Blago got 14 years. He got fourteen years, because he is a goof and was a very easy target for Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzy does not harpoon Moby Dick; he nets smelt: Rezko, Blago and other ham sammich indictees.
The core of Chicago Style Corruption lies not with the guy asking his precinct captain to go to bat for his kid. Chicago Style Corruption* is not a cop telling you that, "You were travelling $35 over the posted speed limit." Chicago Style Corruption is not some mopey kid sleeping off a hang-over in the back of a Water Department Truct awakened by Dane Placko, Pam Zekman.
Chicago Style Corruption is Lab School. Shakman Decrees were the starting blocks. When political hiring was targeted as the strawman, elected officials danced around its bonfire. No longer would an elected official be required to attend wakes, go church repasts, attend Knights of Columbus Tootsie Roll Drives, chat up soft-ball Moms, or actually do something for other people. Shakman freed political powerhouses to shake of the pests with a stentorian, "I'll look into it."
Instead, Policy was crafted to deny, shirk, ignore and dismiss. "Jesus, Guido, can't help you. Shakman. What can I do? Don't forget to pull a straight ticket, Guid. Here's some tickets to my golf outing - there a Hundo each."
Nope. Policy was crafted at University of Chicago, Northwestern, or imported by a 1960's hippie crime expert. The BGA took care of the whistle-blowers. The Media took care of the rest -ignoring policy wrought real estate scams that funneled Housing dollars into the pockets of IVI lawyers turned moguls and their kids. Policy established boards and placed cranks, loudmouths and do-gooders over the street patrolmen.
Blago got fourteen years. George Ryan got six. Rezko got ten and change. Shakman got millions. Pat Quinn got to be Governor, Rahm Mayor and Dawn Clark Netsch a comfy seat on the Ethics panel. Illinois got screwed, blued and tatooed.
John Dewey, not Paddy Bauler, invented our Chicago Style Corruption. Eddie Burke, Eddie Vrdolyk and Mike Madigan are pikers compared to the Judson Miner/Allison Davis ( who can forget Sun Times investigator Tim Novak's incisive reports on Allison Davis and his son Cullen's real estate triumphs and the tragic death of a child?) crowd. Steve Preckwinkle? No relation to Toni's hubby Zeus? Outrageous, to ask such a question. Michael Shakman defending a hot property boon-doggle?Shack them jowls in indignation!!!
Chicago Style Corruption is a co-operative, a coalition of elected officials, academics, real estate players, agenda rangers ( SEIU, Planned Parenthood,LGBTQ,)lawyers and the media. I'll take nickel snitcher anytime. A thief will leave something - even fingerprints. No body steals like Progressive Reformer, because the editorial nodders bleach the crime scenes - unless, you are a Blago.
Chicago and its Daley dictatorship has been much celebrated in the media – particularly after Obama’s election in everything from the liberal New Yorker to Fast Company, which named Chicago “city of the year” in 2008. The following year, the Windy City was deemed the best city for men by Askmen.com, for offering what it claimed was “the perfect balance between cosmopolitan and comfortable, combining all of the culture, entertainment and sophistication of an internationally renowned destination with an affordable lifestyle and down-to-earth work hard/play hard character.”
Well, you can make that case, unless you happen to be searching for a job. Over the past decade, “the Chicago way” has proven more adept at getting good coverage than creating employment for its residents. In Forbes’ last cities rankings greater Chicago ranked 41st out of the 51 largest metropolitan areas. Between 2001 and 2011 it actually lost jobs. Since 2007 the region has lost more jobs than Detroit, and more than twice as many as New York. It has lost about as many jobs – 250,000 – as up and comer Houston has gained. In Forbes recent survey of high-tech performance, the Chicago region stood at a dismal 47th among the nation’s 51 largest metropolitan areas.
Blago is going to the join and the Goo-goo's are going to the bank for a very, very, very long time.
* E.G. - Read the great Anne Leary today on the Triumph of the Policy Pirates
http://backyardconservative.blogspot.com/2011/12/ayers-on-platter-dohrn-with-fork.html
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