Detroit ... what else can one say?

[SDC]

Now, I know that people in general hardly know that Detroit is still there. But I hope some have heard that the city is in the throes of a truly excellent political corruption scandal. (www.freep.com and www.detnews.com for details).

Started out with a party that never was, a first lady maybe bashing a stripper who was engaged in making her (the first lady's) husband happy, the stripper's mysterious murder, and thousands on thousands of the naughtiest text messages ever composed and exchanged between a mayor and his chief of staff. (And let this be a lesson: all those of you out there who are having illicit affairs and who are keeping in touch with your beloveds by texting... well, STOP. At least the messages. Otherwise, carry on as before. This case has given us all the priceless phrase, "if the thumbs don't fit, you must acquit.")

I had the good fortune this week to listen to a talk by one of the lead lawyers in the matter, Herschel Fink of Detroit, representing the Freep, the more aggressive of the city's two newspapers. Most of the facts were pretty well covered in the news some time ago, but hearing a participating-lawyer's-eye-view was priceless.

His speculations: 1/ Governor Granholm (of Michigan, probably the best looking female governor in these here United States) is going to use her constitutional powers to fire Kwame from the mayorship and get a payoff from the DNC with some important appointment if Obama wins (Michigan is a swing state this year, and the Obama-ites are alleged to be deathly afraid of Kwame's poisonous presence); and 2/ while all this naughty stuff is fun, the federales are about to bring the hammer down in a great big corruption scandal which will bag the mayor, his parents, all his close friends and associates, and maybe everyone he ever said "boo" to in a kindly way.

But I live in NY and follow the news, mostly. How do things look from southeast lower Michigan?

I'm sorry to indulge in such outrageous schadenfreude, but it's very hard not to. Please forgive me. Been a long while since we had something on this scale in NYC ... darned honest and sexless mayors take all the fun out of local politics...

[WildCat]

Detroit, heh. Amateurs!

[GreyICE]

I'm sorry to indulge in such outrageous schadenfreude, but it's very hard not to. Please forgive me. Been a long while since we had something on this scale in NYC ... darned honest and sexless mayors take all the fun out of local politics...

Someday someone is going to launch an investigation into our construction business, and then the most truly amazing scandals ever are going to fall out of the woodwork. Seriously, I thought the cranes would have been enough for the city to finally crack down on the Mafia-run construction firms we have, but apparently the $10,000 bribe is an unusual incident, and not part of a large pattern or anything.

Maybe it will finally kick in when a floor slab gives way in a server room because people have been closing their eyes at the numbers for too long.

[Doubt]

But I live in NY and follow the news, mostly. How do things look from southeast lower Michigan?


You pretty much covered it.

The recent stuff was the Mayor spending a weekend in Jail because he violated his bail terms by making a trip across the border to Windsor.

Then there are the assault against the mayor for assaulting deputy sheriff.

And now the Feds have just started to assert their presence. They are interested in what happened to the stripper. This involves more text messages that have not seen the daylight yet.

The city council effort to dump the mayor is over because they did not have the authority to dump him. The city council has bribery problems of it's own.

The Gov. should be close to dumping the Mayor soon. But there will be much complaining by those who think this has something to do we race.

[WildCat]

Strippers? Assaults? Text messages?

Amateurs.

[Childlike Empress]

I heard Derrick May is driving Volkswagen these days.

[Doubt]

Strippers? Assaults? Text messages?

Amateurs.

So when is the last time a Chicago mayor went to jail?

[WildCat]

So when is the last time a Chicago mayor went to jail?
Chicago mayors don't conduct such amateurish petty shenanigans that they themselves would be at risk of jail. They surround themselves with loyal minions who will go to jail before they rat out the boss. And when they get out a cush city/county/political job awaits them! (http://www.ipsn.org/hired_truck_scandal/quarters_john_kass.htm)

The kind of stuff the Detroit mayor is involved in isn't even the caliber of a Chicago Alderman's crimes (http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/1093870,troutman080608.article).

[WildCat]

Oh, and as far as Illinois Democrat politicians go you may have noticed how just about every Illinois Democrat is speaking at the convention this week to show some home-state love for Barack Obama. All except one, our Democrat Governor Rod Blagojovich. How could the (arguably) most powerful Democrat in the state be excluded from such a high-profile event? Maybe it has something to do with his nickname, which only appears on Federal Court documents submitted by the FBI in their many ongoing cases here: "Public Official A".

[SDC]

Someday someone is going to launch an investigation into our construction business, and then the most truly amazing scandals ever are going to fall out of the woodwork. Seriously, I thought the cranes would have been enough for the city to finally crack down on the Mafia-run construction firms we have, but apparently the $10,000 bribe is an unusual incident, and not part of a large pattern or anything.

Maybe it will finally kick in when a floor slab gives way in a server room because people have been closing their eyes at the numbers for too long.

You're right that there is as much routine corruption here as anywhere. I was thinking of our run of mayors, at least in my time around here -- Koch, Dinkins, Giuliani, Bloomberg. All appear to have been as clean in terms of financial gain as a politician is capable of being. (Bloomberg is of course a billionaire, but from what I hear, people don't necessarily stop being greedy when they are rich). The only one who's had a public sex scandal is Giuliani, and he actually got divorced and actually re-married, and there wasn't much attempt to hide what was going on.

[Beerina]

Strippers? Assaults? Text messages?

Amateurs.

Puh-leeze. Our murder rate is still world-class, and we've lost more people due to a crappy economy than any other state than post-Katrina Louisiana.

This new recession for the US as a whole is not anything new for Michigan, which has had a 6-year chronic recession that Michigan, and only Michigan, has been experiencing.


The salacious and proposed sequence of activities:

1. Party boy gets elected mayor. He's a former football player and son of a member of Congress.

2. Throws massive party at mayor's mansion, including at least one stripper.

3. Wife comes home early, catches stripper, gets in catfight of some kind, and kicks stripper out.

4. Some months later, said stripper is found murdered.

5. Mayor fires police investigating party at mansion, denies there was a party.

6. Affair with hot chief of staff, including thousands of salacious text messages.

7. Arrested, released, re-arrested, re-released, etc. etc. etc.

Ah, hell, just go here, it's far more detailed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Kwame_Kilpatrick's_Political_Career).

[technoextreme]

Someday someone is going to launch an investigation into our construction business, and then the most truly amazing scandals ever are going to fall out of the woodwork. Seriously, I thought the cranes would have been enough for the city to finally crack down on the Mafia-run construction firms we have, but apparently the $10,000 bribe is an unusual incident, and not part of a large pattern or anything.

Maybe it will finally kick in when a floor slab gives way in a server room because people have been closing their eyes at the numbers for too long.
Oooo please. That's all????? That's pathetic in terms of construction scandals. Boston wins that race by a mile and the race is a mile long. Come on two cranes? Pathetic New Yorkers. You can't even get a decent construction scandal going. We are [Rule 10] waving our cities corruption right?

[Drudgewire]

All that Detroit corruption, you'd think my hometown could figure out a way to at least rig a few Lions games. http://www.lethalwrestling.com/upload/gonk.gif

[GreyICE]

Oooo please. That's all????? That's pathetic in terms of construction scandals. Boston wins that race by a mile and the race is a mile long. Come on two cranes? Pathetic New Yorkers. You can't even get a decent construction scandal going. We are [Rule 10] waving our cities corruption right?

Haha. That's only because your city actually publicizes this stuff. You're just incompetent.

Our construction firms literally are the mob. Period. They're the same thing. When you say construction company in New York City, you're talking about organized crime. I personally have seen improperly installed sprinkler systems (signed off on by inspectors), numerous code violations, and then there's the lovely fact that the steel-reinforced concrete we have on floor slabs was designed to take people. Not multi-ton server rooms. So all of the legacy buildings in our city have floor slabs that are gradually giving way under that stress if it wasn't calculated properly. And if one gives, it's going to pancake the area between the columns where it gives way straight to the ground floor. Won't take down the building, will kill everyone under the room.

Oh heh, and I know of at least three buildings that had to rebuild their slabs because of exactly that. It's literally a matter of time until we have many dead people because one gave way.

[Doubt]

All that Detroit corruption, you'd think my hometown could figure out a way to at least rig a few Lions games. http://www.lethalwrestling.com/upload/gonk.gif

What makes you think they are not fixed now?


Okay, 30 years of sucking kind of speaks for itself.

[Drudgewire]

What makes you think they are not fixed now?


They very well may be. Someone call Matt Millen's and the Ford family's bookies.

But I meant the other way. :(

[technoextreme]

Didn't realize I double post.

[technoextreme]

Haha. That's only because your city actually publicizes this stuff. You're just incompetent.

Our construction firms literally are the mob. Period. They're the same thing. When you say construction company in New York City, you're talking about organized crime. I personally have seen improperly installed sprinkler systems (signed off on by inspectors), numerous code violations, and then there's the lovely fact that the steel-reinforced concrete we have on floor slabs was designed to take people. Not multi-ton server rooms. So all of the legacy buildings in our city have floor slabs that are gradually giving way under that stress if it wasn't calculated properly. And if one gives, it's going to pancake the area between the columns where it gives way straight to the ground floor. Won't take down the building, will kill everyone under the room.

Oh heh, and I know of at least three buildings that had to rebuild their slabs because of exactly that. It's literally a matter of time until we have many dead people because one gave way.
I can tell you have no idea what you are talking about because the people who would sign off on that would probably face murder charges if what you are claiming is true. That and the fact that you can only bring up three buildings that had to rebuild their slabs shows that you know nothing about engineering muckups in NYC. Uggg... I wish I could remember the name of the skyscrapper in NYC that was actually built incorrectly.

[GreyICE]

I can tell you have no idea what you are talking about because the people who would sign off on that would probably face murder charges if what you are claiming is true. That and the fact that you can only bring up three buildings that had to rebuild their slabs shows that you know nothing about engineering muckups in NYC. Uggg... I wish I could remember the name of the skyscrapper in NYC that was actually built incorrectly.
Err, did you miss the crane that toppled over and killed multiple people?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/nyregion/07crane.html
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2008/08/08/92620.htm

"Two cranes have fallen on the Upper East Side within a three month period," Bing said. "It is disheartening that each collapse has been followed by the arrest of a Department of Buildings employee for a fraud such as falsifying records or bribery. That's why we must put laws on the books that will protect us from events like this occurring again.

I have no idea what I'm talking about, sure, obviously they care that these things might kill people if they fail. :rolleyes:

As for the slab thing, yes, I'm only aware of three recently, because those are the ones that I've seen PROOF for. I've heard that others have, those three are ones where I've seen the documents and construction. Ditto for the fire safety stuff, that's stuff me and people I work with have SEEN.

If you want to get into hearsay and rumors, we could be here all week.