal Bob Guth were aboard an LST off Iwo Jima on this day in 1945.  Thanks Dad, Bob and all of the other heroes who made very little of their great sacrifices.

Podcast Comes to Beachwood Reporter! Kingsford and Rhodes Rock the Airwaves!

Listen up, Bitches!

"The world's wittiest Chicago-centric news and culture review kicks off its new weekly current events podcast with hosts Andrew Kingsford and Steve Rhodes. It's real, man." 

Steve Rhodes is a true Chicago newsman, even though he hails from The Land of Ice and Snow where people actually like Garrison Keillor and Swedes vote for Al Franken and On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore. . . . where was I ? 

Yep, Steve Rhodes can sling ink.  Steve is paired with Andy Kingsford from Oz, who owns and operates The Flying Saucer - a great place for generous portions of great food at modest prices,  Rhodes sling ink and Andy slings hash.  Together, they present the a solid podcast of news and insight only rivaled by the Skinny and Houli Show. 

Voila, Steve et Andy les durs sauvages et originales de Beachwood Inn et des journalistes qui connaissent leurs pommes de terre de leur Preckwinkles!

Leo HS Morning 2/11/2014 -I Ride With Pride and Clyde By My Side!

 I am blessed with a great life and the opportunity to work for Leo High School.  I get to Leo at about 4:45 most days and start the boilers, do some paper work and get one of the vans ready to pick up between seven and nine guys participating in early morning activities. My crew is usually Cyde, Chris, TJ, Mick, Joe, Latrell, Caleb, Gaylon, and Sydney.  I begin in Englewood at 74th & Normal, go to Grand Crossing at 66th & King Drive, take that beautiful, historic and inspiring Boulevard north to 35th and Dunkin Donuts!

At 5:45 AM I defrost and chip ice from Old # 7 and get the heat up -somewhat and at 6:10 head to pick up my co-pilot and fifteen year old mentor Clyde at 74th & Normal 

 The man emerges and runs to the van.  Hoists himself and a twenty pound book bag in to the van and greets me with a genuine "Good morning Mr. Hickey! My Mom says hi!  Let's Roll!"Route #66   Nelson Riddle   Nelson Riddle Collection

Download Route #66   Nelson Riddle   Nelson Riddle Collection MP3 for free on Dilandau

 Roll we do north toward Hamilton Park . . .

and then east to Wentworth, north again to 67th and then east to grab Chris - on the way Chris's Mom calls to say that he has the flu. Like Clyde, Chris never misses a day and commands a 3.8 GPA.

We pass Chris's home in the Park Homes and head north

 Under the 63rd Street L Platform

 and past Wahsington Park at 59th Street.  Past the 55th Street Garfield Boulevard the real charms of Chicago Architecture from the days of Burnham become evident.

 East and west we see scores of the very best examples of Chicago Architecture.

 We come to heart of Bronveville the birthplace of Chicago Blues and Jazz and the Harold Washington Library on the east side King Drive.

 At 45th we pass a beautiful old building boarded up and aching for a rehab.

 The Sax Man agrees!

 On the east side of 43rd and MLK drive stands my very favorite Chicago building.

 Just before 35th Street we come to the wonderful WWI Memorial to the Men of Bronze - the all African American Illinois Guard Regiment from Chicago that twisted the Kaiser's mustache until he gave up.   We make a right at 35th Street and a left at the strip mall that is home to our Dunkin Donuts

I explain that we are 'showing the flag,' like a 1920's Yankee gun-boat on the Yangtzee River - representing Leo High School in words and deeds and the lads have stepped up magnificently. For two years now, we are warmly greeted by the Dunkin Donuts regulars, headed by the Mall Manager Roy and the working the men who begin their day here.

Not a day goes by without a full report from Clyde

and fleshed out by Joe, Mick, Caleb, TJ, Latrell & etc.

The Dunkin Donuts He-Bull . . .

and the Dream Team serve us with coffee, OJ and a box of Munchkins ( chocolate glazed only).

These are my pals!  Missing is eighty year old Miss Marie and the famous BB Ref.

Back to the van and west on 35th Street, we pass Catholic League rival D.

 and approach the Dan Ryan.

 We pass Sox Park and merge with a near miss which upsets sissy-britches Mick

 Now, I pay great attention to rush hour south!

 We exit at 79th Street head west and arrive at Leo High School at 7:15 AM.

The guys polish off the Munchkins and get a hot breakfast at Leo.  The guys head to their activities, or tutoring sessions.  They put in a very long day of academics and sports and most do not get home until well after 7PM.

I am a very blessed man - Facta Non Verba.