Chicago Daily Observer

I first started as a lobbyist…for Quaker Oats…in 1964 and continued until retirement in 1991. The beautiful thing about that job was the first day I started the CEO asked me to tell them what the company should be lobbying for or against. I drew up a list which, surprisingly, squared with my conservative values…and theirs. First, the company should lobby against high price supports in the farm bill which would cut the cost of the grain they bought but also coincided with consumer interest.

Second, it should oppose creation of ever-more regulatory agencies. Third it should oppose an industry plan to allow creation of a eunuch so-called Consumer Protection Agency, the 38th such body designed to protect the consumers-but a CPA that would have very little power to protect consumers and would be toothless, so as to be a sop to public relations and the public misconception ... Read More...

Back in 1979, before GDP growth had turned negative, Alfred Kahn, President Carter’s Chief Economist made a professional faux pas. He uttered the “R” word within earshot of the national press. Higher-ups in the White House quickly put the hammer to Dr. Kahn, suggesting that he never use the “R” word again.
To his credit, Alfred Kahn did not back down. He announced that from then on he would refer to the recession as a “banana.” He then began to say things like, “I think we are in for a serious banana.” He was funny, and he was right.
Twenty-one years later, in December 2000, Vice President-Elect Richard Cheney, told Tim Russert on Meet the Press that the US was probably on the “front edge of a recession.” At the time, GDP growth was still positive and most economists felt a recession was highly unlikely.
... Read More...

“Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed,
That he is grown so great?”
Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene ii, by William Shakespeare

Given the fact that Barack Obama is the official licensed candidate from the
Oprah Book Club who conducts his campaign rallies like a evangelist leading
a revival in a rented tent, I fully expect him to adopt “Brother Love’s
Traveling Salvation Show“ as his theme song, provided that Neil Diamond will
grant him the musical rights. I have listened long and loud to “the Platitude
Dude” for months on end and I still cannot explain to you what his specific
policy proposals are. “Change that you can believe in” makes less sense to me
than Bud Abbott informing Lou Costello of the baseball line up in the immortal
“Who’s on first” comedy sketch.

Forgive me, but I ... Read More...

“Mom, Dad, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins sobbed in private, but made it through the Thanksgiving weekend without letting vivacious, popular, smart-as-a-whip, 6-year-old Zach know about the incurable, neurodegenerative disease he has, or the cruel expectation that it will cripple him before it kills him.”

So began a November 2001 article by Daily Herald columnist Burt Constable. The article went on to say:

“All Zach knows is that he isn’t as good at playing goalie as some kids on his soccer team, and that his shaky handwriting was the only blemish (C- in penmanship) on an otherwise perfect report card.

He suspects nothing.

His parents know far too much. They got the word on Nov. 15 that their only child has Friedreich’s ataxia, a very rare neurological disease known to weaken muscles, slur speech, bend spines, force kids into wheelchairs and deliver an early death, generally in the form of ... Read More...