Saturday, July 29, 2006

Hide - The Root of Chicago Race Relations


Chicago has never recovered from the Meatpackers Strike of 1904. Though engulfed by flames in 1871, Chicago rose from its roots again like an oak forest on steroids. The Pullman Strike, put down by George Custer's replacements, Illinois Yellow-legs and Pinkerton's goons, was as nothing compared to what lay ahead on the tracks.

Chicago's steel tentacles pulled cattle, hogs, sheep and any other hoofed hide that could be tanned, eaten, rendered or husbanded to a vast yard owned by sharp men of business. The amalgamation of tanners, packers, renderers, and shippers had cheap, disorganized and willing pool of people to labor, bleed, and exploit - Czech, Irish, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Westphalian, Belgian, Prussian, Bavarian, Norwegian, and Swedish.

Some of those immigrants had skills as carpenters, millwrights, metal workers, coopers, cartwrights, and teamsters; most had no skills other than brute strength. Today they would be called Caucasian, though very few had passed through Caucasus to get to America.

On July 12, 1904, a strike was called by the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen (AMC) whose President Michael Donnelly announced the strike.

The causes of the strike ranged from low wages to the excessive pace required while on the job. The strike lasted for nearly two months and included rioting and murder with few periods of peace. The strikers used tactics such as demonstrations and parades while the packers responded by hiring strikebreakers. Although factory conditions were unchanged, the strike had many far reaching effects on the city of Chicago, the union, and the nation as a whole. . . . The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen played a major role in the strike. It was a giant organization and employed both skilled and unskilled workers, a circumstance often resented by skilled workers.(Halpern 32) Though unity was not one of the union's strong points, the union did give workers some sense of it, which was vital when the strike finally began. The main protagonists of the strike were the common laborers, the skilled and unskilled butchers of the Chicago packing plants. The workers, now somewhat organized, demanded higher pay and an end to the relentless "speeding up" of the packing progress. The typical laborer at the time of the strike was foreign, unskilled, worked long, hard hours, and was paid less than twenty cents an hour. The strikers were also very violent which resulted in numerous murders and riots. ("Strikers Firm" 2) ( Italics indicate secondary source used)

meatpackers_strike.htm

The murders and riots were in reaction to the bringing of strikebreakers, most African Americans from the South and hired goons to agitate and incite violence. Chicago Tribune archived articles from the period of the strike - roughly July through September 1904 bear witness to the actions and motives behind those acts.

The violence brought home to the heart of readers the intense frustration felt by the strikers and their families and the malice and greed that Chicago's leading families were willing to orchestrate in the name of profit. 8,750 strikebreakers, mostly miserably poor blacks, were lured with promises of a better life in Chicago and train fare to this Killing floor of the human heart. Strikers and their families were in fact starving despite the effort of Strike relief committees and the sympathy for strikers crossed state lines. However, the need to feed the greed was greater than articulating an agreement with the AMC. The owners intended to break this strike and they succeeded.

After a unanimous vote to maintain the strike, AMC President Michael Donnelly announced the strike ended on Sept. 9 1905 - 59 days after the strike was called.

The resulting antipathy between multi-cultural,lingual, and religious Caucasians and the strikebreaking African Americans would play out for next one hundred and two years in Chicago. The nature of race relations would always be reduced to the simple 'color of a man's skin' equation by people with the luxury of not being close to the conflict.

The descendants of the strikers would recoil from relations with the people who came North in the hope of a better life. They were shoved into combat with people themselves the victims of exploitation and those who profited by that combat. Those same descendants, one hundred and two years later, continue to be at odds with one another. The strikers descendants moved away as the Black Belt expanded to Berwyn, Cicero, Maywood and the southwest sides - places that since the 1904 strike have been branded as single-mindedly racist, unlike neighborhoods far removed from killing floors on the south side. The Armours and the Swifts and their co-industrialists did well by the strike and became clean with wealth, while the strikers and the strikebreakers were set at odds with one another and continue to be.

The horrific race riots of 1919 were confined to battlefields of Back of the Yards and the Black Belt. The fight for fair housing from the 1940's through the new millennium mirror that combat zone. Dr. King marched in Marquette Park, where the descendants of the strikers lived and not in Highland Park where the people who prospered by that broken strike might have taken root. Southside white ethnic neighborhoods continue to be referred to as 'racial hotbeds,' as recently as last week, in the Chicago media. Blacks continue to be pitted against ethnic whites and both exploited for political and economic gain.

Maybe, some talk about the causes and consequences of the 1904 Meatpackers Strike should preclude any 'Let's talk Race' challenge.

Sources

Halpern, Rick. Down on the Killing Floor: Black and White Workers in Chicago's Packinghouses, 1904 - 54. Urbana, Illinois : University of Illinois Press, 1997.


Strike is Ended; Men Surrender." Chicago Daily Tribune. 9 Sept. 1904

37 comments:

Anonymous,  7:57 PM  

Hickey tries to go back in ancient history when the cause is more ancient than that.
Hickey is part of the problem not the solution.

Cal Skinner 9:32 PM  

Not having ever lived in Chicago, I appreciated the history.

Bill Baar 7:34 AM  

I posted on this a while back with a review of William Tuttle's book on it.

Considering the father of our current Mayor is alleged to have participated in the 1919 riot, I think it's very relevant.

Old man Daley never came straight, on where he was during those days and his S and A club, the Hamburgs, were in the thick of it; attacking African Americans.

It was a question people would ask in the 60s.

You certainly can't understand Chicago today if you don't understand what happened here in 1919. Especially the antagonism between the Unions and African Amercians.

Another horrible riots by far though was in East St Louis,

No other riot in American history claimed the lives of more African-Americans than the one that raged in East St. Louis during that hot summer day in 1917. It was a stain on the fabric of the city's character that would take a long time to fade. It probably explains why East St. Louis, after reaching a population of roughly 75,000 in 1920, experienced little demographic growth afterwards. Just as the murder of Elijah Lovejoy, the abolitionist newspaper editor in Alton, stifled growth in that city, a similar dark cloud hung over East St. Louis from the notoriety of the race riot.

The legacy of these riots is really still with us. It's surprizing how this history gets buried.

Every May first and Labor day, the papers will recall the Haymarket riot, and the South Side Steelworkers massacre, but these race riots always go unrecalled.

Thanks for recalling it Pat.

Pat Collins 8:50 AM  

The Elgin Courier sometimes has stories about Elgin's Company E, who was called up for the 1919 riot.

Daley would have been, what, 17, 18 in 1919?

And, of course, had immigration been tighter back then a labor shortage might have made working conditions better.

Bill Baar 9:37 AM  

...had immigration been tighter...

It was people not so long off the boat attacking African Americans; albeit recently moved to Chicago from the south during the war, but otherwise sons and daughters of some of the earliest Americans.

I'm convinced one can't understand Chicago of today if you don't know about the summer of 1919.

The city rigidly segregated itself after the riot and the lines are still in place.

Here's from American Pharoh on the elder Daley and the 1919 riots.

Was Daley himself involved in the bloody work of the 1919 race riots? His defenders have always insisted he was not, arguing that it would have been more in character for him to be attending to "his studies" or "family affairs" while much of the Irish-Catholic youth of Bridgeport were out bashing heads. But Daley's critics have long "pictur[ed] him in the pose of a brick-throwing thug." It strains credulity, they say, for Daley to have played no part in the riots when the Hamburg Athletic Club was so heavily involved — particularly when he was only a few years away from being chosen as the group's president. Daley's close ties to McDonough, who played an inflammatory role, also argue for involvement. Adding to the suspicions, Daley always remained secretive about the riots, and declined to respond to direct questions on the subject. It was a convenient political response that allowed Daley to play both sides of the city's racial divide: whites from the ethnic neighborhoods could believe that Daley was a youthful defender of the South Side color line, while blacks could choose to believe the opposite.

Daley's role, or lack of role, is likely lost to history, in part because the police and prosecutors never pursued the white gang members who instigated the violence. At the least, it can be said that Daley was an integral member of a youth gang that played an active role in one of the bloodiest antiblack riots in the nation's history — and that within a few years' time, this same gang would think enough of Daley to select him as its leader.

Anonymous,  12:13 PM  

This is an important and interesting part of history although perhaps not as crucial nor the absolute root as Hickey seems to suggest.

Certainly, big corporations pit class and race (and ethnic and religious) to get higher profits and lower wages etc. There was resentment during the Civil War of Irish fighting for the North against Slavery and riots in New York (For a fictional account remember the fictional movie (with some historical reflections of reality) with Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day Lewish GANGS OF NEW YORK--lots of problems historically with the movie but nonetheless the Irish v. Nativist and Irish v. African American/Black had some reality)--and this predated this story. So the roots go deeper.

Part of the institutional and power and political racism in this city (Chicago) had to really look at the exploitative nature of the Democratic Machine and the tribal nature of the Irish political dominant leaders and their exclusivist clique. This is most evident in the 19th ward (as they have real leadership and intelligence) and to a lesser extent in the poorer, less educated and more multi-cultural 11th ward (their dominance is only Daley centered for the last 20 years). Even other ethnic political leaders stated that if you weren't Irish than you weren't in.

The South Side Irish that Hickey is part of, have parishes from neighborhoods that changed "overnight", neighborhoods and parishes that had strong emotional connections and memories of a better time or a fantasy time that never existed a la Pat Buchanan. St. Margaret of Scotland (where Dart still has a tutoring program even though it is now almost all Black), St. Sabinas even (not under it's current leadership), and high schools like Leo where Hickey teaches and Michael "Pickle" Joyce coaches boxing. There is perhaps a positive residual of these individuals (some who use racial slurs and certainly oppossed Black political emporement in at least the progressive sense if not participated in the past in violence)that these Roman Catholic schools and parishes are supported by non Black Irish primarily Catholics who went there in generations past.
However, there is also an element of racism, police officer brutality, an incessant opposition to Black political leaders, block busting, concentration of jobs based on ethnic group and geographic location, explicit racism, etc.
Hickey seems to always gloss over this.
Racism was not created in one single event in 1919.
Current racism may have had historical animositities in this single event but is not the most important factor.

If Hickey really wants to help than he should reflect on the 19th ward and their racism. He should also condemn and oppose that racism. I am sure Hickey will come back with some zinger one liner sometimes actually intelligent and witty, othertimes with no logical sense. To really look at the causes and to try to do something about it.

Bill Baar 3:11 PM  

...big corporations pit class and race...

I worked at Harrington and King Perforating on West Fillmore next to the The Island in 70s.

I saw a group of maybe a dozen white guys chase a dozen African American kids and their teacher down the street waving baseball bats. (I have no idea what those kids were doing in that area.. they were headed for the little school in the center of the Isaland).

I told these guys took a lot of guts to chase little kids.

So they chased me instead, as I carried a steel tube on my shoulder between the factory and warehouse.

There wasn't a corporate type about. There wasn't a corporate soul to be found in The Island.

This was the same neigborhood that a decade earlier a black family rented an apartment and the neigbors through bricks at them. The Cicero cops crossed over to help supply the bricks.

You live here, you know the racists; and corporations aren't needed to incite anything for sure.

I think you need to get out in the world and talk to people.

Anonymous,  4:09 PM  

I have a feeling that the Young Richard J. Daley cracked a few African American skulls during those race riots, and just like the incident where Mayor Richard M. Daleys son almost killed the young Asian American boy who tried to get into a party at the summer home in Michigan, It is in the genes.
Pat Hickey is very smart, It took a while for the 19th ward to get him to counter all the stuff thats coming out about the 11th and 19th ward corruption. Hey Pat how close are you with the Joyce's ??? Why don't you try to defend Jerry's contracts. Ha Ha can't do it.

pathickey 4:27 PM  

I like the Joyces. They seem to have alot pests trying to exceed the reach of their talents doing some anonymous sniping at them.

The Joyces need no midling ink-slinger; they tend to take care of things pretty well on their own.

pathickey 4:50 PM  

Hi Bill,


According to the newspaper accounts ( archived) from the day Canaryville Ragens' Colts were the guys doing most of the violence against blacks. As the Hamburgers were a similar SAC, it has been 'assumed' that they participated ( i.e. Ryoko's "Boss").

Similarly, Royko described Mayor Daley's home decorating in the book though he admitted that he had never set foot in the Daley home. Sis Daley once remarked on that fact, as I recall and Royko never explained how he came to describe Daley home decorating tips.

Facts never get in the way of the agenda media and those who dine at that kind of trough should expect a white table cloth.

I did not think much of American Pharoh - too much 'maybe, might, should'and pretty light on active voice.

Bill Baar 5:31 PM  

I'm aware of the critism Pat... and I share the skeptism.

What the older Daley did do though was not confront the question squarely. Maybe he couldn't. It was beyond him. Maybe no white Chicago Pol could have.

It's a different city now in many respects and the younger Daley deserves credit for it.

Anonymous,  10:18 PM  

I thought the Hamburgers were a Quaker group from Bridgeport who sang Kumbaya and hugged black people (or colored at that time) and believed in universal brotherhood.

pathickey 3:40 AM  

I checked with the boys in Legal.
There was a flurry ( a concerted effort)of untoward personal attacks upon persons not even remotely pertinent to my post abot the 1904 Meatpackers Strike that contained defamatory and libelous material they have been deleted.

Disagree up a storm with my post and have at your humble and grateful servant - but act the knave and be consigned to poster-oblivion.

Got to get ready for work. Peace - out!

pathickey 8:40 AM  

'I thought the Hamburgers were a Quaker group from Bridgeport who sang Kumbaya and hugged black people (or colored at that time) and believed in universal brotherhood'

Naw, they were a dancing school like Muriel Abbott's of Mae Kennedy Kane's.

Anonymous,  8:47 AM  

a lot of those white alderman and women are closet bigots. just like a lot of the white voters are closet bigots. the elected officials are the ones that are th big hypocrits.

Anonymous,  10:21 AM  

Hickey is fibbing a little. Nothing defamatory. Didn't need to check in with legal, only needed to check in with Joyce and see if it was bad for him.

pathickey 10:51 AM  

Joyce who? I date a girl named Mary.

BTW - all you could wish for with regard to anyone in the 19th ward can be had from Senator Barack Obama as he is much more intimate with the political powers here than our humble little scribe. All I know is what I see and learn and that I give freely and with best regards.

As for fibbing - I restrict that to my health care professionals:
'Smoking again, I see.' 'Yes Dr. Bargas, two or three a day.' 'Getting much exercise ?' ' The odd sprint ( for a Dove bar) now and then.' & etc.

On the legal score, two very good PC pettifoggers, recomended a liberal application of the censor's stroke where needed. Actionable statements ( archived)are in good hands.

Anonymous,  1:02 PM  

Actionable statements (archived)
People are really getting scared including friends of Obama

Anonymous,  9:45 PM  

Hickey is funny.

He wants Irish GUEST WORKERS to get jobs in Chicago.

He defends the TORTURE of Jon Burge and the fellow Irish coppers on the Area 2 midnight shift (don't forget Area 3)

But he helps out at Leo and Durkin is a good lawyer and the Joyces are just peaches of kindness and integrity.

Great job Hickey, keep it up, just hope your Leo students don't try to get a job of an Irish national guest worker or get picked up by certain sociopathic violent psycho gang bangers or cops

Anonymous,  12:48 AM  

There is a solution to racism. All jobs, contracts, and power should be given to and distributed by South Side Irish. They will be the ruling class--it will be good for all and stop the infighting.

The other races (ethnic groups, religions, geographic areas) should recognize the superiority of the South Side Irish. Jeremiah Joyce is like an incarnation and avatar and if the petty other people would just see his genius and let him distribute the benefits of government.

The Irish are inherently better at government (South not North Side with the exception of Richard Devine) All other races are servant classes to our elite.
This will be better for all and provide stability and ben
efit for everyone one.

To recognize one's place and to not question. Be a part of the solution of progress, a cog in the machine not a talentless, malcontent brining apart a good system that works.

The alternative is the pay day for Flint and Locke. Or the chaos of the hypocricy of Fitzgerald (Patrick) and the incomptetence of Peter Fitzgerald (traitors both the true lost tribe the chosen people the leaders of Chicago.

HAIL CAESAR (even if he was a dago)
HAIL DALEY
HAIL DEGNAN
HAIL JOYCE
(The holy Irish trinity Daley/Degnan/Joyce--co-equal of the same substance, three yet one)
like the three leaf clover

pathickey 6:09 AM  

You kids really need to lay off the Red Bull.

Anonymous,  7:22 AM  

Pat Hickey,

What did you think of the movie GANGS OF NEW YORK with Leonardo DiCaprio?
What do you think of the Civil War/Slavery/Riots/Irish immigration nexus?

Wouldn't there be racism, segregated neighborhoods etc. regardless of the 1919 riots?

On a different note:
How can we keep Catholic schools in the inner city open?

You posted a long time ago that you agreed that there was a disproportionate amount of political power in the hands of the so called "South Side Irish" and particularly the 11th and 19th wards (and more particularly certain individuals)--did I misunderstand that you agree and recognize that? But you said there are reasons etc--well what are the reasons? and is that good?

EZ

Anonymous,  7:58 AM  

Hickey gets up early, I hope he has his Irish coffee (no whiskey at 6AM however)

Remember Bobby Sands
at least Bobby Sands wasn't in with Jon Burge

pathickey 8:20 AM  

Hi emilaino,

You need to read the article as posted - it was about the 1904 Meatpackers Strike and the 1919 Riot an adjunct to that.

'Wouldn't there be racism, segregated neighborhoods etc. regardless of the 1919 riots?'

'Gangs of New york was pretty lame; except for Daniel Day Lewis' performance.

pathickey 8:38 AM  

Emiliano,

Sorry for the interpruption - There is an amazingly disproportionate number of public officials from this neighborhood.

Some would argue - get ready to so Kids - that it is due to a conspiracy and cabal-like rites, but it has more to do with talent and practice.

To those who are concerned about my early hours - the pure of heart sleep soundest and arise to greet the sun - they don't need to damn the harvest.
Like writing, or anything else, an art - and politics is an art as well as a craft - 'comes from art (practice) not chance, as those move easiest who have learned to dance ( Ars Poetica). Good politicians -like great writers, teachers, plumbers, pipe-fitters, and fiddlers - work at it their entire lives; they do not as the Progressive would have it - spring from the head of Jove.

That they are Irish has more to do with history and the avocation, than what the whinners would have you believe. The Czechs, the Germans, the Swedes, the Polish, the Russian ( Jews and Christian), the Italians, Lituanians and the Ukranians had no use for politics or what politics had to offer. Most of the other ethnic immigrants had core skills upon which to depend.

Look at the Mexicans as an example akin to the Irish; they share many of the same characteristics as the Irish - family traditions, religion, dedication to hard work, and generocity. They are the new Irish and learning the political trades with great keenness.

That the Irish are still around bothers people; sorry. It bothered them two hundred years ago.

Lastly, Emiliano, the people selling sour grapes are not effective vintners. They's be howling if it snowed ice cream.

Anonymous,  10:42 AM  

Unless that Ice Cream was pooped by Barack Obama as you so eloquently put it.

I am not sure the Hispanics specifically the Mexicans are learning the political trades with great keeness (The Puerto Ricans may be doing better with more elected officials in a disproportionate amount from their numbers):

1. There are no Mexicans elected statewide to any state constitutional office.
2. There are no Mexicans elected Citywide (the last being Miriam Santos who at least at the end had an adversarial relationship to the powers that be)
3. There are no Mexicans elected Countywide besides MWRD(the old Sanitary District) Commissioner Frank Avila Sr. who won against the so called machine without support from the official Mexican political establishment. While perhaps a qualified and good elected official and a nice man, Avila is a minor player outside the mainstream and his election was unique because of his son't lawsuit for him and a bizarre set of political circumstances. Few other Hispanics have ever won countywide (Irene Hernandez and Joe Berrios come to mind although Irene is dead and Joe is a Commissioner from a 1/3 of the County in a district)
4. The main patronage power base has been the Hispanic Democratic Organization, that certainly increased Hispanic/Mexican employment at least in the City but under at least a cloud of controversy. In this case, the "Irish" at least Mayor Daley has been good to Hispanics in many positions and for this patronage group regardless of their drawbacks. The percentage of employment for Hispanics is relatively low at least compared to population numbers in the State and the County although Hispanics have made strides under Governor Blagojevich. County numbers are pretty bad with the exception of Sheriff Sheehan.
5. Voter registration and turnout are very low compared to any other group. The Hispanic wards (like 12 and 22) are the lowest in the City.
6. There seems to be at least a partial national trend as Hispanics move up the economic ladder (unlike Blacks) to vote Republican and gave George W. Bush relatively large support at least compared to other Republicans.
7. I like the number 7, it is supposed to be lucky so I will keep it.

NOT CARLOS BUT I WISH I WAS

pathickey 10:57 AM  

Senor Santanna,

It is early in the game yet. I have no doubt that Mexicans will lead the way in the coming years.

The Head of the Office of Revenue with the hyphen attached to a ludicrously Irish name of Hickey -
Bea Reyna- Hickey was the hero of the great Heat disaster some years ago and enacted the measures to combat heat related deaths in Chicago, before becoming the Director of Revenue - Mexican American!

There are so many more. The Mexicans will make the Irish a memory in Chicago's political future. Puerto Ricans have helped make Humbolt Park a neighborhood that stands out above others, but I think that radical politics will be their undoing: i.e. the scandals associated with some local school councils and LISKS. Sheer numbers make the Mexicans more powerful.

Anonymous,  12:22 PM  

Last night on Channel 2 News Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. admitted to calling Frank Coconate a scuingili (pasta? spelling?) head.

What if an Italian called Jesse Jackson Jr. a watermelon or fried chicken or collard green head.
Or Pat Hickey a potato head (is it with an oe or o? I am like Quayle)
Everyone would be crying racism.

But Jackson is allowed to make anti-Italian statements.

pathickey 12:33 PM  

Vito, my friend, I am a potato head and my kids are potato-headed.

The plural use of the ethnic pejorative ( term of endearment) would be potato-heads; thereby, skirting the public relations gaffe of former Vice President Quayle.

In point of fact, my head, to quote the eminent Skinny Sheahan, is 'like a boulder in a Gene Autry movie.'

Anonymous,  12:42 PM  

There seems to be a big hypocricy and double standard. The eminent (is that the right use of the word?) Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr seems to have a right to call an Italian American after a bowl of pasta (or perhaps an entire tub of pasta) BUT if anyone (Jimmy the Greek, Skinny Sheehan) made a joke about an ethnic group or anything Jackson would be there demanding an apology. I think many people are too uptight and I like to joke with friends, but there is public and respect.

What is clear is that Jackson has a superiority complex with blue collar Chicagoans and can use Italian slurs or jokes without any thought. Double standard.

I would never vote for that race hustler for Mayor.

Anonymous,  12:47 PM  

What if Pete Silvestri or Sen Jimmy DiLeo started "joking" that
Congressman Jesse Jackson was a Ethiopian looking black since his operation to lose weight or when he was fat that he was a big fried chicken mud pie eating Fat Albert.
That is funny and people say it in movies. Or what if DiLeo called him an eggplant.
They would be condemned faster than Jimmy the Greek by daddy Jackson. Italians get all the bad rap

Anonymous,  7:01 AM  

Hickey, I am up to, because early to bed and early to rise, and like the Psalms and Proverbs say--good conscience means good sleep--except if I eat or drink too much to late but that is another story.

I agree that Mexicans politically have a great future, but it is a generation away and this HDO faction does not help them with the gang and drug connections.

I had nothing against Congressman Jackson, but I would go with Daley, warts and all and Daley has many warts some in the shape of green clovers, but I would still vote for Daley over Jackson.

Jackson's stupid qoute and calling this Italian political operative an ethnic slur qouted from a movie is almost surreal. I agree with earlier posts that if the situation was reversed Rev. Jackson would be calling for an apology. Lots of hypocricy and double standard on the race issue.

I also agree that because of numbers/demographics and a radical politics not palatable to the general public the previously strong Puerto Rican political clique will eventually die out.

Hickey is a genius. He is up early in the morning. He is witty like those guys who make fun of the callers on talk radio. He is right over 60% of the time.

pathickey 8:29 AM  

San Patrici Mi Herman,

Just a working stiff; most are up early and stay on top of the issues. Smartest man I ever met was a Ukranian immigrant who could quote passages from Byron's 'Childe Harold,' work the NYT Crossword puzzle, pack a pump in a boilers room, and pick trifectas ona regular basis - Big Dumb Ukee he was called by his Irish boss who couldn't tie shoes and wore loafers.

Viva Mexico! Old Jimmy Polk never saw this one coming

Anonymous,  3:56 PM  

Picking trifectas alone is amazing.

What if Congressman Jackson called him a Big Dumb Ukee? he would just be qouting a movie, maybe Spike Lee or something

thos NYT crossword puzzles can be hard

pathickey 4:10 PM  

For harness racing this guy built gimmicks off of Steve Searle and for the flats he'd do the same with Randy Meyer.

I have never finished a crossword puzzle. DUMMMMAAASSSSSSSSSSS!

Anonymous,  9:18 PM  

I can't stand Rod
I really don't like Topinka either

Perhaps a little celt-centric, or nineteen-centric
BUT
educated, well read, good historical sense, good educational policy, good sense of religion in society, pro-Mexican, somewhat humorous

He can't give all the contracts to the former Senator JJ.
He can't give too many jobs to the boys from Beverly (or Mount Greenwood)

Rod sucks
Topinka is mediocre at best
Hickey could get some good advice
IRish names sell, whatever the reason good or bad
Hickey is not attached to scandal, mafia, Hired Trucks, Jon Burge, drugs, Sorich, pedophilia or anything else we know about
He teaches in the African American community
Hickey can get the Catholic vote

the only concern is the intelligence to do a crossword puzzle--even a NYT one and will that affect (or is it effect) the Jewish vote

HICKEY FOR GOVERNOR

Anonymous,  10:53 PM  

Hickey would be better than Topinka or Blago.

The Teachers Union would oppose him because of his educational choice stand. Especially the CTU and IEA.

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