This sign may very well have ended up in the snow due to some bad blood. There were two blood feuds going on in the Illinois Primary. One was the Rich Bradley v. Iris Martinez race for the 20th State Senate district and the other was for Cook County Board of Review. These were the only two races where the candidates did major TV ad buys in the Chicagoland area. Tood Stroger is a very controversial figure. He's the head of the Cook County Board of Comissioners (Cook County is the county that contains Chicago and most of its Democratic leading suburbs) but he was never elected. His father was elected in 2006 after he had a stroke and refused to drop out of the race for most of the campaign. On Monday before the election he basically said, "I'm not going to be able to serve but a vote for me is a vote for my son." This angered me to no end and I actually voted for a Republican for anything higher than judge on the ballot for only the third time in my life. Berrios who was an incumbant Cook County Board of Review (pretty much the property tax board) was a good part of the back room dealings that enabled Stroger Jr. to ascend to the Cook County Commission. I almost voted for John Paul Deratany for that reason alone. I ended up voting for Barrios in the end because Deratany's campaign was "tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts." And while I'm not against tax cuts, I don't trust anyone Democrat or Republican who runs exclusively on them. This photo was, for the record, the second time I reached 773 photos on my other stream. 773 is the area code for the area of Chicago outside downtown. And since this photo was taken in that area, it's pretty appropriate. Now it's here on this account.

I went into Chicago for the Air and Water Show. I had a good time and shot too many pictures of the various performances. This jet was just ripping the air with the awesome noise as he put on a great show. I didn't spend the $10 for a program and do not know what jet fighter this is but I can say it was way fast and way cool to see our tax dollars rocking the lakefront. Indeed as Theresa points out.. the sound barrier was not broken at any time during the show...Loud Yes, SuperSonic flight No.