Obama’s Baggage
The Bear on May 20 2008 at 7:01 am | Filed under: Election 08’
Barack Obama - The Wizard of Oz
The most trusted leaders of the Democratic party, such as John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, ought to be ashamed of themselves for supporting Barack Obama. With use of the internet, a fifth grader could connect the dots to show a picture of a guy who was picked up in college and carried up the political ladder by a corrupt gang of influence peddlers.
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This article is the first in a series that will give the details of Obama’s rise to fame.
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The Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland law firm, where Obama worked for nearly a decade, served as a hub for a slew of slumlord deals, many that benefited the firm’s founder, Allison Davis, and Obama’s claims that he knew nothing about the inner workings of this small firm, represent an insult to the intelligence of the American public.
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Without Rezko’s fundraising, Obama would not have been elected to the Illinois senate, or the US Senate, and he would not have sold the books he wrote about himself because like the Wizard of Oz, Obama is nobody special.
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More from Scoops.co
Barack Obama - Subplots of Operation Board Games - Part I
The investigation dubbed “Operation Board Games,” into the influence peddling within the cesspool of corruption that encompasses Illinois politicians from both major parties, has developed into multiple subplots, many of which feature Barack Obama.
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The major media organizations continue to ignore a story that is destined to become the biggest political scandal of the decade, except for a bleep here and there. By now this can only mean one of two things. They are either unwilling to commit the manpower necessary to connect the dots of all the subplots or they know the Republicans will supply the goods free of charge the minute Obama becomes the nominee.
This two-part article is the last article in a 3-part series. The first two, Barack Obama - The Wizard of Oz and Barack Obama - Operation Board Games For Slumlords, cover Obama’s rise to fame in the political mafia of Illinois, bankrolled by the now infamous Syrian-born influence peddler, Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
They also give the details of Obama’s involvement in a slumlord business largely operating out of the Chicago-based Davis, Miner & Barnhill law firm, which hired Obama in 1993, with his boss, Allison Davis, reaping in the profits with Rezko‘s development company, Rezmar.
The “Board Games For Slumlord” article gives in-depth details of the federal investigation along with the names of people who are listed as “Co-Schemers” and “Individuals” in the indictments issued thus far. Therefore for the most part, this article will refer to all the scams collectively as what prosecutors refer to as “pay-to-play” schemes.
The mainstream media continues to refer to the corruption trial currently taking place in a Federal courthouse in Chicago as the Rezko case, never mentioning the fact that Rezko is sitting in the courtroom alone at the defendant’s table only because many of the co-defendants have already pleaded guilty, or have not been indicted yet.
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The indictments issued so far point to only two politicians as specifically getting money from kickbacks resulting from the Board Games‘ schemes: Governor Rod Blagojevich and Barack Obama. Twenty thousand dollars from the first pay-off was funneled to Obama through a bank account belonging to the pizza businesses.
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Campaign finance laws in Illinois have aided and abetted influence peddling schemes for years because they allow donors to give as much as they like to candidates running for state office, so the sky‘s the limit.
Obama’s political career was bankrolled by the same gang that planned to make Blagojevich president. For instance, Fortunee Massuda, another participant identified in the “pay-to-play” schemes, contributed $25,000 to Blagojevich compared to $2,000 to Obama. Michel Malek, another participant, threw $25,000 to Blagojevich and $10,500 to Obama.
Ali Ata, another guy listed as a co-schemer in one indictment, was made executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority, and he contributed $25,000 to Blagojevich and $5,000 to Obama.
Jay Wilton, identified by prosecutors as a major contributor to Blagojevich, is the owner of Wilton Partners, a construction company in California. He donated $50,000 to Blagojevich shortly after his firm cinched an $83 million contract with the state to refurbish the Illinois tollway’s oasis rest stops. Wilton also gave $5,000 to Obama.
Joe Cari donated $15,000 to Blagojevich but only gave $1,335 to Obama.
A trial exhibit produced by an FBI agent, identifies major contributors who donated $1.43 million to Blagojevich between 2001 and 2004. The Chicago Sun-Times compared the exhibit to government campaign records on Obama and found he received more than $220,000 from many of the same donors between 2001 and 2004.
John Roger, the head of Ariel Capital, an investment firm that ended up with major money from the pension funds, is on the FBI’s summary of Blagojevich’s top contributors. He also gave Obama $25,000.
Rogers is a member of the finance committee for Obama’s presidential campaign. Rogers also served on the campaign finance committee for Obama’s US Senate run with Tony and Rita Rezko, Allison Davis, and Myron “Mike” Cherry.
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Daniel Mahru, a major player in the Chicago slumlord racket, has reportedly flipped in the Board Games case and is cooperating with the prosecution. He is the owner of Automatic Ice Company, which donated $10,000 to Blagojevich. Mahru gave $5,000 to Obama.
Attorney, Jack Carriglio, contributed $25,000 to Blagojevich and was appointed to the TRS Board. He also gave $1000 to Obama.
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After Rezko’s indictment was unsealed in October 2006, the first report in the Chicago Tribune noted, “Obama donated $11,500 to charity — a total that represents what Rezko contributed to the senator’s federal campaign fund.”
That statement intentionally leads readers to believe that Obama donated all campaign contributions from Rezko to charity, which is so far from the truth that it’s laughable.
On November 5, 2006, the Tribune reported that, Obama said Rezko raised as much as $60,000 for him during his political career. The next day, the Sun-Times quoted Obama as saying: “I did however donate campaign contributions from Rezko to charity.”
The Obama camp stuck with the $50,000 or $60,000 story for nearly a year until Obama’s March 14, 2008 interviews with the Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune and the team of reporters pinned him down and the amount added up to $250,000.
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The political mafia of Illinois now plans to move the Chicago brand of corruption to Washington in a U-Haul hooked up to their second choice candidate.
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More from Scoops.co
Barack Obama - Operation Board Games For Slumlords
Barack Obama has a long history of working with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and governors of Illinois, including the current Governor Rod Blagojevich, in doling government funding for housing development in Chicago. His history is hardly a model of success, except for the hundred of millions in profits made by the chosen few slumlords.
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There’s already a plan in place to guarantee that the Chicago model of “community development” is carried out in the White House. In his “Plan to Fight Poverty in America,” Obama says, “we should create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to develop affordable housing in mixed-income neighborhoods.”
The Plan will create a “White House Office of Urban Policy” to develop a strategy for metropolitan America, and Obama will appoint a Director of Urban Policy who will report directly to him, as president, to “coordinate all federal urban programs,” the Plan states.
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While climbing the political ladder, Obama held himself out to be a champion of rights for minority-owned businesses. According to an article on Black Enterprize.com, “it is Obama’s strong record when it comes to supporting minority-owned businesses that has black business leaders working overtime to send the 42-year-old congressman to Washington.”
However, an example of the Chicago version of a minority-owned business is DV Urban Realty Partners, where Allison Davis, who is an African American millionaire many times over, owns 51%, and Robert Vanecko, Mayor Daley’s nephew, owns 49%.
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The prosecution team is led by the US Attorney for Northern Illinois, Patrick Fitzgerald, of Scooter Libby fame; … The list of names in the indictment includes about eight persons referred to as “Co-Schemers,” and reads like a “who’s who list” of major campaign donors to Obama, Blagojevich, Daley and other powerful Illinois politicians.
Blagojevich is referred to as “Public Official A,” Obama is referred to as a “political candidate,” and there is a list of “Individuals” from “Individual A” all the way up to “Individual HH.”
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In addition to lining their own pockets, the money gained through the scheme was funneled to the campaigns of Blagojevich and Obama. Prosecutors have identified two $10,000 payments that were made to Obama’s US Senate campaign through straw donors Joseph Aramanda and Elie Maloof, which originated from a kickback paid by investment firm, Glencoe Capital, to secure approval for a $50 million deal.
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The TRS part of the story has many subplots. For instance, in 2005, the Feds issued a subpoena to the TRS for records pertaining to a $150 million deal approved for the Carlyle Group, in which Robert Kjellander, or Individual K, described in the August 11, 2005 Sun-Times as the “national Republican Party treasurer,” and “a Springfield lobbyist with close ties to the White House,” was to be paid a $4.5 million fee.
The most famous investor in the Carlyle Group is the family of Osama bin Laden, and its most famous advisor is the first President George Bush. On October 26, 2001, the New York Times reported that the “Saudi family of Osama bin Laden is severing its financial ties with the Carlyle Group, a private investment firm known for its connections to influential Washington political figures.”
“It came largely as a result of public controversy about the family’s stake in a Carlyle fund that invests in buyouts of military and aerospace companies,” a Carlyle executive told the Times.
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More here…
Tomorrow - Curtain Time For Barack Obama
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OBAMA’S MICHELLESE HEEL
It seems Barack Hussein Obama is perturbed that his blushing bride is finally taking some heat for her comments about the United States.
Tough!
For Obama to suggest that the Tennessee Republican Party’s brief television spot featuring Michelle Obama’s words is “unacceptable . . . [and] low class” is unacceptable and ignorant. (For that TV clip, see http://news.aol.com/elections/story/_a/obama-tells-gop-to-lay-off-my-wife/20080519080309990001?icid=1615988631×1202640441x1200306070)
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama has made herself an issue in this campaign, an interesting issue at that, and thereby presents herself as fair game. As a potential presidential spouse who speaks her mind about contemporary America, a place she evidently doesn’t like very much, she’s entitled to say her piece. However, even if she doesn’t stand by her man, she should at least stand by her words and not pass the whining buck to him.
Be assured that as First Lady she will feel free to critique the nation and its people and problems, a critique that will be a unique perspective. Unlike Laura Bush and Cindy McCain, Michelle Obama will be an activist First Lady. She will be no Bess Truman, no Mamie Eisenhower, no Jackie Kennedy, no Pat Nixon, no Betty Ford, no Nancy Reagan, and no Barbara Bush. She’s far more akin to Eleanor Roosevelt, Roslyn Carter, and Hillary Clinton who, respectively, publically articulated their ideology, sat in on Cabinet meetings, and tried to socialize our health care system.
Should Obama ever be elected to the highest office in the land and become leader of the Free World and Chief Executive of the world’s only superpower, his bride would become the most loud-mouthed radical First Lady since Eleanor. The Whiner in Chief would have his hands full just condemning her critics.
There’s quite a bit to criticize now and there will be much more to criticize subsequently.
Michelle Obama’s outspokenness is not a new development in her life. It predates the current campaign by some twenty-three years, back to her Princeton undergrad days and her senior thesis, Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community. That paper wasn’t supposed to see the glaring light of day until after the election, according to some sources. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8642.html) The reason is obvious.
She reveals in that thesis an extremely race-conscious persona who perceives the world through a dark prism colored by her combative nature, her evident paranoia, her perception that American Blacks are engaged in a war with White Americans, and a clear desire for Black separation rather than integration into American society.
It’s no wonder the Obama campaign wasn’t eager to share those feelings and did so only after Princeton refused to release the thesis and full disclosure was demanded by such organizations as Politico.com.
Michelle researched her thesis primarily via an 18 point questionnaire sent to 400 black Princeton grads, of which 90 responded, largely with answers that were both surprising and disappointing to her. The questions dealt with such topics as religion, living arrangements, economic status, and their comfort levels when interacting with blacks and whites before, during, and after attending Princeton. Most curious were questions about their thoughts about lower class blacks and whether the respondents now held “separationist and/or pluralist” or an “integrationist and/or assimilationist” viewpoint.
She observed, “I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility.” Note the word, hoped, a hope that went unfulfilled. Black Princeton grads opted for assimilation and not separation and were becoming too white for Michelle’s tastes. (See http://afk.blogtownhall.com/2008/02/23/michelle_obamas_negative_view_of_white_people.thtml for the entire thesis and commentary.)
Fast forward a few decades during which Michelle attended Harvard Law School, entered the corporate world, met and married Barack Hussein Obama, worked in the public sector, and finally became involved in her husband’s presidential campaign. Now, with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright—who performed their marriage ceremony– ostensibly out of the picture, she is arguably one of his chief advisors and definitely his most avid campaigner.
Unfortunately for the candidate, there’s a barely concealed undercurrent of anger and bitterness in Michelle Obama. Suggested long before at Princeton, that undercurrent occasionally bubbles to the surface, as in her now infamous line spoken last February, “Let me tell you something, for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country.” Just as Barack has tried to backpedal away from his mentor and advisor, Rev. Wright, Michelle has sought to clarify, explain—dare we say, parse—that statement, but with little avail. Lamely, she tried to say that what she meant was that she was proud of how Americans were involved with the political process.
Whatever clarification there was in her clarification is beyond me. Haven’t Americans, not all, certainly, but millions, always been involved? If she meant, as seems likely, involved in attempting to elect Barack president, why not just say that? Or would that be too divisive?
In a more recent speech, a real rabble-rouser, Michelle Obama’s projected her negative personal feelings onto all America, much like Jimmy Carter extrapolated his malaise to the nation. See for yourself:
“In 2008, we are still a nation that is too divided. We live in isolation, and because of that isolation, we fear one another. We don’t know our neighbors, we don’t talk, we believe our pain is our own. We don’t realize that the struggles and challenges of all of us are the same. We are too isolated. And we are still a nation that is still too cynical. We look at it as “them” and “they” as opposed to “us”. We don’t engage because we are still too cynical. …
“I could go on and on, but this is how we’re living, people, in 2008.
And things have gotten progressively worse throughout my lifetime, through Democratic and Republican administrations, it hasn’t gotten better for regular folks. . .
“We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another . . . we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done. That is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.”
(For her speech in its entirety, with commentary by Hugh Hewitt, see http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/MediaPlayer/AudioPlayer.aspx?ContentGuid=9e3a08aa-ad84-46cf-8492-6aff289bca42.)
Just what does it take to make Michelle Obama happy and proud of her country?
As a coed on scholarship after graduating from a Chicago Magnet School, she concluded mournfully in her thesis that her attendance at prestigious, Ivy League Princeton would result in “further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.” Most of her interim years, while she achieved great success despite her peripheral societal status, are not public record but one would think all her achievements would have made her happy and proud of the country that afforded the opportunity for those achievements. However, one would then be wrong.
Not only does Mrs. Obama have little or any pride in America, she sees this great land as “divided . . . [and] cynical. She sees the nation as populated by “isolated” and “cynical” people in “pain” with “broken souls” living in “fear.” Worst of all, she believes “things have gotten progressively worse throughout my lifetime, . . . it hasn’t gotten better for regular folks. . .”
Mrs. Obama, where the hell have you been for the past fifty years while Blacks have made unprecedented progress and have achieved unimagined success in this country? How have you tried to heal our “broken souls?” And how do you presume to identify with us “regular folks” after your life of privilege?
What Michelle Obama is preaching is negativism and racial divisiveness under the cloak of change and reform and try as she might to conceal the fact, she is a racial bigot who still seeks Black separation and segregation. That is in line with the aims of Rev. Wright’s hero, Louis Farrakhan, the chief difference being that Farrakhan has the guts to say it.
Is Michelle being picked on in that Tennessee TV ad? I hope so. She deserves it. Like Bill and Hil, we’ll be getting two for the price of one and that price promises to be very steep so we’re entitled to pick away. She believes “Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands” America’s dire straits. What arrogant presumption!
As for Barack’s demand that critics refrain from criticizing his wife, I’d agree to that–as soon as she ceases to demean my country and denigrate Americans.