See post early in thread for ties between BHO, Washington and CPUSA.
Posted on 12/19/2008 12:25:19 AM PST by hoosiermama
Edited on 02/09/2012 7:04:21 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Crime in Chicago has been in the news lately, but it is nothing new. Historically it dates back over a hundred years. From the tale of the Gray Wolves
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/540.html
The 1890s Chicago City Council was notorious for corrupt political practices orchestrated by a faction of its aldermen known as the Gray Wolves. So named because they were viewed as preying upon the defenseless public, the Gray Wolves were led by First Ward aldermen “Bathhouse” John Coughlin and “Hinky Dink” Mike Kenna, and Johnny Powers of the Nineteenth Ward. These elected officials were not only skilled at trading votes for favors, but once in office they excelled in making municipal decisions to profit themselves financially.
TO the present, it is a compelling historical subject.
“Please post links and information, or connections of dots to this thread. Keep chit chat to the minimum or in Freemail. THANKS!”
PART I: Obama, Blan-o, Eric WHitaker health care ties :
PART II: Obama, Martin Nesbitt real estate ties.
From:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/10/obamas_pal_eric_whitaker_his_t.html
By the Sun-Times Watchdog team
Dr. Eric Whitaker and Sen. Barack Obama go way back.
Their friendship began when they were graduate students at Harvard University. Now, Whitaker is one of Obama’s closest advisers.
Whitaker, 43, of Chicago, often travels with the presidential hopeful on the campaign trail and has vacationed with him in Hawaii. There’s talk Whitaker could be in line for a federal appointment if Obama becomes president.
Five years ago, Obama, then an Illinois state senator, gave a “glowing’’ reference for Whitaker to Tony Rezko, the now-convicted political fixer who helped Gov. Blagojevich find people to run state agencies. Blagojevich hired Whitaker to be the state’s public health director.
Obama has said that’s the only time he can recall talking to Rezko — who was a major campaign fund-raiser for him and for Blagojevich — about getting anyone a state job.
.....
Whitaker had been a rising star at Cook County’s Stroger Hospital, known for a program he created that went to barbershops to educate black men on preventive care.
“I did not seek any position and was stunned when I was asked to interview for the IDPH director position,” Whitaker, who declined an interview request, said in a written response to questions. “My first encounter with Tony Rezko was when he called and told me to come in for an interview approximately one week after I had already been interviewed’’ by three other Blagojevich advisers.
As state health chief, Whitaker spent millions on programs that used churches to educate minorities about AIDS, breast cancer and preparing for public health emergencies, a program hailed nationwide.
.....
Whitaker left the state payroll a year ago and joined Obama’s wife Michelle as a high-ranking executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center. When he was hired, U. of C. was seeking permission to expand its children’s hospital — one of five expansions the university sought from the state while Whitaker was health director. All were approved by the planning board. Whitaker and the U. of C. said he had nothing to do with those approvals.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ANY OF THESE NAMES RING A BELL?
Martin Nesbitt
Martin Nesbitt lives and/or works in Chicago, IL
Nickname: Marty
Martin Nesbitt personal relations:
Anita Blanchard - spouse
Barack Obama - friend
Craig M. Robinson - friend
Other current Martin Nesbitt relationships:
Chicago (IL) Housing Authority - chairman
Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art - trustee
Muckety List of Most Networked in Chicago, 2008 - in top 100
PRG Parking Management - president
Pritzker Realty Group - VP
Martin Nesbitt past relationships:2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign - fundraiser
LaSalle Partners - partner
Related to above...
FROM:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/13/AR2008071301904_pf.html
...Michelle, for the flight from Chicago to St. Paul, Minn., were half a dozen of their closest friends, a biracial cross section of the city’s business and professional elite: Martin Nesbitt, a parking lot magnate; Valerie Jarrett, a prominent businesswoman; Eric Whitaker, an executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center; and John Rogers, the founder of an investment fund...
...Some were mainly social friends from Hyde Park, their Chicago neighborhood. Some have played a major role in Obama’s campaign, including Penny Pritzker, a billionaire Hyatt hotel heiress and Obama’s national fundraising chairman; James Crown, son of Chicago billionaire Lester Crown and another prominent member of the local Jewish community; and David Axelrod, who has been Obama’s Chicago-based political adviser and confidant since his U.S. Senate campaign in 2004.
...Whitaker founded “Project Brotherhood,” a barbershop-based program aimed at improving the health of black men, and served as a senior physician at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital, now known as John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital
...Another important group in Obama’s life consists of the Chicago progressives who have mentored him throughout his career. The leader of this group is Abner J. Mikva, a retired federal judge, White House counsel and congressman from Chicago who has known Obama for 20 years, and who often is described as a father figure to the senator.
...Mikva has quietly helped guide Obama since his Harvard Law School days. He encouraged his political aspirations, was an early advocate of his presidential run and has pulled numerous strings to help to ease the candidate’s path....
///As the stakes get higher, Obama’s friends have grown more cautious and protective — and in some cases have attracted controversy. Whitaker’s name surfaced as part of the scandal involving longtime Obama fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko, because Obama had recommended his shy and studious friend to Rezko for a state job. The exchange took place after Rod Blagojevich was elected Illinois governor, and Whitaker applied for the head job at the state Public Health Department.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Lot more names and informaiton at link.
...
From:
A person I would like to talk to;
Gus Moros
Current Owner at DS3 Computer Solutions, Inc
Computer Consultant at Classic Residence by Hyatt
Past Computer Tech at Pritzker Realty Group
Computer Tech at PRG Parking Management, LLC (The Parking Spot)
Education University of Illinois at Chicago
Starwise thread on missing KHQU story of meeting between BO and BLank-O. Names names at station....etc.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2155829/posts
Lots of good information tying dots together....more information than room will follow with a link explaining how ACORN worked....See next post.
From:
...First, let’s start with the Superior Bank in Chicago. That bank failed directly under the control of Penny Pritzker. She is Obama’s Campaign Finance Chairman and has been instrumental in raising millions for his campaign. The regulators closed Superior Bank in 2001 because of a vast number of sub-prime mortgage loans. She took over a failed savings and loan in 1988 and it was renamed Superior Bank. ...
...Superior Bank was very active in the sub-prime lending and no doubt, Obama knew exactly who Penny Pritzker was and her involvement in the ACORN sponsored lending practices
...Remember the name Quintin E. Primo III, as he is CEO of Capri Capital in Chicago. Capri Capital will reemerge later in this article as they have direct ties to Obama, Pritzker, and also direct ties to Rezko.
Excellent article(s) tying BO, Acorn, Rezko etc together see post above also.
From:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09292008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/os_dangerous_pals_131216.htm?page=0
THE seeds of today’s financial meltdown lie in the Commu nity Reinvestment Act - a law passed in 1977 and made riskier by unwise amendments and regulatory rulings in later decades.
...
Any bank that wants to expand or merge with another has to show it has complied with CRA - and approval can be held up by complaints filed by groups like ACORN.
In fact, intimidation tactics, public charges of racism and threats to use CRA to block business expansion have enabled ACORN to extract hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and contributions from America’s financial institutions.
Banks already overexposed by these shaky loans were pushed still further in the wrong direction when government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac began buying up their bad loans and offering them for sale on world markets.
...
ONE key pioneer of ACORN’s subprime-loan shakedown racket was Madeline Talbott - an activist with extensive ties to Barack Obama. She was also in on the ground floor of the disastrous turn in Fannie Mae’s mortgage policies.
Long the director of Chicago ACORN, Talbott is a specialist in “direct action” - organizers’ term for their militant tactics of intimidation and disruption. Perhaps her most famous stunt was leading a group of ACORN protesters breaking into a meeting of the Chicago City Council to push for a “living wage” law, shouting in defiance as she was arrested for mob action and disorderly conduct. But her real legacy may be her drive to push banks into making risky mortgage loans.
In February 1990, Illinois regulators held what was believed to be the first-ever state hearing to consider blocking a thrift merger for lack of compliance with CRA. The challenge was filed by ACORN, led by Talbott. Officials of Bell Federal Savings and Loan Association, her target, complained that ACORN pressure was undermining its ability to meet strict financial requirements it was obligated to uphold and protested being boxed into an “affirmative-action lending policy.” The following years saw Talbott featured in dozens of news stories about pressuring banks into higher-risk minority loans.
IN April 1992, Talbott filed an other precedent-setting com plaint using the “community support requirements” of the 1989 savings-and-loan bailout, this time against Avondale Federal Bank for Savings. Within a month, Chicago ACORN had organized its first “bank fair” at Malcolm X College and found 16 Chicago-area financial institutions willing to participate.
Two months later, aided by ACORN organizer Sandra Maxwell, Talbott announced plans to conduct demonstrations in the lobbies of area banks that refused to attend an ACORN-sponsored national bank “summit” in New York. She insisted that banks show a commitment to minority lending by lowering their standards on downpayments and underwriting - for example, by overlooking bad credit histories.
By September 1992, The Chicago Tribune was describing Talbott’s program as “affirma- tive-action lending” and ACORN was issuing fact sheets bragging about relaxations of credit standards that it had won on behalf of minorities.
And Talbott continued her effort to, as she put it, drag banks “kicking and screaming” into high-risk loans. A September 1993 story in The Chicago Sun-Times presents her as the leader of an initiative in which five area financial institutions (including two of her former targets, now plainly cowed - Bell Federal Savings and Avondale Federal Savings) were “participating in a $55 million national pilot program with affordable-housing group ACORN to make mortgages for low- and moderate-income people with troubled credit histories.”
What made this program different from others, the paper added, was the participation of Fannie Mae - which had agreed to buy up the loans. “If this pilot program works,” crowed Talbott, “it will send a message to the lending community that it’s OK to make these kind of loans.”
Well, the pilot program “worked,” and Fannie Mae’s message that risky loans to minorities were “OK” was sent. The rest is financial-meltdown history.
IT would be tough to find an “on the ground” community organizer more closely tied to the subprime-mortgage fiasco than Madeline Talbott. And no one has been more supportive of Madeline Talbott than Barack Obama.
When Obama was just a budding community organizer in Chicago, Talbott was so impressed that she asked him to train her personal staff.
He returned to Chicago in the early ‘90s, just as Talbott was starting her pressure campaign on local banks. Chicago ACORN sought out Obama’s legal services for a “motor voter” case and partnered with him on his 1992 “Project VOTE” registration drive.
In those years, he also conducted leadership-training seminars for ACORN’s up-and-coming organizers. That is, Obama was training the army of ACORN organizers who participated in Madeline Talbott’s drive against Chicago’s banks.
More than that, Obama was funding them. As he rose to a leadership role at Chicago’s Woods Fund, he became the most powerful voice on the foundation’s board for supporting ACORN and other community organizers. In 1995, the Woods Fund substantially expanded its funding of community organizers - and Obama chaired the committee that urged and managed the shift.
That committee’s report on strategies for funding groups like ACORN features all the key names in Obama’s organizer network. The report quotes Talbott more than any other figure; Sandra Maxwell, Talbott’s ACORN ally in the bank battle, was also among the organizers consulted.
MORE, the Obama-supervised Woods Fund report ac knowledges the problem of getting donors and foundations to contribute to radical groups like ACORN - whose confrontational tactics often scare off even liberal donors and foundations.
Indeed, the report brags about pulling the wool over the public’s eye. The Woods Fund’s claim to be “nonideological,” it says, has “enabled the Trustees to make grants to organizations that use confrontational tactics against the business and government ‘establishments’ without undue risk of being criticized for partisanship.”
Hmm. Radicalism disguised by a claim to be postideological. Sound familiar?
The Woods Fund report makes it clear Obama was fully aware of the intimidation tactics used by ACORN’s Madeline Talbott in her pioneering efforts to force banks to suspend their usual credit standards. Yet he supported Talbott in every conceivable way. He trained her personal staff and other aspiring ACORN leaders, he consulted with her extensively, and he arranged a major boost in foundation funding for her efforts.
And, as the leader of another charity, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, Obama channeled more funding Talbott’s way - ostensibly for education projects but surely supportive of ACORN’s overall efforts.
In return, Talbott proudly announced her support of Obama’s first campaign for state Senate, saying, “We accept and respect him as a kindred spirit, a fellow organizer.”
IN short, to understand the roots of the subprime-mort gage crisis, look to ACORN’s Madeline Talbott. And to see how Talbott was able to work her mischief, look to Barack Obama.
Then you’ll truly know what community organizers do.
Stolen for the CHicago crime thread...It’s the chicago way! BTW earlier post says Washington and his ties to CPUSA was the reason BO came to CHicago in the first place.
To: STARWISE; ETL
Jarrett was fanatical about African Americans registering and voting in mass for socially conscious candidates. He championed Harold Washington like a great warrior, and this March, from his hospital bed, wrote an article appealing to Black Chicago to turn out to vote for Barack Obama in the Illinois primaries. Obama astounded everyone with an incredible landslide victory as the progressive, Black candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. From his sickbed, Vernon Jarrett issued a clarion call, and the people responded.
I think Black Chicago was passionately in love with Vernon Jarrett...His unrelenting drive kept us reminded of a sense of purpose and helped to instill the courage of our convictions in struggle as a people. We will forever be indebted; we will never forget.
Indeed, Vernon Jarrett’s legacy is far from forgotten. Much of it lives on in the work of his daughter-in-law Valerie Jarrett.
from...
http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-file-38-barack-obama-frank.html
above link thanks to FReeper ETL’s fantastic homepage.
24 posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 8:47:41 AM by PGalt
Excellent thread by Starwise contains much information on Jarret and Rahm-E by various posters and a very good article to boot.
Obama Aides Hire Defense Counsel for Blagojevich Probe (Emanuel, Jarrett)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2156010/posts
For further reference
Burris: Counsel to the law firm of Gonzalez, Saggio and Harlan, L.L.C.
Burris began his career in 1963 as a national bank examiner for the U.S. Treasury Department. This gave him the honor of being the first African American to examine banks in the United States. From 1964 to 1973, he served as vice president of Continental Illinois National Bank, making significant contacts in both the corporate and African American communities.
Side note:
“Obama endorsed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris. But after Blagojevich won, Obama came around enthusiastically...”
More on Burris (see last two posts too)
Paul Vallas could be Governor of Illinois today had Roland Burris, former State AG and comptroller, entered the 2002 Dem primary race in a totally futile bid which many think was not discouraged by the forces of Gov. Rod “Public Official A” Blagojevich. Burris, old-school African-American, pulled both black and liberal voters away from Vallas in numbers just sufficient to give the mile-wide/inch-deep Blagojevich the nomination. Barack Obama? He supported Burris.
Burris has gone on to receive over $1 million in no-bid, low-effort “consulting” contracts from Illinois State agencies under the Governor’s control as well as a $5000/month “retainer” from Loop Capital, headed by BHO homie Jim Reynolds.
Approximately 1990:
Jim Reynolds, owner of a Watseka horse farm, is the head of a reorganized division that includes the Illinois and DuQuoin state fairs, county fairs, horse racing and marketing and promotion.
By the GOv appointment,Roland Burris leading to Reynolds...is Blank-O making a statement to Fitz? Follow the yellow brink-load...
More on Reynolds.
Facts About Me and Barack
“”Jim And Barack Are Very Close Friends And Have Been For A Long Time,’ Said Leslie Bond, A Chicago Money Manager And Obama Fundraiser.” (Ken Dilanian and Matt Kelley, “Fundraisers Linked To Corruption Cases,” USA Today, 10/16/08)
FROM:
http://www.barackbook.com/Profiles/JamesReynoldsJr.htm
“In 2003, James Reynolds, A Chicago Investment Banker Who Is A Member Of Obama’s National Finance Committee, Was Recorded On FBI Wiretaps Arranging What Prosecutors Said Was A “Sham’ Consulting Contract With A Woman They Called The “Paramour’ Of A Mayoral Adviser In Philadelphia. His Firm Later Won $300,000 Worth Of City Contracts.” (Ken Dilanian and Matt Kelley, “Fundraisers Linked To Corruption Cases,” USA Today, 10/16/08)
“Loop Was Awarded Two No-Bid Contracts Worth Nearly $300,000, According To A Later Indictment Of Philadelphia City Treasurer Corey Kemp. Reynolds Agreed To Pay $30,000 To A Shell Company Controlled By White’s Paramour, Janice Knight, According To Court Records. “I’ll Keep You Out Of It,’ Reynolds Told White In An April 2003 Conversation Recorded By The FBI.” (Ken Dilanian and Matt Kelley, “Fundraisers Linked To Corruption Cases,” USA Today, 10/16/08)
Much more at link.
More n Burris
LABORERS (LIUNA)
Mob-Infested Chicago Local Suggests Ex-AG as Temporary Supervisor
Reeling from the expulsion of three organized crime members from its hierarchy, the new president of a Chicago Laborers union has asked that a frmr. state attny. general be appointed to oversee the union. But with Roland Burris having been a character witness for a Teamster expelled from office for associating with organized crime, it remains an open question whether Burris will be approved...
...This is not Burris’s first involvement with allegedly corrupt unions. While serving as attny. gen. in 1994, Burris was a character witness for Robert T. Simpson Jr., frmr. pres. of Intl. Bhd. of Teamsters (IBT) Local 743. In spite of that testimony, the fed. Independent Rev. Bd. (IRB) ruled that Simpson had allowed Donald Peters to continue his influence of the Chicago local after Peters had agreed to have nothing to do with the union. Peters was named as a defendant in the 1988 fed. racketeering lawsuit against the IBT.
Stole your post (it’s the Chicago way)...Trying to keep everything together for later reference...Good information. Please feel free to add anything else you find to this thread also. Thanks
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Interesting to look at the background of Burris business partner Fred Lebed, who appears to be well connected to Gov. Blago and was former Exec. Director of Cook County Democratic Party (Lebed is listed after Burris, they are the only two principals of this consulting firm):
http://www.burrislebed.com/partners.html
Executive Management Team
Roland W. Burris:
# Served as Illinois’ State Comptroller for three unprecendented terms
# Served as Illinois’ Attorney General for one term
# Served in Governor’s Cabinet as Director of the Illinois Deparment of Central Management Services
# Currently Of-Counsel to the Burris, Wright, Slaughter, and Tom Law firm, LLC.
# Former Managing Partner of Jones, Ware & Grenard Law firm
# Former Of-Counsel to the Bufford & Peters Law Firm, LLC.
# Former President of the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers, and Treasurers
# Former Executive Board Member of Government Finance Officers
# Former Chair of the Civil Rights Committee of the National Association of Attorneys Generals
# Former Trustee of the Financial Accounting Foundation Board
# Former Board Director of the Illinois CPA Society
# Served as Vice Chair of Governor Blagojevich Transition Team
Fred G. Lebed:
# Served as Co-Chair of the “Re-Engineering Government” Sub-Committee of Governor Blagojevich’s Transition Team
# Former Assistant to Illinois State Comptroller
# Former Assistant to Illinois Attorney General
# Served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs
# Served as Cook County Liquor Control Commissioner
# Served as Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee in 1985
# Managed more than a dozen Illinois campaigns
# Former Delegate to five Democratic National Conventions
# In 1996, served as Executive Director of Cook County Democratic Party.
# Served as President’s liason to Board of Commissioners.
81 posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 2:03:25 PM by Enchante
That’s great - it’s always good to consolidate info on FR for later reference. Thanks.
(No link)
Firm failed to report $25,000 political donation // Feds not informed of Loop Capital money that went to Dems
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Author: Frank Main
EXCERPTS
A politically connected Chicago investment banking firm failed to tell federal regulators about a $25,000 contribution to the Democratic Party of Illinois in 2002 — a violation of government rules, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Loop Capital Markets LLC is one of the financial companies under scrutiny in a political corruption case in Philadelphia.
(snip)
Possibility of penalties
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board and the SEC would not comment on whether Loop should face any penalties.
Asked about past SEC enforcement actions against companies for failing to disclose political contributions, a spokesman pointed to a $25,000 fine that the agency issued against Oklahoma securities dealer Allen W. Counts in 2003.
Loop and chief executive officer James Reynolds have handed out more than $130,000 in political contributions in Illinois since 1998, state records show. Over that period, the minority-owned firm has landed work in connection with billions of dollars of bond deals for the state of Illinois, the city of Chicago and other government agencies in Illinois.
Under the Blagojevich administration, Loop has earned $1.49 million in fees from bond work, over half of which was made in a $10 billion state pension deal. Loop recently became an adviser on the Chicago Skyway bond deal.
Under the limit
Loop’s donations to Gov. Blagojevich, former Gov. George Ryan and Mayor Daley did not have to be reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board because they were under a $250-per-election cycle limit, Simon said.
Reynolds contributed $26,000 to a fund for Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, but the company did not report that to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, either. The company does not think Jones is an “issuer official” who can directly affect whether Loop wins government business, Simon said.
Earlier this year, a federal indictment in Philadelphia referred to a “Company No. 4” sources have identified as Loop Capital Markets. Company No. 4 hired Philly attorney Ron White in 2003 to help the company win municipal bond deals in Pennsylvania, the document said.
Company No. 4’s chief executive officer agreed to funnel $5,000 a month to White through a shell company to disguise White’s influence, the indictment said. Loop was not accused of criminal activity. The case is set to go to trial next year.
Last year, Loop paid Burris & Lebed Consulting — the firm of powerbroker and former Illinois Attorney General Roland W. Burris — $5,000 a month to obtain municipal bond business here, records show.
http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=2481
Craig Robinson is Barack Obama’s Brother-in-Law ...
He worked in the 1990’s as a bond trader and became a vice president at Continental Bank for several years as well as vice president at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. He was also a managing director and partner at Loop Capital Markets, a minority-owned boutique investment banking firm.
See post early in thread for ties between BHO, Washington and CPUSA.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.