Obama Attempt to Bring Olympics to Chicago ["ethics waiver" to funnel Olympic racket $$ to cronies]

An organization that investigates and fights government corruption announced this week that it obtained records detailing costs associated with a trip made by President and Mrs. Obama and key members of the administration to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the expressed purpose of securing the 2016 Olympics for the city of Chicago.

Expenses for the two-week trip appear to have far exceeded $467,175, in light of the fact that costs associated with the aircrafts ? two Boeing 747s and several Air Force cargo planes – have not been made available.

According to the records obtained from the Obama Department of Defense (DOD), President and Mrs. Obama; Secretary Ray LaHood; Secretary Arne Duncan; Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President Valarie Jarrett; and representatives of the White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic, and Youth Sport visited Copenhagen from September 21 through October 3 in an effort to convince members of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) to select Chicago as the location for the 2016 Olympics.

The Obama administration ferried dozens of other participants, including supporting staff members, to Copenhagen. However , the DOD has redacted many of their names.

* $235,659 Hotel rental for seven “offices” plus transportation and communications.
* $33,044 Cost of extra day in hotel (October 3, 2009).
* $129,276 Travel vouchers for hotel, mileage, reimbursed expenses, and
* $69,196 Flight costs for press.

President Obama tapped Valarie Jarrett to serve as his “Olympics Czar” and lead the effort to secure the Olympics for Chicago despite her personal and business ties to Chicago, which included a stint working for Mayor Daley. Jarrett’s work on the Olympics bid would have violated Obama’s own Executive Order against engaging in lobbying activities prior to his administration.

However, then-“Ethics Czar” Norm Eisen granted Jarrett an “ethics waver” from the president’s highly-touted ethics pledge so Jarrett could run the push for the Chicago Olympics bid. The waiver exempted Jarrett from the restrictions of President Obama’s own ethics pledge, even though she had personally led the bid before entering the White House.

Judicial Watch obtained the documents pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted to the DOD on October 5, 2009. FOIA law required the DOD to respond within 20 days. However, the DOD took 26 months to release the records. In September 2009, Judicial Watch submitted an open records request with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s to obtain records related to the Olympics bid, and the mayor’s office has failed to respond. Therefore, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the mayor’s office on November 10, 2009, seeking those records.

“Barack and Michelle Obama wasted taxpayer dollars on a junket that seemed designed for one purpose – to take care of their Chicago cronies who stood to gain financially from the Olympics racket,” says Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The fact that Valerie Jarrett needed an ‘ethics waiver’ to lead this failed bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago tells you almost all you need to know about the scandalous nature of this trip.”

Special thanks to Jill Sutherland Farrell, director of public affairs at Judicial Watch, for her continued help and material.

(no link)

Without debate, Harvard Club honors Newton Minow
Chicago Sun-Times - Sunday, January 13, 1991
Author: Mary Cameron Frey
To hear Lawrence Howe tell it, his job as chairman of the 1991 Awards Committee of the Harvard Club of Chicago was a snap.

Annually, the group honors someone who has improved the quality of life in an area outside his or her own profession.

“Newton Minow fits our criteria like a glove,” said Howe. “Besides being a senior partner at Sidley & Austin , he’s a trustee of both Northwestern and Notre Dame universities and is internationally known for his work in bringing presidential debates to television in the ‘70s and ‘80s.”

Although he didn’t graduate from Harvard, Minow is a member of the visiting committee of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, he taught there in 1987 and his daughter is on the Harvard law school faculty.

Dinner chair Dr. Richard Burnstine announced that Minow’s dear friend, the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, president emeritus of Notre Dame, will be the speaker at the Feb. 23 dinner at the Drake.

(snip)

http://clubs.harvard.edu/olc/pub/HAA/university/home.jsp?shortname=hcchicago

Welcome to The Harvard Club of Chicago’s Web Site.

The Harvard Club of Chicago (HCC) is the oldest, continuously operating Harvard Club in the world, having been founded in 1857.

It is one of the largest urban clubs with a membership of over 1,300 alumni/ae out of a universe of over 7,000 in the greater Chicago area.

The Harvard Club of Chicago is a very active club with two to four member programs each month. In addition, the club has an energetic schools committee for interviewing prospective high school seniors, an Adopt-A-School program with the Walter Payton College Prep public high school in Chicago, a Decade program for recent college graduates, and a Radcliffe Club organizing programs of special interest to women alumnae. The club currently contributes $30,000 to college scholarships and over $10,000 to community service fellowships and activities each year.

(snip)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2348280/posts

The Chicago Ouroboros: Obama, Ayers, Oughton, Dohrn, Minow, Taibbi, Koch, and DARK POOL TRADING
FREE REPUBLIC WORLD EXCLUSIVE | Friday, September 25, 2009 | FREE REPUBLIC WORLD EXCLUSIVE

Wife of Strautmanis, Damona, Project Manager for Boston Properties.

...this afternoon we joined the topping off chow line at the great new 20 F St., NW, a 10-story 163k SF Class A developed by Boston Properties and sold a year ago to the Chicago-based American College of Surgeons.

20 F STREET; OUR CONFERENCE!

Damona Smith Strautmanis (BS 1990, MArch 1993, MBA 1993) is principal at Jormida Consulting LC~a real estate development and design and construction project management consulting firm in Silver Spring, Maryland. Ms. Strautmanis is the owner/developer of office, retail, and residential projects. Prior to launching Jormida Consulting, she was employed with the Peterson Companies and served as project director of design and construction for the $300 million downtown Silver Spring redevelopment project.

PDF Source

Damona Smith Strautmanis BSAS, MSArch, MBA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They have three children, Michael, Jori and Nia, including one autistic child.

"He is from Chicago and served as a paralegal in Michelle Obama's law firm. He started off as poor--he and his dad were struggling, according to his statement at the Minister's conference. He was taken under the wing of Michelle Obama. He said his weekly salary that summer made his dad think it was his is monthly salary and what he eventually used to attend law school. A dream for a bike riding messenger. Mr. Straumantis told his story at the Philadephia Minister's Strategy meeting in October, where I was present. "

Black in America---Dec 2008

http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Fraser_C._Robinson_III_%281935-1991%29

Birth: August 1, 1935 Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States
Death: March 6, 1991 Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States
Father: Fraser Robinson, Jr. (1912-1996)
Mother: LaVaughn D Johnson (1915-2002)
Skills: Water plant pump operator
Spouse: Marian L. Shields (1937)
Wedding: October 27, 1960 Cook County, Illinois, United States

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/politics/21family.html?pagewanted=all

Still, the family’s progress has a two steps forward, one step back quality. Jim Robinson was born into slavery, but his son, Fraser, ran a lunch truck in Georgetown. In turn, his son, Fraser Jr., struck out for Chicago in search of something better. But he was unable to find work, and left his wife and children for 14 years, according to his son Nomenee Robinson. As a result, Mrs. Obama’s father was on welfare as a boy and started working on a milk truck at 11.

After serving in the Army in World War II and finally securing a job as a postal clerk, Fraser Robinson Jr. rejoined his family. He was so thrifty that he would bring home chemicals to do the family dry cleaning in the bathtub. But his son — Mrs. Obama’s father, Fraser Robinson III — became overwhelmed with debt and dropped out of college after a year. He worked in a city boiler room for the rest of his life, helping to send his four younger siblings to college, then his two children, Mrs. Obama and her brother, to Princeton.

(no link)

OBITUARIES
Sun News, The (Myrtle Beach, SC) - Tuesday, November 12, 1996

EXCERPT

GEORGETOWN — Fraser Robinson , 84, died Saturday, Nov. 9, 1996, at Georgetown Memorial Hospital.

Born Aug. 24, 1912, in Georgetown, he was a son of the late Fraser and Rosa Ella Cohen Robinson .

He was a retired postal clerk and a member of Bethel AME Church.

Survivors include his wife, LaVaughn Robinson of Chicago; three sons, Nomenee Robinson and Andrew Robinson , both of Chicago; and Carleton Robinson of South Lake, Texas; a daughter, Francesca Gray of Bellwood, Ill.; two sisters, Zenobia Tharpe of Georgetown and Verdelle Funnye of Chicago.

The family will receive friends at 6 tonight at Wilds’ Funeral Home.

The funeral will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Bethel AME Church. Burial will be in Bethel Cemetery.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nomenee-robinson/17/176/a

Nomenee Robinson

Vice President of Marketing at Winstar Courier Incorporated

Dallas/Fort Worth Area
Transportation/Trucking/Railroad

Current

Vice President of Marketing at Winstar Courier Incorporated
Regional Recruiter at Peace Corps

Past

Regional Recruiter at U.S. Peace Corps
Adjunct Professor at Lagos Business School
Executive Vice President at Silverbird Communication

Education

Harvard Business School
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-10-09/news/ct-met-peacecorps-20101009_1_peace-corps-volunteers-sikh

Thus was born the idea of the Peace Corps, and when Kennedy took office the next year, he swiftly made it a reality. He called for volunteers to spend two years improving the health, education and economic prospects of some of the poorest people on earth — and, not coincidentally in those Cold War years, to burnish America’s global reputation.

Thousands of Americans stepped forward. One was Nomenee Robinson, then a young architect and city planner working in Chicago’s Water Department.

He had an itch for adventure and a desire to help others. And by the autumn of 1961, he was in India’s Punjab state, assisting with building projects in a country struggling to gain its footing after centuries of colonial rule.

Life there was hard. Robinson had to use bricks made of sand and straw and just a dab of cement. He was on constant guard not to offend his hosts with an easygoing joke. And once, while he was building trekking huts in the Himalayas, his pack horses were killed by wild animals.

Yet through every difficulty, his enthusiasm never flagged.

“There was a challenge in understanding how to work with another culture,” he said. “That excited me.”

Robinson, who is Michelle Obama’s uncle, is one of five Chicago-area residents who shared their memories of the early days of the Peace Corps with the Tribune. Volunteering in the glow of Camelot, their optimism was tested by rough conditions and occasional doubts about whether they were really making a difference.

There was no doubt, though, about the enormous difference the Peace Corps made in their own lives. It forged a global consciousness and a service-minded attitude that stayed with them for decades.

Robinson, now 73, a retired businessman turned Peace Corps recruiter, was reminded of that just the other day. Walking through downtown, he spotted a turbaned Sikh and greeted the man in Punjabi.

“The guy flipped,” he recalled. “He said, ‘Wow, you talk just like a villager!’ I don’t have enough of the language left, but when I see a Sikh, I can say enough to warm his heart. I can take that to the grave with me.”

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/michelle-obamas-uncle-worked-in-punjab-in-60s/705298/

While the Golden Temple in Amritsar is no longer on their itinerary, US President Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama, can trace her links to Punjab back to 1961 when her uncle, Nomenee Robinson, worked in the state as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Robinson, an architect, was sent to Punjab to assist in building projects. Based at the Punjab Engineering College, he was associated with the institute’s rural housing wing. He worked under then Punjab Financial Commissioner for Development Anthony Fletcher (ICS officer).

During his field work, Robinson stayed in Nasirpur village near

Patiala, where he helped the residents in fabricating structures using a Cinva-Ram machine to make bricks from soil, sand, straw and a fraction of cement. In the course of his two-year stay in Punjab, Robinson travelled extensively with Indian engineers throughout the state, visiting Ludhiana, Sangrur, Jalandhar and Amritsar.

Asked about his Punjab stay, Robinson, now 73 and a Peace Corps recruiter, said in an e-mail to The Indian Express: “It crosses my mind every year since I left. I would love to be involved in some way with strategic and economic planning for regions of India.”

Robinson, who went on to do his MBA from Harvard Business School after returning from India, said he enjoyed Punjabi food and hospitality. His best friends were a mix of Sikhs and Hindus, he said, recalling some names like Muktiah Singh, Jugdesh, Tunji, Vir, Raju and Sohan Lal.

Besides Punjab, Robinson also went to Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. For three months, he was sent on an assignment to begin construction of trekking huts above Manali. “It was a most exciting, and sometimes thrilling, exposure to India and the cultures in the north,” said Robinson.

... contd.

Recalling some of his unforgettable memories, Robinson said: “On one occasion, Mr Fletcher took me to New Delhi when he assisted in Five Year Plan sessions. He arranged for me to chat with Jawaharlal Nehru in his private office. I shall never forget that experience, one that few Americans have ever had. I, a small boy from the inner city of Chicago, drinking tea, sitting and talking with one of the greatest men in our lifetime.”

>>What do you think? Is that Strautmanis in your post?
>>If so, do you know when & where those photos were taken?

I don't know if it's him. And I don't really have time now to look into it, or even to read about who he is. But here's something regarding Michelle and the law firm she worked for (Sidley Austin in Chicago):

When Michelle was at Sidley...

Did Bernardine Dohrn Mentor Michelle [Robinson] Obama at Chicago Law Firm?

"The media has been very gentle on Michelle Obama, but one blogger asks a very interesting question about Bernardine Dohrn's possible mentoring of Michelle at Sidley Austin in Chicago, where Dohrn worked as a paralegal [her felony conviction meant she couldn't pass the Illinois bar exam] while Michelle was an intern during summers while in law school. Michelle was later taken into the prestigious firm when she graduated from Harvard Law. Michelle in turn mentored Obama in '89 & they eventually married.

The MSM will never ask any questions about Dohrn & Michelle [Robinson] Obama intersecting at Sidley Austin. It would be nice if Republicans had more investigative reporters because my inquiring mind would like to know.

It might be that the Ayers-Dohrn relationship with the Obamas goes back earlier and the relationship could be much more extensive than previously reported."

http://oldatlanticlighthouse.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/was-bernardine-dohrn-the-mentor-of-michelle-obama-at-sidley-austin/

http://archive.redstate.com/blogs/daveinboca/2008/apr/25/did_bernardine_dohrn_mentor_michelle_robinson_obama_at_chicago_law_firm

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