Congratulations to the Pipe Trades! Rahm Owes Skilled Labor Big Time.

The first sign that Rahm Emanuel might hold Chicago for another four years went up on the Dan Ryan Expressway on east side near 79th Street.  Sometime in October, the huge sign praising Rahm for that he is went up at expense of the United Piipe Trades of Chicago;shortly, thereafter, the skilled trades unions sided with the plumbers and pipe fitters in a marshaling of labor forces that eclipsed the public salaried unions - The Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU.

Anyone of the two people in my legion of readers knows that I am a constant critic public sector unions and fierce defender of the skilled trades, but I found myself on the side of SEIU and CTU in this mayoral election - general and runoff.

It is a headscratcher. I am no fan of Rahm Emanuel - not now;not no how.  He is a what is wrong with the Democratic Party which since the 1972 Democratic Convention became a torts platform and grievance utility.

I believe in neighbors. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia is a neighbor.   Rahm Emanuel is Richard M. Daley with better syntax, better tailor and better barber.

Rahm Emanuel and all of his polls won.

The congratulations go, not to the $ 1,200 suits and $400 haircuts, but to the skilled trades locals of Chicago.  They put Rahm over.  Now, swell haircuts should be consigned to the back of the elevator going up to the 5th Floor of City Hall . . .for a couple of weeks anyway.

Skilled Trades Unions Give to Rahm: Folly

“folly…that is, the pursuit of policy contrary to the self-interest of the constituency or state involved,” Barbara Tuchman from The March of Folly

Firefighters, union electricians, tradesmen...the very people Rahm has been campaigning against publicly for years. There's also a list of out-of-state financiers, bankers, and other big money types looking at RAhm's national ambitions - like maybe Kirk's Senate seat. Second City Cop

Just imagine if Rahm put this much effort into raising money for the pension balloon payment - we'd be sitting pretty.


Filtered through a dependable Media myna bird, Rahm Emanuel will announce more support for his mayoral re-set from Skilled Trades Unions:

• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (representing two locals)
• Laborers District Council (represents eight locals)
• International Union of Operating Engineers (represents two locals)
• Ironworkers District Council (representing three locals)
• Painters District Council 14 (representing 13 locals) 

Rahm is anathema to public sector unions, but he is no Scott Walker - he is a nastier Bruce Rauner, who is no stranger to nasty.


The public salaried 'unions' are backing Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia and they are remarkable because of the numbers.

Rahm has cur a deal with 'real labor' - trades that actually earn their salaries and benefits, through sweat equity, personal sacrifice and contract negotiation.

Public sector employees depend up later-day Trotskies and Jesse Sharkey, who writes the script for the Teachers Union and retired Weathermen like Mike Klonsky.  These Cadillac Commies share brie with the likes of Progressive Mandarins in Hyde Park and Evanston, like Dr. Quentin Young and Abner Mikva, followed by vigorous policy bullying of National Honor Society/Phi Beta Kappa Gold Key ink slingers and news readers of the Chicago media and then bulldoze legislation to give teachers, clerks and go-fers in government employ more money in salary, pension and medical bennies than Lotto player could ever dream of - and call it Labor.

The Skilled Trades are the middle class, because they built the middle class in America, when teachers, clerks and bureaucratic go-fers crossed theor picket lines from the 1920's through the 1960's. Add  globs of John Dewey mis-education for decades and pour on rhetorical bullshit seven days a week in the media and Chicago voters accept SEIU, CTU, AFSCME as children from Terrence Powderly and Sam Gompers. Voila!

I became aware that Rahm was gioing to play Middle Class Hold 'Em early this fall when a massive billboard went up on the Dan Ryan Expressway on the south east corner of 79th Street. I see it every morning as I drive a van load of Leo HS students to school - big as a The Big Lie.

N.B. Try and find an image of that sign on Google!

Anyway.  Rahm Emanuel, like every Progressive, hates the middle class down to the marrow. Rahm hates Catholic (private -non Chicago Lab) schools, parking spaces, streets without bike lanes, neighborhoods and the people who live in them.

Plumbers, pipe-fitters, pipe-coverers, electricians, laborers, carpenters, firemen, machinists and teamsters live in Gresham, Mount Greenwood, Portage Park, Garfield Ridge, Canaryville, Back of the Yards, Pilsen, and over by Midway.

I would never tell anyone for whom she/he should vote. Never have.  Me, I have made the mistake of voting for people like Dick Durbin, Pat Quinn and others who pretend to be my friend, but work to destroy the values and prosperity of my  middle class standard of living.  Rahm Emanuel makes Durbin and Quinn seem like nice, straight-forward gents.

I am just a school teacher and a pretty good one.  I know my trade, because I work at it - just like a pipefitter.

I read much and remember more.  Barbara Tuchman wrote a book on stupid decisions in history that were based upon foolish self-interest. I taught that book.  Tuchman details the lust for power that operates the motives of a Priam, a Pope Sixtus, A George III and a Rahm Emanuel, "Chief among the forces affecting political folly is lust for power, named by Tacitus as "the most flagrant of all passions.”  Power for the sake of agenda, usually Progressive these days, gives us Thug Comfort Zones, Massive Water Bills, Red Light Cameras, Lousy Schools in Perpetuity, Higher Property Taxes, Diminished Savings and less opportunity.

Tuchman elaborates, “A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests. Mankind, it seems, makes a poorer performance of government than of almost any other human activity. In this sphere, wisdom, which may be defined as the exercise of judgment acting on experience, common sense and available information, is less operative and more frustrated than it should be. Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests? Why does intelligent mental process seem so often not to function?”


Finally she warns, like Cassandra herself, about our massive memory loss, “The attitude was a sense of superiority so dense as to be impenetrable. A feeling of this kind leads to ignorance of the world and of others because it suppresses curiosity.”
 

Com Ed is On It! Imagine if it were a Government Agency.

Monday's brief but bold storm knocked out power all over Chicago Metro Area. A buddy of mine in Morton Grove, the Marathon Pundit his own bad self, John Ruberry, has been doing the 19th Century/21st Century morph -burning candles and using the old palm-messenger device ( which must be re-charged at a library or Starbuck's with power) to keep up on his reading and writing.

The storm knocked out power in the 18th & 19th Wards from 79th Street North to 109th Street south and roughly from Ashland east to Pulaski west. Power was restored by 6 PM on my block between 107th & 108th Street on Monday. Imagine the loss to families in the costs of spoiled meat and other groceries from family stockpiles in the deep freezer. More significantlty, were another gully washing downpour rain upon us, the sump pump has no power.

In all nearly 800,000 customers were without power - multiply that by four ( your basic husband;wife; three kiddies) and that is a crowd of folks.

By this morning, power has been restored to all but about 100,000 customers. That is pretty damn good work.

I know a bunch of Com Ed workers, most significantly the great Gino Ford who coffees up with me at Kean Gas most mornings - no sign of Gino the last three days; that boy has been up the pole, or in the bucket doing his Electrical Voodoo that He Do So Well!

This morning, I got over to Leo especially early and witnessed a parade of utility vehicles -Bucket Lift Rigs of all sizes and shapes and by my estimate there had to be forty, or more vehicles parading west on 79th Street. The odd thing was that they were all from Punta Gorda, FL. ComEd jumped on the crisis and brought in teams from neighboring states,

I found this press release issued from Com ED on July 11th.

ComEd currently has approximately 480 crews in the field and is requesting assistance from all available resources, including contractor crews and assistance of crews from neighboring states. It also has enlisted additional staffing to manage the large volume of calls experienced by the customer call center. Customers also can visit ComEd.com to report outages and follow us on Twitter to obtain restoration information.

“We recognize that power outages disrupt the lives and businesses of our customers,” said Anne Pramaggiore, president and chief operating officer, ComEd. “ComEd crews are working hard to restore service to customers affected by the storm as quickly and safely as possible.”

The powerful storm began moving through the ComEd service territory around 6:00 a.m. and departed by 9:30 a.m. Most damaging to the ComEd system was intense lightning, with high winds as a factor in causing extensive tree damage and bringing down power lines. The resulting outages are more difficult and time consuming to restore as they involve attention to more individualized equipment.

The largest number of outages is located in the company’s northern and western regions. ComEd is working with municipal officials and businesses to provide ongoing updates to them regarding restoration efforts.

ComEd’s restoration process begins with damage assessment, this process enables the company to determine hardest hit areas and factors into restoration times. The company then prioritizes outage restoration to ensure public safety first such as police and fire, then hospitals and other critical customers. Next, ComEd restores feeders, which allows us to return power to large numbers of customers at one time, followed by smaller service restorations and individual outages.

Public safety is paramount during storms and ComEd encourages the public to remember to take the following precautions:

This is great attention to customer service and public safety. We beef about utilities and their cost hikes - I know I do.

However, I was really impressed this morning by number of trucks and command vehicles brought into the Chicago area to fix the power outage. No one can say that Com Ed is not doing everything in its power to restore power.

That power lies in the hands of Gino Ford and guys and girls in the 480 bucket truck crews. Imagine if the utilities were in the hands of the government.

Welcome to Port Au Prince, Illinois.

Great job Com Ed!

Manya Brachear! Meet Father Robert Sirico - Catholic and Compassionate

I read quite a bit. No brag, just fact. In a family of skilled tradesmen, I remain the bookish goof. While my brother and scores of cousins can unclip a tape measure and artfully root out any problem in seconds with an application of muscle, toggle-bolts, sheet metal cutters, dry wall knives, plumber's dope and table saws, I remain a victim. I need to call a Tradesman.

I read Shakespeare, Virgil, Kant, Dante, Petrarch, Cicero, St. Augustine, Tommy Aquinas, Spinoza, Bellow, Tolstoy and Issac Bashevas Singer. I read while John, Mike, Red Pat, Brian, Barbara, Sheila, Kevin, Glen and Larry schooled themselves in HVAC, plumbing, carpentry, electrical math and fundamental chemistry to become engineers, carpenters, electricians, and pipe-fitters.

Readers often became priests. I went to priest school in high school. I translated Latin into English and developed rudimentary communications skills, but also learned that I was no where near cut-out for celibacy and by senior year exploded onto the co-educational Catholic social scene with some modest success.

Law? Perhaps. Teaching even better. I became a high school English teacher. It was a profession back then. I could read voraciously without being impugned as a loafing dope with his schnozzola glued to a page.

This morning I sweetened my sarcasm tooth with a gooey piece from the always daffy-taffy of Manya Brachear - the Chicago Tribune's Seeker. This kid is a champ and never a disappointment. Manya Branchear takes the road-less-travelled by anyone with a lick of common sense or shred of public understanding. Manya champions the goofball Sinsinawa Dominican - a catalog of goofs those babes be - nun who escorts kids to their appointed abortions at Planned Parenthood. That is like oozing with goodwill for that thoughtful religious seeker, Jihad Jane, who found Islam and decided to murder the Danish cartoonist. "Gee, she thinks outside of box!"

So does Manya - with great regularity.

Today Manya touts a Social Justice panel to be brought on the stage at North Park University. The panel is a Progressive parade of Lakota shamans, prayer-catcher shakers, Gender shrills, Race parsers and the lead- off Korean preacher. A Rainbow of Diversity! Edgy! Check out the line-up and the topics! Meet the Magnificent Social Seven! Hey, God love them all! I am sure that each and every pillar of Progressive Thought getting a paycheck from North Park is worth every dime.

1. Richard Twiss is a member of the Sicangu Lakota/Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. He is Co Founder, with his wife Katherine, and President of Wiconi International. Richard is committed to seeing Native people emerge as a dynamic voice for justice, reconciliation and healing around the world in the spirit of Jesus. He and Katherine have been married since 1976 and have raised four respectful sons and live in Vancouver, Washington.

Richard Twiss will be speaking on “Dancing Our Prayers” at a North Park Theological Seminary student chapel and dinner at 5:00 pm in Olsson Lounge. He will also be part of a panel discussion on Saturday’s Justice Training Workshops.
2.Andrea Smith teaches at Media and Cultural Studies at UC Riverside. She is the author of Native Americans and the Christian Right: The Gendered Politics of Unlikely Alliances and is editor of The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex. She is co-founder of the Boarding School Healing Project and is US Coordinator of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians.

Andrea Smith will be presenting on the non-profit industrial complex on Wednesday, April 14th at 7:00PM in Hamming Hall.

3.Peter Goodwin Heltzel is Associate Professor of Theology, New York Theological Seminary, and an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He is the author of Jesus and Justice: Evangelicals, Race and American Politics (Yale University Press, 2009). Peter Heltzel received his B.A. from Wheaton College, his M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D. from Boston University.

Peter Heltzel will be presenting on Jesus, Justice and Race on Thursday, April 15 at 9:00 am in Isaacson Chapel at North Park Theological Seminary (Nyvall Hall).

4. Dr. Mimi Haddad is president of Christians for Biblical Equality. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. She holds a Ph.D. in historical theology from the University of Durham, England. Mimi is a founding member of the Evangelicals and Gender Study Group at the Evangelical Theological Society, and she served as the convener of the Issue Group 24 for the 2004 Lausanne III Committee for World Evangelization. She has written numerous articles and has contributed to eight books, most recently as an editor and a contributing author of Global Voices on Biblical Equality: Women and Men Serving Together in the Church. Mimi is also an adjunct assistant professor at Bethel University and an adjunct professor at North Park Theological Seminary. She and her husband, Dale, live in a mixed-income, inner-city housing development committed to creating greater financial stability in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Dr. Haddad will be presenting on Justice and Gender on Thursday, April 15 at 10:45 am in Isaacson Chapel at North Park Theological Seminary (Nyvall Hall).

5. Terry LeBlanc is Mi’kmaq /Acadian, from Listuguj First Nation and Campbellton, NB, Canada. He and his wife Bev are in their 38th year of marriage. They have three adult children engaged in various areas of indigenous mission in Canada, the USA and the Philippines. He is the founding Chairman and current CEO of NAIITS (North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies) and My People International, a capacity-building and training ministry with Indigenous peoples. In his role with these two organizations, Terry speaks often on the development of cultural bridges between Aboriginal people and the majority cultures in North America and elsewhere in the world. Terry also teaches as a sessional lecturer in Intercultural Studies and Theology at several colleges, seminaries and universities and, for a number of years has been a guest lecturer/speaker at educational institutions across Canada and the United States. He is currently serving as adjunct faculty in Theology and Intercultural Studies for two seminaries. He is a PhD Candidate in Intercultural Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky.

6.Lisa Sharon Harper is a Speaker / Activist / Author / Playwright / Poet. She is the author of Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican…Or Democrat (The New Press) and is the Co-founder and Executive Director of NY Faith & Justice. NY Faith & Justice is at the hub of a new ecumenical movement in New York City to address issues of environmental injustice and violence in black and brown communities. Ms. Harper earned her master’s degree in Human Rights, with a concentration in Religion & the Media, from Columbia University in New York City. Ms. Harper is a graduate of the USC School of Theatre’s MFA Playwriting class of 1995. Her thesis play, An’ Push da Wind Down explores Ms. Harper’s own Cherokee/Chickasaw and African-American heritage. She is a featured op-ed writer for the God’s Politics blog and BeliefNet’s Progressive Revival blog.

Lisa will be responding at the Campus Justice Lecture on Thursday, April 15 with Terry LeBlanc on the topic of Environmental Justice at 7:00 pm in Hamming Hall. She will also present on the topic of Mobilizing for Environmental Justice at the Saturday Training Session.

7. Soong-Chan Rah is Milton B. Engebretson Associate Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism and the author of The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity (IVPress, 2009). Soong-Chan previously served as founding Senior Pastor of the Cambridge Community Fellowship Church, a multi-ethnic, urban, post-modern generation church in the Central Square neighborhood of Cambridge, MA. Soong-Chan currently serves on the boards of Sojourners, the Christian Community Development Association and the Catalyst Leadership Center. Soong-Chan presents content on the topics of racial reconciliation, social justice, and urban ministry at his blog.

4days4justice at North Park University is an attempt to hear from previously marginalized voices in both American society and the evangelical community.

We will have the chance to hear Native American Christians address the issue of environmental justice. (I still haven’t figured out how we ever had any serious dialogue about the environment without considering the perspective of the Native American community).

We will be involved in round table discussions (in a fishbowl style) on the topic of social justice with evangelicals from various ethnic communities. And we will offer workshops (particularly geared towards local churches) on various social justice topics during a one day training session on Saturday.

Will we answer all the questions about the role of evangelicals in the public realm.? No, but I hope that at least we’re asking the right questions.

Oooo! Ooooo! Me! Manya!
Are you soft? Christ on a Crutch! Let's look at the syllabus for the panelists and the panelists themselves Not a Moody Billy Sunday in that cavalcade of Evangelical Stars! No Babbit's in Manya's Bonnet.
No, Sir!
Gender Issues? Check!
Race Issues? Oh, Hell Yes!
Dancing to Justice? On the money! We got Acadians, Aboriginal concerns! No substance.

Social Justice begins and ends with the operation of human heart - it is charity and not policy.

Social Justice is very good. Societal manipulation is very, very bad and tends to run-in-place as opposed to move people forward.

I work social justice everyday. No brag; just fact. Dr. Jack O'Keefe ( City Colleges ret.) and Denny Conway ( CPS ret.) teach as volunteers in the kill-zone of Gresham every day, Manya. Read the Chicago Murder Boxscores.

I have a backlog of Campaign Leo and 21st Century enveleopes that I need to add to the EXCELL spread sheets - amounting to more than $ 30,000 from $50,100, 200,500, 1,000 gifts by men with White Guy Zipcodes - 60643, 60655, 60638, 60453, 60462 & etc.

That's social justice, Kiddo. No Prayer Catchers, just envelopes with dough. No strings, no plaques, no articles, no Love Offerings expected. Gifts of human heart given freely.

The Panel at North Park will be swell: Lakota incantations and prayers out of the William Least-Heat Moon catalog. When the Beaver returns to Chicago River - Once Debra Shore and the Gay Lesbian Transgender Bi-Sexual Water Reclamation District reverses the flow of the River -Only Then - will my heart soar light Hawk and wing with the Great Spirit!

Manya, if you expect to to get to the nub of social justice, read Father Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute. Thus!

The problem here is the slick move from personal ethics to public policy. What is required of us as individuals may or may not translate into a civic policy priority. In the case of the welfare state, it is possible to argue that it does great good (though I would dispute that). Whether it does or does not, however, a government program effects nothing toward fulfilling the Gospel requirement that we give of our own time and income toward assisting the poor.

The reason has to do with matters of the human heart. If we are required to do anything by law, and thereby forced by public authority to undertake some action, we comply because we must. That we go along with the demand is no great credit to our sense of humanitarianism or charity. The impulse here is essentially one of fear: we know that if we fail to give, we will find ourselves on the wrong side of the state.

Remember that the government has no money, no resources, of its own. Everything it has it must take from the private sector, which is the engine of wealth creation. If we can imagine a world in which there is no private sector at all, we can know with certainty that it would be a world of bare subsistence at best: universal impoverishment.

Wealthy societies today can afford to create large welfare states while avoiding that fate. But let us never forget the funds that make it possible do not appear as if by magic. They are taken from others without their active consent except in the most abstract sense that people might vote for them.

I cannot see how this method of redistributing wealth has anything to do with the Gospel. Jesus never called on public authority to enact welfare programs. He never demanded that his followers form a political movement to tax and spend. Nor did he say that the property of the rich must always be forcibly expropriated. He called for a change in the human heart, not a change in legislation. There is a massive difference.

You see, Manya. When a job needs to get done, I am the sic-and-fetch guy - "Paddy, go out to the truck and bring in the black box with the green handle. Don't worry about what's in it we trained with the tools and you might have read about them in Dickens - they are called adaptable bits. Black box -green handle. Don't get lost"

Father Sirico is the tradesman as far as Social Justice goes. We live social justice because we go to the right tradesman. Look for the Union Label, Manya.

http://www.northpark.edu/4days4justice

Tiger's Sorry -Big Deal. The Guys of Affordable Group Services are the Real Heroes !

But with man it is wholly different. He possesses, on the one hand, the full perfection of the animal being, and hence enjoys at least as much as the rest of the animal kind, the fruition of things material. But animal nature, however perfect, is far from representing the human being in its completeness, and is in truth but humanity's humble handmaid, made to serve and to obey. It is the mind, or reason, which is the predominant element in us who are human creatures; it is this which renders a human being human, and distinguishes him essentially from the brute. And on this very account - that man alone among the animal creation is endowed with reason - it must be within his right to possess things not merely for temporary and momentary use, as other living things do, but to have and to hold them in stable and permanent possession; he must have not only things that perish in the use, but those also which, though they have been reduced into use, continue for further use in after time.

Pope Leo XIII - Rerum Novarum


Affordable Group Services is an alcohol/drug rehabilitation program that shows addicts the 'way to go home' - through learning a skilled trade.

This Hazel Crest based addiction recovery/vocational skills training operation run by John Dunleavy is below-the-radar Cinderella Story.

Men who have beaten themselves to the canvas can find a way back onto their feet in into the fight of their life - recovery from alcohol and drug addiction and a return to dignity.

The Southtown Star's Carole Sharwarko writes a story that throws Ring Lardner and Damon Runyon into the cheaps seats. Front Pages are devoted to Tiger Woods and his apolopalooza yesterday - who shives a git?!

Read Carole Sharwarko's saga of John Dunleavy and the heroes of Affordable Group Services! Click my post title for this powerful story!Writer Carole Sharwarko is a Hero!

Here's a taste:

Sometimes an idea is so simple and perfect, you can't imagine why no one's thought of it before. But even the best idea needs a champion, a walking embodiment of its potential.
At Affordable Group Services, every man who stays out of the bottle and off the pipe is that champion. Each man who chooses an honest day's work over a life choked by addiction personifies a concept conceived in 2003.

Skilled Trades in Progressive Cross-hairs: Plumber Mike Hanley Sets Things Straight

Progressives want to see the end of the Skilled Trades, because they believe that all labor should be subsumed by Andy Stern's SEIU.

The Skilled Trades built the vanishing American Standard of Living and the American Middle Class.

Skilled Trades Unions are always targeted by media investigative cadres. There is never an inquiry of the power and corruption within Services Employees Services Union. That has been the case since the Leftist SEIU devoured the old janitors unions back in the 1970's.

Today a Skilled Tradesman, Plumber Michael Hanley, hits back at the broad brush media smears. Well done , Mike!

Plumbers work hard, earn their pay

December 26, 2009
While I agree with critics who say the city plumbing inspector accused of violating codes should be fired, why bring his salary into it?
I am a union plumber and proud of my trade, though I've been laid off for 21 months.

What do critics think is a fair wage?

If I were working now my salary would be similar, though as a private-sector plumber I would not get paid holidays, sick days, vacation, etc.

I am tired of people commenting negatively on our pay and charges for work performed.

I and every other union plumber out there went through five years of apprenticeship, and we work very hard to earn that money, whether that's rodding out sewer systems, plumbing single-family homes or 95-story high-rises. We do the work that you don't want to or don't know how to. It's a skilled trade, and you pay for that skill.

Without qualified plumbers and the plumbing inspectors, everyone's health could be put at risk through improper water connections or sewage disposal.

Instead of complaining how much a plumber makes, next time thank him for providing safe drinking water for you and your family and for getting that razor out of your sewer that you flushed down the toilet so your home isn't backed up with raw sewage.

Michael Hanley, Canaryville