For the better part of an hour this past week, I met with Jim Tyree, CEO of Mesirow Financial and new owner of the Sun Times Media Group. We met in the historic John R. Thompson Building at 350 North Clark, the 1912 Bakery Building that has been home to Mesirow Financial for some time. But not for long.
Wednesday was packing day for a pending move to a nearby building. The elevators were padded. Big plastic hoppers and storage boxes were being marked and tagged for moving day. At the …

On education, Christie said he planned to maintain funding to public schools and to increase aid to higher education over the next four years. He also said students in cities are entitled to a quality education.
“Those kids deserve the same sort of education you’re getting here in Hamilton,” Christie said. “If we don’t change that, it’s hurting us socially, it’s hurting us economically, and it’s just not fair.”
In his four public appearances since the Nov. 3 election, Christie has gone to schools twice, stressing the importance of education to his …

read the accounts of the GOP gubernatorial candidates in the Chicago Tribune, early this morning.
Dan Proft is the only one making any sense and showing Illinois that he owns a pair of big brassy boys! Proft is unique on School Choice, Abortion, Tax-Reduction, Cost Cutting and Genuine Reform.
That means that Dan Proft might have a snowballs chance in Hell of winning the Republican Primary.  I may vote for this interesting man.
However, he will face the Democratic Challenger, Dan Hynes, in the General Election and the Democratic Machine will crank out …

Illinois Speaker of the House Mike Madigan is Absolutely Right and Correct to Reject Candidate Caps.
There is great outcry voiced by the news media that Speaker Madigan should put caps on party contributions to candidates. Oh, Hell No!  That is the only way good candidates get into office and really effective people get to stay in office.
The Chicago Tribune made this beef on Friday October 9th, “Democrats are OK with curbs on individuals, corporations, labor unions and political action committees. But putting limits on those groups without restricting party contributions …

Illinois Senator Heather Steans, who got her policy chops in public education and from her family’s foundation, and Rep. Greg Harris, who is the openly gay legislator of Springfield, are the Will and Grace of the current LGTB Policy Legislation and the sure fire hit of this rather dull Illinois political season.
Blago jumped the Illinois political shark, the porpoise, the manatee, the killer whale, the Great White and Charlie the Tuna’s Eco Friendly Trawler last December 9th when Fitzy’s Untouchables cuffed him in the Sauganash alley. Since then, Pat Quinn …

Mark Kirk’s Cap and Trade vote sang the whole opera for this Illinois voter.  I vote largely Democratic but draw the line at the ‘boiled beets Progressives’  the real ACLU/Planned Parenthood variety of doctrinaire goldfish – like Jan Schakowsky, Toni Preckwinkle and etc.  Likewise, I will not cast a cross-over vote for a bum steer like Mark Kirk – GOP Steer.
A Steer is a bos primogentitur that has been deprived of his gents, in order to make the bovine quadruped more moveable, docile and willing to follow the herd.  In …

I never met Christopher Kelly, or anyone close to the Blagojevich Administration.  I read the fine and sober account of this young man’s death by Mark Konkol, Natasha Korecki and Art Golab in the Chicago Sun Times only Sunday morning before 8:30 Mass. This was a very respectful and considerate report of the sad death of this once powerful man by three professionals. I offered that morning’s Mass to the Kelly Family.   The theme of Sunday’s gospel from Mark and the reading – especially the Epistle of James was Faith …

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” Groucho Marx
When I was a baby teacher in Kankakee, IL in 1975 there was a blockbuster book out in paperback called The Population Bomb, by Paul Ehrlich. That book ignited a debate that was the equivalent to the recent Global Warming dire predictions.  In that book, Ehrlich stated that “in the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.”  Who’s to say that Ehrlich was not maybe …

There is a pillow fight going on for Governor of Illinois between Democratic rivals Governor Pat Quinn, a gentleman of the first water and Comptroller Dan Hynes.  They are engaged in a pummeling unmatched and unseen by the public since the Dating Game pitted gentlemen callers for the hand of a Big Haired Damsel, back in the late 1970’s.  On August 26th,  Dan Hynes broadsided Pat Quinn with a down filled head-rester about his veto of the Campaign Finance Boondoggle set-piece crafted by the guy who put Governor Ryan in …

The SEIU and its political affiliate contributed $3 million to America Votes, an advocacy organization that was headed by Cecile Richards, wife of an aide to SEIU President Andy Stern, at the time the payments were made. From the LA times 2008.
President Obama loves Planned Parenthood and why not? President Obama loves SEIU and why not? President Obama has made a career of courting Best Friends Forever (BFFs) who happen to be powerful muckety mucks. President Obama loves the quick ride in relationships, political experiences and in forcing Legislation on …