Facts, Not Desperation
by Marilyn Mackenzie
Some bloggers have said that the McCain/Palin ticket are desperate, and therefore making unfounded claims and attacks against their chosen candidate, Obama. But with enough being said about the Ayers connection by the Republicans, the news media is finally taking note of this relationship. It's about time.
Even though they're now asking the right questions, our liberal media is still falling back on the position that they can merely read Obama's book or press releases for the answers to the tough questions.
It has never made any sense to me that the media would use Obama's books or his press releases as "proof" of anything. I have never known the media to be so caught up in wanting to see a candidate elected that they will shirk their journalistic "duties" in this manner. But, boy oh boy, weren't they ready, willing and eager to all run off to Alaska when Governor Palin was announced as John McCain's running mate? Go figure.
Today, I received this message from OneNewsNow.com:
The Real Relationship Between Obama and Ayers
by Marcia Segelstein
Listening to my local all news radio station this weekend, I heard repeated references to Sarah Palin's calling attention to Barack Obama's association with Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground terrorist. And each time, the next sentence would be something about their only connection actually being that they served on some board together many years ago. As though that wrapped it up: end of story.
But maybe the question isn't whether they were or are "palling around." Maybe the question is what exactly they were doing on that board together.
Fortunately, Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center has done the research and found some fascinating information.
Barack Obama once headed an education foundation called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Kurtz writes: "As CAC board chair, Obama was essentially authorizing the funding of Ayers's own educational projects, and the projects of Ayers's radical allies."
What did those education projects of William Ayers actually consist of? Listen to Kurtz: "Ayers sees his education work as carrying on his radicalism in a new guise. The point of Ayers's education theory is that the United States is a fundamentally racist and oppressive nation. Students, Ayers believes, ought to be encouraged to resist this oppression. Obama was funding Ayers's ‘small schools' projects, built around this philosophy. Ayers's radicalism isn't something in the past. It's something to which Obama gave moral and financial support as an adult."
Another indicator of Obama's support for Ayers's views? Ayers wrote a book about juvenile crime. According to Kurtz, "[T]he book is quite radical, expressing doubts about whether we ought to have a prison system at all, comparing America to South Africa's apartheid system and contemptuously dismissing the idea of the United States as a kind or just country." Obama publically endorsed the book.
So what's important about the relationship between Obama and Ayers is not how many times they were in the same room together. It's about shared goals and a shared philosophy.
The article by Stanley Kurtz is here: The Obama Challenge
It begins like this:
Today, in a piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools," I offer a report on my research into the archives of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), an education foundation once headed by Barack Obama. As I explained in "Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown?" the Richard J. Daley Library of the University of Illinois at Chicago first agreed to grant, then abruptly denied me, access to the files of this foundation. Subsequently, the Daley Library again reversed their decision and made the CAC files available.
This is a lengthy article, but one that everyone - for or against Obama - should read. I hope you will. Obama keeps trying to act as the connection between him and Ayers was non-existent. This article, and the research behind it, shows differently.
But what I also found interesting was that while Obama uses his community organizer experience and his experience on non-profit boards as his "executive" experience, he neglected to tell us that the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was a failure.
Here's what Kurtz says in the article mentioned above:
The Obama campaign notes that during the CAC years, achievement test scores improved markedly in the Chicago public schools. That's true, but deeply misleading. The real source of improvement was the leadership of accountability-oriented Chicago Public School (CPS) CEO, Paul Vallas, who began to reform CPS in 1995, the year of CAC's founding. Vallas established clear standards, began high-stakes testing, ended social promotion, forced thousands of students to attend summer school to advance a grade, and put failing schools on probation. That's what pushed up Chicago test scores. CAC's own final evaluation carefully compared students at schools with Annenberg projects and schools without. According to CAC's own report: "There were no statistically significant differences in student achievement between Annenberg schools and demographically similar non-Annenberg schools. This indicates that there was no Annenberg effect on achievement." It also indicates that Annenberg failed, not because it's altogether impossible to improve urban schools, but because CAC's heavily politicized community-organizer partners weren't any good at doing so.
The Chicago Annenberg Challenge stands as Barack Obama's most important executive experience to date. By its own account, CAC was a largely a failure. And a series of critical evaluations point to reasons for that failure, including a poor strategy, to which the foundation over-committed in 1995, and over-reliance on community organizers with insufficient education expertise.The failure of CAC thus raises entirely legitimate questions, both about Obama's competence, his alliances with radical community organizers, and about Ayers's continuing influence over CAC and its board, headed by Obama. Above all, by continuing to fund Ayers's personal projects, and those of his political-educational allies, Obama was lending moral and material support to Ayers's profoundly radical efforts. Ayers's terrorist history aside, that makes the Ayers-Obama relationship a perfectly legitimate issue in this campaign.
In Florida yesterday, Palin said of Obama: "This is someone who sees America as 'imperfect enough' to work with a former domestic terrorist who targeted his own country."
According to news sources, that was a tamer description than Palin used at rallies in California and Colorado over the weekend.
We all understand that Obama was a child when Ayers was working with the Weather Underground. But we also all understand that he has had much contact with this man in his quest to be in politics. And we understand that Ayers is still not sorry for what he did and wishes he did more back when the group was setting bombs. Ayers said that in his own book, and in interviews. It appears that his radical ways were something that Obama shares. If he does not, why hasn't he denounced Ayers like he finally did with Rev. Wright...after listening to him for 20 years.
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http://www.keatingeconomics.com/
Here you will find lots of 411 on the Keating/McCain relationship with downloads and actual letters along with an informative 13 minute video detailing John McCain's involvement brought to us by Barack Obama.
The LA Times broke the story that the AIP has a link to the Chechen separatists on its website. "The AIP's website also provides helpful links to other secessionist groups, including the Southern Independence Party of Tennessee (which boasts of going after "these Politically Correct Liberal Communist[s]"), Ulster nationalists and Chechen separatists." http://www.latimes.com/... Remembering the Beslan school and hospital massacres, and Russian bus and tram bombings, I had to read that twice. I have now compiled an overview of the increasingly indistinguishable relationship between the AIP’s Chechen friends and Al Qaeda:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDofbll86dY&feature=iv&annotation_id=event_922988
That's great if the media says for all the answers to read Obama's book because as stated by Obama in his book "Audacity of Hope" "I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction". It's to bad that the press doesn't actually read his book so that they could report whats actually in it!
You wish to fight for your freedoms? Although they may not win this year, enough cross over votes will ensure them on their way and make a very visible showing by a country who is truly revolted by the current crop of thieves in Washington who populate both parties.
Join The Libertarian Party today! It will be well worth your while.
Steve Chapman
May 4, 2008
Can a presidential candidate justify a long and friendly relationship with someone who, back in the 1970s, extolled violence and committed crimes in the name of a radical ideology -- and who has never shown remorse or admitted error? When the candidate in question is Barack Obama, John McCain says no. But when the candidate in question is John McCain, he's not so sure.
Obama has been justly criticized for his ties to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, who in 1995 hosted a campaign event for Obama and in 2001 gave him a $200 contribution. The two have also served together on the board of a foundation. When their connection became known, McCain minced no words: "I think not only a repudiation but an apology for ever having anything to do with an unrepentant terrorist is due the American people."What McCain didn't mention is that he has his own Bill Ayers -- in the form of G. Gordon Liddy. Now a conservative radio talk-show host, Liddy spent more than 4 years in prison for his role in the 1972 Watergate burglary. That was just one element of what Liddy did, and proposed to do, in a secret White House effort to subvert the Constitution. Far from repudiating him, McCain has embraced him.
How close are McCain and Liddy? At least as close as Obama and Ayers appear to be. In 1998, Liddy's home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Over the years, he has made at least four contributions totaling $5,000 to the senator's campaigns -- including $1,000 this year.
Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as "an old friend," and McCain sounded like one. "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family," he gushed. "It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."
Which principles would those be? The ones that told Liddy it was fine to break into the office of the Democratic National Committee to plant bugs and photograph documents? The ones that made him propose to kidnap anti-war activists so they couldn't disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention? The ones that inspired him to plan the murder (never carried out) of an unfriendly newspaper columnist?
Liddy was in the thick of the biggest political scandal in American history -- and one of the greatest threats to the rule of law. He has said he has no regrets about what he did, insisting that he went to jail as "a prisoner of war."
All this may sound like ancient history. But it's from the same era as the bombings Ayers helped carry out as a member of the Weather Underground. And Liddy's penchant for extreme solutions has not abated.
In 1994, after the disastrous federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, he gave some advice to his listeners: "Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests. ... Kill the sons of bitches."
He later backed off, saying he meant merely that people should defend themselves if federal agents came with guns blazing. But his amended guidance was not exactly conciliatory: Liddy also said he should have recommended shots to the groin instead of the head. If that wasn't enough to inflame any nut cases, he mentioned labeling targets "Bill" and "Hillary" when he practiced shooting.
Given Liddy's record, it's hard to see why McCain would touch him with a 10-foot pole. On the contrary, he should be returning his donations and shunning his show. Yet the senator shows no qualms about associating with Liddy -- or celebrating his service to their common cause.
How does McCain explain his howling hypocrisy on the subject? He doesn't. I made repeated inquiries to his campaign aides, which they refused to acknowledge, much less answer. On this topic, the pilot of the Straight Talk Express would rather stay parked in the garage.
That's an odd policy for someone who is so forthright about his rival's responsibility. McCain thinks Obama should apologize for associating with a criminal extremist. To which Obama might reply: After you.
------------------------------
E-mail: schapman@tribune.com
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
I think you will find that "associations", especially of the sort described above have almost nothing to do with Presidential performance. Can you site any case in history in which such associations turned out to be a valid indicator of future performance? I can site several cases of how a politician's voting record was reflected in their Presidential performance.
Everyone appreciates your posting this to About Sarah Palin Watch click here
Just ask yourself this, if Obama loses do you think blacks will burn down their neighorbhoods? Or if McCain loses do you think whites will burn down theirs? Not a hard one to answer. These actions are actions leaders like Rev Wright will promote.
Larry, I've studied the voting records many times. Thanks.
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2008/04/michelle-malkin-misses-john-mccains-terror-ties.php
It's really interesting who she hangs with and who raises money for her. YAY FL.
Forget the polls put out by Obama's PR groups like CNN and MSNBC.
"Democrat Barack Obama has a narrow 3-point lead in the U.S. presidential race on Republican John McCain less than a month before the election, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Tuesday.
Obama leads McCain among likely U.S. voters 48 percent to 45 percent in the national poll, which has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. Four percent of voters said they were still undecided."
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4961BK20081007?feedType=nl&feedName=ustopnewsearly
Why would McCain/Palin be desperate?
WRONG. The Annenberg Challenge is part of the Annenberg Foundation. Ayers applied for the grant, and won it, in 1995. Obama was appointed to administer the program after the fact. Ayers had already won the grant. Obama did not award it to him.
I won't go on discrediting the rest of the article, because I already know that THE FACTS DO NOT MATTER TO YOU. The entire premise of the article is wrong, because it is based on assumptions that are flawed from the beginning.
Here is a link to their agenda. No wonder they hate Obama.
http://capwiz.com/afanet/issues/
Consider, also, how some people, out of fear of being labeled a racist, might say one thing in public and do quite the opposite in the privacy of the voting booth.
Quack-quack-quack-quack!
In fact, it shows how thin the connection is. For example, that "fundraiser" Ayers held for Obama. Its long been played out by conservatives that Ayers and Obama were friends. But in actuality the fundraiser was organized by Alice Palmer, a state senator. Ayers was a supporter of PALMER, whom asked him to host the get together (for about a dozen people...hardly a big event).
Also, you failed to read the linked article in which CNN notes that there does not appear to have been anything irregular about the whole thing.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/05/fact-check-is-obama-palling-around-with-terrorists/
"On Anderson's Cooper 360 they did a major investigative look at the Ayers/Obama connection. They even interviewed Stanley Kurtz.
Bottom line: Just a guy in my neighborhood? Served on one board together?
CNN Says bulls**t!
They worked closely with each other and worked together on TWO boards -- both Annenberg and the Woods Foundation. They also talked about Ayers little tea party to launch Obama and found Obama hadn't been entirely honest about "just stopping by..." It was an event they planned and hosted TOGETHER."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2099250/posts
Why are you butt-wiping Obama?
See VIDEO Report: http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/07/cnn-obamas-lying-about-william-ayers/
Working with someone, and being friends with them, are two different things. Felix, are you personally responsible for what your co-workers do? If you found out that a co-worker you have worked well with did something 30 years ago you disagreed with, but was never convicted, would you quit your job or demand that your boss fire that person?
McCain must be really desperate after Obama's cheesy Frank Sinatra imitation the other night. The poser and rehearsed posturer has suddenly shot up in the polls:
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has built a 4-point lead over Republican rival John McCain in the race for the White House..."
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4961BK20081009?feedType=nl&feedName=ustopnewsearly
(guffaw)
Do be do be doo
Making next time he could be really cool and do Perry Como.
Here's another important article: Planting Seeds of Disaster
ACORN, Barack Obama, and the Democratic party.
Obama needs to confess about his part in the financial mess this country is in. But if he did, would you still bow down and kiss his feet? Probably. What will it take you to see???????????????????????????????????????????????
How could the Democrats, out of power and with a Republican President whose Veto could not be overridden do anything without the cooperation and permission of the Republicans? The Democrats have not had and still do not have the power to do anything for the last 30 years without cooperation from the Republicans. Yet you blame Obama, a first term Senator whom you contend cannot lead, you blame Obama for the current financial mess? What did he do, help the Republicans carry out their policies?
In case you weren't following all of this, Obama and other activists and the Democratic party strong-armed the banks into doing those subprime loans.
Bob Barr gets my vote.
Conclusion
Voters may differ in how they see Ayers, or how they see Obama’s interactions with him. We’re making no judgment calls on those matters. What we object to are the McCain-Palin campaign’s attempts to sway voters – in ads and on the stump – with false and misleading statements about the relationship, which was never very close. Obama never “lied” about this, just as he never bragged about it. The foundation they both worked with was hardly “radical.” And Ayers is more than a former "terrorist," he’s also a well-known figure in the field of education.
If you do a Google search, you'll discover this:
FactCheck.org - Annenberg Political Fact CheckMonitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major US political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases.
See the word, "Annenberg"? Remember that both Obama and Ayers are tied to Annenberg?
Says Sean Hannity's blog: "How many people are aware that Senator Obama has ties to Factcheck.org, the “non-partisan” political “fact checking” site, vis-a-vis the Annenberg Foundation? Or that the controversies surrounding Obama, such as his ties to Bill Ayers, a former member of the violent Vietnam War era Weather Underground terrorist group, and the veracity of Obama’s “birth certificate” are both linked to Factcheck and Annenberg. There’s also news about the ongoing federal lawsuit involving Obama’s birth certificate: how a U.S District Judge has thrown out Obama’s attorney’s Motion to Dismiss and ordered them to “pony up” the certificate “post haste”.
Representative Lewis did it again...just like he did it before against the Clintons by playing the race card. He was the mole in the Clinton campaign he was passong himself off as a Clinton backer until the opportune moment arrived than he stabbed her in the back. He started race baiting and accused the Bill of being a racist. Now he came out and compared John McCain to segregationist and notorious racist George Wallace.
This has done to the Clintons and now to McCain...John Lewis is quick to call white candidates racist, but, remains silent when real racist like Father Michael Pfleger and Reverend Jeremiah Wright are spewing their' blatant anti-white venom or when they are hooring the likes of Louis Farrakhan.
McCain got flustered over the crap about attacks on Obama and retreated from legitimate questions over past associates of Obama. He than went as far as turning on his' own base when they were justifiably concerned over the character of this South Chicago politician. Even CNN says Obama lied and that his' political career was launched from Willaim Ayers home...these are the facts and they sat on the same boards for seven years. Obama said he knew the guy from the neighborhood nothing more...he plainly lied.
They worked closely with each other and worked together on TWO boards -- both Annenberg and the Woods Foundation. They also talked about Ayers little tea party to launch Obama and found Obama hadn't been entirely honest about "just stopping by..." It was an event they planned and hosted TOGETHER."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2099250/posts
Watch the VIDEO, this is a report from CNN (Anderson Cooper):
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/07/cnn-obamas-lying-about-william-ayers/
McCain as usual folded and threw in his hand. He did it time and time again against Bush, particularly on the Guantanomo torture issue. McCain turned on his own by categorizing Obama as a 'good and decent man'. He said this to a conservative and pro-life crowd...a crowd that is certainly not buying into this patronizing rhetoric. McCain calls a 'good and decent man' one that not only supports abortion on demand, even, supports infanticide...infants that have survived an abotion attempt on their' lives.
"Sen. Barack Obama is more dedicated to abortion at any time for any reason than even the National Abortion Rights Action League, according to documents unveiled by the National Right to Life Committee and publicized by WND columnist Jill Stanek, who also blogs at JillStanek.com.
"He actually did vote on March 13, 2003, in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee to approve the Illinois Born Alive Act, which was the same as the federal law. Then he voted it down," Stanek said. "He is the most pro-abortion senator. … Even NARAL went neutral [on the federal Born Alive Infant Protection Act]."
The Born Alive Infant Protection acts on the state and federal levels provide that infants who do survive abortions should be given necessary medical care and treatment. Stanek has been working to institute such provisions since, as a nurse, she discovered an abortion-surviving infant alive, but relegated to a closet shelf where the child was left to die.
Obama's long reputation for abortion advocacy has been a red flag in his intense efforts to collect support from voters who oppose the idea of partial-birth abortions, which Obama has supported, and who want to protect survivors of abortion procedures."
more at: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72511
McCain effectively imploded his candidacy when he advocated for this guy against his' own base. Now, added to that, the liberal media has gone full-tilt race-baiting trying to imply that anyone that doesn't vote for their' candidate is a racist. They are playing on white guilt feelings to bring them over the top. Palin should should bail out and let this sinking ship...sink. Post-elections Lieberman and McCain can both come out of the closet...Lieberman should offically become a Republican and McCain a Democrat.
That 'profile in courage...Representative Lewis is now retracting his' George Wallace' comparison...now that the horse is out the barn and the damage is done. Race card player par excellence.
At any rate...if you watch all the coronation hoopla on liberal media you'd think McCain/Palin were done, but, here's the latest from unbiased polls (Polls from FoxNews and CNN are inherently bias...they poll their' viewers...who views Fox? Republicans. who views CNN Democrats...ergo, you can toss their' polls into the garbage...same goes for MSNBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, etc.)
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has a 4-point lead over his Republican rival John McCain in the U.S. presidential race, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby tracking poll released on Monday.
Obama leads McCain by 48 percent to 44 percent among likely voters, down 2 percentage points from the lead he enjoyed on Sunday. The poll has a margin of error of 2.9 points.
Pollster John Zogby said Monday's results, which saw Obama drop 1 point and McCain gain 1 point from Sunday's figures, was an indication the race remained competitive in the final weeks before the November 4 election.
"One day does not make a trend, but perhaps McCain may have stopped some bleeding -- and there was bleeding," he said."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081013/pl_nm/us_usa_politics_poll1
And check this out:
McCain Now Leads In Ohio Poll
Sunday, October 12, 2008 9:30 AM
THE POLL: The Ohio Newspaper Poll, presidential race among likely Ohio voters (20 electoral votes).
THE NUMBERS: John McCain 48 percent, Barack Obama 46 percent.
OF INTEREST: Three weeks ago, this poll had Republican McCain leading 48-42 percent. Democrat Obama has been closing the gap as economic concerns simmer, with 22 percent of Ohio voters saying they are very or somewhat worried about losing their jobs and 18 percent very or somewhat worried about losing their homes. More than half of Ohio voters, or 53 percent, said they either strongly or somewhat disapproved of the federal government's $700 billion bailout of troubled financial institutions.
DETAILS: Conducted Oct. 4-8 by landline telephone among 876 likely Ohio voters. Sampling error plus or minus 3.3 percent.
Associated Press
Looks like your' candidate is holding.
I've been called by 3 different polls. That never happened before.
Bear in mind that Annenberg was a very very good friend and supporter of Ronald and Nancy Regan. And factcheck.org has also been quite critical of Obama as well.
See the following excerpt from his bio:
It was Annenberg who introduced President Reagan to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and the Reagans often celebrated New Year's Eve with the Annenbergs.
I'm not sure if you are correct about the Fox news poll. The recent Fox poll has Obama up by 7 points (well within the range of other polls).
My guess would be that if Fox only polled it's viewers the results would swing more towards McCain.