Open Thread * More on Rezko & Obama
By SusanUnPC on October 18, 2008 at 5:03 PM in ACORN, Allison Davis, Barack Obama, Chicago Mansion, Chicago politics, Cullen Davis, Open Thread, Tony Rezko, Woods Fund
Let’s tie this open thread’s chief topic to Truthteller’s significant breaking story, “BREAKING: Obama Land Deal with Rezko and Mutual Bank Subject of New Court Complaint.”
Recently, a friend asked for information on now convicted Tony Rezko and Barack Obama. Here’s what I sent her, from more stories on the Obamas’ mansion to Obama’s entanglements in with Chicago slumlords to Rezko’s trial, conducted by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s very able team:
First, I sent her a link along with some notes about Truthteller’s October 7th story:
“CORROBORATED: Rezko Speaks, Prosecutors Interested in Obama Listen
– Obama’s history with Rezko is lengthy (Rezko contacted him when Obama was still at Harvard Law School — I believe, although it’s a hunch, that they met when Obama was in Chicago before he went to Harvard).
Their connections are political, business, and personal. Obama’s law firm represented Rezko’s interests, Obama pushed state legislation that helped Rezko, etc. The Woods Fund, along with its board members Bill Ayers and Barack Obama, was involved with Rezko and gave him financial grants.
In Obama’s own district, Rezko controlled former public housing and let it go to ruin. NoQuarter has numerous fact-checked stories on this + Flineo’s great videos offer rich fodder that can be used in TV/Web advertising. Examples from Flineo’s channel:
THIS is an INVALUABLE video. Flineo included video footage of Carol Marin, a noted Chicago NBC reporter, saying that Rezko got over $100 million in taxpayer monies for his schemes IN Obama’s own district. Ms. Marin shows the actual conditions of those properties.
Flineo then adds a still image of a map in which he highlights, one by one, how many of Rezko’s foreclosed, closed down properties are IN Obama’s own state senate district. (That map comes from one of the Chicago newspapers — I can find the link if need be.)
Here are more links to some of our key stories and a radio show we did on how Obama used public housing privatization in Chicago to benefit his rich allies and political benefactors.
The Boston Globe did a great investigative piece on Obama’s links to the housing privatization schemes — but none of the rest of the MSM picked up their great work. Our own Un Coup De Des wrote it up brilliantly in two parts:
(a) Boston Globe Exposé, Part I: Introducing Cecil Butler, Obama’s West Side Slumlord Patron;
(b) Boston Globe Exposé, Part II: Barack Obama (D-Slumlord) Is Aloof, Oblivious, Dangerous; and
(c) I wrote a story about a little boy, with video and photos, who was killed this summer — it was all over the Chicago newspapers and TV stations– because another of Obama’s political godfathers/benefactors failed to maintain his privatized housing property in a safe manner. That was Cullen Davis, the son of Alison Davis who gave Obama his first job at a law firm that handled Rezko’s housing schemes: “The Blood Money of Barack Obama’s Money Men.”
See also: Larry Johnson’s more recent story on the ties among Obama, ACORN, and Obama’s slumlord buddies, Allison and Cullen Davis (father and son): “Barack Worked For ACORN, Promises to Do So Again.”
Related: How the Obamas got that mansion. I posted several links to stories about the mansion, including “How to Buy a Mansion You Can’t Afford,” which details how Michelle Obama used her position as a member of a preservation board to find out about and get that mansion that had been labeled “historic.”
::::: OPEN THREAD! :::::
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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* (Included in the 
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.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
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