Free Republic

Which candidate would you endorse? http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-endorsement-vote,0,6443477,post.poll The editorial board is debating its endorsement for president. As we think about that choice, we want to hear from you. Which candidate would you endorse?

Excerpt: ... Four of the protesters were charged with mob action and disorderly conduct after trying to break past a makeshift barricade at a side entrance to the council chambers. Madeleine Talbott, a leader with Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), said she felt justified in trying to lift a table to get past police who were guarding the doors. "We have a right to be in there and to watch them use parliamentary tricks to block this vote," Talbott said moments after being handcuffed. 'ACORN, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and the Service Employees International Union...

"...Jones said he just remembers Obama as a hard worker who, on his first day in the state Senate, volunteered to take on any thankless projects. Jones remembers Obama's comments after the Democrats won the majority in the state Senate in 2003, making Jones president. "He came to me and he said, 'You're the Senate president. You have a lot of power,' " Jones recalled. "I said, 'I do? What kind of power do I have?' He said, 'You have the power to make a United States senator.' 'Oh? I didn't realize that. If I have that kind of power,...

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Chicago teenager Kiyanna Salters death comes just 18 months after another Chicago teen, Blair Holt, was gunned down on a CTA bus. He, too, was a student at Percy Julian High School and an innocent victim of gunfire. As CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports, students there say riding the bus shouldn't be a question of life and death. Chicago and CTA police officers looked for clues Monday just up the street from where Salters was shot in the face and killed while riding on the No. 71 bus. That's the same bus that Latecia Means takes to...

On Anderson's Cooper 360 they did a major investigative look at the Ayers/Obama connection. They even interviewed Stanley Kurtz. Bottom line: Just a guy in my neighborhood? Served on one board together? CNN Says bulls**t! They worked closely with each other and worked together on TWO boards -- both Annenberg and the Woods Foundation. They also talked about Ayers little tea party to launch Obama and found Obama hadn't been entirely honest about "just stopping by..." It was an event they planned and hosted TOGETHER. Sarah Palin needs to come out tomorrow and ride this just like she did the...

The National Black Republican Association, NBRA, released radio ads today that go after Sen. Barack Obama as a “slum-lord and a far left wing radical.” The ads are being run in battleground states, but you can find the audio on the NBRA Web site. From the NBRA: “The NBRA radio ads clearly demonstrate that, when the American people look behind Obama's slick, public facade, they see an inexperienced liberal who does not have the character and judgment to be our next president. To understand what Obama has in mind for the rest of America, visit any black urban community in...

Ayers Was on Woods Fund Board with Obama When He Stepped on Flag Politics | Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 8:40:39 am PST Barack Obama was much older than 8 when William Ayers was photographed stepping on a US flag in 2001, for an article in which Ayers said he had “No Regrets” for his violent actions in the Weather Underground. In fact, at the same time Ayers was in a Chicago alley desecrating the flag, he and Barack Obama were serving on the board of the Woods Fund together: PolitiFact | Obama served on board with Ayers. Deborah Harrington,...

Sarah Palin has accused presidential candidate Barack Obama of "palling around" with terrorists - referring to his acquaintance with a former member of the Weather Underground. So who were the Weather Underground? Embroiled in an unpopular war in Vietnam, with many of the grievances of the civil-rights movement still unanswered, the US government was facing widespread protests in the late 1960s. Often those who rebelled were rich in idealism but unable or unwilling to take concrete action. On 8 October 1969, all that changed. A newly-formed group of left-wing extremists, dubbed the Weathermen, went on the rampage in a well-planned...

Actually from CNN... shows how Obama is a steward of big time CHICAGO politics.. so this is the CHANGE he keeps talking about.../s

His political opponents think Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's acquaintance with former Weatherman William Ayers is a weak spot worthy of attack, as certain Republican presidential nominee John McCain did again Sunday on a TV talk show. But here in Chicago, home to both men, the charge that Obama has been friendly with the former political radical has gone nowhere. Ayers' extremist past has "has never bothered anyone in Chicago," Chicago Sun-Times political columnist Lynn Sweet wrote after Obama was questioned about his relationship with Ayers in last week's debate with Hillary Clinton. "That's why back in the day when Obama...

Data points from the Windy City The U.S. Treasury is happy to commit $700 billion of taxpayer money to “fixing” the current credit crisis without basing the sum on any particular “data point.” (”We just wanted to choose a really large number,” one Treasury spokesman cheerily observed.) Since there is an absence of data points in such exalted places, I thought readers might appreciate a few as they think about the upcoming presidential election. A friend who lives in Chicago sent me some arresting reflections on the Windy City, stomping ground of Barack Obama, former Community Organizer in Chicago, former...

Kuroda vs. Harden. First pitch, 9:07 CDT.

Billingsley vs. Zambrano. First pitch, 8:37 CDT.

Islam convert gets 35 years in plot to attack mall The Associated Press - 30 Sep 2008 CHICAGO (AP) — A 24-year-old convert to Islam has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for plotting to set off hand grenades in a crowded shopping mall ... Man gets 35 years in '06 terror plot Chicago Tribune

OBAMA–MOVING ON UP IN CHICAGO POLITICS: PART TWO (Please see, “Obama’s Tainted, Adoptive Town, Chicago: Part One [http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?paged=3, September 23, 2008.] ) Part One discussed Chicago, the early corrupt years, and Senator Obama’s middle years when he changed his nickname from Barry to his given, Muslim name, Barack, or “blessed one,” in Arabic. He was moving on up. Barry moved on up—to booze, pot and coke, according to his book—before entering Occidental College, then Columbia, and then up to the corporate world for a while. He moved, laterally, to Chicago in 1985 and became a “community organizer” and joined Reverend...

5:37 CDT first pitch at Wrigley Field in Chicago! Dempster vs. Lowe. Line-ups will be announced soon.

Dear Mainstream Media, Formerly respectable news organizations have spent the last month exploring the vast Alaskan frontier-land, diminishing themselves into nothing more than scum-seeking parasites, desperately lusting for the blood of Sarah Palin. Alas, finding nothing of circumstance they could use to bring Gov. Palin down, all these journalists could do is resort to repeating bizarre internet rumors and picking on a pregnant 17-year-old girl. On the way to Alaska, most of these so-called journalists flew directly over a place in the heart of the lower 48. A place called Chicago; a place that apparently hasn’t seen an investigative journalist...

Chicago Documentary: Where is Obama?

A 24-year-old convert to Islam has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for plotting to blow off hand grenades in a crowded shopping mall during the Christmas season. Federal Judge David Coar said Tuesday he didn't believe Shareef was evil. But he said people could have been severely hurt if federal agents hadn't broken up the plot.

North Side tavern hangs nude portrait; Bruce Elliott, whose wife owns the Old Town Ale House, painted this nude portrait of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. He said his daughter, who does a good impression of the Alaska governor, served as model. (Kuni Takahashi, Chicago Tribune / September 29, 2008) There's been no shortage of takeoffs on Sarah Palin lately, from television skits to action figures, but Bruce Elliott has gone one step further than most. He's taken off her clothes.

On Monday, Obama demanded that the Justice Department stop TV stations from airing a documented, accurate independent ad spotlighting Obama’s longtime working relationship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. ...On Tuesday, the Obama campaign sent another letter to the Justice Department demanding investigation and prosecution of American Issues Project, the group that produced the Ayers ad, as well as Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, who funded it.

From FReeper OPS4 A nasty October surprise for Barry? Maybe he can get a bracelet with Tony Rezko's name on it (surely he'll remember that name) and pray to Karl Marx or whatever god he worships that TR keeps his mouth shut. Tipsville: Sneed hears rumbles that convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko, whose dealings have been linked to Barack Obama and Gov. Blagojevich, is singing to the feds. To wit: "I'm told by a close friend of Rezko that he's cooperating with the feds," said a Sneed source. "I don't know whether he's talking about Gov. Blagojevich or Barack Obama...

Both Indian and Pakistani community of Chicago and its suburbs are in a state of unrest and shock due to an unbelievable investment scam worth millions-of- dollars targeting the community and sudden disappearance of Sunrise Equities's CEO Salman Ibrahim. State regulators are considering criminal charges against a developer named Ibrahim, who fraudulently persuaded hundreds of muslims to invest in real estate deals. Some gave Ibrahim their life savings or mortgaged their homes before he disappeared in August. Investors say they may loose more than USD 50 million. Salman Ibrahim, CEO and President of the Chicago-based Shariah compliant financial services firm,...

All of the information below is from an editorial post on the website http://discoverthenetworks.org _________________________________________________________ A notable attendee at the [Bll]Ayers/Dohrn-hosted political gatherings [in Chicago in the early to mid-1990s] was Democratic state senator Alice J. Palmer (of Illinois' 13th District), who soon developed a friendly relationship with Obama. Prior to her stint in politics, Palmer had worked for the Black Press Institute and was editor of the Black Press Review. During the Cold War, she supported the Soviet Union and spoke against the United States. In the 1980s she served as an executive board member of the U.S. Peace...

125 Shot Dead In Chicago Over Summer Total Is About Double The U.S. Troop Death Toll In Iraq CHICAGO (CBS) ― An estimated 125 people were shot and killed over the summer. That's nearly double the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period. In May, cbs2chicago.com began tracking city shootings and posting them on Google maps. Information compiled from our reporters, wire service reports and the Chicago Police Major Incidents log indicated that 125 people were shot and killed throughout the city between the start of Memorial Day weekend on May 26, and the end...

Can you think of how funny it would be if the October surprise is Obama getting into trouble because of flowers? It sort of fits libs. Here are some tidbits from the story: A $100,000 state grant for a botanic garden in Englewood that then-state Sen. Barack Obama awarded in 2001 to a group headed by a onetime campaign volunteer is now under investigation by the Illinois attorney general amid new questions, prompted by Chicago Sun-Times reports, about whether the money might have been misspent.

Chicago Latinos ask the question of the day. Where is Obama?

In the early part of 1995, Vartan Gregorian, the president of Brown, flew to Chicago to meet with the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school reform initiative to which he had just awarded $49 million of a large gift he had helped arrange. When he arrived, the board was excited to introduce the man it had selected to be its first president - a young lawyer named Barack Obama.

The crisis on Wall Street has New Yorkers alarmed. But it's nothing compared to the levels of anxiety those living in the Windy City feel each day. Chicago's rising unemployment rate, expensive gas, high population density and relatively poor air quality create a perfect storm of stress, according to measures we used to calculate the country's anxiety hot spots.

Here's the video:

Chicago police say they've arrested a man after he approached security barriers around presidential candidate Barack Obama's home. They say a gun was later found in his car.

WATERTOWN, Wis. -- Fred Merkle was born in Watertown, Wis., in 1888, but he spent only one year there before his family moved to Toledo, Ohio. Still, that didn't prevent Watertown resident David Stalker from claiming Merkle as the town's very own. He spearheaded an effort to erect a monument in Merkle's honor. Set in black marble with a baseball perched on top, the monument notes that Merkle was a "potent line-drive hitter and agile first-baseman." It says he was a member of six World Series teams. However, there is no mention on the monument of the play that earned...

CHICAGO -- Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has yet to solicit Ozzie Guillen's help or advice in relation to fulfilling his ongoing quest of bringing the 2016 Olympics to Chicago. Not unlike the shoot-from-the-lip manner Guillen has operated under since taking over the White Sox in 2004, the opinionated manager recently offered up his own solution to clinch the bid. It involves the Cubs and White Sox and a special postseason meeting that has not taken place since 1906, which astonishingly also marks the last time both teams qualified for the playoffs during the same season. "Like I said two...

One hundred years ago this afternoon, the New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs played a game that can still be found on baseball's figurative Mount Rushmore, next to the Bobby Thompson home run game, the Sandy Amoros catch game, Don Larsen's perfect game, and the game where Carlton Fisk waved it fair. No one who played in or saw the game is alive. The Polo Grounds, where it was played, was demolished a half century ago. Doesn't matter. Some games just endure. More specifically, what happened on Sept. 23, 1908, was this. With the first breezes of autumn in...

Today, in a piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled, “Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools,” I offer a report on my research into the archives of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), an education foundation once headed by Barack Obama. As I explained in “Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown?” the Richard J. Daley Library of the University of Illinois at Chicago first agreed to grant, then abruptly denied me, access to the files of this foundation. Subsequently, the Daley Library again reversed their decision and made the CAC files available. As I note in today’s Journal piece, I’ve conveyed the...

Here is the article from the Wall Street Journal: Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools

A century ago, Arthur Bentley wrote in The Process of Government that ideals are far less important to the political process than the collective actions and interactions of interest groups.  Oversimplifying, that means that it doesn’t matter so much what politicians profess as what their supporters and adversaries do.  According to Wikipedia, Bentley’s pluralist-behavioralist thinking was a major influence to the “Chicago School”, so named for the University of Chicago.      Well, when it comes to Chicago, there are Schools, and there are schools – as this Presidential campaign amply demonstrates.  Bentley’s thinking merely gives one a good way...

Obama’s Real-Estate Bust He did for Illinois taxpayers what shady mortgage lenders have done for the economy... Using his elected office and his clout, Obama helped Tony Rezko and other unscrupulous low-income housing developers obtain millions of dollars in state grants, tax credits, low-interest loans, and regulatory advantages. Taxpayers had no serious chance of recouping these “investments” in Rezko and other developers. And many beneficiaries went one step farther, depriving the public of even the benefits they could have gotten. These developers took government help to build low-income housing, and then let their buildings deteriorate into uninhabitable slums... To date,...

Hard-Hitting McCain Ad Links Obama to Chicago Political ‘Machine’ by FOXNews.com Monday, September 22, 2008 John McCain’s campaign released one of its hardest hitting ads in this election on Monday, aiming to ratchet up the guilt-by-association game by linking Barack Obama to convicted felon Tony Rezko. The new spot, “Chicago Machine” also connects the Democratic presidential nominee to three prominent Illinois politicians– former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, Illinois state Senate President Emil Jones and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich — all of whom have faced criticism for questionable ties to businessmen and political power brokers. The ad claims Obama is...

Campaign video. The McCain Campaign attacks Barack Hussein Obama’s Chicago connection to Illinois’ criminal element.

Joining us now from Chicago is a woman who knows all about Barack Obama's Chicago gang, Sugar Rautbord, who actually introduced the Senator to George Soros. Wow. Why did you do that? SUGAR RAUTBORD, OBAMA SUPPORTER: Well, because he was a Democrat, and he is rich, so that kind of makes sense. And when he was running, Barack, for the U.S. Senate, Paula and Jim Crown from the very important billionaire Chicago Crown family that owns Aspen, owns a lot of companies, very generous, very philanthropic, we were all working with Barack to run for the Senate, and I was...

Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran ...released the results of an audit that showed a fifth of his jail population is undocumented and pressed for the power to deport them. In the process, he took shots at Cook County, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and politicians in Springfield and Washington for not doing the same. "The city of Chicago as well as the state of Illinois have shown little interest in cooperating with ICE." Fourteen months ago, Curran applied for certification in the federal 287(g) program, which gives local law enforcement officials deportation powers under Immigration and Customs supervision. He said he...

WASHINGTON - A man who has long been dogged by charges that the bank his family owns helped finance a Chicago crime figure will host a Windy City fund-raiser tonight for Sen. Barack Obama. Alexi Giannoulias, who became Illinois state treasurer last year after Obama vouched for him, has pledged to raise $100,000 for the senator's Oval Office bid. Before he promised to raise funds for Obama, Giannoulias bankrolled Michael "Jaws" Giorango, a Chicagoan twice convicted of bookmaking and promoting prostitution. Giannoulias is so tainted by reputed mob links that several top Illinois Dems, including the state's speaker of...

CHICAGO -- The Cubs are back-to-back division champions for the first time in 100 years. Chicago clinched the National League Central by beating St. Louis, 5-4. The club has consecutive division titles for the first time since 1907-08, when the Cubs last won the World Series with one division per league. They're the first NL club to secure a playoff spot. "Just finishing is the most important thing," center fielder Jim Edmonds said. "You never know what can happen in the last week of the season, and you don't want to be anywhere near the pennant race, because it could...

A few weeks ago we wrote about the undue and disingenuous attack led by Barack Obama's Chicago HQ perpetrated against Chicago radio host Dr. Milt Rosenberg. Well, last week they did it again, raising their legions to attack the host and his radio station (WGN) and trying to have the unassuming radio host thrown off the air. And what was his "crime"? Rosenberg had the gall to actually interview two conservative writers who were investigating the life and history of the Obamessiah. I live in Chicago and have listened to Milt Rosenberg many times. His show is one of the...

For the Pritzker family of Chicago, the 2001 collapse of subprime-mortgage lender Superior Bank was an embarrassing failure in a corner of their giant business empire. Billionaire Penny Pritzker helped run Hinsdale, Ill.-based Superior, overseeing her family's 50% ownership stake. She now serves as Barack Obama's national campaign-finance chairwoman, which means her banking past could prove to be an embarrassment to her -- and perhaps to the campaign. Superior was seized in 2001 and later closed by federal regulators. Government investigators and consumer advocates have contended that Superior engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices. Ms. Pritzker, a...

Thomas G Ayers, 1915-2007 **SNIP** Thomas G. Ayers, a longtime civic and business leader, had a vision for Chicago's urban landscape and its minority communities. **SNIP** William Ayers, separated from his family during 11 years as a federal fugitive, said his father did not turn his back on him. "He understood more than most the anger and frustration young people felt about that endless war," said Ayers. "He really admired and loved all of his kids." **SNIP** He served on many boards, including that of G.D. Searle, Chicago Pacific Corp., Zenith Corp., Northwest Industries, First National Bank of Chicago and...

The disappearance of the CEO and president of a Shariah-compliant investment firm has left many in West Ridge's Indo-Pak community wary and in turmoil. Concerned when monthly profit checks from Sunrise Equities stopped arriving in August, no one has seen or heard from the firm's CEO, Salman Ibrahim. Ibrahim has not returned investors' phone calls. Phone calls to the firm's office at 6355 N. Claremont, and its downtown affiliates, Sunrise Development Inc., have also gone unanswered, leaving many of the firm's mostly Muslim investors wondering where Ibrahim and other corporate officers have gone. "[Ibrahim] stopped paying the monthly installments," said...

The story of the Sarah Palin email hack has taken a new turn. According to security experts, the hackers have been traced to Barack Obama’s hometown of Chicago. His national headquarters is located there.

Now we know where Obama’s mean, nasty, abusive followers get their marching orders. At a Nevada rally Wednesday, Obama said this to about 14,000 people: “I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face,” Nice. So much for the politics of hope and unity. So much for teaching our youth how to be good citizens and neighbors. So much for teaching tolerance, respect, and bi-partisanship....