Free Republic

Tacitus X wrote: Silly excuse for a column. It doesn't take any more "guts" for a politician to send others to fight than it does for him to show "compassion" by giving someone else's money away.-- Rand Paul and the Gutless Generation Dear Comrade X, It takes a lot of guts for the president of the United States to send kids off to die. Look how much trouble Obama-- a silly excuse for a president-- had in sending the Seals in to kill Bin Laden: a no-brainer if there ever was one. Obviously, Obama’s not a pantheon to courage, and...

As a hardcore baseball guy, I often wonder why people needlessly waste their time on all those other, lesser sports. But I suppose everyone has a right to their insane opinions. In any case, football fans may want to keep an eye on this development: The NFL announced this week that it will be using RFID tracking chips on players during select games in the 2014 season. The high-tech chips — RFID stands for radio-frequency identification — will generate precise positioning data on each player on every play. Football Uniforms Throughout History For the initial rollout, the RFID system will...

Police: Gunman and victim in Loop shooting 'had been friends for years' By Marwa Eltagouri, Alexandra Chachkevitch and Meredith Rodriguez, Tribune reporters Less than a week after Tony DeFrances learned that he was being demoted as part of a downsizing of his company, authorities said he walked into his boss’s office Thursday morning for a one-on-one. Apparently upset about his demotion, DeFrances, armed with a gun, confronted CEO Steven LaVoie, a longtime colleague and friend at the supply technology firm ArrowStream in the Loop, police said. At some point, DeFrances, 60, and LaVoie, 54, struggled over the gun. LaVoie was...

When Victoria Chamilien and her cousin, Sam Walker, last spoke, it was Wednesday afternoon after he returned from a police station, where he viewed surveillance footage of the killing of his 13-year-old son..

CNSNews.com) - A thousand children said to be fleeing the violence in Central America will be welcomed to Chicago, where local children are routinely in the cross-fire of gang-related grudges. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, at the request of the Obama administration in which he formerly served, says he is working with local organizations to make room for up to one thousand additional unaccompanied children "traveling" from Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border in the coming year. “The influx of unaccompanied child migrants is a growing humanitarian crisis that we can no longer ignore,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “While we have our...

Citing his immigrant grandfather’s frightening flight from the pogroms of Eastern Europe, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday defended his decision to open the city’s arms to 1,000 unaccompanied immigrant children fleeing violence in Central America. Some have suggested that the humanitarian effort funded by the federal government is a diversion and that Emanuel should concentrate all of his efforts on protecting Chicago’s children from the gang violence that has claimed far too many innocent victims. But the mayor argued Wednesday that a city of big shoulders with an even bigger heart can walk and chew gum at the same time....

In a prime example of the negative politics employed by the modern Democratic Party, an apparently misread Facebook post led to an amateurish and inflammatory attack against a Republican Party hopeful. US Representative Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) accused her opponent of attacking the African America community, attributing a Ben Carson quote that was posted on GOP challenger Lawrence Kaifesh's Facebook campaign page. On her own Facebook page, Rep. Duckworth lambasted Kaifesh for his alleged comments "claiming African-Americans are dependent on government." Although favored, Rep. Duckworth is engaged in a surprisingly competitive race with Kaifesh for Illinois 8th Congressional district, which covers...

The park surrounding Chicago’s historic Water Tower would be renamed “Jane M. Byrne Plaza” in honor of the former mayor under a proposal endorsed today by the City Council Finance Committee. Aldermen set aside other proposed ways to honor Byrne after the former mayor’s daughter, Kathy Byrne, said the park idea was endorsed by her mother and family. The full council will vote Wednesday to honor a mayor who served from 1979 to 1983.

It’s a picture-perfect summer day, bright sun, sparkling skies. And here I am, stuck waiting for another press conference in another stuffy meeting room. Up front stood a bundle of boys and girls, 25 or so, preschoolers in pigtails, strapping youths sporting football jerseys, assembled at the podium, to pose with the politicians and preachers. What’s wrong with this picture? These kids should be in play lots, parks and backyards. They should not be props at a photo op at a West Side church, waiting for the boring adults to make boring their speeches. Perversely, this is the best place...

After a spate[??] of shootings across Chicago that left over a dozen dead and nearly 100 wounded, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Friday toured a new federal Gun Crime Intelligence Center, saying, “You can’t fight a war without intelligence,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the office will collect data on the more than 7,000 firearms used in crimes and recovered by Chicago police each year, the Sun-Times writes. “You can't fight a war without intelligence, to know where the weapons are, where the shooters are and to stop it before...

The 3-year-old boy was outside with his mother, her boyfriend and another man about 10 p.m. Friday night in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side. The child isn’t old enough to know what a Satan’s Disciple or Two-Sixer is, let alone comprehend all the things that can mean in a neighborhood like this one. But in Chicago, gang conflicts have a way of consuming the neighborhoods where they occur and noncombatants often become an unwilling and unknowing participant.

Emanuel wants city to house 1,000 more young illegal immigrants, report says Posted: Jul 26, 2014 4:02 PM CST Updated: Jul 26, 2014 4:02 PM CST FOX News - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former Obama administration chief of staff, wants to expand the city’s efforts to house young illegal immigrants from Central America, reportedly proposing to shelter an additional 1,000 of them by year's end. "The influx of unaccompanied child migrants is a growing humanitarian crisis that we can no longer ignore," said Emanuel, according to The Chicago Tribune. "While we have our own challenges at home, we cannot...

Thousands of protesters were marching through downtown Chicago on Sunday in support of Palestinians as Israeli forces continue a ground invasion in the Gaza Strip. Protesters were carrying Palestinian flags and signs reading “Save Gaza's children” and chanting “Free, free Palestine.” Salam Khatib, 19, of Valparaiso, Ind., participated in the march with seven of her family members. "We just hope people will expand their knowledge of what's going on in Palestine," she said. "It just doesn't make sense to me." Protesters made their way west along Upper Wacker Drive, turned south on State Street and then continued west along Madison...

The community activist group "Put Down The Guns Young People" is headed to Chicago to spread their message of putting an end to gun violence. The group is driving to Chicago and will spend the weekend meeting with community leaders and passing out literature. Logan said he's going at the expense of his personal safety.

Gangster John Dillinger’s lifelong career of crime—he robbed at least 12 banks and four police departments and was accused of shooting and killing an East Chicago police officer while escaping one bank robbery—ended, with his life, eighty years ago today outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago, Illinois. Agents from the Division of Investigation (DOI) of the Justice Department (DOJ), a predecessor to the FBI, surrounded the theater based on a tip from an informant and then shot and killed him when he resisted arrest outside.

On 21July2014 Amtrak Wolverine was due to arrive in New Buffalo Michigan at 8:10pm from Chicago. But it was over 2 hours late. When my wife FINALLY talked with a REAL person she was told that AMTRAK's own dispatch center could NOTcontact the train and to call back in 10 min for update!!!!!!!!

So… how’s that whole gun free zone thing in Chicago working out? Even though they came close to setting a new record over the 4th of July, things in the Windy City aren’t slowing down much. The toll just for Friday afternoon through Saturday morning was impressive in a pretty horrid way. A 10-year-old girl was shot in the head and critically injured by a stray bullet fired into her home in the Garfield Park neighborhood Friday afternoon, authorities said.The girl, and another 12-year-old shot in the same neighborhood, are among 22 people shot between about 3:30 p.m. and...

Shamiya Adams was sitting on a bedroom floor in her best friend's home, making s'mores after an evening of practicing a dance routine, when the shot ripped through the house in Garfield Park. The bullet crashed through the wall of the bedroom and struck the 11-year-old in the head. She was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, where family kept an overnight vigil until the girl was pronounced dead at 7:33 a.m. today. [Snip] The victims told police they were approached by someone they didn't know, who fired shots at them. In other shootings:

A 10-year-old girl was shot in the head and critically injured by a stray bullet fired into her home in the Garfield Park neighborhood Friday afternoon, authorities said. The girl, and another 12-year-old shot in the same neighborhood, are among 22 people shot between about 3:30 p.m. and 3 a.m.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D) is supporting statewide "restrictions" on .50 caliber rifles and bans on "assault weapon" and "high capacity" magazines because of the violence in heavily gun-controlled Chicago.