Month: January 2010

It’s On: Hynes Calls Quinn a Liar

Posted on by TL

From NBC Chicago:

Gov Pat Quinn says a new television ad from his Democratic opponent reminds him of when President Obama was heckled during an address to Congress.

"I think that just is not a good way to go in a democracy. I believe in civility and decency. I’m going to run a positive campaign," Quinn said Friday.

In the ad, Comptroller Dan Hynes says Quinn "is lying" about the early prison release program.

In the Quinn ad, the narrator says the governor supports moving some non-violent criminals to half-way houses so prison space can be used to house the state’s most violent offenders.

It’s on, South-Park-style.

Let’s remember as this madness continues that both of these guys are good men, both men of good character.

Through February 2, however, they’ll both be acting like characters.

Gentlemen, please, under no circumstances are you permitted to say in an ad, "What’s he thinking?"

If you do, I won’t vote the office at all.

NPR: U.S. Releases Names Of 645 Bagram Detainees

Posted on by TL

From the AP, via NPR:

The government on Friday released a long-secret list of some 645 detainees held at a military base in Afghanistan, providing the information as part of a lawsuit seeking details of the treatment of terror suspects.

The list was just a small part of roughly 2,000 pages of documents that were released related to various lawsuits seeking government papers about detainees.

The identities of the detainees at Bagram air base had been sought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The list is dated Sept. 22, 2009.

ACLU lawyer Melissa Goodman said the government should also provide the details of how the inmates were captured and why they are being held.

"Hundreds of people have languished at Bagram for years in horrid and abusive conditions, without even being told why they’re detained or given a fair chance to argue for release," Goodman said.

An Infamous First: Des Plaines Man Charged with Texting While Driving, DUI

Posted on by TL

From the Sun-Times:

A Des Plaines man is among the first in the state to be charged under the new no-texting-while-driving law, which took effect Jan. 1.

But that offense may be the least of the legal woes facing Terry S. Moore, who also was charged with felony drunk-driving following a traffic stop in Des Plaines early on Jan. 2, officials said.

Moore, 39, was curbed about 4:25 a.m. in Des Plaines after a police officer saw him weaving between lanes on River Road in the northwest suburb, Des Plaines Police Chief Jim Prandini said.

After his car was stopped, Moore was arrested and charged with felony drunk-driving — an offense based on his two prior DUI arrests, Prandini said.

Schools Supt. Charles Flowers Charged With Theft

Posted on by TL

Charles Flowers, superintendent of the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education, is led toward the Cook County sheriff’s office this afternoon after being arrested by Cook County state’s attorney investigators in Maywood.

"Lead us not into temptation." –The Lord’s Prayer

Kudos to the Southtown Star:

Regional Supt. Charles Flowers was charged today with theft by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

The arrest comes after a yearlong investigation by the Southtown Star into operations of Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education.

Flowers turned himself in about 1 p.m. to sheriff’s police in Maywood. He was accompanied by his attorney, Tim Grace.

At a news conference this afternoon, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said Flowers is charged with felony theft and official misconduct. She said he faces a prison term of four to seven years if convicted.

"Just when you think you may have seen it all, along comes a case like this one today that just shocks you with the level of egregious conduct that is involved," Alvarez said.

Flowers is in custody pending a bond hearing Friday morning in a Maywood courtroom.

Temptation is an ugly thing. It’s so hard to resist. No doubt that’s one of the reasons mention of temptation found its way into The Lord’s Prayer.

There’s an old Christian teaching about an ‘occasion of sin.’ While often associated with Catholic sisters and priests on dance floors telling dancing teens to separate, there’s actually a lot of wisdom to this one. There’s a lot of wisdom is setting up boundaries in an office to isolate oneself from temptation. In generic accounting terminology, we might talk about setting up internal audits.

It may be too late for Regional Supt. Charles Flowers. He is innocent until proven guilty. For anyone else in elected office, this is a sobering lesson.

Set up checks and balances so neither you, or those you hire, will be tempted, and, heaven help us, give in to temptation.

More at the Star.

Robertson: Haiti ‘Cursed’ By ‘Pact To The Devil’ (Video and Text)

Posted on by TL

For your consideration, without commentary, from the January 13 edition of Christian Broadcasting Network’s The 700 Club:

PAT ROBERTSON: And, you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, "We will serve you if you will get us free from the French." True story. And so, the devil said, "OK, it’s a deal."

And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other. Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti; on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, et cetera. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now, we’re helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.

KRISTI WATTS (co-host): Absolutely, Pat.

Source: Media Matters for America

Gay Teen Worried He Might Be Christian

Posted on by TL

From our dear, dear friends at The Onion:

At first glance, high school senior Lucas Faber, 18, seems like any ordinary gay teen. He’s a member of his school’s swing choir, enjoys shopping at the mall, and has sex with other males his age. But lately, a growing worry has begun to plague this young gay man. A gnawing feeling that, deep down, he may be a fundamentalist, right-wing Christian.

"I don’t know what’s happening to me," Faber admitted to reporters Monday. "It’s like I get these weird urges sometimes, and suddenly I’m tempted to go behind my friends’ backs and attend a megachurch service, or censor books in the school library in some way. Even just the thought of organizing a CD-burning turns me on."

Added Faber, "I feel so confused."

The openly gay teen, who came out to his parents at age 14 and has had a steady boyfriend for the past seven months, said he first began to suspect he might be different last year, when he started feeling an odd stirring within himself every time he passed a church. The more conservative the church, Faber claimed, the stronger his desire was to enter it.

"It’s like I don’t even know who I am anymore," the frightened teenager said. "Keeping this secret obsession with radical right-wing dogma hidden away from my parents, teachers, and schoolmates is tearing me apart."

Love The Onion.

Read more of this heart-rending tale at The Onion.

I Will NOT Vote for T.J. Somer for Judge, No Way, No How

Posted on by TL

I received an email this evening from the Bloom Township Democrats.

I want to make it clear: I will NOT vote for T.J. "Turncoat" Somer for judge.

No way. No how.

I can’t believe George Scully and Linzey Jones, who are ostensibly Democrats, are putting their names on literature with T.J. Somer, a life-long Republican, who recently became a Democrat so he could have a better chance at getting elected to office.

No way. No how.

I don’t even know if I’ll vote for Scully and Jones. This is just too low a move for them.

Somer is a Republican, and all Democrats should remember that. Somer is an ideological Republican.

Don’t vote for him, whatever you do with the others on the ballot.

Here’s a slogan for you: Anyone But Somer for Judge.