Posted by
Andy Zarowny on Friday, October 02, 2009 9:37:15 AM
Yesterday on The Glenn Beck
Show, Glenn responded to an
error pointed out by the White
House bloggers. On Wednes-
day, Beck mentioned that the
city of Vancouver went $1 Bil-
lion dollars over budget when
they hosted the Olympics. In
fact, they hadn't had their
games yet, as they are hosting
the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Beck admitted his error, he
confused Vancouver with the
games held in Calgary. But
oddly enough, he was still not
far off the mark. Vancouver
is about $800 Million dollars
over budget currently. He also
added that London, England,
which is hosting the 2012
Summer games, is now some
$8 Billion dollars over budget.
China and Greece also went
way over their initial budgets.
So one has to wonder why
anybody would want to host
the darn thing?
Today, the International
Olympic Committee will select
the site for the 2016 Summer
Games. Madrid, Rio de
Janeiro, Tokyo, and Chicago
are in the running. President
Obama, along with his wife and
Valerie Jarrett, are in the city of
Copenhagen to attend the
festivities.
So how on earth would a city
like Chicago, running budget
deficits and forced to close it’s
offices one day per week, will
be able to fund the billions of
dollars needed to host the
Olympics? An even bigger
question is how the money will
be handled given that Chicago
is probably the single most
corrupt city in the United States
if not the whole planet?
We already see the signs of
who and how billions of dollars
will be siphoned off by the
crony machine. For example,
Aon Insurance looks to make
some $1.1 billion insuring the
Olympic stadiums and facilities.
Aon’s founder, Patrick Ryan,
is an old pal of Mayor Richard
Daley. Not long along Ryan
gave Daley an unethical dona-
tion of $100,000. Aon was also
recently fined $5.25 million dol-
lars for bribery and corruption
of public officials.
Valerie Jarrett, long time friend
of the Obamas and a White
House adviser, is the VP for
the Chicago Olympic Commit-
tee. Jarrett, former CEO of
Habitat, a land management
firm, is plugged into the real
estate industry in Chicago.
Several properties managed
by Habitat, such as Grove
Parc and Lawnsdale Restora-
tion, both dilapidated, are in
the area planned for the
Olympic Village.
The I.O.C. generally does not
award the honors to cities
where the local population is
opposed to hosting the games.
There are conflicting polls as
to how much support there is.
One TV station’s news team,
from WFLD-TV, has been
threatened by the Chicago
Olympic Committee for airing
stories about local protests
and opposition against the
games being held in Chicago.
So while not one shovel of
dirt has been dug yet, the
Olympic games already have
all the signs of becoming a
costly and corrupt boondoggle.
Just imagine what will happen
once the money starts to really
flow! I’ll bet even Tony Rezko
will make a few bucks while
in prison. LOL!
The other issue, all be it a
minor one, is why the White
House is playing this silly
'gotcha' game with Glenn
Beck? Didn't they learn
their lesson after making
Rush Limbaugh the head
of the Republican Party?
Limbaugh's radio audience
doubled as a result. Beck
is already closing in on
having a TV audience the
same size as Fox's Bill
O'Reilly, who is on at 8pm
whereas Beck is on at 5pm.
This is remarkable for a
cable 'news' program to
have such ratings at such
an off-beat time.
Once again the episode shows
the general lack of experience
and wisdom in the White
House. The Obama Admini-
stration is easily distracted
and too sensitive to any criti-
cism. They never stopped
being in 'campaign mode'.
Instead of governing they
waste time and energy in
pointless minutia. With nearly
a year gone and so much
still unresolved, when will
the Obama Administration
start doing some real work?