Obama's Tie To The Ayers' Family

The press has reported a bit on the connection between Barack Obama and unrepentant Weatherman Bill Ayers (although most of the press has overlooked their six year relationship on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge).  However, Obama has also been linked to Bill Ayers' father, Thomas Ayers, the former CEO of Commonwealth Edison through the law firm Siddely Austin, their mutual interest in education reform, and their mutual service on an education board.

With that in mind, chew on this seeming coincidence:

When Illinois utility Commonwealth Edison wanted state lawmakers to back a hefty rate hike two years ago, it took a creative lobbying approach, concocting a new outfit that seemed devoted to the public interest: Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity, or CORE. CORE ran TV ads warning of a "California-style energy crisis" if the rate increase wasn't approved—but without disclosing the commercials were funded by Commonwealth Edison. The ad campaign provoked a brief uproar when its ties to the utility, which is owned by Exelon Corp., became known. "It's corporate money trying to hoodwink the public," the state's Democratic Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said. What got scant notice then—but may soon get more scrutiny—is that CORE was the brainchild of ASK Public Strategies, a consulting firm whose senior partner is David Axelrod, now chief strategist for Barack Obama.

Small world - Commonwealth Edison, Thomas Ayers' old stomping grounds, has been cozy with Barack Obama's chief strategist.  No, I don't know what it means, but I don't know that it is meaningless.

Comments

[Buford Gooch]

I have spent most of my live in Illinois. I grew up here. I've served in local elected positions in downstate Illinois. Illinois politics has been the same for decades. If you rise, you are "connected". If you aren't "connected", you don't rise.

[clarice]

I know, I know, Look who's talking, but I think "Siddely Austin" is misspelled.

[windansea]

what the carp are you talking about Clarice?

[bgates]

If you rise, you are "connected".
That line in connection with Obama reminds me of a movie trailer from about 10 years ago. Some saccharine Keanu Reeves piece of....
Anyway, we watched the trailer with increasing disinterest, then burst into laughter at the title: "Hope Floats".

[clarice]

"However, Obama has also been linked to Bill Ayers' father, Thomas Ayers, the former CEO of Commonwealth Edison through the law firm Siddely Austin, their mutual interest in education reform, and their mutual service on an education board."

[tgharris]

"No, I don't know what it means, but I don't know that it is meaningless."

It means the good senator isn't the squeaky clean populist hope-bringer he pretends to be....Or else his chief strategist wouldn't be a man that was willing to work for an E-ville utility.

I wonder if Axelrod would take on the cause of oil shale licensing/drilling/production?

[Karl]

The classic illustration was Abner Mikva:

One evening in 1948 he walked into the office of the Democratic Ward Committeeman and told him that he wanted to do volunteer work for Adlai Stevenson and Paul Douglas. The Committeeman took the cigar out of his mouth, glared at Abner and asked: "Who sent you?" When Ab said, "Nobody sent me", he put the cigar back in his mouth and said: "We don't want nobody that nobody sent."

[Soylent Red]

Unfortunately, this link is far to tenuous to be damning for the hoi poloi.

About the only way to hang something on Obamessiah now is if there were suitcases full of money and shrunken nuns' heads involved. If you gotta explain it, it won't stick.

[Sara]

Would this be a violation of disseminating classified info or something?

Via Gateway Pundit:

The Times Online reported:

Israel has 150 nuclear weapons in its arsenal, former President Jimmy Carter said yesterday, while arguing that the US should talk directly to Iran to persuade it to drop its nuclear ambitions.

His remark, made at the Hay-on-Wye festival which promotes current affairs books and literature, is startling because Israel has never admitted having nuclear weapons, let alone how many, although the world assumes their existence. Nor do US officials deviate in public from that Israeli line. Carter, who has immersed himself since his presidency in Israeli-Palestinian relations, was highly critical of Israeli settlers on the West Bank, and of Israel's refusal to talk to elected officials of the Islamic party Hamas, although he said that Israel's security was his prime concern.

[steveaz]

What I don't get is, how do 'Hate-America' Leftists get such cozy access to private utility firms? You'd think they'd stick to journalism and "street-organizing."

So I'm wondering, if the Illinois state government weren't charged with intimately regulating the state's utilities, would Axelrod have ever gotten his foot in the door at Edison in the first place?

I really doubt it.

Kinda like Jesse Jackson's rascial-ist shake-down racket, once the gub'ment wins any oversight role, this breaches the subject industry's autonomy, leaving it vulnerable to just this sort of Axelrod-ian infection.

Someone open a window on Obama's campaign...it's starting to smell fishy in there.

[Neo]

Axelrod seems to have a history of these "instant-on" grass-roots organizations or at least ASK does.

[clarice]

And then there's his ties to Franklin Marhsall Davis, a Stalinist agent and his efforts to underplay and blur them. http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-candidates-communist-connections/>Davis

It's getting to be like a game of "Battleships" where every mumbled response is a clue to a hidden destroyer.

[Rick Ballard]

"What I don't get is, how do 'Hate-America' Leftists get such cozy access to private utility firms?"

Some background.

Whassamatta? You got a problem with dis? Want I call Vinnie to splain it to you?

[Ranger]

Lets also remember that the future Mrs. Obama worked at the same law firm around the same time that Old Man Ayers used his power and influence to get Mrs. Bill Ayers a job there, until everyone realized that she couldn't be admitted to the Bar because of her past.

Funny how far left radicals who hate wealth and privlidge are more than willing to endure it when it is used to their own advantage. If Bill Ayers father hadn't been who he was, young Bill and his wife would have had a much harder time becoming "mainstream" in Chicago.

[kim]

My favorite, Rick, was the cabby dispatcher who asked if the Chicago Way was a street or a business.
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[dDanube of Thought]

I just don't see this item gaining any traction.

It's Sidley Austin.

[OBAMA IS A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY]

Obama said that he trusted Americans “to understand that it is not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but to our enemies, like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did.“

But the truth is that FDR never spoke to the head of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler; the head of fascist Italy, Benito Mussolini, or the head of militarist Japan, Hideki Tojo. The president’s only policy, “was unconditional surrender.”

I have yet to hear most journalists or pundits remind Obama that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, even as their diplomats were on American soil to “talk peace.” As Pearl Harbor burned, our men and women died and America wept. But President Harry S. Truman took note and did not forget. He knew the meaning of “Peace through Strength.”

read more here
http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/2008/05/17/talking-to-our-enemies-history-lesson-for-obama/

[Kudzu Fire]

we are all endanger from the existence of free radicals in the body politic

[David J Feiger]

Obama met Thomas Ayers and Bill Ayers at least since 1988 when they worked with Mayor Washington on his plan to the improve Chicago Schools with a reform program Alliance for Better Chicago Schools, ABC. Thon and Bill Ayers, his son, were active in incorporating Bill's concepts in radicalizing youth and Obama was involved through CDP while most Black Organizations opposed it. ABCs created LCBs Local Community Boards composed of parent, teachers, and principles. Within 2 years 20% of principles were removed. Bill Ayers believed that Community controlled Smaller classrooms whose curriculum would be controlled by the LCBs. This was passed by the Il. legislature. Ayers CAC, Chicago Anneberg Challenge, which he sirected and coordinated the grant proposal for had power over CAC. He hired Obama as Directer and only Obama and Ayers could write checks.
Obama's mentors were able to get Obama an internship, usually not given second year law students, especially at such a prestigious firm as Sidley Austin Wood and Brown, now Sidley Austin LLC founded in 1866. Thomas Ayers, was a trustee with two of the firms partners Newton Minow and Howard Trienens. As a favor to Ayers, Trienens hired Dohrn unlicensed due to her felony convictions. Dohrn left for a position at Northwestern and was replaced by Michelle as mentor and Obama was her first mentee. Michelle was part os a well established politically connected family and soon left Sidley for City Hall working for Daley II. Obama and Ayers directed CAC to reinforce the LCB's whose power was diminishing. Obama and Ayers twice worked together on promoting Ayers agenda. The following is a quote from Bill Ayers Web Site because I was unable to establish a link.

This is my fourth visit to Venezuela, each time at the invitation of my comrade and friend Luis Bonilla, a brilliant educator and inspiring fighter for justice. Luis has taught me a great deal about the Bolivarian Revolution and about the profound educational reforms underway here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution, and I’ve come to appreciate Luis as a major asset in both the Venezuelan and the international struggle---I look forward to seeing how he and all of you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane. Thank you, Luis, for everything you’ve done.

[battery]

before you pull that lever come election day,and use some common sense!

[sophy]

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