Just when you thought the saga of ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich couldn't get any stranger, it has.
Blagojevich wants to star on the NBC reality show "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!" a program similar to "Survivor" in which contestants will be plopped down in the Costa Rican jungle to perform sweaty physical tasks, scheme to avoid elimination and throw tantrums for the camera.
If a federal judge gives permission, the man who faces years in prison on corruption charges could be following in the steps of Flava Flav and Kathy Griffin D-list celebrities willing to play the clown on TV.
Perhaps he will have to retrieve items from a crocodile-infested swamp, like one participant on an earlier version of "I'm a Celebrity ..."
"I'm sure Illinois viewers would love to see Blagojevich have to do something like that especially if the crocodiles win," said Jenn Brasler, associate editor of the Web site RealityNewsOnline.
First, Blagojevich needs to get Judge James B. Zagel to let him leave the country with a pending criminal case. He was ordered to surrender his passport after his December arrest on charges that included trying to sell off President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.
Northwestern University law professor Anthony D'Amato said the judge might be willing to approve the project because of Costa Rica's strong extradition agreement with the United States meaning Blagojevich could not just hole up there forever. But the decision is far from certain, particularly with a judge known for being strict.
Posted by: ed ||
04/16/2009 10:17 ||
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"I'm sure Illinois viewers would love to see Blagojevich have to do something like that -- especially if the crocodiles win,"
The coveted "Snark of the Day" award goes to...
Posted by: Mike ||
04/16/2009 11:01 Comments ||
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#3
Our apologies governor. We here at the Rantburg attempted to invervene in your behalf. Unfortunately, about the best we can do is a cell reservation with Survivor veteran Richard Hatch.
#4
Remember the old days? When asshole politicians like this would be so embarrassed about the shame they brought upon themselves and their families that they wouldn't show their faces in public until the trial?
I miss those days...
PATHETIC: "Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) blasted 'tea party' protests yesterday, labeling the activities 'despicable' and 'shameful.'"
Ironic: "The husband of an Illinois congresswoman pleaded guilty Wednesday to tax violations and bank fraud for writing rubber checks and failing to collect withholding tax from an employee. Robert Creamer, a political consultant married to four-term U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, could face four years in prison on the two felony counts when he is sentenced Dec. 21." According to the article at the link, Mr. Creamer walked off with at least $2.3 million that didn't belong to him.
Tax hypocrisy abounds in Washington, but they're angry that people are protesting. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
04/16/2009 17:02 ||
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Obviously this representative of the people (snark) did not attend any of these tea parties. What a hypocrite. What she does not realize is that these tea parties transcend party. Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Independents attended these tea parties. The people I saw were regular Americans. There were blacks and whites at the gathering that I attended. People are fed up with working for (being enslaved by) Washington for nearly half a year regardless of what party is in power. People are pissed at Washington for giving away our jobs and destroying jobs with frivolous laws, regulation and excessive taxation. People are tired of the elite government class that exempts themselves from the laws they pass and the regulations they create. People are pissed at the MSM that has put many of these people in office with their biased reporting (if it can even be called reporting).
#2
IIRC a study was done that showed while conservatives could think in a liberal mode, the opposite was not true. Liberals could not think in a conservative mode. Thus liberals and their leftest core can only engage in Freudian projection as to the motives and means of their enemies opponents. That is why they ascribe the actions to the efforts of rich republican money men. It's what they do. It is a major vulnerability of their position, not understanding the real opponent. Most Americans would whether 'sit it out' when it comes to politics. They want to be left alone to do their thing and let life pass. However, every now and then the pols do something real stupid that gets the mass's attention and not in a good way. When the public gets mad, really mad, its time to take notice or face the consequences. Desperate attempts to shut them down, to demonize them, will only lead to greater friction and a figurative or literal Concord Bridge.
#3
He's going to be sentenced December 21st? If I was convicted last week of tax violations and bank fraud the government sure as hell wouldn't let me stay free for the next eight months.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/16/2009 21:25 Comments ||
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He served his time a couple of years ago. The 'ironic' story was from 2005.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/16/2009 21:27 Comments ||
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Former Rep. Pat Toomey officially threw his hat into the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate race Wednesday in a bid to unseat five term incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter. "I am now a candidate for the U.S. Senate," the 47-year old Republican declared on a conservative radio show in his home town of Allentown.
Specter has wasted no time in warning Republicans of the consequences of supporting Toomey, whom he claims is unelectable in a general election. "Without Sen. Specter's seat in the Senate, which Mr. Toomey would certainly lose, there would no longer be 41 Republican senators to filibuster and stop the Democrats from passing card check, raising taxes, and implementing President Obama's massive spending plans," Christopher Nicholas, campaign manager for Specter, said in a statement Wednesday.
Specter and Toomey are no strangers to this fight. They waged a bitter war against each other in 2004, with Toomey losing by just over one percent of the vote. This time around it promises be just as rough, with the mud already flying.
Toomey, as former head of the anti-tax Club for Growth, has directed his fire at the moderate Republian for months, fanning the flames of populist anger at taxpayer-funded corporate bailouts of Wall Street fat cats and a multi-billion stimulus bill, a dangerous political recipe for the incumbent who supported these controversial measures. "I think our federal government has taken a very dangerous lurch to the left," Toomey said on the "Gunther Show."
But Specter, ever the fighter, knew his votes were potential liabilities and launched a preemptive strike against Toomey's own resume, his experience as a Wall Street investment banker back in the late 1980's. The senator featured this line of attack earlier this month in a statewide television ad, a 2010 midterm first, with the primary still a year away and Toomey not even yet a declared opponent.
Central in Toomey's fight is Specter's support for the $787 billion stimulus bill earlier this year, a vote Specter defended this week alongside first responders at a police station in suburban Philadelphia. Indeed, Specter not only voted for the bill, he was central to the negotiated compromise that was approved by Congress with the support of only three Republicans in the end. "I know this may cost me politically, but I feel it is the right thing to do for the country in this economic crisis," Specter told FOX News at the time.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2009 00:00 ||
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"Without Sen. Specter's seat in the Senate, which Mr. Toomey would certainly lose, there would no longer be 41 Republican senators to filibuster and stop the Democrats......
The ulimate chutzpah and bold threat indeed, considering Specter voted with the donks on the largest appropriation in th history of the country.
#2
Yeah, Besoeker, we learned our lesson from 2004. Specter's only allegiance is to his own amour propre. While he isn't Lincoln Chafee, he isn't worth the embarrassment any more. Of course, the Republicans will probably still lose the seat in the general, but at least it'll be an honest fight. There were assholes who were retailing Kerry/Specter signs out of "Republican" campaign offices in suburban Philadelphia in 2004.
I'll probably re-register Republican for the 2010 primaries, just to vote for Toomey.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/16/2009 16:10 Comments ||
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Specter is a RINO--Republican in Name Only. Voters are going to have to get more active and aggressive about changing our government to a government who obeys the Constitution. This means throwing a lot of dead wood out and electing new faces who honor the Constitution and listen to the voters.
The US Homeland Security Department, under fire for saying US forces returning from the Iraq and Afghan wars were potential right-wing extremist recruits, said Wednesday it honors US veterans. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sought to douse anger among conservatives and veterans groups like the American Legion over a report from her department warning of a rising threat of right-wing extremism. "We are on the lookout for criminal and terrorist activity but we do not -- nor will we ever -- monitor ideology or political beliefs," Napolitano said in a statement amid charges that the department had done just that.
American Legion chief David Rehbein on Tuesday blasted the report as "incomplete, and, I fear, politically-biased" and took special aim at its warning that returning veterans having difficulties reintegrating society could be recruited by right-wing groups for possible terrorist attacks.
In a letter to Napolitano, Rehbein underlined the document's mention of Oklahoma City bombing author Timothy McVeigh's US Army background and called it "as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam."
"The American Legion is well aware and horrified at the pain inflicted during the Oklahoma City bombing, but Timothy McVeigh was only one of more than 42 million veterans who have worn this nation's uniform during wartime," said Rehbein, who group comprises some 2.6 million members.
Napolitano said she accepted Rehbein's request for a meeting and stressed: "I will tell him face-to-face that we honor veterans at DHS and employ thousands across the department, up to and including the deputy secretary."
The report said that fears of possible new restrictions on firearms, as well as troubled veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, "could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks."
Rehbein said the accusation, levelled in an April 7 document designed for local law enforcement officials, was "without any statistical evidence."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2009 00:00 ||
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The Left expects this, because it's what they'd be doing if the places were reversed. The idea that men can be patriotic, and support a government that they disagree with, is totally foreign to the leftist.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
04/16/2009 7:32 Comments ||
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"We are on the lookout for criminal and terrorist activity but we do not -- nor will we ever -- monitor ideology or political beliefs," Napolitano
A disingenuous statement. Direct quotations could be sited, but the entire DHS document is a an alarm bell or primir for monitoring ideological or political beliefs. Not examining the basic beliefs of your enemy cearly violates not only common sense but the Sun Tsu principle of war "Know your enemy." Her only problem is she and her leftest colleagues have clearly made public in a DHS manifesto the wrong enemy. Unfortunately, that enemy is us.
#4
If you take into account how many reviews and approvals this report probably had to go through before being released - this is a fairly weak apology.
#5
Those who protect America's freedoms and are opposed to tripling the national debt and placing our children in bondage to debt holders foreign and domestic: Terrorists
Those who would genocide Americans and other nonmuslims, take our wives, daughters and young boys into slavery, sexual and otherwise: Man Caused Disaster Facilitators
I'm beginning to suspect a theme in the Obama administration.
Posted by: ed ||
04/16/2009 8:36 Comments ||
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At the risk of being the contrairean, this is typical a straw man issue. Predictably, the Left instantly exploited the report to cast value voters as a growing tide of racist kooks. The Right effectively persuaded their legions that the report represented a sleight on the integrity of veterans and the average Joe. No doubt, some of the reports language is curious and the timing of its release is suspect but the underlying theory is plausible. Bottom line, data has conclusively proven that when economies struggle there is an upsurge in crime. And, in that enviroment, extremist groups have traditionally exploited single-issue causes as a recruitment tool.
#13
DepotGuy is right. This 'righteous' indignation is pure bullshit. There was nothing in this report, which by the way was commissioned BEFORE 0bama was in office. Let us not forget, Timothy McVeigh was a veteran. And as much as I honor and respect our troops, having many friends in the military, every population has its share of douchebags and nutjobs. This hysteria on the right is making me want to puke. The right is sounding more and more like the left of the last few years, hysterical, paranoid and stupid. If this doesn't change, I forecast a long winter for the GOP.
#14
No. The original report was written to show exclusive link between KKK, Islamic extremists, and crazy ex military like McVeigh. This is a RE-Write that removes the original linkage and selection criteria. Cleansed if it were from the original 80 or so groups noted as a threat. This rewrite was done to make it more general and applicible. To me it smells disingeuinious.
Iblis, with twits like you in mind perhaps the last line of my comment should have read:
And, in that environment, extremist groups, Democrats, Republicans, bloggers, and talking heads have traditionally exploited single-issue causes as a recruitment tool.
Oh BTW, I trust your keepin the fire in the ole belly over that extravagant 2G Pizza party at the WH. Rage on dude!
#17
Well, some here can probably cite multiple cases of Sudden Jihadi Syndrome and several foiled plots orgainzed by Islamist infiltrators, and people like DepotGuy will wave their hands and scream its unfair to consider the entire group as a threat, yet insist that a report that is unable to name specific groups, but must speak in ominous generalties, is correct in blackbrushing 45 million veterans because of what ONE of them did.
I have come to the conclusion that those who cheerfully apply two different sets of moral standards, one low, one "higher", are as crooked as the old-tyme merchants who had two sets of weights for their scales, one set heavy, the other light.
#18
DepotGuy - The vast majority of the political violence, even against Democratic administrations, has been perpetrated by left-wing extremists: think Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan, Squeaky Fromme, Bill Ayers. So why does the report focus only on "right wing extremists"? Why doesn't it name any of the left-wing groups with a history of violence as objects of concern? Because the report's goal is to prepare the way for the criminalization of conservatism, and terrorizing conservatives into giving up political activism.
#19
It's not normally my place to support mods, as I've run up against them before, but it's this type of report that that causes some of their actions when we get a bit too radical.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/16/2009 21:12 Comments ||
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Such reports were used by Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Chavez, etc., etc.. Right now those in power are prepping the General Public that immediate blame for ANY domestic incident must fall on groups not in lock step with them. An extension of "blame Bush", not blame the party of Bush. It is the same kind of propaganda used by anti-American governments to demonize Americans from a distance. Only this time those people are now in power in America are using this against segments of America.
This is just the first of a long, hard, well planed propaganda campaign by OUR current government against those who do not agree with thier dogma.
#22
Is Chairman O really going to lift the gag order on banks that received TARP money...???
Something really murky going on here....oh...wait a minute....Janet is getting ready for civil unrest...
This screams to me, "Deny your god and follow me". Someone PLEASE tell me how a supposed "Christian" could and would want the name Jesus REMOVED. This man is not a christian.
John 2:22
Who is the liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the person who denies the Father and the Son.
Jesus said,
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. (Matthew 7:15-20)
What are the fruits that Jesus speaks of by which we may identify false prophets? Matthew 7 doesn't tell us what the fruit is, but Luke does.
For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:39-45)
And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.
Amidst all of the American flags and presidential seals, there was something missing when President Barack Obama gave an economic speech at Georgetown University this week -- Jesus. The White House asked Georgetown to cover a monogram symbolizing Jesus' name in Gaston Hall, which Obama used for his speech, according to CNSNews.com.
The gold "IHS" monogram inscribed on a pediment in the hall was covered over by a piece of black-painted plywood, and remained covered over the next day, CNSNews.com reported. So we know which side Georgetown's on. It's not the Jesus side. And we know which side B.O.'s on.
The Washington Times' Belief Blog asked the university about the presidential request:
Julie Bataille from the university's press office e-mailed me that the White House had asked that all university signage and symbols behind the stage in Gaston Hall be covered.
"The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they've done for other policy speeches," she wrote. "Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn't high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context."
While the "IHS" directly behind where Obama spoke was covered over, CNSNews.com said the monogram was still visible in 26 other places in the hall during his speech. Those areas just weren't as prominent.
The Belief Blog talked with the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Institute at Georgetown University, who said he didn't think "this is motivated by theology, but by communications strategy." "It looks like it's motivated by theology, quacks like it's motivated by theology, and waddles like it's motivated by theology. But it's communications strategy. And those pillars of salt were there before the address. I dunno who they are."
The blog also talked with Catholic University spokesman Victor Nakas, who felt a bit more strongly on the subject:
"I can't imagine, as the bishops' university and the national university of the Catholic Church, that we would ever cover up our religious art or signage for any reason," Mr. Nakas wrote. "Our Catholic faith is integral to our identity as an institution of higher education.
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.
Just when you thought the saga of ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich couldn't get any stranger, it has.
Former Rep. Pat Toomey officially threw his hat into the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate race Wednesday in a bid to unseat five term incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter. "I am now a candidate for the U.S. Senate," the 47-year old Republican declared on a conservative radio show in his home town of Allentown. 
Amidst all of the American flags and presidential seals, there was something missing when President Barack Obama gave an economic speech at Georgetown University this week -- Jesus. The White House asked Georgetown to cover a monogram symbolizing Jesus' name in Gaston Hall, which Obama used for his speech, according to CNSNews.com.
