Thinking Right

By Simple Answers

December 10, 2008 8:13 AM | Link to this

Step 1: Declare the pres-elect’s home state to be “hopelessly mired in corruption”.

Step 2: This proves that the pres-elect is himself hopelessly corrupt. And here are a few unrelated ‘facts’ to bolster this case.

Dollars to donuts, folks, this is the campaign we are about to witness.

By PinkoNeoConLibertarian

December 10, 2008 8:19 AM | Link to this

What galls me is that it’s antics like this that divert votes from my home state of Louisiana as the Most Corrupt Political State. The sheer nerve of these upstarts!

Were he dead, Uncle Eddie would be rolling in his grave!

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 10, 2008 8:20 AM | Link to this

I have mixed feelings about Patrick Fitzgerald’s decision to “end the criminal scheme” before he had sufficient evidence of crimes to obtain a conviction. Perhaps he has learned something from his wrongful prosecution of Scooter Libby – had he stopped that investigation at the same stage (i.e., after he determined there was no criminal disclosure of a CIA agent’s identity, but before he began to take irrelevant depositions from non-participants such as Mr. Libby, depositions that ultimately provided minor conflicting memories of long ago conversations) the innocent man would never have been convicted.

The allegations against Gov. Blagojevich, if true, make Gov. Spitzer look comparatively modest and intelligent in his business transactions. Supposedly the reason for interrupting the scheme was to prevent a corrupt appointment. Tennessee went through a similar post-election distress in January 1979, had a democrat governor (Ray “of Sunshine” Blanton) who was selling pardons to some pretty skuzzy types, but the honest democrat speaker of the house (later Gov. Ned McWhorter) and the honest democrat president of the senate (recently retired Lt. Gov. John Wilder) hurried-up the inauguration of the incoming republican governor (current US Senator Lamar Alexander, an honest, if totally boring, politician.) The funny part is – until he is impeached – Gov. Blagojevich has sole authority to appoint the successor to Obama’s seat – anyone he wishes. We’ll give Chauncey credit for keeping a 6’ Pole at arm’s length, the single “three-way” money scheme notwithstanding. The Obama-land transaction, featuring Tony Rezko, may be headed to the grand jury. I have previously argued, in this space, that Chauncey gives every appearance of governing “Chicago-style” and his commitment to accumulating a large pool of spending authority for various non-Federal “infrastructure” improvements reinforces my argument. I can already see that the next couple of years are Clinton-redux.

Speaking of Clinton, Obama’s plan to marginalize his most dangerous potential opponent now becomes clearer. Dr. Susan Rice, appointed to be US Ambassador to the UN, is a noted political rival of Hildebeest. Now Obama plans to elevate the UN ambassador position to “Cabinet level” and Dr. Rice is getting her own transition team within the State Department in Washington, even though all of her work is purportedly performed in a single NYC building. Looks like Ms. Clinton was out-smarted.

Obama’s proposed emergency “transfusion,” seemingly from the US economic foot to the US economic arm, is a certain way to turn an economic hiccough into a lasting depression, clear evidence that he studied FDR but not in an informed way. The plan does not have to make any economic sense, just so long as it is big enough to provide a meaningful graft pool. One assumes the Empty Suit is a slow learner, as his plan is a bridge to nowhere, except one on steroids. (When mixing metaphors, Yogi Berra has no advantage over me; I am the mixmeister.) The market has capacity sort the efficient from the inefficient; the Dow Industrials already made their analysis. Funny related story in today’s WSJ, noting that the Congressional strings attached to the auto bailout – mostly the obligation to make “greener” vehicles - will drive the companies further into the financial hole. Anything I say on the auto industry bailout is a pale (or is it “pail”?) imitation of Dr. Williams’s words today.

By Steven Daedalus

December 10, 2008 8:24 AM | Link to this

Gimme a break, Sonny Perdue makes this guy look like a chior boy.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 10, 2008 8:29 AM | Link to this

A curiosity arises – Obama, and everyone else in the country, knew Blogojevich was being investigated. Had Obama waited until January to resign his senate seat, the new governor would have selected the successor. Why did Obama resign early? It’s not as if there are any meaningful senatorial duties that anyone will be performing in the next 60 days.

By Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST

December 10, 2008 8:30 AM | Link to this

“In systems drifting to corruption,prosecution or media exposure that wrong-doing has occurred is dismissed by voters as an effort to single-out a popular political figure unfairly — think U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, who came within a hair of winning reelection despite having been convicted of corrupting his public office.”

SAXBY WAS REELECTED

By Redneck Convert

December 10, 2008 8:36 AM | Link to this

Well, I’m dead set against the crooked ways politicans do things. Unless it’s godly Republican politicans. This Illinois guvner with the strange name ought to be hung. Strung up. Lynched. Trying to make money by selling a senate seat. You don’t do things that way. What you do is, you raise as much money as you can and sort of lean on people to give and then buy so many TV ads the folks don’t know there’s anybody else running. That’s the lawful way of doing things. You kind of buy a election, but you don’t really buy it, if you know what I mean.

There’s better ways of doing things than how this guvner done it. Smarter ways. Take, for instance, My President. Say he don’t like a law Congress just passed. Well, he don’t violate the law. No sir. He just puts out a signing statement that says a law passed by Congress that he’s going to sign don’t mean what they thought it means, it means what he beleives it should mean. That way he can’t be accused of breaking the law.

Or say somebody comes to you with a promise of a big stake in a new co. that will market natural gas. The only problem is, there’s only one co. that can sell natural gas in the state. Well, you get yourself elected to the Public Service Commission and then vote to take away the marketing from the only co. that sells natural gas. You get rich, everybody pays more for gas, and it’s all legal-like.

So it’s real dumb to break the law when there’s so many ways to get the same thing without breaking the law. This Illinois guvner may be the first one to get life in prison for stupidity.

That’s my opinion and it’s very true. Have a good day everybody.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 10, 2008 8:43 AM | Link to this

Amazing, all of the leftists so far are defending the Illinois governor. Perhaps it is the ideology that is corrupt? Unlike our democrat friends, the republicans expunge their crooks.

By treyd

December 10, 2008 8:55 AM | Link to this

Yes the republicans expunge their crooks…ie Sen stevens, tom delay. Face it, corruption (if nothing else is) is definately bipartisan.

By Dr. Vajajay

December 10, 2008 9:03 AM | Link to this

It’s good that Georgia has escaped corruption. When the Obama Senate Seat story broke, I had to google while I giggled about these big shots and their fantastic conspiracies. So I researched.

I stopped laughing.

What this story could uncover is the sickness that is the Freedom itself. Freedom 2B corrupt. I wonder how many black orphans are responsible for all this corruption in government.

The United States of America. How about we change the name. To the United Sinners of America. Look at the bailout. That money has been wasted on crooks. They are securing their future at the expense of our children’s. They aren’t worth it.

I keep saying that capitalism and democracy simply dont work without war and pirates. Delve into the Obama Senate Seat story and you find the tip of a corrupt iceberg that flows throught every vein in Uncle Sam.

This cold reality of evil: I kept denying that it was real. At 57, I’m finally convinced that this country does not deserve divine favor. We are evil, man. We simply kill, steal, lie, cheat. We should rewrite our constitution. Simply make it the ten commandments in a circle with a slash through it. There. That’s our new constiution.

Here’s the preamble to our declaration of trespasses: We the devils, in order to abuse god in every possible way, ……do establish a tyranny which can never be broken.

By Peter

December 10, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this

Throw the bum out…send him to Jail……This is exactly the type of person no one wants or needs in office !

I don’t care what party he is for !

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 10, 2008 9:14 AM | Link to this

Let’s state the facts: Obama is a Muslim; all Muslims are terrorists. Applying the transitive property, Obama is a terrorist. It’s clear he was planning to install an Al-Qaeda sympathizer in his vacant Senate seat via Blagojevich, most likely to facilitate an attack on Chicago.

By Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST

December 10, 2008 9:19 AM | Link to this

In his latest effort to tighten his grip on the Republican Conference, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner is working to oust Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus and Alaska Rep. Don Young from their posts as the top Republicans on the Financial Services and Natural Resources committees.

Boehner has arranged for “no confidence” votes on Bachus and Young to be taken by the Republican Steering Committee, which makes recommendations on committee assignments to the full GOP Conference.

The votes could come as early as Wednesday. Young is expected to lose his spot, paving the way for a different Republican to take his place as the ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee. Bachus’ fate on Financial Services is unclear, but Boehner has told both Bachus and Young that he would oppose any effort to keep them on as ranking members of their committees, GOP insiders say.

Reps. David Dreier (R-Calif.) and Steven C. LaTourette (R-Ohio) have been mentioned as potential replacements for Bachus on Financial Services, while Reps. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) and Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) are favored candidates to succeed the irascible Young.

Neither Bachus’ office nor Young’s office had any comment at press time. Boehner’s office declined to discuss internal Republican Conference actions.

In the aftermath of the November elections, there were rumors that Boehner would face a challenge for his leadership post. He didn’t, and Reps. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) were instead forced out from their posts as minority whip and Republican Conference chairman, respectively. Reps. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.) replaced them in the GOP leadership.

But Boehner still seems to have scores to settle with those who opposed him during the 110th Congress. The Ohio Republican forced out Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, replacing him with Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, a close ally. He then installed Johnny DeStefano, his political director, as deputy executive director of the campaign committee, meaning Boehner will have his own independent channel into the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Now he’s taken aim at Bachus and Young.

Bachus was widely criticized by House Republicans for his involvement in early negotiations over the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package in late September. In what amounted to a public comeuppance, Boehner eventually had Blunt replace Bachus at the negotiating table.

But a senior GOP staffer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the problem with Bachus is bigger than that. “He’s proven to be quite inept as [ranking member] on that committee,” the staffer said.

Young has been embroiled in the same federal corruption probe in Alaska that toppled Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), and the veteran lawmaker has been forced to shell out more than $1 million to lawyers to represent him during the investigation.

Young has denied any wrongdoing, but having him around — especially now that indicted Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) has been defeated — would make it harder for Republicans to hit Democrats for keeping embattled Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) on as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

“Young has got to go,” claimed another GOP insider. “It’s hard for us to go after Charlie Rangel if Don Young is there.”

Young is also seen as an “old school” politician more interested in winning pork projects than enacting the reform agenda that many Republicans believe the party needs to embrace in order to rebound from two consecutive election defeats.

While Boehner, like some other Republicans, has pushed for earmark reform, Young’s penchant for earmarking federal dollars has led to a Justice Department probe. The Alaska Republican earmarked $10 million for the Coconut Road interchange in Fort Myers, Fla., while he was chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee back in 2005. Young reportedly had language added to a highway bill after the legislation was approved by both the House and the Senate. A developer who favored the project steered more than $40,000 in campaign contributions to Young’s reelection race.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 10, 2008 9:21 AM | Link to this

The 9:14 does not read like the work of HIDT. Typical leftist nonsense, like their generalized defense of Blagojevich.

By Poodles-R-Dogs-Too

December 10, 2008 9:24 AM | Link to this

You just misunderstood the good guv, he was only talking about selling the seat of the chair in which Mr. Obama sat in the Senate, one of those soft fluffy things….Honest, that is what the F* he was talking about…..just a little ten million dollar seat cushion…sorta like the stock grants given to mr ceo, for seridipity, er ah mean outstanding management.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 10, 2008 9:26 AM | Link to this

Dear Peter @ 9:06, my apologies to you. Your simple declarative sentence disproves my darkest fears.

By ron

December 10, 2008 9:27 AM | Link to this

It should be no surprise that Chicago politicians are crooked.They have been for years.They’ll continue to be for the foreseeable future.Reading about the Illinois Governor and his wife almost seems like fiction.These are some real screwed up folks.Meglomaniacs.They thought they were invincible.Also they really cotton to the “f” word.I think that’s what “bleep” stands for.

This govenor goes back to the Rostenkowski days.Remember him?Corrption’s poster boy.He even stole the stamps.

Ragnar——Like you,a lot of people are wondering why just now?It may be as simple as what the prosecutor says.Then again——-.

This cloud will affect Obama before it’s over,not that I mean any duplicity,but it will have it’s effects.There are honest people in Chicago,witnessed by the people contacted that said they didn’t play that way.I’ll bet that surprised the Governor.

By Churchill's MOM

December 10, 2008 9:30 AM | Link to this

“Joe the Plumber” says our gal is the real deal.. Jim get back on topic.. PALIN 2012

Joe Wurzelbacher lashed out Tuesday at former GOP presidential nominee John McCain, the man who made Wurzelbacher famous as “Joe the Plumber.”

Wurzelbacher told conservative radio host Glenn Beck that he felt “dirty” after “being on the campaign trail and seeing some of the things that take place.”

Recalling a conversation he had with McCain about the $700 billion financial industry bailout in September, Wurzelbacher said: “When I was on the bus with him, I asked him a lot of questions about the bailout because most Americans did not want that to happen.”

“I asked him some pretty direct questions,” he continued. “Some of the answers you guys are gonna receive — they appalled me, absolutely. I was angry. In fact, I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him.”

Asked why he didn’t leave McCain’s campaign if he was “appalled” by the candidate, Wurzelbacher said, “honestly, because the thought of Barack Obama as president scares me even more.”

While Wurzelbacher was critical of McCain during the interview, he had nothing but praise for his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. “Sarah Palin is absolutely the real deal,” he said.

By Dr. Vajajay

December 10, 2008 9:33 AM | Link to this

I jogged on over to Furman Bisher’s blog. Brave’s pitching? Is there anything more superficially mundane and munch-time mealy-mouthed than a football-season-timed baseball report like this one? So what? Write about these clowns in May when they’ve had a few starts and we can all get interested in the race for the pennant. Duh, I think warm beer and cold hotdogs are good and pitching beats hitting and bobbycox makes bonehead decisions out there all day long…

We should have three world series rings. We won the minnesota series, except Cox forgot to drill his players about running the bases. We also had the yankees till Cox let that fastball genius throw an offspeed pitch. WHY? Just fire it in there and go home champs. But no. Cox is too busy breaking his wife’s heart to care about his fan’s hearts.

I can point to the blade of grass, the crystal of ice, the drop of sweat, the cheatin’ referee that led to all of the Atlanta franchises being losers losers losers. (did I mention that all atlanta sports franchises are losers?)

I watch sports. I observe coaches. I read sports journalists. That’s why I’m uniquely qualified to comment here. I am the loose ball foul of blog. I am the hat-trick of rimshots. I am the stitching in the seams.

I dont just eat, breath and drink sports. I am the Snap Crackle Pop of Crunch Time, I am the hell in the Hail Mary, the punt in the bunt, and yes, that’s right, I am the Doctor VaJajay of sportswriting! (cheerleader reference).

First Bisher writes about Falcons, then he writes about Hawks, then thrashers, then braves, HEY pick a .500 team and stick with them!

By Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST

December 10, 2008 9:34 AM | Link to this

The House ethics committee has voted to expand its investigation of Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) to include allegations that he helped a $1 million donor to the Charles B. Rangel Center at the City College of New York retain a lucrative tax loophole.

The ethics committee’s action raises serious doubts about whether its probe into Rangel’s finances will be completed before the new Congress arrives in January. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) recently said she was given “assurances” that it would be, yet the newest allegation may take longer to review.

The ethics committee issued a brief statement on Tuesday saying it had authorized a four-member investigative subcommittee, led by Reps. Gene Green (D-Texas) and Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), to determine if Rangel had violated any House rules “with respect to contributions of money or pledges of contributions of money to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York from any person or entity associated with Nabors Industries.”

The New York Times has reported that Rangel met with Nabors CEO Eugene Isenberg on Feb. 12, 2007 — the same day that Rangel’s Ways and Means Committee was marking up a major tax bill with implications for Nabors. The Senate Finance Committee had already adopted legislation closing a lucrative tax loophole for Nabors, and Isenberg wanted assurances from Rangel that he would not back the Senate bill, the paper said.

Earlier that morning, Isenberg, Rangel and Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau had met to discuss Isenberg’s $1 million contribution to the Rangel Center, the Times reported.

Both Rangel and Isenberg have denied any link between the $1 million gift and Rangel’s stance on the loophole.

John Buckley, the chief tax counsel for the Ways and Means Committee, released a long statement on Friday in which he said emphatically that Rangel made no effort to protect Nabors while the chairman was crafting the 2007 tax bill. Buckley’s statement will almost certainly make him a witness as the committee expands its probe to include the Nabors matter.

Isenberg and Ken Kies, a lobbyist hired by Isenberg to defend the loophole, may also find themselves receiving subpoenas, according to ethics experts, and Morgenthau could end up being deposed in order to determine what he remembers about the discussion he had with Rangel and Isenberg.

It is unclear whether Rangel himself has appeared before the ethics committee yet. His office could not be reached for comment at press time on this newest development in the case.

At Rangel’s request, the ethics committee began an investigation into his personal finances in late September. The New York Democrat has faced a barrage of media reports detailing his control of multiple rent-stabilized apartments in a Harlem apartment building where he lives, his failure to pay taxes on $75,000 in income on a vacation home in the Dominican Republic and his alleged use of official congressional stationery as part of his fundraising efforts on behalf of the Rangel Center.In response to the ongoing controversy, Rangel has launched a determined attack on the press — especially the Times — and he has repeatedly refused demands from Republicans and editorial boards to give up his gavel.

But if the ethics committee investigation drags into the 111th Congress — which now appears increasingly likely — then Pelosi may be forced to oust him. The Ways and Means Committee is responsible for drafting major tax and health care legislation that lies at the heart of President-elect Barack Obama’s agenda, and Rangel’s problems could prove to be a distraction in passing those bills.

Although Pelosi’s aides have privately suggested that she wants this matter resolved as soon as possible, the speaker herself again defended Rangel Monday, telling NBC, “Until they make their decision, which I hope will be soon, I think that he should stay as chair of the committee.”

But with Tuesday’s arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Republicans in Congress are sure to turn up the heat on Pelosi to “drain the swamp,” as she promised to do before she became speaker. jo

By Churchill's MOM

December 10, 2008 9:42 AM | Link to this

Idea for a change

When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that seems to happen are they reduce their staff and workers. The remaining workers need to find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well. Wall street, and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of "tough decision", and his board of directors gives him a big bonus. I feel our government should not be immune from similar risks. I therefore am recommending the following cuts to be implemented by the next president elect. Reduce the House of Representatives from the current 435 members to 218 members and Senate members from 100 to 50. also reduce remaining staff by 25%. Accomplish this over the next 8 years. (two steps / two elections) Some yearly monetary gains include: $44,108,400 for elimination of base pay for congress. (267 members X $165,200 pay / member / yr.) $97,175,000 for elimination of the above people's staff. (estimate $1.3 Mil in staff per each member of the House, and $3 Mil in staff per each member of the Senate every year) $24,294 for the reduction in remaining staff by 25%. $7,500,000 reduction in pork barrel ear-marks each year. (those members who's jobs are gone. Current estimates for total government pork earmarks are at $15 Billion / yr) The remaining representatives would need to work smarter and would need to improve efficiencies. It might even be in their best interests to work together for the good of our country? We may also expect that smaller committees might lead to a more efficient resolution of issues as well. It might even be easier to keep track of what your representative is doing. Congress has more tools available to do their jobs than it had back in 1911 when the current number of representatives was established. (telephone, computers, cell phones to name a few) Note: Congress did not hesitate to jump on a train for home this week when it was a holiday, when the nation needed a real fix to the economic problems. Also, we have 3 senators that have not been doing their jobs for the past 18+ months (on the campaign trail) and still they all have been accepting full pay. These facts alone support a reduction in senators & congress. Summary of opportunity: $ 44,108,400 reduction of congress members $282,100,000 for elimination of the reduced house member staff $150,000,000 for elimination of reduced senate member staff $ 59,675,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining house members $ 37,500,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining senate members $ 7,500,000,000 reduction in pork added to bills by the reduction of congress members. $ 8,073,383,400 per year, estimated total savings. Big business does these types of cuts all the time.

By Poodles-R-Dogs-Too

December 10, 2008 9:42 AM | Link to this

Palin in the WH would be as bad for America as Cristina Kirchner has been for Argentia…but ah think Christina is a lot smarter than that Alaskan Idiot journalism major…

By Dr. Vajajay

December 10, 2008 10:00 AM | Link to this

Is the good gov’nah of Illinois any more corrupt than, say, Napolean who raised an army to secure his Emperorship? Dont we admire Caesars?

Caesar covered his face when he was stabbed to death so that nobody could see his facial convulsion at the moment of death. Caeser had stared into the eyes of death hundreds of times up close during battle, so his embarrassment was real. He must have really feared the humility of the moment of death.

Similarly, Obama may be covering up the convulsions of corruption that mark his rise to power. This faceless vacant seat may tell more than any death-mask.

We may be gazing into the crystalline reality of our governance, and we have to ask ourselves if we want to view Uncle Sam’s face after so many possibly mortal wounds.

Coffe Talk: Vini Vidi Vente. I came. I saw. I had a Vente.

The US Post office just announced a new “Oprah” stamp. They are polling customers now about if they prefer the fat frumpy Oprah, or the hot skinny Oprah.

I’ll be here all week. Unless I get banned like I got banned for life over at bookman’s and galloway’s blog. How many bloggers get banned like that? Zero.

I must really be somethin’

First question: How many vacant senate seats have there been in the last fifty years, and how were they filled? Lets get a data base and look for trends. Be brave, my good bloggers, we can change the world if we just click right, or left, depending on the issue, instead of parroting party line, like Wooten does, like bookman does, and like Galloway does.

Why do journalists have to sell out?

Why?

By Tell It Like It Is

December 10, 2008 10:06 AM | Link to this

The only thing different in Illinois vs. Georgia is party affiliation. Perdue and Chambliss are just as bad as Blago. Blago just cannot control his mouth.

Politics and the system breed these guys.What is interesting is how some people react to corruption based on beliefs and interpretation of the law. To me, an unwarranted war that kills Americans is worse than anything politicians like Blago,Rangle,Chambliss,Palin,Rove etc. might do to grease their palms with money. Politics is all about compromise with favors being the resolution. America and the world will always experience issues of this type. Life goes on.

By Dr. Vajajay

December 10, 2008 10:15 AM | Link to this

Look, tellit, we aint interested in Blago and his penny-ante, dog-and-pony show, see?

We want to expose the real thing that moves in and takes over, and anyone who sticks his head up gets slapped down, Capische?

By Where did the Money go?

December 10, 2008 10:16 AM | Link to this

The congressional panel overseeing the $700 billion economic rescue plan wants to know what banks have done with their allotments, whether the public is getting a fair return on those investments and what the Treasury Department is doing to help American families.

Ten questions, some of them implicitly criticizing the program, form the first report of the Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization, which is expected to be released today at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.

“These are the tough questions that people all over the country are asking,” said Elizabeth Warren, chairman of the panel and a law professor at Harvard University. “We are issuing the official report asking those same questions. They are tough. This is $700 billion we are talking about. I ask tough questions when I buy a car.”

Congressional Democrats have repeatedly complained that the Treasury’s Troubled Assets Relief Program addresses the needs of financial institutions but ignores the anxieties of ordinary Americans.

The largest piece of the program invests government money into banks at favorable interest rates.

The Treasury has considered plans to aid homeowners struggling with mortgage payments but has not adopted one.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, which was created along with the rescue program, consists of three Democratic appointees and one Republican.

The lone Republican, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Tex.), did not sign the panel’s first report, though it consists only of questions.

“I have to ensure that every panel member has the resources and rights necessary to conduct effective oversight,” he said in a statement. “I must also ensure that the panel adopts a serious agenda that truly brings transparency and accountability to the process… . Until I conclude that these important issues are addressed, and that all taxpayers can be sure that their voices are represented, I cannot in good conscience approve any reports.”

The questions in the report address basic issues, such as what Treasury officials believe is the root cause of the financial crisis, what the Treasury wants to achieve with the program and whether the program is stabilizing markets.

Other questions emphasize the fact that banks have been the major beneficiary of the program, while other groups have been left empty-handed.

For example, the report highlights the fact that while Congress told carmakers they would have to reform before they get federal aid, the Treasury did not require banks to present a viable business plan or replace “failed” executives in order to receive money.

Likewise, it asks what steps the Treasury has taken to reduce foreclosures, and said the Treasury has an obligation to explain its reluctance to adopt a mortgage relief plan proposed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

“Why has Treasury not generally required financial institutions to engage in specific mortgage foreclosure mitigation plans as a condition of taxpayer funds?” the panel asked.

By Simple Answers

December 10, 2008 10:25 AM | Link to this

Q: When Ragtard accuses “all of the leftists” of defending Blago, can he come up with a single name to back up his point?

A: No. Don’t be ridiculous.

Simple Answers, folks.

And give Wooten credit. He is waiting at least one day to re-start up the Rezko nonsense. Alas, Ragtard suffers from premature speculation.

By Poodles-R-Dogs-Too

December 10, 2008 10:34 AM | Link to this

The 350 billion went to the FAT CAT New York crowd, Goofy Slacks, More Slime, CitiCrap and their ilk…one day we will put them all against a wall and complete the chant Ready, Aim, ……

By BS Aplenty

December 10, 2008 10:36 AM | Link to this

It’s hard to believe that Chicago could develop such an outstanding collection of political vermin. Nevertheless, in commemoration of the arrest of that most august Illinois governor, I find myself waxing poetic:

(sung to Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer)

You know there’s Rezko and Ayers and Pfleger and Winfrey, Don’t forget Wright, oh, and possibly Daley, But do you know the most famous flea-bag of all-l-l,

Blogo the Brown-nosed gov’nor, Had a cherry senate seat, And if you had the money, Illinois won’t say a peep.

All of the special agents, Listenin’ on their radios, Hopin’ to get ol’ Blogo, Talking ‘bout his wholesale “hose”

Then one snowy winter day, G-men came to say, Blogo with your nose so deep, Take the perp walk, if you please.

Then how country loved them FBI, the blue suit men, Keepin’ the flea-bag gov’nor practicing inside the pen.

By Peter

December 10, 2008 10:43 AM | Link to this

Hey……By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 10, 2008 9:14 AM | Link to this

Let’s state the facts: Obama is a Muslim; all Muslims are terrorists.

Boy this is a bunch of crap…….

Like saying all white folks are rednecks………

By Where did the Money go?

December 10, 2008 10:49 AM | Link to this

American International Group, once the world’s largest insurer, owes around $10 billion to Wall Street’s biggest firms for trades that have gone sour, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Tuesday.

By Curious Observer

December 10, 2008 10:49 AM | Link to this

Hey, I’m as willing to presume innocence as the next guy, but is someone telling me that Obama never once discussed his Senate replacement with the governor, either directly or through an intermediary?

It’s certainly OK to refuse to play dirty ball with Blagojevich, but it defies belief that no one from the Obama camp ever once discussed the replacement with the governor. How would Blagojevich know that Obama was offering only his gratitude for appointing a friendly replacement, as the former is quoted as saying on tape?

I’m not ready to paint Obama with a tar brush, but his camp needs to know that not all supporters are so partisan that they’re willing to defy common sense in evaluating the statements and the circumstances. After all, you’re the incoming president and you need to be able to count on your replacement in the Senate. You don’t simply wash your hands of the issue and pretend that the appointment of a replacement is of no concern to you.

By And The Beat Goes On!!!

December 10, 2008 10:56 AM | Link to this

Where did the Money go?

How many astute thinkers on this blog do not believe that some of the $700 billion has not been returned to the politicians and their cronies as political favors. They need the money to defend themselves from corruption trials. If you do not believe me, ask some of the young air heads on CNN and Fox News who think that they know everything. And The Beat Goes ON!!!

By Where did the Money go?

December 10, 2008 10:56 AM | Link to this

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac engaged in “an orgy of junk mortgage development” that turned the two mortgage-finance giants into vast repositories of subprime and similarly risky loans, a former Fannie executive testified on Tuesday.

The mortgage development, which began in 2005 and lasted until at least last year, happened as senior executives at the two government-sponsored enterprises ignored repeated warnings from internal risk officers that they were delving too deeply into dangerous territory, according to internal documents released at a Congressional hearing in Washington. The two companies have been taken over by the government.

The former executive, Edward J. Pinto, who was chief credit officer at Fannie Mae, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the mortgage giants now guarantee or hold 10.5 million nonprime loans worth $1.6 trillion — one in three of all subprime loans, and nearly two in three of all so-called Alt-A loans, often called “liar loans.”

Such loans now make up 34 percent of the total single-family mortgage portfolios at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a level that will link them to eight million foreclosures, or one in six, in coming years, Mr. Pinto said. The nonprime loans “have turned the American dream of homeownership into the American nightmare of foreclosure,” he said.

The hearing was the latest by Congress on the collapse of the two companies, which guarantee half of all mortgages nationwide and are the engine of the housing market. The former chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Daniel H. Mudd and Richard F. Syron, and their predecessors, Franklin D. Raines and Leland C. Brendsel, faced pointed questioning from lawmakers.

Referring to what he called “the total denial that’s going on here today and the refusal to answer simple questions,” Representative Stephen F. Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts, told the executives that “if you have accomplished anything here today, you have made conservatorship look very, very good.”

By AmVet

December 10, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this

I have read two inane comments on these blogs this morning (well technically dozens, but…)

Slightly paraphrased: We Republicans get rid of our crooks unlike the Democrats.

And it’s equally idiotic corollary:

We Democrats get rid of our crooks unlike the Republicans.

WAKE UP SHEEPLE!

90% of Americans think this country is in decline.

75% think corporations have too much control.

60% think the two major political parties are failures.

The ostriches in the self-serving left and the reactionaries in the delusional right are living in a different time and place.

Their ain’t gonna be another FDR or JFK or Ronnie (thank gawd) to save our lazy rear ends.

As long as I read tripe like that referenced above, I realize that these generally uninvolved zealots here and elsewhere do not want a competitive democracy.

They LIKE the current clusterf&ck and they are simply glad they don’t have to participate in it or demonstrate any actual responsibility for the outcomes.

And the fact that the entire middle class is going to take a HUGE one right up the keester AGAIN, thanks to the corporate destruction of capitalism and it’s overseeing toadies in the White House and on Capital Hill, seems not to bother them in the slightest.

Perhaps it will their children and their children…

By Dr. Vajajay

December 10, 2008 11:04 AM | Link to this

Look at Wooten’s title: “Change? No. Same old Corruption”.

Obama’s not the president yet, Wooten. There wont be no change till he gets sworn in.

At least wait till the first veto before you call him a schmoe.

I’ll write Wooten’s next piece: “Change? NO! We elected Obama over a month ago, but there hasnt been any change yet. SO Obama must be a loser. Hey! WTF?”

Wooten.

By And The Beat Goes On!!!

December 10, 2008 11:08 AM | Link to this

Congress critcizing Fannie Mae and Frddie Mac is a joke. If they did not know what was going on, then why are they in Congress? Do you smell a rat yet? I wonder how much money has filtered back into their nest eggs? And The Beat Goes On!!!

By ron

December 10, 2008 11:09 AM | Link to this

Curious Observer @ 10:49——Either Obama has the prosecutor solidly in his pocket or he’s telling the truth.There are truck loads of phone tap tapes around to refute or confirm any statement made about dealings with the Gov. Of Ill.

A meeting took place this week between Obama and Al Gore that should be of interest to everyone.This meeting is going to cost every citizen money.The European Union is into this carbon selling on a wholesale basis and many fear it is the end of heavy industry,particularly in Germany.This is coming to the U.S. gents and ladies,and it ain’t cheap.

By ButReally

December 10, 2008 11:15 AM | Link to this

but REALLY, is Tina Fey’s I can see Russia from my house really that much different than the exact quote below, as it relates to foreign policy experience? Anyone with 1/2 a brain KNOWS you cannot see Russia from anywhere in the Anchorage area.

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

By Poodles-R-Dogs-Too

December 10, 2008 11:19 AM | Link to this

The ga guvs are just as corrupt as in chicago…they just ain’t been caught yet. Take RoyTheCrook, he gave a chicago area law firm a no bid contract to tell the state Medicaid people how to cheat the feds out of the State’s 20 odd percent cost share of the program…but this wasn’t just any contract, it was a contingency contract in which the chicago crooks got the first 100 million bucks “stolen.” Of course their plan was simple and known already by the ga medicaid program, impose a broad based tax on all health care providers, including meidicaid and medicare providers to generate the Ga cost share…See, the state gets 80 cents back from the feds for each 20 cents they put in. To compensate the medicaid providers, GA just raised their reimbursement rate to cover the tax. But the crookedChicagoLawyerScum got to keep their 100 million bucks…Ah bet there was some kind of quid pro quo for RoytheCrook in all that, imho, sic em Feds. All this is in my opinion RoyYouStinkingCrook….Now the FatVet wants a stimulus package…imho, he is looking for a fatpayoff prior to waddling out of office….

By Dr. Vajajay

December 10, 2008 11:27 AM | Link to this

Amwet, you are no John Stewart. Quit hacking and use your own voice. I know this is the wooten blog, the king of hacks, but that doesn’t mean you should embolden the Emir of Emulation.

dig, amwet? here’s an example of original thought:

It’s good that Georgia has escaped corruption. (reference to wooten’s article, which amwet never reads).

What this story could uncover is the sickness that is Freedom itself: The Freedom 2B Corrupt. I wonder how many black orphans are responsible for all this corruption in government. (reference to yesterday’s wooten, which amwet wiped his p-hole on)

We should rewrite our constitution. (reference to slaveowner TJ). Simply make it the ten commandments (reference to Golden Calf) in a circle with a slash through it. There. That’s our new constitution.

Selling senate seats. (reference to golden parachutes).

PS. I meant a-hole.

By Glenn

December 10, 2008 11:27 AM | Link to this

This is a gutsy column, I think, and clear-eyed (especially about ward dynamics). But it’s also a bit dewy about Georgia.

In my opinion no state is any more or less politically corrupt than another. That’s a metaphysical statement, I realize, and I do indeed mean it metaphysically. But no matter. The point is that the states differ in their characteristic modes of moral and political corruption.

In Georgia the corruption is built in: the State is subdivided and politicized 159 ways. That’s just for starters. There are more than two hundred law enforcement agencies in Georgia, and the suggestion that inmates are especially well treated here is — I’m sorry — mistaken. (It’s maybe worth considering also that, legally, all public schoolchildren are inmates, as are the Georgians who find themselves wards of the public health system: Georgia conflates healthcare and corrections.)

So I’ll respectfully suggest that this piece errs when it presumes that the corruption in Illinois is aberrant or even in any way abnormal in American politics.

By Bill Shipp

December 10, 2008 11:30 AM | Link to this

Not many folks in these parts remember or even care much anymore, but 10 years ago education reform was a top priority on the national and state agendas.

Talk of even more drastic reform is back in the national headlines, even if it hasn’t surfaced yet in Georgia. Turning out better-educated citizens is seen in the national arena as a way to protect the United States from long-term decline.

Former IBM CEO Louis Gerstner Jr. has written an essay in The Wall Street Journal outlining what he believes must be done to improve American education. Involved in school reform efforts for 40 years, Gerstner proposes:

► Reducing the number of school districts nationally to just 70, one for each state and one for each of the 20 largest cities.

► Instituting national tests for third-, sixth-, ninth- and 12th-graders. Publish the results for all schools.

► Establishing national standards for teacher certification, increasing compensation and allowing schools to remove underperforming teachers.

Gerstner also would … wait a minute! Hold the phone! We have heard all this stuff before. Gerstner is wasting his time and WSJ newsprint. None of these grand dreams ever will materialize - not nationally and certainly not in Gov. Sonny Perdue’s new (and dumber) Georgia.

Remember Roy E. Barnes, an old buddy of Gerstner? Barnes became our governor briefly and tried out a number of Gerstner’s ideas. Look what happened to Barnes. He was zapped in the 2002 election in favor of Perdue, who ran on a platform of undoing what Barnes had done. Perdue succeeded admirably. Even if Barnes tries a rumored comeback as governor, don’t look for him to touch the third rail of education reform.

Teacher unions and apparently most teachers want no part of real reform. They vote en masse against anybody who goes there. Youngsters in the classroom don’t count. The educators are the ones who matter most, and unlike pesky elementary to high school students, teachers cast ballots.

Among Perdue’s first acts upon entering office in 2003 was to restore teacher tenure, which makes it all but impossible to fire incompetent educators.

Helping Perdue achieve this was Senate leader Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, who now opposes teacher tenure in favor of school vouchers. In other words, don’t fire the nitwit teacher; just get a slip to move the student to another school where that particular nitwit doesn’t teach.

Meanwhile, Perdue and GOP legislative leaders have chopped education by more than $3 billion since taking over the Gold Dome. Their most significant shortcoming: failure to create a student information system to track the progress (if any) of school systems and individual students.

Even without a reliable reporting system, Perdue and his state schools superintendent have announced miraculous, overnight improvements in high school graduation rates. However, the raw data to support this miracle is not available. The major news media have reprinted Perdue’s numbers without question. “If the governor says it, then it must be true” is the new Nixonian attitude of the capital press gang.

Outside education experts contend the true statistics on graduation numbers would be - well, let’s say it politely - cooked medium well, if they were produced in Chef Perdue’s kitchen.

Georgia still ranks at or near the bottom in student achievement, a sad fact supported by the state’s performance on the SAT and ACT.

As we head into another cash-strapped legislative session, keep these facts in mind:

Republicans have no one to blame but themselves for the state’s generally poor schools. They have been in direct charge of public education for 16 years - first with imprisoned Linda Schrenko as superintendent and now with bankrupt Kathy Cox at the helm.

Gov. Perdue, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Sen. Johnson have led the way, even in economic boom times, to slashing funds and reducing education quality.

That trend may continue. Two of the GOP’s leading candidates for governor do not have college degrees. Since World War II, Georgia has had only one governor - Lester Maddox - without a college education.

Nothing hurts a state’s economic development initiative as much as gaining and holding a national reputation for lousy schools. Georgia is the enduring recipient of a bad-schools report card, and the state’s present leaders don’t seem to care.

By Dr. Vajajay

December 10, 2008 11:31 AM | Link to this

Glenn’s metaphysicality: Gorilla in the mysticism.

bwaw haw

By "Lead by this newspaper," Jim

December 10, 2008 11:34 AM | Link to this

If this paper has “lead” anything, it’s lead the way in being the mouth organ for the power brokers and status quo in the city.

As pathetic as Creative Loafing has become, one can’t count the number of times the AJC did a story only after having it exposed first by the Loaf.

And Jimbo knows this, because he knows free enterprise, and knows that since the demise of the other daily in metro Atlanta, the Urinal-Constipation hasn’t had anyone to hold their feet to the fire.

And then along came the Internet, and the AJC subscription rates dropped faster than Britney Spears’ panties at the sight of the paparazzi.

By Dr. Vajajay

December 10, 2008 11:37 AM | Link to this

The only ward dynamics Glenn knows about is the Ward Cleaver Beaver shot.

bwawwww heehaww!

By AmVet

December 10, 2008 11:37 AM | Link to this

Poli, the only rational part of that “retort” was that I don’t read Wooten’s Propaganda for Dummies closely.

I don’t watch tard TV either.

What’s the point?

Re that 11:08,

I watched some of the Congressional hearings with the former and current heads of Fannie and Freddie on CSPAN last night.

Like little Nazis at Nuremberg, they dutifully sat there smiling in their $2500 suits and acknowledged NO accountability or even remorse for their corrupt incompetency, despite the grilling.

Where is Robespierre when we need him?

By Dr. Vajajay

December 10, 2008 11:46 AM | Link to this

Correction of a previous correction: I meant p-hole.

By reebok

December 10, 2008 11:48 AM | Link to this

I resent the implication that Georgia doesn’t have corrupt and despicable politicians that stack up against any other state’s. We have given the world 2 Talmadges, Lester Maddox, Culver Kidd and Newt Gingrich, along with many lesser known but equally criminal pols. Some stole elections, some were white separatists, some were outright crooks, and all were some combination of amoral and immoral. So don’t act like Chicago and Illinois have a monopoly on corruption. The Peach State can bring it, too!

By Glenn

December 10, 2008 11:50 AM | Link to this

Hee-hee, Dr. VJ, how fun-eee…

By Glenn

December 10, 2008 11:53 AM | Link to this

Lou Gerstner is an idiot. Always has been.

By Dr. Vajajay

December 10, 2008 11:54 AM | Link to this

Amvet, stfu. Your summary of the fannie mae hearings was mundane and mealy-mouthed. We all saw it. Your hacked reply was like that extra turd that pops back up after the flush, to remind us of what we already knew just happened…..

You cant keep up with me. You can only hack me. You’re yesterday’s fishwrap, and you stink.

I suggest you never ever blog again, for even that lonely little messenger turd gets flushed too. But it looks like your mother forgot to jiggle the handle, now, doesn’t it?

We’ll just call you big turbo.

Amwet. Am Allwet.

By Poodles-R-Dogs-Too

December 10, 2008 11:54 AM | Link to this

If the ajcUrinal just had a real investigative reporter, we could slam the door on these crooked GaGuvs, both current and former and just maybe double urinal circulation numbers….Ah sure wish a hot young female recent uga grad would pull all the ajc stories over the years about Ga Medicade, Federal Reimbursement, Bed Tax, and contingency contracts…and run with that story while digging for more. She could also pull up all the stories about the theft of Ga 400 toll money to pay for roads at Atlantic station….Apparently, RoytheCrook looked for crooked things it could do that had not yet been identified and outlawed as illegal, like diverting GA 400 toll money to his croonies and the guv signing no bid contingency contracts….No wonder the Urinals circulation numbers are dropping like a rock, they got no guts, no git up and go, no killer instinct..imho, of course I only hope for a hot young female uga grad to do the dirty work here because I am a dirty old man, and I look forward to her picture on her column…..I sure hope she’s got some tatooes, aka TrampStamps….mah kinda girl

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 10, 2008 12:00 PM | Link to this

Dear Simple @ 10:25, You are seemingly unaware that the Blagojevich investigation and the Rezko investigation are one, but I am pleased to educate.

Dear Peter @ 10:43, I completely agree with you. The childish language was obviously written by a leftist, as I noted @ 9:21. Lest there is any doubt in your mind, I did not write it.

Dear Curious @ 10:49, I agree with you, I don’t know exactly what I think. I really believe the “talks” with Blagojevich are likely not criminal matters, unless Fitzgerald blows it into a Libby-style indictment. On the other hand, it is peculiar that Fitzgerald is carrying Obama’s Rezko land transaction to the grand jury, since he already convicted Rezko. According to Wikipedia, “Rezko has been held at Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center since his conviction. He is reportedly working on a deal with prosecutors that would bring him a reduced prison sentence in return for testimony against other targets of the investigation.[22] The first signs of Rezko’s willingness to give information to the authorities came with the October 30, 2008 indictment of longtime Illinois power broker and Blagojevich fund-raiser William Cellini.[23]”

Dear Money @ 10:56, I think I know Ed Pinto. If he is the guy I think he is, he is a straight arrow, once gave me some great advice on a suit.

By Poodles-R-Dogs-Too

December 10, 2008 12:03 PM | Link to this

Yeah RagHead, the advise was “close your zipper, what ya doing, advertising here in the mens bathroom?”

By Glenn

December 10, 2008 12:06 PM | Link to this

The one-time CEO of IBM, Louis Gerstner, mistook computers for something. For what he mistook them, was any speechwriter’s guess from week-to-week. He seemed to think that in taking on his IBM mantle he’d assumed the black mock-T of the Cupertine Order, and could pronounce upon the Future of schoolchildren and teachers in the grind of daily insanity.

He was a Fool.

By Poodles-R-Dogs-Too

December 10, 2008 12:11 PM | Link to this

Wasn’t RoytheCrook also the father of QBE, Quality Based Education, the poorly camaflaged theft of metro Atlanta’s property taxes to fund rural ga’s schools? RoytheCrook thougt it was just fine for metro atlanta to pay 20 mils in property taxes to fund rural ga schools, while the red necks and hillbillies in rural ga only paid the minimum 6 mils. Gawd ah hate RoytheCrook…..

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 10, 2008 12:11 PM | Link to this

Dear lapdog @ 12:03, no, it was “Buy the Brooks Brothers, not the Men’s Warehouse special.”

By Put your money where your mouth is Shipp

December 10, 2008 12:13 PM | Link to this

Let me tell you why teachers resist reform, poster “Bill Shipp”. If you were a manager, would you want to be “accountable” for employees who don’t work, fight other coworkers, curse, and in some cases physically assault management, and yet as the manager you had ZERO authority over disciplining them or removing them?

You want teachers to embrace “reform”? Then YOU embrace restoring the teacher’s authority in the classroom, YOU embrace restoring discipline in the classroom, not letting students run wild, then CUTTING TEACHERS OFF AT THE KNEES when they try to maintain order!

When you realize that blaming teachers for society’s ills has become the basis for “reform,” and that school systems have taken this to the point that they feel empowered to suggest that it is the teacher’s responsiblity to make sure a child attends school on a regular basis, then you know why teachers resist “reform”.

Let me repeat; when a school system tells teachers **It is the TEACHER’S responsibility, (not the parent’s, the TEACHER’S) to see that a child attends school on a regular basis; and you want to know why teachers don’t embrace “reform”?

You must be kidding.

By Butt Geyser

December 10, 2008 12:13 PM | Link to this

That both Petah, and Jblowmeinlaws were sucked in to responding to an obvious troll, that nobody cared about, nor anybody cared whether or not it was the real mundane mench named jblowmeinlaws proves my point about this blog. Amwet hacks me all the time, but do you see me with my panties in a bunch?

New rules: If someone hacks you, too bad. That’s why blogs blow. Maybe if the troll’s mother had raised it to be a nicer girl….

maybe. coulda. shoulda. woulda.

let it go, joe.

Duh, somebody wrote something and they used my Id and that’s namejacking and it’s unfair, duhhh

retard!

By Glenn

December 10, 2008 12:14 PM | Link to this

Y….YESSSS, BABY!!!

NOW we’re talkin’…

By Poodles-R-Dogs-Too

December 10, 2008 12:16 PM | Link to this

RagHead: only F* wear Brooks Brothers….

By Butt Geyser

December 10, 2008 12:19 PM | Link to this

The recent denial of Sen. Craig’s appeal to change his plea of guilty preceded SeatGate by a chin……ew.

I guess you could call both scandals, the bathroom trolling by Sen. Craig, and the vacant senate seat for sale, “SeatGate”.

SeatGate. Now in bookstores.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 10, 2008 12:22 PM | Link to this

Dear lapdog @ 12:16, you simply must hear me sing the soundtrack of My Fair Lady.

By Butt Geyser

December 10, 2008 12:23 PM | Link to this

I meant a-hole.

By Butt Geyser

December 10, 2008 12:25 PM | Link to this

Oh, BTW: I think I’ve also been banned by Terrence Moore! Three blogs and counting!

That makes me the king, sorry, it just does. these hacks are so threatened by my effluvia that they just cant stand the smell.

By HIDT

December 10, 2008 12:29 PM | Link to this

I haven’t jacked anyone but myself for months, but, yes, Ragnar, you are correct, the 9:14 or whatever was not me. Glad to see Butt Geyser is back. Miss that Three man crush, guy, though.

Back out. I’m trying to make employment more gainful.

By One Voice

December 10, 2008 12:30 PM | Link to this

Yes, politicians who are the top executives in their state can certainly perpetuate and/or maintain a culture of corruption, and the current governor of Illinois is the latest example. The saddest example, though, is how Bush has perpetuated and maintained a culture of corruption in the federal government. To my recollection, I cannot identify a president in our history who has been so surrounded by corruption at a systematic level, from the Justice Department, to the Pentagon, to the CIA, to the office of the vice president, to FEMA, to the U.S. Army, to lobbyists, to big business. It’s truly unbelievable and has been devastating to this nation. Prosecute all corrupt politicians, from GW Bush down to Stevens to Blagojevic to Palin to the local councilman in Wooten’s home town of East Bumble F@#$.

By Butt Geyser

December 10, 2008 12:33 PM | Link to this

bookman today labels the timing of SeatGate a distraction that Obama doesn’t need. Obama isn’t prez.

Bush is prez. The timing for a scandal couldn’t be better. There’s still over a month to go before the swear in.

bookman always gets it wrong. Notice that? He never quite grasps the real story or gets the implications of a story quite right. His data points are usually accurate, but that’s like knowing how much wood a woodchuck could chuck; it only helps you entertain special needs children with cool alliterative rhymes.

and bookman is definitely entertaining to Glenn and Peter.

bwa hawwww

By Simple Answers

December 10, 2008 12:36 PM | Link to this

Q: Would Ragtard support a $70 million special prosecutor’s investigation into the Rezko - Obama connection only to discover that there is no actionable violation?

A: Yes, as long as it harrasses the Obama administration the way the Whitewater witchhunt plagued the Clintons.

Q: But doesn’t that violate Ragtard’s principled opposition to government activity?

A: Yeah, so? You were expecting maybe intellectual consistency and honesty from Heywood JaBlowMe?

Ragtard is a fool. The wingnuts have had years to nail Obama on this, and if there was anything to it McCain would never have had to resort to Ayers as an “issue”.

By Butt Geyser

December 10, 2008 12:40 PM | Link to this

SeatGate: It’s proper that I have just coined a bipartisan metaphor for the two scandals.

Maybe now we can join hands during this Bowl Season and fulfill the promise of our homocratic repudlick.

By Gerald West

December 10, 2008 12:52 PM | Link to this

My goodness, an elected Democrat acting like a Republican!

Georgia politics has always been mired in ignorance and incompetence, but has never been creative enough to try a really big heist. It’s easier to view with alarm the mess from afar rather than to see the mess around us.

By Maniac is accurate

December 10, 2008 1:01 PM | Link to this

Actually, I think the gop mob job that allowed Sonny Puredoo a “just for me,” tax break was a really big heist that should have landed him and his henchmen in Hardwick doing hard time from hardened criminals, if you get my drift.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 10, 2008 1:25 PM | Link to this

Dear Simple Answers @ 12:36, allow me to quote the inimitable Howard Roark: “The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrifice.” Tisk tisk.

By Fred

December 10, 2008 1:26 PM | Link to this

The way this will play out in the next few weeks is that the machine will circle around Blagojevich, pointing fingers, isolating him as ‘the one bad apple’ and making him the sacrificial lamb so that the machine will survive. It’s happened before, it will happen again… and again and again.

I won’t presume Obama was party to this particular corruption, but anyone who imagines him to be untainted by these Chicago politics doesn’t understand how things are done there. A one-half term Senator challenges all the established Democrats for the Presidency and wins… you can choose to credit that to angels or a political machine.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 10, 2008 1:35 PM | Link to this

Dear Maniac @ 1:25, you have not lost your touch – I wish I had written that one.

By GaLiberal

December 10, 2008 1:40 PM | Link to this

Leave it up to Moron Jim and the Rethuglicons to jump on the bandwagon before there is even a trial. In this country we have innocent until proven (or found) guilty. All we have right now is an indictment; a piece of toilet paper. No evidence has been presented to support the accuracy of the indictment. Yet, the Rethuglicons are all jumping up and down the governor is corrupt and in a guilt-by-association leap of logic so is Obama. Instead of waiting to see the evidence, the Rethuglicons want an ol’ fashion lynching. And they’ve already selected the rope.

I find it quite interesting that a Rethuglicon-controlled executive branch agency (the FBI) can so easily find dirt on a Democrat yet blantant wrongdoings by Rethuglicons seemingly are not worthy of their time. In fact, US AGs were pressured to go after Democrats so one wonders if this isn’t just some of that ol’ boy policy.

In any case, let’s all remember it’s the person that is corrupt, not the party. There have been just as many Rethuglicon party members skimming the till as Democrat party members.

When you vote Rethuglicon, you vote against your own best interests. And making speculative and unsupported corruption charges against a Democratic governor are living proof.

By Ted Striker

December 10, 2008 1:40 PM | Link to this

Wooten is dead on!

Illinois is rife with institutionalized corruption!

The laundry list of scurrilous characters from Illinois dates back generations and generations and generations! Did you expect anything any different? I didn’t.

After all, Illinois IS the state who gave us Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, Clarence Darrow, Frank Lloyd Wright, George Halas, Ronald Reagan, and — oh my goodness, the worst pair in the bunch — Dick and Jerry Van Dyke!

Thank heavens we live in Georgia. Here, Sonny understands our needs. And gas is always abundant and cheap. Atlanta is a picture of fiscal efficiency — they’ll probably send Chicago some money since there is a budget surplus! And let’s not forget Linda Shrenko, our former state school superintendent (wrongly convicted of course) who led our children to the highest test scores in the Nation!

Hip Hip Hooray for Georgia!!! Boo Hiss Down with Illinois!!!

You tell ‘em Wooten. I’ve got your back next time we go over Macho Grande.

You’re a dumb cluck.

By Glenn

December 10, 2008 1:54 PM | Link to this

Especially the Van Dykes! To say nothing of their neighbors, The Smothers Brothers!

That’s how they mean to get to us, to sell us superior wines!

By deegee

December 10, 2008 1:57 PM | Link to this

Change? No, same old race baiting, code word calling Wooten. Wooten rhetorically asks how some cities and states become notorious for corruption. Then he gives us this zinger in his explanation:

“The loyalty is not to the city or to the public good, but to the neighborhood or to an ethnic group.”

Was there any point in this essay other than to try to associate Barack Obama with Wooten’s claim that the State of Illinois is hopelessly mired in a culture of political corruption?

By Simple Answers

December 10, 2008 2:04 PM | Link to this

Q: Was there any point in this essay other than to try to associate Barack Obama with Wooten’s claim that the State of Illinois is hopelessly mired in a culture of political corruption?

A: No.

Thanks for playing another round of Simple Questions, Simple Answers.

By mister.earl

December 10, 2008 2:08 PM | Link to this

The Pew Research Center asked people to choose their own word to describe Bush in 2006 and 2007, the number one response was “incompetent.”

In retrospect, this was a predictable result of the fact that Bush and Vice President Cheney intentionally put into key posts people who didn’t support the traditional missions of the agencies they led. Competence or experience often weren’t as important as loyalty to the White House, rigid ideological commitment to deregulation, aversion to oversight and allegiance to corporate and special interests over consumers and the general public.

Now, the Center for Public Integrity is out with a new report authoritatively chronicling the results. It’s called Broken Government: An assessment of 128 executive branch failures since 2000.

The center’s Josh Israel explains: “The 2008 presidential race produced its share of philosophical and political disputes, but one broad area of agreement underlined the campaigns of both nominees: The federal government is not functioning as it should… .

“Just how bad is this government dysfunction? In an effort to answer that question, the Center for Public Integrity embarked on an examination of the worst systematic failures of the federal government over the past eight years.

“In this, a comprehensive assessment of these failures, we found more than 125 examples of government breakdown in areas as diverse as education, energy, the environment, justice and security, the military and veterans affairs, health care, transportation, financial management, consumer and worker safety, and more — failures which adversely affected ordinary people and made the nation a less open or less secure place to live. While some are, by now, depressingly familiar, many are less well-known but equally distressing. And though the list is diverse, it also reflects some recurring — and troubling — themes… .

“‘I think we’ll look back on this period as one of the most destructive periods in American public life … both in terms of policy and process,’ Thomas E. Mann, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, told the Center.”

• Washington Post

By Poodles-R-Dogs-Too

December 10, 2008 2:16 PM | Link to this

Uh Oh, the 500+ Billion buck Obama infra structure stimulus plan looks more and more like Grand Theft Taxpayer…the five thousand shovel ready projects the crooked guvs and mayors have presented are very heavy on tennis courts, swimming pools, and a 100 million dollar parking lot at the Miami Orange Bowl….Yeah, those projects are really gonna return American competetiness in the world of manufacturing to the top or at least the lower third of the heap….This is former guv RoytheCrook’s wet dream, billions of free federal dollars for him and his pals to steal, eh, invest in infrastructure…Ah predict the thiefformerGuv (imho) will be running fer guv again, asap, imho — Can really, really FAT BOYS like roythetheif actually have wet dreams, or are they too impotent????Is there a doctor in the house???

By mister.earl

December 10, 2008 2:19 PM | Link to this

The Pew Research Center asked people to choose their own word to describe Bush in 2006 and 2007, the number one response was “incompetent.”

In retrospect, this was a predictable result of the fact that Bush and Vice President Cheney intentionally put into key posts people who didn’t support the traditional missions of the agencies they led. Competence or experience often weren’t as important as loyalty to the White House, rigid ideological commitment to deregulation, aversion to oversight and allegiance to corporate and special interests over consumers and the general public.

Now, the Center for Public Integrity is out with a new report authoritatively chronicling the results. It’s called Broken Government: An assessment of 128 executive branch failures since 2000.

The center’s Josh Israel explains: “The 2008 presidential race produced its share of philosophical and political disputes, but one broad area of agreement underlined the campaigns of both nominees: The federal government is not functioning as it should… .

“Just how bad is this government dysfunction? In an effort to answer that question, the Center for Public Integrity embarked on an examination of the worst systematic failures of the federal government over the past eight years.

“In this, a comprehensive assessment of these failures, we found more than 125 examples of government breakdown in areas as diverse as education, energy, the environment, justice and security, the military and veterans affairs, health care, transportation, financial management, consumer and worker safety, and more — failures which adversely affected ordinary people and made the nation a less open or less secure place to live. While some are, by now, depressingly familiar, many are less well-known but equally distressing. And though the list is diverse, it also reflects some recurring — and troubling — themes… .

“‘I think we’ll look back on this period as one of the most destructive periods in American public life … both in terms of policy and process,’ Thomas E. Mann, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, told the Center.”

• Washington Post

By Dusty

December 10, 2008 2:36 PM | Link to this

Dear Jim Wooten,

This blog has been made into one big mess from a straightforward subject, the corruption of the governor of Illinois. It is congested by name swapping, subject dropping, political propaganda, pure lies, sexual innuendos, racial overtones, childish accusations, Georgia gags,repetitious rants and echoes of liberal insanity.

I even wonder why Democrat Bill Ship, veteran journalist and editor would add a piece on schools in the midst of this mayhem. Maybe he’s an old friend or something.

But rather than sort out this conglomeration, perhaps I will return tomorrow to check on the best editor in these parts.

As ‘tis saidMad dogs and Englishmen come out in the midday sun. And on rainy days, all the crazies come out for fun!

a rivederci

By Politicians-R-All-Crooks

December 10, 2008 2:44 PM | Link to this

Why do we trust politicians with so much our our money and power, when we KNOW they are all lying, thieving, crooks??? I suggest we strip the guv of 99% of its taxing and spending power….

By Politicians-R-All-Crooks

December 10, 2008 2:45 PM | Link to this

Drop Dead Dirt Ball….

By Peter

December 10, 2008 3:02 PM | Link to this

Hey By Ragnar Danneskjöld

“Dear Peter @ 10:43, I completely agree with you. The childish language was obviously written by a leftist, as I noted @ 9:21. Lest there is any doubt in your mind, I did not write it.”

I get called a leftist all the time because I am P** at Bush and his administration, and I have been a strong proponent of change with Obama…….

I truly felt putting Palin up for VP was a real mistake by McCain, because she was not qualified to take over if he passed while in office !

BUT that said…….. the idiot Governor in Illinois should get the heck out of office, and they should make an example of him and send him to jail !

I feel there is and will always be a part of the human race who takes advantage, and acts the A$$ like this Governor did….

In all groups of folks, and all races, and all religions, I feel that the negative acting portion is a VERY VERY small minority, but they seem to have such a terrible effect on the group that people want to make generalizations.

Most living humans are worried about the same things……Family, food, shelter, and finding love in their life…..it doesn’t matter where in the world you live…….those are the things people need and desire.

I find labeling people in general is stupid, and I realize all folks have their own opinion………. that is what makes America great………

I can have my own silly opinion, spot off with it, as long as I am somewhat considerate of others.

Dusty is always teasing me, calling me out, and wondering if I am about to jump off a bridge when I get frustrated, and write some harsh stuff……

I find at this juncture WE as American’s need to come up with solutions…..

I have been behind spending money here at home for infrastructure, I feel this will be a good way to get folks working, tax their pay checks, and begin to pay off the national debt.

I feel the debt has made America weak in general, and the WAR in Iraq a real Joke, and the fact Bin Laden was never caught a real issue.

I feel Bush has been the worst President ever, that being said …….. It doesn’t matter what party you are with, either we work together, or we keep tearing America Apart !

I can get very negative at times with the Republican’s….I feel the policies of the last 8 years have really set us back as a nation in an awful way………but if I see Democrat’s acting stupid, or with a personal greed in mind as this Governor did, I would call them out as well.

By Leila

December 10, 2008 3:11 PM | Link to this

Given his position as chairman of the Illinois Senate’s health committee, Obama is too close to the fire on this one Mr. Wooten, . Most of the indictment centers around hospitals and their board appointees.

Where there’s smoke there’s fire. Obama’s presidency will be scorched if not consumed by fire.

By Blogfather

December 10, 2008 3:12 PM | Link to this

Dairy of cancer update. My wife is degenerating by the minute. Just one week ago today, she easily walked into her last day of radiation, negotiating stairs, and keeping her balance for hours as we also shopped on the way home.

Today, a bathroom trip is an ordeal. It’s happening that fast, good people.

She is also depressed, in spite of anti-depressants. She is in a grim stupor of denial, acceptance, bitterness, anger, and defeat. Talk about a thousand mile stare. But I’m there, doing material, practically wiping her lovely behind, showering with her, toweling her very sexy skin, holding on to her as much as she’ll let me, and of course being room service.

She doesn’t believe in God. Ironically, I’ve never known this woman to sin. She doesn’t commit sins. Honest. Unless she’s reliving girls gone wild video tapes in her head or something, this woman is clean. She simply doesn’t believe in evangelical truth. at all. not a wit. not a lick.

I will go down with this ship.

By BS Aplenty

December 10, 2008 3:24 PM | Link to this

To the uninformed who think me a pervert:

Q: BS, would you explain what the term “wholesale ‘hose’” means as it relates to your jingle above? Is that a sexual reference.

A: Not at all, caller, the phrase “wholesale ‘hose’” means that Gov. Blogo’s action to sell the senate seat were “wholesale”, or, large-scale and “to hose” someone is to “fleece” them or steal something from them. Hope that answers your question.

By Ax Me

December 10, 2008 3:31 PM | Link to this

But BS, what if the ho sold her hole wholesale for hosery and got hosed?

By Ryan

December 10, 2008 3:36 PM | Link to this

Y-yeah! What da ho do wid da h-h-hosery?

By BS Aplenty

December 10, 2008 3:39 PM | Link to this

Blogfather

I wish you, your wife and your family the best. Your devotion and courage is an inspiration.

By no doubt

December 10, 2008 3:48 PM | Link to this

no doubt they should’ve dropped the lawsuits that stonewall progress in this country, hurt America and even shoot the American auto companies in the foot at the same time. and who supported the old school way of thinking at the auto companies and help the oil companies and help arab oil producers, who did that? you got it, the one and only friends of the greedy rich, the republican party. time to remove those American flag lapel pins until you really mean it! now we will give tax payer money to the auto companies so they can give it to their lawyers so they can prevent progress and hurt America all at the same time. once again republicans prove not to be about true patriotism, but about the rich getting richer and ordinary Americans getting the short of the stick again. those traitors ought to be ashamed of themselves, but their not, they’ll just blame it on the boogeyman again, you know that pesky liberal, or should i say, witch, heretic, juden, etc. remember when the slogan was ‘country first’, what happened to that?

By AF

December 10, 2008 3:51 PM | Link to this

Jim said: “My guess is that group identity promotes loyalty to politicians who then trade votes for patronage jobs and for services.” This sounds like the years of Bush and Republicans.

I suggest that the idea of “group identity promotes loyalty” applies, with spades, to Georgia voters. What percent of local and state politicians are now Repubs? When we were Democrats, we were all Democrats and absolutely loyal Democrats. Now that we are Republicans, we portray the same characteristics. Loyalty? My God, we will ignore any and every form of machination, all the lying and failures of the Bush presidency and still defend it. We continue to defend the Iraq war when even the President now admits there were no weapons of mass destruction – he had no basis for war. We believed the Repubs when they said they would decrease government – and we keep electing them even when they don’t, after holding all the power in Washington. We re-elect Saxby because he will lower taxes – even after all that tax lowering during war created a trillion dollar debt – before the bail-outs. Sheep. We are a state of sheep. BAAAAA BAAAA BAAAAA

We have been lucky in the level of honesty of our politicians in Georgia. It isn’t that I don’t believe most politicians, Democrat and Republican, aren’t lying, cheating dogs. It is just that some are worse than others. And I will put Purdue in that category of “not too bad.”

By Politicians-R-All-Crooks

December 10, 2008 3:57 PM | Link to this

Best of Luck to you and your wife Blogfather. Remember, we have lost eight years of research on embryonic stem cells because of the Chimp and his fellow jesus freaks…stem cells are the best hope for a universal cure to cancer….

By hirsutedawg

December 10, 2008 3:58 PM | Link to this

Let’s be clear…..Jim will never be over Macho Grande.

By Blogfather

December 10, 2008 4:17 PM | Link to this

We got our all of our cancer treatment at Northside Hospital. Peculiarly, all the rooms at Northside have a disclaimer on the wall that reads, “The medical personel treating you are independent contractors and not employees of Northside Hospital.”

Not a confidence builder. Liability, and all, you know.

This country needs healthcare.

By Chad Harris

December 10, 2008 4:22 PM | Link to this

Here we go again. Jimmy the woo woo near the last of his class at a University ranked near last in the nation, has questions swirling in his limited little pea brain. Somehow Woo Woo, who gets a welfare handout from his s** columns from Cox newspapers, has more delusional questions swirling about an issue where Obama is not peripherally involved. Oh yeah, there is a pic of Obama in 2007 with Blago in yesterday’s real paper, the NYT.

Obama’s connection to Blago Jimmy the Woo Woo is that on the tapes where Pat Fitz is alleging corruption charges against Blago he complains that Obama is giving him zilch. He says specifically “Screw that mofo. F*ck Obama” [because Obama won’t talk to him about any quid pro quos. I would assume what Blago was selling if in fact he was selling—this hasn’t been tried and no conviction has been gained except in the press—was an appointment for Val Jerrett, the attorney and long time Obama advisor who doesn’t want to be Senator from Illinois and is going to the West Wing as Obama’s Senior Advisor.

And ah guess that ole Dusty Wusty and Ragnar Danny Skold now believe that Blago won’t be Obama’s Secretary of HHS? Am ah correct in that assumption?

By ron

December 10, 2008 4:34 PM | Link to this

Hold tough Blogfather.You are absolutely correct when you say this country needs health care.My thoughts are with you.I know that’s not much help,but that’s all I can do.

By Glenn

December 10, 2008 4:58 PM | Link to this

Blogfather, yours is a good ship. I’d throw you both a line if only I could.

Come back.

By jbm is a condescending...

December 10, 2008 5:09 PM | Link to this

Still waiting for Ragweed to back up his 8:43 as to the “leftists” who are amazingly defending the Ill. Gov. Any support for such a serious allegation? or just more blowhardery on the part of our resident blowhard?

By catlady

December 10, 2008 5:10 PM | Link to this

Georgia has for the most part escaped that kind of political corruption.

Heh, heh, heh,heh, ha, ha, ha! Shheeeuuttt!

By Chad Harris

December 10, 2008 5:13 PM | Link to this

If some of you think this country needs health care, I wonder if you are aware of the manner in which:

On or about November 6 after McCain and trailer trash were sent home

Your Bush adminstration besides being medically morons and anti-science has screwed physicians and hospital for 8 years by bungling reimbursement

Your Bush administration has actually cost taxpayers more money with their bungling of privatizing health care

Your Bush administration carefully waited until two days after McCain the Maverick and his mavericky trailertrash running mate put the Republican campaign in clusterf*ckville and severely cut Medicaid and Medicare benefits which is going to impact the population of patients (some significantly sick and in need of care, meds, and services they won’t be getting—so they will go off the meds costing taxpayers and hospitals more in the long run because they can’t afford them).

The newly enacted Bush cuts will also hamper the ability of States (think Jaw Jaw and fat Sonny Perdew the vet who stupidly ordered $6 million of Tamiflu that has nothing to do with what Perdue thought he bought it for) to execute their Medicaid and Medicare programs and will directly impact Grady and UGA’s teaching hospitals in Augusta and their new program springing up in Athens where they try to play football.

By Dusty

December 10, 2008 5:20 PM | Link to this

Dear Blogfather.

I hope you won’t be offended if I say a little prayer from the Lutheran Book of Prayer for one In Illness:

Father, Hear me. Have mercy. Help me. Have mercy. Heal me with Your peace. Father, I am in Your hands. Have mercy, Give peace. Amen.

It is written for the one who is ill to say but I will repeat it for you and your loved one. I wish I could do more. This is all that I have that will reach you.

By JC

December 10, 2008 5:40 PM | Link to this

remember Dusty, Jesus was a liberal, he didn’t like the rich, he was compassionate towards the less fortunate, he was against war, especially stupid ones, he didn’t condemn or hate anyone just because they were different than him or because they thought diferently than he did, he didn’t believe Heaven was a place just for those with a good attendance record at church, he wouldn’t be blaming the people that have lost their home for this mess, he wouldn’t side with the oil companies or the auto companies and he wouldn’t ever chant, drill, baby, drill. all of those things are opposite to the people you support. now shouldn’t you be trying to market George Bush as a Saint in the same way Reagan was canonized? the people that most disappoint Jesus today are the ones that are calling themselves Christians. deeds not words.

By Chad Harris

December 10, 2008 6:02 PM | Link to this

Ahm still tryin’ to unnerstan how Jimmy the Woo Woo is equating alleged conduct of Gov. Rod Blago and his chief of staff and his cronies and is trying to forge a relationship between Obama’s mantra of “change” which if I’m not mistaken after their campaign sputtered was plaguerized by the McCain-Palin campaign that flew into the s**.

Indictments are intentionally sketchy. That’s what the government attempts to do.

When Pat Fitz unloaded on the scumbag Scootsie Libby, the indictment showed little of the substance that Fitz dropped in the trial which convicted Libby.

But that said, what we see in the indictment and transcripts are that Obama was squeaky clean and not connected to any of the misconduct that Blago is alleged to have committed.

So how in the clusterfuck of this article does Wootie the Woo extrapolate that Blago’s alleged conduct has anything tangentially f*** todo with Obama other than both of them reside in Illinois and one of them is going to reside in the White House (white men ought to grasp that) and one of them isn’t?

By Blogfather

December 10, 2008 6:15 PM | Link to this

One of the biggest shocks about christianity came when they said that Christ didn’t write the Lord’s Prayer. They’ve pretty much proved it was written in the second century by a poetic genius.

The next biggest shock came over the shroud of turin and it’s dating to the time when it first showed up in the 13th century. Man I was totally fooled by it. It’s still astounding. I can still be swayed either way with new info, just like the way I’m constantly switching my opinion about the Single Bullet Theory. The book, “Case Closed” changed my mind from conspiracy to lone assassin but I’ve changed back twice since then.

The only prayer that I can remember christ actually saying was “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. I mean, here was the Son of Man talking directly to God. It’s really quite remarkable and I think we have real good reliability that he actually said it. His prayer was for all of us ever born. He actually makes an excuse for us. “You’ll have to pardon these rocket scientists, father, they zone alot…”

I know deep inside that there is an afterlife. I instinctively feel that life on earth is the only way God can know if any of us can be trusted with the real total power we will have as supernatural beings in the afterlife. Why? Because Lucifer wouldn’t have rebeled if he didn’t think he had a chance to win. He thought he could win. That means he had enormous power. So will we. This life is truly a test.

”

By Ted Striker

December 10, 2008 6:17 PM | Link to this

Blogfather — I’m saddened to learn of your wife’s heart wrenching sufferings. Though you gladly and faithfully lighten her burden as much as possible, I know it’s incredibly exhausting.

May the coming moments bring unexpected pockets of relief for you both. Suffering has no political position.

By Cornelia

December 11, 2008 8:23 AM | Link to this

To Simple Answers by your logic the president-elects country is corrupt and then all Americans should be tarnished by the actions of ONE. How ridiculous is that. Each man should be judged by their OWN actions.

By Cornelia

December 11, 2008 8:26 AM | Link to this

To Simple Answers by your logic the president-elects country is corrupt and then all Americans should be tarnished by the actions of ONE. How ridiculous is that. Each man should be judged by their OWN actions.

By sds

December 11, 2008 8:30 AM | Link to this

If you do not think Obama is not involved in this corruption mess in Chicago you’re living in la la land.

Why would a young attorney choose the southside of Chicago to work? Who recruited him from the east coast? Who were his associations while at Columbia and Harvard?

How could an inexperienced guy get elected to the state senate (unopposed - hmmm funny?), get elected to the US senate (nearly unopposed until the GOP threw in Keyes at the 11th hour - hmmm funny?). How did his wife get a posh position on the “board” of a hospital earning $600K/yr - hmmm funny?).

Questionable associations - Ayers, Dorhn, Wright, Pfleger, Rezko, Bobby Rush (look him up), Khalidi, ACORN head Rathke former SDS founder, etc. etc.

Radical groups like the Black Panthers, SDS, Weather Underground are still in existence. They are still in the ghettos trying to stir up trouble. However, they are not doing this with violence like they did back in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s.

Instead, they cry discrimination and threaten to sue and exhort money from local governments (ala ACORN and similar groups). These are the new community “organizers” of the 21st century.

Obama is a modern day Black Panther in a business suit.

By tim

December 11, 2008 8:41 AM | Link to this

I knew that you people would try to find some way to tie Obama to this sleaze Gov.However,you ignore the fact that on the tape he referred to Obama as “mother**ker”A word I’m sure you’ve used to refer to President-Elect yourself . So in the words of the great Sarah Palin,it doesn’t sound like they been “palling around”

By sds

December 11, 2008 9:02 AM | Link to this

Obama also said that he NEVER discussed the senate seat with the gov. Then why did the gov. say that the mother**ker wouldn’t give him anything? hmmm?

Obama, two of his aids, and the gov. to-be had monthly meetings to strategize about his (the gov’s) campaign back in 2000. Seems like they were palling around some.

By DB, Gwinnettian

December 11, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this

Boy, this one came close. Jim hit on something in the graf about the public being so overwhelmed with news about this stuff that they come to see it as routine, and he admirably used the Ted Stevens election as supporting evidence.

But then he back-slid into a ridiculous notion that there’s something unique to the state of IL which is, let’s face it, a set-up for the next anti-Obama column he’s got in the can.

SSDD.

By sds

December 11, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this

Obama also said that he NEVER discussed the senate seat with the gov. Then why did the gov. say that the mother**ker wouldn’t give him anything? hmmm?

Obama, two of his aids, and the gov. to-be had monthly meetings to strategize about his (the gov’s) campaign back in 2000. Seems like they were palling around some.

By steve

December 11, 2008 9:46 AM | Link to this

at one time the state of georgia had one of the most corrupt persons in office, tom murphy used his office for personal fortune and political power. you could buy a state job from tom just like in chicago, want the zoneing changed without any hassels go see tom, have a case come up in court, better hope your case is not tried before a judge that got his seat through tom, its not what you know but who’s palm you grease.

By Hypocrisy101

December 11, 2008 10:00 AM | Link to this

Hey By Ragnar Danneskjöld

“Dear Peter @ 10:43, I completely agree with you. The childish language was obviously written by a leftist

As in childish language, do you mean as in Hildebeest, as you called Hillary Clinton at 8:20 am on Dec. 10th?

Is that the kind of childish language you are talking about?

Just Wondering…….

By Eli Jones

December 11, 2008 10:04 AM | Link to this

Barack Obama, Change, Change, Change, what a load of crap! Barack Obama is in the sewer over his head with his corrupt Chicago mafia. Our Black community and the liberal white people who nurture guilt, elected Obama the Chicago crook. You guilt ridden white Americans that ignored Obama’s ties to Tony Rezko, Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayres, Bernadine Dorhn, Ahmad Yousuf(Hamas), Frank Marshall Davis, Raila Odingo, Abongo Obama, Black Panthers, Fidel Castro, Rashid Khalidi, Nadhmi Auchi, Rev Meeks and other unsavory people so you could elect a black man are morons. Yes, you are morons! Even you morans will probably have enough of your messiah by the next election. Here’s hoping that reality hits you morons beside the head like a brick.

By Rockerbabe

December 11, 2008 10:41 AM | Link to this

Is talking about trading money for a senate position a crime? Since when is rhetoric a crime? Did money actually change hands? Or was he talking “code”? Interesting. I wonder what Governor Paulson of NY was demanding to get a Kennedy to takeover Senator Clinton’s Senate seat? Just wondering.

By sds

December 11, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this

The Kennedy situation is interesting too. Seems the gov. of NY and Kennedy’s people were “negotiating” for the seat. What does THAT mean?

By gafarmer

December 11, 2008 11:58 AM | Link to this

Thought Uncle Teddy already paid for that seat by endorsing Golden Boy over Hill and Bill.

By true dat

December 11, 2008 12:19 PM | Link to this

Perfect example of the evils therein. The politics of LA and specifically New Orleans was really funny to the country until Katrina kicked the dogs&*T out of them , then all those years of incompetence came home to roost. So the losers Blanco and Neagin just blamed Bush for their collective idiocy of the region and got away with it with the drive bys help. Screw NOLA, screw Chicago.

By Anthony

December 15, 2008 8:06 AM | Link to this

TRY ALL YOU WANT ALL YOU REPLICAN’TS WILL NEVER GET YOUR OBAMA-GATE LINK OUT OF THIS IDIOT GOV. SON-OF-A-B*** TRYING TO SELL A SENATE SEAT, WHAT AND IDIOT