This is NOT political!

[Xairbusdriver]

Yesterday our local paper presented an investigative report on several people running in some local elections. Mayoral and City Council positions, mostly. Out of almost a hundred candidates, 40+ had numerous delinquent tax bills. That alone is specifically listed in the city's charter as prohibiting hold public office. Even more amazing and saddening were the number of people with convictions for offenses up to felonies! (Fraud, Misuse of Public Funds, Bribery, etc.)

Possibly the most onerous 'baggage' many of these folks carried were the multiple declarations of bankruptcy many had. Some had used that technique five times in 12 years! One had done it done several different names in multiple states and cities. These are the people who will be making financial decisions affecting the city budget. And that budget will also affect me, even though I live in the county since many services are mutually shared and paid for.

I'm sure things are bad in other localities but I sincerely hope not as bad as this report indicates! I wouldn't wish this kind of corruption and malfeasance on any place! The records are too numerous to list here but you can view the article at <Candidates "Baggage">

[snuffysbluff]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Sep 28 2007, 07:54 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yesterday our local paper presented an investigative report on several people running in some local elections. Mayoral and City Council positions, mostly. Out of almost a hundred candidates, 40+ had numerous delinquent tax bills. That alone is specifically listed in the city's charter as prohibiting hold public office. Even more amazing and saddening were the number of people with convictions for offenses up to felonies! (Fraud, Misuse of Public Funds, Bribery, etc.)

Possibly the most onerous 'baggage' many of these folks carried were the multiple declarations of bankruptcy many had. Some had used that technique five times in 12 years! One had done it done several different names in multiple states and cities. These are the people who will be making financial decisions affecting the city budget. And that budget will also affect me, even though I live in the county since many services are mutually shared and paid for.

I'm sure things are bad in other localities but I sincerely hope not as bad as this report indicates! I wouldn't wish this kind of corruption and malfeasance on any place! The records are too numerous to list here but you can view the article at <Candidates "Baggage">

The world is what it is, Jim. I, for one, am grateful for the investigative reporting. Someday perhaps politics will be a service instead of a self serving, ego building, perceived validation of worth.

That said, I have to admit to being in arrears to the tax man on occastion early on my self employment career. But, then, if nominated I will not run, if elected, I will not serve.

Gary B

[Xairbusdriver]

I'll just say I don't expect perfect politicians nor do I make any trips to downtown Memphis unless absolutely required! The city is now listed as number one on the highest crime rate cities. But the mayor who 'won' with 57% voting against him says he's not the problem nor can he do anything about the crime rate. I sincerely hope things are better everywhere else. We may have to move to another county, if not another state. Moving out of Memphis some 32 years ago seems not to be far enough to avoid the dangers of the city...

[snuffysbluff]

Really sorry to hear Memphis has fallen so low. Used to be a bright spot in the nation back in the day.
Omaha has always been a little corrupt if not dangerous. I owned an acre in an upscale neighborhood at one time. The politicians promised no tax hike but they raised the mill levy instead. Pretty slick. My taxes doubled. I, who had no clout, tried for three years to get it re-zoned for multiple-family housing. Didn't happen for me. Sold it to some "fool" who built fancy condos and made a fortune. Good old boys win again.

Now I have an acre outside of Omaha and all is well.
My boys like it here also...
[attachment=715:Doggie_Pool.jpg]

[Xairbusdriver]

That's quite a bunch! Identical siblings?! But it looks like you need a 'doggy Welcome mat' at their entrance! Bet there's one inside! Or do you just add that cleanup to their 'chores?'

Many think it's time for all of us who moved out of Memphis to move back to re-take it. No thanks, my future is invested in the small, independent municipality where we live.

[krissel]

Hi Gary!

Those guys are adorable. Are they the same ones in that Xmas pic from a while back?

Too cute!

[snuffysbluff]

QUOTE(krissel @ Oct 10 2007, 01:02 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Gary!

Those guys are adorable. Are they the same ones in that Xmas pic from a while back?

Too cute!

Same ones, Kris. Two brothers, Mother and Father. I have four weiners and a black lab. Five is way to may dogs and probably against local codes, but I've a big yard and I went to school with the mayor.
Eccentricity is expected and I don't dissapoint.  

"Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner."

Gary B

[LR827]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Sep 28 2007, 07:54 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...I'm sure things are bad in other localities but I sincerely hope not as bad as this report indicates! I wouldn't wish this kind of corruption and malfeasance on any place! ...

Come to Chicago, Jim. I hate to sound like I'm trying to one-up you, but this place -- the whole state of Illinois -- gives corruption totally new meaning. Look up "corruption" in the dictionary, and you'll see a photograph of our governor, our mayor (of Chicago), all of "his" aldermen, the Cook County Board President and all "his" commissioners... and... oh, well.

The following editorial was in the Trib today, and although I do not always agree with this particular columnist:

www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped1015byrneoct15,0,2881462.story


Do they really think voters are that dumb?
By Dennis Byrne

a Chicago-area writer and consultant

October 15, 2007

Isn't there some way for fed-up citizens of Illinois, Cook County and Chicago to force their governments into receivership?

After all, when a corporation is as stunningly incompetent as are Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, legislative leaders, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and his toady City Council, creditors can force it into bankruptcy in which a court-appointed trustee straightens out the mess or, if necessary, shuts it down to preserve the remains.

If the city, county or state were corporations, their creditors long ago would have forced their operations out of the hands of the bunglers and turned it over to a court-appointed executive.

So, why shouldn't we citizens and taxpayers have the same right to protect our publicly held assets from Blagojevich, Daley, Stroger and the rest of the clinkers who have so miserably failed to govern in the interests of the governed?

I make this suggestion with tongue only slightly in cheek. Look at the shambles that our "leaders" have given us: A state run by a governor who thinks we should cough up our money for every cockamamie giveaway and tax-increase scheme he hatches. Legislative leaders whose personal animosities have turned the state capital into a preschool playpen. A Cook County government, so wildly mis-, mal- and non-managed by Stroger and his cronies that they want to hit us up with a huge sales tax increase to bail them out.

Now comes Daley with a $293 million bundle of tax, fee and fine increases, including the city's largest-ever property tax increase, to finance an operation stinking with corruption and looting. Daley says blame the aldermen knocking on his "side door" for the goodies. Well, blame whomever; Daley is giving it away to somebody.

His 2008 budget would increase expenditures by more than 5 percent, and over two years by $700 million or 12 percent. Daley laughably suggests that Chicagoans should be happy with the higher taxes because they'll get some new neighborhood libraries. ...Just coincidentally, the contracts would guarantee labor peace through the 2016 Olympics, in effect, imposing a hidden Games tax.

This piano-load of new taxes lands on Chicagoans and their visitors as they already are paying some of the nation's highest taxes and fees. That's thanks to the current $5 billion budget that imposed increases of about $75 million in taxes and $11 million in fees. ...

John McCarron, one of the city's most insightful columnists, raised this issue in this space last summer, when things in Springfield looked like they couldn't get worse. Why, he wondered, when Democrats run it all, can't they win the war for their own agenda: "progressive taxation, for equal access to jobs and educational opportunities, for a semblance of social justice."

Good question, and I don't have the answer... Maybe it's a matter of greed: now that they control the pot of gold, too many hands want to dip into it. Or purity: every "program" or "service" on the agenda must be fully funded.

Or, maybe Daley himself provides the answer when he takes Chicagoans for dopes by saying they "know that if I propose raising taxes it's because we've exhausted every other option ..."

He could be right. Perhaps voters are dumb enough to knowingly elect incompetents. Maybe we don't need a trustee to fix things; maybe just smarter, more responsible voters.

----------

Dennis Byrne is a Chicago-area writer and consultant. E-mail: http://dennis byrne.blogspot.com

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

[Xairbusdriver]

I fear that my protestations to the contrary, this thread is veering into 'politics'. Let's not drag it farther into the abyss! ;P

[krissel]

Who said "The people get the government they deserve?"  

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OK, I decided to find out. Seems a lot of people have phrased that idea:

QUOTE

HL Mencken once said "Democracy is the belief that the common man knows what he wants and deserves to get it good and hard."

QUOTE

de Tocqueville said that “in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve.”

QUOTE

George Bernard Shaw:Democracy is a device to ensure we are governed by no better than we deserve.

Ah, but Lorraine, this is the kicker.  Read the article at this link first. Then look at the date.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...,790322,00.html


  End of story.

[Gregg]

Government is a mess, and that's not political, just fact. In Wisconsin, we are 15 weeks late and counting, but the wrong thing. It's the budget that's late. Who's counting what???

I believe it was Winston Churchill that said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, execpt for all the rest."

[Xairbusdriver]

Loraine, I really didn't want to get into a 'political' commentary with this post. We all know there are corrupt politians almost everywhere. My concern was about those with arrests and convictions for crimes up to and including accepting bribes for government contracts being able to run again for the same position. Peoplke with multiple bankruptcies expecting people to elect them to handle the millions they will be collecting from us!

"Studity is doing the same thing while expecting different results."

[RobW]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Oct 16 2007, 09:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...

"Studity is doing the same thing while expecting different results."

Not to nitpick--we'll I guess I am, but it's "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (Clearly, as Lorraine will attest, insanity and stupidity are quite different.)

BTW, for those who are interested, you can find that same quote (which I use a lot at work) attributed to both Albert Einstein or Ben Franklin. (At the bottom of the wikipedia link, it says that the quote is misattributed to Einstein.)

Jim, you may have heard them both speak--who said it first?    

[dboh]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Oct 16 2007, 09:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

"Stu[pi]dity is doing the same thing while expecting different results."

Camus also said (to paraphrase) "Stupidity has a knack of getting its way, which we would see if we were not always so wrapped up in ourselves."

[LR827]

Wow. I don't know whom to quote first!  Everyone is making sense.

The quote about "insanity doing the same thing over & over & expecting different results" has a similar quote,

"Mental health: one darn thing after another. Mental illness: the same darn thing over & over again."

Jim, I pasted in that commentary too quickly, then went back 2 or 3 times trying to sanitize (de-politicize) it.  Dennis Byrne railed vociferously at all Democrats in that article, and he is so one-sided that  it's hard to read him. By the same token, Andrew Greely is horrifically anti-administration. If he would tone it down, pro-administration folks might take his reasonable objections more seriously.

But anyway, regarding Chicago politics, I don't think you will find more crooks anywhere -- with ongoing investigations and convictions. Do you remember Harold Washington, the first African-American mayor of Chicago? He was a convicted felon -- income tax evasion.

Krissy, that was a very interesting article!