Edit for update: The NWS has dropped all counties from the watch as of 9:45pm EDT except for Jackson, Jennings and Lawrence.

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch is in effect for the western third of the viewing area until midnight EDT.  Storms will have plenty of potential energy to work with as they move into our area so I suspect we will be seeing some of them holding together even after the sun sets.  I"ve been talking about this all week and I still think we may see a repeat of Tuesday when the storms were strong in the western part  of the viewing area and then as they move across the rest of the viewing area, begin collapsing and producing strong winds as they do so.  The biggest risk with these storms will be high winds regardless of the time and place. Watch out for the lighting too.  Here's the discussion that goes along with the watch.  If things get hopping, I probably won't have time to update this so be sure to go to the weather section and check out the alerts as well as the National Interactive radar which will allow you to go anywhere in the country to street level.  Also we have out local live radar.   Here is the discussion with Watch 689.

   DISCUSSION...A RESERVOIR OF VERY MOIST AND UNSTABLE AIR MASS RESIDES
   OVER MUCH OF OH VALLEY.  WITH CONTINUED HEATING THUNDERSTORMS WILL
   INCREASE IN NUMBER AND INTENSITY DEVELOPING INTO CLUSTERS AND
   ISOLATED SUPERCELLS.  WITH 25-30KT OF SHEAR...WIND DAMAGE WILL BE
   PRIMARY THREAT...PARTICULARLY WHERE COLD POOLS DEVELOP AND ENHANCE
   DOWNDRAFTS.
  
   AVIATION...A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT
   TO 2.5 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND GUSTS TO 60
   KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 550. MEAN STORM
   MOTION VECTOR 27025.

Tony Snow  Mr. Snow was from Kentucky and raised in Cincinnati.  I first heard of him as a radio talk show host.  I found him quite refreshing in that he made his point of view quite well and was strong about it.  He was no fence rider.  Yet, he was pleasant in his manner and never mean or condescending in his approach.  He didn't demonize those he disagreed with and didn't disrespect others for their opinions, no matter how far out in left field they were.  While you may not have agreed with his positions, I would hope that everyone recognizes what a loss he is for our political discourse because we've lost one of the good guys who was a beacon for how it could be and, in my view, should be done.  There is no need to yell and scream and call others names in the name of entertainment.  No need for bombastic commentary or vilification of the opposition.  That goes for all political persuasions.  I did not know Mr. Snow, but I am sure he is missed by his family and probably far more friends than most people could hope to have.  But I think that we as a nation may miss him and his congenial manner far more than most of us realize.  Here is a biography and obits from the NYTimes, Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times.

Tony Snow Bio

NYTimes Snow Obit

Washington Post Snow Obit

Chicago Sun Times Snow Obit

Surges in City Hall corruption will continue to be ignored by the council, however.

*

"Police Committee Chairman Isaac Carothers (29th) summoned Weis to appear before his committee one day after the Chicago Sun-Times reported that police made major mistakes trying to head off violence at the Taste," the paper says.

"Carothers, whose brother is a tactical lieutenant in the 2nd District, promoted as Weis was taking over, said Weis 'needs a little bit of pressure. He hasn’t had much pressure. He’s had a honeymoon since he’s been here.'"

1. Wait. The chairman of the city council's police committee has a brother who is a police officer? Hello?

2. Yes, Weis hasn't had much pressure on him. Hello?

*

Sun-Times editorial today: "It's Too Soon To Judge Weis' Overall Record."

Gee, ya think? He hasn't even been here long enough to have an "overall" record.

"What does an FBI agent know about walking a beat?" the paper asks.

About as much as some editors know about reporting a beat?

"What matters most is that Mayor Daley stood by Weis, at least publically [sic], even as he demanded privately to know what went wrong."

Yes, what matters most is that the mayor told our reporters something completely at odds with what he's been saying in private!

*

"The real issue is lethal violence all across Chicago," the Tribune says in an editorial today.

"[W]hat makes these incidents unusual is that they happened downtown, not that they happened in Chicago. The city has seen an ominous, 13 percent rise in the murder rate this year. Here's hoping that every alderman gets upset about that," the paper says in a superior effort.

"Those of us who love Taste of Chicago are entitled to our safety. But we're no more entitled than the many Chicagoans whose streets can be shooting galleries any night."

"I know I did something dumb," Rose told reporters.  ''I made a big mistake. I'm very sorry, and I can only promise that it will never happen again.''

Rose is scheduled to appear in court July 11.

Rose will likely escape without serious reprimand, because this is a society where personal drug use is considered far more injurious than endangering the lives of other motorists and their families.

However, noted moralist Jay Mariotti may revisit this column comparing him to the second coming of Christ.  (which inexplicably has appeared in my RSS reader about 700 times in the past two days)

A healthy long-stemmed rose was placed on every seat.  None, from what we could tell, had a thorn.

A blog post, that I wrote from my parents' basement, could never contain such carefully-crafted prose, as this.

According to the Sun Times, "Democratic nominee Barack Obama huddled privately Tuesday with a group of influential Christians in downtown Chicago -- not all supporters -- to help shape conversations Obama wants to have with voters as he heads toward the general election. Obama invited the mainline Protestant, evangelical and Catholic leaders and authors from across the country for the meeting -- in offices at 55 E. Monroe -- in part because he wanted to hear their critiques as he intensifies his campaign against GOP rival John McCain. I'm told Obama -- hunting for independent, middle class and GOP support -- wanted to let the group know that his door was open -- in the campaign and in the White House, if he is elected.

The group of about 30 -- who were not assembled with an eye toward endorsements -- included Cameron Strang, the founder and CEO of Relevant Media Group, the publisher of the hip Christian magazine and related Web site Relevant, "covering God, Life and Progressive Culture," with a big youthful audience; Bishop T.D. Jakes, the leader of a Dallas megachurch, and Catholic scholar Douglas Kmiec, an attorney who served in the Reagan and Bush 1 administrations.  Others included best-selling Christian author Max Lucado; Paul Corts, the president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities; the Rev. Stephen Thurston -- who is the president of the National Baptist Convention of America, and the pastor of the New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church on Chicago's South Side; the Rev. T. Dewitt Smith, president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention Inc., and AME church leader Bishop Phillip Robert Cousin Sr.

Barack Obama hosted a meeting with prominent evangelicals and other faith leaders this afternoon where attendees discussed policy issues and came together in conversation and prayer. Outreach to the faith community is a priority for Barack Obama, and we look forward to holding regular meetings in the months to come," Obama religious affairs chief Joshua Dubois said in a statement. Obama's primary campaign included a religious affairs department from the start, run by Dubois, a former Assemblies of God associate pastor, and the faith shop is growing.

Already the Obama team on a weekly basis holds conference calls for: Prominent African-American religious leaders, Evangelical and values voters activists, Catholics -- the campaign has a National Catholic Advisory Council, Jewish religious and civic leaders. The campaign has a separate staff working on Jewish and Middle Eastern affairs, and people involved in the intersection of faith and policy -- religious-based charities, for example. Before their controversies -- which forced their exit from the Obama campaign -- Obama's former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and Father Michael Pfleger were on Obama campaign faith-based advisory councils."

Interesting stuff.

Not sure what to think... What do you think?

-Jordan

Hefty? Dudes, please. CPL library fines for anything other than DVDs and museum passports are - hang on, this is going to shock you - ten cents a day. Yep, one measly dime. Even if you forget to renew for an entire week, that's still barely the price of a Hershey bar. Me, I consider library fines a donation to the library (and a wake-up call to start marking my day planner with the next batch's due dates). They let me take books home and don't charge me for them! I think I can give them a few dimes.

Meanwhile, Alison Bechdel's lament for the lack of time in which to perform fun reading really spoke to me. Yes, I was the geeky kid reading at a fifth-grade level in kindergarten; yes, my dad had to persuade me to stop rereading old favorites. (One of the ways he did this was to hand me a copy of the Complete Sherlock Holmes and say, 'read this.' Which I did - all 4 novels and 56 stories. Good thing Dad liked Conan Doyle himself, because I spent the next five years dragging him to local Sherlockian meetings.)

I do still read for fun - but I personally find a book list helpful. It keeps me from forgetting books I want to read but can't because a) I am overloaded with reading material at the moment or b) the library doesn't have them yet (see 'books for free' supra) or c) it only exists in the Library of Congress so I have to wait until my next trip to Washington DC. (Which is next month. Yes, I will be spending plenty of time in the Thomas Jefferson Building.)

And, finally, your lost e-mails go into black holes. Now you know.

The disagreement stems from a Mariotti column that skewered colleagues and rivals alike for softness toward White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.  Mariotti, frequently and voicerously, voices his distaste for Guillen in print.  (Guillen previously was reprimanded for comments made about Mariotti.  He apologized for the word choice but echoed the sentiment.)

Telander felt this to be a personal insult, firing back in two columns that were allegedly spiked by Sun-Times editors.  Chris De Luca, the Sun-Times national baseball writer, also retorted to Mariotti that he never spends time in the White Sox' clubhouse.

I wonder what Jay Mariotti would do if one of his interviewees/targets called security when he tried to question them?

On June 8, proving that news is sometimes definitely slow, our post about Cedric Benson's disappearing life with the Chicago Bears was featured at The Big Lead and made the front page of Yard Barker (exhibit A) -- a site I've quickly started to love.

Yardbarker also did us a favor, and front-paged our post about the Bears possibly being a suitor of ex-Lion Kevin Jones three days later (exhibit B). At the same time, the Chicago Sun-Times had our post, calling Ricky Manning, Jr. expendable, on their Web site.

Best of all, I graduated from college on June 15.

The Big Lead, Yard Barker and the Chicago Sun-Times: Your checks are in the mail. Dean of the Communications Department: I know we originally agreed on my soul, but how 'bout a nice collection of assorted gourmet nuts instead?

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Coincidence or not? ;-)

And we hope someone reminds the Obama campaign staff of the copyright ramifications! You'd think a Harvard-trained lawyer would know that Disney might be a bit, er, touchy about Obama's borrowing their proprietary imagery.

BTW, here is the article in the Chicago Sun Times about McCain's advisors' comments on Mickey's...I mean, Obama's...dangerous naivete...

Obama ‘delusional’?
"CAMPAIGN 2008 | McCain, ex-CIA chief doubt Obama's readiness to deal with terrorists"

by Lynn Sweet
6/19/2008
Chicago Sun Times

(...)

During a McCain campaign conference call with reporters, former CIA head James Woolsey said Obama's support of giving terrorists access to U.S. courts was an "extremely dangerous and an extremely naive approach to terrorism."

McCain senior foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann said if Obama "got that 3 a.m. phone call" -- a reference to an ad Sen. Hillary Clinton ran before the Texas and Ohio primaries questioning Obama's experience -- his response would be to "call the lawyers in the Justice Department." He also called Obama "delusional."

(...)

Continue reading...

The defense...

While showing the jurors a picture of the alleged victim, defense counsel told them "you are going to have to call (the alleged victim) 14 times individually and collectively a whore" to find Kelly guilty of 14 counts of child pornography.

He whispered, "My momma told me when we were kids, 'if you ain't got something nice to say about someone, don't say it about her." Then, he concluded his argument saying, "How are you 14 times going to call her a whore?"

The prosecution...

"We're not saying that she's a prostitute - we're saying, based on the evidence that you heard in this trial that she is the victim of child pornography."

Popsquire's perspective...

The defense argument is ridiculous. A jury is supposed to acquit Kelly because they'd feel bad about calling a girl a whore, even though she was captured on camera taking money and then performing sex acts?!?

This is very weak. A good defense lawyer shows the jury that reasonable doubt exists by pointing to conflicts in testimony and evidence, not by asking the jurors to refrain from name calling. Absurd.

Until these closing arguments, Popsquire was kinda thinking R. Kelly would get off (yay puns!), but not so much any more. What do you think?!?

For information about other legal battles being waged against Kelly, check out this, that, and the other.

Popsquire's perspective...

Failing to call a key witness may be a sign of weakness.  If she were a credible witness who could testify that she was not in the video, the case could be a slam dunk for R. Kelly.  On the other hand, as some have alleged, she has been paid off to say she was not in the video, then issues of her credibility could ruin Kelly's acquittal chances.

Today, the prosecution is expected to recall their expert witness, who previously testified that the videotape showed a dark spot (i.e., a mole) on the lower back of the man (allegedly Kelly) in the video. This testimony will aim to address the defense's expert testimony; he testified that the spot was a tape defect and not evidence of R. Kelly's mole, which would identify him as the man in the video.

For a reminder about why the mole is significant, check out Popsquire's previous R. Kelly rundown here.

1. The R&B superstar pleaded not guilty to videotaping himself having sex with and urinating on a girl estimated to be 13 or 14.
2. The video shows a girl accepting money from the man before performing oral sex on him. She dances, naked, to a Backstreet Boys song. She urinates. She calls him “Daddy” while they have sex. Later, the man (allegedly Kelly) urinates and ejaculates on her.
3. The defense is two-fold: (1) Kelly is not on the sex tape, evidenced by a missing mole on his back; and (2) it’s a case of mistaken identity in that the alleged victim supposedly is not on the sex tape. The prosecution, however, insists that the tape “was created, staged, produced and starred in by the defendant.”
4. More than 10 witnesses have identified the alleged victim, while three relatives of the girl claim it's a case of mistaken identity.
5. An expert for the prosecution played the sex tape in slow motion on a giant screen. During the testimony, he showed the man (allegedly Kelly) with his back turned and a dark spot (i.e., a mole) clearly visible.
6. Kelly's defense team countered the potentially damaging testimony with their own expert, who described the markings as "artifacts" created by the tape's poor quality and multiple reproductions.
7. Lisa Van Allen, who claims to have had an ongoing sexual relationship with Kelly, testified that in 1988, Kelly took her to his former home on the North Side of Chicago, where she met the alleged victim in this case for the first time. Kelly taped them while they had three-way sex in his "log-cabin" room. That's the same room he's alleged to have filmed the tape in this case. Van Allen testified that Kelly told her the alleged victim was 16.
8. Van Allen claims Kelly's business manager, Derrel McDavid, paid her and another man $20,000 each for the return of a sex tape (not the one at issue in this case).
9. Kelly's defense team countered Van Allen's testimony by trying to undermine her credibility in several ways, including: (a) getting her to admit that she stole a Rolex watch from Kelly after a tryst at a Swissotel in Georgia in 2001; and (b) Jack Palladino — a private investigator best known for being hired by Bill Clinton to track down women he'd been linked with — testified that Van Allen's fiance of the wanted a $300,000 payoff to keep the witness quiet.

Have a good weekend. And, if you are dying to know more details, click here.

If Barack Obama thinks that resigning from Trinity United Church of Christ will stop his opponents from trying to stereotype him as a race-man, he has another think coming.

Next, they'll be going after his wife, Michelle, twisting every comment she's ever made about race.

It's already started with distortions of her 20-year-old college thesis, and a remix of her "first time I'm proud to be an American" gaffe.

But wait, there's more:

In talking about "white entitlement," Pfleger obviously got swept up in the pent-up emotions expressed by many in a congregation that has been demonized across the country.

"Oh, damn! Where did you come from?," Pfleger said, mocking Clinton. "I'm white! I'm entitled! There's a black man stealing my show!"

Here was a white man purportedly telling a predominantly black congregation what some white people were thinking.

Here was a white man using this historic Democratic primary between an African American and a white woman to illustrate the silent subtext of race that has been part of the contest since Day One.

No wonder a lot of Trinitarians jumped to their feet hooting and hollering.

Yep. That's all I have to say about that.

Many talented writers struggle to pay bills.  Jay Mariotti laughs in their faces.  The Chicago Sun-Times mud slinger has called once again, for the fifth time in the last month, for the firing of White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.

There doesn't even appear to be a reason this time.  As Jay affectionally puts it.

What this city must expunge, as it attempts to win the 2016 Olympics and polish its image for the world, is the embarrassing cloud of stench accumulated by the Blizzard of Oz with his relentlessly profane attacks on human life around him.

I'm not one to cheapen my points with profanity, but I challenge anyone to name me one reason why this no-talent, cheap-shotting ass clown receives a forum to foist his objectionable pontifications upon us.  How, in any sense, is this journalism?  

It's about time. Popsquire was getting tired of counting!

It's not inspiring. I've always thought Obama himself has very little class and with people like this around him, you can see where he's picked up some of his attitude.

At Chicago fund-raiser for Obama, a cussing Bernie Mac jokes about "hoes.''

Around 600 people heard Bernie Mac launch into his bit about how Obama would have to watch the Chris Rock movie "Head of State" so that Obama would know "what they're going to do to you."

Then he riffed:

He went on to riff about hope and offering himself up as a running mate "and they don't want me because I cuss."

Which he did.

"Being a president is tough cause you're not just running the county. You got to run your family too," he said. "Having a black first lady is different. You're still going have to do the dishes and the laundry and all that…you got to pick up the kids. You didn't pick up the kids? I just came from Korea, talking about nuclear weapons. You were on Airforce One and you couldn't stop to pick up the kids?"
Mac said he is a Democrat "born and raised" but added that "I'm a Republican at tax time." He mimicked a mock warning from an imagined staffer: "Don't kill the message."

He then talked about his wife who he's been married to for 35 years, and how she just went through menopause.

"I can't take it," he said. "My house is so doggone cold all the time."

He promised to help Obama and that he would be there "like the Jackson Five" and ended his irreverent riff with a joke involving the women in the families and living with two "hoes"

Mac was heckled in protest, but tried to smooth the way for Obama.

"Calm down," Mac said, before introducing Obama, "not just a friend of mine but a friend of you all."

Obama appeared...and notice how he admonishes Mac, but then, in the classic Obama way, apparently softens his criticism:

Obama came on, thanking, among others, "my great friend, one of the kings of comedy, Bernie Mac."
He then gave an abbreviated stump speech with a quick run-down of his platform, briefly touching most policy areas and using his usual language and jokes before poking fun at Mac toward the end of his 20 minute speech.

"Everybody is concerned about whether the Democratic Party will be unified in time," he said. "We don't have an option but to make sure that we are united and make sure that we succeed…we can't afford to be divided by race. We can't afford to be divided by religion, or by region or class. Or by gender," he said, pausing for effect. "That means, by the way, Bernie you got to clean up your act. This is a family affair… I'm just messing with you," he said.

The Obama campaign quickly issued a statement:

Doesn't all this bring you back to the days of Camelot and Jackie Kennedy's White House affairs featuring the likes of Pablo Casals and all those other lovely, cultural events??

UPDATE

Link to AP story....

I did a search and it is being picked up EVERYWHERE in the mainstream media, including overseas in The Guardian! Let's see what they say on the TeeVee....

I need to use my tiny forum to thank Mary Mitchell for providing a foil to the Fox Faux News Channel's crusade against Michelle Obama.  Her column in the Chicago Sun-Times strikes a balance between the partisan punches of the enraged right and the fickle left.  One would think that journalists would have learned something or another about covering potential first ladies who are intelligent, capable, career minded individuals who married their equals.   Michelle has been depicted as Barack's bitter, ball busting, babymomma.  The commentary from a variety of media outlets is unhinged, disrespectful and far from embodying anything journalistically relevant.  Mary Mitchell characterizes a different type of Michelle, one not typically glorified in mainstream media.  And, for her efforts I say, kudos!  Please click here to read more.