Mob boss' tale offers peek at city's 'secrets' (Kass on Chicago)

Chicago Tribune ^ | 1-29-09 | John Kass

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With the national media finally interested in Illinois corruption, it's too bad they were focused on Springfield's dancing monkey show and not on what happened in a federal courtroom in Chicago on Wednesday.

That wasn't a monkey dancing on a string. It was an ape. The kind of ape that pulls the strings on the dancing monkeys.

His name is Frank Calabrese, the former Chicago Outfit Chinatown crew boss, convicted of racketeering conspiracy involving seven murders in the FBI's historic Operation Family Secrets case of 18 unsolved hits. Six other bodies were attributed to Calabrese at his sentencing.

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The Chicago Mafia On Trial

Chicago Outfit Killer Frank Calabrese Sr. Sentenced To Life

Sentencing Video

Speaking to Calabrese during sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel told him, "Your crimes are unspeakable."

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“For generations, the Outfit has formed the base of the iron triangle that runs things, and no understanding of politics in Illinois is complete without them.”............. PING!

[Robwin]

No understanding of the politics of any major American city can be had without considering the close connection between organized crime and the Democrats.

[Lurker]

Kass ping.

[madinmadtown]

For years it perplexed me why the Mob was in cahoots with the socialists. It finally occurred to me that socialists create shortages and then a black market. In a free society, all sorts of goods are available on the free market, except the vice goods, gambling, drugs, prostitution, etc. In socialism every commodity has the potential to be only available on the black market. People wanting food and toilet paper and clothing will need to go to the Mob for daily necessities.

[Liz]

Here's the Chicago enforcer in the WH.

Obama's COS, Rahm Emanuel, pledging allegiance to the USA on inaguration day.

[TheBlueMax]

Yes, Chicago runs on the back of the Outfit, and politics is the life blood. You need only look at the “leaders” of Chicago, and certainly Illinois politics, to see that the Chicago Mob runs this State. It doesn’t matter who’s “in” at the time....the Mob runs everything, especially the Democrat party.

[mojitojoe]

I can’t tell you how much I detest that litlte b*tch ex ballet dancer.

[Ciexyz]

What chance does a peon have in this kind of society?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I still wonder when the chickens are going to come home to roost with the Obama/Chicago political machine. If the Chicago polymob wanted an ad slogan, “Hey Look At Us” would probably be their last choice. Obama is now that slogan.

[rfp1234]

Q: Who founded the first soup kitchen in Chicago?
A: Al Capone.

[AFreeBird]

No understanding of the politics of any major American city can be had without considering the close connection between organized crime and the Democrats.

Well, connected or not, the DNC/Democrats are a crime family in their own right.

[TheBlueMax]

The main problem with exposing the Obama/Illinois politics/Mob connection is that the MSM is the in bag for Obama, and the Democrats. Oh sure, there may be a few reporters, like John Kass, who might report on some low level connections. However, the Obama team will only be caught when the MSM turns against him, IMHO.

[Robwin]

That and a couple of other factors. The huge amounts of government spending and lax oversight attracts the mob (and crooked poliiticans) like flies to sh*t. Democrats advocate spending and seem to care less what happens to the money. What a feast for the mob.

Increased welfare spending is also to the mob's benefit. Recipients can spend the money on drugs or gamble it away. Food stamps can be sold for cash (more drugs, more gambling)or traded in other illegal ways.

In return politicians get mob muscle and poliitcal influence (just ask illegitimate President John F Kennedy). It is a symbiotic relationship between two sets of parasites with the taxpayer as the host.