Roland Burris "Left Turn" to the Senate - Has He Made a Deal With The Devil?

If there is one lesson my children have had to listen to over the years, it is the one about doing the "right" thing. I would give my son this analogy all the time as we maneuvered his teen years. "You come to a fork in the road. You know you should make the right turn, as in doing the right thing. But when you look down the right road, you see a huge mountain in the distance right in the middle of that road. You then look at the left road. It looks so smooth that you could probably land a plane on it. Now you know you should take the right road, but that mountain in the distance is a challenge. The road also looks bumpy. So knowing what you should do, you go ahead and choose the left road because it appears to be the easier and smoother route to take. You speed down that left road at 100 mph oblivious to the fact that it will soon take you off a steep cliff. Had you taken the right road, you would have found that the bumps you thought you saw were mere rolling hills along that road. And the mountain in the middle? Well, when you got to it, you would have found a tunnel going straight through it."

I'm feeling like I want to offer that same lesson that I gave to a child to Roland Burris in his quest to be seated as the replacement junior senator from Illinois. Why? Because Roland Burris came to the same fork and chose that left turn. He looked at the bumpy right turn road which would have meant getting the senate seat through an honorable method and then chose the left turn because he saw it as his smoother road to the senate seat.

The right turn would have meant being the consensus candidate that the majority of the Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly had chosen. It would have meant he would have been supported by his true peers rather than just the community activists that I have been seeing on TV. It would have meant not having to watch a former Black Panther, Congressman Bobby Rush, try to change his spots by proclaiming our need for a "black" senator now in Roland Burris-but who four years ago told us that the white candidate Blair Hull was the only one qualified to hold that position.

Burris would have had the support of all the people creating a true "rainbow coalition" as opposed to what I see. Now those fighting for him to get the seat look like the Republican National Convention only in converse. Instead of all white people, all I am seeing are black people. And unlike Barack Obama who once said that if he lost the presidency race wouldn't be the major factor, Roland Burris on the other hand, is choosing to become the "black" senator as opposed to an Illinois senator who happens to be black.

Burris' decision to accept an appointment by a tainted governor has now tainted him as well. Burris has shown he is not concerned about how the governor's tarnished reputation could tarnish his own. Burris reminds me of the stories of people who make deals with the devil as if the devil won't come back one day to get his due. And to all the black folks who are being Roland Burris' biggest supporters, what will you say on the day when, as with all politicians, he will have to make a choice to pick between supporting the black community or stepping on us. If we are to learn anything from history, it is that a politician who used black folks to get where they are going isn't going to give a damn about us once they get there.

The way I see it, not only was Roland Burris looking to add more grandiosity to his resume, he claims he is doing this because of his commitment to the people of the State of Illinois. Well to the unemployed folks here in Illinois, we see him as another retired politician looking to sock the taxpayers for an even larger retirement pension at a time when many in this country have lost employment. Plus am I the only person disturbed when Roland Burris alternates between "I" and "we" when he speaks? "We are the senator" Burris says. With whom does he share that senate seat?

Lastly if the residents of the State of Illinois deserve anything, then we deserve to hear the Blagojevich tapes. All of them. Unfiltered and unedited. Maybe even sold as a 24 CD set. As always, profits going to offset all the costs this debacle is costing the Illinois taxpayers.

Roland Burris Still in Limbo

As I watched Roland Burris yesterday in the rain attempt to enter the Senate and then after being rejected, do a press conference in the rain, it struck me that his voice didn't sound as strong as it should have.

Now I don't have any bad feelings for the man, but if the current Senate-Select candidate were to succumb, our legislators have yet to put into motion any legislation that would prevent Blago from appointing someone else.

Our politicians get so caught up in the response that they have yet to put into law a safety net so that no governor ever again with such a cloud over their head could do what Blago has done.

What is wrong with this picture?

January 6, 2009 (SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) -- In a formal affidavit, Roland Burris says he had only one limited conversation with Governor Rod Blagojevich before accepting his appointment as a U.S. senator.
Burris submitted the affidavit to the Illinois House committee considering impeachment of the governor. He's supposed to testify before the committee on Thursday.
Burris says he was approached by a Blagojevich attorney about taking the Senate post on Friday, December 26. Two days later, he accepted the appointment in a phone call with the governor.
The 71-year-old Democrat says the two didn't discuss anything beyond whether Burris would take the job and how it would be announced.
That statement appears to rule out any discussion of a deal or of what Burris would do as a senator.

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Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't or shouldn't there have been some sort of vetting process? You know - asking lots of questions so that as a governor your appointment won't come back to further bite you in the butt? Something like; "So Roland tell me everything you've been doing since you retired. Any scandals? Any possible dubivious business dealings?" And on and on. Or is this a case of calling every Negro until you find one that would accept?

I have to let my imagination go wild on this: (IN OTHER WORDS I AM MAKING THIS UP JUST FOR THE LAUGHS!!!!!)

Blago: Well I can't count on my top three Negro choices, Jesse, Jr. Valerie Jarrett or Emil Jones to take the seat. Let's see who else I can call. I'll call Danny Davis.

Danny: Sorry Rod. Won't look good for me to take the seat now. I do have to run for re-election every two years and if the citizens of Illinois don't reelect me, I'll be out of a job. You know ...THAT ONE aka Ike Carothers considers himself to be my heir and he will be on my congressional seat in no time flat if I give it up.

Blago: Ok Dan. I understand. Let me see who else I can call.
(ten seconds later)

Blago: Hey Rickey Hollywood Hendon. Would you like the senate seat?

Rickey: Are you out of your ****effing mind? I was the number two man to Emil Jones. Now I'm out the box. Hell No!

Blago: Ok Rickey. I'm gonna call Bobby.

Bobby: Hello? (in an extreme hush tone)

Blago: Yo' Bobby Hush oooops I mean Rush. Do you want the Obama seat?

Bobby: Well IT IS a black seat. I was once a black panther. Yeah, I'll take the seat. I'll get my son.....Oops....sorry Rod - no can do. My son is in jail after being found guilty of having been a prison guard who had sex with the female inmates. Plus I did kinda tell everybody that only a white man .... Blair Hull could be senator - You know Rod-Man, I've been changing my spots a little too much lately. I'll pass. But tell you what. If you find a Negro to take the job, I'll do the "only black man in the senate" and "lynch" speech to help you out.

Blago: Ok Bobby. Take care bro'. I will need that speech ASAP. I don't understand. I keep trying to give you black people the chance to be in the senate and you all keep looking the gift horse in the mouth. What is wrong with you people? Well I still gotta keep going down the effing list. It's 9:00pm now. Can you start writing it so we can have it tomorrow by noon?"


6 hours later............... The phone rings somewhere on the southside of Chicago..............

Roland: Who in the hell is this calling my my house at 3:00am? I ain't the president!

Blago: It's me ...Rod.

Roland: Rod who?

Blago: Rod Blagojevich. The governor! You want the senate seat?

Roland: YEAH BABY. WOOOO. I'm feeling like Mel Reynolds right now. Like I just won the lottery!

Blago: Ok, then meet me at the State of Illinois Building tomorrow at 2:00pm for the press conference. Bye.

Alderman's Father Found Guilty of Supply ID Fraud To Illegal Aliens

A sad day when one is given the gift of citizenship and goes for the money and the illegal activity portion. I wonder how much of the money went into his son's campaign?

And who can forget that when the raid took place, Mexican activists took to the streets in protest??????

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Elias Munoz, father of Chicago Ald. Ricardo Munoz, was sentenced today to four years in prison for his role in a fake ID ring.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer called his role as a photographer in a Little Village fake ID ring "pretty significant."

During a two-hour hearing, government attorneys linked Munoz's pictures to other ID scams in Chicago.

"He took those photos knowing or just recklessly disregarding that they would obtain, by those photos, illegal documentation," Pallmeyer said.

Munoz, 63, who owned a photo studio inside a Little Village outdoor mall where the international ring was based, pleaded guilty last year to charges of criminal conspiracy.

After an additional two years probation, Munoz, a legal Mexican immigrant, is likely to be deported, Pallemeyer said.

Federal prosecutors estimated Munoz earned $180,000 a year through the illegal photos. They also revealed IRS reports showing Munoz failed to report his income from 2001 through 2006, avoiding taxes for those years.

"He was up to his eyeballs in this for years and years and years," argued Assistant U. S. Attorney Andrew Porter.

Munoz, frustrated by the portrayal, fumed to reporters during a hearing recess that he was being treated unfairly.

In a statement to Pallemeyer, he wept openly, pleading for forgiveness, before being allowed to leave the federal courthouse and report to prison voluntarily in the next few weeks.

"If I did something wrong, I'm sorry. Forgive me," Munoz said in a mixture of English and Spanish. He claimed he ran a legitimate business.

The photo studio, Nuevo Munoz Foto, shut down shortly after federal agents broke up the fake ID ring during an April, 2007 raid.

The ring's leaders are being tried for murder for allegedly ordering that a competitor be shot to death in Mexico.


--Antonio Olivo

Thie Is Guaranteed To Put A Smile On Your Face

It is a dream that has been shared by lovers across the centuries – the chance to elope to exotic lands. But few would have been as bold and spontaneous as six-year-old Mika and his five-year-old sweetheart Anna-Bell who, after mulling over their options in secret, packed their suitcases on New Year's Eve and set off from the German city of Hanover to tie the knot under the heat of the African sun.

The children left their homes at dawn while their unwitting parents were apparently sleeping, and took along Mika's seven-year-old sister, Anna-Lena, as a witness to the wedding.

Donning sunglasses, swimming armbands and dragging a pink blow-up lilo and suitcases on wheels packed with summer clothes, cuddly toys and a few provisions, they walked a kilometre up the road, boarded a tram to Hanover train station and got as far as the express train that would take them to the airport before a suspicious station guard alerted police.

"What struck us was that the little ones were completely on their own and that they had lots of swimming gear with them," said Holger Jureczko, a police spokesman. He described Mika and Anna-Bell as "sweethearts" who had "decided to get married in Africa where it is warm, taking with them as a witness Mika's sister".

Anna-Bell told the German television station RTL: "We wanted to get married and so we just thought: 'Let's go there.' "

Mika said: "We wanted to take the train to the airport, then we wanted to get on a plane and when we arrived we wanted to unpack the summer things and then we wanted to go for a bit of a stroll in the sun."

Mika and Anna-Lena's mother, who was not identified, said she had known nothing of her children's plan. "I'm still in a state of shock. I thought 'I'm playing a part in a bad movie.' When we realised the kids were missing we went looking for them." But only when the police called did they realise what had happened.

Asked why they failed to let their parents know, the children said they thought they would not be gone for long.

Mika told police he instigated the plan having been inspired by a winter holiday with his family in Italy. "Based on this the children began to make plans for the future," Jureczko said.

To allay their disappointment at being caught, Hanover police gave them a tour of the police headquarters. Jureczko said: "They'll have the chance to put their plan into action at a later date".

Sadly, they didn't have to look far to find this sister

I must confess. I watched the latest reality show from Tyra Banks & Aston Kutcher. True Beauty is the name. As expected, they had their token black man and black woman.

It's rough on reality shows when they only have one. The sister is very pretty. But unfortunately, she was the epitome of a beautiful black woman with an attitude.

Now all of her vane behavior was "understandable" to me. She was no different than any of the other female "beauties". But when the last challenge came and she failed it, that was hurtful. The challenges are unbeknownst to the contestant, because what the contestant are vying for is inner beauty.

So what was the last challenge that she failed? Well she had to enter a building to hear her results, but as she arrived at the front door, there was a delivery guy with about 8 cups of coffee in holders trying to get through the door. Did sista girl open the door for the delivery guy? Yes she did. But she also walked in first and didn't bother to try and hold the door open for the man, a basic common curtesy.

As we watch the Obama take the white house with class, I hope it spreads to a lot of young people. Especially our young black men and women who just one generation away from me seem to need a lot of the manners that their parents probably failed to instill in them.

Where Do They Find Them?eh