Senior
Advisor and Assistant to the President for Public
Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs
Longtime Friend And Supporter
Obama has
named his longtime friend and supporter Valerie Jarrett to be
his White House senior adviser.
Jarrett, who hired Michelle Obama for a job in the Chicago mayor's
office years ago, is one of the president-elect's closest friends and
advisers. Her name has been floated for several top administration
jobs. But Obama settled on the senior adviser role, said a person
close to the president-elect and willing to speak only on background
because the decision has not been officially announced.
A White House senior adviser can handle a range of duties. President
George W. Bush's top political aide Karl Rove held the title in the
current administration.
Jarrett has a background in real estate and politics in Chicago and is
linked to a series of real estate scandals, including several housing
projects operated by convicted felon and Obama fundraiser/friend Antoin
"Tony" Rezko.
According to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Illinois
Secretary of State, Valerie Jarrett served as a board member for several
organizations that provided funding and support for Chicago housing
projects operated by real estate developers and Obama financial backers
Rezko and Allison Davis, Obama's former boss. Jarrett was a member
of the Board of Directors for the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment
Corporation along with several Davis and Rezko associates, as well as
the Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization, an organization
that worked with Rezko and Davis.
As Chief Executive Officer of the Habitat Company Jarrett also managed a
controversial housing project located in Obama's former state senate
district called Grove Parc Plaza. According to the Boston Globe
the housing complex was considered "uninhabitable by unfixed problems,
such as collapsed roofs and fire damage.
Obama signed an
executive order in March 2009 that established a "White House Council on
Women and Girls." The Council will be
chaired by Jarrett, and the day-to-day operations will be run Tina
Tchen, who is currently director of the White House Office of Public
Liaison and was a major fundraiser for Obama during the campaign.
"The mission of the Council will be to provide a coordinated federal
response to the challenges confronted by women and girls to ensure that
all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and
programs impact women and families," reads a memo describing the move
and obtained by The Fix.
As soon as I saw Valerie Jarrett's
name, I knew this was going to be a big job -- every single policy, of
every single government agency will have to fit the women’s rights
agenda -- As interpreted by Obama and the Bride -- as executed by the
trusted aid -- that's breathtaking!
Jarrett's Habitat Company
Earlier this year The Boston Globe reported on the stunning failures
of Jarrett's companies. "Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat
Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this [past]
winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago
that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city
inspectors found widespread problems."
Jarrett's Staff
But in order to get the full impact of the presence of Jarrett on the
Obama team, one must take a close look at her team.
Jarrett has surrounded herself with some rather unsavory characters
who appear to be more like 'enforcers' than 'advisers.'
Meet Mike Strautmanis, Jarrett's Chief of Staff.
Strautmanis is one of Barack and Michelle Obama's closest friends,
going all the way back to the beginning in Chicago. He has worked
not only for the Obamas but for disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod
Blagojevich.
But here is an interesting tidbit concerning Strautmanis, in
Jarrett's own words:
Obama describes him as a "utility man," and campaign advisor and
Obama family friend Valerie Jarrett says he's the person you call when
you need help with a delicate situation. "He understands the
importance of the personal touch and that e-mails and phone calls are
not always appropriate," she said, talking about a specific example that
she wouldn't describe in detail. "There are times when a
face-to-face is just the right thing to do. He dropped everything and
hopped on a plane.
And now meet an Obama mystery man that the campaign staff didn't even
know existed. In fact, nobody knew what he looked like.
His name is Michael Signator.
Michael Signator, a 50-year-old police officer in suburban Chicago,
is paid as one of Barack Obama's campaign staffers -- nearly $50,000
during Obama's Senate campaign in 2004; and $47,600 from March 2007
through August of this year -- yet no one knows what he looks like, and
even Obama staffers didn't know he works for the campaign.
So just who is Michael Signator?
Although his job description is to provide "supplemental security
support" and to coordinate the Obama family's personal and campaign
schedules, Signator appears to be much more than an aide.
The relationship between Obama and Signator is one of the most highly
guarded secrets in Washington and Obama's home-base of Chicago. In
fact, at first Obama officials denied that Signator worked for
Obama...until it became clear that he was Obama's driver and bodyguard
during the campaign. But the extent of Signator's activity on
behalf of Obama is murky.
The Jarrett Connection -- Obama’s Hawaii and Chicago
communist networks were linked.
Romantic Poet blog has
published some interesting artifacts that provide proof that Obama’s
Hawaii and Chicago communist networks were linked?
It is now well
established that Barack Obama was linked to the Hawaiian Communist Party
network through his boyhood/teenage
mentor Frank Marshall
Davis.
It is also well known that after moving to Chicago, Obama
linked up with the local communist networks.
Manning Marable, a
leader of the Communist Party offshoot Committees of Correspondence for
Democracy & Socialism claims that Obama "understands what socialism is.
A lot of the people working with him are, indeed, socialists with
backgrounds in the Communist Party or as independent Marxists.
There are a lot of people like that in Chicago who have worked with him
for years…"
This leads to two key questions.
A. Were the
Hawaii and Chicago networks connected?
B . Did Obama’s connection
to Frank Marshall Davis in any way influence his progress up the Chicago
political ladder?
If the answer is yes to both, there are
significant implications.
It means that that the Communist Party
USA was watching Obama from an early age and was willing to help his
political career.
Frank Marshall Davis was active in the Chicago
Communist Party until he moved to Hawaii in late 1948.
I
speculated in this post that Davis may have known left wing journalist
Vernon Jarrett in post war Chicago. A connection would be
significant because the Jarrett family has played a very important role
in Obama’s rise to power.
Both Jarrett and Davis worked in the
communist dominated South Side Community Art Center and on the communist
influenced Chicago Defender newspaper, in late 1940s Chicago.
I
have since found conclusive evidence that Davis and Jarrett not only
knew each other, but worked together in another Communist Party
dominated organization -- The Citizen’s Committee to Aid Packing House
Workers.
Continue reading
here . . . there's some real stuff . . .
Obama Rules
According to Jarrett, the Obamamessiah is "ready to rule." (video)
The co-chair of Barack Obama’s Transition Team, Valerie Jarrett,
appeared on Meet the Press this weekend and used, shall we say, an
interesting word to described what she thinks Barack Obama will be doing
in January when he’s officially sworn into office. She
told Tom Brokaw that Obama will be ready to "rule" on day one.
It’s a word that reflects the worst fears that people have for Obama the
"arrogant," the "messiah," that imagines he’s here to "rule" instead of
govern.
Jarret told Brokaw that "given the daunting challenges that we face,
it’s important that president elect Obama is prepared to really take
power and begin to rule day one."
Someone needs to get to Jarrett and inform her that American politicians
are not Kings and do not "rule" from office. But if this is the
attitude of Obama’s transition team, what does The One himself imagine
he is about to unleash? Could the fears that Obama thinks he is
being anointed America’s King be far off with this sort of talk flying
about?
Obama’s New Nuclear Advisor
Front Page Magazine says the last time that
Obama’s senior advisor and assistant Valerie Jarrett was in
the news, her favored political recruit, Anthony
"Van" Jones, was resigning his
post as White House presidential advisor amid revelations of a radical
background that included communist sympathies and his support for 9/11
Truther conspiracy. Now Jarrett, widely viewed as Obama’s radical
alter ego, has reemerged -- this time as a foreign policy guru.
As Obama and Russian President Medvedev signed a new nuclear arms treaty
last week, Jarrett sat observing nearby. That Jarrett has once
again found herself in a position of influence is not surprising.
Jarrett proudly acknowledges her remarkable closeness to President
Obama. "We have kind of a mind meld" is the way she put it in a
New York Times magazine interview last summer. "When senior staff
meetings in the Oval Office break up, Valerie Jarrett often stays
behind" with Obama, the Times article reported. In short, Jarrett
is like a member of the Obama family, but one who has seized command of
a variety of policies at the White House.
Although neither
elected, nor confirmed, nor even vetted, and without previous Washington
experience, Jarrett has been installed as senior adviser and assistant
to Obama for intergovernmental and public engagement. She also was
given the recently created Office of Urban Affairs, even though we have
a cabinet member who is Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Now it appears she is involved in our nation’s foreign policy.
Why else would she be in Prague for the preparations and signing of the
arms treaty? As Obama has said, "She is someone I trust
completely. She combines the closeness of a family member with the
savvy and objectivity of a professional businesswoman and public-policy
expert," the Times magazine article stated. She is trusted "to
speak for me particularly when we are dealing with delicate issues."
Such as nuclear arms matters? If so, that should be cause for
concern. Jarrett’s only experience in foreign affairs is the
insignificant fact that she was born in Iran, where her father was a
doctor working for an American aid program. She lived in London as
a child before coming to the United States.
Trevor Loudon has
documented the close working relationship between Jarrett's late
father-in-law, Vernon Jarrett, and a certain
Frank Marshall Davis,
in a Communist Party front in late 1940s Chicago.
Frank Marshall
Davis -- a covert Communist Party member -- then went to Hawaii and
ended up mentoring the young Barack Obama, and when Obama moved to
Chicago, Vernon Jarrett used his newspaper columns to promote Obama's
political career.
The Chicago Communist Party mucks in as well
and writes Vernon a lovely eulogy when he dies a few years ago.
Then, coincidentally, Valerie Jarrett hires Michelle Obama, becomes
friends with Barack and ends up advising him in the White House.
Chicago -- it's such a small, small world.
And Speaking Of Communists
Trevor Loudon says senior Obama adviser Valerie
Jarrett's late father-in-law and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Vernon
Jarrett, was a key member of the South Chicago communist left of the
late 1940s.
After graduating from Knoxville College in Tennessee,
Jarrett moved to Chicago in 1946 to work as a journalist. On his
first day on the job at the radical Chicago Defender, he was sent to
cover a race riot. The Defender was heavily influenced by the
Communist Party USA and included on its roster well known Chicago
Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis.
Jarrett and Davis
worked on the Defender around the same time. They certainly knew
each other through the Communist Party and its fronts.
In June
1946, Vernon Jarrett was elected to the Illinois Council of the
Communist Party's youth wing, then known as American Youth for
Democracy. This is according to Testimony of Walter S. Steele
regarding Communist activities in the United States. Hearings
before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of
Representatives, Eightieth Congress, first session, on H. R. 1884 and H.
R. 2122, pages 75,76. It is the first hard evidence tying Vernon
Jarrett directly to the Communist Party. Frank Marshall Davis,
incidentally, was an official sponsor of American Youth for Democracy,
along with confirmed communists Howard Fast, Langston Hughes, John
Howard Lawson and Dirk Struik.
In April 1948, Frank Marshall
Davis and Vernon Jarrett were working together as members of the
publicity committee of the communist controlled Citizens' Committee to
Aid Packing-House Workers.
Besides Davis and Jarrett, communist officials of
the strike committee included Oscar Brown (Treasurer), Louise Patterson
(Assistant Treasurer) and Ishmael Flory (food & groceries committee).
Later that year, Frank Marshall Davis left Chicago for Hawaii to
work on the Honolulu Record, then edited and run by Communist Party
member Koji Ariyoshi.
Loudon is just getting warmed up.
He's got a ton of stuff
here . . .
Valerie Jarrett Has A Secret Service Detail
Keith Koffler
is reporting that Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett
apparently has Secret Service protection.
This is highly
unusual, and of course, costly. I’ve never really heard of
someone who is merely a senior White House aide getting assigned
Secret Service agents.
My understanding is that at the senior
levels of the Bush White House, at least during the latter days,
only the president and his family, the vice president, the chief
of staff, the national security adviser, and the homeland
security adviser were assigned Secret Service agents.
It’s possible that Jarrett has received enough specific and
credible threats to justify Secret Service protection, or that
the Secret Service has for some other reason calculated that she
needs bodyguards. But it’s also possible this is a case of oddly
overdoing it -- and overusing taxpayer resources.
Is she really such a public figure? I’m sure 90 percent of
Americans have little to no idea who she is. White House Press
Secretary Jay Carney is far better known and spends his time
warning terrorists and our foreign adversaries about bad
behavior while trumpeting the killing of Osama Bin Laden. I’m
sure he does not have protection.
According to a local report, Jarrett was accompanied by at
least two Secret Service agents during her pre-Martin Luther
King Day
appearance in Atlanta Sunday, where she bashed Republicans
in church.
One source of mine, who is knowledgeable about
what a Secret Service detail would look like, said he spotted
Jarrett at Reagan National Airport with her protection as she
departed Washington just before Christmas.
After watching her blow past a long line at the security
gate, he noticed she had one Secret Service agent in back and
the other in front, with someone who was possibly a third agent
to her side.
Valerie Jarrett
NEEDS Secret Service agents assigned to her. Who else will carry
her luggage? You don't expect her to carry her bags -- do you?
And you have to laugh at these
Democrats, who are always screaming about separation of Church
and State -- except when it comes to black churches -- where
it's the norm.
The motto of the Democrat Party is
"there's no standard like a double standard."
