Rod and Kanye Blagojevich-West

"Chris is my friend," ... "I am saddened to hear these allegations about his personal life" -Rod Blagojevich



"Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and I'm gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time" -Kanye West

CHICAGO (AP) - The investigation into the death of the former chief fundraiser for ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich intensified on Sunday as medical examiners completed an autopsy and detectives looked into whether drugs found in the trusted aide's vehicle might have factored into his death. Dwight Welch, the mayor of suburban Country Club Hills where Christopher Kelly was found slumped over his vehicle's steering wheel in a lumber yard, said a number of drugs were found in the former fundraiser's black Cadillac Escalade but declined to say which drugs. He did say the investigation was being treated as a possible suicide.







NEW YORK (AP) - Kanye West apologized for an outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards that was directed at country-pop sweetheart Taylor Swift. West interrupted Swift's acceptance speech at Sunday's VMAs and said that Beyonce deserved to win.

Blago and Kipling Celebrate Diversity

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools

R. Kipling

Blago quotes Kipling! Bloody Marvelous! The Jig's Up; Brass It Out, Old Man!
Kipling, Old Man, was the poet of Empire! Bash the Wogs! Hang Paddy! Ulster will Fight and Uster will be Right! Show 'em Good British Steel!

What? What? Haw, Haw. See here, now.

Governor Blagojevich celebrates the Poet of Diversity; here is Rudyard Kipling's American Notes:

The Chinaman waylays his adversary, and methodically chops him to
pieces with his hatchet. Then the press roars about the brutal
ferocity of the pagan.

The Italian reconstructs his friend with a long knife. The press
complains of the waywardness of the alien.

The Irishman and the native Californian in their hours of
discontent use the revolver, not once, but six times. The press
records the fact, and asks in the next column whether the world
can parallel the progress of San Francisco. The American who
loves his country will tell you that this sort of thing is
confined to the lower classes. Just at present an ex-judge who
was sent to jail by another judge (upon my word I cannot tell
whether these titles mean anything) is breathing red-hot
vengeance against his enemy. The papers have interviewed both
parties, and confidently expect a fatal issue.

Now, let me draw breath and curse the negro waiter, and through
him the negro in service generally. He has been made a citizen
with a vote, consequently both political parties play with him.
But that is neither here nor there. He will commit in one meal
every betise that a senllion fresh from the plow-tail is capable
of, and he will continue to repeat those faults. He is as
complete a heavy-footed, uncomprehending, bungle-fisted fool as
any mem-sahib in the East ever took into her establishment. But
he is according to law a free and independent
citizen--consequently above reproof or criticism. He, and he
alone, in this insane city, will wait at table (the Chinaman
doesn't count).

He is untrained, inept, but he will fill the place and draw the
pay. Now, God and his father's fate made him intellectually
inferior to the Oriental. He insists on pretending that he serves
tables by accident--as a sort of amusement. He wishes you to
understand this little fact. You wish to eat your meals, and, if
possible, to have them properly served. He is a big, black, vain
baby and a man rolled into one.

A colored gentleman who insisted on getting me pie when I wanted
something else, demanded information about India. I gave him
some facts about wages.

"Oh, hell!" said he, cheerfully, "that wouldn't keep me in cigars
for a month."

Then he fawned on me for a ten-cent piece. Later he took it upon
himself to pity the natives of India. "Heathens," he called
them--this woolly one, whose race has been the butt of every
comedy on the native stage since the beginning. And I turned and
saw by the head upon his shoulders that he was a Yoruba man, if
there be any truth in ethnological castes. He did his thinking
in English, but he was a Yoruba negro, and the race type had
remained the same throughout his generations. And the room was
full of other races--some that looked exactly like Gallas (but
the trade was never recruited from that side of Africa), some
duplicates of Cameroon heads, and some Kroomen, if ever Kroomen
wore evening dress.

The American does not consider little matters of descent, though
by this time he ought to know all about "damnable heredity." As
a general rule he keeps himself very far from the negro, and says
things about him that are not pretty. There are six million
negroes, more or less, in the States, and they are increasing.
The American, once having made them citizens, cannot unmake them.
He says, in his newspapers, they ought to be elevated by
education. He is trying this, but it is likely to be a long job,
because black blood is much more adhesive than white, and throws
back with annoying persistence. When the negro gets religion he
returns directly as a hiving bee to the first instincts of his
people. Just now a wave of religion is sweeping over some of the
Southern States.

Up to the present two Messiahs and a Daniel have appeared, and
several human sacrifices have been offered up to these
incarnations. The Daniel managed to get three young men, who he
insisted were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, to walk into a
blast furnace, guaranteeing non-combustion. They did not return.
I have seen nothing of this kind, but I have attended a negro
church. They pray, or are caused to pray by themselves in this
country. The congregation were moved by the spirit to groans and
tears, and one of them danced up the aisle to the mourners'
bench. The motive may have been genuine. The movements of the
shaken body were those of a Zanzibar stick dance, such as you see
at Aden on the coal-boats, and even as I watched the people, the
links that bound them to the white man snapped one by one, and I
saw before me the hubshi (woolly hair) praying to a God he did
not understand. Those neatly dressed folk on the benches, and
the gray-headed elder by the window, were savages, neither more
nor less.

What will the American do with the negro? The South will not
consort with him. In some States miscegenation is a penal
offence. The North is every year less and less in need of his
services.

And he will not disappear. He will continue as a problem. His
friends will urge that he is as good as the white man. His
enemies--well, you can guess what his enemies will do from a
little incident that followed on a recent appointment by the
President. He made a negro an assistant in a post-office
where--think of it!--he had to work at the next desk to a white
girl, the daughter of a colonel, one of the first families of
Georgia's modern chivalry, and all the weary, weary rest of it.
The Southern chivalry howled, and hanged or burned some one in
effigy. Perhaps it was the President, and perhaps it was the
negro--but the principle remains the same. They said it was an
insult. It is not good to be a negro in the land of the free and
the home of the brave.

Actually, Rudyard Old Cock, the Colonists made one President, much like that Paddy some years before . . . Fitzgerald Kennedy something.

I voted for the other chap McCain, but stand damn proud of my country. Now, as to the well-coiffed Governor who spouts your verse - shackles and irons by year's end Old Top.

Sentiments, dear boy, sentiments. Kipling was a Progressive Clean Government Lad. Quite.

As IF!

Click my post title for Kipling's American Notes.

United States Senator Roland W. Burris, ( D.IL)

On November 5th Governor Rod Blagojevich publicly stated that we would begin the process to appoint a replacement to the U.S. Senate for President Elect Barack Obama.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2008

Governor Blagojevich Congratulates President-elect Obama and Discusses U.S. Senate Seat
To fill President-Elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat, Governor will use deliberate process to select suitable replacement

CHICAGO – After congratulating President-Elect Barack Obama on his decisive victory, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich announced today that he will take his time and use a diverse senior staff made up of key members of his administration who will assist him in selecting a suitable replacement for Obama.

“Last night’s victory was bittersweet for Illinois - as we gain a great President, we lose a great Senator. And it goes without saying that our next Senator has big shoes to fill. Because it’s important that the best person for Illinois is selected, I want to be clear that the calendar won’t dictate our search. Instead, I want to ensure that Obama’s successor will understand and fight for the needs of average Illinoisans,” Governor Blagojevich said.

Governor Blagojevich will be looking for candidates that will:

Support the President-Elect’s agenda for the people;
Effectively represent the interests of the state of Illinois in the U.S. Congress;
Work with my administration to achieve our shared goals of ensuring access to affordable healthcare, rebuilding Illinois’ infrastructure, improving the economic security and livelihoods of Illinois workers, and caring for our most vulnerable; and,
Prioritize the average Illinoisan who is too burdened by taxes and economic hardship.


The U.S. Constitution, 17th Amendment, provides that a state legislature may empower the executive of the state to make the appointment.

http://www.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=72&RecNum=7260

Yadda-yadda-yadda . . .

On December 9th Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald ordered that Governor Rod Blagojevich be arrested at his home.

December 9, 2008 at 2:11 PM | Comments (123)
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents for what U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called a "staggering" level of corruption involving pay-to-play politics in Illinois' top office.

Blagojevich is accused of a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy, including alleged attempts by the governor to try to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama in exchange for financial benefits for the governor and his wife. Blagojevich also is accused of obtaining campaign contributions in exchange for other official actions.

Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning--one day shy of his 52nd birthday.At a news conference late this morning, Fitzgerald said Blagojevich "has taken us to a truly new low" and went on "a political corruption crime spree. We acted to stop that crime spree."

Fitzgerald also accused Blagojevich of attempting "to sell the U.S. Senate seat" that President-elect Barack Obama vacated.
Robert Grant, FBI special agent in charge of the Chicago office, said the arrest of Blagojevich should serve as notice that "business as usual will no longer be tolerated. That selling your office for personal gain is a thing of the past."

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn today called on Blagojevich to step aside, at least temporarily, because the governor is "seriously impeded from carrying out his oath of office."

"I think that should certainly be considered by the governor today. I think he knows what he needs to do for the people," Quinn said at a news conference this afternoon.

Quinn would assume control of the governor's office if Blagojevich were to step aside under the Illinois Constitution.

Obama told reporters he was "saddened and sobered" by Blagojevich's arrest.

"I was not aware of what was happening," Obama said. "I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening."Tribune Editor Gerould W. Kern said today that the newspaper delayed publishing some stories at the request of the U.S. attorney's office during the course of reporting on the accelerating investigation of Blagojevich.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/12/source-feds-take-gov-blagojevich-into-custody.html

And Yadda-yadda-yadda . . .

On December 30th Gov. Blagojevich, as portrayed on Saturday Night Live & etc., appoints former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to replace President Elect Obama as U.S. Senator from Illinois.

Fitzgerald has not indicted Blagojevich. Governor Blagojevich has not yet been impeached. Roland Burris is the Senate Replacement according to the 17th Amendment of the United States Constitution and the Illinois Constitution.

United States Senator Roland Burris ( D. Illinois).

Now, just what a genius like Harry Reid will do between now and Tuesday when Congress returns to session should be fun to watch.

Reid released a Dec. 30 statement saying that Burris would not be seated.

"It is truly regrettable that despite requests from all 50 Democratic Senators and public officials throughout Illinois, Gov. Blagojevich would take the imprudent step of appointing someone to the United States Senate who would serve under a shadow and be plagued by questions of impropriety," the statement said. "We say this without prejudice toward Roland Burris' ability, and we respect his years of public service. But this is not about Mr. Burris; it is about the integrity of a governor accused of attempting to sell this United States Senate seat. Under these circumstances, anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6570544&page=1

President Elect Obama endorsed Roland Burris for Governor over Paul Vallas and Rod Blagojevich. Fitzy needs more time . . . you think?

Everything seems to be in order.

The Party of Ideas!