Chicago: There’s Smoke, But Is There Fire?

As far back as 1871, Chicago has been reputed as a city with a shady political scene. In fact, Chicago’s reputation has earned it a statement from the head of the FBI Office in Chicago, in which he said “If Illinois isn’t the most corrupt state in the United States, it’s a strong competitor.”

Which just makes this event, which was held between December 7 and December 10 this year, absolutely hilarious. Yes, you read that right, Chicago hosted the 30th Annual Governmental Ethics Conference.

So when the Democratic Governor of Illinois got arrested in the three day window for this Governmental Ethics Conference, my sides ached. I’m not going to speculate on the guilt or innocence of Governor Rod Blagojevich, although it appears based on media reports that there is good reason for the FBI to be investigating the Governor.

Even more intriguing is the question of whether President-elect Barack Obama knew anything about Gov. Blagojevich’s actions. As many know, Obama was born as a political figure in the Chicago Democratic Machine. But whether he knew that people in the Democratic Party would sell his Senate seat to the highest bidder? I highly doubt it. However, I wouldn’t rule out that he may have suspected that such business may go on after he became President-elect.

There are a couple of links between the President-elect and Governor Blagojevich, although they’re far from conclusive. They were both members of the same party in the same city, and would almost certainly have met at social Party events and all kinds of varied events in Illinois.

Another point of interest is that the son of David Axelrod, Obama’s chief astroturfer advisor, allegedly once worked in Gov. Blagojevich’s office. I can accept that there are all kinds of networks in any given city, but something about this makes Obama’s uninvolvement look a touch suspect. After all, Axelrod was the chief driving force behind both getting Barack Obama nominated as a Presidential candidate, and if Axelrod’s son worked for Governor Blagojevich, then Axelrod and Blagojevich at the least knew each other in a social setting.

The social networks and intertwined links involved in both the offices of Governor and State Senator make Obama’s calls for Blagojevich’s resignation look incredibly hollow.

UPDATE: I’m so glad that I’m not the only person who finds this funny!

2008: Year of the Moonbat?

South Australian Premier Mike Rann has called for David Hicks to apologize for his Taliban training and terrorist sympathies. In response, here are some words of wisdom from a commenter at abc.net

Hicks never trained with al-Qaeda, there was no al-Qaeda until 9/11.The term al-Qaeda was thought up by the CIA, who has subsequently admitted doing so. The falsehood was started in January 2001 by Jamal al Fadl, a Sudanese who had been with Bin Laden in the early 1990s. Jamal al Fadl stole money from Bin Laden, and then sought protection in the USA. The FBI and CIA paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars to create the al-Qaeda fiction. In fact, al Fadl invented the name al-Qaeda.Osama Bin Laden never used the term al-Qaeda until after 9/11, when he realized that al-Qaeda was the term the Americans had invented for him.

This is all about oil, a consortium represented by George W Bush’s father met with the Taliban to discuss the construction of a pipeline through Afghanistan to convey oil from Azerbaijan to a port in Pakistan, where it was to be tankered directly to the US. This consortium’s proposal was rejected by the Taliban, who gave the rights to the pipeline to Brazil. Thus the Taliban became the world’s enemy #1 according to the US.

If the Taliban had agreed to Bush snr’s proposal Hicks would have been a friend of the US, not an enemy. The invasion of Afghanistan and later Iraq would never have happened, and life as we know it would not have changed in any way.