As you watch this, remember: Obama helped Rezko get those contracts. Obama was tagged by Rezko out of Harvard Law. Obama went straight to work for a small law firm run by a Rezko crony who helped set up the tenement scheme. Every time a crooked businessman gave a contribution to Governor Blagojevich as part of a pay-to-play deal, Obama got a contribution as well. Rezko basically helped to run the Blagojevich administration.
Also remember that Bill Clinton brought hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment into Harlem.
UPDATED: Finally, Evelyn Pringle has started to translate her investigative reporting into more easily digestible form.
As a state senator, "Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting his political patron Tony Rezko's successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens," the June 13, 2007 Sun-Times reported
8 comments:
Hey Joseph, where do you get most of your research facts regarding the whole rezko bribery scandal. I just want to see the pay to play and lining obama's pockets in "print". I don't doubt the politician we all know as the "hope" messiah is as filthy as his cigarette habit.
joseph -
yeah. that's the right question alright.
i would just love to read more boots on the ground reporting about what actually happened when obama's black constituents went to see him or complained to him or asked for his help.
i wonder if the senator's "constituency" wasn't the black churches and the daley machine
rather than the people themselves.
clayton, I would tell people to start with Evelyn Pringle's pieces. esecially the more recent "Curtain Time for Obama" series.
People don't read this stuff because the story is complex, the target goes way beyond Obama, and because Pringle hasn't organized her material as well as she ought to have done. But if you do read it with care, and then start double-checking through Google -- the story just gets worse and worse.
Hi Joseph,
Is Rezko charged with any crimes connected to his public housing -real estate investments? All I can find is:
"One indictment alleges that Rezko participated with Chicago businessman Stuart Levine in a scheme to obtain millions of dollars by shaking down firms doing business before two Illinois regulatory boards on which Levine served. The second indictment alleges that Rezko fraudulently obtained more than $10 million in loans for a pizza restaurant business from General Electric Capital Corp. (GECC) and also defrauded investors in that business."
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2006/pr1011_01.pdf
"The Illinois senator isn’t accused of any wrongdoing. And there’s no evidence Obama knew contributions to his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign came from schemes Rezko is accused of orchestrating."
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/749138,obama20web.article
Scotty, you ALWAYS help me!
I haven't even gotten into the meat of Operation Board Games yet. Yes, the indictment against Rezko focused on his getting control of those two boards. The result was kickbacks and pay-to-play...an unending series of bribes to governor Blagojevich...
And guess which Illinois State Senator was almost entirely responsible for pushing throught he new law which allowed Rezko to gain control of the Hospital board...?
Guess which State Senator then got a nice cut of every kickback and bribe that went to Blago?
Scott, I am so sorry that I am too poor to pay you for the fine research you do for this site.
Oh, I forgot to mention the other board, the one controlling the teacher's retirement fund. Lot of money got pilfered there.
Fitz' indictment says that at least $10,000 of the stolen money went to an unnamed "political candidate." Everyone familiar with the case knows full well who that is.
The Rezko case apparently has wider implications no one seems to be talking about.
When "Bush's brain" Karl Rove was trying to get rid of non-party-line US Attorneys like Patrick Fitzgerald, guess who he turned to in Illinois to help him? Governor Blagojevich and his buddy and "top adviser," Tony Rezco.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-rezko-rove-24-apr24,0,7863132.story
Bottom line: Republican-loyalist judges in the Rezco case are not likely to allow prosecutors to admit any evidence that might have damaging political implications for the Bush regime's Department of "Justice" or Rove's network of GOP bagmen in Illinois and other states.
"In the midst of a corruption trial that has provided plenty of fodder for political cynics, the prosecutors alleged that political insiders in Washington and Illinois claimed to be working to choke off the criminal investigation [of Rezco] launched by U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald ...
"At the trial of Antoin "Tony" Rezko, prosecutors revealed Wednesday that former Rezko confidant Ali Ata was prepared to testify that Rezko told him in November 2004 of a plan to pull strings with then- White House political director Karl Rove and have Fitzgerald fired.
"Prosecutors also sought to add the testimony of another admitted schemer suggesting that two of the state's most powerful Republican operatives wanted to take the heat off Rezko by dumping the hard-charging prosecutor.
"Rove denied the allegations, as did the two Republicans, GOP National Committeeman Robert Kjellander and Springfield power broker William Cellini ...
"Despite his party affiliation, Kjellander developed close ties with the administration of Blagojevich, a Democrat, after he became governor in 2003. Still, Kjellander disputed the allegations attributed to Ata, as did Kjellander's close friend, Rove."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-rezko-rove-fitzgerald-web-apr24,0,2332070.story
"The name of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was added Monday to the roster of political heavyweights linked by witnesses to an alleged plan to dump Chicago's top federal prosecutor and kill a criminal investigation into [Tony Rezco] ...
"Hastert retired from the House last year and is currently traveling the state at the behest of Blagojevich to drum up support for a $25 billion public works program the governor has proposed."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-rezkoapr29,0,151774.story
"U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve barred prosecutors from airing allegations [of wider corruption] at Rezko's trial, agreeing with defense concerns that members of the jury could be confused or misled by the complex transaction ... The defense succeeded in keeping the transaction out of the trial by arguing in part that testimony about Rezko's complex finances would open a Pandora's box ..."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/chi-rezko27feb27,0,2743086.story
Pringle's Obama articles are some of the strangest political writing in recent history. It's a breathless story of what happens in American politics all the time. Writing on and on, she *fails to make any connections* between Obama and his less than desirable contributors other than they gave money to his campaign. This happens all the time, all over the country. It's part of a rotten system but not unique to Obama. Clinton's contributors would have an equal stench. We're screwed no matter who gets elected - all three are bought and owned by their corporate bosses.
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