Crime

Budget - Chicago - Crime - Economy/Finances - Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

150 Convicted County Officials in Obama’s Chicagoland Area

March 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Better Government Association (www.bettergov.org/), a beleaguered Chicago-based watchdog group that has its work cut out for it, recently released its “Hall of Shame” report that details the nearly 150 county officials that have gone to jail for corruption in Barack Obama’s home county of Cook. And that doesn’t even include the over 100 Chicago officials, a city also situated in Cook County, that has also gone to jail over the last few decades.

Because of the high amount of corruption and the large and ever growing roster of jailed county officials, in its press release, the BGA bitingly asks, “[I]s it any surprise this multi-billion dollar labyrinth of governmental entities is referred to disparagingly as ‘Crook County?'”

The scams took place over the past four decades in the courts; the offices of the Assessor, Sheriff and Treasurer; and the President’s Office of Employment and Training. They involve bribes, payoffs, rip-offs, padded contracts, ghost payrollers and the wholesale subversion of the judicial system. The perpetrators include elected officials at the highest and lowest levels of city, county and state government; judges, lawyers and lobbyists.

Sadly, the BGA finds that the corruption in Cook County government is widespread and “not confined to a single unit of government.” This corruption was found in such departments as the Cook County Board President’s office, the employment offices, the highway department, the sheriff’s offices, the assessor and the treasurer’s offices as well as the Clerk of the Circuit Court. In fact, the BGA found that corruption is endemic throughout the government and no one ever seems to be held accountable.
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150 Convicted County Officials in Obama’s Chicagoland Area”

Computers - Crime - Democracy - Elections - Freedom - Government - Inernet - Journalism - Media Bias - Radio - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Technology - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

A Warning on Electronic Voting

January 31, 2010 by

(Publius Editor’s note: This is a fairly old report on the troubles with electronic voting so some of the links are no longer valid, but the work was pretty comprehensive so I thought some of it might be of interest to those worried about electronic voting. I had this sent to me by a reader and I told him I’d post it but I have been waiting to post this until we were close to the primary. Since it is only a few days away now, so here it is…)

Pandora’s Black Box, Did it Really Count Your Vote?
Relevance – November 1996 – Vol. III- No. V

Editor: Philip M. O’Halloran

[Editor’s Note: When we began researching the integrity of the election process, we wanted to believe that the talk of “votescam” was just overblown hype. However, we have since discovered that the computer voting system in this country is a veritable can of worms, so open to tampering that if there is no organized election fraud going on, the criminals are falling down on the job.]

ELECTRONIC VOTING ON TRIAL

On November 5, 1996, millions of Americans voted by secret ballot for thousands of elected officials from the Presidency to the local dog catcher. What few realized is that a key aspect of the vote-counting was also done in secret. What’s more, they have been legally denied the right to find out precisely how their vote is counted.

How can this be? After all, everybody knows that each aspect of the vote-count is officially conducted by “the government under the microscopic scrutiny of thousands of party officials, anxious candidates, poll workers, curious voters and the media, right?
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A Warning on Electronic Voting”

Chicago - Cook County - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Journalism - Judges - Liberals - Media Bias - State Government - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Why Is Cook County AG Looking Into Students Studying the Wrongly Convicted?

October 27, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The work of the Medill Innocence Project has already led to the exoneration of 11 inmates in Illinois. In 2000 Governor George Ryan cited the Medill Innocence Project of Northwestern University as one of the reasons he suspended the death penalty in the Land of Lincoln. It has yet to be fully reinstated.

The Medill Innocence Project has recently set its sites on the case of Anthony McKinney, convicted of murdering a security officer in 1978. The students of the Project feel that they have successfully proved that McKinney was wrongly convicted and have also succeeded in getting a judge to review the case.

One might think that thanks and accolades should be the student’s reward for their efforts to repair justice in Illinois. But for some reason Cook County prosecutors have subpoenaed the grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports and e-mails of the students of the Project. You heard that right. Prosecutors seem to be investigating the students!
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Why Is Cook County AG Looking Into Students Studying the Wrongly Convicted?”

Anti-Americanism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Feminism - Gay Marriage - Gays - Liberals - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

**ALERT** Hate Crimes Bill to Hit Senate This Week (Maybe Wednesday)

July 15, 2009 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Matthew Shepard Hate Crime bill (S909) is poised to hit the floor of the Senate this week, perhaps as soon as Wednesday. *Call your Senators and tell them you want this thing stopped.

This bill is an egregious example of liberal overreach. If passed we will see any manner of sexual perversions legitimized as unassailable and any crime or speech against these proclivities will be suddenly termed a “hate crime.” We will also see crimes against gays and lesbians suddenly deemed as somehow worse than crimes against straight people simply by the virtue that the victims are gay.

We will also have codified crime based on thought if this bill passes. How will a judge or prosecutor determine if “hate” was the basis for crime, anyway? How can a jury know that a gay man was beaten because he is gay as opposed to because he didn’t give a mugger his wallet? And what of religious speech against certain sexual proclivities? Will that be deemed a “hate crime” now?

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**ALERT** Hate Crimes Bill to Hit Senate This Week (Maybe Wednesday)”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Family - Gays - Media Bias - Morals/Sex - Religion - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

The Death of Shame

September 9, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

There was once a day in America when a convicted child molester might find that his life was ruined, dogged forever by the shame of his evil deeds. Today, though, one might be a child molester on one hand, but a celebrated member of the community for being a great kid’s little league umpire on the other. Such a skunk might even find that he is given awards for his efforts behind the plate despite his serving behind bars.

For this is a day when shame has been killed.

Can anyone imagine a lower human being than someone who would force themselves upon a child, physically and mentally raping them, forcing them to deal with the shame and fear of it for the rest of their lives?

Unfortunately, the folks of the little league umpire association in Torrington, Connecticut can’t seem to imagine why anyone would find a child molester such a bad fellow. Because, instead of heaping shame on one that is in their midst, they’ve raised him up to celebrate his life’s deeds.

The Torrington Board of Approved Baseball Umpires, at least, feels that convicted child molester Tom Barbero is a fine example of the umpire’s art. They think so much of him that they’ve given him an award for his umpiring because he “deserves” such recognition.

Oh, sure Barbero was convicted and sentenced to four years behind bars and 35 years probation for sexually molesting three teenaged boys in 1994 and 1995. But, hey, he was a great ump, nonetheless.

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