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f course it happened; who in their right mind thought it wouldn’t happen? Here’s the Chicago Sun-Times:

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brother solicited U.S. Sen. Roland Burris for up to $10,000 in campaign cash before Blagojevich named Burris to the coveted post — something Burris initially failed to disclose under oath before an Illinois House impeachment panel, records and interviews show.

Burris (D-Ill.) acknowledges being hit up for the money in a new affidavit he has sent to the head of the House committee that recommended Blagojevich be removed from office.

Burris “failed to disclose” it – er, lied about it – under oath? A Democrat?

Burris acknowledged having three conversations with Robert Blagojevich, who headed the Friends of Blagojevich campaign fund — and one of those was likely recorded by the FBI.

Burris’ statement offers the third version of events he has given about his discussions concerning the Senate seat, to which Blagojevich appointed him in late December, after Blagojevich was hit with federal corruption charges that included an allegation he tried to sell the Senate appointment.

The third version of events?  Like two complete sets of lies?  Like you’re not going to remember things pretty darn clearly when someone named Blagojevich hits you up for money?  GOP state rep James Durkin sums it up with a quote that I’m sure dripped with sarcasm:

“I’m very surprised he didn’t make these disclosures. I don’t know if Mr. Burris was purposely being evasive during the committee or had selected memory issues.”

Or maybe Burris was just a Dem being a Dem.

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See Ya, Smuggler’s Gulch

I got a real kick out of seeing this picture in this morning’s LA Times. It shows the border fence on the U.S./Mexican border, apparently looking east-to-west as the fence snakes through Smuggler’s Gulch. Here’s the LAT:

Reporting from San Diego — Smuggler’s Gulch lived up to its infamous name.

For a century, the narrow canyon leading into California from Mexico provided cover for cattle thieves and opium dealers, bandits and booze runners. More recently, it has hidden thousands of illegal immigrants on their journey north, sealing its place in border lore.

Now, it’s a fading memory.

The canyon has been all but wiped off the landscape, its steep walls carved into gentle slopes, its depths filled with 35,000 truckloads of dirt as the federal government nears completion of an extensive border reinforcement project at the southwesternmost point of the United States.

Environmentalists, including California’s notorious Coastal Commission, fought the fence, citing all sorts of environmental chaos that surely would follow, saying it “will harm the Tijuana River estuary, threaten endangered species and destroy culturally sensitive Native American sites.”  As the photo shows, there’s an environmental point to be made here – but it’s a limited one.  The very dense cities of Tijuana and San Deigo create a much more impervious barrier to species migration than this puny wall.

In the end, the Bush admin. had to just override all this and push the fence forward. Now that Smuggler’s Gulch has been bulldozed into oblivion, I’m in accord with former Border Patrol agent Donald McDermott who told the LAT:

Good riddance.  Anything that makes it easier to control the border is a good thing. Continue Reading »

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Rahm Emanuel continues to bring problems to the nascent Obama administration, starting with the teensy little item of having to apologize to the global Muslim community.  I’d missed this when it broke, but it’s rich and definitely worth including in the Obama Swamp:

Representative Rahm Emanuel, resident-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, called the president of an Arab-American group today to apologize for comments his father made to an Israeli newspaper.

In the remarks, Benjamin Emanuel discussed the potential impact of his son’s new position on U.S.-Israeli relations.

“Obviously he’ll influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn’t he? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to be mopping floors at the White House,” the elder Mr. Emanuel told the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, according to English-language reports in The Jerusalem Post and The Jewish Telegraphic Agency. (NYT, emphasis added)

Oh, the un-PC-ness of it! The exact wording of Emanuel’s apology wasn’t disclosed; too bad, it was probably a very interesting document.

On to the bigger problems: Yesterday’s disclosure that Emanuel had spoken to Blagojevich 21 times regarding Obama’s vacant (and valuable) Senate seat.  Here’s the Chicago Sun Times:

President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had a deeper involvement in pressing for a U.S. Senate seat appointment than previously reported, the Sun-Times has learned. Emanuel had direct discussions about the seat with Gov. Blagojevich, who is is accused of trying to auction it to the highest bidder.

Emanuel talked with the governor in the days following the Nov. 4 election and pressed early on for the appointment of Valerie Jarrett to the post, sources with knowledge of the conversations told the Sun-Times. There was no indication from sources that Emanuel brokered a deal, however.

A source with the Obama camp strongly denied Emanuel spoke with the governor directly about the seat, saying Emanuel only spoke with Blagojevich once recently to say he was taking the chief of staff post.

But sources with knowledge of the investigation said Blagojevich told his aides about the calls with Emanuel and sometimes gave them directions afterward. (emphasis added)

Once again, Obama’s staff has goofed up and embarrassed the boss. With this many gross mishandlings of the Blagojevich scandal, it’s beginning to seem like Obama really might have something to hide, despite all the assurances to the contrary … especially as Obama refused to answer questions again today, using the Fitzgerald dodge:

At a news conference, Obama did not respond directly to a question about a Tribune report linking his chief of staff designee, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, to discussions over the Senate pick with a top Blagojevich aide. Emanuel, on the sidelines for this conference, declined to answer questions. (Chi Trib)

The Fitzgerald stall has a particularly nifty thing going for it:  It ensures that when the report on Obama staff contacts with Blagojevich finally is released, the PEOTUS will be on vacation in Hawaii and off limits to reporters.  How nice.

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Rod Blagojevich was arrested seven days ago today, and the Obama camp is still struggling to get control of what should have been a simple two-handed layup.  There’s one clear target of blame for the miserable performance of his staff over the last week:  the media.  If reporters had been more honest in covering Obama during the campaign, his staff would have been better conditioned, and the flabby, sloppy response of Obama and his staff is testimony to just how biased the media was up until Nov. 4.

Today, when this whole matter should have been three or four days behind him, Obama looked worse than ever – so bad, in fact, that the headline on the afternoon homepage of the NYT – the New York Times! – was a shady nasty:  Obama skirts Blagojevich questions.

But in a somewhat tense moment during his few minutes with the press, he cut off a reporter who asked him to reconcile his earlier statement that he would take a “hands off” approach to finding a replacement for himself and a report that his top adviser, Rahm Emanuel, had presented the governor with a list of possible replacements. (There has been no suggestion of wrongdoing.)

Stopping the reporter midsentence, Mr. Obama told him he didn’t want him to waste his time asking a question he wouldn’t answer. Mr. Obama said, as he had yesterday, that he had done a “full review” of the situation but at the request of the United States attorney, he would not comment on the matter until next week.

If Obama thinks the MSM will allow this sort of behavior, he’s falsely convinced the fairy tale will continue indefinitely.  Imagine Bush doing what Obama did today:  He cut off a reporter.  He refused to answer a question. He further delayed a report that he earlier promised was to have been delivered two days ago.

Look, this whole thing would have been a no-brainer if Obama had just handled it with his promised transparency from the outset. Remember “Bush lied/People died?”  I’m not saying Obama lied (yet), but his actions have kept this story alive long after it should have died.

Here’s all he had to say last Tuesday:

Of course we [an undefined "we"] have been talking to Gov. Blagojevich and his staff about my seat, just as we have been talking to Gov. Paterson about Sen. Clinton’s seat and Gov. Minner about Sen. Biden’s seat.  I intend to have a very active first 100 days, and I would like to have all the Senate seated as quickly as possible.

Gov. Blagojevich’s alleged behavior, if true, is reprehensible.  I condemn such behavior, which opposes everything my campaign and I stand for.  I am directing my staff to report all communications we have had with Gov. Blagojevich and his staff since my election and will report it once we are assured of its accuracy.

That wouldn’t have stopped the media hounding (well, puppying) completely, but it certainly would have spared him the abuse he’s taking now.

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It’s a media relations gambit as old as Christmas – if you’ve got really bad news, release it during Christmas week.  It’s such an over-used and reprehensible PR trick that we routinely find ourselves going through great machinations with regulatory timelines to avoid having any milestone fall in the last half of December.

Not so the Obama machine, which will be releasing its list of contacts between the Office of the Prez-Elect and the Blagojevich crime syndicate sometime during the week of Dec. 22 – even though they reportedly have the list all wrapped up and ready to go.

The whipping boy in this little ploy is the Fitzgerald investigation, which supposedly has asked the Obama team to hold off publishing the list, according to Obama Transition Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer.  The Weekly Standard’s blog raised the same question that immediately crossed my mind:

Last week, in a press conference on Thursday, President-elect Obama announced that his staff would conduct an internal review of contacts with Blagojevich and his office. At the same press conference, Obama announced that this internal review would find no inappropriate dealings between his staff and Blagojevich. Since Obama announced the findings of the promised internal review at the same time he announced the internal review, it should come as no surprise that the internal review found just what Obama said it would.

If none of those contacts were “inappropriate” could releasing the details really “impede” the investigation?

Doesn’t seem like it.  Look for a bit of a stink when this news finally breaks during the news wasteland of Christmas week.

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Welcome To The World Of Idiots

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here’s a fire! Quick, grab the fire extinguisher! … No, wait … we’re too stupid to use a fire extinguisher!

At least that’s how the world’s ultimate nanny state, the once-proud global empire of the United Kingdom:

Fire extinguishers could be removed from communal areas in flats throughout the country because they are a safety hazard, it has emerged.

The life-saving devices encourage untrained people to fight a fire rather than leave the building, risk assessors in Bournemouth decided.

Dorset Fire and Rescue defended the move, saying: ‘Obviously, in some cases, an extinguisher could come in useful but, with new building regulations, every escape route should be completely fireproof.’

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents backed their removal because different extinguishers should be used on different types of fire. (Source, via What Bubba Knows)

Yeah, that’s definitely too much for mere citizens like us to understand. Better we burn up than try to fend for ourselves without the help of our state-employed saviors, who are are smart enough to save us.  Bring on the Nannies. Continue Reading »

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As it became clear that Rod Blagojevich was working to auction off prez-elect Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder, Obama spoke on the matter and we remember his words well:

“I had no contact with the governor’s office. I did not speak to the governor about these issues. That I know for certain.”

But who exactly is this “I” that had no contact with the Gov’s office?  Was it “I” as in me, Barack Obama and me alone, or “I” as in the vaunted office of the prez-elect?  Apparently, Obama was speaking as a finely nuanced lawyer/politician because now we learn:

Another source said that contact between the Obama camp and the governor’s administration regarding the Senate seat began the Saturday before the Nov. 4 election, when Emanuel made a call to the cell phone of Harris. The conversation took place around the same time press reports surfaced about Emanuel being approached about taking the high-level White House post should Obama win.

Emanuel delivered a list of candidates who would be “acceptable” to Obama, the source said. On the list were Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, Illinois Veterans Affairs director Tammy Duckworth, state Comptroller Dan Hynes and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Chicago, the source said. All are Democrats. …

Sometime after the election, Emanuel called Harris back to add the name of Democratic Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan to the approved list, the source said.

That’s some pretty old-school doublespeak for Mr. Change We Can Believe In, eh? “‘I’ didn’t speak to the Gov, but my hand-picked right-hand man shared my thoughts with him, so I’m clean.”

We might as well have elected Hillary.

hat-tip: Flopping Aces

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n an otherwise useless, GOP-slapping, Dem-loving bit of blathering reporting on the Blagojevich insanity, Salon’s Joan Walsh passed along this gem in her coverage of yesterday’s too-short press conference:

Obama looked like the happiest man in history ever to be called a “m—–f—–.”

But a more significant line might be this one from Capt. Ed, about the clip below, made even more significant now that Rahm Emanuel isn’t showing up for work because of “death threats.”

Emanuel has been acting like someone advised him to keep quiet to keep from making incriminating public statements, and this may be the reason why.

Here’s the clip – all about Emanuel’s many conversations with Blagojevich about filling Obama’s’ Senate seat.  Sure, Emanuel would be the point man on such a deal … but just as sure, he wasn’t forthcoming about it, and he’s just another Chicago pol who’s been swimming in the Chicago political cesspool throughout his career, and he’s next to the prez-elect.

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In his press conference today, Prez-elect Obama was peppered (if you can call allowing four questions “peppered”) with questions on the nature of politics in Chicago, where his political birth certificate is definitely on file.  Seeking to differentiate his noble self from the like of Gov. (“Do I hear $1.1 million?) Blagojevich, he said, paraphrasing here,

Um, ah, ah, um, ah, look, people in Chicago or anywhere else go into politics for two reasons.  Either politics is to them a higher calling which they go into foresaking money because they want to serve, or they see politics as business.

What he means by “business” is taking bribes, paying to play and following all manner of criminal pursuits.  I’m sorry, but that’s a definition of “crime,” not of “business.”

Obama could have said, “… or they see it as a criminal enterprise,” but he said “business.”  Obama has never really worked in the private sector and his statement this morning makes it clear that he views business through a leftist lens.  Leftist media view business as evil, which is why the villains in most TV shows and movies are businessmen pursing profit, and leftist politicians see business as the exploiter of workers in pursuit of profit.

Money motivates everyone to work, whether it’s for goverment or for the private sector; don’t fool yourselves.  A lot of the people orbiting around Obama chose to work in government for job security, good benefits and posh retirement packages … and to serve people.  A lot of people in business are there because they want to serve people, whether in a restaurant, a real estate agency, a hospital, a car dealer or any other business that provides necessary services to people … and it provides a paycheck.

Reading Obama means reading between the lines.  The lines are all so well written and so well rehearsed that it’s these little rhetorical slips – Bidens, if you will – that best reveal his soul.

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he Mainly Marginalized Media are hesitantly stepping up to the plate on the B-Rod scandal, noting the depth of B-Rod’s depravity, the longstanding, close-enough relationship between Obama and the scum-gov of Illinois, and the crossed messages within Camp Obama.  Just witness this morning’s headlines, courtesy of memeorandum:

• Obama tries to stay out of Blagojevich Fray – WaPo
• Obama:  Steered clear of scandal – ChiTrib
• Questions arise about the Obama/Blagojevich scandal – ABC

But the NY Times, for lack of a better expression, is busy this morning putting lipstick on a pig, proclaiming in its lead headline that Obama is really the hero of the story! Oh joy! Oh stretch!

Obama’s Effort on Ethics Bill Had Role in Governor’s Fall

In a sequence of events that neatly captures the contradictions of Barack Obama’s rise through Illinois politics, a phone call he made three months ago to urge passage of a state ethics bill indirectly contributed to the downfall of a fellow Democrat he twice supported, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich.

Mr. Obama placed the call to his political mentor, Emil Jones Jr., president of the Illinois Senate. Mr. Jones was a critic of the legislation, which sought to curb the influence of money in politics, as was Mr. Blagojevich, who had vetoed it.

I know, I know. It was a federal prosecutor and the FBI that busted B-Rod, not some state guys enforcing a state ethics law. Heck, there were enough federal laws violated to ensure headlines and punditry around the globe. So what’s with claiming a role for the Prez-O?  The NYT, which has sold the Brooklyn Bridge a few times in support of Obama’s cause has it covered: B-Rod sped up  his scamming in order to rake in as much cash as possible before the new Illinois ethics law went into effect Jan. 1.

But shucks, folks, with Congress starting up shortly after the first, the assumption was that B-Rod would fill the seat by the end of the year all along, ethics law or no ethics law, take or no take.  No problem; if there’s a positive point to make about Obama – no matter how obscure – the NYT stands ready to make it.

Providing nifty cover for its hero seems to be what the NYT is all about nowdays, and it’s better at it than any other news outlet. So in a way, it is still the leader in journalism.

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