Chicago, Illinois, armpit of the Midwest

For 20 years, I lived in Chicago. Can't imagine why.

Chicago lost its bid for the Olympics and instead, right now, is hosting a teachers' strike. The teachers only make an average of $75,000.00 a year -- that's AVERAGE salary, mind you -- for working 6 hours a day, 9 months a year.

The AVERAGE income of families living in Chicago -- those who pay for the schools -- is $47,000.00. That's for working 8 or more hours a day, at least 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, and possibly with a second job on evenings and weekends.

What's wrong with this picture? The tail wagging the dog?

I used to work with a woman whose husband tried to be a biology teacher in Chicago. However, his biology degree apparently was too specialized. He got a classroom of troublemakers and described his job as something between a gangland arbiter and a detention hall monitor. He said he spent all his time trying to keep the students from fighting each other and/or destroying public property, or ducking under his desk. He didn't get any support when he suggested improvements. He was told the situation was hopeless.

Not his fault? Perhaps not his, personally. Let's blame it on a system that kisses union butt and has allowed itself to be bullied and intimidated for decades by a bunch of loudmouths who, judging by their picket signs -- can't correctly spell monosyllabic English words. And their competence is reflected in half-literate students, only about half of them ever graduating from high school. But they do keep the state prisons busy -- perhaps "redistributing" the work of public school teachers to the guards at correctional institutions. After all, Chicago now leads the nation in its murder rate.

But Chicago's the same all over, not just regarding the schools. The Daley Machine -- going way back to the 1950s and '60s -- made Chicago "The City that Works" by buying off the unions. The democrats bought union votes with contracts that included whopping big pensions and all the health insurance they or their families could choke on.

Everyone else is paying for it now. And Chicago doesn't work worth a damn anymore.

The State of Illinois is no better. First of all, Quinn and the other "big fish" in Springfield all come out of Chicago. Mike Royko used to say that without Chicago, Illinois would be Iowa.

Wishful thinking?

So Illinois is carrying almost as much debt as California -- a call to action to Assembly members... who promptly raised taxes, and not just personal income taxes, but taxes on corporations. Apparently hoping to drive out whatever productive commercial organizations remain in Illinois. They had to give Caterpillar, among others, a raftload of tax exemptions to keep that company from straying to North Dakota -- which is much more business-friendly.

Currently, I live about 10 minutes from the Wisconsin border, and since Quinn's tax increases, watched one of the area's largest employers quietly -- and wisely -- move its headquarters and main operating plant into Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, just north of the boundary line. Likewise, I suspect the better teachers in Illinois will be quietly exploring the opportunities available in Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Lake Geneva. I mean those who are more interested in teaching than in sitting on their butts until they retire, so they can sit on their butts for a few years more.

And by the way, the Illinois tax increases were a perfect example of why raising taxes -- even if only on the rich, who fund US business through investment -- only works to drive business out. No business leads to no jobs, which means no revenues for the greedy piggies in DC.

The classic downward spiral, like dirty water circling the toilet bowl. Exactly like it.

Save the Republic.

Hope and change

I managed to escape hearing the Comrade's speech tonight so far. However, was assaulted by a couple minutes of Joe Biden. He seems to think that if screams and hollers like an Angry Bird, people will take him seriously.

With all the trouble he has with the English language, it's very hard to take him seriously. At all.

He did mention about continuing all the "hope" and "change" the USA has got going for it right now.

God forbid. I can't go through four more years of this terrible despair, and actual fear -- yes, a heart-gripping cold terror -- that it will never change... back... to what it was before the Comrade took over.

The Comrade is clearly incompetent and/or indifferent. He's sort of a Manchurian Candidate -- a ringer? Programmed by bitterness, envy, and hatred to try to destroy anything he can't control. He's a marxist idealogue, and I don't know how anyone can doubt that at all. Look at his background.

He's destroying America. Four more years of this crap and we'll be worse than Greece.

I think about the "Hope and Change" behind the American Revolution and the Frames of the Constituion in 1789. I think about the City on the Hill, and yes, to be quite hokey, I can't even look at Liberty's torch shining over New York harbor, and all the people who came here in utter desperation, wanting only to "breathe free," without tears.

I think about that, and I can't imagine anyone would try so hard as the Comrade and the merry marxists have to extinguish that hope for all humanity.

Biden is a stupid clown. A useful idiot. But the Comrade? Deluded. Very sadly deluded.

Save the Republic.

What??

That Fluke person (forgot her first name) is right now rerunning through her speech. I'm looking at the clips and reports because I'm quite sure I couldn't tolerate sitting through the whole thing.

At any rate, so Fluke is talking about  a man who was verbally assaulted, etc etc. in some disgraceful attack. I honestly thought she was talking about Mitt Romney at first, then it struck me -- no, that ain't no way possible.

She's quite bitter (over what??), and not a very good speaker. Apparently she can say only two words before taking a breath. From what I saw of her, she's not making much sense. Could be because I couldn't possibly sit through the whole context. (Or wade through it.)

I'm curious though -- is it really "political oppression" for women to pay for their own birth control pills?

I don't know. I find that rather laughable -- or even terribly pathetic, coming from spoiled American princesses who consider a bad hair day "oppressive." Or an inadequate selection of shoes.

When women are being stoned in some parts of the world for going outside alone, or for showing their faces. A part of the world that the Comrade, by the way, seems to favor. What does that say about him? He doesn't seem to want to help. He's all enrapt with the sound of eveing prayers from the minaret.

Oh jeez... Elizabeth Warren on now. You know, I have exactly as much Cherokee blood as she does. I have a grandmother -- or great-grand -- who was full-blooded Cherokee and married a Canadian who'd come over to the US about the middle of the 1800s. We had an old tintype of her in the family album, with the latest generation forever asking, "So who's the Indian?"

Yet it never occurred to me to make an appeal for "privileged" status. Hell, maybe I'll open a casino or something, now that I see I can qualify.

I didn't see any of Clinton's speech, except for a tiny bit in clips, where he was waving his arms around, trying to look like he really means it. I may watch more of it. On the other hand, he's such a jerk, I can't imagine finding value in anything he says.

Clinton, actually, is a terible speaker. He always has been. And apparently he rambled on for an hour or more tonight, putting people to sleep, even his fans.

I'm not one of his fans. I truly believe he's something of a sociopath, and he is definitely a documented liar. I don't know why or how anyone can mistake him for some kind of credible or even remotely respectable person. Apparently dem insiders regard him as "The Big Dog." 'Cause he tries to hump everyone?

And Clinton -- or those around him, including people at Fox -- seem to believe that he fashioned a successful economy. Perhaps they're too young to remember how he actually began to shut down the federal government when presented with balanced budget legislation crafted by the Contract for American people -- led by Newt Gingrich. People were turned away from the national parks because old Big Dog was shutting down all the real esential stuff -- not the White House, unfortunately.

As I recall, they had to drag Clintoin kicking and screaming into rational spending.

I give  him NO credit for that at all. All he did was recognize which way the wind was blowing. Probably what he does best.

Enough.

Save the Republic.

Dems don't understand "growth'

I won't be watching Bill Clinton's speech at the DNC tonight. He'll be on about the same time as "Ghost Hunters" premier of the season, and I'd much rather watch that.

Anyway, it occurs to me that the democracts have absolutely no concept of "growth." Like Michelle  said last night, in mushy maternal tones, that the Comrade has not changed at all over the last four years.

Question: how could you serve as President of the United States for four years and not change at all?

Has he not seen or experienced anything new? Has he learned nothing? Has nothing impressed him -- good, bad or otherwise?

I mean is he such as chunk of stone that absolutely nothing has affected him, moved him, changed him in any way, shape, or form over the last four years? He hasn't changed or grown in the slightest?

If not, he must be as brain-dead has buddy Harry Reid, or the demented Pazzo Pelosi.

Or such a rigid marxist idealogue that he disallows the existence of anything else. Such focused tunnel vision that he allows himself only a glancing contact with reality.

I think that's very dangerous in a president. Because nothing stays the same. Everything is changing all the tine. And if you can't deal with that, you don't belong in any position of authority.

Democrats also don't understand economic growth. They just don't get it. It's like that old Lay's snacks commercial that Jay Leno did years and years ago. Go ahead, eat 'em up, he said, "We'll just make more."

This is an idea that democrats are entirely unfamiliar with. They just don't get it. They're socialists. You don't get growth with socialism, so they think it either doesn't exist, or it's so disruptive and inspiring to the general population that it would make them ambitiout and unmanageable.

But, democrats are fairly stupid and ignorant anyway, so this is a minor point.

Save the Republic,.

Hypocrisy on steroids

Michelle Obama is on TV right now pretending to be an honest person. Frankly, I've never seen such hypocrisy. I didn't think I could stomach a complete string of slobbering drivel from hjer -- the full 20 minutes or so -- so I'm only getting the part about the tough times she and the Comrade had gaming the system, pulling all kinds of political strings -- like those attached to the Jarret family, Rezko, and other Chicago pol-thugs, and lying outrightly about their origins to get themselves through college in order to land -- with little to no work experience -- six-figure jobs and all the graft and shakedowns you can grab.

Yeah. They "struggled." Her with her $600.00 -- and quite remarkably ugly -- gym shoes. Of all the First Ladies, she has about the worst taste in fashion I've ever seen.

I'm sorry, my stomach is turning.

I don't know how this individual can stand up in front of thousands of people there, and a TV audience of millions -- and tell such bare-ass lies. Unless she believes. Like the Boston Strangler's wife, who apparently never quite figured what her husband was doing in his spare time. Deep denial. That's about the kindest thing I can say.She's either stupid, deluded, or flat out lying.

I mean, who the hell does she think she's talking to? We're living this nightmare. It's not abstract or sugar-coated when you can't drive yourself to work due to the cost of gasoline. While Comrade Butthead sluffs off a sweetheart energy deal with Canada so as to not offend the blockheads at the Sierra Club.

If you take any of this crap seriously, you probably deserve four more years of this bullshit.

She says she never begrudeged anyone's success? That's Whopper of the Night. Or maybe she means we don't begrudge success, we just require that you fork it over to us. Or go to jail.

Perhaps Michelle's efforts would be more productive if she spent her time seeking out some small, forgotten nation of ignorant savages (maybe Manhattan?) and set up herself and the F'g Comrade as total dictators. And take this crowd with him. They can worship freely at his feet and not offend the commonsensical.

This is absoltuely disgusting. And a friend just emailed me that the delegation -- the audience -- looks like the bar scene from Star Wars. Yeah, right on.

Save the Republic.

Dems out of excuses, out of time

Saw David Axelrod, who's some kind iof official in the Comraee's re-election campaign as well as being a career political hack in Chicago, on Fox News Sunday. Kind of intetesting. I was trying to get a hint about what the dems might do at their convention this week, and Axelrod didn't offer any surprises. A brief list of the highlights we can expect:

• It's still Bush's fault.
• The economy would have been worse without the stimulua
• 4.5 million jobs have been created since the Comrade took office
• The Republicans won't tax the rich
• Taxing the rich is key to economic well-being
• Romney-Ryan have no detailed economic plan
• Romeny refuses to release all the tax returns he's filed since his birth
• The Republicans want to throw Granny over a cliff
• The Republicans want your adult kids to pay for their own health insurance
• If the US spends more money on education, there will be more jobs
• The Republican platform is anti-abortion
• The Comrade has been so successful, we can't change course now
• Romney-Ryan will adopt Bush's policies and we'll have another economic crash
• Republicans hate immigrants and minorities
• After causing middle class incomes to drop an average of $4,000.00 per annum at the same time fuel and food prices are rising, the dems promise to work their magic to make the remaining income disappear. They call this "building out" the middle class. Which I find a very odd term. As in "building them out" of existence? "Building them out of self-sustenance?" "Building them out of a positive future?"

Additonally, apparently the dems have scheduled myriad unhappy women to take the podium and whine about things like having to pay for their own birth control.

I'm really looking forward to tuning in for all the bitching and moaning. To sound a bit myogynistic, which I suppose is OK, since I'm a woman -- like the way it's poltically OK for black people to call each other the n-word -- I think the dem convention is going to look like a support group for PMS victims. And PMS or not, "victims" for sure.

See, under the "progressive" "philosophy," no member of any social demographic can do anything wrong, except white men, Republican women, and conservatives blacks. Anyone who is not a member of these enumerated groups is likely to be victimized by these groups in one way or another, and they therefore qualify for "privileged status." As in, "All are created equal, but some are more equal than others." (I believe that's from Animal Farm.)

I'm sure all of these victims will be given a voice at the dem convention, if not in person, then as represented by dementia victm Nancy "Pazzo" Pelosi. She'll speak very slowly and carefully, since dem voters are halfwits who don't understand multisyllabic words, wave her hands around in that bizarre karate-chop mannerism she has, and assure us all that although she's one of the richest people in congress, she isn't among the "fat cats" she so reviles. Perhaps she should be accompanied by a couple of OWies, whom she understands so well and who share her life-view. Of course, they'd have to be on leashes. That might be unseemly.

What you shouldn't expect from the dem convention is promises of any hope or change. Absolutely nobody believes in that one anymore. The phrase only emphasizes the Comrad's stunning failure.

So if you've enjoyed the last four years, seeing your income and career prospects diminish, any oppiortunity for your children's success in life evaporate in the debt-to-China, and have come to enjoy Kraft's Macaroni & Cheese -- the original kind, available on sale for $1.00 a box -- then you're probably among those who will be glued to the TV during the dem convention. And you'll vote again for the Comrade, making his vision of insoluble poverty, despair, and bitter cynicism a genuine reality.

Or you could vote Republican and Save the Republic.

"You got to let him go..."

Well, the Republican National Convention is over and the reviews are in. According to the mainstream media, not much of any consequence happened there, except for Clint Eastwood "humiliating himself."

I liked Clint Eastwood's appearance. He's the one who said politicians are government employees -- our employees, since we own the country -- and if they aren't doing the job, "You got to let them go."

I'm all for that.

Also loved Marco Rubio's speech. He really is one of the best speakers in the Republican party. Condoleezza Rice was really great, as were several of the ladies -- state governors -- and Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush, Artur (can't think of his last name -- Davis), a congressman from Alabama, recently a dem, rebuked by the Comrade for some kind of criticism. Now he's a Republican. Loved Suzanna Maritinez -- governor of New Mexico. She said she and her husband had been raised democrat, until invited by a Republican to explore the Republican party. After a meeting, she said she and her husband got back in their car, looked at each other and said, "I'll be damned. We're Republicans.".

The Fox commentators noted that "the Republican bench is deep." Right. Enough really decent and capable people there under the age of 50 to populate government offices for a couple of generations.

I enjoyed the convention, the high spirits, the people. I liked the stories about Mitt Romney, though he himself seemed sort of embarrased and almost self-effacing for his generosity, in terms of time and effort, to friends and neighbors. I loved his speech:

"President Obama promised to slow the rising of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is I'll try to help you and your families."

Pretty sharp contrast there. No savior, no saint, no ubermensch to rescue us from our bad selves. Just a guy trying to help -- a very accomplished and committed guy, who has a lot to offer.

A couple speakers noted the fantastic and utopian tone of this administraton. Believe it was Rubio who commented on the Comrade's claim that he hadn't told the American people enough "stories." Rubio said there's been no shortage of words and "stories" issuing from the White House over the last three and half years. However, there's been very little useful and effective action.

Right.

If they don't do the job, you got to let them go.

Save the Republic.