|
Harconen
|
2004
Loose Ends and Toward Washington
Obama pushes legislation in the Illinois Senate (SB 1332) to reduce the number of members of the Health Facilities Planning Board from 15 to 9, and (with the help of Tony Rezko, Stuart Levine, and Governor Rod Blogojevich) gets three of his campaign contributors appointed to the Board. One of the doctors on the board, Robert Weinstein, is later convicted, along with Stuart Levine, of embezzling millions from charities and a medical school. FBI agents record Rezko telling Levine that he influences the board. Michael Malek, one of those appointed to the board, donates $10,000 to Obama on June 3, 2003, and $25,000 to Governor Rod Blagojevich on July 25, 2003. Appointee Fortunee Massuda gives $25,000 to the governor and $2,000 to Obama. Dr. Imad Almanaseer gives $3,000 to Obama. [207, 209, 346]
During 2004, Obama illegally uses state funds for a political mailing. [97]
In 2004, Obama enters the Democrat primary for U.S. Senate. During the campaign in February, Michelle Obama sends a fund-raising letter with “alarming news” that “right-wing politicians” had passed a law preventing partial-birth abortions, which she refers to as “a legitimate medical procedure.” She asks supporters to pay $150 to attend a luncheon for her candidate husband, to help him fight against “cynical ploy(s)” to stop late-term abortions. [412]
There are 15 candidates in the primary, and Obama’s most formidable is wealthy executive Blair Hull. Obama’s campaign manager is David Axelrod, the long-time political pro in Chicago (whose frequent job had been defending Mayor Daley from charges of corruption). Hull leads in the polls, but four weeks before the primary an operative (probably Axelrod) leaks to the Chicago Tribune information that Hull’s divorce documents reveal a request for a protection order from Hull’s wife. A wife-beating assumption (whether true or not) sinks Hull, and Obama wins the primary with 52 per cent of the vote and the help of Chicago’s large black population. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Obama team had “worked aggressively behind the scenes” to push the Hull divorce story. [100, 842 p. 242; 1314]
By 2004, Obama and ACORN are old friends. Over the years Obama receives campaign support and voter registration help from ACORN. In exchange, Obama helps obtain funding for ACORN via the Woods Fund, Joyce Foundation, and the Illinois legislature, and he introduces or supports ACORN-friendly legislation (like job-killing minimum wage increases, preventing the construction of new Wal-Mart stores in poor neighborhoods that need the jobs, forcing banks to lend more to unqualified poor people and donate to voter turnout drives, fighting welfare reform and workfare rules, and imposing punitive “exit fees” for businesses that dare to relocate outside the city of Chicago). [243]
In 2004, Obama says he is “…consistently on record and will continue to be on record as opposing concealed (weapons) carry (laws),” and would back “federal legislation that would ban (all) citizens from carrying weapons, except for law enforcement.” He also votes, in March, to allow prosecution of citizens who use guns for self-defense in their own homes (SB 2165). [444, 445]
The Chicago Communist Party endorses Obama for the U.S. Senate. He also receives volunteer support from the Young Communist League. [101]
On April 3, 2004, Iraqi-born billionaire Nadhmi Auchi attends a dinner party held in his honor at the home of Tony Rezko. Obama and his wife are guests, and Obama toasts Auchi. Auchi later says he never met Obama, and Obama says he “can’t recall” attending the event. (In 2005, Auchi loans Rezko $3.5 million, three few weeks before Rezko’s wife, Rita, pays full price for an empty lot adjacent to a mansion that Obama buys on the same day.) [296, 651, 842, p. 199]
In an April 5 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Obama claims he is a Christian but states Christians “may presume a set of doctrines… I don’t necessarily subscribe to,” and strangely and egocentrically defines sin as “Being out of alignment with my values.” (Most Christians believe in their doctrines, rather than simply subscribe to them, and few would define sin as does Obama.) To the question, “Who’s Jesus to you?” Obama has said, “Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he’s also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher. Moreover, he’s also a wonderful teacher. I think it’s important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh…” That unusual answer is remarkably acceptable to Muslims. [2589, 2590, 2591, 2592]
In June of 2004, billionaire and former Nazi collaborator George Soros (who bankrolls leftist candidates and organizations like the radical Web site MoveOn.org) hosts a fundraiser in New York for Obama’s Senate campaign. Soros chips in $60,000. (George Soros was born in Hungary in 1930 and is a billionaire hedge fund manager and currency trader. He has donated millions of dollars to MoveOn.org, which brags that it owns the Democrat Party, “Now It’s Our Party: We Bought It, We Own It, And We’re Going To Take It Back.” Soros earned $2.9 billion in 2008 betting against the U.S. economy. The fortune he made trading currencies led Time magazine to call him the “Man Who Broke the Bank of England.” Soros is believed by some to be intentionally working to destroy economies in order to precipitate a move to world socialism. Soros has donated tens of millions of dollars to Democrat political campaigns and socialist causes.) [239, 2528]
Between June 26 and July 1 of 2004, Michelle Obama joins a Women’s Event panel discussion at a Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Conference held at Trinity United Church of Christ. Those in attendance include Louis Farrakhan and his wife, Khadijah, and Mrs. Jamell Meeks (wife of Reverend James Meeks). Bill Clinton and Bill Cosby speak at the conference, but at different events than Michelle Obama. Allegations later surface that Michelle Obama’s talk developed into a rant against the evils of America and how whites are to blame for Africa’s problems. The more the crowd reacted, the more rabid she became in her comments. Some claim that her repeated denunciations of “whitey” were recorded. If such comments were made and a recording exists, it has not been made public. The recording (purportedly on DVD and briefly sold via the Church Web site) allegedly reveals Michelle Obama saying, “Once again, the white man keeps us down, what’s up with Whitey, why’d he attack Iraq? Why’d he let Katrina happen? Why’d he leave millions of children behind? This is the legacy the white man gives us.” When asked about the incident, candidate Obama refused to deny that his wife made the remarks and instead criticized the reporter for asking the question, saying, “Frankly, my hope is people don’t play this game. It is a destructive aspect of our politics.” Obama’s tap-dancing suggests to some that the story is true, and arms have been twisted (or money has exchanged hands) to keep the recordings from being made public. [843, 844, 842 pp. 304–307; 2213]
|
