GatewayRedbirds.com

You nailed it HJ. The whole system - right / left / sideways - is corrupt.

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Your friendly neighborhood bigot since 2012.

I think our new county board president, Toni Preckwinkle, is actually pretty clean after the nepotistic disaster known as Todd Stroger (Well, at least she is well-dressed, because she was shopping in our store a few months ago). My favorite Stroger story was hiring a friend who ran her own PR firm. She awarded a bunch of "under 25" contracts, which were purchases just under the $25k threshold for review by the commissioners. All of the contracts went to the company she co-owned. Apparently they did very little if any of the work.

But these types of stories make me wish for the smallest government possible, if only because the thought of taxpayers getting screwed by these types of actions is just too much for me to bear.

A very good friend had a uncle who had a City job many years ago. He literally worked one day a year and was paid a full salary. It was a running joke in his family.

But I do think these days are slowly drawing to a close. There is so much scrutiny.

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Silence is golden.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/439/a-house-divided

A radio story about the civil war in what used to be our most civil state -Wisconsin (Jeffrey Dahmer excluded). It is the theater of the absurd under the governor. Very [expletive] sad.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolit ... 62043.html

Hansen retains Senate seat in recall, defeats VanderLeest

By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel

July 19, 2011 8:54 p.m. |(158) Comments

Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) defeated Republican challenger David VanderLeest on Tuesday in the first general election of nine recall elections in Wisconsin this summer.

Hansen heavily outspent VanderLeest, who became the only Republican in the race after Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette) failed to obtain the necessary number of signatures to get on the ballot.

The incumbent senator declined to criticize VanderLeest for his legal troubles. But the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee hammered away at the Republican for problems that included allegations of domestic abuse.

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Sounds like a huge upset.

Everyone since that Supreme Court ruling has been [expletive] about spending in campaigns, but it seems that a lot of people take glee in outspending their opponent.

See MSNBC and Obama's totals for the quarter.

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Catch my drift? Or am I being obtuse?

You got to pay to play. Which means you need to curry favor with those that can help you pay. Is that you and me Leroy?

More and more in the hands of less and less. Cynicism that leads to handing over the power of the ballot box from a broad base of citizens to those whose votes are paid for or appealed to on the fringe but never invited into the decision making process (yet!).

OK, OK - Crazy uncle will shut up and go sit in the corner again. Back to the C++ grind...

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Your friendly neighborhood bigot since 2012.

you'd have to be familiar with the environment in WI created by the extremist governor, to understand why a normally trivial no-brainer campaign suddenly is important to people. They feel completely powerless under the current regime - who has already redrawn the electoral districts, put fake candidates in races to slow up the process. Walker-Koch led extremism in WI is part of the national plutocratic agenda of the tea party, and the folks up there are a bit paranoid after all that has transpired since the Packers won the SB.

And yeah, I've donated a few meager dollars to the cause. The family up there knows that in the end they will lose against the national interests, but still think its better to try to fight them rather than roll over.

Thus they felt compelled to dunk on a sixth grade girl. They needed something, anything in the positive direction. It's the same reason I post stuff like this that nobody cares about in a baseball forum.

Now back to the JL Zeus Planet human centipede discussion.

There is a good chance Democrats will take over the state senate in Wisconsin when the recall elections are finished, from what I read. More Republican senators should lose their seats than Democrats. That will slow the tea fascists and lend momentum to re-calling Walker in 2012.

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My peeps are pretty skeptical. Walker has already raked in 2.5 million. Their teacher salaries can't compete against that kind of money. My brother was hopeful that at least they could force the extreme tea drinkers to drain some of their resources in WI and spare some of us saps elsewhere.