A Real Reporter, Natasha Korecki, Talks to Tony Rezko - America's Man in the Iron Mask

The Chicago Sun Times is blessed with great reporters.  It's editorial board seems stuck on the "daffy" button and with the exceptions of Steve Huntley and Mark Brown Sun Times columnists seem to have all of the gravitas and substance of an MTV documentary.

Chicago and the nation would never know about Allison Davis, President Obama's former boss and bullet-proof slum property owner who is 'this-close' to Valerie Jarrett, Sneedless to say without Tim Novak and  Chris Fusco - two pit-bullishly independent investigative reporters.  They also unearthed most of the dodgier aspects of Koschman Saga, as well as the career of Daley scion snouts in the public troughs.  Mark Konkol and his Southtown Star colleague Steve Metsch are solid voices for real people in Chicago's neighborhoods.

Natasha Korecki has always impressed me as a singularly and refreshingly honest and tough reporter.  Ms. Korecki's accounts of the Blag trial were essential documents.  One of the shadowy victims of retiring Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's Star Chamber is Tony Rezko.  The man was everywhere and with anyone who could both move and shake.

( looks just like the Old Petrillo!)

Rezko's role in President Obama's ascent to the national teleprompter remains a '" Mere distraction! "Nothing to see here, Folks!  Move it along!  Who cares about a 15' property bargain?  Really. Pay np attention to man in the iron mask!" Tony went away , when the crowd in Grant Park were shedding tears of pure joy that Our Post Racial and Post Political Politician snagged the Post in the West Wing.

Tony Rezko  is the Obama Justice Department's Utility Insider - trotted out when need and then sent to the showers.  Rezko padded wallets and campaign accounts and sits in a concrete and re-bar cubicle on the Federal dimes. Fellow Obama Distraction Bill Ayers bombed Federal buildings and has an Illinois Pension.Make sense?  We might not get to the root and marrow of the Obama Myth until long after the Mormon straps his mutt on the roof of Marine One for a chopper ride.

However, Natasha Korecki scooped and interview with America's Man in the Iron Mask - Tony Rezko -

In a wide-ranging telephone interview from prison with the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday, Rezko refused to talk about his former friend who went on to be elected president. 

Natasha Korecki immediately tells the reader that Rezko will not chat, utter, rat-out, or insinuate anything about his Chicago Real Estate disciple and political bundler.  Blago?  You bet. Why not.

Rezko was convicted of Blago Bog-trotting.  Candidate Obama and President Obama never got moist undies due to Mr. Rezko and Natasha Korecki perfumes her narrative and interview with the bog itself.

His ( Tony Rezko's) trial took place in the Spring of 2008, in the midst of a heated presidential primary between Hillary Clinton and Obama. In one debate, Clinton chastised Obama for having ties to Rezko, who had poured money into the campaign fund of Obama earlier in his career.
Rezko was behind bars when authorities arrested Blagojevich in December of 2008 and charged him with attempting to sell Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat, citing recorded conversations.
“I think it was very unsmart of him to have conversations when he did about Obama’s replacement,” Rezko said. “But he is not the evil person who is been portrayed over the last few years. I think he did good things for the state of Illinois.”
“I blame nobody but myself, no. I have no ill feeling toward him [Blagojevich]. Or anybody else. Even Stuart Levine. He did what he had to do.” Rezko was referring to the key witness who testified against him.

With whom do Tony have 'issues' and the odd 'ill-feeling?'  Thanks to a real reporter, Natasha Korecki, this mythopoeic regime occupying the White House may have more such inquiry from citizens.  Forward!

 Thanks Ms. Korecki!

http://www.suntimes.com/12873845-761/tony-rezko-says-blagojevich-knew-about-pay-to-play-for-state-posts.html

Sun Times Columnist Steve Huntley Nails It on ObamaCare

Steve Huntley is a gentleman and a thoughtful citizen; and he is also a columnist -rarissimo avium On this first day of United States Supreme Court deliberations on the constitutionality of Obama Care, Steve Huntley offers the core problem with this very bad legislation.

No matter where you may stand on President Barack Obama’s controversial health-care law, one point is indisputable: It is an expansion of the power of the federal government into our everyday lives.

That is the fundamental issue in next week’s arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on the Affordable Care Act, a k a Obama­care, and its individual mandate ordering every person to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. Now, you can argue that’s a good thing in that uninsured people will eventually get sick and the costs will shift to the rest of us, either through higher insurance premiums or taxpayer-funded care.But this mandate is not about catastrophic insurance, meaning coverage that would protect an individual from bankruptcy-inducing medical charges — and the rest of us from being stuck with that bill. No, Obamacare is about the government influencing all aspects of medical coverage. That, as we’ve learned in recent weeks, includes the government managing details such as ordering church-affiliated hospitals and charities to provide free contraceptives, which cost a few hundred dollars a year, even if that violates the dictates of their conscience and religious beliefs.

Well done, Mr. Huntley!

Sun Times's Steve Huntley Calls Out the Radicals Who Crafted "Islamaphobia"

American Progressives ( Saul Alinsky said, Use Progressive rather than Socialist) get their thoughts and opinions from the Shape-shifters. Talking points! Hot buttons! Hardballs! Soft brains.

The Shape-shifters employ the intelectual constructs developed by John Dewey who cut-and-pasted his thoughts from Hegel.

Thus!
Choice means killing an unwanted child
Torture is only committed by Americans, their allies and Chicago Police
Racism means Whitey is bad
Whitey can be a Jew, a Catholic, an Asian, or a Black Supreme Court Justice
Woman can not be a homemaker who does not cotton to the idea of killing her
children
Fairness means only what is crafted by MSNBC, CBS,ABC,NYT, or NPR

Americans do not hate Muslims. Americans are not afraid of Muslims. Muslims are not Islamist Scumbags.




Imam Rauf and his Dragon Lady Burka-less wife Daisy sure look and smell like Islamist Thugs as do the whole Cordoba House crowd.



Chicago Sun Times Steve Huntley calls out the radical dopes and ninnies.

Well done, Steve!

There is no dispute that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has a constitutional right to build a mosque at the Lower Manhattan location. Still, he displayed an extraordinarily tin ear to the tenor of the nation in not realizing that strong objections were bound to arise to locating it so near ground Americans consider hallowed. His rationale for staying the course is that relocation would strengthen radicalism, fuel terrorism and put Americans "under attack in the Muslim world."

First, fear of violence from the Muslim street keeps the Danish cartoons out of a book about the Danish cartoons. And President Obama cites Muslim opinion as a reason to close the Guantanamo detention center. Now Rauf warns us -- it's not a threat, he insists, but a warning -- that it's his way on the mosque or America faces new trouble. If that reasoning prevails, what will be the next national decision dictated by intimidation from our Islamist enemy?

Steve Huntley Roots Out The Flotilla Rodents

Skunks wearing Chanel # 5 are still skunks. Marxists, Anti-Semites and Activists like to network and group think to destroy our way of life. Our way of life, the one most hard-working, generous and fair-minded people put their shoulders to wheel to make better, threatens the skunks.

Israel is and has been a threat to skunks since Harry Truman recognized that Jews returning to the land that is the foundation of Western Civilization after the Uber -Skunks of Nazi Germany and their network of fellow activists throughout Europe and the Mid East attempted to exterminate every Jew on the planet.

Now, our celebrity/Media Protected gang of skunks have organized the launch of another nautical political suicide bomb, The MV Rachel Corrie ( named for an ISM lured kid to become their martyr in 2004 by Kevin Clark -one of Chicago's Uber-Skunks: a lightweight Bernardine Dohrn to match her light-weight poser Old Man Billy Ayers)after the Hamas-packed set-up ship in the Gaza Flotilla.

Chicago Sun Times columnist Steve Huntley - a sole voice of common sense among that paper's crew of Icons - roots out the Flotilla Rodents.

The main organizer of the flotilla was Turkish-based Insani Yardim Vakfi, described as a humanitarian relief fund but which, like some other Muslim charities, has links to Islamist radicalism. The Danish Institute for International Studies found the organization provided support to al-Qaida, including for the failed millennium plot to bomb Los Angeles' airport, and to Algerian terrorists in Europe. A Chicago lawyer on the flotilla, Fatima Mohammadi, describes herself on her LinkedIn page as "national organizer" for Viva Palestina, founded by the rabid Israel-hater and Hamas sympathizer George Galloway of Britain, who is dedicated to delegitimizing the Jewish state.

Just as obvious as the radical roots of the flotilla is the fiction that it was a humanitarian effort. The Israelis offered to unload the flotilla's supplies and transfer them to Gaza, in addition to the tons of food and medicine Israel supplies daily. But no, the actual goal was to break the blockade, which would have opened the way for later shipments of missiles, mortars and other weapons.

European capitals responded to the deaths of nine of the militants by calling for an end to the blockade. The Obama administration is reported as describing the blockade as untenable. President Obama would be wise to tread softly in undermining another nation's legitimate act of self-defense. On Wednesday, a new U.N. report criticized the U.S. use of drones to kill terrorists, a tactic the administration defends in the name of protecting America lives.

Other than a blockade, what will keep arms out of Gaza so long as Hamas wages war against Israel? The U.N.? Not a chance. The 2006 Israeli war against Hezbollah in Lebanon ended on the promise of U.N. forces keeping weapons out of southern Lebanon. Instead, thousands of missiles, including Scuds capable of hitting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, have flowed into Lebanon under the eyes of feckless U.N. troops.

Israel and Eygpt set the blockade. Ayers, Dohrn and the Code Pink Skank went to Egypt to help network a World Coalition of Skunks and gullible hand-wringers and plan the blockade's deconstruction.

Well done Mr. Huntley. I wish more genuine voices would emerge from the fog that is our corporate media.

God Bless Israel!

American Character -Chesty Puller in the Past & L'il Bow-Wow Now

The White House says Obama didn't bow, that he "grasped (Abdullah's) hand with two hands and he's taller than King Abdullah."

Sorry, but a videotape on YouTube doesn't quite back that up. Obama clearly bends his body toward the Arabian monarch, and Obama doesn't grasp both the king's hands until he's standing straight up. As for the he's-taller argument, the 6-foot-1-inch Obama towers over a lot of people, so we'd have seen him bowing during handshakes many times if that were the explanation. Furthermore, the king had his hand extended, so Obama didn't have to reach down an inordinate amount to grab it.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/huntley/1520326,CST-EDT-hunt10.article

Good Lord. President Obama is not having much of a 100 Days. He has a no cut contract good for four years, followed by a lifetime worth of explaining at fees that will make Bill Clinton gag with envy.

President Obama is in way over his head. I thought so, when he announced his candidacy some time ago in Springfield, IL and have yet to not see my expectations met.

In an age when any bone head can destroy a corporation and expect an obscene severance package, it should come as no small surprise that our Chief Executive bows to Saudis, dithers on nuclear threats from North Korea and is 'distracted' by Somali Pirates.

President Obama is an icon for what seems to be passing for the American Character.

It is time to do some sit ups, deep knee bends, sit-ups and wind sprints - tear up the health club cards and let the stair masters rust; climb some stairs.

Long-time Leo Alumni Association president, the late Jack Howard, lived according to two credos - Facta Non Verbs ( Deeds Not Words) and Semper Fidelis ( Always Faithful). Jack Howard was a Marine and a Leo Man. Often the two went together.

Jack always ended Leo Alumni meetings with prayers for departed Alumni, but also mentioned Chesty Puller - 'Goodnight, Chesty - wherever you are!

Gen. Puller was an American Icon of a very differnt Age - the Age that seemed to die a bit after the Bicentennial ( The Carter Years). The American character seemed to erode. Kids got fatter. Worshippers got lazier. Voters got indifferent. Doing for yourself disappeared.

Chesty Puller was something. Five Navy Crosses and more quotations than Bartlet's Chesty Puller was the bar that many Americans reached to achieve. As kids we were to taught by teachers and coaches to 'never 'Dog It' ( put forth a lazy effort) or let down the team. Those ideals are the subject of ridicule and contempt by powerful people who always dog it and never care for anyone but themselves. It is a Maddof and Maddow World!

Chesty Puller's was better and so were Americans.

Lewis "Chesty" Puller

Dates

Born June 26, 1898. West Point, Virginia.
Died October 11, 1971. Hampton, Virginia.

Biography

Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell 'Chesty' Puller is considered by many to be the greatest Marine ever. Lewis Puller served in Haiti, china, Nicaragua, Korea, and World War II. He is the only Marine to be awarded the Navy Cross five times for heroism and gallantry in combat. Puller served in the US Marine Corps for 37 years, and was at sea or overseas for 27 of those years.

Puller attended Virginia Military Institute until dropping out to join the Marines in August of 1918, hoping to see service in World War I. Appointed a second lieutenant in the reserves, he was discharged due to force cutbacks after the war. Puller then re-enter the Marines as an enlisted man to serve with a military force in Haiti.

Puller saw frequent action during his five years in Haiti against the Caco rebels. Returning to the US in 1924, Puller was commissioned a second lieutenant. Puller served in Nicaragua from 1928 to 1933 where he earned two Navy Crosses. After leaving Nicaragua, Puller went to China and commanded the famed "Horse Marines."

Puller commanded the 7th Regiment of the 1st Marine Division during action on Gualalcanal in World War II. Puller earned his third Navy Cross on 24-25 October 1942 while his battalion defended Henderson Field against seasoned Japanese troops. Puller's men sustained less than 70 casualties while killing over 1400 Japanese and protecting the airfield.

Puller won his fourth Navy Cross in February 1944 while executive officer of 7th Marines at Cape Gloucester, moving through machine gun and mortar fire to take command of two battalions whose commanders had been killed.

Puller landed with the 1st Marines at Inchon, Korea, in September of 1950. Puller continued to serve in Korea until May of 1951. LtGen Puller retired in 1955 after serving 37 years and earning five Navy Crosses, the Silver Star, two Legions of Merit with "V", the Bronze Star, the Bronze Star with "V", the Air Medal, and the Purple Heart. In 1966, at the age of 68, Puller requested to return to active duty for service in Vietnam, but was turned down due to his age.

Quotes

"Take me to the Brig. I want to see the "real Marines". "


"All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us... they can't get away this time."

"We're surrounded... that simplifies our problem."

"Son, if they give you any shit, level the place." Orders to a company commander.

Jack Howard died a couple of years ago and Leo Alumni behind Alumni President Richard Furlong live up to the standards set by Jack Howard - an all black Catholic high school for boys is funded 99.6% by white Irish, Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, German, Belgian and Dutch guys.

Americans have forgotten about Chesty Puller. We watch CNN,MSNBC and have the submission of an American President to King Abdullah explained to us. We had better get to those calisthenics - spiritual, moral and physical.

McCain/Palin: Chicago Sun Times Steve Huntley Praises McCain Presidential Leadership in Crisis

Steve Huntley, Chicago Sun Times columnist, bangs out a great evaluation of John McCain's Leadership during the Fannie Mae/Mac meltdown and DNC clown opera. While Obama does what he has done all of his career - wait, test the waters, get what he can and when pushed Vote Present - John McCain leads from the front. MSNBC is tripping over its agenda to clear the brush and right Obama's path - which he couldn't find without the Scout Masters holding his hand. John McCain knows the jungle and is out in front with a machete. By Columbus Day Obama will bedown in the polls by double digits.

Read Steve Huntley!

The bottom line: McCain was right last week when he said the rescue plan was on course for failure. Had Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi paid more attention to McCain's warning, heeded his call for a greater bipartisan spirit and acted on that advice instead of accusing him of political grandstanding, the headlines in today's paper might have been different. At the last minute it was Pelosi, not McCain, who waved the partisan red flag in a speech prior to Monday's vote. That likely doomed the Paulson plan by alienating the GOP ballots Pelosi needed to pass the bill since she didn't have enough Democratic votes lined up.

McCain's astute sizing up of the situation in Washington was just the latest example of a politician not known for expertise in economic matters proven to be right at key times on fiscal issues.

Just a week ago he came in for withering criticism from the Wall Street Journal and country club Republicans for suggesting that Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox should be fired because of the Wall Street meltdown. Now we learn from the SEC's inspector general that in 2006 the SEC staff "identified precisely the types of risks that evolved into the subprime crisis" but the agency failed to rein in the aggressive subprime investment practices of Bear Sterns, the first casualty in the meltdown. McCain, it turns out, was right to tag the SEC for failure to do its job.

McCain also proved prescient two years ago when he co-sponsored a bill to tighten regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They are the quasi-government mortgage underwriters at the epicenter of the financial crisis. Obama was silent on the issue.

Despite the stereotype presented about McCain, over the years he has demonstrated wisdom on economic issues.

McCain/Palin: Mary Mitchell Proclaims Herself A 'Sick -Hater' - Steve Huntley - The Last Person Writing

The hamster on Mary Mitchell's brain wheel jumped off years ago. She is proving to be a metaphor of print journalism's willingness to favor the equivalent of cock fighting over opera.

Mary Mitchell spews this about Governor Sarah Palin with her usual 'nuanced' approach to writing:

Sarah Palin makes me sick. I hate that she was able to steal Barack Obama's mojo just by showing up wearing rimless glasses and a skirt.

I hate that she makes Joe Biden look like John McCain and John McCain look like the maverick he is not.

It plummets from there and mocks Biden's own childhood affliction:

I hate that Palin reminds me of Susan Sarandon's feisty character in "Thelma & Louise." I loved Sarandon in that movie, yet I couldn't stand Palin's feistiness at the Republican National Convention.

Sarah Palin makes me sick -- not because she may speak in tongues -- but because she is a fast talker.

Not even ABC's Charlie Gibson can slow Palin's mouth.

I disagree with the people who claim Gibson caught her off guard during her interview when he asked her whether she agreed with the "Bush Doctrine."

"In what respect?" Palin fired back without so much as a stutter.

Jesus, Biden's gotta love that! No matter to Mary - Joe Biden is a white devil who deserves a good old machete marinade like Bob Mugabe's lads dish-out. That is Mary Mitchell's America! The Sun Times is Okay with it as well.

The Chicago Sun Times values Mary Mitchell in the same way that a Carnival Barker values the acephales,freaks without a complete head system or having no part of the body specially organized as a head. Mary Mitchell gives out race-hate, conspiracy myths, and self-improvement tips from her brushes with the law.

She is sick and she hates - see Mary's words above - now that is nuance!

Steve Huntley* is the only opinion left at the Sun Times. Unlike Marins, girl's dish-lunch-confab-assortment tosses, Steve Huntley goes to work.

Mary Mitchell's Sideshow will pave the Sun Times strut to oblivion.

As McCain's campaign has grown sharper, Obama's has tended to flay about. It has not figured out how to handle McCain's dazzling choice of Sarah Palin. Obama focused on her term as a small-town mayor and ignored her work as governor of Alaska. He came off as belittling a woman's accomplishments while reminding voters of his dismissive remarks about small-town people that damaged him with working-class Americans.

His camp tried to play the abortion card, saying Palin's pro-life belief is unattractive to women. Yet as governor, she never pushed that cause. And, as a woman who balances the responsibilities of elective office and motherhood, Palin's story resonates with women of all political persuasions. Democratic operatives and media friends piled on by questioning her ability to balance both responsibilities, reminding women of the sexism they saw plaguing Clinton's campaign -- sexism coming from, of all places, the liberal heart of American politics. You've got to wonder if Obama regrets not making Clinton his vice presidential nominee.

Democrats who gleefully jumped on McCain when he misspoke, as in seeming to confuse the Sunni and Shia factions in Iraq, must have been stunned when their man had his own misspoken moment -- Obama's referring to "my Muslim faith" in a TV interview. He is a Christian but, because of the Islamic background of his father, has had to fend off rumors about his faith.

A long campaign remains to be waged, with debates, speeches, unguarded moments and chances for embarrassing slip-ups and brilliant political strokes. McCain's folks may be riding high now and Obama's camp at sixes and sevens, but the dynamics still favor the Democrats. Yet, this race is up for grabs, and that's a far cry from June, when Democrats, and not a few Republicans, thought Obama had it all but sewn up.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/huntley/1152545,CST-EDT-hunt09.article

John McCain: Steve Huntley on the High Costs of Free Speech

Steve Huntley, the Last Man Standing, at the Chicago Sun Times Opinion and Thought Gallery offers an insight to the basic problem with American reform initiatives - weasels find wiggle room. Is cash donated to political campaigns 'free speech' or private property? I tend to hold with the later point of view. It seems to me that if a candidate can make a compelling case to an individual as well as group-think entity, what's wrong with that individual giving as much as he or she wishes?


Critics argue that the media like campaign finance regulations -- and some of the biggest newspapers editorialize in favor of "reform" -- because they restrict private speech while the press remains unfettered in its expression of political views and news.

That would seem to be the case now. One study found that since June, Obama figured prominently in 78 percent of news stories and McCain in only 51 percent. Another analysis found the big TV networks devoted more than twice as much coverage to the presumptive Democratic nominee as to the Republican contender.

I don't know whether any of this is changing McCain's views on campaign finance "reform," but it should. Money remains the handmaiden of political discourse. He has been at a severe disadvantage in fund-raising in comparison with Obama's success, especially with small donations. If McCain had access to big contributions from the wealthy -- yes, Republicans include many successful, rich entrepreneurs and executives -- he might have been able to turn to them for a major infusion of cash to finance an ad blitz to counter the media blitz for Obama.

The uneven press coverage hasn't been lost on the public. A poll by Rasmussen Reports found 49 percent of voters think reporters will try to help Obama. That's up from 44 percent only a month ago.

With our profession not held in the highest regard by the public, editors, reporters and broadcasters should pay attention to those numbers. Not that poll numbers should drive news coverage. But a fully covered election requires balance. And it calls for a critical look at both candidates. The news media might recall the recriminations that erupted over their perceived failure in 2002-03 to take a critical look at the Bush administration's case for invading Iraq.

Click my post title for Steve Huntley's great thought piece.

John McCain: Steve Huntley Lays Out The Democrats Problem Facing a Uniting Leader in John McCain

Click my post title for Chicago Sun Times Steve Huntley who presents the catalogue of the Victimology ( they like them 'ologies')of the National Democratic Party.

A position that touts victimization is pretty weak argument for support. Voters, like Regular Democrats in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and elsewhere, vote for effective programs and candidates, but the Democratic National Committee has been handcuffed to an ideology of want and despair for decades.

Jackie Gleason's recurring charcter, 'The Poor Soul,' seems a pretty good example of the DNC's opinion of most Americans: a hunch shouldered, sad-eyed, pouty victim awaiting his next shower of torment. The American Mope.

Steve Huntley writes today:

Democrats might well remember something else: That you reap what you sow. And four decades of identity politics and grievance culture are, to borrow a phrase from the pastor, coming home to roost.

Read Steve Huntley. The candidate who can unite our country is in Iraq doing what a President should do and the Democratic Candidates are talking - still.

John McCain against the Mopes. I'll take McCain.

John McCain: Steve Huntley Raises the Bar and few more Questions for Obama

Yesterday, Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune presented a 'passive voice' larded attack piece on John McCain. If you take a look at the comments ( including mine) over at the Trib or at Real Clear Politics.com you find that Steve Chapman is roundly and soundly cuffed for his offering - and well he should be.


Chicago journalism's other Steve - Steve Huntley - was one of the last sparks evident in a once great Chicago newspaper. The Chicago Sun Times was commandeered for months by a loopy Progressive agenda that drove a stake through its heart and through those goofy days Steve Huntley offered thoughtful and well-written columns on local and national affairs.

Today, Steve Huntley presents a sharp contrast between John McCain and Barack Obama. Huntley presents the Obama's sophomoric and fleet-footed dash from questions raised about his involvement with indicted bundler Tony Rezko, in Texas last week. Obama could not pry himself away scrutiny quick enough. Contast that with Senator John McCain's open and challenging presence in front of the world media following the New York Times protracted, dated and daffy attempt to smear an American hero.

Click on my post title for Steve Huntley's insightful study of the contrast between Obama, the Rhetorical Bard and Feckless Youth, and John McCain, the Prosaic, Tested and Forthright Leader.