ChicagoClout

Posted by at 10:52 PM | Permalink

Chicago Clout assisted Andy Thayer to produce a series of videos so the general public understands why the City of Chicago will have a large showing May 19, 2012 at the Daley Center. Expect a 12:00 PM kick-off and a permitted march to McCormick Place. It is very important the taxpayers and the public understand why many people oppose NATO and want these leaders to understand there are dissenting opinions. Andy invited Eric Ruder and Rick Rozoff to guest on the first show. For more information make sure you visit Chicago Clout and http://cang8.wordpress.com/ Andy also had a show on Defending Civil Liberties in Chicago, and Opposing G8 in Chicago, they will be on YouTube very soon. Andy Thayer was on the Front Page of the Chicago Sun-Times January 17, 2012. I have known and benefited from my friendship with Andy Thayer for over six years. Photo by Patrick McDonough G-8 protest organizer agent of 'change' or 'pain in the butt'? BY KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporter kjanssen@suntimes.com Last Modified: Jan 17, 2012 02:10AM Andy Thayer's co-workers are running an office pool. How long until he gets arrested? Most of us would take offense, but Thayer is one of the guys authorities most expect to cause trouble at the G-8 and NATO summits in May. To him, it's a badge of honor. "I'm staying out of it," the veteran activist says with a laugh of his colleagues' teasing. Battle-hardened after more than 30 years as the megaphone-carrying face of non-violent Chicago street protests against everything from police brutality to Wall Street greed to the war in Iraq, the media-savvy 51-year-old rarely stays out of anything for long. In the last two weeks alone he's had the better of public spats with Cardinal Francis George, who apologized for comparing the gay rights movement to the Ku Klux Klan, and with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who admitted he'd understated the scope of proposed laws targeting protesters. In the next two weeks Thayer is due to be a witness in a federal civil rights lawsuit that challenges the Chicago Police Department's handling of a 2003 anti-war protest, and to be a noisy antagonist in the City Council's vote on Emanuel's proposed protest restrictions. Police critics mock him as a publicity hound who'd call a rally to protest a parking ticket. But ever since President Barack Obama announced that the G-8 and NATO will meet in Chicago, Thayer has been meeting almost daily with dozens of other activists to plot a demonstration they hope will draw a coalition of tens of thousands of protesters from across the globe during the May 19-21 summit. As the author of a protest permit application that seeks to march the crowd to within a few yards of the world's leaders at McCormick Place, he's likely to be thrust into his brightest spotlight yet this summer. Emanuel has repeatedly said that protestors' First Amendment rights won't be compromised by the security needs of the summit and that he has no interest in a 2016 presidential run. But Thayer -- who has a history degree -- says he and other protesters plan to use a lesson they've drawn from the clashes outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention that damaged Mayor Richard J. Daley's national reputation. "The 1968 DNC destroyed Hubert Humphrey's chance of becoming president," he says in the cluttered West Town office that he's decorated with an Arab Spring-inspired Egyptian flag. "The G-8 is Obama's homecoming and Rahm's national coming out party. Rahm hopes it will be his springboard to the 2016 nomination. We want them both to pay the highest political price for bringing the biggest collection of fraudsters, banksters and warmongers ever to meet in Chicago." Lifelong dissent If the specter of 1968 looms over the upcoming summit, Thayer's a little too conventional for the role that hairy counter-culture icon Abbie Hoffman played in that drama. Thayer prefers the fitted T-shirts, sensible glasses and neat haircut that befit a middle-aged gay man whose day job is office manager for the law firm Loevy & Loevy. He's quick to agree that he's only one of many organizers, and that G-8 NATO protestors will march for a plethora of causes, including an "Occupy" coalition that emphasizes collective action over individual leadership. For all that, his whole life might have been building to this moment. Raised in a small town in upstate New York by his father, who designed missile parts, and his mother, an activist who secretly helped Vietnam draft dodgers escape to Canada, he was a misfit from the start. His mother's commitment to "take risks for what she believed in" left a mark, he says. By the age of 17, he'd written articles exposing corruption, articles that upset his teachers so much that they closed the high school newspaper. It was in Chicago that his activism flourished. Enrolled as a journalism student at Northwestern University in 1978, he was sent to cover a protest at the gates of ComEd's Zion nuclear power plant. Instead he joined in and was arrested and charged with trespassing and eventually was acquitted by a Lake County jury, which found that the protesters' actions were necessary to prevent a greater harm to the public. The experience was "exhilarating and scary," he says. Thayer took a hiatus from Northwestern when he came out of the closet -- he now lives in Uptown with his partner -- but became a campus leader upon his return, protesting against the school's investments in apartheid South Africa. By the 1990s he was a leading voice against police brutality and for the Gay Liberation Network, which he co-founded. He's since been arrested for everything from demanding gay rights in Moscow to attempting to stop President George W. Bush's motorcade in the Loop. Convicted of misdemeanor resisting arrest in 1989 and again in 2005, he had three other minor cases thrown out, and was cleared of more serious charges of aggravated battery of a police officer in 2009 after video evidence undermined the case against him. He's taken on beloved conservative institutions -- the Chicago Boy Scouts Council lost most of its funding from United Way in 2001 after Thayer led protests against the scouts' policies on homosexuality -- but also infuriated elements of the left, including other gays angered by his support of the deported Muslim cleric Rabbih Haddad. But it was his leading role in the raucous anti-Iraq war march of March 20, 2003, that may offer the best clues into how he'll react in the heat of the moment this May. 2003 clash The freewheeling protest, in which 10,000 demonstrators without perrmits followed Thayer and other leaders onto Lake Shore Drive, blocking traffic hours after the U.S.-led bombing of Iraq began, has faded from popular memory. But Thayer isn't alone in his estimation of its significance. "That was the first time since 1968 that an anti-war demonstration got out of control on the city's streets," says retired Deputy Supt. Jim Maurer, who was Chicago Police's Chief of Patrol at the time. "They literally overran the police lines." Police claimed they'd negotiated an ad hoc deal with leaders of the march to avoid the Drive, but Thayer and other protesters denied it. At least 540 were arrested, though only 351 were charged and most had their cases dropped. Nine years later, it's still an open wound between police and protesters, who brought a federal civil rights case that's set to go to trial later this month. One former top Chicago law enforcement official whose run-ins with Thayer include the 2003 protest, angrily describes him as "self-serving -- not as interested in the cause as he is in attention for himself." But both Maurer and Pat Camden, who was then the Chicago Police spokesman and now represents the Fraternal Order of Police, view Thayer with a mixture of amused contempt and grudging respect. "He always wanted to be arrested, and we often accommodated him," says Maurer, who describes Thayer as a "gigantic pain in the butt for law enforcement." "Like the mosquitoes that are all over the place when you go on a fishing trip," is how Camden describes Thayer's role in our democracy. "They're always there and they never go away -- he's certainly persistent." Both concede that Thayer is not violent and has a right to make his point. "You have to take him seriously because he's tried to provoke the police department on many occasions," Maurer said. "He provokes like-minded people who want to cause trouble." In their view, police exercised considerable restraint in 2003 and will do so again during the G-8. Thayer, who says the Chicago Police Department has "an international reputation for brutality," drew a different conclusion. Police's failure to control the 2003 crowd spooked the White House enough that it decided not to hold the 2004 G-8 in Chicago, he believes, crediting the protest as "a great success." Though he blames police for the violence at the 1968 convention and the "Battle of Seattle" at the 1999 World Trade Organization summit, he also acknowledges that civil disobedience played a role in both, as it did in 2003. He expects non-violent civil disobedience in May's protests, which he says Chicagoans should feel safe enough to bring their children to. The 2003 protest offers a model of how the mayor might lose the street at a peaceful event, he suggests. It was the protesters' energy, not their numbers, that made the difference in that case, he says. "I've been in marches of 300,000 that were flat, but the air was electric that night," he said. "We knew we wouldn't stop the war, but we told President Bush, 'You ignored our voices, now you'll have to ignore our bodies.'" 99 versus 1 Thayer hasn't voted for an electable national candidate in decades. He scoffs at the idea that the G-8 nations of the U.S., Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada and Russia are truly democratic and believes that "meaningful change only comes up from the street and the grassroots." He points to a range of issues, from the North American Free Trade Agreement's effects on Mexican farming through the trillions of dollars spent on NATO's war in Afghanistan to the closures of schools and libraries in Chicago, as reasons why people should show up to May's protests. For him, they're all connected. Simply put, he says: "This is the 99 percent versus the one percent who start all wars and rule in their own interests, the wealthiest one percent who live in palaces while holding the rest of us down." Predicting just how many heed that call is difficult. The Seattle protests attracted a minimum of 35,000; just a few thousand demonstrated at this year's G-8 in Deauville, France; while at least 400,000 marched through downtown Chicago for immigrant rights in 2006. Thayer's application for a parade from Daley Plaza to the western boundary of the summits' location, McCormick Place, predicted only 5,000. But organizers seeking to calm authorities' fears and preempt claims of failure have an incentive to set a low bar. Privately, they say they'll be disappointed if tens of thousands do not take to the streets. By contrast, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy's comments that 13,000 officers are training for mass arrests, and Emanuel's attempts to increase restrictions and possible fines on protesters are designed to scare away the everyday Chicagoans who would make the bulk of any large crowd, according to Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an activist with Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction. A diverse group of similar left-wing groups, including Iraq Veterans Against The War, the Committee To Stop FBI Repression, Students For A Democratic Society and the Chicago Network to Send a US Boat to Gaza, are among those regularly meeting to organize the protest. Protesters from across the nation, from Canada, the U.K. and Germany are also coordinating. But the size of the crowd may depend in large part on how actively the unions get involved in an election year action against a Democratic president they helped elect. It also remains to be seen whether immigrant rights activists can convince their community that the G-8 is a worthwhile target. Past actions against the G-8 have been overwhelmingly white. Harder still to predict are the intentions of hard-line anarchists, who have little respect for Thayer and the leftist coalition. Anonymous chat about a minority forming a lawless "black bloc" within the main body of the march -- as happened in 1999, when anarchists dressed in black smashed stores in downtown Seattle -- is rife on anarchist websites. In a sign that police are taking the risk seriously, officers were recently requested to report the locations of anarchist graffiti across the city. Thayer admits the responsibility he and other activists feel to mobilize a successful protest "keeps me awake at night." But if Chicago wants to know if there will be trouble when the G-8 and NATO hit town, he's remaining coy. "It depends how you define 'trouble,' " Thayer grins. "Rahm Emanuel's idea of trouble might just turn out to be a lot of people's idea of fun."

Posted by at 7:55 PM | Permalink

Many folks in Chicago will never forget the Super Bowl Champions Chicago Bears. It was a special moment in Chicago history. Today I took a picture of 2nd Ward Alderman Robert Fioretti and Football legend Otis Wilson. I raced to The Billy Goat Tavern and Grill at 1535 West Madison Street from work. I also met many democratic political stars. I will have more on this later. Make sure you support Alderman Bob Fioretti, I will make the endorsements since the Chicago Sun-Times got out of that side of the business. Otis Wilson still looks like a stick of dynamite!! Photo by Patrick McDonough

Posted by at 6:36 PM | Permalink

City of Chicago Department of Water Management employee of 2011 Patrick McDonough noticed a very suspicious pick-up truck lurking around the 4900 West Sunnyside Yard today. Mr. McDonough notified the crack security team that left the gate open again and allowed this dude to sneak into the yard. The crack security team made a major assault upon the possible terrorism suspect. A high ranking political appointee snuck up quietly on this dude as if he was on a turkey hunt, and the dude left the open lot without so much as any license check, or illegal search and seizure. The crack security team did not follow the established protocol which is necessary to save our precious drinking water in Chicagoland. Who was that dude? Why he was not detained? Is Chicago drinking water safe? Why did this political appointee not call in a reckless panic to superiors? Photo by Patrick McDonough

Posted by at 5:30 PM | Permalink

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

Posted by at 10:49 PM | Permalink

Today, again, the Chicago Tribune reported in depth, the problems the Chicago Firefighters are having with frozen hydrants. Thank you to the Chicago Tribune for joining in the chorus, and bringing much needed attention to the impending doom. The Daley goons again left this major issue for Rahm Emanuel to deal with. Laying new water main and installing new fire hydrants is a start. Chicago Clout has championed this issue for many, many years. The Emanuel Administration and the Office of the Inspector General must work together to solve this major problem. Chicago Clout and several Chicago Plumbing Inspectors are willing to come forward to jump start a program that will save many lives. Several Chicago Inspectors and some State of Illinois inspectors are willing to move forward on this issue and give free inspections. On weekends, the City of Chicago only has one emergency hydrant truck up and running. It is located in the Central District. Several Caulkers and Plumbers are getting shortchanged on the overtime. The truck is citywide, but the overtime is not. Where is Local 130 Plumbers on this issue? Please save firefighters lives now. Give us a call Rahm, we have the solutions. Photo by Patrick McDonough

Posted by at 10:22 PM | Permalink

ABC 7 News reported a fire in the 1700 Block of North Drake last night. For years the Department of Water Management has not repaired the broken Fire Hydrants. A simple fix, which would take about three hours, would save lives. It is not being done. Rahm Emanuel should have a hearing and terminate all the employees responsible. Going to a fire with no water make no sense at all. It is like going into a Chicago Alderman's office with-out a bribe, it just makes no sense at all. Thank you ABC 7 News and all the stories by Dave Savini at CBS @ News. http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8512362 When is the Federal Bureau of Investigation going to look into this? The City of Chicago is also very short on Plumbing Inspectors, but they must now fix that problem. Story by Inspector Patrick McDonough.

Posted by at 1:07 PM | Permalink

Municipal Employees' Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago at 321 North Clark Street, Suite 700 Chicago, Illinois 60654 welcomed Tommie Talley today. Tommie was removed after a disgraceful employment at the City of Chicago Department of Water Management. Must have been Tommie ordering City Workers to make free repairs at the Daley's 11Th Ward Church that sealed the deal. Tommie then marched over to the County until Dane Placko busted him on Fox News Chicago. Tommie had some serious clout for a long time. I do not think criminal activity should allow folks to collect a pension and Tommie Talley is much too young to collect money for nothing. My inside guy told me Tommie was going to buy a Subway Franchise and make a go of that years back, guess that failed also. I know when Tommie Talley sent a worker to the Central District for retaliation; he did not look over his back for payback. I am against Tommie Talley taking any kind of money from the taxpayers after his lousy work at the Water Department. We need some real detective work to find out what is going on. The scoop was given to Chicago Clout January, 18, 2012 by one of our detectives. Chicago Clout is everywhere, we are after you next, "snicker". Maybe Tommie can stop by Dean Slawek's attempt to sneak back into the city with his highbrow gun lawyer. The scam starts on February 10, 2012. Watches out all you unemployed Chicago Plumbers, go to City Hall 11Th Floor 10:00 AM. See if the James Sullivan sells out the Plumbing License Law for a doorbell ringer. NO MORE SCAMS CITY HALL. Where the heck are the FEDS?

Posted by at 9:43 PM | Permalink

Another round of abuse on January 11, 2012 when City of Chicago Department of Water Management employee Patrick McDonough returned from testifying under oath at the Department of Human Resources Hearing for Bruce Randazzo. After having his car under video surveillance for the entire morning and early afternoon, Patrick McDonough returned to the North District yard to finish the work day and swipe out. According to Mr. McDonough, his boss told him his tire was almost flat. These brand new tires were just purchased a month ago. Joey "The Slicer" Berlin was also subject to testimony and now parks his car near the security guard shack to monitor the safety of his car. Glenn "The Shooter" Schultz was not available to comment. Bruce "The Candidate" Randazzo was very upset this would happen to a witness and a fellow City Worker. The next day in court, Attorney Ivan Tomic told Maureen Egan about the tire slashing on McDonough's automobile. Maureen Egan also told Ivan Tomic to have Mr. McDonough send pictures to her. The various security folks at the DOWM have been notified, but Mr. McDonough is still waiting for officials to take pictures and investigate. So far two fenders have been bashed in, stones thrown at the car, and multiple tire slashes are a common occurrence at the Water Department lot located at 4900 West Sunnyside. Most of the damage has been separate events with a damage amount of about $500.00 to $700.00. The City of Chicago should protect employees that tell the truth and step forward to combat corruption. Mr. McDonough also reported today that Maureen Egan refuses to pay McDonough for his court ordered appearances despite a subpoena signed by Revered Lucius Hall. I think Joey "The Slicer" Berlin will also demand more security for all City Employees. I will keep you updated on this story. The destruction of someone's car is the kind of 36Th Ward style politics that made folks sick of the Bank's Gangsters.

Posted by at 10:21 PM | Permalink

It is no secret the North District Department of Water Management is loaded with old style corruption. Corruption will only continue if politicians like Jesse White keep helping old white folks keep the Negro down. Jesse White needs to look into the promotions in the North District that go to political whites and why none of the promotions have gone to Negroes. On December 16, 2010, two white guys got their promotions despite a troubled past. One white dude got a promotion while he was on Duty-disability! Complaints to the Office of the Inspector General have gone unanswered. The City of Chicago Department of Water Management gets away with constant criminal activity due to the legal department's use of procedural maneuvers. No interviews, no evidence gathering, and no convictions. Almost every person calling complaints to the Chicago Office of the Inspector General moves nowhere. Just recently, two more white guys were promoted despite their inexperience. The Foreman positions could be great promotions for Chicago Negroes. Negroes are losing their homes and are not getting a fair share of the pie. Jesse White is no friend of the ongoing Shakman Violations reforms. Make sure you ask Jesse White why he makes phone calls that keep whites in power at the Negroes peril. Some more Foreman Promotions are in the application stage at the Department of Water Management; keep James Sullivan's white boyz out of the mix. Let us make some promotions of Negroes and some amigos for a change. Jesse White, stay out of the Blackman's business if you are going to sell the Blackman out. Story by the Honky Tonk Man. (I hope you all pray for Martin Luther King's Soul) Keep the faith, keep the jobs)

Posted by at 12:30 PM | Permalink

Dennis M. Fleming, an attorney, chairman of the Chicago License Appeal Commission, administrative law judge and hearing officer spent the last two days making a mockery of Justice in Chicago. I spent the last two days at the City of Chicago Department of Human Resources watching one city worker after another walking out of an appeal hearing. Simply put, Bruce Randazzo is attempting to clear his name from a disciplinary action the Department of Water Management made against him. Bruce Randazzo is a politically active Democrat on the Northwest side of Chicago. Bruce Randazzo has stood up to corruption and reported several incidents that should have been actively investigated by the Chicago Office of the Inspector General. In all fairness to the OIG, I am not privy to the status of any investigation since I am active city employee. (Disclaimer) So why am I concerned? The City of Chicago uses Hearing Officers as a political carrot to judicial wan bees. I am seeing the use of Hearing Officers in too many situations in Chicago. If you receive a parking ticket in Chicago, a Building Code Violation, you could get an appointed flunky lawyer not familiar with the laws that apply to your situation. I have firsthand seen too much unprofessionalism at the Building Violations Court. Maybe if the OIG steps downstairs once in a while, we can straighten that out. I really believe Chicago taxpayers should demand and want a real judge free from any political process deciding what is legal and right. So... back to the story, Bruce Randazzo was in the Hearing Board on January 11 and 12, making his side of the case. I made the appropriate phone calls because the hearing officer was not allowing much evidence into the record. I overheard city worker after city worker laughing about the hearing judge attempting to shut down any avenue that was not favorable to the city. When ordinary working folks smell a fix, it's a fix. When city workers smell a fix, it is defiantly a fix. My impression is Fleming got a phone call from an attorney representing one of the witnesses for the city. Two critical witnesses famous for their political work walked in and then right out of the hearing. I cannot fathom how the hearing officer can make a determination without hearing evidence. If you are a City of Chicago employee and want to clear your name, you might be wasting money hiring an attorney. I waited in City Hall room 1100 all day on January 11, 2012 waiting to testify. No one from Plumber's Local 130 ever showed up. I was told a Local 130 representative could not show up because it was the city's fault that they did not notify the union. I drove back to the yard at 4900 Sunnyside and then my tires were slashed. I was expecting a representative to show from the Union today but no one showed up. I got a call when I was in the hearing testifying. When I was testifying, I got the impression the hearing officer never understood the rules that allow more openness in admitting evidence than the circuit court. I was also happy to hear Chicago Clout was mentioned during the proceedings. I admit Rahm Emanuel is a much better Mayor than Daley ever was. Emanuel is ten times the Mayor, but he needs to clean out the old Daley holdouts. I would like to make a spin on the legal system. The Chicago legal system is like making sausages, but as a plumber the legal sausages sometimes look like sh*t. I will have more details soon. Enjoy.

Posted by at 11:09 PM | Permalink