The University of Illinois Political Science Department has written an excellent summary of corruption cases over the last 35 years or so. This is a great reference and illustrates that Illinois is run by patronage, bribery, and a long-term mentality of pay-to-play. Competence and cost-effectiveness are ignored. Power, greed, and patronage rules. That is one reason Illinois has more politicians per capita than any other state and why corruption costs taxpayers over $ 500
million per year. As most contracts in Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois require 10 % kickbacks (bribes) the burden of corruption on taxpayers in Illinois is huge and a large reason for our failing economy in Illinois.
http://www.uic.edu/depts/pols/ChicagoPolitics/Anti-corruptionReportNumber2.pdf
In my opinion, until we have a truth commission that encourages open confession and transparency, Illinois will not change.
Showing posts with label patronage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label patronage. Show all posts
Friday, May 15, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Will Blagojevic Sing?
IF Blago sings Democrats and Republicans will fall. How do you think his father-in-law Alderman Mell keeps getting re-elected after his district has turned so Republican? Why do you think Blago appointed the King of all corruption, Jim Thompson, as Chief of his transition team when he took office?
When there's corruption the difference between Republicans and Democrats disappears. They are a cabal of corruption that crosses party lines. Vrdolyak and Burke are the Kingpins of the older generation and Orlando Jones was the Kingpin of the younger generation. When they sing everything will be exposed. Vrdolyak will not sing as he knows how the mob deals with that. After indictment a bullet walked into Jone's head. I don't believe he killed himself. Sooo he won't sing.
Blago is small potatoes, just a pawn in the chess game, taught by the older generation and doing things the way that EVERY politician in Springfield, Cook County, and Chicago have been doing for decades.
Corruption will ONLY be vastly reduced when it sees the light of day. When Illinois has a "truth commission" where amnesty is given to those who fully confess, it will be exposed, the fear of retaliation for confessing will disappear, people from all over from the secretaries at IL Secr. of State office and the Cook County Sheriff will confess that they were forced to sell tickets to fund raisers on public time,the Cook County Sheriff's staff will confess to campaigning by polling places on public time, almost every vendor in Illinois will confess to paying a 10% kickback into political funds to keep the machine going including the guy who sells baloney to the prisons, etc.
Until the fear is reduced which is pervasive in Illinois we can indict thousands of people and they will be replaced by thousands more and corruption will continue. Back room deals, nepotism, kickbacks, patronage, etc will continue until corruption sees the light of day. "Truth Commissions" worked in South Africa and they can work in Illinois. It will be a LOT LESS COSTLY to have a truth commission and move on than to endlessly indict and prosecute literally hundreds of people, which is a drop in the bucket considering the tentacles and spider web of corruption in Illinois.
I don't believe Blagojevic is a kingpin, but I believe he knows a lot and can take down many if he sings. The risks for singing however are great. Ask Orlando Jones, John Stroger Sr's godson, who carried out the orders for patronage hiring, fraud, and corruption.
When there's corruption the difference between Republicans and Democrats disappears. They are a cabal of corruption that crosses party lines. Vrdolyak and Burke are the Kingpins of the older generation and Orlando Jones was the Kingpin of the younger generation. When they sing everything will be exposed. Vrdolyak will not sing as he knows how the mob deals with that. After indictment a bullet walked into Jone's head. I don't believe he killed himself. Sooo he won't sing.
Blago is small potatoes, just a pawn in the chess game, taught by the older generation and doing things the way that EVERY politician in Springfield, Cook County, and Chicago have been doing for decades.
Corruption will ONLY be vastly reduced when it sees the light of day. When Illinois has a "truth commission" where amnesty is given to those who fully confess, it will be exposed, the fear of retaliation for confessing will disappear, people from all over from the secretaries at IL Secr. of State office and the Cook County Sheriff will confess that they were forced to sell tickets to fund raisers on public time,the Cook County Sheriff's staff will confess to campaigning by polling places on public time, almost every vendor in Illinois will confess to paying a 10% kickback into political funds to keep the machine going including the guy who sells baloney to the prisons, etc.
Until the fear is reduced which is pervasive in Illinois we can indict thousands of people and they will be replaced by thousands more and corruption will continue. Back room deals, nepotism, kickbacks, patronage, etc will continue until corruption sees the light of day. "Truth Commissions" worked in South Africa and they can work in Illinois. It will be a LOT LESS COSTLY to have a truth commission and move on than to endlessly indict and prosecute literally hundreds of people, which is a drop in the bucket considering the tentacles and spider web of corruption in Illinois.
I don't believe Blagojevic is a kingpin, but I believe he knows a lot and can take down many if he sings. The risks for singing however are great. Ask Orlando Jones, John Stroger Sr's godson, who carried out the orders for patronage hiring, fraud, and corruption.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
How Best to Achieve Change and Throw Out Corruption?
THE POWER OF SELFLESSNESS, NON-VIOLENCE, UNITY, AND SACRIFICE
As I've said elsewhere, I don't believe Illinois will change and disgard corruption, patronage, and bribery until the U.S. Attorney holds "Truth Commissions" like in South Africa, to encourage confession, transparency, forgiveness, and moving on. However, Rev. King has handed us a path that if we truly follow we can move mountains!
Martin Luther King Jrs. birthday is January 19. He has been a driving force in my life. Most people think his “I have a dream” speech is his best, and it certainly is the most famous.
http://www.mlkonline.net/dream.html
But, I am most profoundly moved and inspired by the last speech he made on the night of April 3, 1968. In this speech he expresses the POWER of SELFLESSNESS and NON-VIOLENCE.
See: http://www.mlkonline.net/promised.html
“For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory. . . .
But either we go up together, or we go down together. . . .
But I’m going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It’s possible that these men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, “I can see why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable.” It’s a winding, meandering road. It’s really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you’re about 2200 feet below sea level. That’s a dangerous road. In the day of Jesus it came to be known as the “Bloody Pass.” And you know, it’s possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it’s possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”.
That’s the question before you tonight. Not, “If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?” The question is not, “If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?” “If I do no stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?” That’s the question.
Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.
You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, “Are you Martin Luther King?”
And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that’s punctured, you drown in your own blood–that’s the end of you.
It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I’ve forgotten what those telegrams said. I’d received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I’ve forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I’ll never forget it. It said simply, “Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the Whites Plains High School.” She said, “While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.”
And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn’t sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can’t ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I’m so happy that I didn’t sneeze.
….
And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say that threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
My own grandfather was a Baptist minister, Rev. William Tatter, and he was of like mind to the Rev. King. I grew up emotionally and philosophically by the words of Rev. King and my grandfather and from those days committed my very soul to the concepts of selflessness, non-violence, unity, and sacrifice for others are ALWAYS more important than self. I hope you join me in this commitment that is also so well embodied in our founding father’s statement in the Declaration of Independence: “[W]e mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor."
For the Declaration of Independence see:
http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/index.htm
I renew the commitment of our founding fathers and I renew my acceptance of the guidance of Rev. King and my grandfather today and hope you will join me.
As I've said elsewhere, I don't believe Illinois will change and disgard corruption, patronage, and bribery until the U.S. Attorney holds "Truth Commissions" like in South Africa, to encourage confession, transparency, forgiveness, and moving on. However, Rev. King has handed us a path that if we truly follow we can move mountains!
Martin Luther King Jrs. birthday is January 19. He has been a driving force in my life. Most people think his “I have a dream” speech is his best, and it certainly is the most famous.
http://www.mlkonline.net/dream.html
But, I am most profoundly moved and inspired by the last speech he made on the night of April 3, 1968. In this speech he expresses the POWER of SELFLESSNESS and NON-VIOLENCE.
See: http://www.mlkonline.net/promised.html
“For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory. . . .
But either we go up together, or we go down together. . . .
But I’m going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It’s possible that these men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, “I can see why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable.” It’s a winding, meandering road. It’s really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you’re about 2200 feet below sea level. That’s a dangerous road. In the day of Jesus it came to be known as the “Bloody Pass.” And you know, it’s possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it’s possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”.
That’s the question before you tonight. Not, “If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?” The question is not, “If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?” “If I do no stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?” That’s the question.
Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.
You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, “Are you Martin Luther King?”
And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that’s punctured, you drown in your own blood–that’s the end of you.
It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I’ve forgotten what those telegrams said. I’d received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I’ve forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I’ll never forget it. It said simply, “Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the Whites Plains High School.” She said, “While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.”
And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn’t sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can’t ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I’m so happy that I didn’t sneeze.
….
And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say that threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
My own grandfather was a Baptist minister, Rev. William Tatter, and he was of like mind to the Rev. King. I grew up emotionally and philosophically by the words of Rev. King and my grandfather and from those days committed my very soul to the concepts of selflessness, non-violence, unity, and sacrifice for others are ALWAYS more important than self. I hope you join me in this commitment that is also so well embodied in our founding father’s statement in the Declaration of Independence: “[W]e mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor."
For the Declaration of Independence see:
http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/index.htm
I renew the commitment of our founding fathers and I renew my acceptance of the guidance of Rev. King and my grandfather today and hope you will join me.
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