BARACK OBAMA'S GANGSTER GOVERNMENT

President Barack Obama is a product of Chicago, a city where the distinction between "politician" and "gangster" has often been blurry.

Americans are now seeing the thuggish side of Obama, although anyone paying attention for the last few years has been well aware of his penchant for brute force. In his first campaign in 1996 for the Illinois state legislature, Obama hired a lawyer to force his opponents off the ballot. He then ran unopposed and, of course, won.

In the 2008 elections, Obama attempted to silence the McCain campaign wherever possible by dispatching lawyers to TV stations airing campaign ads critical of Obama, and threatening lawsuits against the stations if the ads were not removed.

These two examples of Obama's strongarm tactics pale in comparison to his machinations in the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies.

To understand the lengths to which Obama has operated outside the law with the bankruptcies of these two auto companies, the reader must first understand the role of bond holders in these matters. Bond holders lend money to companies, and hold the bonds as collateral. In bankruptcy proceedings, secured creditors (banks, mortgage companies, bond holders) have first claim to any money or assets from the entity declaring bankruptcy. This is the law, and has been the law for centuries.

When it was decided that Chrysler would declare bankruptcy, the various funds holding Chrysler bonds voluntarily decided to offer to accept 50 cents on every dollar owed them, but that wasn't good enough. Like a real life Luca Brazzi, Obama car czar Steve Rattner held the gun of government to the bond holders' heads while Obama made them an offer they couldn't refuse: accept 29 cents on the dollar, or have the administration ruin them publicly.

Attorney Thomas Lauria, the lead attorney for Chrysler bond holders who objected to the deal, said the firm “was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under the threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight. That’s how hard it is to stand on this side of the fence.”

To demonstrate just what could happen if the bond funds and investors didn't accept Obama's offer, the president held a press conference and tore into them. Employees of the funds received death threats following Obama's remarks, something that car czar Rattner had hinted about. Attorney Lauria's firm was forced to file a motion in court to keep the names of the investors--regular people from all walks of life--sealed so that their lives would not be in danger.

Faced with such pressure, all but one of the bond funds gave in to the extortion. Obama was then free to return a favor to his old friends at the United Auto Workers by giving them 55% of the common stock in the new Chrysler corporation. Unlike the bond holders, though, the UAW hadn't put up any money. It was pure payback.

Obama's ruthlessness with the Chrysler bond holders sent a Chicago-style message to the investors at General Motors: do what we say or you'll get hurt. When GM declared bankruptcy, Obama at first made an offer to the bond holders that could potentially have been worth nothing, then modified the offer so that the bond holders would get 10 cents on the dollar. Relieved that they would at least get something, the bond holders knuckled under quickly.

This is all illegal, of course. Nobody, not even the president, can inject himself into bankruptcy proceedings and threaten creditors. Nobody can coerce parties in such proceedings to accept less than what they're due.

But who's going to complain? Congress? The courts? The voters?

When you're involved with gangsters, you have to expect to get beat up once in awhile. And remember, this is just the first part of the Godfather of Government saga. Wait until you see the sequels.