The governor of Illinois got busted for explicitly soliciting bribes in exchange for Obama's Senate seat. Normally, Senators are directly elected by the people. When a Senator resigns or dies before his term expires, then each state government may directly choose the replacement. Obama is resigning from the Senate with 2 years left on his term. In Illinois, apparently the governor makes the choice without approval by the state legislature; in other states, the governor makes the appointment but a majority vote of the legislature must approve the appointment.
Suppose the Federal government's budget is $1 trillion (a low estimate; it's actually a couple trillion dollars a year, plus the power to control people and industries via regulations). With 100 Senators, it's as if each Senator gets to spend $10 billion. That's not exactly true, because the House of Representatives and President have some say in how the money is spent. In practice, members of Congress treat the government's budget almost as if it were their personal money. Viewed this way, a Senate seat is worth $10 billion per year. When you consider that only $5M-$50M must be raised to run for Congress, this is a bargain.
"Political power in exchange for favors!" is the way government normally operates. With Illinois' governor, he made the transaction too blatant. He did exactly what every other politician does, except he made an explicit bribery solicitation, instead of indirectly via lobbyists. For example, if someone donated $1M to the governor's campaign, and that person's preference happened to get nominated, then their would be no suspicion. When the governor explicitly solicits a bribe, that makes the transaction too obvious.
Government is, by its very nature, corrupt. Once you accept that a handful of people can use violence to impose their will on others, then they naturally will start exchanging bribes for favors. You should blame the corrupt system, and not the individuals who exploit it for their personal benefit. Illinois' new governor will probably be just as corrupt, but he won't be so stupid to make such an explicit bribery solicitation.
In another amusing anecdote, Illinois' governor has an approval rating of 8%. That really shows the stupidity of some people, that his approval rating isn't exactly zero. I don't see any way that he doesn't resign, and Illinois should have some sort of impeachment provision in its Constitution.
2 comments:
He should resign . But on the other hand we should send the governor of Illinois a thank you note. Thanking him for just being a dumb ass and once again exposing a corrupt system.
We need more people like him in power so the rest of the public can realize what a scam things are. And also the more dumb asses we have as leaders, the faster this whole mess will collapse under its own weight!!
Thank you Rod blagojevich for bringing the word to the people. and if you have anymore friends just like you, please encourage them to run for public office.
The more I think about it. I think that Rob is an Agorist mole working for the cause. an insider trying to expose corruption in public office. A man of no morals,driven only by money and power, with an intelligence level low enough to join the other incompetent people who run our government. He is a mole who is doing his best to bring down the inept powers to be!!!!
Fritz
The funny think is that many think that he was the only or one of a few governors to do that.
I am sure this is the most usual conduct in state and federal government.
He was singled out for his attempt to make a well known bank to issue a loan to some company. The bank said why should we? Blagoevich said because we owe you now, bitches. He was correct. That bank just received bailout and should have given credit to anyone of his saviors (the people).
The next day there were FBI facts flying all over the corrupt governor, and three days later the bank did issue tiny credit as requested, to finally calm down the waters and make Blagoevich look like there was only his activity in the beginning.
Now, the dupes believe the misdirection and think: "whoa, look at this corrupted governor!", in amazement and disgust.
Now, I am not the communist. I think there should have been NO bailouts. But since there were, I say that I believe WE NOW OWN those banks and WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO TAKE WHAT EVER THE HELL WE DESIRE.
But, we wont! How many times I have warned dumb stupid socialists and commies in this country who used to say "so, what is so bad about socialism?". I told them that "You will pay, but you won't get anything back, you dummy!".
I am convinced that the large percentile of dumb people is the most prominent feature of our times.
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