Jackson Jambalaya

One weapon used by some so-called journalists to attack their political opponents is http://www.factcheck.org/, a supposedly non-partisan website which scrutinizes political ads and other media issues. How accurate is the website? A good test case is the story involving the purchase of Senator Obama's million-dollar mansion. The purchase was the subject of much controversy, as it involved a purchase of an adjacent property by Obama patron and convicted felon, Tony Rezko.

Factcheck.org states:
"Here’s what happened: In 2005, Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, bid $1.65 million for a house on the south side of Chicago. According to newspaper reports, the owner was also trying to sell an undeveloped parcel of land adjacent to the property Obama was buying, and he wanted the sales of the two to close on the same day. Obama has said that he mentioned he was buying the house to a longtime political patron, Antoin (Tony) Rezko, a developer. Rezko’s wife wound up buying the lot adjacent to Obama’s. At the request of the Obamas, who were seeking a bit more space for their yard, she later sold them a 10-foot wide strip, or about one-sixth, of her land. The Obamas paid $104,500 for it, or about one-sixth of what Mrs. Rezko had paid for the entire property.
Obama doesn’t appear to have reaped any financial advantages from the transactions....
Obama has a relationship with Rezko that dates back many years, but there’s no indication Obama did anything improper..."
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/does_obama_have_a_real_estate_problem.html

Now here is what Factcheck.org left out and what appeared in an earlier post on this blog:
"The loan (see note below) that was the reason for the bond revocation occurred three weeks before Rezko and Obama bought two properties together from the same owner on the same day, with Obama paying $300,000 below the asking price while Rezko paid the full price. The property adjacent to the Obama mansion was a garden plot (A home could not be built on it as it was to small due to code standards.) that Mrs. Rezko paid $650,000 for even though she declared in court "she got by on a salary of $37,000 and had $35,000 assets. " (Times of London). The court also found that Mr. Rezko was deeply in debt and he declared he had no assets. Yet Mrs. Rezko is buying a very expensive property while earning a small income three weeks after a hidden loan (later forgiven) from Auchi is funneled to Mr. Rezko through a Panamanian company while the Obamas are buying a million-dollar mansion substantially below its market value. Such shenanigans make it appear that the Rezkos were helping the Obamas buy a house they really could not afford. (For further coverage of that transaction, see http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3499430.ece )

Note: Auchi, Saddam's cousin, reputed Iraqi agent, and Rezko business partner, lent Rezko $3.5 million dollars three weeks before Obama and Rezko bought the house. See earlier post, The Tribe of Obama, for further details of Auchi's involvement with Rezko and Rezko's ties to Obama. http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2008/06/tribe-of-obama-part-1.html

Factcheck.org conducted a very superficial analysis of Obama's purchase. Why would Rezko purchase a property too small for a building at the same time Obama purchased his house from the same seller, when Rezko was dead broke and concealing loans from Iraqi agents? Especially when Obama was purchasing his house for $300,000 below the listing price and Rezko paid full value. Factcheck.org also fails to mention Obama has not disclosed the HUD-1 Settlement Statement, which would shed some light on this transaction (We won't even get around to the issue of Obama's interest rate). This is just one story I came across on Factcheck where I had actually done some research for an earlier post, so I was able to examine their so-called objective analysis. Rest assured, I will be reading their website from time to time to see if they make similar errors or omissions.