Slumlords, Terrorists And Obama, Oh My

Since the MSM won't cover Obama's connections to people like Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko and Alison Davis it is up to the new media and a small handful of reporters in Chicago to report just how deep those connections are. The American Thinker has two excellent essays posted today that take a deep and well documented look at these associations and how Obama used them or was used by them in his stratospheric political rise through the Chicago Machine. Lee Cary examines the work of Obama's first boss and mentor after he graduated Law school, Alison Davis, and what he and Tony Rezko did for the slums of Chicago and how they spectacularly failed while wasting millions of taxpayer dollars. Scott Swett and Roger Canfield look into the history of Bill Ayers and how he rose from being a terrorist bomber in the '60s to now be VP on a education board that sets curriculum agenda for public schools. They also look at just what Obama and Ayers funneled money into from the Chicago Annenburg Challenge and the Woods Fund another colossal waste of money.
What's also interesting in all this is how another of Obama's close associations, ACORN, may have had implications in the mortgage financial market collapse. ACORN when not committing voter registration fraud also works with low income people to help get them mortgages they may not be qualified for. This of course is at the heart of the sub-prime meltdown that has wreaked havoc on Wall Street the last few weeks. ACORN lobbied to have Congress force mortgage lenders into giving loans to people that had otherwise been deemed unqualified by a process known as red-lining. This process was ended under the Clinton administration and Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were set up by Democrats and run by officials of the Clinton administration that led to the current failure. It had nothing to do with the Bush administration who had pushed for tougher oversight but was blocked by Democrats in Congress. Ed Morrisey has alot more on this at Hot Air.
Oh and guess who was a top recipient of funds from Fannie, Freddie and the Lehman's? That's right, Barack Obama.

Update: Related video from McCain rally today in Ohio, via Bear.