Showing posts with label Chicago. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicago. Show all posts

Sunday, March 04, 2018

Parkland school shooting survivors confront the "What about Chicago" anti-gun control argument directly.

This is in an extraordinary move on the part of these young people.

They are not selfishly hogging the attention for themselves, but rather using the attention directed at them to shine a light on those communities that also suffer from gun violence but have been neglected by the media.

They are demonstrating not only incredible compassion but advertising their unwavering commitment to see this movement through until it achieves the change that they are demanding.

If I worked for the NRA this is around the time that I would start breathing into a paper bag to keep from hyperventilating. 

By the way if you want to know why Chicago really has the problems with guns that it has, there is a great NPR article from 2017 that will do much to explain that to you.

Thursday, November 09, 2017

Barack Obama gives some folks in Chicago a thrill simply by showing up for jury duty.

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune: 

Prospective juror Barack Obama, who ultimately was not chosen to sit on a jury, climbed out of a black SUV in a secure parking garage underneath the Daley Center around 10 a.m. Wednesday as a news helicopter hovered overhead. Then, accompanied by his Secret Service detail, Obama rode a private elevator reserved for judges to the 17th floor, where he was greeted by Chief Judge Timothy Evans. 

He emerged smiling as if in campaign mode, shaking hands as he made his way under the fluorescent lights to the jury assembly room. “This looks like Chicago right here,” Obama said to laughter after surveying the room filled with rows of black plastic chairs, according to one of the jurors who captured it on video. “I like that.”

A security guard at the courthouse warned a gaggle of news photographers, reporters, court staff and attorneys not to photograph the room, but all bets were off once the crowd caught a glimpse of Obama inside. The crowd rushed and pressed against the glass doors as everyone tried to snap a photo. 

“He’s gorgeous!” exclaimed court clerk Sonal Joshi, who briefly came upstairs and caught a glimpse of Obama before rushing back to her post on a lower floor of the building.

Just thought it would be nice to see a reminder of how a real public servant deals with his civic responsibilities. 

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Even out of office Barack Obama continues working to make our future more hopeful.

I swear every time I hear him talk I am overcome with a wave of nostalgia.

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune:

Starting next month, the Obama Foundation will begin a series of one-day training sessions and also will host a summit aimed at promoting civic engagement among students and young adults, officials said Wednesday. 

In a video, former President Barack Obama said the programming, along with the creation of a fellowship program and the incorporation of his My Brother's Keeper Alliance into the foundation, is his way of grooming the next generation to "change the world." 

"We're bringing together hundreds of leaders from all around the world for a hands-on exchange of ideas in my hometown," Obama says in the video, which was posted to the foundation's website and emailed to followers Wednesday morning. 

"The summit will be a place to gather and learn from one another, and then go back to your communities to lead others in the hard work of change. And it will also help guide our foundation as we continue to design programs that will connect and support the next generation of young leaders here in the United States and around the globe." The announcement comes just one day before the foundation's top brass will meet with the public for the first time to discuss how the Obama Presidential Center will look and what it will offer.

This is exactly the kind of grassroots organization and education that we desperately need to insure a more knowledgeable and energetic group of future leaders.

It is also a great way to inspire and educate future voters, so that they learn to utilize their critical thinking skills and are less likely to be manipulated by social media or to be led astray by conspiracy theories.

This is just the first such training, and the foundation will offer future trainings in both Boston and Arizona as well.

Personally I hope that this program will expand because I really see a need for it all across the country.

I imagine that once Donald Trump gets wind of this he will open his own alternative foundation, only in HIS version the young people will simply be struck repeatedly in the forehead with a two by four until they can no longer form a coherent sentence.

That will make them the perfect candidate to run as a Republican for public office or to vote against their self interests in future elections.

Sunday, August 06, 2017

For his birthday this year Barack Obama got his own holiday.

Courtesy of NBC Chicago: 

Former President Barack Obama got a special treat for his birthday this year - his very own holiday. 

Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law Friday a measure to designate Aug. 4 as "Barack Obama Day" across Illinois. 

The newest state holiday will be celebrated each year on the 44th president's birthday, beginning in 2018. 

The holiday will be "observed throughout the State as a day set apart to honor the 44th President of the United States of America who began his career serving the People of Illinois in both the Illinois State Senate and the United States Senate, and dedicated his life to protecting the rights of Americans and building bridges across communities," Senate Bill 55 reads. 

You mark my word folks, someday this will be a national holiday. 

It may not happen within my lifetime, these things can take time, but it will definitely happen.

We were fortunate enough to have lived through one of the most consequential presidencies in our history, and that will become ever more clear with the passage of time.

In twenty years I expect to see Obama National Airport, Obama High School, and many, many Obama avenues and parkways.

Some day the whole country will celebrate the man who the Republican party tried desperately to destroy, and some how that makes it all the sweeter. 

Thursday, May 04, 2017

Barack and Michelle Obama to donate 2 million dollars to summer jobs program in Chicago.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Former President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that he and his wife, Michelle, are donating $2 million to summer jobs programs in Chicago. 

“One of the things that we’ll be starting this year is Michelle and I are personally going to donate $2 million to our summer jobs programs here in the community,” he said at the South Shore Cultural Center. "[It's] so that right away young people can get to work and we can start providing opportunities to all of them.” 

The former president used the event to unveil plans for a 200,000-square-foot campus on Chicago’s South Side that will house the Obama Presidential Center. Obama said the center will be used to "train the next generation of leadership, the Michelle Robinsons of today and the Barack Obamas of today."

Gee, what a hypocrite.

What does he think he is doing supporting the future leaders of tomorrow like he always said he was going to do once he was out of office?

Wasn't it just a few days ago that people were tearing out their hair over the fact that Obama is receiving a $400,000 speaker's fee to talk about health care?

Oh wait, apparently they are still tearing their hair out.


So I guess that since Chaffetz's foot is all better now thanks in part to Obamacare, he feels free to make a huge ass out of himself again.

Is being a huge ass considered a preexisting condition?

Saturday, January 07, 2017

Sarah Palin attacks President Obama for reacting in a reasonable manner in response to Facebook torture video.


If you have been watching even a little of the news yesterday I am sure you all saw a portion of this video showing some African American teenagers (One is actually in her twenties.) torturing a white mentally handicapped young man.

It was shown on virtually every news outlet yesterday and roundly condemned by everybody who reported on it, without regard to their race or political affiliation.

And in an interview President Obama also condemned the "despicable" actions.

However that was not good enough for Snowdrift Snooki.

No she was so incensed that she fired up the ole ghostwriter and called in a favor over at Breitbart in order to attack the media and the President directly:

It’s time for a screaming wake-up call, America. 

My extended family discussed the tragedy last night. We concluded we do not care about arguing the legalities involved in categorizing this as a “hate crime” or not a “hate crime.” Obviously it is a hateful, hate-filled crime centering on politics and race. Proof is on tape. Debating the merits of categorizing the disgusting racist and political taunts vomited up by thugs during their brutal beating of a helpless young man is, to us, a media distraction. I leave it to others to focus on that.

After that venom laced diatribe Palin talks about her sister Heather working with developmentally delayed youths in public school, and of course Trig, as if that gives her some authority on the topic.

Then she goes on the attack against our last duly elected President:  

But President Obama… shush. Just shush with your reaction to this racist attack with claims that race relations have improved under your reign. That is BS. And why, even in this, do you have to make it all about you, all the time? Your suggestion yesterday that there’s some silver lining in this shows how completely out of touch you are. Attacks on the helpless and vulnerable — no matter skin color — are society’s cancer. You still don’t get it. A better reaction is to acknowledge, for one, that your pride and joy hometown of Chicago is a mess. 

Further, acknowledge that you’ve helped perpetuate a culture that disrespects innocent life by pretending that babies aren’t really babies, so their lives don’t matter; by mocking special needs children on national television (as the President!); by promoting vile gangsta “artists” and their cultural depravity; and by wasting time and public resources instead of using them to better society by, for instance, creating jobs and expecting able-bodied persons to work for self-respect and responsibility instead of incentivizing a lawless, selfish, hard-hearted entitlement culture. You have no credibility when twisting this into somehow being about your “accomplishments.” You fail by making this about you.

Palin goes on, and on, and on trying to somehow make all of this about Obama's support of a woman's right to choose.

She also spits venom in the direction of the media, rappers, celebrities, Colin Kaepernick, and something called the "PC thought police."

However the statement by our President that seems to have pissed in her Wheaties, is simply this:  

Obama said he doesn’t believe racial tensions have gotten worse, but that the public exposure is more prevalent in the digital age. 

“In part because we see visuals of racial tensions, violence, and so forth; because of smart phones and the Internet,” the president said. 

“What we have seen as surfacing, I think, are a lot of problems that have been there a long time. 

“Whether it’s tensions between police and communities, hate crimes of the despicable sort that has just now recently surfaced on Facebook.”

I would bet you dollars to doughnuts that if this video featured white folks beating on a black person Palin would welcome those comments.

As for the silver lining comment that got her crusty panties all in a twist, that was simply this: 

“The good news is that the next generation that’s coming behind us … have smarter, better, more thoughtful attitudes about race. 

“I think the overall trajectory of race relations in this country is actually very positive. It doesn’t mean that all racial problems have gone away. It means that we have the capacity to get better.”

So all the President is doing is expressing hope in the future and confidence in the generations that will follow our own.

I guess living with that feral brood of wife beaters, drunks, and mattress backs that Palin calls family, must make it a little harder to drum up the same enthusiasm for the future.

However for the record the President is essentially right. The millennials are indeed far less likely to discriminate based on race, gender, or country of origin.

You know, the millenials that are not being raised in that compound by the dead lake that is.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Another racist rant from a Trump supporter caught on video.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

“I voted for Trump — so there,” the woman shouted. “You want to kick me out for that? And look who won.” 

The angry shopper claimed she had been discriminated against because she was white and had voted for Trump in the lengthy rant recorded Wednesday at Michael’s in the city’s Lakeview neighborhood. 

The woman, who has not been identified, noticed other customers had pulled out their phones to record her harangue, which witnesses said went on for more than a half hour, and she angrily confronted the woman whose video went viral. 

“I don’t know what you think you’re videoing, lady,” the woman says. “I was just discriminated against by two black women, and you being a white woman, you’re literally thinking that that’s okay? You standing there with your baby thinking that’s okay.”

Kind of reminds me of that guy on the plane from yesterday. 

Look I know that this is probably a little unfair to find these videos and use them to illustrate the average Trump voter.

However having said that perhaps a Trump supporter should attempt to get themselves videotaped doing something nice for a minority, or helping an elderly person who just lost their Medicare across the street, or perhaps just acting like a rational human being?

Because all they seem to be doing right now is confirming that the majority of Trump voters are indeed "deplorable."

Monday, November 21, 2016

Trump supporter interrupts "HAMILTON" in Chicago with shouts of "We won! You Lost! Get over it! F*ck you!" Such reasonable people.

Courtesy of Broadway World:  

Broadway World has learned that a Trump supporter interrupted the Saturday evening performance of Hamilton in Chicago. An audience member seated in the balcony allegedly shouted "We won! You Lost! Get over it! F*ck you!" during the number "Dear Theodosia." 

One Twitter user who attended the show alleges that the audience member also shouted profanities and had an altercation with security before being removed from the auditorium. 

One Facebook user wrote "At the end, the performers were crying... so was I. They didn't break characters once. They still sang their hearts out."

Later there there was an update that what seemed to incense the man was this line from the play, "immigrants, we get the job done," and the cheers which followed.

The man also admitted that he was intoxicated at the time, which I am sure is a condition that a lot of Trump supporters will share as they finally come to learn just who they put into the White House. 

I guess that this is the country that we live in today.

A country where people rudely interrupt a popular stage show, and act out in anger when confronted with knowledge of the contributions made by immigrants to this great nation.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Donald Trump claims that top Chicago cops told him that they could put an end to the violence in one week. Chicago police spokesman responds with "WTF?"

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune:

In an interview Monday night on the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor," Trump reiterated his past comments about Chicago violence being "out of control" and added that the Chicago police force does not have "the right people in charge." 

Fox host Bill O'Reilly asked Trump how to solve the city's crime problem, with homicides up nearly 50 percent. 

"How? By being very much tougher than they are right now. They're right now not tough. I could tell you this very long and quite boring story. But when I was in Chicago, I got to meet a couple of very top police. I said, 'How do you stop this? How do you stop this? If you were put in charge — to a specific person — do you think you could stop it?' He said, 'Mr. Trump, I'd be able to stop it in one week.' And I believed him 100 percent," Trump said. 

When O'Reilly asked whether the unnamed officer told him how, Trump said: "No, he wants to use tough police tactics, which is OK when you have people being killed." 

But Chicago police said Tuesday that Trump has not met with top brass. 

"No one in the senior command at CPD has ever met with Donald Trump or a member of his campaign," Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. 

Guglielmi clarified later that since at least March, when a Trump rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago was planned and ultimately canceled, none of the department's deputy superintendents, commanders of the city's 22 districts, chiefs of patrol or chiefs of detectives has met with Trump.

I imagine that after reading that a number of you thought, 'Big deal Donald Trump lies all of the time. We have come to expect it."

But that's the thing.

He DOES lie all of the time, and we HAVE come to expect it.

People are literally chalking it off to Donald being Donald.

And that is bullshit!

This man just lied about having a conversation with a top police official, that he did not have, in order to push his claim that the cops will magically be more effective once he is elected. And that as a result crime will go down.

And in response this news received very little media coverage, because, you know, it happens all of the time.

By contrast if Hillary had said this it would be on the front page of every major paper in the country and cable news would be covering it 24/7.

You know that's true.

Currently Trump and the conservative media are pushing the narrative that Hillary Clinton lies and that she cannot be trusted.

That is not a campaign strategy, that is projection. And EVERYBODY, and I mean EVERYBODY, needs to be calling them out over it.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Just a reminder that it is not the protesters throwing punches at the Trump rallies.

Courtesy of The Intellectualist:  

From a friend on Facebook: 

“Last night my friend’s good friend was badly beaten in front of her [teenage] daughter while she was holding a protest sign at the Trump rally in Chicago. 

Her arm was broke, her head had to be stapled and she’s in terrible shape as you can imagine. 

I don’t know all the details of what happened yet, but I find myself further wondering about his “fans”‘

I guess we can assume that if the person who did this to this poor woman is arrested that Trump will gladly pay his legal fees.

You know, because he is so against violence and everything. 

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Just for the sake of comparison THIS is how a real President handles protesters in Chicago.

Gee look at that.

No name calling, no violence, no police being called to clear the building.

Hot dog stand in Chicago trolls Donald Trump with 3 inch "footlong."

Courtesy of the Sun Times:

It seems like a lot of people have been talking about the size of Donald Trump’s manhood following last week’s GOP debate, and now The Wiener’s Circle in Chicago is getting in on the meaty action. 

It has rolled out “The Trump Art of the Meal” featuring the “Trump Footlong.” The only problem? The “footlong” comes up really, really short. In fact, it’s only a 3-inch mini dog.

 You know it's funny because it is undoubtedly accurate.

This my friends is what the conversation about our next president has devolved into.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Chicago police routinely sabotage their dashcams. I wondered when this would start to happen.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

The Chicago police officer who fatally shot black teenager Laquan McDonald intentionally damaged his dashcam and never synced his microphone to it. And he's not the only one. 

More than 1,800 police maintenance logs first obtained by DNAinfo Chicago show a disturbing trend of Chicago cops intentionally and routinely tampering with their dashcams and mics in an effort to block audio. 

Jason Van Dyke, the officer charged with fatally shooting 17-year-old McDonald in October 2014, caused "intentional damage" to his dashcam at least once, along with other instances of his dashcam breaking, the logs show. The day of the killing, audio wasn't picked up by Van Dyke's car, nor by the squad car next to his. 

Here is that video.

Originally the police claimed that there was no need for dashcams and bodycams because the incidents of police brutality were so far and few between.

Since the introduction of these devices we have learned that not only is that not true, but that the incidents are more widespread and constant than anybody had anticipated.

So widespread in fact that now cops are trying to destroy evidence of their crimes so that they can continue abusing their power and stomping on the rights of the people they are sworn to protect.

If anything I think it is clear that not only do we need more cameras, but that there needs to be some serious oversight controlling the officer's ability to interfere with their audio and visual recordings.

Saturday, July 04, 2015

Chicago brewery stops making beer for Donald Trump, renames leftover beer "Fuck your hair."

Courtesy of Boing Boing:  

A Latino-owned brewery in the Chicago area is renaming leftover beer they produced for Donald Trump, after he called Mexican immigrants "rapists" and drug dealers. 

"We would be doing an injustice to the community we serve (and live in) by engaging in business with someone who does not accept our role in society and expresses a rhetoric of hate and ignorance towards us," said Andres Araya, co-owner of the 5 Rabbit Cerveceria brewery. 

Araya told Chicago radio station WBEZ the brewery is going to stop making beer for Trump Tower's Rebar, and instead insult the orange-haired pendejo by re-christening what's left 'Fuck Your Hair.' 

The 50 remaining kegs of the summer golden ale will be sold to Chicago area bars under the name “Chinga Tu Pelo."

Okay does anybody else suddenly want to buy beer from this company? 

Because though I rarely drink beer, I kinda do.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Chicago investigating mysterious robo-calls that caused 2,000 election judges not to show up on election resulting in seven hour long lines at the polls. Want to guess which political party was responsible?

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

Chicago election judges received misleading and factually incorrect robocalls before the midterm, causing close to 2,000 of them to not show up on Election Day. As a criminal investigation gets underway, the Chicago Sun-Times has tied the calls to two Republican activists while the Republican Party has denied involvement and distanced itself from the party members who it claims acted alone. (Yeah, sure they did.)

An unknown number of election judges received one or more automated phone calls that informed them about an additional required training session or told them they needed to vote a certain way in order to keep their position. As a result, polling places across the city were understaffed and lines reached seven hours in some precincts. A smaller number of voters were turned away from certain locations. 

The city was forced to dispatch standby election judges when some polling places had just one or no election judges present at 6 a.m. when polls were scheduled to open. At the time, the Chicago Board of Elections said it didn’t know who made the calls or why they were sent out. The Cook County State’s Attorney has launched a criminal investigation and Mayor Rahm Emanuel called for hearings on the robocalls.

Of course this is on top of gerrymandering that has made some Republican strongholds bullet proof, and the influx of enough corporate money to drown a medium size city under a tidal wave of dollar bills.

You know I did not play too many team sports growing up as I don't work or play well with others. However I did compete in individual sports like powerlifting, wrestling, and martial arts.

And I cannot think of one of my coaches or instructors who would EVER have encouraged me to cheat in order to win. Even if winning were the most important thing in the world to them.

I was raised to try my hardest, refuse to give up, and to accept defeat graciously if I could find no path to victory.

Losing sucks balls. But winning, when you know you do not deserve to win, well that would shame me to my very core.

And what type of people do we have running our local and federal governments, if they have no problem showing up for a job that they know they do not deserve? How can we expect them to be ethical and honest, if they got where they are by being the exact opposite?

Because if you have to cheat, lie, and bully in order to get into a position of power, than that is the very last place you should be. 

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Bristol Palin's blog continues to be used to attack the President.

From Brancy's blog:

Wow — this is powerful. People from Chicago tell the President to resign. 

This person from Alaska agrees.

Well of course she does, that's why her mother got her a blog. And a ghostwriter to tell her what to think.

The group Rebel Pundit is apparently an Andrew Breitbart inspired group who go out into the streets and capture video of people saying negative things about liberals, the President, and the Democrats and then carefully edits it together to look as if the whole country is turning against them. (By the way I can find nothign about this "Manchild movement" advertised on those t-shirts.)

It was founded by Jeremy Segal a Breitbart contributor who specializes in the kind of "gotcha journalism" for which a certain half term governor once expressed so much disdain.

Here is part of an interview that Segal conducted with outgoing White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley while the poor guy was waiting to board a flight in 2012:

Breitbart News: Jeremy Segal with Breitbart News. I wanted to ask you two quick questions. 

Bill Daley: OK, sure. 

Breitbart News: I wanted to know if it dissapointed you that the president took on the Catholic Church? 

Daley: Who are you with again? 

Breitbart News: Breitbart News. 

Bill Daley: Is that a blog or something? 

Breitbart News: Yes, and a national news site. You know Andrew Breitbart? 

Bill Daley: Oh yeah, isn't that the guy that died? 

Breitbart News: What are your feelings about--or were you dissapointed that the president took on the Catholic Church? 

Bill Daley: He didn't take on the church... 

Breitbart News: He didn't? 

Bill Daley: No, there are some differences in view on certain issues, but he didn't take on the church. 

Breitbart News: Did you leave the White House because of Valerie Jarrett? 

Bill Daley: No. 

Breitbart News: Would you care to elaborate on that? 

Bill Daley: No, it had nothing to do with Valerie Jarrett.

Such hard hitting journalism, don't you think?

And now Palin's constantly impregnated cub is pimping gutter style journalism for one of the few Right Wing sites that still take her mother seriously.

Kind of sad really.

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Is it any wonder that teachers are becoming more and more fed up with their profession?

This description from the YouTube page:  

This presenter was one of several consultants flown in from California and the United Kingdom for the Chicago Public Schools' Office of Strategic School Support Services' special network. This is a professional development for teachers of Saturday ISAT preparation classes.

To be clear this are accredited teachers, many with years of experience, being treated as if they themselves are children. 

Here is how one educator described what they were seeing on this video: Yes, you can make a lot of things look bad taken out of context, but I don’t think a case can be made that this is appropriate for any professional development, or classroom, context…

I may be somewhat hyper sensitive to this personally because I myself am in the last month of a three month mandatory training process that has provided me with NO new information, and during which I have been called upon repeatedly by the newly hired instructors to provide context or clarification for what they are trying to teach.

I have been more than slightly irritated during this training, but at least they have never treated us as poorly as the Chicago teachers in the video.

I can assure all of you that if anybody addressed me in such a manner I would gather my things and walk out never to return again. And I would not give two shits if it were mandatory or not.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Data reveals that Chicago charter schools expel students at an alarming rate. Hey, got to keep those test scores high.

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune:  

As it continues to modify strict disciplinary policies in an effort to keep students in the classroom, Chicago Public Schools on Tuesday released data showing privately run charter schools expel students at a vastly higher rate than the rest of the district. 

The data reveal that during the last school year, 307 students were kicked out of charter schools, which have a total enrollment of about 50,000. In district-run schools, there were 182 kids expelled out of a student body of more than 353,000. 

That means charters expelled 61 of every 10,000 students while the district-run schools expelled just 5 of every 10,000 students. 

It's the first time the district has released student suspension data for every school and also the first time it has released data on expulsions for charters. For charter critics, the numbers will buttress long-standing complaints that the privately run operations push out troubled students, allowing their schools to record stronger academic performances.

Sure must be easy to keep those test scores high when you can kick all of the disruptive or academically challenged kids to the curb whenever they threaten to bring them down.

In public schools expelling children is the last resort, and there are all kinds of modifications made to a struggling students education plan, or behavioral plan to help them to be successful.

I know I have helped to develop these, and implement these.

To put it bluntly, if I had been a student in a charter school it is highly likely that I would have been expelled in the tenth grade. If not before.

Instead I graduated with honors, and was considered a leader in my school.

You cannot turn behaviors around, and help make successful those who are a challenge, if your bottom line is a dollar sign.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

The day that you realize you are even too racist for the Republican party.

Courtesy of Chicago Tribune:  

A Downstate Illinois GOP county chairman resigned Thursday after likening former Miss America Erika Harold, who's challenging a sitting Republican congressman in next year’s primary election, to a "street walker" whose "pimps" were Democrats and moderate Republicans. 

Jim Allen of Farmersville, the chairman of the Montgomery County GOP, sent the resignation letter today to new Illinois Republican Chairman Jack Dorgan. Dorgan called Allen’s remarks “offensive and inappropriate.” 

Allen, who supports freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville, made his remarks in an e-mail to a supporter of Harold. She is the 2003 Miss America from Urbana and a former Chicago attorney. 

In the e-mail, which was later posted online, Allen referred to Harold as a “little queen” and the “love child” of the Democratic National Committee. Allen also wrote that after losing the 2014 March primary Harold would end up back in Chicago --- though he used a derogatory spelling --- “working for some law firm that needs to meet their quota for minority hires.” Harold is African American. 

Allen later acknowledged to the State Journal-Register of Springfield that his comments were “very inappropriate” and said he had apologized to Harold and her supporters. Allen was unavailable for comment today. 

But on Thursday, Allen submitted his resignation to state GOP officials after being urged to do so by National Republican Chairman Reince Priebus and by U.S. Rep. Davis. 

Priebus, who heads a political party actively seeking to improve its outreach to racial and ethnic groups following the 2012 elections, said “the astonishingly offensive views” expressed by Allen have no place in the party. “His behavior is inexcusable and must not be tolerated,” Priebus said.

You know I rarely have anything good to say about GOP Chairman "Reince Twice and Prebus," but good for him in telling this guy to hit the sticks.

The only problem in getting rid of the racists within the Republican party of course, is who would still be left?

Of course the evicted racists would always land on their feet and find a new home. After all aren't the Teabaggers always threatening to start a new party?

Perhaps even newly outed racist Paula Deen can find a new home there.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Michelle Obama tears up while speaking to Chicago audience about need for stricter gun laws.

Courtesy of Mediaite: 

First lady Michelle Obama became emotional on Wednesday as she addressed a Chicago audience and urged their support for stricter gun laws. She described the shooting death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, who had sung at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration just days before her shooting death, and asked if the nation was doing enough for children like Pendleton. 

“I think my husband put it best when he spoke to the people of Newtown, Connecticut, back in December,” Michelle Obama began. “This is our first task – caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t’ get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged. And by that measure, can we truly say as a nation that we’re meeting our obligations?” 

“It was the question weighing on my heart when I met with Hadiya Pendleton’s classmates on the day of her funeral,” the first lady continued. 

She became emotional describing how Pendleton’s classmates remembered the slain teen at her funeral. “It is hard to know what to say to a room full of teenagers who are about to bury their best friend,” Mrs. Obama said. “I told them that there is a reason we are here on this earth. That each of us has a mission in this world, and I urged them to use their lives to give meaning to Hadiya’s life.”

Damn that got to me as well. Very emotional and clearly she was speaking quite honestly, and directly from her heart.

So stay tuned for the attacks from the Right Wing, because you KNOW they are coming!

Best First Lady ever!