Chicago Daily Observer

“I must now to address the one who says, ‘don’t hold me responsible for what my ancestors did.’ But you have enjoyed the benefits of what your ancestors did! And unless you are ready to give up the benefits — Throw away your 401 fund! [sic] Throw away your trust fund! Throw away all the money that been put away in the company you walked into ‘cause your daddy and your granddaddy and your great granddaddy —
Unless you are willing to give up the benefits, then you must be responsible for what was done in your generation! ‘Cause you are the beneficiary of this insurance policy! expose white entitlement. And supremacy, wherever it raises its head. I said before, I really don’t want to make this political, because you know I’m really very unpolitical. . . .

She wasn’t the only one crying, there was a whole lot ... Read More...

Barack Obama’s friend, financier and political supporter Tony Rezko was convicted by a Chicago jury today on sixteen counts involving various forms of political corruption. Obama released this statement:

Considering the constitution’s unequivocal command that the expenses can’t outstrip revenues, it’s hard to give any credibility to the Legislature’s assertion that it can go home after passing a budget that is, oh, just a couple of billions short of being balanced.

Yet, incredibly, that’s the claim being made by the Democrats who on Friday—just before a deadline—passed this $59 billion budget without indicating the source of the additional money needed make sure that “expenditures shall not exceed” revenues. “That’s a decision for the governor ... Read More...

Rezko’s relationship with Obama goes back 18 years. Some key events:

1. In 1990, Obama was a Harvard Law School student when he got a job offer from Rezko, then a developer of low-income housing in Chicago. Obama didn’t take the job.

2. In 1993, Obama got a job with a small Chicago law firm, Davis Miner Barnhill, that worked with low-income housing developers.

3. In 1995, one of the firm’s clients—the Woodlawn Historic Preservation and Investment Corp., co-founded by Obama’s then-boss Allison Davis—teamed with Rezko to turn a vacant nursing home at 61st and Drexel on Chicago’s South Side into low-income apartments. Obama worked 32 hours on the project, but only five hours came after Rezko and WPIC became partners, according to the law firm.