And I thought metro-Detroit politicians were corrupt

Then along comes Illinois. From this article at Newgeography.com comes some really harsh stats on the swamp that is politics in Chicago. And I thought we were bad because Detroit's ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was removed from office after pleading guilty to several corruption related felonies as was the Detroit City Council President who is currently in prison for taking bribes and a huge federal investigation is underway in re Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano's shenanigans. That's all pretty bad I admit but then along comes Illinois: At least 27 Chicago aldermen/women have been convicted of felonies for their conduct in office in past few years. (Frosting on the cake: Four of the last six Illinois governors were convicted of felonies and went to prison too.) And yet these guys get elected and re-elected with the regularity of a well oiled machine. Go figure?

The Kwamester, despite all he's done (as well as been convicted of), "has forgiven himself" he tells EMU audience

Awww. Forgiveness sure is nice isn't it? Especially when it is extended by the one and only person you really do actually care about. What a narcissist, eh? If this puzzles you consider this. The political class is different from the rest of us you see. Estimates are that the general population is about 4 percent sociopathic but among the political class the rate has got to be more like 99 percent. The only realistic course of action I can see therefore would be this: I wouldn't trust a government office to anyone who desires to have one. Just wanting that power shows they can't be trusted with it.

This mofo is the best guest speaker you guys could come up with?

The Kwamester

Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is scheduled to take his lame ass book-tour to my alma mater in a few days. Probably trying to raise a few more thou to pay for the legal team he is no doubt assembling for his upcoming federal corruption trials.

Case dismissed: A Detroit urban legend finally bites the dust

The rumored but never proven Kwame Kilpatrick-era Manoogian Mansion party featuring strippers & fist fights and supposedly leading to the murder of one of the strippers and which was then covered up by Kilpatrick and which led to an expensive lawsuit against the city of Detroit by the stripper's family is now finally over.

"U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen's decision to throw out a lawsuit", says Brian Dickerson @ the Detroit Free Press, "brought by the children of slain stripper Tamara (Strawberry) Greene will surely disappoint partisans of political intrigue and courtroom melodrama. But it's more than amply supported by the evidence -- or, more precisely, the dearth of relevant evidence -- [plaintiff's lawyer Norman] Yatooma and his clients were able to surface in their epic fishing expedition."

I think the thing that kept this whole pathetic circus act going for all these years is the fact that the Kwamster was such a sleazy character that the idea of of it all seemed entirely possible. These allegations actually needed to be debunked step-by-step and in detail because otherwise this thing would have gone on forever. Actually it will go on forever just like with other events like the 911 Truther movement, Air Force UFO cover-ups, or the JFK assassination amongst the conspiracy theorists and underground historians. They'll no doubt talk about the Manoogian party-murder-cover-up conspiracy by Kilpatrick forever but at least it'll be on their time and their dime and not the taxpayers. Time to move on.

The Kwamster does some battlefield preparation

Disgraced ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gives a mealy-mouthed self-serving interview to the Detroit News today that is full of non-apology apologies, half-truths, pleas for sympathy and barely concealed appeals to blacks for racial solidarity (i.e., Acquit me!). Look for him to mount a "whitey hates me" style of defense at his upcoming federal corruption trial.

Me personally I would be happy to see all of Kilpatrick's charges dropped (but not the restitution payments though) in exchange for him being required to  staying in Texas permanently and not visit Michigan for at least 10 years. Why? Because that fat, hairy, crooked, lying tumor on Michigan politics and society is better off removed than contained.

You won't have Kwame Kilpatrick to kick around any more news media!

Says the former Mayor of Detroit.  Forever playing the victim card. Do us all a favor bub and stay in Dallas.

Jail bird Ex-Detroit Mayor: "I could get elected Detroit mayor again"

Even though: Kwame Kilpatrick is a convicted felon, currently on parole, and under federal indictment for additional corruption charges whose tenure as mayor was a media carnival of corruption, mismanagement and an epic failure. The sad thing is that the Detroit electorate are a bunch of race-obsessed morons who really would happily re-elect this fucktard just to "stick it to whitey" or something. To paraphrase H.L. Mencken here: People in Detroit know what they want and deserve to get it. Good and hard too.

A thinner but still cocky & arrogant Kwame Kilpatrick leaves prison

Free for now.

After serving 14 months in state prison for violating his probation by concealing cash and assets from the court and not paying his restitution. The ex-Detroit mayor is heading back to Texas until his next court appearance. And like the  asshat he is, he's apparently forgotten nothing and yet learned nothing from his experience.

Weblog

Betty Ford still dead (Grand Rapids Press/MLive)
So put her in the ground already. Having a state funeral for someone who was the First Lady 34 years ago seems like a waste of taxpayer money to me.  Her husband was president not royalty. Just sayin'.

Ex-Mayor Kilpatrick still hatin' on whitey, spinning and lying (Curt Guyette, Detroit Metro-Times)
"That's the thing about Kwame: He may be a prolific liar, but that doesn't make him a proficient one. In fact, Chapter 1 in the Liar's Handbook clearly states that you don't prevaricate about things that are easily proven to be untrue."

Amongst KK's demographic base "truth" is relative not absolute. Truth is whatever he needs it to be at any given moment. 

Listening to Obama's speeches: An "unhappy duty" I'll leave to others (Michael Godwin, NY Post)
"Enough. He is the Man Who Won't Listen to Anybody, so why should anybody listen to him?
Tuning out and turning off the president does not fill me with gladness. He cannot be ignored.
But for now, I will leave that unhappy duty to others. I am tired of Barack Obama. There's nothing new there. His speeches are like 'Groundhog Day.' "

I've felt the same way about presidential speeches for the last four administrations. The only quibble I have is that I don't believe I have a duty somehow to listen to Obama or any other pol.

Let's face it, high speed rail is dead (Aaron Renn, New Geography)
I sure hope so. Just regular trains will be fine.

Weblog

Ex-mayor blames whites and Jews

Detroit News editor and columnist Nolan Finley rips into ex-mayor's blaxploitation/ hate-whitey themed memoir

"In the book, Kilpatrick writes, 'My intent entering office was to empower Detroiters, and my actions heading into my second term suggested we had the ability to do it. And that threatened too many people's bottom line. 'Who on earth is he talking about? You hear this garbage all the time, but nobody, including Kilpatrick, ever names names. And if there were a market in the disintegration of Detroit, there'd be a whole lot more rich people around town. This city has been run almost entirely by black people for 35 years. Kilpatrick was one of them. He was fully empowered, and he used that power to cheat the city and fatten his own bottom line, according to the federal corruption charges."  [emphasis added]

Now that's talking truth to power. I guess Mr. Finley isn't going to be giving Kilpatrick's book five stars on Amazon.com then. As Finley notes in his column it was precisely the white power structure that saved Kwame's ass for a second term in the first place with all their endorsements and last minute money bombs. I wonder how they feel  now?

Ace Detroit News political reporter Charlie Cain dies at 60 (Detroit News)
A sad loss.

Highly touted new DuPont herbicide  suspected in massive summer die off of Norway Spruce, White Pine trees (Detroit Free Press)
This has been the worst tree die off since the Emerald Ash Bore epidemic. I hope DuPont has some deep pockets for this one. More importantly I hope all of Michigan's fur trees don't die. More info on DuPont's  herbicide Imprelis© can be found here.

BATF/DoJ sold, tracked, same guns to cartels they hoped to ban because they were tracked from cartels (Matthew Knee, Legal Insurrection)
What a cynical move even for them. Many people here and in Mexico have been injured or killed by those weapons too.

Sign of the times: Kwame Kilpatrick redux

Disgraced & imprisoned ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick "writes" a tell-all book (Doug Guthrie, Detroit News)

Remember this headline?

Even given that its been co-written with/by his cousin and has been heavily redacted by his legal team and all notwithstanding it might still be a fun read just to hear him explain the lies and spin he dished out for six years. All the perjury, cronyism, nepotism, incompetence, corruption, no-bid contracting and so forth that Kwame, his family and crew engaged in he says was done in order to "empower Detroiters" whatever the hell that means. I find that kind of stuff from the likes of him unintentionally hilarious. Watching this goof try yet again to spin his way back to a good reputation is like watching a pompous ass strut around with a long piece of toilet paper stuck to bottom of their shoe. Mean-spirited but fun, eh?

You know I may even score a copy of this book just for my personal library and which I could do in good conscience because an arrangement has been entered into by the Wayne county circuit court to sieze the profits (if any) from the sales of the book. Kilpatrick according to the Detroit News story still owes $860,000 in restitution.

Annals of Democracy, cont'd.

The feds announced yesterday a massive criminal prosecution of the Kilpatrick Mob. What those crooks did by stealing from the long suffering people of Detroit is just plain evil. And to think that those same utterly broke and destitute people not only elected Kwame Kilpatrick a state rep and then mayor, but then, knowing what a fucking crook he was, re-elected him mayor. People deserve the type of governance they get say many cynics. Maybe they're right. It sure seems so in this case.

As emotionally satisfying as it is to see the feds start arresting and prosecuting the Kilpatrick Mob at long last, in the end it really only amounts to closing the barn door long after the horses are long gone. And there's not much prospect of ever getting the money back from these crooks either just to add salt to the wound. And so it goes in Detroit.