Herman Cain interviewed by MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell

[VIDEO]Beware of people who know better than you about your experience and are willing to tell you what you should've done when it was a long time ago! Lawrence O'Donnell wonders why GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain didn't get himself involved in the civil rights movement while he was in both high school and at Morehouse.

Via Legal Insurrection! Want to see the full interview it's over at Real Clear Politics!

AP: Will Apple Continue to Thrive?

[VIDEO] I found out just yesterday that Apple Inc. founder and former CEO Steve Jobs had passed away. At that time I was no where near a PC or a TV when the news broke. In fact, I found out through an IM courtesy of my non-iPhone :P

This video looks at the future of Apple without their visionary founder and leader. In August he stepped down from his CEO position at Apple Inc. He had been fighting cancer and already had a leave of absense since January, but returned to the public eye to unveil the iPad2.

There was another unveiling of products at least a day before his death when Apple had revealed the newest version of the iPhone. I understand that he wasn't there to even show support.

As you see in this video people are talking about him. In the beginning he had a rough start. He may well have revolutionized the personal computer, but before the 80s was over he was out of the company he formed building computers in his parent's garage. Then he came back by the late 1990s and then a string of products with the iPod, iPhone and then the iPad. Of course let's not forget about those Macs.

As was the quote in that AP video, there is hope that Jobs' vision will continue even though he has passed away. Perhaps we'll continue to deal with the Macs, iPods, iPhones & iPads for the foreseeable future!

Prof’s radical advice for successful black women: Marry outside race

This is from Mary Mitchell's column from last month. A subject tackled on this blog many times before:

[Stanford Law professor Ralph  Richard Banks] argues that if a lot more black women were to marry outside the race, it would solve a number of problems now plaguing the black community: “Fewer black women would be alone. Just as some black women marry down rather than marry out, other black women remain unmarried rather than partner with a man of another race. There is a shortage of men only if black women remain confined to a segregated market.”

Additionally, he points out that black women who marry outside the race could bypass many of the hazards of the single life — “unsatisfying and nonmonogamous relationships, the increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases, abortion, single parenthood.”

Then here's a quote as to why Black women are less willing to date outside of their ethnic group:

He even came up with a list of reasons why more black women aren’t open to dating white men:

“Black women don’t think white men are interested; black women trace their love of a black man to the love of their father; white men were seen as lacking ‘swag,’ and partnering with black men was a way of fighting racism.”

As one 40-year-old married woman from Oakland told Banks: “We should never give up on our black men. Never. We have to support them. We know it’s a struggle, but we women got to stand by the black man. If we don’t, who will?” She asked.

I'm pretty sure there are some black men out there who would disagree with that. Do Black women really support their Black men?

Look, I would marry a black woman in a heartbeat more so than any other race or ethnic group out there. I don't believe profession or occupation should get into the way of a good relationship. Income shouldn't matter because you're both building together. Ethnicity shouldn't matter and I would dare say age shouldn't matter.

That's not to say those are factors in a break-up at all because they can be. I'm sure between two people whatever their differences if the magic isn't there, there will be no magic between those two people.

Now back to that quote, I do wonder how much Black women do support Black men. I'm sure there is a black men out there who will claim his woman got successful and left him behind. Could that be his fault because he could never reach her level or is it her's because she may insist that her husband has to be on an equal or better level with her.

Can someone clue me in?

More Black political history...

I found this old op/ed from Hip Hop Republican. Some interesting points made here. Basically it's how Blacks went from being overwhelmingly Republican to overwhelmingly Democratic:

The organizers of the Exposition invited prominent black leader Booker T. Washington to give a keynote address. The position he took in that speech was a calculated gamble that aimed to improve blacks’ social position by aggressively pursuing progress and abandoning political agitation. The approach he outlined became the dominant black ethos for generations. It was a dizzying failure with consequences we are still working to unwind.

Which brings us to the next player in the story. Washington had a rival in his bid to be the main voice of black America. W.E.B. DuBois was raised in the north and graduated from Harvard. He advocated a much more forceful stand for political rights and dismissed Washington’s emphasis on economic development and capitalism. DuBois founded the NAACP and became a prominent figure, particularly among Northern blacks. DuBois was impressed with Marxism and flirted with radical left-wing theories all his life, even writing a defense of Stalin at his death. His influence would increase as Washington’s version of compromise began to unravel.

Washington’s approach incorporated two disastrous mistakes. First he thought that institutional Southern racism would weaken as the black community began to realize its economic potential. Second, he did not recognize that capitalism cannot function without government protection of basic property rights. In the face of these tragic misunderstandings, blacks labored away for decades building remarkably successful businesses, professions, and civic institutions, only to watch them crushed over and over again by discriminatory laws and violence. There was no hope for economic progress without the most basic civil rights.

A wave of race riots in the teens and ‘20’s were particularly devastating. Only a fraction of the incidents were documented at the time, usually in the form of a brief, euphemistic reference in a local paper to “troubles.” But postcards (that’s right, postcards), stories, and victim accounts painted a clearer picture. Two of the most notorious riots occurred in Rosewood, Florida and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Prosperous black communities were in many cases wiped off the map, destroying generations of hard-won gains. When the Depression came, the brief flowering of the separate black communities was effectively dead.

By the 50’s, as America was bracing finally to confront its racist legacy, the gritty capitalism Washington had promoted was seen by blacks as a discredited failure at best, an “Uncle Tom” sell-out at worst. As Dr. King’s effort’s bore fruit and African-Americans began at last to have genuine economic opportunities thrown open to them, there was little enthusiasm to embrace it. Blacks who had successfully fought to open up economic opportunities focused their continuing efforts on government social programs and poverty relief, reflecting the ascension of DuBois’ approach over the perceived failures of Booker T. Washington.

 I need to break out Washington's book Up from Slavery. Not that it would talk about this, but I never thought about this angle. It's OK to advocate building yourself up by the boot straps, however, it means nothing if no one else respects your enterprise for whatever reason. If no one respects your skill or whatever you build up then they'll never pay you what you're worth nor will they be unwilling to destroy it. Something to consider.

How "Prohibition" Explains Today's Politics

Well here's one story about Chicago politics during the Prohibition era. A cleaned up Chicago only resulted in the last Democratic candidate for Mayor being defeated by a Republican challenger. Then another angle by NBC Chicago's Ward Room blog:

Motivated by a paternalistic desire to protect the morals of the working class and immigrants, the reformers were in favor of prohibition. Restricting alcohol was seen as a progressive cause. It was championed by the same people who agitated for women’s suffrage, the income tax, and the direct election of senators, and whose grandparents had agitated for the abolition of slavery. The headquarters of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was and is in Evanston, to this day a bastion of upper-middle liberalism. (The Frances Willard House, home of the WCTU’s founder, is now a museum open on the first and third Sunday of each month.)

Prohibition also introduced us to a grafter, Michael “Hinky Dink” Kenna, saloon keeper and alderman of the 1st Ward. According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago History, Kenna “created in the 1890s a First Ward political machine based on graft and protection money from the saloons, brothels, and gambling halls of the Levee district, just south of the Loop.”

His customers, needless to say, were the very working men Willard sought to protect from their vices. As Prohibition points out, advocates of temperance, or “drys,” tended to be small-town, native-born Protestants. Those who wanted to keep the liquor flowing, or “wets,” were immigrants and Catholics who saw attacks on drinking as attacks on their culture.

The issue of Prohibition is long dead, but the political factions that fought over it are not. The descendants of the drys are reform groups such as the Better Government Association and the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, which draw their support from the wealthier, WASPier areas of Chicagoland: the lakefront, the North Shore, Hyde Park. The descendants of the wets are…pretty much every Democrat on the City Council and in the state legislature, elected by the voters the reformers are trying to protect.

Essentially the reformers and the regulars or "the goo-goos and the grafters". I wasn't sure if you could compare prohibition era politics to today's politics however. What do you think?

BET Founder To Obama: Stop Demagoguing The Rich

[VIDEO] Wow Robert Johnson, just WOW! Well perhaps not unexpected commentary, but this just needs to go viral. Here's a description from Breitbart.tv:

Obama supporter and fundraiser Robert Johnson appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and spoke out against the president's recent rhetoric demonizing the rich in America.

"I’ve earned my success. I’ve earned my right to fly private if I choose to do so. And by attacking me, is not going to convince me that I should take a bigger hit because I happen to be wealthy."

Not to make a mountain out of a mole hill, but could Obama's rhetoric about soaking the rich cost him some support? Should I read that from Mr. Johnson's statement?

Via Newsalert!

Carol Moseley Braun: The final insult...

It's amazing that after her failed mayoral campaign this year, we're still talking about her. This time for some discrepencies in her campaign funds she blames a long time supporter - who served as her mayoral campaign treasurer - deriding her as "elderly and overwhelmed".

In any event Capitol Fax has a round-up and perhaps gives reasons why the former US Senator hasn't a very successful political career even after serving one term in the US Senate:

To suggest that this problem was caused by [Billie] Paige’s age and lack mental acuity is just flat-out disgusting and wrong. She’s still as sharp as a tack. The real problem was a wholly disorganized and disjointed campaign apparatus created by Braun’s total incompetence. Nobody knew what was going on from minute to minute because Braun thought she knew best. She didn’t.

Carol Braun ran a terrible campaign, and these financial reporting problems are further proof of this fact. Thankfully, she has finally been exposed as the horribly disorganized, mean-spirited person many of us have long known her to be.

It was obvious to all of us who knew her that Paige realized early on that she’d made the biggest mistake of her life by convincing Braun to run for mayor. It weighed on her heavily, and probably broke her heart.

You know I wonder if it had always been a mistake for Braun to run for mayor. What made anyone think she should run for mayor? Perhaps at some point even some of her long time supporters may have seen a train wreck coming!

Forbes: Lessons From Job Switchers

For the most part you're probably not here for career advice. Surely someone out there is looking to make a career change, so here are three anecdotes. Perhaps it might inspire you to make a change. Good luck out there!

Hat-tip Newsalert!

Blacks leave Obama

I know what this could mean, if ccurrent trends continue perhaps Blacks won't turn out for President Obama next year. They could always turn out for the GOP nominee, but I have my doubts about that. So that leaves possibly staying home in November 2012. But it's still a long time away yet!

According to a Washington Post/ABC News survey, his favorability rating among African-Americans has dropped off a cliff, plunging from 83 percent five months ago to a mere 58 percent today — a drop of 25 points, a bit more than a point per week!

Nothing is more crucial to the president’s reelection strategy than a super-strong showing among black voters. In the election of 2008, he was able to increase African-American participation from 11 percent of the total vote in 2004 to 14 percent. He carried 98 percent of them. This swing accounted for fully half of his gain over the showing of John Kerry. Now his ability to repeat that performance is in doubt.

And the emergence of Herman Cain as a serious Republican candidate could not have come at a worse time for the embattled president. Cain’s alternate narrative — self-help, entrepreneurial skill, hard work and self-improvement — stands in stark contrast to the victimization/class warfare argument that the president has adopted.

On another tack how about an encore from Ulsterman:

On the proverbial heels of the president’s open embrace of the radical race-baiting rhetoric of the Congressional Black Caucus, Barack Obama has followed up with further divide and conquer public statements that reveal a man increasingly desperate and willing to say almost anything in an attempt to marginalize his potential GOP presidential opponents.

At a fundraiser held Sunday evening, (an event that marks the fourth such fundraiser in five days for the president – wonder how the country is managing to run without him?) President Obama described Republicans as cheering the death of someone due to lack of health care, while also stating they boo homosexual military personnel serving in war. (Both examples were from less than a handful of individual responses at various GOP presidential debate forums – the president is now taking those extreme examples and attempting to portray all Republicans as such – a blatantly dishonest and irresponsible portrayal that once again diminishes the office of President of the United States.)

Back in 2008, there were some rumbles about what would happen if Obama lost that election. By the time of the election there wasn't any logical possibility of Obama losing that election. McCain just wasn't that good of a candidate IMO. Not that this would've put anyone at ease who supported Obama.

Who knows, it's an unfortunate turn I've seen Obama as of late and he's supposed to be the post-racial and post-partisan President. It's not working out. :(

Ah, be careful out there handing out pocket Constitutions...

[VIDEO] You got to love America. As noted in a write-up over at The Blaze no matter whether you believe in the constitution or not it protects your rights. In this case you will here in the video above a Black Panther supporter (that's my description) appear to threaten someone who supports and believes in the US Constitution.

Well, we now have a new concern about handing out this very important document. People won't just berate you but threaten you with physical violence. Of course, this wasn't just about the US Constitution it's actually about the group who's handing out the Constitution, Youth for Western Civilization. So the berating part comes when this group is already deemed by the people you see in this video as a "white-supremacist organization".

Via Newsalert!

Family sues after asthmatic boy sent to 3 hospitals in 11 hours - Chicago Sun-Times

Family sues after asthmatic boy sent to 3 hospitals in 11 hours - Chicago Sun-Times

I just have to say this is utterly unacceptable. Sent to three hospitals and no one could help this child and he ultimately dies trying to get to the third hospital!

Seven-year-old Aaron Pointer spoke his last words from the back of an ambulance.

“I . . . am . . . tired . . . of . . . breathing,” the asthmatic boy gasped, taking breaths between each word, according to a nurse’s report.

From the front seat of the ambulance, worried mother Sharese Pointer waited and waited, hoping at any minute they’d arrive at the hospital.

It would be the third hospital in 11 hours that her son was taken to after he suffered an asthma attack at home early in the morning of Sept. 13, 2010.

Aaron was moved out of the first two hospitals after his family was told he needed facilities better equipped to deal with his condition.

The minutes ticked on as the ambulance fought through rush-hour, 4 p.m. traffic and construction.

Sharese Pointer kept looking back at her son and then at the road construction ahead of her, wondering when they’d get to the hospital.

It was only later that she learned something that stunned her: The hospital where they were headed was 45 minutes away.

By the time they reached St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, after the roughly 30-mile drive, her son’s brain was “starved for oxygen,” according to a lawsuit the family has filed. Aaron later died.

Obama's legislative mindset...

One analysis over how Obama wasn't able to live up to his promise when he was first elected in 2008 provided by Rich Miller of the Capitol Fax:

It’s generally considered a rule of thumb that politicians with mainly legislative backgrounds do not make particularly effective chief executives. The two worlds, and their required mind-sets, are vastly different.

And, for the most part, our state’s better governors and our country’s most effective presidents for the past 100 years or so have had executive experience before moving to the top of the ladder. I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about legislatures, and I’ve been thinking lately that many of President Barack Obama’s bungles can be traced right to this issue.

Obama never really ran anything before being elected. But, more importantly, he also learned over the years to think like a legislator. Judging from afar, I don’t believe he has truly changed his mind-set.
...
Obama firmly believed his success at working with Republicans would help him be a better president. Heck, I thought the same thing during his campaign. So far, we’ve both been wrong.

After he was elected president, Obama was no longer a member of a large, mostly collegial group. Many of the same people who once gladly worked with him immediately vowed to block his every move.

Instead of realizing that the game had completely changed, Obama continued to approach Congress as if he were still a member of their club.

You should go over to CapFax and read the whole thing. And then in that same posting you will see another POV by Tribune Columnist Eric Zorn.

Count me as one of those who believes that "executive experience" is what one should look for in a potential chief executive. As President you have to execute the laws and the policies just as any manager would in a private business. A presidential candidate should show that he/she can lead and prove his/her effectiveness.

Of course that's not to say that's the only thing that matters. Obama didn't have a large resume to begin with. Even if he did "conservatively" move up the ladder to prepare for the presidency - which would be ideal if not practical if you want to strike while the iron is hot - then there risks with that as well. To be sure lack of "executive experience" bothered me with McCain although he had a more significant resume than Obama. Although we could count McCain's US Navy service.

Perry vs. Romney: Fact-checking Last Night’s Debate

American Rattlesnake on the immigration positions of Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. According to writer Gerard Perry an edge will go to Romney on his immigration position. This is all based on last night's GOP presidential debate that aired on FOX News Channel.

Watched the FOX News/Google GOP debate...

[VIDEO] Very informative. Santorum went after Perry on immigration. And it seems the two front runners - Perry & Romney - went after each other hard. So here is Gov. Perry and Romney going after each other in the vid above.

Are Schools Preparing Black Boys…For Prison

The headline for this article by the local Chicago Citizen Newspapers is frankly very shocking:

A Chicago mother recently filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Education alleging a Chicago Public School security guard handcuffed her young son while he was a student at George Washington Carver Primary School on the city’s far south side. In the lawsuit, filed Aug. 29, LaShanda Smith says the guard handcuffed her son March 17, 2010 which resulted in “sustained injuries of a permanent, personal and pecuniary nature.”

According to media reports, Michael A. Carin, the attorney representing Smith says the youngster was among several six and seven year olds that were handcuffed by the guard for allegedly “talking in class”. The students were also allegedly told they would never see their parents again and were going to prison.

In a another incident April 13 of this year in Queens, New York a seven-year-old special education student in first grade was handcuffed and taken by ambulance to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after he reportedly became upset because he did not like the color of an Easter egg he decorated. The school says the child was spitting, would not calm down and was “threatening”.

In New Orleans, Sebastian and Robin Weston were plaintiffs in a 2010 class action lawsuit alleging their then six-year-old son was handcuffed and shackled to a chair by an armed security guard after the boy argued with another student over a chair.

“This must stop now. Our children are not animals and should not be treated this way,” Weston said in a statement.

In light of those anecdotes the conclusion starts to make sense:

[Umar Abdullah Johnson, president of National Movement to Save Black Boys] says a false image has been created that suggests Black boys are not interested in being educated, which is not true he argues. The emotional and psychological effects on a six and seven -year-olds from unfair and out-of-control disciplinary action like handcuffing is setting them up for criminality he explains.

“The first thing that type of behavior does is it socializes the boy at a very young age into criminal consciousness. He is nurtured by the school into an understanding that his role in society is that of a criminal,” says Johnson, a Pennsylvania certified school principle, lecturer and motivational coach. These methods and practices of handcuffing young Black boys takes away the stigma, sting and fear of incarceration he adds.

Overly harsh disciplinary policies sets the tone for students to become bored and frustrated with school which leads to increased drop-out rates and in many cases leads to greater involvement in the criminal justice system say youth advocates. Johnson agrees.

“When you put handcuffs on a six or seven year old there’s no need for that six or seven-year-old to fear incarceration when they’re 17 and 18-years-old,” he says.

The worst that happened to me back in the day at that age was corporal punishment, tape on the mouth, or even had my mouth washed out with soap. When did it become OK to handcuff children for something as minor as talking in class and threatening them with prison?

It was noted in the article that black boys only make up less than 25% of the student population of the Chicago Public Schools yet account for 57% of all expelled students. Are young black boys being singled out? If so why?

Also I remember the old saying. "They use standardized test for elementary school students to determine how many prisons to build". The more students who don't succeed on such exams to determine academic progress the more likely such students may turn to crime because they're having a hard time in life. That what's this article almost reminds me of.

Let me be clear however that old saying. I haven't verified it and I have an idea as to the source. Something I might have heard on TV. In fact it might have been the weekly broadcast produced by Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow-Push organization years ago. It's been a while since I was able to watch it.

Capitol Fax: Former US Sen. Charles Percy dies

Charles Percy was ahead of my time. All this news gives me is a look back into the past.

BTW, Illinois Review has a recent post about him in light of his death. Republicans could learn a lesson from him. Perhaps no more talk of "RINOs".

Percy held the seat that's currently held by Dick Durbin. Percy was defeated by Paul Simon in 1984 and Simon served in the US Senate from 1985 to 1997.

Some of those tidbits are probably unnecessary, but like I said it's an excuse to look back into the past.

The Masters of Hispanic Destiny

This piece from the Wall Street Journal is a "Weekend Interview" with Juan Rangel who is the top man at Chicago's United Neighborhood Organization. UNO for short is an organization known for its charter schools that they operate in Chicago neighborhoods. In fact, their newest school was unveiled this past week.

Fourteen months out, it's a safe bet that Election 2012 won't hinge on immigration. But with no major federal action on the issue since 1986, and Hispanics poised to be a much larger portion of America's population by mid-century, immigration may decide Election 2016 or 2020. When that happens, look out for Juan Rangel.

Mr. Rangel, 45, probably won't be atop a ticket, but his standing—and that of his ideas—will reveal much about the nature of Hispanic politics in America. In particular, they'll signal whether this vibrant and growing demographic favors the sectarian identity politics of its highest-profile advocacy groups—or the alternative approach that Mr. Rangel has been cultivating quietly for 15 years.

According to Mr. Rangel—CEO of Chicago's United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) and co-chair of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's recent election campaign—the central question for Hispanics to answer as they grow in number and potential political influence is: "Do we want to be the next victimized minority group in America, or do we want to be the next successful immigrant group?"

This is a weighty question, especially given Mr. Rangel's observation that for three decades the most powerful Hispanic organizations in the country—such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (Maldef) and the National Council of La Raza ("The Race")—have, with the cooperation of the political class, empowered and enriched themselves by stressing the victimhood of Hispanics in American society. "I think we're living in a very politically correct society that almost values victimization," Mr. Rangel laments.

What's more, he explains, the leaders who built these Hispanic organizations modeled them on the 1960s civil-rights movement of African-Americans. This was understandable, Mr. Rangel argues, but gravely mistaken.

"Hispanics haven't endured the same suffering and struggles of the African-American community," he says. Hispanics' "struggles are different. Their struggles come from a desire to get ahead and leaving their nation and coming to a new land. And those are tough things, but there's no way that you can compare that struggle to the struggles of slavery and Jim Crow and Reconstruction. There's just no comparison."

No matter to politicos—they've bought into this narrative in legions. "Democrats are so intent on making Hispanics the next victimized minority seeking entitlement programs and all that, that the Republicans are starting to believe it!" exclaims Mr. Rangel. "And they're wrong on both ends. This is a great community that's poised to do great things—but you gotta challenge it. Don't pander to it."

I could relate that last paragraph in the excerpt to yesterday's post about the almost non-existant Republican outreach to Black Americans. Could almost be the same approach with the Hispanics. I don't know about treating all Hispanics young and old like they might Blacks. Or at that the entitlement mentality or indeed as I may "whine" using history of which party did one ethnic group support in the past.

BTW, it needs to be asked. How do we beat the whole victimization mentality?

Here's something else worth nothing although you should read the whole thing:

America has "lost sight of what the public schools were intended to do and what we need to do to help students feel that they're part of a whole," says Mr. Rangel, whose Mexican parents immigrated in the 1950s, his second-grade-educated mother never having heard of the United States until his father announced their impending emigration. "We need to get back to what the purpose of a public school was intended to be. That's to create not just educated and engaged citizens, but educated and engaged American citizens."

And why are American schools generally falling down on this responsibility? "Some people might say because there's an emphasis on reading and math. . . . But I think a bigger factor—and a more dangerous factor—is the political correctness around patriotism, around love of country. Somehow people view those things as kind of clichés," says Mr. Rangel. "That's more dangerous than any standardized testing that people complain about. We need to re-examine our values as a nation and re-examine whether we have the political will—or just the will—to engender a sense of love of country within our youth."

Well education we all agree is very important. I won't just put education squarely on the lap of the public school system. Even if it is to produce an educated and engaged American citizen. Perhaps we have lost sight of what education is supposed to do here in the states.

Via Instapundit!

Why the GOP Fails to Reach the Black Community

I still haven't forgotten one day on a right wing forum and I questioned whether or not using history would get Blacks to vote Republican. Then I got bashed for thinking the Republican Party needs to propose more welfare programs. It could be said none of them had a clue.

So here's a piece from Pajamas Media (who just so happen to host amongst other blogs, Instapundit) about this very issue and this caught my eye:

Whether it’s a grassroots organization or the party itself doing the outreach, McAllister says the focus needs to be on messaging:

Most Republicans don’t know how to message to the African-American community. They are still talking from a faith-based perspective and think a faith-based perspective is going to resonate with a 27 year old the same with it did with his or her grandfather. It’s not.

McAllister says Republican talking points are not going to sway people who are dealing with filthy public transportation and violence in the streets: “If they can’t speak to that, then their talking points might as well be sitting on a white board someplace.” He continues:

You have to show how you can change the suffering within black America from suffering and destitute to middle class within one to two generations. Anything you promise them past that that’s ideological or ethereal in any way, you might as well put the kids in the graves because they are going to be ghosts anyway.

Then I learned for the first time that Black support for Obama is at 81%. A huge number by all means, but it turns negative when it's also noted that this is the lowest rating ever.

What has to be defined is who would be a good Republican candidate for Blacks to vote for and why? Also the Presidency is a national office perhaps candidates can be recruited - well credible candidates - for all levels of government such as state, county, city, or even Congress. That's one way to at the very least get a significant number of blacks to even consider voting Republican. At that to insure that such Republicans can address the issues that affect black constituencies.

Besides here in Chicago we don't hear too many Republicans address the issues facing say The Sixth Ward. It might be filthy public transit and crime, but it's also about jobs and education.

Time for panic at the White House? Some say yes

Tough times are coming for President Obama according to the Tribune's Washington Bureau:

Is it time to panic at the White House? The whispers have begun to grow louder both inside and outside the Beltway that the answer is yes, and that President Obama's West Wing is in need of a good old-fashioned shakeup.

The loudest voice to date is that of James Carville, the boisterous Democratic strategist who helped put Bill Clinton into the White House in 1992.

Writing at CNN.com, Carville said the results of special elections this week in New York and Nevada call for an urgent response from the president to change course.

"We are far past sending out talking points. Do not attempt to dumb it down. We cannot stand any more explanations," Carville wrote Thursday.

He outlined a three-point strategy that starts with firing "a lot of people."

"For God's sake, why are we still looking at the same political and economic advisors that got us into this mess? It's not working," he said.

I can't disagree with the whole firing thing, it's just that it should've been done and I'm thinking it's far too late in this game to start changing ship. That should've been done earlier this year if you really wanted some time to right the ship into for the next election. He may have a hard time convincing the electorate that he's on the correct course.

Capitol Fax: Procter & Gamble now marketing to America’s economy like Mexico and Philippines

Rich Miller looks at a story that probably is of national importance as opposed to his strict focus on Illinois politics:

Procter & Gamble is one of the smartest marketers in the world. If this is how P&G now sees our country, you can bet it’s accurate. We really are in serious trouble here.

What he's referring to is a piece originally posted in the Wall Street Journal which one conclude is about the shrinking buying power of America's middle class. Instead P&G is now focused on the growth of not only the high-end consumers, but also the lower-end consumers.

The middle-class consumer doesn't have as much money these days!

Since we're talking about jobs today...

Here's one possible proposal to change the employment landscape as difficult as it is currently:

A freshman Chicago alderman concerned about the potential for a new class of permanently unemployed workers wants to ban the rejection of job applicants because of bad credit histories or gaps in employment.

The goal, said Ald. Ameya Pawar, 47th, is to prevent employers from discriminating against people who have hit hard times in the current economy.

“If you’ve been out of work for on average 27 weeks or more, and now employers are saying they are only going to look at people who are employed, you are creating a permanent class of unemployable people, and that’s unacceptable,” Pawar said.

Pawar, noting that some online job postings state “unemployed need not apply,” wants to amend the city’s Human Rights Ordinance. All but nine of the 50 City Council members signed off on his proposal this week.

The change would add “credit history” and “gap in employment history” to the many categories against which employment discrimination is banned. Other categories include race, color, sex, age, religion, disability and sexual orientation.

It's easier to find a job when you have a job they say. Of course for those who have been unemployed for a significant period of time knowing that you must be employed before you find the next job is a problem.

I admire Pawar for this, at the same time well he may want to petition the state legislature as well or even the US Congress. This issue may not be a bad issue to really gain recognition.

Jobsolecence...

Found this over at Instapundit this past weekend. Perhaps this is how we all should approch job hunting. What you see in this excerpt is what a job means today:

We established last week that there are some jobs that are not yet ready for automation. And there is growing demand in some unexpected areas, such as speech pathology. But right now it feels as though we’re losing old jobs faster than we’re gaining new ones.

Why?

Automation is eliminating jobs. Machines are doing it. They are fast, efficient, and relentless. Creating jobs is a whole different matter. Creating jobs requires developing new business models, which means identifying market needs — figuring out what is important to people, what they will pay for. It is a fundamentally creative activity — one that machines can’t perform.

It’s the story of John Henry all over again…but there’s a difference. The same technology that is eliminating jobs also connects us and empowers us in ways unimaginable just a few years ago. Maybe what’s becoming obsolete is not jobs per se, but the idea that they are something that you simply find.

Increasingly, perhaps, a job is something that we each have to create. We can’t count on someone else to create one for us. That model is disappearing. We have to carve something out for ourselves, something that the machines won’t immediately grab.

That sounds difficult, maybe even a little dangerous. We’re all comfortable with the idea of “finding” a job. We search for them; we hunt them; we land them. All of these images assume the job already exists.

But to create something new…what does that even mean? Do we all become entrepreneurs? (I think the answer to that question is yes, although many of us will have to learn to be entrepreneurs within existing organizations.) Ultimately, it means we have to find something useful to do, something so useful that others are willing to pay for it.

What can we do to make ourselves indispensable in this brave new world? Surely machines can't take any job that require good old human thinking and ingenuity.

Also I wonder...What does it mean to have to carve out our own positions? Does this mean we use our skills, experience, and training to create a position tailored for ourselves?

What say you?

Previous year's 9/11 posts...

Can be found at the tag September 11. I didn't write a post every year on the anniversary, but you can read my previous thoughts from those years I did write. Thanks.

10 years!

I wanted to sit on this. This column from Christopher Hitchens was posted at Instapundit on Labor Day. What I will excerpt is appropriate on this day. This will be today's 9/11 and again this year my goal is to stay away from any programming that shows any footage from that day!

To me, this remains the main point about al-Qaida and its surrogates. I do not believe, by stipulating it as the main point, that I try to oversimplify matters. I feel no need to show off or to think of something novel to say. Moreover, many of the attempts to introduce "complexity" into the picture strike me as half-baked obfuscations or distractions. These range from the irredeemably paranoid and contemptible efforts[MN1] to pin responsibility for the attacks onto the Bush administration or the Jews, to the sometimes wearisome but not necessarily untrue insistence that Islamic peoples have suffered oppression. (Even when formally true, the latter must simply not be used as nonsequitur special pleading for the use of random violence by self-appointed Muslims.)

Underlying these and other attempts to change the subject there was, and still is, a perverse desire to say that the 9/11 atrocities were in some way deserved, or made historically more explicable, by the many crimes of past American foreign policy. Either that, or—to recall the contemporary comments of the "Reverends" Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson—a punishment from heaven for American sinfulness. (The two ways of thinking, one of them ostensibly "left" and the other "right," are in fact more or less identical.) That this was an assault upon our society, whatever its ostensible capitalist and militarist "targets," was again thought too obvious a point for a clever person to make. It became increasingly obvious, though, with every successive nihilistic attack on London, Madrid, Istanbul, Baghdad, and Bali. There was always some "intellectual," however, to argue in each case that the policy of Tony Blair, or George Bush, or the Spanish government, was the "root cause" of the broad-daylight slaughter of civilians. Responsibility, somehow, never lay squarely with the perpetrators.

And this is what should be upsetting. No one deserved this massacre. Even if you had grievances against this policy or that policy it doesn't justify this act of terror. Let's not lose sight of this!

I suggest you read the whole piece Hitchens latches onto a number of subjects in this column. I don't want to find myself posting more than necessary!

CTA remembers 9/11

Took this photo last night at Roosevelt shown on the screen that not only has advertisements and news updates, but also shows train arrival and departure information.

Snapped this shot on the train today stickers on the side of Red Line trains to commemorate 9/11/2001.

The Chicago Transit Authority is remembering this day and I do remember after the events took place at New York City's WTC I was on the L that day keeping an eye on the Sears (now Willis) Tower. It was quite disconcerting, but certainly now I create this parallel.

brain-terminal: A video memorial for 9/11

New Yorker Evan Coyne Maloney of brain-terminal.com was in New York on that day. His [VIDEO] uses police and fire transmissions and footage from citizens of what happened on that day a decade ago. I will not embed that video here, but will encourage you to visit Maloney's site to view it. It might have been posted here on this blog years ago, but my goal is to avoid all footage from that day.

I plan to post links of any past posts from past 9/11 observances. May have some new thoughts after all in time for tomorrow.

May we remember!

Today's date is...

9/10/2011 or nine.ten.eleven. That is all!

The way they were: The Twin Towers long before 9/11

The way they were: The Twin Towers long before 9/11

Lee Bey observes the coming 9/11 anniversary by referring to the WTC as it was before the events of 10 years ago. Videos of when it first opened and during the course of its operation before the unthinkable.

Althouse: "Perry shows no remorse, not even a tiny smidgen of reflection, especially when we know for certain that he signed the death warrant for an innocent man."

Althouse who is a law professor in addition to a blogger talks about last night's Republican Presidential debate at the Reagan Library. Another blogger Andrew Sullivan wants to stick it to TX Gov. Rick Perry on the death penalty. This was her concluding paragraph:

That's the answer, plainly and appropriately stated. Sullivan's straining to use this to portray Perry as evil is — to my mind — and I oppose the death penalty — demagoguery.

You can check out Gov. Perry's response [VIDEO] to the question on the death penalty especially his application of it as Governor of Texas.

The Puzzle of Black Women’s Marriage Patterns

Courtesy of The Volokh Conspirary. I wonder how many of you agree with this assessment:

Black women more frequently than any other group of women marry men who are less educated or lower earning than they are. More than half of college educated black wives have husbands who are less educated than they are. These relationships are more prone than relationships among socioeconomic equals to be conflict ridden and prone to divorce. Two different types of problems arise.

One problem is that both spouses may be uncomfortable with a situation in which the wife earns more than the husband. When the wife supports the family because the husband cannot, the husband may feel threatened, emasculated. Less discussed but not less important is that the wife may also think less of a husband who earns less than she does. Professionally accomplished wives may support their family financially, but they were not raised expecting to do so.

Of the empirical findings that support this interpretation, my favorite is this: When the husband earns the bulk of the income, the spouses are equally likely to have final say about financial decisions. When the wife earns the bulk of the income, in contrast, the wife is twice as likely as the husband to have final say about financial decisions. This finding mirrors a pattern that I noticed among the couples whose stories I recount in the book: His earnings are joint, but her earnings are hers. This is but one aspect of the incomplete transformation of gender roles.

A second problem is that professional women with working class husbands often experience a sort of cultural conflict. Although they share the same race, their educational and professional experiences differ and as a result their aspirations, outlooks and values may be distinct as well.

My parents, it's safe to say are of two different types. My mom was more educated than my dad. He never finished high school and when he passed away he was a nightwatchman for the public schools. My mom worked at a bank downtown and attended college at night eventually completing a bachelor's degree.

I'd be lying to you if I said there was no friction there. I'm sure every man's instinct is to want to support his wife and children because it's expected of them to be breadwinners. The problem may not necessarily be who's marrying down, but how do they manage to get along with their different perspectives.

BTW, not sure if the right question is being asked by me.

Via Instapundit!

Concealed carry in Illinois...

State Rep. LaShawn Ford is a west side Democrat with a significant Black constituency. Earlier this year concealed carry legislation passed in the General Assembly only to be vetoed by Gov. Quinn who said he had no problem with Illinois being the only state in the union to not have this provision. So while Ford is ok with supporting concealed carry if it comes up for a vote he wants to add something to it:

Rep. La Shawn Ford, a third-term Democrat, told me he is prepared to become the first black legislator from the city to vote for a concealed carry law — if sponsors of the bill will add a provision requiring the National Rifle Association to pay for sensitivity training for police officers.

Not sure what that's supposed to do, perhaps only to put to rest this fear:

[NRA lobbyist Todd Vandermyde] said he understands the concerns of some African Americans “about what happens when you have a black man with a gun” stopped by police, assuming that individual was legally permitted to carry a gun under the proposed law.

I'm not sure making an advocacy organization pay for that will solve this problem at all. It's more reasonable to let the individual counties in this state decide how to issue concealed carry permits:

Two Republican lawmakers from Morris, state Sen. Sue Rezin and Rep. Pam Roth, both think there is a strong possibility of yet another concerted effort by the General Assembly to revisit the controversial issue this fall or in early 2012.

Rezin said one plan being considered is exempting the Chicago area, or perhaps Cook County, entirely from any concealed carry legislation.

OK I recognize that this is a long way from letting counties decide on concealed carry. New legislation to allow the collar counties around Chicago and Cook County to be exempted from concealed carry legislation.

Either way perhaps this legislation should make Illinois a "may-issue" state and at that giving counties latitude to determine how they should issue these permits if at all.

You can read a round-up of stories about this issue over at The Capitol Fax!

American Rattlesnake: No-Bama in 2012?

Something to consider from the blog that often writes about immigration issues:

Debate is a good thing for any republic, and it would be especially good for the Democratic party.  The past half century has seen the Democratic party shift from a party primarily of socially conservative working class people, to a bizarre hodge-podge of non-white economically challenged racial identity groups and ultra-liberal hyper-educated whites.  It’s a combination that has been a failure at the polls, and worse, a great failure in governance.

Not to stray from the main issue from that website, they bring it back to how the Democrats should recognize that they may need to address the immigration question.

I suppose we're seeing the failure of this Democratic coalition currently at the national level. Even if immigration isn't the only issue that hurting this nation.

Happy Labor Day!!!

May you have a safe and enjoyable holiday!

Obama sticker in urinal draws criticism and laughs

[VIDEO] Hmmm, I wonder what this says about his presidency.

A disturbed 17 News Facebook friend posted picture taken in the bathroom of a restaurant in Bakersfield.  It shows a sticker, with a picture of the President, firmly affixed to a porcelain potty.

Some think he's a political whiz, but perhaps this isn't what they had mind.

"It's a cartoon. It's a parody. It's humor," said customer Dave Nance.

There's been a lot of traffic in this bathroom at the Rocket Shop Café.  But not for the usual reasons.  Word of the cartoon decal has brought a lot of looky loos to this loo.

"I think it's a riot because he's a public figure. He sets himself up for this kind of abuse from being who and what he is," said customer Tom Moore.

Via Newsalert!

Black unemployment at highest level in 27-years

I think I blogged about a column where see President Obama trying to reassure his core supporters, Blacks. Well Black voters may not be the core of his support, but it's safe to say Blacks are the most steadfast of his supporters. Here is some information from the Tribune:

Black unemployment surged to 16.7 percent in August, its highest level since 1984, while the unemployment rate for whites fell slightly to 8 percent, the Labor Department reported.

"This month's numbers continue to bear out that longstanding pattern that minorities have a much more challenging time getting jobs," said Bill Rodgers, chief economist with the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.

Black unemployment has been roughly double that of whites since the government started tracking the figures in 1972.

About 155,000 blacks got jobs in August, but the group's unemployment rate still went up because those jobs weren't enough to make up for all the people who started looking for work during the month.

However, the gain for whites of 211,000 jobs was enough to bring their unemployment rate down.

Overall, black men have it the worst, with joblessness at a staggeringly high 19.1 percent, compared to 14.5 percent for black women.

So why do we always seem to have trouble being employed?

‘Obama Clock’ climbs iPhone reference app chart

I wonder if this application is available on the iPad and it doesn't just track Obama's progress as he seeks re-election:

An “Obama Clock” app is jockeying for position with National Geographic’s World Atlas atop the iTunes app store’s reference best-seller list, partly because conservatives are eager to monitor President Barack Obama’s skidding approval numbers and shrinking calendar, says the app’s designer.

Liberals don’t like the app because it shows Obama’s numbers trending down, said Jeremy Ross, even though his app just publishes publicly available data. The app can also be used to display the same stats on future GOP presidents.

Ross, a California aerospace engineer, cut his sleep time down to 5 hours per day to develop the app, which users rate at 4.5 out of 5 stars.
...
The app displays Rasmussen Reports’ polling data on Obama’s popularity along with the U.S. unemployment rate, the gasoline price index, housing values, the national debt — and the amount of time remaining until the next presidential inauguration.

I know my way around a PC at least, but if only I had this gentleman's technical skills.

Via Instapundit!

Obama appears on Tom Joyner radio show, tries to reassure African American listeners

I have my ideas on this, but I'll just excerpt this posting from the Washington Post just to show you what's going on here:

“It’s always important to remember that when Dr. King gave the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, that was a march for jobs and justice, not just justice,” Obama said during the interview on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. “And the last part of his life, when he went down to Memphis, that was all about sanitation workers saying, ‘I am a man,’ and then looking for economic justice and dealing with poverty.

“It’s not enough for us to just remember the sanitized version of what Dr. King stood for,” the president added.

Obama’s remarks were part of an effort by his administration to remind black voters that the country’s first black president is fighting for them, even if he is not heeding the demands of some black lawmakers and crafting policies specifically aimed at boosting struggling African-American communities. Blacks remain Obama’s staunchest base – giving him 90-percemt-plus approval ratings – but some Democrats worry that worsening economic conditions in that community might hamper Obama’s efforts in next year’s reelection campaign to mobilize the mass African-American turnout he needs to win.

Black unemployment stands at 15.9 percent – far higher than the 9.1-percent overall rate.

Tension between Obama and the Congressional Black Caucus is not new, but in recent weeks caucus members have traveled the country holding jobs fairs and town halls designed to put public pressure on the White House to address black joblessness as part of the plan Obama will announce next week.

The president offered no hints Tuesday as to what, if any, of his ideas might offer targeted help to blacks.

I used to think that Blacks were so crazy about Bill Clinton even in the years after he had left office that they would vote in Hillary. Then someway, somehow Obama comes in to win the nomination and the Presidency. I'm not sure how that happened. It could be that Obama was a fresh face.

I still remember interviews with elderly Black people overcome with emotion at the first Black President being elected and eventually inaugurated. I'm sure that if Blacks haven't left Obama in droves that some of that is actually going on.

That being said it was noted by another political writer in making the comments about Clinton on his blog, that the Black vote tends to break late. They take a while to make up their minds as I would interpret that. So they may have went back in forth in deciding between Obama and Hillary Clinton.

So I will say this. I can be wrong, but what if the Black vote may see the writing on the wall with Obama and may neglect to even turn out in 2012 for him. I know many can't even imagine sitting home from the polls. Besides our history shows that we were denied our right as American citizens to vote in elections. Still for those who will choose to vote next year, I can't see blacks voting in drove for the eventual Republican nominee for President.

It's going to be fun speculating what's going to happen next year! This is going to be a serious race, I feel it!

VIDEO: Congressional Black Caucus' Dangerous Violent Rhetoric...

[VIDEO] "Declares 'War' on Racist Tea Party" here's a description:

'This is WAR' Congressional Black Causes' Travels American Cities Using Dangerous Violent Rhetoric: Declares 'War' on Racist Tea Party, Says Tea Party Wants To Lynch Blacks, Calls for Bank Runs, Civil Unrest in Their Neighborhoods and Homes

Via Newsalert!

Steve Jobs Broke Every Leadership Rule. Don't Try It Yourself.

Well I read this article and a lot of people are upset that he's unable to continue as Apple CEO. He's ill and probably won't be the temperamental visionary that's portrayed in this column. In the wake of his announcement, I've read some pieces which laud his ability to learn from his many early failures.

This piece does have as part of it's title "don't try it yourself", however, it ends with this:

There’s a reason Steve Jobs is Exhibit A, and not even B or C. It is because his exceptional and unique vision and certainty of what he saw excused his tyrannical behavior. Or, no, they didn’t excuse it but made it necessary. And the power of his personality and the sweep of what he achieved meant that even after all his punishment of disappointing staff and others, all his berating of many of those around him, people at Apple were heartbroken to see him step down from the chief executive’s job this week.

Go ahead and behave the way he did yourself, as a CEO—as long as you’ve got all of Steve Jobs’ charisma, revolutionary vision, and innovative genius, along with his relentless drive and temper.

Well one way to look at it is that now that he's stepping down as CEO, he's become a success. So therefore what can I say about it?

Via Newsalert!

"That spring began an intense move toward the wearing of the pants"

In this week's Chicago Reader, Chicago Teacher's Union President Karen Lewis talks about her time at Kenwood High School in the late 1960s. This moment inspired her to "buck the system":

At Kenwood High School, then-principal Elizabeth Mollahan was no stranger to the neighborhood. The former principal of Kozminski elementary, Mollahan was tapped to head the new high school in 1966 after a serious campaign. She did what most new principals did—raided the system for talented veterans and found a few fresh faces, while giving most of the faculty the leeway to stretch themselves and inspire young minds. She did, however, expect an adherence to a dress code that included skirts or dresses for girls.

One of my dearest friends recently recalled having to take off the pants under her skirt in one of the Willis Wagons during the winter because it was a "disciplinable offense." This sparked an underground rebellion from girls who wouldn't dare participate in the walkouts. In an interview for the student newspaper, I asked Miss Mollahan why she was so adamantly opposed to allowing girls to wear pants. Her response? "Since this is a predominantly black school and the black matriarchy is so prevalent, we want to maintain the self-esteem of the black boys. Girls in pants would destroy that." And she said this to me with a straight face.

Well, I'm sure this is still true today about the Black matriarchy. The young men may well have been doing better back then than they are now. I would expect however that such logic would be dismissed out of hand. Now it's a lot more than having women in pants.

If that was ever an issue, and that's not to say that this makes sense to me, now we're way beyond who must wear what to class everyday.

Hispanics surpass blacks in college enrollment

Not sure how to take this news. It's great to see hispanics take advantage of educational opportunities in this country whether their families recently immigrated here or have been here for several generations. Just wonder what it means for blacks if there aren't as many of us enrolling in colleges:

The population of young Hispanic college students more than doubled since 2000. And the reason is not just growth in the overall population of young Hispanics, which grew 38 percent in that time.

Hispanics are succeeding in U.S. schools at unprecedented levels. The share of young Hispanics completing high school hit 73 percent in 2010, up from 60 percent in 2000, according to Census Bureau data. The share of young Hispanics attending college reached 32 percent last year, up from 22 percent in 2000.

“This is a growing population, but it’s more than that,” said Richard Fry, a senior research associate at Pew. “This is a growing population that is increasingly finishing high school and increasingly going to college. . . . There’s a good message here.”

This milestone was foreshadowed by trends in public high schools, where Hispanics overtook blacks among graduates in 2008, Fry said.

Black students are succeeding in high school and college at higher rates, as well. But the overall black population is not rising at the same pace as the Hispanic population.

Via Newsalert!

Capitol Fax: Constitutional argument or a shakedown?

 

Illinois this year had passed a law that barred the Illinois State Police from releasing the names of Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) holders. The state police didn't want to release that information and the Illinois State Rifle Association had a lawsuit that they won't let go of. The excuse they want to establish a constitutional precedent.

According to former Governor Jim Thompson who is the attorney for the Illinois State Police there was another reason for continuing this lawsuit:

“They want us to pay (court) costs and we don’t want to pay costs,” he added. “That’s the only disagreement.”

A constitutional precedent not to keep FOID cardholder information private, but to avoid paying court costs. ODD!

This story is utterly disturbing to me...

I know about the 17-year-old pregnant teen who was killed but her baby was still delivered alive although they're currently testing for any potential complications for the child. Thankfully they caught the guy, but the fact that he would do this is disturbing...

Moments before she was slain last week on Chicago's Southwest Side, 17-year-old Charinez Jefferson begged the gunman not to shoot because she was pregnant, prosecutors said today.

Despite her plea, Timothy Jones, 18, opened fire on Jefferson anyway, yelling an expletive at her as he shot her in the head, prosecutors said. He then stood over her as she lay on the ground and fired several more times, striking her in the chest and back.

Jefferson was pronounced dead a short time later, but doctors were able to successfully deliver her baby boy, who remained in critical condition today, Assistant State's Attorney John Dillon said.

"Tests are expected to be performed to determine whether the child has any brain activity, as there are concerns over the child possibly suffering from oxygen deprivation after the victim had been shot," Dillon told Judge Laura Sullivan.

Sullivan denied bond for Jones, 18, who was charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 16 slaying.

“I’m happy that he’s been caught before we even put her in the ground,” said Jefferson’s aunt, Devorah Hope. “This young man sent a message on the streets that an unarmed pregnant woman that’s not violent to nobody, it’s not safe.”

Jones had seen Jefferson walking with a rival gang member in the 3000 block of West 64th Street and approached them in a car, Dillon said. He got out of the vehicle and fired at least one shot at the rival, who ran off, leaving Jefferson to fend for herself. After begging Jones for mercy, Jefferson was shot at "point-blank range," Dillon said.

Jones, of the 6300 block of South Rockwell Street, was arrested at his home Saturday after numerous witnesses identified him as the killer, according to information from prosecutors and court documents.

The next to last paragraph is a case of watch your friends! He took a shot at this other thug and ran off leaving his pregnant companion behind. That disturbs me just as much. I could believe that one would think you wouldn't shoot a pregnant woman who has little to do with whatever conflict you might have. SMH

Yeah, this is a person who needs to be put away for life. Just remember here in this state the death penalty has been abolished.

Man wins handgun lawsuit in Chicago...

[VIDEO] I think this story should go over to The Sixth Ward. This past Saturday a neighborhood organization was expected to play host to the new Chicago Police superintendent Garry McCarthy. He never showed however and in his place a local district police commander fielded questions of course some questions were fielded to McCarthy.

In any event one question that this police commander wouldn't touch is one about concealed carry. It was an issue that recieved a vote in the state legislature in Illinois but there are many who continue to believe concealed carry is still dangerous and Gov. Quinn vetoed the measure this year.

Of course while Chicago's gun ban was repealed last year after the US Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional. This story underscores how difficult it still is to legally own a firearm in Chicago. There are no gun ranges here and no gun shops. Even though there was a recent move to allow gun ranges this story indicates there are some difficulty in even that as well the city wants gun ranges away from residential areas, schools, and located in mostly industrial areas.

Well industry is no longer king here in Chi-town so it would be difficult to find such sites here anymore unless they had been long vacant and undeveloped for years.

Either way it's safe to say even under a new Mayor Chicago may well continue to be unfriendly to anyone who wishes to own a gun at home.

Via Instapundit!

CTA Tattler: Habitual Red Line panhandler swings his cane at motorwoman

If you make a commute on the CTA Red Line you will run into panhandlers. Generally beggars or salesman and this would've been perfect for the Flip camera I bought last month.

It is the same blind panhandler from 40 minutes ago. When he tries to get away by boarding the southbound train on the other side of the platform, the motorwoman holds up her arms and states, "I have called the supervisor and the CTA transit police units, and you're not going anywhere!"

With that, the blind law breaker swings his cane like a samurai sword to hit the motorman, but misses.

Almost from nowhere, a woman in a long white T-shirt and very dirty jeans, who acts if she in partnership with this flim-flammer, gets hold of the cane-swinging blind panhandler and helps him up the stairs for a quick getaway.

The motorwoman waits to see if the police or supervisor are coming to the rescue. After five minutes of waiting she get back on the train and heads north again.

As much as I wish something can be done about this issue, what can be said? They have to enjoy the public transit system like everybody else, especially if they pay their fare!

Rep. Maxine Waters says it's time for Obama to fight

Not that I think Congresswoman Waters represents all Blacks in this nation, but one side of me said this could stir up trouble. What if Obama lost the prominent members of one of his core constituencies, being Black people. Of course that's not to say many Blacks already in Congress were all in for him in 2008, although surely it was in their best interests to side with the first Black President.

As far as Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) in concerned, it is time for President Obama to get tough with Republicans and put together proposals that help the poor and especially the hard-hit African American community.

Speaking at a job fair in Atlanta on Thursday, the fiery Waters said there was rising unhappiness in the African American community with the nation’s first black president.

“There is a growing frustration in this country and in minority communities because the unemployment rates are so high,” Waters said in televised remarks. She went on to cite home foreclosures and the increasing wealth gap between blacks and whites for “creating frustration and yes, some anger” in the black community, which wants to see Obama take on his opponents.
...
Waters and the rest of the Congressional Black Caucus have organized a series of job fairs around the country, designed to bring attention to the difficulties faced by the African American community in these tough economic times. The group faces a special problem with Obama, who comes from their constituency.

“We do not put pressure on the president because y'all love the president,” Waters told a boisterous crowd at a fair in Detroit on Tuesday. “You are very proud to have a black man as president for the very first time in the history of the United States of America.

“The Congressional Black Caucus loves the president, too. We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired. We're getting tired. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don't know what the strategy is. We don't know why on this trip that he's in the United States now, he's not in any black community,” she said in an excerpt also broadcast.

Well Obama needs to visit neighborhoods in Chicago, especially Englewood where he advocated for a gazebo that well is not serving a useful purpose there as far as I know. Then he can go to other places on his motor coach tour across the Midwest such as St. Louis or Milwaukee. Places that I'm sure has a sizeable Black population. Tough times indeed.

Something Strange Afoot in the Obama Campaign

This piece argues that Obama wants to pull an LBJ. What exactly does that mean?

It’s enough to make a person wonder if — with the President’s approval numbers now at an all time low — there’s an escape plan being hatched for the 44th President.

Consider Obama’s remarks in June on the Today Show when he said his family is “not invested” in a second term. He told the interviewer “If I said, you know guys, I want to do something different, they’d be fine with that.”

Realize that everything that is said in interviews is planned and rehearsed in the White House. Nothing is just off- the- cuff in White House interviews. The same is true with White House spokespeople.

So consider what Obama’s campaign spokesperson (and former press secretary) Robert Gibbs said this month. On the same day that Obama’s approval numbers dipped to their lowest, Gibbs said Obama is “quite comfortable” being a one-term president in order to address issues he is concerned about.

Here comes the comparison:

No President who is campaigning for reelection suggests – or has his spokespeople suggest – that he doesn’t need another term. Can you remember another President, in the midst of a reelection, suggesting that he doesn’t need another term?

There is only one – President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Which raises several questions: Could Barack Obama be planning to pull a Lyndon Johnson and say he will not run nor will he accept nomination for another term? Could he tell the nation that he has accomplished what he wanted to accomplish in passing his Health Care program and now wants to step down to do other things? Could he be planning an honorable exit rather than face defeat in November 2012? Could his approval numbers be so low that he has become unelectable and toxic for the entire Democratic slate? Is there a move afoot to have him step down and name a new Presidential candidate?

There are pieces out there, though unsure of the validity that suggests that the President isn't happy in the office. I shouldn't be surprised why pursue something that really isn't for you? Or at least why attempt to stick around?

If it's true that Obama doesn't want to seek re-election, this race is now WIDE open!

Greg Hinz: Herding cats: Can anyone lead America anymore?

The Crain's Chicago Business political reporter has this to say about the current fiscal crisis out of Washington:

Having just spent two weeks out of the country, watching my IRA again melt away with the latest stock market gyrations, has indeed put some things in perspective. It's reminded me of things I knew, but highlighted them.

Things like how evenly and truly divided this country really is on things that count. And how, unless we as a country somehow resolve those differences and work out our differences, we'll head the way of Greece, Italy and Spain, some of the places I happened to visit.

So what are those differences? On cuts and spending; business climate with jobs and business expansion; what to do with our entitlement programs; and finally immigration.

You should read Hinz' piece but do you think anyone can lead America?

Obama confronted after town hall by 'tea party' activist

I hear the President is engaged on a bus tour of the Midwest riding around in expensive coaches. These two Tea Party activists confronted him about comments made by his tactless Vice President Joe Biden:

An Iowa "tea party" activist, Ryan Rhodes, confronted Obama after the event to speak to him whether Vice President Joe Biden during the debt-ceiling talks in Washington compared tea-party affiliated lawmakers to terrorists.

Rhodes first brought up the question during the town hall and then approached the president afterward and the two got into a heated exchange.

He complained to Fox News afterward that Obama had not addressed the question whether Biden actually made the remarks. Reports at the time had another member of Congress, Rep. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, actually saying the word “terrorists” and Biden agreeing. But the vice president's office denied that Biden ever used the term.

“He just denied it. He said the vice president didn't make any of those assertions,” Rhodes said. “If he doesn’t want to even admit what was on TV nationally -- all over the place -- then how can you have a conversation?”

Obama also faced criticism during the event from Emily Neal of Decorah, who openly questioned his negotiating skills with Republicans and asked whether the president had abandoned liberals in the healthcare and debt-ceiling fights and in extending the Bush-era tax cuts.

The president responded by saying that the political reality of governing had forced him to make choices.

You can watch that [VIDEO] below