Great Day!!! IL Gov. Rodeo Rod Blagojevich Nailed by Feds

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Great Day!!! IL Gov. "Rodeo Rod" Blagojevich Nailed by Feds

 

 

 

 

Corruption in IL - As SHARK has Been Saying for Years

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff were arrested in Chicago, IL Tuesday morning, December 9 on two counts each of corruption charges relating to trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat.

 

Corrupt Rodeo Rod

Corruption -- we've been saying it ever since 2004, when we started learning about the highly questionable relationship between the National High School Rodeo Association and the Blagojevich administration. For many months, representatives of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, including its director Chuck Hartke, personally carried checks out of state to representatives of the rodeo association, and while they were there, they were partying, wining and dining and have a good old time with the rodeo animal abusers with taxpayers' dollars.

The following excerpt from the August 9, 2004 edition of The Leader newspaper demonstrates this point all too well:

"A $55,000 check helped convince the National High School Rodeo Association to return its rodeo to Illinois in 2006 and in 2007. With check in hand, Chuck Hartke, director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, Kevin Gordon, assistant state fair manager, and Amy Bliefnick, newly named bureau chief of business services, saddled up and traveled to a Wyoming rodeo to meet with the National High School Rodeo Finals Board to lasso the deal."

In spite of SHARK's efforts, the high school rodeo finals came to Illinois in 2006 and 2007, and in both years, just as they had in 2000 and 2001, SHARK investigators obtained overwhelming evidence of abuse that clearly violated the Illinois state humane laws. The Blagojevich/Rodeo Mafia combo was so desperate to stop us, it even told the FBI that we were planning to release rodeo animals, which was absolutely false. The outright silliness of the scenario inspired noted cartoonist Dan Piraro to create a scene memorializing the absurdity. See cartoon here.

 

SHARK's undeniable and overwhelming video documentation of rodeo abuse, and the extensive media coverage of SHARK's investigations was enough to persuade even the corrupt Blagojevich administration that whatever it was getting out its deal with the rodeo, it wasn't worth the aggravation of repeated exposes and public rebukes.

While I am glad that there are no plans to return the cruel high school rodeo finals to Illinois, I am nevertheless overjoyed that Rod Blagojevich, a man whom was initially thought to be a good and progressive public servant, will face the music for his filthy corruption, even if it isn't specifically for his administration's corrupt rodeo ties. We'll keep you updated about "Rodeo Rod's" travails.

 

 

 

 

 

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Kindest Regards,

Steve Hindi and Your SHARK Team

 

 

 

"Kindness and compassion towards all living beings is a mark of a civilized society. Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cock fighting, bullfighting and rodeos are all cut from the same defective fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves." - Cesar Chavez, civil rights and labor leader, founder of the United Farm Workers