Free Republic

Many have wondered how ANYONE AS EXTREME AS Obama’S “Green Jobs Czar� Van Jones – a self-described “Communist� obsessed with racial conspiracy theories – could have been named to head a federal agency. David Horowitz described the radicalization of the Democratic Party as the appointment’s subtext. Closer to the fore, Jones owed his elevation to another new factor: the unparalleled influence of Valerie Jarrett. To call Jarrett a presidential adviser, even a close adviser, is misleading. She is an alter ego, an inner conscience, a touchstone of clarity for both President Obama and first lady Michelle. In the frenzy of...

As President Barack Obama on Thursday talked up the economic benefits from the wave of home refinancing sweeping the nation, a mortgage broker said he and First Lady Michelle Obama would likely do well to stand pat with the 30-year mortgage they have on their stately mansion in Chicago. *snip* The Obamas, however, do not need to worry about lowering their monthly expenses as much as most Americans, and their Washington housing is free. Back in Chicago, they have a mortgage locked in at 5.625 percent, compared with the current national average of about 4.87 for a standard home loan....

Hundreds of students have allegedly been beaten by teachers, coaches and staff at Chicago Public Schools. 2 Investigator Dave Savini continues his ongoing investigation involving the illegal use corporal punishment. SNIP An exclusive CBS 2 investigation discovered Treveon Martin is one of at least 818 Chicago Public School students, since 2003, to allege being battered by a teacher or an aide, coach, security guard, or even a principal. In most of those cases - 568 of them - Chicago Public School investigators determined the children were telling the truth. SNIP The 2 Investigators found reports of students beaten with broomsticks,...

January 21, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Almost from its inception, the Weather Underground [WU] was viewed with great concern by the FBI. As a result, the decision was made to place a high level informant within the group to help keeps tabs on its members' activities. That person was Larry Grathwohl, a Vietnam veteran and the only publicly identified FBI informant who succeeded in penetrating the Weather Underground, serving in that capacity from August 1969 until April 1970. Prior to his service in the FBI, he was a member of the Cincinnati Police force. PipeLineNews.org contacted...

MORAGA — The much-anticipated speech Wednesday by militant-turned-college-professor Bill Ayers at Saint Mary's College attracted nearly 600 people, many of them very clearly in diametrically opposite political camps. That figure does not count the roughly 200 people who loudly protested Ayers' appearance outside the packed Soda Center auditorium in an unparalleled level of interest in an academic lecture at this rural, private Catholic college. Inside, Ayers' 90-minute presentation drew jeers, boos and an emotional outburst from a woman who swore at him and left. He also received plenty of laughs and claps and even a few standing ovations from the...

President-elect getting a local bounce from his hairstyle By Darrell Smith Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009 It's medium-short, tapered at the end of the neckline; the hairline is natural, finished with shears. Ladies and gentlemen, the Obama cut, now appearing on heads from Washington, D.C., to Sacramento. "It's a custom cut, customized for him. I did create the cut. We simplified it and we called it the 'Obama,' " said Zariff, President-elect Barack Obama's barber and owner of Hyde Park Hair Salon and Barber Shop in Chicago. Zariff, who goes by one name, didn't have much time to talk. Even at...

I predicted it days after it happened: That the beloved and woefully incompetent terrorist Bill Ayers would join his fellow travelers at the Huffington Post blog. And so, this week, he's written some hilarious nonsense about education, using a kind of mental terrorism meant to blow your mind, but instead only blows. But what a great idea for the frustrated bomber inside all of us! I mean, let's say you're in a hurry and you need some nutty Marxist rhetoric to impress a co-ed from Brown, as well as advice on how to make a bomb! Wouldn't it be great...

ABOARD A U.S. AIR FORCE JET (Reuters) - Barack Obama is not afraid to admit it -- he got a little emotional before leaving Chicago for Washington where he will soon become the next president of the United States. "I've got to say that I choked up a little bit leaving my house today," said Obama, who will become the nation's first black president when he takes office on January 20.

Lawyer at firm where Democrat worked receives property tax bill An attorney for convicted fundraiser Tony Rezko is listed as the owner and taxpayer for Barack Obama's Chicago mansion, according to records obtained by WND. William Miceli is a lawyer at the Chicago law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, which also formerly employed Obama. The controversy began when a website called News and Commentary for Thinking People published a 48-page document that lists Miceli as the owner of the Obama home at 5046 S. Greenwood. Miner, Barnhill & Galland was Obama's employer when he did extensive legal work for Rezko,...

An attorney for convicted fundraiser Tony Rezko is listed as the owner and taxpayer for Barack Obama's Chicago mansion, according to records obtained by WND. William Miceli is a lawyer at the Chicago law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, which also formerly employed Obama. The controversy began when a website called News and Commentary for Thinking People published a 48-page document that lists Miceli as the owner of the Obama home at 5046 S. Greenwood. Miner, Barnhill & Galland was Obama's employer when he did extensive legal work for Rezko, who awaits sentencing after he was convicted in June of...

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he is not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing and plans to stay on the job. In his first official statement since his arrest on corruption charges last week, Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-Uh-vich) says he will fight until he takes his "last breath." ... The Democratic governor says he intends to "answer every allegation in a court of law."

Will the Blagojevich scandal damage the incoming Obama administration? Given Rod Blagojevich’s profane railings against Barack Obama, revealed on federal wiretaps, few observers believe — although none know for sure — that the Obama camp engaged in any pay-for-play dealings with the governor, and therefore few see any legal problems for Team Obama resulting from the criminal investigation. But that’s not the only way the incoming administration might be caught up in the Blagojevich affair. The probe is being conducted, after all, by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the man who prosecuted one of the most intensely investigated and politically-charged perjury-and-false-statements...

The Chicago Public Schools consistently ranks as one of the worst public school systems in the country. Despite much ballyhooed efforts at reform in recent years, little progress has been made. The man Chicago Mayor Richard Daley originally tapped to reform the schools, Paul Vallas, was thwarted http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jun/10/news/mn-8818 in his efforts by the powerful teachers' union, with the assistance of then-State Sen. Barack Obama and his terrorist buddy, William Ayers. Today, Barack Obama tapped the head of that school system, Arne Duncan, a fellow Hyde Park resident and basketball playmate of Obama's, to run the Department of Education. Duncan succeeded...

Against the backdrop of Chicago’s Wacker Drive, Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren stood and analyzed Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s most recent “pay-to-play” scheme, the auctioning of President-elect Barack Obama’s seat in the U.S. Senate. Absent from the analysis of Governor Blagojevich’s role as auctioneer was the governor’s involvement in an earlier scandal. That earlier story went generally untouched by the media — outside of Chicago — because it had a direct bearing on the character of then-presidential candidate and media darling Barack Obama. Now, numerous journalists have been captured before the camera’s lens wondering why U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald “prematurely”...

Patricia Blagojevich, wife of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was already facing scrutiny for real estate deals before her husband's arrest, sources say. U.S. prosecutors for several years had been investigating real estate sales involving Patricia "Patti" Blagojevich, a former residential real estate agent, before she was accused last week of helping her husband trade the vacant U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama for personal gain, the Chicago Tribune reported Sunday.Patti Blagojevich has had an eight-year working relationship with Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a once-influential developer and Blagojevich fundraiser who was found guilty this summer on influence-peddling charges, the newspaper said....

Relativity by E. M. Escher While researching an article about Obama's Chicago home-- about the circumstances surrounding who is the "owner", I happened across a bit of information: Obama's home has a Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac mortgage to the tune of $1,320,000. (Page 5 of Cook County Property Assessment Record) The information comes from the Cook County Clerk's office where the "owner" of the Obama home is listed as William Miceli, a former supervisor of Obama's when he worked at the David Law Firm. What's unusual about the Obama mortgage is that the upper limits of a Fannie Mae loan...

The story about Senator Obama’s house purchase is well known. On June 15, 2005, Barack and Michelle Obama closed on a new house in the historic Kenwood district of Chicago for $1,650,000, or $300,000 below the listed asking price. On the same day, Rita Rezko, the wife of Tony Rezko, closed on the adjacent vacant lot for $625,000, which was the full listed asking price. The Obamas subsequently purchased a 1,500-sqft strip of land from the Rezkos on January 11, 2006 for $104,166, increasing the side lot buffer between their properties. The media confronted Senator Obama about these transactions because...

America wanted change and we sure got it. We elected a politician who looked and sounded fresh and new and different (and don't forget "clean" as Senator Biden once remarked), and promised that magic word "change." Aren't we lucky? It appears that the change we got is that we've moved Chicago machine-style politics into the White House. We found out on Tuesday what that business model consists of- the good Governor of Illinois was arrested for allegedly trying to sell Barack Obama's United States Senate seat. Yes, I said sell Obama's seat to the highest bidder. It's nice to know...

<p>President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, refused to take questions from reporters this morning about whether he was the Obama “advisor” named in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.</p> <p>The complaint states Blagojevich wanted a promise of a high-level appointment or some other reward for Blagojevich in exchange for Blagojevich naming Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the U.S. Senate.</p>

Without explanation District Judge Amy St. Eve canceled her own deadlines for lawyers to file briefs on the upcoming sentencing of Antoin "Tony" Rezko. That name should sound familiar, as detailed in a Special Ticket Report the other day; he's the Illinois political fixer, real estate man and fundraiser with close connections to Obama, Blagojevich and other Chicago political clans who's unhappy in solitary and sought to advance his sentencing to Jan. 6 on 16 federal counts of fraud, money laundering and abetting bribery. (Obama was not implicated in that trial.)

A footnote to the 76-page criminal complaint and affidavit charging Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) with soliciting bribes confirms what has long been rumored -- that a former longtime friend and fundraiser for President-elect Barack Obama is talking to federal prosecutors in hopes of a reduced sentence. Antoin "Tony" Rezko's offer to provide authorities with evidence of others' wrongdoing is "not complete," and prosecutors are working to corroborate the claims he has made so far, the footnote said.

Sweet catch by Tapper, showing why he got that promotion. Obama today…“I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening, ” Obama told reporters today in Chicago. “It’s a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that, I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment.” …versus Axelrod on November 23, as seen below. Be sure to read Tapper’s post, as he has plenty more on The One’s long history as a friend of — and advisor to — Blago. Axelrod himself begged off Blagojevich’s first gubernatorial campaign because “I was concerned about...

<p>A source said today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning. The U.S. attorney's office would not confirm the information, and a spokesman for the governor did not immediately return a phone call for comment.</p>

Federal investigators recently made covert tape recordings of Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the most dramatic step yet in their corruption investigation of him and his administration, the Tribune has learned. As part of this undercover effort, one of the governor's closest confidants and former aides cooperated with investigators, and that assistance helped lead to recordings of the governor and others, sources said. The cooperation of John Wyma, 42, one of the state's most influential lobbyists, is the most stunning evidence yet that Blagojevich's once-tight inner circle appears to be collapsing under the pressure of myriad pay-to-play inquiries. Wyma, Blagojevich's chief...

CHICAGO - On a recent Sunday afternoon at a historic Chicago synagogue, the sanctuary was packed but the mood was restrained: A longtime congregant had died, and about 300 people had turned out for his funeral service. But amid the solemnity, the occasional mourner discreetly pulled loved ones out to the synagogue's front steps to snap cell phone pictures of a large brick house, mostly obscured by shrubs, across the street. Such scenes have become commonplace in recent months at KAM-Isaiah Israel, a Reform congregation in the Hyde Park neighborhood. The dome of the historic Byzantine-style synagogue looms over the...

If you're not signed up already, sign up to Buzz and FReep this BUZZ to ensure that it does not get buried by the libtards! The election is just around the corner, and millions of moderates, independents, and undecideds have been prevented from learning the TRUTH about ObamaNation. Here's our chance to bypass the MSM and reach undecideds through the NEW media!

The story about Senator Obama’s house purchase is well known. On June 15, 2005, Barack and Michelle Obama closed on a new house in the historic Kenwood district of Chicago for $1,650,000, or $300,000 below the listed asking price. On the same day, Rita Rezko, the wife of Tony Rezko, closed on the adjacent vacant lot for $625,000, which was the full listed asking price. The Obamas subsequently purchased a 1,500-sqft strip of land from the Rezkos on January 11, 2006 for $104,166, increasing the side lot buffer between their properties. The media confronted Senator Obama about these transactions because...

--Snip--Alan Dobry and Lois Friedberg-Dobry have lived in Hyde Park since the 1950’s. They’re prominent political activists in the neighborhood—and longtime grassroots organizers. Alan Dobry was a Democratic Party committeeman in Hyde Park for 16 years. In 1996, Obama ensured his primary win for state senate by challenging all of his opponents’ nominating petitions—knocking them all off the ballot. The Dobrys helped him do it.--Snip

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Chicago is the Second City in nickname and the third in population, but when it comes to murder, the city has the dubious distinction of being second to no city in America. As CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports, the Chicago Sun-Times pointed out on Friday that Chicago has seen 426 homicides this year through Tuesday, compared with 417 in New York and 302 in Los Angeles. At the end of 1998, Chicago made international headlines as the U.S. "murder capital" after surpassing New York's homicide totals for the first time ever. Chicago shed that dubious distinction when...

Keep Checking Updates At The End One of my stellar readers, SBD, has been doing some research on Obama’s home in Hyde Park, Chicago. As the story goes the Obama’s bought the home in 1993 and subsequently sold it in 2005. But if you look at the records on the property they are very confusing and suspicious. Before we dive into the details, as we see them, I want to bring in Tony Rezko and his plea dealing efforts. From Hillbuzz there is news that convicted felon (and Obama associate) Tony Rezko is about to turn states evidence, and the...

- A Lexis property search for Obama in Illinois shows the Hyde Park property in Obama’s name beginning in 1998, but Obama supposedly bought the property in 1993. - All tax assessments from 1998-2004 are in the name of Emil - is this the person paying taxes on the property for the Obamas until they sold the property in 2005? - Obama Records have a different Legal Description than the original owner’s documents. - Cook County Recorder shows completely different information than Lexis: Emil owns the property from 1986-1989, so why is he listed as paying taxes from 1998-2004 in...

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/election/s_584284.html

On Anderson's Cooper 360 they did a major investigative look at the Ayers/Obama connection. They even interviewed Stanley Kurtz. Bottom line: Just a guy in my neighborhood? Served on one board together? CNN Says bulls**t! They worked closely with each other and worked together on TWO boards -- both Annenberg and the Woods Foundation. They also talked about Ayers little tea party to launch Obama and found Obama hadn't been entirely honest about "just stopping by..." It was an event they planned and hosted TOGETHER. Sarah Palin needs to come out tomorrow and ride this just like she did the...

Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois. This Story The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a "super super jumbo." Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some...

There is a huge blogswarm going on about this photo, from Chicago Magazine, of Obama's unrepentant terrorist associate, Bill Ayers stomping on the American flag. The photo was taken in 2001, the same time Obama served on the Woods Fund Board with Ayers. This was also the same time that Ayers donated to Obama's campaign. ... many political bloggers are saying it is long past due for Obama to disown his association with this controversial radical. ... It's worthy of recycling this to further probe into Obama's judgment, the one thing he says he should be measured by.

According to Schlussel [syndicated columnist] "...a former Obama insider says that Obama's sudden aversion to NOI and Farrakhan is belied by the fact that Obama employed and continues to employ several Farrakhan acolytes in high positions on his Illinois and U.S. Senate campaign and office staffs." ... Cynthia K. Miller, who served as Treasurer of his Senate campaign. ... Jennifer Mason who currently serves as Obama's Director of Constituent Services and who oversees the hiring of interns for Obama. ... Obama's Illinois Senate district consisted of prime Nation of Islam territory including Hyde Park where Farrakhan's mansion is located...

The macabre execution of a Hyde Park man whose mouth was sewn shut and hands bound behind his back before he was fatally shot in the chest has moved homicide detectives to appeal to the public for help. ``They're asking for anyone who knows or may have witnessed something to come forward,'' Beverly Ford, Boston Police Department spokeswoman, said yesterday. Kyle Andrews, 36, was clinging to life when police found him face down Thursday night in the first-floor hallway of 25 Business St., a trail of blood spatter leading to his empty apartment one floor above. An hour later, he...

CAPTION THE PICTURE - In London, Scott Ritter, former American, inflames thousands In London, Scott Ritter, former American, inflames thousands of proterrorists, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2002.