Radio Killed The Media Star

Steve Diamond, who has led the way on untangling the Obama/Ayers/Annenberg Challenge connection, was listening to the radio while Obama's mob tried to shout down Stanley Kurtz.

MORE: A bit of flavor from Jonah Goldberg and Andy McCarthy.

Jim Lindgren is baffled by the zeal of the Obama response:

2. Kurtz, unlike Ayers, is denounced in the most vicious and uncivil terms (there is a lot more than I quoted). If Obama or his campaign had ever denounced Ayers with the fervor that his campaign has now used in denouncing Kurtz, Obama wouldn’t be having trouble on his connection to Ayers...

I think I can help with this puzzle:

3. I heard Kurtz’s statements on FOX, and — though my memory may well be faulty — I thought that Kurtz was speculating that Ayers had probably recruited Obama, not stating it as a fact.

From MichaelW of Q&O:

First off, Kurtz has not made any such claim, neither in the interview cited in the email, nor in his article for the National Review. He has suggested that Obama's recruitment by Ayers was likely given the extent of their relationship, but he hasn't explicitly claimed that Obama was definitely recruited. This is why Smith hasn't seen any "hard evidence" backing up such a claim: Kurtz didn't make it.

He offers a link to a YouTube clip of the interview, so I presume his confidence is justified (YouTibe locks up my computer - I am trapped in the 90's).

Comments

[M. Simon]

I believe Sampson has pulled down the temple supports without getting a scratch.

[M. Simon]

I believe Sampson has pulled down the temple supports without getting a scratch.

[kim]

Diamond accentuates the authoritarian in Ayers. The evil is being exposed.
===============================

[clarice]

I heard Diamond last night and liked him very much--he's a Trotskyite--democratic socialist type--to Ayers Stalinist authoritarian persona.

People like that may be wrong but they tend to be very decent.

In any event he was very believable and the notion that someone from the left like him and someone from the right like Kurtz could see the facts and put the same interpretation on them was refreshing.

[Rick Ballard]

Steve Diamond asserts in his piece that:

"Together Ayers and Obama worked to hand out more than $160 million in and around the Chicago school system to groups that allegedly were going to work to improve student achievement."

He does so after having mentioned the $160 million number previously in the same piece. He also provides links to the CAC Form 990 returns for most of the years in which CAC existed. Within those forms are sections which delineate total CAC disbursements of a little over $52 million.

I appreciate the work Mr. Diamond has done on this matter and I would hope that he can provide an explanation of the difference between the two numbers. I am aware that the terms of the Annenberg grant were that recipients of Annenberg money were to raise $2 for every $1 disbursed by Annenberg but those funds (in the absolutely unlikely event that they were, in fact, raised) were not dispursed by the CAC board nor Ayers' "action arm" but by the CAC grant recipients themselves.

I don't see a problem in alluding to the fact that $160 million should have been spent but I would hate to see the entire matter become wrapped in accusations of overstatement.

Barack Obama, in collaboration with the terrorist, William Ayers, distributed over $50 million dollars intended to be used to improve the education of the children of Chicago. Their joint effort was so ill conceived and poorly run that no measureable net benefit whatsoever accrued to Chicago's children.

Barack Obama is correct to attempt to conceal his collaboration with a terrorist. He is also correct to attempt to conceal the fact that his only experience as an executive was an abysmal failure. It may be that the collaboration with the terrorist played some part in Obama's overall failure to help Chicago's children.

What other failures is Barack Obama concealing? What other collaborative efforts has he attempted (aside from his work for convicted felon, Tony Rezko)?

[MayBee]

$160 million number previously in the same piece.

That figure seems to be the one thing Obama's campaign hasn't attacked.

[Rick Ballard]

MayBee,

Perhaps they haven't attacked it because the stink of the fraud perpetuated by CAC in tapping Annenberg for $50 mil is too strong? That's my suspicion.

[GMax]

MY guess on the funding amount "differences" is that much of the matching funds were in soft matching, inkind matches. Funds did not flow from the "partner" to CAC and then get disbursed. In fact in grant situations, the inkind portion some times ( lots of times? ) gets to be a creative masterpiece. In other words, probably would have happened anyway or an ephemeral thing. Accountants can be very creative, artists with a pencil, when necessary to get funds flowing, that is what paid their own salaries which did not come out of the matching side!

I say this as a CPA and former board member from a community center in the ghetto with numerous granting sources and a plethora of grant requirements and restrictions.

If you look carefully, you might find the matching funds, matching two or more different grants. Its like hamburger helper I tell ya!

[clarice]

Coule be, Rick and GMax..nevertheless Diamond and Kurtz both of whom have seen and studied more CAC records than I have both are sticking with a lower $110 million figure. Now if some of this was soft and it still came to only $50 million or super padded and came to $160 million it still represented the pissing away of lots of money for which there was a need to improve education, and education is a premier muddle issue. Aside from whether or not you like Ayers , the fact that this was O's only experience as an executive and only known experience on education, it looks very bad.

[clarice]

(Diamond 's use of the $110 million figure notes that under the terms of the grant the total number should have been $160 but says nevertheless it was $110m.

[MayBee]

I noticed this on their fightthesmears website, and I see it again in their smearStanleyKurtz email:
That is completely false and has been disproved in numerous press accounts.

Numerous press accounts based on hidden records don't prove anything.
It's such an odd construct, to stonewall the press and then point to the results as "proof" of something.

Rick- good suspicion.

[Sue]

Any way that we can put her on the ticket? At least she knows that
when you meet a bully, you bloody his nose, instead of entering into
multilateral negotiations with fellow neighborhood kids.

This wasn't me Goldberg was quoting at the Corner but it could have been. I asked my husband how a woman who taught her son to fight back wound up with Joe Biden?

[Rick Ballard]

GMax,

Agreed. Easily provable fraud occurs when the entity receiving funds from CAC on a 2/1 basis doesn't have "3" as a total within their 990. It wouldn't take a CPA to run through the 990's of the 45 CAC grant recipients and pick out the abnormally healthy weeds among the flowers.

It really doesn't matter unless the ObamaJugend start spouting "gross exageration" in an attempt at rebuttal. The initial impetus needs to focus on Obama's failure as an executive - whether he blew $50 million or $160 million is of little import. In the unfortunate circumstance of his winning the election he'll blow that much before the end of his first week.

[Caller]

"That is completely false and has been disproved in numerous press accounts."

Funny you should mention that line. You must listen to the WGN podcast of the Kurtz interview and go to the 1:09:30 mark and listen to that caller. It is a riot! Especially Kurtz's reponse after the call.

Link from M. Simon for show:

POD cast of the show 8-27-08

The McCain team has got to hire the "Crank Yankers" puppets to due a video ad of these callers.

[stan]

Press accounts "disproved" a claim??!! What a stupid assertion.

BTW -- Obama and Ayers have the facts. Why should anyone rely on a press account? Obama and Ayers can release all their records and answer questions directly.

[Enlightened]

Getting Curiouser. IMO - Rev Wright, on the surface, appeared quite controversial and the Obama team denounced him and threw him under the bus in no time flat.

Seemingly the CAC/Ayres connection - at face value - appears considerably less controversial - yet Obama's team is becoming unhinged over it.

Mr. Kurtz is clearly radioactive - Makes ya wonder.

[Enlightened]

How long before the McCain team has a youtube up on the radio fiasco? They should pounce on this one to force it into the mainstream.

[GMax]

Hard for Obama to wear enough flag pins to remove the taint if he gets tied closely to a guy pictured and proud of standing on the American Flag. That is why they are flailing about so furiously, its death in the Midwest, not so much in Chicago and San Fran and NYC.

[SWarren]

Wasn't there a balance turned over to some Education Fund when CAC folded? I don't remember what that amount was. If you take Clarice's figure of $110M - $52M disbursed = $58M. Was that the amount turned over to the Education Fund?

[clarice]

IIRC there was a fairly insignificant amount turned over at the conclusion of the project...nothing like $58m.

[clarice]

O did throw Ayers buddy Klonsky under the bus fast. Come to think of it, Klonsky looks none too smart and someone posing as a fresh young lefty journalist student could probably get a lot of stuff from him now.

[Extraneus]

Doesn't "bomb designer" have more impact than "unrepentant domestic terrorist"?

[daleyrocks]

The left doesn't appear to have it's talking points disseminated yet on this issue. An organized response has not appeared so far at least from looking at Memeorandum.

Confuzzlement? Waiting for instructions?

[clarice]

No comeback, daleyrocks--facts is facts.

[JM Hanes]

"That is completely false and has been disproved in numerous press accounts."

What press accounts? There's a reason they don't actually cite any press accounts or venues. Surely if, say, the New York Times or the Chicago Trib had debunked this story, they'd have featured that fact prominently.

[SWarren]

Someone mentioned that Klonsky had a blog on Obama's website until all the sh*t hit fan, then it disappeared. How dumb is it to have a commie blogger on your official website?

[clarice]

Man, that jmh is picky, picky...

[Sue]

OT, but I got this email and laughed out loud...

I believe the democrats have suddenly developed a keen sense of morality. John Edwards has been banned from making a speech at the democratic convention for having an affair and lying about it.

In his place Bill Clinton will be speaking......

[Ann]

RUSH is all over this story and he is p*ssed.

[clarice]

Why not,Ann--we now have two more damned good issues to use against Obama:(a)CAC and (b) his willingness to threaten criminal consequences and loss of FEC licenses to anyone who airs anything no matter how truthful critical of the fake narrative about himself.

[Jane]

I'm listening to the podcast right now. I just have to laugh about how measured those two are. It's a riot against the backdrop of the Obama campaign's calamitous reaction.

[Buford Gooch]

I find it amusing (as a native Illinoisan) that the Obama political machine reverts to typical Chicago thug politics. Obama used the same tactics when running for state, then national, Senate. I don't think it will work as well in a Presidential campaign. However, it's all they know, and when in trouble, revert to it.

[clarice]

Two mild mannered very civil professorial types (Rosenberg teaches or taught philosophy at the Univ of Chacgo) and Kurtz has a PhD in antrhopology from Harvard) against a backdrop of stop what you're doing I don't like it, and I'm not going to tell you what the lies are, etc etc..really a dramatic two hours.

[Charlie]

UIC needs to be challenged the same way that numerous Churches and other institutions are being challenged by the left for acting as political institutions rather than public/charitable ones.

UIC now scrupulously claims that they are maintaining records which are not theirs to make public BUT they won't even tell us WHO they belong to.

Providing services as a secret repository of documents for a secret person which contain secret information pertaining to the distribution of hundreds of millions of charitable(?) funds is NOT what the tax code/education department/donors/etc. contemplate when acting to support an "educational" institution.

Kurtz has been rebuffed so far and this next level of challenge appears to be called for.

If UIC wants to act as an arm of one political party, they need to register as such and give up their status as an educational institution, with all the benefits attached.

[clarice]

Tonight, John McCain will talk directly to his opponent in a television ad his campaign is airing in battleground states, around the time Barack Obama accepts the presidential nomination, McCain's campaign said.Aides would give few details beyond the fact that McCain will speak directly to the camera, addressing Obama.The strip-tease on the ad is one of several moves by the McCain campaign that could distract attention from Obama's big night. (politico)

HEH

[Porchlight]

It was amazing radio. Thanks again to Sara for providing the link last night - it was great fun to listen live. I hope to listen to Rosenberg more often.

[MayBee]

Confuzzlement? Waiting for instructions?

I think they are confident most media outlets won't highlight the story.
TIME magazine's blog is busy telling us how cranky McCain is.

[clarice]

Charlie, UIC relented and made the records public--perhaps some are not yet--i.e. the audits and you might have a point on those, but so far Kurtz is not complaining any longer of lack of access.

[cathyf]

I think we should hold back a bit on criticisizing the whole "matching" funds aspects. The way I understand it, the requirement for matching funds is an attempt by the big out-of-town donor to tie into the knowledge of the locals. Which would not necessarily mean that the matching funds would be new fundraising with the partners. In fact, most of the best money-spending opportunities would be to take existing programs that were proven successes and give them money to expand to help more kids.

To take an example, where they funded the "peace education" program, while turning down the algebra program. Suppose CAC went out and found some "new money" to fund 2/3 of the peace education project and then funded the other 1/3 with Annenberg money. Contrast that with taking the existing algebra program that spends X dollars, and giving a grant up to 0.5*X dollars and calling the funds already in the program "matching funds." If that was what was going on, I'd take a algebra program with "creative accounting" every time over a "peace university" with completely above-board 2-1 match with new fundraising.

In fact, it looks to me like a really effective way to spend Annenberg's $50 million would have been for Annenberg to have called up Paul Valles and said, "Hey, Paul, here's $50 million. Wherever the schools are doing something that works and all that is needed to work better is some more money, well, here it is."

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Big bounce overnight, Gallop now 48 to 42 Obama.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

O’ Hail the Messiah Lord Obama - Anthem

Enjoy!

[Rick Ballard]

CathyF,

I wouldn't mind a holdback on examination of the matching funds at all. My sole point is that one shouldn't use a number which can be disputed as a "gross exageration" unless the backup exists to prove the assertion.

Obama has no comeback on this and I would hate to have fog generated over something simple. One might make the point that an argument over how much money was wasted forces acknowledgement of the fact that it was wasted but, IMO, the main point is that Obama had executive responsibility for a program whose intended beneficiaries were the children of Chicago, not the terrorist Ayer's commie cab driver buddy. Blowing $50 mil in that manner is certainly as worthy of note as blowing $160 mil would be.

[clarice]

Far left as a state senator, too:

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/wehner/23401

Awful on crime issues I recall Kurtz last night saying O and Dohrn had many of the same views and on crime as well.

[Sue]

It doesn't seem like the Gallup poll bounce was much of a bounce. If you read the article written with the poll, it didn't include much of last night, so it had Michelle and Hillary. After Hillary, I expected a much larger bounce, since her voters would more than likely follow suit and back Obama.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

I cannot believe what happened last night on the Milt Rosenberg show. Rosenberg is the apex of honest, civil, astute debate about issues important to the public. His show is a mainstay for in depth conversation with people that write very good books.

Two hours with Milt Rosenberg is the Chicago radio equivalent of spending 30 minutes with Brian Lamb on Book TV. Listeners tune in BECAUSE of the civility and the topics.

If you have not, please listen to the podcast from last night. You will hear Milt Rosenberg says things that have never happened on his show in three decades of broadcasts.

The Obama Campaign made a serious blunder last night with the action alert urging supporters to shut down the broadcast. This will only make the Obama-Ayers story even bigger.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

4 Years ago today was the worst day of my life. The Olympics were on, the ramblings over John Kerry's medals was starting to bubble, the Dem convention was over and the Repub had not begun yet, and I lost my Mom that day.

The Kerry "reporting for duty" and how he impacted our family so negatively motivated me to seek out others who felt about him as I did as a way of distracting myself from grief.

I feel like I'm in deja vu. I didn't react last year to this sad anniversary, but this year I feel like I've been smacked in the face. The Olympics, the conventions, and now a similar type obfuscation by a dem candidate are all conspiring to make this a crazy emotional day.

Looking around Google for this date in 2004, I see the first questions being raised about Kerry's medals and this little blurb over at Tigerhawk, which seems all too similar to today:

8/28/2004 - Little Miss Attila reports that friends of John Kerry have threatened a lawsuit for copyright infringement -- here's a copy of their nastygram -- against people who post the picture from the front of John Kerry's book "The New Soldier." The nastygram did not, apparently, deter Attila, who posted the picture here. Go to the link, and then come back.

Attila observes out that the picture is a parody of the famous raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. I think she understated it. I would describe the cover of Kerry's book as a mockery of that picture. Looking at these two pictures side by side, it is extremely fair to say that John Kerry, during his very embarrassing youthful years, mocked the most iconic moment of the Greatest Generation. If I were Karl Rove, I'd run these two photos side-by-side on every television show with an over-70 demographic between now and the election.

So thank you democrats for distracting me from my sadness and replacing it with a determination not to let your sorry totalitarian a$$es anywhere near the White House.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Having never been a law school student, I'm sure I don't have the appreciation of this as those who have, but I still think it telling:

Barack Obama, the law student, was not like you other law students.

From the same Jodi Kantor piece discussed in the previous post, I had to break out these law school nuggets.

“I thought of him much more as a colleague” than a student, said Laurence Tribe, a law professor at Harvard for whom Mr. Obama worked. “I didn’t think of him as someone to send out on mechanical tasks of digging out all the cases.” Other students could do that, Professor Tribe added.

Other students.

Long before the presidential race, some around him seemed to resent his ability to galvanize a following. “Bluebooking is not important for celebrities,” fellow students joked about him in the law review parody, referring to the tedious process of checking citations.

That's for you other students.

[Jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet]

I am about half way through the WGN interview with Kurtz. It is fascinating because of the professorial tone and the precision of the discourse between Milt and Stanley.

Kurtz sounds like the trained anthropological professional he is.

I think it almost takes an anthropologist to dig through this information and make sense of it in the terms .

I am downloading this because I think it may prove to be a turning point in the campaign. It may be a historical document.

[clarice]

I think it is, Jim.

Imagine after trying to pawn off this leftist on an unsuspecting public as a post partisan, post racial candidate.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Carl Cameron (Fox) has just confirmed that Colin Powell has NOT been vetted for VP, so breathe easier on that score.