Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Chicago Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 12, 2016 129 Comments
One of the most difficult things in politics is to defend the rights of politicians you otherwise might not want to defend. One of those cases was the defense of Sarah Palin against a vicious left-wing smear machine that targeted even her youngest child, who was mocked not only for having Down Syndrome but for not having been aborted. The sexist distortions and outright lies about Palin reached an apex when she was blamed by left-wing bloggers for the shooting of Gabby Giffords and murder of others by Jared Loughner. The excuse was that Palin allegedly used incendiary words and created a climate of fear; a national electoral map she used which had crosshairs over some districts was blamed directly. In reality, Loughner was a psychotic person who, to the extent his politics were of this world, leaned left. There is no evidence Loughner ever saw the map in question. Loughner was held mentally unfit for trial. Yet Palin was blamed, and even some Republicans joined in the chorus. I wrote at the time that the defense of Palin was not a defense of Palin the person or politician, but of the principle that if Republicans enabled such dishonest tactics against her, then no Republican politician was safe:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 21, 2016 8 Comments
Bassem Eid is a well-known Palestinian Human Rights activist who has been critical of human rights abuses and corruption in the Palestinian Authority and Hamas-run Gaza. Eid is an advocate of peaceful co-existence, and has made enemies in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement because Eid believes BDS is harmful to Palestinians. He also criticizes the organizations that promote BDS as looking out for their own financial interests. Here is a short interview which summarizes his views. https://youtu.be/K9YQwtDibGc?t=14s Eid is a frequent speaker in the United States, including on college campuses. Eid presents a Palestinian point of view not often heard on campuses, where radical faculty and student groups place all blame for the conflict on Israel.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 29, 2016 11 Comments
Columnist Jonathan Capehart at The Washington Post has a rather extraordinary column on the "anti-pinkwashing" near-riot at the Creating Change conference in Chicago on Friday night, January 22. The column is extraordinary in that it reflects a growing realization even in the mainstream media that the thin line between rabid anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism has been crossed in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. We covered the situation in our post, Jewish Voice for Peace helps disrupt Israeli LGBTQ group Sabbath event, which has video and images, and explains the tactic:
The pinkwashing charge is essential for BDS on U.S. college campuses because BDS has trouble squaring its support for regimes (including Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, not to mention most Arab countries) which abuse and persecute gays with BDS’s attempt to co-opt the progressive movement. Hence, the pinkwashing claim that Israel’s promotion of its gay-friendly policies is actually a greater evil than the abuse heaped on gays in areas controlled by Israel’s enemies.
If you want to get a sense of how threatening the anti-Israel crowd was, view this video from a group that appears to support the protest. Imagine yourself in the conference room with hundreds of people screaming just outside the doors and trying to push their way past security. Also note the chants of "mic check" -- a phrase made famous during the Occupy Wall Street protests:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 04, 2016 24 Comments
Calls for Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel, to resign have been increasing and include a call from Al Sharpton.  Amid rumors that Emanuel's office withheld the Laquan McDonald police video purposefully to boost his reelection chances, Illinois is now considering the possibility of a recall election. ABCNews reports:
Illinois state law currently addresses only the recall of a governor, a provision voters approved in 2010 after former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested and impeached. Now, state Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat, wants voters to also have the power to remove the mayor of the country's third-largest city. In light of the unrest in the city, Ford said, "It's clearly the right thing to have on the books." . . . .  Under Ford's proposal, two city aldermen would have to sign an affidavit agreeing with a recall petition and organizers must collect more than 88,000 signatures from registered voters in the city. At least 50 signatures must come from each of 50 wards.

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 03, 2015 10 Comments
Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel is under pressure to resign following the release of a police dash cam video of cops shooting Laquan McDonald. The video was made in October of 2014 and it's been suggested by some that it was suppressed to protect Emanuel's chances for re-election. Nick Gass reports at Politico:
Rahm Emanuel: I have no plans to resign Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday that he would not resign, despite growing criticism for what some are calling his botched response to video footage showing a Chicago police officer last year firing 16 times at Laquan McDonald, who was walking away from officers.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 01, 2015 14 Comments
RebelPundit has newly released video footage from deep within the Black Friday protest in Chicago that provides new insight into the character of, and reception in the grassroots black community to college-based "Black Lives Matter" and other organized groups vying for control of their community. Here is the explanation from Rebel Pundit:
When protesters took to Chicago’s Michigan Avenue last week, grassroots activists at the Black Friday boycott had no interest in sharing the Magnificent Mile with “Black Lives Matter” activists from the University of Chicago, forcing protesters associated with the group off the street. While media coverage from the periphery of the march showed images of protesters lined up in front of the high-end stores and reported on a unified movement for “justice” in the police killing of Laquan McDonald, it was anything but. Our footage from the core of the march reveals the contentious and disunited elements vying for control.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 27, 2014 22 Comments
Our friend Jeremy Segal, aka Rebel Pundit, has documented the struggles of blacks who speak out against the Democratic political machine. Jeremy did the viral videos Chicago Resident: Obama Will Go Down as Worst President Ever and 2014 State of the Union Address- A Black Grassroots Response. Jeremy also did the editing for Legal Insurrection's Unaccountable - Elizabeth Warren and the Cherokee. Jeremy was interviewed by Dana Loesch of Blaze TV about his work, and his newest video. Here is the full video, Chicago Activists Unchained, Destroy Black Leadership, from which the title of this post is taken:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 23, 2014 6 Comments
Nothing, really. Ignorance. Hate. Demonization. You name it. You'll find it in London, Chicago, and just about anywhere you find anti-Israel street protests. From London, via Harry's Place, which has even more videos: From Chicago, where a pro-Israel fundraiser hosted by Mayor Rahm Emanual and former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren was distrupted with shouting by "Jewish Voice for Peace" activists:

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 15, 2014 14 Comments
Chicago long has been a center of Communist Party USA activity. This video from 2011 shows the CPUSA protesting in support of the Occupy movement in Chicago: Today in Chicago was the 95th Anniversary celebration, as Ron Grossman of the Chicago Tribune reports:
Communist Party USA gathers in Chicago "I finally realized, I didn't believe in the other side," said Gosman, a retired employee of the Los Angeles school system. The Chicago convention will feature three days of speeches, panel discussions and workshops. One session will be devoted to catching up with an online era. Communists, like other radicals, traditionally recruit by hawking the party's paper on street corners. But financial constraints have forced the People's World to abandon its print edition. So one question up for discussion is how can peoplesworld.org put the party in touch with low-paid workers, environmentalists and advocates for social justice?

Posted by Anne Segal on February 11, 2013 27 Comments

The New York Times has now mapped all the ways Chicagoans, who arguably have some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country and only recently were allowed to possess them, get their guns. The maps and accompanying article are an attempt to spin the...

Posted by Anne Segal on January 11, 2013 18 Comments

Just a little more than an hour apart, but world's away in leadership are Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago and Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker. Thursday, Walker announced today that the budget he will sign this summer will include "significant" cuts to the income tax rates....

Posted by Anne Segal on December 27, 2012 23 Comments

Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former White House chief-of-staff for Obama, recently condemned the NRA's Wayne LaPierre for suggesting that armed guards in schools could be appropriate in some situations. Yet, it appears that Rahm sends his own children to a school protected by an armed...

Posted by Anne Segal on November 02, 2012 20 Comments

Cook County president Toni Preckwinkle has been on a mission to punish legal gunowners of late. Preckwinkle, a mentor to President Obama, made headlines earlier this year when she said that "Reagan deserves a special place in hell." After decreeing in a Wednesday press conference that a...

Accessibility by WAH