A Waste Of Attack Space

The WSJ has a guest piece by Elizabeth Wurtzel discussing the Obama/Ayers connection.  Karl at Team Protein pans Ms. Wurtzel; Curt at Flopping Aces pans the piece.

And how could a serious commentator be unaware of the bond formed by Obama and Bill Ayers when they were both involved with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge in the mid to late 90s?  Honestly.

NOTE TO HENDRIK HERTZBERG:  Your list of "relevant facts" is woefully incomplete; try doing some reporting.  Maybe start by asking the Obama campaign why they are concealing, not revealing the Annenberg Challenge connection in their own Fact Check.  Or was their subtle allusion to the Annenberg FactCheck.org supposed to represent their disclosure?

Comments

[clarice]

Don't pick on Hendrick Hertzberg ,please. Long after the New Yorker had ceased to be much more than a vehicle for good cartoons, his carp in that magazine (along with Sy Hersh's)largely persuaded me to can my decades long subscription and to refuse to reenlist despite many tempting offers of virtually free mags for the rest of my life.

[Paul Zrimsek]

McCarthyism is a term rarely heard since the Cold War ended

LOL.

[ajacksonian]

The fun thing about the figures around Obama is that the local ones form a relatively tight circle, beyond just Ayers and Dhorn. When you throw in Khalidi, Abumnimah, Rezko, Davies and Pfleger, you get Ayers and Obama on the Woods fund channeling money to Abuminah and Davies. Then you get Davies working with Rezko on property Pfleger is involved with via his company. And the old 'coalition of radical terrorists', where there was nothing to be said bad about the PLO by anyone and they reciprocated, along with the various 'Red' groups continues on in that circle around Obama.

You don't even have to add in Auchi's massively interconnected circle of friends to make that local circle noxious...

I put Obama where he was before the campaign started just about where the Clintons were in the mid-80's connection-wise, save that they would go more with Huang, Trie, Lippo Group and then ignore the problems those presented in the way of organized crime, money laundering and terrorism.

Obama gets his ignoring done right up front!

Its a small world where Obama is connected to the man who, with the help of Marc Rich, got Russian weapons to Savimbi for France. But he is, at least, thinking big, as Auchi's connections to the BoNY, Clearstream, Angolagate, OFF and other scandals makes him far better connected than Red Chinese plants via an external banking organization. But he really should have spent a few more seasons in the minors getting some experience with the ropes of international organized crime and transnational terrorism, as he is nowhere near as good at misdirecting on those ties as the Clintons have been.

Not that anyone bothers thinking those things are important in a post-9/11 world.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I don't care. I've had a crush on Elizabeth since she wrote Bitch, and that all there is to it.

[daveinboca]

Wurtzel also mentions that Dohrn worked at the brown-shoe law firm of Sidley Austin with “the two Obamas” and there is speculation that Michelle was “mentored’ by Dohrn when MOmarosaObama interned at SA in the ’80s. Michelle in turn “mentored” Barry Hussein Obama & married up when he joined the firm.

Hertzberg is a bad joke that keeps repeating itself. The creep actually commented on my blog when I used the term "Democrat Party" even though everyone knows the Dems are the most elitist political party in the world [outside Cuba] and there is nothing "democratic" about "superdelegates." The phony Hertzberg never replied when I ribbed him for calling the Kingdom "Saudia Arabia." I think his medications need to be adjusted.

[Danube of Thought]

Good ol' Greta had that Murtagh fellow on last night, reminiscing about his house being bombed by the Weather Underground when he was nine years old. It was nice to see him vent his feelings about Ayers and Dohrn, but unless I'm missing something he overstepped a couple of times in describing Ayers as "still an advisor to Obama."

[Danube of Thought]

Good God. "...like many teenagers tragically lost in the Reagan '80s..." What kind of self-absorbed simpleton thinks like that? I'm gonna puke...

[centralcal]

Well, another great week!

All around the web I find links to JOM regarding Obama-Ayers-Annenberg Challenge connections.

The nutroots are in full temper tantrum meltdown mode because Dems are flocking to Fox News.

Arianna is banned (?) at PMS-NBC.

Yup, another great week!

[vnjagvet]

Let's hope we aren't peaking too early.

Just sayin'

[Danube of Thought]

This fellow Hertzberg certainly is a pompous one, isn't he?

[Semanticleo]

Although the Tower commission was never able to prove Reagan knew what Ollie and Poindexter were trading arms to terrorists for the return of our hostages, by Maguire's logic, it makes
Reagan a terrorist.

Because of the proximity, you see.

[Sue]

Ollie North for president!

[Danube of Thought]

Did Maguire, or anyone else here, suggest that Obama is a terrorist? Maybe I missed something...

I think what is most odious about Wurtzel's infantile piece is her frequent use of "we." She seems to think she is speaking on behalf of some group. What group is that? The teenagers tragically lost in the Reagan '80s? All of us who are capable of thinking with our brains? (I'm trying to figure out just what my brain is telling me about Barack Obama, and at this point I think the message is that the man is slicker than boiled okra, and can easily fool adolescents. Apart from that, the ol' brain isn't transmitting much about the Messiah.)

[Porchlight]

I was a teenager in the '80s and there was a small subset of cynical kids in my high school listening to punk rock and making fun of Reagan. I counted these kids my friends and listened to the punk rock but didn't join in the political stupidity. In fact, I went to see Reagan speak when he swung through town just before Election Day 1984. I had a front row spot and was about 50 feet from him - it was very exciting. To date he's the only President I've seen in person.

[Danube of Thought]

When I was six I saw Harry Truman from a distance of about twenty feet following a football game in Annapolis. His hatband, necktie and pocket handkerchief were identical red polka-dot patterns on a field of dark blue. My aunt instructed me that this was a terribly gauche fashion no-no.

I was one of those grade-schoolers tragically lost in the Truman '40s.

[Sue]

I saw Richard Nixon in Chicago in the early 70s. He was the speaker at a convention of dairy farmers. When I say I saw him, I mean I saw a figure on a stage. They could have put my grandfather up there and told me it was Richard Nixon and I wouldn't have been able to have known the difference. I did hear him speak, and knew it was him, but I don't remember what he said. I was 11 or 12 at the time.

[SteveMG]

Let's see, Senator Obama, as President, wants to go to Iran and negotiate with the regime.

That is, give them something. What are negotiations but quid pro quos of some type?

Using the standard (I guess) posted here by our friend Semanticleo, that makes Obama a terrorist (again, I guess).

This is the "let me throw something out and hope it sticks" method of posting.

[clarice]

If you recall when McArthur was fired, he thought he'd run for office. He returned to his family home Milwaukee for a triumphal parade and I, then living in a working class suburb, went to school on the parade route so we got out of classes to watch him drive by.

As for Presidents--they're a dime a dozen here. One night my husband saw a limo parked in front of our house and he opened the door to see what was up. It was then President CLinton reading in the back, waiting to go down the block to a fundraiser at the home of the owner of B.E.T. network.

[Sue]

Wow. The internet is wonderful. Here is the speech I don't remember. The date was 9/3/1971.

With 40,000 in this hall, I just wonder who is home milking the cows.

My father. We didn't have hired milk hands. We. Were. The. Milk. Hands. Although, the next year, we sprung for a hired hand so my father could go, too.

[Sue]

He missed Nixon, which sorely displeased him. In a world of democrats, my father was a republican. Much to his in-laws chagrin. ::grin::

[Sue]

Freaky.We actually dressed like that. I can assure you, no one in my family made this picture. We were not that close to him.

[Porchlight]

Wow, cool photo, Sue. Can you imagine people being that dressed up at a similar event today? Ladies in dresses, men in suits or collared shirts. I like it.

[Sue]

Porch,

We dressed like that on the airplane ride, too. Sunday best. Times change. Some for the good and some for the not so good.

[Danube of Thought]

Hell, remember the studio audiences at things like You Bet Your Life, Groucho Marx's show? Every man Jack in a coat and tie, and the ladies all in their dresses.

[Sue]

Ruh, roh. I did not know this, and in fact, have never heard it before. Of course, I was very young then and politics didn't fit it into my schedule, but I can't believe I didn't hear my parents and grandparents discussing it. Especially since my grandfather hated Nixon and my father loved him.

One of the items not mentioned in the impeachment charges and never televised in the Senate hearings was the way the government cooperated with the milk industry. In early 197) the Secretary of Agriculture announced the government would not increase its price supports for milk—the regular subsidy to the big milk producers. Then the Associated Milk Producers began giving money to the Nixon campaign, met in the White House with Nixon and the Secretary of Agriculture, gave more money, and the secretary announced that "new analysis" made it necessary to raise milk price supports from $4.66 to $4.93 a hundredweight. More contributions were made, until the total exceeded $400,000. The price increases added $500 million to the profits of dairy farmers (mostly big corporations) at the expense of consumers.

[Sue]

Okay, I'm sorry I hijacked the thread. I'm through. But I am forever linked to Watergate, it would seem. Don't hold the child responsible, 'kay? ::grin::

[Jane]

My only close brush with a candidate was in 1999. I was a devoted McCainiac. McCain was appearing in Boston in Copley Square at 9:00 AM on a Saturday. A friend of mine arrived from Australia Friday and was staying at the Copley Plaza. I went in to see her at about 8:30 AM hoping to also walk across the street to the McCain rally, later. I brought my book (Faith of our Fathers, I think) to see if I could get McCain to sign it.

My friend's room overlooked Copley Plaza where the crowds were growing by the minute. The candidate was late (and apparently staying at the Copley Plaza.) At around 9:00 I walked to the window - it was probably about the 8th floor) and held up my book in solidarity. Someone in the crowd spotted the book and the thousands of people all turned and cheered for me, thinking I was McCain.

It was quite fun. I missed him at the rally and never got my book signed however.

[Porchlight]

Sue,

My parents still dress up for plane rides - they enjoy it and they say it makes for better service.

Times do change. When I was a kid we called all adults Mr. and Mrs. or Miss, even the neighbors we knew well. My kids, with the exception of school teachers I guess, won't have this experience. I suppose many don't agree but I think it's a shame to see such things go.

[Sue]

Porch,

I can remember my father asking us, if we forgot, which was seldom, if our "sir" (insert proper gender identification) was broken. We were not allowed to call anyone by their first name, including aunts and uncles, with the exception of my father's sister, who was the same age as most of us. Change of life baby.

[PeterUK]

"One night my husband saw a limo parked in front of our house and he opened the door to see what was up. It was then President CLinton reading in the back,"

Good job you didn't have the cat then.

[vnjagvet]

I met Nixon in January 1961, on the stairway leading from the House Chamber in the Capitol after he presided in counting the electoral ballots finalizing his own defeat to JFK. (IIRC only Nixon and Al Gore share the unfortunate honor of presiding over their own defeats).

I was with two other Government students, and RN took the time to speak with us for about 1-3 minutes. He was friendly, cordial, gracious and made a point of letting us know that public service was a good career choice when he found out our major.

All three of us had worked for Kennedy in the general election, and were astonished that RN was not behorned, and much nicer than his reputation and stiff image led us to believe he would be.

[Porchlight]

Sue,

My kids are going to be brought up to say "sir" and "ma'am" if it kills me. ;) Luckily here in Texas that's not a rarity. My 4 y o daughter already knows how to sweet talk me when she wants something: "Can I have some _____ please ma'am?"

[Jane]

OT:

Capt ed says Rezko is talking about cutting a deal. (LUN) This will accrue to the detriment of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

Will it also accrue to the detriment of Obama, or is Pat Fitzgerald not interested in that?

[clarice]

In the summer of 1963 I was a summer intern for a Congressman. There were a lot of us that summer--the very notion had just caught on. One of my friends was a guy from Yale who naturally thought he was really something special. (He worked for Sen Dodd and did so for many years after he graduated .)On the subway under the Capitol one lunch time as we was crossing over from the Senate side to meet me, he sat next to a familiar looking man whose name he couldn't place. After a few minutes, the man reached over and asked,"What's the matter? Do I have egg on my face or something?" My friend said no, but that the man looked familiar . ""Allow me to introduce myself son." he said,"I'm Lyndon Baines Johnson , Vice-President of the United States."

[Porchlight]

It was quite fun. I missed him at the rally and never got my book signed however.

Jane,

You may get your chance yet, by President McCain no less!

[Pat Curley]

Wouldn't Humphrey have presided over the counting of the electoral ballots after the 1968 election?

Wurzel's piece is bizarre, especially the ending.

[Danube of Thought]

Not quite the same, but poor old Dan Quayle had that dubious honor as well.

[Porchlight]

Great stories vnjagvet and Clarice. Having not been around for Watergate, I guess I've always had a soft spot for Nixon. And an Yale-educated intern for Dodd doesn't recognize the Democratic VP? LOL. The modern day equivalent Dodd intern would probably run screaming in fear if he ran into Cheney.

[Pat Curley]

Hertzberg attempts to laugh off Ayers and Dohrn as engaging in "youthful follies", "long ago abandoned". But Ayers and Dohrn have not abandoned their political ideals and the notion that they were youthful is belied by the fact that Ayers was 31 and Dohrn 33 when they participated in the "Underground" documentary where they called for revolution.

[Ann]

Porchlight,

Check out the American Taekwondo Association (ATA) in your area. In is a terrific program that not only teaches your kids how to defend themselves but they make them say No Sir, Yes Ma'am when addressing adults. They also have themes each month that teach kids things like: Perseverance, Respect, Courtesy, Self Control, Honor, Attitude, Loyalty, Integrity, Goals, etc.

My daughter just received her second degree black belt and last weekend won a third place trophy sparring young men older than her. (Of course, she said YES SIR afterwards) :)

[Elroy Jetson]

Tom,
Props to the latest sub-title to your blog.
LOL!

[Porchlight]

Thank you, Ann, I will check it out. It sounds great. We're looking into some kind of martial arts training for our oldest and she's at about the right age.
Congratulations to your daughter!

[pagar]

"but unless I'm missing something he overstepped a couple of times in describing Ayers as "still an advisor to Obama."

Why couldn't he still be an adviser to Obama?

Despite the fact that hardly anyone seems to think he was innocent of his Weatherman actions, he has been wrapped in a cloak of respectability through the action of the Jimmy Carter amnesty fiasco; just like John Kerry.

Instead of being in jail, he is now a vice president of AERA

"Ayers’s influence on what is taught in the nation’s public schools is likely to grow in the future. Last month, he was elected vice president for curriculum of the 25,000-member American Educational Research Association (AERA), the nation’s largest organization of education-school professors and researchers. Ayers won the election handily, and there is no doubt that his fellow education professors knew whom they were voting for. In the short biographical statement distributed to prospective voters beforehand, Ayers listed among his scholarly books Fugitive Days, an unapologetic memoir about his ten years in the Weather Underground. The book includes dramatic accounts of how he bombed the Pentagon and other public buildings.

AERA already does a great deal to advance the social-justice teaching agenda in the nation’s schools and has established a Social Justice Division with its own executive director. With Bill Ayers now part of the organization’s national leadership, you can be sure that it will encourage even more funding and support for research on how teachers can promote left-wing ideology in the nation’s classrooms—and correspondingly less support for research on such mundane subjects as the best methods for teaching underprivileged children to read."
==============================
"n Chicago the other day, radio producer Guy Benson discovered video recordings of Ayers and Dohrn speaking at a reunion of antiwar radicals in November 2007. To live in the United States, Dohrn told the group, is to be "inside the heart of the monster" that is such a "purveyor of violence in the world." Ayers denounced America as an imperial warmonger steeped in "jingoistic patriotism, unprecedented and unapologetic military expansion, white supremacy . . . attacks on women and girls, violent attacks, growing surveillance in every sphere of our lives, on and on and on." h/t pm

IMO, the subjects of Wright and Ayers and and any other "distractions" will be placed off limits if Hillary can be knocked out of the race by Obama.

I can not imagine that America has agreed to turn over all control of what is to be taught to our children to Ayers.

IMO, Ayers has much more street smarts and political savvy than Obama. What a coup that would be, to go from planting bombs at the Pentagon to controlling the person that determines who the Pentagon bombs.

[Cecil Turner]

Although the Tower commission was never able to prove Reagan knew what Ollie and Poindexter were trading arms . . .

Nonsense. Reagan signed a finding authorizing precisely that (arms to Iran, though, not terrorists).

Latter-day attempts to pretend the basic policy issue wasn't there is revisionist. One of the few parts of Walsh's report that's worth reading is the commentary wherein he laments Congress's lack of spine in going after Reagan over the policy dispute, and trying to fry subordinates over details. In short: if your problem is with selling arms to Iran, that was perfectly legal, and Reagan's fault. North may have overstepped his bounds in other areas, but not there.

[vnjagvet]

Pat, you are right of course. I didn't recall correctly. Gettin' older is a bitch.

[Ranger]

A funny thought struck me that if Rezko cops a plea and Obama still wins the nomination from shear momentum, then the Libby trial may result in the Republicans winning the White House this cycle. If Fitz hadn't been distracted by the Libby side how, the Rezko trial would have been ready to go last year. Obama's hopie-changie tune would never have rung true. Just one more thing to make the netroots heads explode.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Good God. "...like many teenagers tragically lost in the Reagan '80s..." What kind of self-absorbed simpleton thinks like that? I'm gonna puke...

One who uses ironic hyperbole like other people use declarative sentences.

[Ranger]

In short: if your problem is with selling arms to Iran, that was perfectly legal, and Reagan's fault. North may have overstepped his bounds in other areas, but not there.

Posted by: Cecil Turner | May 03, 2008 at 02:02 PM

Yes, exactly. It is facination what North is accused of doing as opposed to what he actually did.

Appalled accuses him of selling weapons to terrorists. North himself didn't sell the weapons, he simply arranged for obsolete ordinance to be sold to a private citizen who would sell them. Those sales were perfectly legal at the time they took place.

He's also accused of illegally funding the Contras. In fact, since the Iranian money was paid to a private citizen, it wasn't government funds, but private money that was donated.

What North did do was lie under oath (to congress) and obstruct justice (by shreding memo). Funny, but that sounds very similar to what Clinton did, but that was ok, because he was a Democrat.

[Porchlight]

vnjagvet,

I believe you said you met Nixon in January 1961 after he lost to JFK, so your memory of it makes sense. Pat mentioned 1968, so he may have just misread your comment.

[clarice]

Ranger, what an interesting observation.

[Sara]

The first President I saw in person was Eisenhower. My Dad took me out to the summit of Ligonier Mountain and put me on his shoulders so I could get a better view of his motorcade as it passed. I was told to remember the moment.

Then in 1960, during the campaign, JFK came to my town and we were all let out of school to go see him. I had no interest, but all my friends were going so I tramped along.

In 1988, I was a volunteer at a Meet and Greet for candidate GWHB where Reagan was the guest speaker and I got to talk to him. He made my day because he said "your smile lights up the room."

Also in 1988, I met Bush 41 just after the election. I'm told that GWB was part of the group, but I don't remember him.

In 2000, I met McCain when he was running in the Primary.

Can't say any of those meeting or sightings were earthshaking for me, except maybe Reagan, since he appealed to my vanity.

[Sara]

The fun thing about the figures around Obama is that the local ones form a relatively tight circle, beyond just Ayers and Dhorn. When you throw in Khalidi, Abumnimah, Rezko, Davies and Pfleger, you get Ayers and Obama on the Woods fund channeling money to Abuminah and Davies. Then you get Davies working with Rezko on property Pfleger is involved with via his company. And the old 'coalition of radical terrorists', where there was nothing to be said bad about the PLO by anyone and they reciprocated, along with the various 'Red' groups continues on in that circle around Obama.

Someone of skill needs to make one of those charts like we had for all the entanglements of Mary O McCarthy and the VIPS. I think Verner did that one.

[ParseThis]

Porchlight writes, "I counted these kids my friends and listened to the punk rock but didn't join in the political stupidity." Do you think you can get away with that in this neck of the woods? You might as well have said, "I counted the pastor my friend and listened to the theology but didn't join in the political stupidity."

So you see, this raises questions.

Do you now or have you ever had a mohawk colored red, white and blue? Do you now or have you ever displayed a flag lapel pin on your ear, lip, nose or anywhere else other than on your lapel?

Do you secretly think of AIDS in the eighties as Regan's 'Katrina'? Do you despise Dick Cheney for supporting apartheid? Do you find yourself frequently singing, "I, I, I ain't gonna play Sun City"? Do you raise your fist in the air while singing? Have you ever exclaimed, "No, no, no, NO! Not Anarchy in the UK, Anarchy in America!", while tossing back a few cold ones and smashing the empties against your forehead? Do you believe that governments should fear the people?

Your carefully crafted establishment persona is now in doubt.

[Danube of Thought]

I'm not suggesting that Ayers couldn't be an adviser to Obama. I'm suggesting that I have seen no evidence at all that he is, so I question Mr. Murtagh's statement.

[troy mcclure]

Hertzberg, Fallows, Matthews, all ex Carter speechwriters,who never own up to the damage their boss created through his dithering in Iran, Nicaragua, et al. Would we be dealing with Ahmadinejad, at all, if
the Georgian peanut, had not denounced then
embraced the Shah, allowed Mahmoud's act of
kidnapping to stand, (this in time encouraged the Grand Mosque siege by the Uteibi's and the Quahtanis, which did much
to cement the Wahhabi takeover that AQ is
just a symptom of)Would the paramilitaries
in Colombia had become a large a force if
Carter's abandonment of Nicaragua, not encouraged the FARC, the M-19, along with
the FMLN, and other groups, that America
would withdraw it's support from a US ally.
By the way, a good deal of the supply side
of the drug problem comes from tariffs on
Colombian cotton, Bolivia tin, that forced
a degree of 'crop substitution' on their part. Now many of the same players in the Carter administration have decamped mostly
to Obama; Anthony Lake, a possible Sec. of State, Mort Halperin, National Security Advisor or vetter of same; having given the DGI/KGB campaign run by Phillip Agee against American Intelligence, and those are the most reasonable ones. i'll leave
out Zbig Brezinki for now; although he was
one of Obama's professors at Columbia.

[ParseThis]

He's also accused of illegally funding the Contras. In fact, since the Iranian money was paid to a private citizen, it wasn't government funds, but private money that was donated.

I hear there are Muslim charities in the United States that make donations to private organizations in Palestine, for example. Are people who donate to these charities or the charities themselves funding terrorism? I don't know, but I'll always think 'Ollie North' when the question comes up.

[Porchlight]

Heh, ParseThis. Nice try, but I think it was my punk rock teenage pretensions that were in doubt back then. I was always an establishment kinda gal, even though I tried to hide it for awhile.

"I ain't gonna play Sun City" - LOL, I haven't thought of that in years. Although watching Michelle Obama being interviewed the other night did cause me to remember Little Steven's massive underbite.

[hit and run]

Well, if we're sharing memories of Presidential encounters, I've got none.

But I can share my brothers'.

He was the "captain" on the Academic Decathalon team in highschool. And they won the national championship.

So, they got their WH meet and greet with George H.W. Bush.

So there's my brother, holding the trophy, which was a tall pointy pyramidish type shape, shaking the hands of the President.

This is all in jest -- and should anyone in authority be reading this, it is ALL in JEST -- but my brother said he did wonder in a fleeting moment how he could end up shaking the hand of the President with what amounted to a potential deadly weapon in his other hand.

Yes, this is the brother that lives in Idaho, former beer truck driver and now lift mechanic at a ski resort.

We're an ambitious lot, we hit and runners.

[john morrissey]

I read the Elizabeth Wurzel piece twice and I still have no idea of what her point was/ Anyone help?It may be the foggiest, dimmest WSJ piece in a long time

[troy mcclure]

Remind me again when we get hit again with a TOW missile, those things have to be 20 years old; so by the way are those WMD caches we keep finding in odd parts of Iraq.
By Reagan's Katrina, you mean a problem made immensely more complicated by the ideologically driven blindness of local authorities (the San Francisco public health commission, headed by AMFAR chief
Mervyn Silverman, that went pandemic because
basic mitigation policies weren't followed; than I guess yes. "Sun City" ah brings back memories of the Amnesty international concert for Mandela, the terrorist, who inspired the likes of Arafat that violence can win you friends and sympathy. Seeing how
South Africa, is now a hyperviolent basket case '"Detroit on the Cape"' crawling with jihadi fronts like Quibla & PAGAD, some of whose members have crossed the borders, a
former guerilla quartermaster turned intell. chief who has nice words for Hamas; how'd that turn out.

[Gmax]

former beer truck driver

I bet the day the adjective was added to that sentence was a sad day at the Hit household! Just messing with you Jeff.

[hit and run]

Gmax, you're right. You're so very right. There's an old post somewhere where I rue his decision to quit that profession, but I am not finding it now.

There is a basement up in the house in Idaho, with a closet rought 20 feet deep. And one wall used to be filled with every beer imaginable -- the drivers got to keep broken cases and you would be surprised at how many broken cases a driver could end up with

(I hope that Cindy McCain's distributorship is more efficient with their beer)

Though, when we go up their in the winter, with the kids reaching the ages they are now -- we will be glad to have an in on the ski slopes, I suppose. But beer is poly-seasonal, so it's just a small comfort.

[clarice]

Driving a beer truck from Idaho to Jackson Hole is too dangerous and not worth the extra beer.

[jimmyk]

Hell, remember the studio audiences at things like You Bet Your Life, Groucho Marx's show? Every man Jack in a coat and tie, and the ladies all in their dresses.

People dressed like that to go to baseball games too. Though maybe that was because the games were on weekdays and they were sneaking out of work.

With 40,000 in this hall, I just wonder who is home milking the cows.

Old joke:

The old timer is on his deathbed.
"Murray" ?
"Yes dad, I'm here".
"Jack ?"
"Yes dad, I'm here".
"Sammy ?"
"Yes dad, I'm here."
"SO WHO'S MINDING THE STORE ???? "

[MayBee]

In high school on our Close Up trip to Washington, we saw Tip O'Neil getting out of that special Congressional subway thingie. We stormed him like groupies, and when one of my girlfriends told him her name, he was so delighted she was Irish that he kissed her.

I stood in the rain to watch Reagan's motorcade go by, and when I lived in Fayetteville the Clinton motorcade used to go by my street on the way to stay with the Blairs. I used to take my baby to the end of our neighborhood to watch it go by. I'm kind of hurt Bill never stopped and hit on me.

One great night was several years ago, a friend of mine asked me to help hostess a "State Dinner" she was co-ordinating for the reopening of the Gerald R Ford museum. That was a great night, with the Fords, the Carters, Bush 41, Carolyn Kennedy, and Ford's entire cabinet in attendance. It was so cool to look in the center of the room and see so many former leaders of this great country dining and laughing together. Carter spoke and was actually quite charming- he and Ford were very close at the time.

[Larry]

I have a photo of me refusing to shake hands with LBJ, VP in June '62 at my USAF Academy graduation. He presented the diplomas and commissions. We cadets saluted first, then took his hand. My pic was shot after my salute, before the handshake. The only one of its kind I know of. An AF buddy and I stood less than 20 feet from JFK's (and Jackie's) motorcade at San Antonio airport the day before he was assassinated.

[Lesley]

Just something silly.

Many years ago, we contributed to the Republican Senatorial Trust. And yes, for xx amount of $, you, too, will be invited to listen to Republican Senators speak and have dinner at the Vice President's house.

After dinner, there was an informal reception line of senators and we went over to greet Rudy Boschwitz R Minnesota who had arrived late. As my husband and I introduced ourselves to (then) Senator Boschwitz, Boschwitz looked at me and said, "You are much younger than your husband. Whatever got the two of you together?" His comment rather surprised the people standing around us, so I looked him directly in the eye, raised my voice alittle and responded, "Hot sex," and continued through the receiving line.

My husband used to love to tell that story.

[vnjagvet]

Just so, Leslie, just so.

[vnjagvet]

Lesley, that is. Sorry.

[Porchlight]

Excellent, Lesley. I think I shook Boschwitz' hand in college once. Always thought he had a nice face. I bet it was bright red after his conversation with you. :)

Happy Kentucky Derby Day! We're off to the party we go to each year. I haven't the slightest idea which horse to bet on, but it's fascinating that they are all descendants of Native Dancer.

[Sara]

Hell, remember the studio audiences at things like You Bet Your Life, Groucho Marx's show? Every man Jack in a coat and tie, and the ladies all in their dresses.

Dating myself big time, but my Mom wouldn't let me go into town without hat and gloves. And when we visited my Grandparents, who lived on the outskirts of Berkeley, my Grandfather insisted on inspecting my gloves (to be sure they were clean) before he took us across the Bay to dinner at the Top of the Mark in San Francisco.

And I still remember my Dad down on his hands and knees inspecting my Mother's stocking seams to be sure they were straight before they went out for dinner or a party.

[ben]

"but unless I'm missing something he overstepped a couple of times in describing Ayers as "still an advisor to Obama.""

Well if it could ever be ascertained that Ayers was EVER an advisor to Obama I think the "still" is irrelevant.

[hit and run]

Well, one more familial Presidential memory.

My cousin, who worked in the WH, and whose parents visited and had a moment with W.

Yes, I just teared up a bit again reading it.

[hit and run]

Sorry, bad link...here's the real one.

[JM Hanes]

vnjagvet:

"Let's hope we aren't peaking too early."

What Obama wishes he could say may make you feel better on that score. I don't know whether Harris & Vandehei have opined on what Clinton wishes she could say yet, but I suspect that Republicans may be sitting on a mountain of oppo research that we won't see till the Democrats pick their nominee, and the race begins in earnest. My only question is whether McCain will lead, get out of the way, or obstruct the potential deluge.

[JM Hanes]

With apologies for the previously mixed metaphors, make that **obstruct the potential landslide.**

[sbw]

Sue, think twice before linking to anything Howard Zinn wrote. He seems to select his facts to suit his point of view rather than discover a point of view that matches the full set of facts available.

Zinn's book and tape are among the few that I have destroyed lest they poison someone else's mind.

[Danube of Thought]

"...if it could ever be ascertained that Ayers was EVER an advisor to Obama I think the 'still' is irrelevant."

Seems to me that whether that could be ascertained or not, if Ayers is not an advisor at this time then Murtagh overstepped by saying that he still is one.

[SunnyDay]

JMH - I suspect McCain will obstruct - unfortunately for him, he seems to say exactly what he thinks before he actually thinks, or even knows what the subject is.

[JM Hanes]

Charlie:

"I've had a crush on Elizabeth since she wrote Bitch, and that all there is to it."

Apparently, Jules Crittenden just can't help himself either, although he dithers less forthrightly before he finally gets around to posting a screen shot of the cover.

I'd have pegged Wurtzel as novelist myself, where a certain confusion of bad guys and good guys would be a feature not a bug, but the subtitle explains a lot about why I couldn't figure out whether I was reading an attack piece or a puff piece in the WSJ.

[Danube of Thought]

Howard Zinn is a fundamentally dishonest man. A year or so ago I heard him giving a typical anti-American diatribe to a credulous Alan Colmes on the radio. In decrying American Imperialism, Zinn observed (without a peep from Colmes) that after conquering the Phillipines (i.e., taking them from the Spanish empire), the US "gave them Ferdinand Marcos."

Actually, as the lying bastard well knew, what we "gave" the Phillipines was independence in 1948. Roughly sixteen years later, those enthusiastically democratic people made the mistake of electing Marcos in an entirely free election.

I could go on endlessly...

[JM Hanes]

SunnyDay:

Alas, I'm afraid I, too, think that McCain is basically running against McCain -- in both parties.

[sbw]

[OT] Take that, Political correctness! [/OT]

Hat tip to Brits at their best. It appears Puk isn't the only Brit trying to tug Britain in a more sensible direction.

[pagar]

"Zinn's book and tape are among the few that I have destroyed lest they poison someone else's mind."

On discover the network.com they have this on Howard Zinn

" * Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Boston University
* Marxist
* Author of A People’s History of the United States, one of the most influential books on college campuses today

"The author of more than twenty books, he is best known for writing A People's History of the United States (1980), a Marxist tract which describes America as a predatory and repressive capitalist state -- sexist, racist, imperialist -- that is run by a corporate ruling class for the benefit of the rich. The book claims to present American history through the eyes of workers, American Indians, slaves, women, blacks and populists. A People’s History has sold more than a million copies, making it one of the best-selling history books of all time. Despite its lack of footnotes and other scholarly apparatus, it is one of most influential texts in college classrooms today -- not only in history classes, but also in such fields as economics, political science, literature, and women’s studies."

A book written by a known Marxist in 1980, (the same year that Ayers was implementing his change from bomber to professor)has become one of the most influential texts in college classes. How do these things happen?
How long can this go on? Marxists and terrorists control what our college students learn. The damage being done by Marxists and terrorists in the classrooms far exceeds the damage done by their bombs.

[Rick Ballard]

"Alas, I'm afraid I, too, think that McCain is basically running against McCain -- in both parties."

And he's so damn dumb he might lose to himself too. On the bright side - we're not going to have to struggle through any quadratic equations concerncing his political calculus. I'll be amazed if we get to long division.

[Ralph L]

When I was six I saw Harry Truman... following a football game in Annapolis
Despite living >300 miles away, my grandparents went to all of my (only child) dad's home JV football games, and my grandfather took color movies of Truman riding by in an open car. I haven't seen it years, so I don't remember what he was wearing. He probably wore something bright so people could recognize him under the hat; the Queen does.

I crossed paths twice with Colin Powell when he was CJCS, once literally. He was going up the escalator when we were going down. My co-worker didn't recognize him, or notice the stars.

[hit and run]

Rick:
I'll be amazed if we get to long division.

Not to worry. Obama is running explicitly against division.

There is no red America or blue America only the Divisionless States of America!

[Ralph L]

I meant to say that was probably the same trip to Annapolis that DoT witnessed.

[PeterUK]

"There is no red America or blue America only the Divisionless States of America!"

That is why you need Obama,to represent the Stateless Divisions of America.

[vnjagvet]

But what will the pundits do without those annoying metaphors, racial division and political calculus?

[Sue]

I'll have to go back and see what I linked to Howard Zinn. I have no idea who he is.

[vnjagvet]

He's a bad dude, Sue. A lefty historian who avoids documentation if it gets in the way of a good anti-American political point. IOW, facts mean nothing to him. It's the political effect that counts.

Bonus: The political effect must show what fools Americans are.

[Sue]

The Zinn link might have been written with bias, but the gist of the story was correct. I read several articles and the court documents later.

[Sue]

He's a bad dude, Sue.

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.

[hrtshpdbox]

In 1968, when I was 12, I rode my bike a mile or so to a local strip of stores, where Richard Nixon was holding a rally. I was a fan and hung on every word of his short speech. Afterwards he waded straight into the crowd, shaking hands - he got within a couple of feet of me, and my outstretched hand touched his lapel, and then his nose! A few years later I'm sure I'd have been far more interested in meeting, say, Jimi Hendrix, but on that bike-ride home in 1968 I was the happiest kid in the world.

[Ralph L]

OTOH, McCain complaining about the NC GOP ad gave it national attention.

[Ann]

Did anyone watch the Derby?

My husband and I sat down to watch it and we decided to make it about the election. We decided Colonel John would be McCain. Big Brown would be Obama and the filly Eight Belles would be Hillary.

How cruel was that election prediction?

[sbw]

Eight Belles - Yeah. Takes the fun out of the fun. Small solace that she ran a great race.

[clarice]

Ann, Sweetness & Light made the same picks re O and Hill and did a riff on the fate of the filly which was Hill's pick.

[Ann]

sbw,

I use to own a horse. It really made me sick and it did take all the fun out of it.

[BOATBUILDER]

The WSJ editorial board knew exactly what it was doing when it published Ms. Wurtzel's . . . op-ed(I was going to say piece, but that would require a photo). It keeps the buzz going about Obama's radical background and associations. It is intended to piss off the regular readership. It worked.
And it's one more reminder (as if we needed one) of just how much smarter the WSJ editors are than the NYT's (everybody who believes that the NYT only gets letters to the editor that are 100% supportive of their positions, please raise your hands).

[ben]

Elizabeth Wurtzel of course doesn't get it, it's not about the Weathermen and whether they were bloodthirsty murderers and are now charming dinner companions or not. It's about Obama's politics and whether he believes what they believe.

[boris]

What North did do was lie under oath (to congress) and obstruct justice (by shreding memo).

IIRC North creatively resequenced a timeline as part of a semi regular presentation for a congressioinal oversight commitee. But not under oath.

[vnjagvet]

Very sad Derby.

That poor filly ran one of the very best races of any filly ever, without apparent incident on the track. The effort must have been too much for her, since she broke down a ways away from the finish line. Beating 28 horses in the Derby is a great accomplishment for a horse of any gender. The owners must be devastated.

That Big Brown seemed to be something special, though. His acceleration at the head of the stretch was something to see -- especially from the blimp shot.

[sbw]

Ann, I wish you a better night not dwelling on it. Remember, instead, the good times you had with your horse.

One of my great times was when we took our son and daughter (12 and 10 at the time) riding the ridges and valleys near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, It's a week they will cherish all their days.

[Danube of Thought]

I have the honor to remind everyone that Ms. Wurtzel was fired from the Dallas Morning News for plagiarism.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

[Danube of Thought]

I think North's convictions were ultimately overturned, and he thus has no criminal record. But, like Billy Ayers, we know very well what he did, and each of us can judge for ourselves the gravity of the actions of both of them.

[sbw]

Whether legal or illegal, North acted like an ass. I didn't like him at the time. But then, most of the congress-critters at the time acted asses, too.

[pagar]

"It's about Obama's politics and whether he believes what they believe."

Larry Johnson has another post about Obama and includes a picture of the incoming vice president of AERA. Article

"Barack Obama may have been eight years old when William “Billy” Ayers was planting bombs at the State Department and the U.S. Capitol, but the Senator was a grown man working in the employ of Mr. Ayers when this picture appeared in August 2001."

[Sara]

The idea that there is any equivalence between Ollie North and Ayers is ludicrous.

Ollie did his fighting on the battlefield, where he earned the Silver Star, not in post offices, U.S. army bases, or the homes of private citizens. Nor to my knowledge has he killed police officers or had a girl friend blow her brains out when her bomb exploded too soon.

Ollie North fights communism, socialism and religious extremists/terrorists, Ayers is at war with the American way of life and advocates a Marxist society and is proud of his domestic terrorism.

[clarice]

Well, if you're going to be technical, Sara.

[Porchlight]

It was a very sad Derby. We went to the annual party a friend of mine (fellow Kentuckian) throws each year. I placed a $3 bet on Big Brown for my younger daughter and a $3 bet on Eight Belles for my older daughter. I had to chase the younger one around during the race, so I missed what happened after it ended. When I came back to the main room I couldn't figure out why a couple of the women were crying. In fact it wasn't until several minutes later (more chasing kids) that someone told me.

Funny, I was just reading this WSJ article last night that said that there have been some career- and life-ending injuries with all the progeny of Native Dancer interbreeding. Barbaro being the last, and now Eight Belles.

[vnjagvet]

Sorry for the typo. It was 18 horses she beat, not 28.

[troy mcclure]

North was directing much of the counter terror operations at the time, whether trying to find the hostages in Beirut's
southern neighborhoods; a job that folks
like future Black Hawk Down operations chief and anti-Pablo Escobar activist Col. William Garrison and Major Bill Cowan were
doing as part of Delta; along with future
Army Chief of Staff, Schoomaker and Special
Forces director Gerry Boykin. In retrospect
the Iran initiative was deeply flawed but in
light of the failure of allies to work with
Operation Staunch; detailed in Timmerman's Fanning the Flames, what were the realistic
alternatives. Lake's abandonment of Nicaragua & Iran, led to the power vaccuum were the Sandinistas and the quietist Shia
headed by Khomeini; but typified by Sepah Pasdaran officials like Vahidi, Ahmadinejad,
Nezhi-nejad, and Chamran, The last, a Berkeley educated DEfense Minister's the godfather of Hezbollah, typified by Najafi
educated clerics like Fadlallah, Iranian born, Soviet trained torture specialists like Ibrahim Midhar; Dr. Azziz al Abub, and former PLO intelligence official Imad Mugniyeh. The early results of those offensives directed at the Marine barracks at the Khaldun Airport, the Embassies on the
Corniche and the Auk sites, which featured
Shiite Iranians operating out their
consulates in Sunni dominant Allawite Syria
(much like Bin Laden's mothers side of the family) must have posed a problem for the
intelligence community than as now. Some people do actually learn from these lessons like Maliki, a long time Da'wa veteran who lived the struggles, and wants them not to
be repeated with Muqtada Sadr as "Baby" Fadlallah.

On another note, saw Iron Man. despite the
anti MIC rant that was wedged in the front seat, to establish 'truthiness' is the closest thing to a film that celebrates our need to fight the War on Terror. Downey's
'acting' as Stark, suggests how a more ideosyncratic corporate chieftain than the reviled BlackWater's Erik Prince would settle the problem. The Taliban successor,
The Ten Rings, are seen as the real enemy
although facilitated by Bridge's Stane
subterfuges. A Bat Man with a global reach.

[Jane]

It was a very sad Derby

What happened? I've been out listening to a very inspiring Schonda Schilling and missed it.

[boris]

Eight Belles, first filly in some years to run in the derby finished 2nd, about 4 lengths behind Big Brown, then collapsed with 2 broken front legs after the wire and was put down.

[Porchlight]

Oops, sorry, Ann, didn't mean to dwell on the sad Derby. It did cheer me up a little to see my youngest toddling around the room with a wad of dollar bills in her pocket from the Big Brown bet. Of the twenty or so people at the party, only four bet on the favorite.

If anyone wants some amusement, read the comments to the No Quarter post that pagar linked above. If you close your eyes for a minute and try to forget what blog you're on, it reads almost like a righty blog. One of the commenters even links JOM approvingly!

[Danube of Thought]

I'm not that big a fan of North, but I've never had any doubts about which side he was on in the most important fights of my lifetime.

Ben, you have a point--I've never seen any evidence that Ayers advised Obama about anything, and if in fact he did I'd love to hear about it. In fact I'd love to hear that they were homosexual lovers, but I don't want to jump the gun.

This Derby thing makes me sad as hell. We timed it just right and turned the thing on about two minutes before they sang the song, which always makes me have to wipe my eyes. We watched it till the end, the turned it off--didn't learn what had happened until I read about it.

[Porchlight]

Glad to know "Weep no more my lady" has that effect on non-Kentuckians too, DoT.

[Sara]

Okay, I can't take the sadness anymore. It was horrible to watch it unfold. But here is a palate cleanser of sorts to get that picture out of your mind. Scroll to the middle.

Chelsea does Derby

[Sara]

Shoot Porchlight, I was bawling over the Budweiser "Hank" ad. Now that's pathetic.

[Jane]

Boris,

Ugh. GUess I'm glad I missed it. Thanks for filling me in.

[Rick Ballard]

North is a KozKiddy red herring being fed to a canard sitting on a strawman. Not worth rebuttal.

We've had:

Rezko - pol renting crook

Wright - racist nutter reading from the New Testament as interpreted by Karl Marx

Ayers/Dohrn - domestic terrorists, commie to the core

What's next? Will Red Witch recycle Rezko the crook as he cuts a deal? How many commies reside in the closets of BHO Manse?

I'm betting Rezko redux - Red Witch has as many (if not more) commies under her bed as Red BHO does and the MSM gets queasy when commies get dragged under the lights. It must be like what an ant thinks when it sees a cockroach get squashed - it could be me next.

[Fat Man]

I agree with Charlie Elizabeth Wurtzel is a very talented young woman;-)

[Appalled]

TM:

What's the charge against Obama, here? Knowing a radical without a license. Precisely, what is the charge?

[Danube of Thought]

Potentially very strange judgment on the part of a man about whom we really know very little. An extrmely damaging uncertainty concerning one who holds himself out as a man who will "heal our souls," or who transcends the politics of the past, or who will bridge our great divides.

Will that "charge" suffice? [In reality, it will much more than suffice to bar him from the nation's highest office--but here, we deal not so much in cold realities as in polemics.] If it won't, we'll be glad to fill in the blanks almost without end, and certainly with great gusto.

Feeling a bit down about the erstwhile Messiah's chances, are we? Tut tut...

[Appalled]

Bad judgemnt, DoT? How could Obama avoid Ayers and engage in politics in his home district? is all of the Chicago political establishment guilty of bad judgement and disqualified from higher office.

Try again. What's the underlying charge?

[Danube of Thought]

"How could Obama avoid Ayers and engage in politics in his home district?"

His problem, not mine.

"is all of the Chicago political establishment guilty of bad judgement and disqualified from higher office."

No idea. Let any of 'em run for president, and at that point we'll give 'em a close look. In the meantime, this guy has toasted himself.

"Try again?" Why should I? I'll play these. We win, you lose.

[Barry]

"is all of the Chicago political establishment guilty of bad judgement and disqualified from higher office."

Well, probably. I mean, they do have a reputation.

It would seem to be your suggestion that since Obama couldn't escape bad political actors, we should overlook his close involvement with terrorists, crooks, and liars.

[Brown Line]

I've never seen a president in the flesh. But I did once see a first lady. It was Rosalyn Carter, and she was honorary chairwoman of the Armed Forces Day parade in Chicago in, I believe, 1978. She was on the reviewing stand, and with her was the Democratic precinct captain who organized the parade that year, a 36-year-old man named John Wayne Gacy. That was about six months before Gacy's arrest.

Of course, Carter hadn't a clue as to who Gacy was; nobody did. Unlike Bill Ayers, Gacy didn't brag of his crimes to the New York Times. If Gacy had beaten the rap on a technicality and Carter had then sought out his company, only then would she be as culpable as Obama is.

[HoosierHoops]

Hi Folks..
Back in Indiana tonight from Cali..As you know our family was visiting with Jordan fresh back from Iraq..
About a week and a half ago I posted about meeting him from the bus..
During my 3 hour layover in Denver today I got the chance to read all of your heartfelt and warm responses to my post.
We had a great time..Hanging with Jordan's squad all week was great.
What a wonderful group of young men..
I have a bunch of stories to tell but it's late..good night and thanks so much for our Marines.

[Danube of Thought]

HH, I'll wait with bated breath for those stories--please give us every detail. The world doesn't really know anything quite like young Marines.

[Danube of Thought]

P.S. for HH: Did we give you some Chamber of Commerce weather, or what? Hope you polished up on your surfing skills...

is all of the Chicago political establishment guilty of bad judgement and disqualified from higher office.

From the list of indictments, it's certainly look