"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 R Word: No, not that one.

Let me say right off the bat that I do not have a lot of expertise in the area of the learning disabled. I do not work in the field professionally, and I do not have a social connection to anyone who is developmentally impaired. (Well, I take that back. I have a few friends who happen to be attorneys and you could make a pretty good argument....never mind.) But I do know that the word retarded is offensive, and it should not be used by people who should know better.

So I was surprised to learn that O's right hand man, Rahm Emanuel, used the word when referring to some left wing groups last summer. Seems my man was pretty ticked off that they were going to fund some ads against some blue dogs, and old Rahm let it fly.

"Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Emanuel, exasperated upon learning that liberal special-interest groups were planning to run ads against conservative Democrats not supportive of health care reform, blasted the plan as "f------ retarded" over the summer.."

Shame on you Rahm, be more careful with your language next time. And apologize to all the folks who are involved with the learning disabled here in A-merry-ca, be it professionally or personally.

Now, having said that, I have to get with our girl Sarah again. Apparently she sees a political opportunity here, and she isn't wasting anytime before taking advantage of it.

"Naturally, some outrage ensued after Emanuel's words came to light, with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin taking to her Facebook page to call on President Obama to fire him for what she saw as the equivalent of a racial slur.Palin, whose son Trig is afflicted with Down syndrome, said she was informed of Emanuel's comment by a fellow parent of a special-needs child and pleaded with the president to "show decency" to the political process by "eliminating" the Chicago native from his inner circle.In a post titled "Are You Capable of Decency, Rahm Emanuel?," Palin wrote, "Just as we’d be appalled if any public figure of Rahm’s stature ever used the 'N-word' or other such inappropriate language, Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities — and the people who love them — is unacceptable," adding, "it's heartbreaking."

Sarah, stop it! You wouldn't be outraged if Rahm used the N word anymore than you were when Trent Lott longed for the days of segregation. I swear you wingnuts can use the race card when you think it benefits you. The R word as used by Emanuel was a bad word. The N word as used by___[fill in the blank], is wrong. But please, let us not compare them when you want to score cheap political points. We all know that if this had been a republican president and his chief of staff had said these things, you would have been silent. Trig would have not had mommy standing by him. Besides, it looks like Rahm reached out to some folks.

"A Politico story today reports that an administration official informed them that Emanuel had already reached out to Special Olympics chairman and CEO Tim Shriver, who recently launched a campaign to end the use of "the R word.""Rahm called Tim Shriver Wednesday to apologize and the apology was accepted," the unnamed official said."

Story over? Sarah, if Trig had a say, I am guessing that he would say, yes. [Story]

"Guess who is coming to dinner"?

The stars were out in DC tonight to see his O ness do his presidential stand up routine. (What? No Sarah Palin?) I have to say, that like most presidents before him, my man was pretty good. Some of you witty regulars here must have been writing some of those lines for him, because they were dead on.

I loved the line about his two daughters stealing Air Force One and going to New York. And I loved the line about Rahm Emanuel and Mother's Day. The fact that he called out MC Mike, and the clowns at FAKE NEWS made his routine even that much better for the kid.

So his O ness passed this test as well. I am sure the wingnuts were hoping he would fall flat on his face, but he didn't. His delivery was as smooth as a Roger Federer backhand. And it was a winner.

Before I go I want to say something on the eve of Mother's Day:

The first strong black woman I ever knew taught school full time and took care of her family while her husband went through years of graduate school. She then went on and got her own advanced degrees and became a renowned educator and leader in her own right. All this while doing a pretty damn good job of raising two children and holding down the home front.

Mom, I will always love you!!!

Just once.

It turns out that's how many times the O man's right hand man, Rahm Emanuel, chatted it up with Rod Blagojevich. And, it turns out, there was no juicy discussion about a quid pro quo between his O ness and Blago for his Senate seat.

That chill you feel is from the air caused by the wind that just got sucked out of Conservatives. Just last week Sean Hannity and his friends from FOX were speculating that there might have been as much as 25 different taped conversations between Emanuel and Blago. And they were salivating at the possibilities. Oh if only it could have been different, Christmas would have been a year long event for my friends on the right.

"Sources also confirm that Emanuel made the case for picking Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett during at least one of the conversations. In the course of that conversation, Harris asked if in return for picking Jarrett, "all we get is appreciation, right?" "Right," Emanuel responded."

Yep, all you get is "appreciation" that' s kind of how the O man rolls, and rolling like that has served the O man well.

S0 move along folks, there is no scandal to see here. His O ness and his crew might have been a little slow on the uptake with this one, but once again, there is no fire to go with the smoke.

O man, you are one lucky guy.