Gov. Rod Blagojevich scheduled a news conference today to make a statement to the media, his first public appearance since he was arrested last week on federal corruption charges.
Blagojevich has avoided the public eye for the most part since his arrest, but in recent days has told reporters camped outside his house that he is eager to talk to the people of Illinois.
The advisory released this morning from the governor's office said only that Blagojevich would make a statement to the press at 2 p.m. at the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago.
#2
MSNBC.com has his press conference video up; the gist of it is that he is going to fight the wiretaps.
looking at the lead frame for the video i cannot help but think of Alfred E Newman without the buck teef and dark hair instead of red.
what a maroon.
#3
"I am not f****** guilty, and I'm gonna be m************ vindicated! And stop calling me 'potty mouth,' you g******** m************ b****** c**********!!!"
Posted by: Mike ||
12/19/2008 16:25 Comments ||
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#4
I'm starting to enjoy the run-up to the Big O's inaugural. Becoming positively Clintonesque, it is.
#5
he's not going. "I'm gonna fight, fight, fight"
LOLZ - this should be fun. Rezko, stretching out the singing, Rahm hiding in his dance studio, Blago gonna fight it out and threatening to spill if things get too close. Popcorn, please
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/19/2008 18:35 Comments ||
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#6
Extra butter or parmesan, Frank?
Or both? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/19/2008 19:07 Comments ||
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#7
This one's going on for a while. We've got veggies and dip, mini-pizzas and slim jims to go with the popcorn.
Mired in a scandal that could strip him of his pride, his job and the misperception that anyone shares his enthusiasm for his hair, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has now also been stripped of his clothes.
A nude portrait of the governor, by artist Bruce Elliott, is nearly complete and will hang on the wall of Elliott's wife's bar, the Old Town Ale House, next to his infamous depiction of a naked Sarah Palin. It is the next installment in what Elliott loosely calls his "nude governor series." Mr. Elliot, before you do the other 48 governors, I have a word of advice: DON'T! Sarah Palin I can see, because, let's face it, she's smokin' hot. Blago, on the other hand, is the opposite of "hot." As for most of the rest of 'em, like, say, my own state's Ted Strickland, really, really, we do not need to see them unclothed. It's a bad idea. Don't go there, please.
WARNING: Readers may wish to have a full bottle of brain bleach handy before reading further.
The scene imagines Blagojevich handcuffed and wearing an orange jumpsuit pulled down to his knees. Among the onlookers is a guard, with a look of grim determination, pulling on a rubber glove. The painting, which is taking Elliott a little over a week to finish, is titled: "The Cavity Search."
Posted by: Mike ||
12/19/2008 16:07 ||
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The intense scrutiny of "voter intent" resumed this morning by the five-member board charged with directing Minnesota's recount in the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic rival Al Franken, and the first 90 minutes of ballot rulings turned the challenger's slight deficit into a growing triple-digit lead.
Also this morning, the State Canvassing Board sidestepped the Coleman team's proposal to prevent as many as 150 ballots from being counted twice. Talking about instances when a ballot couldn't be run through a voting machine, requiring a duplicate to be made, the Coleman camp said that such ballots should be counted only if an original could be matched with its copy.
However, board members today ruled that the duplicates should not be addressed by the board but in "another forum," said Board Chairman Mark Ritchie. But it will consider the ballots if there are questions about the intent of the voters who cast them, the board said.
Later in the morning, Coleman officials requested that the state Supreme Court prevent the Canvassing Board from including these votes in its recount totals.
In response to the Coleman request, Franken spokesman Andy Barr said: "This is just the latest desperate act by a campaign panicked because it has suddenly realized that it is going to lose the election."
On Thursday, the board reviewed Coleman's challenges of hundreds of Election Day ballots, and the day's work saw the unofficial margin between the candidates dwindle to within a handful of votes.
Then, as the board took up and rejected more Coleman challenges today, Franken pulled ahead in the opening minutes and steadily built his advantage beyond 250 by midday.
#3
Minnesotans ere always straight, semi-lib , doctrinaire Donks (think Fritz Mondale) - now they need to be regaled with their new national image of wild-hair bigoted f*ck nuts, AKA Al Franken. Good job, and I hope your Vikings die on the field, all due respects to Bud Grant (one of my football deities) who would never have let a p*ssy like Franken carpetbag in and even be nominated. The friggen state is gone to hell.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/19/2008 23:01 Comments ||
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President-elect Barack Obama's incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had a deeper involvement in pressing for a U.S. Senate seat appointment than previously reported, the Sun-Times has learned. Emanuel had direct discussions about the seat with Gov. Blagojevich, who is is accused of trying to auction it to the highest bidder.
Emanuel talked with the governor in the days following the Nov. 4 election and pressed early on for the appointment of Valerie Jarrett to the post, sources with knowledge of the conversations told the Sun-Times. There was no indication from sources that Emanuel brokered a deal, however.
I love FoxNews!
FOX Business Network (FBN) has filed a lawsuit against the United States Treasury Department over failure to provide information on the bailout funds or respond to FBN's expedited requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The initial request, filed on November 25, sought actual data on the use of the bailout funds for American International Group and the Bank of New York Mellon, and an additional request, filed on December 1, sought similar data on the bailout funds for Citigroup, Inc. FBN is asking for the Treasury Department to identify, among other issues, the troubled assets purchased, any collateral extended, and any restrictions placed on these financial institutions for their participation in this program.
Kevin Magee, Executive Vice President, FOX News commented, "The Treasury has repeatedly ignored our requests for information on how the government is allocating money to these troubled institutions. In a critical time like this amidst mounting corruptions and an economic crisis, we as a news organization feel it's more important than ever to hold the government accountable."
Steven Mintz, Esq. of Mintz & Gold LLP, and legal counsel for the network added, "Despite the several requests for expedited information filed by FBN, it has become apparent that the Treasury will not cooperate without mounting legal pressure. Therefore, we have filed a complaint in the Federal Court in New York and ask the Court to make the Treasury provide the information sought by the journalists at FBN."
The FOIA complaint was filed by FOX News Network, LLC, as owner of FBN.
FOX Business Network (FBN) is a financial news channel delivering real-time information across all platforms that impact both Main Street and Wall Street. Headquartered in New York--the business capital of the world--FBN launched in October 2007 and is available in 45 million homes in major markets across the United States. Owned by News Corp, the network has bureaus in Chicago, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Washington, DC and London. On the web at www.foxbusiness.com. I hope Paulson gets raked over the coals.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia gave $10 million to $25 million to the William J. Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit created by the former president to finance his library in Little Rock, Ark., and charitable efforts to reduce poverty and treat AIDS. Other foreign government givers include Norway, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, Italy and Jamaica. lots of charitable orgs gave, lots of pro Israel types, lots of biz tycoons
Former President Bill Clinton has raised more than $500 million for his charitable foundation from foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, and an international who's who of royal families, corporate barons, philanthropic foundations, entertainment personalities, Democratic donors and longtime friends of the Clinton family, according to a list of donors made public for the first time this morning.
Lifting a veil of secrecy aggressively protected by the former president, the William J. Clinton Foundation disclosed a 2,922-page list of more than 200,000 benefactors as part of an accord with President-elect Barack Obama that allows Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), to become secretary of state.
Among the multimillion-dollar donors -- whose identities have remained anonymous for more than a decade -- are several foreign states, multinational corporations and international business moguls. They represent a thicket of potential conflicts of interest that Hillary Clinton must avoid should the Senate approve Obama's nomination to make her the nation's top diplomat.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Australian government's overseas aid program and a Dominican Republic government agency that fights AIDS each gave between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit that financed Bill Clinton's presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., and funds charitable efforts fight poverty and chronic global health problems.
Norway gave between $5 million and $10 million, while Brunei, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar each donated between $1 million and $5 million. The Jamaican and Italian governments each donated between $50,000 and $100,000, according to the foundation's donor list.
Real estate and Hollywood mogul Stephen L. Bing, New York billionaire B. Thomas Golisano, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Chicago media magnate Fred Eychaner were among the biggest donors, giving between $10 million and $25 million each.
One of the more controversial donations came from Frank Giustra, a financier of mining ventures who flew Clinton to Kazakhstan in 2005 on his private jet as the former president solicited donations. Clinton praised Kazakhstan's authoritarian president, and Giustra later agreed to invest in uranium projects controlled by the government. Giustra gave $10 million to $25 million, and the Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative gave between $1 million and $5 million, according to the donor list.
The Clinton Foundation did not release the details of each gift; neither the exact amounts nor the dates of the donations were disclosed. Instead, it listed dollar amounts within broad ranges, emulating the rules for filling out federal financial disclosure forms.
"I want to personally express my deepest appreciation to our many contributors, who remain steadfast partners in our work to impact the lives of so many around the world in measurable and meaningful ways," Bill Clinton said in a statement. "We have just begun, and it is an honor and privilege to be on this journey alongside each and every person who is committed to our foundation's ongoing charitable mission."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Well she did learn to pander from the best... The Rev. Al Sharpton took Caroline Kennedy to lunch Thursday at a famed Harlem soul food restaurant as she continued her quest to join her uncle in the U.S. Senate. Kennedy smiled as she and the civil rights activist made their way through a throng of media and into Sylvia's, whose walls are lined with photographs of visiting politicians including the Clintons. "Oooh! Nice place! How're the ribs?" Think I'll try the corned beef and cabbage.
The what?
"I come at this as a mother, as a lawyer, as an author, as an education advocate and from a family that really has spent generations in public service," Kennedy told reporters after lunch. "And I thought the chitlin's were marrrrvelous!" Yo, Al. Who the skinny white chick?
"I feel this commitment, and this is a time when nobody can afford to sit out. And I hope that I have something to offer." "I had two helpings of the sweet potato pie!"
The late President John F. Kennedy's daughter acknowledged Wednesday she's seeking to be appointed to the Senate seat held by Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been nominated by President-elect Barack Obama to be secretary of state. "Oh, and try the collard greens. They're just delish!"
Kennedy was asked what she would need to do to prepare herself for the post, which has attracted the interest of at least a dozen Democratic officials including her former relative by marriage, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. "I have, you know, quite a lot to learn, but I feel like I bring a lot with me, as well," Kennedy said. "And lemme tell yez about Nehi and gin! Wowzers!
She was also asked why she was plunging into politics now, after spending most of her life carefully cultivating her privacy. "These are issues that I care so much about and I understand that, really, I have been trying to work on them as a private citizen and in the position that I have," she said. "But really, to solve our problems, I think government is the place where people need to come together." "F'rinstance, I know what it's like to spend an entire meal with Rev. Al trying to feel me up!"
Kennedy's emergence as a contender has generated both buzz and controversy. She comes from a Democratic dynasty but has never held public office, and some Republicans and Democrats have criticized her lack of experience. Many of them are the same ones who denigrated Sarah Palin's experience.
"Oh, but that was different. She didn't go to Harvard."
Democratic Gov. David Paterson has said he won't make an appointment until he gets his orders Clinton is confirmed. The governor confirmed Kennedy's interest in the seat on Monday, the same day she reached out to Sharpton in a telephone call. "Hello? Is this Albert?"
"Who's 'Albert'? Dis is Big Al!"
"This is Caroline."
"Caroline who?"
After speaking to Kennedy, Sharpton released a statement saying he disagreed with those who say she isn't qualified to be U.S. senator. He said he had invited her to dine wtih him at Sylvia's this week, reminding her that he took Obama there during his campaign "so it's a good luck stop since he did all right." "Yeah. I took him to the Motel 6, too. Y'wanna go, Caroline?" So who paid?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
A natural born Duchess in these here United States. What next?
Bernard Madoff spent his first day under electronic monitoring Thursday as President-elect Barack Obama said the scandal brought on by the disgraced investor "has reminded us yet again of how badly reform is needed."
The effects of the $50 billion fraud has spread around the globe, and a Michigan-based foundation created to grant money to get healthy food into urban areas is among the latest to say it is going out of business because of the scandal.
Obama mentioned the Madoff saga as he named three veteran regulators to help clean up financial debacles that he said occurred because government overseers "dropped the ball." The Securities and Exchange Commission has come under fire for failing to detect Madoff's alleged deception despite repeated warnings, especially from a Massachusetts investor who has been sounding the alarm for the past decade.
He told a colleague in the late 1990s when he first noticed something was amiss, "This has to be a Ponzi scheme," according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Madoff had his bail conditions modified Wednesday. He must be at the Upper East Side residence from 7 p.m to 9 a.m. and wear an ankle-bracelet to monitor his movements. His wife was ordered to surrender her passport.
Cameras awaited Madoff as he walked out of the courthouse Wednesday toward his black SUV. Minutes later, a smirking Madoff was swarmed by more cameras as he entered his apartment building, with the scrum at one point turning into a shoving match between Madoff and a journalist.
Madoff's chaotic return to his $7 million apartment came on a day when the fallout over the scandal spread through the nation's capital, with the Securities and Exchange Commission taking heat and Congress jumping into the fray.
The chairman of the House capital markets subcommittee, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., announced an inquiry that will begin early next month into what may be the biggest Ponzi scheme ever and how the government failed to detect it. The SEC is also looking into the relationship between Madoff's niece and a former SEC attorney who reviewed Madoff's business.
Madoff, who has already surrendered his passport, made his appearance in the courthouse to shore up conditions of his bail package. The judge had required him to find two additional co-signers to vouch for Madoff, but he was apparently unable to find anyone as the cloud of scandal swirls around him.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I can't figure this out--I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop and see more people indicted. After all, you'd think *somebody* else in this organization was helping Madoff shuffle these funds around and knew this all a big scam but was willing to keep his mouth shut for a big payoff, right?
However, after reading through the indictment, nobody else is mentioned. Madoff basically just came forth and confessed to his senior employees--and then the FBI--that it was nothing but a Ponzi scheme.
I just can't believe there wasn't at least 6 other people helping him conceal this all this time.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/19/2008 15:54 Comments ||
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In a softball profile of the liberal Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank on Sunday's CBS 60 Minutes, anchor Lesley Stahl led with: "Barney Frank has been called the smartest guy in Congress, which is lucky for us, since he works on some of the thorniest issues around. The 14-term, 68-year-old Harvard-educated Democratic congressman from Massachusetts is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, which means his portfolio includes banks, housing, and now the auto industry. " Stahl later added: "...even the most hardened Republicans give him good reviews." Stahl never named any of those "hardened Republicans."
Stahl did offer some critical descriptions of Frank: "There are many ways to describe Barney Frank. I wanted to read you a sampling of descriptions of you. They almost -- they kind of come in couplets. We have, 'impatient and anti-social,' 'sharp-tongued and downright mean.'" However, she soon followed up with positive testimonials of Frank's non-ideological pragmatism:
Listen to what the financial community says. Here's Henry Paulson on Barney Frank: 'He's a market savvy pragmatist who looks for areas of agreement because he wants to get things done.' Here's a guy from JP Morgan Chase, he said, 'He hasn't veered off into Crazyland,' meaning liberalism. I've heard someone describe you this way: 'You're liberal on social issues; you're a pragmatist on economic issues.'"
Near the end of the story, Stahl observed: "True to form, he's an equal-opportunity curmudgeon, also criticizing Barack Obama for not being assertive enough on the credit crisis." Frank explained: "Senator Obama has said we only have one president at a time. Well, that overstates the number of presidents we have at this time. We don't appear to have any." Apparently, saying that having President Bush is like not having a president is somehow critical of Barack Obama.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#6
Smart? You bet! How can anybody be so wrong on so many levels and still get re-elected every time? He must be smart to get away with the BS he has done and not one time has he been investigated.
#11
Every hero needs theme music. Baby, although I chose this lonely life
It seems it's stranglin' me now
All the wild men, big cigars, gigantic car They're all laughin' at the lie
#14
Barney Frank has been called the smartest guy in Congress
Please! The idiot is part of a conspiracy of idiots that took this country into the dumper financially and now Lesley Stahl thinks he is a genius. WTF? Is she brain dead?
Notes from Senator Inhofe on Freezing the $700 Billion Bailout
People may be sick and tired of my recent frustration, but I'm committed to a solution, and that effort begins at noon today, December 18, 2008.
MY GOAL: to return to every taxpaying American family half of the $5,000 that was wrongfully taken from them in the $700B bailout by freezing the remaining $350B.
If we express each cost as it relates to each taxpaying family in America:
1. The Bridge to Nowhere =201.50 per family;
2. The auto bailout = $85/family;
3. The $700B bailout = $5,000/family - and equals more than the entire cost of the Iraq war and twice the cost of Bill Clinton's defense budget cuts in 8 years.
Either people don't care or they don't know... I believe they care!
By passing my legislation S3697:
When Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson sold the bill of goods to Congress, it was in two increments. He got the first $350B with no strings attached - to do with as he wished... the first time in American history. The second $350B is available unless Congress specifically passes an act to prohibit this from happening.
S. 3697 forces an affirmative vote to justify the second $350B... that's all. But it won't happen unless the American people demand it, because the vast majority in the House and Senate would have to admit they were wrong to vote for it in the first place. It will take the same public outrage that killed the amnesty bill.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2008 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Azam Ahmed, Chicago Tribune
The Rev. Al Sharpton took Caroline Kennedy to lunch Thursday at a famed Harlem soul food restaurant as she continued her quest to join her uncle in the U.S. Senate. Kennedy smiled as she and the civil rights activist made their way through a throng of media and into Sylvia's, whose walls are lined with photographs of visiting politicians including the Clintons. 
