Almost Like Reporting

Pete Yost of the AP covers the cover-up of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge archives described yesterday by Stanley Kurtz at NRO:

WASHINGTON – The University of Illinois on Tuesday refused to release records relating to Barack Obama's service to a nonprofit group linked to former 1960s radical activist William Ayers.                        

The university's Chicago campus said the donor of the records that document the work of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge has not yet turned over ownership rights to the material.            

The university is "aggressively pursuing" an agreement with the donor, and as soon as an agreement is finalized, the collection will be made accessible to the public, the university said in a one-paragraph statement.                        

There was no indication when an agreement will be worked out. The university did not identify the donor who it said was concerned that the release not invade personal privacy.

Since the mainstream media has never yet reported on this Ayers/Obama link the typical reader is probably scratching his or her head.  Mr. Yost provides some background:

Ayers is an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who in his youth co-founded the Weatherman organization, later known as the Weather Underground Organization, which espoused violence as a necessity for political change.                        

In the 1990s, Ayers was instrumental in starting the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which was awarded nearly $50 million by a foundation to help reform Chicago schools.                        

Obama was the first chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and Republicans have been highlighting his ties to Ayers through the group.            

The Republican National Committee posted the National Review article on the RNC's Web site.

...

Obama was board chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge for three years starting in 1995 and he remained on the board until the project closed in 2001.   

The $49.2 million was the largest private gift ever made to Chicago schools. The money went to 250 schools in one of the nation's largest school districts.

That is almost like reporting.  Yost makes no mention of the fact that Obama was asked about Ayers at the Philadelphia debate in April and described him as ""a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago...", rather than as "a guy I worked with on education reform for six years without accomplishing anything" (The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was ultimately judged a failure by the Annenberg Foundation.)

Yost makes no mention of the fact that the Obama website produced a "Fact Check" on the Obama/Ayers relationship which made no mention of this failed collaboration on education reform.

Yost makes  no mention of the fact that previously the Obama campaign was telling reporters that (a) Obama and Ayers met through kids who went to the same school, or (b) Obama and Ayers first met in the second half of 1995 when Ayers hosted a campaign kick-off for Obama.  Since Obama became chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge in January 1995, that was false.

In fact, its almost as if the Obama campaign has tried to conceal this Obama/Ayers relationship.  And now some mysterious unnamed donor is continuing the cover-up by sitting on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge archives.

And Yost almost reports on it.

So what does it mean?  Well, none of us can judge the relationship at this point since a lot of possibly important information is being concealed.  But the fact of an ongoing cover-up might spark some journalist's curiosity.

And why the cover-up?  My guess is that the Obama campaign recognizes that education reform is a hot topic with voters everywhere.  Obama, the man with limited executive experience, might not want to highlight his executive belly-flop here, undertaken in partnership with a hard left unrepentant domestic terrorist.  But that is just a guess.

NO MAOIST LEFT BEHIND:  One of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge grants was to former student radical Mike Klonsky.  More awkwardness.

EVERYBODY INTO THE POOL:  Credit where due - at least Mr. Yost noted the story.  Take a guess as to whether we will see coverage in the paper or blog at the WaPo, the NY Times, and the LA Times.  I say zero for six.  But enterprising researchers can find lots of links to background articles in this old post.

GUESS AGAIN:  OK, you're a highly paid Obama media consultant - what strategy do you recommend?

(a) Continued stonewall.

(b) Selective release to a few friendly reporters (pardon my redundancy) twenty minutes prior to the VP announcement; then next week and for the next two months, chant "Old news.  We have answered those questions.  Distraction.  Hope.  Change."

(c) Confess everything, including the Ayers disposal of Jimmy Hoffa.

Comments

[bad]

BRAVO, TM

[windansea]

it' kind of like the Edwards story

they report on why they didn't cover it, and think they are reporting.

[Ranger]

Well, I've suspected for a while that the CAC, as actually implimented, was simply a way for Ayers to funnel lots of money to his "social justice teaching" friends and grad students, so they could earn a comfortable living without having to do the hard work of actually teaching. Maybe that is what the donor is afraid will be confirmed.

[bad]

Klonsky was a recipient of a 1995 grant of $175,000 from the Challenge for the Small Schools Workshop that he was hired by Ayers to head up (apparently Klonsky was a cab driver in Chicago at the time) in 1992.

Is this the same Mike Klonsky who was formerly Obama's Education Blogger who is now presumably under the bus?

[Elliott]

What bad said.

[MayBee]

I like the way the Weather Underground "espoused" violence. How about "committed" violence?
But I won't be choosy. At least the story is getting some coverage.

[Rick Ballard]

Yeah, same guy. I'm bookmarking Global Labor. That guy has more info on Obama in Chicago than anyone else I've seen. As TM notes, he owns the story.

[RichatUF]

bad & Elliott-

Is this the same Mike Klonsky who was formerly Obama's Education Blogger who is now presumably under the bus?

Yes. LGF a few weeks back was tracking the piss poor management, security holes, and seeming lack of editorial oversight at Obama's website. He hasn't done a Obama campaign website post in a while, but was keeping tabs of all the pages that were disappeared, Klonsky's among them.

[Barney Frank]

"a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago..."

Every time I read this phrase it reminds me of that song they used to sing on Sesame Street;

--Who are the people in your neighborhood,
In your neighborhood,
In your neeeiiighborrrhood,
Yes, who are the people in your neighborhood,
They're the people that you meet,
When you're walking down your street,
They're the unrepentant terrorists.--

[centralcal]

LOL, Barney.

I'm thinking Hillary is gonna be VP, cuz the One is tanking in the polls.

And if McCain picks Lieberman, I ain't voting.

[Foo Bar]

One of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge grants was to former Weatherman Mike Klonsky. More awkwardness.

I don't think this is right. Klonsky knew some of the Weathermen, he was a key guy in SDS, a Maoist, and surely someone the Obama campaign doesn't especially want to be associated with, but I don't think he was a Weatherman:

Klonsky denounced the Weatherman manifesto for arrogance, militancy and sectarianism on August 29 in an article in New Left Notes

More from Wikipedia:

During the Summer of 1969, the National Office began to split. A group led by Klonsky became known as RYM II, and the other side, RYM I, was led by Dohrn and endorsed more aggressive tactics, as some members felt that years of non-violent resistance had done little or nothing to stop the Vietnam War.

...

At the beginning of the convention, two position papers were passed out by the National Office leadership, one a revised statement of Klonksy's RYM manifesto, the other called "You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows." The latter document outlined the position of the group that would become the Weathermen

However objectionable his Mao sympathies may have been, it doesn't look like he was involved in violent terrorism in the U.S. the way the Weathermen were.

Almost like reporting, indeed, TM!

[bad]

Rich

Is it the same Mike Klonsky in this Wiki page being considered for deletion?

LUN

[matt]

The Weather Underground's stated purpose was the revolutionary overthrow of the United States government and were considered too extreme by the Maoists (US chapter) in 1969. This from Wikipedia. I wish I had the time to access their original manifestos. I'd say they were a lot more than simply espousing violence. They were committed to a revolution on the scale of November 1918 and were luckily held in check by their marginal philosophy and law enforcement. In other world, the scum of the earth. I get seriously ticked off every time I see a terrorist with a bomb, and Bill Ayers and his bitch were the 1969 equivalent of our buddy Osama.Sorry for the anger, but this kind has caused some serious agony in our world.That the media has done its best to ignore the story really upsets me. At least Wright is pretty much a blowhard. These people were serious, and only their own stupidity and dumb luck on the part of law enforcement prevented them from killing a lot more people than they did.

[Barney Frank]

However objectionable his Mao sympathies may have been, it doesn't look like he was involved in violent terrorism in the U.S. the way the Weathermen were.

Either way I still suspect the wheels on the bus are about to go round and round on our little Maoist.

[Jane]

I agree with Bad - Bravo, TM. Of course when you get picked up there will be no shortage of trolls swirling around. Ahhh The price of fame.

[Rick Ballard]

It's obvious that there is such a vast difference between the domestic terrorist Ayers and the peace loving head of the Maoist Communist party Klonsky that the $175,000 grant steered by Ayers to Klonsky was an act of revenge on Ayers' part. He wanted to highlight the fact that Klonsky was no better a communist than Ayers himself. Both could be rented for the right price - just like Obama.

[bad]

From Weatherman Wiki:

The origins of the Weathermen can be traced to the collapse and fragmentation of the Students for a Democratic Society. The split between the mainstream leadership of SDS, or "National Office," and the Progressive Labor Party pushed SDS as a whole further to the left. National Office leaders such as Bernardine Dohrn and Mike Klonsky began announcing their emerging perspectives, and Klonksy published a document entitled "Toward a Revolutionary Youth Movement" (RYM). RYM promoted the philosophy that young workers possessed the potential to be a revolutionary force to overthrow capitalism, if not by themselves then by transmitting radical ideas to the working class. Klonsky's document reflected the growing leftist philosophy of the National Office and was eventually adopted as official SDS doctrine.

I feel sooo much better that Obama was giving money to a communist rather than a terrorist. And this communist is still active in education.

[bad]

Klonsky got his grant of $175,000 in 1995. Check this out from Alexander Russo evaluating the failure of Chicago's Annenberg challenge:

In addition, Bill McKersie points out that many of those in control of the process were neophytes. "A set of people who didn't have a lot of experience in grant making got control of the process," said McKersie.

Another element may have been the push to get the first wave of grants out the door as quickly as possible. "Why the rush to move $3 million in 1995?" asked McKersie.

LUN

[ajacksonian]

Hmmm... if I were a highly paid media consultant for this to help Obama? Lets see... ask Rezko to have the Ayers problem 'solved' in return for a pardon at the end of an Obama Administration?

Then act shocked when that is uncovered!

Those weren't the crooks and terrorists Obama knew!

[MayBee]

I did not realize that Rezko's partner when he talked Obama into coming to Chicago was Farrakhan's son.
Sorry, that's a bit O/T.

Who are Obama's normal friends?

[RichatUF]

bad-

same guy.

[Sara]

I feel sooo much better that Obama was giving money to a communist rather than a terrorist. And this communist is still active in education.

Yeah, especially since communist KGBer Putin is trying his damnedest to start WWIII and reconstitute that "illustrious" bastion of communism, the Soviet Union. Timing is everything.

All those educated kids are now running the Obama campaign or voting for the One, totally clueless to what they have gotten themselves into.

[bad]

It is one thing to observe that the Chicago Annenberg Challenge effort was ill matched initially with the goals, priorities, and top-down approach of the new team running the city schools. But the fact that so few relationships were built between the Challenge and the Vallas team (school district) over time suggests that the Challenge was also unable or unwilling to work closely with the district. This lack of cooperation is important because the relationship between the Chicago Challenge and the Vallas administration might have been mutually beneficial, however unlikely a match they were. Other Annenberg sites developed effective -- or at least benign -- relationships with central school system authorities. Other Annenberg sites also survived changes in governance and district leadership.

Is this an example of Obama's ability to transcend differences?

[Soylent Red]

I feel sooo much better that Obama was giving money to a communist rather than a terrorist.

Right bad.

There's a term used with chemical weapons called persistence. It refers to a chemical agent's "stickiness", or capacity to linger and cause lasting effects.

The term "communist" evokes images of conspiracy to undermine democracy from the inside, whereas "terrorist" evokes more directly confrontational images. Conspiracy and sneakiness play more into people's uncertainly of The One's unknown-ness.

Thus to refer to someone in Obamessiah's circle as a long time "communist" is a more persistent attack.

I encourage the Cultists to downgrade Ayers, et. al., to "communists" every chance they get.

[JM Hanes]

The real irony is that the current crop of Russian oligarchs are ideology-free.

[Soylent Red]

JMH:

Unless you count ruthless greed as an ideology.

[PaulL]

I'm sorry, but Obama will not allow any of you racist liars to portray him as against good schools in Chicago.

[matt]

Soylent;

I would beg to differ. Lenin and the Bolsheviks were terrorists, and this was a popular thread within the far left during the late 60's. Most of it was drug induced, but the Weather Underground was dead serious. Remember the town house they blew up in Greenwich Village? reminded me of a lot of the clowns in Iraq and Afghanistan who don't seen to remember that explosives are dangerous. This what we used to call God's sense of humor. Ayers and Dohrn deserved 10-15 as far as I'm concerned. They were building nail bombs. Very nasty stuff.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Well, I've suspected for a while that the CAC, as actually implimented, was simply a way for Ayers to funnel lots of money to his "social justice teaching" friends and grad students, so they could earn a comfortable living without having to do the hard work of actually teaching. Maybe that is what the donor is afraid will be confirmed.

Exactly. Which would expose Obama for the lefty he probably secretly is.

[Noel]

Why Stanley Kurtz?

That is, why is it left to conservative writers like Kurtz to dig up these records? Where is our much-vaunted, highly-trained, handsomely-paid super-professional Attack Poodle Media? Why, they're waiting to be spoon-fed their next press release from the Teleprompter Man's campaign.

If a Republican co-chaired the Scaife Foundation with an unrepentant abortion-clinic bomber, do you think the press would be sleepwalking like they are here? No, they would trample their own grandmothers to get theior hands on those files.

John McCain should directly challenge the Book-Banning Librarians to stop Censoring For Obama.

[steveaz]

So, let's review...

1. Obama's Church "damns" America,
2. as Chairman and lead Director of a multi-million foundation focused on "reforming" education, he did not achieve anything of note.
3. He is barely three years into his junior term as an Illinois Senator with no record to speak of (except a host of not-present votes).
4. He has dark skin, and looks good in a speedo.
5. He associates with a "who's who" of Leftist agitators who espouse, and in some cases, practice delivering terror attacks to American civilians.
6. He is 'kinda' Muslim - he doesn't have both feet in the Ummah, but his advocacy-stew of militant Black Liberation Theology, crypto-Marxist statism, and queer anti-Americanism puts him soundly on the Ummah's Christmas-card list.
7. And the Democrat(ic)s want him to be the next President of the United States of America.

This is a resume that only Al Qaida could love. Geez.

Folks, can we get serious soon? Events are pushing at the gates and we need clear heads in charge for the next eight years.

Crimeny!
-Steve

[bad]

More info on the failure of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge:

Unfortunately, the organization of the Chicago Challenge into an independent foundation seems to have done little to establish a distinct identity or role apart from the community organizations and reform groups -- largely because these same groups remained the chief beneficiaries of Annenberg funding.

HMMMMMMM... I wonder why an education foundation run by a former community organizer mostly confined funding to community organizations?

[Ranger]

HMMMMMMM... I wonder why an education foundation run by a former community organizer mostly confined funding to community organizations?

Posted by: bad | August 19, 2008 at 09:34 PM

Because they are the ones who are organized at the local level to get out the votes when the "former community organizer" decides to run for office (or re-election).

I am beginning to re-asses my view of the CAC. Maybe it was more of a $50M donation to Obama's future political career, with a little thrown in on the side for Ayers' "social justice teaching" friends.

[Joan]

Re the education foundation: What kind of tax status does it carry? 501C(3)? Does the IRS monitor and/or audit groups like this? Wonder where all of that money went?

[narciso]

Any similarity to Gerald Nicola's research on the VVAW which dissappeared after Scot Camil's role in the "Phoenix" plan to
'bring the war home" and Kerry's own ' voting present' position at the Kansas City enclave, effectively a war council to take out war supporters like Sen. Stennis, Thurmond, et al; and subsequent resignation.
Klonsky or Ayers, that's like Comandante
Gonzalo of the Shining Path, or the more moderate MRTistas like Nestor Cerpa, Khmer Rouge or Viet Cong; who do you root for. The
key part is Obama had ties to both, in the Greater Chicago area. Both were playing Marighela's urban guerilla strategy with their trust funds, Ayer's Con Ed ties, along with Oughton's old line real estate ties.Another failure of COINTELPRO's finely polished 'jackboots'. Yes I'm aware the Crips and the Bloods feud, arose in part from the Ron "United Slaves" Karenga, the godfather of Kwanza,and "Bunchy" Carter's Black Panthers. You couldn't make this up if you tried, and why would one want to. This insanity which thankfully wasn't
repeated at Occidental or Columbia in the 80s; is what Obama feels he missed out on. And we get to go on his trek back 'down the good ole days' Well SDS is still around; I read it in the Times Sunday Education supplement, it must be true! The cold reality, is that this round robin doesn't stop even when Obama is defeated. They'll probably turn to irregular action groups with names out of hip hop or alternative bands; Dylan won't cut it, this time. The
resurgence of the black bloc anarchists of Seattle,repeating in Prague, Rome, a dozen other sites is a troubling omen. The Ron Paul/Gravel/Kucinich fringe fed with the
'blood libel' of trutherism, should have died a quiet death, but hopes are rarely fulfilled that easily.

[bad]

Ranger

Maybe some of the CAC money did go to education. (Klonsky's) One of the previously linked articles says Klonsky was a cab driver in 1995 when he received his $175,000 grant. The website LUN says he is now a doctor, presumably of the educational variety.

[Sue]

Joan,

They file a tax return. Which is subject to public scrutiny.

[Soylent Red]

Well Matt I'm not arguing what Lenin and the Bolsheviks were.

I'm simply pointing out that referring to Ayres as a "terrorist", a term that the opposition can claim is hyperbole based on the number of innocent people he actually killed, will elicit less of a response from the electorate than referring to him as a "communist". We've already seen that line of reasoning floated by O-trolls.

The communist tag is much more difficult to weasel out from under, and plays much more harshly against the general misgivings surrounding Obamessiah.

Unfortunately both terms apply in this case.

[Porchlight]

John McCain should directly challenge the Book-Banning Librarians to stop Censoring For Obama.

From what I know about university libraries and archives, I don't think that the special collection librarian at UIC is necessarily the reason why the records became suddenly unavailable. The levers being pulled are at a much higher level. However, she may have alerted the higher ups to Kurtz's investigation.

If she was asking a higher-up an honest question like "we don't have a signed deed of gift, can I let this guy see the records?" that would be conscientious and perfectly reasonable. But if she called up saying "hey, this NR guy is snooping around, just thought you should know" then that would not be kosher according to the unofficial code of confidentiality among librarians, which is that it's none of our business who wants to know what - it's our business to provide access to the info if we are legally allowed/required to do so.

It's an odd situation, for sure.

[Joan]

Thanks, Sue.

Re: Obama was the first chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and Republicans have been highlighting his ties to Ayers through the group.

So, did Obama receive remuneration for his chairmanship? Was it just public-spirited donation of his time?

So far, all I'd been thinking about re the Annenberg Challenge had been the terrorist who plotted bombings and stomped on our flag. Hadn't been thinking about all of that money.

[bad]

Joan

It was the money angle which finally moved NYT to do a story on John Edwards.

[Ranger]

I also think that this is much more than just a cover up of Obama's relationship with Ayers. Clearly, the CAC failed. The question is, how central to that failure was Obama?

Did it fail because his priorities as chairman pushed money to his old friends in the "community organization" community?

Was the poor relationship with the Chicago school board because Obama was not able to earn the board's trust?

Maybe Obama saw the position of chairman as just a resume enhancer, and did very little. If so, was that the understanding of those who agreed to his placement in that position?

Why did he step down from the chairmanship halfway through the project?

The answers to these questions should be in those files.

[narciso]

"That dang fool thing in the Caucasus, reminds of the opening credits to the nuclear mutiny tale; Crimson Tide; which ultimately was to over written, 6 screen writers plus Tarantino; which evinced a strong contempt for Clinton era civil military relations; although Denzel's character gets the best arguments, just like Cruise in "A Few Good Men"
href<http://www.mysubtitles.com/subtitle/Download/crimson-tide_88073_14116_1_1.htm>
The referred towns are in Dagestan villages, bordering Azerbaijan
"CD #1

2
00:01:03,080 --> 00:01:06,120
This is Richard Valeriani
reporting live...

3
00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:08,760
for CNN from the French
aircraft carrier Foch...

4
00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:11,000
somewhere in the Mediterranean.

5
00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:13,520
Six days ago,
as the rebellion in Chechnya...

6
00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:16,280
spread to the neighboring Caucasus
republics, the Russian president...

7
00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:19,600
ordered massive bombing strikes
against rebel positions...

8
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,360
around Rutul and Belokany.

9
00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:26,240
Appalled at the loss of human life,
the President of the United States...

10
00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:29,000
joined by the French president
and the British prime minister...

11
00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:31,920
suspended all foreign aid
to Russia.

12
00:01:31,960 --> 00:01:34,840
Ultranationalist leader
Vladimir Radchenko...

13
00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:37,960
denounced the U.S. Pressure
as an act of war...

14
00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:40,520
against the Russian Republic
and Russian sovereignty.

15
00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:43,800
Denouncing his own president
as a U.S. Puppet...

16
00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:48,120
he called on the Russian people
to join him in revolt.

17
00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:51,480
He said, "This brutish and hypocritical
American intervention...

18
00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:53,440
will not go unanswered."

19
00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:56,520
On Tuesday, at 10:00
in the morning Moscow time...

20
00:01:56,600 --> 00:02:01,080
the Russian parliament was suspended
and martial law was declared.

21
00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:03,560
With the government in crisis,
the Russian Republic...

22
00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:07,440
was entering into what can only
be described as a state of civil war.

23
00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:10,760
Then yesterday at dawn,
Radchenko and rebel forces...

24
00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:14,280
seized the region around Vladivostok,
including a naval base...

25
00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:17,480
and a nuclear missile base
housing Russian ICBMs.

26
00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:23,080
As regular Russian military forces
move in to encircle Radchenko...

27
00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,520
allied military forces
are in a state of high alert.

28
00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:28,680
These French planes
taking off behind me...

29
00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:32,320
have been deployed near the Caucasus
since the beginning of the crisis...

30
00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:35,360
and a crisis which started
in the Caucasus

31
00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:37,080
has now spread to the Far East...

32
00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:41,280
and appears to be turning into the worst
standoff since the Cuban missile crisis.

33
00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:45,600
This is Richard Valeriani
reporting live for CNN...

34
00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:48,880
from the French aircraft carrier Foch,
somewhere in the Mediterranean.

35
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:57,360

[bad]

We should be able to narrow down the possibilities of who had the Chicago Annenberg Challenge Documents. If I recall correctly, it was nine individuals at the head of the group. Time to do some dumpster diving.

[sbw]

I'll have to tune in again, tomorrow, for the next exciting episode of "As Obama turns." 'Night all!

[bad]

From Wiki:

The Chicago Annenberg Challenge received a grant of $49.2 million from the national Annenberg Challenge based at Brown University. The grant was to be matched 2:1 by private donors. By 1999 the Chicago Challenge succeeded in raising an additional $60 million.

All of the $49.2 million of the grant was awarded which implies that an aditional $100 million was raised privately. So we are talking at least $150 million spent on a venture that failed.

[Porchlight]

'Night, sbw!

bad, Steve Diamond is curious about Stanley Ikenberry, CAC boardmember and currently Regent Professor and President Emeritus of the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) College of Education.

[Extraneus]

Why do you guys say the CAC failed? I'd be surprised if any of us know what its objectives were, or whether they were achieved. It certainly doesn't seem to have failed Obama.

[bad]

We need to post little tidbits of info about Obama, Ayers and The Chicago Annenberg Challenge and links so the newsie types who troll looking for a story have something to work with. There is bound to be an aspiring Woodward or Bernstein looking for red meat.

[Soylent Red]

Right on Ex...

The assumption here is that CAC was about improving schools, rather than improving bank accounts.

When it comes to most things inside Chicago politics, that's usually a bad assumption.

[clarice]

I, too, suspect the CAC was some sort of political buy up and probably did not fail in that objective.

[bad]

some sort of political buy up

Ayers and Dohrn continue to be defended as firmly entrenched and on the best of terms with the entire Chicago establishment. Obama is the Democratic Presumtive Nominee. Political buy up indeed...

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

'Education' is a cash cow. Better than motherhood, the flag and apple pie. Ayers figured that out and used Annenberg's money to fund his radical activities. That's what's being hidden.

[bad]

<>The donor's only concerns regarding the collection are due to personnel information that could include names, confidential salary information and even Social Security numbers," said the university spokesman.

LUN

Could take forever to troll for all of that info, black it out and remove the real goodies.

[Sara]

Someone call Fitz, he's still hanging around Chicago isn't he.

[bad]

A large collection of internal records from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge are currently housed in the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The document cache is extensive, consisting of 132 boxes containing 947 file folders.

LUN

quite a task...

[Soylent Red]

132 boxes containing 947 file folders.

Yeah but most of that is taken up with pages of transcripts from proceedings in which Obamessiah goes on for several pages with "uhs".

[Ann]

Bad, Keep pressing on your issue of the cover up. They are busier than a cat covering crap on a marble floor!

Clarice, Can't wait to hear about your cowgirl vacation. Welcome back.

What do you guys think of Al Gore sharing the last night with Obama? Gore to speak on Democratic convention's final night

I think there will be snow in the forecast along with hope and change.

[kim]

Ann, I posted at Watts Up that I think the appearance that cold weather follows Gore around is an artifact of observer bias. I'd really like to see a scientific study. If, in fact, his presence can modify local weather, I take it as evidence for the existence of a Jealous God. And a Just One, too.
==================

[ben]

"However objectionable his Mao sympathies may have been, it doesn't look like he was involved in violent terrorism in the U.S. the way the Weathermen were."

Amazing how far we have gone in just a few months. From shining knight on white horse to pitiful bleatings that Obama associated with Maoists, not terrorists.

[hit and run]

Ann:
What do you guys think of Al Gore sharing the last night with Obama?

I think they will light the stadium with candles to help keep the carbon footprint down.

And they will eschew the use of limousines and SUV's to transport the candidate to the stadium too.

He'll ride in on a donkey is what I hear.

[Sara]

Hey Hit, they announced a couple of days ago that they've run out of limousines, so you may be right.

Gore for Veep?

[DebinNC]

Powerline noticed a "typo" in an AP piece by Nedra Pickler... see description of Joe Lieberman in last sentence. lol

[JM Hanes]

"Dude isn't even president yet and there goes the first amendment." "...ride in on a donkey..." "Gore For Veep?"

Have I told you lately that I love you guys? ROTFL.

[JM Hanes]

kim:

"I'd really like to see a scientific study." Here ya go.

bad:

"We need to post little tidbits of info about Obama, Ayers and The Chicago Annenberg Challenge and links so the newsie types who troll looking for a story have something to work with."

Maybe TM could be persuaded that it's time to replace his Wilson/Plame sidebar with Annenberg links, and morph his Plamaniacs into CAClers

[Elliott]

Soylent,

Are you sure it wasn't "umm...ah, umm...ah, umm...ah?" Worth looking into.

Oh, almost forgot: PBUH.

[Sara]

Good idea JMH. Perhaps we could have a glossary of terms starting with "community organizer" or "education" as they relate to Chicago.

[glasater]

I don't think this is right. Klonsky knew some of the Weathermen, he was a key guy in SDS, a Maoist, and surely someone the Obama campaign doesn't especially want to be associated with, but I don't think he was a Weatherman

So I'm supposed to be comforted by the fact that BHO is really NOT a Leninist--but a Maoist?

[Pofarmer]

So I'm supposed to be comforted by the fact that BHO is really NOT a Leninist--but a Maoist?

You say Potatoe, I say Potahtoe. You say Tomato, I say Tomahtoe.

[Bruce]

As you noted the CAC gave $175,000 to Mike Klonsky , a former leader of the SDS and founder of the communist Party(ML). I'm wondering if anyone has ever done a forensic audit on the CAC. And it wasn't $50 million --it was 110 million dollars raised and given out(60 million in matching funds). That's an awful lot of money and as we all know leftists aren't exactly the most honest people out there. If I were a betting man, and I am, I'd say there may be other juicy nuggets in there and that may be the main reason the records are being held back.

[bad]

Bruce

That $60 million in matching funds was the amount raised by 1999 but the project continued for several more years. The grant required 2:1 matching funds and all $49.2 million of the Annenberg grant was awarded so that implies that a total of $100 million in matching funds was raised.

[kcom]

I want to know how this line gets in a news report:

"The Republican National Committee posted the National Review article on the RNC's Web site."

It was so jarring and out of place in the flow of the article. As far as I can see, only a reporter completely in the tank would even think to add something like that.

It reminds me when the news came out that Air America was taking money from that Boys & Girls Club in, was it, Brooklyn. The New York Times at first completely ignored the developing story and then when they finally deigned to publish an article on it (because they could no longer pretend it wasn't happening) one of the first things they said, before even getting to the facts at issue, was to imply that it was a Republican smear of some kind. Only then, once they had poisoned the well, did they actually document the actual allegations. So they did the "analysis" first and then reported the who, what, why, when, and where second. That's some damn fine reporting.

[Frank]

More importantly, no one seems to want to mention precisely what the educational goals of the CAC were. Referring to Ayers:

White racism represents for him the same kind of “oppression” that the maoist movement he was influenced by then said was responsible for the plight of poor countries. Just as rich countries (like the United States or Germany) exploited poor countries (like China or Cuba) on an international scale, the Weather Underground argued, white people in the United States exploited black people. Thus, the role of the “revolutionary vanguard” of students was to support black revolutionary groups at whatever cost, including armed robbery and bombings. While Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn no longer engage in violence their political views have not changed.

Knowing this, not only does Obama's involvement with the CAC belie his claim that his relationship with Ayers was casual, but also Obama's claim that he didn't agree with Rev Wright's racist rantings.

My blog post on this is here.

[Gabriel]

Steve Diamond's reporting on his Global Labor Blog is incredible. This post about Bill(William) Ayers and his father Tom Ayers is full of useful links to connect more dots.

http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/05/obamaayers-update-didnt-mayor-daley.html

We need to understand. Bill Ayers grew up a wealthy son that went to the best schools and whose father ran the Com Ed electric utility for the Chicago metropolitan area. These roots bloomed into Ayers rage against everything his family stood for.

[Gabriel]

On the political front, "just a guy in my neighborhood" is a dismal response to questions about Barack Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers.

That statement is now inaccurate.

[Jim]

If the work was paid for by the grant, shouldn't the grantor own them?

[Mike]

Actually, Ayers not only espoused violence, the Weather Underground carried out violent attacks, one which resulted in the murder of Boston Police Officer Walter Schroeder, the father of 9 children.

[sbw]

Saaay! Couldn't the Northern Illinois federal prosecutor's office, the ones that got Rezko, appoint someone to do a forensic audit of the CAC papers? They could subpoena the boxes so they couldn't be tampered with.

Who knows, Patrick Fitzgerald might be available.

[Michael Oliver]

They also left this out:

"Later in 1969, Ayers participated in planting a bomb at a statue dedicated to police casualties in the 1886 Haymarket Riot"

There is a difference in participating in the creation of a radical organization and actually planting bombs. It is also worth noting that two of the people killed in the infamous Greenwich Village townhouse bombing were his girlfriend and his best friend and closest associate. The only difference between these people and the Bin Laden's of the world was their incompetence.

[Rick Ballard]

"These roots bloomed into Ayers rage against everything his family stood for."

Gabriel,

That may be a step too far. Ayers may have simply taken his father's attachment to "progressive thought" to an extreme conclusion. I don't believe that an assumption that a utility exec is a 'conservative' is warranted. CITI isn't run by conservatives - it's being run straight into the ground by progressives. There are plenty of people in business who tilt left politically and plenty of corporate boards are infested academics whose attention to nuanced thoughtfulness is evidenced by declining business performance.

I don't believe that Bill Ayers was rebelling against Tom Ayers. He was just moving the rot to a different level.

[clarice]

I think it obvious that Ayers and Dohrn would not be attached to universities were it not for Ayres Pere's connections.

[willem]

So... a total of $150 million was raised for a project that failed. Which happens. But where, pray tell, did the money go? And who did it go to? And what remunerations, if any, made their way into the pockets of the board members, board members families and best buds?

$150 mil is a ho latte jack even for chi town.

The raise all that and nobody gets paid? Ain't this during "the missing years?"

[willem]

The missing years that keeps on missing.

[willem]

Hey Barack. Who sent you?

Would it be the same people who keep setting you up with book deals and foundations to run?

[narciso]

This particular tactic of discrediting he source before the incriminating story comes out, as counter-revolutionary, isn't new; in Castro's Cuba it was called the
'coletilla' or little tail,and it was directed against the prestigiouspublications
like the Diario de La Marina; the closest counterpart to the Wall Street Journal. The
interrogation tactics used by the Vietnamese
were not knew either; as they were taught either by the Chinese (but the Vietnamese hated the Chinese; no, the Viet Minh hated
the anti-Communist Kuomingtang, there's a difference. Also by the Cuban DGI's delegation, which in turn were trained by General Simenov; who recruited Phillip Agee
(he leaves these pesky details out of his memoirs)over his upset over the Dominican Republic, conduct in Mexico, et al. The lead
apparatchik "Fidel" is now some high official in the Cuban Education Ministry. It is unclear, whether he took part in the
McCain treatment, but certainly of his associates. The SDS contingent that comprised Ayers, Doehrn, Klonsky,Boudin, Rosenberg, Evans et al; had in common their experiences in Cuba, where they too, might have been 'encouraged' to follow the Revolutionary foco strategy of Che and Marighela, had their overt political strategies have failed. One of more overt
links was Johnetta Cole, future head of the 'fellow traveling' Venceremos Brigade' and one time Clinton education transition advisor; now just President of Spelman College. What a relief.

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

Odd how the word "bomb" never appears in Mr. Yost's "reporting" that describes why people might not approve of Mr. Ayers.

[Sara]

Returning a moment to the thread's title, this is "almost like reporting."

Margin of Victory: How the Liberal Media Made Barack Obama the Democratic Nominee

We looked at 1,365 network news stories from the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts through Clinton’s exit from the Democratic race in early June. Here are the key findings:

• The three broadcast networks treated Obama to nearly seven times more good press than bad — 462 positive stories (34% of the total), compared with only 70 stories (just 5%) that were critical.

• NBC Nightly News was the most lopsided, with 179 pro-Obama reports (37%), more than ten times the number of anti-Obama stories (17, or 3%). The CBS Evening News was nearly as skewed, with 156 stories spun in favor of Obama (38%), compared to a mere 21 anti-Obama reports (5%). ABC's World News was the least slanted, but still tilted roughly four-to-one in Obama's favor (127 stories to 32, or 27% to 7%).

• Barack Obama received his best press when it mattered most, as he debuted on the national scene. All of the networks lavished him with praise when he was keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic Convention, and did not produce a single negative story about Obama (out of 81 total reports) prior to the start of his presidential campaign in early 2007.

• The networks downplayed or ignored major Obama gaffes and scandals. Obama's relationship with convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko was the subject of only two full reports (one each on ABC and NBC) and mentioned in just 15 other stories. CBS and NBC also initially downplayed controversial statements from Obama's longtime pastor Jeremiah Wright, but heavily praised Obama's March 18 speech on race relations.

• While Obama's worst media coverage came during the weeks leading up to the Pennsylvania primary on April 22, even then the networks offered two positive stories for every one that carried a negative spin (21% to 9%). Obama's best press of the year came after he won the North Carolina primary on May 6 — after that, 43 percent of stories were favorable to Obama, compared to just one percent that were critical.

• The networks minimized Obama's liberal ideology, only referring to him as a "liberal" 14 times in four years. In contrast, reporters found twice as many occasions (29) to refer to Obama as either a "rock star," "rising star" or "superstar" during the same period.

• In covering the campaign, network reporters highlighted voters who offered favorable opinions about Obama. Of 147 average citizens who expressed an on-camera opinion about Obama, 114 (78%) were pro-Obama, compared to just 28 (19%) that had a negative view, with the remaining five offering a mixed opinion.

[JM Hanes]

Sara:

Why am I not surprised? Glad to see it's all being documented.

[willem]

Who sent him?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121918996082755013.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

[matt]

Soylent, no worries....I just don't like commies and terrorists. The communists have traditionally support a lot of terrorist organizations and terrorists just plain suck. I don't think the label "communist" carries the weight it did at one time. Now they're all "progressives"....meet the new boss, same as the old boss....

[Sara]

Matt: Communist/communism may not carry the weight with those under 30 that it once had with everyone, but it still drives fear thru the heart for those of us over 50 and we make up the largest voting block and even more so, we actually vote.

Just knowing the Russian Bear is rattling the sabre is enough to make me very nervous.

Call it brainwashing as a kid if you want, but we were indoctrinated and I grew up in a town where we were constantly told that we were #6 on the Soviet bomb list because of our steel industry. Communism was the #1 issue, really the only issue, of my youth and you don't easily get past those fears so firmly implanted.

[Gabriel]

Rick Ballard: Please don't allow me to suggest Tom Ayers is "conservative". I'm not saying that. However, I do not doubt that Tom Ayers is a liberal member of the industrial community with a soft side for those "left behind" by their works.

[Soylent Red]

Yeah Matt...

They had to go and ruin another perfectly good word. TR considered himself "progressive".

Sara:

I grew up 48 miles from Strategic Air Command, and less than six miles from a heavy bomber rated airbase. I can remember doing civil defense drills when I was in grade school and calmly marching down the school hallway to the bomb shelter under the building. Like that would have helped us any in the event.

Good times.

[Sara]

Soylent, at least you marched to a bomb shelter, when the Air Defense whistle blew in our town, we were told to get under our desks.

[Barney Frank]

Yeah Soylent, it's easy to forget just how recent that was. I spent six years on rotation on the alert pad at Mather AFB with six B 52s loaded to the gills with a few megatons each, ready to be airborne in ten minutes or less and several more Soviet mega tons pointed at us. That was only twenty years ago.
Good times indeed. Putin seems to miss them as well.

[Soylent Red]

Do what a turtle does - Duck and cover, Sara! Duck and cover!

But first Sara, go out and rent "Atomic Cafe" for a trip down memory lane.

[matt]

I grew up following my dad around to his various career advancements as a rocket scientist, so I know what you mean. There was a book back in the 1960's by Herman Kahn, "Thinking About The Unthinkable" which laid out a lot of the premise of mutually assured destruction, which I read at a very tender age. We sort of lived and breathed that fear from when I was a kid until 1989, when the Wall came down. My own career had me doing interesting things in Central Europe in the late 70's that had a lot to do with terrorists and the other side.

There was another interesting book by Arnaud De Borchegrave called "The Spike" if you remember. This novel was about Soviet penetration and disinformation of the media, and fit well with my parents discussion of what the NY Times covered up in Russia from the 1930's onward. I don't think the Times ever apologized; about the reportage about the famines and extermination of the kulaks, the Rosenbergs, the Gulag, the Purges, or the Soviet infiltration of Western organizations and media.
Our so called "intelligentsia" has a lot to answer for.

And here we are again, back with a strong man in Russia (ex KGB, by the way)and a bunch of leftist clowns all over the place in South America, Nepal and elsewhere on top of the islamofascist problem and who are we considering to give the keys to the car to?

Obama makes Jimmy Carter (well, the old one, anyway) look like Barry Goldwater. He makes me nervous as hell.

[JM Hanes]

matt:

I'm having a grand time picturing someone actually saying, "It's not exactly rocket science," to you!

Obama makes me really nervous too, and I think the number of folks who share those reservations is growing.

[Sara]

I take some comfort in seeing that it isn't just my childhood paranoia at play and that there are others of you who are nervous too.

It is taking all my willpower not to move from nervous to downright scared.

[matt]

I just saw a comment that is very germane I believe in the NY Daily News.

"the last candidate the media declared inevitable was Hillary Clinton"

take heart....The city of Denver is locking down for the Democratic convention and has banned the unauthorized transportation in small containers of human excrement. They're expecting a freak show, and hopefully the MSM will report on that. Nancy Pelosi, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and John Kerry anointing "The One" while a bunch of freaks are wild in the streets will make for great street theater....

McCain has to hope that Iraq continues to get better to emphasize Obama's greatest mistake, as well as hope Obama keeps on being a self righteous ass with moonbeam policies.