Translate


Monday, October 5, 2009

Who Would Have Gained Had Chicago Won?


Mayor Richard Daley




Valerie Jarrett




Michael Scott



If you want to learn a lot more about the Chicago 2016 drama than you would from the shills at MSNBC, you might want to go closer to the source and read the Chicago dailies. Yes, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times have been writing for months about a little-discussed aspect of the Chicago Olympic bid that many national commentators have chosen to ignore. Of course, you won't hear about this from the likes of MSNBC Obama sycophant Ed Schultz, who, just days ago, accused conservatives and Republicans of treason on a scale of Jane Fonda in Hanoi-for not supporting the Chicago bid. So what is it that Mr Ed and others in the national media have chosen to ignore? Surprise, surprise! It appears that behind all the PR put out for Chicago's bid, the usual suspects may have stood to make big money off the Olympics-you know, people in Mayor Richard J Daley's entourage, Valerie Jarrett, former Chicago real estate tycoon, now in the Obama administration.-folks like that. Surprised?

Suspicion centers mostly around one Michael Scott, currently serving under Mayor Daley as President of the Chicago Board of Education. Mr Scott is also a real estate developer. Mr Scott was also a member of the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid committee.

Here's where it gets interesting. It seems Mr Scott, being privy to where the Olympic sites would be, had joined with a group of Westside ministers in a for-profit venture to develop some city-owned vacant lots situated just kitty-corner to the proposed site of the cycling events (Douglas Park).

In addition, it has been reported that Scott is in the real estate business with a gentleman named Gerald Fogelson, who, it turns out, was interested in bidding for the rights to build the Olympic Village.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-olympic-real-estate-25-sep25,0,2667598.story

Conflicts of interest?

Well, in August the Chicago Olympic 2016 committee said no-then came out with a revised statement that said this:

“In hindsight, given Mr. Scott’s role as agent for the group, it is understandable that a third party, without knowledge of the facts, might perceive a conflict of interest,” Chicago 2016 said in a prepared statement.

“It would have been preferable if Mr. Scott had disclosed this situation so the matter could have been vetted by the Chicago 2016 Audit Committee and any perception of conflict could have been avoided.”

The statement concluded by saying that Mr Scott “intends to submit a revised conflict of interest statement” outlining his role in the proposed development and “affirming that he has no financial gain from the project.” He also “intends to accelerate his separation as agent for the group,” officials said.

You be the judge.

Then there is Valerie Jarrett, Chicago mover and shaker, who is now a special advisor to Obama in the White House. She also went to Copenhagen as part of the delegation. While in Chicago, she was CEO of Chicago's biggest real estate development company, Habitat Company. The president of the company is a guy named Dan Levin, cousin to Michigan Senator Carl Levin. This outfit controls numerous pieces of property in Chicago which are located in slum neighborhoods and can only be described as rundown. Indeed, Jarrett and her partners at Habitat have been referred to by some as "slum landlords". Had Chicago won the Olympics, this company stood to make untold millions as the city purchased this property to clear it out and construct the Olympic facilities.

None of this is a Fousesquawk exclusive. As stated, the Chicago newspapers have been following this story for months. Michelle Malkin and other conservative bloggers have been writing about it. But here you have these partisan morons at MSNBC like Ed Schultz popping off and accusing critics of being "traitors"-comparing us to the odious Jane Fonda when she went to Hanoi and posed on North Vietnamese anti-aircraft guns and visited POW camps, where American POWS who refused to meet with her and play her game were subjected to additional mistreatment.

What kind of idiot finds a parallel in that, Mr Schultz?

Now it becomes a little more suspicious as to why Mr and Mrs Obama dropped everything else and shuttled off to Copenhagen along with Jarrett and Daley to make the big pitch for the Olympics. The fact is that they are all part of the same machine, the machine that allegedly would have reaped millions had the Olympic Committee selected Chicago.

Those who saw through this charade and declined to support Chicago's bid are hardly traitors. The fact is that the people of Chicago are better off without the Olympics, which would have cost tax-payers millions and only benefitted the corrupt machine that runs the Windy City.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As Jon Stewart aptly put it on the Daily Show last night, apparently conservatives hate Obama more than they love America.

Gary Fouse said...

Hey Bryan,

Did you see me in the back row?

Seriously, why don't you go back and read my last couple of postings on this issue? Doesn't the corruption issue bother you? Don't you think Chicago would do better to try to fix the problem on the south side?

Findalis said...

There was no way the IOC would give the Olympics to Chicago when it was disclosed that it was going to be held in the Southside (as I put it earlier, would LA get the Olympics if it was placed in South-Central?)

The only people who would benefit from this scheme were Daly & his cronies. It would have placed the city of Chicago in debt to the tune of $1 billion. A debt the city could NOT afford.

Nor were the vast majority of the citizens in favor of this project.

The reason conservatives are so pleased with this failure is that Obama, after wasting $20 million tax dollars to fly to Copenhagen (everyone should look up how much a Presidential trip actually costs), he falls flat on his face.

Can you feel the love the IOC has for the US and our President?

Gary Fouse said...

Findalis,

Not that the IOC is a model of integrity, but obviously they were aware of the real estate scandal going on with Chicago's bid. For all I know maybe the other 3 cities had similiar shenanigans too, but I care more about corruption in our own back yard.

Of course, the left is ignoring that issue and blaming Bush for "turning the world against us" and blaming the right for not supporting the squalid mess in Chicago.