“I’m not going to let you do to me what you did to Stanley McChrystal,” Emanuel said in an allusion to the Rolling Stones profile of McChrystal that Hastings wrote which led to the general’s resignation over disparaging comments made about President Obama.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel allegedly grabbed a reporter by the arm in order to communicate “a threat of physical violence” in the course of an interview that went south during the presidential campaign.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this in my career from an American public official,” Buzzfeed’s Michael Hastings, author of Panic 2012: The Sublime and Terrifying Inside Story of Barack Obama’s Final Campaign, said on Current TV.
Guns: The mayor of what is at once America’s most gun-controlled city and its murder capital wants an assault weapons ban like the one he pushed in 1994. Except it didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.
Nathaniel T. Jackson, 40, an alleged gang member with a long arrest record, was gunned down last week outside a store in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, becoming the Windy City’s 500th murder victim in 2012.
Up to 80% of Chicago’s murders and shootings are gang-related, according to police. By one estimate, the city has almost 70,000 gang members. A police audit last spring identified 59 gangs and 625 factions; most were on the South and West sides.
Yet, in the view of Chicago’s mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, the answer to violence by crazies and criminals in his city and nationally is more gun control, not more gang and goon control.
Rahm Emanuel has been knocked off the mayoral ballot after an Illinois appellate court panel overturned a ruling in his residency case.
The panel ruled that Emanuel did not meet the residency requirement for eligible candidates.
“We conclude that the candidate neither meets the the municipal code’s requirement that he have ‘resided’ in Chicago for the year preceding the election in which he seeks to participate nor falls within any exception to the requirement,” the court wrote in its decision.
Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
“Everything’s fucked up, and nobody goes to jail,” he said. “That’s your whole story right there. Hell, you don’t even have to write the rest of it. Just write that.”
I put down my notebook. “Just that?”
“That’s right,” he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. “Everything’s fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there.”
Total corruption everywhere!
Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel laughs before addressing the crowd Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011 in Chicago. Emanuel was elected mayor of Chicago Tuesday, easily overwhelming five rivals to take the helm of the nation’s third-largest city as it prepares to chart a new course without the retiring Richard M. Daley.
NEW YORK – By crushing the competition, Rahm Emanuel is not just mayor—he may be mayor for life. Jonathan Alter reports from the victory party, from the jokes about Rahm’s residency flap to the challenges he faces. Plus, Howard Kurtz on the rise of anti-politicians.
Batten down the hatches, Chicago. He’s Da Mare. The *!#&! mayor.
When a Chicago lawyer named John Levi last fall introduced Rahm Emanuel to the partners at Sidley Austin (the Chicago firm where a young Barack Obama met Michelle Robinson in the late 1980s), Levi reminded his audience that for Chicagoans, there are only two truly important political jobs in the world—president of the United States and mayor of the city of Chicago.
Mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel holds a press conference after an Illinois Appellate Court panel overturned a ruling in his residency case Monday January 24, 2011. Jose More/Chicago News Cooperative
Rahm Emanuel has been knocked off the mayoral ballot after an Illinois appellate court panel overturned a ruling in his residency case.
The panel ruled that Emanuel did not meet the residency requirement for eligible candidates. (Scroll down to read the complete ruling.)
“We conclude that the candidate neither meets the the municipal code’s requirement that he have ‘resided’ in Chicago for the year preceding the election in which he seeks to participate nor falls within any exception to the requirement,” the court wrote in its decision.
Shortly afterward, Emanuel’s attorneys said they will appeal the case to the Illinois Supreme Court.
Ballots for the Feb. 22 election will be printed Monday night and they will not contain Emanuel’s name, said Jim Allen, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.
“We’re going to print with one less candidate,” Allen said.
Emanuel had been in the top position on the ballot. That spot now goes to City Clerk Miguel del Valle, followed by Carol Moseley Braun, Gery Chico, Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins and William Walls.
The board, Allen said, is not worried about the possibility that the Illinois Supreme Court could pick up the case.
“It’s a hypothetical,” Allen said. “We’ve got an election to run.”
Emanuel struck a confident note when he addressed reporters around 1:30 p.m. at a Loop restaurant.
“I have no doubt that we will, in the end, prevail at this effort,” Emanuel said. “As my father always used to say, ‘Nothing is ever easy in life.’ Nothing is ever easy. This is just one turn in the road.”
In a news conference that lasted barely four minutes, Emanuel said he hoped for a quick ruling on his appeal to the state Supreme Court and added that he felt encouraged by the arguments from the justice who took his side in the 2-1 appellate court ruling.
“The dissent came in pretty strong,” he said.
Emanuel repeated his contention that he should not be disqualified from running because he went to work in Washington. He suggested that he should be exempt from the requirement that he live in the city for a year before the election — a loophole that clearly applies to soldiers on duty.
“When the president asks you to serve the country as his chief of staff, that counts as part of service to your country,” he said.
Emanuel said he hopes that his residency issue will be resolved, arguing that it has distracted from a clear debate on important issues facing the city, including its financial problems, public education and crime.
“I still own a home here – look forward to moving into it one day – vote from here and pay property taxes here,” Emanuel said. “I do believe the people of the city of Chicago deserve the right to make a decision on who they want to be their next mayor.”
Michael Kasper, Emanuel’s lead attorney, told reporters after the decision that he plans on filing paperwork with the Illinois Supreme Court by Wednesday. Kasper said he’s not sure whether the court will even take up the case.
“I’m not going to speculate on what the court may or may not do,” Kasper said. “But we are going to appeal.”
Burton Odelson, an attorney for the objectors, thanked the judges for their decision.
“It was a clear cut case just like we said all along” Odelson told reporters at the courthouse.
In the 2-to-1 court decision, judges Thomas Hoffman and Shelvin Louise Marie Hall agreed that Emanuel does not meet the eligibility requirements to run for mayor. Emanuel’s attorneys had argued that Emanuel’s work as White House chief of staff made him eligible for a special provision in the election code that’s typically applied for U.S. servicemen and women. That provision allows those serving to maintain their residency if they are “on business of the United States.”
“That plan language limits the reach of the ‘business of the United States’ exception to ‘elector[s]’ or their spouses; it makes no mention of ‘candidates,’” wrote Hoffman for the majority.
Judge Bertina Lampkin, the lone dissenter, ripped into the majority’s decision. Calling the decision “contrary,” Lampkin wrote in the dissenting opinion that multiple court precedents show Emanuel can be eligible to run for mayor even though he worked in Washington, D.C. for most of the last year. Lampkin also wrote Emanuel’s decision to vote from his Hermitage Avenue address while in D.C. showed the candidate did not intend to abandon his residency.
Lampkin also casted doubt on whether the Illinois Supreme Court will have time to review the case, should it do so.
“While I strongly believe that the majority’s holding is completely erroneous, if the majority were to apply it only prospectively, rather than retroactively to this candidate, there would be sufficient time for our supreme court to thoughtfully review it,” wrote Lampkin. “The majority’s decision disenfranchises not just this particular candidate, but every voter in Chicago who would consider voting for him. Well-settled law does not countenance such a result.”
Chico would not address Burke’s potential role Monday at a news conference scheduled in response to the ruling.
“I’m a candidate for mayor, I don’t tell the Illinois Supreme Court what to do one way or the another,” Chico said. “That’s not my position.”
The Emanuel campaign encouraged followers on Twitter to meet at the Chicago Board of Elections at 5 p.m. today “to rally for Rahm’s right 2 b on the ballot and let Chicagoans choose.”
If Emanuel ultimately cannot be a candidate for mayor, the development would revolutionize the campaign to replace retiring Mayor Richard M. Daley. Emanuel has been the clear leader in every poll, with many analysts speculating that he could win the majority in the Feb. 22 election and avoid an April run-off.
Emanuel’s fund-raising prowess had allowed him to saturate the airwaves with campaign commercials for more than two months.
Mayoral candidates Braun, Chico and del Valle quickly called news conferences for Monday afternoon to address Emanuel’s removal from the ballot.
Chico said he was “surprised as anyone” with the ruling and called himself “agnostic” about Emanuel’s removal from the ballot.
“We will continue vigorously with our campaign with or without Rahm Emanuel,” Chico said at a River North news conference. “I’ve said from day one in this campaign, I haven’t paid much attention to who’s on, who’s off, who’s in the race. I mean, some of the biggest names in politics have come before this race and I’ve just not paid much attention to it and my philosophy remains the same today: we will work hard to gather every vote that we can and bring our case to the people throughout this city.”
“It looked like money was going to decide this election,” del Valle said. “The voters now have a rare opportunity to shape this city’s future.”
Braun called the appellate court’s decision a “major milestone” in her campaign and said she hoped Emanuel’s supporters would now join her.
“I’m a great believer in the rule of law,” Braun said at a Monday afternoon news conference. “The court has spoken and until they change their mind that’s the law of the land.”
U.S Rep. Danny Davis, who had filed nominating papers to appear on the Feb. 22 ballot and had been declared the consensus black mayoral candidate by a group black politicians and community leaders, said he has no regrets about withdrawing from the race last month and endorsing Braun.
“I don’t worry about spilled milk,” Davis said Monday from Washington, D.C.. He said has been receiving calls from his colleagues in Congress about the ruling. “Everybody’s been talking about it. … I’ve talked to very few people who were not surprised.”
The appellate panel’s ruling was the latest twist in an unusual spectacle that has consumed much of the political limelight since Daley announced that he would not run for a seventh term and Emanuel launched his campaign to succeed Daley.
City elections officials and a Cook County judge had sided with Emanuel, rejecting the notion that he did not meet the residency requirement because he rented out his home in Chicago and moved to Washington to become President Barack Obama‘s chief of staff in 2009.
During the election board hearing on his case last month, Emanuel testified for 12 hours, taking questions not only from Odelson but also from more than two dozen citizens who had filed formal objections to his candidacy without the benefit of a lawyer.
Emanuel’s election lawyers had argued that the former congressman always intended to return to his home on the North Side after serving Obama. To buttress their claims, they had argued that Emanuel left family heirlooms, such as his wife’s wedding dress, in the basement of the house.
Through it all, Emanuel has said he feels that he never abandoned Chicago — an assertion backed up by another of his former bosses, President Bill Clinton, in a visit here last week to campaign for Emanuel. Clinton ridiculed the notion that Emanuel is not a full-fledged Chicagoan, saying everybody who worked with him was aware that he regarded the city as “the capitol of the world.”
With former elite puppet President Bill Clinton promoting and raising for Rahmbo.
Donald Trump, Aaron Sorkin and Steven Spielberg have written checks for Emanuel. | AP Photos
Rahm Emanuel has tapped his super-agent brother Ari’s Hollywood money network big-time in his bid to become Chicago mayor, gobbling up five- and six-figure checks from the likes of Steven Spielberg, “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin, Dreamworks mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the Napster founder played by Justin Timberlake in “The Social Network.”
But Emanuel’s stunning multi-million haul wasn’t limited to the bright lights of the sunset strip — it also included huge payouts from CEOs and hedge fund managers across from New York to Silicon Valley, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Donald Trump and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.
Emanuel’s shop announced Thursday afternoon it had collected $11.7 million, including $1.1 million already in the former congressman’s funds, since unofficially launching his campaign in October. That total — almost identical to what Gov. Pat Quinn spent in his statewide gubernatorial race this fall — puts Emanuel in a strong position as he tries to replace long-time mayor Richard M. Daley.
Emanuel already has spent $2.2 million on friend David Axelrod’s Chicago-based communications firm to produce commercials that remind Chicago voters that the man who lived in DC for the past year and a half is still a native son.
1. Michael Chertoff was part of prosecution team that helped blow the 1993 World Trade Center investigation
2. Patrick Fitzgerald who was Chertoff’s boss on the WTC non-investigation is now in Illinois prosecuting political opponents of Rahm Emmanuel and Barack Obama
3. Rahm Emanuel’s father was an Israeli terrorist who specialized in bombing buses and killing British troops in Palestine
4. Emanuel and Obama both used a Washington DC townhouse provided to them by a BP lobbyist when Emanuel was a Congressman and Obama was a Senator
5. Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel were members of the same gay bath house in Chicago
6. A former staffer of the woman who rented Emanuel the townhouse just died…in a fire…in her garage…behind her house. Her husband is a top Obama staffer Dan Turton.
7. Larry Silverstein – leasee of the World Trade Center – is now the owner of the Chicago Sears Tower
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
If you ever wondered why Obama is carrying out the corporate-fascist agenda of the Bush family, you’ll understand everything after watching this video
Source: Brasscheck TV
Obama is now the worst President in the history of the United States of America, because not only did Obama approve and extend all Bush policies, but he also added even more unconstitutional laws and policies to them.
Obama like Bush (and all the other elite puppet criminals)is a traitor.
Note: Thomas S. Foley is a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, an executive committee member for the Trilateral Commission (think tank), and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).
-Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is of counsel at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank),Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
- James A. Johnson is a member of the Trilateral Commission (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
- Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a member of the Trilateral Commission (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
- Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982:
(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the United States in war)
- Sheryl K. Sandberg is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and adirector at the Walt Disney Company.
- Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), anda member of the Commercial Club of Chicago. .
- William M. Daleyis a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the chief of staff Barack Obama administration, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).
- Valerie B. Jarrett is Vernon E. Jordan Jr‘s great niece, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration.
- Rahm I. Emanuel was the White House chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration, is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and his brother is Ari Emanuel.
- Ari Emanuel is Rahm I. Emanuel’s brother, and the co-CEO & director for William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.
- Jerry Springer is a William Morris Endeavor Entertainment client.
- Condoleezza Rice is a client of the William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, Gene A. Washington’s frequent social companion, and a2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
“Change you can believe in?
More like bullshit you can take a bath in, if you ask me.” - Prof. Dr. David Michael Green (Dec.19, 2009)
It is probably just a coincidence that all US administrations consist only of members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group, right?
President Barack Obama named William Daley, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive and former commerce secretary, as his new chief of staff.
“Few Americans can boast the breadth of experience that Bill brings to this job,’’ Obama said at the White House with Daley at his side. “He possesses a deep understanding of how jobs are created and how to grow our economy.”
Daley, 62, a Washington veteran with strong ties to business and part of the most powerful political dynasty in Illinois, joins the administration as Obama prepares an agenda for the second half of his term. His appointment comes amid a retooling of the administration, including the naming tomorrow of Treasury Department official Gene Sperling to replace Lawrence Summers as head of the National Economic Council.
Daley will replace Pete Rouse, whom Obama named on Oct. 1 to fill the role on an interim basis after Rahm Emanuel resigned to return to Chicago. Rouse had indicated that he was reluctant to remain in that job for the rest of Obama’s presidency. Rouse will remain as an adviser, Obama said.
Forget about the branch. President Barack Obama offered the whole olive tree to the business community today with the appointment of JP Morgan Chase executive William Daley as White House Chief of Staff.
Daley also knows something about politics. He comes from Chicago where politics has a history of being played bare-knuckled style. Oh, and his brother is the Daley who is stepping down as Chicago mayor, which opened the way for Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former White House chief of staff (whom Daley is replacing), to run for that office.
Plenty more dots to connect — Daley was also former President Bill Clinton’s commerce secretary, and Clinton has come to Obama’s aid on more than one occasion (even before the press).
Obama said Daley “has a smidgen of awareness of how our system of government and politics works. You might say it is a genetic trait.”
The Chamber of Commerce did not even try to contain its glee. “This is a strong appointment,” said Thomas Donohue, president of the business group.
Looks like the scene is set for an administration-business rapprochement. Continue reading »
Chicago Elections Commission Dismissed Residency Challenges Against Former White House Chief of Staff
The Chicago Election Commissioners today unanimously ruled to strike down residency challenges against Rahm Emanuel, approving his name to appear on the 2011 ballot as a candidate for mayor.
While the three-member board’s decision is likely to be taken to the courts, it is a major win for the former White House chief of staff, whose campaign has been mired in the residency controversy for months.
More than two dozen people filed challenges to Emanuel’s residency, pointing out that he’d rented his house when he left for Washington and that owning a home in Chicago and voting there wasn’t enough to prove legal residency.
Emanuel moved to Washington, D.C., in late 2008 to join President Obama’s administration as White House chief of staff but had argued that his intention was always to move back to Chicago.
He resigned from his White House position this fall and returned to the Windy City to begin his mayoral campaign right after Mayor Richard Daley announced he wouldn’t be seeking another term.
Chicago law requires that a candidate has to be a resident of the city for at least a year before running for office.
Obama’s action in trying to ease his friend Valerie Jarrett into his old Senate seat will fuel cynicism about politics.
Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich Photo: EPA
In a year when Americans are arguably more cynical and disillusioned about politics than at any time since Watergate, the corruption trial of Rod Blagojevich is a sobering reminder of how its practitioners operate.
Although “Blago”, the foul-mouthed bouffant buffoon, is the main attraction of the Chicago production, the former Illinois governor’s reluctant co-star is Barack Obama. The President forms part of the proceedings each day even though the judge has spared him a personal experience.
Reports of the Blago trial cannot make comfortable reading for the White House for they provide what Mary Mitchell, the Chicago Sun-Times columnist, described as “an unfiltered look at how the sausage is made in Illinois”
Illinois, of course, is the state that gave us President Obama. It is where he cut his teeth as a community organiser and where he first began to ascend the greasy pole of politics by taking his seat in the state senate.
At issue in the Blago trial is whether the then governor was trying to sell the United States Senate seat that Obama ascended to in 2004 after his initial Republican opponent imploded.
Blago had the power to appoint a new Senator when the seat was vacated because of Obama’s presidential election victory in November 2008. Clearly, he thought the seat was a valuable prize.
“I got this thing and it’s f—— golden and I’m not just giving it up for f—— nothing,” he said in a conversation recorded by a federal wiretap. Blago’s instinct was that Obama – who he mockingly described as “this historic, f—— demi-god” – would be willing to pay to have his preferred choice be duly appointed.
That choice, the trial has confirmed, was Valerie Jarrett, who now rejoices in the title of senior White House adviser and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Her qualification to be a Senator? Jarrett had worked for Mayor Richard Daley and chaired the Chicago Transit Board. She had been a successful businesswoman in Chicago. But she had never held elected office and her name would not even have been mentioned had it not been for her closeness to the President-elect.
Jarrett was a long-time personal friend of Obama and his wife Michelle and that seemed to be qualification enough for the man about to enter the White House.
Tom Balanoff, president of the Service Employees International Union’s powerful Local 1 branch, took on the role as “emissary” for Jarrett, who initially wanted the Senate seat, and testified that Obama telephoned him personally to speak about it.
Next, Obama’s incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel spoke to John Wyma, a lobbyist, who then telephoned Blago’s right-hand man John Harris to communicate that “the president-elect would be very pleased if you appointed Valerie and he would be, uh, thankful and appreciative”.
Blago’s problem seems to have been that he wanted something a little bit more concrete than appreciation. To be precise, his response was: “F— them.”
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