Why Fly at All?

And we thought airport security was a bad time:

• NASA postponed the return of Atlantis for at least a day and examined the shuttle for damage that could prevent it from making the journey home after a mysterious object apparently fell off the ship in orbit Tuesday.

  Space agency officials wanted extra time to establish whether the object was a vital piece of the shuttle - such as the tiles that protect it from the blowtorch heat of re-entry - and whether it harmed the spacecraft when it fell away.

  Officials were not optimistic they would be able to identify the object, since the possibilities were almost endless, ranging from harmless ice to crucial thermal protection tiles. But the leading candidate was a plastic space-filler placed between the thermal tiles.

Didn't we just lose a shuttle over crap like this? How long until someone wises up and figures out a better system than "tiles" that have about a million extraneous parts that might fall off and result in the deaths of numerous people? Can't we invent something just a wee little bit safer?

Non Lethal?

How about "less than lethal"? At least, that's the way it was always described to us by a couple of sticklers for details.

From Channel 7:

• A northwest suburban man is in critical condition after being shot by police with a beanbag weapon. Authorities in McHenry County say the man was shot after he charged at officers with a knife. Relatives of the man claim excessive force was used.
• This is the first time the sheriff's deputies have used a bean bag shotgun. It is a regular shotgun that is armed with small bean bags instead of shells. It is supposed to be a non-lethal option. But a man is fighting for his life and his friends and family are demanding answers.

Hey?! Nimrods? HE CHARGED OFFICERS WITH A KNIFE. If we were the on-scene supervisors, we'd be asking why backup didn't kill this dumbass prior to the "beanbag" shotgun operator having to blast him close enough that there's actually a chance the attacker could die. This dumbfuck should have had half a dozen holes in him from 9 millimeters and .45 caliber rounds long before the blunt trauma he's currently suffering. What the hell was backup waiting for? Or was there even backup on scene? In any case, screw these gold diggers. You bring a knife to a gun fight AND you manage to swing it at other people, especially police officers, you need to be killed, plain and simple. Thank goodness no officers were injured.

UPDATE: 21 September 2006 - knucklehead dies.

Police Memorial Dedicated

Finally, at long last, a fitting tribute to the fallen officers of this city.

Coverage at Channel 7 and the Tribune (registration may be required).

Anyone with first hand reports of the event can post here. Anyone who has a couple of decent pictures of the event are welcome to submit them to our e-mail address.

UPDATE:

Rumors Abound!

The buzz is official. Numerous persons have received phone calls informing them that a new Sergeant's class will be starting shortly, possibly as soon as next week with an announcement before Wednesday. No word on how big the class might be and whether or not they will be receiving the full 3 months worth of Detective familiarization. We imagine it would make some sense to the bean counters to hold off promoting them until after the New Year. Rumors can be posted here.

Expect a small class of Lieutenants immediately before or after part 2 of the new Lieutenants Exam. We imagine that class will depend on the number of retirements scheduled for the end of the year.

Aaargh Mateys!

Talk like a Pirate Day is upon us.

• The original website can be located here.
• An additional website is here.
  

Feel free to spend your day keelhauling socialists, making liberals walk the plank and looting and/or pillaging across the bounding main. Aarrrgh, me hearties.

In the meantime, we shall be sharpening our hook.

Gutierrez is the Challenger

As we observe the political scene, it becomes more and more our opinion that Gutierrez is positioning himself to be the main rival to the current mayor and the Dorothy Brown candidacy is nothing but a farce to draw crucial minority votes away from Gutierrez. You have articles like this... :

• Rep. Luis Gutierrez is blasting Mayor Daley for vetoing the big-box minimum wage ordinance -- and for framing the debate in racial terms in a divided city once known as "Beirut on the Lake."

  A potential mayoral challenger, Gutierrez said he would have signed the ordinance mandating Wal-Mart and 42 other retailers to pay their employees at least $13 an hour in wages and benefits by 2010.

... which show Gutierrez is bringing up issues that have the potential to embarrass the mayor or making the mayor answer uncomfortable questions, while Dorothy Brown refuses to take a stand on anything and won't even take the mayor to task over issues that will generate headlines and boost her name recognition. Even John Kass notes that Daley has begun sounding like a preacher and a politician at the same time, deftly framing the big box debate in terms of jobs for neglected minority neighborhoods.

Brown is a plant. Potted plant or Machine plant, she brings nothing to the campaign. And what Gutierrez brings isn't going to sell most places. Still, the Sun Times speculates that the mayor may be facing his first ever runoff. We shall see.

Giving it Away

Man, the Sox just keep making it harder on themselves. No joy in Mudville this weekend.

Who's Paying for This?

Oh yeah, we are.

• A published report said the final tab for the Dan Ryan Expressway reconstruction project could exceed $1 billion, almost twice the original estimate.The Chicago Tribune said rising costs for labor and materials are being blamed for the higher price tag.

Channel 5 and Channel 7 cover this atrocity. TWICE the original estimate? We really need to bring back horsewhippings. Big time.

Lieutenant's Test

So how did that work out for everybody? Any glitches? And insight? Is everyone going to pass like last time?

Bears Game

After the silliness spouted by a certain Lions player this week combined with Detroit's only gaining something like 38 yards on the ground last week, does anyone really want to bet that Detroit will even get a sniff of the end zone today?

We aren't really betting persons (disclaimer - we're lying through our teeth here) and even we wouldn't put any money against the Bears being able to pulling off back-to-back shutouts.

Update after the game.

UPDATE: Well, except for one 3rd quarter drive, we looked like Carnac the Magnificent there. Unfortunately, this game also exposed a glaring flaw in the Bears offense - 89 total yards rushing. If opposing teams can shut down the passing game, where are the Bears going to grind it out? Don't get us wrong, the passing game looked very good today and we thought that was going to be the big question mark all season. But a well rounded offense is what's needed to get past Game 1 of the playoffs.

Thanks for Proving his Point

Muslims are upset at the Pope for saying that some of the tenets of their faith espoused by extremists are ... well, we'll let you read it:

• In his speech, Benedict cited an obscure Medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."

Predictably, the followers of the "religion of pieces" howled in outrage:


Protests world wide ... and of course, the exact actions that the Pope was speaking against:

• Two churches in the West Bank were hit by firebombs Saturday, and a group claiming responsibility said it was protesting Benedict's words.

Wake up people! islam does not mean "peace" as so many apologists on the left of the political spectrum here and the entire continent of Europe want us to believe. islam means "submission," plain and simple. Don't believe us? How about this statement from "the muslim brotherhood:"

• "We want a personal apology (from the Pope). We feel that he has committed a grave error against us and that this mistake will only be removed through a personal apology," Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Leader Mohammed Habib told Reuters.

They want the Pope to abase himself and submit to the will of the mob. And the sad thing is they'll probably get it and hold it forth as yet another proof of islamic superiority over classical Western thought and civilization. These backassward goat farmers who can't even raise enough food to feed their own people are on the verge of taking the world back into a Dark Ages not seen in centuries.

UPDATE: Chalk up another "victory" for the nut jobs - Pope apologizes just like we suspected. Europe is so doomed.

UPDATE II: And it just keeps getting worse - now the islamists have shot and killed a nun in Somalia. A nun who was the village nurse, who probably never met the Pope and who dedicated her life to helping the poor and downtrodden of an islamic state:

• Sister Leonella, 65, was shot in the back four times by pistol-wielding attackers as she left the Austrian-run S.O.S. hospital at lunch time after finishing nursing school for trainee medics. Her bodyguard was also slain.

Us or them. That's what it's coming down to.

Another Victim Fights Back

Dumb criminals again:

• CHICAGO Two robbery victims turned the tables on their attackers early Saturday when they shot one with his own gun, killing him, and subdued another until police arrived.
• Instead of complying with their demands, one of the victims fought back and began to struggle with the alleged robber’s gun, she said. The gun went off, wounding the attacker, Jon Diego Sylvester, 31, of unidentified home address, who then walked over to a waiting car, Schuler said.

And he then died of his wounds. Too funny.

RIP Oriana Fallaci

"Who?" "What the hell are you talking about SCC?" "Why should we even care?"

Yes, this is a police blog, first and foremost. Yes, we cover local political issues more often than not. But when we started this thing, one of our promotions was titled "A Healthy Interest in the World at Large." This falls under "world at large," so bear with us. We thought Rue St. Michel would cover this, and he still might. In the meantime, here's our take.

Oriana Fallaci was a Leftist we could respect, unlike so many of the visitors to this website and infesting the political landscape at large. She and her family actually fought the fascists in World War II and guided Allied soldiers to safety, always under the threat of torture and execution. She transported messages and explosives for the Italian resistance and became a well known journalist from the 60's thru the 80's. And she was unafraid to stay the course of legitimate Leftist philosophy, even as the left moved into the fever swamps of appeasement, socialism and capitulation. And those on the left never forgave her.

Following the attacks of September 11th, she became a fierce critic of militant islam and was roundly condemned by her former leftist allies across Europe. At the time of her death, she was under charges in the Italian courts for daring to say Europe was turning into "Eurabia" and facing long prison time:

• Fallaci sees the threat of Islamic fundamentalism as a revival of the Fascism that she and her sisters grew up fighting. She told me, "I am convinced that the situation is politically substantially the same as in 1938, with the pact in Munich, when England and France did not understand a thing. With the Muslims, we have done the same thing."
• She saw radical Islam--and argued there is no such thing as moderate Islam--as the new brand of Nazi Fascism, "SS and Black Shirts who wave the Koran." In the book that emerged, "The Rage and the Pride," she railed against Islamic terrorists and fundamentalism.

Everyone on the left catch that? A woman who lived through facism and fought against it on the front lines, saw parallels in today's world and saw as clear as day which side was the correct one - and it wasn't the appeasers and leftists and democrats of the world.

Go read The Anchoress and Michelle Malkin. Both have a dozen or more links to other articles about Oriana Fallaci, a true hero of the Real Left and the civilized world. We shall not see the likes of her again.

New Link! and Post #1501

Wow. 1,500 posts. Who'd have thunk we could write so much junk in just 15 and a half months?

In the meantime, we added a new link to the right hand toolbar. A Big SCC welcome to the Illinois State Police website called "ispeeved.blogspot.com." Here's the guy running the whole thing:
Anyone recognize him? He must have gone to the same school of blogging that we did.

The latest posting is in regard to the recent endorsement of Governor Blago, even though a report by Channel 7's Chuck Goudie shows that the choice of "No Endorsement" received something like 70% of the ballots cast. "ispeeved" reveals quite a bit of the methodology behind the endorsement and rightly takes the entire process to task. We're thinking that we might have a few questions ourselves, especially as Blago has been balancing his budgets on the backs of way too many pension funds.

Give him a visit.

Update to the "Strangling Nurse" Story

We addressed the story of the nurse who strangled a home intruder in her Portland, Oregon home this past Sunday in a piece titled "THIS is Priceless!"

It just got a whole bunch more priceless - would that make it priceless-less?

• [...] investigators said they believed the dead man Edward Dalton Haffey was burglarizing Kuhnhausen's home. But after an investigation, police now say the intruder Kuhnhausen strangled was apparently a hit man hired by her estranged husband Michael James Kuhnhausen Sr. to kill her.

  The 58-year-old husband was taken into custody Thursday and charged with conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder. He was ordered held on $500,000 bail.

The "hit man" used to work as a janitor for the ex husband and police found incriminating notes with his name and telephone in the dead man's house. So it would seem the former Mrs. Kuhnhausen scored a "two-fer" - assassin dead and ex husband in jail.

Priceless-less!

Do You Know Who I Am??

Cook County style! From The Tribune and Sun Times:

• After being cut off from liquor and refusing to leave a Joliet casino, a high-level Cook County prosecutor was charged with misdemeanor trespassing, police said today.
  
  As is standard practice in such cases, Assistant State's Atty. Scott Cassidy, 49, has been assigned to desk duty pending resolution of the charge, said John Gorman, spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.
• Cassidy, the bureau chief of special prosecutions, has been relieved of his courtroom duties and reassigned to desk duty pending the outcome of the case, said John Gorman, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.

Nice to know that Cook County nepotism and ASA's too big for their own britches still exist out there.

Here Comes the Fallout

And this is probably only the beginning:

• Prosecutors are dropping more than two dozen "tainted" drug and gun cases following last week's arrest of four Chicago police officers accused of robbing, kidnapping and intimidating drug dealers.

  At least 27 cases have been dropped so far, including a case against two men who were arrested last fall when police seized $15 million worth of cocaine, Cook County state's attorney spokesman John Gorman said Thursday.

We're likely to see at least double this number of cases get dropped. The final number is going to be close to 100 cases and the number of civil lawsuits filed will top 20 or 30. This second article covers one of the more spectacular cases:

• Last year, Chicago Police displayed $15 million worth of bundled cocaine seized from a Northwest Side home and proudly proclaimed they'd made a major dent in the area's cocaine-dealing scene.

  Wednesday, with a sense of quiet disgust and frustration, Cook County prosecutors dropped the case against the two men charged in the November 2005 drug bust. Based on the quantity of drugs seized -- 118 kilos -- it's the most significant of more than 100 criminal cases that may have to be dropped because they were tainted by alleged dirty cops, a source close to the case said.

Even legit cases are going to be tainted by association and a lot of guilty people will be walking free.

Classic Misdirection

Once again, the City Council does not disappoint in it's insanity:

• Two powerful aldermen are proposing a gun offender registry that would allow police to track people convicted of weapons violations.

Oh boy! Another useless layer of bureaucracy! Don't we already have something similar to this proposal? Oh yeah! Parole Officers! If the political administration was willing to go a few extra miles and staff the parole board with enough investigators to do their jobs, maybe the aldercreatures wouldn't feel the need to add yet another layer of paperwork. Like this from the same article:

• Burke and Carothers also introduced an ordinance that would require a police assistant deputy superintendent and a watch commander to approve the release of anyone from a lockup when they are believed to be mentally ill and in need of treatment.

Well, golly. If something isn't working and might cost you some money, there's all the training in the world to help you. Unfortunately, they aren't training the lockup keepers to actually be able to do their jobs and who might be able to make some real effort in identifying someone mentally ill. And finally from the same article:

• Another proposed ordinance by Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd) would make the sale of air guns illegal, with a fine of $500 to $1,000 per offense. The ordinance comes after police shot and wounded a teenager who allegedly pointed a BB gun at police near the Cabrini-Green housing complex.

We have a counter proposal - arm everyone with BB guns and let's see how fast we can thin out the assholes who like to point guns at police.

Yeah, We Assassinate People

Look at this picture and tell us the Department isn't about the worst shots you can imagine:


During the incident in question (which we did not attend or participate in), an officer was pinned in some manner by a vehicle driven by a subject who had a BAC of something in the neighborhood of .35 - over 4 times the legal limit.

When an officer is pinned under or between cars, other officers are under the obligation to shoot the operator of the vehicle and remove the threat of great bodily harm to their coworker. It's even codified into State Law and Department Directives. The most likely scenario we can imagine is that during the shooting, the subject continued to try to get away, flooring the accelerator. Officers responded to the escape attempts (that coincidently further crushed their coworker) by continuing to fire at the offender. As the offender bled out and expired, gravity compelled his body to continue pressing on the accelerator, leading to possible further firing of weapons into an already dying or dead subject. In fact, the car's engine was still revving at an extremely high rate until officers actually removed the keys from the vehicle.

As the Superintendent stated on TV tonight, we are trained to fire until the threat has been neutralized. A subject continuing to crush an officer, regardless of being dead or not, means the threat is not ended. This shooting seems to be completely justified.

And how about this quote:

• Lopez's aunt, who he was living with at the time, says her nephew, who had been living as an illegal immigrant in the U.S. for six months, was a hard working young man who was sending money back home to his family in Mexico.

Boo hoo. He was an illegal who was driving drunk (.35) , fleeing the scene of an accident and we'd be willing to place a small wager on this actual driver's license status (probably "none"). And he almost killed a cop. Screw him, his family and his scumbag lawyer. Let him be held up as an example of a boatload of bad choices coming home to roost.

Other coverage at Channel 2

Why be a Legal Immigrant?

From the NBC Newsroom:

• Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado on Thursday proposed making Cook County a "sanctuary" county for undocumented immigrants.
• "It will prohibit county employees, and Cook County law enforcement professionals, from engaging themselves in (Immigration and Naturalization Service)-type of activities," he said.
• At the hearing, several people spoke out in favor of the idea."We're all immigrants," said 13-year-old Richard Cagnetta. "We were born in the United States, but we are all immigrants. The only people who are not immigrants are Native Americans."

This gives us so much hope for an actual return of the Republican party in Illinois at some point in the not too distant future. An entire "sanctuary county." What an amazingly bad idea. Where are the labor unions in this fight? Illegal aliens drive down real wages as so many of them are willing to work for so much less that bloated union salaries. By supporting democrats who want to throw open the borders and create "sanctuary" whatevers, the unions are cutting their own throats. The left's political suicide continues to play out in slow motion.

Todd Stroger Taking Heat

This was just humorous:

• A Web site that compares Democratic Ald. Todd Stroger to the nerdy TV character "Urkel" and calls him "Toddler," among other insults, is drawing fire from black leaders who say it's racist and secretly being run by Republican operatives.

Here's the website:

• www.votestroger.com

There are a bunch of funny graphics and a bunch of links to articles regarding Cook County nepotism and the machine. The fact that Stroger's machine is lashing out like this speaks volumes about how weak they percieve this candidate to be.

Remember, Vote in November.

No More Logos Shirts or Hats

This is rapidly becoming one giant "No Fun Zone." The Department we mean. How about this story:

• Chicago Police are investigating whether two plainclothes officers wore baseball hats that read "U.S. Border Patrol" on duty on the Northwest Side last week.
• Ernesto Cruz, 21, told police the two Albany Park District officers asked him about his immigration status, a question that is generally prohibited by city ordinance and police general orders, police and city officials said.
• "To us it was clear they were posing as border patrol agents,'' said Jenny Arwade, executive director of the Albany Park Neighborhood Council.

What we absolutely love is the fact that the news media and the City Administration throw this comment out there and the general public just accepts it at face value:

• ...officers asked him about his immigration status, a question that is generally prohibited by city ordinance and police general orders...

THAT is priceless. What do you think the general public would think if we suddenly stopped enforcing the Burglary statutes? Or the laws covering Armed Robbery? Homicide? But the leftists have completely cowed the public and the law enforcement arm of the City into NOT enforcing the laws regarding immigration, OR EVEN ASKING ABOUT THE STATUS OF ILLEGALS!

You wonder why big cities are awash in illegals? Look no further than this. We are being told not to enforce laws, or even conduct what could be considered a reasonably competent investigation. Would it be a good use of the limited resources we have? Maybe not. But when you are ordered to lose the fight before it's even begun, you're screwed.

And don't even get us started on the "To us it was clear they were posing as border patrol agents,'' spiel. Just because we wear a Blackhawks jersey on occasion doesn't make us think we could even remotely pose as a member of the local NHL franchise, just as a degree in Social Sciences doesn't make this Ms. Arwade character some kind of mind reader in interpreting police intentions at a scene she wasn't even at. Puh-lease.

If We Only Had ...

State's Attorney's like this in Cook County:

• An Aurora man was sentenced to more than five years in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to several felony charges, including kicking a police officer in the groin during a traffic stop, according to a release from the Kane County State's Attorney's office.

And it gets better:

• Pryor later accused an officer of misconduct during the stop, an accusation that, after investigation, was determined to be false and prompted the perjury charge, the release said.

Nice to see someone takes the "Sworn Affidavit" bill seriously and charges the liars with it.

This is a Good One

Someone finally suing the Department in the face of a failed investigation.

• ABC7 news has learned that a prominent Chicago police officer has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that he is being publicly shamed and humiliated by an internal affairs investigation. In this I-Team Intelligence Report: the question of "good cop, bad cop."

We aren't privy to the specifics of the investigation. We aren't going to publish any speculation as the specifics either. But if the Department and IAD screwed up, it's time to move on. Stop messing with this guy and move on. If you're that hell bent on fucking with this guy, put him out there and watch his ass 24/7. That'd be a real efficient use of Department resources, right?

Ethics Testing...

...has been delayed according to the AdminFax out of HQ.

Here's the thing about the testing that we've heard. It's unfailable. Seriously. It's kind of like the Lieutenants Test of 4 years ago where 800 people took it and 800 people passed, so every sergeant who had taken the test was eligible to get promoted.

The testing is divided up into half a dozen "chapters" or so and there's a quiz attached to each chapter. To move through the test, you have to pass each part in turn or you get booted back to the beginning until you get the questions correct.

And we have to go through this every year for the next couple of decades. Ain't life grand?

What Happened Down South?

We heard from a number of sources that as the mayor was speaking at the "anti Big Box" rally, supporters and opponents of the ordinance got into some sort of altercation and the W/C in scene ended up calling a 10-1 and ended up pulling in teams from all over the Area to maintain order for the mayor's speech. Any takers on this rumor? Any info?

Word From on High

Sun Times this morning:

• Police Supt. Phil Cline has no plans to scrap the Special Operations Section in the wake of felony charges against four of its officers.

  Appearing at a new memorial to officers killed or injured in the line of duty, Cline said the unit is worth keeping, despite the arrests.

  "There's no reason to disband the SOS unit," Cline said.

Well, we're sure that's a relief to everyone over at the old Sears building. But we're also sure that we haven't seen the end of reorganization and policy changes, not just at SOS, but citywide. Orders cut from the Patrol Division state that a Sergeant or above must be on scene and witness any signatures on "Consent to Search" forms. Unmarked cars a disappearing from units other than SOS. Take home cars may soon be restricted to exempts and there are rumors that those will be marked. Who knows what to believe when a scandal rolls into town?

By the way, does anyone else think that we have a couple of reporters reading the blog and their running to the Supe with questions?

How About This Study?

Think FOP ought to take a look at this one and use it in Springfield?

• Move to the Suburbs, Live Longer
• Harvard researchers today are reporting huge and growing gaps in life expectancies throughout the United States.
• And the gaps have been increasing since 1984.

A provable study that city living kills you faster. Seems we ought to be paid more and receive some sort of "urban differential" for being forced to live here in violation of everything American.

Signs of Sanity in Chicago

Not just one example, but TWO!

• Infuriating organized labor and delighting business leaders, Mayor Daley today vetoed an ordinance that would have required Wal-Mart and other 'big-box' retailers to pay employees a 'living wage' of at least $13-an-hour in wages and benefits by 2010.

This wasn't unexpected as even the mayor has passed Econ 101. Now if he can just whip an aldercreature or two into line, this one is dead dead dead.

This next one however, comes as a bit of a surprise:

• Sarcastic headlines started popping up around the world. Comedians and talk show hosts had a field day. Now, a pair of influential aldermen have had enough. No longer willing to be the butt of jokes, Aldermen Burton F. Natarus (42nd) and Bernard Stone (50th) three weeks ago filed an ordinance with the city clerk to repeal the foie gras ban.

If these guys really want to make a difference, they ought to kill Ed Burke's latest attempt to outlaw transfat or what ever the nanny state of Chicago is attempting to outlaw. Stay the hell out of our food you jackasses.

Where Were You?

Where were you when the Towers fell?

It's been 5 years since the attacks in New York City, Washington DC and a field in Pennsylvania. We've been debating how to remember 9/11. First of all, we ought to be flying a flag.

There's sure to be plenty on the cable channels. We've been watching the Naudet brother's documentary "9/11" every year since the attacks, first on CBS and then the DVD in more recent years. We've never actually pulled out the video we had our spouse tape for us the day it happened. Maybe we'll do that this year.

Is anyone going to actual memorial events? Bike rides? Motorcycle rallies? Commemorations? We'd like to hear what our readers were doing then and what they're doing today. Besides remembering. Check out a couple of the news links and other sites listed in the right hand column. Most, if not all, will have some sort of tributes up today.

The Next Step

The Special Operations Section is currently embroiled in a couple of scandals. The first one involving the recent indictments (and maybe more to come according to published reports) and the second one involving the 015th District blue-on-blue street fight following a verbal altercation between police and citizens. The question posed to us by a couple of e-mailers is "Will/Can/Should the Department permit the Special Operations Section to continue to exist in it's current form or will it be dissolved?" It's been done before for different reasons. It's been done elsewhere for the same reasons (think Rampart-CRASH). Once a Unit becomes a political liability, especially in a contested election year, everything is on the table.

Supposedly, the whole unit is working in uniform and the unmarked cars have been taken away for good. This would appear to make them exactly like the new kids on the block - TRU - but without the mission direction to write movers, parkers and contact cards (thereby one of the nicknames of TRU - Total Revenue Unit).

What's next? Does SOS get rolled into TRU? Is the Unit disbanded and the officers told to bid for Patrol openings? Or maybe just all the supervisors get moved like "Broken Star" in 015? Does the HBT team end up alone and the Canine Unit get passed back to Mass Transit? What about Brownie and his Dog Fighting squad? Do they go to 011, 015, 006 or 007 where dog fighting is heaviest as an Area team?

So many possibilities.

UPDATE PRIOR TO PUBLICATION: A commentator says that the Superintendent appeared at the SOS Friday night roll call and said the Unit will not be disbanded. All well and good, but will it exist in it's present form by the end of these investigations? The political cost might be too high for the mayor to not do anything, regardless of what the Supe says - and we all know who really runs the show in this town.

Ethics for Everyone!

Recently, the Department has been subjected to the insanity of the Aldercreatures, who passed an Ordinance requiring ethics training for all City employees on an annual basis. This is in addition to the "conflict of interest" certification sent out yearly and half a dozen other bits of goofiness that have just about nothing to do with police work.

Think about it - we are keeping 11,000 people off the street for an hour or more so that they can undergo "ethics training." Something that should have been caught somewhere along the line via training, pysch testing, interviews, instructor evaluations, FTO grading and who knows what else. Now we have to sit and take a test to show we know that it's wrong to beat people, take money and accept free stuff.

Who knows how much 11,000 hours are worth? And how could it be better spent?

THIS is Priceless!

From the Sun Times:

• PORTLAND, Ore. -- A nurse returning from work discovered an intruder armed with a hammer in her home and strangled him with her bare hands, police said.
• Susan Kuhnhausen, 51, ran to a neighbor's house after the confrontation Wednesday night. Police found the body of Edward Dalton Haffey, 59, a convicted felon with a long police record.
• Neighbors said Kuhnhausen's size -- 5-foot-7 and 260 pounds -- may have given her an advantage. Haffey was about 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds

Hahahahahahahaha.

More Pricelessness! Again from the Sun Times:

• NEW YORK -- Margaret Johnson might have looked like an easy target in her wheelchair.
• But when a man tried to grab a chain off her neck Friday, the 56-year-old pulled out her .357 pistol, police said.
• He suffered a bullet wound in the elbow and now faces a robbery charge, police said. Margaret Johnson, of Harlem, has a gun permit and does not face charges, police said.

So instead of being a passive easy victim, a weapon prevented another crime! Take that you bleeding heart liberals! And in Harlem no less.

Da Season Begins!

And everyone knows what it means when the Bears start playing, right?

The Blackhawks are right around the corner! Hope springs eternal for the lonely Blackhawk fan (that'd be us). Preseason starts 19 September and unfortunately, plenty of tickets are still available. Maybe this year, everyone else can play down to the Blackhawk's level and make it interesting. In any case, we still despise Bill Wirtz and pray for the day home games reappear on free TV to generate some interest in the team.

Time to Shut Down the Blog?

HUGE POST: We've been getting quite a few complaints lately. Some about how moderated comments have killed the spontaneity of the Board. Some about how unsubstantiated rumors seem to be making their way into the mainstream media as part of the latest scandal. Others, well, here's a few of them with our commentary added in:

• You "IDIOTS" are embracing SCC as if he did something courageous by monitoring this site. He did it to save his / her own ass. (we weren't aware that our ass needed saving, but thanks for the heads up!)
  
• For months SCC allowed unfounded allegations, racism, rumors, and lies to fester and grow. (for months, we let the blog run itself. We explained it numerous times. We had maybe two hours a day to spend here and we let it run free the rest of the time. Our role was to take out the insane stuff after the fact. That didn't work out so well because cops will be cops and idiots will be idiots)
  
• If SCC is "The Police" I'm assuming very young on the job, educated, and really without a social life outside of this site. (let's see - wrong, right and wrong again. With a batting average like that, you could make millions in the major leagues - why are you the police?)
  
• SCC has to stay anonymous because as many people who like this site, I'd bet there are just as many who wouldn't mind having a face to face "bar room" talk with SCC. (and wouldn't they be surprised to know that we've been sitting next to them in the bar talking about the site? We've never posted anything we were ashamed of. The fact that anonymous other people have and it stayed up until we could get around with our broom shouldn't have any bearing on what we've done.)
  
• Also if SCC is the police SCC would be held accountable by CPD rules and regulations. Meaning the department would surely find rule violations on an ongoing basis. (name the Rule violations please. Seriously. The Rules and Regs of this Department were written in what? The 50's? And amended once since then? They are hopelessly out of date and arcane. The Department keeps them around to screw with people. We aren't doing anything on Department time or property. It's satire, protected speech and humor. The only catch-all charge we could ever remotely think of facing would be "obstructing the goals of the Department" and where have we ever posted anything but legitimate criticism of boneheaded policy? We have tons, and we mean tons, of case law backing our right to still be American citizens off duty.)
  
• SCC is NOT a hero, but a coward who hides behind "Anonymous" and the lies and racism of others. (ah, the old "coward" charge. And you make from behind, what else? An "Anonymous" posting. We see it as carrying on a proud tradition of the Chicago Police Department. Maybe you aren't old enough to remember the old SCCN bulletin board? Or even further back "The 025 Gallows"? We remember them both very well kid. We don't hide behind an "anonymous" tag. We use a pen name and everything that gets posted under that pen name is ours. We admit it. We also know there would be career repercussions should we ever step out from behind it and we don't want that at this point. As to the lies and racism, we edited it in the limited number of hours we had.)
  
• I will always respond to "an officer needs help call" thats how I was raised on this job. I just wouldnt mind seeing SCC bitched slapped as I arrived on the scene. I would assist, kick the bad guys ass,& lockem up. Then maybe SCC could put some more gossip on the site for the young officers to enjoy. (Nice of you to respond to the assist call, but it's difficult to take you seriously when you wish harm on us, even harm as trivial as a "bitched slap" (and it's a 10-1, not "an officer needs help call" kid) We, too, have responded to every 10-1 call ever broadcast on our zone, but we'd never think of letting an offender complete a battery to PO just because we didn't like what that PO had said to us somewhere along the line. We guess we're just better human beings than you are. And better police officers evidently)
  
• PS SCC if you want to look up my IP address and keep it between just the two of us, we probably could have a great face to face discussion. (Gee, thanks, we'll keep it in mind. Schmuck.)
  

Or how about this one?

• Remember anyone interested in litigation against SCC he now states in print at the top of his page "saved for blog owner approval"...should be interesting if CPD ever gets tired of this site. (Yeah, it'll be real interesting to see a government agency attempt to shut down a privately run entity protected by the greatest document on the face of the planet. It'll be real interesting counting all the money we'd have after a few years in Federal court.)
  

Or this:

• Dear SCC, it has been a fun ride but I think it is now time to end this blog. On Fox32 news the reporter stated that an unnamed source has implicated the four officers in a murder. I think this reporter's unnamed source was some idiot on this blog. (I remember seeing an anonymous post like that a while ago.) (actually, it was probably our post taking the rumor monger to the woodshed and beating the living tar out of him for even suggesting such bullshit. We'd love to see Fox32 having to backtrack on that little story when it comes out that it was from someone who was most likely posting drunk on the Internet.)
  
• This site was good when it was coppers beefing about the job, but now reporters and others (IAD, Bosses, Defense Attys, et al...) are using rumors from this site as a legitimate information source. I know that you are going to say that it is their problem and that they could get in trouble for using rumors as fact. (You're right - it's their problem and it's their look out. They want to destroy any modicum of credibility they might have, that's their problem. We remember half a dozen rumors that sprouted up on this board a year ago and 35th Street went into a tailspin trying to track them down. It was hilarious and sad all at the same time. That's what the get for believing everything they read, especially here.)
  
• Unfortunately, it is time to end it. This is my last post. I hope you heed this request. The idiots (CPD and non-CPD) have made all of us hardworking coppers look bad long enough. Even with your diligent moderation this site is now hurting us. (Sorry to see you go. You seem to at least attempt to make sense. Thanks for the compliment on the "diligent moderation." We think it's making a difference.)

So what does everyone think? Should we shut it down? We think we've done pretty well keeping up with the comment posting a few times a day and keeping most names that deserve to be kept out of print off the site. Errors will still happen and we continue to invite people to drop us a line when they find something objectionable and needing to be censored in the comments section (our e-mail is in the profile page).

Sarcasm and silliness will still happen, too. And it will probably still happen here.

Seatbelt Missions Work!

From the Sun Times:

• Police are unsure Saturday morning why the 27-year-old offender ran after being pulled over for a traffic stop for a routine seatbelt check near Birchwood and Damen Avenues about 11 p.m., according to Rogers Park District Capt. Howard Denk.

  The offender ran from police and forced his way into a third floor apartment on the 7400 block of N. Sealy Ave., where he fell out of the window, Denk said.

Fell out the window trying to escape a seatbelt mission. Priceless.

Fugitive Surrenders

From Channel 2:

• A fugitive suspected of fatally shooting a New York state trooper and wounding two others while on the run for more than five months surrendered to police who had cornered him in a field just over the Pennsylvania border Friday night.

Five months on the run, one dead cop and two critically injured. New York reinstated the death penalty for capital murder a few years back, didn't they?

UPDATE: Comments are open here. Mistake when publishing had closed them. Apologies to our readers.

Look! We're Famous Again

From the comments sections, someone pointed out that one of our previous title holders of "The World's Stupidest Human Being" has written a new article, this time taking our website to task. She cherry picks certain comments and attributes them to Police Officers and even consults a clinical professor of law to offer a diagnosis on one particularly disturbed comment without offering any context at all (another typical leftist ploy to attack opinions they disagree with). The newest article of hers can be located here.

In our own defense, we didn't start moderating comments until a couple of months ago. This site was quite a bit more free wheeling than one would see nowadays. We still can't prove that every visitor here is a cop, let alone a Chicago Police Officer. We get hits from as far away as Australia on a regular basis. Europe and Asia provide us the occasional readers also. We're worldwide baby!

But we'll stand by our description of her. She is amazingly naive and full of guilt about maybe possibly running over a kid who would have gladly slit her throat for an automobile. And now she is trying to use this website as proof that cops are disturbed, cops revel in pointless death, cops peddle vitriol and racism. She attempts to cover her hit job by saying things like she would never "paint all cops with one broad brush" but then she offers up comments she can't even prove originated in this hemisphere as coming from Police and she even manages to mention Jon Burge along with us. We're flattered.

An open letter to Susy: You made a big mistake once upon a time and were lucky to escape with your life. By all rights, you should be maimed or dead. We won't go into the liberal insanity of assuming the best in every human being and being completely isolated from reality. Your feeble attempt to slander and smear CPD Officers by quoting anonymous postings on a free, open and public website that has readers on four continents is sad beyond measure. You are coming to battle completely unarmed and even worse, deliberately blindfolded. Thanks for the free publicity though. We owe you a dinner or something. As soon as we sell a few ads, we'll actually have money for a gift certificate. Tell Bill Dwyer we said "hi," and we look forward to appearing in his column one of these days. Did you see we made "The Reader" last week? Can you maybe mention us to a few "right" leaning publications? Karl Rove seems to have dropped the ball on that front. Thanks.

Bail Set

Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7 and the Tribune have follow up to yesterday's announcements of the arrests of four Special Operations officers. Bail was set from $1.5 million all the way up to $3 million. The most disturbing about the entire proceeding was this little tidbit:

• "The defendants, along with other as of yet uncharged officers, abused their authority and sworn police powers to terrorize and steal from the people of this city," he said.

"...as of yet uncharged officers..." could mean a couple of things. It could be a power play by the State's Attorney to get one or more people to crack. It could be that a whole bunch more people are going to get caught up in this.

In any case, it's looking ugly.

Finish the Job Already

Remember a few years back, a fine upstanding citizen named Mario Billings was shot by a home owner in Wilmette after Billings was returning to burglarize the home for a second time after stealing a large amount of property and the family car? The shooting triggered a massive outpouring of support for the homeowner who was facing numerous charges related to his owning a handgun in a suburb that had outlawed such weapons. No doubt that Billings was as surprised as anyone when he was shot in what was supposed to be a gun free city.

Well, Billings was arrested again in Wilmette for, what else? Burglarizing a home in the same neighborhood.

• A man who was shot while burglarizing a north suburban Wilmette home almost 3 year ago is in trouble with the law again. 34-year old Mario Billings was arrested Tuesday. Police say he robbed another home in the same neighborhood.
• Billings is accused of breaking into a home in the 800 block of Michigan Avenue while the family was sleeping.

First of all, we'd love to see the crime stats for this neighborhood. If there have been a few break-ins when Billings was out of the joint, we'll bet they have a possible culprit right there. Secondly, maybe Wilmette ought to think about arming it's citizens and finishing the job on Billings. He's headed for a bad end anyway.

Real Nice Fran

It's amazing. Yes, the SOS guys getting busted is a big story. It's a black eye for the Department. It's all over the news.

But did Fran Spielman really have to drag this crap into the story on Eric Solorio?

• The timing was purely coincidental. But the contrast could not have been more stark.

  On the day that four Chicago Police officers assigned to an elite unit were arrested for allegedly raiding homes and stealing valuables, the Police Department paid the ultimate tribute to a fallen colleague from another choice group who epitomized all that is good about policing.

Couldn't she just concentrate on the sacrifice of Officer Solorio and the good he accomplished in his too short life without dragging in what is going to be a big story for the next few days? We are all aware of the contrast Fran. We really don't need it waved in our faces.

Better coverage over at Channel 7

The Hammer

And what a big hammer this was. Multiple Class X felonies. Are these guys even going to be able to post bail?

Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7, Sun Times, Tribune

The Hammer Falls Today?

From the Sun Times:

• Authorities are expected to arrest four Chicago Police officers today in a corruption investigation that could lead Cook County prosecutors to drop more than 100 criminal cases because they were tainted by the allegedly crooked cops.

  The officers are members of the department's elite Special Operations Section, a citywide unit that seizes guns and drugs in crime hot spots.

Four to be indicted today. We don't know what that means for the other five or what it might mean for anyone else caught up in this mess. Maybe they're only going to be charged Administratively? All that does is take away the prison aspect of it. You can still lose your job, your pension, and your house in a Civil suit.

The "Spontaneous" Evacuation Drill

Channel 2 and Channel 7 coverage.

We'd like anyone who has access to this whole event to give the readers a little heads up on the happenings. Are they pulling teams out of Districts to simulate the massive influx of manpower they are going to need downtown and the shortages in the outlying Districts that will occur as a result?

Suffice it to say we wouldn't trust certain criminal minded elements of the city to remain calm and collected during a terrorist attack. We couldn't ever hope for a "shoot-to-kill" order like the one in 1968, but suffice it to say that downtown won't be the only area looking like a disaster hit should the unthinkable come to pass.

Rot in Hell

George Ryan got six and a half years today. Coverage at Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7, Channel 32, Sun Times, and Tribune.

We are reasonably happy with this. Ryan is a sanctimonious asshole who figured pandering to the international anti death penalty crowds would trump outright disgust with his presiding over one of the most corrupt regimes in Illinois history. And that's saying a lot in a state that contains the City of Chicago and the County of Cook.

Now if we could just see the same thing happen upstate.

Split Sentence

From the Sun Times:

• A retired Chicago Police commander received a "split sentence" Wednesday of five months in prison followed by five months in home confinement for stealing $4,000 that was earmarked to help pay for a ceremony to recognize heroic police officers.

  Michael Acosta, who retired last year from his position overseeing police at O'Hare and Midway international airports, was facing an advisory penalty guideline range of eight to 14 months in prison, which range also made him eligible to receive a "split sentence," according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Manish Shaw.

Now for the million dollar question - does he get to keep his pension? We think Mail Fraud is a felony, but a 10 month split sentence doesn't cover the "one year" in prison definition. Info from the readers?

The Pain of Moderated Comments

Oh the troubles we see.

We see every comment that comes in here before we publish it. We scan it all, looking for particularly vile crap, before we publish the ones that deserve publishing. So far (we've been keeping an informal tally) where we used to have to delete 50-60% of the unmoderated stuff, we now end up only deleting about 10% of it. But what a 10% it is.

Some of it is complete articles that we've said won't be published because it violates various copyright laws and it's just too damn huge. Some of it names names, which we said we weren't going to allow. Some of it is the typical inanity that certain people must think is going to get published if we let down our guard. And some of it is some particularly vile crap that we would be rightly castigated for if it ever hit the blog.

Let's just say this: whoever is accusing members of this Department of orchestrating the murders of fellow police officers is a complete waste of protoplasm. You are scum. You are lower than ... geez ... we can't even think of what you are lower than because we wouldn't want to insult shark shit. You need help ... severe help. Involuntary commitment would be a good first step. We are amazed you made it through the various screening processes that are supposed to filter out your type and we are scared that you might actually be carrying a loaded weapon.

God help you if we ever find out who you are and where you're posting from, because that will be the time we make the exception to publishing names. You are not a cop. You're a psycho with a badge. Go away.

Two More Stripped?

According to the comments sections, 2 more coppers were stripped of their powers over at SOS. Again, names will not be published or permitted to be published pending possible indictments, and even then, we'll probably just link to the articles and let everyone else dig up their own info.

Innocent until proven guilty, but we are unhappy about this.

We've heard the total is up to 8 combined PO's, a Sergeant and a Detective. Someone else claims 10, but we've only heard of 8. Some people claim it's going to get bigger, others say it's finished. Regardless of the totals, this could be a huge stain on the Unit and the Department as a whole. Anyone who thinks that the Department and City Administration hasn't at least thought about disbanding SOS has rocks for brains. They're going to want to look like they're doing something and this, unfortunately, is one of the options. If it's just a rogue team, then maybe they'll weather the storm. If it's endemic, then who knows what they'll do. It could end up like 015 where they swept all the bosses out with a broom and everyone with any sort of time on the job bailed out as soon as possible just to get away from the stench.

And we still haven't heard the last of the 007 District crap, the 015 incident involving SOS and whatever else is brewing at Homan Square. We might be under Federal oversight in the next few years. It's getting ugly.

UPDATE: We are informed that the total was actually three today with an officer on the medical who was also stripped.

Revisiting an Old Post

To everyone who keeps bitching about the FOP not doing anything about residency, we refer you back to our article of 17 January 2006. We attended the FOP Meeting (or maybe we didn't - we never remember to sign in anyway) and from that meeting came this post:

• Residency is on the table. Let us repeat that: Residency is ON THE TABLE. The FOP has instructed it's lobbyists to draft language amending the State Law that allows all cities with a population of over 1,000,000 to remove residency from the realm of collective bargaining. As the law is written, it applies to one single city - Chicago. The FOP is taking it's cue from other Lodges that have fought AND WON the right to make residency part of their collective bargaining contracts. This would make Illinois State Law into just about every what other single state in the union does already. Of course, the City won't play ball on this and Mark Donahue admitted that it might be hard to line up sponsors for the bill (until the mayor goes away at least) and it will probably be a long hard road, similar to what we went through for over a decade to get HB 218 to pass in Congress, but it's a start. Let's see where they go with it.

So the question probably shouldn't be "Why isn't FOP fighting residency?" It should be "What steps have they taken so far?" Residency is codified in State Law. Therefore, it IS NOT the subject of negotiation until the State Law is amended. It took forever and a day to get a common sense bill like HB 218 through the United States Congress. It's going to take forever and two days to try to force a residency amendment through the State House, especially when Daley and the political combine that runs Illinois doesn't want it passed.

This is one time that we might make an exception to a Court ruling being forced on the Legislature. We really hate when Courts step into the role of lawmakers. That isn't their job, no matter what the democrats say. However, we're still of the opinion that a Court (Federal and Republican appointed) might be of the opinion that government forcing people to live in certain areas and under certain restrictions might very well go against such principles as freedom of movement and association.

Who cares where you live as long as you get to work on time? If the Legislature is beholden to governmental special interests, who's to say a Court wouldn't be our best friend in this case?

Something About This Stinks

Call us paranoid, but this just seems a bit odd:

• Chicago police arrested a 79-year-old woman suspected of trying to rob a downtown bank with a toy gun Tuesday evening.

  The woman entered the Bank of America branch on N. Dearborn St. about 6:45 p.m., walked up to a teller, displayed a weapon and demanded money, according to a report from the police First Deputy Superintendent's office.

  After waiting a few moments for the teller to comply with her demands, the woman walked to the exit door and left the bank without any money, the deputy's report said.

She's old enough to know better. So either Grandma is a nut job or Grandma is hoping for a confrontation to get shot and score a big payday. Anyone have details on this?

The Circus Begins Again

No, not the SOS saga.

We're talking about the first day of school! Another (almost) fall day of inflated statistics that'll will mean absolutely nothing come Graduation Day 9 months from now. It's all a scam.

The Mayor needs a big first day of attendance to get all sorts of Federal grant money approved to pour into his failing school system and not have to raise taxes on the middle class again. So there will be give aways, barbecues, open houses and all sorts of circus type garbage designed to get people to do what they should be doing anyway - getting their kids educated.

And attendance on Wednesday? We'll predict low 80%, especially in the high schools. And downward from there.

UPDATE: What's the first day of school without someone being shot? Congrats CVS!

Knock it Off

Whoever keeps trying to post the comments about SOS being implicated in a bunch of homicides down in New Orleans, stop. Yes, we post rumors by the dozens around here, but this one defies any sort of rationale or logic or basis in reality.

Speaking of rumors, anyone got any good ones? Or outrageous ones? Or just some completely made up horsecrap that we can waste a post on?

Crikey! Who Didn't See This Coming?

OK, this guy was an adventurer. He was a risk taker. He was even mildly annoying at times. But when you push the envelope time after time after time, something bad is going to happen:

• CAIRNS, Australia - Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and conservationist known as the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed Monday by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.
• "He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart," said Stainton, who was on board Irwin's boat at the time.

It's like some of these guys who need to climb Everest half a dozen times. Or skydivers. Or rock climbers with no ropes. Or BASE jumpers. Eventually, the odds are going to catch up with you. It's just a fact. A tragedy, to be sure. But not unexpected. RIP Steve.

UPDATE: Spelling errors corrected. Thanks for pointing them out.

How it Went Down?

From the Sunday Sun Times, how the SOS Scandal occurred:

• Defense attorney Joel Alan Whitehouse thought something was fishy about Chicago Police reports saying his client Jose Hermosillo was caught with $100,000 of cocaine in a Nike shoe box.

  Whitehouse, a former Cook County prosecutor and a licensed private detective, said he tracked down witnesses, listened to police radio transmissions and eventually determined the arresting officers had stolen the cocaine from a drug dealer in a home invasion earlier that day in 2004.

  Whitehouse -- certain the plainclothes Special Operations Section officers planted the cocaine on his client after he failed to cough up money -- went to Cook County prosecutors, who quickly dropped the case on Jan. 17, 2006, and launched an investigation.

Wow, a crusading defense attorney, who figures his client has been framed, locates witnesses, listens to radio chatter and comes to a conclusion that causes the State's Attorney to launch a months-long investigation. Anyone else see any holes here?

This Worries Us

There isn't much that actually makes us lose sleep anymore. Most of it, we can ignore or drown with frosty beverages. This, however, kind of worries us:

• One of two troopers ambushed while searching for an escaped convict died Sunday of his injuries, and state police vowed to capture the man they believe killed him.
• Saturday marked five months since he cut his way out of an Erie County jail with a can opener. Since then, he has been suspected in the non-fatal shooting of another trooper in June near Elmira in southern New York, and police said he has survived on the run by stealing about 15 vehicles and breaking into hunting camps and a gun shop.

Channel 2, Channel 5 and the Tribune have coverage.

Granted, chances of running into this specific psycho are remote. But a dedicated woodsman, proficient in firearms usage, and with a decent support system and nothing to lose, could wreak an unimaginable havoc on a good sized portion of any big city department. Our firearms training is poor to middling; our outdoors type skills are limited to those individuals with some military or hunting type backgrounds; we have a very tiny number of rifles and shotguns that could be called up in a street type emergency. In other words, we would be obliged to throw a large amount of "cannon fodder" at such a subject to bring him down and we just wonder if the Department is up to it.

Do We Have To Repeat It?

Two big tragedies this weekend. First, the six kids dying in the apartment fire up north. Tribune, Sun Times, Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7 coverage. We don't mean to cause anyone more anguish, but this just HAS to be repeated:

• Smoke Detectors save lives.

We don't know the specifics of this fire yet. We don't know if there were issues with where the fire started, what kind of exits were in the building, what was the condition of the apartment. But any firefighter or fire safety official will tell you, having a working smoke detector give you such an incredible edge in surviving a fire, that it is no wonder that they are required by just about every municipality in the nation. Get em, check em, have em.

The second tragedy involves one of our own. We can't find news coverage of it anywhere, but as noted in the comments sections, an off duty copper was killed this weekend around 67th and Pulaski. Some reports are that he was ejected from the vehicle. Though we don't have specifics, this also bears repeating:

• Seatbelts Save Lives

Again, we aren't speculating as to whether or not he had a seatbelt on. We aren't making any judgments one way or the other. We certainly aren't Monday morning quarterbacking. But whenever something like this occurs, it pays to remind everyone to be careful out there and wear the damn seatbelt. We spend 10 or more hours a day attached to a car - the tour plus travel to and from work and personal time. That's more than a lot of truckers do. We've been in more that a few wrecks, and in at least one of them, we know the seatbelt saved us from some serious damage.

That's all. Preaching over with.

Here's Some Guns - But Don't Practice

More inanity out of what we can only assume is the liberal wing of the country. Channel 2 and Channel 7 have the exact same story up - the Coast Guard has been mounting a bunch of machine guns on their boats, but now they have been held up actually practicing with the damn things.

• A Coast Guard plan to test guns on the Great Lakes has itself come under fire. The Coast Guard has proposed holding target practice with boat-mounted machine guns at dozens of "live-fire zones" around the Great Lakes. One of the zones would be just a few miles from several North Shore beaches.

  But after complaints from boating groups and at least one congressman, the Coast Guard has put those plans on hold to accept public comments for 60 days.

  Critics say the target practice could threaten boaters and beach-goers. Others say the guns -- which can fire up to 600 rounds a minute -- could also pose an environmental hazard.

  Coast Guard stations around the Great Lakes began installing the M-240 machine guns on their boats this year as part of the nation's anti-terrorism efforts.

There are few things more useless in this world than an unloaded gun, and there are few things more dangerous than a loaded gun in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to use it. Let the Coasties practice!

Let's Define Fascism

Looking it up on line, we get a myriad of definitions:

• system of government that is marked by stringent social and economic control, a strong, centralized government usually headed by a dictator, and often a policy of belligerent nationalism.
• A social and political ideology with the primary guiding principle that the state or nation is the highest priority, rather than personal or individual freedoms.
• a totalitarian political system led by a single dictator who allows no opposition, promoting an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

Now let's read Saturday's Sun Times:

• Islamic Society of North America's newly elected president, Ingrid Mattson, said Friday she objects to President Bush's use of the term "Islamic fascism" when describing the enemy in the global war on terrorism.

Well, Let's see Ms. Mattson - "system of government that is marked by stringent social and economic control." That'd cover most of the Middle East and even large swaths of mosques across the world. "Usually headed by a dictator." Again, most of the arabic world. "a policy of belligerent nationalism." Anyone read the speeches coming out of Iran lately? We have. "The state or nation is the highest priority, rather than personal or individual freedoms." We think we can safely add religion (the islamic one) to that list. "...allows no opposition, promoting an aggressive nationalism and often racism."

Golly, looks like Bush got this one right. And not just right, but dead on right. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it's probably fascism.

It's the Economy Stupid

And it just keeps on trucking along:

• Wall Street ended an erratic week with a big advance Friday after the Labor Department said employers added 128,000 jobs in August, signaling that an economic slowdown might not be as severe as some have predicted.
• The added jobs, slightly more than the 125,000 economists expected, brought down the country's unemployment rate to 4.7 percent from a five-month high of 4.8 percent in July. During the past 12 months, wages grew by a strong 3.9 percent, the Labor Department said. The last time the figure was higher was in June 2001.

And here's a blog at engram-backtalk.blogpost.com that explains the current economic good times with lots of helpful pictures, charts and graphs. Yeah, it's kind of wonky policy type stuff, but what else do we have on a Saturday morning? The news out of SOS is sporadic at best.

Being a Leftist Means ...

... never having to say "sorry." Ever.

From the Washington Post, which is no friend of President Bush (via PowerLine):

• Nevertheless, it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming -- falsely, as it turned out -- that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his wife. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush's closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It's unfortunate that so many people took him seriously. [emphasis added - SCC]
  

Anyone who followed the supposed "outing" of an "undercover" CIA operative has known for months now that Joe Wilson was full of crap and has told half a dozen different versions of the story to different investigative bodies. This also relegates an entire pillar of the Kerry/Edwards campaign of 2004 to the historical ash heap of dishonest campaigns. And it calls Patrick Fitzgerald's entire investigation into question as it is discovered he knew from Day One who the leaker was.

Millions of dollars and tens of thousands of man hours have been wasted. Well, maybe not completely wasted, as it did manage to expose the entire left wing of this country as unpatriotic deranged individuals blinded by irrational hatred of an Administration determined to keep this country and her people safe from terrorism. Still, it could have been done much cheaper.

Dorothy Announces for Mayor

This would appear to be a preemptive strike, not against the mayor, but against Jesse Jr., and the reverend Meeks. Coverage at the Tribune, Sun Times, Channel 2 and Channel 7.

We've been taking a bit of abuse in the comments section a few posts down for daring to suggest that Brown might be a Machine plant put forward to split minority votes, especially away from Gutierrez. But anyone who doesn't give the theory the least bit of credence is woefully ignorant of Chicago politics in general and Machine politics specifically. Anyone notice the following?

• (Channel 7 report) Dorothy Brown's campaign began at a downtown hotel Thursday, with more than 100 friends and allies from predominately African-American churches and community organizations, but not a single elected official cheered on the 52-year-old candidate

So she has no obvious support from the existing political structure. Either no one wants to appear with her or everyone was ordered to stay away. And then this:

• (Sun Times report) In a hotel meeting room jammed with her chanting supporters, Brown repeatedly refused to criticize Mayor Daley directly and made only veiled references to the Hired Truck, city hiring and minority contracting scandals that have made Daley's life miserable for more than two years.
• Brown, 52, continued the kid gloves treatment of Daley during a frenzied round of one-on-one interviews that followed her announcement.
• Brown didn't even stake out a position on the big box ordinance now facing a threatened mayoral veto.

So, of all of the things Brown could use to hammer the crap out of Daley, she covers exactly ... um ... none of them. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

We stand by our previous speculation that she is a plant to keep Meeks and Jesse Jr. off the ballot. She's running a shadow campaign to draw votes away from Gutierrez who is probably the stronger of the challengers, based on his political organization and willingness to hammer the mayor on real issues that make real headlines.

The real proof will be if Dorothy loses, then lands a cushy contracting job somewhere or a shot at a congressional seat in the near future. Maybe even a judgeship.

Bridgeport Moving On Up?

From the Channel 2 News:

• The success of the White Sox is fueling a renaissance around U.S. Cellular Field, and the old neighborhood is changing. One example of that is the end of the legendary bar, Jimbo's.

We've been through Bridgeport a number of times, and trust us, Bridgeport had nowhere to go BUT up. Seriously. The lack of any sort of amenities in the neighborhood surrounding "The Cell" did nothing for the area. People came, saw a game, and left. Now, with the nearby projects being leveled, HQ nearby and gentrification on the way, Bridgeport is poised for some big changes, not all of them good.

Another City Blogger

We aren't claiming to be the inspiration for any of this, but we'll help spread the word. In addition to the Chicago Dispatchers blog, it seems members of the CTA have started a blog, too.

CTA Sound Off began earlier this week. Although we have little to do with the CTA aside from answering calls on their buses and checking on their stations and such, it is kind of amusing to think that possibly, somewhere, a politician or two is shaking their heads now that the Police, the Dispatchers and the CTA workers have semi-public outlets that they can vent their gripes and complaints and expose wrongdoing in the "City that Works - Occasionally." CFD has had a site for a bit already, more along the lines of the old SecondCityCopNetwork.

Wouldn't it be something to get all the different City departments their own blogsites for exposing City corruption, crookedness, and business as usual type events and maybe bring some real reform to this burg? Maybe even a few County blogs? Wouldn't that be hilarious?