No longer accessible

The inspector general for the TARP program announced Tuesday that more than $2 trillion of  the $3 trillion dollars handed over to the financial industry lacks proper accounting. If you use the FBI figure that 10% of all federal money given to the private market gets lost to fraud, you have $30 billion dollars. Over the first three months of the year companies like GM, AIG, Citigroup, and others spent $9.2 million to lobby the government for more funds. GM received an extra $5 billion dollars last week, and Chrysler received $500 million in temporary loans to stem the tide until their restructuring deadline. Yet The Post reported that Chrsyler Financial turned down financial aid because their executives did not want to accept mandated compensation limits. Meanwhile, the rest of us struggle to make our bills and hold up our heads. Don’t let the Man ever fool you. He’ll always get his.

- The Supreme Court heard a case this week regarding the strip search of an Arizona girl at her school after she gave another student an ibuprofen. An Advil, for chrissakes. God save the ignorant administrator who make the decision to strip search my child. What kind of training does an education official or security officer have to conduct a strip search? I knew we allowed torture of foreigners without even a shrug, but strip searches of our children is too far, yo. Too far.

- Heard the Fridge, always Bears 72 in our hearts if not our media guides, is in serious condition. Keep the big-hearted guy in your thoughts and prayers.

- Our ex-gov, Rod left court Tuesday after having his request to appear in a NBC reality show based in Costa Rica was denied to greet the disenfranchised outside the Payless Shoe Store kitty corner from the federal plaza. Rod told reporters an admirer gave him a Tiffany candlestick before he entered court. No photograph of Professor Plum exists to know if he was the considerate stranger.

- The major problem I have with the talk surrounding torture investigations is how everyone says they want to depoliticize. Come on, that’s bull! Torture progressed in the first place because the Bushies were scared shitless that another terrorist attack would dislodge them from power. Of course, that turned out to be true. It was just they were the terrorists. Anything involving politicians is always politicized. That is why it should be a truth committee set up with policy wonks and old hands with no ambition of higher office. Give them a nice sized budget and staff. Let them name names and state deeds. State bar associations can handle the rest.

- Maggie Daley left Northwestern Hospital yesterday after receiving treatment for a bone lesion. Mrs. Daley has lived with the effects of breast cancer for the last seven years. It is a terrible disease. In these hard times, less women will undergo mammograms. Those who do sign up for them may find a long wait in their location because there are not enough radiologists in the system. Black women especially need to be careful, as the latest research indicates that they are more than three times as likely to suffer from the most drug resistant form of the illness. The numbers- 250,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, over 500 a day. These are our wives, mothers, sisters.

The more you know, kids.

- Finally, I read where Evanston’s police officers now must turn off their squads when writing tickets or accomplishing their other duties. I don’t believe the fine member of Evanston’s Finest turned his engine off two days ago when, after almost clipping my bike, he U-ed to order me to the other side of the street. I wanted to ask him if he was going to be so conscientious with the motorists who fail to stop for pedestrians at crosswalks or stop at stop signs. In other news, the proposed high-rise at 1890 Maple received half-off their property tax to the city for the next twenty years. Keep this in mind, ‘Stonians, when you send that property tax check later this year.

Senate embarrassment Roland Burris re-entered the national spotlight Saturday when the Sun-Times reported that he corrected his testimony before the Illinois House impeachment hearing. His correction came in the form of a second affidavit sent to the impeachment committee. According to today’s Tribune, this second affidavit states:

“Gov. Blagojevich’s brother, Rob Blagojevich, called me three times to seek my assistance in fundraising.” Burris also acknowledged mentioning his interest in the Senate seat to four close Blagojevich associates.

OK, Roland. Gig is up. It’s time to resign. Right now.

Roland defended himself at a news conference yesterday by saying that the House never asked him directly which members of the Blagojevich camp contacted him. Huh? The Illinois House Democrats called the hearing so Burris could free himself from the Blago cloud. The fact that no one on the committee specifically asked him if Brother Blunder called him doesn’t mean Roland should not have fessed up to the contact.

He lied. His response on January 8 to the question of which members of the Blago camp was he contact with about the Senate seat:

“I recall having a meeting with [former Blagojevich chief of staff] Lon Monk.”

Nope, no Brother Blunder there. Face it, he knew mentioning Rob would endanger his chances at getting his grubby hands on the seat.

Now things get interesting. Do the Illinois Democrats continue to support a candidate who surely cannot win a general election in a year against Mark Kirk? Do they force him to resign? The smart money is on a Burris resignation before the end of the week. OK, but is the new Senator black? Race has dominated this seat from the time Obama won it over four years ago. JJ Jr.? He’s on the wiretaps and probably wants to keep a low profile until Patrick Fitzgerald absolves him of wrongdoing. Danny Davis? Maybe. Jesse White? He’s my guess. He earns strong points for holding up Burris’ seating and turning down Blagojevich for the seat.

If Jesse says yes, it allows JJ Jr. to still announce a run once the Blago investigation ends. Of course, JJ Jr. and Jesse White split the black vote. What does this mean for our Evanston congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky? We hope she runs. Or Illinois Treasure and Friend of BO Alexi Giannoulias?

Thanks, Roland. You’ve guaranteed me plenty of copy over the next year.

- In today’s Tribune Rev. Willie Barrow, a leader of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, says about Burrisgate:

“We put him in, and we’re going to keep him in,” Barrow said.

Really? Who put him in? Rev. Barrow, let me tell you what this sounds like. This sounds like you and your organization put him in because Burris is black. And that you will keep him in office because he is black. I thought we were living in a post-racial world. I guess not in the state of Illinois.

Barrow, you embarass yourself and your organization when you support Burris. No one takes you seriously. The Senate seat should go to the best candidate, regardless of skin color.

Burris needs to resign. And Gov. Pat Quinn needs to make sure there is a special election. Illinois voters are sick to death of individuals and organizations placing their own interests ahead of the citizens.

Let Pat Quinn know I'd be great at calling numbers during Illinois Lottery broadcasts.

Welcome to half-time of the nation’s non-stop coverage of the ‘Crooked Pol Bowl’. When we left off, we were just beginning the second quarter and Rod Blagojevich was still wheeling and dealing like a brokerage with too many bad mortgages. Unfortunately, the defensive pressure got to Rod, and he was sacked. Boy Blunder is no longer the governor of Illinois.

But, boy, what a way to go out!

I didn’t watch or read coverage of the impeachment trial because I’m not a big fan of preordained political theater. Of course they were going to impeach him. And I made every attempt to ignore Rod’s Talking Heads Tour of broadcast media. All that did was exemplify again how ravenous the national media is for the sensational and corrupted. No, what caught my attention was Rod speaking in front of the Senate yesterday. It was the kind of mutantly engaging political performance any of those before him would have given up their upholstered rolly seats to make themselves. It was character-defining. And what a character.

I remember when I was a freshman in Congress and I got a chance to be on what they called a conference committee- when you get to sit with the leaders of the different committees in the House and in the Senate- and what a thrill it was for me to be able to, as a freshman congressman, be in a room with legendary U.S. senators like John Glenn and Ted Kennedy and John McCain and John Warner, the senator from Virginia who incidentally had once been married to Elizabeth Taylor. That’s all I could think about when I saw him in that room. And then he asked me for a cup of coffee because he thought I was a staffer. And I didn’t tell him I was a congressman. Instead I went and asked him, “How do you take it?” And he said,”Black.” And I went and got him the coffee.

Wow. Shakespeare could not have written a better ‘just folks’ political ramble that also defines the speaker’s moral core as well. Rod loved power. He loved the smell of it. The feel of it. Everything. He loved that powerful men could make other men get coffee for them. Seriously. Rod is no Nixon. He doesn’t suffer from paranoid delusions. No, Rod is a simple Illinois pol. He liked giving orders, and the way it made people react to him. It was his undoing. Because even the dimmest venal politician knows that all power is illusory. You’re only powerful as long as those more powerful than you ignore you. Rod pissed off those who were more powerful than he. Rod got crushed.

So with what are we in Illinois left? Gov. Pat Quinn, who begins his reign already not being taken seriously by anyone. Denying the moon landing publicly will make that happen. But Pat Quinn appears to be honest, and if he’s honest he has potential to do some things before he leaves office in a little under two years. He can restructure Illinois’ repellant tax system. He can eliminate all of Boy Blunder’s unfunded mandates. He can fast-forward needed work on this state’s antiquated infrastructure, and do it with ethics and efficience.

And then he gets to leave in two years for Daddy’s Little Girl, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Ick. Well, even if the events of this second half of the ‘Crooked Pol Bowl’ are preordained, be sure to suck up every minute of Rod’s imminent criminal trial. Ignore Day 972 of Don Michael Madigan’s holding the state of Illinois hostage until his daughter becomes governor.

I guarantee Rod will embarrass himself some more. Ahh, bread and circuses. Such is life in the failed land of Lincoln.

I don’t know who the actor behind this sketch is, but Lorne Michaels should make every effort to sign him up to be Boy Blunder for the next few years. Genius!

More humor for my beleaguered fellow Cook County citizens- a Cook County Board President Steve Urkle fundraising memo entitled ‘Todd Stroger: A New Generation of Leadership‘. Best part:

Recently, Todd and the Cook County Board made some tough choices. The global economic crisis has had a major impact on every community in our nation — and Cook County is no exception. The decision to increase the sales tax one penny on a dollar — and exclude groceries, medicines and other essential goods from that increase — during this time was a necessary step to tackle the County’s chronic structural budget deficit and protect vital county services. These are the sorts of challenges that inspire Todd to keep fighting on behalf of taxpayers. But he is going to need your help to continue the work.

John Stroger strongly believed that “A voteless people is a hopeless people.” His son Todd needs your help to fight political opportunism, preserve vital services and continue his father’s legacy of service for all residents. Please support Todd by contributing to “A New Generation of Leadership.”

Sincerely,

Roger Mosley
Finance Director
Friends of Todd H. Stroger

rmosley@strogerforpresident.com
www.strogerforpresident.com

‘Voteless’, huh? Weren’t we all voteless after his father died and in stepped Urkel? Hey, Todd, I have hope. I have a lot of hope we’ll get your useless ass voted out of office.