Obama's $1,000,000 Fix for Michelle

Because the mainstream media has abdicated its role of investigative journalist, it is the bloggers, indies etc that are forced to undertake  ad hoc discovery efforts, connect dots, follow this blogger's lead, that bloggers tip ..... and the resulting story is vastly different than the package the media presents.  When will the media put down the pom poms and do their job?

This latest development in what is now daily obombshells is proof that America hating Barack and Mich sure knew how to work the system. Homes! Jobs! Earmarks! And then bitch about how bad it all is.

A couple of weeks ago I reported here (citing Byron York) that Michelle Obama's   compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office.

Now this via lovely Larwyn:

Did Obama Earmark $1 Million For Wife? Riehl Worldview

Looks like that raise was worth it.

h/t Amanda Carpenter - This will definitely be developing, as they say. Obama's earmarks released - and one early look:

Obama Requested $1 Million For Construction Of A New Hospital Pavilion At The University Of Chicago. In 2006, Obama requested that the University of Chicago receive $1 million to support its Construction of New Hospital Pavilion. For more than 75 years, the University of Chicago Hospitals (UCH) has provided state of the art medical care on the South Side of Chicago.

Here's the planned pavilion. Enter Michelle Obama, the poor old Ivy League grad who has never caught a break from mean old America, or been proud of it until now!

May 9, 2005

Michelle Obama has been appointed vice president for community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals. Obama, who was previously the executive director for community affairs at the Hospitals, will be responsible for all programs and initiatives that involve the relationship between the Hospitals and the community. She will also take over management of the Hospitals' business diversity program.

That's rich. She hardly seems diverse to me. From everything she says, she sounds like a racist.

Prior to joining the Hospitals, Obama worked as an associate dean of student services for the University of Chicago where she developed the University's first office of community service. She came to the Hospitals in 2002 and quickly built up programs for community relations, neighborhood outreach, volunteer recruitment, staff diversity and minority contracting.

Now wait ......... hang in there Steve Sailor here:

Shortly after her husband was sworn in as a U.S. Senator, Michelle Obama famously received a raise from the U. of Chicago Hospitals from $122k to $317k for doing whatever it was she did for them.

But why was she getting paid $122k by the giant hospital in the first place?

An answer may have emerged in an NYT article, "In Developer’s Trial, E-Mail Note Cites an Obama Role." Like everything involving Tony Rezko and the Obamas, this article is complicated and boring. (For example, Rezko's involvement in the Obamas' purchase of their Chicago mansion had to do with zoning details and, likely, with Michelle being on the Chicago Landmarks Commission, but don't ask me to put together a lucid story of what exactly went down.)

What is interesting is part of this NYT sentence in reference to a 2003 email (which I covered here):

"The vaguely worded message also seemed to raise the possibility that Mr. Obama, who at the time was chairman of the Illinois Senate’s health committee, had been involved in recommending candidates for the board."

Yes, but there's no indication of ... Wait a minute? Did that say Mr. Obama was "chairman of the Illinois Senate's health committee?" And this was while Mrs. Obama was being paid over $100,000 per year by one of Chicago's three big private hospitals to do something or other?

Isn't that a conflict of interest?

Not if your husband is a Senator and can sign off on your request for million dollar pavilions. That's multicultural, diverse, affirmative action synergy!

Comments

[defender]

These kinds of deals are cut every day here in DC. Question: How do you spell "Congress"? Answer: "G" "R" "A" "F" "T"

If the little corner of the federal government that I can see from my office is any indication - the bigger problem is very gross.

The media ignores it. Perhaps partly because they see it as 'business as usual' within their moral calculus.

[jimmy]

I am going to go ahead and play devils advocate. This pavilion is going to cost substantially more than $1million. I'd say at least $125million.

The big issue for me is that Michelle got a HUGE raise in around Obama being elected. I guess Chicago style politics is alive and well