All the evidence points to Blogojevich. Where are you going with this? Do you really think Obama was invloved based on the circumstantial evidence you cited above?
All the evidence points to Blogojevich. Where are you going with this? Do you really think Obama was invloved based on the circumstantial evidence you cited above?
Yes, I voted.
Did you take your medication today?
Yep, up to operating levels of caffeine and nicotine already this morning.
What's your poison?
Did you notice "ongoing investigation?"
Excerpts from another article.
FBI informant, John Thomas, helped investigators build a record of repeat visits to the offices of Rezko and Mahru by Blagojevich and Obama during 2004 and 2005.
An FBI agent presented a chart to the jury on April 28, 2008, showing 257 calls from Rezkos phones to Blagojevichs chief of staff, Lon Monk, between March 2004 and May 2004.
Obama was still chairman of the Human Services Committee when lawmakers learned US Counsel Fitzgerald was on to The Planning Board scheme in the spring of 2004, a year before Obama entered into the infamous real estate deal with Rezko in June 2005. The FBI agent also presented a list of all calls between Levine and Rezko from November 2002 to May 2004. Rezkos attorney brought out a point that backs the assertion that just because records on Obama were not shown, does not mean they do not exist.
On January 4th, 2005 Obama was sworn in as a US senator.
On May 9, 2005, CBS Channel 2 Chicago, reported,
Stuart Levine is accused of using his position on a powerful state health board to cut himself and his buddies in on hospital construction contracts worth $113 million. Hurtgen and Kiferbaum were also charged for their part in the Edward extortion scheme.
On May 10, 2005, the Sun-Times reported that Levine was rousted out of bed by FBI agents and hauled into court on fraud charges alleging kickbacks, influence-peddling and insider dealing.
The Times article noted that Kiferbaum was already cooperating. Five days later, the Times reported Rezko had a hand in staffing decisions at the scandal-tainted Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board.
On May 23, 2005 a company related to Nadhmi Auchi, A British-Iraqi billionaire, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered a loan to Tony Rezko, Obamas fundraiser. The loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.
A 2004 Pentagon report identified Auchi as an Iraqi billionaire and global arms dealer who behind the facade of legitimate business, served as Saddam Husseins principle international financial manipulator and bag man.
Three weeks after the money wire, on June 15, Obama and Rezkos wife, Rita, bought adjacent properties on Chicagos South Side, closing the deals on the same day. Obama paid $1.65 million for his house. Rezkos wife, Rita, closed on the 9,000-square-foot lot next door for the asking price of $625,000. Seven months later, wanting a bigger yard for his $1.65 million house, Obama bought a portion of the Rezko property for $104,500.
(Who would mind taking a half million $$$ loss for a good friend??)gs
Less than 3 months before Obama bought a portion of the Rezko property, the Sun-Times reported:
Investigations of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board and state Teachers Retirement System have yielded federal charges against six people.
The article also noted that, in a guilty plea Joseph Cari alleged he had been told by a now-indicted former pension board member that Governor Blagojevich and two top fund-raisers, Antoin Tony Rezko and Christopher G. Kelly, schemed to award pension business to consultants, lawyers and investment firms who donated to Blagojevich.
In an interview with the Sun-Times, (March 14, 2008) Obama claimed not to know Rezko was under investigation for influence peddling in the months leading up to June 2005, stating:
During the time that I was purchasing the house, there were some noises about Tony having potential problems. But they . . . hadnt risen to the attention that they ultimately would.
Indictment headlines were non-stop during Obamas real estate deals. The first indictment in the Planning Board case came a month before the mansion deal was finalized.
In the same March 14th interview Obama said Rezko was a part of our finance committee. Other members of Obamas finance committee included Rezkos wife Rita, and Valerie Jarrett, who got her start in a lucrative real estate career in the Daley administration. She served as chairman of Obamas presidential finance committee.
Jarrett worked for eight years in Chicago government, as deputy corporation counsel for Finance and Development, as deputy chief of staff to Daley and finally, as commissioner of Chicagos Department of Planning and Development.
Michelle Obama, Senator Obamas wife, was hired by Jarrett in the early 1990s, served as Jarretts assistant in Daleys office and followed her to the Department of Planning and Development.
Jarrett was appointed chairman of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board in June 2006. She was also made chairman of a newly created Executive Committee and was named vice-chair of the Universitys Board of Trustees.
Two months after Obama became a US senator, Michelle Obama was appointed vice president for community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals. Tax returns show the promotion nearly tripled her pay to $317,000 in 2005, from $122,000 in 2004.
(I love those $200,000 annual raises, how about you?)gs
David Wilhelms firm received a subpoena for records related to pension fund investments. Wilhelm, a super-delegate, endorsed Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign. Rezko, Hurtgen and Kiferbaum have all been charged with extortion, corruption, bribery and a laundry list of crimes. On December 9th, 2008 Blagojevich was arrested by the FBI for attempting to sell the senatorial seat vacated by Obama. Obama claims to know nothing.
Obama claimed to know nothing of Jeremiah Wrights racist preaching despite the fact that Obama attended Wrights church for twenty years, was married there and had his two children baptized there.
And Obama claimed to know nothing about Bill Ayers and Bernardeen Dohrn despite the fact that they were two of the most destructive domestic terrorists in the twentieth century and any politically active college student in the 70s and 80s, as Obama was, could not help but know who they were. It is simply inconceivable.
(anyone who believes that has no workable brain.)gs
Either Obama has no memory, has a problem with reality or is completely convinced that he can fool all of the people all of the time.
(too bad modern science hasn't developed a medication that would wise up your average fool)gs
I started counting all of the times you quoted an article that reported on a report from another news source that someone had been accused of something and that Obama knew someone who also knew them. But I lost count and also realized that there was no point. You can find the modern day head politico of any party, Republican, Democrat, or otherwise, and link them to someone who is linked to someone who is accused of something. No one at that level has contacts or alliances with only the pure.
I would, for example, point out to you the names of the people from the oil industry that Chaney met with on his energy task force. But of course he claims he is a fourth branch of government and so we can't find out who he met with on that subject.
I would bet money that these oil industry people he met with are not currently in prison or under investigations for crimes as so many of the associates of Obama and his wife seem to be now. Do you not find it odd that almost every single political ally and associate Obama has is a criminal or person of questionable character?
you can't honestly believe that Obama had no idea what was happening here.1) I would bet money they know someone who is. And that, apparently, is good enough to criticize Obama.
2) "Almost every single political ally and associate Obama has is a criminal or person of questionable character." See, you just kill your credibility with lines like that. First, neither you nor I knows the universe of people who is a poilitical ally or associate of Obama's. You are just flat out making it up that almost all of them are something or another.
Second, it is blatantly obvious that by "questionable character" you mean liberal. Or even just not conservative enough.
This whole smear attack on Obama is what is left over from the campaign when the McCain camp hung its final hopes on the whole Ayers thing, even as the story just died for lack of anything to talk about in the last 20 years.
I am perfectly willing to listen to criticism of Obama as himself corrupt but I'd like to see some actual evidence of that and not just a bunch of wack-a-doodle uber conservative commentators or bloggers just openly speculating or even flat making it up that he is because he knows someone who knows someone, etc., etc.
1) I would bet money they know someone who is. And that, apparently, is good enough to criticize Obama.
2) "Almost every single political ally and associate Obama has is a criminal or person of questionable character." See, you just kill your credibility with lines like that. First, neither you nor I knows the universe of people who is a poilitical ally or associate of Obama's. You are just flat out making it up that almost all of them are something or another.
Second, it is blatantly obvious that by "questionable character" you mean liberal. Or even just not conservative enough.
This whole smear attack on Obama is what is left over from the campaign when the McCain camp hung its final hopes on the whole Ayers thing, even as the story just died for lack of anything to talk about in the last 20 years.
I am perfectly willing to listen to criticism of Obama as himself corrupt but I'd like to see some actual evidence of that and not just a bunch of wack-a-doodle uber conservative commentators or bloggers just openly speculating or even flat making it up that he is because he knows someone who knows someone, etc., etc.
you can't honestly believe that Obama had no idea what was happening here.
He likely did nothing criminal, but if he was unaware, he isn't perceptive enough to be president.
for anyone to believe that hussein obama didn't know these people were crooks are truly smart, well informed, educated, brilliant and well grounded.
the fact is that hussein obama couldn't have risen in chicago politics without knowing how crooked that city is.
I agree, I doubt he did anything illegal, but as with much of Chicago style politics it was backhanded you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours type dealings. Hardly the "hope and change" he based his campaign on. More like the same old politics Chicago style, and we all know how that goes.
Knowing that the City of Chicago has a history of shady politics is a given. That doesn't mean he himself did anything wrong or was a part of a single corrupt act.
What I am saying is the guilt by association argument did not work in the election and folks are tired of it. Give us some evidence that Obama participated in something he shouldn't have, and folks will listen. But if you are down to obsolete and dated associational attacks, its just not going to work. The proof of that is before your eyes.
Knowing that the City of Chicago has a history of shady politics is a given. That doesn't mean he himself did anything wrong or was a part of a single corrupt act.
What I am saying is the guilt by association argument did not work in the election and folks are tired of it. Give us some evidence that Obama participated in something he shouldn't have, and folks will listen. But if you are down to obsolete and dated associational attacks, its just not going to work. The proof of that is before your eyes.
I started counting all of the times you quoted an article that reported on a report from another news source that someone had been accused of something and that Obama knew someone who also knew them. But I lost count and also realized that there was no point. You can find the modern day head politico of any party, Republican, Democrat, or otherwise, and link them to someone who is linked to someone who is accused of something. No one at that level has contacts or alliances with only the pure.
I would, for example, point out to you the names of the people from the oil industry that Chaney met with on his energy task force. But of course he claims he is a fourth branch of government and so we can't find out who he met with on that subject.
What I am saying is that in Chicago politics you don't advance unless you play the game. They are well versed in skirting the law there. If he had done anything illegal that could be traced it would have come to light. Has he participated in shady dealings? I have no doubt, it is the way things work, especially in the Chicago political machine. May not be illegal, but it certainly would not be the kind of "change" he sold to many Americans. It looks more like politics as usual only with a Chicago twist which by definition is even shadier.
Remember LG shady does not equal illegal. Maybe you don't think we should hold those in power to a higher standard but I sure as hell do.
if this was a republican the same accusations would be made. However, there would about a 1000 reporters in that city on day one to follow every questionable lead.
The media and dems would make the charge that investigations should be launched on that particular canidate. the dems and media believe that the investigations should be carried not because of any evidence or finding but only because the seriousness of the accusations.
this happened to Bush senior when he was in office. an accusation was made about Bush and either a dem congressmen or senator said that based upon the seriousness of the allegations investigations should be made to find proof. i can't remember the exact accusation was made but they did have hearings, not based any illegality but by accusation without any evidence.
do i believe that Obama knew more than he claims, absolutely. i do think this guy had some input on the senate replacement which isn't illegal if you only give your opinion. i just think as a whole, hussein obama is knee deep in the chicago style politics.
What in particular do you care to try to refute???
Is your splenetic meandering and/or slap at my character have anything to with the topic???
What does Chaney have to do with the discussion??
Did some Saudi oil company pay his way through Harvard as happened in the case of Barack Obama???
Answer this simple question; "does it make sense to try to put American oil companies out of business entirely?"
Would it not appear to the most casual of observers that the whole of your apparently shallow knowledge and understanding of political science came solely from watching "Man of the Year?"
(I can just visualize you in your wig hat as we speak.)
In a nutshell, then, all three of you are admitting you are unaware of a single piece of evidence that Obama did a signle thing wrong.
and what on earth does such an admission get you?In a nutshell, then, all three of you are admitting you are unaware of a single piece of evidence that Obama did a single thing wrong.