Wake up and smell the coffee......

Its amazing how people don't see how phony these politicians are.

Obama spurns pastor's 9/11 jibe

Barack Obama has been a member of the church since the early 1990s

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has denounced remarks made by his pastor that the 9/11 attacks were like "chickens coming home to roost".

The Illinois senator said the 2001 comments, which have resurfaced on the web, were "completely inexcusable".

Mr Obama said he had not been present during Rev Jeremiah Wright's sermon, at the Trinity United Church of Christ.

The black Chicago pastor brought Mr Obama to Christianity, officiated at his wedding and baptised his daughters.

Mr Obama, a member of the church since the early 1990s, posted a blog on the Huffington Post about his relationship with the pastor, who is now retired.

"I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies," he wrote.

'God damn America'

Mr Obama, who conducted a number of media interviews on Friday to reject Mr Wright's comments, said he had looked to him for spiritual - not political - guidance.

In a sermon on the Sunday after the attacks of 11 September 2001, Mr Wright told his congregation: "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards.

"America's chickens are coming home to roost."

In a 2003 sermon, Mr Wright said blacks should condemn the US.

"God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human", he said.

Mr Obama said he expects his political opponents will use videos of the sermons to attack him as the campaign goes on.

He is locked in a close race with New York Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, ahead of Pennsylvania's primary vote on 22 April.

Forgotten Chicago and clout

http://www.forgottenchicago.com/bumpark.php

Most city parks consist of open land and facilities of some kind. They are administered by the Chicago Park District. Oscar D'Angelo Park is not a Park District park, and it has no facilities. It is not a park, it is a "park." Scare quotes and all. Actually, its more like a lame joke.

The most poorly located parks are wedged into otherwise unused expressway land. This "park" takes that to the extreme. It is located entirely in the middle of a ramp connecting the Eisenhower Expressway and Wacker Drive. There are no benches, no playlot, not even stakes for horsehoes. I would like to say that there is nothing at all in it, but I would be forgetting the trash cans.

I hate this thing. Can you tell? Part of the reason for this is the "park's" greasy namesake. I won't go into detail here. Read this article - Google the guy's name if you want to know more.

The picture of the plaque is unreadable. Sorry. It says: Oscar O. D'Angelo Park - This park is dedicated to lifelong Near West Side (Little Italy) resident Oscar O. D'Angelo for unselfish commitment, leadership and vision in the renaissance of his neighborhood, his city, and its parks. - Richard M. Daley, Mayor. October 24, 1990. Bullshit. Its named for him because he has clout. Nothing more.

Trash abounds. There always seems to be bum detritus in this "park."

Infact, the homeless seem to be the only people who use this "park". Nothing against them, the "park" is isolated and unwelcoming and probably provides a good refuge for those who do not necessarily want to be found.

Maybe I've been too negative about this place? How about I euphemistically refer to it as an "open-air restroom" - or an "alfresco room occupancy"? Yeah, sounds good.

Page authored 30 May 2007.
Written by Serhii Chrucky.

Doesn't this begin at home with parents being parents

Hot Off the press....

Pfleger and crew had a press conference at the all holy Saint Sabina.

Tragically, this year 17 children have lost their lives in Chicago due to gun violence. We must demand common sense gun legislation and stop easy access to guns. We must also make sure we arrest the perpetrators who take the lives of our children.

Unfortunately, the coverage and community action often differ from incident to incident. Therefore, I am asking people to join with me in two efforts to demand common sense gun laws and to put together a reward fund so that every time a child is murdered in the city, each child's life will be addressed equally. We will immediately put a $5,000 reward (Bounty) for the arrest and conviction of the shooter, if there is no known suspect and we will gather at the state of Illinois building to demand stronger gun legislation.

Every time a child is murdered , within the next 24-72 hours we will rally from 11:00am to 12 Noon at the Thompson, State of Illinois building , 100 West Randolph, demanding the state legislators to pass gun legislation. If you are interested in becoming part of this team, please fill out the form and fax it to 773-483-7583 or mail it to St Sabina Church, 1210 West 78the place

What King Richard doesnt want you to know

see it here http://www.illinoiscarry.com/GunFacts4.pdf

Firm lands 2-year deal to run Midway

March 5, 2008

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com

The Daley administration has chosen a new manager for Midway Airport, signing a two-year, $21.2 million contract that will tide the city over until the airport is privatized.

Skyline Management Group has replaced a clout-heavy partnership that's held the contract since 2001 and includes former Illinois Gaming Board Chairman Elzie Higginbottom, Mayor Daley's chief fund-raiser in the black community.

The new manager is a joint venture of three equal partners: Chicago-based Diverse Facility Solutions, Florida-based AvAir Professional Services and Linc Facility Services of Houston.

Skyline principals have "experience working with Midway Airport Management," the terminal's current manager, "some going back to 1994," according to the company's proposal, posted on the Procurement Services Department Web site.

The new manager is also promising to "maintain an appearance equal to a five-star hotel at Midway's main terminal, concourse and maintenance complex" by retaining the existing work force of janitors, engineers and electricians.

The staff will be "mostly comprised of incumbent personnel who have firsthand knowledge of Midway Airport and a proven track record of quality service delivery," the company stated.

Two custodians will serve as "restroom patrols" to keep six public and four private restrooms at the Midway terminal spic and span. A full-day workshop will be held with the outgoing Midway Airport Management to ensure "minimal disruption of ongoing work," the document stated.

Midway Airport Management was a joint venture of Enron Building Services, Transportation Building Services and Higginbottom's East Lake Management and Development Corp.

In 2005, Higginbottom voluntarily forfeited the minority business certification that gives his construction companies a leg up on city contracts after acknowledging that his net worth was "a heckuva lot more" than the $750,000 ceiling at that time.

Last month, Mayor Daley put a "For Sale" sign on Midway, the landlocked airport that came back from the dead after the demise of Midway Airlines.

It happened after five of seven airlines signed on to the deal, the first of its kind in the nation.

The city's "request for qualifications" set in motion a yearlong process that could end with a $3 billion windfall to shore up city pensions and rebuild Chicago's aging infrastructure.

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the city's office of budget and management said the new Midway contract could be "terminated for convenience" at any time. "Our time table for the long-term lease has not changed," said the spokeswoman, Wendy Abrams.

City bans plastic bags- feel good politics

• Tiny plastic bags used to sell small quantities of heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and other drugs would be banned in Chicago, under a crackdown advanced today by a City Council committee.

  Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) persuaded the Health Committee to ban possession of “self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in either height or width,” after picking up 15 of the bags on a recent Sunday afternoon stroll through a West Side park.

Ex-alderman Dorothy Tillman arrested in Ala

The flamboyant former Chicago alderman and civil rights activist Dorothy Tillman was arrested Sunday in her native Montgomery, Ala., charged with criminal trespassing after a confrontation with hospital officials about Tillman's 86-year-old ailing aunt.

Tillman, best known for her work with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and for wearing vast array of hats, spent 102 minutes in the Montgomery city jail before a local pastor posted Tillman's $300 bond, officials at the jail said.

Tillman, 60, was headed back to Chicago on Sunday afternoon and said she planned to receive medical attention for injuries incurred during the arrest, she said.

They knocked me down on the ground. They knocked my hat off. One of them put his knees on my spine and threatened to Taser me," Tillman said during an interview before traveling to Chicago.

Tillman was charged with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor charge, said Montgomery police Lt. Ron Cook. She was arrested at 6:32 a.m. and released at 8:14 a.m. Montgomery police officials declined to provide additional details.

The trouble began about 6 a.m. Sunday.

Tillman had taken her aunt, Mabel Barker, to Jackson Hospital the previous evening. Frustrated by what she described as her aunt's overnight stay that yielded little treatment, Tillman requested the medical records when hospital officials discharged Barker. Tillman said she was told the records would be mailed.

Unfazed, Tillman continued to request the records. Hospital security and police officials were alerted.

Jackson Hospital officials did not immediately return calls for comment.

"I don't think I was screaming. I didn't go like crazy, crazy," Tillman said. "My only concern was to get some treatment for my aunt."

Tillman said she was arrested and put in "leg chains and shackles."

"It was really something," Tillman said. "They did the real police thing."

Tillman traveled to Montgomery to attend the funeral of Johnnie Carr, who joined her childhood friend Rosa Parks in the Montgomery bus boycott and emerged as a prominent activist. Tillman plans to return next week to accept an award for her own civil rights work during the anniversary of the storied march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

Tillman lost her seat on the Chicago City Council after 23 years in a bitterly fought election last April. Pat Dowell elbowed out Tillman in representing the city's 3rd Ward, an area that became increasingly diverse when a 2001 remapping brought Hispanic residents from the Back of the Yards and residents of the trendy South Loup.

Tillman spent her career advocating for African-Americans in everything from campaigning for city contracts to passing a slave-reparations ordinance.

Tillman is scheduled to appear in court March 31.

tmalone@tribune.com