Breen disdains choice in Illinois' 48th

Peter Breen is a bizarre candidate for representative in Illinois' 48th legislative district. He likens himself a patriot, specifically, a West Suburban Patriot, the DuPage County Tea Party organization of which he is a member. But what kind of patriot would work so assiduously to deny the 72,000 voters in the district a choice in the November 4 election? Breen worked fair and square to get on the Republican ballot as the Tea Party choice against six term incumbent, moderate Sandy Pihos. She didn't organize a campaign to wrongly challenge enough of his signatures to disqualify him from the ballot. She didn't hire high powered lawyers to scrutinize his filing forms to find an obscure technicality to go running to the Election Commission with to have him tossed from the GOP ballot. No, Sandy Pihos has forgotten more about patriotism than Breen could ever acquire. Unfortunately for Pihos, his supporters turned out and hers didn't, ending her distinguished legislative career.

But falsely challenge hundreds of his Democratic opponent Marian Tomlinson's signatures for the general election is exactly what Breen and his GOP scaredy-cats did. When scrutinized, most of these challenged signatures were deemed legitimate, getting Tomlinson back on the ballot. Not to be denied, denying 72,000 voters a choice, lawyer Breen and his colleagues discovered an insignificant technicality in Tomlinson's filing papers and persuaded the GOP leaning Election Commission to go along, tossing Tomlinson off the November ballot, to the detriment of the democratic process.

Although her name will not appear on the ballot, Tomlinson applied for and has been granted write-in status. That means District 48 voters will have a choice, despite all Breen's spite: Peter Breen and a blank line for a write-in candidate. If they fill in the oval before the write-in line and enter her name; it will be counted.
 
When Peter Breen knocks at your door soliciting your vote, ask him this question: What kind of patriot would deny voters the most sacred tenant of our democracy... voter choice?

Billionaire Bruce channels George H.W. Bush

Dreamed it was 1988 and George H.W. Bush was running his racist Willie Horton ad to garner the white racist vote against Michael Dukakis. Woke up and realized it was just my sleeping brain processing the 2014 version of the Willie Horton ad we're being bombarded with by Billionaire Bruce Rauner against a candidate with class and honor: Pat Quinn. Lee Atwater was the lowlife behind Bush's cheap shot. Bush rewarded him by appointing him to head the Republican National Committee for a job well done. Less then two years later Atwater was struck down with a virulent form of brain cancer that killed him in a year. Poppy Bush said Mr. Atwater "practiced the art of politics with zeal and vigor," and added, "I was very proud of him, proud to serve with him." Atwater had a bit of a spiritual awakening before departing and apologized to Dukakis. My question for Billionaire Bruce is: "To get to the mountaintop, how low must you stoop?"

Strap them on, Speaker Boehner

House Speaker John Boehner claims that "somebody's boots" will have to be on the ground to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. He further claims that if the worthless Iraq army we've squandered the public treasure to train won't do it, then it's up to GI Joe. Boehner forgets we've run out of US boots to engage in endless criminal wars there because he's help send 7,000 pairs of US boots to an early grave in the two criminal wars he helped promote an...d fund to the ghastly tune of $3 trillion. Boehner's fine with letting the president bomb thousands to an early death in those two horrific killing fields even though a decent, law abiding Speaker would demand Congressional approval and oversight in a Constitutional world. But in the continuing Republican effort to portray the president as weak, Boehner plays the GOP 'tough guy' card that only Republicans know how to defend America. Alas, Boehner's proposal is simply even more senseless slaughter involving youthful American canon fodder. Since he's so adamant about US boots on the ground to slay our newest bogyman, Boehner should look in the mirror and decide that the "somebody" is the Speaker himself. That goes for every other US warmonger including the 'Terror Twins' Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham who promote endless war like mad men who should inhabit an insane asylum instead of Congress. If Speaker Boehner had to be the first to "strap them on", we'd see Congressional hearings faster than you could say, "Peace Now"!

A license without limits

On November 15, 2008, I wrote this about President Elect Obama:
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"So help me God". Within minutes, if not seconds of saying those words on January 20, 2009, which inaugurate Barack Obama as President of the US and Commander in Chief of the armed forces, some innocent civilian around the world will die by unnecessary US military action. As life is snatched from some unsu...specting man, woman or child simply trying to live out the Iraqi or the Afghan or the Pakistani or the Syrian or the Iranian dream, President Obama will have exercised the most awesome power that comes with that solemn oath: his License To Kill.
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In the last six years I'm astounded how frequently he's exercised that License To Kill with such little reservation, reason or Congressional oversight. The US government has evolved over the past 13 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks, into a relentless killing machine. We have abandoned all pretense of being a civilized actor on the world stage. We now officially kill in seven countries that we know of. We kill for the sake of killing. It has become institutionalized as our first response to virtually any difficult international crisis, whether real and imagined. Every such action generates blowback which ensures failure of whatever foolish goal our killing pretends to foster. Our killing mindset only hastens our demise as a moral force for good in the world; indeed as a world power as well. We can kill but we cannot conquer. The bomb makers get rich. The warmongers feel grand and empowered. The media are all in the tank for the war party, terrified they will lose government access if they tell the truth about our mindless killing. The people have no voice or influence to stop American sponsored killing. It may as well be happening in outer space as far as we are concerned. The president looks like a broken and hollow man as he offers dreadful and laughable justification for his orders to kill. At least he does not possess the sociopathic relish to kill of his predecessor. He is likely as afraid of the war party as are most members of Congress, the media, or any citizen who dares speak out. But speak out we must if we are ever going to take away his... License To Kill.

Chapman's analysis of our criminal wars ignores obvious

In his Sunday op ed, 'You want a war? Pay for it', Tribune editorial writer and columnist Steve Chapman does a masterful job skimming the surface of our perpetual war state which makes the whole issue of accountability for bankrupting and criminal wars irrelevant. Chapman and the Tribune have long functioned as shills for the war party which controls this country in their endless pursuit of murderous military ventures, all of which fail, all of which make us less safe and all of which are conducted without funding and without congressional oversight. That is not the fault of the people, who have absolutely no voice in the matter. It is the fault of the warmongers who control much of Congress, much of the administration, much of the media. To say "nothing would do more to break our addiction to perpetual war than a simple requirement everyone can understand: You want a war? Pay for it" is astoundingly disingenuous. Chapman knows full well his editorial duties include writing or signing off on editorials that pretend the US has critical national interests requiring endless warfare against innocents in the Middle East and Africa which will never be paid for, never given an up and down vote in Congress, and never, ever be interfered with by the Voice of the People.

ISIS war: The stupidity astounds

How astoundingly stupid (besides being criminal) is our newest made up war of choice against ISIS? Let us count the ways:

• Bombing ISIS becomes a key recruiting tool for encouraging more ISIS recruits and gaining local support from the civilian population
• Bombing ISIS without gaining support of key regional players Iran, Syria and Russia guarantees failure
• Bombing ISIS expands the already self destructive proxy war US is fighting with key regional players for hegemony in the region
• US is partnering with totalitarian puppet Gulf States largely responsible for creating and financing ISIS in first place
• Rebels we're arming more interested in overthrowing Syrian president Assad than defeating ISIS
• Conveniently, overthrowing Assad, as the president explicitly said in his UN speech, is just as important to US as well
• US and Gulf State sock puppets paying 10,000 Syrian rebels for past 3 years to overthrow Assad has added tens of thousands of new, unnecessary dead in the region
• The real needs of rebuilding our country with infrastructure, education, environmental and health care improvements have been further dumped from the national agenda by this new criminal military adventure

One thing not lacking in US foreign policy: stupid pills