I bet the Judge of the proceedings was mentioned too, wasn't he or she?!!!! Come on, Fourth Estate, shouldn't you be championing: Innocent until proven guilty!!!? You'll be throwing your back out if you continue to twist those headlines for no other reason than to stoke the flames of controversy!!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE. NOW.

It seems that Obama and Rezko were better friends than he would leave you to believe.

What kind words for Congressman Rick Renzi has John McCain showered him with?

That friendship lasted for many years, as well as that of his Reverend ... If these are their close friends, I have no trust for Obama ... if he reaches the presidency What kind of friends will take him? ....???

I was at that party! Big deal.

Hillary went to several parties with Peter Paul. He even raised $2 million for her senatorial campaign. How come you are not reporting on that case pending in Los Angeles???

HOW MANY MILLIONAIRE CRIMINALS DID CLINTON PARDON ?????

We've known about this for months. What they need to find out at trial is what was Rezko's relationship with Auchi? Since Rezko was virtually broke when he was funding all these campaigns there's good reason to believe Auchi was a major benefactor of both Blagojevich and Obama's campaigns. Was he funding them in exchange for Rezko's control of state boards? Was Rezko his flunkie? Was he using money from Saddam's Iraq to gain said access?

Sounds like a whole lotta nothing...even in the eyes of a Hillary supporter.

This is why we want a thouroughly vetted candidate for the Dem nomination.

Most Dems will say so what.

But this could still morph into some type of conservative publicity stunt this year....if Obama gets the nomination.

What kind of change are we going to get with Obama? At least we know Clintons garbage. I don't trust Obama.

I never trusted Obama. The truth will be dug up by the Republicans in the general election. The Dem and Rep are both terrible. I'm voting for the Green Party.

This reminds me of all of those fundraising parties that Hillary's now jailed convicted felon fundraiser, Norman Hsu and Hillary threw together.

In an attempt to paint Barack Obama as Elitest Hillary Clinton has made a miss-statement of her own that has got herself into hot waters. The problem though is you have to remember Hillary Clinton is only human. When she makes mis-statements we are suppose to forgive and forget not like Obama. Those are the Clinton rules!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/12/hillary-becomes-a-gun-lov_n_96396.html

"You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught be how to shoot when I was a little girl," she said.

"You know, some people now continue to teach their children and their grandchildren. It's part of culture. It's part of a way of life. People enjoy hunting and shooting because it's an important part of who they are. Not because they are bitter."

Did Hillary Clinton just pull a Nick Romney out of her pocket?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/nra-lobbyist-de.html

Will Clinton be able to sell this new self to gun rights enthusiasts and hunters?

"Her name is synonymous with gun control, like Rosie O'Donnell," says Cox, so she will have "a very, very tough time."

Hillary Clinton a life long member of the NRA who has a gun in one hand and a bible in the next!Hillary Clinton Because only God can save us from seeing images of Hillary Clinton with a gun!
http://www.nohillaryclinton.com/blog/blog_images/gun.jpg

Once again Sam Zell's Trib finds front page, top page space for an anti-democratic story. Does Zell believe in anything other than money?

Come on now. We all know that Obama told us in a debate that he "only spent 5 hours on Rezko. " Could this be another instance where Obama has been less than truthful ?? Add them up and its becoming a long list. Now he is the bitter one- because the good folks in PA are not fainting over the sight of him, they do not like him and they do not trust him. Anyone BUT Obama !!! If he gets this nomination most of us will cross over and vote for McCain and then wait til 2012 !!! end this OBAMA-DRAMA !!!!

Don--attacking the REPORTER for doing his JOB is McCarthistic tactics.
I've said it before (some of you who have not read all over entries may have read what's below--please skip over if that's the case) and I'll say again what I put a fair amount of time into writing and researching---
Obama is bad news at the top of the ticket.
Before this very relevant piece of information was reported on (thank you Bob Sector) it looked like Obama could in fact rescue his Illinois political career and not be a liability for the Dems in the Fall.
Now I'm now so sure.
----
Yet another example that this nationally unvetted candidate cannot be the top of our ticket. HRC is NOT the enemy.
What’s wrong with waiting 8 years, Obama and Gobamas? Wait for LBJ’s 3rd generation of Dixiecrats to kick the bucket.
I used to say that. And I may say that again.
But, give a listen to the audio posted by Mayhill Fowler (the not so pretty girl recently on the bus who savvily recorded the disturbing speech in California).
It’s a disturbing speech and shaking a ‘you are naughty’ finger at Hilary Clinton will not work.
In fact, the whole strategy for ‘dealing’ with his comment disturbs me even more.
Because, there seems to be a pattern emerging from not just the Obama campaign, but from the lips of Obama himself:
Exclude from the ‘movement’ or otherwise silence the non-enthusiastic or
‘offending’ middle aged white or elderly women.
Listen to the audio Mayhill recorded—and be sure to thank her and show your support for her. She will need it, if Tavis Smiley is any example of how people non-conforming to the Obama message of ‘hope’ get treated.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-exclusive-audio-on_b_96333.html
His comments to the crowd that we need ‘new people’ in the Democratic party kind of chilled me to the bone. I find him very intolerant. I find his campaign intolerant. He responded to a question about his ability to really unite the party after such a divisive campaign by saying that “people get their feelings hurt” and they’ll be back (basically).
I don’t think that’s the case. People left his campaign because we felt it was using the wrong strategy and felt (but couldn’t quite put our finger on WHY it was fundamentally wrong-minded.
In his speech last night, in which he mentioned that ‘abstinence” and teaching appropriate behavior would be a good idea—heck—the people he BASHED last night have been speaking about this stuff for years! In fact, the Planned Parenthood crowd in Kalamazoo, Michigan (who later came to Chicago) managed to get a K-12 systematic sex education curriculum passed in the late 1970s. The JOHN BIRCH society worked to get it removed from the schools—and the Planned Parenthood clinic was actually bombed.
Would 70s style peaceful activists be part of the mature crowd Obama now wants replaced with his Gobama crowd? No. Not if he can help it.
That’s what it’s looking like to me.
Particularly when I heard Obama last night say talk about the pro-choice people he said were reluctant to infuse a “moral dimension’ into the abortion issue.
Patently false. Shame on Barack Obama.
Shame on him also for the recent clarification that in fact he DID attend a Muslim school (the public schools in Indonesia were like the community—women didn’t have to wear the veil, but…) seems like he was earlier being less than forthcoming. Even in liberal Islamic settings, women have a back of the bus status. I do NOT think Obama has been honest enough about this.
I think he’s sexist. Not just for the relentless bashing of Geraldine Ferraro, but for something really revealing in his speech last night, he ‘could not remember’ whether he’d had a conversation with his daughters about God. Well, if you’re in a 50’s throwback marriage where mommy is the main person interacting with the kids when they’re not in the expensive, enriching U of C daycare---then you perhaps are leaving a lot of that stuff to the wifey.
And perhaps that’s why Michelle (back when she let reporters cover her fund-raising) cut loose with the “ladies against women” style rant against Hilary (“How can she handle the White House when she ‘can’t manage’ her own house (sic).”)
The problem with sexism or any ‘ism’ is the elitism at its heart.
But there’s another reason why the Obamas must mature more before they’re at the top of the ticket.
They’ve let the newfound celebrity go to their heads.
Call it the ‘diva factor’.
Bonnie Raitt (you might remember she and Jackson Browne played a New Hampshire benefit for John Edwards’ superior approach—since adopted by Hilary Clinton—regarding nuclear power, greenhouse gases, and whatnot) chafed at being called a diva on a blues show last night. She said it reminded her of the old saw “Don’t look Miss Ross in the eye as she heads on stage.”
Barack Obama as diva.
Annie Oakley at least was a class act.

- - - - - - - - -

Obama keeps stepping in it with obfuscation about his relationship to Rezko and Wright and then about his "bitter" statement, especially the race-baited one that essentially said working class white people don't like people who "look different from them." Kiss off the working class white vote. Time for the unions to speak for their own members and defend them when someone like Obama attacks their veracity.

This has been common knowledge for a long time. Like everything else that the racist obama does, it won't matter to his lemmings.

. . . while Hillary has Mark Penn working for the Columbian government and hangs around with all the pond-scum her hubby pardoned, and McCain has at least four prominent K-Street lobbyists actually working for his CAMPAIGN.

Can we get some context on this blog for a change? Or are we just going to be stuck with playground insults like "Obama hung out with a guy who nobody knew at the time was a crook nyadyady-yah-yah!"

These events are disturbing. Of course we know that Rezko and Obama are very good friends. How many friends do you know who would give you $350,000 so you could buy a house you loved but really couln't afford on your own? That's what happened when Rezko's wife purchased a land parcel adjacent to the Georgian Mansion that Obama purchased for $1.65 Million which was $350,000 below appraised value. She purchased the adjacent property for $625,000 which was $350,000 above the appraised value of $275,000. Nice deal if you can get it..

Here we go again, another speech to come stating..." what i meant to say was...I did not know Mr. Auchi was at my friend Rezco's house that day". remember this oldie but goodie? " I never heard Rev. Wright speak a sermon like that... I was never in the pews to hear that" How about.. I do not agree with Rev. Wright, Rev. Meeks, Bill Ayers, Rezco, Auchi, Farrakhan, they are just friends of mine." How about... Devin Patrick is my friend and that is why i can repeat his speech word for word as my own and not be labeled as a plagiarist". Then he is speaking at a private fundraiser in San Francisco and not knowing he was being recorded he gets caught AGAIN!!....." I did not mean for that to sound like that..what I meant to say was.. "

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE KOOL-AID!!
THIS !

I'm not concerned that Obama was mentioned.

I do want to know if he was at a party Rezko threw for the Iraqi-born billionaire.

If so who invited Obama and why he attended.

What did they hope to gain from Obama and what Obama hope to gain from them.

A voter has a right to know.

I'm not concerned that Obama was mentioned.

I do want to know if he was at a party Rezko threw for the Iraqi-born billionaire.

If so who invited Obama and why he attended.

What did they hope to gain from Obama and what Obama hope to gain from them.

A voter has a right to know.

Well, the moral of the story for those that are too lame to get it is that Obama and Rezko attended a party and might have even been in the same room!!! Wow, that might be the biggest non-story that the swamp has put together yet. This is so vague, that I can't even say it is guilt-by association, as this lame story does not even state if Obama and Resko even seen each other at the party!

Jimbo, way to pick up a hand full of brown mud and throw away. It show how far from reality your really are. You're probably a Republican anyways.

This means NOTHING!!!!

When will enough be enough?

I'm telling you just go to the website for Obama's Trinity Church on the Southside of Chicago and see the church's whole theme is all pro-black if white people dared to have a church that focused on only "white people" they would be painted as racist's 100 times over. The double standard is ridiculous! Just read what they have on that website, ridiculous!

Wake up, folks. Obama cannot win in November.
Rant. Rave. Call everyone who disagrees with Obama a racist. But it's the truth.
He's just not acceptable to the majority of white voters in this country.
Yeah, that's sad, and we should be beyond that. But we're not. It's just the way it is.

McCain won't have a leg to stand on when it comes to this non-Rezko story this fall.

McCain and Rick Renzi:

Arizona Congress- man Rick Renzi has been indicted for extortion, money laundering, wire fraud among others. Congressman Renzi (R-AZ) also serves as the Arizona co-chair for John McCain’s campaign for President of the United States
The charges boil down to this, basically. Renzi is charged with doing everything he can as a congressman to strong-arm others into buying land from his buddy James Sandlin — Sandlin then allegedly kicked back sizable chunks of cash back to Renzi in a series of complicated financial transactions (thus the money laundering charge). The main details of these charges were reported by the Arizona papers and The Wall Street Journal last year.

Renzi stepped down from his position on the House Intelligence Committee on April 20th in 2007 after his business and house was raided by the FBI and several documents were removed. Said the Congressman when he had heard about the raid:

“Today, the FBI came to my family’s business to obtain documents related to their investigation,” Renzi said. “I view these actions as the first step in bringing out the truth. Until this matter is resolved, I will take a leave of absence from the House Intelligence Committee. I intend to fully cooperate with this investigation.”

Senator McCain, apathetically decided Congressman Renzi was still the best crook man to chair his presidential campaign anyway and made him a co-chair in his home state of Arizona.

http://fruitfly.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/mccains-az-co-chair-rick-renzi-indicted-this-time-it-wasnt-for-toilet-sex/

McCain and Charles Keating:

Mr. Keating was a lawyer who focused his talents in the courtroom against the pornography industry. He sounds like a pretty stand up guy so far, right? Obviously I won’t be able to link Keating to McCain’s admitted marital infidelities. So what’s the connection?

Well, throughout the 80’s and 90’s, there was what was called the “Savings and Loan Crisis” which involved the failure of several prominent Savings and Loan companies, including Lincoln Savings and Loan, which had been purchased by Charles Keating. Only a few years after Keating purchased the company however, Lincoln went under as a result of questionable practices by Charles Keating himself. The estimated cost of Lincoln’s failure to taxpayers was $3.4 BILLION.

These questionable practices were investigated by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Keating, knowing he was in trouble, turned to five members of the United States Senate: Alan Cranston (D-CA), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), Donald W. Riegle (D-MI), John Glenn (D-OH), and none other than the Republican Party’s own John McCain of Arizona. These five Senators, nicknamed the “Keating Five,” went to the chief of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Edwin Gray, and ordered him to end his investigation of Charles Keating and the collapse of Lincoln Savings and Loan.

http://www.ktracy.com/?p=918

What's next.??? .. going back to when Obama was in the same room in elementary school with someone who later got a speeding ticket and saying "They went to school together!!!"

"Well, the moral of the story for those that are too lame to get it is that Obama and Rezko attended a party and might have even been in the same room"

Actually not, Xcellent. We already knew Obama and Rezko were at least in the same room when they looked at Obama's house. What's new here is that the party was FOR AUCHI at Rezko's house. Obama's always insisted he didn't even know the man. Sort of contradicts that statement, doesn't it, if he attended a party held in Auchi's honor?

"RICK RE NZI RE NZI AND CHOCTOW INDIAN GAMING WAS HIS NAME SPEAKS"

IT'S NOT RE ZKO, RE ZKO IT IS RE NZI RE NZI.

IT'S NOT RE ZKO, RE ZKO, IT'S RE NZI AND JOHN MCCAIN KNOWS MY NAME!

RE NZI RE NZI, AND 4 MILLION DOLLAR BINGO GAMES WAS MY GAME!

REZKO IS THE ESCAPE GOAT FOR RICK RENZI AND JOHN MCCAIN GAMLING DEALINGS.

REZKO IS THE RENZI THAT THE MEDIA IS NOT ALLOWED TO DISCUSS BECAUSE IT INVOLVES JOHN MCCAIN, "THE CHAIRMAN" AND HIS RICK RE NZI RE NZI INDIAN CHOCTOW BINGO NIGHTS IN WHATEVER STATE HE IS ACTUALLY A RESIDENT IN.

REZKO IS THE "DISTRACTION" THE GOP NEEDS TOO HIDE IS "WARRANTS" FOR WIRETAPS AND THE REST OF THE "SENATORS" THAT ARE NAMED IN THEM.

REZKO, RE ZKO IS RE NZI RE NZI JUST IN DISGUISE!

THE GOP CHEERLEADERS AFRONT OF THIS RE ZKO RE ZKO DISTRACTION IS DRAGGING IT THROUGH THE MUD ALL THE WAY TO THE GENERAL ELECTIONS.

THEN IT'S RE NZI RE NZI AND 90 SECOND SOUND BITES!

4 MILLION DOLLAR BINGO GAME, LOST EMAILS, "DOJ WARRANTED WIRETAPS" JOHN MCCAIN CAMPAIGN MANAGER, AND THEY NEVER MET, THEY NEVER EXCHANGED EMAILS.

SO RE NZO, WAS MY NAME!

SCREW THE FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSIONER!
HE JUST QUIT!

C'mon Obama supporter's!

Obama has a long history with Rezko! Do you really think Rezko would really donate a couple hundred thousand dollars to someone he did not know and was not expecting something back? They have a long history of being friends..Even before Obama was a State Senator.

This is a story because Obama is trying to have American's believe he is the agent for "Change!"

He is just like most politicians...

Go Hillary!

I saw Obama walking on the street - what does that make him guilty of ????

drip, drip, drip, the ever increasing drip of things that just aren't right with Obama.

Wright, clinging to guns and god, Rezko, VOTING YES ON THE CHENEY ENERGY BILL.

end it now people, work for Hillary.

I think the point of the story is not necessarily about who was at what party, but follow the money.Rezko's wife helped Obama get a piece of property and support his campaign when the Rezko's had no money. Auchi was funneling money, perhaps illegaly obtained, to Rezko, via money laundering, and perhaps to Obama. So it becomes what did Obama know and when did he know it.

Considering the real estate deal between the Rev, Wright and his church which appears to a sneaky way to avoid paying taxes, I am beginning to wonder if they just don't do things differently in Obamaland.

Obama has consistently downplayed, i.e. lied about, his relationship with Rezko

So what? Could the conversation shift to the many serious ISSUES facing our country? I'm getting tired of the candidates throwing mud at each other. Let's please discuss the issues -- I want to know what they're going to do about escalating health care / medical costs, our tanking economy, oh yeah the WAR that is almost never mentioned anymore, all the people who are losing their homes and businesses and retirement savings... The list is LONG. But NO, instead we hear about Obama being an "elitist" from one member of a couple who made on average more than $1M / yr. for the last 8 years and another who is part of a multimillionaire couple.

Got that, Sam? How about REAL news instead of this continual garbage.

Good thing this isn't a high stakes poker game because the Democrats have only a pair of deuces, Bama and Hildy. Talk about a losing hand.
Just how did the Democratic party get into this mess? A screwy nominating system? Howard Dean at the helm? The Clintons faking everyone out except a rookie? Now to wait for the next shoe to drop.

mr obama needs to be vetted thoroughly

You know there's NOTHING worse than political naivety, especially if you plan to have any kind of lasting career in politics. Obama has demonstrated this with his association with Tony Rezko.

Hillary Clinton is so desperate for ammunition to use against him right now that she'll take anything (And I mean ANYTHING) that's out there for her to grab. She'll grab it like a drowning man grabs a life preserver.

Obama has to tread very carefully right now. As I stated earlier, he's not going to avoid all of the possible missteps in this political minefield through which he must travel, but he really needs to avoid the "Bouncing Hilly's" before one gets him where he lives so to speak.

Someone asked the question what was wrong in Obama attending the party?
Obama's district has a tremendous amount of low income hosing that Rezko has been wanting to buy.
Rezko is NOT or has never been know for his civic responsibilities. He is a major mob figure and does not do favors without asking for something in return. The house that Obama got, the party, the money for Obama's campaign from Auchi...

Hillary's Bosnia is error is Horrible.

Compared to Obama's

Rezko - Lied said he barely knew him
Rezko - Lied said he was a political fund raiser he barely knew
Rezko - Lied He helped me buy my house, bone head mistake, knowing he was under investigation.
Rezko - Lied he donated around 20k over my campaigns.
Rezko - Lied He donated 60k over my campaigns.
Rezko - Lied He donated 250k over my campaigans
Rezko - My Friend of 18 years
Rezko - He offered me a job when I was in college
Rezko - Donated 250k to charity, I don't think there is anymore.
Rezko - I am going to testify for him
Why not give the money back to the courts so they could return it to the people rezko stole it off of, or was it laundered money?

Ayers - Lie I did not know him
Ayers - I knew him at college
Ayers - On a Board for His company
Ayers - Was at a fund rasier at his home
Ayers - Lecuter at the college he was a professor at.

Rev Wright - He is my best friend for 20 years, my spiriatual advisor, I bounce all my political ideas off him, he married me, baptized my children
Wright - I never heard him say those things while I was in church
Wright - I heard him say those things
Wright - He is like an old uncle
Wright - Removed him from the campaigan as African American spiritual committee
Wright - He was just my pastor

Selma speech

I came to be because MLK walked over that bridge, JFK and bobby kennedy gave money so my dad came over. That is why My parents met and got married and why I am here. Impossible the dates do not coincided with when he was born, Obama was born before all those events.

condensed version goggle obama Selma speech it will come up.

Just a very few

Lies on his best friends and family how he came to be.

Obama Trustworthy No Way..............

Christian Not

Can he and does he lie a lot.......YES

How many parties have Blago and Mells attended with Rezko? Public and/or private!

Doesn't matter about Rezko. After voting for him for senator supposedly because he was against Bush & company war "from the beinning', one of his first votes was to confirm Condi(lies) Rice. Neve again. I'll vote Repub. before Obama again.

If everyone knows about this ahead of time, why did it not come out before hand? What else is it that people know? It seems that Obama has a different image to the public than in private. Why do people attack Hillary or John instead of explaining the party mentioned in the article. Stop attacking and look at the facts.

You asked: "HOW MANY MILLIONAIRE CRIMINALS DID CLINTON PARDON ????
Posted by: the clinton plan | April 14, 2008 5:00 PM"

Answer: None. Hillary is a Senator and cannot issue pardons.

Also, Renzi's an A-one jerk and I'm glad he's getting indicted but let's keep it in perspective. McCain didn't fund his campaigns the way rezko did Obama's. McCain didn't act as his political patron for nearly 20 years like Rezko did for Obama. All he did was endorse him before anyone knew he was a crook. Obama demonstrated that he knew Rezko was up to no good when he initially lied and said he didn't even know he bought the lot next to his house. Later on Obama admitted they visited the house together before closing the sale. What did he feel he needed to lie about?

I didn't know Obama had a relationship with Rezko. Really?

C'mon Tribune! We already know this. Focus on real issues of the election, not gossip. Geez.

Did you guys know that Hillary had some land deal...Whitewater? And McCain was one of the Keating 5 in the great S and L scandal?

Gossip all you want on irrelevant issues. If you guys just want to pick on Obama and eliminate him because of Rezko, then it would be fair to throw all of the candidates out. Then you can screw over all the people that went to the primaries voting for McCain, Hillary, and Obama thus far.

Rezko is NOT or has never been know for his civic responsibilities. He is a major mob figure and does not do favors without asking for something in return.
Posted by: Homer Raulks | April 14, 2008 9:24 PM

And you know this how?

LOL. Nice contradiction. If you're going to call out Rezko for lacking civic responsibilities, you'll want to BE RESPONSIBLE and wait for Rezko to be proven guilty before leveling this charge.

Indeed, THAT is exactly what this trial is trying to prove. Until the verdict is returned, however, the RESPONSIBLE citizen will not rush to judgment.

As for Obama's part in all of this, attending a party is hardly newsworthy. And that's even IF Obama attended the party. We must bear in mind that the witness is a known drug addict. As we have seen from Hillary and Bill Clinton, even if you don't INHALE drugs can greatly affect one's memory of historical events.

The 'golden calf' NObama is self-imploding.

You obama supporters are pathetic. You would find a way to call it a non issue if he murdered someone. And who knows that just might come out eventually. I read these comments whenever I have a chance just to see how you all wiggle and squirm around everything that is coming out about obama. The I laugh about it the rest of the evening. Keep tuned for the next episode of obama's excuse for the party with Rezko and Auchi. Will he say he didn't see either of them there, or he was too busy with other people at the party to associate with them? Or maybe even that he left as soon as he saw who was there. Verrrrry Interrresting!!!

WE'VE HAD IT WITH OBAMA AND HIS ELETIST FRIENDS. WE MUST NEVAR GIVE UP! WAKE UP AND VOTE FOR HILARRY!

Swamp: So, you think all the tripe I've read so far is revelent? Your blog is absolutely, postively, the worst. That is not saying much on my part as I do not make it a point of reading "screened" postings. McCarthyism at its best. Get a life or a different line of work - if anyone would hire you for your discernment.

We've been bamboozled by a quasi east coast elitist who's idea of slumming it is Tavern On The Green. I'll admit it, I was seen there with allot of rich people who support Hillary. We all had our duck calls on in the blind over there in Central Park NRA cards in hand. Disgraced fund-raiser Norman Hsu did a lot more than just pump $850,000 into Hillary Clinton's campaign bank account: He also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local, state, and federal candidates who have endorsed Clinton or whose support she courted.

January 5, 2008 -- The first shoe dropped for disgraced Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu as he was hit yesterday with a three-year prison term for a 1992 fraud case - paving the way for the feds to bring the longtime fugitive to New York to face additional charges.

A state judge in Redwood City, Calif., sentenced Hsu, 56, to time behind bars after rejecting a bid by defense lawyers to have his 15-year-old guilty plea tossed.

Hsu's lawyers argued for the old case to be scrapped - claiming he lived openly by hosting high-profile political events - and accused authorities of dropping the ball by failing to pursue him.

The prominent fund-raiser came back on the law's radar screen last summer when news reports outed him as a fugitive, leading the Clinton campaign to refund at least $850,000 in donations.

A new federal indictment unsealed in Manhattan in December hammered Hsu with 15 additional charges, including wire fraud, mail fraud and violating election law.

Norman Hsu and Susie Tompkins were proponents of making money off Chinese/Hong Kong/San Fran sweat shops. Their reasons for trying to pass a fair wages law in the US seems obvious- it would force their competition to pay workers more. The more US workers make, the more expensive the product, the bigger the demand for cheap-labor Chinese (or illegally made) product.

Buell, Hsu and Soros can back those kinds of laws looking altruistic toward American workers, while in reality they are boosting China.

Speaking of campaign finance let's not forget senor John McCain. Ask him why he's retreated from his longtime commitment to public financing of campaigns.

Campaign finance reform advocates say they are distressed at what they see as McCain's abandonment of the issue at a time when supporters of reform most need bipartisan backing of efforts to control the influence of money in campaigns.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/03/30/mccains_commitment_to_public_financing_questioned/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioy90nF2anI

I wouldn't vote for anyone with a muslim father, Syrian crook fundraiser, friendly w an /Iraqi billionaire & Farakkan. Wake the hell up! It's downright dangerous how close Obama is to the white house. I don't care how good his MLK type speeches are.

Bud McFarlin, you protest too much. It's been common knowledge that Rezko was a slumlord who gave cash to people like Obama and Blagojevich rather than using it to get the heat fixed in some of his tenants buildings for years. You don't need him to be convicted of a crime to know that that's a pretty low, dangerous and slimy thing to do. Or perhaps you question why the judge thinks he's a flight risk?