It's more like the same old change
we've heard jingling in the pockets of politicians since the beginning
of time. And it's the same dirty change that has landed the bums
in jail since the beginning of democracy.
Barack Obama hasn't
even made history yet by getting into the White House, but he's already
making history for the number of serious scandals between his election
and his inauguration.
First, it was Illinois Gov. Rod
Blagojevich, Obama's old pal and political ally. Now New Mexico
Gov. Bill Richardson -- Obama's pick for commerce secretary -- bails out
amid a grand jury investigation into how a major political donor snared
a lucrative contract from the state.
At this rate, Obama will be
lucky to have any friends left after his first 100 days in office.
Obama Tried Bribing Arlen Specter's Opponent
Judicial Watch is
reporting a major political scandal orchestrated by the Obama
Administration. A popular Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania
has revealed that the White House tried bribing him to drop out of the
upcoming U.S. Senate race.
Congressman Joe Sestak said in a
television news show that the White House offered him a top federal job
in an effort to keep him from challenging Senator Arlen Specter in the
state's Democratic primary. A five-term incumbent, Specter
switched from Republican to Democrat last spring after giving Obama the
critical vote for his disastrous and fraud-infested $787 billion
stimulus program.
Obama clearly wants to return the favor by
helping the controversial lawmaker keep his job. In fact, Obama
endorsed Specter at the White House and has raised money for the
80-year-old lawmaker. Besides Obama, many top Democratic leaders
have also tried to dissuade Sestak, a retired Navy admiral, from
challenging Specter.
However, attempting to bribe a legislator
with a "high-ranking" federal job is deplorable and downright unethical
to say the least. Obviously this is why Obama and his White House
staff are enraged that Sestak disclosed the unscrupulous backdoor offer
to keep him out of the upcoming Democratic primary.
Before
Specter bailed on Republicans Obama assured the contentious lawmaker
he'd do everything in his power to help him win reelection if he
switched parties. The White House assured Specter there was no
Democrat in a position to make a realistic challenge against him and
that he had the "full backing" of Obama, which includes campaigning and
fundraising by the commander-in-chief.
That plan evidently blew
up in Obama's face so he resorted to bribery. Not only does
Specter face stiff competition from Sestak in the Democratic primary,
the Republican (former Congressman Pat Toomey) expected to make the
general election leads both Specter and Sestak in head-to-head match-ups
by about ten points.
"Whoever solicits or
receives … any….thing of value, in consideration of the promise of
support or use of influence in obtaining for any person any appointive
office or place under the United States, shall be fined under this title
or imprisoned not more than one year, or both." -- 18 USC Sec. 211
-- Bribery, Graft and Conflicts of Interest: Acceptance or solicitation
to obtain appointive public office.
Obama’s Crony Capitalism
"No more bailouts, no more greed, how many
profits do you need?" That’s been a signature chant of community
organizers and Big Labor thugs who have stormed bank offices and
financial executives’ private homes decrying corporate welfare over the
past several months. But now that the federal government and a
coalition of big banking interests are poised to bail out a crony
Chicago bank with longtime ties to the Obama administration,
Saul Alinsky’s avenging angels
are nowhere to be found.
Michelle Malking says ShoreBank is a
Windy City investment bank with all the right (or, rather, left) ties.
Its stated progressive mission isn’t merely to make good lending
decisions, but to engage in Barack Obama-esque social engineering to
"create economic equity and a healthy environment." The ShoreBank
corporate slogan: "Let’s change the world."
The company website
features a video of Obama in Kenya championing ShoreBank microlending
projects overseas. ShoreBank has also touted itself as a "green"
bank from its founding days -- promoting dubious carbon credit programs,
subjecting new borrowers to eco-litmus tests ("we look at how you use
water, how you recover water and clean it, how you use energy, if you
produce clean energy, how you manage CO2, whether you are offsetting CO2
that your product produces, if you are using sustainably produced
materials") and encouraging customers to participate in "EcoDeposits" to
"directly support the green agenda."
Social and environmental
justice may make for good Volvo bumper stickers. They do not,
however, make for a good bottom line. While the bank was on
do-gooder missions around the world, business at home was in trouble.
As The Wall Street Journal reported, "Losses racked up during the
recession have left the bank facing a demand to raise new capital or
face likely closure by regulators."
Enter the Chicago political
friends and family of ShoreBank. The ties are long and deep, as
the Central Illinois 9/12 Project has been chronicling for months:
•
ShoreBank co-founder Jan Piercy was a Wellesley College roommate of
Hillary Clinton’s, who has long supported the bank along with former
president Bill Clinton.
•
Former ShoreBank Vice Chairman Bob Nash worked for Mrs. Clinton’s
presidential bid as deputy campaign manager. Board of
Directors member Howard Stanback is a Hyde Park neighborhood pal of
Obama, who served with Stanback on the board of the radical
Woods Fund
(where Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers also sat).
• White House senior advisor
Valerie Jarrett
served on the board of Chicago Metropolis 2020 with ShoreBank
Director Adele Simmons, former president of the liberal MacArthur
Foundation, where she focused on "climate change" and "global
governance" issues.
• The
bank and its employees donated some $12,000 to the Obama 2008
presidential campaign, and co-founder Mary Houghton reportedly gave
advice to Obama’s late mother about small business lending issues.
In other words: ShoreBank is too politically
connected to fail.
And now you, the taxpayer, may be on the hook
for helping its cronies engineer a special rescue. Fox Business
News reported this week that a consortium of large lenders -- including
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and GE Capital -- have partnered with the feds
to pitch in a combined $200 million public-private bailout. (In
addition, Illinois Democrat Rep. Jan Schakowsky has been crusading for a
state-level bailout of the beleaguered bank.) The buzz on both
Wall Street and Capitol Hill is that Goldman and perhaps others in the
public-private partnership were pressured to lend a hand.
It
wouldn’t be the first time that businesses have felt the Obama squeeze.
And it wouldn’t be the first time that Democrats exploited the financial
crisis to milk public money for their banking cronies.
The
laggardly House Ethics Committee is still investigating Democrat
California Rep. Maxine Waters, who had a personal and financial stake in
Boston-based OneUnited, a minority bank that received $12 million in
TARP bailout money under smelly circumstances. The bank’s
executives donated $12,500 to her congressional campaigns. Her
husband, Sidney Williams, was an investor in one of the banks that
merged into OneUnited. Waters secured meetings between OneUnited
execs and Treasury Department officials.
That probe has dragged
on for nearly a year, which doesn’t bode well for fresh GOP demands for
an investigation into the shady ShoreBank bailout. House Financial
Services Committee ranking minority member Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., has
demanded that the White House cough up documentation about any possible
overt contact with Goldman about the deal.
Team Obama is smarter
than that, of course. To quote Obama’s environmental czar Carol
Browner, who pressured auto industry execs last year to cooperate on a
fuel standards increase, they know "to put nothing in writing, ever."
The fingerprints may be missing, but the stench of the Chicago Way
is impossible to cover up.
Obama Wastes Millions On Parties
Fred Dardick
says
Obama is wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on his personal
entertainment.
The same hypocrite who says our energy costs must
"necessarily skyrocket" to fund his political ambition, is giving Marie
Antoinette a run for her money when it comes to spending national
treasure on personal luxuries.
While much of the country is
struggling to pay their bills, Obama and Bridezilla are partying like
rock royalty. The collection of talent that has made the
pilgrimage to the White House to entertain Obama and friends is nothing
less than amazing: Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennet, Paul Simon,
Marc Anthony, Herbie Hancock, Martina McBride, Queen Latifah, The Foo
Fighters, Faith Hill, and recently foot-in-mouth Paul McCartney to name
a few.
This has the makings to be the greatest ongoing concert
series ever to be seen on this Earth just to entertain one man -- all
paid for by the American taxpayer.
How much does this world-class
entertainment cost? Assuming the artists themselves forgo
appearance fees, I highly doubt Paul Simon would perform with just a
karaoke machine as backup. Professional equipment needs to be
brought in -- sound engineers, stages, lights, etc. Even small
scale performances by these artists can be very expensive.
Add
booze, food, security, invitations, social secretaries, wait staff, and
hangers on to the tab and the price for one of these events could easily
top $75K. With over 27 concerts hosted thus far, the total cost to
taxpayers is in the millions of dollars.
The executive branch
does not provide detailed information regarding entertainment expenses,
however it has been estimated the Obamas spent at least $10 million on
"drunken White House parties" in 2009 alone.
Considering the
country is at war and a record 40 million Americans rely on food stamps
to eat, Obama should show some class and skip the expensive partying.
Whether it’s the world’s greatest concert series, multi-million
dollar date night in New York or taxpayer funded shopping in Europe for
the First Lady, the Obamas are exposing themselves as nothing more than
greedy, self-serving politicians.
While Obama and Bridezilla
insist the rest of us endure economic hardship for the greater good,
they are living like a king and queen on our dime.
Related:
Drudge has a
few words on the Obamas' latest soirée -- "Obama Off to the Theater."
Party Boy
John Gibson
says it's the wrong kind of leadership.
Last week's jobs
report tanked the stock market; Obama took weeks to assert control of
the oil spill that threatens doom on the Gulf Coast -- but at the White
House the Gatsby-like parties roll on as if happy days were here again.
Just yesterday, Obama held another fun-filled White House event,
a picnic for Congress members, complete with hot dogs, cold beverages
and a fire pit.
All told, during the last seven weeks of spewing
oil and rampant unemployment, he has frolicked and danced through three
major White House music parties:
• The
black-tie tent bash on the White House South Lawn after the state
dinner for Mexico's President Felipe Calderón, which featured singer
Beyoncé.
• The Paul
McCartney hootenanny -- a night of tributes to the former Beatle,
which featured Obama himself scooting onto the dance floor to join
the Jonas Brothers in the long "la-la-la" closing refrain of "Hey
Jude." (Plus, of course, McCartney serenading the first lady
with "Michelle.")
• The
Ford Theater event -- in which Obama, taking a break from "kicking
ass" on the oil spill, kicked back and relaxed to the song stylings
of one-time "American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson, among other B-listers.
It was one thing when Obama launched his White
House days with a round of Martini Wednesdays, Stevie Wonder concerts,
conga-line dancing and Super Bowl parties. That was before the
gushing oil and before the employment picture defied the Obama
hope-and-change cures.
Now it's different. Now Obama's
fascination with fun and parties in the midst of crisis has not only
reinforced a feeling he's out of touch, but has migrated down the chain
of command.
Last weekend, Vice President Joe Biden and White
House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel held a "super soaker" squirt-gun party
at the veep's residence. Everybody ran around giggling and
shooting squirt guns at each other. Members of the press covering
Biden joined in, to their shame.
And last Sunday, presidential
spokesman Tommy Vietor and Obama speechwriter extraordinaire Jon Favreau,
both 29 years old, were spotted at a Georgetown bar, stripped to the
waist, playing a game of beer pong with a gang of bare-chested buddies.
(This game involves throwing a ping-pong ball into cups of beer -- loser
drinks beer, winner drinks beer, everybody drinks beer.)
Meanwhile, MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell said on the "Morning Joe" program
that she talks to White House staffers who are having nightmares about
the oil spill. Evidently, Vietor and Favreau aren't O'Donnell's
contacts at the White House.
Fine, folks in the White House
pressure-cooker need to blow off some steam. But it seems Obama
and his underlings don't see any need to rein in their love of partying,
even though regular Americans are facing catastrophe.
Yes, Obama
looks elegant and cool in his tuxedo, dancing to Jay-Z or the aging
"cute Beatle" -- but there are people in the Gulf who can't pay their
bills, and millions of the long-term unemployed who are on the outside,
looking in on all the fun. Judging by the polls, the grumbling of
the outsiders is getting louder.
Obama may want to consider
making good on his promise that all hands are on deck for national
disasters, by passing the word that party time is now on hold -- and
then leading by example.
Obama Protects BP From Investigation
Robert Moon
says Obama
announced Wednesday that he opposes any further investigations into
allegations that liberal oil giant BP -- which
made huge donations to Obama and almost single-handedly
designed Cap-and-Trade -- helped get a mass-murderer released in
exchange for cushier drilling rights.
It's always the same story
with these people. Condemn corporations at every turn while
actually being the one doing their most corrupt bidding, and the moment
anyone objects, smear them as being in bed with corporate interests (as
with the healthcare
takeover, the Wall Street
takeover, etc.).
White House Complicit In Leaks
Floyd Brown
says Obama is downplaying the
importance of the leak of thousands of classified documents. But he
won’t be able to laugh off the latest allegations. We have now learned
that with quick action he and his White House Staff may have been able
to limit the damage, but they were too incompetent to act.
This
video interview blows this scandal wide open.
Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks talk with Judge Napolitano
of Fox News (02:03)
When asked by Judge Andrew Napolitano of
Fox News why he should not be held responsible for potential deaths
caused by the leak,
Julian Assange, the founder of
Wikileaks, answered
that he contacted the White House about the leaks before they were
released and asked them to review them. The White House’s
response?
Nada.
They were too busy golfing, partying with
Paul McCartney and spending the summer vacationing. In subsequent
email conversations Assange’s people clarified that they sought this
response through the New York Times.
This is the part of the
puzzle which could explain why Obama and his supporters have been trying
to downplay this leak as unimportant.
