snip

In his presidential race, Obama increasingly has relied on small donations delivered via the Internet from more than a million individuals. But when he started in Illinois politics, Stewart noted, "if you wanted money, you needed to ask the big boys."

Rezko was a big boy. He was, for instance, a link between Obama and Santa Monica developer Jay Wilton of Wilton Partners. On July 16, 2003, Wilton gave $5,000 to Obama's first U.S. Senate run. A few days later, Wilton gave $50,000 to Blagojevich, Illinois state records show.
Unlike the federal system, Illinois state campaign finance law permits donors to give as much as they want to state candidates. So, in Illinois they do.

In early 2004, Wilton and Rezko spent $78,000 on a Los Angeles-area fundraising tour for Blagojevich, Illinois campaign records show. Three Southern California companies donated a combined $150,000 to the Illinois governor during the trip.

Shortly before the initial $50,000 donation, Blagojevich announced that Wilton would begin work on an $83 million state contract to refurbish rest stops on Illinois tollways, called "oases."

Some of the restaurant concessions granted the right to operate at those rest stops "trace back" to Blagojevich' s patrons including Rezko, the Chicago Tribune disclosed in 2005. Wilton, who did not return repeated calls, is not implicated in the Rezko case.

Another overlapping donor is John Rogers, head of Ariel Capital, a major Chicago-based investment firm. Rogers gave $12,500 to Blagojevich in 2004, the FBI spreadsheet shows. Rogers has also given Obama $25,000, state and FEC records reveal.

Aides to Obama and Rogers said the pair has a friendship that is separate from Rezko. Ariel vice president Matt Yale said Rogers' inclusion on the FBI spreadsheet was a surprise, adding, "To the best of our knowledge, we have not made any contributions to Governor Blagojevich or any political candidate on behalf of Tony Rezko." Ariel is not implicated in the criminal case.

As an Illinois state senator, Obama appeared before Illinois pension funds in 2000 and 2001 to urge that they provide more business to black-owned investment houses including, as it happens, Ariel.

Describing his efforts to the Urban League last year, Obama said African-American- owned firms were not getting any business from state pensions. Obama singled out Rogers' Ariel Capital, calling it a well-respected investment house, but one that received no business.

"We didn't have to implement a formal program," Obama told the Urban League, taking no credit. "I simply said, `Listen to what these folks have to say,' and in about six months they got about a half billion dollars worth of business simply on their own excellence."

In 2002, the year after Obama made the pitch, the Illinois Teacher Retirement System reported an 18% increase in assets managed by minority-owned firms. Ariel's share grew to $442 million by 2005.

In 2006, after the federal investigation became public, the teacher pension board severed its relationship with Ariel, concluding that Ariel's investment returns were insufficient.

As he was for Blagojevich in his initial run for governor in 2002, Rezko in 2003 and 2004 was part of Obama's finance committee, responsible for raising campaign money.

Obama started out as a long shot. The main candidate was Blair Hull, a wealthy businessman who was financing his own campaign. But less than three weeks before the primary, a court unsealed multimillionaire Hull's divorce file, which alleged spousal abuse. The divorce case so damaged Hull that he finished third in the race. The four-year anniversary of that primary passed on Palm Sunday.

The eventual winner of that primary: Barack Obama.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/04/obamarezko.html

Good lord, here we go again.  A latino woman was WAS an Obama delegate is not anymore.  Why?  Because she told some kids to "get out of the tree, ya monkeys" or how ever she said it.
She was worried that they would get hurt. But the kids were black and the mother decided it was a racial slur.

The woman was FINED and she was asked to step down by the Obama campaign.  This is ridiculous.  I can almost understand the mother thinking her neighbor might have meant to make a racial slur.  Apparently they do not get along.  But this would have been the time for Obama to stand up and say "hey, this woman is a supporter of my campaign.  She would not be supporting me if she was a racist"

But he did not, instead they threw her under the bus. She is Latino, she probably doesn't even know the historical context of that word as applied to African Americans in this country.

read inside for the article....

I really think that what Obama supporters should be chanting at all those rallies is "DON'T COUNT THE VOTE, DON'T COUNT THE VOTE".  It would be more honest.

It used to be that democrats were in favor of democracy.  We named our party after it and the republicans have been trying to negate that homage to our values for decades by calling us the "democrat party".  It's an insult and now finally some democrats are earning the title "democrat party", because it ain't about democracy to them, it is only about rules that favor Obama winning, even if stealing votes and disenfranchising voters is the only way he can do it.

All that matters is the will of the people and Obama has a lot of nerve talking about the will of the people when he really means the will of his campaign to count delegates and not voters.  We all know that delegates do not get assigned according to popular vote.  Delegates are a tool.  Those tools worked in the past because after IA and NH voters flocked to the polls and voted for the front runner.  
That is not happening this year and Huston, we have a problem.
Obama's solution is to steal the votes of the people of MI and refuse to count the voters in Florida because other people didn't show up.

YIKES.

Our how ironic.  Look what I just got in my email.  Obama is gaming the system, asking people in Pa to change their party affiliation to game the system in PA.
I plan to spread this all over the PA blogs so that all democrats know how little he values our party and PA's right to hold a closed  primary where democrats get to decide on their own nominee.  

Follow me over the fold to witness for yourself how underhanded the Obama campaign is. Not only is he encouraging republicans to change registration, but he is encouraging out of state students to vote here too.  I wonder how many of them already voted for him in other states?

Yesterday I stood in line for several hours to see Hillary at Scranton HS.  The rally was to be in the gym and I knew that there was only room for 3 thousand people and that was not going to be nearly enough room for all the people waiting, so I worried I would not get in. In fact all the people around me in line were worried too.  As we watched some people rudely go to the front of the line we employed a near by cop to stop them and when people got past him we made jokes and laughed and occasionally confronted someone ourselves, with humor of course because "that is how we roll" here in NE PA.

The experience of standing in line for a long time is always interesting.  You get to know people you never met and it is a great opportunity to influence people.  In this circumstance, to get them to volunteer or feed them defensive arguments to attacks on Clinton you know they have heard or will hear before she is ultimately nominated.

In the interest of disclosure I have to tell you that I have done
a few hours of volunteer work and plan to do more for the Carney for Congress campaign.

But because I have met Chris and some of his staff I feel like I can talk a little bit about the campaign and urge you in good
conscience to send some money their way

DFA is going to deliver your message to Senator Lieberman, hand delivered by Jim Dean. Some have suggested that the message is too tame, but the personal notes from 40K people seem quite direct to me.  
Add your voice and read some of the message below the fold....