Welcome to Blago-Freedom day!
This corrupt, bumbling criminal is no longer menacing the streets of Illinois. This fool whose lawlessness didn’t live up to the high standard for crime that we have come to expect from officials in high office in that state has been given the hook and been invited to the “retirement office” for Illinois Governors — jail.
Ring Bells, close schools, declare a holiday. Illinois can start the road to “recovery from The Rod”.
For the uninitiated: There are many good things about the great state of Illinois, as well as many bad things. The worst, at the moment, is the Idiot-in-Chief in the governor’s office, Rod Blagojevich.
His protective circle has been crumbling for quite a while now, with expert prosecutor U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant closing in. It seems that the closer they got, the more bumbling Blago became.
Yesterday we got this gem:
“This is America, you know, and I’d appreciate if you want to tape my conversations, give me a heads-up and let me know,” Blagojevich said.
“I don’t care whether you tape me privately or publicly. I can tell you that whatever I say is always lawful,” Blagojevich
This was followed up today by being arrested for (among many, many other things) having been recorded saying “I want to make money” trying to sell off the senate seat recently held by President-Elect Obama.
Moron.
Go get ’em, Fitzy.
(It’s worth noting that the official web page for Illinois Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn has received such a huge spike in traffic that the server has melted at the time of writing…)
Update:
Blago was recorded refusing Obama’s request to name his own replacement because Blago wasn’t getting paid.
Also, it occurs to me that the FBI could have auctioned off the rights to handcuff and perp walk Blago today. It would have raised a ton of money, and it would be ironically fitting for the crimes this sleazeball has done. For Toys for Tots, perhaps…
December 9, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Yea, Blago-Freedom Day!
I want to run out on the tollways and topple all the signs with his accursed name on them!
December 9, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Oh, and the FBI just wanted to be the first to say, ‘Happy Birthday!’
“Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning—one day shy of his 52nd birthday.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-rod-blagojevich-illinois-governor-5,0,4982366.story
December 9, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Blago’s favorite carol:
Fitzmas is coming, the indictment’s getting fat…
Please put half a million in my campaign hat…
If you haven’t got the money, a union job will do…
If you haven’t got a union job, well then f#@k you!
December 9, 2008 at 1:00 pm
ADE, I would recommend you -drive- out on the tollways, as those ‘open-tolling’ lanes move fast…
But yes, all the graven images of dictators and their fiendish idols should be destroyed in the purification.
Tear down his statues and beat them with your sandals — declare the US government to be liberators from this tyranny! Proudly show your purple-stained fingers when you hold a freely democratic election for his successor!
Pat Quinn could be anointed as a minor deity of Chicago if he abolished the Tollway Authority…
December 9, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Time for another Fitzmas carol:
Ringing bells, ringing bells
It’s Fitzmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring
Soon Rod will be led away
City townhouse, sleepy townhouse
Decked in holiday style
In the air there’s a feeling of Fitzmas
Children sleeping, wife’s awak’ning
Meeting terrified eyes
And on the bedside table you’ll hear
Ringing bells, ringing bells
It’s Fitzmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring
Soon Rod will be led away
Beneath street lights
Dashboard cop lights
Blink a bright blue and red
As the agents meet
Rod at the door
See the handcuffs
Hear the door shut
This is Blago’s worst dream
As he thinks back to what he
First heard:
Ringing bells, ringing bells
It’s Fitzmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring
Soon Rod will be led away
December 9, 2008 at 10:35 pm
https://12angrymen.wordpress.com/2007/03/09/shut-up-about-chicago-and-illinois-corruption/
Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!
BTW, Blago should get a tramp stamp with the words “Do Not Enter”.
December 10, 2008 at 10:07 am
AI wrote:
For the uninitiated: There are many good things about the great state of Illinois, as well as many bad things.
Amen to this. The state has many wonderful things about it, but clean governance, by and large, isn’t one of them. The campaign finance laws, for instance, allow donations from outside organizations such as corporations and unions that have been banned federally for a century.
There are and have been very good political people to come from Illinois (e.g., the incoming President or the late Senator Paul Douglas) but the longtime tradition of machine politics goes back ages.
My uncle, who was a political appointee (as head of a non-political office) in two administrations noted that this was pervasive throughout the state. Chicago is not the only locus of the sleaze. There’s plenty of “machine” downstate, too.
Most big states have this but what can I say, six of the last eight Illinois governors have gone or are likely to be heading to the big house on Federal charges. (Not all for things done in office, mind you.) The only place I can think of where govs go to jail on a regular basis is Louisiana, although maybe there are others where they should.
In no small part, Blago’s fall is a gift from former Senator Peter Fitzgerald, who pushed for Patrick Fitzgerald (no relation) to be appointed US Attorney. Here’s hoping he collects a few more heads as it looks like he’s getting another term.
December 10, 2008 at 10:22 am
Oh another one: A relative of mine, we’ll call him Uncle Jim, and I were arguing a few Christmases ago right after the George Ryan conviction about it. My relative worked as a contractor in the city all his life so he knows how things work very well.
MPA’s view: “Licenses for bribes” was more than enough for Ryan to fry.
Uncle Jim’s view: Ryan “didn’t do anything anyone else in that office hadn’t, so why should *he* fry for it?”
The logic there didn’t compute for me, but that’s a VERY common view in Chicago in particular, and Illinois in general.
Obama’s not even in office and he’s facing his first test of it—how he deals with this or doesn’t could really knock him off track.
December 10, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Yeah, Pat Fitzgerald’s remarks about the permissive culture of corruption were spot on. Until folks in Chicago and Illinois stop accepting things like “licenses for bribes” and “pay to play” as “the way business is done” nothing will change.
It can’t, since any real reformer will be run out of town by the very people he’s trying to help—until the culture of corruption is broken. But maybe Blago is the last straw. Wouldn’t that be a perfect epitaph for Rod?
December 10, 2008 at 12:12 pm
I can’t consider epitaphs for Blago.
All I can think of are epithets.
December 10, 2008 at 1:07 pm
[…] our loyal readers (and anyone not under a rock) must know by now, the Governor of Illinois has been arrested on corruption charges. Given my well known pro-Illinois, pro-Midwest stance, and some previous things I’ve had to […]
December 10, 2008 at 2:08 pm
It looks like Jesse Jackson, Jr. is Candidate #5, which means he’s domino #2 about to fall.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/ConductUnbecoming/story?id=6431739&page=1
Offered $1 Million for Obama’s seat.
Oh, um, “allegedly”
December 20, 2008 at 7:53 pm
[…] Six AM Waking, […]