Year: 2008

The Oberweis Reality Tour: Bush on Steroids

Posted on by TL

The way Jim Oberweis sees it, he just needs one more chance to explain himself to the voters. After a past unsuccessful bids for the United States Senate and Illinois governor, Jim simply feels he hasn’t had the chance to really tell the voters who he is. So, he’s going to try to explain himself again to the voters as he makes an attempt to unseat Congressman Bill Foster in the 14th Congressional District.

Before we take the “Oberweis Reality Tour” together, let’s first listen to Jim:

“The opportunity is there,” Oberweis said during a visit to The Courier News. “If we can explain to voters where we are on the issues … I believe I’ll win. I do believe my views represent the majority of views in the 14th District. But we didn’t do a very good job of communicating our views.”

Jim doesn’t want this fall’s campaign to turn ugly and negative. He wants to tell you who he really is.

“It became well-known that my opponent was going to portray me as a George Bush clone,” Oberweis said. “I didn’t think there was any way they could possibly do that. I was wrong.”

So, Oberweis was just misunderstood.

I don’t think so. The reality is, Jim Oberweis is George Bush on steroids, and the voters in the 14th Congressional District need to watch out.

Let’s start with Oberweis’ Final Solution on immigration: send back the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants immediately. Perhaps he’ll even throw in a carton of milk for the bus ride back. According to the ArchPundit:

Oberweis staked out the hardcore send back 12 million people immediately and no exceptions kind of policy and not only embraced the position, but embraced fairly radical anti-immigrant activist organizations.

Most amazing is that John McCain, long a reasonable voice on the immigration debate embraced Oberweis as McCain’s flip flop to the dark side of several issues continues.

Oberweis is a Board of Director for NumbersUSA which is one of the leading right wing anti-immigration groups.

He’s spoken at Illinois Minutemen meetings such as this one on May 6, 2006 mntmn017.wav

And despite railing on the businesses using undocumented workers, Oberweis Dairy never wondered why the company cleaning for them could afford to do the work they were doing. Turns out the contractor were paying below minimum wage for undocumented workers.

According to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, two undocumented workers brought a complaint to the Illinois Department of Labor against Oberweis Dairies for violating Illinois and federal minimum wage laws and failing to fully pay its employees:

Meet Rosa Ramirez and Jorge Ibarra — two undocumented workers who live and work in northwest suburban Chicago. Rosa, who is 41, and Jorge, who is 34, were both hired on May 1, 2005 to clean three Oberweis Dairy stores. The stores are located at 9 East Dundee Road, Arlington Heights, 1405 Palatine Road, Hoffman Estates, and 30 South Roselle Road in Schaumburg.

In fact, according to the ICIRR, these workers were paid less than half of minimum wage to clean Oberweis’ Ice Cream Stores:

“Mr. Oberweis has exploited these workers twice,” says Joshua Hoyt, Executive Director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “First he exploited them for cheap labor, and then he exploited them by demagoging their illegal status for cheap votes. We have asked that the Illinois Department of Labor conduct a full investigation into Mr. Oberweis’ employment practices. No one likes a hypocrite,” Hoyt continued, “and Mr. Oberweis’ hypocrisy just shows how our economy is powered by the labor of undocumented immigrants like Rosa and Jorge.”

So, we need to deport 12 million people, but, in the meantime, it’s okay to hire them to do our dirty work?

Who’s cleaning your toilets, Mr. Oberweis?

Hillary Clinton will ‘strongly’ back Barack Obama

Posted on by TL

From HillaryClinton.com:

Dear Friend,

I wanted you to be one of the first to know: on Saturday, I will hold an event in Washington D.C. to thank everyone who has supported my campaign. Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many people working for our campaign. Every minute you put into helping us win, every dollar you gave to keep up the fight meant more to me than I can ever possibly tell you.

On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.

I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party’s nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.

When I decided to run for president, I knew exactly why I was getting into this race: to work hard every day for the millions of Americans who need a voice in the White House.

I made you — and everyone who supported me — a promise: to stand up for our shared values and to never back down. I’m going to keep that promise today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life.

I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise.

I know as I continue my lifelong work for a stronger America and a better world, I will turn to you for the support, the strength, and the commitment that you have shown me in the past 16 months. And I will always keep faith with the issues and causes that are important to you.

In the past few days, you have shown that support once again with hundreds of thousands of messages to the campaign, and again, I am touched by your thoughtfulness and kindness.

I can never possibly express my gratitude, so let me say simply, thank you.

Sincerely,

Hillary

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Full-speed ahead to the White House.  Republicans are terribly overconfident, and Democrats have a ton of work to do.  Focus must remain on policy differences: McCain/Bush II, or a strong voice for diplomacy and common sense in Barack Obama.

The candidates couldn’t be more different.

History and Barack Obama

Posted on by TL

Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination for president, and Hillary Clinton is ready to call it quits on Friday or Saturday:

‘Senator Clinton will be hosting an event in Washington, D.C., to thank her supporters and express her support for Senator Obama and party unity. This event will be held on Saturday to accommodate more of Senator Clinton’s supporters who want to attend,’’ her communications director Howard Wolfson said.

For months, the right wing has been calling on Republicans to vote for Clinton in open primaries. I have a long-time Republican friend who told me he took a Democratic ballot in Illinois to vote for Hillary Clinton, because Republicans thought she was the easy win.

Or was that just more Republican “Strategerey,” as “W” would say? Were they really hoping for Obama? Could it be that the last several months were just a ploy to set up Obama as the nominee, and usher in an easy win for John McCain?

I don’t think so. McCain has reason to worry. If Hillary and Barack do finally embrace sometime this weekend, it’s history.

History.

This entire primary season has been about history, and I’m extremely proud to be a Democrat. It was the Democrats who had a woman and a black man as the last “men” standing from an outstanding field of potential nominees.

A woman and a black man, front and center, as our potential nominees. Think about that when the Republicans roll out their closet minorities onto that Minneapolis stage in September. The Republicans play lip service to those who have been stepped on in history.

The Democrats nominate them to lead.

Hillary Clinton deserves our thanks. She and Barack have written a new history together.

I’m thinking of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present. It’s often said that history is written by the winners, but that doesn’t mean those who lost didn’t write history. Zinn tells the history of the United States through the eyes of those who did not fare as well as white men. This is a history that has gone unnoticed for too long in the schools, but is finally making its way into mainstream textbooks in the grade schools and high schools.

A more recent publication by Dahr Jamail, Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, tells the same sad story again. Thanks to the Internet, we don’t have to wait hundreds of years to hear the people speak. Jamail and those working with him give voice to Iraq, reporting different voices from the Iraqis than the mainstream press, the “embedded” journalists, would tell.

History, rewritten. And last night, rewritten again by Barack Obama.

As we finally enter the last months of this presidential campaign, we must remember first that John McCain is a good man who served this country well. His wife, Cindy, is a wonderful humanitarian. They are good Americans, but that is not enough.

John McCain is the wrong choice for president.

John McCain has closely allied himself with the philosophy of President George W. Bush. He didn’t have to embrace Bush, but he did. John McCain is running a campaign to continue the policies of George Bush. But more than seven years of history, and ages before that for anyone who has studied history, demonstrate the failures of those many policies that have left the United States with a dollar weaker than both the Euro and the Canadian dollar.

I recall my first meeting with Senator Obama at “the Barn” in Olympia Fields. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., had introduced Barack Obama to a relatively small group of elected officials who had gathered to learn more about the man, who was running for the U.S. Senate at the time. He was approachable, and he listened. No Secret Service. No huge, screaming crowds. Just Barack Obama making his case to a small gathering of elected officials. He listened to me. He spoke with me. I was satisfied that I had been heard.

He listens.

It’s time for change — a radical break from the imperialist policies of the past seven-plus years. It’s time for healing, to reestablish relationships and rebuild our squandered credibility with the rest of the world.

It’s time for history.

It’s time for Barack Obama.

Rezko convicted – all eyes on Blagojevich

Posted on by TL

From the Chicago Tribune:

A federal jury today convicted developer Antoin “Tony” Rezko of corruption charges for trading on his clout as a top adviser and fundraiser to Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

And there you have it in one sentence: Rezko – Blagojevich, Blagojevich – Rezko.

Barack Obama, who once counted Rezko as a friend, commented also:

“I’m saddened by today’s verdict,” Obama said Wednesday. “This isn’t the Tony Rezko I knew, but now he has been convicted by a jury on multiple charges that once again shine a spotlight on the need for reform. I encourage the General Assembly to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent these kinds of abuses in the future.”

The Chicago Sun-Times links Blago and Rezko:

A federal jury in Chicago convicted Rezko this afternoon on 16 of 24 charges he faced in a political corruption trial that cast a harsh light on the Blagojevich administration.

It’s only a matter of time until we hear the words “Blagojevich” and “indictment” in the same sentence. That will be a sad day for Illinois, but it’s coming.

OMG. The Penguins won!

Posted on by TL

Sidney CrosbyI’m still reeling.

Here’s the definition of “reeling” I’m thinking of, courtesy Dictionary.com: “A staggering, swaying, or whirling movement.”

The Pittsburgh Penguins won game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. It was an unbelievable game.

If you missed it, you missed some of the most exciting moments in the history of hockey.

These kids can play — and play they did.

Hats off to Sidney Crosby and the entire Pittsburgh Penguins team.

This was an electric night.

Pfleger Pflummoxes with Pfustian Prelection

Posted on by TL

Archbishop George must have turned Cardinal red.

What was the Rev. Michael Pfleger thinking? Was he jealous of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? Did he really want to make his debut on the world stage on You Tube?

Pfleger’s rant was juvenile and sad:

”I really don’t believe it was put on,” Pfleger said. ”I really believe that she just always thought, ‘This is mine! I’m Bill’s wife, I’m white, and this is mine! I just gotta get up and step into the plate.’ And then out of nowhere came, ‘Hey, I’m Barack Obama,’ and she said, ‘Oh, damn! Where did you come from? I’m white! I’m entitled! There’s a black man stealing my show!’ ”

Mimicking Clinton mopping tears, Pfleger added, “She wasn’t the only one crying, there was a whole lot of white people crying.”

Cardinal George clamped down:

“To avoid months of turmoil in the church, Fr. Pfleger has promised me that he will not enter into campaigning, will not publicly mention any candidate by name and will abide by the discipline common to all Catholic priests.”

Pfleger apologized:

“I apologize for the words that I chose. I apologize for my dramatization that was, for many people who do not know me, simply typical dramatics I often use in sermons,” said Pfleger, reading from a statement as nearly two dozen church leaders surrounded him. “I apologize for anyone who was offended and who thought it to be mockery, that was neither my intent, nor my heart.”

What is truly sad in all of this is, Pfleger is a good man. He is. And we desperately need a dialog on race in this country. White entitlement is real, but Hillary Clinton is not running because she feels entitled. That’s just silly. Hillary is doing something historic, and she should stay there as long as she pleases.

But the Democratic nominee will be Barack Obama, and the overwhelming majority of Democrats, whether they support Clinton or Obama not, will support Obama in November.

Pfleger will, well, pfade. He’ll be a priest again, and that is as it should be.

Barack Obama resigned his membership at Trinity, and that’s probably a good thing for now. Republicans are salivating, but that is only temporary. Only Democrats are having a dialog on race — and every other social issue, for that matter. Republicans embrace social issues and “compassion” once every four years, tops.

Look, McCain/Bush2 will no doubt fill the stage at the Republican Convention with every minority and minority child he can find in the Republican ranks, but that will be an artificial statement.

It’s still time for change. That’s the only constant in this election cycle.

Want to be a witness at the R. Kelly trial?

Posted on by TL

This could be your chance to make the big leagues.  After six years of lurid publicity, the defense has suddenly unearthed a surprise witness.  After six years of delays, the defense claims a witness called them today, for the first time.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times:

Testimony from a woman who says she had a sexual encounter with R. Kelly and an underage girl could be undermined by another witness in the singer’s child pornography trial who claims to know damaging information about the woman.

The judge abruptly halted proceedings Wednesday about an hour before the woman, who is from Georgia, was set to testify that she had an encounter with both the R&B superstar and the female who is depicted in a sex videotape at the heart of case. The Georgia woman also was expected to tell the jury that the woman was a minor at the time of the video recording.

The show will go on.  I’m just a bit surprised at this development.  How likely is it that a new witness no one apparently knew about would call the very day this woman was set to testify?  That’s downright uncanny, as if this witness, a man, had some kind of sixth “R. Kelly” sense.

The defense appeared to be as shocked as well:

“We never knew about the witness until 9 a.m. [Wednesday],” defense attorney Sam Adam Sr. said. “The witness called us.”

Want to be a witness at the R. Kelly trial?  Apparently there are still openings.

This one ain’t over until R. Kelly sings.

Will Bush free George Ryan?

Posted on by TL

Former Illinois Governor George Ryan received bleak news today as the United States Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal. According to the Sun-Times:

Ryan was convicted in April 2006 of steering contracts to lobbyists and other friends, tax fraud, misuse of tax dollars and state workers and squelching an investigation of links between bribery and fundraising.

He was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison.

Earlier today, former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson announced that he would ask President George W. Bush to commute Ryan’s sentence, thereby releasing Ryan, who has been in prison since last fall.

Ryan is 74-years-old. He would be eligible for a 15 percent reduction in his sentence for good behavior.

I don’t know what the president is going to do. Bush has nothing to gain from this, and he has nothing left to lose. He already commuted the sentence of I. Lewis ”Scooter” Libby, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff. Would he do a solid for another convicted member of the GOP?

I suspect he might.

Bush may decide to wait until the 11th hour and commute Ryan’s sentence on January 19, 2009. There are justice issues to contend with, but Bush doesn’t seem to have much of a passion for justice, nor does he demonstrate any deep understanding of or respect for Constitutional law.

Of course, Ryan could be out by Saturday and working as a consultant for Halliburton by Monday.

College students going green

Posted on by TL

A group of students at Ohio’s Oberlin College are demonstrating leadership in efforts to reduce carbon emissions. With so many efforts to educate the public about global warming being dismissed as political stunts by liberals, it’s nice to see common sense thinking from our young people.

The New York Times highlights one effort at a new sustainability house — SEED, for Student Experiment in Ecological Design — at Oberlin. The students time their showers, earning bragging rights when they’re the first to turn the water off:

Lucas Brown, a junior at Oberlin College here, was still wet from the shower the other morning as he entered his score on the neon green message board next to the bathroom sink: Three minutes, according to the plastic hourglass timer inside the shower. Two minutes faster than the morning before. One minute faster than two of his housemates.

Mr. Brown, a 21-year-old economics major, recalled the marathon runner who lived in the house last semester, saying: “He came out of the shower one morning and yelled out: ‘Two minutes 18 seconds. Beat that, Lucas!’ ”

The concept is billed as a sustainability house — SEED, for Student Experiment in Ecological Design — “a microcosm of a growing sustainability movement on campuses nationwide, from small liberal arts colleges like Oberlin and Middlebury, in Vermont, to Lansing Community College in Michigan, to Morehouse in Atlanta, to public universities like the University of New Hampshire,” according to the NYTimes.

“It’s not about telling people, ‘You have to do this, you have to do that,’ ” Mr. Brown said. “It’s about fitting sustainability into our own lives.” And hoping, he added, “that a friend will come over, recognize that it’s fun, start doing it, and then a friend of theirs will start doing it.”

And, sorry, Jon Stewart, the students do not watch television. In fact, it sounds like they decided to put into practice what many teach. For example, they’ve decided to unplug one of the house refrigerators, further reducing their carbon footprint.

The unplugging of the refrigerator was not so easy. The house is divided in two, and each half has a kitchen. With everyone eating meals at a nearby student-run co-op, a decision was made to save energy by disconnecting the refrigerator and appliances in one kitchen. But which one?

“The fridge was kind of controversial,” Ms. Bob-Waksberg said. “We kind of had a little feud going on for a while. We talked it out.”

These students are simply demonstrating leadership in an area that is still new to many adults.

My high school students are not so easily convinced that global warming is real. Much of this is due to the influence of their parents, who see it as a completely political issue.

But to what end, I wonder? Why would the overwhelming majority of scientists, who, incidentally, are not paid by oil companies, speak with such a unified voice that we need to take steps to save our planet now?

Any discussions I’ve had with people who are not convinced about the reality of global warming inevitably turn to arguments economic — not scientific. Serious acknowledgment of the reality of global warming, after all, would mean reconsideration of our national policies on energy, and, specifically, on oil. We could not have this discussion without seriously reconsidering our national policies on oil.

Why should we take global warming seriously at all?

Why, indeed? Unless the risk of non-action resulted in disaster for the human race, and the universe going on without us?