Putting on Ayers
Last week the indispensable Sweetness & Light blog dug up a 1997 article in the University of Chicago Chronicle on a conference on juvenile justice organized by Michelle Obama. Speaking at the conference was William Ayers, cofounder of the radical leftist “Weather Underground” terrorist group and perhaps one of the least qualified people to speak on matters of justice.
The Chronicle reported, “Ayers will be joined by Sen. Barack Obama, Senior Lecturer in the Law School, who is working to combat legislation that would put more juvenile offenders into the adult system.”
Ayers, however, is qualified to speak on putting adult criminals in the education system.
In a recent interview with the Communist Party’s Revolution newspaper, Ayers talked about being “disinvited” to a conference on progressive education by colleagues at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ayers said:
“There’s not a single sign of the times, there are many, many signs of the times, and some of them are quite hopeful, some of them are quite exciting, but here’s one of the dismal signs of the times. These guys aren’t just progressive, they’re socialists, and they think of themselves as activists. And yet they feel that in order to have a meeting that will be legitimate, they have to make a decision who to exclude, and they excluded me.
…
And we as revolutionaries have to say that at the end of the day, people will be smart enough, good enough, strong enough to stand up. But why should they do it if we don’t have the courage to do it? And the letter I got was a cowardly letter. It’s cynical, it’s cowardly, and it’s slippery.”
Steve Gilbert of Sweetness & Light noted, “And isn’t it funny that some people would dis-invite Mr. Ayers to appear on an education panel - whereas Mrs. Obama did not.”
Obama Instructed Future ACORN Lawbreakers
This week the Las Vegas ACORN office was searched by state law enforcement officials for evidence of voter fraud. As Americans become more educated on the illegal actions of ACORN, Obama continues to deny his long relationship with the organization.
However, in a 2003 article for Social Policy magazine, ACORN leader and board member Toni Foulkes says otherwise. Foulkes wrote:
“[W]e have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year, and, as a result, many of our newly developing leaders got to know him before he ever ran for office.
When he returned from law school, we asked him to help us with a lawsuit to challenge the state of Illinois’ refusal to abide by the National Voting Rights Act, also known as motor voter. Allied only with the state of Mississippi, Illinois had been refusing to allow mass-based voter registration according to the new law. Obama took the case, known as ACORN vs. Edgar (the name of the Republican governor at the time) and we won.”
Obama’s “Fight the Smears” website states, “Fact: Barack was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity.”
As with Ayers, Obama has continued to lie about his association with ACORN, and the media has been complicit in his denial. Again, Sweetness & Light’s Steve Gilbert asks, “If Obama will lie about something this blatantly, what else will he lie about?”
The Obama Constituency: Nontaxpayers
Brad O’Leary, author of The Audacity of Deceit: Obama’s War on American Values, recently wrote in Investor’s Business Daily that he came across some interesting statistics while writing his book. According to a poll he commissioned from Zogby America, 30% of American voters don’t pay any federal taxes. Of these nontaxpayers, 60% say they are likely to vote for Obama. Not surprisingly, they overwhelmingly support Obama’s health care plan, which would cost actual taxpayers more than $65 billion. O’Leary wrote:
“Today, 70% of Americans shoulder the majority of the federal budgetary burden for all Americans. These Americans, by and large, do most of the risk-taking and innovating that produces the wealth, jobs and products that drive the American economy - not to mention pay the taxes that fund an ever expanding array of federal welfare programs and handouts.
Obama claims 95% of Americans would get a tax cut under his tax plan. Yet only 70% of Americans actually pay federal income taxes. How does this compute? Is he going to give more money to nontaxpayers?”
Field of Broken Dreams
While he was a state senator in Illinois and running for Congress in 2000, Obama promised to plant a botanical garden for the Chicago community of Englewood. Obama said the garden would give “a sense of neighborhood pride.” Never mind that as a “blighted” community, Englewood has problems that can’t be fixed by aromatherapy.
Obama facilitated a government grant of $100,000 to campaign volunteer Kenny B. Smith’s nonprofit organization, who would in turn plant the garden. In July, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that while Smith has spent the $100,000 grant, no community garden exists in Englewood. What was supposed to be six blocks of trees and community area is now littered and overgrown with weeds. According to Smith, the money was spent on “underground site preparation.” However, a reporter took a landscape engineer to the area and he found no evidence of any of the work that Smith claimed he had done.
During his 2000 speech to the Englewood community, Obama also promised to help raise over $1 million to help the neighborhood beautification project. Since no money has since been raised, Smith is now petitioning the city to allow him to build 30 houses on the vacant lot. It really pays to be an incompetent friend of Obama.
Celebrity Quote of the Week
Since the Left is so enamored with their celebrity supporters, Obama Watch highlights one each week. Actress Kirsten Dunst gives this ringing endorsement:
“I absolutely adore him and I'll do whatever is necessary to help him become the next president. I'm so excited that he is running. I'm aware that he does have some factors against him. For example, his father is African, and not an African-American, and he doesn't have much experience. I think he can do a lot for people of my generation. He's such a dashing statesman. I love that he just lays it all on the table. He already wrote the book. He's just everything you want a president to be.”
