Chicago's Top Stuck Between a Judge and Loyalty

One of the toughest jobs in the city of Chicago is being the superintendent of police. He is the highest paid city official (300,000), even more than Mayor Daley (215,000). But Daley believes Jody Weis is worth every penny.

“This man could go anyplace within the FBI,” Daley said of Weis. “He could go outside [to the private sector]. I am very responsible paying him that much money.”

“When you want to get the best, you get the best,” Daley said. Weis' career has 22 years law enforcement background all with the FBI.

I am sure he now knows his days at the FBI were a piece of cake compared to running Chicago's police force. After seeing the murder rate go up by 18% since he came aboard, he immediately came under criticism. Now he faces a new criticism for not turning over the names of officers who have repeated complaints against them.

Weis was ordered this week to produce the list by U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman. Weis said Friday he still disagrees with the judges order, but he says he thinks it was time to do what the judge ordered. This after he was found in contempt of court.

Earlier, Gettleman and Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez ordered Weis to turn over the names in a lawsuit filed by a Chicago woman who claims an off-duty officer beat her children up in 2007.

Weis had argued that releasing the list would hurt morale in the department as well as brand some officers as "repeaters."

I am on the side of the officers on this one. I know there a lot of bad cops on the streets, but getting a list of names will hurt those who are just doing their jobs. Police will get complaints on them for everything, I know this because I work around a lot of them in my field of work. These are just honest cops who want to make the streets safe.

Outing everyone just because of a number of complaints, will brand them as dirty, racist no good cops, when the majority of them are really there for you and me.

Rush Once Again Proves He is a Class Act

"Before it's all over, it'll be called the Ted Kennedy Memorial Healthcare bill," Limbaugh said on his show.

I will wait. Wait that is for one republican leader to call Rush Limbaugh comments on Ted Kennedy uncalled for at the least. I'll wait.......

Politico on the other hand decided to call a few republican leaders office's to see if they wanted to condemn Rush for his comments. This is what they got from those leaders so far:

Spokesmen for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declined comment.

I left a message for RNC Chairman Michael Steele's spokesman, who hasn't returned the call.

Boehner, who enjoys a good personal relationship with many Dems including Kennedy, spoke admiringly of the Massachusetts Democrat when Kennedy returned to Washington for the White House health care summit on Thursday.

"We're glad to see that Sen. Kennedy is back. We hope he's doing better," he said. "I hope he's doing well. I think having Sen. Ted Kennedy involved in this process would help us get a solution. And that's what the American people want. They want a solution to this crisis. And I think that he would be very helpful in that process."

They are quick to apologize, but I bet will take their sweet ass time to call him out........Republicans have no leadership as usual.

Get Well Barbra Pierce

My prayers are with the Bush family and I know Mrs. Bush will make a full recovery. Even though she is a republican, she has always been a class act.

Even Fox Proves Americans Favor Obama Economic Policies

This is sweet, a Fox News poll shows that Americans favor Obama's economic policies over Reagan's. The question: "What do you think the nation's economy needs more of right now -- the economic policies of Ronald Reagan or the economic policies of Barack Obama?"

The answer: Obama 49%, Reagan 40%.

Why Do Republicans Love Rush?

Imagine if Limbaugh spoke for the democratic party. Imagine if he were praised by senators and past and present democratic presidents. What would republicans say about those people?

I am not a fan of Keith Olbermann, but he put together a nice collage of sounds bites by Rush Limbaugh. Olbermann doing this is like Mussolini telling Hitler he is a bad guy.

However it still amazes me that republican party's elected officials heaped upon Rush so much praise after hearing what this man says. Imagine Barack Obama calling in to any liberal radio or TV show and saying great job, the conservatives would be all over him. But Rush seems to be immune from criticism with the comments he has made over the years, enjoy:

GOP Stuck in the Mud

Republicans are not to blame for everything that has lead us to this economic debacle that we currently reside, but after being in power for years they now claim to know what's best. It's sorta like the married couple where dad screws up over and over and when mom kicks him out.......he's a changed man.

Now the party claims it wants to go back to it's conservative roots, even though they supported Bush's policies over 80% of the time. Now talking about Bush is no no even though republicans were married to him. Why would Americans listen to the party who allowed and went along with so much of what they are supposed to oppose?

Four months after John McCain’s sweeping defeat, senior Republicans are coming to grips with the fact that the party is still – in stock market terms – looking for the bottom.

Republicans this week are processing two sobering new polls that found the party’s support reduced to a slim one-quarter of Americans. In the absence of a popular elected leader, its most visible figure is a polarizing radio host. Its strategic powerhouse is a still-divisive former House speaker forced from power more than 10 years ago.

And its hopes of demonstrating swift and visible change by pushing people of color to the fore have been dented by the stumbles of the party’s two most prominent non-white leaders, national Chairman Michael Steele and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that many prominent Republicans are forecasting a long winter.

“You think you hit bottom, and it can always go lower,” said.....

Chicago's Own Mr. Beef Goes to Washington

(Mr. Beef, n the 600 block of Orleans, in Chicago: Midwest Bank has filed a foreclosure lawsuit to collect several hundred thousands from the restaurant.)

For those of you who do not have the privilege of living in the greatest city on this planet, I would like to introduce you to Mr. Beef. A Chicago staple in which I have had the pleasure of ingesting some of the best Italian beef sandwiches ever.

Mr. Beef's River North location opened in 1979. Joseph Zucchero, the owner of Mr. beef has one of those places that is not much on decor but more on taste. You know what I mean, greasy, fattening and just plain bad for you.

(About 700 calories of goodness)

Mr. Zucchero has built a thriving business, yet he maintains that his banker, Midwest Bank, which collected about $85 million of the Treasury Department's bank bailout cash, has cut off his line of credit.

"I do not need, nor want, a bailout from the taxpayers. I only want the banks to be fair," Zucchero says in a written statement. "Many small businesses are being starved of needed lines of credit or are having their lines of credit not renewed upon maturity. Not only have I seen and heard this from a variety of small businesses, but I have personally lived this nightmare."

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, is investigating why many of the larger banks that have benefited from the bailout "have actually decreased lending to businesses.'' He is examining the lending records of large banks, and taking testimony from a community bank and a Community Development Financial Institution Fund increasing lending.

The hearing today is focusing on whether the federal program "has been successful in freeing up credit for American businesses, especially the small and medium-sized firms that are vital to the U.S. economy,'' Guiterrez's office says.

"Small business is the backbone of the American economy," Guiterrez says in a written statement. "In my home state of Illinois, more than 49 percent of the workforce is employed by small firms. Without a vibrant small business community, this recession will continue to linger. Investing in small and medium-sized firms is one of the fastest routes we can take to economic recovery."

A True Conservative Speaks on Rush

I normally put his weekly video editorials on the side of my post, I thought with all the hoopla over Rush these past few weeks I wanted to make sure that more people heard the Southern Avenger's most recent editorial.

The "Southern Avenger" Jack Hunter is a conservative commentator (WTMA 1250 AM talk radio) and columnist (Charleston City Paper) living in Charleston, South Carolina.

See, it's not conservatives I have problems with it's republicans. I actually like true conservatism. I actually would vote for a "real conservative over most liberals.

If they could somehow find true conservatism, they would be dangerous. Well thankfully there are nowhere need finding or wanting a real conservative so liberals have nothing to worry about.

Just a warning, Jack Hunter loves Ron Paul.

Three Little Pigs.......& Two Are Republican

Besides the former great grand ol' wizard of the KKK Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), the other top pork project consumers were both republicans.

Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking member of the finance committee, secured $114.5 million in earmarks and Kit Bond of Missouri, ranking member on the Appropriations Committee's subcommittee for transportation and housing. He secured $85.6 million.

On Monday, Taxpayers for Common Sense, the non-partisan budget watchdog group, released the breakdown of the FY-2009 omnibus spending bill earmarks in an easy to search Excel database that can be downloaded here.

The spending bill included approximately 8,570 earmarks worth $7.7 billion. Right now the database only includes the earmark tabulations of senators but Taxpayers for Common Sense says they "will add more detail, house member totals and track down the states of many of the earmarks" in the coming days.

When the database is analyzed to include solo member requests and joint requests with other members, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MI) is way ahead of the pack with 204 earmark requests totaling $470.1 million. The ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee is followed by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MI) who shared $390.1 million earmarks with other members and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) who shared $322.1 million earmarks. It is worth noting, however that while Wicker and Landrieu had $4.3 million and $10.3 million solo earmark requests respectively, Cochran had $75.9 million.

A small number of senators didn't request any earmarks at all (individually or jointly). They include Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), Sen. Jim Demint (R-SC) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK).

Yes all politicians are hypocrites, but these republicans are the same who spoke out against the stimulus because it had pork in it, I guess because it did not have theirs.

Blagojevich Gets Six Figure Book Deal to Lie

Rod Blagojevich is getting everything he ever wanted, well almost. He will however be financially set for a while with his new multi-million dollar book deal.

Rod lives in his world where only he is the sane person of honesty. He will undoubtedly continue his insane rant in his soon to be released masterpiece that he fought for the people of Illinois and was targeted by people in his own party that wanted him out.

The book, which has a working title of “The Governor,” is scheduled to be released by Phoenix Books in October.

Glenn Selig, Blagojevich's publicist and founder of The Publicity Agency, said the governor will divulge information that will be “embarrassing” to himself and others.

"There were some people in high places who didn't want the governor to write this book and worked to try to squash a book deal," Selig said in a statement released Monday.

"Joe the Author" Needs "Joe the Plumber" to Get his Book Out of the Toilet

One of the many mascots that the republican party has is a new book author. After being thrust into the spotlight he swore he wanted to be kept out of, Joe Wurzelbacher "aka" Joe the Plumber has not been able to keep still.

The republican party embraced him immediately. John Mccain making him the central focus for the representation of the people he was looking out for. From there Joe was on every television show around.

Joe hired an agent and a publicist. No longer was he masquerading as a licensed plumber, he was now a bonafide star.

Since the election, Joe or Sam whichever you prefer has been invited all over the republican party's rebuilding effort gatherings. He also has been a serious journalist over in Israel, a infomercial spokesperson for velocitystore.com and now of course a recently published author.

After his more than fifteen minutes of fame, it finally seems that the great speaker star is starting to fade. Don't tell that to Joe. He spoke to a crowd of 11 people at a Border's bookstore from behind a lectern. Can we unnecessary?

Joe has no plans to return to plumbing, but now has said he will enter the construction field, guess that stimulus package will help out ol' Joe after all. Wurzelbacher was scheduled to speak and sign books for three hours, but the Joe Show was over in 55 minutes. Total copies of "Joe the Plumber" sold: five.