Category: Rant

Rev. Warren: Obama’s First Big Mistake

Posted on by TL

Barack Obama and Rev. WarrenNo matter how try to I spin this in my mind, it still makes no sense.

Why did President-elect Barack Obama invite Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration?  Warren is the senior pastor of Saddleback Church in southern California, a man who supported Proposition 8 in California, the California constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

Why him?  What kind of pandering is this?  Why honor Homophobia-incarnate front-and-center on such an historic occasion?

Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign, perhaps put it best in an open letter to the President-elect:

Let me get right to the point.  Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans.   Our loss in California over the passage of Proposition 8 which stripped loving, committed same-sex couples of their given legal right to marry is the greatest loss our community has faced in 40 years.  And by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table.

Rick Warren has not sat on the sidelines in the fight for basic equality and fairness.  In fact, Rev. Warren spoke out vocally in support of Prop 8 in California saying, “there is no need to change the universal, historical definition of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population … This is not a political issue — it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about.”  Furthermore, he continues to misrepresent marriage equality as silencing his religious views. This was a lie during the battle over Proposition 8, and it’s a lie today.

We will forever remember Bill Clinton’s First Big Mistake, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” his infamous collapse as Commander-in-chief before the far right forces of the military?

Has Warren undergone a conversion in the last few weeks?  The HRC has been calling for religious leaders to join the fight against Homophobia for years.  Warren is Homophobia personified.

Sorry, I don’t get it, Barack.

Who’s next?  Bob Jones University President Steven Jones for evening prayer?

Let the pandering begin.

San Diego Union-Tribune’s Robert Kiddle: “Obama is articulate”

Posted on by TL

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

I watched the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer this evening.  Robert Kiddle, the editorial page editor of The San Diego Union-Tribune, explained why his editorial staff endorsed John McCain.

During the interview, Kiddle gave Obama credit, saying he was “articulate.”

Yup.  He really said it.

So what’s the problem with the word “articulate?”  I’ll let Lynette Clemetson explain:

It is amazing that this still requires clarification, but here it is. Black people get a little testy when white people call them “articulate.”

Anna Perez, the former communications counselor for Ms. Rice when she was national security adviser, said, “You just stand and wonder, ‘When will this foolishness end?’ ”

That is the core of the issue. When whites use the word in reference to blacks, it often carries a subtext of amazement, even bewilderment. It is similar to praising a female executive or politician by calling her “tough” or “a rational decision-maker.”

“When people say it, what they are really saying is that someone is articulate … for a black person,” Ms. Perez said.

Make sure you click over and read Clemetson’s entire article, Mr. Kiddle.  As an editor of such a prestigious newspaper, you should be more mindful of the nuances of language.

Unless, of course, you already are.

Listen to Kiddle here at the Jim Lehrer NewsHour.

Woman Fabricated Story About Political Attack

Posted on by TL

Want to know how to get John McCain and Sarah Palin on the phone?

On Wednesday, Ashley Todd, a 20-year-old college student of College Station, Texas, said she was using an ATM at in Pittsburgh just before 9 p.m. Wednesday when a man approached her and put a knife to her throat.  Todd was in Pittsburgh campaigning for John McCain.

The report gets uglier:

Police spokeswoman Diane Richard said Todd told them the robber took $60, then became angry when he saw a McCain bumper sticker on the victim’s car. The attacker then punched and kicked the victim, before using a dull knife to scratch the letter “B” into her face, Richard said.

“She further stated that the male actor approached her from the back again and hit her in the back of her head with an object, she doesn’t know what the object was, causing her to fall to the ground where he continued to punch her and kick her and threaten to ‘teach her a lesson’ for being a McCain supporter,” Richard said.

The story made the national morning shows Thursday.  By midmorning, Pittsburgh Police said they were suspicious, and by Friday mid-afternoon, police said Todd had made the whole thing up.

From KDKA (America’s first radio station) in Pittsburgh:

Police say a campaign volunteer confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter B in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.

At a news conference this afternoon, officials said they believe that Ashley Todd’s injuries were self-inflicted.

Todd, 20, of Texas, is now facing charges for filing a false report to police.

Todd initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.

Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began to notice some inconsistencies in her story and administered a polygraph test.

There was more to the story.  According to police, Todd also alleged that she was sexually assaulted by this man.  While holding her on the ground, he fondled her:

Police spokeswoman, Diane Richard explained,

“She further stated that the male approached her from the back again and hit her in the back of her head with an object, she doesn’t know what the object was, causing her to fall to the ground where he continued to punch her and kick her and threaten to ‘teach her a lesson’ for being a McCain supporter,” Richard said.

“She also indicated she was sexually assaulted as well. She indicated that when he had her on the ground he put his hand up her blouse and started fondling her. But other than that, she says she doesn’t remember anything else. So we’re adding a sexual assault to this as well.”

A Pittsburgh police commander told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that Todd confessed to making up the story.

Talk about your blame-it-on-the-black-man 15 minutes of fame.

Here’s what I don’t get.  Set aside that we now know that Ms. Todd made the whole thing up, possibly mutilitating herself for effect.  Forget for a moment that this is a disturbed young woman who will someday, hopefully, look back on this with rue and wonder, “What the hell was I thinking?”

I simply don’t understand the personal response of two alleged adults from the McCain campaign:

On Thursday, The Obama-Biden campaign released a statement, commenting on the attack. The statement said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the young woman for her to make a speedy recovery, and we hope that the person who perpetrated this crime is swiftly apprehended and brought to justice.”

The McCain-Palin campaign also released a statement saying, “The McCain campaign is aware of the incident involving one of its volunteers. Out of respect, the campaign won’t be commenting. The campaign also confirms that Senator McCain and Governor Palin have both spoken to the woman.”

McCain and Palin both spoke to her?  What did they say to Ashley the Liar?

Is that all it takes to get Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin on the phone?  Didn’t the candidates think for a minute that this might be a complete fabrication?  Did the candidates investigate this situation at all?

They should have called conservative blogger Michelle Malkin first.  While I disagree with Malkin’s blanket reprimand to those of us on the left …

And those of you on the left who are now so interested in debunking despicable hate crimes might show a little more skepticism yourselves next time when similar narratives hit the news pages involving politically correct hoaxers who share your politics.

… I agree with her call for a critical eye and restraint when reports like these surface:

Final lesson: Trust your instincts. Use your brains. Stop jumping every time Drudge hypes something in Armageddon-sized font.

Amen to that!

My final thoughts are for Ms. Todd.

Go home to Texas after you’ve answered the charges you now face in Pittsburgh.  Get out of the spotlight.  Stay away from the media.  Get help if you need it.  Someday, hopefully, you’ll find that those of us on the left can be pretty forgiving.  You’re actually going to need a real job some day soon, and your future employer, who might even be an African American man, will need to look past this.

But, really, what were you thinking?

Jon Burge Indicted on Allegations of Torture

Posted on by TL

Former Chicago police commander Jon Burge was arrested in Florida, “finally,” according to the Sun-Times.

Apparently Burge just saw the seven page indictment when the judge walked in:

Burge put on the glasses, leaned back in his chair and started reading the indictment against him when the judge walked in. The judge asked if he had read the charges against him.

“I just started reading it when you got on the bench, your honor,” Burge answered in a thick Chicago accent.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas B. McCoun III gave him time to read it and explained to him he was charged with crimes “dating back to the city of Chicago police department,” saying the allegations have to do with torture or physical abuse of inmates or detainees.

At that, Burge nodded his head and lifted his hand to indicate he read it.

“John Burge shamed his uniform, and shamed his badge,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said at a press conference.

Burge served as a Chicago Police Officer from 1970 until 1993, according to the three-count indictment.  The strongest language is in Count One:

During the time that defendant JON BURGE was assigned to Area Two, JON BURGE was present for, and at times participated in, the torture and physical abuse of a person being questioned on one or more occasions. In addition, during the time he worked as the lieutenant supervising Area Two Violent Crimes detectives, JON BURGE was aware that detectives he was supervising engaged in torture and physical abuse of a person being questioned on one or more occasions.

This is a dark day for police in the Chicagoland area.  We recognize the overwhelming majority of officers who serve well do justice to the uniform and the badge.

To those few bad apples who may be tempted to act as Burge allegedly did?

Patrick Fitzgerald does not make his move until he’s ready.

You don’t want to be in his sights when he does.

Predatory Lenders in Illinois Target Elderly, Minorities, More

Posted on by TL

The Chicago Sun-Times is running three articles today detailing different instances of predatory lending: here, here, and here.  Some of these loans financed by supposedly reputable lending institutions.

Take Anna Nelson, age 90:

In 1994, she made her first mistake, she admits.

She and her late husband owed just $5,000 on her house in the Roseland neighborhood. But a mortgage broker called and asked her to refinance — and roll in a few thousand dollars of credit.

She was stuck with something unbelievable — an $83,000 loan.

She didn’t know how it happened or how to repay it.

Another broker told her they’d help her get out of it by refinancing.

The loan grew again.

And that’s how it went for the last 15 years. Nelson had people virtually lined up to sell her new mortgages.

She refinanced at least four times, finally left with $125,000 in debt, of which she said she has only seen $5,000.

Dorothy Davis ended up owing $125,000 on a house worth $40,000:

“He came here and told me: ‘Sign the paper, sign it now.’ He kept insisting me to sign it.” Davis said. “Ever since then, I’ve been with no money.”

She didn’t know then that the loan was saddled with fraudulent fees. She barely made her payments.

Another broker came to the rescue, promising lower loan payments — and new aluminum siding.

Undergoing cancer treatment at the time, she was desperate to get out of a bad situation.

But Davis was scammed again.

The new loan took up to 80 percent of her income. “I couldn’t buy any groceries. I could hardly pay even half of my utility bills,” she said. “I prayed and prayed. Some nights, I couldn’t sleep.”

Before she knew it, she owed $135,000 on a home worth $40,000 that was paid off 20 years earlier.

What possible value would a foreclosure be to a lending institution in a situation like this?  According to the Sun-Times, the issue of minority targeting has brought hundreds of lawsuits and the FBI has taken notice.

Perhaps even more tragic is the case of Rosa Dailey, 66, who now owes $154,000 on a loan she took out to repair her garage.  “A broker on behalf of Argent Mortgage noticed her garage needed fixing and started calling her incessantly,” the story says.  She explained that she couldn’t sign the loan without her sister, who was terminally ill.

Here’s where the broker went for the kill:

“No problem,” she said the broker told her.

He drove Dailey to the hospital with the papers.

“No sooner than did she sign it, she was dead,” Dailey said.

Now Dailey owes nearly $154,000 from a loan she claims was saddled in duplicate fees and a falsified income. The mortgage payments left her with little extra money. So she couldn’t fix her furnace after it went out last winter, and she huddled near a space heater in her bedroom, she said.

Can there be any doubt that deregulation has failed miserably?  The unadulterated greed of the lending institutions is ruining people’s lives.

Racists for Obama

Posted on by TL

As a native of Pennsylvania, I’m not surprised when I read things like this, but I am a bit disheartened.  Pittsburgh is still very, very segregated.  Walk into Eat’n Park on Clairton Boulevard just north of Century III Mall and you’ll hardly ever see a person of color.

It’s just that white, still.

So when I read things like this, just a little further south in Washington, PA, it saddens me still.  I’d love to see these people grow up.

From FiveThirtyEight.com:

So a canvasser goes to a woman’s door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she’s planning to vote for. She isn’t sure, has to ask her husband who she’s voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, “We’re votin’ for the n***er!”

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: “We’re voting for the n***er.”

There you have it.

‘Calling Dr. Bombay!’ St. James Emergency Docs Outsource Billing

Posted on by TL

I just hung up the phone with India.

I received a phone call regarding a bill I received for emergency room services in February at St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights.  When I returned the call, I was greeted by a kind person with a slight accent.  I couldn’t quite place the accent, but didn’t think it would be much of a barrier.

Was I ever wrong.

I read my account number to the person answering the phone.  She asked me for my name, and asked if I had been treated by an emergency room physician.

At this point, I grew suspicious. Any other time I call to pay a bill, after I read my account number, the person finally tells me my name, indicating that they have the correct account.

I asked this professional to tell me the name she had on the account.  She read me a woman’s name.  She asked me if I had was treated by an emergency room physician.  I told her she should be telling me that information, and the name she read to me was not mine, nor did it belong to anyone at my residence.

She asked me again if I had been treated in an emergency room.  I told her, yes, in February.  She again asked me my name.

I asked to speak with a supervisor.  I was told I was speaking with the Emergency Room Physicians billing service, and would I please tell her my name.  I asked her if she was in the United States.  Who is the doctor who sent the bill?

“No, sir.  We are in India.”  And no name for the doctor.

I told her I was unaware of any physician who billed from India.  Could I speak with a supervisor, please?  She asked me my name again, and finally provided me with the name of the attending physician.

At this point, I assured her I was very suspicious of the call, and told her I was going to call the police.  I was suspicious that she was possibly someone phishing for my credit card information. My call was then passed to a supervisor who asked for an account number.  The supervisor told me the name on the account — this time it was my name — and verified for me the name of the attending physician.  I did not recognize the name of the doctor, but, since this was all about a trip to the emergency room, I did not expect that I would remember his name.

I hung up the phone and called St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights directly after trying unsuccessfully to find a number for the doctor online.  After speaking with two business offices and being told my accounts were up to date and paid, I was referred to another number that handled billing for the emergency room physicians’ accounts.

That number belonged to my new friends in India.

Look, I’m all for a global economy, but this is downright absurd.  I get it that sometimes I have to talk to India to get tech support for my PC, but now I have to talk to India to talk about my hospital bill?

Give me a break.

Mayor Daley Needs a News “Pool Boy”

Posted on by TL

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass reported Friday that Chicago’s airport operations boss Dave “Pool Boy” Ochal threw his political weight around last week when his neighborhood faced a power outage:

Ochal’s Far Northwest Side neighborhood was without power for two days in the summer heat. Neighbors dug into their own pockets to pay for emergency generators and shipped their elderly, including some who required oxygen therapy, to live with friends and family who had power. Then neighbors said they witnessed a political miracle Wednesday night:

A Commonwealth Edison truck pulled up at Ochal’s house in the 5400 block of North Paris Avenue.

The ComEd crew—two workers and a foreman—wore badges signifying they were detailed to O’Hare International Airport. With astonished neighbors watching, the crew delivered a big, fat electric generator to Ochal’s home.

It took only one day for him to resign.

Ochal had quite the reputation for working the system. According to Kass, in 2000 Ochal installed a built-in pool without permits. The pool swamped his neighbors backyards, “flooding their lawns and basements, shorting out appliances and blowing a ComEd transformer.”

Sounds like it was quite the scene last week when Kass went to interview the man he refers to as “Pool Boy.” When he knocked on Pool Boy’s door, his wife said he didn’t live there.

“There’s no Ochal here!” she said.

This truly astonished the neighbors. Then we went next door and around back, to see the fabulous pool and fabulous generator from that side. The camera guy was setting up his equipment, and just then, a little voice came from over the fence.

“Is this legal? Is this legal?”

It was Dave “Pool Boy” Ochal who popped up from behind the fence, his head up there like an angry jack-in-the-box.

Pool Boy couldn’t see me right off, standing there.

“Dave!” I shouted. “Pool Boy! It’s me, your friend, John.”

The realization on his face was poetic, if poetic looks like a slice of boiled ham in the moonlight.

Ochal’s head started to disappear behind his fence.

“Pool Boy!” I yelled. “Don’t go. It’s me, John. Don’t you want to talk?”

He didn’t.

Ochal resigned from his $159,144-a-year-plus-political-muscle position Friday.

ComEd has some questions to answer as well. While apparently not in the practice of delivering generators to customers’ homes, they did in this case.

Mayor Daley, interviewed in Beijing, sounded stupified:

When asked about the matter by a Tribune reporter in Beijing, Daley said, “It’s just plain stupid. It’s bad judgement. You know…..I mean why? It’s just bad judgement.”

Stupid for getting caught, perhaps, Mayor?

John Ray’s Box of Human Bones

Posted on by TL

I really don’t get this guy at all.

Park Forest resident John Ray still has his box of human bones.

Recall Ray’s tale of how he came by the remains:

Ray said he bought the grisly collection, albeit accidentally, at an estate auction in Shipshewana, Ind. There he bought a tattered, 150-year-old book titled “The History of the American Indian.” Packaged with the book was a cardboard box layered in duct tape.

“The dealer said, ‘Wait till you get home to open it up,’ ” Ray said of the box. “He said, ‘You’ll really be pleased with it. It’s like a little gift from Santa Claus.’ ”

But Ray said he didn’t wait until he got home. When he got to his car, Ray split the box open with a pocketknife. To his shock, the book was packaged with the bones. He marched back to the dealer, who refused to take back the “gift.” The dealer claimed to have bought the remains at a separate estate auction earlier in the year.

According to the Southtown Star:

Ray, who claims he’s kept a box of human bones in his Park Forest residence since 1982, said he plans to take a few bones to Indiana’s LaGrange County Sheriff’s Department in the next few weeks.

The next few weeks?  Does this man really care that he has the remains of a human being in a box in his home?  Or is it about him?

Ray said he hoped to start the process this week by digitally photographing all the bones and sending the photographs as well as their lengths and proportions to the LaGrange County Sheriff Department.

Afterward, Ray said he would deliver the bones to the department in person.

“Those bones being buried wherever they belong would be a great ending to this story – whatever direction it heads,” Ray said.

I don’t get this at all.  How do you walk around your home for 26 years with a box containing the remains of a human being?  If someone sold you a box of human bones, wouldn’t you call the police — immediately?  Was this person the victim of a homicide?

My disquietude with this grisly tale only heightened the other day during a chance encounter with John Ray.  As I was walking my dog around the neighborhood, Ray was outside.

He approached me and asked, “You been reading about me?”

All I could think of was that box of bones nearby somewhere inside his residence.

“I’m wondering who keeps a box of bones in their house for 26 years?” I said.

“You want to talk about it?” he asked.

“John, I’m walking my dog.”

“Oh, okay.”

No, I did not want to “talk about it.”

A credible source in Park Forest reports that Ray is writing a “screen play” about the bones.

Sounds like it’s all about him.  In 26 years, the Park Forest police have no record of a call for service about these remains.  Only recently was Ray concerned enough to come forward.

Ray recently told the Southtown Star, “Whoever this kid is, he deserves better.”

No kidding.

Two in Chicago won’t see July 4

Posted on by TL

I guess I don’t understand the charm of handguns.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Two people were shot, one in the head in the Loop late Thursday as thousands of people streamed out of downtown after the city’s Fourth of July fireworks display and the Taste of the Chicago.

Both shootings occurred about 10:40 p.m. roughly a block apart, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.

This is as good as time as any to reflect once again on the proliferation of guns in our society.  The clock has only recently passed the midnight hour here in Chicagoland, and already two are dead.

I spoke with a local member of our police force yesterday evening.  I asked him, informally, what he thought of last week’s Supreme Court decision striking down the ban on handguns in Washington, D.C.  Did he think there should be more gun control?

He said, as I might have expected, that the current laws should be enforced.

And I agree.

The problem in our society is not that we have too many guns.  It’s that we use them too many damn times.  We need to control ourselves.  We need to find more effective ways of handling conflict.  We need to learn how to channel the rage we feel sometimes.

Yes, the answers lie in the schools, in the media, in the churches, in the family, in the neighborhoods, in congress, in state legislatures…, and many other places as well.

But the answer to gun violence begins the next time any one of us feels angry, and every time after that as well.