Category: News Page 22 of 25

This category will, no doubt, be spending time reporting on the antics of the Trump Administration, but natural disasters and other such news will also qualify.

Buses Are Best!

As a woman alone in Chicago much of the time, often traveling alone to my destination, is it safer to ride the bus or the ell?

That question prompted me to argue that public transportation was not necessarily the “best” way for my friend and I to travel to attend the Chicago Film Festival in October at the AMC Theaters, on Illinois Street.

She argued for public transport; I argued against it, pointing out that we would be coming home after dark. Parking your car in the AMC Theater lot, where the film festival has been held the past 2 years, costs $33 if you are there more than 4 hours, which we are if we attend multiple films. (If you are there only 4 hours, you can have your ticket validated and pay something like $17, still a horrible cost, thanks to ex-Mayor Daley selling all parking to Morgan Stanley).

Still, does having your purse or cell phone stolen, or being assaulted sound better? And that is happening at an alarming rate on the Chicago CTA, which has only kept records of such things since 2008. Furthermore, if you ARE assaulted or the victim of a robbery, chances are very slim that anyone will be caught. Arrests have been on a downward spiral for decades and are made in less than 4% of thefts (probably why so few are even reported) and only 15% of the time in robberies. If you see someone jumping a turnstile to avoid paying a fare, chances are good that someone will be involved in a crime later on, perpetrated against someone innocent other on the CTA buses or trains.

The CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) has not been very eager to reveal figures on crime(s) committed on their buses and subways. Because I live near the Roosevelt Red Line, I remember the touching story of the elderly woman who was knocked down a flight of stairs there by thugs who were attempting to steal her cell phone. She died as a result. The nurse who tried to help her commented in that story that she was still haunted by the event to this day. I am haunted by the event, because that is the train I would have to take, were I to ride the subway. But, really, with $33 parking rates, who can afford to drive and park in the city of Chicago ? The alternative is to take the Red Line, so let’s examine the “Tribune’s” findings about its safety.

The “Chicago Tribune” team of Jon Hilkevitch, Alex Bordens and Joe Germuska (Sunday, June 24) set out to find out what the true crime figures are for riders of the CTA. If you guessed that buses are safer than subways (I did), you are right. If you guessed that the Roosevelt Red Line is the most dangerous subway station of all, you are right. If you guessed that the Number One crime reported on both buses and trains is theft, you are right. [From 2009 to 2011, thefts rose +42%. Many are not even reported, since they have become commonplace.]

From 2009 through 2011, robberies of CTA passengers went up +69% (500 to 800). Many do not report being ripped off, figuring (correctly) that they’ll never see that IPhone or IPad again. However, if they are accosted at gun or knifepoint, they tend to report it, (for all the good it does.)

A second sobering statistic involved batteries on the CTA. Battery of passengers increased 15% on buses and 1% on rail in the same time period (2009-2011). But let’s be clear: the number of reported incidents on buses were about half of those reported on trains, 5,457 versus 10,759.

Q: What is the most dangerous period of the day to travel on the CTA?

A: Two o’clock in the morning. It’s actually pretty dangerous to get on a bus or train after dark, period. From 11 p.m. until 4 a.m., riding buses or trains hasn’t much to recommend it, in terms of safety. Said Mike Bjordal, a 52-year-old Iowa native who manages Leona’s restaurant in Hyde Park and rides the train home to Edgewater at 3 a.m., “The Red Line late at night is dangerous as hell.”

Bjordal’s rules: (1) Always ride the first car (2) Never make eye contact (3) Take the individual seat on the car so no one sits next to you (4) Mind your own business. Of course, “minding your own business” didn’t prevent Nicholas Antunes, age 21, from being robbed and beaten on the Red Line. Nor did it prevent Jeremy Kniola, age 35, from being robbed at gunpoint on the Blue Line. Nor did it prevent Melissa Singleton, age 43, from being the victim of a pickpocket on the bus. [Pickpocketing becomes more likely at Rush Hour and the subway platforms are among the dangerous areas.]

One victim, Kody Zaagman, 22, a pre-med student at Loyola who was robbed on the Green Line while returning to his Oak Park home says he no longer takes public transportation. “I drive everywhere now. I just don’t want to be on the train any more. It’s not worth it.”

One bright spot is this: Although 5,800 crimes were reported on the CTA in 2011, the CTA provided rides to 532 million passengers. Also, robberies on the CTA for the first 5 and 1/2 months of 2012 are down 31%, batteries are down 22% for the same period, and thefts declined 14% when compared to 2011. Now, if the Chicago police can just do something about the broad-daylight muggings being reported at bus stops in the Chicago Station District (near the Museums), I’ll hang up my car keys.

And the $240 million overhaul of the 95th Street station at 43rd and Cottage, plus a 5-year renovation of the Red Line, which promises 55 mph trains and will be completed by 2014 was reported by Mary Ann Ahern of Channel 5 only a few days ago. The station services 20,000 people daily, and is 43 years old. Despite the sobering statistics in this article, hope springs eternal and regular people who have to get to work will, no doubt, still take the bus or the ell.

IWPA Silver Feather Award Presented, June 2nd, at Chicago’s Union Club

By Connie Wilson

On June 4, 2012

In News

Connie Wilson & Deidre Sommerville with the Silver Feather Award.

The Chicago chapter of IWPA (Illinois Women’s Press Association) awarded its Silver Feather award for literary excellence in a variety of genres to Connie (Corcoran) Wilson on Saturday, June 2nd, at the Union Club in downtown Chicago.

Entries were awarded points for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place and Honorable Mention(s) in a wide variety of journalistic areas, including print and online and radio and television media. Awards can also be awarded for Best Press Releases, Best Videos, brochures, online journalism and a host of other areas. The Mate Palmer writing awards also recognize young journalists from high school entrants with a Silver Pen award. Approximately 48 IWPA members of the local chapter, plus guests, were present for the 4 hour ceremony and luncheon.

The Silver Feather top winner then goes on to National Competition at the NAWP level, to be announced later.

Rush Limbaugh Goes Too Far in Sandra Fluke Fiasco

By Connie Wilson

On March 4, 2012

In Editorial, News, Politics

Rush Limbaugh & Sandra Fluke.

The big news on Saturday, March 3, 2012, was Rush Limbaugh’s belated apology to third year law student Sandra Fluke. Ms. Fluke was barred from testifying at the Senate’s health care hearings on women’s access to contraception. [Republican Darrell Issa of California called her “unqualified.”]

A panel of all-male others (including a male Catholic priest) were allowed to testify. This exclusion of Ms. Fluke prompted the Democrats to hold a forum where Ms. Fluke was allowed to tell her story of a friend whose struggle to secure birth control pills from Georgetown University (a Catholic institution) to prevent cysts took so long that medical complications cost her an ovary.

The attacks on Sandra Fluke started on the first day of Women’s History Month. Rush Limbaugh insulted and demeaned Ms. Fluke on his show for three full days. He called her “a slut” and “a prostitute” on day one. He moved on in the next two days to suggest that, if birth control pills were provided to female students, they should be required to post sexual videos online.

It is not the first controversy for Rush Limbaugh, whose antics provoked Senator Al Franken’s book Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot, in which he proved that Limbaugh did little fact-checking, preferring to broadcast inaccurate information if it would shock his audiences. Rush has mocked Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease and called Michelle Obama fat. He laughed at the Japanese earthquake disaster and made the outrageous statement soon after the 2008 presidential election, “I hope Obama fails.”

Limbaugh is not the only commentator who intends to provoke outrage. Bill O’Reilly often stirs things up. Bill Maher was taken to task for making fun of white men, (in the sexting scandal that involved Brett Favre.) Maher, on September 17, 2001, took on 9/11 saying, “We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it’s not cowardly.” That remark cost Maher his ABC program, “Politically Incorrect.”

Perhaps the radio commentator most closely paralleling Limbaugh’s current brouhaha, however, is Don Imus, who was fired by CBS radio when he called the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hoes.” Despite repeated apologies and a two-week suspension, Imus was fired.

CBS said, “In our meeting with concerned groups, there has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people..That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision.” The fact that Imus scorned “women of color trying to make their way in this society” did not escape comment by CBS, but the rest of the CBS remarks apply equally to Sandra Fluke.

On Facebook, Carbonite’s CEO, David Friend, said that Limbaugh had overstepped “any reasonable bounds of decency” and added, “No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady.” Carbonite canceled all current and future advertising on Limbaugh’s show.

Most apropos of all Imus comments, however, came from then-Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, back on April 11 of 2007: “…there’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude…It was a degrading comment. What we’ve been seeing around this country is this constant ratcheting up of a coarsening of the culture that all of us have to think about…Insults, humor that degrades women, humor that is based in racism and racial stereotypes isn’t fun. And the notion that somehow it’s cute or amusing, or a useful diversion, I think, is something that all of us have to recognize is just not the case. We all have First Amendment rights. And I am a Constitutional lawyer and strongly believe in free speech, but as a culture, we really have to do some soul-searching to think about what kind of toxic information we are feeding our kids.”

That was before Barack Obama became President Obama. President Barack Obama called Sandra Fluke to tell her that her parents should be proud of her (something Limbaugh had ridiculed on the air, saying, “Can you imagine, if you’re her parents, how proud you’d be?”)

Limbaugh’s defense?

In an apology on March 4 (after three days of attacks on Ms. Fluke) in which Limbaugh went totally off-topic ( “Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit?”) Limbaugh said: “My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choice.”

What Limbaugh doesn’t understand is that it’s not just his word choice, nor his insincerity in apologizing after three days of attacks. Rush Limbaugh insulted every female of child-bearing age in America with disregard for the truth and honesty of Ms. Fluke’s message. He insulted the mothers of America—all of us, regardless of age. It’s not Limbaugh’s word choice. It’s everything and everyone he ridicules, whether it is Michael J. Fox’s debilitating Parkinson’s disease or Michelle Obama’s weight (when a good long look in the mirror should tell him that mocking others’ weight is a bad idea.) It’s the lack of common human decency and mutual human respect.

Advertisers are defecting in droves from Limbaugh’s show. Perhaps, our long national nightmare will soon be over and Rush Limbaugh will be fired, as unlikely as that seems? As Bill Maher said, on September 18, 2006, after his own ill-timed remarks cost him his TV show, “And so, to anybody who gets fired like I did, my advice would be you never know—it could be a good thing. It really could.”

The Color of Evil, 1st in a Trilogy, Nearly Ready to Launch

By Connie Wilson

On February 17, 2012

In Books, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Reviews

Tentative cover for "The Color of Evil," available soon as an E-book title on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The Color of Evil, the first novel in a trilogy about a young boy with paranormal abilities, is about ready to launch. I sent it out to be reviewed, without realizing that they were going to post the review so quickly. Here it is. It’s good, but I don’t have the book totally converted, yet, so no cover picture, and you can’t buy it yet.

Here’s the review link:

http://wordalert1.blogspot.com/2012/01/color-of-evil.html

But soon.

Update on the Status of 40 Foreign Nationals Detained in Egypt

By Connie Wilson

On January 31, 2012

In Local, News, Politics

Sam LaHood and recent bride, Katie.

From “The Daily Beast.” Sam LaHood, son of Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and his wife are among those foreign nationals being refused permission to leave the country as of January 31, 2012.

2. Egypt Refuses to Release Americans
Egypt’s justice minister on Tuesday returned a letter to a U.S. ambassador asking Egypt to end a travel ban on Americans who are being investigated for illegally funding pro-democracy groups in the country. The minister said publicly that the letter should have been sent to the investigating justice, and that only those affected by the ban were entitled to make such a request. Egypt’s Parliament speaker, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, said the letter was “interference by the American embassy.” Several Americans were banned from leaving Egypt after their nongovernmental organizations were raided by the Egyptian military and are currently taking refuge at the U.S. embassy in Cairo.

Sam LaHood, Son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Detained in Egypt

By Connie Wilson

On January 28, 2012

In Local, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics

Sam LaHood and new bride Katie.

Current Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood’s, youngest son, Sam, is among 10 American and European citizens denied permission to leave Egypt. I was instantly taken back to the day when Sam, our next-door neighbor (then aged about five), wandered down our court one day, while the family down the street was at the cemetery burying a family member. When the family returned and entered their unlocked house, they found little “Sammy,” who had climbed up on the counter-top to help himself to a snack. “Sammy” was a darling little guy and has grown into a handsome young man who was married to new wife Katie on September 5, 2011, in Bermuda.

Transportation Secretary LaHood told the (Moline, IL) Dispatch (Jan. 27, 2012, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) that his son’s detention is “absolutely an escalation. It’s de facto detention.” Last month, Egyptian officials raided Sam LaHood’s Cairo offices where he was director of the Washington-based International Republican Institute’s Egyptian program. This week, Egyptian newspapers announced that as many as forty foreigners were to appear in court next month on charges of “illicit foreign funding.” The move detaining so many foreign nationals is viewed as a crackdown on foreign pro-democracy groups by the generals in power.

When the LaHood family lived near us in East Moline, Illinois, Sam’s father, Ray LaHood, was director of the Rock Island County Youth Service Bureau and served for three years as chief planner at the Bi-State Metropolitan Planning Commission, (now called the Bi-State Regional Commission.) The elder LaHood, a Republican, also worked for former U.S. Representatives Tom Railsback and Bob Michel before serving in the House for 14 years from Peoria. LaHood has announced plans to retire at the end of Obama’s first term.

Ray LaHood’s oldest son, Darin, was appointed to the Illinois State Senate on February 27, 2010, and took office on March 1, 2010, the day after incumbent Dale Risinger retired from representing the seven-county thirty-seventh legislative district in Illinois.

R.I.P. Christopher Hitchens, Dead At Sixty-Two

By Connie Wilson

On December 18, 2011

In Books, Editorial, News, Pop Culture

Writer Christopher Hitchens, who died of esophageal cancer on Dec. 15, 2011.

Christopher Hitchins’ death on December 15 makes it time to share this story of a Celebrity Encounter at the June, 2011 BEA (Book Expo America). Maybe encounter is too strong a word. More like two ships passing in the night.

I had bought a ticket for the breakfast, which begins early in the morning, but I did not purchase the food, but only a seat on the perimeter, as per usual. You still get the free books…if they are giving them out. (Last year, only chapters of books, not entire books). Other years, free copies of “The Kite Runner,” etc.

Because all the seats on the perimeter appeared to be occupied, I saw a group of people who were going up some stairs through a door near the back of the hall. They began climbing upwards. In my mind, I envisioned a balcony or loggia, like a church choir loft, if you will, and one of the men in the party was carrying a glass which was obviously booze, as it had a little parasol in it. This was approximately 9 a.m. and I remember thinking that that individual must really like to party hearty! I decided to follow the group and went through the same door and began climbing.

At about the second landing, I caught a glimpse of the group ahead of me and recognized Christopher Hitchens as the man carrying the drink. I also realized that I was, inadvertently, crashing the group of would-be speakers, who were apparently climbing to a behind-the-stage area where they would be introduced and seated.

Whoops!

I quietly tip-toed downstairs and took a seat on chairs at the back of the hall, the perimeter .
When Hitchens was introduced (by Patton Oswalt, the stand-up comedian who is now co-starring opposite Charlize Theron in “Young Adult”) he strode to the microphone and recited several dirty limericks, most of them by heart. As I recall, he also said something about homosexual hi-jinks in an English boarding school, but his entire demeanor was very preoccupied and grim. He then left, with Patton Oswalt explaining that he “had to catch a plane” or some such. Keep in mind, this was about 7 months before he would die of esophageal cancer, and he had known he was probably terminally ill for a year and a half before he died quite recently, of pneumonia from complications of the disease.

In the January issue of “Vanity Fair” Hitchens’ final essay appears, entitled “Trial of the Will.” He debunks the saying, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” and even speculated that Nietzsche, to whom the quote is attributed, might have stolen it from Goethe. Hitchens gives a brief thumbnail capsule of Nietzsche’s life. To wit: “In the remainder of his life, however, .Nietzsche seems to have caught an early dose of syphilis, very probably during his first-ever sexual encounter, which gave him crushing migraine headaches and attacks of blindness and metastasized into dementia and paralysis. This, while it did not kill him right away, certainly contributed to his death and cannot possibly, in the meanwhile, be said to have made him stronger.” More details of Nietzche’s life are provided by the terminally ill writer and, of his own condition he said, “And then I had an unprompted rogue thought: if I had been told about all this in advance, would I have opted for the treatment? There were several moments as I bucked and writhed and gasped and cursed when I seriously doubted it.”

Hitchens, who was an avowed atheist and told Anderson Cooper that, if he heard stories that, on his deathbed he had recanted and “gotten religion,” he should not believe such reports. He recounted a poem by John Betjeman called “Five O’Clock Shadow:”

This is the time of day when we in the Men’s Ward

Think: “One more surge of the pain and I give up the fight.”

When he who struggles for breath can struggle less strongly.

This is the time of day that is worse than night.”

Added Hitchens, “I have come to know that feeling all right: the sensation and conviction that the pain will never go away and that the wait for the next fix is unjustly long. Then a sudden fit of breathlessness, followed by some pointless coughing and then—if it’s a lousy day—by more expectoration than I can handle. Pints of old saliva, occasional mucus, and what the hell do I need heartburn for at this exact moment? It’s not as if I have eaten anything: a tube delivers all my nourishment. All of this, and the childish resentment that goes with it, constitutes a weakening. So does the amazing weight loss that the tube seems unable to combat. I have now lost almost a third of my body mass since the cancer was diagnosed: it may not kill me, but the atrophy of muscle makes it harder to take even the simple exercises without which I’ll become more enfeebled still.”

And Hitchens added, “I am typing this having just had an injection to try to reduce the pain in my arms, hand, and fingers. The chief side effect of this pain is numbness in the extremities, filling me with the not irrational fear that I shall lose the ability to write. Without that ability, I feel sure in advance, my ‘will to live’ would be hugely attenuated. I often grandly say that writing is not just my living and my livelihood, but my very life, and it’s true. Almost like the threatened loss of my voice, which is currently being alleviated by some temporary injections into my vocal folds, I feel my personality and identity dissolving as I contemplate dead hands and the loss of the transmission belts that connect me to writing and thinking.”

“These are progressive weaknesses that in a more normal life might have taken decades to catch up with me. But, as with the normal life, one finds that every passing day represents more and more relentlessly subtracted from less and less. In other words, the process both etiolates you and moves you nearer toward death. How could it be otherwise?”

And how could the end have been other than it was. Christopher Hitchens, dead at 62.

Updated Appearance Listings for 2 New Books

By Connie Wilson

On November 26, 2011

In Books, Local, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest

"Laughing through Life:' humorous essays and anecdotes.

Although I’ve sent my schedule to both newspapers and the “River City Reader,” which has a nice write-up online right now, here is a reminder of when and where you can find me during the run-up to Christmas, with my two new books, The Christmas Cats in Silly Hats and/or Laughing through Life.

Both books are brand new. One is a collection of funny anecdotes and essays similar to Erma Bombeck or David Sedaris. I’ll be reading a couple short selections from that book at the Bettendorf Public Library during a free presentation on December 7 at 7 p.m., with free refreshments (delicious cookies from the Village Bakery) and piano and accordion accompaniment(s) for some brief caroling. I’ll also have the children’s cat book, The Christmas Cats in Silly Hats.

The next place I’ll be with the book is the District in Rock Island during the December 2nd Gallery Hop. (Atlante Trattoria restaurant). On December 3rd, I’ll be at the East Moline Public Library from 12:30 to approximately 1:30 before joining other local authors at Barnes & Noble at Northpark for a fundraiser for the Midwest Writing Center that starts earlier than I’ll get there. I’ll stay at B&N for about 2 hours (2 to 4, approximately) before relocating within the Woodland Gallery in the Village of East Davenport.

"The Christmas Cats in Silly Hats" for 3 to 5-year-olds; full-color Dr. Seussical book.

On December 7th, it’s the Bettendorf Public Library’s free “Readlocal” promotion. First floor room. On December 10th, one of the illustrators of the book, Emily Marquez of Venezuela (see article in the “River City Reader”) will join me at 11 a.m. at Barnes & Noble at Northpark Mall and again at the Victorian Christmas Walk in Geneseo.

Hope to see you there! If none of those works for you, the books are available online (Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites) and, in town, at the Watermark in downtown Moline for the children’s book only and at Barnes & Noble at Northpark for both.

Paul McCartney, “Live” at Wrigley Field, Sunday, July 31, 2011

By Connie Wilson

On August 1, 2011

In Music, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

Chicago, IL, July 31, 2011 Sunday, July 31, was my son’s birthday. When he was a teenager in the ‘70s, I took him to see Paul McCartney and “Wings” at Ames’ Hilton Coliseum. Tonight, I took my daughter (age 24) to see Paul McCartney, paired with his new sidemen, who include a fierce-looking drummer with earrings and a bald head (Abe Laboriel), Paul “Wix” Wickens on keyboards, and Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray on guitar. Even with slight heels, McCartney was by far the smallest musician, physically, but the biggest talent onstage.

I first saw Paul McCartney “Live” at the San Francisco Cow Palace in 1965, and I was struck with how often he would toss his head. He and Ringo seemed to have all the moves, while George was an absolute stick-in-the-mud and John did little of the crowd-pleasing physical stuff. I next saw McCartney “Live” in concert in Ames, Iowa in the 70s, with my son in tow. It was son Scott’s 43^rd birthday this day, and he pronounced Paul to be over-the-hill, so I took his much younger sister, who will remember this concert many years from now.
It was a sultry, hot night and Sir Paul sweated through his long-sleeved blue shirt and removed his blue jacket by the time he reached the 6^th song (of 37, total). His first song was “Hello, Goodbye” and later on, Paul would relate a story about how, when playing in the Soviet Union, a man came up to him and told him, “I have learned the English language from your records. Hello. Goodbye.” After the first song, “All My Lovin’” followed, with Paul telling the eager crowd that he was “glad to be a part of the history of Wrigley Field.”

“Baby, You Can Drive My Car,” his fifth song, was a hit, with the people in the infield seats standing the entire time. Jacket removed, Paul swung in to “The Night Before” (“Treat me like you did the night before.”). A priest in the crowd held up a sign that said, “I’m a priest. I’d like to do your wedding,” a reference to the recent announcement of Paul’s intention to marry his girlfriend Nancy Shevell.

Wrigley Field Concert on Sunday, July 31, 2011.

Moving from a normal guitar to a red psychedelic one, Paul played “Let Me Roll It” (Wings) and, in a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, “Foxy Lady.” He shared with the crowd a memorable night when Jimi Hendrix asked Eric Clapton, sitting in the crowd, to come up and tune his guitar. Paul switched back to a more normal-looking guitar, declaring it to be the one he had used on “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

“Paperback Writer:” ended with one of the guitarists showing the word “Thanx” to the enthusiastic crowd and Paul then moved to the piano to play “The Long and Winding Road.” That was followed by “1985” (Wings); “Let ‘Em In”; “Maybe I’m Amazed”; “I’ve Just Seen a Face” (Beatles); “I Will” (Beatles); “Blackbird” (Beatles); “Here Today”; “Dance Tonight”; “Mrs. Vanderbilt” (Wings); “Eleanor Rigby” (Beatles); “Something” (Beatles); “Band on the Run” (Wings); “Ob-Ladi, Ob-La Da” (Beatles); and a rocking “Back in the U.S.S.R.”

It was some time in the middle of Paul’s touching rendition of “Blackbird” that a very loud man in the upper stands began shouting (“A______”) at a person standing in front of him, and that was to the detriment of all, but motivated by the older crowd who came to hear the 69-year-old Beatle play only to have their view blocked by members of the younger generation who stood up in front of them well before the final songs.

“I’ve Got a Feeling”; “A Day in the Life;” “Give Peace a Chance” and “Let It Be” followed (ironic that 4 girls—all young—began fighting in the stands near me soon after this). Then came the pyrotechnic high point of the evening, “Live and Let Die” from the James Bond film, complete with fireworks and flash pots exploding behind the proscenium. (This was Song #30)

Paul and the band left, but were soon lured back by enthusiastic applause to sing “Hey, Jude,” “Lady Madonna,” “Day Tripping,” and “Get Back.” When that 4-song encore didn’t shut the crowd up, Paul and company played a second encore of “Yesterday,” “Helter Skelter” (Remember when it was said that playing this backward you heard “Paul is dead?” Not to mention the fact that Charles Manson will forever be associated with the title); and, finally, “Golden Slumbers/Carry that Weight.”

The concert, scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m., lasted over 3 hours and Paul McCartney, like his contemporary Mick Jagger, has not lost a step in all of his 69 years. A truly memorable concert.

Debt Ceiling Crisis Looms: Speaker of the House Boehner Botches Leadership Role

By Connie Wilson

On July 29, 2011

In Editorial, Local, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics

Connie Wilson’s Contributor Profile – Yahoo! Contributor Network – Yahoo! Contributor Network – contributor.yahoo.com

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R, Ohio).

As the debt ceiling talks stall, I am reminded of the “Rolling Stone” article I wrote on Speaker John Boehner back in January. If you haven’t read what is essentially a synopsis of an extremely informative article in “Rolling Stone” by Matt Taibbi, there’s a link above. It would be a good idea to read it, in light of the unprecedented crisis he and his party have thrust upon our country with the failure to pass an extension of the debt ceiling, something done 18 times for Reagan and 7 times for Clinton. Bush the Younger, who got us into this mess by blowing through the surplus that President Clinton left and getting us into multiple conflicts worldwide also had the debt ceiling raised several times, whether the leadership was Republican or Democratic.
But our first black president cannot catch a break from the Tea Party tribe recently installed in the hallowed halls of Congress. I saw the potential for impasse up close and personal in 2008 at the Ron Paul Rally for America in Minneapolis’ Target Center. I remember saying then, “If the Republicans can harness all this energy and enthusiasm and youth, they have a shot at revitalizing their party,” which, let’s face it, was looking pretty old and white and homogeneous across town in St. Paul at the RNC. That harnessing, unfortunately, has led us to the brink of financial ruin, as the group that emerged became known as the Tea Party.

Here’s a quote from today’s (July 28^th) Chicago “Tribune” regarding Speaker Boehner and the current impasse: “He is the party,” said Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (R, Ohio), a longtime ally. “If he’s diminished, the party is diminished.” Given the way they’ve been acting, all I can say to that is a resounding, “Good!”

A few more quotes from a different Chicago “Tribune” article by Lisa Mascaro and Kathleen Hennessey of the “Tribune’s” Washington bureau. (And make no mistake about it: the “Tribune” is pro-Republican most of the time and praised Boehner’s bone-headed 2-step tax proposal, which would put “we, the people” through this mess all over again in 6 months’ time…a bad idea in and of itself.)

Page12, July 28, “Nation & World” section, “Boehner Steers A Rocky Path:” “Earlier this week, the plan was relegated to life support when an analysis showed it would not cut as much as advertised, threatening to take Boehner down with it amid warnings of dire economic consequences for failing to act. In a quickly changing atmosphere, though, little is certain.”

The “Tribune also said, on the same page, “If the GOP majority ends up falling in line, Boehner will emerge as a cool political operative who found a way to steer his caucus and its unruly freshman class to momentary unity. If the bill fails, Boehner will have proved the conventional wisdom: Neither he, nor possibly anyone else on his team can control the rambunctious tea party-aligned GOP ranks that are redefining what it means to be a conservative in this country.”

Later in the article (and at great length in the original January piece. link above), the comment was made: “Boehner’s hold over these newcomers is fragile.”

Let’s face it: NOBODY has control over the Tea Party loose cannon element in Congress. The nation is pretty sick of it. Quoting folks who live near the Beltway, Faye Fiore of the “Tribune” papers quoted 66-year-old Warren Cohen of Fairfax as saying, “Lunacy” and announcing his willingness to pay more taxes on his $250,000 in income. That comment was made “as the country barreled toward a financial cliff.” Noted Fiore, “They’ve (citizens interviewed) had it up to here with politicians who listen to the fringes of their parties, then expound about what ‘Americans want.’”

I just signed a petition authorizing President Obama to invoke the 14^th Amendment and, if necessary, raise this debt ceiling on his own recognizance. He has tried to “lead from behind,” as the pundits put it, being reasonable with a group of intractable Congressmen who act like two-year-olds and putting up with a lot more ridiculous behavior from the Tea Party crowd than any informed, intelligent, dedicated public servant should have to put up with. It seems like most of them deserve a “time out.” This former Senator and Harvard grad , who is now the President of the United States, is at the mercy in the case of my own district (17^th Congressional, Illinois) of a guy with a 2-year degree from Black Hawk Junior College and not much else on his resume, other than owning a pizza parlor, being firmly in the pocket of big contributors in this area such as John Deere, and having once served his union. He and the man he defeated (Phil Hare) were both staunch Catholic graduates of Alleman High School in Rock Island, but only Bobby Schilling has 10 kids. (Hare had only 2). Only Hare had 27 years’ experience as Lane Evans’ right-hand man until he had to retire with Parkinson’s disease, also, and that, too, shows in this most recent idiocy. Schilling is among 5 first-term GOP House members from Illinois. He was endorsed by the Tea Party when he ran and you can bet your endangered Social Security dollars that he is going to have a real fight on his hands during the next run for office, given his performance to date.

Here is how Faye Fiore in McLean, Virginia put it: “They (the citizens) want this debt game over. It’s getting old: rich lawmakers playing chicken with the lives of people who can’t afford it.” Senator Harry Reid has already announced that the plan, even if it were to pass, is DOA in the Senate, and there is also the matter of a presidential veto that would be likely. But getting this group of Republicans to agree on anything is like herding cats, and not particularly bright cats, at that. Does the old cliche “Lead, follow or get out of the way” carry any meaning any more? The Republican “followers” seem unwilling to “follow” their own leader and the ostensible leader has never been noted for leading much of anything but the group leaving the 18th hole for the country club bar. Ergo, get out of the way seems apropos.