"The second city" is second to no one in murders.

"I keep hearing about people dying and the violence that's going on. I feel like it's my responsibility, and our responsibility, to the city," ~Common~


Good for Common, but he is a rapper, not a policy maker in the city of Chicago.


It is not his job to try and stop the violence that's plaguing that city. Twenty five to thirty shootings in a weekend is typical. This past weekend forty (yes forty) people were shot (including an 11 year old girl)and there seems to be no end in sight. The place makes Killadelphia look like Mayberry R.F.D. for crying out loud!


I appreciate that Common is going to drop an album that speaks to the problem, but again, where are the leaders of that city?


Rahm Emanuel and his minions should be making cutting down on gun violence in their city the number one priority, and they should be focusing on it like a laser. Nothing should take priority over this scourge that is engulfing a once proud city.


Emanuel claims that he is working on the problem, and that they have done all the usual things: Assign more police officers in the summer months, create more alternative programs for young people to get involved with, and asking community and church leaders to get involved. Good luck with all of that.


These kids still won't have jobs, most of them will still be coming from broken and dysfunctional homes, and they will still think that being strapped is the best status symbol that they can have.


The more I think about it, maybe Common is better suited to try and fix the problem than the same old same old from the usual suspects.


I see that Eric Holder and the Justice Department is getting involved. (Sorry Rahm, what you are doing isn't working.)

“The Department of Justice will continue to do everything in its power to help the city of Chicago combat gun violence,” Holder said in a statement announcing the deployment of the agents. “These new agents are a sign of the federal government’s ongoing commitment to helping local leaders ensure Chicago’s streets are safe.”

“These new agents are a sign of the federal government’s ongoing commitment to helping local leaders ensure Chicago’s streets are safe.”

Attorney General Eric Holder Despite an overall dip in crime from last year, bloodshed in many of the city’s poorest neighborhoods continues to be relentless. While murders are down 6% from last year, shootings are up 5%, concentrated in just a handful of communities mostly on the city’s west and south sides, according to police.  Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has said that getting control of shooting incidents is critical to the department’s efforts. McCarthy told msnbc earlier this year that a new surge of officers in the most gun-weary neighborhoods and bolstered intelligence and community relations were showing signs of success in the department’s efforts to slow the bloodletting." [Source]

Mr. McCarthy, forty people shot does not seem like such a great "success" to me.

"Lyrics are like liquor for the fallen soldiers
From the bounce to the ounce, its all our culture
Everyday we hustling, tryna get them custom rims
Law we ain't trusting them, thick broads we lust in them
Sick and tired of bunchin it, I look on the bus at them
When I see them struggling, I think how I'm touching them
The People"

Common, I sure hope that you can "touch them, because right now, no one else is even coming close.

 


 

More shootings at school, and the right wing pity party.

Shootings in and around schools happen so often now, that pretty soon, before you go off to college, your parents will have to pack you a bullet proof vest along with your blankets and microwave.




Today two more students were shot in East Lansing, Michigan, at Michigan State University, and, sadly, one of the victims has died. From all indication they were both students and the shooting did not seem to be random.




"East Lansing police say Dominique Nolff was pronounced dead at 9:23 a.m. Saturday from multiple gunshot wounds.


The second shooting victim, also 20, has been treated and released from a hospital.


Officers were called about 8:50 p.m. Friday to a report of a shooting at the Cedar Village apartment complex. Nolff and the other student were found inside one of the apartments.


Nolff was from Middleville. The other victim is a Grand Haven resident.
East Lansing police say the suspect being sought was believed to be in his 20s and that the shooting "does not appear to be a random act." [Source]




I bet that this is the last thing that two kids from Middleville and Grand Haven, Michigan expected when they went off to college.


Finally, this right wing pity party is getting to be a bit much. Now we have alleged law breaker, Dinesh D'Souza, crying to Sean Hannity that the only reason the feds are investigating him is because he made that propaganda movie about Obama, a movie which nobody other than the folks in the rabid wingnut crowd, saw.


"Asked by Hannity if he believes he was targeted for his conservative beliefs, D’Souza said, “I will say that the film, 2016, was a film that does seem to have gotten under President Obama’s skin,” citing a “rant” against the film on Obama’s website, presumably referring to this repudiation of the film on by Obama’s 2012 Truth Team. “Whether this is a kind of payback remains to be seen.”


Before moving on, Hannity said the Obama Administration is “certainly targeting conservatives,” adding that it’s “been pretty well proven.” The host did not ask D’Souza any questions about the nature or veracity of the campaign finance violations with which he has been charged." [Source]


Wow, I see that they are still practicing their own unique style of journalism over at FOX. 


Oh, and speaking of journalism, it looks like Chris Christie has responded to the New York Times piece about what he knew (and when he knew it) of the lane closures on the GW bridge.


"The letter, first reported by Politico and obtained by ABC News, is titled “5 Things You Should Know About The Bombshell That’s Not A Bombshell” and lists attacks against Wildstein’s credibility, as well as the New York Times.


Bottom line – David Wildstein will do and say anything to save David Wildstein,” the letter reads at the end, referring to Christie’s appointee to the Port Authority who on Friday released a letter through his attorney Alan Zegas alleging “evidence exists” that Christie knew about the lane closings as they were happening.


It’s something Christie has denied repeatedly in both the letter and in a nearly two-hour press conference when the scandal broke in January, revealing top aides closed the lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge for political payback.


“The Governor first learned lanes at the George Washington Bridge were even closed from press accounts after the fact,” the letter reads. “Even then he was under the belief it was a traffic study. He first learned David Wildstein and Bridget Kelly closed lanes for political purposes when it was reported on January 8th.”


The letter begins by attacking the New York Times saying the paper’s story created a “media firestorm” because of “sloppy reporting,” since their first version of the story said there was “evidence” when the letter actually alleged “evidence exists.”


Although Christie and Wildstein attended high school together and it was Christie who appointed him to the Port Authority, the letter becomes personal, describing him as “tumultuous” and even cites events from Wildstein’s teenage years to try and discredit him, including saying that he was “publicly accused by his high school social studies teacher of deceptive behavior.”


“David Wildstein has been publicly asking for immunity since the beginning, been held in contempt by the New Jersey legislature for refusing to testify, failed to provide this so-called ‘evidence’ when he was first subpoenaed by the NJ Legislature and is looking for the Port Authority to pay his legal bills,” the letter says.


The Christie administration answered Wildstein’s allegations Friday night, but that response was much more subdued. [Source]


This is not good. Chris Christie will do anything to save Chris Christie.


I was just wondering, though; if this Wildstein character is such bad guy, why did the governor appoint him to such a powerful position?


The governor went way back to find some dirt on this guy, which just confirms what everyone though all along: that the governor is a political bully.   


Still, at the end of the day, it's up to the people to decide what happens to the larger than life governor of New Jersey.


Sadly for him, he might not like what the people are saying.

Politics and shootings as usual.

It is politics as usual in here America. I see that Mitt has outlined his energy plan for these divided states of America, (more fracking, good luck with that) and the republican party platform is...well, exactly what we would expect with republicans: Taliban like in its ignorance. (American women are getting a beat down in this war.) 

Issac is still trying to make up his mind if he will slam Tampa next week, and I think that it is the sweetest of all ironies that the storm has a biblical name. Pray people, pray!

Anyway, enough of politics, I want to rain on your parade just a little bit while you continue to wave at the floats going down Main Street while you pursue your happiness.

Here in Philly we had another shooting last night; this one was so brazen and horrific that the police literally ran out of markers to mark the shell casings on the ground. A driver of a car was ambushed by a group of men who opened up on him. Dude was shot eight times and might actually survive. (They build em tough here in Philly.) But here is the thing, we have shootings-and killings- every day, so there was nothing unusual about some dude getting his wig split on a city street. What upset me about this story is the fact that these little urban terrorist were shooting their intended target in the middle of a residential neighborhood while decent law abiding citizens tried to relax in the comfort of their homes. Eight O Clock??!! You little Negroes done lost your minds! [Story]

I am going to repeat something I have been saying on this blog for years: some of you out here having these damn kids need to be put in jail right next to the little thug you spawned. (This is for you sperm donors as well.) 
If your situation in life is such that you can't take care of your damn self, well then when you get your freak on with the neighborhood Lothario, please try your damn best not to bring someone else into the world to share in your misery. That kind of crap is only going to bring problems for the rest of us down the road.   

          

 

George, didn't you ever hear of "e-Harmony"?

Most of you guys were lucky. You didn't suffer from the social inhibitions and low self esteem which can make it hard to get up the courage to interact with the fairer sex. [Or, the same sex, if you are so inclined.] Most of us did alright. Some better than others, but we can't all expect to bat a thousand.

Now consider the case of George Sodini: No dates since May of 2008. No sex for the past 19 years. (He must have some very soft hands...) And no girlfriend since 1984. George Sodini, by all accounts, was a loner. He hated women because he didn't think women liked him. And yesterday he took his hatred for women to a tragic climax. He killed three of them and then killed himself.

Relax, NRA folks, this post isn't about the culture of guns and the easy access to them in this country. Nothing will change your mind set, so I have given up on trying to convince you. I will just watch the carnage day after day like the rest of the folks here in A-murder-ca and shake my head.

This post is about human behavior and what pushes us to the breaking point to do something so unspeakable. It's always easy to peg the urban terrorist, for instance, and his motives for doing things. it's money and the power that it's supposed to bring. With guys like George Sodini the motives are usually unclear. The urban terrorist more often or not has ties to his victims, guys like Sodini rarely do. Actually, we were lucky with Sodini, because he told us. It was his obvious hatred for women. (As if it was their fault that he preferred his fists to the real thing, or whatever pastime he chose to engage in over real companionship) But how many George Sodinis are walking among us? How many George Sodinis hate women or poor people or blacks? That's what's scary about these kinds of random killings; you just never know when it's going to happen or why. You can always stay out of the urban war zones, because you know the chances of falling victim to a crime is greater there. But if you are in a WSZ [white safety zone] working out in a gym, or in a mall in the WSZ, the last thing you expect is some guy who hates women unloading on your aerobics class with his three guns. (I bet George didn't tell the gun shop he purchased the guns from how much he hated women)

"Women just don't like me. There are 30 million desirable women in the US (my estimate) and I cannot find one,..."

Yes George but you can always find a gun.

Link to Sodini's Blog