Marathon Pundit: September 2007

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Pajamas Media BWIR with Glenn Reynolds and John Podhoretz

Joining moderator Austin Bay for the latest Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review is Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and author John Podhoretz, who among other things, is a regular contributor to National Review Online's "The Corner" and a columnist for the New York Post.

The trio first discuss General David Petraeus' testimony on the Iraq surge, and MoveOn.org's coincidentally timed discounted full page ad in the New York Times. They then take the conversation into the 2008 presidential election--both Reynolds and Podhoretz are optimistic on the odds of the two candidates from the state of New York, Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton, winning their party's nomination.

You don't need an iPhone or on iPod to hear the podcast, you can listen in right here.

If you do have one of those contraptions, just click here, and you can sign up for a free subscription to Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review via iTunes.

As always, Pajamas blogger Ed Driscoll produces.

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My Kansas Kronikles: McPherson, one of the 100 best small towns in America

My next stop on my Kansas trip was to McPherson, which is consistently ranked among the top 100 small towns in America. The unique attraction of the village is the McPherson Opera House, built in 1888 in the Romanesque Revival style. Operas aren't performed there anymore, there's a photo art gallery on the first floor of the building, selling prints of Kansas landscape. Of course you can get the same thing here for free--just remember to patronize the advertisers.

McPherson is the county seat of McPherson County, and it's another Kansas town blessed with a beautiful courthouse, pictured on the right and below. Like the opera house, this structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Besides the heat, another disadvantage of traveling there in July is that many wonderful buildings can't be properly photographed because they're blocked by trees sporting full foliage. However, making a trip to Kansas is definitely worth the minor hardships.

Next: Mushroom Rock

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Saturday, September 29, 2007

Hey Obama! Speak out on proposal to impose nation's highest sales tax in your hometown: UDPATED

I'm not entirely sure what exactly Sen. Barack Obama's "new kind of politics" is, other than it doesn't involve cynicism.

Besides his well-documented involvement with indicted political insider Tony Rezko, Illinois' junior senator has made a couple of endorsements that counter his claim that he is above politics-as-usual. The first was his surprising backing of political unknown Alexi Giannoulias in the Democratic primary for state treasurer last year. Obama made himself the kingmaker in the contest, the state party endorsed candidate was defeated by Barack's novice.

While serving as senior loan officer at his family-owned bank, Giannoulias approved loans to a man convicted of running prostitution and gambling rings, but that revelation wasn't enough to sink Giannoulias in the primary and general elections. As with the rest of the nation, 2006 was a great year for the Democrats in Illinois.

Then there's last year's race for the presidency of the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

A week before the heated 2006 Democratic Party (Obama didn't make an endorsement in that contest), incumbent John Stroger suffered a major stroke but still eked out a victory over reformer Forrest Claypool, who vowed to clean up the patronage mess known as Cook County Government. Stroger hasn't made a public appearance since that stroke; that summer he resigned his office, and after an exhaustive search, the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization chose among the county's five million residents a man named Todd Stroger--the incumbent's son--to replace "Pop" on the November ballot. About this time last year, the Republican challenger, Tony Peraica, seemed poised to become the first GOP county board president since 1969, but a last minute push by the Democrats pushed the younger Stroger over the top.

Senator Barack Obama, along with fellow Senator Dick Durbin, was part of that push, as liberal Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn reported last fall:

Obama's staff released a profoundly disheartening letter to voters this week in which Obama, joined by Sen. Dick Durbin, endorsed Cook County Board presidential candidate Todd Stroger.

The letter, which puffs lots of hot air into the saggy balloon of Stroger's legislative resume, refers to him as "a good progressive Democrat" who will "lead us into a new era of Cook County government."

Todd Stroger was a "strong voice" in Springfield, the letter says. He has "worked assiduously" for the poor as an alderman. Yet, of course, the record reveals that Stroger is an unimaginative legislative drone whose reform credentials are wholly imaginary--an unlikely trailblazer to a new era.

More...

And Obama has come too far as an inspiring new breed of politician on the national scene to muck around in local politics, endorsing machine hack candidates and substituting party for principle. Or so you'd imagine.

As I reported yesterday, on Monday, the Cook County Board of Commissioners, of which Stroger is president, will vote on whether to add a two percent sales tax to most purchases in Cook County--bringing the total up to 11 percent in much of the county, including Chicago. Stroger has not said how he'll vote, but his actions indicate that he'll vote for it. For more, read this Chicago Tribune article. Free registration is required.

Such a tax will hurt big business, small business, and most of all, poor people, the ones Obama claims Stroger "worked assiduously" for while serving on Chicago's City Council.

I live just 20 minutes from Lake County, if the tax increase is approved, I can assure you I will do more shopping in Lake. Other Cook residents will head to other counties, or Indiana, especially when buying big-ticket items.

Here's what the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce has to say about the tax increase:

To put this proposed increase in to context, Chicago already has one of the highest sales taxes in the country – higher than: New York 8.38%; Los Angeles 8.25%; San Francisco 8.5%; Houston 8.25%; Las Vegas: 7.125%.

The sales tax increase is a measure to pump more cash in a failed system, which is essentially an employment program for thousands of patronage-hires who pay their allegiance to their political sponsors, not to the taxpayers who foot the bill.

So far Senators Obama and Durbin have not spoken out on the tax increase. Since the pair participated in an effort to pump up Todd Stroger's meager accomplishments last fall, this fall they have a duty to voice their opinions on a tax hike that will effect over 40 percent of their constituents.

Hopefully, they'll say they're opposed, and give momentum to the drive to prevent an 11 percent sales tax in America's second most populous county.

And a message to you, Senator Obama: Is this the "new kind of politics" you're talking about?

UPDATE October 1: Drop all pretenses, Todd Stroger favors the tax increase. And a Hispanic commissioner, Roberto Maldonado, made a serious charge against Stroger's chief of staff, claiming that the president of the board of commissioners will pull the "sanctuary status" for illegal immigrants (not a bad idea, by the way) protection from Cook County.

From CBS 2 Chicago:

County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado (D-8th) says Stroger's chief of staff made threats last week. The threat: if Maldonado doesn’t vote for the tax increase, Commissioner Bill Beavers (D-4th) will introduce legislation to revoke the law that declares Cook County a sanctuary for immigrants. Revoking that law will undo Maldonado's latest achievements.

"If their position is to use the Latino community to get me to support things they want me to support, I will work against him – big time," Maldonado said.

My Kansas Kronikles: Pro-life billboards

I've traveled all over this great country, and I've spent time not just on the interstates, but on byway roads in other red states besides Kansas. However, of the states I've visited, Kansas has by far the most pro-life billboards on its highways.

I'd be a dishonest journalist if I omitted this part of the Kansas landscape.

Before my July trip, I knew Kansas was a hot spot of pro-life, or if you prefer, anti-abortion activism. But in the week I was there, I easily saw 200 billboards such as the one I found near the village of St. John.

Our society is not one that makes its decisions based on the number of billboards placed on roadsides. However, I didn't see a single pro-choice billboard during my Kansas travels.

Next: McPherson

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A.J. Pierzynski signs two year extension with Chicago White Sox

A.J. Pierzynski, the firebrand catcher for the Chicago White Sox and the hero of the 2005 American League Championship Series, agreed to a two year contract extension today.

The two-time all-star is considered one of the most hated players in baseball, but he's the kind of guy you like if he's on your team.

In other Chicago baseball news, that North Side team will clinched the National League Central Division title Friday night.

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Suburban Chicago school renames Halloween "Fall Festival," Christmas "Winter Festival"

In Oak Lawn, Illinois, a southwest suburb of Chicago located near the notorious Bridgeview Mosque, politically correct school administrators are caving in to the demands of a Muslim parent.

From CBS 2 Chicago:

For now, children in Ridgeland School District 122 will celebrate fall festival instead of Halloween and winter festival instead of Christmas.

Brenda Elvidge said, "It's not fair to our kids. This is America and that's an American tradition."

The decision affects the children at four elementary schools in Oak Lawn and one junior high school in Bridgeview.

The district has a 30 percent Arabic population. The superintendent says the reason for the change in tradition comes after one parent wanted Ramadan decorations put up inside Columbus Manor Elementary. They were taken down.

Superintendent Tom Smyth said, "I go back to our policy which says that public schools are to remain neutral in this respect."

Meantime, Arab children are being allowed to pray during what's being called their own time, that's lunch time, during Ramadan.

Parent June Quigley said, "They get to pray in our schools. That is religion in a public school."

Mark my words: Valentine's Day is next.

Oh, have a Happy Fall Festival.

UPDATE October 3: The CBS 2 Chicago article has been radically rewritten, Winston Smith 1984 style, in order, I guess, not to offend anyone.

Related post:

Bridgeview Mosque expansion

Thanks for the link: Freedom Folks

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Friday, September 28, 2007

My Kansas Kronikles: Wetlands and Wildlife Scenic Byway

I traveled through most of Kansas' Scenic Byways during my July trip. Two of those byways are also deemed important enough for recognition by the National Scenic Byways Program. One is the previously blogged about Flint Hills Scenic Byway, the other is the Wetlands and Wildlife route.

This byway roughly surrounds the small city of Great Bend, and it travels through Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. and the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area. Eastern and central Kansas received a lot of rain this summer, which shows a larger Cheyenne Bottom.

Unfortunately I didn't get the name of this prairie stream on the left, which I photographed in Stafford County, on the southern end of the byway.

The waterlogged bounty of the wet summer prevented me from traveling through the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. Flooding closed down that part of the route, so I headed to my next destination, McPherson.

This day of traveling is when I saw, or perhaps noticed, many wildflowers such as these coreopsis, which are common on the Great Plains.

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Ryan Adams hits another sour note

A perform I admire is Ryan Adams. However, he's not someone I'd want to meet in person. Recently he returned to a previous crime against politeness, Minneapolis.

From CNN:

Throughout a show Thursday night, the 32-year-old singer-guitarist complained about the sound monitors onstage at the State Theatre. At one point, he moved two monitors, his microphone and his guitar pedals.

After 70 minutes he'd had enough. Adams announced "the last song," played it and didn't return for an encore. Many fans stood and booed.

"I don't know what the story was," guitarist Neal Casal told the Star Tribune afterward. "I just play guitar."

In 2003, Adams gave a famously bad performance at First Avenue, a rambling two-hour show where he griped about the sound system, played several songs twice and lambasted local rock legend Paul Westerberg

Here's another Ryans atrocity, courtesy of the New York Post:

With his frequent onstage hissy fits, Adams has become our brattiest rocker. During shows, he's been known to complain about the lights, sound, air conditioning, and even fans talking during songs. But his most famous bitch session came during a 2002 concert in Nashville, Tenn. While harmonizing with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, an obnoxious fan taunted Adams with requests for the Bryan Adams song "Summer of '69." Adams stopped playing, had the house lights turned up, reimbursed the guy for the cost of his ticket and had him thrown out.

I read elsewhere that a sympathetic usher let the Adams/Adams fan back in.

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Bob Novak: Univ. of Ill. alumni group's conservative curriculum faces opposition

From AP, more bad news about my alma mater:

Conservative commentator Robert Novak said Thursday that his Washington colleagues were stunned to learn that a University of Illinois alumni group was setting up an organization to encourage and finance conservative studies on campus.

They asked, "Capitalism and limited government at a public university? How can that be?" Novak, an Illinois graduate, told about 250 people gathered for the launch of the Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Fund.

Some U of I faculty members fear that the group's plans to raise money to pay for classes and research on free-market capitalism and limited government would create an undue conservative political influence on campus. They also complain that the new group was formed without faculty input. (My note: Who cares what they think, it's a big college, there's room for this group.)

"The main thing that concerned me is that this was something that was sort of dropped on the faculty," associate history professor Mark Leff said in an interview. "We read about it in the newspaper, and all of the sudden we find out that there's this organization.

Cook County board may vote for nation's highest sales tax

Sure I posted on this story when it first became news. But I'd never thought this idiocy would go this far.

I think we're about to reach a Howard Beale moment here in Cook County, which is the nation's second most populous.

I'm as mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!

On Monday, the Cook County Board will note on whether to add a two percent sales tax increase, bringing the tax on most purchases in much of the county to 11 percent--the highest in the nation.

From ABC 7 Chicago:

The man who watches the conventions and trade shows at McCormick Place says they will stop coming.

"We will lose conventions and trade shows and corporate meetings as a result of taking this tax up to be the highest in the country," said Jerry Roper, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.

The woman who lobbies for the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg says businesses there will move to malls in adjacent counties.

"We have to remember that businesses vote with their feet," said Laurie Stone, Schaumburg Business Association.

More sane thinking:

This tax increase would simply crop up a decrepit and bloated patronage system that is a jobs factory for politicians," said Commissioner Forrest Claypool, (D) Chicago.

And here are some words from Democratic Commissioner Joan Murphy, the out-of-touch hack who sponsored the tax increase bill:

I'm not a tax person. I don't like taxes any more than anybody else. I raised four children. I know what it's like. But we are in dire straits here in the county. I don't want to lay off any more people. What happens to them?

What happens to them? They lose their jobs. Sad, yes, but government exists, Ms. Murphy, to support the people, it's not the other way around. Although there are some hardworking people working in the public sector, Cook County, that "jobs factory for politicians," probably has lowest percentage of diligent employees of any government body in the United States.

Joanie, if you don't want to lay off more people, resign immediately, so someone who truly speaks for the five million people of Cook County can take your place.

Here's a free suggestion in cutting the deficit: Abolish the Cook County Forest Preserve police department. Chicago and suburban police are almost always on the scene of a crime before they are, which makes the "Tree Police" the highest-paid report takers on the planet.

More: Cut, reduce, cut some more. Privatize. Slash and burn.

If you live in Crooks, I mean Cook County, contact your commissioner today. Click here to find yours. Larry Suffredin, expect an e-mail from me.

Thanks for the link: Hasasan.com

Related posts:

Time for me to shop...outside Cook County?

Marathon Pundit Chicago River dumping follow up

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My Kansas Kronikles: Barbed wire and stone posts

Diane from Respublica has family living in Emporia, Kansas and last month she was wondering when I'd touch on the use Flint Hills stone for fences.

Well, I promised I'd get to that, and here is my post. Only I'm not sure if the stone picture here in Barton County, Kansas originated from the Flint Hills in the east.

One thing I learned during my Kansas trip, not only are there many types of barbed wire, a lot of people collect it. The No Man's Man Museum just south of Kansas on the Oklahoma panhandle has a collection, and many more private hordes of barbed wire exist.

With few trees and few people to build walls and fences, barbed wire naturally became the demarcation of choice on the Great Plains, and it's relative cheapness made it popular everywhere.

But Kansas is blessed with limestone, and in some spots, such as US Route 281 near Great Bend, you can find barbed wire fences not with metal or wooden posts, but stone pillars hold the wire together.

Next: Wetlands and Wildlife Scenic Byway

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107 Iowans had homes foreclosed by firm with links to John Edwards

One of the worst things that can happen to anyone is to lose your home by foreclosure.

Tim Russert brought up Edwards' 2005 and 2006 work as a consultant for Fortress Investment, which owns several subprime lending firms, during Tuesday's Democratic debate in New Hampshire.

But like a kid caught shoplifting, Edwards--who has been critical of subprime lenders--brought up the "good things" he has done over the years.

But the Des Moines Register discovered Wednesday that 107 Iowa howeowners had their dwellings foreclosed by lenders owned by Fortress.

From the Register:

Fortress foreclosures have occurred in other states, but the Iowa cases bring Edwards' tie to subprime lending to the leadoff presidential nominating state, where he has staked his political future.

Most Iowa Democratic activists interviewed by The Des Moines Register say the foreclosures by themselves do not undermine Edwards' anti-poverty message. However, some say he should have known that his tie to Fortress, which paid him $479,500 for 14 months of work, would be scrutinized in the campaign.

Some former Edwards supporters in Iowa say the Fortress link is another reminder of his personal activities and opulent lifestyle, which they find troubling.

John Edwards just can't stay out of trouble. Of course he puts himself in troublesome situations.

Related post:

John Edwards wakes up to Wal-Mart nightmare

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Thursday, September 27, 2007

Bush to kick off Lincoln bicentennial celebration next Feb. 12

Just as President Theodore Roosevelt did in 1909 with the 100th anniversary celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birth, President George W. Bush is expected to inaugurate the Lincoln bicentennial remembrance next year on February 12 at the Lincoln birthplace site near Hodgenville, Kentucky. Yes, next year is 2008, but the bicentennial bash is scheduled to last two years.

In addition to President Bush, all of the living presidents are invited to attend the festivities.

Actor Sam Waterston, who has portrayed Lincoln on stage and screen, will offer a presentation of the words of the savior of the Union.

Hat tip to Pol Watchers

Related posts:

Andrew Ferguson video on his new book, Land of Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln birthplace site
Abraham Lincoln birthplace site's log cabin
"My earliest recollection is of the Knob Creek place"
Thirty hours in Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois
I found this bit of history in downtown Chicago today
Lincoln Bicentennial Commission playing with Lincoln Logs
Illinois lagging in Lincoln bicentennial celebrations

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Illinois congressional delegation about to get bluer?

Bob Novak thinks with the retirement of ethically challenged Repulican Jerry Weller, it could end up as a Democratic pick up.

From his daily newsletter:

Illinois-11: Rep. Jerry Weller (R), another Republican under a cloud of scandal and suspicion of corruption, will retire from Congress at the end of this term. Weller is married to a Guatemalan lawmaker and says the long-distance relationship was becoming a strain.

This district stretches West from Chicago's South Side, including Joliet and Ottawa, and reaches South to Bloomington. It was a near tie in the 2000 elections, but Bush carried it by seven points in 2004. It is wedged between the districts of retiring Representatives Dennis Hastert (R) and Ray LaHood (R), and politically it lies between them -- slightly more Democratic than Hastert's 14th District and slightly more Republican than LaHood's 18th.

As for Ray Lahood, the Peoria Republican who is also retirng next year, Novak adds:

Illinois-18: The entrance of former basketball coach Dick Versace (D) brings to a near tossup the race for the Peoria-based seat left open by the retirement Rep. Ray LaHood (R).

Versace was the head basketball coach in the 1980s at Bradley University in Peoria, the golden era of the program. He later coached the NBA's Indiana Pacers, worked as an on-air commentator and served as the head coach of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies. The other Democrat in the rate is retired Navy Captain Chuck Giger (D).

Versace, however, is sixty-seven years old, and although the senoirity system in Congress is no longer ironclad, it does help constituents if you have someone who has been in office for a while--how long could a Rep. Versace play out the clock?

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert is retiring as well. But the Yorkville Republican, who might (although he denies it) leave before his term is up, shouldn't worry that a Democrat will represent the his west suburban and rural northern Illinois district.

The best chance for a Republican pick up is in the northwest suburban 8th District. Businessman Steve Greenberg promises a spirited and better-funded Republican campaign against incumbent Melissa Bean. In a three way race last year, Bean won just 51 percent of the vote. But President Bush won the district by 10 points in 2004. Yes, that's the year Bean won her seat, but that was over Phil Crane, who simply was in office too long and had little to show for it.

Hat tip to Illinois Review for the Novak story.

Related post:

Fish heads are a homeland security threat

Rep. Melissa Bean doing her part in increasing the deficit

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Northwest Chicago Suburbs

My Kansas Kronikles: Bob Dole's Russell

In June of 1996, after he was all but formally named the Republican nominee for president, longtime Senator Bob Dole resigned his seat, and said something along the lines of "I'll either return to Washington as president, or retire to Russell."

Dole of course didn't become president, and stayed in Washington with his wife, who is now a North Carolina senator--Russell is now in Bob Dole's rear view mirror.

So I guess it's not surprising that the only indication that Russell was the hometown of the onetime GOP leader in the Senate is the water tower in the picture that's in need of a paint job.

Like many Kansas downtowns, the streets of Russell are paved with red bricks, and Russell's main street has several charming buildings.

Russell is the county seat of Russell County and it also has an architecturally significant courthouse. This one however, isn't a 19th century creation, but clearly one from the following century, as it's obviously art-deco.

Related post: Bob Dole, John Edwards, two 28,000 sq. ft. buildings

Next: Barbed wire and granite

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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Dem debate rap wrap

Well, it's good to know that Sen. Hillary Clinton has been a New York Yankees fan "for a very long, long, time."

I'm glad MSNBC debate monitor Tim Russert, who did a terrific job throughout the night, put her to the test by asking her who'd she root for if the Chicago Cubs, the team she cheered for while growing up in a Park Ridge, Illinois farm house.

On more serious matters, all the Democratic candidates are in favor of ending the Iraq War, but none mention winning the war--but winning the baseball World Series did come up.

"Good Obama," the Illinois senator that's for peace and not attacking al Qaeda in Pakistan while we withdraw from Iraq showed up at Democratic candidates' debate at Dartmouth University in New Hamphshire.

As for festering sore that is Iran, Obama said we should "talk directly to Iran, something we have not been doing."

There's a reason for that. Iran is led by a madman, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is overseen by a nut known as Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, who in turn is chosen by a group of crazies called the Assembly of Experts who are chosen by the Council of Guardians. It's a lazy-susan style of Islamo-fascism that prevents any reasonable man (no women, please!) from rising to the top. Oh there's a parliament, but the supreme leader can strike down any law he feels is un-Islamic.

Oh, I almost forgot. Candidates for parliament must be approved by the Council of Guardians.

Good luck, President Barack, in talking any sense with these loons.

Our Iran policy should be regime change. That doesn't necessarily mean attacking Iran, but the lazy-susan needs to be jammed, then smashed.

Back to the debate: If any of the candidates gave a straight answer on whether "sanctuary cities," that is, municipalities which don't report illegal aliens who commit crimes to federal authorities should exist, I missed it.

Here's my take: It's a dangerous thing to allow local governments to pick and choose which should be enforced. The basis of our society is laws and enforcement of them.

Former Senator Mike Gravel made the most asinine comment of the night, when explaining to Russert that his 1984 bankruptcy was "a way to stick it to the credit card companies." And just who used those credit cards?

Kucinich solidified his standing this evening as the candidate on the far-left. With luck, he'll end up with 5 percent of the vote in a primary election--pretty good numbers for him. As for the others: Nothing that Christopher Dodd, Joe Biden, John Edwards, or Bill Richardson (other than his suppport for an almost immediate withdrawl from Iraq) stood out for me.

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Glenn & Helen podcast with Laura Ingraham

Power to the people, right on. John Lennon, "Power to the People," 1971.

Years ago I listened to the Chicago Blackhawks (scroll down a few posts to view the tie-in) on WIND-AM. Now I catch Laura Ingraham on the same frequency along with a few others. Laura is the latest guest on the latest Glenn & Helen Show podcast.

Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and Dr. Helen Smith catch up to Ingraham as she talks about her latest book, Power to the People. If you know anything about Ingraham, you know the book is not a left-wing screeching rant.

Do you think there is nothing you can do if you're not the New York Times or don't own a television station? Ingraham doesn't think so.

Listen to or download the podcast, which I listened to during my morning run, right here. Or download is for free via iTunes.

The podcast is sponsored by Volvo Cars.

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Hillary's vacuous vetting exposes International Profit Associates hypocrisy

My good friend Dan Curry has been working on the Hillary/International Profit Associates story for months, and I'm sure he won't mind that I take his post, almost word for word, and post it here.

Dan blogs at Reverse Spin, and I highly recommend his blog.

On Meet the Press last Sunday, Hillary Clinton proclaimed that new vetting procedures had been been put in place to prevent her from taking money from sleaze merchants like Norman Hsu.

If you think you've heard that line before, you are right.

The spokeswoman for Mrs. Clinton, Ann Lewis, said Mrs. Clinton was not aware of Mr. Burgess's background when he held fund-raising affairs for her in 2000 and 2003, nor did she know whether other prominent Democrats had rejected contributions. She said that Mrs. Clinton’s vetting procedures have been strengthened since the senator’s appearance at I.P.A.

That paragraph appeared in a May 2006 article in the New York Times focusing on questionable contributions to Clinton from Illinois-based International Profit Associates, a business consulting company run by a convicted criminal that is beset by fraud allegations and a massive federal sexual harassment lawsuit.

Small business owners across the country, frustrated by Hillary’s continued refusal to turn away IPA funds, have written her this letter today. The small business owners were victimized by IPA’s fraud and are suing IPA in a federal racketeering lawsuit pending in Chicago.

Hillary Clinton for President
4420 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA. 22203

Dear Senator Clinton:

We, the undersigned small business owners from across the country are deeply offended that you continue to accept campaign contributions from top officials of a business consulting company, International Profit Associates (IPA), Buffalo Grove, IL., that defrauded us. As we struggle in federal court via a civil racketeering lawsuit to recover the thousands of dollars this company took from us illegally, you continue to use political donations that might have come directly from our pockets.

We also are appalled because you accepted the money amid dark clouds of fraud allegations, a criminal past by the company's founder, and one of the largest sexual harassment lawsuits ever filed by the federal government.

We are trying to fight back against this company and you, Senator Clinton, are enabling it. We ask that you immediately donate to charity the more than $150,000 the New York Times says you've accepted from IPA's top officials, a figure that includes a ride on IPA's corporate jet and a donation from a high school age son of an IPA official.

Surely, now, in the wake of the Norman Hsu scandal, some time, including:

IPA is being sued by the federal government's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for widespread sexual harassment. In a New York Times article May 7, 2006 titled, "Rubbing Shoulders with Trouble, and Presidents," EEOC lawyer Diane Smason called the allegations "probably the most egregious" ever filed by the agency's Chicago office. She said the investigation found that "sex harassment is the standard operating procedure for this company." That case is pending in U.S. District Court.

The Illinois Attorney General’s office has acknowledged publicly that it is investigating IPA for alleged fraud.

The Better Business Bureau says IPA has an "unsatisfactory record" based on reoccurring complaints that total 427 in the last three years. The BBB has issued "alerts" in various states to warn businesses that IPA was soliciting work there.

The company founder, John Burgess, is a convicted criminal, according to numerous published reports. He was convicted of attempted grand larceny and of soliciting a 16-year-old prostitute, those reports state. He was disbarred as a lawyer in New York state in July 1987 for "failing to answer charges which involved perjury, larceny, a conviction for patronizing a 16-year-old prostitute, possession of drugs and engaging in a pattern over a six-year period of lies and deceit," according to The Lawyers Fund for Client Protection of New York state. Burgess also is named as a key defendant in the sexual harassment lawsuit.

The company's attorney, Myron "Mike" Cherry, also a contributor of yours, has been identified in published reports as "Individual "H" in the Illinois criminal indictment of businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko. Cherry has acknowledged in published reports that he was the conduit for some of the IPA campaign contributions.

Already, politicians across the country have returned donations from IPA because of the company's checkered past. Illinois Senator Barack Obama, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle and former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager are among those who have returned contributions from IPA.

We have made our fraud allegations in a federal racketeering lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Mrs. Clinton, we see from published reports that you have identified yourself as a champion for women’s rights and an advocate for small business owners. We cannot fathom, in light of those self-labels, how you could possibly accept campaign contributions from a company accused by the federal government of sexually harassing scores of women and one that has left behind a long trail of fraud complaints from small business owners. Do you believe the 114 women who were allegedly sexually harassed at IPA are not telling the truth about that harassment? Do you believe the Better Business Bureau is wrong? Do you think the state Attorney General is unjustified in her investigation of IPA?

We believe this is our concern because the campaign contributions you continue to accept came from the money that we believe was taken from us illegally. We do not believe you should continue to further your political career with such tainted cash.

We are not singling you out in this request. We plan to make the same request to other public officials who continue to accept and hold IPA-related campaign contributions. We wrote you first because you are running for President and certainly should be setting an example for other politicians.

Sincerely,
Amari Company, Inc., Amherst, NH.
Amazing Productions, Inc., Tamarac, FL.
Precision Painting and Decorating, Inc., Elmhurst, IL.
All About Construction, Inc., Fort Myers, FL.
Capital Removal, Gold River, CA.
BBQ Island, LLC., Gilbert, AZ.
Compsolution VA, Inc., Richmond, VA.
JRP Construction, LLC., Yuma, AZ.
Evco Commercial Construction, Corp., Lake Elsinore, CA.
Gunnison Metal Shop, Inc., Gunnison, CA.
Captains Select Seafood, Minneapolis, MN.
MSI Redimix Inc., Mesquite, CA.
Joseph E. Clouse, Inc., Lehigh Acres, FL.
Kyles Discount Stuff, McPherson, KS.
Dames Air, LLC., Warrenton, MO.
Home Theater Design Group, Carrollton, TX.
Gigs Inc., Tewksbury, MA.
Cool Access LLC., Mesquite, TX.
Philipsburg Electric & Supply, Inc., Philipsburg, PA.
Gilbert-American Companies, Rockwall, TX.
Hinsdale Sales and Rental, Inc., Hinsdale, NH.
Hitech Fire Detection, Inc., Houston, TX.

Tonight, the Democratic candidates for President are debating in New Hampshire. Considering that some of IPA’s victims are from that state, it would be the perfect time for somebody to ask Hillary about how IPA has escaped her vaunted vetting procedures.

The International Profit Associates story is out there on the Internet, but you have to do some digging to find it. The Oprah Winfrey Show's take on it can be found here.

From Oprah's site:

According to Charlotte, even the top executive participated in the harassment. "John Burgess, the owner, had his assistant proposition me to have sex with him," she says. "She started telling me a story of how he sleeps with women in the company and how I can get a better job if I do sleep with him."

Shortly after Charlotte rejected her boss's proposition, she says, she was demoted. "The next day I went to the [Human Resources] department and spoke with the manager," Charlotte says. "She looked at me and shrugged her shoulders and said, 'That's how he is.'"

Related posts:

Hillary returns Hsu money, but what about International Profit Associates cash?

Obama ditching more Rezko linked cash, but what about Hillary?

Thanks for the link: NoHillary.com

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law

Hsu

International Profit Associates

"Worst sports team owner" Bill Wirtz dies

During my three year stint as an employee at the Bismarck Hotel, now the Hotel Allegro, I got to know--a little bill--Bill Wirtz, whose family then owned the property. I found him to be a friendly and charming man.

Still, I have to agree with many other that Wirtz, who died of cancer early today, was easily the worst owner in professional sports.

The Wirtz dynasty was founded in real estate, and for a while the magic touch carried over to the Chicago Blackhawks, an "original six" NHL team. Wirtz' father Arthur purchased the team in 1954, the "Hawks" won a Stanley Cup in 1961. And for a while the team gave the Cubs, White Sox, and the Bears a run for their money as Chicago's most popular team. The Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita led teams of the 1960s and early 1970s, after that championship, brought a tremendous amount of excitement to the city.

But Hull jumped to the World Hockey Association in 1972--Wirtz' father still owned the team until his death in 1983--but the team remained successful, but without a Stanley Cup, into the 1990s.

But free-agency came to hockey in 1990 and Bill Wirtz' Blackhawks refused to spend the money to keep star players such as Tony Amonte, Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick, and Ed Belfour in Blackhawks sweaters. The Blackhawks have only qualified for the NHL playoffs twice in the last ten years.

And the team' popularity plummeted. People living outside of Chicago find this hard to believe, but home games, with rare exceptions, are not televised in the Chicago area--not even on cable. People have busy lives, and kids who aren't exposed to televised hockey don't become fans. (Road games are televised on cable, but the Blackhawks play in the Western Conference, and play a lot of games on the west coast, when kids are sleeping.)

But Wirtz, on the rare occasions when he addressed the TV issue, responded that three things make the Blackhawks successful: "Season reservations, season reservations, and season reservations."

But that failed Wirtz too. The Blackhawks average 12,000 fans a game, but play in the 20,000 capacity United Center.

Besides the realty holdings, the Wirtz empire includes Judge & Dolph, a wine and liquor distributorship. In one of Illinois' most idiotic laws--a hold over the 1930s--beer, wine, and liquor manufacturers are prevented from selling their products directly to businesses. They have move their goods through a middleman such as Judge & Dolph. During the unhappy term of disgraced Illinois Governor George H. Ryan, a law passed, nicknamed the "Wirtz Law," made it virtually impossible for alcohol producers to fire companies such Judge & Dolph. A federal judge ruled that the law was unconstitutional three years later.

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NHL

My Kansas Kronikles: Smoky Valley Scenic Byway

After my visit to the impressive Monument Rocks, my Kansas journey took me to a part of Kansas many non-Kansans know quite well: Interstate 70. It was there that I crossed over from west to east, that is across the 100th Meridian near the village of WaKeeney.

From there the Smoky Valley Scenic Byway commensed. It's named for the Smoky Hills, the "smoke," which I didn't see, is the haze that some people notice at sunrise and sunset.

As you've noticed in previous posts, Kansas isn't just windmills and cattle, although they're abundant on this byway. Of course, after my visits to the tree Beef Kingdoms of Kansas, I looked at these cows a little bit differently.

Just as businesses fail, sometimes towns don't make it. There's a natural yet macabre fascination with ghost towns, as we walk through them, we invariably ponder our own inevitible demise. On the southern end of the byway in Ness County is the town of Brownell, population 48. If you're looking for the opportunity to see a "living ghost town," then Brownell is where you need to go. On the left is the center of town. Below is Brownell's post office, which appears to have closed shop for good--a dead letter office.

Previous "My Kansas Kronikles" entries:

An overview
This has to stop
US Route 83, America's Loneliest Road
Little pueblo on the prairie
My return to western Kansas
Gray County Wind Farm
Wagon ruts
Chase County Courthouse
Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church
The Sunflower State
The Flint Hills
Alan Clark's filling station in Eskridge
A taste of home
Kingman
Western Holiday Motel in Wichita
The Prairie Chicken Capital of the World
The Texas panhandle
Oklahoma's strange panhandle
The Monument Rocks

Greensburg posts:

Greensburg, the fall and rise, part one
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part two
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part three
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part four
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part five
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part six

The Beef Kingdoms:
Dodge City, Beef Kingdom
Liberal: Kansas' second Beef Kingdom
Garden City, Kansas' third Beef Kingdom

Next: Bob Dole's hometown of Russell

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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Pajamas Media BWIR with Michael Ledeen on Iran

During my morning run, hours before "Mad Mahmoud" Ahmadinejad did the seemingly impossible by making a mockery the United Nations by giving a speech in front of the suspect body, I listened to the latest Pajamas Blog Week in Review podcast. Host Austin Bay was joined by Pajamas Media's Michael Ledeen, who calls things as he sees them, and in the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ledeen throws plenty of penalty flags.

Ledeen has a new book, The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots' Quest for Destruction

The podcast opens with a discussion of Michael Slackman's September 5 New York Times article, Hard Times Help Leaders in Iran Tighten Grip. Ledeen didn't like the piece and in the podcast declared it "a good candidate for the Walter Duranty award."

Duranty was the New York Times reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize while serving as Stalin's apologist as he "reported" on the Soviet Union during the unhappy decade of the 1930s. Duranty "overlooked" a famine in the Ukraine that killed 10 million people.

There other wonderful chunks of wisdom to absorb to in this timely podcast. Listen to or download the podcast here. Or do it the Marathon Pundit way and subcribe for free via iTunes.

As always, the podcast is sponsored by Volvo USA and is produced by Pajamas blogger Ed Driscoll.

Related post:

Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review with Michael Ledeen

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Militant vegan teacher fired

Yes, there is such a thing as a militant vegan, and that person's name is David Warwak, who until last night was a middle-school art teacher in Fox River Grove, Illinois.

From CBS 2 Chicago:

A vegan middle school teacher who vowed to persuade schools to change their menus has been fired.

Dave Warwak of Williams Bay, Wis., was removed from the classroom at Fox River Grove Middle School earlier this month. School officials say he handed out materials on vegan diets some parents considered graphic.

The 44-year-old art teacher says he objected to the school's menu and its posters featuring milk.

The school board has voted 7-0 to fire him.

Well, now that Warwak has more free time, he can volunteer for the presidential campaign of fellow vegan Dennis Kucinich.

Related post:

Oh, those middle school art teachers...

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St. Xavier professor cheers Ahmadinejad Columbia speech

Episode seven of Ken Burns' PBS World War II series will air next Tuesday, it's a segment that Burns, while appearing on Fox & Friends just now, said, "The President of Iran should definitely watch."

Yesterday, Manhattan Island was stained by a madman, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He's still there, in Midtown at the United Nations getting ready for his next speech. On Monday, the holocaust-revisionist if not outright denier spoke at Columbia University and via teleconference to the National Press Club. The naive learned that there are no homosexuals in Iran (perhaps they have "faggots" and "homos"), the holocaust needs more studying, and that Iranian women, those who at least aren't being stoned for adultery, are among "the freest in the world."

(And don't let too much hair to fall out from your hijab, ladies.)

Oh, Iran is not behind any attacks against US troops in Iraq, claims Mad Mahmoud.

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of any speech, which is why fellow demons like Charles Manson shouldn't be allowed to speak at Columbia either.

Columbia is blessed with a school of psychiatry, and an excellent opportunity was missed by the faculty there: Like a Cipro-resistant form of syphilis or an outbreak of Ebola virus, Ahmadinejad should be studied by the top shrinks in the West--while donned in full body suits.

Meanwhile on Chicago's Southwest Side of Chicago, St. Xavier University Professor Peter N. Kirstein is leading the cheering section for Mad Mahmoud.

Kirstein has appeared a couple of times on Iranian television, which puts in the Lenin's "Useful Idiots" category.

Until his Mahmound Crusade began (Yes, I'm aware of the mixed metaphor), Kirstein was a leading supporter of since fired University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill: plagiarist and fabricator.

Scroll down Kistein's site: He's picked a fight with former downstate Illinois Congressman Glenn Poshard (and the man disgraced former Governor George Ryan defeated in his 1998 election) should be fired from his present job as President of Southern Illinois University for plagiarism. Poshard, a Democrat whom I voted for, should be dismissed from his position--on that I agree with Kirstein.

But Kirstein, like all Lefties, carefully chooses his battles and his tactics. He recommended "punishment" falling short of firing.

As I've noted before, in the 1980s, my late father worked as a fund-raiser for St. Xavier University, which makes Kirstein an unfortunate family legacy.

And Kirstein still remains almost completely silent on the free speech struggle of Thomas Klocek at DePaul University, whereas in addition to Ward Churchill, Kirstein was among the loudest voices in the pro-Norman G. Finkelstein chorus during his tenure battle at DePaul.

Related posts:

DePaul alum Mayor Daley writes recruiting letters for St. Xavier University

Finkelstein defender Peter Kirstein praised David Irving

Thanks for the link:

Pirate Ballerina

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PBS

SIU

Northwestern J-school dean faces resistance as he drags it into modern times

The September issue of Chicago Magazine has a great article by Dirk Johnson about Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, or as it’s now called, Medill.

Two years ago, 66 year-old John Lavine was named Medill’s dean, where he vowed to "blow-up" the curriculum. He has done that. Many students and professors aren't happy about it, as Johnson reports.

"You lied to me," one student barked at Lavine. "I came here to learn to be a writer. But you’re having us do all this video stuff. I didn’t come here for that." Lavine has them doing audio reporting as well.

Lavine once owned a chain of newspapers, and unlike most J-school heads, he doesn’t come from the editorial side of the business.

The students $40,000 a year to have the chance to end up a success like Medill alums as Brent Musberger (once a Chicago sports columnist), Georgie Anne Geyer, Ira Berkow of the New York Times, or former Chicago Tribune editor Howard Tyner.

Surely the students understand newspaper business is struggling to stop the bleeding of declining circulation. I hope to God they do.

Lavine knows, and told Johnson, "Young people don’t understand that if a paper doesn't sell, it dies."

And if a newspaper goes the way of the Washington Star, the Chicago Daily News, or the Cincinnati Post, the editors, photographers, and of course reporters have to look for a job. And they'll probably do it on primarily on Monster. com, not in the Sunday jobs section of the Chicago Tribune.

Joseph Pulitzer, the early 20th century newspaper publisher laid down the law that other journalism schools have followed.

Business instruction of any sort should not, would not, and must not form any part of the work of the college of journalism.

Fine. But that was in 1904, before radio, television, and of course, the internet and blogs.

Dean Lavine wants his students to understand their readers, that is, their paying customers. And if newspapers are going to stop the bleeding, that’s a good way to start.

This unnamed Medill professor doesn’t get it.

Marketing can dangerously close to pandering.

Well, call it "pandering" if you want. I call it adapting to the 21st century and giving people what they want.

Related posts:

CBS' 48 Hours tonight to feature Ill. murder case--show likely to feature Northwestern prof tarnished by recent lawsuit (w/exclusive material)

The media and a professor told us Anthony Porter was framed, a Chicago jury disagreed

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Northwestern University

Monday, September 24, 2007

In search of the real El Dorado, Kansas

Gaily bedight,
A gallant night
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of El Dorado.
Edgar Allan Poe, "El Dorado"

In the week’s time my internet connection was down, it allowed me to catch up in my reading. After much teeth-gnashing, I was able to finish Thomas Frank’s "What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America"a best-selling book from 2004. I have the paperback edition that includes his 2005 afterword.

Quite obviously the reading of this book, along with William Least Heat-Moon’s superior PrairyErth (A Deep Map): An Epic History of the Tallgrass Prairie Country--I read that one many years ago--tied into my still continuing Kansas Kronikles series.

Frank is a Kansas native, from the Kansas City suburbs. Until July, I hadn't traveled to the Sunflower State.

I came there with an open, but generally positive opinion of Kansas

But has the author soured on his state?

In the book, Frank talks about his visit to El Dorado, Kansas, which is between the Flint Hills region and Kansas’ largest city, Wichita.

Frank was there for a Kansas Vietnam Veterans reunion and to watch Phill Kline, who was then running for Kansas' attorney general, give a speech. Frank lumps Kline into the "Con," that is, the non-moderate side of the state Republican Party.

Kline won that election by the way, but was defeated in his re-election bid.

Anyway, take a look at what the author writes as he sets the mood for his segment on the rally:

El Dorado, Kansas, Deepest July, 2002. I am here to witness the interaction between opportunist and believer firsthand, and to see what makes the Kansas equation work. There are no clouds in the vast Kansas sky, and the temperature hovers around one-hundred degrees, as it has for a week. The town’s nineteenth century main street is of course, empty. (My comments: I traveled through El Dorado during my journey to Kansas five Julys later, and I found downtown El Dorado to be charming and not-so-empty. Also, like many Kansas county seats, El Dorado is blessed with a beautiful courthouse, which is pictured above.) The only going concern appears to be the obligatory secondhand store, and I appear to be the only customer. Not a welcome one, either. The scowling proprietor will have no small talk. She keeps an eye on me as I walk up and down the aisles. She can plainly see that I’m up to no good.

Man, who woke up on the wrong side of Kansas? Perhaps the proprietor of the store Frank entered was a jerk, and the business deservedly shut down years ago. On the other hand, most retail stores are run by people who are appreciative of any shopper who enters through their front doors. If you're not friendly to potential customers, people shop elsewhere. It’s common sense to operate that way.

My interpretation of Frank’s trip to El Dorado and that store? He views his state in such a negative fashion, that even when he walks through the doors of a second-hand shop, his contempt for Kansans can’t be separated from his psyche.

My interactions with Kansans were all enjoyable. As I wrote last month, "Kansans are incredibly nice people. When you've met a Kansan, you've met a friend." Although I've made a few negative posts on the Sunflower State--no place is perfect--my opinion is that Kansas is an under-visited state, and yes, there are things to do there besides getting scowled at in El Dorado.

My Kansas Kronikles will continue, scroll down for my Monunment Rocks post, now that my internet problems are fixed.

Related post: Marathon Pundit Exclusive: "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Debunked on Page One: UPDATED AGAIN

Technorati tags:

William Least Heat-Moon

Obligatory fall harvest post

Last week was a busy one for me, so even if my internet connection was up, I wouldn't have done much posting. Thursday took me to the edge of the Chicago sprawl, where I found this cornfield.

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Back in business!

Word from home is good. I have an internet connection again. Woo! hoo!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Connection conundrum

Treo blogging from home while watching the Phadelphia Eagles--Detroit Lions game on Fox.

The Eagles are wearing the ugliest uniforms I've ever seen, the same ones they wore, sans the leather helmets, that the team donned when they joined the NFL in 1933.

I can see why they switched to green and white.

The technician from my internet service provider came and went--and the Marathon Pundit household still has no connection.

The problem isn't here, it's within their network.

Better luck tomorrow?

Friday, September 21, 2007

Reinstate Thomas Klocek at DePaul petition just 28 signatures short of goal

We are so close....just 28 signatures needed to reach the goal of 2,000 to in support of getting fired DePaul Professor Thomas Klocek, a victim of PC-ness at the Chicago Catholic university, reinstated at the school he taught for 15 years.

Read, then sign here the The Scholars for Peace in the Middle East petition.

Related post:

Thomas Klocek three years later: The Man Who Did Not Turn Back

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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Busy at work...

Treo blogging from home.

Despite my connection problems, it would've been a slow blogging week because of a lot of stuff going on at my regular job.

The internet guy comes Sunday, it's beg and borrow a computer till then.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Time for me to shop...outside Cook County?

A member of that group of ward-heelers known as the Cook County Board, leaders of a patronage army of layabouts, is proposing a two percent sales tax increase. As I noted in a July post, this failure of an organization can't even respond to a police call about a pollution incident I encountered.

If the sales tax goes through, which will make Chicagoans (who have a higher tax than suburbanites like myself) pay a whopping 11 percent on most items purchased in the nation's third largest city.

Gasoline prices what they are, someone like myself, who doesn't live too far from Lake County, will head there to buy big ticket items.

The Cook County Board has been under Democratic Party control for almost forty years.

One party rule. Gotta love it.

The way to solve problems in Cook County's government, which is America's largest, is simple.

Cut, privatize, cut. Eliminate. Slash and burn.

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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

The rise and fall of Chief Thunderbird IV

Here's a story I'll be watching closely. Not only does it have Kansas ties, but it involves a couple of other hot topics: illegal immigration and fake Indians, you know, Ward Churchill types.

Chief Thunderbird IV, whose "white man's name" is Malcolm L. Webber, is being held in a Wichita, Kansas jail on charges that he's selling "tribal memberships" to his tribe, the Kaweah Indian Nation, which is not recognized by the federal government.

It looks like we have a Ward Churchill wanna-be one state to the left of Colorado.

From the Wichita Eagle:

Webber is charged with attempting to defraud the federal government, harboring illegal immigrants and possession of false identification documents with intent to defraud the United States.

According to court documents, Webber told authorities they had no right to be "on sovereign land" when they came to arrest him earlier this month.

(Magistrate Judge Donald) Bostwick said he was concerned that if freed on bail, Webber may use his network of tribal offices in Texas and Mexico to flee. He asked Kerns to address those concerns when the hearing resumes.

The judge also expressed concerns about the safety of court officials, given the statements Webber allegedly made about sovereignty, and about how the court could prevent Webber from having prohibited contacts with other tribal members.

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Connection problems

Treo blogging from home.

Since about 6pm last night, I've been unable to access the internet here. I was on the phone with my service provider, who says a technician needs to be sent out--but the earliest it can be done is on Sunday. I'll be borrowing computers here and there, so expect postings, just not as many.

In the meantime. if you haven't immersed your self in my "Kansas Kronikles" series, now is a good time to catch up. Also, my latest Thomas Klocek post is just below those.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Obama: Mixed messages

Today's Chicago Tribune has a very long article about Barack Obama's inner campaign circle. Free registration is required for the link, but I'm going to tell you all you need to know. The champion of so-called "new politics" is surrounded by Washington insiders who have one thing in common: It's not ideology, but their Washington insider status.

Throw that on top of the Obama mixed message that he wants to beginning pulling troops out of Iraq now--while speaking in favor of an attack on al Qaeda inside Pakistan.

Related posts:

Obama says: Surrender now

Obama in Pakistani quagmire

President Obama could invade Pakistan

The Obama Brand: It's not for breakfast anymore

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Birthday greetings go to...

...Little Marathon Pundit. In front of her, and this is no joke, is Dr. Valdis Zatlers, the President of Latvia--he's planting an oak tree as part of a ceremony.

Mrs. and Little Marathon Pundit spent most of July in Latvia. It's difficult for me to get away from work for so long, so I stayed here in the States.

Zatlers was sworn in as president of the Baltic nation a few months ago. The head of state was in Sece for a song festival. Sece, a very small town in the Zamgale region that normally doesn't host song festivals or presidents, is Mrs. Marathon Pundit's hometown.

Happy Birthday, Little Marathon Pundit.

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Zemgale

Sunday, September 16, 2007

My Kansas Kronikles: The Monument Rocks

There's a lot a didn't know about Kansas before my summer trip to the Sunflower State. Yes, I did research on what to see, what roads to take, what I should bypass.

On my map of Kansas, a few miles east of US Route 83 in Gove County, there was a red dot: Monument Rocks.

The rocks, made of a soft limestone known as Niobrara Chalk, are as worthy a site as similar, but better known locations as Nebraska's Chimney Rock and Scotts Bluff National Monument. Unlike those spots, the Monument Rocks are on private land. You have to drive on six miles of unpaved road to see them. The rocks are on private land, the owner of the property does not discourage visits. There is no tourist center.

But you can walk right up and touch the rocks. National Park Service personnel don't let you get closer than a half-mile to Chimney Rock.

Ignoring Alan Clark's advice not to take any unpaved roads in Kansas--I think he meant the damper eastern half of the state, I cautiously drove the six miles to the rocks. And I was glad I did.

Roughly twenty miles to the east of the Monument Rocks is Castle Rock. I didn't make it there, it's a smaller version of its western kin. If you are in central Kansas and you're pressed for time, then head west to at least Castle Rock.

As with both places, don't take advantage of the accessibility of the rocks. Don't try to climb them and don't carve your initials into them. When you leave the rocks, let the next person see them the way you did.

A few things about the Kansas trip, now that I'm winding down the series. Marathon Pundit reader Chris R. of Tustin, California e-mailed me the question, "How long was I in Kansas?" The answer to that is one week in late July.

The photographs: All were taken by me, with the exception of a couple of pre-tornado pictures on one of my Greensburg, Kansas posts, which were duly credited.

Why Kansas? Well, according to Thomas Franks' What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, in which the author for the most part trashes his home state, the Sunflower State is American's least popular vacation destination. As a blogger, uh, make that journalist, I view it my task to find places and stories that others have overlooked.

Also, Kansas until July was the only Midwestern state I hadn't step foot in.

Next: Smoky River Scenic Byway

Previous "My Kansas Kronikles" entries:

An overview
This has to stop
US Route 83, America's Loneliest Road
Little pueblo on the prairie
My return to western Kansas
Gray County Wind Farm
Wagon ruts
Chase County Courthouse
Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church
The Sunflower State
The Flint Hills
Alan Clark's filling station in Eskridge
A taste of home
Kingman
Western Holiday Motel in Wichita
The Prairie Chicken Capital of the World
The Texas panhandle
Oklahoma's strange panhandle

Greensburg posts:

Greensburg, the fall and rise, part one
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part two
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part three
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part four
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part five
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part six

The Beef Kingdoms:
Dodge City, Beef Kingdom
Liberal: Kansas' second Beef Kingdom
Garden City, Kansas' third Beef Kingdom

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White Sox slugger Jim Thome nods into history with 500th home run

The timing couldn't have been better. Today was Jim Thome Bobblehead Day on Chicago's South Side for this afternoon's game, the last of a ten-game homestand, versus the Los Angeles Angels.

Peoria, Illinois native and Chicago White Sox slugger Jim Thome just hit his 500th home run. Thome is the first player to achieve the feat in a Sox uniform.

And it was done in dramatic fashion: Thome launched an opposite field two-run homer on a full count in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving the Sox a 9-7 victory over the Angels. Dustin Moseley gave up the historic four-bagger.

With his wife and father and other family members in attendance, Thome became the 23rd Major League Baseball player to achieve the 500 homer milestone, the other two being Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees and Frank Thomas of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Thomas hit most of his home runs as a member of the White Sox.

For years I watched Thome beat the stuffing out of baseballs against the South Siders while playing for the Cleveland Indians. And I said to myself, "Why can't we get this guy on our team?"

Last year it happened, the Philadelphia Phillies traded Thome, coming off an injury plagued 2005 season, to the White Sox.

The story of the 2007 Chicago White Sox is about individual achievement. In April, Sox ace Mark Buehrle pitched the first Sox no hitter at home in forty years. Last month, White Sox closer Bobby Jenks tied a major league record for retiring the most consecutive batters.

But team performed poorly, the Sox are currently in last place in their division.

Nice guys don't always finish last. In a 2007 Sports Illustrated poll of Major League Baseball players, Thome finished in a second-place tie with fellow designated hitter Mike Sweeney of the Kansas City Royals when players were asked, "Who is the friendliest player in baseball?" Detroit Tigers first baseman Sean Casey topped the poll.

Well done, Jim.

Thanks for the link:

Peoria Pundits

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MLB

Gary police go to scene of fatal accident, leave bodies behind

No one should have to find the body of a loved one this way.

Early Saturday morning there was a fatal one-car accident on the southern end of Gary, Indiana.

Gary police came to the scene of the accident, paramedics took two survivors, to the hospital, towed the wreck away, but left the bodies of the fatalities at the scene of the accident.

Dominique Green and Brandon Smith were the fatal victims. It was the parents of Smith who found the bodies--six hours after the accident.

Arthur Smith told ABC 7 Chicago:

Ten feet from where I think the car stopped is where my son was at. Even, though it happened at 3am, I'm sure they have good flashlights. They didn't find my son. I found my son and his best friend dead in the weeds.

The survivors say they told the police there were two other occupants in the car. The Gary police apparently didn't listen, but were diligent enough to issue a ticket to the driver of the car--while two other victims, possibly still alive, were ten feet away.

Gary's mayor promises a full investigation of the incident.

The word "inexcusable" comes to mind.

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Saturday, September 15, 2007

My Kansas Kronikles: The House Where Nobody Lives

Well the paint was all cracked
It was peeled off of the wood
Papers were stacked on the porch
Where I stood
And the weeds had grown up
Just as high as the door
There were birds in the chimney
And an old chest of drawers
Looks like no one will ever
Come back to the
House were nobody lives
Tom Waits, House Where Nobody Lives, 1999.

I saw a few abandoned houses in the Flint Hills region of Kansas, and the semi-arid climate of western Kansas is a similarly challenging place to put down stakes.

This house where nobody lives is in Logan County on US Route 83, America's Loneliest Road.

Just as people struggle to put down roots in the Great Plains, so do trees.

Next: The Monument Rocks

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Rebuilding churches in Sudan

Prairie Bluestem has an update about her nephew Ben, who is helping heal the wounds of civil war in Sudan. He's been there over six months now.

From her blog:

You may remember that my nephew Ben, a civil engineer, is working for Samaritan's Purse, an international Christian relief organization. He is in southern Sudan, where he has been helping with rebuilding Christian churches that were destroyed in the recent civil war. His role is to organize workers and materials and to provide expertise and oversight for the construction.

Click here for more.

Related post:

Manute Bol: A big man with a big heart

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Sunday night: Buzz Patterson on the Andrea Shea-King Show

The Move America Forward "Fight for Victory" tour concluded this afternoon with a successful docking with Gathering of Eagles III. As I blogged a few days ago, the caravan made it's way into the Chicago area, touching down in suburban Niles.

Michelle Malkin live-blogged today's event.

Lt. Col. Robert 'Buzz' Patterson (Ret.) was at the helm of the caravan, and he's not kicking back and relaxing: Sunday night at 9pm Eastern (8pm Central), Patterson, along with Kristinn Taylor of Free Republic, will appear on the Andrea Shea-King Show for a wrap-party.

For those of you living in central Florida, Andrea's show can be heard on WDBO 580 AM. If you live elsewhere, tune in here and listen live on the internet.

Want to participate in the fun? Then head to the chatroom, make sure you pick the Andrea's Sunday night link, and let the wrap-party begin.

Can't wait that long? Then head to her blog, The Radio Patriot.

H/T to Third Wave Dave.

UPDATE Sept. 16: Pam Meister made the trip from New England to Gathering of Eagles, and she brought her camera.

Related post:

Move America Forward caravan comes to the Chicago area

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Thomas Klocek three years later: The Man Who Did Not Turn Back

Although we try to plan and make some order of our lives, sometimes people just "fall into events." Such a thing happened to former DePaul Professor Thomas Klocek on September 15, 2004. Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee fell into an event in The Lord of The Rings. In this passage, the two hobbits find themselves inside Mordor for the first time, in front of Cirith Ungol, the lair of Sauron's chief servant, The Witch King of Angmar.

"Yes, that's so," said Sam. "And we shouldn't be here at all, if we'd known more about it before we started. But I suppose it's often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually - their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on - and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same - like old Mr. Bilbo. But those aren't always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we've fallen into?"

Like Bilbo Baggins picking up The One Ring under the Misty Mountains in The Hobbit, and Frodo's inheritance of it, Klocek innocently found himself picking up an inflammatory brochure at a student activities fair on the display table of a DePaul Muslim group. Klocek tried to engage the Muslim students in a rational discussion about Middle Eastern politics. But Klocek didn't bow down to the political-correctness of Israel bashing, and a chain of events, or more accurately an event he fell into, led to the loss of his job after 15 years of exemplary service there.

But Klocek didn't turn back. He fought back, and began his seemingly futile quest for justice as he challenged America's largest Catholic University.

Now by bringing up The Lord of the Rings--a great book--I'm by no means attempting to trivialize Klocek's struggle, but enlighten it. Klocek is a devout Roman Catholic, as was the author of the book, J.R.R. Tolkien.

In a 1953 letter, here's what Tolkien, an academic-lifer like Klocek, said about his monumental book:

The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsiously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults and practices, in the imaginary world. For the religous element is absorbed in into the story and the symbolism.

I believe there is a religious element behind Klocek's decision not to turn back: A belief in right and wrong, a faith that one has reached a wise decision, and the accompanying courage in sticking with that choice, despite almost impossible odds of success.

Klocek could've accepted his de facto dismissal from DePaul and faded away.

But Klocek, the man who did not turn back, is the Catholic one here. DePaul, the school that bills itself as America's largest Catholic university, is Catholic-in-name-only.

This is my third "anniversary post" regarding the Thomas Klocek affair. Below you will find last year's second-annivesary entry, as well as some of my more important Klocek postings.

As for next year, I have faith that Klocek's struggle with DePaul will be resolved, in Klocek's favor, and I won't have to do a fourth anniversary posting.

Related posts:

UPDATED: Reinstate Thomas Klocek at DePaul petition just 37 signatures short of goal

Sept 15: Second anniversary of the beginning of the Thomas Klocek affair

DePaul President Fr. Holtschneider: "Academic freedom is alive and well at DePaul"

CAIR-Chicago recommended that DePaul fire Klocek

Judge upholds 6 of 8 counts in Klocek case

Eyewitness backs Klocek's charges against DePaul

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My Kansas Kronkles: Little pueblo on the prairie

My choice for America's Loneliest Road, US Route 83 took me north to Lake Scott State Park near Scott City in the heart of western Kansas.

Lake Scott is man-made, it's a reservoir of Ladder Creek.

I came there to see the El Cuartelejo Pueblo, but it was the natural beauty--and yes, there is much of it in Kansas, that took me by surprise.

The pueblo site is more accurate description of the what is pictured on the right. The ruins of the only pueblo found in Kansas, and the northernmost of all known pueblos, have been reconstructed to appear as they did when they were discovered by a pioneer in 1899.

El Cuartelejo was believed to have been occupied various Indian tribes from the mid-16th century until roughly 1730.

Lake Scott State Park offers plenty to do: Fishing, horseback riding, boating, and hiking. But I didn't see plenty of people, which is not unusual in the Great Plains. Maybe that's the way Kansans want it: Keep this place a secret so it's not overrun with mobs of tourists.

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Friday, September 14, 2007

New York Times ad wars: Advantage Rudy

Striking back at the New York Times in a way only a New Yorker can, former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani, by placing his discounted ad in today's New York Times said "Up yours" to the Times, and MoveOn.org.

"The Old Gray Lady" gave a special rate to the far-Left group in Monday's edition, the same day General David Petraeus began testimony before Conress on the troop surge. MoveOn called the four-star general, "General Betray Us."

Rudy stuck back this morning, got the same discounted rate, and listed the general's considerable accompliments.

And he added a quote from Wednesday's New York Sun:

Using blunter language that any other Democrat in the last two days, Mrs. Clinton told General Petraeus that his progress report on Iraq required '(the) willing suspension of disbelief.'

I'm still shocked the Times ran the ad at the MoveOn rate. And it even ended up in the national edition, so I could read it here.

Wake Up America is reporting tonight the Rudy isn't letting up on HRC, On his site, Giuliani has a video pounding Clinton some more, reminding voters that in 2002 Hillary was an ardent supporter of the the invasion of Iraq.

From the Boston Globe's report on Rudy's new online ad:

Just when our troops need all our support to finish the job, Hillary Clinton is turning her back on them," the ad's narrator intones. "General Petraeus and the brave men and women now serving under him deserve an apology. And our nation deserves better. Senator Clinton, do the right thing. Apologize for your comments and condemn the MoveOn.org ad.

As of this writing, none of the Democratic candidates for president have denounced the MoveOn ad. John Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, did speak out against it.

"Someone who's spent their life in the military doesn't deserve 'General Betray Us,'" said Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.

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New fabrication scandal, this time from France: LeJayson Debat?

This story began breaking a few days ago, and once Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post began looking into it, it meant bad news for French reporter Alexis Debat, who was fired from his ABC News consultant position over its inability to confirm his PhD from the Sorbonne.

Debat was much more devious than America's poster-child for journalistic misconduct, Jayson Blair, as Kurtz reports:

Debat was prominently quoted last week by London's Sunday Times as saying the Pentagon had drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran.

Other "work" by Debat included:

Alexis Debat the terrorism consultant who put his name on a bogus interview with Barack Obama, now admits he never spoke to several other prominent people whose interviews were published in a French magazine under his byline.

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan "has never spoken with Debat," said Tracy Locke, associate publisher of Penguin Press, which is bringing out Greenspan's memoir. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she never talked with Debat either. "Perhaps he cribbed it from somewhere," said her spokesman, Brendan Daly.

Debat, 35, also published interviews in Politique Internationale with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg without speaking to them, according to ABCNews.com.

The Chicago area's most prominent atheist, gadfly Rob Sherman, somehow got sucked into this mess.

From the Daily Herald:

ABC News Chief Investigative Reporter Brian Ross said he's worked with Debat as a consultant for years and was contacted this spring by someone who questioned his Sorbonne degree.

"We demanded his resignation back in June when someone told us he didn't have the Ph.D.," Ross said. "He couldn't prove it."

In the meantime, Debat provided Ross with a letter from "Rob Sherman" explaining their business relationship and providing an address -- 173 E. Taylor Road, Lombard.

A Daily Herald reporter visited Taylor Road on Thursday and could find no such address. Local postal officials said addresses on that street stop at 135 and pick up again at 213.

Sherman says he's the only prominent Rob Sherman living in the Chicago area, and produced an e-mail exchange with Debat where the Buffalo Grove resident confronts the Frenchman on a now debunked Obama interview that Sherman almost certainly didn't conduct.

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Glenn & Helen podcast with author Jack Goldsmith

Hmm...the last Glenn & Helen Show spent time with a University of Chicago guy....

Jack Goldsmith was a law professor at the University of Chicago when he was offered a job to lead the Justice Department's Office of Legal Council.

Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and his wife Dr. Helen Smith interview Goldsmith and ask him about his new book, The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration.

Goldsmith was in the eye of the storm during much of the War on Terror, and isn't pleased by the over-lawyering of the conflict.

Goldsmith has moved on, he's now a law professor at Harvard.

Listen to or download the podcast here. Free subscriptions are available at the iTunes web site.

The podcast is sponsored by Volvo Cars.

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Thursday, September 13, 2007

My Kansas Kronikles: US Route 83, America's Loneliest Road

The stretch of US Route 50 that runs through Nevada is touted as "America's Loneliest Road." I've never been anywhere near that part of Nevada, but looking at a map, it does look pretty desolate.

However, US Route 83 runs from the Canadian border in North Dakota down to Brownsville, Texas, is more deserving of the title, "America's Loneliest Road."

After spending the night in the mightiest of Kansas' Beef Kingdoms, Garden City, I headed north on Route 83. And it is lonely, but worth driving on.

Tryon, Nebraska rancher Ron Sowders and his wife Maudene publish two free publications, "Voices of The Sandhills" and "Canada to Mexico...via Highway 83." The couple also operate a mail order business specializing in western-themed books, music, and curiosities.

Here's what Ron wrote about US Route 83 in the Fall/Winter 2006 edition of "Canada via Mexico":

Yes, it is a very long, straight highway running from Brownsville, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico, following along the Rio Grande River and turning north at Laredo, Texas, where it becomes a very straight, north-south highway. It spans the state of Texas, a narrow strip of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. where it arrives at the border of Canada. Highway 83 is not only one of the longest, but it is a very good highway.

Once the US Route 83 leaves the Texas Hill Country, it's a Great Plains post, and as I explained in my Garden City post, for the most part, the Plains are depopulating. Which is why I'm nominating Highway 83 as "America's Loneliest Road."

Of course, I'm not on expert on the road, my only other driving I've done on it is in Nebraska in the state's beautiful but sparsely populated Sandhills, not too far from Sowders' Tryon ranch in McPherson County.

Astute readers of this blog will recognize that county, and there's a Kansas tie-in:

Marathon Pundit Exclusive: "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Debunked on Page One: UPDATED AGAIN

I couldn't find the Sowders' web site--where I hoped to find an e-mail address for them, but I'm going to write Ron and Maudene a letter about the claim author Thomas Frank made in his best selling book.

The poorest county in America isn't in Appalachia or the Deep South. It is on the Great Plains, a region of struggling ranchers and dying farm towns, and in the election of 2000 the Republican candidate for president, George W. Bush, carried it by a majority of greater than 80 percent.

Go to the footnotes, and you'll learn that county is McPherson in Nebraska.

There was a vibrant comment thread following that post, which has temporarily vanished--Haloscan is buggy at times, but simply put, I believe Frank cherry-picked a study and to prove his "point" that the "destitute" people of the Plains are zombiefied supporters of the Republican Party.

But because I'm calling Highway 83 "America's Loneliest Road" doesn't mean you should avoid it. Unless you like traffic jams. And as I've stated before, Nebraska's Sandhills are the nation's best kept secret.

Related posts:

My fall road trip, driving south in Nebraska

My fall road trip: Nebraska National Forest

My favorite 2005 photo

More on "What's the Matter With Kansas"

Next: Lake Scott State Park and pueblo ruins

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Study: Wal-Mart saves families $2,500 per year

Based on some of the negative stories pumped out by such union-funded groups like Wake Up Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Watch, one would think I'm stupid to shop at Wal-Mart.

Uh-uh. The dummies are the ones who don't.

From Global Insight's web site:

In 2005, Wal-Mart commissioned Global Insight to undertake an independent research effort to analyze this issue. The goal of that research was to independently and credibly document Wal-Mart's national and local impacts in terms of jobs, wages, prices, consumer buying power, productivity, and gross domestic product.

That report found that the existence of Wal-Mart between 1985 and 2004 resulted in a 3.1% cumulative reduction in consumer prices by 2004. This translated into consumer savings amounting to $263 billion in 2004—$895 per person and $2,330 per household.

During 2007, Wal-Mart asked Global Insight to update portions of this work. Our new study, titled The Price Impact of Wal-Mart: An Update Through 2006, looks at Wal-Mart's cumulative price impact and total cost savings as of 2006.

Our findings continue to support the claim that an economy without Wal-Mart would have meant higher prices for consumers. It also concludes that the reduction in the price level due to the presence of Wal-Mart translates directly into consumer savings amounting to $287 billion in 2006—$957 per person and $2,500 per household.

Pictured above is a Topeka, Kansas Wal-Mart taken with my digital camera in July. I bought the 1.0 gigabyte memory card where that picture was stored at a Wal-Mart in Niles, Illinois for the obscenely low-price of $25.00. Not only does the retail king save me money, it helps me blog cheaply.

Now if only Wal-Mart could buy a few oil refineries....

Wal-Mart also has a new ad slogan, "Save Money, Live Better."

Add "Blog Better" to that slogan.

H/T to Marshall Manson at Edelman for the story.

Related posts:

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

The good life of working for the UFCW

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Bush states our case in Iraq

I think the George W. Bush gave one of the best speeches of his presidency this evening.

He stated why we are there: To support the a free Iraq and provide an example of a stable democracy amidst the sea of failed states in the Middle East, confront and defeat al-Qaeda, and make it less likely that terrorists can strike in the homeland.

And yes, some troops, not a lot, will be coming home before Christmas.

As for the Democrats, they made a poor choice in providing their opposition response, another New Englander, this time Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, who said, "once again, the president failed to provide either a plan to successfully end the war or a convincing rationale to continue it."

I disagree, Bush did just that.

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Obama says: Surrender now

From UPI, via Pajamas Media, this is what my senator, Barack Obama, said about the war in Iraq in front of a Clinton, Iowa audience yesterday:

Let me be clear: There is no military solution in Iraq, and there never was. The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year -- now.

The USS Missouri, where World War II officially ended, is docked in Obama's native Hawaii.

Does Obama want to rent it out for his surrender ceremomy? Even though the evidence is there that the "surge" is working.

UPDATE 1:45PM CDT: Austin Bay at Pajamas Media skewers Obama's Iraq withdrawl plans. He reminds us that just last month, Obama was calling for an invasion of Pakistan.

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An update on Ghosh-ness at the University of Illinois

First, let's start with Dean Ajivit Ghosh:

This is the entire article from the September 11 issue of Western Michigan University school newspaper:

Former Western Michigan University presidential candidate Avijit Ghosh is caught in a scandal at his own university. University of Illinois ex-assistant dean Robert van der Hooning created a program last spring to provide 110 full-ride scholarships to veterans and members of the military interested in getting a master of business administration degree.

Ghosh is on a "partial leave of absence without pay" from his job as Dean of the University of Illinois College of Business. He was a key figure in the U of I military scholarships scandal. For more on that, click here.

Also, amidst the chaotic opening of classes at DePaul University that was well well covered here, the University of Illinois Executive MBA program also kicked off a new school year in Chicago and the new class there needs a close inspection.

Last spring, the University of Illinois promised that 110 state residents serving in the War on Terror veterans would received full-ride scholarships to the school's Executive MBA program.

Van der Hooning has told me repeatedly that it was well-known within the College of Business that the 110 scholarships were to be offered for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Then they started cutting.

"They reverse-engineered the time limits to get 35, 40 of these guys out of the program," van der Hooning told AP a few months ago. College of Business officials were concerned that underfunding of the Illinois Veterans Grant would financially strain the university on the financial level, plus van der Hooning was told that "too many jarheads will bias the class demographic."

After a lot of rescinding, re-rescinding, and Lord knows what else, 37 veterans were ultimately admitted to the program for the 2006-07 year.

That's short of 110.

Here's what Robin Kaler, the university's associate chancellor told AP:

We made a commitment to accept 110 military veterans over several years at our three master's programs.

That included two at the Urbana-Champaign campus, one in Chicago.

Here's the question I want to ask the University of Illinois, my alma mater, about this year's class:

How many vet scholarships were offered? Are we up to 110 yet? Will that number be reached soon?

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My Kansas Kronikles: Garden City, Kansas' Third Beef Kingdom

Finally, my long promised return to My Kansas Kronikles.

Unlike most of the Great Plains, there is a population boom in southwestern Kansas. Not a big one, but considering most Plains counties are losing population, southwestern Kansas is bucking the trend.

The decades long population decline in the Great Plains has led to a suggestion by a married New Jersey academic couple, the Poppers, that most of the Great Plains should become a natural preserve called the Buffalo Commons, creating the world's largest national park.

Plains residents, those who are not buffalo, are for the most part not very receptive to their idea.

Distantly related to the American Bison are cows, and they've transformed southwestern Kansas in recent decades.

Below are the population growth pattern of the what I call Kansas' Three Beef Kingdoms.

First, Dodge City:

1960 13,520 20.0%
1970 14,127 4.5%
1980 18,001 27.4%
1990 21,129 17.4%
2000 25,176 19.2%

Now Liberal:

1960 13,813 48%
1970 13,862 0.003%
1980 14,911 7.6%
1990 16,573 11.15%
2000 19,666 18.7%

And now the mightiest of the Beef Kingdoms, Garden City.

1960 11,811 8.3%
1970 14,790 25.2%
1980 18,256 23.4%
1990 24,097 32.0%
2000 28,451 18.1%

Southwestern Kansas, as I noted in my last Liberal, Kansas post, has a soaring Hispanic population. By all accounts, most of the workers in area's beef processing plants are Hispanic, mostly immigrants from Mexico. The population increases in the three Beef Kingdoms, especially the most recent, can only be explained by this influx from south of the border.

Of course not every Hispanic in southwestern Kansas works at a slaughterhouse or a feed lot, some work at the local supermarket, others have started businesses catering to the newer residents.

Are some of new Kansans here legally? Absolutely. But many surely aren't, and recent ICE raids at other slaughterhouses have found many illegal immigrants on the payrolls, so there is no reason to believe the Beef Kingdoms should be any different.

If beef is, according to the industry's marketing slogan, "What's for Dinner," there is a good chance your dinner came from Kansas.

Just west of Garden City is a massive Tyson Foods beef processing plant. It employs about 3,000 people, and when I drove past the plant at 8:00pm on a late July weeknight, the parking lot was full. Either there is a heck of a lot of overtime being paid out by Tyson or the plant is operating 16--maybe even 24 hours--a day.

That's Garden City from the west, with an increasingly rare (more on that in a later post) wheat field in front.

Surrounding Garden City are cattle feed lots. That's one on the right. Feed lots can be found all over Kansas, but there are of course more near the Beef Kingdoms. The goal of feed lots to prepare the cattle for their final destination, while alive that is. That's one on the right.

As I remarked in my on-the-scene Treo blog from Garden City, the town doesn't smell very nice. Where there are cows, there is, well...stuff that comes out of cows. Not too far from Garden City, as I blogged last month, is western Kansas' largest wind farm. It's windy there, and well...use your imagination about the smell.

Ironically, Garden City, according to a local tourist brochure I picked up, got its name in the late 19th century when a passing hobo asked a woman tending to her garden what was the name of her town. The woman that it didn't have one yet, and the drifter answered back, "Well, that's a pretty garden, why don't you call your town "Garden City."

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Exclusive: Van der Hooning, and Illinois vets, get a hearing at the Court of Claims

Cases involving employees of the state of Illinois often end up in the Court of Claims, and in Chicago that means heading to the massive Helmut Jahn-designed James R. Thomspon Center in the city's Loop.

The building, pictured above, has many distinguishing characteristics, but its most prominent one is its enormous atrium in the center of the roundish building. Many of the offices in the building don't have doors--the inspiration behind that was Jahn's belief that government should be open and accessible to the people it serves.

My alma mater, the University of Illinois, has been less than open in its handling of the scandal involving rescinded military scholarships for its Chicago Executive MBA program.

The state, on the other hand, was great today. They let me into the hearing, which fits Jahn's inspiration.

Here are my key posts on that 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

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

University of Illinois military scholarships scandal update

I'm going to do a second post as soon as some of that I observed is digested, particularly the legal terms

Each side got twenty minutes to present their case. Lindsay Jones, with a booming southern accent stated the U of I's case with well-timed cadence, which in one sentance was: This case should be dismissed.

Then Robert van der Hooning's side got its turn. Van der Hooning has two lawyers fighting for him--and the veterans. Legendary Chicago attorney Michael Shakman, the inspiration behind the anti-political patronage legal decision known as the Shakman Decree, and Jennifer Smiley are in van der Hooning's corner.

Smiley's presentation was measured and deliberate, which to me--keeping in mind that I'm not a lawyer--was the best way to convince the six judges the merits of van der Hooning's case.

Forty-five minutes after it began, the hearing was over. Van der Hooning thanked me repeatedly for showing up. Shakman and Smiley didn't seem to know what to make of "this blogger person," but I'm used to that. Neither did Tom Klocek's attorneys John Mauck and Andy Norman when they met me for the first time when their battle with DePaul began in 2005. They're big fans of the blog now.

I asked Shakman when he thought a decision would be reached. "Weeks," he replied. "Or months," Smiley added.

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Neil Steinberg...Patriotism should be cool

In light of yesterday's 9/11 anniversary and last night's Move America Forward rally in Niles, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist much better (but who isn't?) than Jay Mariotti, north suburban resident Neil Steinberg, wrote a terrific column about the state of patriotism in America.

Conformity, the suburbanite's sin. So what if people aren't rushing to fly their flags? Their loss. It's a shame that patriotism is usually left to patriots, who give it such a bad name by their mistaken belief that loving the country means blindly supporting any folly its leaders can conceive and heaping scorn on any fellow citizen who misses some conformist benchmark of behavior.

Patriotism isn't cool, but it should be. Forget suburbanites; you'd think the cutting edge would embrace it. You'd think the artists and the radicals, the malcontents and the visionaries, college students and tree-worshipping cultists would be the most patriotic of all, understanding that it is this great country that accepts their deviation, while in many other places they would be stoned to death or, more likely, never even exposed in the first place to the ideas that so overwhelm them.

But no. College professors, free-thinkers, vegans, Marxists all sneer at their country. They are young, or so dazzled by the sheen of their beliefs they fail to appreciate the soil they sprouted in, and they let flag-waving, misty-eyed patriotism be dominated -- present company excluded -- by exactly the sort of narrow, hidebound reactionaries who'd thrive under any dictatorship.

More...

Rebellion has been redefined by a generation that would rather sneer at a country that embraces their individuality than display some patriotism. (Bold print for emphasis from Steinberg, not me.)

The photograph of the Chicago Sun-Times temporary home was taken a few hours ago. The next post will explain why I was in downtown Chicago this morning.

Hat tip to friend of the blog Pat Hickey.

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White Sox extend Ozzie Guillen's contract through 2012

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen did something in 2005 that no man had accomplished in 88 years. He brought a World Series Championship to Chicago.

Although Guillen's Sox are in last place in the American League Central Division this year, the White Sox extended Guillen's contract to manage the South Siders through 2012. Alhtough they didn't make the playoffs, the Sox played well in Guillen's other two years at the helm.

This is too much to bear for Chicago Sun-Time' Jay Mariotti, America's worst sports columnist, who has been feuding with the White Sox organization for a couple of decades now. If the White Sox fired Guillen, what would Jay write about? Jerry Reinsdorf, principal owner of not only the Sox, but also the Chicago Bulls would be my guess.

And Mariotti's columns would suck even more. Who wants to read about an owner every day?

I'll leave the final words to Guillen, from 2006:

"(Mariotti) is garbage. He's always been garbage. And he will die garbage."

Related posts:

Ann Coulter, Ozzie Guillen, and the "F" word

Ozzie Guillen, a lazy columnist, and the "F" word

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MLB

Move America Forward caravan comes to the Chicago area

On Tuesday evening, the Move America Forward "Fight for Victory" tour came to Niles, Illinois--the town just west of Morton Grove.

Work kept me from attending, so I did the next best thing: I sent Mrs. Marathon Pundit, who took several college level courses in photography in her native Latvia.

She did a fabulous job, especially since my instructions to her were basic--show up and take some pictures.

Up on top is retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Buzz Patterson, who in his "retirement" manages to write best-selling books, appear frequently on television, and of course, take part in the Move America Forward Caravan.

Over on the right is Dr. Steve Sauerberg, who is running for the Republican nomination for the US Senate in 2008 in Illinois--Dick Durbin's seat. Next to Sauerberg is a vote Durbin won't be counting on next November.

Diana Nagy sang Where Freedom Flies. Anne Leary of Backyard Conservative, who has her own post on Tuesday's rally, reports some of Nagy's relatives, who live twenty five miles south in Downers Grove, made the trip to up to Niles to see her peform. Leary also reports that there were a few Freepers in the crowd.

Anne wasn't the only blogger there, intrepid reporter Jake Jacobsen of the Freedom Folks showed up, that's Jake in red on the right. Their post isn't up yet, but I'm sure Jake and The Bald Chick will add their contribution soon.

And finally, a group shot of some proud Americans on September 11, 2007 showing their support of the troops in Niles, Illinois on a pleasant late summer evening.

Of the local media, CBS 2 and WGN-TV covered the rally.

UPDATE 7:40 AM: Freedom Folks has their post up here. Oh yes, Blackfive was in attendance too, but no post from him yet. Same for Fran Eaton of Illinois Review.

Third Wave Dave, all the way from Califoria, reports that ABC 7 also covered the rally. This is a big deal because with 8 million people living in the Chicago area, there's a lot of news going on here and such events--pro military, anti-military, or nothing-to-do with the military, often get bypassed by TV news producers.

Dave also notes that before his Niles speech, Buzz Patterson was a guest on The O'Reilly Factor.

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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Blogging on the light side....

For the past month I've been working many 12 hour days, and some six day weeks, hence the relative paucity of posts, the apparent abandonment of my Kansas Kronikles series, and my inability to attend this evening's Move America Forward rally in Niles this evening. But I sent Mrs. Marathon Pundit, as you'll see in the above post.

Tomorrow I'm off from my regular job, but I'll be in downtown Chicago for blog related business.

The rest of this week slows down a bit , but next week it is back to the grind...

Hillary unbundles and returns Hsu donations

The Hillary Clinton campaign agreed to return a whopping $850,000 in funds raised, or "bundled" by tainted fundraiser Norman Hsu.

Camp Hillary is in damage control-mode.

She'll be need to "turn that up to 11" if this story makes a break out:

Hillary returns Hsu money, but what about International Profit Associates cash?

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law

Hsu

International Profit Associates

September 11, 2007

The date simply speaks for itself.

I'm watching the memorials on Fox News, and I'm recalling the bravery of Todd Beamer, who led the Flight 93 passengers into the doomed plane's cockpit.

DePaul University once again is a frequent topic on this blog, and today is a good day to remember that Beamer is a DePaul University alumnus, something the school barely acknowledges.

DePaul spat on his memory when it hosted a Ward "Little Eichmanns" Churchill speech there two autumns ago, paying the since-fired University of Colorado professor an estimated $5,000 for his emittings.

9/11. Never forget.

Let's roll.

If you're in the Chicago area this evening, scroll down one post to learn about the Move America Forward "Fight for Victory" caravan. They're in Niles tonight at 6pm.

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Monday, September 10, 2007

Move America Forward "Fight for Victory" caravan coming to Niles, IL on 9/11

Good news is coming to Niles, Illinois. The Move America Forward "Fight for Victory" caravan is heading to my neighborhood: Niles, Illinois. I cannot make it, but Mrs. Marathon Pundit and Little Marathon Pundit will be there to show their support and take photographs.

Here are the details:

6:00 PM - Niles, Illinois
Pro-Troop Rally & News Conference & 9/11 Observance
Milwaukee Ave & W. Touhy Ave (Just north of the Chicago city limits.)

Bring letters, cards, notes of support & appreciation for our wounded warriors to this event, we will collect them and bring them to our recovering troops at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. at the conclusion of the national caravan.

There's a nice plaza with a waterfall there--it's a great spot for the rally.

Hat tip to Third Wave Dave and Backyard Conservative.

Thanks for the links:

Freedom Folks
Cao's Blog

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DePaul University #3 in charge quits

Hat tip to regular Marathon Pundit commenter "St. Vincent."

Plenty of ways to speculate on this one.

From the Chicago "free registration required" Tribune:

Scott Scarborough, DePaul University's executive vice president who was suspended earlier in the week, resigned Friday after a special meeting of the school's trustees.

Scarborough was the university's third-ranking official.

A DePaul spokesman declined to comment on the reasons behind the resignation, but Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, the university's president, told faculty and staff in an e-mail that it was not related to financial impropriety.

More...

As chief operations officer, Scarborough oversaw the university's budget, student affairs, human resources, internal auditing, institutional compliance and the general counsel's office.

According to the Tribune, Scarsborough will not receive severance pay.

For a lot more on DePaul University, scroll down....

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DePaul

Marathon Pundit profiled in North Shore Magazine

Traditionally, Chicago's North Shore covers the lakefront suburbs from Evanston up to Lake Bluff. Movies such as Ordinary People and Risky Business give a glimpse of life in this oh-so-exclusive part of the Chicago sprawl

Real estate agents and advertisers have pushed the unofficial boundaries of the North Shore to the west a bit--so the town I live in, modest Morton Grove, is now a North Shore suburb.

Which explains how I ended up being profiled, along with four other bloggers, in the September issue of North Shore Magazine. It's the equestrian issue of the magazine that has been "serving Chicago's finest communities since 1978."

Here is my "Claim to Fame," according to the publication:

While Chicago has a full slate of political bloggers, Ruberry has carved himself a niche as one of the North Shore's most relevant Web pundits.

The blurb mentions the Thomas Klocek free speech controversy at DePaul University, my marathon running hobby, and says I post on "politics, politics, and more politics. (And some local news and sports.)

I was interviewed for this article in mid-July, right before I left for Kansas to start my still in-process Kansas Kronikles series, so since then my subject matter, I think so at least, has broadened.

Other blogs profiled are:

Poppy Buxom
Chicago.localvores
Starbucks Gossip
Chaos Digest

There's nothing up yet at North Shore Magazine's site, but if there is an online version up, you'll hear about it here.

I showed the article to Little Marathon Pundit. She's quite proud of me, and she's bringing the magazine to school this morning.

Yes, kids are worth it.

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Sunday, September 09, 2007

Osama loves Chomsky

And among the most capable of those from your own side who speak to you on this topic (the war in Iraq) and on the manufacturing of public opinion is Noam Chomsky, who spoke sober words of advice prior to the war, but the leader of Texas doesn't like those who give advice ... Osama bin Laden, in his recent videotaped speech.

In between his denunciation of capitalism and his request for Americans to convert to Islam, maniacal killer Osama bin Laden took time to praise MIT professor and extreme-left author Noam Chomsky.

Chomsky is accustomed to being on the wrong side of history. As an apologist for the post-fall-of-Saigon Vietnamese communist regime in the 1970s, as well as for the even more heinous Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, Chomsky fell out of favor with all but the most extreme denizens on the left-hand side of the dial.

Like a warped Tiny Tim record, Chomsky was essentially packed off in a storage locker, to be taken out on those rare occasions, if any, he needed to be heard from.

Instances like "Sixties Day" at the local high school, for example.

But September 11 changed a lot of things, and a revival of Chomsky's popularity was one of the ramifications of that terrible day.

Not terrible to Bin Laden, however.

As for Chomsky, when his next book comes out, will it include Osama's "endorsement" of him on the dust cover?

About the book Failed States. No, I haven't read it, but it's not about the failed states that dominate a certain part of the world--I'm speaking of the Middle East and in particular the Arab nations.

With a couple of exceptions, they're all failed states.

Oh, is Bin Laden aware that Noam Chomsky is Jewish? Of course some Jews would argue that point.

Related posts:

Revised: Chomsky coming to Chicago for academic freedom lecture

The latest on "the Michael Moore for grown-ups"

Noam Chomsky's top 100 lies

Recommended book: The Anti-Chomsky Reader

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Books

FEMA in Kansas: Much better this time

Granted the scale of the Greendburg, Kansas tornado is drastically smaller than what happened to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans two years ago after Hurriance Katrina hit, but FEMA--which matches my perception of what I observed in July--has their act together this time.

From AP:

Four months after a twister practically obliterated the town, killing 10 people and leaving hundreds homeless, many folks have nothing but good things to say about the federal agency that was lambasted as inept and clueless following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

"It was important they were here so quick," said City Manager Steve Hewitt.

Eager to improve its image and apply the lessons of Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency moved fast after the May 4 tornado, sending 300 workers and as many mobile homes to the town of 1,500.

FEMA also announced it would cover 100 percent of the town's cleanup costs -- a concession made after the storm robbed Greensburg of nearly all of its tax-generating businesses and homes. The agency usually covers only 75 percent, with state and local governments making up the rest. FEMA is paying for 90 percent of the Katrina cleanup.

Oh, I haven't forgotten about my Kansas Kronikles series, more posts are coming.

Here are my Greensburg posts:

My Kansas Kronikles: Greensburg, the fall and rise, part one
My Kansas Kronikles: Greensburg, the fall and rise, part two
My Kansas Kronikles: Greensburg, the fall and rise, part three
My Kansas Kronikles: Greensburg, the fall and rise, part four
My Kansas Kronikles: Greensburg, the fall and rise, part five
My Kansas Kronikles: Greensburg, the fall and rise, part six

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Saturday, September 08, 2007

UPDATED: Reinstate Thomas Klocek at DePaul petition just 37 signatures short of goal

It's interesting that most of the strident supporters of former DePaul Professor Norman G. Finkelstein, such as Peter N. Kirstein, are oddly silent about the case of Thomas Klocek.

Ironically Kirstein, who is a professor of history at Chicago's St. Xavier University, will be speaking soon at DePaul, probably about academic freedom, or his selected perception of it.

Back to Klocek:

The Scholars for Peace in the Middle East has posted an online petition in support of Thomas Klocek.

To: Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., Ed.D., President and Susanne M. Dumbleton, Ph.D., Dean of the School for New Learning, DePaul University

We, the undersigned faculty members from around the world, stand solidly with Professor Thomas Klocek, a Roman Catholic, who was dismissed by DePaul University for allegedly offending Muslim students when discussing Christian interests in Israel, disputing that Israeli treatment of Palestinians was akin to the Nazi treatment of the Jews and then terminating the discussion when it appeared that the students were more interested in Israel-bashing than discussing the issues.

We believe this case sheds serious questions on the commitment to academic freedom and civility in academic discussion with this egregious termination. We further believe that this action by administration has separated DePaul from the academic community.

It is our understanding that Prof. Klocek alleges:

1) He was never allowed to meet with his accusers.

2) He was never presented with a written list of the complaints or charges against him.

3) He was suspended by the Dean of the School for New Learning in clear violation of the University's own stated Faculty Handbook procedures.

4) He was never given a hearing.

5) A vote by the DePaul Faculty Council affirmed that the same rules that apply for a formal academic hearing apply to all professors, full-time and adjuncts alike.

As a result, we believe that Professor Klocek, a faculty member with a 15-year history of excellent evaluations and no prior complaints, was dismissed without due process and should be reinstated without penalty or prejudice and with back pay, restitution of benefits and compensation for his legal and other expenses incurred as a result of his being improperly terminated.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Click here to read and sign. As they used to sing in jazz songs, "Let's bring it home, boys." And girls too.

37 to go!

Thanks for the link:

Daled Amos

UPDATE Sunday Sept 9, 9:40 PM CDT: Only 34 more needed!

Related posts:

DePaul-lapalooza!

Sept 15: Second anniversary of the beginning of the Thomas Klocek affair

DePaul University fumbles again

DePaul President Fr. Holtschneider: "Academic freedom is alive and well at DePaul"

Finkelstein defender Peter Kirstein praised David Irving

Leftist prof Mark LeVine will boycott DePaul over Finkelstein

CAIR-Chicago recommended that DePaul fire Klocek

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Chicago area's new expressway--The Jane Addams

Some Chicago area expressways are named for some famous people, such as John F. Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson, Ronald Reagan, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, for instance.

Some are named for people for the most part few have ever heard of, folks like Dan Ryan, Bishop Louis Henry Ford, Robert Kingery, and William G. Edens.

The top group has a new member: The Northwest Tollway, which is what Interstate 90 from the Chicago city limits to the Wisconsin state line is known as, will soon be called the Jane Addams Expressway. It's the first Chicago area expressway named for a woman.

Addams was a pioneering social worker from northwestern Illinois who graduated from Rockford College, before founding Hull House on Chicago's West Side. Jazz legend Benny Goodman played in a Hull House band as a boy.

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One Teamster officer, three former Teamster employees indicted on election fraud charges

I'll say it again in the land of the free, use your freedom of choice. Devo, "Freedom of Choice," 1980.

But will workers really have "Freedom of Choice?"

Organized labor, through the Democratic Party, is trying to enact something into law with the deceptive name of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Workers hoping to unionize will be able to, if the bill becomes law, choose to join a union by signing a card--bypassing one of the most sacred foundations of American society--the secret ballot. The legislation passed the House of Representatives in the spring, but it faces a doubtful future in the Senate. If it somehow makes it out of the Senate, President Bush vows to veto the bill.

Opponents of the bill have raised the valid (to me) concern that workers, via the card-signing option, could be bullied into voting in favor of joining a union. In other words, their freedom to make a choice will be taken away from them by the "Employee Free Choice Act."

Unions have been hemorrhaging members since the 1950s, mostly because fewer Americans work in manufacturing jobs. However, government workers being an exception, workers have been less willing, via the secret ballot, to say "Union, Yes!"

The "Employee Free Choice Act" is an attempt, a desperate one, to if not reverse that trend, at least slow it down.

Can union officials be trusted to run an honest "free choice" card signing? Based on the alleged actions of three former Teamster Local 743 employees and one current officer from that local, I have my doubts.

That local, by the way, has a long history of corruption. For more, read this story from not the Wall Street Journal, but the Socialist Worker Online.

From CBS 2 Chicago:

Teamsters Local 743 officer and three former union local employees were indicted on federal charges of stealing ballots in an effort to rig two elections in favor of an incumbent slate of officers in 2004, according to the U.S. Justice and Labor departments.

In two closely-contested elections just months apart, the defendants and others allegedly diverted to their friends, family and confidantes hundreds of mailed, official ballot packages intended for delivery to Local 743 members, then cast the ballots or caused them to be cast to ensure election of the incumbent slate, the indictment alleges.

Local 743 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, based in Chicago, represents more than 12,000 members engaged in warehouse, office, medical, service and other industries, and is one of the largest Teamsters locals in the country.

The seven-count indictment was returned Thursday by a federal grand jury, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s office. All four defendants are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit fraud by depriving Local 743 of their honest services and to embezzle, or steal, the official ballots, the release said.

Organized labor is not a good environment to exercise "Freedom of Choice."

Related posts:

Obama speaks in favor of Soviet style elections for joining unions

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

Another Democrat sentenced in Kentucky vote buying case

Obama and the Laborers' Union Ed Smith

Vote fraud indictments in East Chicago, Indiana

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Employee Free Choice Act

Teamsters

election fraud

vote fraud

Friday, September 07, 2007

Ex-con with FALN terror ties has top Ill. gov't job

Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) has made some goofy apppointments, but this one is his worst to date.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

A high-ranking official in Gov. Blagojevich's office spent nearly two years in a federal prison for refusing to aid a government terrorism probe into a series of bombings in Chicago and New York City.

Steven Guerra, Blagojevich's $120,000-a-year deputy chief of staff for community services, was identified by federal prosecutors as a member of the Puerto Rican separatist group, FALN, which was behind a wave of violence and killings in the 1970s and early 1980s.

In March 1980, gun-toting sympathizers stormed the Carter-Mondale presidential campaign office in Chicago and held campaign workers hostage. But a month later, FALN suffered its most severe setback when 11 members were arrested in a stolen truck in Evanston.

In 1983, Guerra, now 53, was among five people convicted in New York of contempt of court for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the group. The felony conviction resulted in a three-year prison sentence for Guerra, who was released in 1986 after serving 23 months.

More...

In September 2003, the governor included Guerra among a group of his top Latino appointees and said they were "the best people who could bring new ideas and valuable experience to state government.

Yes, the man served his time, but let me defer to James D. Harmon Jr., the lead prosecutor in the case that sent Guerra and three others to prison, "He had his opportunity to help the government. Someone who refused to help the government, in my opinion, forfeits his right to earn a living from any government at any time."

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Thursday, September 06, 2007

DePaul-lapalooza!

DePaul University has many stories to tell. DePaul News Bureau's Making Most of the Media.

If you think the craziness at DePaul University is limited to the Norman G. Finkelstein controversy, it's time to hit the books and review some of the other bizarre happenings at America's largest Catholic University.

Below are some key posts on the Thomas Klocek incident at DePaul. But first a quick summary.

I've never met Finkelstein or corresponded with him, but I've gotten to know Klocek well over the last two-and-half years. In short, the DePaul University mantra, to quote AP this morning that it was Klocek's "belligerent and menacing" behavior, not his voicing of opinions in an out-of-classroom discussion that some Muslim DePaul students didn't like hearing, that led to Klocek's dismissal.

Here's what most likely happened: On September 15, 2004, Klocek picked up a brochure from one of two DePaul Muslim groups, either Students for Justice in Palestine or UMMA, expressed some skepticism to the students about what was written in the brochure, and the students--who've probably never been confronted in person on Palestinian issues that they view as facts--tried to explain there version of the truth. When Klocek didn't kowtow to their beliefs, they ran to Klocek's dean, Susanne Dumbleton, then to the Chicago chapter of CAIR, and began the process of firing Klocek from the school he'd worked as an adjunct professor for 15 years.

Klocek didn't yell, throw brochures, or act in a physically aggressive manner--Oh, he was about sixty years old at the time, so these twenty year-old kids aren't credible when they claim they felt threatened. Klocek did use a gesture, flicking his thumb under his bearded chin, an Italian expression meaning "I'm outta here," one that Supreme Court Justice Atonin Scalia used not too long ago.

Related Klocek posts:

Sept 15: Second anniversary of the beginning of the Thomas Klocek affair

CAIR-Chicago recommended that DePaul fire Klocek

Another Marathon Pundit exclusive: Eyewitness backs Klocek's charges against DePaul

The Foundation for Individual Right in Education has a file on the Thomas Klocek case.

In the midst of the career-quashing of Klocek, that fraudster and alleged free speech champion, Ward Churchill was invited to speak at DePaul and was paid an estimated $5,000 to spew his "wisdom" there in the fall of 2005. Some on the left who were supportive of Churchill's case were oddly silent on Klocek's rights. Others were hostile.

The DePaul Conservative Alliance's attempts to protest the Churchill appearance, that is, the DCA wanted to express their free speech rights, were stymied by the DePaul University administration. Which got FIRE involved again at the Chicago school.

As for myself, I appeared at the Ward Churchill protest. One female DePaul professor, who I'd love to know the name of, told me, "I would never allow you in my classroom" when I tried to explain her the Klocek case to her.

The next quarter, the DePaul Conservative Alliance drew the ire of university officials. They tried to put on a satirical "affirmative bake sale," which was stopped, and once again FIRE had to get involved.

All this time the Norman G. Finkelstein situation was festering. Finkelstein already had a reputation for trouble when he was hired at DePaul, first as a visiting professor.

Here's what the Chicago Jewish Star said about "Fink" two years ago:

When the university first hired Mr. Finkelstein in 2001, his reputation as an out-of-control, unbalanced analyst who mixes vile and vitriolic attacks on his critics with a gleeful exhibitionism was firmly established. With so many credible, intelligent, informed scholars of Middle Eastern studies available from which to select, why in the world did DePaul decide to bring this man on its staff?"

Now he's gone. There are some good professors at DePaul. And some others that aren't.

Friend of the blog Dr. Steven Plaut focuses on one, a Fink apologist named Matthew Abraham, in his latest FrontPage Magazine article.

But two years later, I still want to know who that professor was, the one would never allow me in her classroom.

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New Jersey moves to stake claim as nation's most corrupt state

It's a constant struggle between the top corrupt states in our fair nation. Is it my own Illinois? Rhode Island? Louisiana? Which state is the most crooked?

Or could it be New Jersey?

Today the Garden State, in an awe inspiring performance, saw two of its mayors, two state legislators, and seven other public officials indicted today on bribery charges.

And I don't think there is a Republican among the bunch.

Because Democrats and Republicans (such as disgraced former Gov. George Ryan of the latter group) have not been shy in taking part in Illinois graft, I still have to declare, with shame, that Illinois is still the most corrupt of America's 50 states.

However, if New Jersey continues to run up the score on indictments, I might reconsider. But Illinois will probably still come up on top in the end, since US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is still very busy investigating all kinds of things going on in Illinois state government, many of them involving Barack Obama's indicted pal, Tony Rezko.

Since 2003, the Democratic Party has dominated Illinois government, the sole exception was that a Republican served as state treasurer. She ran for governor last year and lost; now a Democrat, another Obama pal with a questionable background no less, is the state's chief investor. Alexi Giannoulias, whose bank his family owns lent money to a convicted mobster, has pledged to raise $100,000 for Barack "New Kind of Politics" Obama.

Let me be real clear on this: Giannoulias came from nowhere to win the Democratic primary for state treasurer last year. Obama's endorsement, and his appearance in a Giannoulias television spot, are the only reasons he won that race, which last year was the only election Alexi needed to win. The Illinois GOP fared much worse than the national GOP in 2006.

Woodrow Wilson was the last man from New Jersey to move into the White House. As for Illinois, my state has to reach back to Ulysses S. Grant for its last Illinos-to-1600 Pennsylvania Avenue transition.

Bad luck? Maybe. But both are populous states where it's pretty easy to raise money. But it could be that both states are tainted with corruption that keeps top state politicos from claiming the top prize in American politics

As far Illinois' Republican Party, now is a good time to get involved. If the party focuses on the basics, which is what I think they should: Clean and efficient governrment, there's no where to go but up.

Start here, at the Illinois GOP Network.

Thanks for the link: Peoria Pundits

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Sen. Larry "Not Gay" Craig will quit

After playing footsie with his promise to resign his Senate seat, Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), through a spokesman, will follow through and leave the upper house at the end of this month.

Source: Fox News Channel's E.D. Hill

Earlier post:

Second rising? Craig may not resign from Senate

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gay

Larry Craig

Oh those middle school art teachers...

Last month I blogged about Evergreen Park, Illinois art teacher Charles Lupori--who has the same name as an art teacher I studied under--well, to be truthful, I was in the classroom while he was there because art was a required subject. Based on Lupori's long service at the Evergreen Park school, they could be the same person.

In April, Lupori came up with the cruel idea of placing a bag--with air holes punched out--over the head of a supposedly unruly student. He received a paid suspension for that stunt, but Lupori's back teaching this fall.

Fifty miles north of Evergreen Park, Fox River Grove Middle School art teacher Dave Warwak is a vegan. The school board hired Warwak to teach art, and although it's unreasonable to expect a teacher not to let some out-of-classroom pursuits to be discussed in front of students, Warwak crossed the line with a recent less-than artful discussion.

He talked about veganism. Not a problem, I remember a sixth grade teacher of mine discussing vegetarianism for a few minutes, and I preferred listening to that rather than being assigned one more mathematics word problem.

But the Fox River Grove teacher steered his dietary choice into a classroom political discussion:

From CBS 2 Chicago:

He says (veganism) is his way of showing respect for all life.

"If you are so respectful that you won't hurt a squirrel or an ant or a mosquito, there’s no way you’re going to go off and fight and kill people," said Warwak. "Certainly, if you're invaded you kill, but you don't go to foreign lands and kill."

Mr. Warwak: How about sticking to having kids paint a picture of a squirrel.

Hat tip to the Freedom Folks.

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art

Halloween: It's never too early

In Niles, Illinois, the Halloween Store appears to be just days away from opening.

Just as with Christmas, the Halloween shopping season keeps expanding.

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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Debate dropout

No, the Republican presidential debate drop out isn't Tommmy Thompson or Jim Gilmore, but me.

I'm just dead tired. Yesterday, 13 hours of work, which is how my Larry Craig post ended up getting uploaded at 1:38am--and I was back at work this morning. Day before: Off, but I ran 20 miles. The six days before--work, including a 12 hour day in that stretch.

I could watch the debate, but I'd feel compelled to blog it, and the stuff I'd write probably wouldn't be very good. I'm leaving the punditry this time to better rested bloggers, move your mouse to the left for some great sites.

Tomorrow---the long promised Garden City, Kansas "Beef Kingom" post. Half of it is written, and the pictures are scanned.

Breaking: DePaul's Finkelstein resigns!

From the Chicago Tribune, free registration required:

The long-running confrontation between embattled professor Norman Finkelstein and DePaul University ended today without the dramatics he had promised.

Instead, he read a statement announcing his resignation this morning on the university's main quadrangle before about 120 supporters announcing that he and DePaul had resolved the controversy. But the terms were kept confidential.

More...

A colorful demonstration for Finkelstein on campus this morning included representatives of the National Lawyers Guild, the Socialist Workers Party, the Revolutionary Communist League and Jewish Voice for Peace.

UPDATE 9:20 PM CST: On the DePaul web site there is a joint statement from the university and and ex-Professer Finkelstein.

Thanks for the links:

Solomonia
Little Green Footballs
HazZmat
Pajamas Media
Daled Amos

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Pro Finkelstein protest at DePaul at 11am Central

DePaul University's fall quarter began this morning, and the opening festivities include a rally in support of embattled Professor Norman G. Finkelstein.

The fun starts in a few minutes.

Related post:

DePaul's Finkelstein accused of "threatening and discourteous behavior"

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Meant as an insult...

...but I'll take it as a compliment.

From Green News and Opinion:

Oh yeah...Marathon Pundit put a special spin, as only a blogger can, on the announcement that we will meet in Chicago in 2008.

No explanation on that site, however, on how lunatics of all political shapes and sizes are taking over the Green Party.

Scroll down two posts to see what I mean.

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Second rising? Craig may not resign from Senate

Sorry seems to be the hardest word. Elton John, 1976.

Last Saturday most people thought that the Senator Larry Craig men's room scandal came to a climax when the Republican from Idaho announced his intention to leave the Senate, presumably from the back door, at the end of this month.

But showing virility usually assumed to be the sole province of younger men, the sexagenarian has hardened his resolve, and may pull out of his promise to resign.

For now he's stalling on his possible retraction. But if he's cleared of the charges of soliciting gay sex in a Minnesota men's room---and remember, Craig say's he's not gay--he may enjoy a second rising in the Senate.

Either way, don't expect any Craig statues to be erected anywhere soon.

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gay

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Still in the 1960s: 2008 Green Party convention coming to Chicago: UPDATED

And where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns.
Well, maybe next year.
Send in The Clowns, lyrics by Steven Sondheim as sung by Judy Collins.

Chicago will be home to a national political convention next year--that of the Green Party.

Until a few days ago, I thought such a gathering would be peaceful shindig of Dennis Kucinich vegan-types.

Perceptions and stereotypes can be wrong sometimes, as I blogged here last week.

But not always, as AP reports:

To Green Party members, bringing the convention to Chicago is significant for another reason: Next year is the 40th anniversary of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago that saw clashes between police and anti-Vietnam War demonstrators outside.

This time, (Green Party spokesman Patrick) Kelly said the anti-war protesters will be inside a political convention nominating the Green Party's candidate.

Sheesh, can't the Left get over the 1960s? Even Barack Obama, who was born the same year I was, 1961, gets mired in that decade, based on some passages of his Audacity of Hope.

Folks: The 1960s ended 37 years ago.

UPDATE 11:40 PM CST: Commenter Michael Pugliese directed me to a Joshua Frank article in the Atlantic Free Press. It's not just bicycle riding Vegans, or as Solomonia discovered, Islamists and anti-semites who've infiltrated the Green Party with a "the clap," but crazies on the from the extreme-right as well.

From Frank's article:

Green delegates from Tennessee have recently advanced a proposal which they call "Moving the Money from Wall Street to Main Street." Certainly sounds innocuous enough. Tragically the delegates from Tennessee based their proposal on a presentation made to the Green Party delegates at their convention by a woman named Catherine Austin Fitts.

Ms. Fitts, a Republican, was Assistant Secretary of Housing in the administration of George Bush Sr. and now supports libertarian causes. Why was Fitts invited to talk to the Green Party about banking issues? Nobody really knows. Perhaps not surprisingly, one of the associates of Catherine Austin Fitts is Franklin Sanders, a leading thinker in the extreme right-wing Constitution Party. Sanders is also chairman of the Tennessee chapter of "The League of the South", yes, from the same state of the Green Party delegates who offered the proposal in the first place.

The League of the South is quite an outfit. They advocate the ideology of "kinism", and would outlaw racial intermarriage and non-white immigration, expel all "aliens" (including Jews and Arabs), limit the right to vote to white landowning males over the age of twenty-one, and re-institute black slavery. The Green Party is about to adopt a proposal based on the philosophy of people like Fitts and Sanders. One has to wonder who would influence these guys if they were savvy enough to win elections.

Man oh man, the Green Party's slogan should be, "If you're nuts, your one of us." And this Clown-a-palooza is coming to Chicago.

Related post: Illinois gov race--Rich Whitney: What is Green once was Red

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Camp Obama is back and it's "ruthless"

Not to be confused with the Upper Midwest camp portrayed in Bill Murray's Meatballs, Camp Obama was back in session over the Labor Day weekend.

And the Chicago Sun-Times reports that ruthlessness is one of the cafeteria offerings at the camp:

The next tip is to be absolutely ruthless, We want you to be determined, ambitious, take a risk.

The campers bowed down the altar of far-Left radical community activist Saul Alinsky. While a community organizer on Chicago's South Side in the 1980s, Obama worked for a couple of Alinsky disciples.

Obama's political rival Hillary Clinton wrote her Wellesley College thesis on Alinksy, who like HRC herself, was born in Chicago.

Summer camp employees have to be screened before getting hired--which is essential for the safety of the children. The stakes at Camp Obama aren't as high, which explains how Robert B. Creamer, husband of my left-of-left congresscritter Jan Schakowsky, was able to work as a trainer at a previous Camp Obama. As far as I know, Creamer is now "pursing other opportunities."

A self-appointed consumer advocate and occasional campaign worker, Creamer has a five month gap in his résumé, time spent last year at the Federal Correction Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana for crimes associated with check-kiting scam while leading the Illinois Public Action Council.

Although not accused of any crimes, Rep. Schakowsky was on the board of directors of the IPAC while hubby as using his creative financing techniques.

The next Camp Obama pitches its tent in Chicago on September 12. If you are attending, brush up on your Saul Alinsky.

Related post:

Ex-con and congresswoman's husband Creamer taught at Camp Obama

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Monday, September 03, 2007

The Morton Grove Mosque

Post 4,001 keeps me in Morton Grove, Illinois. Although it's quite close to my home, I haven't driven past the soon-to-be completed Morton Grove mosque in a few months, but today was Labor Day, and I had a little extra time on my hands.

Opposition to the mosque was very vocal, particularly among people living adjacent to the site. The neighborhood consists of post-war housing boom bungalows, and isn't on any busy streets, which explains my absence from the area.<