Rhambo Attempts To Strong-Arm The Banks: Note The Reaction To The News

The  CBS affiliate in Chicago reports that Mayor Emmanuel of Chicago is attempting a Gino-and-Vito attack on banks who do business with gun manufacturers.

Basically, he's telling them to knuckle under to the Obama regime's all-out war on any part of a legitimate industry they wish to control or destroy.

itoThe mayor is urging that banks to stop lines of credit, financing for acquisitions and expansions and financial advising.

In a letter sent Friday to the CEOs of Bank Of America and TD Bank, Emanuel said: “In the past, the gun industry has stood in opposition to these safety measures. They opposed a ban on assault weapons on America’s streets, opposed a ban on military-style clips, opposed a criminal background check on all gun purchases and opposed any effort to crack down on criminal gun traffickers.”

It's the classic Chicago Shakedown: Gino and Vito show up at the local shop on the corner, at the behest of the mayor or mob (really, in Chicago, it's the same thing), and the conversation goes like this:

'Hello, there! I'm Gino, and this is my associate Vito! We're here on behalf of Hizonner to solicit your support in the upcoming election. Why of course we want your vote, but we're talkin' something more, you know, TANGIBLE as an expression of your support, right Vito? You know, Vito, this is such a nice business he's got goin' here, and small business is the backbone of this great country of ours, isn't it Vito? It would be a SHAME if someone were to set it on fire and the fire department not get here in time!

Yeah, Gino, that would be a shame!

Why, thank you! We'll put you down for a fifty-dollar contribution. And we'll be back next week for the next fifty dollars. We want to make sure you're nice and safe, right Vito?

Yeah, Gino, that's right!'

So, to OldSouth, Hizzoner's attempts at extortion are not really news. 

What is news are the reader comments following the story. Remember, this is Chicago, Obama's home town, and most of the commenters appear to be locals. The language is vociferous in opposition to the mayor.

Himself and Company may be walking into a buzz-saw of bitter opposition...

One can only hope. Guns aren't the issue here.

Freedom is. And that includes the ability to do business free of the threat of extortion by politicians.

You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up: The 'Violence Tax' Proposal In Chicago

Honestly, no matter how diligently comedy writers slave at their craft, the politicians trump them by just walking around and blabbering.

Chicago's murder rate is skyrocketing. Now, this could not possibly be attributed to the fact that Mayor Rahm(bo) Emanuel, former Obama Chief of Staff is not remotely up to the job of actually running anything, only in manipulating the system to get himself and his kind elected.

Governance, what's that?

It has to be SomeoneElse's fault, preferably George Bush, but blaming Bush for this particular tragic mess won't even pass the laugh test amongst the most rabid Chicago Democrats.

Sooooo.....if we can't stop the craziness, let's......make money from it! That's the ticket! We'll just tax the bejeezuz out of every gun and round of ammo sold in Cook County!!  That'll solve the problem, by golly!

Right?

Huh? 

What do you mean, people will just drive to St. Charles or Geneva or Wisconsin to purchase guns and ammo?  They wouldn't dare!

What's that you say? The gang-bangers who shoot up entire neighborhoods aren't interested in obeying gun laws? You mean to say they're criminals, not victims of a racist society? You don't think the tax will matter to them, but that it might discourage the law-abiding from defending themselves?

Nooooo....no chance of that.....

Um...So, Who's The Mayor Of Chicago? Where's The President From?

Didn't they promise that if the voters gave them the reigns of power that the earth itself would begin to heal?

So, why did Chicago have another twenty shootings this weekend, some of them near Himself's house? Whis is Rahm calling in the Feds for his own homegrown 'surge'?

Wasn't Himself put on the fast track to the Presidency because He did such a brilliant job as a 'community organizer' in Chicago. Aren't most of those murders occurring in the communities He 'organized'?

Perhaps we should send Him back. His homies in his old hood really need Himself as never before. Being the great humanitarian Himself is, He should naturally return with a happy heart.

Chicago Shootings: Your Own Personal Map

The Chicago Tribune has kindly provided a map of this weekend's shootings.

Remember, this city has been under the care of the Democrat Party for decades. It's mayor is Obama's main home-boy-former chief of staff.

This is Obama's world, his stomping ground, his 'hood, his power base. These are his people, his homies.

OS asks--Do we wish to see maps like this published for places like Bowling Green, KY? Des Moines? Spartanburg, SC? Hartford, CT?

Do we want this as our future?

Nineteen Shootings In Chicago Last Night: Obama's Home Turf, Run By His Former Chief Of Staff

This week, we've been treated to how many millions of words spewed out in the wake of a Missouri congressman sticking his foot in his mouth?

How many hundreds of thousands of indignant words over Mitt Romney suffering his own attack of 'foot-in-mouth' syndrome.

OS not attempting to excuse them, or explain them away. They were simply dumb, thoughtless moments that should not have happened. But neither do they merit the manufactured outrage received.

Where, on the other hand, are the outrage, fear-and-loathing, outcry, rending of garments, beating of breasts, mass marches, etc. over this bit of news from Chicago? 

This is from the BBC, not exactly a right-wing-nut-job outfit, if memory serves:

Nineteen people were shot in seven attacks overnight in Chicago, as the US city's gun violence epidemic continued.

Thirteen of the victims were shot within a half-hour period, including eight in a drive-by shooting on a single street.

Chicago officials have been battling a sharp increase in shootings and homicides, with some elected officials arguing gangs do not fear the police.

The city's murder rate has spiked 29% year-over-year as of this month.

By that time in 2011, 270 people had been killed in the city, according to data complied by the local newspaper RedEye Chicago. In 2012, that number is 348.

It is not the first time this year Chicago has seen a single night of double-digit victims. Over the Memorial Day weekend in May, 12 people were killed, and another 48 were wounded.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has been criticised for eliminating police teams sent to crime hot spots.

Chicago's homicide increase is counter to lowered rates in other major US cities, including New York and Washington.

OS notes, wryly, that the Police Superintendent is called out as being somehow responsible for this.

But, isn't Rahm Emanuel the Mayor? Wasn't he Obama's right-hand man? Isn't Chicago Obama's home-town, from whence he was catapaulted to the White House as the Great Hope for America? didn't he run on the strength of his transformative work on the streets of Chicago?

If the Obama/Emanuel approach to governance is truly effective, should we be seeing at 29% increase, year-over-year, in the murder rate?

How does this bit of news stack up against the verbal gaffes from Missouri and Michigan?  Have we all somehow lost the plot, lost our sense of perspective?

Locally, a state senator truly stepped in it by circulating an offensively hostile email.

Should'na dunnit. Stupid. Thoughtless. No excuse for it.

But he was inquiring into reports of grade-fixing at a state-funded university, and he was, well, pretty upset about it. Again, his actions in response were simply stupid.

But, OS has yet to hear a peep of outrage about the possibility that university officials may well be cooking the academic books, and send the taxpayers the bill.

Not. a. peep.

Have we lost the plot somehow?

Rahm Emanuel's Back On The Ballot

Unanimous decision by the Illinois Supreme Court.

So, the guy who led Obama from Chicago to The White House now goes back to run Chicago.

This should be interesting. By the time November 2012 arrives, Rahm will need to resurrect anyone as a live voter who died within the last forty years within the environs of Cook County, in order to counteract the actual live voters in the rest of the State of Illinois who will not be voting for HopeyChangeyVersion2.

Like 1960, all over again.

Ruh-Roh: Rahm Emmanuel Declared Ineligible For Mayoral Candidacy By Illinois Court Of Appeals

HT Second City Cop

Here's the news, just in.

Early voting begins Jan. 31.

This will, of course, be fast-tracked to the Illinois Supreme Court.

If he loses there, be assured he will venue-shop at the Federal level. But, can any Federal judge realistically claim jurisdiction over a city election?

But then again, they've claimed jurisdiction over school districting for over forty years now...

Rahmbo can't claim it's about civil rights. His opponents include a Black Woman(check!), a black Hispanic guy(check!), and a white Hispanic guy(check!).

This could get interesting. What's he gonna do with alllll that money he's extorted--I mean gathered--for his mayoral candidacy?

The real issue is: Is Rahmbo a Chicago resident? Or is Chicago his own Rotten Borough?

The guy renting his house has an opinion:

Emanuel, a former North Side congressman, had served Obama in Washington from January 2009 until October. When he left for the White House, Emanuel rented his North Side home to Rob Halpin.

Halpin refused to move out when Emanuel returned to Chicago and briefly staged his own run for mayor.

Halpin applauded the ruling. “Now I feel vindicated by the court,” Halpin told WGN-AM radio.

Residency, Halpin said, is “one of the rights that goes with the rent payment.”

Halpin said “it’s very clear that only one resident” could be attached to a single residence, “unless it was some sort of hippie commune.”

(The wheels on the bus are coming off, coming off, coming off...)

Home Is Where The Heart Is: Rahm Emanuel's 'Glad to be home' Video Filmed In Washington

Just too good not to pass along.

Rahmbo may be one the front end of finding out just how cheesed everyone is at his boss, and how willing they will be to take their vengeance out on his scurvy behonkus come election day.

He makes it too easy, like shooting fish in a barrel.

Wouldn't it be rich if he is barred from running because he does not meet the residency requirements for the City of Chicago?

The Eric Massa Interview With Glenn Beck

It's hard to know what to think. It was a confusing, incoherent hour.

OS thinks they talked past one another, for the most part. Massa wanted to talk about his overwhelming frustration with his entire experience, and Beck was mining for diamonds, smoking guns, something to run with.

Massa is not an intellectual giant, but most members of Congress aren't. He's not terribly articulate. His brain does not seem to work in a straight line as he talks in public about his experience. His emotional turmoil overshadows anything else just now.  Listening to him was visceral, and enlightening in its own disjointed way. Beck didn't seem to pick up on that, and Beck himself is not a skilled interviewer, with the craft in place to pick up a thought and help the subject clarify and distill it. He was on his own quest for a smoking gun, or a silver bullet to fire at Obama. The veritable stake to drive through the heart. (Enough analogies already!)

Massa probably functioned well in the Navy, but that is its own world, far different from Congress.

What was he thinking, running for Congress?  He was asking himself the same thing, it appears.

(What possessed the Democrat powers-that-be to support this guy in his run for Congress?  Did no one notice there might be a problem?)

Massa is about to go through a dark tunnel personally, no avoiding it. There is that possible cancer diagnosis hanging over him as well.

Given the perspective that time and living through this next year will afford, Mr. Massa will probably have something much more coherent and specific to say, if he so chooses, sometime in 2011 or 2012.

In the meantime, let's hope the Obama White House and the Democrat machine don't hound him like the Clintons hounded those who spoke up about them in the 1990's.

OS wishes him well, as should we all.

Still, it's hard to make sense of the whole episode...

Another open seat, up for grabs!