Don't forget Chicago's draconian gun control laws, Cowgal.

psst... there's no handguns in chicago the law says so.

Oops, forgot about that. For those that don't know - its illegal to own a handgun in Chicago. Yup, you can do jail time if you're caught with a handgun.

Well, at least I don't have it that bad here in California............yet.

Just think how bad the crime rate would be in Chicago if victims had the right to arm themselves.

I will bet my last dollar the 'victims' in these killings were armed themselves. Most of the inner city violence are bad guys and gangsters shooting at and killing each other. So, in that respect very much like the Baghdad we created.

Good Grief! Read, inform yourselves. I just can't get over how amazed I am at some of the things that I read on here. Does anyone actually pay attention to what happens in this country or is everything all guns, all people, now.

We already pulled out of Chicago a long time ago and look what happened.

http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2007/03crime_ludwig.aspx

That's like saying if we put a doctor on every corner, people will stop getting sick. Police are reactionary. When you have seconds to respond to a threat to your safety, a 911 call just tells the police where to find the body.

Cowgal's point is well stated -- Chicago's a basket case in terms of government. The same thing could be said for New York City under David Dinkins, California under Gray Davis, or Louisiana under Kathleen Blanco -- all Democrats and horrid failures. All made rapid turnarounds under Republicans Rudy Giuliani, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bobby Jindal, respectively.

Basket case, Like the US under Bush and also Cali is hurting pretty bad under Arni.

Actually, Bush did a great job with the economy -- especially with pulling us out of the damage of late 2001. Things went well until the mortgage crisis started things tumbling recently. But even that could have been prevented if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had been regulated like the Repubs wanted. But Dems like Barney Frank buried their heads in the sand and refused to heed warnings, and look what we got.

As for California, it was in pretty sad fiscal shape and having rolling brownouts under Gray Davis. Arnold turned that around.