Today’s “Obama’s Northern Trust connections” reveals that Barack Obama did indeed have a long relationship with his mortgage company, Northern Trust — which granted the Obamas a favorable mortgage in 2005.

When Obama served on the Woods Fund from 1993 to 2001, along with former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers, both he and Ayers dealt with Northern Trust, which provided “financial services.” The Woods Fund used Northern Trust’s investment services, and — with Obama’s and Ayers’ votes — approved $105,583 in fees and also participated in a Northern Trust private equity fund.

The plot, as they say, “thickens”: (more…)

• Our TexasDarlin pointed out the favorable treatment the Obamas received compared to the “neglected slums” of their impoverished neighbors in unimaginably horrific “public” housing that Obama helped privatize so that his rich longtime buddies — like Tony Rezko and Allison Davis — could scoop up tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money while the properties were left in such disrepair that many became uninhabitable.
• LisaB addressed the mysterious payments of property taxes for the Obamas.
• Now, Flopping Aces resurrects the mystery of Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi who helped an in-debt Tony Rezko (in exchange for what?) around the time Rezko somehow managed to help the Obamas buy their mansion:
  

  While there is no evidence that the bank in question had a program like Countrywide did, it sure does smell like political favoritism. Not as big of a deal as Johnson’s, Dodd’s, and Conrad’s, but you combine that with Tony Rezko’s involvement in the house deal when Rezko did not have the money to buy the property (at which point Iraqi financier Auchi comes in) and you get a fishy smell.

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However, shortly, we will reveal additional details about the membership of the Chicago-headquartered billionaire Crown family on the board of directors of Northern Trust, which granted the Obamas their advantageous loan. Crown family members have been major donors to Obama’s campaigns, and serve on his elite fundraisers group for his presidential campaign.

Among the most disturbing stories of Obama’s many efforts to give political and legislative advantages to the Crown family’s holdings, Senate candidate Barack Obama promised Illinois’ Maytag workers he’d work to protect their jobs — and took campaign donations from the beleagured workers — but then met with Lester Crown, on the board of directors of Maytag, to take his campaign donations. Crown later told the press that Obama never raised the workers’ fate with him. The machinists lost their jobs to Maytag’s Mexican plant. From my story, “Machinists’ Union TELLS It Like It Is ,” quoting a must-read article at TradingMarkets.com, “Obama’s fundraising, rhetoric collide: Union says senator did little to save jobs“:

Obama had a special connection to Maytag: Lester Crown, one of the company’s directors and biggest investors whose family, records show, has raised tens of thousands of dollars for Obama’s campaigns since 2003. But Crown says Obama never raised the fate of the Galesburg plant with him, …

These are the ties that bind:

Barack Obama plays the “populist” routine in his campaign speeches, but he delivers to his billionaire benefactors, not the common working stiffs who are losing their jobs and their homes.

Now for a quick round-up of bloggers’ reports on the Obamas’ “sweetheart” home mortgage from Northern Trust, on whose board a billionaire member of the Crown family sits: (more…)

Chicago Politics Godfather passes Down the Reins and Anoints Obama! Follow the Money!

Since Carl Bernstein, Keith Oldberman, Tim Russert et al have exposed their complete lack of journalism ethics, exemplified by acting like awe struck teens of the 1960’s over the arrival of The Beatles combined with the excitement of dirty old men in a sleazy, out of the way, XXX Porn Theatre, WE THE PEOPLE are forced to do a long line of Googles, reading, investigating in order to find the truth about Barack Obama! (more…)

So I went hunting, and was often surprised at what I found. It amounts to a pattern that I find dismaying. There are a lot of links here, documenting sources for my conclusions, and there is a lot to read.

Here is my list, in no particular order. See if you agree with me, and answer the questions for yourself… did he really not know, or is it just that he didn’t mind?

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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:
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Reporters from the Associated Press and Reuters went after him for his false denial that a campaign aide had held a secret meeting with Canadian officials over Obama’s trade policy. A trio of Chicago reporters pummeled him with questions about the corruption trial this week of a friend and supporter. The New York Post piled on with a question about him losing the Jewish vote.

Obama responded with the classic phrases of a politician in trouble. “That was the information that I had at the time. . . . Those charges are completely unrelated to me. . . . I have said that that was a mistake. . . . The fact pattern remains unchanged.”

Rezko and the Jewish vote aside — Obama’s lies and obfuscations aside — there’s that the national press corps realizes that NAFTA matters deeply to their readers. And Obama knows that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is hitting him hard for his failure to protect workers in his OWN state, as well as his “wink, wink” game with Canadians. Here’s a new mailer (flip page below the fold) arriving in Ohioans’ mailboxes that echoes what union president Tom Buffenbarger has decried with understandable furor:
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UPDATE: I found a Feb. 2 article from McClatchy/Chicago Tribune to which Buffenbarger refers, “Obama’s fundraising, rhetoric collide: Union says senator did little to save jobs.” I am looking for more. But here, for now, is the McClatchy/Chicago Tribune article: (more…)