Independent Run For Mayor

Well, the mayoral election is mere weeks away now and there has been a minor effort to draft a number of write-in candidates for the position, including but not limited to Patrick Fitzgerald, Rudy Guilliani, and even your humble webmasters.

We consulted with some legal representation and it was related to us that write-in votes for SCC would result in disqualified ballots as SCC is not a real person. Someone else said that write-in candidates have to be registered with the Board of Elections to have their votes counted. We really have no idea where write-in votes might go in this instance, but in the interest of having votes count toward an actual living and breathing person, we are supporting the following candidate:



Click on the poster and print out copies. If we can't get this guy 1,000 votes minimum, we don't deserve to be his campaign manager.

Good Shooting - Bad Article

This Tribune article is such a piece of garbage:

• A few days ago, Lester Childs told his 15-year-old son Dijohn he was running with the wrong crowd. And as he sat in front of the TV that night, Childs started to weep, convinced something bad was going to happen to one of his six adopted sons.
• Dijohn, a freshman at Fenger Academy High School, was shot to death in the home of an off-duty Chicago police officer at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. Police said the officer came home from work and found Dijohn in an upstairs bedroom during what appeared to be a burglary.

The entire article seems to be some sort of effort to generate sympathy for a burglar. Screw this jagoff. He picked the wrong house this time - game over. He lost. Too damn bad. And who the hell names their kid after mustard?

How about a couple of paragraphs about how this officer has probably lost his sense of security he might have had in his own home? Or maybe if this cop has family who were out when he came home, how devastating it must be that his wife and kids have lost a bit of their sense of safety? Or how police can be victims of crime just like other citizens? Or the money the officer is going to have to spend replastering and decontaminating his house from the bloodstains? Or the fact that everyone in the neighborhood is going to have to pay higher insurance premiums based on some dumbass who wasn't taught that stealing was wrong?

Hope the copper is doing well.

Democrats - Party of Defeat

Not just once, but twice in recent days. First up, our very own Obama:

• Sen. Barack Obama Tuesday night called on Congress to force President George W. Bush to pull almost all combat troops from Iraq by early next year.
  
  As CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, Obama hopes the Senate will vote on his "Iraq War De-Escalation Act."

Iraq War De-Escalation Act? Is that anything like Clinton's "Turn the Other Cheek" policy that resulted in so many instances of "Cut and Run" the minute things started to go south? Or enabled the unchecked rise of radical islamic fundamentalism that culminated in 9/11?

And how about Russ Feingold (D-Idiot):

• The repercussions of an airline's decision to remove a group of Muslim imams from a commercial flight in Minneapolis could be heard in Congress this year, with civil rights groups pushing Democratic lawmakers to ban racial profiling.

  The incident happened in November and reinvigorated an old proposal that got little attention from the GOP.

  With Democrats now in control, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) made it clear the issue will be a priority for him.

  ''Many law-abiding African Americans, Arab Americans, Latino Americans and others live with the fear of being racially profiled as they go about their everyday lives,'' Feingold said.

Sure, and the fact that these imams were not following the instructions of the flight crew, made a number of suspicious remarks in both English and arabic, sat in the exact same pattern as member of the cells that hijacked 4 jets on 9/11 means nothing? And how about the fact that just about every study done on racial profiling ends up showing that cops DO NOT profile based soley on race, but rather behaviors?

We are so doomed.

Weather Warning

It's going to be cold these next few days. DAMN cold. Sunday a high of 6? And a low of -4? Brrrrrrrr.

Now if it would just get this cold in Miami, we could make fun of everyone who is headed south for the big game.

Blame the Police Again

This is ridiculous:

• (GARY, Ind) A police pursuit ended Monday with the death of a man who had nothing to do with the chase. The man was killed in Gary when the car he was in was cut in half by another car that ran into it. Cornell Yanceny was just driving home when his Cadillac was T-boned with such force it was thrown into a traffic light, and then a tree, and it split in two. Yanceny, who turned 44 last month, was killed instantly.

The article continues in this vein for almost its entirety. Then this line right before the end:

• The Hobart officer had reportedly lost sight of the PT cruiser several blocks before the accident and stopped his chase

But of course, the blame will fall squarely on the police in this case and not on the offenders.

Bears Parade - Win or Lose

There will be a parade regardless of the outcome of the game. Such is the word from a little birdie within Special Events. Tuesday, February 6th is the date. Watch for an order to be cut shortly detailing various Tact/Gang teams downtown along with recruits, traffic aides and HQ personnel. No word on days off cancelled.

Channel 2 has some info, but not much at the moment.

Too Much Information

We really didn't need to know this - and especially not before dinner:

• Ald. Arenda Troutman (20th) said today she doesn't use drugs and is "betting my life" that the white powdery substance found in her home was not narcotics, but a dietary fiber she uses to clean her bowels four times a year to prevent colon cancer.

  Troutman charged that federal agents who found the powdery substance during a raid on her South Side home and ward office already know the results were negative and that they're keeping the information quiet to continue to smear her.

Why is this even in the realm of public knowledge? Seriously - why?

Busy Weekend - Open Post

We had some major posting this weekend. Be sure you scroll down the past 10 threads or so. You want to make sure you don't miss anything, especially the Meeks posting, the parking controversy, the Lieutenants list and half a dozen other bits of fun. And how about these stories that we couldn't find time for?

• Caffeine laced doughnuts? We don't think Homer Simpson would appreciate not being able to nap after one of his tasty treats, but midnight guys ought to love this. Count us in!
• The Public Schools dust up has made it to the pulpits. A minister demands the security chief at CPS resign. Anyone not see this one coming?
• More foie gras nonsense. Don't these people realize that (A) city inspectors don't usually work weekends unless its a really BIG weekend and they're looking to suspend liquor licenses and (B) no one says you can't give away foie gras - you just can't sell it.
  

Daley Receives Mediocre Grades

No, not his law school results:

• Mayor Richard Daley's administration merits average to failing grades for its record on economic development, housing, transportation, education, criminal justice and ethics, according to a new study from a coalition of interest groups and local activists.
  
  The report card is the result of a year-old project called "Developing Government Accountability to the People," and is scheduled to be released Monday, just weeks before voters decide whether to give Daley another four-year term in the Feb.27 election.

Combined with the latest union non endorsements, is Daley on the way out? Hell, no. But one wonders where all this bad publicity was the past few years when everything was headed south and all the media could do was wink and nod at business as usual.

Parking Opinion

From the Chicago Police Lieutenant's Association:

• We at the Chicago Police Lieutenants Association would like to point out that there is no part of our contract that allows for the City of Chicago or Chicago Police Department to levy cash penalties against a Lieutenant. In addition no where in the General Orders is there mention of cash penalties for discipline. If the City of Chicago wishes to tow vehicles it owns that is fine with us and if they wish to levy a cash penalty perhaps they will need to go after the registered owner of the vehicle.

We suspect this isn't unique to the Lieutenant's contract either. Someone who has read the labor agreements can tell everyone better than we can, but we don't recall any such provision in our contract either. You can be SPARred; you can have a CR number registered against you; you can use Comp Time or take the day when you are found guilty via Administrative processes. But we can't recall anyone ever being fined for infractions.

Grievances anyone?

Meeks Update

In our previous Sunday posting about the Chicago Reader article about reverend Meeks, we realize a number of our more "sensitive" readers are going to take offense at what we posted.

Already, some have pointed out that numerous ministers from other faiths make a living off of contributions from their congregations. Point granted. But the other ministers aren't out there building a political machine based on lies, innuendo, and threats to run against established positions. And other ministers aren't being profiled in the Reader, enabling us to put forth our opinion on a published work.

The reader known as "coldtype" has attempted to take us to task for even having an opinion, implying we "say so much yet know so little" without even pointing out what we know so little about - a typical ploy of those who believe the great unwashed masses ought to listen to their betters and not worry about how things are being run. As we stated elsewhere, every fact in our opinion piece is from the Reader. Any beef should be taken up with them.

This was an opinion piece. We have opinions. Most of our readers have opinions, too, some of them very strong ones. Those opinions that can be articulated in a civil manner are invited to post here. Anyone else who has an opinion is welcome to start their own site and publish to their heart's content. It's still a free market place.

Lefty - BUSTED!

In the language that is unique to the Internet, "sock puppetry" is the act of using one or more names to post either concurring opinions or imagined support for a certain way of thinking. The place where most people screw up is when IP tracking programs prove that multiple persons are posting from identical addresses. Other times, they forget the persona they've developed shouldn't cross over and use words and phrases unique to a certain "character."

Looks like one of our gadfly's is guilty guilty guilty.

• leftisthebest said...To 11:33 poster:
  No, the phoniest one is the President. He is a liar and makes no attempt to reach out to persons of color. If it had been an European American majority after Katrina then today New Orleans would look like something out of "The Jetsons." Instead the African Americans are forced to live in squalor with little luxury more than "The Flintstones."

A reader called him on it:

• Anonymous said...Lefty said:
  
  "If it had been an European American majority..."
  ---------------------
  European American? This proves it! Lefty and Malcolm are one and the same. There couldn't possibly be two people ignorant enough to use that "European American" bullshit!

And Lefty immediately went into full denial mode:

• leftisthebest said...To 2:30 poster:If you read the other thread I told SCC to remove the Katrina post (before it was posted) because I wrote it to get a reaction. I stated it was wrong. That's why I used the phrase European-American. I said I was to make a post just to get a rise out of readers. Readers will see that lil Malcolm and I don't always agree and that is the first time I ever used the term European-American. He and I are different.

In his efforts to deny a connection, Lefty bungles, fumbles and compounds his error. We went back a few threads and found a comment posted by the supposed "malcolm x's little brother" and he uses the hyphenated term EXACTLY as Lefty does:

• Malcolm X's little brother said... SCC, I started to watch the President's State of the Union address, but was so disgusted by its tone I turned it off. I realized he is not a president for people of color. I chuckled once more at the stupidity of European-Americans who voted him into office.

And we even went back and found the post that Lefty sent us to try to erase his previous slap at Katrina "victims":

• leftisthebest said...M. ] just delete my last post about Huurciane Katrina. i was just trying to get a raise out of some folks. It was wrong to do.

You certainly haven't been shy about posting things that were completely wrong before - and you are always looking to get a rise out of us in addition to our readers. Why the hesitation now? Probably because you screwed up and have just negated every point you've ever tried to make.

So Lefty/Malcolm 10, the preponderance of the evidence convicts you in our eyes and the eyes of at least one of our readers. What say the rest of you?

One Week Away

Bear Down, Chicago.... oh wait, that's next week. Damn bandwagon arrived a week early. Open post for Superbowl speculation or other various causes. Regular rules apply.

Who is James Meeks?

This article in the Chicago Reader is an eye opening treatment of the reverend:

• "They are a force to be reckoned with," says Delmarie Cobb, a political consultant who's worked with Beale, Jackson, and other Illinois pols. "That's why you see so many politicians come to the church. [Its members] believe they're holding people accountable."
• But few politicians are willing to criticize Meeks publicly - they want him and his congregation on their side, or at least not working against them. And so they keep making the pilgrimage to the House of Hope.

The article doesn't mention if Meeks ever held a job besides that of preacher. It follows him through the Salem Church founding, it's rapid expansion and it's delving into local politics. It devotes barely a mention of the recent "racial profiling" allegations he made against a Sergeant on the south side, indicating to us that even the Reader can spot a pile of political manure if it stinks enough.

His embracing of disgraced State Rep Mel Reynolds and singer R. Kelly point to his need to be in the spotlight constantly. But his business dealings with recently indicted businessman Tony Rezko (who might bring down a governor) are revealed along with his roles in the Shaw-Jackson feuds of recent years. And his recent battles with bad publicity (using the term "house nigger" to describe black supporters of Daley and Blago), his aborted run for governor based on blackmailing Blago for increased educational funding, his charges that the mayor runs an "apartheid" school system and his church recently buying a $3,000,000 dollar jet in honor of Meeks 50th birthday hint at an implosion just over the horizon.

To us here at SCC, Meeks is nothing more than a street corner preacher, race baiter, and hustling opportunist who will stoop as low as he needs to go in order to hold onto his status as a big time political player, including victimizing his own people.

Union News - Sort Of

Not FOP news though.

Seems Daley has lost yet another union endorsement. The union representing 5,000 office and technical workers refused to endorse the mayor. Unfortunately, the story does not say if they endorsed a rival.

It might be interesting to add up the total number of city workers who are also registered voters that these four unions represent. We seem to be getting to a point where Daley could be potentially damaged by a poor showing at the polls. Unseated? Not really a chance. But politically weakened if the aldercreatures sense weakness? Sure. It'd be better if the City Council and the Mayor we're at each other's throats than all the infighting we usually see amongst the different unions.

And then we have this story of the firefighters union president being stripped of his "Leave of Absence" and union paid salary by an 11-1 vote. He has to return to the firehouse at his rank of Lieutenant and ask for time off to conduct union business. Anyone else think that there is more than a little dissension in the firefighters ranks?

100 IOD's?

Someone in the comments section is claiming over 100 IOD reports were filled out by Area 5 Detectives for exposure to possibly toxic mold and such during the replacement of the ceiling tiles there. Are they serious? Who's got info?

How is This Different?

Great headline on the Channel 7 website:

• Devine warns budget cuts could force plea bargains
• Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine says proposed cuts in the county budget will drastically impact his office's ability to prosecute criminal cases. Devine made his case against a plan for 17 percent cuts Friday at a county finance committee. He wasn't alone in sounding the warning the cuts could have on the citizens of Cook County.

Ummm, just asking here, but how is this different? We got a letter from a detective in Area 4 following the stabbing over at Malcolm Ten college. An irate GED student became frustrated at something (2+2 not equaling 5 was one report) and stabbed her teacher in front of 20 students with a steak knife.

The Cook County Assistant State's Attorney, after interviewing 15 of the eyewitnesses AND the victim AND having the weapon AND a statement from the offender, REFUSED TO FILE CHARGES until the other 5 witnesses were located and interviewed.

Ex-squeeze me? Baking powder? Guess what? We can tell Devine exactly where part of that 17% cut ought to go right now.

Write A Letter, Sign a Petition

First up, via Paul Huebl, a request from the family of Harry Belluomini, a retired CPD detective killed in 1992 by an escaping bank robber in the Federal Building. Robert Burke was convicted of smuggling in a handcuff key that Jeffrey Erickson used to effect an escape and kill two Deputy US Marshalls, one of them being Belluomini.

• Robert Burke is being re-sentenced for his part in this horrible crime. The family of hero, Harry A. Belluomini is asking for assistance from fellow coppers to let the trial Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer the gravity and impact of this crime on this close-knit police family and the entire community.

We know we have loads of retirees reading from Vegas and around the country who knew Belluomini. If you can make the time, click on the link and write the letter to Judge Pallmeyer. There are 3 Belluominis on the job today - all Harry's kids.

Next up is an on line petition, not to dissimilar from the one we linked to last year when certain aldercreatures attempted to name a street after convicted felon, advocate of killing police officers and general all around piece of shit Fred Hampton. Thanks to the efforts of hundreds, if not thousands, that little episode never came to fruition. Someone in New York is attempting to name a street after that other piece of excrement, Mumia. Hop over to this link and sign the petition. Then have your spouses do it. Then mail it out to a few people and get them to sign it. We ought to be able to get that petition up a couple thousand numbers ASAP. Use legit names and such - this is a serious petition.

Thanks.

Lieutenant's List?

Type it if you got it.

Question - were any of the Sergeant's who were recently moved from 35th Street on the list so it looks like they were promoted out of the Patrol Division instead of directly from HQ? Inquiring minds want to know - hell, we all want to know!

Post #1900 (and a Work Slowdown)

1,900 posts in something like 20 months. Over 840,000 daily visitors generating well over 3.2 million page views. We don't even want to try to count the posted comments.

Thanks to everyone who visits, continues to visit, or might visit in the future. Your contributions to the character of the site make it among the most unique we've even had the fortune to run across.

As to the recent suggestions of a "work action," we merely remind our readers what the regulars already know - advocating, promoting, or taking part in any organized job action is a violation of Department Orders and grounds for immediate termination proceedings. Now if everyone did it, do we think the city would try to start any sort of disciplinary proceedings? We highly doubt it - BUT does anyone really think that someone could ever rally even a third of officers to back such an action? We don't.

Just be careful to whom you venture these opinions to. An anonymous website is one thing. Expressing it in the station where there might be ears is another.

Impersonating a Lawyer?

Why would anyone want to impersonate a lawyer?

• Cook County Sheriff's Police arrested a Chicago man late Wednesday and charged him with posing as an attorney.
  
  Prosecutors say 44-year-old George Robotis has been impersonating a lawyer for at least one year. They say he would represent clients at the Criminal Courts Building, the Daley Center and at administrative hearings at the State of Illinois Building.
  
  A judge noticed Robotis failed to put an attorney identification number on his paperwork, leading to the collapse of his con.

Hell, we could name at least 15 lawyers at Corporation Counsel who ought to be arrested for the same thing.

Off Duty Trouble

This might be trouble:

• Parents and community members voiced their concerns Thursday over a dispute that turned violent on Tuesday at an elementary school in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. Several students were injured and parents say school security guards are to blame.
• A source tells ABC7 that the Office of Professional Standards with the Chicago Police Department will likely be investigating the claims of brutality. That is because the day this incident happened, the security officers who were working for Chicago Public School were Chicago cops.

One wonders what kind of knee jerk reaction this little episode is going to bring out of the Department brass. Anyone else have the pleasure of the seeing if this "School Safe Passage" overtime initiative is actually making schools better places to be?

FOP Endorses No One

Damn - we were hoping for "none of the above" to get the nod!

Anyway, we were wondering why the FOP didn't follow the lead of the Firefighters and just go endorse Dorothy Brown. Then we were directed to Dorothy's website by a friend and if you look down the left hand column about two thirds of the way down and you see a link titled "Police Torture."

And a parade of articles unfolds - The Defender, The New York Times, Human Rights Watch, The Reader - a veritable pantheon of leftist publications and their ilk who are very much of the anti-police stripe. Anti-police articles don't really bother the firefighters, but they really ought to bother the police. And if your entire campaign is based on the fact that you aren't Richie Daley AND a main plank in your campaign is an anti-police agenda, then she doesn't really deserve our endorsement.

The enemy of your enemy isn't necessarily your friend. Channel 7 covers the story.

Isn't This the Name of a Drink?

Tijuana Slingshots.

If this isn't the name of a tropical drink, it ought to be. You all just stay here reading the blog and we're going to run out and copyright the phrase "Tijuana Slingshot."

• The police department has issued slingshots and balls to officers in the violent border city of Tijuana, where soldiers confiscated police weapons on allegations of collusion with drug traffickers.

  Sixty slingshots, along with bags of ballbearings, were given to officers patrolling tourist areas.

  Tijuana's police force of 2,000 officers has been without guns since Jan. 5, but some patrol alongside armed state police.

This is the failed narco nation state that we have on our southern border attempting to be our "partner" in keeping terrorists out of the country and who has by means of encouragement or negligence, sent over 10 million of it's citizens to this country and severely unbalanced a large portion of our social spending.

We don't know about you, but we can name at least a dozen coppers we've known over the years who considered a slingshot to be their primary impact weapon. Or secondary mayhem device. Or just a fun thing to have in their bags of tricks if it got really boring.

And from this point onwards, anyone using the phrase "Tijuana Slingshot(s)" owes us a dollar. Pay up.

Surprise!

John Kerry is NOT running for President again:

• Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who President Bush defeated to win his second term, made it official this afternoon. He will not run for the presidency in 2008.

  In a speech on the Senate floor during which he choked up at one point, Kerry made it sound as though his decision not to run was due to his desire to work instead on ending the U.S. military presence in Iraq.'

Actually, he was polling in the negative numbers. Him and Al Gore, both of whom are deciding to stay out of the way of the money raising buzz saw that is Hillary and Obama. Finally, a smart move from Kerry - his first in years.

Rescuers Getting Sick

Website recommended to us by a reader.

Anyone who went to New York City and served in the recovery effort might want to head on over and read up on some of what you may have been exposed to. Just general information.

Towing Issue Hits the Paper

In the Sun Times (the police friendly newspaper - NOT!) the following story:

• The actions followed a Sun-Times story that reported the department is investigating a handful of police employees for suspected misuse of disabled parking signs.
• One unmarked police car was towed at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in the 100 block of West Washington and another at 12:48 p.m. Friday in the 1500 block of West Taylor, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said. Both were in "no parking anytime" zones.
• Tuesday, Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue called the memo "inappropriate," adding: "It's an attempt to relieve the officers of discretion. It's caused a lot of concern among the membership.

Grievable? We'll see. In the meantime, the comments sections are abuzz with reports of the 009th District hammering Streets and San drivers with tickets, despite Monique Bond's denials to the contrary. The Games appear to have begun.

Small Break from Posting

We will resume normal posting by tomorrow afternoon. A few things came up here that require our attention. Sorry about this - but again - this is a hobby for us and sometimes life comes first.

Open post in the meantime.

Hahahahahahahahaha

Any Area 5 Detectives want to confirm of deny this one from the comments section?

• From The Great Detective Karnak hmmmmm
• 1) A burning car
  
• 2) A transvestite hooker
• 3) Area Five
• Karnak says... Name three things nobody wants to get in to.
  

We know what most people are going to say on this, but try to keep it reasonably civil.

TASER Cameras?

We heard a few months back that there were going to be cameras installed on the TASER weapons that many sergeants carry. We were looking forward to it as it would have provided a great highlight reel for the Christmas and Retirement parties.

Then we heard that they cancelled the program or at least delayed it for some reason.

Paul Huebl over at Crime, Guns and Videotape has a post up about how TASER cameras might soon be utilized in a number of municipalities and could be beneficial to supporting police versions of events. We maintain an open mind pending further review. We're just wondering if they're ever going to let the Beat guys carry these again.

CFD Endorses Brown

The Firefighters Union, over the objections of their own president, has voted to endorse Dorothy Brown for mayor over Daley. We suppose that the Union President is mindful of the fact that the firefighters are about to be negotiating a new contract shortly and doesn't want to rile the current occupant of the fifth floor too badly lest he take it out on the rank and file during negotiations. But sometimes, you just have throw caution to the wind and let the guy in charge know that you are royally pissed off.

And what exactly has the mayor done recently to engender any sort of respect or earn any sort of endorsement from the firefighters? Last contract we recall proposals to discontinue the 24 on/48 off that enabled firefighters to hold a number of side jobs. We remember "variances" cutting manpower on trucks being increased. There was a bunch of other stuff that really ticked off the firefighters too - we think they went over 3 years with no contract.

But the mayor isn't worried - he's got Obama's endorsement!

• "I don't think there's a city in America that has blossomed as much over the last couple of decades than Chicago -- and a lot of that has to do with our mayor. He has a national reputation that's well-deserved ... as somebody's who's innovative, as somebody who's tough, as somebody who's willing to make the hard decisions, as somebody who is constantly thinking about how to make the city better."
• In August 2005, Obama nearly ran into trouble with Daley when he hedged on whether he'd support the mayor for re-election in light of the corruption investigations at City Hall.
• Asked then if he planned to support the mayor or if the corruption probes might have given him pause, the senator replied, "What's happened -- some of the reports I've seen ... give me huge pause."
• An hour later, he called the Sun-Times saying he wanted to clarify his remarks. Obama said the mayor was "obviously going through a rough patch," but he also said Chicago has "never looked better" and that "significant progress has been made on a variety of fronts." The senator said then it was "way premature" to talk about endorsements because the mayor had not yet announced his candidacy.

Way to flip flop Obama. You're well on your way to being the John Kerry of the 2008 election season. The only thing that has changed since 2005 is the number of guilty pleas Fitzgerald has wrung out of patronage hires. The city is still as crooked as they come.

Shooting in 003

INSIDE the 003rd District station. Initial reports have an armed gunman walking into the lobby and pointing a weapon at police personnel inside who shot him at least once.

Links aren't available yet. News links in the right hand tool bar might have breaking news as it becomes available.

Updates later.

Cops On YouTube

OK, this is just dumb. But it's out there for everyone to see - might as well link to it.

Cops at the airport. Segways. And a citizen with a digital camera.

Good for some chuckles. Who are they?

Update on a Previous Story

Back on 18 December 06, we posted about the gun turn-in efforts hosted by the city and various churches.

On 19 December 06, we followed up with a reader with some decent inside info on how the guns were to be processed using recruits and how E&RPS wasn't up to handling a bulk turn in of almost 3,000 weapons.

We recently received yet another update that the guns being sent to Forensics and E&RPS are running into slight delays due to the fact that the recruits that were trained to do inventories are graduating and the recruits that have yet to be trained to do inventories don't have star numbers (and possibly computer access) that'd let them actually do the job. So these guns are going to be sitting around for a bit yet. We still wonder (as we did in December) what types of chain-of-custody issues might be raised should the delay in processing a turn in might have on a potential criminal prosecution. Chances slim? Yup. But any lawyer worth their salt would be looking at all the angles - we should, too.

Oh My Lord

The wheels just came off New Orleans' dream. What a game!

UPDATE: Links for the interested. Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7, Tribune, Sun Times.

Other links: ESPN, WWLTV (CBS New Orleans), WDSU (NBC New Orleans)

Light Posting - Guess Why?

Not that we'll be at the game or anything. We're just going to be busy. Very busy. Don't expect posting until a bit after the game. Good luck to the Bears. Anyone besides the eternal Packers fan have any predictions?

Let the Games Begin!

Not the Bears game - that'll be the post right above this one. The "I'm a self important aldercreature and I'm going to see how much money I can leverage out of the city during the run up to the Olympics!" game.

• The chairman of the City Council's Black Caucus is threatening to embarrass Chicago with the U.S. Olympic Committee -- and turn Mayor Daley's Olympic dream into a nightmare -- if an Olympic-size swimming pool is not included in plans for a new Westinghouse High School.

  Ald. Ed Smith (28th) said he stormed out of a meeting this week with Montel Gayles, executive director of the Daley-chaired Public Building Commission, after Gayles told West Side community leaders an Olympic pool was not part of the plan.

There's already a couple of existing Olympic sized pools around the Chicago area and more than a couple of them are more than adequate to handle the crowds should we be unfortunate enough to get the Games. But as ever in Chicago, it's about who can get the biggest slices of the pie and taxpayers be damned. Watch for a whole bunch more of this political grandstanding across the city in the coming months.

Are We at War?

...with Streets and Sanitation? Numerous comments are cluing us into a couple of incidents of unmarked squad cars being towed. This is asinine.

First of all, we're recommending refusing to pay anything to get a squad car out of hock. It's the City's car - they want it, they can pay to get it. If an Inspector wants to write someone up for parking illegally, fine - they need their pimpy movers. But circumventing the established disciplinary process and harming you monetarily WITHOUT DUE PROCESS is beyond the pale. FOP? Any word on this? This sounds like a definite grievance to say the least.

There better be some sort of policy change before Monday morning or we are predicting not only a war with Streets and San, but a severe shortage of unmarked squad cars in the Areas and somehow, no one will have seemed to have checked them out.

Obama Starts Taking Hits

The broadsides are just beginning to be fired over Barack Obama's presidential ambitions.

• As Senator Barack Hussein Obama enjoys superstar status within the news media, a background check of the 45-year old Illinois Democrat revealed that he was a student in a Muslim madrassa in Indonesia and that he was raised by his stepfather as a Muslim.

And guess who's firing the broadsides?

• While there are several stories about this latest Senator Obama revelation, many inside the Beltway believe the story came from Senator Hillary Clinton's supporters in order to take the wind out of the sails of Obama's fledgling presidential run.

Hillary and her people were always dirty, back alley knife fighters, but the media gave her and Bill passes for years for the typical liberal reasons - they weren't republicans. It's going to be a very interesting political season.

From NRO Online

This amusing letter to the staff:

• Each of your pro-Kerry correspondents take pains to point out how poorly the country has fared under George W. Bush, and how those who support him (especially you...) are destroying the country. Let's see, last time I checked,
• 1)The stock market is at an all-time high, thus
• 2)Retirement accounts are at last recovering.
• 3)Unemployment is at a 25-year low,
• 4)Taxes are at 20-year lows,
• 5)Federal revenues are at all-time highs,
• 6)The Federal deficit is down almost 50%,
• 7)Real estate values have soared,
• 8)Inflation is at a 20-year low,
• 9)There have been no successful attacks since 9/11,
• 10)Al Queda is being taken apart, one body at a time.
• 11)U.S. and British Intelligence have thwarted a number of attacks.
• 12)The terrorists are flocking to Iraq to be killed, instead of boarding planes for this country.
• If any of your writers were as honest they dare you to be, they would admit that, if the president who had accomplished this in the face of such difficulty had a 'D' after his name instead of an 'R', they would be singing his praises to the heavens. But no, the country is falling apart. Only if a Democrat takes the White House will everything instantly be perfect again.

All in all, the country is actually doing better than anyone would expect in the middle of a war. But for some reason, we never hear about it.

And how about those oil prices?

• Oil prices briefly fell below $50 per barrel Thursday for the first time in 20 months, after the U.S. government reported larger-than-expected jumps in crude oil and gasoline inventories.

  Oil has dropped 17 percent since the end of 2006 amid weeks of mild winter weather in the U.S. Northeast, a key consumer of heating fuels, and growing energy stockpiles. Stockpiles of gasoline and distillate fuels, like heating oil and diesel, also rose last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

Dude! Where's My Car?

Oh, this is going to be sweet - from the Comments Section:

• Has anyone heard the latest news? The City has granted Streets and San. tow drivers the AUTHORITY to TICKET & TOW illegally parked UNMARKED SQUADS. WTF is THAT ALL ABOUT?? Civilians are now going to decide that where you parked a SQUAD CAR isn't an "emergency" and snatch it up!!! I'm hearing that anyone who gets a squad ticketed or towed who was NOT on an emergency call will have to shell out for the ticket and to retrieve the car. HOW DID THE FOP ALLOW THIS CRAP TO PASS?? A Copper working in a shit area runs over to Little Italy for lunch, and comes out to find the SQUAD GONE??? WTF!!!! Is the FOP going to fight this at all? What about the PBPA???
  

Even if this isn't true, we're thinking of having a bunch of spare keys made for all the unmarked cars in our units and when we pull up on the scene, have our partner take the unmarked around the corner or up the block and then tell the plainclothes on scene that, "Yeah, some Streets and San guy came by and yanked it."

It ain't funny until someone loses a squad car - then it's hilarious!

The Real Reason to Ban Smoking

We've stumbled upon what we believe to be the real reason that the City is looking to ban smoking in bars, bowling alleys and similar businesses and the main reason that State Rep. Cullerton (a wholly owned Machine politician) is trying to force the issue into State law a year early:

• Bar owners in three south suburbs are hoping for a break from a recent smoking ban they say is killing their business.
  
• "Our sales to date are down over 30 percent from the same day last year," Booth said.
• It's a no smoking sob story that is repeated by business owners by in Oak Forest and Tinley Park, which enacted similar bans. Community leaders in all three towns have heard the complaints.

If it's happening in the burbs, it's happening in the city. Anyone who pays attention to licensing knows that the number of taverns in the city declined from 7,600 to under 1,300 in the past 100 years, and much of that decline occurring under the current political administration. The reason behind much of it is neighborhood involvement in shutting down problem establishments. That's great - democracy in action, voice of the people, quality of life issues. But we've reached a point where the bars that exist are, for the most part, located in neighborhoods that want them there, the taverns are mostly good neighbors, and the owners jump through an inordinate amount of hoops to keep their licenses problem free.

So how to continue the crusade against bars? Make it harder for them to attract the crowd they cater to by banning other behaviors. People like to smoke in bars, bowling alleys and pool halls? Ban smoking. Ban the sale of smokes. Pretty soon, they'll be banning the arcade games and pool tables too. Then start banning the transfats (bar food) that people like to eat when they're drinking beer. Pretty soon, there won't be a reason to go to bars, especially with the soon to be overpriced beer when bar owners can't sell smokes, food or let you play pool and video games.

We guess a lot of coppers are going to have to go home for the first time in years and see how big the kids have grown. And we'll bet the number of bars drops to under 1,000 by the time the 2011 mayoral election rolls around. And the Olympics.

Officer Safety Site

From a reader, the following site contains a number of photos of weapons that everyone ought to be aware of. Are you going to run across them regularly? Probably not. But all it takes is once. Examples include a cigarette lighter knife:
a handcuff key as a jewelry cross:

a pen gun:


All in all, an interesting site.

Nice Slanted Reporting

From the Sun-Times this morning:

• The Chicago Police Department is investigating a handful of police employees for suspected misuse of disabled parking signs, a department spokeswoman said this week.

  Meanwhile, the Chicago Department of Revenue has begun taking down disabled parking signs that were issued to people who have died or moved away.

All well and good. If people are using disable spaces and placards improperly, slap them around. Fine them. Discipline them. We doubt it's a separable offense. But then the Sun Times uses the most outrageous photo it can find and captions it in a deliberately inflammatory way making it seem a Canine Officer regularly flouts the law by parking in a handicapped spot. One has to read well into the article to find that the officer says the signs were for his ex-wife and he has asked the city to remove them. Canine Officers are required to park their vehicles on the public way in front of their residences. It really isn't his fault if the city is lax in getting around to removing signs - and according to the article the city has been MORE than a little lax in removing somewhere near 10% of the signs.

We just hope the officer can prove his contention that he asked the city to remove the signs in a timely fashion. We don't need the continuous bad publicity.

Denial of Responsibility

This is just sad on so many levels:

• The mother of a 6-year-old boy who authorities said accidentally shot himself Tuesday night with his grandmother's service weapon said Wednesday that what happened to her son was not her mother's fault.

Then exactly who's fault is it please? Any time a child dies, it's a tragedy. But you don't leave a child unattended in a car. Ever. And you certainly shouldn't leave a gun unattended in a car either. And leaving a child alone in a car with an unsecured loaded weapon ... well, this is all Monday morning quarterbacking, but what the hell was this deputy thinking?

We've been reading some of the comments in a couple other threads and some people are saying it was an accident, others are saying that you can't expect officers to be safe with the guns all the time. If you can't be safe with your gun somewhere in the area of 100% of the time, then you really don't deserve to have a gun. Period. You shouldn't leave a hot iron unattended. You shouldn't leave stuff cooking on the stove unattended. You shouldn't leave a loaded gun unattended. And every one of these rules goes double or triple if there are kids around.

Safety is a habit. Gun safety is necessary habit. Instances like these are exploited by the gun grabbers as another reason to disarm the populace, even though this was a completely and 100% PREVENTABLE occurrence (we refuse to call it an accident as that absolves the deputy of any responsibility). We suppose the trolls will be calling us insensitive jagoffs now.

Business As Usual

All those persons impressed with Todd "toddler" Stroger's attempts at reform ought to be amazed that they fell for the old song and dance routine of the Machine:

• A former administrator for Cook County Hospital in Chicago was fired in Las Vegas.
  
  Agents raided his office, investigating accusations about corruption at a hospital there in a scheme with major ties to Chicago.
  
  CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports a company at the center the investigation was just tapped by Cook County President Todd Stroger for a big contract here.
  
  Lacy Thomas, the former Cook County Hospital CFO, reporting to his board in Las Vegas Tuesday, was in for a surprise. Right after that meeting, he was fired.
  
  At the same time, investigators were stripping his office of computers and records of financial dealings with Chicago buddies allegedly paid big money for doing basically nothing.

Chicago - Las Vegas connections. Where have we heard that before. Hmmmm. Chicago is and always has been an Outfit town. Cook County always has been and will continue to be an Outfit appendage of the Chicago Machine. Just because the Outfit subcontracts it's work out nowadays doesn't mean it isn't still mob controlled.

And does this Department even investigate traditional (Mob) Organized Crime anymore? Or have we given up on that particular aspect of criminal enterprise?

Daley Loses Labor Endorsement

Tribune and Sun Times coverage

This would be a big deal if he actually needed their votes. Or their volunteers and political contributions and phone banks and voter recruitment.

• Mayor Richard Daley shrugged off Tuesday's announcement that the Chicago Federation of Labor would not endorse him in the Feb. 27 election.
  
  The decision not to endorse any candidate for mayor marked the first time that the CFL has not supported Daley since he became mayor, CFL officials said.
  

It would be a bigger deal if the Chicago Federation of Labor actually endorsed one of Daley's opponents and threw their weight behind that campaign effort.

Anyone know if the FOP endorsed any Daley competitors or competitive aldercreatures?

A Gun in Every Home

Sounds like a brilliant idea.

Glenn Reynolds (the Instapundit) writes about community ordinances encouraging households to keep and own guns currently making inroads in the more right leaning segments of society. As much as it pains us to link to the New York Times, here are a couple of highlights from his article:

• It's a phenomenon that gives the term 'gun control' a whole new meaning: community ordinances that encourage citizens to own guns.
• Last month, Greenleaf, Idaho, adopted Ordinance 208, calling for its citizens to own guns and keep them ready in their homes in case of emergency. It's not a response to high crime rates.
• Greenleaf is following in the footsteps of Kennesaw, Ga., which in 1982 passed a mandatory gun ownership law in response to a handgun ban passed in Morton Grove, Ill. Kennesaw's crime dropped sharply, while Morton Grove's did not.

And if you want to read a couple more well written articles on why responsible gun ownership is a good thing, hop over to Kim du Toit's blog and check out this 2002 post on "Why I Own a Gun." Then start surfing the essays and articles he's written over the years.

We've mentioned Kim's blog more than a few times in passing. Kim grew up in South Africa for 30 years, emigrated to the US, settled in Chicago, left Chicago for Texas in part because of the mayor's gun grabbing ways. If you have any interest in guns, the Second Amendment and very definite opinions on where this country is headed, you're going to enjoy his site.

Obama to Run?

He's just about this close to making it official. And then the real fun begins.

• We don't really care that he admitted trying cocaine in his younger days - who doesn't have some skeleton in his or her closet?
• We don't even want to touch the fact that his middle name is Hussein - we should have moved beyond judging people by the names their parents gave them.

No, the true fun is going to begin when the junior Senator from Illinois attempts to run a national campaign on the basis of two years experience on the world stage. What bills has Obama introduced to the national consciousness? What foreign policy experience does he bring to the table? What does he stand for?

The last question is easily answerable. His record in Washington and Springfield garner almost universal acclaim from the left. Obama is a tired old liberal in a young man's body. He is in for a bruising primary fight as the democratic party attempts to centralize it's message to make it more appealing to the middle. Hillary has been positioning herself as a centrist for 6 years now and Obama is going to drag her to the left as he runs for the fringe elements, which will sour Hillary for middle America. Thanks Barack!

In spite of the fact that Washington is currently going to be in neutral for the next two years, we are looking forward the upcoming political season.

Coverage at the Sun Times, Channel 2 and Channel 7.

Daley Certified - Coronation Imminent

Now that this little circus is over, Daley can get back to planning the 2016 Olympic Games, underfunding everyone's pensions, and denying he knows anything about politics as usual:

• Mayor Richard M. Daley has qualified for the ballot in next month's mayoral election. Rejecting a challenge by a Daley rival, the City Board of Elections said Monday that the mayor had collected valid signatures from at least 12,500 registered voters as required.

Sorry Dorothy and "Dock," better luck next time.

Police Enforcing Immigration Laws?

Say it isn't so?!?

• Some police in the suburbs may soon join the fight against illegal immigration.
• Police in Carpentersville say a federal program could help them get rid of criminals who live there illegally.
  
• The designation would allow the officers to ask people about their immigration status, check their documentation to see if they are in the U.S. legally, and, if they are not, start the deportation process.

Wow. Just imagine the impact a decent sized Department of, oh, let's say 13,000 officers could do if they were allowed to actually, you know, enforce the laws of the country to which their City allegedly belongs to? And the cost savings alone in subsidized health care at a large County Hospital that seems to cater to people from OTHER counties in defiance of all sorts common sense?

Losing His Head?

Obviously, anyone who wanted to see the Saddam execution video has found it somewhere, right?

Now comes word that two more executions have taken place in Iraq, those of the former Chief judge of Saddam's kangaroo courts that sentences thousands, if not tens of thousands to death and Saddam's half brother. Seems there was a little glitch however:

• The official government video of the side-by-side hanging that was shown to a small group of reporters, including one from The Associated Press, showed Ibrahim and al-Bandar wearing red prison jumpsuits. As they reached the gallows, black hoods were put on their heads and five masked men surrounded them.

  The video showed the trap doors opening. Al-Bandar could be seen dangling from the rope, while Ibrahim's body in a blur fell to the floor, chest down, his still-hooded severed head resting several yards away.

Oops. But again, no less than he deserved. Ibrahim ran the secret police and was alleged to have tortured numerous persons to death with his own hands, many of them political prisoners and the like. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

California Police Under Fire

An article pointed out to us by a reader in National Review (one of the finest Conservative publications ever if we do say so ourselves). Jack Dunphy is the name an LAPD Officer uses when he writes for publication - not unlike certain other people we know.

In any case, an excellent article.

Banned Banned Banned

Comments are getting a little out of hand lately. We try to use a very light touch, continuing to publish upwards of 98% of those submitted. We've granted great latitude letting people roam and stray off subject with abandon. But in light of the recent craziness, it's time to yank the leash a bit. SCC has banned the following words from appearing on this blog:

• Sean Flynn;
• anything rhyming with Melvina, Paulina or Lunt when referring to females (corrected at the insistence of numerous readers);
• Scotchbreath;
• certain terms describing certain races or sexual proclivities;
  
• just about anything dealing with 008 and 009 being full of _____ - this includes the "B" team commentary
  
• anything that contradicts the fact that Sieser runs it.

We will also continue our previous bans on "DELETE," the three letter Spanish exclamation, most comments on the Area 2 gun team, and others about Area 1 females. Are we going to catch every single instance of these words being used? Probably not. But unless we see a specific reason to publish any of the above banned words or phrases, we're going to trash a bunch of comments for a week until it calms down a bit. You don't like it, too bad. We checked Blogspot and "008arepussies.blogspot" and "009bteamsux.blogspot" are still available. "Sieser_runs_it.blogspot" is taken however.

We also appreciate our readers defending us regarding a recent comment by a detective from Area 5. Unfortunately, the comments often ran afoul of the bounds of good taste, so we dumped a load of them. That doesn't mean we don't appreciate the thoughts. If he has a beef with us, that's on him and we're always available via e-mail. Let it be.

AMENDMENT TO ABOVE RULES: We'll still publish legit criticism of the "B" Team. We're just going to not publish the general personal attacks of the team (and if they're so good, why are they the "b" team?). As to the charges of censorship, we aren't obliged to publish any comments - but that'd be damn boring. We haven't been leaned on politically or professionally at this point in time and haven't heard from a lawyer since we slapped back at the Midway Sergeant's mouthpiece. Of course, we labeled all their e-mail as "spam" so who knows what's gone in the trash?

Quite a Game

We still think that Seattle made the better half time adjustments. And we stand by our statement that the defense is what carried the day. We'll let everyone else debate the rest of it.

General Disrespect for the Law

As we've noted before, the pervasiveness of the "Nanny State" annoys us to no end. Democrats in general think that they can legislate every aspect of people lives and tell them what is and isn't good for them. The foie gras ban and the current attempts to outlaw smoking and transfats are merely extensions of the drive to force helmet laws onto motorcyclists, firework bans, gun locks, gun bans, etc. We believe that people and the market should (for the most part) determine what is and isn't good for themselves. In this respect, we are decidedly Libertarian (not liberal - Libertarian).

You want to ride a motorcycle without some sort of head protection, your choice - but you ought to be responsible for picking up the raised insurance premiums. You want to own a gun? Have at it. We'll debate the merits of some sort of proficiency exam prior to gun ownership, but if you leave the thing lying around with the safety off, don't be blaming society when someone untrained or deranged gets a hold of it. Keep your hands off our guns - we are responsible for our own houses. And stay the hell out of our kitchens, bedrooms, choices of restaurants, bars and a million other things that are no one's business but our own. If we want to eat crap, gain weight, smoke giant freaking cigars and die by 50, that's our business. And if we want to eat wheat germ, whole fiber, drink organic soy products and dine on the blandest food available in the hopes of cheating death for 8 or 9 decades, that's our business, too.

The trouble with all this nitpicking laws is that they engender a certain disrespect for all laws. Various restaurants are already skirting the foie gras "ban" by holding giveaways or flouting the law entirely, knowing that in the event of a court challenge, they'd win out eventually. The same thing is going to happen with any transfat bans. Passing laws that have no real chance of being enforced with any meaningful actions is just another form of "makey-work" - looking busy when in actuality, nothing is getting done. Nothing of any significance that is - like pension reform. Or Social Security reform. Or ethics reform. Or....?

Da Bears, Da Playoffs

We really aren't that confident in the Bears ability to make it past this game and if they do, we're sure we'll be accused of being bandwagon jumpers or fair weather fans.

We'll just say this - it's either going to be a complete embarrassment or the defense will drag the Bears to victory. The offense just isn't there and if you go back in our archives to the beginning of the season, we always said a great defense and a mediocre offense can get you TO the playoffs - but to win, you need more than half an offense.

Good luck to them.

City and County Follies

Kind of a mini Quick Hits:

• It just keeps getting better for Troutman: The FBI says it found a loaded pistol, ammunition, suspected drugs and drug paraphernalia when it searched Ald. Arenda Troutman's home earlier this week. Agents also found "white powdery substance in a Ziploc plastic bag" when they went through her office. And they recovered a Christmas card with a $100 bill stuffed in it from a Chicago police commander.
• Only in Chicago: Two former alderman convicted on corruption charges in the 1990s will be allowed to remain on the ballot for the February election. Ambrosio Medrano and Virgil Jones were both convicted in one of the most extensive corruption investigations in Chicago history. The Chicago Board of Elections ruled Friday that both men should be allowed to run, even though hearing officers for the board said they should be banned from the ballot because of their criminal history.
• Way to go Toddler!: Poor people who couldn't prove they live in Cook County were denied care at county hospitals and clinics this past week. The move caught many doctors, nurses and longtime patients by surprise, and the backlash prompted Cook County Board President Todd Stroger to suspend the policy -- for now.

Just another typical day in the City of Chicago, County of Crooks.

The Nanny State Continues

Not content with banning foie gras, attempting to ban transfats and generally being busy bodies in everyone's lives, the City Council passed a law some time ago that will ban smoking in all bars and taverns in July of 2008. Not content with this busy-bodiness, a State legislator and member of the Machine is attempting to push for a statewide ban on smoking to take effect in January 2008:

• If a Chicago lawmaker has his way, all Illinois bars will go smoke-free before Chicago's ordinance takes effect.

  State Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago) said Thursday he's going to push for a smoking ban in all Illinois workplaces -- including bars and restaurants -- to begin in January 2008. His bill, if passed, would supersede Chicago's smoking ban, which currently gives bars until July 2008 to go smoke-free.

  "There's simply no reason why, in this year, hospitality workers such as waitresses, servers and bartenders shouldn't have the same health protection that exists in office buildings where most of us work," Cullerton said.

So instead of letting the free market do it's job or maybe even have private enterprise develop a better filter system to clear out the smoky atmosphere in most establishments, Cullerton wants to make it impossible to smoke just about anywhere but on the street or in your home.

Just a few little questions - but where is Cullerton supposing he's going to make up all the tax revenues that are generated by sales of cigarettes and such in bars? Or come up with revenue to enforce this law? The shortsightedness of the nanny state people never ceases to amaze us.

Churches Pick Up the Slack

Thank goodness we have the "god-squad" backing us up:

• The leaders of several churches around the city are offering a plan to reduce homicides in Chicago and they are asking other churches and community organizations to join them. The church leaders are responding to a recent report showing the homicide rate rose in Chicago last year. Their plan includes establishing safe havens, distributing anti-violence flyers and having ministers on call for crisis interventions and conflict resolution.

Because lord knows that the manpower field shortages had nothing to do the rise in homicides. "Putting officers on the dots" sure sounds like a strategy, until you realize you've been in backlog for 13 hours straight and all the officers are on dots that have nothing to do with stopping gangs or guns.

When Does it End?

Three more stripped at SOS. More indictments on the horizon? When the hell is this going to run it's course?

There's Still Fentanyl Out There?

Back on 25 September 06, we wrote about the Fentanyl Task Force being disbanded. This was especially entertaining in that on the very day they disbanded, 011 had eight overdoses. The end result was only one dead and it was speculated at the time that the dealers must have finally gotten the mix right.

We followed up on 26 September with a rip job on Media Affairs for speculating aloud that Fentanyl had nothing to do with the multiple overdoses. As we heard it, Media Affairs had to eat those statements. Oops.

Now, once again, Fentanyl laced heroin is making the rounds on the West Side:

• Following a big heroin bust on the West Side Chicago police said Friday they have shut down an open-air drug market after a four month investigation. CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports the sellers were dealing an especially deadly heroin linked to dozens of overdoses. Most of the product was fentanyl-laced heroin. The make-shift store was a gangway between two vacant houses near Ohio and Avers.

Still out there. Still a waste of time. Let the junkies die and we'll end the drug trade - or at least make it more than a little better managed.

Saddam's Execution

(Note: Hopefully this picture works - we've never tried linking moving pictures before. It seems to have worked in Firefox on our testing post site and at least one Internet Explorer computer - let the photo load up properly)

This photo from the execution chamber:

Daley off the Ballot?

Don't bet the mortgage payment on it. This is still C(r)ook County, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Daley Machine. Still, it's amusing to see the media in a panic:

• Elections officials will review about 19,000 signatures on nominating petitions filed by Mayor Richard M. Daley to get on the ballot for next month's election. Supporters of one of Daley's challengers have questioned the validity of the signatures to try to knock Daley out of the Feb. 27 election.
• Daley's campaign submitted nearly 28,900 signatures. Of those, 9,000 signatures were not objected to, which means Daley needs about 3,500 more signatures to pass muster to make it onto the ballot.

Entertaining, yes. Reason to celebrate? Not a chance. Or at least, not yet.

Welcome Foreign Guests!

Once again, we get visitors from the oddest places. Going over our stats during the 11pm hour, we have a visitor from Hanoi, Vietnam and another from Hsinkuan, Taiwan. How the heck we get visitors from the Orient, we have no idea. It could be vacationing coppers, it might be the odd referral from another foreign site, we really don't know. But somehow, some way, our eventual plan for world domination is taking root in Asia.

New Slogan - SCC is proud to be your Asian connection!

US Marshall Accused

Somewhere, Sam Gerard is cringing:

• A deputy U.S. marshal was taken into custody today for allegedly leaking "highly sensitive, confidential information" to organized crime figures about a key witness in the FBI's investigation of more than a dozen unsolved Chicago mob killings.
  
  John Thomas Ambrose, 38, was charged in a criminal complaint with revealing information related to "the status, substance of cooperation and travel" of Nicholas Calabrese, a defendant and key witness in the FBI's Operation Family Secrets investigation, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office. Ambrose made the alleged leak while Calabrese was in the federal witness protection program, the release said.

It'll be interesting to see if the Feds, so often willing to drop cases against dope dealers and gang bangers if they can even get a sniff of a cop, are going to go full bore on one of their own. This goof could have thrown a huge wrench into the "Family Secrets" trials scheduled for this summer. Tribune and Channel 2 coverage here.

Troutman to Run Anyway

Why let a little thing like a Federal indictment stop you from running for office?

• The Chicago alderman facing bribery charges says she is still running for re-election next month. Federal prosecutors accuse Arenda Troutman of accepting $5,000 from a fictitious developer for help with a building project.

Troutman's lawyer also accused the feebs:

• Noting that the government has refused to release secretly recorded tapes, Adam said, "You can tell by looking at the [FBI] affidavit itself - it's cut, paste, cut, paste."

We heard that the FBI is using the same indictment formset on Troutman that they have used for the last 25 aldermanic indictments. They just keep erasing the name at the top and changing the court filing numbers. Everything else? Word for word match.

Aldercreatures Offended

The crop of articles in the Sun Times today regarding the recent aldermanic indictment are just to numerous to pass up. First, you have the charges detailed in this article:

• She allegedly directed $15,000 in illegal payoffs to the 20th Ward Women's Auxiliary. State records show the group was run by her mother and siblings.

Now if the Feds would just look into a bunch more aldercreatures who employ various cousins, siblings and parents in all sorts of off-shoot businesses, we might see the start of some real reform.

Next, an out and out denial by Troutman that she ever called aldercreatures "Ho's." She claims she just repeated the statement.

Then, Troutman's constituents bad mouthing her about never being around unless it's an election year:

• "She should've known. She shouldn't even spit on the floor. The feds were waiting for her to do anything. She fell for it. Sucker." Many neighborhood folks called Troutman "greedy" and said she's nearly invisible around the ward except during election time.

And finally, other aldercreatures expressing amazement and consternation that any voter could have a low opinion of them:

• "Am I offended by it? Yes. That kind of language is the lowest street kind of talk that you can find, and it's not appropos for an elected official -- a statesperson -- to be talking like that," said Ald. Danny Solis (25th), the City Council's president pro tem.
• License Committee chairman Eugene Schulter (47th) said Troutman "has no clue" and owes all of her colleagues an apology. "I'm offended at her treating us all with that kind of statement. It's outrageous. . . . It might be fitting for her and what she does, but it's certainly not fitting for what we do," scolder said. "We are honest people. Every so often you have a bad apple . . . I'm really glad the U attorney did what he did here."

As one of our more quick witted commentators said, at least you get something in return from a whore. All we get from these elected leeches is more pocket picking, nit picking, nanny state regulation on food, smoking and entertainment. They attend one meeting a month, sit in a ward office for maybe one day a week and run law offices and insurance brokerages the rest of the time. For $100,000 a year plus expenses? Whore is a generous description at best.

Rumors Abound!

Just reading the various comments sections, there are a bunch of rumors that need to be aired out and have their own posts. Some of these are really fun to see:

• Callback, 3-1-1, Alternate Response, or whatever name they are going by this year is going to be purged of long term medical cases (heart, kidney, pregnancy, etc) who will then be assigned by some unknown process to the District desks or Admin offices, thereby freeing up able bodied coppers for the street. We've heard this one before on an almost annual basis. Expect union problems for the Desk bid spots among other things.
• 008th District purge. After the recent incident, rumors abound of some changes by sometime Friday. This is about the softest of rumors and always seems to pop up after an "incident." But then we remember the Matthews incident in 019 and the demotion that followed. Who knows what could happen?
• 021 to close and 008 being split into two districts - one of which will be the new and improved 021. Of course, any change like this is at least 2 years away since they'll need to build a new station at some point.
• Sergeant results to be mailed out as soon as Friday or Tuesday. Again, a regular rumor but getting louder again. Who knows anything?
  

Olympics LOSE Money, Remember?

As we've stated in previous posts, no modern Olympics (in the last 30 years or so) has turned a profit aside from the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Montreal just paid off the last of it's 1976 debt in 2006 - that's how bad it gets. Now there's a story about how Chicago is setting up a number of events in an attempt to lure the 2016 Games to town:

• The United States wrestling team will square off against the defending world champions of Russia for the "Chicago Cup" next month in the first of, what officials hope will be many amateur Olympic-style events here tailor-made to boost the city's 2016 bid.
• The goal is to prove that Chicago is capable of hosting Olympic-style events rarely held here and to cultivate the local athletes who may someday compete in their hometown Olympics.

This is a disaster of immense proportions just waiting to happen. Don't believe us? How about today's headline in the Tribune (user name "garbagegoeshere@gmail.com" password "123456":

• Chicago wants to use ticket taxes for O'Hare expansion
• The city of Chicago plans to seek federal approval to use $270 million in passenger ticket taxes to cover the growing costs of expanding O'Hare International Airport.
• The $270 million would represent almost two years' worth of O'Hare ticket tax collections.
• It would pay for suburban land acquisition and building demolition needed for new runways as part of a larger $15 billion O'Hare expansion project that already is $400 million over budget

Phase One of the $15 billion project was projected to cost just under $2 billion. And they are already $400 million OVER budget. Even the simplest math shows that at this rate the City will be almost $3 billion IN THE RED by the time this project is over, and we don't doubt it will be double that. And where pray tell does that extra $3 billion come from?

Can you imagine what an Olympics is going to cost in this burg? It boggles the mind.

More Federal Money

Didn't we just say what the plan was going to be?

• It involves getting every bit of Federal money that the City can lay it's hands on,
  
• spending it on toys and nonsense and a few well paid positions for connected folks with the right last names,
• then hoping against hope that the Feds will intercept any real terrorists long before they manage to transport a device into the Midwest.

And now, less than 24 hours later, the Federal government comes up with 12 million dollars to lavish on the city:

• Chicago is one of eight cities that will receive funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for transit security, the federal agency announced Tuesday.

  According to a release from the department, Chicago was in line to receive $12.8 million in transit security funding in 2007. "Grant funding priorities include securing underground and underwater systems, reducing the risks of improvised explosive devices and radiological, chemical and biological weapons, as well as training, exercises and public awareness campaigns," the release said.

Hopefully this is just seed money by which the Feds will indict at least 10 more aldercreatures by some point in the coming year.

The Truth Hurts

You'd think aldercreatures had thicker skin:

• Ald. Arenda Troutman's alleged comparison of Chicago aldermen and other politicians to common hookers drew responses Tuesday ranging from a chilly "no comment" to outrage from her City Council colleagues.
• "Most aldermen, most politicians are hos," she allegedly declared, using the common street term for a streetwalker

Actually, Troutman has it right - aldercreatures are nothing more and nothing less than whores (or "ho's"] for political action money or in kind contributions - except that we respect and appreciate the whores a bit more than we do aldercreatures.

The Steroid Era

The first referenda on the Steroid Era in baseball:

• Mark McGwire's Hall of Fame bid was met with a rejection as emphatic as his upper-deck home runs. While the door to Cooperstown swung open for Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn on Tuesday, McGwire was picked by less than a quarter of voters -- a result that raises doubts about whether Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa or other sluggers from baseball's Steroids Era will ever gain entry.

Should there be any justice in the game, these charlatans will never receive entry into the Hall of Fame. As much as the constant labor struggles turned of a huge segment of the population off of the game of baseball, the blatant cheating of the late 80's and 1990's did more to sour us on the game than anything else did.

Blogger Maintenance

Blogger was supposed to be down from 0945 until 1145 this morning for routine maintenance. Unfortunately, the server that contains this particular blog was down for an extra 3 hours, resulting in people being unable to see anything or post comments. It's back up now though, so the circus continues.

Open post in the meantime.

Trotter Backpedals

We publish a couple of opinion pieces the other day (Worrying Finding and Worrying Finding - Part 2) merely pointing out a few things. Then Monday morning, this Fran Spielman article:

• Is Chicago truly prepared for a natural disaster or terrorist attack -- a question central to Mayor Daley's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games?

  You can't help but wonder after Chief Emergency Officer Cortez Trotter's defensive response to last week's federal report suggesting that first responders in Chicago and Cook County are ill-prepared to communicate when the Big One hits.

  Now Trotter is openly saying there's a lot more Chicago can do to prepare for an event that would even remotely resemble the Sept. 11, 2001, attack that killed nearly 2,800 at New York's World Trade Center.

Wow. Check out those skidmarks Trotter left backing off of last week's outright denials that the city wasn't near the bottom of the disaster preparedness scale. And even more helpful, the Sun Times publishes a handy little guide for terrorists showing landmarks, water pumping stations, filtration plants, etc.

Let's put this very simply for everyone - there is no plan. Actually, there is a small plan.

• It involves getting every bit of Federal money that the City can lay it's hands on,
  
• spending it on toys and nonsense and a few well paid positions for connected folks with the right last names,
• then hoping against hope that the Feds will intercept any real terrorists long before they manage to transport a device into the Midwest.

That's it in a nutshell. Everything else is just window dressing for the media and people who think that the government ought to be doing something. We don't even have to repeat the Chief of Staff's contention that it doesn't make sense to train up every single copper. It's obvious from Trotter's backtracking that someone is asking pointed questions that city adminstrators can't answer, so they're backing off previous statements.