Oh, Dan Proft Is So Screwed

Dan Proft is a 40-something Northwestern University Graduate. He is currently running for Governor of Illinois and is at 8% in the polls in a 6-way field.

He is the former Editor of the Wm. F. Buckleyite, rightist alternative, Northwestern Review, former campaign manager for the socialist-Republican Northfield, FemiNazi, Elizabeth Coulter, former campaign manager for the ultra, anti-abortionist Catholic conservative Gubenatorial candidate, Pat O'Malley, and former $400k+ a year flack for the Mafiosi-based government of Cicero, Illinois. (This was the home base and political base of Alphonse "Scarface" Capone.) Their Italian Female former Mayor is currently doing time in the Federal Pen for the business-as usual Cicero political hijinx that our friend, Proft, oversaw.

This guy, Proft, has been all over and around the block.

He has been in the pay of socialists, liberals, mainstream legitimate conservatives and Mafia thugs.

What's next for Dan Proft?

A fat PR contract with Al Queieda?

Or perhaps a PR contract pimping for the government of Iran?

He told the people of Cicero that he was all for illegal Mexican immigration.

They have a big illegal Mexican population there and he was pulling down almost a half mil a year from their mafiso government so he had to be an illegal alien pimp there.

But now he is telling Republican Primary voters that he is against illegal immigration.

Oh, Dan Proft is so screwed!!!

I do genuinely like the conservative blather that he puts forth -- but who can actually believe this chameleon guy?

He is a true Chicago blowhard and a genuine Chicago original -- this Dan Proft.

Never a dull moment in the Daley-Capone pseudo-Republic.

Chicago Pols React to Obama Nobel Prize

Obama: Can you believe they gave me the friggin' Nobel Peace Prize?

Daley: I wish I could get in on a deal like that!!

Blagojevich: That thing's fuckin' golden!!

Daley's Disposable Tropical Palm Trees

(This was first posted in October. But as we wade thru snowdrifts this morning and contemplate below zero wind chill temps tonight, it may comfort us to know that a few short months ago, our City government was giving us a taste of the tropics -- by planting expensive tropical plants in our parks -- which they then, proceeded to throw away as the climate became inhospitable.)

Chicagoans awoke this morning to the news that their city government has been hard at work conjuring up new ways to regulate their behavior and pick their pockets at the same time.

Three new possible fines to contemplate.

First, if some neighborhood Mrs. Kravitz doesn't like the sound of your dog's barking, you can now be fined up to $250 a day.

And now if you get caught idling your diesel truck or car for more than 3 minutes, you'll get slapped with a $250 fine.

And now, if you should wander within 50 feet of the entrance of an abortion mill and someone complains, you're out 500 bucks.

The city needs revenue, you see.

It isn't bad enough that the cost of parking on a city street now costs the equivalent of many monthly car payments. Daley needs cash and fast.

That's why the libraries are going to shorten their hours and why the parks now charge the equivalent of a 6 month health club membership fee for city kids to join their organized play activities.

So why then is the Mayor planting expensive, exotic tropical foliage on the public ways?

He actually had contractors plant palm trees right here in the Chicago arctic zone. Palm trees that are now, with the onset of winter, being ripped up and tossed away.

I am not making this up.

Palm trees!!!!

In Chicago parks!!!!

At the very corner of Lincoln Avenue and Peterson, at the entrance to Legion Park, with its grand gateway fountain, there is today a hugh gaping mound of dirt where yesterday stood a tropical palm tree and ancillary tropical foliage.

I met a nice old woman who was walking her somewhat overweight dachshund there and her cat (don't ask) and she reported to me that the crew that removed the tropical tree asked her if she wanted it for her home.

Since it stood at least 20 feet high and since she does not have a living room to rival Marie Antoinette's chambers at Versailles, she politely declined.

So it looks as if the disposable tropical foliage was just tossed into a wood chipper.

I asked my horticulturalist friend, Kathy, what a palm tree like that and the assorted other exotic foliage might cost, and she reckoned that it would be at least several thousand dollars wholesale. So with the city's purchasing acumen involved, you can bet that it was at least ten grand or more.

And just what are we doing planting equatorial foliage a full 42 degrees North of the equator?

Didn't anyone mention to the geniuses at the Chicago Park District that it has a wee tendency to get cold in Chicago?

And where else in Chicago did palm trees go up this summer?

I have seen them outside the concession stand at the Oak Street beach. Where else?

Maybe Daley & Co. got so carried away with Olympic fever that they thought they would rival Rio by planting Brazilian tropical plants.

At any rate, the city enforcement mavens and fine collectors had better get busy finding those noisy dogs and idling diesels so we can afford to make our parks look like Pago Pago and Tahiti again next year.

Or maybe like Rio.

Open Season on Bikes in Chicago -- And Daley's Cops Don't Care

Mayor Richie "Shortshanks" Daley's PR people try to characterize him as a "green" bicyclist and one machine pol who is intent on making Chicago one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the USA.

Well, mayor-for-life, "Shortshanks," has done some good things in terms of expanding the configuration of bicycle paths and we ought give credit where credit is due.

But the corrupt, creaky, 1920s vintage Capone-era, liberal Democrat kleptocracy that he lords over is doing its utmost to undermine those stated fine intentions.

I have been back in Chicago for almost a decade now, and have had six -- count them 6 -- bicycles stolen and the crooked, inept, Democrat machine cops think its either kind of funny -- or of no importance.

In fact Daley's Democrat crooked cops have actually been said to have put together a market to sell hot bikes near the public housing projects near West Madison Avenue.

To wit -- a 10 speed AMF bike stolen by African-American kids out of a garage near Dempster in Evanston in 1993 -- the Evanston machine Democrat clods oversaw this -- so not directly Daley's fault.

One down.

A 3 speed, mint condition, Raleigh, made in England, Sprite, away from which my dog and I were about 100 yds. away, mounted and rode off on by an obviously Mexican resident in Chicago's 50th Ward. CPD response -- there's nothing we can do about it. Liberal Democrat, Richie Shortshank's viewpoint, "we're a sanctuary city -- let them all in. Tough luck to you. Just pay your taxes and fines And p-off. I need the Latino vote"

Two down.

A near mint 70's vintage Schwinn Suburban, made in Chicago, 10 spd. locked to a post on the street near Clark and Devon in the 49th Ward of Chicago. Locked cut off. When my dog and I were later walking in Warren Park, we saw an obviously Mexican, resident kid riding that very bike. When I confronted him, he said that he was given it by "Hector" at the carwash. I didn't grab him and punch him. I should have. When I called the 24th didtrict cops, they came and said, "there is nothing we can do."

Three down.

When I was working out of an office at Lawrence and Western, I locked my Trek 820 bike outside. When I came outside during a break, I noticed that it was missing. I stood by the entrance of the building for a few minutes, fuming, and then a Puerto Rican girl came by riding my bike on the sidewalk. I thrust out my arm and grabbed the carrier and arrested her progress. Told her it was my bike and what the hell was she doing riding it? She said her boyfriend gave it to her.

Four down (but this one recovered)

I was commuting down the Damen Ave. bikepath from Wicker Park to the far North side last fall, when a cloudburst ensued and I ducked into a Jiffy John in an alley in Roscoe Village to get out of the rain. Left my Peugeot road bike outside, but put a bungee cord in the spokes to preclude someone getting on and just riding away. With rain pounding and earphones on, stayed there for about seven minutes until rain subsided. When I poked my head out of the door to leave, I saw an illegal-alien Mexican metal trash collector truck tearing down the alley with my Peugeot in his truck bed. My briefcase containing eyeglasses, a paycheck, personal papers and a Chicago Public Library copy of John Dos Passos' "America" Trilogy went with the illegal alien trash vendor. I now owe $40 to the CPL for the book. You know what, Democrats -- there not going to get it. I'm on strike.

Five Down

I parked a $400 Schwinn mtn bike in front of the Dunkin Donuts on Devon and Troy 2 months ago and walked into the office. Within 3 hours the limp, severed cable was there, but not the bike. Reported it to the 24th district CPD -- their response, "probably nothing we can do."

Six Down

I found a rather nice and rather new Specialized mtn bike with very expensive Continental road tires. It was near Foster and Pulaski. Being a good citizen, and having been victimized by these bike theft creeps, myself, I decided to turn it in to the CPD station on Pulaski near Lawrence. The desk Sgt. summoned the cop in charge of bike reclamaton, who seemed totally bored with his job and essentially told me that he didn't want to be bothered so why don't I just keep the bike.

I did and gave it to some neighbor kids.

So much for Daley's "Bike-Friendly Chicago."

And so it goes.