I’m Voting Democrat

Photo by riot jane.

No no, you read that right. Please, this is COMEDY, for pete sake I can watch a bunch of nasty Sarah Palin videos let me post my one video poking fun at Dems. So don’t start up with how nasty and vicious Republicans are, this is a SPOOF. I aspirated Pepsi One at 1:06 so I had to share.

Thank you.

And now on to the video……

Illinois Rally for Mitt

**Updated**

I just received word that Mitt is coming through Illinois, he will be here on Sunday. I plan on coming down, if anyone would like to go please let me know. Response has been so strong they had to move it to a bigger venue!!

Rally For Romney
Sunday, February 3rd @ 11:50 AM
McAnninch Arts Center
College of DuPage
425 Fawell Blvd
Glen Ellyn IL 60137

Please check out the flyer attached: Rally For Romney Flyer (Updated)

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Cubs — What, me worry?

Yes, it’s time to worry now and no, I’m not happy with how Lilly pitched last night. Our pitchers are pressing though because we aren’t getting any offense.

This series is very simple — if Lee and Ramirez do not hit, we will not win. We’ve paid these guys a boatload of money, Lee butchered us in 2003 so we know he can hit in the post-season. Where is it? Some have mentioned Soriano but I see Soriano getting on base at least which is a far cry more than Lee and Ramirez right now. If healthy he would have made that catch against the wall but he’s clearly toughing his injury out and smashing into a wall to play a ball is not going to happen rought now. We’re not getting any offense anyway so maybe Pie in center wouldn’t have been a bad idea right now.

The Cubs can still win this series, I know they can. But it will take Lee and Ramirez showing up to do it. If our big guns can’t outduel the great Augie Ojeda and Stephen Drew we don’t deserve to advance anyway. Both of them seem to have no timing at all with Lee not looking at all comfortable and Ramirez trying to swing out of his shoes every time up.

Soriano has been aggressive on silly pitches though, he could have jumped on first pitch fastballs (Valverde gave him one two nights in a row) in the zone but has waited. Then he’s been chasing curve balls later in the count.

One ray of hope out of all this — Kerry Wood was truly impressive. That, and the play of Soto was good to see. The rest of these guys need to step it up or it’s going to be a long winter.

Cubs Loss, More Stupid Cubs Columns

You know, if there’s one overriding reason I would like for the Cubs to win besides the one from my last post, it’s to shut stupid sports writers up. I’m serious, I’ve had it with these boneheads. You know what really stinks? In the playoffs they add even more boneheads to cover and offer commentary on the game.

I knew I would see this junk though when I went to bed last night, just knew it in my bones. So let me clear up some facts here for everyone.

FACT: No matter what decision Piniella made with Zambrano the Cubs only scored one run. The way these nonsense columns were written you would think the Cubs had a lead and he pulled Zambrano and the bullpen blew it. That wasn’t the case.

FACT: Carlos Marmol has been the Cubs’ best reliever all year, has a miniscule ERA and an insane strikeout ratio. He’s young though, this was a great situation to put him in and if he’s going to blow something it’s a great time for him to blow it — Game 1 where there’s plenty of time left to play. It should steady his nerves, he was clearly trying to overthrow.

FACT: Zambrano has had his cramping issues past the point he was pulled last night. There is no guarnatee he was going to continue to pitch that way, it was a great performance. Pulling him with the game tied preserves his strength and his psyche. He’ll be back in Game 4 and it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s the game the Cubs close out the series. There is no doubt in my mind they can take the next three in a row.

Now that I’ve thrown those to facts out there I’ll put out some opinions.

For the D’backs this was a must win game, for the Cubs it was not. Webb is not slated to come back to pitch until Game 5, the Cubs can win this series without ever seeing him again. There is a precipitous dropoff of starting pitching talent after Webb. In fact, the remaining 3 guys are barely .500 if they are that and have high ERAs. The Cubs can bomb these kids now and it starts tonight with Ted Lilly who has playoff experience with Oakland. The Cubs put up a good showing against the stud (I should know, Webb is a keeper I’ve had for two years on my fantasy team). That was a good showing against Webb, I was disappointed they didn’t get more out of the 6th inning with the bases loaded. In fact, I was thinking to myself that Lou should have pulled Zambrano there. I would have much rather seen Daryle Ward coming up then with the bases still juiced and the Cubs ready to put Webb and the D’backs to bed. Webb was losing it in that inning, Zambrano couldn’t connect despite Webb still getting the ball up and not getting much bite on his sinker.

So despite the Cubs top of the lineup being unable to drive in Zambrano after a lead-off double in the 3rd inning this is somehow Lou’s fault according to a vast assortment of boneheads.

Mike Downey said today, “A decision that Lou Piniella made in the pressure cooker of the playoffs blew up in the manager’s face Wednesday night and cost his guys Game 1.” Horse manure. Did the Cubs have a lead when Zambrano was pulled? No they did not. Did Piniella fail to drive in runners in scoring position for three consecutive innings? No he did not. Let’s follow the great Mike Downey’s absurd logic here, the Cubs should have left Zambrano in. For how long? Another inning? The rest of the game? Let’s assume Zambrano pitches the rest of the game, doesn’t give up anything. Guess what Mike, the Cubs didn’t score another run the rest of the game. So I guess Lou should have just burned up his best pitcher in the first game when the offense clearly wasn’t clicking. Great idea Mike!

Next up we have Rick Morrissey who in the same paragraph acknowledges the Cubs had no offense going but this is Piniella’s fault for not leaving Zambrano in. Huh? Rick, again, the game was 1-1, the Cubs did not have a lead, they didn’t score another run, having Zambrano continue would have done what essentially other than assure he will not come back ready on 3 days rest for Game 4? “There might not be a Game 4″ Morrissey chirps. You’re right Rick, if the Cubs continue to face Brandon Webb the next two games and can’t put any offense against him there might not be one. Oh wait, Brandon Webb isn’t coming back until Game 5 though is he Rick? I can’t fathom the stupidity of this column, it makes no sense whatsoever. Piniella saw his offense sputtering against Webb and not cashing in its chances. Maybe if the Cubs get more than one run in the 6th he pushes Zambrano more and tries to take Game 1 and deal a near death blow to the D’backs. They didn’t though and he knew he would be taking a huge risk pushing Zambrano in a game they weren’t winning and weren’t generating much offense in. That’s why he’s in the dugout and you’re behind a computer Rick.

Next up, Phil Rogers writes a column about going with a three-man rotation being dumb. I normally like Phil and agree with his columns but this one is dumb as well. The Cubs don’t have a reliable fourth starter, period. Who are the D’backs going to throw against the Cubs in Game 4 at Wrigley? The vaunted Micah Owings who pitched two good games his last two starts against two very bad teams but only lasted 2 1/3 against the mighty St. Louis Cardinals the start before that and gave up five runs in three innings against the Padres before that one. The Cubs put up three runs on seven hits in six innings on August 24th the second time seeing him. He started out 4-1 but ended up 8-8, has a 4.303 ERA and a 1.284 WHIP, I’m not scared. Rogers makes a reference to the 2003 Cubs starting a rested Kerry Wood in Game 4 against the Braves in the NLDS. The Cubs had four solid starters in 2003, they do not in 2007. I knew Kerry Wood, Phil, Jason Marquis is no Kerry Wood. Wrap fish with that column.

Let’s stop picking on the Tribune now, over at CBS Sportsline Scott Miller wrote a pretty even handed article about the move. Despite cracking some jokes about the Cubs, perpetual losers, looking ahead he covered the reasons Piniella made the move, how solid Marmol has been, etc. Good column.

Over at the Daily Herald something weird was going on. Even handed columns were being written while being tainted with stupid headlines. You can only see these in the print edition, the web headlines are different. So I encourage you to pick up today’s edition of the Daily Herald and look at the goofy blatantly stupid “No really good reason to lift Big Z” a sentiment not found anywhere in Mike Imrem’s column. I like Mike very much, I think he always writes a great column. So does Barry Rozner who I think jumped the gun as are many Cubs fans. We won’t know if Piniella came up short on the move last night until Game 5.

Even if the Cubs lose this series, it doesn’t change the fact they only scored a single run. Soriano came up in the bottom of the 9th and got the fastball he should have been looking for right over the heart of the plate — he looked at it. That pretty much sums up the Cubs offensive performance last night, guessing wrong. That is why they lost last night, not anything Piniella did.

Cub Hope Springs Eternal In Heaven

It’s here, the day is upon us when the beloved Chicago Cubs will take to the field in the National League Divisional Series. It’s been four years since they were last there but it seems like a lifetime ago when you look at all the changes to the Cubs roster. It’s even more staggering when you consider how long it has been since the Cubs have been in a World Series let alone won one.

I come from a long line of die-hards on both sides of the family and die many of them have. I even have a relative who died at Wrigley Field. For decades my family has watched the Cubs try and fail and try and fail again. So here we are, in the playoffs again and every Cub fan asks himself “is this finally the year” or “will it finally be different this time”? All I can tell you is hope springs eternal in heaven.

My father has been gone for 8 years now and in his 55 years he never saw the Cubs play in the World Series, that he could have remembered anyway. When I think of it now the suffering he endured during his life at the hands of one Cubs team after another it’s quite unimaginable. Add to that his parents, his brother and sister, virtually an entire side of my family that has risen and fallen in the time since the Cubs last won a World Series. That’s the perspective it needs to be put in. To many this just may be sport, not anything to get all caught up in, but those of us who have lived the life of a Cubs fan know that it is far more than that, it’s about hopes and dreams you’ve held since you were a child. Now it’s gotten to the point where the hopes and dreams of generations are being pinned on the Cubs.

I can honestly say though this team has given me a lot of hope but I am giving them the high expectations they should be riding on. This team was bought and paid for to win and win it should. The Cubs definitely have as good a shot as any other team. The regular season is over and the real season starts today. What happened before today means nothing now. We finally have a manager who cares about one thing and that’s winning. Lou Piniella doesn’t care about what the reporters say, what his players say, or what anyone has to say about how he runs the ballclub. He manages to win and that’s all there is to it.

So when I heard Lou speak about getting teary-eyed to the strains of “Go Cubs Go” piped from the Wrigley rafters when the Cubs win I think I realized that Lou really does get it here. The Cubs have been a franchise of hope surrounded by a century of misery, every Cub fan knows that. We also know the ones who have their seats in heaven now including Steve Goodman who wrote and sang “Go Cubs Go”. There are many that have come and gone over the years and many more who are trying to hold on so that they can see the day. That day would be when the Cubs win the World Series and all the nonsense of curses and goats and Bartman generated by lazy sports writers will be dead and buried - exorcised from our favorite franchise forever. Then again, as it should be today and as it should always be, it will be about winning.

I demand a World Series victory for myself, for my family and for all those who have come and gone who won’t be living to see it. The Cubs owe us that much and we should demand it from them. World Championship and anything short of that is a disappointment. Hope does spring eternal, but hope is not a method. The Cubs need to get it done. Go Cubs Go!!

Gangs In Round Lake — An Open Letter To Parents

Unless you haven’t looked around our community much lately then the activity of gangs in Round Lake should be of no surprise to you. While there are a number of possible explanations they all really don’t matter at the end of the day. Gangs have been and will continue to be in Round Lake, this is nothing new. What is new are the methods and the nature of their activity. They don’t just spray paint a wall anymore, they post their exploits on MySpace and You Tube including videos of murders and drive-by shootings. They don’t just settle for walls in out of the way places anymore either, they tag (vandalize with their gang symbols) the hallways of our schools or break in and completely trash a school. Finally, if you thought that they just wanted to recruit high school boys or middle school boys you are sadly mistaken, they’re recruiting our elementary students and girls now as well.

I’m not posting this to create some sort of panic or mass hysteria — our local police departments and the staff at our schools are hard at work doing all they can to keep the gangs out. What needs to happen is the people of this community, especially the parents need to wake up and recognize this problem. What’s different now is parents rationalizing or even making excuses for their child’s gang activity — “they’re just drawings”, “it’s just a list of phone numbers”, or “just because he draws it doesn’t mean he’s in that gang” are common phrases I’ve heard from parents when confronted with the truth, the absolute reality, that their child is involved with a gang.

As a school board member it’s time for me to tell to you what my job is and this is solely my opinion, it’s how I’ve conducted myself since I was first elected and it’s how I will continue to represent this community as long as I serve. I owe no duty to any individual student in Round Lake Area Schools, I owe a collective duty to the more than 6,000 students we serve.

I owe them a safe learning environment and any time I have a vote in keeping that environment safe that is what I am going to vote for. The school is no substitute for parents. The school is not there to straighten out these kids and get them out of the gang. The school is not there to tolerate behavior related to gang activity. The school is there to educate.

We do all that we can — our staff members, the police, government and non-profit community groups are all there to try to help parents where we can. We’re more than happy to help and steer you in the right direction to get help with your child. However, if you continue to live in a state of denial about your child, if you continue to make excuse after excuse for them, if you continue to tolerate their activity and somehow try to explain it or legitimize it there is going to be very little that we can do. So I’m telling you now that the resources are there to help you but the first step is to accept and recognize that your child has a problem. Don’t make excuses for it and don’t fault yourself for it because even kids in good homes can fall in with the wrong crowd and become involved with gangs. You should fault yourself though if you do not stand up, recognize it and draw the line with your child that it won’t be accepted because that is the line I have drawn with them.

For the most part I don’t believe in “zero tolerance” but one area where I do believe in it is gang activity. If your child “represents” (wears clothing identified with gangs, draws pictures affiliated with gangs, vandalizes school property with gang graffiti) in our buildings that is gang activity, that is not allowed under our code of conduct and your child is subject to discipline up to and including a two-year expulsion from school. If your child comes before me and there is conclusive evidence of this I can tell you right now I will be voting to expel your child for two years from school, the maximum penalty we can impose by law. If your child comes before me on the school board they will have had many chances to change their behavior unless the act they committed is severe.

Some people may cry that I’m only driving that child to the gang and I say to you nothing could be further from the truth. That child was driven there long before I became involved. My duty, my obligation, is to the more than 6,000 students in our district who are there to get an education in a safe environment. I will not jeopardize that, I will not shirk my duty to provide that safe environment because I’m concerned about what will happen to any individual student who has obviously already made a choice about what he/she is coming to school for.

Below are some links to information related to gang awareness. Use the resources the community is providing and if you’re still confused, still don’t know where to turn I suggest you call the police at 847-270-9111 and they will put you in touch with people who can help.

Round Lake Area Parents Guide To Gangs
Round Lake Area Parents Guide To Gangs (Spanish)
“Gangs Or Us” - Parent Resources Page
Lake County Circuit Court - Gang Awareness
Lake County Circuit Court - Gang Alert
City of Aurora - Gang Awareness
San Antonio (TX) Police Department - Gang Awareness Handbook

The Sad Truth About The Bears

I got suckered. When Devin Hester went flying down the field with the opening kickoff I got suckered into believing in the Bears on Sunday, plain and simple. The whole year I have been guarded, even after playoff victories, I supported the Bears, cheered them on, but deep within my recesses where Cubbydom rules I didn’t really believe the Bears were going to win the Super Bowl. Until Devin Hester ran that kickoff back for a touchdown. Sure, I immediately said to those present “we have to be careful to not sit back or let down after that now” but I was still believing and the fires were only stoked when the Bears picked off Peyton Manning shortly later.

However, the weakness of our team quickly appeared and he wears Number 8 for the Bears — Rex Grossman. I don’t hate Rex, he seems like a good enough kid. The truth is though, from the very start he wasn’t cut out for this job.

Consider this, only in Chicago could our “franchise quarterback” be someone we traded down for (see his less than shining draft preview as well). That’s right, with Carson Palmer coming out and the Bears a few slots away from picking him there was talk that Cincinnati really didn’t want that pick and were going to give Akili Smith one more shot, having become weary of first round quarterbacks with lofty expectations. Bears GM Jerry Angelo, that we know of, never really pursued it though and Carson Palmer is now a shining jewel among thugs in Cincy.

As I was watching Rex Grossman self-destruct, his slight frame, his nervousness in the pocket, his badly underthrown passes — I had visions of Carson Palmer wearing that Bear uniform instead, a Super Bowl trophy in hand. It could have been, but wasn’t. In fact, the one he would be holding this year would be his second if you recall the astounding performance of Grossman in last year’s playoffs (assuming in my alternate universe that Palmer doesn’t get injured like he did in Cincy, that’s okay, our offensive line is better, indulge my fantasy).

Because, at the end of the day, yes the defense played poorly (after being on the field the whole game) and the offensive line (aside from one Thomas Jones run) wasn’t knocking Indy back off of the ball, but, only one Bear committed four of our six turnovers on Sunday and that was Rex Grossman.

Only one Bear promptly fumbled the ball after a key fumble our defense forced. Only one Bear managed to do something that every quarterback from the time he is in Pop Warner is taught to avoid — mishandle the snap from center. “It was wet out,” you might hear the excuse makers chime in. Oh? And was the ball that Peyton Manning was throwing virtually at will somehow immune from the rain? I didn’t see Peyton Manning cough up the ball, I only saw Rex do that — twice.

When you reflect on this all it will make you feel like a dupe just as I did. We traded down to get Rex at the end of the 1st round, he’s too short, his mechanics are terrible, he doesn’t do anything exceptionally well. There is nothing, I say nothing, that I have seen that leads me to believe that Rex Grossman is an elite quarterback. He doesn’t act like one either.

If you recall the Arizona game at the post-game press conference there was a quarterback there agonizing about how poorly he played, about how all the mistakes were his fault and what happened on the field shouldn’t have happened. That quarterback wasn’t Rex Grossman though — it was Matt Leinart. To top it all off, Leinart clearly didn’t lose that game and the only time he coughed up the ball was on a sack he was blindsided on. That’s a winner, that’s a man who’s won national championships and expects to win. It’s the intensity of greatness even when things aren’t your fault that you take the team’s failure as your own.

No, there was a quarterback at the podium laughing and joking about how bad he was and how great it was they still won though. It was like being in a bowling alley on a recreational night and hearing some guy joke about a gutter ball he threw because he had too much beer. Fast forward to the last regular season game and you have a quarterback who says he was distracted and didn’t prepare because of New Years festivities.

This is our “franchise quarterback”? This is our anointed one who is going to lead us to the Super Bowl again next year? The NFC is so bad I’m sure that could happen but how will it be different next year? Grossman will still be too short, too rough, and thus far has shown will have no clue about what it means to be a winning quarterback. “We were 13 and 3 with Rex as our quarterback” you will hear Lovie Smith say in a delightful twist of nonsense that makes one question why similar thinking didn’t apply to Kyle Orton last year. I think we were 13-3 with Joe as equipment manager that doesn’t translate into greatness. The truth of the matter Lovie, is we were 13-3 despite having Rex Grossman at quarterback.

In today’s NFL tomorrow is guaranteed to no one and I don’t understand what it is Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith are waiting for with Grossman. He’s not a rookie, he’s in his 4th year. He’s been in the league as long as Carson Palmer. Carson Palmer has established himself as one of the elite NFL quarterbacks while Grossman has established nothing. Meanwhile Brian Urlacher gets a year older, Olin Kreutz gets a year older, our devastating defense gets a year older while we all sit back and bide our time waiting for Rex to somehow become a great quarterback. Utterly foolish.

At the end of the day “the Bears are who we thought they were” as Dennis Green would say — foolishly hitching their star to an undersized quarterback who they traded down to acquire. The AFC has to be licking its chops for several more years of domination and Bears fans will be subjected to several more years of frustration unless something changes.

Roskam and Duckworth vie for Hyde’s seat in western suburb

AP Wire | 10/29/2006 | Roskam and Duckworth vie for Hyde’s seat in western suburb

I saw a ridiculous commercial by Tammy Duckworth today stating that Roskam voted against principals being able to expel students for bringing guns to school. This is the most ridiculous attempt I’ve ever seen by a campaign to skirt the truth to try to make someone think a candidate has a position against protecting children.

It’s low and despicable.

The School Code has it clearly set forth that only the School Board can expel a student from school — not a principal. Any student who brought a gun to school would be immediately suspended and then, at the principal’s discretion, brought to the School Board for expulsion (I doubt any principal would not bring a case for an expulsion to the School Board for a student bringing a gun or any weapon to school).

Then, after being afforded their due process rights the School Board determines by vote if that student is to be expelled from school, the maximum being two years [105 ILCS 5/10‑22.6(d)]. Why is this important? No one person should have the power to expel a student from school — students are entitled their due process rights, an opportunity to confront their accusers, and an impartial body, the School Board, the community’s elected representatives, decide if that student should be expelled.

Now it looks like the Illinois FOP fell for these tactics and is endorsing Duckworth. Hopefully voters will look beyond the flashy commercials and seek the truth.