Geoff Shackelford's "Part of the Solution" article

[Jeff Goldman]

"But to add to it, Tony Rezko, on the same day, in a simultaneous closing, bought a useless sliver of the lot for about 3X what it was worth and Obama bought the good part of the land and the house for 300K less than it was worth."

Shivas,

What did Rezko sell the sliver to Obama for, and did he sell the rest of the lot, and, if so, how big a loss did he take?  2/3?

[Jeff Goldman]

"He sold it because they were caught and trying to put toothpaste back in the tube!  And it's all after the fact, so the rest is immaterial"

Uh oh, rat smelled.  I got to look this up.

[RJ_Daley]

But dammit, all honest men have to admit that there's one hell of a circumstantial case, at a bare minimum.  And given the "circumstances" that exist in this town, it's even worse than the normal circumstances in Anytown USA.  This is Chicago.  We all know that taking bribes is routine here.  So why is this so hard to believe, other than by virtue of blind party allegience and loyalty?  

Dave, I notice how you consistently hold out the image of the sleaze ridden politically corrupt Chicagoland arena where you live.  You are appalled at every inkling of dishonest transactions and seem to hold out Chicago as the epicenter.  You say you are no appologist for Bush previous transactions, and yet have no offering of an alternative to such governance that I can detect in your writing.  That must be hell to live in a place and have no figure you would be willing to hold up as a paragon of virtues in a public servant you could recommend to us.   (or do you have one that we have missed your endorsement of?)  Have you no hope for us?  Where do/have you placed your trust and faith in a better future when in the ballot booth?  

[Craig Sweet]

And what does the third party in this have to say?

[Jeff Goldman]

Shivas,

You said that Rezko paid "3x" what the land was worth.  Apparently he (actually his wife) paid the asking price, which was $625,000.  According to you, it was worth maybe $210,000. 

They sold the sliver to Obama for $104,000, which means Obama overpaid by about $70,000, since, according to you, the 1/6 of the lot bought by Obama was worth $35,000 (so who was bribing whom?). 

The wife sold the rest of the lot, worth, according to you, $175,000, for $575,000, for a profit before expenses of about $54,000 in excess of what they paid for which was, according to you, "3x what it was worth."

Credibility, like other things, flows downhill.

[John_Cullum]

Also shows how rotten federal criminal law is.  One of two Scalia decisions I can recall agreeing with is when he said that the RICO statute was unconstitutional (flag burning was the other one).

I have long thought that RICO was misinterpreted on both the civil and criminal side, and I absolutely agree that Flag Burning is among our most valued inalienable rights. Many british flags were burned in the months leading up to the declaration of independence from a tyrannical regime

[David Stamm]

It's a shame you guys can't put this same energy into, I don't know, golf architecture. Didn't take long for this thread to go from what Tepper started to yet again another political diatribe by the usual suspects.

[RJ_Daley]

I'll plead no contest your honor.  We started out for several pages to answer the merits or give thoughts on Geoff's premise.  But, the whole premise did involve an expression of one''s view on the overall politics and one's particular personal held political philosophy and theory of the current situation.  The devil made us do it! 

Maybe we need more skilled thread killers to keep us on track? 

[Lou_Duran]

I nominate my friend David Stamm to the dual positions of gca.com director of content and ombudsman.  One of my three New Year resolutions was to stay away from political commentary in the DG.  Not possessing the necessary discipline, maybe David can be given a kill switch and the ability to suspend offending participants.

[Mike Sweeney]

I nominate my friend David Stamm to the dual positions of gca.com director of content and ombudsman.  One of my three New Year resolutions was to stay away from political commentary in the DG.  Not possessing the necessary discipline, maybe David can be given a kill switch and the ability to suspend offending participants.

Lou,

I disagree with that! 

If ever there was agreement on this board, it would seem that the majority of left, right and center participants agreed that tax dollars should not be used to rebuild/refresh/rehab the golf industry over other priorities.

That conversation played itself out and then you were wrong for the rest of the thread!

[Jim_Kennedy]

David,
As one of the 'offenders' I can only say that I have little remorse. This thread of David's was doomed from the start. Open the link to Geoff's article and what do you see?, a photo of Obama and a reference to FDR and WPA in the first paragraph. THAT surely wasn't going to stay on GCA very long, although it did make it 20 + posts before deviating, or devolving, take your pick. 

.......and quite frankly, some of the threads that have the largest number of responses on this site have little if anything to do with GCA (see "Cheater Line" if you think I'm wrong). Or how about the regularly seen "What are the 5 best courses you've played" threads, or the "Golf is going down the hopper" threads, or the "Golf is too hard" threads, or the "Rankings" threads, or the "My sports team rules" threads, or the subterfuge threads, the ones that make passing mention of GCA, but quickly head off course(sorry), or the...............  !

As long as topics maintain a reasonable tone (special dispensation for anything with "Merion" in the title) I don't see what harm they do. They never seem to overwhelm the site, nobody ever forces anyone to read them, and seeing as how this place has lasted for nearly a decade, there is pretty good reason to believe they never will.

But in the spirit of post partisanship I won't post on this topic anymore. 

Good night and Good luck.
 
 
 

 

 

[David_Elvins]

As evidence for playing "the media like a fiddle", in these dire economic times they're spending upwards $150 million on the inauguration/coronation and the Fourth Estate can only lavish praise.  In comparison, in a relatively robust economy, it cost $40 million for Bush's second inauguration and the only things we heard from the media and the not-so-loyal opposition were jeers and complaints of extravagance. 

For a man like George Bush, $40 million IS extravagant.  For a man like Obama, $150 million is less than he deserves.  The inauguration is not for him, it is a recognition of a new beginning for the people of America and the world.