<p>Link to Obama’s birth certificate (on Barackobama.com)
<a href=“http://www.barackobama.com/images/fts/BO_birthcert.jpg[/url]”>http://www.barackobama.com/images/fts/BO_birthcert.jpg</a></p>
![http://www.barackobama.com/images/fts/BO_birthcert.jpg[/url]](http://www.barackobama.com/images/fts/BO_birthcert.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
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<p>Undeveloped part? That’s funny. There’s NO STREET ACCESS to the Rezko land. What’s he going to build, a private Obama family Starbucks?</p>
<p>This was a sham deal from start to finish with a political fixer delivering real value to a corrupt Chicago pol for free… a corrupt Chicago pol who had been walking his taxpayer funded slumlord projects through government for several years.</p>
<p>Well there you go folks… no horrible revelations or rotting skeletons in his closet. One more crazy internet rumor that turns out to be a big old load-o-crap. Next! ;-)</p>
<p>some people get a high beating the same anti-Obama points to death on threads like these. they need to get some professional help.</p>
<p>I hope all the people who were frothing at the mouth with ridiculous speculation are at least slightly embarrassed now. Probably not. They’re too busy making up the next rumor to spread.</p>
<p>interesteddad – the lot in question (purchased by Rezko’s wife), was sold to a developer in Dec. 2006. If the lot was not marketable, can you please explain to me why the 3rd party developer was willing to pay $575K for it? (Resulting in a net gain of $54K for Mrs Rezko?)</p>
<p>Source: [Rezko</a> sells lot next to Obama – chicagotribune.com](<a href=“http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-0702240237feb24,0,7783629.story]Rezko”>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-0702240237feb24,0,7783629.story)</p>
<p>(I am also in the midst of researching the dubious claim about the landlocked parcel. So far I have found info on the internet that there were actually 3 parcels involved in the original purchase – Obama had purchased 2 and the one Rezko bought, 5050 S. Greenwood, was the corner lot, definitely not landlocked – but I am looking for a better source to verify this info).</p>
<p>I have determined that 5050 S. Greenwood has been resold for $675K as of March 2008.
Source: [5050</a> S Greenwood Ave sold for $675,000 | Property transfers | EveryBlock Chicago](<a href=“http://chicago.everyblock.com/property-transfers/by-date/2008/3/25/776988/]5050”>http://chicago.everyblock.com/property-transfers/by-date/2008/3/25/776988/)</p>
<p>OK, here’s a picture of the Obama home + (former) Rezko lot (which has been sold at least 2 & probably 3 times since).
[Bird’s</a> Eye View of 5040 S Greenwood Ave, Chicago, IL 60615 | Zillow Real Estate](<a href=“http://www.zillow.com/aerial/DualMapPage.htm?zpid=3984957]Bird’s”>http://www.zillow.com/aerial/DualMapPage.htm?zpid=3984957)</p>
<p>The lot is on the corner, to the immediate south of the Obama home, and obviously is NOT “landlocked”.</p>
<p>The false rumor/claim that it is landlocked may have come from a misreading of reports such as in the Chicago Tribune ([From</a> the Tribune archives: Rezko owns vacant lot next to Obama’s home – chicagotribune.com](<a href=“http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0611010273nov01,1,2852476.story?page=3]From”>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0611010273nov01,1,2852476.story?page=3)) :
As the picture clearly shows, the reason that the corner lot is inaccessible from the street is because of the hedge – but obviously a purchaser or developer can and will cut through the hedge as needed to provide access to the property. </p>
<p>(You’ll note from the Zillow link that Obama, like many of us, is not doing so well with the current real estate market.)</p>
<p>I for one am disappointed that Obama put the birth certificate up on the internet. The ludicrous spectacle of the gullible right wing blog trout rising to bite at that “The Onion”-worthy joke of a “scandal” was good for at least a chuckle a day. I know it’s not nice, but - it’s been pretty funny.</p>
<p>Do any of the suckers who actually took that seriously have even the minimal shred of self respect necessary to feel embarrassed and humiliated for allowing themselves to be used that way?</p>
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<p>The so-called “developer” who “bought” the lot was one of Rezko’s lawyers. Actually, there’s a good chance that was one of the land transfers that got Rezko’s bail revoked and landed him in jail as a flight risk last fall.</p>
<p>In your bird’s eye picture, you see the row of shrubs lining Rezko’s lot? Those are all planted along one continuous brick and wrought iron fence that has NO OPENINGS IN it. The only way to walk on Rezko’s land is thru a gate from Obama’s front yard. The whole thing is a scam, designed to launder a money and free-use of land deal from a convicted felon to a corrupt Chicgo politician in a way that was technially “legal”. But, that’s OK I know that Saint Obama will forever be pure as the driven snow for you because he makes your heart flutter. That’s cool.</p>
<p>If you have Microsoft Virtual Earth installed, you can see a much clearer birds eye view of the property with this link:</p>
<p>[The</a> Obama/Rezko property in Microsoft Virtual Earth](<a href=“Bing Maps - Directions, trip planning, traffic cameras & more”>Bing Maps - Directions, trip planning, traffic cameras & more)</p>
<p>From the front view, you can clearly see the very old brick wall, iron fence surrounding the entire property (what you call a “hedge”). There was never any intent to actually separate these two properties. Rezko fully intended for the Obama’s to have free use of his “lot”.</p>
<p>It was only because the deal smelled like such rotten fish with Rezko’s indictment on corruption charges that they put up the mickey mouse fence for plausible deniability.</p>
<p>You have to be pretty naive to not see this deal for what it was. Scratching a politician’s back. My god, Rezko is rotting in jail for bribing politicians. Hello. When something looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck…it’s a duck.</p>
<p>Interesteddad, From your posts two things are painfully clear: 1) You don’t know diddly about real estate and 2) you are so far gone in your bizarre need to find reasons to vent your irrational hatred for Barack Obama that you don’t even have the ability to be embarrassed when you’ve said something so goofy that polite people just look the other way and pretend you didn’t say anything at all. Just stop. You just keep digging the hole deeper.</p>
<p>Right. Convicted corrupt fixer who Obama has worked with in taxpayer funded low income housing projects and who is Obama’s biggest political patron does a land deal to help Obama buy his house before being convicted and I’m the one who is goofy for calling it what it is…Chicago-style politics.</p>
<p>You Democrats kill me.</p>
<p>Sorry, Interesteddad, you’re the one who posted (dripping with sarcastic condescension, I note):
about a corner lot. “No street access”? What are you smoking? And everything I’ve read about the deal says that Obama paid fair market value for the house, and that+ for the strip of land involved in the lot line adjustment. If that’s what “Chicago-style politics” means I have to think the corrupt politicos of Illinois have definitely lost their edge. Someone forgot to tell them that they’re supposed to get something for nothing - or at least a discount.</p>
<p>Interesteddad – a hedge, iron fence, and/or old brick wall can easily be knocked down or modified if & when new construction goes in. You had posted, erroneously, that there was “no street access” to the lot, which I took to mean that there was some sort of insurmountable barrier, like a house. </p>
<p>The lots in question were subdivided by the owner before putting the property up for sale. Obviously that was done in an effort to maximize profits, with the idea that the corner parcel would be large enough for further development and thus worth something more. This is a common practice in urban areas – when my son was born, I lived in very small cottage in San Francisco adjacent to a large mansion; historically, my cottage lot had once part of the mansion’s estate, but somewhere along the line it had been subdivided. When real estate is at a premium in urban areas, large yards go out of fashion and homes tend to be be built closer together. If you zoom out on the Google Earth link you provided, you will see that housing is actually quite dense in that area, with many apartment buildings, and the lot clearly has room for construction of a house the size of the one in the corresponding position one block west on South Ellis street. </p>
<p>The problem with your ranting is that it requires something of a stretch of logic to support, as well as a gross misrepresentation as to street access. If you look at how close the Obama house is to the house immediately to its north, I think it makes more sense that Obama purchased the 10-foot wide strip of land (at the full pro-rate amount that Mrs. Rezko had paid), in order to preserve a little more space with the expectation that the corner lot would probably be developed. If he had wanted to preserve the right to purchase the rest of the corner lot, then it would have made more sense to buy an option from Rezko than to buy a 10-foot strip and erect a fence between the properties.</p>
<p>Quote: “You Democrats kill me.”</p>
<p>Wow. Until his democratic candidate lost, this poster was totally backing the democrats. Oh wait, the winner of the democratic nomination has similar policies to his candidate, so now the poster is totally ANTI-democratic. And that same poster is now constantly bashing the democratic nominee by declaring he is “corrupt”. </p>
<p>Time for a pill…</p>
<p>I’m not even a democrat and I see the hypocrisy in his rantings! :rolleyes:</p>
<p>No, he was backing Hillary. Probably because Rush Limbaugh told him to.</p>
<p>With all the “gates” left untouched during the primary campaign, it is also very interesting that the poster seems so focused on some alleged real estate “corruption” by the winner of the democratic nomination. 
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<p>Again, talk about hypocrisy…</p>
<p>i can’t imagine how embarrassed his kids would be if they read his nonsense. people like him are the biggest problems faced by democracy, made worse by the unfortunate fact that his vote nicely cancels out the vote of an unsuspecting sane and rational voter somewhere out there who actually invested time and energy into thinking long and logically about his or her vote.</p>
<p>I haven’t yet determined one way or the other about how “shady” the real estate deal with Rezko (or his wife) actually is. But I wonder why Obama, concerning this deal, apparently later said, “It was a bone-headed thing to do”—or something to that effect. I’m only interested in the clear-eyed truth, not rose-colored, partisan self-delusion, nor blindly vitriolic, partisan hatred. </p>
<p>Politics is a corrupting influence. Both Hillary Clinton (and her spousal appendage), and Barack Obama are politicians. Obama’s association with Rezko, at least on its face, looks suspect, and thinking persons have every reason to look askance. The same can be said of numerous Clinton associations and dealings, both past and present. It is patently disingenuous to focus upon the questionable dealings of Obama, vaunting them to the skies as proof of his unsuitability to hold office, while completely ignoring the myriad questionable dealings of the Clintons with the apparent conviction that they don’t negatively impact Hillary’s suitability for the same office.</p>
<p>I suspect one would be hard pressed to find any politician on Capital Hill, who doesn’t have at least one “questionable” business dealing in his/her background. Politics is at the intersection of ego and ambition, and few, I would imagine, completely resist the allure of graft and greed that so often presents itself as politics.</p>
<p><a href=“and%20her%20spousal%20appendage”>quote</a>
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<p>I am stealing this line.</p>