Posts on December 9, 2008
this week in corruption
Mood: sick
Posted on 2008-12-09 09:58:00
Tags: politics
Words: 97
- In a shocking upset, Congressman William Jefferson (D-LA) lost his reelection bid on Saturday in a very Democratic district. He had been indicted on corruption charges before but still managed to win his primary. The FBI famously found $90,000 of cash in his freezer. Hooray to the voters in LA-2 who finally saw the light!
- Just in: Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff were just arrested by the FBI on corruption charges. They're alleging they "conspired to gain financial benefits in appointing President-elect Barack Obama's Senate replacement", which obviously is pretty embarrassing for Obama.
$1 coins available at a bank near you!
Mood: surprised
Posted on 2008-12-09 13:49:00
Tags: dollarcoins
Words: 44
At least if the bank near you is the Bank of America at Parmer and Mopac. The clerk happily gave me 20 $1 coins for a $20 bill. (although she did have to find out where they were kept) I'll be spreading them around!
"Blagojevich" is hard to spell
Mood: okay
Posted on 2008-12-09 14:56:00
Tags: politics
Words: 304
Here's the FBI press release about the arrests (PDF file). Innocent until proven guilty, etc., but the press release is pretty damning. Some of the more interesting bits:
As recently as December 4, in separate conversations with Advisor B and Fundraiser A, Blagojevich said that he was "elevating" Senate Candidate 5 on the list of candidates because, among other reasons, if Blagojevich ran for re-election, Senate Candidate 5 would "raise [] money" for him. Blagojevich said that he might be able to cut a deal with Senate Candidate 5 that provided Blagojevich with something "tangible up front."Wow.
Blagojevich told Deputy Governor A on November 3 that if he is not going to get anything of value for the open seat, then he will take it for himself: "if ... they're not going to offer anything of any value, then I might just take it." (skipping) He added later that the seat "is a [expletive] valuable thing, you don't just give it away for nothing."
Throughout the intercepted conversations, Blagojevich also allegedly spent significant time weighing the option of appointing himself to the open Senate seat and expressed a variety of reasons for doing so, including: frustration at being "stuck" as governor, a belief that he will be able to obtain greater resources if he is indicted as a sitting Senator as opposed to a sitting governor, a desire to remake his image in consideration of a possible run for President in 2016, ...(bolding mine) Wow. I guess he knew he was going to be caught soon or something. Soo glad they did this before he chose someone for the seat.
ow
Mood: okay
Posted on 2008-12-09 22:11:00
Tags: health
Words: 28
Re my teeth: that tooth is really starting to hurt. I guess I'll start taking antibiotics tomorrow? And see if I can make an appointment sometime? Blah. Ow.
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