Jesse Jackson, Jr. Allegedly Funnelled Campaign Cash to His Wife

A shocker I know.

Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s wife Sandra is a Chicago Alderman, Bloomberg has the exclusive.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit ethics watchdog group said, "Mr. Jackson is availing himself of the full range of loopholes by which he can transfer money to his family.”

This from Jesse Junior G-Man, the Undercover Brother.

I really love this one: "The Jacksons have a 'unique synergy which enhances the value and quality of life for the constituents they serve,' Sandi Jackson’s spokeswoman, Crystal Adkisson, said by e-mail. 'Both the congressman and alderman take pride in being in compliance with federal, state and local laws, and rules and ethics codes.'”

The Jackson family of Chicago have gotten what they have through blackmail and intimidation.

Obama's Friend the "Granny Grifter" Will Speak in Denver

Obama's strange association with Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias will likely be ignored by the media but it is worth reviewing as Giannoulias will speak in front of the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Monday night. After grad school and a stint in the Greek professional basketball league Giannoulias went to work at his family bank, the Broadway Bank of Chicago, during his first few months at the bank he oversaw a $1 million loan to an 83 year-old woman who did not understand the documents but was aided in her understanding by her co-signers, one was a Michael “Jaws” Giorango, twice convicted of bookmaking and later charged with running a nationwide prostitution ring (financed by millions in loans from the Broadway Bank, there isn't any evidence that the bank knew that their previously convicted mobster client was back in business) another co-signer was a more run of the mill local mobster. The $1 million disappeared within days and the bank soon went after the collateral, the 80-something Grandmother's home.

I kid you not, a banker whose family bank had a relationship with a convicted mobster made a $1million loan to that man, another mobster and an 83 year-old woman who could not understand the documents, whose home was used as collateral and the bank went to court to take that home. This being Chicago, a local judge ruled that every "i" had been dotted and that every "t" had been crossed so Giannoulias' bank got the now 89 year-old Grandmother's home. During the court proceedings Giannoulias repeatedly plead ignorance, he claimed to have no memory of the transaction. He claimed that he had no memory of the transaction because he had just started on he job but that statement really begs the question, if you don't remember the transaction in which two convicted mobsters and a woman come into your office with an 83 year-old woman who couldn't understand the documents that pledge her home for the loan, what are you going to remember? If that had been your Grandmother imagine how you would feel about the guy whose actions were then helping to defraud your Grandmother out of her home as he runs for state wide office with the help of your "rock star" Senator (Obama was the major reason that the guy got elected to state wide office) and now that kid will speak in front of the Democratic National Convention. Imagine if that had been your Mother or your Grandmother.

Giannoulias is where he is because of the "rock star" support of Barack Obama:





We should all ask, is Obama where he is because of people like Giannoulias?


See more here and here.

The Cleaner Has Arrived at the UIC Library

Harvey Keitel as "the Cleaner" in Pulp Fiction

The AP is reporting that officials at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Richard J. Daley Library will relent and release their collection of public records concerning the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. The fact that Barack Obama was the Chairman of that failed educational experiment and that those records likely show a relationship with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers beyond what Obama has admitted to, tells me that those files have been reviewed and culled. This is Chicago after all. The Obama team could not have used the Clinton's "Cleaner" Sandy Berger so they likely had to find a few Keitel-like characters to scrub those boxes of records clean. As the Chicago Tribune's John Kass helpfully pointed out in this column concerning the likelihood of damning evidence being made public before the November election "when Chicago had a true reform mayor, his freedom of information officer was Clarence McClain, a former pimp with a bad wig who ended up in federal prison for taking bribes. Now that the Daleys run things, forget about it." Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame just commented that "(o)f course, some will say that the delay was just so that the files could be vacuumed of any embarrassing information." A lifetime spent watching Chicago politics has made me one of those "some".

Hat Tip: Powerline

Sell the Picasso!

Click to Enlarge.
Photograph Copyright is held by: Flying Debris


In January of 2005 the City of Chicago sold the Chicago Skyway in order to raise funds, last week the City Council voted to raise a variety of taxes and fees in order to raise funds and Friday's papers had stories about the city selling Midway Airport in order to raise funds. What's next? The suggestion of selling the famous Picasso sculpture in front of City Hall was only in jest, but one must really ask, what is next?

The upside is that those institutions will surely be better managed and they won't be saddled with political hiring, poorly negotiated union contracts, contracted supplies from some politico's cousin... Hey, maybe they could privatize Streets and Sanitation.

The above photo was taken from the Chicago Temple Building during the August 1967 unveiling of the Picasso sculpture in Chicago's Civic Center Plaza. The photo was taken by my father at a critical moment of the unveiling, the cloak had hung up on the sculpture and Mayor Daley (the First) was seen ordering the assembled aldermanic dignitaries to free the snagged fabric. The photo was snapped as the Aldermen raced to free the snagged cloak.

Thanks to the wonderful Dr. Sanity for inclusion in her Carnival of Insanities again this week. Go read her blog and support her "lavish blogging lifestyle"!

Cubs Hose Season Ticket Holders

I split a season ticket package for the Chicago Cubs with three other guys, we have a night and weekend series which contains 52 of the 81 home games. We collectively gave the Cubs and their parent company the Tribune Corp. about $9000 last year to secure the season worth of tickets. We just received our post-season tickets and the Cubs chose not to sell us one set of tickets for the NLCS and one set of tickets for the World Series. The tickets arrived one day after the local papers reported that the Cubs are selling face value post season tickets to each and every game to every corrupt local politician from Alderman on up. It may be worth noting that there may be a handful of Republicans in that group, there is only one Republican Alderman in Chicago. Of course the way that the Cubs are playing it really won't matter too much.

It is worth noting that the Cubs have their own ticket scalping operation and that individual game tickets have become scarcer at the box office as a result.