By Steve Rhodes
“Rod Blagojevich may be our villain of the moment – and a 100 percent worthy villain, to be sure – but corruption in Illinois politics is not and has never been the exclusive province of one political party,” the Springfield Journal-Register says in an editorial today.
“We find it entirely appropriate, and not one bit ironic, that the nexus of Republican and Democratic bad players – embodied by Stuart Levine – helped both facilitate and expose what now ranks as arguably the greatest chain of political scandals in state history.”
As the paper notes:
“[T]he next and final chapter in the Operation Board Games saga is due to arrive in a few months with the trial of longtime Republican leader William Cellini.”
Continuing:
“State Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, struck a conciliatory note in his remarks on Blagojevich’s conviction. ‘You certainly can’t blame Democrats for the kind of person Blagojevich was, any more than you can blame Republicans for George Ryan’s actions,’ Bomke said.
“We appreciate Bomke’s thoughtful tone and his avoidance of finger-pointing. But we can’t agree with him completely.
“Party leadership should not escape culpability for either of our previous two governors and their misdeeds. The licenses-for-bribes investigation of George Ryan’s secretary of state’s office was well known and well under way when he ran for governor in 1998. Yet Ryan had no serious challenge for the Republican nomination. Months before Blagojevich won his 2006 re-election bid, federal indictments pointed to corruption in his administration. In addition, Blagojevich had lost the trust of nearly the entire General Assembly. But party leaders were not about to cross him and his $14 million war chest, so they signed on to his campaign.
“Not a great record for courage in either case, but a perfect formula for bipartisan corruption. No one should be surprised by the results.”
Welcome aboard, SJR.
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From a St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial:
“There have been more than 900 24-hour news cycles since Blagojevich was arrested in December 2008. But the prosecutors hung in. And by rejecting his ‘politics as usual, and besides, I didn’t make a dime off it’ defense, the jurors affirmed that Americans have a right to demand better.”
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See also: Blagojevich Mess Will Linger For Years In Illinois.
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Illinois’ new nickname: Comedy Central.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Con Hair | ||||
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Inspiring Confidence In A Chicago Casino
“The Illinois Gaming Board underfunded the state’s Educational Assistance Fund by as much as $9.3 million in the previous fiscal year, according to an Illinois Auditor General report released Tuesday,” Crain’s reports.
“Also, the report said, none of the money transferred in the year that ended last June 30 matched reports prepared by the Gaming Board, which is appointed by the governor to administer the regulatory and tax collection system for the state’s riverboat gambling.”
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“Gaming” is a term of marketing and propaganda. From now on the Beachwood Style Guide will be amended to reflect our preference for Illinois Gambling Board. A suggested alternative – State Department of Craps – is still under advisement.
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“Illinois Auditor General William Holland found irregularities, questionable procedures and potential conflicts of interest in the state’s selection of a private firm to run the Illinois Lottery,” Crain’s also reports.
“Among the findings in a report issued Tuesday were a past boardroom relationship between New York-based Kroll Associates, a subcontractor hired to investigate applicants, and New York-based Scientific Games Corp., one of the partners in Northstar Lottery Group LLC, the joint venture that won the contract last year to run the Illinois Lottery.
“Mr. Holland’s report also concluded that the state’s evaluation of proposals was rushed to meet a statutory deadline of choosing a private contractor by Sept. 15, 2010. Some evaluators of the proposals missed meetings with applicants and in some cases did not document their evaluations in writing until the day of the selection or after it was made.”
Boeing In The USA
“Boeing Co. overcharged the U.S. Army about $13 million on spare parts for helicopters, according to a new report,” Crain’s reports.
“The Chicago-based defense giant billed the Army for thousands of tiny spare parts such as pins, wheels and gears, charging a markup for overhead and other costs that ranged from 33.3% to 177,745%, according to a May report from the Army Inspector General obtained by the Project on Government Oversight, a non-profit watchdog group. In many cases, the parts were available in the Army’s own inventory for pennies on the dollar . . .
“For instance, Boeing charged almost $1,679 for a plastic roller assembly that could have been obtained from the Pentagon’s internal supplies for $7.71.”
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Boeing’s ride on the taxpayers’ back was a round-trip affair.
“The EU alleges that Boeing received almost $24 billion in illegal subsidies, such as research grants and free use of technology, from NASA, the Department of Defense, and the states of Illinois, Kansas and Washington,” AP reports.
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“Boeing also claimed that the WTO had come out in its favor. ‘The WTO rejected almost all of Europe’s claims against the United States,’ it said in a statement. ‘Nothing in today’s reports even begins to compare to the $20 billion in illegal subsidies that the WTO found last June that Airbus/EADS has received.'”
$24 billion doesn’t even begin to compare to $20 billion? No wonder Airbus is kicking their ass.
Second City
Chicago Adopts Slogan Similar To Aurora’s.
They had a casino first too.
Music News
Chicago punks Rise Against cover “The Ballad Of Hollis Brown” on a new Bob Dylan tribute record, the Examiner reports.
Infomercial News
Tiny Classified Ads Can’t Help Don Lapre Now.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: From a one-bedroom apartment.
Posted on June 29, 2011