Rapid Fire Political News

When people pay attention, the shit flies.

I don't even feel like getting in all up in a tizzy about this stuff today, so I'll just drop some quick hitters.

Cook County workers have the option to check a box and select a charity from a list to donate a portion of their paycheck to. However, it seems that the County actually takes a 3% skim off that donation and hides it away in its own charitable fund, the Cook County Charity Fund. I'm not really going to lay this at Stroger's feet even though he sent out the letter encouraging workers to participate. The 3% skim is noted in the fine print of the payroll deduction form and has been in existence since 1989. It's just another example of business as usual. The Man will assure you that nothing untoward has happened and no attempts have been made to obfuscate; however, when you are doing the same thing as the unscrupulous car salesmen and mass marketing scam artists, you have to consider that you aren't much better.

Believe it or not, Emil Jones also gets a mention today. Yes, the man also called Obama's political mentor. He was accused of calling Delmarie Cobb, a black woman and a Clinton delegate, an "Uncle Tom" on Sunday. There were witnesses, but defenders claim the comment was in jest and misconstrued. Same old, same old. I'm sure Obama is happy about this turn of events.

In more Obama news, running mate Joe Biden's links to Tony Rezko are getting more attention. Biden has a relationship with attorney Joseph Cari Jr., who served as Midwest field director for Biden's failed 1988 presidential election bid and also was a confidant of Biden while Biden contemplated a 2008 run. Cari is a long-time friend of Biden and, among other things, was the DNC National Finance Chairman (1993-94) and the Finance Chair of the US Senate Democratic Campaign Committee in 1995. Cari also admitted to being part of an $850,000 kickback scam that is allegedly part of a larger fund raising operation for Gov'na Blago and overseen by Rezko.

Happy Monday! Rejoice in the wonders of humanity.