Obama’s 2006 Earmarks & the Crown Family
By NoQuarter on March 13, 2008 at 9:12 PM in Barack Obama, Chicago politics, Crown family, Maytag, Michelle Obama, Tom Buffenbarger
Do you remember the Crown family? Do you remember the Crown patriarch who sits on the board of Maytag? Do you recall that Barack Obama, as a U.S. Senate candidate, met with Maytag workers, asked for their donations and promised them he’d help save their jobs, and that he then went to the Crown family and took their large donations, but never said a word to Crown about saving the jobs of the Maytag workers? (Crown confirmed in a newspaper interview that Obama never asked him about saving the Maytag jobs.)
Andy just alerted me to Jeralyn’s post at TalkLeft, in which she highlights Obama’s earmarks for General Dynamics, one of the largest military contractors in the world, and its ties to Chicago’s Crown family.
“Among [Obama's earmarks are] an $8 million request for the ‘High Explosive Air Burst Technology Program’. Ultimately, $1.3 million in funding was awarded for the program,” writes Jeralyn.
the defense project was overseen by General Dynamics, one of the nation’s largest military contractors. Obama’s Illinois finance chairman, James S. Crown, serves on the company’s board of directors and his family holds a sizable stake in the company.
“Crown and his wife, Paula Crown,” Jeralyn adds, “are members of Obama’s National Finance Committee and have raised more than $200,000 for the Obama campaign, according to a list of fundraisers posted on Obama’s campaign website.”
Huh. I guess not confronting the Crown family about saving those Maytag jobs has worked out well for Sen. Obama. (If you’ve never seen the video, check out what Machinists Union president Tom Buffenbarger — who tried to save those Maytag jobs — thinks of Barack Obama.)
Next, here’s Riehl World View’s take on the earmark related to Michelle Obama:
First, Riehl notes that Obama obtained this earmark:
Obama Requested $1 Million For Construction Of A New Hospital Pavilion At The University Of Chicago. In 2006, Obama requested that the University of Chicago receive $1 million to support its Construction of New Hospital Pavilion. For more than 75 years, the University of Chicago Hospitals (UCH) has provided state of the art medical care on the South Side of Chicago.
Then Riehl points out:
From the Campaign Spot to NRO’s Byron York. Looks like Daddy-O brought home the bacon so Mommy-O could bring home even more bacon, too.
"In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office." Looks like that raise was worth it.
Andy’s comment in the thread at TalkLeft says it all:
Exactly the point of this post. It is and has been Obama the one whose raison d’etre as candidate has been his “different kind of politics” (anti-special interests, etc etc etc.).
What this proves sis that he is just another politician. There would be nothing wrong with it except that his “urgency” of a Presidential run was based on “changing Washington” and the “politics as usual.”
Ahem….
Lynn Sweet, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, has more on Michelle Obama and Obama’s other earmarks:
Obama sought money for the University of Chicago Hospitals. Wife Michelle works for the University of Chicago Hospitals, appointed in spring 2005 as vice president for community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals. She is now on leave from the job to campaign for her husband. Top campaign adviser and friend Valerie Jarrett is the Chair of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board and also Chair of the Executive Committee of that board. She has also been named Vice-Chair of the University’s Board of Trustees. Obama taught at the U. of Chicago law school and the Obama’s two daughters attend school there.
:::::::::
Jeralyn has an update:
Update: The AP says Obama has not responded to repeated requests to release his earmark legislation for six of his years in the Illinois Senate.
Good job Susan, unfortunately though unless Ed Bradly reports on this, Michelle will turn it into a racial attack against her and hubby!
Michelle is a one woman pity party. (She obviously drank in the victim sermons she heard from Rev. Wright all those Sundays.) Who in their right mind would whine to a group of struggling working class women about “having” to spend $10,000 on dance, music and sports for their kids? Or tell them to pass up high paying jobs in the corporate world in order to take jobs helping others like she and Barack have done? That six figure salary sure is a huge sacrifice…..
This is what she said to those women:
“I know we’re spending — I added it up for the first time — we spend between the two kids, on extracurriculars outside the classroom, we’re spending about $10,000 a year on piano and dance and sports supplements and so on and so forth,” Mrs. Obama tells the women. “And summer programs. That’s the other huge cost. Barack is saying, ‘Whyyyyyy are we spending that?’ And I’m saying, ‘Do you know what summer camp costs?’”
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmEyN2RkNzcwYzgyZDY2MDBiY2U5MjJlZGMwNDM2ODg=
(Bet those women don’t know how much a summer camp is. They are too focused on the cost of a loaf of bread.)
I have read several times that Michelle often complains about how hard she and Barack have had it financially, especially since they had loans to those high class Ivy League schools to pay off. Funny, my kids choose to go to good state schools rather than take on huge loans, but now they should feel sorry for and Barack Michelle.
When the Obamas decided they just had to live in a mansion that they could not afford, did they lower their sights like normal, responsible people and find a place that fit their budget? Heck no. They sought help from a man under investigation from the Feds for corruption. I can just hear Michelle telling Barack that she just could not survive any longer in a less grand abode. She comes across as a diva who feels that she is entitled to the best whether she can afford it or not. Both Barack and Michelle seem to believe they are entitled to things - whether it is a mansion or the presidency -without waiting until they have made the necessary preparations that are expected of other people. It is this sense of entitlement that underlies the Obamas’ hubris and is his Achilles’ heel.
Rather than whining, WTH doesn’t she do something about it, like Clinton?
We NEED to invest in the education of our kids, hands down, it keeps this country competitive, you cannot neglect the educational infrastructure, or it’s New Orleans, all over again, for the education infrastructure, we must invest in something other than General Dynamics.
The US won’t survive if children aren’t educated to remain competitive, systems are not static, right?
Conversely , we shouldn’t chain them to usury interest rates, simply because Cheney, or Obama’s corporate donors have cash to spread around Washington, spiking the votes( like the clap, apparently, talk about your elite hookers).
But she should DO something, WTH didn’t obama introduce legislation, like Clinton did, to control the interest rates on college loans?
Because he took a bribe from a corporate donor, I bet…
I think we need a serious infographic.
Actually two infographics 1) diagram the Crown family to Maytag 2) diagram, or just timeline, Michelle’s raise just after BO’s election to U.S. Senate, then the subsequent $1 million earmark for MO’s CURRENT employer.
I’ll have to search the Dingbats font for those double arrows.
The Crown family is also connected to Talat Othman, he of the suspected Arab-Chicago-Baghdad-Bush consortium.
I believe rezkowatch.blogspot.com wrote about this.
Muckety should do an interactive map about the Obama/Arab/Chicago corruption ring, it would make all this so much easier.
I can’t prove anything but there sure seems to be a lot of quid pro quo going on here. Either that or there are an amazing series of coincidences that just happen to benefit the Obamas. The odds of these coincidences actually happening randomly are staggering.
Even though dollar amounts smaller, I think the earmark for his wife’s employer is more impactful.
Ethics is as much about avoiding appearance of conflict-of-interest as anything else.
Indeed those are the ethics rules in the Senate&House as well as rules for judges and I presume the executive.
So much for “change we can believe in” …Ah, I get it now….The “we” refers to Barack and Michelle.
Talk Left on Obama’s Earmarks…
Once again, the Obama campaign is pressing Hillary Clinton to reveal information without holding itself to the same standard it requires her to meet. Here’s an article in the AP:Sen. Barack Obama is open about the pet projects he’s tucked into federa…
His friends and connection will benefit more when he gets to the White House.
Only Hillary supporters are standing in their way.
Just to Kathleen: I edited my remark in the other thread. You’ll see. Peace out.
the same I have respect for your opinions and insights even if we do not agree on everything
Is the Crown family some of those evil, rich Whities running this country that the good Rev. Wright has warned us about?
HA! In the U.S. of AmeriKKKA!
But Susan, the KKK is an issue for Americans, blacks, jews and catholics.
Truly. I was just imitating Wright’s speech in which he says that.
I know, sorry.
Oxy,
Does Rev. Wright think Jewish people are white?
Who the hell knows what goes through the mind of a crazy, hateful bigot?
But I’d bet my house that Obama’s “spiritual guide” hates Jews too.
Remember, he specifically said Jesus was Black.
All of us sane, rational people happen to know that Jesus was Jewish.
I thought he was English.
I’m kidding.
Why, Cee, do you don’t?
LOL I think they are.
From comment in previous post:
Obama’s largest donor is Michelle Obama’s employer, the University of Chicago:
http://opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00009638&cycle=2006
Obama gets University of Chicago a $1mil earmark. The hospital then gives Michelle a raise and gives Barack a donation (a.k.a., kickback).
Obama was also connected to the hospital planning board, in IL, the same one Rezko is facing charges on, for bribery, and kickbacks, with Stuart Levine.
How would this play into that, any favors there?
And Fitz remarked about the new methods of “smurfing” bribes, this is how it’s done.
He prosecutes his cases this way, undoing the simplistic delusions of “prove it!”
Aye…
Isn’t that convenient.
I’m glad he gets it.
All those little criminals thinking an obtuse bribe would somehow hide the crime, protecting them, was pretty simplistic.
Obama is making his earmarks public. Will Hillary?
how about his Illinois records? No not yet!
Cee:
Do you know if and when Obama will release his 2007 tax returns? How about his tax returns from all his years as senator?
He hasn’t done either. All he has done is release his 1040 formfor 2006
(but none of the attachments w/details).
I ask b/c he is the one who keeps raising the issue.
Well, so far the earmarks he has released should keep Patrick Fitgerald’s office from feeling any effects of the Bush recession. This guy’s political record has been one fortunate Chicago “coincidence” after another. Hillary already agreed to release all her recent tax returns in April, after tax returns are filed for 2007. I expect that she will match any release of earmarks listings as well. Perhaps her earmarks list will raise a few eyebrows themselves (at least her detractors will be sure to spin them in some nefarious fashion), and she and Obama could both spend the next few years staving off indictments. That remains to be seen. But from what Obama has released already, the eyebrows are already raised to the roof, and a seat is being kept warm for him at the Rezko defense table in court.
Olberman using his pulpit to bash Hillary
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031308A.shtml
The Obama campaign played the race card in South Carolina I heard it over and over on the air waves.
Geraldine Ferraro touches the truth
Olberman to Hillary “you are still awash in this filth”
Olberman has lost it
There was a post yesterday to go to a website boycotting MSNBC and signing/commenting there.
But can’t remember who post it…
I went there and comment in support of the boycott
but cannot remmeber the webpage either…
Anyone, help?
The extent to which Obama is the typical (Chicago) politician is so evident that I wonder and wonder:
What part of “change” do Obama supporters believe in?
There are requests for the Henry Crown Space Center. Same family? On 06/21/05 he requested $3 mill, he got $750,000. On 04/06/06 he requested another $3 mill.
He’s made so many requests, it’s going to take a while to track it down.
The petition is at:
http://noratings.blogspot.com/
[...] better than just about anyone else: an important fundraiser for the Obama’s was rewarded with a large sum of money for all his fundraising work. And the hospital that employs Michelle Obama was also rewarded with [...]
Lynn Sweet has a doozy this morning.
The Obama record
Wasn’t Alxlerod quoted as saying Obama would be sold on image?
It’s falling apart, they have no where to go, as any highlight of his record bespeaks corruption.
I was watching a youtube video from Carol Marin, a local Chicago reporter, regarding Obama’s Rezko’s connection. The last part of the video saw Obama scampering away in a black SUV, avoiding reporters questions, while in Chicago.
We seem to have two sets of press; those in Chicago who advocate for the people, and the rest, no better than “A list bloggers,” like Kos, yellow journalists.
You would not know the Obama in the blogs is the same Obama being dogged by Chicago reporters for his corruption.
If the national press would do it’s job like the Chicago press, this would already be a Clinton-McCain contest.
Almost (emphasis mine):
Olbermann never had it to begin with. He’s just an embarrassment.
>>> Olbermann never had it to begin with. He’s just an embarrassment.
Yeah, but he was fun to watch when he was ripping Der Shrub out a new one.
Unfortunately, even the most limber and imaginative acrobatic act becomes old hat after a time.
[...] Obama’s 2006 Earmarks & the Crown Family (by SusanUnPC at No Quarter) Do you remember the Crown family? Do you remember the Crown patriarch who sits on the board of Maytag? Do you recall that Barack Obama, as a U.S. Senate candidate, met with Maytag workers, asked for their donations and promised them he’d help save their jobs, and that he then went to the Crown family and took their large donations, but never said a word to Crown about saving the jobs of the Maytag workers? (Crown confirmed in a newspaper interview that Obama never asked him about saving the Maytag jobs.) Gee, no one ever told Obama that the tenants in 11 buildings in his state senatorial district and built by his friend and fundraiser Tony Rezko were freezing to death, either. Nobody ever tells the poor guy anything. [...]
[...] “Obama’s 2006 Earmarks & the Crown Family“ [...]