"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.
"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
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.
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]
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.
Fort Hood is the tip of an iceberg that will point to the New White House/Dept. Homeland Security directives on Terror
Iran is Laughing at President Obama
“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.”
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.”
And Kennedy, a former US representative, has relied almost exclusively on Chávez, a vociferous critic of the US government, for that growth.Boston Globe
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
The Dipwad Goof Mao-Mao-ing Communications Director for President Obama's Original Amateur Hour White House called it Qs!
Dunn also came under attack in recent weeks from conservatives over a speech she gave in which she described Chinese leader Mao Zedong as one of her “favorite political philosophers.” Fox TV host Glenn Beck said Dunn’s comment about Mao, who is considered responsible both for the modernization of China and for the deaths of millions of Chinese, was the equivalent of expressing admiration for Hitler.
A White House official said Dunn’s departure was unrelated to the battle with Fox.
Dunn, whose career in Democratic politics dates back to the Carter White House, served in a top role in Obama’s presidential bid, overseeing policy, communications, and research. Dunn had long been a consultant to Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and stayed on the sidelines until he opted against a run.
I doubt very much that the manager of this Gary Burger King was a graduate of Bishop Noll Institute, Andrean High School, or La Lumiere School in the Gary Diocese.
That is too bad. Were School Choice a Reality, the Sign Might be less Amusing . . .yet Sad.
Hat tip to Detective Shaved of the Chicago Police Department
To him who has done the deed of secret murder.Eumenides
We, the fearful daughters of Night,
Fasten ourselves upon his whole being.
Thinks he by flight to escape us?
We fly still faster in pursuit,
Twine our snakes around his feet,
And bring him to the ground,
Unwearied we pursue;
No pity checks our courage;
Still on and on, to the end of life
We give him no peace nor rest.
Illinois Congressman Dan Lipinski flipped off every voter in the Democratic 3rd District with his vote on the idiotic Health Care Bill in the House of Representatives on Saturday.
A Cynical Dan might offer - 'Hey, I had to vote that way and show sodilarity with President Obama as ILLINI! You know Rahm would have been all over me like a cheap suit and besides the Senate will kill this."
However, Baggage Dan the Overhead Carry-on Commando of Congress is no cynic and neither are most of my neighbors. They have yellow-ribbons on the trees of blocks where kids serve in our Military; pray on their knees; mean what they say and do; line 103rd Street for the Funeral of Jared Stanker* and vote their hearts.
Dan Lipiniski's vote was an insult to the 3rd District. While south siders have no trouble returning insult with injury, we can always brush up on our Shakepeare!
I found a great site that offer thousands of opportunities to make a colorful invective and confound the crumbs. Try these combinations when writing or Speaking to Congressman Alamo Dan Lipinski - Our Congressional Baggage Handler!
Shakespearean Insults -Mix 'Em and Match 'Em for Alamo Dan!
Here are 125,000 Shakespearean Insults, thou mammering hedge-born gudgeons.
To construct a Shakespearean insult, combine one word from each of the three columns below, and preface it with "Thou":
artless base-court apple-john;
bawdy bat-fowling baggage;
beslubbering beef-witted barnacle;
bootless beetle-headed bladder;
churlish boil-brained boar-pig;
cockered clapper-clawed bugbear;
clouted clay-brained bum-bailey;
craven common-kissing canker-blossom;
currish crook-pated clack-dish;
dankish dismal-dreaming clotpole;
dissembling dizzy-eyed coxcomb;
droning doghearted codpiece;
errant dread-bolted death-token;
fawning earth-vexing dewberry;
fobbing elf-skinned flap-dragon;
froward fat-kidneyed flax-wench;
frothy fen-sucked flirt-gill;
gleeking flap-mouthed foot-licker;
goatish fly-bitten fustilarian;
gorbellied folly-fallen giglet;
impertinent fool-born gudgeon;
infectious full-gorged haggard;
jarring guts-griping harpy;
loggerheaded half-faced hedge-pig;
lumpish hasty-witted horn-beast;
mammering hedge-born hugger-mugger;
mangled hell-hated joithead;
mewling idle-headed lewdster;
paunchy ill-breeding lout;
pribbling ill-nurtured maggot-pie;
puking knotty-pated malt-worm;
puny milk-livered mammet;
qualling motley-minded measle;
rank onion-eyed minnow;
reeky plume-plucked miscreant;
roguish pottle-deep moldwarp;
ruttish pox-marked mumble-news;
saucy reeling-ripe nut-hook;
spleeny rough-hewn pigeon-egg;
spongy rude-growing pignut
surly rump-fed puttock
tottering shard-borne pumpion
unmuzzled sheep-biting ratsbane
vain spur-galled scut;
venomed swag-bellied skainsmate;
villainous tardy-gaited strumpet;
warped tickle-brained varlet;
wayward toad-spotted vassal;
weedy unchin-snouted whey-face;
yeasty weather-bitten wagtail;
The works of mercy are innumerable. Their very variety brings this advantage to those who are true Christians, that in the matter of almsgiving not only the rich and affluent but also those of average means and the poor are able to play their part. Those who are unequal in their capacity to give can be equal in the love within their hearts. St. Leo The Great
Today is the Feast of St. Leo The Great. I was baptized in St. Leo the Great Parish in 1952 by Monsignor Pat Molloy*.
St. Leo the Great Parish at 77th & Emerald was once the largest Catholic Parish in Chicago and eventually was divided into St. Sabina, St. Kilian, and Little Flower Parishes. Click my post title for Dr. Eileen McMahon's account of the action. Four Huge Catholic Parishes -That's a lot of Mackeral Snappers!
Today's Gospel from St. Luke for the Feast of St. Leo The Great is very telling about all of us - well me anyway.
Will any one of you, who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep, say to him when he has come in from the field, `Come at once and sit down at table'? Will he not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, and gird yourself and serve me, till I eat and drink; and afterward you shall eat and drink'? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, `We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'"Luke 17: 7 - 10
On November 14,1924 the hearse leaves Sbarbaro's Funeral chapel followed by cars carrying flowers en masse and made it's way to Mount Carmel Cemetary.
At the crowded cemetary, Father Patrick Malloy of St. Thomas of Canterbury church recites prayers for for the kind person he knew in O'Banion. Father Malloy stated that "One good turn deserves another" this in reference to O'Banion's helping needy and poor families on the Northside. After O'Banion is laid to rest, the Northsiders go on the hunt for everyone implicated in O'Banion's murder.
About 8:45 yesterday, I was offered a piece of delicious Wrigley's Big Red, by one the Leo National Honor Society Members who were the proud center piece of our Veterans Observances at Leo High School. Big Red is a particularly tastey cinnamon flavored jaw popping dental delight that wakes up the flavor buds and on the second bite down splits the last molar on the lower-left jaw of my periodontal challenged mug. The Big Red jingle is sung by Hip-hop artiste Ne-Yo -no less. It comes back to me - repeatedly. Click my post title and share!
I walk off from the National Honor Society Men of Leo and discard the jagged half piece of molar and try to maintain a shred of dignity. A shred is all I can supply.
Fox 32's Pat Elwood interviewed these fine young gentlemen and featured them on the 12P.M. Fox News! Huge, Patrick! Huge! Back to me. The Center of MY universe.
Toxic Abcess, Batman! The Pain was better than 24-Hour Loop Tape of Pete Seeger doing The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
Steady On, Hickey! As New Jersey Governor Elect Christie might blubber, "Man Up!"
I had four hours of minor details and smiling welcomes to Leo Men who sacrificed limbs and souls all over the globe and shuffle with canes and some strollers to Honor Our Fallen.
A quick Memorare* was answered and I manged to make myself useful during the wonderful and moving ceremony.
I am as Yellow as a Duck's Foot and Weep with Self-Pity When it Rains too Hard. Low thresh-hold for pain. South siders and other testosterone rich males have a feline metaphor that causes some to recoil in indignation and feigned solidarity with women.
Not this Cupcake. I am a P . . .pain-reactive hysteric.
When I could I called Commonwealth Insurance for a patient 'What's the Plan Say? Directive.
1. Call Us
2. See your appointed Commonwealth Dental Heath Provider -
3. Have Approved Dentist refer you case to an Approved Oral Surgeon.
Done, I call Call Dr. Fang in Oak Lawn learn that Dr. Fang has recently shed his mortal husk and sleeps with Counsellors and Kings. " You're Kidding! He was a young guy, what did he die of?"
County Kerry voice ( Brosna or Scartaglen) '"T'was nothing serious. The new dentist is Dr. Mara Harry and she will be in on Monday, so."
"Can you ask her to call in an antibiotic and a pain prescription."
"I can not and she can not send a prescription without first seeing you. Monday at 10A.M.?"
I agreed but three hours later of Feliniesque dream sequence encounters with normal people un-hallucinated with a broken and obviously impacted molar and gums on fire changed my tune! My breath must have been as delicate as barfly on twenty Old Styles,eighty Happy Cossack Vodkas, Two Packs of Winston Reds, Tthree Slim Jims and a kiss from Fat Helen at the end of the bar. I needed theeth out!
Back To the good folks at Commonwealth -"Please hold and the first available associate will be with you shortly - Loop Music! Ne Yo!~ The Big Red Guy!
"So Sick"
Mmmm mmm yeah
Do do do do do do do-do
Ohh Yeah
Gotta change my answering machine
Now that I'm alone
Cause right now it says that we
Can't come to the phone
And I know it makes no sense
Cause you walked out the door
But it's the only way I hear your voice anymore
(it's ridiculous)
It's been months
And for some reason I just
(can't get over us)
And I'm stronger than this
(enough is enough)
No more walking round
With my head down
I'm so over being blue
Crying over you
And I'm so sick of love songs
So tired of tears . . .
. . .gotta change my answering machine
Now that I'm alone
Cause right now it says that we
Can't come to the phone
Today, we will honor Men and Women in Uniform and Service to America at Leo High School.
Yesterday, my daughter and her classmates of Mother McAuley and the students of Brother Rice High School, lined Pulaski to welcome home the body of Army Spc. Jared Stanker killed in the service of his country.
Yesterday, a terrorist in uniform murdered his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood.
God Bless all who labor for Peace in Uniform and in Defense of America.
Saint George, Saint Joan of Arc,Michael the Archangel are Patron Saints of the Military.
One of the best Intercessions that Catholics pray is to St. George.
Faithful servant of God and invincible martyr, Saint George;
favored by God with the gift of faith, and inflamed with an ardent love of Christ, thou didst fight valiantly against the dragon of pride, falsehood, and deceit. Neither pain nor torture, sword nor death could part thee from the love of Christ. I fervently implore thee for the sake of this love to help me by thy intercession to overcome the temptations that surround me, and to bear bravely the trials that oppress me, so that I may patiently carry the cross which is placed upon me; and let neither distress nor difficulties separate me from the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Valiant champion of the Faith, assist me in the combat against evil, that I may win the crown promised to them that persevere unto the end.
Cap'n Trade Mark Kirk is an oily kind of jerque*. He moves like mercury. He voted for the Waxman Markey Global Warming Stick-Up of America for General Electric! Kirk was the ONLY Republican in the Illinois Delegation to vote for this creepy and dangerous Bill.
Illinois Lion Representative Jim Durkin gave Kirk the tune-up he deserves after that vote - let's all say it together!
"I think he is going to regret that vote," Durkin said. With decisiveness, Durkin told the DailyHerald.com that he is "not interested nor disinterested" in a run, but adds "If I decided I wanted to run for statewide office I feel comfortable I could put together a team." from Illinois Review
Mark Kirk sneered at Sarah Palin. I like the former Governor of Alaska. I liked Palin before she hitched her star to John McCain's Campaign. I was delighted that she joined that Campaign. Palin energized McCain and McCain - it seemed to me - quit after September 19th 2008. Palin played hard until the whistle blew and kept her head up while all others went hang-doggy and nuzzled up to MSNBC.
Mark Kirk is tailor-made for the Tool Shed -MSNBC. However, Kirk wants to be Senator. That's nice.
I am voting for Alexi Giannoulias.
Kirk reminds me of the charcter in the movie Step Brothers. John C. Reilly's guy. Click my post title for that great scene.
Now, Mark Kirk is pestering everyone at the big table for Fancy Sauce ( Palin's Endorsement).
"Hey, I like Fancy Sauce! I Like Fancy Sauce!"
Sure you do, Mark. Ask Keith Olbermann for some fancy sauce - he'll give you some Fancy Sauce.
*The searching of a ship for unentered goods. [Eng.]
Tomorrow's events at Leo High School in honor of our Veterans will be covered by Patrick Elwood and the great folks at FOX-32 Chicago - at 8:15, 9:15, and 11:00 A.M. - if you can not join us, please watch.
Leo High School, Leo Alumni Association, The Burbank Marine League Color Guard, Windy City Veterans, The Veterans Leadership Program, American Legion Giles Post #87& especially Mrs Rochelle Crump of Chicago Department of Child and Family Services will hold a special Veterans Memorial Observance at the Leo War Memorial in the school's courtyard. , Leo High School President Robert W. Foster & Principal Phil Mesina ( USAF ret.) and Vice Principal Frank Wilson (USMC ret.) will direct the observance which features presentations by Veterans, wreath - laying by Richard Furlong, President of the Leo Alumni Association. Leo Man David McKee ('46) always pipes in the colors and opens the ceremonies on the Irish War Pipes.
Leo High School erected a memorial in 1965 to the many Leo men who have died serving
America in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam and the Windy City Veterans of Chicago
updated the engraved names and constructed permanent lighting for the memorial. Last year more than two hundred persons joined the 220 Leo students in honoring America's war fallen. The War Memorial was dedicated by General Thomas Gerrity USAF ( Leo 1930) - a hero of the Fall of Bataan who escaped to Australia and returned to destroy 28 Japanese ships from his B-25 in the Bismark Sea and New Guinea. (click my post tite for more on Leo Man General Thomas P. Gerrity!
John Fardy (Leo 1940) was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic sacrifice during World War II. Mr. John Houlihan (Leo ?41) served in the Marine Corps as did Mr. Dick Prendergast and twenty (20) more of his classmates from the Class of '43. Many Leo men have been decorated for heroism, including Mr. Jim Farrell (Leo '61), Mr. Jack Farnan, (Leo '63), and Mr. Jim Furlong ( Leo '65), all members of the Leo Hall of Fame and highly decorated Vietnam Veterans. The late Mr.Thomas Stack (Leo '61) organized the first welcome home to the Veterans of Vietnam. Mr.Tom Stack won two Silver Stars and three Bronze Stars in Vietnam.
Another highly decorated Vietnam Veteran, Gen. George Muellner, USAF (ret.) graduated from Leo, flew more than 600 combat fighter missions, commanded many fighter commands, and developed the STAR communications weapon system for Operation Desert Storm. Gen. Muellner is now the VP for Boeing Corporation's Stealth Projects.
The Veterans Memorial Observance will be held in the school courtyard located on 79th Street. The Public is invited to share in this Observance.
Labels: Jack Howard. Leo Alumni, Leo Alumni, Leo Veterans Observances
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Patrick_Gerrity
1
Design'd for great exploits; if I must dye
Betray'd, Captiv'd, and both my Eyes put out,
Made of my Enemies the scorn and gaze;
To grind in Brazen Fetters under task [ 35 ]
With this Heav'n-gifted strength? O glorious strength
Put to the labour of a Beast, debas't
Lower then bondslave! Promise was that I
Should Israel from Philistian yoke deliver;
Ask for this great Deliverer now, and find him [ 40 ]
Eyeless in Gaza at the Mill with slaves,
Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke;
Yet stay, let me not rashly call in doubt
Divine Prediction; what if all foretold
Had been fulfill'd but through mine own default, [ 45 ]
Whom have I to complain of but my self?
Milton -Samson Agonistes
Those lines always reminded me of the great people in public life, who struggle to do good for people. Some even end up in a Federal Prison.
One very good guy I know is sitting out the last of his semesters in Terra Haute, in no small part due to a very good man himself - several good men actually.
I just got off the phone with a genuine Chicago voice in print. He writes for one of the the two big Chicago Dailies.
We shot the breeze about a mutual friend who is having a particularly tough time - that friend is also in the cold and impersonal world of modern journalism.
Our conversation turned to things political -
"Hey, what's up with your Republicans?"
My Republicans?
"Yeah. You went all McCain."
Illinois Republicans blow their toes off - not unlike up-state New York Republicans. I like Dan Proft.
"Jesus, he has about twenty seven Cicero contracts and stuff hanging on him. Why can't you get clean once in a while . . .like with that Polish Kid Andy Andrecscxzjhykczxcszch? "
I work at Leo 'cause it's easy to spell.
We went back and forth on reform and the usual Who's-Who litany of rogues, cretins, feebs, dummies, crooks and phonies.
We landed back at good people. People who actually do something for other people -who will do anything without a Press Conference or naming of a Blue Ribbon Commission, or any one really ever knowing about it.
In Poetry things are neat; in prose, things are messy. Politics is Prosaic. It is un-Romantic. The Romantics in Politics - the Goo-goos; the Boiled Beets Progressives; the Dopes Who Believe EVERYTHING is like a Julia Roberts Movie; the Raving Lunatics Left/Center/Right - are the very people who screw things up. Romantic Politics makes more taxes and more corruption. It is a Hegelian thing.
It is the same thing in my Church - Romantic Goofballs like the dippy Nun escorting victims to an abortion - the poetic romantic channel surfers screw things up. Sister! Be a Unitarian Nun! They ARE WAY COOL!
We, Catholics, have had a very, very Gay Friendly Church Hierarchy and Clergy( Well, Who's to Say?) for well over forty years and then we find ourselves shocked when Father Daffodil is taking seven altar boys to Wisconsin with a video camera. Hey, spare me the 'Pedophile's Have Nothing to Do With Homosexuality' dodge - yeah, and pipe dope has nothing to do with plumbing.
If Only more attention could be focused on the people in public life who actually make a difference - no, not The Honorable Dorothy Brown - maybe, then, politics could start to work for people again.
I went to a wake at Sheehy & Sons on 79th Street once and asked the widower what his wife had succumbed to -"T'was nothing serious, so." the County Kerry gent offered.
Following yesterday's National Tune-up of the Hope & Change White House, Stephen Root playing Robert Gibbs offered this -
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that the president viewed the Republican victories in New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races as referenda on local issues that reflect little on his policies in Washington.
"People went to the polls and voted on local issues not to either register support for or opposition to the president," Gibbs said. Asked whether moderate lawmakers might view the results differently, and worry about casting tough votes on Obama's priorities, Gibbs said no.
"I don't think they will and I'm not concerned," he said.
From the files of the great Tom McMahon of Wisconsin & Frank Nofsinger:Beerologist, libationist, beer devotee, wert guru, beer maven and Patriot!
A hooded robber burst into a Texas Bank and forced the tellers to load a sack full of cash.
On his way out the door a brave Texas customer grabbed the hood and pulled it off revealing the robber's face. The robber shot the customer without a moment's hesitation. He then looked around the bank and noticed one of the tellers looking straight at him. The robber instantly shot him also.
Everyone else, by now very scared, looked intently down at the floor in silence. The robber yelled, "Well, did anyone else see my face?" There are a few moments of utter silence, in which everyone was plainly afraid to speak.
Then one old man raised his hand and said," I think my wife may have caught a glimpse of you."
I am a
Canna
What Flower
Are You?
