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America's Got Talent! Contestant 1: Timothy Geithner going on Meet The Democrats (aka Meet The Press) to explain that the stimulus is working. Wow... that's got to be harder than riding a unicycle while spinning plates on a pole... Contestant 2: Valerie Jarrett on This Week with George Stephanopoulos - her task was to explain how Obama has made good on building unity, and how his health care plan has been bipartisan. Wow. Selling that would be like trying to argue that Bette Midler was the greatest soul singer of the 20th century... Contestant 3: Obama himself getting his photo...

Valerie Jarrett announced the other day that "we're going to speak truth to power." Who's Valerie Jarrett? She's "senior adviser" to the president of the United States - i.e., the leader of the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth. You would think the most powerful man in the most powerful nation would have a hard job finding anyone on the planet to whom to speak truth to power. But I suppose if you're as eager to do so as his senior adviser, there's always somebody out there: The supreme leader of Iran. The prime minister of Belgium....

Senior White House adviser and Obama crony Valerie Jarrett gave an interview to CNN in which she rapidly backtracked on the required administration line that Fox News is biased. When Brown asked whether she also thought that MSNBC (which is every bit as liberal as Fox is conservative) was biased she just crumbled. Within the space of a minute, Jarrett said of Fox that “of course they’re biased”, then that “I don’t want to just generalise all Fox is biased” (sorry, but you just did – eight seconds ago) before finally settling on the preposterous “we’re actually calling everybody out”....

Here is video of White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett on CNN telling Campbell Brown that Fox News is biased. Campbell Brown asked Jarrett "do you think Fox News is biased?" She answered "of course they're biased." Brown then asked her "do you also think that MSNBC is biased?" She avoided the question and would not say that MSNBC is biased...(Video)

A pleasant smackdown.

Tom Donohue sits for an interview with POLITICO. CEO and President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donahue, talks with POLITICO about his relationship with the White House, the health care debate and the Chamber's membership. Photo: John Shinkle U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue says a campaign by the White House and its allies to undermine his $200-million-a-year association has largely failed — and actually has helped raise even more money for its pro-business efforts. In a 75-minute interview with POLITICO, Donohue dismissed recent defections by Apple and at least four other companies, which quit over the...

One thing is beyond question: Jarrett’s unprecedented sway over the president. An Obama 2008 campaign official told the New York Times, “If you want him to do something, there are two people he’s not going to say no to: Valerie Jarrett and Michelle Obama.” Susan Sher, who helped Jarrett recruit Michelle Obama to the Chicago mayor’s office before Michelle married the president, said, “I don’t think either of them [the Obamas] made major decisions without talking to her,” adding that Jarrett failed to appreciate “how incredibly instrumental she’ll be in virtually everything” in the White House. The president confirms Jarrett’s...

"I have a gift." Barack Obama to Harry Reid I’m not exactly sure what “gift” President Obama was referring to, but unless he’s delusional, it isn’t his governing skills. Those who are still hypnotized eleven months after the election of Dear Leader may not have noticed, but the man who manipulates the teleprompter and looks temperately placid, has a decidedly diabolical persona toward his electorate. He hires people like Mark Lloyd for the FCC who worships Hugo Chavez and his revolutionary control of the press. Then there’s the self- acclaimed Communist and Black Liberationist Van Jones. Sadly for Valery Jarrett...

Many who backed Obama at the time of the financial crisis last Fall, are now, in private, expressing grave misgivings. (snip) I'm told that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers have both complained to senior Wall Street execs that they have almost no say in major policy decisions. Obama economic counselor Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman, is barely consulted at all on just about anything -- not even issues involving the banking system, of which he is among the world's leading authorities.(snip)(obama)is acting as if he has a blank check to do what he wants,...

Chicago's bid to win the right to host the 2016 Olympic Games is an important strand in President Barack Obama's diplomatic efforts to reach out to the world, his senior advisor Valerie Jarrett told AFP on Thursday. Jarrett, who was given personal responsibility by Obama of the first ever White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport, said that the President and the First Lady Michelle Obama considered the Olympic Movement and the Games itself as vital to diplomacy.

WHEN government of ficials play the Olympic lottery, tax payers lose. That has been the disastrous experience of host cities around the world. So, why are President Obama and his White House entourage headed to Copenhagen, Denmark, this week to push a fiscally doomed Chicago 2016 bid? Political payback. Bringing the games to the Windy City is Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's "vision." The entrenched Democratic powerbroker -- in office since 1989 -- would like to cap off his tenure with a glorious $4 billion bread-and-circuses production. The influential Daley machine backed Barack Obama in the presidential primaries. Obama lavished...

Yesterday, I posted about the NEA conference call’s clear and obvious violations of the Anti-Lobbying Act (19 U.S. Code §1913), which explicitly provides: “No part of the money appropriated by any enactment of Congress shall, in the absence of express authorization by Congress, be used directly or indirectly to pay for any personal service, advertisement, telegram, telephone, letter, printed or written matter, or other device, intended or designed to influence in any manner a Member of Congress, a jurisdiction, or an official of any government, to favor, adopt, or oppose by vote or otherwise, any legislation, law, ratification, policy, or...

*NEA conference call full audio and transcript here** Should the National Endowment for the Arts encourage artists to create art on issues being vehemently debated nationally? That is the question that I set out to discuss a little over three weeks ago when I wrote an article on Big Hollywood entitled The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?” The question still requires debate but the facts do not. The NEA and the White House did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address politically controversial issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable. But some have claimed that...

Valerie Jarrett is widely promoted as President Barack Obama’s “Ultimate Insider” according to the New York Times, and “barack’s rock”, according to Vogue Magazine. She currently serves as our President’s closest White House advisor, just as Karen Hughes assisted President George W. Bush. She was Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard Daley, during which time (1991) she hired Michelle Robinson, then engaged to Barack Obama, away from a private law firm. Valerie’s mother, Barbara Bowman, started the Erikson Institute (www.erikson.edu) in 1966, a liberal “progressive” educational organization based in Chicago, IL. Valerie’s father, Vernon Jarrett, began his journalism career...

“We have kind of a mind meld,” Jarrett said about Obama. “And chances are, what he wants to do is what I’d want to do.” Chicago tycoon Martin Nesbitt identified the source of Jarrett’s power in the fact that she establishes both Michelle and Barack’s “whole notion of authenticity.” Nesbitt relates she channels the Obamas’ inner voice, telling them: “That’s not you. You wouldn’t say that. Somebody else is saying that. Barack Obama wouldn’t say that.” Jarrett admitted to Vogue, “I kind of know what makes them who they are.” Who is this person to whom Jarrett is so indebted...

When President Barack Obama's green jobs adviser, Van Jones, submitted his resignation this weekend, he became the first casualty of the Obama administration not to go quietly. Where other departing officials have given explanations about process or used predictable lines about spending more time with their families, Jones released a statement accusing his critics of using "lies and distortions" about him to divert attention from the White House's agenda. "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy , opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones said. Also breaking with this White...

The Sound(?) Advice of "Chief Advisor" Valerie Jarrett Advice on “green energy” czar Van Jones--- HIRE HIM!Advice on Healthcare--- DUMP and DECEIVE the POOR PUBLIC (in action, not word)Advice on Public Housing for the Poor and Underprivileged--- SCREW EM! (in action, not word) Advice on “green energy” czar Van Jones: Hire him! “Van Jones, we were so delighted to be able to recruit him into the White House, we've been watching him, really, for - he's not that old— but for as long as he's been active out of Oakland and all of the ways that he has -...

Valerie Jarrett - Also Raised out of Country Jarrett was born to American parents James E. Bowman and Barbara Taylor Bowman in Shiraz, Iran, where her father, a pathologist and geneticist, ran a hospital for children as part of a program where American doctors and agricultural experts sought to help jump-start developing countries’ health and farming efforts. When she was five, the family moved to London for one year, returning to Chicago in 1963. As a child she spoke Persian and French. Jarrett got her start in Chicago politics in 1987 working for Mayor Harold Washington[6] as Deputy Corporation Counsel...

The key point about the Van Jones affair is what it tells us about Barack Obama. Jones isn't someone who slipped through the cracks of the vetting process. We know this because, as Scott pointed out earlier today, top Obama aide Valerie Jarrett has said, "So, Van Jones, we were so delighted to be able to recruit him into the White House; we were watching him. . .for as long as he's been active out in Oakland." Having watched the rise of Van Jones, why did Team Obama nonetheless "recruit" him into the White house? Because what Jones says and...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4TH, 2009 AT 2:56 PM Ethics Update Posted by Norm Eisen We have previously reported six limited waivers that have been granted by the White House pursuant to the President’s Executive Order on Ethics for Executive Branch personnel – the strongest ethics standards in U.S. government history. Three of these waivers involved lobbying-related issues and three did not. We blogged about them here, here, and here. Several months ago, the public interest community suggested that we also make available in a central place limited waivers...

It is now well established that Barack Obama was linked to the Hawaiian Communist Party network through his boyhood/teenage mentor Frank Marshall Davis. It is also well known that after moving to Chicago, Obama linked up with the local communist networks. Manning Marable, a leader of the Communist Party offshoot Committees of Correspondence for Democracy&Socialism claims that Obama "understands what socialism is. A lot of the people working with him are, indeed, socialists with backgrounds in the Communist Party or as independent Marxists. There are a lot of people like that in Chicago who have worked with him for years..."...

Lawrence Summers, a top economic adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama, was paid about $5.2 million by hedge fund D.E. Shaw in the past year, disclosure forms released by the White House showed on Friday. Summers was also paid $2.7 million in speaking fees by a range of organizations and companies, including several troubled Wall Street financial firms. The disclosure documents on Summers and other White House officials advising Obama on the global financial crisis covered 2008 and the first few months of this year. Summers became an official adviser on January 20 when Obama took office. Summers, who was...

Group's ‘mainstream’ Islamist convention last weekend featured hate speech and Hezbollah Defense A top aide to President Barack Obama provided a keynote address at last weekend's 46th Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) national convention, a gathering that attracted thousands of people and also featured anti-Semitic, homophobic rhetoric and defense of the terrorist group Hezbollah. In her remarks, Senior Advisor for Public Engagement and International Affairs Valerie Jarrett noted she was the first White House official to address ISNA. She spoke in general terms about interfaith dialogue and cooperation. She praised her hosts for "the diversity of American organizations, and...

IPT News July 8, 2009 A top aide to President Barack Obama provided a keynote address at last weekend's 46th Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) national convention, a gathering that attracted thousands of people and also featured anti-Semitic, homophobic rhetoric and defense of the terrorist group Hezbollah. In her remarks, Senior Advisor for Public Engagement and International Affairs Valerie Jarrett noted she was the first White House official to address ISNA. She spoke in general terms about interfaith dialogue and cooperation. She praised her hosts for "the diversity of American organizations, and ideas that are represented and will be...

With Chicago officials in Switzerland promoting Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid at an important site selection meeting, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned that President Obama is creating a new White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport. According to the White House, 'this permanent White House office will promote the values of the Olympic Movement and encourage increased youth participation in athletics. The primary function of the Office will be to enhance awareness of the Olympic Movement through promotion of its fundamental principles at the federal level." From the White House... President Obama Announces New White House Office of Olympic,...

Nearly a year ago, on June 16, RBO (then known as RezkoWatch) wrote that the email inbox had been quite busy over the weekend, just full of suggestions, questions and opinions. One of those interesting questions, which follows, was about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and his possible involvement with Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. But first, we have Kenneth P. Vogel, writing in today’s The Politico: The Obama White House is playing an unprecedented role in the bid to bring the 2016 Summer Olympics to Chicago, with top adviser Valerie Jarrett spearheading an effort that draws on...

Here’s something that you probably didn’t know — or at least the Tanning Bed Media doesn’t seem inclined to report too much about it. On Friday, January 23, 2008, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s administration released 43 “sweeping” federal subpoenas. The Associated Press reported that, on December 8, 2008, the day before Blago was arrested on public corruption charges, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office “sought ‘any and all documents, including notes, calendars, lists, correspondence, communications, logs, records, or other data, relating in any way to any of the following individuals and/or entities’” (see list below). Lynn Sweet wrote January 24th in...

On Monday, January 26, 2009, the impeachment trial of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich begins. Nominally, the trial will be held by the Illinois Senate with the Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court presiding. In reality, this case is, and always has been, under the control of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. The impeachment process started just days after Fitzgerald held his now famous press conference on December 9, 2008, in which Fitzgerald announced that Blagojevich was guilty of various crimes while in office, most spectacularly the attempt to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat. The charge was made in a...

Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on behalf of the Obama administration, officials said. The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported Saturday that the five-day, invitation-only forum draws leading business leaders from around the world. White House National Security Adviser James Jones and economic adviser Lawrence Summers had been planning to attend, but will remain in Washington to attend to domestic issues. "Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president who is in touch each day with elected officials, business and community leaders across the nation about the economic challenges they face, will...

UPDATE: SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Sweeping federal subpoenas of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration include requests for records involving David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, senior advisers to President Barack Obama. Among 43 subpoenas released by the Blagojevich administration Friday, one from Dec. 8 seeks notes, calendars, correspondence and any other data that relate to Axelrod, Jarrett and 32 other people and organizations.

For eight years, the president of the United States — the ex-officio socialite in chief — has turned up his nose at the slightest whiff of social aspiration. Now a new generation of Washington socialites has a dream. They see a dashing, young, brilliant president and his equally brilliant wife ushering in an era of inclusive entertaining. Gone is the white-gloved, debutante-loving, Pilgrim-pedigreed culture that still mattered in Kennedy’s Camelot and Reagan’s Hollywood East. Starting Jan. 20, when President Barack Obama and Michelle move into the White House, the “in crowd” will include just about everyone who, since the dawn...

Springfield, IL—The Barack Obama Whitewash is in full swing and US Attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald is currently in the Tank for the President-elect. My sources in Chicago claim Fitzgerald is now looking out for Obama’s interests. The deal has already been made. Now Fitzgerald has made quite a mess and before it’s all over whistleblowers within his own office may spill the beans. The only way out is for a real sweetheart deal where Governor Rod Blagojevich, shuts up, resigns and escapes prison. No hearings, no trials and no risk of exposing Obama or his minions to sunshine. The lawyers for...

An internal review released by the Obama transition team Tuesday concluded that conversations between the Obama team and Rod Blogajevich's office did not involve any kind of deal with regards to Barack Obama's vacant senate seat. In other words, the Obama team was oblivious to any wrongdoing on the part of the governor. Now, if you honestly believe that, then I'd be more than happy to sell you the Brooklyn bridge - at half the going price. However, what's even more troubling than that bit of nonsense is how the memo portrays Valerie Jarrett as an innocent bystander in the...

Suppose you're Bashir Assad or Putin, and you watch the Blago Blowup, a month before the next president even takes office. What are you thinking right now? First, Obama looks vulnerable to blackmail. His homey network is full of people who can't stand the light of day. They know all kinds of things the leftist media suppress -- people like Auchi (the Iraqi billionaire), Rezko (the corrupt Syrian multimillionaire), Emil Jones (the Godfather of Southside), and the whole Daley Machine. That's not even counting the freaky radicals or the pols Obama has surrounded himself with. Mayor Daley's brother is one...

Full show at link - Excerpt I refer to here which begins at approximately 19:45 into the complete show.

Blago drama for Obama RAHM EMANUEL | Pressed for Jarrett appointment to Senate December 17, 2008 BY NATASHA KORECKI AND FRAN SPIELMAN Staff Reporters President-elect Barack Obama's incoming chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, was pushing for Obama's successor just days after the Nov. 4 election, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times. Emanuel privately urged Gov. Blagojevich's administration to appoint Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett, and the Sun-Times learned Tuesday that he also pressed that it be done by a certain deadline. » Click to enlarge image Rahm Emanuel (right) and Gov. Rod Blagojevich at a news conference in 2004. Sources told the...

That's why on November 9, while she was in New York on business, he offered her the job as senior advisor to the president and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public liaison. This position has her reporting directly to him and places her in the inner sanctum of the president of the United States, and ensures that her voice will be heard on nearly every issue. I know the date well because on November 10, she confided in me that she had been offered the job, but I couldn't report anything until the announcement was about to...

Valerie Jarrett Who Am I? Chicago Medical Center As Well." (Jay Newton-Small, "Campaign Insider," Time, 4/7/08) "Chicago Is In The Running For The 2016 Olympics … One Of Obama's Top Advisers, Valerie Jarrett, Is The Vice Chair Of Chicago's Bid Committee." (Lynn Sweet, "McCain, Obama, Clinton All Push Bush On China Games," Chicago Sun-Times, 4/10/08) Under A Plan Devised By The City Of Chicago And Habitat Co., "The City Has Lost More Than 13,000 Housing Units For The Poor." (Jason Grotto and Laurie Cohen, "Obama Adviser Shapes City Housing Policy," Chicago Tribune, 7/5/08) "Habitat Has Earned $6.8 Million In Fees...

The revelation does not suggest Obama's new gatekeeper was involved in any talk of dealmaking involving the seat. But it does help fill in the gaps surrounding a question that Obama was unable or unwilling to answer this week: Did anyone on his staff have contact with Blagojevich about his choice for the Senate seat? Blagojevich and John Harris, his former chief of staff, face federal charges in an alleged shakedown involving the vacant Senate seat, which Illinois law grants the governor sole authority to fill. Obama said Thursday he had never spoken to Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy and...

Obama's Senate seat never part of plan for Jarrett AXELROD COMMENTS | Says Obama always wanted her in White House December 12, 2008 BY LYNN SWEET Sun-Times Columnist CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- In what I can only describe as a political fantasy, Gov. Blagojevich somehow thought he could extract a Cabinet post from President-elect Barack Obama if he appointed Valerie Jarrett to replace Obama in the Senate. But the reality is Obama always wanted Jarrett, a confidante who is friends with the president-elect and his wife, Michelle, to work with him in the White House, David Axelrod said Thursday night. »...

The group hoping to persuade the U.S. Olympic Committee board to choose Chicago over Los Angeles to represent the nation in international competition will also include Valerie Jarrett, a real estate executive and former CTA chairwoman.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.--Contrary to comments made by Gov. Blagojevich--according to federal wiretaps--about President elect Barack Obama wanting confidant Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the Senate, David Axelrod said Thursday that Obama's "preference was always she serve in the White House." Jarrett was tapped to be a senior advisor. Axelrod spoke at a forum at Harvard University's Institute of Politics.

Among the hundreds of hours of conversations involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich secretly recorded by the FBI since Oct. 22, one phone call is drawing particular scrutiny among politicos, journalists and others in Washington. It was a marathon conference call on Monday, Nov. 10. The call lasted about two hours. On the phone were Mr. Blagojevich, his wife, his general counsel, an unnamed adviser, and John Harris, the governor’s chief of staff and his co-defendant in this week’s case. But what’s drawing the most interest is who was on the line from Washington, and the sequence of political events that...

President-elect Barack Obama wanted to bring some Chicago with him to Washington. But with one stiff wind, Chicago has grabbed Obama and his transition -- and blown it off-course for the first time since Election Day. It isn’t about the direct implications -- though having a senior adviser win a pseudonym in a Patrick Fitzgerald legal filing might be enough to keep a scandal around for a while. What the stunning charges leveled against Gov. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill., mean for the heretofore flawless transition: 1. The underbelly of the Obama political operation, with all its Chicago tints and taints, is...

From CNN Chief National Correspondent John King Valerie Jarrett is one of Barack Obama's closest advisers. Valerie Jarrett is one of Barack Obama's closest advisers. (Update: Two Democratic sources told CNN Monday that Obama wants Jarrett to serve in the White House, not the Senate.) (CNN) — A prominent Democratic source close to Barack Obama confirmed Sunday that Valerie Jarrett is Obama’s choice to replace him in the Senate. Jarrett is a Chicago lawyer and one of Obama’s closest advisers. She is also one of the leaders of Obama’s transition team. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the incoming chief of staff, said...

Barack Obama’s personnel decisions as President-Elect are crushing any hopes that his administration will bring a new spirit of integrity and honesty to Washington. First there was the selection of Clinton attack dog Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff. Then there was the selection of another Clinton crony, John Podesta, to co-chair Obama’s transition team. And now Barack Obama has tapped Valerie Jarrett to partner with Podesta in handling the transition.

In Obama's White House, Jarrett will be a senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernment relations and public liaison. Jarrett, who turned 52 Friday, gets a portfolio that will allow her to advise the Obamas while overseeing the administration's relations with other elected officials, traditional interest groups and the "movement" that Obama nurtured during his presidential campaign and wants to keep alive during his tenure. She enters the White House battle tested as a veteran of eight years in Chicago's City Hall, most under Mayor Daley, rising to planning and development commissioner. But Jarrett "wasn't happy with private...

Judicial Watch has obtained documents from the Illinois Secretary of State linking Valerie Jarrett, advisor to Barack Obama, to a series of real estate scandals. Characterized as "the other side of Barack Obama's brain" by CBS News, Jarrett first met the Obamas seventeen years ago when she offered Michelle Obama a job. The New York Times reported it is likely she will become a senior White House advisor. Like Obama, Valerie Jarrett is a product of the corrupt Chicago political machine. And it is no stretch to say that she was a slumlord.

Feel the change! Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents linking Valerie Jarrett, an advisor to Barack Obama and the co-chairman of the President-Elect’s transition team, to a series of real estate scandals, including several housing projects operated by convicted felon and Obama fundraiser/friend Antoin “Tony” Rezko. According to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Illinois Secretary of State, Valerie Jarrett served as a board member for several organizations that provided funding and support for Chicago housing projects operated by real estate developers and Obama financial...

President-elect Barack Obama is naming his longtime friend and supporter Valerie Jarrett to be his White House senior adviser. Jarrett, who hired Michelle Obama for a job in the Chicago mayor's office years ago, is one of the president-elect's closest friends and advisers.