English Poet Pool
ArchPundit
No prizes, but take a guess in comments who the English poet that Blagojevich will quote today.
I’m going with Keats. Even if it isn’t him this time, Blagojevich will get around to him eventually.
2009
Human Shield Bingo
Blagojevich plans to hold a 2 PM press conference today so I think we can safely assume he’ll be bringing in a new crop of human shields. What I’m thinking is that instead of the overdone drinking game every time he says some cliche, we should create some bingo cards for who he brings along.
Take a sheet of paper. Divide it up with a 5 X 5 grid and place 25 different types of disadvantaged people in each box. If you can cross off 5 in a row (up, down, diagonally) you get bingo.
We have the time to figure out the best choices for anyone having a hard time so add to the following in comments:
Kidney Transplant Kid
Parapalegic Homeless Man
Flu Victim
etc.
All of these are very sad cases and to be clear, the point is the Governor is exploiting them and that’s the absurdity of it.
More Gems
The interview is like a smorgasboard. From Josh over at Progress Illinois:
And you gotta love how, towards the end, he accuses the General Assembly of doing their work in a “far away place” (i.e. Springfield).
A 21st Century Frank Capra Movie
On acid maybe.
Blagojevich on WLS
In the third bit, he compares himself favorably to Nixon.
The whole thing is quite a treat.
It’s About A Tax Increase
Gov. Blagojevich continued to hammer away at the rules governing his upcoming impeachment trial this morning, saying the “fix is in in” and Illinoisans would be socked with massive tax increases should he be kicked out of office.
“They want to get me out fast so they could put a huge income-tax increase on the people of Illinois,” the governor said in a 43-minute interview this morning on WLS-AM 890’s Don Wade & Roma show. “And they want to raise the sales tax on gas. . . . If I’m out of the way, they can quietly push this through.”
Even better:
Blagojevich reiterated statements he made yesterday that rules governing his trial are unfair and that he would like to call several witnesses to defend him, including White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and President Obama’s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. He also said he’d like to call U.S. Rep Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) and even U.S. senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Arizona), who he says had worked closely with him.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0HCPPItnYo[/youtube]
About 2 minutes in. I don’t think McCain has the same ‘recollection.’
We’re Back
The problem with all of those GoDaddy notices that you have an expiring domain is that there are so many you tend to ignore them. Oops.
Daily Dolt: New York Times Reporter Robert F. Worth
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The emergence of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order President Obama signed Thursday that the detention center be shut down within a year.
Yet, this happened despite Guantanamo Bay detention being open. And, of course, Obama isn’t suggesting that we release all of the detainees so dangerous detainees won’t be released, just moved depending upon their classification. This isn’t a complication of closing Guantanamo, it’s a complication of a bunch of boobs running our government for 8 years.
North Carolina Precedent
The State Journal Register has one of the finest encapsulations of the Blagojevich administration:
GOV. ROD BLAGOJEVICH has again found a creative way to skirt the intent of Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act in denying The State Journal-Register — and the public — the right to look at a clemency file.
The newspaper had sought the clemency petition of Latasha Lofton of Springfield, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in 1995, and was one of 22 people pardoned by Blagojevich in December. Throughout his time in office, the governor had been criticized for not acting on clemency petitions. It seems obvious to us that if court records of convictions are public record, as they are, the documents that reverse them should be public as well.
But the governor feels otherwise, and in denying this request, he cited a case decided by the North Carolina Supreme Court, a lawyer for the Prisoner Review Board said.
THE NORTH CAROLINA court ruled that such files are gubernatorial property and releasing them under public records laws would violate the separation-of-powers doctrine in the Tar Heel state’s constitution.
The lawyer, Ken Tupy, said the governor’s lawyers argued that since North Carolina’s constitution is similar, the North Carolina court ruling applies and that state law would have to be changed to release such records under Illinois’ FOIA law.
This is contrived nonsense, of course. North Carolina court decisions have no bearing on Illinois.
What’s great is that Tupy tells the SJR to wait for Quinn taking over because Tupy plans on asking Governor Quinn to allow Tupy to release the records.
And Remember, Death is Not an Option
Roland Burris or Kurt Granberg:
Kurt Granberg’s tenure as the state’s conservation chief might be short, but it will be lucrative. The former state representative started work Thursday as director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, a move that will likely boost his eventual retirement pension by $40,000 a year.
Granberg was appointed by an impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who faces a Senate trial over his ouster starting Monday.
A 55-year-old lawmaker from Carlyle who spent 22 years in the General Assembly, Granberg did not seek re-election last fall and resigned his seat before the House voted to impeach Blagojevich, who is charged with mismanagement and political corruption.
Governor to be Quinn commented on this without committing, but strongly suggesting he would make a change. The only question then is whether Quinn should keep Granberg on so he at least has to show up from time to time to get that extra 40 grand a year.