Chicago Daily Observer

July casualty figures are nearly finalized for Iraq and Chicago, with Chicago having 4 times the number of murders as US Military Casualties in Iraq.

By my count, 7 of the casualties in Iraq were the result of hostile fire, the other 6 were accidents. Accidents, of course, are not regarded as homicide in Chicago.

In response to a previous comment, 4 homicides were counted in Sen. Obama’s former State Senate District, with the adjacent wards adding 13 more homicides.

Calculations may vary for Chicago, as ongoing cases are not consistenly included in homicide statistics. In Iraq, injuries which later result in death are counted in the month of the death rather than month of the injury.

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John Powers is the President of the Chicago Daily Observer.

Jerry Agar takes a call from Bill Burton, news bureau director of public affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Burton reads a prepared statement from the Univserity of Illinois on the denial of access to records of the Annenberg Challenge, currently under investigation by Stanley Kurtz of the National Review.

Click on the link to hear the audio offsite.

As we all know, Sen. Barack Obama is under fire for being, among other things, “presumptuous.” (Gasp!)

Leaving aside the possibility that “presumptuous” could be a code word for “uppity,” can anyone show me a presidential candidate who does not exhibit that quality? It’s presumptuous just to run for the presidency.

In any event, I would like to get even more presumptuous and presume for a moment that Obama actually succeeds in winning the presidency, despite the burden of his presumed presumptuousness.

Let us consider the consequences of this presumed victory:

There would be a vacancy in Illinois’ U.S. Senate delegation—a vacancy to be filled by the will or whim of just one man, the governor of Illinois.

Let us presume that the Feds have not caught up with Rod Blagojevich by next January, when Obama takes his oath of office. By law Blago will appoint someone to serve out ... Read More...

Russia acts like Germany in 1938, and we have time for relaxed irony? And with a touch of pox on both their houses, at that?

This is Tribune thumb-sucking at its best — while the newspaper burns. From their man in Russia, for God’s sake, here reporting from Tbilisi.

Now see what I found in the Wall Street Journal:

First of all, it’s by one guy in Poti, another in Gori, each on the ground, as we say. The lede is crisp and business-like:

“Russia, under intense diplomatic pressure, announced it will begin pulling troops out of neighboring Georgia — but it leaves behind a battered Western ally.

Since a separatist dispute flared into open war Aug. 8, Moscow has occupied chunks of Georgia’s territory, strangled its economy, cut transport links and damaged key investment projects.”

There’s diplomatic reporting, from Georgian economy minister, the Russian president, Sec. of State Rice, ... Read More...

“I will win. Don’t worry about that. . . . I understand why a lot of folks are saying, this should just happen. Why are we having to run all these television commercials? Why do we have to raise all this money? Just read the papers. These are the knuckleheads who have been in charge. Throw ‘em out. But American politics aren’t that simple.” Sen. Barack Obama at a California Fundraiser

Just to review, the public cannot get access to paperwork related grants distributed by then-state-legislator Obama (records from 1997 to 2000 aren’t available); his state legislative office records (which he says may have been thrown out); he refuses to release a specific list of law clients, instead giving a list of all of his firm’s clients, numbering several hundred each year; he won’t release his application to the state bar (where critics wonder if he lied in responding to questions about parking tickets and past drug use); he’s never released any legal or billing records to verify that he only did a few hours of work for a nonprofit tied to convicted donor Rezko; and he’s never released any medical records, just a one-page letter from his doctor.

Hereditary Politics in Illinois.

John Tillman, CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, will discuss Senator Emil Jones’s recent retirement announcement plus the news that Jones wants his son to be his successor.

Who: John Tillman, Institute CEO
Where: The Jerry Agar Show, 890 WLS-AM
When: Tomorrow—Tuesday, August 19, 9:05 AM