Who are these Americans obsessing over the falsehood that Barack Obama is a Muslim? And how can we remain silent as the right wing continues to twist the word "Muslim" into a pejorative?

In the midst of the last presidential election, I spoke with friends of mine who are Muslim. They were understandably disappointed with the rhetoric of those "accusing" then-Senator Barack Obama of being a Muslim. They were equally disappointed with Barack Obama’s vehement denials. What would they have preferred him say? Something like this: "No, I am not a Muslim, but Islam is a beautiful religion, and why should it matter if I was?"

That statement itself would have been twisted by the right. "Obama loves Islam! Obama said it doesn’t matter if he’s Muslim!"

Candidates today are between a rock and a hard place sometimes.

Today, however, the tail wags the dog again. Just as the right tried to turn the word "Catholic" into a pejorative when John F. Kennedy ran for president, the right is working overtime to do the same with the word "Muslim." Everyone knows what happened on 9-11, but what happened was not Muslim, any more than the Crusades were Christian acts of love. In any group of human beings, you will find 95% to 99% of the people who are fine to excellent. You will also find as much as 5% who are either a**holes or criminals. No matter where they are, this 5% will work to pervert their environment for their own sick reasons.

Today, this 5% of the GOP is working overtime and has succeeded in scaring up to 20% of the right wing into believing that Muslims as a whole are people to be feared, and that Barack Obama is a Muslim.

From ENEWSPF:

Two recently released polls show that an increasing number of Americans believe the falsehood that President Obama is a Muslim. According to the Pew Research Center, 60 percent of people who believe this false claim cite the media as the source of that information — and, indeed, the right-wing media have incessantly promoted this lie.

Pew: Nearly "one-in-five Americans" now say Obama is a Muslim. On August 18, the Pew Research Center released a survey on Obama and religion, conducted in early August. The poll found that "nearly one-in-five Americans (18%) now say Obama is a Muslim, up from 11% in March 2009," while "[o]nly about one-third of adults (34%) say Obama is a Christian, down sharply from 48% in 2009." The survey also found that "43% say they do not know what Obama’s religion is." Pew went on to state: "The view that Obama is a Muslim is more widespread among his political opponents than among his backers."

This "view" that Obama is a Muslim is "more widespread among his political opponents than among his backers" because this argument is simply ugly politics, at the expense of Muslims and everything good that America stands for.

The GOP should be ashamed.

August 21st, 2010
Categories: America, Barack Obama, Conservatives, Ethics, Philosophical, Religion, Republicans . Author: G . Comments: No Comments

Okay, so take some points away from me for sensational headlines.

But, still, the Chicago Tribune, the only newspaper I faithfully subscribed to at the University of Notre Dame in the 80s, remains in trouble.

From the SUN-TIMES:

The Tribune Co.’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy has unraveled in the wake of an independent report concluding that talks leading up to the company’s 2007 leveraged buyout bordered on fraud, attorneys said Friday.

The report released last month by a court-appointed examiner forced Tribune and its creditors to rethink a settlement agreement that formed the basis of its reorganization plan.

Under Tribune’s plan, JPMorgan Chase and distressed-debt specialist Angelo, Gordon & Co. would have been among the new owners of the company’s media properties, which include the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, other daily newspapers and 20 broadcast stations.

But attorneys told Delaware bankruptcy judge Kevin Carey on Friday that JPMorgan and Angelo Gordon had dropped out of the agreement, and that talks on a consensual reorganization plan had broken down.

"The debtor has tried mightily to bring the parties together," Tribune attorney James Conlan. "That has not happened."

Conlan also confirmed that Tribune had not been party to separate negotiations among its creditors.

The Tribune Co. sent a memo to employees saying the restructuring plan “is moving more slowly and has become noisier than we had hoped.” The memo, signed by Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels and Chief Operating Officer Gerry Spector, noted that all of the Tribune Co.’s media businesses are profitable, and that the company’s monthly operating report for July will show that its financial results are strong.

The memo thanked employees for their creativity, innovation and dedication, and urged them not to get distracted.

Look: I hope the paper survives. And I hope the news industry finally gets the guts to lock down its online content for subscribers only. Free online content is the killer, right now.

I hated it when the Pittsburgh Press went under. I really did. Even though I delivered the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from age 13 through the end of high school.

Competition is good. Competition is healthy. And I don’t want to be left with just one news company for the Chicagoland area.

But then, if they all go under, we’ll always have ENEWSPF.

I’m just sayin’.

August 20th, 2010
Categories: Chicago, Chicagoland, Economy, Jobs . Author: G . Comments: No Comments

Big day in Matteson, and for Dr. Blondean Davis.

The Southland College Preparatory High School is open for business.

From the Southtown Star:

Typical high school students wait four years before they march across stage, shake hands with the principal and accept that piece of paper that can make or break a future. The 125 students who opened Southland College Preparatory Charter High School on Thursday did it on the first day of the ninth grade.

"You are not only going to enter, you are going to graduate from college. That is the promise of Southland. That is our commitment to you," Southland CEO Blondean Davis told the students.

"You’re going to have this tangible thing called a quality education," Davis told the class Thursday. "You’re going to think about how, on the first day of Southland, (you) began this transformation."

Earlier in the day, Southland staffers cheered as the students from the Chicago-area’s only suburban charter high school spilled out of school buses. And as beaming parents snapped pictures of embarrassed students, some teenagers admitted they had reservations.

Southland has no football team, no mascot, no school colors. None of them envisioned freshman year would take place inside of Huth Middle School -the school’s temporary home while a larger building in Richton Park is renovated. And there is, of course, the issue of the mandatory uniforms and a school day that lasts until 5 p.m.

In short, it’s not what they pictured when they imagined their first day of high school.

While some private schools may be nervously watching this experiment, they needn’t worry much. Charter schools, by law, must admit students by lottery, randomly, not by ability, grades, or any other mechanism. Top student may still apply to Marian Catholic, the private college prep. school closest to this charter, or any others.

Best of luck to the students at the new charter!

August 20th, 2010
Categories: Chicagoland, Education . Author: G . Comments: No Comments

As the nation still struggles to emerge from the Bush Recession and avoid a double-dip, we discover yet another industry suffering: restaurants (…and why, by the way, are my conservative friends hoping for a double-dip, exactly? They’re not rich, and they’re likely to end up in tents with the rest of us if we do double-dip. Are they that eager to see Obama and America fail???)
.

From the Chicago Tribune:

With consumers and businesses keeping a lid on expenses, more and more small and mid-size restaurants are throwing in their dish towels and closing up shop.

Southern California lost nearly a thousand more restaurants than it gained during the 12 months that ended in March, representing a net 2% drop that was twice the national average, according to the New York research firm NPD Group.

Nearly all the closings were among independently owned restaurants: small, family businesses that just couldn’t hold on as customers held back. Earlier in the year restaurants reported modest increases in business, but the jumps in sales were too little too late for many.

"We were going in reverse," said Ken Rausch, who last month made the wrenching decision to close his family’s 65-year-old San Gabriel Valley restaurant, Edward’s Steakhouse. The restaurant had weathered previous recessions, but this downturn drained the family’s resources — and showed few signs of letting up, Rausch said.

Other well-known haunts have also succumbed: Orso on 3rd Street near Robertson Boulevard, a trattoria popular with the entertainment crowd, closed last winter after a nearby movie studio laid off a big chunk of its employees; across the nation, Koo Koo Roo, Bennigan’s, Bakers Square, Tony Roma’s and other chains have shut dozens of locations.

Even in good times, the restaurant business is a difficult one. Many close simply because they fall out of fashion or favor, and most run on slim margins. But this downturn seems especially brutal.

We’ve lost a few in the south Chicagoland area, but many have survived, some developing creative ways to stay afloat. The Big Apple Pancake House in Chicago Heights opened its table tops to advertising.

I know: we eat too much in Chicago already. Still, it’s good to know that many places here have survived.

Still, nationwide, the trend is not good.

I’ll be George W., King of the "have-mores," is eating well, though.

August 20th, 2010
Categories: America, Chicago, Chicagoland, Economy, Jobs . Author: G . Comments: No Comments

The mouth that won’t stop gabbing is starting another media blitz as the Summer of Blagojevich continues.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Beginning a weekend media blitz, Rod Blagojevich said this morning he will not take any plea deal from prosecutors, accused them of trying to criminalize political horse-trading and emphasized repeatedly that he had not been convicted of any of the corruption charges against him.

And he said the lone jury holdout against convicting him on major corruption counts confirmed his faith in God.

"I’ve always had a deep and abiding faith in God," he said on the "Today" show. "And when I look at that, it just confirms ‘Praise God.’ And I certainly thank her for her good judgment.

"If we put on a defense, I think we probably would have been acquitted" on every count, he  added.
He continued to insist he had done nothing wrong, saying prosecutors had captured him on tape only discussing "possibilities" with lawyers and political advisers. "Political horse-trading …. this is what they are trying to criminalize," he said.

He accused prosecutors of hypocrisy, saying they frequently make deals with convicted felons. "The very thing they charge me with, they should charge themselves with," he said.

August 20th, 2010
Categories: Chicago, Chicagoland, Cook County, Crime and Punishment, Democratic News, Elections, Ethics, Humor, Illinois, Legal . Author: G . Comments: No Comments

From the Chicago Tribune:

Chicago-based ShoreBank, which for more than three decades made loans to South and West siders who might not have gotten financing elsewhere to buy homes, apartment buildings and start businesses, failed Friday. It had struggled for months to raise sufficient funds to stay afloat.

Its deposits and most of its assets were acquired by a consortium of major U.S. financial institutions and philanthropic groups and will reopen under the name Urban Partnership Bank.

ShoreBank was the 15th Illinois bank to fail this year and the 118th to be seized by federal and state regulators nationally. Its failure is expected to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $367.7 million. The FDIC, which is funded by the banking industry, said it received only one bid for the bank.

The beat goes on.

August 20th, 2010
Categories: Chicago, Chicagoland, Cook County, Economy . Author: G . Comments: No Comments

All of this is alleged by police. Remember: innocent until proven guilty in this country.

From the Chicago Tribune:

A 48-year-old Des Plaines man was charged with disorderly conduct after he told his dog to attack neighborhood kids, authorities said.

A neighbor on Wednesday asked Roberto Cardona, of the 1300 block of Fargo Avenue, to stop commanding the German shepherd to assault children , police said. But Cardona, who had been drinking, started to yell, and attempted to provoke the neighbor into fighting, police said.

After police arrived, Cardona began to scream at the officers, reports said. Cardona told police that he was tired of the neighbors and would continue to tell his canine to attack them.

Ouch.

August 20th, 2010
Categories: Chicago, Chicagoland, Crime and Punishment, Violence . Author: G . Comments: No Comments

From NBC Chicago:

The city of Dolton and Cook County are being sued by the family of a teenager killed by a driver fleeing from police.

Attorney Larry Rogers Jr. said the family of Kenyatta Brack Jr. allege Cook County sheriff’s deputies and Dolton police officers acted recklessly in pursuing a suspect through residential areas of Dolton.

In a statement, Rogers claims several witnesses have come forward to refute police claims they were not involved in a chase.

"My son’s friend who was with him, he seen the cop. And the cop was right behind (the Sonata), " Brack’s father, Kenyatta Brack Sr., told the Chicago Tribune last week.  "They was right there, speeding."

Brack was riding his bike Sunday to meet his mother when the driver of an auto fleeing police struck and killed him. Authorities say the officers were following the fleeing car at a safe distance and speed when the boy was hit. Authorities say no suspect is in custody.

More here.

Very, very sad.

Time to call for the State Police to investigate this one.

August 18th, 2010
Categories: Chicagoland, Crime and Punishment, Ethics, Illinois . Author: G . Comments: No Comments

<p><a href=”http://cbs2chicago.com/local/bp.leak.hammond.2.1867557.html”>From  CBS 2 Chicago</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It appears BP has another leak to deal with; this one, in our own   backyard. A mixture of diesel fuel and gasoline is apparently leaking   from a BP pipeline into a neighborhood in Hammond, Indiana, making life   for residents there pretty miserable. CBS2′s Mike Parker reports.</p>
<p>A major east-west thoroughfare, 175th Street in Hammond, is closed to   traffic for two or three blocks because an excavation crew is now   working for BP, trying to locate the leak in the pipeline – to find it   and fix it. <br />
<br />
As that work goes on, some folks have reported a   gasoline-like smell outside and inside their homes. It’s been going on   for 10 days now. <br />
<br />
Luis Corral, who lives next to the excavation site, was one of the first to report it. <br />
<br />
&quot;I was worried about a fire, or some kind of explosion more than a fire,&quot; said Corral. <br />
<br />
&quot;We’ve   continued to do air monitoring in the neighborhood, as well as a number   of the residents’ houses to make sure that the residences are safe,   that the neighborhood is safe,&quot; said BP spokesman Tom Keilman. <br />
<br />
When asked if everything is safe right now, Keilman said, &quot;That is in fact true.&quot; <br />
<br />
The federal EPA has ordered BP to shut down the pipeline until the leak is found and fixed. BP says it has done that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Great. More oil. Leaking freely into the environment.</p>
<p>Great.</p>

August 18th, 2010
Categories: Chicagoland, Environment . Author: G . Comments: No Comments

Ground Zero is sacred ground.

You better believe it is.

So where is the voice of the G.O.P. shouting a unanimous and bombasitic, “NO!!!!!!” regarding the Ground Zero Strip Club?

The G.O.P. wants us to believe that it is wrong for a religious group to openen a community center close to Ground Zero. The religious group should locate elsewhere, not so close to Sacred Ground.

Did the G.O.P. happen to miss the Cordoba House complex at 45-51 Park Place, a mere two blocks away from the World Trade Center site?

A bit more from Forbes.com:

As yet, I haven’t heard anyone wonder why our political class is silent as the sex industry operates on sacred ground. It would be a bizarre complaint: It’s Manhattan, where you can find anything mere blocks from a given location. The closest strip club to Ground Zero happens to be two blocks away, a fact that has nothing to do with our reverence for the place where so many Americans were killed by terrorists. As you’ve probably noticed, it doesn’t even make sense to call it The Ground Zero Strip Club.

But it makes no less sense than naming an Islamic community center “The Ground Zero Mosque”–as much of the media have done–because it’s going to be located a couple blocks away. Even worse, opponents of the project are opportunistically invoking the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, even going so far as to appropriate their imagery. “Join the fight to kill The Ground Zero Mosque,” intones a video advertisement released by a group called National Republican Trust PAC. “A mosque at Ground Zero must not stand. The political class says nothing. The politicians are doing nothing to stop it. But we Americans will be heard. ”

As an American in good standing, I’d like to be heard–and to make sure that James Madison, a colleague of mine in citizenship, is heard too. The fourth president of the U.S. once wrote, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It’s a line that National Republican Trust neglects to remember. Perhaps “the political class” isn’t doing anything to stop the construction of an Islamic community center because the Constitution forbids it. Even worse, the advertisement I’ve mentioned engages in just the sort of religious bigotry that the First Amendment is meant to guard against. “On Sept. 11 they declared war against us,” the narrator says. “And to celebrate that murder of 3,000 Americans they want to build a monstrous 13-story mosque at ground zero.”

“They” declared war against us? Who is this ambiguous “they?”

A radical group of al Qaeda radicals led by Osama bin Laden attacked the United States on September 11, 2001.

Who are “they” who wish to open the community center?

“They” are an Islamic group that has long run a mosque in the area for New York City Muslims. On 9/11, “they” found their community under attack, too. It is slander to assert that they’ve declared war against us, or that their motive in building a community center is celebrating the murder of Americans.

“They” who wish to open this community center are peace-loving Americans. That’s it.

This is a non-issue, and the G.O.P. should be ashamed.

August 15th, 2010
Categories: America, Conservatives, Philosophical, Rant, Religion, Republicans . Author: G . Comments: No Comments