Free Republic

Every once in a while, you read something in the news which leaves you seething. We live in a world full of both corruption and stupidity — two things which often seem to work synergistically. A couple of days ago, I came across something which had that unique blend of the two, a news story that was like a freshly-brewed cup of tick-me-off in the morning. The story in question comes out of Illinois, via Andrew Breitbart's Big Government website. Short and to the point, Breitbart's article notes that election officials in The Most Corrupt County in the Most Corrupt...

Over 35 counties in Illinois missed the deadline to mail military ballots to our soldiers defending America. But in Chicago, county election officials have taken special steps to ensure that no inmates at the Cook County Jail are unable to cast a ballot. The Chicago Board of Elections hand delivers ballots to the jail. They don’t even wait for the inmates to apply – they bring the applications with the ballots! Over 2,600 inmates have cast ballots so far – strikingly similiar to the 2,600 soldiers who will likely not recieve a ballot for the Nov 2 election. Disgraceful does...

Turnout in polling places in suburban Cook County show that residents in several areas with large minority populations did not vote early. Numbers released Thursday by the Cook County clerk showed that places like Park Forest and Cicero had lackluster turnout at early voting locations. Park Forest has a minority population of 61 percent, with an African American population of 55 percent. The total population of the suburb is more than 22,000, but as of Wednesday only 747 people had voted. Cicero has over 26,000 registered voters with 77 percent Hispanic, but as of Wednesday only 921 people had shown...

Oh my: Michelle Obama electioneering in polling place? posted at 7:15 pm on October 14, 2010 by Allahpundit regular view When Drudge puts up the red font — with italics, no less — we’re almost obliged to blog it, aren’t we? I’m … outrageously outraged?

A few weeks ago Chicago Magazine published a story that revealed what sure looks like an influence peddling scandal perpetrated by Democrat Cook County Board of Review member Joseph Berrios. The story is filled with the maddeningly typical Chicago corruption. It also seems to implicate his other two fellow board members, Brendan Houlihan and Larry Rogers, Jr -- both Democrats. To date Houlihan has yet to answer to these charges. The Cook County Board of Review is the office responsible for handling property tax complaints and is responsible for lowering the tax rate if a property merits a reduction. As...

Living the American Dream -- on the taxpayers' dime Now, HUD is reviewing housing grants to Cook County workers August 16, 2010 BY CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporter with the BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION Anntoinette R. Brown got the American Dream -- twice. And, though it appears to have been improper to do so, the taxpayers helped pay for it, a Chicago Sun-Times/Better Government Association investigation has found. Brown, a Cook County government employee, was one of the county's first residents to qualify for the "American Dream Downpayment Initiative," a federally funded housing-assistance effort. Terry M. Gowder Sr. (inset) got a grant...

This story has been building for weeks on HillBuzz.org, but the reporting there was often iffy, hazy, and speculative, so I didn't write about it myself. But this week things have come to a head proving the allegations had some merit because now Cook County GOP Executive Director Jeremy Rose has resigned over the allegations of sexual harassment leveled against him. The story goes that on June 17, 2009, a woman was attending a Chicago Young Republicans meeting in Chicago and when she made to leave for the night was prevented from doing so by Rose. Rose began touching the...

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's last year in office is marked by one incident of bilking the taxpayers after another. Each week seems to bring a new example of Stroger and his buddies and family members sticking their hands in our pockets and this week has been no different. In fact, this week we've gotten a twofer as two incidents of Stroger's nest feathering have come to light. The first came on the 27th when Big Boss Todd awarded a $15,000 consulting job to Raymond L. Harris Sr., of Bolingbrook, who worked on Stroger's losing primary campaign to retain...

The Sun-Times reports that the next Cook County Board President might be yet another bought and paid for union stooge. Democrat Party candidate Toni Preckwinkle raised $1.3 million for her campaign for county board president thus far and $220,000 of that came from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). So, what we are seeing is yet another Democrat candidate owned lock, stock and barrel by a public employees union. Gee, I wonder if she’ll be amenable to union demands once in office? Her opponent, GOP candidate Roger Keats, has raised only $19,000 so far. Not that there IS a Republican...

A local rapper and a 35-year-old man are accused of beating a man to death because he accidentally scratched the rapper’s car. Edward Brown and Steven Fox, 26, a rapper known as “Sincere the Realist,” sent the 46-year-old victim into coma and eventually his death, according to prosecutors and police reports. Brown is a family friend of Larry Brown, who died on July 7 from the injuries related to attack, according to court testimony. It was Fox’s car that Larry Brown caused minor damage to when he was returning home in the early morning hours of June 17, assistant state’s...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Dan Patlak was an analyst at the Board of Review for eight years. Patlak has been a taxpayer advocate in Wheeling Township where he is in his second term as Wheeling Township Assessor. Patlak is a Certified Illinois Assessing Officer and has been a licensed real estate broker since 1986. Patlak is a member of the National Taxpayers Union and is endorsed by the National Taxpayers United of Illinois PAC. DAN PATLAK -- IN HIS OWN WORDS My campaign for Commissioner of the Cook County Board of Review has adopted a radical new idea…educating taxpayers so they can...

One of the main reasons that little Todd Stroger lost his comfy job as president of the Cook County Board -- the office left him by his deceased father -- is because of the graft and payoffs to his friends and family members that he constantly perpetrated. It was so bad even Democrats were ashamed of him and voted him out of office in the last primary. But thanks to the fact that Illinois Democrats moved the primary to February President Stroger has eight months to continue giving his friends and family members cushy jobs paid for by the County...

Reporting from Washington — Mwenda Murithi, the Kenyan-born leader of a notorious Chicago street gang, was arrested 26 times after his student visa was revoked in 2003. Charged with at least four felonies, he served 30 days in the Cook County Jail for a 2007 drug violation. By law, he could have been deported immediately. But Chicago officials did not report him to immigration authorities because city and county ordinances prohibit them from doing so. Not long after he got out of jail, Murithi ordered a gang hit that resulted in the death of 13-year-old Schanna Gayden, struck by a...

One of the most exhausting days we have had in awhile. Freepers, Minutemen, Veterans and law abiding citizens showed up at City hall to make sure there was a voice to demand justice for Schanna Gayden a young teenager who was muderer in Logan Square by an illegal alien who was arrested 27 times by the Chicago Police Department and nothing was done. If we had SB1070 in Illinois Schanna might still be with us today!! Be reminded we live in a sanctuary city and the hands of the Chicago Police are tied behind their backs when it comes to...

Cook County's 'country club' hospital Oak Forest Hospital is virtually empty -- and far overstaffed May 17, 2010 BY LISA DONOVAN AND ART GOLAB Staff Reporters Cook County-owned Oak Forest Hospital is known by doctors and nurses in the public health system as the "country club." They aren't referring just to the 340 rolling acres the hospital sits on, or the pond that beckons geese, ducks and brown-bagging staffers. » Click to enlarge image On a given day, more than two-thirds of Oak Forest Hospital's beds are empty, and about a fifth of its buildings are vacant. An entrance by...

<p>The 1890s Chicago City Council was notorious for corrupt political practices orchestrated by a faction of its aldermen known as the Gray Wolves. So named because they were viewed as preying upon the defenseless public, the Gray Wolves were led by First Ward aldermen “Bathhouse” John Coughlin and “Hinky Dink” Mike Kenna, and Johnny Powers of the Nineteenth Ward. These elected officials were not only skilled at trading votes for favors, but once in office they excelled in making municipal decisions to profit themselves financially.</p>

A long-brewing political war over Cook County property taxes has gone nuclear with charges that tax bills are being delayed intentionally until after the November elections to disguise big tax breaks to politically connected businesses and higher levies on homeowners.snipAt his [Houlihan's] press conference, he said that the County Board of Review — which doublechecks and revises proposed property assessments made by Mr. Houlihan's office — "is engaged in a deliberate effort to delay second-installment property tax bills until after the Nov. 2 election."

Chicago Breaking News reported late last night that former Chicago schools chief and current Secretary of Education Arne Duncan manipulated a system to favor powerful political allies by placing their children in the schools of their choice. The discovery of a list, the existence of which had been long denied by the city, and its composition of mainly high-powered political figures calls into question the appeals system used to reconsider applications that had been denied by the top Chicago-area schools: While many Chicago parents took formal routes to land their children in the best schools, the well-connected also sought help...

A naked, wet and angry Rahm Emanuel? That's the last image Americans need in our minds right now. But it's been seared onto our brains — just like that weird wrestling scene from the movie "Borat" — thanks to former U.S. Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., who resigned the other day amid allegations he sexually harassed male staffers. "Let me tell you a story about Rahm Emanuel," Massa said on a recent radio program, talking about taking a shower in the Congressional Gym. "I'm sitting there showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel not even with a towel...

the times Some see Preckwinkle nomination as sign voters want to move past seedy Stroger era New era for Crook County? By Sophia Tareen Posted: Monday, February 22, 2010 12:05 am CHICAGO | Corruption in the nation's second-largest county is so commonplace that even a government phone system expects complaints: "For current patronage issues, press 2." For decades, Cook County -- where dozens and dozens of employees, contractors and politicians have been convicted of wrongdoing -- has been synonymous with politically connected hiring and nepotism. Although the county since 1983 has been under a court order banning political hiring and...