The Windy City Olympic Shakedown

NY Post ^ | September 30, 2009 | Michelle Malkin

[khnyny]

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 praise on Daley's stewardship of the city. Longtime Daley cronies helped pave Obama's path to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Now, they're returning the favor for their hometown boss.

Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, a Daley loyalist, served as vice chair of Chicago's 2016 Summer Olympics bid committee before moving to the White House, where she has helmed a new "White House Office on Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport" with an undisclosed budget and staff.

It's not just Chicago taxpayers who should be worried about this field of schemes. Crain's Chicago Business reports that Jarrett and Chicago 2016 committee member Lori Healey met this month with federal officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development "to discuss financing options" for the estimated $1 billion Olympic Village.

The door is open, and the administration is "willing to meet and listen" to any federal subsidy proposals, Jarrett said. Hey, what happened to Obama's tough rules on interest-conflicted lobbying by his administration officials?

[balls]

Ah, it was a rhetorical question.

It’s all well documented here for those who want to know more:

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/18/olympic-sized-boondoggle-what-valerie-jarrett-and-michelle-obama-are-up-to/

[Cicero]

Malkin puts it all together. This was obvious enough, but she really does the details.

I also wonder how much cash Michelle was carrying with her from Chicago in the diplomatic bags, to pay off the Olympic Committee.

[Fu-fu2]

Where would one find detailed information on that? I have an acquaintance who deals in construction and real estate. I jokingly told them last week that they should be buying up properties where the Olympic construction is going to take place. They looked at me and said “all that stuff has been already bought up.”

[combat_boots]

“Obama Advisor Valerie Jarrett Linked to Real Estate Scandals”

She removed her name/her name was removed from the senate seat as a result, remember?

Jarrett’s muckety map
http://www.muckety.com/Valerie-B-Jarrett/4675.muckety

[Don Corleone]

to discuss financing options" for the estimated $1 billion Olympic Village.

Who owns the land on which all these 'facilities' will be built???Hmmm!!!! Could it be friends of the Daley court?

[N4EF]

Email the International Olympic Committee
“NO Chicago 2016”
Here’s the IOC contact address:

http://www.olympic.org/uk/utilities/request_new_uk.asp?prm_bgd_col=contact&prm_lang=en&prm_sel_cat=

[CriticalJ]

Since 0 stuck his nose in this, I hope it fails miserably. Another epic Fail for the one.

[balls]

This is such a clan of slimeballs that it almost guarantees they will get the Olympics and we will be subsidizing Chicago for many years to come.

[Niuhuru]

At this point there is going to be a crash and there is nothing that we can do to stop it. Zero is going to push and push and push every leader on this world stage and it’s going to be ugly.

Zero is running wild and there’s nothing we can do at this point except burrow in and let the chaos happen without being in it. This has been a long time in coming and it’s likely going to end in Zero being impeached after the Dems are thrown out in 2010 and Zero will be impeached in no time. It won’t be pleasant, but I believe that it’s inevitable.

[rcrngroup]

Looks like Chicago’s gun free zones are doing a super job of keeping out the criminal riff raff. Or in lieu of guns, they just keep their 2x6 wood planks handy. That way nobody will get hurt!!! sarc/ Liberal commie bastards!!!

[Loud Mime]

Five Ring Fever at its worst.

Believe me, the USOC has a LOT of Obama-loving liberals praying for his success.

[uncitizen]

..it’s likely going to end in Zero being impeached after the Dems are thrown out in 2010 and Zero will be impeached in no time.

I pray you are right!!!

[Dream Warrior]

Glenn Beck showed pictures of slum property owned by Valarie Jarret and indicated that she had a lot to gain if the Olympics came to Chicago. Becks way of saying that Jarret’s property would become the center piece of the Olympic village.

[aruanan]

Where would one find detailed information on that? I have an acquaintance who deals in construction and real estate. I jokingly told them last week that they should be buying up properties where the Olympic construction is going to take place. They looked at me and said “all that stuff has been already bought up.”

Well, there are a lot of parcels that the city has come to own, one way or another, that it's been sitting on; no doubt all that underlay the original bid and the thought of where to hold the games. And they're going to do most of everything on city park land and build temporary structures that'll be torn down later (like the 1894 World Columbian Exposition).

The property containing Michael Reese Hospital was purchased for something like $70 million. I believe the University of Chicago owned that hospital. At one point the Olympic village was going to be built on stilts somewhere but that proved to be infeasible (probably not lucrative enough to someone). Now the hospital will be torn down and bazillions spent doing that, then renovating the land, then building something else there, maybe the Olympic village. I heard someone say (a guy leading the effort against the Olympics in Chicago) that there were $5 billion of private money lined up to pay for everything, but that other places, like London, ended up spending billions over that that the public had to pick up. I think in the end, though, it will have been private money being spent to build a very temporary enterprise with no lasting outcome for the purpose of that private money to make a lot more money in such a way that would not have been possible without the use of public land. In the end millions of Chicagoans will have been inconvenienced for years, some severely, so that a few can make a buck or so that Richard Daley can say in his soprano voice that he was the mayor of the American city to host the Olympics.

You heard it said that the reason Barry O decided to follow his wife to Copenhagen was because of all the pressure Daley was putting on him. If true, you've got to wonder what kind of leverage he can exert on Barry.