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No he hasn't.
No finesse, no success. Ask Bush.
How about if we get Jerry Springer to "mediate" this show?
Rich, is any of this picked up by national media?
Are there thousands of waiters and bartenders with MA's in psych.
And why didn't she get herself on the register in the two years since this ruling came out? Too arrogant, I guess. Or maybe couldn't even meet requirements for that.
Let's hope the next person doing the job has
the right qualifications in addition to, likely,
being a Friend of Emil, whose wife is a honcho at DHS. After all, Social Security disability is another huge taxpayer ripoff and fraud abounds.
We should applaud the feds for increasing, not
decreasing, the requirements for the job.
The story that us taxpayers should be concerned about is that this is the tip of the iceberg.
There are thousands of underqualified politically connected hacks working as $100k + contracts or
$100k civil servants (and you can't even get rid of the latter). And we're paying for 'em.
Answer: Is Staggering
Except to assuage political leaders.
What is the lowest paying job that is being filled by an Emil family member?
Is this a great state or not?
It is about time to have the GA set up a Department of Nepotism specifically for relatives of the politically connected. Offices in some basement in a building leased from some other politically connected guy. And nobody needs to take attendance.
Blago is like a pool player that uses a string for a cue! Blago doesn't know the rules of the game and doesn't have the "tools".
Then they fire Bronwyn Rains because she didn't have the "right" degree.
Makes perfect sense when you remember it's coming from an administration whose defense in court was that the Governor can't be held accountable for what he says because it's just "classic political puffery."
The nastiness in D.C. is just barbaric. The sad thing is that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid promised to correct the problems of the DeLay-Hastert Congress and it's gotten worse. They are making Illinois look somewhat decent - and I never thought I would say that.
He has to at this point 'Cry Havoc and release the dogs of war' otherwise the staff will not feel like he has their backs.
Mess with me, I understand it. Mess with my people, it's on....
Do you stand for conservative principles or not?
Admittedly, he is no position to do much about it at this juncture. But why the schtick?
But, with watered-down Democrats populating the GOP leadership, who needs Republicans and why vote?
The legislature needs to justify its own self-existence and the legislators need to justify their own perpetuation at the trough of the taxpayers.
The only diffference between Madigan and Cross is...?
Essentially correct, but this is even a step further. Mapes is in the game. His wife isn't. Mess with Mapes. Okay. Mess with his wife--no, no, no. And everyone whoever worked for Madigan is mad too.
Lots of campaign workers expected invites after Lisa's '02 campaign that were not forthcoming.
It's still Saturday Morning at the Ward office with these folks.
They will go after Blago for this and expend political capital on it for Lisa '10.
As usual you have no facts to back up your anti-governement program statements. You stated: "Social Security disability is another huge taxpayer ripoff and fraud abounds." Where are your facts?
What is going to happen the rest of the time he is Governor? Anything that passes the house will not get through the senate and anything out of the senate will not get out of the house. None of the Governors initiatives will pass. We are doomed as a state for 3 more years of gridlock.
Someone please explain how the Governor's actions are rational.
I think she has lapped up enough gravy, don't you?
Hello Governor Obama.
It's like watching a slap fight. Nobody wins and everyone looks stupid.
Marilee Leahy, white courtesey phone... client waiting.
A number of studies have shown that many applicants who get certified for SS disability, especially those on the margin, could, in fact, work and are not objectively eligible for the lifetime free ride. Often they work with physicians and other unscrupulous"professionals" who help them produce the necessary paperwork.
I realize that it's hard for "so blue" Dems to believe that corruption in government exists but, well, there you have it. Look around your state.
As to the lady in question, only people who have lived in Springfield too long would view her political contract being yanked as a human tragedy. People who are hired for political reasons should be able to be fired for political reasons...take the job, take the chance.
(1) Is there any evidence that the feds changed their criteria for contract psychologists (the SJ-R refers to a letter from Social Security, but it's not online)? If so, maybe this is no big deal.
(2) Were there any other contract psychologists affected by this decision? Again, maybe this is less of a big deal if she's not the only person affected.
(3) Did the pay for the other contract psychologists also go up 200+% in a few years? This seems less likely. Perhaps the increase was due to her working more hours in the last year or so.
(4) Is there any evidence that Ms. Rains was doing good work for DHS, other than Mr. Mapes say-so? Contract workers don't usually have a "201" performance review, but there must be some indicator to back this up or not.
I doubt that the Governor's people made any effort to work out a reasonable e alternative to firing Rains - transfer to another position or maybe even a demotion to a prior position. Therefore, I would conclude that Rains was fired for vindictive political reasons rather than because of technical/legal requirements set by Social Security. The political firing theory is credible since the Blago administration changed its story several times to justiify the termination.
Cross's commnets about seeking a relationship expert to resolve a bare-knuckle political conflict are absurd. Somehow, I don't think group therapy would be helpful. "Electoral shock therapy" seems to be the ultimate long-term cure for the ills of our body politic.
I don't feel sorry for Mapes, though. As Madigan's COS, he must pull in $120K or so. COSs are worth every penny, but they also know what comes with the territory.
Thank goodness no one asked what other assignments she had besides the SSA reviews. That's one we could not explain.
Cassandra -
I don't have to look any further than two blocks down the street. There is a family that both parents have been on SSI for something like 20 years...not because either is disabled but because they simply decided to walk away from STATE EMPLOYMENT and hit the government trough. I regularly see them running around, walking up and down the street and generally living large.
If you are lazy or a coke fiend you will likely find a free ride into SSI.....if you are legitimately disabled and NEED the assistance you better prepare to be declined and hire a lawyer. I know two people personally who had to do just that and only one of the two got the help even with the mouthpiece. The kicker was that both were MORE than willing to work in anything they could find and physically do. The problem was that employers weren't exactly lined up to help and they both really needed the assistance.
SSI Disability might be helpful to a lot of people but the bureaucracy and the arbitrary denials and approvals make the system a crap shoot at best. Anyone who thinks that the program isn't riddled with corruption and waste hasn't been paying attention. After all, it was set up by politicians with other peoples' money and administered by policy wonks. How could it NOT be corrupt?
Blago fired me via a press conference. He did not blame the feds, rather he lied and said I (& others) were "part and parcel to a conspiracy to commit fraud" and unqualified for the job! All of which he back off of once the cameras were off him.
Blago & team use people, they abuse families they couldn't care less and then Chicago re-elects him by a wide margin. Rich said it earlier, what a great state we live in! And to really top it off and make make matters worse, Blago is on national tv talking about his cubbies and now were down 2 games.....whats next?
I feel for Ms Rains & Mr. Mapes.
The fed's letters are on the subscriber portoin of the blog and refer to the fed regs.
In regard to fraud and social security claims, most applications for benefits are denied by DDS personnel and consultants. Once the claim is denied it can go before a federal administrative law judge who makes the ultimate decision. It usually takes at least a year and a half to get through that process. Not many people who are out to defraud the patience to hold out for that long. In my experience DDS does only an adequate job in putting the file together and making a decision. The fact that over 50% of DDS decsions are reversed at hearing shows that a better job could be done by DDS in working up the files.
This has been going on since day ONE of this administration - the first set of firings were handled with press releases and cheers from everyone that there would be no more business as usual - this is WORSE than business as usual.
Patrick Fitzgerald - WHERE ARE YOU?????
This governor and his merry band of goofs have been screwing over hard working employees with bogus charges, charging them with breaking rules (rules that don't exist) and inventing ways of eliminating individuals. They harass people until they walk or rack up enough "black marks" on their records to earn multiple unpaid suspensions and other arbitrary disciplinary actions.
They are a bunch or cowardly, snot nosed bullies hiding behind "rules" that don't apply to the whole. Just ask all the red X'ers who were relieved from their jobs just because they held a useful head count position that could be used for installing a hack.
It's nothing new, but I think the scale is catching everyone's attention.
This is an old style of politics of which people are sick and tired. Give people an alternative, which they do not currently have, and they'll defect to it in droves. At least, that's the plan.
Now spend some time debating whether the position was actually neccesary and whether $100,000 was an appropriate level of compensation.
There is a plague on both the Madigan and Blagojevich houses.