Nomination of Double Amputee and Partial Use of Arm Veteran Held Up

You would think if one person would look out for war veterans, it would be Tammy Duckworth. An injured Iraq war helicopter pilot, Duckworth a major in the Illinois National Guard, lost both her legs and partial use of one arm in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in 2004.

She was recently director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, where she had worked since 2006. She ran for Congress in 2006, but lost.

Duckworth has been nominated for assistant secretary at the Veterans Affairs Department. She was all set to have a smooth transition into the position after the vote by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Thursday except for one thing, North Carolina (Rep.) Sen. Richard Burr.

The top Republican on the committee, wants Duckworth and the White House to answer some of his questions. Burr's spokesman, David Ward, would not say on Friday what the questions concerned.

"He's doing his due diligence ... to ensure that veterans have the best representation possible," Ward said.

I could not think of a better person to do that than Tammy Duckworth.


Source: Huffington Post
Source: Chicago Content

UPDATE:

Burr is ready to let Duckworth’s nomination go forward. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported last night:

MADDOW: Today, the senator’s office relented. Still not clear on what the “due diligence” was on a decorated helicopter pilot, double amputee, experienced veterans advocate, supported by all the veterans service organizations, and nationally known for her work. But it is done. At last.

Burr’s press secretary, David Ward, said that the senator was satisfied with Duckworth’s responses to a number of last-minute questions. Ward added that the senator is “looking forward to moving forward with [Duckworth’s] nomination.”

Muslim Dunkin Donuts Owner Forced to Give up Franchise Over Beliefs

Walid Elkhatib has been in the Dunkin Donut business since 1979 in the Chicago area, and for over 20 years Dunkin' Donuts has accommodated his religious beliefs. As a Muslims Walid is not allowed to ingest or handle pork products. In 2002 however the company reversed it's stand and told them they would not renew his franchise agreement if he refused to sell their full line of food products.

He tried to sue them, but as he is not an employee he could not sue under federal laws banning religious discrimination in the work place. He then tried to bring up the law that bars racial and forms of ancestry discrimination in the making of contracts.

That failed also because the judge said this was based on religion not race. Elkhatib's lawyer, Robert Habib, said his client will end his association with Dunkin' Donuts, but he has a 10-year lease on the property and owns the equipment.

"He plans to continue to operate a restaurant," Habib said. "Walid will survive."

Where do I stand on this issue? Wouldn't I support the man who has been in a successful business for twenty years only to be threaten by a corporation who wants to throw their muscle around?

In most cases yes, but this time I have to side with Dunkin'. It's their company they set the rules, and being a representation of DD, Mr. Elkhatib should have all the products available to it's customers. If for whatever reason he cannot comply, in my opinion would void any agreement the two would have between them.

Sorry Walid.

Right-Wing Media Freaks Out Over Obama's I-Pod Gift

I wasn't going to touch this story till I tuned in to watch my arch-nemesis Sean Hannity. He usually is very petty and attacks on Barack Obama for any and everything. I am surprised he doesn't get as much attention as Limbaugh does for some of the things he says.

When I saw the gift of an I-pod given to the Queen of England by the Obama's, I like everyone else thought if it were anybody else but a world leader or royalty, it would be a great gift.

I thought, ol' boy the right will eat this up like the DVD fiasco with Prime Minister earlier this month. I easily admit, that gift sucked compared to that rare hand carved, carried across oceans and made from the wood of God's personal tree gift Brown gave Obama, but hey what do I know.

But I knew something had to be behind this I-pod deal, lighting does not strike twice, right? I mean they did know she already had one, didn't they?

It turns out the Queen herself requested the item. She wanted the video footage from her last visit in the States, and also wanted to replace the I-pod of hers that was four years old and did not play video.

Also what was not reported for some strange reason was the second or should I say the first gift, (since she requested the I-pod) a very rare song book singed by Richard Rodgers of the famed Rodgers & Hammerstein who passed away some thirty years ago.

You see the Queen is a fan of musicals, hence the song book and several songs loaded on the I-pod along with the video she requested.

While I usually don't like to go to far left for sources, the Daily-Kos put together a nice video on a day where we had riots, an empty GOP budget and world leaders meeting, the right had plenty of time to attack the president on a gift that the Queen actually wanted.

Illinois House Votes Down Limit Law on Gun Purchases

This is a story that I am a little torn about. While I am also weary of any attempt on gun restrictions at any level of government, I really would not have had a problem with this law. Basically the law some Illinois lawmakers were trying to pass would only allow one gun purchase a month.

While a have a nice size gun collection (yes democrats like guns too), I have bought them over many years. I can't think of one time I wanted to buy multiple guns at once. I have about 18 firearms, about 7 rifles and the rest handguns. I like to hunt with my family up in Vandalia, Michigan.

My assumption for this bill would have been to curb illegal gun sales and trafficking. The opposing lawmakers said this would not deter those who wanted to commit a crime. Well it wouldn't help them that's for sure.

The average American household has 4.4 guns in them. Thirty-eight percent of Americans report having a gun in their homes, and another 2% say they have a gun elsewhere on their properties (like in a garage, barn, or car). The percentage of Americans reporting they have a gun in their homes has hovered around the 40% mark since 2000.

In this purposed bill would have allowed law enforcement to make exceptions to the one rule law. I know 2nd amendment nuts don't want any restrictions on guns at anytime, but this one here really would have only have hurt someone trying to break the law. That's just my opinion.

The bill failed 54-61.



Source: AP

It Took Republicans Weeks to Come up With the Same Plan?

I knew it was an April Fools joke. It had to be, right? The republicans, after fumbling an attempt last week to combat the budget that Obama and the democrats have laid out, descended down the Capitol steps. Around a hundred or so congressmen and women brought us their answer to the democrats spending spree.

After ripping the Democratic budget as too expensive, Boehner said that "Republicans in the House will offer a better solution that will be less on spending, less on taxes and a lot less on debt for our kids and grand kids."

It had to be something stupendous right? It took weeks of planning and preparation to put this massive plan together, so I know it would be chuck full of new and fresh ideas. Well to my surprise it was the same ol' thing, tax cuts for rich folks and cut spending on everything but the defense budget.

If this was the plan, why did it take so long for them to put this together? So they want us to do the same thing we have been doing for years, wow these guys are brilliant!

So republicans will continue to point fingers and have no real solutions, as usual.

Mccain Seeking Pardon for Boxing Great Jack Johnson

In a time if a Black man raised his fist to a White man, he could wind up hanging from a tree, Jack Johnson was on top of the world. A man who only had a fifth grade education, his mind would not earn him fame, his fist would.

After his first fight in 1897 at the age of 19, it would be six years before Jack Johnson would become the Texan and the first Black man to win the world heavy-weight title.

Johnson first became the heavyweight champion of Negro boxing. Jim Jeffries, the white champ at the time, refused to fight Johnson because he was black. Then, in 1908, Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Australia to become world champion, although he was not officially given the title until 1910 when he finally fought and beat Jeffries in Las Vegas. Jeffries had come out of retirement to become the first of many so-called "great white hopes."

Race rioting was sparked after the Johnson-Jeffries fight. The Texas Legislature banned films of his victories over whites for fear of more riots. In 1913, Johnson fled because of trumped up charges of violating the Mann Act's stipulations against transporting white women across state lines for prostitution.

During his exile from the U.S., Johnson lost his championship to a white man, Jess Willard, in Cuba in 1915. He returned to the U.S. on July 20, 1920 and was arrested. Sentenced to Leavenworth in Kansas, Johnson was appointed athletic director of the prison. Upon his release, he returned to boxing, but only participated in exhibition fights after 1928.

Although married three times to white women, Johnson never had children. He died in a car crash June 10, 1946, near Raleigh, North Carolina.

Now senator John Mccain, maybe trying to make up for originally voting against a holiday to honor civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., is now championing for a pardon of Jack Johnson for the Mann act he was convicted for.

McCain feels Johnson was wronged by a 1913 conviction of violating the Mann Act by having a consensual relationship with a white woman — a conviction widely seen as racially motivated.

"I've been a very big fight fan, I was a mediocre boxer myself," McCain, R-Ariz., said in a telephone interview. "I had admired Jack Johnson's prowess in the ring. And the more I found out about him, the more I thought a grave injustice was done."

On Wednesday, McCain will join Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., filmmaker Ken Burns and Johnson's great niece, Linda Haywood, at a Capitol Hill news conference to unveil a resolution urging a presidential pardon for Johnson. Similar legislation offered in 2004 and last year failed to pass both chambers of Congress.

King, a recreational boxer, said a pardon would "remove a cloud that's been over the American sporting scene ever since (Johnson) was convicted on these trumped-up charges."

"I think the moment is now," King said. And you know what, So do I. (Full Story AP article)


Sources: AP & About.com Jack Johnson Bio

It's Chicago-Opoly!!

No this is not a post on some dirty Chicago alderman or City Hall employee, but a new version of the classic board game Monopoly. You know the game that you play starting at 1pm and end sometime the next morning.

Whether you are from here or have visited you know that the city has plenty of sites to see, and that's just what the makers of Chicago-Opoly have put into this game.


Chicago Sun-Times:

“We are actually in the process of revising the Chicago-In-A-Box game. It will now be called Chicago-opoly,” said Carla Miller, an official for Cincinnati-based Late for the Sky, the game's marketer. Chicago-opoly will retail for $24.95.

“Chicago-opoly was created with the help of Chicago natives,” she said. “We asked Chicagoans ‘What makes this place so great?’ While it’s impossible to include everything, Chicago-opoly hits the highlights.”

The Picasso sculpture, an Art Institute Lion and the Water Tower are among the pewter tokens. Other lead-free game pieces include a baseball mitt, a football and a sailboat.

Boardwalk and Park Place from the original Monopoly game are replaced by the Water Tower and the Gold Coast. Other high-priced properties include the John Hancock Building, the Board of Trade and the Sears Tower (I could care less about the name change, still the Sears Tower to me).

The railroads of the original Monopoly game are replaced by State Street, Washington Street, La Salle Street and Lake Shore Drive. A parking ticket is $75. Other Chicago-style elements include pizza, sports, blues, shopping and lots of traffic.

Now if we could only make a game to help the Cubs win the friggin' World Series.



Manufacturer's site: Late for the Sky

Morning Joe Cracks up at Glenn Beck

Funny Stuff.... Joe Scarborough & company talk about Glenn Beck and his new rise to fame. Of course making fun of Mr. Beck does not make conservatives happy, but like they say about everything the left does:

Imagine what the "right" would be saying if Glenn Beck were a democrat. They would call him a whiny little bitch:

Computers Replace Greeters at O'Hare

You've read stories like this one before, "computer replace humans." That's not why I posted this story however.

The city of Chicago recently replaced some 29 red-jacketed workers at O'Hare International Airport with new computer kiosks from Hewlett-Packard. The move will save the city some $2 million dollars. That in my opinion is a nice chunk of change.

"Technology has really changed that," Daley said at a news conference at the airport. "This gives more information than any people can have. You can get more information off this system than any one individual could have at O'Hare Field."

Daley said most of the $315,000 cost will be covered by Hewlett-Packard, which manufactured the computers. "None of the costs came from the City of Chicago corporate budget," the mayor said

The greeters, we've all seen them, the folks that sit in the adjustable chairs at the desk with all the maps and phone numbers for shuttle services and taxis. I think in my 25+ years of air travel I might have ask one question of these workers, "where's the washroom?"

So I wondered how much were these greeters getting paid anyhow. $8-$10 max, right?

To my surprise the annual salary for a greeter at the airport was $38,000 and $58,000. In comparison, a police officer in Chicago starting salary is $43,104 and $58,896 after 18 months.

Although I hate to see someone lose their job to a computer, this was pretty much a unpretentious decision to make. Nothing like working for the city huh?

SOURCE:Chicago Breaking News Center

A Funny Look at Our Justice System

DNA Evidence Frees Black Man Convicted Of Bear Attack

With Conservatives & Obama, It's a no Win Situation

I laugh at stories like these. It reminds me of the spirit of being on a team. No matter what the other team does, it means nothing. They still suck, and your team is better than theirs. Nothing they do impresses you.

Well even when president Obama does something positive that is near and dear to the hearts of the conservative "team", they find a way to turn the story around and bash him for it.

I am talking about him supposedly cutting defense spending for the Pentagon. Every major conservative blog last month blasted Obama for cutting the budget at a time of war.

"As global jihad bares its teeth and goes nuclear Obambi surrenders. This, of all his national suicidal plans, is the worst. I guess he'll cut weapons programs and give them to the Muslim world when he convenes his Muslim summit." -- Atlas Shrugs

At first I myself questioned why he would cut spending as soon as he got into office, but instead of reacting I read the budget (pg. 54).

There is no cut in spending he actually raised spending. Obama wants to spend 2 percent more in the next fiscal year than President Bush allocated for this year, and 11 percent more than we spent last year.

But because the Pentagon asked for an extra increase of $60 billion more than what George Bush allocated for them, and Obama declined that request but did give a slight increase, that meant a decrease in spending.

Steve Chapman at the Chicago Tribune (a right leaning newspaper) wrote a very informative article on the falsehood.

For a government that spends more on defense that all countries in the world combined, when is okay to cut back just a little bit? Who are we scared of anyway? But I digress, what exactly did Obama due concerning the defense budget that actually had the right's panties in a bunch?

Shouldn't We Just Legalize it Already?

During his town hall online meeting last week, president Obama answered a question about legalizing marijuana as a means of boosting the economy and creating jobs.

"The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy," he quipped. The in-house audience chuckled.

However both sides of politics, left and right knew he would love to say,"absolutely!" Obama wanted to yes, but with so many other problems that our nation faces, this is a battle that would make him look ridiculous for taking on right now. So he did what he had to do and say no.

We all know that legalizing it would raise billions of dollars a year for states annually. It would also free up law enforcement to focus on more detrimental drugs and problems.

I am so sick of hearing about this damn plant already. The so called gateway drug that I and every one of my friends in high school and college used regularly throughout our young lives. I can honestly tell you that alcohol did far much damage to my life than a hit to the bong ever did.

If some kid in college or a wall street investment banker wants to get high on his on time, what's it to me? So just legalize it already!