It’s Fitzmas! (now complete with indictm…er, criminal complaint)
Blagojevich is the Ugly Mug of Government Paternalism
Rod Blagojevich may be the most honest politician in America
Ill. Governor Arrested by Feds, Media Ignored Connection To Obama
Land of Lincoln or Land of Stinkin
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich taken into federal custody
This morning Governor Blagojevich was arrested this morning on federal corruption charges. SOm eof the charges are as follows:
You can read the actual court documents here.
Blagojevich defies taxpayers on health program by not turning over information requested under the FOIA laws.
This is what the Associated Press requested:
• The number of enrollees;
• The number of enrollees by county;
• The number of enrollees by month;
• The number of enrollees after Judge James R. Epstein’s original injunction on or about April 15, 2008;
• The number of non-Illinois residents enrolled;
• The number of illegal or undocumented residents enrolled;
• The amount of premium payment collected since the program’s inception;
• The number of the account in which that money is located;
• How much remains in the account;
–How much has been spent on the FamilyCare expansion;
• A breakdown of from where that money has come to pay expenses.
Governor Blagojevich is acting like he is above the law in this matter. It appears believes he is King Rod. Here are some of the issues with this program.
gave out state-subsidized health care without permission
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Blagojevich sought universal health care last year but legislators said no. Then he focused on increasing eligibility for state-subsidized FamilyCare to an income level of $83,000 for a family of four. A bipartisan legislative rules-making body said no — twice. Secretary of State Jesse White also said no.Blagojevich proceeded anyway, claiming executive authority.
Blago seems to have no inhibition to his power grabs. He just makes the law up as he goes.
The Federal probe into Tony Rezko, is getting closer and closer to Governor Blagojevich.
Federal prosecutors have broadened their investigation of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration, subpoenaing records of ties between his lobbyist friend and a hospital that got a favorable decision from a state board allegedly controlled by convicted influence peddler Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
The subpoena delivered to Provena Hospital two weeks ago sought information about the hospital’s relationship to John Wyma, a close friend of the governor, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke only on condition of anonymity because grand jury subpoenas are secret.
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The Chicago Tribune, citing unnamed sources, reported in its Thursday edition that a federal subpoena also was delivered to the Illinois Road and Transportation Builders Association that named millionaire lobbyist William Cellini and was related to his involvement in a Blagojevich fundraiser. The newspaper said the head of the road builders group confirmed it received the subpoena but he would not discuss the details. The group and Cellini did not immediately return messages left by the AP.
How many Illinois Governors and politicians have to go to prison before the corruption in this state is no longer tolerated?
Governor Blagojevich is nolding back on restoring the cuts he made from the current budget until better revenue projections come in.
The Democratic governor is sitting on legislation to spare closing two dozen state attractions, laying off 323 workers and cutting drug-abuse treatment by tens of millions of dollars.
But what if the administration restores the cuts only to suffer a revenue slowdown? Illinois is better off than states of similar size but the governor remains concerned, spokesman Lucio Guerrero said.
“We are reviewing our revenue forecast to ensure that we will not have to make further cuts,” Guerrero said. “It would be a shame to propose restorations and then have to rescind them if the economic climate worsens.”
The reductions are part of $1.4 billion Blagojevich sliced from an out-of-balance budget the General Assembly sent him in July.
Controlling spending is commendable. Unfortunately the cuts in spending were aimed at political rivals and to punish the legislator for not boeing to his every whim.
Governor Blagojevich now has the lowest ratings ever recorded at 13%.
In the lowest ratings ever recorded for an elected politician in nearly three decades of Tribune polls, a new survey found few approving of the job Blagojevich is doing as governor and even fewer who want him re-elected. The results show the state’s first Democratic governor in a quarter-century has lost the confidence of voters in his own party. Moreover, the backing of one of his strongest voting blocs—African-Americans—appears to be falling away.
Blagojevich is not campaigning for other candidates or donating money to them this year. Not even his own party wants anything to do with him.
A report shows the wife of Governor Blagojevich has seen commission increases in revenue from a state contractor’s family business.
Between 2001 and 2004, developer Virgil Tiran listed dozens of condominiums with Patti Blagojevich’s company, River Realty, according to a story published Saturday in the Chicago Sun-Times. The firm earned $108,000 in commissions on those condominiums by April 2002. State payments to a company owned by Tiran’s parents increased from $183,000 to $1.1 million over the next five years under the Blagojevich administration, the newspaper reported.
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Federal investigators are scrutinizing Patti Blagojevich’s clients, including convicted gubernatorial fundraiser Tony Rezko, according to several published reports.
The more we learn about Governor BLagojevich the more we need recall to remove him from office.
Governor Blagojevich is now proposing carpool lanes for toll roads. To do this he will borrow more money and raise more fees.
Eighty miles of Green Lanes will be instituted in the metropolitan region along I-88, I-355, I-90 and I-294. The cost is about $400 million.
Fixing the I-90 and I-290/Route 53 interchange and buildiing the I-294 and I-57 interchange are pegged at $1.4 billion.
The improvements will be paid for by borrowing the money and increasing tolls for commercial vehicles starting in 2015.
The State of Illinois is already $110 Billion dollars in debt. Blagojevich now wants to borrow almost $2 billion dollars more. If you ever need a reason for recall or a Con Con, here you go. We are in debt, yet have a balanced budget clause in the current Constitution. The legislature won’t give us recall and we don’t have the right for citizen ballot initiatives.
Visit Yes For Illinois to see more on the Con Con debate and My Illinois Constitution to help write a new Constitution.
Governor Blagojevich moved to strengthen ethics laws during his first term as governor. It is clear now that these changes were all show and no teeth. The latest example is the tollway chief:
Illinois tollway chief Brian McPartlin announced Thursday he is taking a job with a company that did more than $30 million in business with the tollway
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The state’s ethics laws stipulate state workers can’t take a job with a company that won contracts under them. But there is a waiver loophole allowing a worker to apply to the state ethics commission to bypass the law. All the worker has to do is show the commission his or her involvement with that contract wasn’t influenced by the possible career move.
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Only one of 14 waiver applications has been rejected, according to a review of published commission decisions dating to 2005. Seven of those waiver applications were dismissed because commissioners found the law did not apply to the applicant.The other six won their waiver.
Governor Blagojevich has decided he can raise money by putting speed cameras along the Interstates to catch speeders. He wants to do this under the pretense of helping out Chicago with their crime problems.
In the long term, the governor is considering installing speed cameras in each direction of every interstate in the 20 State Police districts across Illinois to raise $50 million a year in revenue — enough for 500 more troopers. The money could support an “elite tactical team” and bolster everything from crash investigations to cold-case murder probes, Trent said.
Currently, camera-equipped vans nab speeders in construction zones, but state law does not allow speed cameras on interstates, Trent said.
In Arizona, 50 speed cameras will be deployed on highways by September with another 50 by January at a cost of about $20 million. The state hopes to raise $90 million a year by imposing $165 fines on vehicles going 10 mph over the speed limit or faster.
Asked what speeds Illinois motorists would have to hit before they would get nailed with a camera violation, Guerrero said, “It would have to be egregious — 80 or 85 mph. We don’t know yet.”
This is already in the process of happening in Arizona. These cameras are just one more example of the money hungry antics of Governor Blagojevich and the Illinois Legislature. It is also one more step down the road of big brother watching everything we do.Technorati Tags: Governor Blagojevich, Arizona, Interstate cameras, speed camers, Chicago gangs
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