Is it St. Patrick's Day?

Remember, the Irish lived under a brutal oppression by the English. Before there was English oppressing Africans in Rhodesia and South Africa, before English oppression of Indigenous Australians, before the English subjugated Hindus and Muslims on the Subcontinent, the English were practicing how to control a foreign people in Ireland.

The greatest grievance of the Irish against the English was the Great Famine, aka the Irish Potato Famine, 1845-52.

When the Civil War began in 1861, the United States conscripted large numbers of Irish to fight against the Confederacy. In 1863, people opposed to conscription held demonstrations that turned into the New York Draft Riots which...

the protests degraded into "a virtual racial pogrom, with uncounted numbers of blacks murdered on the streets". The conditions in the city were such that Major General John E. Wool stated on July 16, "Martial law ought to be proclaimed, but I have not a sufficient force to enforce it." The military suppressed the mob using artillery and fixed bayonets, but not before numerous buildings were ransacked or destroyed, including many homes and an orphanage for black children.

David Kincaid

Here's some more Irish music for St. Patrick's Day.




Those videos are from The Pogues.

Sunday, I went to the South Side Irish Parade. My girlfriend and I left early and went for a bite and drinks at North Eye's Bar, 2701 W. 87th, Chicago. A local had told us it was an Irish bar frequented by cops and firefighters. The bar is decorated with the posters that portray a romanticized version of Ireland. (Malachy McCourt, the brother of Frank McCourt, has been very critical of Irish-Americans who neglect the real issues facing Ireland by romanticizing Ireland excessively.) The bar also had a sign about the kitchen, "Help Wanted, No Irish Need Apply".

The bar had the South Side parade on the television (ABC-7). The announcer mentioned that President Barack Obama has Irish ancestry. One of the guys at the bar chimes in that Obama is from "the County of Coon". This guy further expounded that if the government didn't force neighborhoods to change there wouldn't be any hate crimes. I didn't engage him on the details of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. This guy was no old-times, he looked to be in his early 20s.

a zoning hearing for Commissioner Mark Hosty

The video shows citizen-activist Steve Backman attempting to hold Mike Boyle accountable. Boyle is the village employee who oversees zoning matters.

The person blocked-out of the video is Forest Park Commissioner Mark Hosty. Hosty has a history of getting preferential treatment from the village. For example, when Hosty did work on his previous house his department (commissioners are department heads as well as legislators) gave Hosty permission for a curb cut. To obfuscate the signature granting Hosty permission was illegible and to my knowledge the village never identified which village official gave Hosty permission to act. There were also questions about whether Hosty was living in a unit zoned residential. So the guy has a history of appearing to get preferential regulatory treatment by the village.

Rawrahs (Rehctaw) and Forest Park Review (Josh Adams) has the back story for what's happening in this video.

One of my concerns is that Cherryfield is the biggest developer in Forest Park. Cherryfield applies for the most permits and exceptions to zoning ordinances. It seems logical for Cherryfield to do work on Hosty's building below cost in exchange for Hosty being supportive of Cherryfield developments. Having the largest developer in Forest Park do major construction work for a commissioner creates the appearance of conflict of interest.

BTW, Boyle is a real gem. Bill Kircher formerly sat on one of the commissions that had to do with zoning. Kirchner pointed out to the village that a local business was doing construction that needed zoning review. Boyle's response was to come give Kirchner a ticket for the work Kirchner is doing on his home.

The conspiracy theory of Forest Park zoning is that the village changed the zoning code in such a way that about 50% of properties in Forest Park are "non-conforming". To do work on these properties, in theory, the owner has to make the properties compliant with the zoning code. This forces about 50% of Forest Park property owners to need to grovel to the village, including elected officials.

And the council led by Mayor Anthony Calderone greases the skids for friends and uses the power of the village to punish their enemies.

It's time for Welch and co. to own their failure

Between 1:30 and 1:40 into this video there's a quote from Senator President-elect Barack Obama, "George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for. It's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America."

After eight years of George W. Bush being President of the United States, the voters got sick of lies and failures and voted for change.

Emanuel "Chris" Welch has been on the District 209 board of education for eight years, most of the time as president of the board. Will the voters of Proviso decide after eight years it's time for change?

Chris Welch and his allies have a lot to answer for. It's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change Proviso.

There's a website inspired by Obama's words, Own Your Failure. What failures should Welch own?

BTW, the Forest Park Review has an editorial criticizing District 209.

Encourage people to vote; how was your experience voting?

A couple videos posted on Daily Kos.


We've got a bunch of new voters. Some of them need to know where their polling place is.



It took me about 35 minutes to vote this morning. When you go to vote, leave enough time.

The ballot layout is confusing on the question of the Constitutional Convention. The Con-Con question is to the side. It's easy to miss because of all the text associated with it, the fact that there are no candidates in the column and the column is a different width.

If you have feedback on your experiences voting you can post them here or at Capitol Fax Blog.

E Day eve at Obama HQ

If you care about my endorsements, I posted them in the comments of The Capitol Fax Blog (scroll down).

Please get your peeps to the polls. You know who needs reminding.

Advice from the Great Communicator

(h/t MyDD (Jonathan Singer))

one week to Election Day

[UPDATE: A Roosevelt Democrat explains why he's volunteering for Obama.]



[UPDATE: Forest Park resident and Proviso East grad Jeremy Horn is also encouraging people to vote.]

Keith Olbermann and some other people on Bush commuting Libby's sentence

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby committed obstruction of justice. Why would Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff obstruct justice when dealing with a special prosecutor investigating who outed undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame?

Libby was protecting Cheney and/or President George W. Bush. Either Bush and/or Cheney engaged in criminal activity or conduct that would have been politically explosive.

Libby was rewarded for his criminality by President Bush who protect Libby from being sent to prison. The lies used to justify invading Iraq where protected by a planned effort to retaliate against Ambassador Joe Wilson. The retaliation included Wilson's wife, a CIA operative specializing in learning about nuclear weapons programs, including Iran's.

Bush has abused the power of the presidency to protect one of his co-conspirators from the consequences of his actions. Will our members of Congress--Reps. Danny K. Davis, Dan Lipinski, Rahm Emanuel and Luis Gutierrez--rise to the occasion and do something about it?

Fire Dog Lake (Christy Hardin Smith) quotes extensively from a Baltimore Sun editorial. She also includes Digby quoting Thomas Paine.

…in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other….

Michael Moore's Sicko

Michael Moore has a new movie.

A07, Proviso Insider attacks board member Theresa Kelly [D209]

Proviso Insider has a video (above) attacking Proviso Township High Schools board member Theresa Kelly for extravagant travel as a board member.

While I disagree with the impression left by the video, Proviso Insider deserves credit for using the Internet in an innovative way in a local school board election.

Forest Park Review (Josh Adams) wrote a news story on the larger issue. The article which was based on documents as well as interviews found stuff that looked questionable, but nothing illegal.

To the extent that this kind of spending is a problem, the Forest Park Review article shows that the problem involves staff and various board members.

However, the article doesn't do a very good job of differentiating appropriate from inappropriate spending.

Here's my understanding of the situation:

• "Best practices" calls for board members to attend at least one training per year.
• District 209 board members, including Kelly, attend two or less trainings per year.
• The board of education is supposed to oversee training, including travel expenses.
• Chris Welch raised the issue of Kelly's travel expenses in past elections, but hasn't done anything about as president of the board of education.

MEDIA, Yanez gets interviewed on TV [MP]

Dr. Frank Yanez, a former District 209 board member, political activist and gossip--are the last two redundant?--has left Proviso Township to practice medicine in south Florida. Yanez is Cuban-American.

So, what's Yanez doing? It might be an exaggeration to say he's on track to become a minor celebrity, but he did appear on television.