Former NY Times 'Reporter' Arrested in March on Goldman Sachs

This turd Chris Hedges was never much of a reporter. Like most NY Times hacks he was a propagandist and left to become an anti-Bush protester back during the early days of the Iraq War. I guess he's just a full-time nuisance now.

At least 15 Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested Thursday after marching on Goldman Sachs to deliver an “indictment” of the financial giant.

Among the demonstrators hauled away after sitting down in front of the multinational’s doors at 200 West St. was former New York Times foreign correspondent-turned-activist Chris Hedges.

The anti-fat cat demonstrators had staged a “people’s trial” of Goldman Sachs at their base in Zuccotti Park, accusing the firm of felony fraud, perjury and “theft of $78 billion in taxpayer money.”

At noon, about 300 marched eight blocks to the firm’s HQ to deliver their “verdict” of guilty and to demand the imprisonment of CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

On the way, they chanted “Goldman Sucks.”

The marchers, led by four drummers, stretched a city block.

Some construction workers sitting along Church Street gave them thumbs up and a businessman on Murray Street muttered to himself, “What a bunch of idiots."

They're apparently demanding money directly from Goldman Sachs. I'd say they're acting like five-year-olds but five-year-olds demonstrate much more maturity. Here's their fun day of make believe:

The proceedings will also include expert analysis from Ralph Nader, Cornel West and Chris Hedges. Following the 99-minute hearing the people will decide on a fair and deliverable verdict via our own process of consensus-based direct democracy – and we intend to deliver it ourselves – to the headquarters of Goldman Sachs at 200 West Street, eight blocks from Liberty Square. We will ask for something our judicial and legislative systems have so far failed to deliver – the return of billions of taxpayer dollars to the 99 percent and criminal sentences for those Goldman Sachs executives who carried out the fraud.

Amazing they continue to ignore Jon Corzine, isn't it?

Worth noting that Hedges now writes for the anti-Semitic group behind the original OWS protest. If you need a primer on how insane he is, check here.

From the original NYDN link, they sure to go out of their way to minimize the domestic terrorism in Oakland last night.

On Wednesday, protesters staged a general strike in Oakland, Ca., shutting down the city’s port. The night ended in a mini-riot as a handful of people threw rocks and set fires.

Really, is that all it was?

Biden: More Rapes And Murders in Flint, MI If 'Jobs Bill' Not Passed

It just doesn't get any lower than this. So if we don't pass Obama's tax increase crime will be even worse in this cesspool? Does Obama get the blame for the current crime rate?

"In 2008, when Flint had 265 sworn officers on their police force, there were 35 murders and 91 rapes in this city," Biden said. "In 2010, when Flint had only 144 police officers, the murder rate climbed to 65 and rapes--just to pick two categories--climbed to 229. In 2011, you now only have 125 shields. God only knows what the numbers will be this year for Flint if we don't rectify it."

Using Biden's logic, should Obama be held responsible for the reduction in the number of police officers?

Via Weekly Standard.

The Video the Left Is Urging You to Watch: 'There is Nobody in This Country Who Got Rich On His Own. Nobody'

This shrieking Obamaton has apparently been selected not elected by the Democrats in Massachusetts to challenge Scott Brown in 2012. This brand of Marxism may sell in the People's Republic, but voters across America will recoil in horror listening to this lunacy.

The juiceboxers are lapping it up.

But as this video shows, Warren is very good at making the case for progressive economics in simple, down-to-earth terms. Despite her professorial background, she sounds like she’s telling a story. She came across as unapologetic and authorative, without a hint of the sort of defensiveness you hear so often from other Democrats when they talk about issues involving taxation and economic fairness. This is exactly what national Dems like about Warren.

Actually, she comes off as a snottier Barbara Boxer, as impossible as that may seem to believe.

Nobody in this country ever got rich on his own?

What?

In the video (at left), which was filmed at an event in Andover, Mass., Warren rebuts the GOP-touted notion that raising taxes on the wealthy amounts to "class warfare," contending that "there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody."

She speaks of marauding bands. We call them liberals. We'd like be be saved from the marauding bands of bureaucrats making our lives miserable, thank you very much.

Using Warren's insane logic, if the taxpayers who built the roads own them, then the 47% who pay no taxes have no right to use them.

What We've All Been Waiting For: Al Gore in 24-Hour Broadcast to Convert 'Climate Skeptics'

Is there a prize for anyone who stays awake for the entire screed? A lifetime supply of Sominex? This dude puts me to sleep in two minutes. How on earth in the balance can someone handle 24 hours of this colossal bore?

Former President Al Gore will renew his 30-year campaign to convince skeptics of the link between climate change and extreme weather events this week in a 24-hour global multi-media event.

"24 Hours of Reality" will broadcast a presentation by Al Gore every hour for 24 hours across 24 different time zones from Wednesday to Thursday, with the aim of convincing climate change deniers and driving action against global warming among households, schools and businesses.

The campaign also asks people to hand over control of their social networking accounts on Facebook and Twitter to it for 24 hours to deliver Gore's message.

Hand over control of Twitter and Facebook accounts? Gee, what could go wrong with that risky scheme?

"There will be 200 new slides arguing the connection between more extreme weather and climate change," Trewin Restorick, chief executive of the event's UK partner Global Action Plan, told Reuters on Monday.

"There will be a full-on assault on climate skeptics, exploring where they get their funding from."

Hmm, a full-on assault? Sounds pretty violent. Won't this scare the children or something?

The Goracle claims for 24 hours, we will all live in reality. Unlike the rest of the year when Gore lives in his massive oceanfront mansion laying down a carbon footprint that dwarfs mere mortals.

Here's an idiotic video clip through their link.



In Gore's typical cowardly fashion, you can't comment on it. That sure is a means of stifling those evil deniers! So much for an honest debate.

Former MI5 Boss: You Know, It's Probably Time to Talk to Al Qaeda

With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 coming up, this one's got impeccable timing. Because obviously if we "talk" with these bloodthirsty savages, then maybe they'll leave us along or something.

The former head of MI5, Britain's intelligence unit, says she hopes the UK and US are looking at different ways to talk to Al Qaeda.

Eliza Manningham-Buller, who ran MI5 until 2007, has used a BBC lecture to say she hopes British and US intelligence are examining who to talk to within Al Qaeda, as well as how and what could be discussed.

But she says negotiations are still a way off.

Baroness Manningham-Buller says military and security responses to terrorism can only go so far and eventually a political settlement with terror groups is needed.

She says the September 11 attacks were "a crime, not an act of war".

Their so-called "crimes" were merely an expression of frustration.

Young Arabs, she said, had no opportunity to choose their own rulers. "For them an external enemy was a unifying way to address some of their frustrations."They were also united by the plight of Palestinians, a view that the west was exploiting their oil and supporting dictators. "It was wrong to say all terrorists belonged to al-Qaida," added Manningham-Buller.

Al Gore's Foul-Mouthed Tirade

Poor guy. He must have been out in the sun too long. His global warming scam has been exposed and now he's lashing out with foul-mouthed verbal tirades.

The model of media manipulation used then, Gore said, “was transported whole cloth into the climate debate. And some of the exact same people — I can go down a list of their names — are involved in this. And so what do they do? They pay pseudo-scientists to pretend to be scientists to put out the message: ‘This climate thing, it’s nonsense. Man-made CO2 doesn’t trap heat. It may be volcanoes.’ Bullshit! ‘It may be sun spots.’ Bullshit! ‘It’s not getting warmer.’ Bullshit!” Gore exclaimed.

“When you go and talk to any audience about climate, you hear them washing back at you the same crap over and over and over again,” he continued. “There’s no longer a shared reality on an issue like climate even though the very existence of our civilization is threatened. People have no idea! … It’s no longer acceptable in mixed company, meaning bipartisan company, to use the goddamn word climate. It is not acceptable. They have polluted it to the point where we cannot possibly come to an agreement on it.”

Sounds like he needs to release some chakras.

Always the fantasist, Gore weighs in the the debt ceiling debate by just making things up.

“Unnoticed in Washington and New York as the debt-ceiling debate was going on, the ratio of television advertisements was nine to one on the ‘Don’t-lift-the-debt-ceiling debate. Spending is the problem.’ And now we’re going to tip the country back into recession. It’s absolutely insane,” Gore said.

Really, Al? Funny, but I don;t recall a single commercial mentioning the debt debate. Probably why it went, like he says, unnoticed.

H/T Tim Blair.

Insane: Dingy Harry Reacts to S&P Downgrade With Call for Tax Increases

The man is absolutely out of his mind.

Can you believe this?

The action by S&P reaffirms the need for a balanced approach to deficit reduction that combines spending cuts with revenue-raising measures like closing taxpayer-funded giveaways to billionaires, oil companies and corporate jet owners. This makes the work of the joint committee all the more important, and shows why leaders should appoint members who will approach the committee’s work with an open mind - instead of hardliners who have already ruled out the balanced approach that the markets and rating agencies like S&P are demanding.

Balanced approach? "Revenue-raising measures" (read: tax increases). He's completely out of his mind. At what point do these maniacs give up on the class warfare and realize the mess they've gotten us into isn't working?

Teabagger Terrorism Spreads to Europe

The terrorist menace threatening to unleash global catastrophe has now spread across the Atlantic. Do these monsters realize the damage they're causing?

ITALY will likely default but Spain could scrape through, the Centre for Economics and Business Research said today as the eurozone debt crisis threatened to engulf the two countries.

The CEBR said it had modelled good and bad scenarios for the two countries and Italy could not support its debt even if rates fall back unless the eurozone's third-largest economy sharply increases growth.

"Realistically, Italy is bound to default, but Spain may just get away without having to do so," said the London-based consultancy.

Even though Italy has managed to run tight budgets - and plans to eliminate its deficit by 2014 - with its massive debt it won't be able to escape if it can't boost its growth rate, it said.

It calculated Italy's debt would rise from 128 per cent of annual output to 150 per cent by 2017 if bond yields stay above the current 6 per cent and growth remains stagnant.

Just a taste of what awaits us.

Meanwhile, MSNBC lunatic Martin Bashir and some crackpot diagnose these terrorist psychopaths. They're so cute when they project.

And no, this isn't a comedy sketch.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

More on this lunacy from Allahpundit.

Crazy Person of the Day: Bill Richardson Says Bin Laden Death Should Lead to Cap-and-Trade

Did this guy fall and scramble his brain or something? What kind of nuttiness is this?

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson hopes that Osama bin Laden's death will spur President Barack Obama to promote climate change legislation.

"My hope is that from this success in the foreign policy arena two days ago, that he will be emboldened to take once again to the Congress legislation - not just to increase a renewable energy standard - but climate change legislation that this country and the world need," Richardson said Tuesday at a Climate Leadership Gala hosted by the Earth Day Network in Washington.

Climate change legislation, particularly anything labeled as toxic as "cap and trade," is seen as non-starter while Republicans hold the House and many Senate Democrats are wary of the issue. But Richardson warned climate bill backers against standing on the sidelines.

"We can sit back and say, 'Well we'll wait until the next election, wait until the political climate is better.' You know if we do that, we're doomed - if we don't take action right away," he said.

We expect this kind of lunacy from hopeless cases like Al Gore, now looked upon as the nutty uncle in the attic. But we always took Richardson as somewhat sane. Well, those days are over.

Our economy is already on life support what with soaring gas and food prices. Cap-and-trade would be a death blow. If anything, that would doom us.

Hugo Chavez: Maybe Capitalism Ended Life on Mars

In other news, there's been a run on tin foil in Venezuela to make those cute little hats guys like Chavez enjoy wearing.

Capitalism may be to blame for the lack of life on the planet Mars, Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday.

"I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet," Chavez said in speech to mark World Water Day.

Chavez, who also holds capitalism responsible for many of the world's problems, warned that water supplies on Earth were drying up.

"Careful! Here on planet Earth where hundreds of years ago or less there were great forests, now there are deserts. Where there were rivers, there are deserts," Chavez said, sipping from a glass of water.

He must be reading too much Al Gore.

He added that the West's attacks on Libya were about water and oil reserves.

Oh, OK. Has he seen any satellite images of Libya lately? Doesn't look like they're flush with water.

Nader: Impeach Obama for War Crimes or Something

Obama has now joined some of the most notorious war criminals of our era, the vil Bush and Cheney.

Get Ralph some decaf.

Former presidential candidate Ralph Nader says that President Obama should be impeached for committing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The consumer advocate and former presidential candidate said in an interview that aired Friday that Obama has committed "war crimes" on the same level as President Bush.

"Why don't we say what's on the minds of many legal experts; that the Obama administration is committing war crimes and if Bush should have been impeached, Obama should be impeached," Nader said in an interview with the anti-war Democracy Now! organization.

Nader's comments came before the U.S. launched military strikes into Libya on Saturday but are among the toughest criticisms Obama has endured from the left.

Crackpot Liberal Group With Obama Ties Calls for $382 Billion Stimulus

Are these people completely insane? Sure sounds like it.

A liberal think tank is calling on Congress to embrace a $382 billion stimulus plan to lower unemployment.

The call from the liberal Demos group comes as the White House and congressional Democrats and Republicans argue over how greatly to cut this year's spending. House Republicans have proposed a total of $61 billion in cuts this year, while the White House has agreed to a total of $10.5 billion in cuts.

Officials with Demos told reporters on a conference call that their new stimulus plan would create 8.2 million government jobs over two years while lowering unemployment from 8.9 percent to 4.5 percent.

They also said it would be politically popular.

“Poll after poll indicates the American people want job creation over other national goals, including deficit reduction,” Demos Vice President Tamara Draut told reporters.

In what should be a shock to nobody, Barack Obama used to be a board member of this group.

In the late 1990s, Demos was conceptualized by Charles Halpern, President of the Nathan Cummings Foundation (1989-2000). Halpern wanted to create a counter-argument to the growing influence of the many right-wing think tanks and establish a multi-issue organization that would focus on progressive policy development and advocacy. By 1999, Demos’ founding staff was assembled. This first group of Fellows and Board members included David Callahan, Fellow at the Century Foundation; Rob Fersh, policy advocate; Stephen Heintz, Vice-President of the EastWest Institute; Arnie Miller, of Isaccson Miller, an executive search firm; David Skaggs, a Colorado Congressman; and Barack Obama, an Illinois State Senator.

The board of trustees also included far left 9/11 Truther Van Jones.

This nuttiness comes as we posted out largest deficit ever in February which, astonishingly, is larger than our debt for all of 2007.

How's that change working out for you?

Aww: Climate Camp Disbands

This annual gathering of environmental wackos going all the way to 2006 was so popular I never heard of it. Here all this time I figured "climate camp" would be where they send all of us climate deniers to be re-educated.

Sadly, however, it's outlived its usefulness. Now the merry band of idiots are moving on to broader issues, likely to include awareness of something. They'll figure it out eventually and will surely get back to us once the next great crisis is invented (via Tim Blair).

After five years of camps, composting toilets, vegan curry and run-ins with the police, Climate Camp is calling it a day.

There will be no camp for the climate activists this year and the loose-knit organisation will be disbanded in 2011. The decision follows a five-day meeting to reach a consensus.

Really? Five days to get it together to realize your sad, motley, rag-tag bunch just might have to get on with your lives now that this climate scam has rendered you all pointless?

In a statement, activists for the climate movement said the camp was being disbanded to leave room to "launch new radical experiments to tackle the intertwined ecological, social and economic crises we face."

All of which are sure to be fabricated and will largely entail removing money from your wallets to pay for their schemes.

Most camp graduates believe this was the right moment to call it a day. "There was a feeling that Climate Camp was committed to a certain kind of action, the annual camp, which is really a huge commitment in terms of energy and resources," said Kevin Smith, a key figure in the climate movement, who was at the Dorset meeting. "People from Climate Camp are now involved and helping to organise so many of the different movements around, I think people felt they wanted to be freed up to get on with new things."

He, like many others, is excited by the wave of political energy and engagement that he sees in the UK. "This isn't about people giving up on climate change. But most people feel that they want to focus more broadly now."

A wave of political energy so all-consuming they can no longer find enough people to camp out near power stations. Something tells me they're running out of useful idiots to underwrite their particular brand of idiocy.

Nutty Left: John Bircher Who Died in 1965 Behind Scott Walker or Something

Yes, they really believe their own lunacy.

It should be no surprise that Walker’s radicalism is boosted by Bradley money. Today, the Bradley Foundation is controlled by a group of establishment Republicans, along with Washington Post columnist George Will. However, the Foundation’s agenda still reflects the extremist views of its founder, Harry Bradley. Although he passed away in 1965, Harry, a member of one Wisconsin’s most powerful families and a key financier of nationalist hate groups, would have eagerly applauded Walker’s union-busting agenda.

They obviously have no idea how insane they appear.

Hugo Chavez Fantasy: Sean Penn, Oliver Stone or Noam Chomsky as US Ambassador

If none of the above crackpots make the cut, he'll settle for Bill Clinton.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought to end a diplomatic stand-off with the United States on Tuesday by suggesting it name Bill Clinton, actor Sean Penn or director Oliver Stone as its envoy to Caracas.

In the latest flare-up between the ideological foes, Washington withdrew the visa of Venezuela's ambassador last week in retaliation for Chavez's rejection of President Barack Obama's nominated ambassador to Caracas.

U.S. diplomat Larry Palmer had criticized Venezuela's government, saying morale in its military was low and there were clear ties between members of the Chavez administration and leftist rebels in neighboring Colombia.

In a televised speech late on Tuesday, Venezuela's firebrand president said he had come up with a solution.

"I hope they name Oliver Stone. I'll suggest a candidate ... Sean Penn, or (linguist and philosopher Noam) Chomsky. We have a lot of friends there. Bill Clinton!" Chavez said.

Stone visited Caracas in May for the local premiere of his documentary "South of the Border," which profiles Latin America's leftist leaders. He told reporters he admired Chavez and his record since coming to power in 1999.

Penn, who has been involved in humanitarian efforts following Haiti's earthquake, won best actor Oscars for his roles in the Clint Eastwood-directed drama "Mystic River" and as slain gay activist Harvey Milk in the movie "Milk."

Chavez also recounted how he met U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton briefly on the sidelines of Dilma Rousseff's inauguration ceremony on Saturday in Brazil.

"I said to Senora Clinton 'How is your husband?'" he said. "But I made a mistake because I speak very bad English, and I said 'How is your wife?' She laughed, then I said husband."

What a card that Hugo is, slipping in a little lesbian humor. No word if Huma Abedin was present.

'I'm Looking at You and All I Can See is Two Eyes'

Carnita Matthews outside court with a friend

I can't wait until they start up their nonsense with the TSA pat-downs.

COVERED from head to toe in a burqa, with just a slit through which to see, a Muslim woman charged with making a false complaint to police now argues she has been a victim of mistaken identity.

Carnita Matthews was charged in June after allegedly falsely claiming that a highway patrol officer handled her in an attempt to see her burqa-hidden face during a random breath test.

She has pleaded not guilty.

After arriving at Campbelltown Local Court yesterday with an identically dressed friend, Matthews watched the in-car police video of her being pulled over and asked to lift the burqa so the officer could verify her licence photo.

The court was told that after being issued an infringement notice for not properly displaying her P-plates, the 46-year-old branded the officer "a racist" and claimed he only booked her because of what she was wearing.

"I've got my P-plates on my car ... there was nothing wrong with how they were displayed," Matthews said on the video.

"You look at me and see me wearing this and you couldn't handle it. All cops are racist."

The court heard that Matthews then drove to Campbelltown police station to complain that she was unfairly treated by the officer.

Giving evidence yesterday, the station officer who took the complaint said he had told Matthews the officer had been right to ask for identification.

In a statement read to the court, Sergeant Paul Kearney said he told her: "I'm looking at you and all I can see is two eyes."

Can transvestite cross-dressing terrorists soon be exempt from searches at airports?

H/T Tim Blair.

Yawn: Angry Civil Rights Fossil Calls Tea Partiers Klansmen or Something

Some guy few have ever heard of babbles incoherently and apparently it's news to ABC. Really, this is some sad stuff. You'd think someone with a conscience close to the poor man would intervene and prevent him from sounding like an idiot.

A civil rights activist and former congressman equated the Tea Party with the Ku Klux Klan today as he blasted a conservative rally planned in Washington, D.C., this weekend.

The Rev. Walter Fauntroy, the non-voting delegate who represented the District of Columbia from 1971 to 1991, called on African-Americans to organize a "new coalition of conscience" to rebut the rally scheduled for Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial featuring Fox News pundit Glenn Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

"We are going to take on the barbarism of war, the decadence of racism, and the scourge of poverty, that the Ku Klux -- I meant to say the Tea Party," Fauntroy told a news conference today at the National Press Club. "You all forgive me, but I -- you have to use them interchangeably."

Fauntroy attempted to explain the comparison to white supremacists by saying that organizers behind the "Restoring Honor" rally are the same people who cut audio cables from a sound system the night before the historic March on Washington and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

"The same people who cut the cables on the night before the march, that we paid $66,000 for a sound system, they cut it," Fauntroy said. "Now from Fox News and elsewhere, they are seeking to turn the world back."

So glad our Golfer-in-Chief has brought us all together in racial harmony.

It's Official: Janeane Garofalo Completely Loses Her Mind

The disheveled moonbat has long been a crank, but she really needs to put the bong down. The pseudo-intellectual dimwit evens introduces a new word to the language: Debilitorizing.

Little known fact from the fever swamps of her mind: Conservatives own the media!

Via Breitbart.

Crackpot Chavez: Israel Will Be 'Put In Its Place'

More wisdom like this and Sean Penn's good buddy will be a shoo-in for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez described Israel on Saturday as a genocidal state that acted as an assassin for the United States, predicting the Middle East nation would one day be "put in its place."

The socialist Chavez is a harsh critic of both Israel and the United States and cut relations with Israel after accusing it of "holocaust" for its 2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"It has become the assassin arm of the United States, no one can doubt it. It is a threat to all of us," Chavez said, during a visit by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Chavez said he supported a peaceful struggle for the return to Syria of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967.

"The territory will one day return to the Syrian hands," Chavez said. "Of course we want it to be peaceful because we don't want more war."

"But one day the genocidal state of Israel will be put into its place, and let's hope that a really democratic state emerges there, with which we can share a path and ideas."

Chavez did not offer further details of what putting Israel "in its place" would entail.

Doesn't seem he's thought it out much. But hey, why worry about details when you have a grander vision.

"Arab civilization and our civilization, the Latin American one, are being summoned in this new century to play the fundamental role of liberating the world, saving the world from the imperialism and capitalist hegemony that threaten the human species," Chavez said. "Syria and Venezuela are at the vanguard of this struggle."

'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.