Free Republic

The rope line stretched from the Washington Street entrance to City Hall, wound its way past the City Clerk’s office and continued to the bank of elevators servicing the fifth floor. Surprisingly, the expected overflow crowd never fully materialized. There was a modestly respectable afternoon turnout that inched forward at a leisurely pace, but not much more. A private reception for invited guests had occurred earlier in the day. Mayor Richard M. Daley welcomed visitors to his office, shaking hands and posing for photographs one last time yesterday. Some of the mayor’s morning guests were even entertained by the Shannon...

Daley requests bodyguard detail after leaving office MICHAEL SNEED sneed@suntimes.com Last Modified: May 5, 2011 12:16AM Bodyguard brouhaha? Sneed has learned Mayor Daley is requesting a retinue of at least three — around the clock — Chicago Police bodyguards from his mayoral security detail to accompany him into the private sector! † Sneed also hears whispers Mayor Daley, who retires May 16, wants two vehicles at his disposal; one for himself — and one for his wife, Maggie. † The request for personal security by Mayor Daley, concerned about serious safety threats, resulted in “the Chicago Police Department contacting the...

Chicago Democrats with close ties to Barack Obama have been implicated in a massive cover-up of sexual abuse and human trafficking (1) targeting black children in poor neighborhoods. The allegations have emerged from a series of lawsuits brought by abuse victims and their families. The crimes span a period of at least 40 years, and involve torture, kidnapping, gang rape and sexual enslavement of hundreds of African-American children. Through the years, victims coming forward to report these crimes have faced harassment and threats from private investigators (2) and city police. (3) These abuses unfolded during the long reign of the...

Mayor Daley tried Friday to answer the $18 million question posed by his inspector general: why City Hall tolerates having 200 motor truck drivers “paid to do nothing” but drive crews to their work sites and wait in the vehicle until they finish. “It was a 1985 or `83 [work rule]. ... It was prior [to the Daley years]. You should have reported that,” said the mayor, who took office in 1989. Daley was asked why he did not negotiate an end to the costly rule during 22 years of negotiations with the Teamsters Union. “You have to give and...

Only Chicago lost population. Congratulations to Mayor Daley and the whole Democratic party machine who caused a net loss of 200,000 people.

Pay no attention to the words behind the constitution, because the constitution right now is just a bumper sticker anyway. Whether passing Obamacare, or taking us to war against Libya, the Obama administration never calculates whether their actions are legal, but only if they can get away with them. That’s the Chicago Way. Obama, the One, brought the Way with him to DC courtesy David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel and Bill Daley. The important thing with the Chicago Way is to “coexist,” make things work and not worry about little things like rights and wrongs. With the Chicago Way, justice tends...

The Daley’s of Chicago, always a family of ignorant, power hungry thugs, appear to have added murder to the list of their timeless contributions to the Windy City way of life. On April 25th, 2004, 21 year old David Koschman and four friends were drinking in Chicago’s downtown. Upon exiting a club, Koschman bumped into someone from another group which had been covering the bars. A moment later, a member of that party struck Koschman, driving his head into the street causing brain damage from which the young man never recovered. His mother buried him 20 days later, disconnecting life...

The University of Chicago has decided to destroy the boyhood home of Ronald Reagan in Hyde Park. That's the University of Chicago I know and do not love. When I wrote of the violence and corruption my friends and lovers endured in Hyde Park in the late 60s, I was taken to task because the Hyde Park the Obamas inhabited was different from the Hyde Park I described. Fair enough. But some said that it was not only different, but also better, by which they mean, let's tell the truth, richer and whiter. Several commenters got it right, however, so...

Homicide case involving Daley nephew closed without charges BY TIM NOVAK, CHRIS FUSCO, FRAN SPIELMAN AND CAROL MARIN Staff Reporters Last Modified: Mar 5, 2011 02:04AM For the first time, the Chicago Police said Friday they know who hit David Koschman and knocked him to the ground in a drunken confrontation in the Rush Street area, leading to his death from a brain injury 11 days later — but they’re not telling.

Daley: U.S. a 'country of whiners'By Rick Pearson, Tribune reporter 9:36 p.m. CST, March 3, 2011 Retiring Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday contended America is a "country of whiners" that's spent the last four decades fearing the impact of foreign governments on the nation's economy instead of showing the confidence and sacrifice to lead on a global stage. Daley also said he believed taxpayers can no longer finance the current level of government and suggested priorities need to be placed on municipal services that can be privatized or outsourced to cut costs. The comments by the veteran mayor, who is...

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has spent nearly his entire life around powerful Republican politicians. So imagine his surprise when he learned that his birth certificate bears the John Hancock of one of the 20th century’s most powerful Democrats: the late Chicago mayor and Democratic Party boss Richard J. Daley. posted using frpa

Mayor Richard Daley today launched his final push in office for state and federal gun-control measures and vowed to continue those efforts "as a private citizen as well." He proposed four new state criminal laws aimed at reducing gun violence and vowed to battle bills that would bar cities and villages from enacting gun-control measures and allow citizens to carry concealed weapons. "We are ready for this fight," Daley said, after noting his long history of anti-gun violence efforts during nearly 22 years in office.

Congressman told FBI he asked for -- and got -- free home upgrades ### Convicted political fixer Tony Rezko gave U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez free upgrades on a riverfront town house after the congressman asked for them, Gutierrez told the FBI, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Gutierrez's comments to federal agents in a previously undisclosed 2008 interview contradict what the congressman told the Sun-Times in 2006 about the purchase. "I walked in with my wife -- as any other consumer could have -- and purchased the unit at the listed price, with no considerations," the Northwest Side congressman said then,...

Chicago-style politics is infamous for kickbacks, dead people voting, and thuggery. Alas, it is not just a relic of the past. In fact, witness recent stories of Chicago city workers being hired or promoted based on how well they got voters to the polls and not how well they did their official jobs, children getting admitted to prestigious city schools based on political connections, and the granting of city contracts. Unfortunately, I know first hand more than I would like about Chicago politics. A decade ago, I was working at the University of Chicago Law School as an Olin Fellow,...

Members from the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition gathered in New York this morning to advocate for a simple solution to cutting down on gun violence: just adhere to the existing laws already on the books. The group, lead by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, released a press statement this morning calling for the government to crack down on background check loopholes. They are pushing for a stricter enforcement of the 1968 gun law that prohibits people with a history of drug abuse, criminal activity, or mental illness, from buying guns.

Since his party's November shellacking, President Obama has worked hard to show America that he is not anti-business, notably by picking General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and Chicago banker Bill Daley for prominent posts in his administration. But their selection does not mean Obama is "pro-business," at least as the term is commonly understood. The president is no champion of open markets and free competition. His idea of being friendly to business means more government subsidies and corporate-government cooperation, both of which are mother's milk to Immelt and Daley. Obama joined Immelt on Friday at a GE plant in Schenectady,...

Earlier this month, President Obama announced William Daley (brother of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and former executive at JP Morgan Chase) as his new chief of staff, replacing Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel. Less well known is the fact that Mr. Daley was a member of the board of trustees for Third Way, which bills itself as an "influential think-tank that creates and advances moderate policy and political ideas." Therefore, last week's release by Third Way of a domestic policy memo outlining a plan for "Fixing Foreclosure-gate" may well be a trial balloon for the Obama administration's next set of...

As President Barack Obama knighted Chicago's William Daley as his new chief of staff — and kept the Daley machine in control of the executive branch of our federal government — I couldn't help thinking of the good old days. Back when I would fondly recount the legend of Obama of Chicago. Not the political spin that Obama was some kind of reformer promising a different, cleaner kind of politics. But the true mythic history, Obama as a thin, silky creature of the Daleys, eagerly trotting behind them along the Chicago Way: And lo, the Daley women found the infant...

Reporting from Washington — President Obama has recast his White House team for the second half of his term, giving top jobs to a pair of Clinton-era veterans in a signal to business leaders and independent voters that he is resolved to steer a more centrist course after two years of intense partisan clashes. Obama announced Thursday that he was installing William Daley as chief of staff, entrusting the White House operation and perhaps the future of his presidency to a former Commerce secretary who has warned that pressing a liberal agenda risks scaring away an all-important bloc of moderate...

What Bill Daley has in common with Rahm Emanuel is that they're both legendary background sources to reporters. He was, in particular, a great source to the late Robert Novak, who outed Daley in his memoir (page 451) as the anonymous Midwestern Democratic source of an incendiary remark on Michael Dukakis's failed attempt to keep Jesse Jackson's profile low at the 1988 Democratic convention. "For those of us who watched television, what they saw looked like a black party," Daley told Novak. "William Daley was no racist," Novak assured his readers, but the comment is at least a reminder that his...