That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship
By Steve Diamond on June 19, 2008 at 7:45 PM in Annenberg Chicago Challenge, Barack Obama, Chicago, Chicago politics, Joyce Foundation, Race, Weather Underground, William Ayers, Woods Fund
The key points of this (long!) blog post:
2) Review of Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) documents shows that Ayers and Obama each chaired the two CAC operating bodies from 1995 to 2000
3) CAC was at heart of Chicago school “wars” in 90s
4) CAC handed out more than $100 million in Chicago school system
5) CAC failed to improve student achievement but Ayers and Obama’s political goals were tackled
A. Introduction
As my readers are aware I have pointed to the joint participation of Senator Obama and Professor Bill Ayers in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an education reform project, as evidence of an older and deeper relationship between Ayers and Obama than the Senator has acknowledged. Because the political views, as well as the past criminal behavior, of Professor Ayers represent, in my view, an authoritarian approach to education and society as a whole, I believe that it is important for the public to have as complete an understanding of the Ayers-Obama relationship as possible.
Of course, many well-intentioned supporters of the Obama campaign who, for example, share my opposition to the war in Iraq and perhaps share my views on many other issues, will argue that this kind of discussion can only help the McCain campaign. It may indeed be true that the McCain campaign will benefit because of the relationship between Obama and Ayers.
But if that is the case then I think the left has to take responsibility for attempting to build its opposition to the war in Iraq and other policies of the Bush Administration on the basis of the objectionable political tactics used by, and the political views of, those who lead the Democratic Party. Thus, my hope is that by confronting the truth about that Party we can build an independent progressive movement that is transparent and accountable to its members.
It so happens that on a crucial political issue – education policy – I think there is a potential problem with the views of Bill Ayers and others in the Obama camp and potentially with the views of the candidate himself. Thus, I think it is important to pay careful attention to those views.
B. Enter the Obama Campaign
As evidence of the lengths to which the Obama campaign is willing to go to discourage an open and forthright exploration of the Obama-Ayers relationship, this week I received an unsolicited email from Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, of the Stanford University School of Education. Professor Darling-Hammond is an education advisor to the Obama campaign. In the email, she said she was writing to me about my blog which she found “completely mysterious” because I “tie [her] in” with Bill Ayers. She states “while I know Bill Ayers, I have never talked to him about policy in the Obama campaign or about whatever you mean by ‘reparations.’”
Now, as it turns out, I have no evidence that Professor Darling-Hammond has ever talked to Ayers about policy in the Obama campaign or reparations. I have, in fact, never said that on my blog. I have only said that Bill Ayers endorsed the proposal for the repayment of the centuries of “educational debt” that some allege is owed to people of color. This is a proposal that Professor Darling-Hammond has also endorsed. Both Ayers and Darling-Hammond support the idea of replacing the widely used concept of an “achievement gap” between different groups of students with the idea of an “educational debt” that has accumulated over centuries and that is responsible for poor academic outcomes for black and some other minority students.
Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings first proposed the “repayment of centuries of educational debt” idea in her Presidential Address to the American Education Research Association (AERA) in April 2006. AERA is the leading professional body for faculty in schools of education. Bill Ayers is currently a Vice President of AERA.
Ladson-Billings based her argument for the “educational debt” idea, in part, on the work of Randall Robinson in his book arguing for reparations for slavery. She quoted Robinson to support her approach as follows:
“What is it that we might owe to citizens who historically have been excluded from social benefits and opportunities? Randall Robinson (2000) states: ‘No nation can enslave a race of people for hundreds of years, set them free bedraggled and penniless, pit them, without assistance in a hostile environment, against privileged victimizers, and then reasonably expect the gap between the heirs of the two groups to narrow. Lines, begun parallel and left alone, can never touch. (p. 74)’”
The title of Robinson’s book is: The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks.
Professor Darling-Hammond endorsed the same proposal in an article she wrote for The Nation magazine in early 2007. Professor Darling-Hammond then released a report for the Forum on Education and Democracy (“FED”) earlier this year in which she stated that the #1 priority of the federal government should be to repay the “educational debt.” A co-convener of the FED is Gloria Ladson-Billings.
So I wrote back to Professor Darling-Hammond and pointed out that I had never said what she was now denying but asked her to correct any inaccuracies or mischaracterizations that might have appeared on my blog.
She wrote back and while she did not point out any inaccuracies or mischaracterizations, she did deny, once more, something that I had never said:
“Bill Ayers has no connection to the Obama campaign or to Obama’s policy proposals in education or any other area. I would appreciate your not attributing his views to me – or to the Senator.”
Of course, I think the Senator can speak for himself. Certainly Professor Darling-Hammond can. But I have never said that Ayers spoke for them.
Nonetheless, it is clear that Ayers and Darling-Hammond both hold the same opinion on a key education policy issue: support for repayment of centuries of “educational debt” to people of color.
C. The Competing New Education Agenda from EPI
Professor Darling-Hammond, interestingly, also signed another educational policy document recently. This one, called the Bold Approach, was prepared by a task forced convened by the Economic Policy Institute. While the Bold Approach document that resulted from this effort mentions race as one issue in education it does not mention anything about repayment of educational debt.
In her first email Professor Darling-Hammond stated, “Indeed, I am a signer of the EPI document that you applaud.” Of course, this is true, but it was not news to me – I had in fact already stated this on my blog.
Why?
The EPI-led “Bold Approach” represents a comprehensive, progressive multi-factor assessment of the education crisis and the responses necessary to confront it. Unlike the proposal by FED or the views of Bill Ayers, it does not put a racial perspective on the top of the list of things to do about education.
Ayers has put a racialist stamp on his politics for several decades. He was part of the leadership of the Weather Underground group in the late 1960’s that broke apart the Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS. He argued then, as he does now, that “white supremacy” is the original sin of American life.
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.
While I do not think Professor Darling-Hammond, much less Senator Obama, endorses these particular views of Bill Ayers, she, too, emphasizes race when it comes to her assessment of the American school system. Recently, she wrote of
“the growing number of ‘apartheid’ schools that serve racial/ethnic minority students exclusively – schools that have little political clout and are extraordinarily impoverished.”
While there is no doubt that there is a resource disparity between many (but not all) schools with predominantly minority students and those with predominantly white students, it seems more than a stretch to compare this to apartheid, a system of government-imposed racial separation, fifty years after the Supreme Court held “separate but equal” to be unconstitutional.
In fact, government spending is actually weighted to favor low-income and underperforming school systems. The differences occur because of the private resources that some (by no means all) white dominated school systems are able to raise. But it is not altogether clear that additional resources would result in improved outcomes – at some point additional resources are not likely to overcome other deficits such as those linked to parental involvement, cultural support for learning or the health of young students.
So in my answer to the first email from Professor Darling-Hammond I wrote:
“I was certainly happy to see that you signed the EPI Bold Approach document, but it seems to me that the FED blue print that you co-authored takes a completely different approach, placing ‘repayment of education debt’ at the top of your list. As I assume you are aware, Gloria Ladson-Billings roots that concept, which I believe she originated (in her 2006 AERA speech), in the reparations work of Randall Robinson. I do not understand how repaying the ‘education debt’ can be reconciled with the multi-factor assessment of education of the Bold Approach; in any case, clearly that is not a road the EPI group went down, as far as I can tell.”
In her reply, Professor Darling-Hammond suggests that the two blueprints are, in fact, closer than might be apparent to the naked, or untrained, eye:
“The FED approach is very much aligned with the EPI approach and most of us work together. You will see there are a number of co-signers in common. FED’s policy proposals overlap substantially with the EPI proposals. The phrase ‘repaying the education debt” is used in the FED report to mean closing the opportunity gap that has accrued over a long period of time by investing in pre-school education (also in the EPI proposal) reducing inequalities in state and local spending on schools and boosting the federal investment in high-need schools (also in the EPI proposal). I’m not sure what the ‘reparations’ idea you are referring to would mean in education but I’d like to learn more about what you think about this when we have a chance to talk. I suspect you are interpreting the phrase we used in a way that is different than the way we meant it.”
Of course, this only seems to beg the obvious question: if the two blueprints are the same, then why are there, well, two of them? And why do they use different terms to mean, well, one and the same educational policy?
Professor Darling-Hammond says she is not sure what “reparations” idea I am referring to. If not, then perhaps there is another “educational debt” idea floating around out there proposed by Professor Darling-Hammond’s FED colleague, Professor Ladson-Billings, that is not rooted in the reparations argument of Randall Robinson. But if there are, in fact, two versions of what Ladson-Billings means by “educational debt” I have not been able to find the evidence for it.
Professor Darling-Hammond has generously offered to speak with me directly about these issues and I look forward to that conversation, the results of which I will be happy to share with my readers.
But for now I am left with the conclusion that the purpose of Professor Darling-Hammond’s unsolicited communications about my blog was an attempt to discourage anyone from thinking that she, Senator Obama or the Obama campaign’s views on education have anything to do with reparations or Bill Ayers.
I can certainly understand why the Obama campaign would see the tactical political advantage of doing so now – but it seems to me that should have been thought of long ago, when Senator Obama first began to work with Bill Ayers or when Professor Darling-Hammond first encountered the idea of repayment of the “educational debt.”
While I take her at her word that while she “knows” Bill Ayers she has not talked with him about the policies of the Obama campaign, I am not entirely convinced that Professor Darling-Hammond, much less the wider electorate, understands the close relationship that has existed, at least in the past, between Bill Ayers and Senator Obama when it comes to education policy.
D. Back to the Annenberg Challenge for a Closer Look
So let’s turn, then, to the other leg of this important conversation: the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (“CAC”).
The CAC was established in 1995 as a result of a $49.2 million grant from Walter Annenberg to support education reform in Chicago. Bill Ayers and Anne C. Hallett co-signed a letter submitting the grant proposal to Brown University President Vartan Gregorian on November 8, 1994 where the national Challenge office would be headquartered. The letter was on the letterhead of the University of Illinois at Chicago (“UIC”). Ayers identified himself as representing the UIC and the “Chicago Forum for School Change.” Ms. Hallett is identified as the Executive Director of the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform. At the bottom of the letter, a parenthetical states: “On behalf of the Chicago School Reform Collaborative.”
The letter and the attached detailed proposal grew out of a process that began in December 1993 when a small group led by Ayers, Hallett and Warren Chapman of the Joyce Foundation “met to discuss a proposal to the Annenberg Challenge for support of this city’s public school reform efforts.” This group became the nucleus of the larger Chicago School Reform Collaborative, one of the two operational arms of the CAC, which Ayers would co-chair and on which Hallett and Chapman would serve. (Program Report, CAC, Jan. 1, 1995 through Mar. 31, 1996 at 1).
The letter makes the goal of the grant proposal explicit:
“Chicago is six years into the most radical systemwide urban school reform effort in the country. The Annenberg Challenge provides an unprecedented opportunity to concentrate the energy of this reform into an educational renaissance in the classroom.”
The attached proposal is titled: “Smart Schools/Smart Kids: A proposal to the Annenberg Challenge to Create the Chicago School Reform Collaborative.”
The six-year-old “radical reform effort” that Ayers/Hallett refer to, of course, was the establishment of local school councils (“LSC”) as a new center of power in the Chicago Public Schools (“CPS”) in 1988, in the wake of a 1987 teachers’ strike that proved unpopular to parents and reform activists in both community groups and business groups.
The Alliance for Better Chicago Schools (“ABCs”) was formed then to push for the LSC idea in the Illinois state legislature. Active in the ABCs was Bill Ayers, Barack Obama’s Developing Communities Project, and Chicago United, a group of businessmen concerned about race and education issues founded by Bill Ayers’ father, Tom Ayers, once CEO of the large Chicago utility, Commonwealth Edison (now Exelon).
By the early 1990s there was controversy about the LSC idea from many directions. At one point the 1988 law was actually declared unconstitutional and it had to be restructured. Another effort was underway to re-centralize control over the schools in the hands of the mayor’s office when the possibility of the Annenberg grant arose. This counter-reform effort, if you will, partially succeeded in new laws passed in 1995 and 1999.
But in 1993 the CAC grant proposal was seen by Ayers as an attempt, in part, to rescue the LSC’s. The grant proposal states,
“We envision a process to unleash at the school site the initiative and courage of LSC’s….” Later, it states “[t]he Local Schools Councils…are important both for guiding educational improvement and as a means of strengthening America’s democratic traditions.”
As I have argued elsewhere on this blog, I do not think that the link made here between the LSC’s and “democracy” is, in fact, accurate. I think that such “councils” look eerily similar to efforts by regimes like those in Nicaragua under the Sandinistas and Venezuela under Chavez to impose control over teachers and their independent unions by an authoritarian regime. Thus, it is not a surprise to me that Bill Ayers has traveled several times in recent years to Venezuela where he has spoken in front of Hugo Chavez and has enthusiastically applauded that regime’s efforts to link education policy to the Chavez “revolution.”
As Ayers stated in a speech there in November 2006 “La educacion es Revolucion!” He applauded “the profound educational reforms underway here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez” and he said he “share[d] the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution.”
Thus, in the midst of an intense political battle in Chicago over the LSC role in the schools, securing the CAC money was very important to the LSC reform effort backed by Ayers and Obama from the late 1980s. The Ayers/Hallett proposal stated that the money would provide
“a powerful catalyst for Chicago educators and parents to build on this base toward a sustained and serious advance….This is the critical step, that must be taken now, and the time is now.”
Indeed, the CAC proposal effort led by Ayers and Hallett was a critical part of what the Project Director of the CAC, Ken Rolling, described as the “political wars” being waged over schools in Chicago at that time. Ken Rolling was a veteran of those wars because in his previous role he had been a program officer of the Woods Fund, which supported the school reform effort through its grants, including grants to Barack Obama’s Developing Communities Project.
Other groups in other cities were competing for the same pool of funds (a total of $500 million made available by philanthropist Walter Annenberg) and, perhaps even more importantly, other groups in the city of Chicago with different policy views were applying to receive funds.
However, the Ayers/Hallett proposal was successful in the end with the decision made in late 1994. In January of 1995 the formal announcement of a grant of $49.2 million was made. That money would have to be matched by contributions from the private and public sector 2:1 for a total amount over the life of the project of approximately $150 million dollars to be disbursed in Chicago. (Apparently the actual amount raised was an additional $60 million for a total of $110 million.) The CAC set up an office in rent-free space at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where Bill Ayers taught.
E. The CAC Structure: The Board and the Collaborative work hand in glove
The Ayers/Hallett proposal described a three-piece structure established to carry out the CAC. The three “over-lapping entities each of which has clear tasks and responsibilities” included:
“The Chicago Annenberg Challenge Board (the Board); the Chicago School Reform Collaborative (the Collaborative); and the Consortium of Chicago Schools Research (CCSR).”
The Board would handle “all fiscal matters” including raising the required 2:1 matching funds (nearly $100 million required in a five year period) and “creating a grant-making system to disperse monies to schools and networks.” The Board would hire the Project Director, a full time professional staff position.
The first chairman of the CAC Board was Barack Obama, at that point, 32 years old and a second year attorney at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a small Chicago law firm.
He began the Board position in early 1995 and stepped down from the chairmanship in late 1999, though he remained on the Board until the CAC phased itself out of existence and handed off its remaining assets to a permanent new institution, the Chicago Public Education Fund, in 2001. The Board began to meet in March of 1995 and formally incorporated the CAC as a non-profit entity in April 1995.
Other board members included numerous already prominent Chicagoans: Susan Crown, Vice President of the Henry Crown Company; Patricia A. Graham, President of The Spencer Foundation; Stanley Ikenberry, President-emeritus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Handy Lindsey, Executive Director of the Field Foundation; Arnold Weber, former President of Northwestern University and then President of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago; and Wanda White, Executive Director of the Community Workshop on Economic Development. Some of these individuals would resign and be replaced by other equally prominent Chicagoans.
The second operating entity of the CAC would be the Collaborative that would represent various constituencies in the Chicago schools and wider community. It would be:
“A clearing-house for ideas, for resources, for information – the place where strategies are created, successes and failures analyzed, and plans made and shared. The Collaborative under the leadership of the [Project] Director will publicize the Challenge, develop the RFP [Requests for Proposals] and application criteria, host seminars to inform and assist schools through the process, select participating schools, establish working groups, oversee program evaluation, develop the metropolitan strategy, broker waivers and resources, and provide services for networks. In other words, the Collaborative is the place where the Challenge digs its deepest roots into the community and the schools – and it is the heart of the operational work.”
The co-chair of the CAC’s Collaborative from 1995 until 2000 was Bill Ayers.
Thus, the leaders of the two operative arms of the CAC from its inception until 2000 were Bill Ayers and Barack Obama.
F. What Happened: The political battle that CAC put itself in
A review of the annual reports submitted to the Annenberg Foundation indicates the close working relationship between the Board and the Collaborative throughout its entire five-year life.
I. 1995
Some examples from the 1995-96 Program Report (prepared in May 1996) include the following:
1) The Collaborative developed the first RFP form for the CAC “which was widely circulated and they held a series of informational meetings throughout the city to acquaint public school staff, school reformers and potential ‘external partners’ with the mission and goals of the CAC.”
2) In the first year, the Collaborative “read each of the letters-of-intent” at least three times and rated them and then made recommendations to the CAC board on the disposition of the applications.
3) The Collaborative and the Board worked together on a job description for CAC staff.
4) The Collaborative and the Board worked together on a “process for reviewing planning and implementation networks” which had received grants.
One critical project of the Collaborative and Board in 1996 demonstrates the closely aligned political views of the two operational arms of the CAC:
5) The Collaborative and the Board became direct players in the Chicago LSC elections held in 1996. According to the CAC Report:
“In 1996 the Chicago Public Schools were scheduled to hold the fourth election of Local School Council (LSC) representatives since the school reform of act [sic] of 1988 was passed. As in the past two elections support from the central office of the Chicago Public Schools appeared to be minimal.
“Until, that is, members of the Collaborative coalesced with school reform groups around the city and began to put pressure on the Chicago Public Schools’ central office to promote the elections both by recruiting enough candidates for the open seats so that contested elections would be held and by urging parents and community members to vote. Members of the CAC Collaborative began their work on the LSC elections in late Fall 1995.
“Part of their effort was to seek funding to support efforts at the school level to locate and elect active LSC members. The CAC board was asked in early 1996 to approve funds for a citywide coalition of local organizations who agreed to work on both candidate and voter turnout for the 1996 elections.”
The Board approved a grant of $125,000 for this effort.
6) One of the first grants awarded in 1995 was a $175,000 Implementation Grant to the Small Schools Workshop. The Workshop had been founded by Bill Ayers in 1992 and was headed up by his former Weather Underground comrade, Mike Klonsky.
II. 1996
A second Program Report was filed for the period ending 12/31/1996. Among its relevant comments were the following that indicate the inherently political nature of the CAC Board and Collaborative’s activities:
The Collaborative (still co-chaired by Bill Ayers) and the CAC Staff (now headed by Ken Rolling) prepared an RFP for potential grantees for $2 million allocated by the Board (still chaired by Barack Obama) for “Leadership Development.” Its aim was “to make clear the connection between organizing a base of supporters for school reform with local schools, and a training program on educational issues to assist parents and community members participate in their schools.”
At the December 1996 Board meeting former Northwestern University president and business community representative Arnold Weber asked for clarification on a number of issues related to the Leadership Development Initiative RFP for $2 million. According to the Board minutes he was concerned about the relationship of this planned effort to recruit and train new leaders to the existing LSC structure. He also was concerned about the relationship between groups organized with CAC money to school principals. The minutes state: “Principals may view their presence as a political threat.” Barack Obama was absent from this meeting
At the May 1996 Board meeting the $2 million Leadership Development Initiative RFP was discussed again. Barack Obama chaired the meeting. The minutes state:
III. 1997
Following the Board level discussion and then the Barack Obama-led discussion with the Collaborative, according to an Interim Report filed by Ken Rolling in October 1997:
Presumably this represented a compromise that Board Chair Obama was able to work out with the Bill Ayers-led Collaborative in the wake of the concerns raised by business community representative Arnold Weber about the CAC backed leaders becoming a “political threat.”
The annual report for 1997 made special mention of the surrounding political context of the CAC’s work. Director Ken Rolling noted that a goal of the CAC was “seeking a changed policy environment” but that this “has been the most elusive to date with no major progress to report at this time. He explained further:
“The Challenge began its work in 1995 at the same time a dramatic change in the leadership and management of the Chicago Public Schools took place. The Illinois state legislature awarded complete control of the…Schools to the Mayor of Chicago in 1995. A new management team and Reform Board of Trustees was installed and a major emphasis began on administration, financial stability and accountability measures that are tied to specific test scores. The Challenge began its program at the time the central administration of the public schools took off in a different direction.”
Indeed, the 1995 law gave the Mayor and the Board the power to dissolve LSC’s – the very bodies that the CAC was trying to bolster.
IV. 1998
The 1998 Annual Report notes that the Collaborative (still co-chaired by Ayers) “continued to meet throughout 1998 and provided advice and outreach” while its members “regularly participated in site visits and proposal reviews, assisted schools and their networks in developing leadership programs, and assisted in raising funds for the 1998 Local School Council elections to support a wide range of community organizations who worked to recruit both candidates and voters for the Spring 1998 elections.”
V. 1999
According to the Mid-Year Report for 1999 the $2 million for the Leadership Development Initiative was “now fully committed.” The funds “supported efforts to recruit candidates and build turnout for the [LSC] elections in both 1996 and 1998 and provide support” for efforts to improve the “academic life of local schools.”
By the end of this year Board member Arnold Weber would resign and Barack Obama would step down from the role of Board Chair as he anticipated an upcoming run for Congress.
VI. 2000
The CAC Interim Report for 2000 noted that the CAC was “completing funding of seven Leadership Development Initiative projects by June 30, 2001…focused on organizing parents and Local School Councils into more effective relationships with school personnel to affect curriculum and other academic changes in schools.”
Anticipating the end of the CAC the following year, the CAC was “also in the midst of creating a special fund to support future work of the [LSC’s] including ongoing training and development of [LSC] members as well as to assist in recruiting and electing members for the Councils in future years.”
G. The matching money: big corporations and foundations pitch in
A report on the matching funds raised by the CAC indicates that by the end of 1999 approximately $60 million had been raised from a wide range of corporations and foundations. Among the largest contributors were:
Bank of America $1.6 million
DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund $3 million
IBM $2.3 million
Polk Bros. Foundation $6.8 million
Prince Charitable Trusts $1.1 million
Pritzker Foundation $100,000.00
MacArthur Foundation $17.1 million
Joyce Foundation $11 million
Woods Fund $1 million
H. What about the “bottom line”?
The CAC also funded a third arm, the Consortium of Chicago School Research (CCSR), in parallel with the two operational arms, the Board and the Collaborative. This arm was to conduct research on the impact of the CAC’s funding.
In 2003 the final technical report of the CCSR on the CAC was published. The results were not pretty. The “bottom line” according to the report was that the CAC did not achieve its goal of improvement in student academic achievement and nonacademic outcomes. While student test scores improved in the so-called Annenberg Schools that received some of the $150 million disbursed in the six years from 1995 to 2001,
“This was similar to improvement across the system….There were no statistically significant differences in student achievement between Annenberg schools and demographically similar non-Annenberg schools. This indicates that there was no Annenberg effect on achievement.”
The report identified the political conflict between the Local School Council promotion efforts of the CAC – such as the $2 million Leadership Development Initiative – as a possible factor hindering a positive impact on student achievement.
I. Conclusion: an academic failure but political success?
The Challenge allowed Barack Obama and Bill Ayers to work together, no doubt closely, in the heat of political battle to help disburse more than $100 million to allies, particularly in the LSCs, in the Chicago School system. Under the circumstances, it seems more than a bit disingenuous of Senator Obama to dismiss Bill Ayers as “some guy who lives in my neighborhood.”
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From my blog, Global Labor and the Global Economy.
About me: I am a law professor and political scientist on the faculty of Santa Clara University School of Law in Santa Clara, California, which is in the heart of Silicon Valley. I teach courses on the global capital markets, the international economy, corporate governance and international labor and human rights. Prior to joining the faculty I was in private legal practice in New York and in Palo Alto. I also have an extensive background in the labor movement and advise a wide range of unions, workers and institutional investors on financial and legal issues. This website is an independent project and hence is my responsibility and it is not affiliated in any other way with the law school or Santa Clara University.
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There is a lot more to many ‘acquaintances’ The Precious has. The MSM ignores any real vetting of The Precious and his ‘friends and associates’. Glad to be able to come here and see some real vetting going on.
Professor Darling-Hammond has learned well from Obambi, she has learned how to toss people ( Bill Ayers ) under the bus with the same steadfast poker face as Obambi.
I know the Obamabots and the general electorate may not see the well laid out and extensiveness of Steve Diamond’s post at first glance, BUT , I implore those to read it again, and again if need be, until the stark reality hits you in the face like an ICE COLD WIND.
Obambi is not to be trusted, he can’t tell the truth!!
A little off topic, yet exceedingly relevant…
Check out this extraordinary youtube video of an Obama supporter–via BytheFault–who’s beginning to see the light.
http://www.bythefault.com/2008/06/20/an-obama-supporter-now-has-doubts/
Thank You Larry for connecting those dots for U.S. all. Maybe we can ask Rev. “Goddamn America” if he can pay into that Reparations Fund since he is one of the people responsible for creating generations of angry and bitter people.
As for the Sranford University people, they are in a glass bubble. They work in one of the wealthiest elite areas of the South San Francisco Bay Area. They are part of the problem not part of the solution.
I served as an Honary Scientist for a non-profit scientific research board. And, because I do not hold a More S**t and Piled Higer and Deeper degree, I can tell you that they have no respect for people who like myself who learned how to read at age three while my single mother was attending junior college and working. So, I have no respect for those hypesters. They do not walk their talk.
Hey Obama is half white doesn’t he owe half? and his kids a quarter and his gradmom the whole thing.
Know Obama
No Obama
http://WWW.OBAMA-WIRE.COM
test
testing
Meeeechelle,
Greatest Hits, Part 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4pSFrHfMWs
Ever find it odd that you are all about people who made their careers sullying the Clintons? Very amusing indeed. One year, Bill Clinton is yelling about Fox bias, this year, it’s his wife’s campaign surrogate favorite (at least she is smart enough to not run with this). I love Hilary, I hate you people!
Huh???!!!
Yeah…Huh???!!!!
It would appear “Join Me” is just another incoherent troll (there’s so many!).
Well, I’m certainly going to lose a lot of sleep over THAT.
If I had five bucks for everyone who thinks I’m an asshole, I’d be a RICH asshole!
Wow, and I thought you had something relevant to uncover.
But thanks, the post did help me get sleepier.
Don’t worry.
We already know that paying attention, facts, and details aren’t Obama supporters strengths.
The fact that Ayers isn’t on your radar shows your ignorance as well.
Go back to sleep sheep.
Denial is the opium of the Obamanators.
No sheep, you have no idea, but I think I know Ayers a tad better than you since your info comes from hand-wringers who hide under their suburban beds clinging to their flags…
Ok sheep…please explain your superior knowledge of Ayers, that you assume I don’t know.
This should be good….LOL
I cling to the whitey in my pants when i hide under the bed.
Comment by brotherkomrade | 2008-06-19 20:42:05
Wow, and I thought you had something relevant to uncover.
But thanks, the post did help me get sleepier.
Read it again, I don’t care if your eyelids are half open, as an American who votes it’s YOUR responsibility to make informed decisions based on facts, not some rock star marketing BS. Now get off your azz and read it again and make a reasoned post!!
You’re a funny little man. I guess you didn’t read my response again. My response is not based on apathy, but marking my boredom and lack of being impressed. I know who Ayers is and I am familiar with his politics AND my wife even knew one of Dohrn’s nieces (or daughters? I forget).
Anyway, maybe for voting booth zombies this new to you guys, but not me.
Get to the bad part.
Born in 1944, Bill Ayers, along with his wife Bernardine Dohrn, was a 1960s leader of the homegrown terrorist group Weatherman, a Communist-driven splinter faction of Students for a Democratic Society. Characterizing Weatherman as “an American Red Army,” Ayers summed up the organization’s ideology as follows: “Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, Kill your parents.”
Yea, and the funny thing is..Ayers’ parents were wealthy..that’s how he got off so easily.
A quote that Ayers and Dohrn can’t fully take responsibility for now.
Ayers claims he doesn’t remember that quote that aired close to everytime they hit the news with a communique or a bombing. As if we are to believe those media whores weren’t right in front of the tv everytime they pulled something.
So, Dohrn tries to soften it with…it was a joke.
However, she does the same thing with her Charlie Manson praise. Conveniently, forgets the most offensive of her quotes and then tries to soften it.
As if praising murder is a minor thing we all do.
And from the mouth of Bill’s lovely wife Bernadine Dorhn: Her voice rising to a fevered pitch, Dohrn raised three fingers in a “fork salute” to mass murderer Charles Manson whom she proposed as a symbol to her troops. Referring to the helpless victims of the Manson Family as the “Tate Eight” (the most famous was actress Sharon Tate) Dohrn shouted:
“Dig It. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, they even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach! Wild!”
Obama sure has some lovely friends.
Lets bring it up to date a little :
In his 2001 screed, Fugitive Days, Ayers recounts his life as a Sixties radical, his tenure as a Weatherman lieutenant, his terrorist campaign across America, and his enduring hatred for for the United States. “What a country,” Ayers said in 2001. “It makes me want to puke.”
And your a mixed up little man, lol.
Let me know when you figure out your affiliation.
Profile:brotherkomrade
Born in K.C. MO., we roamed around a lot. We lived in L.A., Santa Fe, Houston, and now, I live in NYC. I was formerly a Black Nationalist, then a Marxist-Leninist, then anarchist, now black autonomist. I worked with the Black Fist collective in Houston and we put Black Fist, an anarchist ‘zine that focused on people of color. The Clarance Brandley Coalition, did police brutality work as well. Later, I hosted and produced a political hip-hop radio show called Street Vibe for 5 years in the 90s.
brotherkomrade
So I think it is great you are getting treatment as per your blog entry on your “new” website but I think you may need “inpatient treatment”.
brotherkomrade writes:
IN TREATMENT
Well, I’m looking for a therapist and already I got two call-backs that said they were full. This is a weird process. But I feel good doing it because the alternative may destroy the important things in my life. My anger has become more out of control lately; blowing up at criticism s that aren’t there, I’m now known as “The asshole that no one wants to work with at The Plantation (well, that part is ok. I hate my coworkers and colleagues with a passion, but it’s no longer pleasurable to hate them. Now I’ve just become less creative in my assholery towards them). I need to sort this shit out and Evan Williams and 420 ain’t cutting it anymore.
Oh well, they say the biggest step is the first step to wellness. Wish me luck.
I WISH YOU LUCK WITH YOUR TREATMENT BUT STOP DRINKING THE KOOLAID
When are you going to get it? This is an anti-obama website and we will never be taken over to the other side by your ramblings. Go away.
JUST SAY NO TO BLACK LIBERATION MARXIST THEOLOGY
NO OBAMA
MCCAIN 2008 OR UNTIL HILLARY RISES
Yes, I’ve heard that about Obama followers….you can only handle statements of 5 words or less. ‘Change we can believe in’, ‘hope’, ‘change’, ‘believe’. After that your eyes get that glazed over look you Obamabots are so famous for.
Let me try and boil this down for you. Obama says that the unrepentent terrorist Bill Ayres was just ’some guy who lives in his neighborhood’, nothing more. BO was Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge an organization that Bill Ayres was instrumental in founding. They worked together in the organization for years. Ergo, Bill Ayres and Obama’s relationship is much more than ‘neighbors’.
While it may be fine for you and me to have a long-term association with an unrepentent terrorist – it is not okay for someone running for President. BO KNOWS this and that is why he lies about the relationship.
Obama is a PHONY ! I find it hard to believe whatever comes out from his own mouth or from his cronies.
I will not be surprise, that the educational debt “reparation’ to the descendants of slaves will be one of the priorities of his cabinet in education, should he become the WH tenant (God forbids!)What about the ethnic groups who were also mistreated by the “White ” governement? Japanese? Chinese? Italians? Filipios? Irish? and more, more, more?
Another “fairy tale” of Obama!
Because I love my country, I will vote Hillary or McCain ‘08. GOD SAVE AMERICA!!
What about the ethnic groups who were also mistreated by the “White ” governement? Japanese? Chinese? Italians? Filipios? Irish? and more, more, more?
No problem, Ayers on behalf of Obambi can ask Chavez for direction. If only this article could be packaged for mainstream in sound bytes, Obambi would be down 20 points or more in a day.
Anybody good Cole’s notes for mass consumption?
Well WOMEN are owed a great deal. For most of the history of the US (and British colony) girls and women had unequal education — from barely any to restricted.
Princeton was a MEN only college until shortly before Mrs. Obama was admitted — yet her focus was on “how black I am” racist.
Hillary Clinton went to a women’s college– because even in the late 60s — the ivy league colleges were still mostly segregated by sex. However black males were admitted (Obama’s father for example).
And if one were to look at the English texts used in high school and grade school — you would be hard pressed to find women authors represented until fairly recently. History book — women were added as footnotes. Women were apparently not part of history when the history books are written by and for men. The male pronoun HE is used exclusively even with a plural or she would have been appropriate.
It isn’t an issue of race but rather one of class — economic class. There are a hell of a lot non black families who are poor and their children are getting a less than adequate education because the school district is poor.
Before Obama’s scorched earth politics there was far less racial tension and a realization that class and economic status was more of a unifying force than skin color.
Oh, since you have such a problem with Stalinists and Moaists….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton_pardons_controversy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuerzas_Armadas_de_Liberaci%C3%B3n_Nacional_%28Puerto_Rico%29
But hey, I do support FALN’s basic principles.
- From a non-Obama supporter, but at least I know why.
Yeah, we already covered this.
If I cut my IQ 100 points, I can think like an Obama troll.
Ayers looks ancient, btw, really old.
What is your point? You believe that bombing is good? Yes, according to your Wikipedia link, WJC did pardon them after serving 19 years and Ayers, served none due mainly do his wealthy Dad, but also to a corrupt FBI.
Ayers and and the other violent factions ruined the peace movement and the so-called New Left.
Hmm…do I hear more plagiarism? “I did not have personal relations with that man!”
This is a great piece, it shows that Obama lies most of the time, sort of like when Obama was asked about Tony Rezko. Obama always trys to act like he hardly knows Rezko or Ayers when asked but they were close friends for many years. Obama wouldn’t have gone anywhere in politics without Rezko to raise the money and Ayers for the political power he projected through his fathers connections as CEO of Exelon, formerly Commenwealth Edison. Now I see why the employees of Exelon gave $269,900 to Obama.
Now, given this well-documented article that points to the disparity between Senator Obama’s claims he barely knew radical domestic terrorist Bill Ayers; and the truth, will you Obama zealots take advantage of any of the several sites documenting the Senator’s contradictory statements (read “lies”) to revisit the efficacy of your fealty? Please; the best interest of our country requires reasoned inquiry from you, too.
Comment by jbjd | 2008-06-19 21:07:37
Now, given this well-documented article that points to the disparity between Senator Obama’s claims he barely knew radical domestic terrorist Bill Ayers; and the truth, will you Obama zealots take advantage of any of the several sites documenting the Senator’s contradictory statements (read “lies”) to revisit the efficacy of your fealty? Please; the best interest of our country requires reasoned inquiry from you, too.
Exactly, this should not be about having to swat Obambabots, all they have to do is SERIOUSLY read what others having taken much time to gather in a factual way.
Comment by jbjd | 2008-06-19 21:07:37
Now, given this well-documented article that points to the disparity between Senator Obama’s claims he barely knew radical domestic terrorist Bill Ayers; and the truth, will you Obama zealots take advantage of any of the several sites documenting the Senator’s contradictory statements (read “lies”) to revisit the efficacy of your fealty? Please; the best interest of our country requires reasoned inquiry from you, too.
Exactly, this should not be about having to swat Obambabots, all they have to do is SERIOUSLY read what others have taken much time to gather in a factual way.
We already know that the Obamabutt’s reading comprehension skills are near zero. They won’t bother to read facts and follow links, they’ll keep swarming and repeating the same old tired Obama approved BS.
I am not impressed with the US educational system — unless most of the trolls are actually hairy guys from Gaza.
IMPORTANT: The Senate has passed a bill to give illegals Social Security benefits…go to this site to sign the petition to stop this now.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/313990403
You do realize that “illegals” are putting millions of dollars into Social Security and getting nothing in return? That’s part of the reason why we haven’t had comprehensive immigration reform. This secret, subservient slave class is keeping Social Security solvent because they don’t get benefits.
Anyways, back on topic: Let the vetting begin!
The characters in Obama’s neighborhood are the opposite of Mr. Rodgers’s neighborhood.
Steve Diamond, thank you. I wish you could get on 60 Minutes with this information, your research into the matter, your comprehensive profile. Would you consider contacting 60 minutes?
Comment by letthemeatchange | 2008-06-19 21:11:53
Steve Diamond, thank you. I wish you could get on 60 Minutes with this information, your research into the matter, your comprehensive profile. Would you consider contacting 60 minutes?
I second that, 60 Minutes is great at crunching large amounts of info into sound bites that can be consumed by the masses easily.
Go on Bill Moyers…….
Yes, their violence did SO much. I guess that meant that the other peaceniks, future centrists, future suburban sheep, and Reagancrats would have sold out at a SSSSLLLLOOOOWWWERRR pace.
Thanks Steve Diamond for giving all of that information. It is certainly more than any MSM outlet has provided.
Another thread mentions a ‘Kendra Rich’ anyone know what that is about? Can’t find anything on Google.
Comment by Colin | 2008-06-19 21:41:37
Another thread mentions a ‘Kendra Rich’ anyone know what that is about? Can’t find anything on Google.
Domain Owner
MICHELLEOBAMA.com
Administrative Contact:
Rich, Kendra kendra_rich271@yahoo.com ****
1607 S Gadsden St
Tallahassee, Florida 32301
United States
3522096352
Technical Contact:
Rich, Kendra kendra_rich271@yahoo.com
1607 S Gadsden St
Tallahassee, Florida 32301
United States
3522096352
Domain servers in listed order:
DNS1228.DIZINC.COM
DNS1229.DIZINC.COM
Kendra Rich****, a third year MBA student from Ocala and fourth year MBA student Janaya Davis-Lewis from Chicago were confirmed as associate justices.
Rich said she is fit for the position of associate justice because she “understands the difference between fair and just.”
http://media.www.thefamuanonline.com/media/storage/paper319/news/2004/09/01/News/34th-Senate.Approves.Four.Justices.At.Meeting-708277.shtml
http://www.thefamuanonline.com/home/index.cfm?Q=Kendra+Rich+at+Kendra_Rich271&EVENT=displaysearchresults&BUTTONPUSHED=1&TIORDERTYPE=1&iStartRow=11&orderfieldname=&orderfielddirection=
Shortly after midnight Friday, Chief Justice Kendra Rich***** relinquished the title of Mr. Florida A&M University from Cyrah Hawkins.
http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:dA_DonfUSHkJ:www.thefamuanonline.com/news/2006/10/06/News/Cyrah.Loses.Crown-2336486.shtml+who+is+Kendra+Rich&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=ca&client=firefox-a
FAMU Announcements – Announcements
To participate or to find out more information about the event, please contact Kendra Rich at Kendra_Rich271@ yahoo.com.*****
http://www.thefamuanonline.com/news/2005/02/25/Announcements/Famu-Announcements-877607.shtml
This just proves that he is planning to pay reparations. I guess he is going to say its for education but I do not see what race has to do for it and Obama isn’t even decended from slaves.
Start that Reparations crap through Congress and I’ll have a Maple Leaf tatooed on my old ass so fast, it’ll make you drop your Molson’s!
So much for transparency:
The campaign on Monday barred cameras from a large gathering of black civic leaders Obama attended. It recently refused to provide names of religious figures with whom Obama met in Chicago and directed some of them to avoid reporters by using a special exit. And on Wednesday, the campaign orchestrated Michelle Obama’s appearance on the friendly set of the television talk show “The View” and a flattering spread in the pages of Us Weekly.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/19/america/obama.php
THey didnt want the press taking pictures of him with any one that was too radical too black too muslim to gay to liberal…
Its his image they have to protect now…its all he has left since his word doesnt mean shit.
This story was reduced to page 20 in the New York Slimes.
GOD DAMN YOU DNC !!!!!!!!!!!!
Right now, Bush is trying to expand off shore oil drilling, and drill in ANWR.
The NYT says not only is the amount of oil negligible in these places, but it would take years before we could get anything out of it. Plus the oil companies already have untapped oil all over the country.
Bush is just trying to hand everything over to his Texas buddies before he leaves office.
Obama could never explain this clearly so the public could understand it. It wouldn’t even occur to him that it was significant.
Hillary Clinton would get the word out, loud and clear.
GOD DAMN YOU, DNC!!!!!!! And in case you didn’t understand GOD DAMN YOU DNC !!!!!!!!!!!!
Our country cannot sustain itself relying on other countries for energy supply. It is imperative that all avenues for energy independence are explored.
Obama’s plan is for Americans to use less, well it’s probably safe to say Americans are already using the bare minimum to get through daily life.
The people in this country who use in excess are the celebrities and the politicians. They tell average America to conserve while they use private jets and limos. This is another example of Obama’s contempt for middle America.
You jackass — Obama has NO plans.
He is too damned stupid to understand complex issues.
Obama is NOT Hillary Clinton.
Obama is a lazy inadequate male — who wants power and then will turn over everything to the corporations — which is why THEY are funding his campaign.
You Obamabutts are just too stupid.
But don’t worry the voters will NOT elect snObama.
McCain (or Clinton) 08
Clinton 2012
PUMA
You have done an excellent job of factually researching this significant stretch in Obama’s leadership career. What I think needs to be writ large is this: UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF BARACK OBAMA AS CHAIR 100 MILLION $ WERE SPENT IN THE NAME OF IMPROVING CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS. NOTHING WAS ACCOMPLISHED IN TERMS OF IMPROVING STUDENT LEARNING OR IMPROVING STUDENT CAPACITY TO LEARN OR IMPROVING SOCIAL SKILLS IMPORTANT TO SUCCESS IN LIFE BEYOND SCHOOLING.
I am a retired educator and I can not tell you how angry this kind of “school reform initiative” makes me. These people come in to serve on educational boards because of their “community connections and ambitions”. They attend lavish Board meetings and discuss mosquito minutiae ad infinitum. They totally fail to develop protocols to assess real impacts on improving the learning or life of the students they are purporting to serve. What comes through so clearly about this report is that the perspective of Ayers and Obama and the whole CAC effort was about creating political power relationships as the way to impact and improve student learning in inner city schools. As one who has actually done this work, I find this approach about as irrelevant to the reality of the problem as one could possibly dream up.
As for educational “debts”, the entire “No Child Left Behind” is a reform initiative that is based upon a “student deficit model”. The emphasis is on “what is wrong with these kids and how can we fix them”. This deficit model has not worked over the last 75 years. What we need is a national educational model that is based upon “what skills and abilities do these students have and how can these skills and abilities be used to help them be more successful with “school learning”.
Thank you for taking the time to present such detailed information about a significant policy area—education policy—that in the long run has as much if not more impact on our national well being and security than economic policy, foreign policy or military policy.
As for educational “debts”, the entire “No Child Left Behind” is a reform initiative that is based upon a “student deficit model”. The emphasis is on “what is wrong with these kids and how can we fix them”. This deficit model has not worked over the last 75 years. What we need is a national educational model that is based upon “what skills and abilities do these students have and how can these skills and abilities be used to help them be more successful with “school learning”.
So right you are. We all have a place in society that should be based on our God given abilities. I don’t mind paying my car mechanic (who didn’t have the ability for University)$65/hour, BUT I’m miffed when I see an oil CEO making $30 million/year. Surely abilities can not be that far apart.
>>> I don’t mind paying my car mechanic (who didn’t have the ability for University)$65/hour,
How do you know?
Maybe your Mechanic made a free market decision as to where the best return on his time and entrepreneurial ability lay, and it wasn’t under flourescent lights in a necktie.
Also, the $65 includes his Overhead.
excellent point, Jangles. You made “Gem of the Day” at my website!
httpCOLON//newwavedemocratsDOTwordpressDOTcom/
jangles,I can feel your frustation when the monetary sources were available but not used where intended, instead,it padded the pockets of this corrupt politicians, notably Barack Obama. Education is the key for the success of a country. Place a dumb president in power and the country suffers. Look what we have now!
Obama can’t even think for himself. He is a PUPPET ! He does not know which adviser to listen too. Ergo: flipflop judgement. And when he opens his mouth, he makes gaffe: 57 states in the USA he wants to rule!See? That’s why education must be in the mandate during election campaign.
Is the Chicago political machine that powerful to control the voters’ decision? Is that why the state is for Obama?
GOD SAVE AMERICA!!
HILLARY OR MCCAIN ‘08
Where are the obama trolls right now?
cut to Obama Slimeball Headquarters:
Blog Troll: Adolf Adolf, what shall i do i dont know how to resond to the latest posting on No Quarter!!!
Axelfraud: Hang on 10 minutes while i write up talking points for you.
Later that night:
Axelfraud: Ok Koolaid breaks over, here are your talking points:
Comment by Jeremiah God Damn AmeriKKKa Wright | 2008-06-19 22:24:17
Where are the obama trolls right now?
cut to Obama Slimeball Headquarters:
Blog Troll: Adolf Adolf, what shall i do i dont know how to resond to the latest posting on No Quarter!!!
Axelfraud: Hang on 10 minutes while i write up talking points for you.
It was an excellent and eye opening article,my hope is that some from the far side actually read it and are in deep think mode, reevaluation mode actually. That can be a good thing.
cut to Obama Slimeball Headquarters later that night:
Axelfraud: Ok Koolaid breaks over here are your talking points:
Deny
Distract
Denigrate
Deny Obama really spent any time with Abu Sayad aka Bill Ayers.
Distract them by mentioning the Whitey tape.
Denigrate Hillary and McCain, remember Mysogyny and Ageism are always good old standbys when you cant think of anything to say.
And remember kiddies it doesnt matter if they throw facts at you, all you have to do is believe.
I am not asking you to believe in yourselves just in the Obullshit we are peddling for 5 more months till we can steal the election.
In reading the comments posted on this article it seems that most responders are looking at the information presented primarily as evidence of a close working relationship and educational policy union between Obama and Ayers. While this information does support this close relationship, I think the far greater and more important finding that unfolds here is that Obama had a significant leadership post (chairman of the board) with a high profile, well funded initiative to improve Chicago public schools. In that leadership capacity he exercised for some 8 years, no leadership. He oversaw the spending of some $100,000,000.00 and the result was zero, nada, zip. He was only 32; he was inexperienced; he did not have any credible background for the role he was given BY AYERS. Clearly he was there for political visibility and career building. Contrast Obama’s leadership in this role with the leadership of Hillary Clinton in Arkansas public schools.
Thank you for making this point. If this was a company, he would be fired. Instead he got promoted to a higher position (state legislature). He has little experience, and the little experience he does have makes him look bad. All that money and nothing accomplished for the children of Chicago.
Until I read your post, I figured the primary reason Senator Obama omitted his multi-year tenure as the Chair of the CAC Board from his scant resume, despite complaints this candidate lacked any administrative experience that would qualify him to the President of the United States, was to hide his relationship with William Ayers, thus exposing his oft-told lie the two men were barely acquainted. (Thus, referring to Mr. Ayers in a news interview as a “Professor of English” when he is a Professor of Education would also be exposed as an intentional misdirection rather than either an honest mistake or, a slip of the tongue.) Now I see that, perhaps, he also hid his position at the helm of the CAC because, judging by these measurable outcomes, he is responsible for its failure.
Isn’t it interesting that the women who contacted
Professer Diamond shares something with the Larry
Sinclair story. When this lady contacted Diamond, she accused him of something he never said, and claimed she never had discussed that idea with Ayers or Obama. Professor Diamond never said she did.
Larry Sinclair said that when he talked to the Obama campaign, he asked them to change the date of Obama’s last drug use to 1999. He claimed that was when he had shared cocaine with Obama. He never mentioned anything else. When the minister, who was later murdered called Larry, he asked him if he had
told anyone else about the sex act he had shared with Obama. Sinclair had never mentioned that to anyone. Isn’t it interesting how the Obama camp
knows about the reparations they never talked about and the sex no one had mentioned until that point.
It’s called damage control. The problem is that there are so many holes in the dike that some things will and do make it through. I’m sure MSNBC and the like are helping with a few fingers in the dike for Obambi.
Somebody put it in their head that there would be mass race riots if Obambi does not win or at least make it a close second. That’s a shame because it’s really the AA race that is the pawn in many ways, for Obambi benefit of course.
THIS IS FROM THE JAN. 21, 2008 CNN DEBATE IN WHICH OBAMA DOES NOT TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT HIS DEALINGS WITH REZKO. HE MAKES IT SOUND AS IF HE ONLY DID A FEW HOURS LEGAL WORK FOR A CHURCH GROUP. HE LIES!!~!
*******************
BLITZER: I’m going to go to Suzanne Malveaux in a second, but I just want to give you a chance, Senator Obama, if you want to respond. Senator Clinton made a serious allegation that you worked for a slumlord. And I wonder if you want to respond.
OBAMA: I’m happy to respond. Here’s what happened: I was an associate at a law firm that represented a church group that had partnered with this individual to do a project and I did about five hours worth of work on this joint project. That’s what she’s referring to.
Now, it’s fine for her to throw that out, but the larger reason that I think this debate is important is because we do have to trust our leaders and what they say. That is important, because if we can’t, then we’re not going to be able to mobilize the American people behind bringing about changes in health care reform, bringing about changes in how we’re going to put people back to work, changing our trade laws. And consistency matters. Truthfulness during campaigns makes a difference.
(APPLAUSE)
And that’s what I’ve tried to do and I will continue to try to do as president of the United States. WELL, THEN GOD HELP US!
Ironic,Hillary breaks the Rezko story wider open and she gets short shrift.
This is a classic example of Obama’s lying. Very well done. Textbook, the way he distances himself, slimes Hillary and turns to trust being the issue, and you can trust him. He is a liar. He interviewed with Rezko out of law school. He went to work with Allison Davis who partnered with Rezko. He did work on public housing that Rezko was involved in. He wrote letters for Rezko. He was involved in the Health Board with Rezko. He did his mansion walk-thru and closed escrow on the same day as Rezko. He is a liar, and the media has let him lie. The Democrats have been deprived of the better candidate because the media is once again deciding our election for us.
This is a fabulous post. I hope that it gets widespread attention and is available for a thoughtful and concerned audience.
How can this info go unattended? I hope that readers will please forward this to others who are interested in this detailed report but don’t blog.
New ideas and programs can work when smart people run them. They fail when thay are ran by people who think they are smarter than everyone else.
I am telling you that the only way to clean up this mess is to tell the DNC we are all voting a straight Republican ticket. Over at http://www.hcsfjm.com they are trying to get enough money for a full page ad in the Chicago Sun Times . It is supporting Hillary and tell the DNC we will not tolerate the crap that is going on and if they don’t clean up their act we will all vote Rep. We need to raise the money, you can donate on the site…I already have…this will send a clear message to the Obama camp, and should make news elsewhere. These guys are more concerned for themselves than our country and it will make them think twice who they are voting for. Every dollar helps…we have to work together! Please go and donate….www.hcsfjm.com
No fucking way.
Vote a STRAIGHT REPUBLICAN ticket?
That’s like trading one brain-dead crew for another.
Sorry–I support Clinton, but I don’t find voting for the people who have opposed her all of her legislative career a smart move.
Best bet–vote for the people you think are best suited, even if your choices suck. Don’t vote a straight ticket, learn the issues and vote like an independent does.
For the House and Senate, the Democrats are the best, by and large.
For the Presidency, if you can’t stomach casting a vote for McCain, and find it even more difficult to vote for the clueless, inexperienced Obama, vote PRESENT.
A vote for PRESENT is what Obama did…what, a hundred and thirty times?
If he can’t make up his mind THAT often, who is he–or anyone at the DNC–to tell any of us that we “HAVE TO” decide?
Fuck him. Vote PRESENT if you can’t vote for Johnny.
Thank you for this detailed piece. I had to read it twice and I still do not understand a large part of it. I do not know enough about the politics of our educational system, trying to figure out all the players and their relationship to each other was hard for me.
The grant was given to CAC to improve the quality of education in Chicago. The CAC took that grant money and basically used it to build a political organization around the issue of education. They recruited parents and community groups. They trained these people on how to become politically active and educated them on what positions they should take. They also selected people in the community to run for open seats on the LSC, and gave them financial and structural support to get elected. The result is that the CAC had people pushing their agenda on the board and in the group petitioning the board.
The CAC did not improve the quality of education in Chicago. What the CAC achieved was the creation of a political organization of parents, community groups, and LSC board members. CAC tried to use this political force to push forward a radical agenda, greatly influenced by Ayers. This political organization also increased the political standing and influence of Obama and Ayers.
That is what I get out of this essay. I am not sure if my understanding of this essay is correct. A lot of it went over my head. I am sure there is more the author is trying to say.
I now have strong doubts about the educational policies we will have if Obama is president.
And we thought GWB — no Child Left Behind was stupid — Obama’s worthless crap will be worse.
Amazing just how similar GWB and Obama are — both privileged, went to the best private schools. Both are elitists. Both lack common sense and can’t speak a coherent sentence without the aid of a teleprompter.
Both are liars– it’s impossible to know if they are lying or telling the truth without independent verification.
Both are good at stealing elections and both screwed Florida.
memyself&I:
I think you got right to the heart of the matter.
Thank you for researching these groups.
It is exactly what I suspected about Ayers and Obama’s relationship. They consistantly contradict themselves and their actions. Which have always been self-serving.
Neither should be trusted with the country, taxpayer’s money, or with the minds of children.
Thanks again for writing this.
http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/2008/02/16/obama-arab-american/
Quiet a story about Obama’s Arab slave trading family…..
Pamela at Atlas Shrugs has this fascinating post from an article by Ken Lamb, a journalist and radio commentator. Assuming that Lamb’s information is accurate information that might derail the Obama big mo express-his Arab slave trading heritage on his Kenyan father’s side. Not exactly PC. On his Caucasian mother’s side there were distant connections to slave owning Confederate President Jeff Davis whose 200th birthday is being celebrated. But read this about his natural Kenyan father:
Researching his roots reveal that on his father’s side, he is descended from Arab slave traders. They operated under an extended grant from Queen Victoria, who gave them the right to continue the slave trade in exchange for helping the British defeat the Madhi Army in southern Sudan and the Upper Nile region. Funny how circular is history; now the British again face the Madhi Army, albeit this time Shiite, not Sunni, as in nineteenth century Sudan.
Ayers and Dohrn are a pair of rich punks who got away with terrorist treason because they came from affluent families, just like Dubya Bush is a rich punk who got away with deserting from the Air National Guard because he came from a rich family. I despise them all.
Ayers, Dorhn, and Rezko are a fine group to name as friends, acquaintences and business partners but the name to look for is Nadhmi Auchi. he’s the money behind Rezko. Of course Obama denies any knowledge of Auchi.
http://amerpundit.com/2008/02/26/rezko-obama-and-auchi/
Sorry, I forgot to add this link:
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2008/02/rezko-auchi-and-obama.html
Ooooooooh, fear the negro. More conpiracy theories, eh?
You want a conspiracy theory? How about this? The Weathermen started praising the Black Panthers in their press conferences. Stating that they wanted to work together with the black man to otherthrow the govt.
The Panthers didn’t seem like they were really interested in the fools, but in short order they were dead. With what looks like inside information, since they were shot through the doors of their apartment. The Weathermen then hid in line with other Chicago residents to review their handiwork.
Obama should watch out working with Ayers…since it has always been his desire to have the people rise up. If Obama is hurt as Pres, then Ayers might finally achieve his wish.
Obama should fear Ayers…
That is a conspiracy theory…..what is upbove in Steve Diamond’s post are facts.
Learn the difference.
should be ….overthrow the govt
Ooooooooh, fear the truth? Apparently Obama and his Kool-Aid drinkers do. He’s nothing more than a cheap politician. Don’t believe me? Ask Rev. Wright his pastor for 20+ years. As for his being a Negro, he’s not, he had a black father and a white mother so technically he’s a mulatto. That he decided to disown his white half is his choice and his business not mine. I could care less if he is black, brown, white, yellow or green with pink polka-dots. What I care about is that he’s not qualified to be President.
God Bless Steve Diamond! Huge dbt of thanks from an old school high school teacher in Chicago! Keep batting at Ayers and his odious Old Lady.
http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/2008/06/mccain-obama-myth-rooted-in.html
This is a great article. Well researched and presented. How “Mr. I’m the Great Change” gets away with this stuff amazes me. Please send this to all the news outlets and especially Hannity and dare I whisper the name, Rush. Somebody has to pick this up and run with it. It is a terrific piece. Thanks for the good work. Love this site. Never Obama. Cj
Ayers is a creepie little shit. Throw his wife in with this bunch. It is a disgrace he has a professor position when he should be in jail cleaning toilets.
This man bombed Americans and is one of EMPTYSUITS very close friends.
When will the MSM wake up? My God!
Thank you for so carefully documenting this important piece. What you reveal about Obama’s character and competency is key to seeing how an Obama administration will not be the change America is hoping for.
Don’t trade an inexperienced, corrupt, Texas liar for an inexperienced, corrupt, Chicago liar.
Mr. Diamond; thank you for a very well detailed and documented article. The injection of politics into an educational environment is unavoidable to the extent that schools must be responsive to the students and communities they serve.
The blue prints you write about are “confusing” the issue of Obama’s relationship with Ayers.
As near as I can tell, Obama’s relationship goes back to 1985 and in 1988 we see an acknowledgment of that relationship. It is also evident that the consolidation of power to the Mayor’s office would bring Obama into direct contact with the larger web of Pay to Play.
Obama has intentionally avoided bring up up his membership on these boards because they would cause people to become more concerned about his relationship with Ayers.
[...] Diamond, That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship, NoQuarterUSA, June 19, 2008. Detail heavy article on Ayers and [...]