"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.

 


 

The sequel.

I am not a big fan of movie sequels, give me the original every time. With a few exceptions, (the Bourne franchise comes to mind) the sequel never quite lives up to the original. Big Momma’s House 2? Beverly Hills Cop 11?The Hangover Part 11? Please!

So anyway, now we have “Fast and Furious” playing out in Washington, and if you haven’t been paying attention, you might not realize that this too is a sequel. Yes, let’s call this one 2 Fast 2 furious.

The original came under our friend W, and, as is the case with most originals, I am guessing that it was better than the sequel as well.

"One after the other, Republicans on the panel waved the bloody shirt. “Here’s the proof!” hollered Rep. Trey Gowdy (S.C.), claiming he had evidence that President Obama knew about a botched federal program that contributed to Terry’s death. Gowdy’s proof: that Obama cited executive privilege in denying the committee all the documents it sought. “If he’s not part of it, then he’s got no business asserting executive privilege,” Gowdy concluded.

Terry’s death is indeed a scandal, part of the “Fast and Furious” operation in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost track of 2,000 guns it was planning to trace on their way to Mexican drug cartels; two of those firearms were found near Terry’s body. After that, the Justice Department shut down the program (which followed similar “gun-walking” operations during the George W. Bush administration), fired or reassigned several people who ran the program out of ATF’s Phoenix office, requested an inspector-general investigation and handed over about 7,600 pages of records to Issa’s committee." [Source]

Wait, what was that Mr.Milbank? We have actually seen this movie before? Yes, I thought it looked familiar.

I wonder why this one is such a hit with republicans and the original was such a dud? Hmmmm, I am guessing that they didn't like the first director.

"Republicans didn’t have much on Holder — it’s one of those perennial disputes about how much the executive branch needs to divulge to the legislature — so they did what sensible people usually do when they have an honest disagreement: They accused the attorney general of being an accessory to murder."

Or, maybe they just like a more dramatic script.