Crime does not pay for convicted Ill. governor

Disgraced former Ill. Governor George H. Ryan got some more bad news this afternoon. A judge in Chicago ruled that the Kankakee Republican is not entitled to one penny of his pension--which until his conviction last year was $197,000 a year.

Ryan's attorneys, among his team is another former Illinois governor James R. Thomspon, were attempting to get part of Ryan's pension, about $65,000 a year worth which goes back to his time as a county official and state representative, into the hands of Ryan and his wife.

That's not going to happen--pending appeals of course.

It's believed that Ryan has no other income--and his only major asset is his Kankakee home.

Crime has not paid for George H. Ryan.

Technorati tags: Illinois George Ryan politics crime corruption Republicans

Finally, a cicada sighting

Well, call it an "almost cicada sighting." What's pictured is the molted skin of a nymph cicada. This bug emerged from the ground probably early today near my home in Morton Grove. Soon millions of the insects will swarm the skies in the Chicago area.

The nymph has spent the last 17 years underground, feeling of tree roots. In the next two weeks, it'll joined by million of other cicadas. They'll breed, the females will lay their eggs in narrow tree branches, then they'll die.

Shortly thereafter, the eggs will hatch, the young nymphs will fall to the ground, and 17 years later they'll emerge. It's a real circle of life.

Cicadas are loud--in fact they're the loudest of all insects, their wail reaches 90 decibels. The Chicago area will be a buggy--and loud--place in June.

Thanks for the link:

Rogers Park Bench

UPDATE June 1: Mark at WindyPundit was in the southwest suburbs, and the cicadas are more abundant there. He has pictures.

Technorati tags: cicadas cicada insects Chicago Morton Grove

Paris Hilton's influence: Tiny dogs being carried into "No Pets Allowed" areas

I've been noticing a new trend in the last six months. Little dogs being carried into places such as retail stores with very clear "No Pets Allowed" signage.

There's the future jailbird with her pet chihuahua, Tinkerbell.

I'm not against dogs per se, but Paris emulators, forgive me for being blunt, but "Can't you read?"

Going out on a limb, I'm going to state--without doing research--that Tinkerbell won't be allowed into the Los Angeles County Jail.

Technorati tags: Paris Hilton dogs dog chihuahua celebrity culture

Latvia elects new president

After two terms in office, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga is stepping aside, and today the Latvian parliament elected a new president, surgeon Valdis Zatlers.

Since Mrs. Marathon Pundit is from Latvia, I follow events there closely.

Vike-Freiberga was a multi-lingual psychologist who spent most of her adult life as a Canadian academic. She was a candidate to replace Kofi Annan as UN General Secretary.

Latvia has a small number of troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Valdis Zatlers comes with significant baggage. He's a former Soviet Communist Party member, and has admitted accepting "gratuities" from patients he treated.

Doctors are very poorly paid in the Baltic nation, and such side-payments are common, if not a sleazy way to supplement one's income there.

Latvia's northern neighbor, Estonia, has been feeling the brunt of Russia's ire in the way of riots by ethnic Russians there--which may have been orchestrated from Moscow--as well as cyber attacks very likely directed from there.

Having its own large Russian minority, relations between Latvia and Russia have been chilly since Latvia won its independence from the Soviet Union a few months before the dissolution of that nation. However, a border dispute between the two nations was recently resolved--in Russia's favor.

Mrs. and Little Marathon Pundit will be traveling to Latvia in July. I've been there a couple of times before, but there is too much going on at work for me to break away for more than a week.

She will be taking blog-related photographs while there.

Related posts:

News you probably missed: Latvian president addressed joint session of Congress

Russia's cyberwar on Estonia

Riots in Estonia expose wounds of Soviet occupation

Technorati tags: Estonia Eesti Russia Росси́я Latvia Latvija Vike-Freiberga Valdis Zatlers politics

Al Gore, genius

Yes, Al Gore, who had a lackluster record as a student at Harvard, and flunked out of Vanderbilt University's divinity school, and then attended Vanderbilt's law school, where he didn't earn a degree, is a genius. Just ask him. Or check with the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, who seems to have fallen in love with intellect of the former vice-president. Reading his column, I'm surprised Milbank didn't tell us that he dropped his pants during the Gore speech in Washington he reported on.

Pam Meister knows better, as she notes on her blog.

But the Gore-gons who attended the speech, and Milbank, believe Gore is too smart to be president.

I'm not convinced that he's even smart, let alone too smart to run the nation.

Technorati tags: Al Gore gore Democrats DC Vanderbilt

Name this bank

One of the major international business stories is the upcoming sale of LaSalle Bank, a longtime Chicago institution.

The LaSalle Bank, part of the Dutch ABN Amro financial group, owns the Chicago Marathon.

Great Britain-based Barclays PLC wants to buy ABN Amro, but part of the deal is that LaSalle is to be split off and sold to Bank of America. But the Royal Bank of Scotland, known in the USA as RBS, has initiated a hostile take over of ABN Amro--including LaSalle Bank--and the Chicago Marathon.

Meanwhile, the Morton Grove branch of LaSalle pictured here sits quietly--awaiting new signage once the deal is settled. And that might not be until July, since the Dutch Supreme Court will rule on whether ABN Amro shareholder can vote on the RBS bid.

And as I do every year, I'll be entered in the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. If RBS wins out, my guess is the LaSalle name will stick--with an RBS prefix.

Related post:

LaSalle Bank, owner of the Chicago Marathon, being sold to Bank of America

Technorati tags: marathon sports Chicago Marathon Chicago business banking Bank of America ABN AMRO LaSalle Bank RBS Royal Bank of Scotland Morton Grove

Prosecution rests in Conrad Black trial

In a story that's getting a lot of attention everywhere in the world--except in Chicagowhere the trial is taking place--the prosecution this afternoon has rested their case in the Conrad Black racketeering trial.

One count, a money laundering charge, has been dropped by the prosecution.

As I noted in an earlier post, Dominick Dunne and Mark Steyn are among the big-name writers in Chicago covering the trial of the former head of the Hollinger media empire. Newspapers that were part of the chain included the Jerusalem Post, Canada's National Post, the London Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Morton Grove Champion.

Related post:

Conrad Black trial not getting much attention in Chicago

Technorati tags: Conrad Black Dominick Dunne Mark Steyn crime law Canada UK Media Chicago

It's Bush's fault...

...or it could be because Cindy Sheehan is putting a boost in the economy by putting her Crawford, Texas property for sale.

From AP:

Wall Street advanced sharply Wednesday, sending the Standard & Poor's 500 index to its first record close in more than seven years, after minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting offered investors no major surprises about the economy. The Dow Jones industrials also reached a new high close.

Technorati tags: business stocks S & P economy Bush

Iowa Sears boots two cops out of store for wearing uniforms

This is how retail works: You unlock the door in the morning, you staff the store, you stock the shelves, and welcome customers in.

If a couple of customers some in dressed in their police uniforms, you treat them as any other customer.

Except at a Sears store in Des Moines, Iowa.

From the Des Moines Register:

Sears corporate officials Tuesday apologized to two police officers who were told to leave the retailer's store at Merle Hay Mall in Des Moines because their uniforms were a distraction to store security personnel.

"I was dumbfounded," Officer Richard Glade said. "I said, 'You've got to be kidding me.' "

Kimberly Freely, a spokeswoman at the Illinois headquarters of Sears' corporate parent, initially called the incident a "mix-up." She did not elaborate, but later, in a written statement, she described the episode as a case of mistaken identity.

"Our store management was attempting to address an ongoing issue of excessive socialization between mall security officers and store associates, which had been hampering associates' productivity," Freely's statement read. "In no way was this an attempt to prevent on- or off-duty officers from shopping at our store. Sears is issuing a formal apology to the Des Moines Police Department through store management, and we look forward to serving all members of the Des Monies community."

Complete idiocy. Sears used to be America's largest retailer, and it's pretty easy to see why they've taken a fall. Morons run the show there.

Three weeks earlier, another Des Moines cop in uniform was booted out of the store.

The last time I was in Des Moines, I noticed other retailers besides Sears.

Technorati tags: retail news Sears business Des Moines Iowa police law enforcement

Fred Thompson's campaign to be born after the Fourth of July

A few years ago I read--I think it was in the National Review--that Tennessee was a good place for a president to come from.

I don't believe they had Al Gore in mind.

The reasoning was this: It's a little eastern, geographically, it's southern, but not Deep South, it's close to the Midwest, and its early heroes, Andrew Jackson and Davy Crockett, were cowboys before cowboys existed.

In short, many Americans can relate to the state.

And since Fred Thompson is a common fixture on our television screens via Law and Order, America may relate to Fred. He's expected to announce his run for the presidency after the July 4 holiday.

The Republican field will get a little more crowded, but perhaps by then, one of the weaker candidates, such as Wisconsin's Tommy Thompson, will have dropped out. His only hope for support is to get confused for Fred.

The picture? Taken at the Cumberland Gap last fall.

Related post: Cumberland Gap: Where the West was first won

Thanks for link: Leslie's Omnibus

Technorati tags: republican politics election 2008 Fred Thompson Tennessee Tommy Thompson

Father of Chicago alderman charged in phony ID ring

Earlier this year, Ricky Munoz won reelection to his seat as alderman Chicago's 22nd Ward on the city's southwest side.

But last month, federal agents raided a retail photo studio in the ward that allegedly was part of a plot to produce phony identification cards. The owner of the shop is Elias Munoz, Ricky's father.

From ABC 7 Chicago:

Federal agents allege that a ring of fake ID sellers that operated for at least 3 1/2 years in the parking lot of a Little Village strip mall routinely sent their customers -- sometimes over 100 a day -- to Nuevo Foto Munoz, 3105 W. 26th St., to fill out forms and have their pictures taken for $10 each. At another location, the counterfeiters used the snapshots to make bogus Social Security cards, green cards and driver's licenses.

I don't think I paid more than six dollars for my passport photo I got last winter at a Morton Grove Walgreens; I live in a middle class part of the Chicago area, and Munoz's ward, well, let's just say it's not in prosperous part of the metropolis. So $10 for a similar pic is a bit high. But part of the senior Munoz' defense will be that he was just taking photographs.

This is just a new twist on an old story: Not only do Chicago aldermen seem to find themselves in trouble with the law, so do their relatives--and this time it's Elias Munoz, father of Ald. Ricky (who has not been implicated).

Technorati tags: fake ID forgery crime Chicago politics Illinois

Islamic Society of Boston drops lawsuit against David Project, others

Earlier this month, friend of the blog Solomonia out in Boston put together a superb piece of original reporting called The Silencing.

Pulling a page from the CAIR playbook, the Islamic Society of Boston sued
Tthe David Project, Boston Herald, Fox-TV, and others for defamation. Simply put, the group, who is building a mosque in the Hub City's Roxbury neighborhood, has pretty clear ties to radical groups.

Rather than cleanse itself of these elements and coming clean, the Islamic Society of Boston decided to sue.

Surely, the Society thought the defendants would cave in and fall on their swords in collective PC guilt. But as Andy Whitehead of Anti-CAIR did in his legal tussle with CAIR, the Boston defendants held their ground.

And it was the Islamic Society of Boston who caved in.

Stand up to jerks like these. They're not used to people fighting back.

Pete Townshend of The Who phrased it best in "The Dirty Jobs" from his Quadrophenia masterpiece:

My karma tells me
You've been screwed again.
If you let them do it to you
You've got yourself to blame.
It's you who feels the pain
It's you that feels ashamed.

Don't feel ashamed when you fight for your rights.

Metaphorically speaking only of course, you should make the other side feel the pain when getting hit with a frivolous lawsuit.

Here is an excerpt from The David Project press release announcing the dropping of the suit by the ISB:

The David Project has announced that the Islamic Society of Boston ("ISB") and its officers have withdrawn all of their claims against all of the citizens who raised concerns about the ISB, its funding and its leadership, as well as all of their claims against the Boston Herald, Fox-TV and the various journalists whose investigative pieces about the ISB in 2003 and 2004 disclosed damaging information about the ISB and its controversial land deal with the Boston Redevelopment Authority ("BRA"). The ISB and its officers have abandoned all of their claims against all of the defendants they sued 2 years ago, without payment to the ISB or to them of any money whatsoever.

The ISB's decision to drop all of its claims against all of the 17 defendants it sued back in 2005 alleging "defamation" and accusing them of conspiring to violate its civil rights comes just months after the defendants--who included a Muslim cleric, a Christian political science professor and the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors, as well as Boston civic leader William Sapers and national terrorism expert Steven Emerson--had begun through their lawyers to conduct discovery into the ISB's financial records, its receipt of millions of dollars in funding from Saudi Arabian and other Middle Eastern sources, its contributions to certain organizations and the records of certain of its officers and directors. The ISB's abandonment of its lawsuits comes only weeks after two of its original Middle Eastern Trustees, Walid Fitaihi of Saudi Arabia and Ali Tobah of Egypt, suddenly resigned as Trustees just before they were required to submit themselves to the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts court hearing the case.

The David Project, whose public records litigation against the BRA forced the public disclosure of evidence regarding the below-fair-market land deal between the BRA and the ISB and the role played in that deal of BRA Deputy Director Muhammed Ali Salaam, will proceed exactly as before with its litigation, seeking the remainder of the documents presently withheld by the BRA. That litigation, The David Project v. Boston Redevelopment Authority, is on file in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.

"We were determined from the beginning to act the way citizens should, by asking questions about this matter and by refusing to be intimidated into staying silent," said David Project founder and President Charles Jacobs, "and we intend to continue as we have before. Indeed, the evidence that has emerged about the transaction, about the BRA's failure to do due diligence into those whom it chose to subsidize and about the funding and the leadership of the organization that received this public subsidy is of extremely deep concern. That evidence not only vindicates the reporting of the courageous journalists whose investigative work broke the story back in 2003 and 2004, but validates many times over the concerns expressed by the good and decent citizens—Muslims, Christians and Jews- who refused to stay silent."

"Those citizens were vilified by the ISB for having had the courage to speak out", said Jacobs. "The ISB's abandonment of its claims without payment of one dollar to them, coming as it does as the ISB was ordered to turn over evidence, speaks more eloquently than anything else could about the truth of what these citizens said, about the validity of their concerns, and about the lack of merit to the ISB's allegations that they had been 'defamed' and had been financially 'damaged'. Above all, the ISB's ultimate abandonment of its lawsuits speaks eloquently about the importance of refusing to be bullied and intimidated into silence."

"This has never been about the right of all people to worship, and to construct houses of worship, which is an important right possessed equally by all people, warranting great respect," said Jacobs. "What it has been about is specific evidence about specific leaders of a specific organization, and about evidence regarding the funding of that organization and those whom it, in turn, was funding. The threat of Islamic extremism in the United States and elsewhere is a real one. Many of the most courageous and forceful individuals speaking out about this threat are themselves Muslims, and they deserve the support of all of us. The victory we have achieved in this case is a victory for many, but perhaps especially for them, as it bolsters and encourages them, and sends a message on their behalf that intimidation will not work."

ISB's dropping of the defamation suit is another victory for the blogosphere. It's effect is perhaps not as immediately apparent as the Rathergate episode, but its impact may end up being just as profound.

Martin Solomon of Solomonia has been blogging on this case for at least a couple years. Well, done, man. Relax and have a Samuel Adams.

Related post:

In Boston: A place worse than the Bridgeview Mosque

Technorati tags: law religion islam muslims Boston massachusetts CAIR

Obama universal health care plan means higher taxes

Fresh from his "No politics, please" appearance in New Hampshire, my junior Democratic senator, Barack Obama, unveiled his universal health care in Iowa City this morning, as the Des Moines Register reports:

Presidential candidate Barack Obama's plan for universal health care for all Americans requires $50 billion to $65 billion in new revenue, according to estimates released this morning by his campaign.

The campaign suggested tax increases for the wealthiest Americans may be the way Obama would pay for his plan. The campaign released estimates from the Urban/Brookings Tax Policy Center saying the money could be raised by restoring the top two personal income tax brackets and rates on dividends and capital gains to Clinton-era levels.

A vote for Obama is a vote for higher taxes.

Related post:

Obama in NH: Memorial Day not for politics

Technorati tags: Democrats Obama politics Barack Obama 2008 election Memorial Day Iowa taxeshealth care

Hillary got $4,000 donation from high school student

Hillary Clinton just might have made a very strong impression on suburban Chicago high school student, Cameron Ramsdell in 2003. Or is there another explanation?

From the Reverse Spin blog:

While Barack Obama tries to draw fine lines on who he will accept money from, his presidential opponent Hillary Clinton has shown she has no boundaries whatsoever. She is taking it from convicted criminals, accused sexual harassers and privacy pirates. Add Illinois high schoolers to that bottomless list.

According to the Federal Election Commission, Hillary took $4,000 from a Cameron Ramsdell, student, Bannockburn, IL., on Dec. 29, 2003. The FEC lists his address as 1200 Valley Road. In 2003, a Cameron Ramsdell was playing football at Lake Forest Academy, a private high school.

Most high schoolers don’t have $4,000 lying around to give away and those who do are not going to give it to a U.S. Senator from another state.

Unless, of course, his mother or other relative is an employee for a company whose top officials have given Hillary more than $150,000 over the last several years and one that could strongly benefit from a Clinton presidency. Valerie Ramsdell has been a top official for Buffalo Grove-based International Profit Associates, a business consulting firm in the cross hairs of state and federal governments for alleged fraud and blatant company wide sexual harassment. Her $4,000 donation to Hillary two weeks prior to Cameron’s listed the same 1200 Valley Road address.

Dan Curry, a good friend of mine, has been following the Hillary/International Profit Associates connection at Reverse Spin.

This 2004 NBC 5 Chicago article sums up the IPA scandal:

Feds Investigate Harassment Allegations At Suburban Company, More Than 100 People Allege Sexual Harassment

Thanks for the link:

Blogmeister USA

Technorati tags: politics 2008 election Illinois Democrats Hillary hillary clinton scandal

Russia vs. Estonia: More than cyberwar

Russia's deliberate cyberwar versus Estonia isn't the only method of attempted destabilization against its Baltic neighbor. The Baltic Times is reporting that Russia financed a tiny ethnic-Russian opposition party in Estonia's general election in March.

In addition to being an EU member, Estonia is in NATO as well. An attack against one, is an attack against all.

The Security Police poured oil into the fire of Estonia’s inter-ethnic relations last week after releasing its annual report in which the law enforcement agency claimed that Russia has financed political movements whose aim is the destabilization of the Baltic state. The Security Police singled out the Constitution Party, whose predominantly Russian constituents failed to win any seats in the March general elections, as a project created to undermine Estonia. The agency even accused the Russian Embassy of financing the upstart party.

Related posts:

Russia's cyberwar on Estonia

Riots in Estonia expose wounds of Soviet occupation

Technorati tags: Estonia Eesti Russia Росси́я technology tech NATO

Ill. GOP may hold Aug. presidential straw poll

It's almost a certainty that the Illinois primary will move up a few weeks and be held on February 5. The Democratic-controlled Illinois State Legislature chose the earlier date to help its favorite son, Barack Obama. He'll win Illinois anyway, but the move puts the state in play for the Republicans, and with that in mind, Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that the state Republican Party may organize a GOP presidential straw poll on August 16--five days after the Iowa version.

Let's hope that happens, and I'm able to blog it. Hopefully Andy McKenna, who lives just north of me in Glenview, will see the wisdom in holding the straw poll in Chicago, or near O'Hare Airport.

Technorati tags: Illinois Republican 2008 election

Obama in NH: Memorial Day not for politics

Sen. Barack Obama said today that Memorial Day should not be politicized--while campaigning in New Hampshire for president.

Oops.

Technorati tags: Democrats Obama politics Barack Obama 2008 election Memorial Day New Hampshire

Canadian man looking for women to kick his groin

As I've written before, I could make this stuff up, but that's too much work for me.

From AP:

Police in Ontario said today they're looking for a man who allegedly approached women and asked them to kick him in the groin.

Three women reported similar incidents to police over the past two months, and two of the women reported the suspect was on a bicycle. None of the women were injured. News service reports didn't say whether any of them kicked him.

Police Sgt. Cate Welsh said today the man’s request is not a crime, but they are concerned nonetheless.

"That kind of behavior tends to be a precursor to sexual assault. That’s what we’re trying to determine," Welsh said.

As Ann Landers would succinctly phrase it, the clearly disturbed man should "Seek therapy." And he should do it immediately, because from what I've heard from the Canadian health care system, there could be a very long wait before a psychiatrist becomes available for him. I suggest a male shrink for soprano man.

Thanks for the link: Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

Technorati tags: Canada ontario mental health health humor humour weird

Helmut Jahn's nearby building

Architect Helmut Jahn has a world-wide presence with the many building's he's designed. At least in the Chicago area, his most famous structures are Chicago's State of Illinois Building, and the United Airlines Terminal at O'Hare Airport.

One of his lesser-known works is the Shure Building on the corner of Touhy and Lehigh in Niles, Illinois, located just a half mile east of the Niles Leaning Tower.

I took this photo about an hour ago from Lehigh. Those are the Milwaukee Road railroad tracks in the foreground.

The HA-LO Corporation was originally the primary tenant of the building, but they had to unload the building after a 2002 bankruptcy.

Technorati tags: Helmut Jahn Architecture photography photo Niles Chicago illinois Shure

Great organization: Operation Support Our Troops--Illinois

Mark Draughan over at WindyPundit tipped me off to this organization, Operation Support Our Troops-Illinois.

It was founded in 2003 by Deb Rickert, and they've shipped over 12,000 boxes of goods to our overseas troops. Not everything a soldier or sailor needs can be easily picked up the the base.

What do our troops need?

Canned Fruit (16 oz.)
Crackers (Standard 14.4 box) to put Peanut Butter and Tuna on
Beef Jerky/Slim Jims
Nuts in a 20 oz. or less container; no glass please

Shower Bag Items:
Shaving Cream
Deodorant
Hand lotion (no pump tops please)
Body wash (16 oz or smaller—no bars of soap, please)
Foot Powder (20 oz. or less)
Socks – Black or White Men’s Crew Socks

Cold drink mix for bottled water (such as Crystal Lite To Go) and powered Gatorade; Coffee (Tea bag style of coffee or packets such as from a hotel) and/or 1 lb. ground coffee
Unscented baby wipes
Pringles (in a tall canister
Jelly (20 oz. or less; plastic only, please) & Peanut Butter (20 oz. or less)

Seasonal Items:
Bug Spray (non aerosol)
Fly Strips
Fly swatters (short handles are best for shipping)
Sunscreen

Operation Support our Troops has drop off sites throughout the Chicago area. If you live elsewhere, there is a PayPal account where donations are being accepted.

On July 21 in west suburban Wheaton, a fundraiser-concert will take place for Operation Support our Troops--Illinois, featuring Gary Sinise's Lt. Dan Band. Dennis Miller will be there too.

Sinise is best known of course for his role as "Lt. Dan" in Forrest Gump and he's currently appearing in CSI-New York. A big supporter of our troops, Sinise is a Chicago area native.

Technorati tags: Gary Sinise csi csi new york Illinois military Armed Forces

Bill Richardson telling tall tales again

Back in the 1960s, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson began making the claim that he had been drafted by the Kansas City Athletics baseball team. In 2005, he was forced to admit that it never happened.

Although he says he recalls the event differently, it appears Richardson has been caught fibbing again, as AP reports:

Presidential hopeful Bill Richardson said Sunday he will stop using the name of a Marine from New Mexico who was killed in Iraq and whose story the Democratic governor has recounted while campaigning.

Richardson has told how he attended a memorial service three years ago for Lance Cpl. Aaron Austin, 21, who was killed in April 2004. The governor said Austin's mother, De'on Miller of Lovington, N.M., thanked him for the federal death benefits she had received. Miller says the conversation about money never took place.

Richardson, who said the conversation inspired him to ask the New Mexico Legislature for a now- passed death benefit for members of the state's National Guard, was asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether he would stop citing Austin and Miller.

Related posts:

Bill Richardson résumé padding flashback: Being drafted by the Kansas City Athletics

Park Ridge, Illinois surrounded by farms? A Hillary fib?

Technorati tags: politics 2008 election Democrats New Mexico baseball

The intolerance of Islam

Here's another ex-Muslim who is facing trouble because she converted to Christianity.

From AP:

Lina Joy has been disowned by her family, shunned by friends and forced into hiding -- all because she renounced Islam and embraced Christianity in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Now, after a seven-year legal struggle, Malaysia's highest court will decide on Wednesday whether her constitutional right to choose her religion overrides an Islamic law that prohibits Malay Muslims from leaving Islam.

Thanks for the link: Backyard Conservative

Technorati tags: Islam religion Malaysia Muslims Christianity christian

Memorial Day in Morton Grove, Illinois

I either run or drive past the Morton Grove World War I monument every day.

Four Morton Grove men didn't make it home after sailing off to fight in the Great War, and they are remembered here today.

Edward A. Baumhardt
Jacob P. Baumhardt, Jr.
Frank M. Boemmer
Henry G. Glauner
Frank M. Stezskal

Technorati tags: World War I Memorial Day patriotism history armed forces Morton Grove Illinois

Elitist idiocy in Belgium on headscarves

Some people, particularly journalists and intellectuals, just don't get it.

From Expatica Belgium:

One in three people in Belgium is bothered by women wearing headscarves in public places. Just over half even would prefer that they be banned in certain places. Intolerance and racism are at the root of these negative views on headscarves.

This was the conclusion drawn by the religious faculty's centre for psychology at the Catholic University of Louvain-La-Neuve after two studies into the Belgians' attitude towards headscarves.

Some 69 percent of those asked see the headscarf as a sign of oppression and 53.3 percent thinks wearing one goes entirely against modern western values. Some 44.6 percent are disturbed by someone wearing a headscarf at school.

The researchers said that this study is evidence that society still has a long way to go in the fight against racism and intolerance.

Note the irony that the study comes from a Catholic university. Did the researchers, as well as the moron who wrote the article, every consider that the respondents feel sorry for the women wearing headscarves? These women are of course treated as second class citizens in the European Muslim ghettoes, not by native born Belgians, but by Muslim men of course.

Perhaps the "racists" thinks its time for these immigrants to assimilate and enjoy the benefits of Western life.

As for "intolerance," just how tolerant are Muslim imams in Belgium in regards to gays, Jews, apostates, or on opposition to "honor killings" and female circumcision? Or wife beating?

The people of Belgium seem to possess a lot of common sense. Unlike the media and intellectual elite there. They're worse than ours.

Technorati tags: Belgium belgique belgie nieuws Islam Muslims Muslim women

Australia: Court says its okay for gay bar to ban straights

Australia is usually one of those rare places where common sense prevails. But that's not the situation in Melbourne today, as a court there ruled that a gay bar can ban heterosexuals.

From News.com Australia:

VCAT deputy president Cate McKenzie said if heterosexual men and women came into the venue in large groups, their number might be enough to swamp the gay male patrons.

"This would undermine or destroy the atmosphere which the company wishes to create," Ms McKenzie said in her findings.

"Sometimes heterosexual groups and lesbian groups insult and deride and are even physically violent towards the gay male patrons."

Some women even booked hens' nights at the venue using the gay patrons as entertainment, Ms McKenzie said.

"To regard the gay male patrons of the venue as providing an entertainment or spectacle to be stared at, as one would at an animal at a zoo, devalues and dehumanizes them," she said.

If they heterosexuals are physically violent towards the gay men, then the police should be called. I'm curious about the claim on lesbians doing the same thing.

Technorati tags: gay lesbian Australia melbourne law

Irony from a Saudi general

The man in charge of the prisons in Saudi Arabia is Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Harithy. And he's not a happy man. A Saudi Arabia based human rights organization found much to criticize about the prison system he runs, as the Arab News reports:

Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Harithy, the director general of prisons, said yesterday that prisoners in the Kingdom were not tortured or beaten on a large scale, and that beatings were "individual cases," which should not be generalized.

Al-Harithy was referring to a report released last week by the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) in Saudi Arabia. "Regulations, directives and the constitution state clearly that there should not be any violations against prisoners. ... There are, however, individual mistakes, but that rarely happens. And if it does happen, then prisoner rights are fulfilled by punishing offenders," he said.

In its first report on human rights in Saudi Arabia, the NSHR said some people remain in prison even after they have completed their term. It said in some cases inmates were beaten or tortured for confessions and sometimes they missed appeal court hearings because prison authorities forgot to remind them.

I'm used to reading stories--there are so many of them--about Saudis abusing human rights, so the last part of this paragraph naturually caught my eye:

Al-Harithy criticized visits by foreign human rights groups to the Kingdom, which recently included prison visits by Human Rights Watch. "We do not need foreign organizations to come here and teach our sons and daughters human rights. We are obliged to protect human rights by ourselves without anyone coming from outside and implying that we have to care about human rights in 'the land of humanity'," he said.

(Bold print emphasis is mine.)

Land of humanity? Saudi Arabia? Hey general, drinking alcohol is against the law in your nation.

Or perhaps it was a typo. Perhaps General Al-Harithy meant "land of inhumanity."

Related post: Saudi Arabia's "Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice"

Technorati tags: Saudi Arabia Saudis Wahhabis human rights prisoner abuse المملكة prisons torture

Red, white and blue in Morton Grove, Illinois

The Bringer Inn bar is Morton Grove, Illinois' oldest building, and this afternoon it was showing its patriotic colors to those walking or driving past the popular watering hole.





Related posts:

WorldNet Daily gets it wrong on my hometown

Morton Grove mosque construction

Morton Grove: Local heroes

Technorati tags: Morton Grove Memorial Day Illinois Americana

Friday marks 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper album

On Friday it's okay to sing "It was forty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play..."

On June 1, 1967, The Beatles released their landmark album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

It solidified the album, as opposed the the 3 minute single, as the preeminent artful expression in rock music. The artwork was revolutionary as well, which in turn made record albums a visually artistic experience.

But the emergence of the compact disc as the dominant recording standard has literally narrowed the window for album cover artists.

The surviving Beatles will not be active participants in the Pepper anniversary. Paul McCartney is busy plugging upcoming album, Memory Almost Full, and Ringo Starr, in a recent interview, stated that he prefers the group's White Album and Revolver over Sgt. Pepper.

Related post:

Beatles "reunion" very inclusive, but no Pete Best

Technorati tags: Beatles paul mccartney ringo starr music rock history culture

Husband and wife plan to challenge Rep. Bean in 2008

Three years ago moderate Democrat Melissa Bean toppled longtime conservative stalwart Phil Crane to represent Chicago's northwest suburbs in Congress.

Crane overstayed his welcome.

Last week Bean was one of the few Democrats who voted for the Iraq war bill that President Bush signed yesterday, something that did not go unnoticed by the Scheurer family of Lindenhurst, Illinois. Bill Scheurer was a 2004 primary opponent of Bean's, and angered by her support of the CAFTA bill--a bill that greatly benefited the constituents of Bean's Eighth District--Scheurer against Bean in the 2006 general election representing something called the Illinois Moderate Party.

He got over 5 percent of the vote, which makes it easy for his "party" to get on the ballot next year and oppose Bean again.

But that's not good enough for the Scheurers. An anti-war zealot like her husband, Randi Scheurer plans to oppose Bean in the Democratic primary.

Bean was targeted by the national Republican Party for defeat in 2006, but she topped her well-funded opponent. True, it was a bad year for the GOP, but Bean's congressional seat with her name on it appears to be safe, barring reapportionment problems if Illinois loses a seat after the 2010 census.

Sadly, reapportionment appears to be my best hope in ridding my radical congresswoman, Jan Schakowksy, from Congress. But my guess is that Republican Mark Kirk, who represents Chicago's North Shore, has the most to fear after 2010.

The Sheurers operate a web site, Honk4Peace.org. Whereas they may support peace, they certainly don't respect peace and quiet.

Hat tip to Cal Skinner at the McHenry County Blog for the story.

Technorati tags: politics Illinois Congress Melissa Bean Schakowsky anti-war activism Democrats

Michelle Obama shares her favorite Hyde Park spots

Michelle Obama has had a tough week, so it probably was a relief for her to get involved in a softball story for Mark Konkol's Chicago Sun-Times Neighborhoods column.

The Obamas used to live in Hyde Park on Chicago's South Side, but they've moved into that controversial mansion just north of there in Kenwood. Often the neighborhoods are considered one and the same, and that's the way Michelle Obama seems to view it.

Mrs. Obama spoke with Konkol about her favorite Hyde Park hangouts.

"I love living in Hyde Park, so close to so many of our friends and family," Michelle says. "The community is diverse and very family-oriented, and, as the mom of two daughters, I really appreciate that."

Besides, Hyde Park is where the Obamas shared their first kiss -- outside the Baskin Robbins on 53rd and Dorchester.

Family suppers out often include a pie at Pizza Capri, or Caribbean grub at Calypso in Harper Square.

Back when they could blend into a crowd, the Obamas would take their girls to enjoy the lake breeze at Promontory Point. For years, the Obamas have shopped at 57th Street Books.

No supermarkets were mentioned in Michelle's list of favorites. The only grocery store I know of in the neighborhood is the Hyde Park Co-op. It's long on old world charm, but short on low-priced goods.

Here's how one Hyde Parker described the grocery store situation there last month in the Chicago "free registration required" Tribune:

"I'm curious why major grocers don't come to our neighborhood," said Esterly, who lives in a portion of Hyde Park that is identified as a food desert. "We pretty much have only one grocery store, and it's not a major grocery store."

The Hyde Park Co-op supermarket at East 55th Street and South Lake Park Avenue is down the street from the townhouse Esterly shares with her husband and two young children.

But Esterly, 34, said she stopped shopping at the Co-op years ago, turned off by what she considered high prices and poor quality of produce.

Earlier this year, the Chicago Tribune identified Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood as a "food desert," an area without a low-priced supermarket. The situation became acute in parts of Chicago after Safeway-owned Dominick's closed about a dozen supermarkets in the city.

Wal-Mart and Target, two national big boxes viewed with suspicion by labor and some Democratic politicians, would love to fill the void inside the "food deserts." Senator Obama is a vocal opponent of Wal-Mart, but of course that didn't stop his wife from until this week serving on the board of directors of a major Wal-Mart supplier.

Of course a US Senator's duties go way beyond city zoning issues, but local politician might his lead if Obama decides--which isn't likely as long as he is a presidential candidate--to tune out the anti-Wal-Mart netroots.

Not everyone in Hyde Park has a car, and lugging bag loads of groceries on a bus or an el train is quite cumbersome.

Lets hope Mr. and Mrs. Obama figure that out one day.

Related posts:

Michelle Obama quits board of big Wal-Mart supplier

Chicago's "food deserts" well known to Obama

Big-box shy Chicago facing "food desert"

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama politics 2008 election Wal-Mart business retail Chicago Target

Happy 100th Birthday, John Wayne

John Wayne's heavy smoking habit ensured he wouldn't join the ranks of Hollywood centenarians such George Burns and Bob Hope, but today would've been the Duke's 100th birthday had he lived.

The ultimate movie cowboy was born somewhat east of the 100th meridian in Winterset, Iowa, which can be reached from the De Soto exit off of Interstate 80 in the central part of the state.

And the Hawkeyes are whooping it up in Winterset, with a full weekend of festivities there.

One of Wayne's sons, Ethan, is there to celebrate. Interesting first name. I wonder if the choice of it had anything to do with The Duke's character, Ethan Edwards, in perhaps his greatest film, John Ford's The Searchers.

Technorati tags: John Wayne Iowa Americana movies filmWesterns

Kentucky girl knows true meaning of Memorial Day

There's a girl in Kentucky who knows that Memorial Day is more than parades and picnics. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

A teenager's determination to honor veterans means that some 3,400 graves of Civil War soldiers will each bear a carnation on Memorial Day.

Marina Hillis, a 13-year-old East Jessamine Middle School student, has raised $1,500 over the last month so she could purchase flowers for the graves of forgotten and unknown soldiers.

Of the nearly 14,000 graves at Camp Nelson, 3,400 are Union soldiers; of those, some 1,200 are unidentified. A stone wall separates that section from the more recent graves.

"I just felt that people that were forgotten weren't really getting any visitors," Marina said. "I didn't realize there were so many out there, but I'm determined to do it."

Technorati tags: Kentucky civil war american history Memorial Day military gravestones cemeteries

Al-Sadr stronghold raided

What took us so long?

A day after radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr resurfaced to end nearly four months in hiding and demand U.S. troops leave Iraq, American forces raided his Sadr City stronghold and killed five suspected militia fighters in air strikes Saturday.

U.S. and Iraqi forces called in the air strikes after a raid in which they captured a "suspected terrorist cell leader," the U.S. military said in statement.

The statement claimed the captured man was "the suspected leader in a secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training."

Technorati tags: Al-Sadr iraq military war on terror

Niles Leaning Tower

If America is really the land of borrowed culture, a good symbol of that is located a mile south of Morton Grove in the Chicago suburb of Niles, Illinois.

That's not the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the picture I took this afternoon, but the Niles counterpart on Touhy Avenue. It's a slightly more than half-scale replica of the more famous one. Pisa's lean is a bit more extreme, too.

Niles has a number of sister cities; one of them, of course, is Pisa.

Related posts:

Niles, Illinois sunset

Archaeologically digging deep in doo-doo

Technorati tags: Niles Chicago sunset photos photography Illinois Pisa Leaning Tower

White Sox beat Devil Rays, but Buehrle fails again to win 100th

Chicago White Sox picher Mark Buehrle threw well, but for the fourth straight time, the lefty failed to win his 100th game.

Just four other Sox pitchers have cracked the century mark, and three of them, Ed Walsh, Ted Lyons, and Red Faber, are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The fourth, Joel Horlen, was the last White Sox hurler to pitch a no-hitter in Chicago--until Buehrle threw one last month.

The White Sox beat the Tampa Day Devil Rays 5-4. Joe Crede, who missed the series against the Oakland Athletics because a minor injury, drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning.

James Shields, an underrated pitcher, started for Tampa Bay. Like Buehrle, he didn't figure into the decision, but Shields is off to a good start this year. He has a 3-0 record with just a 3.15 earned run average.

The Devil Rays have a good young team. If they can keep these guys in Tampa Bay, the Rays may finally move out of the AL East cellar in a year or two.

Related posts:

Almost perfect: White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle throws no-hitter

White Sox avoid sweep, beat Cubs

April 30, 1922: Baseball's first "perfect" game

Technorati tags: baseball White Sox Chicago White Sox MLB Tampa Bay Devil Rays Buehrle James Shields

Obama and Hillary flip flop on war bill

Rather than showing stength and leadership--scroll down to the Sanity Squad post on that topic, Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton voted against the war funding bill that President Bush will sign tomorrow.

Both senators went back on their promise not to withhold funding for our troops in Iraq.

Rudy Giuliani phrased it well, saying, "They've gone from an anti-war position to an anti-military, anti-troops position."

But John McCain hit a home run with his comment, "This vote may win favor with MoveOn and liberal primary voters, but it's the equivalent of waving a white flag to al-Qaida."

Clearly Obama and HRC are trying to buff up their anti-war credentials for the netroots.

To show how far the pair positioned themselves on this bill, my other senator, Dick Durbin, voted for it.

Technorati tags: Barack Obama politics 2008 election Illinois Democrats Hillary hillary clinton flip flop Giuliani Rudy dick durbin McCain

Pajamas Blog Week in Review celebrates its first anniversary

There is another blog birthday this week. Pajamas Media's Blog Week in Review is a year old this week. Sans Eric Umansky, the other first edition BWIR panelists are back: Moderator Austin Bay, and guests Tammy Bruce and Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds.

The Democratic-controlled Congress is their first topic, and the podcastees don't like what they see.

With the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as France's president, New Europe is becoming like old Europe. Why? Maybe America isn't as hated as much as we thought there, and Vladimir Putin's thuggish Russia has Europeans a little tense.

BWIR is exquisitely produced by Ed Driscoll and sponsored by Volvo USA. Listen to or download the podcast here. Or download for free at the iTunes site.

Technorati tags: war on terror iPod itunes podcast blog Volvo Pajamas Media Congress Democrats France francaise Français Sarkozy nicolas sarkozy politique

University of Illinois: "Hookers are Praised as Soldiers" –Marathon Pundit's Third Investigative Report

Monday is Memorial Day, and during the picnics and parades, and yes, 5K runs, please take time to think of the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country--as well as those in the military now. Sadly, it was around this time last year that some of our War on Terror veterans, got their rescind letters from the University of Illinois College of Business.

Note: I apologize in advance to my readers for language you are about to read, they are not-safe-for work. Minimize your screen if your boss walks by. A couple of words may offend you, but they are not mine. In order to accurately report this story, it is necessary to quote others without censure.)

Earlier posts on this topic:

Broken promises: How "jarheads" got shunted aside at the University of Illinois: A Marathon Pundit series

Marathon Pundit Exclusive: What happened behind the scenes of the University of Illinois veteran scholarship scandal

And now we turn to part three.

Too many jarheads will bias the class demographic.

That alleged statement has bothered me from day one of this story. Either it was said or not said. There is no middle ground. On one hand, Robert van der Hooning, the former Assistant Dean for the University of Illinois College of Business in Chicago, charges the term "jarheads" was used often and in a disparaging way.

On the other hand, and on multiple occasions, the U of I has denied that College of Business Dean Avijit Ghosh, Associate Dean Larry DeBrock and Department of Finance Chair David Ikenberry ever called veterans "jarheads."

Ironically, while nobody at the U of I has come up with a plausible explanation about why some "quick-admit" veterans were quickly "un-admitted," then quickly "re-admitted," during the time the B-school was actively recruiting non-veteran students, university public relations officials have vehemently and repeatedly denied the "jarhead" slur:

I know they do not speak that way" (Associated Press)
"...allegations are ridiculous to the point of absurdity. Especially egregious are the alleged quotes from College administrators” (College of Business website)
"I can't believe anybody who works for this university in responsible roles like the ones he described would make such a comment." (ABC 7 Chicago)

Evidently, U of I officials feel such insensitive and ugly language would never be uttered by senior college administrators. Only a cheap-shot artist, such as the now unemployed Imus, would say something like that. Senior college officials--deans, associate deans and department chairmen wouldn’t speak that way. It's ridiculous to think otherwise. Nobody at the University in such a responsible role would ever use language like that. Right? University public relations officials even lashed out against the university's de facto newspaper, the Daily Illini, for running a 2-part story on the scandal and reporting administrator’s use of the slur, "jarhead."

As Shakespeare wrote hundreds of years ago, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." - Hamlet (III, ii, 239)

A shocking and highly disturbing email uncovered by Marathon Pundit paints a starkly different picture of the real environment and Imus language used by senior administrators at the College. Just after the veteran scholarship program was launched, Associate Dean Larry DeBrock, who was responsible for academic affairs and faculty staffing, referred to his own colleagues in email as "hookers" and "high-priced hookers" while personally agreeing to teach additional classes in Chicago if he was paid well enough.

DeBrock writes:

So, if you are telling folks they need to drive 3.5 hours… teach 3 hours, and drive back 3.5 hours, they need (to be) compensated. And your 37.5 is nice compensation. But, high priced hookers are still hookers. But, BUT, B U T , if you bring in 70 students and the college nets 3.5 million, the hookers are praised as soldiers. They are cheered by smiling faculty waving UIUC flags lining the roadside while they ride back into town.

Perhaps Imus has a brother in Champaign--Larry DeBrock.

If the asociate dean for academic affairs – the one who authored the letter to rescind veterans' admission to the MBA program and forged van der Hooning’s signature last Memorial Day – writes about his own colleagues as "high priced hookers," how much of a stretch is it to imagine he would refer to veterans as "jarheads?"

I have one question for Professor DeBrock: How about lining the streets and waving US flags for our soldiers and veterans instead on Memorial Day.

I have another question for the university: How do you feel about having Dean Imus on your faculty?

The University of Illinois football teams play at Memorial Stadium, it's dedicated to the memory of the Illini soldiers who paid the ultimate price while fighting for their country in World War I. While attending games there, and walking past the stately building--I lived in a dorm nearby my first two years there, I thought about the real "Fighting Illini" and why the field was named Memorial Stadium.

Man, how things have changed in Urbana. Instead of waving American flags for real soldiers, now we have "hookers praised as soldiers cheered by smiling faculty waving UIUC flags." But only if the price is right.

Early last year, the University of Illinois promised 110 full-ride MBA scholarships to members of the military. Fewer were delivered.

The picture? That's the University of Illinois quadrangle in Urbana. Over 1,000 people wore red, white, or blue shirts to create the flag.

Related post: Congress puts new focus on veterans' education

Technorati tags: Illini illinois university of illinois uiuc Military iraq war on terror Afghanistan college education MBA Daily Illini Memorial Day patriotism World War I armed forces

Car problems

Mrs. Marathon Pundit had a car issue--which turned out to be a minor problem, but it took up most of my morning. Posts are coming.

Sanity Squad sings, "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?"

Actually they don't sing, but the four Sanity Squad panelists are wondering what ever happened to classic Winston Churchill style leaders.

Siggy reminded me that Jimmy Carter--an example of someone who was not and is not a leader--shouldn't be remembered as a disgrace based only on the Iran fiasco we are still dealing with, but during his failed presidency, the prime interest rate hit the unprecedented level of 21 percent.

Consensus has its virtues, but ruling by consensus in a way another southern Democrat did for eight years isn't wise, Neo-Neocon explains. She adds:

The old testament prophets did not go out and ask for consensus.

Later the Iron Lady stated:

What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner "I stand for consensus."

Shrinkwrapped and Dr. Sanity round out the foursome.

Oh, for those interested, my last six posts were tied to Illinois in one way or another. Illinois native Ronald Reagan figures prominently in the podcast, so the streak continues.

Listen to or download the podcast here. Or make life easy by signing for a free subscription at the iTunes site.

Related post: Dutch Reagan and Tampico, 95 years later

Technorati tags: current affairs iPod itunes podcast blog mental health Iran Jimmy Carter UK Reagan Illinois Winston Churchill Margaret Thatcher

Blagojevich signs anti-horse slaughter bill

On the day I called him "Gov. Do Nothing," Illinois' reclusive governor, Democrat Rod Blagojevich, did something. He signed a bill banning the slaughter of horses for human consumption.

That effectively ends horse-slaughtering in the United States. Belgian firm Cavel operated a horse slaughterhouse in DeKalb, Illinois, the last such meat processing plant in the country. Two Texas slaughterhouses closed earlier this year.

The meat from those plants was shipped overseas.

Related posts:

Bo Derek rallies horse slaughter opponents to victory in Ill. House

Horse of a different color on abandoned equines story

Abandoned horses in Eastern Kentucky

Horses reprieve from slaughterhouse only temporary: UPDATED

Hey, another horse slaughter post

Last US horse slaughterhouse shut down, unwanted horse problem will worsen

Technorati tags: horses horse law business animal activism animal rights animals Illinois slaughter politics Cavel Belgium belgique belgie DeKalb Blagojevich

Happy Birthday to Peoria Pundits' Bill Dennis

He sneaked it in his blog, but Happy Birthday--a day late--to Bill Dennis of Peoria Pundits.

Technorati tags: Peoria Illinois blogging birthday

Illinois' "Gov. Do Nothing"

Governor Rod Blagojevich broke precedent by being the first governor not to live in the Governor's Mansion in Springfield, choosing to operate out an office in the sprawling State of Illinois building in Chicago's Loop.

Once known as "Governor Elvis" for his boisterous public appearances, lately he's been acting like another American icon who died in the 1970s, the reclusive Howard Hughes. And Eric Krol of the Daily Herald is reporting that Blagojevich doesn't even make the ten-mile trip downtown to his office, preferring to use a nearby location to, I guess, work.

Keep in mind that being governor in the nation's fifth most-populous state is supposed to be a full-time job.

Dan Curry at Reverse Spin adds more:

Rod has done a good job of hiding his laziness over the years. When he first campaigned for governor in 2002, the TV airwaves were filled with Rod running back and forth across the street at community parades, his arms flailing like the inept high school basketball player he was. That, combined with an unprecedented blitz of advertising fueled by his bandit campaign treasury, created an image of Rod as a fast-moving, energetic politician. He does move fast when he moves. The truth is, when it comes to government, he doesn't move that much. He didn't in the state Legislature, in Congress, or the Governor's mansion. According to one source very close to Rod, he curtailed his minimal governmental activity sharply once the federal investigation stories began to appear in 2005. His trips to the downtown governor's office ceased almost completely. He spends most of his time reading books and jogging.

Related post: Bad day for Blagojevich: Feds subpoena gov's campaign records

Technorati tags: Illinois Chicago Blagojevich corruption graft

Hastert might retire

Dennis Hastert, who one year ago was third in line for the presidency, is now just a minority party representative for a suburban rural district in northern Illinois. He may announcing his retirement this summer.

Waiting in the wings is Jim "Obi-Wan" Oberweis, a political gadfly and dairy owner who might have finally found the political position he can buy.

Technorati tags: Hastert politics Illinois Oberweis Congress

Illinois doctors wary on Wal-Mart clinics

Add some doctors to the people who have a problem with Wal-Mart. According to the Financial Times, Illinois may impose restrictions on "walk-in" clinics being planned not just by Wal-Mart, but CVS, and Walgreens.

Advocates say the clinics will improve access to healthcare and reduce costs; that they will reduce more expensive visits to hospital emergency rooms; and that they will catch some illnesses before they become serious and costly. As a result, physicians will have more time for complex cases.

But the clinics also have a direct impact on doctors, who see themselves as the gatekeepers of common, everyday healthcare.

Dr Rodney Osborn, president of the Illinois State Medical Society, said: "This is a brand new animal. That’s why we believe legislation is important to guarantee patient safety ... They’re not putting these things in to provide healthcare; these people are businessmen."

What a bunch of crap. Doctors are businessmen and businesswomen too. But they're not the best at delivering good business services.

Most doctor's offices, those not in hospitals, usually are in bad locations, with minimal parking available, and cramped waiting rooms stocked with magazines from the Bill Clinton era.

The Illinois State Medical Society and its doctors only want to preserve its near-monopoly of heatlh care services

Dr. Arnold Millstein told Financial Times:

[Doctors] wrap themselves in the holy garb of quality ... completely ignoring the facts that all the research shows current care stinks. The weaknesses that are endemic in the current healthcare system are being trotted out to block innovation and change.

The retail walk-in clinics are a good idea. Many people are afraid of visiting doctors, and a medical office in a store like Wal-Mart might assuage those fears. And for those who don't have health insurance, paying out of pocket will be less expensive than visiting those offices with all those old magazines.

Technorati tags: politics illinois Wal-Mart Business healthcare medical

Superdawg, Chicago Northwest Side's entry in "1,000 Places to See Before You Die"

The book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life List has many of the places you'd expect in such a journal, The Louvre Museum, Luxor in Eqypt, Yellowstone National Park, and one you'd be surprised to find, the Superdawg drive-in on Chicago's Northwest Side.

Superdawg is about 10 minutes from my home in Morton Grove, where Milwaukee, Devon, and Nagle Avenues meet.

Just like Fonzie's hangout Arnold's on TV's Happy Days, Superdawg is a true drive-in. You can park you car at a station, and a server will come out and take your order, and you can eat in your vehicle.

I took this photo about an hour ago with my digital. Superdawg's lot was packed with customers on this summer like evening.

Technorati tags: Chicago metroblogging books Americana Northwest Side photography photos restaurant culture

Ex-Dem Senator Kerrey: Stay in Iraq

Former Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE), best known for being a one-time boyfriend of actress Debra Winger, is a Lieberman-type Democrat--he thinks we should stay in Iraq--not cut-and-run.

Bob Kerrey, who served with honor in Vietnam, should not be confused with John Kerry, who liked to talk about it.

From the Omaha World-Herald:

Kerrey said that if the United States shows weakness in Iraq, it will "pay a terrible price."

"The forces of al-Qaida have demonstrated a tremendous capacity, and they'll use that capacity if we withdraw from the playing field," said Kerrey, a former two-term U.S. senator.

In the interview, Kerrey also had a message for fellow Democrats: "Just because George Bush said it doesn't mean it's wrong."

He also disputed those who say democracy cannot be imposed by force. He said the United States did so with success in Japan, Germany and Bosnia.

Kerrey is considering having a second-go in the Senate if Nebraska cut-and-runner Chuck Hagel, the Ogre of Omaha, retires.

Hagel, nominally a Republican, is considering a run for the presidency. Eww!

Related post: Online poll on Chuck Hagel: Retire now

Technorati tags: Hagel republican politics election 2008 Nebraska Omaha RINO Kerrey Iraq war on terror al qaida Democrat

Light posting....

Today turned into a crazy one...Everything is fine, though.

Bad day for Blagojevich: Feds subpoena gov's campaign records

The Chicago "free registration required" Tribune is reporting in an exclusive this morning that federal authoroties have subpoenaed the campaign records of Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat.

The recent move is the first public indication that political financial records belonging to the governor are being sought. Sources describe the subpoena as the latest step in an ongoing investigation that has focused on major players in the record-breaking fundraising effort that propelled Blagojevich to consecutive terms.

Blagojevich has steadfastly refused to answer questions about the federal investigation, including specifics of why his campaign has paid the prominent law firm Winston & Strawn nearly $1 million since 2003. But constant questions about the probe have continued to follow the governor and present a political liability as he has sharply curtailed his public schedule even while pressing an ambitious legislative agenda in Springfield.

Is there a Tony Rezko angle? Of course!

In a parallel investigation, federal prosecutors last fall charged top Blagojevich fundraiser and confidant Antoin "Tony" Rezko with soliciting a $1.5 million political contribution as part of a kickback scheme at a state pension board. Sources told the Tribune the contribution was intended for Friends of Blagojevich, the governor's campaign fund.

In a plea agreement with another political insider just a week before Blagojevich's re-election last fall, federal authorities alleged that Rezko and another top Blagojevich fundraiser schemed almost from the beginning of the administration to use their new-found influence for corrupt purposes. Sources identified roofing contractor Christopher Kelly, the governor's former campaign chairman, as the other fundraiser

Winston & Strawn is the law firm that is performing pro bono defense work for convicted former Governor George Ryan, a Republican.

Related posts:

More Obama and Rezko

Obama watch: More Tony Rezko

Tony Rezko, con artist and slumlord

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama Illinois Chicago Tony Rezko Blagojevich corruption graft

Michelle Obama quits board of big Wal-Mart supplier

The Chicago Tribune is reporting tonight that Michelle Obama has resigned her board of directors' position with the TreeHouse Foods. Her husband, presidential candidate Barack Obama, has been a frequent critic of the world's largest corporation and told a union crowd just last week, "I won't shop there."

The Tribune reports that Michelle Obama made a little more than $100,000 last year for serving on the board of Treehouse.

More...

In recent weeks, Obama supporters have maintained that the tie between Michelle Obama and Wal-Mart was a loose one. TreeHouse, based in west suburban Westchester, is one of many suppliers to the retailing giant and provides a small portion of its merchandise, they said.

But critics have noted that TreeHouse depends heavily on Wal-Mart for its business, according to the company's annual report.

In Michelle's own words, here is why she quit:

As my campaign commitments continue to ramp up, it is becoming more difficult for me to provide the type of focus I would like on my professional responsibilities.

But just two days ago, she explained things differently to ABC News:

When asked if she had considered resigning from her position, Michelle said that ultimately any changes that she made would be based on her own moral and ethical compass.

"I'm going to have to make a range of changes in my life. I've reduced my work hours at work. I will probably have to take a leave at some point. I will probably not be able to maintain my commitments," she said. "But if I make a change, it's going to be based on ... what I think is right."

That doesn't sound like someone who was within a couple of days of quitting.

It looks like Barack Obama's people are reading the blogs closely.

Related posts:

The Obamas: The Audacity of hypocrisy

Obama and Wal-Mart

More Obama: Wife serves on board of company whose biggest customer is Wal-Mart

Wal to Wal Hillary coverage

Hat tip to Tom Mannis at Rogers Park Bench.

UPDATE 11:37 PM CDT: Here is a free AP link on the story.

UPDATE May 23: Just last month, the Chicago Sun-Times reports, Michelle Obama was re-elected to a term on its board ending in 2010. Until the uproar began, one can surmise, Michelle appears to have been planning to stick around at TreeHouse.

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama politics 2008 election Wal-Mart business retail TreeHouse Chicago

Bad news for America: Younger Muslims more likely to support suicide bombing

Immigration, legal and even illegal, is supposed to work like this: People come from another country, some married, some not. Often immigrants marry someone from their own ethnic group. The offspring of such marriages become Americanized, and later assimilate into "the melting pot."

But a disturbing report came out today. In a Pew Research poll of Muslims.

From CBS News:

While nearly 80 percent of U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings of civilians to defend Islam cannot be justified, 13 percent say they can be, at least rarely.

That sentiment is strongest among those younger than 30. Two percent of them say it can often be justified, 13 percent say sometimes and 11 percent say rarely.

"It is a hair-raising number," said Radwan Masmoudi, president of the Washington-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, which promotes the compatibility of Islam with democracy.

He said most supporters of the attacks likely assumed the context was a fight against occupation — a term Muslims often use to describe the conflict with Israel.

I don't care what religion you adhere to: Suicide bombings are always wrong. If you believe otherwise, despite whatever papers you have that say otherwise, you should not consider yourself an American.

There is more bad new from the Pew poll. From its findings, Pew says that only 40 percent of US Muslims believe Arab men carried out the 9/11 attacks.

The survey reports that five percent of America's Muslims have a positive view of al-Qaeda. Since Pew estimates that there are 2.35 million followers of Islam living in the United States, that means there could be 111,700 al-Qaeda supporters here--that's about as many people who live in Peoria, Illinois.

But about one quarter of the polll respondents did not express an opinion.

Oh, about those 2.35 million Muslims here. CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, claimed six years ago that seven million Muslims were living in the United States. Time for CAIR to count again. Both sides might be wrong on the correct number, but I'm willing to guess that Pew is much closer to the real number.

On the flipside of the Pew poll, Muslims living here overwhelming have a positive view of American sociey.

Technorati tags: CAIR Muslim islam Radical Islam الإسلام USA suicide bombings

Blogs for Borders vBurst from the Freedom Folks

Chicago's guardians of the borders, MJ and Jake of the Freedom Folks, are back with another Blogs for Borders vBurst.

If you know anything about their blog, it won't take too much of a guess to ascertain that the duo aren't big fans of the proposed immigration bill.

They give an award this time, the Jackass of the Week. I won't give out the winner, but let's just say this jackass is a Dem donkey who probably has several trophy cases filled with such awards.

Technorati tags: illegal immigration border politics Democrats Amnesty

Missing Haloscan comments: UPDATED!

With the exception of the current month, all of my Haloscan comments have vansished, including the legendary thread in response to my horse-slaughter post. Apparently this has been a problem on other blogs for almost three months.

There out there somewhere, I just want them back.

Also, I've noticed it's been about a month since I've gotten a trackback link. Same problem?

I wondered if Haloscan has helped this guy out?

ZUCHT! Opnieuw probleem met Comment service [Haloscan]

Het probleem bij Haloscan herhaalt zich: Problemen met commentaar- & trackback-service.

Het probleem is echter ernstiger want nu is het niet alleen zo dat reacties onzichtbaar zijn ... ook reageren kan nu niet meer.

Update 17:59: Probleem opgelost.

UPDATED May 25: Haloscan fixed the problem. Good work, guys!

Technorati tags: Haloscan blogs blog weblog trackback

Wal-Mart video on West Side Chicago store

On Chicago's West Side, there is an alderman, Emma Mitts, who welcomed with open arms the city's first Wal-Mart into the impoverished Austin neighborhood.

As I've written several times, the gritty West Side has has little in the way of decent retail stores to service the people that live there.

Mitts is aware of this, and in a Wal-Mart video, explains, "When no one wants to come it, you have Wal-Mart who is willing to come in."

And there are a lot of new jobs--four hundred of them--courtesy of the new store; there were 15,000 applicants for those positions

Many Chicago alderman, led by anti-Wal-Mart zealot Joe Moore, fight to keep the retail king out of Chicago. As is the case with leftists, Moore is more interested in broadly fighting for "the people" rather that giving folks what they want: jobs and a way to save money.

Watch the video here. Hat tip to my pal Marshall Manson of Edelman for the video.

Related posts: Ald. Joe Moore, Retail Genius

Chicago's first Wal-Mart brings $500K to Chicago in sales tax revenue in six months

Big-box shy Chicago facing "food desert"

Thanks for the link: Rogers Park Bench

Technorati tags: Joe Moore elections politics Chicago illinois Wal-Mart Business Emma MittsThe Left

Sen. Harkin doesn't want Shrek to promote junk food

The last time I saw Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), he was on TV with an idiotic grin, clapping during Howard Dean's "I Have a Scream" speech after the 2004 Iowa caucuses.

Some of that insanity has rubbed off--Harkin has joined the "Nanny State" crowd, and has the world's favorite ogre, Shrek, on his target list.

Senator Tom Harkin wants Shrek to shape up.

The Iowa Democrat is criticizing the producers of the new movie "Shrek the Third" for allowing the green ogre to promote snack food, candy and other products.

Harkin, a proponent of decreasing childhood obesity, sent a letter to Jeffrey Katzenberg, the head of DreamWorks Animation, Shrek's creator, objecting to the movie's commercial partnerships promoting snack and junk foods.

Yaaarraagghh!!!!

Hat tip to Peoria Pundits.

Thanks for the link: Freedom Folks

Technorati tags: Shrek movies dreamworks Harkin democratspolitics iowa senate nanny state

Holocaust overshadows Ahmadinejad visit to Belarus

The world's foremost holocaust-denier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, visited Belarus and its dictator-president, Alexander Lukashenko, yesterday in Minsk.

The Holocaust hit Belarus hard, and one brave Belarussian, Yakov Basin, deputy head of the Union of Jewish Associations of Belarus, spoke out against Ahmadinejad.

How is it possible to invite a person, the leader of a state, who thinks that in order to resolve the Middle East problem it is necessary to destroy a whole state and people?"

It's shameful to talk with a man who today plays the role of a modern Hitler.

Related post: Ahmadinejad visit to Belarus will be an ironic one

Technorati tags: Belarus Беларусь holocaust خبر حقوق بشر محمود מדינת Ahmadinejad holocaust denial Lukashenko

Illegal Wisconsin voter speaks from prison

The 2004 election in Wisconsin, particularly in Milwaukee County, were a mess.

A reasonable person can argue that the Democrats stole the election from President Bush.

"Operation Elephant Takeover" was a scheme in which some paid staffers of the Democratic Party, including the adult children of two Milwaukee politicians, slashed the tires of over 100 vans rented by the Milwaukee Republican Party for an 2004 election day "get out the vote effort."

Four of the five defendants in the case received jail time for their criminal acts.

Leading up to that election, the Republican Party challenged the legitimacy of 5,600 registered voters on the Milwaukee voter rolls.

John Kerry eked out at 12,000 victory over President Bush that year.

Today's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes about another troublemaker from that year, Kimberly Prude. A convicted felon who worked as a volunteer on the Kerry-Edwards campaign, she's now in serving time in prison for illegally voting in the presidential election.

Rather than accepting her fate, Prude initially tried to state her case through the media.

I tried to get help in the beginning, I wrote Oprah (Winfrey's) O Magazine. I got my daughter to call certain talk show hosts, Montel Williams, Maury Povich. There was no interest.

That's as it should be.

More from the Journal-Sentinel:

On Oct. 22, 2004, she volunteered for a rally that featured the Rev. Al Sharpton. As the rally ended, Sharpton encouraged the crowd to follow him to City Hall, where people could register to vote. Prude joined the crowd, registered to vote and then submitted an absentee ballot. While waiting in line, she said, she heard someone asking for people to work the election-day polls. Prude signed up.

Later, Prude said she notified her parole agent that she had a job as a poll worker and the agent told her she couldn't vote. Prude claimed she called the election commission to attempt to withdraw her ballot but that a person she spoke with told her not to worry about the vote.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling said Prude's story "changed repeatedly."

Once again, another case of Democrats cheating on election day.

Related posts:

Lawsuit alleges vote fraud in last week's 49th Ward election in Chicago

Kentucky man pleads guilty in vote-buying case

Convicted vote thief joined by top local Dems at his pre-prison going away party

Thanks for the link: Rogers Park Bench

Technorati tags: elections politics vote fraud election fraud law Wisconsin milwaukee crime

The Obamas: The Audacity of Hypocrisy

"I won't shop there." That's what Sen. Barack Obama says about Wal-Mart.

He took several swipes at the retail giant in his best-selling book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.


But that does not stop his wife Michelle from serving on the board of directors, a paid position, for TreeHouse Foods, a company whose biggest customer is Wal-Mart.

Michelle Obama spoke about that quandary in an ABC News interview, in language that seems straight out of "Coached Answers 101."

When asked if she had considered resigning from her position, Michelle said that ultimately any changes that she made would be based on her own moral and ethical compass.

"I'm going to have to make a range of changes in my life. I've reduced my work hours at work. I will probably have to take a leave at some point. I will probably not be able to maintain my commitments," she said. "But if I make a change, it's going to be based on ... what I think is right."

As for her job being a conflict of interest, she maintains that her husband isn't changing his views based on her job.

"Barack is gonna say what needs to be said, and it's not going to, you know, necessarily matter ... what I'm doing if it's not the right thing," she said. "He's going to do what's right for ... the country. He's going to speak out. And he's going to, you know, implement his views as he sees fit. ... I see no conflict in that."

Blah.

The Obamas are hypocrites in at least one other area. While they choose to motor around Chicago in a gas-guzzling car, the senator sees no problem in telling Detroit to build more hybrid vehicles.

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama hybrids green detroit automobiles cars politics 2008 election Wal-Mart business retail

Lebanon burning

I am under no illusions that Iraq is a stable nation, but if you want an idea of what it's future could be if we leave, turn on a cable news channel and see live coverage of thick smoke pouring out of a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

The Lebanese army is shelling the camp, which appears to be controlled by a terror group, Fatah Islam, which has ties to al Qaeda. This being Lebanon, it's somewhat surprising that Hezbollah is not involved.

Technorati tags: Fatah Islam Lebanon terrorism لبنان Middle East

Lieberman talking sense on Iraq

Barack Obama continues to play up his anti-Iraq war credentials as he criss-crosses the country to campaign for president--and raise money.

For more than a week, Obama has been calling out senators — not by name, but by implication — when he campaigns in their states. Until Saturday, he had pointed the finger only at Republican lawmakers.

But on Saturday night he was to attend a private fund-raiser in Connecticut, home state of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the former Democratic nominee for vice president, who voted with Republicans on the withdrawal measure.

Lieberman did the right thing, and he eloquently explained his stance in a recent speech:

"It is my deeply held conviction," Lieberman said, "that these people are not only wrong, they are disastrously wrong - and that the withdrawal they demand would be a moral and security catastrophe for the U.S., for Iraq, and the entire Middle East, including Israel, and our moderate Arab allies" An American defeat in Iraq Lieberman said, would be a victory for Al Qaeda and Iran, two of the bitterest enemies the free world is facing. It would vindicate our enemies’ perception of America as "weak" and as easily driven by the threat of terrorism. Moreover, it would confirm the fears of our friends - not only in Iraq, but also throughout the world – "that we are unreliable allies who will abandon them in the face of danger."

If we leave Iraq, and a horrific terrorist attack occurs under President Obama's watch, I wonder how he will react? Will he run to the United Nations?

Technorati tags: Democrats Obama Barack Obama politics 2008 election Lieberman Iraq terrorism

Obama: Not always "The Messiah" in Illinois

I took this photo on my way to work yesterday--yes on a Sunday--late this afternoon. It's important for two reasons--this is the first Obama presidential bumpersticker I've seen, and secondly, because of the partially torn-bumper sticker to the right.

When Obama announced his candidacy for the US Senate in late 2003, he was given much of a chance to make it out of the Democratic primary. Multi-millionaire Blair Hull dominated the airwaves and billboards promoting his candidacy, but once details of his messy divorce became public, he imploded. Much of the Illinois Democratic establishment lined up behind Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, his father Dan was a longtime political force in Cook County politics. But Hynes ran a lackluster campaign, and Obama cruised to victory in the primary, and then destroyed Alan Keyes in the general election.

But this Morton Grove Democrat and current Obama presidential supporter didn't view Obama as "The Messiah" in 2004, the owner of the vehicle, who had at least a dozen other bumperstickers supporting various Democrats emblazoned on the car, was a Hynes supporter then.

So was Cairo, Illinois' Ed Smith, a powerful member of the Laborers' Union and a figure in Obama's book The Audacity of Hope.

Technorati tags: Obama Barack Obama politics 2008 election Illinois Democrats

White Sox avoid sweep, beat Cubs

Yes, I was silent on the first two games of Chicago's Crosstown Classic, and I'm well aware that I didn't post on the first two games of the series, in which the Chicago Cubs defeated the Chicago White Sox.

Before Cub trolls beat me to the punch, I wasn't able to watch the first two games--I was at work. Today I was able to tune in, and it was for me the game to watch, the South Siders defeated the North Siders 10-6 at Wrigley Field.

For White Sox fans, the game was especially good. Right hander Nick Masset, pitching in his first major league start, was the winning pitcher. A two out rally started off inauspiciously for the Sox after Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano hit Sox shortstop Juan Uribe by a pitch. The next two batters were walked, and the most-hated (by Cubs fan) player on the White Sox, catcher A.J. Pierzynski, hit a grand slam. It was the pivotal moment of a seven run seventh for the South Siders, and easily the highlight of the weekend for Pierzynski, who feeds off of Cub fan anger.

As he rounded first base, Pierzynski pumped his fist in excitement -- very similar to Derrek Lee's show of emotion after his pinch-hit grand slam on Saturday. The White Sox fans in attendance tried to drown out the jeers with chants of Pierzynski's name.

"People boo me all the time, so it's nothing new," Pierzynski said. "The more people boo, the more I laugh, so it relaxes me more. If they cheered for me, I wouldn't know what to do. It's just part of my makeup, and you just want to prove a lot of people wrong."

Sox slugger and Peoria, Illinois native Jim Thome was one of the runs Pierzynski pushed into home with his four-bagger. The Sox broadcast crew mentioned that Thome was the showed up at Wrigley Field at 7:00am--he was scheduled to come off of the disabled list not until the next day. Thome grew up a Cub fan.

The White Sox are off to a so-so start, but somehow are still within reach of the Central Division leading Cleveland Indians and second place Detroit. The Sox are in third, with injury-plagued Minnesota fading in fourth place. The Central is arguably baseball's toughest divison. The Kansas City Royals are where everyone expected them to be--mired in last.

This weekend was "Rivarly Weekend" in Major League Baseball interleague play. Besides the Crosstown Classic, other interesting matchups were the Indians and the Cincinnati Reds, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Florida Marlins, the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros, and the Washington Nationals paired with the Baltimore Orioles. The Los Angeles teams met, as did the two New York teams, along with the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants.

A couple of states separate the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals, but these teams met in last year's World Series. The Cardinals won the 2005 title by besting the Tigers four games to one, but this weekend it was the Tigers' turn to dominate--they swept the Cards at Comerica Park.

Related posts:

St. Louis Cardinals World Series trophy comes to Springfield

April 30, 1922: Baseball's first "perfect" game

Almost perfect: White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle throws no-hitter

American Thinker's Richard Baehr on upcoming sale of Chicago Cubs

Chicago Crosstown Classic: Cub fans pelt field with garbage after Pierzynski homer

Technorati tags: illinois baseball st. louis cardinals White Sox Chicago White Sox world series Detroit Tigers A.J. Pierzynski Jim Thome Peoria mlb Cubs chicago cubs

Online poll on Chuck Hagel: Retire now

I'm fully aware that online polls are unscientific. Of course one could argue the same about Zogby polls.

But today's Omaha World-Herald gave me a laugh. Here is today's online poll, about the "Ogre of Omaha," Chuck Hagel:

Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel is still flirting with the idea of running for president as an independent. What would you advise him to do?

• Run for president as a Republican. (59)

• Run for president as an independent. (133)

• Run for re-election to the Senate. (167)

• Retire from politics. (509)

• I have no opinion. (29)

The votes as of 3:00PM CDT are in parentheses.

I selected the second-to-last option.

Although he is a cut-and-runner, Hagel is not a nut like Ron Paul. If he does decide to run for president, especially as a Republican, he'll be linked with Paul--just like salt and pepper.

Technorati tags: Hagel cut-and-run Ron Paul republican politics election 2008 Nebraska Omaha RINO

Marathoners tackle Great Wall of China

The Newton Hills portion of the Boston Marathon is the toughest running obstacle I've come across in my running experience. But I've never been to China and run in the marathon there that confronts its magnificent Great Wall.

From AP:

About 1,200 runners ran Saturday — 450 in the marathon and the rest in the half marathon and 5- and 10-kilometer courses.

Runners completing the marathon have to negotiate the Great Wall twice — a total of four miles.

The 3,800 jagged steps are battering. Some are flat and slick, many are giant-size, and others are little more than pulverized rock made dangerous by a lack of walls on parts of the course.

Add to this 91-degree heat Saturday that baked this portion of China’s most famous symbol, a stretch called the Huang Ya Guan pass, about 80 miles from Beijing.

The winning time was 3 hours, 23 minutes, 10 seconds, performed by Spaniard Salvador Calvo, whose personal marathon best is 2:32.

As for myself, I slept late today--so it's time to go running. The Chicago Marathon is in five months.

On a related note, there is a drive to set up a new Seven Wonders of The World list. Of the generally agreed upon seven wonders, only Egypt's Great Pyramids still stand. As for a new group of seven wonders, it's pretty hard to imagine one without the Great Wall of China.

Technorati tags: Running marathon run China 中國 中国 Great Wall history

Russia's cyberwar on Estonia

Little Estonia, the Baltic State with just over a million residents, is apparently perceived as a threat by much larger Russia.

Relations between Estonia and Russia have been poor for years. There is a border dispute between the two neighbors, and the large Russian speaking minority in Estonia feels it is discriminated against because of the nation's tough native language laws used as a requirement for citizenship.

Estonia recently joined NATO and the European Union, over the protests of Russia.

South of Estonia is Latvia--there's a chill between Latvia and Russia as well for the same reasons, although a longstanding border row between the two appears to be on the verge of being resolved--in Russia's favor.

Of course the controversy last month over the moving of a Red Army memorial from the center of of the Estonian capital Tallinn, and the riots that followed, appears to have been the catalyst of a cyber war from Russia against Estonia.

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit states it well:

If Russia doesn't watch out, they're going to find people quarantining them, electronically and otherwise.

Related posts:

Riots in Estonia expose wounds of Soviet occupation

First record of Christmas trees comes from Latvia

Thanks for the link: Эстония в мировых СМИ

Technorati tags: Estonia tallinn Latvia Latvija Eesti Russia Росси́я technology tech

Wal to Wal Hillary coverage

Last year John Edwards and Barack Obama were shown to be hypocrites when their anti-Wal-Mart stances became yet another "Do as I say, not as I do" situation Democrats seem to find themselves in in regards to the world of commerce.

The New York Times' Michael Barbaro, who pretty much owns the Wal-Mart beat at the Old Gray Lady, is tough on Hillary, as he is often with Wal-Mart itelf:

Mrs. Clinton’s six-year tenure as a director of Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest company, remains a little known chapter in her closely scrutinized career. And it is little known for a reason. Mrs. Clinton rarely, if ever, discusses it, leaving her board membership out of her speeches and off her campaign Web site.

Fellow board members and company executives, who have not spoken publicly about her role at Wal-Mart, say Mrs. Clinton used her position to champion personal causes, like the need for more women in management and a comprehensive environmental program, despite being Wal-Mart’s only female director, the youngest and arguably the least experienced in business. On other topics, like Wal-Mart’s vehement anti-unionism, for example, she was largely silent, they said.

Barbaro notes as a Wal-Mart bord member, HRC was "offered her about $15,000 a year for her time, generally four meetings a year."

That's a pretty soft gig, especially since she didn't have to travel far to Bentonville, Arkansas for those meetings, unlike some other board members.

But in 2005, because of "serious differences" with Wal-Mart's practices, Clinton returned a $5,000 political donation from Wal-Mart.

What a hypocrite. The Wal-Mart of 2005 wasn't much different--other than being bigger--than is was during Hillary's time on the board, especially on labor issues.

The Los Angeles Times on the same day has an article about Hillary's Wal-Mart days.

Writing such a story is a natural for any inquisitive reporter, but two when two major papers write essentially the same story and publish it on the same day, it is not a coincidence.

Hillary wouldn't speak to Barbaro or the LA Times reporter, Stephen Braun, on the Wal-Mart stories. That's not surprising, especially since the Obama camp was been mum on Michelle Obama's Wal-Mart ties.

Mr. Braun and Mr. Barbaro: Now there's a story to look into.

Related posts:

John Edwards wakes up to Wal-Mart nightmare

More Obama: Wife serves on board of company whose biggest customer is Wal-Mart

My book report: The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart unions labor politics elections retail business Obama barack obama John Edwards democrats Hillary hillary clinton

Westboro idiots protest at tornado victim's funeral

Fred Phelps and his vile Westboro Baptist Church are back in the news. The Kansas "church," along with a sign emblazoned with a twister and the words "God's Fury," saw fit to show up at the funeral of a great-grandfather killed from injuries suffered from the Greensburg tornado.

From the Wichita Eagle:

Sarah Keller thought it was outrageous that someone would aim a protest at a church where people were honoring a military veteran who died after being injured by the Greensburg tornado.

That's why Keller, 27, of Pratt drove 20 miles to Haviland on Thursday to join dozens of members of the Patriot Guard in showing respect for Harold Eugene Schmidt, 77. He died May 14 after undergoing five surgeries for the injuries he suffered after being pinned under a truck by the May 4 tornado.

Keller and Guard members held American flags and lined up with shiny motorcycles on the street outside Friends Church in Haviland, a town of about 600 about 10 miles east of Greensburg. Inside the church, relatives and friends were holding a funeral for Schmidt, a retired farmer and Korean War veteran who was survived by his wife, Sarah, four children, 13 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

Keller and the Guard members said they were there to shield the grieving relatives from several protesters who held signs and sang parodies of patriotic tunes.

Meanwhile, Westboro has announced that it will protest the funeral of the Reverend Jerry Falwell.

Technorati tags: Kansas Greensburg Westboro Baptist Falwell religion news

Ahmadinejad visit to Belarus will be an ironic one

Iranian president and holocaust-denier Mahmud Ahmadinejad will travel to Belarus next week to meet with its anti-American leader, Alexander Lukashenko.

Mad Mahmud's visit to Europe's last dictatorship will be an ironic one. Up to 10 percent of the pre-war population of Belarus was Jewish-- and almost all of them were killed in the holocaust that Ahmadinejad doesn't believe happened.

Belarus' thuggish head of state, Lukashenko, backs Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Ahmadinejad and Lukashenko: What a lovely pair.

Technorati tags: Belarus Беларусь holocaust خبر حقوق بشر محمود מדינת Ahmadinejad holocaust denial

New Glenn & Helen Show podcast: Let boys be boys

During this morning's run, I listened to latest Glenn & Helen Show podcast. This time, British author Conn Iggulden, whose bestselling book, co-authored by his brother Hal, is The Dangerous Book for Boys. Conn states the obvious, assuming you possess common sense, that boys are different from girls, and he decries the femininization of education.

And yes, it's okay if a young boy comes home with a scrape on his knee. It's part of being a boy.

As for myself, when I was a 10 year-old in southwest suburban Chicago, I played tackle football with other kids my age--without pads, helmets, or adult supervision. That's probably unthinkable today.

The Glenn & Helen Show regular podcast feature on Pajamas Media, hosted by Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and Dr. Helen Smith.

Listen to or download the podcast here. Free subcriptions to the Glenn & Helen Show are available on the iTunes web site.

The podcast is sponsored by Volvo Cars US.

Technorati tags: iPod itunes podcast blog Volvo books education boyhood schools UK

Niles, Illinois sunset

Another Friday, another great sunset in Niles, Illinois today. I took this photograph about two hours ago.

Related posts:

Archaeologically digging deep in doo-doo

Happy Polish Constitution Day

Technorati tags: Niles Chicago sunset photos photography Illinois

St. Louis Cardinals World Series trophy comes to Springfield

Illinois Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson (R-Greenville) invited St. Louis Cardinals President Mark Lamping to the State Capitol so he could show off the Redbirds' 2006 World Series championship trophy.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

In an address on the House floor, Lamping couldn't resist getting in a dig at fans of the Chicago Cubs, the Cardinals' National League rivals. "We do have more in common with Cubs fans than people think," he said. "Until last October, neither team had won a world championship since they moved into their new stadiums."

The Cardinals moved into the new Busch Stadium in 2006. The Cubs moved into the "new" Wrigley Field in 1914.

More...

World Series trophy visits are becoming something of an annual tradition at the Capitol. Last year, an invitation from House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, brought down Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and owner Jerry Reinsdorf, with their 2005 trophy.

Hat tip Capitol Fax

Related post:

Thirty hours in Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois

Technorati tags: Springfield illinois baseball st. louis cardinals White Sox Chicago White Sox world series

Google office with tax breaks opens in budget challenged Michigan

Today's Detroit News has an article about the opening of Google's new Adwords office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the same edition, the News writes about the ongoing budget disagreement in Michigan, making the claim that the fiscal logjam is hurting Michigan's image and its attractiveness to out-of-state investors.

These are not unrelated stories.

From a John J. Miller article in the March 19 print edition of the National Review

Last summer, Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, announced that Google would open an office in Ann Arbor. At the time, the company's stock capitalization was valued at more than $100 billion. Yet Granholm granted $38 million in tax credits to the robust company, relief not bestowed on other companies. Would Google have chosen Michigan "but for" the financial assistance? Press reports suggest that Google co-founder Larry Page, a Michigan native who earned a degree at the University of Michigan, was determined to build in Ann Arbor regardless.

Care to comment, Ms. Granholm?

Related post: Blue state blues: Detroit area housing starts plummet

Technorati tags: Michigan Ann Arbor politics Google Adwords Granholm democrats Detroit

Pogues mainstream? "Sunnyside of the Street" featured in Cadillac commercial

Another of my favorite bands is The Pogues. Their Rum Sodomy & the Lash is one of the greatest albums ever recorded. Hell's Ditch is pretty good too, and the lead off track of that album is "Sunnyside of the Street," which is soundtrack of a new Cadillac commercial.

On the surface, it's a good choice by the luxury car maker, the melody is cheerful and infectious.

But digging deeper, it's an odd choice by Cadillac. Here are some snippets of lyrics from Sunnyside of the Street":

Seen the carnival at Rome
Had the women I had the booze
All I can remember now
Is little kids without no shoes
So I saw that train
And I got on it
With a heartful of hate
And a lust for vomit
Now I'm walking on the sunnyside of the street

And...

Been in a palace, been in a jail
I just don't want to be reborn a snail

Some more...

As my mother wept it was then I swore
To take my life as I would a whore

The lead singer of The Pogues is Shane MacGowan, who once boasted in an interview that he "hadn't been sober since he was 15."

Let's hope he's not driving.

Technorati tags: Pogues music entertainment Cadillac cars advertising Shane MacGowan

John Cox: The sane Republican fringe candidate

Chicagoan John Cox is another Republican running for president. He isn't going to win, but unlike the better know GOP fringe candidate, Ron Paul, he makes a lot of sense.

From the Weekly Standard:

Still, even while he makes plenty of noise about the need to seal our borders, the corrupt Mexican government, and a crackdown on businesses that hire illegals, he will not set his hair on fire by becoming a pandering immigrant-basher--he points to fellow GOP hopeful Tom Tancredo as an example. "I refuse to lower myself," says Cox. "I'm a businessman. I've got clients. I'm not going to make myself out to be a buffoon."

Cox eyes us two journalists (My the only two who showed up to a Cox press conference), then says, "No need to go there," nodding at the podium. Instead, he pulls up a chair next to us. "It's much more intimate this way," I say, trying to make him feel better. "Most of my gatherings are pretty intimate," he says, with a pained smile. He tells us he is on the South Carolina ballot, and hits the highlights of his platform: how he wants to eliminate the IRS and our disastrous, confusing, punitive tax system and go to a "fair tax" (a consumption tax), how he's pro-life and pro-Social Security reform, how he's anti-spending and anti-corruption. I can't speak for the radio reporter, but to me it sounds pretty good. Though he didn't have to go into all those details. He had me at "eliminate the IRS."

Hat tip to Dan Curry at Reverse Spin.

Technorati tags: John Cox Republican Ron Paul Illinois 2008 election

Rep. Schakowsky: Let your moonbat flag fly

My congresscritter, Jan Schakowsky of Evanston, made a little splash in the news recently by joining three of her colleagues in living on a "food stamp budget" this week.

Lost in the story is the that her activist-husband, Robert Creamer, ate on a similar budget while being incarcerated in a federal prison last year.

Her food stamp culinary adventure is mentioned on her political site, as well as her official congressional web site.

Earlier this month, Schakowsky was in the news when she agreed to sign on as a co-sponsor of fellow leftist Dennis Kucinich's resolution calling for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Nothing about the Impeach-Cheney resolution can be found on either her House or political sites.

Why not, Jan? Does the self-proclaimed "Fighter for Families" not want her constituents know her moonbat beliefs?

Go for it, Jan, let your moonbat flag wave proudly. Show the people you represent in Congress your true self.

Kucinich isn't afraid to do it.

Related posts:

Leftist congresswoman wants to reinstate "Fairness Doctrine"

Cong. Schakowsky: Choosing her anti-semitism battles

Technorati tags: Schakowsky Jan Schakowsky Congress politicsdemocrats the left Kucinich impeachment Cheney Moonbat Illinois Evanston

What future immigration needs to be

I'm married to an immigrant, which may not make me an expert on the subject, but I can speak out with a perspective that many bloggers don't have.

One thing about Mrs. Marathon Pundit--she came from Latvia to be an American. There was recently an article in National Review, in this case regarding Muslim immigrants, that stated that many present day immigrants see America as an opportunity--not as a place to, well, immerse yourself in Americanism.

For the second time in the last twenty-one years, we're reinventing immigration.

This time, we need to insist on what Newt Gingrich calls "patriotic immigration."

If you're coming to America to speak just Spanish, well, stay home--even if you plan to go no further north than Brownsville, Texas. And if you want to install Sharia here, we don't want you.

America is the greatest nation on the planet because of our culture and our love of freedom. Even though we are a wealthy nation, America is not just an opportunity to make a buck.

Technorati tags: immigration illegal immigration illegal aliens usa politics Mexico Sharia Latvia Latvija

Blogger Say Anything banned from Indian reservation

Blogger Rob Port of Say Anything did some original reporting after he visited North Dakota's Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. He said some unkind things about the place and the people who live there. And now Rob is banned from the reservation, for presumably, telling the truth.

From AP:

How do you ban somebody from land without even telling them about it?" (Port) said. "It doesn't seem very straightforward, banning somebody for an opinion piece."

Titled "The Appalling State of North Dakota Indian Reservations," his column ran in the January issue of a magazine called the Dakota Beacon and appeared on Port's blog. Port said he spent about 15 hours "going around neighborhoods and knocking on doors" on the Turtle Mountain reservation.

He wrote that people are "perfectly content to live there. Probably because they don't know any better. They were likely raised in housing projects by their parents, who in turn were probably raised in housing projects themselves."

Port's column also called for an end to reservations and "cradle-to-grave entitlements."

Rob is a good blogger who makes a lot of sense. I guess that's why they don't like him in Turtle Mountain.

Technorati tags: North Dakota government native american indian reservations blog journalism

AP: Illinois should host first presidential primary

Associated Press thinks that my home state, Illinois, rather than Iowa or New Hampshire, should host the first presidential primary.

White, rural and homogeneous. New Hampshire and Iowa play big roles in choosing presidential candidates but don't look much like the rest of the country.

A better bellwether might be Illinois. It's the most average state, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the Census Bureau.

Illinois is the fifth-largest state, with a big city in Chicago, rolling countryside in the south and a lot of sprawling suburbs. And it has Peoria, which, it turns out, really is a barometer of America's preferences. Many companies continue to use the city in central Illinois as a test market, taking literally the adage about how things play there.

"Illinois has always been a mirror of America," said State Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Republican. "With all due respect to South Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire, they are not reflective of the overall American population."

Of course skeptics--and liberals will remark that Illinois is a deep blue state. That is true, but two factors cause this unhappy (for me) situation. One is the finely tuned Daley Machine that turns out gazillions of Democratic votes in Cook County every two years. The second is the implosion of the Illinois Republican Party that came about as a result of four years of disastrous rule by now-disgraced Governor George H. Ryan.

Technorati tags: politics Illinois 2008 IowaIowa New Hampshire elections south carolina

Obama can't shake Tony Rezko

On ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulous," the former Clinton staffer asked Obama why he had a "blind spot" for indicted Democratic political insider Tony Rezko.

From Lynn Sweet's Chicago Sun-Times column:

Obama: "Well, you know, I think that, you know, we had bought a house for the first time and, you know, we were trying to figure out how to set the whole thing up and, you know, this is somebody that I had known for some time. It was an aboveboard legal transaction. I paid more than the price of the property that I purchased and so the assumption was that this was all aboveboard."

Well said, except that this was not the first time Obama went through the process of buying a residence. Obama and his wife bought a condominium in Hyde Park before purchasing their mansion in Kenwood. Perhaps Obama was making a distinction between buying a condo and a stand-alone home. But Obama was not the first-time residential purchaser he portrayed in the interview.

Obama tried to polish his ethics credentials on the show, stating "I'm very proud of my ethics record. I mean, I was famous in Springfield for not letting lobbyists even buy me lunch."

More from Sweet:

However, Obama had a healthy appetite for money from lobbyists and political action committees while a state senator. Just looking at one of his state senate campaign cycles, in 2001-2002, Obama's state war chest accepted donations from, among other sources, the Manufacturers PAC; the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association; the Illinois Education Association; the Illinois Hospital Association, and the Credit Union PAC. A good place to check out Obama's campaign contribution record as a state senator is www.ilcampaign.org.

Obama also used lobbyists and PACs to help him raise money for his U.S. Senate run and his Hopefund. Obama experienced a conversion once he decided to run for the White House, changing his policy and declining to take money from currently registered federal lobbyists and PACs. He does take contributions from lobbyists with state clients and from individuals with government affairs jobs.

Related posts:

Obama ties to Rezko rotten to the core

More Obama and Rezko

Obama watch: More Tony Rezko

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama Illinois Chicago Tony Rezko business

Photos from Greensburg

The Wichita Eagle has been covering quite well the Greensburg tornado story. This morning it added a readers' photo gallery of the destruction brought upon the plains town.

Pat Hill took the photograph posted here.

Techorati tags: Kansas Wichita weather news current events tornadoes photography photos

In Boston: A place worse than the Bridgeview Mosque

Earlier this week I did a short post on the Mosque Foundation of Chicago, better known as the Bridgeview Mosque, an extremist hotbed near Midway Airport.

Good friend of the blog Martin Solomon, who blogs at Solomonia, has written an excellent piece on the Islamic Society of Boston for Pajamas Media.

These guys seem right out of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is a way, they are. But they've assimilated to American life in one disgraceful way--they believe in using the courts to silence their critics.

It's a must-read. Good work, Sol.

Technorati tags: law religion islam muslims Boston massachusetts

Sanity Squad podcast with Rabbi Shmuley

One thing about wonderful thing about blogging--and listening to podcasts--is learning new things and discovering interesting people. I never heard of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, but he has a popular TV show, Shalom in the Home, on the TLC network.

You don't have to be Jewish to appreciate what Rabbi Shumely has to say--he discusses right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, and surprisingly, he is not much of a fan of moral relativism.

The Sanity Squad panelists, Shrinkwrapped, Siggy, Dr. Sanity, and Neo-neocon also talk about the frightening growth in believers of conspiracy theories, especially among liberals regarding 9/11.

Listen to or download the podcast here. Or do what I do, and subscribe for free via iTunes.

Technorati tags: current affairs iPod itunes podcast blog history mental health Conspiracy Rabbi Shmuley Jewish

Morton Grove mosque construction

I've done a number of posts on the Chicago area's notorious Bridgeview Mosque, but in Morton Grove, where I live, a new mosque is being built. About 15 years ago, a Muslim group bought a closed school from the local public school district. They've been holding Friday prayer services there for years, causing parking and traffic problems that still infuriate the residents nearby--the building is in a strictly residential area.

The mosque's parking lot has been greatly expanded.

After months of squabbling over zoning issues, construction has begun. I took this photo an hour ago as the workers were leaving for the day.

I live about a mile from the mosque, I've never noticed any traffic tie-ups during Friday prayer services, although the parents who drop their kids off at the school have a nasty habit of taking side streets instead of through streets, which has led to a couple of close calls for me during my morning runs.

Unlike the Bridgeview Mosque, there are no allegations of ties to extremism to the Morton Grove group.

Related posts:

WorldNet Daily gets it wrong on my hometown

Morton Grove: Local heroes

Bridgeview Mosque expansion

Technorati tags: Morton Grove Illinois Chicago Islam muslim mosque

CAIR co-sponsors showing of Sami al-Arian movie

America's least favorite former professor, Sami al-Arian, is back in the news.

Here is what FrontPage Magazine's Discover the Network says about al-Arian:

Former professor at University of South Florida

North American head of Palestine Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group responsible for the suicide bombing murders of more than 100 civilians in the Middle East
Civil liberties activist

Active in Islamic Society of North America, World and Islam Studies Enterprise, American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee, American Muslim Council, American Muslim Alliance, and CAIR

"Let us damn America, let us damn Israel, let us damn them and their allies until death."

Charged with conspiracy to support international terrorism

Acquitted on 8 of 17 counts on December 6, 2005

Al-Arian became nationally known after a disastrous 2001 appearance on the O'Reilly Factor.

A Norwegian woman who probably has a "Co-Exist" bumpersticker on her caris sympathetic to Sami's situation, as the Tampa Tribune reports.

For Norwegian filmmaker Line Halvorsen, the case of Sami Al-Arian is about freedom of speech and about the U.S. government's efforts to silence a tireless voice for human rights.

It is about post-Sept. 11 hysteria and the persecution of a Muslim, as well as the emotionally grinding devastation the prosecution brought to the Al-Arian family.

It is not about the evidence presented in a complex, five-month trial in U.S. District Court two years ago.

Halvorsen's documentary, "USA vs Al-Arian," has won accolades and awards. The producers say it was picked best film at the Norwegian Documentary Film Festival and the New Orleans International Human Rights Festival. The Al-Arians are celebrities in Norway as a result of the film.

The film plays tonight at the Tampa Theatre, CAIR--the Council on American Islamic Relations--is co-sponsoring the showing.

Related post: CAIR-Chicago recommended that DePaul fire Klocek

Technorati tags: CAIR Norge norway indvandring terrorism Florida sami al-arian

Sen. McConnell rips "Unfairness Doctrine"

House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has taken a firm stand on what I'm calling the "Unfairness Doctrine," a move by far-left Democrats such as my own congresscritter, Jan Schakowsky, to silence conservative talk-radio.

From McConnell's web site:

'Government is not the speech police'

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement regarding attempts by Congressional Democrats to revive the misnamed "fairness doctrine":

Our Founding Fathers understood free speech is fundamental to our nation and sought to protect it with the First Amendment. As a strong supporter of First Amendment freedoms for all Americans, I will continue to work to prevent government limitations on speech.

The latest attempt by House Democrats to revive the misnamed 'fairness doctrine' will silence active political voices and limit the free flow of information. Government is not the speech police and I will not support these efforts to restrict free speech.

Political debate is among the most important democratic traditions of our nation and a hallmark of free society. We must continue to preserve the right of all Americans to express their views.

Legislation is being drafted in the House which would require the government to police the airwaves to ensure radio broadcasters are presenting what the government decides are balanced viewpoints. The "Fairness Doctrine," as it is called, was abolished by the Federal Communications Commission in 1987 because it inhibited debate and the free flow of information.

Even if this bill make it out of Congress, President Bush will veto it. If a Democratic president sign the "Unfairness Doctrine" into law, the courts will rule it unconstitutional. McConnell is right, this bill needs to be stopped in its tracks, if only to save the tax payers the expense of a drawn out court battle.

Related post:

Leftist congresswoman wants to reinstate "Fairness Doctrine"

Technorati tags: Schakowsky Jan Schakowsky Congress radio politicsdemocrats media the left fairness doctrine McConnell talk radio republican Kentucky

Ill. primary will probably move to February 5

Illinois will likely join the party of presidential primaries on February 5. The State Senate approved legislation yesterday moving the primary date from mid-March to what is turning into 2008's national primary day.

The state's poll-driven governor, Democrat Rod Blagojevich, will likely sign the bill.

The catalyst for the primary move is House Speaker Michael Madigan, who although he derisively called Obama "The Messiah" last summer, asked for the move so it would aid Barack Obama's presidential run.

Technorati tags: Obama Barack Obama politics 2008 election Illinois Democrats republicans

Giuliani (tier one) and Hunter (tier two) tonight's GOP winners

I missed the first Republican presidential debate and heard mostly bad reaction regarding MSNBC's coverage, so I have to say I'm very impressed by the way Fox News Channel's Brit Hume and Wendell Goler's moderated this evening's debate in South Carolina.

First of all, in a ten candidate field divided in two tiers--popular and less popular--that means there were two contests tonight--The top (for now) contenders and the rest.

The winner in the first category was Rudy Giuliani in my opinion. His answers were concise, direct, and Rudy the Rock had the best moment when he asked Rep. Ron Paul to retract his most idiotic comment tonight, in which the the Texan pretty much said we invited 9/11 because of our policies against Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Romney, the consensus winner of the first GOP debate did well too. He didn't hit a home run, but he landed a double or a triple--he'll continue to build support for his campaign

McCain. It was a bad night for him. Eight years ago he came across as too hot-headed to be president. Tonight, he came across as a tired old man. Am I mean? Perhaps. But I don't think I'll be the only blogger expressing that opinion. I didn't agree with his answer on torture, but I would have respected him more if he expressed some greater passion on the subject. And of all the candidates, only McCain can speak with credibility on what it's like to be tortured.

And now to the bottom tier:

Gov. Mike Huckabee, someone I've been tough on in this space, easily got in the best line of the night, when the Arkansan said that "Congress was spending money like John Edwards in a beauty shop." An ironic comment that got a lot of applause--yes, it was a Republican audience, but Edwards was born in South Carolina and lives in neighboring North Carolina.

But my tier-two winner is Rep. Duncan Hunter. The San Diego congressman gave solid, believable answers to every question answered. His reply on the "torture question" was perfect.

With two exceptions, the rest of the rest didn't really do anything to help or hurt their campaign.

But that brings up former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. The guy just doesn't have it. He's also a former Health and Human Service Secretary, and on the one question he should've soared on, stem cell research, he kept bringing up the University of Wisconsin. He came across as a Midwestern governor trying to attract a factory to his his state rather than a man running for president.


As bad as Thompson was, the previously mentioned Ron Paul was so bad, I almost expected a Monty Python 16 ton weight to land on him. Paul is a medical doctor, and I have to wonder if he's helping himself to his meds. His 9/11 comment was only the kookiest of a bunch of kooky statements made by Dr. Paul tonight.

Paul had other problems as well. As a second-tier denizen, it's expected that he push the time limit for his answers--these guys don't have ad budgets. Paul was "dinged" the most, six times by my count, Rep. Tom Tancredo was second with four dingings.

A few months ago, Pat at Brainster had a post headlined Ron Paul, Retard. I thought that was cruel of him, but not anymore.

I noted earlier today that Ron Paul "mysteriously" seems to do well in online polls. So does Tommy Thompson. My message tonight to the two of you is drop out now. Unfortunately, Ron Paul will probably hang around forever, just as his fringe soul mate, Dennis Kucinich, did in the Democratic primaries in 2004.

Fellas, if all you can do is produce "bots" or a dedicated few to spam polls to build support, then you need to rethink your career options.

Technorati tags: politics Rudy giuliani Ron Paul Duncan Hunter Tom Tancredo Tommy Thompson Huckabee McCain McCain Mitt Republican

Rev. Falwell dies

I agreed with him on some things, on others I didn't, but all the same a monumental figure on the American scene over the last 25 years died earlier today.

In the 1980s, while leading the Moral Majority, Falwell served as a convenient lightening rod--not purposely--during Ronald Reagan's eight years in office, being on the receiving end of much leftist anger.

Robert Bork and Ed Meese performed admirably in this role as well, not that the Gipper didn't get heat from the left during his presidency.

In the last few years of his life, the Reverend Falwell did a wonderful job of getting under the skin of CAIR's Ibrahim "Dougie" Hooper.

Read here. Here. And here.

Technorati tags: CAIR Falwell News Christianity politics

Newsweek: Where is Harry Truman?

While shopping at the local supermarket, I saw a Newsweek on the checkout stand, and on the cover there's a photograph of Harry S Truman, with a few of the 2008 presidential contenders on the top page, asking, and this may not be an exact quote, "Is there a Harry Truman among this bunch?"

Well, there could be. Or the could be one in office right now. As the Korean War dragged on at the end of his presidency, Truman suffered from very low presidential approval poll numbers, numbers I believe only Richard Nixon exceeded.

A half-century later, Truman is celebrated as a successful president, if not a great one, then a near-great.

In the White House now lives a man who refuses to abandon an unpopular war.

Maybe we have a Truman already there.

Meanwhile, the approval level for Congress is also quite low.

Technorati tags: Bush war history Newsweek Truman

Skype equipment coming to Wal-Mart

Mrs. Marathon Pundit is a heavy Skype user--I see what it does to our PayPal account--so this news is good for her.

Like many Skype users, she telephones overseas, in her case to her native Latvia, instead of using the more expensive option on our landline.

It's too late for a Mother's Day present, but I foresee myself picking up one of these devices at Wal-Mart, which--and I'm not sure about this--seems to be the exclusive outlet for Skype equipment, at least for now.

Don't look for Barack Obama to pick up at one at Wal-Mart, however. "I won't shop there" is what he told an AFL-CIO forum yesterday in New Jersey.

Of course as I reported last year, Obama's wife sits on the board of a company whose biggest customer is Wal-Mart. That bit of Obama hypocrisy is finally gaining some traction in the mainstream media, even, ironically, overseas.

Related posts:

More Obama: Wife serves on board of company whose biggest customer is Wal-Mart

Obama: Do as I say, not as I do

Obama and Wal-Mart

My book report: The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama Michelle Obama Media Wal-Mart business retail Skype unions AFL-CIO

Bridgeview: Old meets new

In addition to stopping by the notorious Bridgeview Mosque on Sunday, I took a few other photographs. This view struck me: New Bridgeview meets Old Bridgeview. Since the mosque was built, its Muslim population has skyrocketed.

But it's far from being all-Muslim, so there still is a place for the Elvis Limousine company-see it on top there?--in the Chicago suburb.

Of course, Elvis was no stranger to the Middle East. Presley got pulled into an assassination plot while kidnapped in a backward Arab kingdom in his 1965 film Harum Scarum.

Technorati tags: Bridgeview Mosque Chicago Illinois Elvis elvis presley photography photos

New Wilco CD out today

One of my favorite bands is Chicago-based Wilco, led by Belleville, Illinois native Jeff Tweedy.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was a brilliant piece of work. However, its follow-up, A Ghost is Born, short of a few tracks, should've stayed in the womb. Yes, it one two Grammys in 2005, but they were de facto career awards the Grammy voters like to hand out.

Sky Blue Sky, Wilco's latest album, is being released today. I heard a couple of songs on WXRT-FM, and based on what I've heard, this one could be a return-to-form for Wilco.

Wilco will perform tonight on Late Night with David Letterman.

Technorati tags: music Wilco music news Chicago Illinois Metro East rock alternative David Letterman entertainment

Ron Paul news

Hey, my first Ron Paul post! Anyway, a Libertarian friend of the blog informs me that Ron Paul leads all the Republican candidates in regards to YouTube subscriptions. I'll say one thing about the Texan, he seems to do well on Internet polls.

From a May 11 Ron Paul e-mail:

Congressman Ron Paul now has the most YouTube subscribers among the Republican candidates for president. During the last 24 hours, Congressman Paul passed Mitt Romney to take the #1 spot.

Paul: 1,961
Romney: 1,889
Giulian