<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19190"></HEAD>
<BODY style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff" bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=dlj725@hughes.net href="mailto:dlj725@hughes.net">David Johnson</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=dlj725@hughes.net href="mailto:dlj725@hughes.net">david
johnson</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, March 11, 2012 11:35 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Fw: [socialistdiscussion] Obama and Chicago and his class
base.</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=dlj725@hughes.net href="mailto:dlj725@hughes.net">David Johnson</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=socialistdiscussion@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:socialistdiscussion@yahoogroups.com">socialistdiscussion@yahoogroups.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, March 11, 2012 11:08 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [socialistdiscussion] Obama and Chicago and his class
base.</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to know what
the real Barack Obama is all about and who his real political base
is.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Of course this has expanded greatly since he entered the
WhiteHouse.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>The one thing the article touches on that should
be mentioned is the reference to Bill Ayers, the former Weatherman who was / is
a trust fund baby and how he is part of the nation-wide move ( the
epicenter is in Chicago ) to privatize public education and destroy the
Teacher's Unions ( NEA and AFT ) all under the cover of " this is the
only way to help poor children have a better education ". When in fact
this is a potential multi-billion dollar industry.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Another good article about Obama's REAL life story is
contained in the link below from investigative reporter Wayne
Madsen.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> <FONT size=2 face=Arial><A
href="http://exopolitics.blogs.com/files/wayne-madsen-obama-all-in-the-company.pdf">http://exopolitics.blogs.com/files/wayne-madsen-obama-all-in-the-company.pdf</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Also Paul Street's article from Black Agenda
Report</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><A
href="http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/18035953/776908968/name/Obama%20history.doc">http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/18035953/776908968/name/Obama%20history.doc</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Normally I do not focus on individual politician's
past, however in some cases it is importent to understand who you are dealing
with ( ie. their special interests and financial / political supporters ) and
since FAR TOO MANY people out there are STILL drinking the Obama kool-aide after
all of his lies and broken promises, I feel this is timely and
necessary.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The above info should not be interpreted as a
personal attack on Obama, but instead should be seen as Obama being the symptom
/ by-product of a corrupt but well constructed propaganda machine that
keeps the U.S. ruling class safe by perpetuating the myth that the U.S. is a
democracy and that Working people have a " choice " for </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>" change " via the democratic party or the myth of
" we have no choice because the republicans are evil incarnate ", when in
fact both parties are a " good cop / bad cop " game in which they both represent
and work for the same team....THE ONE-PERCENT !</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>WE need a third party NOW that takes NO corporate
money and is ; of, by, and for working people...the 99 % !</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>It will not be easy and it will require a lot of
time and work and some money but the alternative is a continued acceleration
to endless wars that drain our economy dry and the further reduction of
health, education and living standards in the U.S. and other developed
economies to third-world standards.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The stakes are high and we cannot afford to waste
anymore time. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>David Johnson</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=LOUGHFINN@AOL.COM
href="mailto:LOUGHFINN@AOL.COM">LOUGHFINN@AOL.COM</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=socialistdiscussion@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:socialistdiscussion@yahoogroups.com">socialistdiscussion@yahoogroups.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, March 10, 2012 6:23
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [socialistdiscussion] Obama and
Chicago and his class base.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><SPAN style="DISPLAY: none"> </SPAN> <!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStartT|**|-~-->
<DIV style="POSITION: relative" id=ygrp-mlmsg>
<DIV style="Z-INDEX: 1" id=ygrp-msg><!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlEndT|**|-~-->
<DIV id=ygrp-text>
<P><FONT color=black size=2 face=arial><BR><BR>
<DIV
style="BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: white; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, sans-serif; BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px">
<DIV id=AOLMsgPart_1_afbbcaec-3c4b-476b-a564-f72267e1cb85><FONT color=black
size=2 face=arial><STRONG><EM>Change They Believed In</EM></STRONG>
<DIV
style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"
align=justify><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt"><B>How Obama Got His
Start</B></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV
style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 18pt"
align=justify><SPAN><B>By Robert Fitch</B></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><STRONG>Editorial note: Listen to a powerful voice from the grave,
Robert Fitch. An excellent journalist and all-around left troublemaker, he
died in March last year at the age of 72.</STRONG></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><STRONG>Fitch wrote a great deal on the role of Wall Street and the
real estate elite in planning New York City, and laid out the full criminal
saga in The Assassination of New York, published by Verso in 1996. As Doug
Henwood wrote of a central theme of book, "So many of the things that were
attributed to anonymous global forces, like the deindustrialization of the
city and its transformation into the prototype of the globally oriented
post-industrial metropolis, were consciously guided by bankers, developers,
and their hired hands. They used all the instruments of state power -
subsidies, zoning laws, eminent domain - to get their
way."</STRONG></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><STRONG>True of New York; true of Chicago where Barack Obama began
his journey to the Chicago state legislature, to the U.S. Senate and finally
to the White House.</STRONG></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><SPAN>On November 14, 2008, right after Obama had been elected,
Fitch gave a speech to the Harlem Tenants Association. The warm glow ignited
in countless progressive and left hearts by the "Change we can believe in"
candidate had not yet been extinguished by the chill embrace of reality. Fitch
had no illusions about Obama, and expressed none that day to the Harlem
tenants. Better still, with a wealth of detail, he set the rise of Obama in
the context of a city - Chicago - in the throes of the racket known as "urban
renewal." We are printing that little-known speech now. Who, really, is Obama?
Here's an important part of the answer. AC/JSC.</SPAN></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>What is an Obama
administration going to do for cities, housing and neighborhoods? Of course,
we can't really know what's going to happen in the future. We can only know
what's already happened. So, it's an exercise that reminds me a little of
Johnny Carson's old late night TV routine with his sidekick Ed McMahon. Carson
played Karnak the Magnificent. McMahon would give him an answer. And Karnak,
wearing a giant turban and holding an envelope to his forehead, would guess
the question inside the envelope. Ed would give an answer like, "A B C D E F
G." Karnak would reply with the question: "Earlier versions of Preparation
H."</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>What's President-elect
Obama's prescription for urban pains? I'm going to put on my urban turban and
try to play Karnak. It's a difficult role - not only because the future is
hard to predict, but because Obama himself is not easy to read. In my
lifetime, we haven't had a politician with his gifts: his writing talent; his
eloquence; his charisma; his mastery of public policy; his ability to run a
national campaign against formidable rivals. Obama projects so brilliant an
aura that it's almost blinding. He's become the bearer of pride for forty-five
million African Americans who want to be judged by the content of their
character. He's the prophet of hope, the apostle of change and the organizer
of "Yes We Can."</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>All this makes Obama's
actual politics very hard to put in any critical perspective. By actual
politics I mean, above all, the principal interests he represents, his
authentic political philosophy, where he fits on the Left-Right political
spectrum. Obama resists being identified with either the Right or the Left.
Even when he talks about his mom's liberalism, it's with a certain irony: "A
lonely witness for secular humanism, a soldier for the New Deal, Peace Corps,
position-paper liberalism." Obama is a partisan of the Third Way. In Europe,
the Third Way means you're neither socialist nor capitalist. In the U.S., it
means you're neither for liberalism nor conservatism. The Third Way is
expressed very well in Obama's 2004 convention speech.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>"Well, I say ... tonight,
there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United
States of America. There's not a black America and white America ... there's
the United States of America. The pundits like to slice and dice our country
into red states and blue states: red states for Republicans, blue states for
Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We are one people, all of us
pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United
States of America."</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Are traditional political
vocations now obsolete? The Left stands for the interests of those who have to
work for a living, for the tenants and the poor, for the victims of
discrimination. The Right in America stands for the interests of the employers
and the investing class. For those who own the land, the houses, the banks and
the hedge funds. For Joe the plumber who was really Joe the plumbing
contractor. And for those who see themselves as the victims of affirmative
action.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>In a way, though, the
Left and the Right have more in common with each other than they do with the
advocates of the Third Way. The Left and the Right argue that different
interests matter. The Third Way says they don't. The oppressed and the
oppressors, the lions and the lambs - so the Third Way proclaims - should sit
down together and celebrate their unity in one great post-partisan,
multicultural 4th of July picnic. One of Obama's most repeated mantras
resonates here: "A common good and a higher interest," he says, "That's the
change I'm looking for."</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Where in the world in
which most of us reside do we find that higher interest? I don't know, except
perhaps in the higher interest rates that kicked in with variable rate
mortgages.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>What is the common good
that tenants and landlords share? Not a lot I can think of. Maybe that the
building doesn't burn down? But some of you remember the '70s when landlords
burned down their buildings in poor neighborhoods to cash in on the
insurance.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>The haves and the
have-nots have different and opposing interests - landlords want to get rid of
rent stabilization; tenants have an interest in keeping it. Workers want to
save their jobs; bosses want to save their capital, which means cutting
workers. In pursuing their opposing interests, the have-nots are forced to
take up the weapons of the weak - demonstrations, direct action; filling the
jails with conscientious objectors; taking personal risks. Who benefits when
one side gives up without a struggle? The haves or the have-nots? Frederick
Douglass reminds us, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did.
It never will."</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>When the Third Way
advocates insist that we share a common good; when they refuse to recognize
that the interests of the oppressed and the interests of the oppressors don't
exist on the same moral plane; when they counsel us to stop being partisans of
those interests - they're not being non- or post-partisan: they're siding with
the powers that be.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>In the same way, Obama's
notion of change claims to transcend the politics of interest while it steers
sharply to the Right. What kind of change does America need? Above all,
America needs a change of heart: her people need to give up selfishness; all
Americans - rich and poor, white and black; the hod carrier and the hedge-fund
operator must give up self-interest; stop always asking "what's in it for
me?"</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>In a word, with his
emphasis on change coming from people giving up group egoism and together
pursuing the common good, while practicing old-fashioned virtues, Senator
Obama is a communitarian. In The Audacity of Hope he invokes the legacy of
Ronald Reagan who, Obama believes, recognized America's need to rediscover the
traditional values of the American community: hard work, patriotism, personal
responsibility, optimism and faith.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Communitarianism flows
from belief that we all share a common good. What's needed to achieve the
common good, communitarians insist, is sacrifice. But some parts of the
community have to show the way in giving up their selfish, anti-communitarian
habits. For communitarians, the first responders must be the poor. For black
communitarians like Bill Cosby and Barack Obama, it's chiefly the black
poor.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Obama insists that the
key to change is not resistance to oppression; not a battle against the
exploitation of workers, or against institutional racism, or the domination of
unaccountable financial elites, or the interests promoting
gentrification.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>These all fade away
compared to the need for community self-help, strengthening the community by
building strong families, by the need to convince the African-American poor to
pull up their socks. And stop engaging in anti-social behavior. Speaking
recently to a group of black legislators, Obama said, "In Chicago, sometimes,
when I talk to the black chambers of commerce, I say, 'You know what would be
a good economic development plan for our community... if we made sure folks
weren't throwing their garbage out of their cars.'"</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>In fact, as Obama knows
very well, for most of the last two decades in Chicago there's been in place a
very specific economic development plan. The plan was to make the South Side
like the North Side. Which is the same kind of project in New York as making
the land north of Central Park like the land south of Central Park. The North
Side is the area north of the Loop - Chicago's midtown central business
district - where rich white people live; they root for the Cubs. Their
neighborhood is called the Gold Coast.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>For almost a hundred
years in Chicago blacks have lived on the South Side close to Chicago's
factories and slaughterhouses. And Cellular Field, home of the White Sox. The
area where they lived was called the Black Belt, or Bronzeville - and it's the
largest concentration of African-American people in the U.S.: nearly 600,000
people, about twice the size of Harlem.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>In the 1950s, big swaths
of urban renewal were ripped through the Black Belt, demolishing private
housing on the southeast side. The argument then was that the old low-rise
private housing was old and unsuitable. Black people needed to be housed in
new, high-rise public housing, which the city built just east of the Dan Ryan
Expressway. The administration of the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) was
widely acclaimed as the most corrupt, racist and incompetent in America.
Gradually, only the poorest of the poor lived in these high-rises. And, in the
1980s, the argument began to be made that the public housing needed to be
demolished and the people moved back into private housing.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>For a while, the election
of the city's first black mayor, Harold Washington, blocked the demolition.
But Washington died of a heart attack while in office, and, after a brief
interregnum, the mayor's office was filled in 1989 by Richard M. Daley, whose
father had carried out the first urban renewal. Daley was his father's son in
many ways. By 1993, with subsidies from the Clinton administration's HOPE VI
program, the public housing units began to be destroyed. And, by 2000, he'd
put in place something called the Plan for Transformation. It targeted tens of
thousands of remaining units. With this proviso: that African Americans had to
get 50 per cent of the action - white developers had to have black partners;
there had to be black contractors. And Daley chose African Americans as his
top administrators and planners for the clearances, demolition and
re-settlement. African Americans were prominent in developing and rehabbing
the new housing for the refugees from the demolished projects, who were
re-settled in communities to the south, like Englewood, Roseland and Harvey.
Altogether the Plan for Transformation involved the largest demolition of
public housing in American history, affecting about 45,000 people - in
neighborhoods where eight of the 20 poorest census tracts in the U.S. were
located.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>But what does this all
have to do with Obama? Just this: the area demolished included the communities
that Obama represented as a state senator; and the top black administrators,
developers and planners were people like Valerie Jarrett, who served as a
member of the Chicago Planning Commission, and Martin Nesbitt, who became head
of the Chicago Housing Authority. Nesbitt serves as Obama campaign's finance
treasurer; Jarrett as co-chair of the Transition Team. The other co-chair is
William Daley, the mayor's brother and the Midwest chair of J.P. Morgan Chase
- an institution deeply involved in the transformation of inner-city
neighborhoods through its support for what financial institutions call
"neighborhood revitalization" and neighborhood activists call
gentrification.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>If we examine more
carefully the interests that Obama represents, if we look at his core
financial supporters, as well as his inmost circle of advisors, we'll see that
they represent the primary activists in the demolition movement and the
primary real estate beneficiaries of this transformation of public housing
pro-jects into condos and townhouses: the profitable creep of the Central
Business District and elite residential neighborhoods southward, and the
shifting of the pile of human misery about three miles farther into the South
Side and the south suburbs.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Obama's political base
comes primarily from Chicago FIRE - the finance, insurance and real estate
industry. And the wealthiest families - the Pritzkers, the Crowns and the
Levins. But it's more than just Chicago FIRE. Also within Obama's inner core
of support are allies from the nonprofit sector: the liberal foundations, the
elite universities, the nonprofit community developers and the real estate
reverends, who produce market rate housing with tax breaks from the city and
who have been known to shout from the pulpit, "Give us this day our Daley,
Richard Daley bread."</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Aggregate them, and what
emerges is a constellation of interests around Obama that I call "Friendly
FIRE" - firepower disguised by the camouflage of community uplift, augmented
by the authority of academia, greased by billions in foundation grants, and
wired to conventional FIRE by the terms of the Community Reinvestment Act of
1995.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>And yet friendly FIRE is
just as deadly as the conventional FIRE that comes from bankers and developers
that we're used to be ducking from. It's the whole condominium of interests
whose advancement depends on the elimination of poor blacks from the community
and their replacement by white people and, at least temporarily, by the black
middle class - who've gotten subprime mortgages - in a kind of redlining in
reverse.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>This "friendly FIRE"
analysis stands in opposition to the two main themes of the McCain attack ads.
Either they try to frighten people into believing that Obama is a dangerous
leftist who hangs with Bill Ayers, the former Weatherperson, or they assert
he's a creature of the corrupt Chicago machine. There are a few slivers of
meat floating in this beggar's broth of charges. Yes, Obama worked with Ayers,
but not the Ayers who blew up buildings, but the Ayers who was able to bring
down $50 million from the Walter Annenberg Foundation, leveraging it to create
an $120 million nonprofit organization with Obama as its head. Annenberg was a
billionaire friend of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Why would he give
mega millions to a terrorist? Perhaps because he liked Ayers' new politics.
Ayer's initiative grew out of the backlash against the 1985 Chicago teachers'
strike: his plan promoted "the community" as a third force in education
politics between the union and the city administration. Friendly FIRE wants
the same kind of education reform as conventional FIRE: the forces that
brought about welfare reform have now moved onto education reform, and for the
same reason: crippling the power of the union will reduce teachers' salaries,
which will cut real estate taxes which will raise land values.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Is Obama a minion of
Richie Daley? It's true that Obama has never denounced Daley. He actually
endorsed him for mayor in 2007 - even after federal convictions of Daley's top
aides, after the minority hiring scandals, and after the Hired Truck scandal,
which showed that the Daley machine shared its favors with the
Outfit.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>But the Daley dynasty has
expanded far beyond wiseguy industries. The mayor's brother, William Daley,
who served on Obama's transition team, also serves now as a top executive of
J.P. Morgan Chase. He heads the Midwest region and chairs J.P. Morgan Chase
Foundation, the core of friendly FIRE. Here's an excerpt from a recent
report:</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>"[We] achieved
significant progress toward our 10-year pledge to invest $800 billion in low-
and moderate income communities in the U.S. - the largest commitment by any
bank focused on mortgages, small-business lending and community development.
In 2006, we committed $87 billion, with total investment to date of $241
billion in the third year of the program.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>"Played a leadership role
in the creation of the New York Acquisition Fund, along with 15 lenders and in
conjunction with six foundations and the City of New York. The Fund is a $230
million initiative to finance the acquisition of land and buildings to be
developed and/or preserved for affordable housing."</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>It's also true that key
black members of the Obama inner circle are Daley administration alumni, but
they've moved up - now they're part of Chicago FIRE. Like Martin Nesbitt.
Obama is the godfather of Nesbitt's son. He's the African-American chairman of
the CHA. But his principal occupation is the vice presidency of the Pritzker
Realty group. Although they're not well known outside of Chicago, the
Pritzkers rank among the richest families in the U.S.A. There are ten
Pritzkers among the Forbes 400: Thomas is the richest, at $2.3 billion.
Anthony and J.B. are next, at $2.2 billion; Penny is fourth, at $2.1 billion -
Daniel, James, Gigi, John, Karen, and Linda weigh in with $1.9 billion
each.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Penny is finance chair of
the Obama campaign. Martin is the treasurer. Penny Pritzker herself has had a
rocky career as a commercial banker. In 1991, she founded something called the
Superior Bank of Chicago, which pioneered in subprime lending to minorities.
Superior was an early casualty of the subprime meltdown, crashing in 2001,
when it was seized by the FDIC. Depositors filed a civil suit against Penny,
charging that Superior was a racketeering organization. The government charged
that Superior paid out hundreds of millions of dividends to the Pritzkers and
another family while the bank was essentially broke. There was a complex
settlement, in which the Pritzkers were forced to pay hundreds of millions in
penalties, but the agreement contained provisions that may enable the
Pritzkers to earn hundreds of millions. Notwithstanding the Superior Bank
disaster, Penny is being touted as Obama's next secretary of
commerce.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Valerie Jarrett is
another black real estate executive. Described as "the other side of Barack's
brain," she also served as finance chair during his successful 2004 U.S.
Senate campaign. Jarrett was Daley's deputy chief of staff - that was her job
when she hired Michelle Obama. Eventually, Daley made her the head of city
planning. But Jarrett doesn't work for Daley anymore. She's the CEO of David
Levin's Habitat - one of the largest property managers in Chicago - and the
court-appointed overseer of CHA projects. Habitat also managed Grove Parc, the
scandal-ridden project in Englewood that left Section 8 tenants, mostly
refugees from demolished public housing projects, without heat in the winter
but inundated with rats. Grove Parc was developed by Tony Rezko, who's white,
and his long-time business partner, Allison Davis, who's black.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Let's look at Rezko and
then Davis. It was Rezko's ability to exploit relationships with influential
blacks - including Muhammad Ali - that enabled him to become one of Chicago's
preeminent cockroach capitalists. Altogether, Rezko wound up developing over
1,000 apartments with state and city money. There was more to the Obama-Rezko
relationship than the empty lot in Kenwood. Rezko raised over $250,000 for
Obama's state senate campaign. While Obama was a state senator, he wrote
letters in support of Rezko's applications for development funds. But Obama
ignored the plight of Rezko's tenants who complained to Obama's office. [On
November 23, 2011, Rezko was sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison, convicted in
a federal court of "corrupt use of power and influence," soliciting kickbacks.
Editors.]</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Rezko's Grove Parc
partner, Allison Davis, was a witness in the Rezko trial. He's pretty
radioactive too. You could see why Rezko wanted to hook up with him since
Davis was the senior partner in Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland, a small,
black law firm, where Obama worked for nearly a decade. As the editor of the
Harvard Law Review, Obama could have worked anywhere. Why did he choose the
Davis firm?</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Davis had been a noted
civil rights attorney and a progressive critic of the first Daley machine. But
in 1980, Davis got a call from the Ford Foundation's little known but
immensely influential affiliate LISC - the Local Initiatives Support
Corporation - that had just been founded. LISC, whose present chair is
Citigroup's Robert Rubin, connects small, mainly minority community nonprofits
with big foundation grants, and especially with bank loans and tax
credit-driven equity. LISC wanted to coopt Davis in their ghetto redevelopment
program. He agreed, and the Davis firm came to specialize in handling legal
work for nonprofit community development firms. Eventually, Davis left the
firm to go into partnership with Tony Rezko.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Meanwhile, Obama did
legal work for the Rezko-Davis partnership, and for community development
organizations like Woodlawn Organization. In 1994, the LA Times reports, Obama
appeared in Cook County court on behalf of Woodlawn Preservation &
Investment Corp., defending it against a suit by the city, which alleged that
the company failed to provide heat for low-income tenants on the South Side
during the winter. There were several cases of this type, but, as the Times
observes, Obama doesn't mention them in Dreams from My Father.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>In the 1960s, under the
leadership of Arthur M. Brazier, bishop of the Apostolic Church of God,
Woodlawn gained a reputation as Chicago's outstanding Saul Alinsky-style
community organization. Mainly, TWO [the Woodlawn Organization] battled the
University of Chicago's urban renewal program. But gradually Brazier's
political direction changed. Now TWO is partnering with UC in efforts to
gentrify Woodlawn.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>When Barack Obama left
Jeremiah Wright's church, he switched to Brazier's Apostolic Church of God.
Brazier is typical of a much larger group - real estate reverends - who play
the Community Development game and, in the process, have acquired huge real
estate portfolios. But it's really a national phenomenon. Here, in New York,
we have Rev. Calvin Butts whose church has a subsidiary, the Abyssinian
Development Corp. In partnership with LISC, the ADC now boasts a portfolio of
$500 million in Harlem property alone. Rev. Floyd Flake of the Allen African
Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica, Queens, has a sizeable portfolio of
commercial property.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>Chicago's disciples of
development include Wilbur Daniel. He's the pastor of Antioch Missionary
Baptist Church in Englewood who really did exclaim, "Give us this day our
Daley bread," meaning free land and free capital for real estate development.
Daniel's prayers were answered in 2001, when, with Daley's help, Antioch was
chosen to be the lead church in Fannie Mae's $55 billion House Chicago plan
for the redevelopment of the South Side.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align=justify><SPAN>How has Obama earned the
support and allegiance of friendly FIRE? Where does he stand on the Plan for
Transformation? Generally speaking, he's been careful not to leave too many
footprints. If you google Obama and public housing, nothing comes up. But in
1995, a year before he ran successfully for state senate seat from South Side,
in Dreams from My Father he wrote about his encounters with Rev. Jeremiah
Wright. Obama says he was impressed by Wright's emphasis on the unity of the
black community. But he's a little skeptical of too broad a unity, of
achieving unity without conflict. He says, "Would the interest in maintaining
such unity allow Reverend Wright to take a forceful stand on the latest
proposals to reform public housing?" Here he's referring to Clinton's Hope VI,
which provided matching federal money for the demolition of public housing and
the corresponding local initiatives, which culminated in the Plan for
Transformation. "And if men like Reverend Wright failed to take a stand, if
churches like Trinity refused to engage with real power and risk genuine
conflict, then what chance would there be in holding the larger community
intact?"</SPAN></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: small" class=Apple-style-span>I have to stop now
and put Karnak's envelope to my forehead. What we see is that the Chicago core
of the Obama coalition is made up of blacks who've moved up by moving poor
blacks out of the community. And very wealthy whites who've advanced their
community development agenda by hiring blacks. Will this be the pattern for
the future in an Obama administration? I can't read the envelope. But I do
believe that, if we want to disrupt the pattern of the past, we have to make
some distinctions: between the change they believe in and the change we
believe in; between our interests and theirs; between a notion of community
that scapegoats the poor and one that respects their human rights - one of
which is not to be the object of ethnic cleaning. Between Hope VI and genuine
human hope. <STRONG>CP</STRONG></SPAN>Visit us
at:<BR>http://www.weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com<BR>http://laborsmilitantvoice.org</DIV></FONT>
<P></P></DIV><!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStart|**|-~-->
<DIV style="HEIGHT: 0px; COLOR: #fff">__._,_.___</DIV>
<DIV
style="WHITE-SPACE: nowrap; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #666; CLEAR: both; PADDING-TOP: 15px"
id=ygrp-actbar>
<DIV><A style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"
href="mailto:loughfinn@aol.com?subject=Re%3A%20Obama%20and%20Chicago%20and%20his%20class%20base%2E%20">Reply
to <SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: 700">sender</SPAN></A> | <A
href="mailto:socialistdiscussion@yahoogroups.com?subject=Re%3A%20Obama%20and%20Chicago%20and%20his%20class%20base%2E%20">Reply
to <SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: 700">group</SPAN></A> | <A
href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/socialistdiscussion/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJyNms1b3BuBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE4MDM1OTUzBGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2MDM3NQRtc2dJZAMxNTEyMwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNycGx5BHN0aW1lAzEzMzE0MjIwMDY-?act=reply&messageNum=15123">Reply
<SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: 700">via web post</SPAN></A> | <A
style="FONT-WEIGHT: 700"
href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/socialistdiscussion/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJmOXRxazY1BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE4MDM1OTUzBGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2MDM3NQRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNudHBjBHN0aW1lAzEzMzE0MjIwMDY-">Start
a New Topic</A> </DIV><A
href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/socialistdiscussion/message/15123;_ylc=X3oDMTM3ZWNoYXIyBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE4MDM1OTUzBGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2MDM3NQRtc2dJZAMxNTEyMwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawN2dHBjBHN0aW1lAzEzMzE0MjIwMDYEdHBjSWQDMTUxMjM-">Messages
in this topic</A> (<SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: 700">1</SPAN>) </DIV><!------- Start Nav Bar ------><!-- |**|begin egp html banner|**| --><!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| --><!-- |**|begin egp html banner|**| -->
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e0ecee; PADDING-LEFT: 10px; PADDING-RIGHT: 10px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 10px; FONT-SIZE: 10px; PADDING-TOP: 10px"
id=ygrp-vital><SPAN
style="TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase; COLOR: #333; FONT-WEIGHT: bold"
id=vithd>Recent Activity:</SPAN>
<UL
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; DISPLAY: inline; PADDING-TOP: 0px"></UL>
<DIV style="COLOR: #1e66ae; CLEAR: both; PADDING-TOP: 2px"><A
style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/socialistdiscussion;_ylc=X3oDMTJmbTdyNm03BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE4MDM1OTUzBGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2MDM3NQRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzEzMzE0MjIwMDY-">Visit
Your Group</A> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 2px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; CLEAR: both; FONT-SIZE: 11px; PADDING-TOP: 0px"
id=ft><A style="FLOAT: left"
href="http://groups.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTJlaTN1MWE0BF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzE4MDM1OTUzBGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2MDM3NQRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTMzMTQyMjAwNw--"><IMG
style="BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px"
alt="Yahoo! Groups" src="http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/yg/logo/us.gif" width=137
height=15></A>
<DIV style="FLOAT: right; COLOR: #747575">Switch to: <A
style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="mailto:socialistdiscussion-traditional@yahoogroups.com?subject=Change Delivery Format: Traditional">Text-Only</A>,
<A style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" class=margin-rt
href="mailto:socialistdiscussion-digest@yahoogroups.com?subject=Email Delivery: Digest">Daily
Digest</A> • <A style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="mailto:socialistdiscussion-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe">Unsubscribe</A>
• <A style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/">Terms of Use</A></DIV></DIV><!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| --></DIV><!-- ygrp-msg --><!-- Sponsor --><!-- |**|begin egp html banner|**| -->
<DIV
style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 25px; WIDTH: 160px; BACKGROUND: #fff; FLOAT: right; CLEAR: none"
id=ygrp-sponsor><!-- Start Recommendations -->
<DIV id=ygrp-reco></DIV><!-- End Recommendations --></DIV><!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| -->
<DIV style="COLOR: #fff; CLEAR: both; FONT-SIZE: 1px">.</DIV></DIV><IMG
src="http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=18035953/grpspId=1705060375/msgId=15123/stime=1331422006/nc1=3848621/nc2=5898817/nc3=5741391"
width=1 height=1> <BR>
<DIV style="HEIGHT: 0px; COLOR: #fff">__,_._,___</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlEnd|**|-~--><!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStart|**|-~-->
<STYLE type=text/css>#ygrp-mkp {
BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #d8d8d8 1px solid; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 10px 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 10px; PADDING-RIGHT: 10px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BORDER-TOP: #d8d8d8 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #d8d8d8 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
#ygrp-mkp HR {
BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #d8d8d8 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #d8d8d8 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #d8d8d8 1px solid
}
#ygrp-mkp #hd {
LINE-HEIGHT: 122%; MARGIN: 10px 0px; COLOR: #628c2a; FONT-SIZE: 85%; FONT-WEIGHT: 700
}
#ygrp-mkp #ads {
MARGIN-BOTTOM: 10px
}
#ygrp-mkp .ad {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
#ygrp-mkp .ad P {
MARGIN: 0px
}
#ygrp-mkp .ad A {
COLOR: #0000ff; TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
#ygrp-sponsor #ygrp-lc {
FONT-FAMILY: Arial
}
#ygrp-sponsor #ygrp-lc #hd {
LINE-HEIGHT: 122%; MARGIN: 10px 0px; FONT-SIZE: 78%; FONT-WEIGHT: 700
}
#ygrp-sponsor #ygrp-lc .ad {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 10px; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
A {
COLOR: #1e66ae
}
#actions {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; FONT-SIZE: 11px; PADDING-TOP: 10px
}
#activity {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e0ecee; PADDING-LEFT: 10px; PADDING-RIGHT: 10px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; FLOAT: left; FONT-SIZE: 10px; PADDING-TOP: 10px
}
#activity SPAN {
FONT-WEIGHT: 700
}
#activity SPAN:first-child {
TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase
}
#activity SPAN A {
COLOR: #5085b6; TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
#activity SPAN SPAN {
COLOR: #ff7900
}
#activity SPAN .underline {
TEXT-DECORATION: underline
}
.attach {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; WIDTH: 400px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; DISPLAY: table; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; CLEAR: both; FONT-SIZE: 12px; PADDING-TOP: 10px
}
.attach DIV A {
TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
.attach IMG {
BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none
}
.attach LABEL {
DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 5px
}
.attach LABEL A {
TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
BLOCKQUOTE {
MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 4px
}
.bold {
FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-WEIGHT: 700
}
.bold A {
TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
DD.last P A {
FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; FONT-WEIGHT: 700
}
DD.last P SPAN {
FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; FONT-WEIGHT: 700; MARGIN-RIGHT: 10px
}
DD.last P SPAN.yshortcuts {
MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px
}
DIV.attach-table DIV DIV A {
TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
DIV.attach-table {
WIDTH: 400px
}
DIV.file-title A {
TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
DIV.file-title A:active {
TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
DIV.file-title A:hover {
TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
DIV.file-title A:visited {
TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
DIV.photo-title A {
TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
DIV.photo-title A:active {
TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
DIV.photo-title A:hover {
TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
DIV.photo-title A:visited {
TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
DIV#ygrp-mlmsg #ygrp-msg P A SPAN.yshortcuts {
FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; FONT-SIZE: 10px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal
}
.green {
COLOR: #628c2a
}
.MsoNormal {
MARGIN: 0px
}
o {
FONT-SIZE: 0px
}
#photos DIV {
WIDTH: 72px; FLOAT: left
}
#photos DIV DIV {
BORDER-BOTTOM: #666666 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #666666 1px solid; WIDTH: 62px; HEIGHT: 62px; OVERFLOW: hidden; BORDER-TOP: #666666 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #666666 1px solid
}
#photos DIV LABEL {
TEXT-ALIGN: center; WIDTH: 64px; WHITE-SPACE: nowrap; COLOR: #666666; FONT-SIZE: 10px; OVERFLOW: hidden
}
#reco-category {
FONT-SIZE: 77%
}
#reco-desc {
FONT-SIZE: 77%
}
.replbq {
MARGIN: 4px
}
#ygrp-actbar DIV A:first-child {
PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 2px
}
#ygrp-mlmsg {
FONT-FAMILY: Arial, helvetica,clean, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: small
}
#ygrp-mlmsg TABLE {
}
#ygrp-mlmsg SELECT {
FONT: 99% Arial, Helvetica, clean, sans-serif
}
INPUT {
FONT: 99% Arial, Helvetica, clean, sans-serif
}
TEXTAREA {
FONT: 99% Arial, Helvetica, clean, sans-serif
}
#ygrp-mlmsg PRE {
FONT: 100% monospace
}
CODE {
FONT: 100% monospace
}
#ygrp-mlmsg * {
LINE-HEIGHT: 1.22em
}
#ygrp-mlmsg #logo {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px
}
#ygrp-mlmsg A {
COLOR: #1e66ae
}
#ygrp-msg P A {
FONT-FAMILY: Verdana
}
#ygrp-msg P#attach-count SPAN {
COLOR: #1e66ae; FONT-WEIGHT: 700
}
#ygrp-reco #reco-head {
COLOR: #ff7900; FONT-WEIGHT: 700
}
#ygrp-reco {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 20px; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
#ygrp-sponsor #ov LI A {
FONT-SIZE: 130%; TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
#ygrp-sponsor #ov LI {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 6px; LIST-STYLE-TYPE: square; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 77%; PADDING-TOP: 6px
}
#ygrp-sponsor #ov UL {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 8px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
#ygrp-text {
FONT-FAMILY: Georgia
}
#ygrp-text P {
MARGIN: 0px 0px 1em
}
#ygrp-text TT {
FONT-SIZE: 120%
}
#ygrp-vital UL LI:unknown {
BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none !important
}
</STYLE>
<!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlEnd|**|-~--><!-- end group email --></BODY></HTML>