Illinois, are you ready to vote Green? The Chicago Tribune today ran a front page investigation of Illinois Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan headlined “The Madigan Rules” which shows how he abuses his office to benefit his law firm’s clients.

In a first-of-its-kind examination, the Tribune found these two careers repeatedly intersect, and in some cases Madigan took public actions that benefited his private clients. As a public official, he got a private road behind a shopping mall repaved, helped secure state funding for an expanded tollway interchange and intervened for a developer looking for state cash. In each case, Madigan was a private lawyer for businesspeople who stood to benefit.

His list of clients multiplied as Madigan consolidated political muscle over the last two decades. Now, many of his decisions as speaker have the potential to affect someone who has hired Madigan & Getzendanner in hopes of having a tax bill lowered. The Chicago firm represents banks the state regulates, investment houses that have overseen billions of dollars in public pensions, developers who want roads — all subject to decisions made by a state House in the firm control of their tax lawyer.

It appears Madigan’s personal wealth has blossomed along with his two careers, based on the list of investments he provided in ethics statements over the last three decades. But Madigan, like other public officials, is not required to detail the value of those investments. State ethics law requires very little disclosure about how Madigan’s public decisions could affect his personal bank accounts.

He declined Tribune requests to detail how much he makes beyond his annual legislative income of more than $95,000. He also declined requests for his appointment calendars, memos and e-mails, citing state public records law that exempts the legislature. Madigan also refused requests for an interview. In a written statement, he defended his actions and said “my personal code of conduct and compliance with a wide range of government ethics provisions have ensured that I have maintained ethical standards.”

That code of conduct — provided to the Tribune and unpublished until now — states that Madigan will not offer state benefits to get a client, will not intercede with a state agency for a client and will recuse himself from involvement in a bill “if a client of the law office expresses an interest in legislation such as to create a conflict of interest.” But a Tribune examination of public records and a review of more than 20,000 tax appeals filed by Madigan’s firm since 1998 raises questions about where the speaker draws that line.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the Supreme Court has now turned over America’s political system to our corporations, ruling that they can spend as much as they like to influence elections! As reported by the Chicago Tribune:

The Supreme Court today overturned a century-old restriction on corporations using their money to sway federal elections and ruled that companies have a free-speech right to spend as much as they wish to persuade voters to elect or defeat candidates for Congress and the White House. In a 5-4 decision, the court’s conservative bloc said corporations have the same First Amendment rights as individuals and, for that reason, the government may not stop corporations from spending freely to influence the outcome of federal elections…The dissenters included the three Democratic presidential appointees: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. They joined a dissent written by 89-year old Justice John Paul Stevens. Speaking from the bench, he called today’s decision “a radical change in the law..that dramatically enhances the role of corporations and unions–and the narrow interests they represent–in determining who will hold public office.”

America, Illinois, Cook County – WAKE UP! Your government no longer belongs to you – and now when you buy American-made and marked products and services you’ll be paying to have your own best interests subverted as those same corporations purchase our legislators and command them to continue to do their bidding – including turning public assets over to them, strip regulations protecting consumers from them, bailing them out with our money when they screw up and more.

Please vote Green in 2010 to return public service to the public sector.

Fire the Democrats in Cook County and Illinois.

Support Rich Whitney for Governor and Tom Tresser for Cook County Board President.

For real change, vote Green in 2010.

From today’s Chicago Tribune editorial…

“Half-measures will not suffice to repair our State’s troubled (governing) infrastructure or our citizens’ broken confidence. … Past reform efforts have met with forces just as destructive as self-interest or corruption: apathy, inertia and cynicism.”

— Illinois Reform Commission

To this sorry trio of failures that many Illinois political leaders hope you’ll again exhibit, add a fourth: severe memory loss. There is so much mischief that, as the Feb. 2 primary election looms, they’re just desperate for you to forget — and thus forgive.

Don’t be a sap. That is, don’t succumb to their anticipation that you’re too dense, or too distracted, to hold them accountable for their self-serving behavior — that you’re too clueless to elect better officeholders in 2010.

So start reminding your family members and friends — all the folks in your life who complained about scandals under George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich — that those two governors’ political heirs in Springfield have plenty of unfinished business.

Some lawmakers brag that they’ve done enough to exterminate Illinois’ culture of political sleaze. Don’t believe them. Many of them are jealously guarding their power from real reform. Truth is, they got all the reform they wanted the day they bounced Blagojevich out of office. As for their own realm, well, they like Illinois governance — with clout concentrated in only a few tight fists — just as it is.

If you disagree with them, act. Don’t let any potential voter forget these outrages… [read about the outrages]

Come on, citizens. Listen to the Tribune on this. The Democrats and Republicans are cut from the same cloth when it comes to being UNABLE to fix our broken and dysfunctional politics.  You’re going to have to make a real change to GET real change. Vote Green in 2010.