STEPHEN DIAMOND: I am a lawyer, political scientist and law professor. I teach courses and conduct research on the global capital markets, business law, international human rights and labor law. My blog is Global Labor and Politics. You may read my other posts at NoQuarterUSA.net here.

Obama is clearly losing goodwill points every day that Blago-gate drags on. Now it appears that indeed Rahm Emanuel was in touch with Blago and aide Harris about the senate seat though no evidence yet of malfeasance on Emanuel’s part.

The stench of Chicago machine politics now clings to Obama like a cheap cologne.

It did not have to be this way.

Obama started out his career firmly in the reform anti-Daley machine wing of the Chicago Democratic Party. That’s what it meant to be an Alinsky-ite Community Organizer in black south side poor and working class neighborhoods in the 80s (where, by the way, he first got to know the powerful Balanoff family of Tom Balanoff aka “SEIU Official” – the flag pole contact in the Feds affidavit against Blagojevich).

That’s what it meant to fight the Mayor’s office and the powerful school board and the teachers union simultaneously in the push for a school reform bill in 1988 which Obama did alongside his pal Bill Ayers. And Obama did that in opposition to mainstream black organizations like Operation PUSH and The Woodlawn Organization.

That’s what it meant to join again with Ayers in securing and then spending $160 million on education reform AGAINST the desires of Mayor Daley in what were called the Chicago School Wars. That’s what it meant to hold his initial campaign event in the home of his “family friends” Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. That’s what it meant to step into the shoes of outgoing state rep. and fellow traveler Alice Palmer.

In fact, that’s what it meant if your aspiration in political life, as it was for Obama, was to depose Richard Daley Jr. inspired by Obama’s hero, Harold Washington, the first black mayor of the city who died in office while Obama was a community organizer.

But at some point in the late 90s or so, Obama realized he had higher ambitions and perhaps becoming Chicago Mayor was not enough. At that point he began to establish relationships with the Chicago mainstream, including key business figures like Penny Pritzker and he even began cozying up to the Daley machine itself. These would prove critical in his rise to national prominence

And now he is stuck with them. Instead of taking advantage of his new national ties to the Kennedy family or VP-elect Joe Biden he immediately fell back on the Chicago crowd for his earliest appointments – Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett, for example – while only leaving behind Jeremiah Wright and, hopefully, Billy Ayers.

For whatever reason Democratic Presidents seem too heavily dependent on the home team. Carter had his Georgia buddies as Clinton had his Arkansas cronies. Usually, however, it takes a few years for their inadequacies to shine through. Obama hasn’t even moved to Washington yet!

From my blog, Global Labor and Politics.

MORE ON ALINSKY:

Here’s a brief summary of Saul Alinsky’s relationship to Obama, via Wikipedia:

Alinsky codified and wrote a clear set of rules for community organizing. His rules for radicals are now used as key tactics to learn in the training of new community organizers and were the tactics used by then candidate Barack Obama to win the 2008 election.

[...]

Alinsky’s teachings influenced Barack Obama in his early career as a community organizer on the far South Side of Chicago. Working for Gerald Kellman’s Developing Communities Project, Obama learned and taught Alinsky’s methods for community organizing.

Join Paulie at 9:00 p.m. ET to discuss Saul Alinsky’s legacy at No Quarter Radio!

Here’s a brief summary of Saul Alinsky’s relationship to Obama, via Wikipedia: “Alinsky codified and wrote a clear set of rules for community organizing. His rules for radicals are now used as key tactics to learn in the training of new community organizers and were the tactics used by then candidate Barack Obama to win the 2008 election. [...] Alinsky’s teachings influenced Barack Obama in his early career as a community organizer on the far South Side of Chicago. Working for Gerald Kellman’s Developing Communities Project, Obama learned and taught Alinsky’s methods for community organizing.

The lines of evidence now converge: the founder of ACORN is Wade Rathke, who, like William Ayers, was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society. The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the student organization founded in 1960 as part of the New Left, was the gateway drug to the Weather Underground. In the early sixties, the SDS was idealistic and many reluctantly supported Lyndon Johnson for president in 1964, and grainy black-and-white pictures show clean-cut men and women registering southern blacks to vote. Tom Hayden was amongst this group. But that was then.

By 1969, their Great Society liberalism had been co-opted by Marxists, Maoists, Spartacists, and other assorted revolutionary groups. They were no longer interested in change, but overthrowing the government. It was during this time that Wade Rathke first came into contact with Bill Ayers.

Much has been made of Obama’s questionable judgment in befriending and working closely with unrepentant terrorist William Ayers. Regardless of what Obama says, his political career was launched in Ayers’ home, Ayers served with him on Woods Fund, and promoted him to head the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

The founder of ACORN, Wade Rathke, like Ayers, is a disciple of Saul Alinsky. Working for ACORN was an important step in Obama’s political career.

An article by Professor David Walls directly connects Rathke’s ACORN to Alinsky, ACORN’s mission of pressuring banks to issue risky mortgages, and the alliance between ACORN and unions:

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, began in 1970 as a spin-off from the National Welfare Rights Organization, founded by George Wiley, who enlisted civil rights workers and trained them in an Alinsky-influenced program at Syracuse University. From a base in Arkansas, Wade Rathke and Gary Delgado developed a replicable model of forming membership organizations and developing leaders in low-income neighborhoods — relying substantially on young middle-class staff working for subsistence wages. ACORN has established local housing corporations to rehabilitate homes, and has successfully pressured banks to provide mortgages and home improvement loans in low-income communities. ACORN has led “living wage” campaigns in many cities, and has forged alliances with labor unions.

But ACORN isn’t just Alinsky-inspired. It’s a direct off-shoot of his revolutionary agenda:

Around 1970 several national networks began to coalesce and develop systematic and distinctive approaches to community organizing. These include the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), ACORN, Citizen Action, National People’s Action, PICO, DART, and the Gamaliel Foundation. Each was indebted, in greater or lesser degree, to Alinsky and his early organizing programs in Chicago through IAF.

Citizen Action, mentioned above, is not “officially” connected to ACORN. But Citizen Action, like Rathke’s ACORN and Ayers’ radical education projects, was founded by another member of the Alinsky-SDS milieu, Heather Booth. But it’s not just SDS and the City of Chicago that binds this group. As the screen capture below shows, Heather Booth’s husband was both a member of the SDS and Alinski’s [sic] Industrial Areas Foundation.

Of equal significance, Citizen Action reported paying Citizen Services, Inc., the shadowy ACORN group first exposed at No Quarter, over half a million dollars for campaign work. This is the Citizen Services, Inc. who has received nearly a million dollars from the Obama campaign:

(Expenditure reports also show an October 18 payment to Citizen Services (ACORN) of $590,526.10 for “Campaign consulting.” This is not enough information to determine whether this payment was also for signature gathering, which would make the per-signature cost ludicrously high, or for get-out-the-vote activities, or something else.)

According to the Associated Press, the FBI is now investigating allegations of voter fraud committed by ACORN. It should come as no surprise that ACORN is steeped in a culture of corruption, and the manipulative actions of ACORN dovetail perfectly with Alinsky’s Rules. Wade Rathke, founder of ACORN, was forced out the organization after his brother, Dale Rathke, embezzled more than $948,000 from ACORN and Wade Rathke covered it up. His brother was running one of the 294 ACORN groups which Larry Johnson discovered are all linked through the same address:

139. CITIZENS CONSULTING INC.
1024 ELYSIAN FIELDS AVE
NEW ORLEANS, LA 70117-8402 NON-PROFIT FOREIGN CORPORATION Name Type:LEGAL
Status:ACTIVE
Indiana Secretary of State

The New York Times reports:

The amount Dale Rathke embezzled, $948,607.50, was carried as a loan on the books of Citizens Consulting Inc., which provides bookkeeping, accounting and other financial management services to Acorn and many of its affiliated entities.

Wade Rathke, prior to Obama’s rapid ascent, was formulating ways to converge the Alinsky Left and take control of the power of the state. This was written in January 2003. He begins his essay with the classic exhortations of a Bolshevik pamphleteer, and his words could not be any clearer:

The oldest cliché of our vast peoples’ movement over the last generation or more has got to be that there are so, so many tasks to be done, that there is a job for everyone – and that means, you, too, brothers and sisters!

~snip~

So, you sit here reading this on the fly between one job and another, home and school, heaven and hell, and you say, “hey, bullshit, no way:” every ad for an “activist” is just looking for a canvasser; all of these groups are just gangs with their own cliques – another secret handshake high school behind a storefront window; and, so, you say, what does it matter what I have to say, what I think, or whatever – I’ll just do my thing, my way, and live my life out of the mainstream

Here’s my plea – let’s build a bridge in the sky that links our worlds together, while allowing us to stay autonomous and anonymous.

First, why, and then, how.

The power of the state is in fact fairly awesome.

Obama is clearly losing goodwill points every day that Blago-gate drags on. Now it appears that indeed Rahm Emanuel was in touch with Blago and aide Harris about the senate seat though no evidence yet of malfeasance on Emanuel’s part.

The stench of Chicago machine politics now clings to Obama like a cheap cologne.

It did not have to be this way.

Obama started out his career firmly in the reform anti-Daley machine wing of the Chicago Democratic Party. That’s what it meant to be an Alinsky-ite Community Organizer in black south side poor and working class neighborhoods in the 80s (where, by the way, he first got to know the powerful Balanoff family of Tom Balanoff aka “SEIU Official” – the flag pole contact in the Feds affidavit against Blagojevich).

That’s what it meant to fight the Mayor’s office and the powerful school board and the teachers union simultaneously in the push for a school reform bill in 1988 which Obama did alongside his pal Bill Ayers. And Obama did that in opposition to mainstream black organizations like Operation PUSH and The Woodlawn Organization.

That’s what it meant to join again with Ayers in securing and then spending $160 million on education reform AGAINST the desires of Mayor Daley in what were called the Chicago School Wars. That’s what it meant to hold his initial campaign event in the home of his “family friends” Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. That’s what it meant to step into the shoes of outgoing state rep. and fellow traveler Alice Palmer.

In fact, that’s what it meant if your aspiration in political life, as it was for Obama, was to depose Richard Daley Jr. inspired by Obama’s hero, Harold Washington, the first black mayor of the city who died in office while Obama was a community organizer.

But at some point in the late 90s or so, Obama realized he had higher ambitions and perhaps becoming Chicago Mayor was not enough. At that point he began to establish relationships with the Chicago mainstream, including key business figures like Penny Pritzker and he even began cozying up to the Daley machine itself. These would prove critical in his rise to national prominence

And now he is stuck with them. Instead of taking advantage of his new national ties to the Kennedy family or VP-elect Joe Biden he immediately fell back on the Chicago crowd for his earliest appointments – Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett, for example – while only leaving behind Jeremiah Wright and, hopefully, Billy Ayers.

For whatever reason Democratic Presidents seem too heavily dependent on the home team. Carter had his Georgia buddies as Clinton had his Arkansas cronies. Usually, however, it takes a few years for their inadequacies to shine through. Obama hasn’t even moved to Washington yet!

From my blog, Global Labor and Politics.

The relationship between the Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, the founder and leader of the now defunct terrorist organization Weather Underground, is deeper and closer than currently understood, according to an individual who has had a senior role in the Obama candidacy. Ayers has had direct contact with the candidate.

The Weather Underground was responsible for a series of bombings during the 1970s that caused extensive property damage. [Only two bomb's failures (at the front of the home and under the gas tank of the family car) kept an entire family from dying as they slept, reports John Murtagh, then the 9-year-old son of the judge whose family WU wanted to kill. See Uppity Woman's story, "When This Man Was 9 Years Old, Ayers Bombed His Home." - Ed.]

William Ayers dedicated his 1974 book, Prairie Fire, to the man that assassinated Bobby Kennedy.

And Obama thinks it is okay to serve with, work with, and socialize with this guy, the man who dedicated his book to the man that killed Robert F. Kennedy?

Obama thought it was okay to endorse, lend his name, and reputation to another book written by Ayers? Do you lend your reputation to someone, without knowing anything about them?

“A searing and timely account of the juvenile court system, and the courageous individuals who rescue hope from despair.” (Chicago Tribune, 12/21/97)

Obama’s desk in the U.S. Senate used to belong to Robert Kennedy. Surely, Obama must know who Sirhan Sirhan is. And Obama had no problem associating, and socializing, with William Ayers? A man who considers Sirhan a “political prisoner,” and worthy of a dedication in his 1974 book?

I wonder what the Kennedy family thinks about that?

I imagine that Obama’s excuse will be that he was only six years old when Kennedy was assassinated. Or that he was 12 when the book was written. Well, how old was he when he chose Kennedy’s desk for his Senate office? How old was he when he chose to associate with Ayers? How old was he when he lent his name to a book written by Ayers?

How old was he when he lied to the American people about their relationship?

Judgment? Honesty? Disgraceful.

No Quarter has covered the Ayers/Obama relationship extensively. You can find much more information in Steve Diamond’s writings and also in Larry Johnson’s writings.

***

And here, as an added bonus, is another tape, this one of Khalidi discussing the corrupt political machine, in Chicago.

(Doesn’t the cover of Ayers’ book resemble Obama’s logo?)

First, when he was booked, they had this to say:

“We are pleased to offer this opportunity for our students and faculty to hear a nationally acclaimed scholar, researcher and advocate for children and urban education reform,” said Marjorie Kostelnik, dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences last week, before the furor over Ayers’ scheduled appearance at UNL surfaced.

Later, they had this to say:

“In this instance, it is unfortunate that a lecture directed toward an academic subject has become implicated in a political campaign,” the chancellor said. “Nothing in his presence suggests that the university supports his personal or political philosophy or condones any of his former conduct.”

They must have heard the recently found 2002 audio of Ayers’ radio interview where he says In Your Face, “I am an Anarchist and a Marxist”.

Cool! That’s exactly what America needs helping out with education of our young ones. Because you see, the only difference between Bill Ayers Then and Now is he looks showered, his hair is shorter and his back hurts. But that’s small stuff when you can get your paws on a whole new generation of young people to do your grunt work for you. Why, I bet they could all lobs bombs almost as well as Bill did!

This is the same guy Barack Obama says he thought was “Rehabilitated”. That was right after he said he “didn’t know” Ayers was a terrorist. That was after he said Ayers was “Just a guy”. Odd, that. But not odd for Barack Obama, right?

Back in May, I wrote a piece called Bill Ayers and the Subversion of Education. He’s been working very hard at the indoctrination of Children into his Marxist/Anarchist philosophy folks. The photo to the left above is a photo of his deranged office door in May 2008. I wonder what was on his office door when Barack Obama shared his office with him for three years……?

What I liked about this particular article on the Nebraska problem was the laundry list of things Ayers has written. I want you to know that this guy is already influencing educators with his radical ideas to “radicalize” students, including pre-school. that’s the ticket! Get em young, make them GOOD Marxists and anarchists! Imagine what he could do as a hidden Director of Education to a White House buddy and sympathizer.

Here’s the list, with some very amusing titles. Busy boy.

* Education: An American Problem. Bill Ayers, Radical Education Project, 1968, ASIN B0007H31HU
* Hot town: Summer in the City: I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more, Bill Ayers, Students for a Democratic Society, 1969, ASIN B0007I3CMI
* Good Preschool Teachers, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0807729472
* The Good Preschool Teacher: Six Teachers Reflect on Their Lives, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0807729465
* To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0807732625*To Become a Teacher: Making a Difference in Children’s Lives, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0807734551
* City Kids, City Teachers: Reports from the Front Row, William Ayers (Editor) and Patricia Ford (Editor), New Press, 1996, ISBN 978-1565843288
* A Kind and Just Parent, William Ayers, Beacon Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0807044025
* A Light in Dark Times: Maxine Greene and the Unfinished Conversation, Maxine Greene (Editor), William Ayers (Editor), Janet L. Miller (Editor), Teachers College Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0807737217
* Teaching for Social Justice: A Democracy and Education Reader, William Ayers (Editor), Jean Ann Hunt (Editor), Therese Quinn (Editor), 1998, ISBN 978-1565844209
* Teacher Lore: Learning from Our Own Experience, William H. Schubert (Editor) and William C. Ayers (Editor), Educator’s International Press, 1999, ISBN 978-1891928031
* Teaching from the Inside Out: The Eight-Fold Path to Creative Teaching and Living, Sue Sommers (Author), William Ayers (Foreword), Authority Press, 2000, ISBN 978-1929059027
* A Simple Justice: The Challenge of Small Schools, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0807739631
* Zero Tolerance: Resisting the Drive for Punishment, William Ayers (Editor), Rick Ayers (Editor), Bernardine Dohrn (Editor), Jesse L. Jackson (Author), New Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1565846661
* A School of Our Own: Parents, Power, and Community at the East Harlem Block Schools, Tom Roderick (Author), William Ayers (Author), Teachers College Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0807741573
* Refusing Racism: White Allies and the Struggle for Civil Rights, Cynthia Stokes Brown (Author), William Ayers (Editor), Therese Quinn (Editor), Teachers College Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0807742044
* On the Side of the Child: Summerhill Revisited, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0807744000
* Fugitive Days: A Memoir, Bill Ayers, Beacon Press, 2001, ISBN 0807071242 (Penguin, 2003, ISBN 978-0142002551)
* Teaching the Personal and the Political: Essays on Hope and Justice, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0807744611
* Teaching Toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom, William Ayers, Beacon Press, 2004, ISBN 978-080703269-5
* Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground 1970-1974, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, and Jeff Jones, Seven Stories Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1583227268
* Handbook of Social Justice in Education, William C. Ayers, Routledge, June 2008, ISBN 978-0805859270
* City Kids, City Schools: More Reports from the Front Row,Ruby Dee (Foreword), Jeff Chang (Afterword), William Ayers (Editor), Billings, Gloria Ladson (Editor), Gregory Michie (Editor), Pedro Noguera (Editor), New Press, August 2008, ISBN 978-1595583383

Notice his piece ”Hot Town: Summer in the City“? No it wasn’t Joe Cocker. It was Lovin’ Spoonful back when Bill’s back didn’t hurt. It reminded me that there were plenty of songs in that day that slime balls could use for titles. I somehow don’t see Muthafucka Ho Killin’ Rap fitting in place of this, do you?

Gee, don’t you want some of what these guys were on? I bet Bill had some.

*Thanks for the link, Raging.

…………

From my blog, Uppity Woman.

Great. Our next president may not just be the most liberal politician to ever serve but his only major achievement will be his years working in an office with a domestic terrorist and a radical Maoist on failed educational projects.

Actually, what worries me as much as the anti-American, still-active extremists he’s hung around with for decades is that Obama is a failed executive and has never administered any venture that succeeded, except his own elections. Obama was handed a single U.S. Senate quasi-executive position as chairman of a Foreign Relations subcommittee, but failed to convene a single hearing, travel to any of the countries or NATO, a critical part of his responsibility, because he was too busy running for president. Obama is not a worker. Obama is a schmoozer. He attracts many followers hypnotically, but he is not a true leader who has ever made a tough decision once in the spotlight or under intense pressure. (The pre-war speech doesn’t count because he gave the speech in a safe liberal, academic Chicago neighborhood and never showed up to aid many brave people in D.C. who were in the cross-hairs, and truly tried to stop the war.)

Gateway Pundit and Verum Serum blogs provide screenshots of and links to documents that prove that the three shared the same office space. (By the way, NoQuarter has written many stories about Mike Klonsky, including law professor Steve Diamond’s memorable, “How is it under that bus, Comrade Klonsky?“)

Verum Serum’s writer has done great work in tracing the MONIES that went to Bill Ayers, siphoned off of the Woods Fund and Joyce Foundation on whose boards Barack Obama sat. For details on the money — over two million dollars went to Bill Ayers’ “Small Schools Project” — see Verum Serum’s stories, “Crossing Paths Daily: Obama and Ayers Shared an Office (Update: For Three Years) and “Ayers and Obama: Follow the Money (Updated: Nearly $2M to Ayers).”

This is an introduction to the materials from the investigation of some hard-working bloggers. Our writers will have more soon.

The lines of evidence now converge: the founder of ACORN is Wade Rathke, who, like William Ayers, was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society. The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the student organization founded in 1960 as part of the New Left, was the gateway drug to the Weather Underground. In the early sixties, the SDS was idealistic and many reluctantly supported Lyndon Johnson for president in 1964, and grainy black-and-white pictures show clean-cut men and women registering southern blacks to vote. Tom Hayden was amongst this group. But that was then.

By 1969, their Great Society liberalism had been co-opted by Marxists, Maoists, Spartacists, and other assorted revolutionary groups. They were no longer interested in change, but overthrowing the government. It was during this time that Wade Rathke first came into contact with Bill Ayers.

Much has been made of Obama’s questionable judgment in befriending and working closely with unrepentant terrorist William Ayers. Regardless of what Obama says, his political career was launched in Ayers’ home, Ayers served with him on Woods Fund, and promoted him to head the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

The founder of ACORN, Wade Rathke, like Ayers, is a disciple of Saul Alinsky. Working for ACORN was an important step in Obama’s political career.

An article by Professor David Walls directly connects Rathke’s ACORN to Alinsky, ACORN’s mission of pressuring banks to issue risky mortgages, and the alliance between ACORN and unions:

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, began in 1970 as a spin-off from the National Welfare Rights Organization, founded by George Wiley, who enlisted civil rights workers and trained them in an Alinsky-influenced program at Syracuse University. From a base in Arkansas, Wade Rathke and Gary Delgado developed a replicable model of forming membership organizations and developing leaders in low-income neighborhoods — relying substantially on young middle-class staff working for subsistence wages. ACORN has established local housing corporations to rehabilitate homes, and has successfully pressured banks to provide mortgages and home improvement loans in low-income communities. ACORN has led “living wage” campaigns in many cities, and has forged alliances with labor unions.

But ACORN isn’t just Alinsky-inspired. It’s a direct off-shoot of his revolutionary agenda:

Around 1970 several national networks began to coalesce and develop systematic and distinctive approaches to community organizing. These include the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), ACORN, Citizen Action, National People’s Action, PICO, DART, and the Gamaliel Foundation. Each was indebted, in greater or lesser degree, to Alinsky and his early organizing programs in Chicago through IAF.

Citizen Action, mentioned above, is not “officially” connected to ACORN. But Citizen Action, like Rathke’s ACORN and Ayers’ radical education projects, was founded by another member of the Alinsky-SDS milieu, Heather Booth. But it’s not just SDS and the City of Chicago that binds this group. As the screen capture below shows, Heather Booth’s husband was both a member of the SDS and Alinski’s [sic] Industrial Areas Foundation.

Of equal significance, Citizen Action reported paying Citizen Services, Inc., the shadowy ACORN group first exposed at No Quarter, over half a million dollars for campaign work. This is the Citizen Services, Inc. who has received nearly a million dollars from the Obama campaign:

(Expenditure reports also show an October 18 payment to Citizen Services (ACORN) of $590,526.10 for “Campaign consulting.” This is not enough information to determine whether this payment was also for signature gathering, which would make the per-signature cost ludicrously high, or for get-out-the-vote activities, or something else.)

According to the Associated Press, the FBI is now investigating allegations of voter fraud committed by ACORN. It should come as no surprise that ACORN is steeped in a culture of corruption, and the manipulative actions of ACORN dovetail perfectly with Alinsky’s Rules. Wade Rathke, founder of ACORN, was forced out the organization after his brother, Dale Rathke, embezzled more than $948,000 from ACORN and Wade Rathke covered it up. His brother was running one of the 294 ACORN groups which Larry Johnson discovered are all linked through the same address:

139. CITIZENS CONSULTING INC.
1024 ELYSIAN FIELDS AVE
NEW ORLEANS, LA 70117-8402 NON-PROFIT FOREIGN CORPORATION Name Type:LEGAL
Status:ACTIVE
Indiana Secretary of State

The New York Times reports:

The amount Dale Rathke embezzled, $948,607.50, was carried as a loan on the books of Citizens Consulting Inc., which provides bookkeeping, accounting and other financial management services to Acorn and many of its affiliated entities.

Wade Rathke, prior to Obama’s rapid ascent, was formulating ways to converge the Alinsky Left and take control of the power of the state. This was written in January 2003. He begins his essay with the classic exhortations of a Bolshevik pamphleteer, and his words could not be any clearer:

The oldest cliché of our vast peoples’ movement over the last generation or more has got to be that there are so, so many tasks to be done, that there is a job for everyone – and that means, you, too, brothers and sisters!

~snip~

So, you sit here reading this on the fly between one job and another, home and school, heaven and hell, and you say, “hey, bullshit, no way:” every ad for an “activist” is just looking for a canvasser; all of these groups are just gangs with their own cliques – another secret handshake high school behind a storefront window; and, so, you say, what does it matter what I have to say, what I think, or whatever – I’ll just do my thing, my way, and live my life out of the mainstream

Here’s my plea – let’s build a bridge in the sky that links our worlds together, while allowing us to stay autonomous and anonymous.

First, why, and then, how.

The power of the state is in fact fairly awesome.

"* This is John McCain’s last chance to turn this race around and somehow convince the American people that his erratic response to this economic crisis doesn’t disqualify him from being President.

"* Just this weekend the weekend, John McCain vowed to ‘whip Obama’s you-know-what’ at the debate, and he’s indicated that he’ll be bringing up Bill Ayers to try to distract voters. (Read all.)

Update: Harriet Christian called me today to ask all of you near NYC or Scranton, Pennsylvania to join her on-the-ground group Saturday at Scranton’s “Democrats for McCain” headquarters. Harriet says the group that traveled by bus last weekend was very energized and “up” after the voter-to-voter interactions. Go here for the details, the same each Saturday — including both how to catch the bus at Penn Station or where to drive in Scranton to meet up.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

It’s the typical Obama pattern. Deny. Minimize. Block it. Deflect. Make up excuse after excuse after excuse. Try to hide the proof. Destroy evidence.

Keep legitimate press from researching documentation.

When legitimate writers and researchers like Stanley Kurtz or Steve Diamond gain access, intimidate most of the MSM from pursuing the story or charm them into the “fairy tale” story of the ascendancy of “The One.”

The media are doing exactly what they did with the lead-up and first period of the Iraq War: CHEERLEAD!

The few who questioned were marginalized, banished, mocked and ridiculed.

When I wrote to Keith Olbermann before the Iraq war, he mocked my concern. Only later, when he got his full-time one-hour show at MSNBC did he find it profitable to become the left’s cheerleader against the war. (How I wish I still had those e-mails. But I would take an oath that he made fun of my opposition to the war. That was before he found out he could boost his ratings by playing to the Daily Kos crowd.)

So it goes.

And, now, an open thread!

I can see where Bill Ayers would find this subject dear to his heart since he did say, “Kill your parents” during his “Days of Rage,” or whatever the heck these nutcases called it when they were blowing up America.

The subject is sickening enough, but as No Quarter points out, it does shoot yet another hole in Obama’s blase’ remark during a certain debate:

STEPHANOPOLOUS: Can you explain that relationship [with William Ayers] for the voters and explain to Democrats why it won’t be a problem?

OBAMA: George, but this is an example of what I’m talking about. This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who’s a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.

And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn’t make much sense, George.

Below is a copy of the University of Chicago Press Release from Google 2001 Wayback on the Obamas and Ayers’ disgusting symposium where they gathered to show their collective concern for murderous 13 year-old psychopaths who kill their entire families and God Knows Who Else. Poor sweeties!

No Quarter also kept a nice screen shot of this page for posterity, so that we might all be able to remember the seminar these three societal nutballs held together. When it comes to Obama, screen shots are your friend. You never know when Orwell’s Winston may strike again on behalf of Barack Obama. Scrub, Scrub, Scrub!

Overall, it’s pretty safe to say that Barack Obama not only “exchanged ideas” with Ayers, but God only knows what those “ideas” were. This web page would make Barack Obama a liar. Again.

Of course, keeping kids who kill their parents out of the system would suit a guy who declared everyone should “Kill your parents!”. This would be Billy Ayers’ kinda kid!

And then again, ACORN can register them to vote too–and probably register their dead parents as well.

Kind of makes you feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that kids can kill their entire families and have these characters looking out for them instead of you, doesn’t it?

I wonder which day we can expect to see Obama’s lies about “exchanging ideas” addressed on CNN and MSNBC?
.

Obama tells a future Comrade that his pie is about to be raided.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

All for the Glorious Cause, Comrades! All for the Glorious Cause!

lf you plan to benefit heavily from Barack Obama’s so-called “tax cuts,” you will have to be part of the population that doesn’t pay any taxes at all.

The rest of you will be paying more.

The Fair Housing Act and Community Reinvestment Act have already found a way to redistribute your income and tax money by ensuring by force that home loans went to people with virtually no ability to pay at all, bringing Fannie Mae down and subsequently Wall Street. This move also sucked down any investments you made through sacrifice and personal responsibility. But when it comes to Barack Obama, personal responsibility, paying your own mortgage and bills and making sacrifices to save and shore up against your own future is not a respectable way to live.

Under Barack Obama’s “Plan” you are truly screwed if you are working at taking responsibility for your own behaviors. His “tax cut” plan is the next leg to killing the middle class, while he pretends he cares so much for them. His tax cut has nothing whatsoever to do with middle class “working families” and everything to do with expanding the welfare state and redistributing the income of those same “working families”. “Working families” are already paying to bail out Fannie Mae’s redistribution of assets to Non Working Families. Now comes the next forced step for you involuntary Comrades.

No wonder every previously dead Anti-American party in our country is feeling refreshed. Obama’s plan for “tax credits” is more Socialist talk for transferring of money from taxpayers to non-taxpayers.

Like good little socialists, you will work and then you will share your money with people who don’t earn as much as you do – faster than you can say Karl Marx.

It doesn’t matter that you worked your way through college for years to get a better job. It doesn’t matter if you work two jobs. It doesn’t matter if you bust your ass in overtime. It doesn’t matter if you don’t buy things you can’t afford and you live within your means. It doesn’t matter if you sacrifice one thing for another. Your reward will not match the rewards of others who may do none of these things. It’s as simple as that. When Barack obama says he is going to “cut taxes” for 95% of America, he really means he is also going to give money away to more than a third of America–people who pay no taxes at all.

There are millions of immigrants in America who left their countries to get away from governments like the one Barack Obama has planned.

The Wall Street Journal has it nailed today.

One of Barack Obama’s most potent campaign claims is that he’ll cut taxes for no less than 95% of “working families.” He’s even promising to cut taxes enough that the government’s tax share of GDP will be no more than 18.2% — which is lower than it is today.

It’s a clever pitch, because it lets him pose as a middle-class tax cutter while disguising that he’s also proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%. But how does he conjure this miracle, especially since more than a third of all Americans already pay no income taxes at all? There are several sleights of hand, but the most creative is to redefine the meaning of “tax cut.”

For the Obama Democrats, a tax cut is no longer letting you keep more of what you earn. In their lexicon, a tax cut includes tens of billions of dollars in government handouts that are disguised by the phrase “tax credit.”Mr. Obama is proposing to create or expand no fewer than seven such credits for individuals:

- A $500 tax credit ($1,000 a couple) to “make work pay” that phases out at income of $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 per couple.

- A $4,000 tax credit for college tuition.

- A 10% mortgage interest tax credit (on top of the existing mortgage interest deduction and other housing subsidies).

- A “savings” tax credit of 50% up to $1,000.

- An expansion of the earned-income tax credit that would allow single workers to receive as much as $555 a year, up from $175 now, and give these workers up to $1,110 if they are paying child support.

- A child care credit of 50% up to $6,000 of expenses a year.

- A “clean car” tax credit of up to $7,000 on the purchase of certain vehicles.

Here’s the political catch. All but the clean car credit would be “refundable,” which is Washington-speak for the fact that you can receive these checks even if you have no income-tax liability. In other words, they are an income transfer — a federal check — from taxpayers to nontaxpayers. Once upon a time we called this “welfare,” or in George McGovern’s 1972 campaign a “Demogrant.” Mr. Obama’s genius is to call it a tax cut.

The Tax Foundation estimates that under the Obama plan 63 million Americans, or 44% of all tax filers, would have no income tax liability and most of those would get a check from the IRS each year. The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis estimates that by 2011, under the Obama plan, an additional 10 million filers would pay zero taxes while cashing checks from the IRS.

The total annual expenditures on refundable “tax credits” would rise over the next 10 years by $647 billion to $1.054 trillion, according to the Tax Policy Center. This means that the tax-credit welfare state would soon cost four times actual cash welfare.By redefining such income payments as “tax credits,” the Obama campaign also redefines them away as a tax share of GDP. Presto, the federal tax burden looks much smaller than it really is.

Yes, you have read correctly, folks. The welfare state will quadruple, Comrade. A person who pays NO tax whatsoever will be getting all these “Tax refunds” in the name of “Fairness”. They will get a refund check from the IRS consisting of money they never even paid. In other words, it’s the next step in Obama’s plans for The Glorious Cause – Socialism.

Please be sure to go here and read about the rest of the impact of this pathetic Socialist’s Plans for you, suckers. Want to beat the system. Work part time and stay home and watch TV the rest of the time. If you calculate it right, you will get all those tax “refunds” and earn as much as you do now–for doing nothing. Your government will take care of you, Comrade!

From my blog, “Uppity Woman“

Everyone here has heard most of the elements of the post presented below. Some have even talked about the theory presented therein. Before you get bored and skip some of the rehashing, remember this. NoQuarter attracts more new viewers these days than Oberburp has in the past year. The new visitors deserve full qualification of facts, people and events before they can digest theories. This is a long post, but one worth reading.

Therefore I suggest that the following article, written by a kindergarten teacher, should be read by us and shared with anyone who is light Obama or center fence. There are two things amazing I find about people who will dedicate their lives to teaching five year old kids. One. They have to find a smile, every Monday through Friday Morning, before they greet the kids. Two. They get to hear the greatest questions about subjects we quit questioning.

One last thing. This kindergarten teacher is a man who joined me, and a lot of other people, to create the June 19th Seneca160 project, honoring Hillary. I am not discussing her now. I just want you to take in Shtu’s thinking. Get off the minute-by-minute news for a moment and provoke some thought. You might just find a way to create convincing posts, on your own blogs, that will move some votes.

NQ is The blog of bloggers.

- Eastan McNeal

Now. For Shtuey’s Piece

At the outset I must thank Ms Placed Democrat’s Renaissancelady 48 and Eastan McNeal at No Quarter for their exhaustive research, love of country, and wise counsel.

How did we get here? How is it that “subprime mortgages” have brought us to the brink of economic collapse? Most people believe it is due to the predatory lending practices of financial institutions. That is the lie you have been sold. The truth is far more insidious. We are in fact on the brink of economic disaster because of the people who have sent Barack Obama.

In order to understand how this happened we must begin with Saul Alinsky , the radical socialist who, after spending a great deal of time with the Al Capone crime family in Chicago, realized that the same shakedown tactics used by the mob to extort business, and control politicians, could be used by activists to shakedown banks and political institutions to advance a socialist agenda.

These were tactics utilized by groups like ACORN, in an effort to lobby the government to pass laws that forced lending institutions to issue mortgages to low income/”at risk” borrowers who often had no way of paying the money back.

But ACORN members probably did not lobby for these laws to bring down our economy, at least not knowingly. I believe that, apart from the leaders at the top, rank and file ACORN members legitimately believed they were fighting for low-income housing. But ACORN’s backers were simply using Alinsky’s method (never reveal your real agenda) to serve their own purposes.

Who are these people? You know the names of two of them: Bill Ayers and Barack Obama. I suspect that they are more front men than anything else, though who knows who Ayers was with while he was in hiding?

Where did ACORN get the funds to engage in the widespread lobbying (read extortion) that allowed them to shakedown lenders and politicians?

From the money diverted to them by Bill Ayers and Barack Obama, via the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and the Woods Fund, as well as with your tax dollars allocated by Congressional Democrats; the same Congressional Democrats that have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Freddie and Fannie in the form of campaign contributions; the same Congressional Democrats that ignored Republican calls for the regulating and reform of Freddie and Fannie — the institutions that took subprime mortgages, bundled them, and infected financial institutions worldwide … all in the name of granting minorities and low income families access to housing (always the trouble begins with the most honorable of intentions, or at least it is made to seem so), but with the Leftists’ hidden purpose of initiating a worldwide economic collapse.

All of it was accomplished with ACORN as the muscle.

The root of the problem lies with the Community Reinvestment Act. The CRA was passed in 1977 and, according to Thomas J. DiLorenzo,

“compels banks to make loans to low-income borrowers and in what the supporters of the Act call “communities of color” that they might not otherwise make based on purely economic criteria.”

DiLorenzo goes on to explain:

The original lobbyists for the CRA were the hardcore leftists who supported the Carter administration and were often rewarded for their support with government grants and programs like the CRA that they benefited from. These included various “neighborhood organizations,” as they like to call themselves, such as “ACORN” (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). These organizations claim that over

$1 trillion in CRA loans have been made, although no one seems to know the magnitude with much certainty.

A U.S. Senate Banking Committee staffer told me about ten years ago that at least $100 billion in such loans had been made in the first twenty years of the Act.

So-called “community groups” like ACORN benefit themselves from the CRA through a process that sounds like legalized extortion. The CRA is enforced by four federal government bureaucracies: the Fed, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The law is set up so that any bank merger, branch expansion, or new branch creation can be postponed or prohibited by any of these four bureaucracies if a CRA “protest” is issued by a “community group.” This can cost banks great sums of money, and the “community groups” understand this perfectly well.

It is their leverage. They use this leverage to get the banks to give them millions of dollars as well as promising to make a certain amount of bad loans in their communities.

A man named Bruce Marks became quite notorious during the last decade for pressuring banks to earmark literally billions of dollars to his organization, the “Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America.” He once boasted to the New York Times that he had “won” loan commitments totaling $3.8 billion from Bank of America, First Union Corporation, and the Fleet Financial Group. And that is just one “community group” operating in one city – Boston.

Banks have been placed in a Catch 22 situation by the CRA: If they comply, they know they will have to suffer from more loan defaults. If they don’t comply, they face financial penalties and, worse yet, their business plans for mergers, branch expansions, etc. can be blocked by CRA protesters, which can cost a large corporation like Bank of America billions of dollars. Like most businesses, they have largely buckled under and have surrendered to their bureaucratic masters.

Consequently, banks in every community in America have been forced to hold a portfolio of bad loans, euphemistically referred to as “subprime” loans. In order to compensate themselves for the added risk of extending these loans, many lenders have increased the lending fees associated with mortgage loans. This is simply an indirect way of doing what banks always do – and what they must do to remain solvent: charging effectively higher rates of interest on riskier loans.

But this is discriminatory!, complained the “community organizations.” Thus, if one browses the ACORN web site, one can read of their boasts of having “predatory lending laws” passed in numerous states which outlaw such fees, prohibiting banks from protecting themselves from the added risk involved in making forced loans to “subprime” borrowers.

According to the Consumer Rights League :

• ACORN leveraged the Community Reinvestment Act in order to attack lenders’ reputations and secure financial resources for itself; it has also endorsed loans offered by companies that fund ACORN operations
• ACORN’s decades of lobbying and publicity seeking have contributed to the current housing crisis by lowering lending standards
• Despite raking in a troubling 40 percent of its revenue from taxpayers over the last three years, ACORN Housing Corporation’s actions range from controversial to borderline illegal:
  • AHC has worked to obtain mortgages for undocumented workers
  • AHC relies on undocumented income, “under the table” money that may not be reported to the Internal Revenue Service
  • ACORN’s “financial justice” operations attack lenders for “exotic” loans, but AHC has recommended ten-year interest-only loans (which deny equity to the buyer) and reverse mortgages (which can be detrimental to senior citizens)
  • AHC may have violated federal law by failing to maintain a proper distinction between its tax-exempt housing work and the aggressive political activities of ACORN.

CRL goes on to report:

To understand the current subprime credit mess is to glimpse a world in which a politically active organization with a non-profit housing arm reaps millions of dollars through “rent seeking” or manipulation of favorable laws. ACORN and its non-profit housing arm have taken in millions of taxpayer and corporate dollars by abusing a three-decade-old law intended to help the poor obtain housing. For decades, the activist organization known as ACORN has grabbed headlines—and cash—by attacking mortgage lenders in the name of citizens’ rights. Considerably less attention has been paid to the amount of taxpayer money that funds ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC) and to the financial rewards ACORN has amassed.

But from whom did ACORN learn these Alinsky tactics? In part, from Barack Obama.

As I said earlier, I believe rank and file ACORN members legitimately believe they are lobbying for minority and low income housing, unknowingly advancing a larger agenda to destroy our economic and financial institutions. But how has the cabal managed to infect the credit market worldwide? Let’s ask Penny Pritzker,

Barack Obama’s campaign finance chair.

It is now well documented that Pritzker was one of the driving forces behind the subprime mortgage fiasco, unleashing toxic loans into the market like a financial Typhoid Mary. Her bank, Superior, was the first to go under, and yet she made millions.

From Dennis Bernstein’s report:

Though Superior Bank collapsed years before the current sub-prime turmoil that is rocking the world’s financial markets – and pushing those millions of homeowners toward foreclosure – some banking experts say the Pritzkers and Superior hold a special place in the history of the sub-prime fiasco.

“The [sub-prime] financial engineering that created the Wall Street meltdown was developed by the Pritzkers and Ernst and Young, working with Merrill Lynch to sell bonds securitized by sub-prime mortgages,” Timothy J. Anderson, a whistleblower on financial and bank fraud, told me in an interview.

“The sub-prime mortgages,” Anderson said, “were provided to Merrill Lynch, by a nation-wide Pritzker origination system, using Superior as the cash cow, with many millions in FDIC insured deposits. Superior’s owners were to sub-prime lending, what Michael Milken was to junk bonds.”

In other words, if you traced today’s sub-prime crisis back to its origins, you would come upon the role of the Pritzkers and Superior Bank of Chicago.

Only a fool would believe that it is a coincidence that a man who helped train ACORN in the use of Alinsky tactics, and with Bill Ayers helped fund ACORN, selected the originator of the subprime mortgage vehicle that is destroying our economy to be his campaign finance chair.

But what was the lightbulb moment?

What was the missing piece of the puzzle?

It didn’t start falling into place for me until John McCain announced his mortgage rescue plan at the second Presidential debate.

Inspired by Hillary Clinton’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal, McCain is advancing what is essentially FDR’s Home Owners Loan Corporation idea that kept millions of Americans in their homes. It is a proven plan for success.

But Obama rejects it. Not only does he reject it, but Obama does so based on conservative talking points, namely that McCain’s plan would reward institutions’ unethical practices; practices that banks were forced to adopt because of ACORN’s coercive lobbying efforts, the passage of the CRA, and a mortgage vehicle essentially invented by his campaign finance chair. But in this rejection Obama strays from his usual modus operandi.

As we saw in the primaries, when the opposition issues a plan, Obama waits a few days and then announces the same plan. The media praise him and everyone genuflects. The most notable example of this was when Senator Clinton advocated a multibillion dollar stimulus package in the spring. One week later Obama released a virtually identical plan. Not so this time.

Not only has Obama rejected a plan originally put forward by a Democratic President, he has offered no solution of his own.

Why? Because Barack Obama needs economic turmoil to get into office.

It is the one thing that has opened any polling advantage for Obama in the election. And once in office the nationalization of our banking system will be easily executed. Treasury Secretary Paulson is already laying the groundwork by advocating the government purchase of bank stock.

Once in control of America’s financial institutions, it would be very easy, under the guise of halting the current economic crisis, to completely nationalize American banks and begin a widespread socialist wealth redistribution program which has been part of the Ayers/Obama agenda since the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Crazy? Here’s what Ayers said at an education forum in Venezuela, in the presence of Hugo Chavez:

“the political educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez.

“We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution. . . .”

“Teaching invites transformations, it urges revolutions large and small. La educacion es revolution.”

Read what Jon Markman has to say on the ramifications of Obama’s economic and tax policies. And take a look at a recent survey of CEOs.

These people are very concerned with job creation.

They require a President whose policies will allow them, in a weakened economy, to generate the jobs that will put Americans back to work, and drive the economic engine forward. Not only do they feel that McCain’s policies will allow them to generate those jobs, they overwhelmingly fear an Obama presidency. CEOs know what any fool should know; government does not create jobs (the lie that Obama tells us), companies and corporations create jobs; in a capitalist society.

And consider what is happening between Great Britain and Iceland. Interesting that British banks, that ended up being bought up by Iceland, secretly held ACORN assets. It’s a new world order after all. Eastan McNeal goes on to explain:

The first step toward ensuring that the goal of everyone equally owning everything is to first make sure that nobody owns anything. The only path to a functioning socialist democracy is through a temporary trip through a communist demise. In other words, every corporation and entrepreneur must be eliminated and their personal empires destroyed and turned over to the single payer-payee government larges before the collective wealth of the world can be redistributed and shared equally with and for all.

Obama is using home foreclosures, job loss, and economic collapse as a means of gaining power for himself and his backers; the most prominent, and the one who stands to gain the most, George Soros, makes money in part by destablizing foreign currencies as he did in Thailand in 1997.

Obama wants to win the White House on the back of your suffering while George Soros stands to make a killing.

The end result? A socialist takeover of financial institutions to effect a redistribution of wealth in any mode they please.

Do you trust a man who bought a $1.3 million mansion, with the help of a convicted felon, to equally redistribute the world’s wealth?

Would you trust a man who gained his party’s nomination through voter suppression and intimidation, and who voted to continue a regime of warrantless wire tapping, to preserve democracy?

No, me neither. That’s not leadership. That’s not change we can believe in.

Oh, and check out the freshman Senator from Illinois promising that ACORN will help him set his presidential agenda (and read Larry Johnson’s post on Sunday, “Barack Worked For ACORN, Promises to Do So Again.”

There is only one sure thing standing in the way of a leftist takeover of our financial institutions, and possibly the ending of democracy as we know it;

electing John McCain President of the United States on November 4th.

Speaking of Obama and ACORN, it’s about time the McCain campaign spoke up about what we’ve been saying for months:

Click here to visit Shtuey’s blog and read this post WITH links. NQ regulars know where the links go. New visitors, visit Shtu and come back and comment with us.

The recent, reluctantly released papers from Obama’s time as head at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) and his time on the board of the Woods Fund sheds new light on his relationship with Bill Ayers and the seamy milieu of Farrakhan’s Chicago.

The CAC and Woods Fund money paved the way for Obama’s political career:

the monies doled out through the Woods Fund to these groups, including [Bill] Ayers own Annenberg Challenge, helped cement Obama’s political relationships and bond with key players in Chicago.

Stanley Kurtz said that CAC money did not go directly to schools:

“Instead of giving money directly to schools, they gave to what they called external partners, and these external partners were often pretty radical community organizer groups.”

And Steve Diamond writes that Ayers was focused on what:

Ayers calls “social justice” approaches to teaching and “small schools” as well as race-based approaches to curriculum in the public schools.

Ayers and Obama funneled money intended for education to race-based curriculum. Matthew Weaver reports:

let’s also not forget organizations that received funding from Barack and Bill [Ayers], such as:

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) Arab American Action Network (AAAN) founded by husband and wife Rashid and Mona Khalidi. Maoist Mike Klonsky, another terrorist member of the Weatherman Children and Family Justice Center, Bernardine’s organization. Trinity Unity Church and Rev. Wright.

Ayers is an important part of the Chicago racial Left, a loosely affiliated group of churches, academics, and activists who include Jeremiah Wright, Pfleger, Farrakhan, the group ACORN, and many others. The racial Left is not committed to fighting racism — a noble cause — but instead looking at the world through a racial lens. This means that issues of class — which affects whites, women, gays, etc. — is frequently dismissed. Instead, there are disquisitions on “white privilege,” without discussing the fact that poverty knows no color. The racial Left, of course, is a class struggle between those who have and those who do not, and many of it’s proponents have attended the best schools and hold the highest positions in the academy and in government. It’s no accident that Bill Ayers, the scion of a wealthy family, is a primary member of the racial Left. And it’s no accident that Obama, surrounded by millionaires in San Francisco, pointed out that his difficulties in Pennsylvania were due to skin color (identifying those resistant to him as white) and then ridiculing them as religious, intolerant of immigrants, and as the owners of guns, all cultural indicators to the racial Left of the despised lower-income whites. He could just have easily said those who are bitter cling to Jeff Foxworthy, shop at Wal-Mart, and hump their sister, or any other stereotype used against low-income whites.

The racial Left is about protecting status:

Not only is Ayers using Obama’s rapid ascent to celebrity in order to capitalize on his own unquenchable thirst for fame by having his memoir Fugitive Days reissued in January 2009, he is also working with Hollywood to have his memoir turned into a movie. As if that’s not enough, he and his wife, Bernardine Dorhn, have authored a book, soon to be released, entitled Race Course Against White Supremacy.

Belying it’s title, this book is NOT about white supremacists, such as the Aryan Brotherhood, but instead states that “white supremacy is the dominant political system” in American’. From Amazon’s Product Description:

Arguing that white supremacy has been the dominant political system in the United States since its earliest days—and that it is still very much with us—the discussion points to unexamined bigotry in the criminal justice system, election processes, war policy, and education. The book draws upon the authors’ own confrontations with authorities during the Vietnam era, reasserts their belief that racism and war are interwoven issues, and offers personal stories about their lives today as parents, teachers, and reformers.

Stanley Kurtz has uncovered that Obama attended Farrakhan’s Million Man March, and Obama’s close friend, Michael Pfleger, is close to Farrakhan:

Although it’s been discussed before (because it confirms that Obama attended Louis Farrakhan’s Million Man March), a 1995 background piece on Obama from the Chicago Reader has received far too little attention. Careful consideration of this important profile makes it clear that Obama’s long-standing ties to Chicago’s most rabidly radical preachers call into question far more than Obama’s judgment and character (although they certainly do that, as well). Obama’s two-decades at Trinity open a critically important window onto his radical-left political leanings. No mere change of church membership can erase that truth.

As Matthew Weaver posted, Rev. Farrakhan just pronounced Obama the Messiah (watch the video here):

“You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth. And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn’t care anything about. That’s a sign. When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking.” – Louis Farrakhan

In addition to being the leader of NOI, Farrakhan is first and foremost a politician, and one of the most powerful in Chicago. And Obama has at least one NOI member on his payroll.

In a June article from Reuters entitled “BREAKING NEWS: Nation of Islam Activists on Obama Camp Payroll” states that

“Sen. Barack Obama employed and continues to employ senior staffers who belong to the Nation of Islam, and the presidential candidate has some “worrying” ties to the controversial group headed by Louis Farrakhan, a former key Obama insider told AARON KLEIN… The former insider confirmed Obama is directly aware of the Nation of Islam members on his staff.”

“A key constituency for Obama was Hyde Park, where Farrakhan lives. To be successful politically in that area, you need to be involved with Farrakhan, since he’s a strong power in the district,” said the former insider.”

“The former insider identified former Obama worker Shakir Muhammad as a Nation of Islam activist. Muhammad was paid by Obama’s office as a photographer…According to a black supremacist source tied to Farrakhan, Muhammad previously worked as a bodyguard for the Nation of Islam chief.”

In fact, according to the article, Cynthia K. Miller, a known Nation of Islam activist who served Obama in his early state Senate days and was treasurer for his U.S. senatorial campaign, and a paid consultant in 2003 and 2004, was the beneficiary of help from Obama by another one of his Chicago friends, Tony Rezko.

“The former insider said Obama asked indicted Chicago businessman and Obama financier Tony Rezko to get his treasurer, Miller, a state government job with
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.”

While researching the source of Michelle Obama’s alleged “whitey” rant, we discovered direct connections between the Nation of Islam (NOI), Stokely Carmichael, Jeremiah Wright’s Black Liberation Theology and, most prominently, Louis Farrakhan.

According to Larry Johnson’s sources, the Michelle Obama tape captures her in sordid company:

The sources who have seen the tape report that Michelle says
disparaging things about “whites” and that Louis Farrakhan is visible.
There is no identifying information on the segment they have seen to
identify the location or time when this was recorded. [emphasis added]

Those who are following this matter will recall that Michelle Obama, when asked about these allegations, is reported to have said that “whitey” is not a word used by African Americans today. However, we documented that Mrs. Obama’s primary text for her Princeton thesis was Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton’s 1967 book Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America, and we showed how Carmichael used the term “whitey” repeatedly, thereby establishing an epistemological connection between Carmichael and Mrs. Obama. In other words, Michelle Obama is the intellectual offspring of Stokely Carmichael.

Before going further, it should be noted that Reverend Jeremiah Wright was once a member of the Nation of Islam, though it’s not clear when he was involved with NOI. Ryan Lizza of the New Republic first reported that:

Wright was a former Muslim and black nationalist who had
studied at Howard and Chicago, and Trinity’s guiding principles–what the church calls the “Black Value System”[Emphasis added]

But back to Stokely Carmichael. Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, the Federal Bureau of Investigations has released hundreds of pages from their files on Stokely Carmichael. It’s a treasure trove for those interested in the history of the civil rights movement. What we found most interesting, however, were the large number of documents connecting Carmichael with the NOI. For instance, the document below is an Airtel sent to Director Hoover on July 29, 1966, from Chicago. The subject is Stokely Carmichael and it concerns NOI leader Elijah Muhammed’s “CALL FOR SUMMIT MEETING, MAJOR CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS.”

There are three areas of interest for us: first, the Airtel came from the city of Chicago; second, the year 1966 (more on that later), and third, that the Nation of Islam — in the manner of the infamous mob meeting in Apalachin in 1957 — was organizing all of the major civil rights groups.

It has been widely reported, and documented here, that Carmichael was an “Honorary Prime Minister” of the Black Panther Party, and that he was the leader of the innocuous sounding Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The following document, however, shows that Carmichael was open to violence as a political tool–see the highlighted sentence below–”This nonviolence bit is just a philanthropic hang-up,” and that he was indeed a founder of the Black Panther Party:

In the following document we initially noticed Carmichael’s willingness to use violence. He is paraphrased as saying that “in his opinion, the black man is justified in using any means at his command to obtain what he believes is due him,” indicating an acceptance of violence as seen through a racial frame. What’s more interesting, however, is the next paragraph. “Louis Walcott, Minister of the New York City Muslim Mosque, Nation of Islam, also participated in this conference.” See the second paragraph below:

The name Louis, of course, was glaring. Could it be he? A quick Google search linked to a 1996 Morning Edition transcription of a Bob Edwards piece on Farrakhan:

The early life of Louis Farrakhan, who grew up as Louis Eugene Walcott, was heavily influenced by his loving but demanding mother and his poor but safe neighborhood of Roxbury, Boston, in the late 1940s.

Over the last decade, Louis Farrakhan has emerged as one of the most visible and formidable black political leaders in America

Let’s add up what we have so far: Stokely Carmichael, Michelle Obama’s primary source and intellectual ancestor, shared the stage with Louis Farrakhan, the same man who she allegedly shared a stage with when she said “whitey.”

Carmichael and Farrakhan may have shared more than a stage. The document below indicates but doesn’t conclude that Carmichael may have been a Muslim himself. Although heavily redacted, the FBI’s source said that “Stokely Carmichael, [redacted] as ‘one of us’ which this source interpreted as meaning a member of the Muslims.”

Whether or not Carmichael was a Muslim is unclear. What is clear is that at sometime in the summer of 1966 there was a meeting of the minds between some civil rights groups, black radicals, and the Nation of Islam. These groups organized into a force promoting and preaching a racist form of black nationalism. The document below describes a meeting that clearly shows this union of forces: Carmichael and Minister Louis “made it clear they wanted to unite with all Negro groups regardless of philosophy.” Note the date of August 18, 1966:

This takes us back to Jeremiah Wright and the question of when Wright was a Muslim. According to Wright’s Wikipedia entry:

In 1963, after two years of service, Wright joined the United States Navy and entered the Corpsman School at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. Wright was then trained as a cardiopulmonary technician at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

“In 1966, as a U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman,” the Wikipeida entry continues, Wright assisted with the care of President Johnson. Extrapolating from these dates, it appears that Wright was in Maryland between 1964 and 1966, and this may have been the time when he was a member of NOI. Wright didn’t start at Trinity until 1972, and evidently received spiritual training after receiving a master’s degree in English in 1969.

Also in Maryland in 1964 was Stokely Carmichael, where he was arrested “as a result of demonstrations in that city.” This doesn’t mean that Wright knew Carmichael, but surely Wright was cognizant of Carmichael’s work and of NOI as well. This is likely the time when he was a “Muslim and black nationalist.”

However Wright was radicalized, it is clear that he consciously appropriated the language and tenor of the Nation of Islam.

Wright’s statement that 9/11 was deserved retribution (“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans…America’s chickens are coming home to roost”) is a perfect echo of Malcolm X’s statement that “The assassination of Kennedy is a result of that way of life and thinking. The chickens came home to roost.”

Although it appears that Wright began his focus on Black Liberation Theology sometime after 1966, his racial attitudes and rhetoric have imitated that of NOI since at least 1970. Wright’s blaming the United States for creating AIDS to kill minorities is but just one example of his thinking being in lockstep with NOI.

Black Liberation Theology was first formed in 1966. According to NPR:

Black liberation theology originated on July 31, 1966, when 51 black pastors bought a full page ad in the New York Times and demanded a more aggressive approach to eradicating racism. They echoed the demands of the black power movement, but the new crusade found its source of inspiration in the Bible.

Keep in mind that NOI’s Elijah Mohammad called for a summit of black leaders on July 11, 1966, only 20 days prior to the official formation of Black Liberation Theology. If the dates don’t convince you of a synergy between NOI and Black Liberation Theology, please note Wright’s mentor — and Black Liberation Theology founder — James Cone’s words about NOI’s Malcolm X:

Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man ‘the devil.’ The false Christianity of the white-devil oppressor must be replaced by an authentic Christianity fully identified with the poor and oppressed.

The black intellectual’s goal, says Cone, is to “aid in the destruction of America as he knows it.”

Couple these words with Wright’s own view that:

There will be no peace in America until whites begin to hate their whiteness, asking from the depths of their being: ‘How can we become black?’

In 1998, Louis A. De-Caro, Jr. published a book titled Malcolm and the Cross: The Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, and Christianity. De-Caro’s book underscores the racial nature and revolutionary intent of the NOI’s promotion of a black “Christianity”:

Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam based their religious orthodoxy more on the Bible than on the Qur’an. In part, this was because they sought to convert black Christians. More- over, Elijah Muhammad taught that the Bible, actually the story of “dark people,” had been distorted by the white man in order to enslave and oppress black people in the United States.

The Nation of Islam and Black Liberation Theology are two doors to the same room. Black Liberation Theology is a “palatable” form of “Christian” black nationalism. The fiery anti-American, race-baiting words of Wright, Ayers, Meeks, Pfleger, and Moss are from the same philosophical cauldron as the Nation of Islam. It’s obvious now why Wright’s Trumpet Magazine featured Farrakhan on the cover:

Some have said that Michelle Obama’s thesis proves nothing because it was written more than 20 years ago. We suggest that it was no accident that the Obamas sought out Wright a mere 2-3 years after she wrote her thesis and stayed with him for nearly 20 years, even while he preached the vilest and most hateful sermons that our nation has been forced to hear. TexasDarlin writes:

It’s no wonder that the Obamas joined Trinity United, grew close to Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger, and actively defended the church. And there is no doubt in this alert reader’s mind that Michelle Obama clung to Trinity as long as possible politically and, unfortunately for her husband, perhaps many years too long for most voters’ palates.

But the Obamas’ connections to the Nation of Islam go deeper than Rev. Wright. Louis Farrakhan’s political connections extend to the Obamas directly through Chicago politics and Tony Rezko. Larry Johnson writes that:

Before Barack came on the scene, THE MAN in his political district was Louis Farrakhan. No one could take Alice Palmer’s seat without Farrakhan’s blessing. No one. I do not fault Barack Obama for seeking out the blessing of Farrakhan, but the story of what was done behind the scenes to get rid of Barack’s predecessor—Alice Palmer—has not been told. A knowledgeable source tells me that Tony Rezko played a direct role in this feat. And Rezko has been tight with Farrakhan.

At some point, probably between 1964-66, Jeremiah Wright was a member of the Nation of Islam and was indoctrinated into its odious brand of racist theology. And make no mistake, Wright’s race-baiting is not indicative of the vast majority of black churches. A pastor at LivePrayer writes:

Please hear me very clear. Black liberation theology is a perverse view of the Scriptures and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a radical view held by a very small minority of black pastors. This is NOT representative of the black church or the overwhelming majority of black pastors who preach and teach the true Gospel of Jesus Christ without looking at it thru the lens of color. Every black pastor I know condemns Dr. Wright and this perverse racist theology.

In 1966, a group of “Christian” ministers, at the behest of Elijah Mohammad, began to preach the same teachings as NOI. Stokely Carmichael and Louis Farrakhan actively worked to bridge the gap between these two groups, and Carmichael would soon publish a book espousing much the same separatist ideas. Carmichael’s book “guided” Michelle Obama’s thesis and soon she and Barack would join Trinity United Church of Christ.

The continuity of the teachings of Carmichael, Farrakhan, Cone, Pfleger, Wright, and Ayers is incontrovertible; it’s all about skin color.

Christopher Hitchens asks:

how is it that the loathsome Wright married him, baptized his children, and received donations from him? Could it possibly have anything, I wonder, to do with Mrs. Obama?

Obama’s targeted use of Malcolm X’s super-charged racial code words (”hoodwink, bamboozled”), and his followers’ continuous charges of racism against Obama’s opponents as a political tool has been well documented. It shows that Obama has a studied understanding of the racial radicalism of Malcolm X, Farrakhan, Wright, Pfleger, and Ayers coupled with the cold-blooded instincts of a heartless politician. The Obama campaign has already smeared as racists vast swaths of the Democratic Party, people who were drawn to the Party for its commitment to civil rights. Now he employs the same tactics against John McCain, a champion of immigrants who has never had a hint of racism associated with his name.

Sinclair Lewis is frequently quoted as saying: “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

In today’s upside down world, racism has come to America embodied in a multi-racial politician and carrying the banner of the Democratic Party.

Writes Politico about this ad:

The Republican Party on Monday morning will make a new push to convince voters that distant ties between Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former radical William Ayers are somehow disqualifying for the presidency.

The Republican National Committee plans to e-mail “an audience of tens of millions” the link to a new video on the subject called “Guilt by Participation” and encourage recipients to forward it to friends and family, aides said. …

[...]

The title comes from a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by conservative scholar Stanley Kurtz, who wrote on Sept. 23: “The Obama campaign has cried foul when Bill Ayers comes up, claiming ‘guilt by association.’ Yet the issue here isn’t guilt by association; it’s guilt by participation.”

Here is the title and link to Stanley Kurtz’s September 23rd WSJ story:

“Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools”

Newsbusters.org’s Rich Noyes noted on September 23rd that Kurtz had two stories published that day:

Writing in today’s Wall Street Journal and National Review Online, Ethics and Public Policy Center senior fellow Stanley Kurtz traces Barack Obama’s partnership with former domestic terrorist William Ayers when the two collaborated at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a charity established to help Chicago’s public schools that was commandeered by Ayers to promote his radical agenda.

The association between Obama and Ayers has received virtually no attention from the three broadcast networks, with the conspicuous exception of a primary-season debate sponsored by ABC when George Stephanopoulos asked Obama about his relationship with Ayers. Out of 1,365 broadcast evening news stories about Obama prior to the end of the primaries, only two mentioned Ayers — one a brief mention of the debate question on the April 17 Nightly News, and the other a World News Sunday story about McCain raising the Ayers issue on This Week.

With just 42 days left until Election Day, the broadcast networks have not presented a single in-depth report on Obama’s relationship with Ayers. But Kurtz’s review of the documents at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) shows the two “worked as a team to advance the CAC agenda,” which “flowed from Mr. Ayers’s educational philosophy, which called for infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment, and which downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism.” …

Of course, here at NoQuarter, we know that our own Larry Johnson and Steve Diamond have been on this story, in-depth, for months. Both Steve and Larry have written innumerable articles about the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) — and that Bill Ayers HIRED Barack Obama as CHAIRMAN of the CAC.

“Would Bill Ayers have hired Barack Obama as chair of the CAC if Ayers were not sure that Obama would implement Ayers’ radical ideas about public education?,” I always ask those who don’t seem to get the connection, or why it is important.

But this isn’t about getting credit. This is about getting the story out. And this new RNC ad is going to help make voters stop and think.

Here is the link to the YouTube. Send it to your own e-mail list.

Obama & Friends: Judge Not?, By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, October 10, 2008; A19

Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream media begin fulminating about dirty campaigning tinged with racism and McCarthyite guilt by association.

[Associations] provide a significant insight into character. They are particularly relevant in relation to a potential president as new, unknown, opaque and self-contained as Obama. With the economy overshadowing everything, it may be too late politically. … But that does not make it, as conventional wisdom holds, in any way illegitimate.

[McCain] should months ago have begun challenging Obama’s associations, before the economic meltdown allowed the Obama campaign (and the mainstream media, which is to say the same thing) to dismiss the charges as an act of desperation by the trailing candidate.

McCain had [a chance] when the North Carolina Republican Party ran a gubernatorial campaign ad that [linked] Obama with Jeremiah Wright. The ad was duly denounced by the New York Times and other deep thinkers as racist.

This was patently absurd. Racism is treating people differently and invidiously on the basis of race. Had any white presidential candidate had a close 20-year association with a white preacher overtly spreading race hatred from the pulpit, that candidate would have been not just universally denounced and deemed unfit for office but written out of polite society entirely.

Nonetheless, John McCain … with his overflowing sense of personal rectitude, joined the braying mob in denouncing that perfectly legitimate ad, saying it had no place in any campaign. In doing so, McCain unilaterally disarmed himself, rendering off-limits Obama’s associations, an issue that even Hillary Clinton addressed more than once.

Obama’s political career was launched with Ayers giving him a fundraiser in his living room. If a Republican candidate had launched his political career at the home of an abortion-clinic bomber — even a repentant one — he would not have been able to run for dogcatcher in Podunk. And Ayers shows no remorse. His only regret is that he “didn’t do enough.”

[...]

[These associations] tell us two important things about Obama.

First, his cynicism and ruthlessness. He found these men useful, and use them he did. Would you attend a church whose pastor was spreading racial animosity from the pulpit? Would you even shake hands with — let alone serve on two boards with — an unrepentant terrorist, whether he bombed U.S. military installations or abortion clinics?

Most Americans would not, on the grounds of sheer indecency. Yet Obama did, if not out of conviction then out of expediency. He was a young man on the make, an unknown outsider working his way into Chicago politics. He played the game with everyone, without qualms and with obvious success.

Obama is not the first politician to rise through a corrupt political machine. But he is one of the rare few to then have the audacity to present himself as a transcendent healer, hovering above and bringing redemption to the “old politics” — of the kind he had enthusiastically embraced in Chicago in the service of his own ambition.

Second, and even more disturbing than the cynicism, is the window these associations give on Obama’s core beliefs. He doesn’t share the Rev. Wright’s poisonous views of race nor Ayers’s views, past and present, about the evil that is American society. But Obama clearly did not consider these views beyond the pale. For many years he swam easily and without protest in that fetid pond.

Until now. Today, on the threshold of the presidency, Obama concedes the odiousness of these associations, which is why he has severed them. But for the years in which he sat in Wright’s pews and shared common purpose on boards with Ayers, Obama considered them a legitimate, indeed unremarkable, part of social discourse.

[...]

[Obama's] character remains highly suspect. There is a difference between temperament and character. Equanimity is a virtue. Tolerance of the obscene is not.

letters@charleskrauthammer.com

Big surprise, but I just do not GET this claim that Obama has a “First-Class temperament.” I have written about this before – the NY Times claimed he was “even-keeled.” Even Bill Hemmer made that claim the other day on Fox News. Have they not been WATCHING him? Have they not seen how FAST he rises to anger?? They are always harping on McCain’s “famous” temper, of which I have seen blessed little, while Obama throws temper tantrums whenever something doesn’t go his way. Whatever. Besides that crapola, this article says what MANY of us have been saying: IT IS ALL ABOUT CHARACTER, and who Obama’s close friends are says a LOT about his, and none of it good. It’s a shame no one bothered to look at him during the Primaries…Oh, wait – whenever they did, they were called “Racists,” just like Rep. John “BACKSTABBER” Lewis did to John McCain yesterday, equating him to George Wallace. That is way, way beyond the pale. And simply unacceptable.

Anywho – better late than never, I reckon. I hope people will actually pay attention. We’ve been saying this for MONTHS – but 3 weeks before the election works, too…