By Friday Afternoon, I had resigned myself to the fact that my two week attempt to secure a visit to the Barack Obama campaign headquarters would not happen.  I would take my family down to Michgan Avenue for some Garrett's popcorn and call it a vacation; The trip had been just like I envisioned, museums, a trip to Wrigley, Chicago style deep dish pizza, Navy Pier, what more could a guy ask for.  I had made a pretty good push with the Obama people, but it just didn't come through.  Then I get a call as I'm exiting for downtown.  The visit had been set in motion, but it wasn't a reality yet. Check back Tuesday for a recap.

When Father Michael Pfleger called in to the Roland S. Martin show at 7 a.m. on Friday morning, at least I knew he was awake. I gave dialed him up and asked if I could drop by and visit with him after I left WVON. Thanks to GPS (I call her GiGi) it was an easy trip down to 87th. I felt welcome from the moment I pulled up in front of the Faith Community of St. Sabina. I didn't know that Father Pfleger had resumed his duties at the parish until our Chicago family members made us aware of the fact earlier in the week. You may remember me recounting the "temporary leave of absence" Cardinal George had placed on Father Pfleger a few weeks ago. I went in fully intending it to be a personal visit to check in on how the Father was doing since all of the media and political scapegoating that had taken place over the last few weeks. The last thing that I want to do is throw gasoline on America's race baiting fire, but a story unfolded that I had to share with the Dallas South family. After a few minutes ...

Friday was a busy day. I started out with a 6 am visit to WVON - The Talk of Chicago. There I sat and watched my Texas A&M Chapter Brother (A-Phi) in a rare studio airing of his show. Fortunately the sun rises at 5 am in Chi-Town so it didn't feel quite so early. The Executive Producer of the Roland S. Martin Show Ms. Geneen Hartson greeted me when I arrived and walked me into the studio. It was quite cool of her because I only asked Roland if I could sit in the night before and he was cool with it, but I pretty much just showed up. The lead topic on the show was the Supreme Court's decision to strike down a Washington D.C. gun ban. The majority of the callers agreed with the Court's decision, which Chicago's mayor Richard Daley vehemently disagreed with in the Chicago Tribune. He vowed to fight to keep a similar ban in Chicago. At around 7 o'clock, one caller chimed in as a dissenter against the Court's 5-4 ruling. That was Father Michael Pfleger (more on that later). Roland tossed out ...

Some of you noticed I slipped a vacation in on you guys last week. Though I took my computer on my trip to Chicago, I did very little blogging. Big ups to Earnest Gates who contributed a couple of extra posts in my absence. It's hard to turn off the blogging mentality, but what I can say with certainty is that Tuesday-Thursday of my 4 day trip I left never put my blogging cap on. Only on Friday did I go all in, and it was a doozy. I hope you enjoy the retelling of the time I spent watching Roland Martin in action, Father Michael Pfleger back on the job, and a surprise tour on Friday afternoon. I didn't take a lot of notes, so most of it will be on memory. I also want to share my thoughts on Chicago as a tourist city, if time permits. As always, let me know what you think, and have a great week.

Fox News is not a news station. I'm amazed at how much credibility people give to a right wing PR outfit like Faux. Maybe it's because people don't have the chance to listen to their hosts on the radio. Driving around throughout the day, I have time to fly by Sean Insanity's propaganda filled 3 hours as well as Bill O'Reiley's radio factor. I keep getting emails asking for people to boycott Fox News. That's an unreasonable request because most of the people getting the emails don't watch Fox with any consistency. The closed minded race baiting crowd who believe in Fox have no intentention to stop watching. But back to the point, just because they call themselves "fair an balanced" doesn't meat that they are. There has never been a solitary action taken by the station to make one believe fair is their intent. Whether it's immigration or God forbid the thought of a black man running for POTUS, Fox takes the position of the hard right on at all cost. People should treat Fox as what it is, a tool to stir up fear; fear of cooky liberals, dangerous immigrants, fanatical Muslims, and angry black ...

CHICAGO, IL- The Obama campaign announced today that Senator Obama will be traveling overseas to assess the situation in countries that are critical to American national security, and to consult with close friends and allies. Senator Obama will visit France, Germany, Israel, Jordan and the United Kingdom where he will consult with the leaders of those nations about common challenges like terrorism, nuclear proliferation and climate change. "This trip will be an important opportunity for me to assess the situation in countries that are critical to American national security, and to consult with some of our closest friends and allies about the common challenges we face," said Barack Obama. "Israel is a strong and close friend of the United States, and is confronting grave threats from Gaza to Tehran. Jordan has been a close partner in the peace process and a host of other issues of common concern. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are key anchors of the transatlantic alliance and have contributed to the mission in Afghanistan, and I look forward to discussing how we can strengthen ...

Here's a couple of oldies but goodies for OSF in this week's theme kid groups. I wanted to reach deep and I think I found a winner with Candy Rain. Then I had to go with one a little more predictable, but still a jam from my wheelhouse which is 1990-1994. So ABC/Iesha was the joint (We Played Nintendo). Happy OSF!!!

Before dinner tonight we pulled up CNN politics and the red breaking news banner was plastered across the top of the page. "Obama contributes maximum $2,300 to Clinton campaign." Is that really breaking news? I'm sure CNN et al. miss the good old days of Clinton and Obama at each others throats. Since there's been no mud flying back and forth I guess they thought they would drum up a non-story like this one to suck people back in. According to the CNN story, Senator Obama and his wife each gave the Clinton campaign $2,300 which is the maximum individual contribution allowed. Some of his staffers have already followed suit. Obama has asked his top donors to help Clinton retire her campaign debt of $22 million ($12 million is owed to herself). Interesting story? Yes. Relevant? Probably so. Breaking news? Not so much.

By Earnest Gates This is the first of a series of posts under this title. The main strategy to prevent Democratic victories is to suppress the vote. I would recommend that you watch the documentary, "American Blackout" and read the very telling book, "Stolen Again." Both of these resources tell the story of how the Republican Party has decided that they would rather suppress the vote of Blacks and other supports of a Democratic agenda than to persuade them to go a different route. Contrary to some popular opinion, this country does not swing to the right. It is more center-left than center-right. Just take a look at the current tone of the country. We can not get rid of Bush and company fast enough! The plan when George W. Bush came to the White House was to maintain a permanent Republican majority.  The country was even governed this way! As a result of these actions, strategies were put in place to make sure that Republicans would get the upperhand in crucial elections in swing states. Here is an example: Do you think it was a coincedence that the 2000 election came down to Florida, when George Bush's brother was the Governor of the ...

Des Moines — Howard Witt, national correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, has won the 2008 American Judicature Society’s Toni House Journalism Award. Witt is the Tribune’s Southwest bureau chief based out of Houston. The award is named after the late U.S. Supreme Court public information officer Toni House. It honors outstanding journalism that enhances public understanding of the courts and contributes to the improvement of the administration of justice. The award will be presented at a ceremony later this year. Witt was selected as the recipient for a career body of work that has heightened public awareness of continuing racial disparities in America. Most notably, Witt wrote the first national story on racial tensions in Jena, Louisiana, now commonly known as the Jena 6 story. Witt’s other prominent stories led to the release of Shaquanda Cotton, a black teen who received seven years in jail for shoving her school hall monitor in Paris, Texas, and to a large civil award for Billy Ray Johnson, a mentally disabled black man in Texas who was beaten and left for dead by four white youths who received only a slap on the wrist in criminal court. Witt is the tenth recipient of the award. Previous ...