Marathon Pundit: Report from The Bench: Chicago scumbags gather at Obama rally

My friend Tom Mannis of The Bench grabbed his video camera and made his way to the Broadway Armory on Chicago's North Side on Sunday to cover a Barack Obama campaign event touted in an e-mail as a "Ninth Congressional District Rally and Volunteer Training." The Cult of Change leader, although he was in Chicago that day, was not among the roster of speakers.

The armory was an auspicious choice for the function, it's right across the street from Broadway Bank, owned by the Giannoulias family. A former loan officer of the bank, Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, is a "friend of Barack" you may not have heard about.

The same Obama e-mail goes on to explain, "We will hear from Obama staff about our general election strategy and how you can get involved to help bring change to America right here in Illinois and eastern Iowa."

Representing Illinois' ninth district, which is not in eastern Iowa, is Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston), who is even more left-wing than Obama.

Mannis, who like myself suffers the indignity of having Schakowsky "represent" him in Washington, writes:

The event was more of a pep rally for Congresslady Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), whose banner was more than four times the size of the Obama banner hanging behind the little stage. Schakowsky was the main speaker. During her speech, she instructed the crowd in the fine art of responding to questions about Barack Obama's recently convicted friend and former financier, Tony Rezko.

Schakowsky said nothing to the crowd, however, about responding to questions about another convicted criminal who is still close to Obama: Her own husband, Robert "Mr. Kite" Creamer.

Creamer can be seen casually walking among the crowd during his wife's yelping speech, which the cavernous building gave it the respect it deserved--the echo in the room made her comments unintelligible.

For years Creamer was the executive director of a goo-goo group, the Illinois Public Action Council. Schakowsky served on IPAC's board of directors. In 2006, Creamer served a five-month prison sentence for bank fraud and failure to pay withholding taxes after engineering a check-kiting scheme at IPAC.

Since his release from "the house with many doors," Creamer has served as an instructor at Camp Obama. He regularly writes pro-Obama articles for The Huffington Post.

Also in attendance was Larry "Insufferable" Suffredin, a Cook County commissioner who, while he was a candidate for state's attorney earlier this year, was opposed to instituting a sales tax increase in the county. After he was crushed in the polls, Suffredin flip flopped, and was the deciding vote in forcing Chicagoans to pay the nation's highest sales tax. The increase in commonly known as the "corruption tax." Suburban Cook residents like myself pay just a little bit less.

Suffredin "represents" me on the Cook County board.

David Fagus is the Democratic committeeman of Chicago's 49th Ward, he was at the armory too. Fagus is also the chief operating officer of Cermak Health Services, the health care provider at Cook County Jail.

Here's what the Chicago "free registration required" Tribune wrote about Cermak earlier this month:

The report also found that medical services at the jail fell below constitutionally required standards of care in more than a dozen areas, including in staffing and emergency care. Some inmates died needlessly as a result, the Justice Department concluded.

In early 2006, a female inmate died of an untreated infection that was a common complication of HIV, investigators found. She went untreated for weeks despite an abnormal X-ray that identified a problem, the report said.

In an August 2006 case, an inmate's leg was amputated because of a bone infection improperly treated at the jail. In late 2006, another inmate died of sepsis after a jail staffer failed to take him to an appointment for post-operative care for a gunshot wound, the report said.

David Fagus, chief operating officer of Cermak Health Services, the jail hospital, pointed out that Cermak's budget was cut to about $31 million in 2007 from $40 million in 2006. Currently, Cermak has 394 employees, about 70 fewer than in 2006, budget documents show.