Chicago Daily Observer

Sheriff Tom Dart and The Cook County Jail took a 98 page study ( prepared, indexed, rolled and greased with warmed up left-overs from the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, University of Chicago MacArthur Center for Justice, Chicago Magazine, and the usual assortment of lawsuit addicted lefty lawyers and, it seems Commissioner Quigley) from Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the shorts this past week.

A few years back, The Chicago Tribune and the usual suspects listed above took a long sprint at Sheriff Michael Sheehan with a series of ‘heart-tugging tales’ from prisoners and diappointed Correctional Employees and had their efforts tossed by a jury in about twenty minutes.

The Tribune’s ‘investigative’ efforts were laughed out of court by the jury and the lawyer most linked to the case against Sheehan was a nano-second away from charges of impropriety for tipping prison gangs about finding just the right time to riot ... Read More...

Mary Mitchell pulls another little race-baiting scab in Sunday’s Chicago Sun Times to remind whites that they are evil mean nasty haters and to pump up the Maywood reunion of the Mt. Greenwood Seven,

There’s a Mt. Greenwood Seven Eleven at 111th and Kedzie on the Northeast Side of the Street, but Mary invents the Mt. Greenwood Seven as new Civil Rights Icons. Seven black children who attended Mt. Greenwood Elementary School from February until June ( I guess) in 1968.

In 1968, I was working at Gee Lumber which was at 79th Street & Western Ave. behind Sharko’s and Quigley South ( now St. Rita of Cascia – which was at 63rd and Claremont – see?) Things do change.. I remember quite a bit from that time, but nothing about Selma in Mt. Greenwood.

Busing, as I recall, began in the 1970’s. Black kids moved about pretty freely ... Read More...

Chicago's Media Incumbents do not see any connections between Curtis Cooper's crushed little body and the tons of Progressive Chicago Clout that helped unhinge the truth. There is nothing more heart-breaking than the death of a child due to an accident.



A three year old, like Curtis Cooper, and his pals probably weigh between thirty five and fifty pounds each -tops but we are told their hi-jinks and collective weight ripped a solid wrought iron fence from its hinges.



Here's this morning's account from the ... Read More...

Most Chicagoans know nothing of Charles Chinquy. Most Chicagoans have probably forgotten Pastor George Stallings, a one-time Catholic priest and mentor of Pastor Mike Pfleger. Most Chicagoans know Pastor Pfleger, who returns to his Faith Community of St. Sabina flock on Monday, June 16th, after being given a forced leave by Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago.

Today the Chicago Tribune tells one and all that Pastor Pfleger was disciplined for political reasons – speaking disparagingly of Senator Hillary Clinton. The Tribune writes, “latest transgression: talking about the wrong thing, in the wrong place, with a preaching style—honed in the back pews of black churches—that some Catholics found unsettling.”
There was much more. Pastor Pfleger angered people, not so much with his barbs against Senator Clinton but the hostility and race-baiting fervor imbued throughout his sermon. Pastor Pfleger’s target it seems was white America and not Senator Clinton per ... Read More...

News like it almost happened

Cathleen Falsani Religion Editor of the Chicago Sun Times had this to say about Benson ‘Time Out.’

There’s something painfully ironic about Cedric’s (if temporary) ouster.

He’s been thumbing his nose at authority—secular and sacred—for years in pursuit of what he believes God has called him to do: fight for the poor yardage and the press coverage; battle injustice in whatever form it appears to taxing him at the moment, be it racism, sexism, or classicism; and to above all present the God of revolutionary love and radical grace to the world around him like he did when those cracker Texas Gomers boarded his boat. That sometimes has meant disobeying civil and Man law.

Benson has been arrested several dozen times over the last five weeks for civil disobedience. He’s taken on drug dealers aboard his boat, big alcohol content while driving, the tobacco products ... Read More...

Father Pfleger has the Chicago Sun Times which helped create the character screaming all over You Tube, going flat-out to help save his Public Life.

Instead of going to the Catholic Parishes that Pfleger routinely smears as racist and offering a true apology, The Real Pfleger sniffled to his flock that he has received 3,000 hateful e-mails ( Is that All?) over his disgracefully racist rant at Trinity. He said he has received ‘Death Threats,’ which he should have reported to the Chicago Police Department – that group of brave men and women that he calls a ‘systemically racist’ army of occupation.

The Chicago Sun Times, a dying fool itself. offers this from Pastor Pfleger’s Apology.

Hate me if you will. Hate my imperfect presentation. Hate my imperfect dramatization. Hate my imperfect articulation. I have never presumed to be anything but imperfect, but I pray I can still beat the ... Read More...

Martin Luther High School, Home of the Spartans, in Greendale Wisconsin was the site of Senator John McCain’s Straight-Talk Express Town Hall Meeting. In south suburban Milwaukee, Martin Luther High School stands as a tribute to people who value Faith-based education as a choice over America’s declining public schools that call for greater tax burdens to shore up declining performance.
Martin Luther High School is associated with the Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod and is not a School Choice high school as it is situated outside of Metro Milwaukee.
I traveled to Greendale to ask Senator John McCain about his campaign’s leadership in Education reform with its emphasis on asking the States to push School Choice initiatives, especially vouchers.
A crowd of about 2,000 people were gathered to welcome the Straight Talk Express and Martin Luther High School students acted as ushers and facilitators. They were mature, helpful, ... Read More...

Larry Johnson, a rock-ribbed Hillary Clinton supporter, has pulled together some of the finest and most reasoned critics of Obama’s radical kitchen cabinet: Ayers/Rezko/Wright/Dohrn & etc.

Domestic Terrorist Billy Ayers ‘walked out of jail’ and into Academic circles by dint of his Daddy’s ComEd power circle that embraced University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the Woods Fund, Sidley and Austin Law Firm, and any number of left-sensitive political animals. Ayers’ insulated life allowed him to leap from ‘Underground’ to Hyde Park influence without so much as time out for his decades of crimes against America.

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Billy Ayers, the Trust Funded, Insulated, Media Pampered Hyde Park Domestic Terrorist, who still, mercy sakes alive, has a job at University of Illinois Chicago Campus is the tack on the chair of Senator Obama’s Senate Seat.

Senator Obama is up and moving about the country weaving rhetorical flourishes to the people who think that Stanley Fish matters and that MSNBC provides information. While Senator Obama has been out of his seat, Illinois laughing-stock and Check Kiting Bob Creamer’s Bonnie Parker, Congressperson Jan Schakwosky is trolling for the chair – which would be Jan’s via appointment from Governor Rod Blagojevich.

The Guv has problems. Jan Schakowsky, like most self-absorbed posers, is unaware of her problems. Her husband, Bob Creamer recently got out of the Federal Pen in Terra Haute, Indiana for check kiting and immediately wrote a boffo book on Progressive Politics and ran Camp Obama for the Obama ... Read More...

Peotone—This column has long been loud in its fanfare for John McCain, but—at least in the sounds coming from Huffington Post —some cacaphony is being orchestrated.

Here, of course, McCain is wildly popular in the ‘clingingly bitter community—garnering 48%percent of the vote in the official Republicans in Will County—and seems to have captured the hearts of the Peotonese as well. I suspect he could be elected King of Will County Fair in a landslide.

But since Pennsylvania, McCain has not been forced to battle four opponents at once—two Clintons and Obama frontally, plus the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Billy Boy Ayers from the rear. It has not thrown McCain’s campaign even somewhat off course and there is no sense that he has been brought down to earth – by that fat-assed Texas Preacher that Allan Colmes insists is just like Rev. Wright. Musically challenged, McCain’s soaring with oldies hits, the ... Read More...

Words Matter and so do the things that we do. In last night’s debate, Senator, you said that Senator Tom Coburn was like a domestic terrorist and punk.

Senator Barack Obama – On the Left -The aging Cub fan, with happening ear jewelry, is domestic terrorist Bill Ayers; the punk in the mug-shot knowing Daddy has the bail, juice and lawyers to get him off is a domestic terrorist bomber Billy Ayers; the Doctor holding the Baby is Senator Tom Coburn.

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Barack Obama was not only speaking to ‘small-town’ America, but the small towns that exist in Big Cities as well – we call them neighborhoods: Obama was talking to Dorchester, Queens, Staten Island, Pilsen, Canaryville, Brighton Park, Edison Park, Norwood Park, Evergreen Park, Morgan Park – hell every Park. Well, maybe not Hyde Park.

This was no Political Gotcha. This is Pure undiluted doctrine – Progressive doctrine. Obama lives this doctrine and it is from the heart – Words do matter. Barack Obama was speaking to his core constituency – Progressives. They are Gown elites – like his Hyde Park Neighbors in Chicago. Like Army brats, University Demographics – that’s what smart types call people – tend to be transient – move around alot.

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Get this – before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Martin Luther King was a happy guy who had love in his heart for white America. After those civil rights watermark events, Dr. King became an angry Jeremiah – prophet from the Old Testament for the hyper-sensitive. Martin Luther King became an angry prophet:

“Before 1965, King was upbeat and bright, his belief in white America’s ability to change by moral suasion resilient and durable. That is the leader we have come to know during annual King commemorations. After 1965, King was darker and angrier; he grew more skeptical about the willingness of America to change without great social coercion.

King’s skepticism and anger were often muted when he spoke to white America, but they routinely resonated in black sanctuaries and meeting halls across the land. Nothing highlights that split—or white America’s ignorance ... Read More...

Only Hours after bringing Chicago Public School Homicides to its knees with a dramatic and well-publicized March around Thompson Center, shots were fired near Morgan Park High School in my neighborhood.

With his usual aplomb, Daley went Old Testament on the City Tax-payers. Daley and Arne Duncan, both proud products of private education, promised to bust a cap- Property Tax Cap – the one that was raised last Fall, if Gov. Blago does not come up with the trump for Arne’s National Laugh, in the ear of Chicago Tax Payers.

That’s me. I take the weather personally.

Public Schools are tragedy and Chicago Public Schools are Blood Tragedy ( Marlowe, Jonson, Ford)- the shockingly violent sister of the genre. CPS kids die from homicide. People kill those kids. The guns do not go off by themselves. People kill other people because they feel comfortable doing so – we live ... Read More...

Sam Zell really has an object lesson for his next talk to the journalists that he employs at Tribune Company meetings around the country.
While the Sun Times New Group stands at a husky offering of under $.99 per share, The Chicago Tribune seems help bent on following it’s pulpy sibling down into the root cellar:

Chicago Sun-Times parent Sun-Times Media Group Inc. said Thursday that it has received notification from New York Stock Exchange authorities that the company is not in compliance with the Big Board's listing requirements because the price of Sun-Times Media shares has dropped so low. To maintain a listing on the NYSE, companies must maintain a 30-day average share price above $1. On March 20, Sun-Times Media said, the 30-day average closing price for its common shares was 99 cents, breaching the exchange's $1 minimum.

What brought STNG ot this lowly state? ... Read More...

Barack Obama is a politician: Schooled, Glib, Impressive, and all too Human. His remarks about his white Grandmother being a ‘typical white person’ generally would be considered a safe slide to the base; but, this being a Presidential Campaign, Obama was tagged out.

Reaction to the document of his lecture on Race in America is being generally greeted with high praise. I thought it was thin beer – a political dodge to avoid speaking to his years of friendship and discipleship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright a Black Liberation preacher whose theology is a tangle of Marxism and Gospel.

Instead of explaining the appeal of Black Liberation theology to his heart, Obama lectured America with a moral equivalence dualism: Wright harbors hate; so does Obama’s white Grandmother. That works with radical lawyers making lawsuits for criminals against police and plays very well in the press: Mr. ‘A’ murdered seven people, by ... Read More...

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda, say the military fruit-salads in Obama’s camp in the latest Salon.com – redacting the Salon.com piece is Chicago Tribune’s Steve Chapman.

The Salon.com piece is a re-hash of the ‘McCain’s Rage’ straw-dog. Mean People Suck – is a Deadhead bumper sticker. This piece of second guessing on McCain’s leadership in support of the Iraq surge has all the snappy zest, spice and Howard Dean Yeeeowwweee as a mouthful of Hellman’s Mayo.

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The Chicago Archdiocese serves more than 100,000 students from every faith, family background, and financial situation. The Archdiocese also creates jobs for more than 8,000 persons who teach, administer and serve the Catholic School System. Those employees and the parents of Catholic school students pay taxes – which fuel the Public Schools. The public school sacred cow worshippers would have one believe that Catholic and other private schools serve the elite. That is not close to the case, unless, of course, great personal sacrifice is the rubric for elite.

Catholic school parents largely work more than one job. Catholic school parents are largely what one used to call middle class. The middle class in America is vanishing and public schools are doing their part to speed up that process. Catholic Schools and private schools in general need school choice – vouchers. Public school advocates scream ‘Parents have made their choice!’

... Read More...

Cardinal George and the search committee for the Archdiocese of Chicago should get a universal Atta Boy from the people of Chicago. Catholics who send their children to Catholic schools ease the burden of all tax payers.

The Chicago Tribune just announced the appointment of Sister Paul McCaughey
Sister M. Paul McCaughey, president and very long-time school leader of Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights.

As a career Catholic high school teacher, I have known Sister McCaughey since the late 1970’s. She is the real deal and person who knows, respects, and works the traditions of Chicago Catholic education. This is a school leader who operates from a teacher’s knowledge of classroom; and administrator’s support of classroom teaching, but most of all as a child of Chicago Catholic schools herself.

I have witnessed Sister McCaughey measuring the shot put and discuss at track and field events and saw ... Read More...

Way back in the 1970’s Ronald Reagan embraced the principles developed by America’s greatest 20th century conservative thinker, Dr. Russell Kirk of Mecosta, Michigan. . Kirk was long-time fixture at Michigan state university and developed a cogent argument for American Cultural and Political Thought.

I met Dr. Russell Kirk and his wife Annette, when I taught and coached at La Lumiere School, LaPorte, Indiana. – the alma mater of Chief Justice John Roberts. A social studies teacher by the name of Tracey Elliot, now a banking officer in South Bend, was a devoted student of Dr. Kirk and made the introductions – “‘Mr. Hickey is a Daley Democrat and therefore not unfamiliar with the principles of American conservatism. “ ‘Dr. Kirk was a wonderful conversationalist and a generous humorist. Dr. Kirk’s heart and head live in the Russell Kirk Center at his home on Piety Hill.

Kirk’s genius is lost ... Read More...

The property which every man has in his own labour; as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable… To hinder him from employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper without injury to his neighbour is a plain violation of this most sacred property. The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter X, Part II

Can’t argue with a landlord. He owns the lease.

You pay him what he says or move on, whether renting living, storage, or business space.

Adam Smith, the Moses of American Free Enterprise, gets the same nodding obedience as the guy with the tablets containing the Decalogue.

A talented and industrious young woman named Kristi Martens was forced to move on by her landlord and closed the Beverly Bean coffee shop at 111th & Talman Ave. on the south side of Chicago after ... Read More...

Hey Abdon! Who Lied and Made You Boss? !!! A Reporter’s Privilege

Nothing to read at Kean Gas station at 111th & Talman this morning – Gino Ford grabbed the last Daily Southtown and Dawna said that Sunday edition wouldn’t be in until about 11AM. The Kean dark roast was still slowdripping.

Against Dr. Vargas’ orders – I picked up the Sun Times ( HOWLS OF DERISIVE LAUGHTER emitted by your your humble servant) – The Progressive-Independent Conscious of the City that ‘s better than endless Seinfeld loops on two competing channels.

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The great mathematician, philosopher, atheist and wit Lord Bertrand Russell explained the paradox of tolerance this way:
‘Any person who claims to be tolerant naturally defines himself in opposition to those who are intolerant. But that makes him intolerant of certain people – which invalidates his claim to be tolerant.’
Disagree that Chicago police officers are torture abusing, out of control thugs and you will see how your view is tolerated. Let’s try. Here goes!
$1,930,000 would be considered a tolerable sum of money. In fact, 1,930,000 of anything is a tolerable sum of anything. The Chicago Sun Times Police Abuse search on Yahoo revealed 1,930,000 hits. My Google search produced a somewhat less tolerable sum of 1, 790,000 hits – ouch. Lastly, the more general Chicago Media + Police Abuse produced even less with 1,740,000 hits. That’s still a lot of hits.
The Chicago police ... Read More...

I bet that Oak Lawn school district 122 beats the ACLU lawsuit boiling on the back range to the scald. Folks shocked by the fact that the Oak Lawn schools will ban Christmas should come as no shock. I, for one, applaud the superintendent for having the foresight to pre-empt an ACLU press conference.

Dear Reader, for the sake of space, please read ACLU as progressive mind-set; they do, after all help etch its doctrinal blueprints.

Essentially, district 122 has a 30% Muslim population of offended parents worried about the celebration of the Christmas holiday – a Crusader holiday secularized with coded messages of peace, sharing and Christian good- fellowship: “Can’t have that. Must afflict the comfortable and get on Bill Maher!”’

Dear reader, for road -rage progressives, please read Muslims as “some’ Muslims.
The ACLU and the progressive agenda must always take the ... Read More...

Last May 2007, Andy Stern. President of the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) with 1.8 million low-skill or unskilled workers paying dues, takes Anna Burger, head of “Change to Win” to China to meet with the leadership there, spending a portion of union dues to help Chinese workers.

Here’s an excerpt from a Newsweek interview with the publicity addicted Stern:

Question: Why should your members pay dues to improve the condition of Chinese workers?
Stern: Workers who work for the same employers, whether they are in our country or around the world, are much stronger when they work together. The largest employer in Africa is a security company who owns Wackenhut in the U.S. We have been unable to get Wackenhut to respect workers’ rights because they are a very small part of a very big company. So now we joined together with other unions to deal ... Read More...

One of the great features of my neighborhood is a Catholic cemetery – Mount Olivet. Consecrated in the 1850’s and established forty years later, Mount Olivet was the first Catholic cemetery on the south side. There is a tall obelisk dedicated to the Fenians – The Irish Republican Brotherhood by the Irish Nationalists of Chicago in the 1890’s. Mount Olivet’s graves identify many Irish Chicagoans, but also Italians, Germans, Bohemians and some Poles. Mount Olivet filled up fast.

One fellow, MC AULIFFE, CHARLES B PVT H Company 1st IL INF CHICAGO died during the Spanish American war in Cuba, or the Philippines or more likely somewhere in Florida due to malaria or dysentery. It appears that more ‘Rough Riders’ were carried to the Eternal by disease than by bullets from Spanish Mausers. Charlie McAuliffe is buried about two hundred feet from the entrance of the ... Read More...

He’s facing the job – too many Americans have turned their backs on what the skilled American Tradesman is doing.

This Labor Day – try and rememember that thousands of people struggled and many died for the right to form Unions. These Unions of skilled trades and industrial workers moved America’s poor in to the great middle class that created the standard of living enjoyed by no other Nation in History.

Let’s not be fooled by the enemies of that standard of living on the political radical Right or the Left. ‘Redistribution of Wealth’ strategies are the latest phoney labor Ponzi scams – stay true to genuine Labor Unions. Real Labor gives people the skills to move to the next economic level and engages in collective bargaining to protect workers rights, health and welfare and above all safety on the job. Labor is not merely a lobbying tool for slick ... Read More...