From Da Tech Guy on DaRadio: No Sharpton, no Jesse: Funeral for nine year-old victim of gang violence held in Chicago

Three hundred miles from Ferguson, Missouri a funeral took place for a senseless victim of violence. Antonio Smith, an African-American boy, was gunned down on Chicago's South Side when he wandered onto the railroad tracks that mark the boundary between two rival factions of the vicious Gangster Disciples street gang. Guess who wasn't at the service?

From my weekly post on Da Tech Guy on DaRadio: No Sharpton, no Jesse: Funeral for nine year-old victim of gang violence held in Chicago.

(Video) Reagan's 1984 Labor Day address

Ronald Reagan, the only union leader to become president, gave an optimistic Labor Day radio address thirty years ago.

"In the last 19 months, the jobless rate has fallen farther and faster then any recovery in the last 30 years," Reagan said. "We've seen the creation of 6 1/2 million new jobs. The United States has created, on average, more jobs each month than all the Common Market [European Union] countries combined in the last 10 years. The Europeans are calling our success the American miracle."

"A case in point is the automobile industry," the Gipper continued. "Unemployment peaked at 28 percent in 1980. By this July, auto industry unemployment was down to 6.1 percent, and there were 153,000 more people at work in auto industry jobs than 4 years ago."

President Obama, a Big Labor lapdog, can't boast such success after five years in the White House.

Related posts:

• Marathon Pundit's Ronald Reagan Trail
• Report from Tampico, Illinois on Reagan's 100th birthday

Statue dedicated to the CCC: The Worker

Throughout the Chicago area are numerous Joliet limestone picnic shelters that are reminders of the accomplishments of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a post-Depression New Deal jobs project for young Americans. The city's southwest suburbs, where I grew up, have many of them, almost all of which are still in use.

There is a statue in Willow Springs, Illinois, "The Worker," which honors those CCC men.

While historians still debate whether Franklin's Roosevelt's economic policy brought us out of the Depression are simply kept it from getting worse, you can say this for certain about the CCC: They built stuff.

As for Barack Obama's stimulus, other than a turtle tunnel, what exactly did it build?

Oh, resurfacing existing roads does not count.

On this day in 1914: Russian 2nd Army destroyed at the Battle of Tannenberg

Grave of unknown
Russian World War I
soldier, Sece, Latvia

Russian quasi-dictator Vladimir Putin is feeling his oats as his army invades Ukraine. But on this day 100 years ago, Russia was dealt one of its worst military defeats ever. Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg's German forces destroyed Alexander Samsonov's Second Army in the Battle of Tannenberg in what was then East Prussia. It was one of the few encirclement battles of World War I.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novel, August 1914, gives a captivating account of the battle. I heartily recommend that book

Related post:

Sece, Latvia's World War I German cemetery

Chicago driver with ISIS flag makes bomb threat against cops

Chicago skyline

There's a guy in Chicago that needs to be shoved into a vat of his own waste.

From CBS Chicago:

A man who had an ISIS flag waving from his vehicle is facing several charges after he threatened police with a bomb Wednesday morning when he was pulled over on the Southwest Side.

Emad Karakrah, 49, was charged with felony counts of disorderly conduct and aggravated fleeing; and a misdemeanor count of driving on a never-issued license, according to Chicago Police. He was also issued three traffic citations.

Someone called police after seeing a "suspicious person" driving a silver Pontiac southbound in the 7700 block of South Kedzie at 9:18 a.m. with an ISIS flag waving out the window, according to a police report.

Officers attempted to pull over the vehicle, but the driver took off, according to the report. The officers called for assistance, and another officer pulled the vehicle over after it went through several red lights.

While he was being arrested, Karakrah told the cops that there was a bomb in his car that would detonate. But authorities found no explosive device in his Pontiac.

(Video) Obama ripped by press for flying off to fundraiser while having no strategy to fight ISIS

Clearly, President Obama has a strategy to raise money. Today he'll be in New York and Rhode Island to do just that.

But as a reporter reminded White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, he has no strategy to fight the terror group Islamic State.

Part of Obama's Nobel Peace Prize's legacy: Russia invades Ukraine

President Obama is a weak player on the international scene. Which is why the world is falling apart. The Islamic State is fighting to take over Syria and Iraq. Iran is still trying to build a nuclear bomb. And yesterday Russia invaded Ukraine.

A powerful America means a more stable world. Obama seeks the opposite--and the world is a more violent place, despite his being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize a few months after becoming president.

Obama admits that he has no strategy in fighting Islamic State

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has been at war with the West and America for at bare minimum for months. Do you you think Dear Leader has a plan to fight back?

From the Washington Times:

"We don't have a strategy yet," Mr. Obama said of his plans for defeating the Islamic State in Syria. "We need to make sure that we've got clear plans. As our strategy develops, we will consult with Congress."

This news should not be surprising to thinking Americans. As for the rest of the nation, those who voted for Obama, they still have their heads in the sands along with that of their savior.

Friend says white Iraq War vet beaten outside restaurant by blacks because place wasn't "safe for whites"

The mainstream media is only nibbling at this story about a man who made it home from the Iraq War only to be beaten because of his race.

From the New York Daily News:

A 32-year-old Marine was beaten by a group of men outside of a Mississippi restaurant after he was warned it wasn't safe for white people in the wake of the Michael Brown killing in Missouri, the serviceman's friend claims.

Ralph Weems, an Iraq war veteran, was in fair condition at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday. But his brother-in-law said that Weems had undergone brain surgery. The hospital would not respond to The Associated Press regarding that claim.

A 22-year-old man was busted in the beating and other arrests likely are coming soon, cops say.

David Knighten, a friend of Weems, told The Associated Press that pair was followed early Saturday morning from a Waffle House in West Point, Miss., following an argument with black customers. A man outside the Waffle House told Weems that it wasn't safe for white people in the wake of the fatal shooting of Brown by a Ferguson, Mo., cop earlier this month, according to Knighten.

The Clarion-Ledger is reporting that the FBI is assisting local authorities. It also directly quoted Knighten that his friend was told that the Waffle House was not "safe for whites."

So far it appears that Eric Holder, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton have not taken up Weems' case, as they did with the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Missouri.

(Bruce Rauner ad) Kick

Illinois' hapless governor Pat Quinn, along with the most powerful Democrat in Illinios, state House Speaker Michael Madigan, silently stood by as the term limits amendment was kicked off the November ballot.

This autumn we can kick Quinn and other Dems out of office.

Watch this Bruce Rauner ad. The Republican businessman favors term limits for Illinois politicians.

To follow Rauner on Facebook, click here. To follow him on Twitter, click here.

To contribute to the Rauner campaign, click here.

Burger King moves HQ from USA to escape high taxes; Chiquita next?

Burger King purchased Tim Horton's, a Canadian donut chain primarily known in the United States because it buys ad space on rink boards along hockey arenas. BK will also utilize an inversion--moving its headquarters to Canada so it can drastically cut its corporate tax rate.

The United States has the world's highest corporate taxes. President Obama and the Democratic Party stubbornly refuse to even consider corporate tax reform.

Another iconic American brand, Chiquita, could move its headquarters to Ireland under similar circumstances.

Who will be next?

Global warming news: Cold winter leads to huge sugar beet harvest

Despite so-called human caused global warming, most of the United States endured a brutal winter.

But there is an upside in Montana.

From the Billings Gazette:

For the first time in recent memory, the Western Sugar Cooperative will fire up its Billings factory and begin harvesting beets Sept. 2. Farmers say they could be pulling 37 tons an acre from their fields on average, possibly a record average and roughly 10 tons an acre more than last year.

"It's just the overall conditions of the climate," said Nick Sian, who farms beets between Custer and Pompeys Pillar. "We had timely rains to get it started."

Not just timely rains, but ample moisture. One of the snowiest winters on record meant the soil was wet deep down, even before spring rains began. Moisture levels remained near or above average in some cases through July, according to the National Weather Service.

Obama wants to circumvent the Senate to implement UN anti-global warming rules

Chicago's Douglas Park,
January, 2014

Students who took President Obama's constitutional law class at the University of Chicago are entitled to a refund.

Dear Leader wants to enact an anti-global warming treaty--without the approval of the US Senate.

And we are only a few months removed from the coldest winter in the history of Obama's adopted hometown of Chicago.

From the New York Times:

The Obama administration is working to forge a sweeping international climate change agreement to compel nations to cut their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions, but without ratification from Congress.

In preparation for this agreement, to be signed at a United Nations summit meeting in 2015 in Paris, the negotiators are meeting with diplomats from other countries to broker a deal to commit some of the world’s largest economies to enact laws to reduce their carbon pollution. But under the Constitution, a president may enter into a legally binding treaty only if it is approved by a two-thirds majority of the Senate.

Morton Grove, IL, March 2014

To sidestep that requirement, President Obama's climate negotiators are devising what they call a "politically binding" deal that would "name and shame" countries into cutting their emissions. The deal is likely to face strong objections from Republicans on Capitol Hill and from poor countries around the world, but negotiators say it may be the only realistic path.

This summer has been cool too. Leaves on the trees where I live are beginning to change colors. Yeah, it's August.

Former American killed fighting for Islamic State in Syria

I may be offending some people, but any American who fights for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, is no longer an American.

The terror group offers Christians and Yazidis a choice: convert to Islam or die. Those who refuse, including children, are sometimes crucified. Or beheaded.

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

A former Minnesotan who graduated from Robbinsdale Cooper High School was killed in Syria last weekend, the first American to die fighting for the terror group that calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIL).

Douglas McAuthur McCain's death is one of the first clues that U.S. officials have as they try to identify the Americans who have joined a group that has vowed to remake the Middle East. And his death is evidence that ISIL is willing to use Americans on the battlefield rather than sending them back to the United States to launch attacks.

(Photo) Young black-crowned night heron

At the dam that connects Big Bend Lake and the Des Plaines River at dusk on Saturday, I saw a juvenile black-crowned night heron looking for fish. There was heavy rain earlier that day, and many fish were being pulled over the dam--making the fish easy pickings for the young avian.

Unlike the adults, the youthful heron has brown plumage with white speckles.

Why not a Reagan exhibit? Lincoln presidential library planning Adlai Stevenson exhibit

Reagan statue, Dixon, IL

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is planning a special exhibit on Adlai Stevenson II, a former Illinois governor and a two-time failed Democratic presidential candidate.

Surely a more popular attraction would be one centered on the only president born in Illinois, Ronald Reagan, the greatest president since Lincoln.

Just a thought. But it's a good one.

Or is Reagan, a Republican, too scary a figure for the liberals who run the library?

Lincoln, was you know, was our first Republican president.

Related posts:

• Marathon Pundit's Ronald Reagan Trail
• Report from Tampico, Illinois on Reagan's 100th birthday

France: One in six support Islamic State terrorists

There is a some disturbing revelation from France to report. One is six people livng in the land of liberté, égalité, fraternité supports the terror group the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

From Vox:

In any case, the big, scary, surprising, number here is France: 16 percent of those surveyed say they support ISIS. That's an awful lot. And that number gets even larger as the demographics get younger, as shown in this by-age breakdown published by Russia Today (the poll was commissioned by Russian state media, almost certainly to tar and/or troll Western countries, but that doesn't make the findings any less disturbing).

Estimates of the Muslim population of France range from five to ten percent.

Detroit water shutoffs could be back today

Detroit Water and Sewerage Department's moratorium on water shutoffs for delinquent residential customers expired yesterday.

Will the citizens of Detroit blame everyone else if their taps run dry?

Probably.

Bloody Chicago: 5 dead, at least 42 wounded over weekend

Summer drags on in Chicago and so do the shootings. Five Chicagoans were shot to death over the weekend and another 42 were wounded. One of the dead is a three year-old boy, who apparently was playing with his father's gun.

(Photos) Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor on its 30th birthday

As I noted this morning in this space, today is the 30th anniversary of President Reagan signing the legislation creating Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor. It was our nation's first National Heritage Area.

The Reagan-esque beauty of the I&M Corridor is that no government authority controls all of it. The National Park Service plays only an advisory role in National Heritage Areas. This portion, as you can see on the sign, is overseen by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. Oh, there I am on the right. Behind me is the parking lot at this portion of the trail in Willow Springs. It is difficult to find, but if you locate the Willow Springs Metra Station on Google Maps, you'll find the lot just north of of the railroad tracks.

Pictured above is the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Slowly nature is filling it in. When it opened in 1848 it was six feet deep and sixty feet wide at its surface. There were towpaths on both sides--barges were usually pulled by mules. This lyrics from the folk song Low Bridge, "I've got a mule and her name is Sal--15 miles on the Erie Canal" suddenly makes sense.

The Corridor is about 100 miles long and runs from Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood to Peru in LaSalle County. Most of Corridor is crossed by a trail. This portion, which begins a few miles northeast of Willow Springs at LaGrange Road near Palos Park, is named for the legendary John Husar, a longtime outdoors columnist for the Chicago Tribune and a champion of preservation of the Des Plaines River valley, part of which includes the canal.

Cyclists are more numerous than hikers or runners on the asphalt trail.

To me, this picture looks like a previously missing still from The African Queen. Okay, I may be exaggerating , but the trail was smothered by oppressive tropical-like humidity on this afternoon.

As for the canal, commercially it was a mixed success. Railroads siphoned business from the I&M just a few years after it opened, but it paid off its debt on time and it reached its peaked tonnage in 1882. But by 1914 commercial traffic had almost completely vanished. In 1933 the canal was closed to even recreational use. The Civilian Conservation Corps worked on I&M restoration, including some locks, but that project ended when our nation entered World War II. The canal was largely left to decay until 1984.

Varieties of goldenrod populate the sides of the trail.

The tall tree is a black walnut. As for the man who signed the National Heritage Corridor legislation into law, Ronald Reaganlearned to swim in the Hennepin Feeder Canal near Tampico, Illinois.

I found a patch of yellow jewelweed too. The orange variety is much more common in Illinois.

Reagan first became aware of his love of nature when his family moved from Chicago to the much smaller western Illinois town of Galesburg in 1916.

Canal recreation doesn't exclude fishing. This man was trying his luck near the trail parking lot. Above him is Willow Springs Road.

Poke berries are ripening along the Corridor. The leaves of the American Pokeweed are edible if properly prepared, otherwise they are poisonous. The berries were once commonly used for dye.

Our journey is almost done--Little Marathon Pundit walking back to our car.

Related posts:

• Ronald Reagan Trail: Hennepin Feeder Canal
• Illinois' Hennepin Canal in January
• The Illinois & Michigan Canal
• Marathon Pundit's Ronald Reagan Trail
• Report from Tampico, Illinois on Reagan's 100th birthday

Cal-Sag Channel sunset

After another visit today to my hometown of Palos Heights, Illinois, I drove over the Harlem Avenue bridge over the Cal-Sag Channel, where I saw the sun at dusk perfectly positioned at the center of the Norfolk Southern Railroad bridge to the south.

I had to quickly park my car at 115th and Harlem and run back to capture this view. I returned just in time.

From Da Tech Guy on DaRadio: Beware of the anti-Rahm

Do you think Rahm Emanuel is a bad mayor of Chicago? Well, the nation's third largest union can do a lot worse if Chicago Teachers Union thug Karen Lewis succeeds him. From my weekly post on Da Tech Guy on DaRadio: Beware of the anti-Rahm in Chicago.

On this day in 1984: Reagan signs bill creating Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor

Illinois & Michigan Canal, Lemont, IL

Thirty years ago today the only president born in Illinois, Ronald Reagan, signed the bill that created the Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor. It was our first National Heritage Area.

The I&M, which Abraham Lincoln as a strong proponent of, connected the South Branch of Chicago River on Chicago's South Side with the Illinois River at Peru, creating a waterway that connected the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River basin. Had the canal not been built, Chicago would not have become the transportation hub of America.

The National Heritage Corridor was given little chance of success, because its area was so narrow yet widespread and the federal government would not be administering it. Of course that is why it succeeded. Local governments and volunteers filled in the void.

The Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor was indeed a Reagan-esque endeavor. And there are now nearly 50 National Heritage Areas.

As for "Dutch," he learned how to swim in the Hennepin Feeder Canal near Tampico, where he was born in 1911.

Near Utica, IL

This afternoon in Utica, a canal town, visitors can sit at the desk where Reagan signed the National Heritage Corridor legislation.

Related posts:

• Ronald Reagan Trail: Hennepin Feeder Canal
• Illinois' Hennepin Canal in January
• The Illinois & Michigan Canal
• Marathon Pundit's Ronald Reagan Trail
• Report from Tampico, Illinois on Reagan's 100th birthday

Summer sunset at Big Bend Lake

Today brought heavy rain and flooding to the Chicago area. But patience is always rewarded, as tonight's sunset at Big Bend Lake reminds us.

Indiana Harbor Belt caboose

Until the 1980s, the last car on a freight train line was a caboose. Inside a caboose one would either find an office or sleeping quarters for railroad staff who were assigned various safety duties, but technological advances made those workers unnecessary and cabooses went the way of the steam train.

On Sunday, about 50 yards from abandoned Chicago, North Shore, and Milwaukee tracks in Wilmette, a man named Dave pointed out an Indiana Harbor Belt caboose that is still an office, albeit for the Lake Avenue Lock-Up public storage facility.

Related posts:

• (Photo) Old Chicago and Northwestern rail bridge pilings
• (Photos) Abandoned suburban Chicago rail bridge with wooden pilings
• (Photos) Abandoned line: Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad and rails-to-trails
• (More photos) The abandoned Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad
• (Photo) Old railroad remnant in Skokie in the trees

On this day in 1989: Two million hold hands in peaceful anti-Soviet Baltic Way

Latvian Freedom Monument in 2014

Although the Soviet Union hung on until 1991, it started to crumble in 1987 when what became known as the Singing Revolution began in the Baltic States--Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

It was on this day in 1989--on the ominous 50th anniversary of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact that led to these small countries losing their independence to the Evil Empire--when two million Balts in these captive nations held hands and created a 370-mile long human chain called the Baltic Way. Of course it was a peaceful protest.

Twenty-five years later the Russian bear is stirring again.

Related Latvian posts:

• Kuldīga, Latvia's brick bridge
• Venta Rapid in Kuldīga, Latvia
• Twenty years ago today: Latvia's independence restored
• Rumbula: Latvia's Holocaust
• Salaspils concentration camp in Latvia
• Sece, Latvia's World War I German cemetery
• Two Russian army World War I pics
• Lutheran church in Sece, Latvia
• Twenty years ago: Latvia's Barricade Days
• Riga Doms and Latvia's Barricade Days
• Latvia 20 years after independence: Tearing down a Stučka statue
• 1990 bread line in Riga, Latvia
• Potato harvesting in Latvia in the early 1970s
• From the other side of the Iron Curtain: Gas mask drill in Latvia
• Vintage photo: Janis Ancīts of Latvia
• Latvian President Valdis Zatlers visits Chicago--with exclusive photo
• Riga's House of Blackheads

CNBC video: Obama's bad golfing optics "dragging Democrats down," will "hurt Democrats in the Senate"

Six minutes after concluding his press remarks about the barbaric killing of American journalist James Foley, President Obama was on a Martha Vineyard golf course fist-pumping with ex-NBA player Alonzo Mourning.

Meanwhile, because of the likelihood that the filth who beheaded Foley was English, British prime minister David Cameron cancelled the rest of his vacation.

There may be hell to pay for Obama and his party. The image of an aloof president is, as you will see in this CNBC Squawk Box video, is "dragging Democrats down" and will "hurt Democrats in the Senate."

ILL-inois: IDOT patronage hiring occurred for years

Union County, Illinois

Illinois' phony reform governor, Chicago Democrat Pat Quinn, has his sanctimonious fingerprints all over this scandal.

From AP:

The state's top ethics investigator says the Illinois Department of Transportation improperly hired more than 250 employees in the past decade.

Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza's report says the practice began in 2003 but continued under Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn.

Meza says IDOT circumvented hiring rules meant to ensure people are hired on merit, not on political clout. He says the agency's practice of hiring "staff assistants" to do jobs that should be protected from political influence denied those job opportunities to countless qualified candidates on the basis of merit.

Meza's report was posted on a state government website Friday. Quinn's office announced Thursday that IDOT would lay off the 58 current staff assistants and make other reforms.

That's too late for me, it's time to get rid of Quinn.

As for 2003, what is significant about that year is that is when Quinnochio's two-time running mate, Rod Blagojevich, took office.

Related post:

#ThrowBackThursday: Durbin accused Quinn of being a ghost payroller

Deported Mexicans find work in border city English language call centers

Life on the other side of the southern border may not be as pleasant as in El Norte, but one of the great things about humanity is its ability to adjust.

From AP:

Henry Monterroso is a foreigner in his own country. Raised in California from the age of 5, he was deported to Mexico in 2011 and found himself in a land he barely knew.

But the 34-year-old Tijuana native feels right at home as soon as gets to work at Call Center Services International, where workers are greeted in English. Monterroso supervises five employees amid rows of small cubicles who spend eight hours a day dialing numbers across the United States to collect on credit card bills and other debts.

He is among thousands of deported Mexicans who are finding refuge in call centers in Tijuana and other border cities. In perfect English – some hardly speak Spanish – they converse with American consumers who buy gadgets, have questions about warrantees or complain about overdue deliveries.

Bloody Chicago: $13,500 reward for 9 year-old boy's killer

Two days ago a nine year-old South Side Chicago boy wandered onto railroad tracks that have long been the turf boundary between two street gangs. He paid for that mistake with his life. But at least some local activists are getting involved in the effort to find the boy's murderer. It's great that gadfly priest Michael Pfleger is doing something positive for once.

From NBC 5 Chicago:

Community leaders are digging deep into their pockets to help find the person who killed a 9-year-old Chicago boy Wednesday.

The reward for information leading to the capture of Antonio Brown's killer increased to $13,500 Wednesday. Father Michael Pfleger and Pastor Corey Brooks each contributed $5,000 toward the reward and several other community leaders also chipped in.

Police said Smith was shot several times in the chest, arms and hands at about 4:05 p.m. in the 1200 block of East 71st Street. His body was found in the backyard of a home next to train tracks.

But overall, the response from the full-time agitators who are enraged over the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri has been underrwhelming.

ILL-inois: Dem member of Congress "misspoke" on her promise to give up 10% of pay

Schilling (left) with
Marathon Pundit 

Cheri Bustos of northwestern Illinois is another liberal hypocrite.

From Quad Cities Online:

Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-East Moline, in 2012 said she would take a 10 percent pay cut in her $174,000 salary as a congresswoman but never followed through on the commitment.

In an editorial board interview with The Chicago Tribune before she was elected Rep. Bustos was asked if she would voluntarily give up 10 percent of her pay.

She said she would support a vote to cut pay for members of Congress. The interviewer followed up by asking, "You would do it regardless of how the vote turns out?" Rep. Bustos replied, "Yes."

On Wednesday, Rep. Bustos' campaign manager Jeremy Jansen said that she "misspoke" in her response to the question.

Soybean field, 17th District

In other words, she went back on her word. Or she lied.

Residents of Illinois 17th District have a much better choice to be their congressman, pizzeria owner Bobby Schilling, who represented it from 2011-2013. Click here to "like" Schilling on Facebook. Click here to follow him on Twitter.

Click here to contribute to Schilling's campaign.

#ThrowBackThursday: Durbin accused Quinn of being a ghost payroller

I'm a bit late the game tonight, but in the central time zone it's still Thursday, and on Twitter that means it's Throwback Thursday.

Let's look back into time--to 1996, when then-US Rep. Dick Durbin made an interesting accusation against his fellow Democrat, current Governor Pat Quinn. Both Dems were running for an open US Senate seat. Durbin won the primary and then the general election and he's been nominally representing me ever since.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Durbin, trailing Quinn by 10 percentage points in a recent Tribune poll, resurrected charges that Quinn was a ghost payroller, performing patronage tasks in the 1970s for Democratic Gov. Dan Walker while on a state commission's payroll.

"Outsider Pat Quinn has been involved in government for over 22 years," Durbin said, citing Quinn's previous positions on the Cook County Board of (tax) Appeals, a brief stint as Chicago revenue director under Mayor Harold Washington and one term as state treasurer.

"This is an outsider?" Durbin asked. "I think people know when they hear someone who's been around so long and run so many times . . . using the term 'outsider' that he's really trying to pull the wool over their eyes."

After his single and miserable term in office, Walker went to prison for fraud in regards to loans involving a savings and loan he was running. As for Quinn, he was twice the running mate of current jailbird Rod Blagojevich.

Illinoisans have a much better choice for governor this autumn, Republican businessman Bruce Rauner.

To follow Rauner on Facebook, click here. To follow him on Twitter, click here.

To contribute to the Rauner campaign, click here.

Bloody Chicago: 9 year old killed, two others wounded in South Side shootings

Downtown Chicago from the
South Side

I just got home from work and switched on Fox News where they were showing live coverage of tonight's protest in Ferguson, Missouri.

Meanwhile, 300 miles north on Interstate 55, a nine year-old boy was shot to death this afternoon on Chicago's South Side. Twenty minutes earlier, two teenage South Siders were wounded in "Chiraq."

Both shootings took place in neighborhoods that are almost 100 percent black, so it's quite likely that the perpetrators were African-American.

Where is Al Sharpton? Where is South Sider Jesse Jackson? Where is the outrage from the Left?

(MSNBC video) Every national poll shows America's view of Clinton "Heading in the wrong direction"

As discussed today on MNSBC's Morning Joe, every national poll offers this fact: America's view of Hillary Clinton "Heading in the wrong direction."

Unless of course you dislike Hillary.

Democrats in close House races running from unpopular Pat Quinn

Illinois' flag on right

Illinois' inept governor, Chicago Democrat Pat Quinn, has more problems other than his own unpopularity. He's a drag on down-ticket Democratic candidates.

From Roll Call:

There was no clearer example of Quinn's problems than last week's Illinois State Fair, where elected officials, political operatives and party insiders from both sides of the aisle descended upon the Springfield fairgrounds for each party's respective day of rallies.

On Aug. 14, Republicans flocked to the fairgrounds to support Bruce Rauner, the party's wealthy gubernatorial nominee who rolled up to the rally on his Harley Davidson and then delivered a red-meat speech going after Quinn in front of a fired up crowd of supporters.

It was a stark contrast from Democrats' gathering the day before, where instead of riling up his base at the fair, Quinn instead hosted a low-key picnic to pose for photos with a more mellow group of supporters, many of whom were bussed in from the Chicago area.

Perhaps because in 2012 he was booed off the stage at the traditional "Democrat Day" festivities at the Illinois State Fair — "Governor’s Day," as it’s now known — Quinn opted to deliver his own speech at a brunch for about 1,400 party insiders at Springfield's Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Three incumbent Demcocratic members of Congress, Cheri Bustos, Brad Schneider and Bill Enyart, weren't at Quinn's somber gatherering. It'll be a rough year for Democrats in Illinois. Good.

Doing the wrong thing: Spike Lee incites race war

Someone needs to remind radical movie maker Spike Lee that the leading cause of death for young black males is murder--and the great majority of those killings were done by other blacks. When African-Americans are robbed, raped, or assaulted, almost always the perpetrators are other blacks.

But Spike Lee continues to deflect blame.

From CBS St. Louis:

Filmmaker Spike Lee says the fatal shooting of unarmed Ferguson teenager Michael Brown is indicative of a national "war on the black male," and that the "uprising" in Missouri is a response to years of racial tension and discrimination between U.S. authorities and the black community.

Speaking with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday, the outspoken director said that the African-American community "can't take it anymore" and that he hopes the situation "will really blow up" in order to get the message out that the country has finally hit a "tipping point."

Lee is doing the wrong thing.

Evil: Islamic State radicals behead American journalist

Northwestern University

Clearly ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, is an enemy of America and free people everywhere else. Fat chance that President Obama, who is a moral relativist, will acknowledge that. Today news broke that the terror group beheaded James Foley, an American journalist and a recent graduate of Northwestern University's Medill Journalism School.

There is right and there is wrong. There is good and there is evil.

Obama is incapable of understanding that.

And Americans have to suffer for two more years.

(Photo) Snapping turtle on the banks of the Des Plaines River

While in Dam Number 4 Woods in Park Ridge, Illinois yesterday, I got quite close to a common snapping turtle that was sunning itself on the banks of the Des Plaines, River.

Notice that its shell is slightly damaged.

Related post:

(Photo) Painted turtle at the Skokie Lagoons

(Video) Witch hunt: Convicted drunk driver DA chases Rick Perry

Texas Governor Rick Perry is the victim, in my opinion albeit temporarily, of a witch hunt by a Austin-area Democratic district attorney, Rosemary Lehmberg, a convicted drunk driver.

Austin is the liberal moonbat enclave within conservative Texas.

From Perry's RickPac:

Reuters: Police come under "heavy gunfire" in "mostly peaceful" Ferguson protests

There's that phrase again, "mostly peaceful." It was used by the mainstream media when they were covering the Occupy mayhem three years ago.

And that is how Reuters described last night's protest in Ferguson, Missouri, even though the news service also reported that police came under "heavy gunfire."

Feel the peace. And duck for cover.

And the media clearly seems to be on the side of the rioters.

Montana: Ex-prison museum director guilty of embezzlement

If Chicago had a prison museum it would be expected that the person in charge would be caught with a hand in the wrong jar.

However, this story is from Montana:

From AP:

The former director of operations at the Old Prison Museums in Deer Lodge has pleaded guilty to embezzlement and forgery.

Julia Kaye Brewer, 55, was charged in Deer Lodge County but entered her pleas Thursday in District Court in Butte.

Prosecutors allege she deposited more than $25,000 in revenue from the museum into her personal bank account while court documents indicate a shortage of about $70,000 from the 2013 operating season.

Brewer may soon be granted the opportunity to expand her knowledge of the correctional system.

(Photo) Old Chicago and Northwestern rail bridge pilings

When water levels recede, sometimes surprises await. At first glance there is not much to see in this photograph, but look closely and you will see the remains of wooden pilings from a long-abandoned Chicago and Northwestern rail bridge over the Skokie River in Northfield.

After the demise of the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad in 1963, the C&NW took over that lines right-of-way--and its bridge, from where I took this photograph. Those tracks and the bridge were abandoned in the 1990s.

Special thanks to photographer Dave who pointed this feature out to me yesterday.

Related posts:

• (Photos) Abandoned suburban Chicago rail bridge with wooden pilings
• (Photos) Abandoned line: Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad and rails-to-trails
• (More photos) The abandoned Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad
• (Photo) Old railroad remnant in Skokie in the trees

(Video) GMA reporters laugh at Hillary's extravagant travel plans

Hillary Clinton's book tour continues to be an embarrasment for her, catching the attention of both ABC's Good Morning America and the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

From that paper:

Hillary Rodham Clinton likes to travel in style.

She insists on staying in the "presidential suite" of luxury hotels that she chooses anywhere in the world, including Las Vegas.

She usually requires those who pay her six-figure fees for speeches to also provide a private jet for transportation — only a $39 million, 16-passenger Gulfstream G450 or larger will do.

And she doesn't travel alone, relying on an entourage of a couple of "travel aides" and a couple of advance staffers who check out her speech site in the days leading up to her appearance, much like a White House trip, according to her contract and supporting documents concerning her Oct. 13 speech at a University of Nevada, Las Vegas Foundation fundraiser. The documents were obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal through the state public records law.

From Good Morning America:

Bloody Chicago: 7 dead, at least 29 wounded over the weekend

The dog days of summer are aren't being kind to the violent town of Chicago. Seven resident were shot to death over the weekend and at least 29 others were wounded. One of the fatalities was a straight-A student, a 16 year-old teenage girl from Englewood, who hoped to become a forensic scientist.

Chicago continues to be Chiraq.

Coming soon: ReaganBook social networking site

Reagan boyhood home on left

Good news, my fellow conservatives: a conservative alternative to Facebook is on its way: ReaganBook.

From Fox News:

Are you a conservative feeling censored on Facebook?

The makers of a new social network called "ReaganBook" want you to know it's okay to un-friend the website -- and turn to what they call their "platform for all freedom-loving Americans."

ReaganBook is the brainchild of conservative activist Janet Porter, who said she decided to start a new network after seeing several pro-life, pro-Israel and anti-gay marriage posts blocked by Facebook. She is promoting the site as the conservative social media alternative.

"ReaganBook's purpose is to be what Facebook could've been but chose not to be," Porter told FoxNews.com.

I've actually, save one instance, never been censored on Facebook. That one time was the result of the union front group Illinois Freedom PAC blocking me from commenting on their anti-Bruce Rauner posts. Rauner is the Republican nominee for Illinois governor. The Democratic nominee, failed incumbent Pat Quinn, is such a pariah that not even the labor goons can openly support him. The union lackeys on the Illinois Freedom PAC Facebook page dubbed me a troll, which was a cheap shot because their posts, not at my request, appeared on my FB homepage.

ReaganBook isn't live yet.

Related posts:

• Poll: Obama worst president since World War II; Reagan best
• Reagan 1987: "Tear down this wall!" Obama 2014: "Tear down this border fence!"
• Marathon Pundit's Ronald Reagan Trail
• Report from Tampico, Illinois on Reagan's 100th birthday

Technorati tags: Reagan Ronald Reagan Republican america usa history