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Æmeric
12-09-2008, 03:42 PM
The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich (Serbian-American) was arrested this morning on charges that he conspired to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. Illinois, which is dominated by Chicago & the Cook County political machine, is notorious for it's corrupt politics. Blagojevich's predecessor, Republican George Ryan, is corrently serving a sentence in Federal prison for corruption that accured during his administration.:rolleyes2:

Barack Obama is still 6-weeks away from taking the oath of office & he already has the first major political scandal of the Obama administration. Obama is a creature of the same machine that created Blagojevich. Obama will be in the position of granted Blagojevich a pardon, having the Obama Justice Department drop the case or grant Blagojevich an easy pleas deal. Yes the Obama era will be an entertaining one that will make people long for the high standards (:D) of the Bush era. If nothing else the next 4-years should provide us with some firstclass reality entertainment.:pop2:



Governor Is Held in Inquiry Into Filling Obama’s Seat

Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested on Tuesday morning and charged with corruption, including an allegation that he conspired to profit from his authority to appoint President-elect Barack Obama’s successor in the United States Senate, prosecutors said.

As Mr. Blagojevich mulled the Senate appointment, prosecutors say, he discussed gaining “a substantial salary” at a nonprofit foundation or organization connected to labor unions, placing his wife on corporate boards where she might earn as much as $150,000 a year and trying to gain promises of campaign money, or even a cabinet post or ambassadorship, for himself.

A 76-page affidavit from the United States Attorney’s office in Northern Illinois says Mr. Blagojevich was heard on wiretaps over the last month planning to “sell or trade Illinois’ United States Senate seat vacated by Pres-elect Barack Obama for financial and personal benefits for himself and his wife.”

Federal authorities said Mr. Blagojevich’s chief of staff, John Harris, was also indicted on Tuesday. Both men are expected to appear in federal court for the first time later Tuesday.

Under Illinois law, Mr. Blagojevich has sole authority to fill the seat being vacated by Mr. Obama, who was elected to the Senate in 2004.

According to the statement from prosecutors, Mr. Blagojevich told an adviser last week that he might “get some (money) upfront, maybe” from one of the candidates hoping to replace Mr. Obama. That person was identified only as “Candidate 5.”

In an earlier recorded conversation, prosecutors say, Mr. Blagojevich said he was approached by an associate of “Candidate 5” with an offer of $500,000 in exchange for the Senate seat.

The authorities also say Mr. Blagojevich threatened to withhold state assistance from the Tribune Company, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, which filed for bankruptcy on Monday. According to the authorities, Mr. Blagojevich wanted members of the Tribune’s editorial board, who had criticized him, to be fired before he extended any state assistance.

An official at the governor’s office had no immediate comment on Tuesday. A telephone message left at Mr. Obama’s transition office was not immediately returned.

Source (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/us/politics/10Illinois.html?hp)

There has also been some anticipation over who gets the seat being vacated by Senator Hillary Clinton. The Kenndy clan have a sense of entitlement to the seat have been lobbying for Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg to be appointed to serve until the special election in November 2010 for the remainder of the 2-years of the term. Schlossberg has no experince in politics or in public life other then being a member of a well-connected family. So much for democracy, I think the US Congress has more hereditary seats then the British House of Lords.

Æmeric
12-10-2008, 10:53 PM
This is just getting better by the hour :D:



Federal authorities on Wednesday identified Democratic Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois as the potential United States Senate candidate who was portrayed in court papers made public Tuesday as being the most deeply enmeshed in the alleged scheme by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to benefit from his appointment of a new senator to the seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

A lawyer for Mr. Jackson acknowledged that Mr. Jackson was the person identified as "Candidate 5" in the criminal complaint, but said that Mr. Jackson denied any wrongdoing and was not aware of anyone cutting deals on his behalf.

“Congressman Jackson has never authorized anyone to seek the governor’s support in return of money, fundraising, or other things of value,” the lawyer, James D. Montgomery Sr., said at a news conference in Chicago. "Secondly, the congressman is not aware of any alleged associate having made such a proposal.”

A short time later, Mr. Jackson appeared at a news conference here in which he angrily denounced Mr. Blagojevich, called for the governor’s resignation and asserted that he had done nothing wrong.

“I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make offers plead my case or propose a deal about a United States Senate seat, period,” Mr. Jackson said. “I thought mistakenly that the governor was evaluating me and other Senate hopefuls based on our credentials and qualifications.”

“I did not know the process had been corrupted,” he added.

Mr. Jackson said that he would meet with federal authorities and cooperate “fully and completely” with the investigation. He did not take questions to address his role as the anonymous Candidate 5 identified in the affidavit against Mr. Blagojevich.

Mr. Jackson said in an earlier interview with ABC News that he did not know whether he was Candidate 5 but added that the prosecutors in Chicago told him earlier this week that he was not a target of the criminal inquiry. Mr. Jackson and his representatives campaigned for the appointment publicly and visibly throughout November, trying to make the case that he was the favored candidate. An official in Mr. Jackson’s office, Kenneth Edmonds, provided the New York Times with a poll that commissioned before Election Day showing Mr. Jackson to be the most popular choice among Illinois residents.

In the news conference, Mr. Jackson said he met with Mr. Blagojevich for 90 minutes on Monday to discuss the job after not having spoken with him for more than four years. Mr. Jackson, the son of the civil rights leader, said he never authorized anyone to offer anything in return for the appointment.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Jackson said in comments broadcast by ABC News: “It is impossible for someone on my behalf to have a conversation that would suggest any type of quid pro quo or any payments or offers. An impossibility to an absolute certainty.”

Federal prosecutors in Chicago would not discuss the identity of Candidate 5 and would not comment on whether Mr. Jackson would be interviewed in the case.

The identity of Candidate 5 has been a mystery since the filing of a legal complaint on Tuesday accusing Mr. Blagojevich and an aide of engaging in corruption and conspiracy, stemming in part from an alleged effort by the Governor to sell off Mr. Obama’s seat in return for campaign contributions and lucrative jobs for Mr. Blagojevich and his family.

Of the six candidates for the senate seat who are identified by number in the complaint, but not named, only Candidate 5 is said to have engaged in possible wrongdoing by engaging in discussions through an emissary about a possible quid pro quo with Mr. Blagovich’s camp. The emissary was also not identified by name.

According to the compliant, Mr. Blagojevich threatened to appoint Candidate 5 to the vacant post, rather than another candidate he thought Mr. Obama would prefer, if Mr. Obama would not help place Mr. Blagojevich’s wife “on paid corporate boards right now.”

The complaint also said that in a wiretapped conversation on Oct. 31, Mr. Blagojevich told an associate about an approach by the emissary from Candidate 5: “We were approached ‘pay to play.’ That you know, he’d raise me 500 grand. An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him [Senate Candidate 5] a senator.”

Source (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/us/politics/11jackson.html)


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The Jackson family has a history or race hustling for personal profit. This is all taking the shine off the approaching historical inauguration of the black messiah.:bowlol:

Maybe the Obama era won't be so bad after all, we'll have plenty of scandals like this to set race relations back a hundred years.

Æmeric
12-30-2008, 07:13 PM
Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich will appoint former state Attorney General Roland Burris to fill President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat, a person familiar with the decision said. Senate Democratic leaders said they wouldn’t allow Burris to be seated.

Blagojevich, a Democrat who is facing possible impeachment by the Illinois legislature for allegedly trying to sell Obama’s seat, is scheduled to make the announcement at a news conference set for 2 p.m. Chicago time, said the person, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In a statement, Senate Democratic leaders said they wouldn’t allow Burris to be seated if appointed by Blagojevich. The leaders cited a Dec. 10 letter by 50 U.S. Senate Democrats who demanded the governor’s resignation following Blagojevich’s arrest on political corruption charges.

“This is not about Mr. Burris; it is about the integrity of a governor accused of attempting to sell this United States Senate seat,” the top Democrats said in the statement issued by the office of Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. “Under these circumstances, anyone appointed by Governor Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus.”

Nomination Bids

Burris, 71, has lost bids in a series of Democratic primaries ranging from Chicago mayor to governor and U.S. senator. His most recent campaign was an unsuccessful race for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2002, which he lost to Blagojevich. Burris then served as vice-chair of Blagojevich’s transition team.

After Burris lost the gubernatorial primary, his Chicago- based consulting firm, Burris and Lebed Consulting, contributed $1,000 to Blagojevich’s campaign, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. Burris also gave $1,000 to Blagojevich’s re-election campaign in 2006.

Burris’s firm lobbied Blagojevich’s office, the General Assembly and regulators for the past seven years on behalf of industries such as cable television, mortgage brokers, funeral directors and utilities, according to registration documents filed with the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office.

The Chicago Tribune first reported the appointment on its Web site.

‘Thumbing His Nose’

“This is simply Rod Blagojevich thumbing his nose at the citizens of Illinois, the U.S. attorney, the rest of the world, and, oh yeah, the United States Congress,” Jay Stewart, executive director of the Chicago-based Better Government association, said today in a telephone interview.

A former bank examiner from rural Centralia, 275 miles (440 kilometers) south of Chicago, Burris wore a cowboy hat during his 16 years in state government to distinguish himself from the Chicago politicians who dominated Illinois politics for most of that period.

Burris’s first state job was as purchasing chief for former Governor Dan Walker, who served a prison sentence for bank fraud after he left office in 1977. Burris went on to win election as state comptroller and then Illinois attorney general.

‘Tainted’

“I don’t know why on earth Roland would accept this appointment, given that everything the governor touches is tainted,” said Stewart, who testified against the governor during the impeachment hearings.

Burris didn’t immediately return a voice mail left at the office of his consulting firm.

A Senate appointment would “have no impact on the impeachment process,” said Steve Brown, a spokesman for Illinois House Democrats who declined to comment further on reports of the appointment.

Nick Shapiro, an Obama presidential transition team spokesman, declined to comment.

Republicans criticized Democrats who control both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly for failing to strip Blagojevich of his appointment powers when they had the chance.

“Once again, Blagojevich Democrats have failed the people of Illinois by refusing the strip Rod Blagojevich of his Senate appointment power and blocking a vote of the people,” Andrew McKenna, head of the Illinois Republic Party, said today in an e-mailed statement.

House Speaker Michael Madigan, who also heads the state’s Democratic Party, abandoned plans to hold a special election for the U.S. Senate post three weeks ago after a revolt among Democrats concerned about costs and the risk of losing the seat to the Republicans.

Source (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQjMnIy8HiyA&refer=home)



The appointment was made official on live television a few minutes ago, it remains to be seen if the Senate Democrats follow through on their threat not to seat a replacement appointed by Blagojevich.


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Roland Burris