William Ayers

A left-wing radical and terrorist

William Ayers was tapped by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley to shape that city’s now nationally-renowned school reform program. Since 1999 he has served on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, an anti-poverty, philanthropic foundation established in 1941. This became controversial in the 2008 United States presidential election, as Barack Obama had served on the board until 2002, with overlapping times of service with Ayers.

Radical history

Ayers became involved in the New Left and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). He rose to national prominence as an SDS leader in 1968 and 1969. As head of an SDS regional group, the “Jesse James Gang”, Ayers made decisive contributions to the Weatherman orientation toward militancy.

The groups Ayers headed in Detroit and Michigan became one of the earliest gatherings of what became the Weatherman. Between the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the June 1969 SDS convention, Ayers became a prominent leader of the group, which arose as a result of a schism in SDS.

“During that time his infatuation with street fighting grew and he developed a language of confrontational militancy that became more and more extreme over the year [1969]”, former Weatherman member Cathy Wilkerson wrote in 2001. Before this time, Ayers had become a roomate of and strong influence on Terry Robbins, who was two years younger and “came to idolize him”, Wilkerson wrote. From the summer of 1968 to summer 1969, the pair worked closely together, “appearing inseparable at most SDS conventions and meetings”, she wrote. The two competed over things small and large, “including the ability to come up with quick one-liners, quirky names, sexual conquests, street fighting ability, and eventually the ability to talk tough”, she wrote. As Ayers started glorifying violence more and more, Robbins was affected by it. “But while Ayers, according to what he writes, knew that his language, which increasingly glorified violence, was just show, Robbins was one of those who really believed all of it.” Robbins would later be killed in a famous Weatherman explosion

In June 1969, the Weatherman took control of the SDS at its national convention, where Ayers was elected “Education Secretary”.

Later in 1969, Ayers participated in planting a bomb at a statue dedicated to police casualties in the 1886 Haymarket Riot. The blast broke almost 100 windows and blew pieces of the statue onto the nearby Kennedy Expressway. The statue was rebuilt and unveiled on May 4, 1970, and blown up again by Weatherman on October 6, 1970. Built yet again, the city posted a 24-hour police guard to prevent another blast. He participated in the Days of Rage riot in Chicago that October, and in December was at the “War Council” meeting in Flint, Michigan.

The following year he “went underground” with several associates after the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, in which caused the death of Weatherman member Ted Gold as well as Ayers’ close friend, Terry Robbins, and Ayers girlfriend, Oughton, were killed while a nail bomb was under construction. Kathy Boudin and Cathy Wilkerson survived the blast. Ayers was not facing criminal charges at the time, but the federal government later filed charges against him.

While underground, he and fellow member Bernardine Dohrn married, and the two remained fugitives together, changing identities, jobs and locations. By 1976 or 1977, with federal charges against both fugitives dropped due to prosecutorial misconduct, Ayers was ready to turn himself in to authorities, but Dohrn remained reluctant until after she gave birth to two sons, one born in 1977, the other in 1980. “He was sweet and patient, as he always is, to let me come to my senses on my own”, she later said.

Ayers and Dohrn later became legal guardians to the son of former Weathermen David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin after the boy’s parents were arrested for their part in the Brinks Robbery of 1981.

(Originally published October 20th, 2008)

Louis Farrakhan

This man received the lifetime achievement award from Obama’s church.

Praise for Barack Obama

Louis Farrakhan said the war in Iraq, the nation’s faltering economy and the increased number of natural disasters were signs of “a nation in peril.” He said those problems provide the broader context for Obama’s rise.

In response to Farrakhan’s remarks, the Obama campaign promptly released a response distancing himself from the Muslim minister:

“Senator Obama has been clear in his objections to Minister Farrakhan’s past pronouncements and has not solicited the minister’s support,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.  Obama himself rejected Farrakhan’s support in an NBC debate.

Farrakhan subsequently denied his comments constituted an endorsement saying, he would not tell any one of his followers how to cast their vote, but that they should vote “their own self-interest.”

Other controversial quotes by Farrakhan

“The same year they set up the IRS, they set up the FBI. And the same year they set up the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith… It could be a coincidence… [I want] to see black intellectuals free… I want to see them not controlled by members of the Jewish community.”

“Dewey, Kant and Hegel, and the rabbis that wrote the Talmud, make blacks inferior.”

Farrakhan has referred to Jews, Palestinian Arabs, Koreans, and Vietnamese collectively as “bloodsuckers” and maintains that “Murder and lying comes easy for white people.”

“Cokely spoke the truth” and [Jews protested] “because the truth hurts. I know this man Cokely. I know if he said it, he got the stuff to back it up.” – Chicago Sun Times, May 10, 1988, concerning statements by Chicago Black activist and former municipal official Steve Cokely asserting that Jews engaged in an international conspiracy to take over the world, and that Jewish doctors deliberately injected black children with the AIDS virus..”

Louis Farrakhan, identifies Barack Obama as “The Messiah.”

“You are the instruments that God is gonna 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.”

Here is the video:

(Originally published October 20th, 2008)

Tony Rezko

Ties to Barack Obama

In 1990, after Obama was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, Rezmar Corp. offered him a job, which Obama turned down. Obama did end up taking a job with law firm Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, which primarily worked civil rights cases, but also represented Rezmar and helped the company get more than $43 million in government funding and whose former senior partner, Allison S. Davis, later went into business with Rezko and, in 2003, was appointed to Illinois State Board of Investment by Governor Blagojevich at Rezko’s request. On July 31, 1995 the first ever political contributions to Obama were $300 from a lawyer, a $5,000 loan from a car dealer, and $2,000 from two food companies owned by Rezko. Starting in 2003, Rezko was one of the people on Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign finance committee, which raised more than $14 million. Rezko threw an early fundraiser for Obama, and that fundraiser was instrumental in providing Obama with seed money for his U.S. Senate race.

Also, in 2005 Obama purchased a new home in the Kenwood District of Chicago for $1.65 million ($300,000 below the original price) on the same day that Rezko’s wife, Rita Rezko, purchased the adjoining empty lot from the same sellers for the full asking price. Obama acknowledged bringing his interest in the property to Rezko’s attention, but denied any coordination of offers.

After it had been reported in 2006 that Rezko was under federal investigation for influence-peddling, Obama purchased a 10 foot wide strip of Ms. Rezko’s property for $104,500, $60,000 above the assessed value. According to Chicago Sun-Times columnist, Mark Brown, “Rezko definitely did Obama a favor by selling him the 10-foot strip of land, making his own parcel less attractive for development.” Obama acknowledges that the exchange may have created the appearance of impropriety, and stated “I consider this a mistake on my part and I regret it.”

On December 28, 2006, Ms. Rezko sold the property to a company owned by her husband’s former business attorney. That sale of $575,000, combined with the earlier $104,500 sale to the Obamas, amounted to a net profit of $54,500 over her original purchase, less $14,000 for a fence along the property line and other expenses. In October 2007, the new owners put the still vacant land up for sale again, this time for $1.5 million.

In June 2007, the Sun-Times published a story about letters Obama had written in 1997 to city and state officials in support of a low-income senior citizen development project headed by Rezko and partner Allison Davis. The project received more than $14 million in taxpayer funds, including $885,000 in development fees for Rezko and Davis.

In the South Carolina Democratic Party presidential debate on January 21, 2008, Senator Hillary Clinton said that Obama had represented Rezko, who she referred to as a slum landlord. Obama responded that he had never represented Rezko and had done only about five hours work, indirectly, for Rezko’s firm.

(Originally published October 20th, 2008)

Ignorance, Ideology, Cult Of Celebrity

When this was first published immediately after Election 2008, I wrote the following:

It’s over! To the astonishment of millions of informed Americans, Barack Obama—arguably the least qualified presidential candidate in U.S. history—is now the 44th President of The United States of America. He is also Commander-In-Chief of the most powerful military force on Earth. Therefore, he is the most powerful man in the world. But how did he do it and what does it say about the current state of American politics, our media, and the health of the American electorate?

Well, it said a lot about who we were back then. But we cannot afford to make the same mistakes again. So I think it is instructive to revisit how Obama got elected in 2008 so we can do our best to prevent it from happening in 2012.

First, let’s look at a video for some background information. It is a sampling of voters who were interviewed after they cast their votes for Obama in 2008. It is a small part of a much larger, more extensive survey conducted by the highly regarded, non-partisan pollster, John Zogby. If you react like I did, you will shake your head and think, “Is this really what we’ve come to?”

http://www.youtube.com/v/mm1KOBMg1Y8&hl=en&fs=1

Now, on the assumption that you watched the video, let’s add some perspective.

“Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.” – George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

and …

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free it expects what never was and never will be.” – Thomas Jefferson

and …

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” – John F. Kennedy, 1963

So you can clearly see what happened. Many Obama voters were hardcore Democrats who always vote the party line. Others voted strictly on race. Some were white Americans who voted for Obama simply because he is an African American and they just wanted to elect the first black president. Then, of course, about 97% of African Americans voted for Obama. But far too many—especially young voters—had little to no knowledge of who or what they were voting for or against, nor did they have even a rudimentary knowledge of who our current leaders were or what the presidential candidates said or what they stood for. For them, Election 2008 seemed to be just one more “American Idol” contest and they simply chose Barack Obama for his charisma and his populist (demagogic) message of “change.” Sadly, it was the young voters who made the difference and were ultimately responsible for the election of Barack Obama.

I said “responsible for” because in America we the voters are ultimately responsible for our own destinies. Our power is in the vote and, therefore, the health and welfare of our nation is dependent on the choices we make about who will lead and govern us. This is precisely why George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Kennedy, and many others, instructed us on the importance of being well informed before we cast a vote for any candidate who seeks power over us. Ignorance is our enemy and, unless corrected, it will, ultimately destroy us.

But how is it that so many Americans are still so politically ignorant? How did this happen? Once again, the answer is neither obscure nor complex. There is an unequivocal reason and many culprits: We call them “The Media.” For years, they have uninformed and misinformed the American public about virtually everything political. Think back to the video for a moment and remember how many people assigned so many remarks to Sarah Palin when in fact they had been made by Barack Obama or Joe Biden.

Ignorance is an enemy of democracy and ignorance helped elect Barack Obama. Washington, Jefferson, and Kennedy along with countless others knew all too well how serious is the matter of educating our citizens. Ignorant people can be manipulated, educated people cannot.

We must do all we can to make certain that Barack Obama is not re-elected.

See “The Presidential Election of 2008” for a more detailed analysis of how Barack Obama got elected.