Obama Mythology 101

Here are the facts, not the spin:

State Sen. Obama helped secure thousands in state money for a Chicago entrepreneur who had paid him as a legal adviser.

Robert Blackwell, the Chicago entrepreneur, also became an Obama donor.

Obama's Ethics disclosure forms do not make the link clear.

William Ayers Employed Barack Obama for eight years.

The Los Angeles Times broke the ethics story in today's paper  reporting that Obama used Illinois state letterhead to request a $50,000  tourism promotion grant for a longtime political donor and employer, Chicago entrepreneur Robert Blackwell, Jr. and his company Killerspin.  Obama  mailed the request within months after receiving a final $8,000 per month retainer from Blackwell's company Electronic Knowledge Interchange.

Blackwell  paid  Obama the retainer  to give legal advice to his growing technology firm.  The monthly sum from this Blackwell company  totaled $112,000.  Then, with support from Obama, other state officials and an Obama aide who went to work part time for Killerspin, this Blackwell Company eventually obtained $320,000 in state grants between 2002 and 2004 to subsidize its table tennis tournaments.

Killerspin specializes in table tennis, running tournaments nationwide and selling its own line of equipment and apparel and DVD recordings of the competitions.

Obama's staff said the senator advocated only for the first year's grant -- which ended up being $20,000, not $50,000. The day after Obama wrote his letter urging the awarding of the state funds, however, Obama's U.S. Senate campaign received a $1,000 donation from Blackwell.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/ nation/la-na-killerspin27apr27,1,7266833 .story?page=1&track=rss

Now about Willaim Ayers

In addition to this failure to ethically disclose an important donor, Obama has been breathtakingly  misleading about his relationship with William Ayers. In the past Obama described Ayers as an "acquaintance." He also said in the recent ABC debate that Ayers is "Not someone I've accepted endorsement of, it's not someone I exchange ideas with on a regular bassis."Whopper!! Pinocchio!! William Ayers empoyed Obama for eight years as the Director of the Annenberg Challenge Board.

Thanks to Larry Johnson here http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/04/26/ why-is-obama-hiding-the-truth-about-will iam-ayers-follow-the-money/

 In 1995, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was created to raise funds to help reform the Chicago public schools. Ayers co-wrote the initial grant proposal, lists himself on his own website as the co-founder of the Challenge; and he helped select the first director of the board of this program: Barack Obama. Obama served on the board for eight years until the Challenge ended in 2003. Bill Ayers was intimately involved in the Challenge over this same time period.

Senator Obama needs to stop pushing a message of `no politics as usual' and start answering questions put to him about his associates and financial connections honestly and forthrightly. These disclosures after his repeated mis-statements and lack of full disclosure on ethics forms and about his associations-- in debates or in the press-- is serving him poorly.

Tags: Anneenber chjallenge Foundation, Barack Obama, Chicago, Killerspin, Robert Blackwell, William Ayers (all tags)

Comments

267 Comments

Re: Obama Mythology 101

OH NOES OBAMA IS A TERRORIST!!!!

by obamaforprez 2008-04-27 08:20AM | 0 recs
Corrupt corporate welfare expert...

That should stand him in good stead if he gets the nomination, as far as the Republicans usual spin on their 'responsibility' goes.

No wonder they are rooting for him! They are going to tear him apart.

by architek 2008-04-27 09:20AM | 0 recs
Republicans are rooting for Hillary.

In fact, I've seen triumphal diaries here about that. They're even running an ad in NC to take Obama and other Democrats down.

So basically, your comment is the exact inverse of observable reality.

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 09:26AM | 0 recs
Republicans aren't rooting for any Democrat

I think some of them finally realize that Obama would be a more repugnant presidential choice that Clinton.  How this perception could have evaded so many of them for so long only demonstrates how their eyes were closed by blind Clinton hatred.

Still, it seems to me that many of them (if not most of them) would still prefer to have Hillary dispatched in the primary and deal with Obama in the general election.  I don't think the GOP has a clear consensus about which candidate is more electible.  They figure they could defeat or lose to either one.  Regardless of which one is nominated, they will vote against the nominee.

by lombard 2008-04-27 10:37AM | 0 recs
Right.

The republicans just want to destroy the repugnant Obama - charming - out of patriotic concern. This is evidence that they're shaking in their Manolos about Hillary.

Funny thing, though, that red-state Democrats support Obama. What do they know that Hillaryites and republicans don't know?

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 05:23PM | 0 recs
They don't "know" anything

Red state dems are generally ultra-liberal is all.  I have lived in blue states where there are more dems and they range from conservative-moderate-Reagan type dems to limosine liberal dems.  Now I live in a red state and the white dems are by and large the elite type liberals...the moderates and conservatives are republicans.  

by emmasaint 2008-04-28 05:11AM | 0 recs
Very true

When a party has a majority of voters in an area, there is more diversity among the type of voters in the party.  When an area is dominated by one party, the minority party has more true believing activist types - the big tent vs. the smaller more cohesive tent.

by lombard 2008-04-28 12:32PM | 0 recs
If that were the case, then why have

I received emails from the Obama campaign to go to other states to sign up "Democrats for a Day?"  I have been solicited TWICE by the Obama campaign to do this but NEVER by Hillary's campaign to do anything even close to that.  The Obama facade of legitimacy has collapsed.

by macmcd 2008-04-27 01:55PM | 0 recs
Re: If that were the case, then why have

That Democrat for A Day stuff just ain't cool! maybe it is really Obama's motto. because he was only a Democrat for one day, the day he first campaigned for office.

by Pagan Power 2008-04-27 02:49PM | 0 recs
Oh teh noez!

Building the party! Letting in and reaching out to people who haven't voted for Democrats in decades! Traitor! Treason!

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 05:24PM | 0 recs
Re: If that were the case, then why have

No offense, but some poster who clearly couldn't read made a diary a month ago trying to link the Obama registration efforts in Pennsylvania with this supposed "Democrats for a day" idea, when it was anything but.  A lot of people here see things that don't exist.

by rfahey22 2008-04-28 04:26AM | 0 recs
He already has the nomination.

...if only you would open your eyes wide enough to see.

by dystopianfuturetoday 2008-04-27 09:59AM | 0 recs
Re: He already has the nomination.

Anyone with open eyes and an open mind knows that Obama has nothing. The nomination goes to one best able to defeat McCain. For some time now, that looks to be Hillary.

by Nobama 2008-04-27 12:39PM | 0 recs
Re: He already has the nomination.

The most hated politician of our generation is suddenly "electable". Right...

by Democratic Unity 2008-04-27 12:48PM | 0 recs
Re: He already has the nomination.

Are you talkin bout Obama the Divider?

by Pagan Power 2008-04-27 02:50PM | 0 recs
Jeebus, look at the polling.

Even if YOU hate Obama for preempting Hillary's march to the nomination, it doesn't mean the country does.  Her negatives are high, not quite GWB levels, but high.

by corph 2008-04-28 09:02AM | 0 recs
Re: He already has the nomination.

Obama has nothing?

It is a fact that he has more pledged delegates, and it is certain he will get to the convention with a non-trivial lead in them.

It is a fact that he has won more states.

It is a fact that he has won more of the popular vote unless you start up silly season and give Obama no votes in Michigan.

by randomscientist 2008-04-27 01:38PM | 0 recs
You should refer to the Poll Watchers

in the upper right and left-hand corners of the home page here on MyDD for just exactly what Obama has.  ;-)

by macmcd 2008-04-27 01:59PM | 0 recs
Re: You should refer to the Poll Watchers

Where's the part where it says he has more delegates?

by Mostly 2008-04-27 02:06PM | 0 recs
Re: You should refer to the Poll Watchers

If our nomination process were decided by GE polls, then you're right, he would be at a loss to Hillary based on whatever polls MyDD has chosen for its maps.

But that's not how it works.  Instead we have to work with the nominee that the process has given us (well, almost certainly).  If you care about the Democratic cause, you should probably try to make lemonade out of what you perceive as lemons.

by randomscientist 2008-04-27 02:19PM | 0 recs
Re: He already has the nomination.

Yes he has more pledged delegates. Unfortunately for you, there are still more to be awarded AND having more pledged delegates is not what the RULES say in how to get the nomination. The RULES say, without Fl & Mi you must have 2025 total delegates. If they are included (which most people are saying they will in some way shape or form then that number needed will change of course. Most likely solution on those two states is supers are in completely and pledged are at half. Which is what the RULES said if the DNC hadn't made an exception to them for these states)

The number of states has nothing to do with either getting the nomination OR the Presidency! That is a Red Herring.

What we think is the popular vote is not governed by the democratic party rules. So of course Florida's should be counted. Michigan is more of a stretch but what is important is what do the superdelegates think.

When you look at which states (and territory) are left, she will be gaining a fair amount on him.

by del 2008-04-27 06:48PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Wow, what a leap!

...So, you want to only propose a false choice of extremism......

I think lying, fraud and hustler are better descriptions than your terrorist.

by LindaSFNM 2008-04-27 09:43AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

hustler? Go ahead and play the racial code word game.

by cranberry 2008-04-27 09:46AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Oh, that's ripe.  I see, the same old thing.  Lose an argument and play race card.  Thank you for enlightening us that only an AA can be a Hustler.  WOW.  lol

by LindaSFNM 2008-04-27 11:29AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Somehow I can't imagine anyone calling Hillary Clinton a hustler.

For future reference, 'thug' is a good one too - it's totally deniable but the people you want to reach will know what you mean.

by Mostly 2008-04-27 01:24PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Thank you for pointing that out as well. Whew this primary is showing the true colors of many folks that would call themselves liberals or progressive.

by cranberry 2008-04-27 01:28PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Is Larry Flynt black?

by Pagan Power 2008-04-27 02:51PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

You kidding?  of course he's not a terrorist, and before 9/11 Ayres also got a pass. bush protects that Cuban that shot down an airplane, with no apologies. but the world has changed, now we don't see terrorists as freedom fighters, we see them as being willing to kill innocents to make a point. His Ayres problem is that he may still hold some romantic notions about those 'old' times he mainly seems to dislike, and he may have given Ayers a pass because he's a professor, society has forgiven him and he has a job to prove it? And you can agree with him, anyone has that choice. the problem is that he isn't being entirely straight, he defended the guy as a professor, that was probably straight, but he also minimized their relationship, and that's politics as usual. His pastor (with friends like that?) also admitted he hasn't told the truth about his relationship with his church, but gave him a pass because we all expect politicians to lie. the problem with that is he loses he reason for running, why do we need an inexperienced guy if he's not above lying, if he will say 'anything' to get elected?  Hillary hardly ever fibs, cause she gets caught each and every time, and probably also because she usually has a great memory.  He lies more than she lies, so how is he going to change anything? That's the point Obamaforprez, no one thinks he's a terrorist, were just starting to find out how much an old-school politician he is. Get it?  

by anna shane 2008-04-27 12:05PM | 0 recs
Bingo -

who knows?  He may turn out to be a good president - why not?  But please spare us he's not a politician but beyond that stuff - he most certainly is not.  He would not be where he is if he didn't play nicely with Illinois/Chicago politicians.  Does that make him corrupt?  No - but he knows the game and plays it well.    

by Xanthe 2008-04-27 01:10PM | 0 recs
"When a true genius appears in the world,
 you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."  
Truer words were never written.  
Democrats behaving like trash has been the disturbing spectacle this go round.
by ReillyDiefenbach 2008-04-28 08:16AM | 0 recs
If only you devoted your energy into

defeating McCain. That would be great for the country!

by heresjohnny 2008-04-27 08:23AM | 0 recs
She is...she's supporting Clinton

so we can beat McCain in November.

by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 08:26AM | 0 recs
Yeah...

...because Clinton has no skeletons in her closet, and we're all going to feel warm and fuzzy about her after her online hit squad tries to make Obama into a corrupt terrorist.

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 08:30AM | 0 recs
Such a silly response.

Nothing to say to it.

by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 08:33AM | 0 recs
Re: Such a silly response.

Of course not. Because you know I'm right.

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 08:48AM | 0 recs
Re: She is...she's supporting Clinton

I disagree she is not supporting Clinton by smearing a fellow democrat who is leading in pledged delegates and states won. this is a shameless hit job. And lets not forget Hillary has skeletons in her closets as well ask Linfar about the 60s radical that Hillary was associated with in the past. this can go both ways and you would be foolish to think that it can't  

by wellinformed 2008-04-27 08:34AM | 0 recs
These aren't smears..

 these are public records..

by architek 2008-04-27 09:22AM | 0 recs
kinda like the AUMF vote

by kindthoughts 2008-04-27 09:51AM | 0 recs
Re: These aren't smears..

Yeah, but they are facts about the messiah. So they have to be smears.

by Pagan Power 2008-04-27 02:53PM | 0 recs
I'm sorry. It's too late.

My candidate lost too and I understand the disappointment but that's how these things go.

Unless we want Roe overturned. More wars. A bigger deficit. It behooves us to turn our guns on McCain.

by heresjohnny 2008-04-27 08:37AM | 0 recs
GETTING THE BEST CANDIDATE TO RUN AGAINST HIM

IS TURNING OUR GUNS ON MCCAIN.

by architek 2008-04-27 09:23AM | 0 recs
Re: GETTING THE BEST CANDIDATE TO RUN AGAINST HIM

So you think 6 weeks of campaigning against him after a floor fight in Denver giving the nomination to the candidate who has less pledged delegates is the strongest position?

I can't imaging any superdelegate who hasn't join Team Clinton agrees with that.

by heresjohnny 2008-04-27 09:35AM | 0 recs
RUN AGAINST HIM

You're not helping Obama by trying to claim he can't stand up against McCain because of Hillary. That makes him look like easy prey, he can't take down a girl who hardly says anything about him at all, how's he going to run against McCain? And then you're positioning him to blame her for his GE loss, not smart, wait till you lose before you spin your loss, that would be my advice.  Obama has noticed, and he's trying to stop whining although it's hard for him, Marueen was traveling with him and noticed he's weary and wants it over.  the nomination is just the first part, after that comes the GE and then at least four years of it not being over, this isn't the time for him to show he can wimp out. If you want to support him, pretend he's liking the campaign, loves debates, wishes it could go on and on cause it's so much fun and he has more than enough energy for it, loves American people so much that campaigning is far better than taking a smoking break.  But, I think he's been trying that, and he's just too tired. he didn't think running for president would be soooo hard. Poor dear!

by anna shane 2008-04-27 12:13PM | 0 recs
Re: RUN AGAINST HIM

Oh stop the "can't take down a girl" BS - do you think you're helping your candidate with this tripe?

by interestedbystander 2008-04-27 12:28PM | 0 recs
Re: RUN AGAINST HIM

"he can't take down a girl"

Please. Clinton is hardly a "girl" in the demeaning and dismissive way you mean it. She is a smart and savvy politician, who has lost the nomination do to a number of factors, including timing, historical baggage, and strategic errors.

Are you really ready to belittle your own candidate just to take down the other?

by Mandoliniment 2008-04-27 01:17PM | 0 recs
Re: RUN AGAINST HIM

Can you please stop being sexist please? tyvm

by Aris Katsaris 2008-04-27 03:38PM | 0 recs
Re: RUN AGAINST HIM

Was this comment meant for someone else? Because it doesn't address anything I was talking about.

by heresjohnny 2008-04-27 04:00PM | 0 recs
Re: If only you devoted your energy into

Sort of like all the Obama supporters here who write diaries about how bad McCain would be as a choice .......

oh wait, they write those diaries about Clinton.

Sheesh.

What was that Michelle Obama said about running your own house?

by emsprater 2008-04-27 09:42AM | 0 recs
you think

Obama is in charge of everyone of his supporters?

by kindthoughts 2008-04-27 09:52AM | 0 recs
as with Obama himself...
...we'd love to turn our attention to McCain, but all the bitter dead-enders who can't accept the fact that she lost, and that she lost not because she is a woman but because she not only voted for Bush's war but also learned nothing from that vote (see Kyl-Lieberman, also "Iran, obliterate) keep up their campaign of smear and innuendo and often flat out racism (the "uppity" diary, the "secret Muslim diary, and this choice item from today that posits that Obama's victories are illegitimate because black people voted for him:
 http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/4/27/1450 17/355
by BlueinColorado 2008-04-27 11:52AM | 0 recs
Re: as with Obama himself...

Congratulations for calling all those who support Hillary (what , 48+% so far of the folks who have voted in Democratic primaries, and an even larger margin of actual Democrats) "bitter dead enders".

That will garner your chosen candidate lots of support from us 'bitter dead enders".

I'd give you my real feelings about you and your commentary, but I am afraid that polity demands that I not curse you  while on a work computer.

by emsprater 2008-04-27 12:23PM | 0 recs
Re: as with Obama himself...

Your response is dishonest.

I did not call "all those who support Hillary" bitter dead-enders. I was very specifically referring to the nasty obsessives ("uppity") who continue to post rumors and innuendo on this site in a continuing effort to undermine the candidate who is, by any realistic measure, the Demoratic nominee.

by BlueinColorado 2008-04-27 12:28PM | 0 recs
Re: as with Obama himself...

You certainly must not be referring to any of the Clinton supporters commenting on THIS particular thread then, because rather than rumors and innuendo, as diarist states these are FACTS:

1. State Sen. Obama helped secure thousands in state money for Blackwell, legal adviser.

  1. Robert Blackwell also became an Obama donor.
  2. Obama's Ethics disclosure forms do not make the link clear.
  3. William Ayers Employed Barack Obama for eight years.

After May 6, we shall have a new presumptive nominee.

by wasanyonehurt 2008-04-27 01:00PM | 0 recs
Re: as with Obama himself...

How is that going to work?  Is Hillary Clinton going to win North Carolina?  And by enough votes to narrow Obama's lead?

by Mostly 2008-04-27 01:29PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Ms. Farley,

What are you smoking?  Your accusations are ridiculous and rather offensive. Why are you hell bent on this guilt by association with William Ayers and Obama?  As a former AP reporter you should be ashamed of yourself for spewing such trash.

by cranberry 2008-04-27 08:23AM | 0 recs
There are links supporting

this diary.

You want her first-born child, too?

by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 08:27AM | 0 recs
Re: There are links supporting

So what? She is trying to create a scandal out of nothing. Again, as a former AP WRITER who attended USC School of Journalism(one of the top journalism schools in the country) what she is doing is a disgrace to journalism and absolute disgrace.  You have to wonder by her comments if she is a racist.  Isn't the purpose to elect democrats not team up with republicans to tear down democrats?

by cranberry 2008-04-27 08:32AM | 0 recs
YOU are trying to create nothing out of a

scandal..

by architek 2008-04-27 09:24AM | 0 recs
Re: There are links supporting

Barack Obama can't run away every time someome poses a legitimate question.  He's tried it many times, "Oh they're playing 'GOTCHA' games!  They're trying to make a scandal!"

How many more rounds of excuses before we get this charaltan to answer some friggin' questions?

And why is his fan base so opposed to examining this man more closely?

"Don't look at his record!  Don't look at his history!  Don't look at the peculiar things he says!  Don't look at his bizarre social life!  Just VOTE for him cause he's all about HOPE and CHANGE!"

... Yeah, okay.  

by BPK80 2008-04-27 10:09AM | 0 recs
Re: There are links supporting

How many more rounds of excuses before we get this charaltan to answer some friggin' questions?

Ummm... He sat down with two Chicago newspapers for 90 minutes each and let them ask all the Rezco questions they had to their satisfaction.  

Please don't spread disinformation.

by map 2008-04-27 10:17AM | 0 recs
Oh please

Don't look at his bizarre social life!

You will elaborate, won't you? I can't wait.

by BlueinColorado 2008-04-27 11:55AM | 0 recs
Dood, come on!

Don't leave me hanging! I collect crazy. You gotta tell me what crack pot crap you have about Obama's social life. Please!

by BlueinColorado 2008-04-27 12:58PM | 0 recs
Re: Dood, come on!

See Tony Rezko, William Ayers, Nadhmi Auchi, Jeremiah Wright, and others.  His social dalliances may not turn heads in Hyde Park or Union Square but most of the nation has its eyebrows raised.

by BPK80 2008-04-27 01:05PM | 0 recs
Social Dalliances

I'm sure there's lots of 'tut-tutting' as well.  I feel like I've wandered into a Jane Austen story.

by Mostly 2008-04-27 01:45PM | 0 recs
Re: Dood, come on!

social dalliances

I'd ask what you're implying, but I'm not sure you get it yourself.

by BlueinColorado 2008-04-27 03:05PM | 0 recs
Re: Dood, come on!

Of course I wouldn't understand the meaning of my own words because I am an uneducated change-hating Clinton voter from Pennsylvania.  

I would add a snark tag except that I have no confidence in my ability to spell "snark" correctly.  My gosh, I'm so apt to misuse words.  I really need to go back to the third grade and get an education.  

by BPK80 2008-04-27 07:41PM | 0 recs
Re: Dood, come on!

You forgot "bitter".

by BlueinColorado 2008-04-27 08:06PM | 0 recs
Re: Dood, come on!

And you forgot to put your period inside the quotation marks, Smarty-pants.  :-P

by BPK80 2008-04-27 08:18PM | 0 recs
Re: There are links supporting

Just because the writer does not agree with or support Obama, does not make her a racist. She believes Clinton is the better candidate. Race has nothing to do with it.

by bird5 2008-04-27 10:23AM | 0 recs
Re: There are links supporting

I think the racism charges come from previous diaries, some of which were deleted and I believe the diarist banned once, not this diary specifically.

by Lost Thought 2008-04-27 12:01PM | 0 recs
Re: these 5 just gave mojo

Those would probably be people that remember the racist diary she was banned for.

by interestedbystander 2008-04-27 12:31PM | 0 recs
Please add me to your list. n/t

by bookish 2008-04-27 12:40PM | 0 recs
Re: There are links supporting

Since when is it unprofessional for a journalist to point out facts? I realize that stuff like that might not work too well on MSNBC but to be an actual journalist it should be what they do.

by Pagan Power 2008-04-27 02:55PM | 0 recs
Re: these 5 just gave mojo

And one bonehead gave you a troll rating for pointing that out.

by Pagan Power 2008-04-27 02:57PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Look, Ayers as recently as 2001 said he was glad he had set bombs, and only wished he had done more.

That is, he is an unrepentant terrorist.

Let me repeat: unrepentant, unrepentant, UNREPENTANT.

I hope one of these styles will catch your attention.

I don't know how anyone with integrity would not shun such a person. I can't imagine myself even shaking his hand if I knew who he was and what he stood for. And it means nothing to me that others would choose to do so -- that would be a sign only of their own failure in moral integrity.

At bare minimum, Obama did a lot more than merely shaking his hand. He worked alongside Ayers for many years. He is, apparently, by the account of his own campaign, "friendly" with Ayers. The kickoff event for Obama's run for the state Senate was held at Ayers' apartment.

Why it isn't fair to hold Obama to account for such an association is beyond me.

by frankly0 2008-04-27 08:36AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

He takes the declaration of independence more seriously than most but the founders would certainly have understood where he was coming from. They were labeled as terrorists by the crown.

by heresjohnny 2008-04-27 08:38AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Please.

The Weather Underground was involved in bombings that killed people, and paralyzed others. They went underground because of the infamous Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, in which a bomb, filled with nails, and intended to be set in a non-Commissioned Officers' dance, instead exploded while being assembled, killing 3 members of the Weather Underground.

This is the kind of ugly act that the Weather Underground was engaged in. And Ayers was one of the top leaders of that movement.

Excuse me if I find that act vicious and unconscionable in the context of a stable democracy. Pretending that it was somehow the equivalent to what the founding fathers did is simply beyond the pale.

Anybody who can look at those acts and say, as did Ayers, that he only wishes he had done more, has had any sense of morality so corrupted that he should be treated as pariah. I simply don't care what he has done that might be a positive -- you don't get around what amounts to involvement in murder by performing some good works. That some politicians in Chicago, and many academics across the nation are just fine with Ayers, even in the face of his lack of repentance, says at least as much about their moral integrity as it does about Ayers'.

by frankly0 2008-04-27 09:01AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

I know exactly who they are.

by heresjohnny 2008-04-27 09:05AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

You sure don't act like you know who they are and what they did.

Founding Fathers they are not.

They were grandiose and vicious two-bit terrorists who murdered innocent people.

by frankly0 2008-04-27 09:08AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

I do. In fact I've read books and seen movies about them.

by heresjohnny 2008-04-27 09:10AM | 0 recs
KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE

is NEVER justified..

by architek 2008-04-27 09:25AM | 0 recs
Well shit they never targeted civilians

but if you're going to say that then you absolutely can't support Clinton.

by heresjohnny 2008-04-27 09:26AM | 0 recs
so riddle me this

why were some pardon by Bill Clinton then?

by kindthoughts 2008-04-27 09:54AM | 0 recs
Re: so riddle me this

They were pardoned after spending some time in jail. They paid their debt to society, unlike Ayers and his wife.

by bird5 2008-04-27 10:09AM | 0 recs
Re: so riddle me this

No, they didn't - he let them out of jail.  Turned them loose.

by Mostly 2008-04-27 02:05PM | 0 recs
Re: so riddle me this

Amazing -- so Clinton overturns the convictions of convicted murderers with a pardon, and that's okay -- but Obama merely spends some time in the vicinity of someone who was never convicted of murder, and that's not okay.

Is the shameless hypocrisy of Clinton supporters never gonna end?

by Aris Katsaris 2008-04-27 03:53PM | 0 recs
Re: he saw movies!

I have more information about them than the people complaining apparently. In fact I was at a screening of the recently released documentary (few years ago) in Chicago and Ayers was there answering questions.  

by heresjohnny 2008-04-27 04:07PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101
Apart from an apparently accidental premature detonation of a bomb in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion which claimed the lives of three of their own members, no one was ever harmed in their extensive bombing campaign, as they were always careful to issue warnings in advance to ensure a safe evacuation of the area prior to detonation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_(organization)
by politicsmatters 2008-04-27 09:14AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

this is a mind boggling comment to me. The Brinks robbery--weather underground--somebody died for sure.

by linfar 2008-04-27 11:57AM | 0 recs
That's true

though it wasn't a bombing, and the two members that were convicted in that particular heist are the ones that your candidate's husband pardoned.

by bookish 2008-04-28 10:09AM | 0 recs
Re: thrsr 3 genuises gave mojo

I just gave politicsmatters extra mojo for distributing the truth instead of trying to promote a smear job and mis-information. On the other hand, I'm very tempted to TR you for trying to distort and smear community members simply because you disagree with them.

by Lost Thought 2008-04-27 12:14PM | 0 recs
Thank you.

by Lost Thought 2008-04-27 01:33PM | 0 recs
That will be so helpful...

in the GE-he only associates with the MOST careful terrorists who use super safe bombing techniques.

I really don't get the rabid nature of Obama supporters-it's not about how you can justify anything he does, it about how those things will be used by the Republicans in a nation so easily manipulated by cries of patriotism and terror and who loves America and waves a bigger flag. in the real world this stuff matters and is used against politicians of which Obama happens to be a rather untested one.

Oh well, so we lose another election, that's one thing but if Dems get painted as some radical party that doesn't love America, that has long term effects. We had such an opportunity this year and now we're setting up a battle that has disaster written all over it.

by berkshiretrueblue 2008-04-27 06:20PM | 0 recs
And Hillary's husband pardoned two

members who killed a couple of Nyack police officers. Either her running mate is as guilty of bad judgment as Obama, or there's no foul here. Can't have it both ways. Hell, at least Obama didn't absolve anyone of their crimes.

by bookish 2008-04-27 12:44PM | 0 recs
He was most fortunate in

that his father was who he was.  Class counts - even in terrorist acts.

by Xanthe 2008-04-27 01:12PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

You have a very twisted sense of patriotism.

by Pagan Power 2008-04-27 03:25PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

William Ayers is not on the ballot.

Let me repeat: not on the ballot, not on the ballot, NOT ON THE BALLOT.

That was fun.

Don't you wish this blog was set up for color so we could to it in red and stuff?

You know who Susan Rosenberg is, don't you?

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4 330128&page=2

by BlueinColorado 2008-04-27 11:59AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Why are we still trying to fight this battle, 40 some odd years since? Ayers may have a very shady past, but guess what, almost everyone who lived through the 60's has skeletons from that period.

The fact remains, he is NOW a respected member of the community. I doubt his students see him as a terrorist. I doubt the kids whose schools he (and Obama and a whole host of other people) improved consider him a terrorist. Does every person who served on that Board over the years deserve your scorn? Are you ready to say every person who has worked with Ayers to improve Chicago is inherently unfit to be President?

You are condemning charity with your argument. You are saying that arguments from the 60's are more important than helping the less fortunate now.

I hope you are pleased with yourselves.

by Lost Thought 2008-04-27 12:09PM | 0 recs
LOL - what an appropriate name

for the associates of Barack Obama....

"Killerspin"

by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 08:24AM | 0 recs
BO has also been breathtakingly

misleading about his relationship with Tony Rezko.

In the January debate with Clinton he told America that he "had only done about 5 hours of legal work" for Rezko - certainly suggesting that he barely knew the guy.

Well, that was a lie, too.

by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 08:26AM | 0 recs
Re: BO has also been breathtakingly

Hmm. Well, I suppose we should drag Watergate back up, or hey! Even better! How about the fact Clinton bullied an eleven year old girl and accused her of faking having been raped.

That's not misleading for the purpose of political gain at all, either. Right? Should be fair to bring up and use against her, according to the logic I've been seeing you employ.

by ragekage 2008-04-27 08:31AM | 0 recs
Re: BO has also been breathtakingly

Since we have people who love to run by and troll rate sometimes, I feel it necessary to point out that last statement was snark.

by ragekage 2008-04-27 08:32AM | 0 recs
Sorry, I don't follow your logic.

My comment relates to something your candidate has done/said recently and is in keeping with a pattern of comments he has made - all of them, "incorrect" and not true.

How does Watergate relate to Hillary Clinton by way of analogy?

by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 08:54AM | 0 recs
I think he meant

Whitewater.

Shouldn't we Obama people be dragging up every single plausible and implausible Clinton scandal, considering this diary and other smear jobs like it?

And if not, why not?

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 09:00AM | 0 recs
Re: I think he meant

No. Actually the righties can bring up Watergate as well.

by heresjohnny 2008-04-27 09:30AM | 0 recs
Re: I think he meant

Clinton's persona has been national and well known for over a decade.  People know who she is, flaws and all.  

No one really knows anything about Barack Obama except that he's a svelt man who gives soaring rhetorical speeches about pretentious nothings.  As we examine him more closely, we see that the "messenger of change" outfit was an illusion and the man behind it is a very shady politics-as-usual piece of the decadent Chicago machine.

by BPK80 2008-04-27 10:14AM | 0 recs
Re: I think he meant

I know you all think Richard Mellon Scaife has suddenly turned into a Hillary fan but you are sadly mistaken.  The VRWC wants her so bad because they have not even begun to attack her, and they know they can attack hard.  

Here's a short list off the top of my head:

- Watergate firing

  • Communist ties
  • Wal-Mart experience
  • Healthcare debacle
  • Clinton Wealth (2000-2008)
  • FALN connections
  • Weather Underground connections

And the truth is that Hillary knows no defense for this besides "fight." She is not conciliatory and for political reasons cannot be contrite.  

And, she's given up on more than half the country supporting her.  Soooo, we will be stuck again fighting for Pennsylvania and Ohio rather than trying to fight for fundamental progressive change.  Sorry folks, Hillary is a d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r.

by zadura 2008-04-27 11:01AM | 0 recs
Re: I think he meant

My point is that Hillary Clinton has not, in fact, survived the worst that the Republican attack machine (and its pilotless drones online and on talk radio) can dish out. We will learn what the worst really means if she is nominated. The Commie law firm will be only the beginning. Many tempting targets--from Bill's little-examined fund-raising and business activities during the past seven years to the prospect of his hanging around the White House in some as yet undefined role for another four or eight years to whatever leftovers from the Clinton "scandals" of the nineteen-nineties can be retrieved from the dumpster and reheated--remain to be machine-gunned. The whole Clinton marital soap opera, obviously off limits within the Democratic fold, will offer ample material for what Obama calls "distractions." To take the most obvious example, the former President's social life since leaving the White House will become, if not "fair game," big game--and some of these right-wing dirtbags are already hiring bearers and trying on pith helmets for the safari. Is this a "there" where the Democratic Party really wants to go?

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/he ndrikhertzberg/2008/04/after-pennsylva.h tml

by BlueinColorado 2008-04-27 12:21PM | 0 recs
Hell, they've been waiting for 8 years

to resurface Mark Rich. And if you don't think they're going to tie every single one of Bill's improprieties (or appearance of) to her, you're living in a fantasy world. If Hillary has been doing favors for Obama by dredging up non-issues to confront him with, he hasn't been doing the same favor for her, so if she somehow obtains (not wins, obviously) the nomination, she'll get a face full of it during the GE.

by bookish 2008-04-28 10:20AM | 0 recs
Re: Sorry, I don't follow your logic.

Indeed, Whitewater. Damn all these stupid "gates"

by ragekage 2008-04-27 09:04AM | 0 recs
Re: Sorry, I don't follow your logic.

I suppose the big difference could be that Rezkogate has never been thoroughly investigated, while Whitewater has been, with nothing found nor any charges filed.

So, go ahead, Spend your time looking the other way about your chosen candidate's possible achille's heels while focusing on the other candidates well known and investigated to the nth degree past.

Your time will be so well spent.

And, as an added perk, your efforts will be so helpful in defeating McCain in the GE.

by emsprater 2008-04-27 09:56AM | 0 recs
Re: Sorry, I don't follow your logic.

No, the media's given upon Rezko, they don't think there's anything there, buddy. Sorry.

I'm saying this is exactly why there shouldn't be another debate, and you're tactically agreeing with me there. Kudos to you, sir. Obama is much better served getting out and meeting the people of Indiana one on one.

by ragekage 2008-04-27 10:06AM | 0 recs
Re: Sorry, I don't follow your logic.

The media gave up on Whitewater long before the GOP did.  It was , at best, a concocted invented scandal for the benefit of the folks Obama now says has 'good ideas'.

I could agree with you about the debate issue, especially if I were an Obama supporter.  It is best to keep him on a short leash so he doesn't open his mouth too much, never know what might come out these days.

by emsprater 2008-04-27 10:39AM | 0 recs
Re: Sorry, I don't follow your logic.

shrug

Whatever words you want to use to justify it, fine. The frontrunner doesn't, and shouldn't, lower himself to accommodate those he's winning against.

by ragekage 2008-04-27 12:34PM | 0 recs
Re: Sorry, I don't follow your logic.

Shrug indeed.

Presenting oneself in a public forum where actual contrast can be made between one and one's opponents is never 'accommodating' of anyone, except maybe the voting populace who are getting the brush off by Obama.

Allowing folks to know more about you is always a good thing, unless you have no substance.  Then it's best to avoid or hide from situations where contrast and truth can become an issue, you know, like a debate.  

by emsprater 2008-04-28 02:03PM | 0 recs
Re: BO has also been breathtakingly

Why do I get this feeling you have a dark room in your house with pictures and snippets of Obama, Rezko, Ayers, and Wright up on the walls, parsing through every article, booby trapped with explosives with a closed circuit camera just in case the FBI comes snooping around.

You are Gean Hackman in Enemy of the State

by obamaforprez 2008-04-27 08:32AM | 0 recs
Re: BO has also been breathtakingly

It's Gene Hackman. And why do I get the feeling you can't absorb facts contrary to your ideas any better than you can spell.

by linfar 2008-04-27 08:35AM | 0 recs
Re: BO has also been breathtakingly

Attacks on spelling?

by heresjohnny 2008-04-27 08:39AM | 0 recs
Re: BO has also been breathtakingly

Why do I get the feeling when Hillary concedes you are this guy?

Photobucket

I can do this all night sweetie!

by obamaforprez 2008-04-27 08:41AM | 0 recs
I consider that a ban-able comment.

I have been called a lot - but never something so distasteful as your comment.

I ask you to remove it.  

by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 08:48AM | 0 recs
Re: BO has also been breathtakingly

And this is helpful or better than linfar how exactly? Sorry, you get a hide for that.

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 08:50AM | 0 recs
Thank you.

by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 08:53AM | 0 recs
Re: BO has also been breathtakingly

I agree.  Two wrongs don't make a right.

by ProgressiveDL 2008-04-27 10:20AM | 0 recs
Re: BO has also been breathtakingly

As a Hokie myself, and someone who lived through that escapade because it happened in my town, that was atrocious, sir.

by ragekage 2008-04-27 09:05AM | 0 recs
This is very upsetting..

Just a year and a half ago, I was at Morris hall giving a seminar, met some of the folks, one of whom actually were killed whom I personally for over decade and half..I cannot believe somebody actually wrote this..I sincerely hope this person apologizes. This back and forth nastiness had degenerated to this unbelievable depth.

by louisprandtl 2008-04-27 09:17AM | 0 recs
This comment is unbelievably apalling...

I happened to personally know Prof Librescu, a great researcher who was killed by this maniac. This campaign is getting so overwhelmingly nasty that this is unbelievable. I sincerely hope you apologize and move on to better things like working to elect Democrats come November.

by louisprandtl 2008-04-27 09:10AM | 0 recs
Re: BO has also been breathtakingly
I don't understand....why is this person allowed to put this up on this diary?  
This is not funny.....get it down, this person should be banned...
Think of the kids that were killed by this guy, whoever did this sure has sick humor...get it off..
by NHLight 2008-04-27 09:13AM | 0 recs
Re: BO has also been breathtakingly

He said he did 5 hours of legal work for churches working with Rezko because Clinton brought up him working for Rezko as a lawyer in the debate. Maybe your attacks would be taken seriously if you presented the whole truth of what was said by both sides.

by Obama Independent 2008-04-27 09:44AM | 0 recs
I don't remember anything about churches

in his debate comment.  Link?

by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 09:50AM | 0 recs
Re: I don't remember anything about churches

CLINTON: Bad for America, and I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Resco, in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago.

OBAMA: I'm happy to respond. Here's what happened: I was an associate at a law firm that represented a church group that had partnered with this individual to do a project and I did about five hours worth of work on this joint project. That's what she's referring to.

Now, it's fine for her to throw that out, but the larger reason that I think this debate is important is because we do have to trust our leaders and what they say. That is important, because if we can't, then we're not going to be able to mobilize the American people behind bringing about changes in health care reform, bringing about changes in how we're going to put people back to work, changing our trade laws. And consistency matters. Truthfulness during campaigns makes a difference.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/21/d ebate.transcript/index.html

There is quite a bit of talking between when she made her charge and he had a chance to answer it but those are direct quotes from the transcript.

by Obama Independent 2008-04-27 12:08PM | 0 recs
Re: reality interlude

The only reality interlude necessary is for you. Read my response just above. A specific charge was made about representing Rezko as a lawyer and a specific answer given that he wasn't Rezko's lawyer but a lawyer for a church and he only did a few hours of work on the case.

by Obama Independent 2008-04-27 01:15PM | 0 recs
Re: u r deluded if u buy that

Yes I am reality challenged by having actually watched the debate and read the transcript. If facts make me delusional then I'm guilty.

by Obama Independent 2008-04-27 01:20PM | 0 recs
Re: BO has also been breathtakingly

What is Hillary Clinton's relationship to Hugh and Tony Rodham? And how much did they receive for lobby their brother-in-law for those pardons?

Who is Peter Giustra?

Ron Burkle?

Peter Paul?

Have any of the Saudi and Kuwaiti royals who gave to the Clinton library also funded al Qaeda or the Sunni insurgents in Iraq that are killing American soldiers?

(Before anybody gets their undies in a bunch, remember, you made the rules.... "serious questions....")

by BlueinColorado 2008-04-27 12:02PM | 0 recs
Re: what?

um.... it was a joke... notice the reference to their brother-in-law?

by BlueinColorado 2008-04-27 12:19PM | 0 recs
Re: what?

The funny thing is I don't even think he knows what you're talking about.  I'll help:

CASH FOR PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS

by Mostly 2008-04-27 01:52PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Oh my, what an awful terrorist communist group the Annenberg Challenge is, They FUND SCHOOLS!

Announced in December 1993 at the White House, Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg's $500 million "Challenge to the Nation" became the largest public/private endeavor in U.S. history dedicated to improving public schools.

Eighteen locally designed Challenge projects operated in 35 states, funding 2,400 public schools that served more than 1.5 million students and 80,000 teachers. Over 1,600 businesses, foundations, colleges and universities, and individuals contributed $600 million in private matching funds.

Barack better renounce and repudiate right away!

by feliks 2008-04-27 08:27AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Yes, clearly we can't have a Democratic nominee that worked to improve public schools.

by Obama Independent 2008-04-27 09:44AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Exactly.  We must have all public school teachers be based on how long they are there, not how good they are or how much they care about their students.  I mean, sheesh, pay someone based on performance?  Psh, no thank you.

/snark

by ProgressiveDL 2008-04-27 10:21AM | 0 recs
That's not the point.

BO claims to have very little knowledge/association with Ayers, when that is obviously not the case.

Some people will call that lying.  And it appears to be habitual on BO's part.

And, if you want to talk about the Challenge and BO's work on behalf of its goals, I've read that he did very little of substance relative to that post.

It clearly was just another BO resume builder and not representative of any true commitment to its cause.

by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 09:53AM | 0 recs
Re: That's not the point.

I'm confused. Obama is being pilloried for having worked "closely" with Ayers on the Annenberg Challenge. But then you say he "did very little of substance relative to that post"

so what is it? He's damned if he did AND damned if he didn't?

by feliks 2008-04-27 10:14AM | 0 recs
Dooh...he got the appointment...

because of his association with the Ayers family.  

That means he had a close association - you don't get these kinds of jobs my walking through the door with no one knowing you.

The fact that he then turned the appointment into a resume padder only is a totally separate issue.

So...to repeat:

1.  Obama and Ayers and Ayers family are tighter than BO has acknowledged (e.g., he lies).

2.  And BO has "worked" on padding his resume rather than doing the heavy lifting his entire career.

Two separate, but individually damning points.

by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 10:21AM | 0 recs
Re: Dooh...he got the appointment...

Can you back up the statement that Ayers got Obama appointed to that position?  I'd really be interested in seeing that evidence.

by map 2008-04-27 11:51AM | 0 recs
Re: Dooh...he got the appointment...

Of course they can't. And note they never quite accuse him of anything but instead fall back on phrases like some would see it that way. Because after all they are reasonable, they just passively present the information. There is no agenda. They are just giving out information so that other people can leap to the conclusions.

by Obama Independent 2008-04-27 12:12PM | 0 recs
by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 12:34PM | 0 recs
Re: Dooh...he got the appointment...

Ha!  You have to be joking.  That reads like six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

I especially love this part.

 Coincidentally, or not, Sidley had been long time outside counsel to Commonwealth Edison. The senior Sidley partner who was their key outside counsel, Howard Trienens, was a member of the board of trustees of Northwestern alongside Tom Ayers (and Sidley partner Newton Minow, too).  Coincidentally, or not, Bernardine Dohrn worked at Sidley also, hired there in the late 80s many contend through the intervention of Tom Ayers, even though she is not a member of the bar (as far as I can tell) because of her past jail time for Weather Underground activities.  

 It is possible that Tom Ayers introduced Obama to Sidley.  That might have happened if Obama had met up with Bill and Tom and John Ayers prior to attending law school when Obama's DCP group was supporting the reform act passed in 1988.  Or it might have been Dohrn who introduced Obama to the law firm.  It is a little unclear from her CV but Dohrn may have still been at Sidley when Obama was there since she left sometime in 1988 for public interest work prior to her starting a position at Northwestern, again hired there by some accounts because of the influence of Tom Ayers and his Sidley counsel Trienens.  My best guess is that it would have been Tom Ayers who vetted Obama to Sidley and that would have helped him get the attention of someone like Newton Minow.


Too funny.  I also like how they link to a WSJ article at the beginning that has nothing to do with Ayers, and then says the WSJ reporter got it wrong.  After all, the writer of that blog post is an expert on Obama and Chicago political connections right?  Well... actually no.  In their own words...
When I started looking at this question a few weeks ago

Don't let that stop you from endlessly repeating the smear though.  Pathetic.

by map 2008-04-27 12:49PM | 0 recs
Yay! Silver bullet! Toast!

Well no, not really.

When Blackwell sought backing for his table tennis tournament in 2002, other politicians, including U.S. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, offered support for the event. [...]

High-dollar tourism grants from the state are often reserved for events like the Breeders' Cup, an internationally known horse race that brought 50,000 to the Chicago area in 2002. But Blackwell and his allies promised good attendance, hotel bookings and international attention. Today, Illinois Tourism Director Jan Kosner lauds the state's decision to support the table tennis tourneys and dismisses the role that letters from politicians play in the grant-making process.

Oh teh noez! Not a silver bullet.

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 08:27AM | 0 recs
Re: Yay! Silver bullet! Toast!

And Durbin and Daley are big Obama sponsors, supporters, etc.

by linfar 2008-04-27 08:33AM | 0 recs
Lin Farley

Get a grip. No seriously get a fucking grip this is such nonsense. Why don't we start talking about Vince Foster, Ron Brown, Huma, Whitewater, cattle futures, Arkansas state troopers,etc, etc, if you want to go that route.

We can also start talking about you and your lack of professionalism.

by cranberry 2008-04-27 08:43AM | 0 recs
So?

Seriously, so what? There's nothing here - this is promoting local business. How many Democrats are you going to destroy before it's all over, linfar?

Coincidentally, I'm a New Yorker. Do you really want some diaries about Hillary's backers in our various machines? She endorsed, for example, the indicted head of the Brooklyn machine, Clarence Norman, who is now in jail for embezzlement. Hillary donated to Diane Gordon, a state Assembly member censured for violence against a female employee and currently under FBI investigation for public corruption; seems there's videotape of her asking for a house in return for budget items.

Another prominent Hillary backer, Efraim Gonzales, Senator of the Bronx, has already been indicted several times, and just got a fresh one from the Feds - again, public corruption. He was chair of her 2006 Bronx re-election committee and maxed out to her campaign.

That's just off the top of my head, mind you. And you talk about table tennis, a program that the Illinois tourism authority now thinks is awesome?

Do you really want to have this conversation? Who benefits from this?

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 08:46AM | 0 recs
Jumping the shark?

This note will likley be ignored but take it for what it's worth.  Many here like to point out the echo chamber nature of KOS.  While an Obama supporter I come here to see some diffrent perspectives on this nomination race.  I would just point out the fact that this site is starting to have a "jumped the shark" feel.  Recently comming here is like going to hillaryis44 or taylormars.  If you notice, right now at least 7 of the top 20 diaries are attack spots on Obama.  I'm fine with this, it does not hurt, frustrate or upset me.  I would just point this out bacause by contrast at KOS 1 of the current top 20 attack Clinton.  Perhaps it's time to take a step back and talk about the reasons you support your canidate more rather than tryin to demonize the likley democratic canidate.  ..

just saying..

by nextgen 2008-04-27 08:28AM | 0 recs
It's the spinoff of Hillaryis44

Lin Farley posts over there as well and her racist rants are outrageous. I mean this is a former AP writer here that is doing this.  Is she so independently wealthy that she doesn't feel that her credibility is important?  

Mydd needs to clean up their act.

by cranberry 2008-04-27 08:35AM | 0 recs
Obama supporters and their bury brigades

If you disagree, you can post your own views.

You OFTEN do, as shown by your bury brigades when Hillary supporters post something important.

Statistical analysis might show some interesting trends in diary timing, I think.

by architek 2008-04-27 09:29AM | 0 recs
LinFar is not a racist.

Just because she supports HRC does not make her one.

Otherwise, more than half of the voters in this primary are racists...and I KNOW that you don't believe that....do you?

by CoyoteCreek 2008-04-27 09:55AM | 0 recs
Re: LinFar is not a racist.

I haven't read all her other diaries, but this diary definitely does not make her into a racist.  And while I disagree on the importance of the connection with Ayers, more information is always better for voters.

At the same time, I still haven't seen any real proof that Ayers personally hired Obama or cut his checks or any of that.  And if we are so concerned about Ayers being unrepentant, why aren't we hammering the University of Illinois for hiring him?

I think that politics pretty much demands some bad associations on both sides, which is why I don't hammer Hillary or McCain for people they know or have worked with or are even friendly with.  I care much more about what they say and do.  

by ProgressiveDL 2008-04-27 10:26AM | 0 recs
Re: LinFar is not a racist.

Did you read the typical white people diary that she  was banned for - it was horribly racist, and it's a theme she keeps returning to.  She's been more careful recently not to go over the edge, but there's no doubt in my mind she is a racist.

by interestedbystander 2008-04-27 12:42PM | 0 recs
Re: LinFar is not a racist.

No, she just quotes racists (Ms. Mikulski several days ago) and says that we should treat their political opinions as legitimate.

by rfahey22 2008-04-28 04:33AM | 0 recs
Re: ANYONE WHO CALLS ANOTHER

Huh. I would shun the racists.

But I'm a cultist.

by BlueinColorado 2008-04-27 03:50PM | 0 recs
Re: AND TOO BUSY CALLING OTHERS

I think you'll find the number of people to whom that word applies is quite small.  There's only about two regular diarists.

It's not 'everyone who supports Hillary'.  It's not even a majority.

by Mostly 2008-04-27 08:02PM | 0 recs
Attn:NextGeneration and all Obama supporters

I am a strong Clinton supporter. I sincerely believe these diarists and the majority of those who pile on to recommend them are not Clinton supporters or Democrats.  (notice how few of them can or do write anything positive about Clinton)

These are Republican trolls who get their rocks off, in the depths of their post-Bush impotence and wost year ever, attempting to further divide our party and disarm one of our most powerful tools, the progressive blog community.  These are Young Republicans who end their sessions here to masturbate to their poster of Ann Coulter and smile about how clever and devisious they are.

Some, precious few, may actually be rabid Clinton (or for that matter Obama) supporters.  But I strongly suspect the majority of assholes here and at DK, and the worst most insulting of them, are not Democrats at all.

Why is it, on the ground, in our workplaces and classrooms and amongst family and friends, we don't encouter the same sort of dogged fanatacism and filth spewing?  Why do the vast majority of real life Clinton and Obama supporters cringe at criticisms of either candidate?  

Those of us who are REAL Democrats (as in actual real people who are in fact Democrats -- no litmus tests please)  need to figure out a way to overcome the "Chaos Plan" -- we are being worked over by these asshats, duped, led around in circles like kittens with strings.  

by grassrootsorganizer 2008-04-28 04:05AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Uhh, you know the Republicans associate the Clintons with the Weathermen more than Obama, right? It is just convenient they can use those attacks either way now.

Now, I want you to answer those same hard questions about Clinton's implicit support of the Weathermen and their activities. Does Senator Clinton and her husband support killing innocent babies and kittens, as the Weathermen have been rumored to have blown up and then eaten? Is that why President Clinton issued the pardon he did?

by ragekage 2008-04-27 08:29AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Linfar, thank you for your thoughtful diary. You've once again managed to make this a debate about this issues and not guilt by association.

Obama is an evil man hellbent on helping his terrorist friends. Clearly, this is not a democratic primary anymore. Its just one Democrat running against a terrorist and table tennis sympathizer.

I hope that this makes the rec list. Everyone on myDD should see this, because there arn't enough shitty diaries about this bullshit already.

by BlueGAinDC 2008-04-27 08:30AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

We have to stop the table tennis sympathizers.

by Drewid 2008-04-27 08:33AM | 0 recs
I have an idea.

Let's all recommend this and send it to the rec list. Linfar obviously stands behind this, as much as her recent claims that "200 white men died in the WTC", so it should be given maximum exposure.

What say you, folks?

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 08:35AM | 0 recs
Re: I have an idea.

I was kind of worried that this would make the rec list anyway. I mean, I would love to expose this filth for what it is, but I'm afraid putting it on the rec list is just another day at myDD. This is relatively tame compared to some of the other shit that makes the list.

by BlueGAinDC 2008-04-27 08:49AM | 0 recs
I'm sure it will make the list.

The Hillaryis44 email ring will no doubt see to that.

But this is such an embarrassing screed even by linfar's low standards that I really am tempted.

Seriously, table tennis? The Annenberg Center as a cypto-terrorist org? Where the hell are we, Free Republic?

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 08:54AM | 0 recs
Why this?

Amazing.  Fox looks so tame compared to this.  Nice take on our probable nominee.  What is the point of this diary, to change hearts and minds in Indiana?  Guam?  North Carolina?  To affect decision-making by members of this site?  Maybe to scar him further for the GE out of a sense of revenge?  I can't figure out what this post expects to accomplish.

by mady 2008-04-27 08:31AM | 0 recs
Re: Why this?

uh, gee, would you consider the truth as an appropriate response?

by linfar 2008-04-27 08:42AM | 0 recs
Re: Why this?

I would prefer the truth not YOUR interpretation of the truth. You should know better you are a journalist.

by cranberry 2008-04-27 08:45AM | 0 recs
Re: Why this?

Perhaps "WAS a journalist", would be a more accurate statement.

by fogiv 2008-04-27 10:19AM | 0 recs
Re: Why this?

Burn!

by ProgressiveDL 2008-04-27 10:28AM | 0 recs
Re: Why this?

I could, but will not, write a long diary dissecting Hillary Clinton's ties and imagined ties, abuses and imagined abuses through her career.  Theres is enough there for a book.  I do not do this.  I will not do this.  Without going into whether your version of truth actually is, or is simply cherry-picking odds and ends to make some sort of judgment, I still go back to what is the point of this?  I don't want to post that Hillary diary.  It defeats the purpose of this site which is getting Democrats elected.  As long as she has the smallest chance in hell of being the candidate (and it gets smaller and smaller) I will not do that kind of hack job on her.  Why do you want to do this, then?

by mady 2008-04-27 09:07AM | 0 recs
Re: Why this?

Yeah--It always amazes me that the truth about Obama is labled as a smear tactic.  

If I were an Obama fan I would want him to drop out before he gets boiled alive by the Republicans.  Mostly I want a Democrat in the White House, and Obama cannot survive what the Republicans can do with the feast of material he feeds them.  Hillary wil have a hard time as well, but I think she stands the better chance.

However, if Obama gets the nomination and when he loses the general he will have no one but himself to blame.

by The Smoldering Crone 2008-04-27 08:49AM | 0 recs
What feast?

Hillary has fed the Republican machine the feasts of my last seven thanksgivings and it ain't pretty.  

Please explain to me how one wins when more than half of the country hates you.

by cranberry 2008-04-27 08:51AM | 0 recs
You forgot something.

I can't believe even the diarist over looked this. Table tennis - ping pong - is a sport very popular in Communist China.

Supporting ping pong is just evidence that Obama wants to turn this country into a communist dictatorship - just like China. I'm surprised linfar, as a, cough, "journalist", missed that glaringly obvious connection.

Ignore the red peril at your own risk! You don't understand the danger! Obama must be stopped!

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 09:04AM | 0 recs
Re: You forgot something.

Hyperbole is an essential tactic for Barack Obama apologists.  You use it fairly well.  

by BPK80 2008-04-27 10:18AM | 0 recs
In the face of this measured

and objective diary, I guess I see your point.

/S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by bookish 2008-04-28 10:35AM | 0 recs
Re: Why this?

No, we'll have Hillary and her crazed supporters- and diaries like this one- to blame if the Republicans keep the White House

by wrb 2008-04-27 09:51AM | 0 recs
Re: Why this?

> However, if Obama gets the nomination and when he loses the general he will have no one but himself to blame. <

They are already setting it up so he can blame Hillary for his defeat in November.....
It will be all her fault for pointing out that he isn't perfect and running a campaign against him. "I would have won, but SHE hurt me...."

by georgiast 2008-04-27 10:04AM | 0 recs
what is not known

about Obama, and what the obama campaign is not prepared to address forcefully, is unfortunately the gift that will keep on giving to republicans.

I just get the feeling that we don't know Obama, and this kind of stuff is tip of the iceberg.  And on top of this, he doesn't want to debate.  Whether it is true or not, Obama gives the impression now he's got something more to hide.

by 4justice 2008-04-27 09:01AM | 0 recs
Speaking of hiding stuff

why are you uprating comments that call Obama "filth", or are racist?

Can you answer that question?

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 09:12AM | 0 recs
off-topic,

we're not talking about me and the context in which I uprate comments by people who abusively
TR people, or make equally insulting remarks about HRC.

I'm not hiding anything, so don't change the subject.

this diary is about Obama and whether he will debate or not, and what the perception is going to be if he doesn't.

by 4justice 2008-04-27 10:12PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Obama is the Great Pretender, enlisting his surrogates - Clyburn, Brazile, Pelosi (under the guise of uncommitted) to exploit the African-Americans in this country.  Rather than acknowledge his fatal political flaws and find the "right" African-American politician to represent the REAL struggle in their lives - as being part of their history - these enciteful party leaders bring untold harm to millions of citizens and voters.  As they have decided to disenfrancise Florida and Michigan to "throw the election" to suit their own personal agendas, it is the African-Americans who will be set back 50 years before they can claim a "rightful" heir.  Hopefully, they will wake up before it's too late and understand that Stephanie, Sheila, Maxine, Maya, David, and Michael among others know that Hillary Clinton will help them realize their dreams sooner rather than later.  We pray for justice.  Superdelegates must not cave to the intimidation, threats, and blackmail.  Rise up and claim what is rightfully yours - and it's not Obama.

by curiosityhasme 2008-04-27 09:02AM | 0 recs
Shorter you

Hopefully blacks will gratefully accept that it's not their turn. It's Hillary's turn.

Um, no.

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 09:06AM | 0 recs
Re: Shorter you

hehe, I think I like you MBNYC

by cranberry 2008-04-27 09:14AM | 0 recs
Heh.

Thanks :-)

I'm not even black, I'm just heavily involved in black politics, have been for years. And the paternalistic crap I'm seeing here disgusts me. Black people have options, including sitting this one out - which they will if Hillary gets in.

For too many blacks, Democrats are those people that show up every four years to tell them how important it is that they vote for this white guy over that other white guy. That's not going to happen this year.

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 09:22AM | 0 recs
Re: Heh.

I'm one of those black folks.

BTW, how do we  get diary privileges? I really want to write about my experience on the ground in Indiana here.

by cranberry 2008-04-27 09:27AM | 0 recs
I'm not sure.

But if you're posting comments, you should be able to post diaries, I think. Check your sidebar.

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 09:44AM | 0 recs
Re: Heh.

Have you been signed up long Cranberry?  There might be a short "waiting period" before you can post a diary.

In any event, I look forward to reading it.

by fogiv 2008-04-27 10:23AM | 0 recs
Re: Heh.

I think you have to wait a week after registering.  Welcome to MyDD.

by interestedbystander 2008-04-27 11:44AM | 0 recs
Re: Shorter you

Jim Crow and Brown vs. Board of Education:  If you didn't experience it or your family didn't (as in Obama's case) then you DO NOT represent the African-American struggle in this country.  All Obama knows about the American struggle is the southside of Chicago, now presently engaged in street warfare - the worst in our nation's history - as he voted not to give police more power against gangs.  Elect Obama and you'll have a neighborhood just like the southside of Chicago coming to your neighborhood near you.  What a selling point.  But then when you're as anti-American as he and his wife are, who should be surprised?  

by curiosityhasme 2008-04-27 09:28AM | 0 recs
Go back to Hillaryis44

I'm black and find your comments offensive. Go away.

by cranberry 2008-04-27 09:40AM | 0 recs
Dude.

But then when you're as anti-American as he and his wife are, who should be surprised?  

I grew up without a father, because my dad gave his life for his country in Vietnam. So you can take your valuable insight about me hating my country and shove it up your freeper ass.

We're not scared of you people. It's time you and your ilk realized that. And I'm not going to HR this comment because I want the world to see, that tiny part of it that may read this rightwing garbage, just what kind of people you are.

by MBNYC 2008-04-27 09:43AM | 0 recs
Re: Shorter you

Wow.  Some troll we got here.

by fogiv 2008-04-27 10:24AM | 0 recs
Re: Shorter you

Wow, that's not fear-mongering at all.  I think you forgot to include the picture of Bin Laden.

by ProgressiveDL 2008-04-27 10:31AM | 0 recs
Welcome

I'm glad you ventured here. We are watching you people over there at Hillaryis44 and guess what, your words are being saved and you post at the risk of losing your jobs and credibility.  

Go ahead and keep up this trash.

by cranberry 2008-04-27 09:14AM | 0 recs
Re: Welcome

THREATS? Well, I guess that says it all about 'hope' and 'change'.

by georgiast 2008-04-27 10:18AM | 0 recs
Re: Welcome

"Change we can believe in"--I'm going to EMAIL YOUR BOSS COMMENTS ON A MESSAGE BOARD!

by zcflint05 2008-04-27 12:07PM | 0 recs
Re: Welcome

Your comments were disgraceful, and while I wouldn't want it to lead to your RL firing, I do hope it leads to your banning here.

by map 2008-04-27 12:36PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Ayers and Dobrin HATE America.  It's simple.  They tried to kill their own people.

Obamas association with them is deplorable.

You are known by the company you keep

Obama, Rezco, Ayers, Auchi, Wright  .. all spewing AntiAmerican hate and letting their own freeze to death in apartments.

I don't see the fuss in "getting to know" Obama.  America deserves to know ALL there is behind the curtains .. we know all about Hillary, and if he wants to be President he should welcome any questions instead of whining and crying.

The dems are setting themselves up for a humiliating, crushing defeat in November if he is the nominee.   He's too green and he's too wimpy

by dot48 2008-04-27 09:13AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Welcome dot. Good to see you here.

by cranberry 2008-04-27 09:16AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

So why did Bill Clinton pardon them? That's a helluva more damaging than being on the same board of directors.

I've been on the boards of three non-profit groups and was an officer for all three of the organizations, in fact held multiple offices. And I never vetted board members in terms of their activities from decades before. I didn't check them out before shaking their hands.  And I can't imagine people on nonprofit boards ever doing that.

by politicsmatters 2008-04-27 09:17AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Here's the kind of thing Obama has not brought up with Clinton but surely the Republicans will:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/he ndrikhertzberg/2008/04/after-pennsylva.h tml
Hillary has her own vulnerability in this general area, and it is larger than the fact, mentioned by Obama in his riposte to her, that her husband, on his last day in office, commuted the sentences of a couple of old Weather Underground jailbirds. (After a decade and a half in stir, they had been denied parole, apparently unfairly. Good for Bill.) What Obama did not mention was Hillary's internship, back in the groovy summer of 1971, at the Oakland law firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein. Treuhaft (Robert Treuhaft, husband of Jessica Mitford) had left the Communist Party thirteen years earlier, but Walker (Doris Walker) was still a member, and the firm was a pillar of the Bay Area Old Left. I assume that Obama didn't mention this because doing so would have rightly pissed off a lot of Democrats, because he is running as a non-kneecapping uniter, and because there is no evidence that Clinton has or has ever had the slightest sympathy with Communism. (Of course, there is no such evidence with respect to Obama and Weather Underground-ism, either, but that didn't stop Hillary from twisting that particular knife.)

My point is that Hillary Clinton has not, in fact, survived the worst that the Republican attack machine (and its pilotless drones online and on talk radio) can dish out. We will learn what the worst really means if she is nominated. The Commie law firm will be only the beginning. Many tempting targets--from Bill's little-examined fund-raising and business activities during the past seven years to the prospect of his hanging around the White House in some as yet undefined role for another four or eight years to whatever leftovers from the Clinton "scandals" of the nineteen-nineties can be retrieved from the dumpster and reheated--remain to be machine-gunned. The whole Clinton marital soap opera, obviously off limits within the Democratic fold, will offer ample material for what Obama calls "distractions." To take the most obvious example, the former President's social life since leaving the White House will become, if not "fair game," big game--and some of these right-wing dirtbags are already hiring bearers and trying on pith helmets for the safari. Is this a "there" where the Democratic Party really wants to go?

by politicsmatters 2008-04-27 09:19AM | 0 recs
The Real Myth

Thanks for pointing this out.  It goes to show that there are things about the other Dem. candidate that haven't been aired out yet.  No matter which one you pick you're bound to find out something new and not so lovely about them in a few months.

by venavena 2008-04-27 01:00PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Tom Hayden:"Why Hillary makes my Wife scream"

"I think Barack Obama has a much stronger chance of beating John McCain in the general election. I think Hillary is flawed in many ways, and particularly if you look at her husband's unwillingness to release the names of the people who contributed to his presidential library.
And the reason that is important -- you know, are there favors attached to $500,000 or $1 million contributions? And what do I mean by favors? I mean, pardons that are granted; investigations that are squelched; contracts that are awarded; regulations that are delayed.

These are important questions. The people deserve to know. And we deserve, as Democrats, to know before a nominee is selected, because we don't want things to explode in a general election against John McCain."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080505/

by wrb 2008-04-27 09:23AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Oops. My clipboard didn't clear

This is the Hayden quote

"Hillary is blind to her own roots in the sixties," Hayden writes. "She was in Chicago for three nights during the 1968 street confrontations. She chaired the 1970 Yale law school meeting where students voted to join a national student strike again an 'unconscionable expansion of a war that should never have been waged.' She was involved in the New Haven defense of Bobby Seale during his murder trial in 1970, as the lead scheduler of student monitors. ... She wrote that abused children were citizens with the same rights as their parents.

"Most significantly in terms of her recent attacks on Barack, after Yale law school, Hillary went to work for the left-wing Bay Area law firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein, which specialized in Black Panthers and West Coast labor leaders prosecuted for being communists. Two of the firm's partners, according to Treuhaft, were communists and the two others 'tolerated communists'. Then she went on to Washington to help impeach Richard Nixon, whose career was built on smearing and destroying the careers of people through vague insinuations about their backgrounds and associates. ...

"All these were honorable words and associations in my mind, but doesn't she see how the Hillary of today would accuse the Hillary of the sixties of associating with black revolutionaries who fought gun battles with police officers, and defending pro-communist lawyers who backed communists? Doesn't the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom Hillary attacks today, represent the very essence of the black radicals Hillary was associating with in those days? And isn't the Hillary of today becoming the same kind of guilt-by-association insinuator as the Richard Nixon she worked to impeach?"

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080505/

by wrb 2008-04-27 09:24AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

What I have learned about Obama supporters today is they want to shoot the messenger rather than deal with the message. Everything in this post is in the public record. There is no spin in the post. Obama is hurting himself everytime one of these issues comes to light.

by linfar 2008-04-27 09:36AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Wrong.  I've read the article and said to myself, Chicago is happy, people have jobs, revenue for the city. This happens all across the country.  

You are a racist lin farley and I will do everything possible to make sure that you are exposed for what you are.  

Keep writing your hate.

by cranberry 2008-04-27 09:41AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101
Indeed.  And from the reprehensible name calling and threats of violence I've seen from some of the Obama supporters, it is time for their great leader to tell them to cool it.  Discussion is one thing.
Ugly threats are something else.  So discuss, please, or be quiet.
by mbolack 2008-04-27 09:45AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

What I've learned (actually, I already knew this) is that someone with an agenda and no ethics can present "facts" that leave a totally false impression.  We watched Bush do it for years and you are no different.

by map 2008-04-27 09:53AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

This rabid "hitpiece" made the rec list?? good grief!

by feliks 2008-04-27 10:02AM | 0 recs
Table Tennis and Annenburg

Foundation.  Straws. Grasping. Desperation.

Btw, didn't someone upthread just contradict the whole house of cards by saying Obama didn't do anything meaningful on that board, just his name was there as a resume builder?

Y'all can't have it both ways.  

To the untrained eye (that would be me) this shit looks ridiculous and boring as all get out.  In other words, no legs.

by Sychotic1 2008-04-27 10:30AM | 0 recs
Re: Table Tennis and Annenburg

Uhm, no. His salary was about $50,000 a year. He didn't sit on the board he directed the operation. And many are saying this experfience would bve helpful to him if he would mention it. But of course the Ayheres connection which he apparently has taken pains to conceal, would emerge

by linfar 2008-04-27 10:36AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Rather than b*tch and moan about the so-called "hit piece", why don't you try and debunk it?  It's getting so tiresome reading all this whining about how it's not true, wah wah, Hillary's this or that, Hillary, Hillary, it's all her fault.  Why don't you just come back with FACTS??  Try and take her "hit piece" apart with real facts.  You can't, can you?  If all this was about Hillary, you'd be screaming at the top of your lungs why she isn't electable.  So puleaze, stop the BS and respond intelligently.  Do you not care to try and win over voters?  Or you just feel you have enough and don't care to bring the party together when the nominee is chosen?  

by Cassyma 2008-04-27 10:43AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

It's been fully, completely debunked upthread. I'd suggest checking it out.

by amiches 2008-04-27 01:56PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

We have a winning candidate in Hillary Clinton. Let's forget about the other one, who isn't qualified in the first place.

by LA 2008-04-27 10:44AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

More from Tom Hayden

"My wife Barbara has begun yelling at the television set every time she hears Hillary Clinton. This is abnormal behavior, since Barbara is a meditative practitioner of everything peaceful and organic, and is inspired by Barack Obama's transformational appeal.

For Barbara, Hillary has become the screech on the blackboard. From First Lady to Lady Macbeth.
It's getting to me as well. Last year, I was somewhat reconciled to the prospect of supporting and pressuring Hillary as the nominee amidst the rising tide of my friends who already hated her, irrationally I thought. I was one of those people Barack accuses of being willing to settle. I even had framed a flattering autographed message from Hillary. But as the campaign has gone on and on, her signed portrait still leans against the wall in my study. I don't know where she belongs anymore."

----

But as the Obama campaign gained momentum, Hillary began morphing into the persona that has my pacifist wife screaming at the television set.

Going negative doesn't begin to describe what has happened. Hillary is going over the edge. Even worse are the flacks she sends before the cameras on her behalf, like that Kiki person, who smirks and shakes her head at the camera every time she fields a question. Or the real carnivores, like Howard Wolfson, Lanny Davis and James Carville, whose sneering smugness prevents countless women like my wife from considering Hillary at all.

To use the current terminology, Hillary people are bitter people, even more bitter than the white working-class voters Barack has talked about. Because they circle the wagons so tightly, they don't recognize how identical, self-reinforcing and out-of-touch they are."

----

"It is as if Hillary Clinton is engaged in a toxic transmission onto Barack Obama of every outrageous insult and accusation ever inflicted on her by the American right over the decades. She is running against what she might have become. Too much politics dries the soul of the idealist.

It is abundantly clear that the Clintons, working with FOX News and manipulating old Clinton staffers like George Stephanopoulos, are trying, at least unconsciously, to so damage Barack Obama that he will be perceived as "unelectable" to Democratic superdelegates. It is also clear that the campaign of defamation against Obama has resulted in higher negative ratings for Hillary Clinton. She therefore is threatening the Democratic Party's chances for the White House, whether or not she is the nominee.

Since no one in the party leadership seems able or willing to intervene against this self-destructive downward spiral, perhaps progressives need to consider responding in the only way politicians sometimes understand. If they can't hear us screaming at the television sets, we can send a message that the Clintons are acting as if they prefer John McCain to Barack Obama. And follow it up with another message: if Clinton doesn't immediately cease her path of destruction, millions of young voters and black voters may not send checks, may not knock on doors, and may not even vote for her if she becomes the nominee. That's not a threat, that's the reality she is creating."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080505/ha yden

by wrb 2008-04-27 11:14AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

He's a liar and a fraud.

First we find out that his start in politics was bankrolled by a notorious political fixer now being tried for bribing public officials.  Then we find out that he got his street cred in his heavily AA district by joining an extreme black liberation church.  Then we learn that his political career was launched when an unrepentant domestic terrorist introduced him to the uber-liberal, white guilt wing of the Chicago machine.

by Boston Whaler 2008-04-27 11:21AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

rather well put, BW. the image vs. the reality is something one keeps bumping up against ove ran over. And he just looks more tarnished very time.

by linfar 2008-04-27 11:48AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Whoever called Linfar a racist upthread is being absurd.  Every time someone critizes BO - either him, his surrogates or his online henchman pull the race card.  Knock it off.  With whom a politician associates with tells us volumes about what he/she believes.  As my grandmother said....tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.

by Boston Whaler 2008-04-27 11:24AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Thanks BW, I think these accusations are setting back the cause of improving race relations, not helping them. I can't imagine what they think they are accomplishing

by linfar 2008-04-27 11:46AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

I guess you didn't read her typical white people diary, for which she was banned, which contained her laughable defence that she couldn't be racist because she slept with a black guy.  She's a piece of work.

by interestedbystander 2008-04-27 11:50AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

sticks and stones...

by linfar 2008-04-27 11:54AM | 0 recs
Obama is about CHANGE and hope

Quit bringing up facts.

by observer5 2008-04-27 11:26AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama is about CHANGE and hope

best laugh I have had today :)

by linfar 2008-04-27 11:45AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Yup, Obama is a phony.

by SHIBAM8P 2008-04-27 11:28AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

What makes Hillary Clinton more qualified than Barrack Obama? If she is running on her record, Nancy Regan, Roslyn Carter, and Jacquline Kennedy should've run for president.Let's face it, how do we know who is more qualified, have we personally interviewed both candidates?Have we seen them work under pressure? Do we know exactly know how many friends each has in the senate, congress, and legislature, to further their agenda, no. Are we experts in the running of our country, no. I do know one thing, guilt by association will never hold up. That is what this diary is all about. I'm sure if someone brought up The Rose Law Firm, or Vince foster's name, The Hillary people would would be running for he bricks and stones to start throwing.

by johnny sexton 2008-04-27 11:48AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

yeah....I think we have seen them both work "under pressure" during this primary season. And I have seen enough of BO to know that he can't handle the job.....how can he when he can't even handle two itty bitty little reporters asking questions in a debate.  Forget that he didn't have decent answers for why he has chosen to associate with the likes of Rev. Wright and Ayers.  Even more concerning that these lapses in judgment is the way he bungled the substantive questions on the economy.  Really, really scary.  

by Boston Whaler 2008-04-27 11:55AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

It seems very amusing that the Obama supporters are so eager to call Hillary a liar while turning a blind eye to their beloved candidate's own lies, well doccumented by the media in the past months.

Truth is not a hit piece, and if you seriously WANT to reopen all of your friends Rove and the republicans' attacks on Hillary, remember this: they already spent millions of dollars in the nineties on this shit and found out nothing.
Hillary and Bill made their fortune from legitimate business, as attested by the US congress. Obama made his fortune from political endorsements, bribing his wife's employer with taxpayer money, and so on. The difference is staggering.

Obama got his career started and supported by a known and unrepentant terrorist. Bill Clinton ( who isn't running) pardoned 2 people who served time for what they did as opposed to Ayers. Not even close.

Hillary worked for Wal Mart? So did Michelle Obama ( for Treehouse Inc). Say what you want about Bill, he never had to bribe anyone in order to get his wife a more than double salary. Fact, and doccumented.

No, what is happening to Obama is not Hillary's fault. It's his own fault for being an incompetent arrogant creature who thougth he could get to be POTUS by way of affirmative actions and his brainwashed supporters.

Fact: you are supporting a guy who is disenfranshising 2 million voters. Counting those votes, your guy is no longer ahead.

Fact: your candidate is scared shitless of a debate. What happens when somethign really bad happens and he is president? Will he hide under the bed in terror?

Fact: your candidate is corrupt, lacking judgement and dishonest. However, he's good at teleprompter. Too bad that's not good enough for the POTUS job.

How much does your guy have to lose for you guys to get it? Or do you seriously think that being a member of a minority is good enough a qualification to be POTUS?

If one is not in it to win it, they should stay home. That simple.

A fleeting thought in the end: Axelrode has already managed two losing campaigns. here's to the third.

Is the Obama church open yet or what?

by soopermouse 2008-04-27 12:10PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Hillary and Bill made their fortune from legitimate business, as attested by the US congress.

Hillary made part of her fortune from a 100,000 bribe - oh, excuse me that must have a brilliant one-time success in cattle futures, that gave her a 100-fold return over her initial investment at her first attempt at dealing in cattle futures.

Yeah, right.

Fact: "you are supporting a guy who is disenfranshising 2 million voters. Counting those votes, your guy is no longer ahead."

Actually that's a lie. EVEN counting those votes, even giving absolutely zero votes from Michigan to Obama, Obama is still ahead -- in delegates and popular vote both.

And your rest of your facts are mere opinions -- ludicrous opinions at that -- so I'll just ignore them.

by Aris Katsaris 2008-04-27 03:45PM | 0 recs
I call the thumper rule

on this diary and have nothing to say about it.

by Student Guy 2008-04-27 12:13PM | 0 recs
Re: I call the thumper rule

Ah, Guy, all this is right out of the morning's paper. Ain't nothin' made up. It is too bad, but he just doesn't seem to understand he can't blow smoke forever.

by linfar 2008-04-27 02:59PM | 0 recs
The Larry Johnson part

he is not a unbiased reference imo from what I've seen at noQuarter.  I like my sources relatively unbiased.

The Annenburg foundation does a lot of good (I have friends from college who are working for them now).

That is why I called the thumper rule.

The L.A. Times article I would be willing to discuss but not within the same confines as the NoQuarter.com  article.

by Student Guy 2008-04-27 03:40PM | 0 recs
Thumper Rule

Student Guy...Ive seen you use this 'rule' quite a bit and Id like to know what it means.

Thanks.

by pattonbt 2008-04-27 09:38PM | 0 recs
I have used it twice

and it is a reference from the character of Thumper in Bambi...

by Student Guy 2008-04-27 09:53PM | 0 recs
Re: I have used it twice

I know this may sound hard to believe (especially since I am a huge movie buff) but I never saw Bambi.

Could you please enlighten me?

Im not trying to snark or anything, Im just curious.

by pattonbt 2008-04-27 10:37PM | 0 recs
Re: I have used it twice

Thumper quote from Bambi

"If you can't say something nice... don't say nothing at all."

by map 2008-04-28 07:47AM | 0 recs
Properly Vetting the Candidates

It's better to get all this stuff out in the open now, so that you're not shocked with it during the general.  I've said time and again that I don't think either of these candidates have been sufficiently vetted.

by venavena 2008-04-27 12:23PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101
And the hits just keep on coming. IF YOU CAST A VOTE FOR OBAMA YOU ARE VOTING FOR JOHN MCCAIN...
END OF STORY. THE REPUGS WILL DESTROY HIM AND OUR PARTY.
by IndyRobin 2008-04-27 12:27PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

The only people who put it in stark terms like that are people planning on voting for McCain themselves.

If I have to say it once, I'll say it a thousand times - a vote for McCain is a vote for McCain.

by Mostly 2008-04-27 01:56PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

I'm afraid this is getting true-er and true-er all the time. I don't know how he thought things like Ayers and the ethics violation wouldn't come to light.

by linfar 2008-04-27 02:57PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

He probably didn't think Ayers would be a big deal, certainly not in the primary, because of Hillary Clinton's multiple WU and FALN connections.

by Mostly 2008-04-27 03:02PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Thanks from the Weekly Standard

"While all of this cocktail party supposition is unproven since the actual general election is months away and spring primaries are very different contests from fall elections, the damage to Obama has been done. Weeks from now, when the dust settles after a few more final primaries and the odd Clinton tactical victory, the pre-convention rubbishing of Barack Obama will be complete and the credit for most of it will go to Hillary Clinton.
She is likely to pay a price for it in the future, when it is likely she will at least try to run again. She will face a penalty for wounding a presumptive Democratic nominee and helping make a general election race far more competitive than anyone thought it would be.

In fact, if the GOP has a large Bronze medal of distinction, we should cast one at once and gleefully award it to Mrs. Clinton for her meritorious service to our cause. For seldom has the generic environment looked so bad for Republicans. November will still be difficult and much is now uncertain, but is does appear that a perfect storm could be brewing. First, the nomination of John McCain, a different kind of Republican in a year where only such independence can survive. Second, a long and damaging Democratic primary pitting one vital part of its base in deadly combat against another and continuing that fight long beyond a sensible conclusion. Mrs. Clinton's hand alone is on this throttle of Democratic fratricide and she appears to be accelerating the engine of Democrat destruction rather than easing it back.

Clinton's motive is not hard to understand. Politics at the top is an uncertain business where dogged perseverance is often rewarded. Her campaign, mathematically now so improbable, runs on nothing more than the fumes of a possible Obama crack up. Some horrible gaffe or Cook county scandal surfacing in time to doom Obama in the few remaining primaries and spark a superdelegate turnaround that would crown Hillary Clinton the Democrat nominee. Since, as every superdelegate knows, stripping Obama of the nomination for anything short of committing a felony or making a praiseful remark about Dick Cheney would tear the Democratic party into pieces, such a reversal in Mrs. Clinton's bleak fortunes is very unlikely.

Yet she stays in. Wishing and hoping and striving for political disaster to strike the campaign of Barack Obama, the near certain Democratic nominee. Anyone who once had doubts about Mrs. Clinton's loyalty to the interests of the Democratic party instead of to her own ambition now has their answer."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TW SFP/2008/04/richelieu_the_perfect_storm. asp

by wrb 2008-04-27 12:42PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

I salute Hillary.  If she ran as an Independent in the fall, she would have my vote.  

by BPK80 2008-04-27 01:24PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

You McCain supporters should salute her.

by wrb 2008-04-27 01:31PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

From what I can tell many of us never even dreamed of supporting McCain until "hope & change" used-car salesman Obama and his legions of groupthinkers shocked us out of our faith in our party.  

by BPK80 2008-04-27 07:50PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Hillary will never run as an Indy. She is dem though and through. Which of course will disappoint all those who are convinced she is only in it for hrself.

by linfar 2008-04-27 02:55PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

No wonder BO wants no more debates with Senator Clinton! The media should jump on this, but I bet they won't. They've had too much kool-ade. The people will get it eventually...and, hopefully, in time.

by susanclare 2008-04-27 01:36PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

both issues raised in this diary will go more mainstream with time. No wonder he doesn't want to debate anymore.

by linfar 2008-04-27 02:54PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

This is awesome.

I'm pretty sure I've seen the Annenburg Challenge somewhere else.. what could it have been.  The FBI's most wanted list?  No, that's not it.  Donors to the Williams Jefferson Clinton library?  No, that information is sealed.  Oh I know!

It was in a "made possible by viewers like you and..." list of sponsors for Sesame Street.

***sad trombone

by Mostly 2008-04-27 01:59PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Excellent diary.  Sorry the Obamabots have fallen into such vitriolic chaos.  It is going to be really painful for them over the next few weeks as they have to see their candidate be too afraid to debate Hillary and to watch as he further crumbles before their eyes.  Growing up is a hard thing to do.

by macmcd 2008-04-27 02:01PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Why do you like to call people names?

by politicsmatters 2008-04-27 02:48PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

so manmy obama supporters, just read upthread in this diary, act like obamabots that the name unfortunately often seems apropos.

by linfar 2008-04-27 02:52PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Two wrongs don't make a right.

by politicsmatters 2008-04-27 02:55PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Thanks macmcd, it has been pretty vitriolic for a sunday :)

by linfar 2008-04-27 02:53PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

It's not vitriol. It's disgust.

I never thought a supposed democrat could sink so low for so long. Mind you, I've been surprised this whole campaign. Every right wing tactic, every separatist terrorist smear. McCarthy and Nixon would be proud.

Others are rightly appalled.

You should be ashamed.

by brit 2008-04-27 02:56PM | 0 recs
Lying about Obama 101

William Ayers did not "employ" Barack Obama. They served together on the board of a charity which did a lot of good for the poor of Chicago, but hey, it appears some Hillary supporters have forgotten about caring for the poor. There were 8 other members of that board.

by Travis Stark 2008-04-27 03:49PM | 0 recs
Re: Lying about Obama 101

You have mixed up tfhe Woods foundation and Obama's job with the ayers backed Annenberg Challenge.

by linfar 2008-04-27 04:10PM | 0 recs
I have. I have! This is even funnier!

This time it's a charity to raise money for Chicago school children! You're right! How would this appear to Republicans and Hillary supporters! Obama worked for Chicago school children! Horrors! We know that educating people is counter to them being well-behaved voters.

Go with it. You folks are making yourselves look foolish.

by Travis Stark 2008-04-27 04:28PM | 0 recs
This is the difficulty of this extended primary

On the one hand we've got Hillary and her more vicious supporters, who are willing to apply a scorched earth policy on Obama with no chance of his not being the nominee, lending credence to the "2012" strategy theory.

On the other hand you've got Barack Obama, who they know is loath to apply this strategy to Hillary using the treasure trove of ammunition to use against the Clintons. Even Obama supporters, lead to some extent by the actions of the candidate, hesitate to torch Hillary, and the media, unwilling to appear to be piling on a candidate so obviously losing, hesitates to make an issue of Hillary's dirty laundry. But maybe this approach needs some rethinking.

I'm beginning to think that maybe Hillary should be hit with everything available at this point, with a preamble from Obama that he didn't want to do things this way, but that Hillary and her supporters had left him no choice.

by Travis Stark 2008-04-27 03:55PM | 0 recs
Re: This is the difficulty of this extended primar

I have thought this way many times, but then I remember that we don't get more people interested in the political process by cynicism.  We get them more excited by showing them how government, good government, can improve their lives.  

Hillary's strategy is the strategy of smaller numbers, fewer voters and less interest in government.  It is therefore doomed to failure.

by zadura 2008-04-28 07:58AM | 0 recs
You are right.....

we demand a higher standard form our leaders.

I hope you will then join everyone calling on the Clintons to reveal the people who have donated to the Clinton library, the Clinton charity, and paid Bill for speaking to see if anyone is connected to those who received pardons or other favors.

by IowaMike 2008-04-27 05:00PM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101
You neglected to mention that Obama was never charged with anything untowards in this instance - and he disclosed all he needed to diclose on contributions in his IL senate disclosure documents - more than most senators, according to that article.
this is simply more fishing by the Hillary backers....the LA Times has done a LOT of this in the past two months, after endorsing Obama.
by mariannie 2008-04-27 08:31PM | 0 recs
EVERYBODY PANIC!!!!

by SleepingWillow 2008-04-28 01:37AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

So what is the MyDD community going to do in the 90% eventuality that Obama wins the nomination?  Will it actually get it's act together and fight the Republicans?  Will it back McCain?  Or will it just become a ghost town? I'm genuinely curious.

by Gene In PA 2008-04-28 06:36AM | 0 recs
Re: Obama Mythology 101

Thats a great question.

Linfar, this is your diary, I guess you pay attention,

what are your plans?

by GeorgeP922 2008-04-28 09:22AM | 0 recs
Since we're into making subjective judgments

I thought I'd pass this along:

What I anticipate is that I will be impressed by Hillary, who I know has paid her dues to the gay community. If Edwards wants to run through more versions of his folksy, ah-shucks confusion about gay marriage, he can kiss my lesbian ass. If Obama does not address the antipathy by blacks in general towards gays in general, he will just show once again he's not up to the job. Biden I am not familar with. And the same goes for Richardson and Kucinich and the others.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lin-farley /looking-forward-and-back_b_59763.html

Chompy, chomp.

by bookish 2008-04-28 11:46AM | 0 recs
Annenberg

Obama was on the board in a largely ceremonial role of an organization devoted to Chicago's public schools. Ayers helped write the grant funding it. To claim that Obama "worked for" Ayers is patently absurd. Here, read this:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/thisweeki neducation/2007/03/obama_and_annenberg.h tml

It's an earlier article challenging claims that Obama's directorship of the Annenberg challenge informed his bid for the presidency. To quote:

"There's lots of interesting stuff in David Hoff's EdWeek profile of Barack Obama and his education background (Obama's Annenberg Stint Informs White House Bid), but the Obama-Annnenberg connection seems like a reach.

First and foremost is the notion that Obama "led" the Chicago Annenberg Challenge in any meaningful way. "As a private citizen, he led Chicago's portion of the Annenberg Challenge school reform initiative financed by the late philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg--an experience that shaped Mr. Obama's perspective on the critical importance of principals and teachers."

If he did, it's news to me and a lot of folks in Chicago. I wrote a long report about the CAC in 2001 that failed to unearth Obama's name as anyone of any influence -- and never came across his name in an education context in the following six years during which I wrote a book about school reform in Chicago. Obama gets barely a mention in the Chicago Catalyst magazine, which goes back further and deeper than I do."

So, how should we characterize the connection between Obama and Ayers here? I'd say "acquaintance" is pretty accurate, in fact.

by tomchaps 2008-04-28 11:50AM | 0 recs

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