Barack Obama - The Wizard Of Oz
By Evelyn Pringle
28 March,
2008
Countercurrents.org
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.
John McCain is just drooling waiting for Obama to become the nominee
so that he can come out with the trail of dirt that the Democratic
party is too afraid to reveal this late in the in the game. If nominated,
Obama will not survive a month when faced with the Republican attack
machine.
If he becomes the nominee, the web of corruption leading to Obama's
rise to power that this investigative journalist was able to untangle
in less than three weeks, will be front page news right up until election
day, handing the Republicans their only chance in hell of winning
the White House.
Instead of the leaders of the Democratic party doing their homework,
a small group of investigative reporters in Chicago will be credited
with exposing the corrupt backbone of Obama political career and the
mainstream media need only follow their lead if the Democrats hold
him out to be a viable candidate.
The list of reporters deserving of credit for doing the investigative
work that should have been done by the leaders of the Democratic party
before they got behind Obama, includes, but is not limited to, Chicago
Sun-Times reporters, Tim Novak, Dave McKinney, Fran Spielman, Chris
Fusco, Natasha Korecki, Steve Warmbir and Lynn Sweet. Chicago Tribune
reporters especially deserving of credit include Jeff Coen, Bob Secter,
John Chase, Virginia Groark, Rick Pearson, David Jackson, John McCormick,
Mickey Ciokajlo, Rudolph Bush and Dan Mihalopoulos.
This article is the first in a series that will give the details of
Obama's rise to fame.
As for the most recognized allegation against Obama, that helped slumlords
operate in Chicago, while accepting their campaign contributions,
its true. Obama was a member of the political machine that helped
a whole gang of slumlords funnel local, state and federal tax dollars,
over the backs of poor people in need of affordable housing, to line
their own pockets and fund the campaigns of politicians in positions
to recommend and award contracts.
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.
Tony Rezko was Obama political Godfather. Obama received his first
contributions of $2,000, to launch his political career as a state
senator on July 31, 1995, from Rezko. Obama started out saying that
Rezko only raised $50,000 or $60,000 for his political career but
after a year of lying his way through the primaries, the latest total
he gave to the Sun-Times and Tribune during interviews on March 14,
2008, adds up to $250,000.
For a year, he also minimized his relationship with Rezko by telling
the media that he only had dinner or lunch with Rezko one or twice
a year. But when confronted by Sun-Times reporters during the March
14 interview, with the allegation that an FBI mole saw him coming
and going to Rezko’s office often and that three sources said
he talked to Rezko on the phone daily, Obama changed his tune.
Now the story is that he may have talked to Rezko daily at times during
campaigns but sometimes he went for a whole month without talking
to him. “I have to say we're talking over the course of 10 years,”
Obama said, “there might have been spurts where I talked to
him daily.”
But then he added: "There might have been stretches over a month
where I wouldn't have talked to him at all."
This story is a far cry from the picture Obama gave to the public
of him and Rezko meeting once or twice a year, and he never did respond
to the allegation by the Times reporter that an FBI mole “saw
you coming and going from Rezko’s office a lot.“
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.
Even with Rezko's massive fund raising, Obama could not beat former
Black Panther, Bobby Rush, in his 2000 bid for a seat in Congress.
And the only reason he won the US Senate race was because his viable
opponents had to drop out due to the public airing of personal scandals.
Beating Alan Keyes is hardly a victory to brag about.
The media needs to quit grouping all the Obama backers under the name
Antoin "Tony" Resko because the list of contributors to
his political campaigns includes the names of many individuals and
entities with their own agendas.
The trail of corruption involving the people raising money for Obama's
political career stretches from the city of Chicago to the Illinois
tollway to the O'Hare airport all the way over to Iraq. And testimony
in Rezko's corruption trial reveals that an equal number of Democrat
and Republican crooks benefited from all the moneymaking schemes.
Rezko is not a Democrat; he's an equal opportunity profiteer. He supported
President George Bush and attended a Christmas party at the White
House in December 2003, at the same time that he was a top fundraiser
for Obama's US Senate campaign.
Rezko co-hosted a $3.8 million Chicago fundraiser for Bush in 2003,
and on December 9, 2003, he donated $4,000 to Bush, as a "self-employed
businessman," and gave another $2,000 on December 19, 2003, according
to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Prior to backing Rod Blagojevich for governor of Illinois, Rezko threw
his money behind Republican candidates for governor, including George
Ryan, who was convicted of doling out leases and contracts to cronies
and sentenced to prison for more than 6 years.
Rezko then switched horses and chose Blagojevich in 2002 and Obama
has supported Blagojevich, even when his administration was embroiled
in corruption investigations.
Recent
testimony in the Rezko trial by his co-conspirator, Chicago businessman,
Stuart Levine, explained that Rezko had plans for Blagojevich to be
Presidential, not Obama. However, anybody following the trial knows
that Blagojevich is more likely to be headed to the "Big House"
rather than occupying the White House.
Obama's entering into real estate deals with Rezko, while it was public
knowledge that he was under investigation for funneling illegal contributions
to Illinois politicians, was not a "boneheaded" move, it
was motivated by pure greed. While knowing that he would get caught
up in a major scandal, Obama went ahead with the deal because he and
his wife wanted that mansion, with four fireplaces, six bathrooms,
and a wine cellar, period.
On March 16, 2008, the Boston Globe added an interesting twist to
the story when reporting that Donna Schwan, of MetroPro Realty, which
listed the mansion and lot next door for the owners, "said it
is her recollection that the Obamas may not have made the highest
bid, and that other bidders may have matched Rezko's bid," but
the willingness of both buyers to close in June 2005, "was decisive."
Which logically means had Rezko not been willing to buy the lot in
June, the deal was off.
According to an article by Edward McClelland in the February 1, 2008
Salon Magazine, when asked who approached her about the house, Donna
Schwan told Salon, "I honestly don't remember. Tony Rezko lived
across the street, so he'd been interested in the lot."
Any claim that Obama was unaware of the investigations into the corrupt
dealings of Rezko with Illinois politicians in June 2005 is ridiculous.
On February 15, 2005, the Chicago Tribune reported:
"Gov. Rod Blagojevich long has vowed to purge the Illinois tollway
of cronyism, yet two of his closest friends and political advisers
have links to food vendors awarded lucrative contracts to operate
inside the toll road's sleek new oases, government records show."
"The Subway sandwich shops and Panda Express Asian restaurants
now being installed in the tollway's seven revamped rest stops are
controlled by firms with strong ties to the food-service empire of
Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a Blagojevich confidant who has seeded
the governor's cabinet with former business underlings."
Christopher Kelly, Blagojevich's chief fundraiser, "who also
recommended the tollway's executive director for his job, is an investor
in at least one Rezko-controlled food firm," the Tribune wrote.
On March 16, 2005, the Tribune reported that:
"City officials alleged Tuesday that a minority contractor at
O'Hare International Airport acted as a front for a firm run by Antoin
"Tony" Rezko, a top adviser and fundraiser for Gov. Rod
Blagojevich....
"Rezko, a member of Blagojevich's kitchen cabinet of advisers,
has come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks following questions
about his links to operators of new tollway oasis franchises. The
revamp of the oases is a showcase project for the Blagojevich administration."
On May 15, 2005, the Sun-Times reported that the accusations by his
father-in-law that Blagojevich doled out jobs for campaign contributions
had "resulted in dozens of grand jury subpoenas being sent to
the governor's office, his unpaid advisers, agency directors and his
top fund-raisers".
Among those
subpoenaed for documents, sources told the Times, were "Blagojevich's
biggest money men, Christopher Kelly and Antoin "Tony" Rezko."
On May 20, 2005, less than a month before Obama bought the mansion,
the Tribune reported that Resko, "has had a business relationship
with First Lady Patti Blagojevich for eight years, the governor's
office acknowledged Thursday."
Six month
before Obama bought the strip of land from Rezko's "wife"
to enlarge his yard, on August 28, 2005, Natasha Korecki reported
in the Sun-Times that, "there's so much corruption to investigate
in the Chicago area, the FBI is adding manpower."
Robert Grant, FBI Special Agent in Charge, told the Times that he
had reorganized the bureau to add a third public corruption squad,
giving Chicago the largest corruption unit in the country, even bigger
than those in New York and Los Angeles.
"It is the second time in two years the FBI in Chicago has expanded
its public corruption force," Korecki noted.
On November 6, 2006, the Times asked Obama why he did not reveal the
land deal with Rezko before it was reported by the Tribune stating:
"Why did you not publicly disclose the transaction after Rezko
got indicted?"
"At the time, it didn't strike me as relevant," Obama answered.
It seems like a lot of events were not relevant a couple months before
he announced his candidacy for president.
In the November 2007, Chicago Magazine, James Merriner described a
"fashion show" that took place in the first week in November
2006, to benefit St Jude Children's Research Hospital, which he said,
"attracted little if any media coverage, which may have been
exactly as its organizers and sponsors had hoped."
"The invitation to the affair," he wrote, "offered
a veritable guidebook to political influence in Illinois, much of
it centered on one St. Jude benefactor, Antoin "Tony" Rezko."
"Just three weeks earlier," Merriner pointed out, "Rezko
had been indicted on charges of extorting kickbacks from businesses
seeking contracts from the Blagojevich administration."
The "fashion show" was chaired by Rita Rezko, co-chaired
by the Governor's wife, Patti Blagojevich, and Michelle Obama was
a special guest that day, according to Merriner.
Two weeks after the "fashion show," on November 17, 2006,
the Sun-Times reported that Blagojevich's wife Patti got nearly $50,000
from a real estate deal in late 2002 involving Rezko.
In terms of dollar amounts of campaign contributions directly from
Rezko in Illinois, the top four earners were, the now deceased President
of the Cook County Board, John Stroger, Blagojevich, Chicago Mayor,
Richard Daley, and Obama - in that order.
Rezko was the head of Stroger's campaign finance committee at the
same time that he served on Obama US Senate finance committee.
When it came time for Stroger's reelection campaign, in the midst
of the erupting Rezko scandals in the media, on April 8, 2005, the
Tribune reported that Stroger "has selected beleaguered businessman
and political powerbroker Antoin "Tony" Rezko as one of
the honorary chairs of his campaign fundraiser next month."
Stroger
appointed Rezko's wife Rita to the Cook County Employee Appeals Board,
which hears cases filed by fired or disciplined workers, at a part-time
salary of $37,000 a year.
According to documents filed in the Rezko corruption case, this was
Rita's sole income when she supposedly came up with a $125,000 down
payment and secured a $500,000 mortgage to buy the $625,00 lot next
to Obama. Less than a year after Obama bought his strip of land, Rita
sold the rest of the lot to attorney Michael Sreenan, and made a profit
of more than $50,000.
On February 27, 2007, the Sun-Times pointed out that Obama's "new
neighbor, Michael Sreenan," had contributed $5,000 to Obama's
campaigns. Less than a year after buying the lot, Sreenan put it up
for sale for $1.5 million in October 2007.
Of course John Stroger will not be answering any questions about corruption,
or any other matter, because he died on January 18, 2008. His former
chief of staff and godson, Orlando Jones, will not be talking either
because he was found dead of self-inflicted gun wounds in September
2007, "just as a corruption inquiry targeting him was heating
up," according to a September 7, 2007 report by CBS News channel
2 Chicago.
"Jones
left his position in county government to create a lobbying firm in
association with Tony Rezko, who has been indicted on fraud charges,"
CBS reported.
Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica told CBS that Orlando Jones’
death raised many questions about the Cook County president’s
office. “Some of these matters Jones was involved in that are
currently being investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s
Office are reaching to the highest level of county government,”
Peraica said.
Obama endorsed John Stroger's son, Todd Stroger, in his bid for Cook
County Board President after his father died. Todd was in the news
as recently as March 24, 2008, when the Sun-Times published a front-page
article reporting that his cousin Donna Dunnings, the county’s
new chief financial officer, was receiving a 12% pay increase.
Dunnings’ salary will be the largest increase of any county
employee, with the average increase being around 5%. She will make
nearly $160,000 with the pay increase, or roughly $5,000 more than
her predecessor made at the job, according to the Times.
Mayor Daley endorsed Obama immediately after he announced he was running
for president and in return, Obama endorsed Daley's reelection for
Mayor right smack in the middle of major federal investigations of
corruption in the Daley Administration.
Obama's ties to the corrupt Daley machine began when he was dating
his wife Michelle and she brought him into the fold. Valerie Jarrett,
the deputy chief of staff to Mayor Daley, hired Michelle as her assistant
in 1991. Daley made Jarrett the chairman of the Chicago Department
of Planning and Development and Michelle worked as her assistant in
that Department during 1992-93.
From there Michelle moved up the political tiers to the University
of Chicago and ultimately got an overnight pay raise from about $121,000
to close to $317,000, after Obama became a US Senator, as a vice president
at the University of Chicago.
Susan Sher, was corporation counsel in the Daley Administration when
Michelle was hired back in the early 1990s, and Sher is now Michelle's
boss at the University of Chicago, according to the April 22, 2007
Chicago Tribune.
Shortly after Obama entered the US Senate, Michelle was also handed
a position on the board of TreeHouse Foods. Wal-Mart is the largest
customer of TreeHouse Foods. Factoring in stock options and other
payments, the value of her compensation package for serving on the
board in 2006 was $101,083, according to the Tribune report.
On May
14, 2007, during a meeting with the AFL-CIO in New Jersey, Obama was
asked about Wal-Mart and he said: "I won't shop there."
Michelle resigned from the board of TreeHouse eight days after husband
said he would not shop at Wal-Mart, CBS News reported on May 27, 2007.
When it came time for Obama's US Senate campaign, Valerie Jarrett
became the campaign finance chairman and worked hand and hand with
fellow finance committee members, Rita and Tony Rezko, and his former
boss at the law firm, Allison Davis, in fundraising endeavors. The
committee raised more than $14 million, according to Federal Election
Commission records, Tim Novak reported in the Sun-Times on April 23,
2007.
Jarrett is now the CEO of Habitat Co, a real estate development and
management firm which manages the housing program for the Chicago
Housing Authority, the entity mandated to administer public housing,
and she serves as an unpaid advisor to Obama's Presidential campaign.
Mayor Daley's brother Bill also became an Obama advisor. Mayor Daley's
chief image defender, David Axelrod, is a top strategist for Obama's
campaign and he was also the media consultant for Obama's US Senate
campaign.
On April 1, 2007, Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman who is now
chairman of the political science department at the University of
Illinois at Chicago, told Ben Wallace-Wells in the New York Times:
“David Axelrod’s mostly been visible in Chicago in the
last decade as Daley’s public relations strategist and the guy
who goes on television to defend Daley from charges of corruption”.
The scandals involving the Daley administration have no beginning
and no end. In January 2004, the Sun-Times published a three-part
series exposing widespread corruption in the Hired Truck Program and
revealed that some companies were being paid for doing little or no
work and that some had mob connections or were tied to city employees.
On January 25, 2005, the Associated Press reported that trucking company
manager, John Cannatello, the 16th person charged in the scandal,
was charged with getting $6.6 million in city hauling work "by
giving campaign contributions and cash to officials and falsely claiming
his firm was eligible for jobs set aside for women-owned businesses."
According to the article, city officials said the Hired Truck program,
"which at its height doled out $38 million worth of work in one
year to contractors without bids, was designed to save taxpayers money
by outsourcing hauling jobs that otherwise would require the city
to buy trucks and insurance."
On June 6, 2006, the Sun-Times reported that the brother-in-law of
Cook County Commissioner, John Daley, was sentenced to 18 months in
prison "for taking about $5,400 in bribes to steer city business
to a Hired Truck company."
Of course John Daley is another brother of Mayor Daley.
On January 6, 2006, the New York Times ran the headline, "Corruption
Scandal Loosening Mayor Daley's Grip on Chicago," and reported
that a "wide-ranging federal investigation into what prosecutors
describe as "pervasive fraud" in hiring and contracts at
City Hall has led to 30 indictments, including two senior administrators
close to the mayor, and a dozen cabinet-level resignations. "
The Tribune broke the hiring scandal on April 29, 2005, after federal
agents carried out an all-night raid of Daley's patronage office at
City Hall and less than three months later, Robert Sorich, the patronage
chief in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and three former
city officials, were arrested and charged with fraud to rig city hiring
for 12 years.
During
the criminal trial, prosecutors produced a list of more than 5,700
politically connected job applicants, and Patricia Molloy, a longtime
secretary in Mayor Daley's office, testified that aides kept track
of applicants and their political sponsors during much of Daley's
time in office, according to a July 7, 2006 report by Rudolph Bush
and Dan Mihalopoulos in the Tribune.
City officials testified that they "were heavily involved in
politics and directed city workers and aspiring public employees to
knock on doors and work the phones for political candidates endorsed
by the mayor," the July 7, 2006 Tribune report noted.
"Witnesses who marshaled pro-Daley political groups testified
that they took campaign orders from top Daley aides," the Tribune
wrote, "and later got jobs and promotions from the mayor's office
for loyal and effective political workers."
Sorich
and three others were convicted on July 5, 2006, of carrying out what
prosecutors described as fraud in hiring, "complete with sham
interviews, rigged test scores and color-coded charts to track political
sponsors," according to the July 6, 2006 Sun-Times.
Chicago attorney, Michael Shakman, whose federal lawsuit against the
city led to anti-patronage decrees, told the Tribune on July 7, 2006,
that Daley was to blame for the political hiring system. "You
have to lay the responsibility squarely at the feet of Mayor Daley,"
he said. "These [defendants] are his people, who never would
have thought of doing this without his approval."
At the sentencing hearing in November 2006, US District Judge David
Coar told Sorich: “If I thought that by sentencing you I could
stop this type of hiring corruption in the city of Chicago, I would
throw this building at you…. But it won’t," the Tribune
reported on November 21, 2006.
Obama is a political psychopath. He exhibits no shame, no matter where
his money comes from. On September 5, 2007, the New York Post reported
that, "Alexi Giannoulias, who became Illinois state treasurer
last year after Obama vouched for him, has pledged to raise $100,000
for the senator's Oval Office bid."
"Giannoulias is so tainted by reputed mob links," the Post
noted, "that several top Illinois Dems, including the state's
speaker of the House and party chairman, refused to endorse him even
after he won the Democratic nomination with Obama's help."
If the Democratic party places Obama on the ballot against John McCain,
Democratic voters will have no choice in this election. Once the whole
truth becomes public, and it will the minute he becomes the nominee,
no honest American could support sending Obama and his corrupt gang
of cronies to the White House.
[email protected]
(The second article in this series will be "Obama and the Slumlords")
(Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and
an investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government
and corporate America)
