Posted on 02/16/2012 1:32:35 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
.....[Dick]Simpson has not only studied corruption for years; he's also a former Chicago alderman, one of the good-government progressives once ridiculed by the Democratic machine.
The report, "Chicago and Illinois, Leading the Pack in Corruption," is full of depressing figures. And its co-authors clearly understand the effect of corruption on voters......
What has come to be called "The Chicago Way" or "The Illinois Way" of public corruption has undermined the...voters' sense of political efficacy. Why apply for a city or state job if you know only patronage employees or politician's relatives will be hired anyway? Why report corrupt officials, if you know they won't be punished and they may turn the powers of the government on you? Voters may laugh at times at the antics of public officials, but in the end, they feel powerless, lose their faith in government and vote less often because they believe the "fix is in."
Taxpayers have known in their bones that Illinois was fixed since before Al Capone bounced Chicago's mayor on his knee and gave him candy, but now there are numbers to prove it.
"The data from the DepartmentofJustice confirm what your readers know since you've been writing about it for years," Simpson said. "That Chicago is corrupt. That Illinois is corrupt. That corruption permeates public life."
But he hasn't given up. He's offered a series of recommendations to MayorRahmEmanuel's task force on ethics and reform. Among these are giving the city inspector general access to all city documents, including those held in secret by mayoral lawyers; banning all gifts to elected officials; and improving the city's ethics training.
"The ethics training in Chicago is a joke," Simpson said.
According to the report, there have been 1,531 convictions of publicofficials on corruption charges in the Chicago area since 1976.....
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
I always thought that DC would win that honor.
I guess once you make it to DC ranks, corruption is kept in-house and everyone zips their lips and leadership uses what they know to keep everyone voting the “right” way (or to get rid of you when you aren’t going along with the program).
Hmmm, have you ever had any politician come out and explain the corruption that happens in Congress? From insider trading to guiding funds to supporters...it happens all the time. Just ask Polosi.
We all know that it exists but proving it seems unrealistic of even so, not prosecutable.
Heck, why do so many ex-politicians become intrenched in the DC government. Most become lobbyists or in another words, influence peddlers. Do you really think that they do this for other reasons than money and power?
Out political system is so corrupt that it could not be corrected by laws. That problem is because laws are for the little people made by those in power.
You’re preaching to the choir.
Heh, sorry, did not get that from your post. My understanding gets worse as the hour advances...
Heh, if only the rest of the world understood that.
What’s also “statistically improbable” is that a politician who ascended so quickly through this corrupt swamp and ended up in the White House did so without also engaging in corruption. To judge both by the cast of characters in the WH and actions of this administration, the Chicago Way is thoroughly ensconced in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Unfortunately - can NOT disagree! Our political system almost guarantees that someone of questionable character is elected. This happened the last election mostly due to our media. Just look at Chicago to confirm this. The most corrupt City in the US (led by our own administrations top candidate).
Of course, this does have an effect on future elections - are things so corrupt that we can no longer survive as a nation? Between the excess laws, the unequal enforcement of our current laws, and the unequal enforcement of laws against Congress...well, can this actually continue? Seems that the Democrats are insistent upon allowing illegal voters to prevail. If voting becomes a non-citizen action, where do we go from there - dictatorship?
America is fast losing its faith in the law! It either has to apply to all equally or it is wrong. Today, even the Supreme Court seems to be a political institution. If this continues, most of our cherished beliefs will be crushed.
America as our founders envisioned will be gone....
He figures the correlation betwixt convictions and co-conspirators who got away is one to ten.
But they make up for it by voting more often after they die than in any other city.
DC wins hands down for national and world-wide corruption.
Chicago wins for state-wide, regional, local, and community organizational corruption. They're so very corrupt that they managed to take the stain and and put it into the us presidency. If that ain't complete and total corruption, I don't know what is.
“What’s also “statistically improbable” is that a politician who ascended so quickly through this corrupt swamp and ended up in the White House did so without also engaging in corruption. To judge both by the cast of characters in the WH and actions of this administration, the Chicago Way is thoroughly ensconced in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.”
To understand the depth of depravity of Barack Obama and his associates, one needs only to look at exactly how he worked his way into the political system. Until 2008, Obama had never had to compete in an election. I suggest a Google or Yahoo search to learn this. Obama has been - without doubt - a product of Affirmative Action preferences during his entire life.
And Chicago clearly is the most corrupt city in the most corrupt sate in the USA. We are run by a criminal cabal known as “The Combine” that comprises democrats and republicans, all interested only in self-enrichment and enrichment of their families. However, the democrat party controls Chicago and Cook (Crook) County, which with one other area (Rockford) yields sufficient democrat votes to preclude a GOP candidate from ever winnning the mayoralty or goverhnorship
Maybe if enough of them started showing up dead in back alleys...
(I can dream, can't I?)
The use of the words good government and progressives in the same sentence does not compute...error...error...error...
America as our founders envisioned IS gone...it will probably take the spilling of the blood of Patriots and tyrants to restore it.
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