Mayor’s Row……….by Ned Mitchell

            Coincidence, coincidence, coincidence and if we keep telling that big lie we will eventually all believe it.  A famous person, I think one of the Three Stooges used to use the made up word “qoinkidence” when describing something odd happening.  I’m not sure if the three democrats who run this state would even qualify to have the status of the Three Stooges.  The reformer/unreformer Governor Rod Blagojevich, Senate President Emil Jones, and Speaker of the House Mike Madigan might well be qualified for Three Blind Mice status, but not the Stooges!

            The latest coincidence involving the Governor and his family was revealed last week when a Chicago newspaper broke the story about Patti Blagojevich had earned a commission on a real estate deal between $26,000 and $39,000 dollars.  Nothing unusual about that so says Governor mouthpiece Abby Ottenhoff, even though the property Patti Blagojevich brokered was apparently not listed anywhere.  Now it is discovered that the seller, Mark Wight, owner of an architecture firm has been awarded three new contracts with the state one of which came right after the real estate deal.  He has been awarded $10 million dollars in no bid contracts since the real estate deal.  Can anyone other than me connect the dots here?

            This is not the only shady deal involving the Governor and his wife. Patti Blagojevich also cut real estate deals with Tony Rezko who has now been indicted in federal court involving kickbacks and state government.  Then we have the case where Patti Blagojevich was paid more than $113,000 for real estate commissions involving Anita Mahajan who also has now been indicted for allegedly defrauding tax payers in Illinois of over $2 million dollars.

            Our daughter, Carrigan had her second birthday a few weeks ago and searching as hard as I could it was discovered that none of the family and friends who attended the “Sponge Bob” birthday party had mysteriously dropped a $1,500 check into a birthday card for Carrigan.  Talk about disappointed, how can the Governor and his wife be the only people I know whose children receive such gifts on their birthday?

            Of course the Governor and his wife have not been charged with any crime as of yet but there are about a dozen state and federal investigations underway right now so we will see how that all turns out.

            Even though some folks who have the ability to connect the dots and see behind the veil of good government that this administration falsely promotes it is easy to see why some of us are a little queasy about the much touted “Illinois Works” capital plan being talked about.

            As we all know the Senate has passed their version of the capital projects bill and it had a little something for everyone, including a huge waste of about $55 million dollars to make Illinois 13 six lanes for a short distance between Marion and  Carbondale before narrowing back to 4 lanes at Crab Orchard Lake.  The Senate democrats under direct supervision of Laborer’s union big wig Ed Smith held a press conference last week in Springfield to announce they were not going to support a bailout of the transit system in Chicago unless the Chicago legislators voted in the House to approve their capital bill.  Big deal and whooptedo, the whole bunch settled on another temporary fix for transit and sent the Senators and Ed Smith packing with nothing but an empty bag.

            House minority spokesman Tom Cross has been the point man to keep Blagojevich, Madigan, and Jones from fighting to the bitter end.  Isn’t it strange that the democrats control everything in Springfield yet they have to go to a republican to broker any deals between them?  Anyhow, Cross pointed out last week that the proposed capital bill that the Senate passed was done without any input from the House.  To be more blunt Cross then said “as far as I’m concerned, what came over from the Senate is not what we are going to work from.  We are going to start over in the House.”

            The famous bottom line is for folks who thought they had money allocated in the Senate capital bill to not go out and spend that money.  The House may have different projects in mind and will more than likely have a completely different capital bill on the table for the Senate to bash.

            The state has not had a capital projects bill since 1999 even though they talk about one about every year.  We still don’t have a means to pay for the plan called “Illinois Works” and even though expanded gambling is the current thought, I remain skeptical of the fact that a public works construction program can be put together in 10 days as they proclaimed last week.  About the only thing this bunch has put together and passed this fast happens to be the not one but two pay raises they handed out to each other earlier this year.

            A capital works plan worth $25 billion dollars is cause for concern especially since Emil Jones has single handedly held up a new ethics law that would prohibit any hanky panky from those who expect to dip into this huge pile of cash.  I believe there have been about 18 ethics bills held up thus far with the Governor even saying a few years back he was going to really shake things up with his ethics ideas.  If you believe that one refer back to paragraph one of this column!

            You and I have a lot of work to do and it all begins with a primary election in February of 2008 and continues with the November election.  Voters have a big decision to make!

            Congratulations to very important Sesser residents on their recent retirements.  Jack Winemiller has just finished up a little over 42 years with Sesser Concrete Products and has been a model employee.  I have ven been told that two people were hired to replace Jack.  Also with 42 years work is Sesser dentist Dr. Larry McBride who has announced his retirement.  Dr. McBride has treated thousands of patients well during his years of work.  Both Winemiller and McBride are model citizens and have set a good example for the rest of us to follow.  Congratulations to both men for their years of service to our community and we wish them the best of everything in their much deserved retirement.

            Congratulations are also in order for Benton attorney A. Courtney Cox and his appointment as United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois.  Courtney has some ties to the Sesser community a quite a lot of family still around here.  Courtney has earned this honor in my opinion and we in Sesser want to wish him well in this new venture.  It is a huge public service to hold such a position and one that Courtney will take seriously.  We are fortunate to have attorneys the caliber of Courtney to step forward and assume this awesome task.

            This coming weekend the Sesser-Valier thespian group will present the play “Into the Woods, Jr” in a live theater production.  Tickets are available at the door and the show starts at 7:00 pm each evening.  Director Bethany Sink and her cast have put a lot of work into this production and it promises to be a good one.

A Business Images Website