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President-elect getting a local bounce from his hairstyle By Darrell Smith Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009 It's medium-short, tapered at the end of the neckline; the hairline is natural, finished with shears. Ladies and gentlemen, the Obama cut, now appearing on heads from Washington, D.C., to Sacramento. "It's a custom cut, customized for him. I did create the cut. We simplified it and we called it the 'Obama,' " said Zariff, President-elect Barack Obama's barber and owner of Hyde Park Hair Salon and Barber Shop in Chicago. Zariff, who goes by one name, didn't have much time to talk. Even at...

I predicted it days after it happened: That the beloved and woefully incompetent terrorist Bill Ayers would join his fellow travelers at the Huffington Post blog. And so, this week, he's written some hilarious nonsense about education, using a kind of mental terrorism meant to blow your mind, but instead only blows. But what a great idea for the frustrated bomber inside all of us! I mean, let's say you're in a hurry and you need some nutty Marxist rhetoric to impress a co-ed from Brown, as well as advice on how to make a bomb! Wouldn't it be great...

ABOARD A U.S. AIR FORCE JET (Reuters) - Barack Obama is not afraid to admit it -- he got a little emotional before leaving Chicago for Washington where he will soon become the next president of the United States. "I've got to say that I choked up a little bit leaving my house today," said Obama, who will become the nation's first black president when he takes office on January 20.

Lawyer at firm where Democrat worked receives property tax bill An attorney for convicted fundraiser Tony Rezko is listed as the owner and taxpayer for Barack Obama's Chicago mansion, according to records obtained by WND. William Miceli is a lawyer at the Chicago law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, which also formerly employed Obama. The controversy began when a website called News and Commentary for Thinking People published a 48-page document that lists Miceli as the owner of the Obama home at 5046 S. Greenwood. Miner, Barnhill & Galland was Obama's employer when he did extensive legal work for Rezko,...

An attorney for convicted fundraiser Tony Rezko is listed as the owner and taxpayer for Barack Obama's Chicago mansion, according to records obtained by WND. William Miceli is a lawyer at the Chicago law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, which also formerly employed Obama. The controversy began when a website called News and Commentary for Thinking People published a 48-page document that lists Miceli as the owner of the Obama home at 5046 S. Greenwood. Miner, Barnhill & Galland was Obama's employer when he did extensive legal work for Rezko, who awaits sentencing after he was convicted in June of...

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he is not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing and plans to stay on the job. In his first official statement since his arrest on corruption charges last week, Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-Uh-vich) says he will fight until he takes his "last breath." ... The Democratic governor says he intends to "answer every allegation in a court of law."

Will the Blagojevich scandal damage the incoming Obama administration? Given Rod Blagojevich’s profane railings against Barack Obama, revealed on federal wiretaps, few observers believe — although none know for sure — that the Obama camp engaged in any pay-for-play dealings with the governor, and therefore few see any legal problems for Team Obama resulting from the criminal investigation. But that’s not the only way the incoming administration might be caught up in the Blagojevich affair. The probe is being conducted, after all, by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the man who prosecuted one of the most intensely investigated and politically-charged perjury-and-false-statements...

The Chicago Public Schools consistently ranks as one of the worst public school systems in the country. Despite much ballyhooed efforts at reform in recent years, little progress has been made. The man Chicago Mayor Richard Daley originally tapped to reform the schools, Paul Vallas, was thwarted http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jun/10/news/mn-8818 in his efforts by the powerful teachers' union, with the assistance of then-State Sen. Barack Obama and his terrorist buddy, William Ayers. Today, Barack Obama tapped the head of that school system, Arne Duncan, a fellow Hyde Park resident and basketball playmate of Obama's, to run the Department of Education. Duncan succeeded...

Against the backdrop of Chicago’s Wacker Drive, Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren stood and analyzed Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s most recent “pay-to-play” scheme, the auctioning of President-elect Barack Obama’s seat in the U.S. Senate. Absent from the analysis of Governor Blagojevich’s role as auctioneer was the governor’s involvement in an earlier scandal. That earlier story went generally untouched by the media — outside of Chicago — because it had a direct bearing on the character of then-presidential candidate and media darling Barack Obama. Now, numerous journalists have been captured before the camera’s lens wondering why U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald “prematurely”...

Patricia Blagojevich, wife of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was already facing scrutiny for real estate deals before her husband's arrest, sources say. U.S. prosecutors for several years had been investigating real estate sales involving Patricia "Patti" Blagojevich, a former residential real estate agent, before she was accused last week of helping her husband trade the vacant U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama for personal gain, the Chicago Tribune reported Sunday.Patti Blagojevich has had an eight-year working relationship with Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a once-influential developer and Blagojevich fundraiser who was found guilty this summer on influence-peddling charges, the newspaper said....

Relativity by E. M. Escher While researching an article about Obama's Chicago home-- about the circumstances surrounding who is the "owner", I happened across a bit of information: Obama's home has a Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac mortgage to the tune of $1,320,000. (Page 5 of Cook County Property Assessment Record) The information comes from the Cook County Clerk's office where the "owner" of the Obama home is listed as William Miceli, a former supervisor of Obama's when he worked at the David Law Firm. What's unusual about the Obama mortgage is that the upper limits of a Fannie Mae loan...

The story about Senator Obama’s house purchase is well known. On June 15, 2005, Barack and Michelle Obama closed on a new house in the historic Kenwood district of Chicago for $1,650,000, or $300,000 below the listed asking price. On the same day, Rita Rezko, the wife of Tony Rezko, closed on the adjacent vacant lot for $625,000, which was the full listed asking price. The Obamas subsequently purchased a 1,500-sqft strip of land from the Rezkos on January 11, 2006 for $104,166, increasing the side lot buffer between their properties. The media confronted Senator Obama about these transactions because...

America wanted change and we sure got it. We elected a politician who looked and sounded fresh and new and different (and don't forget "clean" as Senator Biden once remarked), and promised that magic word "change." Aren't we lucky? It appears that the change we got is that we've moved Chicago machine-style politics into the White House. We found out on Tuesday what that business model consists of- the good Governor of Illinois was arrested for allegedly trying to sell Barack Obama's United States Senate seat. Yes, I said sell Obama's seat to the highest bidder. It's nice to know...

<p>President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, refused to take questions from reporters this morning about whether he was the Obama “advisor” named in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.</p> <p>The complaint states Blagojevich wanted a promise of a high-level appointment or some other reward for Blagojevich in exchange for Blagojevich naming Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the U.S. Senate.</p>

Without explanation District Judge Amy St. Eve canceled her own deadlines for lawyers to file briefs on the upcoming sentencing of Antoin "Tony" Rezko. That name should sound familiar, as detailed in a Special Ticket Report the other day; he's the Illinois political fixer, real estate man and fundraiser with close connections to Obama, Blagojevich and other Chicago political clans who's unhappy in solitary and sought to advance his sentencing to Jan. 6 on 16 federal counts of fraud, money laundering and abetting bribery. (Obama was not implicated in that trial.)

A footnote to the 76-page criminal complaint and affidavit charging Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) with soliciting bribes confirms what has long been rumored -- that a former longtime friend and fundraiser for President-elect Barack Obama is talking to federal prosecutors in hopes of a reduced sentence. Antoin "Tony" Rezko's offer to provide authorities with evidence of others' wrongdoing is "not complete," and prosecutors are working to corroborate the claims he has made so far, the footnote said.

Sweet catch by Tapper, showing why he got that promotion. Obama today…“I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening, ” Obama told reporters today in Chicago. “It’s a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that, I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment.” …versus Axelrod on November 23, as seen below. Be sure to read Tapper’s post, as he has plenty more on The One’s long history as a friend of — and advisor to — Blago. Axelrod himself begged off Blagojevich’s first gubernatorial campaign because “I was concerned about...

<p>A source said today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning. The U.S. attorney's office would not confirm the information, and a spokesman for the governor did not immediately return a phone call for comment.</p>

Federal investigators recently made covert tape recordings of Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the most dramatic step yet in their corruption investigation of him and his administration, the Tribune has learned. As part of this undercover effort, one of the governor's closest confidants and former aides cooperated with investigators, and that assistance helped lead to recordings of the governor and others, sources said. The cooperation of John Wyma, 42, one of the state's most influential lobbyists, is the most stunning evidence yet that Blagojevich's once-tight inner circle appears to be collapsing under the pressure of myriad pay-to-play inquiries. Wyma, Blagojevich's chief...

CHICAGO - On a recent Sunday afternoon at a historic Chicago synagogue, the sanctuary was packed but the mood was restrained: A longtime congregant had died, and about 300 people had turned out for his funeral service. But amid the solemnity, the occasional mourner discreetly pulled loved ones out to the synagogue's front steps to snap cell phone pictures of a large brick house, mostly obscured by shrubs, across the street. Such scenes have become commonplace in recent months at KAM-Isaiah Israel, a Reform congregation in the Hyde Park neighborhood. The dome of the historic Byzantine-style synagogue looms over the...