Posted on 03/07/2008 11:02:04 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The national media hasn't picked it up, but there's another scandal brewing in Chicago today involving some key political players, including Tony Rezko, Jesse Jackson, Gov. Rod Blagojevich - and who knows who else in a potential corruption case incredible even by Chicago standards. If you want to get a whiff of the cesspool Barack Obama swam in and what type of people he associated with in Chicago, give this a quick skim. All the players are there, except Obama ... for now.
I'll lay out some quick facts and links and maybe some others can help turn up even more info. Read it and weep if you pay taxes in Chicago, though you may already be reading about it locally, in that case.
A church burns down and the Governor pledges 1 million dollars to help it recover.
But in March 2007, that money instead went to a private school that leased space from Pilgrim Baptist but has no other church affiliation. No state money has come to rebuild the charred administrative and school building, as Blagojevich promised, prompting church leaders and at least one state lawmaker to question whether Blagojevich had lived up to his word.
Okay, so the million never makes it to the church. Instead, it ends up going to a school that was housed in the church - the Loop Lab School. That gets passed off as a clerical error - but the Gov. doesn't want the money back. Nah, he'll just pony up another mil of tax payer dollars. Curious decision, huh? But wait, it gets better.
The Loop Lab School, which received the money instead, used the cash to purchase a condo in downtown Chicago.
And a key administrator of the school, Chandra N. Gill, needed a pardon for a felony conviction, assault on a cop or some such thing. And on her pardon application? Well, securing the million for the school - that was a clerical error remember - is suddenly one of her claims to fame to earn a pardon from the Gov who gave her the million, allegedly by mistake, in the first place. And the school shouldn't have gotten anything under any circumstances because of a sexual harassment case.
SPRINGFIELD -- A private school that Gov. Blagojevich said errantly received $1 million from his administration failed to stop a former kindergarten teacher from being sexually harassed and unlawfully retaliated against her when she complained, a state panel ruled in 2006.
And who, among others, steps up to write a letter of recommendation on the felon's behalf? Why, the Reverend Jackson, of course.
"I perform administrative duties [at Loop Lab School] and am currently responsible for securing the necessary funds to help rebuild the school," Gill wrote, after pointing out that Loop Lab School was the school forced out by the recent fire in Pilgrim Baptist Church. After the fire, Blagojevich publicly had declared his intent to help the church recover by steering state grants in its direction.
In her request, Gill mentions her conversations with the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity over the grant. Exhibit 1 of her petition is a June 7, 2006, memorandum from DCEO that refers to the $1 million grant. Though there are several other letters written on her behalf enclosed in the petition, including one from Rev. Jesse Jackson, the DCEO reference is the only one she notes specifically as she outlines her reasons for seeking the pardon.
In separate documentation from DCEO in November, 2006—a month after Gill's pardon and expungement hearing—the $1 million grant is signed off to Loop Lab School at its new 318 W. Adams St. address in Chicago. Chandra Gill is listed as the school's administrator to receive the funds. She received her pardon Jan. 23, 2007, in between the first and second disbursements of the grant.
And what of 318 W. Adams? Well, sure, it ends up involved in a real estate deal. Again, note the new address for the Loop Lab School.
In separate documentation from DCEO in November, 2006—a month after Gill's pardon and expungement hearing—the $1 million grant is signed off to Loop Lab School at its new 318 W. Adams St. address in Chicago. Chandra Gill is listed as the school's administrator to receive the funds. She received her pardon Jan. 23, 2007, in between the first and second disbursements of the grant.
Enter John Thomas:
In the last two years, Mr. Thomas has bought and quickly resold several other office buildings, including 250 S. Wacker Drive, 105 W. Adams St. and 11 S. LaSalle St. Last year, a Thomas venture bought 318 W. Adams St., a small West Loop office building that is being marketed as office condominiums.
And who is the Mr. Thomas mentioned above? Well, he's a key figure in the Rezko trial.
For the first time, the FBI "mole" who's expected to be a key prosecution witness against indicted developer and political fund-raiser Tony Rezko is talking.
In an exclusive interview with the Sun-Times, John Thomas said his life became frantic as he amassed hundreds of hours of recorded conversations for federal investigators while trying to maintain the real estate business he built on pluck and hustle.
Thomas is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 19 on the New York charges. But his sentencing is likely to be delayed, perhaps for a year, while the Justice Department has him testify in the second of two trials Rezko faces -- that one involving allegations of business fraud. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn McNiven, a prosecutor on both the Thomas and Rezko cases, declined to comment.
Still wondering why Hillary wants to drag things out and have the media look at the Rezko trial? Just how pure could Obama stay getting re-elected in this kind of filth? Something tells me he isn't quite that naive.
Fresh from his work as a civil rights lawyer and head of a voter registration project that expanded access to the ballot box, Obama launched his first campaign for the Illinois Senate saying he wanted to empower disenfranchised citizens.
But in that initial bid for political office, Obama quickly mastered the bare-knuckle arts of Chicago electoral politics. His overwhelming legal onslaught signaled his impatience to gain office, even if that meant elbowing aside an elder stateswoman like Palmer.
A close examination of Obama's first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it.
One of the candidates he eliminated, long-shot contender Gha-is Askia, now says that Obama's petition challenges belied his image as a champion of the little guy and crusader for voter rights.
"Why say you're for a new tomorrow, then do old-style Chicago politics to remove legitimate candidates?" Askia said. "He talks about honor and democracy, but what honor is there in getting rid of every other candidate so you can run scot-free? Why not let the people decide?"
In a recent interview, Obama granted that "there's a legitimate argument to be made that you shouldn't create barriers to people getting on the ballot."
My Dad was a yeast salesman in Chicago during Prohibition. He told me enough stories to make a mini-series....or just watch "Untouchables" re-runs!
Not Patrick Fitzgerald (yes him). He's already got George Ryan (RINO) sitting in prison and many of Daley's boys too. He's also going after the Cook County gubmint for corruption and 'my' moron gov Blagojevich too. He is 'Official A' in this bribery trial. He has every pol in Chi and IL shaking in their boots, including Daley.
And in Fitz's spare time he brought down the Chicago Mob last summer. He put away most of the top Wiseguys and solved Mob murders going back 18 years.
(and no I can't explain how he went amok with Scooter Libby)
In my post yesterday I lauded Obama's apparent honesty.
*********************EXCERPT*************************
We've just begun and already some shady things are coming out about Barack (thanks to the Clinton plan of personal destruction...if you have dirt they will find it. )
The new blog, http://www.rezkorama.com/
is an aggregate blog dedicated to publishing what people are saying about Obama's involvment in shady politics, with shady people like Tony Rezko. Guess what? The hit meter at Rezkorama is spinning so fast I can feel the wind out here in Colorado and it just came on line yesterday.
"Suddenly the prince of fresh and the king of change looks very old fashioned, and way too close to the kind of political sleaze that he is pledged to exile from the Beltway.
All of this has exploded on the national scene in just a few short days, and Team Clinton has every incentive to throw gas on the fire, which it certainly has and will again. (Let the record show that no one from the Clinton campaign formally encouraged me to cover Rezko.) By this time next week, who knows what we will know." Hugh Hewitt...read the rest
I see some promising stuff in the headlines...
I’ll do my part and forward to a lot of non-freepers.
This an extremely well written post. I have spend all 45 years of my life in Chicago. There is an old saying that if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck. Just the purchase of the house and lot tells that something went on. Blago’s own father-in-law has said he sold spot on state boards. This state has become a cesspool of corruption. You know the old saying about sleeping with dogs? Every state politician has flees
Seems to be true,...and Obama was making out like he had no fleas....
Obama—>Rezko—>Auchi—>Saddam Hussein & Muammar al-Gadaffi
EXCUSE ME:
Obama got his money from Rezko who got his 3.5 million from Auchi:
Where’s the media?
-Nadhmi Auchi is an Iraqi-born billionaire who was charged along with Saddam Hussein for conspiring to assassinate Prime minister (president) Abdul Karim Qasim and stood trial in 1959. (Auchi gave fellow Baath Party members machine guns from his home for Saddam Hussein.)
-Auchi protected secret money for Saddam Hussein AND Muammar al-Gadaffi.
(Remember, Obama’s Trinity church Pastor Wright went with Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan in 1993 to visit Libyan socialist leader Gadaffi.)
-Auchi also financially backed Saddam Hussein’s plan for a pipeline from Iraq to Saudi Arabia.
-Rezko was also a business partner with Nation of Islam Founder’s son: Jabir Herbert Muhammad.
Why isn’t the media talking about all of Barack Obama’s scary friends who have ties to the worst people in history?
*Don’t forget William (Bill) Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn of the Weather Underground.
*Obama’s cousin Raila Odinga who just became co-President of Kenya this week (after 1,000 people were killed) whom Obama is said to be close to...who signed a secret pact with Muslim jihadists who were to ethnically cleanse people?
And why does Raila Odinga use Obama’s exact same campaign slogan: CHANGE....Vote for CHANGE: Look at his website:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/nov/16/iraq.politicalcolumnists
The MSM isn’t interested in exposing dirt on their chosen one....
See link at #23....
You should contact Rob Sherman, the famous liberal atheist who’s always suing for separation. He’s got the media’s ear.
www.robsherman.com. He’s already on the Pilgrim Baptist Church deal.
The Clinton crooks aught to start some adds on this stuff and really sink the knife deep into the Indonesian boys back. Slip it in real deep in such a way the L/MSM have no choice but to advertise what kinds of crooks the guy for hope hangs around with. Their such sleaze balls and get away with so much it is pathetic.
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