#4
Sorry but the three-dollar denomination is set to be a coin. Paper money will start at the 1,000 denomination which will have the portrait of Cleavon Little in full Western garb.
Votersand debate moderatorsshouldnt let Bill Ayers and Barack Obama off the hook.
Back in the early eighties, in an interview with David Horowitz and Peter Collier, Bill Ayers remembered his reaction upon learning that he would not be prosecuted by the government for his bombing spree as a member of the Weather Underground. Guilty as hell, free as a birdAmerica is a great country, he exulted. Ayers is now a university professor, but he must have been exulting all over again after reading Saturdays front-page story in the New York Times.
The article explored the putative relationship between Ayers and Barack Obama during the time they worked together on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a five-year philanthropic venture that, starting in 1995, distributed over $160 million in school-improvement grants to the Windy Citys public schools. Ayers wrote the grant proposal that secured seed money for the schools and ran the implementation arm of the project; Obama became chairman of the board that distributed the grants. Not only did the Times exonerate the Democratic presidential candidate of having anything like a close relationship with Ayerstheir paths merely crossed while working on the Challenge, the paper saidbut it also bestowed the honorific of school reformer on the ex-bomber. Mr. Ayers has been a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the author or editor of 15 books, and an advocate of school reform, the article maintained. On Meet the Press Sunday morning, Tom Brokawwho will be moderating tomorrows debate between the presidential candidatespicked up this now conventional wisdom and described Ayers as a school reformer.
Calling Bill Ayers a school reformer is a bit like calling Joseph Stalin an agricultural reformer. (If you find the metaphor strained, consider that Walter Duranty, the infamous New York Times reporter covering the Soviet Union in the 1930s, did, in fact, depict Stalin as a great land reformer who created happy, productive collective farms.) For instance, at a November 2006 education forum in Caracas, Venezuela, with President Hugo Chávez at his side, Ayers proclaimed his support for the profound educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chávez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution. . . . I look forward to seeing how you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane. Ayers concluded his speech by declaring that Venezuela is poised to offer the world a new model of educationa humanizing and revolutionary model whose twin missions are enlightenment and liberation, and then, as in days of old, raised his fist and chanted: Viva Presidente Chávez! Viva la Revolucion Bolivariana! Hasta la Victoria Siempre!
As I have shown in previous articles in City Journal, Ayerss school reform agenda focuses almost exclusively on the idea of teaching for social justice in the classroom. This has nothing to do with the social-justice ideals of the Sermon on the Mount or Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream speech. Rather, Ayers and his education school comrades are explicit about the need to indoctrinate public school children with the belief that America is a racist, militarist country and that the capitalist system is inherently unfair and oppressive. As a leader of this growing reform movement, Ayers was recently elected vice president for curriculum of the American Education Research Association, the nations largest organization of ed school professors and researchers.
Despite the Times story, American voters still dont have an accurate picture of the relationship between Obama and Ayers during their work on the Annenberg Challenge. The papers account quoted several people who worked on the project as saying that they didnt think Ayers had any role in selecting Obama for his position as chairman. But we havent heard a word about the subject from the two principals. For the first time in his life, Ayers seems to be observing Democratic Party discipline and wont be talking until after November 4. Meanwhile, in one of the Democratic primary debates, Obama said that Ayers was just a guy I know in the neighborhoodwhich certainly qualifies as one of the biggest fibs told by any of the candidates so far.
Is it too much to hope that one of the moderators of the two remaining debates will press Obama for a fuller accounting of his work with Bill Ayers on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and also ask Obama what he thinks of Ayerss views on school reform? If the mainstream media deem it important that voters know which newspapers one of the vice presidential candidates reads, they certainly ought to be demanding more information from a presidential candidate about whom he collaborated with in distributing $160 million to the public schools. How about it, Tom Brokaw?
Sol Stern is a contributing editor of City Journal and the author of Breaking Free: Public School Lessons and the Imperative of School Choice.
#1
Is it too much to hope that one of the moderators of the two remaining debates will press Obama for a fuller accounting of his work with Bill Ayers on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and also ask Obama what he thinks of Ayerss views on school reform?
Last Thursday's vice presidential debate was the most revealing, and depressing, event of the entire campaign because it showed how irredeemably fraudulent America's political class is and how superficial the voters who will decide this election are.
Recall, if you will, that going into the debate, the conventional wisdom was that Gov. Sarah Palin would be woefully outgunned by Sen. Joe Biden. A self-touted foreign policy expert and constitutional law professor, Biden joined the Senate some time after the Cretaceous period but well before bell bottoms went out of style.
As we know, the conventional wisdom was wrong. Palin wasn't stellar. But she crushed those low expectations, salvaged her political career and turned herself back into an asset for the McCain campaign.
Continued on Page 49
#1
What Biden did in the debate should reinforce public opinion about our congress and especially the Senate - we have the biggest set of unemployable jerks in the world.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/07/2008 9:46 Comments ||
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#2
Why don't Biden and Obama just come out and promise everyone who votes for them a new Escalade and an IPhone? That's what they're toying at, vote for us and get free shit that you don't really deserve. They can't possibly deliver on any of their promises. But the lower earning millions will believe it, they always believe it.
Going into Tuesday's presidential debate, the campaign of Republican John McCain still suffers from the lousy economy and that Bush hanging ponderously from his neck.
With that going against him, he's running uphill, trying to remind Americans that he challenged his own party, and the Democrats, on corruption. Because of McCain's opposition to politicians who feed from the public trough, there is a road open to him Tuesday. It's the Chicago Way.
Obama definitely does not want to go there. It would be a forced march for him. Obama's gauzy references to Chicago involve baseball and where he met Michelle and those blissful hours he spent as a community organizer. What he doesn't want discussed is his evolution from independent Democrat to potential White House enabler of the corrupt Chicago Democratic machine.
Continued on Page 49
#2
I'd be happy to see some of that Chicago "take a gun to a knife-fight" way type stuff in foreign policy matters. Problem is I suspect it would be more along the lines of corrupt third world/UN buy-offs and bribes that will make things look peaceful (with media covering fire) as they get really bad.
As everyone concentrates on Bill Ayers, a bigger story may be Obama's link to Ayers' wife, Bernardine Dohrn.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has consistently tried to discount the depth of his relationship with Bill Ayers, one of the founding members of the Weather Underground, a radical left-wing terrorist group that formed in 1969 and was most famous for a string of bombings in the 1970s.
Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin hammered Obamas relationship with Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn over the weekend, stating that the Democratic presidential candidate palled around with terrorists.
Obama campaign manager David Axelrod and other campaign surrogates are now furtively trying to claim today that Obama didnt know the history of Ayers and Dohrn as the leaders of Americas most infamous left-wing terrorist group when Obama met at their home for a political coming out in 1995, but their attempt to make pretend that Barack Obama didnt know of their terrorist past is laughable.
By 1995, Barack Obama had known Bill Ayers at least eight years since their shared involvement in the Alliance for Better Chicago Schools, if not longer. Bernardine Dohrn, once labeled the most dangerous woman in America by none other than J. Edgar Hoover, was also well known as the inspiration for the 1988 movie Running on Empty. Subtle terrorists they were not.
As noted in the New York Times, Obama has tried to minimize his relationship with Ayers, dismissing him as a guy who lives in my neighborhood and somebody who worked on education issues in Chicago that I know.
Axelrod also tried to excuse the extent of Obamas involvement with Ayers, stating, Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school. Theyre certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together.
Its an obvious fiction pitched by Axelrod, since the Obama children are presently in elementary school, while Ayers children are all grown adults, but the Ayers-Obama family connection doesnt stop at the imaginary connections between the children.
Bernardine Dohrn, Ayers wife, has largely escaped recent scrutiny, but that lack of attention doesnt reduce her role as either a leader and some may argue, the leader of the Weathermen. Nor can it mask her ties to both Barack and Michelle Obama. Its now a family affair.
According to a reputable Pajamas Media source that wishes to remain anonymous and knew the Dohrn family, Bernardine Dohrn always believes the ends justify the means and is the head of the Ayers-Dohrn household. Dohrn was the violent, arguably pathological Leninist core of the Revolutionary Youth Movement, which led her and allied militants to fight for control of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The SDS split as a result of the Dohrn-led revolt and the Revolutionary Youth Movement split again, with Dohrns faction becoming the Weather Underground. Lots more at link
Posted by: ed ||
10/07/2008 01:58 ||
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#2
Bernadine Dohrn was on the extreme radical left. She made the following statement according to Wikipedia entry on her:
Dohrn was criticized for a comment she made about the Charles Manson led Tate-LaBianca murders in a speech during the December 1969 "War Council" meeting organized by the Weathermen and attended by about 400 people in Flint, Michigan: "Dig it! First they killed those pigs and then they put a fork in their bellies. Wild!" Dohrn also charged that her fellow left-wingers showed themselves to be scared "honkies" for not burning down Chicago when Black Panther leader Fred Hampton was killed, and urged her audience to arm themselves and be "a fighting force alongside the blacks."[9] Dohrn's husband, Bill Ayers has written that Dohrn was being ironic when she made the statement:[10]
Many of the people that were in the Weather Underground busted the blockade on Cuba by going to Cuba via Canada to ostensibly cut sugar cane in Castro's Cuba. The primary purpose was to obtain training as revolutionaries. A good book to read would be Carl Ogleby's Ravens in the Storm to get an idea of what was going on in this group during the 60s and 70s.
This is the kind of thing that was going on when John McCain was in the the Hanoi Hilton.
Ayers was just a guy in the neighborhood? I think Obama ought to fill in some of the gaps in his personal history for Americans and then let them decide whether he is the man for the job.
#1
Paraphrased: Sarah walked into the Governors Mansion,
*promptly dismissed the State Trooper detachment assigned to Governor
* got rid of the former Governors STATE Jet and told legislators that there were no more free rides
Next came the nut cutting (the Barracuda part) the heads that rolled were too numerous to name, but when Sarah finished cleaning house, a number of our legislators ended up in jail on corruption charges, or tendered their resignations along with numerous department heads and those who have been riding the gravy train for way too long,
* THEN SHE HAD LUNCH.
All that before noon. LOL
#2
ION TOPIX > PARTS OF CALIFORNIA AND OREGON DESIRE TO MERGE [secede] AND FORM 51ST US STATE; + WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO WAHABISM IF SAUDI ARABIA WERE BROKEN UP?
* FREEREPUBLIC > CINDY SHEEHAN REVEALS PLANS FOR NEW NATIONAL PARTY.
* TOPIX > EVE OF DESTRUCTION: ASIA EXPLODES IN ETHNIC, CULTURAL VIOLENCE!?
* WAFF.com > MUFTI MUHAMMED SAYEED USE PAKISTAN CURRENCY IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR [ + also INDIAN iff J-K offic declared a FREE TRADE AREA]; + LEADER OF ORRISSA COMMIE PARTY [Saybasachi Panda] OF INDIA-MAOIST ADMITS TO KILLING OF HINDU LEADER WHICH SPARKED ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE. Warns CPI-M targeted killings = operations will continue agz those whom incite violence and hatred in India; + "GOD'S ARMY" MILITIAS TARGETS PHILIPPINE MUSLIM REBELS [Armed Catholic-Christian Militia renew Org and fight back].
Biggest rumor here in Florida is that Samoa is going to join Alaska as the 50th State giving Palin the polynesian vote.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/07/2008 9:51 Comments ||
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#5
When Sarah walked into the Governors Mansion, she promptly dismissed the State Trooper detachment assigned to Governor and had her and her husbands gun case brought in from Wasilla.
I like her already.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
10/07/2008 11:32 Comments ||
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#6
Can we get someone like her to run for governor of PA? Prolly not, but we can dream, eh?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/07/2008 12:15 Comments ||
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#7
M. Murcek - you folks had Santorum, but tossed him out in 06. You seem to keep Murtha around. Why do you think another conservative would consider running there? I'm from California, Boxer and Feinstein land, so I know screwed when I see it.
#8
I personally didn't toss Santorum or ever vote for murtha. BTW, if you ever see johnstown, you will see that the voters there are getting exactly what they deserve. The coin murtha is sending back is going straight into his cronies' pockets while the local peasants are living in a shuttered factory shelled out ruin. Such fun for them.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/07/2008 17:09 Comments ||
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Most women I've talked with about Palin--all certified members of either the media elite or the just plain elite--take her nomination personally. Their animus isn't explained just by her politics; none of them hate Condoleezza Rice, though they disagree with most everything she's done. Nor, for that matter, do they even dislike John McCain. Typically they "respect" McCain but find him too old or too erratic or simply have a crush on adore Obama.
It's as though Palin were an average girl from their boarding school class--or, frankly, from the public school down the road--who unexpectedly won a big prize. "Why not me?" is the subtext, and it's one I've never heard from men talking about male politicians. . . . My friends who hate Palin are all more articulate and better educated than she is, better traveled, probably smarter, definitely more fun to talk with. But can they field dress a moose? Can they? Huh? They can't? Bunch'a useless pansies! Bet they never even seen a moose--an' Rocky & Bullwinkle doesn't count!
But the reasons they can't stand Palin are all wrong.
It's not so much that Palin isn't one of our own--an Ivy League type, or an Eastern preppie, or a self-made intellectual like Rice. It's not for the fake feminist reasons that "she's against freedom of choice" or "she didn't tell her daughter about birth control." (Though there is an element of hatred for her fertility, and the fact that it hasn't impeded her rise.) It's not because Palin only got a passport a few years ago and doesn't speak any foreign languages.
No, it's because Palin makes us look like the slackers we mainly are. We've had our bit of success, but we've also spent a lot of time smelling the roses. We've gone back to school to get another degree, volunteered in poor countries, devoted ourselves to a sport or a hobby. We've not had kids, or if we have, we've had one or two, and we've had nannies paid for by our work or our husbands or our inherited money.
We not only have had passports for decades, we've put serious mileage on them. We've lived overseas or spent months wandering around Africa or India, we understand foreign people and places in ways Palin never will--and yet it's she who could become vice president, not one of us.
It's not hard to see why. The boyfriend of one of my freshman roommates at Harvard is now governor of Massachusetts--a man no less and no more qualified than many of my classmates. Why him and not us? As with Palin, it comes down to wanting it badly enough and being singleminded. It means spending a lot of time in deadly dull meetings talking about school bond issues or where to put a new off-ramp.
It means spending a lot of time in small towns where no one you know has a country place or ever will. And except at the higher reaches, politics doesn't offer much in the way of glamour or fame. . . . My father was in local politics, and quite successful at it. Retail politics takes a certain talent for empathy, a lack of stage fright, and a considerable self-confidence--but mostly it means you have to be willing to show up at meetings and pancake breakfasts and spaghetti dinners and "Night at the Races" nights and candidate forums night in and night out, even in off years when you're not on the ballot--and have every syllable you utter be subject to media and public scrutiny--and still manage to smile at the 465th person you meet that night. You have to really want to do it, and be willing to do it even when the polls are running against you. I have enormous respect for anyone who runs for office--even the ones I'd crawl over broken glass to vote against--because I know how much work it is.
People who become writers and intellectuals and artists tend not to want power that badly or pursue it that obsessively, which is what makes us interesting and fun--and makes few of us household names. Success at the Palin level in politics or business takes a level of blinkered self-confidence that comes mainly to (a very few) men. A lot of the people with this quality are annoying to be around. Even the ones that aren't annoying can be . . . I dunno . . . a bit intimidating, maybe?
Maybe they aren't very happy with themselves. Actually, the best ones enjoy campaigning. Dad certainly did.
But it's not a surprise that a vice presidential nominee should be one of them.
The lesson of Sarah Palin for privileged women is to try harder. And that may be the toughest one to hear.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/07/2008 16:44 ||
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#1
Compare wid CNN > SARAH's BASE MESSAGE [THREAT] TO AMER WOMEN = Its okay to CHOOSE TO STAY HOME, TO HAVE AND TAKE CARE OF KIDS, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY [read, NOT HAVE AN ABORTION(S)], and NOT have a HIGH-POWERED WALL STREET = CORPORATE/PROFESSIONAL CAREER, THAT A WOMAN CAN STAY HOME AND STILL BECOME VPOTUS = POTUS???
#2
What elitist crock. The thesis is, we're so much better that we'd bury someone like Palin if we just tried a little harder.
Good. Get the whole Harvard class to head off to places like Wasilla for 10 years to make their bones. The vast majority would simply disappear for life, and we'd all be better off.
#4
Actually, the message is the only way to become vice president, or president, or even just a governor, is to get up to your elbows in it... which is boring to these lovely, well-educated, charming, happy, lotus-eating women. So they won't, but they'll still hate Sarah Palin because she got through hard work that which would make them miserable and which they would do exceedingly poorly even if it were handed to them the way they think they deserve.
#5
I'd just love to see one of these upper crust ladies try to teach an autistic child with tactile defensiveness to wash his hair. Or make a decent dinner herself. Never mind making a serious effort in community service.
Volunteering in poor countries has some use; although Middle Daughter has observed some NGO volunteers, the "SUV People" in action in West Africa, and reports that the SUV people are often a stench in the local people's nostrils.
TW, the adjective "lotus eating" for these ladies is perfect.
#6
MIke - I agree with and share your highlighted comments - my dad was also a local and state-level politician, and it is a gift in many ways, particularly in ways that the "elite" schools struggle to inculcate, and largely fail in their efforts.
The biggest distinction he drew was on the corruption/integrity scale. He was, like most he served with, surprisingly non-partisan, which I think is an uncovered secret even in Washington today, but he had no truck with crooks, and they were on both sides of the aisle. There seem to be more of them in office these days.
#1
Looks like it's been yanked. This is happening every time someone puts it up. Looks like Sandlers and Soros are busy.
Here is a new link and transcript.
It was a showdown to cherish for critics of Wall Street's culture of enrichment. The grim-faced boss of the bankrupt bank Lehman Brothers was left squirming yesterday as a veteran Democrat roasted him over his multimillion-dollar pay.
With the startled look of a man unaccustomed to sharp examination, Lehman chief executive Richard Fuld clashed bluntly with the chairman of the House oversight committee, Henry Waxman, on Capitol Hill.
Called on to explain why Lehman collapsed last month, Fuld began with a note of humility, saying he felt "horrible" over the demise of the 158-year-old institution. "I want to be very clear," Fuld said. "I take full responsibility for the decisions I made and for the actions I took."
Continued on Page 49
#1
I hear that on the day they folded, one of the Lehman employees found Fuld in the Lehman gym and sucker punched him. This is a guy who should have never been given the reins of that company and shows the weakness in our governance process of how we vet these jerks.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/07/2008 9:43 Comments ||
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#2
Opensecrets.org
FULD, RICHARD
NEW YORK,NY 10285 LEHMAN BROTHERS/MANAGING DIRECTOR 4/9/07 $10,000 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte (D)
How about checking the differential while you're under there Mr. Fuld. Heh. I'm sure in the background of the hearings was heard - "We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph!"
#3
Why does congress continually go after CEO's and their pay packages like they were the ones who decided what their pay was going to be. Speaking for myself, if somebody wanted to moneywhip me into going to work for them I'd probably do it and I would sleep very well at night.
#4
The Dems attack on Fuld is deeply dishonest, as Waxman knows. It is demagoguery intended to deflect public anger onto CEOs when it should rest squarely on the Congressional officials who set in place many of the incentives against which the CEOs functioned.
#8
Bloomberg: Lehman spread its largess widely, almost impartially:
"Since 1989, Lehman employees have given $9.2 million to federal candidates and their parties, with 54 percent of that going to Democrats. In the current Congress, 271 lawmakers have collected a total of $3 million. Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, top the list of all-time recipients, collecting $410,000 and $395,600 respectively, the Center for Responsive Politics reported.
The only companies to donate more to presidential candidates so far this election cycle were Goldman, Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley, according to the center, a non-partisan government watchdog group."
#9
demagoguery intended to deflect public anger onto CEOs when it should rest squarely on the Congressional officials The current crisis has many causes. CEOs like Fuld richly deserve exposure to the public anger "acted out" at the hearing. The Congress deserves to be completely replaced in the coming election.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
