Halloween 2019

Meet the New Boss...

Emanuel transition aide quits after ethics violation revealed

A veteran politician Rahm Emanuel named to his mayoral transition team resigned her high-level state job last summer and paid a fine for conducting political business on state time, according to a newly filed ethics report.

The full story

Wow, hasn't even been a WEEK and he's already popped his corruption cherry!

...same as the old Boss.

Pharaoh-Elect Rahmses

That's Pharaoh-Elect Rahmses, to you, clown.

As predicted months ago by yours truly - as soon as the Pharaoh-elect jumped the hurtle of breaking the law legally was jumped, Carol Mostly Wrong and Garry Chico and the Man had no chance in overcoming the carpet-bagger from becoming the new Boss to rule Chicago.

It seems Chicago has chosen to dismiss the democratic process that so many in the Middle East are dying for. As Lybians and Egyptians have chosen to get out from under the corrupt boot that stamps on their throats - Chicagoans lifted up their hands an placed a new corrupt boot heal on theirs.

Why? I'm not sure, but perhaps the Stockholm Syndrome should be renamed the Chicago Democrat Machine Syndrome?

I give you Pharaoh Mayor Rahmses!

Oh, look how surprised he's pretending to be!

The Illinois Supreme(ly Corrupted) Court ruled today that future Pharaoh Rahm Emanuel can stay on the ballot for mayor of Chicago. The decision comes without a moment to spare; early voting for the Feb. 22 city election begins Monday.Whew! That was a close one!

• Read the court's decision.pdf

Rahm's Back On!

The Illinois Supreme Court will consider Rahm Emanuel's appeal, and demanded that his name stay on the ballot.

There will be no oral arguments, only the same briefs as heard by the Illinois Appellate Court, sources say.

These two actions - the stay, and the announcement that they'll take the case pretty much show where they're going to rule on this. And for those of you in International Waters, such as myself, please note that the Illinois Supreme Corrupt is a political biased and influenced group. They're not immune to the political winds of Chicago. Also, one of the judges is friends or related to - maybe married? to one of the candidates. Don't assume that she'll recuse herself. That'd be silly.

But why is everyone so pissed about this story?

Rahm's breaking the law.

The rules are set up in Cook County to keep carpetbaggers from running for mayor. Not Senator or Rep or to vote. To run for mayor.

He defended himself based on the voting requirements, and the court saw right through it and denied him.

If he had not leased his house out - it probably wouldn't have been questioned. He claimed that because he left some boxes in the crawl space that it showed "intent."

Also, the City of Chicago has strict rules about city residency for people who are employed by the city. Police and teachers, for example. When they let Rahm scoot out, then all the Police and teachers could convert their homes to rentals, and live in the burbs - with the 'intent' to move back 'someday'.

But the future Pharaoh is above all that. Rules? Laws? These are not for important people such as the great Rahmses.

Besides, now that the people of Chicago have had 24 hours to digest the idea of 'mayor' Carol Mostly Wrong, they're sighing a collective sigh that Rahm's back in it.

Daley 'Outsider' Back In

Chicago Machine In Full Gear

William Daley Will Be President's Chief of Staff, Officials Say

William M. Daley will become the next White House chief of staff, bringing an outsider's voice and decades of experience with business to the West Wing, officials said Thursday.

Currently a senior executive of the investment bank JPMorgan Chase, Mr. Daley was commerce secretary in the Clinton administration, and is currently a senior executive at JPMorgan Chase. He's also someone's brother...

President Obama make it official later today. Pete Rouse, the interim chief of staff and a longtime friend of the president's, will become a counselor to Mr. Obama, officials said.

Read the official version

Well, Change? Yeah, that went out the window when Obama picked Biden. I guess Change really meant, "Not Hillary."

Even if you CAN look past this Bill Daley is Richie Daley's brother -- I can't -- Another big banker is needed for more influence in the Obama Administration? And they're trying to sell Bill Daley as an outsider? What?! Are you being serious right now? That's as absurd as when George W. Bush AND John McCain tried that line. Bill Daley is the face of the Machine outside Cook County. He's up with Clinton and also Al Gore. He's about as much an outsider as much as the Washington Monument isn't in the Mall.

“This was a real mistake by the White House,” said Adam Green with BoldProgressives.org. “Bill Daley consistently urges the Democratic Party to pursue a corporate agenda that alienates both Independent and Democratic voters.”

If I were one of the people donating to Mr. Obama's campaign, not only would I not donate for his re-election on JUST THIS -- but I'd ask for a refund for the previous contribution.

Yep, Rahmses is Running

Emanuel to Depart White House for Chicago Mayoral Bid
My burning question is - is he running to Chicago to run, or to run away from Obama?

Fellow Chicago Machine player, Mr. Obama will give his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, a send-off at the White House on Friday as Mr. Emanuel officially announces his departure from the West Wing to run for mayor of Chicago, officials familiar with the decision said.

The event will take place in the Rose Garden, weather permitting, and is tentatively scheduled for late morning, said the officials, who declined to be named in advance of an official announcement.

Mr. Obama plans to name Pete Rouse, a senior adviser, to replace Mr. Emanuel, two officials confirmed. Mr. Rouse has been at Mr. Obama's side since the moment he arrived in Washington nearly six years ago, serving as his chief of staff in his United States Senate office.

Folks who loved Mr. Obama note that the second he picked Pharaoh-to-be-elect Rahmses was the moment they knew that the man they thought they elected was in fact a sham.

As if they didn't know it when he picked Biden? Well, that's why I don't have many friends.

One last question... I wonder how Joey 'Democrat Machine Voter' Bagadonuts is going to react when he finds out which tribe the new Pharaoh is from? Race card to be played at a later date, perhaps?

Wrigley Bomber

A 22-year-old Chicago man was charged by federal prosecutors with plotting to detonate a bomb near Wrigley Field, home to the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team.

Sami Samir Hassoun, who is identified in a statement by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Lebanese-born Chicago resident, was arrested yesterday by members of the local Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Hassoun is charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and with trying to destroy real property using an explosive, according to court papers. He is due to make his initial court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox in Chicago today, according to Randall Samborn, a spokesman for Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

Hassoun early yesterday [Sunday?] morning planted an inert device given to him by an FBI informant, which he was told was a bomb, in a trashcan south of Wrigley Field, according to the government. Prosecutors alleged that he intended to injure people frequenting neighborhood bars and clubs, according to a complaint filed at the federal courthouse.

Wait, wasn't Dave Mathews playing Wrigley?

And isn't the FBI giving him a bomb to play with some kind of baiting?

Upon hearing the story, Hassoun wanted changes in City Hall. Hmmm... that's not how that works, Sir.

Pharaoh Rahmses

The NYTimes wrote an article on parchment - so therefore it's on the Official Agenda.

Pharaoh Rahmses shall be running to take the place of Pharaoh Daley, as it has been deemed by Rah. Daley's tomb is complete... mostly because of cost overruns and the Feds beating back his patronage hiring city wide. The failure to woo Greece and their traveling sporting contest, and privatizing the donkey and horse stalls hasn't exactly left good favor with the citizenry. And all the violence and rotting schools... but the plantings in the court yard sure are nice!

More importantly, since all the money in the Kingdom has been doled out to cousins, cronies and lawyers to pay for corruption defenses -- one wonders why Rahmses would even consider ascending to the thrown now? He's got a plush job whispering in the ear of the highest priest in the land... why settle for little old Chicagoland? One would expect that assignment to be beneath his highness?

Perhaps there are still a few hidden coins in the treasury, or perhaps it's just too good an offer to pass on? Maybe he just wants to have an airport in Peotone named for him?

Nomination scrolls must be filed by Nov. 22 for the Feb. 22 election.

Venezuela More Deadly Than Iraq

Big story in the New York Times, wondering why Hugo Chavez's Venezuela ha a higher death count than Iraq...

Off the bat, it's a socialist regime - law and order is the last order of business.

Hugo's answer to the photos of death and funerals? No more photos of death and funerals. Seems like an easy sweep under the rug, doesn't it?

I think US'Mericans take their liberties for granted. Most US'Mericans can't even grab the concept of an overly oppressive government on one hand -- controlling media and nationalizing industries whenever they see fit, and ignoring their other governmental duties - such as defense and general security...

Hold on, the more I read this article -- it sounds an awful lot like the City of Chicago, doesn't it?

You know who else is from Chicago? Discuss.

New Chicago Gun 'Restrictions'

Well that didn't last long. The Second Amendment was forced down upon Da Mayor Richie Daley and his handgun ban was ruled ridiculous. Sure, it took 30 years and thousands of lives to do it - but it finally happened. And of course, leading up to the decision, Da Mayor, like a toddler having to go to bed, was unwilling to concede. And he's still at it.

He immediately forced his aldermen to slap on new ordinances which pretends to respect the rights of gun owners, even as it tries to prevent anyone from figuring out how to get one. While some of these provisions are of good intention, they are still over reaching and will likely to be struck down by the courts. But, but they have good intentions!

Here are some of the provisions. Handgun owners have to get a city permit, costing $100 for three years, and register their weapons at $15 apiece. They would have to go through a training class. They could register no more than one new gun per month.

Guns would be allowed in homes, but not in garages, front porches or yards. Only one weapon at a time could be kept in ready-to-fire condition. Gun sales and firing ranges would be banned in the city.

The rational is that these requirements have some kind of merit without putting an 'undue burden' on gun owners. They claim that knowing there are guns at a residence would be helpful to police when they respond to a call. Gun owners will now be more likely to report to police when a weapon is lost or stolen, because they wouldn't have been violating the ridiculous law in the first place.

And yes, training is valuable to owners and everyone else by minimizing the chance of unintentional discharges — and makes owners respect their weapons.

However, let me put into context the ordinances in another way. Let's say the city required me or someone else a $100 fee to exercise my first amendment rights to criticize the government? How about if I or one of my fellow citizens were only allowed to exercise our 5th amendments right once a month? In this context, these city provisions would be laughed at and wouldn't even be considered because of their restrictions of an individual's rights - which were being taken away by the government. Isn't that one of the main rationals for the holiday we celebrated yesterday? Even the ACLU might step in and shake some lawsuits at city 'leaders.'

And to further examine these new restrictions, prohibiting a resident from confronting an armed intruder in his garage undermines his right to act in self-defense. The $100 fee is a shake-down as it is higher than needed to cover the costs of administering the regulations. The cost should be 50 cents, and with the 42 cent stamp should be less than a buck. The four-month wait allowed for the processing of application would stink to high hell, but we're talking about city workers hired by patronage, so we'll just kindly overlook that one.

Having learned nothing from his battle with SCOTUS, banning sales is unconstitutional. "Just as a city can't ban the commercial provision of abortions, so it can't ban the sale of guns," says UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh. And double stupid points, at least by selling guns in the city, you could mandate a database to monitor the gun dealers selling to its citizens. Banning this, you lose the other as well.

I'm not going to pretend that gun violence isn't a daily tragedy in Chicago. But we're not enforcing the good rules, and everyone knows that the bad guys are laughing at the idea of the man even being able to do anything - let alone make them follow the rules.

But we should look to the courts who allow ex-convicts who get caught with guns on the street plea down a gun crime into lesser offenses. What's the point of having these laws and regulations if you're not going to enforce them?

And then there's my idea, teach the bad guys to shoot straight so that they quit killing kids on playgrounds. And then, the survivors can go to the military and win medals for killing actual bad guys.

Or if you would like me to get super radical, let's have a discussion about our drug policy and useless Chicago Schools... oh, no, that's hard! Let's just ban the guns.

Chicago Gun Win

Supreme Court extends gun rights in Chicago case

The Supreme Court reversed a ruling upholding Chicago's ban today and extended the reach of the 2nd Amendment as a nationwide protection against laws that infringe the "right to keep and bear arms."

Justices Rule That 2nd Amendment Also Governs State and Local Gun Laws

The 5-4 decision appears to void the 1982 ordinance, one of the nation's strictest, which barred city residents from having handguns for their own use, even at home.

Gun-rights advocates have been closely following the Chicago case. They said a victory for the 2nd Amendment would clear the way for constitutional challenges to restrictions on firearms to be heard in federal courts nationwide.

The ruling against Chicago's ban had been widely anticipated.

The City Council could consider new gun-control measures as soon as Wednesday, Mayor Richard Daley said last week.

City Hall has been drawing up plans after the justices heard arguments in McDonald v. Chicago in early March and appeared to indicate they would rule against the city.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, the mayor said his primary goal would be to protect police officers, paramedics and emergency workers from being shot when responding to an incident at a home. He said he also wants to save taxpayers from the financial cost of lawsuits if police shoot someone in the house because the officer felt threatened.

"If the ban is overturned, we will see a lot of common-sense approaches in the city aimed at protecting first responders," Daley said. "We have to have some type of registry. If a first responder goes to an apartment, they need to know if that individual has a gun."

More details to come.

The Vatican Endorses Blues Brothers

When Jake and Elwood Blues, said they were on a mission from God, the Catholic Church apparently took them at their word.

On the 30th anniversary of the film's release, "L'Osservatore Romano," the Vatican's official newspaper, called the film a "Catholic classic" and said it should be recommended viewing for Catholics everywhere.

The film was based on a skit from "Saturday Night Live." In the story, Jake and Elwood -- played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, respectively -- embark on the John Landis cocaine-fueled comedy where blowing up lots of stuff is hilarious, concerts, car chases, clashes with the police and neo-Nazi groups, and attempts at revenge from a spurned lover, all, ostensibly, to raise money for the church-run orphanage where they grew up.

But aside from a brief appearance from Kathleen Freeman as a wrist-slapping nun referred to as "The Penguin" and the brothers' periodic claim that they were on a mission from God, spirituality does not play a significant role in the film. Those crazy priests must really believe Jake's word.

In addition to Belushi and Aykroyd, the film featured an all-star cast including musicians James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, and Chaka Khan, in addition to noted actors John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Charles Napier, and Henry Gibson, and cameo roles for Frank Oz, Steven Spielberg, Landis, Mr. T, and Paul Reubens.

With the recommendation, "The Blues Brothers" joins the list of dozens of films recommended by Catholic authorities that includes Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments," "Jesus of Nazareth" from Franco Zeffirelli," Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ," Victor Flemming's "Joan of Arc," and "It's a Wonderful Life" from Frank Capra.

I'm still holding out for them to endorse, "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie"

Gun Control Advocates to Daley: STFU

Of all places... out of San Francisco:

Chicago mayor’s comments wound gun-control advocacy
By: Gregory Kane June 8, 2010

America’s gun-control proponents might want to consider shooting (pun intended) this memo to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.

“Dear Mayor Daley: Please shut up. You ain’t helping us.”

Is there anyone doing more damage for advocates of gun control than Daley? The man is a walking billboard for right-to-carry laws. Anyone needing proof of that might want to read the statements he made in the wake of an 80-year-old Chicago man fatally shooting a career criminal who invaded his home.

The background story goes like this:

The elderly man is a Korean War veteran who bought a handgun after three thugs robbed him at gunpoint in his home in late 2009. Chicago police would not reveal this elderly hero’s name, but my late older sister had a nickname she would give any old-timer she ran across: Pop Bucket.

For the purposes of this story, we’ll simply call the Chicago man — who defended his life, family and home in defiance of Daley’s tyranny — Pistol Pop Bucket. In late May, Anthony Nelson broke into Pistol Pop’s home. According to news reports, Nelson had a criminal history that included prison stints for drug and weapon convictions.

Nelson and Daley, before the incident, probably had little in common other than protoplasm and the firm conviction that Pistol Pop wouldn’t have a handgun in his home, because the city of Chicago bans them. Nelson got his rude and final awakening after he fired at Pistol Pop and missed. Pistol Pop returned fire, fatally wounding Nelson.

Daley has yet to get his awakening. In fact, he’s as stubbornly anti-handgun as ever. Listen to his comments about the Pistol Pop-Nelson affair, taken from the Chicago Sun-Times:

“Daley said that he ‘understands the frustration’ that prompted an 80-year-old robbery victim to purchase a handgun that he used this week to kill a home intruder.

“He still believes that ... access to guns kills far more people than it saves.”

There are a couple of direct Daley quotes in the Sun-Times story, and believe me, they’re gems:

“Criminals have far more access to guns today than in the history of this country, and that is frightening to America. You cannot live in America as the Wild West.

“It’s an issue that most people are afraid to talk about. It’s an issue that, politically, is incorrect. You’ll defeat your career. But if you firmly believe that people should have access to guns at all times, then you have a totally different society.”

Oh, indeed we would, Mr. Mayor. And that society would simply be called “a safer one.” Notice that Daley failed to mention that if the state of Illinois had simply done its job and kept Nelson behind bars, Pistol Pop wouldn’t have had to shoot him. But which political party recently adopted the mantra that convicts are simply society’s latest victims?

That would be Daley’s party.

Here’s Daley’s final quote, and it’s another lulu:

“Access to guns will destroy America faster than any other war. Take Europe. Take Japan and other countries that don’t have the access to guns. They don’t have the amount of killings.”

For the sake of the Pistol Pop Buckets of their city, Chicagoans need to take this pathetic excuse for a mayor and retire him from office.

Examiner columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to Sudan.

Daley: Gun 'Up Your Butt' Would Prove Ban Works

His Honorable Pharaoh Daley II Offers to Prove Gun Ban Effective, by shooting reporter up his ass.

At a news conference to discuss Chicago's gun ban and the Supreme Court's pending ruling on the issue, a reporter from the Chicago Reader asked him if the ban was effective.

"Since guns are readily available in Chicago even with a ban in place, do you really think it’s been effective?" asked Mick Dumke.

“Oh!” Daley said. “It’s been very effective!”

He grabbed a rifle, held it up, and looked right at me. He was chuckling but there was no smile.

“If I put this up your—ha!—your butt—ha ha!—you’ll find out how effective this is!”

“If I put a round up your—ha ha!”

Dumke said the room became "very, very quiet" before reporters realized he was joking.

Daley's press flak said the mayor didn't regret the remarks but said by offering to place the gun in the reporter's rear end "could admittedly be considered a less-than-ideal example."

Unbalanced? Clouted his way through grade school? Shouldn't have risen past State Senator? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may have a mayor shoving a firearm up your ass and pulling the trigger until it goes click.

Call Out the Guard!

Well, it's come to this. They're calling in the guard.

Two state representatives called on Gov. Pat Quinn Sunday to deploy the Illinois National Guard to safeguard Chicago's streets.

113 people have been killed across Chicago so far this year, the same number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined in the same period. State reps want to fight violence with National Guard's help. I guess they'd rather have troops get killed closer to home?

In addition to what the implications are to having troops patrol the streets of Chicago, these two politicians have publicly displayed an amazing lack of confidence in the Chicago Police Department, Dah Mayor, and the ability to quell the violence in the streets.

Chicago Democrats John Fritchey and LaShawn Ford said they want Quinn, Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis to allow guardsmen to patrol streets and help quell violence. Weis said he did not support the idea because the military and police operate under different rules.

"Is this a drastic call to action? Of course it is," Fritchey said. "Is it warranted when we are losing residents to gun violence at such an alarming rate? Without question. We are not talking about rolling tanks down the street or having armed guards on each corner."

Maybe if they rolled back the 'corruption tax' and bothered to fund the schools in the neighborhoods with the highest homicide rates? Maybe if they attracted some jobs in those areas, rather than invite crippling welfare rolls, or by having the highest sales tax in the nation and telling businesses to take a hike - yeah, maybe you wouldn't have to consider bringing in troops to solve territory wars.

Or you could get really 'progressive' and legalize the drugs that the kids are slinging? Maybe or maybe you could tighten that handgun ban. Oh, you did? How's that working out? You're asking for troops to patrol the gun free zones?

Fritchey said he expects a, "heightened presence on the streets," particularly on the roughly 9 percent of city blocks where most of the city's violent crimes occur.

Weis previously identified those "hot spots" and said he plans to create a 100-person team made up of selected and volunteer police personnel to respond to crime there. If guardsmen were to assist police, they could comprise or contribute to that force, Fritchey said. And then what? Kill citizens? Would this be a police action or martial law? Would there be house to house searches without warrants - the same kind that Ross Perot championed in 1992? Well, that's the next step when the hotspot plan doesn't yield results.

Quick history lesson, in 1970 Kent State University incident where the National Guard was called in and protesters and students were shot, Weis said having guardsmen handle crime could be "disastrous." But he said if The Daley suggested it, he would consider the option. Funny how that works.

"I'm open to anything that reduces violence. But I have concerns when you mix law enforcement and the military," Weis said.

But Fritchey and Ford said prompt action is needed because summer is right around the corner and with the warm weather comes an increase in violence.

Fritchey and Ford serve two different constituencies, representing the North Side and the West Side respectively. "One half of this city views this as a part of daily life," Fritchey said. "Another part of the city doesn't care because it doesn't affect them." Yet the lawmakers said they are coming together because gun violence should be a priority to all Chicagoans.

"No help is too much help" Ford said. "This is not just about the murders. It's about the crime. It's about people being stabbed, robbed and in the hospital on life support."

Fritchey said he spoke to representatives from Quinn's office about deploying guardsmen and they "seemed open to the idea." The lawmakers had yet to speak to Weis or the mayor's office.

"I don't anticipate the governor implementing it over the objection of the mayor," Fritchey said.

"I hope this doesn't become a territorial issue. I hope this doesn't become an ego issue. This isn't about public relations or politics. This is about reclaiming our communities."

Funny part is, there's a governmental territory issue that will have to get worked out too. Since it's against the law for the troops to be engaged by an order of martial law is declared by the Governor. Even then, the Guard have no police authority to arrest, only maintain order.

And, the rules of engagement would make their presence useless anyway.

It's an election year. John Fritchey and LaShawn Ford are running for re-election.

-- Kristen Mack and Daarel Burnette II contributed to the cut'n'paste part of this article.

Gun Day

Just Where Does The Second Amendment Reach?

Just two years ago, the Supreme Court struck down parts of the District of Columbia’s gun-control law. That ruling took the steam out of many gun control activist's sails - and ended that discussion on the campaign trail. Only Richie Daley had the nerve to yell 'na-uh! Not in my town!' Even thought other municipalities around Chicagoland immediately dropped their rediculous handgun bans. So, today, the court will consider Daley's argument, and whether the Constitution should apply everywhere in the country, or just in the federal territory of the nation’s capital, which, it seems, there is some doubt. For some reason.

The 2008 decision, which took an expansive and aggressive view of the right to bear arms and all but destroyed the argument for commas and what a militia is, and why Americans should have guns - but it was only applied to DC. Now they have to go back and attack the loose ends. Now they have to apply the Constitution to states and cities. It should make clear whether all of the protections of the Bill of Rights apply everywhere - or just the District of Columbia.

McDonald v. Chicago challenges a law that makes it extremely difficult to own a handgun within Chicago’s city limits. I feel it is important to note that Mr. McDonald is an African American who is fighting to defend himself against the bangers who sit on his corner slinging crack to his neighborhood. He's defending himself with his legally obtained handgun. Mayor Daley doesn't think so. McDonald and the NRA are relying on the court’s 5-to-4 ruling in 2008, which recognized an individual right under the Second Amendment to carry guns for self-defense. But that decision left open an important question. The Bill of Rights once was largely thought to be a set of limitations on the federal government. Does the right to bear arms apply against city and state governments as well? I guess we're going to finally find out?

Since states and localities do far more gun regulation than the federal government, the court’s answer will have a powerful impact. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, relying on 19th-century precedents, ruled that the Second Amendment does not apply to states and cities. So, I wonder if cities and states can just legislate away the first amendment too?

Under the doctrine of “selective incorporation,” the Supreme Court has ruled on a case-by-case basis that most, but so far not quite all, of the Bill of Rights applies to states and cities. The court should dispense with the selectivity and make clear that states and cities must respect the Bill of Rights. If they don't, Miranda rights can be selectively taken away (except for terrorist suspects, I suppose?) and how about that free press we all seem to enjoy in the states and cities. Why would it be assumed that only in the case of handguns would any ruling against the 2nd Amendment not have the unintended consequence of a cascading destruction of the American Bill of Rights?

The court has relied on the 14th Amendment, which was enacted after the Civil War to ensure equality for newly freed slaves. The amendment has two relevant clauses: the due process clause that requires government to act with proper respect for the law, and the privileges or immunities clause, which is more focused on protecting substantive individual rights.

I doubt that the court will tackle the gun issue directly, however, if it decides to apply the Second Amendment to cities, it would probably send the case back to a lower court to evaluate the Chicago law. If that happens, the justices could make a bread trail to explain how to keep gun restrictions, in a semi-Constitutional manner.

Luckily, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has made clear that it is very concerned about the right to bear arms. So there's still Hope.

The Hooker and the Pawnbroker

Next Time on Illinios: Over By Dere, The New Hooker and the Pawnbroker Storyline Debuts!

The new Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor said he doesn’t think a 2005 domestic battery arrest where he held a knife to a prostitute should hurt him in the fall general election. Really?

Scott Lee Cohen, a pawnbroker who was the surprise winner in the little-publicized contest among half a dozen candidates, had previously disclosed the arrest. He described it Wednesday as an argument with his drunken girlfriend and said he didn’t lay a hand on her, though she called the police and had him taken into custody. Well, that's his side of the story.

The official police and court records show that the woman alleged Cohen put a knife to her throat and pushed her head against the wall.

Here's what went down. In 2005, the arrest report detailed the complaint from the 24-year-old woman, Chicago police noted they observed “mild abrasions from knife wound” on her neck. They also noted “minor scars on her hand from her trying to defend herself against the arrestee swinging the knife at her.” The report notes the woman was seen by ambulance personnel but not taken to a hospita. The case was [conveniently] dropped a month later when the woman did not show up for a court date.

Public records also reveal that the alleged victim, Scott’s 24-year-old girlfriend at the time, was a prostitute. Six months before the October 2005 incident, she had been arrested after a police investigation of a Glenview massage parlor. She later pleaded guilty to a charge of prostitution.

Through a spokesman Cohen said he did not know at the time that the woman was a prostitute and that she had told him she worked as a “massage therapist.” Oh. Okay, then you're off the hook then.

Cohen's spokesman said the woman’s accusations about the assault were false, and pointed to the fact that the case was dropped as evidence that complaint was baseless.

“These are accusations of what she says happened, but that is not what happened,” said campaign spokesman Phil Molfese. Of course. How silly. Because he's totally trustworthy.

Molfese said that he doubted that the marks on the woman’s neck that were noted by the arresting officers could have been made by a knife, and Cohen stands by his claim that he did not touch the woman.

“Those abrasions, we don’t know where they came from,” Molfese said.

“I think this is totally ridiculous,” he said. “They were living together. They had a fight.”

In the earlier interview with Cohen, he had characterized his relationship with the woman as “tumultuous,” and said that he was going through a difficult time as his marriage was breaking up and he “fell in with the wrong crowd.” See, they were separated, and he had a crazy 24 year old prostitute girlfriend.

“He admits he was not in an ideal place at that time,” Molfese said. “People sometimes get off track. He was going through a divorce.”

Every time we think we have found the bottom of the political pit in Illinois, we somehow find another sub-basement.

Why don't we just elect folks who are already in prison and save ourselves the time?

Recycling is dangerous business

I had accidentally collected a massive backup of recyclable material in the back porch.

I don't have a fancy truck that picks up my junk. I have papers and the plastic, tin and beer bottles - mostly brown, but an occasional green one breaks up the color scheme collecting in my porch. I had been taking the wagon full of weekly papers to the local school. I could do that on foot, with the before mentioned wagon, and they have a charity that somehow turns newspapers and magazines into cold hard cash. Not for me, for the school. I cannot, for the life of me, fathom how that works - but it was an easy place for me to unload those piles of paper that accumulates in the compound. They don't take cardboard, which kind of pisses me off. How can you take a glossy Ikea catalog and not corrugated cardboard?

Right now, we've got that crunchy sounding snow... and I really don't feel like walking outside in -2ºF, before the windchill factor, to dump some old newsprint.

The surrounding cities and neighborhoods all have superior recycling campaigns that accept plastic, glass, cardboard, newsprint and all the other things that I'd like to recycle. They probably pay more for the privilege to be a better citizen than I am. My city had implemented a 'Blue Bag' program which was - go to the store, buy some ridiculously overpriced flimsy plastic blue tinted bags, throw your recyclables away in them (although there was never a list, nor was what was considered recyclable ever made clear. It certainly wasn't on the bag or the box that had all the new bags in it...), then you tossed that full flimsy bag in with the normal trash. Somewhere in the process, the magic garbage fairy sorted my junk and turned it back into useful raw material that was shipped to China and then resold to me through Costco or Wal Mart. Now, I may have torn 50 of 100 bags I owned, simply by placing a can into the bag. Not a smashed can, mind you. Just a regular old can. Noting that the bag could get a paper cut, I was just a tad dubious of the success rate of the blue bag program. I was told, "don't think about it. Just imagine that it works, and that you're helping out. Thataboy." That never passed my sniff test.

Turns out, my suspicions were correct, and the blue bag program was nothing more than a cousins and cronies project. So it was finally dropped in favor of a blue bin city wide recycling project that required receptacles for individual houses. The idea was that every two weeks, three nice young men would take your beer cans away to take them back to the Old Style brewery to refill them - something like that. The city was painfully slow to roll out the program, and now with only 40% of the neighborhoods with their blue containers, the other 60% simply toss their empties in the regular trash.

The band-aid on the gangrene limb of the 'green city' are occasional drop off dumpsters in the parks. These dumpsters are for the enviorn-conscious people who don't have bins, but feel extremely bad about tossing pure aluminum into a landfill. This is what I have been doing. I fill up my car with all the packaging, wrapping paper, cardboard boxes they put my beer in, annoying little plastic tips they put on socks to keep them hanging nicely on the Target rack, and empty beer bottles. I take that to the local park, which isn't all that far away - globally, I guess. Then I park next to a blue dumpster that has about six openings on the top with flimsy plastic that can't stop a strong breeze, let alone the rain. I shovel pile after pile of mixed used and broken raw material into the already overflowing dumpster. It is always overflowing.

Although it was -2º F yesterday, I decided that getting all the papers and cans out of the back porch would be a good idea. I took load after load into the vehicle. And after 10 trips, finally exited the car port. Somehow I knew that there was no way that dumpster would even be accessible. I knew that all day. Since the minute I started this adventure. But I still trucked on.

Of course, it wasn't just over flowing - there were massive piles of garbage surrounding the dumpster like a 5 year old's couch fort.

Time to find another option. I wasn't about to take this crap out and back into my porch.

I drove around aimlessly. Slowly. Deeper and deeper into other neighborhoods. I was acting out some high school production of Joseph Conrad's Hearts of Darkness. There was a recycling area that I knew about, but if the hippie granola heads who live there saw me unloading without sorting my #1 plastic from my #4 plastic - well, I just didn't want to be hassled. Then I remembered another park nearby. Maybe, just maybe, they'd have another blue dumpster? Worth reconnoitering I reckoned. I pulled up. They had a couple of green bins near the swing sets. What the hell is a green bin? Is that for recycled goods? Or is it for something else? Damn it.

I drove on. Then I noticed that this neighborhood had blue bins. Glorious. I crept along, ready to make my move, and saw two next to each other in an alley not far from the park.

Now, in a reverse cat burglar maneuver I'd have to dump my goods and split. A dump and run, if you will. [Don't look that up.] My contraband was toxic waste that I was about to unload into the municipal water supply. My thoughts went to either the poor old woman who would be disappointed that her empty bin had been filled by some kind of reverse pirate - a rouge recycler! Or, worse, the Unemployed Union Pipe Fitter who sees me dumping my junk in his bin and is so confused by this, he decides he has to take a tire iron to my windshield.

I pulled up, checked bin one. Cardboard diaper box. 1/4 full. The other one completely empty. Maybe it had just emptied, or maybe it had never been used. I filled the empty one with my cargo. Had ample remainders, and filled the other one. Still had some left. Time to move on.

As I rolled out, I wondered what those people would be thinking when they discovered my deposit? Would they be so irritated that they'd dump the contents onto the ground, shake their fists and curse the sky? Would they notice at all? Yes, there's a violation of their space, but is it really? And it's not like I put a dead skunk in their bins, or a Christmas tree. I only put empty plastic packaging in there. Why would anyone give a rip after about half a minute?

I found one more blue bin before moving back to the homestead. It was empty too, at the end of a driveway. I wondered if that guy might wonder why the truck had left stuff in his bin. Maybe he'd think it was like the mail. Leave some cans, get a shoe box. Or some elaborate story where the truck was full, but if they pulled out this beer box with a shoe box wedged in it, they could take all his stuff. We'll come back for the rest in two weeks, pal. I don't know, but it was the story I was coming up with. Time to go home. I was obviously done with this journey up the river.

As I pulled into the garage, I found about two more containers of stuff that I should have taken with me. I hate that.

I asked for the Olympics, I got a prison. How's that for being born under a bad sign?

U.S. to Pick Illinois Prison to House Some Guantánamo Detainees

The Obama administration about to announce that it has selected a prison in northwestern Illinois to house terrorism suspects now being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It's a big step toward shutting down the military detention facility in Cuba.

Now when we say 'selected' does that mean there really were other bids, or did they just collect the papers and give it to Illinois anyway? How hard was the bidding process there?

An administration official said President Obama had directed the federal government to proceed with acquiring the Thomson Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison in a rural village about 150 miles west of Chicago. Much to the delight of the impoverished state that Mr. Obama left behind.

My guess, on the stage that conducts Illinois political theater, this is a breadcrumb thrown to the cronies in Springfield that hadn't gotten any love from Mr. Obama.

I'd really support this plan if former Governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich (when they convict him) get to stay there too.