BS: Senate Seat for Sale

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 04:08 PM

The "full indictment" is a .pdf, at least at the link in the msnbc article. Right click on the link, and "save target as" to get the whole .pdf document on your own computer, where you can open it and browse in it without "connection delays." It's 75 pages, but only 316 KB.

This should work the same: PDF of full indictment

*** *** ***

It appears that the gov was just "carrying on Illinois tradition."

See: Illinois has long legacy of public corruption at msnbc.

The affidavit includes a number of additional charges, aside from the offer to sell the Senate position. It likely will be a long and expensive trial ... unless they find a judge that works cheaply enough. (some are included among the "influenced" at the last link)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 03:57 PM

Mick - I nearly cried when I read that article. Nothing in this country is sacred anymore. I don't believe I know anyone capable of selling a seat in the Senate. It is so obcene. Or maybe i am too naive for words.

Is this not akin to treason? Couldn't we just shoot anyone involved?

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 03:52 PM

I didn't go far enough.

However, the Indictment was only two pages, and didn't mention the Senate seat. The affidavit in support of the Indictment made up the rest of the PDF.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 03:26 PM

Weird, Dave. I click on that link and get the full 78 pages - but it may be scrolled down to the end. Try scrolling up and see if the rest of it's there.

It's fascinating reading.

Dan

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 03:23 PM

Not much to say that would add to the opinion, but a technical correction is in order:

Bastard should start breaking rock in Yuma, put him on a chain gang

Ain't no rocks big 'nuff to break in Yuma. It's all just little pebbles that float to the top of the sand - that they call "desert pavement."

Only thing for jailbirds to do there is "stack sand" and sweat.

The "historic" territorial prison would be an appropriate place for this guy; but some renovation would be needed since a couple of the walls fell down.

Same as for the troops stationed at the Ordnance Test Base there, where I spent most of a two year tour. (But we had big trucks to test for amusement, and a bar at the "club" on post.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 03:15 PM

Dan, that can't be all of it. It gives only two Counts, and perhaps two (I didn't count) pages. The video comments of the prosecuting attorney mentioned seventy-six pages!

And the one you linked to makes no mention of the Senate-seat sale.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 02:17 PM

Here is a link to the actual indictment.

Dan

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 02:10 PM

Blagojevich did his shenanigans in the purview of US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald....his ass is grass, and Ramsey operates the lawnmowers...

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: kendall
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 02:06 PM

One of the many good things about Maine is, we have never had such a scumbag in any of our offices.
The worst one I can think of, Peter Kyros, was convicted of DUI. Come to think of it, so was Bush.

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Barry Finn
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 01:58 PM

"I wonder if Obama made a counter offer?"

Maybe he did & that's what got him busted?

Bastard should start breaking rock in Yuma, put him on a chain gang

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 01:50 PM

Thus far, Jackson Jr. doesn't seem to be connected with this - there is some hint that an Illinois house member may have been prepared to pay cash up front, but it's way too early to tell.

What does seem to be clear is that the Obama administration wasn't willing to play along. Obama apparently did have a favorite candidate, a top aide, but wouldn't offer Blagojevich anything for it. As others have said, Blagojevich didn't take to this too kindly. "They're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them," is the exact quote, according to Politico.

He also referred to Obama as a "mother[expletive]er" and said, "For nothing? [Expletive] him."

So the Republican's already evident attempts to somehow connect the President-elect with this scandal seem doomed from the outset. Obama comes out smelling like a rose.

Still, I imagine Obama woke to this news thinking, "This I don't need."

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Big Mick
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 01:38 PM

Mary, m'luv, please. You lived in NYC. Of course you knew that such corruption existed.

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Bobert
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 01:23 PM

Ho-hum...

I mean, lets get real here folks... Thos current governemnt we have is corrupt from top to bottom...

Our sheriff, Danny Presgraves, here in Page County, Va. is facing 22 felony charges...

And let me throw this out... Had the FBI, the IRS and the US Justice Department investigated Dick Cheney over the awarding of contracts to Halliburton then the indictments would sound just about the same, including all the bleepin' bleeps...

There is a "culture" that is firmly entangled in our corrupt system where every Senator has to raise $8000 a day just to have enough money to finance the next cmapaign... Until we figure out ways to elect peole without them having to raise so much money then I think it is incongruous for us to blame people who get caught doin' purdy much what the $yStem expects and demands...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Riginslinger
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 01:19 PM

I wonder if Obama made a counter offer?

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 01:02 PM

Link to ABC news.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich wanted President-elect Barack Obama "to put something together…something big" in exchange for going along with Obama's choice to fill his vacant U.S. Senate seat, according to a FBI affidavit unsealed following the Governor's stunning arrest.

"I've got this thing and it's f***ing golden, and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for f***in' nothing. I'm not gonna do it. And I can always use it. I can parachute me there," Blagojevich said in a phone call secretly recorded by the FBI on Nov. 5, the day after the election, according to the affidavit.

"It is conduct that would make Lincoln roll over in his grave," said U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in announcing the charges today in Chicago.

He said the Governor's efforts to "sell" the Senate seat was the "most sinister and appalling" of a range of alleged corrupt acts detailed in today's case.

the rest is on the page linked at the top.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 01:02 PM

Grant -- lived, worked, and was elected from Galena.
Lincoln -- lived, worked, and was elected from the Springfield area.
Reagan -- we're trying for forget about him.

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 01:02 PM

OOPS Rikers

One ray of hope - Obama was putting forward his candidate of choice but they refused to give anything but a thank you. "**** that" was the governor's reply.

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: pdq
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 01:00 PM

Grant - born and raised in Ohio, nothing to do with Illinois.

Lincoln - born in Kentucky, lived in rural Illinois.

Reagan - from the state, but moved to California in the 1930s. Preferred to live in semi-rural area if he could. A fine
             horseman, something that few people in Chicago politicians can claim.

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 12:42 PM

I wonder if their cells are anything like the nightmare at Reikers?

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 12:36 PM

Sorry -- Ogilvie wasn't among them....

Three former Illinois governors have gone to prison in the past 35 years.

-Otto Kerner, a Democrat who was governor from 1961 to 1968, served less than a year of a three-year sentence after his 1973 conviction on bribery, tax evasion and other counts. He was convicted of arranging favorable horse racing dates as governor in return for getting horse racing association stock at reduced prices. Kerner died in 1976.

-Dan Walker, a Democrat who was governor from 1973 to 1977, served 1 1/2 years of a seven-year sentence after pleading guilty in 1987 to bank fraud, misapplication of funds and perjury. The charges were not related to his service as governor.

-George Ryan, a Republican who was governor from 1999 to 2003, was convicted of corruption in 2006 for steering state contracts and leases to political insiders while he was Illinois secretary of state and then governor. He is serving a 6 1/2-year prison term.

In addition, William Stratton, governor from 1953-1961, was later indicted but was acquitted on charges of income tax evasion.

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Riginslinger
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 12:25 PM

I think John McCain talked about politicians from Chicago during the campaign.

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 12:16 PM

Jesse Jackson, Jr. approached him but I don't know any more than that.

Look: this is Illinois politics. This is the dude who lived in Chicago and worked in Springfield and so he flew to and from (at State expense) so that he could be home every night (instead of living in the very nice Governor's Mansion). Ryan, the previous governor, is in jail for corruption; so was Richard Ogilvie. Paul Powell, Secretary of State back in the late 60s/early 70s, was found to have shoeboxes full of cash money in his apartment after he died. This is the State of King Richard I, the State in whose favor the US Supreme Court ruled when the systems of nepotism and favoritism in use were challenged. This is the State of Tony Resko.

This is the state of four Presidents: Lincoln, Grant, Reagan, and now Obama.

Welkome, Bienvenue, Welcome
To Illinois, to the politics,
Of Illinois.

Subject: RE: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: Wesley S
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 12:06 PM

What an idiot. What made him think that he wouldn't get caught? I hope we get to hear the names of anyone who made him an offer too.

Subject: BS: Senate Seat for Sale
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 11:47 AM

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28139155/

I can honestly say that I never suspected that such corruption is possible. How do these people sleep at night?