Obama Supporter: ‘What’s Wrong With A Little Bit Of Socialism?’

Yesterday, we attended an impromptu Tea Party outside the Evanston, IL office of Democrat Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Below are some photos and our in-depth video report documenting the event.

Very few people turned out, but that didn’t prevent the scene from turning dramatic as a couple of Obama supporters tossed around accusations of racism, called everyone idiots, and asked the absurd question: “What’s wrong with a little bit of Socialism?”

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Tags: Evanston, Jan Schakowsky, Tea Party
Posted Mar 20th 2010 at 7:29 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 92838162 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/amarcus/2010/03/20/obama-supporter-whats-wrong-with-a-little-bit-of-socialism/Obama+Supporter%3A+%27What%27s+Wrong+With+A+Little+Bit+Of+Socialism%3F%272010-03-20+14%3A29%3A01Andrew++Marcus

The Star Players in the ShoreBank Story

The Shorebank story is quite complicated and filled with literally hundreds – if not thousands — of individuals who have been in some way involved in the unfolding of an intriguing saga. It has been difficult to narrow down the field of characters in order to focus on just a few. Some of the names are familiar, and some are relatively unknown (except, perhaps, within the context of their own circles of influence).

The original founders of Shorebank probably didn’t dream that this bank would have the worldwide influence that it now has. They were all very active in their communities and had a desire to see the South Shore neighborhood re-built to its former state of safety and community life. The neighborhood had suffered economically and was becoming run-down and plagued by crime. Their hope was to re-invest and re-enliven this neighborhood of Chicago. They made loans towards the renovation of many of the buildings which were deteriorating and in disrepair. They also invested in new building projects to benefit the residents of South Shore.

For 30-plus years Shorebank has seen its founders’ dreams realized; and beyond those dreams, Shorebank has become the catalyst for international financing — especially that directed toward low-income people in many countries of the world. The Community Reinvestment Act, passed into law in 1977 during President Jimmy Carter’s term of office, encouraged financial institutions to make loans to low-income borrowers. Ron Grzywinski (one of the original founders of Shorebank) was the only banker to testify before Congress in support of the Community Reinvestment Act. Its passage was instrumental in paving the way for Shorebank’s success. The bank steadily grew financially and facilitated the renewal of poverty stricken areas through the rest of the 1970’s and early 80’s, catching the attention of then-Governor Bill and Hillary Clinton of Arkansas (in fact, according to the IFA, Bill is still advocating on behalf of ShoreBank).

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Tags: Adele Simmons, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, bailout, Barack Obama
Posted Mar 13th 2010 at 6:01 am in Economics, Featured Story, Financial Services, News, Politics | 8328255 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/centralillinois912project/2010/03/13/the-star-players-in-the-shorebank-story/The+Star+Players+in+the+ShoreBank+Story2010-03-13+14%3A01%3A14Central+Illinois++9%2F12+Project

Rep. Schakowsky’s ShoreBank Bailout

Why is Rep. Jan Schakowsky trying to use Illinois taxpayers’ money to bail out ShoreBank?

Rep. Schakowsky and fellow Illinois Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin, have pressured state officials to meet with the bank to discuss a $100 million bailout.

This would apparently be the first bank bailout by a state government–not just in Illinois, but in any state.

The reason ShoreBank is in trouble is quite simple: it made too many bad real estate loans, and fell below the capital requirements required by regulatory authorities.

Its political supporters point to its mission of helping borrowers in low-income communities. But ShoreBank is hardly the only struggling bank to serve those customers.

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Tags: bank bailout, Bank of Lincolnwood, Crain's, Dick Durbin, Jan Schakowsky
Posted Jan 19th 2010 at 10:07 am in Congress, Politics, State Politics, federal spending | 6189038 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jpollak/2010/01/19/rep-schakowskys-shorebank-bailout/Rep.+Schakowsky%27s+ShoreBank+Bailout2010-01-19+18%3A07%3A05Joel+B.+Pollak

How Liberals Killed the Public Option

I find it a little ironic that liberals continue to ruthlessly attack Joe Lieberman for killing the public option (and it’s evil twin, the Medicare buy-in) given the central role that liberals themselves played in precipitating it’s demise. Including some of the very same individuals now vilifying him.

While Lieberman has been hammered by the left for many of the supporting reasons he has given for opposing the public option, the centerpiece of his argument has always been that the public option was a policy instrument designed by liberals to move the country towards a single payer system. Here is Lieberman speaking on Face the Nation back on Nov. 1 when this controversy initially erupted:

The public option I think was raised in the last year by people who really want to have a government-controlled health insurance system. That’s their right. I think they’re wrong.

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Tags: Ezra Klein, health care reform, Jacob Hacker, Jan Schakowsky, lieberman
Posted Dec 23rd 2009 at 7:42 am in Healthcare | 4910281 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mrichmond/2009/12/23/how-liberals-killed-the-public-option/How+Liberals+Killed+the+Public+Option2009-12-23+15%3A42%3A58Morgen++Richmond

False Populism, Real Profits for Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

The third step in Robert Creamer’s ten-step plan for imposing universal health care on America, according to his prison memoir, is to attack the private insurance industry: “Our messaging program over the next two years should focus heavily on reducing the credibility of the health insurance industry and focusing on the failure of private health insurance.”

Accordingly, Creamer’s spouse, Rep. Jan Schakowsky—whose campaigns Creamer has assisted through his Strategic Consulting Group—declared at a rally for health care reform in April 2009 that she would “put the private insurance industry out of business.”

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Tags: Aetna, Bob Creamer, Chevron, Chicago politician, China Life Insurance
Posted Dec 10th 2009 at 1:51 pm in Congress, Culture, Featured Story, Healthcare, News, Politics | 4436258 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jpollak/2009/12/10/false-populism-real-profits-for-rep-jan-schakowsky-d-il/False+Populism%2C+Real+Profits+for+Rep.+Jan+Schakowsky+%28D-IL%292009-12-10+21%3A51%3A34Joel+B.+Pollak

Bob Creamer, Architect of ObamaCare, and His Pattern of Corruption

Before left-wing activist Bob Creamer escorted his wife, Illinois Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky to the Obama state dinner, before he penned his blue print for the socialist agenda from his federal prison cell, before he committed felony bank fraud and was indicted on 34 counts involving misuse of $2.4 million, this Saul Alinsky disciple reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from a campaign finance scam that illegally funneled money from deep-pocket Democrat donors  and labor unions to targeted congressional campaigns.

Creamer left his position as head of the ACORN-affiliated Citizen Action/Illinois in 1997 after financial irregularities at the activist organization garnered the attention of federal investigators.  Despite the ongoing federal investigation, Creamer turned to political consulting, bringing his bare-knuckle ACORN tactics to bear on behalf of numerous Democratic candidates like indicted former Governor Rod Blagojevich.  In the 2002 election cycle, Creamer’s Strategic Consulting Group was paid over half a million dollars by the Blagojevich campaign.  Strategic Consulting also did campaign work for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and others, all while the feds pursued their criminal investigation.

During the period when Creamer was running Strategic Consulting Group the firm served as the primary vendor for several identically-structured campaign committees formed for the express purpose of supporting Democrat candidacies in circumvention of federal campaign laws.

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Tags: 17th District Victory fund, AFL-CIO, Barney Frank, campaign finance laws, Carpenters Union
Posted Dec 9th 2009 at 1:31 pm in Big Labor, Congress, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 4364271 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2009/12/09/bob-creamer-architect-of-obamacare-and-his-pattern-of-corruption/Bob+Creamer%2C+Architect+of+ObamaCare%2C+and+His+Pattern+of+Corruption2009-12-09+20%3A31%3A20Capitol++Confidential

Exclusive: Ex-Convict Bob Creamer Laid Out Health Care Reform Plan In 2008 Speech

ACORNcracked.com recently obtained an audio recording a speech by Robert Creamer, given at the Take Back America 2008 conference in Washington, DC, that was hosted by Campaign for America’s Future, an ultra-liberal organization.

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In a March 19 session entitled, “Health Care: The Politics of Winning,” ex-convict Creamer and husband of Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), laid out his vision for health care reform.  Of Creamer’s 10-point plan, number 5 is:

To have a movement that both deals with that fact [that health care reform should be personal] and creates a movement we have to have two elements.  In a lot of campaigns we run are either about a populist kind of message and feel because it’s about people’s pocketbooks and needs directly.  Or it has a moral dimension that is inspirational and empowering – the civil rights movement, for instance.

This movement needs to have both.  To have a movement, to mobilize people, to inspire people, you have to appeal to their sense of meaning and purpose and something important.  So we have to create a sense that this is a historic battle. This is about you’re being part of something that will make you meaningful. (emphasis added)

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Tags: ACORN, Bob Creamer, Celinda Lake, government health care, government take over
Posted Dec 8th 2009 at 12:57 pm in Big Labor, Culture, Exclusives, Healthcare, Justice/Legal, News, Obama, Politics | 4304655 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2009/12/08/exclusive-ex-convict-bob-creamer-laid-out-health-care-reform-plan-in-2008-speech/Exclusive%3A+Ex-Convict+Bob+Creamer+Laid+Out+Health+Care+Reform+Plan+In+2008+Speech2009-12-08+19%3A57%3A35Kyle+Olson

ObamaCare: HCAN Proudly Suppressing Dissent

Suppressing dissenting viewpoints is so natural for the Left that they don’t even mind if people tape them encouraging it.

I went with Joel Pollak to Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s town hall meeting on August 31, 2009.  I didn’t expect to see anything outrageous, just wanted to see how she would handle real people with real concerns.  Joel wasn’t a candidate at that point, just a constituent.  What we saw there, however, pushed him to challenge Jan Schakowsky for the privilege to represent the people of the 9th district of Illinois.

We got there two hours early, and a long line had already formed, so we dutifully took our places at the back.  ”Health Care for America Now” organizers (HCAN) were walking up and down, passing out lapel stickers to everyone there.  The line was already packed with Schakowsky’s supporters, who had been told to come early to fill up the place before people got off work and came over.

We conveniently made ourselves unavailable whenever they passed by.  I didn’t want to take a sticker, but I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it either.  Since I was surrounded by stickered people, I knew that my refusal would start something.  I hadn’t come to cause problems, just to watch.

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Tags: 9th district illinois, HCAN, Health Care for America Now, illinois 9th district, Jan Schakowsky
Posted Dec 7th 2009 at 4:17 pm in Big Labor, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 4231473 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2009/12/07/42314/ObamaCare%3A+HCAN+Proudly+Suppressing+Dissent2009-12-07+23%3A17%3A04Capitol++Confidential

Was Democrats’ Health Care Strategy Written In Federal Prison?

On August 31, I headed to the health care town hall meeting of my congressional representative, Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). I suspected that she planned to stack the meeting with paid organizers, after she vowed on Real Time with Bill Maher to bring “millions” of people into the streets to support the so-called “public option.” So I brought a video camera.

A friend and I took turns filming protesters on both sides of the issue. We caught an organizer from the group Health Care for America Now (HCAN) instructing followers to block dissenting views: “So if they stand up and start asking questions, and you’re in that area, simply stand up, and start chanting… ‘Health care now! Health care now!’”

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Tags: ACORN, Alinsky, American Medical Association, Andy Stern, astroturfing
Posted Dec 7th 2009 at 3:01 pm in Big Labor, Exclusives, Featured Story, Healthcare, Justice/Legal, News, Obama, Politics | 42174489 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jpollak/2009/12/07/was-democrats-health-care-strategy-written-in-federal-prison/Was+Democrats%E2%80%99+Health+Care+Strategy+Written+In+Federal+Prison%3F2009-12-07+22%3A01%3A13Joel+B.+Pollak

The Public Option Deception

The public option has been a political football since early summer. The President has said more than once that he prefers it but will not demand it. This was considered capitulation by many on the left who see the public option as necessary for “real” reform. Meanwhile, belying the President’s public statements, there are reports that the President’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel has been quietly but firmly twisting arms in the back rooms to insure the public option is included in the final bill. Even now, pressure is mounting on Harry Reid to include the public option in the health reform bill he brings to the Senate floor.

In response to the tumult over what appears to be a small feature of the effort, more than one critic has wondered aloud why Democrats don’t just give up on the public option – which is opposed by every Republican – in order to reach a more bipartisan outcome. What exactly is so important about the public option anyway? And why do Democrats in particular seem so wedded to the idea?

There is a simple answer to these questions, but it’s an answer you’ve likely not heard from any institution in the mainstream media. The truth is that the public plan is a carefully devised scheme, a sneaky strategy, to deceive American voters. It’s a political marketing ploy designed to move the nation to a single-payer system – like the one in Canada – over the next decade. The public option is the Trojan horse. On the outside it’s all about “choice and competition”, but once it has been dragged within the walls of American medicine it’s true nature will become evident. By that time, it’ll be too late.

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Tags: ACORN, American Medical Association, Barack Obama, Barney Frank, Clark Hoyt
Posted Oct 21st 2009 at 5:15 am in ACORN, Featured Story, Healthcare, Politics | 18546101 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/richmondsexton/2009/10/21/the-public-option-deception-with-exclusive-new-audio/The+Public+Option+Deception2009-10-21+12%3A15%3A58Morgen+Richmond+and+John+Sexton