The Problem of the Chicago Voter Outside of the Ensorcelled Circle

Imagine if a Mayor of Chicago, had at one time been a civil engineer and actually read Mary Wisniewski's fine piece of reporting in the editorially awful Chicago Tribune - all crap that Rahm approves.  Too bad a Mayor is not a civil engineer by trade . . . Oh, that's right . . .one (Ed Kelly) was but that was long before Ms.Wiszniewski wrote about crumbling bridges.

Instead, we live in a politics and policy driven Progressive, global, Banana Republic. This is a malicious make-believe palace, a fairy tale world where magical things can happen for an Oh, so very few, including an eight year stay in the White House for a very special lad, or where a little guy can sit on another little guy's lap and tell him that he too dreams of being Mayor.

It is a place where big dreams count as nothing and fortunes trump virtue.

It is a tight ensorcelled circle that welcomes only the approved - the businesses, the banks, the law firms, the real estate wizards, the University and 501(c)3 public policy tax vacuums and the very few people enchanted for windfalls.

Outside of the ensorcelled circle only those with an immediate connection to the source of gold some few benefit with multiple pensions, Shakman exempt appointments, or sinecures beyond  of the vision of  everyone else.

That leaves out millions of Chicagoans and many more Cook County residents.

Outside of the ensorcelled circle people make due, beef about water bills, tax increases, burgeoning crimes against person and property, horrific public schools and worse public servants.

Yet, these same put-upon people vote the ticket every election and every time.

Gun Violence and Police Misconduct keep every eye on flaccid media writers like Eric Zorn, Neil Steinberg, Stephen Chapman and Mary Schmich, or smarmy echo-chamber Orwellians on WBEZ, or WTTW.

Chicagoans nod, sigh and wait for the Cubbies. Sadly band wagon south siders feel a tingle in the thighs over the baby bear and forget 2005 as a time past. Same goes with political villainy.  Chicagoans are too nice by half.

They scratch their heads about

• Forrest Claypool's latest six figure job and pension package
• Suzanne Mendoza's leap from Herbie Pulgar to the Comptoller's chair
• Pat Quinn
• Proco Joe
• Toni Preckwinkle
• Mike Quigley
• Jan Schakowsky

And think nothing about putting an " I'm With Rahm" sign on the their lawns

Chicagoans will always do a neighbor a solid; even if the neighbor works against every fundmental core value you have, makes a ton of money and pension for following orders.

The only thing necessary for the perpetuation of evil in Cook County is for good people to do a solid for Frannie, Billy, Tommy, or any other knucklehead with a government gig.

It is one thing to break wind in the bath tub; it is another thing altogether to bite the bubbles.

Homework for Our Sun Times Watch Dogs - Connect the Dots Between Cop-Hating Policy and Jamie Kalven's Real Estate Ventures

“We'll go wherever the conversation takes us, but our point of departure will be an exchange about the stories our lives become in the world — the narratives we construct with our actions, the narratives others impose on us, strategies of narrative self-defense (including silence), and questions of narrative stewardship and responsibility.These issues, which are present for anyone who intervenes and acts in the world, are boldly dramatized by the lives of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.” Jamie Kalven

You just gotta say, 'Dude' when Jamie Kalven appears. You just gotta.



Here's some weekend fun!  I tried to make homework fun when I was an English teacher.  Well, unless I wasn't pissed off, or feeling sorry for myself because Catholic high school's paid such crumby salaries. . .sorry. . . .and I attempted to give the kids a chance to make some intellectual inquiries that were of some use to them. Make up a Canterbury Tale of your own that makes fun of your English teacher, or the guy working at Belscott's who never seems to bathe.  Go fishing on the mighty Kankakee River and do a Nick Adams Story like Old Ernie. Stuff like that.

I have one for the very best investigative journalists in Chicago - the Sun Times Watchdogs  a changing band of brother reporters.   The Watchdogs of the Sun Times, far too often confused by the editors with the always hapless Andy Shaw, presented the fruits of Jamie Kalven's labors - the long list of beefs against cops going back to 1967 - and never once mention Jamie Kalven.

Just wondering.  The CRs listed are the ones that came after Kalven's Citizens Police Data Project and the subsequent Justice Department inquiries, but shucks it's Jamie Kalven!

Now, how about some extra-credit!

Do a fun piece on Jamie Kalven, because this week he is all the rage!

I would like the Watchdogs to connect some dots for us - here is the clue - Real Estate!

Task: Find out how many real estate ventures Jamie Kalven had connected to Allison Davis and Altegeld Gardens and offer a commentary.  Was it interesting?  Was it lucrative> Does it have impact on Policing?  Bet it does.

Jamie Kalven is not only an activist but he is a well -insulated Progressive real estate player! He used to present himself as a real estate novelist a la Billy Joel, but has Google washed that past.

Yesterday DNAinfo informed all of us that Jamie Kalven - the hard-hitting Real Estate Novelist, Venture Marxist and founder of the Invisible Institute ( leading the way for a Shakman-like Empire in Cook County) - papered the City of Chicago with more than 40,000 copies of his findings

HYDE PARK — If you haven’t read Hyde Park journalist Jamie Kalven’s four-year-long reporting project on corruption in the Chicago Police Department, it’s about to become almost unavoidable.
Starting this weekend, Kalven will distribute to 400 locations across the city 40,000 free copies of his 20,000-word, four-part series on an alleged criminal gang of drug dealers operating within the police department for nearly 10 years with the knowledge of police leadership.
Kalven has become the leading voice on problems within Chicago’s police ranks. He has released documents showing officers subject to frequent complaints from the public go unpunished and was an early voice pointing out problems with the shooting of Laquan McDonald by officer Jason Van Dyke.

Not only that, but also - there is a Jamie Kalven Mythology roll-out Nationwide! It's sensational - in the real meaning of the word!

James Warren of Vanity Fair and formerly Chicago Tribune calls it a hit that only needs a great musical score!

Imagine “The Wire,” “Serpico,” “Prince of the City” and “The Shield” rolled into one. It's why Hollywood producers should read “The Code of Silence” and give Chicago freelance journalist Jamie Kalven a call. . . .It's also a tale both of how mainstream media often blows law enforcement coverage and how potentially important stories run smack into journalistic conventions and just get lost. . . .His expose is like the grittiest fictionalized drama: dirty cops, abject poverty in crime-ridden projects, people wearing wires, murders to silence informants, the good guys being demonized and put in real peril, and ultimately a department hierarchy looking the other way.

Set it to music, Chief Keef!

 Can you say Hamilton?  How about Kalven?  Too, close to that other Calvin - the Klein guy?  Maybe.  How about Jamie!  Jamie, Lad! Right out of Master of Ballintrae. Sen-SAYSHUNAL!

Every left leaning magazine, broadcast outlet, talk-hub, podcast, website, newspaper and cop hating rag in the nation, Huffington Post, Slate, Jet, Vanity Fair, Al Jazeera, and, of course, NPR, are picking up James Warren's Poynter Piece - Meet Jamie Kalven.

James Warren not only wrote the Vanity Fair fallation, but seems to be the media's go-to narrative, which can only mean legal and cultural policy to follow close on the act - root and branch.

Jamie Kalven is talking up a plenty his own bad self! Kalven lays out the coordination orchestrated over decades of Burge Bashing and honed sharply during the Richie Daley Final Days.  A tiny Polish bartender female was horribly beaten by drunken monster, taking the day off as a cop, and that was caught on camera.  Kalven lays out just how quickly two leading Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers welded up the off-duty heroics of Abbate to the Burge Mythology = Futterman and Bowman.

The joint motion created a situation in which the public interest was unrepresented. Two law professors who specialize in police abuse cases — Craig Futterman of the University of Chicago and Locke Bowman of Northwestern University — intervened on behalf of the public. They argued that if the city was allowed to “buy its way out of” the judgment, it would have no incentive to make the necessary reforms. Judge St. Eve ruled against the city, holding that the jury verdict regarding the code of silence “has a social value to the judicial system and public at large.”
In their effort to have the code of silence verdict set aside, city lawyers argued that the CPD had enacted significant reforms since the 2007 bar incident. And they emphasized that the department was now led by a new superintendent who would not permit such behavior to go unpunished.

Did it?  Seems to me things dragged not at all.

Kalven leaves out the looong Koschman Case championed by Carol Marin.  Why is that?

The Sun Times played code of silence with louder frequency than a Packey Webb Ford's jingle and the masterpiece of a Locke Bowman return to fray with the Batman of Burge Bashing and Jon Burge Mythology Author horry old G. Flint Taylor and together they fronted for the Carol Marin aggrieved and the completed welding job on Systemic Racist Code of Silence Culture of Corruption  that was G. Flint Taylor-made for a spot at Penny Pritzker Park.

I sure would like to see some real investigation by our Watchdogs.

I would like to be brought fully up to speed on Jamie Kalven and all of his works.

This is extra credit.  You are not being paid to do this.   Have fun!  I hope.

Tribune Editorial Board Boosts the Progressive Fatwah Against Labor Issued by Imam Pfleger

Man, if you had the juice of the droopy-eyed mope and career grifter of the CTA - Forrest Claypool - you could wake up any morning with a dead Mormon family in bed with you, start the morning off with a big bowl of Jello shots swimming in Maker's Mark, drive to work like Danny Davis, do as little as Governor Quinn for a straight six hours and draw a pay check and change with no less than six zeros behind the arabic numeral of your choice.

However, you are not Forrest Claypool, Sheila Simon, Pat Quinn, Toni Preckwinkle, or Deb Mell;  you needs to work and be accountable.

Robert Kelly is the President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308.  I have never met Bob Kelly.  I have read about the man in the newspapers and find him to be a genuine man of labor.  I have met Forrest Claypool and read about his. I can't say deeds, jobs in government going back to Mayor Harold Washington.  The guy, in my opinion, is a dope, but the luckiest dope in the world, to paraphrase Babs Streisand   Forrest Claypool is job-hopping grifter.

Bob Kelly has had a job with Chicago Transit Authority in nearly every capacity concering rail cars and has earned the trust of his co-workers who made Kelly their agent and finally union President. They elected Bob Kelly.   I can not remember the last time Forrest Claypool earned the votes of anyone for anything.  He is a career appointee. Wait!  Claypooly narrowly beat Ted Leschowisz for a County Board seat, but had his patrician rump handed to him by Todd Stoger in the county Board President race and most recently Joe Berrios for Cook County Assessor. Todd Stoger???

Well, Rahm got elected Mayor and appointed Forrest Claypool to the presidency of the Chicago Transit Authority, because that post is a Non-Shakman patronage haven.

In the spring of last year, following a series of bumps on the rails caused by Claypool, Rahm, Pfleger and Claypool announced a Progressive feel-good dodge that gave 65 ex-felons jobs cleaning CTA rail cars. That trio of grifters never bothered to chat with Local 308 about this Studs Terkel of an initiative.

When it came time to renew those hand-outs, it was discovered that Kelly and Local 308 wanted to pay these ex-cons a better salary than Clayppol's coffers could stand. Rahm tossed Claypool the Progressive Playbook.

• Problem - Kelly
• Solution - Destroy the man and his reputation!
• Enlist Sneed, Andy 'The Microphone" Shaw's BGA, the ususal sheep

So beginning in late November, Claypool had smooched the proper Progressive fannies and had Citizen Michael Phleger, Robby Rush, Danny Davis and the Later-Day Marats of both city editorial boards geared up to go Full Axelrod on White Boy Kelly!

Citizen Pfleger decided to issue a Fatwah on Robert Kelly in January*.

Today, Bruce Dold and the Tribne Editorial Board joined that Imam Pfeger's fatwah and used a stale Sun Times smear from December impyling that Robert Kelly fixed a scholarship and shook down companies doing business with Claypool's CTA.

This editorial  is a political hack-job done only to smear a genuine labor leader of a skilled trades local. Robert Kelly has stood up to Mayor Rahm and his hapless. job-hopping appointee CTA President Forrest Claypool. The charge against Robert Kelly crawled from under the stove in December hours after Claypool allies ( Bobby Rush and Michael Pfleger) protested at Local 308 over the placement of ex-felons in union jobs without the consultation of Local 308. The Sun Times did that story which Bruce Dold and Editorial Board uses today. Pfleger has issued a Fatwah on Robert Kelly, the media has taken the side Forrest Claypool whose tenure with CTA has been one screw-up after another -called out onl;y by Robert Kelly at each ( potty Breaks, Bombardier wheels, the Forset Park wreck of Old 98, Ventra & etc.). The Tribune editorial board loves Progressives and shugs when progress come to a screaming halt, when a proteceted species of Progressive Cook County pulls the brakes and not the throttle. This is character assasination worthy of Joseph Medill.

I f you really want to know why things are so screwed up, read the papers, watch the news and remember something, anything.


*

Father Michael Pfleger

January 2

Robert Kelly, President of ATU Local 308 did not get his New Year wish to fire 65 Ex-Offenders from their jobs at CTA. Thankfully CTA moved them to another Union 241 so that they could continue to Work! This Second Chance Apprentice Program for Ex-Offenders has helped hundreds of Brothers and Sisters get a second Chance and sent a message to thousands that a Second Chance is possible, but Robert Kelly in his Arrogance and Power Play threw them UNDER THE BUS on Dec 31st. TO ALL 308 UNION MEMBERS, YOU NEED TO THROW MR. KELLY UNDER THE BUS IN THE NEXT ELECTION!!!!!!!

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  Matthew Deal I think Father Pfleger is just mad that he has to stay a Virgin for life so he taking it out on Robert Kelly. Smh

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  Don Mack WOOHH!!! That's Great 65 people still get to keep there Jobs

The Late Abner Mikva - The Architect of Chicago, Illinois and the Nation

"God bless that man. Abner Mikva is a national treasure, one that has lived long enough with a front row seat to history to cut through the bull and identify what is most important in these hours of decision." Daily Kos

Chicago mayors. “I was never a fan of Richard J. Daley, he was never a fan of mine, and I thought the city didn’t work well under him. It worked well in the Loop, but out in the neighborhoods the city was in pretty bad shape. I didn’t think Jane Byrne did much to improve the situation. I was very impressed with the job Richard M. Daley did spreading out the goodies of Chicago to the entire city. A lot of the groundwork for that was laid in the Harold Washington campaign. Richie kept up with that and I think Rahm Emanuel has done a good job in that respect. It’s very hard — being mayor of a big city like Chicago is one of the hardest jobs in the country.” in Andy Shaw's BGA Watchdogs

The intial quotation is from Daily Koss,  shorty after President Elect Barack H. Obama, announced the appointment of Hillary R. Clinton for Secretary of State and there was some mild concern wafting among the Media about foreign dollars stuffing the Clinton Foundation.  Abner Mikva, who along with Newton "Vast Waste Land" Minow discovered young Barack Obama among the reeds in the Washington Park Lagoon and casting pond, wrapped in swaddling clothes and dreaming of his Dad  and Lo, beheld the consummation of their long lives.

The second quote is from  Abner Mikva wedged into a column by Andy Shaw, a local news nit-wit and public laughing stock. head of the Better Government (BGA), local gate-keepers for the corporatist Democratic and GOP oligarchs of Illinois and public laughing stock.

The quote is not only historically wrong, but oozes with an irony worthy of most self-absorbed sould-patched and knit-capped Wicker Park activist hispster born of hearty Kennilworth hedge-fund stock and really committed to Occupy Anything, Black Lives Matter and any group thought meme-stock found in Reasonable People Unite.  They make Trump wanna holler, Dude!

Actually, I believe in my heart of hearts that Donald Trump wants Hillary Clinton in the White House more than Chuck Todd and the late Abner Mikva.

Abner Mikva was a mighty man and he built a political machine that made Richard J. Daley's Ward works seem like an NAACP bake sale in Kaskaskia, Illinois.

Black people flocked to Chicago (Second Migration) all through Richard J. Daley's terms as mayor and Black families began the great Black Flight out of Chicago with Richard M. Daley's advent.  That is because opportunities for employment, a home, an education and a path into the middle class was available, because policies Mikva's Hyde Park Mafia* converted Richie Daley to implement are designed to destroy the middle class.

Yes, siree Bob! The Mikva Challenge, the Shakman Empire, University of Chicago sanctioned City Hall, Lawsuit Lotteries, Garbage Grids, TIFFS, Single Narrative Media Voice ( WTTW,WGN, WBBM, ABC 7, NBC 5, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Values, International Socialists Organization control of Chicago Teachers Union.

Abner Mikva birthed Toni Preckwinkle, Jan Schakowsky, Pat Quinn, Mike Quigley, Larry Suffredin, Proco Joe Moreno, Rahm Emanuel, the late Dawn Clark Netsch, Barabar Flynn Curry, Larry Bloom, Bill Singer, Rod Blagojevich, Bobby Rush, Danny Davis, Jesse Jackson, Jr., . . . name a daffy, mean-spirited, humorless, slow-witted, avaricious and capacity challenged elected official and you can bet the last pennies in your pension that Abner Mikva 'straightened them out' for the Hyde Park Mafia.


Yes, Abner Mikva made Chicago, Cook County and Illinois what they are today and wait until you see America in four more years,

* University of Chicago and Northwestern University schools of Business, Law, Social Sciences, IVI-IPO, CPUSA, ISO, 501(c)3 Foundation -MacArthur, Polk, Woods, & etc, People Law . . .Editorial Boards, Bill Ayers, Berardine Dorhn, Valerie Jarrett, Judson Miner. Allison Davis,  and so many more.

Don't Forget Forre$t Claypool, Fran, or is ForreSt Claypool Working for Free?

Sometimes being left out is a good thing. Being absent from a list of top salaried City Officials in a Sun Times red meat piece tossed to us helots in order to stoke up the time honored Pitch Fork and Torches Parades, is a perq for Forre$t Claypool - CTA BOSS.

Now, as far as I know, CTA buses and trains run in and through the great City of Chicago. Bus drivers and train engineers will not get pee breaks, on Boss Forre$t Claypool's watch! Penny wise, dollar Progressive.

You'll recall that following another electoral defeat, Forre$t Claypool was appointed to yet another high profile policy postion by Mayor Rahm Emanuel - Boss of the CTA. One report had it that the Rula Lenska ( What exactly can Forre$t do? Never mind; enjoy) of Chicago political life has an undisclosed salary with City and Sho 'Nuff!!! you can't find Claypool among the salaried, Garzas, Newmans, O'Briens, and Zielinksis on the City Salary Spreadsheets.

Today, Fran Spielman offers up the big salary Titans, but no Forre$t Claypool.

Even with 517 layoffs, $417 million in budget cuts and $220 million in higher taxes, fines and fees, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s first city budget rewards a handful of top mayoral aides.

Harrumph!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we get the top cops, fireman, transportation, city services and a Hynes, which are all non-Progressive Shakman Exempt Targets.

Where's Forre$t?

I am given to understand that Forre$t rakes in at least $185,000 and change sans perquisites - there's always perquisites.

Why leave the poor lad unheralded, Fran?

Boss Claypool had no problem banning potty breaks and lunch from bus drivers. Now that's Progressive.

That's Forre$t in the City!

The Tribune Water Boy Has a Blinding Flash of "N.S.?"

Eric Zorn, the Garbage Grid Grinder and Water Boy for Team Rahm-a-Lama-Dang-Dong had an Epiphany after watching WTTW - Winnetka Talks To Wilmette.

Like, the movie goers nodding with conviction to the sight of Charles Foster Kane's Rosebud Sled incinerating to a cinder in Xanadu,CA, Eric Zorn realizes that . . . Public Unions cost money!

After months of mouthing the Mike "Michigan Fats" Moore Meme in Wisconsin and throaty preachifying about Union Solidarity, The Water Boy now knows what any blue collar tangible citizen has known for decades about Time and Half for Overtime and Double Time and a Half on Birthdays.

Solidarity Forever . . .well until now.

Talk about many happy returns! Earning $50 an hour if you usually earn $20, just because it is Your Special Day.

And who pays for these gifts? Riders, the same folks who are looking at fare increases or service cuts if the CTA doesn’t get its costs under control, in part by winning work-rule concessions from its unions.

Kelly, who was seated next to Claypool on the WTTW set during the contentious conversation, went on: “If a guy is working and is getting paid for eight hours and he works on his birthday, he gets an additional eight” hours, he said. “If you do the math, that’s not 21/2 times. There’s nobody out there who gets 21/2 times.”

Well, almost nobody. During a follow-up interview Tuesday, Kelly said that when his members are called to work an overtime day on their birthday or employment anniversary, they’re paid double time and a half, but he estimated that “it doesn’t even happen 100 times a year.”

Still. WTTW moderator Eddie Arruza asked the question on everyone’s mind: “Why do they get paid extra on their birthday anyway?”

Eddie Arruza and Forrest Claypool tag teaming a guest on WTTW? -Ouis!Naturalmente, Mes Amis!

Progressives always do a pile on a target-guest, like two geeks emerging from their latest locker-stuffing at the hands of jocks and cool kids and then jumping like WWF Heroes on poor little Tobie, the ADD lite weight, but Summer School Valedictorian. Nobody bullies like Progressives.

Well, I'll be dipped and rolled, says the Water Boy! EZ has been been doing any number of cheerleading routines for the Smart Garbage Grid and most recently Bump-Up The Water Rates and Get Your Own Bad Selves a Meter from the top of Rahm's Progressive Propaganda Pyramid.

Eric only reports and comments on what he is given. Today, he must react on what he saw and the strain to his very soul is hurtful to witness and, obviously, facts must be brought to his attention.

Public Unions, Eric, are paid for through taxes. Public Unions are as old as the 1960s when Lefties in New York got JFK's Okey-Dorky to hammer Tammany Hall. Tammany Hall ( the Democratic Ward Machine) is gone and Public Unions have all but murdered the Middle Class.

The Skilled and Industrial Trades Unions and their membership, not tweedy mopes with milky hands and earnest big-hearted, but two-faced activists, fought and bled for Labor Rules.

The Public Service ( teachers, City, State, Federal workers) aped the gains made by Real Labor. Eric does not twist Forrest (Rula Lenska) Claypool's nipples for bashing the Civil Rights of Workingmen. I listened to that tin-horn mope make promises to Union Men, trying to unhorse Joe Berrios two Springs ago, all over the south side - Forrest, Boss Toni and Easter Bunny Quinn. Eric the Water Boy, instead, gets all pissy about Union Bargaining Chief Kelly doing exactly what he was employed to do (stand up for his Local)and then mocks the rank and file's benefits bargained for with political hacks and their progressive propagandists in the first place.

As a Progressive, Water Boy, you demand to go east and west on Western Ave., but that is not, in truth, how traffic flows.

Instead of coming to a realization that Public Service Unions are not a really great idea, though they create a swell post-Shakman Patronage Army.

Eric's outrage over the obvious is charming, even whimsical. Harry Potter's magic wand works just fine on the big screen and on cable, but when your little digits tear open the packaging and you try it out - you must contend with your magical imagination.

Double Bubble and Double Time and a Half, little Muggle with the Water Pail, has been around for a very long time.

So, the next time Michigan Fats and Big Ed want to get a bongo circle in Madison, WI, or Zuccotti Park, ask the Two TeleTubby Trotskys - 'Who's paying?' It's easy let me do this slow -

Private Sector -labor good! - only so much money to bargain for.

Public Sector -labor(PACs) not so good! - Tax well's drier than All Things Considered.


The Skilled Trades and Industrial Unions who helped make the American Middle Class fought for decades to earn those rights through Collective Bargaining with Management.

Water Boy! The Game's Afoot and you're all tangled up . . .here, start with this knot . . .then over . . .over that's it . . .Over not under . . . under is opposite of over . . .that's right over, but upside down . . .we'll come back and see how you're doing.

Career Grifter and CPS Boss Forrest Claypool's Trail of Slime Pointed Out by Juan Perez!

The Chicago Tribune's Juan Perez, Jr. is asking the questions about the Rula Lenska of Progressive Chicago Politics, that I have asked for years.  My heart is warmed.  Mr. Perez has a nice set of teeth. 

Forrest Claypool, the Rula Lenska* of Chicago politics,  has had one helluva run!  For decades this fading beauty has been treated to quality moisturizers, Dior Air-Flash foundation, blot & powder and just the right blush on those apple cheeks, by the stooge propagandists at WTTW, ABC 7, NBC5, and . . .oh, what the hell CBS2.

About the time Rula Lenska was bombarding the TV airwaves hawking  Alberto Culver products and stunning millions of Americans into raising the question " Just Who IS Rula Lensaka?"  Forrest Claypool was brushing the Saluki moss from the back of his grey worsted Brooks Brothers and insinuating his way into the corridors of power on La Salle and Clark between Washington and Randolph.  Soon, Chicagoans were saying, " Just Who IS Forrest Claypool?"

No one seemed to have the insight, or the gumption to say," He's a grifter and damn well-practiced one, Rubes."

Nope, we are too nice.  We swallow anything, because our news papers and electronic media is as much a part of the political anatomy of Chicago, as the 14th Ward Regular Democratic Liver, Bacon and Onions Boosters.

Forrest Claypool oozed into Chicago Power Politics with David Axelrod, Judson Miner,  and Rahm Emanuel.  They helped Abner Mikva and Michael Shakman remove the City That Works' political limbs, leaving a Progressive torso that requires much more monetary sustenance, than the once functioning apparatus had ever dreamed of stealing.

The old time political crooks never stole everything.   Progressives do.

Progressives are loyal only to power and those who bring more power to the table. Claypool is master of the game. He requires short memories and no interested inquiry on the part of people who should know better.  Do any Progressive a favor and a politician will soon find a six inch blade where his kidneys once functioned.  The political landscape is littered with corpses of once trusting and effective public servants.

Claypool gets appointments via his network.  If he runs for office, he generally gets his ass handed to him - County Board President and Cook County Assessor. He did manage to squeak by Ted Lechowicz  and grab a comfy seat on the county Board

He has been appointed

• to Cook County Board of Appeals
•  as Deputy State Treasurer
• Mayor Daley's Chief of Staff
• Head of Chicago Parks
• CEO CTA
• CEO CPS

Succeeding where?  Rula Lenska has more chops.

Now, with digital media some people begin to ask " Who Exactly IS Forrest Claypool?"  Even the always pliable Chicago Tribune has turned its blind but gimlet eye on Forrest Claypool and his modus operandi.

The inspector general for the Chicago Board of Education says his work has been obstructed and duplicated by a better-funded arm of CPS chief Forrest Claypool's office, according to a report that lays out a political scuffle between the legally mandated watchdog and the mayoral-appointed administration.

In his report, Nicholas Schuler accuses auditors for Chicago Public Schools of "significant interference" with his investigation into the alleged theft of tens of thousands of dollars worth of CTA fare cards by a district employee.

A "parallel investigation" of that case by CPS' Office of Internal Audit and Compliance last year "compromised a criminal investigation by prematurely alerting a main subject, and sowing fear and confusion in the minds of key witnesses," Schuler said in his report, which was sent to Claypool and the school board. 

Auditors also contacted Cook County prosecutors in an effort to inject their department into the inspector general's fare card investigation, Schuler's office said. He said "very troubling issues remain" with other investigations being undertaken by the auditor's office.

Gee, who'd a thunk?  Carol Marin? Jay Levine? Neil Steinberg?  Mark Brown? Jamie Kalvan?

No one worried too much when Rahm made Claypool the CTA Boss and got Rev. Pfleger to do a politcial hatchet job on the Presidentod Amalgamated Transit Workers Local 308, or about Bombardier contracts, or the Ventra Card Boondoggles. Why should WTTW worry about the fighting Progressive beaten by Joe Berrios, when he took over CPS, after Triple B sold the store to SUPES?

Forrest Claypool pads himself with dollars and silence afforded by trhe compliant media.  Now, that same padding is getting shredded. Lookee H'yar!

The district's internal audit team is led by Andrell Holloway, who previously worked with Claypool in a similar role at the CTA. The unit has received significant funding increases since Claypool took office.

CPS budgeted a little more than $958,000 for the audit department in 2015. This year, the budget for Holloway's office is roughly $4.4 million, not including up to $14 million worth of consulting contracts that he manages. 

This year's budget for Schuler's office is about $2 million, relatively unchanged from recent years. The office perennially asks the school board for more money and staff.
"I think there's a fundamental disagreement, at some level, about the importance of the IG's office," Schuler said in an interview. "I've been told that at the end of the day, nobody's going to stand in our way. We're free to do what we can. But I see that as something different than a wholehearted embrace of the inspector general's function and the idea that there's going to be independent and transparent investigations. CPS declined requests to interview Claypool and Holloway about Schuler's report." (emphasis my own)

Forrest managed to drag poor old Frank "The Mailroom Guy" Clark -former CEO of ComEd into the bed of Claypool's making

Frank Clark, the school board's president and a mediator in the dispute, said Holloway's unit needed more firepower after "not meeting even the minimal obligations of an internal audit department."
"Of course he would like more people," Clark said of Schuler's office. "That could be said for almost every office in central office. But it's unrealistic."
CTA and CPS, like Chicago Park District all seem to have the same players and same grift.  The IG's concern now is the connection between Claypool's CTA Boss-Time and his CPS Boss-Time.
Schuler's office concluded the CPS employee "participated in a criminal conspiracy" in which he would steal transit passes from his office, then distribute them to accomplices who sold them on the black market.
Schuler's investigators believed the employee, who has not been charged with a crime, took at least $72,700 worth of transit passes over about seven months.
The CPS employee was fired in November, according to Schuler's report, which said Holloway's audit department conducted an "improper separate and parallel investigation" into the theft.
Schuler's office said the audit team "disregarded repeated requests … to refrain from simultaneously and separately investigating the matter."
According to the report, Holloway and other members of his team instructed one person interviewed by the IG's office to contact the audit department about the investigation, and conducted separate interviews that Schuler said "prematurely alerted" the suspected employee.
"This investigation implicated a subject who had been hired from the CTA," said a summary of Schuler's investigation.
"Thus, so as to avoid the mere appearance of any impropriety or undue influence on any investigation into the theft of CTA transit passes purchased by CPS, Internal Audit clearly should have stepped aside and let the (IG's office) — the statutorily independent investigative body — undertake its own investigation," the report said.

The IG's investigation applies the Bounty to the slug trails going back to Claypool's Boss-time at CTA and his Boss-time for the children at CPS.

Schuler's office concluded the CPS employee "participated in a criminal conspiracy" in which he would steal transit passes from his office, then distribute them to accomplices who sold them on the black market.

Schuler's investigators believed the employee, who has not been charged with a crime, took at least $72,700 worth of transit passes over about seven months.
The CPS employee was fired in November, according to Schuler's report, which said Holloway's audit department conducted an "improper separate and parallel investigation" into the theft.

Schuler's office said the audit team "disregarded repeated requests … to refrain from simultaneously and separately investigating the matter."
According to the report, Holloway and other members of his team instructed one person interviewed by the IG's office to contact the audit department about the investigation, and conducted separate interviews that Schuler said "prematurely alerted" the suspected employee.

"This investigation implicated a subject who had been hired from the CTA," said a summary of Schuler's investigation.
"Thus, so as to avoid the mere appearance of any impropriety or undue influence on any investigation into the theft of CTA transit passes purchased by CPS, Internal Audit clearly should have stepped aside and let the (IG's office) — the statutorily independent investigative body — undertake its own investigation," the report said.

Back in Jaunary of 2016. Juan Perez wrote a brilliant study of Claypool's long and slimy trail of grift in public service.

The career grifter has the Winston Strawn attorney Ron Marmer and the mega donor Ron DeNard and all of the old gang in his wagon train.  Now, it's in a tight defensive circle.

Juan Perez is attacking the wagons!  Watch you back, Juan. Bruce Dold has long ridden in Claypool's wagons.

Just who is Forrest Claypool?  He's no Rula Lenska.  Better ask Juan Perez!  Tell it, Son!

Why Bother With The Trib - The Real Reporting Can Be Found at Chicago News Co-Op

I read quite a bit. Even at this hoary-age of the dark-side of 58, I tend to remember what I read. Reading like plumbing, carpentry, and painting is an art. I do not plumb, carpent or paint, unless there is a very good reason to do so, like black water gushing up out of every household orifice, timbers a'cracking and chips of paint getting mixed in with the Lime and Salt flavored tortilla chips.

I read because I must. I have taught generations of high school kids not only to engage in reading, but introduced them to the very best in writing, in order to become discerning readers.

While a student at Loyola, I worked with a Stationary Engineer who was a 'big reader' - Mack Bolan, Nick Carter, Mickey Spillane, various and sundry crotch novels with titles like "Trailer Park Pam and the Big-Top Snake Wranglers at Play." While appreciative of the cover art that packages such tomes, I, none the less, found the lurid prose to be just that and came away from their sentences with the feelings of shame that must accompany young Ezra when Mom comes down into the basement with basketful of the twenty-something's laundry and catches Young E with his mitts around more than a pretzel stick, while watching the Kardasian hi-jinks on the wide-screen Hi Def.

Chicago's two remaining big newspapers and their web-sites have become little more than Condensed Lite Nick Carter dailies.

The Chicago Tribune, to be fair, has made some modest gains toward substance in recent months, but any paper with a disc jockey as managing editor and editorial board propagandist is rather sad. The Sun Times, likewise has improved from its laughable days when Cheryl Redd called the shots, and has excellent journalistic foot-soldiers like Mark Konkol, Natasha Korecki, Maureen O'Donnell, Tim Novack and Abdon Pallasch and Southtown's Star's Steve Metsch.

However, you can not find a better source for reporting, opinion and insight than the Medill Castaways of the Chicago News Cooperative ( New York Times).

One of my favorite, Metro and City Hall beat journalists is Dan Mihalopoulos. Today, this gritty and exacting reporter cuts through fatuous opinions of the Aldermen and City Hall flacks and presents the realities of Chicago Police Manpower shortages.

The ACLU and the usual suspects of political loudmouths and phonies are providing cover form Rahm Emanuel's dodgy deployments. Dan Mihalopoulos offers the facts - reminding readers of what newspapers used to do. While the Emanuel 'Smart Sizing" of the Chicago Police Department might provide cover for aldermen and the Administration, saturating high crime areas with Officers will not necessarily solve the problem.

Only Dan Mihalopulos cuts to the chase -

The Chicago News Cooperative recently obtained a list of the unit assignments for the 10,300 sworn Chicago police department employees from a police source who requested anonymity because the department leaders have declined to release it.

The records described the unit assignments as of early October and appeared to reflect the vast majority of the recent personnel moves ordered by the Emanuel administration.

Most of the detectives were assigned to one of the department’s five area headquarters, while about 2,400 of the police officers were either assigned directly or detailed to specialized units, including the narcotics section and the internal affairs division.

It was impossible to deduce from the data exactly where the officers in specialized units were working. The list also did not include supervisors.

The other 7,000 police officers, representing a majority of the department’s sworn members, were each assigned to patrol beats in one of the 25 districts. The number of officers in each district ranged from a low of 191 in the 23rd district to 386 in the 7th district.

A comparison of the beat deployment figures with department statistics for property crimes and violent crimes in each district this year shows:

¶Four districts — the 25th, 8th, 6th and 4th — had higher ratios of both property crimes and violent crimes per officer than the citywide average.

¶The highest ratios of property crimes to beat officer counts were in the 14th, 8th and 25th districts, each of which reported at least 15 property crimes per patrol officer in the year’s first eight months.

¶The lowest proportion of violent crimes to officers was in the 1st district, which covers downtown Chicago, followed by the 19th district on the North Side.

¶The 4th district, in the city’s southeast corner, had the largest gap between staffing level and violence, with 4.05 violent crimes per officer.

The 4th district covers most of the 7th Ward, whose alderman, Sandi Jackson, praised Emanuel for adding officers to areas of greater need, despite tight budget constraints. But asked about the Chicago News Cooperative findings, Jackson replied: “There is absolutely a disparity. We are not where we would want to be ideally.”

Some experts say the reaction of aldermen in apparently underserved districts, though politically astute, would not lead to the wisest policies for fighting crime.

“It is reasonable and rational to expect that there should be more officers in areas with more crime,” said Arthur Lurigio, a professor of psychology and criminology at Loyola University. “But there is no evidence that would necessarily be the case.”

Lurigio said saturating areas with officers often merely pushed criminals to other places that then witnessed a spike in violence.

Imagine if high crime areas were saturated with beat officers, prowler cars and paddy wagons?

Imagine what Harvey Grossman and the ACLU say and how quickly they would shop for Federal Judges to sue over racist invasions and forces of occupation in Englewood, or Roseland?

Fourteen people were wounded and one killed last night, blares the Tribune in anticipation of a full explanation to people by Eric "The Water Boy" Zorn, or a thunderingly hilarious cop-slamming J'accuse from Bruce Dold.

Read The Tribune for laughs, read the Chicago Sun Times for the great reporters and skip the columnists, and read the Chicago News Cooperative in order to be fully informed.

To Well-Heeled Chicagoans

It is a shame that Chicago's 1%ers can meet at Smith and Wolinsky's and pony up hundreds of thousands of dollars and invest in a bar or a restaurant, but take a pass on helping to fund the only real news source in Chicago - The Chicago News Cooperative. I mean aside from a guy who moved to Chicago and already pumps millions into schools, the great John Canning, where are all of the Oxen Gore-ing PlumpCats and Kittens? Support Chicago News Cooperative. Us Helots are already pumped dry, by Rahm, Boss Preckwinkle, Governor Easter Bunny, and Boss Claypool -not to mention Boss Shakman.

This great source of news should be supported by the people who have the most treasure in their kicks. If you have a couple of hundred thousand dollars laying around your Gold Coast condo, Lakeview gray stone, or Hyde Park mansion, give Jim Warren a call, or write a huge check to

Chicago News Cooperative Contact Info:
70 East Lake Street, #810
Chicago, IL 60601


www.chicagonewscoop.org

Chicago needs real news and good writing.



The two journalistic and editorial equivalents of "Trailer Park Pam and the Big-Top Snake Wranglers at Play" just aren't cutting it. Buck up, Buckaneers!

Tribune Editorial Board - Repeats the Obama Senate Gambit for Tammy Duckworth

In 2004,the Editorial Board and its Care Kid Columnists of the Chicago Tribune did more* to give Barack Obama Senator Peter Fitzgerald's seat than an army of 11th, 14th, 17th, 18th, 19th & 47th Ward City workers could do with millions of walking around dollars, Michael Shakman and all of his works consigned to the back of UPS 40' trailer bound for Nome and limitless air time on WTTW.

2004. . . Dave Axelrod, one-time kid reporter for the Chicago Tribune, went full smear with help of Northwestern disc Jockey-editor Bruce Dold had four years of practice in the editorial driver's seat.  Sealed divorce records of public people became the thermonuclear detterant to one's decision to remain in a race. Millionaire, Army vet, school teacher, philanthropist and venture capitalist ( yes, he built that life, Barry) was the road-block to Barack Obama. Tammy Duckworth Bruce Dold's editorial page and his rag-rangers went all over Blair Hull like a cheap suit, until he opened his own divorce records.

Danny Hynes ran second to Barack in the Democratic Primary because he did so with the very same enthusiasm and grit that I ran yesterday's Chicago Marathon.

Now, for the Republican Primary.  Jack Ryan, a school teacher, venture capitalist, and Chick Magnet, needed to be eliminated Bruce Dold, sent the Trib lawyers to California to have a compliant judge forcibly 'unseal' the divorce file - because the public needed to know the private life of a would be public man.

The Chicago Tribune made Barack Obama and aside from scrutiny by John Kass and Dennis Byrne and a very few others, this organ played Obama's waltz into the White House.

Today, its shameless folly is played out in its endoresemnt of Tammy Duckworth, the moveable feast for Dem-Progressives. who moves more than an old man's bowels.

2006 article: Illinois's 6th congressional district election, 2006In the 2006 election, Duckworth was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives seat for the 6th congressional district of Illinois which was vacated by long-time incumbent Henry Hyde. Duckworth lost to her opponent, Representative Peter Roskam, by 4,810 votes.^[8][34][35]2012Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in Illinois, 2012#District 8In July 2011, Duckworth launched her campaign to run in 2012 for the re-drawn 8th congressional district of Illinois.^[1] She defeated her opponent Raja Krishnamoorthi to win the Democratic nomination on March 20, 2012, and will face incumbent Republican incumbent Joe Walsh in the general election on November 6, 2012. Wikipedia

Once an election boundary  pre-drawn, Dawn Clark Netsch and Abner Mikva begin scouting real estate for Tammy Duckworth's entry into the lists.

Tammy Duckworth gave her blood and limbs in the service of America and for that deserves the honor and respect of all.

Since, her heroic recovery Tammy Duckworth has been a government appointee and frequent candidate.  No less a political reformer than Governor Rod Blagojevich appointed Duckworth to the post of Illinois Veterans Affairs Director, where she was duly criticized for using state time and vehicles to make political appearances for frequent election victim Dan Seals, another Progressive card-board cut-out.  Following some bad press, Tammy Duckworth got hereself a Federal appointment and new opportunities to run against Joe Walsh.

Tammy Duckworth's service deserves respect, but certainly not a place at the Progressive trough that is paid for by tax-payers. God bless her, but don't vote for her,

Bruce Dold's endorsement is a re-play of the Obama ascent to power and a term ending November 6th.  The editorial praises Tammy Duckworth because she is not Joe Walsh! Bruce even leads with his patented Axelroding of Tribune enemies -

Then there were the tax liens, the building foreclosure, the suspended drivers license, the court fight over child support …
It's too bad, because the Joe Walsh who showed up for our endorsement interview had a lot more to offer than the Joe Walsh whose antics are splashed all over YouTube. In a face-to-face meeting with Duckworth, he was direct, specific, and even charming.
Walsh pulled no punches about his views. He embraced the plan offered by Rep. Paul Ryan to restructure Medicare. He said he would not raise taxes, period. He said the long-term fix for Social Security is to "put younger Americans in charge of their retirement income." To achieve lower tax rates overall, he would support eliminating deductions for mortgage interest and charitable donations.
Duckworth, by contrast, was noncommittal on some key issues, and largely drew from the Democratic playbook. She said she was not ready to make major changes to either Medicare or Social Security. She would increase taxes for those earning more than $1 million a year. She'd be OK with ending the deduction for second homes and yachts.
Duckworth also said she'd cut oil, gas and agribusiness subsidies, and that better supervision of wasteful defense contracts could save $9 million a day. But Walsh is correct when he says those cuts wouldn't dent the deficit. "We have to reform entitlements, period."
Where he offered solutions, Duckworth too often offered only a promise to search for one.
That all might sound like it's leading up to an endorsement of Walsh but ... it's not.
Walsh has been a congressman made for cable television, but not for his constituents. He has fueled the political vitriol that has paralyzed Washington, that nearly shut down the federal government, that has failed to produce meaningful fiscal reform and economic recovery. We saw something in that endorsement interview — what a congressman Joe Walsh might have been.
Our endorsement in the 8th Congressional District goes to Duckworth.

Here is the tepid, shuck's she's a wounded vet endorsement -

When we supported Duckworth in a 2006 run for Congress, we said she wasn't politically polished. Unfortunately, she has since become a more-practiced politician. Practiced, that is, in not offering her opposition targets by getting too specific on solutions. We have, though, always admired her character and moxie. She risked her life for her country, and lost both legs when an Iraqi grenade struck her Blackhawk helicopter in 2004. So yes, she's a war hero, though she says that label belongs to the comrades who saved her life. She served as director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs for three years and assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for two. We believe she will draw on all that experience to represent the district well. We hope she will challenge her own party leaders. Duckworth has the capacity to inspire, Walsh tends to antagonize. Duckworth is endorsed.

The Chicago Tribune placed a young inexperienced egoist in the U.S. Senate in 2004 and sky-rocketed that man who America fully saw in contrast to a man of ability for the first time in Denver last week.  That performance  was a Obama's A -Game, folks.  Illinois can not afford another "aint'she great" light-weight in government - We are topped off!

Pat Quinn, Sheila Simon, Jan Schakowsky, Deb Mell, Deb Shore, Mike Quigley, Forrest Claypool, Toni Preckwinkle . . .how they working out for us?

*  But Obama wouldn't have been elected to the U.S. Senate, much less president, without a few more sex scandals yet. In the 2004 Illinois Democratic Senate primary, Obama badly trailed multimillionaire Blair Hull for months. He and Michelle agreed that if he lost that race, he was out of politics. Then divorce papers revealed that Hull's wife had accused him of physically assaulting her. (Hull said he didn't want to "relitigate" his divorce.) Obama was already moving in the polls, and he had to fend off other candidates, but after the scandal he surged into the lead and won the primary.At first the general election pitted Obama against GOP Senate nominee Jack Ryan, a popular banker expected by many to win handily. Until, that is, Ryan's wife, TV actress Jeri Ryan, said her husband pressured her to accompany him to sex clubs and have sex in front of strangers. Ryan withdrew from the race and Obama cruised to victory against fringe candidate Alan Keyes. Daily Beast 2009

Tio Con Brio: Uncle Briskly's Voter Guide to the Illinois Primary for Governor

 Quinn and his guru - the Old Red Man of Progressive Illinois -Dr. Quentin Young -made people believe he was friend of Veterans in 2004 by belaboring the obvious.

It seems that Pat Quinn's enablers did a black bag job of some kind on Billy Daley and Mr. Daley opted out of the race.  The Tribune editorial ninnies (Bruce Dold) argue that Pat Quinn's Populist Bare-Knuckle brio scared the bejabbers out of the 'banker, working for a bank.'  No, sweethearts, the Tribune is not engineering this election as it did for Il Sen. Barack Obama.  The Sun Times hired the BGA, or vice versa and it planned to dredge up Axelrodian Tales of woe for the Daley Campaign.  The BGA couldn't find a drunk pay-day unless a politician took Andy Shaw's team into a joint and handcuffed them to chap fully Kreuzened and Jaeger fueled.  The Quinn Camp did a job on Bill Daley, it seems to me, and he did the noble Roman.

That just proves that Bill Daley is no Progressive. Progressives don't do noble.

Progressives survive after back-stabbing their sponsors and all who help them.  Jane Addams would be just another patrician Sapphist, unless Alderman Johnny Powers hadn't appointed her 19th Ward garbage commissioner.  Old lusty Jane turned on her sponsor.  Chart the career of a Mike Quigley, a Forrest Claypool, or a Pat Quinn and read Progressive. Policy trumps everything, but the nest payoff.

Bill Daley will be fine.  His campaign is over and after Friday, the back-stabbers and creeps who tend to be Progressives will have had all the fun at Mr. Daley's expense that they deserve and by Monday will have 'reached out'  to Daley's people and make nice.  Progressives would be tightly packed in Hyde Park, the Lake Front and suburban Evanston  were not for cynical attempts by old time Machine Democrats to co-opt the co-opters back in the 1970's.  Prior to that age of bad hair, worse fashion and too-hip-to be square politics, fellow travelling Marxists May-poled around Leo DesPres, or teased SDS glue sniffers into the barber shops and Northwestern, or University of Chicago law schools.

While the Brothers Daley were growing up, labor leaders wore black suits and packed heat to scare off not only gangsters but Reds, Commies, Fellow-travellers, members of Comintern USA, and university professors considered with the same awe as the house cat.  Once politicians who knew better admitted the Progressives into the tent the pissing hosed universal.  Shakman was taken seriously and larceny went from a hung-over city worker snoozing on the job and grabbing a few extra nickels to Organization suicide.

Dedicated soft-balls like Pat Quinn sat at the feet abortion-intoxicated Reds like Dr. Quentin Young and curried favor with Abner Mikva.  In 1972, the bad guys took over the Party of Andy Jackson and turned it into the Party of Andy Shaw. They did so in Miami.  Creeps, Grifters and Reds became mainstream with the assistance of blow-dried ninnies like Dan Rather and MadMen Ad people.  The recently assassinated Bobby Kennedy became a mythical life-member of Planned Parenthood and JFK became Gandhi G. Once goofs and short-term memory folks understood that RFK was not a deeply devout daily Communicant foe of Planned Parenthood it was a short hop to accepting nitwits like Dawn Clark Netsch, Barbar Flynn Currie, Jan Schakowsky, Mike Quigley and Toni Preckwinkle as intellectual titans.

Bill Daley would have been a good governor in the same manner that Mike Madigan is a great Speaker of the House.  They are competent and serious men.  Instead, thanks to Progressive thought, we continue to find Pat Quinn, Toni Preckwinkle and Barack Obama holding office.

I'd vote for Jack Ketch before I'd again give anything to Pat Quinn other than well-earned derission.  He is a proven Progressive and nothing more - personally and professional disloyal, shamefully incompetent, petulant, mewlingly submissive to enemies of the American middle class. Other than that, he miht just be a very nice man. . .. when he's home.

Read the comments from the Democratic and Progressive hucksters on Capitol Fax Blog about Bill Daley's exit from the race and you get a good feel for what it means to be a Progressive.  Butt-munching sycophants early in the day and howling dogs of prey once the Pavlovian Progressive signal is blown by its site manager.

I'm a Democrat.  I believe in real labor - the skilled and industrial trades who created America's middle class.  I am an unflinching Catholic opposed to abortion and a stupidly legislated bill that redefines marriage.

In the coming primary, I am going to vote for Tio Hardiman, a product of Progressive Democrats, as opposed to hapless Pat Quinn, a Progressive tool.

CHICAGO (AP) -- The man who's now the lone Democrat challenging Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn in the 2014 primary says he's staying in the race.
Tio Hardiman is the only candidate left after former White House Chief of Staff William Daley announced Monday that he's dropping out of the primary.
Hardiman is the former head of a Chicago anti-violence group CeaseFire.
In a statement, he says Daley's decision to drop out shows just how bad Illinois' political situation has become.
He adds Illinois residents "deserve a governor that reflects them" and who is prepared to "endure and not weaken."
Daley is set to discuss his decision during a news conference Tuesday.

Bill Daley is out.  Bruce Rauner? Nah.  GOP toe-shooter Bill Bradley? Nah.  Let's see what's left . . .not much.

God help us, help ourselves.