Chicago Daily Observer

Unable to find a McCain campaign office in Illinois, about 100 who want America to wait for Iran to detonate nuclear bombs in America, protested in front of the “Cook County Republican Headquarters”

The number of homeless in the United States decreased about 12 percent between 2005 and 2007, with an even larger decline in the number of people who are chronically homeless, the government reported Tuesday.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development credited the decline to programs that offer permanent housing and support services for the disabled homeless.

The Facebook navigation tool, Barackbook, has been updated, to include some old favorites like Emil Jones and Rashid Khalidi.

This is evolving from an satire into a useful tool in tracking Cook County politicians and their relationships to Sen. Obama.

For Facebook users, this is the link.

For those who do not use Facebook, this is the link

I attended an interesting presentation earlier this summer by a group of local Doctors interested in starting a Proton Therapy Center for cancer treatment. The logic proceeded that Protons used for radiation treatment can be more concentrated and stable than the current common treatment of X-Ray Radiation. The precise targeting of the dosage is more directed at the cancerous cells has less side effects on healthy cells, and can be given in higher volumes without additional harm to the patient.

Sounds plausible enough to me, but the treatment centers have been quite expensive, $100 Million in some cases, and require a very long term outlook to achieve profitability. So it is really good news from Madsion that researchers at the University of Wisconsin have made some developments getting the price down to $20 Million. Lower delivery costs, more effective treatment, healthier patients, less pain and suffering…who could argue with that?

In the 1960s many Americans, me included, were powerfully influenced by a book, “Crisis in Black and White” by Lawrence Silberman. With the nation in ferment over civil rights, Silberman happened to hit the jackpot with a book that stirred liberal impulses, including mine. By 1966, 42 years ago, I was the officer at The Quaker Oats Company charged with rectifying imbalance in minority hiring and opportunities. The original view was that if equal opportunity legislation were to be passed, blacks and other minorities would swiftly take advantage of their new freedom and rise to the top.

That was the reigning liberal consensus until Silberman’s book came out. Silberman laid out a radical thesis. He said that even if all the shackles of discrimination that held minorities back for decades were to be removed, the result would be rather like a runner freed from manacles on his feet: he couldn’t ... Read More...

14th congressional district Republican candidate Jim Oberweis delivered a blow to the intolerance of academia Tuesday night. It was on the Family PAC cruise when he handed DePaul University Conservative Coalition Vice President Nick Hahn a check for $1,000 to help defray the $2,500 cost of security required by university officials before co-founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps Chris Simcox was allowed to talk, according to Justine Perry.

Hahn’s group suffered what Peter Labarbera calls “the hecklers’ veto.”

Barack Obama is one crafty fellow, reaping political success out of career that got precious little done. He has accomplished very little legislatively in his entire career; his vaunted accomplishments in the Illinois Senate were more the result of the handicraft of his political ally and mentor State Democratic head Emil Jones (who tacked Obama’s name on legislation to bolster his career) than his own work on the issues .

Obama has done virtually nothing at the Senate level—he has not even seen fit to call a meeting of the Committee he heads, the Senate Subcommittee on European Affairs. Despite its name, Obama’s subcommittee has some oversight over Afghanistan. While he now says on the campaign trail that Afghanistan requires more focus and attention , he overlooked his own jurisdictional responsibilities in that theatre for the entire time he has served in the US Senate. He refuses to take time ... Read More...

Mitch McConnel (R-KY) proposes offshore drilling and Ken Salazar (D-CO) objects to offshore drilling over a series of increasing prices.

The trial of Chris Kelly, another ex-aide and ex-fund-raiser to Gov. Blagojevich, has been postponed from November to Jan. 20. Kelly faces charges he cheated on his taxes by allegedly lying about gambling proceeds. U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo moved the trial at the request of Kelly’s lawyer, Michael Monico. Monico cited a timing conflict as he also is representing former Ald. Edward R. Vrdolyak this September.