Oh my:

Federal authorities took Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) and his chief of staff John Harris into custody this morning on federal corruption charges. Before the arrest, the Chicago Tribune had reported that a “three-year federal corruption investigation of pay-to-play politics in Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration has expanded to include his impending selection of a new U.S. senator to succeed President-elect Barack Obama.” According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s Office:

A 76-page FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps during the last month conspiring to sell or trade Illinois’ U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama for financial and other personal benefits for himself and his wife. At various times, in exchange for the Senate appointment, Blagojevich discussed obtaining:

– a substantial salary for himself at a either a non-profit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions;

– placing his wife on paid corporate boards where he speculated she might garner as much as $150,000 a year;

– promises of campaign funds – including cash up front; and

– a cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself. 

Might as well be blatant about it.

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Desperate, laid-off laborers took a last stand this week, occupying the factory building at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago to demand severance and vacation pay they know would be denied without direct action.

The Association Press reported today: About 200 employees of Republic Windows and Doors began staging the sit-in in shifts this week after learning the plant was closing Friday.

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The number of Americans on Food Stamps shattered all previous records as the complete dissolution of the world economy advanced at an accelerating pace.

Reuters reported this week, citing government figures, that there are now 31.1 million Americans forestalling starvation through the Food Stamp program, up 17 percent from just a year ago.

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Muckracking Alaska political blog – Palin’s Deception – this week revealed a photograph of the Talibunny’s tummy with a confirmed date of March 26, 2008, just 23 days before she allegedly birthed Trig Palin, her alleged fifth child, that shows no sign of pregnancy.

The controversy surrounding the true parentage of Trig Palin began swirling before the child was born, when staffers and Juneau political cognoscenti expressed surprise that Palin was pregnant when she announced the impending birth – six months into the term. A number went on record expressing no clue the governor had been pregnant, odd for a healthy strapping lady who in previous pregnancies exuded a robust maternal glow.

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The Chief Financial Officer of a Jesus-crazed Ohio university was arrested on Saturday for jumping into a car and grabbing a cop by the gonads in an apparent attempt to give him a hand job in the middle of a city park, the stupid fuck, police allege.

The fuckwit in question, Cincinnati Christian University CFO Robert Williams, 52, of Independence, was arrested at 9:23 a.m., accused of getting into a undercover cop’s car and mauling the constable’s genitals.

WLWT.com reported that University president David Faust said, “This is a personal tragedy for him and for his family, and we lift him up in our prayers,” Faust said, as if that would stop Williams from lifting up his dick to show strange guys in city parks.

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You’d think that, given what’s going on in Mumbai, people might focus on something other than getting one of those four cheap bigscreen TVs that Wal-Mart uses for bait.  You’d be wrong:

A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.

The 34-year-old worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.

Are you fucking kidding me?

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Keeping his Homeland Security Chair.

They mock us.