Giannoulias and Broadway Bank

The Broadway Bank is not the only bank in Chicago, but the Alexi Giannoulias' family bank is the bank Obama uses. It is also the bank for known Chicago crime figures. That by itself is not suspicious, but Alexi Giannoulias is also a financial backer for Barack Obama and a known Chicago crime figure, who has done business with Giannoulias has also contributed to Obama's campaigns. Rezko also banks there.

Be advised, neither Giannoulias nor Obama have been accused of wrongdoing - but there are questions which will most assuredly come up in any general election if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee.

"The BROADWAY BANK (owned by Giannoulis and his family) LOANED REZKO PROJECT $11 MILLION DOLLARS: "Rezko and his then-partner in Chicago-Hudson LLC, Daniel Muhra [sic], purchased the site in 2001. But preonstruction sales for the units, priced from about $300,000 to $600,000, floundered, and construction never proceeded. In early 2002 the partnership borrowed about $10.9 million from Chicago-based Broadway Bank to carry the land, according to the bankruptcy filing." -- From the Chicago Tribune on 5/23/06

"The BROADWAY BANK (owned by Giannoulis and his family) HELPED TONY REZKO'S REZMAR CORP. FINANCE A 24-STORY CONDOMINIUM: "When Mahru was a partner with Rezko, their company -- Rezmar Corp. -- was helped by Thomas' Carnegie Realty Partners to obtain financing to build a 24-story condominium complex at Chicago and Hudson, a project that ultimately did not get off the ground. The financial institution that backed that deal was Broadway Bank, which is owned by the family of state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. Elected in the Democratic sweep last year, Giannoulias has had to answer criticism over loans his bank made to reputed crime figures. "Carnegie brought us to Broadway," Mahru said, and introduced him to Giannoulias' father. "We paid Carnegie a 1 percent commission on the loan, which is normal and customary." A spokesman for Giannoulias referred questions to the bank, which could not be reached." -- From the Chicago Sun-Times, 5/5/07

Giannoulias became Illinois state treasurer when Obama became his principle political supporter, vouched for him and since in Chicago politics, one hand washes the other, Giannoulias pledged $100,000 to Senator Obama's presidential campaign.

Giannoulias also "bankrolled" Michael "Jaws" Giorango, a well known crime figure convicted twice for bookmaking and prostitution. As mentioned here before Giannoulias is so "tainted" by his association with Chicago's crime family that many Illinois Democrats will have nothing to do with him - refusing when asked - to endorse him for state treasurer, however, Obama did endorse him and he won the office. He is currently the Illinois state treasurer.

To reiterate, Giannoulias has NOT been charged with any crimes and being associated with those who do is not in itself a crime.

These connections taken in toto are highly suspect for a candidate for U.S. President, who must have known about those associations since they have been reported about often in the local newspapers in Chicago. To maintain an association with Giannoulias - a situation which under closer scrutiny could prove embarrassing at the very least - and it would also raise doubt about Obama's judgment.

Also highly suspicious is a fund-raiser hosted by Illinois State Treasurer, Alexi Giannoulias, for Barack Obama which was held in secret. The event was omitted from Obama's published schedule. It was held in a Chicago Greek restaurant. The event was obviously also closed to the press. What was Obama trying to hide?

A campaign spokesman, Ben LaBolt, said to journalist Lynn Sweet (as reported in the NYPost) via e-mail that NO journalists would be allowed at the event.

From a conservative blog (they sometimes get it right) quoting the Chicago Sun-Times:

"Jaws got convicted of crimes in 1989 and 1991, when Alexi Giannoulias was 13 and 15, respectively, but also in 2004, when Alexi was 28 and in charge of loans at the family bank. He also admitted to approving loans to Jaws and his associates in 2005 in order for them to buy a casino fleet in Florida -- after two federal bookmaking convictions and the most recent 2004 conviction of promoting a prostitution ring. All of that can be found here, in a Chicago Sun-Times report:"

"Earlier, Giannoulias also had tried to distance himself from the loans, saying they occurred in the 1990s, when he was not a fulltime employee at the bank. But subsequent reports revealed that Giannoulias had overseen $11.8 million in loans to a firm run by Giorango and Stavropoulos last year when Giannoulias was senior loan officer. Some of that money was used to buy a riverboat casino marina in Myrtle Beach, S.C." (Chicago Sun-Times)

And the really funny part, Giannoulias when he ran for state treasurer he based his experience on running his family owned bank. His experience at the bank was providing 15 million dollars in loans to the mob figure known as "Jaws" while Giannoulias was the bank's chief loan officer.

Obama downplays his relationship to Rezko and Giannoulias along with the other indicted Rezko associates who were all BIG donors to Obama. Of course he is going to play down those relationships. The free pass given to Obama by the press, not so with Hillary will all change in the general election if Obama is the nominee. It will also come back to slap Hillary if she is pressured into accepting Obama in the second slot - which would be very foolish of her.

Is Barack Obama That Bad?

Yes, Obama is That Bad

Can you be a supporter of the War Authorization Bill and also be against the war with Iraq? General Wesley K. Clark, who is a ardent opponent of the war in Iraq said in the New York Times on September 19, 2003, he would have supported the Congressional resolution to apply pressure on Iraq which also authorized the invasion of Iraq.

What is often missing from this debate is the provision Hillary Clinton and others in Congress wanted included in the bill - for President Bush to return to Congress before any invasion. Bush refused and the Republicans shot it down.

"General Clark said he saw his position on the war as closer to that of members of Congress who supported the resolution -- Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Senators Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina -- than that of Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who has been the leading antiwar candidate in the (2004) race." (NYT - Sept 19, 2003)

He said in the Times interview that Dr. Dean was not exposed to the same information members of Congress received and if given that same information and the urgency with which members of the administration stressed and the consequences of a "mushroom cloud" which would devastate the country if actions were not taken to prevent another attack against America - if he heard this and the evidence as presented to Congress (immaterial of the truth of that evidence) he may have decided otherwise. One cannot know unless they were there. The sight of those planes flying into the World Trade Towers on television were still fresh in everyone's minds along with the horrific loss of lives.

Barack Obama also was not in the Congress at that time and did not have access to the same information and made his assertion after the fact that he would be opposed to the bill authorizing President Bush to use all necessary force to secure the homeland unless he was on equal ground with others who authorized the bill. Obama has also said at another time he might have decided differently but he doesn't say that anymore.

General Clark is a supporter of Hillary Clinton for the presidency who has foreign policy experience independent of her husband, but also as the wife of the president where she was involved as a Bill Clinton confidant and partner on many issues and her many government responsibilities as First Lady. And General Clark is outspoken critic of Barack Obama who he says does not have ANY foreign policy experience.

Barack Obama claims no foreign policy experience is necessary to be the President of the United States. That is the mistake made with George W. Bush and one we should want to avoid again by electing someone like the freshman Senator Barack Obama who has not even held a meeting of the oversight committee on Afghanistan, which he has chaired for almost a year; his excuse being he was TOO busy running for president.

In the blog, MyDD, on March 1, 2008, Mike Pridmore answers Barack Obama's assertion that foreign policy experience does not matter. The title of his piece is "Obama's red phone ad is based on lies"

"The political world is buzzing over Senator Clinton's recent 3am red phone ad and Barack Obama's lightspeed response ad. Missing from all this buzz is the fact that Senator Obama's ad depends on several carefully crafted lies." (MyDD)

"Lie number 1: Foreign Policy Experience doesn't matter" (MyDD)

"Supporters of Senator Obama will probably respond that what Senator Obama is really saying is that his good judgment is more important than his foreign policy inexperience or Senator Clinton's superior Foreign Policy experience." (MyDD)

"While it is true that Senator Obama's current position is that his judgment on the Iraq War trumps Senator Clinton's experience. But that isn't what Senator Obama was saying a short three and a half years ago. Here is Obama after winning his Senate seat in November 2004:"

OBAMA: "I am a big believer in knowing what you're doing when you apply for a job. And I think that, if I were to seriously consider running on a national ticket, I would essentially have to start now before having served a day in the Senate. Now there's some people who might be comfortable doing that. But I'm not one of those people." (MyDD)

Pridmore asks,
"Has Senator Obama really changed his mind that much on the the importance of experience or is he now comfortable with his his relative inexperience or running for national office from day one instead of focusing on his Senate duties?" (MyDD)

"By November of 2006, two years later, Obama went from that to skipping the part about his personal discomfort with not knowing what he was doing and just talking about whether it "made sense" or not:" (MyDD)

Obama: "And at that time it was absolutely true that I thought, Well, that doesn't make any sense--I haven't been sworn in yet. Now, there's some, I think, who would argue that it still might not make sense after having only served two years in the U.S. Senate. And that's something that I very much appreciate. I understand it."

Obama doesn't make sense.
It is not so much that I think Hillary is so good. I just know Obama is that bad.

Obama's Sins of Omission

Mike Pridmore addresses Obama's sin of omission. In the blog, MyDD, on March 1, 2008, Pridmore writes,

Pridmore: "Lie number 2: Obama has carefully dropped references to the fact that he was not actually in the Senate at the time and didn't see the intelligence on Iraq." (MyDD)

"This is what one might call a sin of omission. In the same interview where he said that, he was asked about Senator Clinton and had this to say about her war vote:"

Obama: "I think what people might point to is our different assessments of the war in Iraq, although I'm always careful to say that I was not in the Senate, so perhaps the reason I thought it was such a bad idea was that I didn't have the benefit of U.S. intelligence. And, for those who did, it might have led to a different set of choices. So that might be something that sort of is obvious. But, again, we were in different circumstances at that time: I was running for the U.S. Senate, she had to take a vote, and casting votes is always a difficult test."

Pridmore: "I haven't heard him carefully mentioning that part about not seeing the intelligence lately, his latest response ad being a case in point. Now he is saying he has better judgment and almost always skipping the part where he was not in the Senate at the time."

Pridmore writes: "I have been making the argument that for other people it would be considered laughable to claim superior judgment when they didn't even look at the evidence. After being briefed on the NIE, Senator Clinton was suspicious of the intelligence it contained and so went beyond it to reach out to contacts in the international intelligence community. A month after Senator Obama gave the November 2006 interview above, Senator Clinton said that if she knew then what she knows now she would have voted differently. (link) To compare her decision, based on the best intelligence available at the time, with Senator Obama's position on the war is really comparing apples and oranges." (Mydd)

For obvious reasons he also conveniently leaves out those things which are too difficult to explain away.. I think he has a lot of support, not all of which is from young people, but people who don't care about the facts. Because this fact alone nullifies everything else he can say about Hillary Clinton and her vote on the war - yet he brings it up at every chance in order to try to discredit her. She is well known and most people know her credentials. But what is becoming increasingly more obvious is Obama's perfidy and his twisting of facts to suit himself. He accuses Hillary of dirty politics but it is Obama who squeezed Alice Palmer out of her job. It is Barack Obama who obscures his relationship to Rezko, Ayers, Auchi, Giannoulias, the Palestinians, and many others. He has taken favors and he owes favors.

Hank Roth
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