Council of Trent: What's Making Young Women So Liberal?

 

[VIDEO] This video is well over a year old and it somewhat explains the craziness going on in Minneapolis, MN in 2026.

Just think about Renee Good and other insane videos involving left/liberal women who want to interfere with ICE operations there. I think what happened to Ms. Good was tragic to be sure, however, if she wasn't actively blocking streets to interfere in a federal law enforcement operation or even just cooperated with federal agents - perhaps just get out of the car for example - she'd probably still be with us. And if she wanted to actively protest ICE that's fine, it's her right. Just don't put yourself in a position where the actions could prove fatal.

However, let's be clear this video was published after the election win of Donald Trump as the 47 President of the United States. What's going to happen thoughout the start of his second term and the reaction to it wasn't yet a thought.

He attacks both the manosphere and then of course notes that women considered abotion a major issue - let's not forget my body my choice. Let's not forget the overreactions with regards to me, too. Even the fever dream of the Handmaid's Tale media franchise.

Of course as Trent himself, comments he doesn't let me off the hook either. The aforementioned manosphere has put out some very toxic ideas for men. Perhaps men doesn't realize what it takes to be ready for real relationships with women.

I may also conclude as I had for many years that women like to be taken care of. If it's not by their husbands, it's by Uncle Same, or it could be by the job (with good benefits or pay a good salary). Here gov't assisted is emphasized and also noted that single men support big gov't more than married men.

Finally, Trent concludes by re-asserting how important the family is in society. To put in my own words, leftism or liberalism or feminist or certainly slothful man-children are undermining the importantance of a mother and father in a family.

At a later time I do want to share some videos about the activities of female leftists in Minnesota with regards to these ICE operations.

Michael Knowles and the trans-widow

 

[VIDEO] Knowles interviews Tracy Shannon who was married to a man who had issues with cross-dressing and eventually opted to transition to become a woman. This interview is very shocking.

How the husband (who essentially became the wife) conducted himself around his children. And I got to say he cross-dressed, transition to be a woman, and even subjected his children to his various partners other than his wife was definitely a very toxic situation.

And the wife, it seems she was shamed into accepting her husband's gender transition. A counselor (who according to Ms. Shannon now advocated for the gender transition of children) basically called her "close-minded" because she had an issue with her husband's transition. In her words whatever life they had the husband effectively threw it all away for their gender transition.

I find this a very sad story. Now the description talks about transgender ideology and I don't know if this is about that. My hot take on this was this was a troubled man who allowed his transition to ruin his relationship with his wife and children.

Update ✝

 I miss a lot of things from the past month.

Went through a lot from late August onwards. In a period of mourning, lost someone very close to me.

They had gotten very ill, in a very short period and after a rally they finally slipped away. I wish I had spent more time with them during that period. I will miss her dearly! ✝

ABL: BLM Removes THIS Controversial Page From Their Website

 

[VIDEO] My favorite saying as of late is that I support BLM in principle, however, I do not support the organization. The above video shows one reason, and of course I can't support the riots in the name of BLM.

We live in America and our culture is often built upon distrust of authority. Of course we want a fair justice system, we want a police that serves and protects. So what's BLM?

My view of BLM is that they could care less about a fair justice system or a police that serves and protects. They want to upend society as we know it.

With this said Anthony Brian Logan looks at BLM's about page, the nat'l organization. You see a number of things that involve disrupting the nuclear family or collective value (Marxism). You hardly see anything about heterosexual men - of course as ABL argues this organization will be out for any reason to come out for the death of a Black man. They talk about helping mothers however they mention nothing about fathers.

Anyway, ABL is talking this because recently they removed their about page from their website. This was discussed over the course of the summer in a variety of places so this isn't new. However after the initial unrest at the end of May 2020 BLM got a lot of financial support and even Tucker Carlson recognized them as a very potent political movement. However, as we still see unrest out there around the nation and in Kentucky they've announced a state of emergency in Louisville in the case of Breonna Taylor we see how BLM support is beginning to wane. Americans are tired of the riots, and I suspect that BLM is still trying to wage a PR battle thus to change their image.

In the morning, I hope to share Larry Elder's latest video and he asks one question which is related to what ABL explores here. What does BLM actually want?

This is a tough clip to watch, the relationship between two Black men

[VIDEO] The clip you see here is tough to watch. I'm not a fan of Judge Greg Mathis, actually because during the past 20 years these judge shows have proliferated I've just lost interest in them. It's not just about the law - and bear in mind these aren't real courts these shows are technically arbitration based - it's about the drama of each case.

Perhaps I have a rose-colored view of what these shows were vs. the realization that TV production is a business and these shows have to have a selling point. This episode would've had me with this clip, sometimes you want to see someone get admonished for showing their true character

We see a kid arguing with his uncle. The kid tells his story of leaving Oakland, California and avoiding the street gangs. We learn that he has no parents and goes to St. Louis, Missouri to get on his feet. Unfortunately he had a tough uncle who didn't know how to let up.

Yeah it's clear I'm taking a side here. There was an article that gave an update on this young man and it seems he's doing OK getting his education, became a youth pastor. Who knows what his family relationships are with this said uncle.

And also Mathis had a tough life and turned his life around to become a legit judge and he himself has one of these judge shows. So Greg Mathis could relate to this young man.

Well anyway I hope you get something from this clip. And I want you to know it's tough when two Black males one young and the other older just can't get along. Not to continue this narrative but a strong male influence in your corner does wonders. Of course what doesn't help is the wrong approach as we see with this uncle.

Stossel: How gov't caused 'the boy crisis'

[VIDEO] Actually you don't see longtime journalist John Stossel in this vid but the discussion is no less important. Basically this is a video about how important men are in a family or in raising children. This shouldn't be a huge surprise, but men & women parent differently which is what this video discusses.

Another thing that's discussed is how the "welfare state" had decimated the family. We see single mothers say they can tackle anything and that they don't need a man to help them out. Problem is their children boys & girls need their fathers. And of course most of those women we saw were young of course they have that confidence buoyed by welfare programs.

h/t Newsalert

Dr. Helen: Should Your Child Attend an Ivy League?

If you want know my answer, no one parent nor student should put a whole lot of stock in attending an Ivy League university. If you get admitted great, but realize that it's not the end of the world if you choose another university. It's also not the end of the world if you decided that trying to get in proves to be too rigorous and you need a break.

Now that you know my opinion read this by Dr. Helen who just so happens to be the wife of the Instapundit! Though Instapundit is actually Glenn Reynolds not Ed Driscoll who actually wrote the post I just linked.

#AskRachel: Leave that woman alone...

Rachel Dolezal back in the day and today

Part of me wants to say leave this woman alone. It seems social media wants to go in on her because of her deception and I do believe it's a deception.

At the same time I'm ok with people living their lives as they see fit. Unfortunately in Rachel Dolezal's case she may well have took it too far finding herself as head of a local chapter of the NAACP. Because of that organization's history and prominence it's a very high profile position she's had.

To be sure looking at a recent picture of her - such as the one above - she has some rather kinky hair and certainly pass for biracial. I also understand she was married to a Black man at one point. She even registered at Howard University at one point.

Either way it seems for some reason she chose to distance herself from her family at some point and it's coming out in the press. To me that's really sad that some of her personal issues are coming out. It's being broadcast around the world.

Instead of adding to any of the negative attention she's receiving from the world I sincerely hope she reconciles with her family. They may have added to some of the damage, but surely they wouldn't reject her if she finally came back home!

Photo above is from CNN

The Root: "Little White Lie"

[VIDEO] I'm sorry that this documentary - Little While Lie - was missed. This was something of interest and the article about this was right in front of me and still didn't think about it. I'm glad that at some point in the future it will be available through iTunes.

Basically a young woman has to come to terms with not only her mother's infidelity, but her racial identity. See this woman's mother had an affair with a Black man and she came from a Jewish family. While it seems the family attempted to avoid the truth, the world didn't seem able to do so.

But when Schwartz was a child, her light-brown skin and curly hair elicited comments from people outside her immediate family circle: At her bat mitzvah, a woman from the synagogue mistook Lacey for an Ethiopian Jew.

When Schwartz questioned her parents, her father showed her a portrait of her Sicilian great-grandfather, whose darker skin seemingly provided an explanation for her own. Schwartz, like everyone around her, bought this story.
...
That denial allowed her parents to convince themselves that the great-grandfather story was true. Still, Schwartz couldn’t shake that feeling of otherness. When she began attending a more diverse high school, she would get stares from black girls and didn’t understand why. Her parent’s divorce, right before she turned 16, only led to more unanswered questions.

So I shall find this film on iTunes starting March 31st. The video you see above is the trailer.

So Mitt Romney has a Black grandchild...

While there are articles that discuss how Mitt Romney isn't able to say for certain how many grandchildren he has. Here's one that discusses that his latest grandchild who is adopted is Black.

There seems to be an interesting bit of irony with the boy’s name. The name they picked for the dark-skinned young boy, Kieran comes from the Gaelic name which literally means “black.”

Well, it was announced in a recent tweet by the former Governor of Massachusettes and 2012 GOP nominee for President

Our 22nd grandchild was officially adopted today: Kieran James Romney. cc: @AnnDRomney pic.twitter.com/7t1ZFxOJS4
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) September 20, 2013

While ideally this shouldn't matter and I can only hope that this child is a great home with a great family. At this point however it's not clear who adopted this child, just that Romney is claiming him as one of his grand children.

Hat-tip Newsalert!

#facepalm part 3

[VIDEO] Our esteemed State Rep. Monique Davis was on The O'Reilly Factor on Thursday to talk about her comments made on a Detroit radio station regarding cops shooting young people. She never walked back her comments and still maintains that she was only repeating what her constituents were saying to her. Bill O'Reilly was right to say that with her credibility as an elected official it was irresponsible to repeat such a statement unless there was evidence of such activity.

With that in mind, just because one is an elected official doesn't make them credible. For airing out such a statement is Davis more credible now than she was after making those statements, I would say unlikely. She does appear to be quite a spitfire over the years especially being named the worst person in the world after essentially attacking an atheist at a state legislative hearing years ago.

We have a member of the Illinois House or Representatives - who just so happens to be Davis' colleague whether I'm sure she likes it or not - who has been indicted for soliciting a bribe. Not only was he indicted but last year he was booted from the state House. However, he was re-elected last year to his old house seat because he refused to quit the race even after he had been removed from the house. Does anyone view him as credible now?

In any case another part of the discussion was the most important issue facing Black-Americans. O'Reilly wants to argue that it's the family, but Davis didn't really talk about that and stated that it was the lack of services, jobs, and education. It's hard to disagree with that to be sure, but Davis never talked about the family lives of many of these young people.

Speaking only for me, I never consider the family. I recognize that the family life of a lot of our young people are very imperfect. Would a father make more of a difference in the home? Haven't the slightest clue to be honest.

Personally I do believe before having children one should get married first. It doesn't always happen that way and there's nothing but evidence of that. However, I think anyone who has children should strive to create a nuclear family that includes a father at least.

Of course we could talk about the disintegration of the black family, but let's also recognize that having mother and father as head of a household could be a good thing. It's certainly excellent if mother and father were on the same page as far as what's in the best interest of the children. And hopefully that means at the very least the children go on and do something productive with their adult lives and stay out of trouble with the law.

Hat-tip The Blaze

NRO: The Death of the Family

Finding this article via Newsalert the title from there was "Single Mothers Mean Welfare State". Then I see that this piece written by Mark Steyn in fact starts off talking about gay marriage. What is Steyn saying?

Which of these alternative scenarios — the demolition of marriage or the taming of the gay — will come to pass? Most likely, both. In the upper echelons of society, our elites practice what they don’t preach. Scrupulously nonjudgmental about everything except traditional Christian morality, they nevertheless lead lives in which, as Charles Murray documents in his book Coming Apart, marriage is still expected to be a lifelong commitment. It is easy to see moneyed gay newlyweds moving into such enclaves, and making a go of it. As the Most Reverend Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, said just before his enthronement the other day, “You see gay relationships that are just stunning in the quality of the relationship.” “Stunning”: What a fabulous endorsement! But, amongst the type of gay couple that gets to dine with the Archbishop of Canterbury, he’s probably right.

Lower down the socioeconomic scale, the quality gets more variable. One reason why conservative appeals to protect the sacred procreative essence of marriage have gone nowhere is because Americans are rapidly joining the Scandinavians in doing most of their procreating without benefit of clergy. Seventy percent of black babies are born out of wedlock, so are 53 percent of Hispanics (the “natural conservative constituency” du jour, according to every lavishly remunerated Republican consultant), and 70 percent of the offspring of poor white women. Over half the babies born to mothers under 30 are now “illegitimate” (to use a quaintly judgmental formulation). For the first three-and-a-half centuries of American settlement the bastardy rate (to be even quainter) was a flat line in the basement of the graph, stuck at 2 or 3 percent all the way to the eve of the Sixties. Today over 40 percent of American births are “non-marital,” which is significantly higher than Canada or Germany. “Stunning” upscale gays will join what’s left of the American family holed up in a chichi Green Zone, while beyond the perimeter the vast mounds of human rubble pile up remorselessly. The conservative defense of marriage rings hollow because for millions of families across this land the American marriage is hollow.

Also:

Underneath all this apparent “fairness” is a lot of unfairness. Entire new categories of crime have arisen in the wake of familial collapse, like the legions of adolescent daughters abused by Mom’s latest live-in boyfriend. Millions of children are now raised in transient households that make not just economic opportunity but even elementary character-formation all but impossible. In the absence of an agreed moral language to address this brave new world, Americans retreat to comforting euphemisms like “blended families,” notwithstanding that the familial Cuisinart seems to atomize at least as often as it blends.

Meanwhile, social mobility declines: Doctors who once married their nurses now marry their fellow doctors; lawyers who once married their secretaries now contract with fellow super-lawyers, like dynastic unions in medieval Europe. Underneath the self-insulating elite, millions of Americans are downwardly mobile: The family farmers and mill workers, the pioneers who hacked their way into the wilderness and built a township, could afford marriage and children; indeed, it was an economic benefit. For their descendants doing minimum-wage service jobs about to be rendered obsolete by technology, functioning families are a tougher act, and children an economic burden. The gays looked at contemporary marriage and called the traditionalists’ bluff.

Then finally Newalert lifts this conclusion from the final paragraph:

The most reliable constituency for Big Government is single women, for whom the state is a girl’s best friend, the sugar daddy whose checks never bounce. A society in which a majority of births are out of wedlock cannot be other than a Big Government welfare society. Ruining a nation’s finances is one thing; debauching its human capital is far harder to fix.

The article starts off with a conversation Steyn has who notes that gay marriage is an attack on marriage. Instead of this article being an attack of gay marriage it notes the many sociological issues that are occuring in this nation.

It seems to me the Christian right makes a big issue about marriage. From them we might hear that getting married has economic benefits and social stability. Although increasing Americans aren't going out of their way to get marriage they just simply shack up.

In this case, it's safe to say that this article is attempting to look at the big picture. The next question is, I can only wonder how the Supreme Court is going to rule on gay marriage.

I watched 60 Minutes Sunday night

[VIDEO] I saw the most recent edition of 60 Minutes when it aired. I really enjoyed the story about the investigation into the life and death of artist Vincent van Gogh. Tonight however I wanted to share the whole episode that in fact started with the life of two homeless families. There was no way it could be justified to favor one story over another.

Both stories are very sad but surely both stories have something that everyone could relate to. Even if you can relate to a homeless family hopefully you can still find ways to help them out. Even if you couldn't relate to a troubled dead artist hopefully you can still relate to him in some way and even find a museum where his art work is located. And even still you can help support a struggling living artist today who hopefully can prove themselves to have the stature of a van Gogh in the future.

So here's all 42 minutes of that edition of 60 Minutes. Feel free to sound off!

I had to think about this for a second...

When was the last time I went to a funeral. It was actually in 2011, when I went to services for my third grade teacher and long-time principal of my old elementary school Bennett-Shedd School. That event was posted on my blog at that time. Even then it wasn't my intent to go to the funeral I wanted to attend the wake before the actual funeral.

Anyway this week I learned that my grandmother passed away and I opted not to go down South for the funeral.  I wasn't that close to her but her death still affected me and she was my last living grandparent. Thankfully she lived a long time! And that explains this tweet I posted on Tuesday:

the sinking feeling one gets in their gut is when they learn that they're grandmother passed away :( #fb
— Levois (@levois) May 30, 2012

My stated purpose as to why I don't want to go to her funeral is primarily I don't like funerals. Had a bit of a tough time with my dad's funeral years ago. Although I had attended some funerals since that time for relatives that have largely been a presence all my life this would be something that would be tough. Not sure I want to see my grandmother in a casket.

And now for the unbelievable feeling that Gurtine Burns Howard is gone!

Court Upholds State-Sponsored “Kidnapping” of Homeschooled Boy

This story is disturbing and thankfully there is outrage going around on this issue:

As most people count their blessings and prepare to enjoy Christmas with family, many others face serious struggles. Among these is the Swedish family of Annie and Christer Johansson whose only child, 7-year-old Dominic Johansson, was “kidnapped” by Swedish authorities in June of this year as the family was on a plane leaving the country for a new life and home in India. Annie Johansson is from India where her entire family lives.

The Johanssons’ lives suddenly changed, and a nightmare ensued as police officers took Dominic off the plane at the orders of local social workers. They didn’t have a warrant, and they didn’t charge the Johanssons with any crime. Their reasoning? Dominic had been homeschooled, and the authorities wanted to make sure he was receiving an education.

After some testing by Swedish authorities, it was discovered that Dominic was only slightly behind in some subjects, but that he had been making academic progress. The family had been refused school materials by their local school when they had asked for them last year. As a homeschooling family, the Johanssons lean towards unschooling, profess the Christian faith, and try to live close to nature. Mr. and Mrs. Johannson had made plans to move to India to work with several orphanages to help them to live simply and economically. Although their lifestyle is out of the ordinary to Swedish officials, nothing in their approach to family life justified such a radical state intervention. In addition to living simply, the Johanssons exercised their legal rights to opt out of vaccinations for their son as well as only taking him to the doctor when he was sick, also reasons cited by the court to allow Swedish social services to retain custody of Dominic.

Swedish press has reported that senior police officials in Sweden have criticized local police and social workers for their sensational actions. Press reports also suggest that the local social services may be caught in a trap of their own making. They must continue with their course of action or otherwise admit that they have disgracefully ruined a family and traumatized a child. Some Swedish newspapers also report that the pride and stereotyping exhibited by social workers in this case imply they are out to get this family. According to letters obtained by HSLDA, the most recent decision of the local social workers is that they will not be allowing Annie and Christer to visit with Dominic until after New Year’s Day. And then they will be permitted one-hour visits every fifth week.

Mr. Johansson expressed deep concern about the state of his wife. “Annie cannot even talk right now. We are in total shock. We had hoped the court would return our son. We have been and remain willing to cooperate with social services, but they keep telling us we are not capable of caring for our son. This is not true. We have taken care of Dominic. While we may do things differently than most Swedes, we have not broken any laws and we have not harmed our son. We decided as a family that we wanted to move to India where we could be near my wife’s family. But the government has taken over my family, and now we are living in a nightmare. I fear for the life of my wife under this torture and for the well being of my son who has only been allowed to see his parents for a few hours since he was taken. The government is alienating my son from me, and I am powerless to do anything.”

The Swedish press has reported that the court admits the family has taken care of Dominic as they thought best, but insists the government’s plan is better.

In its opinion the court noted that Dominic had some untreated cavities and had not been vaccinated. The court also said that because Dominic had not been in school he had been “socially isolated.” This, the court said, demonstrated that the parents were not aware of the impact their decision to homeschool would have on Dominic’s future development and opportunities. Social workers and the court have mentioned the psychiatric condition of Mr. and Mrs. Johansson. However, Mr. Johansson vehemently denies any such mental problems.
...
A former Swedish social worker who spoke with HSLDA anonymously severely criticized how current social workers are treating the Johanssons.

“This case is an absolute outrage,” the former social worker said. “From the taking of the child off a plane by uniformed police officers to the absurd visitation schedule and now the complete cessation of visits. The social workers in this case are letting their pride interfere with the best interests of this little boy. In Sweden the socialist mindset of the government is that it knows what’s best for kids—better than their own parents. And in the case where a family, like the Johanssons, may do things that are different, the government intervenes.”

The court opinion also noted that Dominic had not been to the normal child care facilities and to school.

The social worker continued, “What is normal? In whose opinion? Why should the government get to make this decision? The boy is being taken care of and not being harmed. The family had decided to move to India where the mother is from. What is wrong with this?”

There are those who are concerned about the direction of this country under President Obama. That is their belief that this nation is going into a more socialist direction as may exist in Sweden.

I don't have children yet, but when I do the last thing I want to worry about is the state deciding that how I'm raising my children is simply not up to their snuff. Of course that's not to say there aren't those parents who aren't taking care of their children. There are some awful parents out there.

I just hope that the reasoning isn't as loopy!

Via Newsalert!

The Kennedys

Yesterday was probably the first time I actually paid attention to the remembrances of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. He died Wednesday morning at 77 of a brain tumor.

Yesterday was his funeral and burial. He was to be buried with his brothers Bobby and JFK at Arlington National Cemetery. The funeral service in Boston was quite nice with his two sons talking about their dad in the best of terms even his namesake son who not only sounds like him but looks like him got very emotional. Teddy's other son, Patrick, resembles JFK in some respects, but needs to get in shape more lol.

In any case I see how big this family is. Joe Kennedy, Sr. the man who basically started this family had 9 children, but Bobby (we may know him as RFK or Robert) had 11 children. And whether they have the Kennedy name or not there is more where that comes from. Even better on the way to the church it appears they arrived on chartered buses.

If this was a large black family with the prestige of the Kennedys and this was Chicago, I would bet money that we'd be talking about Omega Charters. ;)

Anyway for many the ceremonies for Ted Kennedy has only helped to solidify support for the Kennedy family. You may disagree with their politics, but you may well admire the close knit aspect of this huge family. If nothing else that should be celebrated.

A Cautionary Father's Day Tale

Artistmac plays his dad in this one! Words of wisdom:

So, fathers, celebrate your children. Don't force your dreams on them. Celebrate their strengths, their talents, their needs and desires, and especially, their eccentricities. History is not made by the well-behaved.

Happy Father's Day

I tweeted this last night and I also said that I no longer have mine, but I hope you spend today with your's!

Also I would like to share this post from Pat Hickey about Father's Day, so enjoy!

One good reason I can't stand Blagojevich...

His ongoing feud with his own father-in-law, Ald. Dick Mell. The man who helped him get elected only to kick him to the curb when he discovered that he was Governor. A lot of this might have been his new position going to his head almost as if he needed no one else in the world.

I just found this Sun-Times story via Ridge99. It's over a month old and whatever statement he was going to make the press I believe he and his children were interviewed on WMAQ-TV. The article seems to suggest that Patti, Mell's daughter, is fiercely loyal to her husband. If no one else is in his corner, she is. I'm not going to say there's anything wrong with that, but someone should have been able to tell him that something is amiss here, especially his wife. Unfortunately that doesn't appear to be the case.

Here's an excerpt:

It's not clear what Mell could say to explain away his daughter's behavior. She is heard on federal wiretaps participating in backroom calls with her husband on how to leverage his political position into a high-paying job for her, according to the federal complaint filed against Blagojevich.
...
llinois' divided first family tried to bury the hatchet in December, 2006 after the death of Mell's wife. But it wasn't long before Blagojevich and Mell were at each other's throats once again.

“Right after Margie passed away, they had meetings. They had dinner. There was an absolute commitment to put past differences aside for the good of the family,” said a source familiar with the feud.

“Then, Patti kind of broke the truce. Rod kept having problems and moments with [Mell] and she just went with her husband. After that, Dick didn't get to see the grandchildren. He was very upset. The grandchildren were very important to him.”

The source added, “I don't think he cares a bit about what happens to Rod. But, he cares a lot about his daughter and grandchildren. This is not a time for feeling vindicated. He just feels horribly sad.”

I kind of understand a little bit. Too bad that the children are dragged into this. Of course that's not to say that they're picking a side one way or another because I don't know. I do know that Blagojevich's inability to stay loyal to his father-in-law or at least play it straight with him is probably one facet of his current undoing as the Governor is now facing impeachment and removal from office as well as a criminal trial.

I could add also that it probably could have helped the Governor if not only he had a better relationship with his father-in-law, but also the state General Assembly. It was brought up that he generally wasn't around when the legislature was in session. When he called them into special session, he wasn't around and never set an agenda. He wasn't very accessible and he probably wonders why he finds himself feuding generally with the state House of Reps and House Speaker Michael Madigan.

On Friday, two people chose not to vote for impeachment. I voted no and the other voted present. In fact one justified his vote by saying that he went with his gut instinct and said he had no personal knowledge of the charges against the governor. He also said that it wasn't his job to impeach him. Probably safe to say that he didn't want to jump on the bandwagon. It should also be noted that he was a lame duck as he didn't run for re-election.

Just like another south side Democrat, who voted present although in her case she lost a bid for re-election. In any case she also didn't want to jump on the bandwagon (which is somewhat understandable actually). She also felt that this impeachment process was more personal than anything else. She might be right about that, however, that may not have negated the charges against him by the state House and even the US attorney.

Going back to Blagojevich's in-laws. Or even his wife, what engenders that type of loyalty. You won't only find that with his wife, but surely you'll find that loyalty in other places. When the impeachment moves toward the Senate we'll see how loyal the state Senate will be. All the same what does this say about the Governor, if he doesn't have the ability to follow thru on his promises, have an inability to do good by his loyal supporters, or if he often displays a counterproductive combative streak?

Anyone have any answers?

Here's some raw video I found via the AP YouTube account. It was a couple of days after his arrest. He heads to work that day in the James R. Thompson Center and his kids also go out this exit preceding him. It's got to be very awful for them right now.

How about this very good post from Clout City...

At the risk of sounding like Freud, none of this would have happened had Governor Blagojevich not lost sight of who he was or where he came from or, most importantly, whom he owed for his success. His relentless desire to shake down folks doing business with the state, his hunger to build the mightiest of political machines, his obsession to be the man, the kingmaker, the top pol in Illinois--it all stems from the fact that he would be nothing if not for alderman Richard Mell, and he knows it.

They called it. Just like I called it. Perhaps it's always been known, but no one seemed to have come out and said that Blagojevich was essentially ungrateful to those who helped him get to where he is....was. Stricken and placed in the past tense because of the situation he has found himself in and the possibility that he'll be removed.

Finally, an old post from early last year. I blogged about an article in Chicago Magazine. It basically touches upon the issue of the Governor's relationship with his father-in-law. Look no further than the first page!

Sarah get your gun

 The Field Negro has some harsh words with regards to Bristol Palin's pregnancy. I've got to say I wish some people shouldn't go there, but this post was too good to ignore!