Conservative Politics Today

Throughout this campaign Barack Obama has attempted to downplay his association with admitted terrorist Bill Ayers. During an Obama/Hillary debate, when asked by George Stephanopolous about his relationship with Ayers, Obama replied:

“This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who’s a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.”

In this mornings Wall Street Journal is an article written by Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and a contributor to the National Review. The headline reads, “Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools.” It is focused on that point in history Obama does not discuss in detail, yet uses on his resume as his sole example of executive experience, his time as the Chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC).

Founded in 1995, the CAC was a public-private partnership developed to improve school performances in the Chicago area. It was the brainchild of William “Bill” Ayers,” admitted terrorist and current professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The CAC was sponsored by the Annenburg Foundation, a national education initiative by Ambassador Walter Annenburg. They received a charter grant of $49.2 million dollars in 1995. The group was formally dissolved in January, 2002. The remaining assets were given to its successor group, the Chicago Public Education Fund. The CAC donated its records to the Richard J. Daley Library, which is located at the University of Illinois at Chicago. These records were to be made available for public research.

When Kurtz first attempted to force the University of Illinois at Chicago to open it records on the CAC ( a publicly funded project) they refused. Kurtz was scheduled to go on a Chicago radio program to discuss Obama, Ayers and these papers housed at the University. Kurtz, who has been writing about Obama’s relationship with Ayers, believed that the papers housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago would reveal new details about their relationship.

Hearing that Kurtz was scheluded to appear on the local radio show, Obama’s campaign sent out an e-mail on it’s “action wire” to his supporters in Chicago, calling Kurtz “slimy” and referring to him as a “smear merchant.” Obama went on to accuse Kurtz of being a “character assassin” who is “divisive.” His supporters were provided detailed information and instructions from Obama’s camp. This included the radio station’s telephone number, the shows extension number, as well as a “research file” on Kurtz proving him to be a conservative (which no one disputes). The file also cites a few of Kurtz’s more controversial pieces, such has his claim that same-sex unions have undermined marriage in Scandinavia.

From: Obama Action Wire

Date: Wed, Aug 27, 2008 

Subject: Chicago: CALL TONIGHT to fight the latest smear



[Name] —



In the next few hours, we have a crucial opportunity to fight one of
the most cynical and offensive smears ever launched against Barack.

Tonight, WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a
forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears. He’s
currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00
p.m. pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and
University of Illinois professor William Ayers.



Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing
baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of
political discourse.

Call into the “Extension 720″ show with Milt Rosenberg at (312) 591-7200

(Show airs from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. tonight)

Then report back on your call at http://my.barackobama.com/WGNstandards

Kurtz has been using his absurd TV appearances in an awkward and
dishonest attempt to play the terrorism card. His current ploy is to
embellish the relationship between Barack and Ayers.



Just last night on Fox News, Kurtz drastically exaggerated Barack’s
connection with Ayers by claiming Ayers had recruited Barack to the
board of the Annenberg Challenge. That is completely false and has
been disproved in numerous press accounts.

It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character
assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our
public airwaves. At the very least, they should offer sane, honest
rebuttal to every one of Kurtz’s lies.

Kurtz is scheduled to appear from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. in the Chicago market.

Calling will only take a minute, and it will make a huge difference if
we nip this smear in the bud. Confront Kurtz tonight before this goes
any further:

http://my.barackobama.com/WGNstandards

Please forward this email to everyone you know who can make a call tonight.

Keep fighting the good fight,

Obama Action Wire




________________________________
The Facts on Barack and William Ayers:

William Ayers was involved with the Weather Underground when Barack
Obama was eight years old, and Barack has roundly condemned their
actions.


Last night on Fox News, Kurtz tried to radicalize an education reform
program in Chicago called the Annenberg Challenge. The Challenge was
funded by Republican Walter Annenberg, introduced by Mayor Daley and
Republican Governor Jim Edgar, and one of its initiatives was even
praised by John McCain.


Kurtz claimed on Fox News that William Ayers recruited Obama to the
Annenberg Challenge — a flat out lie. Ayers did not serve on the
board of the Challenge, and he had nothing to do with Barack’s
recruitment.

Some more background on Stanley Kurtz:

Stanley Kurtz Is Tied To Bill Kristol’s Conservative Think Tank. Kurtz
is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. The Policy
Advisory Board includes: William Kristol. [Bio, policy advisory board,
EPPC website, accessed 8/27/08]

Stanley Kurtz Was A Research Fellow At The Hoover Institution. In
2004, Stanley Kurtz was a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.
[Boston Globe, 3/10/04]


Stanley Kurtz Claimed That Same Sex Marriage In Denmark Led To A
Decline In Marriage Resulting In 60 Percent Of Children Being Born Out
Of Wedlock. Stanley Kurtz stated: “Data from European demographers and
statistical bureaus show that a majority of children in Sweden and
Norway are now born out of wedlock, as are 60 percent of first-born
children in Denmark. In socially liberal districts of Norway, where
the idea of same-sex registered partnerships is widely accepted,
marriage itself has almost entirely disappeared. [Boston Globe,
3/10/04]


Analysis Of Statistics On Marriage In Scandinavia Was Debunked.
”Kurtz’s argument — which O’Reilly embraces — is that when legal
rights are accorded to gays, through some unspecified process
heterosexual couples begin bearing children out of wedlock and refuse
to marry when they otherwise would. There are many government policies
that alter the incentives to get and stay married, and thus have
direct and unsurprising effects on marriage; for instance, the
availability of no-fault divorce leads to more divorces, and laws
providing the same rights for cohabitating heterosexual couples as
married couples lead to fewer marriages, as couples make private
commitments to each other without seeking the imprimatur of the state.
But neither Kurtz nor O’Reilly has provided a plausible justification
for their belief that extending rights to gay couples harms
heterosexual marriage.” [Media Matters For America, 6/3/05]
Claimed That The National Nursing Shortage Was The “Fault Of
Feminism.” In 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported, “Back at National
Review Online, contributing editor Stanley Kurtz makes the same point!
He, too, says women shouldn’t be trying to play by men’s rules. Of
course he has a slightly different take. According to Kurtz, the
national nurse shortage is the fault of feminism, for bringing about
”the replacement of a traditional ethic of sacrifice by a post-’60s
ethos of self-fulfillment.” Kurtz stated at the time “Nursing was once
built around a spirit of feminine compassion and sacrifice. In the
new, feminist world, that is unacceptable.” [Los Angeles Times,
7/21/2002]


Stanley Kurtz Stated That The Harvard Faculty No Confidence Vote In
Lawrence Summers Would Cause “Lasting Damage To The Cultural Left.” On
March 19, 2005, Stanley Kurtz stated on the National Review Online
website, “I think the vote of no confidence in Lawrence Summers is a
wonderful thing. Harvard continues to discredit itself with the
American public. The faculty is trapped. If Summers resigns, this
extraordinary example of political correctness will come back to haunt
Harvard, and the entire academy, for years. But if Summers hangs on,
the faculty itself will have been humiliated — checked by the very
fact of public scrutiny. Either way, Harvard is tearing itself apart.
So long as the public simply writes of the academy, the mice can play.
But the intense public scrutiny in this case puts the captains of
political correctness into a no-win situation. Like the closely
watched Susan Estrich fiasco, this battle is doing lasting damage to
the cultural left. As they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
[National Review Online, 3/19/05]



The Obama Action Wire is a grassroots rapid response group for
supporters to fight smears, spread the truth, push back on misleading
media, and take positive action.

Forward this email to everyone you know or sign up for the Obama
Action Wire now.




Paid for by Obama for America

Even the LA Times and the Tribune were shocked by the overkill displayed by Obama and his team. Why would a major national campaign call on it’s legions of supporters to bully a radio show out of airing an interview? At this point Kurtz had only asked for access to the CAC files. He had not yet received them, but it was obvious Obama did not want Kurtz anywhere near those records. Why? Which brings us to the Kurtz article in this mornings Wall Street Journal. Kurtz did obtain access to the records and here is, in part, what he discovered.

1. In 1995, Obama was appointed the first Chairman of the board, which handled fiscal matters.

2. Ayers co-chaired the “Collaborative,” the CAC’s other key body, which shaped education policy.

3. Archives records show, that despite Obama’s claim, Ayers was one of a working group of 5 who assembled the first CAC board in 1994, and that no one would have been appointed without his approval.

4. The records obtained by Kurtz verify that Obama and Ayers did in fact work as a team to advance the CAC agenda.
The agenda called for “infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment,” and “downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism.”

In works like “City Kids, City Teachers” and “Teaching the Personal and the Political,” Mr. Ayers wrote that teachers should be community organizers dedicated to provoking resistance to American racism and oppression. His preferred alternative? “I’m a radical, Leftist, small ‘c’ communist,” Mr. Ayers said in an interview in Ron Chepesiuk’s, “Sixties Radicals,” at about the same time Mr. Ayers was forming CAC.

CAC translated Mr. Ayers’s radicalism into practice. Instead of funding schools directly, it required schools to affiliate with “external partners,” which actually got the money. Proposals from groups focused on math/science achievement were turned down. Instead CAC disbursed money through various far-left community organizers, such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (or Acorn).

Mr. Obama once conducted “leadership training” seminars with Acorn, and Acorn members also served as volunteers in Mr. Obama’s early campaigns. External partners like the South Shore African Village Collaborative and the Dual Language Exchange focused more on political consciousness, Afrocentricity and bilingualism than traditional education. CAC’s in-house evaluators comprehensively studied the effects of its grants on the test scores of Chicago public-school students. They found no evidence of educational improvement.

CAC also funded programs designed to promote “leadership” among parents. Ostensibly this was to enable parents to advocate on behalf of their children’s education. In practice, it meant funding Mr. Obama’s alma mater, the Developing Communities Project, to recruit parents to its overall political agenda. CAC records show that board member Arnold Weber was concerned that parents “organized” by community groups might be viewed by school principals “as a political threat.” Mr. Obama arranged meetings with the Collaborative to smooth out Mr. Weber’s objections.

As Kurtz says so well,

The Obama campaign has cried foul when Bill Ayers comes up, claiming “guilt by association.” Yet the issue here isn’t guilt by association; it’s guilt by participation. As CAC chairman, Mr. Obama was lending moral and financial support to Mr. Ayers and his radical circle. That is a story even if Mr. Ayers had never planted a single bomb 40 years ago.

UPDATE:

Read Obama’s full response to Kurtz and Kurtz’s response.

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