Patrick Fitzgerald Back in Spotlight with Blagojevich Arrest

For my friends in Illinois. From here:

The big political news today is the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on charges of using bribes to try and sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat. Blagojevich has already been suspected of corruption and bribery, but not to this extent until today, at least not by the public at large. The U.S. Attorney who broke the story and who will be charging Blagojevich is fairly used to high profile cases like this, however.

The Blagojevich arrest is just the latest feather in the cap of Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. It was Fitzgerald who accused Blagojevich of putting "a for sale sign" on naming Obama's Senate replacement.

Fitzgerald called "the breadth of corruption laid out in these charges" staggering against Blagojevich. Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois, will be prosecuting Blagojevich for these charges.

U.S. Atty Patrick Fitzgerald from the Justice Dept. Briefing transcript from the New York Times:

"This is a sad day for government. It's a very sad day for Illinois government. Governor Blagojevich has taken us to a truly new low.

Governor Blagojevich has been arrested in the middle of what we can only describe as a political corruption crime spree. We acted to stop that crime spree.

The most appalling conduct Governor Blagojevich engaged in, according to the complaint filed today or unsealed today, is that he attempted to sell a Senate seat, the Senate seat he had the sole right to under Illinois to appoint to replace President-elect Obama."

Wow, BIG surprise. But then, Blago has always been suspected of being crooked.

I hope this sends a message to more of the "Culture of Corruption" vultures.

Opt-In?

I'm thinking of making a filter group for Episcopalian/Anglican posts.

Some folks I can get from recalling older comments, but I'll probably miss folks, so if interested reply here and I'll include you.

Happiness Mem - Day #2

I figured out a way to route my calls to credit card companies to US call centers and avoid the *cough-cough* "Off-Shore" reps.


OK, I'll share... check the back of the card in question. It'll most likely have a number for calls wihen overseas (when '800' numbers can't be used), THAT number will usually route you into a call center on the mainland. Long-distance charges are no issue for me between cell phone and Vonage lines.

I tried it with WaMu and got the call center 3 miles from my house instead of 1/2-way around the world.


Note: '800' number is meant to denote the entire class of toll-free NPAs (read: Area Codes): 800, 866, 877, 888,...

Best Newstory Photoshop of the Year

From TowleRoad:

HeeHee

From ramdompictures: