Body count in the last 6 months:  292 killed (murdered) in Chicago vs... 221 killed in Iraq.

Senators Barack Obama & Dick Durbin, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., Gov. Rod Blogojevich, House leader Mike Madigan, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan (daughter of Mike), Mayor Richard M. Daley (son of Mayor Richard J. Daley)...the leadership in Illinois...all Democrats.

Thank you for the combat zone in Chicago. Of course they're all blaming each other. They can't blame Republicans; there aren't any!

The State pension fund is $44 Billion in debt, the worst in the nation.  The Cook County (Chicago) sales tax is 10.25% highest in the country. The Chicago school system is one of the worst in the nation. This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois.
 
He's going to fix Washington politics?  Yeah, right!!

-- Modified on 10/10/2008 8:21:43 AM

The murder rate has followed national trends, and remember that Chicago also has a higher population of almost any city in the US. For murder rate, you would have to compare it per capita, not by the raw number of murders, to make your point.

What you really need to drive this point is a comparison to statistics on what Chicago would be like without Obama. Unfortunately, those are lacking. You'd have to get them from a parallel universe. I don't believe Chicago's public school are that much worse than LA's or Detroit's. It seems to follow with large minority populations, [sarcasm]for some damn reason that isn't racism.[/sarcasm].

if I say it.lol

I am sure someone around here will make the claim that crime in areas with large minority populations is actually the "white mans" fault. Since I'm not white I don't know why I care.

Obama is not responsible for what's wrong in Chicago, but he isn't responsible for anything that is right anywhere in this country for that matter.

Here's a challenge:  Name me *one* Liberal that is endorsing McSAME?

Btw, Lieberman doesn't count.  We all know McSAME really wanted Lieberman as his VP choice.

"Since I'm not white I don't know why I care."

With sunglasses I think you could 'pass'.

but than how could I qualify for my "reparations"? lol

What's really ironic is that we are all Americans.I don't mean that in the patriotic, flag waving sense. What I mean is that any of us, you, me, Conroy, when you travel to another country you are immediatley pegged as an American no matter what your heritage.

It's one of the reasons I don't like hyphenated classes of Americans ie "African-Americans or "Asian-American". It's divisive and unless you were born in either Africa or Asia it's also inaccurate. I am not Asian-American and Conroy is not African-American. We are both Americans first, or at least we should be.

I guarantee you that if Conroy or I were in South America or Asia or anyother place outside the US, no one is going to ask either one of us if we are from China or Africa, it will be self evident that we are Americans. Sunglasses or no sunglasses. lol

The main problems in poorer Black communities is how they are policed and education. Both are very much influenced by racism.

At least in the slums inhabited by whites and blacks English is the native language.

The former publisher of the National Review? THE conservative bastion of the literate?
That's extraordinary.

And the majority always says the same things about them: that they steal, they murder, they don't care to advance, that they are being mislead by their leadership.

In LA, the difference is that many of those communities are newer. But again, they are given poor education and bad policing.

But the question is why Blacks have stayed in the same low position for so long. I've maintained that they haven't found an economic niche to move into, as Irish and Italian communities were. They had a weakened or non-existent "New Deal" in recent generations. As I have explained. (And I remember blackbeltxxx didn't like my explanation. Do you want to start that up again.)

I now think that there's another factor at work, however. That is the Blacks haven't recovered psychologically from their past treatment by Whites. So, there's a large enough part of the Black community that doesn't want to join the White community as equals. So they have a love/hate relationship with advancement that inevitably means approval by Whites.

They are reminded of it by the policing of the community, and the fact that so many are sent to prison that every family has a member who is or has been in prison.    

What works against them is this: even though large numbers of them want something other than success by White standards, their own culture is actually very weak. Unlike say the Irish, you're talking about many different tribes of Blacks, all with cultural ties that were crushed with slavery. Unfortunately, skin pigment is a much better way to divide than unite people.  

Having said all this, please, I'm not giving this as an account of who's to blame for it. I'm giving this with hope that a solution can be found. No, I don't think reparations are a good idea.

-- Modified on 10/10/2008 3:09:33 PM

Because I live in Illinois and it's the truth.  Obama has done NOTHING for the people in Illinois.

When he's in the White House he'll fit right in ... doing NOTHING for the people of the US  ... just like the current POTUS ...  

Like some other guy says, "wasted bandwith"

http://www.mlive.com/grpress/news/index.ssf/2008/10/former_governor_milliken_backs.html

You obviously choose to ignore the posts at the end of the thread....

-- Modified on 10/10/2008 1:48:54 PM

and their democratically elected lackeys fault.

http://www.mlive.com/grpress/news/index.ssf/2008/10/former_governor_milliken_backs.html


Whistling past the graveyard??

not some drivel down the page.

"Selective Assimilation of Drivel"  ... usually prevalent among Fox News viewers  

-- Modified on 10/10/2008 3:04:38 PM

there are some conservatives who are open-minded enough to make their own decisions but not a single liberal could possibly buck the party line and not simply blindly follow the party nominee.

What a ringing endorsement for liberals.

That was his deceased father William. Christopher has written columns in NR though.

I do agree for the most part with Wick Allison concerning todays Republicans. But he mistakes them for conservatives.

While there is certainly the possibility to discuss the impact (or lack thereof) of these endorsements, or the potential trend it may imply, I do not believe that there is anything that would call for refutation of the articles.