More FOBs (Friends of Barack) Getting Into Trouble These Days
FOB used to stand for Friends of Bill, referring to the relationships Bill Clinton kept. As time passed during Bill’s terms as president, the fawning media found it harder to continue covering for Bill’s past misdeeds and corrupt cronies. Eventually all the scandalous individuals who surrounded the Clinton’s became known was Friends of Bill.
I guess we could begin using that acronym again for Barack Obama. I could also use FOO’ as in “Mamma didn’t raise no FOO’” or Friends of Obama – but the liberals would probably cry RAAAAAAcist. However, my mother did in fact raise me to be ethical so, I wouldn’t be a friend of Obama.
One of Obama’s mentors, supporters, and contributors is being investigated for his associations with Rezko and for other corruption charges in the city of Chicago; Allison Davis.
Another “Friend of Barack” is under increased scrutiny these days, but only a mere handful of media reports have linked Obama with Allison Davis. Once upon a time, Davis, Obama and Rezko were as thick as thieves. Davis and Rezko relied upon their friend and politically ally, Barack, to promote their plans to redevelop dilapidated slums into affordable housing for low income residents of the former legislative district represented by State Senator Obama. Tax dollars were misspent and pocketed by the developers, while the minority tenants continued to live in substandard apartments. Obama managed to bob and weave throughout the primaries as he ducked the malfeasance allegations and the issue was ignored in the general election. For his part, Davis dismissed the numerous building code violations by blaming the impoverished tenants for their own misfortunes.
More recently, Mayor Richard M. Daley has been place on the defensive by the simmering city pension fund scandal. While the members of the complicit media focus their short attention spans on the mayor’s nephew, Robert Vanecko, less has been said about Vanecko’s wily business partner, Allison Davis. This an angle that needs to be more examined closely.
Davis has developed relationships that have made him wealthy as a consummate political insider without ever having held elected office. He helped promote Obama long before he became a member of the state legislature. Along with his law partners, Davis gave Obama his first position as an attorney at a politically connected firm. Obama never developed much of a courtroom reputation as a practicing attorney, but like his Columbia and Harvard degrees, the legal position that he briefly occupied was important to him solely as a resume credential. Like the disgraced Rod Blagojevich, Obama seems to have spent much of his career gathering a succession of prominent job titles without producing any significant accomplishments while in office. Blagojevich’s eventual fall coincided with his election to an executive position. It is easier to be a backbencher in the legislature than to be a do nothing executive. Obama still has time left to prove his mettle.
I believe the media, this time around, is willing to cover up more than they did for Bill Clinton – mostly to be on the side of “history.” But there will come a day when Obama and the media will have to answer for their corruption and the company they keep.
Dick Durbin Another Democrat Corruptocrat
One thing is for sure, Illinois certainly knows how to breed corruption. They groom some real class acts in that state! Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has been accused of insider trading and is being investigated for some suspicious activities he took on the eve of the financial collapse last Fall. Dick Durbin is somebody who we should know better – he is the 2nd highest ranked Senator in the Democrat Party after Harry Reid. He is the Majority Whip in the Senate, currently holding seats on the Judiciary Committee, the Rules and Administration Committee, and the Appropriations Committee (of which he is the chair of the financial services & general government subcommittee)!
The Illinois senator’s 2008 financial disclosure statement shows he sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks. The same day, he bought $43,562 worth of Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B stock, the disclosure shows.
Altogether, Durbin sold investments worth $116,000 in September. By Oct. 2, he had invested $98,046 in Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway, the form shows.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index plunged 4.7 percent last Sept. 15 after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bank of America Corp.’s government-engineered takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. By the end of October, the index had fallen 22.6 percent.
His spokesperson claims that he was just acting like every other American who were taking major hits on their portfolios and moving the money into a safer investment.
However, the timing of his move, especially after a closed-door meeting with the head of Treasury is a little too convenient. Martha Stewart was arrested for less – why should a senator/lawmaker have more leniency when it comes to abiding by the law? I would think that somebody who makes laws, would certainly know when they are breaking them as well. Unfortunately, politicians always seem to be immune to legal repercussions, a real moral hazard in our government. I’m sure if Durbin is indicted and possibly found guilty upon further investigation, his buddy Obama will grant immunity… I’d also be surprised if more than just this one paper reports that yet another Democrat is corrupt and gaming the system.
Democrat Corruptocrats, The Saga Continues
Dodd & Jesse Jackson Jr. have both been involved in some shady dealings over the past couple of years, if not earlier, but as recently as this week.
Senator Dodd, as we all know, has some major corruption and reputation issues to work through, especially after his Countrywide ties and his own dealings with AIG (with his wife and campaign contributions/bonus language in the stimulus), as well as the complete meltdown of the financial industry under his watch and Barney Frank’s!
However, there was a recent investigation into some old lobbying ties of Senator Dodd’s, and of all places this investigative reporting took place on the Huffington Post!
there’s a lobbying group called the Online Lenders Alliance. Fair enough. They’re throwing a conference this week. So far, so good. There’s a bunch of people from Congress involved or speaking, on both sides of the aisle. Fine*. Senator Dodd was one of the scheduled Senators for the event, except when asked about it first his staff, then Dodd himself flatly denied that he was there on OLA’s behalf at all; it was an independent fundraising dinner. Nothing unusu… wait, what?
Inside the restaurant, Dodd staffers said the dinner, which was not open to press, was not even sponsored by the Online Lenders Alliance.
The dinner “is not an OLA event,” OLA spokeswoman Lisa McGreevy said in a subsequent phone interview. But the OLA agenda lists a Dodd dinner — was there a mixup?
“I don’t think there was any mixup,” she said. “There is a fundraiser tonight for Senator Dodd.”
McGreevy added: “There may be some OLA people there.”
Needless to say, the Huffington Post has a contradictory screenshot, presumably from the OLA website. They also helpfully note that Dodd takes the cash from payday loan people, although I don’t know how fair it is to point that out, particularly since 44 grand isn’t that much in the scheme of things. Anyway, it looks like Dodd’s lying to somebody: he’s either using what should have been a perfectly-normal lobbying event to quietly and deniably raise some cash, or he doesn’t want the Left to think that he’s playing both sides of the fence when it comes to credit card ‘reform.’
Poor milk dodd – he continues to speak out of both sides of his mouth and wonders why he is so low in the polls against Simmons.
Jesse Jackson Jr. doesn’t think twice when it comes to funnelling money to his wife due to loopholes in laws that allow her to act as a consultant for political action committees. This is typical of the dynasties set up in Chicago, where people are still poor, crime is still high, and children are being killed on the street at alarming rates… One would think that the reason this continues to occur is due to the political thugacracy and the dynasties that could care less about their constituents. They care more about power and control and remaining atop the “hill.” Ask Obama!
Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.’s congressional campaign organization has paid his wife at least $247,500 since 2001, including at least $95,000 after Sandra Jackson joined the Chicago City Council two years ago, according to federal election records.
Jackson’s political committee also gave at least $298,927 in cash and in-kind contributions to Sandra Jackson’s campaign fund, which bankrolled her races for a city council seat that pays more than $100,000 per year and an unpaid position on the Cook County Democratic Committee.
Sandra Jackson, known as Sandi, received the $95,000 for political consulting after pledging during her campaign to give “my full attention” to the alderman’s post.
Jesse Jackson got a Federal Election Commission advisory opinion in 2001 saying his campaign could pay Sandi Jackson for consulting work without violating a ban on personal use of political donations. Even so, the Chicago Democrat’s fundraising is so entangled with his family’s interests that he’s pushing the limits of propriety, said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit ethics watchdog group.
“Much of this may be legal, but let’s refer back to an old quote: the scandal in Washington often is what’s legal,” said Sloan, whose group in 2007 reported on relatives who profit from their ties to members of Congress. “Mr. Jackson is availing himself of the full range of loopholes by which he can transfer money to his family.”
Rod Blagojevich Has Been Indicted
Disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is on a resort vacation in Florida, was indicted today on a host of federal corruption charges dating back to 2002 even before he was sworn in as governor.
Several aides were also charged.
Blagojevich, 52, , was charged 16 felony counts, including racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion and making false statements to federal agents. He allegedly used his office in numerous matters involving state appointments, business, legislation and pension fund investments to seek or obtain such financial benefits as money, campaign contributions, and employment for himself and others, in exchange for official actions, including trying to leverage his authority to appoint a United States Senator, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
