ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Oh no! Police are sleeping in their cars!

• Chicago police have launched an investigation after a man came forward with video and pictures that appear to show two police officers sleeping in their squad cars Friday morning.

  ABC7 Chicago obtained that video and the pictures and talked to the man, who did not want to be identified.

  The pictures show one officer sitting in the passenger seat of a marked squad car, eyes closed, head back. One parking spot over, a photo shows another officer in the passenger seat of a squad roll; same situation.

Their partners were in getting coffee, and frankly, it shows good sense that if they were tired enough to drop off in a parking lot, it's a good thing they weren't the ones driving that night. Is it a smart thing to do? No. But is it something that happens working midnights? Yes.

The human body is reluctant to function properly in the absence of sunlight. Cops are no different than any other overnight worker. They have ups and downs and lapses in judgment. Consider this a tiny lapse.

Run Scott Run!

Scott Lee Cohen refuses to go quietly:

• Scott Lee Cohen, the pawnbroker who flamed out of Illinois politics just days after voters nominated him as the Democratic lieutenant governor candidate, is making plans to run for governor.
  
  Cohen last weekend told House Speaker Michael Madigan, who doubles as state Democratic Party chairman, that he intends to mount an independent run for governor, Madigan's spokesman said. In addition, a Cohen adviser confirmed Friday that Cohen plans to announce his candidacy this week and is trying to find a suitable running mate.
  
  "He came in, in the morning (April 17), and told Madigan he was running for governor as an independent," said Madigan spokesman Steve Brown. Madigan replied he would be supporting the Democratic ticket, Brown said.

Since they wouldn't let him run for the #2 spot, he might as well try for the whole kit and caboodle. Anything that sucks votes away from Quinn is a good thing.

Desabato a Ortega: ¿Qué te pasa borracho?

Crónica del partido (Estudiantes 1 Ríver 0) aquí.

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Clausura 2010: Estudiantes 1 Ríver 0.

23.04.2010 - Calígula - Justo ahora se le cruza Estudiantes a Ríver. Cuando con pilas recargadas y nuevos aires el equipo de Cappa pretende y va por la necesitada remontada (de puntos).

Justo ahora se le cruza Ríver a Estudiantes. En el momento de la encrucijada Clausura – Libertadores que lo encuentra con menos piernas que posibilidades en ambos frentes.

Y hay que decir que, cuando menos, fue un partido entre dos equipos (Ríver dejó de ser lo que era). Tanto es así que Estudiantes se vio sorprendido de arranque por el ritmo y la iniciativa visitante. 

Fueron 20 minutos. Ríver muy concentrado y con una actitud que no se le veía desde hace tiempo se plantó en la cancha tomando el mediocampo y anticipándose a cada intento de Estudiantes, incluso llegando una y más veces a Orión (generalmente por la banda de Ferrari).

Pero fueron 20 minutos. Exactamente 20. Cuando una pelota que parecía un centro más desde la derecha, dio en el pie de Quiroga y se coló de emboquillada en el arco de Ojeda (R). Estudiantes se puso 1-0 en el mejor (y único momento) de Ríver.

Se despertó el pincha y Ríver, resistiendo y (ya) sin encontrar la pelota planteó un partido que no le conviene ni le convendrá nunca (con este plantel). La pierna fuerte, el mínimo espacio, la pelea: David contra Goliat. Si hay un equipo juvenil y liviano, ese es Ríver. Si hay un equipo guapo y de oficio, ese es Estudiantes.

Y así se fue el partido. Enmarañado por un Estudiantes que se quedaba sin piernas mas temprano de lo usual ante un Ríver impotente y demasiado joven.

Para matizar, si el partido caía en cerradas luchas de mediocampo, tuvimos la novela en breves y repetidos capítulos de Ortega vs. Desábato (se leyó claramente cuando le preguntó "¿qué te pasa borracho?” y se vio, más claramente, cuando el Burro, más tarde, le clavó los tapones en el gemelo al defensor).

Finalmente, a tres minutos del final, con puteadas cappistas de por medio y saquito crema de Sabella, Ríver terminó con 9 (afuera Villalba y Cabral) ante un Estudiantes extenuado que, puntero, viaja el martes a México para enfrentar a San Luis con equipo mixto.

Bien Estudiantes (con oficio le alcanzó). Mejor Ríver (no le llegaron y tuvo actitud) que cuenta en su nueva camada con uno para observar: Afranchino.

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Dumb Statement

Can anyone find this quote? It's just too stupid to be believed:

• J fled was just on morning news stating "we were at one time able to go to the gang leader and say hey knock it off" referring to shooting each other- are you fricken kidding me- he sounded like an idiot! - hey knock it off youse guys

As someone else pointed out, it's taken almost directly out of an old Hill Street Blues episode and it wouldn't surprise us in the least that this is where J-Fled gets his police "ideas." We've been around for a few years. We've known some old time cops. Some of us were raised in police families here, and not one of us can recall any war stories where a Chicago Police Officer would go to a gang leaders and tell them to "knock it off."

We can recall more than a few stories about Officers going to gang leaders and slapping the shit out of them for being jagoffs. But as a rule, it's unsound policy to have the Department meeting with gang leaders in an official capacity. It's lends the gangs credibility and legitimacy.

Has it happened? Maybe in one-on-one situations over certain crimes that crossed gang boundaries and information was sought or offered. But to make a statement even implying the Department sent emissaries in an official capacity to negotiate with people who bring so much pain, misery, crime and disorder to Chicago? It boggles the mind.

Someone find us this quote. If J-Fled was implying the feebs do something like this, that would be completely believable. The feebs would trade their mothers and sell their sisters into the most vile situation imaginable for a career arrest opportunity. That's the way they were raised.

Not so much on the CPD end though.

Friday Bad News

How is this goof still competitive in the Senate race?

• Broadway Bank, the family-owned lender that helped launch U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias' political career, was seized by government regulators Friday night, one of seven Illinois institutions taken over and sold to healthier companies.
  
  The failure of Chicago-based Broadway, which was unable to raise the $85 million it needed to remain independent, was anticipated, and its worsening health has weighed on Giannoulias' Democratic bid for President Barack Obama's old Senate seat. The bank had been struggling in recent years with real estate loans gone bad, losing $75 million last year.
  
  Giannoulias worked for his father at Broadway before entering politics, and during his successful run for state treasurer in 2006 he used his banking experience as one of his chief qualifications. But in the Senate race, he has tried to distance himself from the bank's troubles.
  
  
• The bank's failure will cost the FDIC $394.3 million.
  

But we're betting that the Giannoulias family isn't returning the $70 million in "dividends" they took out over the past few years.

Thanks Alexi. Now where is the Outfit going to get it's loans?

Let's Do It....Again

Choosing the manner of execution once again:

• Utah is set to execute a convicted killer by firing squad after a judge agreed Friday to the inmate's request, renewing a debate over what critics see as an antiquated, Old West-style of justice.
  
  Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, was given the choice of being killed by lethal injection or shot by a five-man team of executioners firing from a set of matched rifles — a rarely used method of execution that harkens back to Utah's territorial history.
  
  "I would like the firing squad, please," Gardner told state court Judge Robin Reese after hearing his avenues for appeal appear to be exhausted.

The anti-death penalty crowd will scream about "cruel and unusual" punishment, but we've always thought that for the death penalty to be most effective, it shouldn't be conducted in a clinical setting where prisoners are "put to sleep." Hanging, firing squad, electric chair, gas chamber - executions need to be scary to be a deterrent.

For the bleeding heart crowd who whine about prisoners' rights, what do you think was going through the victims' minds as they breathed their last? And for those who might try to use the tired line of, "How would you like it if...", the fact is we (and you) wouldn't ever be in a position of actually having to face the hangman, the warden or any other executioner for offenses deemed eligible for the death penalty. And we shouldn't grant the peaceful death that we reserve for beloved pets on some of these sub-humans who inflict untold damage and pain on the rest of law abiding peoples.