Obama, Ayers, And Education Reform

The American Thinker picks up the story of Obama's long and concealed association with unrepentant Weatherman Bill Ayers and their mutual efforts on education reform.  This piece on Ayers' current radical views is helpful.

Comments

[M. Simon]

I'm going OT right at the beginning

Democrats Strike Out on oil drilling. I start with an American Thinker link.

[PapayaSF]

This should not be too hard for some reporter to do (if they wanted to): 1) Make a fair summary of Ayers' beliefs, based on his published writings. 2) Ask Obama if he believes the same things. 3) If he says no, ask him why, if he doesn't believe those things, was he working to "reform" education in the way Ayers wants?

[Perfect Sense]

How did Ayers escape serious jail time?

[hrtshpdbox]

Ayers' case was dropped on a technicality caused by clumsy prosecution efforts. I guess it's part of the American dream that an anti-American terrorist, unrepentant to this day, can nevertheless become a "respected member of the community". Too bad that the major networks love this kind of guy and that FOX, the network that should supposedly know better, is too lazy or clueless or bending too far backwards in search of "fairness" to actually do some relevant reporting.

[Pagar]

Good Morning to all!

My theory on Ayers, is that so many of the network people, the establishment people, have been educated by members of the Ayers community of educators that there are few or none of the network people left that do not agree with Ayers and his counterparts.

" Here is part of what Bill Ayers said in November 2006:

President Hugo Chavez, Vice-President Vicente Rangel, Ministers Moncada and Isturiz, invited guests, comrades. I’m honored and humbled to be here with you this morning. I bring greetings and support from your brothers and sisters throughout North America. Welcome to the World Education Forum! Amamos la revolucion Bolivariana!

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

IMO, There is no one more committed to using education to destroy America. Just look at his position within the AERA: the election of Obama as President would insure that William Ayers and his fellow travelers have complete control of the education of every child in America.

LUN---comes from Larry Johnson at Noquarter,
but that doesn't change the words Ayers spoke against America.

[kim]

The Dems screw up again. There is immense national resentment at the failure of public education. This is going to be a blockbuster issue, if not this year, then soon and for the rest of your life. Ayers is a liability and a hazard. Abate, abate.
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[Ranger]

Sounds like they were exchanging quite a few ideas quite regularly for quite a while.

[kim]

Just as Obama is a parody of a politician, and his supporters parodies of partisans, so is the press a parody of what an information stream is supposed to be. For example, compare the MSM with the internet for information acquisition. Compare Obama with an executive willing and able to solve problems. Compare his supporters with the PUMAs.
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[DebinNC]

Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown?

[BumperStickerist]

Me?

I'm just glad that Ayers is a Professor of English and or Education and not, say a Professor of Mechanical Engineering ... or, for that matter, a Vo-tech instructor in welding and electronics.

The pen is mightier than the sword, unless you're attempting to use it as a detonating mechanism.

[Jim]

I'm just finishing Freddoso's book, so I can pass it on to liberals having read it. It's well done.

[Ranger]

Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown?

Posted by: DebinNC | August 18, 2008 at 09:26 AM

I think the RNC should ask Obama if this is the kind of "transparency" he plans to bring to Washington.

[Caro]

Deb in NC--
A chilling story from Stanley Kurtz. Thanks. This will be a struggle to get the info out before the election.

[BumperStickerist]

If Tom Maguire is inclined to take a cheap shot at NYT's Frank Rich, and who wouldn't, there's this recent gem:

... and McCain gets with the program as if Angela Lansbury has just dealt him the Queen of Hearts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/opinion/17rich.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

That's a "Manchurian Candidate" reference *and* it's mistaken.

It's was the Queen of DIAMONDS, Mr. Rich.

The Queen of DIAMONDS.

...

dumbass.

[Sue]

From DebInNC's link:

Unfortunately, I don’t yet have access to the documents. The Special Collections section of the Richard J. Daley Library agreed to let me read them, but just before I boarded my flight to Chicago, the top library officials mysteriously intervened to bar access.

And over at The Corner, he asks this...

Please consider contacting the president of the University of Illinois system, B. Joseph White, to ask him to take immediate public steps to insure the safety of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge records, to release the identity of the collection’s donor, and above all to swiftly make the collection available to me, and to the public at large. You can find an e-mail link for White here . Telephone, fax, and mailing addresses for White’s offices can be found here.

We have a mission folks. Get busy!

[Jane]

.. and McCain gets with the program as if Angela Lansbury has just dealt him the Queen of Hearts.

~~Don't you draw the queen of diamonds, boy
Shell beat you if she's able
You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet~~~

[Ranger]

Well, if you really want to put presure on the U of I system, someone needs to organize an Allumni revolt. If the Allumni threaten to withhold donations, you might actually get some traction. The other way to go about it is to request a congressional investigation, with the threat that if impropor steps have been taken to keep this information from the public, federal funds to the University could be withheld as punishment. These types of academic politicians only respond to serious economic threats.

The other way to go at this is to put Obama on the spot. Demand that he take action to get these records released, the same way the Obama supporers went after Hilary for keeping the Clinton Library information under raps. This puts Obama in a no win situation. He either comes off as flip-floping aggain (I was for full disclosure before I was against it) or, if he calls for the information's relese and it still doesn't come out, he looks weak (how can he deal with Russia if he can't even get some files released from a university library).

[bgates]

BumperStickerist, that is a cheap shot. Expecting someone who concentrates on politics and government to know much of anything about dramatic works is unrealistic. And vice versa.

[BumperStickerist]

We could create the Frank Rich Collection of Misremembered Allusions

Like Jean Valjean's release after 19 years confinement in French prison for stealing a horse, John McCain's recent release from neoconservatism heralds ...

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[Bargainhunters]

If you look at legislation there was a big push for education reform, especially overseas a few months ago. It was the usually dems like Honda, Kerry, etc. Most of it emphasized scientific education and exchange funding, etc. I'd check the legislation against Ayers and Obama. The push seemed to be concealed and was written off, except for long term funding program's like Kerry's Vietnam thing.

Fiji isn't Mauritania, which isn't Georgia; but they all are the same.

[Kurt]

Uh, bgates, where have you been? Frank Rich spent most of his years at the NYT as a theatre critic, and prior to joining the times he worked as a film critic. The truth is, he knows more about film and theatre than he does about politics, but maybe I read you too literally and that was the point of your "vice versa."

[sbw]

People, come on! Fake but Accurate is the standard.

Give Rich a break! Apply Chris Crocker's tearful YouTube Britney Spears plea: “You’re lucky she even performed for you bastards! Leave Britney Alone. PLEASE!”

[BumperStickerist]

from The Frank Rich Collection of Misremembered Allusions

The Republican party resembles the tourists aboard the S.S. Minnow, they pay for the eight hour tour, they end up staying for years.

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John McCain's recent updating of his image is akin to the way way that Puccini's Tosca was brought into modernity in Rent

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"Greedo fired first" explains much of John McCain's "Star Wars" driven foreign policy.

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John McCain is the Republican Party's Mister Whipple, telling all around him to not squeeze the Bounty.

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[BumperStickerist]

more from The Frank Rich Collection of Misremembered Allusions

{to quote "The Kingston Trio" - "I'm not proud, I'm not even tired."}

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Like Chuck Norris in "Rambo II", John McCain shoots first and asks questions later

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Pity John McCain, like Paul Newman in "The Great Escape" he vaults the first hurdle only to stopped by the second. One hopes that the RNC doesn't stand him next to Richard Attenborough and shoot him on the trip back to Washington D.C.

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[bgates]

Republican 527 groups, filled with an unsavory cast of characters straight out of the ET bar scene

McCain wants to imagine the US military as leading the fight against evil, Batman on a global scale. But Oliver North is no Adam West. And North by Northwest ended badly for all concerned, especially the lovely Doris Day, who was pecked to death by birds in the shower.

I fear this election may see a repeat of Pauline Kael's famous lament, "I can't believe Nixon won. How could McGovern have been such a f@#$%ing doofus?"

[bgates]

Though left for dead early last year, the McCain campaign keeps coming back, like the title character from "Fargo".

As anyone who has read King Lear knows, old guys like McCain should get out of the way and let the ambitious young run things.

[bgates]

BumperStickerist - Greedo did fire first.

[BumperStickerist]

au contraire. I saw SW in its initial theatrical release.

I also saw ET. The agents, they carried guns, not walkie-talkies.

[bgates]

Bumperstickerist - I don't know what I was thinking there. That change really bugged me when I saw the re-release. Geez, I look worse than Frank Rich.

[JM Hanes]

Don't worry bgates. Nobody looks worse than Frank Rich -- and you're a laugh riot on purpose.

Pagar:

"Amamos la revolucion Bolivariana!"

Wow, that's about as bald faced as it gets. Reminds me of a Tom Hayden column I read in the Nation a month or so ago. Although I now realize I shouldn't have been, I was stunned that anybody would actually come right out and publicly shower blessings upon Chavez. It's remarkable, those folks really aren't former radicals at all.

[kim]

I wonder if the supers have figured out that Obama is constitutionally incapable of appealing to the muddle. The poor fella, solid on the left, has lost his voice since he's attempted to appeal to the muddle. He was at the least, sincere, when he was fighting for the nomination; angling for the muddle he's slipped on the muddy bank, and is flailing in unfamiliar waters, over his paygrade.
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