Rue St. Michel

Rick Santorum for President

2012-01-03T09:41:00.001-06:00

I am supporting Rick Santorum for the GOP nomination; though I still really like Michele Bachmann. I was a big fan of his when he was a senator from Pennsylvania.

I hesitate to endorse anyone at this point with the field wide open, but I think Santorum is the best and most authentic conservative that is running right now.

The Left is going to start pulling out all the weapons from their Bag of Dirty Tricks and start smearing him, Palin and Romney, so just get ready for the shit storm.

We are on the path of collapse, thanks in large part to Team Obama. Obama, the worst president in US history, is crushing us under massive tax and spending plans, killing jobs via Cap & Trade and a smothering flurry of EPA regulations.

Remember that what Obama inherited was $161 billion deficit (it's now almost 100% of our GDP), and a 4.6% unemployment rate. ObamaCare - which will effectively place the Government's cost schemes over the life and quality of the individual citizen, is the biggest Civil Rights issue that we've faced in the last 40 years.

Give Rick a hard look and decide for yourselves whether he's the best there is, and if he is worthy of your vote.

In 2012 we have to decide whether we want to be a Socialist clone of the EU, or a unique, constitutional republic that honors the individual while restraining the State's authority. As Mark Levin aptly put it, I'd vote for an orange juice can right now instead of Obama.

A Subdued New Year

2011-12-31T12:37:00.000-06:00

It's been a tough year. We lost Mike Flisk, Paul Nauden, and Cliff Lewis.

Line of duty deaths this year by gunfire are up more than 10% across the nation. Vehicle line of duty deaths are down 17%.

Remember to never get complacent, always stay aware and take care of each other. When you're driving around in the squad car, keep the cell phone in your pocket and pay attention to your surroundings and radio. Never take anything for granted.

Hug your kids, say a prayer, and keep yourselves in good physical condition.

God bless you. Thanks for all the great commentary this year and for the support.

Rue

The Son of Sam case

2011-12-31T12:16:00.001-06:00

We in law enforcement learn quickly that no matter how many arrests you make, how many gang-bangers you take off the streets, how many tickets you write; you're never sure that your bad-guy will stay off the streets because the Great Unknown is The Courts. As an officer, you always hope for the best - that the court will actually enforce the law as it is written - but you learn fast that sometimes a "Motion to Fix" will be filed and the perp will walk.

Routinely, the activist judges who "serve" Cook County rely more on cronyism than legal precedent in making their decisions.

Case in Point: James Amirante. (author's note: I do not personally know either James or Sam Amirante. This blog post is my opinion based on my reading of public court records.)

James is the son of retired-Judge Samuel L. Amirante. Samuel is the principal partner at Amirante & Associates. While on the courts, Sam made a lot of friends. People tell me that many of those friends are sitting judges in Cook County.

Enter James.

James has problems. Apparently those problems are a result of his behavior. He can't seem to keep from getting arrested. A public record search at the Cook County court revealed that James Amirante has been arrested for Aggravated Domestic Battery to a pregnant woman, and for multiple DUIs.

In fact, the courts were getting so tired of seeing James Amirante that in early 2008 Judge Marguerite A. Quinn issued a harsh sentence against James for his most recent drunken driving charge. But by August 2008 James was tired of having to comply with all those regulations that Judge Quinn ordered so he stopped cooperating.

The Social Service Department, the agency charged with monitoring Misdemeanor DUIs, are those who follow up with the offender's court-ordered rehabilitation program and report to the court. That department detailed James Amirante's short-comings in their Supplemental Violation of Supervision report in August of 2010. Here are the highlights:

* This petition alleges that the Respondent (James Amirante) failed to maintain the required contact with SSD, pay supervision fees, reengage in treatment at Haymarket, complete drug screens and comply with the Breath Alcohol Indicator interlock device on his vehicle.

The report goes on to say that --

In addition to not violating any criminal statute of any jurisdiction, this order of supervision included the following conditions:
* Level 3 Alcohol treatment
* Victim Impact panel
* Supervision fee
* Fines and Costs
* Random drug testing
* SSD Community service program (100 hours)
* BAI ID on vehicle

Amirante went on to violate all those court ordered protocols.

* Defendant was arrested for Domestic Battery in April 2010 and plead guilty. He did 2 years probation.

* Defendant was arrested for Aggravated Domestic Battery to a pregnant woman and unlawful restraint in May of 2009. He plead guilty and was found guilty. He was sentenced to 1 year in IDOC, with credit for 92 days served.

* Defendant was arrested for Domestic Battery in February 2009 and was sentenced to 18 months conditional discharge and 20 days of SWAP ( In March 2010 Judge Joel Greenblatt unsatisfactorily terminated this case and sentenced defendant to 10 days in Cook County jail.)

* Defendant failed to complete Aftercare program and was discharged in November 2009.

* Defendant had BAI ID installed in his vehicle in September 2008 and as of December 2010 has had over 200 failed start attempts.

* Defendant completed 8 out of 12 court ordered drug screens through CSI and Haymarket, however last Drug screen was July 2009. Defendant refused to submit to random drug screen testing in January, February, March and April of 2010.

* Defendant owes $425 in fines, and had completed ZERO out of 100 Community service hours.

* Defendant served 6 months in prison and reported to 1 appointment with SSD. Since that contact, defendant had failed to appear for 3 consecutive scheduled appointments.

The Social Servies Department wrote:
...that the court consider an alternative sentence for this defendant. The defendant has had total disregard for this supervision order since it was written on August 26, 2008. He continues to be non-compliant with the courts conditions, fails to maintain contact with the Social Service department and continues to be a risk to public safety. (emphasis mine).

The most maddening aspect of this case is that Mr. Amirante's case was continued 25 times! That means that Judges glossed over, or ignored, the numerous violations and decided to do nothing. In reality Mr. Amirante's drivers license should have been revoked, and he should have seen significant jail time. Unfortunately, his D/L was NOT revoked, and he saw very little overall jail time, in light of the charges and violations.

Here are some of the judges who touched this case:

* Judge Gillespie
* Judge Wheatley (2 times)
* Judge Steven Connelly (2 times)
* Judge Lyons (2 times)
* Judge David Bender (2 times)
* Judge George Skully (2 times)
* Judge O'hara (2 times)
* Judge Collins-Dole

The final disposition was rendered by Judge Erica Reddick. She terminated the case unsatisfactorily in January of 2011. That means that the case just vanished into thin air. A motion to reconsider this travesty of justice was denied by Judge Reddick in March of 2011.

Based on the court papers filed, it is evident that the Social Service department did an excellent job of cataloging and presenting to the courts just how dire Amirante's situation was.

The magnitude of this case is mind-numbing, but all too-familiar to those of us who actually attend courts in Cook County. Nothing will happen to these judges unless the public actually learns how corrupt they are and decides to vote them out of office.

(On a side note, Judge Thomas J. Carroll of Judicial Sub-circuit #3, believes DUIs are quasi-criminal, and decides the cases before his bench with that mind-set. Note to Carroll: DUIs are Misdemeanor offenses with punishment up to 1 year in jail, and $1,000 in fines.)

Also on my radar is Judge Laura Cha-yu Liu. Judge Liu left a large firm, was appointed to the bench in December of 2010, and then developed cancer. I don't know how many days she was actually a judge but she's been seen around the halls at 50 W Washington, smiling, chatting and getting coffee at Starbucks. She is being paid while she's on medical leave. Maybe the Inspector General can look into how "sick" Judge Liu really is.

I attempted to get audio or stenographer notes from other hearings and was informed that audio recordings, and stenographer recordings, were canceled 5 years ago. So the only information I could get were court filings and reports. With no recordings, it was impossible to tell what the various judges told their defendants, which ones acted like advocates and social workers, and what their courtroom decorum was like.

Satire Alert: More "transparency" from our Judicial Know-it-alls.

While Amirante's case is one of the most egregious, it appears that when DUI offenders violate the court conditions, the don't respect their own court orders. They do not take the order seriously nor do they take seriously orders of judges who might have previously sat in on violation proceedings.

Continuing cases in violation proceedings seems to be the order of the day. Many of these cases go on for several years past the termination date. It is not uncommon to find cases that are 5 or 6 years old.

What is uncommon is for a judge to take away the driving privileges of defendants that refuse to comply with the court's orders and continue to prove that keeping their supervisions in tact only serves to endanger the public.

The courts continue to prove that a defendant's privilege to drive no matter how dangerous he might be outweighs the public's right to get support from the courts in protecting them from harm.

There is no doubt that the conditions on the DUI court orders are onerous and expensive. On average it costs about $15,000 to fight a DUI in Illinois. But what does it take for a judge to understand that when for instance you have a defendant continuously dropping hot for marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, or opiates - the court needs to do everything it can to make it as difficult as possible for that individual to legally drive.

What does it take for a judge to realize that in great part the judges, through their behavior on the bench, are becoming enablers in very dangerous situations. In fact, defendants have been heard to say, when offered revocations of supervision or jail time, that they will never take it because the judges in many of the traffic divisions in Cook County will never send anyone to jail or revoke supervisions.

What we have are findings from a secondary department (SSD) that are routinely being ignored by sitting judges, and in fact, I'm told that the current trend is for the judges to get the case updates from the defendant's attorneys and discount all the information tendered to the court by the various monitoring agency. It is the agency that seems to be on trial in these courts and not the offender.

The next time you're in the voting booth and any of these judges names come up, please vote NO. That would be a start.

RIP Officer Clifton Lewis

2011-12-30T08:48:00.000-06:00

Chicago Police Officer Clifton Lewis was murdered last night while working security at a convenience store at 1201 N. Austin blvd.

Sad and tragic news as we wind down to the end of 2011. May you find peace and rest in the arms of the angels, Officer Lewis. God bless you, and may He give comfort and succor to all who grieve the loss of yet another Chicago police officer.

Obama's parasites

2011-12-08T06:34:00.000-06:00

Damn right.

HollyWeird Not so Hot on Obama

2011-12-07T06:24:00.003-06:00

Leave it to the UK press to do the job that American media outlets just refuse to do.

The Independent reports that Hollywood Liberals aren't getting that "warm and fuzzy" feeling about Obama.

Why?

Because he hasn't transformed the country into the cesspool of malaise that is every Socialists' dream.

Not yet anyway. Not that he isn't busy trying. Oh sure - he hasn't answered the Hollywood elites' pet issues like Gay Marriage, Global Warming (oops! I mean "Climate Change"), and whether water-boarding is torture (it's not, listening to Obama is real torture.)

The article quotes some actors that have publicly expressed their disappointment with the worst president in History.

One of the actors quoted is Matt Damon.

Poor Matt. When he isn't busy founding Green organizations like "Water.org", he's busy being rather dull and dumb. He is a talented actor but is ignorant of what makes America great. I may even say he is a useful idiot because he has used his public persona to support someone who is actively removing our civil liberties.

Here's the Bright Bulb himself back in March of 2011.

And Obama, Mr. Classy himself, gives Damon a zinger in response.

Now, you'd think that if an A-list celebrity had endorsed you; Actually campaigned for you in Florida - do you think you'd stop and honestly reassess where you're at? Wouldn't you stop and engage in some self-reflection on what you promised and where you could have done better?

Well most of us would - but not Obama. In ObamaWorld there is no honest self-assessment. There is no real "bipartisanship". There is only One Way. Obama says, "What? 70% of Americans don't want Nationalized Medicine? Who cares! Full steam ahead!" Like the good Leftist that he is, he is petulant, morose (not publicly) and absolutely incapable of honest self-assessment. (H/T: Mark Levin in Liberty and Tyranny.)

Going back to The Independent article: you'll notice that they mention an organization called "People for the American Way." What a nice sounding title right?

It was founded by Norman Lear back in 1980 and has championed Leftist platforms and initiatives for the last 30 years. It is one of many but Norman Lear has earned my contempt. You see, the Left in the 60's realized that they needed to find a way to rip the fabric of our society apart. They understood that the foundation of our society is composed of 3 things: the family, the church (belief in God), and our constitution. The family is a threat because it raised children in a stable environment and taught self-reliance. The church because if you believe in God you're less likely to give your "hearts and minds" over to the State. The constitution because if it is interpreted as it is supposed to be interpreted, the federal government is restrained and limited.

Saul Alinsky told his radicalized followers that they had to burrow into the country. They had to "do their thing" in wherever they found themselves. So they went into journalism, TV, Movies, and the courts.

So with that framework in mind, Norman Lear took to the airwaves in 1971 with his hit TV show All in the Family. In this show, Lear's breathless fantasies of demonizing All-that-is-America came to fruition.

Archie Bunker, a cab driver and father, was portrayed as a "patriotic American" who supported Nixon and the war in Vietnam. But the diabolical aspect to Lear's show was that Bunker was also painted as a racist, bigot and homophobe who wanted women in the kitchen, and negroes in the cotton fields.

The not-so-subtle message was that patriotic, republican Americans who had a sense of nationalism and pride in America were closet racists.

Meanwhile, who stood in front of little black children in Alabama? A Democrat.

Which party was in power when Dred Scott was enacted? The Democrats.

Which party fought against the emancipation of slaves most vociferously? The Democrats (Dred-Scott decision).

Which party fought against the civil rights act? The Democrats.

Which party decided to inter 100,000 Japanese Americans because of their ethnicity? The Democrats (FDR).

Which party has an iconic senator from West Virginia who was a Grand Kleagle in the KKK? The Democrats. Here's Byrd in action:

So don't give me the bullshit that Republicans are the party of the Rich, because the Democrat party is primarily responsible for the majority of legislation that has been passed in this country that has actively sought to tear apart the fabric that made us great, thread by thread.

And Norman Lear led the charge. He has my eternal contempt for what he and his fellow travelers have done to hurt ALL Americans.

The Independent article also reminds us that for all the fault finding that the Hollywood-types decry, they're still going to vote for Obama. Because when it comes down to establishing a socialist utopia, they still know how to advance the ball.

Blessings to You

2011-11-24T12:54:00.003-06:00

On this day of Thanksgiving, I want to wish each of you a blessed holiday. Thanks for coming by and leaving your comments.

I can't let the opportunity pass to impart some Thanksgiving Day wisdom.

Check out National Geographic's unraveling of what really happened in the colonies on Thanksgiving.

Also, although I don't always agree with Michael Medved, he's spot on in this piece. Some inconvenient truths indeed.

God bless you.

Infantile Asymptotes

2011-11-21T07:07:00.001-06:00

Brilliance on what drives the Leftists: demoralized, ungrateful, immature fools with low self-esteem.

Case in point:

This tattooed malcontent, wearing her favorite Che shirt, is fully cognizant of her "rights" but is utterly ignorant of her obligations. One goes with the other in a civil society. She even goes on to say that the cops are on the same level as her "domestic abuser". You think she may be projecting her own personal character defects on the police and the corporations? Absolutely.

Oooh... the cops put an orange net in front of her! Gasp! They "pulled a guy a part in four directions" until his shoes fell off! Unreal! She sat in the station for like three hours! Oh no! GULAG! FASCISTS! She sweated and didn't have water for like hours! She screamed "He's losing hydration!" at the cops and they just laughed. Oh my God how awful!

The video speaks for itself: the cops are 100% to blame, but the Anarchists and their Marxist class warfare rhetoric are completely innocent.

She's right - we aren't a Democracy. We are a Republic!

Occupy: SDS deux

2011-11-19T11:39:00.000-06:00

As someone said, the only thing the Occupy Wall Street folks were doing 6 months ago was occupying their parents' basements.

What are the OWS types all about? They are all about slogans and overthrowing the United States government.

Why, you ask, would they want to destroy the best and most democratic country on the face of the earth? Because they are blind to the benefits of Capitalism.

From the article:

Every semester I ask my students: "What would you rather be? King of England in 1263 or you?" Every student would rather be themself. They enjoy using their iPhone, indoor plumbing, central heating, refrigerators and electric lighting. All of these things are available to the average person in America today and none of them were available to the aristocracy when the West operated under the feudal system..

How is it that for thousands of years mankind made very little progress in increasing the standard of living and yet today half of the goods and services you use in the next week did not exist when I was born? It wasn't that there was some change in the DNA such that we got smarter. The Greeks knew how to make a steam engine 3,000 years ago and never made one. The difference is in how we organize our economic system. The advent of market capitalism in the mid 18th century made all of the difference.

That is precisely the point: We have evolved in technology by creating an environment where the free markets and the sovereign individual are free to follow their impulses. The difference between now and 1263 is that there is no king to be beholden to. There is no Central Authority that you must go to to get a job, or medical care or a permit to buy a plot of land. You are not born into a feudal class system - you are a freeborn citizen who is free to follow your dreams; make the better mouse trap, open a book shop, write a best selling novel or run a homeless shelter.

Do the OWS people get this? Of course not. They're too busy thinking that they are the only "enlightened" segment of our population, and are all too willing to buy into the Leftist pabulum espoused by Mark and Alinsky. They are too busy demonizing "the rich", "the corporations", "the lack of fairness", "Big Oil", "Big Pharma", and any of the other hundred things that they don't understand.

We've seen this all before and it is nothing new.

Here is the 1962 Port Huron statement written by Tom Hayden. It was the "founding document" of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

As a social system we seek the establishment of a democracy of individual participation, governed by two central aims: that the individual share in those social decisions determining the quality and direction of his life; that society be organized to encourage independence in men and provide the media for their common participation.

In a participatory democracy, the political life would be based in several root principles:

* that decision-making of basic social consequence be carried on by public groupings;

* that politics be seen positively, as the art of collectively creating an acceptable pattern of social relations;

* that politics has the function of bringing people out of isolation and into community, thus being a necessary, though not sufficient, means of finding meaning in personal life;

* that the political order should serve to clarify problems in a way instrumental to their solution; it should provide outlets for the expression of personal grievance and aspiration; opposing views should be organized so as to illuminate choices and facilities the attainment of goals; channels should be commonly available to related men to knowledge and to power so that private problems -- from bad recreation facilities to personal alienation -- are formulated as general issues.

The economic sphere would have as its basis the principles:

* that work should involve incentives worthier than money or survival. It should be educative, not stultifying; creative, not mechanical; selfdirect, not manipulated, encouraging independence; a respect for others, a sense of dignity and a willingness to accept social responsibility, since it is this experience that has crucial influence on habits, perceptions and individual ethics;

* that the economic experience is so personally decisive that the individual must share in its full determination;

* that the economy itself is of such social importance that its major resources and means of production should be open to democratic participation and subject to democratic social regulation.

Like the political and economic ones, major social institutions -- cultural, education, rehabilitative, and others -- should be generally organized with the well-being and dignity of man as the essential measure of success.

In social change or interchange, we find violence to be abhorrent because it requires generally the transformation of the target, be it a human being or a community of people, into a depersonalized object of hate. It is imperative that the means of violence be abolished and the institutions -- local, national, international -- that encourage nonviolence as a condition of conflict be developed.

Hayden and his cronies didn't see the paradoxes in their own philosophy. You can't say that you honor the individual and then foment compulsory policy initiatives by "public groupings." While they publicly denied being communists, their writings and initiatives were clearly of the Marx-Engels bend. The hippies that occupied Grant Park in 1968 put up tents all around the park with signs that read "Free Community Hospital" or "Free Food" or "Peoples Grocery Store". The irony is that they had to rely on donations and volunteers from the medical profession to staff and supply those "Free" boutiques.

We are seeing the same thing with the Occupy folks. They are ignorant of our history and of the proper role of government.

On the one hand they want to be "more free" but then they also want more regulation (ie. more government intrusion). Do they think that this is 1908? Do they think that there are no regulations? The 2010 Federal Register contains 81,405 pages of regulations. The Federal Tax code contains 72,536 pages. The EPA is busy rolling out more and more regulations that are unnecessary but the administration is using them to deny YOU more of your liberty. The 4th Branch of Government bypasses the voting box and installs regulations that directly affect your life and prosperity.

Just look at ObamaCare. It is the biggest Civil Rights issue to come before the courts in the last 30 years. It has 2,000+ pages and remember that not one of the legislators that voted for it even read it! Nancy Pelosi said,"You have to pass it in order to read it."

Obama said you could keep your doctor, get better care and your rates wouldn't go up. All of those were lies.

The NYTimes wrote that premiums are skyrocketing precisely because of government intervention. 30% of companies have dropped private medical insurance for their employees because the government is pricing them out of the market. Rationing care is starting to happen and people are getting worried that when they need it, they'll just be sent to some faceless bureaucrat to get the life-saving care that they need. Palin, derided by the media for highlighting Death Panels, was correct. There will be panels put in place that you will have to succor in order to plead your case for health care. It will be a the whim of some accountant that your baby gets a brain scan.

OWS is simply the face and voice of Tyranny. They are ignorant of what makes this country great. It wasn't Government that makes us great, it is a limited-restrained government that created the environment in which its citizens could realize their potential.

And what potential they displayed! Victory in WW2, developments in medicine, space travel, transportation, computing and telecommunications. Influenza, small pox and measles were virtually wiped out by our innovations.

Today in 1863 Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address.

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

So think of all those brave men who died on the battlefield at Gettysburg in order to preserve our beloved republic. And look at the offal that inhabit the ranks of the OWS. Night and Day.

David Gregory

2011-10-19T19:23:00.000-05:00

Last week, the intellectual light-weight, and quasi-journalist, David Gregory talked to Don and Roma on WLS-Am today and his hubris was on display like fireworks at a Fourth of July picnic. Link here.

[Hat tip: Chicago Daily Observer]

Don brought out the fact that Emmanuel was sitting on the Fannie Board when the housing crisis occurred, and why isn't anyone asking Emmanuel about the financial shenanigans that occurred on his watch. Roma then mentioned that David's wife, Beth Wilkinson, was Senior counsel at Fannie/Freddie. David Gregory took exception to the implication that his wife, Beth Wilkinson, had a role in the Housing Crisis while working at Fannie Mae.

Don and Roma's point was well taken: do Gregory's loyalties lie with running cover for the Obama Administration or are they with reporting the news?

Well Gregory's answer make it obvious that his loyalties are with Obama, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank.

Gregory's wife served as Fannie Mae's executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary from February 2006 until September 2008. She resigned in September of 2008 and soon after Fannie and Freddie became Government Sponsored Entities after accounting frauds came to light.

The problem with this is that it is now a fact that the leadership at Fannie Mae were committing fraud on an epic scale. Profit targets were being invented, falsified, in order for the board and managers to receive salary bonuses.

And here we are 3 years later and not ONE congressional oversight committee has examined the criminal activities at Fannie and Freddie.

No wonder nobody watches Meet the Press. It should be called Meet the Editorializing Neo-Leftists with David Gregory.

And to show you how truly dumb this guy is, just look at his back and forth with Herman Cain on Sunday's show: [Hat tip: Power line blog]

MR. GREGORY: The other defect in the plan comes from fellow conservatives who say, “You’ve got some problems here.” … “The real political defect,” the Journal writes, “of the Cain plan is that it imposes a new national sales tax while maintaining the income tax. … A 9 percent rate when combined with state and local levies would mean a tax on goods of 17 percent or more in many places. The cries for exemptions would be great.”

MR. CAIN: Don’t combine it with state taxes. This doesn’t address state taxes. If you add them together, yes, you’ll get that number. This is a replacement structure. These are replacement taxes. They’re not on top of anything.

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

MR. CAIN: We replace capital gains tax. We replace the payroll tax. We replace corporate income tax, replace personal income tax, and replace the death tax. It is a replacement tax structure.

MR. GREGORY: But where do state taxes go? You’re saying they’re going to be repealed?

MR. CAIN: If you–with the current structure, you have state taxes, right? So with this new structure, you’re still going to have taxes–state taxes. That is muddying the water.

MR. GREGORY: How so?

MR. CAIN: Because today, under the current tax code, state taxes are there if they have it. If they don’t have a state taxes, they don’t have it. It has nothing to do with this replacement structure for the federal tax code.

MR. GREGORY: But that doesn’t make any sense to me. If I’m already paying state taxes, and I have a new Cain administration national sales tax, I’ve got more state taxes.

MR. CAIN: No you don’t.

MR. GREGORY: How so?

MR. CAIN: David, David.

MR. GREGORY: You’re not saying they’re going away.

MR. CAIN: Your state taxes are the same. Your federal taxes, in most cases, are going to go down. That’s muddying the water.

MR. GREGORY: The Wall Street Journal says you have one on top of the other. There’s a combined levy.

MR. CAIN: That is not correct, David.

MR. GREGORY: Right.

MR. CAIN: Let’s try this one more time. State taxes are there today. The current tax code is a 10 million word mess. You have probably 100–you have thousands of loopholes and tricks and what I call “sneak attaxes” in the current code. State taxes today, whatever they are, zero or some number, has nothing to do with replacing the tax code. Nothing.

Gregory's allegiance to his ideology, and The One, were never more in effect as when he said this to Les Holt: [Hat tip: Newsbusters]

Appearing on Sunday's NBC Today, Meet the Press host David Gregory proclaimed that the Occupy Wall Street protests would "...dovetail nicely into a big message that the President's selling, which is that the wealthy should pay more....that banner of going after Wall Street and the banks, talking about unfairness that a lot of protesters that are complaining about."

Gregory's observation was prompted by co-host Lester Holt wondering: "...the protesters are calling for the wealthy to pay for more taxes. Should we look for the Obama campaign to embrace that message as it – as it takes the stretch to November?" Gregory went on to declare: "I think the President's in a mode right now where he'd like to get out in front of this parade and really harness some of this energy."

It's a damn shame that people like Gregory are regularly pushed out front and run these shows. His agenda is clear, he's a loyal Democrat who will always carry the water for the Democrats. He's no different than Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow or Anderson Cooper.

Well I'd say, to be fair, Gregory is dumber than Matthews - and THAT'S pretty dumb.

Wild Bill for America

2011-10-02T11:51:00.000-05:00

Shaved blogged on this topic, and I'm giving attribute where attribute is due. And none of what this man says surprises me:

If you doubt it then ask yourself,"Why did Obama and Michelle sit in Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years when it took Oprah less than a few years to figure out wheat was going on and leave Wright's Church of Hate?"

Just some food for thought.

New Drug

2011-10-02T11:24:00.000-05:00

This new drug isn't for everyone:

Come on! You know it's funny....

CNN apologizes for error

2011-10-02T11:20:00.000-05:00

This is why I can't stand CNN. They never get ANYTHING right!

Know ye the truth?

2011-09-26T12:08:00.000-05:00

Brilliant and so true it hurts:

Brilliant and so true on so many levels:
Lloyd Marcus discusses how people were duped into voting for Obama on superficialities and lies. See Obama is the Black man's Trojan horse at this link.

And Pastor Manning is correct in another video when he says racism is alive and well - and almost exclusive to the Black community. Amen!

When you filter ALL your views, perceptions and values through your race - first and foremost - then you are, by definition a racist.

Multi-Culti strikes again

2011-09-25T12:08:00.000-05:00

Here's today's lesson on Multiculturalism and Political correctness.

This Missouri officer was fired for "excessive force" for shoving this inmate into a wall.

Meanwhile, no disciplinary actions resulted from this Las Vegas officer's actions:

I don't understand how the black officer's actions are justifiable. He did not see anyone fighting, the subject wasn't following verbal directions but really, punching a guy in the throat is all-of-a-sudden acceptable?

I guarantee that if that Las Vegas officer had been white, and the non-compliant subject was black - there would have been Holy Hell raining down on the LVPD.

The double standards in our society make me sick.

McCarthy and ComStat and Rumors - oh my!

2011-09-24T10:09:00.001-05:00

At last week's ComStat meetings our superintendent stood up and said,"By the way - hear any good rumors this week?"

A light giggle rolled around the room and then he said,"It's sad that such things get started. It's going to take alot more than that to get rid of me."

As I tweeted last week, there are alot of unsubstantiated rumors about McCarthy being involved with a female coworker.

I'd like to believe that he wouldn't be stupid enough to get involved romantically with a subordinate but, who knows? Just as a heads-up to our chief, maybe he should start having his "Badge bunnies" fill out this form so that he can make a better determination:

Application

And I was impressed as to how much he grilled the district commanders on their crime stats. I don't think that long-term its going to matter because all you're doing with that strategy is forcing the districts to get creative with their crime reports. McCarthy would have to have an independent team of his own working on the crime stats in order to keep the districts honest.

What I wasn't impressed with was how snarky he was and how he thinks that canvassing a location after a burglary will yield positive results in stopping burglaries.

Time will tell.

Demonizing the Rich, II

2011-09-24T09:41:00.002-05:00

The Weekly Standard breaks down who pays federal taxes and puts Obama's deceptive "the rich don't pay their fair share" nonsense to rest.

The tables used in the Weekly Standard article were actually obtained from the Tax Policy Center (a Center-Left organization).

Here is the golden nuggest that you need to know:

In 2010, according to the TPC, Americans in the lowest quintile of income-earners — the bottom 20 percent — paid minus-3.8 percent of the total federal income tax burden. In other words, they got more back, in income tax credits and the like, than they paid in. Similarly, those in the second quintile paid minus-4.3 percent of the total federal income tax burden — so they, too, weren’t paying into the income tax till but rather were taking out.

Those in the middle quintile — pretty much the center of the middle class (this quintile had an average income of $44,000) — paid 3.9 percent of the total federal income tax burden (about $1 of every $25 dollars in income taxes paid nationwide). And those in the fourth quintile — whose income ranged from $58,000 to $102,000 — paid 15.1 percent of the total federal income tax burden.

So, all told, the 80 percent of Americans whose income placed them in one of these first four quintiles of income-earners combined to pay 10.9 percent of the total federal income tax burden. Put otherwise, this 80 percent of the citizenry paid about $1 out of every $9 that was paid in federal income taxes nationwide.

Meanwhile, Americans in the highest 0.1 percent of all income-earners — these are the very rich, with incomes of at least $1.974 million — paid 16.4 percent of the total federal tax burden. Essentially, one out of every $6 paid in federal income tax was paid by this 0.1 percent of the citizenry.

This article shows clearly that "the rich" already pay their fair share. This president and his warped ideology are intent on stealing your wealth, and are using their propaganda machine to justify it.

USA Today did a fact check on the "Buffet rule" and on who pays taxes in this country.

USA Today found that the top 10% of wage earners in the US pay half of ALL federal taxes. They also pay 70% of federal income taxes.

There is no plutocracy in this country, and it saddens me that so many people just don't take the time to wade through the propaganda and learn the truth. I guess it's just easier to just blame some faceless "millionaires" and claim that they need to do more.

From the USAToday article:

The latest IRS figures are a few years older — and limited to federal income taxes — but show much the same thing. In 2009, taxpayers who made $1 million or more paid on average 24.4% of their income in federal income taxes, according to the IRS.

Those making $100,000 to $125,000 paid on average 9.9% in federal income taxes. Those making $50,000 to $60,000 paid an average of 6.3%.

Obama's claim hinges on the fact that, for high-income families and individuals, investment income is often taxed at a lower rate than wages. The top tax rate for dividends and capital gains is 15%. The top marginal tax rate for wages is 35%, though that is reserved for taxable income above $379,150.

I wonder when the poor are going to put "some skin in the game"? The bottom 80% already drain almost 4% from the federal coffers. And that doesn't include state, county and municipal entities.

The Left, and progressives in general, love to point to the "income disparity" in our society as "evidence" that there is discrimination in the work place and labor markets. It's unadulterated balderdash.

"Income disparity" is not a cause, it's a symptom. It's like saying everyone in your math class didn't get an A on the midterm so the test must be skewed. It is! It is skewed to show who is good at math, and those that aren't.

Income disparity is different for all because we're all NOT the same! You have people with different intelligence, experience, education, motivation and geography that will push them into a certain field, and OF COURSE, there will be income disparities. It's a Straw Man in every aspect.

But don't tell the Left. They will use any show pony to try to justify the installation of Marx's 10-planks of his manifesto.

The Heritage foundation did a nice job destructing the income inequality boondoggle here.

People like Coldtype and Leftisthebest have not, and will not, open their minds to such intellects as FA Hayek or Milton Friedman.

And Friedman is exactly right in this discussion on greed, capitalism and private property.

Robert E. Lucas, a notable 'Chicago school' of economics wonk speaks on why welfare doesn't work in this article at the WSJ.

For the best explanation of what happened in Europe and Japan, he points to research by fellow Nobelist Ed Prescott. In Europe, governments typically commandeer 50% of GDP. The burden to pay for all this largess falls on workers in the form of high marginal tax rates, and in particular on married women who might otherwise think of going to work as second earners in their households. "The welfare state is so expensive, it just breaks the link between work effort and what you get out of it, your living standard," says Mr. Lucas. "And it's really hurting them."

Exactly.

Greg Gutfeld: 'Go To Hell, Paul Krugman

2011-09-13T17:48:00.000-05:00

Greg Gutfeld, the former managing editor of Men's Health is on the 5 and has some harsh words for NYTimes jag-bag Paul Krugman...Greg Gutfeld:"Go To Hell, Paul Krugman, You Bearded, Bitter Buffoon!"

Upcoming court dates

2011-09-12T14:09:00.001-05:00

Just today, Monday September 12, I received my September FOP newsletter. I noticed that Danny Gorman listed a section called NOTABLE COURT DATES (no link to FOP Website yet as they haven't gotten around to posting the web version of the September newsletter.) Notice that two of the court dates have already passed as I post this update.

Thanks Mikey!!! Not only couldn't you get this newsletter out on a timely basis, but you basically agree with the city (page 1 President's Report) that 5B furloughs can just be canceled by the City for an event that may or may not demand additional manpower NEXT MAY! How can it be an "emergency" when the event is next May???

You even claim that you understand that the city only does this to save on paying overtime to the rank and file. You claim you're going to "grieve it" if the City blocks out this segment, but as SCC rightly pointed out, this would be a perfect opportunity for the Lodge to go after the city to support its officers with more training, more hiring and better equipment -- but NO. Mikey is going to grieve the decision. Wow ... what a great president.

But I digress ...

The following cases are listed. If you can attend any of these hearings, your presence would be sincerely appreciated by the officers harmed, their friends and families.

Sept 6, 2011
26th & Cal; room 702, Judge Ford
Offender: Lamar Cooper
Charged with murdering Officer Nate Taylor

Sept 12, 2011
26 & Cal; room 207, Judge Stephenson
Offender: Shawn Gaston
Charged with murdering Officer Alex Valadez

Sept 15, 2011
26 & Cal; room 207, Judge Stephenson
Offenders: Christopher Harris and Kevin Walker
Also charged with murdering Officer Alex Valadez

Sept 19, 2011
26 & Cal; room 404, Judge Brosnahan
Offender: Timothy Herring, Jr.
Charged with murdering Office Michael Flisk

In partibus infidelium

2011-09-09T20:57:00.002-05:00

...from the Latin, meaning in the parts of the infidels. Or in the country of the infidels. Indeed jihadi cells are in the country of the infidels.

Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks.

Take the time to find a personal way to honor those who died that day. For me, I am putting my flag out front and will watch CNN's America Remembers with my kids. I also recommend The Falling Man documentary.

Another very good documentary was "9/11" by the Naudet brothers. They are french brothers who happened to be in Manhattan filming a documentary on the life of a rookie NYFD fireman. It is chilling and captivating.

Never forget.

Traitors, fools and Diversity

I can't let this important milestone pass without taking a swipe at the folks who caused it, and who continue to lay the blame at the wrong feet.

The NYTimes, the old grey lady, posted this Op-ed (Never forget what?) on Sept. 14, 2002. It's worth the read if only for the fact that almost every hand-wringing, Bush-as-the-devil item was shown to be irrelevant.

As Mark Steyn brilliantly pointed out during a Canadian interview, maybe it would behoove the old grey lady to stop recruiting journalists at every black, hispanic, and LGBT convention and start recruiting writers who are of substance. When NYTimes Editor Howell Raines famously worded a memo to the plagiarist Jayson Blair in which he excoriated him to "be more black," it would have served the paper and its readers a bit more to, instead, implore him to be more discerning and honest.

The Times, like all the other Leftist Media wonks, is obsessed with diversity. It's obsessed with racial diversity, not diversity of opinion. They insist on a ruthless conformity. To wander off the reservation guarantees that you will be vilified.

And Steyn's piece from today is spot on: instead of "let's roll" - maybe it should be "let's roll over!"

How are America’s allies remembering the real victims of 9/11? “Muslim Canucks Deal With Stereotypes Ten Years After 9/11,” reports CTV in Canada. And it’s a short step from stereotyping to criminalizing. “How The Fear Of Being Criminalized Has Forced Muslims Into Silence,” reports The Guardian in Britain.

In Australia, a Muslim terrorism suspect was so fearful of being criminalized and stereotyped in the post-9/11 epidemic of paranoia that he pulled a Browning pistol out of his pants and hit Sgt. Adam Wolsey of the Sydney constabulary. Fortunately, Judge Leonie Flannery acquitted him of shooting with intent to harm on the grounds that “‘anti-Muslim sentiment’ made him fear for his safety,” as Sydney’s Daily Telegraph reported on Friday.

That’s such a heartwarming story for this 9/11 anniversary they should add an extra panel to the peace quilt, perhaps showing a terror suspect opening fire on a judge as she’s pronouncing him not guilty and then shrugging off the light shoulder wound as a useful exercise in healing and unity.

Contrary to the Progressive Thought-Police that now control television and film; Never in recorded history has diversity been anything but a problem.

As long as the general has brought it up: Never in recorded history has diversity been anything but a problem. Look at Ireland with its Protestant and Catholic populations, Canada with its French and English populations, Israel with its Jewish and Palestinian populations.

Or consider the warring factions in India, Sri Lanka, China, Iraq, Czechoslovakia (until it happily split up), the Balkans and Chechnya. Also look at the festering hotbeds of tribal warfare – I mean the beautiful mosaics – in Third World hellholes like Afghanistan, Rwanda and South Central L.A.

"Diversity" is a difficulty to be overcome, not an advantage to be sought. True, America does a better job than most at accommodating a diverse population. We also do a better job at curing cancer and containing pollution. But no one goes around mindlessly exclaiming: "Cancer is a strength!" "Pollution is our greatest asset!"

By contrast, the canard "diversity is a strength" has now replaced "at the end of the day," "skin in the game," "blood and treasure," "jumped the shark," "boots on the ground," "horrific" (whatever happened to the perfectly good word "horrible"?), "not so much," "I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here," and "that went well," as America's most irritating cliche.

We should start making up other nonsense mantras along the lines of "diversity is a strength" and mindlessly repeating them until they catch on, too.~~Ann Coulter

And the more they enforce this ruthless conformity, and slavish obedience to Diversity, the more we see a sterile homogeneity in our political discussions.

I happened to be listening to Mike Malloy on Sirius ("The Left") on 08-Sept-11 and heard him discussing the upcoming 9/11 anniversary. He said [paraphrase] that he can't wait to hear the "vomit" that will come from the people on the right that day. He went on to blame the "Bush crime family" for setting up the whole event. Here's a nice summation of what the emotionally and mentally stunted Left believe about what really happened on 9/11.

Much of the nonsense invented by the self-loathing segment of America was debunked by that well-known Right-Wing-Hate-Machine behemoth Popular Mechanics. I guess the Bush-Cheney cabal has its tendrils reaching all the way to the magazine of last-resort for airplane wing lift dynamics.

Nothing but the Truth

Jonathan Kay just released a wonderful new book exposing the Truthers as the psychotic, black helicopter, fantasy-addicts that they are. Among the Truthers details the author's travails among America's staunchest conspiracy nuts. You can compare Truthers to Obama Drones in this sense: They're both, in Eric Hoffer's words, true believers. A true believer can never be convinced, only converted.

Everyone loves a good story. If that wasn't the case then Brad Thor, Daniel Silva and Maeve Binchy would be out of work. But to gobble up the most outlandish stories and half-truths out there really takes a cynic, and one with the ability to suspend belief indefinitely.

Glad to see that the Bush-Cheney Team could take time away from seeding the clouds with anti-depressants to help plunge Western Civilization into a tail-spin of epic proportions.

My cherished and erudite readers can easily recognize these malefactors as a resurgence of Bush Derangement syndrome, and nothing more. Mark Levin hit it on the head when he wrote (in Liberty and Tyranny) that Liberals are "morose, petulant and absolutely incapable of honest self-assessment".

And he wrote that before Obama was elected. Very prescient.

For all of Bush's' shortcomings as a president, you can still thank him for taking a tough stand on Islamic radicals and doing all he could to keep the Jihadis "over there." I'm all for taking the fight to the enemy. I'm glad we went into Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein. I'm glad we took out Islamic training camps in Afghanistan. I'm glad we rained death on our enemies.

The squishy, moral equivalent Left doesn't. If we do anything that benefits us, we're the bad guys. No matter that China, Russia and every other SANE and SOVEREIGN country do the same thing .... No, no, no: our New Left Democrats will always defame and decry Everything-American in order to assuage their guilt for having been born and raised in the most affluent and luxuriant non-Imperial Superpower in World History. Yes, America is an anomaly. We are the only non-Imperial Superpower the world has ever seen.

Wolves in Sheeps clothing

And still there is a concerted effort to minimize, or deflect, what happened on 9/11. Mostly by ethnic, pro-Muslim front groups like CAIR.

From the website Jihad Watch comes a story where Chicago based radical-Muslim-apologist demands that we just get over 9/11 and quit all the whining about radical Islam:

The current trend to downplay 9/11 or turn the anniversary into something different (like a "day of service") seems to go hand in hand with a desire to avoid addressing the ideological motivation for the attacks. To address that too forthrightly could be "intolerant," just as CNN is now sowing the fear of "intolerance" by offering parents advice for talking to their children about 9/11 "without sowing fear or intolerance."

And so Brave Ahmed also insists we need to stop fixating on those guys "who happened to be Muslim." Just like the 7/7 attacks in Britain, 3/11 in Spain, numerous attacks in India including the 2008 Mumbai massacre, the Bali bombings, Fort Hood, the Beslan massacre, and so on into the thousands of jihadist attacks with smaller casualty counts that add up nonetheless, and all of the failed attacks attempted in the U.S. in the past decade, including Springfield, Illinois, Dallas, Portland, Baltimore, Lubbock, Texas (and possibly Dallas again), and Fort Hood, again.

Funny how that keeps happening. "Islamic-American Group: Link Between 9/11, Muslim Religion Must Stop," from CBS Chicago, September 8:

CHICAGO (CBS) — The head of a local Islamic-American organization says that after this year, except for remembering its victims, it’s time for America to move on from the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya reports, Ahmet Rehab of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says many people still are under the false impression that Islam is a radical religion, and that its believers want to change the U.S. into an Islamic state.

Never mind that the 17,715 terrorist attacks since 2001 have all been committed by Muslims; remember that a significant portion of Muslims worldwide support the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam - with the attendant obeisance to Sharia Law.

British Steel

A final note: I share and endorse the sentiments expressed in this video clip ofPat Condell. He's exactly right, and you'd never hear such infallible testimony coming from anyone affiliated with the NYTimes.

It'd be refreshing to have these types of folks writing for our papers and TV shows. It's too bad all the really good "Americans", in their proper British accents, all write for the UK and Australian presses.

Non-Americans, especially those who grew up in fascist-totalitarian States, can smell the slightest whiff of tyranny. That's why so many American immigrants from Cuba, Russia and Canada tell us that we're heading in a dangerous direction. They've seen it all before and know that the end result is death and misery. You can easily look back over the last 100 years and see how unrestrained federal governments quickly overshadow the citizenry they're supposed to support and protect. It is an easy plunge into tyranny once the contract that restricts government power is broken and dismissed.

The Left in this country has succeeded in doing that virtually within one generation. The only thing left is to get mad and fight like Hell!

God bless each and every one of you on this sacred day, and may we never, ever lose an American on United States' soil.

The Entitled-Underclass Speaks

2011-09-07T16:57:00.006-05:00

UPDATE
Just saw Zo do a great rip on the lazy, whiney bee-otch that I link to below. PJTV did a great job in the rebuttal.

If I had a face to face conversation with Coldtype, or Leftisthebest, I'm sure they would see nothing wrong with this woman's comments. Her attitude reflects the malaise that is so fashionable amongst the urban entitled class.

They surely wouldn't exhort the beauty and satisfaction of working, like Canadian David Warren writes. (story here.

But this attitude is precisely the crux of what is wrong in the black community, and with some of the other ethnic enclaves within the United States. She speaks from a position of ignorance; not knowledge. She pulses with the negativity that is sown within the black community by preachers like Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan. Do you think Wright and Farrakahn are anomalies? Hardly. The rhetoric of "you can't get ahead", "the system is against you", or "you're a victim" plays very well to blacks (and increasingly to impoverished white youths).

Listen closely to this woman: She says land and property are supposed to be free? Water is supposed to be free? No one should have to pay rent or a mortgage? Her ancient ancestors had a life span of 20 years and yet they were "enlightened" or better than we are now? The ignorance is shocking. She says Africa had electricity in "ancient times"? Didn't Benjamin Franklin learn to harness electricity and then Edison ran with it after inventing the light bulb? (yes I know Latimer is also credited with the final revision to the carbon filament...)

How many life saving technologies originated in Africa? Were Africans master sailors, mathematicians, scientists, doctors or great writers of literature?

None that I know of. Some African-AMERICANS have invented some stuff (Shoe box, potato chips, and the Protective mailbox.)

Well back to Miss Thang, compared to these drug dealing gang-bangers (most locked up for conspiracy thanks to this youtube video, dumbasses.) in Kalamazoo, Michigan, she's a Tea Party activist!

These people are a perfect example of what Entitlements do to demoralize, enervate, and reject the rule of law and a civil society.

God help us.

Fast & Furious; the Sequel

2011-09-06T20:50:00.000-05:00

The ever-brilliant Michelle Malkin blows the lid off the Fast & Furious story, and on how ATF/FBI directed Indiana crime gun sales to U.S. street gangs.

Gee - remember when Reagan's administration funneled weapons to Sandinistas during a legitimate FOREIGN combat operation? Where is the outcry that our DOJ is funneling weapons and grenades to street gangs and Mexican drug cartels.

Crickets.

Read the whole thing.

Sarah Palin in Iowa

2011-09-06T20:35:00.000-05:00

Palin in Iowa on Labor Day. She is a breath of fresh air; dare I say she is "Reaganesque"? Yes. She gets it - Obama doesn't.

She understands what makes America great - Obama understands bumper sticker slogans, and empty rhetoric.

She embraces our Liberty and our constitution. She relates to the Working Man. Obama relates to the rabble-rousing, radical-community-organizers.

It's an utter shame - and indefensible - that people allow the Media to paint a picture of Sarah Palin that is patently untrue. It is disgusting.

If you've got 42 minutes, watch the whole thing. God bless you Mrs. Palin.

Obama annoints Another Ivy-Leaguer

2011-09-06T11:44:00.001-05:00

Jimmy Pathokoukis, a bright light over at Reuters discusses the most recent appointment by Obama. As Mr. Pethokoukis points out:

Anyone still looking for a turn to the right from Obama will be mightily disappointed. Krueger is part of the center-left economic consensus that believes a) America is undertaxed, b) government must become permanently bigger as America ages, and c) climate change requires a vast new regulatory scheme to control carbon emissions. His big idea to boost the U.S. economy and bring the budget in balance is [a] ginormous consumption tax on top of the current income tax system.

And it's no shock that this new appointment comes deeply embedded within the Democrat Left. Krueger (aka Mr. Cash for Clunkers) was a Clinton economist from '94-95'

Critics of Krueger called him a "Clinton White House retread" since he worked as Chief Economist for President Bill Clinton's Labor Department in 1994-1995. He also worked for Timothy Geithner at the Treasury Department in 2009-2010 before returning to academia. Critics say Krueger is merely another Ivy League Keynesian with no real world experience. Others claim he's just another socialist attempting to duplicate the sinking European socialist economy, and he will further damage the Obama administration and the United States.

He wholeheartedly supports “a future consumption tax to fix today’s economy,” as well as a higher minimum wage, which he claims does not depress employment.

During his time in Washington, Krueger advocated a number of big-ticket, government programs, including the HIRE Act, the Small Business Lending Fund, Build America Bonds and the Car Allowance Rebate System, or “Cash for Clunkers."

And as the article correctly points out, Mr. Krueger agrees with his boss: That a government can stimulate an economy, create jobs, and is the veritable engine of our economic well being. Evidence to the contrary is simply ignored by these political elite as witnessed by Obama himself.

But we all know that Ivory Tower egg-heads don't understand what Everyday-Americans like you and me have to deal with. We aren't jetting around the world, spending $10 million dollars in US Taxpayer on lavish vacations in the last 12 months.

In fact, the Obamas are a great example of the Country-Club-Entitlement Class. Here we have the most pedigreed administration in US history. Obama went to Occidental, then Columbia and finally, Harvard Law. It's estimated that he received a $1 million education, all to major in "community organizing" and moving to south Chicago to listen "enthralled" to Black Liberation Theology screeds from Jeremiah Wright.

But Obama is surrounded with these types. In fact, 47 appointees attended Harvard, Princeton and Georgetown combined. The likes of Cass Sunstein (Harvard), Tim "Tax cheat" Geithner (Harvard), Eric Holder (Columbia), Alberto Gonzales (Harvard law), and Michael Mukasey (Columbia/Yale). Obama has been known to take advice and counsel from: Bruce Ackerman, Martha Nussbaum (edited a book with Cass Sunstein), Ronald Dworkin and Michael Walzer.

I know what you're saying, "Come on Roo! You're just jealous cuz Bush didn't have enough brains to appoint the best and brightest." Au contraire!

Here's why just ONE of these goofs is dangerous and has NO business being in our government:

and this ....

If you're a common sense American - do you want this idiot to be in charge of anything? Would you want to give this man power over you? Well he's already there. Thanks Obama ... more solid Liberal decisions!

You can see what having Ivy League credentials gets the US Taxpayer. More laws, more regulations, more taxation, less representation, Nationalized healthcare, judicial fiat, and a rogue Imperial Presidency.

How nice....Chavez and Castro have invaded the White House.

Illinois credit rating a dismal A+

2011-09-05T22:12:00.000-05:00

It was the best of time, it was the worst of times...

Thus begins the classic "A Tale of Two Cities." If you live in Illinois, it is absolutely the WORST of times -- and not getting any better anytime soon.

Barron's released their run down of the Best and Worst run states in their August 29, 2011 issue, and if you live in Illinois you may want to move.

Did you know that states get rated for their credit worthiness? Illinois is ranked a dismal "A+", right behind the dead last California with an "A-" Janney Capital Markets did the number-crunching for Barron's and here's where the numbers shake out.

They examined each state under 7 different categories

1. Federal spending as a % of state GDP
2. Medicaid as % of outlays
3. % Change in Tax receipts
4. Tax-backed debt as % of state GDP
5. Funded % of state pensions
6. Troubled mortgages (*including foreclosed and seriously delinquent home loans.)
7. June Unemployment rate %

Under the "AAA" category - Indiana is a standout. Gov. Mitch Daniels has done a tremendous job with that state, bringing conservative principles to the fore.

For Indiana-
Fed spending as a % of state GDP: 20.7
Medicaid as % of outlays: 23
% Change in Tax receipts: 9.9
Tax-backed debt as % of state GDP: 1.92
Funded % of state pensions: 67
Troubled mortgages : 8.3
June Unemployment rate %: 8.3

For "AAA" Iowa-
Fed spending as a % of state GDP: 17.5
Medicaid as % of outlays: 18
% Change in Tax receipts: 8.7
Tax-backed debt as % of state GDP: 2.24
Funded % of state pensions: 81
Troubled mortgages : 4.8
June Unemployment rate %: 6.0

For "A+" Illinois-
Fed spending as a % of state GDP: 15.9
Medicaid as % of outlays: 33
% Change in Tax receipts: 13.7
Tax-backed debt as % of state GDP: 3.97
Funded % of state pensions: 51
Troubled mortgages : 10.5
June Unemployment rate %: 9.2

Illinois does not have a good, competent governor. We don't have a Scott Walker, Mitch Daniels or John Kasich leading us. We have the Illinois Combine: Durbin, Schakowsky, Madigan and Quinn.

Illinois has the lowest state pension funding out of all. Only West Virginia comes close at 56. Washington state is at 100% of funding their state pensions. Another nail in the coffin is Medicaid. Only Missouri (33%) and North Carolina (37%) equal or exceed Illinois' Medicaid outlays.

What does it come down to? The article is spot on: You must control spending and reign in the unions.

The governor's want the unions to contribute more to their pension funds and health plans to ensure the system's soundness. Controversially, Walker and Kasich even have tried to convince the unions to surrender or reduce their collective-bargaining rights.

Moreover, many states are creating new tiers of public employees provided with much less munificent pension and health-care plans.

Retirement ages are being boosted, automatic cost-of-living adjustments to pensions are being eliminated, pension vesting periods are being increased and shenanigans like income-spiking at the end of careers to fatten benefits are being banned.

Such moves will do much to ameliorate a long-term pension and health-benefit funding gap that the Pew Center on the States puts at $1.26 trillion.~~Barron's Aug. 29, 2011 (pg. 26, para 3)

You'll also note that Illinois % change in tax receipts is +13.7 - that's because Governor Quinn and the brain-trust down in Springfield raised taxes by 67% this year. States like Hawaii actually took in less money.

Walker, Christie and Scott are cutting spending, and they're reducing taxes on corporations and the wealthy. They're doing that to spur employment and investment. Wisconsin even scaled back its earned-income tax credit for 152,000 families ($518 for a family of 5).

To be fair, I thought it would be worse. I thought we'd be dead last, with 50% Medicaid outlays, and a negative tax receipts number. Well second from the last isn't so bad I guess.

Angry Black Man

2011-08-29T19:55:00.000-05:00

I know the title of this post is an oxymoron .... aren't all black people angry? I cannot argue with the logic of this particular, angry Bruthah. I just wish he'd called Obama a "trick ass bitch" -- that would have been really funny. Dats right Obama - check yourself foo.

Our Nanny-State Dictator Will Not Rest

2011-08-29T11:15:00.000-05:00

...until every Goat Herder has a comfy bed and a cell phone.

Story here.

"These new special procedures issued by the Labor Department must be followed by employers who want to hire temporary agricultural foreign workers to perform sheep herding or goat herding activities. It describes strict rules for sleeping quarters, lighting, food storage, bathing, laundry, cooking and new rules for the counters where food is prepared."

And remember when then-candidate Obama was ~~running~~, er - lying - for president in 2008 and made the statement that "running up a $4 trillion deficit" [under Bush] was "unpatriotic"?

Well it was factually incorrect because our deficit at that point was only $2 trillion but, Obama never lets the truth get in the way of his dismal propaganda.

I guess he will not rest until he's had 100 fundraisers and golfed 200 times.

What would our dear president say now that he's rolled us up into almost $5 trillion in deficits? I guess you'll have to ask his teleprompter.

And all this follows hard-upon the news that Queen Michelle has spent $10 million in luxury vacations in the last 12 months.

So while Americans are struggling to just keep their job and put food on the table, the Obamas are busy going on vacations, spending YOUR money so that they can enjoy a lavish lifestyle: while simultaneously demanding that YOU put "skin in the game" and limit your lifestyles.

It's good to be King.

One term and OUT?

2011-08-29T07:32:00.001-05:00

My God, I can only pray that this neophyte, backbencher, loser gets kicked out of the Oval Office after one term.

And none other than James Pethokoukis agrees with me. He writes that the factors determining Obama a One-Termer are a slow economy, miserable voters, and economic anxiety.

But the Mother of All Charts is this one:

(date from American Century Investments)

You can see that whenever real GDP went down, with an attendant spike in inflation, the incumbent lost the election.

Jimmy closes the article with this:

Now perhaps the economy is about to ignite. Or perhaps Republicans will pick a terrible nominee. Or perhaps some international crisis will make the economy less important. Or perhaps voters will simply give Obama the benefit of a doubt since he did inherit the Great Recession.

But Gallup already has his approval at just 40 percent (with the RealClearPolitics average at 43.5 percent.) Another year of high unemployment and show growth — much less a double-dip recession — seems likely to make Obama a one-term president.

The chances of our economy "igniting" are slim to nil. The economic incompetence of our policy-makers, led by Obama, virtually guarantee that no ignition will take place within the foreseeable future.

With oppressive regulations rolling out from the EPA and, ObamaCare ready to add thousands of new bureaucrats to the already bloated Federal government - we're in for a long ride.

Most Valuable Blogger nominations

2011-08-29T07:04:00.001-05:00

Go and vote for Second City cop as Most Valuable Blogger. Click on the embedded link and then click through on Local Affairs.

The guys at SCC do a tremendous service, and put alot of work into their blog. While I disagree with SCC's censorship policy, I understand it. There's too much Political Correctness and slip-and-fall lawyers around to take a chance that your words will be misconstrued. If Detective ShavedLongCock was nominated I would have voted for his blog. Some of the stuff posted at Shaved makes me laugh out loud.

Go support SCC. I want to see that new avatar sitting on his masthead by 01-Sept.

Oh, and before I forget: *F* Obama!

Aftershock

2011-08-28T14:15:00.000-05:00

NewsMax's Aftershock Survival Guide is taking off on the internet like a F/A-18E/F Super Hornet off the deck of Aircraft carrier.

Sure it's an infomercial and the host and guest can't unglue their eyes from the teleprompters: But don't let that get in the way of informing yourself. It's not like they're selling you a juicer or a Tony Little abdominizer.

You'd have to be in an igloo the last 3 years to not see what's going on around you. Record debt, record foreclosures, unemployment on the rise, bankruptcies up, taxation up and the government scheming more and more to find "reveune enhancements" which are none other than tax schemes.

Well there are certainly enough of us out there that are sounding the alarm. One of the clearest voices is Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe.

NewsMax has an article where they quote him extensively.

Obama has disarmed the country, is solely responsible for the federal budget deficit and must bear most of the blame for the dependence on overseas oil and for “suffocating” business with regulations,” said the state’s senior senator in a speech reported by the Tulsa World.

“We now have a president, and I don’t mean this disrespectfully, who is destroying these very institutions that made America great,” Inhofe told the Chamber of Commerce in Broken Arrow, Okla.

The president’s healthcare proposals amount to “social engineering,” extended unemployment benefits aren’t needed and Inhofe said Obama had “invented” the idea that suspected terrorists have been tortured at Guantanamo Bay “to make you think something bad is happening in America — the same thing he does and others do when they go around talking about how bad America is.

“You know the biggest problem for prisoners when they get to Gitmo?” Inhofe asked. “Obesity!”

He even blamed Obama for the tea party-inspired ban on earmarks that the GOP has adopted. “When they came along with this moratorium, you have to let the president run everything,” he said. “They conceded that authority to the president of the United States, so that’s why the president was behind the whole earmark thing."

Don't panick. We Americans always over-react to things. Just look at the hype generated around Hurriace Irene. It turns out it landed in New York as a tropical storm.

Just get some information and arm yourself with knowledge that will protect you and your family.

Oh, and help me support whoever gets nominated to run against Barack Hussein Obama.

Illinois tollways

2011-08-25T07:46:00.000-05:00

The Tollway system.

Illinois proves once again why it is the worst state in the union. Second City cop blogged on this ((Thanks Again Democrats!) and I'm linking to his post.

Tollways are a quick and easy way for the state to separate you from your money. It is a revenue enhancement scheme of epic proportions. When you hear your Illinois politicians whine about "needing" tollways, think of Wisconsin. Wisconsin doesn't have a tollway - not one. Gee how does Wisconsin survive without tollways???

Nice question.

When Blagovich initiated the "open road tollways", he touted it as a way to ease congestion and promote "Green Lanes".

But being a good Democrat, the real reason for the open road tollways was to increase revenue. They knew that once commuters put that I-pass transponder in their car and were allowed to "breeze through" the express lanes, folks wouldn't feel the pain of stopping and paying the toll. Additionally they wouldn't pay attention to the toll rates - they would just continue to fill their I-pass each month. That way the state could incrementally increase toll rates with little or no public outcry.

And what happened to this Green Lane boondoggle touted by Blago?

GREEN LANES:
The Tollway will develop a program to introduce Green Lanes into the heaviest used segments of its existing roadways, a $400 million project which promotes carpooling and public transit and provides a free flow of traffic to reduce excessive acceleration and breaking which cuts emissions. Tolls will be deducted electronically from vehicles, car pool drivers and buses will pay the current I-PASS rate, while single-occupancy vehicles will pay a premium rate to use the free-flow lanes. To encourage environmentally responsible vehicles and congestion reduction, drivers of hybrids, electric or fuel cell vehicles, as well as those with high m.p.g. ratings will have access to the Green for a variable fee.

At a time when jobs are fleeing this state like Japs in a Godzilla movie, this is no time to be jacking up Tollway rates. According to Chicago business, Governor Quinn is looking to DOUBLE tollway rates. The article claims that we have the lowest toll rates in the union, but it doesn't say how many tollbooths we have per mile in relation to other states. When I travel from O'hare southbound on I-294, there are 6 tolls. That's about 15 miles in distance. (Whatever happened to Quinn's "transparency" project? This crap.)

Illinois is a "Toll Trap" state. The system is designed to keep you on the tollway once you enter and not let you off in order to optimize revenues.

It comes down to more government intrusions from this Nanny-State Democrat regime. A tollway user pays twice - the toll, and gas taxes. And you know that these government construction projects cost TWICE what a private contractor would charge because everyone involved wants a piece of the action, and the taxpayer's pockets are thought of as "deep."

Another reason why the Illinois voter deserves your contempt.

Amnesty again?

2011-08-24T11:44:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: It turns out that Obama decided by fiat to bypass the voters and use an executive order to cease the Federal government from prosecuting illegal aliens. Does this sound like a president or a dictator? This administration doesn't give a damn about you, dear Citizen. Not a wink. They prove it over and over again with their actions. Obamacare, Stimulus, Immigration ....

Obama goes after Hispanic vote after seeing that his popularity amongst his "brown brothers" is fading fast.

Apparently From the WaPo article:

Those leaders – which the Post simply calls “immigration advocates” – wanted the threat of deportation removed from most illegal aliens, which Obama granted. Conservative critics call it a “backdoor amnesty,” and lament that the executive branch is implementing a policy opposed by Congress. None of that critique made Wallsten’s story. But the Post made the politics behind the policy loud and clear:

Key to the strategy is shifting voters' attention beyond the caustic immigration debate with data-driven appeals that show progress in other areas, while arguing that Obama is better on immigration than any of his potential Republican foes.

The tensions - and the administration's aggressive efforts to soothe them - reached a climax of sorts in a flurry of activity last week, with the administration making a surprise announcement Thursday that it was giving officials discretion to suspend certain deportation cases that have drawn fire from critics, such as ones involving young people brought to the country in early childhood.

The White House move came two days after immigrant advocates delivered tens of thousands of petitions to Obama's reelection headquarters and other Democratic Party offices demanding an end to the administration's aggressive deportation policy.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2011/08/22/wapo-exposes-obamas-amnesty-deeply-political#ixzz1VxpsoVUv

So Obama has a secret meeting with 160 hispanic leaders in over two days and gives them access to the administration's biggest players. Remember when Bush met with 10 conservative talk radio personalities? The Leftists Media Wonks went nuts.

So true to form this administration embraces the Balkanization of America in all its forms, and is breathlessly pushing the agenda down our collective throats.

What's the big deal? The big deal is that we've imported tens of millions of illiterate, unskilled workers. These workers aren't required to adopt our language, our culture, our history and our mores. We're importing a vast network of folks who don't care to assimilate into our culture. The same phenomenon is occuring in Britain, France and Germany. We're seeing what those Muslim enclaves are capable of (rioting, welfare abuse, crime).

There is a vast disconnect between our ruling, political elite - and the average American. In almost every category (taxation, immigration, regulations, national healhcare) the freeborn American citizens lines up in direction opposition to this lurching socialist plans.

2012 cannot get here fast enough for me!

Sic semper tyrannis!

Demonizing the Rich

2011-08-18T22:07:00.001-05:00

The rhetoric castigating the "evil" rich has escalated over the last 10 years. Truthfully the rich haven't really ever been beloved but there used to be an understanding the millionaires and billionaires had a net positive on our society because they took the risks, put up the capital, had a great idea for an invention - and then benefited from doing that. Plus, they actually hired people and allowed Americans to enjoy a higher standard of living.

Were some of them scoundrels? Of course.

But no one is perfect, but don't tell the Marxist-Left that. They think anyone who makes a profit is a rapacious bourgeois capitalist.

Just look at the language that Obama and his minions use regarding rich people:
* "The rich need to pay their fair share."
* "We're targeting millionaires and billionaires."
* "We're going to close tax loopholes that for too long have allowed the rich to not pay their fair share."

Just like a broken record Obama drones on with his class-warfare, Group-Hate mantra.

One week we're supposed to hate the oil companies, then it is the pharmaceuticals, then it is the insurance companies, then it is the hedge funds and then it's the "speculators" ... and on, and on, and on.

Excuse me but isn't he such a whiney little bitch?!?!?!? I mean really - can't President Dumbo take responsibility for something other than killing Osama?

And with such hostility around, billionaires are up and leaving. Who would blame them? If I was wealthy and had a president, steeped in Marxism - with delusions of grandeur; I'd be heading to Chile too.

Even if you taxed the rich at 100%, we wouldn't even dent the national debt. Does he ever mention that? Does he ever mention that only 49% of Americans even pay Federal taxes? Does he ever point out that our tax code is all of 70,000 pages long and a legitimate barrier to effective tax collections? Does he ever acknowledge that 1% of tax payers cover 60% of tax collections?

No. Because pointing that out would deflate his pitiful argument that the "rich" need to pay more.

Spending is out of control - not tax collections. Entitlements need to be driven down to the bare minimums if we're ever going to get out of this fiscal mess.

20 years ago a millionaire was someone who made a million dollars a year. Now, a "rich person" are considered someone who grosses $250,000. That could be someone who owns a dry cleaners or a coffee shop or a small business.

The "rich" is a moving target and is another example of the Weasel Words that the Left uses to control the language, and control the argument.

I don't begrudge anyone from making any amount of money that they want. It's called living the American Dream. I've discussed conservatism before and examined why the Progressive Tax is straight out of the Communist Manifesto.

But it is more than that: You spend almost one-third of your life working. You spend one-third of each work day working to pay the government. Hundreds of hours a year are spent by you working to pay the government.

And what is the government doing with the fruits of your labor? Squandering it. They're busy buying votes in the black and latino communities. They're handing it out as "entitlements" to people who don't appreciate it, and only cry for more.

You and I have a finite amount of time on this earth and we spend a significant amount of time away from our loved-ones, working. It is an outrage that the money you make by your labor is taken from you by some feckless government official and doled out to some indigent asshole.

Do you think that's right? It's not only immoral, but also unconstitutional.
So as the old saying goes, "Work Harder: Millions on Welfare are counting on You."
And if we keep electing Democrats, that motto will continue to be a sad fact.

The poor and lower middle class should start paying their fair share. The "Zero Liability Voter" are the lazy fools who vote themselves a government hand-out every time.

Thanks for visiting, and come again!

Nobody Listens

2011-08-17T14:47:00.004-05:00

Nobody listens.

Especially Obama Drones.

What did I tell you all back in 2008? Huh? So quickly you've forgotten the sagacity that yours-truly attempted to impart on you, My Cherished-Audience. Remember that "Buzz Killington" Troll who was flaming out the blog - stumping for his new Messiah back in '08?

Yea, he's nowhere to be seen. His last posting, on Nov. 5th said that we could expect a "moderate and conciliatory" tone from BHO. Ha! Another useful idiot does what he does best: Support tyranny.

You can thank useless Ass-hats like him for where we are today.

And people still didn't listen. Lisa Fabrizio, writing at The American Spectator sums it up quite nicely.

We warned them that their affinity for over-taxing and out-of-control spending would lead to financial disaster but they wouldn't believe us.....

We cautioned against granting more and more power to unions, especially those representing government employees....

We pleaded with them to understand that over-regulation would put a stranglehold on American manufacturing and the use of our natural resources; that putting environmental concerns over people at every turn would drive businesses overseas and increase our dependence on foreign energy sources....

We railed and demonstrated against the ever-lengthening arms of the nanny state; that they would one day crush us in their suffocating embrace.

We bemoaned the death of our culture -- both as a melting pot and one based on Judeo-Christian precepts -- and the consequences that would derive from its demise. The promotion of so-called cultural diversity has threatened to cost us our national identity and has robbed our youth of its pride in the history of our country....

We tried to emphasize Ronald Reagan 's strategy of Peace Through Strength; knowing that there are enemies out there who only understand and fear the threat of outright power, despite the yelps of those who believe that a multilateral and nuanced approach will succeed with bloodthirsty fanatics who scoff at such naivety and lick their chops in anticipation of facing same...

The result of all this disbelief on the part of our liberal countrymen? Our economy on the road to ruin, our national unity in tatters, our rights greatly diminished, and our culture sorely at odds with the hopes and dreams of our Founding Fathers. If you didn't know better, you'd think it all quite unbelievable.

Meanwhile, 70 Members of our congress are official memebers of the Socialist Party of America.

Some noteables: Jesse "Jackass" Jackson, Jr and Jan "The Red" Schakowsky. I blogged about Jan and her convicted felon husband back in 2008 (link here.) She took time out from teaching "Counter-insurgency Operations" at the Midwest Academy to discuss her new "jobs" proposal. Basically it entails stealing more of your money and handing off to the non-productive members of our society.

Here it is straight from the Know-Nothing-Yenta herself.

More class warfare Marxism from our Ruling Class Elite! Just what we need.

Ugh! I have a headache....

President Jayson Blair

2011-08-15T15:06:00.004-05:00

Longtime readers will know that since 2007 I've been a vociferous critic of Barack Hussein Obama. What you don't know is that on a daily basis, I ask myself, "How did he get elected?" In the same vein I wonder if Cubans ever wake up, sling back a hot cafe con leche and say,"How did we end up with Fidel?"

My brilliantly informed audience (except you Coldtype and LITB) understand the dire straits we're in. For those of us who are ready to be "rigorously honest" realize that Obama and his policies are the reason for the economic and moral malaise infecting us. It's comes down to spending. It's not that he "inherited" anything from Bush. It's that he quadrupled spending in his first year in office.

For those of you who don't know it already: That's what progressives do - tax and spend. That's all they know, and its the engine that drives their Big State agenda. Period.

Since McCain went with the Hobbits reference out of spite, I'm going to roll with it out of humor. It's Mordor on the Potomac folks. The Uruk-Hai are in charge.

By The Numbers

For clarity's sake, let's look at where we are now: (figures gleaned from here.)

* Federal government spending went from $3 trillion in 2008, to $4 trillion in 2009. That is a 33% increase in one fiscal year. Through 2011 the Federal government will spend $6.2 trillion. Government spending on welfare went up (from 2008) 28.5% and spending on health care went up 18%.

* Federal debt as a percentage of GDP is now projected to hit 103% by the end of 2011. It was hovering around 60% (thanks to TARP and Stimulus I) under President Bush. For comparison purposes, Greece's debt as a percentage of GDP is 140%.

* Our Federal deficit for 2011 is now $1.645 trillion. It was $1.293 trillion for fiscal year 2010. Trends indicate that by the time Obama leaves office, Federal deficits will be $5 trillion. For comparison's sake, the deficit in Bush's last year in office was $386 billion.

* Some call it the "Obama Hockey stick" - it shows a massive spike of 55% in debt under Obama. Net Federal debt, for the same period grew by 88%.
(article reference here.)

* Obamacare legislation, that no one was allowed to read before voting on it, adds additional taxes and costs. It also removes %500 billion from Medicare.

How it ends

Bottom line; under Obama, home foreclosures are UP, unemployment/underemployment is UP, bankruptcies are UP, taxation schemes are UP, his EPA is churning out regulations by the minute that will do nothing except torment you, the Open Borders crowd wants more and more from you in the way of programs and monies. Another Obama triumph is that the Misery Index has returned. We're now at a 28-year high.

And they're not done.

TeamObama (Debt Man Walking) is looking for "tax loopholes" (ie. revenue enhancements). You can't deduct your home mortgage interest, or property tax payments. That's a "tax break for the rich" - let's get rid of that! You want to have a 401k plan? No-no-no: only "the evil rich" can afford those. You have to pay your fair share! The poor needs more. They need flat screens and 22" rims, and a LINK card to buy booze, cigarettes and Hennessy. They need their housing subsidized. They need their gas, light and heat subsidized. A study was done whereby Obama would confiscate the nations' private retirement plans and put them into one large fund - á la social security. That way they could 'regulate' them better.

We all know that that is just code for using the monies as a way to fund general operations (entitlements).

THAT is the type of administration that was elected. One that doesn't understand restraint. One that doesn't honor the firewalls within the constitution. And one that does not honor the individual citizen.

70% of the American people didn't want Nationalized Medicine. Did our elected leaders listen? Hell no. 80% of the people want a balanced budget amendment so that future generations aren't dealing with an unsustainable debt burden. Did they pass it? No. Whatever advances the ball - the Leftists will do it.

Leftists are power-hungry and will do whatever it takes to seize and maintain their control over YOU, the individual. You're dangerous, you're a free-thinker, you believe in individual sovereignty and a civil society. We can't have that!

As Alinsky said you've got to pretend you're middle class, in order to destroy the middle class. The Marxist "workers paradise" is now within reach.

Have no fear, Cherished Reader. We will stop them. The Tea Party conservatives, with the help and support of mainstream American citizens are rising to defeat this Authoritarian Nightmare and its host of minions. 2012 will wash the slate clean and we'll have conservatives back in Washington.

The Black Angel

We see what a morass we're in. The question is - "How did we get here?"

How did a man so inept, so incompetent and so immersed in Marxism get to be President? The underpinnings of his rise to power was laid decades ago by the Liberal establishment in Hollywood.

How did 52% of the population turn off their reasoning faculties and pull the lever for an inexperienced, back-bencher Illinois senator?

I can frame the dilemma for you in one phrase: Jayson Blair.

Blair was the celebrated member of the NYTimes newspaper who was caught, not only plaigarizing, but fabricating storyies for the paper back in 2002. It was a big deal for the Times because the Old Gray Lady is used to just circling the wagons and protecting its media creatures - come hell or high water.

"The New York Times is to be commended for ferreting out Jayson Blair, the reporter recently discovered to be making up facts, plagiarizing other news organizations, and lying about nonexistent trips and interviews.

A newspaper that employs Maureen Dowd can't have had an easy time settling on Blair as the scapegoat. Blair's record of inaccuracies, lies and distortions made him a candidate for either immediate dismissal or his own regular column on the op-ed page." ~~ Anne Coulter, May 14, 2003

Of course, after the scandal broke, Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger remained adament that race had nothing to do with having an unscrupulous, corrupt black reporter churning out falsehoods for the front page:

"Mr. Boyd (managing editor) said last week that the decision to advance Mr. Blair had not been based on race...."
"Mr Blair's Times supervisors ... emphasize that he earned an intership at The Times because of glowing recommendations and a remarkable work history, not because he is black."

Sure ... and Barack Hussein Obama is a qualified, brilliant community organizer. THAT qualifies him for the highest office in the land. For the paper, the Standard Bearer for Diversity, to say "race had nothing to do with it" is absurd. Why have diversity requirements and then ignore race? It's like opening a public swimming pool and then demanding that no one get wet.

"If the Times "diversity" program did not consider Blair's race, then it wasn't much of a diversity program, now was it? This is like job advertisements that proclaim, "Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer." Well which is it?" ~~ How to talk to a Liberal, Ann Coulter (p. 186 pp.2 and 5)

Despite all this, Blair was repeatedly published on the front page, promoted, sent Love notes from editor-in-chief Howell Raines. Ignoring the warnings of a few intrepid whistle-blowers, top management kept assigning Blair to bigger stories in new departments without alerting the editors to Blair's history, beause - as Raines said - it would "stigmatize" him. (Speaking of stigmas, after this scandal, does the demand for black heart surgeons go up or down?) Raines jettisoned the Times' famous slogan, preferring the slogan "The The New York Times: Now With Even More Black People!"

I have a suspicion that the same sort of bias promoted and advanced another young black man ALL the way to the White House. So you could say that a version of Jayson Blair is now President of the United States.

And this is where Hollywood comes into play.

Back in 2010, Benjamin Plotinsky wrote a wonderful article for City Journal entitled The Varities of Liberal Enthusiasm"

"Our moviemakers are adept at measuring the zeitgeist of the nation—of its liberal half, anyway—and are a powerful force in shaping it. And for more than a decade, they’ve been churning out what critics call “black-angel” movies. These films feature a white protagonist guided to enlightenment by a black character, usually of divine or supernatural origin or, at the very least, in touch with spiritual experiences that the main character lacks. With the black angel’s help, the white hero finds salvation."

Why are Whites so quick to turn a blind eye to qualifications when looking at a black person? Why are we so quick to forgive, to over look character defects, and to rationalize away the enormous vault of data and history?

Our Media Elites in Hollywood, from Matt Damon to Harvey Weinstein, have turned us around; discombobulating us in a complex fan-dance....all to warp our perceptions in obeisance to the faux-Gods of political correctness, multiculturalism and diversity.

On the one hand I believe their hearts are in the right place, it's just their heads and souls I'm concerned about. As with most Liberal initiatives, it looks good on paper but the full ramifications of the policy aren't taken into account, and they're usually ineffective at best.

From the Green Mile, to Bagger Vance to Gray's Anatomy - we are deluged with images of docile, articulate and educated black men and women who play spiritual superiors to those "poor dumb whites" and their backward views of race.

The message from Hollywood is quite clear: Ignore what you know, and buy into our fantasy.

The fantasy is that the black guy is presented as clean, neat, smart, cheeky and articulate. Your Remember the movie "Remember the Titans"? Coach Herman Boone (Denzel) just wants to give his "players a chance" - and wants to work well with all the white coaches. Of course, the white coaches are skeptical and ~ racist! The poor black kids just keep getting picked on for no reason. And meanwhile, Boone's daughter wants to dress in dresses, play with dolls, doesn't speak in a ghetto dialect and even eschews basketball when she meets the daughter of the white coach.

The star white player, ironically the one who teams up with the other tolerant black player, gets in a car accident and is render a Parapalegic. The stereotype continues unabated, even to the point where the black players teach the white players how to sing and dance in unison as part of their warm ups. Everyone knows that white guys can't dance, have no rhythm and are musically inept! And everyone knows (thanks in large part to the Media) that the opposite is true of blacks.

(As an experiement - watch Soul Train some Sunday. Observe the dancers and imagine that they're white. Then listen to your inner-voice and you'll be surprised that the messages that float up from your deepest self. It's well worth the time if you're introspective.)

From the City Journal article:

"The genre includes, to name just a few, The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), in which Will Smith—playing a caddie who is really, the film hints, God—restores Matt Damon’s golf game and love life; Bruce Almighty (2003), in which Morgan Freeman, as God, bestows his powers on a manic Jim Carrey; and the awful What Dreams May Come (1998), in which Cuba Gooding, Jr. is a wise soul guiding Robin Williams through the afterlife. These movies have been numerous enough, David Sterritt points out in the Christian Science Monitor, to confuse TV’s buffoonish Homer Simpson: in one episode, “Homer mistook a black man in a white suit for an angelic visitor, all because (according to his embarrassed wife) he’d been seeing too many movies lately."

Far and away the best of the black-angel films is Frank Darabont’s The Green Mile (1999), based on a novel by Stephen King, whose knack for setting his finger on the cultural pulse has made him a multimillionaire. The basso profundo Michael Clarke Duncan plays John Coffey (note the initials), a gigantic black man wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of two little girls in Depression-era Louisiana and sentenced to death; Tom Hanks plays Paul Edgecomb, a prison guard who discovers that Coffey is not only innocent but also a Christlike miracle worker. Coffey’s laying-on of hands restores a dead mouse to life, cures Edgecomb of a bladder infection, and heals the warden’s wife’s brain cancer. Shortly before he is executed—the jeering of the girls’ anguished parents and the weeping of the prison guards who know the truth recall the account of the Crucifixion in Luke."

Dénouement

A philosopher once said, "The world lives on lies." Throw back the curtain and see who's pulling the strings in the World of Oz! The time for honesty is upon us. Let's not fool ourselves. Liberty and freedom can be lost - as witnessed by the last 3 years under the Dictatorship of Obama (May his name be cursed.)

This Black Angel is nothing more than the Fabian symbol emblematical of their logo: A wolf covered in sheeps' clothing.

People have projected their own faults, judgements and fantasies onto a man who is NOTHING more than a barely experienced, brainwashed, Alinsky Radical. The only thing that got him elected is his Black skin.

The next time you see a TV show or movie, look for the Black Angel phenomenon. Have a healthy skepticism - it may save your life, and the country.

White privilege debunked

2011-08-14T14:42:00.000-05:00

I think it's unfortunate that the author's last name is Duke, but you can look beyond that silly coincidence.

This is a great article debunking the Group-Think nonsense behind White Privilege.

I couldn't have said it any better myself.

Enjoy.

Story here.

Top 10 songs about the Police

2011-06-26T15:06:00.001-05:00

I was listening to my ipod the other day and realized that there are some songs about the police that deserve some attention. Some of these are defamatory to the police but I'm including them because they show the depth that "police haters" will go to try to convince you that law enforcement is "out of control."

Without further adieu, here is my list:

10) Niggas With Attitude - "Fuck da Police"
The song that made hating the police a point of pride. You'd rather see me in the pen than me and Lorenzo rollin in a Benzo. Yeah, that's about right. And these goofs have had it so bad that Ice-Cube is now a major movie star. RIH Easy-E.

9) Lil Wayne - "Mrs Officer"
Lil Wayne is a terrible singer with no vocal capabilities. He's yet another example of a no-talent "hip hopper" who can put a couple hooks together, hire a hot model and make some videos. Of course his "target market" eats this stuff up. The best phrase from this song? "She know I'm from the street, and now all she wants me to do is fuck the police."

8) Iron Maiden - "The Trooper"
While technically this song references the famous "Charge of the Light brigade" I think it's an appropriate homage to my brothers in blue.

7) Sam Roberts - "Where have all the good people gone?"
I included this song because of the lyrics "it took 10 cops to pull me over." Sam Roberts is a solid talent with excellent musicianship, unlike NWA and Lil Wayne.

6) Motely Crue - "Knock 'em dead kidd"
In the original liner notes for this song, the band wrote "Dedicated to the LAPD". Apparently they weren't happy with the service they recieved.

5) I fought the law, and the law won - Bobby Fuller.
Enough said.

4) Dead Kennedys - "Police truck"
From my punk days, this song always made me laugh. The boys sing about going downtown to beat up some drunks, and have their plans thwarted by law enforcement. Wah! It's always the police getting in the way of some awesome ultra-violence.

3) "Highway Patrol" - Junior Brown
This probably should be #1 but, in my opinion, most highway patrol officers are nothing more than parking meter maids. Maybe if they did more than write movers I'd have a bit more respect for them.

2) Aerosmith - "Sweet Emotion"
One of the best songs ever written. The song pulses with a strong beat, then pulls back into a smooth chorus of lyrics. The best line? I pulled into town in a police car, your daddy said I took ya just a little too far.

1) Sammy Hagar - "I can't drive 55"
A song about a kid who just like to drive fast. Who can blame him? He doesn't even mind getting a ticket. Nice.

Flash mobs and violence

2011-06-06T21:45:00.000-05:00

Crime File posted this story on his blog the other day after the real news came out that police shut down North Avenue beach because black gang-members were attacking beach patrons.

Paul's advise on carrying a gun is solid. You have the right to defend your life and private property from an attacker. Period.

And reports that I'm hearing from those districts are highly disturbing.

Chicago News report reports on strong arm robberies occuring in streeterville - again by mobs of blacks beating people and robbing them.

In the comments from June 4th there I read this one:

Anonymous said...

Where I work in a restaurant in River North two tourists have been beaten up and robbed literally in front of our restaurant door in the past two weeks. These were early evening like 9pm.

I go home after work today and get some food 'to go' at a restaurant where I live in Lakeview around 7pm. While walking down Broadway south of Belmont about 6 to 8 ghetto youth are attacking two people. Tons of police, thanks for being fast Chicago Police.

My friend goes to work at about 5am and when he got to the train stop at Belmont in Lakeview this morning the parametics are helping someone that just got beat up and robbed by ghetto youth.

How many people have been attacked nearby - nearby by meaning a several block area, my apartment in Lakeview in the past several weeks that I know of. Oh maybe 8-10.

How many people in River North have been attacked nearby where I work? Oh maybe 10 to 15.

It is out of control.

Hey ghetto, you don't like me because I'm Asian, I didn't chose to be Asian. I do nothing to anyone. I mind my own business. I work the service industry to pay my bills and I go to college. Stop verbally harassing me. Yeah you scare me, sorry for crossing the street to avoid you but what do you expect? All I am is some late 20 something that works in a restaurant to pay the bills and goes to college. No other group gives me trouble except black.

Just go away. Seriously just go. I don't even care anymore how it sounds. The violance everyday against anything that walks and the verbal racism towards me is just that bad. Go away please. Just go.

June 4, 2011 11:34 PM

This young man's comment just absolutely saddened me. He speaks for all of us in a way. He represents what our country stands for: hard work, dedication, education and a "leave me alone" ethic that focuses on the individual. He wants to be part of a civil, law-abiding society that allows him to follow his dreams.

And what is in his way? Ghetto hood-rats who have no respect for people (especially white people) and who think they can just group up, batter, rob and abuse at will.
And notice that that among the comments along with the Asian guy were others who echoed the same thing and I'll bet that half of the incidents aren't even getting reported to the police.

Here are some recent headlines:
May 30th: Police close North avenue beach (original story)

June 6th: a male black with "big lips" robs a woman at gun point near Depaul.

June 6th: Uptown man beaten and robbed by a male black.

June 5th: 7 blacks arrested near Northwestern university after they used a baseball bat to knock one of their victims to the ground.

Here are 3 of the animals that have been arrested so far. All f*cking Choir boys I'm sure.

This is why I would never live in a black neighborhood. The reason has nothing to do with racism. The reason is that every predominantly black neighborhood is a HIGH crime area. That is a fact, and it is indisputable. You want to lower crime in an "underserved" neighborhood? Import Yuppies and Asians and you'll see the crime plummet - why? Because Yuppies and Asians have a work ethic, they understand right from wrong, and are generally supportive of a civil society.

The media has long ignored the racial element of crime. From 2005 here are a few stats ---

* Of the nearly 770,000 violent interracial crimes committed every year involving blacks and whites, blacks commit 85 percent and whites commit 15 percent.

* Blacks commit more violent crime against whites than against blacks. Forty-five percent of their victims are white, 43 percent are black, and 10 percent are Hispanic. When whites commit violent crime, only three percent of their victims are black.

* Blacks are an estimated 39 times more likely to commit a violent crime against a white than vice versa, and 136 times more likely to commit robbery.

* Blacks are 2.25 times more likely to commit officially-designated hate crimes against whites than vice versa.

I don't have a quick answer to this problem. It's taken us 50 years of Liberal pandering and Welfare programs to undo the moorings of the family unit, so I'm not hopeful that things will change anytime soon.

Too many people are afraid to say that there are problems in the black community. Too many people are afraid to even criticize the president simply because he is black. Well I'm not shouldered with such restrictions, nor am I blind to who and what is doing the majority of crimes on the streets of Chicago.

Paul has spent alot of time in Germany. I know that Germans are very sensitive to discussing Hitler or WW2. It is practically Taboo for a German to talk about such topics openly.

The same dynamic is now taking place here - black crime, black welfare recipients, black violence, black poverty, black illegitimacy, the demise of the black nuclear family are ALL taboo to discuss in the media. The only way the MSM will tackle the issue is if the problem is framed in such a way that money will be thrown at the issue.

Self-censorship and misplaced guilt are fueling the Political Correctness Leviathan. Don't believe the Liberal media. As Ice Cube famously said while being interviewed on WKQX regarding the racism in his group's lyrics (NWA),"Some things just needed to be said."

Well I say that NOW some things need to be said - without delay!

Sic semper tyrannis!

Second City Cop turns 6

2011-05-24T22:09:00.000-05:00

I went back and checked out SCC's first blog entry. It was on May 31, 2005. The last six years have flown by, and his blog is an international sensation.

It's quite an endeavor, and many don't realize how much work goes into maintaining a blog. There are emails, comments to be moderated, and content to be monitored. It is a full-time job in and of itself.

But SCC pulls it off flawlessly and makes it look easy.

The writing is punchy; crisp and clean. The insights are razor sharp and the commentary is mixed with humor, a bit of cynicism and sometimes sadness.

For your convenience, here is a snap shot of the first blog post. One small step for blogging, one giant leap for law enforcement!

So here's to you SCC! Keep up the great work. The service you provide to the working copper has proven to be invaluable these past 6 years.

God bless you.

Joe Gumm: "Uxorious Me"

2011-05-24T11:59:00.006-05:00

"I tell you there is no love sweeter than the love between a mother and a child. Now I know my wife loves me but I am reasonably sure that she doesn't look at me the same way she looks at them. You know, it's kind of humbling because you realize at some point that you're just a date that worked out."
~~Dennis Miller

The sun was sliding her fingers through the wooden blinds in our bedroom when I awoke to the sounds of birds chirping. I turned over and saw the bedspread next to me was flat.

"Oh yeah," I thought through an addled pre-caffeine haze. "She's at work."
"What day is it?" I remember wondering. It was a Saturday and I was off work. Usually at 6:45am the pitter-patter of little feet has turned into the thunder of the Plasma car floating around the hardwood floor downstairs. But today it was quiet. And it was the little guy's second Tee-ball game.

Days off with the kids are always bittersweet for me because I love them and want to spend time with them but I also need time to write. It would be easier to drill through a glacier with an Emory board than to chisel out some time for myself, most days.

After Tee-ball I decided to take the kids to Old Orchard. It meant that they could play on the outdoor "dragon" that's there, they could duck in to the Disney store and satisfy their House of Mouse addiction, and Daddy could wrap his chilly hands around a hot grande-mocha-cappuccino-with-2-shots-no-fat-no-whip at the Barnes & Noble bookstore. The best part of it was I could go to a bookstore and browse ~and~ get the coffee. Ah yes - the inspiration came to me in such a rush it was like the Muse was standing there massaging my shoulders and breathing breathlessly into my ear.

The minions and I stroll through the solid oak doors at Barnes & Noble and I'm met by an end-cap display of this:

I'm immediately smitten by the cover. A smiling red-head with the bubble of "150 secrets to a Happy Wife." I slide over, check the status of the little ones as they run to the coffee counter, and pick up one of the books and read the back jacket.

After quite a few years of marriage I had often wondered if my wife was happy. If I asked her, she'd certainly say 'yes' but I'm sure I could do better as a husband.

With a decade of service to the city as a police officer, you can safely assume that our marriage has seen its fair-share of conflict, fights and aggravation; and that was all just the day before yesterday!

Early on in my career I received the usual "you've changed" mantra from my better half. I finally realized she wasn't mad that I'd "changed" but that I'd grown.(Yes boys - you can use that.) The wonderful thing about being a "first responder" is that you get a solid sense of your own authority. You have to - that's what they pay you for. The problem is when you bring that "I'm always in control, and always right" attitude into the home. Your wife doesn't want to feel like she's Second in the family; she wants to be your equal. She wants to share things 50/50. Some guys don't get that. They think that the woman is the servant and is there to cater to his every whim. Yea, I know it's not 1951 and "Father Knows Best" has become a laughable bump on the road to our still-on-going Feminist Utopia, but it is no longer a one-way street - or is it?

I bought the book and I want to share some of my thoughts on Mr. Gumm and his "make wifey happy at all costs" book. For you guys who don't like to read - it only has 205 pages. You can knock it out in a weekend. And, for clarification, some parts won't relate to you - baby stuff, dating, and pre-marriage do's & don'ts. So you can skip all the things that don't relate to you.

Overall I can say that some of what he writes is spot on - women do smell better than men. Women emote, guys rationalize. Women are mysterious and complex, men are direct and simple. Want to keep a man happy? Feed him, have sex with him and let him enjoy sports. That's about 90% of the formula.

Want to keep a woman happy? There's the rub, and thus the book.

The book contains 150 tips on how to do things that will make, or keep, your wife happy. "Happy" is a relative term, and I'm sure there are wives out there who'd never be happy if their husbands did all 150 of these things in one day. But Joe Gumm, a former-ESPN sportscaster, writes with humor and self-deprecation - emphasis on the self-deprecation...There's a lot, I mean A LOT, of apologetic nuances in this book. So much so that it made me wonder - Why?

I don't know Joe but there is a toxicity weaved throughout. It is almost dysfunctional in its scope. The book makes me think that he's one of three things:

1. He screwed up BIG TIME and is making amends - ie. infidelity, left the cap off the toothpaste, left the toilet seat up, got caught flirting on Facebook ~or~

2. He's burdened with some over-arching guilt; either from family of origin issues, or from the Feminist brain-washing that every Male in the United States has had to swallow for the last 50 years.

3. He's trying to get on Oprah, and before she pulls the plug to jet around the world with her BFF 'Gail', he wants a shot at getting the book skyrocketed onto the NYTimes best seller lists.

Why do I say that he's either dysfunctional, a door mat or greedy? Because there is a certain undercurrent of phoniness, an insincerity, that dominates the writing. The book oozes with the uxoriousness. Uxorious is the term meaning "Excessively submissive or devoted to one's wife." (I had to look it up too.) It flows off each page like ocean waves lapping on the shore. Let's start with the dedication because it sets the tone.

To the smartest, most creative, most loving and caring person in our household; my wife. I won't ever understand how you can have four unmedicated child-births, with a baby as big as a basketball coming out of an area as big as a golf ball, and still be afraid of a roach crawling around on the kitchen floor, but that's okay. That's what makes you a great wife, mother, and friend. You're unique and special, and I love you dearly.

The very next page in the Acknowledgments sections he writes,"I give all the credit to God for helping me marry out of my league. I would also like to thank my in-laws Jim and Jackie, for creating my wife and making her available to date and marry so we could have four beautiful daughters." Again he's compelled to put himself down by saying he "married out of his league". By the way, there is also an entire chapter devoted to this topic.

Gumm is also compelled to point out that men don't have uteruses (page 1), which I take to mean that a woman in his life at some point invalidated his opinion on a topic related to childbirth by pointing out that he dare not say anything because he wasn't born with the "correct equipment" - ie. to have a viewpoint that she agrees with.

Excuse me for saying, but that sounds a bit unrealistic and harsh on the part of the woman. What if I told a woman she couldn't criticize Men because she didn't have a penis? (I actually had a black friend of mine tell me that I couldn't criticize Barack Obama because I wasn't black. Under that logic, I told him, you can't criticize George Bush because you're not white.)

When discussing Marriage on page 3, he writes "Most of the time women are disappointed in the way we act as husbands. We say dumb things, noises come out of different parts of our bodies, we drool, our hairlines are receding, we're out of shape, we stink, and we have hair on our backs."

I'm reading this and I can't help but think "Come on!" We all know women share almost the same physiology as men. So why put all the blame on the male gender? Women don't fart? Women don't defecate?

Apparently in Joe's world all they do is crave adoration, and cry.

He then goes on the paint an overly optimistic picture of women as compared to men - "We run yellow lights, they stop. We care about cars; they worry about the cargo in the cars. They can have full-blown conversations with other women while a screaming baby is in the background; we hear a screaming baby and we start to cry ourselves. They can hold a baby while they're eating; we can hardly eat without smearing food on our faces and clothes. They want the children's clothing to match; we're lucky if we can get out the door without clashing. They write legibly, we scribble. They pay attention in church, we fall asleep." The self flagellation continues and I won't bore you with it. Let's just say that I was surprised he didn't just write - "women are caring and compassionate nurturers, and men are violent despots with delusions of world domination." I mean it's that over-the-top, and unrealistic.

Just today my wife and I were cleaning the garage. We took everything out of the garage, and then cleaned it, then put everything back. It took 5 hours. At some point my wife asked me,"Can I wipe my nose on your shirt?" Of course I let her, but Joe's wife apparently never has a bowel movement, or flatulence or a day in which her husband can't be so loving to his wife that he might notbeteem the winds of heaven visit her face too roughly.

He even claims that "depite our differences, men and women end up doing the exact same things in life, but they [women] just smell better than we do" and "Women are obviously the better occupiers of their time on Earth, but unfortunately a lot of men just don't want to admit it." He then references "Adam and Eve" as the crux of why Men are just too closed minded and deny that women are better occupiers of their time. What does that mean exactly? Joe never says.

And that's the problem with this book, and the unspoken assumptions that lie just beneath the surface. In Joe's world, Men are to be blamed, vilified and pitied. We are just dumb sex addicts who can't feel their emotions and who only shed a tear when Old Yeller plays, or their football team loses the Superbowl.

Did someone say Generalizing???

You can hardly pick up the book, open a page at random, and see some petty example of why the author isn't fit to wash his wife's underwear. On page 69, in the chapter entitled How to marry out of your league, he writes "Although I'm only 90% free of the rough edges, I'm still a work-in-progress (He apparently has to do more - much more - to obtain the good graces of the Lady of the Manor.), but I work hard at trying to attain 100% status (something that may or may not happen in her lifetime Joe writes)."

Ugh! Are you kidding me? Is this guy pathetic or just wallowing in Stockholm Syndrome?

Chapter 6 in the book is even more maddening. It is entitled "How to talk with one foot in your mouth" and each entry is prefaced by the words "It's All About Her" ... like "Its All About Her idea #46 - Quit using terms like fat, chunky, obese, lard, plump, hefty." Or "Its All About her idea #50: Stop using terms like old lady, ball and chain, nag, whipped, and the wife or the boss." Or my personal fave "Its All About Her idea #51: Tell her she looks pretty."

What fawning! What fatuous obeisance!

The publishers should have called this book "It's Her world, We just live in it." Mr. Gumm should have taken a picture of himself with a big toothy grin, with a door mat strapped across his chest, and tire tread marks streaked across his forehead as the cover picture.

That would have been more intellectually honest.

To be fair there are some good suggestions in the book. I like #39 (Slow Down), #40 (Take her advice), #43 (Don't drink and smoke for one day) and #44 (Don't go to bed mad.) All solid advice, and let's face it, sometimes we men do need the obvious pointed out to us. And Chapter 7, entitled "Lazy is as Lazy does" is a call to husbands that they should step up and do more around the house. I can agree on that one. It's all too easy to get comfortable, and expect your wife to do the shopping, the cleaning, the laundry and hustled the kids to soccer, piano and ballet. All the while you're catching the last half of the Cubs game and downing a six pack.

So I can recommend this book ONLY if you want to improve your marriage by scoring points with your better half by groveling, and DOING more things around her that don't include sex or TV. Joe should know (maybe he doesn't) that marriage is more than just dumping on your husband and pushing him to do more things; or using sex in a tit-for-tat game.

This book rings true for women. At the B&N book store, the barista told me that Joe Gumm was going to be at that very store signing the book and that "woman love him."

Gee no kidding. What if a man wrote a book called "What Women need to know" and then wrote something like, oh I don't know, that to guarantee a happy marriage a wife had to embrace the "F Trinity" - "flatter him, feed him, and fuck him." (Actually Doctor Laura already wrote a book with this premise. Of course the Femi-Nazis went berserk.)

So outside of Mr. Gumm's personal issues, why is this book getting so much hype? Because it feeds into all the non-sense that has been trolled into our public dialogue vis-a-vis the Feminist Movement.

It all comes back to Feminism - that long walk to the tool shed that Men have had to endure for the last 50 years. The feminist movement has successful demonized men and cast women, not as unique and separate individuals, but rather representatives of an oppressed class defined by a group identity. The Equal Rights Amendment was written in 1923 by radical suffragist Alice Paul, but the ERA didn't pass both houses of congress until March of 1972.

It failed, thank God, to ever get ratified.

The defeat of the ERA was a victory, but the ideology that it espoused leached into the collective dialogue of the nation. And what the feminists couldn't impose by constitutional amendment they have imposed through the schools, college faculties and the culture. Like the rest of the radical Left, if they couldn't win at the ballot box, they took to the media, the courts, the "4th branch of the government, and academia to do their dirty work.

The Feminist Movement has done much damage to the male gender because they've found it easier to demonize men, than to take the time to understand what our motivations are and where our impulses lie. We're continually pigeon holed into categories and blamed for just about everything that is deemed "inappropriate" in this world - from violence, crime, War, drug addiction, pollution and family dysfunction.

The Bureau of Economic research released a study a few years back which found that since 1970 women are becoming less happy. The brilliant Phyllis Schafley chimes in with her opinion over at the Eagle Forum:

"One theory advanced by the authors, University of Pennsylvania economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, is that the women's liberation movement "raised women's expectations" (sold them a bill of goods), making them feel inadequate when they fail to have it all. A second theory is that the demands on women who are both mothers and jobholders in the labor force are overwhelming.

I'm neither an economist nor a psychologist, but I'll join the conversation with my own armchair analysis. Another theory could be that the feminist movement taught women to see themselves as victims of an oppressive patriarchy in which their true worth will never be recognized and any success is beyond their reach.

Yes - exactly. Just like we have seen with the "minorities" in this country since the 60's, the template employed is simple and cunning:
1) "Blame someone other than your racial or gender enclave" - This means Caucasians, Men, corporations are used as foils to claim victimhood.

2) "Claim you have no control over it or your own life or circumstances" - If you believe that you can't get ahead, can't improve your life, and can't ever crawl out of the hole of your life, then why bother? Sign up for a government handout, have some babies, sling some weed and lay back and enjoy Jerry Springer re-runs, right?

3) "Demand more laws, money or resources to 'fight" the alleged discrimination" - Thus the ERA was pushed, Hate Crime laws are touted, the Feds dump money into urban communities and all we get are more of the same.

This template is motivated by feelings. It makes the politicians pretend that they're doing something constructive, and it makes the community organizers feel like they're accomplishing something. However, a policy based on these two outcomes is doomed from the start to be effective. You can't have the government pick winners without actively creating losers. Shackling the Free-Market with rules and regs only creates dislocations and misery. Bureaucratic Master-Minds always ignore the immutable law of economic incentive: "Whatever you subsidize, you get more of."

The "blame game" and adopting the lexicon of victimhood has achieved nothing except to handicap more and more of our population and enslave them to Big Government entitlement programs.

Back to "150 Secrets to a happy wife" - save your money. While I salute Mr. Gumm for being a successful writer, for choosing to honor his wife and children, and for standing up for the Family: I can't help come to the conclusion that the book is decidedly one-sided.

My suggestion on making your wife happy?

Keep the $12.99 cost of the book. Use it to buy some floor cleaner, a rack of beef ribs and a 12-pack of Sam Adams Boston Lager. Clean the floors, put the dishes away and make your wife a delicious rib dinner. At the dinner table you can tell her that she's a wonderful wife, mother and friend - and that the rib dinner is a reminder that you and she share more than just a last name.

The radical egalitarians assume that we are all the same. The fact is that we are all equal under the law, but we're not all the same. We are definitely different in hundreds of way - and those differences should be recognized and honored: not be condemned.

Stay classy Shields!

2011-05-22T12:51:00.000-05:00

When I saw the April 22, 2011 post by Mike Shields on the FOP website (link here.) I wasn't surprised to see him melt down in a temper tantrum over some perceived "slight."

How did I know? Am I prophetic? Hardly ... For some unknown reason, probably a high-degree of immaturity, Shields is fascinated on knowing the identities of myself, and SCC. I know because people have told me that Shields and his trolls routinely dig around for information on your-humble-narrator.

I knew that there was something "off" about this guy back when he was following Ron Huberman around with a video camera. Who does stunts like that? Was in sensational? Sure. Was it productive? No.

It did put the Light Weight's name and face in the sparkly marquee for a few minutes ... and enough rank and file folks figured that they'd pull the lever for him this last time around.

I'm not going to repost the Light Weight's whiney drivel, I have too much rerespect for my readers than that.

SCC already bitch-slapped the resident Light Weight in his April 26th blog post (story here.)

Time will tell, but I personally think Shields will prove to be a lousy president. He's already putting his sanctum sanctorum in place - his mini-Star-Chamber, promising to lead his little band of fellow travelers into the Promised Land.

So from the Light Weight's public comments so far we KNOW that he:

1. Believes conceal / carry is not a platform that the FOP should be endorsing or commenting on. Eventhough every municipality that passes conceal / carry has seen a drop in violent crime.

2. Believes it is a good thing that Big Labor (SEIU, AFSCME, NFT, NEA, INEA and the AFT) and Big Government link arms and engage in the thug-tactics that co-opt the taxpayer's private property, and are bankrupting our state.

3. You can deduce from the first two points that the Light Weight has not read, or understood, the constitution.

Shields needs to get organized, focused and professional FAST because going after anonymous police bloggers is not what he was elected to do. He claims that spending a year in 011 made him 'the real police.' But if he's such a "hard-charger" why did he transer to 019? Apparently in the Light Weight's book if you haven't worked in 007 or 011 then you're NOT the "real police."

He must have gotten tired of all that "guns-drugs-and-glory" in 011 and figured he'd "learned it all" by then.

Don't blame me - I voted for Frank DeMaria. Maybe Frank can take the kid under his wing and mold him into something useful.

Comrade Tupac?

2011-05-15T11:21:00.001-05:00

For the readers who've been around a while, you know that I think hip-hop/rap is detrimental to our society. The lyrics promote violence, drug use, illegitimacy, materialism, and hatred for the police. One of the biggest offenders in the world of rap music was the despicable Tupac Shakur.

I wrote about this rabble-rousing Dolt back in 2007 here. I still stand by that post - and I still get hateful comments from Tupac fans that think I got Tupac all wrong.

Well, the erudite Trevor Loudon writes that Tupac Shakur, it turns out, was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party.

O my prophetic soul!

Raised by Black Panther parents , and Tupac joined the Young Communist League, as a teen and never lost his revolutionary outlook.
According to Baltimore YCL leader Jordan Farrar, a self styled “red’ skinhead, Tupac, joined the League in Baltimore as a teen in the late ’80s . Apparently he was dating the daughter of the chairman of the Communist Party of Maryland at the time.
Though murdered in September 1996, the famous East Coast West Coast hip hop wars of Shakur’s revolutionary memory lives on in Baltimore. The Young Communist League branch in the city is named the Tupac Shakur Club in his honor.

I detest Tupac - the man. I've seen some biographical accounts of him on VH1, and read some on the internet, and it appears that he was petulent, rash, spiteful, wallowed in violence, immersed in the gang-culture, and obsessed with a deep strain of hatred for cops.

For clarity, I confess that I have almost a dozen of his songs on my iPod. The music is catchy, and the lyrics - while vile and sophomoric - are memorable. "Hit em up" and "Picture me rolling" still waft through my ear buds from time to time.

But I always take the measure of the man through those very same lyrics. I am glad he's no longer with us, but his legacy lives on. And what is that? His legacy is illegitimacy, violence, revenge, materialism, and a Nihilism that embraces an "anything goes" mentality. You can't pay your car bill for the month? Go out and steal. Cops pull you over for running a red light? "Motherfuck them pigs and swing on em." This mentality is all over the world of hip hop and rap. Just look at Ludakris, or Wiz kalifah --- one of the worst songs I've heard recently is that "Black and Yellow" tune. God! It's right up there with "Let me smell yo dick"!

It's pathetic that a guy like Tupac can be a role model for black Americans because the way he lived and died speak volumes about what type of mind-set exists in the black community.

It's no wonder the black community can't get their act together. Tupac would have wanted it that way!

Hitchens bitch-slap Chomsky

2011-05-14T12:24:00.000-05:00

I posted this on Facebook, but it deserves its own blog post.

Christopher Hitchens gives it to Noam Chompsky in spades over bin Laden.

Full story here.

As much as I disagree with Hitchens much of the time, I wholeheartedly endorse every idea he brings out in this article. Chomsky is such a dolt - an America Hater of epic magnitude, he buys into all the Kook-Left fringes' apoplexies on 9/11, the CIA, and GW Bush.

Read the whole thing. Awesomeness.

Skin Color, not Qualifications, Wins again

2011-05-14T11:57:00.004-05:00

The Sun-times ran with the story but I refuse to link to any Rag that carries that idiot Mary Mitchell on their payroll.

Forbes reports that Chicago has been ordered to hire 111 black firefighter candidates who were, allegedly discriminated against in an entrance examination in 1995.

Remember the Ricci case out of New Haven Connecticut? the US Supreme court, no thanks to that "powerhouse intellect" of Sotomayor, ruled that New Haven discriminated against qualified White fire department candidates. The reason? It is simply because if you have a bunch of white candidates who test well, but "not enough" black or hispanic ones that qualify, you cannot throw out the whole test simply because this or that particular ethnic group didn't have the brains to qualify. That would be like having a test in Chicago, and dismissing the test results because not enough Hmong candidates passed, or Eskimos, or fill-in-a-racial-group of your choice.

From Scotty Starnes blog:

An appeals court panel that included Sotomayor rejected the white firefighters’ lawsuit, saying the city acted legitimately to avoid discrimination against blacks.

“Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer’s reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.

The justices divided along lines that reflected the majority’s skeptical approach to racial preferences. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas joined Kennedy’s opinion.

Race should play ZERO part in this process. It is not only unfair and discriminatory, but it rewards unqualified, or less than qualified, people who don't deserve it.

Let's step back a bit and get some perspective. Let's say my family is from Korea and I live in a home near Ainslie and Sheridan. A fire starts in my basement electrical panel and quickly makes its way up into the first floor. Me and my family are sleeping, and the smoke detectors wake me and I rush to get the wife and kids out of the house. Do you think, in that moment, that I would care or concern myself with the race of the responding CFD units? No. Would I want the most qualified firemen to respond? Absolutely.

So what does the entrance examination have to do with getting the best firemen on the job? In my opinion, it has much to do with that.

And this ridiculous situation isn't the first time. 7 black firemen in Houstonwho were "passed over" for promotion because they didn't score high enough on a written exam were given captains’ ranks, and all got cash payments from the city of Houston. Each received $301,165.00 in back pay, and to cover legal fees. All because the white personnel scored higher than these seven.

Remember when Obama unleashed his DOJ to go after NYFD, and the Dayton Ohio's police department, to compel them to lower their testing "standards" so that more black and hispanics could get hired? The NYFD case is extremely disturbing because the DOJ forced the city to hire those blacks and hispanics who got 70% WRONG on the test.

You think that's fair? Sure you do -- if you buy into the bullshit that our race-hustler-rhyming-reverend-poverty-pimps are preaching. You buy into it if you think that the constitution is a "living, breathing" document that can be bent to the fads of the day. You buy into it if you think some people just can't do it on their own and need Big Daddy Government to come in and "assist" (enable!). You buy into it if you've got the soft racism of low expectations. You buy into it if you're
ignorant of the origins of our laws, and don't understand the spirit of the founders using and nurturing Natural Laws, enabling the civil society and promoting inalienable rights.

In summary, let's face it. Obama got elected because enough White voters wanted to put the Collective White Guilt Trip behind them and move on. They voted for a "post-Racial" president, only to wake up to the "most-Racial" president in history. These type of cases in which minorities get rewarded for simply being born with excessive melatonin in their epidermis, are disgusting and disgraceful. But they are the "Big Bats" that look to "equalize" the field and are a form of reparations. Although I'd say that 40+ years of Welfare, and the TRILLIONS we've funneled to minority groups are sufficient reparations - MORE than enough.

Illegals - again!

2011-05-13T23:39:00.000-05:00

For those of you who only get your media fix from CNN, the NYTimes and Newsweek, you're missing 75% of the news items that directly effect your life.

I'm just sayin'

And here we are again, doing the same old dance we did back in 2006. What to do about the Illegals? Should be deport? Go after the employers? Give them Amnesty?

You should know by now where I stand: Send 'em packing! But realistically we'd have to have leaders with the "testicular fortitude" to actually take some heat from the phony Open-Borders-Ethnic-Frontgroups who would fall into fetal positions and have temper tantrums if the immigration laws were actually enforced.

Case in Point:
Here is a pretty good article from CNS news dissecting Obama's most recent platter of prevarications regarding The Border.

For all the brilliance that Jeffrey brings to the table on this one, the sad fact is that Obama and his cheerleaders want to keep illegals flowing into our country for the following reasons:

1. cheap labor
2. they vote Democrat 90% of the time.
3. their Ethnic Front Groups are expert Rabble-Rousers and they use their Alinsky tactics very well to enact their agendas
4. political correctness and multiculturalism DEMAND that illegals be viewed as absolutely the same as your ordinary American citizen. After all, the Dems believe we're all "people of the World."

As a matter of fact, our own Illinois political class just passed the Dream Act, which gives illegals education breaks and a host of other goodies. The thing that bothers me, beyond the fact that we really don't have a handle on who exactly is crossing the borders, is that Veterans and Soldiers don't have access to the benefits in the Dream Act that your typical illegal does.

Here is the CIS breakdown on the Dream Act. And we all know that illegals, on average, drain the system of $48,000 per year, per family. That argument that they "pay taxes" is utter non-sense. They take more than they give.

And here in Chicago they take alot: from the schools, from the hospitals, and from the county in arrest, processing and incarceration fees.

In the list above I'd say that #2 is the most important one. If they can demonize the idea of Nationalism, of Patriotism - and continue to import illiterate, low-skilled, baby-making-machines - they know that they will eventually have the numbers to swing almost any vote their way. It's the ineluctable march to a national One-party system.

Obama, being the disaster that he is, cannot see the true cost of illegals, but his ignorance won't keep him from shoving his amnesty agenda down our throats. In fact, no matter what the American people want has no impact on Obama - he just keeps going, and going and going.

Blogger down since Wednesday

2011-05-13T23:18:00.000-05:00

Blogger wiped out the comments section during their "maintenance" overhaul, so like SCC and Shaved both noted - if you said something witty, brilliant and yet with a soupçon of nuance that would have compelled the Nobel committee to pull their prize from Barry Soetero's nicotine-stained hands and drop it into your lap, feel free to drop by the comment section (sorry "a Thinker").

I don't know why I just don't move this whole thing over to Wordpress .... it's a much better, and more deserving, host.

The Badge Bunny phenomenon

2011-05-11T10:57:00.001-05:00

True stories from the front

A young officer works in a north side district. He had 5 years in the district, as well as 5 years married with no kids. He knew his beat pretty well and went to the same coffee shop every day. He was at this coffee shop with his partner, when a beautiful young woman struck up a conversation about local crime.

"I live about a mile from here. How's the neighborhood?" she asked. He told her what he knew about recent burglaries, car thefts and reassured her that the neighborhood was safe. The dispatcher banged them with a job and he said he had to go.

"It was nice to meet you," she said extending a slender hand."My name is _________. Maybe we can have a cup of coffee sometime?" He met the woman for coffee, and after a few months of meetings over coffee, he decided to take the next step. He told his wife one night that he was on a "late arrest." He went to the woman's apartment and started an affair.

Over the course of a year the "late arrests" became more frequent and the officer's wife, an attractive woman in charge of a company IT department downtown, started to become suspicious. Being more tech-savvy than her cheating spouse, she had gotten him a Blackberry phone and secretly downloaded a "tracking" application on it. She had a matching phone and the next time he had a "late arrest" she pinged his phone and found him at his girlfriend's apartment.

The confrontation was ugly, and they divorced soon after. But not after criminal allegations were made (by her) and a CR# pulled for good measure.
______________________________________
A good friend of mine while on surveillance of a drug-dealer, followed him to a far north suburban motel. The CI informed the team that the deal was going to go down in the motel's parking lot. My friend slowly rolled through the parking lot and was stunned by the number of cars that displayed an FOP medallion on the bumper. The motel was full of coppers who were there spending time with their girlfriends.
______________________________________
A police officer goes to a domestic disturbance, and gets hit on by the woman who called 911. The officer, married with 3 kids, meets the woman at her house later that night. After they have sex, he gets up to go to the bathroom, and hears a loud report from the bedroom. He comes out to see what happened and finds the woman dead from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. She used his duty weapon to kill herself. It turns out she was mentally unstable and taking 6 different medications.
______________________________________

Tough stories.

If you ask the average cop, "Hey - what's been the scariest experience during your police career?" They will answer "My first marriage!" The impact of infidelity can destroy a family, dissolve a marriage, and that, on many levels, the children will suffer greatly from a divorce.

But it's hard, sometimes extremely hard, for a police officer to maintain a stable marriage. The stats are imprecise, but police divorce is approximately 70-75%. The median range of divorce in the US is about 50%.

Psychology Today ran a great article on this a few months ago entitled Sex Addict? or Kid in a Candy Store? (full article here.

The factors that attribute to infidelity are legion; the stress, the schedules, courts, lawsuits, and the police culture. It's easy to find women willing to "hook up." Police are mobile, we interact with many people during the course of a tour of duty, we (for the most part) stay in shape, we are in a position of authority, we give orders and arrest people. We wear so many hats as a police officer that we adopt the temporary roles of counselors, advisers, psychologists, priests, and lawyers just to be effective in our jobs and to maintain our safety in volatile, and dangerous, situations.

And the fact is, there are many women who love police officers. Just as there are women who love football players or other pro-athletes, the police have their own set of "groupies.' Tiger Woods is a good example of how out of control this situation can get.

They're affectionately called by any number of names - "Badge Bunnies", "Star Chasers" or, my favorite...Side-broads. The Bunnies love a man in uniform, they love and admire our authority, and they want to hear "the stories." They like spending time with us, and respect what we do. The idea of police-groupies has fascinated me for years and I've been toying with the idea of creating an "application" of sorts for those women who would like to be a Badge Bunny. Of course this is satirical and is written from the point of view of the police officer.

Application

I don't have a quick answer as to why police officers cheat, but I would say that it takes a certain personality to want to be the police. There is a streak of immaturity that flows within our ranks. I tell people all the time that the department is like being in high school except we carry guns. Additionally, we like being objects of authority, and if you have a drop-dead-gorgeous woman fawning over you because you have a badge in your pocket and a pistol on your ankle; it is flattering and is highly appealing to our male egos. And if she wants to be intimate - how many of us, especially after being desensitized by a couple beers, can say NO?

The great Sam Kinison had some valuable insight into this phenomenon:
(start at 2:30 in the clip.)

He's right, and his insight was brilliant.

I'm not a purist, or expect people not to give in to their humanity, but I would counsel my fellow officers to think before you decide to have a "side piece." Many things are at stake: your marriage, your honor, the health and safety of your children - and ultimately your soul. In the final analysis you have to do the "balance test" and see how you would feel if you caught your wife doing exactly what you're doing. What would your children's faces look like telling them "Mommy and Daddy are getting divorced. Daddy is moving out and I'm not sure when you'll see him again."

But then again, who doesn't yearn for the thrill of the dark chase? The Cthonic Dionysian ritual that has been a part of our civilation for 10,000 years?

Robert Smith sums it up in the song Disintegration -

The lyrics are dark, shadowy and hint at the emotions that are swirling in the turgid mass of a Man's soul. Couldn't he have written this song with every married man in mind?

I miss the kiss of treachery,
the shameless kiss of vanity,
the soft and the black and the velvety,
up tight against the side of me,
and mouth and eyes and heart all bleed,
and run in thickening streams of greed,
as bit by bit it starts the need,
to just let go my parting piece."

How many of us have left our loved ones with "photographs, pictures of trickery, stains on the carpet, stains on the scenery, songs about happiness murmured in dreams, when we knew how the ending would be?"

The darkness that pulls at us comes from many directions. The affection and admiration of a woman can be difficult to overcome. Ulysses had to stop his ears with wax to avoid being entranced by The Sirens' call. Proverbs 5:3-6 says,"For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey,and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death her steps lead straight to the grave."

If you've been tempted but didn't follow through, leave a comment. If you've been down this road, let us know what you think in the comments section.

The badge bunnies aren't going anywhere, and will always be a constant in Law Enforcement. How you deal with them is up to you. And from the Psychology Today article, I'm more inclined to say we, as a group, are more along the lines of the author's dilemma regarding his patient "Juan" ...a powerful, high-testosterone male, with an identity-issue, who was put in a role where a sexual buffet was laid out in front of him, and he didn't have any reason or internal resources to use to resist diving in?

Exactly.....

Dark days ahead for Illinois

2011-04-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

Your humble narrator has been taking some heat lately. The reason? Some of my co-workers don't agree with my position of standing with and supporting Governor Scott Walker. The complaint is that they see that what Walker is doing to the public sector unions in Wisconsin will set a precedent that would allow other governors to go around dismantling unions around the country.

While I can see the concern of my FOP brethren, you should know that Walker's main focus is the Labor Leviathan of the Wisconsin Education Association (WNA) - an affiliate of the powerful National Education Association (NEA).

By now you should be familiar with what's going in Wisconsin. The powerful SEIU, AFT, NFT, NEA and WEA unions are doing what they do best: Agitate, complain and bully. This battle is not about 'worker's right' or collective bargaining issues. It is about the one neglected and abused component of government - The Taxpayer. As the American Thinker points out:"Wisconsin's ongoing crisis is exposing the channeling of taxpayer money to unions, and thence to Democrats. Taxpayers are being swindled by a system in which their interests come second.

And yes folks, it is about the taxpayer. The taxpayers in Wisconsin and (hopefully) in Illinois are saying "Enough!" When you have less than 5% of employees in a labor pool as part of public sector unions, you have to ask yourself,"Why are we - the 95% of workers - taking it in the neck?"

After all, to hear the heated rhetoric coming from the organizers and their apparatchiks in the media, you'd think that Governor Walker asked the teachers to do something outrageous.

Well, Governor Walker didn't make an outrageous demand. He simply asked that Wisconsin teachers, and the 300,000 state workers, contribute a little bit to their health care and a little bit to their retirement accounts. All in an attempt at reigning in the state's spending. Because the fact is - Wisconsin is in sad financial shape. He asked that teachers contribute 5% to their retirement, and 12.5% to their health insurance. Right now they pay nothing toward their retirement, and 6.5% to their health insurance.

As bad as Wisconsin is financially, Illinois is WORSE. At least Wisconsin has the benefit of a conservative steward who wants to do the hard work to protect and nurture his constituents. In Illinois we have Quinn; who is beholden to only one faction - the unions.

In Illinois we spend $16,000 per student, on average per year. Chicago Public schools have a budget of $5.238 billion for the 2009-2010 school year. They have approximately 409,000 students, and 29,000 teachers. I have the budget for Steinmetz High school, and in 2006 their operating budget was $17,000,000. Times that by 614 k-12 Chicago public and you can see why we're bleeding money. Wisconsin literally has ONE teacher making over $100,000 per year. In Illinois we have 6,500 of them.

80-90% of school budgets are labor costs, because the dirty little secret is that our teachers get paid very well. They work 8 months per year, they work 5 to 6 hours per day and have multiple days off every academic year for 'report card day' or 'administrative meetings.'

What do we get for all that money that gets shuffled down the black hole of education? We get very little. Only half of the high school students in the nation's 50 largest cities are graduating in four years, with a figure as low as 25% in Detroit. According to the 2009 PISA the US ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science, and 25th in math. This in spite of, "spend[ing] more per student than any nation in the PISA study except Luxembourg."

Keep in mind that there are about 900 school districts in Illinois.

And you think this is all about "the kids?" Sorry to disabuse you of your delusions but it is about power, influence and keeping a corrupt and inefficient system spitting out paycheck and donations to the unions.

The Unions' primary job is to get as much for their membership as they can. If their policies bankrupt or impair the host, so be it. They are funneling monies into political activities that disconnect the taxpayer from the cause. In essence, the scam is that the taxpayer is financing his own theft. From the American Thinker article:

On average, public sector unions such as AFSCME, NEA, and SEIU nationally give anywhere from 98 to 99% of their contributions to Democrats. Moreover, union contributions constitute a relatively large share of the monies Democrat candidates receive.

AFSCME alone contributed about $84,000.00 to Democrats in Wisconsin's 2010 elections, with about half of that sum going to the current Mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett, who was Walker's opponent in the gubernatorial race. Of the fourteen Democrats in the state Senate, one took no money from any PAC, while of the thirteen others, ten received at least a third of their monies from union PACS, while five of these got over 50%, with one of those who's a member of three separate unions getting a cool 73% from union coffers.

The taxpayers of Wisconsin elected Governor Scott Walker with the promise that he would begin to reduce his states' spending. The biggest costs to the tax payer are the public sector unions. Check out this link which shows the top 100 State pensions (99 are educators).

The reason is just what we talked about above; taxpayers subsidize government workers and then the unions - subsidized by the dues of the union members - begin to represent the workers and, demand more and more for their constituents. So the taxpayer ends up paying for cushy jobs, Cadillac medical plans, and luxuriant retirement plans, while more and more of the private sector employees see reductions in pay, benefits and retirement plans.

The teachers are a classic example of out-of-control union leadership. Here's the retiring president of the NEA at a 2009 at his farewell address. Notice that he defines where his priorities are; and it's not about 'the kids' and their welfare:

Yes ... it's all about the power, the influence and throttling the taxpayer. Even the Left's demi-god FDR thought public sector unions were a bad idea:

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service....Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees. Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.

Full letter here.

As I said before, the problem with unionizing the public sector is that the taxpayer funds the employees. The public sector employees who unionize then use their bargaining power to garner more and more benefits and pay raises for themselves - even though there is no commensurate increases in services. The private sector couldn't operate in this manner because the stockholders hold the board and managers responsible for the operations and financial condition of the entity. With government there is no accountability. They are technically accountable to US - the taxpayer - but it is it is a custom more honored in the breach than the observance.

Just look at how the Leftists in government continue to push their socialist agenda DESPITE the majority of people rejecting those agenda initiatives: ObamaCare, Cap and Trade, TARP, SNAP, bailouts of AIG and Leahman brothers.

the Pension Transparency Act passes in congress, we'll finally see what Illinois' TRUE unfunded liability is in regards to public sector unions. It's currently estimated that the liability for Illinois will approach $200 billion of unpaid obligations. The PTA aims at "would require states to furnish annual reports to the Treasury on the status of their pension funds. If they fail to do so, state and local governments would be barred from issuing tax-exempt bonds, which they use to finance infrastructure and other projects." We desperately need transparency because our leadership in Illinois cannot continue to increase taxes in order to get their financial house in order. Governor Quinn pledged to not raise taxes, then turned around and increased tax rates by 66%. We have companies fleeing in droves and evenPeoria based heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar is talking about going to a state with a more pro-business atmosphere.

Let's break down the numbers:
* One-half of your property tax payments go to fund education.

* As of March 2011, Illinois has $4.515 billion in unpaid bills. Illinois could face a $22 billion deficit in 5 years.

What does a $22 billion deficit look like in comparison?
-> Three times more than the proposed general funds budget for all school districts in Illinois;
-> Ten times more than the proposed budget for every university, every community college and all student financial aid;
-> Two times what the state spends on health care for the poor;
-> Sixteen times more than the state spends on the entire prison system.

* The Family Taxpayers Foundation states: almost 100 drivers' education teachers made over $100,000 per year. What does a driver educator in the private sector make per year? $30k?

* In Illinois we spend $16,000 per student per year statewide in K-12.

* In Wisconsin ONE educator makes over $100,000 per year. In Illinois we have 6,500 educators who make more than $100,000.

* CPS spends $60 million per year on "Safe Passage". In 22 "underserved" communities, parents are paid to stand on a corner wearing a bright yellow vest. You think that that will deter a shooting? WBEZ claims that it will also include $25 million in federal stimulus funds. They have a list of the organizations that are getting money from this program. What a waste.

* Mandatory school breakfasts are now being ordered for all K-12 public schools. the Tribune claims that this will be a "cash cow for CPS" because they can bill the USDA (your TAXDOLLARS) and get $1.76 back from a $1.00 outlay. It's still going to cost tens of millions per year, and take away valuable class time from the children's learning day. Not to mention the PARENTS should be giving their kids' breakfast; not the schools.

Illinois is the worst state in the union on job creation:

This is just a small picture of how gloomy the financial condition of Illinois is. Right now we, the taxpayers, are being told "shut up, pay these inordinate taxes and like it!" Well I say "Hell No!" Our political system in Illinois is like a casino. A casino is designed to do only one thing: separate you from your money. Illinois is just that - a corrupted system filled with powerful politicians and unions that seek to do just that. It is estimated that Illinois' unfunded liabilities are almost $200 billion.

Remember that during the Blago trial, it was introduced in open court that a campaign contributor was rewarded for his donations with the State Director of Finance seat. A job that pays $75,000. And that type of cronyism occurs time and time again; especially in Chicago.

This state is pay-to-play but the only ones getting played are us! We need new leadership that is rooted in conservative principles. Join your local Tea Party today and ask how you can get involved. Here's a good link to visit. You can also check out Champion news for more useful information.

The Dark Side of Camelot

2011-01-24T18:26:00.000-06:00

Mark Feldstein, writing for the Washington Post (shockingly!) wrote a fantastic piece on the oft-forgotten, seldom mentioned, scurrilous actions of the Kennedys.

When I read "The Dark Side of Camelot" by Seymour Hersch, I was stunned on how much of the Kennedy's shinanagins went overlooked and unreported. It continues to go unreported and ignored, much like Obama's shady and scandalous past does.

Like Joe Kennedy coming off a round of golf and walking through the dining room on his way to an upstairs bedroom with a 16 year old female caddy in tow. LBJ and Ladybird and Joe's wife Rose were sitting there waiting at the dining room table, when Joe began grunting and thrashing about upstairs - apparently having sex with said minor. After a few minutes the unidentified girl ran out of the house, and Joe came strolling down as if nothing happened. And don't forget that as Ambassador Joe was a supporter of the Nazis. Richard Condon's book "Mile High" is a thinly veiled portrayal of Joe Kennedy, from his bootlegging days during prohibition to when he ran a small movie company.

Here's a snippet on JFK's connections to the Mob. From Hersch's book:
"

4 Judith Campbell (now known as Judith Exner) was a gorgeous California socialite, 25 years old when she was introduced to JFK by Frank Sinatra in early 1960. One month later they become lovers. A month after that, JFK asked Campbell to carry a satchel containing at least $250,000 ("for the [presidential primary] campaign") to Mafia kingpin Sam Giancana; who was also recently introduced to Campbell by Sinatra. She became a conduit between Kennedy and Giancana during the primaries and remained so during the general election and the Kennedy administration. She carried money and documents on the "elimination" of Castro from JFK to Giancana and arranged meetings between the two. Throughout her years with JFK, Campbell was under intense FBI surveillance due to her association with Giancana. The surveillance revealed to the FBI her relationship with JFK. Hoover chose not to make this information public at least in part because revealing it would indicate the extent of his illegal bugging and would damage his and the FBI's reputations.

Feldstein echoes those dark torrents of the Liberal Establishment in his article. He's evoking the same bag of dirty tricks that Team Obama and their radical "grass roots" organizations are doing this very day.

Fifty years ago next week, Richard Nixon stood uncomfortably on the Capitol's inaugural platform and watched his rival John F. Kennedy being sworn in as president. "We won" the election, Nixon fumed, "but they stole it from us."

Indeed, the dirty tricks that helped defeat Nixon were more devious than merely the ballot-stuffing of political lore. In one of the least-known chapters of 20th-century political history, Kennedy operatives secretly paid off an informant and set in motion a Watergate-like burglary that sabotaged Nixon's campaign on the eve of the election.

And Feldstein is right when he writes,"Half a century later Washington still lives with the residue of the Kennedys' little-known dirty trick, which helped unleash our modern scandal culture and continues to influence politics and media today."

America's 5th Column and the CIA

2011-01-23T11:26:00.001-06:00

The media in this country disgust me.

Media outlets like CNN, NYTimes, LATimes, MSNBC, and their minions are nothing but propaganda machines - appendages, if you will, of the Federal Government. They get their marching orders from Team Obama and the other Fabians that populate academia, government and journalism.

What, you're asking, has sparked poor Rue's outrage? It is this NYTimes article. It's entitled Former Spy With Agenda Operates a Private C.I.A.

The article exposes former CIA operative Duane R. Clarridge, and dug fairly deep into Mr. Clarridge's operation - naming names, locations and secure websites that the former SpyMaster uses to connect with his security teams in the field.

The article cites the fact that Mr. Clarridge's Pentagon funding was pulled in May of 2010 and now relies on "like minded private donors" to pay his agents, who are in the field gathering INTELL on militant fighters, Taliban leaders and the keyplayers in the seedy underworld of Afghanistan.

Mr. Clarridge is described as being contempuous of the current CIA, and that his operation was tapped by a "military desperate for information" apparently because the CIA isn't providing them with quality intelligence.

The article also claims conservative commentators Olly North, Brad Thor and Glenn Beck are end-users of Mr. Clarridge's intelligence dispatches.

Many of you are familiar with Brad Thor's work. He's a tremendous talent. He was interviewed by Hugh Hewitt a few years ago and discussed his fictional portrayal of a crack spy unit (named APEX in Thor's novels) that was used to obtain information by any means necessary. Thor was asked by Hewitt if the US government maintained any such organization like APEX. Thor replied,"Of course. I know for a fact that we have such teams. Why do you think the government pays $125 for a toilet seat? or $500 for a hammer? They're using those as a cover to hide payments to these outsourced teams." (Mr. Clarridge's group is called Eclipse.)

And I happen to believe that we need these types of field units - doing whatever is necessary to protect our interests. If they have to kill, torture, waterboard, starve, or eavesdrop - then they should be able to go do it. No other country is handicapping its intelligence services. Do you think the Russians or the Chinese have such restrictions on their security operatives? The answer for the obtuse is NO.

How did we get here?

The 1960's radicals began to leach into our government right after 1968. They put a lot of pressure on the Feds to reign in our overseas operations and immediately began to demonize the CIA and FBI as 'rogue' outfits. In fact they succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. In 1975 the Church Committee outlawed assassinations of foreign officials. In fact, the NYTimes was the first to publish indictments of the CIA back in 1974 - uncovering the "family jewels" operations that were counter-insurgency operations overseas.

And they haven't stopped attacking the CIA ever since.

If you're a CIA employee and you're getting targeted by your own Justice Dept for "human rights violations" then why would you go out of your way to gather intelligence? Why interview anyone?

Remember the 2003 case where, again the NYTimes had their hand in demonizing our intelligence officials, Italy convicted 23 CIA operatives and their Base Chief for scooping up a Muslim Cleric and sent him to a rendition center? The judge handed an eight-year sentence to Robert Seldon Lady, a former C.I.A. base chief in Milan, and five-year sentences to the 22 other Americans, including an Air Force colonel and 21 C.I.A. operatives.

Gee, I wonder why they decided to pick this "cleric" up and interview him? Maybe because he was contacting people in Yemen and Afghanistan that were known militants? Well, here's why the 'innocent' Abu Omar was picked up by a joint CIA/Italian counter-terrorist team. He has long ties to Egyptian radical jihadi groups.

But does that matter to the NYTimes? Of course not. In fact they continue to treat Abu Omar as a victim of American Imperialism.

For those of us who love this country, want to defend her, want to support a civil society, and understand history - in other words, we conservatives -aren't ashamed to be patriotic nationalists. Articles like these make our blood boil. And it's painfully ironic that the NYTimes claims Mr. Clarridge has "an agenda" as if the NYTimes didn't.

Here's Mr. Clarridge being interviewed by the prototypical crypt-keeper LibTard reporter John Pilger:

The CIA is an honorable organization that has lost 90 agents in operations. The most publisized was Officer Mike Spann back in 2001.

Bottom line: the media in this country is a disgrace. They're very thorough in investigating any little thing that puts America and American interests in a negative light. But when it comes to Liberal politicians, or their socialist agendas, they circle the wagons and protect them. Look at the murders in Arizona a couple weeks ago. Immediately the Left and their apologists wanted to use the actions of a nut-case shooter to shut down the First and Second Amendments. An worse of all they went right after poor Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity - in effect saying that they were guilty of 'inciting' this crazed goof.

They are shameless and will do or say anything to garner more power for themselves and their ilk.

God help us.

Roger L. Washington

2011-01-16T21:44:00.000-06:00

This man is a 25th district Chicago police officer, and at 1:10 in the speech - makes a stunning admission.

Here is a guy who puts on the uniform everyday, smiles at you in the hallway, and yet harbors deep hatred and intolerance for white people. He claims that he's been 'fighting crime' but I don't ever remember seeing him make an arrest. How can you fight crime when you don't arrest any offenders?

I would like this video to be picked up by our Confidential IAD detectives and have Mr. Washington dragged down to HQ to explain himself on this one.

You can imagine if a white officer stood before a white congregation and made the same comments, he'd be fired in a heart beat.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T09:11:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas to my cherished readers.

It's been a terrible year for CPD. Please say a prayer for our fallen brothers. Enjoy your friends and loved ones.

Black Foot Soldiers

2010-12-07T20:58:00.000-06:00

ShittyCop is a website you should get to know. It's run by someone who's pseudonym is Creaux Steele.

The site is obviously run by someone with a solid understanding of Black Liberation Theology, mixed with a strain of radical black activism. It's one of the most racist websites I've ever seen.

Here we have an example of someone who doesn't get it: he luxuriates in the lap of luxury, in the most opulent and lush cradle of freedom, and all he can do is complain about how "put upon" he is, about how blacks aren't getting reparations, how violence and the murders of police officers ("Pigs" he calls them) is justified and, endorsed.
He calls Timothy Herring a hero and even denigrates Stephen Peters.

He has no room for black officers either - they're either "uncle Toms" or sellouts.

My audience knows my attitude about reparations: the black community doesn't need, nor deserve reparations because they've had 45 years of reparations -- They amount to $14 trillion dollars in welfare payments.

I usually don't link to such trash but my audience deserves to know who and what are out there, because the best defense is a good offense.

I couldn't help but notice that in the commentary on the website someone mentioned that the black head of CPD Human Resources, allegedly said "everyone thinks of the police as white & uneducated." If that's true then she should be removed from her post. Anyone have a line on that?

By the way, I'm still practically GIDDY that Tupac was murdered in cold blood, and that his killer(s) are still out there on the loose. Maybe (a boy can dream) Tupac's killer will somehow seek out and kill some Black Foot Soldiers or maybe Creaux Steele. Ah, yes; that'd be nice.

Karma's a bitch.

War vet charged with stalking?

2010-12-07T18:45:00.001-06:00

A double amputee war hero was arrested and charged with 'stalking' the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church. CNN reports that he was found to be in possession of some weapons, and was charged with stalking and conspiracy to commit an aggravated battery.

From the article:

Retired Sgt. Ryan Newell of Marion, Kansas, a turret gunner who lost both legs to an improvised bomb in Afghanistan in 2008, is being held in Sedgwick County, Kansas, in lieu of $500,000 bail, and defense attorney Boyd McPherson was negotiating with prosecutors Monday to reduce the bail, he told CNN in an interview.

Newell, his wife, Carrie, and their four children were the subject of local media attention when the national nonprofit Homes for Our Troops constructed a new house for the family this year.

Since Newell's arrest last week, McPherson's office has been inundated with phone calls and e-mails from supporters of Newell or opponents of the Westboro Baptist Church, led by Pastor Fred Phelps of Topeka, Kansas.

These charges are serious, but forgive me for being a bit callous - those assholes at the Westboro Baptist church deserve every live round that comes singing through the air toward their collective heads. Do they have a right to free speech? Certainly. Does that right extend to them harassing and baiting the grieving family members of fallen soldiers? No.

Does it take any 'courage' to stand there and hold the most despiccable signs?

Well I don't have all the facts on the case, but Sgt. Newell deserves our support. If you can spare a few bucks please send a donation to Sgt. Ryan Newell's defense fund. These Westboro pukes need to be stood up to; and that's exactly what Sgt. Ryan Newell did.

From a concerned citizen:

I just spoke to his (Newell's) attorney's office. He was released this afternoon, but there is a defense fund being set up. They said a lot of people are calling and are outraged. If anyone wants to donate, please make the check out to Sgt. Ryan Newell. Send to the following address:

Law Office of Boyd R. McPherson

Sgt. Ryan Newell, Legal Defense Fund

500 N. Market Street

Wichita, KS 67214

Thank you.

Civil Unrest?

2010-12-06T16:40:00.005-06:00

CNBC reports that government is using War Games that use Army troops to quell domestic unrest ....

And this from Van Jones :

Picking on Palin

2010-12-04T22:36:00.001-06:00

One of the most disgraceful acts by our malicious media is the constant bombardment of former Alaskan governor Sara Palin and her family.

As soon as it was announced that she was McCain's pick for vice-president in the 2008 presidential election, the DNC sent 30 attorney's into Alaska to start digging up dirt on her, and her family. Within weeks we all knew the names of Palin's husband and their children. We knew Bristol was pregnant out of wedlock by Levi Johnston, that Sara and Todd had a "special needs" baby, and that Todd had a DUI arrest 22 years prior. No such robust investigation was ever conducted on Obama or his family prior to, nor since, the election.

Why such vitriol? It's simple - it all goes back to Saul Alinsky and his Rules for Radicals. Alinsky taught that when a person is a target of the radicals, he, she or it need to be effectively eliminated. The tactics have been used beautifully against conservatives, the military, and law enforcement since the 1960's.

Palin is a target; and therefore she is a threat. Alinsky's rules #5, #8 and #12 are being used against her; and they're working.

Unfortunately, over the last couple of weeks, even conservative media pundits such as Mona Charen, Peggy Noonan, George Will, Joe Scarborough and Matt Labash see these attacks and warn that she can’t win the presidency. They even buy into the attacks on her judgment, intelligence, and competence. But what these conservatives don’t appreciate is that Palin is being attacked because she is smart and effective, not because she is dumb.

For just how far off base her coverage by the media has been, consider the reaction when Sarah Palin, a Fox News contributor and former Alaska governor, last Wednesday accidentally referred to North Korea as an ally. It was an obvious slip of the tongue and she corrected the trivial gaffe immediately in her very next sentence. The local, national, and even international news coverage was massive, making the trivial error front-page news. A Google news search finds 834 separate news stories run just that day alone.

Rule 5:"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." There is little or no defense against this. This is what really did the most damage to GW Bush. The ridicule comes from late night comedians, cable talking-heads, and the "intelligentsia" in the old media. With Palin, just look at the Tina Fey impersonations. Also see how Charlie Gibson was so sober and accusatory towards her during that 2008 interview. Gibson excoriated her over the Bush Doctrine.

Compare that to Gibson's interview of the Magic Negro later that month. Gibson launched softballs at Obama, and only mentioned Obama's gaff with Israel briefly.

Rule #8: "Keep the pressure on. Never let up." Palin is the Dresden of the political theatre. Carpet bombing her is the media's favorite past-times. The best way to pressure her is by using every nuanced tool against her.

Rule #12: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)" Palin is the target and the attacks on her have been highly personal.

The strategy is working - but only in one direction: against conservatives. The fact is that Democrats do not get the same withering fire from the Old Media.
Check this out:

Of course, Democrats are virtually immune from such coverage in the mainstream media. Barack Obama's intelligence is never questioned, even though he refuses to disclose his college or law school grades, but the list of his gaffes are almost endless. Obama uses a TelePrompter for a reason. Take him telling supporters on May 9, 2008: "I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii . . . ." But a Google news search shows only six news stories mentioning the "57 states" mention over the first three days (virtually all in conservative publications) and only 14 after a week.

Since becoming president, Obama has called Europe a country. He misspelled the city of "Syracuse" twice, even though the word was spelled correctly next to where he was writing it. And he said that the Constitution was written "20 centuries" ago, the FBI was founded "100 days" ago when he meant 100 years, "Austrian" is a language, breathalyzers are used to treat asthma, and that he is working hard to "halt the rise of privacy," not piracy. None of these cases got more than a few minor mentions in news stories in the months after the gaffe.

The other day I mentioned the "57 states" comment to my insufferable other half, and she had never heard it. And many folks who don't take the time to dig down for the real story will hear or see these stories. If you aren't surfing to the websites of Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, InstaPundit, RedState, or Andrew Wilkow - then you're completely out of the loop because the Chicago Tribune, the NYTimes and LATimes aren't pushing these 'negative' stories about their fellow-travelers.

So what is the answer? There is no one baseline thing I can say that will fix this dreadful state of affairs that we face. Political correctness is a major piece of the puzzle. PC dictates that a black man who is "clean and articulate" cannot be questioned or second guessed. That's the unspoken rule, and that must change. We're all supposed to be together, but when you have an under-class that portrays themselves as being a "colony" within our society - oppressed, disregarded and abused; then that segment must be addressed and in a significant manner. The Liberals tried to placate the black community through social programs but after 45 years of welfare, all we have is more on welfare. The war on poverty created more poverty, the war on drugs created more drug dependency. That's why government doesn't work; it only takes from one and gives to another.

It was funny (tragic, really) that during the elections Obama, a doctrinaire Marxist, kept complaining about how the government didn't work, it was broken, it needed reform - and his answer? His answer to that miasma of dysfunction was none other than MORE GOVERNMENT!

Apart from eliminating PC and Multiculturalism from our society, you can take courage in the fact that the great Eric Hoffer identified this mindset back in 1951 in his brilliant book "The True Believer"

On "Doctrine" (page 78)

The readiness for self-sacrifice is contingent on an imperviousness to the realities of life. He who is free to draw conclusions from his individual experience and observation is no t usually hospitable to the idea of martyrdom. For self-sacrifice is an unreasonable act. It cannot be the end-product of a process of probing and deliberating.

All active mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proff screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside of it. The facts on which the true believer bases his conclusions must not be derived from his experience nor observation but from holy writ. "So tenaciously should we cling to the word revealed by the Gospel, that were I to see all the Angels of Heaven coming down to me to tell me something different, not only would I not be tempted to doubt a single syllable, but I would shut my eyes and stop my ears, for they would not deserve to be either seen nor heard."

To rely on the evidence of the senses and of reason is heresy and treason. It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necesary to make belief possible. What we know as blind faith is sustained by innumerable unbeliefs. The fanatical Japanese in Brazil refused to believe for years the evidence of Japan's defeat (in WWII). The fanatical Communist refuses to believe any unfavorable report or evidence about Russia, nor will he be disillusioned by seeing with his own eyes the cruel misery inside the Soviet promised-land.

It is the true believer's ability to "shut his eyes and stop his ears" to facts that do not deserve to be either seen or heard which is the source of his unequaled fortitude and constancy.

Hoffer points out, by quoting Bergson, that "Strength of faith manifests itself not in moving mountains, but in not seeing mountains to move."

We see the "true believer" operating today as a Drone of Obamanomics, as the person who refuses to acknowledge that something is wrong. The standard-bearer of Political Correctness will never be dissuaded through facts or evidence. It just wouldn't do. Unstopping their ears and listening, truly listening, to their own ears is just too painful and they'd rather float in a Nihilistic fantasy of their own creation. The SDS radicals in the 1960's had a vision of the future of America and it was an unattainable utopia. They wanted to burn this country to the ground, in order to make way for their Marxist gulag.

Just as today we see those who want to tear down our society by destroying religion, rending the fabric of the family, and replacing those two factions with the Almighty State. Orwell was prophetic in his novel "1984". He actually defined a Drone (True Believer) when he wrote "Parsons was Winston's fellow employee at the Ministry of Truth. He was a fattish but active man of paralyzing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasms—one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even than on the thought police, the stability of the Party depended."

That defines today's Democrat voter.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T07:44:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving, my cherished readers.

For those of you who need a refresher on the real story behind why we give Thanks today, here's Chapter 6 from Rush Limbaugh's book "See, I told you so."

It was the governor's decision to make each family responsible for growing food, instead of having it in a 'collective' that saved the pilgrims lives. Capitalistic tactics worked so well and produced so much food that they had enough to feed the local indians; and used the occasion to give thanks.

Have a great day - spread the Love!

Obama's War on AZ

2010-11-09T20:33:00.000-06:00

Just when you thought some sanity was coming back into the United States political scene, I caught this on Fox News. The story broke back on 09-Oct-2010 but I thought I'd share it with you anyway.

It's sickening and appalling that a sitting president would invite 11 foreign countries to come in and offer their legal opinion on a state's law - especially since each of those countries wouldn't even consider relaxing their own immigration laws.

The challenges to this law won't stand because the Federal government's position is unsupported by the constitution. Period. So this little charade by our "Radical In Chief" won't play - except to score him points with his Mercedes Marxists dictators and apparatchiks.

Just one more example of the incompetence that is Barack Hussein Obama. It is frankly stunning that someone with so little ability, and so little common sense is our current president. His recent trip to India, which is costing us $200 million dollars per day, is another example of how little he truly cares about his constituents. You've got almost 50% of the population not paying taxes anyway, so there's half of America that doesn't care how much the government spends, but you and I certainly do care.

I was watching Dancing With The Stars last night (don't ask) and Brandi is partnered up with some pro-dancer named Maks. I was thinking that there is little difference between Brandi's qualifications and Obama's. In fact, if Brandi ran for president she'd probably win. She's cute, she can dance, she has a great smile, she doesn't speak 'ghetto' and she's black. Apparently those are 'qualifications' to be president in 52.6% of American voters. Hell, she may even do better than BHO because I doubt she's had the Marxist indoctrination that Barry had.

God bless AZ and Gov. Jan Brewer. http://securetheborder.org/

Vote your principles

2010-11-01T11:59:00.000-05:00

Election Day is tomorrow. Are you better off now than you were two years ago? Remember all the promises of "hope and change?" I guess the 52% that voted Democrat should have asked for specifics.

The change we got was a shift from a moderate Liberal form of government to a RADICAL Socialist one. What that means in concrete terms is that the folks in power will do what they can to empower the centralized authoritarian federal government, and diminish the power of the individual.

It is stealth, and it is insidious. Here's an audio snippet of renowned communist agitator Frances "destroy the system from within" Fox Piven and her comments to an audience who think that Obama is not LEFT enough:

"PIVEN: Obama has done some good things as president. Most of us don't notice those things because he has done them under the radar."

That's right folks: this government is doing things you couldn't imagine, and we won't know about it until we either get them out, or we feel the results of their tyrannical plans. We are feeling the effects of Obama's disasterous, misguided policies already. He's racked up more debt in 24 months than other presidents in 214 years - COMBINED!

This nation wasn't founded on racism or slavery - it was founded on Liberty and Limited, responsible government. Federal power is supposed to derived from the People, and the States - that system is now inverted. We and the States are in the position of going to the Feds to get money and resources. It shouldn't be that way; and not because of an ideological difference. It shouldn't be that way because that kind of government breeds abuses and tyranny.

Are you better off now? Absolutely not. You must VOTE to protect your family, and your future. This government is out of control; it knows no limits on its thirst for power and resources.

Here is a list of Illinois candidates. Please consider voting for all Republican candidates. The reason? None of the Democrats are conservative. At least some of the Republicans are. I'm voting for Kirk, not because he's a conservative, but because the option is unthinkable. Giannoulias is a fraud and a disgrace, but we've been electing people like Giannoulias for decades now. Let's do something different this time - vote conservative.

If Obama was the answer - how stupid was the question?

If you're curious, I'm voting for the following:
Peter Silvestri - Commissioner
Joel Pollak - 9th district Congressman
Dan Rutherford - Treasurer
Bill Brady - Governor
Roger Keats - Cook County board president

* * Vote NO to ALL judges, because the VAST MAJORITY are activist, incompetent disgraces * * *

Politicians run typically run on a center-right platform because 20% of voters self-identify as 'very conservative', and 40% as 'conservative.' But when they get into office they install Leftist policies. If you're conservative, don't get discouraged. You are in good company. The Tea Party are made up of conservatives who are responsible, hard-working, tax-paying folks who don't want to eliminate government, but want one that is responsive, limited and restrained by the original intent of the Founders. In other words, Tea Party people are YOU.

Spread the word, and God bless this nation; the Greatest Country on the face of the earth, in spite of the Liberal, the Marxist and the socialist.

Are you better off?

2010-10-28T12:37:00.000-05:00

As we go into the final days of the 2010 mid-term elections, you're wondering who to vote for. The statists among you will vote Democrat - regardless of how incompetent, how inept or how corrupt they are. You want a large, top-down centralized authoritarian government. You're okay with that.

I, and my fellow Americans are not.

I knew back in 2008 what a disaster was heading our way with Obama in charge. All you had to do was look at his background and voting record to see he was going to steal from the productive sector and use the money to payoff his political cronies.

Many independents don't care about politics until it hits home. Well are you better off now than you were 2 years ago? Absolutely not.

Unemployment is over 10%, inflation is ticking up, taxes are going to go through the roof effective 2011, Nationalized Healthcare will make you pay 3.8% on the sale of your home, the VAT tax is coming back, and the Statists in office are finding new and ingenious ways to steal MORE of your money. Obama has increased the national debt by $5 trillion even though Pelosi promised that there'd be no new debt increases on her watch. The lies from this administration are legion; and are no joke. The stock market is up - why? Because companies are hoping Republicans win BIG this Tuesday. Remember them? The entities that employ and drive the engine of our economy? I know Obama and his apartachicks love to demonize them - and YOU by proxy. But the government that is big enough to give you everything, is big enough to take it all away.

These failed models of socialist utopias should be disdained. They cause suffering and misery. You can see it all around you with this administration shilling their marxist models as 'mainstream.'

Capitalism is the best model for fairly allowing people to operate in an environment of freedom. The dairy farmer doesn't know the race or gender of the person buying his milk, the truck driver doesn't know the ethnicity of the person who pulled the crude oil from the ground to refine his truck's fuel. None of us care about that. The Left demonizes to divide and destroy. That's what they do. And they've done a damned good job of painting conservatives as the "enemy of the people." And many of you have fallen for it.

Remember: According to Obama's memoir, the seminal point in his life was when he heard Jeremiah Wright's sermon, white man's greed runs a world in need.. So his fundamental philosophy is to take from the "haves"and give to the "have-nots" - or as Alinsky put it: the "want mores."

Let's take a look at a brillant exchange between the obtuse Phil Donahue, and the ever-wise economist Milton Friedman

That's exactly right. The Left loves to wallow in self-hate, and thinks America is "the bad guy." Here's a song by someone Coldtype and Leftisbest would probably support. In fact, they could probably write this song:

Leaving that all behind, let's focus on Tuesday. I think this short speech by Reagan is poignant and timely.

The radicals in charge want to destroy this country, so that they can rebuild it into a utopian fantasy.

We need people in Washington who understand and respect the limits placed on them by the US Constitution. That's pretty much all we want - get government out of our way and let the American people do their magic.

Jan Schakowsky must be defeated, II

2010-10-25T09:08:00.000-05:00

We did check it out Jan and it turns out you're a big, fat, Liberal Liar:

And she loves her tax-cheating, corrupt colleague Charlie Rangel:

Birds of a feather.....

And from Joel's Facebook page, he's up against someone with zero regard for rules or decorum:

Again and again, we’ve seen Schakowsky break the rules whenever and wherever she can--whether it’s violating House ethics rules by helping her political contributors with their delinquent loans, handing out propaganda at the League of Women Voters forum, trying to enter a polling place without intending to vote, or violating the agreed-upon format of the Protect Our Heritage forum by using her time to slam her opponent.

Schakowsky’s mode of campaigning is to lie and cheat--until she’s caught, or faces serious opposition. We even caught one of her supporters stealing lawn signs yesterday. I’m proud that our campaign is standing up to her, and exposing her tactics for all to see.

Vote for Joel Pollak - www.pollakforcongress.com

Here Comes that Rainy Day

2010-10-18T17:14:00.000-05:00

National Review reports that for FY 2010 the US deficit will be $1.3 trillion.

Federal Spending, excluding FDIC, TARP, and Fannie/Freddie Mac - went up 9% last year over the previous year. Over the last 2 years, the Federal Government spending grew 21.4%

This administration cannot blame anyone but themselves. Obama and the Dummycrats are trying to bankrupt this country. As National Review piece says - we don't have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem.

That is unsustainable.

And remember that effective January 1, 2011 - taxes are coming back like a roaring lion. Government run healthcare will push a spike in premiums, Death Tax will go from zero to 65%, a VAT tax on TOP of the state and local tax, the spending is massive.

And the Democrats don't care - they have ignored the will of the people. They won't acknowledge any limits on their power.

This is just more of what's to come if the Democrats retain their seats after November 2.

Pigs and Liberals

2010-10-17T23:15:00.000-05:00

Adam Shaeffer writes a wonderful piece over at Breitbart's Big Government site, in which he muses on how a typical Liberal attempts to dissect a particularly difficult policy issue; in this case the failure of education, and the failure to eliminate poverty.

Yes indeed, this Liberal writer gets mugged by reality - and there is no escape except to embrace conservatism.

Can you smell it?

2010-10-14T09:17:00.000-05:00

Can you smell it? Oh yeah.....Take the Founders' Red Pill and fight for our sovereignty, fight for your private property, and fight for your Freedom against the looming shadow of the Leviathan.

Cool Hand Luke

2010-10-13T21:30:00.001-05:00

One of the best movies ever made.

Rahm Emanual for Mayor

2010-10-13T21:21:00.000-05:00

....of Detroit!

Hat Tip: Detective Shaved Longcock

1. How did Rahm Emanuel "earn" $16 million over a 3 year period working on the board at Freddie Mac? Story here.

2. Does he meet the residency requirement? Seems like a valid point.

3. A friend of mine works security at the temple that the Emanuel brothers attend, and I'm told Rahm is an arrogant, pompous, condescending troll who won't as much make eye contact with the "unwashed masses."

4. The creepy ballerina brought the auspices of the US Census under his bailiwick. Gee - I wonder why he did that? Do you think he wanted to give his Democratic colleagues a leg up in districting and representation? If a conservative president and Chief of Staff had pulled that then you would have seen the press loop story after story on how the White House was "imperialist."

[Oh yeah, he's a bottom for sure.]

Emanuel is corrupt, and connected deeper than the Mariana Trench. Another example of how corrupt and incestuous Washington is, Barney Frank (D-Fruitcake) received a free private jet flight to the Virgin Islands as a quid-pro-quo for sending $25 million in stimulus money to a hedge fund operated under AIG.

Donna Brazile, Cheerleader for Communism

2010-10-13T16:33:00.000-05:00

Via Breitbart: Donna Brazile Cites Communist China As a Successful Economic System

This coming from a socialist with delusions of persecution from her days learning the important lessons of Black Liberation Theology. Communism is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people since the turn of the century. Communism is enforced socialism, and socialism is Statism - which means that the state controls the lives, private property and freedoms of its citizens. It is the state over the individual.

Another Liberal hack who thinks capitalism is the root of our problems. Uh no Donna -- unfettered, unrestrained, out-of-control GOVERNMENT is the root of our problems.

Chicago's Pension: fast-tracking to bankruptcy and anarchy

2010-10-13T16:26:00.000-05:00

Sorry for borrowing John Andrew's "controversial" title to his opinion piece on why Chicago is heading toward dissolution and anarchy. As artists, we stand on the shoulders of giants - as the saying goes.

Speaking of Big Shoulders: Chicago happens to be up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle and its tax-paying citizens will be proverbially, and profoundly pissed off within the next 4 years.

Why, you ask?

Because a new study listing the top 10 cities closest to having their pensions run out of money has Chicago at #2. You can be thankful that it's not at #1. (Yes, I'm a Glass-Half-Full person) but right now the city's unfunded liabilities hover at $44.8 billion.

From the study:
Many U.S. cities are therefore carrying substantial off‐balance‐sheet debt in the form of unfunded pension obligations. We also identify 6 major municipalities whose current pension assets would only be sufficient to pay already‐promised benefits through 2020, and 20 whose current pension assets would only be sufficient to pay already‐promised benefits through 2025.

Keep in mind that Daley's privatization of the parking meters only got him a lump sum debit to his cash account of $1.15 billion. And that lease goes for 99 years.

But even in good times this city sucks.

In the last 30 years, almost 79 local elected officials - 3 of the last 5 governors - and 27 aldermen have been convicted of a crime. And those are just the ones that they're able to catch. It is One-party rule here, with 50 alderman all running a socialist "utopia" and their hands into everything.

Have you noticed that with Daley not running for reelection, hundreds of people who were politically connected to Da'Mayor are now either crying, or quaking with fear. They know their days are numbered because when the next Mafioso steps in to take his place, he'll have a whole new cadre of automatons to do his bidding. Daley "balanced" the 2011 Chicago budget but used his father's Magic Kingdom slide-rule to make the numbers look quasi-legit, but there were significant omissions in their calculations.

As the-ever-brilliant SCC points out, the cupboard is indeed bare:

[Daley will use] a 20 percent increase in parking meter rates. So all those billions from the Skyway and parking meter and downtown garage leases? The 75-and-99-year leases? Gone in under three years. Way to plan ahead Dick! And we aren't sure about this, but aren't those parking meter increases all going to the leasing company?

But it gets worse:
He also plans to count on $80 million in “more favorable revenues” and $32 million in savings generated by a full year of union concessions not yet negotiated. An agreement that calls for unpaid furlough days and comp time instead of cash overtime expires June 30."more favorable revenues" is code for "fantasy numbers."

Even Leftist rags like Slate.com have wondered aloud why Chicago is such a hotbed of corruption. Here's Slate's history of the fetid swamp that IS Chicago politics.

From Slate:
Chicago moved towards a one-party system that made it even more vulnerable to corruption: The city's last Republican mayor left office in 1931. Today, not even the Democratic primaries are competitive—for the most part, once you're in office, you stay there. The weak campaign finance laws in Illinois probably helped to stave off competition in recent years.

This is what you get when a One-party, Liberal Democrat city that is run like a fiefdom. Daley and his old man are textbook examples of entrenched Machine politicians - taking money with one hand, handing it out for political favors with the other. Meanwhile Daley thinks he has the right to pick and choose which constitutional amendments apply to you and me. He doesn't like guns? Then in direct violation of the Second Amendment, Daley won't let you have a gun in your home in Chicago. You don't like what's happening to the CPD, and you think Weis is incompetent and you put out an opinion piece detailing why you think so (John Andrews blog)? Then you get stripped and possibly fired for exercising your First Amendment right to free speech.

And it goes on and on and on .....

God help us; please pray for this city and this state ... but also, VOTE on November 2nd and do not vote for ANYONE with a (D) after their name. The entire Democrat party has been hijacked by the New Left.

It's pretty pathetic that the voters of this country elected a bunch of Leftists hacks without realizing that Leftists only care about The Almighty State; NOT about individual rights or constitutional originalism.

Jan Schakowsky must be defeated

2010-10-13T16:18:00.000-05:00

Jan Schakowsky (D-Bag) must be defeated. She's been an entrenched congressman from the 9th district since 1999. She has voted with her Democrat apparatchiks 98% of the time. The only time she took to veer from Obama, Pelosi and Reid is in voting somewhat hawkish on Isreal. She is a close friend of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Schakowsky's husband was convicted of fraud when both of them sat on the board of an Illinois "public interest group" called the Illinois Public Action Fund. She claims to have no knowledge of the bank fraud committed by her husband while they served together.

She is on video crowing about how socialized medicine will destroy the private insurance sector, and she's an advocate of the single payer system.

Jan Schakowsky is an acolyte of Saul Alinsky, and she undoubtedly is a closet communist. Her voting record to destroy private healthcare and compel us to purchase government-run insurance is an abomination.

Schakowsky is a big-spending, tax-increase, Liberal Democrat. She has no shame in standing before her constituents and bragging how much she's stolen from the private sector in order to empower the Government - punishing the winners, and protecting the losers.

Vote for Joel Pollak. He's a solid conservative and has a good chance at beating Jan, but only if we get the word out.

Please visit Pollak for Congress and support him. You can also go to his campaign HQ on Dempster (just across the street from Lutheran General hospital) and pick up a yard sign and campaign literature.

Conservatism is the only antidote to tyrants like Schakowsky. Let's get out there and take her down (politically, of course).

Sic semper tyrannis

Halpern on Obama: "He's losing the political war."

2010-10-12T21:09:00.000-05:00

...the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle.

So writes Mark Halperin, editor-at-large and senior political analyst for TIME was also political director of ABC news for 6 years. Halperin is no conservative. Let me put that right out there.

For him to write such a scathing piece on Barry Sotero's incompetence is truly something to behold. In fact it is breath-taking to see how quickly the Democratic party has imploded during the last 6 months.

Administration officials are leaving the White House like rats deserting a ship. Democratic seats that 5 years ago were solid blue are now in play.

Remember the 1994 GOP take-over? Forget that one - that was peanuts. This take-over may be as big as 1894! Even the Brits are picking up on what a disaster Obama and his policies are. Here are 5 reasons why this presidency is in a tail-spin.

Recent polling shows that George Bush is now AS POPULAR as Barack Hussein Obama.

The independents of this country are waking up. They see what's going on around them: record foreclosures, record bankruptcies, government expenditures going through the roof, TARP, Stimulus I and II, S-chip, Socialized medicine, the takeover of private industries.... all this is Tyranny, plain and simple.

The healthcare boondoggle was probably the biggest insult; the government has no right to compel a private citizen into purchasing a product. It is blatantly unconstitutional. 70% of the American people didn't want it - did that stop Barry Sotero from pushing it through? Hell no.

And THAT is why people are so pissed off. It is the economy, stupid - someone should whisper that into Obama's elephantine ears.

Ah, November 2nd is election day...please get your friends and families to the polls. This is a desperate hour because the Democrats are already reaching deep into their bag of dirty tricks.

Rush guest stars on Family Guy

2010-10-05T09:41:00.002-05:00

This is laugh-out-loud funny....

Rush on Family Guy.

Crime and the NY model

2010-10-05T09:31:00.001-05:00

Heather MacDonald knows what she's talking about ... When NYPD started enforcing misdemeanor crimes and quality of life issues on the streets of NY, crime plummeted.

The difference was that the police chief, the mayor and the governor were all working in concert to support their officers and the results were impressive.

New York has enjoyed a 15 year boon of tourism and solid gold PR.

And Chicago? Chicago cherry picks what they'll use from the NY model. The brass thinks that all they need to do is track crime numbers vis-a-vis COMSTAT. Chicago brass, with the likes of Weis leading the pack, are NOT supporting their officers.

You need look no further than the Cozzi case. The rank and file officers in Chicago are attuned to crime and the courts, and they don't trust the process. The stories are legion and amount to a morale that is lower than the Marianas Trench.

A/5 detectives bring witnesses in to the station to be interviewed. After 50 hours in custody, two witnesses are charged with aggravated battery with a handgun. The criminals sue and the 2 detectives have to pay $60,000 each in punitive damages for violating the rights of the witnesses (who turned out to be the offenders anyway). That ruling also removed 24 hours from the charging rule. They used to have 72 hours to charge, but now it's only 48. Coppers were sued for signing complaints against gang-members when they'd catch them flashing gang-signs at rival gangs. The reckless conduct charge states that when someone engages in an activity which endangers the safety of the public (like getting caught in gang-crossfire), they can be charged criminally because their actions may result in the death or injury of innocent bystanders. But the courts and the Slip-and-Fall lawyers think differently. Dozens of officers have been sued civilly for arrests under the reckless conduct charge, because the Liberal activist judges dismiss such cases as not "worthy" of enforcement, thus leaving the officers open to civil litigation.

And what does that engender? Malaise. Officers aren't going to go out and do police work when they know that they're going to be tossed under the bus by the leadership of the department.

Officers will then just do the minimum. It's a shame that this city doesn't get it, and never will.

Chicago needs more officers on the streets, period. That will help but what will also help is to have a mayor who is pro-Police, and a governor who will push judges to enforce the law as written - and not at their personal whim.

Personally I don't think Illinois will ever be a Red State because we have too many people who are entrenched in the socialist model and refuse to think for themselves. Many more folks will suffer and die because of short-sighted, cowardly incompetents who run Chicago's government and courts.

The Falacies of Illegal Immigration

2010-10-04T09:21:00.000-05:00

The majority of Americans want our immigration laws enforced. They don't want new laws, they don't want comprehensive immigration reform, they simply want employment rules enforced, and a fence erected at the border. Most Americans believe that the Federal government ENCOURAGES illegal immigration into the United States, and does little to dissuade it.

The recent dust-up between Mark Levin and Gloria Allread (audio link here) shows two things:

1. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has extensive records as to who is qualified to work in the US, and could easily pinpoint how many people are working under false social security numbers (as well as tell us EXACTLY how many illegals are here working right now.)

2. ICE is not enforcing the law with regards to using a false or stolen social security numbers. In fact, if an employer receives notification from the SSA, they are told explicitly that the offending employee cannot be fired for using a false or stolen social security number.

Working under a false or stolen SS number is Identity Theft. In October 1998, President Bill Clinton signed the Identity Theft and Assumption Deference Act of 1998. This act makes it a felony to use or transfer the identity (including the SSN) of another person. OIG's Strategic Enforcement Division (SED) say they are also targeting scams run by immigrant groups and foreign nationals. Except in May of 2009, the supreme court ruled that the courts had to prove that the illegal who purchased a social security number from a third party, had to know that he was purchasing a false or stolen SS number. From The Center for Immigration Studies:

May 2009 Supreme Court ruling in Flores-Figueroa v. United States.1 Flores crippled prosecutors’ longstanding practice of using the aggravated identity theft statute by requiring that prosecutors now also prove that a defendant knew he was using a real person’s identity information, as opposed to counterfeit information not connected to an actual person. The statute is an important tool for immigration enforcement. Proving a defendant’s knowledge about his crime is always difficult, and impossible in some cases, even where there is substantial harm and clear victims. This is especially the situation with illegal aliens who buy identity information from third parties. The inevitable result of the Flores decision is to enable perpetrators an easy defense and to tie prosecutors’ hands. The defendant in the case was an illegal alien working at a steel plant in Illinois.

So OIG is 'targeting' illegals but the Flores decision effectively emasculates their enforcement powers. The fact is, we are doing very little to enforce CURRENT immigration laws. About the only positive thing Obama has done is increase deportations of illegal aliens. He's deported 10% more than Bush did.

So where are we at this immigration?

Arnold Ahlert writes a brilliant piece on the absurdities of our elite leadership in their attempts to justify shoving immigration reform down our throats.

You've got to hand it to our cultural elitists. They are so suffused with a sense of their own superiority, they think they can sell something that almost three-quarters of the public stand firmly against. Thus, it should surprise no one that two of the "anointed few," New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, testified Thursday before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration about the necessity of providing amnesty, as Murdoch put it, for "law-abiding, illegal immigrants." Law-abiding illegals? George Orwell would be proud.

Full story here.

Let's spend $57 billion-a-year strictly enforcing the provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the last sucker's bet in which complete amnesty was followed up by half-hearted attempts to enforce that law's provisions for border control and taking businesses to task for hiring illegals. But don't take my word for it, just look at far more relevant "statistics:" .

What it comes down is the myth of cultural diversity, and the Democrats wanting to use illegals and the hispanic vote as a power base.

There are few positives to having 'diversity' in your work force. Just ask James Watson.

Alderman Beale is an idiot

2010-10-01T22:04:00.000-05:00

BLUtube is powered by PoliceOne.com

Beale wants to "level the playing field" which is racial-rabble-rousing Code for "we need to get more blacks on the police force."

He's not concerned in the least about qualified individuals becoming police officers, he wants his peeps getting a job, yo!

This ghetto mind-set is a large part of the problem as to why shit can't get done effectively in this Democrat bastion. Beale and his ilk want to put their people to work, but they ignore education, qualifications, character and background - it's enough for Beale to say,"Oh, you're black and a constituent? Then you need a job; whiether it's a police officer, fireman or subatomic particle engineer at Fermilab, we need to get you a job!"

And what are you going to get if you waive the college requirement? WAY more black and hispanic applicants, and - I go back to my first point: Are they qualified? I don't thin you need college to be an effective police officer, but college goes a long way in demonstrating that you have the ability to start something, follow through, and finish it.

What an asshat.

The beatings will continue until morale improves; The Jody Method

2010-09-30T09:05:00.000-05:00

The guys and gals that work in the district station have a crappy job, specifically the desk crew. The phones ring constantly, people walk in looking for reports, prisoners just released need their property returned, the bond desk and desk sergeant have to approve arrest reports, monitor faxes from the Instant Update Unit and deal with other issues for their 9 hour shift. With the manpower shortage across the city, HQ decided to issue an order 2 years ago saying that only 2 officers and one sergeant can work the desk.

It can wear on your nerves, especially if the desk is your assigned position. If you're working the street and you encounter a person who is either drunk or belligerent, you have the discretion as to whether you will give them a report or not. The beauty of the squad car is that you can drive away. I personally do not like to reward bad behavior, and if the person is discourteous and rude, I'll tell them why I'm not going to issue a report - and they can call a sergeant if they don't like it. They can always go to a district station to get their precious, 'magic' piece of paper - the thing that will make their miserable little lives all better.

I didn't witness this incident but the 025 desk had some gang-bangers come in the other day asking "Damn, where my boy be at?" They wanted to know when their compatriot would be released from custody. Apparently when they didn't get the answer that they wanted, one of them told a male desk officer,"Man - fuck you!" The desk officer told the gang-banger to leave, and used some off-color language in order to get the offender to vacate the station.

All this was witnessed by the district commander, who then ordered the 3rd watch watch commander to issue a SPAR for the male desk officer.

Mind you, these gang-bangers came into the station, screaming, cursing and demanding - all the while witnessed by the D/C, and instead of backing up his desk personnel, he stood there and then decided to discipline his officer. The gang-bangers actually committed a misdemeanor crime: Criminal Trespass to State Property (they were ordered to leave the facility and remained in violation of the command). They should have been arrested, but instead a veteran officer was officially disciplined for trying to maintain a semblance of order inside the station.

The rank and file in 025 are none-too-happy about this turn of events. It shows a disregard and a callousness that is unbecoming from a district commander. To take the side of an obnoxious, police-hating gang-banger over your own desk officer is egregious; and is something, quite frankly, that I could see Jody P. Weis doing.

Morale is in the toilet precisely because of these types of knee-jerk responses from our leaders. Maybe if the desk officer had a LAPA card in his pocket, the SPAR wouldn't have been ordered.

I'm just saying.....

Buffet to Taxpayers:"Get over your anger."

2010-09-28T11:08:00.001-05:00

"Get over your anger." So says the billionaire president of Birkshire Hathaway to US taxpayers.

Well, do the taxpayers have a right to be angry?

Certainly, and here's why:

The Federal government is gaining hegemony over the states, and over the individual. Through outrageous spending schemes, and prevarications; such as TARP, Cap and Trade, Fannie/Freddie and two Stimulus packages - the Federal government has attained unheard of power and influence.

* Almost $300 billion stimulus signed by President Bush (and which Senator Obama voted for)

* Almost $800 billion stimulus signed by Barack Hussein Obama

TARP, Cap and Trade, Take over of GM, and the leviathon of Big Government Boondoggles - ObamaCare. That initiative will give 17% of the GDP in government hands. The government NOW controls 51% of the US economy.

Alan Greenspan recently said that the Stimulus packages haven't worked. And the CEO at Intel, Inc. says "Obama just doesn't get it."

All of this goes against the restraints buried in the Constitution. And what do the Democrats do? They circle the wagons and blame "Bush" and the "republicans." The majority of Americans self-identify as conservatives. The majority of Americans don't want ANY of this Big Government expansion - but do the Democrats listen? Do they care? No, they don't because all they want is Power. It's pure Machiavelli and the chief player in this pathetic drama is the Marxist-in-Chief BHO.

Here is a beautifully succinct synopsis by Michael Berry, it's entitled "Why the Democrats have to go"

and this ....

35 Days until Election Day -- please talk to your friends, family and co-workers and inform them that the only antidote to Tyranny is conservatism. With a government that will not accept any limitations on its scope and reach, where will it end? That is the question of the hour. With nothing holding it back, it will continue to grow, and grow and grow - while savaging our individual liberties, and gaining more dominion over its citizenry.

God help us.

Cop Blogger gets Censored

2010-09-25T22:20:00.002-05:00

UPDATE II: Welcome SLC readers, and thanks to Shaved for the link-love --- Apparently Frank Sennett "twittered" 159 times trying to get Joe The Cop's blog shut down. Here is a very nice summary of what happened to Joe here.
__________________________________
UPDATE: Sun 26Sep - Here is Joe The Cop's original piece.
__________________________________

Ah, political correctness rears its ugly head within the Ivory Towers of Chicago's media wonks. The elite, specifically editor-n-chief Frank Sennett of Time Out Chicago - have gone on the attack this week against a blogger at the Chicago Tribune's ChicagoNow blog.

"Joe the cop", who writes a blog called Arresting Tales, is in their cross hairs.

This week the erudite cub-reporter had the "audacity" to write a piece entitled, CTA Red Line Shooting: the ghetto shooting template - Arresting Tales

The whole thing was taken down by the time I got to it, but SCC blogged on this and the commentary was razor sharp; as usual.

Joe examined a number of police related shootings, and observed some stark similarities in the stories.

Apparently pointing out those similarities is now 'racist' - according to Frank Sennett at TOC.

You see, the boy-genius-editor-in-chief didn't appreciate the facts that Joe The Cop observed in the news coverage of this story. So Frank did what every other morose and petulant Liberal know-it-all would do: He complained and claimed to be 'offended.' Worse still he leveled the charge of racism at Joe The Cop.

As you know when a Liberal cannot support his beliefs on principle or facts, he resorts to name-calling. So Frank pulled out the MOAB of all labels and posted this over at Time Out Chicago's blog:

The Chicago Tribune’s community blogging product, ChicagoNow, has hosted a hate-filled, racist rant by blogger Joe the Cop entitled “The ghetto shooting template” for three days and counting now. Joe lacks the guts to blog under his real name and is identified as “a detective sergeant in a suburban police department”–so he’s clearly qualified to comment on inner-city policing matters. In his race-baiting post and its equally offensive follow-up, “Joe” mocks both George Lash, 19, who was recently shot and killed by Chicago police on the Red Line, and Lash’s grieving family. This horribly insensitive post, mind you, came before any investigative conclusions about this case had been reached. And he employs the late Mr. Lash (I’m sure “Joe” will be outraged that I dignified the teen’s humanity by calling him Mr., given his statements about how the media coddles these annoying dead ghetto kids) as a rhetorical device for knee-jerk negative stereotyping of every “ghetto” teen killed by the cops. Here’s “Joe”’s kicker, and by kicker, I mean kick in the teeth to every reasonable citizen of this city: “The harsh reality is, George Lash will be a better provider for his family as the subject of a civil lawsuit than he was ever going to be in his adult life.” I guess gutless “Joe” can’t help being such a hateful hump, but you know what, ChicagoNow and its parent, the Chicago Tribune, have editors. I understand that bloggers can get a post up without editing oversight; I have been a paid blogger under exactly those circumstances. But to let this guy’s hateful bile ooze through ChicagoNow’s servers for three full days? Unconscionable.

Full TOC story here from 23Sep. Frank's follow up from 24Sep is here. In the 24th post, Sennett claims Joe The Cop "beats up" on shooting victim and family with "impunity."

So here's my 2 cents ---
Cops see things differently. They have to. Their very lives depend on analyzing scenarios and situations that Joe Citizen never has to contemplate. The harsh reality is that George Lash should never have gotten on that train, waving a handgun around and threatening people with death or great bodily harm, and then start fighting with police when they show up on scene. It's as simple as that. Ah, but the ghetto - that rabbit hole of warped sensibilities, is a veritable 5th dimension of space and time, complete with its own rules.

Shouldn't Joe The Cop be allowed, daresay encouraged, to speak from the heart based on his knowledge, skills and abilities? Aren't we writers also artists? I know that Frank Sennett wouldn't have a problem with Bill Ayers defiling the American flag, or going to an art exhibition in which the crucifix is placed in cow urine, right? Aren't those protected acts under our beloved First Amendment? Well how about extending a tiny smidgen of the same courtesy to Joe The Cop! Damn right.

The Sheep don't like the looks of the Sheep-Dog until the Wolf rounds the corner.

And people like Frank Sennett can sit in their 81st floor office, have lunch with their other white Liberal friends and congratulate each other on how "tolerant" they are for "sticking up" for the "oppressed and colonized African Americans" that get "beat by the police" all the time.

Political correctness and multiculturalism are disgusting, and are a real problem in our society.

Joe's page is here.

Hate crime in Lynchburg

2010-09-11T13:57:00.003-05:00

Disgusting story out of Lynchburg .... 80 year old man from AZ goes to his granddaughter's wedding and gets attacked by three black 'youths' and dies from the attack.

Witnesses say that the offender was going to punch the first person he saw in order to impress the girls he was with.

Can you imagine what media hysteria this story would generate if the offender had been white and the victim black?

Stories like these are getting WAY too commonplace. I don't have an answer as to how we're going to get beyond this stuff, but Hate Crime laws should go both ways - or not be followed at all.

Thoughts and prayers for this man's family at this difficult time.

Never again is Now

2010-09-11T11:21:00.005-05:00

Michelle Malkin has a great piece on her blog regarding the Ameican victims of Islamist jihadis. She actually wrote the column 7 years ago, but states,"Sadly, I could have written it today."

With the "Blame American At All Costs Crowd" - those unhinged moonbats that buy in to all kinds of ridiculous conspiracy theories - we have 911 Truthers and others who have nothing better to do than spread fictional stories about what really happened on 9/11/01.

Don't listen to them, and don't pay any attention to that "Loose Change" video - it's utter non-sense.

One of the best documentaries I have seen is the Naudet brothers (video here) who were down in mid-town Manhattan the day of the murders filming a documentary on the life of a rookie New York Fireman. It's inadvertently become an inside look at what it was like to be down there when the shit hit the fan.

God bless America, and squeeze your children a little tighter today knowing that a significant portion of Muslims agree with the tactics of Mohammed Atta and his terrorist cohorts.

And it is stupid and insensitive to even conceive of placing a Mosque at or near the site of ground Zero. It's appalling that this is even being considered.

The Austin Voice

2010-08-17T08:40:00.016-05:00

The Austin Voice, a radical newspaper with no web presence that serves the West Side Austin area, ran a story with the following headline:

"ARE 25TH DISTRICT OFFICERS LAZY, RACIST OR ON THE TAKE?"

The story is deplorable; in effect blaming the lack of police presence for the demise of two businesses along North avenue. Those of you who've worked in a busy district already know what kind non-sense the denizens throw around out there. Many of the store-front churches along the boulevard preach Jeremiah Wright BLT from their pulpits. But Brad didn't stop there.

In order to disparage and sully the fine officers who patrol the Austin neighborhood, he interviewed one male and one female black police officer from 025. Allegedly the male officer said that the racial environment within 25 is "toxic" and the female is alleged to have said,"I only work in 25 because I live in the district and I have a teenage son. I want to be close by if the police come around and come after him." Brad also discussed how they've had a string of Spanish commanders - he called them frito banditos- and now the community is demanding a black commander.

Brad Cummings is the erstwhile associate editor and has a warped view of policing and community relations.

More than a few times he's called 25th district police as he cowered in his North avenue office because some "youths" came in with pistols and robbed him. He pays the local ruffians cash to deliver his Marxist / Black Liberation Theology tripe around Austin.

Of course, the fact that the city is down 2,500 officers isn't addressed in Brad Cummings article, nor is the fact that there are 58 store front (Make Believe) churches along this street, nor is the fact that opening and maintaining a legitimate business in this area is a Herculean task.

Shortly after The Children's Place opened last year at 4855 W. North, I spoke with the manager after he had just had to deal with a young man that had run into the store because he was being chased. Once the victim and offenders entered the store, pandemonium broke loose: They knocked down racks of clothes and one of the cretins grabbed a fire extinguisher and used it as a weapon. The manager was putting in 18 hour days and dealing with shoplifters, disturbances inside and outside the store, screening for prospective employees from a limited labor pool, and wondering every night if he was going to have a pistol put to his head as he walked to his car. Store management initially thought that they would have one security guard at the door and not spend money on a store security tower. They ended up having to spend thousands on the device, and now have 3 security guards working the front door and walking the floor.

Ahhh, Austin - that diamond in the rough. 300 people per month are paroled to an address somewhere within the 15th District. A drive down seedy North Avenue is a treat if you've never done it. Sure it's not PCH-1 but it's close. Where else can you see gang-members all wearing white t-shirts and blue jeans "serving" the community? According to Brad Cummings these gang-members are fledgling entrepreneurs! He even said so in a 2004 interview with the Field Museum. "Who's to say that the drug trade, though illegal, cannot teach substantive business skills?"

To make matters worse, Austin is knee-deep in "community organizers" aka. professional agitators. You may have just heard about what those are since that is the only thing of merit on Obama's thin resume. They divide the people in a community in an "us versus them" mentality because by polarizing the citizens from the police, they can alleviate the community from having to take responsibility for its problems. There's crime and drug sales? It is the police's fault. There are single mothers giving birth? It's the government's fault for not pumping enough money into the neighborhood. Young men are gang-banging and can't find jobs? (Good jobs, remember) It's the fault of white business owners because there is "white privelege" and we all know whitey only opens businesses in white neighborhoods. That's due to the 'fact' that every white person is a closeted racist.

The bottom line is that organizers are only concerned about power and polarization. They want money and power through organizing, but not through what it really takes: hard work, responsible actions and integrity.

Take Gale Cincotta ....

Gale Cincotta, the disreputable Chairman of National People's Action and an avowed disciple of Saul Alinsky, grew up in Austin and has the infamy of being the spear point of the "red-lining" craze that began with the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. We now know that the CRA compelled banks to loan to unqualified individuals under force of law.

Cincotta, now deceased, was a classic agitator. She is famous for saying at an ACORN rally outside some bank they were in the process of fleecing,"We want it, They got it, Let's go get it!" She also nailed a rat to an alderman's door.

What a class act.

And when Austin agitators point to Oak Park as a shining example of a neighborhood that thrives, they forget that it thrives because people there have the core values that are essential to success: stable home lives, people who own their homes (legitimately, not via a CRA gov't program), people who are educated and aren't interested in doing drugs and drinking liquor every day. But Oak Park is also to a plethora of Liberals. Instead of being shining examples to the animals that live in Austin, too often the Liberals in Oak Park enable the worst elements because it's easier to tell people that they're victims, than to tell them they're wrong.

Remember the famous Susy Schultz? The editor of Oak Park Parent? SCC and I blogged on the violence committed upon her while she drove through the Austin neighborhood. Her entire piece, "The scars you don't see" is here.

What the radical Left, the "community organizers", the Marxists, the apologists for the criminally poor don't understand is that it is the PEOPLE in a community that make it live or die, suffer or thrive. It isn't the amount of government expenditures, the number of businesses or the inane ramblings of a closeted pederast.

Brad Cummings, Associate Editor of The Voice Newspapers, are simply PROJECTING their own racism and indolence on the Chicago police department. I'm sure Brad would LOVE to get an email from you. Please be respectful.

His contact information is:
5236 W. North ave
Chicago, IL 60639

email tvoicenews@sbcglobal.net
telephone 773-889-0880
cell phone 773-269-1325
fax 773-889-5168

Obama bumper sticker removal kit

2010-08-13T19:16:00.001-05:00

For those of you who should be embarrassed to have voted for this softball hack.

Free Bill Cozzi

2010-08-13T00:01:00.001-05:00

Something very big is coming in support of Bill Cozzi .... Stay tuned!

Obsolescence of Barack Obama

2010-08-12T10:40:00.004-05:00

This piece by Fouad Ajami stands out as one of the most brilliant pieces of journalism I've ever read.

Entitled The Obsolescence of Obama, Ajami takes out the heavy artillery and rains Hellfire down on our Incompetent Commander in Chief.

The vaunted Obama economic stimulus, at $862 billion, has failed. The "progressives" want to double down, and were they to have their way, would have pushed for a bigger stimulus still. But the American people are in open rebellion against an economic strategy of public debt, higher taxes and unending deficits. We're not all Keynesians, it turns out. The panic that propelled Mr. Obama to the presidency has waned. There is deep concern, to be sure. But the Obama strategy has lost the consent of the governed.

Ajami goes on and hits a homerun with this tidbit of uncomfortable truth.

Mr. Obama could protest that his swift and sudden fall from grace is no fault of his. He had been a blank slate, and the devotees had projected onto him their hopes and dreams. His victory had not been the triumph of policies he had enunciated in great detail. He had never run anything in his entire life. He had a scant public record, but oddly this worked to his advantage. If he was going to begin the world anew, it was better that he knew little about the machinery of government.

Exactly! The Drones, who don't want to debate, were never interested in his politics, his philosophy, his lack of accomplishments - were utterly satisfied with the fact that he was black, articulate and not wearing a doo-rag. That was enough for most of them.

Back during the run-up to the election, yours-truly got into a mild argument with a name-less house-mouse in my district (yes, a policeman). When I pointed out all the various factors that, in my mind, added up to an utterly unqualified individual - I was informed that these were all "non-issues."

"What then are the issues," I asked.

"That he's going to give all working families a tax break," he replied.

"What else?"

"He's going to get us out of the quagmire in Iraq."

When I pointed out all the Big Government schemes that the Anointed One had posted on his own website, I was told that those weren't going to be enacted....that he was just "doing that for some of his constituents."

Well here we are almost 2 years later and he has done everything that I feared. He's grown our government like nothing in US history, quadrupled the budget, doled out billions to his Political Pets and Zero Liability Voting Base - all the while (unbelievably) blamed BUSH for all of this.

Yes - like all good socialists, he's now being seen for who he truly is: Immature, Incompetent, Narcissistic, and just another proud Leftist member of the Democrat party.

Unemployment is stuck at 10% and not going down anytime soon. Why would you hire when a tidal wave of new taxation and government regulations are on the horizon? Almost 3 million people have lost their jobs since Obama took office. He shut down the offshore drilling platforms - putting 60,000 people out of work simply on his whim. Jobless claims are the highest they've been since February of 2010. Foreclosures are up 6% since July 2009.

Meanwhile, the Obama's tell us to "tighten our belts" while they live like King and Queen. Like Marie Antoinette, Michelle Obama just went to Spain on the taxpayer's dime. She brought 40 'friends' with her and stayed in a hotel which cost up to $2,500 per night, and flew on Air Force 2. Even Lynn Sweet at the Slum-Times wrote she promised one of her closest friends, a longtime Chicago pal who just lost her father, she would spend time with her.

Now that the Spain trip hit the news, the White House is working its contacts to Re-Spin the story. Don't believe it. The only thing this administration is good at is Media Presentation, and PR.

Like the Marxist that he is, all Obama thinks about is Obama and how he can acquire and keep more and more power. Meanwhile he gives lip service to all you "unwashed masses" by saying "we will not rest until" (fill in the blank). But nothing will change until we get these Big Government Leftists out of our congress and WH.

Sic semper tyrannis!

Conservatism

2010-08-11T10:17:00.004-05:00

Yes, you all know (I hope by now) that I am a conservative. But many don't get it, even those "on our side" don't fully understand what conservatives stand for. We've been vilified for the last 60 years by the Marxist Left (Old and New) and they've done a phenomenal job in painting us as Xenophobes, Nativists, Neanderthals, racists, and harbingers of all that is Evil.

Early on, the Fabian socialists recognized that installing Marxism would be difficult in the west because our Founding principles and documents are antithetical to a collectivist State. Marxism is the founding principle of Statism - the concept that the State is the end-all-be-all. Back in the 1930's a new type of government appeared. It was a Utopian endeavor, and was embraced by Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was called 'totalitarianism.' Back then totalitarianism meant that the State would take over the totality of its citizens lives, freeing them from the drudgery of life and let them express themselves as a collective. It wasn't used as a pejorative, it was worshiped as the final solution to the problem of labor and capital.

The problem, it turns out, is that when you give a government or State a lot of power, its natural inclination is to abuse it.

So with the advent of these Utopias, we saw Hitler murder and enslave. We found Stalin bragging to Churchill that he killed 20 million of his own people during the First Purge, Mussolini made the trains run on time, but at the expense of allying with Germany and Japan during WW2, and FDR stacked the court to get his agendas passed, and threw 100,000 Japanese-Americans in concentration camps and stole their private property. Over 60 million people died during WW2 in the fight against totalitarianism.

This is the foundational principle of the Left and Liberalism.

Sure, they've put a Smiley Face on it but deep down it has the same impetus: to glorify and empower the State, and unfrock and suppress the rights of the individual. Liberalism wants the individual enslaved to the state. Liberals throw money at issues because it makes it look like they're doing something about it. If you spend money on something, it makes it look like you care. But do Liberals care? Sure, some sincerely do and think they're doing a great thing. But they remain ignorant of history, of basic economics and from where our rights derive. Liberals use political correctness and multiculturalism to divide us. They agitate for minority groups, not realizing that dividing us into "us versus them" only causes rancor and has the State picking winners and losers. Liberals squawk on incessantly about "equality" - in fact, that is their mantra. But when they say equality, they mean that they want everyone to be the same. In other words, they want everyone to have exactly what everyone else has. They don't want any disparities in income (even though someone who places his money in a risky venture deserves a little more of the money since he's risking it right?), and they want to redistribute wealth along racial lines; all in the name of "social justice."

To the conservative, Equality means everyone having an equal chance at success, an equal opportunity if you work hard, obey the laws, and engage in the civil society ... allowing the invisible hand of the market to work its magic.

As Orwell wrote in Animal Farm,"Here on the farm all the Animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." He was pointing out the folly of socialism.

We see the Obama administration, and this congress, going full force after the individual. They're pushing every Big State scheme that they can conjure because the end is near for them. The American people have awakened. They realize that conservatism is the only antidote to the poison of the Left and Liberalism.

Why is conservatism the answer? Because we believe, like our founders, that our rights come from God - not from a senate subcommittee, a supreme court, or a sitting president. In Federalist 51, James Madison wrote:

It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government.

But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

Men are NOT angels, so a government must be established - but it must be contained and limited. Government must be restrained and stood in check at all times. Thus the bicameral congress and three branches of government. There are 18 enumerated powers in the constitution. Our Liberal-Socialists handlers don't believe the Federal government should be restrained.

How are they burning through the firewalls within the constitution? By calling it a 'living breathing' document. When you sign a contract with a plumber or a contractor is that contract "living breathing"? Of course not. Contracts are enforceable. Here's how it all started.

FDR began packing the Supreme court with his cronies. They knew if they started establishing Liberal precedents, the American people would have to go along with their policies eventually.

When FDR mandated Social Security (which is clearly unconstitutional because it compels a private citizen to donate his earnings to the government with no promise he'll be repaid - it's theft plain and simple), he told everyone publicly that it was "insurance" - not a tax. When they were brought before the Supreme court, FDR's Attorney General were forced to admit that it was not an insurance plan; it was a tax. So FDR told the people one thing, but behind the scenes he knew it was a lie.

After stacking the courts, along came Wickard v. Filburn. This poor Nebraska wheat farmer was given a bill from the state because he used some of his home-grown wheat to feed his livestock. The government upheld the tax using the "commerce clause" of the constitution saying, in effect, that by withholding his wheat from the open market, he was affecting commerce. What bullshit! What an utter contrivance.

Folks, they are continuing to do such parlor tricks with the courts and with the language of debate. We now wee Obama claiming that taxes are "redistributive justice" and that new government programs - which steal from one group, and give to another, are "investments".

We conservatives (and thankfully the majority of Americans) understand that you cannot sustain an economy with unchecked immigration, nor with quadrupling a Federal budget during a recession. We also know that most of what the government is doing is unconstitutional. Nationalizing healthcare, taking over the auto industry, doling out money to Democratic-favorites like ACORN and the TIDES foundation included.

Are you a conservative? Take a look at these 10 things and let me know how many you agree with. You may be a conservative, and not even know it!

(Coldtype and Leftisbest are exempted from the test - You both get an "F"!)

If you want to read a book that puts it all together, read "Liberty and tyranny" by Mark R. Levin. It's now available in paperback. It is brilliant and an easy read.

Thanks for hanging in there on a long post. God bless you and these United States.

Hate crime hypocrisy

2010-08-11T09:28:00.003-05:00

Kevin Jackson has a great piece up at his blog on the black man that murdered his white co-workers after he was caught stealing, and was told to resign or be fired for the theft.

Just when you thought racism was just political, Omar Thornton goes on a killing spree at his former job, saying that he had been “racially harassed,” making racism a reality. Only in reality, it was Omar who was the proven racist.

Thornton’s harassment? He was fired for stealing from his union job!

In the real world, when a person steals from the job, they get fired, and potentially go to jail. But when you are in a union and part of the post-racial world of Obama, you get some Crackers with your whine.

Read the whole article, it strikes at the heart of the matter. It highlights exquisitely why hate crimes are inherently racist, unfair and do nothing but violate the rights of one group over another. Crime is crime, and we already have laws on the books to protect victims. Hate crime laws punish based on a set of assumed circumstances. They should be repealed - or applied to ALL parties.

Illegals are dragging us down

2010-08-04T09:52:00.005-05:00

The Hill is reporting that Mitch McConnell wants congress to "take a look" at the 14th Amendment and its "chain migration" immigration addendum that Ted Kennedy added back in 1965.

Thank God! It is heartening to see that our GOP leadership is at least discussing the topic, because frankly, illegal immigration is a HUGE problem.

Even Lindey "Goober" Graham, who has worked with DummyCrats on the patheitc "immigration reform" in the past is now saying that “birthright citizenship is a mistake.”

Quote:“We should change our Constitution and say if you come illegally and you have a child, that child is automatically not a citizen."

Immigration is the linchpin which is pulling our economy down. No doubt the biggest culprit to date is the Fannie/Freddie fiasco in which DEMOCRATS used the CRA to pump money into the hands of minorities in order to buy their votes - all at taxpayer expense. Dodd, Frank and Gurelik all made millions on the scheme but no one has asked for a congressional hearing to investigate the crimes.

The homefront economic news is disheartening: 9.7% unemployment - 16% if you include those who have given up looking, record house foreclosures, tightening credit markets, commercial real estate is in the toilet, and we have The Tax Cheat Tim Geitner saying "Welcome to the Recovery"

Story and video here.

As taxes and government regulation continue to leak into our homes and bedrooms, the wealthy - who pay the lion-share of taxes - are curling up into a fetal position and husbanding their resources. Story here.

Obama and his Drones are in denial. Economic growth was only 2.4% in the second quarter but we're supposed to ignore the numbers and believe that the Recovery Fairy just dusted us with her magic powder.

When Reagan inherited an economy in recession - he moved government out of the way via Tax Cuts and slashes in government regulation. That spawned a 20 year boom in our markets and productivity. Obama is taking the opposite tact and is pushing us in the other direction with increased taxation, and a burgeoning leviathan of government bureaucrats. What effect will Obama's efforts have?

More unemployment, more inflation, more misery and more uncertainty.

In this current crisis, which Greenspan says will "double dip" thanks to Obama's incompetence; we will have to follow Arizona's lead and start enforcing our immigration laws for real. We have no choice - our economy, our citizens, our sovereignty, our culture and our People deserve it. We deserve better than to have ingrates rolling into our country, spitting out a baby or three and then saying "Donde esta mi cheque?"

Marxist Revolutionaries

2010-08-01T14:45:00.002-05:00

Alinsky quietly told his students that they needed to go out and 'do their thing' - "if you're a priest, be a priest! If you're a lawyer, be a lawyer! When the time comes you'll know what to do." What he meant was that his students should absorb their communist radicalism but not put it on public display. He forbade his students from using the 'c' word (communism) because it would 'put people off.'

Well Alinsky would be proud to see just how far his advise has taken Obama, Reid and Pelosi on their ascent to power. Democrats are now just an adjunct of the Federal government. They're not a party; the New Left has hijacked them and the MSM just plays along and hides the truth about the agendas. It's all subterfuge, all the time.

In this clip Beck is right. If JFK were running he'd be considered a conservative; he was pro-military and pro-business. It's bloody sad to see how low we've descended in 50 years.

Socialism

2010-07-31T23:18:00.004-05:00

It never fails to surprise, and to be honest - upset me, when I run into people who are avowed socialists. I met a couple tonight who are both Obama supporters; but interestingly they are both 'concerned' for the country and have been stocking food, water, supplies, gold and silver for when the whole country melts down.

Neither of them thought that socialist policies and Big Government expenditures had anything to do with our current crises. They are both very nice, very kind Liberals with great intentions but ZERO understanding of politics, history or economics.

(Incidentally there was a Marxist from the NYC there as well - No; I wasn't hanging out at ColdType's house)

The reason that the socialist set upset me is because there is so much information around us that proves, unequivocally, that socialism expands government and shrinks the individual. We know that communism murdered approximately 100 million people. These socialists brought up the issue of Wealth Distribution, claiming that 1% of the population controls 80% of the wealth. The number is bullshit because the CIA factbook breaks down the Lorenz curve for the US at around 45. But the real issue comes down to "So What?" - So what if 5% of the population controls 60% of the wealth? Whose business is it of yours to say how much one can earn or not earn? Are you taking risks? Do you have the acumen, stamina and drive to work for that kind of money?

This is the problem with socialism, and its dysfunctional cousins, we are all here on this earth for a finite amount of time. During this short 70 years, you make choices. You choose to stay away from your family to work so that you can use your money any way you wish: buy a new car, buy a new suit, save for retirement, purchase a vacation home or a jet ski or a widget; whatever. Socialism fails because it has the audacity to tell you how much you can take home from your earnings; all in the name of for the "good of the people."

The beauty of America, and the brilliance of our Founders come through in this small statement in the Declaration: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Our rights derive from GOD, not from a human being. If the rights were granted by a man, that man could take them away. But our rights come from God.

The 18 enumerated powers of the federal government within the Constitution attempt to keep tyranny at bay, but will only work when the voting population understands what is at risk. Right now many do not. They think that giving the government more and more of their power is a good thing, but governments in the past have shown that the powers granted are turned back upon the citizenry and the citizens get abused.

This is why the Marxists and socialists have been fierce in fighting to remove religion from our society, while attempting to subvert the family. They have done a tremendous amount of damage to the Black family. Prior to 1960, 70% of black families were married; in stable homes. At that time, only 23% of babies came from unwed mothers. After the Great Society programs launched, it effectively rewarded families who split apart. It rewarded dysfunction, divorce and drug use. Whatever you subsidize, you get more of.

And I can't post without getting around to our dear President, the historic one, remember? The one who was going to heal the planet, overcome racial divides, bring us together and mend our 'broken souls.' Yeah, that guy.

Well the American Thinker has an expose about the Post Racial President, and it turns out he's not Post Racial at all....

Remember the Cash for Clunkers boondoggle? The government program which subsidized $4,000 if you traded in your fuel-inefficient car for a new one? The same program which actually cost each taxpayer six-times more ($24,000)?

Obama closed dealerships that were minority or women owned. And, he also targeted SOUTHERN dealerships because they overwhelmingly voted for Obama's opponent in 2008. He's doesn't carry a grudge, does he?

Obama's little racist temper-tantrum via the dealership closings cost 100,000 Americans their jobs. This all comes from an Inspector Generals report and findings. I'm sure he's going to be fired any day now for blowing the whistle on the Anointed One.

What is America's biggest threat?

2010-06-14T22:54:00.001-05:00

An enlightening 8:54 video....

Saint Sarah?

2010-06-14T19:58:00.003-05:00

Newsweek changes its tune and runs a piece entitled "Saint Sarah" - but the piece carries on about superficial aspects of Palin's life, and brings up the "breast implants" issue.

RealClearPolitics - Video - Palin: "No I Have Not Had Implants"

Strangely no one has asked Joe "plugs" Biden if he's had hair transplants.

The strange double-standard continues. Palin gets skewered because she's conservative. If she was a douche-bag LibTard, it wouldn't even be an issue.

Obama on the Oil Spill

2010-06-14T19:52:00.003-05:00

Obama shows more than a little hubris in discussing how LITTLE he's done to help the Gulf Coast oil disaster. It took him 44 days to even respond.

And when he does it is something only a retarded incompetent would say:

Link here.

As I recall, they gave GW Bush 3 days before they were blaming him for not acting fast enough during the Katrina fall out. Kanye West even accused Bush of "hating black people."

I guess by Kanye's estimation, Obama hates black people even worse!

Superintendent's Blog 501

2010-06-14T19:39:00.003-05:00

I don't know if SCC tackled this issue but, if so, I want to add my two cents.

I saw this posted by J-Fraud himself over at the Blog 501.

I tried using the homan square gym as I have for the past several years. Unfortunately this time I was not able to get a locker to secure my belongings. There are guest lockers that always are taken and only a couple of people are using the gym. I talked to other officers who went to the gym and decided never to return because they could not get a locker. Can you contact the commander of OCD and have him take care of this issue.

Posted on May 22, 2010 at 08:10 AM CDT #

Superintendent's Response

:
Chief Brown has higher priorties than checking gym lockers. Here's an idea - go to a private gym. Chicago has quite a few, probably very close to your home. JW

Posted on May 25, 2010 at 11:05 AM CDT #

The pompous, elitist attitude comes right through in his reply. The department does very little to support its police officers. I know - I have had ride-alongs in other Illinois departments and I know first hand that we get gypped every day on the streets of Chicago.

So this copper gets on and asks the Supe if he can make a call just to free up some lockers down at Homan Square. The guy wants to exercise, and he'd like to take advantage of the facilities within a SECURE POLICE FACILITY.

Is that asking so much?

Your typical civilian might think so. The superintendent's response doesn't imply that it is not reasonable to look around your house for a gym, but if the city has spent thousands of dollars installing a work out area in Homan Square, does it not seem reasonable to ask for some lockers?

Of course it does, but typical for J-Fed - he doesn't get it. Instead of spending 5 seconds sending an email to Chief Brown, he spends that exact amount of time basically telling a Chicago police officer to go fuck himself.

Class act Weis; the rank and file can't wait until the day you take your sorry ass out of 35th street and crawl back to your Wonder Land and disappear forever.

Apologies

2010-05-31T09:59:00.002-05:00

My dear, Cherished readers. Apologies are in order.

Blogging has taken a back seat to other writing projects so posting through the end of the year will be sporadic. I will post things that I think are important or pressing but I won't be posting every day.

Thank you for coming back, reading and posting your comments. You're all, with the possible exception of Roscoe, the smartest people on the internet.

10-1 Benefit

2010-05-31T09:33:00.006-05:00

Officer James "Jimmy" Cordero from the 25th District was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma cancer on February 14, 2008. He was off work and being treated for it until September of 2008. On January 7, 2009 he had surgery to have a tumor removed, but in May of 2009 he was told the tumor was back. Jimmy's been off work since August 5, 2009. He's been on disability and has a large amount of medical bills piling up. Please show your support for one of our own.

The benefit will be held down at FOP Hall (1412 W. Washington) on Friday, June 25, 2010 from 6 to 11 pm.

Jimmy's a great guy and a great copper. He really needs our support. If you can't make the benefit, please contact one of the following and buy a ticket.

Commander Bob Lopez, unit 607
Commander Carlos Velez, 312-746-4496
Captain Juan Morado, unit 007
Sgt. Eric Winstrom, unit 025
German Gomez, unit 025
M. McDonough, unit 025
John Martinez, unit 025
Anne Belluomini, unit 025
Dave Koenig, unit 315
Cory Petracco, unit 315
Anne Zamzow, unit 025 (312-746-5090)
Marnie Coyne 312-746-4497

You can mail your check, payable to Benefit for James Cordero, to:
Chicago Police department
District 025
C/O; Anne Belluomini
5555 W. Grand Av.
Chicago, IL 60639

or

Fraternal Order of Police
C/O: James Cordero Benefit
1412 W. Washington
Chicago, IL 60607-1821

Here's the link to Jimmy's Facebook benefit page.

If you can't send money, then send a prayer.
Please spread the word and let's get this to go viral.

Viva Arizona!

2010-05-22T13:16:00.005-05:00

Border security has not been a priority for any administration over the last 10 years. Now, WSB News (Atlanta, GA) has found solid, credible evidence that jihadis are crossing the border and entering the United States.

Watch the piece here.

Of course it's a fact that many of the illegals are here, not to do the work that Americans won't do - which is a baldfaced slander of all Americans - but are here to do the CRIME that Americans don't want to do. Besides criminal activity, the wave of illegals costs money. This study shows that the opportunity costs in revenues lost for the US Treasury is $6 billion. Illegals also sap MORE of the social programs than they put in. We also don't know just who is coming across and setting up camp in our cities and towns: Are they convicted felons? Drug dealers? Gang-members? or Al-qaeda?

And most people know it, and overwhelmingly support Arizona's tough new law - especially the poor souls who populate the state of Arizona. Even Arizona's largest newspaper blames senators McCain and Kyl for their lackluster efforts at enforcing immigration laws. Arizona had no choice - it was either step up or give in.

Let's get a few thousand of these and tack them onto CPD cruisers. I love the message it would send: