Chicago's Chicago Tea Party - part VI - Part of the Problem

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris

I call this photo, No Such Thing. And that is part of the problem here in Chicago, there really is no opposition party.

Chicago Chicago Tea Party - part V

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
Pioneer Court, North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago's Chicago Tea Party - part IV - Chicago Bloggers

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
Anne Leary of the Backyard Conservative shown here in red up on a platform with the very cold colonist. The original Tea Party was both more dangerous politically and warmer, December in Boston.

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris

John Ruberry, the Marathon Pundit shown appropriately dressed in funeral black, black hat and the checked scarf standing in front of Chicago's eternal flame erected "in memory of the men and women who have served in our Armed Forces from the Revolutionary War to the present. Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard Reserves."

Chicago's Chicago Tea Party - part III - Pioneer Court Art

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris

Pioneer Court contains public art including the front and rear ends of John Kearney's moose and J. Seward Johnson's God Bless America, a giant 3-D version of Grant Wood's American Gothic. The Chicago Picasso from the the protest kick off in Daley Plaza can be seen in this post. That pitch fork was needed for the Stimulus Bill.

Chicago's Chicago Tea Party - part II - This Family Brought a Tea Service!

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
Initially off on their own in Pioneer Court this family served tea.

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
This family came prepared.

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris

Tea Is Served! This family brought their own tea service to Chicago's Pioneer Court, on the Chicago River in front of the Chicago Tribune Building, inspiring the woman on the left to dump the tea. The property once held a nearly windowless warehouse that contained Chicago's Main Library.

As speeches were being made I looked around Pioneer Court and saw this family with a tea service, serving tea to passerby. Brilliant. I had to talk to those folks, they went to a protest for the same reasons the rest of went, they are concerned, alarmed may be more like it. The father is the one who commented on the difficulty even getting people who are basically "lone wolves" to publicly protest. I think he was speaking politically, as there are no survivalists left in Chicago, they headed for the hills years ago.

More thoughts and photos to follow.

Chicago's Chicago Tea Party

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
The rally started near the famous Chicago Picasso.

The crowd of maybe 500 turned out at Daley Plaza on this cold and windy Chicago morning. The Chicago Police then escorted the crowd on a march out of the loop, down Wacker Drive and across the Michigan Avenue Bridge to Pioneer Court next to the Chicago Tribune Building. One guy said to me, "well here you have it, a protest by lone wolves." This protest was put together in less than a week by people who clearly are not professional grievance mongers, it was more "grass roots" than almost any other Chicago protests that I've witnessed. The only politician I noticed was Republican Cook County Board member Tony Peraica, but I'm sure that I missed at least one, I think he spoke while I was talking to the family that brought a tea service. More on their great move when I post their photo.

It was nice to meet Anne of the Backyard Conservative, John from the Marathon Pundit and the Econopundit.

Chicago's Chicago Tea Party Today!

The Tea Party will be at Daley Plaza at 11:00 am, the march to the Michigan Avenue bridge kicks off at 11:15.

Be there.

World Trade Center Bombing - Old Enough to Get a Drivers License

Photo Copyright: FBI

Photo Copyright: FBI
The above photos show the basement levels of the World Trade Center after the February 26, 1993 bombing by Muslim jihadists.

Yep, 16 years ago today the World Trade Center was bombed by Islamic jihadists. One of my college roomates was in both attacks and his stories are hair raising.

Hat Tip: JammieWearingFool, who made the following comment that I agree with, "(l)et's see if anyone in the media or government even acknowledge this today.Very few, I suspect."

Chicago's Chicago Tea Party - We're on a Mission From God

Well unlike Jake and Elwood Blues we may not be on a mission from God but we are on a mission for common sense, to paraphrase Elwood Blues - Our Lady of Blessed Wisdom don't fail us now! The above video shows "the Honorable Richard J Daley Plaza" and as Joliet Jake famously said, "that's where they have that Picasso!"

Hopefully the National Guard will not need to be there with tanks but then again, this is Chicago.

As Flying Debris noted Monday, the Chicago Tea Party will be held at:

Daley Plaza
50 West Washington St.
Chicago
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM Friday February 27, 2009

There will be a march to the Michigan Avenue Bridge over the Chicago River, in front of the Chicago Tribune Building.

Also see the Backyard Conservative, the Marathon Pundit, Chicago Bungalow, Chicago Ray

Below is the trailer for the Blues Brothers movie.

Happy Mardi Gras!

It's Fat Tuesday again and New Orleans is rocking. Here are some live web cams and a video of last year's Zulu Parade.

Chicago Tea Party Location Set

Daley Plaza
50 West Washington St.
Chicago
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM Friday February 27, 2009

Via: Facebook

Obama Campaign Ripped Off Chicago

The city of Chicago is still owed $1.74 million for Obama's election night party in Grant Park. Good luck getting the money of the dishonest cheats in the Obama campaign Mr. Mayor.

It is notable that the Obama campaign is still in fundraising mode, I get e-mails every few days asking me to send money to poor old Barack, yet these people won't even pay their bills. Biggest campaign warchest ever and they won't pay their bills.

Please, will somebody tell the croooked people of the Obama campaign that the bill from Chicago is not their tax bill!

Update: Maybe Oprah will pay Obama's bill, after all she was in tears during Obama's speech, or as I posted on the Sun Times site at 8:43 this morning: Maybe the city should just charge those people who are driving around with those Obama, Hope and Change bumper stickers on their cars.

Islamic Rage Boy on New York Beheader

Islamic Rage Boy from This Week in Global Jihad has a complaint about the beheading of 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan it is that her husband, the owner of a television station killed his poor wife at the station without recording the act, unlike jihadists in mountain caves who lack millions of dollars of equipment or even electricity.



Hat Tip: JammieWearingFool

Ask Not How Many Jobs He Saved - Ask How Many Jobs He Lost

Instapundit notes Greg Mankiw's take on the Obama economic teams recent use of language:

The expression "create or save," which has been used regularly by the President and his economic team, is an act of political genius. You can measure how many jobs are created between two points in time. But there is no way to measure how many jobs are saved. Even if things get much, much worse, the President can say that there would have been 4 million fewer jobs without the stimulus.

The post title is a Flying Debris take on the future rhetoric.

Democratic Ally Subpoenas Blog Commenters

Flying Debris has twice written about the recent attempts by the Democrats of Chicago's Uptown community to silence opposition to their disgraceful policies, here and here. The major policy in question gives $60 million to a developer to build even more low income housing on former Chicago Transit Authority land a half mile from Lake Shore Drive at a cost of over $400,000 per unit.

Today the Chicago Journal has reported that the developer, a Mr. Holsten has subpoenaed Google for information on commenters on two Uptown blogs, Uptown Update, the fantastically named and now defunct What the Helen and two community group message boards. Chicago Alderman have a long held and well deserved reputation for withholding city services to those they don't like making this a real threat to many commenters.

This blog has been linked to by at least three of the four subpoenaed blogs and I have left comments on three of the four blogs, they are attempting to stifle my First Amendment right to free political speech through intimidation. Why participate if your garbage doesn't get picked up or your block starts to lack public services?

I do not live in Uptown, I get along well with my Alderman (I was an early supporter) so I am not affected by the threats however they are attempting to subpoena records on me, EL Rider. So on a day we get news that the Secret Service searched the home of a man with an anti-OBama, anti-abortion sign on his car we get news of Chicago Democrats attempting to intimidate Chicagoans exercising their First Amendment rights by leaving blog comments.

Hat Tip: Uptown Update

Traders Give Finger to Obama!

Check out this CNBC video of the great Rick Santelli on the CME floor going after Obama's latest disgaceful economic plan. I was in the Grain Room yesterday during Obama's speech and this shows the general feeling among this city's trading communnity.



Hat Tip: Drudge via Publia at the great Wilmette blog via e-mail

If it matters, like many Chicago traders I know Rick.

Update: The Corner has speculated on a Palin/Santelli ticket, beyond being on the bottom of any ticket it just doesn't seem like Rick, he did make a crack about having to shower every hour in DC.

My Chicago Neighbor and His Monkey

Photo Copyright: Scienceblogs

After the unbelievable chimpanzee attack in Connecticut I recalled my Chicago neighbor and his monkey.

Yep, I once had a next door neighbor who kept a monkey in his house and yard, that was one block north of Wrigley Field. I could not find any of my own monkey photos (this was pre-digital and those negatives are in storage) but for the people of Wrigleyville if I said, "I live next to the guy with the monkey" they knew exactly what I was talking about. My neighbor bought his Capuchin monkey from a Chicago pet store, in the '60s. The monkey had his own room in the basement and the room's window led to an outdoor cage, he once lived in the former carriage house until drunk people started going in there late at night and occasionally letting him out. My neighbor moved him inside after the police found him at 3:00 AM in a tree about a half mile away at Newport and Broadway, the heart of what was known as "Boys Town." I am not making that up.

Well the monkey was an interesting neighbor, he pretty much ran the show in that yard, among the five dogs and a dozen cats and he could be pretty nasty. One time a guy showed up whom I later learned was a vet, well that monkey gave meaning to the term "ape shit", he went nuts. He raced back and forth from his cage into the basement and then flung himself onto the cage and screeched at my neighbor and his friend, the vet. When my neighbor and the vet got close enough the monkey defecated in his hand and flung it at the vet.

On the plus side kids were entertained for hours by the fact that there was a monkey in a cage next door and the monkey loved the attention.

Bear Fan Rep. Mark Kirk Blasts House Leadership: "We Know Who Won the Super Bowl"

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) blasted the House leadership yesterday afternoon for focusing the House of Representatives on the Steelers Super Bowl victory (HR 110) instead of the serious economic issues at hand. Anne Schroeder Mullins of Politico talked to Mark afterwards and it sounds like he was still steamed, talking of the few people who were in the House chamber at the time Mark said “Originally they looked at me like, ‘what a guy from Chicago want to say about this? This is Pittsburgh vs. Arizona' but my point is bigger. Why are we talking about this and not talking about the stimulus?" To insure that his point was not lost he told Politico "(t)hree thousand to seven thousand Americans are watching CSPAN right now wondering what are these guys working on? We know who won the Super Bowl. And no, it’s not sour grapes, [The Bears] lost a long time ago."

Here is Rep. Kirk's floor speech:
I might just ask the leadership why we are debating this resolution, taking time away from serious debate on the hidden stimulus bill. Why, as the economy tanks, congressional leaders are voting to borrow $2 trillion but we’re debating National Engineers Week and a football resolution? Now I watched the game and it was a good game but it's not our core mission. We should be debating the $2 billion appropriation for "neighborhood stabilization" available to organizations currently under criminal scrutiny like ACORN, a new wellness fund, or a government medical effectiveness board now with powers to override decisions of you and your doctor. When we take up resolutions like this, it's because we are trying to distract members and the American people for knowing what they cannot read in the stimulus bill. We can debate the Super Bowl but the results are not in doubt. What we ought to be debating is should we borrow $2 trillion on behalf of the American people and does anyone have that cash? We debate Engineer Week instead of asking the Fed, when you "monetize" debt, doesn't that really mean you're printing money? It's resolutions like this that weaken the reputation of the U.S. –

Hat Tip: Backyard Conservative

No More Free Sunday Parking Meters in Chicago

Copyright: Flying Debris

For the time being this bike can still park for free everyday but autos parked here on Wells St. will have to feed the meter everyday.

 The City of Chicago has just completed a deal that privatized the city's parking meters and the Expired Meter helpfully reminds all of us what is entailed here. Higher rates and no free holidays or Sundays.

 Noted parking expert the Parking Ticket Geek wrote: "(m)ake sure you check all the signs and stickers on the front of your meter or pay & display machine."

Judd Gregg Withdraws Name From Commerce Dept. Consideration

His statement stated that he has vast differences with the administration over the alleged stimulus package and over the Obama plan to take the US Census into the White House.

Nothing on Google, CNBC just read the statement on air.

Happy Birthday Abe Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809.

Happy Birthday Sarah Palin

Copyright: NBC

Palin with Lorne Michaels during her SNL appearance last fall.

Global Warming Continues - Record Low Temp Confirmed in Maine

It was 50 degrees below zero at a USGS station at Big Black River near Depot Mountain in northwestern Aroostook County, Maine last January 16. That low surpassed the previous record of 48 below zero on January 19, 1925. No word on whether Al Gore was in Maine that day.

Having just finished what NASA, referring to recent sunspot activity described as the "Blankest Year of the Space Age" the brutal cold weather in America marches on. This recent heat wave is very welcome however it appears that we will soon return to the February norm of cold weather.

Hat Tip: Watts Up With That

What's Next for Putin - the Village People?

Mach, Macho Man Vlad Putin - ABBA fan.

Apparently the macho, macho man Vlad Putin is an ABBA fan, can the Village People be far behind?

More on Connected Chicagoans Who Threaten Bloggers - $400,000 per "Low-Income" Condo on Subsidized Land

Here is a video put out by the Fix Wilson Yard organization (FWY), the organization that filed the suit against the city of Chicago and Wilson Yard developer Peter Holsten. Mr. Holsten is the developer whose legal team has subpoenaed Uptown bloggers and community organizations. The FWY charges outline a disgrace, the city has promised to give the developer over $60,000,000 in tax revenues and their question is very simple, why does this guy need a subsidy for land that is a 1/2 mile from Lake Shore Drive and a 1/2 mile from Wrigley Field? I also must ask why, other than trying to get more votes for Alderman Shiller, the Uptown neighborhood should be further subjected to the problems of low-income subsidized housing? The neighborhood has more than enough problems with gang banging street dealers as it is. For this subsidy the developer has apparently promised condos for low-income families that cost over $400,000 - on subsidized land. What kind of business are we talking about here?




The discussion over how to proceed with the redevelopment of Wilson Yard started after the Yard burned down in 1996, I lived near Wrigley Field at the time and you could smell the odor of embers for weeks afterwards but the stench of Chicago politics has lingered over the Yards for more than a decade.

Hat Tip: Chicago News Bench

Russian Ruble Hitting the Fan Tonight

The great new blog Zero Hedge is staying up late with the Bloomberg FOREX service to bring us the blow by blow in the Ruble market. Earlier this evening Bloomberg had this story concerning Russian banks rescheduling $400 billion in debt. The Russian problems are European problems and the rout in both the Euro currency and the Ruble started a little before 6:00 PM (CDT) Monday night.

Senate Votes Cloture for 6-Foot Crap Sandwich

Here is the opening of last Saturday night's Saturday Night Live.

Welcome to Chicago UAW

Copyright: Gary Varvel, Indianapolis Star Tribune (here is his blog)

The Chicago Auto Show starts this week so the above cartoon is just a little "Flying Debris Welcome" to the UAW leadership.

Is Joe Satriani Up for a Grammy?

Look I like Coldplay's Viva la Vida just fine but it is Joe Satriani's If I Could Fly with words. And sure, the melody probably even came from somewhere else. I am not a fan of Satriani so I was surprised at how much I liked that song four or five years ago when I first heard it, so sure the Coldplay song also sounded pretty good. Just saying.

Hoped For Change at DOJ Under Way...

...That is if you missed the Clinton Department of Justice. Here we are less than three weeks into the Obama administration and already the Department of Justice has "inadvertently" sent the unproven allegations of a convicted fraudster against the new RNC Chairman Michael Steele to the Washington Post. The felon's allegations against Steele involve illegal use of campaign funds three years ago, a charge like that involves fund transfers (checks usually) that are easy to track, the felon sought leniency with his claims however the Post's own reporting states that "(p)rosecutors gave him no credit for cooperation when he was sentenced in October." The facts that the allegations are easy to track down and the Justice Department refused to give the accuser any benefit for his allegations should tell the reasonable observer that this is a load of hooey. However the defense's sentencing memorandum was sent to the Post because "(t)he U.S. attorney's office inadvertently sent the confidential document, a defense sentencing memorandum filed under seal, to The Washington Post after the newspaper requested the prosecution's sentencing memorandum" which tells me that using the Department of Justice to smear political opponents is "cool" again. Thanks Democrats. 

Hat Tip: the Corner, Instapundit

The Daschle Deal!

Copyright: Gary Varvel, Indianapolis Star Tribune (here is his blog - go check it out)

Chicago Bloggers Threatened!

The bloggers at the fantastic Chicago blog Uptown Update and the now defunct blog What the Helen have been subpoenaed by a developer of the notorious Wilson Yard project in the Uptown neighborhood. Additionally two Uptown community groups have recently been subpoenaed, the Uptown Neighborhood Council and the Buena Park Neighbors. The Wilson Yard issue involves the subsidized development of a former Chicago Transit Authority rail yard that has been under what could best be described as negotiations for what seems like a decade. The city and the CTA reached an agreement with the neighborhood and the Alderman for a development that limited further subsidized low income housing that the area is chock full of. Well the Alderman up there, Helen Shiller gets herself reelected every four years with the support of the far left and the poor, the numerous homeless shelters in the neighborhood have voting participation levels that would make Kim Jong Il happy so there has been an ongoing dispute over the number of subsidized units that would be part of the development and the role of a local TIF (tax increment financing). The TIF program has been controversial in its own right and its use in this project using former public property has only added to the Wilson Yard controversy.

Flying Debris wrote about Uptown and Helen Shiller in Could This Possibly Be Legal? Chicago’s 46th Ward:

During the 1980s and into the 1990s Shiller was helped by her then sidekick Walter “Slim” Coleman, a Marxist hazard from Harvard who is now a Methodist Minister and is providing “sanctuary” to Elvira Arellano at his Aldalberto United Methodist Church here in Chicago. Slim helped Helen perfect the strong-arm fraudulent politics that has become the norm in the Uptown neighborhood. It really is a shame because the neighborhood has some very beautiful housing stock and it runs along the shore of Lake Michigan. Don’t even get me started on the confluence of gangs, heroin, shelters and the powers that be in Uptown. Let me put it this way, between McCormick Place and Waukegan, a distance of over 45 miles of lake shore the least expensive property near the lake is 7 ½ miles north of McCormick Place in Helen Shiller’s 46th ward. It has been common knowledge that for Uptown to get past its problems that there needs to be a political change in the 46th Ward.

It is very interesting to note the comment left on that post by her last opponent, Democrat James Cappelman several months after the election:

A week before the election, just as we expected, Shiller campaign literature was distributed to the CHA and HUD high rises suggesting that I was a member of the Klan; that I wanted to round up all the neighborhood children and have them arrested on the spot; that I called for the closing of the local high school; that I was against all affordable housing; that I was against all job training; that I thought all poor people were a "waste of space"; and that I represented the worst of the Republican Party. It was all the usual tricks she has done at every election.

(snip)

As a former Franciscan friar who took in people off the street, as a social worker at a children's hospital located in a poverty-striken area on the Southside, as a recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award, as a co-founder of a homeless shelter, as an openly gay man who understands discrimination first-hand, and as a very liberal Democrat, I hardly think that there is a risk I would suddenly lose all my values of being an advocate for others when elected alderman. However, you would never know it from listening to the rhetoric spewed out from Shiller's campaign.

Sadly for James and all of us who live in Chicago we will likely see more such campaigning, especially if Helen's side wins this round by intimidating their opponents.

Update: thanks to Professor Reynolds for the link from Instapundit.

38 Years Ago Today Alan Shepard Played Golf On the Moon

On February 6, 1971 Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell walked on the moon for the second time in as many days, during the EVA Shepard shot two golf balls with a make-shift six iron, made from the handle of a sample return pole. I like the fact that he gets flak from Mission Control (Gene Cernan?) about the first shot possibly being a slice. Two-hundred and thirty thousand miles from home and your buddies are still razzing you about your golf game.

Sixty-eight years, one month and twenty days after the Wright Brothers first flew their canvas covered Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk Alan Shepard played golf on the moon, try that on the next person who tells you that "the science is over and conclusive" (anthropological global warming) or "man cannot do that" (missile defense). Not to be outdone Edgar Mitchell performed the javelin toss, making the mission the first lunar Olympics. Enjoy the NASA film.

Walter Rohrl Drives the New Porsche 911 GT3

Chicago Democrats to Run National Census!

How will the Democrats excuse this one? The White House, now in the hands of Chicago Democrats will be running the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau has been part of the Commerce Department but the mere fact that the Obama administration has appointed a Republican to run the Commerce Department provides the sort of cover needed by the Obama administration to pull off this type of banana republic power grab. As President Obama was once allied with the notorious serial vote fraud group ACORN the fraud could be devastating to non-Democratic areas.

Hat Tip: Instapundit

San Francisco Madame vs. Box of Rocks

The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) has lost to the second-string Box of Rocks due to the fact that the Box of Rocks knew that there are not 500,000,000 people in the United States. Here is a clip of the San Francisco Madame telling an audience that if her latest Porkapalooza Bill (2009 HR 1) is not passed then "Five-Hundred-Million Americans lose their jobs."



To call this woman a bimbo is an insult to Britteny Spears, the YouTube poster helpfully described the San Francisco Madame as "Dumber Than Soap", I would like to add Dumber Than Dirt.

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit

Daschle Withdraws Nomination

No Google result yet but CNBC just announced that Sen. Tom Daschle has withdrawn his name from consideration as Secretary of HHS.

The Music Died 50 Years Ago Today

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson). Here is Buddy Holly and the Crickets playing the Holly classic Peggy Sue on the Arthur Murray Dance Party on December 29, 1957.



Here is the Grateful Dead playing the Holly classic Not Fade Away at the Oakland Coliseum on New Years Eve 1985. Many people under the age of 50 only know Not Fade Away from the Grateful Dead, as you can see it was often a sing-along.




Here are the Rolling Stones playing Not Fade Away in 1964.



Hat Tip: Lin Bremer on WXRT radio.

Marc Rich Patsy Now Attorney General

 Nothing yet on Google but televised reports say that Eric Holder has been confirmed as Attorney General. Flying Debris commented on Mr. Holder and his disgraceful actions during the Marc Rich pardon episode here.

Sean Penn Finds Snowmachine to "Save Kentucky!"

In reaction to the ice storm disaster in Kentucky Oscar winner and noted liberal activist Sean Penn has flown to the state to work as a volunteer. Contacted yesterday by cell phone on the ground in Kentucky Penn found a few moments to talk about his new snowmachine and how he found "that baby in a Hollywood back lot - take that Todd Palin!" Penn said that he was "here to help my people." Asked about his new snowmachine Penn stated that he shipped the machine from LA on Friday morning and that he hoped to help "the folks in the hollers" by Sunday afternoon. When Penn was asked if he had anything to say to President Obama that would help his people Penn said, "they're not really my people."

Penn shown helpfully bailing out his rented bass boat in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The Gateway Pundit has another reaction to the ignored disaster in Kentucky.

Warning: Some of the above is satire.

Obama Congratulates Own Kind - Neglects Military

The White House needs Bill Curtis to help them find the Internet. Yesterday Iraq successfully held provincial elections and while congratulating the government of Iraq President Obama congratulated the UN for their technical assistance, saying that the Iraqi government, NGOs and the UN "performed professionally under difficult circumstances." In that statement Obama neglected to mention the fact that without the United States military Iraq would not only have not held elections yesterday but that nation's leaders would still be employing rape rooms for fun and profit. Nor did Obama mention the fact that when things got tough in Iraq, the UN largely left the country.

On congratulating the feckless United Nations I guess that Obama was relying on the fact that Iraqi election law established a commission to guide future elections, unfortunately for Obama and the hapless people in the White House the committee has yet to be formed. President Obama is just another typical Democratic politician, in this case Obama went out and trumpeted a success that he had absolutely nothing to do with, a success that he in fact fought against and while doing so he congratulated a similar moral and strategic zero that had also fought against the establishment of an elected government in Iraq. All the while Obama has ignored the people who fought and died in order to rid Iraq of the predatory animals who stood against democratic elections. Yesterday was Obama's eleventh day in office.

Speaking of those brave Americans, here is a blog post from a (former?) member of the US Army who was on the ground guarding ballots during the 2005 Iraqi elections, in a comment on this Gateway Pundit post at 7:52 this morning kudzu630 wrote: "I was in Iraq in 2005, helped secure an election facility (see my blog) and saw how hard they the Iraqis worked to get it right. There was no UN. The UN cut and ran years ago and only had one or two workers I ran into in Baghdad. My CINC has now completely diminished the role the military has played in establishing a peaceful and democratically based Iraq."

If the Commander-in-Chief can't say it I will, thank you to all US service personnel and thank you kudzu630 and please pass that on to your colleagues at Fort Benning. There are Chicagoans who understand and appreciate your sacrifices.

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit