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Get this Obama Speechwriter Wendy Button* had enough of the Empty Suit of Hope and is now backing John McCain - The Real Deal! All in Wendy's word! Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I’m a woman writing in the election of 2008, “very emotional."When we first met, Obama and I had a nice conversation about speeches and writing, and at the end of the meeting I handed him a pocket-sized bottle of Grey Poupon mustard so he wouldn’t have to ask staff if it was okay to put it on his hamburger. At the bottom of the bottle was the logo for “The South Beach Diet” and he snapped, “Oh so you read People magazine.” He seemed to think that I was commenting on his bathing suit picture. I helped with his announcement speech and others. I worked in the Senate when he was in D.C. One day after a hearing on Darfur, we were walking back to the office. I was still hobbling from a very bad ankle injury and in a very kind and gentle way he offered his arm when we approached the stairs. But later in debate preps and phone conversations and meetings, I realized that I had made a mistake. I didn’t belong. No matter how hard I tried, my heart wasn’t in it anymore. ...The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.” Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news. As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.” The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations. ...Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates. At first, certain Democrats and the press called Senator Clinton “dishonest.” They went after her cleavage. They said her experience as First Lady consisted of having tea parties. There was no outrage over “Bros before Hoes” or “Iron My Shirt.” Did Senator Clinton make mistakes? Of course. She’s human. But here we are about a week out and it’s déjà vu all over again. Really, front-page news is how the Republican National Committee paid for Governor Sarah Palin’s wardrobe? Where’s the op-ed about how Obama tucks in his shirt when he plays basketball or how Senator Biden buttons the top button on his golf shirt? ...Governor Palin and I don’t agree on a lot of things, mostly social issues. But I have grown to appreciate the Governor. I was one of those initial skeptics and would laugh at the pictures. Not anymore. When someone takes on a corrupt political machine and a sitting governor, that is not done by someone with a low I.Q. or a moral core made of tissue paper. When someone fights her way to get scholarships and work her way through college even in a jagged line, that shows determination and humility you can’t learn from reading Reinhold Niebuhr. When a mother brings her son with special needs onto the national stage with love, honesty, and pride, that gives hope to families like mine as my older brother lives with a mental disability. And when someone can sit on a stage during the Sarah Palin rap on Saturday Night Live, put her hands in the air and watch someone in a moose costume get shot—that’s a sign of both humor and humanity. Has she made mistakes? Of course, she’s human too. But the attention paid to her mistakes has been unprecedented compared to Senator Obama’s “57 states” remarks or Senator Biden using a version of the Samuel Johnson quote, “There’s nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus a man’s thoughts.” ...I was dead wrong about the surge and thought it would be a disaster. Senator John McCain led when many of us were ready to quit. Yet we march on as if nothing has changed, wedded to an old plan, and that too is a long way from the Democratic Party. I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It’s wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party’s talking points—that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he’s President Bush—are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument…doesn’t mean they’re true. After all, he is the only one who’s worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges.

"it’s déjà vu all over again" Astroturf?

ZOGBY SATURDAY: Republican John McCain has pulled back within the margin of error... The three-day average holds steady, but McCain outpolled Obama 48% to 47% in Friday, one day, polling. He is beginning to cut into Obama's lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all...

for halloween drunk jack dressed down from his bironi suit to a walmart special size 56 waist and 26 inseam and trick and treated as the mayor of rosemont. what a surprise.

Rosemont is thouroughly corrupt. Drunk Jack Dorgan should be in jail. Co-schemer A in the Scott Fawell conviction.

A vote for Obama is a vote for Daley corruption. A vote for Alvarez is a vote of silence on the torture of Jon Burge. McCain and Peraica are real reform.

Alvarez and Daley do have a bad record on Burge. Was Barack Obama really silent on Jon Burge?

Why has Barack Obama shown no leadership on the issue of Jon Burge? Did his lack of courage or activity on the issue have to do with getting Daley's endorsement? For those who don't think that Daley and Obama are linked or that Obama is not part of the machine-- 1. How do you respond to Emil Jones being the godfather of Obama and 2. David Axelrod (who does not take clients without the blessing of Daley) taking Obama as a client since 2000 (where Obama thought he was going to get Daley's blessing because Rush ran against him in 1999 and did get some covert 19th ward Tom Dart and other support) David Axelrod is the glue between Obama and Daley.

November 2, 2008 Search Login or register Cars Autos A-Z Used Car Deals New Car Deals Sell Your Car | Jobs My CareerBuilder Post Resumé | Real Estate Advice Communities Latest Sales Mortgages New Homes | Apartments | MORE Place an Ad Celebrations Dating Events Items for Sale Obituaries Pets Public Records Services | Text size: Fitzgerald's future tied to election results too John Kass 4:28 PM CDT, November 1, 2008 Despite the national media's childlike fantasy that Illinois is something like Camelot—where the knights rise to power without staining their shining armor—we're still neck deep in corruption and sleazy pay-to-play politics. The Chicago Outfit, though wounded, still reaches out to friendly pols. The bipartisan Illinois Combine that runs things isn't finished, though a Republican boss was indicted last week. The Democratic half of the Combine, Chicago's Daley machine, is now poised to leverage the awesome power of the White House. And what the machine wants is control of the federal hammer in its backyard. Readers keep asking me the same question: Will the next president keep Patrick Fitzgerald as the U.S. attorney in Chicago? I really can't say. What are political promises worth from politicians with debts to pay? John Kass Bio | E-mail | Recent columns But here's what I do know. There is no story more important to the people of Chicago and of Illinois than the future of Fitzgerald, who has systematically hunted down the corruption. Corruption the Chicago Way doesn't only waste money and burden taxpayers. This isn't only about isolated instances of graft and amusing, earthy rapscallions. That is a cartoon. The reality is that Illinois political corruption is an infection that spreads. The people either are numbed and deny it, or they feel pressured to suck up to their overlords. That's not American. That's positively Medieval. That's how important this is. Both John McCain and Barack Obama have promised to keep Fitzgerald here. "If we lose him, we lose everything," said a Chicago FBI agent wise in the ways of Chicago politics and its symbiosis with the Chicago mob. "I can't imagine it happening. He's the guy who pulls the trigger on all these investigations. If it happens, if they get rid of him, forget it." Fitzgerald, brought here as an independent with no political connections and no ambitions to run for governor or knock down seven figures at a law firm, has done more in a few years than could have been imagined. A corrupt former Republican governor in prison. A Democratic governor with a creeping case of feditis that appears to be politically terminal. City Hall patronage bosses convicted. And the leaders of the Chicago mob are scheduled for sentencing in December, which means the Outfit is in no mood to play the enforcer for their favored politicians. History shows us that governors are expendable, but mayors are not. In this city's fantastic history of corruption, a mayor has never gone down. Chicago mayors are like the queen bee, and all other bees protect her, because she lays the magic eggs. Without the eggs, what's the point of public service? After years of climbing, Fitzgerald is getting close to the hive. McCain has no loyalty to the Republican half of the Combine, which backed Mitt Romney, who made it clear he would dump Fitzgerald if elected. But McCain was unequivocal in his support for Fitzgerald and said the prosecutor should remain where he is, fighting political corruption in Illinois, not promoted up or out. "I'd keep him. I'd keep him," McCain said last November when I asked him at a session with the Tribune's editorial board, of which I am not a member. "I think he has done a good job and I think the American people are crying out for having this corruption cleaned up." Obama, meanwhile, talks reform. But he's backed by the Chicago machine. And Obama's own longtime friend and real estate fairy, Tony Rezko, has been convicted of corruption and is believed to be preparing to talk to the feds. Mayoral brother Bill Daley has been rumored for a Cabinet post in an Obama administration, and is expected to be on the transition team if Obama is elected. Bill Daley will look to protect his brother first. Although Bill is a thoughtful politician, somehow I just don't see the phrase "Barack, we've gotta keep Pat Fitzgerald" on Billy's lips in the personnel meetings. Another Chicago connection, U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Tomczak), is being rumored as a possible White House chief of staff. Emanuel would also look first to protect the mayor. Washington Beltway reporters won't tell you this, because they must figure that what happens in Chicago stays in Chicago, but a few years ago, Emanuel was elected with the help of a massive patronage army of stooges on the City Hall payroll who pounded the precincts. The fellow who directed this army for Emanuel is the corrupt former city water boss Donald Tomczak. He now sits in federal prison in Duluth, Minn., while Emanuel prepares to reform us all. It was Fitzgerald's office that put Tomczak away. Back in March, Obama visited the Tribune's editorial board. He said that if elected president, he would keep Fitzgerald in place. "I still think he's doing a good job," said Obama. "I think he has been aggressive in putting the city on notice and the state on notice that he takes issues of public corruption seriously." Does your wanting to keep Fitzgerald in the job threaten any other political entities here in Chicago? "I can't speculate on that," Obama said then. "I can't." But you can.

If Fitzgerald stays or goes Obama will at some point have to throw Daley under the bus,like Harry Truman did to the Kansas city pendergas gang.If Barack becomes a loyal servant of Daley ,the Republicans will retake the Congress in the mid-term elections. After the Olympic city selection,Barack will probabily start distancing himself from Tne crook Mayor Daley.

Scott Loef should be fired. My boss at 69 West Washington is corrupt.

The day of wrath, that day which will reduce the world to ashes, as foretold by David and the Sybil. What terror there will be, when the Lord will come to judge all rigorously! The trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound among the graves of all the lands, will assemble all before the Throne. Death and Nature will be astounded when they see a creature rise again to answer to the Judge. The book will be brought forth in which all deeds are noted, for which humanity will answer. When the judge will be seated, all that is hidden will appear, and nothing will go unpunished. Alas, what will I then say? To what advocate shall I appeal, when even the just tremble? O king of redoutable majesty, who freely saves the elect, save me, o fount of piety! Remember, merciful Jesus, that I am the cause of your journey, do not lose me on that day. You wearied yourself in finding me. You have redeemed me through the cross. Let not such great efforts be in vain. O judge of vengeance, justly make a gift of your forgiveness before the day of reckoning. I lament like a guilty one. My faults cause me to blush, I beg you, spare me. You who have absolved Mary, and have heard the thief’s prayer, have also given me hope. My prayers are not worthy, but you, o Good One, please grant freely that I do not burn in the eternal fire. Give me a place among the sheep, separate me from the goats by placing me at your right. Having destroyed the accursed, condemned them to the fierce flames, Count me among the blessed. I prostrate myself, supplicating, my heart in ashes, repentant; take good care of my last moment! That tearful day, when from the ashes shall rise again sinful man to be judged. Therefore pardon him, o God. Merciful Lord Jesus, give them rest. Amen.

The better translation from Latin is "Days of Wrath, Days of Thunder Heaven and Earth torn asunder" But people have a difficult time accepting that Heaven will be torn asunder. The Dies Irae was popular in the Middle Ages but done away with after Vatican II although not banned nor forgiven. God have mercy on this country if Obama is elected.

Patrick Fitzgerald will be replaced . Dick Durbin will make his recommendation to Pres Obama. The Machine will seek to install Tom 19th Dart to be the next US Attorney. With Anita Alvarez,and Tom Dart controlling who will be indicted,Daley will sleep better at night. Fitzgerald will hang around long enough only to finish his indictment of the Governor and his wife. After Blogo is indicted the Machine will have Fitzgerald promoted out of his job.

With Anita Alvarez as SA and Tom Dart (or Anne Tighe or any other connected person although Tighe may not be because of the falling out with Houlihan)--Daley will steal with both hands (not that he isn't now) and all his enemies will be destoryed. It is a dictatorship, and it is not benevolent, and there are no checks and balances.

Jim Burns, Than we go underground and.......

Obama will divide this country. Secession and division. He has terrorist connections and is a socialist

have sex.

An enemy of Tony Peraica got indicted: Edward Vrdolyak. It is a vindication for Tony Peraica.