I Am Sort Of Taking This Personally

Stanley Kurtz is a "slimy character assassin" because he has been poking at the Obama/Ayers/Chicago Annenberg Challenge story?  Geez, that is a bizarre over-reaction from Team Obama.  What's next, the Kewl Kids will mock his wheels at the Prom?

Here we go:

And tonight, the campaign launched a more specific campaign: an effort to disrupt the appearance by a writer for National Review, Stanley Kurtz, on a Chicago radio program. Kurtz has been writing about Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers, and has suggested that papers housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago would reveal new details of that relationship.

The campaign e-mailed Chicago supporters who had signed up for the Obama Action Wire with detailed instructions including the station's telephone number and the show's extension, as well as a research file on Kurtz, which seems to prove that he's a conservative, which isn't in dispute. The file cites a couple of his more controversial pieces, notably his much-maligned claim that same-sex unions have undermined marriage in Scandinavia.

"Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse," says the email, which picks up a form of pressure on the press pioneered by conservative talk radio hosts and activists in the 1990s, and since adopted by Media Matters and other liberal groups.

"It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our public airwaves. At the very least, they should offer sane, honest rebuttal to every one of Kurtz's lies," it continues.

Kurtz's lies?  Examples, please:

Just last night on Fox News, Kurtz drastically exaggerated Barack's connection with Ayers by claiming Ayers had recruited Barack to the board of the Annenberg Challenge. That is completely false and has been disproved in numerous press accounts.

And there is more on this a bit later:

Kurtz claimed on Fox News that William Ayers recruited Obama to the
Annenberg Challenge -- a flat out lie. Ayers did not serve on the
board of the Challenge, and he had nothing to do with Barack's
recruitment.

As to the "numerous press accounts", I have no idea what they are talking about - there has been very little contemporary press coverage of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge to date (neither the WaPo nor the Times had discovered it as of this morning).  As to press coverage in 1995, it was sparse; the fact of Obama's chairmanship is scarcely reported, let alone details as to how he was recruited.

Now, it is true that Ayers was not on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge - so what?  He was a prominent co-founder and worked with the Challenge for several years through his  role as co-founder of the Chicago  School Reform Collaborative.

So it is certainly plausible that Ayers recruited Obama (I would bet on it); it is implausible that Ayers had no role at all in selecting a chairman.  But did Ayers recruit Obama?  Who would know, other than Ayers and Obama, and who has asked them?  And considering Obama's past tap-dancing on this issue, who would believe his answer?

A possible resolution might be available in the archives of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which Mr. Kurtz has been riffling through for a couple of days now.  Research, evidence, new conclusions... possible?  Before this campaign flack calls Kurtz a liar, let's see some evidence, from either side [and see CLARIFICATION below].

And while we are on the topic - another reason to think that Ayers recruited Obama in 1995 is that there is an excellent chance Obama and Ayers first partnered up on education reform in 1987.  Bill Ayers was coordinating the ABC's Coalition of which Obama's group, the Developing Communities Project, was a part.  That is one more "smear" for Team Obama to contest bitterly, I suppose.

SPEAKING OF SMEARS:  Obama's "Fight The Smears" website is a blank on Ayers.  Maybe they are planning a whole new website devoted to this?

CLARIFICATION:  From Q&O:

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

MORE:  The LA Times blog comments; their lead:

As nation watches Denver, Obama campaign muscles Chicago station over ex-radical Ayres

In a surprising attempt to stifle broadcast criticism of its candidate, the presidential campaign of freshman Illinois senator Barack Obama is organizing supporters to confront Chicago's WGN radio station for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its main evening discussion program.

They spell "Ayers" correctly in the body - can't they make common cause with the headline writers?

John Fund has a few paragraphs on Ayers and Obama in the WSJ, picking up on the cover-up theme:

Also unexplained is the sudden sensitivity on Team Obama's part. It's already known that Mr. Ayers, now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, hosted a key fund-raising party during Mr. Obama's first bid for public office and also served with Mr. Obama on the board of a Chicago-based charity until 2002. Today, the University of Illinois will finally release documents it tried to keep from the public on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the liberal school reform effort founded by Mr. Ayers and chaired by Mr. Obama. Obama campaign aides insist the two men had only a casual relationship. During a Democratic primary debate last April, Mr. Obama said that "the notion that . . . me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."

We may know more about the relationship between the two men later this week, after reporters have plowed through the once-suppressed Annenberg Challenge records.

Comments

[anduril]

I'll try to be the first to make this prediction: this lame effort by the Obamites will fail.

[Neuro-conservative]

The horror...the horror...

[red forman]

The talking points of the callers were remarkably similar and DUMBASS!!

[clarice]

Kurtz never sais=d Ayres put O on the Board. He said their was evidence that he may have been cannot say that definitively yet. He also said Ayres was often listed ambiguously on the CAC Board (i.e. as an "ex officio" member of the Board or his name was handwritten in under the typed names of Board members on the list of Bd members in attendendance.) He said Ayres was head of the other arm of the project; had made the proposal to Annenberg and received money from CAC.

Kurtz, like TM< thinks it would be nice if some reporter got off his duff and asked O how he came to be chairman of CAC.

[clarice]

*said....* *there was evidence*

[clarice]

The O callers were lame and dumbass, indeed.

[bad]

My spidy sense is tingling. The O's are either incredibly stupid in their handling of this thing or there is lots of there there.

[BarbaraS]

Don't you just love their version of free speach. I think Frank Davis might have introduced Obama to Ayers.

[clarice]

I expect independents like Rosenberg, the radio host. He seemed a measured and Intelligent man, and these tactics are not likely to win the Obama team a lot of new admirers.
Kurtz also seemed a very careful academic type not given to wild charges.

[bad]

The CAC closed down in 2002. When did Mr. Annenberg pass away?

[clarice]

Niters..and thanks for the help.

[Danube of Thought]

Couple this with the effort to get DoJ to sqelch a campaign ad he doesn't like. Anybody want this guy in charge of the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and the Department of Justice?

Let's hear from some civil libertarians. Let's hear from Anonymous Liberal, the once-proud Foobs, the very strange Cleo and all the rest of them.

An honorable ACLU lawyer would be very upset about all of this. (I assume there are one or more such creatures.)

[bad]

Both men were impressive.

[bad]

Isn't Bernardine Dohrn affiliated with the ACLU?

[MayBee]

Is there something keeping Obama from just explaining his position on the CAC?

I also think it is really strong for a presidential candidate to be writing corporate sponsors of a press critic. And by strong, I mean...wrong. Unseemly. Bad.

[First Time Listener]

I loved the callers reading from the Obama email saying Kurtz was a liar and they were disappointed in WGN. Then the host calmly asked the callers "could you please give some examples of these lies?". The callers would stammer like idiots and say things like "no, I'm not going to tell you, you know already".

Does Obama realize how stupid his attack email was? Those callers made Obama and his followers look worse. If this is Obama's idea of a rapid response team, he is screwed.

[bad]

Hey

[bad]

"no, I'm not going to tell you, you know already".

They were sad weren't they.

[bad]

Is there something keeping Obama from just explaining his position on the CAC?

It must be quite a secret.

[clarice]

For their sake I hope the O rapid response team doesn't play poker for money--there's quite a "tell" there.

[Pofarmer]

Is there something keeping Obama from just explaining his position on the CAC?

He probably has 2 or 3. One thing is for sure, he certainly doesn't handle these types of things like Bush.

[Jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet]

It won't be for long, bad.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Anyone else getting the impression from Milt and his producer that they are shocked by this Obama tactic? Like maybe they are getting their eyes open for the first time to what a sleaze his campaign actually is?

[clarice]

They were clearly shocked and said so repeatedly.

[Pofarmer]

Does Obama realize how stupid his attack email was? Those callers made Obama and his followers look worse. If this is Obama's idea of a rapid response team, he is screwed.

Once you realize that Barack Hussein is a Hugo Chavez wannabe, it all comes into focus.

[scoopa]

Just lovin' this!! As much fun as the swifties 4 years ago. Maybe Larry O'Donell will come back for an encore and call Kurtz a "creepy liar"!!! Anyone watching the MSNBC meltdown going on too??? POPCORN!!!

[MayBee]

I think it's creepy that people actually called just because they were told to.

[Jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet]

Two words as to why these BS tactics are going on:

Saul Alinsky

[JM Hanes]

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 worth 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. (cross posted from the old thread)

scoopa:

I just happened to catch Chris Matthews' reaction to the talk show host who said he thought Bill & Hill would vote for McCain in the seclusion of the ballot box. Matthews was hysterical! Harold Ford was AbFab as always.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Crossposted.

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]

I really love Harold Ford.

Yeah, Matthews was weird in that clip, JMH. Why couldn't he just have fun with what Murphy said? He got all indignant.

[JM Hanes]

And Pat Buchannan sounds as mad as a hatter now. I picture guys with massive comb-overs like his having to run through parking lots in the rain.

[MayBee]

Semi cross posted.
Do you all prefer
Ayersmas
or
CACsmas
or
Kurtzmas ?

[JM Hanes]

MayBee: He sure didn't mind repeating, ad nauseum, that the guy gave the Bush administration a C for performance though, did he? No lapse of judgment there, apparently!

[JM Hanes]

I'd vote for Kurtzmas. It seems appropriate, since he'll be marshalling the evidence on this one, and it has a nice ring as well. I imagine we can find a lot of other uses for CAC, and someone is sure to find a fit use for Ayers.

[MayBee]

I still remember the first time I saw a wet combover. I was about 8 and on a family vacation with friends. One of the dads- the coolest one- got in the pool and started throwing his sons around. And suddenly his hair just started.... uncoiling from his head until it was shoulder length on one side. I did not understand what I was seeing.

[Jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet]

If Obama wins, a C will look pretty good to me.

[JM Hanes]

It may ultimately look good to everyone, Jim.

[paul]

This is worse for Obama than the swift Vets...

the media structured the response for Kerry-'why doesn't he hit back?' implying that there was something he could do.

The obama campaign doesn't have a reasonable defense. the time for clarification for Obama and the press, has passed. There is no legitimate response and the media doesn't want to put obama in a losing situation.

The problem is a nightmare-

If the press won't discuss Ayers, McCain will go to town on it without restriction. To my knowledge, there are no legitimate talking points, that can support previous statements that BO has made.

ditto for rezko...when the 527's are done, people will believe that Ayers is the next secretary of state and rezko will take over for bernanke jan 20.

[JM Hanes]

I turned the sound off awhile ago when the phone rang and forgot to turn it back on. They're re-running Biden, and he really works his mouth. If you were trying to learn to lip read, he'd be a good place to start. His eyes seem much narrower than they used to -- he doesn't really look like he's had a face lift, but I've noticed on others that it can really change a person's eyes. Wouldn't want to look like his drop dead gorgeous wife's father.....

[Elliott]

"slimy character assassin"

Not a "heart of darkness" for Mr. Kurtz*?
___________________
Who, in this tale, should probably be assigned the role of Marlow.

[JM Hanes]

Interesting tidbit , from Politico's Gossip Column

It might be a good time to feel sorry for marshmallow Evan Bayh. A pretty solid whispering going around is that the Obama camp had chosen the Indiana senator for his veep, and then the Georgia chaos occured and they decided to go with Joe Biden, who clearly has more foreign policy experience.

I'm really going to miss Brit Hume when he retires, if only for stuff like this: "Every four years we find out that the American Dream has died, and the opposition party promises to resurrect it."

[scoopa]

JM,

What does AbFab mean? I always liked Harold Ford too (yeah, he's a lib but not too bad and was always good on the war). I really thought that he would be our first black president. Maybe he still will be...... Although I'd vote for Michael Steele in a heartbeat

BTW - love Kurtzmas!

[bgates]

Kurtzmas.
I imagine we can find a lot of other uses for CAC,
I'm not that kind of boy. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
and someone is sure to find a fit use for Ayers.
Someday, a mortician...oh, you meant the name.

F Ayer-ness Doctrine?
Truth or D'Ayers?
Miserable piece of carp?

[Topsecretk9]

Posted by: JM Hanes | August 28, 2008 at 03:33 AM

JMH

I really think that they wanted Edwards and then all the Enquirer stuff got out of hand about the same time as Georgia and to move far, far away from their Edwards negotiations and since Georgia was happening at same time of the body surfing rock star optic and thier first choice went sideways, they went for a weird hasty NOT HILARY cut.

That's just me though.

I have to say that I am with Jonah Goldberg and HH, Joe [TEETH FLASH] Biden is my fav Democrat in that the entertainment that man provides is priceless. If ever their were a transparently smarmy politician Joe Biden drips in smarm.

I hope the McCain campaign does this ad
------

Narrator:"Here's Joe Biden on such and such day"

Visual:
[pan into TEETH FLASH] of Joe Biden rambling at a hearing

Voice/Visual of Biden:
"I didn't even like Princeton," he said, to laughter from the gallery. "I mean, I really didn't like Princeton. I was an Irish Catholic kid who thought it had not changed like you concluded it had," referring to Alito's earlier statement that Princeton had changed its traditional ways before he enrolled.

Narrator: And when he was reminded praising Princeton in speech years earlier? Here is what Joe Biden said the NEXT Day [pan into TEETH FLASH, Joe wearing Princeton Cap]

Voice/Visual-Biden wearing ball cap:
I really love Princeton, no I mean I really like Princeton.

Narrator:
And you know what Keith Olbermann asked at the time? “Will the hat hurt his hairplugs?”

Narrator: Is this man [teeth flash] even serious?

-------------------

Proof of Olbermann's scorn.
Biden showed up at the hearing wearing a Princeton hat. Keith Olbermann asked, “Will the hat hurt his hairplugs?”

http://cdobs.com/archive/our-columns/joe-biden-is-definitely-a-characterbut-does-he-have-character,1583/

[Topsecretk9]

also my 2 cents on Hillary:

I am sure there is a loyalty that would endear her to make her say all the right words at the convention, but there is a clear - POLLING - reason for her to not sound all the right buzz words. If the polling was saying different, Hill would lick Obama's toes.

She sees the train wreck cometh and therefore needs to detach from it quite a bit, perchance?

If Hillary wants to maintain a higher standing she's walking a tight rope about now, but I'd bet internals are spelling out an enticing '12 challenge potential, and if so she does NOT want to be so attached to the "failure of "08 it's time to mount '12 now and it would be a feature, NOT a bug, to be unconsumed and unconnected with the Obama failure.

[Jane]

I saw snippets of "Secretary" Daley on Greta last night - (I'm not exactly sure who that is in the scheme of Daley's). He was outraged that anyone was checking into the Annenburg challenge which accomplished so much, and spoke about how successful Bill Ayers is, even if he may have done something "slightly criminal" a long long long time ago.

[Pagar]

I can't find it this morning, but on some site last night I saw a teaser ad on the side that said the Obama team was coming out with a Ayers rebuttal. IMO, there is no rebuttal, the potential damage for a bomb such as was being contructed for the Ft Dix NCO Club dance could have been worse than damage from a suicide bomber in Iraq. I don't understand how it was possible for Ayers to avoid punishment for that without some serious anti-American help somewhere in the criminal justice system. I suggest someone look at who made the decision to let him go.

[kim]

It was prosecutorial misbehaviour by Mark Felt; I believe he exceeded his authority with respect to wiretaps. Wiretaps, which, of course, had Ayers et al dead to rights. Shouldn't they be in the public domain, now?
============================

[Seixon]

"Ayers did not serve on the board of the Challenge, and he had nothing to do with Barack's recruitment."

Valerie Plame wasn't in a position to decide to send her husband to Niger, so therefore she could not have suggested him for the trip.

Yeah. That's the ticket! Keep on recycling those Clintonesque denials!

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Morning everyone. This is OT, but it struck me funny. I decided to refamiliarize myself with the 5 Romney sons and I was looking at their various My Space pages.

Matt Romney, age 36, and the cutest one of all, IMHO, has as who he would like to meet:

Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain and Michael Jordan.

I laughed when I read that.

I had forgotten that all 5 boys graduated from BYU, 3 of them have MBAs from Harvard, a 4th is getting his graduate degree at Tufts in Medicine (Biochemical medicine) and Craig, age 27, works as an "advertising music producer" for McGarryBowen, NYC, with a very impressive list of clients, i.e. Disney, Marriott, Kraft, Chevron, Reebok, Wall Street Journal, Hewlett-Packard, and Century 21 to name a few. They are the #1 independent advertising agency in NY and 11th nationwide.

I would say all 5 of those boys are doing well for themselves.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Why are they doing this, surely they see it will just make it worse for them? This is about last night's WGN broadcast with Kurtz. It isn't from a local Chicago paper, no, it is appearing in the Los Angeles Times.

Going after a Chicago radio station

[kim]

Yes, Sara, this was naked stupid media manipulation. Just exactly the sort of thing to get the poobahs of the MSM up on their high horses. This is the gong show. Where's the hook?
==============================

[BR]

Hulllloooooo, Seixon!!!! Hero of the Maryam Appeal Expose and so much more! I just mentioned you in a recent thread, see 8/27/08, 4:45 am onwards.

[MikeS]

Senator Obama's behavior is inexplicable. Rather than just explain his relationship with Ayers, he chose to make false statements and he continues to stonewall on this subject.

They say, "Where there is smoke, there is fire." All we can do now is wait to hear from reporters who are combing through the evidence.

[Appalled]

OK. Team Obama is afraid of something, here. Heretofore, the Ayers stuff has not gained much traction. So, why are they acting like a philandering husband when the wife confronts him with her suspicions she's got a mistress?

I could be misjudging how the association thing polls, as I don't think the Ayers association is a disqualifyer. But it seems like that there is something in those records the Obama people do not want public, that cannot be easily expunged from the record. I guess it could be Obama does not want exposed the days when he was shifting from radical chic to Chicago pol. But still....wtf?!

Of course, this may be the boneheaded approach to preventing their guy from being "swift-vetted". But overreaction raises suspicions that there is something to hide.

[bad]

I saw a teaser ad on the side that said the Obama team was coming out with a Ayers rebuttal.

"nonny nonny foo foo. You're one too." Probably with a finger and nose gesture of some kind.

[Victoria]

For those of you who listened to the WGN interview yesterday, I just want to say, and I know I am a couple of months late but, HAPPY JUNETEENTH!!!

The Ayers connection is one thing. But how the Annenberg project allocated its funds is another. If it is any indication on Obama will spend Federal funds on education, the U.S. is in big trouble. Kurtz provided examples of project funded and those rejected. Those funded included topics like: Ethnic Identity and a "Peace" School. Those rejected: Chicago Algebra project and District 5 Math & Science initiative.

Thanks to Obama's leadership, no wonder the project appears to have been a complete failure in improving education in Chicago.

[BR]

Hee, "she's got a mistress"? I know it's just a typo, but made me wonder if you're Russian. I once spent an hour drilling two Russians on who is "he" and who is "she." No, Vladimir, your aunt (pointing at family pictures on the wall) is not "he". And no, Alexi, Vladimir is not "she." Okay,(another sip of rum), who is this, Vladimir? Your father, okay, that's "he."

[ex-democrat]

some background here on ayers/obama that i hadn't read before:

http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/04/who-sent-obama.html

[M. Simon]

POD cast of the show 8-27-08

[bad]

Be sure to listen to the lame sameness of the Obama callers.

The email the Obama camp sent out to recruit callers to the show is Linked Under Name.

[bad]

From the LATimes Blog sara linked: LUN

This is not the first time Obama's organization has sought to steer supporters to influence a broadcast outlet airing criticism.

Are they talking about other radio station broadcasts or the TV ad issue of a few days ago?

[Pagar]

"the Ayers association is a disqualifyer"

The NCO club target, plus the other known activities of Ayers should disqualify him from any part of American society. One thing that I haven't seen mentioned a lot is just how much more than just killing US military members would be the aim of hitting a US Military club on a dance night. The young people in that club for a dance would include a large number of young female civilians from the surrounding area. Given the tactics learned from the Viet Cong, There probably would have been a second bomb,to insure maximum casualties,scheduled to go off as the survivors rushed from the scene of the first bomb. I can't think of many acts more Anti American than sitting off bombs in America, other than supporting those who do it or want to do it.

[Youre On Caller]

In the show Podcast that M. Simon links to above, the callers come in about halfway through show (around 52 minute point). Be sure to have the Obama "action alert" email open at the same time so you can follow along.

[RichatUF]

TSK9-

She sees the train wreck cometh and therefore needs to detach from it quite a bit, perchance?

That's about what I'm thinking. The Clinton's are probably also thinking what they may be able to do to the Stern/Dean faction of the DNC-she lost because she lost control of the party.

It could be a perfect storm of bad luck: Obama's numbers in published polls take a nasty stumble, which kills his fundraising. Since the Obama Campaign, the DNC, and their House and Senate Committees are all raising from the same pool, they all get hit by a funding crunch at the same time. Then Obama, to save money, begins shedding staff and campaign offices-giving the appearence of losing (he's retreating), and therefore another round of bad press and another round of poor fundraising. All the while, Obama's attention has to be dedicated half to campaigning and half to fundraising, while McCain can just campaign.

[sbw]

Not having read any Saul Alinsky, I deduce that one of his action points is:

-- If you have nothing to sell, sell the selling.

[Biff]

Chicago Tribune Link

Article excerpt:

"Take a break from the hugs, hopium with a good read

John Kass
August 28, 2008

DENVER — If what you want from Sen. Barack Obama's historic Democratic convention speech on Thursday night is to give yourself up to profound emotion and to join others in common passion and release, then guzzle some hopium and enjoy.

Or you can enrich the experience by reading "The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate" by David Freddoso.

Freddoso's book, on the best-seller lists, is the anti-hopium. It is the pin of reason to the Obama balloon."

[kim]

Ayers' weapons of mass destruction are the bombs still going off in curricular committee meetings all over the nation. The destruction of human minds is shocking and the damage ongoing. The time for community action is now.
===================================

[Barbara]

M. Simon,

Thank you so much for the link to the WGN Program.

[kim]

Look around, who can't see a pedantic nail smack through the middle of the cerebral cortex of some young acquaintance?
==================================

[kim]

Public Education is an issue pretty near everyone can take personally, even those in opposition because of the perversion of taxation it has become. Public schools today, and the bureaucracy attendant upon them, have become a hydra-headed monster of misdirection and widespread destruction. Truly, a dragon in need of slaying. A vicious worm.
=========================================

[kim]

What could be taught in schools, and is in this one, is the lesson of a Presidential campaign in the 21st Century using this sort of vicious email attack on a radio interviewer and his subject.

An excellent lesson for the future, my pretties.
=============================

[sbw]

Kim, here I go, yet again, promoting Richard Mitchell, the Underground Grammarian. Here is his essay on "The Worm in the Brain".

[Prime Time]

Is Obama ready? Brief video (including Obama on Obama).

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/08/28/video-a-new-mccain-spokesman-for-obamas-unreadiness/

[kim]

Wormwood carving jester
Dragon larvae fester.

From the 'Screw-worm Papers', er mebbe it was the 'Tapeworm Letters'.
=====================================

[M. Simon]

M. Simon,

Thank you so much for the link to the WGN Program.

Honored to be of service Barbra.

This has the feel of the anti-Kerry Campaign. Except we are going full blast before the convention is even over.

[Danube of Thought]

According to Rasmussen, the bounce has been good for one percentage point thus far.

[drjohn]

They go back farther than that. The Woods fund and the ABCS precede Annenberg. Ayers and Obama might go back as far as the late 80's.

There's more to this story.

[Ranger]

Well, with the Obama campaign losing it over this first ad, it's time to roll out an even rougher one:

Acording to his own campaign staff, Barack Obama is friends with William Ayers. How close are they? Obama launched his political career at William Ayers’ house in Chicago. They worked together on various project for 7 years in Chicago. They appeared together on panel discussions.

Who is William Ayers?

He's a terrorist who bombed the pentagon.

He tried to kill American soldiers on American soil.

He's a traitor. The group he belonged to declared war on the United States government.

William Ayers has never renounced that declaration of war or the acts of terrorism he committed. In fact, he has stated that he felt "they didn't do enough."

How can Barack Obama take the oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States after being friends with a traitor for his entire career in politics?

I think you could fit that into a 30 second spot... Then what the Obama campaign's collective head explode.

[bl]

The media who Obama is currently muscling into silence is the same media who refused to vet him from the get go. I mean, Rev. Wright, Father Pfleger, Tony Rezco, Ayers, mentor Frank in Hawaii, Muslim dads from Kenya & Indonesia, school records showing Muslim as stated religion, most liberal voting record in the Senate, Michelle Obama's salary went from 120K to 350K when Barry sent pork spending to her hospital, etc.,etc...
My personal thought on the Annenburg Challenge issue is that Ayers and Obama acquired a lot of political and business capital by disbursing funds from the largess of the CAC. Trouble is, they acquired influence and political power, while the results of spending over 100 Million dollars for education improvement, resulted in no apparent improvement as noted in the limited documents first released to Kurtz.

[clarice]

I had thought the world would little note nor long remember last night's WGN show..wrong..the IT and even the print media is crackling with fury at the brownshirt display of last evening. Check out Insty's link heavy post and this one from NRO

http://media.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmRhYmE3NzFlMTljNTdmZGQ3MjhkYTVjNzdmMjVhMzE=>Preview of Fairness Doctrine's return?

Powerline takes strong issue, too with Obama's counsel's threats re the ads, noting that attempting to criminalize free speech is outrageous.

I cannot believe they'd take the risks of fanning this firestorm if their polls weren't telling them this is very damaging and it should be.

[clarice]

Right, bl.
Stealing from someone Insty cited, if only O had denounced Ayres with the fervor he's attacking those talking about Ayres and CAC, he'd be out of this by now. Funny that he hasn't, isn't it?

[kim]

'brownshirt' is the mot juste, and it's captured for the ages. This was a huge blunder, it was naked. Nothing fluffy about it.
===============================

[kim]

Heh, Obama will emerge on the dais in need of ironing.
==================================

[bio mom]

Rasmussen, with leaners, still has a tie 47-47. Says there was a large negative bounce after the Biden selection but Tuesday and Wednesday were better for Obama. We will get some feel for this tomorrow from ras when the Monday rolls off.

[clarice]

Good piece on the why of barackopolis:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/08/obamas_temple_of_illusion_1.html>temple of illusion

[M. Simon]

I did a post on this at Classical Values called "Beginning Of The End"

What is so funny is that the WGN thing happened during the convention because the records were closed (attempt at stonewall) and Kurtz just happened to be in Chicago when the records were opened.

[bio mom]

Why isn't the "the first black nominee" someone more like Harold Ford then this flyweight phoney lefty?

Joe Biden (my senator, so sad) has a real self image problem that he tries to overcompensate for by bluster. That Princeton hat thing was designed to imply that he too was from Princeton. No way. He was a mediocre student in high school and at U of D as well. In the bottom of his law school class at Syracuse. This bothers him. He fooled a NY Times into believin he was a Princeton alumnus like Alito. They had to post a correction.

May the good Lord protect us from this diabolical duo!!

[MayBee]

I think there must be something there, because DailyKos hasn't mentioned Kurtz/Ayers once, not even to denounce it.

[bio mom]

2nd quarter GDP revised today to 3.3%.

[Semanticleo]

"because DailyKos hasn't mentioned Kurtz/Ayers once, not even to denounce it."

Don't need to, Maybee.

I am glad some of Kurtz's Bio went into the bottom grafs, but it should have included...

HAROLD SIMMONS' background and the axes he wants to grind...namely; AVOIDING HEALTHCARE REFORM AT ALL COSTS (SO FAR ONLY $3 MILLION)

Big Pharma is his (and Maguire's) Golden Goose.

[Semanticleo]

It's Laissez-faire capitalism (LET BUSINESS DO WHAT IT WANTS, WITHOUT ANY RESTRICTIONS)
at it's finest

[clarice]

Absolutely--why not set up a big fund to pay organizers to piss away the money and give none to those who need it--like CAC or the housing project where only Rezko and his buddies benefitted. That's the trick, Semantic..keep believing that big pots of money given to intermediaries in the govt or private (particularly NGO sector) will get better results --for anyone but the luftmenchen in the middle.

[Jim]

Leo's right. If a person stands to gain financially from his opinion's being accepted as true, then his argument may be dismissed out of hand without refutation and merely lambasted as self-serving. The is the precious core of Marx's teaching.

[clarice]

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/live-from-dnc-my-feet-obamas-poll-numbers-hurting-day-3/>Charlie from Colo with a message just made for Leo

[Soylent Red]

So, do Sasha and Malia get presents on Kurtzmas? Or, in the spirit of the season, do they just exchange money?

[GMax]

Just a shout out. Chaco, you rock. That was dead solid perfect club to to ball. Right down the middle of the fairway with topspin for roll.

[Porchlight]

So it turns out that the UIC's shutting down access to the CAC records was actually a stroke of luck. Had Kurtz gotten access when he was initially promised it, he'd still be working on his article, it might come out to little fanfare (as his other excellent articles have, unfortunately) and the CAC story might have gone nowhere.

Way to go, CAC records donor!

And Milt Rosenberg cannot be commended highly enough for having Kurtz on his show and being such a gentleman about it. Freedom of the press couldn't have had a better illustration than that interview and the Obamabot response to it.

[clarice]

Couldn't agree more, porchlight.
Almost makes me believe there's a providential hand in all this.