Business in Chicago....Mr. Z and first-hand experience

When the news hit today about the corruption in the governor of Illinois's office, I remembered that Mr. Z had had an experience in Chicago and wanted him to share it with us:

The events of the day warrant a look-back at my own experience with Chicago business. Nothing appears to have changed.

It was in the middle 1980's that I went to Chicago to respond to a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a public works project. We had a transportation system to offer, and I went there together with one of the largest engineering companies in the country to inspect the project and hold discussions with the agency in charge of the project.

The RFP requested a portion of 25% of the contract volume to be subcontracted with certified minority-owned companies. We received a list of companies which were certified by the agency. The list was comprised only of Black-owned companies in Chicago. Having just moved from Germany, this principle was strange to me so I consulted with my partners to determine what that meant. The answer was that we had to consider that the work we would be paying these minority-owned companies for would not actually be done by these companies and we would have to contract with other companies to do the actual work and pay them as well.

It was later explained to me by my partners that this funneling of moneys through such enterprises was a "normal" Chicago procedure and that nothing worked there without it. We decided not to participate in this process. Mr. Z

Here is a link; http://chicagoargus.blogspot.com/....it's by a Chicagoan Hispanic writing about what Blagojevich ought to do as of December 2, before he was exposed. "Should they have a Latino? Is it Illinois' responsibility to put another Black in the Senate because (Z: Sadly) there are no non-Illinois Black senators there? (Also, sadly, that guy doesn't get many comments, because he's a very good writer even if we don't agree with his politics) The odd thing is that my linking it will not work no matter what I do. If it wasn't such a 'small potatoes' blog, I'd say his thoughts are being shut up because the articles I wanted to direct you to just will not embed... strange.

This article at Huffington Post is priceless (below the fold). All the FBI needs to do is read through the names and round these people up and start asking questions about how much they offered Blagojevich at these individual meetings! An excerpt: "Sen. Dick Durbin said Friday that he does not believe race should be the sole criteria in selecting President-elect Obama's replacement in the Senate": Neither does Blagojevich.....it's HOW MUCH WILL THE CANDIDATE PAY?$$$ Then there's Bobby Rush and his demands. But, that's another subject. Or is it?

Yes, some things never change. Let's hope they do after this scandal, huh? (And Mr. Z reminds me to mention that there are probably some excellent Black-owned businesses in Illinois which would never agree to this kind of graft.)

UPDATE: This article in the New York Times NEVER mentions that Blagojevich is a DEMOCRAT! SURPRISE!! Picture the article if he were Republican? From Mullings.com:

If Govenor Blutarsky had been a Republican that fact would have appeared in the headline

"GOP Governor Accused of Selling Senate Seat and Crimes Against Humanity"

And the lead paragraph would have been something on the order of:

"Republican Governor Rod Blagojevich, close friend of President George W. Bush and a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention was this morning frog-marched out of the Governor's mansion …"

Bail would have been set at $39 billion payable to GM, Ford and Chrysler.

heh heh

z