Annenberg, Obama, And Ayers

Unrepentant Weatherman Bill Ayers in in the news, linked to his friend and colleague from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge Barack Obama.

The NRO editors join in while we wait for Stanley Kurtz to riffle the Challenge archives at the University of Illinois Chicago library.

Fox News got a peek at the archives:

FOX News was among several news organizations that reviewed the university’s records by appointment. In one agenda, a March 15, 1995, meeting featured Obama making introductions and Ayers giving a briefing.

But more than a year later, Obama pushed the group to be bolder in its reforms, according to the Associated Press, which also reviewed the documents. Minutes from an October 1996 gathering show Obama, a guest at a meeting of the collaborative, raised questions about what the group should be doing.

The Associates Press reports the minutes characterized Obama’s concerns as twofold: Whether the group was raising additional money and whether money was being used “to prop up existing organizations as opposed to creating fresh educational practices in the schools?”

“At the end of five years, will we have broken the mold? Not much seems to be bubbling up that is inspiring or substantive,” the minutes say, paraphrasing Obama.

The "collaborative" to which they refer was founded and led by Bill Ayers (see his resume) and did a lot of the staff work for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

And here is the AP:

The minutes of the Annenberg Challenge meetings show that during a June 1995 meeting, Ayers was credited with having "worked diligently" to support the effort. More than a year later, Obama pushed the group to be bolder in its reforms.

"At the end of five years, will we have broken the mold? Not much seems to be bubbling up that is inspiring or substantive," October 1996 minutes say, paraphrasing Obama.

Ayers and Obama clearly worked together - odd that Obama forgot.

The Chicago Tribune describes the media frenzy at the library and notes the Obama cover-up:

The UIC records show that Obama and Ayers attended board meetings, retreats and at least one news conference together as the education program got under way. The two continued to attend meetings together during the 1995-2001 operation of the program, records show.

At a Democratic debate this year when the association between Obama and Ayers was raised, Obama said: "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood. . . . He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis." Obama called Ayers' past radical acts detestable.

But critics note that Obama visited Ayers' home for a meeting at the start of his first state Senate bid in the mid-'90s.

And the Canada Free Press wonders whether criticizing Obama is a crime.  Geez, when the Canadians mock our press freedom...

The NY Times is all meta - they are happy to bash the shadowy group besmirching their candidate but are unwilling to note the long. strong tie between Ayers and Obama by way of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.  When last we looked, Jim Rutenberg of the Times was utterly unaware of (or at least, unwilling to report) that tie; now, his final paragraph warms up their readers for revelations to follow:

The fight may move to another front this week.

The University of Illinois at Chicago is in the process or releasing documents detailing Mr. Obama’s involvement with a non-profit education project started by Mr. Ayers.

It's almost like reporting!

The WaPo also focuses their coverage on Obama's bold, non-Kerryish push-back.  Here is a bold, colorful quote from an Obama operative who WON"T BE BULLIED:

Obama campaign lawyer Robert F. Bauer replied: "If someone rides up to a convenience store with a sawed-off shotgun and a prior record, I'm not intimidating anybody by calling the cops. . . . If this [Republican] campaign is going to be run in McCarthyite fashion by lawbreakers in an illegal way, they are going to pay a price."

Boy, talking about Ayers and riding around with shotguns - wise?

The WaPo aids the mainstreaming of Bill Ayers and lays the groundwork for Obama's alibi:

Ayers was a member of the Weather Underground, a radical organization that claimed responsibility for a dozen bombings between 1970 and 1974. He is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an expert on public school reform.

However, the rest of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge link will have to wait for another story - as of this reporting, the Ayers/Obama tie is still quite tenuous in WaPoWorld:

Ayers did hold a gathering for him in 1995 when Obama first ran for the Illinois Senate, and he later contributed $200 to his reelection campaign. But Bauer said that hardly constitutes launching the political career of a University of Chicago Law School lecturer and the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, who had just published his first memoir, "Dreams From My Father."

The WaPo website hosts the AP story noting the Chicago Annenberg Challenge but their featured A1 story is silent on that connection.  That is actually funny, in a head-bangingly predictable sort of way.

Comments

[Sue]

Clarice,

I knew he was talking out of his ass as soon as he opened his mouth. He's a democrat. ::grin:

[clarice]

The evidence is otherwise, Sue.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I my opinion, this heavy-handed treatment of Kurtz is the dead give-away that there is a coverup in the works and that will get the public's attention. Up to now it has been eye glazing time for most when you start talking foundations and boards, etc.

Obama knows he is about to have his onion layers peeled back and apparently there is something he does not want us to see.

[clarice]

(oops--that las tcomment was a shortened reply to your earlier remark when I didn't see it posted)

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Why do I have the sudden urge to channel Joe McCarthy:

Have you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Uh. ARE you now...

[bad]

I kept trying to call all through the call-in session and usually got a message stating all circuits are full.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

From NRO Media Blog:

The Kurtz - WGN Issue [Greg Pollowitz]

An interesting side note to the story of Obama's scuzzy tactics to stifle Stanley Kurtz is that WGN, the radio station that is the target of the Obamaniacs, is owned by the Tribune:

DENVER — Sen. Barack Obama's campaign is organizing its supporters tonight to confront Tribune-owned WGN radio in Chicago for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its air.

"WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "He's currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and University of Illinois professor William Ayers."

If Obama was looking to keep this out of the papers, I'm not sure going after a newspaper's revenue stream was the best strategy.

[bad]

I kept calling during the last half hour and always got the message that all circuits are full.

[red forman]

The Tribune did an article on Ayers and Obama, August 27th.

[JM Hanes]

Sara:

I think it was in something you may have linked to, but I thought it was hysterical that the only specific thing the Obama campaign criticized Kurtz for saying was that Ayers "recruited" Obama for the CAC -- as opposed to, say, volunteering, perhaps? Sure smells like parsing to me.

[clarice]

And Kurtz was careful not to say he had proof of that, only that there was some evidence of that and he wished some reporter would ask Obama that question.

The reason they hit that was that Kurtz' first media appearance was on Greta the other night and that came up--they had nothing else with which to prepare their Obamaton robot callers.

[JM Hanes]

Boy I bet WGN had to have the time delay set to Max. The Obamobots are the candidates' worst enemy, and that kind of mobilizing seems incredibly amateur. How to tick off a host in one easy lesson. Obama's PR team has made one faux pas after another, and I think this one has really knocked them for a loop. They probably didn't even see it coming -- when any team with its salt should have -- and maybe just didn't have time to pull the usual strings. Having moved HQ to Chicago, they may have gotten complacent about being in control.

[MayBee]

I think it's time for a serious national conversation about Ayers.

[JM Hanes]

Will cross post the above on the new thread.

[MayBee]

I fear I'm getting all Ayersmas about this.

Did Bush ever go after CBS's advertisers?

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

The man admits he was a cokehead and he is afraid to admit that he worked with Ayers on a school funding project? And we shouldn't be curious why this disconnect? It is creepy.

[MayBee]

For TANG, I mean.

[JM Hanes]

You should cross post yours too, MayBee. It's way too good to wind up at the tail end of a thread!

[JM Hanes]

You too, Sara.

[Bozworth]

Speaking of Photoshopping pics to lampoon the Obama Coronation set, my good friend CartoonSteve did this one and sent it to Michelle Malkin: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3186/2805496166_bc9539e016_o.jpg

That really cracks me up. Steve is a conservative, who had some of his anti-Clinton animations run by Limbaugh on his TV show in the nineties.

I'm a moderate Democrat myself, who mainly supported Hillary because I thought she could stop Obama.

Above all else, you see, I am a patriot.

Interesting blog. Though I know you have done so in other entries, on this one and the comments I don't see any mention of the key role played by Nader-supporting liberal Steve Diamond in bringing the Obama-Ayers-Annenberg connection to light. The fact that much of this info emerged on his Global Labor and Politics blog -- and was then re-posted as much on the PUMA type blogs prior to wide dissemination to those on the right -- should give everyone a lot of hope.

There is a broad coalition emerging in opposition to Obama and the authoritarian far left maniacs that have now taken over the Democratic Party.

Take heart, my comrades. Take heart.

[Jean Standish]

WHAT ABOUT SARAH PALIN'S "SEDITIOUS" AND "UNPATRIOTIC" ASSOCIATES?

With the continuous drumbeat of the Ayres rant, why haven't the media given any attention to Ms. Palin's association with the Alaskan Independence Party(AIP). The premise of the McCain's McCarthy-esque attacks on Obama, apparently, is guilt by association. Maybe this would be a good time to examine Palin's association with the AIP. The AIP's creation was inspired by the rabidly violent anti-Americanism of its founding father Joe Vogler. The central purpose of the AIP is to drive Alaska's secession from the United States. In 1992 Vogler renounced his allegiance to the United States explaining that, "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government." He cursed the stars and stripes, promising, "I won't be buried under their damned flag...when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home." Palin has never denounced Vogler or his detestable anti-Americanism. The AIP has stated that Palin was not a member, and the McCain campaign has denied that Palin ever joined this organization. However, Dexter Clark, vice Chairman of the AIP, stated at the AIP 2008 convention that "she was an AIP member before she got the job as a mayor of a small town – that was a non-partisan job."

Palin's husband Todd remained an AIP party member from 1995 to 2002. Sarah can be described in McCarthy-era palaver as a "fellow traveler." While retaining her Republican registration, she attended the AIP's 1994 convention where the party called for a draft constitution to secede from the United States and create an independent nation of Alaska. The McCain Campaign has reluctantly acknowledged that she also attended AIP's 2000 Convention. She apparently found the experience so inspiring that she agreed to give a keynote address at the AIP's 2006 convention and she recorded a video greeting for this year's 2008 convention. In other words, this is not something that happened when she was eight!

So when Palin accuses Barack of "not seeing the same America as you and me," maybe she is referring to an America without Alaska. In any case, isn't it time the media start giving equal time to Palin's buddy list of anti-American bombers and other radical associates?

[battery]

So when Palin accuses Barack of "not seeing the same America as you and me," maybe she is referring to an America without Alaska. In any case, isn't it time the media start giving equal time to Palin's buddy list of anti-American bombers and other radical associates?

[sophy]

I will thank for my friends bringing me in this world. I am not regret to buy habbo gold .