Obama the Charlatan?

I do hope some of these questions get answered!! 

VERY INTERESTING! 

Truly – what will be in his presidential library????? 

THE UNANSWERED MYSTERY OF THE CENTURY!!! 

Well, he's ending 8 years of living in the White House.  If any of the answers to these questions turn out to be what we have every right to believe them to be, we should throw him in the slammer and freeze his assets to pay the rent on the White House and Air Force One for his period of use.

This came from a union guy in Chicago who didn't vote for Obama.  Very interesting perspective that I never thought of in this light! 

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It will be interesting to see what they put in his "Library” about his early years when he is out of office. In a country where we take notice of many, many facets of our public figures' lives, doesn't it seem odd that there's so little we know about our current man in the WH, Barack Obama? For example, we know that Andrew Jackson's wife smoked a corn cob pipe and was accused of adultery; Abe Lincoln never went to school; Jack Kennedy wore a back brace; Harry Truman played the piano. As Americans, we enjoy knowing details about our newsmakers, but none of us know one single humanizing fact about the history of our own president. 

We are all aware of the lack of uncontestable birth records for Obama; that document managing has been spectacularly successful. 

There are however, several additional oddities in Obama's history that appear to be as well managed as the birthing issue. 

One other interesting thing...  There are no birth certificates of his daughters that can be found? It's interesting that no one who ever dated him has shown up.  The charisma that caused women to be drawn to him so strongly during his campaign, certainly would in the normal course of events, lead some lady to come forward, if only to garner some attention for herself.  We all know about JFK's magnetism, that McCain was no monk and quite a few details about  Palin's courtship and even her athletic prowess, Joe Biden's aneurisms are no secret;  look at Cheney and Clinton, we all  know about their heart  problems. Certainly Wild Bill Clinton's exploits before and during his White House years, were well known.  That's why it's so odd that not one lady has stepped up and said, "He was soooo shy..." or "What a great dancer..." 

It's virtually impossible to know anything about this fellow.  Who was the best man at his wedding?  Start there. Then check groomsmen. 

Then get the footage of the graduation ceremony.  Has anyone talked to the professors?  It is odd that no one is bragging that they knew him or taught him or lived with him. 

When did he meet Michele, and how?    Are there photos there? Every president gives to the public all their photos, etc. for their library, etc.    What has he released?  And who voted for him to be the most popular man in 2010?   Doesn't this make you wonder? 

Ever wonder why no one ever came forward from Obama's past saying they knew him, attended school with him, was his friend, etc.?? Not one person has ever come forward from his past. It certainly is very, very strange... 

This should be a cause for great concern.  To those who voted for him, you may have elected an unqualified, inexperienced shadow man.  Have you seen a movie named "The Manchurian Candidate?" 

As insignificant as each of us might be, someone with whom we went to school will remember our name or face; someone will remember we were the clown or the dork or the brain or the quiet one or the bully or something about us. 

George Stephanopoulos of ABC News said the same thing during the 2008 campaign.    He questions why no one has acknowledged the president was in their classroom or ate in the same cafeteria or made impromptu speeches on campus. Stephanopoulos also was a classmate of Obama at Columbia -- the class of 1984.  He says he never had a single class with him. 

He is such a great orator; why doesn't anyone in Obama's college class remember him? Why won't he allow Columbia to release his records? Nobody remembers Obama at Columbia University... 

Looking for evidence of Obama's past,    Fox News contacted 400 Columbia University students from the period when Obama claims to have been there... but none remembered him. Wayne Allyn Root was, like Obama, a political science major at Columbia who also graduated in 1983.    In 2008, Root says of Obama, "I don't know a single person at Columbia that knew him, and they all know me. I don't have a classmate who ever knew Barack Obama at Columbia, ever." 

Nobody recalls him. Root adds that he was also, like Obama, Class of '83 Political Science, and says, "You don't get more exact or closer than that. Never met him in my life, don't know anyone who ever met him.    At class reunion, our 20th reunion five years ago, who was asked to be the speaker of the class?  Me.  No one ever heard of Barack! And five years ago, nobody even knew who he was. The guy who writes the  class notes, who's kind of the, as we say in New York, 'the macha' who knows everybody, has yet  to find a person, a human who ever met  him." 

Obama's photograph does not appear in the school's yearbook and Obama consistently declines requests to talk about his years at Columbia, provide school records, or provide the name of any former classmates or friends while at Columbia. 

Some other interesting questions: Why was Obama's law license inactivated in 2002?  It is said there is no record of him ever taking the Bar exam. Why was Michelle's law license inactivated by court order?  We understand that was forced to avoid fraud charges. It is circulating that according to the U.S. Census, there is only one Barack Obama but 27 Social Security numbers and over 80 alias connected to him. 

The Social Security number he uses now originated in Connecticut where he is reported to have never lived.    And was originally registered to another man (Thomas Louis Wood) from Connecticut, who died in Hawaii while on vacation there. As we all know Social Security Numbers are only issued 'once, they are not reused’ No wonder all his records are sealed... 

Please continue sending this out.  Somewhere, someone has to know SOMETHING!?!... School? Before he reorganized Chicago? SOMETHING!!!  He just seemed to burst upon the Scene at the 2004 Democratic Convention.  ANYONE??? ANYWHERE??? ANYTHING??? 

______________________________ ______________________________ _

I think soon much is going to come to light about this highly unqualified person who has been president of the United States for 8 years.  Soon, we will know how badly we were all doped and duped by this imposter who has basically, with much help from his minions, brought the greatest nation in history to its knees in ruins. That will be his legacy.  He totally destroyed the Integrity, Morals and Christian Heritage of our once great country. Who in the hell is he? Is America stupid or what? 

The Liberal Media Finally Nails It!

Part II

By Matt Patterson
( Opinion Writer)

What could this breed if not the sort of empty narcissism on display every time Obama speaks? In 2008, many who agreed that he lacked executive qualifications nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills, intellect, and cool character. Those people – conservatives included - ought now to be deeply embarrassed. The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of clichés, and that's when he has his Teleprompters in front of him; when the prompter is absent he can barely think or speak at all. Not one original idea has ever issued from his mouth - it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that has failed over and over again for 100 years. (An example is his 2012 campaign speeches which are almost word for word his 2008 speeches)

And what about his character? Obama is constantly blaming anything and everything else for his troubles. Bush did it; it was bad luck; I inherited this mess. Remember, he wanted the job, campaigned for the task. It is embarrassing to see a president so willing to advertise his own powerlessness, so comfortable with his own incompetence. (The other day he actually came out and said no one could have done anything to get our economy and country back on track). But really, what were we to expect? The man has never been responsible for anything, so how do we expect him to act responsibly? In short: our president is a small-minded man, with neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job. When you understand that, and only when you understand that, will the current erosion of liberty and prosperity make sense? It could not have gone otherwise with such an impostor in the Oval Office. Skills, intellect, and cool character.

Those people – conservatives included - ought now to be deeply embarrassed. The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of clichés, and that's when he has his Teleprompters in front of him; when the prompter is absent he can barely think or speak at all. Not one original idea has ever issued from his mouth - it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that has failed over and over again for 100 years. (An example is his 2012
campaign speeches which are almost word for word his 2008 speeches)

And what about his character? Obama is constantly blaming anything and everything else for his troubles. Bush did it; it was bad luck; I inherited this mess. Remember, he wanted the job, campaigned for the
task. It is embarrassing to see a president so willing to advertise his own powerlessness, so comfortable with his own incompetence. (The other day he actually came out and said no one could have done anything to get our economy and country back on track). But really, what were we to expect? The man has never been responsible for anything, so how do we expect him to act responsibly? In short: our president is a small-minded man, with neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job.

When you understand that, and only when you understand that, will the current erosion of liberty and prosperity make sense? It could not have gone otherwise with such an impostor in the Oval Office.

Going to be some cold nights in the White House when they get backt

We the People

Obama the Fraud

Four Simple Questions that no one has done "squat" about!

            1. Back in 1961 people of color were called 'Negroes.' So
how can the Obama 'birth certificate' state he is 'African-American'
when the term wasn't even used at that time?

            2. The birth certificate that the White House released
lists Obama's birth as August 4, 1961 lists Barack Hussein Obama as
his father. No big deal, right? At the time of Obama's birth, it also
shows that his father is aged 25 years old, and that Obama's father
was born in " Kenya , East Africa ". This wouldn't seem like anything
of concern, except the fact that Kenya did not even exist until 1963,
two whole years after Obama's birth, and 27 years after his father's
birth. How could Obama's father have been born in a country that did
not yet exist? Up and until Kenya was formed in 1963, it was known as
the " British East Africa Protectorate".            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya_
            (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya)

            3. On the birth certificate released by the White House,
the listed place of birth is "Kapi'olani Maternity & Gynecological
Hospital ".
            This cannot be, because the hospital(s) in question in
1961 were called "KauiKeolani Children's Hospital" and "Kapi'olani
Maternity Home", respectively. The name did not change to Kapi'olani
Maternity & Gynecological Hospital until 1978, when these two
hospitals merged. How can this particular name of the hospital be on a
birth certificate dated 1961 if this name had not yet been applied to
it until 1978?

            _http://www.kapiolani.org/women-and-children/about-us/default.aspx_
            (http://www.kapiolani.org/women-and-children/about-us/default.aspx)

            4. Why hasn't this been discussed in the major media?

            Perhaps a clue comes from Obama's book on his father. He
states how proud he is of his father fighting in WW II.  I'm not a
math genius, so I may need some help from you.  Barack Obama's birth
certificate says his father was 25 years old in 1961 when he was
born. That should have put his father's date of birth approximately
1936, if my math holds (Honest! I did that without a calculator!!!) Now
we need a non-revised history book-one that hasn't been altered to
satisfy the author's goals to verify that WW II was basically between
1939 and 1945. Just how many 3 year olds fight in wars? Even in the
latest stages of WW II his father wouldn't have been more than 9. Does
that mean that Mr. Obama is a liar, or simply chooses to alter the
facts to satisfy his imagination or political purposes (still
qualifies as a liar!)?

http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/obama-my-father-served-in-world-war-ii-t9238.html

http://minx.cc/?post=265103

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161817/Obamas-grandfather-Stanley-Armour-Dunham-tortured-British.html

How the Dumbacrats Run a Government

CHICAGO IS NOT THE PLACE TO LIVE...........................

 

 

Think closely about this. Certainly gives one reason to pause & ponder...NOT the same as "stop& smell the roses".     Logic defied:   There are more people on Welfare in Illinois than there are people working. Chicago pays the highest wages to teachers than anywhere else in the U.S. averaging $110,000/year. Their pensions average 80-90% of their income. You can't blame that on republicans because there aren't any. Wow, are Illinois and Chicago great or what? Be sure to read till the end. I’ve never heard it explained better. Perhaps the U.S. should pull out of Chicago ? Body count: In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago . 221 killed in Iraq AND Chicago has one of the strictest gun laws in the entire US. Here's the Chicago chain of command: President: Barack Hussein Obama Senator: Dick Durbin House Representative: Jesse Jackson Jr. Governor: Pat Quinn House leader: Mike Madigan Atty. Gen.: Lisa Madigan (daughter of Mike) Mayor: Rahm Emanuel The leadership in Illinois - all Democrats. Thank you for the combat zone in Chicago . Of course, they're all blaming each other. Can't blame Republicans; there aren't any! Chicago school system rated one of the worst in the country. Can't blame Republicans; there aren't any! State pension fund $78 Billion in debt, worst in country. Can't blame Republicans; there aren't any! Cook County ( Chicago ) sales tax 10.25% highest in country. Can't blame Republicans; there aren't any! This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois . And he is going to 'fix' Washington politics for us??? George Ryan is no longer Governor, he is in the big house. Of course he was replaced by Rob Blajegovitch who is...that's right, also in the big house. And Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. resigned a few weeks ago. That is because he is fighting being sent to...that's right, the big house. The Land of Lincoln , where our governors make our license plates. But you know what? As long as they keep providing entitlements to the population of Chicago , nothing is going to change, except the state will go broke before the country does. "Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian."

The Obamas Want a Communist State

Mychal Massie is a respected writer and talk show host in

Los Angeles.

 

 

The other evening on my twitter, a person asked me why I didn't like the Obama's? Specifically I was asked: "I have to ask, why do you hate the Obama's? It seems personal, not policy related. You even dissed (disrespect) their Christmas family picture."

The truth is I do not like the Obamas, what they represent, their ideology, and I certainly do not like his policies and legislation. I've made no secret of my contempt for the Obamas. As I responded to the person who asked me the aforementioned question, I don't like them because they are committed to the fundamental change of my/our country into what can only be regarded as a Communist state.

I don't hate them per definition, but I condemn them because they are the worst kind of racialists, they are elitist Leninists with contempt for traditional  America . They display disrespect for the sanctity of the office he holds, and for those who are willing to admit same, Michelle Obama's raw contempt for white  America is transpicuous.

I don't like them because they comport themselves as emperor and empress. I expect, no I demand respect, for the Office of President and a love of our country and her citizenry from the leader entrusted with the governance of same. President and Mrs. Reagan displayed an unparalleled love for the country and her people. The Reagan's made Americans feel good about themselves and about what we could accomplish. His arrogance by appointing 32 leftist czars and constantly bypassing congress is impeachable. Eric Holder is probably the MOST incompetent and arrogant DOJ head to ever hold the job. Could you envision President Reagan instructing his Justice Department to act like jack-booted thugs?

Presidents are politicians and all politicians are known and pretty much expected to manipulate the truth, if not outright lie, but even using that low standard, the Obama's have taken lies, dishonesty, deceit, mendacity, subterfuge and obfuscation to new depths. They are verbally abusive to the citizenry, and they display an animus for civility.

I do not like them, because they both display bigotry overtly, as in the case of Harvard Professor Louis Gates, when he accused the Cambridge Police of acting stupidly, and her code speak pursuant to now being able to be proud of America. I view that statement and that mindset as an insult to those who died to provide a country where a Kenyan, his illegal alien relatives, and his alleged progeny, could come and not only live freely, but rise to the highest, most powerful, position in the world. Michelle Obama is free to hate and disparage whites because Americans of every description paid with their blood to ensure her right to do same.

I have a saying, that "the only reason a person hides things, is because they have something to hide." No president in history has spent over a million dollars to keep his records and his past sealed.

And what the two of them have shared has been proved to be lies. He lied about when and how they met, he lied about his mother's death and problems with insurance, Michelle lied to a crowd pursuant to nearly $500,000 bank stocks they inherited from his family. He has lied about his father's military service, about the civil rights movement, ad nausea. He lied to the world about the Supreme Court in a State of the Union address. He berated and publicly insulted a sitting Congressman. He has surrounded himself with the most rabidly, radical, socialist academicians today. He opposed rulings that protected women and children that even Planned Parenthood did not seek to support. He is openly hostile to business and aggressively hostile to  Israel . His wife treats being the First Lady as her personal American Express Black Card (arguably the most prestigious credit card in the world). I condemn them because, as people are suffering, losing their homes, their jobs, their retirements, he and his family are arrogantly showing off their life of entitlement - as he goes about creating and fomenting class warfare.

I don't like them, and I neither apologize nor retreat from my public condemnation of them and of his policies. We should condemn them for the disrespect they show our people, for his willful and unconstitutional actions pursuant to obeying the Constitutional parameters he is bound by, and his willful disregard for Congressional authority.

Dislike for them has nothing to do with the color of their skin; it has everything to do with their behavior, attitudes, and policies. And I have open scorn for their constantly playing the race card.

I could go on, but let me conclude with this. I condemn in the strongest possible terms the media for refusing to investigate them, as they did President Bush and President Clinton, and for refusing to label them for what they truly are. There is no scenario known to man, whereby a white president and his wife could ignore laws, flaunt their position, and lord over the people, as these two are permitted out of fear for their color.

As I wrote in a syndicated column titled, "Nero In The White House" - "Never in my life, inside or outside of politics, have I witnessed such dishonesty in a political leader. He is the most mendacious political figure I have ever witnessed. Even by the low standards of his presidential predecessors, his narcissistic, contumacious arrogance is unequalled. Using Obama as the bar, Nero would have to be elevated to sainthood... Many in America wanted to be proud when the first person of color was elected president, but instead, they have been witness to a congenital liar, a woman who has been ashamed of America her entire life, failed policies, intimidation, and a commonality hitherto not witnessed in political leaders. He and his wife view their life at our expense as an entitlement - while  America's people go homeless, hungry and unemployed.”

Islam in America?

Barack Obama, during his Cairo speech, said: "I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America's history." AN AMERICAN CITIZEN'S RESPONSE: Dear Mr. Obama: Were those Muslims that were in America when the Pilgrims first landed? Funny, I thought they were Native American Indians. Were those Muslims that celebrated the first Thanksgiving day? Sorry again, those were think so. Did Muslims fight for this country's freedom from England ? No. Did Muslims fight during the CivilPilgrims and Native American Indians. Can you show me one Muslim signature on the United States Constitution? Declaration of Independence ? Bill of Rights? Didn't  War to free the slaves in America? No, they did not. In fact, Muslims to this day are still the largest traffickers in human slavery. Your own half-brother, a devout Muslim, still advocates slavery himself, even though Muslims of Arabic descent refer to black Muslims as "pug nosed slaves." Says a lot of what the Muslim world really thinks of your family's "rich Islamic heritage," doesn't it Mr. Obama? Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country? Not present. There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims walking side by side with Martin Luther King, Jr. or helping to advance the cause of Civil Rights. Where were Muslims during this country's Woman's Suffrage era? Again, not present. In fact, devout Muslims demand that women are subservient to men in the Islamic culture. So much so, that often they are beaten for not wearing the 'hajib' or for talking to a man who is not a direct family member or their husband. Yep, the Muslims are all for women's rights, aren't they? Where were Muslims during World War II? They were aligned with Adolf Hitler. The Muslim grand mufti himself met with Adolf Hitler, reviewed the troops and accepted support from the Nazi's in killing Jews. Finally, Mr. Obama, where were Muslims on Sept. 11th, 2001? If they weren't flying planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon or a field in Pennsylvania killing nearly 3,000 people on our own soil, they were rejoicing in the Middle East. No one can dispute the pictures shown from all parts of the Muslim world celebrating on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other cable news networks that day. Strangely, the very "moderate" Muslims who's asses you bent over backwards to kiss in Cairo, Egypt on June 4th were stone cold silent post 9-11. To many Americans, their silence has meant approval for the acts of that day. And THAT, Mr. Obama, is the "rich heritage" Muslims have here in America. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention the Barbary Pirates. They were Muslim. And now we can add November 5, 2009 - the slaughter of American soldiers at Fort Hood by a Muslim major who is a doctor and a psychiatrist who was supposed to be counseling soldiers returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Billy Graham Gives Election Advice

“The legacy we leave behind for our children, grandchildren, and this great nation is crucial. As I approach my 94th birthday, I realize this could be my last.

I believe it is vitally important that we cast our ballots for candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel. I urge you to vote for those who protect the sanctity of life and support the biblical definition of marriage between a man and a woman. Vote for biblical values this November 6th, and pray with me that America will remain one nation under God.”

-- Billy Graham

We've Heard it All Before

2nd Debate Immigration & Dream Act Question

The 800 pound gorilla that both candidates ignored is the effect of population growth on the quality of life and standard of living.  They both take the approach that more immigrants is better.  It isn't.  We need to reduce the total legal immigrants admitted to no more than 250,00 per year focused entirely on those with the entrepreneurial and other skills or advanced education in physical science, engineering, medicine, biological sciences and mathematics who are most likely to help us remain competitive in the global marketplace.  Foreign students who earn a PhD in any of the above areas should be fast tracked to citizenship if they so desire.  Domestic students who have demonstrated the ability to succeed at that level should be given a full scholarship for as long as they maintain a high level of performance in graduate school.  Students in other academic disciplines like the Social Scineces, Law, etc. should not be eligible.

Every adult applicant must be considered on this or her own merits and should receive no special consideration just because they happen to have a close relative in this country.  This does not apply to the offspring and spouses of permanent residents and citizenss,

Migrant farm workers may be admitted on a temporary basis but children born of these workers and children born of illegal aiens,temporary visa holders will not  be considered  unther the jurisdiction of the U.S. and would therefore be inelligible for birthright citizenship.

The DREAM Act should be vetoed and replaced with a bill that:  requires a minimum of 4 years of honorable military service, peovides for a regular audit of applications and applicants, and imposes a severe penalty on anyone who submits a fraudulent application up to and including immediate and permanent deportation.  The Act should be applicable only for a limited window and then permanently expire.

Illegal aliens holding jobs will be identified through mandatory E-verfication of their work status.  Those who enter the U.S. illegally or who remain present illegally subsequent to the passage of the bill shall be guilty of a felony and be treated accordingly.  Other changes in the enforcement of the immigration laws should be heavily based on the confidential input of border patrol agents regarding the tools, regulation and instruction changes needed to enable them to close the  borde to illegal aliens.

My Answers to some of the 2nd Debate Questions

Women's Pay Differential is due to many factors.  Seniority may play a big role in thoswe jobs that are unionized.  If a woman chooses to take off 10-15 years to raise a family, she may lose that amount of time in a seniority system.  Moreover, the knowledge needed for everily job changes over time, if the woman has not kept up to date in her field or in her job, she should not be paid the same as a man who has been at work continuously and maintianed his skills and knowledge.  A woman who decides to become a secretary late in life and is never able to master the ability to type fast and  accurately.  Many public employment jobs are based on a merit siystem suich as only the top three scorers on an examination can be considered.  This make sure that the best qualified applicants are the ones who get hired and avoids, to some extent, political, gender and race considerations.  Generally, I would propose a system in which the variables related to the quality or potential qaulity of work without regard to gender are related to the appropriate pay for each position.  Thus, in the case of a university, variables like number of peer-judged publications, number of prublished articles cited in other articles by different authors, seniority, rank, student evaluations, awards and honors.  This may or may not close the gap between male and female pay for those in the same  type of job but it will help to explain why such a gap may exist.

The myth of Obama as state Senate reformer

Chapter VII

The myth of Obama as state Senate reformer

September 19, 2012 | 11:51 pm | Modified: September 20, 2012 at 12:01 am

66Comments

Former Illinois state Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, a maverick Republican and reformer, said Obama never fought corruption, by Republicans or by Democrats: "He never wanted to upset the apple cart with the Chicago machine."

Shortly after Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, Prairie State Blue, a liberal blog, attributed his victory to the fact that Illinois' deeply entrenched government corruption had forced "political reformers" in the state legislature like Obama "to network outside the traditional political circles."

The claim illustrated Obama's success throughout his career at presenting himself as an outsider and reformer even as he became a skillful operator inside one of the nation's most corrupt political systems.

Earlier this year, a study by the Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs pointed to the convictions in recent years of four governors, two congressmen, a state treasurer, an attorney general and 11 state legislators.

"The two worst crime zones in Illinois are the governor's mansion in Springfield and the City Council Chambers in Chicago," said study author Dick Simpson.

It was into such an environment that Obama stepped when he was first elected in 1996 as an Illinois state senator.

Former Illinois Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, a maverick Republican and reformer, told The Washington Examiner that Obama never fought corruption, even when it was being done by Republicans.

"I've never seen him fight corruption. He never wanted to upset the apple cart with the Chicago machine," Fitzgerald said.

After serving with Obama for two years in the Illinois Senate, Fitzgerald defeated Sen. Carol Moseley Braun in 1998 and served one term in the U.S. Senate. His family has been in Illinois banking for several generations.

In Springfield, Fitzgerald was a leader of a reform-minded state legislative caucus known as the "Fab Five." The group's members were Republicans who had been elected in 1992. They fought the establishments in both major parties while seeking to increase openness and transparency in government.

Fab Fiver Steve Rauschenberger told the Examiner that he and his reformist colleagues were taken aback when Obama rejected the group's informal invitations to join them.

"When Barack first arrived, there was a lot of hope that maybe he was the intellectual bridge, the pragmatic Democrat from Chicago who was not part of the machine that we could perhaps talk to about broad-based consensus policies to change public policy that wasn't working," he said.

"He appeared to be interested for a good 90 days," Rauschenberger said. "In March or April of that year, though, he had made it pretty clear he wasn't interested in risk-taking or challenging institutions or challenging the Chicago machine's lock on a lot of the mechanics of government in Cook County in Chicago."

An Examiner review of Fab Five initiatives from 1995 to 2000 identified 22 proposals, including sweeping government procurement reforms like requiring open, competitive bidding for state contracts. Obama missed votes on several of the proposals, and those he supported were approved unanimously.

"He was nowhere to be found on reform," Fab Fiver Chris Lauzen told the Examiner. "I reached out to Barack. My wife and I took Barack and Michelle to dinner."

Lauzen said Obama "was not on the playing field. In my opinion, Barack Obama was a product and beneficiary of how politics are practiced in Illinois. It would be impossible to call him a reformer."

State Sen. Dave Syverson, another Fab Fiver, said, "I don't recall any cases when he was overtly standing up to the machine at all."

Some of Obama's reluctance about the Fab Five may have stemmed from his occasional golf outings and lunches with the state's top gambling lobbyist, Alfred G. Ronan.

Ronan was well-known in Illinois political circles for passing out cash contributions to supporters off the floor of the legislative chambers. Obama himself took $10,500 from Ronan and changed his position on a gambling bill afterward, according to the Los Angeles Times. Ronan told the Times that Obama always paid his own way on the outings.

There was also the regular Wednesday night poker game organized by Democratic state Sen. Terry Link. Obama and three other state Senate Democrats in Springfield were regular attendees, along with several lobbyists, Link said.

"It started out with five of us, then it escalated where there were a couple of lobbyists that were friends of us that we brought in," Link told the Examiner.

"Barack was not of the machine, but he was adjacent to it," said Cynthia Canary, former director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, the largest statewide reform organization.

Paul Green, director of the Institute for Politics at Chicago's Roosevelt University and a popular WGN radio host, noted David Axelrod, Obama's campaign strategist, originated from Mayor Richard M. Daley's camp.

"You see his main adviser, David Axelrod, who also was Daley's chief adviser and ran his campaigns. So it was very much that Obama's people were in the Daley camp."

A month after Daley's patronage chief was indicted for rigging city jobs and promotions, Axelrod defended patronage in a 2005 Chicago Tribune op-ed. He argued that to satisfy constituent needs, politicians are often forced to "use the influence they have to meet those needs, including sometimes the exchange of favors -- consideration for jobs being just one."

Fitzgerald said Obama never confronted Daley. "He never took on Mayor Daley, even when clearly city hall was out of bounds. He never fought corruption in Cook County government."

Canary said Obama's endorsement of Rod Blagojevich and other Daley allies worried her.

"Obama has made a number of endorsements, not just the Blagojevich one -- he gave a number for the Chicago City Council that were complete whack jobs. I have never understood it or why he felt he needed to it," she said.

Some have noted that Obama helped write a 1997 legislative gift ban. The bipartisan effort included 23 exemptions.

Green pointed out that the gift ban didn't stop corruption. "In 1998, George Ryan was governor; now he's in prison. After him, Rod Blagojevich went to prison, so clearly it didn't have any impact."

•  

The Poor People Obama Left Behind

Chapter VI

The poor people Obama left behind

September 19, 2012 | 11:51 pm | Modified: September 20, 2012 at 12:01 am

99Comments

A man moves furniture at the Altgeld Gardens housing project Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008, on Chicago's South Side. where Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., used to work as a community organizer. (AP Photo)

Four years after Barack Obama's historic election as president, little seems to have changed for the African-American communities on Chicago's South Side.

The lack of change -- or the sense that these neighborhoods are getting worse -- is eroding the president's standing among African-Americans in his hometown.

In 2011, Chicago suffered the third-highest black jobless rate among the nation's major metropolitan areas, at 19 percent, according to the liberal Economic Policy Institute.

Chicago still lacks enough affordable housing. Not only did the city demolish 25,000 public housing units in the previous decade, it also experienced more than 80,000 foreclosures, mainly in low-income neighborhoods.

Chicago "black nationalist" Eddie Read contends Obama has never fought for the black community. "I would not honestly tag Obama as a fighter for black people, black agenda or black issues," Read told The Washington Examiner.

After Obama's election, Read said, "I hoped that it would change."

But four years later, as he looks around Chicago's neighborhoods, he said things haven't improved under Obama.

"I don't see where the quality of life or the quality has changed," he said, "except that it's worse."

Dr. Conrad Worrill is an African-American educator, activist and former radio talk show host on Chicago's African-American-oriented station WVON. He told the Examiner that Obama was an inspirational speaker who moved people. But in the end, he became just another Chicago politician.

"His rise in politics, his trajectory in politics has led him to make adjustments in his political decision-making. And that's the case with many politicians. So he's no different from many others in that regard. He's a politician," Worrill said.

Cheryl Johnson and her mother, Hazel, lived in the economically deprived Altgeld Gardens housing project when young Obama was a community organizer there. Her late mother also was an organizer at the housing complex and often welcomed Obama into her kitchen.

"He's everybody's president," Cheryl Johnson told the Examiner, saying she is proud she knows him. But has he made a difference? "We, as poor people, don't feel it and don't see it," she said. Read believes Obama's problem is that he does not understand the unique needs of Chicago blacks.

"Obama came through Chicago through Saul Alinsky organizing," he said. "The Alinsky piece seemed to have had an agenda about what it thought was in the best interest of black folks, from the white liberal perspective."

Obama instead allied himself with Chicago's MacArthur Foundation, local housing nonprofits and real estate developers. Valerie Jarrett and Allison Davis, Martin Nesbitt and Tony Rezko -- all Obama friends -- were at the epicenter of that powerful coalition.

Obama's low-income-housing campaign still resonates among Chicago's poor today. Deborah Taylor, a public housing tenant in the Kenwood section of Chicago, also told the Examiner things are as bad as ever for poor tenants.

"The residents at the end of the day still suffer here," she said. "A lot of times a lot of people start out idealistically thinking they are helping," Taylor said.

"I don't think any of them are in favor of the tenants," she said. "Everybody's in it for the money. It's all about profit now. So the residents lose, lose, lose."

D'Anna Carter, a neighborhood activist in Chicago's Woodlawn section, singled out the Habitat Co., which was run by Jarrett, now Obama's closest White House adviser.

"They were never interested in poor people," she told the Examiner. "They would sell poor people a bill of goods," she said bitterly in an interview.

Wardell Lavender has been a Woodlawn resident since 1951. His was the first black family to move into the neighborhood. He also blames Habitat.

"Habitat was bad landlords at the time. They didn't care too much about the blacks," he told the Examiner.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the enticement to the poor to buy condos they could not afford caused widespread losses in Chicago.

Foreclosures fell hard on Chicago's poor residents. The Urban Institute reported in May 2009 that most were displaced or homeless, credit ratings were damaged and violence increased as empty units remained vacant.

Worrill said he still supports Obama but adds that the lack of progress in Chicago's black community is palpable.

"He has been supported, but the position he's in now, he's in a heck of a predicament."

Obama's toughest critics on the Left

Chapter V

Obama's toughest critics on the Left

September 20, 2012 | 12:07 am | Modified: September 20, 2012 at 12:02 am

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Obama’s toughest critic on the Left, the late Robert Fitch, charged that Obama’s most trusted aide, Valerie Jarrett, made a fortune as a real estate developer. Fitch, a radical leftist and freelance journalist who specialized in urban politics and economics, said Obama surrounded himself with people who got rich on Chicago’s $1.6 billion neighborhood demolition program known officially as the Plan for Transformation.

Barack Obama's carefully constructed image as a civil rights lawyer who wanted to heal the black community was greeted with skepticism by some Chicago activists.

"I never drank the Kool-Aid about Barack Obama," veteran Chicago black activist Eddie Read told The Washington Examiner. Read is president of the Black Independent Political Organization, one of Chicago's largest black community groups.

Read -- who describes himself as a "black nationalist" -- said Chicago streets are filled with genuine "street gangsters" and phonies known as "studio gangsters." The latter are impersonators who make money acting in studio-produced rap videos.

The same dichotomy is found among Chicago's street activists, Read said. "So what you get from me is I'm still up in the air on whether or not my brother Obama was a real activist or a studio activist."

Robert Stark, director of the liberal Harold Washington Institute for Research and Policy Studies, told the Examiner that the demolition effort required to clear the way for the new affordable-housing projects advocated by Obama was disastrous for low-income blacks on Chicago's South Side.

"Obviously, when you're talking about the demolition of housing, there has been a great deal of controversy because poor people were not given an opportunity to come back to the housing that replaced the demolished housing," said Stark, whose institute is based at Northeastern Illinois University.

Wardell Lavender is a tenant activist who has lived in the Woodlawn section of Chicago since 1951. "We don't know what happened to those people," Lavender told the Examiner. "What we didn't do was keep track of them because a lot of them ended up homeless."

Obama's toughest critic on the Left, however, was the late Robert Fitch. Fitch, a radical leftist and freelance journalist who specialized in urban politics and economics, said Obama surrounded himself with people who got rich on Chicago's $1.6 billion neighborhood demolition program known officially as the Plan for Transformation.

At least 25,000 low-income apartments in Chicago were destroyed under the program, which forced thousands of black families -- many of whom lived in Obama's state Senate district -- to move out of the city. Obama's political allies directed the effort.

"What we see is that the Chicago core of the Obama coalition is made up of blacks who've moved up by moving poor blacks out of the community," Fitch charged in a 2008 speech before the Harlem Tenants Association. Fitch died in 2011.

Fitch claimed in that speech that Obama sold out to a corrupt Chicago establishment. "Obama's political base comes primarily from Chicago FIRE -- the finance, insurance and real estate industry," he said.

"It's also true that key black members of the Obama inner circle are Daley administration alumni, but they've moved up -- now they're part of Chicago FIRE," he said.

Fitch singled out Obama's most trusted aide, Valerie Jarrett, as one who stood out among those who made fortunes as real estate operators. Jarrett once worked for Mayor Daley, then later became CEO of the Habitat Co., one of the city's largest real estate development firms.

Fitch also criticized Martin Nesbitt, Daley's former head of the Chicago Housing Authority and vice president of Pritzker Realty. Like Jarrett, Nesbitt is among Obama's closest personal friends.

Also in Fitch's cross hairs was Allison Davis, Obama's law firm boss who built a real estate empire by dealing in low-income housing with business partner Tony Rezko, Obama's mentor who is now serving a federal prison sentence.

In that 2008 speech in Harlem, N.Y., Fitch also blasted Chicago church leaders who he said profited on the poor. Chief among these "real estate reverends," as Fitch called them, was Bishop Arthur Brazier.

Brazier, a close Obama confidant and law client, ran the crumbling Grove Parc project alongside his Apostolic Church of God. Jarrett, Davis and Rezko were all involved with Grove Parc. Grove Parc is still owned by WPIC but has more recently been managed by the Project on Affordable Housing, a Boston-based nonprofit organization that obtains large, multifamily properties and refinances them for long-term affordability.

Three weeks after Obama won the 2008 election, Fitch warned his Harlem audience about "hope and change," saying, "we have to make some distinctions between the change they believe in and the change we believe in; between our interests and theirs."

Michael Hudson, a real estate economist at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, was Fitch's editor at the Village Voice. He said Fitch despised Chicago political insiders like Obama, who, he argued, became wealthy while cloaking themselves as reformers.

"Bob Fitch's basic premise," Hudson told the Examiner, "was to show that the reform Democrats always have been the pro-financial real estate interests to do insider dealings. They are people who wear halos when in fact they are predators."

Hudson said Fitch thought the Plan for Transformation was a con game. "The essence of a con game is to pose as you're doing a public service. That's the cover story for getting the public money both to redevelop buildings or to get rid of all the tenants."

Obama's political endorsements also worried liberal reformers concerned about good government. Cynthia Canary, former head of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, recalled Obama's endorsement of corrupt officials like the imprisoned Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Chicago City Council members.

"The thing that startled me," she said, "was when Obama made endorsements of certain City Council members and people who we already knew were in trouble," she told the Examiner.

Obama's Association with Known Criminals

Chapter IV

For the slumlord's defense, Barack Obama, Esq.

September 19, 2012 | 11:36 pm | Modified: September 20, 2012 at 12:03 am

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via Getty Images and ap A security company owned by now-jailed political fundraiser Tony Rezko sought help from Obama and then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in an effort to gain a lucrative contract in Iraq, according to a report published in 2007.

Writing in his 1995 autobiography, "Dreams from My Father," Obama said he became "a civil rights lawyer" because "to lend meaning to a community's suffering and take part in its healing -- that required something more."

There was indeed "something more" to Obama's legal career, but it wasn't civil rights litigation at the Chicago law firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, where he was employed for a decade.

"He spent about half his time working with Bill Miceli and my former partner, Allison Davis, and that team," senior partner Judson Miner told The Washington Examiner. Most of the entries on Obama's client list for the firm from that period were in real estate, construction and finance.

Miceli and Davis were the partners in charge of the firm's housing and real estate practices. Davis would later leave the firm to join Obama mentor Tony Rezko in the real estate development business.

In March 1994, a year before "Dreams" was published, Obama was the lead defense attorney on an obscure case in Cook County Court that has heretofore escaped examination by the national media.

In this case, Obama defended a Chicago slumlord and powerful political ally who was charged with a long list of offenses against poor residents. The defendant was the Woodlawn Preservation & Investment Corp., controlled by Bishop Arthur Brazier, a South Side Chicago preacher and political operator.

Brazier's burgeoning real estate empire included a low-income housing project at 6223 South University. Today, MapQuest describes the Woodlawn neighborhood as "quaint and sedate." But in the winter of 1994, it was a frigid hell.

Brazier was closely allied with Obama and his firm, not least because Davis was on WPIC's Board of Directors. Davis was also the corporation's registered agent, and he received the court summons when the city filed suit on the South University apartments.

Brazier's WPIC had failed for nearly a month to supply heat and running water for the complex's 15 crumbling apartments. On Jan. 18, 1994, the day the heat went off, Chicago's official high temperature was 11 below zero, the day after it was 19 below.

Even worse, the residents were then ordered to leave the WPIC complex in the winter chill without the due process they would have been afforded by an eviction procedure.

In court documents reviewed by The Washington Examiner, Daniel W. Weil, commissioner of Chicago's Buildings Department, slammed WPIC for multiple municipal code violations, including "failure to maintain adequate heat," failure "to provide every family unit with approved heating facilities," and "failure to provide adequate" supplies of either hot or cold running water.

Things were so bad that the city's outraged corporation counsel declared that "the levying of a fine is not an adequate remedy" and asked the court for a permanent injunction against WPIC, appointment of a receiver and imposition of a lien on WPIC to pay for repairs, attorneys' fees and court costs.

But Obama did his work so well that in the end, on March 3, 1994, the court simply fined WPIC $50. Only then did Obama tell the court of the forcible removal of tenants in the bitter cold.

An experienced Chicago housing attorney who reviewed the case at the Examiner's request said $50 fines against politically powerful slumlords were not uncommon at that time. The lawyer, who currently works for the city, asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal.

The attorney termed the forcible removal of the residents in the frigid Chicago winter "outrageous," and said it looked like "a way to avoid a lengthy eviction process by law. And if the tenants had leases, they should have been bought out with a cash payment in return for leaving the premises early."

The South University apartments eventually became part of a real estate syndication deal that Obama helped negotiate. Brazier remained as the controlling general partner, while the syndicated investors became limited partners.

The merging of Brazier's insider contacts and influence with the limited partners' financial resources enabled them to benefit collectively from bigger, more profitable deals than they would have each been able to do individually.

A Chicago housing expert with direct knowledge of WPIC's real estate dealings told the Examiner that the syndication deal involving the apartments likely was being negotiated when the building lost heat.

"The property was one of five or six that was bundled together into a partnership and syndicated with tax credits," he said. It was a "prelude to being put into the partnership, which it ultimately was for purposes of the refinancing and syndication."

The WPIC case illustrates how Obama functioned at the center of a historic accommodation then developing between the Daley machine and its traditional opponents among the city's liberal reformers.

Lubricating the deal was a flood of public and nonprofit federal and state tax credits and funding for low-income-housing projects that would enrich developers and empower ambitious politicians like Obama, at the expense of taxpayers and, especially, the poor.

Brazier was not merely an Obama legal client. A disciple of Chicago's famous radical activist Saul Alinsky, Brazier was also a close political ally of Daley's and one of the key movers and shakers among the city's progressive political elite who in the years ahead would advance Obama at every turn.

Obama also did legal work involved in the establishment of four Brazier-Rezko limited partnerships: Woodlawn Partners Ltd., Central Woodlawn Partnership, KRMB Limited Partnership and Woodlawn Drexel Ltd. Partnership. Rezko is now serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for fraud and attempted bribery on state government contracts.

The former Obama firm still represents WPIC, as well as Brazier's church, the Apostolic Church of God, and his Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization. Brazier's son now oversees the properties.

As Brazier clung to life in 2010 in a Chicago hospital, Obama called him from the White House for what relatives described as an extremely tearful farewell.

Shortly after Brazier died, Obama issued a statement saying of the man he had once helped put 15 poor families on the street in the dead of winter:

"There is no way that we can replace the gentle heart and boundless determination that Bishop Brazier brought to some of the most pressing challenges facing Chicago and our nation."

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