Simple often works best

Have a great weekend.

"Dead" Voters: IL legislators

If this doesn't take the cake. Gee, demagogue Dem Governor Quinn, how come you've never complained before. This is the first time I've heard of it but clearly this has been going on for some time:

“On a bill involving such high stakes and so much money, to have anyone other than the member casting a vote is a very serious matter that should be investigated immediately by the House,” said Quinn, who said such absentee voting “doesn’t work in the federal Congress” and is “breaking the law.”

“It’s a serious violation of ethical conduct,” he said.

The governor’s angry statements, about what one top House Republican characterized derisively as “Buttongate,” came after Quinn suffered a major political defeat when the House and Senate Wednesday overrode his veto of rate-hike legislation sought by Commonwealth Edison and Ameren. Quinn’s administration had made the defeat of the rate-hike package its No. 1 priority during the fall veto session, which began this week.

Shortly before the first part of the rate-hike package surfaced in the House, as many as 18 Democrats were called off the floor to attend a budget briefing. Some of those lawmakers told the Sun-Times they returned from the briefing to see their votes had been recorded, even though they personally hadn’t cast them and, in some cases, opposite of the way they wanted.

Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago), a rate-hike opponent who wound up having his vote cast mistakenly in favor of ComEd by a seatmate on the first of two measures, expressed frustration that the important vote was allowed to proceed when Democratic leadership knew members were off the floor.

Situational ethics from the Dem "leadership" all around. Wonder how many of Barack's votes were cast that way.

We know he hid in the bathroom a lot. And still is apparently.

More. Trib story:

The issue arose over how many lawmakers were on the House floor during a vote on legislation designed to scale back ComEd’s profit margin and hold them more accountable for better service. Smart grid is an attempt by ComEd to modernize its grid with digital technology.

The rate increase was needed, but:

In the 1980s,  the controversy even surrounded paperclips.

The Senate used to have voting buttons that had a little wiggle room around them, enough so that a paper clip could be used to keep a button locked down on green or red while a lawmaker was away.

When some visitors from a Soviet bloc country showed up, they began to wonder about the marvels of democracy — particularly when a handful of lawmakers were in the Senate chamber but roll calls repeatedly registered nearly all 59 senators as “yes” votes.

Turned out many of the lawmakers had jammed paperclips into the voting switches next to their buttons and locked in “yes” votes for a series of non-controversial procedural motions.

Soviet indeed. Illinois the model for the Obama administration, which doesn't even bother with a legislature these days.

Related post: Earth to Gov. Quinn from Gov. Moonbeam

the distinct and practical possibility

From a NYT guy who actually knows numbers and is honest about their limitations: Herman Cain and the Hubris of Experts

I'll put in my punditry. I have been to a few anti-war demonstrations in my time. I have NEVER seen such a huge grassroots movement from the center-right in my life.  We are in unknown territory as a country, driven there by the overwhelming spending, debt and massive hubris of the establishment know-it-alls.

This is the taproot that has fostered the rise of Herman Cain. This is why the country hungers for the clear-cut tax on a postcard Gov. Perry defines, to get the government off our backs and out of our lives.

Yes, this is the real issue. We see it as a case in point in Chicago, Illinois.

The country is occupied. Stupid or evil.

We.Want.Out.

P.S. Private-sector job-creator, libertarian and 1%-er Peter Schiff the other day at OWS. And he went back:)

Brutal Beating & Torture of Blind Legal Activist

In China. Talking about the one-child policy is taboo--and they beat him and his wife in front of their only child.

More here.

And this--Father Robert Sirico in the WSJ:

On Monday, the Vatican released an 18-page document titled "Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority." Since then, it has been celebrated by advocates of bigger government the world over.

Is big government inherently corrupt, turning a blind eye to evil consequences? I'd say yes. In this country we don't beat people for protecting innocent life--yet. We just kill innocent life. And sometimes the mother dies too.

More. “Triplets are dangerous. And you know, if they all survive to term, it takes parents more than 24 hours a day to care properly for three infants.”

On the Road to Serfdom: CNN Suggests Obama Should Bypass Congress on Economy, Rule by Executive Fiat
 
Human-rights complaint seeks secular praying room for Muslims at … Catholic University

Earth to Gov. Quinn from Gov. Moonbeam

Next governor to challenge PEU establishment: Jerry Brown? Meanwhile, next door:
P.S. How to stop pushing jobs out of Illinois
Things you think are treats but really are tricks
Why "Amazon Tax" should be repealed: Kristina Rasmussen on WTAX

Occupy Chicago wants a "permanent" home

Really? Do they want an office at City Hall? (They want a bailout too, a deal, don't they? Chumps)

Why not just hang out at Obama HQ overlooking Millennial Park. So convenient and all. So diverse.

Or maybe the aldermen's offices.

O's War on Doctors, Sop to Students

What has The One wrought? By executive order--he thinks he can buy student votes for a measly $10 bucks a month. And he may be right. 

What havoc will he wreak on our doctors, our health care?

Shucks, what about doctors who need to pay off student loan debt.

Chicago Aldermen on Rampage with Blackberries

George Soros is funding wireless around town, there're going to be speed cameras everywhere and the 50 porkers on the public payroll have now armed their ward supers with blackberries to raise nanny state tyranny to a fine art. Rahm's upped the dollars to their slush fund and now they are fired with typically selective zeal to squeeze fees out of anything that moves and everyone they can:

After watching the Department of Streets and Sanitation showcase its “mobile electronic ticketing,” Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development, suggested Wednesday that the Blackberry technology be used to crack down on a chronic winter violation that endangers and infuriates pedestrians.

“One thing I know is not being written is people who don’t shovel their snow. I’m assuming that this technology is there to take a picture of the snow not being shoveled [and say], ‘Property owner, here’s your $100 ticket.’ Is that correct?” Tunney asked a Streets and San employee doing the demonstration.

“That’s correct,” the employee said.

Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne added, “You can go that way. We haven’t gotten there yet. The sky’s the limit on it. We can do almost anything with it.”

I have a suggestion. With all this emphasis on efficiency how about cut the number of aldermen? And fully privatize Streets & San.

Perry on the Air in Iowa

And what's not to like about a flat tax on a postcard Details here. Iowa here:)

Ryan Devastating on O's Failures

The contrast to The One's inaugural campaign speech in Springfield is stunning.

And Paul Ryan points it out.

"The actual math is apolitical"

Watch it all if only for Ryan's Reagan riff:)

Watch it to find America again.

---photo of unusual aurora borealis, because I love that too.

Cook like a dead celebrity. AttaaackWatch

Some more competition for Michelle O's cookbook.

iowahawkblog David Burge

Idea for White House twitter wizards: combine #wecantwait and #AttackWatch into the ultimate Obama hashtag #WeCantWatch

25 Oct

Maybe a little je ne sais quoi appetizer with worms...

---thanks for the recommended read, Pundit & Pundette

Breaking. Michelle O Picks up Worm

Too bad former Cook County Board President the Toddler Stroger wasn't down at the faux farm, he might have thought it was the food dessert. Chicago Mag and Puffpo contributor Carol Felsenthal:

So I applaud these issues, but they seem small-bore. Yes, she is being true to herself; she’s just not, in my opinion, pushing herself beyond her comfort zone.

But Ms. Felsenthal lives in hope for a second term, describing the FLOTUS not as the "enormous asset" preferred by the campaign, but as a priceless asset.

We've already seen her being true to herself, Carol.

P.S. JWF has another interpretation--and invitation...hmm, what's Rahm up to.

P.P.S. Some drop off in enthusiasm:

Obama’s visit coincided with the recent release of fundraising by the president’s campaign showing 11 new Illinois bundlers had been recruited since July, bringing to 28 the number of big-dollar fundraisers from the president’s home state for the re-election effort.

For the 2008 campaign, Obama benefitted from at least 84 Chicago area residents, business partners and couples who served as bundlers, raising $9.65 million for his first election. So far, this election the Chicago bundlers have pledged to raise at least $2.75 million for Obama.

Fourteen of this election cycle’s regional bundlers also played a similar role in 2008.

And while three Chicago area bundlers raised at least $500,000 for Obama in his initial run for the White House, none are listed on the campaign’s latest report.

Gee, I wonder why. Look at the worm!

Meet Radical O Buddy Crony Capitalist Marilyn Katz

Here in the Trib romanticizing her sordid leftist story while fleecing millions from the citizens of Chicago. This was 2008, the damage, both dollar and otherwise, is greater now:

What that story and many other pro-Obama articles gloss over is that during the violent protests of the 1968 Democratic National Convention here, Katz was the security chief for the radical Students for a Democratic Society. She once advocated throwing studded nails in front of police cars, back in the SDS days when the group was alleged to have thrown cellophane bags full of human excrement at cops and cans of urine and golf balls impaled with nails.

How things change.

Under this Daley, her firm, MK Communications, has many city deals, and one involves public relations for the Chicago Police Department's community policing program. From nails to contracts, the Chicago Way. Apparently, irony was not a '60s thing.

Now, as Daley prepares to lay off more than 1,000 city workers, he's given Katz and other public relations firms five-year contracts that could pay them as much as $5 million each for consulting, advertising and promotion.

I suggest #occupyMarilynKatz, camp out in front of her luxe condo or whatever. (Go ahead, lie some more, you're in rotten company.) Come on Bill Ayers, go for it. She got more filthy lucre than you. Channel your leftie envy meets greed there.

...Speaking of greed. Dead weights on taxpayers and children trying to learn. Not to mention PR people.

P.S.  Interestingly, the decline in earnings by the rich has corresponded with higher unemployment and rising poverty overall. We are all poorer, but at least we are more equally poor. Hooray. Could it be that the rich might actually perform a valuable service in our economy by, say, creating jobs? After all, what does the president think that the rich do with their money: Bury it in their back yard?
Paul Ryan: Rejecting Fear, Envy And Politics Of Division

Chicago's really cracking down. Ayers holds forth

Oh yeah, we're going to have dog license scofflaws get their leash pulled, speed cameras flashing for fines around educational institutions, "lawmakers" even want to take away felonious former Dem Gov Blago's pension (cuz remember he tried to sell Barack's Senate seat to the pure as the driven snow Rahmbo)

But unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers--the nail bomber extraordinaire, the guy who on 9/11 was in the NY Times bragging about his leftist street cred chic and sneering that he didn't think they bombed enough; Bill Ayers, the guy who has lived for years on the taxpayers' dime as a U of I Education prof, now retired on a fat public pension; Bill Ayers, Barack Obama's political godfather--is doing a sweet little Days of Rage nostalgic teach-in at Occupy Chicago, and the CBOT sends 'em pizza. Roll tape: Yes, even Barack might could use a refresher on tactics,[flashback:Joel B. Pollak: Barack Obama Led #OccupyChicago – Circa 1988] since this is his reelection game plan--and Ayers is turning on him.

But Barack still thinks he can pull off the phony front. And Chicago still ticks along, tightening the screws on those in the city that work, turning a blind eye to the rot within.

Related post: Mob rule in Peoria again. O's Reign

Mob rule in Peoria again. O's Reign

Of terror, you might say.[flashback:Joel B. Pollak: Barack Obama Led #OccupyChicago – Circa 1988] Remember this over the summer? It's not going away. Is it. Teen mobs harass motorists In one case, a Meals on Wheels delivery driver threatened; in another, gun brandished and woman's car window smashed 

Wait til the OWS/union thugs fan out into the neighborhoods

P.S. Former O supporter Steve Wynn won't shut up: 

Previous posts: Cain outcools O, on fire:), Michelle in Chicago, O on Leno

Cain outcools O, on fire:)

I saw the ad last night while watching the World Serious. An aging everyman. In your face to the PC crowd. Then I saw this:

pinkelephantpun Tabitha Hale

I died. RT @LDoren: Did this man inspire the new Herman Cain Ad? youtu.be/bhuYIr1J1zc // y/n?

14 hours ago
I laughed a lot and asked one of my millennials about it. This morning, hallelujah. Sisu and Steyn.

Doing something right. For a real change. For the freedom to do what's right.

And Perry's unveiled his flat tax, good deal.

We are coming after you Barack, even your so cool fans have cooled on you, your transparent, pathetic PR notwithstanding.

The new counterculture majority. It's called we the people.

...even Slate gets it....Memeorandum thread here:)

That TEA Party Thing in Daley Plaza, Chicago, IL. And Two Stickers on a Pickup 

Michelle in Chicago, O on Leno

backyardconservAnne Leary 
Hot wings RT @JackieSeal: Get over it. RT @Drudge_Report: REPORT: Michelle furious with cooking queen Paula Dean... drudge.tw/ueIFE9 1 hour ago
 
Is it nutrition? Books! Votes! A few pointed remarks from the people who read the Trib:

debbie601 at 7:44 AM October 25, 2011 Too much theft to keep businesses like grocery stores in the city.   No major grocery store in University Park due to this problem.  Workers five finger discounts to friends and families.   No Arbys beef in the  south suburbs because all the beef goes out the back door.  I'm sure Michelle Obama knows what the problem really is.  Until they can run these stores honestly in the cook county area there will be no grocery stores.  The locals will have to continue eating unhealthy McDonalds, Pop and potatoe chips and candy bars from those expensive little gas stations and corner stores. 

George808909 at 8:05 AM October 25, 2011 McDoanlds has salads and fruit slices and the water is free. If I'm somewhere that only has a McDonalds my rule is to not eat anything that is cooked. Therefore, if you eat the garden salad and water you can stay slim and healthier.

Many of the gas stations sell a few bananas, too. Only eat the bananas.

ToplessBartender at 8:06 AM October 25, 2011 Michelle Obama needs to find something else to worry about. She wants to control what other peoples kids eat. She thinks that taking toys or prizes out of cereal boxes value meals is going to help and it won't. She thinks the government should control how much food goes into each value meal. With so many people out of work right now, some families may try to get two meals out of the one meal. Just because they give you some extra food don't mean it has to be eaten all at once.

There is lot more important thing to worry about like the gang problems, drug problems, underage drinking, or the dropout rates. We don't care what you think Michelle. Go back to Washington and raise your own kids. Leave ours alone!

Never thought I'd agree with a topless bartender but there ya go.

Barack's going to be a no-show at the Buffett eat the rich gala--Penny Pritzker may send her regrets anyway. A few more cracks in the support on the home front.

Out in LaLaLand our president Barack Obama stops traffic to appear on Leno once again, since he's such a funny guy. Yeah. Maybe the stuff of sitcoms. Stay tuned.

P.S. Barack on the loose:

President Obama met with celebrities in Hancock Park on Monday night after arriving at LAX from Las Vegas in the afternoon. He went to Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles in Hollywood (see photos).  He was joined at the counter

by Rep. Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, where he ordered for himself and several

aides. Obama's order included the No. 9 -- the ``Country Boy'' -- which

consists of three wings, with the choice of waffle, potato salad and French

fries.

Hot wings

P.P.S. More:

Obama Monday night told supporters who paid $35,800 each to attend a fundraiser at the Hancock Park home of movie producer James Lassiter that "this election will not be as sexy as the first one.''

"Back then, it was still fresh and new,'' Obama said. "I didn't have any gray hair. Everybody loved the "Hope' posters and all that.

"This time, we've got to grind it out a little bit. We've got to grind it out. But the cause is the same. And my passion is the same. And my commitment is the same.''

Ick

The great state of Louisiana--the model

It used to be the home of Cajun potentates, almost another country with its French laws and those rascally lawyers. You wouldn't wish such a devastating hurricane on anyone but the state has come clean.

It does warm my heart. Gov. Bobby Jindal wins reelection. I first heard him talking earnestly on the radio when I was on the road down that way--he was running for office, eventually prevailing.

And they've got a good neighbor in Texas. Read this all: The Storm-Calmer.

American grOwn. FLOTUS' book

Wow, #WeCantWait

It'll be out right before tax day.

Does she look proud, or what:

Mrs. Obama is bringing top Obama administration food, health and community development financing officials and Chicago native Sam Kass, the White House Senior Policy Adviser for Healthy Food Initiatives. Kass is also a White House chef who helps oversee Mrs. Obama's White House kitchen garden.

At a cost for Kass in the six figures. The book "more than likely to be a best-seller" will go for $30.

No word on whether she'll be visiting a precious Potemkin farm to promote the book, and will there be pickled okra recipes?

More. Looks pretty Potemkin to me:

Erika Allen runs Iron Street Farm, which, according to her, cultivates much more than produce. “We are growing people here too! Folks from all walks of life become active agents in creating a locally operated food system.” Allen has also set up a for-profit entity—GreenERA—that will expand the farm’s ability to invest in renewable energy initiatives and in turn enable Allen to offer permanent full-time jobs at living wages to some of her farm workers.

To a new counterculture majority:) Bust Barack

The impetus for this PJM piece is the O administration's war on medical marijuana, but ranges quite a bit further. I have to say this makes me even more angry, given the apparently deliberate administration policy of running guns across the border to Mexico to undermine gun rights at home. Obama and his minions treat most Americans as the enemy, and the numbers are getting larger every day--more inclusive and diverse you might say.

The OWS crowd, most of whom are employed, according to Dem Doug's Schoen's poll the other day, are a motley crew but one thing we know--they feel entitled. And why wouldn't they? They've been raised in a permissive cultural soup that promised them something for nothing (a useless college degree)--but they're inheriting a system that's gone bust and the buck stops with them (they or their parents have paid through the nose for the useless college degree). Well, some of them--some will never get it, they'll be takers:

I lived and worked with the “working poor” for three years after I graduated from college. They had cell phones, Xboxes, and Facebook accounts. “The Poor” do not resemble characters from a cartoon version of A Christmas Carol. They weren’t starving; they were usually struggling with obesity. America’s poor live better than the well-off of a few generations ago. The wealthiest family in America became rich by providing inexpensive products to poor people — and for that sin Wal-Mart became the newest Bourgeoisie. Most of the richest people throughout history made their millions by figuring out how to create a product cheap enough so that “poor” people could afford it.

Social mobility is a fact. Most people who were living in this country in poverty 20 years ago are not still at the same level today. People are usually poor because they do not have any skills that they can effectively translate into value. Most people develop greater skills as they get older and have more life experience.Similarly, “rich people” make bad decisions, self-destruct, do not continue to update their skills to remain competitive, and can thus end up poor. But Marxists do not understand that wealth is created — and as more is created the quality of life of everyone rises naturally. To even acknowledge that is to cause the whole house of cards to collapse. And then it’s even more apparent: it’s all made up of individual cards. There is no conspiracy of “the rich” to “exploit” “the poor.” In a free market economy the destinies of all are interlinked and in perpetual flux.

Counterculture is conservative:) --a considered, treasured freedom through the ages. America is the freedom frontier, go for the best--that's why we came here:) Let's roll. Bust Barack.

P.S. Fed up at Occu-pie:) 
....Photo essay, Occupy Chicago.
...In wake of the breaking Fast and Furious O admin scandal, Pima County, AZ sheriff considering run for new open congressional seat. Former private school headmaster in MA, Army National Guard, tour of Iraq, first R elected sheriff. 

Related oldies: He won't back down, War on Drugs is a Failure

Holder's Sharia Mon Amour

In the end it couldn't have come as any great shock when the Department of Justice intervened on behalf of a Muslim school teacher who claimed that the board of her Illinois school district was guilty of religious bias. Nor could it have come as any surprise that the Board of Education, Berkeley School District 87 Cook Country Illinois, was finally forced to settle the case brought against it by the DOJ. Still, even Americans accustomed to the relentless -- more precisely the relentlessly selective -- political correctness of the Obama Justice Department had to have been startled at the facts of this case and the deranged notions of equity that had impelled Eric Holder's DOJ to go rushing into battle against the school district.

The multiculti trap is sprung. Another reason for school choice. It's time, for a myriad of reasons.

Related: Hertz Fires 26 Muslim Drivers For Too Many Prayers At Work

And let's recall this uncalled for scene: Dispute Over Muslim Headgear at Amusement Park Breaks Out Into Large-Scale Altercation 

Canada: Islamic group that advocated wife-beating claims that it was misunderstood

More. Oh, yeah, the teacher is from Wilmette, complete with sickening PC from Trib religion columnist "reporter":

Safoorah Khan hoped 2008 would be a turning point in her spiritual life.
Khan, a teacher who had recently married and was about to start a family, wanted to fulfill one of the most important requirements of her Muslim faith by making the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Only one thing stood in her way: her employers at the Berkeley school district.
Denied an unpaid three-week leave of absence so she could make the pilgrimage, known as the hajj, Khan submitted a letter of resignation, taught students until her scheduled departure and sued the school district for religious discrimination. Postponing the journey of a lifetime was simply not an option, and she made the trip to Mecca after she left her job, she said.
"I couldn't justify to God (by saying): 'OK, I'm giving up this opportunity and not go because Berkeley has told me I can't,'" she said. "I felt it was my right to go. I wasn't going to let them decide when I was going to hajj."

That's your choice but why should the kids suffer? (Oh yeah, they could have gotten a sub--a really good bet through the teachers union--how about union goon for a day) A suffocating sense of entitlement. Let's note this from the WSJ piece:

The school teacher in question, Safoorah Khan, a middle school math lab instructor, had worked at the school for barely a year when she applied for some 19 days unpaid leave so that she could make a pilgrimage to Mecca. The school district denied the request: She was the only math lab instructor the school had, her absence would come just at the period before exams, and furthermore, the leave she wanted was outside the bounds set for all teachers under their union contract.

Oh and the former chaplain Sheikh Kifah Mustapha makes an appearance in the Trib column as well. Gee, who is this guy.FBI Escorts Known Hamas Operative Through Top-Secret National ...

Original Trib story on Khan here. 

Related post: Mild-mannered accountant who cuts wife's head off convicted

Can we STOP this stuff!!! Field of Dust & Bust

Zion “came up with a very creative plan that would be funded by the state of Illinois,” Delisle said. “This was when stimulus money was being doled out like crazy and our site pad was ready.”

***

backyardconserv Anne Leary
Fed up with Blue fiscal fools: The Red State in Your Future - Forbes onforb.es/qvelip

21 hours ago
***
Trib editorial: 
No. Because you're broke.Legislators will look foolish if their veto session toys with still more spending and borrowing
***

backyardconserv Anne Leary
The public union BOSS HOG bankruptcy future here:Rhode Island –A public sector pension plan which doesn’t make anything shar.es/bhd3m

1 hour ago
*** 
OccupyChicago pics from 10/22 march: Dear rich straight white dudes, f*ck off

Dust and bust y'all Dems knew they would lose on the merits. What have they reaped? Dust and bust.

We the people: Principled and right: 9-9-9, Flat Tax Would Unleash Wave of Prosperity - Steve Forbes, NY Post

We will fight for the real American Dream. And save you foul-mouthed bratty Dem demagogue tool losers too.

Not intransigent, NYT--principled

But liberals couldn’t just come out and say that. “If this were carried out as an internal Senate debate,” Ann Lewis, the Democratic activist, would later acknowledge, “we would have deep and thoughtful discussions about the Constitution, and then we would lose.” So, instead, the Democrats sought to portray Bork as “a right-wing loony,” to use a phrase in a memo written by the Advocacy Institute, a liberal lobby group.

The character assassination began the day Bork was nominated

...Principled and right.

Lookin' Up

Looking down

Stark despair. Some hope

i don't want food stamps or section 8 housing preserved for my children, I want a free country preserved for them.

A chronicle of decline. And a choice.

The president barely hangs on in his home state of Illinois--another blue state but with a dimmer governor. The unemployment rate just hit 10% here, the decline continues, the burden grows:

  In just ten years, the Illinois General Assembly pushed the burden of billions in government spending onto Illinois’ future generations. Official estimates put Illinois’ unfunded pension liability at $85.6 billion. But that amount does not take into account the $25.8 billion in pension obligation bond (POB) payments still outstanding, which have a net present value of approximately $17.2 billion1 (see Graphic 1). Adding the present value of the POB debt to the unfunded pension liability puts the total pension burden at $102.8 billion.

Insert primal scream here again.

Chicago startups see drop in VC dollars for third quarter

Let's see, what's Occupy Chicago doing again.

The One's reelection strategy. Hope after all.

P.S.

Much of the state lending went to local governments eager to pursue grand dreams. Unfortunately, a great deal of what they built already appears downright useless. As the Washington Post reported, China’s stimulus spending produced “an astonishing frenzy of building—highways, subways, airports, bridges, high-speed rail lines, and even new cities constructed, literally, in the middle of nowhere.” Chinese citizens are staring at new airports in small counties to which few passengers will fly, new subway lines in small cities that may not have needed them, and high-speed trains with ticket prices many cannot afford.
The local governments, meanwhile, are sitting on large piles of debt they cannot afford.

nOpe. I want a free country. More:

On July 23, a high-speed rail accident in southeast China killed 40 and injured about 190 passengers. Officials blamed signal failure, but outraged citizens and journalists (including many from the state media) have demanded investigations. While China has built the world’s largest network of high-speed railway in under seven years, this undertaking has been plagued by corruption and shoddy construction. In February, Liu Zhijun, China’s minister of railways and architect of the country’s $300 billion high-speed rail network, was fired and arrested, accused of taking $152 million in bribes—not to mention keeping 18 mistresses.

In this, fortunately, we probably can't quite compete. I mean...

P.P.S. A percussion tax at OWS. Mugged by the dictatorship of the proletariat. A drumbeat of life lessons:) You tax something, you get less of it.

Compete with China, Build Cars in Finland. Get Raped

We know Fiskar for their scissors, now it's Fisker for their cars, that's change under the enlightened O administration--it's Karma.

Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars In Finland

And karma!  that Obama bundlers benefit.

In other news, O's OWS darlings are defecating on doorsteps--making the moms mad, and shouting down the elderly.

It's an Obama World--and we get to pay for it all one way or another.

...we may applaud now.

P.S. "here’s what to do if you’re raped today” One way or another.

Just lie back and think of The One. It's karma.

Free Annabel Melongo

Annabel Melongo, the Chicago Machine’s Political Prisoner For Over 18 Months

Do you care, Jan Schakowsky?

A young, single woman, a legal immigrant victimized by the powers that be. That would be you.

Trebuchet Attack! :)

This will brighten your day. Boing Boing: Simple machines, simple pleasure in a job well done.

P.S. David vs. the DC Goliath? NRO on Cain. Latest Rasmussen Iowa poll. And Perry's going for a flat tax--great idea. Romney bombing, Perry makes daylight. Latest ad challenges Romney here.

Lesbian couple give son hormone treatments

To delay puberty so he can explore his female identity.

Who asks a child at 3 whether he wants to be a boy or a girl?

Now, when he's still a minor at 11 they're sanctioning this.

It's abusive, it's wrong--and it justifies the fears many of us had about society smiling on same-sex adoptions/parents.

Sexualizing children at younger and younger ages is not the mark of a healthy society, or family unit. And the medical harm could be lasting.

Lord of the Flies/Occupy Oakland

So we had thievery and laptops stolen in Occupy Wall St. to the dismay of some. A relatively well-heeled bunch with a propensity for...

An alleged rape in Occupy Cleveland

While in Oakland, raw violence and intimidation:

From the Oakland Tribune:

The next thing Hughes knew he was in a headlock, then he was being punched, and then he was on the ground as a large man began to choke him.

This happened as Hughes, a substitute teacher and Occupy Oakland resident, tried to keep a larger man who also lived in the camp from threatening a woman there.

Read on.

Then there's our Vice President, Joe Biden, throwing around threats of rape to pass yet another failed bailout bill

Got some volunteers lined up, Joe?

This is what Democrats/O-cuppy USA look like.

What's remarkable, though, is how anxious the Obama campaign appears to be to get on the protesters' good side.

I asked Axelrod by email this week whether he saw a need to keep any distance from a movement that was both critical of the president and, well, a little fringy.

"No," he replied. "I think some of the frustration and outrage they're expressing are also being expressed much more broadly…. People are angry. And they should be."

So go on down there, Davy baby. And bring Barack with you. I'm sure he thinks he'll feel right at home. But his community organizer buddies have ripped off the happy face this time round.

More. Daniel Henninger. Compared to this group, Mark Rudd and the Columbia University sit-ins of 1968 were Periclean Athens.

Rep. Allen West (R-FL): West To Obama: MLK Jr. Would Not Have Supported "Occupy" Protests

Day by Day. Andrew Breitbart.

Andrew Breitbart: Source: ABC Reporter’s Life Allegedly Threatened at Occupy Oakland; ‘We Shoot White Bitches Like You Around Here’

...Already picketing the Pritzkers in Obama's Chicago. (They want the park, they want the target)

And then there's the anti-Semitism.

Related oldies: Lord of the Flies in London, Another flash mob attack in Chicago last night,  D.C. Metro Police Escorted SEIU Protesters to Bank Of America Executive’s Home, Chicago March against BOA, Comandante Obama

Quiet Splendor

Another blogbreak. Celebrating my 30th with my spouse a few years and months late:) And my millennial graduate got a job. I am thankful.

Slaying the Giant

"We in the state of Illinois have for too long allowed corporations like Sears to basically shake us down," said State Sen. Michael Noland, (D) Elgin.

Where to start.

Let's just say it's not Sears that saddled our state with ruinous debt.

Granted, it's not a level playing field for small business.

As far as attack the corporations, eat the rich, be careful what you wish for. Enrollment can drop. People can leave. Who will pay the shakedown rates for all the public employees on the public teat, all the double-dipping union boss hogs, even as the state is already raiding charitable earmarks on tax returns and stiffing service providers to the state's most vulnerable.

There's no goose that lays a golden egg. But there's a giant state that steals.

Obama's Making Catholics Mad

Nancy Pelosi more hysterically than usual trots out the calumny against Republicans who respect the wishes of most Americans not to fund abortions. Then there are the unmistakably hostile actions of the Obama administration, suffer the little children on steroids: Obama is alienating Catholic voters:

While other voters have been disappointed by Obama's economic failures and arrogant, ham-handed approach to everything from health care reform to the Solyndra scandal, swing-voting Catholics have special reason to feel betrayed. A candidate who won their support by pledging to respect the religiously grounded views of those with whom he disagrees has morphed into a president whose administration relentlessly attacks religious liberty.

In the past year, Obama's Justice Department has argued in court that defenders of traditional marriage — the most visible segment of which are observant Catholics and bishops — should be regarded in law as the equivalent of racists. His National Labor Relations Board has issued rulings against two Catholic schools, St. Xavier University in Chicago and Manhattan College in New York, saying that they are not sufficiently Catholic to warrant religious exemptions from federal labor law —a stunning breach of the precedent in which religious bodies, not government officials, decide who qualifies as a member of a particular church. Those rulings followed on the heels of a highly publicized crusade by Obama's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to punish North Carolina's Belmont Abbey College for removing contraception coverage from its employee health plans, a move the Catholic school made to conform to church doctrine.

And just last week, Obama's Justice Department argued before the Supreme Court for the effective gutting of the longstanding "ministerial exception" that allows religious bodies to hire and fire employees without government interference.

As Catholics go, so goes the nation.

Related post:  NLRB Encroachment: Who are they to determine our Catholic identity?

Call your O-ffice David Axelrod

Obama's marketing boo-boo 

I imagine the Pritzkers aren't too happy at being harassed either. Join the crowd

And then there's the unacknowledged Ayers (and Bernardine) lurking in the organizing! wings, and Jesse Jr.'s coup.

Out of the halls, into the streets, all ready for Days of Rage in Rahmbo's struggling Chicago (one of the few jobs bright spots)

(Anything to say Rahm)

Have a nice day, Dem class warriors

P.S. Coming down the pike, your worst nightmare:) ...Rasmussen: Poll: Romney, Cain Statistically Tied with Obama

...

backyardconserv Anne Leary

Civil rights timeline.Don't get your history from Hollywood,Larry:A History Lesson for Lawrence O'Donnell: bit.ly/r5jKNn via @AddThis

11 Oct

Related post: That TEA Party Thing in Daley Plaza, Chicago, IL. And Two Stickers on a Pickup