Phillip's Blog

Interesting bedfellows…and so well disguised.

By Phillip Cantrell September 24, 2008

In a recently published article in The Wall Street Journal, Stanley Kurtz (Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center) researched and exposed what I feel to be a crucial relationship in Barack Obama’s past. Not surprisingly, this relationship has been largely ignored by the main stream press and continually swept under the rug by the Obama campaign. That relationship is with Bill Ayers, a founder of The Weather Underground, the well known 1960’s anarchist group. Among other well publicized acts of anarchy, Mr. Ayers participated in bombing the Pentagon – an activity for which he has never expressed even the slightest ounce of regret, according to Kurtz’ research.

The Obama / Ayers relationship came out of an educational foundation called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC). Created supposedly to improve Chicago’s public school system, Obama led the CAC from 1995 – 1999 and remained a board member until 2001. This group poured some $100 million into the hands of well known, far left community organizers and radical activists such as the South Shore African Village Collaborative and the Dual Language Exchange, both of which focused more on teaching political consciousness, Afro-centricity and bilingualism than on traditional education. All this, despite their well publicized purpose of being an “educational foundation.”

Even though Obama has often claimed a great deal of distance between himself and Ayers, Barack Obama’s first run for the Illinois State Senate was actually launched at a 1995 gathering at Ayers’ home, says Kurtz. Despite Obama’s continual insistence of a great distance between himself and Ayers (he has referred to Ayers as “just a guy in my neighborhood”), archive documents at the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago, researched by Kurtz, clearly show that Obama and Ayers were partners in the CAC. Obama was the first chairman of the board and Ayers co-chaired the foundation’s other key body, the “Collaborative” which shaped educational policy. Their interaction was then almost a daily occurrence. Obviously they shared then, and still share now, the same ideals and goals in life.

Kurtz’ research shows that at about the same time as Ayers was helping found the CAC he was interviewed in Ron Chepesiuk’s “Sixties Radicals” where he characterized himself as a “radical, Leftist, and small “c” communist.” This statement from a man who was helping inflict his brand of educational policy on the Chicago public school system through the CAC.

Almost as a side note to this $100 million dollar investment disguised as improving the schools, the CAC’s own internal evaluators comprehensively studied the effects of its expending of this huge sum of money in grants and programs on the academic test scores of the public school students in Chicago. By their own admission, they found no evidence of any educational improvement.

Kurtz goes on to make the extremely valid point that the real issue in all this evidence is not guilt by association, as in Obama merely belonging to the same organization as the anarchist Ayers. It is guilt by proactive participation. Quite obviously, these two men had, and still have, a long term relationship. Ayers’ radical influence on Obama’s educational policies will undoubtedly be felt should he be elected the next president. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Ayers appointed to some high post in the Department of Education – an avowed communist in the Department of Education of the United States! Nikita Khrushchev would truly be a proud man if he were here to see it. No doubt instead of banging his shoe on the podium, he would be tossing them in the air for joy at seeing the fruition of his predictions.

Putting all that aside and reflecting back 40 years ago, to the time when Bill Ayers was planting bombs and being arrested for participating in draft board sit-ins, John McCain was rotting in a North Vietnam prison cell, enduring almost daily torture, because of honor and duty to his countrymen.

Let’s see…hmmm…participating in anarchy or persevering in an enemy POW prison…which one is a better character building experience?? Hmmm….let me think…

Sorry, but the only thought that comes to mind is… Thank God we have real MEN like John McCain who are willing to sacrifice so much just so sleaze balls like Bill Ayers can have the FREEDOM to voice their political opinions – regardless of how twisted they may be.

Be careful Obama. You lay down with dogs; you’ll get up with fleas.