Enjoy the multi culti hates government Chicago mob Bush.

Posted at January 28, 2008 9:20 PM in response to Teddy Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, Toni Morrison -- and me!

LA Times...story, a bit more pith than Washington Post.

I can never sway true believers and people looking for the saviour.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-rezko23jan23,1,392172.story?page=1&ctrack=1&cset=true

Posted at January 23, 2008 7:35 PM in response to Didn’t Obama Watch the Firm?

Amazing, the Washington Post writes one article, by the way, when did it became a fave around here, but the Sun Times on the ground reporting is not relevant.

My opinion is based on the reporting of the Sun Times, from materials they find in the investigation and 30 years of experience knowing how these projects are financed, managed and what the role of the attorneys, the developer and the city is. Knowing what a good community organizer and what a good attorney in a transaction should be doing.

Obama, failed both.

Posted at January 23, 2008 1:14 PM in response to Didn’t Obama Watch the Firm?

Obama, calls himself a community organizer. He identifies as a community organizer. If he uses that as his identity, he has to do the job right. That is why I call him that. He does not keep talking about being attorney.

It would not have gone to the Housing Authority it would have gone to the Housing Department, he claims no one complained. Of course no one complained, how would they when they know the developer was his friend.

Silly, Shrill, any other compliments? Look, you don't have to believe me. I don't give a hoot. But please do not claim that you are analytical, questioning or even care about ethics in government. I tell you in my experience in this field this is a doozer. You will not understand unless you get it what it means to say you are a community organizer. That you walk the streets. If you walk the streets once, you stay connected with the streets and it becomes your life. People tell you things you don't wait and you don't say I did not know. Community organizing is politics at a most basic level. You build trust and people will talk to you. You know when buildings are failing. How, by seeing them. Not just sitting in a law office or political events with donors. This is not where the community is.

Look, this was a small play ground. There is no way that the "community" did not know what was going on. It's who you side with. Who they trust. So he did not know. Well, he should have known.

I know the wagons are around him cause people don't want "the Hope "shattered. But please, don't claim that you are being honest with yourselves. Yes, kids, there is no Santa Claus. Obama is a politician. He works and plays like one. He is playing all of you. Enjoy the ride. But when you see the emperor has no clothes, don't get shocked.

Tinker with time lines. Tinker with legalities. If it makes you feel good, go ahead. It's easy, if you take money from a developer, you make it a point to go and see his buildings. Talk to his tenants. You don't wait for others to tell you. That is community organizing, that is what you do when you care about communities, housing and caring for public resources. That is old style community organizing, which he says every chance he gets. The community comes first.

So, this shrill, shill greets you and wishes you the best in Disneyland. Tinker bell is coming to make it all better. Or the Prozac mobile is just around the corner.

Posted at January 23, 2008 1:07 PM in response to Didn’t Obama Watch the Firm?

Brilliant. Innuendo? Ok. 17 years , 150,000 and a real estate deal. How is this innuendo? Was Rezko not a slum lord? Was Obama not a community organizer who should care for the community? Was Obama not an attorney representing the interests of the non profit and failed to do his work? Was Obama not an elected official who took money from Rezko when he was under investigation? Did the real estate transaction not happen when Rezko was under investigation? Was Rezko not in hid Senatorial Fundraising committee? Did Obama not blame the tenants and neighborhood for the projects failing instead of Rezko who failed to fund the reserves and did not make payments in over 10 million in public loans?

Posted at January 23, 2008 12:15 PM in response to Didn’t Obama Watch the Firm?

"He was a very junior lawyer at the time, who was given responsibility for basic due diligence, document review,"

Exactly, part of the Due diligence and document review is to certify that the developer, Rezko in this situation, is in good standing. Reviewing the documents you have to make sure the reserves are funded to protect your non-profit client. This is not some elementary school checklist. When you don't review the documents and when you don't question, this kind of default happens. Rezko's projects were failing. It was the whole Chicago good machine that was part of this, and Obama was part of it. This is what is wrong. He did not fight for the community. It's that simple. If you think that it was ok, fine. Sanctify him.

The Washington Post has it wrong.

Finally, if the tenants see you going to lunches, getting money from and hanging out with the developer, they are not gonna call you to complain. They are afraid of retribution. But if you were a "community organizer" and know the community, people would talk to you.
The reason: simple, he failed in a very small arena, how will he function in the bigger one?

I find the term shill for anyone who does not agree infantile.

Ok, compare and contrast the Duke real estate deal to the Obama/ Rezko deal? Since I am not so familiar with the Duke, tell me how they are different.

Posted at January 23, 2008 12:04 PM in response to Didn’t Obama Watch the Firm?

Over the years, Rezko, Mahru, their wives and businesses have given more than $50,000 to Obama's campaign funds, records show. And Rezko has helped raise millions more. Rezko was among the people Obama appointed to serve on his U.S. Senate campaign finance committee, the Sun-Times reported in 2003. The committee raised more than $14 million, according to Federal Election Commission records, helping send Obama to Washington in 2004.

As a U.S. senator, Obama grew closer to Rezko.

Two years ago, Obama bought a mansion on the South Side, in the Kenwood neighborhood, from a doctor. On the same day, Rezko's wife, Rita Rezko, bought the vacant lot next door from the same seller. The doctor had listed the properties for sale together. He sold the house to Obama for $300,000 below the asking price. The doctor got his asking price on the lot from Rezko's wife.

Last year, Rita Rezko sold a strip of that vacant lot to Obama for $104,500 -- a deal Obama later apologized for, acknowledging that people might think he got a favor from Rezko. Obama called the episode "boneheaded'' and a "mistake.''

At the time Obama bought that strip of land, it had been reported that Rezko was under federal investigation for influence-peddling involving the administration of Blagojevich, whose campaign also received Rezko's financial support.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/353829,CST-NWS-rez23.article

Posted at January 23, 2008 10:42 AM in response to Didn’t Obama Watch the Firm?

Find the hard facts or shut up. Your alleged experience is based on hot air.

Prove that the seller was selling the house and the extra lot together. I want a link or other hard data. You are comparing Obama with a known damned convicted criminal. Now prove up your facts or, again, shut up.

Have you read the articles?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/353829,CST-NWS-rez23.article

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/353777,CST-NWS-rezside23.article

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/124171,CST-NWS-obama05.article

In these kinds of issues there is the legal, there is the perceived and there is the level that people who know a field and have experience in.

You can argue on the legal. The perception is typically questionable. But the gut of the matter, the experience in a profession, the nuance, and the standards of said profession, I will not be able to convince people that are not in the field, You don't have to take my word for it. But I do not have to shut up. People who claim they are not politicians, and are above the fray, should not have a history of accomadation and compromise. He will get away with it this time, he and thousands like him will not get what ethics really mean. He is damaged goods.

By the way, read this article in Znet about Obama and Wall Mart...that is another grand Chicago bit. Michelle Obama was on Board of company with Wall Mart affiliations, 50,000 fees. Go figure.

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=13635&sectionID=1

Obama and pluralism
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-10/31street.cfm

Your Agent of Change, No change. More of the same.

Posted at January 23, 2008 10:35 AM in response to Didn’t Obama Watch the Firm?

Read the entire investigative piece in the Sun. I do not have the time to list all the issue.

Tax credit projects extremely complex transactions. All these projects may not have been tax credit projects.

Based on the charges and the article in the Sun: Rezko took out the developer fees (typically half or some amount of the fee) is kept in reserve to protect the General Partner the non profit during the period of the guarrantees: credits and operating losses. What Rezko did, he took the fess, 6 million out of the projects and left the projects without the reserves. Pretty good deal if you ask me, takes the fees, leaves the projects with no reserves, then goes into default.

These defaults do not happen overnight. If Obama was working on due dilligence for a joint project, he had to prepare documents that certify the viability of the developer. He had to have seen on behalf of his client that the project reserves and that the developers seven year guarrantees are available and actually should have been in an some kind of joint account that was not touchable .

Was Obama in the neighborhood? He says no one ever complained formally to him about the condition of the buildings. Sorry folks, this is BS. A real community organizer, a real person dedicated to affordable housing does not wait for complaints. He goes out and sees and he has people in the community that trust him enough to talk to him, if they don't see him as the guy with the developer.

Finally read what Obama said in my first post. He blamed the tenants and the neighborhood for the projects failing. DO you understand how unethical that is? Thousands of these projects all over America are managed in joint ventures by developer and non profits. This was a clear case where the guy took the money from the buildings and screwed the community. He diverted the blame from the developer to the tenants.

The trial is for a pay and play scheme. But what I am talking about is the outcome of the foreclosures. Probably this guy will face IRS charges for defrauding the limited partners and missrepresentations in the partnership agreement. If there are any local funds in the projects, that will come as well. In the end, hundreds of low income people lost their housing when Obama should have had his integro meter on and did not fraternize with this guy.

Like Edwards says, this is personal with me, what Obama said about the projects failing is what NIMBYs say. Not community people.

Posted at January 23, 2008 9:04 AM in response to Didn’t Obama Watch the Firm?

Ok, one more. "No wrong doing" legally maybe. But wrong doing ethically as a community organizer and as the attorney of the non profit yes. It's hard to explain in this format what a slap in the face it is when Obama talks about his community work and this is what happened when he was doing it. Heaven help us when he gets wooed by the military contractors, pharmas, bankers, etc.

Look, I am not saying any candidate is a saint. But in this field, from what I know in all my years or experience, this is the low of the low. I am just scared if he is our nominee, even for VP, how this will just divert. Better clean it up now.

By the way the real estate deal was a mini Duke. The seller was selling two lots, Rezko's wife buys one Obama buys the house below market, a few years later Obama buys the strip of land. Now c'mon, how is this not like Duke, be honest to yourselves. Obama gets the house, Rezko gets the lot. Obama could not probably afford to buy both, so his friend, Rezko makes it possible. Does this pass the TPM Duke test?

Posted at January 23, 2008 8:58 AM in response to Didn’t Obama Watch the Firm?