Showing posts with label Allison Davis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Allison Davis. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

State of the Union: 14 shot in Chicago Over the Weekend

Image result for rahm is zorro

So, La-La Land is runner up.

Gee.

CVS is closing 11 stores in poor black neighborhoods. The Sun Times will not mention this.

Parkway Gardens is still O Block. However, Angela Caputo will never connect the dots back *to Habitat, HUD, Allison Davis and Valerie Jarrett. 

14 Chicagoans were killed since last Friday.

City of Chicago employees have had their pensions looted by elected officials from RMD (Richie of Mass Destruction) to RIE (Rahm Ignores Everything)

I am a City of Chicago employee. I am not the enemy, I am not the problem. You, the Government, have been raiding my pension fund whenever you need money. You, the Government, mismanaged your money. I also pay into my retirement every paycheck. I follow the rules you set up and we agreed to. Now you want to blame me for our State's/City's money woes and steal from my retirement benefits? If you are a public employee/retiree please copy and paste as your status. Facebook: 

And President Trump had absolutely nothing to do with any of the above.

Still, Chicago's two papers remain thick with Trump Toxicology teases.  Even the epic-ly empty Michael Sneed is offering rhetoric lessons to President 45 and Rahm Emanuel, who stood with the owners of Parkway Gardens in 2013, the privatized real estate development of a former HUD housing project, a pet Valerie Jarrett project,** remains bullet proof in both papers.

The State of the Union will be whoopee cushion for the media.


Chicago will keep on keepin' on.


Wonder what March will bring?

Now, who lives in La-La Land?


*Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama's presidential campaign and a member of his finance committee. Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this 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."Government is just not as good at owning and managing as the private sector because the incentives are not there," said Jarrett, whose company manages more than 23,000 apartments. "I would argue that someone living in a poor neighborhood that isn't 100 percent public housing is by definition better off." Boston Globe 2008

**Valerie JarrettWho Am I?
Chicago Medical Center As Well.” (Jay Newton-Small, “Campaign Insider,” Time, 4/7/08)
“Chicago Is In The Running For The 2016 Olympics … One Of Obama’s Top Advisers, Valerie Jarrett, Is The Vice Chair Of Chicago’s Bid Committee.” (Lynn Sweet, “McCain, Obama, Clinton All Push Bush On China Games,” Chicago Sun-Times, 4/10/08)
Under A Plan Devised By The City Of Chicago And Habitat Co., “The City Has Lost More Than 13,000 Housing Units For The Poor.” (Jason Grotto and Laurie Cohen, “Obama Adviser Shapes City Housing Policy,” Chicago Tribune, 7/5/08)
•”Habitat Has Earned $6.8 Million In Fees And $10.8 Million In Administrative Expenses Since The Plan Started In 2000, According To The U.S. Department Of Housing And Urban Development.” (Jason Grotto and Laurie Cohen, “Obama Adviser Shapes City Housing Policy,” Chicago Tribune, 7/5/08)
“Jarrett Is The Chief Executive Of Habitat Co., Which Managed Grove Parc Plaza From 2001 Until This 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.” (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim Proving Ground For Obama’s Housing Policy,” The Boston Globe, 6/27/08)
•”In 2006, Federal Inspectors Graded The Condition Of [Grove Parc] An 11 On A 100-Point Scale – A Score So Bad The Buildings Now Face Demolition.” (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim Proving Ground For Obama’s Housing Policy,” The Boston Globe, 6/27/08)
“[Jarrett] Has Also Served As Chair Of Both The Chicago Transit Board And The Chicago Stock Exchange.” (Jay Newton-Small, “Campaign Insider,” Time, 4/7/08)
“[M]ayor Richard Daley Thursday Announced The Merger Of The City’s Planning Department And Economic Development Department, To Be Headed By Valerie Jarrett, His Former Deputy Chief Of Staff.” (Robert Davis, “Daley Merges Planning, Economic Development Staffs,” Chicago Tribune, 10/11/91)


Saturday, October 08, 2016

Pensions Looted for Profit is Re(a)d Meat - Tim Novak Rides Again!

9-12-09 Three City of Chicago Water trucks sit outside of a a warehouse at 3348 s Pulaski. Brian Jackson/Chicago Sun-Times



“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. (Davis is also Obama’s former boss.)…

"The old social actionists are largely men of action, doers, not talkers. The new social actionists are intellectuals...They are masters at manipulating words and sometimes ideas...They are fervent crusaders." Andrew Greeley - "Catholic Social Action"

I rarely agreed with Fr. Andy Greeley.  Social change is brought about by people who actually, not virtually, do good. Real people, like Father George Clements and  Fr. Dan Mallette actually Marched for Civil Rights with Dr. King, because they followed clerics like Bishop Bernard Shiel who founded CYO - he did not advocate for it.  People in the action have little to do with "do-gooders' who never seem to leave the plush Oak Park and Hyde Park dens. It is easier to get behind masters at manipulating words and sometimes ideas. 
Image result for allison davis and valerie jarrett
Newspapers rarely talk about people in the action, other than snag a quote that justifies the words of an Advocate, Activist, or Office Holder.  Most columnists go to the pap of preachy, pontificating poltroon's who give good prose, like Claypool, Quigley, Schakowsky, Durbin, Quinn and Mell in Chicago because they are policy people and do-gooders. Pap is easy to read and nod-with-ruminent conviction and chew the cud of vegan issues.  A few, like John Kass of the Chicago Tribune, go to people in the action and presents their lives and struggles mired in the bog created by policy wonks.

Investigative journalists, the best anyway, go where facts have ignited a prairie fire.  The worst are jigsaw puzzle masters of making facts fit a narrative.

Reporters, investigative reporters, connect the dots hidden from the public.  Even those of us who read and remember quite a bit have not the time, nor the opportunity to often go 'beyond' the story.  People must do their jobs, raise their kids and the millions of dollars of taxes Progressive thinking political insiders loot from the commonwealth.

I am a pathological reader, I read everything from Cosmo to Commonweal, from Pepsodent tubes to the runic script on top of light bulbs.  Love to read.

I also love to read works that have something to do with the truth.  Editorial boards tend to present only a prefabricated package of political proselytism - Vote for Kim Foxx, or Mark Kirk is not really Dick Durbin's purse puppy.

The Chicago Sun Times, in my opinion, has the wackiest Editorial policy mandate that seems to have been crafted by retired and bonged-up Weather Underground and Catholic Call to Action cranks.  That's just me.

However, I believe that the Sun Times has the best investigative reporters Dan Mihiapoulos, Chris Fusco and Tim Novak, when they are not saddled with editorial constraints, or Andy Shaw and Carol Marin.

Tim Novak is a terrier.  He is the only reporter in Chicago to maintain a jeweler's eye on the connections between the political grifters and the Progressive machine emanating from Hyde Park and Kenwood.Image result for allison davis and valerie jarrett

The Fifth Floor, Real Estate, TIFs,  Big banking, the CHA, Slum Lording, Chicago's Department of Planning and Development and the White House are all players with the peoples pensions.
Image result for allison davis and valerie jarrett
Sewer deals for Daley cousins seem as nothing compared to Valerie Jarrett.

Today, Tim Novak keeps the heat on the most powerful people plaguing Chicago.

Over the past nine years, two nephews of former Mayor Richard M. Daley have been involved in separate plans to redevelop a rundown warehouse on 15 acres of polluted land in Little Village just north of the Stevenson Expressway.
It hasn’t turned out well for Chicago taxpayers.
First, taxpayers have to make up for $4.2 million in city pension money invested on behalf of teachers, police officers and other city workers that ended up squandered on failed development plans involving Daley’s oldest nephew, Robert G. Vanecko.
Now, taxpayers stand to lose another $4.1 million on the same property at 3348 S. Pulaski Rd. That’s the amount of a property-tax break given to a second redevelopment deal for the site.
This one involves Vanecko’s first cousin, Patrick Daley Thompson, an attorney who helped the developers get the tax cut last year shortly before he was elected alderman of the 11th ward — the family’s power base for six decades.

Well them boys are "in the action."  Not for social good, but for profit in the name of Progress. There is so much more and Tim Novak delivers! He connects the dots of the contemporary ledger and double book accounting to the days of yore and actually gives us context that a Chicagoan can sink teeth into and gnaw healthy opinion into being - we are screwed not by the usual suspects, but by the do-gooders!

 The story of how the polluted Pulaski Road property became toxic for Chicago taxpayers begins in 2004, when Daley was still mayor. That’s when Vanecko — his sister’s oldest son — went into business with Allison S. Davis, the Chicago attorney who gave President Barack Obama his first job out of Harvard Law School, and Davis’ son Jared Davis.
Operating under the name DV Urban Realty Partners, their idea was to redevelop properties in some of Chicago’s most downtrodden neighborhoods. And they were aiming to get government pension funds to invest $100 million to bankroll their plans.
They had a hard time securing investments from pension funds, though, until the Chicago Teachers Retirement System agreed in early 2005 to put in $25 million of the money it held toward teachers’ retirement pay.

Then, the pension funds for police officers, municipal employees, city laborers and the Chicago Transit Authority also agreed to invest.
Altogether, the Davises and Vanecko wound up with $68 million from five public pension funds.
Man, if the editorial will of Chicago newspapers matched the grit of some of it's reporters, maybe a couple of dollars might be left in the kitty at the end of a Moody's evaluation.

This is meaty wholesome goodness in font!  It will put off the vegan offal digestions of 'edgy,whip-smart and Progressive voices in our city.

Eat more Chicago! Thanks for the red meat, Mr. Novak!

Monday, February 29, 2016

Sun Times Editorials Add Up, Only If You You Really Stink At Math


I took a sound beat down every day from Sisters Doralese and Gertrudis, ( Sisters of Mercy ,bye the by) through Sixth and Seventh Grades at Little Flower Grammar School in the mid-1960's, due to my profound inabilities where numbers are concerned.

Pay attention, or I'll give something to whimper about . . .' take the sum of any . . . .' and shave that mustache, Boyo!

In Eight Grade, I took B Honors, because the nun I had thought that I was someone else and graded accordingly.

I did learn to add, subtract, multiply and divide and fractions.

The Editorial Board of the Chicago Sun Times?  I would have been proud to have them sit around around me in those swell desks bolted to the hardwood of Little Flower.  I would have been spared a few cuts and thrashings, from the two Irish women, my Bogman Grandpa Hickey called 'Life's Unplucked Flowers,' when women were present, or 'hairy-faced old Galway Bitches,' between the two of us.

The Chicago Sun Times thumps its Saltine-like chest and thunders like Governor Le Petomane in Blazing Saddles, because the Workers Compensation Payouts are not like New York City's and that the Finance Committee is operating according to the rules of its charter.

The City paid out a whopping 115 million dollars 2011, but no where in the editorial is proof of illegality.

What the editorial amounts to is this - the City is bleeding dollars from the public schools, the CTA and special relationships like this between Friends of Richie Daley and Valerie Jarret in real estate swindles that add up actual theft.

In same edition is Watchdogs ( Tim Novak who investigated Obama/Rezko/Jarret/Allison Davis slum real estates in 2008, but magically vanished around election day), but appears again with Vanecko lad, in keeping with the  paper's Kochman bleatings.

The editorial deals with John Dewey Math (there might be theft Q.E.D. there is!) and Watchdogs in math that Archimedes could understand.

Now, Lookee H'yar!
Here’s how the Davises and Vanecko handled the pension money, according to documents obtained over the past nine years from the five pension funds.

• $9.9 million was lost on the purchase of the 344-unit building at 1212 S. Michigan Ave. Using pension money, Davis and Vanecko paid $65.2 million in September 2006 to buy it — and sold it about five years later for $65.5 million. The pension funds never got any money from the sale.

• $2.8 million was lost on two loans to the owners of the Chicago Defender’s former home, a boarded-up building at 2400 S. Michigan Ave. It’s unclear why DV Urban lent pension money to developers Brian O’Connell of LaGrange and his partner, Matthew A. O’Malley, a politically connected restaurateur who has been battling City Hall over a sweetheart deal to operate the Park Grill restaurant in Millennium Park. After a bank foreclosed on the Defender building, O’Connell and O’Malley sold the property in 2014. The pension funds didn’t get any money from the sale.

• $2.65 million helped DV Urban pay $11.7 million in 2007 for a commercial building at 217 N. Jefferson St. The building was sold last year for $14.5 million — one of the deals that helped the pension funds recover $6 million.

• $6.5 million was used by DV Urban toward $11.5 million it paid for a 162-unit apartment building at 7100 S. South Shore Dr. It was sold last year for $6.75 million, helping return some money to the pension funds.

• $3.5 million went toward $4.2 million DV Urban paid for the stores at 3508 S. State St., part of the CHA’s redevelopment of Stateway Gardens. The pension funds hope to sell the land this year.

• $16.9 million went to loans to developers of 3030 N. Broadway, where a Mariano’s store is being built, and to buy adjacent land at 3013-17 N. Waterloo. The property is expected to be sold this year.

• $4.2 million was invested with the firm Sydney Partners, which paid $10.5 million for a 15.6-acre industrial property at 3348 S. Pulaski. DV Urban leased part of the space to the city. But, beset by environmental problems including polluted soil, the property was sold for just $5.4 million in 2014, and the pension fund money was lost.

• $4.5 million was earmarked to buy the former headquarters of the National Association of Letter Carriers’ Chicago branch at 1411 S. Michigan, next door to the Chicago Firehouse restaurant owned by O’Malley. The deal ended up in court when DV Urban backed out of the deal, asking the letter carriers to return the money — which the union had used to build its new headquarters. The lawsuit was settled out of court, but the pension funds lost all of their money.

Now, I was taught round off decimals at .5 and adding these here figures comes to -

$30 M in losses from City Worker Contributions to Pension Funds - no how about that?  Might call for a old timey stem-winder of an editorial!

Instead, Michael Shakman beefed that he was not getting his cut from Ed Burke's Finance Committee and the harrumphing went viral.

$ 30M is a not, to be sure, a whopping 115 million dollars paid out to workers compensation claims according to the existing law and rules, but $30M in real loss to people who trusted politicians and had their savings picked clean by Progressively Approved Valerie Jarrett slumlords, just might be investigation worthy of city newspaper.  Nah.  Gentlemen, we goota protect our phoney baloney jobs!

Now, here is smelly part.  While cops and school teachers took an investment beating that would have warmed cold-hearts of the two above-mentioned Sisters of Mercy.

Valerie Jarret's slum-lord partner ( Valerie is somehow absent from Tim Novak's investigation) Allison Davis and one of the Vanecko boys made out like porch-climbers.


“The investment was effectively a total loss for DV Urban,” says Miller-May of the teachers pension fund.
DV Urban was paid $8 million in management fees between 2006 and 2012, when the pension funds got permission from a Delaware judge to fire the company.
A little over $1 million, for property-management fees, went to a company owned by Cullen Davis*, another Davis son, who oversaw some of the apartment buildings bought with pension money.
Another $1.7 million went to two companies, including Newport Capital Partners, to manage the DV Urban portfolio and sell off the assets in an effort to recover as much money as possible for the pension funds.
Beyond the money lost on the investments with DV Urban, the pension funds also had to pay $2.5 million for attorneys who fought the firm for two years in courtrooms from Chicago to Delaware over control of the real estate investments.
That's $13 million in money looted from City Workers and tucked in the wallets of slumlords added to $30m in losses comes to a very real $ 43 M beat down of City Workers, not a possible boondoggle.

Where is the editorial on this one?  Somethings don't add up.  Like editorial three-monte providing cover for Rahm, while doing absolutely nothing.

Alderman Ed Burke is playing according to the rules approved by the City of Chicago and he does seem worried a bit nor should he.  He knows this is not newspaper, but a daily political fog machine.

* Like the Ayers/Obama papers held hostage at Cement City, better late than never.
Whenever I am near a Progressive Do-Gooder, I throw both hands over the Left check of my ass to protect my wallet.
Whenever a Progressive Do-Gooder gets near poor people, they rake in millions, properties get boarded up, and people die.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Berkeley Balcony Tragedy Will Show Political Dry-Rot At Its Core


The remnants of the Library Gardens apartment building balcony that collapsed. Inset: The six students who lost their lives in the tragic accident, top left to bottom right: Lorcan Miller, Eoghan Culligan, Nick Schuster, Ashley Donohoe, Eimear Walsh and Olivia Burke



Many things, for aught I know, may exist, whereof neither I nor any other man hath or can have any idea or notion whatsoever. Bishop George Berkely


Six Irish students on summer Visas died when a balcony collapsed and the New York Times saw fit to make a mockery of their deaths. The kids were accused of rowdy behavior and drunkenness and program for which they had applied was called into question.  The New York Times was worried about Berkeley - the college named for the 18th Century Irish Bishop and empiricist philosopher, but George Berkeley has not yet been accused of being 'loaded.'

The New York Times went far beyond the report of the deaths and Ireland demanded an apology and got one from Grey Lady that is similar to Rachel Dolezal's non-apology.

I think the New York Times took a very agitated and worrisome phone call from a political wheel just before print time.

You see political grifters, lawyers, activists and bundlers are deep in real estate.

Chicago readers might remember the death of a little black boy when a rusted gate of slum property fell on him. That property was managed by Cullen Davis, son of Allison Davis - the man who gave Barack Obama his shove into the White House.  Valerie Jarrett controls slum properties.

A tall, rusted steel gate that fell and crushed a 3-year-old boy to death at the Cabrini-Green public housing complex failed a building code inspection Monday, said Bill McCaffrey, spokesman for the Chicago Department of Buildings.
The gate at the Cabrini-Green rowhouses in the 900 block of North Cambridge Avenue fell on Curtis Cooper at about 5:30 p.m. Friday; he was pronounced dead less than an hour later in Children's Memorial Hospital. . . .
The CHA property has been managed for about two years by Urban Property Advisors. The firm is run by Cullen Davis, who is the son of influential city developer Allison Davis.
"If Chicago Housing Authority had been monitoring their properties, public housing wouldn't be in the shape it is in now," Steele said. "If they had been monitoring UPA, that gate wouldn't have fell."
UPA manages properties all over Chicago. The Davis family stands to make millions as part of CHA's Plan for Transformation, the city's ambitious effort to demolish high-rise public housing and replace it with mixed-income communities.
UPA Property Manager Ronald O'Neal and CHA spokesman Derek Hill declined to comment on Monday's failed building inspection.

Property is political capital and slum property is pure gold.  Note the rotted wooden support beams on the Berkley Building

I hope that Irish journalists crawl into the facts behind the rotten owners of the apartments and the amounts of cash they paid out to politicians -City, State and Federal -and bring the truth to light.

The wood rot begins on the pages of the newspapers providing cover for politicians.

At the end of day, I believe that a politician, political bundlers and the New York Times will have much to explain.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Val -"Des Ain't Coming!" Brand Obama 2012 - The I in Team!

Brand Obama Proves It!

Big Val Jarrett Wedding Do on Saturday and Brand Obama - The I in Team Regime will be there, but not the gal who minted the term.

But Desiree Rogers, the first African-American to become the White House Social Secretary, has been dissed.
◆Translation: Rogers has not been invited to the backyard Kenwood wedding this weekend for the daughter of the ultimate White House insider/Rogers’ former “closer-than-glue” best friend, White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett.

Dang. Neither me nor Desiree Rogers were invited to Val Jarrett's daughter's wedding.  I did not expect an invitation, but I am sure that Desiree Rogers did.  Allison Davis, the Slumdog Millionaire and Obama's Progressive Chinaman, will be there along with Brand Obama folks.

It is said to be a Hyde Park backyard affair, which in my experience tends to be about as fun and friendly as a Cash-bar Quaker Rage Encounter Group.  I expect that Val will have pairs of Mormon Missionaries on the stools of the dunk tanks and MSNBC anchors blowing balloon animals for the kids.

Desiree will more than likely go to Millennium Park for the free concert on Saturday*.  I'm going to soak up some Liszt, Schuman, Handel and Gandolfini - no not the guy from the Sopranos. Poor Desiree. I picture Ms. Rogers wearing her dependable yellow Wellingtons from her Peoples Gas days, walking sadly but stoically smiling above an elegant outfit and them knock-out Peoples Gas yellow-rubber boots strolling between blankets and porto-lounger chairs in a vain attempt to coax an invitation to join a parliament of culture vultures like me and my pals for some Triscuits, olive loaf and Velveeta Cubes washed down with chilled Country Club Malt Liquor. Brand Hickey is welcoming, but certainly not presumptuous.
Remember these two scamps and vamps? No longer BFFes.

Desiree minted Brand Obama and Brand Obama turned around and smelted** Desiree out of the Obama (MY) White House. Well she most be in pain over the slights to her efforts, but Desiree will never be caught dumpster diving. She's fine - CEO Will Travel and Has Traveled.

President Obama of Brand Obama calls it his White House. What happened to that lefty Peoples White House, or was it Some Peoples White House?

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I have never really cottoned to Barack Obama, though we have met more than a few times.  I have been always 'underwhelmed' by the gent.  Nice guy.  There's millions of nice guys.  He never struck me as an intellectual titan and reminded me of Flounder in movie Animal House -


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As a State Senator, about 2003, I quess,  I had to squire Mr. Obama to the ring in order to present trophies to two boxers.  State Rep. Kevin McCarthy Leo '68) presented the previous bout's awards.  The future White House occupant, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Chief Executive asked me upon approaching the square ring, "Where's the gate?"

Between the ropes Senator.  Smartest guy in them shoes! Kevin McCarthy, and eight other VIPS as well as sixteen boxers had climbed through the ropes previously.  I do pick a nit.

Well that's just pee in the Wheaties, as they say.

I have the same job I had when President Obama was stamping his name on Woods Fund and Annenberg Challenge stationary under the watchful eye of Billy Ayers, when lost both cheeks of his ass to Bobby Rush, when he was wedged in as State Senator and smoothed over Danny Hynes for U.S. Senator, when he eclipsed the then very tubby Jesse Jackson Junior at John Kerry's Run- DNC Convention, when he won the Presidency over John McCain, whom I backed- more fool me - and when he took the oath of Office and launched Desiree Rogers' Brand Obama.  Yep, much work to be done for Leo High School.

Brand Obama 2012 has no room for Desiree Rogers.  That seems just mean. Barred from a backyard fete in Hyde Park.  Well, if I see her wandering around Millennium on Saturday night, I offer the poor thing a some olive loaf/Velveeta canapes and a frosty can of Country Club ML. (Note to Steve Jordan - DO NOT get Mickey's Big Mouths - get the Country Club - it matters)

So long as Barack "Where's the Gate?" Obama is my Commander in Chief, he can determine whom one should and may invite to any Hyde Park Hootenanny.  It is His White House.

*
WHEN
Friday, June 15, 2012, 6:30pmSaturday, June 16, 2012, 7:30pmOpen Rehearsal: Tuesday, June 12, 2012, 3:00pm – 5:30pm
Open Rehearsal: Thursday, June 14, 2012, 10:30am – 1:00pm
Open Rehearsal: Friday, June 15, 2012, 11:00am – 1:30pm
Fundraiser: Friday, June 15, 2012, 8:00pm
Club 615: Saturday, June 16, 2012, 6:15pm – 7:00pm
WHERE
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
* Club 615: Choral Hall
WHO
Grant Park Orchestra And Chorus
Carlos Kalmar, Conductor
Christopher Bell, Chorus Director
WHAT

Liszt: Les PréludesSchuman: A Free SongHandel: Royal Fireworks MusicGandolfi: Only Converge: An Exaltation of PlaceProgram Notes 

**Smelting involves more than just melting the metal out of its ore. Most ores are a chemical compound of the metal with other elements, such as oxygen (as an oxide), sulfur (as a sulfide) or carbon and oxygen together (as a carbonate). To produce the metal, these compounds have to undergo a chemical reaction. Smelting therefore consists of using suitable reducing substances that will combine with those oxidizing elements to free the metal.




http://www.lipstickalley.com/f15/desiree-rogers-snubbed-dissed-former-bff-valerie-jarrett-404283/
http://www.neatorama.com/2012/06/13/there-is-an-i-in-team/





Monday, February 20, 2012

News Man Tim Novak - The Only Eye-on Allison Davis




It’s been six years since five Chicago government pension plans hired DV Urban Realty — a start-up investment firm founded by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew Robert G. Vanecko and President Barack Obama’s friend and former boss Allison S. Davis — to manage $68 million in retirement funds.

Those investments haven’t gone well for the pension funds that represent Chicago teachers, police officers, other city employees and transit workers. The funds have paid DV Urban a total of $7.2 million, including $4.7 million in fees to manage the small share of the pension funds’ money and another $2.5 million for a sister company to oversee the operations of three buildings bought with pension money.

Pension officials — including Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s two top financial advisers — are unhappy. By their estimation, the value of the funds’ real estate investments with DV Urban has fallen by 28 percent, or about $19 million.
(emphasis my own)

President Obama's pal and former boss ripping off the folks? Well, hush my beak!

That is news Goo-goos, Go-Alongs and their Media cheerleaders want hushed up.

I never hear Thundering Dick Simpson rail against real corruption around this burg. I never hear Abner Mikva beef about the cozy Progressive bed-bugs that have dominated the bad old Democratic Machine's mattress for decades.

Blago, Rezko, and Daley relatives get plenty of news ink, but only the great Tim Novak of the Chicago Sun Times keeps his choppers locked on the butts of IVI-IPO champion boondoggler Allison Davis.

God Bless Tim Novak! Now, if only an editorial board in this Crossroads of Crusading Crooks would grow a pair on tenth the size of the set Tim Novak is packing, we'd be informed.

It seems, Allison Davis is everywhere Federal, State and Local tax-dollars get dumped into a sanctioned cache of cash - HUD Money, Pension Funds, and Save the Children coffee cans. The Sun times Editorial Board did Old Allison a solid and did not post his photo along with Tim Novak's report. That Allison Davis up above with post shine -box President Obama.

Allison Davis is bullet-proof with Medill School Power Rangers and Bruce Dold's Chicago Tribune Editorial Morning Zoo Crew.
Davis Père ( his boy Cullen was briefly in the jackpot when a toddler was crushed by Cullen's rusty gate) might be bullet proof, but if turns around and down he will find Tim Novak's choppers locked on his rump.

DV Urban turned a small profit — about $500,000 — when it sold one of the most valuable properties, a 344-unit apartment building at 1212 S. Michigan Ave., for $65.5 million last Nov. 30, county records show.
DV Urban bought the building using $9.9 million in money from the pension funds, records show. The pension funds will get back about $9 million from the sale, according to DV Urban’s countersuit.

Davis, 72, and Vanecko, 47, both of Chicago, founded DV Urban in 2005. Vanecko has given sworn testimony in a legal deposition that his father, Dr. Robert M. Vanecko, introduced him to Davis, a well-known lawyer and developer.


Every Chicagoan knows the names of Patrick Daley and Mr. Vanecko, but I'll be a Sacajawea Gold coin that less than a tennis double in each word has heard of Allison Davis.

Davis ran a small Chicago law firm that hired Obama after his graduation from Harvard Law School. Davis eventually left the law firm and became a business partner with one of his clients, Tony Rezko, in a venture to build affordable housing with taxpayer money.
Davis became a central figure in the trials of Rezko, a top fund-raiser for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and William F. Cellini, a longtime fund-raiser for Illinois Republicans, who were both convicted on corruption charges.According to testimony, once, during a meeting with Rezko and another Blagojevich fund-raiser, Christopher Kelly, Davis suggested they could raise money from Thomas Rosenberg, a Hollywood movie producer who also owned an investment firm that managed state pension money. Rosenberg tesified he was told he would lose his state deal unless he gave money to Blagojevich’s campaign. Cellini was convicted in the shakedown of Rosenberg. Davis was never charged with any crime.


Gee, Thundering Dick Simpson, one might get the idea that things aren't all on the square, on the up-and-up. Speak on it, Son! Testify!

Readers might also like this one from Tim Novak
http://www.suntimes.com/business/10416320-417/both-sides-file-lawsuits-in-flap-over-city-pension-fund-investments.html

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Sun Times TIF Tip - Location, Location, Location! Affordable Housing



Allison Davis* is an old timey radical and lawyer who makes millions of dollars from government funded real estate opportunities, by dint of his earnest GOO-Goo associations. Several years ago, a little boy was crushed to death by a rusted gate in a property that the hand-wringers made available to his son Cullen. That was an affordable housing moment. It has been pretty quiet on that rusted gate story of late - news embargo, the Progressive Memory Hole.

Allison Davis, of the Judson Miner connection to the halcyon days of good government when Clarence McClain shooed folks in to the Mayor Harold Washington's beefy presence and Forrest Claypool was knocking the cow pies off of his Timberlands and Slim Coleman was ducking Eddie Vrdolyak, has been larding his jeans with bucks in high-minded but essentially filthy real estate deals. Another Faulknerian sentence!

Progressives seem to steal with jolly impugnity and have a compliant news media ready to parse their coin scoopings followed by news embargoes. Editorial Boards are composed of people who believe that the Easter Bunny, Ralph Martire and Spending Dollars I Don't Have are Economic First Principles - Here is Your Sun Times Editorial Board not asking Candidate Obama anything back in 2007-2008.




Section 8 Housing is made available for poor folks in neighborhoods where tax-payers ( black, white, Latino) attempt to eke out a living and send their children to Catholic, Lutheran, Dutch or Charter Schools. Wrightwood, a black working class neighborhood, formerly known as St. Thomas More Parish, was until very recently indistinguishable from white Beverly, Mount Greenwood and Morgan Park in terms of quality of life - good schools and no crime. The empirical fact known to all, but the people who occupy editorial boards and who could care less about the realities facing the shrinking Middle Class, is that Section 8 Housing brings a spike in crime (violent and property).

There is also a Federal Agency dedicated to Housing America's poor - Housing and Urban Development - that makes foreclosures available and hosts sites that make affordable housing a warm and welcoming experience! Click my post title.

TIFs has been a political strawdog for Progressives. TIFs are meant to spur economic development in areas where the poor are underserved.

Save the hand-wringing.

Until Section 8 Housing is featured in areas where diversity is embraced and never realized - areas where people actually watch WTTW.


July 6, 2010

For years, just a fraction of Chicago's fat TIF funds has gone toward affordable housing -- despite widespread demand and need.

And when you drill deeper into that nebulous term "affordable," only a fraction of that fraction has been spent on housing for the city's poorest, according to an analysis of TIF spending from 1995 to 2007 by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

An ordinance to help chip away at that imbalance will go before a City Council committee Wednesday for a possible vote.

It deserves the City Council's full support, though some adjustments are needed to make it more workable.

We heartily endorse the broad goals of this ordinance, which would dedicate 20 percent of annual TIF funds toward affordable housing, because it targets scarce public dollars where they are needed most. Less than 10 percent of TIF dollars now go to affordable housing, according to the coalition's analysis.

The ordinance also could help boost confidence in the city's maligned Tax Increment Financing program, one of Mayor Daley's main economic development tools. In the city's 159 TIF districts, the amount of property tax dollars that goes to schools, parks and other services is frozen. Then, as property values rise, the extra tax revenue collected is set aside in a separate account to finance other public and private ventures in the name of economic development.

TIFs frequently are criticized for siphoning money from schools and the like to subsidize questionable investments that get little oversight. With this ordinance, the public would at least know how a portion of TIF funds each year would be spent.

Still, some reporting requirements in the ordinance are too weak. Verifying family income for affordable housing eligibility -- crucial to the program's integrity -- shouldn't be left solely up to developers.

Under the proposed ordinance, 20 percent of TIF dollars would be dedicated to building or preserving affordable housing, including converting foreclosed properties into affordable housing. The annual requirement would be citywide, not 20 percent per TIF district.

For rental housing, half the apartments in each development would be for families earning 50 percent or less of the area median income, which is $38,000 a year for a family of four. Citywide, 40 percent of all affordable apartments would go for families earning even less, $23,000 a year.

While well intended, we fear requiring half the rental units to be affordable might discourage development. In the end, because of market forces, most of these projects will end up 100 percent affordable, rather than including a mix of incomes. This makes the projects more expensive, harder to finance and could produce projects that don't enhance property values in a TIF district, affordable housing developers tell us.

Targeting 30 percent of units for families making $38,000 makes more business sense. We'd also lower slightly the 40 percent target for the poorest families.

We strongly recommend changing the homeownership rules. Under the proposed ordinance, 50 percent of for-sale units in a development would be for families making less than $60,000 a year. Developers tell us few families in that income range can afford to buy and maintain a home. Plus, the restriction could make the entire development prohibitively expensive.

To improve the ordinance, we'd like to see the city commit not to overly concentrate affordable developments in challenged neighborhoods. Many TIF districts are no longer blighted and are in need of affordable housing to shelter families that would otherwise be priced out.

The ordinance, pushed by a coalition of housing advocates, community groups and labor, and backed by at least 19 aldermen, is on the right track. As swaths of the city have been devastated by foreclosure and other housing subsidies are stretched thin, Chicago needs a firm commitment to produce more affordable housing.

But it must be done carefully, so it enhances development rather than hampers it.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/2467316,CST-EDT-edit06.article
Save the hand-wringing, this sounds like prelude to a public screwing, by Allison Davis and other Cadillac Commies. Just saying.

*
Nota Bene! Sun Times Investigative Reporter - Tim Novak covered Allison Davis and Cullen Davis like quality wallpaper. In fact, this helot lamented the long absence of Tim Novak's powerful work over the last summer and fall. Here is a link to my references to Mr. Novak's great work ( amended 8:53 AM 6/17/2009). I apologize for this inadvertent slight of Chicago's most tenacious news pitbull.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Marilyn Katz - Obama Radical Lands on Her Paws to Overturn Laws!


Yesterday, I posted a link to a great Pittsburgh Tribune Review article giving details to Obama's Red Kitchen Cabinet. Prominent among the 'scrubbed' radicals was Chicago's Own Marilyn Katz, as Sneed would say - A PR Maven.

For a Radical Lady dedicated to 'bringing down the American Government,' Marilyn Katz got Fat on Government -U.S. CHA ( Chicago Housing Authority) Prime. Take a look at Fat Katz's Clients especially the low-down and dirty - Katz is Land Fatz! I wonder if Tony Rezko and Allison Davis played hard on this dirt? HOUSING! LAND! SLUMLORDS! Oh My! Hey, FITZ!????????

Not-For-Profit
Case Study: Civil Rights

Bethel New Life, Inc.
CeaseFire- The Campaign to Stop the Shooting
Chicagoans Against War & Injustice
Citizens for David Orr
Hispanic Housing Development Corporation
Historic Chicago Bungalow Association
Human Rights Watch
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR)
Local Initiatives Support Corporation Chicago (CLISC)
Perspectives Charter School
Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH)
The Chicago Conservation Center
The Partnership for New Communities
University of Chicago- Employer Assisted Housing Program (EAHP)

For-Profit

O2Diesel
Peter Ascoli, Author
Residential Land Fund

Government
Case Study: City of Chicago’s Cavalcade of Homes

Chicago Housing Authority
City of Chicago Department of Environment
City of Chicago Department of Housing
City of Chicago Department of Public Health--Hepatitis Prevention Program
City of Chicago Department of Public Health--Syphilis Elimination Campaign
City of Chicago Department of Streets & Sanitation


Marilyn Katz

An aide to then-Chicago mayor Harold Washington from 1983-87, Marilyn Katz is currently a public relations professional who serves on Barack Obama’s national finance committee. In 2005, Katz and the longtime Marxist and Obama supporter Carl Davidson co-authored the book Stopping War, Seeking Justice. In conjunction with Davidson, Katz was one of the two chief organizers of the October 2002 anti-war demonstration in Chicago where Obama first went public with his opposition to the Iraq War. In 1968, Katz was head of security for the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) during the Chicago street riots that took place while the Democratic Party held its national convention in that city.

Katz, who now heads MK Communications and is a registered lobbyist with the City of Chicago, has personally contributed $1,000 to Obama for America, the eponymous candidate’s presidential campaign fund. She is also part of a fundraising team that has committed to raising a minimum of $200,000 for Obama’s campaign.

Katz has long been acquainted with Obama supporter and former Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers. In April 2008 Katz told the Chicago Sun-Times that she had first met Ayers when he was a 17-year-old fellow member of Students for a Democratic Society, "a peaceful group from which the Weather Underground splintered." (emphasis added) http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/mkatz2.html


Hope and Change! Lots of Change and Folding Money! These Folks ain't Red - They're Green!

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Ayers/Obama: Past is Prologue -Except When it Makes Obama Uncomfortable



The New York Times offers a flabby push-up, as opposed to rigorous work-out on Obama's long, close, dangerous and uncomfortable association with William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

Chicago's complex and cowardly web of convenience that weaves radicals, Private Foundations ( Woods Fund, Joyce Foundation, MacArthur and others), law firms ( Sidley & Austin,,Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland, Bluhm Center, Peoples Law Office) real estate opportunists ( Tony Rezko, Allison Davis, Cullen Davis), universities ( UICC, Northwestern, and University of Chicago), and the media ( WGN, Chicago Tribune, Medill School of Journalism) and gutless and cynical politicians ( Daley and Blagojevich) provides the cover for this long, close and dangerous association.

This corporate weave is the 'dumb-down comforter' that wraps Ayers and his odious wife in such warmth that they can stare down from their stoops at America with contempt and allow Billy the Bomber, who polka-ed all over Old Glory in the Tribune's glossy and chi-chi Chicago Magazine, to give AMERICA THE FINGER. Even a Huffington Post Obamabot Michael Shaw noticed that.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-shaw/reading-the-pictures-emny_b_131855.html

Obama is rooted to William Ayers and his political ascendancy owes more to Ayers than it does to the urban myth - Obama as Chicago Machine Politician. Obama is no more a Democratic Machine Politician than Tony Rezko is a philanthropist, or the Chicago Sun Times is a newspaper.

For all the protestations from Obama's journalists - worldwide - there has never been a serious inquiry, much less valuable study of William Ayers and his dangerous influence upon Obama by any Mainstream Media -including the cut-and-paste work of Sean Hannity.

Professor Steve Diamond and National Review's Stanley Kurtz have conducted the only real examinations of Ayers and the many other radical mentors of Barack Obama.

The Annenberg Challenge which was funded by Ambassador Walter Annenberg, himself a publisher of sorts -TV Guide and such - and the off-spring of real Chicago Gangsters - Moe Anneberg and the nephew of Max Annenberg. The lazy media dismiss the Annenberg Challenge as a Republican cover -'not just Ayers but Republicans too.'

Nuance!

Ayers and Dohrn were helped to toss their crimes against Americans into the Orwellian Memory Hole, through political convenience. Dorhn has been helping radical lawyers bring suit against Illinois taxpayers through her studies of children being assaulted by a racist Justice system that promotes police torture of blacks, inadequate legal representation for minorities at Northwestern Law School. Dorhn can not practice law. However she can yield power and influence over our courts through radical agitation methods and heavy, heavy lawsuits - Sue the City, Sue the County, Sue the racist People of America. I wish she would have stuck to C-4 as she would have done much less damage to lives and property.

Ayers bombs minds at the University of Illinois at Chicago. They got these jobs and cover of academic propriety through Law Firms - notably Sidley and Austin, where Michele Obama worked.

Obama took the path to White House holding the hands of Ayers and Dorhn.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

McCain/Palin: William Ayers Sings 'Gimme Shelter!'


William Ayers - Billy Ayers - Billy 'The Bomber' Ayers - the whack-a-mole of Barack Obama's shady past pops up all the time. Camp Obama is using its cadre of really concerned Obama partisans to shout down critics of the Agent of Change.

WGN Radio's distinguished and thoughtful Dr. Milt Rosenberg's Extension 720 has twice been assaulted by nuisance callers attempting to drown out inquiry of Senator Obama's 'White-Out' relationship with domestic terrorist Billy Ayers.

People want to know exactly what that relationship says about Obama's judgment and agenda for America - especially with regard to public education. Ayers is no friend of America - read his blog.

Chicago newspapers with exception of Sun Times investigative journalist Tim Novak and Chicago Tribune's John Kass seem perfectly willing to dismiss any and all inquiry where Obama, Ayers, Wright, Rezko, Davis, Dohrn, or any number of radical leftists are concerned. WGN is part of the Tribune Empire - therefore:

Obama's campaign says supporters have placed thousands of phone calls to TV and radio stations and sent even more letters to newspapers.

A page on the campaign's Web site, headlined "Hit 'em where it hurts," told supporters how to complain to advertisers at stations that ran a recent anti-Obama ad.

"We'll provide you with talking points on this maliciously false hit ad to help guide you through the process," the page said, citing a spot run by a conservative group called the American Issues Project.

The campaign says supporters sent roughly 100,000 e-mails in August to stations that aired the ad, which criticized Obama for his ties to former 1960s radical William Ayers.

WGN also was flooded with calls and e-mails shortly before and during an Aug. 27 interview with Stanley Kurtz, a conservative writer who has examined Obama's ties to Ayers.

"WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," read the first message confronting the station, an e-mail that also provided detailed background information on Kurtz, Obama and Ayers.

The WGN alerts were sent primarily to Obama supporters in the Chicago area but were quickly posted to electronic message boards and Web sites, spreading them worldwide. Many of those who called to complain were from outside Illinois, and they flooded the station's switchboard in a way a WGN producer called "unprecedented."

On Monday night, Zack Christenson, executive producer of "Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg," said the response was about the same. "It's just constant, constant phone calls, and the e-mails are pouring in," he said, adding that the extra volume of calls made it more difficult to run the show.

Obama's campaign describes the system as a grass-roots truth squad that arms supporters with information. But others see an attempt to stifle free speech.

"If Barack Obama demonstrates this little regard for free speech from his opponents during the campaign, what could the American people expect from him as a president?" Ed Martin, president of American Issues Project, said in a statement.

Christian Pinkston, the group's spokesman, said Martin was referring to legal threats by Obama's campaign about the ad. He said the counterattack has only heightened the profile of the group, which "soon" plans to run more ads.

"It's worth noting that for all the shouting from the campaign, not one single television station pulled the ad," Pinkston said. "It may have been good for their fundraisings efforts, but it had no impact whatsoever on our efforts."

The sole financier of the group's ads, Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, was also a major contributor to the Swift Boat group that attacked Kerry.

Fox News and CNN declined to run the ad. Still, the group says it ran more than 7,300 times in markets that covered Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, at a cost of $2.8 million.

Another use of Obama's Action Wire came earlier in August, when a controversial book called "The Obama Nation" was released.

The book by Jerome Corsi, who wrote one in 2004 that launched an attack on Kerry, paints Obama as a stealth radical liberal who has tried to cover up his "extensive connections to Islam." The alert about the Corsi book asked supporters to share an e-mail critical of the text with friends and family.

Bruce Gronbeck, a University of Iowa professor who studies political communications, said protests against television and radio stations are fair game in a presidential campaign.

"The media are players in the process," he said. "If they are a player, the parties are certainly going to try to hold them accountable."


Careful inquiry to the nature, depth, substance, and length of Senator Obama's relationship to domestic terrorist Billy Ayers is no distraction - it is a public service obligation and Chicago's media is running away from its duty.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

McCain/Palin: Want more Obama/Rezko/Jones? Get Sun Times to take the chains off of Tim Novak!



Obama has two little girls at home dying for a puppy, when he has this kennel of news poodles at the Sun Times! Not Fair!

Speaking of not fair! Toss Carol a dog Yummy! Sneed!! Sit up!

The only pit bull on the Chicago Sun Times is Tim Novak. Click my post title for a litany of Novak stories dug up out of the dirt and the dust shovelled on the truth by Obama's shills, Daley's stooges, Medill's meatheads, Ayers acolytes, and Rezko's raiders.

When little Curtis Cooper was crushed by rusty iron gate on mismanaged former CHA property, Young Cullen Davis ( Son of Allison Davis Obama's Law Boss), all fat and sassy, came to the light of day only because of Tim Novak.

Tim Novak is the real deal. When Obama had the the editorial board of the Sun Times - Sit Up! Beg! Roll-Over!!! Fetch! for him, Tim Novak was doing a newsman's job.

Free Tim Novak! Get Some News!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Obama/Rezko/Davis/Cullen Davis Gate: It Cost Taxpayers Millions of Dollars, Swings One Way,Falls Off and Killed Curtis Cooper






Neither the Chicago Tribune nor the Sun Times ( because Tim Novak is not on the story) made the connection to Barack 'One House'Obama to Tony Rezko and Allison Davis, a white guy termed 'Mayor Daley's link to the African American Community.'


Allison Davis is 'Mayor Daley's link to the African American Community.' No other links, associations, reachers-out, heads-up guys, liasons, or friends in the African American Community - Allison Davis. Allsion Davis is the go-to-guy whenever Mayor Daley needs a link to the African American Community.Not Senator Barck Obama.
Not Ike Carothers. Not Jackie Heard.Not Elzie Higginbottom.Not Dempsey Travis.

Nope Allison Davis. Allsion Davis who was Barack Obama's Law Boss. Back in April of 2007, Tim Novak was on the story and should continue to be on the story for STNG, but they want this tale to fade. Here is what Tim Novak, the only real newsman on the Sun Times, had to say about insulated Progressive lawyer Allison S. Davis.

When Barack Obama took a job at a small Chicago law firm in 1993, the first name on the door of the firm was Allison S. Davis.

Five years later, having left his Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland firm, Davis invested in Antoin "Tony'' Rezko's final government-subsidized, low-income housing project, state records show, in a deal handled by Davis' former law firm.

Davis and Rezko also went into business together, building upscale homes in the booming Kenwood neighborhood where Davis lives. The legal work on those deals was also done by Davis' former law firm, where Obama was working.

Davis, 67, and Rezko are still business partners "in a technical sense,'' Davis said in an interview, though he added, "There's nothing going on in the last couple years.''

He said he didn't recall how or when he met Rezko, a businessman and political fund-raiser under indictment on federal charges that include demanding kickbacks from companies seeking state pension investments under Gov. Blagojevich.

While Davis was running the law firm, he was also a board member of the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., a not-for-profit company that hooked up with Rezko's Rezmar Corp. on tax-supported projects to rehabilitate apartments for low-income tenants. Davis' firm handled the legal work on those housing deals.

Davis has long been an influential member of the Woodlawn community just south of the University of Chicago. His father was the university's first African-American professor. Since 1991, Davis has been a member of the Chicago Plan Commission, appointed by Mayor Daley, a friend.

Four years ago, Blagojevich appointed Davis to the Illinois State Board of Investment, which controls state pension funds -- one of a series of appointments the governor made at Rezko's request.

Tim Novak


Novak says that Davis's Pa was African American? Guess I was mistaken! Must be true - Davis ain't a white guy then. Pictures never really tell the story. Surface value journalism is also misleading. Get Novak back on the case.

Yep, Tim Novak on a story is like Sterling on Silver. He is such a pitbull that he could dig up my dreams ( don't go there, Tim).

Instead, to make any sense of the non-investigation into the death of Curtis Cooper by our propaganda journalists we need to flip to the New York Post.

Here is a piece that considers the Davis/Rezko/Obama connection important.


In October 1998, Obama wrote city and state officials, urging them to give Rezko $14 million to build an apartment complex outside of Obama's state Senate district. The Chicago Sun-Times noted last year that Obama's request included 855,000 in "development fees" for Rezko and for another developer, Allison Davis, who happened to be Obama's old law-firm boss. Obama's spokesman said it was just a coincidence that the state senator wrote letters to obtain millions of dollars for his two longtime friends. ( emphasis my own -because . . .gee, isn't that kind of a red-flag?)

In fact, Obama was a dependable ally of subsidized developers in the Legislature, giving Rezko and others broader help as well. In "The Case Against Barack Obama," I identify and parse six housing bills with which Obama was closely involved. A few examples:

* In 2001, Obama cosponsored a bill allowing developers to sell state tax credits to others and pocket half of the proceeds.
* In 2002 and 2004, he was chief cosponsor of a bill to authorize a rent-subsidy fund giving "grants . . . directly to developers" of low-income housing. Seventy percent of the money was earmarked for the Chicago area.

* Obama cosponsored the Illinois Housing Initiative Act of 2003, which required the governor to develop a plan for more low-income housing and "provide[d] for funding for housing construction and rehabilitation and supportive services."

* In 2003, Obama voted for the Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act, which required Illinois municipalities to make 10 percent of their housing units "affordable" (by definition, this included subsidized housing). This forced 46 communities just outside of Chicago to create more than 7,000 new "affordable" units - a huge boost in demand for area developers. The bill also provided loopholes for developers to circumvent local ordinances and regulations.

After voting for this measure (it passed narrowly), Obama then cosponsored a new bill that moved up its implementation by more than a year.

These and the other Obama-backed bills helped make millionaires of Rezko and other slum developers at taxpayers' expense. The developers - including his former law boss and an adviser to his current campaign - reciprocated, together giving and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for Obama's campaigns.

To sum up: Obama got them subsidies to build. He secured them a steady income of government rent subsidies. He arranged special tax credits and abatements for them. He backed measures that increased demand for their services, and helped them legally circumvent local laws.

Perhaps Obama acted with only the poor in mind. Yet some of his developer friends weren't so conscientious - especially Rezko.

Notably, Rezko's company claimed that it lacked the funds to heat one of its 11 buildings in Obama's state Senate district from December 1996 to February 1997. But Rezko still managed to write a $1,000 check to Obama's campaign fund on Jan. 14. That month, his tenants shivered as 19 inches of snow fell on northern Illinois.

With his early and large investments in Obama, Rezko helped the Democratic nominee get to where he is today. Obama, meanwhile, helped Rezko with his legislative work and his letter-writing. Given this close working relationship, the Obama-Rezko land deal is far less surprising.

David Freddoso, a political reporter for National Review, is the author of "The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate."


All this stuff is out there for us paper readers at Kean Gas Station each morning. The people who Medill snobs think are too stupid to matter. Well, listen up! We have jobs, families, lives, interests and activities that bring people together. We share thoughts and opinions. Millions of us! We read and we remember what we read. We also control the impulse to buy a paper - we just might glance at it without buying it while we have coffee and crullers. That's revenue denied to you dopes. Guerilla Theatre as the Hyde Park Mafia might opine.

And Obama worries about John McCain's Houses. McCain is a Tightwad! I have raised ranch and a thirty year mortgage and the number of homes in possession really upsets me!

Hell, the cheap bastard! If I shared Cindy McCain's money, with her say so of course, I'd have houses in Peotone, Martinton, Braidwood, Coal City, Custer Park and Papineau, Illinois as well as Sidona,AZ - but I guess that it is a dry heat there.

Obama can stand some heat - Dry, or Wet, Obama will not get any heat form the Cupcake Mules slinging ink for Chicago papers. Tim Novak is a pitbull and he can bring the heat!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Tribune Updates the Cullen Davis ( Dad was Obama's Law Boss) Complicity in Boy's Death


The Tribune updated its story on the death this summer of Curtis Cooper and the complicity of the property managers United Property Advisors (UPA)that is raking in millions of dollars from the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA).

Yesterday's article deftly stepped around the 'alleged' crumb in the unhappy accident that caused Curtis Cooper's death - Cullen Davis.

Cullen Davis, like William Ayers, is the wee lad of a well-connected Lefty Dad, who has his own bundle of problems with the Feds.

Yesterday, I posted a rather piquant prose philippic that noted the obvious and glaring side-step around Cullen Davis and his well-juiced Dad.

The Tribune locked Mayor Daley into the tale, which makes sense, but seemed to give a complete pass to Allison Davis. Allison Davis, who is very white, was made to appear to be Mayor Daley's African American link to the community. Rather, Allison Davis, who is very white, was Barack Obama's Law boss.

Allison Davis is a member of the Progressive Apparatus of lefty lawyers, journalists, activists, and opportunists who get a pass from the Medill School of Journalism for peccadilloes, wallet-liftings, fund-miss appropriations and other Lefty high-jinks. Let's see if the Trib gets hot-under the bra on this story, though it may lead to the conviction of 'a licensed attorney and real estate broker bringing visionary and strategic leadership to Urban Property Advisors (UPA) plus a number of companies and ventures impacting change in urban environments:'Cullen Davis. Shucks, if the Tribune wants you to suffer - you suffer! Ask George Ryan. If a piece falling off a truck and killing six children can be made to prosecute and destroy the Governor of Illinois, how high the moon? Unless, of course the Medill Industry demands a pass for Progressives.

Today the Tribune added a bit more to the horrific tale of little Curtis Cooper's Death. They included Cullen Davis, who is very white but served as an aid to Rep. Danny K. Davis - no relation I presume - which is only fitting and should have been in the first paragraph of yesterday's feature.

Here is the thing. The Tribune had no problem linking this little boy's death to Mayor Daley - a very wholesome villain to MSM -but blanched at pointing out the very powerful connection between Allison Davis/Tony Rezko and Senator Obama. Why is that?
Tim Novak the only real newsman of the bumptious Chicago Sun Times has been a pitbull with his buckers sunk deeply in cheeks of the Progressive paragons - Obama/Rezko/Davis.

Credit where due - the Trib threw us a bone this morning:


UPA is run by Cullen Davis. His father, Allison, also has been an official with the firm, according to state records. Cullen Davis also declined to comment because of the pending lawsuit.

HUD inspectors reported that the conditions of the gates worsened over the last two years, records show. In 2006, the problem was judged to be of midlevel severity, with a rating of 2 on a scale of 1 to 3. The level was raised to 3 in two subsequent inspections, in April and December of last year.

Under HUD's inspection system, housing authorities are required to immediately fix problems regarded as pressing health and safety concerns, such as exposed wiring and blocked fire exits. Inspectors found many such violations on their last visit to the Cabrini-Green Rowhouses and gave the project a score of 30 points out of a possible total of 100—a "very bad score," Hanson said.

The condition of the gates, however, was not marked as life-threatening and thus did not require immediate repair. Hanson said HUD's computer software, in use for about 10 years, does not allow problems with gates or fences to be designated as life-threatening.

Even though it was not required to fix the gates immediately, the CHA should have made sure they were repaired, said Eleny Ladias, director of technical services for HUD in Chicago. "It's up to the housing authority. They're required to follow up with those type of repairs."

CHA officials said non-emergency items needing repair usually are "addressed by the property manager." They declined to comment on whether the broken gates were ever fixed.

UPA got the contract to manage the rowhouses where Curtis Cooper lived at the end of 2005, taking over from a resident-run management group. Residents have been critical of the firm's work, and some said the gates have long been in bad shape. "The gates were raggedy as hell," said Sherri Montgomery, a lifelong resident of the rowhouses.

After the accident, UPA posted signs warning children not to play on or near the gates. "It's too damn late," said Clayton Wade, Curtis Cooper's father. "The baby's dead."

lcohen@tribune.com

solkon@tribune.com

jgrotto@tribune.com


Like the Ayers/Obama papers held hostage at Cement City, better late than never.

Whenever I am near a Progressive Do-Gooder, I throw both hands over the Left check of my ass to protect my wallet.

Whenever a Progressive Do-Gooder gets near poor people, they rake in millions, properties get boarded up, and people die.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Gate Crushes Boy Chicago Tribune Hides Obama Connection but Links Daley



That's Cullen Davis Folks - he's doing just fine. The little boy killed by the gate on the properties that are making Cullen richer never met Cullen. Cullen Davis has long resume for a young man - loaded with all kinds of do-gooder stuff. Cullen Davis never got mentioned in the Tribune story about responsibility for the death of little Curtis Cooper.


Click my Post Title for series of real articles by a real newsman, Tim Novak of the Chicago Sun Times that link Rezko client Obama and Allison Davis - Obama's Law Boss.

The Tribune just flashed a story about CHA complicity in the Death of a little boy this summer, when a rusted wrought iron gate crushed him to death. Little Curtis Cooper died at a property manged by Cullen Davis, son of Allison Davis, a lefty lawyer with thick ties to Obama.

The Tribune is in the tank for Obama. I am in the tank for McCain, but this piece don't cost you nothing.

The Tribune white-washes Obama's sordid support for Rezko/Davis/Ayers/ . . . any more do-gooder crooks that you can name? and saves the kick in the two things that Jesse Jackson wanted to cut off of Obama for Mayor Daley - not a guy that I would like to ever hear the words 'Pat Hickey is a great friend of mine' (which I won't) -because he MAY be treated as the bad guy du jour by the Progressives. He is after all a Daley - not a great one like his brother John, who happens to be one of the most genuine and authentically nice people I have ever had the honor to meet.

Here's the Tribune at its Candy Assed Best:

Inspectors for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported at least as long ago as 2006 that gates at the Cabrini-Green complex were damaged, falling or leaning. In their last report, in December 2007, they also said that "multiple" gates were "missing hardware" and that the defects were severe.

Six months later, 3-year-old Curtis Cooper died when one of the massive metal gates fell on him. A lawyer for the boy's family has alleged that the gate was dangling by one hinge because its two other hinges had rusted through.

After being alerted to the problem, it's not clear what steps—if any—the CHA took to get the politically connected firm managing the Cabrini-Green Rowhouses to fix the gates. Urban Property Advisors, or UPA, is run by the son of developer Allison Davis, one of Mayor Richard Daley's top allies in the African-American community.

In response to questions from the Tribune on Thursday, the CHA issued a news release Friday morning saying that the agency passed on the last report to UPA and that repairing the gates was not a priority because HUD inspectors did not designate the gates' condition as a life-threatening emergency.


Read the array of Tim Novak pieces for real story. Novak is the only real newsman at the tanking Sun Times

The Tribune just laid off forty plus people, but they put three reporters on this whitewash crap?

They do not even name the punk responsible - they let Daddy get the tune-up because Daddy is already singing an aria to the Feds. That's Cullen Davis Folks*! Cullen Davis!

Mr. & Mrs. Cooper, God Bless you in your grief and give guidance to your days without your little boy, Curtis.

Cullen Davis! Anything to add? Didn't think so. Tribune? How about a Harrumph?

Come off of it! You clowns calling the shots at the Trib have taken way too many pulls on whatever it is that you have in that Hookah.

*Cullen J. Davis, CEO, is a licensed attorney and real estate broker bringing visionary and strategic leadership to Urban Property Advisors (UPA) plus a number of companies and ventures impacting change in urban environments:
• CJD Investments, which identifies opportunities for acquisition of
undervalued properties in transitional neighborhoods.
• CJD Projects, which develops multifamily housing using complex
financial transactions, especially those involving a high degree of government interaction.
• CNS Projects, a company focused on the holistic development of
urban areas and currently has more than $35 million dollars in
value under development.
• Principal of Hallmark and Johnson Real Estate Management,
LLC, which manages condominiums and market-rate housing
across the Chicagoland area.
• Daveri Development Group, a partnership which develops
multifamily housing throughout the state of Illinois.

Mr. Davis is formerly an associate in the real estate department at the law firm of Winston & Strawn, where he represented developers, financial institutions, investment bankers and investor groups in connection with residential, industrial, office and retail properties. He also served as an aid for Congressman Danny K. Davis, a position which further grounded him in the intricacies of public and private partnership. Mr. Davis received a Juris Doctorate from Northwestern University’s School of Law and a Bachelor’s Degree from Grinnell College. He is a certified tax-credit compliance specialist, a member of the Illinois Bar Association, and holds a variety of other professional memberships and certifications.

Mr. Davis, a native of Chicago, lives in the North Kenwood-Oakland community with his wife and has been a pioneer in that community’s redevelopment.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

John McCain: Obama wrong on Colombia, FARC, Ayers, Dohrn, and American Interests in General





John McCain returned from Colombia and three Americans and a Colombian Presidential candidate held by Marxist FARC terrorists fro six years were freed by Columbia's military with American assistance.

Senator Obama is wrong on America's Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, which is fighting Venezuela's dictator Hugo Chavez for the liberty of South American democracies - Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil are all in danger from Chavez's ambitions for a Marxist Continent.

William Ayers has been and continues to be an influence on Obama. Ayers has a long history with Chavez.

From American Thinker:

Obama may already be working with Hugo Chavez and the narco-war against Colombia. Colombian troops March 1 nailed narco-guerilla leader Raul Reyes just across the border in Ecuador. In response, Chavez threatened to invade Columbia. Information on a laptop computer found with Reyes' corpse detailed the FARC guerillas'relations with both Venezuela and Ecuador and included a February 28 letter from Reyes to the FARC Secretariat. The letter details extensive FARC relations with the governments of Colombia and Ecuador and includes this item:


"The gringos called for a meeting with the minister to ask him to tell us they are interested in talking about several topics. They claim they new president in their country will be Obama and that these people are interested in their fellow citizens. Obama will support neither Plan Colombia nor the signature of the Free Trade Agreement. In this regard, we replied we are interested in relations with the governments that are on equal grounds and that in the case of the United States, a public statement voicing their interest in talking to the FARC is needed, given their eternal war against us."


As Reyes predicted, on April 10 Democrats in Congress blocked enactment of a free trade treaty with Colombia -- in spite of the fact that Colombian exports are already allowed into the US without tariffs. Obama opposed the treaty, winning denunciation by Colombian president Uribe.



Obama is wrong - he is a Progressive Windsock. Obama is wrong on the Surge; he is wrong on Colombian Free Trade; Obama is dead wrong on Chavez and Senator Obama is wrong for the Office of President of the United States.

Barack Obama has had the wrong tutors ( Tony Rezko, Allison Davis, whose son Cullen is being sued for the wrongful death of three year old Curtis Cooper, Fr. Mike Pfleger, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the dious couple of unrepentant terrorists Bernadine Dorhn and William Ayers) and he listened to them with rapt attention.

Pay attention to Senator Obama.

Pay attention to John McCain. In the days to come the man who roughed up a Sandinista jefe back in the 1980's* will prove to be more than right on Colombia - just as he has been on the Surge.


*
The two senators have made peace since the remarks. Cochran said McCain included him on a recent campaign visit to Meridian. He told the Sun Herald on Monday that McCain, whose ancestors lived in north Mississippi, is the best man for the job.

But Cochran said he observed McCain engage in a physical confrontation with a Sandinista while participating in a diplomatic mission led by Sen. Bob Dole and others in the fall of 1987. Cochran, McCain - who had won election to the Senate that year - and other members of a bipartisan committee of lawmakers called the Central American Negotiations Observer Group - met with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, head of the left-wing political party known as Sandinistas, about tensions in the region.

The atmosphere was tense, as the U.S. was pressing "pretty hard." Cochran noticed a disturbance at the meeting table in a room lined with armed personnel.

"McCain was down at the end of the table and we were talking to the head of the guerilla group here at this end of the table and I don't know what attracted my attention," Cochran said. "But I saw some kind of quick movement at the bottom of the table and I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever. I don't know what he was telling him but I thought, good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission. I don't know what had happened to provoke John but he obviously got mad at the guy and he just reached over there and snatched him."

No punches were thrown and the two sat back down, Cochran said. The man, who appeared ruffled after the confrontation with McCain, was an Ortega associate, but Cochran said he was unsure of his identity.

Flash-forward 21 years. Tuesday, McCain was traveling in Central America and he stopped in Colombia. In 2006 Ortega won his office back after losing a 1990 election.



http://www.bnd.com/news/politics/story/386304.html