Tuesday, 01 May 2012 15:31
Joe Velisek

Haldeman and Ehrlichman in happier days.
On April 30th, 1973, after mounting pressure concerning the break-in ten months earlier at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building – Nixon’s Chief Domestic Advisor John Ehrlichman, White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst all resigned.
And White House Counsel John Dean was fired.
Although it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact moment in time when the Watergate tide turned against Nixon and he lost control of the situation, this “house-cleaning” moment is a very good candidate. The scandal had now moved inside the White House and as his subsequent, and sometimes very erratic and bizarre behavior showed – this “inside personal perspective” courtesy of Henry Kissinger not John Dean - Nixon could no longer ignore Watergate and his internal demons were gaining control.
(Remember this is the man – I’m writing about Nixon here – who after a huge Presidential landslide election in 1972 demanded the resignations of everyone who reported to the Executive Branch. Think about that.)
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Friday, 27 April 2012 07:47
Joe Velisek

Author, General and 18th President of the United States, Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on April 27th, 1827 in Point Pleasant, Ohio. Grant is one of those figures in U.S. history whom most of us recognize by name and face – his likeness is on the fifty dollar bill after all – as a Civil War Union commander and former President and then his history becomes cloudy and largely fictional.
For instance the story goes -
Grant was the “last general standing” as President Lincoln desperately searched for someone to command the Union Army. Thus his success was more a matter of timing – the war was all but over as the Confederate Army was on its last legs after three years of fighting - rather than due to anything Grant did. Having superiority in numbers, once Grant assumed command he simply started marching towards the Confederate capital of Richmond and steamrolled his way to victory.
After the Civil War, Grant capitalized on his military fame and suckered the American public into electing him to the Presidency, where one scandal followed another. Once again it was happenstance rather than any innate ability that guided Grant to the Oval Office and he proved totally unfit for office.
Lastly – he was more than likely drunk most of the time.
Last Updated on Friday, 27 April 2012 12:01
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Tuesday, 17 April 2012 15:59
Mark Carp
Appearances can blur reality. Author Mark Carp seems to dwell on this theme in his latest book, a fictional memoir entitled Cain, Abel and the Family Cohen.
Upon first blush, the diverse Cohen family seems remarkable, ideal and intensely loyal to one another. There is the father, Abraham Cohen, the long-term rabbi at Beth Israel synagogue in Baltimore, Maryland. Under Rabbi Cohen's leadership, the synagogue has thrived despite its location in a poor inner-city neighborhood. His wife, Leah, supports him in his rabbinic duties and is described as the nurturing "glue" of the family.
The Cohen's have three children: the charismatic Isaac, a lawyer and Maryland State Senator, who is running for a seat in the United States House of Representatives; the remarkably talented middle child, Rachel, who has appeared in some movies in Hollywood and will soon be auditioning for a lead role in a Broadway play; and the youngest, Jonas, who recently has received a Master's degree in finance from Columbia University and is now employed by the Frick Group, a New York hedge fund where he has interned the previous two summers.
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Tuesday, 17 April 2012 09:34
Joe Velisek

On April 17th, 1987, baseball history was made not by what transpired on the field with the Chicago Cubs and the Montreal Expos, but rather with what happened up in the announcers’ booth.
The 1987 Cubs season opened with some tragic news; beloved play-by-play announcer Harry Caray suffered a stroke and was unable to take the microphone. The Cubs organization came up with a brilliant back-up plan while Harry recovered; they brought in guest announcers - including Jim Belushi, George Wendt, Mike Royko and George Will - to call the game along with regular color announcer Steve Stone. On April 17th, it was Bill Murray’s turn and the rest is Sports Broadcasting history – literally. The Museum of Broadcasting Communications has a copy of this game in their archives.
The game got off to an inauspicious start – somehow all of the umpires’ equipment had been lost in transit - so the Cubs supplied them with what they needed – much of it with the Cubs logo on it. This was comedic fodder for Murray who after poking fun at the umpires’ wardrobe malfunction then opined on the Expos’ line-up – “Casey Candaele – he’s no good. Vance Law – he’s over-rated. Tom Foley shouldn’t even be playing. Hermann Winningham – What, you’re going to be afraid of a guy named Herman?”
Next came the Canadian National Anthem – “They’ve only got five words in the song and they just keep singing them over and over again.”
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Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:57
Joe Velisek

City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago by Gary Krist
Crown (April 17, 2012), 368 pages
Picking up on a recent trend – chronicling lesser well known but nonetheless critical historical events – the author focuses on twelve eventful days during the summer of 1919 in Chicago. And what a twelve days it was for the Windy City, including the crash of a blimp in the downtown Loop area, the mysterious disappearance of a 6-year-old girl, a transit workers’ strike and several days of race riots. Using just the right mix of newspaper and first-hand accounts, mini-bios of the personalities involved – and this being Chicago, the politics – and enough back-story for context, Krist coherently tells us the story of this almost fortnight of drama.
In July of 1919 World War I was less than a year over and the world, country and city were dealing with the Spanish flu pandemic. Nationally Prohibition loomed on the horizon, inflation was running high and labor was frustrated with their post-war wages. President Woodrow Wilson was shuttling back and forth across the Atlantic – “making the world safe for Democracy” and campaigning here for his League of Nations. (Indirectly, the author provides a picture of what was happening as the country transitioned from war to peace mode with no one at the helm – Wilson obsessed with the aforementioned and then subsequently debilitated by a stroke.)
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Monday, 20 February 2012 17:08
Joe Velisek
“No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.” – William Howard Taft
“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” – Sigmund Freud (maybe)
Three surprises as I write this. First, reprising Taft’s quote so soon. Second, linking Taft with of all people, Sigmund Freud. And most astounding of all, the current debate in 2012 America – and which has been for over a week now – is about birth control. Stating what I thought was beyond the incredibly obvious, i.e. “bigger issues” such as the still tepid economy and jobs, the latest budget/deficit concerns and Iran going nuclear; we as a country have brushed that all aside, and are focused on sex. In the avoidance department such a flight from reality might be viewed as commendable; and the choice of topic – at least according to Sigmund – predictable. Yet summing up this latest cultural brouhaha monopolizing our national attention span can be done in a one word phrase my daughter is fond of using – “Really?” - This response usually when I am in the midst of imparting paternal wisdom.
Having been raised Catholic I am more than familiar with the demonic conflagration of sex, eternal damnation and the end of civilization as we know it. And although very valiant attempts were made to indoctrinate me, I never followed the “logic”. The primary flaw in the argument – at least to me - being that men and women who had sworn off “the deed” were/are expert guides on the subject. As I grew older and possibly wiser, I noted these “dangers of sex” were not unique among Catholics. In fact there were all kinds of people who were deeply concerned, specifically about what “other people” were doing in their bedrooms.
And that’s the bizarre conundrum concerning “illicit” sex – Rick Santorum’s opinions simply being the latest example – this need to guess at, surmise, concoct and ultimately control what “other people” may be “doing” behind closed doors. Defining “illicit sex” becomes the issue among folks concerned most about it, because once there’s a difference of opinion – and there always is - the discussion quickly descends the slippery slope to bestiality, pedophilia and necrophilia – a non-sequitur that would make Freud gasp – and besides being disturbing makes one wonder whose “urges” these sexual crusaders are most concerned about.
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Thursday, 02 February 2012 15:07
Joe Velisek
“No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.”
“The world is not going to be saved by legislation.”
“Politics, when I am in it, it makes me sick.”
When it comes to delivering great quotes historical figures such as Lincoln, Churchill, Twain and even Will Rogers, among others, come to mind – not William Howard Taft – who was responsible for the three gems above. (Taft was Teddy Roosevelt’s successor to the White House and was named Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by Warren G. Harding.) I don’t know the exact dates of these utterances, but let’s place them on the hundred years ago timeline, give or take a decade. The point is, besides being poignant, the words are still timely. As the country gears up for another presidential election – although it seems we never pulled off the road for a cat nap – we’re still wrestling with money and politics, and “Shocked! Shocked!”, that the campaigning is ugly. This, a phenomenon about as old as the country and which we conveniently forget – repeatedly and continually.
Right now the GOP is in the spotlight, which in all honesty is just coming attractions for this summer and fall. After getting his keister handed to him by Newt in South Carolina, Romney returned the favor in Florida. High on his victory, Mitt then proceeded to do something he’s been very prone to and stuck his tasseled loafered foot in his mouth right up to the knee saying, “I’m not concerned about the very poor”. Regardless of “context”, this statement was not one in the Successful Campaigning 101 Handbook and a very good example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
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Tuesday, 24 January 2012 15:42
Joe Velisek
First my condolences to Baltimore fans everywhere on the Ravens heartbreaking loss Sunday – and my apologies for exploiting it in this not so clever segue. A great effort, and whether one focuses in on the pass that Lee Evans couldn’t hold on to in the end zone or the last second field goal attempt shanked by Billy Cundiff, the Patriots still won 23-20. Monday morning quarterbacking allows us sports fanatics to let off some steam and even makes us feel better - a phenomenon we Chicago Cubs fans relearn year after year. But the bottom line, post-pontificating doesn’t change the end result, unless of course you’re a GOP presidential candidate and your name is Newt Gingrich.
In what can only be described as an old-fashioned ass-whupping, Gingrich won last weekend’s South Carolina Primary by an astounding 12 points. A week ago the thought of such a result was at best a pipe-dream, even among Gingrich disciples. Yet Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, recipient of $1.6 million from Freddie Mac and $10 million in PAC funds in the last three weeks from one source,(the Adelsons), adulterer and thrice married - somehow convinced South Carolina primary voters that he was a Washington outsider and a non big money, conservative, family values type of guy.
Newt accomplished this by first tapping into the “anger” of the South Carolinian electorate. Pick your topic or issue, Gingrich knows what’s wrong and he articulates the “problems” exceedingly well. Secondly – and here’s the magic - he’s also brilliant in historical hindsight. The quintessential Monday morning quarterback, Newt may make you feel better with his after the fact genius, but the end result is still the same. That he positions himself as the solution or even savior, all the more amazing, considering he’s a walking talking example of the problem.
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