I find it interesting that Mayor Emanuel could on one hand complain that the City of Chicago is in bad financial shape, while on the other hand attempt to compel the taxpayers in Chicago to cover over half of the costs for a stadium that would serve a school owned by the Catholic Church, one of the country’s wealthiest tax-exempt 501©3 organizations.

It pains me to know that $100 million deals are being handed out like popcorn to certain people when sizable numbers of Chicago City employees and their families have been nearly ruined by a recent epidemic of layoffs. Money is supposedly so tight that large numbers of Chicago Public Schools have closed or are scheduled to close, 87% tax hikes in water/sewer services have been made, Chicago Police stations are closing. We’ve been cursed with an ever-growing swarm of revenue-generating and accident-causing red light cameras and a plague of costly parking meters in the name of raising revenue, and a new stadium is how we’re going to spend our hard-earned money?

Some would say that DePaul has finally come out of the closet as a Catholic-clout-heavy operative serving the Chicago Machine. The backdoor dealings of DePaul University’s political power brokers have been a subject of quiet controversy for some years.

One cannot deny the sheer number of political heavyweights that have DePaul as their alma mater. Former Chicago Mayor Michael A. Bilandic, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, former Illinois Appellate Judge Joseph Burke and former Chief Federal Prosecutor Samuel Skinner (who also served as U.S. Secretary of Transportation and Chief of Staff to President George H. W. Bush) are all DePaul alums. Then there are Chicago Mayors Richard J. and M. Daley, both of whom graduated from DePaul University Law School. Richard M. purportedly received special “assistance” from the now late Cecil Partee (former Treasurer of the City of Chicago, Cook County State’s Attorney and Illinois State Senate President) in passing his bar exams.

The post The Chicago Machine Gets Rich On Taxpayers And DePaul appeared first on American News Post.

The IRS stumbles, and the GOP pounces

It is a rare state of affairs when you find the sane people of the United States agreeing with the Republican reactionary establishment on any point, but it is difficult (or at least politically inexpedient) to come out on the side of censorship in the United States. On Friday officials at the IRS admitted that, as early as March of 2010, the agency made the mistake of overly vetting 501©4 applications for organizations with words like patriot, tea party and 9/12 in their titles. It would later be revealed that the IRS also scrutinized any group that claimed to educate U.S. citizens on the Constitution or drew attention to federal spending and the public debt. The IRS continues to maintain that this was done as a “shortcut” to flag applications for review and not an out-and-out attempt to deny Republican/conservative/Tea Party groups from expressing their views.

The travesty of Citizens United is really at the core of this problem. When the conservative-dominated Supreme Court decided to allow corporations to spend unlimited funds on political causes they essentially created the avalanche of new (and probably largely fraudulent) 501©4s the IRS would need to deal with. Add to this the fact that a major Koch Brothers/Big Tobacco, err, I mean Republican political movement often collectively known as the Tea Party came into being around the same time. So while the tsunami of applications for 501©4 status were overwhelmingly from conservative causes, just a few years earlier it just as easily could have been Obama-inspired non-profits that would have been targeted by the IRS.

However, this does not excuse the IRS’ indefensible behavior. The left has hucksters and tax-dodgers hiding in its ranks as well, after all. The rightly increased scrutiny of new 501©4 applications should have been evenly applied to every submission, not just ones with the popular keywords.

The post Bipartisan Indignation Gives Way To GOP Demagoguery appeared first on American News Post.

The U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi

Every now and then persistence pays off.

After months and months of denial and misdirection, the Obama administration will finally be exposed as the liars yours truly has always known them to be. Testimony this week will practically assure the administration will be held accountable for botching their response to the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi.

Three whistleblowers are going to crack the wall of silence. They are Eric Nordstrom, the Libyan regional security officer when the attack occurred, Greg Hicks, the former Benghazi deputy mission chief, and Mark Thompson, the State Department’s acting deputy assistant for counter-terrorism.

Each man’s story is more damning than the last. Hicks recently said that everyone present in Benghazi knew the attack was an act of terror “from the get-go.” Hicks told government investigators that he “never reported a demonstration,” but he did “report an attack on the consulate.” Hicks went on to add that “Chris’s (Ambassador Chris Stevens) last report, if you want to say his final report – is ‘Greg, we are under attack.’”

Hicks also detailed his shock at Ambassador Rice’s denial of what happened in Benghazi, despite Libyan President Mohammed al-Magariaf’s assertion that the attack was pre-planned and pre-determined. “The net impact of what has transpired is, (Ambassador Rice) the spokesperson of the most powerful country in the world, has basically said that the president of Libya is either a liar of doesn’t know what he’s talking about. …My jaw hit the floor as I watched this.”

Nordstrom has testified about the Benghazi incident before, detailing how he repeatedly requested more security personnel for Libya. The State Department’s unwillingness to admit that the situation was rapidly deteriorating in Libya was a constant source of frustration for Nordstrom. At a hearing in 2012 he lashed out at State Department officials, saying that “for me the Taliban is on the inside of the (State Department) building.”

The post A Scam ‘From The Get-Go’ appeared first on American News Post.

During the tenure of Mayor Harold Washington, O’Connor caucused with the opposition block in city council known as the “Vrdolyak 29.” O’Connor chaired the city council’s committee on education as a freshman alderman.

In Alderman O’Connor’s first term a federal grand jury investigated him for providing in late 1983 (and again in late 1984) year-end jobs on the education committee staff for fifteen people, including a number of relatives, close friends and associates. Some who he hired claimed they did not realize they were on the city payroll. In 2008 O’Connor was exposed by Fox reporter Dane Placko as was one of several aldermen that got their children high-paying summer jobs with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.

More recently Alderman O’Connor, who appears to some as a helper to Mayor Emanuel in the closing of 50 much-needed CPS locations, denied that his political influence caused one of his immediate relatives to receive a high-powered position at Chicago Public Schools.

Chicago’s 40th Ward Alderman Patrick O’Connor

“All in the Family” is a popular nickname for Alderman O’Connor’s hiring practices. In a bizarre departure from the usual denial tactics employed by most corrupt government officials, Alderman O’Connor seems almost proud of his alleged theft. At a press conference in 1984, O’Connor proudly proclaimed his nepotistic practices. “I think nepotism is a system that has been around a long time. It has worked very well in England. I don’t think it’s been much more of a problem here.”

Attitudes like these seem to be as frequent as the common cold in the Windy City. But while Chicago politics can corrupt almost anyone, sometimes this casual attitude towards fair work practices and taxpayer money begins in the home. In Alderman O’Connor’s case, corruption may run in the family.

It could be said by a number of wise guys in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood that Alderman Pat O’Connor’s father, Pat O’Connor Sr., was a legend in his day. My father, Gabe “Cokes” Coconate, worked for Pat O’Connor Sr. in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Pat Sr. was a Deputy Commissioner working out of the Streets and Sanitation’s 3700 S. Princeton facility (which is no longer there, because U.S. Cellular Field – Chicago White Sox Park – now sits in its place).

The post All In The Family: Ald. Pat O’Connor & Chinatown appeared first on American News Post.

Of course that “game change” was never specified by the administration.  The president never said we were going to war, but some people managed to read U.S. military aggression between the lines.  Now the President’s representatives are treading lightly, doing their best to hold back war mongers like Senator John McCain, who endlessly advocate for America’s involvement in the affairs of every country across the globe.

It is obvious that the use of sarin gas is not a de facto reason to get involved in the Syrian civil war.  In 1988 Irai forces unleashed a sarin gas attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja, yet the United States did nothing to Iraq (until they invaded an oil-producing ally).  When the Aum Shinrikyo sect used sarin to attack Japanese citizens on subway cars, the United States did not send the Marines into downtown Tokyo.

So what motivates warmongers like McCain?  U.S. imperialism is at the root of it.  The United States have never gotten over the empire envy that was such an integral part of our nation’s youth.  The United States has been going to war with sovereign nations every few years since its inception.  In the early days, the U.S. simply absorbed these sovereign nations and their people.  The American Indian Wars, as they are now known, brought untold horror, with Americans utilizing advanced weaponry and germ warfare to decimate dozens of civilizations in the name of westward expansion.  Wars with Mexico and Spain also greatly expanded the early American land empire.

Just since the end of World War II, the United States has barely gone a year without forcing itself into the affairs of other nations.  Here’s a partial list of American military exploits over the past 70 years:

The French Indochina War (50-54)
The Korean War (50-53)
The Vietnam War (53-75)
The Laotian Civil War (53-75)
The 1958 Lebanese Crisis (Operation Blue Bat) (58)
The Cambodian Civil War (70-75)
The Invasion of the Dominican Republic (Operation Power Pack) (65-66)
The 1981 Gulf of Sidra Incident (81)
The Lebanese Civil War (82-84)
The Invasion of Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury) (83)
The Bombing of Libya (Operation El Dorado Canyon) (86)
The Action in the Gulf of Sidra (Operation Prairie Fire) (86)
The Tanker War (Operation Honest Will) (86-87)
The Second Gulf of Sidra Incident (89)
The Invasion of Panama (Operation Just Cause) (89-90)
The Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) (90-91)
The Somali Civil War (Operation Restore Hope) (92-94)
The Bosnian War (Operation Deliberate Force) (94-95)
Operation Uphold Democracy (94-95)
Operation Infinite Reach (98)
The Kosovo War (Operation Noble Anvil) (99)
The Second Liberian War (03)
The Invasion of Iraq (03-11)
The Libyan Civil War (Operation Odyssey Dawn) (11)

The post The ‘Red Line’ The U.S. Crossed Long Ago appeared first on American News Post.

Then we have the story of Kuwaiti opposition politician Musallam Al-Barrak, who had the temerity to speak ill of Sheikh Sabah IV Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the autocratic king of the tiny country. For the crime of “undermining the emir” el-Barrak has been sentenced to five years in jail.

These crimes against free speech and human dignity are atrocious, but, as Westerners we tend to look on such things as almost inevitable. In backwards countries ruled by seemingly random religious prerogatives the violation of free speech is practically a foregone conclusion. If only they could better emulate places like the United States, a land founded on the preservation of natural human rights, then all would be well.

Then I opened a newspaper and saw that the Obama administration was advocating that suspected Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev be tricked into violating his rights, particularly his right to counsel. Say what you will about Turkey, at least they let Fazil Say have a lawyer.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

This idea of delaying Mirandizing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is just so stupid it boggles the imagination. There is literally no upside to it. The Miranda warning does not confer rights; it merely reminds us of them. Not reading Miranda to a person does not strip them of their Constitutional protections. How could it? If not being read Miranda could do such a thing, then no American had Constitutional protections until 1966. The long and the short is that it is not possible for the government to strip anyone of these rights, regardless of how popular the idea may be.

And boy, is it popular! Barack Obama, Eric Holder, John Boehner, Lindsey Graham, John McCain and a slew of other people who should know better have taken it upon themselves to decide who gets access to their rights and who doesn’t. Considering several of these men are lawyers (particularly the Prez, who keeps telling people he was a Constitutional law professor) this shocking degree of ignorance is unforgivable.

The post Miranda Does Not Confer Rights, It Reminds You Of Them appeared first on American News Post.

(starting in upper left corner and going clockwise) Rudy Fratto, John Rainone Daddono, William Daddono Jr. and John DiFronzo

In Chicago we currently have gangster Rudy Fratto Jr. in prison for the second time (as a repeat offender). Fratto convinced the U.S. Attorney’s Office to prosecute him as if he were not a gangster, despite what I now call their weak and questionable eleventh hour attempt to do just that. Because the government did not prosecute Fratto as a gangster, he got a much less severe sentence.

So why would the AUSAs wait till the bitter end to go after Fratto with everything they had? Every lawyer I talked to about the government’s odd, last minute maneuver told me that it was such a lame argument that it almost looked like it was a setup. It’s like the prosecutors staged a little dog and pony show to make it look less obvious that Fratto cooperated with the government.

The Fratto case involved bid rigging at Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center. Somehow Fratto’s relatives, the infamous Daddonos, who were involved in the matter in which Fratto was recently convicted on, managed to stay out of various press releases the U.S. Attorney’s Office issued on the matter. In addition, the Daddono name and the questionable history of their company, Century Trade Show Services, was concealed by the government as it was referred to in federal records (check out page 57 in this memorandum for an example). How did the Daddonos earn such a special privilege?

The post Outfit Stool Pigeons Want Their Cake And Eat It Too appeared first on American News Post.

James Chmura

Our message was heard loud and clear (for those of you who are unfamiliar with the message, please take the time to read my February 28, 2013, article by clicking here before you go any further). The responsible citizens of Norridge, Illinois, stood up and defended their village. However, first and foremost, we must thank president-elect James Chmura for executing a highly effective plan of action in spreading our message that was designed to keep big-city slick-talking mobbed-up wise-guys and downstate big-shot politicos out of little old quiet Norridge, Illinois. If it were not for the good leadership of James Chmura, our message would not have been heard as well by the people who were empowered to do something about it – the voters. In addition, we must thank the excellent team of helpers and other aids who James Chmura allowed onboard. No doubt, without the support of Chmura’s team, our message would have been weak. And God bless the voters for responding to our message! Thank you.

Now that Norridge is in the clear, it is time for us to stand behind James Chmura and follow him as he leads his people in his journey of improving Norridge’s shortcomings and maintaining her successes.

Again, congratulations Norridge!

The post Congratulations Norridge! appeared first on American News Post.

Toni Keller

Do you recognize the beautiful 18-year-old girl in this photograph? Her name is Toni Keller, and she was the victim of a horrific series of crimes. Toni was tortured, raped, murdered and immolated, and you both cut a deal with her killer.

Her picture was the only item that former DeKalb County, Illinois, States Attorney Clay Campbell left on his desk the day he cleared out his office. He did this to remind you both of your responsibility to find her killer and make sure he received a full measure of punishment for his heinous crimes.

But what did you do, Mr. Schmack, when Mr. Campbell asked you to review the case before he left office?

Nothing. You did nothing.

Had you bothered to do your job, Mr. Campbell would have certainly made it clear that YOU now carried the burden of insuring justice be served to William Curl, the man who perpetrated these crimes – the man who brought Toni’s still-warm remains to the coroner’s office in a Jewel grocery bag.

Instead, Mr. Schmack, you allowed William Curl to plead-down, maintain his innocence and potentially walk the streets of DeKalb again in 34 years (counting time served). Judge Stuckert, you could have interceded as well, but instead you turned your back when, in a heartless act of docket-clearing brevity, you rendered irrelevant the unimaginable, torturous hell Toni Keller suffered three years ago. In carrying out your mockery of justice you both miserably failed the very people who elected you to protect their families and preserve justice in this county.

But the greatest insult was to come, wasn’t it Mr. Schmack? During your fumbling, ineloquent press conference, the world listened as you callously lied, coldly stating that the state had a weak case against Curl.

The ugly truth is that there is a great deal of physical evidence and much witnesses testimony. How could this mountain of evidence be considered weak? Curl returned again and again to the scene of the crime, interacting with law enforcement, even going so far as to even pretend to be helping police search a fire pit in Prairie Park.

The post An Open Letter To Judge Robin Stuckert and States Attorney Richard Schmack appeared first on American News Post.

I speak, of course, of the Baroness Margaret Thatcher.

No one has been more responsible for the degradation of modern British society than Thatcher. From her humble beginnings endorsing the re-legalization of beating children with birch sticks, Thatcher’s sadism turned to policies of privatization and destruction of union power. Her reforms are the reason for the rampant joblessness and poverty found in Britain today. She gutted state-run businesses and turned them over to cronies in the private sector, all at the expense of the downtrodden. The Baroness obliterated whole industries (and the communities that supported them) out of an apparently urgent need to steal power from working-class unionists, men and women who simply wanted a little more than the tiny sliver of the massive pie their bosses were greedily wolfing down.

In short, Margaret Thatcher made the rich richer and the poor poorer. There is no respectable ethical standard anywhere that could consider this a success. The only reason Great Britain even had a chance to survive was the dumb luck discovery of massive North Sea oil reserves. The 90 percent tax rate on this energy source (The Baroness seems to have had no problem piling on the taxes here, eh?) is probably the sole reason her leadership lasted as long as it did.

The post There Is No Alternative: Thatcher Destroyed Great Britain appeared first on American News Post.