Corruption! In Chicago!

In what surely has to qualify as a 'dog bites man' story, the Governor of Illinois has been arrested for, among other infractions, soliciting bribes from candidates for Barack Obama's old Senate seat.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been taken into federal custody, accused of putting Barack Obama's Senate seat up to the highest bidder and attempting to shake down the Tribune Co. on the sale of Wrigley Field.

The charges also include alleged attempts by the governor to influence the Tribune editorial board, threatening, that if the Tribune didn’t support him, he wouldn’t approve the sale of Wrigley Field.

The complaint contends Blagojevich, a Democrat, threatened to withhold substantial state assistance to the Tribune Co. in connection with the sale of Wrigley to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members critical of Blagojevich.

The governor is also accused of obtaining campaign contributions in exchange for official actions — in the past and recently in a push before a new state ethics law takes effect Jan. 1.

I'm so very shocked that something like this could happen in Chicago. [/sarcasm]

Apparently, part of the Governor's shakedown even involved putting the screws to King-elect Obama.

In one charge related to the appointment of a senator to replace Barack Obama, prosecutors allege that Blagojevich sought appointment for himself as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the new Obama administration, or a lucrative job with a union, in exchange for appointing a union-preferred candidate.

Some things never change. Pigs will wallow in their sties. Vultures will lurk, snack on tasty carrion, and soak up as much schadenfreude as possible. And Chicago politicians will wallow in shady company while perfecting the art of corruption.

Surely this guy gets some consideration for Wiener of the Year, right?

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Before anyone posts a comment calling me an asshat because "the capital of Illinois is Springfield, not Chicago, dumbass!", stop now. I am fully aware of that. The Chicago connection is still there for this Governor, whose corrupt style of operation dates back to his time as a local politician in the Second City. So there!

WotY nominees

Toes has nominees for Wiener of the Year, and they're good ones.

Weiner of the Year: Angie Voss - the CPS social worker supervisor who instigated the removal of over 400 children from the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, TX, because it was a dangerous and scary environment for children.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695271299,00.html?pg=1

"It was a very scary environment — intimidating. I was afraid. I saw men all over. It felt like the schoolhouse was surrounded," she said, "It was a fearful kind of environment."

"I heard a report that a tank was coming on the property. Things were getting more scary to me. It was a situation of a very huge magnitude with so many law enforcement officers around," she testified. The case workers wanted to interview the children in an environment that didn't seem "so scary and dangerous."

And

http://conchovalleyhomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=6301

Angie Voss, CPS Supervisor, " A combination of things happened within the first two hours that caused me great concern for the children. I don't know how to describe it if you weren't there - the atmosphere and the feeling of it. It's not a place for children."

It seems unlikely that the ranch was a dangerous place for a child to live on March 28, 2008. It became a place of danger throughout the night of April 3 and ensuing days, with the appearance of untold numbers of armed Texas Rangers, an APC carrying a SWAT team with automatic weapons, SWAT snipers appointed at various places, and armed Sheriff's Deputies from at least 3 different counties entering homes, searching through personal possessions, and ordering children onto buses.

This Angie Voss is not to be confused with the good Dr. Angela Voss, Director of Kent University's Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination Master's programme, http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/thrs/postgraduate/cosmology/index.html

"Cosmology and Divination focuses on the modes of knowledge implicit in divinatory practices, in relation to the cosmological frameworks in which they arise."

Unless that's who the Texas Angie Voss thought she actually was, and was operating on cosmologically and divinely inspired knowledge as to which children would have abused 10 or 12 or 14 or 16 years from April 3, which women were teenagers or adults, and which women were pregnant or not.

You, of course, could expand the award to include Judge Barbara Walther, and the entire team of Texas CPS litigants and participants, with no argument from me.

My only other nominees would be Sen. Harry Reid, for just being who he is; and Sen. John McCain, for pretending to run for President.

Ta-ta

Toes

Thanks, Toes! Those are some great nominees.

Ms. Voss is a most worthy nominee. Were she not so perpetually frightened of congregated men and an environment she and her kind created with militarized representatives of Der Staat driving their tanks around frightening children (like her), the prolonged and wholly unnecessary FLDS crisis might never have developed into the gigantic MCF it ultimately became.

Judge Walther's role in said MCF is also worthy of WofY status. The woman is a disgrace. She acted in clear violation of the Constitution on numerous occasions throughout the fiasco. She ultimately got the slap down she deserved from the Texas Supreme Court, but who knows how far she would have gone were it not for the intervention by the Supremes.

Harry Reid is always a front-runner for WotY. If I gave out a prize for "best imitation of a human being by a reptile", he'd win for sure.

John McCain is looking like the frontrunner right now. I haven't made my decision yet, but you have to admit, his credentials are strong.

Keep those nominees coming, gang. There's certainly plenty of Wieners deserving WotY consideration.

Wiener of the Week

What a week it's been! I've been busier than a one-armed paper hanger. So much is going on, but I've had no time to blog! It sucks!

But there's never a shortage of wieners. And with this kind of material at hand, the WotW post practically writes itself.

A hooker and a Baptist minister having sex in a seedy motel room, where a camera was hidden in a clock radio. A videotape delivered to a radio talk show host by someone wearing oversized glasses, a fake beard and surgical gloves.

Even by the flamboyant corruption standards set by Atlantic City's government over the decades, this was one for the books.

Former City Council President Craig Callaway was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for his role in setting up council rival Eugene Robinson with a prostitute in a motel room and secretly videotaping the encounter.

Wow! I can't even decide which one gets the prize - the minister for his complete lack of judgment, or the guy who pulled off the clownish sting operation. I'll do a Solomon and split this baby - they both are worthy.

Congratulations, gentlemen - you're Wieners of the Week!

Week 13 - East Coast success!

One week after being humiliated in Dallas, the Niners suddenly developed a defense! Or have the Bills simply cratered THAT much?

The Niners beat Buffalo 10-3 in a very, very strange game. The Bills' kicker missed two chip shot fields goals. Their star RB fumbled at inopportune times. Their backup QB (in because the starter pulled a hammy) threw a pick to end a 15-play drive that reached the 7 yard line.

The offense was pretty ugly. Frank Gore was held to 2.8 yards per carry. Shawn Hill threw for only 161 yards. But at least he takes care of the football - no turnovers!

You can really sense the Singletary effect in these Niners. They're a different team now. With any luck, we can win 2 of the final 4 games and at least be able to say that we improved from last year....

Wiener of the Month - November

It may seems like it happened months ago, but the elections of 2008 occurred a paltry 29 days ago. During November. And I'm naming a WofM. For November. So how much you wanna bet that the Wiener has something to do with the election?

This month's WotM is the Team Elephant elitist establishment. It's bad enough that they rammed an unpalatable candidate like John McCommie down our throats. But then, after throwing conservatives a bone by selecting Sarah Palin as VP on the ticket, they proceeded to trash the woman every bit as much as Big Media (the BM for short) did, and the BM was demonstrably in the tank for the opposing candidate!

The Team Elephant elitist establishment has mismanaged, misread, and bungled every opportunity to reach the American people. Just think -- in two short years Team Elephant has gone from holding the Presidency and both Houses of Congress to losing the Presidency, losing both Houses, and, if events play out right in Minnesota or Georgia, creating a Team Donkey-run filibuster-proof Senate.

You guys keep ramming "moderate" (read: socialist lite) candidates down our throats. Maybe then you'll be able to achieve what the Federalists, the Whigs, and the Bull Moose party achieved -- extinction.

Team Elephant establishment: you're the Wiener of the Month for November.

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I'm currently accepting nominations for Wiener of the Year. I welcome all nominees.

Wiener of the Week

There's a special kind of Wiener, the kind that just positively can't see when it's time for them to ride off into the sunset because everyone has had their fill of that person's shtick. Ladies and ruffians, let me present exhibit A -- Rosie O'Donuts O'Donnell.

Rosie is back on TV. Yes kiddies, the original BFH (Big Fat HURTing) put on her own little variety show. She described it as being a throwback to the 70's variety shows, like Sonny and Cher, Donnie and Marie, and the Carol Burnett Show. *shudders*

One reviewer saw through her attempt at regaining her "nice" image: Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times called it a "hokey comedy with an enemy list".

Rosie O'Donnell's Wednesday night special on NBC, "Rosie Live," was supposed to be a tribute to the variety shows of the 1970s, but she added a Nixonian twist: Christmas songs, tap-dancing twins and an enemies list.

There isn't a more genuinely unlikable person on the planet than Rosie. Every time she opens that toxic waste dump of a mouth she alienates SOMEONE. Her blog is a cesspool of hate. But she wants everything to think of her as "nice".

For the crime of being a big fat (and I do mean FAT) phony, Rosie O'Donnell is the Wiener of the Week.