Check Her ‘Dex

Byron York, in NR:

But there are still problems. As she has many times in the past, Mrs. Obama complains about the lasting burden of student loans dating from her days at Princeton and Harvard Law School. She talks about people who end up taking years and years, until middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,” she says.

“Barack and I were in that position,” she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.” A former attorney with the white-shoe Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama explains that she and her husband made the choice to give up lucrative jobs in favor of community service. “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.” Faced with that reality, she adds, “many of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund management.”

What she doesn’t mention is that the helping industry has treated her pretty well. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office. And that does not count the money Mrs. Obama receives from serving on corporate boards. She would have been O.K. even without Jack’s magic beans.

Another advantage that Mrs. Obama has over the average Zanesvillian is that she and Barack had “Rezko” in their phone’s address book.  Not a bad guy to call in a time of need.

This Smells Worse Than the Union Stock Yards

$32,000 isn’t bad for a day’s non-work

P-D:

Federal investigators are looking into real estate deals involving Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s wife, including the sale of a $3.2 million home owned by one of the governor’s campaign donors, according to a published report.

FBI agents asked real estate agent Mary Bennett to explain why she added Patricia Blagojevich, a licensed real estate broker, as a second agent in the 2004 home sale, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

Bennett told the Tribune she did so at the request of the homeowner, John H. Simpson, a Blagojevich campaign donor. The governor’s wife received about $32,000 in the deal, Bennett said.

“I figured the seller wanted to throw her a little business,” Bennett said. “Half a listing is better than none at all, so that’s what I did.”

Maybe it’s not illegal, but I’m still holding my nose.

I Don’t Think the Shot’s That Long

I thought Mitch McConnell was a problematic selection for Senate Minority Leader even before the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” debate (links to Abramoff, corruption, lobbyist-friendly), and since he voted the wrong way most of the time during those debates, even a no-name Democrat has a chance to beat him next November, in spite of the tone of this article.  Remember, immigration, more so than corruption, sank Ernie Fletcher.

Illinois Governors Have Term Limits: Two in Office, and One in Federal Prison

As George Ryan starts his “first day of school,” Rod Blagojevich looks to be headed to the same facility in the near future.

In the Ryan article, you’ll notice that the Federal prison complex in Oxford, Wisconsin consists of a medium and a minimum security facility, and that the sight of the medium security facility, with its fences and barbed wires, deters anyone in the fence-less minimum security building from pulling off any funny business.  We also find out that the minimum hoosegow there is where a lot of corrupt Chicagograd politicians have spent time.  If they were sent to medium security lockup instead of “Club Fed,” and had to live their days in prison in perpetual fear of the standard fare of prison life, maybe Chicagograd’s politicians wouldn’t be so corrupt.

The Brown Stick Will Take Over Red Stick, and Save Us All

McPaper:

NEW ORLEANS — The voice on the radio assumes the tone of a high school principal: “Public service is not about stealing from the people — it’s about giving to the people.”

The voice belongs to James Bernazzani, the FBI’s special agent in charge in New Orleans. He, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office here and a new inspector general at City Hall, is launching a very public assault on public corruption.

The FBI’s New Orleans office has tracked a 452% jump in corruption indictments the past five years. Corruption convictions in eastern Louisiana climbed 33% in the same period, making it one of the top spots in the country for such convictions, according to Justice Department statistics.

Why is the politically correct FBI only running these ads in New Orleans?  What about Lafayette, or Shreveport, or Monroe, or Alexandria, or Jena?  Can we interpret something from this fact?

Also, I thought Bobby Jindal’s victory was supposed to save Louisiana from all its social ills.  Then again, he can’t stop corruption in New Orleans until he’s done curing cancer and negotiating world peace first.  Using the neo-cons’ own parlance, Jindal certainly is not suffering from the soft bigotry of low expectations.

America’s First “Hip Hop Mayor” Uses City Treasury As His Personal “Bling”

Even as his city is being reclaimed by nature, and looking more and more like a rural area with each passing year, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is being rapped by Time magazine for not growing up.

Time:

Detroit’s Kwame Kilpatrick was named one of America’s worst mayors by TIME in 2005. Have his fortunes changed since then? Not if you go by court decisions. Last week, a Michigan jury awarded $6.5 million to two former Detroit police officers who alleged they were retaliated against for investigating possible misconduct by Kilpatrick’s bodyguards. The award is the latest blow for Kilpatrick - even as his city makes some gains.

At a time when many of America’s few remaining big city black mayors are young, polished and corporate-minded, Kilpatrick seems to be a bit of a throwback. He became mayor in 2002 at age 31, the youngest mayor in the city’s history. Cultural icon Russell Simmons crowned him the nation’s first “hip-hop mayor” and Kilpatrick, now 37, did not try to avoid a life of excess. His first inauguration was marked with “club crawls” (he said they were intended to galvanize Detroit’s disaffected youth); he wore a diamond-studded earring and flashy suits; his wife got use of a Lincoln Navigator which was leased for $25,000 by the police department. The two Detroit cops then charged Kilpatrick’s bodyguards with abusing overtime and failing to report accidents involving city vehicles. Overtime abuse was never proven, and an accident report was found. Nevertheless, the cops’ claimed they had been retaliated against for looking into the allegations and that lawsuit would go on for three years. It was interlaced in the public’s awareness with newspaper coverage of allegations of the mayor’s marital infidelities. Kilpatrick has repeatedly denied the claims. As for last week’s defeat in court, Kilpatrick says he will appeal, at any cost. Later this month, a judge will hear a related case involving a third former officer.

All this couldn’t come at a worse time. Much of Detroit remains an urban war zone, having seen its population more than halved from a 1950s peak of nearly 2 million. Unemployment stands at roughly 14%. About 47% of the city’s residents over age 16 are functionally illiterate. Yet, for much of Kilpatrick’s tenure, parts of Detroit have experienced an economic turnaround similar to those that have taken place in Chicago and Washington. Million-dollar lofts are being built along the Detroit River. Homicides are down by 17%, and non-fatal shootings have dropped by 9% in the last year. Kilpatrick sliced the city government’s job rolls from about 21,000 to 13,800. He cut property taxes partly to retain what remains of the city’s middle class.

If “million-dollar lofts” are being built in the city center, then it’s not anything that every other major city, including St. Louis, is experiencing — there has been a trendy interest by yuppie libs in urban living and gentrification over the last several years, but that supply is drying up. If violent crime is down in Detroit, it’s because the city’s population, and by deduction, it’s black population, is declining, hence the “nature reclamation.” And even if Mr. Kilpatrick were the worst mayor in world history, he could never be at fault for his city’s high illiteracy rate. After all, he’s a politician, not a literacy coach.

Hsu’s Your Diversionist Daddy?

Michael Savage said it, and it looks like he was right — The media held the Larry Craig scandal as an “Ace in the Hole” (turns out, for three years), until they needed to play it in order to distract from something else, such as HRC and her links to controversial fundraiser Norman Hsu.

This is just like the Mark Foley thing, again involving questionable homosexual behavior on the part of a Republican politician — the media knew about Foley’s activities for at least a year before they went public with it, but saved it for the right time, that being the heat of the 2006 midterm campaign season, to peddle the same kind of “homophobic bigotry” that they would accuse anyone else of doing, in order to keep religious right voters at home. The difference there was that Foley did nothing illegal, while Larry Craig seems to have lied to authorities.

Is John McCain Sawing Log Cabins?

McCain wants Larry Craig to step down, in the wake of the revelation of his disorderly conduct arrest and the likely implication of which way he swings.

Let’s add this all up. McCain’s main man in Idaho is gay thanks to what he tried to do to an undercover cop, his main main in South Carolina, Lindsay Graham, seems to be light in the loafers, and a few weeks ago, Florida State Rep. Bob Allen, his Florida co-chairman, had to quit because he tried to solicit gay sex from an undercover cop inside a public restroom near a beach.

Think of a picture of John McCain in your minds, and let the lyrics run through your mind: “All things just keep getting better…” In this case, it might be a Straight Eye for the Queer Guys.

Whatever Happened to Worries about “Culture of Corruption?”

One of the reasons, according to conventional wisdom, that Democrats were able to win back the House last year is that they were going to beat back corruption. An ethics bill to help make good on that promise passed the House yesterday by a 411-8 vote, which means that a lot of Republicans were opposed to the “Republican culture of corruption.”

Michael Savage read the list of the eight no voters last night, and two of those eight names jumped right out at me. Missouri Political News Service covered these two names today, those being both of Missouri’s black Democrats in the House, William “Lazy” Clay of St. Louis and Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City.

MOPNS speculates that:

Many are probably asking: “After Jack Abramhoff and all the other lobbying scandals that broke last year, how could these two politically vote against lobbying reform?” Simple. Neither will ever have to worry about raising tons of money because they are in very safe districts. Especially safe is Clay, who in 2000, inherited his seat from his father who served in Congress for thirty plus years. It’s a shame they can vote the way they do and not have to worry about the consequences back home.

My mind is running in an even more pernicious direction. This bill includes new penalties for convictions of felony bribery and corruption, (Randy “Duke” Cunningham, anyone?) including the forfeiture of Congressional pensions.

Without making any specific allegations, I’ll just ask this: What do Clay and Cleaver know about themselves that we don’t know about them?

This Took Balls

As you know by know, the FBI raided the Alaska home of Sen. Ted “Bridge to Nowhere” Stevens (R-AK). Stevens is the ranking Republican on the Senate committee that controls the FBI’s budget.

Why We Want That Border Wall

Because we like our authorities armed with badges and guns to be clean and non-corrupt.

Reuters:

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Rio de Janeiro police arrested two fellow officers on Thursday accused of extorting money from two American tourists who happened to be San Francisco cops on vacation.

“One of the victims identified the officers and they are under administrative arrest for now,” a police spokeswoman in Rio said. The crime-ridden city is swarming with tourists during the Pan American Games, which end on Sunday.

The U.S. tourists were leaving a night club in Rio’s Copacabana beach neighbourhood before dawn on Wednesday, when two uniformed police officers approached them and searched them for drugs. At night, the neighbourhood is a red-light district with several brothels and strip joints.

Although no drugs were found, the officers told the tourists they would have to pay a bribe or be arrested. One of the Americans went back to their hotel to fetch the equivalent of some $2,200 (1,075 pounds) in local and foreign currency. The Brazilian policemen then took off with the money and an MP3 player.

…

Nothing Ever Became His Career Like the Leaving Of It

Jim Nicholson is stepping down as Veterans Affairs Secretary. And for good reason: Brian Ross exposed him as the “crack” in the system of Vets’ health care.

Nicholson didn’t much like the Council of Conservative Citizens, and we didn’t much like him. It’s too bad his career in public service couldn’t end a little more dramatically, e.g. with a perp walk.

It Sells

European Union starts a YouTube channel to attract attention to lefty PC gibberish like “global warming” and “human rights” (i.e. for non-whites only), and their most frequently viewed video is of people doing it. This means that people are really concerned about human warming.

Oh No You Didn’t

She’s complaining about President Bush’s commutation (not pardon) of Scooter Libby’s sentence. After this, she has no moral authority to gripe.

UPDATE 2:30 PM:  She is trying to explain away the contradiction.  She claims that Bush’s commutation of Libby’s sentence was an effort to protect the White House, from what she does not say.  It’s as if she wants us to think that her husband’s 140 pardons on his last day as President didn’t have CYA motivations.   In other words, she, like other libs when confronted with their individual and collective hypocrisy, is spitting back at us the usual lib canard:  “That’s Different.”

Keep in mind that Libby’s conviction was not wiped away.  He still has to come up with $250,000, serve probation, and live the rest of his life as a convicted Federal felon, meaning no guns, no voting in Federal elections, no voting in state or local elections (depending on what state he lives in), and no to a lot of other things.

The Judiciary Isn’t Any Better in Sweden

AP:

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Convicted sex offenders in Sweden are free to read pornography in their cells following a court ruling that has angered the prison service.

The Supreme Administrative Court in Stockholm last week ruled that the Swedish Prison and Probation Service had no right to deny a rape convict access to his porn magazines.

Prison officials had argued that reading porn would interfere with the man’s rehabilitation program. They also said the magazines posed a security problem for staff and other inmates because they could increase the risk of the man relapsing into criminal behavior.

But the court, whose ruling cannot be appealed, said the prison service failed to prove that the magazines could “jeopardize the security of the institution.”

Even without knowing anything about that infamous Scandinavian liberalism, this edict from a country whose geographical shape looks like a male organ isn’t that surprising.

Letting imprisoned sex offenders look at porn is like letting imprisoned armed robbers read gun magazines. I wonder if the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court would countenance that idea.

Gephardt and Lott

Dick Gephardt has joined another corporate board, as he continues to live inside the beltway and cash in on his influence and knowledge, to rack in the cash after his political retirement.

Yes, this is the same Gephardt that once spoke to a picnic of the Metro South [St. Louis] Citizens Council, and gleefully had his picture taken in front of Confederate flags, and bloviated about his opposition to school deseg (forced busing).

Nothing he did in the final 24 of his 28-year tenure in Congress suggested that he was ever that kind of person.

This is the same thing that’s happening with Trent Lott and the immigration issue. I think he’s selling out to agribusiness interests in his state, so that he can make like Gephardt, dump all over the people in his state that voted him in as Congressman and Senator for many terms, and fly off and live inside the beltway, and sell his influence to lobbyists.

From the State That Brought You Jim McGreevey

KSDK-NBC-5:

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The school district said Monday it regretted ordering a picture of a male student kissing his boyfriend blacked out from all copies of a high school yearbook and said it apologized to the student.

Andre Jackson, the student, said he was disappointed that the superintendent had not delivered the apology face-to-face and in public. Because of that, he said he didn’t accept it as sincere.

(snip)

Previously, Bolden had described the picture, which showed Jackson kissing boyfriend David Escobales, as “illicit.”

“If it was either heterosexual or gay, it should have been blacked out. It’s how they posed for the picture,” Bolden told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Saturday’s editions.

In the 4 1/2-by-5-inch photo, Jackson is seen turning his head back over his right shoulder and kissing Escobales, 19, of Allentown, Pa. It was blacked out after Russell Garris, the district’s assistant superintendent who oversees the city’s high schools, told Bolden he was concerned that the photo could upset parents.

What? You’re telling me that the same state that brought us James “The Gay American” McGreevey, and will probably never vote for a Republican for anything ever again, actually has parents left that disapprove of homosexuality? Looks like somebody’s going to have to spend time in some propaganda mills diversity training.

The photo was among several that appeared on a special personal tribute page in the yearbook.

Jackson, who paid $150 for the page, noted that the yearbook is filled with pictures of heterosexual couples kissing.

Oh, now I know why the school district officials backed down. Money talks, and money walks.

The World’s Oldest Profession is a Three-Way Street

Reuters:

An Italian town’s mayor hopes to shame men into not using prostitutes by photographing cars that pick them up and publishing the details in local newspapers.

Cesare De Martin, mayor of the northern town of San Fior near Venice, said on Friday he planned to give local police digital cameras and instruct them to photograph any cars seen stopping to liaise with prostitutes on the side of the street.

(snip)

Clients of prostitutes are not punished in many countries, including Italy. Italian law effectively turns a blind eye to prostitution, punishing only “exploiters of prostitution,” meaning pimps.

But without johns and whores, there can be no pimps.

From the Gibbon Files

Three members of the Texas National Guard, two Hispanic and one whose name suggests he is white, that were deployed to the border to assist the U.S. Border Patrol, were discovered to be taking cash to smuggle illegal aliens into the country.

Inequality in the Eyes of the Smoke Police

More “two legs bad, four legs good” logic from anti-tobacco forces.

Reuters:

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch smoking ban will come into force in July next year for all restaurants and cafes - including coffee shops where cannabis is the top attraction, the government decided on Friday.

(snip)

Coffee shop owners argue that the ban only applies to tobacco and is unlikely to hit them hard.

Yes, because the ever-so-pleasing stench of weed smoke surely enhances the flavor of coffee.

Blacks Steal, White Corporation Gets the Blame

CSM has this long piece about the lack of development in the Niger River Delta, in spite of the fact that this region and its oil drilling provides 10% of American oil consumption.

Obviously, Nigerians in the area, and CSM, blame Shell and other oil companies for not coming through with human development programs, but we get two wee paragraphs of truth from CSM:

Corruption is often to blame, too, he says, pointing out that an interstate highway proposed decades ago – and paid for by the federal government a number of times – has yet to be built.

“Nigeria is very hierarchical, and people enjoy hierarchy and like business as usual,” says Knight. “People inside oil companies, politicians, and government – they were all benefiting from the system.”

This means that important black palms get greased first, foremost and only. The regular people can just lump it, and blame white oil companies.

I Have Never Even Been to Berkeley, California

Can you find the cheaters or the cheated?

Question:

I have never rented an apartment in Berkeley, California. Does this mean that the Berkeley City Housing Authority will weasel me some government money, too? If only the Federal Department of Agriculture would have responded to my request to pay me for my non-farming, I would have it made.

Tajikistani Profiling

If you have nice ride and plenty of bling in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, you will draw the ire of law enforcement authorities there so much so that your name will be added to those under invesigation of corruption.

In other words, if you’re ridin’ nice, you’re ridin’ dirty.

That doesn’t say much for Tajikistan, that the only way to have an expensive car is to steal and to be corrupt.

I’m just waiting for the TCLU to get involved on the other side of the question.

Only Now

Is Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) resigning from the Senate Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, after years of her funneling contracts to her husband’s firms.

Dr. Wykes Released from Angola

The Blotter by ABC has the story.  Previous coverage on this blog may be found here.

Look who took up for her in the U.S. Congress:

Fifteen members of Congress, including Senators Barack Obama, D-Ill., Patrick Leahy, D.-Vt., Richard Lugar, R.-Ind. and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. signed letters strongly rebuking the Angolan government’s actions  against Dr. Wykes.

Do you think Messrs. Obama, Leahy, Lugar and Frank would do anything about the anti-white racism in Zimbabwe and South Africa?

Poetic Justice

A white British “human rights” do-gooder, Dr. Sarah Wykes, is being thumped around by the Angolan government. The official charge is espionage, but the real reason is that she and her group, Global Witness, have discovered (surprise) corruption relating to oil revenues within the black African government. Her and her lib friends on both sides of the Atlantic are shocked that a banana republic that would abscond with oil revenues would also abuse dissidents and foreign investigators.

If you break open a bee’s nest, you shouldn’t be shocked when you get stung. Or, as the first commenter to the source’s blog post said, “What does one expect from a pig, but a grunt.”

This story may also be found, and will stay, in the Poetic Justice section of the St. Louis CofCC Static Webpage.

The Chief Does As the Chief Wants

Or so they think.

P-D:

As his school district’s finances tumbled, a local superintendent directed at least $85,000 in extra payments to his retirement and insurance accounts.

A Post-Dispatch investigation has found that the deposits began about four years ago, soon after Henry P. Williams was hired to run the Riverview Gardens School District, an 8,000-student suburban district just north of St. Louis.

According to district bills and employee interviews, Williams requested payments to his own accounts, allowed the district to pay interest on personal loans and converted vacation days into retirement account cash.

(snip)

“If you did stand up and challenge him — you could end up on the edge,” said Lou Deavens, former Riverview chief financial officer. “He would lambaste you right out there in the open.”

“Rank has its privileges,” he said.

So because he’s the chief, he gets to do whatever he wants, and woe onto the cynic that would dare question him.  Tribal Africa, or the Riverview Gardens School District?  Hard to distinguish, there.

I’m thinking of a line that has the words “bunny out of the jungle” within it.

Jim Nicholson Exposed

If military veterans are “falling through the cracks” of the VA health care system to get the treatment they need, then Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson is the crack.

And The Blotter by ABC is the flashlight.

This couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

I wonder what campaign contributer or big-money donor had to have his palms greased such that Nicholson saw to it that veterans didn’t get the health care they deserved. With Democrats running the show on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, we’ll find out soon enough.

Hey Now, Hey Now, Their Coach Is Back

KTVI-Fox-2:

Floyd Irons hopes the path is being cleared for him to return to the bench at Vashon High School.  FOX 2 has learned that the St. Louis School Board voted last week by a count of 6-0 to remove previous restrictions on Irons.  Those restrictions forbade Irons from applying for any athletic or coaching positions within the St. Louis School District.

(snip)

School Board President Veronica O’Brien was not at the special meeting.  O’Brien tells FOX 2 that she did not attend because she had a prior engagement.

Was this the board’s way of “going out with a bang” before the state takeover?  Or did the mice play while the cat was away?  Or shall we say, did the munchkins all come out and dance while the Wicked Witch of the (Central) West (End) was way off yonder?

I Would Hate To Be Grover Norquist Today

It looks like all his pandering to Muslims has had the net effect of compromising the Republican Party’s ability to combat radical Islam.

UPDATE 6:00 PM:  Front Page Mag has all but accused Norquist of outright sedition in the War on Terror.  So-called “conservatives” can be as much of an enemy within as any liberal Democrat.