Wow, it has been announced that the Governor of Illinois and his chief of staff has been arrested for info gained from federal wiretaps due to trying to sell Obama’s senate seat. It’s odd that the previous two governors were also busted for the same thing.

What does this tell you? What does it make you wonder about other politicians from Illinois? What does it make you wonder about Obama?

Honestly, everyone is their own person, but it doesn’t look good. Robert D Grant, the FBI Special Agen-in-charge (the bad ass investigator and cop) mentioned that “if Illinois is not the most corrupt state in the US, it’s one hell of a competitor” and that “the investigators involved were disgusted and revolted”.

There ya have it. From the federal cops. The state is corrupt. He tried to sell Obama’s senate seat for $500,000 and tried to squeeze a bunch of different organizations within the state for contributions himself, jobs for him and his wife, to can Chicago Tribune editorial staff that spoke out against his corruption, etc. It became a “pay to play” state. If you want something, you pay for it, one way or the other.

Rod R. Blagojevich (New York Times)

What a bunch of crooks.

Here’s a link to the NYT article and another to a local copy.

It’s interesting that when you start following this subject around to the various media outlets and reading the comments, one of Obama’s buddy’s name keeps popping up: Rezco. Why is that? I wonder if there are closer ties between Obama and Rezco than we have been told…

Here’s a quote from one Chicago area resident that I thought was very telling:

—-

George Wilhelmsen on December 9, 2008 9:10 AM

It’s about time.

Thanks to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s hard work in driving this to it’s conclusion.

However, this is our own fault. We, the people, elected Blagojevich when there was enough evidence that he was bad news and was corrupt.

The Tribune and Sun Times pointed out:
- Questionable donations to Blagojevich’s children;
- Odd real estate transactions with his wife;
- Rezko - Rezko - Rezko

The writing was clear. Why didn’t we, the people, listen?

Unless we the people change how we vote and hold our elected officials accountable to doing things right, and break away from the payola mentality where politicians reward certain groups to curry votes, we will be likely to see this happen again.

—-

I hope they continue to investigate this and the ties to Rezko. I would be interested to see if the ties lead back to Obama, himself.

Gardie

Tags: corrupt, governor, Illinois, Obama

Now that Obama is trying to upstage Bush’s attempts at economic recovery, Obama’s staff have some mighty big shoes to fill. ( I say ‘upstage Bush’ only because the media has decided that it is more important to make sure Obama looks better than Bush does, regardless of how well Bush actually does.)

Brent Bozell wrote an article that ended with the following quote that I found very interesting:

Conservatives and Republicans have a very important role to play now in holding this alleged Team of Geniuses accountable. This disgraceful “news” media won’t, period. They will line up to serve Obama only slightly less explicitly than Chris Matthews, who typically blurted out that his new job as a television host was to insure President Obama’s success. We say “blurted out” because Matthews tends to…blurt. But give him credit for one thing: the courage to admit the attitude of servitude that his colleagues so piously deny.

Brent has specifically addressed Conservatives and Republicans, similar to how I have treated them, since they do NOT have the same objectives in mind. Also, what Brent is talking about is something that the Dems have held the Republicans to; if you say you’re going to do it, you had better because they are just waiting for you to slip up. When they say they want bipartisan support and working relationships, remember what ‘bipartisan’ truly means - ‘bipartisan’ means compromise. It means sacrificing your principles for one reason or another. The problem is, when two opposing sides come to the table, usually both sides give a little. The libs are not up for giving any. What will happen when negotiations are stalled is the Dems will come out and say the Republicans are being stubborn and not willing to give (as they should be). What really is happening is the Dems have absolutely no intentions of giving up anything, but they can’t let anyone else know that. They know damn good and well they can go to the liberal media and get a free pass. Brent is telling us the Republicans AND Conservatives need to make sure the Dems don’t get a free pass on this, and they get their feet held to the fire.

The other thing I found very interesting is that not only does Chris Matthews tend to blurt and pretend to be objective, he also appears to be running for office. The Star-Tribune in Minneapolis, MN and the Patriot-News of Harrisburg, PA is reporting that Chris Matthews is seriously considering, and the Democrat Party is pushing, for Chris to run for the US Senate. Kind of ironic that a reporter for a mainstream media organization may quit his job to run for office.

This just goes to show that the mainstream media has NOT be objective, and certainly tried to influence the elections. Of course, anyone who has watched MSNBC knows there is no objective reporting there…

Gardie

Tags: cabinet, Chris Matthews, corruption, Obama

I was reading Obama’s book Audacity of Hope and found a statement by him very interesting. One of the sound bites he delivered so well while campaigning against McCain was that McCain was just another Bush. If you supported McCain, it was the same as supporting Bush. If you voted for McCain, you were voting for another 4 years of the ‘Bush Doctrine’.

On about page 14, Obama writes:

…But whatever conditions might have been required for detente, they did not exist in 2005. There would be no concessions, no good will. Two days after the election, President Bush appeared before cameras and declared that he had political capital to spare and he intended to use it. That same day, conservative activist Grover Norquist, unconstrained by the decorum of public office, observed, in connection with the Democrats’ situation, “that any farmer will tell you that certain animals will run around and are unpleasant, but when they are fixed, they are happy and sedate.” Two days after my swearing in, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, out of Cleveland stood up in the House of Representatives to challenge the certification of Ohio electors, citing the litany of voting irregularities that had taken place in the state on Election Day. Rank-and-file Republicans scowled (”Sore losers”, I could hear a few mutter), but Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader DeLay gazed stone-faced from the heights of the dais, placed in the knowledge that they had the votes and the gavel. Senator Barbara Boxer agreed to sign the challenge, and when we returned to the Senate chamber, I found myself casting my first vote, along with seventy-three of the seventy-four others voting that day, to install George W Bush for a second term as president of the United States.

The emphasis in the above paragraph is mine, not from the book, and is to make a point among the gook. From this, I gather that when it came time to support his party, he didn’t. When it came time to do the right thing, he did it. And when he campaigned to replace Bush, he spoke just the opposite of anyone who previously has stood with President Bush.

How much more two-faced can you get? If you are one of his constituents, how can you trust him to vote in your best interests?

Gardie

Tags: GW Bush, Obama, turn-coat

Ben Stein’s latest op-ed column at the NYT shows even the ultra liberal economists are beginning to doubt Osama’s choices in economic advisors and leaders. Obama wants to make Timothy F. Geithner the Treasury Secretary, and this is the guy who allowed Lehman Brothers to fail, as well as the Governor over the New York Federal Reserve Bank while various risks were being taken. He did nothing to stop any of the questionable acts.

Geithner is also a student of Robert Rubin, another failed financial leader. He was at the helm of CitiGroup as it was beginning to swirl the drain.

Then, on top of all this, Stein also gives reasons why all of these public works projects Obama is promising (creating 2.5 million jobs in 2 years) won;t work, and again, compares them to the Great Depression and the failed policies of that era that Obama wants to repeat.

It’s sad really, that if you don’t remember your history, you are doomed to repeat it. It seems in order to boost their egos and justify their changes, the liberals always want to rewrite history. The problem with rewriting history is then you lose what really happened, and get to experience it again.

Because I don’t know how long the article will be available on the NYT site, I have also archived it, locally, here.

Gardie

Tags: Ben Stein, Geithner Timothy F, Obama

The NY Times is reporting that all of the guys that helped Obama get elected are now looking for paybacks. It appears they will be happy with either earmarks for infrastructure improvement projects (35,000 jobs per $1 BILLION spent), or else they are looking for jobs.

It appears some folks in Westchester County, NY might be looking for handouts since the county commissioners are liberals, are afraid to raise taxes and are also afraid to cut entitlements. Guess who is looking for a bailout?

Personally, all of this money should probably be coming from the local and state governments, not the federal government. Why should people from New Mexico or Idaho be financing a new tunnel from New Jersey to Manhattan?

Obama hasn’t even been sworn in yet and the lists of paybacks are already being mailed in. I have a feeling we haven’t seen anything yet.

Gardie

Tags: Earmark, Fraud, Obama

While I was digging around for additional earmarks, and some examples of the corruption that was brushed off during the campaign, and has now been placed into the White House, I found a little tidbit that didn’t make much news or was dismissed as a ‘distraction’.

It appears that in 2006, Obama requested an earmark of $1million for the University of Chicago Hospital. Guess who worked there? Michelle Obama was the Vice President of Community Affairs for the hospital.

Byron York noted that Michelle Obama made $121,910.00 in 2004 before her husband was elected to the US Senate. In 2005, after he won his election, she made $316,962.00.

My question is this: We have already seen a ‘change’ from Obama, how much more ‘change’ can we afford, especially with him and his cronies in charge of the House, the Senate, and the White House?

Gardie

Tags: Cronyism, Fraud, Obama

I didn’t even know there was an “Office of the President-Elect”. This video, of Obama giving his weekly TV/radio ‘address’ is so funny. It reminds me of when I was growing up, there was always the kid in the neighborhood with the only 3-ring binder and who could write. Since he was the only one with both, he was cool.  Obama has a cool and official looking sign and podium, while he has an office furnished by Rent-A-Center at taxpayer’s expense.  I wonder if Peter Lewis of Progressive Insurance could get Obama a ‘tricked out name tag’ with all the money left over from the campaign. No wonder Al-Qaida is laughing at us.  They must figure if we are dumb enough to bring the Clintons back into power, we will do anything.

For some reason, this whole thing appears like he’s ‘playing President’. I sure hope he can do better than what he sounds like…

Gardie

Tags: Obama, President-elect, Pretend President

This is my first post since the Republican Party’s candidate for President wimped out and conceded the Presidential election. I felt after the fraud that went on, I needed to step back and relax for a while before saying anything more.

An acquaintance asked me today if I knew anything about a bunch of lawsuits going on in order to block Obama from becoming the President. I knew about a couple, but I also think there are more that should happen that I have heard nothing about. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have the first black president attend his first indictments for campaign fraud in his first 100 days of office? No, it will never happen because it would require a majority in the House of Representatives and there are too many other crooked people, regardless of party affiliation, in both the House and the Senate.

The lawsuit he has heard about was about how Obama, despite numerous requests, has refused to demonstrate that he is actually a US citizen by birth, as required by the Constitution. He has shown various versions of a redacted ‘birth certificate’, and that’s where the rub it. It’s a ‘birth certificate’. It says some official believed the original paperwork presented to them as evidence he was born in the US. It is NOT a ‘certificate of birth’ with the doctor’s signature on it.

If Obama is indeed a citizen by birth, let him present his actual ‘certificate of birth’ and be done with it.

The next lawsuit that has not been presented yet, but should be, is for campaign fraud. Campaign fraud can be defined many different ways, but there are only two methods that I am concerned about. The first is that by federal law, an individual can donate up to a maximum amount of money to a person’s campaign - and I believe there are a LOT of people who donated much more than they are allowed. How else does he raise a record $675 MILLION dollars?

A second issue with the campaign financing is that because Obama’s campaign supposedly never tracked the names of any contributions that were less than $50. If you look through their books, you will find literally thousands of contributions of less than $50, and they have screwy names that are obviously false.

A third issue is that campaign contributions from no citizens are not allowed. How can we tell if non-citizens are contributing? Why would someone contribute an odd amount like $36.81? Well, if you contributed 500 Mexican pesos, after conversion to US dollars, that’s exactly how much you would get. And of course, since they are not tracking less than $50, they didn’t figure anyone would notice. From everything I have heard, the campaign had to intentionally disable a lot of security and tracking features in order to not track who and where the money was coming from. At the least, they can correlate the time, date, amount, and the IP address of each contributor (all odd contributions came in from their website.)

Yes, I want to see these questions answered. I also want many of the background questions about Obama, answered, that were previously dismissed as ‘distractions’. I want to find out about how a person can go to school in a religious school for years, in a predominantly Muslim country, and not take on their values any more than a person can go to a church and listen to a radical minister for 20 years and not believe in the same radical teachings as the minister.

I want to know how you can announce your run for the most powerful job in the world in the front room of a man whose girlfriend and best friend were killed while making a bomb to potentially kill judges who uphold the laws of our country. This same person is also a professor teaching at a local university. How can Obama deny having a friendship with this guy?

When I worked for a defense / space contractor in another lifetime, I was told during my orientation that it was extremely important to “avoid the appearance of impropriety.” It was very important because if there were questionable deeds in your past, my employer knew there was a good chance you could be manipulated in order to keep your deeds hidden away. Can you see where this might be important in dealing with high security defense or security situations?

What does this mean? It means that you keep yourself out of situations that might put you in a bad light. It means having good character. It means staying out of the wrong places at all times. It means that you need to walk the straight and narrow.

For most people, I would have to say this would not be too hard. But, if you walk that fine line on a regular basis, if you have dealings with shady people, and you walk that gray line between good and bad, you might have a problem with character. When presented with some of your not-so-honorable deeds, you might try to dismiss them as ‘distractions’.

We already had a president who was a security risk, the first president, since ’security clearances’ were developed, that was not able to be given any kind of security clearance. In other words he was told only what he needed to know. That one president’s name was Bill Clinton. The second president to be impeached. For lying. About cheating on his wife. Of molesting an intern.

Imagine that, we had eight years of a lying and cheating president. He had smaller character flaws than the current President-Elect. Can you imagine what Obama could be like?

Oh yeah, Obama has only won the popular vote, the electoral college has not voted yet, and the issue with Obama’s citizenship will be judged on December 14th, the day the Supreme Court hears the lawsuit about his citizenship.

Enough speculation for one day…

Gardie

Tags: Election Fraud, Obama