I Think Not!!!

Posted on August 1, 2008
Filed Under Barak Obama, Chicago, Democratic Party, News, Political lies, US Elections, United States, arrogance, elections, political corruption, political ineptitude, politicians, politics | 4 Comments

I doubt there has ever been a politician of whatever political stripe – in any country – that did not have something he preferred to hide. The sixty four thousand dollar question is, however, can a politician with this much arrogance, with this much to sweep under the rug, with all his lies and convenient flipflops, with his tremendous lack of any real experience and all of his dismal failures… seriously be considered a viable candidate for the US Presidency?!?!?!?!? I think not!!!

Yet, have no doubt, that those fearful of the truth will do their best to discredit this writer in spite of the evidence staring them in the face, in spite of Senator Obama’s constituents screaming the truth behind the fake public image of the man.

I just run across a post  over at Doug Ross‘ blog that reinforces brilliantly my question in the first paragraph.

What Barack Obama hid from his readers

Barack Obama likes to talk about something he calls “economic justice.”

And “restoring fairness to the economy.”*

Why would Obama promote divisiveness and class envy?

In his book “Dreams From My Father”, Obama reveals his childhood mentor was a man he cryptically refers to only as “Frank.”

“Frank” was infamous communist Frank Marshall Davis, who fled Chicago after the FBI and Congress began investigating him.

Obama followed in Davis’ footsteps, becoming a “community organizer” in Chicago… with disastrous results.

His boss was a man named Gerald Kellman, whose identity Obama also tries to disguise in his book. Kellman and Saul “The Red” Alinsky were infamous Chicago socialists; Alinsky authored “Rules for Radicals” and advocated the overthrow of the U.S. government.

And though his own book is dedicated to his memory, Obama also omits his father’s feverish communist leanings.

Barack Hussein Obama Sr. challenged Kenya’s pro-Western government for being insufficiently socialist. “Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed,” Obama Sr. wrote.

Among Obama’s first campaign sponsors were William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn; both are unrepentant terrorists and self-admitted communists who believe that the U.S. government must be toppled.

Though he’s written two books about his life, Obama hid his father’s background and his own career-long affiliations with radical socialists and communists. All were striving together for “economic justice” and class warfare as unreconstructed Communists.

Vote accordingly in 2008.

* Perhaps Obama learned these falsehoods from Jeremiah Wright, his racist spiritual adviser who also believes the economy is a “zero sum” proposition.

Why did the good and very photogenic Senator from Illinois find it necessary to omit such crucial details of his life? Could it be he and his handlers are well aware the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, would render him unelectable? But let us examine also the not so brilliant record of the Presidential hopeful’s community organizing…

The June 27, 2008 issue of The Boston Globe, a daily well known for its Republican dislike, had these to say about Obama:

CHICAGO – The squat brick buildings of Grove Parc Plaza, in a dense neighborhood that Barack Obama represented for eight years as a state senator, hold 504 apartments subsidized by the federal government for people who can’t afford to live anywhere else.

But it’s not safe to live here.

About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale – a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.

Grove Parc has become a symbol for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build and manage affordable housing – an approach strongly backed by Obama as the best replacement for public housing.

There is no question that if you are a cynical young politician seeking to build a healthy war chest, allying yourself with rich powerful developers is a better strategy than actually doing what is best for your constituents. Obama learned that very early on! But let’s continue, gentle reader:

As a state senator, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee coauthored an Illinois law creating a new pool of tax credits for developers. As a US senator, he pressed for increased federal subsidies. And as a presidential candidate, he has campaigned on a promise to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that could give developers an estimated $500 million a year.

But a Globe review found that thousands of apartments across Chicago that had been built with local, state, and federal subsidies – including several hundred in Obama’s former district – deteriorated so completely that they were no longer habitable.

Grove Parc and several other prominent failures were developed and managed by Obama’s close friends and political supporters. Those people profited from the subsidies even as many of Obama’s constituents suffered. Tenants lost their homes; surrounding neighborhoods were blighted.

Some of the residents of Grove Parc say they are angry that Obama did not notice their plight. The development straddles the boundary of Obama’s state Senate district. Many of the tenants have been his constituents for more than a decade.

“No one should have to live like this, and no one did anything about it,” said Cynthia Ashley, who has lived at Grove Parc since 1994.

Obama’s campaign, in a written response to Globe questions, affirmed the candidate’s support of public-private partnerships as an alternative to public housing, saying that Obama has “consistently fought to make livable, affordable housing in mixed-income neighborhoods available to all.”

The campaign did not respond to questions about whether Obama was aware of the problems with buildings in his district during his time as a state senator, nor did it comment on the roles played by people connected to the senator.

Among those tied to Obama politically, personally, or professionally are:

Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama’s presidential campaign and a member of his finance committee. Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems.

Allison Davis, a major fund-raiser for Obama’s US Senate campaign and a former lead partner at Obama’s former law firm. Davis, a developer, was involved in the creation of Grove Parc and has used government subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,500 units in Chicago, including a North Side building cited by city inspectors last year after chronic plumbing failures resulted in raw sewage spilling into several apartments.

Antoin “Tony” Rezko, perhaps the most important fund-raiser for Obama’s early political campaigns and a friend who helped the Obamas buy a home in 2005. Rezko’s company used subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,000 apartments, mostly in and around Obama’s district, then refused to manage the units, leaving the buildings to decay to the point where many no longer were habitable.

Campaign finance records show that six prominent developers – including Jarrett, Davis, and Rezko – collectively contributed more than $175,000 to Obama’s campaigns over the last decade and raised hundreds of thousands more from other donors. Rezko alone raised at least $200,000, by Obama’s own accounting.

One of those contributors, Cecil Butler, controlled Lawndale Restoration, the largest subsidized complex in Chicago, which was seized by the government in 2006 after city inspectors found more than 1,800 code violations.

Butler and Davis did not respond to messages. Rezko is in prison; his lawyer did not respond to inquiries.

Jarrett, a powerful figure in the Chicago development community, agreed to be interviewed but declined to answer questions about Grove Parc, citing what she called a continuing duty to Habitat’s former business partners. She did, however, defend Obama’s position that public-private partnerships are superior to public housing.

“Government is just not as good at owning and managing as the private sector because the incentives are not there,” said Jarrett, whose company manages more than 23,000 apartments. “I would argue that someone living in a poor neighborhood that isn’t 100 percent public housing is by definition better off.”

In the middle of the 20th century, Chicago built some of the nation’s largest public housing developments, culminating in Robert Taylor Homes: 4,415 apartments in 28 high-rise buildings stretching for 2 miles along an interstate highway.

Some of the residents of Grove Parc say they are angry that Obama did not notice their plight. The development straddles the boundary of Obama’s state Senate district. Many of the tenants have been his constituents for more than a decade. “No one should have to live like this, and no one did anything about it,” said Cynthia Ashley, who has lived at Grove Parc since 1994. The man was incapable of effectively taking care of the small area he represented. His tenure in office, in the words of his own constituents, was marred by disaster. Is this who we expect to run the United States, is he to become the Commander-in-Chief of the strongest most prosperous nation on earth?

[..]Barack Obama was among the many Chicago residents who shared Daley’s conviction that private companies would make better landlords than the Chicago Housing Authority.

He had seen the failure of the public projects in the mid-1980s as a community organizer at Altgeld Gardens, a large public housing complex on the far South Side.

He once told the Chicago Tribune that he had briefly considered becoming a developer of affordable housing. But after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1991, he turned down a job with Tony Rezko’s development company, Rezmar, choosing instead to work at the civil rights law firm Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, then led by Allison Davis.

The firm represented a number of nonprofit companies that were partnering with private developers to build affordable housing with government subsidies.

Obama sometimes worked on their cases. In at least one instance, he represented the nonprofit company that owned Grove Parc, Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., when it was sued by the city for failing to adequately heat one of its apartment complexes.

In at least one instance, he represented the nonprofit company that owned Grove Parc, Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., when it was sued by the city for failing to adequately heat one of its apartment complexes. In all fairness, many a lawyer will defend a client’s position that does not seem consisent with that lawyer’s own expressed standards, but… was not the firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland a civil rights firm?!?!? Why was it defending a rich and crooked landlord against the poor tenants? Was there more money in representing the landlord? So much for civil rights…

[...]The developers gave Obama their financial support. Jarrett, Davis, and Rezko all served on Obama’s campaign finance committee when he won a seat in the US Senate in 2004.

[..]One of the largest recipients of the subsidies was Rezmar Corp., founded in 1989 by Tony Rezko, who ran a company that sold snacks at city beaches, and Daniel Mahru, who ran a company that sold ice to Rezko. Neither man had development experience.

Over the next nine years, Rezmar used more than $87 million in government grants, loans, and tax credits to renovate about 1,000 apartments in 30 Chicago buildings. Companies run by the partners also managed many of the buildings, collecting government rent subsidies.

Rezmar collected millions in development fees but fell behind on mortgage payments almost immediately. On its first project, the city government agreed to reduce the company’s monthly payments from almost $3,000 to less than $500.

By the time Obama entered the state Senate in 1997, the buildings were beginning to deteriorate. In January 1997, the city sued Rezmar for failing to provide adequate heat in a South Side building in the middle of an unusually cold winter. It was one of more than two dozen housing-complaint suits filed by the city against Rezmar for violations at its properties.

People who lived in some of the Rezmar buildings say trash was not picked up and maintenance problems were ignored. Roofs leaked, windows whistled, insects moved in.

“In the winter I can feel the cold air coming through the walls and the sockets,” said Anthony Frizzell, 57, who has lived for almost two decades in a Rezmar building on South Greenwood Avenue. “They didn’t insulate it or nothing.”

Sharee Jones, who lives in another former Rezko building one block away, said her apartment was rat-infested for years.

“You could hear them under the floor and in the walls, and they didn’t do nothing about it,” Jones said.

By the time Rezmar asked Chicago’s city government for a loan on its final subsidized development, in 1998, the city’s housing commissioner was describing the company in a memo as being in “bad shape.” The Daley administration still made the $3.1 million loan.

Shortly thereafter, Rezmar switched from subsidized housing to high-end development, fueled by the money it had made in subsidized work. Rezko’s companies also stopped managing the subsidized complexes.

Let’s be honest, gentle reader, does Obama – the community activist – come through as a passionate caring individual, fighting for his constituency or… rather as a callous, calculating, cold, heartless opportunists?!?!?

“Affordable housing run by private companies just doesn’t work,” Mahru, who no longer works with Rezko, said in an interview with the Globe. “It’s difficult, if not impossible, for a private company to maintain affordable housing for low-income tenants.”

Affordable housing run by private companies just doesn’t work… And yet, the good Senator insists he will push more of the same once he’s President. I don’t know, but considering that the overwhelming majority of inhabitants in these rat-infested hell-holes happen to be poor blacks it leads me to seriously ask whether Barak Obama is just a super elitist, or an opportunist who will step on whichever back is conveniently on the way?!?!?

[..]Most of the buildings have since been foreclosed upon, forcing the tenants to find new housing.

All the while, Tony Rezko was forging a close friendship with Barack Obama. When Obama opened his campaign for state Senate in 1995, Rezko’s companies gave Obama $2,000 on the first day of fund-raising. Save for a $500 contribution from another lawyer, Obama didn’t raise another penny for six weeks. Rezko had essentially seeded the start of Obama’s political career.

As Obama ascended, Rezko became one of his largest fund-raisers. And in 2005, Rezko and his wife helped the Obamas purchase the house where they now live.

Eleven of Rezmar’s buildings were located in the district represented by Obama, containing 258 apartments. The building without heat in January 1997, the month Obama entered the state Senate, was in his district. So was Jones’s building with rats in the walls and Frizzell’s building that lacked insulation. And a redistricting after the 2000 Census added another 350 Rezmar apartments to the area represented by Obama.

But Obama has contended that he knew nothing about any problems in Rezmar’s buildings.

After Rezko’s assistance in Obama’s home purchase became a campaign issue, at a time when the developer was awaiting trial in an unrelated bribery case, Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times that the deterioration of Rezmar’s buildings never came to his attention. He said he would have distanced himself from Rezko if he had known.

Obama didn’t know, yet others did!

Other local politicians say they knew of the problems.

“I started getting complaints from police officers about particular properties that turned out to be Rezko properties,” said Toni Preckwinkle, a Chicago alderman.

She had previously received campaign contributions from Rezmar and said she had regarded the company as a model, one of the city’s best affordable housing developers.

But in the early 2000s, she called Rezko to ask for an explanation for the declining conditions. He told her Rezmar was “getting out of the business,” she said – walking away from its responsibility for managing the developments.

“I didn’t see him nor have anything to do with him after that,” she said.

No doubt hobnobbing with rich contributors to his then current and future campaigns blinded the good senator. The “community organizing” was far more successful in making him comfortable, famous, a world traveler, than in producing anything that might alleviate the plight of his constituents. You can see it for yourself at the left leaning The Boston Globe, what you find will make you nervous, very nervous, thatthis man is being actually, seriously, being considered as a possible President of the US

The article goes on and on with example after example of Obama’s opportunism, lack of caring, complaints by his constituents against him… In closing I must repeat the question that I asked at the beginning: The sixty four thousand dollar question is, however, can a politician with this much arrogance, with this much to sweep under the rug, with all his lies and convenient flipflops, with his tremendous lack of any real experience and all of his dismal failures… seriously be considered a viable candidate for the US Presidency?!?!?!?!? The answer, my friends is blowing in the wind… That answer is: I Think Not!!!

Chaim

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