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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DizzyG who wrote (30527)	6/11/2008 10:01:36 AM
From: TideGlider	Respond to of 224755

LOL Hmmm? I wonder if Kenneth looks like him!

To: DizzyG who wrote (30527)	6/11/2008 10:02:45 AM
From: TideGlider	Respond to of 224755

Political Corrections By Todd A. Carges Wed Jun 11, 2008, 09:19 AM EDT North Attleborough - If it is true that you can tell a lot about a person from the company they keep, then Barack Obama has a lot of explaining to do. Here are just three troubling characters that Barack has had long standing relationships with. Tony Rezko: This name should sound familiar. He was convicted last week on charges of fraud and money laundering. It turns out that Obama and Rezko go way back. As a young lawyer, Obama worked to negotiate a partnership between his client and Rezko's company as it used government funds to build a low-income housing empire in Chicago in the mid-90s. In 1996, Obama became an Illinois State Senator in a district that held 11 of Rezko's 30 low-income housing projects. According to the New York Times: "Mr Obama insists he never used his office to do favors for Mr. Rezko but admits that, as an Illinois State Senator, he once wrote letters to housing officials urging them to provide money in support of a proposed apartment building for elderly people which Mr. Rezko wanted to build." Sadly, Rezko's real estate empire crumbled soon after as he stopped making mortgage payments on the projects. Rezko was an early donor and supporter of Barack's political career. In 2003, Obama announced he was going to run for the U.S. Senate. Rezko held a lavish fund raiser for Barack at his mansion. According to ABC news, Rezko and people connected with him donated more than $120,000 to Obama's campaign. A few months after getting elected, Obama sought out and partnered with Rezko's wife, Rita, to buy adjacent pieces of property from a doctor in an expensive Chicago neighborhood for $1.65 million. Obama got the mansion and Rezko's wife got the vacant, adjacent lot for $625,000. Six months later, Rezko's wife sold the adjacent lot to Obama for $104,500. At the time, Rezko was rumored to be under federal investigation. Obama has since called his decision to buy the property from Rezko's wife "a boneheaded mistake" because it looked like a "favor." There is also suspicion that Rezko obtained the money for the real estate transaction from corrupt Iraqi businessman Nadhmi Auchi. Auchi, who has been convicted of corruption in France, has also been accused of being, among other things, a money launderer for Saddam Hussein and according to the New York Times provided the almost broke Rezko with a $3.5 million loan months before the transaction. Obama was indirectly mentioned in court documents detailing how Rezko obtained the $3.5 million from Auchi. In 2006, Rezko was indicted on charges that he sought kickbacks from companies seeking state pension fund business. Federal prosecutors maintain that money from the kickback scheme was donated to Obama's campaign. Barack has subsequently given $150,000 of Rezko's donated funds to charity. Bill Ayers: Bill Ayers was a member of the radical, leftist, anti-Vietnam War group: the Weather Underground in the 1970s. He and his wife spent 10 years as fugitives for their roles in bombing the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol, the N.Y. City Police Headquarters and several more government buildings. Ayers and his wife surrendered in 1980. Charges against them were ultimately dropped because of improper surveillance. Both are now high profile college professors (of course) in Chicago. That is where they met up-and-coming political superstar, Barack Obama. According to the Chicago Sun-Times: "in the mid-1990s, Ayers and Dohrn hosted a meet-and-greet at their house to introduce Obama to their neighbors during his first run for the Illinois Senate. In 2001, Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's campaign. Ayers also served alongside Obama between Dec. 1999 and Dec. 2002 on the board of the not-for-profit Woods Fund of Chicago. That board met four times a year, and members would see each other at occasional dinners the group hosted." During their time together, I wonder if Ayers relayed to Obama some of the following thoughts from his writings: "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at" or "everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon.” “The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them" or even "I don't regret setting the bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." Keep in mind that this man is currently a college professor. An attendee of the meet-and-greet at Ayers' home described Obama and Ayers as " friends… but there's no evidence their relationship is more than the casual friendship of two men who occupy overlapping Chicago political circles and who served together on the board of a Chicago foundation." The fact that Obama's political circles could overlap with someone that radical who actually bombed our government's buildings is disturbing to say the least. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright: Much has already been made of Obama's relationship with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Obama has described Wright as a friend and mentor. He has been a regular attending member of his church, the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side for over 20 years. Wright married Barack and Michelle Obama and baptized both of their daughters. Obama has donated over $27,000 personally to the church. In other words, he has had a deep, long lasting relationship with the Rev. Wright and his church. So, he must have been familiar with Wright's theories that the government created AIDS to kill off people of color, that the U.S. deserved what they got on 9-11 and that God should not bless America but damn America for killing innocent people. He must have heard Wright refer to our country as the "U.S. of KKK. A" and our sell-out Secretary of State as "ConDAMNESIA" Rice. Keep in mind that Wright said all of this from the pulpit. In order to save face, Obama has gone from saying that Wright was "like an old uncle that sometimes says things that I don't agree with" to declaring: "I don't think that my church is actually particularly controversial" to recently announcing that he is leaving his church. As Obama travels the country calling for "Change," most of us are left wondering what kind of changes Barack is intent on making. His relationships with these three people provide some insight into who he is and what he really believes. nafreepress.com