Thoughts While Shaving: No Surprise, Rather than Being Placated by the Cops, the Chicago Gangs Charge the Chicago Police with Harassment… More.

 Feast of St. Pius X.* 

     

        Predictably the Gangs Reward Pander with “Harassment” Charge.

        Forty years ago a group of male and female sob-sister goo-goos…ministers, foundation executives and W. Clement Stone, the roly-poly conservative “I-did-it-and-you-can-too” pro-Nixon billionaire with a silly pencil-line mustache like Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot…decided to show the world how tolerant they were.  

      They sat down with the Blackstone Rangers, flooded the poor dears with money and grants and refitted an old mansion for their living quarters…believing that these poor disadvantaged ones only needed compassion and “understanding.”  

    They next thing was the Rangers used the endowments they got and the largesse from Stone’s foundation for guns and drugs.  Then they brilliantly took guileless Stone for much more dough as paid workers for Nixon’s 1972 presidential run.  Be it recorded that Nixon didn’t do any better with the black vote in 1972 than he did in `68.  And Stone never got the ambassadorship to the Court of St. James…something he dearly wanted…either.    

        The experiment to convert gangs from killers to nice middle class citizens was an unqualified disaster although the queasy media thought it was neat.  So far as I know, no one ever reported the giant swindle that the Black P Stone Nation wreaked on the gullible…chalkies—the name the gang had for chin-trembling whites. 

           I took one look at them and said they’ll not get a nickel of Quaker Oats foundation money.  Let it be recorded that old man Daley did not think much of the venture and did nothing to advance it. He was much smarter than his kid who were he transformed into president would be setting up “getting to know you” meetings with the Taliban. 

          And of course, predictably, the meeting between Police Superintendent Jody Weis and the gang members led to the gang charging that they were being harassed by Weis.  The next thing, the gangs will probably appeal to the ACLU to bring a suit against the Chicago P. D. for instituting  humiliation, harassment, pain and suffering.  

        And of course the goo-goo editorial boards will say the gangs have a good case.   Just take a look at the saccharine-sweet editorial in the goo-goo far-leftSun-Times and the sympathetic column written yesterday about them by the paper’s black niche columnist, Mary Mitchell.  The difference between them is that Mitchell knows better…the dumb whites who co-conspired on the editorial don’t.    

                                     Hawking Nonsense.  

        God did not create our universe says British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.  Imagine that!  It just came together: no plan; just happened. 

         He’s a rather noble figure but twisted in more than one sense, , confined to a wheel-chair with something like  ALS which he’s had since his youth. He is a total paralytic but has  a fertile mind, speaking only with a computer-generated voice synthesizer.  But his views have altered slightly. Earlier he wrote much poly-syllabic nonsense wrapped in dense academic language, the gist of which was that the laws of physics mean it is simply not necessary to believe that God triggered the Big Bang. Who did?  Beats the hell out of Hawking.  But he knows God didn’t.  

       Then he fudged on the existence of God but stressed: God had nothing to do with creating the universe but was a bored observer.   He said then that he was an agnostic but his ex-wife says he had really declared to her that he is an atheist.  That seems to be more true now than ever.    

         Now in public at least, he has changed--gone around the bend totally. He says the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than the sun disproves the view of Isaac Newton that the universe could not have arisen out of chaos but was created by God. It is “far less compelling evidence that the earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings” he said. Meaning that God had nothing to do with it whatsoever. Which leads to the question which Hawking has always ignored: If God didn’t, who DID, Hawking?   

       Further, Hawking: who ever said it was designed to please us human beings? You’re smart but not smarter than Aristotle or Aquinas. The proof that satisfied them hasn’t been repealed by you.  To-wit: Suppose you’re walking through a forest and find under a tree, a wristwatch, a $15 Timex like the one I’m wearing now as I write this.  Your first natural inclination on seeing it running perfectly is to assume…not just assume but deduce…that some Intelligence made the watch. Are you going to tell me that “the coincidences of our planetary conditions, the combination of earth-sun distance and the solar mass” collaborated and the watch just happened to come together…all 4,599 pieces of it—springs, dial, hands? 

         Not remotely rational, Hawking.  Comes down to what my mother used to say about some so-called geniuses who talked goofy, who were hailed as great minds but weren’t…just densely rhetorical.  .   

         “It’s possible to be educated beyond your intelligence.”  

    __________________________________________________________

       St. Pius X [1835-1914].  He’s just about my favorite Pope of the 20^th century—but that doesn’t mean I belong to the spurious Society of Pius X which proclaims the Church of today is in heresy.  Don’t blame that on Giuseppe Sarto, the first pope since Pius V to be canonized.  He rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoted traditional devotional practices and orthodox theology.  It would almost be a certainty that he would have opposed calling Vatican II…because the chaotic atmosphere engulfing the world would be certain to invade the Church.  His lesser successors…John XXIII, Paul VI…were impelled by idealistic vision. Not so Pius who was a hard-headed realist.  He followed the path of Leo XIII by promoting Aquinas and Thomism as the sole philosophical method to be taught in Catholic institutions. 

       He fought modernism like the courageous Lion of God that he was. He viewed it as a bastardization of religion, an import of secular errors affecting three areas of Catholic life: theology, philosophy and dogma. Of all recent popes he probably had the most pastoral experience. His charity was extraordinary, filling the Vatican rooms with refugees from the 1908 Messina earthquake long before the Italian government acted on its own. Moreover he rejected any conferring of favors upon his family just because he was Pope.  His brother remained a postal clerk; his favorite nephew stayed on as a village priest and his three sisters lived together in near-poverty in Rome.  

        He was the Pope who first promoted daily Communion. He reformed canon law.  He publicly rejected socialism which he regarded as a vile Christian heresy.  A heavy smoker, in 1913 he suffered his first heart attack. He fell fatally ill on the Feast of the Assumption in 1914 and then another and another. He died of a final heart attack on 20 August, 1914.  Following his death he was buried at his direction in a simple and unadorned tomb in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica.  Papal physicians have been in the habit of removing organs to aid the embalming process but Pius forbade it and none of his successors have rescinded the order.  In 1944 as the process of his canonization proceeded, his tomb was opened to show that his body was completely preserved.  He was beatified and canonized by Pius XII.  

          

Personal Asides: Nope, Daley Endorses Meeting with the Gang Bangers. Sign of Weakness…CBS Ratings Hit the Basement; Tribune in Bankruptcy: Hey Here’s an Idea!

  Feast of St. Ingrid of Sweden*

           

                               Daley’s  Show of Weakness. 

         You don’t have to be a criminologist or crowd psychologist to understand that Police Superintendent Jody Weis meeting with the gang-bangers is a dreadful show of weakness. And Richie Daley endorsing it tells one much about the lamentable impotence and sign of failure of law enforcement while the prince-ling of bluster and flappability blunders and thrashes about in the English language…sputtering, stumbling and stammering  in lieu of tough performance.  Then there’s the futility of Namby Pamby Old Watery Eyes, Quinn, saying there should be no meetings but “gun control” should be further emphasized.  

         It’s indeed a sad pass when one remembers how Daley’s father ordered cops to “shoot to maim” and ultimately “shoot to kill” when the West Side erupted in flames after the King assassination…something the compliant media criticized him for but which snuffed out the riots. And tough discipline during the 1968 Dem convention for which marshmallow cookies Walter Cronkite,  Dan Rather and others assailed him.  Daley, Sr.’s tough stance kept Chicago from becoming another Detroit. Not that media noticed or acknowledges.  

      One by one, old man Daley’s kid has shorn articles of strength and embraced Jello-style liberal weakness, in contradistinction to his father. To sum  it all: The old man was resolute in his working class traditionalism, sticking with the articles of his faith: pro-life, opposition to homosexual permissiveness, the death penalty, tough law and order. The kid has bargained them away (his ultimate stand on the death penalty very indistinct and garbled, based on his “I’m pro-death! I oppose it!” statement in order to appeal to the Left, pandering to the races and every other significant voting group so that he would not have to face primary opposition from the Left.  Now he has added the terrorist gangs to his pander list.  

          Daley’s willingness to send the highly overpaid Weight Lifter Superintendent with Tiny Eyes Set Too Close Together  to bargain away principles of criminal justice should be the final signal that an energetic campaign should be waged for mayor by someone next year.  Running us into insolvency is one thing. Failure to  exert leadership on the one job government is sanctioned to do more than any other—protection of life in our neighborhoods—is the deciding factor. Abhorrent liberalism ala John Lindsay has always been viewed as improbable in Chicago…but now that it is here, it’s intolerable.       

                              CBS, NBC, ABC, Tribune, Newsweek, Time …

          The list of failing media empires is growing but Fox, Drudge and conservative outlets generally are rising.  What does that tell you? Not only are the mainstream media running on empty, but their far-left ideology is part of the problem.    Any fair marketing expert can tell you that the message purveyed by the foregoing is the same: anti- or non-patriotic, pro-exotic, pro-elitist, godless, vapidly secular…and the public is not buying it. In order to stay in touch I subscribe to a host of newspapers…The Wall Street Journal which is running the legs off The New York Times for paper of record.  Do you know what the magazine section of The Times featured on Easter Sunday morning, the day Christ rose from the dead and launched a Church fastened on redemption?   

             Can science indisputably prove there are gay bunnies?  

             Fox is grabbing huge chunks of cable audiences. It is resolutely conservative. MSNBC is slumping: resolutely liberal.  CNN is fast falling down to minor league status. ABC hires as its Sunday talk show anchor, get this, Christiane Amanpour!  I am no one who should criticize looks…white haired, jowly, bespectacled, 82 with arthritic legs and double hearing aids…but when I get up in the morning and survey myself in the mirror…while indubitably grateful that I will have the benefit of another day… I still say “Ugh!”  I turn away and want to see someone attractive to make me forget what I look like and appreciate what an attractive person looks like.   

        Somehow Roger Ailes understands (maybe it takes another jowly man to understand).  So he has attractive, beauteous, young, blonde…and most of all intelligently conservative…female anchors by the truckload to divert me from my decrepitude including Megyn Kelly (a former federal prosecutor and partner of a blue chip Manhattan law firm with whom I was dissatisfied a while back because she appeared with Howie Stern)…Laura Ingraham (another top lawyer and former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas)—gorgeous in my opinion if you must know… 

          …Shannon Bream is another lawyer, summa cum laude graduate of Liberty University law school.  So she was also Miss Virginia in the Miss America contest a few years ago.  Does that take away from her gravitas?  Her insights from covering the U. S. Supreme Court are exactly like my own?  Should I punish myself by switching the dial and looking at Andrea Mitchell at MSNBC? Yuk. She and Alan Greenspan deserve each other.   

          No my favorites are not all beauteous women.  Bret Baer is a bright young 30 something with the blooming health of an athlete…Katherine Herrige is a slim, tidy Harvard poly sci grad…not especially a looker but a competent mom—and so loving a one that she gave part of her liver to her desperately ill infant son…I have prayed nightly for another mom, not especially a looker, to recover from cancer: Jennifer Griffin who has done so and reports from Afghanistan.  And to show that I am not passion’s plaything about beauteous women, I like Greta van Susteren, a Georgetown law grad who has a machine-gun style of questioning pop-pop-pop and who for the life of me I can’t understand is a Scientologist.  

              At least part of the solution is apparent. The message, after all, is the most important thing. Yet the moguls who are losing their shirts cannot bear to veer from the Left…because it is their pseudo religion.  On and on they go…with Katie Couric at CBS spouting her inane liberalism in her commentary…Brian Williams sitting at attention like a schoolboy taking instructions from Barack Obama…the Tribune editorials skewing this way and that all the while the reportage favors liberalism lite…Newsweek falling into the hands of a 92-year-old titan who wants to save it to be of service to his Congresswoman wife…Time performing lip-service to every liberal fad.   

            Tell me: am I wrong or are Fox anchors men and women brighter-appearing?   

                                    Phil O’Connor (Part II).  

          Dr.  Phil O’Connor, gifted political scientist, rhetorician and scholar, wrote a recent article contradicting Adlai Stevenson III and me who have charged vote fraud stole the 1982 election for governor from him and reelected Jim Thompson.  In the first of this series, Dr. O’Connor cites statistics that he maintains proves the election wasn’t stolen. Now at my request he writes on the issue whether there was a quid pro quo deal in which Supreme Court Justice Seymour Simon tipped the court balance that nixed the recount where Thompson led by a slender 5,000 votes statewide.  Dr. O’Connor was political director for the Thompson campaign.  

          Through it all, I have only boundless admiration for Dr. O’Connor for his brilliant knowledge of state government. It is always touching to see an unmitigated loyalist. And his loyalties to the Thompson era and those attendant to it are famous. On my radio show during the trial of George Ryan (a key figure in the Thompson GOP-Dem Combine and for whom ex-Gov. Thompson generously allocated multi-millions of Winston-Strawn resources to the  defense of his lieutenant governor pro-bono), I never saw a more gifted apologist for the defendant who is still in jail serving out numerous charges for tenure where, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the state was basically put up for sale.  In fact if somehow jurisprudence could have been amended and Dr. O’Connor, a non-lawyer, could have posited the defense, I have no doubt ex-Gov. Ryan would  be a free man today. Here then is the second in the series of two articles. 

                                                  By Phil O’Connor. 

           I have always marveled at Adlai’s notion that the idea that Seymour Simon joined the majority  in the case because somewhere down the road his son would do some legal work for the state. There were two key rulings in the case.  The first held that Adlai had failed to show the necessary condition for a full recount—that there was a probability of reversing the certified result that was obvious when his argument about the invalidity of ballots in Lake county was  shown to be beyond absurd.  Second, the Court ruled that the recount law was unconstitutional.  

         As I have explained, that was so obvious that we did not even bother to raise the issue, expecting that even a first-year law student would get the picture.  The Court saw this.  

         The real question is why the three other Democrats on the Court did not join the majority.  Perhaps their party loyalty clouded their view of the state law and the state Constitution.  

          John Simon had been an assistant U. S. attorney and had worked with Thompson. Many other former assistant U. S. attorneys served under Thompson or did contractual work for the state. These include many names we all recognize—Tony Valukas, Dan Webb, Jim Montana, Gordon Nash, Ilana Rovner, Jim Zagel, Sam Skinner. These people including John Simon were among the best ever to serve in, for, or around, state government and it would be nice to have their like now.  

           John Simon is recognized as an accomplished lawyer and is a senior partner at one of the largest and best firms in America. He did not need some contract from Thompson.  Adlai (and Tom) need to get more closely in touch with reality.  Adlai barely lose election as governor.  1982 was a terrific Democratic year but he was a weak candidate. He trailed in the polls by a substantial margin until the weekend prior when the anti-GOP wave, the “Punch 10” campaign, the impending enthusiasm for Harold Washington and a fair measure of  outright fraud combined to bring him close—but no cigar.  

          I would again remind you that among that many people (over four dozen) convicted of vote fraud, not one was convicted of stealing for Thompson. Adlai was the beneficiary in every case. 

  ___________________________________________________________

  *: St. Ingrid of Sweden [Circa 1252].  She was born in Skanninge, Sweden in the 13^th century.  She was born into a religious family and received her Catholic training from Peter of Dacia, a Dominican priest. She became the first Dominican nun in Sweden and founded the first Dominican cloister there, called St. Martin’s in Skianninge. She is the patroness of Sweden notwithstanding that during the Reformation her relics were scattered and her convent destroyed.

Thoughts While Shaving: Once So Cool for Big Business Moguls to Plunk for Obama—but Not Anymore.

   Feast of St. Giles, Patron of Cripples*

           

                   Cool Obama in 2008; Jug-Eared Dope in 2010.  

         Ah, it is so cool as a Chicago hedge fund tycoon in 2008 …to demonstrate how liberal you are and be shown raising  money to Barack Obama!  Like Sidney Poitier he is not just any black man but an Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law version of Sidney Poitier so savvy and cool I feel we are in the vanguard of a New Era of Racial Awakening…not like those redneck dinosaur Republican pals, very un-trendy, figuratively scratching their bellies, wearing bib overalls like Junior Gilliam and hanging out with the Great Unwashed.  But not me.  

        I’ve had a corporate staffer (black, Harvard `01) slap an Obama `08 bumper sticker on each of our cars—(a) the office limousine, the 2008 Cadillac CTS-V limousine which buzzes me to business destinations and to luncheon at the cavernous, musty but still fashionable Chicago Club; (b) my   own personal Porsche Cayence for Lake Forest runs; (c) my 28-year-old ex-Southwest Air stewardess trophy wife Ashley’s Mercedes Benz SLR when she goes for luncheon at the Casino Club to gab girl talk with her Smith classmates and (keep it quiet) ex-flight attendant buddies; and (d) , my 18-year-old Wellesley undergrad daughter’s (sired with my first wife, Murial, now age 60 like me) McLaron Roadster. I’d give one to Murial (we’re still remotely friendly) but no use: she’s for McCain. 

          Yep, this is the least I can do to demonstrate my interracial toleration! Let those chalky small-timers take up with…ugh!...John McCain!  I’ve got the real candidate here and when I hit 65 I should be able to get an ambassadorship or cabinet post which necessitates no heavy lifting but lordly presti8ge (going to all the Georgetown parties)…a comfy post like Commerce, that’s it!  Secretary of Commerce in Obama’s second term or maybe Valerie Jarrett’s first. The way Phil Klutznik ended up with Carter.    

          Let those wanna-be competitors who like to look so elite, broad-minded and tolerant raising money in their townhouses for… who? …Jesse Jackson, Jr. for God’s sake! How gauche. .  What fun is that? Remember the dinner I just hosted at the Mid America Club with his election in the bag,, Barack Obama drew me close as he shared what he would do in his first hundred days!  The intimacy of it encouraged me to go later to report to your friends at the Avenue M bar, crook your finger to your friends and let them in on the know with barely audible whispers as they strain to hear…the closer they get to me the softer my voice got (an old trick) so at conclusion of the “inside” they’re almost lying atop the bar or in my lap to catch my invaluable insights. I took the office limousine with driver home (had a little too much to drink and who wants to be stuck in a train car all the way to Lake Forest?),  Can’t wait to tell Ashley how this gang crouched over me to hear the latest dope at Avenue M.  

                                     That Was Then: Not Now! 

         I tell you it’s been rough and this guy Obama hasn’t done a damn thing to halt the recession. In fact they’re talking double-dip which will  complete the job of wiping me out. With the “stimulus” which hasn’t stimulated, ObamaCare which has added a ton of deficit spending, he’s accelerated it. Those tough regulations on the financial industry threaten to turn me into a pauper! Worse than Bush. Far worse.  

         Unemployment continues upward, home-buyer tax credits have had to be extended; they’ve moved to limit fees credit cards levy.  The dollar is looking downtrodden because foreign banks to please rich countries have hiked interest rates (Norway once, Australia twice). India’s just made a massive purchase of gold—about $7.5 billion.  And still that teleprompter-reading fool is putting out the platitudes.  What a mistake I made.   

        Look at the New York Times yesterday. Danny Loeb, my former hedge fund buddy from New York who got me into this Obama fund-raising stuff,  sent out a letter that sounded like he had just signed up with Glenn Beck. This is what he wrote to me and others: “As every student of American history knows, this country’s core founding principles included non-punitive taxation, constitutionally guaranteed protections against persecution of the minorities and an inexorable right of self-determination.  Washington has taken actions over the past months like the Goldman suit that seemed designed to fracture the populace by pulling capital and power from the hands of some and putting it in the hands of others.” 

           My God, Danny Loeb sounds just like the RNC!  Yet he’s right. Then I find out about Steve Cohen the founder of SAC Capital Advisers hosting a fund-raiser for Republican candidates in his Greenwich home. He also got me in this Obama mess two years ago! Danny Loeb was in Obama’s Occidental class of `83 for God’s sake!  He’s the head of Third Point Partners, handling $3.4 billion for his firm.  He sold Third Point’s investments in big banks because of “regulatory headwinds.”  The bad news is circulating…just like the curt letter sent to me: “It’s time for you to step down from CEO and go to Lake Forest full-time, playing tennis and enjoying quality time with your wife.”   Hah!  What quality time? Ashley and I will formalize our divorce next month.  

             Well, it’s time for me to catch the train for Lake Forest now that the limo and driver are gone.  Danny Loeb’s words in The Times yesterday stay with me.  God that man can write! “Perhaps our leaders will awaken to the fact that free market capitalism is the best system to allocate resources and create innovation, growth and jobs. Perhaps too a cloven-hoofed bristly haired mammal will become airborne and the rosette-like marking of a certain breed of ferocious feline will become altered. In other words, we’re not holding our breath.” 

            One more thought. John Canning, Jr. of  Madison-Dearborn Partners.  He was a big Obama booster.  Wonder if he’s ready to take on more money-raising for him this year…or has he, like so many others of us, gone south? Bet he has.  Funny nobody in the two major papers or Crain’s has written about the rest of us who’ve left the Obama boat!  Guess I know why. They all endorsed him two years ago and are still playing protection for him now..  Wouldn’t reflect well on their judgment. Guess that’s why we won’t hear.  

                _________________________________________________

       *: St. Giles, Patron of Cripples [circa 710]. This Greek Catholic hermit from Athens first lived like a hermit near the mouth of the Rhone and by the River Gard.  He had only one companion, a deer but the king’s hunters pursued him to the lair where the deer and Giles were camped. An arrow short at the deer wounded Giles instead.  He became a permanent cripple and hence the patron of cripples. Informed of the accidental wounding, the king became contrite and took him under his wing. Once associated with Giles, the king became a fan and very interested. This led to the king’s building a monastery for Giles and all the novices he could attract. Giles attracted many and the monastery, Saint Giles du Gard, he placed under the Benedictine rule.  In medieval art he is depicted with his symbol, the deer and an emblem an arrow. 

Personal Asides: Echoes of the `82 “I Wuz Robbed” Statement by Adlai III Continue—With Refutation by Phil O’Connor….Glenn Beck.

Feast of St. Raymond Nonnatus, Patron of Midwives* 
Was Adlai Robbed?

Recently Adlai Stevenson III re-issued an old charge that he had made to me and others: His legitimate election as governor in 1982 had been stolen from him by Jim Thompson workers. This corroborates what Mayor Jane Byrne told friends of mine confidentially—that she was doing “all I can” to win reelection for Big Jim.

The Stevenson charge turns on three allegations: First, substantial vote fraud in Thompson’s behalf, aided, paradoxically, by the Democratic machine. Second, the refusal of the Illinois State Supreme Court to approve a recount even though the margin of Thompson over Stevenson was very close—about 5,000 votes. Third, the curious division of the Supreme Court which denied the recount—with Seymour Simon voting with the Republicans…after which a certifiably reelected Thompson hired Simon’s son John for a key state job.

Here is a response from a distinguished source: Dr. Phil O’Connor who was Political Director of the Thompson campaign and who served in many high positions of state government including Chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission. While I notice there is no reference to either Seymour Simon or his son John in this piece, Phil earlier pointed out that John Simon was well known to Jim Thompson since he had earlier served as assistant district attorney to Thompson and that the hiring was not unusual.

It’s only fair to say that I was the head of Project LEAP….the now dormant anti-vote fraud organization in Chicago at the time….and visited with then Mayor Byrne over a curious fact that our inspectors discovered….vote fraud being undertaken in significant measures for a REPUBLICAN! Her explanation told me that she was a passionate Thompson booster. But this is Phil’s time. So here we go with Phil’s response.

By Phil O’Connor. 

Recently, when Dan Rostenkowksi passed away, on his Sunday show on WLS radio, Bill Cameron played a tape of seminar that Rosty particpated in with a number of other politicians. One of those was former US Senator Adlai Stevenson III. In a segment discussing the controversy over whether John F. Kennedy's 1960 winning margin in Ilinois was made possible by vote fraud, Stevenson took the opportunity to gratuitously suggest that he had been been the victim of Republican engineered vote fraud in his loss of the governor's race to Jim Thompson in 1982.

Nothing could be sillier or more contrary to the historical record. I was Thompson's political director in that campaign and oversaw much of the post-election effort to preserve his of just over 5,000 votes that was in place after several days of votes trickling in -- mainly from about a hundred late reporting and missing Chicago precincts. My favorite example of late arriving ballots was reported to me at the time by a brilliant young woman lawyer who had taken off work to spend 24/7 at the Chicago Board of Elections. Someone showed up with a paper shopping bag full of ballots. What passed for a seal on this ballot box was twist-tie on the two cord handles of the bag. I can assure you that it was not bag of Thompson votes.

Here are just a few facts that help demonstrate that Senator Stevenson is bit out of touch with reality on this one [the election of 1982]. 

 1) More than 50 Democrat precinct workers and judges of election were convicted or pleaded guilty to wholesale fraud – the outright stealing and fabrication of votes in large quantities. This counted for thousands of votes in just the several dozen precincts implicated. Our research at the time indicted that there was considerably more. In some cases as 50-60 voters in a precinct voter after the polls closed and were so disciplined that they voted in alphabetical order.

In one celebrated case broadcast on national television, an elderly man in a near west side nursing home was recorded as having voted three times -- once absentee, once in the on-site voting program for nursing homes and once in the precinct on election day. When the reporter asked him how he could be so sure that he had not signed two of the ballot applications, he raised his arms from under the table to reveal that he had no hands. The poor man then demonstrated how he held a pen between his wrists to make an X as his mark, the same sort of X that had appeared on the one valid application..

2) In some of the more tightly controlled precincts, such as in housing projects, there were "express lines" for Punch 10 so that people could be herded in to vote a straight ticket under the watchful eye of the local political cadres.

3) The discovery recount of 5% of precincts showed that thousands of votes for Stevenson in Chicago would have been rejected as improper since there were no judge of elections initials on the ballots as required by law. Very few Thompson votes were in the same posture anywhere in in Illinois. The Stevenson people had done their 5% discovery as well. They found very little in the way of even administrative irregularities, let alone indications of wholesale fraud.

4) Many precincts in the City reported inflated numbers that varied from the actual figure as determined in the review of the precinct paperwork. In many cases this was so simply because the judges of election could not do the arithmetic. The mistakes were not entirely unidirectional, of course, but the nature of the calculation procedure was such that errors tended to inflate totals rather than deflate them.

Thus, Stevenson votes were being recorded, perhaps innocently enough, that did not really exist. However, all of these non-votes and all of those mentioned above were in Stevenson's vote total as certified by the local officials and then by the State Board of Elections, but would have been subtracted from his total in a recount, assuming an honest count by the tribunal.

5) Despite all of the above, however, the most stunning effort by Stevenson to grab the election was the effort to claim that many thousands of votes in Lake County would be rejected in a recount. These thousands of vote, if found invalid, would have disproportionately hurt Thompson since he won the county with a large margin. The basis for the challenge was quite remarkable. Lake County had ballots that, after the ballot box was opened and the votes were to be counted, would have half of the ballot torn off at a perforation.

The judges of election, at the time the ballot had been given to the voter, would have initialed the ballot in a small box that straddled the perforation. When the ballots were torn to be fed into the counting machine, it was often the case that the initials would be largely on the side that was torn off. That half of the ballot was thrown away. This, Stevenson's lawyers said, rendered invalid those ballots for which too large a portion of the initialing had been tossed along the half of the ballot.

The truly Kafkaesque part of the story is that the Lake County Clerk and, therefore, chief election official, was none other than Stevenson's own Lt. Gov. running mate, Grace Mary Stern, who has since passed away.

She was in charge of the voting system in Lake County, had chosen the perforated ballot style and oversaw the rule providing for the torn off side of the ballot to be disposed of. Stevenson's legal team was in the position of defending the proverbial client who shoots his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.

One of Thompson's lawyers, Jim Montana, cut through all the baloney by whipping out a sample of the perforated Lake County ballot for the Supreme Court to see. Stevenson's lawyers screamed bloody murder and the judges ended up laughing them out of court.

 6) Ultimately, there was no recount for two reasons. First, Stevenson had failed to show that if there were a full recount that there was any likelihood of the outcome changing. Indeed, our side had shown that the more likely result was an increased margin of victory for Thompson. Second, the court found that in any event there would be no recount because the recount law was unconstitutional.

That law had created a special purpose court and was therefore in violation of the state constitution. The court let stand the certification of the vote by the State Board of Elections that was based on tallies submitted, after canvass, by the over 100 local election authorities in the Illinois. I should note that our side had been so confident all along that the recount law was unconstitutional in the extreme that we did not even bother to argue or even raise the point. We believed that the court would see this without any help from us.

The historical record is clear enough, Senator Stevenson's effort at revisionism notwithstanding.

Glenn Beck: If This be “Demagoguery” Make the Most of It.

     The much condemned Glenn Beck “Restoring Honor” rally on the Washington Mall was shorn of any politics or inducements to vote against a candidate or to support another or cheer one party ticket. The single most repeated name throughout the rally was that of the 2^nd Person of the Holy Trinity. There were oodles of piety as speakers beseeched Americans to return to God; great gobs of patriotism; tributes to slain Special Forces soldiers; verbal pageants to patriotism including one led by Sarah Palin, benefactions to American history. The New York Times calls it demagoguery but if so, let’s make the most of it.  

     The most significant thing to see…for me…was the sight of multi-thousands of white middle class citizens shouting approval to the memory and works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Still it was sufficient to anger the Sun-Times’ Mary Mitchell who draws umbrage at the fact that white folks “desecrated” the anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech. But then Mitchell, who was evidently hired by the paper to fill the niche of  God’s Angry Black Woman, doesn’t like whitey much anyhow.   

      Digression: The Sun-Times hires its columnists to fill demographic niches with the one requisite that none be conservatives. . Hence Richard Roeper is the aging long-in-the-tooth lefty white  “kid” from the suburbs who is nearly fifty and unmarried but with beaucoup girlfriends.  Neil Steinberg is the wisecracking Jew who like Jon Stewart thinks it fun to ridicule religious feeling under the misapprehension that anything that worships God is sanctimony.  [Now don’t get your underwear in knots that because I call Steinberg what he endlessly refers to himself as: a Jew. Somehow it is often taken as an insult to refer to one as a Jew. Hell,   I’m probably more Semitic in support of Israel and its holistic traditions  than  he for whom Torah II seems an arrant secular humanism]. Mark Brownrepresents the legions of dumb pad and pencil slave-reporters who vote only one party, cannot consider any other,  and who seem to write as with crayola in dull monosyllables.  

         Digression Continued: Carol Marin pushing 60, is the eternal wide-eyed like Little Annie Rooney (“Gloryoski, Zero!”)  cum Girl Scout circa `60s feminist  who would suffer a cerebral hemorrhage if she ever entertains a conservative thought.( Her niche: League of Women Voters, pro-abort misguided reformism nicely-nicely)…  Esther Cepeda is the papers purveyor of Latino jingoism. (“Consider how better baseball has gotten thanks to the Latinos!”)… Cindy Richardsis a world-weary suburban ex-commentator,  ex-teacher  now reporting to us on films, drooling over Drew Barrymore talking phone sex with her reel and real boyfriend (niche: bored, rich suburban housewives thrilled with the excitement of musing about decadence )… 

        Still More: Roger Ebert is the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic whom I suspect got his trophy as so many got theirs—with artful flavored leftism in his critique (give me Joe Morganstern anytime) who loves…absolutely hungers…to dabble in revolutionarily leftwing writing.  (Niche: the insouciant East Lake Shore Drive Maoist set)…Syndicated Chris Hitchens is the obligatory atheist Mother Teresa ridiculer, having written a derogatory book about her which he tastefully called The Missionary Position who has notified us that he is dying of cancer, responding as to whether he will repent to which he says “never!” (Niche: he appeals to those jerks not included in all of the above).  

         Back to Glenn Beck. I am convinced that Glenn Beck has become a national treasure…and no, I don’t want him to run for president. He is much more valuable as a private citizen.  He’s not perfect but has several qualities that are indispensable to the country right now. First, he is an unabashed patriot but unlike Rush, Hannity and some of the others albeit worthwhile commentators, he eschews partisan politics in order to focus on enduring qualities such as patriotism. I don’t need him as a spiritual guru as the values and sacraments of my authentic Church supply all the inspiration I need. But I do look at him as a kind of returned Moses of Patriotism…inducing us to return to habits of life that embodied a promised land. 

         The thing that gets me about Beck is that he is on fire with U. S. history and the reason why is clear.  He has come late to ideas.  I was fortunate enough to have absorbed lots of the things from the time I was a school child 70 odd years ago that stir him to excitement…so it is wondrous to see him burning up with enthusiasm for ideas that are enduring and seemingly passed into mist generations earlier. I had just about given up that the noble ideal of patriotism and respect for God will not be restored in my lifetime—but I was wrong. 

       I don’t expect I’ll learn new things from Beck—although who knows?—but hearing him re-tell the old things with his great passion convinces me he’s a great gift to this country.  True, he’s not perfect. His dismissal of the threat of homosexual marriage, for example, is fatuous—but he embodies so many other good things that I’ll willing to grant him some slack.  

             _________________________________________________

     *: St. Raymond Nonnatus Patron of Midwives [1204-1240]. He came from Catalonia in Spain.  His name in Latin means “not born” which refers to the fact that he was born by Caesarean section…a process so dangerous in those days that his mother did not survive.  Thus he has been designated as the patron of  pregnant women, of childbirth, of children and midwives. His life was short hence this bio will be as well.  He was ordained priest as a member of the Mercedarian Order which was founded to ransom Catholic captives of the  Moors of North Africa.  He traveled to North Africa and when his ransom money ran out is said to have offered himself as captive in order to free some others.  That was not a good idea. Legend says the Moors bored a hole through his lips with a hot iron and…efficient devils they were…padlocked—yes padlocked—his mouth to prevent him from preaching.   

         Believe it or not, he survived and was ransomed by his Order and returned to Span.  He died at Cardona, six miles from Barcelona. 

Personal Asides: Readers’ Colloquium on Cussing a Real Winner! Congrats! Now About Michael Voris.

  Feast of St. Fiacre of Erie, Patron Saint of Cab Drivers*   
            
                                    About the Layman Michael Voris. 

          Congratulations all those who commented last week regarding my article on whether cussing is a sin were thoughtful, witty, insightful and learned. A great collection of scholarly work came in for which I am very grateful.  So grateful am I that I’m going to ask you something. 

           Let me ask particularly our Catholic readers (of which there are a good number) …if you haven’t already…watch one Michael Voris on Internet TV and give me your thoughts about this man who is fast becoming a tremendous educative influence in the Church.   

          If you’re not aware of Michael Voris you should be.  In my humble opinion, he is the best thing to happen to the Catholic Church since Fulton Sheen.  Sheen was incomparable but Voris has more bite than Sheen about laxity in the Church. Of course, Sheen was a high ecclesiastic and couldn’t be expected to criticize his colleague bishops (although he had a monumental fight with his superior, Francis Cardinal Spellman, over access to monies raised by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith which wound up in Rome with the Pope deciding in favor of Sheen). 

         Voris is a layman with a theology degree, is a former Fox TV producer and reporter and has a real snap in his commentaries.  

          Voris can be seen on his relatively new website RealCatholicTV.com.  If you haven’t done so, do yourself a favor and go to the website and get a taste of some of his commentary.  . 

          Here’s an example of Voris at his best. 

        Fr. Michael Rodriguez, a parish priest in the El Paso diocese wrote a letter to the El Paso Times and outlined with particular specificity the mortal sin that is homosexuality—expressing compassion and solicitude for those caught up in the practice but also echoing the Catechism in warning Catholics that it is not to be dismissed lightly. He pronounced it without rancor but cited  orthodox theology, saying that the probability short of divine mercy is that one who dies without having confessed the sin and having received absolution, faces the grave possibility of hell. 

         No sooner had the article appeared than the bishop of El Paso, the Rt. Rev. Armando X Ochoa, wrote to the same paper undercutting Fr. Rodriguez and spewing the usual polite palaver so common to liberal churchmen and politicians. No words of condemnation but an excursion in politically correct, feel-good rhetoric. 

                                The Namby Pamby Bishop.  

           Here’s the bishop’s response. My own views are contained within in [brackets]. 

       “As Church [liberals and unregenerate radicals in the Church never say “THE Church” but “Church” as in “woman Church” etc.  Why? They don’t want to indicate that Catholicism is THE Church, so as not to offend others] we want to journey with everyone as they search for meaning in their lives. We believe that Christ offers this meaning. The use of harsh words of condemnation is not the approach Christ invites us to have toward one another.  Intolerance [i.e. contrasting right from wrong] closes the door to learning and deeper understanding or one another.  Furthermore, it leads to divisiveness [God knows we don’t want that: we want “unity.”  Christ never tangled with anyone did He?  He never engaged in divisiveness, did He?  Naw.  He was get-along-go-along]. Too many people have suffered because of a profound lack of compassion and a perceived arrogant indifference.”   

       Ochoa’s statement was covered very favorably in the dallasvoice.com, which bills itself as “the premier media source for LGBT Texas.”  Now I invite you to look at Michael Voris’ commentary on this.   

       Frankly, very little of Michael Voris involves what shocked establishment Catholics call “bishop bashing.” The only other recent one was also excellent, to my mind.  A parish in New York city has been infamous for its near-celebration of homosexuality…so much so that it is an open question whether it is facilitating the practice. When Archbishop Timothy Dolan was at Mass, the proud members of Dignity were singled out with praise and a TV clip caught the archbishop smiling and applauding.  Voris used the event to criticize the obvious support and scandal Dolan had given…which prompted Dolan to issue the weakest, most nebbish-like statement you ever saw. 

                          He’s Too Tough for Catholic Answers.  

        To me, Voris was doing what any alert and well-informed layman should do.  But it was enough for Catholic Answers, the Karl Keating-founded resource of apologetics to ditch Voris’ stuff from its video library.  Now I have great respect for Catholic Answers and for Keating…but it was in no mood to support criticism of certain bishops. . 

          One of the finest presentations by Voris shows how the often fraudulent “spirit of Vatican II” was hijacked.  As I lived through that time and saw the American heretical beginning at St. John’s with a then so-called “great” theologian, Fr. Godfrey Diekmann OSB…who ultimately refused to sanctionHumanae Vitae, it taught me things I never really knew about what was happening in Rome between the eras of John XXIII and Paul VI. Voris goes into great deal about one who may well have been an ultra-liberal saboteur in the Church, the main conspirator for so radically changing the liturgy of the Mass—Archbishop Annibale Bugnini of whom Dietrich von Hildebrand said: 

         “Truly, if one of the devils in C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters have been entrusted with the ruin of the liturgy he could not have done it better” than Burgnini (who died in 1982).  In 1960 he was placed in a job that enabled him to exert a decisive influence on the liturgy, Secretary to the Preparatory Commission for the Liturgy of the 2^nd Vatican Council.  But he was evidently moving too fast and too radically because he was summarily fired by John XXIII.  Rumors then abounded and continue to this day that Bugnini was a Freemason, one dedicated to secret antithetical hostility to the Church.   

        Whether he was a Freemason or not, after John XXIII’s death,  Bugnini was just as speedily rehired by Paul VI.  Then he carried on until the great denouement.  

                                   Controversy about Voris.  

      One presentation by Voris have been criticized recently.  One was a brief 2-1/2 minute or so talk where he seemingly despaired of democracy and expressed the wish that an all-wise oligarchy should run this country i.e. supposedly make it a theocratic state. It didn’t bother me because I recognized the idea from Aristotle’s Politics where he cites the various forms of government—monarchy, oligarchy, democracy—and says that all have faults but…as an ideal…an oligarchy composed of supremely wise men is to be preferred…declaring at the same time that perfection is not attainable.  

         Aristotle wasn’t talking about a theocratic state, of course (he was a pagan) but of an oligarchy of so-called wise men to win the state. He so much as admitted that this would not be possible because men can not be wise all the time…but that was the ideal.   

      To me Voris’ speculative opinion is much the same.  Who among us…looking at the nitwits in major chunks of both political parties…have not speculated on how these jerks ever got elected and in the midst of despair about failed economic, social and international policies growled that a few conservatives with good ideas who wouldn’t have to worry about placating an insouciant electorate could save this country?  I know I have—knowing all the time that it is wistful thinking and that  I was not calling for a theocratic state or an oligarchy.  

         Voris killed that tape after semi-apologizing it with a “mea culpa” but I think he was a little too susceptible to the criticism that came not from it but from misunderstanding of it. Were I he, I would not have pulled it but explained that it was a speculative view akin to that of Aristotle in his Politics.

        

        Enough for now. Click on Michael Voris and sample a few delicious commentaries which run on average of only a few minutes apiece. 

     *: Saint Fiacre of Brie, Patron Saint of Cab Drivers (circa 304).  He was reared near an Irish monastery, the brother of one who would also become a saint, Syra of Troyes.  He initially went to study in the monastery because in the 4^th century they were the only repositories of learning.  What caught Fiacre’s attention was the science of healing herbs.  Soon he became quite an authority on them.  Because people believed his skill with the herbs tied him to the healing arts, they began to interfere with his privacy—for if he was anything, Fiacre was a recluse.  So tired out with crowds of people coming to visit him and his alchemy in the monastery, he decided to flee to France where he planned to live as a hermit.

        When he arrived in France he applied to the Abbot of a monastery for permission to use a portion of its land for the raising and study of healing herbs. There he was just as unlucky as he was in Ireland with flocks of sick people who came to see him to sample his herbs.  Because his herbs healed some, the legend grew that Fiacre himself was a healer which got him into trouble because one old woman claimed he was an intercessory of the devil. But the Abbot defended him and pointed out that Fiacre seemed to have personal healing power which would have to come from God not Satan.

        The legend grew that he had the gift of healing by laying on his hands. Frenchmen claimed by doing this he cured blindness,  polypus and fevers and a type of tumor called “le fic de S. Fiacre.”

        Then Fincre became known as patron of many disabilities. For example even today in France he is known as the patron of…fertility (against barrenness)…patron of healing hemorrhoids…healing piles…healing syphilis…healing all venereal disease.

        And he is seen as the patron of cab-drivers as well.  How did that happen as there were no cabs or cab-drivers  in his time?  Prepare yourself for a big stretch. In the 18^th century in Paris there was an opulent hotel named in his memory—Hotel de Saint Fiacre.  That hotel rented carriages.  People who had no idea who he was called them “Fiacre cabs” and eventually just “fiacres.”  Those who drove those cabs assumed Fiacre as their patron.  He is regularly pictured as a monk carrying a spade and a basket of vegetables surrounded by pilgrims as he blessed the sick.

Thought While Shaving: Why I Cuss (not Curse) and Can’t Imagine it’s a Sin.

  Feast of St. Monica, Mother of St. Augustine*   
                                                 Cussing.

             Now that I’ve been writing this blog for five years, it’s time I…well not make a confession…but make an affirmative statement.  I cuss.  It’s a habit I got from my father who was an eloquent cusser.  I think I know about as much theology as the average guy who took four straight years of theology and philosophy from Ernie…and I’ll tell you, I still can’t imagine anyone thinking use of swear words is a sin.  I exempt denunciations that invoke the name of the Son of God for expletives.  But let me ask you this?

What’s wrong with letting it go with a string of cliché imprecations when you stub your toe in the dark or are demoted at work or miss a train when the next one won’t be arriving for an hour and you will miss luncheon with someone who wants to introduce you to a potential client? 

           Do you think not swearing is virtuous?  Saying “heck” instead of hell?  Forget it.   

            Oh I admit that use of swear words is a breach of etiquette; they shouldn’t be used in front of children.  But let’s get this straight: What I categorize as swear words are not words of obscenity that degrading sexual congress.  Although, friends, I’ve got to say this: When telling a story to adults…and quoting someone who for effect used an obscenity…I don’t find it a mortal or even venial sin to reproduce his conversation.  And I find it sanctimonious as hell (there I go again) when somebody—usually a woman—simulates going into a dead faint because I describe someone I despise as…putting it euphemistically…a person of illegitimate birth or a male whose mother is a female canine.  

           The wildest concoction of political correctness is this.  Suppose I say about a miscreant who has verbally assailed me as— 

           “That person of illegitimate birth!”  Or “that guy whose mother is a female canine!” 

         That would pass the respectability test but also produce exchange of  strange looks from others at the table but that’s it.  They wouldn’t faint away with shock…but why should they look askance, look around the room and hope no one overheard… regard me as indelicate and a boor if I say— 

         “Do you know what that officious  bastard wrote in The New York Times today?  He tried to dress up research in embryonic stem cells as vital to saving lives when he knows—fully knows—that adult stem cells can do the job. You know what?  That sonuvabitch simply glories in defending an act of snuffing out lives!” 

        The fact remains that I feel better when I say this…and that’s important—important to let repressed steam be released…a safety valve that spares bottled up blood pressure. 

        Let’s be clear. Cussing fate with a string of denunciatory colorful words is different from cursing where you call down evil on someone.  Or invoke God to strike someone dead. That’s altogether different. I would judge that to say “goddammit” is different than slowly pronouncing “God damn so-and-so!”  Although I’ve been known to do that as well.  But seriously calling down evil on someone and invoking God to do it is blasphemy. 

          Ernie once told us that to curse rational creatures is a grave offense against justice and charity.  When I sat in his classroom so long ago listening to him I thought—and still think—but if you say this to yourself and do not poison this guy’s reputation by enunciating it to someone else but to yourself in solitude, what’s wrong with that?  It makes me feel better.  And who hears it when I mutter to myself?  Ever since that time I have doubted Ernie on that particular item.  How do you sin against justice and charity if you growl to yourself imprecations against an unfeeling boss for example?   

         Another thing Ernie would say is this: “To curse irrational creatures such as the weather or animals who let us say defecate on the floor is a venial sin of impatience.”  Wha? Do you understand what I’m getting at here?  Is it not possible that we are too Jansenist in this business of cussing?  Do we imagine that General George Armstrong Custer at the battle of Little Big Horn…when suddenly surrounded by 3,000 Indians who seemingly came thundering out of the hills from ostensibly nowhere…and remembering that he foolishly left a supply of Gatling guns at Yellowstone because he felt they would not be needed…said: 

          “Oh my gosh where did these darned Indians come from all of a sudden?  And gee whiz, I wish I had the Gatling guns!” 

            Ernie also said this: “To curse the evil spirit as the enemy of God and human beings is lawful.”  That means I guess I can say: “God damn the devil and all his works!”  

          But Ernie, being Ernie, added: “Exclamations that in themselves are not sinful may become so for other reasons such as the danger of scandal.” 

          Why don’t you share with me your views…theological and otherwise…about the vice—I’ll admit it is that—of cussing? 

     *: Feast of St. Monica, Mother of St. Augustine [332-387]. Born in North Africa, Monica earned her sainthood the hard way. First she was married to Patricius, a dissolute pagan who was often unfaithful to her, a boozer and violent in temper when he was drinking which was often, reportedly.  Second her mother-in-law lived with them who had a scathing tongue and who sided with her son in all disputes, never staying out of them but intruding with bias and ill-feeling. Suffering through all that should have made Monica a saint anyhow—but she fell into alcoholism (I can understand why) which she conquered.

         Freeing herself of that old devil booze, she then proceeded to win his conversion. He was baptized in 370 and while she expected the remainder of their lives to be spent in calm and forbearance, he died the following year. She had three children: Augustine, Navigius and Perpetus…of which as we know Augustine was her greatest blessing but for years her greatest trial. The early Augustine lived such an irregular life that they argued often as she sought to get him to change his ways—finally throwing him out of her house. But she didn’t give up, turning to prayer, fasts and vigils hoping to achieve by these things what arguing failed to do.

        Augustine became, as we know, a great intellectual and teacher but still in his early adulthood did not change his ways.  In fact as he admits in his Confessions, he misled his mother on when his ship would leave for Rome and so when she showed up at the dock, the ship had already departed.  She caught the next ship, followed him to Rome and from there to Milan.  She contacted and was highly esteemed by Ambrose (later canonized), the bishop of Milan who converted him first to the moral life…enabling him to send his mistress away…and then to Catholicism, being baptized in 387. No convert to go halfway, Augustine rejected Monica’s suggestion that he marry in favor of the celibate life.  Gloriously happy, Monica set out on a journey to Africa with him but died on the way, at Ostia the same year her famous son was baptized.  She was only 55 but she earned her canonization through suffering, prayer, penance and humiliation. Humiliation? Nothing like being left on the dock while the ship carrying her son sails without her.

        

Personal Asides: The Primaries Would Be Almost Perfect with Possible Murkowski Defeat. More.

  Feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa*

          

                      Here’s Hoping Joe Miller Wins in Alaska. 

        In 1959 when I was a young staffer working in the House during the Eisenhower’s administration, both Alaska and Hawaii entered the Union. The smart prognosticators said that there was a political balance: Hawaii would send a Republican delegation and Alaska a Democratic one.  It turned out exactly the opposite: Hawaii has been as solid a  Democratic state…with only a few exceptions, U. S. Senator Hiram Fong, its current governor, Linda Lingle and a newly elected congressman, Charles Djou (who must run again this November… while laska has produced a Republican harvest of votes and lawmakers.   

         Speaking of Hawaii, here’s a digression which comes to me as I think of it… 

          On opening day of the Congress, in January, 1959, where the two new states were admitted, Congressman Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.), before he became majority whip, was walking down a corridor with a staffer friend of mine when he greeted a young man coming toward him in a crowd of newly elected Democrats.  He was Hawaiian House member: Daniel Inouye.  “Hi, ya Danny!” O’Neill intoned without them having been introduced. 

          My staffer friend marveled that his boss knew everybody in the House, even the new members.  Inoue had just arrived and the majority leader called him by first name.  How did he know he was a congressman from Hawaii?  O’Neill dismissed it as nothing. 

           Then he responded with the ultimate in political incorrectness.  It would be enough to cause almost anyone to pass out.

          “ Not that difficult. After  all, how many one-armed Japs do you think we have here?” he roared while my friend, politically sensitive, winced. 

          That’d get thecapitolfaxblog.com crowd to faint, wouldn’t it?  Yet that was the funny, irreverent way with O’Neill whom I came to know very well. Inouye a highly decorated veteran of World War II, of Japanese extraction, lost his right arm as a combat soldier in Italy earning 15 medals and citations for bravery.   

            When Henry Hyde heard the remark he passed it on to Inouye who loved the comment. 

            Inouye moved over to the Senate and is one of its most powerful members, chairman of Appropriations.  At age 86, he is certainly a shoo-in for reelection this year, having just squeaked back in 2006 with 78% of the vote.  

       But digression aside (a residue of old age), it’s Alaska I want to talk about. And the possible Republican primary defeat of Sen. Linda Murkowski--a pro-abort Catholic--by a highly qualified but veritable unknown, Joe Miller, 43, Fairbanks; Kansas-born; a pro-lifer; calls himself non-denominational Christian; married to Linda, father of eight kids (yes, that’s right: 8);   West Point undergrad;  Yale educated lawyer; highly decorated veteran of the first Gulf war (Bronze star); after which he moved to Alaska because he loves the great outdoors, major partner in a Fairbanks law firm; a former state and federal magistrate there which job he quit to run for State Rep (a race he lost); close friend of Todd Palin, endorsed by Sarah Palin and a Tea Party favorite.  

       True, my excitement could be premature. At last count he was ahead of Murkowski by 1,900 votes (45,909 to 43, 949) with 98% of Alaska’s precincts reporting.  If he can hold onto his lead with about 8,000 absentee ballots to be counted in the next week or two (most of them paper ballots) he’ll be in a good position to be Alaska’s next senator because the electoral record pro-Republican is pretty clear.   

        The thing I like about Miller is that he has violated most of the “rules” that liberal pundits say is essential.  They say you’ve got to have a load of money to fight an entrenched incumbent: Miller had very little.  They say you should have a “moderate” record, i.e. don’t get bogged down on “pesky” social issues: Miller did just the opposite. He vociferously pointed out Murkowski’s pro-abort record…asking her if she ever voted for an unconstitutional bill. She said firmly she had not. Miller: “Then tell Alaskans where is Roe v. Wade authorized in the Constitution?”  He continued: “Where is embryonic stem cell destructive research? Where is TARP?  Where is cap and trade?”  She countered that the Constitution mentions the army and navy but not the air force…but it was a very weak response. 

           In essence it was her record on abortion that hit her hard in the polls  Tuesday’s primaries would be a smashing success for me if Joe Miller holds on and defeats Murkowski.  .   

       

                                 Thecapitolfaxblog.com 

         There’s no publication that exceeds thecapitolfaxblog.com in touchy-touchy race sanctimony (it groaned in fear that the stonewalling juror in the Blago trial might just be black: she was and so what?).  As a wondrously comprehensive publication (and I must salute it for candidly saying something Richard M. Daley does not want to hear: Chicago is bankrupt) 

        Yet it’s often marvelously blind-sided on political correctness.  Seemingly, to it the mere mention of race being used as a political cudgel is a no-no.  Certainly for Republicans.  It went after State Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) yesterday for an allegedly “insensitive” remark he made about the Quinn appointment of Michelle Sadler as his chief of staff.   

       It gave prominent coverage to a very ordinary Quinn news release and video alleging that Dillard was playing the racial card when he described Sadler thusly: 

      “While she as an African American-Asian woman is a political choice it remains to be seen if she can govern state government.” 

        Yikes! (to borrow the publication’s favorite kid exclamation)…have we gotten to the point that it is “insensitive” to…even with nuance mention …the racial identity of a key governmental-political appointee in government and the possible benefit to the elected official who names him/her?  Answer: Yes, insensitive if the one who mentions it is a Republican.  Meaning: a Democratic  appointment can be made with the benefits of racial identity in mind but a Republican is in danger of being “insensitive” if he/she alludes to it.  Journalists can do it, understand.  And thecapitolfaxblog.com does it all the time.  Just don’t let Republicans get caught referring to an appointee in any terms other than an “individual.”  

          For proof of the double standard, here is ultra-sanctimonious thecapitolfaxblog.com worrying about the possibility of Democrat Alexi Giannoulias being politically disadvantaged from the all-important (to Democrats) black vote by a candidate…almost unknown…running for the Senate seat for the Green Party. 

         To it, It’s okay to mention race in connection with a super-close election where the Green candidate just might siphon a fraction of the vital black vote away from Giannoulias, resulting in a Giannoulias loss to…ugh…Republican Mark Kirk.   Even if the Green candidate urges the banning of all nuclear weaponry and wants multi-lateral nuclear disarmament (you know what that would mean: we’d disarm and they would say they would but won’t)… and attests that Wall Street has brought more harm to the black community than anything else.  That’s a Jesse Jackson, Sr. stretch of imagination.  

         The Green party candidate is LeAlan Jones, a 31-year-old radio and film producer from Englewood. Thecapitolfaxblog.com forgets its racial sanctimony to dig deep into a scary disadvantage for Giannoulias: 

         “Jones has no political or governmental record and paltry cash—plus a monstrous helping of chutzpah.  He owns one unmistakable asset—he is African American. Jones may be a Green but the color of the moment is black.” 

          Now just for a moment, consider if Kirk Dillard said that.  The statement thecapitolfax.com made is true—as true as Dillard’s earlier one about Michelle Sadler.  But what would CapitolFax.com say if the senator made that remark?  “Grossly insensitive!” it would thunder. 

         That’s why the liberal mantra of “insensitivity” on Republican mention of race in politics is so hypocritical. Yet, if you want to be “in” on all the political news…plus gossip…you must subscribe and read the blog.    

                                                 Phil Krone. 

         It’s with a great deal of sadness that I note the death of a good friend of mine, Phil Krone.  He died Sunday of liver cancer.  I knew Phil for 46 years, when he was a young volunteer for Chuck Percy…through his colorful attempt as Republican ward committeeman to name himself to the state House to succeed Pete Granata…past his rejection for that post, his subsequent resignation and his turning to the Democratic party where he became an enduring friend of the original Mayor Daley, his son, Neil Hartigan, Tom Hynes, Tom’s son Dan…and also a host of Republicans including me. 

         Phil and I were on the radio weekly beginning in 1980 in a kind of cult program, “Inside Politics with Bruce DuMont” on WBEZ.   He was a most unusual guest, endowed with an eerie sense of premonition of things that could well come true in politics. I remember particularly when Gov. Jim Thompson was running for reelection against former U. S. Senator Adlai Stevenson III.   Stevenson had almost defeated Thompson in 1982. In fiscal and spending matters he was more conservative than Thompson. He stressed Thompson’s insincerity: that on the campaign trail Thompson would oppose tax hikes and after election would change his mind: complete duplicity. 

          As he made his case, it seemed for a long time that Stevenson would win the election.  As I was chairman of Project LEAP an anti-vote fraud organization, I had first-hand knowledge that for the first time, the mayor of Chicago was secretly calling the shots on The Squid for Thompson’s victory. But it was destined to be close. 

        Indeed, I am among those who firmly believe that Stevenson did in fact win the governorship… because he came in behind Thompson by 1/7^th of 1 percent—which meant that a relatively small amount of voter fraud magic had decided the outcome. 

        Following the paper-thin margin, everybody expected a recount. But then,  a quirky Illinois law was invoked that maintained  the state Supreme Court would have to order a recount.   The Supreme Court failed to do that by one vote…that of Democrat Seymour Simon who was a dissident of The Squid.   Later Thompson made a favorable hire that, it could be argued, pleased Simon and his allies.  

         Four years later, Stevenson challenged Thompson again. Stevenson seemed to have all the best arguments on his side…the tales of Thompson vowing not to raise taxes before election and then finding suddenly that he had to after election.   Stevenson had a devastating argument.  We were on the radio and Phil said something that we all laughed at.  It was this: 

       “You’re all talking about a Stevenson victory this second time around.  Ah but there is one thing that can reelect Thompson.  As you know, Lyndon Larouche has a field of candidates running in the Democratic party against Stevenson’s slate.  If some of those candidates were to get through—particularly the candidate for lieutenant governor, Mark Fairchild—Stevenson would be in a terrible bind.  He would have a choice of either running with a decided nut for lieutenant governor…someone who says that the Queen of England is engaged in a lesbian love affair with Golda Meir, the prime minister of Israel…or having to leave the Democratic party and run as a third party candidate which would surely cause him to lose to Thompson.” 

           We all sat transfixed at the theory but were highly skeptical.. Most of the supposedly alert media was reporting that Stevenson’s choice for lieutenant governor, State Rep. George Sangmeister of Frankfort was unopposed. He was a fine lawmaker and his name was well-known to Illinois Democrats. Similarly, Stevenson’s choice for secretary of state was Aurelia Pucinski, the daughter of Roman Pucinski a longtime congressman and alderman and a leader in the Polish community. We dismissed Phil’s analysis as fatuous. 

     We laughed it off only to find out on election night that Mark Fairchild had indeed won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, defeating Sangmeister, entitling Fairchild to run as a teammate with Adlai Stevenson III, both sharing the same ballot designation, meaning that if Stevenson were elected governor Fairchild would be lieutenant governor and logical successor to the governorship if something were to happen to Stevenson. A Larouche candidate for secretary of state, with the Anglo-Saxon name of Janice Hart pummeled Aurelia Pucinski, qualifying Hart to run for a major post in state government.  It was a fluke of flukes.  

        Phil Krone was eerily prescient.  Just as he mentioned, Stevenson had no choice but to leave the ticket and run on a third party ticket—the Solidarity Party.  That third party confusion caused Stevenson to lose one more time to Big Jim—this time by a big margin.  

          In all my years either covering or working in politics and government, I have never seen a long-shot prediction like Phil’s come true. And I haven’t seen it happen since. 

          On this issue and on many others, Phil Krone was indubitably right.  Since that historic prediction in 1986 I have never failed to recognize and testify to Phil’s innate genius. Toward the end of his life…while afflicted with liver cancer…he would write for John Powers and me in  The Chicago Daily Observer. .  

       He was not always right but many, many times he was.  And always right or wrong or as a charming conversationalist at a lunch table,  he was an intriguing, amusing and brilliant friend whose death I mourn greatly.  Rest in Peace, my old friend.  I always wanted you to become a Catholic. I tried and missed: instead you became an Episcopalian. Anyhow, you are in my prayers—and heaven’s doors are open to Episcopalians too: especially those who are good men like you, Phil..  

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      *: Our Lady of Czestochowa.  This is a feast in honor of a portrait. A legend says it was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist but no one knows for sure. What is known is this: It was brought by Crusaders from Jerusalem through Constantinople and bestowed to the Princess of Ruthenia.  Then it was removed to Poland in 1382 after Ladislaus of Opole discovered it in a castle at Beltz. He invited a group of monks in Poland to be its guardians.  In  1430 a devastating attack by pagan militants resulted in damage to the painting…and to this day despite attempts to repair it, there are slash marks on the face of the Virgin which are still visible. 

      Since then men have fought…and many died… to keep the painting from harm.  It was transferred to a monastery at Czestochowa…at first exhibited in a small wooden church and later in the present day basilica and defense wall the surrounds the buildings.  It withstood the attacks of the Swedish invasion of 1655.  The great Polish victory over the Swedes endeared it to the Polish nation.  As result, King Jan Casimir in 1656 proclaimed the Mother of God to be the “Queen of the Polish Crown” and the shrine designated as the spiritual capital of Poland. After a good deal of carnage including that of World War II, the Shrine of Czestochowa in Poland attracts many thousands of pilgrims who come to honor the Virgin Mother.  An exact copy of the painting is installed at St. John Cantius parish in Chicago where I attend Mass every Sunday.