Covering The Story While Burying It

Who among us does not embrace NPR?  For earnest yet utterly false "objectivity" they have no peer.  Their recent "coverage" by David Schaper of the Obama-Ayers relationship is a classic.

On the bare facts they are laudably (OK, plausibly) thorough.  All that is missing is any context about the evasions and deceptions put out by the Obama campaign since this issue arose in February.  Why the evasions and cover-up?  What evasions and cover-up?!?

Watch for the palmed card in this key passage:

Here's how Obama first described the nature of his relationship with Ayers, when asked about it in a Democratic presidential debate against Sen. Hillary Clinton in April: "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who is a professor of English in Chicago, who I know, and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He is not someone I exchange ideas (with) on a regular basis."

Obama went on to say Ayers "engaged in despicable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old," and to suggest that "that reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."

How Well Do They Know Each Other?

But Palin suggests Obama is downplaying how well he knows Ayers.

"Barack Obama said Ayers was just someone in the neighborhood. But that's less than truthful. His own top adviser said they were 'certainly friendly.' In fact, Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers' home. And they've worked together on various projects in Chicago," Palin said Sunday.

Did Obama "pal around with," Ayers? And, more importantly, is Ayers still considered a terrorist?

On the first question, there is some evidence to suggest Obama knows Ayers a little better than he acknowledges. They certainly ran in the same liberal Chicago circles in the 1990s and early 2000s. They lived within blocks of each other, and Obama's two daughters now go to the same school Ayers' children attended, though they are now grown.

The Obama campaign says he first met Ayers in 1995, when Obama became chair of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a $50 million fund that awarded grants to groups trying to implement new programs to improve inner city education in Chicago.

NPR does note Obama's early "guy who lives in my neighborhood" evasion.  They then boldly aver that there is "some evidence" (lots, actually) to "suggest" (try "prove") that Obama knows Ayers "a little better" (i.e., a lot better) than he admitted. 

Next NPR provides an explanation from the campaign that dates the relationship to the inception of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge in 1995.

So what is missing?  The reader is given no hint that the explanations from the Obama campaign have been changing and evolving since February.  Briefly:

February - their kids went to the same school (Axelrod to Ben Smith, Politico)

April - some guy in the neighborhood (Obama, debate).

April Fact Check - recycles news reports but does not volunteer the Chicago Annenberg Challenge connectioon.

May - They met at a political meet-and-greet in 1995 (campaign aides to NY Times).

August/October - OK, they met on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge in early 1995 but Obama knew nothing of Ayers' stormy Weather past (Axelrod, Obama).

And these are the people whose current story we are meant to uncritically accept.  Had the NPR troubled to mention the previously shifting sands people might have been more inclined to take the current story with a grain of salt.  But in NPR world there is only the faintest, faintest whiff of cover-up.

Let me toss out a couple of reasons for skepticism of the current Obama explanation.  First, there was a push in Chicago for school reform in 1988, which Obama mentions working on before he left for Harvard ("Dreams From My Father", p. 289).  Obama's Developing Communities Project ended up in the ABCs Coalition coordinated by Bill Ayers.  Why didn't they meet then?

Secondly, how in the world did Obama, with no background in education, become tapped as the chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge without being OK'ed by Bill Ayers, a leader of the Challenge effort who had spent a year bringing the project together?  The current Obama story defies common sense.

In my view there are two stories here.  One is the ongoing Obama cover-up; normally the press pokes at cover-ups because they figure (often correctly) that the candidate is concealing something worth concealing.  What might that be here?  I don't know, but I do smile at the many, many people (including those in the press) who believe that even though they do not know the extent of the Obama-Ayers relationship they know it is not relevant.  Judgment first, evidence later - is that reality-based?

Secondly, it seems to me that since Obama is covering something up he has become indebted to people (such as Bill Ayers) who are abetting that cover-up.  What favors are acruing here, and how deeply does the Chicago machine have their hooks into Obama?  I don't think we will find out by ignoring this.

But ignore it our watchdogs in the media will!  At least until they figure out Joe the Plumber's tax situation, if not the tax challenge faced by Obama's treasurer.  Then it will be back to Alaska; I heard Sarah Palin scribbled in a library book when she was in second grade - that's destruction of government property, is it not?

Comments

[MayBee]

When I read this in the Offical Obama fact check, I was floored all over again:

Noam Scheiber Of TNR: "I Don't See Evidence Of Any Relationship" Between Obama And Ayers. Noam Scheiber of The New Republic wrote, "Ben says Ayers and Obama were, at best, casual friends. Even that seems to overstate things, though. I don't see evidence of any relationship. The only concrete connection we know of is the meeting, which was attended by a number of local liberals; their contemporaneous membership on the board of a local organization; and a $200-donation by Ayers to one of Obama's state senate campaigns.

How weasely to use an excerpt wherein the reporter says "that we know of", as some sort of fact check on the guy that knows that reporter is wrong.

Patterico points us to a bit of a howler from Lynn Sweet as well.

Ayers did not came up in the first two presidential debates. If McCain continues to insist that Obama launched his political career from Ayers' Hyde Park living room, he is misleading the public by overplaying the size and significance of Ayers' early support.

As far as I know, Lynn Sweet did not do any early reporting on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, nor did she break any stories on the early-career coffee at the Ayres house.
Yet she somehow thinks it is McCain's fault for not providing the facts in the way she now chooses to report.

[Jane]

In case you didn't see it elsewhere, the full SC just ruled for the dems in Ohio.

[MayBee]

The full SC Jane? Wow. I thought it was just Kennedy (or Stevens. whichever)

[MayBee]

I'm really surprised.
Though I shouldn't be. Yesterday Chris Matthews said if the Ohio SoS doesn't win, up to 200,000 people will be kept from voting.

[badjoe]

NPR neglected to mention Jack Cashill's musings regarding the similarities between Obama's and Ayers' writing styles. This is his second article on the subject.

Linked Under Name (LUN)

[TexasToast]

Nobody cares but the R base.

Sorry. Get your TS card punched.

[SunnyDay]

according to Rush:

Brunner: "Let my people cheat.
SC: "So ordered"

[badjoe]

Maybee

Sweet is from Chicago. Ayers is just a guy in her neighborhood.

[Dave]

even though they do not know the extent of the Obama-Ayers relationship they know it is not relevant.

I think this is being too charitable towards the Obama-Media Complex.

I think they know (or at least suspect) that there's much more there, but they continue to spread the irrelevance meme around out of fear it would impede That One's ascendancy to not do so.

[Rocco]

That meet and greet was sponsored and arranged by ACORN and the Chicago DSA's New Party.

[Captain Hate]

NPR neglected to mention Jack Cashill's musings regarding the similarities between Obama's and Ayers' writing styles. This is his second article on the subject.

badjoe, I read that and noted it included that horrid excuse for poetry by Ostammer. I don't even think that would get a don't-hurt-the-esteem D in elementary school. It's like a virus hit a word-processing package and just started spitting out complete gibberish.

Needless to say I'm extremely depressed by the decision by our Supreme Commie Overlords but I have one question to any fellow Ahians: I voted in the special election to replace Tubbs-Jones (one of the few that did; I was #28 when I voted at 7 pm) and had to present my drivers license. Isn't that the case throughout the state or has WhoreBrunner completely screwed that pooch?

[Barbara]

Brunner: "Let my people cheat.
SC: "So ordered"

Oh, no.

[badjoe]

Ostammer

Cashill's theory puts a new spin on Obama's inability to speak fluently off-teleprompter. He's not just searching for words, he's searching for Bill Ayers' words.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Apparently, now the Obama people are complaining that McCain didn't vet Joe the Plumber. The dialogue Rand adds is pretty amusing.

[Rocco]

From Ben Smith at Politico

“I can remember being one of a small group of people who came to Bill Ayers’ house to learn that Alice Palmer was stepping down from the senate and running for Congress,” said Dr. Quentin Young, a prominent Chicago physician and advocate for single-payer health care, of the informal gathering at the home of Ayers and his wife, Dohrn. “[Palmer] identified [Obama] as her successor.”

Obama and Palmer “were both there,” he said.

From the Chicago DSA's New Party

Chicago New Party Update

September - October 1995

In order to build an organizational and financial base the NP is sponsoring house parties.

The political entourage included Barack Obama, chief of staff for State Sen. Alice Palmer. Obama is running for Palmer's vacant seat.

The NP is strategically organizing via house parties and tactically entering only elections that they can win.

[kim]

Apparently the Supremes dismissed the suit for lack of standing, and it will be refiled by Ohio voters with standing. How come lack of standing wasn't caught much earlier?
===============================

[clarice]

No! SCOTUS didn't!!! I have to go read that.

The original Obama quote that Ayers "is not someone I exchange ideas FROM on a regular basis." sure sounds Cashilly in retrospect. It is illiterate and it sounds all puppet and mastery.

[clarice]

Well-from a commenter at Lucianne:
"You can read the brief opinion here
www.supremecourtus.gov/opinion/08pdf/08A332.pdf

Excerpt: "The Court expresses no opinion as to whether HAMA (Help America To Vote Act 2002) is being properly implemented."

Apparently the Court said there was no provision for private citizens to challenge her acts and returned it to the Dist Ct. Now Mukasey has to step in and say HAVA requires this. If he's not too busy prosecuting people for correctly informing voters that illegal aliens can't vote.

[badjoe]

Clarice, you are on to something. While Ayers describes himself as "small c communist," Steve Diamond says he is Authoritarian.

[kim]

Would you please explain that a little more, clarice? Can the suit be refiled?
==============================

[kim]

It's a damn good thing that Diamond is a 'classic' liberal and not a progressive, who are as authoritarian as they come.
=================================

[clarice]

kim, I've been running errands and haven't done much work on this but the case was not dismissed, it was sent back to the Dist Ct because SCOTUS said the GOP was not permitted under HAVA to bring suit. It appears that only the US can sue so Mukasey has to get off his ass and act if he wants to stop this outrage. If he does,it seems to me the factual issues have already been resolved--Brunner's methods are inadequate to safeguard against fraud and she needs to do something else--Now time is running out. The Dist Ct may have to adjust the deadlines under state law to achieve a fiar result. It all depends on Mukasey.

[clarice]

**HAMA*** (not HAVA)

[glenda waggoner]

where are all those pro-right US attorneys Bush/Gonzales were ripped about?
I Think this election might go on and on and on. Especially if Mc wins-the overlords at Acorn (dem party) have briefs ready in every state.
I saw a Rasmussen poll that says O and Mc are tied 39% in CT. Jane, are you going door-to-door? Need help?

[Jim Ryan]

I'm doing phone banks tonight. Envelopes tomorrow. Here in VA.

[badjoe]

Jim Ryan ROCKS!!!

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Heh. Hecklers are waving plungers at Obama.

On the other hand, someone is has already made an attack ad about Joe.

[kim]

Thank you very much for the information, clarice. Have you seen Kmiec's latest outrage in the LATimes about Obama and abortion? And to think I once hoped he'd be appointed Attorney General. He was sure right on about the Ashcroft hospital visit.
========================================

[clarice]

CT? I didn't think that was in play for the Reps..

[Jim Ryan]

Thanks, bad. But I'm not bragging - I'm prodding.

[badjoe]

That picture of the plunger wavers was priceless. They looked like they were having a ball.

The stupid ad against Joe was, well, stupid.

[glenda waggoner]

Go ! Jim ! Are you near Martinsville? Is it still raining there?

[Elliott]

Did Joe let 15 parking tickets go unpaid* for over 15 years? Because that would be a distraction.
________________________
*Note use of the Obama passive voice.

[glenda waggoner]

Me either, Clarice--It was Rasmussen on Fox this a.m.-not an outlyer

[Jim Ryan]

Oo! Kmiec. You lawyers may perhaps fill me in.

This summer I decided to pick up a couple of Conn Law textbooks to try to edumacate myself. I got Chemerinsky (well respected, yada yada) and I thought, hmm, is there a conservative one? Found Kmiec's textbook and got it. So I have these two. Then I see Kmiec lose a couple of his marbles.

Anyone have an opinion on these books?

[glenda waggoner]

could it be the Liebermann effect?

[Jim Ryan]

Charlottesville, Glenda (meaning I NEVER get to chew the fat with a conservative UNLESS I go to the RNC HQ.) Cold front sure hit in the wee hours. No rain now though.

[jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet]

The speaking heads are trying to make it inevitable today. I hope that is a bad sign for Obama.

Joe should be the symbol of the GOP from now 'til the election.

I just accepted an assignment for the Republican legal team in Charlotte, NC for the Monday through Wednesday of election week to try to assure the ACORN shenanigans are kept to a minimum.

My advice is get out and fight in any way you can. This is not the election for live-blogging.

[glenda waggoner]

Clarice-Rasmussen Reports has a sidebar with O leading 17% in CT,now. It was on,alright, my husband remembers it, but I guess maybe a producer was wrong. Unless it was meant to be CO-i'll go check that stat

[Jane]

Clarice,

If the SC has no standing, why wouldn't the District Court decision stand - or do they also lack standing? (I haven't seen the ruling)

[Jane]

Glenda,

I'm in MA not CT - altho we all look alike in the liberal Northeast.

[Jim Ryan]

My advice is get out and fight in any way you can. This is not the election for live-blogging.

Jim and Jim prod:

Go convince undecideds.

Go to an HQ and hit the phone bank.

[Jane]

Here is the answer: LUN

Analysis: Brunner v. Ohio Republican Party
Oct 17th, 2008
by brad.

Although disappointing, it is not surprising that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the order requiring Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner “to update Ohio’s Statewide Voter Registration Database.” [PDF link]

No big conspiracy, just a procedural fumble. The Ohio Republican Party (ORP) sued under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which required state officials to:

match information in the database of the statewide voter registration system with information in the database of the motor vehicle authority to the extent required to enable [the] official to verity the accuracy of the information provided on applications for voter registration.

42 U.S.C. § 15483(a)(5)(B)(i). The Court specifically said, “We express no opinion on the question whether HAVA is being properly implemented.”

The problem was that the requirements for a temporary restraining order (TRO) were not met. Among those requirements is a likelihood of success on the merits in the subsequent litigation; here, the Court said that the ORP was:

not sufficiently likely to prevail on the question whether Congress has authorized the District Court to enforce Section 303 in an action brought by a private litigant to justify the issuance of a TRO.

In other words, the ORP probably lacks standing under HAVA to sue Brunner. However, HAVA is not completely toothless and does provice an enforcement mechanism:

The Attorney General may bring a civil action against any State or jurisdiction in an appropriate United States District Court for such declaratory and injunctive relief (including a temporary restraining order, a permanent or temporary injunction, or other order) as may be necessary to carry out the uniform and nondiscriminatory election technology and administration requirements under sections 301, 302, and 303.

42 U.S.C. § 15511. So the U.S. Attorney General is likely the only party able to sue Brunner.

Michael B. Mukasey, where are you? Come on, Bush, don’t let massive voter fraud happen just so you can stay above the fray. Your legacy is already shot, so what does it matter if Democrats hate you even more?

(Others currently ‘waiting for more details:’ Michelle Malkin, Ace of Spades, Hot Air)

UPDATE:

To answer the question Allah Pundit poses at the end of the Hot Air post, a ‘private attorney general’ is not an actual legal concept that grants standing. Under certain statutes, a private right of action is explicitly granted to sue where there is no private harm in the traditional sense. The two main categories of statutes where a private individual/organization may sue to enforce public rights are civil rights and qui tam actions. I assume everyone knows what civil rights actions are (suits to enforce constitutional rights, generally); a qui tam action is one where a ‘relator’ (the ‘private attorney general’) sues someone that has committed fraud against the government. If the relator is successful, then he gets to keep a percentage of the recovery.

In both of these categories, there is an obvious benefit to allowing a private individual to bring suit where he would not otherwise be able to, because it allows for more rights violations and/or fraud on the government to be exposed and redressed.

The issue with HAVA, though, is that there is no private right of action in the statute. Additionally, there is already an individual constitutional right to vote. That means that an individual Ohio voter (or the ORP, possibly, on behalf of several) could sue under a theory that voter fraud dilutes the right to vote. The problem with the case here, though, is that (1) HAVA requirements do not necessarily reach the level of constitutional safeguards of the right to vote, and (2) evidence of actual fraud or the threat of actual fraud would probably be necessary to justify a TRO (not just evidence that Brunner is not following HAVA). The HAVA requirement is only for matching databases, so a voting-rights suit would require different (and far more) proof than attempting to hold Brunner to the terms of HAVA.

Like I mentioned above, though, Attorney General Mukasey has the power under the statute to sue to enforce HAVA. So where is he?

[glenda waggoner]

I will be poll sitting starting next week, know early voting judge, well. At dem primary, many were turned away due to inability to prove who they were. The lines were horrendous-at rep primary I only had to wait about 5 min to vote, but even for an uncontested primary, really, it was brisk. This was this first primary I haven't early voted in years-we really thought Obama would never beat Hillary for the nomination.

[glenda waggoner]

Sorry, Jane--I do remember your fondness of Kerry, now-Hee!--Rush is reporting Obama must be in trouble-he is now saying McCain will cut or take your medicare away--class warfare for the "One".
People--he will not change one thing you hope for. He wants power to control you for his ideals which is not what "1776" was about.

[Terry Gain]

"I heard Sarah Palin scribbled in a library book when she was in second grade - that's destruction of government property, is it not?"

This story has been entirely discredited in sober circles. The alleged witness is one L. Ian Donkey

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Cashill is himself a lousy writer. He buried this:

A newly discovered anecdote from Bill Ayers' 1993 book, To Teach, solidifies the case that he is indeed the muse behind Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father.

In the book, Ayers tells the story of an adventurous teacher who would take her students out to the streets of New York to learn interesting life lessons about the culture and history of the city. As Ayers tells it, the students were fascinated by the Hudson River nearby and asked to see it. When they got to the river's edge, one student said, " Look, the river is flowing up." A second student said, "No, it has to flow south-down."

Not knowing which was right, the teacher and the students did their research. What they discovered, writes Ayers, was "that the Hudson River is a tidal river, that it flows both north and south, and they had visited the exact spot where the tide stops its northward push."

In his 1995 book, Dreams From My Father, Barack Obama shares a stunningly comparable anecdote about tidal rivers from his own brief New York sojourn. He tells of meeting with "Marty Kauffman" at a Lexington Avenue diner, the man from Chicago who was trying to recruit him as a community organizer.

After the meeting, Obama "took the long way home, along the East River promenade." As "a long brown barge rolled through the gray waters toward the sea," Obama sat down on a bench to consider his options. While sitting, he noticed a black woman and her young son against the railing. Overly fond of the too well remembered detail, Obama observes that "they stood side by side, his arm wrapped around her leg, a single silhouette against the twilight."

The boy appeared to ask his mother a question that she could not answer and then approached Obama: "Excuse me, mister," he shouted. "You know why sometimes the river runs that way and then sometimes it goes this way?"

"The woman smiled and shook her head, and I said it probably had to do with the tides." Obama uses the seeming indecisiveness of this tidal river as a metaphor for his own. Immediately afterwards, he shakes the indecision and heads for Chicago.

That is pretty telling.

[ljm]

Is it possible that the Ayers issue is the "goods" that Bob Novak reported, during the primaries, the Clinton's had on Obama? I believe the chatter was that the Clinton's had damning info on Obama that they weren't going to use.

Why isn't Ayer's doing any interviews? Somebody needs to get to this guy and ask him some questions.

The Hudson River thing is just too much of a coincidence.

[Sue]

From The Australian on Obama's book:

He described how his vision of the '60s was shaped by images of Black Panther leader Huey Newton, the fierce battle between police and demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic national convention, the ignominious last-second escape of defeated US personnel from Saigon, and the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont where Hells Angels bashed a young man to death.

Uh, I barely remember these things and I am 3 years older than Obama. I mostly remember them from reading about them later in life, with a flicker or 2 of images that happened. And he lived in Indonesia. He is such a liar.

[Caro]

could it be the Liebermann effect?

HA! I was going through a box of stuff yesterday and came across a bumper sticker from the '06 election in Connecticut. It reads
STICK'N WITH JOE.

I think I will put it on my car now.