Dearth of a Salesman - President Obama Reports on His Asia Junket!

Has a president ever been less successful on a trip overseas than President Obama has on his eight-day excursion to Asia? I've been covering presidents since Gerald Ford and I can't think of one.

Weekly Standard 11/19/09

Willie Loman was not a President but he is playing one now!

My Fellow Americans*,

I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been. A small man can be just as exhausted as a great man.The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want.

After eight years of Bush and Cheney -The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he's rich!
He's liked, but he's not well liked. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall in his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.

I'm the New England man. I'm vital in New England. As America's first Pacific President, I promise you that this Pacific nation will strengthen and sustain our leadership in this vitally important part of the world.I've got to get some seeds. I've got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing's planted. I don't have a thing in the ground.



After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.
Before it's all over we're gonna get a little place out in the country, and I'll raise some vegetables, a couple of chickens…

* Death of Salesman - Arthur Miller + Dearth of a Salesman - President Barack Obama

http://www.allgreatquotes.com/death_ofa_salesman_quotes.shtml

John Devens' World Folk Music - A Huge Loss to Music and to Beverly/Morgan Park

John Devens is a guy who always helps other people. That is his shtick. He is also a brilliant musician, Folk/Jazz historian/teacher/ impresario/ band leader and hopelessly constant soft-touch.

I played Irish/Bluegrass music with John Devens years ago. He and Rick Farris and Master String Wizard Ed McGrath joined Terry McEldowney, Willie Winters and me to smooth off our jagged edges. They gave it a valiant effort.

John played mandolin and guitar after years as Big Band guitarist and helped polish the sound of three loud bar shouters and strings hitters with a very large and beer fueled following.

I hung up my 5-string in 1985 due to family and teaching obligations and never heard a word of protest from the Music World.

Willie Winters went on to direct the Beverly Area Planning Association during its Golden Age and helps Sheriff Tom Dart redefine what Public Service is all about.

Terry McEldowney cut CDs, wrote ballads, burned an ulcer the size of Oprah's Rump into Boz O'Brien's belly and continued to damage the fragile egos of the truly deserving. Terry McEldowney wrote the lyrics to the defining anthem of the south side of Chicago -South Side Irish.

John Devens directed Dyed in the Wool*a wonderful Celtic/Contemporary acoustic band and opened World Folk Music Company - a performance, teaching, resource, and musical supply resource unmatched on the south side of Chicago.

Last month, my neighbors and I learned of the closing of World Folk Music Company after a decade of beauty, laughs and inspiration. World Folk Music gave kids and adults a chance to play, hear and learn the beauty of Music. It was a full-service hands-on operation of the heart!

John Devens moved more burdens than Sisyphus, but always had time to help sick kids, families in financial need and to teach the beauty that is Music.

This is a huge in our Collective Public and Personal Heart. God Bless You, John! Click my post title for more.


*

Among the very best bands in Chicago is Dyed In The Wool, a gathering of grand musical talents and sweet sensibilities that can handle traditional tunes in ways that make them fresh and vibrant and create original tunes that will stay with you forever." (Rick Kogan, WGN Radio, Chicago Tribune)

John Devens, a product of the Chicago folk scene, boasts of guitar styles from the Travis pick to jazz swing. Julia Dusek-Devens has a solid classical background and an excellent command of the flute that are behind her whimsical performance attitude. If you haven’t heard Jim White play guitar, you’re in for a treat. And Meghan McKown brings her own fresh approach to everything she sings. Her tone ranges from rich to soulful to clear and pristine.

"As the regular reader knows, Dyed in the Wool is our favorite Chicago Band. Period. Great stuff. (Rating: Four Harps)" (Bill Margeson, Irish American News)

October 1st, 2009
The World Music Company - 1808 W. 103rd Street, Chicago 773.779.7059
Dear Students, Teachers, Staff, Supporters, and Fans of World Music Company,

It is with huge regret that we announce that World Music Company (WMC) will be closing our doors on Wednesday, November 25, 2009; this day will mark the end of all music programs, performances, and lessons. While the deciding factor in this decision was the loss of our lease, there were others – a declining enrollment and a reduction in funding support – that played a role.

Since 1996, we have had a wonderful time serving the Beverly community. The things we’ve learned, the people we’ve met, and the ways in which our musical horizons have expanded have been the major focus of our company for 13 years. Our staff, our teachers, and the community that has supported us and the friendships we have established and maintained over so many years have been wonderful.

Beginning on Monday, November 16th, we will begin a phased liquidation of the stock in the store and most of the memorabilia on the walls. Prices may vary and be subject to change as November 25th approaches. We would like to thank all of the past and present employees for all your hard work and dedication over the years.

To celebrate the many wonderful years of WMC, we will hold a farewell concert on Wednesday, November 25th at WMC starting at 6:30pm and featuring many of the wonderful performers that have played here over the years. We hope that as many people that have supported us over the years will attend and celebrate what we have accomplished and commemorate the end of our era. Yes, the store will be closing, but the friendships, love, and passion for music, will remain open.

Thanks for the memories and support over the years,

John Devens, Executive Director & Founder

Eric Williams, Board President

The World Music Company is one of Chicago’s cultural treasures, quietly nestled in the Beverly neighborhood. A school of music, World Music Company offers lessons on a wide variety of instruments, including Guitar, Piano, Violin, Banjo, Recorder, Brass Winds, Voice, and some folk instruments like Hammered Dulcimer and Celtic Tin Whistle you won’t find anywhere else! Read more about our world class instructors »

We also offer a variety of classes and musical related activities, including a Concert Series, Wednesday Night Jazz, Music for Children with Special Needs, adult guitar classes, and Community Open Mic.

Eric Holder's Nation of Cowards Countered by a Sports Writer -Ed Weaver

By Ed Weaver
The Record

President Obama’s decision — and it was his, not Attorney General Eric Holder’s — to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other terrorists in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, rather than try them before a military commission, is an outrage. It is a further example that this administration has a contempt for the U.S. military and still can’t come to grips with the fact that the War in Iraq met its objectives.

Holder’s arrogant, indignant announcement is an insult to every American of every race and nationality.

“After eight years of delay,” Holder said, “those allegedly responsible for that attacks of September the 11th will finally face justice,” Holder said. “They will be brought to New York — to New York — to answer for their alleged crimes in a courthouse just blocks away from where the twin towers once stood.”

Alleged? Are you kidding me? They’ve all admitted their guilt and some, including KSM, asked to be put to death.

Crimes? These are acts of terrorism, not crimes.

This insidious, reckless, irresponsible, dangerous, sophomoric, placate-the-far-left-base, stick-it-to-Bush decision will further weaken the resolve of the Central Intelligence Agency and could get more Americans killed.

This is an abomination.

Suppose KSM decides to represent himself. He will then be given access to all kinds of U.S. intelligence materials that he could relay to al Qaeda leaders around the globe.

He and the others to be tried were not given their Miranda “rights.”

Most have not been afforded the “right” to a speedy trial. Mohammed has been held for six and one-half years, the past 32 months at Guantanamo Bay.

Theoretically — quite literally — they could be acquitted simply on those grounds.

Hell, Obama has admitted that KSM was “tortured” and you liberals just laughed and made ridicule when people such as this writer, who don’t allow our emotions to overrule our intellect, warned loudly that classifying waterboarding as “torture” was as reckless as it is inaccurate.

Mohammed, “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks,” according to the 9/11 Commission, also admitted he murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl when he stated, “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head.”

Holder also announced that five other detainees held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, will be sent to military commissions for trial. They were identified as Omar Khadr, Mohammed Kamin, Ibrahim al Qosi, Noor Uthman Muhammed and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Al-Nashiri is an accused mastermind of the deadly 2,000 bombing of the USS Cole.

Military tribunals are good enough for them but not KSM? Yes, I know his “crime” occurred in NYC, the others did not? So, is that the determining factor in this horrendous decision?

Andrew McCarthy, a former U.S. Attorney for the same Southern New York District, prosecuted Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind sheik who masterminded the 1993 WTC attack, is outraged. He states it was a mistake to try al Qaeda terrorists as domestic criminals then and it is now, and affording them rights under the U.S. constitution is absurd.

McCarthy, writing for National Review Online on Monday, said KSM and the other defendants “will demand disclosures about investigative tactics; the methods and sources by which intelligence has been obtained; the witnesses from the intelligence community, the military, and law enforcement who interrogated witnesses, conducted searches, secretly intercepted enemy communications, and employed other investigative techniques. They will attempt to compel testimony from officials who formulated U.S. counterterrorism strategy, in addition to U.S. and foreign intelligence officers. As civilian “defendants,” these war criminals will put Bush-era counterterrorism tactics under the brightest public spotlight in American legal history.

“This is exactly what President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder know will happen. And because it is unnecessary to have this civilian trial at all, one must conclude that this is exactly what Obama and Holder want to see happen.”

“Let’s not rush…”: How profound it was to so many on the left, highly-elected Democrats, almost deny any possibility that Major Nidal Malik Hasan was an radical Islamist bent of killing American military personnel.

Again, the word “alleged” was used by everyone from Obama and Holder to local news anchors in this market when the whole damned world knows he did it!

And by refusing to term Hasan’s actions as an act of terrorism, calling it simply murder, and ignoring the fact that Hasan was motivated by the same hatred as that of al Qaeda, Hezbollah and other terror groups, he dishonors every member of the U.S. military, especially those who’ve given their lives.

Ed Weaver is a sports writer. His column appears on Tuesdays.

That Must Have Been Some Movie, There Radcliffe!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Eric "We are a Nation of Cowards" Holder says, "Nothing to Fear, Chickens! Scaredy Cats! Victims in Waiting!"

Note to my Prgressive Readers - Some of this is Real and the Rest of it is Eric Holder and Chris Matthews.
"We need not cower in the face of this enemy," Holder says. "Our institutions are strong, our infrastructure is sturdy, our resolve is firm, and our people are ready. Look to Our Institutions -MSNBC and Chris Matthews for purpose and resolve." Attorney General Eric 'A Nation of Cowards" Holder ( played by Stedman Graham).

Roll Clip,Please -

Urine Hardball with Chris Matthews! I got Rep. jan Shakowsky who makes sense and Reo. Judy Biggert who is coward. Let's play Hardball!

Matthews: Back in the beginnings of our country, we had a trial for the soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre, and we gave those soldiers a real trial, and John Adams was their defense attorney. And a lot of them got off. Do you think that was a mistake to give them a real trial, or should we have just executed them. What should we have done?

Biggert: Well, I’m talking about having a real –

Matthews: Was it wrong to give a real trial to people who shot down our people in the Boston Massacre, or was that a good emblem of the kind of country we were going to be, a country of laws?

Biggert: I think –

Matthews: John Adams was their defense lawyer. Should he have not taken that job? Not defended the enemies of our country, and shown that we have a good system of law in this country? Was that a mistake? What are you some kind of woman? Chicken? Fear the Reaper, Girly? I'm from Scranton, Philadelphia and we are tough. . .plenty tough. Look I don't take anything from a middle aged woman from Hinsdale - what is that some suburb? Say you are from Chicago for God's sake! I eat Philly Steaks like John Adams and the Continental Congress did when the Nazis had their way and Blitzkrieg stank and the Bodies rode a Tank. Beau Geste! That was a great movie! Like Afghnistan and Cheney a troll under the bridge on the River Kwai over in China where the President is facing down our debtors and bowing to them Japanese Guards in Beau Geste! Cowards! Hey, This isn't funny! What are you smiling about? This is Hardball are you going to Cry? Hey, Bill Ayers is a great guy! This is really about history and Mamifests Our Destiny as real Nation where real men can pick onmiddle aged dolls. What? You got battered wife syndrome, or something? Come on! Speak Up! I'm talking here! I remember . . .

Talking $hit with Shore - How PC Nitwits Slip Through the Cracks

Debra Shore is on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District ( formerly the Sanitary District) - one of the engineering miracles of civilization.

Debra Shore is a proudly Gay/Lesbian Green Activist who got elected through the marvel that is Cook County politics. About ten years ago gay activists decided to gain control of a branch of Cook County government and selected our water ways -in league with Environmental activists, n'cest pas. Kewl. Why should the Irish, Mexican, Cuban, Polish, and Black breeders have all the hegemony?

Shucks, I am sure that there have been Gay Sanitary District heroes from the get-go! Smart ones. Effective ones. Guys . . .Gays who reall knew their . . .Deb will get into that substance forthwith. However, I digress . . .Now, why must we settle for . . .interesting . . .naw, . .Dumb Ones?

Let's see, here.

http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/?ak=4082

Debra Shore knows her feces. She talks feces. Shore has written many Huffington Post - a feces-full site if there ever was one -offerings on this topic and the water that passes it.

Debra Shore has not forgiven Chicago for reversing the Chicago River. The MWRD is tasked with maintaining and treating water in the Chicago Metropolitan area and with drainage of rain water as well -

The District's territory covers approximately 91% of land area and 98% of the valuation of Cook County, Illinois; and, unlike other sanitary districts, the district has the power to operate facilities outside its boundaries.[2] It serves an area of 883 square miles (2,290 km2) which covers the City of Chicago and 125 suburban municipalities. The District’s 554 miles (892 km) of intercepting sewer mains are linked to approximately 10,000 local connections.[3] Over 2,100 people are employed by the District.

The District operates the largest wastewater treatment plant in the world, the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant in Stickney, Illinois, in addition to six other plants and 23 pumping stations. The District treats an average 1.5 billion gallons of wastewater each day. It is also responsible for the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and maintains approximately 76 miles (122 km) of waterways, part of a national system connecting the Atlantic Ocean, Great Lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico.

The District oversees one of the largest civil engineering projects ever undertaken - the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan, better known as the "Deep Tunnel Project." It includes over one hundred miles of tunnels, 9 to 33 feet (10 m) in diameter each part of an extensive flood mitigation and pollution control project. Since 2005 the District has been responsible for stormwater management for all of Cook County and some areas outside of the District’s boundaries.

from Wikipedia.

Debra Shore writes about stewardship and rain barrels and how we can take better care of our 'discharges' as stewards of the waterways! Why toilets and our River's course is bad. Shore follows the nostrums of the late Catholic nitwit Geologian Thomas Berry who railed against man for living on this planet. He had a Theology determined by man's debt to inanimate objects -plants, rocks, water, trees & etc.

Debra Shore passes poop as a passion for people.

Now consider this: in our system of sanitation, we essentially use fresh, potable water as a wheelbarrow to transport waste. In Cook and eastern Lake County, Illinois, we take water out of Lake Michigan, filter it through sand to remove particles and treat it with chemicals to make it safe to drink, we pump it out through miles of pipe to our homes and businesses, and then we use that fresh, drinkable water in catchbasins called toilets to convey our human waste to a sewage treatment plant. I ask you, how smart is that?

(IT"S BRILLIANT! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????? sorry I should not have interrupted. Do go on!)

Here's another key point: unlike oil and other fossil fuels, there are no substitutes for freshwater. Yet today, in Cook County at least, we use water once for residential and industrial purposes, and then we essentially throw it away. That's because we reversed the Chicago River more than 100 years ago. So now, though we treat our sewage before discharging the effluent into the Chicago area waterways, our effluent flows down to the Gulf of Mexico. It is not returned to the lake. (Is it any wonder we call effluent waste water? Our current system assumes that water used once is garbage.)

Heavens! I mean . . ."Earth!"
That, Debra, is why the folks decided to set up a Water Reclamation District - to RECLAIM the Water!!!!


Now, I saw 5th Graders at St. Cajetan Grammar School with science projects on rainwater/condensation/snowflakes/clouds who showed the most elementary understanding of hydronics. Water it seems never goes away - it goes somewhere else but not away. MWRD treats lake water for SAFETY!!!!! Clean water goes in our pipes and into our sinks, glasses, mouths, goes round and round and eventually out to and through our Toilets! How smart is that? It is Brilliant!

Debra Shore is calling for Calcutta on the Calumet! Cholera for all Chicagoans!

Jesus Christ Superstar! Keep electing these bird-brains folks! Hacks and Political Old Timers gave us clean and well maintained water. That is sinful!

Now it gets better - do read on . . .

My point is this: using freshwater in toilets is not smart and it is not sustainable. I believe the homes of the future will be designed to use "grey" water -- the water from our washing machines and dishwashers, the water from our showers and from rain captured in barrels and cisterns -- to flush our toilets. This kind of redesign of water use, both residential and industrial, will be one of the growth industries of coming decades. (In the meantime, one of the simplest and best things you can do at home to conserve water is to replace old toilets with a new dual-flush model.)

My best friend used to live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where water is more scarce and more costly. She kept a plastic bucket in her shower and every morning when she turned the water on and waited for it to warm up, she captured that water in the bucket. She used that bucket to water her plants and her garden. If you live in an apartment, you can use it to flush your toilet. It's perfectly good potable water just flowing down the drain. So I got a bucket and started trying that and I found that I am capturing 15 gallons a week in that minute or less while I am waiting for the water to warm up. You can try it too.

Debra Shore begs all of us," So, on World Toilet Day, here is my plea: monitor your water use. Think about ways to conserve water. And consider how lucky we are."

Cacat, Father Maibusch would say! Ms. Shore is an elected official of MWRD who was left in the marinade way too long.

How smart is Debra? As smart as a Progressive can get! They have a crowd of like minded folks ready for your ballots.

Me and the Kids Will Take the Illinois Gitmo Guests!

Bruce Dold and Tribune Editorial Board brought a manly tear to my eye when they chorused this morning's edition with 'Be Not Afraid!'

Thomson Correctional Facility can do so much for our State and Governor Quinn has called for all of us to do things The Illinois Way! I am moved and compelled!

I am willing to take the Gitmo Guests! Let's Fed Ex this Candle! Let's Move! Send them Gitmo Guests to Morgan Park. I'll see that the lads get to Mass at St. Cajetans, get three hots and cots, enjoy WOW Cable TV and PlayStation II. Share in the delights and hilarious misadventures of the Family Hickey and their Widow Man Pater Familias.

Have the 200 Million e-transferred to my Beverly Bank account and me and the kids will watch these guys. No reason to have the Illinois Department of corrections do without a swell facility to accommodate Illinois citizens who fallen afoul of the law.

I will take the 200 Million and upgrade my Morgan Park raised ranch ( let's see,the Thomson Shed costs about $175 Million and I can get off-duty Chicago Firemen from the neighborhood - yeah, $100 Million Tops!) accordingly and treat the lads to Governor Quinn's Illinois Way!

I'll half of what's left. Eric Holder will see that these guys are well taken care of and then set free. So half of 100 million comes to 50 Million and we can get snacks and TP and fresh duds and stuff at Costco or Wal-Mart ( can I say Wal-Mart?).

I'll make do - this is the Illinois Way!

"We're here today to let the people know we're not going to let the fearmongers carry the day," Quinn said. "We're going to do things right, the Illinois way."

That was former Illinois Governor Quinn, boys and girls!

The Illinois way! Is not Blago, Pat Quinn's Old Partner, facing more than a few semesters in the Hotel Serious, for conducting things in the Illinois Way?

No Fear Guv! Tell the Feds to Send the Dough!



http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/

Rep. Judy Biggert - Will She Call for an Apology for MSNBC Abuse?

Rep. Judy Biggert (R.IL) walked into a Chris Matthews ambush, prodded no doubt by local nitwit Rep. Jan Schakowsky and MSNBC Stable Pony and wife of convicted felon Bob Creamer. Click my post title for offensive Matthews. He only does this with women.

Judy Biggert was verbally abused by gutless loudmouth Chris Matthews concerning the usurpation of the Office of President by Eric Holder - the deft switching of the trials of enemy combatant terrorists to criminal trials and afforded all the rights of American citizens. MSNBC. a sponsor of the Obama White House. thinks it to be a keen idea.

The always imbecilic Matthews, who manages to make the Pet Show Sportscaster in the movie Best in Show seem like David Suskind, set up an ambush, no doubt pre-planned with the soulless Schakowsky well in advance "Hey, Judy let's do Hardball!"

Chris Matthews attempts to parallel Eric Holder to John Adams with his moronic historical allusion to the trial of British soldiers after the 1770 Boston Massacre. Get this -

Matthews: Back in the beginnings of our country, we had a trial for the soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre, and we gave those soldiers a real trial, and John Adams was their defense attorney. And a lot of them got off. Do you think that was a mistake to give them a real trial, or should we have just executed them. What should we have done?

Biggert: Well, I’m talking about having a real –

Matthews: Was it wrong to give a real trial to people who shot down our people in the Boston Massacre, or was that a good emblem of the kind of country we were going to be, a country of laws?

Biggert: I think –

Matthews: John Adams was their defense lawyer. Should he have not taken that job? Not defended the enemies of our country, and shown that we have a good system of law in this country? Was that a mistake?

America, was a Crown Colony Milky, and not a sovereign nation you pompous jerk.

Representative Biggert went deer in the headlights and seemed to look to self-absorbed Shakowsky for help -'Dead Chick Limping!"

Rep. Judy Biggert must demand a public apology from MSNBC and the oafish Matthews.

She's owes that to the people who voted for her.

Imbecile Chris M(atthews)SNBC Attacks Rep. Judy Biggert for not having His Misunderstanding History

Talking to alleged Turkish Spy and celebrated nitwit Jan Shakowsky is a walk in the park for the Forty Watt Power of Chris Matthews blond brain.

Trying to add a counter point of view was too much and it tasked Matthews beyond his own oafish abilities to be develop declarative sentences - he was stuck on Interrogatory and Imperatives.

To sum up, On today's offering of Hardball Matthews invited two Congresswomen for Illinois to discuss the invitation to Gitmo Terrorists to enjoy Thomson Illinois and the folly of A Nation of Coward Holder's usurpation of the Office of the President to try enemy combatants like they were Gangster Disciples.

To make his point - like the one that sits on his shoulders - Matthews howled at Rep. Biggert when she objected to foreign enemies and terrorists being afforded the rights of Americans.

"Was John Adams wrong then to try British soldiers in an American Civil Court of Law and not a military court after the Boston Massacre? Was he John Adams! You are saying John Adams was wrong."

No, Matthews, as always you are wrong.

The British Soldiers were tried in a Crown Court by a Crown Lawyer, John Adams, shortly after the 1770 Massacre in Boston. John Adams was a British subject.

If Rep. Biggert does not demand an apology from this oaf and the MSNBC Ship of Fools , she is a bigger idiot than Matthews. MSNBC is a sad joke. Matthews one of its saddest clowns.

Illini Gitmo! Your Gift to Al Queda thanks to Durbin, Quinn and Our White House!

Get Them Thomson Melons Ready! Quinn and Durbin have Gitmo Guests Jonesing for Thomson Melons!



"We're here today to let the people know we're not going to let the fearmongers carry the day," Quinn said. "We're going to do things right, the Illinois way."

That was former Illinois Governor Quinn, boys and girls!

The Illinois way! Is not Blago, Pat Quinn's Old Partner, facing more than a few semesters in the Hotel Serious, for conducting things in the Illinois Way?

By Illinois Way does former Governor Quinn mean screwing every person in the State of Illinois into poverty and far and away from the Middle Class, but with Terorists?

What do our Gitmo Illini get? The Folks in Thomson have it all -

We have some of the finest watermelons and produce in the country. Thomson is at the intersection of Illinois Route 84 and Argo Fay Road nestled along the mighty Mississippi River, where Potter's Marsh (U.S. Corps of Engineers - Thomson Causeway Public Use Area) offers some of the finest camping in Northwestern Illinois. Thomson is also known for some of the finest duck hunting, deer hunting and turkey hunting in the state of Illinois. Fishing is great!! We have a wide variety of fish on the mighty Mississippi River. Huge Catfish, Walleye, Bass, Northern Pike, Bluegills and the list goes on and on.
If you are planning on a quiet vacation or want to do some camping, come and see what Thomson has to offer. Thomson is also the site of the Illinois Department of Corrections newest maximum security prison - a $145 million facility which remains unopened.

http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/2009/11/gitmo-guests-welcome-to-thomson-durbin.html

Coupons and Penny savers! Check out the Costs!

Average Annual Cost Per Inmate: $43,803.00! Wow, that is $13,000 more than my Western Illinois University 2007 Graduate daughter Nora makes in our American Economy. She has yet to plant a IED.

More than my friends who have been laid off for more three months. I know several families who will not be as snug and well cared for here in Illinois as these gents who made war on America.

Foreign born terrorists get to live in Illinois Melon Capital - Thomson, Illinois.

Thomson Correctional Center is a safe maximum-security environment. Prison design, movement patterns and programming options will allow a strong community of order to be maintained. Inmates will be monitored under constant armed and electronic surveillance. Education, mental health services, recreation and skilled development will be available to inmates as mandatory and or voluntary programming options. These choices, under professional guidance, are opportunities for inmates to enrich their lives with the tools necessary for successful living.

Thomson Correctional Center is a Level 1 adult male maximum-security facility comprised of 1,600 cells and eight housing units. The facility also has a 200-bed minimum-security unit. The facility is 146 acres and consists of 15 buildings, totaling 625,000 square feet. Construction in the cell houses is pre-cast, reinforced cement walls. The facility is enclosed by a 12-foot exterior fence and 15-foot interior fence, which includes a dual sided electric stun fence.

Currently only the 200-bed minimum-security unit is open with no opening date set for the main complex.

Dang. Adult education classes will be provided no doubt.

As Dithering Dick Durbin said, "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings,"

Yep!

The Illinois Way!

Gitmo Guests! Welcome to Thomson - Durbin Tours and Quinn Travel Presentation

We are a small community of 550 people. Primarily an agricultural area, we are known for watermelons, thus nick-named:

"THE MELON CAPITOL OF THE WORLD"

We have some of the finest watermelons and produce in the country. Thomson is at the intersection of Illinois Route 84 and Argo Fay Road nestled along the mighty Mississippi River, where Potter's Marsh (U.S. Corps of Engineers - Thomson Causeway Public Use Area) offers some of the finest camping in Northwestern Illinois. Thomson is also known for some of the finest duck hunting, deer hunting and turkey hunting in the state of Illinois. Fishing is great!! We have a wide variety of fish on the mighty Mississippi River. Huge Catfish, Walleye, Bass, Northern Pike, Bluegills and the list goes on and on.
If you are planning on a quiet vacation or want to do some camping, come and see what Thomson has to offer. Thomson is also the site of the Illinois Department of Corrections newest maximum security prison - a $145 million facility which remains unopened.

PC might prevent me from mentioning the fact that folks from the Middle East love a nice melon! Oh bother PC - them Arab lads Love Melons! Well, sir, that did not seem such leap, now did it? Thomson's for Melon Lovers -not just Terrorist Guests of Gitmo.

Does Dithering Dick Durbin, who had no problem calling American Girls and Boys in Military Servcice Nazis a few years back, so well understand the Islamist hue on the Great Diversity Rainbow that Thomson was his pick to bring Islamist Terrorist to Illinois' Melon Capitol of the World?

Is Governor Pat Quinn so tired of public service that he listens to Dick Durbin's sage counsel?


These and many more questions will be played out in the coming days

Thomson, Il in Carroll County is a beautiful town - been there! I wonder how the folks at Kyles Tavern and American Legion Post 1025 will enjoy sharing the beauty of this Illinois Paradise with hate-filled killers.

The melons might make a difference.

Pat Hughes for U.S. Senate! Dan Proft for Governor

Dan Proft had me at, "Hey!" While I love Andy McKenna's hair commercial and believe him to be one of the finest people in shoes, I must go with Dan Proft. While Speaker Madigan takes a lot of grief from Proft, I see equally fine qualities of work ethic, integrity, common sense, common decency, and loyalty in each.

Andy Andriekzcxsiekiqzkie seems a nice lad and his Mom and Dad did commercials for him. That is right out of Dan Hynes 'Hey, I Want to Lose and Badly' Playbook.
Pat Quinn is a sweet guy.

Pat Quinn is the kind of guy who the more vicious types that we all grew up with prod into doing really stupid things - "Pat, I bet Bill Celini, Kjellander and Quentin Young thatYOU -Maniac Pat - couldn't chug this quart of EverClear, smoke a pack of Luckies all Once and then flip ( jump on while moving) an L-Car on the Dan Ryan when they slow down coming into 95th Street!" Mad Dog Quinn'll do it! Hell, Quinn does everything and anything Ralphie Martire dreams of!

I was going to vote for Alexi Giannoulias for U.S. Senate, but he has gotten too cozy with the Abortion Industry and the abortion of American Labor -SEIU. I like Alexi.
Listening to Ditering Dick Durbin, a guy who makes Joe Biden sound ike Daniel Webster, was a bad idea. If Giannoulias had gotten even just a little bit closer to the thoughts of Speaker Mike Madigan, he'd be a shoe-in for Senator. Nope.

The GOP has Marque Kirque. Christ Almighty. Oh, Marque has an identical twin brother - Marque Dillard.

But then along comes the unknown Pat Hughes and he is immediately attacked by professional litigator and goofball Anthony Elton-John- Trigona-Lightfoot-Teddy Atlas-Dino-Desi- & Billy- The Couch is on Fire, Pa- Bluementhall-Hanratty -Martin: Just Plain Andy Martin these days.

Lynn Sweet tries to give Marque Kirque some cotton candy in today's Sun Times offering but then up steps Bughouse Andy Martin!

andy martin wrote:
Hughes is a joke. Lynn Sweet is showing her pro-Democrat bias by trying to promote Hughes as a Republican. Hughes did not even vote republican until 2008. But then that's why the Sun-Times is in bankruptcy. They won’t tell the truth, so no one believes what they say.

Andy Martin
Republican for U. S. Senator
www.AndyforUSSenator.com

I was enchanted!

'Had not given Young Master Hughes a thought until Testors-sniffing Andy Martin went all Birther on him. Lo and Behold Patrick Hughes has Coach Ditka on the sidelines and
a solid record on No Abortion No How.
scal Policy
Our economy grows when private citizens and businesses are freed from unnecessary government intervention. Lower taxes, restrained government spending and the elimination of oppressive regulatory schemes that crush innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit are the hallmarks of his economic philosophy.

National Defense Policy
A strong national defense must be backed by the best funded, best trained and most prepared military in history. Any effective national defense policy must include our continual willingness and ability to fight the war on terror, negotiate peace with our enemies only through strength, and honor those who have served our country both while they are serving and when their service is done.

Health Care Policy
More government intervention into our health care system will result in higher costs, rationing of medical care and most importantly, the irreversible slide towards unsustainable European style statism. We can improve our health care system by reducing government mandates, allowing citizens to shop for health insurance across state lines to promote competition, providing tax credits to families to purchase health insurance, passing serious tort reform, and eliminating fraud and waste.

Energy Policy
America needs to reduce our reliance on foreign oil imports. Doing so is imperative to our national security. We must harvest our vast coal, oil and natural gas resources, including drilling offshore and in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). We must expand our use of nuclear power. At the same time, we should continue to invest in new technologies, including obtaining energy from wind, solar and biofuels.

Immigration Policy
America is a nation of people like Pat's grandparents—immigrants who came here from a far away place for a chance at the American dream. Thus, we should encourage immigrants to come here legally, enforce laws that provide a legitimate path to citizenship, and enforce our borders against those who would enter our country illegally.

Foundations of American Life
Liberal policies have undermined the social fabric of our country by assaulting the foundations of American life—religious institutions, marriage and the family. Pat promises to fight to protect, preserve and advance all three.

Pro-Life
A life worthy of protection begins at conception, that abortion undermines our American Promise to protect and defend our citizens. Therefore, Roe v. Wade severely undermines our democracy and must be overturned.

I will vote for Pat Hughes. I will continue to ridicule Cap'n Trade Marque Kirque for the Skunque That He Be ! I only hope that Pat Hughes avoids the Illinois GOP curse of having his toes blown off by the geniuses in that Confederacy of Dunces.

Thus far, it looks like I am voting for Dan Proft for Governor and Pat Hughes for U.S. Senate.

Ah, So! President Obama -""I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people . . ."Uh, Huh.

"I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testament to my patriotism." Barack H. Obama


Will President Obama please stay home until he learns some American history? Please.

Obama Policy of "Strategic Reassurance" - China will not rub his belly.

"Dubbed "strategic reassurance," the policy aims to convince the Chinese that the United States has no intention of containing their rising power. Details remain to be seen, but as with the Russia "reset," it is bound to make American allies nervous." NEWSWEEK

In keeping with this new, humbler U.S. profile, Obama is going to Asia with very little to offer and everything to ask. His every movement and talking point in China will be shadowed by the knowledge that the United States desperately needs Beijing to keep buying U.S. debt (of course the Chinese also need U.S. growth to resume quickly so they can keep exporting). He will do little to press President Hu Jintao on human rights or climate change, even with the Copenhagen summit looming. With no legislation on carbon emissions likely from Congress—Obama tends to defer to the Hill on everything from health care to financial reform to climate change—in Copenhagen the administration's goals have been reduced to "not letting it fail," as one Western official put it. In Japan and South Korea, Obama will have nothing new to offer on what those two countries consider thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif preeminent security threat, North Korea.

NEWSWEEK

Newsweek has a tone less than flattering of David Brooks' favorite Pants-Crease President? Newsweek going Rogue, on President Obama?


Newsweek home of MSNBC hack Jonathon Alter, who stretches every New Deal trope from his swell book about FDR into an Obama belly Rub?

This worm has done turned, Murial.

President Obama is about to bow to his sensai - the next one up!

America is defending Japan from China and North Korea and let's toss in Russia as well.

The Marines have been stationed on Okinawa since Japan surrendered - through the Cold War, Korea, and our continuing war with Islamist Fascism - which President Obama refuses to acknowledge at home and especially abroad. Japan's Prime Minister Hatoyama wanted a Marine Air Base moved out of Okinawa as well as the planned transfer of 9,000 Marines to Guam -"During the election campaign, especially to the Okinawans, I've stated that we would consider relocation outside of Okinawa and outside of the country," Hatoyama said. "It is a fact that we did campaign on this issue, and the Okinawans do have high expectations."

"It will be a very difficult issue for sure, but as time goes by, I think it will become even more difficult to resolve the issue. Especially the residents in the Futenma district will find it even more difficult to resolve the issue as time goes by." Guam NewsFactor,com

President Obama's Strategy of Reassurance is directed toward America's Rivals - particularly China and Russia -and not its Allies.

President Obama has dithered on his war in Afghanistan and all this point to his policy of retreat from there as well as Iraq.

President Obama's Justice Department decided to put America on trial in New York City with the idiotic show trials of 9-11 Terrorist that will draw and quarter America's War on Terrorism that ended in January 2009.

President Obama's Strategy of Reassurance is a policy that every friendly, timid and fawning puppy plays out on its back.

Here its is

For decades, U.S. strategy toward China has had two complementary elements. The first was to bring China into the "family of nations" through engagement. The second was to make sure China did not become too dominant, through balancing. The Clinton administration pushed for China's accession to the World Trade Organization and normalized trade but also strengthened the U.S. military alliance with Japan. The Bush administration fostered close economic ties and improved strategic cooperation with China. But the United States also forged a strategic partnership with India and enhanced its relations with Japan, Singapore and Vietnam. The strategy has been to give China a greater stake in peace, while maintaining a balance of power in the region favorable to democratic allies and American interests.

"Strategic reassurance" seems to chart a different course. Senior officials liken the policy to the British accommodation of a rising United States at the end of the 19th century, which entailed ceding the Western Hemisphere to American hegemony. Lingering behind this concept is an assumption of America's inevitable decline.

Yet nothing would do more to hasten decline than to follow this path. The British accommodation of America's rise was based on close ideological kinship. British leaders recognized the United States as a strategic ally in a dangerous world -- as proved true throughout the 20th century. No serious person would imagine a similar grand alliance and "special relationship" between an autocratic China and a democratic United States. For the Chinese -- true realists -- the competition with the United States in East Asia is very much a zero-sum game.

For that reason, "strategic reassurance" is likely to fail. The Obama administration cannot back out of the region any time soon; Obama's trip this week, in fact, seems designed to demonstrate American staying power. Nor is China likely to end or slow its efforts to militarily and economically dominate the region. So it will quickly become obvious that no one on either side feels reassured.

President Obama wants the world to know that the Bush Years are over and so are the FDR,Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and WW Bush years.

The Carter Years are here, again! God help America and our friends.

Judge H. "Stinky" Lee Sarokin is Back Doing Medill Bidding and Wrong from the Headline

Judge H. "Stinky" Lee Sarokin is a retired East Coast Federal Judge who quit amid a cloud twenty years ago for sunny Californ-eyeAy!

Judge Sarokin was the the legal-air-freshener for all Stinky Jurors and Library Card Holders back in the day. Hence my sobriquet -that and Judge Stinky* is doing hack work for the Medill Empire and the Greek Pastry Arianna Huffington at Huffington Post. Hey, why not pick up a few nickels!

Here's the deal Professor Dave Protess a Progressive Sacred Cow stepped on his ethical Johnson, or rather bid his Kids to do the stepping by bribing (it seems) crack-head Witnesses for the Prosecution's Overturn in the Andrew McKinney Case.

Andrew McKinney is an Innocence Project pet-Convict - McKinney was convicted of murdering a security guard -Professor Dave and Kids Demand that McKinney is Innocent, because the Innocence Project has adopted McKinney. Professor Dave Protess is a Scared Cow in a Herd of Scared Cows - Medill Empire -Northwestern Law and School of Journalism.

Walp! Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez did not roll-over and 'accept' Protess Protestations of McKinney Innocence. In fact Alvarez asked for Discovery Items - student notes and other such stuff. Judge Stinky Lee Sarokin has labeled States Attorney Alvarez a Gestapo thug. A bit strong there Stinky . . .well, you are Okay with strong.

Protess and be Damned!

The Medill Empire goes Jihad on any and all critics and has trotted out an endless parade of Protess Protestors including Judge Stinky and the Editorial Board of the Medill rival Sun Times who have manged to get that paper as close to closed as possible.

Judge Stinky Sarokin is a howl. Here is his headline from Huffington Post:
Voila!
Cook County Prosecutor Continues to Investigate Students for Trying to Free an Innocent Man

Nope. That is not why, nor is she investigating the Kids, Stinky.

She, Alvarez, subpoenaed their notes and academic records for Professor Dave's class; now, Dave had them act like Private Investigators (P.I.s) and argues that they are journalists and Medill's lawyer managed to insult the judge in the case and it was revealed that the kids appear to have bribed a witness.

Not only did Stinky paste up a dead-wrong headline but his last paragraph is what the non sequitur is all about!

The Medill Innocence Project was successful in exonerating 11 inmates and the Illinois governor cited those wrongful convictions in commuting the sentences of everyone on death row. One can understand that the prosecutor's office might be embarrassed as a result by the efforts of a bunch of journalism students, but such embarrassment does not warrant a vendetta against them. ( really?)The prosecution should join in the righting of wrongful convictions not be investigating the students engaged in the effort, no matter what their personal motives may be. ( Follows Whta?)If they get a good grade for freeing an innocent person, they deserve it. Right now the prosecution is flunking. (Participle Dangling? The Flunking Presecution? Flunking Science? Flunking Broadway. . .Do The Flunking Broadway?)

Medill. Protess and the Innocence Project do not smell too good at this point -Sacred Cows or not - but Judge Stinky thinks that it is Chanel # 5!

*On June 5, 1996, Sarokin announced that he would resign outright from the Third Circuit, effective July 31, 1996.[10] Sarokin cited his fear that his opinions from the bench might be used politically. "It is apparent that there are those who have decided to 'Willie Hortonize' the Federal judiciary, and that I am to be one of their prime targets," he wrote in a letter to President Clinton. "In the current political campaign, enforcement of constitutional rights is equated with being soft on crime and indeed, even causing it."[10]

In a separate letter to colleagues, Sarokin denied that his decision to retire had had anything to do with the court's decision not to allow him to move his chambers to California.[10]

Eric Holder's Nation of Cowards Set to Try 9-11 War Criminals! Bush and Cheney

Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, and five other suspects will be sent to military commissions, an Obama administration official said Friday.

The official said Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning. The official is not authorized to discuss the decision before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Without confirming details of the decision, President Barack Obama said it was a legal and national security matter. "I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subjected to the most exacting demands of justice," Obama said at a joint news conference in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Now is the time to try men's souls! We have Show Trials a-Coming! Eric "Nation of Cowards" Holder is trotting out the real criminals of 9-11 - George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

While the Muslim Martyrs from Gitmo will be the guys in cuffs, Bush and Cheney will be tried in absentia by Holder's Nation of Coward Justice Department.

It makes perfect Progressive sense, People!

Obama's handling of Gitmo has been Comic Opera

The Economy is and will remain Screwed Blued and Tatooed

Gay Marriage is bumped off and the GLBT Advocates are howling mad

Obama Government Option Health Care is DOA on the Senate Doorstep

American Catholic Bishops have grown a pair on Abortion, School Choice and other issues

The White House is poised to abandon Afghanistan

Unemployment is crowding 11% before Christmas and it will get worse.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are going dark

Fort Hood is the tip of an iceberg that will point to the New White House/Dept. Homeland Security directives on Terror

The CIA is set to go Rouge

Iran is Laughing at President Obama

It is time to trot out the last eight years of Bush/Cheney for Christmas. MSNBC needs the ratings boost and Rachel, Big Ed, Fat Boy Olbermann and Milky Matthews are set to go on this initiative!

You can not beat the Standards at Holiday Time!

A Kennedy Gets the Bishop Tobin Tune-up on Abortion - About Time.

“If you freely choose to be a Catholic, it means you believe certain things, you do certain things,” Bishop Tobin said on WPRO, a Providence radio station. “If you cannot do all that in conscience, then you should perhaps feel free to go somewhere else.”

Patrick Kennedy is one of the countless Young Kennedy children and grandchildren of the Kennedy's of fifty years ago - Jack, Bobby and Teddy; as well, as Sarge.

Now, Joe Kennedy II* a former Congressman is selling gas for Hugo Chavez. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is writing books that trash the Catholic Church and helot Catholics.
Chris Kennedy plays Hamlet in Illinois politics until he gets a appointed to an unelected position of the University of Illinois Board. Young Patrick Kennedy has trouble negotiating parking spots and shoots his mouth off on why abortion is so important to wealthy Middle Aged Hags ( Cougars). Camelot -water under the bridge!

However, the Young (getting a tad long in the teeth though) Kennedys love to play at Bohemian politics and religion. That way they stay edgy and newsworthy.
Abortion advocacy is always edgy and de rigueur ! Planned Parenthood has invested heavily in the Kennedy Family since Bobby was killed. He was the last Catholic, it seems to me. Annulment? No sweat. Abortion? Choose it!

Young Kennedys flash the Catholic Gold Card when required - elections or to get out of some scandalous fly-paper.


However, Bishop Tom Tobin of Providence, RI is not enchanted with young Patrick's very unCatholic mouthings on Abortion - a Woman's Reproductive Health Issue - the choice to murder her child.

Bishop Tobin is giving young Patrick some lessons. Lessons are really tough to offer on the really arrogant or the really stupid. Now, if both deficiencies are afoot . . .Lord save us.

Bishop Tobin, in a letter publicly released Monday, called Mr. Kennedy’s support of abortion rights “a deliberate and obstinate act of the will” that was “unacceptable to the Church and scandalous to many of our members.”

“It’s not too late for you to repair your relationship with the Church,” he wrote, “redeem your public image, and emerge as an authentic ‘profile in courage,’ especially by defending the sanctity of human life for all people, including unborn children.”

Mr. Kennedy declined an interview request, and on Tuesday he told reporters in Providence that he would not comment on the bishop’s letter.

“I had initially agreed to a meeting with him,” Mr. Kennedy said, “provided we would not debate this in public in terms of my personal faith. But unfortunately he hasn’t kept to that agreement, and that’s very disconcerting to me.”

The battle is being waged nearly three months after Mr. Kennedy’s father died of brain cancer and received a Catholic funeral despite his longtime conflict with the church over abortion rights and other issues. After the senator’s death, his family made public a letter he had written to Pope Benedict XVI. “I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic,” he wrote.

In Wednesday’s radio interview, Bishop Tobin said he still hoped to have a private conversation with Representative Kennedy, who, he said, has a chance to win the church’s acceptance.

“It’s not too late for the congressman to redeem his image,” the bishop said, “and to embrace the church and the teachings of the church.”

Let's hope more Bishops, like Tobin and Dolan of New York, appear in our American Church. The Cupcakes with Mitres loused everything up over the last fifty years.

Good to see some tough guys.


*

And Kennedy, a former US representative, has relied almost exclusively on Chávez, a vociferous critic of the US government, for that growth.

Since 2005, Citizens’ 877-JOE-4-OIL campaign has been sustained by the oil fields of Venezuela. Chávez, who controls the industry there, has delivered crude oil at no charge to a Citizens affiliate, which has resold it and used the money to pay for oil deliveries to America’s poor. In the past two years, Citizens has been given 83 million gallons of crude by Chávez and sold it for $164 million - money used to fund almost its entire philanthropic mission.

Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/06/as_joe_kennedy_considers_run_chvez_ties_loom/

God Bless All Who Serve! God Bless our Veterans and Those in Service!

We truly take a lot for granted. Forget the football 'heroes' and movie 'stars'. Pass this on so that all may know the price of freedom

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you,

Jesus Christ and a Soldier

One died for your soul; the other for your freedom.

Professor Dave Protess -Innocence Project or Blair Which Project?

Last night the State of Virginia executed a monster. Ironically enough the sniper-serial killer John Allen Muhammad - the Beltway Sniper was covered by Life Coach and former Journalist Jayson Blair.

Blair made more mistakes in his reports than the number of people who firmly believe that there is a steam heater (used to torture poor black men) in Area 2 Police Headquarters on East 111th Street. That's alot of mistakes.

Only a very few years ago the Medill Empire went to war on Sheriff Mike Sheahan. When the MacArthur Center for Justice teamed with the Medill Empire ( Tribune journalists/Chicago Magazine Medill School of Jornalism/Bernardine Dorhn & etc.) to PROVE that Sheriff Micahel Sheahan brutalized prisoners at Cook County Jail, it took a jury less than twenty minutes to tood all charges. Sheriff Sheahan quipped "Tribune Investigative Journalism is BS."

Medill Professor Dave Protess, an icon in the Justice Industry, seems to have wildly overplayed his hand in the controversy surrounding the McKinney Gambit. The McKinney Gambit holds that the Innocence Project has sanctified his cause and therefore he must be set free.

Hold on there, Professor Dave! Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez requested that all students involved in this project turn over notes and that their records be admitted as discovery items.

Howl! Howl! Howl! The Medill Empire went on full boil

1. CNN:
Editor's note: Nicole Lapin is an anchor and reporter based at the CNN Headquarters in Atlanta. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

(CNN) -- It was two-and-a-half days before Illinois Gov. George Ryan was to leave office in 2003. I sat in a crowded auditorium in Northwestern University's Law School in Chicago, where Ryan was expected to make a major announcement on capital punishment.

2. Retired Federal Judge Sarokin in Huffington Post .

But I truly believe that the attempt of prosecutors to subpoena "the grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports and e-mail messages of their journalism students themselves" at Northwestern University warrants and deserves the Gestapo label.

3.The Chicago Headline Club of the Society of Professional Journalists

The Chicago Headline Club, a chapter of the national Society of Professional Journalists, strongly protests the subpoenas issued by the state's attorney's office. The club issued this statement:

"The Headline Club believes Alvarez should rescind the subpoenas and stop pressuring Medill Innocence Project students to reveal all of their notes, recordings, e-mails and even grades given. Instead, her office should use what they have already from Medill students as a basis for their own further investigation. We recommend applause for the students' efforts to protect the innocent."

4. Daily Protess Protestations of Purity in the Chicago Tribune/WGN/& etc.

Until yesterday. Now it seems that Dave Protess and the Innocence Project were doing Procrustean Investigations - All the News That Fits.


Two witnesses were paid it appears, $40, or $50-$100. Cab Fare or Crack Cash it matters not. Here's some money tell our truth.

States Attorney Anita Alvarez called the bluff of a Sacred Cow in a herd of Scared Cows and the lowing of the cattle will only get more deafening.

This whole issue just may prove to be a Jayson Blair Which Project - journalism and lawsuit lotto lawyering where the facts are fabricated to fit the agenda.

I am cynical. We will see if I am wrong.

Virginia did a great service to America in putting a monster down. There is another such monster in Cleveland. There are many monsters for Professor Dave to service.

However, thanks to Anita Alvarez, the Justice System will be a little more wary of the Innocence Projects.

Shell Games Catches up to Professor Dave Protess - Innocence?

After the student paid the cabbie, the driver recorded the transaction in his log, today's filing states. Apparently suspicious that it was a drug deal or a sting, he wrote: "detective gave me 60, told me to give him 40, gave me 60... gave him change." The "him" refers to Drakes.

Seems like Professor Dave Protess and the Kids of the Innocence Project - in the zeal to free Mr. McKinney of course - engaged in a little Pay-to-Play.

"You be a Witness to Justice , Mr. Drakes, and You Keep the Change! Change You Can Believe In!"

The Medill Empire encompasses Northwestern Law and Schools of Journalism and they work very well and nicely with the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board.

Americans love to root for Innocent Men Falsely Accused/Tortured/Disrespected/Hookwinked/Bamboozeled/Bewitched/ Bothered and Bewildered - we do, honestly we do.

However, given the thick padding American Justice gives to the accused it sometimes might be a stretch to find a really innocent man. The more Innocent men the more news it will be and the more funding for pet projects like the Innocence Project.

Every young law student harbors the dream of being this Century's Darrow - the Lawyer of the Damned. There are no Clarence Darrows. There are only the balsa wood imitations like G. Flint Taylor.

Thus, I have a tough time soiling my boxers when the Tribune fulminates against Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez in her rather respectful demand that Professor Dave Protess, an insulated Professor at Northwestern University whose work on behalf of career criminals looking to get out of prison has been most newsworthy and celebrated, cough up the Discovery material - it seems Professor Dave may have let it be known that grades might be attached to convictions overturned by the Kids. Professor Dave gets crowds to hush at the sound of his name - he is such an on-the-level-straight- shooting- Justice Samurai.

Until now. Hokey-pokey! Cab Cash!

It sure looks like States Attorney Alvarez caught Professor Dave with his Innocence down around his ankles.

Officials with the state's attorney's office also said there could be a bias on the part of students seeking better grades by finding more witnesses.

Northwestern and its attorneys respond by saying the investigation should be treated as one conducted by journalists. They said the county already has all on-the-record information, including interviews and copies of audio and video tapes.

I wonder if Judge Stinky Sarokin will continue treating us with his Cook County States Gestapo pieces.