Barack Obama met Michelle Robinson the summer he turned 28, following his first year at Harvard Law School. On their first date, they saw Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, which was released June 30, 1989, five weeks before his 28th birthday. With her deep roots in the respectable black lower middle class of the South Side of Chicago, she was the perfect political wife for an exotic young man whose intent was to follow Harold Washington as a black mayor of Chicago.

But that raises a question: who were Obama’s girlfriends during those first 27 years and 11 months? Did he have any? The public record is curiously sparse. (more…)

The Chicago Tribune reports on the apparent suicide of Christopher Kelly, a Chicago wheeler-dealer recently sentenced to eight years in prison, and under much pressure from Patrick Fitzgerald to testify against Rod Blagojevich (and who knows who else):

After Blagojevich was elected in 2002, both Kelly and fellow fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko became the governor’s most trusted advisers. But Blagojevich often made clear that of the two, he was closest with Kelly, who in the administration’s early days had a hand in everything from cabinet appointments to gambling issues.

Having lived in Chicago for 18 years, I just think it’s unseemly for the United States of America to be represented to the world by a Chicago politician.

It’s never a bad idea to marry into the right family–take Maarten de Jeu, for an example. He is a Dutch citizen that is lucky enough to be Niranjan Shah’s son-in-law. If you haven’t heard of Niranjan Shah then keep reading!

De Jeu came to the U.S. on an H-1B visa, and he immediately got a very cushy job at the University of Illinois–a place where coincidentally Niranjan Shah is a trustee. There are more “coincidences” however!

The university paid $1,820 so that de Jeu’s H-1B visa could be expedited. It’s a program called “premium processing” that puts the visa on a fast track to approval. In UofI’s petition for de Jeu’s H-1B temporary work visa the university wrote that de Jeu would, “deliver customized training and consulting services.” The visa processing time was reduced from several months to several weeks.

You can get to know the father-in-law at the university website. They even have a picture of him.

A university spokeswoman said that the job that de Jeu was given was never offered to the American public because, “it would be difficult to find someone with that kind of talent.” She was very sure that Americans just couldn’t be found for this job even though the university never tried. Of course none of that matters now because it has become very obvious to everyone that the job was created for de Jeu.

Niranjan Shah got appointed to the U of I Board by disgraced former Governor Rod Blagojevich. Perhaps another coincidence, but Shah contributed $50,000 to the Blagojevich campaign for governor. The coincidences just keep coming! (more…)

Charging on from his rash reinstatement of Vivek Kundra as “chief information officer” despite serious questions, President Barack “I am a Desi” Obama has now come up with another young Indian to put in a position of immense power in the Federal Government IT world: Tech Industry Cheers as Obama Taps Aneesh Chopra for CTO by Amy Schatz WSJ Blogs April 18 2009.

Native-born white Americans, of course, lack the intellect for these jobs.

It appears that Chopra and Kundra worked together in the Indian-heavy Virginia Technology Secretariat. Normal business practice would incline against re associating these two, given the shadows over Kundra.

However, I applaud, because it gives me the opportunity to refer to a fairly recent story which seems to have sunk without trace in the MSM:

The Jackson $5 million? By Natasha Korecki The Chicago Sun-Times April 13 2009

asserts the recently-indicted Illinois Governor Blagojevich was told that in the interests of getting the contemptible Rep Jesse Jackson Jr., appointed Senator, there would be

$1 million for Blagojevich’s campaign fund that would come from Indian donors…Rajinder Bedi, a state employee who acted as a conduit to the Indian community for Blagojevich, sources say…met with the governor’s brother, Robert, to tell him that a longtime fund-raiser and wealthy health care businessman, Raghuveer Nayak, would help organize fund-raising within the Indian community….

Rajinder Bedi has subsequently quit – not a good sign - an event apparently reported only overseas.

Having Indians in positions of power ensures corruption – and ethnocentric discrimination. This may well prove to be the Achilles Heel of the Obama Administration.

A few years ago two associates of mine, who are long-time activists in the immigration reduction movement, met with then Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris, now sitting in President Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat thanks to the disgraced former governor of that state, Rod Blagojevich.

During this meeting, Burris agreed wholeheartedly that our present immigration policy is hurting black Americans who increasingly are losing jobs to foreigners, many of them here illegally.

The message the increasingly unpopular Burris sent during the firestorm of protest following his appointment went something like this:

“It’s important that I get this job because I will be the only black Senate voice for African-Americans in the country.” (more…)

Jonathan Rauch argues in the National Journal that Rod Blagojevich’s impeachment could have been considered “fundamentally antidemocratic.”

Suppose, at least for the time it takes to read the next several paragraphs, that the ousting of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was a political railroading. Suppose the intention, whether out of malice or opportunism or both, was to overturn the 2006 election. What, actually, would that have looked like? And how different would it have looked from what happened last week?

I think that Blagojevich is probably a crook, and so does everyone else, so the question may seem academic. But it’s not. Overturning an election is fundamentally antidemocratic and, in a democracy, potentially dangerous. When it needs to be done, the proceedings need to be objectively distinguishable from a railroading. In other words, the rules must be scrupulously fair. Otherwise, the process for removing corrupt politicians becomes, itself, indistinguishable from political corruption….

“Maybe one day it might happen to you,” Blagojevich warned the state senators. He called his removal “a dangerous precedent that could have an impact on governors in Illinois and governors in other states.”

[A Far From Unimpeachable Impeachment | Blagojevich's ouster was not a railroading, but it looked like one. by Jonathan Rauch Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009, via Volokh.com]

I already know what to think of this, because I thought about it during the Clinton impeachment. People, even conservatives, were arguing that it was wrong to impeach a president who had been “elected twice.”

Well, first of all, the only person who can be impeached is someone who’s been elected. No one ever tried to  impeach Harold Stassen, Pat Paulsen, or Strom Thurmond, because they were never elected president. Second, the only people who can impeach and remove the executive are the legislators, who are also elected. Third, a President (and to certain extent a Governor) is immune to other forms of legal action, so no one but the legislators can touch him. (Obviously Blago can be jailed by a federal prosecutor, and in fact it turns out to be easier to jail a Governor of Illinois than to impeach him.)

And finally, the only person who can replace an impeached Governor or President is the next in succession, usually a member of the same party who’s been elected specifically to for the purpose of filling out the term when the Chief Executive can’t. Vice-Presidents and Lieutenant-Governors don’t usually have much to do as long as the boss is still in office. So I’m not worried about the danger to democracy in Blagojevich’s impeachment, any more than I would have been if the Senate had voted to replace President Clinton with Vice President Gore.

Congressional candidate Rosanna Pulido isn’t exactly a dead ringer for Jefferson Smith, Jimmy Stewart’s character in Frank Capra’s 1939 classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Like Smith, Chicagoan Pulido has plenty of fire in her belly, but that’s where any similarity ends.  There is none of the naïveté shown by Smith early in the film as Pulido strives to sell her message of “common sense” to the residents of Illinois’ 5th Congressional District who, until recently, had been represented by Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff.  She is among 26  candidates vying for Emanuel’s seat in a March 3 primary.  A special election will be held April 7.

Born and raised in the district she hopes to represent, Pulido, who is of Mexican descent, is no stranger to the political maneuvering one encounters when it comes to major issues that have been dividing Americans for decades:  abortion (she’s pro-life) and the 2nd Amendment (she favors gun ownership).  She ’s also been active in the areas of veterans care and seniors issues, and she opposes same sex marriage.

“I’m not beholden to either party,” says Pulido, who is running on the GOP ticket. She said she preferred to run as an independent, but the Chicago Democratic Machine has made it difficult to stray from the two-party system.  Pulido says in Chicago  independent candidates must gather 1,700 signatures on their petitions compared with the 319 signatures she needed.

“I’ve done all my own leg work and used my own money,” Pulido says. ”I’m not afraid to knock on doors. My job is to give the voters what they want - the truth.”

The one issue that has put Pulido in the public eye is her tireless effort to educate Illinoisans about the illegal immigration crisis in her state.  She was among the first of the Minutemen to visit this country’s border with Mexico in April 2005 and is founder of the Illinois Minuteman Project.  She’s also the Chicago representative for “You Don’t Speak for Me,” a national organization of Hispanic-Americans opposed to illegal immigration.

“Don’t get me started,” she says on her web site. “Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. It hurts American workers and legal immigrants. It hurts the taxpayers of Illinois to the tune of 3.5 BILLION dollars a year. We must give American workers a break and demand that every business uses E-Verify which allows businesses to check if their potential employee is legal to work in the United States.”

Political campaigns, especially those carried out in freezing temperatures and on shoestring budgets, require great stamina and a sense of humor to deal with the unexpected.  In Pulido’s case, the unexpected came from Joshua Hoyt, Illinois’ leading anarchist and apologist for illegal aliens, who late last month challenged most of the signatures Pulido had submitted and calling her
a “bitter personal failure” and a “cynical bully.” Hoyt also talked out of the other side of his mouth when he noted in his challenge  that “we are a nation of laws.”

However, the Cook County Clerk’s Office Feb. 5 ruled in favor of Pulido.

“We are just glad that the democratic process prevailed, providing more choice for voters,” Pulido says.  “We look forward to running a strong, common sense campaign for the people of the 5th District.”

Shouting Thomas points out that John Kass, Mike Royko’s successor as Chicago tough guy columnist, has been writing about how Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is not going peacefully into that good night. Already, Blago has wormed his appointee Roland Burris into the U.S. Senate. Can he save himself?

Blago has been trying to head off impeachment by threatening to squeal on a wide array of Illinois politicians. Kass writes:

He also lobbed a few warning shots toward the Obama White House, saying he could prove his innocence, if only the Illinois Senate would allow him the right to question the president’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, about discussions concerning appointments for Obama’s old Senate seat.

… It’s also laughable to see others who know better denounce him as a psycho. They just don’t get it. As I’ve said before, the governor is of clear mind.

On “The View” he issued a threat to his estranged father-in-law, Ald. Dick Mell (33rd), the man who made him. The governor said his political problems began after he blocked an illegal landfill supported by Mell. That may have slipped past all the pretend Chicago political experts, but it didn’t slip past Chicago politicians. They know a threat when they hear it.

Yet it is what Gov. Nosferatu told NBC over the weekend that surely terrifies Illinois politicians:

“And for me to just quit because some cackling politicians want to get me out of the way because there’s a whole bunch of things they don’t want known about them and conversations they may have had with me . . . would be to disgrace my children when I know I’ve done nothing wrong,” said the governor.

I’ve got an idea for a show like “The View” that would be so scary, our politicians would demand emergency government subsidies for Depends.

Instead of lumpy comics touching his hair, how about four tough, bright female federal prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s public corruption squad interviewing a cooperating Gov. Nosferatu for hours in the federal building?

Mayor Richard Daley and the other “cackling politicians” could watch. Taxpayers might think it a comedy, but politicians know that true horror can be just a witness away.

(more…)

[Bill] Richardson, who is the governor of New Mexico, is facing a federal grand jury investigation into whether he exchanged government contracts for contributions to his failed presidential bid last year.

NBC News on Sunday reported that Richardson denies any wrongdoing but the investigation won’t be finished before he has to go to a Senate confirmation hearing.

“Let me say unequivocally that I and my administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact,” Richardson told NBC News. “But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process….”

The Associated Press reported last month that a grand jury is investigating whether the California firm CDR Financial Products paid to push through a contract with the state of New Mexico.

Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh told FOX News that with the cloud lingering over the Obama transition because of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s alleged attempts to sell Obama’s vacated Senate seat, the Richardson nomination would have been another unwanted distraction.

Richardson “was going to have a very difficult time getting through this nomination,” Marsh said. “People really haven’t looked at the Richardson situation and the more they looked at it, the more they realized” confirmation was going to be a problem.[Bill Richardson Withdraws as Commerce Secretary-Designate, Fox News, January 4, 2009]

There’s an unwritten political law, whereby an elected official is supposed to wait at least until he has been sworn in and enjoyed some honest graft, before having his first scandal. It is typical of the hubris of “Barack Obama” to ignore such hard-won common sense.

And it is typical of the hubris of the socialist MSM that they really haven’t looked at the ramifications of an “Obama” presidency, because the more they would have looked at it, the more they would have realized that it was going to be going to be a problem.

The ABC station in Chicago reports:

By Chuck Goudie

The ABC7 I-Team has learned that an attorney who went undercover for the FBI in the late 1980’s says he told federal authorities years ago about wrongdoing by Blagojevich.

His name is Robert Cooley.

Cooley was a criminal defense lawyer in Chicago in the late 1980’s who became one of the most potent witnesses against Chicago corruption, testifying for federal prosecutors in cases that resulted in dozens of convictions.

Cooley says that before Rod Blagojevich got into politics he was a bookmaker on the North Side who regularly paid the Chicago mob to operate.

“When I was working with government wearing wire, I reported, I observed Rod, the present governor, who was running a gambling operation out in the western suburbs. He was paying street tax to the mob out there,” said Robert Cooley, federal informant.On a web-based interview show last week, Cooley said he reported to federal authorities nearly two decades ago that Rod Blagojevich had been operating an illegal sports gambling business.

During Operation Gambat in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Cooley’s undercover work and testimony put away 24 crooked politicians, judges, lawyers and cops.

Several years ago, when Mr. Blagojevich was running for re-election, Cooley provided the same information to the ABC7 I-Team. Because Cooley did not want to be identified at the time and the governor denied it, ABC7 did not report the story.

On Tuesday, Cooley spoke on the record.

He told ABC7 that Mr. Blagojevich regularly paid a so-called street tax to Robert “Bobby the Boxer” Abbinanti, a convicted outfit gambling collector. In the early 1980’s, Abbinanti was working for convicted West Side mob boss Marco D’amico. Bookies pay street taxes to the crime syndicate in exchange for being allowed to operate such a racket.

“I predicted five years ago when he ran the first time that he was a hands on person who would be selling every position in the state of Illinois and that it exactly what happened,” said Cooley.

This is the caliber of human being who becomes a successful Illinois politician. And, therefore, this is the type of man that Barack Obama, with every option in the world open to him, chose to spend his days in alliance with, so burning was Obama’s hunger for power.

I moved to Chicago three years before Obama and had a lovely time there. But never once did I ever consider becoming a Chicago politician. I can’t recall ever meeting anybody in Chicago who grew up elsewhere who said they had ever thought of becoming a Chicago politician. It no more occurred to us than to apply for membership in the Chicago Outfit. But Obama spent three years at Harvard Law School telling everybody that he was going back to Chicago to become mayor.

It’s not as if Obama wanted to be a reformer, like his predecessor in the U.S. Senate, Peter Fitzgerald, who brought Patrick Fitzgerald to town to be Eliot Ness. Obama didn’t want to change the rules of Illinois politics; he wanted to win at Illinois politics.