Look! Good News!

And the lame-stream media continues it's dance. Courtesy of Ace of Spades:

• Wednesday, after the Democrats took the House, and stocks climbed slightly (as they've been doing for months), MSNBC headlined something like:

  Stocks Climb To All-Time High After Democratic Victory

  Today, after Democrats took the Senate, and stocks fell by 75 points:

  Stocks pull back as investors grab profits

  Hmmm... I don't seem to notice MSNBC is in as much of a hurry to link the DOW to the Democrats when it falls.

And then this little tidbit:

• A survey among Afghans finds they're mostly pleased with democracy and satisfied with the progress they're making. Here's the thing: this survey was completed over the summer.

  Instapundit's in on the nasty joke that is the MSM by noting the media seems to be really pushing this absurd "Suddenly It's Peace and Prosperity Everywhere" thing. And, gee whiz, now they tell us that "insurgents" have killed 150,000 Iraqis.

Where was all this "good news" prior to the election? The "unbiased" media couldn't possibly have been sitting on it, could they?

Jackson Jr. Smells Opportunity

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"
-Bob Dylan (and various hippies before being beaten in 1968)

Jesse Jr. knows opportunity when he sees it. And a new democratic majority offers new and exciting possibilities for himself. So new and exciting that he is announcing he will be dropping out of even considering a run at the mayor.

So all that's left is Luis Gutierrez and his "consideration" of a run. We're sure the odds have shortened a bit on his even attempting a run now. Dorothy Brown is already in place to draw minority votes away from any other challengers and she is filling that role admirably. We don't think we've seen coverage of a single press conference, news release or policy position since she announced for the spot over a month ago. Almost like she's a non-entity, isn't it?

UPDATE: Luis smells opportunity, too. And the road is clear for the mayor to screw with us for another 4 years.

Storm the Castle!

Or at least run over to the County Building and look like a bunch of knuckleheads. Why didn't anyone bring the torches? If you burn down a building or two and barbecue the hiring records, people might sit up and take notice.

Channel 2 and Channel 7 coverage of the idiocy.

Tony? Better luck next time.

Cook County voters? Congrats. You'll find the property tax increases in the mail come springtime. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Losing with Grace

From Bill Whittle at EjectEjectEject.com:

• We have to accept the fact that the conservatives we sent to Congress in 1994 became the bloated, earmarking, tone-deaf toads of 2006. They thought they could do whatever they wanted, regardless of what their constituents think, and now they have been reminded of just who is working for whom. Remedying that sense of isolation and disconnect and unchecked power is why we have elections in the first place, and as to the consequences of it, we have no one to blame but ourselves. That imperial attitude is not unique to Republicans or Democrats. That is human nature, and correcting the excesses of human nature only becomes more costly and painful the longer it is allowed to go on. Democracy is error-correcting. Ask John Kerry.

  I voted straight down the Republican ticket tonight. I am not happy about this, but I'm determined to take it like a man and use this occasion to let the opposition see what it looks like to lose with honor and grace. That they have needed a lesson in this goes without saying, and a lot of us mean to see that they will need additional instruction along these very lines in the near future. But right now that is bluster; a check folded and stuffed in a shirt pocket for cashing at our leisure. This is their night.

  The Congress that the Republicans lost they lost because they abandoned the ideals that elected them in the first place. We must learn from our mistakes. We will have two years to do so.
  

So we shall do as we always have and what Bill Whittle has advised - suck it up, move on, prepare for the next election. Republicans abandoned their principles and paid for it. Expect a lot of gridlock in the coming months. Maybe even (gasp!) a veto or twenty from a republican president who did nothing to stop the growth of big government.

Can Anyone Confirm this Fax?

• TO: Units at Headquarters
• FROM: Dana V. Starks
• In a message dated 03 NOV 06: Unit Commanding Officers will ensure that all members below the rank of Lieutenant, assigned to Headquarters on the 2nd and 3rd watches attend a mandatory training session on Reverse Stings.
• Members will attend one of the following sessions in the multi-purpose room....
• This “Training Session” consisted of a (less than) ten minute video (copyright CPD 2001) and an Lt. from 011 telling everyone to wear comfortable street clothes when they come out to be the “support units” for the district tactical teams performing these “Reverse Drug Stings”.

Can anyone verify this? We're all for more bodies on the streets. Closed Market sitting on a street corner is one thing, but pulling people out of HQ and throwing them into an environment like the 011th District on reverse stings of all things, is dangerous not only for themselves, but could possibly endanger a whole bunch of Tactical people. What the hell is "support units"?

Someone tell us this is a joke. Please.

A Waste of Ballot Space

Did everyone see and vote on the non-binding resolutions at the back of the ballots?

The first one read "For the sake of the children..." should Illinois ban .50 caliber weapons? We'd like to present a list of all the children killed in Illinois by .50 caliber weapons: [ ]

Now we'd like to present a list of all the adults killed by .50 caliber weapons in the state of Illinois in the past 100 years: [ ]

And just to give everyone a sense of proportion, he's a list of every single United States citizen killed by a .50 caliber round upon US soil: [ ]

If this ballot "initiative" doesn't prove that Representative and Chicago cop Edward Acevedo is nothing but an empty suit seeking headlines and antigun credentials, we don't know what is. Hey Eddie? Legal firearms don't kill people. Look it up.

The other two initiatives:

• Raise the minimum wage in Illinois a buck an hour. After the recent Tribune article about State pension funds being underfunded to the tune of 46 BILLION dollars, the last thing anyone should want to do is RAISE the cost of doing business in the state. But of course, economic realities have never stood in the way of the Illinois combine pandering to the lowest common denominator.
• Withdraw from Iraq - who the hell sponsored this one? The states aren't allowed to make foreign policy for a reason.

How about we have a couple referendums about pension funding? Low bid contracting? Having the wife of the governor rack up a cool hundred grand for selling 4 houses during the course of the year, one or more to close political allies who landed jobs for relatives shortly thereafter?

You know, something that might make a difference?

Long Night Ahead

Looks like the dems will be taking control of the House. The only question is how big will the margin be. It will also be interesting to see how beholden the dems are to the left wing nutjobs. The Democratic Underground and Kos are already calling for impeachment hearings, raising taxes, cutting off troop funding, raising the minimum wage - in short, wrecking the economy and surrendering in the war on terror. Watch for republican obstructionism to start in earnest and dems to scream about the tactics they've been using for 6 years being used against them.

Like we predicted - gridlock.

We still don't see the Senate falling at this point. We'll have to see where it goes tomorrow. We predict more than a few lawsuits on both sides.

Vote, Damnit

If you don't vote, you really don't have a right to bitch. It's as simple as that. We don't want illegals and foreigners telling us how to run our country because they don't vote and aren't subject to our laws. Why would anyone who doesn't even bother to vote expect to have a voice?

We've been asked to provide a list of SCC endorsements for office by more than a few people via e-mail and the comments sections. We're flattered, but we don't really see that as our purpose here. All we can offer is the following advice:

• Vote for the person running against the incumbent in all cases. Today's political order is so fossilized, calcified, impervious to change and new blood, that only wholesale change at the State and County levels will provide any sort of message to the knuckleheads running things. This means vote against Blago, against Stroger, against a lot of established Machine candidates - even if the replacement isn't the best by any stretch of the imagination.
• We've heard of a number of judges that ought to be voted out - Sheehan and Brooks being the two big ones. We've also read of a couple that ought to be retained, but those are few and far between. We plan to vote "NO" on every single judge no matter what. Our choice, our recommendation. Again, anything that challenges the political order can't be bad and judges are where a "NO" vote can have the most impact. A "NO" vote actually forces them to garner something like 3 more additional "YES" votes to offset your voice. If you undervote (decline to make a choice) you actually help judges who shouldn't be retained.
• Vote. Participate. Get involved.
  

Nationally, we aren't expecting a bloodbath. Should the dems actually pull off victory in both houses, expect to see republican obstructionism along the lines of what the dems have been doing for the last couple of years - nothing will get done in Washington, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. We plan on staying up kind of late anyway just to see where it's headed.

Hi Frank Main!

Evidently, Frank is reading this site or we are channeling Frank. One or the other. From Monday's Sun Times:

• More than 130 Chicago Police cars have been equipped with global positioning systems to allow supervisors to keep tabs on where the cars go and how fast they travel, officials say.

  The GPS devices were recently placed on vehicles in the citywide Special Operations Section, which suffered a black eye in September when four officers in the unit were charged with invading homes and robbing people.

• "Absolutely, this could be a disciplinary tool," Risley said. "Is that a reason why we're buying them? Absolutely not."

  The primary reason for the devices is to ensure officers' safety when they are on patrol, Risley said.

  "If an officer is lost or injured, we can find them," he said.
  

Hahahahahaha. "could be used"? How about WILL be used. The jury is still out in our opinion - we are reading the previous comment sections with great interest. Is GPS a good thing? Well, it's definitely bad news for the dogs, the people who lay down on jobs, the people who never show up at jobs and those who try to put one over on the system. By the same token, being attached to an electronic tether will diminish a lot of the luster that makes certain units attractive and it only takes one incident of it being used punitively to further dampen already low morale.

We suppose it'll depend on how it's used. We've been called "pessimists" by certain people, but we've never been disappointed having low expectations of this Department and our political masters.

That Didn't Take Long

Barack Obama effectively removed himself from consideration for the Presidency this weekend by admitting that his business dealings with indicted Blago insider Tony Rezko were on the shady side:

• Senator Barack Obama campaigned for the democratic candidates Monday. The party hopes his star power will give them a boost but the senator drew most of the attention. He apologized for his business dealings with indicted political insider Tony Rezko.
• Senator Obama is trying to minimize the political damage from a business deal with Rezko -- who has pleaded not guilty to charges he received kickbacks from investment firms seeking state business. Obama bought a piece of property from Rezko last year.
  

There isn't a chance in hell this would escape national media scrutiny, especially in light of Senate minority leader Harry Reid's recent real estate troubles. This would be a millstone around Obama's run and pose a boatload of uncomfortable questions in Illinois' "pay-to-play" political system.

Obama's 15 minutes came and went in the span of about 10 days. And Hillary solidifies her position as the Democratic nominee in '08.

New Blood?

Missed this one on Sunday - From Channel 7:

• More than three-thousand applicants are taking the Chicago police exam today. Applicants at four City of Chicago colleges are taking the test during morning and afternoon sessions. It's the last time the test is being offered this year.

  The Chicago Police Department initiated an unprecedented outreach campaign in hopes of receiving more minority applicants.

  Chicago Police Superintendent Phil Cline says the minority-recruitment effort is necessary because it's vital the department reflect the city's residents.

3,000? Remember the days of 35,000?

GPS - Sound Off

We noticed in a comments section a week or two ago that someone posted a story that told the tale of a couple of cops from SOS who were tracked by GPS going somewhere they weren't supposed to be going. Their sergeant called them on it and these softballs lied, claiming that they were on their way to their mission instead of on the way to who knows where. We don't know if they were on this transfer order, but we wouldn't be surprised. We did a little inquiring around and heard that every vehicle in SOS is now trackable by a GPS system. Big brother is here and operational.

We can see that this is going to change police work as we have known it and experienced it. We'd speculate that there won't be any more laying down on jobs - if you leave a job, there better be a code issued. Same thing with traffic stops taking a little longer than usual so as to get a little "travel time" to lunch locations. We don't even want to think of all the holes that midnight cars could disappear into that are about to be general knowledge. And should they GPS everything that's out there, the closest car is going to get dinged every time something pops up on the OEC geo-mapping systems rather than whoever is up getting the jobs. Lord knows what this is going to do to plainclothes units or specialized ones. Anyone care to speculate?

Worst Places to Work

So we were looking over the transfer order today. And we were wondering what must be the worst place to work. We gleaned a bit of info just by scanning that fax message:

• Seven officers left SOS on this order. No word on how many were dumps or how many were people who just had enough of the BS that is still brewing over there. But that isn't the most interesting movement in the Department
• Last month, there were three openings for Sergeant in the 005th District and ten openings for PO bids. According to what we heard and read, no one bid for any of the openings. Not only did no one bid, but three more Sergeants left the district.

Is anyone downtown paying any attention to the fact that everyone with any time on the job or any pull to speak of is leaving 005 as fast or faster than rats deserting a sinking ship? We did see one person headed into 005 as a management pick, but as they came from O'Hare, we figure they must be following the Lieutenant that the new commander brought along. We mean, what other reason could there be to leave O'Hare for 005? It can't be the commute.

So...

Is Miami always going to be the stumbling block to a perfect season? As far as the Bears are concerned, it'd seem that way. Everyone else is going to be looking at these films and seeing how well Miami executed everything. Grossman had nothing short all day long and that's where everyone else is going to be looking to kill the Bears.

Bizarre Story

From the Sun Times:

• A detective suspended after testing positive for drugs says his wife served him meatballs spiked with marijuana because she wanted to keep him out of harm's way by forcing him to retire.

  An administrative judge believed him, and recommended earlier this week that Nicholas Chiofalo be reinstated. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has yet to decide what to do.

And supposedly, the wife is admitting that she did exactly as she was accused of doing. NYPD Rant has at least one thread up on this whole incident.

Let Him Die Already

If he wants to be dead this badly, let him die:

• A top Chicago gangster linked to a bloody gang war is near death after he stabbed himself 20 to 30 times just as police were about to arrest him this week, authorities said.

  Cook County prosecutors said Friday that Lamell "Slim" Burns -- a reputed leader in the New Breed gang -- remains in critical condition at Stroger Hospital.
  

If only we could convince hundreds of other gangbangers to kill themselves once the gig is up and they're looking at multiple years downstate. It would certainly save the taxpayers a pile of money. Perhaps we could even sponsor some additional attempts?

Economy Keeps on Rolling

From ABC News:

• The unemployment rate dropped to a five-year low of 4.4 percent in October as employers added 92,000 new jobs flashing a picture of a strong labor market as the midterm elections draw near.

  The latest report, released Friday by the Labor Department, showed that the civilian unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage point from 4.6 percent in September. It marked the third month in a row that the politically prominent jobless rate declined.
  

Five. Year. Low. Five years ago it was October 2001. Mere weeks after the largest and most successful terrorist attack to hit this country. Unimaginable horror. Stock market tanks. Airlines in bankruptcy. Layoffs everywhere.

What a difference a half a decade makes.

Ted Kennedy Strangles John Kerry!

Hillary Clinton Caught Leaving Crime Scene!

At least that's what we suppose the headlines are going to read shortly. Remember John Kerry's botched joke denigrating either (A) service members in Iraq as uneducated buffoons and tools of a corrupt Administration or (B) the President in wartime (even though it's been proved Bush had better grades than Kerry did)?

Kerry was browbeaten by his own party, INCLUDING Hillary Clinton, to apologize for his comments as ill thought out, poorly delivered, and badly timed. His appearances nationwide have been cancelled and prominent dems across the country are hastily distancing themselves from him lest the damage rub off on them.

Now Kerry's website links to an editorial by the Seattle Post Intelligencer that states:

• Was Kerry making fun of the president, or warning students against the pitfalls awaiting the undereducated in general?

  It doesn't matter. Kerry was right either way.[emphasis added - SCC]

Did you get that? It doesn't matter what Kerry meant, because no matter what, he was right! And JohnKerry.com links to it, effectively undermining what was already a half-assed apology!

It's so... so... Rovian.

More coverage at Ace of Spades, Hot Air, DanRheil, and Confederate Yankee.

Homage? Or Stalker?

OK. Now this is just spooky. And humbling.

We're all about the inspiration we guess.

An Asshat Speaks

From the Comments Section of Problem #8

• Anonymous said...Hey SCC, go back to working on the sheets! How often does something like this happen? How about this was the first time. And the SWAT team handled it. We don't need machine guns in beat cars. Gun nut. 11/02/2006 11:30:49 PM

OK asshole, how about these?

• 010th District 1997 or 98, PO pulls up on the scene of "shots fired" at Cermak and Avers and takes an AK round through the hand.
  
• 011th District Rockwell Gardens late 1990's, plainclothes officer takes a rifle round in his forearm. The only thing that saved him losing the arm is the bullet shattered on the chain link fence surrounding the project breezeways.
• 010th District again, early 2000's. Sergeant riding near Rockwell and 22 Place take a rifle round thru the forearm just driving around. The Sergeant lost so much meat on his arm, he never returned to the job.
• Or certain New Years Eve's in the 002, 007, 018, etc. where rifle fire from the projects actually drove police from the scenes for hours.
  

And that's just off the top of our head where a rifle was used against the police. How about scenes where a rifle or a shotgun would have made a difference?

• 009th District workplace shooting. HBT didn't arrive for 20 minutes
• Donny Marquez shooting. 025 and SOS had to run into the line of fire with nothing but pistols just to drag Donny's body out.
• The dead guys from Kedzie and Augusta did a drive by in 010 this summer, killing one and wounding 3 others - can you imagine if a one man day beat car happened to be around the corner instead of 3 blocks away?
  

So as you see asshole, heavy weapons immediately available can make a huge difference on certain scenes. And it's also not "the first time" as you so blithely put it. If you worked anywhere busy, you know it happens all the time, just not always against the police. If you've ever gone to the ER and sat in with a jagoff that just got gutted by rifle fire while the docs and nurses tried to stabilize them enough for surgery, you know it happens almost weekly.

It's obvious to us that even though we are a few years short of KMA, we definitely have more time in the can and more time sleeping in a squad than you have in your piddling little career. Go away troll.