Effin Retards Present Blackmail Demands To Obama

Now don't blame me for the headline, I am just quoting that great American and Democrat mayor of Chicago who besides blasting progressives has also taken the unprecedented step of laying off over 600 union employees this weekend.

Last August, Emanuel "showed up at a weekly strategy session featuring liberal groups and White House aides," the Journal's Peter Wallsten reported lastTuesday."Some attendees said they were planning to air ads attacking conservative Democrats who were balking at Mr. Obama's health-care overhaul. 'F—ing retarded,' Mr. Emanuel scolded the group, according to several participants. He warned them not to alienate lawmakers whose votes would be needed on health care and other top legislative items."

Does this qualify as calling PrezBo's bluff?

Pressuring President Obama from his left, activists showed up at his campaign headquarters in Chicago Friday with 200,000 signed pledges from volunteers and donors from his last campaign saying they will not volunteer or donate to his re-election campaign if he agrees to Republican demands for cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or social security.

Baby Barry doesn't have much to worry about however. These 'activists' pledge to still vote for him they just ain't gonna give him any money. These lefties really don't know how to play poker do they?

The Year of Living Dangerously

Instapundit posted a link to the FBI crime stats for 2010 that was embedded in an article listing a ranking of the 10 Most Dangerous Cities. I was surprised to see that Atlanta was not on that list. I think the way Atlanta avoided it was due to the nature of the way the city limit lines are drawn. When it comes to number of murders, Atlanta is still high on the list, but these numbers would be even worse if they took into account the numbers from the south side of the county that Atlanta is located in but are separate cities.

Here is a list based solely on number of murders, and the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, apparently is killing a lot of people with all that love while Barry O's hometown has a death toll rivaling the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan in 2010. (499)

New York City, NY pop 8,336,002 Murders 536
Chicago, IL pop 2,833,649 Murders 432
Detroit, MI pop 899,447 Murders 310
Philadelphia, PA pop 1,558,378 Murders 306
Los Angeles, CA pop 3,841,707 Murders 293
Houston, TX pop 2,280,859 Murders 269
Baltimore, MD pop 639,929 Murders 223
Dallas, TX pop 1,306,775 Murders 148
St Louis, MO pop 355,151 Murders 144
Washington D.C. pop 601,723 Murders 132
Phoenix AZ pop 1,544,427 Murders 117
Las Vegas, NV pop 1,416,401 Murders 107
Kansas City, MO pop 483,191 Murders 99
Oakland, CA pop 409,723 Murders 90

Just for an FYI, I thought I would throw in the statistics for Michael Moore's alleged hometown of Flint, MI.
Flint, MI pop 109,245 Murders 53

The Chicago Way: City Hall Hired 139 Ex-Cons in Two-year Span

Carjackers, drug dealers, cop shooters. What have they all got in common? They're now working for the City of Chicago. I'm wondering how much time Obama pal Tony Rezko has left to serve in prison. No doubt Mayor Rahm will do his old boss a favor and hire him when he leaves the joint, right?

One of them smuggled cocaine from Jamaica about a decade ago. Another was a carjacker. A third was convicted in the shooting of two Chicago cops in the 1970s, hitting one of them in the face.

They are among 139 people who got hired by the City of Chicago over the past two years despite having been convicted of crimes. That’s according to a list of all of the city’s hires of ex-cons in 2009 and 2010 obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

Mayor Daley has said ex-offenders deserve a second chance and has made that his policy at City Hall.

Those hired under that policy include one person convicted of a crime who’d been on the “clout list” that was made public during the trial of Daley’s former patronage chief, Robert Sorich. Sorich went to prison after being convicted in federal court in 2006 of overseeing an illegal hiring scheme that gave city jobs and promotions to people with clout.

“Of course I needed clout to get on,” acknowledged the ex-con, speaking only on the condition of anonymity.

He was first hired by the city in the 1990s and has been rehired every year since as a “seasonal” worker. He now drives a truck for the city Department of Aviation.

His political sponsor, according to the Sorich clout list, was former Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers (29th), now a convict himself, serving a 28-month term in federal prison after being convicted last year of corruption in a zoning case.

There’s no set formula for deciding whether to recommend an ex-offender be hired, according to the city policy. Job applicants aren’t asked whether they have a criminal record when they apply. Instead, they’re asked for that information and to submit their fingerprints for a background check only after they’ve been given a conditional job offer.

It’s up to the city’s Human Resources Department to then recommend whether an ex-offender should be hired, city officials say, taking into account factors including the nature of the crime, the number of offenses, the length of time since the last conviction and any evidence of rehabilitation. In 2009, for instance, the agency recommended against hiring 18 prospective employees with criminal records, according to the city.

The final decision, though, rests with the head of the department where the employee would work.

Officials balked at first when asked to provide the list of ex-cons hired by the city. They released that information only after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan determined that the records were a matter of public record and had to be released.

Tamardeize Dukes is among the ex-offenders on the list. She was hired despite a federal drug conviction. Dukes was sentenced to probation in 2003 for smuggling cocaine from Jamaica to Chicago in return for $2,500 from a trafficker.

Ald. Carrie Austin (34th), the head of the City Council’s Budget and Government Operations Committee, hired Dukes as a legislative aide in early 2009 because, she says: “I think everyone should have a second chance. I have hired quite a few of them [ex-offenders]. Some of them, I am quite proud of. I have had thugs who have become pillars of society, young people who went on to become college-educated. But it does not work with everybody.”

It didn’t with Dukes. She lasted in the job just two months before Austin decided she wasn’t qualified after all, and asked her to leave.

Austin says she didn’t know at the time she hired Dukes that, beside being an ex-con, she also was facing additional criminal charges. As a result of those, Dukes, now 34, was found guilty in January and again sentenced to probation, this time for being an accessory to a 2008 theft in which two other women stole cash, credit cards and a badge from the purse of a woman who turned out to be a deputy U.S. marshal who was shopping at a Target store at Golf Mill Shopping Center in Niles.

Chicago Mayoral Candidate: Only Blacks Should Be Considered Minorities

Don't you just love it when the mask drops and these racists expose themselves for all to see?

Mayoral challenger James Meeks came under fire Thursday for suggesting that only African-Americans should be eligible for city contracts set aside for minorities and women.

Meeks made the statement on Wednesday during an interview on WVON Radio.

It happened during a discussion of why African-American businesses got a 7 percent sliver of Chicago’s $1 billion spending pie through Aug. 31, down from 8 percent a year ago.

“The word ‘minority’ from our standpoint should mean African-American. I don’t think women, Asians and Hispanics should be able to use that title,” he said. “That’s why our numbers cannot improve — because we use women, Asians and Hispanics who are not people of color, who are not people who have been discriminated against.”

Thankfully he realized how racist he appeared and quickly backtracked. Well, sort of.

Hours later, Meeks backtracked on his comments, saying he would only exclude white women from set asides if elected mayor. The set-aside program currently earmarks 25 percent of all city contracts for minorities and 5 percent for companies owned by women.

“I don’t believe white women should be considered in that count.… You have white women in the category. They receive contracts. Then, white men receive contracts. Where does that leave everybody else?” he said in an interview with Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 news.

Damn white people messing up those cherished racial set-asides. What's this world coming to?

This guy makes Rahm Emanuel look palatable.

Of course in a normal world these affirmative action set-asides would be outlawed and the most qualified people would be awarded contracts, but Chicago long ago stopped being sane.

Your Muslim Supporting DOJ At Work

Glad to have that whole Blank Panther voter intimidation business behind them the Department of Justice has moved on to bigger game. The civil rights division has launched a lawsuit against a Chicago school district for denying a teacher three weeks off to go on the hajj.

In a civil rights case, the department said the school district in Berkeley, Ill., denied the request of Safoorah Khan on grounds that her requested leave was unrelated to her professional duties and was not set forth in the contract between the school district and the teachers union. In doing so the school district violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to reasonably accommodate her religious practices, the government said.

To me the case is a fairly simple one if a judge or a defense attorney asks the following questions.

1) By reasonable religious accommodations does this extend to teachers who may bring religious symbols such as crucifixes attached to necklaces or wearing of a Star of David?

2) Has any other teacher been denied time off to attend special religious observances such as visiting the Wailing Wall or trip to Jerusalem?

Is it unreasonable for somebody to take a 3 week leave of absence? Not really. Think of somebody recovering from a medical condition or a somebody taking time off after the birth of child. The difference is that in most cases the person is physically incapable of performing their job. This is a lot different from being denied time to attend an annual event.

A commentator on the Fox news story also pointed this out.

The Hadj is not based on the solar calender, it is based on a lunar calender. Hence, the Hadj she wishes to attemd will happen in the summer, during the school's summer break, just lik eit did this year.

If the woman used the skills she shold have learned whilst aquiring her teaching certificates, she should have been able to figure this out.

Hopefully somebody will point this out to the clueless DOJ, not that it will matter, but hopefully it is brought up if this thing actually goes to trial and the school district doesn't cave to the blackmail.

Chicago Man Arrested After Seeking Change, Political Transformation

Another poor misguided Muslim not satisfied with the pace of political change in Chicago. He should have gotten into community organizing instead.

A 22-year-old North Side man who wanted to bring political change to the city was arrested early Sunday after placing a backpack which he thought contained explosives into a trash can on a crowded street near Wrigley Field.

Sami Samir Hassoun, a Lebanese citizen and permanent U.S. resident, was arrested just after midnight Sunday morning without incident on North Seminary Avenue near the 3500 block of North Clark Street by members of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, according to a release from the FBI.

The arrest followed an investigation that accelerated in June, according to the release. The FBI said the public was never in danger as the explosive device was provided to Hassoun by an undercover agent.

A federal criminal complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court alleges Hassoun's motivation for planning the attack was a combination of greed and political dissatisfaction.

In June, Hassoun, of the 4700 block of North Kedzie, began expressing to an associate the desire to commit acts of violence in the city for monetary gain and to cause political transformation, the complaint alleges. Unbeknownst to him, his associate was secretly cooperating with the FBI.

Through the summer, Hassoun discussed a number of possible plots, including a biological attack on the city, poisoning Lake Michigan, attacking police officers, bombing the Willis Tower or assassinating Mayor Daley, the complaint alleges.

Eventually, he selected the Wrigleyville area as his target, and planned to detonate an explosive device on a weekend night to inflict maximum damage, the complaint alleges.

While the cooperating witness told Hassoun repeatedly, and the suspect at times agreed, not to kill anyone, he allegedly said he wanted to plan a "diversionary incident, followed by a more substantial strike that would likely result in casualties," the complaint alleges.

Hassoun told the undercover agent he was not motivated by religious ideology, but did suggest in a meeting on June 14 that terrorists motivated by extremist views of Islam could be framed for his proposed actions, the release said.

When an undercover agent told Hassoun his motivation was to change the way the United States treated "our people back home," Hassoun, according to the complaint, said, "Mine is a kind of a different concept than this.”

He saw attacking Chicago as a means of creating chaos to gain political control of the city and its sources of revenue, the release said.

Chicago: Hotbed of Radical Islamists

What's going on in Chicago? They're got cabbies linked to al Qaida, men linked to the Mumbai massacre and now a report of a man arrested who wanted to blow up American soldiers.

Counterterrorism agents in Chicago say they secretly followed a 26-year-old man from the city's Near North Side for nearly two years as he plotted to become a global Jihadist and even dreamed of executing a suicide bomb attack on American soldiers.

After determining that Shaker Masri of the Streeterville neighborhood had airplane tickets to leave Chicago this morning to carry out his mission, federal authorities say they stopped Masri and arrested him.

One attack scenario was allegedly discussed by Masri when he saw several soldiers walking on a Chicago street. On a secretly-recorded undercover tape, Masri discussed blowing himself up next to a busload of American soldiers.

He was arrested Tuesday at 5:30 PM by federal agents who say they interrupted Masri's plan to destroy his computer prior to departing Chicago. He was ticketed on a Southwest Airlines flight, scheduled to leave Wednesday morning for Los Angeles, where he would then depart the country.

In a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday morning in Chicago, Masri is accused of two federal counts: that he tried to provide material support to Al Qaeda and Somali Al Qaeda affiliate Al Shabab, and that he tried to provide material support in a concealed or disguised manner to fund the use of a WMD.

Funny, but you never do see Tea Partiers being arrested for any of this stuff.

Who knows, maybe these guys are influenced by all the incendiary rhetoric heard from community leaders like Louis Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers.

It's a good thing Obama has reached out the Muslimm community. Really seems to be paying dividends in his hometown.

Chicago Cop Gunned Down Following Shift Guarding Daley's Home

Oh my. One can only imagine the anti-gun fervor to follow.

A 62-year-old police uniformed officer who had finished his shift guarding Mayor Daley’s home overnight was killed after 6 a.m. when at least two men tried to steal his Buick outside the officer’s house in the Chatham neighborhood Sunday, sources said.

The officer was to retire in two weeks under mandatory rules and had bought himself a retirement gift of the new vehicle, he said. There were bullet holes through the windshield of the car at 74th and Evans.

Sources said there were three guns found on the scene and that the officer’s gun was empty and open, and so he may have been able to fire at the robbers.

Calumet Area detectives were on the scene.

Independent Police Review Authority spokesman Curtis Tarver said he had been notified that an officer was shot. The IPRA investigates all police-involved shootings. rules and had bought himself a retirement gift of the new vehicle, he said. There were bullet holes through the windshield of the car at 74th and Evans.

Our condolences to the officer's family and friends. It's a sad comment on the miserable condition Chicago is in under Daley's leadership that even law enforcement isn't safe from the monsters who roam the streets.

Greedy Construction Unions Set to Strike in Chicago

What have they got to fear? They've got Obama in their back pocket, the Mayor of Chicago is more interested in abolishing the Second Amendment and if they don't get their way they'll just strong-arm businesses to get what they want.

It's the Chicago Way on full display.

Construction workers are preparing to strike as soon as Thursday, which would bring road-building projects such as the repaving of the Eisenhower Expressway to a standstill.

Contracts covering 15,000 Chicago-area heavy equipment operators and laborers expired June 1, but the two sides kept working in hopes of reaching a new agreement.

Talks broke down Monday, according to Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, the heavy-equipment operators’ union.

Negotiations are playing out during one of the worst recessions ever in the construction industry, with unemployment topping 20% and construction companies reeling financially.

Construction already is behind this season as funding from the state’s five-year capital bill dribbles out.

A strike would delay projects further, forcing crews to race to complete jobs before winter hits.

Employers are seeking to corral their costs, while workers are trying to maintain benefit levels, particularly health care.

Companies have offered a 1% increase in overall wages and benefits over the next three years, and workers are seeking 5%, a source familiar with negotiations said.

“We’re not seeking to unrealistically increase wages in this difficult economic climate,” says James Connolly, business manager for the Laborers’ District Council of Chicago. “But what they have come to the table with represents a significant cut to our members and jeopardizes the stability of our fringe benefit funds. And we will not settle for that.”

Tom Nordeen, chairman of the Mid-America Regional Bargaining Assn., which is representing the companies, said, "Despite the economic conditions, the locals of the Chicagoland region are asking for significant raises well in excess of cost-of-living and a continuation of their traditional rich health and retirement plans."

While unemployment in some parts of Chicago is 20% or more, these spoiled children what what they've got and more and damn if they're going to pay a nickel more for their lavish health care plans. The private sector is paying through the nose and these ingrates laugh and make threats.

They wonder why people hold these thugs in such contempt.

H/T Organized Exploitation.

Just Another Night in Mr. Obama's Neighborhood

Who knows, maybe Obama can talk LeBron James into coming to Chicago. Then they can have a basketball summit or something and the carnage might slow down to where only five or so people are being shot every night in Obama's disorganized community.

At least nine people were shot on a hot night on Chicago's South Side, with one of them killed, authorities said. No one was in custody for any of the shootings this morning.

The fatality was a 35-year-old man who was shot dead while he was standing outside a vehicle near Washington Park, police said. The shooting happened about 9:10 p.m. in the 5800 block of South Russell Drive.

About an hour later, a 22-year-old man was shot in his leg in the 8000 block of South Saginaw Avenue. The victim heard shots and felt a pain in his leg, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition.

Less than an hour later, three more men were shot in the 8500 block of South Hoyne Avenue. They were playing cards outside when shots rang out at about 11:20 p.m. Sunday, police said. A 24-year-old man was shot in his left leg. A 25-year-old suffered a wound to his right arm and a 21-year-old was shot in his right leg and hand, police said.

All three were treated at Holy Cross Hospital where they were listed in good condition, said Police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro.

Shortly after midnight, a 27-year-old man was wounded in an apparent drive-by shooting in the 8400 block of South Hamilton Avenue, police said. He was standing outside when a person in a white vehicle opened fire in his direction. The man suffered a gunshot wound to his left leg.

About 12:50 a.m., an 18-year-old man was shot in his leg near a South Side beach. Police responded to the shooting in the 5700 block of South Lake Shore Drive and found the victim. He was taken to University of Chicago Hospitals where he was listed in good condition, Alfaro said.

At about 1:35 a.m., a 27-year-old man was shot in the 10700 block of South Wabash Avenue, police said. He was standing on the street when someone drove past and opened fire. He was shot in the right hand and was taken to Roseland Community Hospital.

In addition, a 25-year-old man was shot in the neck and critically injured early Monday morning in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, police said.

At about 2:45 a.m., police responded to shots fired in the 4100 block of South Indiana Avenue and found the man with a gunshot wound to his neck. He was taken in critical condition to Stroger Hospital, police said.

Someone wake up Mayor Daley. He needs to hold a press conference to blame the guns and threaten some reporters.

'If I Put This Up Your Butt, You'll Find Out How Effective It Is'

 

So nice to see Chicago Mayor Richard Daley suggesting he'd like to sodomize a reporter with a gun. Not only that, he also says if Supreme Court justices were attacked with guns they'd come to their senses and agree with his Draconian stance on gun laws.

All this while another Chicago cop was just shot to death in hiw lawless city.

The Chicago Way, I guess. Ignore nthe criminals and go after people looking to protect themselves.

In anti-handgun Chicago, criminals aren't bothered by Mayor Richard Daley's handgun ban. They haven't been bothered for years.

And so another Chicago police officer was shot to death. But it wasn't during a traffic stop or some hunt through an alley after a drug sting.

Thomas Wortham IV, 30, was a victim of a robbery, shot down outside his boyhood home in the staunchly middle-class Chatham neighborhood, his body dragged 100 feet or so by the getaway car.

The thugs were trying to steal his motorcycle, a gift to himself upon his return from a second tour of duty in Iraq as a first lieutenant in the Army National Guard.

Wortham, a patrol officer, was helping his neighbors reclaim a troubled neighborhood park, the scene of several recent shootings.

"He was the best of us. He was a role model. He was 30 years old, a grown man, a police officer, a soldier, a man of service," said Ald. Freddrenna Lyle, 6th, who has known the Wortham family since she was a child.

"It was 'Yes, ma'am' and 'No, sir' from him. He had self-respect. He was teaching these young men how to be men," she said.

I talked to Lyle on a side street in Chatham just after she'd paid a long condolence call to the Wortham family, as neighbors stood out on their sidewalks, agonizing over the loss.

The front lawns were neat and small. Backyard gardens were places of old-fashioned flowers, peonies and phlox and tea-roses. It is a neighborhood carefully tended.

At that moment, Mayor Daley was holding a news conference, another dog-and-pony show at City Hall to demonstrate his tough stance on crime.

He called it to express his concern that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the city's handgun ban. There were guns on a table as props, so much eye candy for the cameras.

A reporter asked the obvious question: Given the numbers of shootings in the city, isn't the handgun ban ineffective?

The question was more than fair. In Chicago, the only people who are confident in their 2nd Amendment rights to bear arms are the criminals, the cops and the politicians.

Law-abiding citizens can't own handguns. They don't have an army of bodyguards, as does Daley. Political hacks have guns. They get out the vote for his machine.

And the retired neighbor who's never been arrested in his life? Oh, no. If he has a gun, it would be anarchy in the streets, according to Daley.

Confronted with a logical question, here's what the mayor did: He picked up a rifle from the prop table of guns, raised it and began to babble.

"It's been very effective," said Daley of the handgun ban. "If I put this up your butt, you'll find out how effective it is. Let me put a round up your, you know."

The mayor of Chicago then went on to say if the justices were attacked by thugs with guns, they'd see things his way.

"Maybe they'll see the light of day," Daley said. "Maybe one of them will have an incident, and they'll change their mind overnight, going to and from work."

This is your brain on liberalism.

Daley has been a bully his entire life, a child of muscle and privilege, and now he's terrified at the prospect that his citizens might think he's lost control of the streets.

The police despise him. Their department is terribly understaffed and overworked. Taxpayers want more cops. But there's no money for additional police because Daley wasted it all, hundreds of millions of dollars year after year after year on deals for his cronies.

While Daley spent his life pushing weaker people around, Thomas Wortham spent his life as a man of service. Now he's cold at the funeral home, waiting for burial.

I blame Daley.

You Are Safer In Iraq Than Chicago

Yesterday a police officer was slain in Chicago. He was also an Army veteran who had served in Iraq. Two tours. He was killed in front of his house. In front of his father. All for a motorcycle. Done by a group of people who believe they are entitled to what you have worked for. So far the only good news out of this story is that the father managed to put down one of the killers. The others are being rounded up, and no doubt very shortly will be getting the full fawning media attention and back stories on how rough their lives were growing up and how they didn't get the attention as kids.

BS.

Wortham's father -- a retired Chicago Police sergeant, a member of former Mayor Harold Washington's security detail and, like his son, a military veteran -- was on his porch when he saw two men approach and try to rob his son, a source said. The younger Wortham loudly announced he was a police officer, then one of the men shot him in the head. Wortham's father came to his aid and shot two of the attackers, killing one -- Brian Floyd, 20, of the 3700 block of South Wentworth, police said. Charges were pending against the injured suspect.

I also wish to call to task the Chicago Sun Times, which in an otherwise good article about Thomas Wortham, the slain officer and Iraq veteran, mentioned his military service, but seemed unable to give a branch. The press reports differ. One source I checked says Army Reserves another says he was member of the Illinois National Guard and was 1st Lieutenant, that means an officer. Even now we have nobody in the press who can verify military information and that is just sad and a disappointing commentary on the state of journalism in this country.



There is just something so wrong with somebody serving two tours in a supposed war zone only to return home and get gunned down on the front lawn.

All four suspects have now been caught, killed or wounded. The gutless wonders didn't have the cojones to shoot it out like I hoped they would so the taxpayers would be spared the cost of a trial.

The video was from earlier and while it states no suspects had been caught here is a link to an article which states that all have been rounded up. One is dead, one is in the hospital wounded, and the remaining two were caught.

And Barry O wanted Chicago to host the Olympics.

Chicago Strip Club Cashes In On Palin

Well, she was in Chicago last night, and so were a bunch of lookalikes. Frankly I'm surprised it took this long.

This was, if nothing else, free-market capitalism at work.

On the same night that Sarah Palin spoke before thousands in Rosemont, a Chicago gentlemen's club held a Sarah Palin look-alike contest.

Price of a Palin ticket: $54 to $297. Price of a faux-Palin ticket: $10 to $25.

We don't know how much the real Sarah Palin made from her event. But the look-alike contest winner, a Brazilian stripper who gave her name as Eloah Rocha, earned what the club said was a $2,500 first prize.

For recognizing the allure of mixing Palin and sex, the strip joint, Lawrence Avenue's Admiral Theatre, got to pack the place on a Wednesday night and, probably most important, won media attention as far away as Seattle, club officials said.

As for the contest, it was essentially seven professional dancers with ties to the Admiral taking turns doffing their obligatory glasses and most of the rest of their vaguely Palinesque get-ups.

One was "oil-drilling Palin" (she struck baby oil), another was "Bible Palin" (though not a stickler about it), still another "hunting Palin." By the end of their dances, though, all had on eerily similar costumes. It was quite a coincidence.

The one potential contestant in Palin attire who seemed to be from outside the Admiral said thanks, but no thanks, to competing. Before things started, she said she didn't want her name used or photo taken and soon scurried out of the theater as she realized press would be sticking around.

The winner was presented with an oversized novelty check.

A Community Disorganized: Chicago Democrats Want National Guard Brought In

Heckuva legacy you left back in Chicago, Barack. Seems like those vaunted community organizing skills have left Chicago awash in blood.

In order to curb Chicago’s rampant and increasing outbreak of violence, State Representatives John Fritchey (D-11th District) and LaShawn Ford (D-8th District) want to call in the National Guard. Yesterday, the legislators urged city and state officials to use the Guard to bolster a thinly stretched Chicago Police. “As we speak, National Guard members are working side-by-side with our troops to fight a war halfway around the world,” said Representative Fritchey via press release, “…we have another war that is just as deadly taking place right in our backyard.”

While rampant violence is always cause for alarm, not everyone in Chicago is exactly on board with the idea. Police Superintendent Jody Weis said “As much as I'd like to have as much help as possible, I'm not sure that mixing the National Guard with local law enforcement is the solution.” Professor Dennis Rosenbaum, a criminologist at the University of Illinois Chicago backed Weis’s position, pointing out in an interview with ABC that military training does not extend to concepts like search and seizure or evidence protection. Mayor Daley responded by saying “I don’t think it’s a long term solution, but I understand what the community is thinking.”

Of course, this isn't the first time the suggestion has been made.

Reactionary methods to combat crime in this manner have popped up before. In 2008, then Governor Blagojevich floated the idea, but ultimately backed away. Former Governor Jim Thompson faced the same issue two decades ago and also declined. While deploying troops in our streets might seem like a good idea in the face of the abhorrent violence the city has seen, a military presence does not address the root causes of crime and violence.

Oh yeah, root causes, whatever those are. But if we point out some of those root causes, like an alarming out-of-wedlock rate, a culture of entitlement, the gangsta rap lifestyle, well, you're reflexively called raaaaacist.

Jesse Jackson has spent his entire life in the Grievance Industry while based in Chicago and hasn't done a damn thing to help the problem, other than blaming it on The Man. Well, now that his man is The Man, he's noticeably silent. Must be off planning to shake down the folks in Arizona or something.

What the folks in Chicago really need is regime change in City Hall, for starters.

Obama's supposedly some great orator. Maybe in between rounds of golf he can pack up his TelePrompter and go give a speech on the South Side and tell these punks to stop shooting each other every day. Perhaps he can give back to the community by taking that million dollars he got from Goldman Sachs and sponsoring a jobs program. He's busy traipsing around the world apologizing for being an American; maybe he can go back to Chicago and apologize to his old neighborhood for being such a lousy community organizer.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Chicago Cabbie Linked to al Qaeda

They sure do know how to grow those terrorists in Chicago. I wonder if this guy knows Bill Ayers?

Federal authorities say they've unearthed a Chicago taxi driver's plot to send money to al-Qaida as part of an undercover investigation that involved secretly recording the man in his own cab as recently as two weeks ago.

Raja Lahrasib Khan, a taxi driver who claimed he had ties to Ilyas Kashmiri, an alleged terrorist leader in Pakistan, was arrested Friday.

Khan, 56, a Pakistan native, also allegedly discussed with an associate attacking a stadium in the United States this summer.

Authorities said, though, that there was no imminent danger.

The greatest danger these days, of course, is outraged teabaggers and their "wave" of violence against Democrats.

On March 11, Khan allegedly told an associate that in August, bags containing remote-controlled bombs could be put in several locations at a "large stadium" and then "boom, boom, boom, boom," according to court records.

Authorities say that March 17, Khan accepted $1,000 from an undercover FBI agent who had met with Khan five times. All of the meetings were audio recorded and one was video recorded, according to the charges. The agent posed as someone wanting to send money to a terror leader through Khan, officials say.

Khan was arrested Friday morning by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force while he was working in downtown Chicago.

He was held without bond Friday after he was charged with two counts of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, for allegedly trying to send money overseas to al-Qaida. He was held after federal prosecutors said he was a danger to the community and a flight risk.

He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1988.

In the charging documents, authorities say Khan "learned that Kashmiri was working with al-Qaida and that Kashmiri was purportedly receiving orders from al-Qaida's leader, Osama bin Laden."

On the upside, he has no known ties to tea party activists so move along, nothing much to see here.

More Democrats Indicted In Illinois Indiana

I know a lot of jokes get thrown around about Chicago politics, but damn if they ain't deserved.

Here is yet another Democrat mayor, this time the mayor of East Chicago, George Pabey, who has been indicted by federal authorities for corruption and witness tampering.

The indictment charges Pabey and Camacho with conspiring to steal more than $5,000 from the city, by using city workers to renovate a home with materials purchased using city accounts at Menards and Home Depot, as well as city cement mixers and trucks.

Camacho also is charged with two counts of witness tampering, allegedly for telling workers to lie to FBI investigators about work at the house.

If it goes like the case of the recently convicted mayor of Baltimore in her corruption scandal, which sounds a lot like this case, it will take over a year before anything substantial happens, but in the meantime we get to sit back and marvel at how the Democrats seem to attract these sort of people.

Oh yeah, you do have to play name that party to figure out the guy was a Democrat. It's buried way down in the story and only alluded to obliquely. Of course, since this is Chicago it was probably assumed that the readers already knew he was a Democrat.

Pabey's election in a court-ordered "do-over" of the 2003 city Democratic primary ended the 32-year reign of Pastrick as mayor. Pabey, who had been police chief under Pastrick, styled himself as a reformer, while Pastrick was laid low by a string of indictments of his political allies.

Yeah, I know, one crook replacing another.

Thanks to Gregory in the comments who points out that East Chicago is actually in northwestern Indiana, not Illinois.

Chicago Men Indicted in Mumbai Terror Attacks

Bill Ayers was unavailable for comment.

A Chicago businessman was charged Thursday with helping an old friend from military school in Pakistan plot the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, officials said.

Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 49, has been held in jail since his October arrest on charges of helping plot an attack on the Danish newspaper that published incendiary cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in 2005.

Prosecutors allege that Rana helped his friend David Coleman Headley, a key suspect in the Mumbai attacks, by allowing him to use his immigration company as a cover for surveillance trips to India and Denmark.

Rana was charged Thursday with three separate counts of providing material support for terrorism in the Mumbai attacks, the Denmark terror plot, and to the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Also indicted on conspiracy charges related to the Denmark plot were Ilyas Kashmiri, an alleged terror kingpin in Pakistan who prosecutors accuse of being in regular contact with Al-Qaeda leaders, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired major in the Pakistani military. Neither man is in US custody.

Headley, 49, has pleaded not guilty to 12 terrorism related charges and remains in custody where he is cooperating with prosecutors.

So encouraging to see we've got Chicago "businessmen" orchestrating terror plots and associating with Al-Qaeda, isn't it?

More here.

Previously.

Chicago Man Linked to Mumbai Massacre

They sure do know how to grow those radicals in Chicago. Next thing you know we'll find out this guy hung out with Bill Ayers and went to Jeremiah Wright's church.

In almost every way, David Headley was the perfect neighbour. When the 49-year-old American citizen began renting an apartment in Mumbai last year he charmed his landlord, treated his laundry boy with respect, and befriended Bollywood figures at a local gym.

He told them that he was Jewish, and running an immigration agency from a respectable part of town. “Sweet and charming,” said his landlady. “Down to earth,” said his personal trainer.

Not until the past few days did they learn of his alleged other identity — and of quite how close security figures claim India may have come to a repeat of the militant attacks on Mumbai a year ago next week.

Apparently, Mr Headley’s original name was Daood Gilani. He was born in Pakistan, and is suspected of helping the terrorists who carried out last year’s Mumbai attack, and of planning another atrocity this year.

The details emerged when the FBI arrested Mr Headley in his home city of Chicago on October 3, and filed an affidavit in a US court, which has since been made public.

It alleges that he worked with Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami (Huji), a Pakistan militant group, and Lashkar e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan group blamed for last year’s Mumbai attacks. The document also outlines claims that he was involved in the “Mickey Mouse Project” — a plan to attack Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper whose cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2005 infuriated Muslims across the world.

It also allegedly shows that he and an apparent accomplice visited India several times between 2006 and 2009, and appear to have discussed attacking Indian targets as recently as September this year.

Indian investigators are now examining whether Mr Headley may be the “missing link” in the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 170 people between November 26 and 29 last year. They are also investigating claims that he may have planned attacks this year on targets including the National Defence College in Delhi, the private Doon School in Dehradun, northern India, or even a nuclear facility.

More here on Headley and his partner.

City of Chicago Seeking Snitches

Earlier this year it was the White House caught looking for snitches.

Now we know where they got the idea from.

Would you be willing to rat out a business that's cheating Chicago on taxes in exchange for a share of back taxes recovered?

City Hall is counting on it.

Mayor Daley's tough-times, 2010 budget includes a first-ever "Tax Whistleblower Program" expected to include cash bounties for informants who deliver the goods on unpaid business taxes.

The cash reward would be a percentage of the amount recovered, but specifics are still being worked out. The dreaded employee head tax and lease tax are just two of the most frequent targets for tax cheats.

"It's just another way of bringing people into compliance," said Revenue Department spokesman Ed Walsh.

"It would probably be ... a business knowing that a competitor is not remitting a tax. An employee [of the tax-dodging business] could know that, too. Typically, you need to provide some type of incentive."

Now since Chicago has their fair share of illegal aliens, what happens if you rat on on their employers? Will the feds be allowed to come in and remove the illegals?

How about politicians on the take? Will it be OK to rat on them or do you risk a trip to the bottom of the Chicago River?

'I Don't Believe Anything the City and the 2016 Committee Says'

Remember when dissent was the most patriotic form of protest? Well, those days are long over, my friends. When you're a Chicago resident and you don't want the 2016 O-lympics in your town then it's time for a beatdown.

Seems there are still a few locals not in the pocket of the corrupt machine, but let's face it, it's in the bag, so just pack up and go home. You really think The O would go to Denmark if this wasn't a done deal?

The mayor, the president and Oprah Winfrey may hope to return to Chicago from Copenhagen with the 2016 Olympic Games, but some around town hope the International Olympic Committee deems the Second City the second city.

As in second to Rio de Janeiro. Or Tokyo. Or Madrid.

The opposition is not as visible as the "We Back the Bid" signs plastered across town. But in a city all too familiar with stories of public corruption and problems with public services, there is serious concern the games can only mean more troubles — and bills — for residents.

"I know it's going to cost us money somehow," said Joseph Patrick, a 51-year-old stay-at-home dad. "The government doesn't have a job (so) the only place they can get money is from us."

A new Web site — Chicagoansforrio.com — is the talk of the town and features the game "Match the Olympic host with its estimated budget overrun." About 170 protesters marched outside City Hall on Tuesday night, many insisting that no matter what organizers say, the games will push people from their homes, lead to more corruption and raise taxes.

"I don't believe anything the city and the 2016 committee says," said Larry Rivkin, who grew up in Chicago.

At least one person was later arrested for trying to interfere with workers erecting Olympic symbols in a downtown plaza.

Head over to the Chicagoans for Rio Site. Rather amusing.

Here are some others protesting yesterday.