At least the attorneys are busy

Once again Illinois provides a view into government's use of your hard earned money.  The 4/30/12 issue of the Chicago Tribune contains the following article:

Summer youth job money misspent on community organizing, golf course work

 Everyone's favorite Governor Rod Blagojevich was unable to convince the state legislature to fund a public works project that included a youth job program.  So Blagojevich created the program using the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) budget.  IDOT receives the majority of its funding from the gasoline tax. This gas tax money is set aside into a trust fund that is to be used for transportation projects only.  The summer youth jobs program clearly does not qualify for IDOT funding.  To make matters worse the $7.8 million that was diverted from IDOT was not put to any productive purpose.  The following are some of the details from the above news article:

 The Office of the Executive Inspector General review concluded the $7 million program in which Blagojevich promised to hire up to 10,000 youths for eight-week jobs ended up costing $7.8 million and resulted in only 3,500 youths getting jobs.

The report said transportation officials conducted an audit of the jobs program and findings were referred to Attorney General Lisa Madigan. In December 2010, Madigan’s office “responded to the referral stating that the matter as the subject of an active federal investigation” and would not take action, the report said.

The report said five Chicago nonprofit social service agencies that deal with minority, ethnic and disadvantaged youths administered the program for more than 100 service providers, including neighborhood churches.
Though transportation officials had questioned making a second round of payments because of “red flags” about the jobs workers had performed, one unidentified agency official said “there was considerable pressure from… (Blagojevich’s office) to just keep this program going,” the report said.
An unidentified top transportation official interviewed by the state executive inspector general’s office was quoted as calling the program “a disaster” and “thrown together at the last minute.”

It appears that this has indeed become a jobs program.  Of course the jobs are held by government inspectors and attorneys.

The No. 1 earmarks guy

The following news article by Herbert A. Sample of the Associated Press ran in the 11/9/09 edition of the Honolulu Star Bulletin:

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20091109_inouyes_earmarks_go_to_his_donors.html

The following quote is a very gentle attempt to describe our current political situation:

• "I think what that shows you is, at the very least, there's the appearance of a quid pro quo between campaign contributions and then how decisions are made to allocate taxpayer resources," said Mandy Smithberger, of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington, D.C.
  

The blatant political corruption that was revealed by the investigation of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was a national news story. Most who followed that story reassured themselves by rationalizing that corruption on that scale was unusual and certainly not part of their state or local politics. Things like that only happen else ware.

The above news story explains “pay to play” on a national scale. Here you have an eight term US senator bragging that "I'm the No. 1 earmarks guy in the U.S. Congress."

Senator Inouye is not beholden to his constituents, only to his large campaign contributors. The root of this problem is the power of incumbency. 95% of federal officeholders are reelected. This removes any real need to represent the will of the citizens.

Dead men tell no tales

Christopher Kelly, the person who knew the most damaging information about former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is dead. The investigators have decided that his death was either murder or suicide.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-christopher-kelly-dead-13sep13,0,6335509,full.story

The facts of this case:

• Kelly's death ended a tumultuous year in his life. He twice pleaded guilty to federal charges. He was estranged from his wife. And he faced serious financial problems, partly due to gambling debts. But Kelly indicated he was not going to turn on Blagojevich despite pressure from prosecutors.
  
• The chief Blagojevich fundraiser -- who also was one of Blagojevich's closest advisers -- had been indicted three times by federal authorities in recent years, the last time in April in the sweeping conspiracy case against the ex-governor.
  
• The Cook County medical examiner's office said Stroger Hospital officials told them that Kelly apparently died of an overintoxication of salicylate, a drug used in anti-inflammatory and pain relief medications such as aspirin.Authorities said Kelly was in his 2007 Cadillac Escalade in the parking lot of a lumber yard at 173rd Street and Cicero Avenue in Country Club Hills -- a few miles from his Markham office -- Friday night when he began vomiting. Sources said a girlfriend of Kelly's drove him to nearby Oak Forest Hospital of Cook County.

In my opinion there are 2 possible explanations for Kelly’s death:

1. Kelly chooses to end his own life by taking an overdose of aspirin while in the company of his girlfriend in the parking lot of an abandoned lumberyard.

2. Kelly was poisoned and fell ill from the poison while in a clandestine encounter with a woman in the parking lot of an abandoned lumberyard.

I find scenario number 2 to be more realistic. This leads to the interesting question, who poisoned Kelly?

Kelly had intimate knowledge of the inner workings of Illinois and Chicago politics. This knowledge would give Kelly the ability to negotiate a reduction in jail time with the Justice Department. In return Kelly would have to testify against someone higher up in political office. If we can find who Kelly was about to testify against we will find the killer.

A new Governor but the same old story

The new governor of Illinois Patrick Quinn is accused of selling "face time":

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/05/in-midst-of-reform-push-quinn-campaign-sought-campaign-contributions-for-face-time-with-new-governor.html

Some of the sordid details:

• One of the trade association executives said today his group received a call Thursday from Quinn’s political operation, seeking a $15,000 fundraiser. The other association executive said his group was called a week ago.



• One organization official said their group was called by a Quinn political staff member and told that “you would probably like to have face time with the governor to talk about your industry concerns and we’re making time available.”

See how Chicago politics works?

John Kass is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He has the ability to explain politics and clout in clear language. The following is today’s column:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-04-apr03,0,5900624.column

The subject of the above article is the 2002 Illinois Elections, which resulted in Rod Blagojevich’s first term as governor. Paul Vallas ran against Blagojevich in the Democratic primary in 2002. Vallas was an outsider who was chosen to head the Chicago Public School system. He made many local politicians uncomfortable with his cost cutting and reforms in the school system and he was fired by Mayor Richard Daley. When Vallas decided to run for Governor the established political system backed Blagojevich. During the primary campaign Vallas was leading in the polls, especially in districts populated predominately by African Americans. To counter the Vallas threat Roland Burris enters the race for Governor.

Kass describes this process brilliantly in these paragraphs:

“Vallas lost the 2002 primary to Blagojevich by about 25,000 votes out of 1.3 million votes cast. He lost in a squeeze play featuring Blagojevich and his loyal wingman, longtime political hack and current U.S. Sen. Roland "Tombstone" Burris.

Burris had no hope of winning, but he did an excellent job blocking for Blagojevich. Burris played the race card, saying he was more qualified than those "white boy" opponents of his, ham-handedly reminding constituents that he was indeed black. He also helped bring those votes to Lisa Madigan, a daughter of the machine, now the state attorney general who wants to become governor and share Illinois with her daddy.

There are no coincidences in politics. Burris came in third and later began receiving state contracts from Gov. Blagojevich, who, in a last desperate act before being forced out of office, appointed Burris to the U.S. Senate. See how Chicago politics works?”

The (bleeping) golden bargaining chip

The Blagojevich indictments have captured many of the former governor’s closest advisors and friends including his brother. Absent from the list of indictments is his wife Patricia.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-blago-whatnext-bd-05-apr05,0,7070058.story

The reporters who wrote the above story are naive in their speculation about the Justice Departments motives for leaving Patti out of the list of indictments. This speculation is summed up in the following paragraph:

“Many have speculated the government has not yet charged Patricia Blagojevich in a strategic move to offer Rod Blagojevich the chance to spare her by pleading guilty and avoiding a trial. Others have said they think sparing Patricia Blagojevich could be viewed as a good public-relations move because prosecutors do not want to appear to be threatening to take both parents from the Blagojevich children.”

I my opinion the US Attorney’s office could care less about the PR related to taking away both children. I think that the real plot here is whether or not the Justice Department will allow Rod Blagojevich to plea bargain for a reduced sentence by testifying against larger criminal targets. If the Justice Department is squeezing Blagojevich to testify against Mayor Richard Daley or President Obama then they will hold out the carrot of leaving Patti out of the indictments.

On the other hand if the Justice Department is being pressured to keep any higher level politicians out of this investigation they can use Patti as a bargaining chip to keep Rod quiet about Daley or Obama. Under this scenario the US Attorney pressures Rod to plead guilty, Patti remains unindicted and there will be no further investigations.

The other possible explanation for leaving Patti out of the prosecution is her father’s political clout. Patricia Blagojevich is the daughter of Chicago Alderman Richard Mell. Mell has been a Chicago Alderman since 1975. Alderman Mell played a significant role in organizing the field operations for Rahm Emanuel's 2002 election to Congress.

and you just move on with it

The news story below is a touching personal commentary from Chicago’s Mayor:

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/04/mayor-daley-illinois-has-moved-on-from-blagojevich-scandal.html

I feel better knowing that we can “move on” even though our elected officials are blatantly corrupt and have sold our government services and offices for personal gain.

"better than nothing"

The mayor of Chicago is giving us another look into the inner workings of politics:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-daley-stimulus-projects-13mar13,0,5875583.story

This paragraph is very telling:

Daley has talked about a wish list of projects he wanted to pay for with the federal stimulus money, but he declined to say Thursday whether all those wishes were granted. The mayor repeatedly declined to release the original list, saying the media would rip it apart.

Since the first discussions in Washington about stimulus packages Daley has refused to divulge how the money would be spent when Chicago received it. This ushers in a new era of openness in government given that the Obama administration would not divulge how the stimulus money would be spent when it asked for congressional approval. We have created a politician’s paradise, federal spending with no oversight distributed to state and local governments with no oversight. Unfortunately Rod Blagojevich is no longer in office to allocate spending for Illinois.

Blagojevich has book deal

Yes, the book will be out in time for Christmas!

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/03/agent-says-ousted-gov-blagojevich-has-book-deal-will-talk-senate.html

I am sure that signed copies of this great piece of literature will be available for a reasonable price (cash only).

Wiretap - the screenplay

One of my friends in Chicago sent me this rough draft of a screenplay.

FBI File #9536B
Wiretap on line 312-XXX-3.'XXX
November 10th, 2008
12:42 PM Eastern Time
Rush transcript:
RAHM EMANUEL: This is Rahm.
ROD BLAGOJEVICH: Hey Rahm, yeah it's Rod.
EMANUEL: Uh-huh. What's going on governor, I’m busy.
BLAGO: Well, it's about that Senate appointment...
EMANUEL: We already gave you the list of people we like.
BLAGO: Yeah, I been looking the list over. Interesting names. Good people. How's the transition going?
EMANUEL: It's going fine, governor. Are you calling to fucking tell me anything, or what, cause I-‑
BLAGO: No no, I'm just wondering if you have all your picks already made. I heard something about Dashle for HHS-‑
EMANUEL: I’m not gonna discuss ongoing deliberations, gov, you know that.
BLAGO: Hey, come on Rahm, let's not act like I'm a stranger here.
EMANUEL: Did I call you a stranger? If I thought you were a stranger, you think I'd be interrupting my important flicking business to take this fucking phone call? BLAGO: Hey you don't have to get curt with me, Rahm.
EMANUEL: This isn't me being curt, Gov, this is me being fucking busy. Now what did you call about?
BLAGO: I'm just feeling you out, seeing if Valerie [Jarret] still wants that Senate seat, just wondering what kind of priority that is for the President-Elect.
EMANUEL: Actually, it's not a priority. Valerie's had second thoughts about the job.
BLAGO: What, she doesn't want it anymore?
EMANUEL: She's having second thoughts. You want more details, you ask her.
BLAGO: She won't take my calls.
EMANUEL: Big fucking surprise.
BLAGO: What's that supposed to mean?
EMANUEL: Um, I don't know, what's it supposed to mean governor? A.) You're a fucking crook. B.) You're a fucking asshole. C.) All of the above.
BLAGO: I'm clean Rahm, you know this. You think that fucking Fitzgerald would be twiddling his fucking thumbs if he had shit to go on?
EMANUEL: I gotta go, Gov. You appoint who you want, we really don't give a shit.
BLAGO: What if I appoint Valerie, what if she takes it?
EMANUEL: What do you want me to say? We'd appreciate it; I'm not gonna fucking kiss your ring over it.
BLAGO: "Appreciate it"? Come on, this is a senate seat we're talking about. It's worth a fuck of a lot more than appreciation.
EMANUEL: You asked us for a list, we gave you a flicking list, you want to make your own list then make your own fucking list. [Raising voice] But if you're asking for anything else from me, or Barack, or Valerie, then you can fucking stop talking right now Rod.
BLAGO: Wait a sec there Rahm. Wait just a fucking minute. Who are you to talk to me like that? I fucking made you.
EMANUEL: You made me? You made me? Tell me you're fucking joking. BLAGO: No no no, you listen to me shit-face. You see this list I got, the names motherfucking Obama fucking wants for the Senate. I just ripped it in two. How you like that? Oops, Harris just dropped it in the shredder. Harris?
HARRIS (muffled): Yes sir?
BLAGO: Did you just drop that list in the shredder?
[Whirring, shredder noise]
HARRIS (muffled): I did.
EMANUEL: Do you have me on fucking speakerphone?
BLAGO: It's in the shredder, Rahm. The list is bye bye.
EMANUEL: Hold on a sec -- you got me on fucking speakerphone? Who the fuck do you think I am?
BLAGO: Who are you Rahm? Who are you? You're shit, you hear me? Don't come back to Chicago Rahm, it's not your town any more.
EMANUEL: Pick up the phone Rod.
BLAGO: I’ll put someone in the senate who will fucking fuck you. I might even put myself in there, how’d you like that Rahm? How you gonna explain that to fucking Barack, every time he's gotta call me up for my fucking vote. He'd have to take my calls then, wouldn't he?
EMANUEL: [Screaming] I said pick up the FUCKING phone!
BLAGO: [Picks up phone, speakerphone off] I got your attention now, didn't I? EMANUEL: Shut the fuck up and listen to me for one second Rod. And I want you to listen carefully, because this is the last time I'm ever going to talk to you. You are fucking dead to me. You been fucking dead to Barack since '06, now you're dead to me. Know what that means? That means you're dead to my people in Chicago, Daley on down, and all these friends you think you have aren't gonna touch you with a ten foot fucking pole.
BLAGO: Oh now you're the fucking Godfather? Fuck you.
EMANUEL: No fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you.
BLAGO: Fuck you!
EMANUEL: Listen up asshole. The shit's gonna hit the fan, maybe tomorrow, maybe next month, and when Fitz finally brings down the hammer it's gonna be my name that's going through your head. You won't know the hows or the fucking whys, but it's gonna have my fucking fingerprints all over it. Have a great life fatso.
BLAGO: Hey fuck-‑
EMANUEL: [Click.]
End of conversation
End transcript.
[Update] From ABC News:
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald says there is "nothing in the complaint" that implicates President-elect Obama but the affidavit suggests someone from the Obama camp was in touch with Blagojevich or his aides, if only to tell the Governor that Obama would not offer anything but "appreciation" in exchange for the Senate appointment.

Auctioning Illinois?