Chicago Daily Observer

I landed in Karachi with a full bag of scotch whiskey, as instructed by my host, an army general known for treating his officers well. We greeted, we did the required double-bow, and then I made a big mistake. I opened my bag, displaying the lovely scotch plaid of the Johnny Walker bottles.

The entire crowded airport came to instant attention. It was as if, yes, I had openly, right there, lit an opium pipe.

“Quickly.” My general hissed. “Close that bag. Quick step!” he ordered his staff. And we marched out of that airport while all airport staff and baggage handlers averted their eyes in that singularly Pakistani way, eyes raised, unseeing, as if in quick consultation with Allah.

Out on the street in that teeming city, of course, you could spot a heroin drug dealer in the shadows of almost every corner.

The general and his men later, ... Read More...

“Anyone who wants to pull troops out of a vitally important country where we’re finally winning and send them to a marginal country where ultimate victory is impossible must be a Democrat.”

“Thanks to the surge, whose effectiveness my opponent refuses to admit, the Iraqis now see a way forward to peace and democracy. If they are correct, Iraq will set an example for the entire Muslim world of a nation prosperous, pious, progressive, and free. This is an outcome my opponent was unable to imagine and cannot imagine yet. For some reason, he’d rather fight in Afghanistan, a primitive collection of clans and warlords on the fringes of Arabia that for centuries has defied every attempt to civilize and reform it, chewing up and spitting out every invading army that tried. Osama bin Laden is nowhere to be found in Afghanistan, and neither is the future of the Arab-Muslim ... Read More...

The BBC Comes to Town.

Not long ago my phone rang at home and I was connected to a woman’s voice from London. She told me that BBC…the most radically left media institution in Europe…was coming to Chicago to do a radio documentary on the Chicago convention of 1968. It so happened she had been referred to me by my friend Karl Maurer and that she then read my reminiscences of Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy in the archives of this website. She was intrigued that I am also a Republican, something that is definitely a “rara avis” to the Brits.

So she signed me up gratis for a 3-hour panel discussion at WBEZ Navy Pier with others who remember those days. Given the BBC’s leftwing proclivities I knew exactly what I would be confronted with. Four elderly ex-hippie radicals including an organizer of SDS ... Read More...

Pat Hickey from the Chicago Daily Observer discusses Catholic schools with Superintendant Sr. Mary Paul McCaughey on July 30th. Sr. Mary Paul began leading Archdiocese of Chicago Schools, the largest Catholic School system in the United States, this July.

Hickey- Having directed Marion Catholic one most the Chicago area’s impressive co-educational college prep schools for thirty years, you seem more than up to the challenge of righting the course of Chicago’s Catholic schools, what is your first priority?

McCaughey – I was at Marion for sixteen years, but I will tell you this I believe, Pat, that good schools share some common threads. First is the focus on our mission and our mission is this – the Catholicity and successful academic performance of our people. In order to do that, we need a lot of help. We need to engage their parents, we need to engage our professionals – teachers; ... Read More...

In July, by my count, there were 8 American Soldiers killed in Iraq as a result of hostile fire, and 5 killed as a result of accidents and mishaps. I also count 49 Homicides in Chicago in July, but did not bother to count the number of accidental deaths in the City.

There were 30 casualties in Afghanistan in July. Tentatively totaling it up (with 3 days remaining for the Chicago Police Department to report July numbers) more people were murdered in Chicago (44) than American casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan combined (43).

The 20th Ward seems to be the most dangerous in Chicago, with around 9 homicides. Alderman Willie Cochran serves the 20th ward, which was represented for many years by Arenda Troutman.

Not to make light of the American servicemen and women who are on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the City ... Read More...

Democratic candidate Barack Obama criticized Republican John McCain on Tuesday for taking a page out of “the Cheney playbook” on energy, overlooking his own support of oil-friendly policies that the unpopular vice president helped to craft.

Obama voted for a 2005 energy bill backed by President Bush that included billions in subsidies for oil and natural gas production, a measure for which Vice President Dick Cheney played a major role. McCain opposed the bill, saying at the time that it included billions in unnecessary tax breaks for the oil industry.