WJ this morning- the spin following the Blagojevich mess

[malaise]

Good call on now.

Look at this interesting article - I asked about this earlier this week - looks like Illinois is far from the most corrupt state.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-12-10-corruptstates_N.htm
<snip>
On a per-capita basis, however, Illinois ranks 18th for the number of public corruption convictions the federal government has won from 1998 through 2007, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Department of Justice statistics.

Louisiana, Alaska and North Dakota all fared worse than the Land of Lincoln in that analysis.

Alaska narrowly ousted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens in the election in November after he was convicted of not reporting gifts from wealthy friends. In Louisiana, Democratic Rep. William Jefferson was indicted in 2007 on racketeering and bribery charges after the FBI said it found $90,000 in marked bills in his freezer. Jefferson, who has maintained his innocence and will soon go to trial, lost his seat to a Republican this year.

[shadowknows69]

1. Morning malaise!!

Why aren't you on a damn beach somewhere you CSPAN junkie you?

[malaise]

2. LOL

Locals never go to the beach to swim between December and March - we hate cold water anywhere but our showers in summer. :D

[ixion]

4. heh heh heh... exactly

it's always funny to see the tourists out on the beach swimming in the freezing water and thinking it's warm. :rofl:

[malaise]

7. I guess everything is relative

but it works out fine. :rofl:

[shadowknows69]

8. Sure, piss all over my Jamaican fantasies

I'm 30 miles from the Canadian border. Throw me a fricken bone here!!!

Nothin but love my dear.
B-)

We need a rasta smiley.

[malaise]

11. hehheheheh

Yeh you'd find the water very warm. :rofl:

Can't find a Rasta smiley that works. :D

[ixion]

3. The whole 'scandal' thing is really annoying... corruption is rampant: THAT is the issue.

not individual corruption, with is a symptom of a larger problem. Our entire status-quo infrastructure is compromised by corruption, including the folks who report on the corruption.

The story -- the cause, not the symptom -- is systemic corruption that knows no political boundaries. But you probably won't hear that reported by the M$M, because they've got their snout buried deep in the trough with the rest of them.

[malaise]

5. True and I am really angry about thiss Ahole Blagojevich

but this is small change to Cheney's friend Haliburton or Bushco's political crimes and war crimes.

[shadowknows69]

10. Me too and I admit I didn't know anything about this Bozo

But Jesus Christ on moonshine truck!!! You can see how people could buy into the stereoype of the "Chicago" politician. This guy acts like a cast member of "Goodfellas"

[malaise]

14. I want to thank President Bush for giving me such a

wonderful safe country. Everything was fine until the Democrats took over. WTF is this woman drinking? I don't want that stuff. :puke:

[ixion]

13. agreed... garden variety corruption... very common

nowhere near the magnitude of what the Bush cabal has done. That's what irks me so much about all the 'scandal' talk. Suddenly, everything's a scandal, even though meaningful and significant corruption goes unreported, and is largely ignored.

[mwb970]

18. Well, here's an article about widespread corruption from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/12/cleveland_cuyahoga_corruption.html

Even this article speaks only of political corruption. I have also seen articles about how the majority of students cheat now. Corporate CEO's lie and steal. Religious figures molest children and their bosses cover up the crimes. Nationally known preachers turn out to be crooks. And yes, politicians of both parties, on all levels, are increasingly corrupt.

As far as I can tell, the whole country is going right down the toilet. The quality of our citizenry is in the fastest decline I have ever seen. We used to be the "greatest generation". Now we are a nation of ignorant, lying, cheating jerks, and it is getting worse with each passing day. How long can a country like this survive, economic crisis or no?

And what is an old-school honest person supposed to do, besides write posts like this?

[RC]

6. But North Dakota?

But North Dakota?

"Don Morrison, executive director of the non-partisan North Dakota Center for the Public Good, said it may be that North Dakotans are better at rooting out corruption when it occurs.

"Being a sparsely populated state, people know each other," he said. "We know our elected officials and so certainly to do what the governor of Illinois did is much more difficult here."

Morrison said the state has encouraged bad government practices in some cases by weakening disclosure laws. North Dakota does not require legislative or statewide candidates to disclose their campaign expenses.

The analysis does not include corruption cases handled by state law enforcement and it considers only convictions. Corruption may run more rampant in some states but go undetected."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Workman's Comp is beyond corrupt. Big slush funds from not paying legitimate claims. No over site except by the same republicans that took the over siting away from the Governor. Favoritism. Same types of problems that bu$h caused in the DoJ, play party favorites in administering the funds. Big departing bonus for head person being fired when caught.
Yeah, North Dakota is a republican state alright.

[malaise]

9. Corruption may run more rampant in some states but go undetected."

That's what I asked on another thread. Perhaps Chicago locks up their corrupt politicians and others don't.

We're still waiting for St Rudy of 9/11s Bernie Kerik to reach the courts. He was indicted in November 2007.

[ThomWV]

12. That struck me as odd too - until I realized the ratings were on a per capita base

Not many people up there, it only takes a couple of good fuck-ups to skew the statistics.

[Subdivisions]

15. Some dumbass woman was just on thanking boosh for making

us safe and for making this a wonderful country up until the Democrats came in and allowed poor people to buy homes and blow the economy.

[malaise]

16. She drank all the Kool Aid

Straight from the Rove phone bank

[elleng]

17. That's CONVICTIONS, right?

.