Rahm Emanuel, Obama's Chief of Staff, Wields Power Freely, and Faces the Risks (eerily perfect)

BACKSTORY At a Little Rock restaurant, after Mr. Clinton was elected president, Emanuel ticked off a list of disloyal Democrats and other political enemies, stabs the table with his knife screaming, ''Dead!'' ''Dead!'' ''Dead!'' after each name.

Seven months after moving into the West Wing as Obama's COS, Emanuel is emerging as perhaps the most influential White House COS in a generation. But with his prominence in almost everything important going on comes a high degree of risk.

As the principal author of Mr. Obama’s do-everything-at-once strategy, he stands to become a figure of consequence in his own right if the administration stabilizes the economy and financial markets, overhauls the health care system and winds down one war while successfully prosecuting another.

If things do not go well — and right now Mr. Obama’s political popularity is declining, his health care legislation is under conservative assault, the budget deficit is at an eye-popping level and Afghanistan remains volatile — it is Mr. Emanuel whose job will be on the line before Mr. Obama’s.

.......it seems as if Mr. Emanuel is White House chief of staff, political director, legislative director and communications director all rolled into one. He has fingers in almost every decision, like who gets invited to social events at the White House and how to shape economic and foreign policy. He carries a notecard in his pocket with a list of things to accomplish and marks them off obsessively. He requires cabinet secretaries and all West Wing departments to submit written reports each week and returns them with terse notes in the margins.

As negotiations intensified on health care recently, he was a constant presence on Capitol Hill — one day alone, he was there 8.5 hours before returning to the White House to tend to other duties.

An amazing career---Rahm's straight-up trajectory---and he did it all by himself (snicker). In between Rahm's career choices, he won a coveted scholarship to the prestigious Joffrey School of Ballet......he was that good in a tutu.

This guy Rahm is so perfect---he's downright scary---and he wasn't even voted Most Likely To Succeed. Course Rahm WAS voted "Mr Perfection" by Democrats looking for donations from financial outfits.

HOW RAHM ROSE TO THE TOP

"Mr Perfection" resigned his position as an advisor to Bill Clinton, in 1998 to become a Wall Street investment banker with Wasserstein Perella, (now Dresdner Kleinwort), where he worked until 2002. In 1999, "Mr Perfection" became managing director at their Chicago office. According to Congressional disclosures, Emanuel made $16.2 million in his 2 1/2 year stint as a banker. Amazingly, "Mr Perfection" became a multi-millioniare overnight----and he wasn't even voted "Most Likely To Succeed." (snicker). At Wasserstein Perella, Mr Perfection worked on eight deals, including the acquisition by Commonwealth Edison of Peco Energy and the purchase by GTCR Golder Rauner of the ecurityLink home security unit from SBC.

He then ran for Congress (succesfully, of course); luckily members of the securities and investment industry became his biggest backers, donating more than $1.5M to his campaigns dating back to 2002, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Mr Perfection also leaned heavily upon the industry as 2006 Dem Congressional Campaign Committee Chair. Financial industry donors contributed more than $5.8M to the Dem committee, behind only retirees.

Pres Bill Clinton in 2000 named Mr Perfection Emanuel to the Board of Directors for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac"). Rahm's position paid him $31,060 in 2000 and $231,655 in 2001. During the time Emanuel spent on the board, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandals involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) later accused the board of having "failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention." Emanuel resigned from the board in 2001 when he ran for Congress.

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QUESTION Did Rahm fillout the 63-count seven-page personnel application Obama gave to potential appointees? If so, how did Rahm outline his ties to financial institutions involved in the federal bailout? His activities on the Freddie Mac Board? Did Rahm ever know (and email) Madoff? Was Rahm involved in Clinton's pardon of tax cheat Marc Rich?

Many Americans fear we are witnessing the emergence of a new government dictatorship...on American soil. History tells us that rampant corruption, fed by cronyism, are the nuts and bolts of dictatorships. Dictatorships are almost always governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect each other from accountability.

CASE IN POINT --- HERE'S WHAT OBAMA SAID Obama "said" in re the FOIA memo, “The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.” Obama added later that “In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies (agencies) should act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public.”

HERE'S WHAT OBAMA DID Freddie Mac records exempt from FOIA (Obama Admin Denies Request)
Sunlight Foundation | 03/26/2009 | Bill Allison
FR Posted 03/27/2009 by BuckeyeTexan

Journalists Bob Secter and Andrew Zajac of the Chicago Tribune report that, while researching what went at Freddie Mac during the period White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel served on the government sponsored enterprise’s board of directors, they were unable to get minutes of board meetings and other information. The Obama administration rejected a Tribune request under the Freedom of Information Act to review Freddie Mac board minutes and correspondence during Emanuel’s time as a director.

The documents, obtained by Falcon for his investigation, were “commercial information” exempt from disclosure, according to a lawyer for the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Freddie Mac executives cooked the books, mismanaged the firm, and ultimately drove it into the ground, costing taxpayers billions of dollars. The “commercial information” exemption is reserved for private companies–Freddie Mac is by no means a private company anymore.

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BACKSTORY Rahm Emanuel was director when Freddie Mac board was tipped to fraudulent BONUS schemes. "On (Rahm) Emanuel's watch, the board was told by executives of a plan to use accounting tricks to mislead shareholders about outsize profits the government-chartered firm was then reaping from risky investments. The goal was to push earnings onto the books in future years, ensuring that Freddie Mac would appear profitable on paper for years to come and helping maximize annual bonuses for company brass.

The accounting scandal wasn't the only one that brewed during Emanuel's tenure. During his brief time on the board, the company hatched a plan to enhance its political muscle. That scheme, also reviewed by the board, led to a record $3.8 million fine from the Federal Election Commission for illegally using corporate resources to host fundraisers for politicians. Emanuel was the beneficiary of one of those parties after he left the board and ran in 2002 for a seat in Congress from the North Side of Chicago.

The board was throttled for its acquiescence to the accounting manipulation in a 2003 report by Armando Falcon Jr., head of a federal oversight agency for Freddie Mac. The scandal forced Freddie Mac to restate $5 billion in earnings and pay $585 million in fines and legal settlements.

It also foreshadowed even harder times at the firm. Many of those same risky investment practices tied to the accounting scandal eventually brought the firm to the brink of insolvency and led to its seizure last year by the Bush administration, which pledged to inject up to $100 billion in new capital to keep the firm afloat. The Obama administration has doubled that commitment."

“As the principal author of Mr. Obama’s do-everything-at-once strategy, he stands to become a figure of consequence in his own right if the administration stabilizes the economy and financial markets, overhauls the health care system and winds down one war while successfully prosecuting another.

We should all thank Mr. Emanuel for pushing is “do everything at once” agenda. (Although even with their appetite for power they didn’t try ‘illegal immigration reform’ at the same time as the rest of this mess.)

0bama and his team have indeed successfully awakened a sleeping giant. They won’t enjoy the results.

COS Rahm Emanuel is a dual Israeli-American citizen. His father was an Israeli who was part of the underground resistance movement under the British Mandate.

FRIGHTENING STATEMENT Obama has stated that Rahm tells him "everything he needs to know about Israel." Rham has been trained to organize a civilian security force as a volunteer for “Sar’el”——the three-week Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) training program to train civilians.

CIRCA 1991 Rahm volunteered for “Sar’el”——a three-week Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) training program (like US boot camp) where civilians are trained to assist the Israeli military. Civilians like Rahm lived on an IDF military base to get the proper training. A civilian volunteer, Rahm assisted the IDF during the 1991 Gulf War, repairing truck brakes in one of Israel’s northern bases.

NOTE WELL Pres Obama campaigned on installing a “Civilian Security Force” on US soil. Dual citizen Rahm surely got the top White House job as Obama’s COS based on his Israeli training on how to organize a “Civilian Security Force.” Looking at ACORN’s activities, and the BILLIONS Obama has given them, ACORN is primed for (and is already acting as) a “Civilian Security Force.”

Course if Rahm was paid (or is now being paid) by a foreign government and/or the military, that would negate his American citizenship (US citizens forfeit their citizenship when they serve in the military of a foreign government).

We need to determine: (1) if dual citizens can legally serve in the US government and make policy for US citizens. (2) We need to see Rahm's emails and cell phone records to determine if he is taking orders from foreign governments and/or their military personnel.

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