Category: Chicago

Posted on

Reading the Complaint 2 (or, ‘The Governor, His Wife and the F—in’ Cubs’]

From pages 43-45:

In another call between ROD BLAGOJEVICH and Deputy Governor A that occurred a short time later on November 3, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH and Deputy Governor A discussed an editorial from the Chicago Tribune regarding the endorsement of Michael Madigan and calling for a committee to consider impeaching ROD BLAGOJEVICH. During the call, ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife can be heard in the background telling ROD BLAGOJEVICH to tell Deputy Governor A “to hold up that fucking Cubs shit. . . fuck them.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH asked Deputy Governor A what he thinks of his wife’s idea. Deputy Governor A stated that there is a part of what ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife said that he “agree[s] with.” Deputy Governor A told ROD BLAGOJEVICH that Tribune Owner will say that he does not have anything to do with the editorials, “but I would tell him, look, if you want to get your Cubs thing done get rid of this Tribune.” Later, ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife got on the phone and, during the continuing discussion of the critical Tribune editorials, stated that Tribune Owner can “just fire” the writers because Tribune Owner owns the Tribune. ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife stated that if Tribune Owner’s papers were hurting his business, Tribune Owner would do something about the editorial board. ROD BLAGOJEVICH then got back on the phone. ROD BLAGOJEVICH told Deputy Governor A to put together the articles in the Tribune that are on the topic of removing ROD BLAGOJEVICH from office and they will then have someone, like JOHN HARRIS, go to Tribune Owner and say, “We’ve got some decisions to make now.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that “someone should say, ‘get rid of those people.’” ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that he thinks that they should put this all together and then have HARRIS or somebody go talk to the Tribune owners and say, “Look, we’ve got decisions to make now. . . moving this stuff forward (believed to be a reference to the IFA helping with the Cubs sale) . . . someone’s gotta go to [Tribune Owner], we want to see him . . it’s a political fuckin’ operation in there.” Deputy Governor A agreed and said that HARRIS needs to be “sensitive” about how he does it. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said there is nothing sensitive about how you do it and that it’s “straight forward” and you say “we’re doing this stuff for you, we believe this is right for Illinois [and] this is a big deal to [Tribune Owner] financially” but what ROD BLAGOJEVICH is doing to help Tribune Owner is the same type of action that the Tribune is saying should be the basis for ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s impeachment. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said Tribune Owner should be told “maybe we can’t do this now. Fire those fuckers.” Deputy Governor A suggested that ROD BLAGOJEVICH say, “I’m not sure that we can do this anymore because we’ve been getting a ton of these editorials that say, look, we’re going around the legislature, we gotta stop and this is something the legislature hasn’t approved. We don’t want to go around the legislature anymore.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH agreed and said that he wants HARRIS to go in and make that case, “not me.” Deputy Governor A agreed and said that he likes it. ROD BLAGOJEVICH asked Deputy Governor A to put the list of Tribune articles together.

Posted on

Reading the Complaint

I won’t get all the way through the Justice Department’s complaint, USA v. Rod R. Blagojevich and John Harris, today, but here’s a surprise at the outset (on p. 7):


Since approximately 2003, the government has been investigating allegations of illegal activity occurring in State of Illinois government as part of the administration of Governor ROD BLAGOJEVICH. As further detailed below, the investigation has developed evidence that: (a) beginning not later than in or about 2002, ROD BLAGOJEVICH has conspired with multiple individuals, including, beginning not later than in or about October 2008, JOHN HARRIS, to devise and participate in a scheme, which used and contemplated the use of the mails and interstate wire communications, to defraud the State of Illinois and its residents of the honest services of ROD BLAGOJEVICH and JOHN HARRIS by corruptly using the office of Governor of the State of Illinois to obtain and attempt to obtain personal gain, including financial gain, for ROD BLAGOJEVICH and third parties with whom he is associated.

In other words, the feds began investigating the governor the same year he took office. Which kind of makes you wonder what flags went up, what complaints were being made, what behavior was going on that drew such attention so early. To put this in perspective, the Justice Department began investigating Blagojevich even before his predecessor, George Ryan, had been indicted.

Posted on

Dueling Seals

The U.S. Department of Justice sent the last governor of Illinois, George Ryan, to prison. And now it’s making a case against the incumbent, Rod Blagojevich. The department might consider opening an office in the governor’s suite from now on.

Anyway, in reading Blagojevich’s official governor’s page and in visiting the website of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, I noted the striking similarity between the official seals of the sovereign state and the federal department (click for larger images).

Justiceseal120908Illinoisseal120908

Well, the left-facing eagles, the shields of Union, and the olive branches are the same, anyway. For what it’s worth, the Justice Department seal apparently predates the current version of the Illinois seal by about 20 years. The histories are here:

Seal of the State of Illinois

DOJ Seal: History and Motto

Technorati Tags: ,

Posted on

Your Illinois Governors: Felony Update

With the news that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is under arrest for influence peddling, it’s time to freshen my list of recent Illinois governors whose legal trouble reached felony level. As I said five years ago, when George Ryan, the last Illinois governor, was indicted on federal corrupion charges, Prairie State governors have racked up quite a record over the past half-century:

William G. Stratton (in office 1953-61): Indicted (1964) for income-tax evasion (acquitted).

Otto Kerner (1961-68): Indicted (1971) and convicted (bribery and other charges).

Sam Shapiro (1968-69): Never charged with anything, but then he only had eight months in office.

Richard Ogilvie (1969-73): Clean, so far as we know. Probably why he only served one term.

Dan Walker (1973-77): Indicted (1987) in his post-politics career as an S&L thief. Pled guilty.

Jim Thompson (1977-91): His career was about indicting other people, for a change.

Jim Edgar (1991-99): No dirt so far.

George Ryan (1999-2003): Indicted (2003) and convicted on federal corruption charges.

Rod Blagojevich (2003-present): Arrested (at home at 6:15 this morning) for influence peddling, including an alleged conspiracy to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat. For a glimpse at government at its very best, it’s worth reading the press release from the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. It’s a 12-page PDF. Among the highlights: “In a conversation … on November 11, the charges state, Blagojevich said he knew that the President-elect wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them.”

[Update: As U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald just explained in his press conference in Chicago, Blagojevich has not been indicted; he was arrested pursuant to a two-count complaint: count one charges him and his chief of staff with conspiracy to defraud the state of their honest services; count two charges them with a scheme to get at least one editorial writer at the Chicago Tribune fired. The full 78-page complaint, in PDF form, is available here: United States of America v. Rod R. Blagojevich and John Harris.]

Score:

Nine governors.

Four indicted; one under arrest; four unindicted.

Three convicted.

One acquitted.

One with charges pending.

Technorati Tags: ,

Posted on

Willing Patriots

John McCain is a magnanimous guy. He said tonight that after he wins the election this November, “we’re going to reach out our hand to any willing patriot” to put America “back on the road to prosperity and peace.” Remember, McCain’s war was the one in which we destroyed villages to save them. He wants to use the dynamite that blew up our house to put it back together again.

But the words that chill here are “any willing patriot.” Does that mean subscribing to the “bring it on” patriotism of Bush? The torture patriotism of Cheney? The “limitless executive power” patriotism of the entire Bush-Cheney wrecking crew? The “endless war” patriotism of McCain? Does that mean surrendering to the patriotism of ceaseless braying about the heroism and self-sacrifice of anyone in a uniform who goes along with the program without questioning the empty rationale or the moral bankruptcy of the undertaking?

Will McCain reach out his hand to the kind of patriotism that says, you’re wrong, senator–the policies you’ve embraced are killing the country we love, the only country we have for better or worse? In the frenzy of waving flags, in the midst of our military cult, I don’t see that sort of patriotic overture getting such a warm reception.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Posted on

Gratulerer Med Dagen

One piece of unfinished business for September 3: Happy birthday, Pop. (I’m not saying how old he is, but he was born in 1921. In Marshall County, Minnesota. During Warren Harding’s first year in office–and also just a year after his mother first got the right to vote, for Harding or anyone else. Just to put things in perspective.)

Hope you had a great day. And now that you’re in a party mood, maybe I can talk you into a trip to California before too long.

–With love from me and all the California-type Brekkes.

(Below: Birthday boy and Chicago-type Brekkes celebrate the occasion on Western Avenue.)

Bunky87

Posted on

Corn Hole: The Game

Cornholegame080408

I took about 300 pictures last week on my trip to Chicago and northeastern Ohio. I have a fantasy of editing that down to a couple dozen for a little travelogue. I have the same idea for piles of pictures taken last August and for various trips and events going back three or four years.

While waiting for the dream to become reality, here’s just one from Geneva on the Lake, Ohio. It’s a little resort town on Lake Erie, about 50 miles east of Cleveland (and just west of Ashtabula). The place is a mix. There is the faintest undercurrent of something sort of upscale trying to happen there–some fancier housing, some motels cleaning up their act, even a half-decent coffee shop with free WiFi. But the bread-and-butter going back to the 1920s, judging from the dates on some of the businesses, including one (vintage 1924) that claims to be the oldest continuously operating miniature golf course in the world, is catering to middle class and working class families escaping Cleveland and Pittsburgh and other old industrial towns. One form that focus takes today is the welcome extended to bikers, by which I mean Harley-riding hordes. My brother and his family were in town the Saturday night before last, and they said the town was absolutely packed with bikers and folks cruising up and down the main drag. And yes, there were lots of families with kids at the sidewalk burger and barbecue stands and arcades, too.

We got into town on the Sunday after the crowd descended. The town was already winding down for what everyone told me was the typical quiet period between weekends. John had pointed out the coffee shop, Gail’s Coffee Cafe, and early Monday I strolled up the deserted strip from the cottage my sister Ann rented to get caffeine for the two of us. Then I encountered the sign above.

“Play Corn Hole Game Here.”

OK, wait a minute. Where I come from, cornhole has a distinctively pejorative connotation to it. And it’s not just me: Here’s what the Merriam-Webster unabridged dictionary has to say about it:

cornhole: to perform anal intercourse with : BUGGER — usually considered vulgar.

That, however, is not how bean bag tossers in northeaster Ohio (and elsewhere: check out the search results for “cornhole” on Google. There’s even an American Cornhole Organization, “the governing body for the sport of cornhole.” The ACO site includes a link to a Wall Street Journal story from last summer (“More People Give This Game a Toss, Corny as It May Be“) which both mentions the delicate matter of the name and notes that the game is spreading (like a mysterious rash?) across the nation’s midsection. (Oh, yes: Chicago’s on the cornhole map, too).

So I’m late to the cornhole game. That doesn’t mean I’m above learning about it, though. Later Monday, someone had set up a cornhole game–which consists of two boards, each with one 8-inch hole, placed at the ends of a roughly 25-foot long court; the object is to pitch your four corn-filled bags and get them in the hole–in the driveway at our cottage. Ann, my niece Ingrid and I tried it out. We were so good at it that soon we found it more amusing to throw the bags at each other (Ann and Ingrid were actually pretty good; me–too much force and impatience). Later, I saw the family staying in the next cottage over playing the game. Mom, dad, and a son (maybe 14) and daughter (10). It was a cut-throat game, and it turned out the mom was the ace of the group. As my sister said, they were probably appalled at the way we cheapened their game.

Cornhole080408

Technorati Tags:

Posted on

Cabdriver Economics

I landed in Chicago just before 11 Friday night and took a cab over to my dad’s apartment on the northwest side. I got into a Checker cab outside the terminal. I threw my bags into the back seat and told the driver my approximate destination. He didn’t respond beyond a nod and started out.

Having driven a cab myself on and off for a couple years in the early ’80s, I take an interest in what’s happening with the drivers. One ready topic of conversation, if both driver and passenger are inclined, is the work itself. I asked my usual question: “Busy tonight?” No, it wasn’t–very slow. One thing led to another: He had started at noon. He works until midnight or 2 a.m. most days. How many days a week? “Oh, my God,” was the answer. He works every day, but just half a shift on Sunday so he can see his kids. He pays $100 a shift for the use of the cab, and another $50 for gas. “So you need to make one hundred and fifty dollars just to be at zero?” I asked. “Exactly,” the driver, whose name was Michael, answered.

I found out more: How he had come from Nigeria as an exchange student 25 years ago and wound up staying here (though he has gone back home, too). He earned a master’s in public health administraton at the University of Illinois. (If we had had longer to talk, maybe I would have found out why he had been driving a cab the last five years instead of working in the field in which he’d been educated). His stay in the United States had been affected by international politics when at one point his home government stopped paying tuition for the students it had sent abroad.

I heard more: about Muslim-Christian politics in Nigeria, about the country’s oil wealth, about the civil war in the late 1960s (the “Biafra war”) that killed millions–only this time told from the perspective of someone watching it happen in his own country.

Michael didn’t drive the exact route I would have taken, but it was worth the few extra minutes talking. We got to my dad’s at half past 11, and the fare was 30 bucks. Gladly paid. Michael bid farewell saying, “Good talking to you. You woke me up!”

Posted on

Boston Final

Some really fast people won the (men’s and women’s) Boston Marathon. Here are the final results for the two guys I was following:

Bostonfinal

Congratulations, you guys.

[Update: Pete’s time is a personal record by about 6 minutes. Pete reports, “What an amazing race! The crowds … you can really feel how attached everyone is to this race.” Crowds four and five deep along the route, kids high-fiving runners and handing out refreshments. “Coming into the big city … very fun … a lifetime experience for sure.” He also says, very soberly: “I’m drained”–and Wildflower, which I spoke of in the first Boston post earlier today, is off his calendar. I call that a wise call, with another huge challenge just two months ahead.]

Technorati Tags: