Chicago Daily Observer

Filing as a candidate is just the beginning, staying on the ballot is the real test

The silly season is upon us.

No, I am not referring to the Christmas shopping rush as the holidays approach. The primary election, on February 5, 2008. As I write this, candidates for delegates and alternates are hurrying to gather voter signatures on their nominating petitions before the filing deadline. Republican delegates and alternates will be the last candidates to file under the new election laws. The winning candidates will attend the national nominating conventions to be held next summer.

For the first time in decades, the Illinois primary election may be meaningful to the nomination process of presidential candidates. Our election is now early enough to affect the outcome. It means the presidential candidates are likely to have to spend some real dollars campaigning in Illinois which involves setting up offices, installing telephone ... Read More...

The classic definition of the Yiddish word chutzpah is: the boy who murders his father and mother, then pleads for the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.

Today we must update that definition.

Willard (call him by his middle name, “Mitt”) Romney, a vigorous advocate of George Bush’s war in Iraq, was asked why none of his five grown sons were in the armed services or otherwise supporting our noble adventure over there.

His response: “One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected.”

This is the same Mitt Romney who, when asked whether he would go to Congress for authorization to bomb out Iran’s nuclear facilities, responded instead that “You sit down with your attorneys and [they] tell you what you have to do.”

Swell
.
Which lawyers? Abner Mikva? Alan Dershowitz? Clarence Thomas?

No answer ... Read More...

Many gentile Americans under 50 don’t know what Yiddish is. More’s the pity. Yiddish is an anglicization of a Germanic word for “Jewish.” The Yiddish language was the dialect spoken by the Jews of central and eastern Europe, and was a unique combination of German and Hebrew, written with Hebrew letters. Before the restoration of Hebrew as a spoken language, it was the household language of Jews in western, central and eastern Europe.

Beginning with the pogroms of the late 19th and early 20th century, tens of thousands of European Jews emigrated to America. Non-English speaking at first, with very limited resources, and with no support network whatsoever, they very rapidly adapted to America and became remarkably successful in a very short time.

How did they do it? How did this group who didn’t speak English, and didn’t profess a version of the overwhelmingly predominant religion of American Protestantism become ... Read More...