Rezko Guilty

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 4:59pm

On 16 counts? Wow.

Another big event in Obama's life.

Updated On: 6/4/08 at 04:59 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 5:03pm

For what it's worth, I'm reading "some counts" not all.

But hey, this is the news! They don't have to get the facts right.

EDIT:

Here's the breakdown...

Breakdown of Counts
# Guilty on 12 of 15 counts mail/wire fraud
# Not Guilty on 1 count attempted extortion
# Guilty on 2 of 6 counts corrupt solicitation
# Guilty on 2 counts money laundering

Updated On: 6/4/08 at 05:03 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 5:07pm

16 out of 24 counts to be exact.

As Hillary Clinton might put "he has been completely exonerated, found not guilty on more counts, by more jurors than any defendant in American History."

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 5:09pm

LOL.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 5:58pm

Ya gotta love Chicago politics.

According to Salon, Rezko took money from the government for affordable housing in minority communities, took his fee off the top, and then either never built the housing or built substandard units that left primarily African-American residents without heat, in "squalid conditions," surrounded by squatters and drug dealers.

Then when Obama was running for State Senate...

Oh, never mind. Obama himself called the shady land deal "boneheaded."
How close were Barack Obama and Tony Rezko?

[DG]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 6:11pm

"The national media, they tend to overlook that Obama is a regular Cook County Democrat," Merriner says. "Maybe he's a cut above, but he's still an Illinois politician."

This campaign is going to get very, very ugly. The old boy's club isn't going to hand over the keys easily.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 6:27pm

From the Salon article:

===

Obama, on the other hand, seems to have derived some material benefit from his friendship with Rezko. During his first year in the Senate, flush with the book advance for "The Audacity of Hope," Obama and his wife decided to trade up from a condo to a bigger, more secure home in Kenwood, a South Side neighborhood of turreted, balconied piles popular with University of Chicago econ professors looking to blow their Nobel Prize loot.

They found a $1.65 million house with four fireplaces, a wine cellar and a black wrought-iron fence. The doctor who lived there also owned the vacant lot next door and, although the properties were listed separately, wanted to sell both at the same time.

Despite their new income, the Obamas could not have afforded both parcels. The Obamas closed on their house in June 2005. On the same day, Rezko's wife, Rita, purchased the vacant lot for $625,000.

They later sold a portion of the lot to the Obamas, for $104,500, so the family could expand its yard. The Rezkos then paid $14,000 to build a fence along the property line.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 6:50pm

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

===

The building in Englewood was one of 30 Rezmar rehabbed in a series of troubled deals largely financed by taxpayers. Every project ran into financial difficulty. More than half went into foreclosure, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.

"Their buildings were falling apart,' said a former city official. "They just didn't pay attention to the condition of these buildings.'

Eleven of Rezko's buildings were in Obama's state Senate district....

Rezko and Mahru had no construction experience when they created Rezmar in 1989 to rehabilitate apartments for the poor under the Daley administration. Between 1989 and 1998, Rezmar made deals to rehab 30 buildings, a total of 1,025 apartments. The last 15 buildings involved Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland during Obama's time with the firm.

Rezko and Mahru also managed the buildings, which were supposed to provide homes for poor people for 30 years. Every one of the projects ran into trouble:

* Seventeen buildings -- many beset with code violations, including a lack of heat -- ended up in foreclosure.

* Six buildings are currently boarded up.

* Hundreds of the apartments are vacant, in need of major repairs.

* Taxpayers have been stuck with millions in unpaid loans.

* At least a dozen times, the city of Chicago sued Rezmar for failure to heat buildings.
Obama and his Rezko ties

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 6:50pm

Wow. I guess I never really thought how that might look. He seems sort of tainted by scandal. Do you think we made a mistake choosing him to be our standard bearer? Maybe it's good that Clinton is still in the race- can we get her instead? I think we need a candidate untainted by a hint of inpropriety.

After all, where there is smoke, there is fire.
Updated On: 6/4/08 at 06:50 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 6:52pm

Most of Clinton's involvement in the Whitewater scandal took place while Clinton was governor of Arkansas. Whitewater is the name given to the alleged banking and real estate scandals of Clinton and his friends. After money loss and a failed real estate venture, an illegal method to recover the losses was conceived. The scandal involves Clinton allegedly pressuring Arkansas Small Business Administration (SBA) worker David Hale into making an SBA loan to Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan. The money from the loan was then funneled out with cashier checks and personal accounts (many under false names) to pay for Clinton's debts from the failed Whitewater land project. In other words, tax dollars bailed Bill and Hillary out of a financial crisis after illegal means were used to acquire them.

The President's friends and land deal associates, Fmr. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and Jim and Susan McDougal, who were involved in Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan and the Whitewater land deal, were recently convicted for their involvement in the scandal. Subpoenaed billing records of the Rose Law Firm, which Hillary Clinton worked for and which is involved in Whitewater, mysteriously showed up in the White House in January 1996. Among the finger prints on these records were those of Hillary Clinton. While this case has been open for several years, facts are still being revealed. President Clinton testified on behalf of his convicted friends during their trial. After countless trials and hearings, Susan McDougal refuses to speak on the issue, though a bailout check signed by her, and with Clinton mentioned on it, has been displayed as evidence Mysteriously, few reasons exist for her to remain silent except what many allege to be pressure and/or threats from Bill Clinton. This scandal is still under investigation. Over a dozen convictions have come from it thus far.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 6:53pm

Cattlegate:
This scandal involves Hillary's investment of approximately $1,000 in cattle futures. Not much later $100,000 had been "earned." In other words, Hillary invested a small amount of money and made a several thousand percent profit from it under very questionable circumstances.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 6:53pm

Travelgate:
The Clintons fired seven white house travel office employees in favor of hire cousins and friends. The employees were lifelong employees in good standing. After stating no other reason for the firings than the employees were viewed as disloyal to the administration, officials began to question the White House. Soon after the firings were questioned, the White House allegedly used the FBI to investigate the employees then attempted to ruin the worker's reputation by making the fact of an FBI investigation public. Travel employees ended up spending their life savings defending themselves in court against the false charges. Further investigation revealed that former travel office chief Billy Dale's FBI file was among the nine hundred plus requested files of Filegate.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 6:54pm

Filegate:
This Clinton scandal involves the discovery of over 900 Republican FBI files in the White House. Files of former Secretary of State James Baker, former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, and Newt Gingrich's spokesman Tony Blankley were found to be on this list. Upon the discovery of these files, the White House issued an excuse claiming that the files were mistakenly requested by a White House employee working with an outdated list. They were called a simple "snafu." Investigations into Filegate revealed that not a common White House worker but the President's friend and close advisor, Anthony Marceca, had requested the files. When the presidency starts illegally compiling an enemies list it is a sure sign he is not fit to serve office and that, just maybe, a crime has been committed.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 6:54pm

Paula Jonesgate:
Paula Jones sued Bill Clinton after alleging he exposed himself to her in an Arkansas hotel room. After inviting her to what was supposed to be a promotion. Jones claims she was pressured by Clinton as he made advances on her. Though the administration has fought the entire way, refusing to cooperate with investigation while constantly attacking Jones's credibility, the case has been successful in revealing many more scandals of the Clinton presidency. Although the case was thrown out recently, it was successful in uncovering several other of Clinton's affairs as well as declaring that the president is not above the law (supreme court). More may come of this one with an appeal. Now that the Supreme Court has specifically defined sexual harassment, the Jones case has a good chance of coming back! Clinton has also become the first US president cited for contempt of court. His testimony under oath was ruled as both false and designed to be evasive and obstruct the course of the Paula Jones case. Clinton faces being disbarred and a potential of over a million dollars in fines due to this contempt charge.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 6:55pm

The Chicago Sun-Times goes on:

Obama, who has worked as a lawyer and a legislator to improve living conditions for the poor, took campaign donations from Rezko even as Rezko's low-income housing empire was collapsing, leaving many African-American families in buildings riddled with problems -- including squalid living conditions, vacant apartments, lack of heat, squatters and drug dealers.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 6:56pm

I won't bother to post the other 37 "Gates" on this right wing smear site.


The Clinton Scandals

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 7:00pm

I guess you're right, Joe. Barack was just being "boneheaded" again. LOL! LOL!

After all, he only worked at Rezko's law firm and had Rezko throw huge fundraisers for his early campaigns.

I mean, it's not like he KNEW Rezko was ripping off and victimizing the poor black residents of his district, did he?

It was just BONHEADED to let Mrs Rezko help them buy their dream-house property. It was just BONHEADED, that's all.

Right?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 8:30pm

What ya got? Contributions (Which have since been donated to charity) and a "sweetheart" land deal that involved Rezko buying the lot across the street from is own home and selling a slice of it to the Obamas for market value?

If you were a Kucinich supporter then maybe I could see you playing holier than thou but really....Hillary can raise $300K from chinese restaurant busboys before I could finish typing this sentence.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 8:33pm

if i had time i'd go tally up all the times bammy's said "that's not the person that i knew" about someone with whom he's been tight over the years who has turned out to be corrupt or insane.

and this is the guy y'all want to talk to imadinjnerjacket without preconditions? or chavez? or bashir assad? or whoever putin decides to send? i don't know about you but i'm taking an arabic class and brushing up on my hs spanish on the off chance that he actually wins this thing. we'll be more f*cked than victoria givens was at #79.

Updated On: 6/4/08 at 08:33 PM

[cubanpab]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 8:50pm

real classy thread pal... great way to unite folks and show some class.

i should have expected no less.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 8:59pm

I understand why this thread became an Obama scandals vs Hillary scandals, but that pointless now. Let's make it an Obama scandals vs McCain scandals thread. That's much more relevant and productive.

The Republicans have started in. Its time to focus on them instead of each other.

[madbrian]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 9:06pm

My understanding is that there is nothing new here with respect to Obama. It will rehash his ties to this guy, but that was discussed months ago. It will give Sean Hannity another name to keep repeating every night.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 10:14pm

Hey cubanpab--why bash me? I'm an Obama supporter, have been ever since North Carolina.

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 11:36pm

Watch this wash over him like the waves over the shore......

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 11:45pm

It will wash over him because there's nothing or because he's this year's Teflon...like Bush was?