Guess what sports fans. It seems that the "Great Almost White Hope" that the Democrats have in mind to throw the 2008 Presidential bone may have a little itsy bitsy "C" issue. The Junior Senator from Illinois talks the corruption talk when in Kenya, but does a more Democratic style Chicago walk when in Chi-town. Let's see what comes of this.
Barack Obama Cites Corruption as Greatest Threat to Kenya's Future
By Pearse Lynch Voice of America
Nairobi
28 August 2006
U.S. Senator Barack Obama addressed students at Nairobi University in his last official engagement in his father's homeland of Kenya. In his speech he focused on the problem of graft, saying the crisis was the greatest threat to Kenya's future.
In Kenya
"Obama said that if Kenya is to encourage development it has to strive towards transparency in government and to reject politics based on ethnicity and patronage.
He said Kenyans must work together to stamp out the crippling culture of corruption.
"Freedom today is in jeopardy it is being threatened by corruption," he said. "Corruption is not a new problem, it is not just a Kenyan problem, it is not just an African problem, it is a human problem and when western nations talk about corruption they should make sure they are also cleaning their own house. That is important. But having said that, we all here have to admit that here in Kenya it is a crisis. It is a crisis."
Obama said corruption has been the major factor behind slow economic growth and is why many of Kenya's brightest and best educated feel they need to move to the West to prosper."
Now things are different in the Windy City. Seems like the Saviour to the Republic is a real estate maven. Who would have guessed it?
Obama on Rezko deal: It was a mistake
November 5, 2006
BY DAVE MCKINNEY AND CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporters Contributing: Mark Brown
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama expressed regret late Friday for his 2005 land purchase from now-indicted political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko in a deal that enlarged the senator's yard.
Obama on Rezko deal: It was a mistake
"I consider this a mistake on my part and I regret it," Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times in an exclusive and revealing question-and-answer exchange about the transaction.
In June 2005, Obama and Rezko purchased adjoining parcels in Kenwood. The state's junior senator paid $1.65 million for a Georgian revival mansion, while Rezko paid $625,000 for the adjacent, undeveloped lot. Both closed on their properties on the same day.
Last January, aiming to increase the size of his sideyard, Obama paid Rezko $104,500 for a strip of his land. The transaction occurred at a time when it was widely known Tony Rezko was under investigation by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and as other Illinois politicians befriended by Rezko distanced themselves from him.
In the Sun-Times interview, Obama acknowledged approaching Rezko about the two properties being up for sale and that Rezko developed an immediate interest. Obama did not explain why he reached out to Rezko given the developer's growing problems.
Last month, Rezko was indicted for his role in an alleged pay-to-play scheme designed to fatten Gov. Blagojevich's political fund. Rezko also was accused of bilking a creditor.
Now, 2164th would not be the least bit upset if some of you played a little partisan politics and passed this around a little. Some of the races where the Republican is being hammered by Barack with that nice toothy smile may appreciate the help. Late in the game but who knows?
ReplyDeleteI'm puzzled, where is the corruption in purchasing this strip of land? What did Obama apologize for, wanting a bigger yard? Is there any evidence supporting rufus's 'wonderings'? It doesn't quite seem to rise to the level of Cheney's involvement with Haliburton but maybe you will fill in the blanks.
ReplyDeleteRead the entire link including the questions and answers. He would not apologize for nothing.
ReplyDeleteIL politics is full of land deals, Mr Hastert's included earmarked highway funds for an on ramp next to his piece of speclative land.
ReplyDeleteFolks in glass houses won't throw stones. Just business as usual for IL.
Down the list, District by Distric, rufus, the Pubs will still be down at least 12, but, most likely closer to 20.
ReplyDeleteMr Cheney campaigns in Idaho, Mr Bush in the reddest of Red Districts and States.
When the Generic Poll was bad for the Pubs, you said it was not to be trusted, now you swear by it.
Get a grip ole boy. Wendsday the tale will be told, one way or another. I'd advise not to bet your Estate at that gamblers site you like so much, but what do I know. If you're so sure, bet the farm.
I'm puzzled, where is the corruption in purchasing this strip of land?
ReplyDeleteIn politics they love to throw around the words "land deal", as in the "Whitewater Land Deal" or "Hastert's Land Deal". It has such negative connotations that if Obama so much as buys an empty lot under a bunch of thick alder trees to park a trailer on, they'll look into the "Shady Land Deal".
Doesn't stink at all. All done through agents and title companies, all seems quite above board.
ReplyDeleteFor this to be a stinker there'll have to be more than buying a 10' strip of land from an unsavory player.
The pricing of the strip seems to be adequately explained. What is there to apologize for? Poor charecter judgement? Mr Obama chose not to go into any developmental partnership with the guy. The same closing date explanation is quite plausable, normal in fact.
Where is the quid pro quo that would make the deal dirty?
No such thing as "Corruption Problem"
ReplyDelete...if you're a Democrap.
ESPECIALLY a toothy, half WHITE Democrat.
(or does mom not count?)
Thought you might enjoy thie "news release" that appeared on my blog, www.bobmccarty.wordpress.com, recently:
ReplyDeleteNEWS RELEASE
(CHICAGO) — Fresh on the heels of the launch of a Warning Labels On Politicians™ campaign, which included a “Warning: Hillary Clinton™” label, the group behind the effort has introduced a “Warning: Barack Obama™” line of merchandise.
“With all of the media attention given this relative newcomer to the national political scene,” said I.M. Fedup, spokesperson for the group that refers to itself as WLOP — or “Wallop”. “Honestly, we felt obligated to inform the American public about some of the ’side effects’ they will likely experience as a result of voting for Barack Obama.”
Fedup said voting for Obama would likely produce results similar to voting for Hillary Clinton, the namesake of WLOP’s first warning label.
Representatives of Senator Obama could not be reached for comment.
Copyright © 2006 Bob McCarty, L.L.C. All rights reserved. www.BobMcCarty.com
Steele in '08!
ReplyDeletedoug, Obama paid the fellow, not the other way around.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the corruption in that?
For this to have any legs there will have to be more than what is known today, or at least more than was in the story.
Mr Obama is a Lawyer, that in and of itself is damning but not illegal. If it was, most of the Congressmen would be down for the count, would they not?
A Democrat Lawyer is a Corruption Problem in my book!
ReplyDeleteSteele has Substance, Obama has Hype.
ReplyDeleteYou've already bailed on the G Team, doug?
ReplyDeleteNo sitting Senator since JFK has made a successful run at the White House, I'd rather see Mr Steele hold that Senate seat for the full duration of the Term, then try to step up before his time.
Unless you think he'll lose Tuesday. He's one of the few bright spots on the horizon, do not jinx the guy.
Senior Doug cannot grok the G team reference.
ReplyDeleteMe and Fox are victims, ya know.
Gingrich, Guliani
ReplyDeleteG Team
grok?
ReplyDeleteEven I do not spell that bad
I think the GOP has done a premptive blackball on the G Team already.
ReplyDelete...just a guess on the basis of past performance.
My very hip sister-in-law used that term back in the 70's to mean "get it."
ReplyDeleteVoted most beautiful girl in Marin High.
All the common sense of a worm.
McCain is a loser,
ReplyDeleteMr Romney is a cultist, to many.
He may be annoitted by the Bushies, but believe me they'll eat him up. A liberal from Mass.
Another compassionate conservative, maybe he'll carry Utah.
It'll be Librarians for this cowboy.
. Barack Financial Disclosure Statement
ReplyDeleteLook at page 5, real estate transactions. Do you see the Real Estate transaction talked about in the interview " In June 2005, Obama and Rezko purchased adjoining parcels in Kenwood. The state's junior senator paid $1.65 million for a Georgian revival mansion, while Rezko paid $625,000 for the adjacent, undeveloped lot. Both closed on their properties on the same day."
See a Democrap,
ReplyDeleteSee no evil.
Vote early,
Vote Often.
Zell Miller '08!
ReplyDeleteHe signed this disclosure statement in 2006.
ReplyDeleteI'd vote for the Californian,
ReplyDeleteDuncan Hunter.
But I bet he doesn't get out of the primaries.
Do not report a transaction used solely as a personal residence.
ReplyDeleteFrom page 5's instructions
The strip of land, becoming part of the contiguous Estate would qualify, not to be disclosed, seems to me.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm only a Real Estate Broker, not a Lawyer. So I am not qualified to give legal advise
ReplyDeleteThe financial disclosure statement allows one to not put in a private residence, but Obama bought the adjacent property which was parceled off from the developer. He put that in a separate trust. That could be skirting full disclosure as it technically was not part of his residence, being titled in a separate entity. Obviously, the developer had other ideas for the balance of the property. Here is what Obama stated to the paper:
ReplyDeleteQ: Why did you put the property in a trust?
A: I was advised that a trust holding would afford me some privacy, which was important to me as I would be commuting from Washington to Chicago and my family would spend some part of most weeks without me.
The question would be how was his private residence titled if privacy was his concern. Let me look.
ReplyDeleteBORAK 08!
ReplyDeleteThe question would be how was his private residence titled if privacy was his concern. Let me look.
ReplyDelete"BORAK not OBAMA!"
ReplyDeleteI read that to be the entire parcel, the contiguous whole, was held by the Trust.
ReplyDeleteSee what you can see.
Bush's Iraq "Strategy" is a continuous hole.
ReplyDelete...or as Peters says:
"No Plan A."
Masterplan indeed, Aristed Development.
I looked him up on a people search engine. There are five addresses for him in Chacago. The Company search would not take a credit card from overseas for some reason., but it is available so the reasoning for privacy is absurd as his private residence is already a matter of public record.
ReplyDeleteThere is more to this story.
ReplyDeleteI am inCentral Amrica at the present and because of Identity theft, a lot of companies will not take on line credit card transactions.
ReplyDeleteBecause of Media Bias,
ReplyDeleteThe American Public will not respond to
"Democrat Corruption"
"BORAT"
ReplyDeleteWhere the hell did "Barack"
ReplyDeletecome from?
"Ajax" would have been cool.
ReplyDeleteBorax Obama,
ReplyDelete"40 Acres and a 20 Mule Team"
Evangelicals would think they were voting for Ron Reagan Reborn.
Make them quit feeling Haggard about that funny guy.
ReplyDeleteBarack Obama means "blessed by God" in Arabic. His father was an economics student from Nairobi,who married his mother, S. Ann Dunham, of Wichita, Kansasa, a white American anthropology student. They divorced when Obama was young, and his father returned to Kenya. His mother then married a guy from Indonesia and moved there until "Blessed by God" was ten. Obama was raised by his mother until about age 10, when she turned him over to his maternal grandmother in Honolulu.
ReplyDeleteBarack, was raised as a Muslim, and later became a Christian. In his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama admits using marijuana and cocaine as a teenager. His other experiences to date are that he studied for two years at Occidental College, where he admitted using drugs, including crack cocaine. (This guy didn't screw around with beer like Bush or the non-inhaling Clinton). He then transferred to Columbia University. There he majored in political science. Upon graduation, he worked for a year at newsletter publisher Business International (now part of The Economist Group), moved to Chicago, and became a community organizer for a housing project on the city's South Side. He got religion and Obama became a Christian and joined the Trinity United Church of Christ.
He left Chicago for Harvard University, where he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude. After law school, he returned to work as a community organizer in Chicago. Obama organized and registered over 100,000 voters for Bill Clinton and Senator Carol Moseley Braun. (That would be an interesting study in Chicago politics.) He then joined a local civil rights law firm, and he became a lecturer on constitutional law at the University of Chicago.
His campaign for Senate received an enormous boost when his opponent, Republican Jack Ryan, withdrew amid embarrassing allegations in his divorce from Star Trek actress Jeri Ryan, that during their marriage he had tried to lure her to attend sex clubs in France. He is now a freshman Senator from the same state that elected Carol Moseley Braun. And that's all folks. Sounds like POTUS material to me.
I'm SURE Barack would be disqualified for going to sex clubs in France!
ReplyDeleteLike Hell he would!
Would Enhance his Resume.
"Subaru"
ReplyDeleteSubaru (In katakana: スバル)
"Subaru" is the Japanese word for "unite" and for the star cluster Pleiades that is depicted in the company logo.
Put that up your Obama and smoke it.
Subaru Steele
ReplyDeletevs
Barack (aka Borax) Obama.
True Red White and Black American.
He is a diverse guy with a diverse portfolio and diversified into real estate.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteObama is All-American,
ReplyDeletethrough and through,
...Just like Paul Krugman.
If this real estate deal is the scariest skeleton in his closet he is looking squeaky clean for a politician. If anything he should be faulted for paying market price for a piece of land from a developer keen on influencing local power players.
ReplyDeleteAsh, I'll wager you dinner for two at the nearest Ruth Chris Steak house, with a $200 bottle of wine, They find more and more on this guy.
ReplyDelete...but no-one will care.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteLiteweight Phoney in my book.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAffirmative Suma Cuma Obama.
ReplyDeleteWe all buy Million Dollar Properties on a few years Professor's Pay.
ReplyDelete...at 30 plus.
They may indeed, dear duece.
ReplyDeleteBut this particular Deal isn't going to sink him, I don't think.
Comes clean on the dirt in his past, substance or substance abuse, that's for the voters to decide.
Doubt he goes the distance, to the White House, but could well end up in the Naval Observatory's housing.
Someone to balance Condi's presence on the GOP side, or perhaps Mr Steele would be the premier option. The GOP will have to find someone to break the Black bloc.
We'll see how much more they lose of the Western States, tuesday.
The damage will be greater, I think, than rufus wants to admit.
Just look to the way the Governorships are trending, followed soon by the Legislatures and then the Gerrymanders.
DOOM & GLOOM could well become the status que. The GOP is losing it's Western base, believe you me.
Why else would Mr Cheney be in Idaho?
Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana all trending Purple, at best.
Low interest rates coupled with good investments, he is a smart guy, doug.
ReplyDeleteMaybe to clever by half, but...
Plus his wife has a job at a Hospital, she brings in the long green, no doubt.
I'd vote for Obama over Condi.
ReplyDeleteSeriously.
More real world smarts, far as I can tell.
ReplyDeleteJust ask Bush/Rove 'Rat:
ReplyDeleteThey'll tell you if he lets in enough Mexican Illegals, we'll have a permanent GOP majority.
BRILLIANT!
(Maybe he really doesn't give a shit as long as he lives to see the New Order?)
ReplyDelete"Speaks" "Spanish" too!
2164th,
ReplyDeleteHe may very well have scary skeletons in his closet. I have next to no knowledge of the man on which to make a wager. It is tempting to take the bet simply because I'm guessing it would be fun to kick back drinking wine and eating a good steak with you though our chatter might disturb the other diners.
Meanwhile, The Times of London has just published this handy summary of the Obama-Rezko ties, which includes this summary of the very unusual land deal:
ReplyDelete---
UPDATE: E-mail: "Sounds like he should get treated like Duke Cunningham!
(They both got a large gift/gifts. That alone is not legal, no quid pro quo necessary.)
"UPDATE: From The Australian:
The timing of the trial could not be worse for Senator Obama, who hopes to wrap up the Democratic nomination later today when voters go to the polls in Texas and Ohio.
Rival Hillary Clinton has jumped on the opportunity to criticise Senator Obama's long involvement with Mr Rezko and demand he come clean about their dealings.
Her chief strategist Mark Penn said Senator Clinton would be treated very differently if she had been in the same situation.
"If someone with a 17-year relationship with Senator Clinton was going on trial for getting kickbacks and bribing public officials, and that person had also participated in some way in a house transaction (with her) ... there would be an enormous number of questions and answers demanded upon immediately," Mr Penn said.
"That's exactly what's going on with Senator Obama today.''
More from The Australian here.
Crap, that's Hewitt's bad link.
ReplyDeleteSee if I can locate.
Rezko/Obama
ReplyDelete---
Q&A: Barack Obama and Tony Rezko
A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.
ReplyDeleteThe money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.
A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama's bagman Antoin "Tony" Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.
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Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city's South Side while Mr Rezko's wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.
Timeline: Iraqi British billionaire and Barack Obama
ReplyDeleteEvents bringing Nadhmi Auchi, British-Iraqi billionaire, together with Antoin Rezko, Barack Obama's fundraiser.