Valerie Jarrett
Valerie Jarrett, a member of Barack Obama’s kitchen cabinet and a fundraiser for his campaign, was the top new search on Muckety last week.
The main reason for the interest appears to be an attempt by right-wing bloggers to smear Obama by raising questions about people in his inner circle. In this case, they have been saying that Jarrett is an Iranian-American. As Jeffrey Goldberg points out in The Atlantic, Jarrett was born in Iran, but to American parents who were living there. She is no more an Iranian than John McCain is Panamanian (remember, my friends, McCain was born to American parents in Panama).
Wahid Hamid
Wahid Hamid, the No. 2 new search on Muckety, has also been the subject of numerous posts on right-wing blogs.
The posts are in response to a widely circulated email entitled “OBAMA IS A TERRORIST.” The littleverses blog has a copy of the email here.
Hamid is currently a fund-raiser for the Obama campaign and a senior vice president at PepsiCo, Inc.
The email alleges that Hamid and Obama were roommates at Occidental College in California in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The email states that Hamid is from Pakistan, as was another roommate of Obama’s - Muhammad Hasan Chandoo. The allegations about Valerie Jarrett also appear in this email. From the email:
“Valerie Jarrett, was Michele Obama’s boss. She is now Obama’s chief advisor and he does not make any major decisions without talking to her first. Where was Jarrett born? Ready for this? Shiraz, Iran! Do we see a pattern here? Or am I going crazy?”
We won’t answer that question.
Tom Petters and Frank Vennes
Our next top search moves from conspiracy theorists to Ponzi schemes. Tom Petters, the founder and former CEO of Petters Group Worldwide was denied bail this week by a judge who determined Petters was a flight risk. Muckety’s A. James Memmott has been following the story, which allegedly involves multiple billions of dollars in fraudulent activity.
Memmott reports the following about Frank Vennes:
Two Twin Cities nonprofits also have money at risk in investments with Petters Group or its subsidiaries.
The Fidelis Foundation had invested $27.6 million on behalf of Minnesota Teen Challenge, a faith-based group that helps youths with addiction problems.
Frank E. Vennes Jr., who had been a board member of Minnesota Teen challenge, is one of several people connected to Petters Group whose homes were searched last month by federal agents.
Check back for updates on Muckety to this developing story.
Herbert Sandler
Herbert Sandler was in the news this week after a Saturday Night Live did a parody of of the House of Representatives Bailout hearing and featured Nancy Pelosi interviewing Sandler and his wife Marion.
The Sandler’s founded Golden West Financial Corporation, a big player in subprime mortgage game, and sold it to Wachovia for $25.5 billion in October of 2006.
You can read more about the Sandlers and their connections to Democratic causes in this post by Muckety’s Laurie Bennett.
Here is a video from Fox’s Bill O’Reilly which has some of the Saturday Night Live skit that was pulled from the SNL web site after complaints from the Sandlers.
Byron Trott
Goldman Sachs banker Byron Trott was once again in the news, this time for helping General Electric connect with Warren Buffett to the tune of $3 billion.
Trott, who is a friend of Buffett and works out of Goldman’s Chicago offices, had previously helped orchestrate Buffett’s $5 billion investment in Goldman.
Earlier this year, Trott brought Buffett into Mars Inc.’s acquisition of Wm. Wrigley Jr. & Co. Both Berkshire Hathaway and Goldman Sachs were investors in that deal.
Top five stories for the week
Businessman Tom Petters poses flight risk, judge rules
A federal judge in Minnesota today ruled that Thomas J. Petters, the multi-millionaire businessman and philanthropist arrested last week on investment fraud charges, could not be released on bail.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Keyes declared this morning in St. Paul that Petters, 51, the founder and former CEO of Petters Group Worldwide, posed a flight risk.
Obama fund-raiser Bill Perkins buys ads to ’stir’ pot on bailout
Who is Bill Perkins, and why he is spending hundreds of thousands on full-page ads in the New York Times decrying the $700-billion bailout?
The latest ad, which ran on page 15 of the Times today, is a cartoon depicting Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and President George W. Bush as a trio of bandits attempting to rob a stagecoach carrying the people’s money, under the heading, “The Notorious Bailout Brothers.”
Henry Paulson’s $700-billion man
A 35-year-old former vice president at Goldman Sachs has been tapped to manage the $700-billion bailout.
Neel T. Kashkari, one of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s advisers and a longtime protege who shares his boss’s Midwestern origins and Yul Brynner look, was named yesterday interim head of the Treasury Department’s new Office of Financial Stability.
Tom Petters accused of defrauding investors of more than $1 billion
Twin Cities businessman and philanthropist Tom Petters was arrested yesterday, charged with mail and wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice.
Federal authorities said he may have been planning to flee the country.
1960s activism haunts William Ayers and Barack Obama
A relatively obscure Chicago charitable fund and a 1960s radical turned college professor have become headaches for Sen. Barack Obama.
From 1998 to 2001, Obama served on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a foundation that makes grants to fight poverty.
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