Posts Tagged ‘Chicago’
May 24th, 2011 by John Feehery
I wore my green tie in honor of President Obama’s visit to Moneygall yesterday.
The President was warmly received in his visit to the Emerald Isle, and he didn’t disappoint. He drank a pint of stout in four sips, an impressive feat for any person who is not predominantly Irish.
The President was visiting this small Irish village because he has an ancient relative who was born there. That great-great-great grandfather immigrated to Ireland in the middle of the potato famine, around the same time that old Tom Feehery left Roscrae in county Tipperary.
The Irish diaspora went far and wide in the world in that era. My family ended up in Chicago and so did Obama. Small world.
The Irish economy is approaching the level of disaster that befell Ireland in the 1850’s. Nobody is starving, but the people are leaving again like they did then, looking for jobs.
The irony is that Ireland is far different than it was then, and that a motivated and smart workforce, favorable tax laws and a good infrastructure should help propel the Irish back fairly quickly.
The President’s visit is good politics for him. He should have taken some more time, played some golf and established closer ties to the Irish. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Chicago, Economy, election, Emerald Isle, Government, Guinness, Ireland, Irish, Irish Catholics, Moneygall, Obama, President Obama, Presidential election, spending
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Foreign Relations, Fun, Government, Immigration, Politics, Presidential election, Religion, Theory, election, national security | No Comments »
September 7th, 2010 by John Feehery
When Mayor Daley announced that he was resigning, it made Washington liberals very happy. It should have also put a smile on Republican Presidential candidates too.
Let me explain.
For most of his career, Daley has been a pretty effective mayor for the city of Big Shoulders. He was able to pick up the pieces after the Harold Washington debacle and move the city past the racial political war that typified Washington’s epic battles against the City Counsel.
For a decade or so, he made Chicago work again. He made peace with the business community, he worked hard on beautifying the city, and found ways to reach out to every different neighborhood in a way that brought the city together. He transformed his father’s political machine, making it more acceptable for the modern era.
But Daley was dogged by federal corruption investigations that ultimately took out many of his closest allies. He refused to back the police force when cops were charged with police brutality and racism (even when the cops were black). That led to the shooting gallery that is currently Chicago.
He pushed liberal (and ineffective) causes like gun control, making a name for himself, but taking away freedom from citizens who wanted to protect themselves from the bad guys. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Chicago, Congress, DC mayor, election, mayor, Presidential election, White House
Posted in Government, Politics, Theory, election | No Comments »
September 3rd, 2010 by John Feehery
Only in America could gang-bangers have a press conference and complain about police harassment.
That is exactly what several members of some of Chicago’s most violent gangs did yesterday.
On the same day that President Obama’s Justice Department sued an Arizona Sheriff for harassing illegal immigrants, gang kingpins met with the press to say that the cops don’t give them enough respect.
Here is what CBS news reported on the subject:
Self-identified gang leaders hold a news conference in Chicago, Sept. 2. 2010. (CBS)
“At a news conference organized by self-identified gang members Thursday morning, several speakers complained that police and city officials do not respect them, and that the only way to curb violence is to provide jobs and improve their community. The self-described current and former gang members held a news conference at the Columbus Park Refectory, at 5701 W. Jackson Blvd. on the city’s West Side. “You say it’s gangs, drugs and guns. We say we need jobs, opportunities and contracts,” said Reginald Akeem Berry Sr., who identified himself as a former gang member. “That’s the resolution.”
But is that really the resolution? How can jobs be created in parts of Chicago that are more violent that Baghdad or Kabul? Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Chicago, Democrats, Drugs, Obama, Politics
Posted in Drugs in America, Government, Media, Politics, Theory | No Comments »
June 3rd, 2010 by John Feehery
Tags: Andrew Romanoff, Chicago, Dan Rostenkowski, Joe Sestak, Rod Blagojevich, Roland Burris, White House
Posted in Bad Decisions, Government, Politics, corruption | No Comments »
June 3rd, 2010 by John Feehery
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley / Photo credit: DB King
“He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That’s the Chicago way.”
Well, at least that’s the Hollywood version of the Chicago way.
In actuality, the American public is going to get a good chance to see the new Chicago way when the Rod Blagojevich corruption trial starts in earnest in the next couple of weeks.
Of course, Washington is knee-deep in the Chicago way with allegations by two insurgent Democrats, who have admitted that that they were illegally offered federal jobs in exchange for them dropping their insurgent campaigns against the preferred candidates of the Chicago White House.
In the old days, these guys might have feared for their lives, both politically and actually, if they had crossed the Chicago machine. These days, they gamble that by standing up to the Chicago machine, they can get more of a political advantage. So they both turned down the jobs and then turned on the folks who offered them. Read more...
Tags: Andrew Romanoff, Barack Obama, Celebrity Apprentice, Chicago, Chicago way, Joe Sestak, Rod Blagojevich, White House
Posted in Government, Theory, corruption | No Comments »
June 1st, 2010 by John Feehery
By far, the most respected institution in America today is the military. Polls show that people trust the military more than the Congress, the President, major corporations, the Church, Hollywood, the Postal service, and just about anything else you can think of.
Our troops are currently fighting two big wars (one in Afghanistan, the other in Iraq) and a bunch of smaller little conflicts around the globe. The President recently deployed 1,500 National Guardsman to the Southwestern border to help fight illegal immigration, over the objections of Republicans, who wanted to triple the number. Some want the military to help fight the battle against the Gulf Oil spill. Others want to call out the troops to help secure inner cities racked by violence (more specifically, Chicago).
When you go to a baseball game in Washington, D.C. (and I assume around the country), wounded warriors are introduced to standing ovations after the fourth inning (usually). Read more...
Tags: America flags, Barack Obama, Chicago, Memorial Day, Politics, Republicans, summer, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Posted in Bad Decisions, Government, Politics, election | No Comments »
May 24th, 2010 by John Feehery
Joe Sestak during his career in the Navy
On ABC’s weekly gab-fast “This Week” yesterday, America’s last remaining Whig, the bow-tied George Will, blithely dismissed the kerfluffle surrounding the latest accusations surrounding illegality in the White House. “Business as usual,” he huffed.
But moments later, on a separate network, the one who was offered the bribe, Joe Sestak, acknowledged that he was offered such a deal – a high-ranking government appointment in exchange for a discontinued Senate. “I was offered a job, but I am not going to tell you what it was.”
Most people assumed that it was Secretary of the Navy. For those keeping notes, an appointment to become Secretary of the Navy is not worth a chance to knock off Arlen Specter, at least not at the current market rates.
This morning, a writer for the left-wing opinion site Slate, Joe Conason, opined that what the White House offered was probably illegal.
Give the RNC Chairman Michael Steele credit. He has single-handedly made this business-as-usual-probably-illegal job offer an issue that the media is going to try to ignore as best it can until it can no longer ignore it anymore. Read more...
Tags: Arlen Specter, Celebrity Apprentice, Chicago, corruption, George Will, illegal, Michael Steele, Rod Blagojevich, Secretary of the Navy, White House
Posted in Government, Politics, Theory, election | 1 Comment »
April 27th, 2010 by John Feehery
I turned on Fox News and watched Laura Ingraham interviewing a State Senator from Illinois. The State Senator wants to call out the National Guard to patrol the streets of Chicago, which has been enduring a running gun fight for months now in the city’s toughest neighborhoods. Laura asked a simple question: Why can’t the cops handle it? The answer: They are out-gunned and out-manned.
In Arizona, the news lately has been focused on the new law, aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants. Lost in the spotlight has been the plaintive cry for help from those who live near the border: Call out the national guard and help us patrol our streets. Our police force is outgunned and outmanned.
In Afghanistan, the National Guard is only part of the elements that are in theater, fighting the Taliban. But as they fight the Taliban, they are also fighting those who make a lot of money from heroin production.
In Washington, the Attorney General says that he won’t prosecute those who use marijuana. The President says little about the carnage in his home town of Chicago, and blames the people of Arizona for passing a tough law that he calls “misguided.” Read more...
Tags: Arizona, Attorney General, Chicago, George Bush, illegal immigrants, Iraq, marijuana, National Guard, police, prohibition, war on drugs
Posted in Drugs in America, Immigration, Laws, Politics, Theory, national security, war | 1 Comment »
July 29th, 2008 by John Feehery
My Kind of Town
Although I have lived in Washington D.C. for eighteen years, I will always consider Chicago to be my hometown. I was born on the south side of Chicago, and my family moved to the south suburbs when I was about 7.
Chicago is a great city. It has world-class architecture, great restaurants, a beautiful lakefront, one of the world’s best orchestras, fascinating museums, great sports teams and nice people.
It also has a colorful political history. Chronicled by intrepid reporters like Mike Royko, John Drummond and currently John Kass, this history has been widely acknowledged to be as full of corruption as any city in America.
Since 1972, an average two Chicago politicians per year have been convicted of felonies. In 1991, when not one Chicago Alderman was convicted or even indicted, the Sun-Times ran that deviant event as a front-page story.
Starting with Al Capone and the St. Valentine’s massacre, and stretching to present day, it has been hard to separate the mobsters from the politicians. Read more...
Tags: Chicago, corruption, Obama
Posted in Government, Media, Politics, Theory | No Comments »
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