Obama, Ayers and the Annenberg Challenge: Does Conservative Stanley Kurtz Get It Right?
By Steve Diamond on September 23, 2008 at 6:14 PM in Annenberg Chicago Challenge, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Chicago School Reform Collaborative, Chicago politics, Penny Pritzker, Richard Daley, William Ayers
Published September 22, 2008 at my blog, Global Labor and Politics.
…………………………………………………………………
As far as it goes, Stanley Kurtz of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center and the National Review Online, has done a reasonably good job in this essay in the Wall Street Journal of capturing the intimately close political relationship between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers in their work together on the $160 million Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) from 1995 to 2002.
But there is a key piece missing in this continuing puzzle.
Global Labor readers will recall that Dr. Kurtz, a Harvard-trained social anthropologist, was initially invited to view the CAC’s records held at the University of Illinois’ Chicago campus but was then denied access for several weeks after the former Executive Director of the CAC, Ken Rolling, demanded that the University keep the CAC records, donated to the University by the CAC for public research in 2002, off limits to the public.
No one has yet been able to explain how Rolling, who now runs a non-profit in Mississippi, happened to call the University library the same day as Kurtz – August 11 – and demand that Kurtz be denied access to the records. Unless, of course, someone tipped him off.
The University relented, however, after conferring with Rolling who was then given an opportunity to recommend that certain documents be kept confidential. The University maintains nothing was changed.
Kurtz was then able to review the records, some of which I had already seen after securing copies from a separate archive at Brown University earlier this summer.
My own assessment of what the Ayers/Obama Challenge experience adds up to is explained in my essay, The Authoritarian Radicals.
Kurtz’ main argument is that the CAC was a continuation of the “radical” agenda towards education that Ayers developed as a civil rights and anti-war activist in the 1960s. Thus, he points to Ayers’ intention to use the funds of the CAC to infuse students and teachers with an interest in resisting oppression, racism, and social injustice.
There is a great deal of truth in this. Ayers speaks widely of his commitment to “social justice” teaching where he sees the classroom as the potential starting point of revolutionary consciousness. Such nonsense deserves the derision the Kurtz piece suggests.
But one is left wondering, would the national Annenberg Challenge program have really awarded Ayers nearly $50 million if this kind of silliness were the real purpose of the CAC?
Would Chicago area foundations like the MacArthur Foundation and the Pritzker Family Foundation, as well as major corporate and public donors, have provided $110 million in matching funds for such an agenda?
Could anyone have realistically expected such an agenda to have improved student outcomes?
Somehow I doubt it.
Rather, I think there was a more pressing purpose at the heart of the award and the support it engendered among certain elite institutions and individuals in Chicago. Ironically, while Kurtz wants to tar Obama with the red paint brush of the 60s “radical” Ayers, an understanding of the real purpose of the CAC indicates a much closer political alliance between Obama and Ayers.
The grant application itself and much of what the CAC was up to emerged in the heated “Chicago School Wars” underway in that city from the late 1980s until the late 1990s. This war was for the control of Chicago’s public schools.
One side in this war was controlled by Mayor Richard M. Daley, Jr., son of the legendary Mayor Daley.
And the other side was led by Ayers and a small group of reformers that had emerged several years earlier in 1988 during a battle to create a new power center in the Chicago schools, the so-called Local School Councils, or LSCs. The LSCs were an effort to rein in the power of unionized teachers, school principals and school administrators, in the wake of an unpopular teachers’ strike in 1987.
This milieu around Ayers also included, as far back as the late 80s, Barack Obama and the Developing Communities Project (DCP) that had hired Obama as its Executive Director in 1985. The DCP was a leading participant in the campaign to establish the LSCs.
Thus, in fact, the “radical” Bill Ayers and his ally Barack Obama, a Democratic political activist and lawyer on the rise in Chicago, were engaged in an anti-union effort to influence the direction and nature of the entire Chicago public school system. It would lead them into a battle with Mayor Daley himself.
By 1994 the Local School Councils were losing momentum and Daley started to reassert his power, looking to new legislation to strip the LSCs of their power and return power over the system to his office. Ayers and his reformers turned to the Annenberg Challenge money to reinvigorate the power and impact of the LSCs.
They also funded, as Kurtz documents, a network of so-called “external partners,” such as the Small Schools Network run by Ayers’ comrade from the 60s, ex-Maoist Mike Klonsky. These Partners engaged in what one union activist called “teacher bashing” rather than concrete programs to improve outcomes for students.
This was the heart and soul of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge – a front in the Chicago School Wars. For a time mainstream figures like the former President of Northwestern, Arnold Weber, backed the effort, but later began raising objections to its “political” agenda.
But the project prevailed and over time dumped nearly $160 million in six years into the schools, consistent with the Ayers’ camp’s political agenda of supporting the LSCs as a power center against the teachers’ union and the city administration. (Ironically, the LSCs were not supported by major black groups in Chicago like Jesse Jackson’s Operation PUSH. The LSCs anti-teacher approach was viewed with alarm as teaching had become one of the few sure routes to a middle class life for black Chicagoans.)
Thus, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was far more than just a chance for Ayers to engage in “radical” efforts to raise the political consciousness of young students. It was that but it was much more – it was a front in an important battle for control of the Chicago Public School system. In fact, according to the Ken Rolling, Daley himself tried to wrest control of the Annenberg grant money away from Ayers and Obama.
The Challenge was radical, but not the right wing’s simplistic view of “radicalism.” Rather it represented an authoritarian and bureaucratic agenda – a desperate attempt to use parents to control teachers through a politically correct curriculum, yes, but more importantly to use them as canon fodder in the battle to control teachers and administrators. This authoritarian approach is entirely consistent with Ayers’ long held political views as he has consistently sided politically with the most undemocratic regimes available, including most recently that of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
And at Ayers’ side the entire time during this battle was his comrade-in-arms, Barack Obama, who served as President and Chairman of the board of directors of the Challenge.
(Release: November 13)
on sale for only $16.95.
has a spatula.)
8% Off at $11.95, with a rare five-star ranking by 294 customers: 
And check out these: 
("This crazy redhead is on to something. Her pink Rambler story alone is worth the price of the book," writes 
- “Richard Sale’s reportage on Washington, the CIA, the American armed forces, and foreign intrigue has created a perfect background for this account of the steady growth of President Clinton as a master of the game of nations.”--W. Patrick Lang, former head of Middle East Operations, DIA
"Anne C. Heller's stunning biography of Ayn Rand" uses a "plethora of newly unearthed research and fresh insight."
Steve, great article!
Steve,
Are you implying, and is it your belief, that Barack Obama shares William Ayers’ “undemocratic” and “authoritarian” political views?
The way he campaigns sure makes one think so.
What? I have questionable associations? Distraction! I, Baracky the Great will tell you plebs what issues are important. How dare you question my background, you bitter gun-n-God-clingers!
I’ll go a step further and characterize Obama’s authoritarianism specifically as fascism. Fascism an authoritatian ideology can occur in the Right and Left. (See YouTube video with Naomi Wolf’s THE END OF AMERICA lecture and Tarypley’s OBAMA: THE POSTMODERN COUP).
Obama’s bent toward fascism is why I feel that he is similar to GWB and his regime.
GO watch LOu Dobb’s..should be great.
FOX NEWS ALERT::: FBI raids/.Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Bros., AIG, and Goldman Sacs..26 current and former Executes being investigated for FRAUD…stay tuned!!!
Hmmm I wonder who is going to get taken down in this one? A lot of nervous people are going to be walking around wondering what kind of info do they have on them lol
Excellent! Prosecute them all! Republican or Democrats! Enough is enough!
Dems are going to let the drilling ban on the Pacific and Atlantic expire.
MSM headline.
Authoritarian and anti-union agenda. No wonder we never hear Obama call himself a Democrat or democrat.
Steve Diamond is one of the few willing to stand up and talk about this authoritarian regime. All of the signs are there. We must reverse this course for our Country and for our Freedoms.
Steve, please. I read late at night after I get my kid to sleep (he has Autism so it’s difficult). Could you write a “dummies” version of the above post for me?
Thanks
OMG….Obamas at it again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F-PMY72luY
OMG – You are kidding me. Is he a wind up doll and he ran out of steam here?
Wow…
He had the look of an alzheimers patient….lost.
Guess he was without his teleprompter!! And people wonder why he would not do Townhall Meetings with McCain, think anyone who has watched him without a teleprompter knows um um ah umm ummmm ahhhh why. How would he possibly get through a meeting with Amadinajan or Chavez without a teleprompter in the room?
Do you have an archived link? The Youtube version has been removed.
Barky our scrubbing truth again.
He stumbles when he is lying. We’ve seen this before. Obama is completely in the pocket of FannieMae & FreddieMac lobbyists, and so … somewhere in that tiny conscience of his, a small voice was saying “I can’t believe what you’re about to say.” And that small voice caused a stumble.
Obama is an inauthentic phony and a liar. He can hardly utter a complete sentence without the teleprompter because it takes a lot of brain power to keep up with so many lies.
There has got to be some stink somewhere in that relatonship and McCain will expose it. Obama’s saying Ayers was “someguy who just happened to live in his neighborhood” and zero mention of the Chicago Anneberg project in either if his books says something isn’t right.
The best is Axelrod saying that their kids go to the same school and that’s how they knew each other.
Ayers kids are in their late 20’s
I have seen the Video of Obama bragging about being the Chairman of the Annenberg Challenge in a interview when Obama was running in a Primary for Congress. Unlike the rest of his runs for Office this was a REAL ELECTION and he lost BIG.
Everyone continually focuses on the zit on the end of their noses and never look past it to see the reality of everything! So here it is in one word, Thomas Ayers!
Who was the controlling figure in the world of foundations in Chicago? Thomas Ayers
Who was an expected cabinet member of Nixon’s cabinet only to lose it due to his son’s activities? Thomas Ayers
Who controlled the political lives of Chicago and without his support, a politician was finished? Thomas Ayers
Who was asked in 1983 to head up school reforms in Chicago? Thomas Ayers
Who’s foundation backed the ABC coalition that included Obama’s DSP in 1987? Thomas Ayers
Who was the most powerful non-political figure in Chicago until his death in 2007, even able to control Daley’s father in the 1960’s? Thomas Ayers
Who would know better than anyone in the foundation circles how to manouver an application to obtain funds from the Annenburg Challenge? Thomas Ayers
Who was a close advisor to Nixon and who worked for Nixon in the early 1970’s? Annenburg and Thomas Ayers
Who openned doors for Michelle and Barack Obama into the worlds of law firms, city politics and future endevours? Thomas Ayers
Who’s passion in life was the promotion monitarily and educationally for blacks? Thomas Ayers
There is so much more to this, but this outline is just to set the focus in things people overlook, one major oversight is that Ayers being a fugitive for 11 years, lived in Hyde Park, now who would be powerful enough to have that occur and everyone turn a blind eye to it? Thomas Ayers
Thomas Ayers also happened to have major influence over the Woods Fuoundation and who hired Obama, the Woods Fund.
Enough for the moment, but the one liking between Thomas Ayers and Bill Ayers was Obama, a Black man (that Thomas Ayers enjoyed promoting) and a marxist (that Bill Ayers thrived from) with a common seed being Frank Marshall Davis, a friend of Chicago foundations and radical reformers and marxists!
Obama is the package deal that the Ayers could never pass up to do their biddings on every level and in return, the Ayers gave Obama the tools and political clout to do it!
One other note, people wonder why Obama is running for POTUS with no experience and no real reason, he has a reason, his political clout Thomas Ayers would not be around for any future elections to put influence on people, even Axelrod who worked for Ayers while at the Tribune!
One other quick note, what makes a person a political powerhouse, even a non-politician?
Having dirt on those who are, the old practice of keeping crib notes on people was standard in Thomas Ayers day for control, and guess who has the notes today? Bill Ayers
Yet the Tribune company had Novak outing plame as a threat to people stopping the war?
But from a logical viewpoint that might have played precisely to Obama’s political future advantage: if the war didn’t go forward, what did Obama had? Not even “the one speech” …
Thomas Ayers died about a year ago, maybe someone could check his obit.
He died June 8, 2007 at his Hyde Park home
I am hear more and more about Obama’s dirty little buddies , could there be a McCain attack coming soon? I hope so, also since Obama like to tell anyone who will listen that he was a community organizer why isn’t he bragging about the community organization?
And why is there so much silence on the Nation of Islam? No one and I mean no one in “community organization” or education in Chicago’s southside (especially back then) got anywhere without bowing, listening to and paying homage to Farrakan.
And who did Thomas Ayers have as his associates?
Barack Obama Sr. and dare we suggest… Percy Sutton and Nahdmi Auchi?
And, Frank Marshall Davis- personal perv mentor of who?
barack barry mohammad [DELETED BY ADMIN] obama soetoro
Many, many thanks to Steve Diamond, Stanley Kurtz (and the WSJ), and Mel for contributing the three insights that seem to be essential — that prove that Barack Obama is dangerous for America in and of himself and has disastrous mentors, associates, and advisors. Steve Diamond takes the evidence to its logical conclusion.
I believe that the polls are being used to keep Obama looking strong at this time in the election, just like they were used against Hillary. But we know who really won. I hope McCain and the Repulicans continue to educate the public and in a hurry because Obama is encouraging everyone to vote early. I also hope this election is a blowout and the traitors can be cleansed from the Democratic Party.
I am a Democrat working hard for the Republicans. I also want to see the DNC cleaned out and Obama and his thug friends as far away from the White House as possible! Everyone please help out. Volunteer. Donate money, make phone calls – place signs everywhere you can!!! We can do this!!! Please get
energized!!!
Get the message out to all your fellow democrats.
MONITOR THE VOTE and the vote count. Call your election office and find out how to do that.
And DO IT!!
COUNTRY FIRST!!!
I’m a Republican and I must say it is an honor to be here.
We can go back to fighting each other after we have cleaned the crooks out of Congress. It is not just Obama and it is not just Democrats. There are some Republicans who need the boot. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is at the top of my list.
In fact let us make a list.
No reasonable suggestions refused.
America first.
Simon
I second tis plea. We need a convincing win.
Don’t be shy, John McCain’s campaign welcomes all comers, I promise.
I will be at the National HQ tonight around 5:30 pm and I will work there until about 8:30pm.
There is lots to do. You will be welcomed I promise.
well by mentioning Pritzer family money we now see how that crazy lady got her post as finance chair for Obama.
Great post, thanks.
Generally at the end of a grant project, a report must be submitted with outcomes, expenses, projections etc. Does that exist and is it available? It would be interesting to see how this project was spun for the grantees.
Hope this gets wide circulation
Quick Question…..
After reading Diamnond’s article in total (linked above) and reading Kurtz newer information and the info from Mel above I’m wondering if Arnold Weber might provide some excellent background on this whole situation as he became unimpressed with the direction of the CAC and seems to have fought the two million sent to procure “leaders”. I see he was the President of Northwesten and now serves as a Director of the Diamond Consulting group.
I’m seeing a close relationship between Ayers (maybe both of them) and Obama that he could probably shine more light upon. Just a thought…….
Excellent post.
However, most of this is far over the heads of the average voter. Help outreach and inform voters –
to undo obama AND the dirty down-ticket Congressmen. That’s the formula for building momentum for Reform.
Join the Action at W.A.M. Go to:
http://www.wam08.org
Democracy is a use it or lose it proposition.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Inside the Beltway
John McCaslin (Contact)
HILLARY’S SHADOW
I’ve been reading David Freddoso’s The Case Against Barrack Obama as I ride the bus to and from work these last two days. I get some glares from people when they see the book–since I make sure the title can be seen clearly. But I had a few people, mostly women, give me the thumbs up. One said loudly as she walked by to exit on the stop before mine, “Make sure you tell lots of people what you’re learning in that book.”
So it’s interesting that this topic comes up now. Freddoso talks about the terrible effect of the CTU on the schools–the short school days and the high salaries of teachers. He implies that a major reason the Chicago schools perform poorly IS the teachers union and points out Obama’s fawning over the union’s support of him.
So–there seems to be a disconnect between the information in the book and this article. Why would he bash teachers and then be the golden boy of the union?
I don’t want Obama to win at all, but I am confused here about this seeming contradiction.
As an ex teacher, the whole social issues approach to schools upsets me. What kids need is hard content. They need to gain knowlege not to be brainwashed into any political way of thinking. They need a very good foundation of content so they can form good opinions.
I am a retired NEA member, but my membersip is mostly for insurance puposes, and it always was. Where else was I going to get a lawyer if some sue happy parent or child had falsely accused me of something? And I did see that happen to other teachers a few times.
But I also understand how teachers unions do seem to be a major factor in the poor showing of public schools in the U.S.
I would just like an explanation of the seeming disconnect between the information in this article and the information in Fredderoso’s book.
I’ll add to this a bit and ask Steve to explain if he knows — does the Chicago teachers’ union support Obama now? Perhaps the union was angry at Obama at one time? Or perhaps the anger was directed more towards Ayers, and not Obama? Or were the unions the ultimate beneficiaries of the money the foundations pumped in?
Sorry if these questions are naive.
Diana,
Do not confuse the opportunistic behavior of Obama now, as a presidential candidate trying to get elected, with the behavior of Obama then, trying as a young lawyer to make his mark on a very tough political scene in Chicago.
While I would likely quarrel with the broad charge that the teachers’ union then or now is the cause of the problems in our schools, it was very much in the interest of Obama then to attempt to make a mark in Chicago politics by taking the stand that he did. He and Ayers were attempting to create through the LSC’s (a form of community control) and the external partners that they funded with CAC money a new power center that they would control or influence and that would be used to put in place their vision of curriculum and teaching methods. Both the teachers union and the school board stood in the way. Thus, in my view, this was a triangular struggle for influence over the classroom: union, Ayers’ CAC and Daley. Obama then stood with Ayers at the CAC.
Now, many years later, the LSCs in Chicago are a shadow of their early influence and power has been re-centralized in the hands of the mayor. Now it is more of a two way battle with some limited role for people like Ayers, Klonsky and foundations. Now the battle is over the ability of school boards to fire teachers and impose objective standards and accountability. In these circumstances it is not a surprise to see Obama leaning, ever so slightly, in the direction of the teachers union. But he has also made clear his interest in seeing many teachers fired. And he is still open to some of the sillier ideas out there like those of Ayers and Linda Darling-Hammond linked to reparations.
Hope this is helpful
Prof. Diamond:
I am a bit confused by this: whar’s the connection b/t the notion of reparations and Obama’s interest/ willingness to fire teachers?
Both of those ideas have nothing to do with improving student outcomes.
Thanks for the explanation. I understand a bit more. It’s the sillier ideas that I don’t like.
Why are the broadcasting corporations pushing sooo hard to get Obama elected?
The anchors and reproter could not be so odviously biased in favor of Obama without corporate approval.
I think George Soros has paid them to subvert America’s interests.
I think they get lots of threats from Obama supporters about what will happen if Obama doesn’t get elected. Violent demonstrations at CNN’s corporate headquarters in Atlanta (a city which is, what, about 50% African-American?). Firebombs in the lobby. That kind of thing.
I’m not saying I think it will necessarily happen (though I can’t rule it out) but you KNOW they are getting massive e-mails to that effect since we all know how “Obamacrats” — as the young TN fellow who hacked into Palin’s e-mail account calls himself — behave when protected by the anonymity of a keyboard.
One final note, something that is also been overlooked, Thomas Ayers was a Board of Director member of the Bank Street College in NYC, the College where Bill Ayers went back to school while Dohrn was sitting in a jail cell.
Having to travel to NYC, it is hardly a mystery that when Obama applied for the DSP position, if he really did and wasn’t the workings of Frank Marshall Davis, that Thomas and Bill Ayers met with Obama and interviewed him and picked him for the roll as Exec Director of the DSP, a position again Obama had absolutely no qualifications for doing!
No qualifications? Are you kidding? Let John Kerry explain something to you about Obama’s qualifications:
“Because he’s African-American. Because he’s a black man. Who has come from a place of oppression and repression through the years in our own country…”
“… it would be such an affirmation of who we say we are as a people.”
Q.E.D., eh?
Could someone explain to me how to post a very germane yahoo link on this site.
Just freakin’ curious.
I’ve never had a problem — just copy the URL and paste it, then hit Enter — it won’t show as a link until it is published.
Anyone else help? I’m not the most technically apt person around.
click on the address on the top of the page, it will turn blue…right click ..copy..in comment box right click ..paste..I hope this is what you wanted to know.
Ms.
I learned this just the other day..
click on address bar at top, turns blue
Control C
go to comments
Control V
hit link above comment section to highlight
Hope this works
Prof.Diamond: great post and questions. I think one issue that needs to be clarified and explained further is the “intimidation” that went on of teachers(reining in the unions?). How can the NEA support Obama knowing what the CAC modus operandi was in the Chicago schools?
A larger question is how can Obama advocate and talk about reforming and making education better in this country when his only real record on the subject was not only a failure of big proportions but also relied on questionable practices??
I do not understand how the CAC and Ayers in itself is not a HUGE problem for Obama on the “Education” front alone !!
“How can the NEA support Obama knowing what the CAC modus operandi was in the Chicago schools?”
Consider the alternative: McCain supports vouchers! Which would be a kick in the teeth to these teachers who work only a 10-month year, complain about their terrible pay, take credit for high performing school districts (where parents typically spend bundles on outside tutoring) but blame the parents in low performing districts.
Hey I’m not against teachers, but I do get tired of hearing complaints from some in my district where the work is easy, the hours short (compared to working in the high tech industry), and they get 2 months off every summer.
But teachers get paid shit, my friend!
Guy on Greta,
Ayers..
I pledge my allegiance to the world and not the United States of America.
That says it all for me!!!
Ayers said that so explicitely ? When?
I will word it better..
Ayers was behind a project to take all references of Patriotism out of public schools.
Of course Ayers has no problem standing on Old Glory
Does He?
Got it now; thanks Seattle Moss
Obama appears to be a radical who has changed his stripes in order to get the power he needs to make the “change” that Ayers would countenance. You have to wonder if the two have not had conversations about how to change stripes. I don’t think this is a stretch. The Fabians in England may have been their model. This group advocated socialism in small steps because they knew that the majority of Brits would not swallow it if they knew that socialism was the final goal.
Ayers tried that revolution stuff with the WEATHERMEN and WEATHER UNDERGROUND but it didn’t work very well. He figured out the revolution works better if you’re a insider, get these people in Public Office, Revolution from the inside!
It’s just amazing that a guy with wealthy parents who’s probably never worked an honest day in his life, can be so cavalier about the benefits he has enjoyed as a result of capitalism.
Talk about trust-fund babies. Let’s see him walk the talk, and live in a run-down housing project like Cory Booker (mayor of Newark, NJ) does. Or let’s see him donate some of his own cushy trust fund to the poor and indigent of Rezko’s tenements.
What a bunch of sleasebags. And to think I used to identify with people like that (as an anti-war teenager in the 60s).
That was a great read. Thanks. Great job on the context. When one understands who was doing who and why as you do so well, it becomes focused in it’s proper light.
I had been watching “The Wire” and some of the scenes appear to have been ripped right of BO’s past.
Interesting observation!
wow, steve, brilliant expose! as a former union official, this MAKES ME SICK. Puhleeeese make every effort to get this article the broadest distribution possible. No real unionist in their right mind could support them knowing this information.
Is it a coincidence that we see Russia re-emerging as a world power just as Obama, protege of the Weather Underground, is looking to take the Presidency of Russia’s most powerful rival, the U.S.?
Would anyone be surprised if Putin has re-activated the international strategies of the Stalinist NVKD (People’s Commissariat) as part of his strategy to retake the Russian Empire?
What does Putin have in mind for the U.S. economy?
Obama’s behind-the-scenes international affairs advisor is Bzerzinski who would like to see the demise of Russia once and for all—and will go to any lengths to do it! He is behind the “colors” revolutions in Eastern Europe and Africa. According to Tarpley, Bzerzinski wants to pit China and Iran against Russia. Obama will fulfill Bzerzinski’s agenda, just as Prez Carter tried to in the 70s by supporting the Taliban in Afhanistan against the USSR.
Barack would wet his pants going against ” Vlad the Impaler”
My answer is:
http://www.johnmccain.com
Look on there to see what you can do.
The Phony and cowardly Professor Diamond is at it again.
Prof, why don’t you go back to licking the balls of the right Wing Zealots at Human Events, Fox News & the McCain Campaign instead of writing your silly anti-Obama screeds?
Btw, shouldn’t you be back in the office scrubbing your web sites and email of all the crap you’ve been writing for years?
Useful Idiot.