July 30, 2010 Southwest News-Herald - City & Suburban
Blagojevich, Flooding And the MWRDGC
Everyone made such a big deal about Tony Rezko, the businessman, who they said was directing Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s illegal activities.
And then suddenly, after 14 months of headlines slamming Rezko and Blagojevich, he just drops off the radar screen like nothing matter.
The Blagojevich trial has received enormous media attention, and yet I still can’t find one solid piece of evidence that Blagojevich put one dollar of public money in his own pocket.
The mainstream media horde of Blagojevich haters — and they are a real gaggle of honking geese — continues to ignore the evidence or lack of evidence, insisting this man symbolizes everything evil in American society.
He doesn’t. He may be arrogant. He may be a jerk. He may have been over-bossy, foul-mouthed and selfish in how hard he pressed people to donate to his campaign fund after his legislative rivals passed a law targeting him to limit how much money he could raise for his election. But he is not guilty.
A poll I did on my Facebook page asking if you thought he would be found guilty on All Counts, Come Counts or Acquitted showed most believe that the worst might be that Blagojevich will be found guilty on some of the lesser charges. Many felt he is not-guilty.
The Better Government Association (an oxymoronic title if you ask me) has been monitoring the trial as they do selectively monitoring government agencies they don’t like while turning a blind eye to those they do like, has been giving daily reports on the trial. And yet they still lack one thing.
There is no smoking gun.
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FLOODING A MAJOR PROBLEM
Working in Cicero and Justice, I am intimately familiar with the process for what government can and can’t do for flood victims.
A flood is an act of nature, not something caused by governments. Yet, despite thousands of families happy that their government in Cicero cares, one homeowner whose basement flooded said, “We’ve only had these floods since Betty Loren-Maltese has been gone.”
Maybe so, I replied. But since she has been gone, the town has not seen another $12 million disappear as it did in to her pocket when she was the president.
The bigger question besides the irrelevant Betty Loren-Maltese, though, is the issue of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago — you know there is something wrong when a government agency has more than three words in its name. Supposedly it has a countywide storm water management plan. Really?
I saw many government officials on TV, including one in Carol Stream, telling TV interviewers there was nothing they can do — nothing? How about get off your ass and have your employees do everything they can to help make sure everyone is safe?
Like when Tony Hayward, the ousted moronic boss of scandal-plagued BP (British Petroleum) declared at the height of the oil spill he wanted to get his life back!
Don’t we pay a fortune in taxes to the MWRDGC to specifically manage rain water run-off? What about the Deep Tunnel? Well, guess what? It doesn’t do enough. The MWRDGC does have a lot of paper-pushers who have been falsely telling homeowners whose homes flooded that they had “nothing to do with it,” and have been blaming local governments.
We know the MWRDGC manages and controls the locks and the flow of water. They manage the level of the water in the canals.
What we have also learned is that it seems they don’t do much else except blame everyone else except themselves. Just what we need, another government agency that points fingers at everyone else.
(Ray Hanania is an award-winning columnist, radio talk show host and a Chicago area media consultant. He may be reached at rayhanania@comcast.net.)
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