Posted on 03/08/2007 5:17:15 AM PST by Chi-townChief
WASHINGTON -- White House hopeful Barack Obama was on the defensive Wednesday over stock purchases from companies whose investors included his political donors.
And Obama revealed that he terminated a "quasi-blind" trust he created for the stock purchases -- called the "Freedom Trust" -- after realizing that it wasn't blind after all.
Obama's campaign team ramped up a rapid reaction defense after a story about his portfolio hit the front page of Wednesday's New York Times and was the subject of scrutiny Monday on thestreet.com.
Denies any connection The political damage potential is high because one of the firms Obama bought stock in was developing medicine to treat avian flu -- with the purchase coming as Obama started to champion more federal funding to fight the disease. Obama, who has made ethics one of his signature issues, took questions at a news conference in the Capitol called originally to tout an immigration bill. He denied any connection between his investments and legislation. Meanwhile, Obama's research team -- aware that every part of his life is under a microscope -- turned up unpaid parking tickets from his days as a Harvard law student. In January, an Obama representative paid $400 in fines and penalties, according to the Somerville News.
Here's the situation:
Investing the book windfall: "This was not a lot of money," Obama said.
Obama had about $100,000 he wanted to invest in 2005. The money was a portion of the $1.2 million he got from a book contract. He said Wednesday he decided the $100,000 could be put into something "more high risk" and asked a friend to recommend a stock broker. That friend was donor George W. Haywood, who held what the New York Times called "major" positions in the two stocks Obama ended up owning, Skyterra and AVI BioPharma.
Another Obama donor who invested in the same stocks -- which were characterized as "obscure" in thestreet.com story -- was Jared Abbruzzese. He was also a donor to the anti-John Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and is being investigated by the FBI in New York for public corruption. Obama declined to name the UBS broker. Net loss on the investments: $13,000.
"I thought about going to Warren Buffett, but I decided it would be embarrassing with only $100,000 to invest to ask for his advice," Obama quipped.
The 'quasi-blind' trust: "Now obviously the thing didn't work the way I wanted it to," Obama said.
The Senate Ethics manual has detailed rules about blind trusts and qualified blind trusts. Obama did not want to sign on to either of those options because he did not want to wash his hands of the responsibility of investments made in his name, attorney Robert Bauer said.
Because the off-the-shelf trusts were not satisfactory, "We tried to see if we could jigger it to make it work better," Obama said. He signed papers on May 31, 2005, for the custom trust designed to shield him from knowing how his money was invested -- but let him respond to media inquiries about potential conflicts. Obama realized his system was not working when he received some sort of shareholder letter in fall 2005.
Katten Muchin Rosenman attorney Michael Hartz in Chicago drew up the papers for and was the trustee of the "Freedom Trust." Bauer said this particular kind of trust did not require any clearance from the Senate Ethics Committee because he did not ask to be relieved from any reporting rule. Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, said that if any kind of blind trust was created, "you should have the Ethics Committee sign off on it."
The trust was revoked on Dec. 31, 2005. Obama put his money in cash and mutual funds.
mailto:lsweet3022@aol.com
No, because both of them went up the food chain of offices in their respective states. Obama didn't even do that. He literally came out of nowhere, got plunked down in the senate, spent a half-term there and is now a serious candidate for the Dem nomination. That's too much of a fairy tale for anyone with even a modicum of savvy to swallow.
Gives some credence, but I don't believe in that particular conspiracy theory. In the real world, all it takes is serious money. As Marathoner and knarf both indicated, Soros and/or some Muslim factions have the money and potentially the interest in putting their own puppet into the U.S. presidency.
well, the governorships of Ga and Ark were not exactly stellar accomplishments....maybe you think they were, tho.....Obama managed to become an attorney/black activist and got elected into first State govt, then the US Senate.......IMO that puts him on approximate par with carter and clinton..........and none of the 3 of them warranted the fuss that was made over them.......a decision has been taken by some very powerful folks to promote or at least allow the derailment hilliary (I have no clue who)
Lynn claimed that the press is not afraid of Hillary. That's a lie.
I spoke with the Obama communications office and challenged them to fight back. Hillary is behind every negative story, and it is going to continue.
RATFIGHT !!!
Obama was a IL state senator out of Hyde Park about ten years ago or so. I remember him challenging Defense Minister Rush for IL House-1st awhile back and getting a major butt-kicking. And then he split to regular (white) democrat vote to get the nomination for US Senator and Jeri 7of9 Ryan helped him slime his way into office. And, a few weeks ago, Joe Biden gave us the reason for Barack Hussein's popularity and rise to the top of the rat heap.
And what does he mean by "jigger"? It sounds like a slur to me.
Typical Chicago Democrat. (Of course, Patrick Fitzgerald looks for corruption in Illinois and only finds Republicans, but that's another story.)
Barack Obama never figured on being a Senator from Illinois and he never figured on being a "serious" presidential candidate. Ever since he discovered racism in his 20s, he figured that would be his shield. When people attacked him on Islam, that was cool, he was an opressed minority again.
But an empty suit has to be bulletproof and Obama is certainly not. Oh, well. That's what he gets for believing his own hype.
List of ethnic slurs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs#J
Jigaboo, jiggabo, jijjiboo, zigabo, jig, jigg, jiggy, jigga, jigger
(U.S. & UK) a black person (JB) with stereotypical black features (dark skin, wide nose, etc.).[73]
I was just being flippant. But this is a fruitful area of inquiry.
It reminds me of the people who get their undergarments in a knot over "gyp".
Obama had about $100,000 he wanted to invest in 2005.
$100,000 is not a lot of money? Of course it is, you idiot. This is the same graceless bastard who said, "I don't care how poor you are, you've got five dollars" to donate to his campaign.
He's this cycle's Rat golden boy, replacing the Silk Pony.
I know, and I realize this is pulled out of context. It's not what Obama meant ... but then, what did Ann Colter intend?
The Hillary minions have been busy little bees.
It's amazing that it only cost $400 to get them cleared!
I think he used 'jigger' as a verb, as an equivalent to FINAGLE
jig·ger 1 Pronunciation (jgr)
5. Informal An article or a device, the name of which eludes one.
fi·na·gle Pronunciation (f-ngl)
v. fi·na·gled, fi·na·gling, fi·na·gles Informal
v.tr.
1. To obtain or achieve by indirect, usually deceitful methods: finagle a day off from work.
2. To cheat; swindle: shady stockbrokers who finagle their clients out of fortunes.
v.intr.
To use crafty, deceitful methods.
The out-of-context stuff is the best! And that particular "slur" is perfect for Obama because if he meant it, it could be quite devastating.
No, he meant to use it as a verb which is derived from the slur itself. He knew exactly what he was doing and he shows a disturbing lack of sensitivity. He should drop out of the presidential contest now and pay reparations to Jesse Jackson. ;)
Tagline. ;)
:)
Surely we can get someone to feign outrage on this. Granted, the right doesn't do feigned outrage like the left, but we could manage something, right?
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