Illinois Governor Accused of Political Corruption Crime Spree
Barbara Anderson
December 12, 2008
Another Illinois politician has been accused of two crimes, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery.
Yawn.
The charges are all too familiar in the background of political irregularities around the windy city. Chicago politicians are notorious for fixing things so their guys win.
This particular guy is Governor Rod Blagojevich who is charged with trying to sell the senatorship that is coming vacant due to President Obama´s having been elevated to the presidency of the U.S.
Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney, reported on some of the recorded court-authorized wiretaps. According to Fitzgerald, Blagojevich said: "It´s a ´bleeping´ valuable thing. You just don´t give it away for nothing.´"
Fitzgerald seemed to absolve President Obama of any complicity. A three-year probe into Blagojevich´s administration yielded those charges.
On Tuesday Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Il) called it "a sad day for my state", and said he was "shocked" at Blagojevich´s arrest on trying to get influence in naming Obama´s successor. Shocked? One could be forgiven for thinking his shock probably came from just getting caught.
The dirty practices go back to the Kennedy-Nixon campaign, and probably beyond. It is commonly thought that the Chicago politicians were primarily responsible for putting Kennedy over the top in that race. Kennedy´s father was reputed to have said that he didn´t mind buying votes, he just didn´t want to pay for a landslide.
According to Sherman Skolnick, the Chicago area courts are crooked, also. Skolnick, (now deceased), chronicled how bankruptcies were handed out to the highest bidders. This article, "The Bankruptcy Bordello", may be found at Skolnick´sreport.com. It was a lucrative arrangement; the designations were desirable and brought a good price. Skolnick was as popular as the proverbial skunk at a picnic, but he persisted and used his skill as an investigator/reporter to leave the evidence to posterity.
His archives, which cover a myriad of wrongdoing by both political parties, can be found at Skolnick´s Report.com.
Skolnick, in an article titled "Centers of Corruption, Intrigue, and How to Get Elected", describes the mechanism in getting a Governor elected:
"In the tide of commerce and politics, how does a Governor get elected? Remember, when elected, he will greatly control or in some way strongly participate in who gets state contracts, what community get(s) fix-up funds, who will be exempt from ´Big Brother´ government, and who and what will have open season for their pirate enrichment.
In 1998, in Illinois, supposedly ´elected´ on the Republican ticket for Governor was George H. Ryan. In supposedly getting the nod from sleepy-eyed voters, lulled to sleep by the liars and whores of the press, Ryan escaped the real scandal-bullet. Ryan had been Illinois Secretary of State. The state title being misleading, no, he was not the State diplomat. His main function was the issuance of licenses to autos, trucks, and other vehicles, and the drivers licenses for the same. As in other places in the U.S., the Secretary of State gets corrupted by bribery from mobsters who want unlisted and untraceable license plates. Stolen auto parts purveyors, called ´chop shops´, need to falsely register vehicles with stolen motors and such."
Ultimately, these crimes, as well as many others, were what put Ryan in prison on November, 2007.
"In this great tradition, George H. Ryan, as Illinois Secretary of State, had various of his vehicle license facilities around Illinois in which supervisors and such took bribes to issue licenses to truck operators and drivers who could not pass the tests or were otherwise not eligible. In recent times alone, the reputed graft amounted to more than one million dollars. The Federal Gestapo, the FBI, supposedly caught some of the examiners and test-givers. Most said they had not kept the bribes but, in fact, contributed the sum to their boss Ryan and his campaign for Illinois Governor. In published reports, Ryan said he did not know anything about any of this and did not specifically know of any of these State employees of his office."
"The FBI, being themselves highly corrupt and politically chicken, only went after the smaller fish leaving Ryan alone and claiming that the known total so far of the license facility bribery was 300 thousand dollars."
"Right after the election, Ryan was invited to a dinner with Bill and Hillary Clinton. I did not think this was unusual, Bill Clinton being himself an out-of-control pirate and perceived by savvy folks as a closet Republican."
Right now the politicians in the orb of influence in Illinois are all denying they had anything to do with Blagojevich, some saying they hardly knew him at all. This does not pass the smell test, as Democrat politicians work together to further their party´s interests as well as their own. Democrats have an efficient "farm team" hierarchy which goes all the way from school board to governor and senator. It is their only business.
Sherman Skolnick skewered Republicans and Democrats alike. In today´s shallow investigating/reporting, he was very unusual. He was a man with passion for justice and pursued that passion.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald seems to be one more of that mold. In just Chicago alone he could spend another lifetime investigating the characters who pretend to further the welfare of We the People.
Diogenes is reputed to have gone about with his lantern, looking for an honest man. We the People can only hope that in Patrick Fitzgerald, we have found him.
Yawn.
The charges are all too familiar in the background of political irregularities around the windy city. Chicago politicians are notorious for fixing things so their guys win.
This particular guy is Governor Rod Blagojevich who is charged with trying to sell the senatorship that is coming vacant due to President Obama´s having been elevated to the presidency of the U.S.
Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney, reported on some of the recorded court-authorized wiretaps. According to Fitzgerald, Blagojevich said: "It´s a ´bleeping´ valuable thing. You just don´t give it away for nothing.´"
Fitzgerald seemed to absolve President Obama of any complicity. A three-year probe into Blagojevich´s administration yielded those charges.
On Tuesday Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Il) called it "a sad day for my state", and said he was "shocked" at Blagojevich´s arrest on trying to get influence in naming Obama´s successor. Shocked? One could be forgiven for thinking his shock probably came from just getting caught.
The dirty practices go back to the Kennedy-Nixon campaign, and probably beyond. It is commonly thought that the Chicago politicians were primarily responsible for putting Kennedy over the top in that race. Kennedy´s father was reputed to have said that he didn´t mind buying votes, he just didn´t want to pay for a landslide.
According to Sherman Skolnick, the Chicago area courts are crooked, also. Skolnick, (now deceased), chronicled how bankruptcies were handed out to the highest bidders. This article, "The Bankruptcy Bordello", may be found at Skolnick´sreport.com. It was a lucrative arrangement; the designations were desirable and brought a good price. Skolnick was as popular as the proverbial skunk at a picnic, but he persisted and used his skill as an investigator/reporter to leave the evidence to posterity.
His archives, which cover a myriad of wrongdoing by both political parties, can be found at Skolnick´s Report.com.
Skolnick, in an article titled "Centers of Corruption, Intrigue, and How to Get Elected", describes the mechanism in getting a Governor elected:
"In the tide of commerce and politics, how does a Governor get elected? Remember, when elected, he will greatly control or in some way strongly participate in who gets state contracts, what community get(s) fix-up funds, who will be exempt from ´Big Brother´ government, and who and what will have open season for their pirate enrichment.
In 1998, in Illinois, supposedly ´elected´ on the Republican ticket for Governor was George H. Ryan. In supposedly getting the nod from sleepy-eyed voters, lulled to sleep by the liars and whores of the press, Ryan escaped the real scandal-bullet. Ryan had been Illinois Secretary of State. The state title being misleading, no, he was not the State diplomat. His main function was the issuance of licenses to autos, trucks, and other vehicles, and the drivers licenses for the same. As in other places in the U.S., the Secretary of State gets corrupted by bribery from mobsters who want unlisted and untraceable license plates. Stolen auto parts purveyors, called ´chop shops´, need to falsely register vehicles with stolen motors and such."
Ultimately, these crimes, as well as many others, were what put Ryan in prison on November, 2007.
"In this great tradition, George H. Ryan, as Illinois Secretary of State, had various of his vehicle license facilities around Illinois in which supervisors and such took bribes to issue licenses to truck operators and drivers who could not pass the tests or were otherwise not eligible. In recent times alone, the reputed graft amounted to more than one million dollars. The Federal Gestapo, the FBI, supposedly caught some of the examiners and test-givers. Most said they had not kept the bribes but, in fact, contributed the sum to their boss Ryan and his campaign for Illinois Governor. In published reports, Ryan said he did not know anything about any of this and did not specifically know of any of these State employees of his office."
"The FBI, being themselves highly corrupt and politically chicken, only went after the smaller fish leaving Ryan alone and claiming that the known total so far of the license facility bribery was 300 thousand dollars."
"Right after the election, Ryan was invited to a dinner with Bill and Hillary Clinton. I did not think this was unusual, Bill Clinton being himself an out-of-control pirate and perceived by savvy folks as a closet Republican."
Right now the politicians in the orb of influence in Illinois are all denying they had anything to do with Blagojevich, some saying they hardly knew him at all. This does not pass the smell test, as Democrat politicians work together to further their party´s interests as well as their own. Democrats have an efficient "farm team" hierarchy which goes all the way from school board to governor and senator. It is their only business.
Sherman Skolnick skewered Republicans and Democrats alike. In today´s shallow investigating/reporting, he was very unusual. He was a man with passion for justice and pursued that passion.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald seems to be one more of that mold. In just Chicago alone he could spend another lifetime investigating the characters who pretend to further the welfare of We the People.
Diogenes is reputed to have gone about with his lantern, looking for an honest man. We the People can only hope that in Patrick Fitzgerald, we have found him.
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