Free Republic

About 600 of Chicago’s top African-American lawyers and judges gave standing ovations Thursday to two preachers who’ve been vilified in recent months for their sermons that went nationwide on the Web. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the Rev. Michael Pfleger became headaches for Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential campaign when their controversial comments became fodder for conservative talk-show hosts. Wright said “God damn America” in arguing that American foreign policy helped bring on the 9/11 attacks. Pfleger said Hillary Clinton resented Obama as a black man taking the nomination she felt was hers. But despite the heat on them, the two...

Politics produces a gap between words and deeds. Obama exaggerates the credit he deserves for a limited piece of ethics-reform legislation. He embellishes when he presents himslf as having a consistent record on the Iraq war when in fact he's done done a fair amount of zigzagging. He says it was the 1965 bloody attacks on civil rights protesters in Selma, Alabama, that inspired his parents to marry. They had been married for years already. He engages in doubletalk when, on free trade and Iraq, he tells the yokels one thing and the policy people another. He overstates when he...

Attention-grabbing fact from Fred Siegal's must-read piece on Barack Obama in the dead tree edition: 90% of Obama's popular vote lead over Hillary Clinton was racked up in his home state of Illinois, and two-thirds of that 90% was accumulated in Cook County.

Barack Obama - The Wizard Of Oz By Evelyn Pringle 28 March, 2008 Countercurrents.org The most trusted leaders of the Democratic party, such as John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, ought to be ashamed of themselves for supporting Barack Obama. With use of the internet, a fifth grader could connect the dots to show a picture of a guy who was picked up in college and carried up the political ladder by a corrupt gang of influence peddlers. John McCain is just drooling waiting for Obama to become the nominee so that he can come out with the trail of dirt...

When Cook County Board President Todd Stroger introduced his cousin Donna Dunnings as the county's new chief financial officer last year, they each boasted of the savings taxpayers would realize. She would take a salary far less than the previous CFO. That was then.

Former Cook County Board President John Stroger has died. Mayor Daley announced Stroger's death this morning at a breakfast. He was a close ally of Mayor Daley and his father, Richard J. Daley. Presidential hopefuls curried his favor in hopes of tapping the rich mine of votes his South Side 8th Ward Democratic organization routinely produced. Stroger had loyalty to family, supporters When President Stroger’s final run for office tightened up, it was former President Bill Clinton who came to his aid, singing his praises in radio ads and recorded automated telephone calls.

I don’t mean to startle you enough that you spill your mug of eggnog, but the forces that want you to stop fishing and hunting are at it again. As practitioners of hunting and fishing, we face threats to our sports on a constant basis. Whether it is loss of available hunting land or our losing access to waterways, the threats are real and must be fought with vigor. No threat should be taken more seriously than one that restricts our right to bear arms. The Cook County Board of Commissioners is the governing body for a region that contains...

ISRA Alert: TOTAL COOK COUNTY GUN BAN CLEARS FIRST HURDLE Rabid gun-grabbers on the Cook County Board came one step closer last week to instituting a total ban on firearm ownership in the county – except for police and military personnel. Introduced by Commissioner William Beavers, the so-called “Safe Streets/Weapons Registration Ordinance” appears on the surface to be some sort of gun registration scheme. However, closer examination reveals that the only people who could comply with the registration requirements would be Chicago residents who had previously registered their guns with the city. Everyone else in Cook County would have to...

CHICAGO - Tax hikes, proposed clinic closings and claims of racism plagued a Cook County Board meeting on Tuesday. Commissioner William Beavers charges white members of the board are ganging up on president Todd Stroger to block his agenda. "If this was a white man in power right now, they wouldn't be fighting (Stroger) like this," Beavers said, raising his racial conspiracy theory at a seemingly pointless county finance committee meeting where commissioners grew testy and interrupted each other. Beavers claimed that Tony Peraica hates all black people, saying, "All black elected officials he hates -- he don't like 'em."...

One Cook County commissioner wants to increase the county's portion of the sales tax, and if approved, the sales tax in Cook County would go up to 11 percent. That tax increase would also apply to restaurant and hotel bills. Cook County Commissioner Joan Patricia Murphy said the additional tax revenue would be used to avoid another crisis when it is time to come up with next year's budget. It appears everything is on the table as Cook County commissioners prepare for next year's budget. The last time they called for a sales tax increase was 1992. Some commissioners say...

Orlando Jones, the top aide and godson of former Cook County Board President John Stroger, parlayed his connections into a lucrative career as a behind-the-scenes government consultant with ties stretching from Chicago to Springfield and Las Vegas. But in the last year, his quiet, insider role had brought him under more scrutiny of law enforcement, and on Tuesday he met with his lawyer to discuss how to refute allegations that he was involved in a contract scheme at a Las Vegas public hospital. A day later, Jones, 52, was found dead on a beach in southwest Michigan, and authorities said...

In the end, storming the Cook County Administration Building with dozens of supporters in the middle of the night didn?t make a difference for Tony Peraica. The Republican candidate for Cook County Board president conceded the race to his Democratic opponent, Todd Stroger, today around 2:40 p.m. after suburban vote totals, delayed by technical glitches, made it clear victory was impossible. Returns showed Stroger with 68 percent of the city vote, while Peraica got 61 percent of the suburban county vote. Overall, Stroger was winning by a 54 to 46 percent margin, with 642,000 votes to Peraica?s 547,000. So even...

Dumbest poll question ever.... Go to: http://www.nbc5.com Scroll down to lower right. Do you think corruption is a big problem in Cook County politics? Yes No

Rude, race-baiting questions are not my first choice in the journalistic quiver. But I couldn't help firing a few at Tony Peraica, the Republican candidate for president of the Cook County Board. Tony, just when are you going to turn into an evil white racist? In September or October, when you'll be known as a man bent on disenfranchising African-American voters, like the rest of those Republicans? "Excuse me?" Peraica said. We were sitting in the quietly exclusive atmosphere of CND Gyros during an interview on Wednesday. It's quietly exclusive because it's not expensive enough for most politicians, leaving taxpayers...

One of Chicago's most powerful aldermen has a conspiracy theory for the voting problems experienced during the March primary. Alderman Ed Burke wants to know why the Chicago board of elections would pick a Venezuelan company to supply the city's new voting machines, a company Burke believes has the ability to rig an election for political gain. Both the voting machine company and the board of elections are calling alderman Burke's suggestion of a conspiracy absurd. This happened during a city council hearing Friday on problems during last month's primary. Alderman Ed Burke, whose wife just got appointed to the...

Four Kennedy High School students were charged Thursday in an assault on a Kennedy senior who was pummeled in the school auditorium in front of scores of students and who, witnesses said, was attacked with feces later found strewn across the auditorium floor. Teachers and students were horrified by the incident, which left the victim, an 18-year-old honor student, with a broken nose, two black eyes, abrasions on both eyes and a swollen cheek, according to his father. "For these [attackers] to do what they did is beyond disgusting,'' said one teacher who asked for anonymity. "No kid should go...

Cook County lost more people between 2000 and 2005 than any county in the nation, according to Census Bureau estimates released Thursday that also show continued gains in suburban and exurban counties across the region and portions of the nation. The new figures--based on administrative records and estimates for births, deaths and net migration--show the county lost more than 73,000 people, or 1.4 percent, since the last official count in April 2000. The largest-loser designation can partly be attributed to Cook County's massive size, because raw numbers were used for the rankings. Still, among the nation's 10 largest counties, Cook,...

Chicago is no longer my kind of town. It's a liberal Democrat kind of town. It's a town with a gay and lesbian center – funded by taxpayers. It's a town that aborts over 20,000 of its residents a year. It's Jesse Jackson's home town. It's a town where Republicans meet in catacombs. It's a town where even Catholic priests vote 4-to-1 Democrat. So imagine my surprise when last week the overpowered Cook County Republican Party issued a press release accusing Democrat tyrants of abusing their most prized possession, African Americans.

A Cook County Jail guard has admitted to investigators that he helped six inmates escape over the weekend to give a political advantage to a former jail supervisor running for sheriff... The 36-year-old guard confessed that he allowed a convicted killer, two accused robbers and two others charged with aggravated kidnapping and battery to bust out of the jail to cast a shadow on Sheriff Michael Sheahan's management of the complex at 26th and California. The guard knew the negative publicity would hurt Sheahan's chief of staff, Tom Dart, who is running for sheriff... And the guard admitted he helped...

Six inmates, including two charged with murder, overpowered guards and escaped shortly before midnight from the Cook County Jail. Two were recaptured in Oak Park about 6 a.m., but the others were the subject of an extensive manhunt, authorities said. The escape was the second in as many days from the jail. The latest escapees are believed to have a contraband knife made inside the jail and are considered extremely dangerous, said Bill Cunningham, a spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan. He said they escaped from a unit where inmates with discipline problems are housed.

Enjoy those $6.59 cigarette packs for the next 19 days. Starting March 1, they'll cost $7.59. By a 10-7 vote, Cook County Board members voted Thursday to double the county tax on a pack of cigarettes from $1 to $2. A pack of Marlboro Lights that cost $6.59 at a downtown Walgreens Thursday will be $7.59 next month. The same pack costs $4.45 at a White Hen in the DuPage County city of Elmhurst, and it costs $3.76 at a Hammond, Ind... Commissioners voting against the tax hike said shoppers will increasingly hop borders, hurting Cook County businesses. With the...

Some Cook County employees are treating their workspaces like a pigpen -- and that's why they've got rodent problems. That's the essence of a news release issued Tuesday by Chicago's Streets & Sanitation Department that set off a war of words with Cook County Clerk David Orr. On Monday, the Sun-Times reported complaints from clerk employees working in the basement of the City Hall/Cook County building who said they've been seeing rats in the office. But a surprise city inspection Tuesday turned up no sign of rats. Instead, city officials said, they found mice feces as well as "open food"...

Three years ago, Frederick S. Rhine fought the uphill battle of running for Cook County judge against someone with a strong Irish name. He failed miserably. Last week, Rhine admitted he knows he can't beat them. So he's joining them. Documents recently filed in Cook County Circuit Court show Rhine, a Chicago attorney, has changed his name to Patrick Michael O'Brien -- the same last name as the candidate who defeated him in 2002. And while surprised to learn the Chicago Sun-Times discovered his name-change application, Rhine admitted he did it solely in the hopes of winning a judicial seat...

I was 12 years old in 1960. Unlike the phony cries of the DemocRATS in the 2000 recount in Florida, in Cook County, Chicago, an election really was stolen in 1960 from Richard Nixon. Mayor Richard Daley delivered big time for John Kennedy. Fast forward to 2005. Cook County, Chicago again. This time it is not an election, but rather the ACLS. The home plate umpire misses the call. He calls the batter out on a swinging third strike, signals again that he struck out, but blows it by allowing the runner to go to first base as the Angels...

The Cook County Republican Party is offering a $10,000 bounty — on the political head of Mayor Richard M. Daley. Saying the mayor’s credibility has vanished, county GOP Chairman Gary Skoien Tuesday announced that the Republicans will pay a $10,000 reward to anyone who offers information “leading to the indictment and conviction of Mayor Richard M. Daley for violations of the Shakman Decrees or other forms of corruption.” The Shakman Decree bans the use of political factors in hiring, firing and promotion for most city workers. Mr. Skoien said the bounty is being offered “to assist” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald,...

A judge's comments in recent months that she would refuse to seat an all-white jury have raised eyebrows at Cook County Criminal Court and questions about whether the judge acted inappropriately. "Folks, you all know I have a rule; I don't seat all white jurors," Circuit Judge Evelyn Clay said as a jury was being picked to hear a murder trial last month, according to court transcripts. -snip- Some lawyers who work at the Criminal Courts Building said they see no problem with a judge taking a stand for diversity on juries. "I see her now as a leader in...

Chicago's most experienced voter was honored Tuesday. Amazon Brooks, 107, has voted since 1920. The Chicago Board of Elections recognized 107-year-old Miss Amazon Brooks as the city's oldest voter. Brooks still remembers leaving her home on 31st Street and Indiana Avenue to vote for the first time in 1920, shortly after women first got the right to vote. That vote was cast for Woodrow Wilson. Since then, she's cast a ballot in nearly every election. She claimed to have been a Republican in the beginning, but has made the switch somewhere along the way. Her favorite president was John F....

It's an all-too-common answer for those shopping at the mall and now it will be an answer for some at the Cook County Jail: "Charge it." Inmates will soon be able to bond out if they can find a loved one with a credit card with a credit limit high enough to cover bail. County commissioners passed a measure out of committee Monday that would allow courts to establish credit card payment systems. With a full board vote expected to easily pass next Tuesday, the new systems should be in place this summer. And while many are lauding the no-risk...

     CHICAGO -- On Friday, the Illinois Republican Party’s State Central Committee will meet in Springfield. Although the agenda hasn’t been publicly disclosed, insiders speculate the committeemen will discuss who is likely to be the sixth state party chairman in seven years. Sunday night, St. Clair County’s state central committeeman Steve McGlynn told conservative columnist Tom Roeser he wanted the job. While interviewed on Chicago's WLS 890, McGlynn said he was confident he had enough votes to be selected at Friday’s meeting, despite predictions that former U.S. Senate candidate Andy McKenna, Jr. was favored. Two weeks ago, the state...

On Wednesday, Cook County election officials moved five polling sites out of an Orland Park church because of controversial comments made by that church's pastor. On Friday, Chicago election officials followed, moving three polling sites out of a Chicago church run by the same pastor. Ashburn Baptist Church, near 83rd and Kedzie, won't be the polling site for three 18th Ward precincts this year, Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Tom Leach said. Though a new polling site hasn't been selected yet for the Nov. 2 general election, he said board members were unanimous in deciding to move to a new...

Massive voter registration fraud case probed March 12, 2004 BY CHERYL V. JACKSON Staff Reporter The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners is investigating what it says is the largest case of voter registration fraud in recent years -- 1,000 to 2,000 suspect voter registrations, mostly from the 26th Ward on the Near Northwest Side, over a 17-month period. The registrations are among 10,000 filed between Aug. 12, 2002, and Jan. 29, 2004. The election board used handwriting analysis to determine that 10 percent to 20 percent of the registrations are apparently for nonexistent people or addresses, or vacant lots. The...

Infuriated by President Bush's "unprincipled attack against gay people and our families," activists did an about-face Wednesday -- they shifted the battleground over gay marriage to the Cook County Board. Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), Chicago's first openly gay alderman, and Rick Garcia, political director of Equality Illinois, said they intend to push for a County Board vote directing Clerk David Orr to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. County Commissioner Mike Quigley, who spearheaded a move to give benefits to same-sex partners of county employees, said he was willing to try to assemble a majority for gay marriage. But only...

Daley is king of Chicago BY LEE ENOKIAN Richard M. Daley has assumed the hereditary mantle of mayor for life to become the unquestioned ruler of the Chicago Metropolitan area. He will reside on the mayoral throne for a long time to come since nobody has the political juice to challenge his regal claims. Citizens could appeal to the Cook County government if it wasn't ruled by an allied monarch, John Stroger, oh and John Daley, the mayor's brother. Daley's hold on the city remains stable despite the various scandals associated with his administration. His Teflon skin continues to slough...

A Maywood police lieutenant already in trouble for a 2001 traffic stop now is accused of possession of stolen firearms, officials said Thursday.Harold Jenkins was indicted Jan. 2 on the weapons charges and faces arraignment Jan. 23, said Melissa Merz, a spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.A trial on charges stemming from the traffic stop is scheduled for Jan. 26, Merz said. In that case, Jenkins is accused of shooting at a Ford Explorer driven by James Graham of Maywood on Dec. 5, 2001, and taking a tool set from him -- but not inventorying it at the police...

There's enough waste, ineptitude and possible malfeasance in Cook County and Chicago -- run for decades by the Democrats -- to make a Republican strategist salivate. Reviewing the news, the evidence is clear that the old house of Democrats is folding like wet cardboard, unable to satisfactorily govern. Disdaining savings, Cook County Board President John Stroger proposes a sales tax hike for next year to meet a $100 million county budget deficit. The increase would boost the sales tax to 9 percent in Chicago, matching New Orleans with this sky-high rate. While avoiding a property tax increase, Stroger and his...

Cook County saw more whites leave than any other county in the United States during the latter half of the 1990s, the census said Thursday.Cook County saw 233,000 whites leave, ahead of Los Angeles County (181,000) and Dallas County, Texas (104,000), the census said in a special report on migration by race between 1995 and 2000. Whites aren't the only group on the move out of Cook County. About 70,000 blacks left -- the second highest county exodus in the country for African Americans, behind Kings County (Brooklyn), N.Y. And 55,000 Hispanics left Cook, also the second highest, behind Los...

As family and friends continue to grieve for the six lives lost (We still do not know all their names) in Friday's fire at the Cook County Administration Building, city and county officials debate where to lay blame for the tragedy, how to go about investigating what went wrong and what, if anything, to do to prevent such future catastrophes. Investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have focused on light fixtures in a 12th-floor storage room as a possible initial cause of the blaze. But critics are calling upon state and local agencies to examine...

Identification cards issued by the governments of all Latin American countries would be recognized by Cook County under an ordinance amendment approved Tuesday by the county's Finance Committee. The county and the City of Chicago already accept the ID card, known in Spanish as the matricula consular, issued by the Mexican government. Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado, a Chicago Democrat, sponsored the ordinance to extend the recognition to all Latin American countries.

Prichett in his own words: Can a black man own a gun in Cook County? from John Birch, ConcealCarry.orgjohn@concealcarry.orgAugust 19, 2003ILLINOIS GUN OWNERS - YOUR TRIAL IS ABOUT TO BEGIN...TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16th  Now is the moment for gun owners in Illinois to send a message to Cook County prosecutors that we are not going to tolerate being routinely prosecuted for transporting our weapons in Illinois. Contact: John Birch, President, Concealed Carry, Inc., 630 660-3935 email: john@concealcarry.org  Our local "Black Man With a Gun," Roderick Pritchett is about stand and face felony charges in Cook County. Roderick could have copped a plea...

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 By The Leader-Chicago Bureau - Opposite sex domestic partnerships not to be included, clerk's office says Rev Bob VandenBosch, lobbyist for Concerned Christian Americans said today is a "sad day for Cook County and the state of Illinois." CHICAGO -- Cook County Board of Commissioners voted today in a 13 to 3 vote to set up a registry for same-sex couples, the first such countywide registry in Illinois. The certificates will be available to Cook County residents in 90 days, but only to couples who are of the same sex. No heterosexual domestic partnerships will be...

Same-sex couples throughout Cook County would enjoy the same right to register as domestic partners as residents of Oak Park and San Francisco, under a proposal introduced Tuesday in the Cook County Board. Commissioner Mike Quigley (D-Chicago) has 11 of the county board's 17 members signed on as sponsors or co-sponsors. Sharing the top line with him as sponsors are County Board President John Stroger and County Board Finance Chairman John Daley, the mayor's brother. All of that bodes well for the measure's passage. None of the board's five Republicans is listed as co-sponsor, though Quigley hopes to get one...

SKOKIE, Ill. - Two parents were charged Wednesday with supplying alcohol to students at a suburban Chicago high school who participated in a brutal hazing incident captured on videotape. Christine Neal, 49, was charged with delivery of alcohol to a minor for buying three kegs of beer, two of which were found at the park where the hazing took place, prosecutors said. Marcy Spiwak, 49, was charged with allowing her home to be used for underaged drinking. Neal is the mother of student Dominic Vargas, 18, who was charged with unlawful possession of alcohol by a minor. Authorities said Vargas...

June 2002 Pastor Extends Pulpit to GOPBy Mick Dumke If you spend any time with the Rev. Christopher Alan Bullock, you’ll hear him say that ministry must be done “with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.” As if demonstrating this, last November, a week and a half before announcing he would challenge incumbent John H. Stroger for president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, Bullock took a walk through Wentworth Gardens. The low-rise Chicago Housing Authority development sits across the street from Progressive Baptist Church, 3658 S. Wentworth Ave., where Bullock is the...