[Chicago Tribune] Former Chicago Comptroller Amer Ahmad kept working for Mayor Rahm Emanuels administration for more than 10 months after a meeting in which FBI officials said he lied to them to try to cover up a kickback scheme during his time as Ohios deputy treasurer. Kickback schemes? Illinois? Ohio? Say it isn't so.
Emanuel aides contend the mayor didnt know about the comptrollers federal heat until news surfaced of Ahmads indictment Thursday. Thats about three weeks after the administration announced Ahmads abrupt departure from City Hall. Asked Friday what Ahmad told the mayor when he left, Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said, (Ahmad) said he wanted to return to the private sector. Mooslim brotherhood friendly you say? Comes as a total sahprize. Weeze didn't know nuttin.
Yes, that is the same Univ of Chicago Hospital where Valerie Jarrett is trustee and FLOTUS had a nifty job.
Amer and his wife Samar Kaukab Ahmad co-founded SalamCorps, a community service organization promoting civic engagement through volunteer service projects. In addition, Amer and Samar established The Safa Ahmad Fund for Children at the University of Chicago Comer Childrens Hospital to benefit the Child Life and Education programs at the hospital.
Samar Kaukab Ahmad is the associate director of Strategic Foundation Initiatives at the University of Chicago. In her role, Ahmad serves as Research Strategist for Arete, an innovative research accelerator program led by the Office of the Vice President for Research in collaboration with the Universitys Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations. Concentrating on large-scale, multidisciplinary, and cross-divisional projects, Ahmad provides faculty support throughout the life of a given project, including the conceptual stage, the organizing and leading of teams, identifying and pursuing large-scale funding opportunities, proposal development, and institutional planning.
Eric Whitaker met Barack Obama when both were graduate students at HarvardObama at the law school; Whitaker, studying for his masters in public health. The friendship, which started on the basketball court, endured. Whitaker was one of 11 who celebrated the Presidents 52nd birthday last week with a golf game at Andrews Air Force Base followed by celebrations at Camp David. Whitaker and his wife, Cherylalso a physician who practiced, in the late 90s at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she became a close friend and gym workout buddy of Michelle Obamaoften accompany the Obamas on vacations in Marthas Vineyard and Hawaii.
[Klein online] Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, claimed in a radio interview this week that any involvement by the attacked U.S. facility in Benghazi in arms trafficking would have absolutely nothing to do with the lack of adequate security at the compound where Ambassador Christopher Stevens was murdered. An interesting leap. Has Darrell also signed a non-disclosure statement ?
Issa made the statement to radio host Hugh Hewitt after repeatedly deflecting questions about the alleged arms smuggling to al-Qaida-linked Mideast rebels based at the Benghazi compound. He knows we know. We know he knows, we know. But the answer is still no.
While Issa insists the alleged use of the Benghazi facility for coordinating arms shipments and other aid to the rebels is irrelevant, KleinOnline was first to report in October 2012 that it may help explain why there was no major public security presence at what has been wrongly described as a consulate. Such a presence would draw attention to the shabby, nondescript building. Potential facts pertaining to the murder of four Americans are...."irrelvent"? You can stick a fork in this inquiry, it's DOA.
#4
Yes Pappy, what I suspect we're seeing now is a lot of folks going through the motions, the theatrics of an investigation. When Lindsey Graham visited survivors at Walter Reed and nothing came of it, I became even more suspect. If one could peel the onion, I think we'd find Brennan and ValJar as co-plumbers. They had no desire for the truth to be revealed prior to the election. We're dealing with the residuals of a cover-up.
#6
An interesting leap. Has Darrell also signed a non-disclosure statement ?
Does signing a non-disclosure agreement mean Issa feels he is obligated or entitled to lie? Can't he say something vague like, "I cannot speak to that..."?
#7
Saying "I cannot speak to that" implies either a lack of knowledge or a prohibition. Deflection provides the cover of leaving the topic altogether and moving elsewhere. Politicians are remarkably adept at selecting what questions to address and deflecting others.
#8
Does signing a non-disclosure agreement mean Issa feels he is obligated or entitled to lie?
It's more of a careful parsing.
Then again, at this point, more traction is likely to be gained by focusing on the security deficiencies than by expanding it to include "arms trafficking". 'Dilution' or expansion into other, tangential areas, is a sure way to cripple or kill an investigation (ask Ken Starr about that.)
"When you live in the city, as soon as you have your first kid, you start thinking about schools," he said. "You hope your district will get better. Instead, it gets worse. Unless you have $35,000 a year [for] private school, at some point, you go, 'I just can't do this.' "
If their house sale goes through, the couple plan to move to a suburb where they hope their children, ages 5, 4, and 2, can attend fully functioning schools. Schools, Hackford said, that not only can afford adequate staffing for nurses, coaches, and field trips, but the bedrock basics. Books. Librarians. Guidance counselors. Secretaries to answer the phones.
That was the conclusion reached, too, by Marcy and Matthew Gialdo, who reluctantly left Philadelphia in the spring after living in the city's Mount Airy section for 10 years.
The Gialdos had sent their two children to a Quaker elementary school but knew they could not afford tuition that soars past $20,000 at most private high schools. After trying to win spots for their children in charter schools through the lottery system, they gave up.
"The chances of getting them into a good public school were slimmer and slimmer," said Marcy Gialdo. "And over the past few years, we watched programs eliminated and options lessened."
In May, the family decamped to Springfield Township in Montgomery County.
"It was a very hard decision," said Gialdo, 39, a triathlon coach. "I loved my neighborhood in Philadelphia.. . . The diversity was great for our family. We could walk everywhere. We had public transportation. We gave up a lot when we moved. But the school situation was just not possible."
As officials sparred over where to find the money, Gialdo, a former New Jersey public school teacher, said, "I feel there's a lot of finger-pointing and grandstanding. It's irresponsible of us as adults to do this to the kids. . . . How many years does it take to figure this out? . . . The children are the ones who get hurt."
After receiving the "urgent" request that Greenfield Elementary School's principal sent to parents, asking them to donate $613 for each child enrolled, Tomika Anglin was heartsick and angry.
"A lot of people cannot afford the money schools are asking for," said Anglin, a 45-year-old single mother. "And they recognize that it may be becoming normal to ask parents to contribute like that."
Anglin's solution for now: home-school her daughter, who would be starting sixth grade.
("But there are no secretaries at the school right now, so I have not formally withdrawn her.")
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Both sides of this argument are delusional, governments run by self serving socialists (democrats) will see the same fate, you must learn that unionized school systems are not serving the citizens but the needs of the "educators".
#2
Montgomery County?, I left that area years ago. Howard county would have been better but not by much. They didn't do their homework. They will learn unfortunately. Sidwell Friends(Quaker) is there but that is for the wealthy. Al De Gore's children remember(who hears of Quakers anymore). Even Obama's for a time. Very, very expensive to live there. Traffic, many adjustments. Forget walking. They have made an unfortunate decision.
#3
It's not just happening in the cities, it is happening everywhere and it effects nearly everything from housing to shopping, hospitals, policing, the lot.
Ice in a G&T is for chilling. Drink it before it melts, or order another.
#4
There are suddenly an awful lot of articles across the media abut the lack of amenities in cities that middle class families consider deal breakers -- decent schools and reasonable lack of crime, not to mention stroller- and child-friendly shops and restaurants. Not that I disagree -- that's why we never considered living in the city, after all -- but I have to wonder what is driving this spate of stories.
#9
Dense populated cities are for the retired. No children areas like no dogs allowed. Slow death because replacement numbers will not be there in a few years. Those 55 and older have the money in this country these days. The young will not have the income for such areas. No need for cars. Like Europe and poor countries, mass transit. The seeds for the future will not be planted. Too rich, too smart, then no replacement.
My family was driven from NYC almost 60 years ago for these exact reasons. The lack of discipline and control in the Staten Island public schools convinced my parents to move to NJ.
All the same union and PC liberal ideas chased them out. Teacher friends of theirs told them that getting out was the right thing as it was only getting worse.
#18
"In May, the family decamped to Springfield Township in Montgomery County"
Pennsylvania speak. Borrows, burgs,and townships.
Perhaps I missed it but Montgomery County I know very well. Potomac Maryland is the place to be but so expensive.
#8
There cannot be any right without a corresponding obligation on the part of someone else. If I have a right not to self-incriminate then there must be an obligation on the part of the police not to try to make me. Otherwise, the "right" is meaningless -- like a right to ride a unicorn whenever I want.
What Champ is saying is that some of us have an obligation to pay for medical services for the rest of us.
#10
Health insurance is just as much a 'right' as a paycheck, Food, Cell-phone, 60" Plasma TV, and fancy car.
And don't forget the short shackles tied to the Government you lock around your ankles yourself. That is a right which goes along with all the other 'rigts' above.
#11
Fat paycheck, plenty of excellent food, top-of-the-line cell phone, new every six months, thank you very much. And generous COLA's, too. And a pony.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/19/2013 12:07 Comments ||
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#12
Its not a right if you have to take it from somone else. My right to speak freely and peaceably assemble doesn't stop you from speaking, my right to practice (or not) religion doesn't stop you from yours, my right to keep and bear arms does not preclude you from doing so.
But a right to healthcare? How does that work? Healthcare is a product of someone else, not a basic item the depends on the person exercising the right, like speech or religion, or self defense.
Such things are not "rights" by any regular ethical or moral means.
Bottom line: How can you claim it as a right? Do you ultimately force doctors and nurses to provide care at gunpoint? THats not a right, its thievery. Would you *trust* that sort of healthcare?
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