A word of advice to the Blagojeviches: whatever you do, don't get a divorce.
An Illinois law dating to the 1960s may help protect the state's foul-mouthed first lady as the federal government proceeds with its investigation and prosecution of her husband, Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Illinois penal code bars Patricia Blagojevich from testifying against her husband about "any conversation [held] between them during marriage," a result of a "marital privilege" law that keeps the content of their contact private, just as conversations between a priest and penitent are off the books.
"Mrs. Blagojevich cannot be compelled to testify against the governor without his consent," said Judge Andrew Napolitano, senior legal analyst for FOX News. "So very little purpose could be used in squeezing her" -- pressing charges against her in an attempt to get to her husband.
U.S. attorneys charged Gov. Blagojevich with corruption Tuesday. FBI agents arrested him at his home in Chicago for allegedly trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat. Federal courts would honor the Illinois state law on spousal privilege if they bring a case to trial.
Phone taps captured the governor "conspiring to sell the Senate seat in exchange for" -- among other things -- "his wife's placement on paid corporate boards," where she would receive at least $150,000 a year, according to the criminal complaint filed by U.S. attorneys.
Patricia Blagojevich was mentioned 19 times in the federal file. And though she may not want to squawk, she's already said more than a mouthful.
On Nov. 10, the complaint alleges, Patricia Blagojevich participated in a two-hour conference call with her husband and others as they discussed ways to profit from appointing Obama's replacement in the U.S. Senate, and the means of hiding evidence of a "pay-for-play" scheme.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
I'm sure Rezko has a real estate business or investment factoid or two about Rod's lovely wife that he might be passing along. I just hope Blogo does NOT resign. As long as he remains in office he can retain his Illiois State Police security detail. Without it... well, Lake Michigan is very deep and very cold this time of year.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2008 10:43 Comments ||
Top||
#4
That's nice. I suppose she could approach the coming separation like Winnie Mandela did, but she will still have to make do without her husband while he is on his very long business trip.
A Wall Street powerbroker now accused of a massive investment fraud scheme managed a charitable foundation created by Sen. Frank Lautenberg that had nearly $14.5 million in assets.
Bernard L. Madoff, the 70-year-old founder of a self-named investment firm in New York City, was arrested on a securities fraud charge Thursday, The Associated Press reported.
Madoff is accused of running a fraudulent investment business that lost at least $50 billion before he confessed to senior employees it was a "giant Ponzi scheme," The AP quoted authorities saying. Madoff's attorney said he would plead not guilty. "Senator Lautenberg was an investor in Bernard Madoff's investment fund, primarily in the form of his family's charitable foundation," Lautenberg spokesman Scott Mulhauser said.
Newark attorney Michael Griffinger, who was asked to look into the matter for Lautenberg on Friday, said he believed Madoff was the sole manager or at least the primary manager of the foundation's assets. The latest public tax documents available online show those assets totaled more than $14.5 million in 2006. "I'm hesitant to make any bold statements, because there may be some current accounts in the hands of others, but the bulk of the foundation money was in the hands of Madoff," Griffinger said.
He said he has asked that the foundation's financial documents be sent to his office, but he did not expect to have further information Friday.
Mulhauser said the foundation has given to several other charities, including the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Catholic Relief Services, the NAACP and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement attorneys were in federal court on Friday to seek emergency relief for investors, including an asset freeze and the appointment of a receiver for Madoff's firm, The AP said. The alleged $50 billion fraud that could be the largest ever pinned on an individual, The AP said.
Madoff and family members connected with the firm also made at least $419,000 in contributions to federal candidates since 1986, including the New Jersey Senate campaigns of Lautenberg and Jon Corzine and the presidential campaign of Bill Bradley, according to Moneyline.com. Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange, was among the first contributors when Corzine entered the 2000 U.S. Senate campaign. He and Ruth Madoff, who has the same address on Federal Election Commission reports, provided $2,000 of the first $31,000 Corzine raised in August 1999.
Corzine, a millionaire and former Goldman Sachs chairman who is now governor, eventually raised $2.7 million from contributors and put $60.2 million of his own money into the campaign.
A spokesman said Corzine's did not have any personal investments with Madoff.
Madoff and relatives also gave $8,000 in 1999 to former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley's campaign for president, and $13,600 to Lautenberg's 2008 re-election campaign. Bradley did not return a call seeking comment. Mulhauser said Lautenberg would dispose of the contribution, but exactly how would be determined later. Typically campaigns donation questionable contributions to charity.
The biggest recipient of Madoff's contributions was the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which received $100,000 in the past four years. The DSCC chairman during that time was Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who also got $39,000 for his own campaign account from Madoffs since 1998. The current chairman of the DSCC is Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Every day there is 1 born.
(favorite commem BTW)
#2
Medhoff relied on the mentally-impaired for his schemes, and Lautenburg was never all that bright; I got the impression that what acuity he did have was fading when he was given that Senate seat.
Without explanation, District Judge Amy St. Eve canceled her own deadlines for lawyers to file briefs on the upcoming sentencing of Antoin "Tony" Rezko.
That name should sound familiar, as detailed in a Special Ticket Report the other day; he's the Illinois political fixer, real estate man and fundraiser with close connections to Obama, Blagojevich and other Chicago political clans who is unhappy in solitary and sought to advance his sentencing to Jan. 6 on 16 federal counts of fraud, money laundering and abetting bribery. (Obama was not implicated in that trial.)
Now, why would a judge extend the period before sentencing when the convicted prisoner expressed a desire to get on with prison? Without a new briefs deadline, the expedited Jan. 6 sentencing could now be pushed back further.
Because Rezko, in the hopes of reducing his sentence, is singing in his cell about Blagojevich and maybe others. He's not done with his song repertoire and the feds haven't fully checked out his information to determine how grateful to be in sentence-seeking.
A footnote at the bottom of one page in the 76-page Blagojevich complaint confirms Rezko is cooperating with the FBI, news that could cause an increase in the pre-holiday consumption of Mylanta by other Chicago pols.
Rezko was known as the money man or cashier to see about state jobs through the governor's office. He's known Obama since the early '90s, tried to hire him, did hire the law firm Obama worked for, became partners with the owner of that firm, advised Obama on buying his Hyde Park home and sold him a slice of the adjacent lot.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#5
Yeah, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the stink blows. And the smell has been wafting out of Chicago since the election season started, if anyone in the media cared to take a whiff.
Bernard Madoff, a longtime fixture on Wall Street, was arrested and charged on Thursday with allegedly running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, US authorities said.
The former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market who remains a member of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc's nominating committee, is best known as the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the closely-held market-making firm he founded in 1960. But the alleged fraud involved a hedge fund he ran from a separate floor of the building where his brokerage is based.
Madoff told senior employees of his firm on Wednesday that "it's all just one big lie" and that it was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme," with estimated investor losses of about $50 billion, according to a criminal complaint against him.
Prosecutors charged Madoff, 70, with a single count of securities fraud. They said he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5 million. "Madoff stated that the business was insolvent, and that it had been for years," Lev Dassin, acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.
Authorities said that, according to a document filed by Madoff with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 7, 2008, Madoff's investment advisory business served between 11 and 25 clients and had a total of about $17.1 billion in assets under management.
"Bernard Madoff is a longstanding leader in the financial services industry," his lawyer Dan Horwitz told reporters outside a downtown Manhattan courtroom where he was arraigned. "We will fight to get through this unfortunate set of events."
A shaken Madoff stared at the ground as reporters peppered him with questions. He was released after posting a $10 million bond secured by his Manhattan apartment.
The SEC filed separate civil charges. "Our complaint alleges a stunning fraud -- both in terms of scope and duration," said Scott Friestad, the SEC's deputy enforcer. "We are moving quickly and decisively to stop the scheme and protect the remaining assets for investors."
The SEC said it appeared that virtually all of the assets of his hedge fund business were missing. Madoff had long kept the financial statements for his hedge fund business under "lock and key," according to prosecutors, and was "cryptic" about the firm.
Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities has more than $700 million in capital, according to its website. It is a market maker for about 350 Nasdaq stocks, including Apple, EBay and Dell, according to the website. The website also states that Madoff himself has "a personal interest in maintaining the unblemished record of value, fair-dealing, and high ethical standards that has always been the firm's hallmark."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to be White House chief of staff, had conversations with Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration about who would replace Obama in the U.S. Senate, the Tribune has learned.
It's entirely possible to go overboard on this hoedown. Discussing B.O.'s replacement would be within his chief of staff's responsibilities.
Agreed, and as long as there's no quid pro quo and no talk of money it's all legit. Of course Bambi wants a say in who replaces him, and since the governor is a Donk, he has some expectation of being listened to. Which makes me wonder just what Blago and Rahm said to each other ...
The revelation does not suggest Obama's new gatekeeper was involved in any talk of dealmaking involving the seat. But it does help fill in the gaps surrounding a question that Obama was unable or unwilling to answer this week: Did anyone on his staff have contact with Blagojevich about his choice for the Senate seat?
Blagojevich and John Harris, his former chief of staff, face federal charges in an alleged shakedown involving the vacant Senate seat, which Illinois law grants the governor sole authority to fill.
Obama said Thursday he had never spoken to Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy and was "confident that no representatives" of his had engaged in any dealmaking over the seat with the governor or his team. He also pledged Thursday that in the "next few days" he would explain what contacts his staff may have had with the governor's office about the Senate vacancy.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 13:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
A powerful labor leader with strong ties to Sen. Hillary Clinton yesterday joined the growing ranks of Democrats bashing Caroline Kennedy as a possible successor to the former first lady in the US Senate.
"Caroline Kennedy, although I'm sure a fascinating and engaging person, simply doesn't have the experience or Washington know-how to get it done for New York," said Stuart Applebaum, president of the 100,000- member Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
Applebaum, former chief house counsel to the Democratic National Committee and a Clinton delegate at the Democratic National Convention, blasted Kennedy for having failed to speak out against George W. Bush's policies during the Republican president's two terms.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 13:36 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Her dad was the damn President for Gawd's sake, what more do you want?
Seriously tho... she seems sane, what's causing this little tempest?
#2
That's the problem, .5. Sanity is not a NY attribute, and besides the blind Governor isn't being paid enough yet for the selection. (He hasn't read anything about Blago, because he can't see anything wrong.)
Illinois plunged deeper into turmoil Friday over disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich as the attorney general asked the state's highest court to strip the governor of his powers, billions of dollars in bills went unpaid and lawmakers moved closer to impeaching the scandal-plagued politician.
But Blagojevich showed no sign of backing down. He took time to pray with ministers at his home and signed a bill that extends insurance coverage for autistic kids, sending a sign to his critics that he's still in charge.
In the midst of it all, the state headed toward an extraordinary constitutional showdown. Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the Supreme Court to declare Blagojevich unfit to serve, likening his corruption scandal to a debilitating illness as she ramped up pressure on the governor to resign. The move seeks to hand power over to the lieutenant governor.
"I recognize that this is an extraordinary request, but these are extraordinary circumstances," Madigan said.
It is the first time in Illinois history that such an action was taken. The attorney general is applying a rule that was intended to cover cases in which a governor is incapacitated for health reasons.
The Democrat is "unable to serve as governor due to disability and should not rightfully continue to hold that office," according to the motion. "His ability to provide effective leadership has been eliminated, and the state government is paralyzed."
The attorney general, also a Democrat, asked the court to strip the governor of his duties until possible impeachment proceedings and his criminal case run their course. If he does not step down and is not impeached or convicted, Blagojevich could go to the court and ask to be reinstated.
The scandal has also begun to impede state business, Madigan said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Viewers, please take a hard, long look at Illinois Chicago donk politics at it's very, very best. Keeping in mind of course that Obama is a product of this lovely machine.
Hang in there Rod! Keep that Illinois Police Security detail close at hand. You'll be joining Tony in coming clean duet very soon.
#3
Biden was talking foreign issues, I think. But yeah - when a lot of people were cheering Obama on because they hated Hillary I kept worrying about the fact that he's a hard left thug who learned politics in the Chicago wards.
We are going to pay for his nomination and election in so many ways it hurts to count them.
#8
The state AG wants the SC to do the heavy lifting in because she has her eye on the Gov's seat -- and as we all now know, free IL government seats are rare. The fact that it took Fed bumbler Fitzie to find fraud that the AG couldn't says something about her that some honest IL voters (but I contradict myself) may want to take note of
Posted by: regular joe ||
12/13/2008 14:04 Comments ||
Top||
#9
1) The ISC should reject the request from Daddy's Girl. The proper way to remove Blago is impeachment.
2) Daddy's Girl is worried that a Republican challenger in the next gov campaign would tag her for doing nothing about Blago while she was attorney general, much the way Blago tagged his challenger in the 2002 race. That challenger was the then Repub attorney general who hadn't done anything to remove George Ryan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/13/2008 14:21 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Come on Feds, take Blago down and let's get the Anvil Chorus singing about Crook O'Bama. Wouldn't it be great to see the "lightworker" impeached before he's six months into his term?
If this bunch of corrupt Democrat Party bastards was in some other country, I'd be laughing loudly at their stupidity. Unfortunately for America, they're here.
#11
The AG is trying to get the Illinois Supreme Court to declare Blagojevich as disabled so as to avoid an impeachment hearing. Could get messy as I'm sure Blagojevich has lots of REALLY interesting information about many of the members of the state legislature.
Democrat Al Franken won a pair of victories Friday before the state board overseeing the Senate recount, including a decision that as many as 1,500 incorrectly rejected absentee ballots should be included.
The board also opted to recommend use of election night results in a Franken-leaning Minneapolis precinct where 133 ballots went missing, a decision that could have cost him 46 votes if it had gone the other way.
"It was a great day for democracy," Franken attorney Marc Elias said after a hearing that drew protesters urging use of rejected absentee votes.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Not quite yet OS. It's a confusing report (from MSNBC - whodathunkit) but so far it's only stolen by an administrative board which clearly points to the court for the next place to go.
The bias creeping in involves the "incorrectly rejected" phrase. Who determined that? The facts are pretty thin on how or why they were rejected.
The extra 46 votes the "comic" gained are another curiousity which a court might be interested in.
That and the reference to the "judge" on the board is a final confusion. I don't doubt he's a judge, but not in this function. Presumably he has a JD, so it would be as accurate and irrelevant to call him a doctor for all that it matters.
#3
The 133 are onces that were mistakenly counted twice.
Great Day for Democracy, yeah right Al, you asshole.
Gawd, whay are the peopel of minnesot ao frikin stupid as to let Al Franken get within lawsuit distance of the US Senate? Are they really that damned stupid?
Our nation deserves to disappear if we have that many idiots in it.
OS, the short answer is yes. Yes we are. But why narrow your disgust to a single state? Its true that nearly half of the Minnesota electorate voted for an unqualified candidate with zero accomplishment based on the narrative that his RINO opponent is a conservative. Sound familiar?
#8
The people of Minnesota also dumped conservative Rod Grams for a Wellsetone wannabe named Mark Dayton. Who had never done anything in his entire life other than be born into the Dayton (Daytons department stores - very popular in MN. Bought out by Marshall Fields) family.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/13/2008 16:24 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Our nation deserves to disappear if we have that many idiots in it.
OS excuse but if you don't like your nation's state and look for the guilty you should look at your mirror. You haven't cared about what your children were being teached and still less have you challnged, lobbied, sued the schools/universities who fed politics to your children instead of maths. Now your childerren barely know result of 2+2 and politically are perfect moonbats.
#11
Au Contraire, .5MT. I have fought the entrenched educational system for damned near 25 years. I taught my young'uns right. There is still a spark of reality that I hope will never be extingushed.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/13/2008 20:06 Comments ||
Top||
#12
DeaconMan in your case for certain I can see it.
But I wonder about my guys at school. If I knew that 1% of them would be able to speak French as well as JFM speaks English... I'd be beside myself with joy. I worry about them, I see little future in what they are being taught.
As the budget deficit soared, infrastructure crumbled and the economy tanked, the federal government this year spent $300,000 for a California skateboarding park, $188,000 to research Maine lobsters and $3.2 million on a spy blimp the military doesn't want, according to a new report by the Senate's self-styled spending scourge.
The report, to be released today by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., lists more than $1.3 billion of what it calls wasteful projects in 2008.
Coburn, who often seeks to force votes and debates on projects inserted by fellow senators, says he wants to work with President-elect Barack Obama, who promised last month to go over the federal budget line by line and "eliminate programs we don't need."
"He has a great opportunity to change things, and my hope is that he will," Coburn said in an interview.
Obama and Coburn joined in 2006 on legislation that created USAspending.gov, which tracks federal spending. Other items in the report:
Various federal agencies spent $167,290 for portrait paintings of Cabinet officers.
The federal Institute of Museums and Library Sciences awarded a $3,905 grant to the public library in Westfield, Ind., for the purchase of a Nintendo Wii console, a television, a camcorder and games.
The Agriculture Department gave $298,068 to an Idaho farmer to help him advertise and market his specialty potatoes sold mainly to high-end restaurants.
The Small Business Administration guaranteed $82 million in loans for 331 liquor stores, including Spanky's Liquor World and Pistol Pete's Beef N' Beer.
Five members of Congress spent nearly $22,000 to stay three nights at a luxury hotel on the Galapagos Islands, the South American archipelago where Charles Darwin mulled his theory of evolution. That figure doesn't include the cost of the Air Force jet placed at their disposal.
"This is just an indication of how out of touch Washington is with the real world priorities of people in this country," Coburn said, adding that the report chronicled only a sliver of ill-advised federal spending. "How many bridges could we repair for $1.3 billion? ... How many schools could be in better shape?"
According to the report, "Many of these low-priority projects are funded year after year, regardless of whether they achieve their intended effects or not."
That was the case with the Frank M. Charles Memorial Park in Queens, N.Y., the report says. The park received $1 million in 2008 to repair tennis courts and to install artificial turf on a baseball field. The same park got $1 million in 2000 for similar upgrades but failed to maintain the facilities, the report said.
Budget reform is "an imperative," Obama said when he announced his new budget director last month.
"We cannot sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness or exist solely because of the power of a politician, lobbyist or interest group," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Meh, I recall the original Plugs. Plugs Proxmire, another Demo I sometimes miss.
#3
Various federal agencies spent $167,290 for portrait paintings of Cabinet officers. bailout for artists
The federal Institute of Museums and Library Sciences awarded a $3,905 grant to the public library in Westfield, Ind., for the purchase of a Nintendo Wii console, a television, a camcorder and games. bailout for circuit city
The Agriculture Department gave $298,068 to an Idaho farmer to help him advertise and market his specialty potatoes sold mainly to high-end restaurants. bailout for "call in Gay" day
The Small Business Administration guaranteed $82 million in loans for 331 liquor stores, including Spanky's Liquor World and Pistol Pete's Beef N' Beer. anesthestising the masses
Five members of Congress spent nearly $22,000 to stay three nights at a luxury hotel on the Galapagos Islands, the South American archipelago where Charles Darwin mulled his theory of evolution. That figure doesn't include the cost of the Air Force jet placed at their disposal. for $250,000,000 we can send all of them down for a year
#8
How 'bout the billions Paulson is in the process of flushing down the toilet. Followed by the TRILLION Obama wants to flush. The whole country is headed for Chapter 11.
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.
A Wall Street powerbroker now accused of a massive investment fraud scheme managed a charitable foundation created by Sen. Frank Lautenberg that had nearly $14.5 million in assets.
Newark attorney Michael Griffinger, who was asked to look into the matter for Lautenberg on Friday, said he believed Madoff was the sole manager or at least the primary manager of the foundation's assets. The latest public tax documents available online show those assets totaled more than $14.5 million in 2006. "I'm hesitant to make any bold statements, because there may be some current accounts in the hands of others, but the bulk of the foundation money was in the hands of Madoff," Griffinger said.
Without explanation, District Judge Amy St. Eve canceled her own deadlines for lawyers to file briefs on the upcoming sentencing of Antoin "Tony" Rezko. 
Bernard Madoff, a longtime fixture on Wall Street, was arrested and charged on Thursday with allegedly running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, US authorities said.
A powerful labor leader with strong ties to Sen. Hillary Clinton yesterday joined the growing ranks of Democrats bashing Caroline Kennedy as a possible successor to the former first lady in the US Senate. 
