Tag: barack obama

Obama's housing record, part five – View from a constituent, Beauty Turner

Beauty Turner is a long time public housing activist in the South Side of Chicago in the district where Barack Obama served as Illinois state senator. She is also a free lance writer, covering issues of concern to residents of the district. Respected in her community, she will be a featured commentator for WPHK in Chicago on election night. As a resident of public housing in the area where Obama cut his political teeth, she has been a long time observer of the Democrat candidate. She is the host of Beauty’s Ghetto Bus Tours, where visitors to Chicago can see the projects first hand. Despite being an anti-war activist and having liberal leanings, she is quite critical of Barack Obama.
I found Ms. Turner online blog while doing research on Barack Obama record on housing while he was a state senator from 1996-2004. In this post, I summarize a brief conversation with her about Obama’s record while an Illinois state senator. Given Obama’s constant promise of change, I wanted to see what kind of change he brought to the streets of Chicago’s South side. What I found was dramatically disappointing.
First some background. Some of the worst episodes in a rather bleak recent history of public housing in Chicago took place during Senator Obama’s watch. For instance, on one occasion during a five week period during the frigid Chicago winter of 1996-1997, a building in his district went without heat. Here is how the Chicago Sun-Times described the situation:

For more than five weeks during the brutal winter of 1997, tenants shivered without heat in a government-subsidized apartment building on Chicago’s South Side.
It was just four years after the landlords — Antoin “Tony” Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru — had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers.
Rezko and Mahru couldn’t find money to get the heat back on.
But their company, Rezmar Corp., did come up with $1,000 to give to the political campaign fund of Barack Obama, the newly elected state senator whose district included the unheated building.
Obama has been friends with Rezko for 17 years. Rezko has been a political patron to Obama and many others, helping to raise millions of dollars for them through his own contributions and by hosting fund-raisers in his home.

The same Sun-Time article adds,

The tenants there had no heat from Dec. 27, 1996, until at least Feb. 3, 1997, when the city of Chicago sued to turn the heat on. The case was settled later that month with a $100 fine.
It was during that time that the area’s new state senator, Barack Obama, got a $1,000 campaign donation from Rezmar. The date: Jan. 14, 1997.

When asked about the incident, Senator Obama said he “never had a conversation with Mr. Rezko about the matter.” The Boston Globe later probed for more about these events, but the Obama campaign did not answer their specific questions.
I asked Ms. Turner if she was aware of an occasion when Obama publicly confronted those managing the properties in decline about the worsening conditions. She was unaware of any such confrontation, saying that Obama “was for privatizing of public housings,” and added:

Just take a look at who all signed on to privatizing public housing, as well as who received the managing contracts as well as who benefited from these moves.

When asked specifically, who Ms. Turner referred to, she said,

Valerie Jarrett and, Daley and William Moorehead, Reverend Brazier, and Reverend Leon Finley were his friends they received contracts for managing CHA properties, some were indicted such as Moorehead.

Valerie Jarrett, who might head HUD in an Obama administration, until recently headed Habitat, Inc., which managed Grove Parc as its HUD inspection rating went from 82 out of 100 in 2003 to an abysmal 11 in 2006. Mrs. Jarrett is a fixture in Chicago, sitting on the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago and serves as close adviser to Obama.
When I asked her what Obama accomplished while state senator, she said, “He accomplished getting known.”
Ms. Turner’s view is that Obama cared more about privatizing housing than the conditions his constituents had to endure, saying, “He ignores the poor but if thing continues to fall there will be only two groups of people the rich and the poor.”
These are very strong words, perhaps even stronger than I would have used. However, I didn’t live there. It is an irony that may be completely lost on the American people that the candidate who promises “the change we need” is not viewed as a change agent by a former constituent.
Most politicians like to talk about their accomplishments, their record. However, Barack Obama frequently speaks about what is going to do. He has little to say about what he has done. Perhaps that is because there is so little to talk about. When it comes to his record on housing, it is largely, to quote reporter Binyamin Appelbaum, “a story of what did not happen.”
Where are the stories of how Obama took on the Chicago political machine to get things done for his constituents? Where are the stories of how he helped expose corruption and cronyism while an Illinois state senator?
Ms. Turner has a warning for Americans should Barack Obama become president:

If he get elected or when he is elected, the people will have to stand up and be counted, and do not, I repeat do not let him mess over them in any way!

I have little doubt that Beauty Turner will stand up and be counted.
Other posts in this series:
Part One: Obama’s housing policies: Is past prologue?
Part Two: Obama’s housing policies: Cold constituents
Part Three: Obama’s housing policies: A story about what did not happen
Part Four: Obama’s housing record: Obama’s housing advisers

Vote Today, vote tomorrow, vote here, vote there…

Vote Today is an effort which is calling people from all over to come vote in Ohio — After all, Ohio is the heart of it all!
WFP logo
Watch this and note the party affiliation of Tate Hausman – Working Families.
Following the link to their website, you will find that this party has endorsed Barack Obama. Also, if you read long enough, you will find that the Executive Director of the Working Families Party is Dan Cantor. Mr. Cantor is the co-founder of the socialist New Party that Mr. Obama belonged to in the late 1990s. Apparently, the Working Families Party is the remnant of the New Party. You can get to the Working Familes Website via a link on the New Party website.
So in my home state, you have a neo-socialist party bringing in people who do not live in Ohio to vote for Obama. I wonder if Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner watches Palestra.net.
Viva la revolucion!

Borowitz: McCain sends Biden to key swing states

Said as only Andy Borowitz can:

October 22, 2008
McCain Sends Biden to Key Swing States
‘Just Keep Talking,’ Says Mac
In a move unprecedented in the annals of presidential politics, Republican presidential nominee John McCain announced today that he was sending Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden on a campaign trip to several key swing states.
“I told Joe, I will pay your plane fare, hotels, all your expenses,” Sen. McCain said. “Just get out there and say whatever’s on your mind, my friend.”
Sen. McCain added one small caveat: “Whatever you do, don’t edit yourself.”
The Arizona’s senator’s unusual proposal is part of what one aide called the campaign’s “Two Joes” strategy.
“For the next two weeks, this campaign is going to be all about two Joes,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. “Joe the Plumber and Joe the Blabber.”
But the McCain campaign’s plans were short-lived as Sen. Barack Obama today announced plans of his own for talkative running mate: “Between now and the election, Joe Biden will be reaching out to voters in Antarctica and possibly the Moon.”
Sen. Biden said he was grateful for the assignment, adding, “I will be proud to serve under Barack Obama, especially when one of our enemies tries to test him with a full-on nuclear attack. Kerblooey!!!!”

Andy writes referring to Joe Biden’s prophecy of a significant international test for a newly minted President Obama.
Here is what Biden said:

Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking,” Biden said.
“Remember I said it standing here. if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. And he’s gonna have to make some really tough — I don’t know what the decision’s gonna be, but I promise you it will occur. As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it’s gonna happen,” Biden continued.

However, to my knowledge no one is reporting Biden’s attempt to reframe his comments.
Biden added, “What I meant was the Obama will receive a very hard written test from the world, and he will pass it with flying colors. When Jack Kennedy was tested like that during the Korean war, he logged on to the Internet and assured the American people that he could pass that test, and he did!”
And if you wonder why this hasn’t been reported, see this: Joe Biden’s fun with history!

Obama's housing record, part three – A story about what did not happen

The Boston Globe on June 27, 2008 published an article by Binyamin Appelbaum about Obama’s state senate record on public housing. As a follow-up, Mr. Appelbaum was interviewed on July 1, 2008 by National Public Radio’s Farai Chideya along with Illinois state representative Julie Hamos. Ms. Hamos spoke in defense of private developers getting tax dollars to rehab public houing and Mr. Appelbaum elaborated on his report.
You can listen to the entire interview at the link above or here. I am going to highlight a few excerpts.

Farai: So, Binyamin let me start with you. Your article focuses on Grove Parc Plaza – it’s a development located in the district that Obama represented for eight years when he was a state senator. So, uh, tell us why you zeroed in on this development.
Binyamin: We were interested in Obama’s years as a state senator because it’s sort of his largest body of work as a politician. And so we thought it would be instructive to look at how he did, and the issue of affordable housing was a signature issue for him; it was one of his major focuses both before becoming an elected official and during his time as an elected official. And what we found was that the policies that he supported in many cases, produced developments that failed. And furthermore, many of the major beneficiaries of those policies have been his friends and supporters. And many of the people who have suffered were his constituents, people who lived in his state senate district. Grove Parc is one of the outstanding examples of this problem. It sits on the border of Obama’s district, its 504 apartments of subsidized housing of fully renovated in the early 1990’s, uh, that have fallen in to such disrepair that the plan now is to demolish them and start all over again. It was built by a non-profit, led by a number of Obama supporters. It was managed during the period of its greatest decline by a company called The Habitat Company, which is led by Valerie Jarrett, who is a senior advisor to Obama’s presidential campaign. And it’s, it’s as I said, in his district. So it struck us as sort of emblematic of the issue we wanted to write about.

Mr. Appelbaum provides a very reasonable to explore Obama’s career as a state senator – “his largest body of work as a politician.” Focusing on Tony Rezko’s illegal activities obscures that Mr. Obama was largely ineffective in making changes or fighting the status quo. As Appelbaum noted, he maintains advisors who were with him in Chicago. For instance, former Habitat head, Valerie Jarrett is touted as a top administration pick.
Appelbaum says the Obama campaign did not address his questions completely.

Farai: You did reach out to Senator Obama, what did he tell you about his perception of the issues that you raised?
Binyamin: The Obama Campaign affirmed Senator Obama’s support, uh, for the policy of subsidizing private developers and managers of affordable housing. It did not respond to questions about whether the Senator was aware of problems in his district.

Rep. Hamos still stuck up for private-public partnerships.

Farai: Now Julie, let me go to you. From your perspective, as someone who is a state representative, what did you think of the article? Um, what do you think of the entire issue of, um, privatizing public housing, whether or not it’s worked, and whether or not there is a hint of perhaps too much leeway being given to developers linked to the Senator?
Julie: Well, first of all, I thought the article was unclear in the way that it focused on some projects, and in this particular case, Grove Parc is a great example. Grove Parc was built in 1970 under, really under a failed policy of the federal government. It was called Project Base-Section 8– it was built as a project-base-section-eight program. And these projects, typically, did not have enough money put into them by the federal government, for the kind of maintenance we really need long term to make sure they succeed. This is exactly the kind or programs that we’re not really building anymore. And Grove Park is an example of that. Those have been replaced now by more innovative and successful policies, and those policies are in fact the privatize-public partnerships that we should be really applauding. They are the partnerships used in tax credits that have now created thousands of units of much smaller developments out of mixed-income developments, and really been revitalizing neighborhoods. So, I fully support, as a public policy maker, what we are trying to do now, which is to bring in private developers using market based incentives to get them to build affordable housing. This is still a very big issue in most communities. It certainly is here in Illinois. But it is the model that is working. Grove Parc is an old model that didn’t work, and we replaced it.

Reporter Appelbaum came to the conclusion that Obama did not help his people when he could have done so.

Farai: Binyamin, let me bring this back into a larger framework, which is Democratic politics. Um, the issue made headlines during the democratic primary. Let’s listen to Senator Clinton in South Carolina:
Senator Clinton: I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor Rezko in his slum land-lord business in inner-city Chicago.
Farai: That’s Senator Clinton attacking Senator Barak Obama for his connection to Antonin Rezko and Rezko was a major Obama fundraiser. Give us a little more of a context, Binyamin, on what exactly the connection is between Rezko and Obama.
Binyamin: Rezko is a really interesting example. Rezko, who was one of Obama’s primary fundraisers, particularly for his earlier political campaigns, he was a friend of the Senator’s, he was involved in Obama’s purchase of a home in 2005, but what is really interesting about Tony Rezko is that he was a developer on the model that, uh, (Ms. Ramos) was just describing. In that he built mixed used, mixed income housing, mixed income communities, scattered across Chicago, small numbers of developments. The model that was both/built to replace Grove Parc. And that also failed spectacularly. And it failed for the same reason, which is the private managers, private developers, were not equity supervised by the government. They all say that they didn’t get enough money to manage these projects. Perhaps that’s true, although some of them succeed, and some of them fail – those that succeed said they do have enough money and those that fail said that they don’t have enough money. But whether or not that’s the issue, the fact of the matter is this new, new model, this third generation of subsidized development so far it doesn’t have a better track record than the generation that included Grove Park. Which incidentally, was most recently redone after the administration of Harold Washington. One broader note here, which is as much as this is a story about what happened in Chicago, it’s also a story about what did not happen. And specifically, it’s not, we’re not in any way finding that Barak Obama directed money to these developers, that he was directly responsible for the suffering of his constituents. What’s interesting here is that Obama did not stand up and point his finger at the problems, and he did not participate, as best we can tell, in an effort to correct the problems. That, that to me is as much the issue as what went wrong.

The interviewer asks Ms. Hamos about Obama’s performance and in my view, she does not answer the question. She says in part:

We understand that these affordable housing developers don’t have a lot of cash going though them. They’re for very low-income people. And it’s a challenge to manage these well, and it’s a challenge to get enough money to have good on-site management operations. So we understand this – that some developments do better than other developments. And yet we don’t stand up an accuse and blame the people that we’re trying to bring into the process. It is one of the challenges for building housing for very low income people that continues to today.

I think she is saying Obama should not have confronted mismanagement because he needed the developers (“the people that we’re trying to bring into the process”). I am not sure really, but it sounds like enabling poor outcomes.
Other posts in this series:
Part One: Obama’s housing policies: Is past prologue?
Part Two: Obama’s housing policies: Cold constituents
Part Four: Obama’s housing policies: Obama’s housing advisors

Was ACORN involved with Obama campaign violations during the Democratic primary?

After I reported that Los Angeles NOW president Shelly Mandell endorsed Sarah Palin, I became curious about other prominent Clinton supporters who were crossing Democratic party lines and voting for McCain. One of the more striking endorsers is Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a member of the Democratic Platform Committee.
More digging led me to the PUMAs (Party Unity My Ass) and Just Say No Deal. These are people who worked for Hillary Clinton during the primaries but who have decided not to support Barack Obama in the general election.
One such Hillary supporter is Diane Mantouvalos. Ms. Mantouvalos manages the Just Say No Deal website and related activities. In speaking with her, she outlined some of her reasons she was not going to support Barack Obama.
In ideological terms, Ms. Mantouvalos sees the ascendance of Obama as a move from the center toward the far left. She said, “I do not believe Obama will abandon 20 years of socialist mentoring and govern from the center.” Centrist Democrats such as herself find John McCain more appealing than the liberal Obama.
Regarding the primary campaign, Ms. Mantouvalos pointed out that Obama ran a campaign that led to the Clinton camp filing complaints with state officials. For instance, here is a letter signed by Lyn Utrecht, Clinton campaign lawyer to the Nevada state Democratic party chair detailing multiple unethical tactics during the Nevada caucus.
The letter begins:

Dear Chair Derby:
I write on behalf of Hillary Clinton for President (”the Committee”) in regard to the January 19, 2008 Nevada Democratic Caucus. The Committee is aware of a letter addressed to you today from the Obama for America campaign requesting an inquiry into the conduct of the caucuses. The Committee shares the Obama campaign’s concern that full participation in the democratic process may have been compromised by the substantial number of irregularities occurring at the caucuses, and we fully support a complete inquiry by the Nevada State Democratic Party (the ”Party”) into all caucus improprieties.
This letter is not intended as a response to the Obama campaign’s letter. However, in the interest of a complete record, and in contrast to the alleged minor procedural problems noted by the Obama campaign, the Committee wishes to bring to your attention information we have received evidencing a premeditated and predesigned plan by the Obama campaign to engage in systematic corruption of the Party’s caucus procedures. Compounding this blatant distortion of the caucus rules was an egregious effort by the Obama campaign to manipulate the voter registration process in its own favor, thereby disenfranchising countless voters. Finally, the Committee has received a vast number of reliable reports of voter suppression and intimidation by the Obama campaign or its allies.

Ms. Mantouvalos says there is reason to believe that those allies were sometimes people involved with ACORN.
She noted that the FEC is investigating the $832,598.29 Obama paid to ACORN affiliate, Citizen Services, Inc., for various voter services. She said eyewitnesses saw Obama supporters bussed in to caucus locations from outside the area and that ACORN was often involved in the organizing.
In fact, acting on another tip, I looked for announcements calling for ACORN help in the OBAMA campaign. Here is a February 21, 2008 blog post from Writes Like She Talks which contains a call from ACORN for volunteers to work in the OBAMA campaign. None of this proves ACORN perpetrated any of the abuses listed by Utrecht but it does indicate that supposedly non-partisan ACORN has been involved in the OBAMA campaign.

GOTV for Obama! Ohio ACORN is doing a Get Out The Vote project with the OBAMA Campaign. Ohio ACORN is hiring canvassers to go door to door encouraging voters to vote for Barak Obama.
ACORN is hiring in Cleveland (216)431-3905 , Columbus (614)425-9491, Cincinnati (513)221-1737, for Dayton (call Cincinnati), and for Toledo call Cleveland. Or email [email protected] and your inquiry will be routed to the appropriate person in each of these cities. Intake and training will be held daily at local ACORN offices. Canvass begins on Wednesday Feb. 27th and will work through election day. Please, only persons wishing to work all or most of these days (Saturday and Sunday included) should inquire.
Please do not contact the Obama campaign directly regarding this post as they are not the organization doing the hiring and it will only distract their staff and volunteers from the other important work they are doing on behalf of Senator Obama.
Good luck.

Furthermore, Newsmax is reporting that a total of 4 whistleblowers have come forward to claim that federal money given to ACORN’s housing affiliate has ended up supporting the voting initiatives. My understanding is that two new affidavits from former ACORN insiders will go up on the website of the Consumers Rights League today or tomorrow. What is at issue is whether taxpayer money has gone toward partisan political campaigning. There are many loose ends.
The number of states where ACORN is under investigation is now in the double-digits. Ms. Mantouvalos is concerned that what happened in the primaries may happen in some form in the election. One hopes that John Fund is not correct when he worries that election day may again turn into election month. However, if Ms. Mantouvalos and Ms. Utrecht’s concerns are accurate, we may indeed be in for painful process of sorting out who voted and how often they voted.
UPDATE: Another Ohio blog has the same email linking ACORN with the Obama campaign. Gateway Pundit has this link also with lots more on ACORN.