Thursday, June 07, 2012

Rally for Religious Liberty -Noon in Federal Plaza (50 W. Adams) Tomorrow!

 People have deeply-held beliefs on all sides of these discussions, and you, as public policy leaders, will be called on to help move these debates forward. . . .These debates can also be contentious. But this is a strength of our country, not a weakness. In some countries around the world, it is much easier to make policy. The leader delivers an edict and it goes into effect. There’s no debate, no criticism, no second guessing.


-Kathleen Sebelius to Georetown University Public Policy Graduates


Hear you this Triton of the minnows ? mark you (HHS) "absolute shall ?" - Shakepeare Coriolanus ( bowdlerization my own)


In some countries, you fatuous ninny Kathleen?  Let's talk about January 2012 right here in the old Land of Free and the Home of the Brave.
\


Collectively, Catholic organizations provide services to more Americans than any other entity except the federal government itself. Its 600 health care institutions, for example, provide care to one in six patients treated in the United States every year. Catholic schools provide education to millions of elementary and secondary school children, while more than a million students attend the nation's 200 Catholic colleges and universities. And it is this very ubiquity that is the real target of the anti-conscience mandate. The "fundamental transformation" Obama and his accomplices wish to inflict upon America can't be managed while large, autonomous institutions like the Catholic Church and its charitable organizations remain in place.
A Catholic belongs to the Catholic Church because of faith in the Church as the Body of Christ.  A "Cultural Catholic" is an art lover.  A Progressive Catholic is a politician.  Catholics are Democrats, Republicans and Americans.


I am what might more accurately be called a 'bad' Catholic. If I miss Mass it is not because I have fundamental objection to the all-too-humanly-flawed celibate patriarchy that protects the Church's Magisterium* ( bishops and stiff-collars), it because I did not drag my lazy-ass to Church. If you belong to the club, go to the meetings. It is that fundamentally simple.


My liberty to exercise my faith is challenged by the current occupant of the White House and the folks who give him his marching orders -Planned Parenthood, NOW, the DNC, SEIU, General Electric, Hollywood & etc.


I will exercise my Rights at Federal Plaza tomorrow at noon in Chicago Federal Plaza** with thousands of my co-coreligionists, neighbors and friends.  I will go to Confession for my parade of sins.  I will get my ass to Mass. I will vote against the people who want to end my liberty. 




"The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him."








**.- On June 8, Stand Up For Religious Freedom will hold its second round of national protests against the contraception mandate, continuing the movement that drew tens of thousands of protesters in March.
“We're up to 154 rallies across the country now, which is about 10 more than we had last time on the rally day,” said Stand Up For Religious Freedom's communications director Matt Yonke. The group is “expecting a few more (cities) to trickle in before Friday,” when the events begin at noon local time.
Organized in response to the Obama administration's denial of conscience rights to religious institutions, the first set of rallies included 28 Catholic bishops as well as other Christian and Jewish leaders. This time around, Yonke said, publicity and group endorsements have “only been bigger.”
“We had 64,000 (people) last time,” he recalled, noting the attendance tally from the first round of coast-to-coast demonstrations that took place March 23. “I definitely think we're going to top that.”


http://spectator.org/archives/2012/05/22/catholic-institutions-revolt-e
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/hhs-secretary-kathleen-sebelius-full-remarks-to-georgetown-universitys-public-policy-institute/2012/05/18/gIQAYER
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/religious-freedom-movement-holding-new-national-rallies-june-8/
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/06/ej-dionne-and-the-contradiction-of-progressive-catholicism

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Real Labor - The Skilled Trades and Private Sector Unions - Betrayed


Here is a post that I wrote last March:

THE WIN BY GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER YESTERDAY SHOULD BE STUDIED BY REAL LABOR WITH A HARD EXAMINATION OF S.E.I.U. AND ITS GROWTH AS A PAC BEGINNING IN THE 1970'S, THROUGH THE RISE OF JOHN SWEENEY (SEIU) AS HEAD OF THE AFL-CIO AND ANDY STERN'S COUP.



SATURDAY, MARCH 05, 2011


Why Labor Will Lose in Wisconsin



American workers are the best. American labor made the standard of living that is being eroded by people who want the American middle class to disappear.

The issue in Wisconsin will not end well for organized labor. The skilled and industrial trades, in my simple opinion, made a pact with the devil by siding with public sector unions ( PACs in reality) and allowing the likes of Andy Stern to hijack not only the voice of labor, but the very meaning of the word.

Taxes and the salaries of public sector unions are paid by electricians, carpenters, millwrights, pipe-fitters, plumbers, auto workers, steel workers, engineers and industrial workers. These folks are American labor.

Here is the face of labor -hijacked labor - in 2011.


This is face of real laborThis great photo was sent by Max Weismann

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Time with Rip Pecatonica: Recall Scott Walker? Nope, Can't Say I Do.


Russell Issac "Rip" Pecatonica of Moscow, WI was in Chicago last week.  Rip P runs the Happy Viking Lounge in Blanchardville just south of Moscow in Iowa County and west of New Glarus in Green County all tangled up in Rts. 39, 78 and bunch of Fs, Js, Ks and Ms. The Happy Viking Lounge is more of a bar and much less of a lounge as there are no tables other than shuffle board and pool and no booth other than phone.

You can get your deer processed by any number of habitues of The Happy Viking.  The Swiss Pabst quaffers outnumber the Swedes and most Happy Vikings have more Native American Indian blood coursing through their veins than 32 Elizabeth Warrens.  Rip, as his surname proclaims, is,  a scion of the Algonquin tribe - attributed to the cognomen Bekaaniba or "Slow Water". I got to know Rip during my frequent visits to The Happy Viking as part of my fistful of annual peeks beneath The Cheddar Curtain.

I met Rip in the Loop while he was on a purchase of bar equipment.  I found my contemporary mixed-breed Swiss/Injun Packer Fan on the corner of Jackson and Franklin with his neck craned back and taking in a full view of Chicago's Own 2001 black obelisk structure intruding the heavens, " Dat's one Serious Tower, dere Hickey."

No, Rip. that is no longer Sears Tower, but Willis Tower.

"Didn' day Sears, said  SIRIUS!  Big!"

I agreed but offered to moderate his observation to the more accurate -Tall.

"Big too."

That it is.  With that proportional debate settled we walked to Lou Mitchell's for coffee. As my Badger State boon-chum and master tap-tun was available, I asked about today's political focus.

Rip, will you recall Walker?

"Depends."

Upon?

"On if he done something for me."

Has He?

" When?"

In this past year or so.

"Can't say as I recall"

Will Walker be recalled next Tuesday,? I asked peremptorily I hoped.

" If he done something."  Hopes dashed.

For the State of Wisconsin?

" For anything and anywhere"

Will you recall Walker?

" Depends."

Have you voted already?

Yes. Month back

How did you vote, Rip

"Easily"

By what method?

"Absentee"

For whom did you vote?

" The ones running."

Walker?

"Which one"

Scott Walker.

"Can't recall. 'S a month back. Pricey coffee down here."

On me, RIP.  And do take the powered donut holes with you.

"Ahead of you!"

Always.


Tales of the South Side: Scorcher O'Malley's Final Exam







Scorcher O'Malley was leaving Keegan's Pub when he was run over by a bus. 


The late Scorcher was enrolled in, but never attended Brother Rice, Leo, Mount Carmel Catholic High Schools and received his high school diploma from Calumet Public High School in 1971.  Scorcher was so named because he burned every bridge constructed during  his life.


Scorcher owed everyone, but no one ever expected re-payment for loans granted.  Scorcher lived life fully to his own talents and inclinations, which happened to be the laws of physics and the mechanics involved in draining a beer glass.


Upon gulping his penultimate pint prior to Paradise purchased by patrons of the pub, Scorcher stepped out onto the public pavement and again into the bustling thoroughfare that is Western Avenue at 10618 south.


Scorcher saw the approach of two bright beams belonging to the Chicago Transit Authority and then a great welcoming light luring Scorcher to a Tall Fisherman with a fabulous set of keys.


Scorcher was at the gates of heaven and St. Peter informed  him that he may not enter the Pearl-Perfect Gates  unless he passed a test.  Never having taken one in his entire time on Terra Firma. Scorcher cast a quizzical mug attached to a cocked noggin. 


What choice did he have, O'Malley agreed to give one a whirl. 
.
St. Peter decided to go easy on him, 'What has 5 fingers and is made of black leather?' he asks. 


O'Malley scratches his head, thinks hard and finally gives up." Hell,. . . I dunno."


 'It's a glove says St. Peter.'

'Glove, yeah.'

The Rock-like patience of the Fisher of Men coaxed out a smiled, 'Let's try again.  What has 10 fingers and is made of black leather?' asks St. Peter.


 O'Malley's jaw dropped. After a few minutes of pacing in a circle and scratching his head, the Scorcher  gives up.


 'Why it's 2 gloves - don't you see 10 fingers, black leather, . . .?'  says St. Peter amazed.

Being in a generous mood and recalling his own walk on the water, St. Peter deigned to give O'Malley yet another chance but thinking of an even easier question. 'Who is the patron Saint of Ireland?' asks St. Peter, thinking he can't miss this. After all, Three had been the salvific charm in Peter's own bout in the Garden. 

'Hey, I gotcha now! It wouldn't be 3-gloves, would it?' says O'Malley.


'Yeah, St. Three-Gloves . . . get your ass in!'

Monday, June 04, 2012

Rally for Religious Liberty - Friday June 8th at Noon in Chicago's Federal Plaza




I participated in Chicago's Rally for Religious Freedom in March of this year.  It rained like a son-of-a-gun, but more than 2,000 people jammed Federal Plaza in a very peaceful, dignified and good humored show of support for Religious Freedom.

My family spent decades pounding the sidewalks for workers rights.  Early on we were all taught to never cross a picket line - we never did. If a store was struck by real labor, we purchased else-where.  My father and his brothers and my cousins, picketed in support of the printers at the Chicago Tribune.

Likewise, we hit the kneelers in church to pray for aborted children.  My uncle Larry Hickey, who was the Chief Engineer for Cook County Hospital,  made national news (AP Chicago 1975 linked below).    Uncle Bud was ordered to install crematory furnace for the disposal of unclaimed and unidentified bodies from the County Morgue, but primarily aborted fetuses.  The crematory furnace was not fired for five years, because the Chief refused to dispose of human remains. This was in February of 1975.

I started teaching in Catholic schools in 1975.  Roe v. Wade was giving the abortion industry its baby steps and the American media its universal assistance.  Democrat politicians who happened to be Catholic were not yet fully bought by Planned Parenthood's dead-baby bucks.   George Dunne, President of the Cook County Board, never fired Uncle Bud for the Chief's Civil Disobedience; in fact, Dunne made Larry Hickey the Chief Engineer of Cook County.  That was then;this is now.

Now, Democrat politicians who happened to baptized as Catholics would see a Larry Hickey become an occupant of Cook County Jail, after firing, convicting, sentencing and stripping him of pension, of course.

There are no Democrat George Dunnes.  In fact the last genuine Catholic Democrat that I can recall in recent years, resigned as State Representative - Kevin Joyce. Rep. Dan Lipinski might be. There are Dick Durbins, Dan Hynes, Pat Quinns, Mike Quigleys and Rich Daleys.  They and Planned Parenthood, SEIU and other left-leaning PACs put Barack H. Obama in the White House

President Obama stripped St. Xavier University of its religious identity and immediately the school invited former Obama mouthpiece Robert Gibbs to be a guest speaker.  Governor Pat Quinn revealed his complete submission to Illinois Personal PAC's Terry Cosgrove, over Francis Cardinal George all through the fall of 2011. Cosgrove orders and Quinn jumps.

In January 2011, President Obama's baptized Catholic HHS Secretary made official war on the American Catholic Church.

So, on Friday June 8th, I'll be in Federal Plaza with thousands of Catholics, Protestants and Jews voicing support for Religious Liberty. I hope that you will also enjoy the fresh air and great company.

Rally for Religious Freedom

Uncle Bud's ( Larry Hickey Chief Engineer Cook County Hospital) saga linked here:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19750222&id=QpxOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=uvoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2606,5132451

Saturday, June 02, 2012

Cardinal George Checks In

Leo Men -Francis Cardinal George ( Leo 2012) and Jackie Schaller ( Leo 1943)

On May 11th Chicago Archbishop Francis Cardinal George paid a visit to the young men, parents, staff and Alumni of Leo High School.  It was the first visit by Chicago's Archbishop since 1926, when George Cardinal Mundelein dedicated, blessed and consecrated the school's corner-stone situated on the northeast corner of the school at 79th & Peoria.

Cardinals Stritch, Meyer and Cody never dropped by for a chat with the Lions. More hurtful than no visit was the fact that all financial subsidies to Leo High School from the Archdiocese of Chicago ended during the last years of Cardinal Cody's episcopate.  Subsidies were cash grants determined by the size and needs of school.  The last subsidy amounted to about $ 80, 000 in 1981.  Joseph Cardinal Bernardin wanted to close Leo when the Irish Christian Brothers pulled out in 1991, only to be challenged by this school's  fiercely loyal and dedicated Alumni bulled into action by the heroic Bob Foster, the school's first lay-Principal and later President.  Foster and the Leo Family was told ' You are on your own' in no uncertain terms.  Leo flourished through the 1990's and bounded into the New Millennium with robust Alumni and private financial support.

Just before the new century, Cardinal Bernardin died and the Catholic Church itself was rocked by scandal universal.  During Cardinal Bernardin's stewardship, Catholic school and church closings became as common as a politicians lies.The Big Shoulders Fund was organized to help Catholic schools in the inner city of Chicago ion Bernardin's watch.  Leo men like Andy McKenna '47 and Frank Considine '39 help their Church by bringing Catholic and Jewish civic and business leaders to work with Jim O'Connor and the Big Shoulders Fund.  The Catholic Church in Chicago, as elsewhere struggled and Cardinal Bernardin went home to Christ. The first Chicago born and bred Archbishop succeeded the beloved Cardinal Bernardin - Francis George of the Oblates of Mary Immaculata.

Cardinal Bernardin closed schools and churches to strengthen the Archdiocese of Chicago financially, but the Faith lost the foundations of Faith - parishes and schools.  Archbishop George was determined to maintain Chicago's Catholic identity, vitality and viability.  His task was much more difficult. No more closings, meant greater sacrifices.  These sacrifices were asked in a climate of unprecedented hostility to religion from the Chicago media and the secularist national culture which made every opportunity to shout about scandal, an opportunity to shame faith itself.

Cardinal George and Leo High School were on their own.  Cardinal George received nothing but hostility from the newspapers, and the electronic media while he fought to nit only maintain Catholic education but push it beyond mere academic success.  Cardinal George faced the rise of Charter Schools developed by the brilliant Paul Vallas to ape the superficial aspects of Catholic education - school dress, dedication to mission (Charter), academic flexibility due to freedom from the teachers unions, and accountability.  Charter schools more often than not operated on the sites of closed Catholic schools. Charter Schools are Public Schools -funded by the State and  absent of God.

Cardinal George made Catholic schools more Catholic and more successful.  Yet, he was on his own as far as the once Catholic Chicago secular culture was and remains concerned.

Cardinal George visited Leo on May 11th.  Chicago television covered the visit and the Cardinal's chat to our family. This visit coincided with President Obama's support of Gay Marriage and the Cardinal's public defense of marriage between a man and a woman managed to wedge its way into the story. The Cardinal immediately engaged Jack Schaller, who hosted the Cardinal and Father Dan Flens at the historical Scahller's Pump on Halsted and the crowd of Leo leaders and luminaries in President Dan McGrath's office.

The real story is this - before the Cardinal's arrival several of the guys asked how they should address the leader of the Archdiocese. President McGrath informed them that the most common form of address would be to greet the Cardinal as " Your Eminence."  Eminence is not a word that gets featured very much in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.  Dan told them that the Cardinal title is an honorific.  Bishop is the real position, but core Francis George is a priest -"Father would be Okay."

Francis George is a priest.  After personally shaking hands and chatting with every graduating senior from the Class of 2012, offering a simple and beautiful lesson to scores of tough but fragile inner city teenagers - mostly African American Protestants, Muslims a very few Catholics and five Mexican and one Irish American Catholic from Canaryville - and being made a Leo Alumnus by Dan McGrath, Mike Holmes, Mike Anderson, Ken Mason, Bernie Pepping , Jackie Schaller, Dick Landis and  Bob Sheehy,  Cardinal George and I had a chance to talk.

We talked about one freshman who was on thinnest layer of ice at Leo - tall handsome, street-smart, self-dumb, talented, athletic, lonely and tormented kid.  This young man had been abandoned by his mother and somehow survived a succession of seven foster families before he was fifteen years old.   He is a damaged soul who first impulse is rage.  He is challenge to younger teachers and a few veterans.  His button gets punch with " Why are you late?  Pull up your Pants!  Take that hat off!  Sit down!"  His dial is always set in rage range that goes from One immediately to Ten -" #$% You, Bitch!" & etc.  Can't have that.

All year every person drawing pay at Leo has had a run-in or a counselling session ( I have had MORE than few chin-wags with my young friend).   I see real promise in this kid, but life has really done some crucial damage to his heart and soul.  He is self-destructive in his sense of self preservation.  Cardinal George offered to counsel the young man personally.  The Cardinal said, " Let's arrange a talk between J_____ and me."

The following week this planned session was halted by the actions of the kid. J_________ finally overplayed his hand. The ice cracked and the young man did something completely unacceptable, Leo could no longer help him.

Close on the heels of the expulsion, Cardinal George checked in and wanted to schedule a chat with the boy.  I reported the problem to the Cardinal.  "Our guy is expelled."

That priest is not finished.  We protected the school in expelling the kid.  The guy from St. Paschal's Parish on the north side -The priest who became a bishop and then was conferred the honorific of Cardinal is now a Leo Alumnus. is not finished with the one we could not help. The Cardinal, a real priest, checked in.



There will be more to this story.

Friday, June 01, 2012

Parallel Lives: Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Barack H. Obama



[Commanders like Sulla*] were men who had risen to the top by violence rather
than merit; they needed armies to fight against one another rather than against the
public enemy; and so they were forced to combine the arts of the politician with
the authority of the general. They spent money on making life easy for their
soldiers and then, after purchasing their labour in this way, failed to observe that
they had made their whole country a thing for sale and had put themselves in a
position where they had to be slaves of the worst sort of people in order to become
the masters of the better.
(Plutarch, pp. 8182)
Presidents, like Barack Obama**, are men who had risen to the top by politics and public relationsrather than merit: they needed blocks of voters ( SEIU, ACORN, G.E., NBC, ABC, CBS, NYT, Chicago Tribune, WaPo, ACLU, DNC, NOW & etc.) to rail against any opposition ( Rep. Bobby Rush, Jack Ryan, Allan Keyes, Sarah Palin. Sen. John McCain) rather than argue for the public good; and so they were forced to combine the arts of the politician with  voice of a demagogue.  They spent money making life easy for their friends and then, after purchasing their labour in this way, failed to observe that they had made their whole country a thing for sale and had put themselves in a position where they had to be advocates of the worst sort of people in order to become the masters of rest.







*Sulla, Vatican Museums, Vatican City
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
(138-78 BC)

Lucius Cornelius Sulla stemmed from a good, though not very wealthy Roman family. He came to prominence most of all in the Social War (91-89 BC). When in 88 BC Mithridates, King of Pontus, attacked the Roman province of Asia, where a alleged 80'000 Romans and Italians were massacred, the senate decided on Sulla, who was then one of the current consuls, to be commander of the army against Mithridates.
But the Tribune of the People Suplicus Rufus called for the command to be given to Marius. The concilium plebis backed this proposal. But Sulla proved a man not to be messed with. He marched on Rome at the head of six legions and forced the reversal of this decision.
This type of action was to prove typical of Sulla's methods.
After successfully completing his campaign against Mithridates Sulla returned back to Italy. Other than having command of a battle-hardened army he held no office. Sulla was not to wait for anyone to offer him any political position. Far more he simply marched on Rome and took it by force. The consuls Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and Marius the Younger could not raise an army powerful enough to fend him off. And so Sulla took charge. He was not to take power as an elected consul, but in the position of dictator, a post specially set aside in the Roman constitution for times of military crisis.
Though this was not a military crisis and Sulla hardly cared. The position simply allowed him complete power.
He now introduced a new judicial device called 'proscription'. This meant the publication of lists of any people he deemed undesirable. Rewards would be made to those who brought them in, be they dead or alive. It goes without saying that Sulla used this device in order to annihilate any political opposition, rather than to track down any real criminals.
40 senators and 1600 equestrians supposedly died in this first wave of gruesome proscriptions.
Sulla undoubtedly had all the hallmarks of a Stalin, Mussolini or Hitler. He even revelled in calling assemblies at which he would hold grand speeches, threatening and intimidating all those he claimed to be his enemies, as well as his own audience.
But dictators like Sulla don't just stop killing because the names on the list are exhausted. Instead he began adding new names of people who had become 'enemies of the state'. There was no place people, once on those lists, were safe. Even those who took refuge in temples were killed. Some might have ben hauled before him and thrown at his feet. They were killed nonetheless. Others fell victim to the mob, being literally lynched by a bloodthirsty crowd. Those suspects who only had all their belongings confiscated and were then thrown out of Rome were indeed the lucky ones among those who felt Sulla's wrath.
and shoudl any have managed to flee, then an intricate network of spies sought to track them down overseas.
Alas, Sulla was not only to be remembered as a butcher. He also used his position to reform the constitution. Strangely for a man who himself ignored the senate's wishes and who killed an unprecedented number of its members, he did much to restore its authority.
After the damaging conflicts with the Gracchi brothers and their infamous use of other assemblies, the senate was now reaffirmed as the highest body, entitled to veto any decision reached by another assembly.The power held by the Tribunes of the People was virtually abolished, as they now no longer possessed the power to challenge the senate.
Membership to the senate was roughly doubled, many equestrians and magistrates of other cities being added to their ranks.
Further he introduced a law by which any new member to be admitted to the senate had at least to have held the position of quaestor beforehand. This was no doubt to assure the senate remained a body of political and administrative experience.
Also, in order to prevent the re-emergence of serial office holders like the Gracchi, Sulla restored the ten year waiting period before one could hold the same public office a second time.
Additional to this, perhaps to prevent any meteoric rise to power by people like the Gracchi brothers, he introduced a rule by which anyone holding office would have to wait at least two years before he could be nominated for the next higher office.
Of course such restrictions were to make the struggle for power among the ambitious young sons of powerful families all the more intense.
Sulla also instituted legal reforms, which created new courts for particular types of crime. Also his reforms highlighted between civil and criminal legal procedures. Here, too, the senate found its authority strengthened, as Sulla's reforms allowed only senior senators to sit as judges.
Unusually for a tyrant, Sulla retired in 79 BC. He spent his last years on his country estate, writing his memoirs. Within a short time he died of old age.



**

Biography forBarack Obama More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth
4 August 1961Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Birth Name
Barack Hussein Obama II

Nickname
Barry
Bama
Rock
The One
No Drama Obama

Height
6' 1" (1.85 m)

Mini Biography
Barack Obama was born to a white American mother, Ann Dunham, and a black Kenyan father, Barack Obama Sr., who were both young college students at the University of Hawaii. When his father left for Harvard, she and Barack stayed behind, and his father ultimately returned alone to Kenya, where he worked as a government economist. Barack's mother remarried an Indonesian oil manager and moved to Jakarta when Barack was six. He later recounted Indonesia as simultaneously lush and a harrowing exposure to tropical poverty. He returned to Hawaii, where he was brought up largely by his grandparents. The family lived in a small apartment - his grandfather was a furniture salesman and an unsuccessful insurance agent and his grandmother worked in a bank - but Barack managed to get into Punahou School, Hawaii's top prep academy. His father wrote to him regularly but, though he traveled around the world on official business for Kenya, he visited only once, when Barack was ten.

Obama attended Columbia University, but found New York's racial tension inescapable. He became a community organizer for a small Chicago church-based group for three years, helping poor South Side residents cope with a wave of plant closings. He then attended Harvard Law School, and in 1990 became the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review. He turned down a prestigious judicial clerkship, choosing instead to practice civil-rights law back in Chicago, representing victims of housing and employment discrimination and working on voting-rights legislation. He also began teaching at the University of Chicago Law School, and married Michelle Robinson, a fellow attorney. Eventually he was elected to the Illinois state senate, where his district included both Hyde Park and some of the poorest ghettos on the South Side.

In 2004 Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, representing Illinois, and he gained national attention by giving a rousing and well-received keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In 2008 he ran for President, and despite having only four years of national political experience, he won. In January 2009, he was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, and the first African-American ever elected to that position.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Spouse
Michelle Obama(3 October 1992 - present) 2 children


Trade Mark
When making informal public visits, often rolls up shirt sleeves and "joins in" on a job site.
Passionate, fiercely idealistic speeches.
Distinctive, clipped manner of speaking.


Trivia
His first name comes from the word that means "blessed by God" in Arabic.
In the Kenyan town where his father was born, the long-brewed "Senator" brand of beer has been nicknamed "Obama."
U.S. Senator from Illinois since 3 January 2005.
Won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word for the CD version of his autobiography "Dreams From My Father" (2006).
Lives in Hyde Park (Chicago).
On "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (1993), he revealed that President George W. Bush nicknamed him "Bama" and "Rock".
The movie he saw on his first date with Michelle Obama was Do the Right Thing (1989).
Related to Park Overall.
Has two daughters, Malia Obama (born in 1998) and Sasha Obama (born in 2001).
Candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 US presidential election.
Several celebrities including; Halle BerryGeorge ClooneySheryl CrowBob DylanTopher GraceMacy GrayBruce SpringsteenOprah Winfrey Tom HanksScarlett JohanssonHayden PanettiereZachary QuintoEddie Murphy and John Cleese support his 2008 presidential campaign. Robert De Niro gave his endorsement at the same rally where Barack was endorsed by Caroline and Ted Kennedy.
Enjoys playing basketball and poker.
At his wife's suggestion, he quit smoking before his campaign to win the Democratic nomination began.
His paternal relatives still live in Kenya.
Confessed teenage drug experiences in his memoirs "Dreams from My Father".
One of his ancestors was Mareen Duvall, also an ancestor of actor Robert Duvall.
Shares his surname with a small city in western Japan, which means "small shore" in Japanese.
Plays basketball.
Born to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936-1982) and Ann Dunham (1942-1995), married from 1960 to 1965.
Named one of Time magazine's "100 most influential people in the world" list in 2005 and 2007.
Chosen as one of "10 people would change the world" by New Statesman magazine (2005).
Won his second Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for "The Audacity of Hope" (2008).
On June 3, 2008 he won the Montana primary election giving him enough delegates to become the first Black American presidential candidate to win a major political party's presumptive nomination for the office of President of the United States.
Is a die-hard Chicago White Sox fan.
More than 215,000 people attended his speech in Berlin on 24 July 2008.
Has one half-sister, Maya, born to his mother and stepfather in 1970.
Has his look-alike puppet in the French show "Les guignols de l'info" (1988).
Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham died Sunday November 2, 2008 in the early evening in Honolulu from cancer. She was 86.
Is the first African-American man to be elected President of the United States (November 2008).
When elected President, he won the battleground states of Florida, Virginia and Colorado - all of which had voted Republican in 2004.
Is the first American president to be born in Hawaii.
Was the 27th lawyer to be elected American president.
Was elected to be the 44th president of the Unites States of America on 4 November, 2008.
As a child growing up in Hawaii, his classmates knew him as Barry.
Presidential campaign slogan: "Change we can believe in".
Is primarily of Kenyan, Irish, and English ancestry.
Favorite movies are Casablanca (1942), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), The Godfather (1972), and The Godfather: Part II (1974).
Is a fan of "The Wire" (2002).
First ever US President to address a Muslim community at an inaugural speech.
Shares the same birthday as long-time White House correspondent and journalism legend, Helen Thomas. On her 89th birthday (and his 48th), they celebrated by blowing birthday cupcakes together in front of the press corps.
First United States Senator to be elected President since John F. Kennedy.
October 2009, won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Fourth US President to win a Nobel Peace Prize (2009) after Theodore Roosevelt (1906), Woodrow Wilson (1919) and Jimmy Carter (2002).
Defended his decision not to issue a formal written statement on the death of controversial pop star Michael Jackson on 25 June 2009.
Half-brother of Maya Soetoro-Ng.
Brother-in-law of Konrad Ng.
Merited a position in Time magazine's - The 100 Most Influential People in the World ("Leaders" category) - with an homage contributed byDavid Remnick (Issue: May 10, 2010).
Received a gift of a Portuguese water dog from Senator Ted Kennedy and his wife Victoria. Because the particular breed is reportedly hypo-allergenic, the First Family and friends were highly unlikely to suffer any allergic reactions in the pet's presence. [2009]
Obama's appearance on "The View" (1997) (29 July 2010) made him the first ever sitting US President to appear as a guest on a daytime TV talk show.
Obama's birthplace of Hawaii makes him the first U.S. president not born in the continental United States.
Brother-in-law of basketball player, coach and author Craig Robinson.
The character of Matt Santos in 'The West Wing' is based on him.
The first US President to be born after the Vietnam War started.
Is a big fan of the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man and collected the comics as a youth.
Counts "Homeland" (2011) as one of his favorite TV shows.
First U.S. President to be personally presented with an Apple iPad 2 by Steve Jobs before it was officially released domestically.
Notable for being the first United States President to participate in social media. He is the first President to have a personal Facebook page and a Twitter account, and the first President to hold Q&A sessions via those forums and YouTube. He is also the first sitting President to own and use an iPod, Blackberry (custom made for security purposes), and iPad.
His daily newspapers are The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He claims to not watch cable TV news stations.
Introduced the 50th anniversary television broadcast of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
Can speak Indonesian to a certain degree, having lived in Indonesia for a number of years during his childhood.
The TV presidential election campaign commercial for Obama featured, Carl ReinerGarry MarshallLarry GelbartValerie HarperDanny DeVitoRhea PerlmanJerry Stiller and Anne Meara (slogan: "This Ain't Funny, it's a serious election. Don't vote out of fear, vote for hope - Vote for Obama").


Personal Quotes
[from keynote speech given at the 2004 Democratic party national convention] There's not a liberal America and a conservative America. There's the United States of America. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states, and have gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war, and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
And it lives on in those Americans -- young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Latino and Asian and Native American, gay and straight -- who are tired of a politics that divides us and want to recapture the sense of common purpose that we had when John Kennedy was President of the United States of America.
[regarding former President Bill Clinton's support for his wife--and Obama's opponent for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination--Hillary Rodham Clinton] Sometimes I don't know who I'm running against.
[when asked whether he would call on Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton to release their tax returns, after Hilary loaned $5 million of her own money to her campaign] I'll just say that I've released my tax returns. That's been a policy I've maintained consistently. I think the American people deserve to know where you get your income from. But I'll leave it up to you guys to chase it down . . . I think we set the bar in terms of transparency and disclosure that has been a consistent theme of my campaign and my career in politics.
In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
When I am this party's [Democratic party] nominee, my opponent will not be able to say that I voted for the war in Iraq; or that I gave [George W. Bush] the benefit of the doubt on Iran; or that I supported Bush-Cheney [former VP Dick Cheney] policies of not talking to leaders that we don't like. And he will not be able to say that I wavered on something as fundamental as whether or not it is okay for America to torture - because it is NEVER okay. That's why I am in it. As President, I will end the war in Iraq. We will have our troops home in sixteen months. I will close Guantanamo. I will restore habeas corpus. I will finish the fight against Al Qaeda. And I will lead the world to combat the common threats of the 21st century - nuclear weapons and terrorism; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease. And I will send once more a message to those yearning faces beyond our shores that says, "You matter to us. Your future is our future. And our moment is now."
This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
Change is coming to America.
In America, we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know, we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams, are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations.
In Washington, the call this the Ownership Society, and it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life's lottery, that we're the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won't be the chump who Donald Trump says: "You're fired!"
In America, we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations.
In Washington, we call this the Ownership society, and it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life's lottery, that we're the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won't be the chump who Donald Trump says: "You're fired!"
To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and the structural feminists and punk rock performance poets. We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets. At night in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Franz Fanon, Eurocentrism and patriarchy. When we ground our cigarettes in the hallway carpet or set our stereos so loud that the walls began to shake, we were resisting bourgeois society's stifling constraints. We weren't indifferent or careless or insecure. We were alienated.
(visiting Ireland) My name is Barack Obama of the Moneygall O'Bamas. And I've come to find the apostrophe we lost along the way.
Hopefully, more and more people will begin to feel their story is somehow a part of the larger story of how we're going to reshape America in a way that is less mean spirited and more generous. I mean I really hope to be a part of the transformation of this country.
I'm not interested in the suburbs. The suburbs bore me. And I'm not interested in isolating myself. I feel good when I'm engaged in what I think are the core issues of the society, and those issues to me are what's happening to poor folks in this society.
It's crucial that people don't see my election as a sign of progress in the broader sense that we don't sort of point to a Barack Obama any more than you point to a Bill Cosby or a Michael Jordan and say "Well things are hunky dory".
To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, or at least as it's been interpreted and Warren court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, Says what the states can't do to you. Says what the Federal government can't do to you, but doesn't say what the Federal government or the state government must do on your behalf, and that has shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.
Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years, and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
It's great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom, or what Mitt Romney would call a little fixer-upper.
You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we're talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn't dawn on them that somehow their friends' parents would be treated differently. It doesn't make sense to them and frankly, that's the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective. (May 9, 2012)
I have to tell you that over the course of several years, as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I've just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married. (May 9, 2012)

Where Are They Now
(November 2008) Elected the 44th President of the United States of America

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Well,"Hey," Back at You, Mr. President


Got this e-mail at lunch time today
Date: Thu, 31 May 2012 11:34:58 -0400 [11:34:58 AM EDT]


From: Barack Obama

To: Patrick hickey @ $556678.org>

Reply-To: democraticparty@democrats.org

Subject: Hey

Hey,Patrick --


I need your help today.
Tonight is the May fundraising deadline, and it matters.

Please donate $3 or more before midnight:

https://my.democrats.org/Deadline-Tonight1

Thank you,



Barack


Dear Mr. President,

How could I have forgotten the deadline?  Well, I'll be dipped and rolled, , butter my ass and call me a biscuit, grab my knackers and call me Barney, thrill my inseam and call me Chris, dog my cats and bone bling my ride!'

Mr. President, like I told Debbie Wasserman Schultz only yesterday, Mr. President "buinneach ort !" Roughly translated from the Irish -"when it snows in the Phillipines, when Cromwell gets out of hell, C'est à rire, not chance, Bub, slim and none is what you get, Nizzle, Please! When abortion get's ditched, maybe. Naw, probabaly not then either.  No Dice,Clay. Please take your foot out of the door.  Thank you, Mr. President.

Most sincerely,

Pat ( AKA - Hickey $hit for brains, Hey, You or other hailing variants.

BTW - nobody ever good news'd me with " Patrick."   Hickey, $hit for brains, Hey, you! all more than acceptable.







A Real Reporter, Natasha Korecki, Talks to Tony Rezko - America's Man in the Iron Mask

The Chicago Sun Times is blessed with great reporters.  It's editorial board seems stuck on the "daffy" button and with the exceptions of Steve Huntley and Mark Brown Sun Times columnists seem to have all of the gravitas and substance of an MTV documentary.

Chicago and the nation would never know about Allison Davis, President Obama's former boss and bullet-proof slum property owner who is 'this-close' to Valerie Jarrett, Sneedless to say without Tim Novak and  Chris Fusco - two pit-bullishly independent investigative reporters.  They also unearthed most of the dodgier aspects of Koschman Saga, as well as the career of Daley scion snouts in the public troughs.  Mark Konkol and his Southtown Star colleague Steve Metsch are solid voices for real people in Chicago's neighborhoods.

Natasha Korecki has always impressed me as a singularly and refreshingly honest and tough reporter.  Ms. Korecki's accounts of the Blag trial were essential documents.  One of the shadowy victims of retiring Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's Star Chamber is Tony Rezko.  The man was everywhere and with anyone who could both move and shake.

( looks just like the Old Petrillo!)

Rezko's role in President Obama's ascent to the national teleprompter remains a '" Mere distraction! "Nothing to see here, Folks!  Move it along!  Who cares about a 15' property bargain?  Really. Pay np attention to man in the iron mask!" Tony went away , when the crowd in Grant Park were shedding tears of pure joy that Our Post Racial and Post Political Politician snagged the Post in the West Wing.

Tony Rezko  is the Obama Justice Department's Utility Insider - trotted out when need and then sent to the showers.  Rezko padded wallets and campaign accounts and sits in a concrete and re-bar cubicle on the Federal dimes. Fellow Obama Distraction Bill Ayers bombed Federal buildings and has an Illinois Pension.Make sense?  We might not get to the root and marrow of the Obama Myth until long after the Mormon straps his mutt on the roof of Marine One for a chopper ride.

However, Natasha Korecki scooped and interview with America's Man in the Iron Mask - Tony Rezko -


In a wide-ranging telephone interview from prison with the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday, Rezko refused to talk about his former friend who went on to be elected president. 
Natasha Korecki immediately tells the reader that Rezko will not chat, utter, rat-out, or insinuate anything about his Chicago Real Estate disciple and political bundler.  Blago?  You bet. Why not.

Rezko was convicted of Blago Bog-trotting.  Candidate Obama and President Obama never got moist undies due to Mr. Rezko and Natasha Korecki perfumes her narrative and interview with the bog itself.


His ( Tony Rezko's) trial took place in the Spring of 2008, in the midst of a heated presidential primary between Hillary Clinton and Obama. In one debate, Clinton chastised Obama for having ties to Rezko, who had poured money into the campaign fund of Obama earlier in his career.
Rezko was behind bars when authorities arrested Blagojevich in December of 2008 and charged him with attempting to sell Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat, citing recorded conversations.
“I think it was very unsmart of him to have conversations when he did about Obama’s replacement,” Rezko said. “But he is not the evil person who is been portrayed over the last few years. I think he did good things for the state of Illinois.”
“I blame nobody but myself, no. I have no ill feeling toward him [Blagojevich]. Or anybody else. Even Stuart Levine. He did what he had to do.” Rezko was referring to the key witness who testified against him.

With whom do Tony have 'issues' and the odd 'ill-feeling?'  Thanks to a real reporter, Natasha Korecki, this mythopoeic regime occupying the White House may have more such inquiry from citizens.  Forward!

 Thanks Ms. Korecki!

http://www.suntimes.com/12873845-761/tony-rezko-says-blagojevich-knew-about-pay-to-play-for-state-posts.html