Hell patrolled by Fearsome Phyllis

One version of Hell, possibly worse than eternal fire, would consist of endless bombardment of commentary from self loathing woman Phyllis Schlafly. The nonagenarian ultra conservative gadfly, famously associated with opposing the Equal Rights Amendment, preferring instead keeping her sex barefoot and pregnant, weighed in on the issue of campus sexual assault. Her fix: reduce the number of women in college. Too much temptation for the dwindling minority of oversexed males attending class with more opportunities than their youthful libidos can comprehend. Schlafly, highly educated in the era of male domination, laments that male percentage of college students has dropped from 70% in her day to under 50% today. Schlafly wants quotas on women enrollees or end of loans for tuition. She claims if we force women to work throughout college to pay the fare, they won't have time to attend those lascivious fraternity parties. 
 

While I don't know which elevator ride I'm taking on Judgment Day, If I get on the wrong one I'll start praying it won't be presided over by Fearsome Phyllis.

'Getting people killed' irony lost on warmonger Graham

   

Sen. Lindsay Graham (Rep. SC) leaped to the pinnacle of neocon fear and warmongering in the Senate with his linking of President Obama to any anti West attacks such as the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France. Charging Obama is "getting people killed" by not declaring we are in a "religious war" with Islam, pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and working to close the US gulag in Guantanamo, Graham is oblivious of this ghoulish irony. It's Graham, with his fevered support of every senseless and lost US Middle East war that is getting people killed, in a multiple of many thousands of the 12 killed in Paris. In Graham's twisted world view, Obama is taking these actions simply to fulfill a campaign promises rather than to protect America by reducing America's self destructive and murderous incursions in the Muslim world. Graham shamelessly travels to Israel to promote Israel's foreign policy, including periodic 'mowing the lawn' atrocities in Gaza, over the interests of the United States. Graham's delusional plan to prevent future Charlie Hebdo massacres is more billions for our already obscene military spending and embarking on a killing spree of suspected bad guys, including more outright war.
 

If Sen. Graham wants to better protect America and further the cause of peace, he should resign from the Senate...today.

White privilege and the Al Sharpton straw man

Kathleen Parker's op-ed "Al Sharpton and the narrative of bias" (Washington Post, January 6), uses false equivalencies and intellectual laziness to completely mis-characterize the current racial divide regarding racial profiling and excessive policing in minority communities. She starts off by comparing the police using excessive force to kill unarmed blacks with Al Sharpton's entire persona as a political activist working on beha...lf of the black community to stop such conduct. Everything she says is either false or so exaggerated it completely discredits her entire theme. Calling him a "mere street agitator" who became a "disruptive celebrity" is gratuitous and unhelpful name calling. She goes on to say "he has arguably contributed to more harm than good. He creates a problem, then zooms in to save the day," without a word of substantiation. Incredibly, she implies he's partly responsible for the murder of two NY cops: " You do not get to stir the pot until it boils over and then say, 'Hey, whoa, I didn't say to turn up the heat that much. Simmer down'."

The problem with every one of these statements and characterizations is that they are not true. I've been listening to Sharpton's MSNBC show 'PoliticsNation' for years now and have been inspired how he's effectively channeled the anguish of the black community over the Trevon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice killings into a positive mass movement for legitimate and substantive change in minority policing. He's doesn't race-bait or mis-characterize police, being careful and specific of the need to improve policing with body cameras, better training and weeding out both intellectually and mentally unfit officers, just of small number of which cause the most egregious damage in minority communities. He's also called on white America to re-examine and eliminate institutional racism which, for example, caused the NY police to make 5 million stop and frisk incidents since 2002, most of which occur in minority communities involving over 90% completely innocent people. Parker assumes the entire policing problem experienced by minorities is over because NY Mayor di Blasio ended 'Stop and Frisk.' That shows Parker is still imprisoned in 'white privilege' which assumes there would be no minority police problems if those folks would just behave.

For her transgressions, Parker should be sentenced to one month of home confinement, but just weekdays between 6:00 and 7:00 PM EST. And she must turn on the telly to MSNBC to hear the real Rev. Al, not the disgraceful caricature she foisted on the public from her white privilege perch at the Washington Post.

If it's tip of iceberg, Illinois is the Titanic

Every Illinoisan should know about and be concerned that two weeks prior to his inauguration, Bruce Rauner has established a $20 million war chest to 'influence' the legislature to pass Rauner's agenda. His predecessor Pat Quinn would probably have been lucky to scrape together $20 to influence legislation during his 6 year tenure. Rauner parted with $10 million of his own 'walkin around' money to start the fund. Another $8 million came from hedge-fund fellow billionaire Ken Griffin, with the final $2 million from GOP rainmaker Dick Uihlein.

The aforementioned Rauner insider remarked how Rauner's $20 million iceberg tip is going to morph into a glacier. "It's the first in a series, part of a multipronged effort in which other funding vehicles will be formed."

If anyone thought that Rauner's $21 million personal fortune spending spree to get elected ends his money trail to power, they are sadly mistaken. Those of us used to a middle class 'Grabowski' like Pat Quinn doing the hard work serving the entire public, will have to get used to an oligarch 'Rockefeller' like Bruce Rauner buying his way to governance for the rich and famous of Illinois.
I'm a little skittish about the upcoming Rauner inauguration five days hence. Sorta reminds me of the inaugural voyage of a really big ship 103 years ago. Let's all keep a sharp watch for those financial icebergs.

Long run OK for Rauner; not for Illinois

Regarding the Illinois financial crisis facing Governor Elect Bruce Rauner, former governor and Rauner transition advisor Jim Edger made this truly disingenuous statement:

"I'm amazed he was able to say as little and promise as little and get elected."

Nobody should be amazed that Rauner won by running a fraudulent campaign based on tax cuts for every individual and corporation, including the wealthy ones, while critical departments like Corrections and Human Services are already running out of money. When pressed, Rauner offered no specifics, just the need to trust a billionaire who made his fortune, in part, by gaming the tax laws to his advantage at the expense of the public. Now Rauner is the public but he's not changed his spots on iota. He's suddenly shocked, shocked that the state's financial condition is worse than he realized during the campaign.

But Edgar did get one thing right when he said, "Doomsday's coming, we do not have a printing press."

Outgoing Governor Quinn ran a principled campaign based on spending cuts, tax increases, paying down the pension deficit, paying state vendors more quickly and maintaining essential services.

We know how Bruce Rauner made his billion. We have no idea how he's going to salvage Illinois based on tax cuts for everyone which will double our debt while critical agencies run out of money. His final take is simply: "I ain't perfect. I fail sometimes. But you know what? In the long run I don't fail." That may work for Bruce Rauner's long run but not for Illinois. The state doesn't have one. 

Congressman Roskam, take down this website

If Illinois Sixth District residents want to know the important issues facing the district, state, nation and the world, they won't find it at www.roskam.house.gov. Peruse the title page and just shake your head that a five term congressman has the audacity to foist such nonsense and self-serving fluff on his constituents.

The page is composed of two sections. The first is a rotating group of three pop ups that one would surmise de...al with really important issues like racial profiling, global warming, immigration reform, end to our Afghan disaster or how to continue our 57 straight months of private sector job growth. No, two to the three concern Roskam's six year long vendetta to prevent, overturn or defund the Affordable Care Act, a transformational law which is giving hope, even life itself to forty million Americans absent from Roskam's congressional radar. The third concerns the earthshaking issue of encouraging drug manufacturers to fight Superbugs, assuming drug companies won't leave any money pit undug in their efforts to rake in more countless billions in exorbitant profits.

The second section consists of four topics, three of which are bizarre: Roskam welcoming a new fellow GOP co-chair to the House Republican Israel Caucus; Roskam welcoming new co-chairs to the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans; and Roskam's efforts to prevent funding to control the spread of Asian Carp from Lake Michigan. Woopie-doo! The fourth grapples with a serious, momentous issue: President Obama's normalization of diplomatic relations with Cuba. Roskam's un-thoughtful take? "It's a dangerous mistake."

Last month the Congressman visited a fifth grade class at Indian Knoll School in West Chicago, to discuss the importance of political involvement. Maybe a good political exercise for the ten year olds would have been to design a congressional website that would enlighten, rather than insult the electorate. If one of the students would have submitted Roskam's home page, the red pen would be whipped out in an instant to write a big F... for fraudulent.

Win Seat in House; score free trip to Israel

Ever wonder why the US Congress does nothing to assist the Palestinians from getting out from under Israeli suppression and obtain a homeland? One answer lies in the "Free trip to Israel" program for freshmen Congressmen, often accompanied by veteran lawmakers desiring lavish chaperone duties. Every August the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) and its front organization, the American Israel Education Foundation (A...IEF) pops for a $10,000 freebee trip for impressionable congressmen, making Israel the No. 1 destination for Congressional 'newbies' and their congressional guides:

•112th Congress 126
•113th Congress 128

That is nearly 30% of the entire House delegation. I don't know which land ranks second but it's certainly not the world's largest open air prison in Gaza. The total going to that forsaken, bomb devastated piece of real estate the Congressmen are influenced to maintain is probably zero. Another benefit to Israel is it helps grease the annual $3 billion giveaway Congress gifts Israel, one of the worlds more prosperous economies, so they can keep buying American firepower. What they use it for is immaterial as long as they keep the munitions makers making more money.

How 'bout in the interest of fairness, Congress passes a rule that any Congressman taking such a perk be required to embark on a weekend fact finding trip to Gaza. We should even have Congress pay for it. Why put a financial burden on folks getting by with just a quarter million dollar annual pay and benefit package?

Yogi has final say on US summary of Afghan disaster

"Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending, and the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion… We are safer, and our nation is more secure, because of their service. [We] have helped the Afghan people reclaim their communities, take the lead for their own security, hold historic elections and complete the first democratic transfer of power in their country’s history.”
- President Obama from his Hawaiian vacation hideaway this week

"The American hand-over event in Kabul was a 'defeat ceremony'...we will fight until there is not one foreign soldier on Afghan soil and we have established an Islamic state.”
- Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid

With 10,000 US troops still in harm's way trying to prevent the inevitable, the 'official' war end total of 2,356 dead GI's is certain to rise, and additional billions will be squandered. The president and the war party should heed the words of one Lawrence 'Yogi' Berra: "It ain't over till it's over."