Illinois governor taken into custody

[waggy]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITI...ois.govenor/index.html

(CNN) -- Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is in federal custody on corruption charges, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris are charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's office for the Northern District of Illinois.

Federal prosecutors say Blagojevich, Harris and others conspired to gain financial benefits in appointing President-elect Barack Obama's Senate replacement, according to the statement.

Blagojevich, Harris and others are also alleged to have withheld state assistance to the Tribune Company in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field. The statement says this was done to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members who were critical of Blagojevich.

The statement also alleges that Blagojevich and others tried to illegally obtain campaign contributions.

A news conference is expected at noon ET.

Blagojevich and Harris will appear in U.S. District Court later Tuesday.

Blagojevich, 51, is currently serving his second term as governor




AND ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME! him and ryan need ot share a cell! fuck save space for daley too!

woot!

 

[alexjohnson16]

Illinois is so screwed up cause of him. Enjoy that budget!

 

[Tim]

FPMITAP inbound!

 

[Platypus]

lol

 

[darkxshade]

Originally posted by: waggy
AND ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME! him and ryan need ot share a cell! fuck save space for obama too!

woot!

:Q

 

[PottedMeat]

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/sto...ws/politics&id=6545958

By this time, media reports indicated that Senate Candidate 1, an advisor to the President-elect, was interested in the Senate seat if it became vacant, and was likely to be supported by the President-elect. During the call, ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated, "unless I get something real good for [Senate Candidate 1], s--t, I'll just send myself, you know what I'm saying."

ROD BLAGOJEVICH later stated, "I'm going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I'm saying. And if I don't get what I want and I'm not satisfied with it, then I'll just take the Senate seat myself." Later, ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that the Senate seat "is a f-ing valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing."

nice!

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: alexjohnson16
Illinois is so screwed up cause of him. Enjoy that budget!

oh yeah. Blagobitch has driven this state into the ground. we have high taxes all over the state and unless you live in chicago area you won't see a penny of the tax money going to help your area.


then you have Daley giving away chicago property, roads, and such to private business that his famly just happens to own or control.

fuck i hate IL. IF the economy and houseing was nto so fucked up i would move.

 

[Born2bwire]

Topic Summary: sigh 2nd governor in a row...

Give us some credit, we don't do things half-assed here.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: waggy
AND ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME! him and ryan need ot share a cell! fuck save space for daley too!

woot!

QFT! Remember Blagojevich was supposed to save Illinois from the corrupt Republicans, not replace them!

Fvcking politicians. I wonder where Lisa Madigan was during all this. Isn't it her job to investigate stuff like this?

Illinois needs a 3rd party.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: waggy
AND ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME! him and ryan need ot share a cell! fuck save space for daley too!

woot!

QFT! Remember Blagojevich was supposed to save Illinois from the corrupt Republicans, not replace them!

Fvcking politicians. I wonder where Lisa Madigan was during all this. Isn't it her job to investigate stuff like this?

Illinois needs a 3rd party.

where was she? odds are under her daddies desk sucking his off and begging him to push for her to get blagobitch's job.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: waggy
AND ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME! him and ryan need ot share a cell! fuck save space for daley too!

woot!

QFT! Remember Blagojevich was supposed to save Illinois from the corrupt Republicans, not replace them!

Fvcking politicians. I wonder where Lisa Madigan was during all this. Isn't it her job to investigate stuff like this?

Illinois needs a 3rd party.

She turned the investigation(s) over to the US Attorney's Office in 2003 and the duty was assigned to Patrick Fitzgerald (who already has one IL governor's pelt decorating his home).

 

[Amused]

It about freakin' time.

I wonder if we'll ever be able to bust that corrupt Chicago political machine? Crooks, all of them.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Heard about this on the radio when I was driving to work this morning. I can't say I'm surprised. The ONE good thing about Blagojevich was the open road tolling, though I would have liked to see the tolls removed and the income come from some other source of tax.

And Daley is a crook. Instead of leasing parking meters to a private company that will just raise the meter rates, the city should have just increased the damn meter rates themselves. Those greedy bastards keep taking their lump sums for short term solutions, but I do not even want to think about what the city of Chicago budget will be like in like 3 to 4 years after they burn through all of their money and no longer have the cash flow from parking meters, the skyway, and Midway. (they claim they won't burn through the money that fast, but you know politicians don't know how to save a dime)

 

[darkxshade]

lol @ these losers... at least Spitzer got laid.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Amused
It about freakin' time.

I wonder if we'll ever be able to bust that corrupt Chicago political machine? Crooks, all of them.

lol...if it took this long to bring down Rod I sort of doubt it.

Daley is too smart and has compartmentalized everything. At worst he loses a couple city officials/aides and claims he had no knowledge. Like his father he'll probably be the last man standing until they lower him into his grave.

 

[spidey07]

Now THAT'S change I can believe in.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Amused
It about freakin' time.

I wonder if we'll ever be able to bust that corrupt Chicago political machine? Crooks, all of them.

lol...if it took this long to bring down Rod I sort of doubt it.

Daley is too smart and has compartmentalized everything. At worst he loses a couple city officials/aides and claims he had no knowledge. Like his father he'll probably be the last man standing until they lower him into his grave.

yeap. EVERYONE knows daley is currupt. hell its not secret. but you can't trace anything to him at all.

just look at the recent selling of the parking meters.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: waggy
AND ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME! him and ryan need ot share a cell! fuck save space for daley too!

woot!

QFT! Remember Blagojevich was supposed to save Illinois from the corrupt Republicans, not replace them!

Fvcking politicians. I wonder where Lisa Madigan was during all this. Isn't it her job to investigate stuff like this?

Illinois needs a 3rd party.

What happens when the 3rd party becomas as corrupt as the rest of them?

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Amused
It about freakin' time.

I wonder if we'll ever be able to bust that corrupt Chicago political machine? Crooks, all of them.

lol...if it took this long to bring down Rod I sort of doubt it.

Daley is too smart and has compartmentalized everything. At worst he loses a couple city officials/aides and claims he had no knowledge. Like his father he'll probably be the last man standing until they lower him into his grave.

yeap. EVERYONE knows daley is currupt. hell its not secret. but you can't trace anything to him at all.

just look at the recent selling of the parking meters.

He did sell them to Morgan Stanley, though only after they happened to hire one of his nephews.

IIRC, 400M+ of that money is slated for the city's cash reserve. Along with some of the cash from the Skyway lease I'm sure they've crunched the numbers and figured out that the interest generated from the cash hoard will outstrip the revenues from just operating them. The rest of the cash will help the city limp through the next few years of the downturn.

The parking lease and subsequent increase also allowed the City to qualify for a $150M grant from the feds to implement a Bus Rapid Transit system.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Amused
It about freakin' time.

I wonder if we'll ever be able to bust that corrupt Chicago political machine? Crooks, all of them.

lol...if it took this long to bring down Rod I sort of doubt it.

Daley is too smart and has compartmentalized everything. At worst he loses a couple city officials/aides and claims he had no knowledge. Like his father he'll probably be the last man standing until they lower him into his grave.

yeap. EVERYONE knows daley is currupt. hell its not secret. but you can't trace anything to him at all.

just look at the recent selling of the parking meters.

He did sell them to Morgan Stanley, though only after they happened to hire one of his nephews.

IIRC, 400M+ of that money is slated for the city's cash reserve. Along with some of the cash from the Skyway lease I'm sure they've crunched the numbers and figured out that the interest generated from the cash hoard will outstrip the revenues from just operating them. The rest of the cash will help the city limp through the next few years of the downturn.

The parking lease and subsequent increase also allowed the City to qualify for a $150M grant from the feds to implement a Bus Rapid Transit system.

If this is true, then why did Morgan Stanley agree to the contract? Morgan Stanley obviously thinks that it can make more money from the revenues than the interest on the cash.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: waggy
AND ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME! him and ryan need ot share a cell! fuck save space for daley too!

woot!

QFT! Remember Blagojevich was supposed to save Illinois from the corrupt Republicans, not replace them!

Fvcking politicians. I wonder where Lisa Madigan was during all this. Isn't it her job to investigate stuff like this?

Illinois needs a 3rd party.

What happens when the 3rd party becomas as corrupt as the rest of them?

Shoot them all. :|

 

[DainBramaged]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: waggy
AND ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME! him and ryan need ot share a cell! fuck save space for daley too!

woot!

QFT! Remember Blagojevich was supposed to save Illinois from the corrupt Republicans, not replace them!

Fvcking politicians. I wonder where Lisa Madigan was during all this. Isn't it her job to investigate stuff like this?

Illinois needs a 3rd party.

She turned the investigation(s) over to the US Attorney's Office in 2003 and the duty was assigned to Patrick Fitzgerald (who already has one IL governor's pelt decorating his home).

LOL.

The things I disagree with Blago with far outweigh the things I like him for. Still, what do you expect for Illinois politics. Always been corrupt, always will be.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Amused
It about freakin' time.

I wonder if we'll ever be able to bust that corrupt Chicago political machine? Crooks, all of them.

lol...if it took this long to bring down Rod I sort of doubt it.

Daley is too smart and has compartmentalized everything. At worst he loses a couple city officials/aides and claims he had no knowledge. Like his father he'll probably be the last man standing until they lower him into his grave.

yeap. EVERYONE knows daley is currupt. hell its not secret. but you can't trace anything to him at all.

just look at the recent selling of the parking meters.

He did sell them to Morgan Stanley, though only after they happened to hire one of his nephews.

IIRC, 400M+ of that money is slated for the city's cash reserve. Along with some of the cash from the Skyway lease I'm sure they've crunched the numbers and figured out that the interest generated from the cash hoard will outstrip the revenues from just operating them. The rest of the cash will help the city limp through the next few years of the downturn.

The parking lease and subsequent increase also allowed the City to qualify for a $150M grant from the feds to implement a Bus Rapid Transit system.

If this is true, then why did Morgan Stanley agree to the contract? Morgan Stanley obviously thinks that it can make more money from the revenues than the interest on the cash.

Not sure, perhaps they think they can squeeze more cash out of fines than the city does or do it more efficiently. Stricter enforcement would definably raise revenues and the fact that it's a non-gov agency doing it takes heat off the city. The city also would not be able to raise rates as aggressively as the contract provides for. Either way it is a decidedly safe investment for them and the 2nd time they've done it (leased the city owned parking garages a few years ago).

 

[ShotgunSteven]

"You stay classy, Illinois!"

 

[Queasy]

Merry Fitzmas