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Just Because the Parody That is the Modern Republican Party Cannot Be Outdone

Polifact take down on the Ayers stuff:

We could go on and on with evidence that the Chicago Annenberg Challenger was a rather vanilla charitable group. For example, under the deal with Annenberg every dollar from him had to be matched by two from elsewhere. The co-funders were a host of respected, mainstream institutions, such as the National Science Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Chicago Public Schools.

In short, this was a mainstream foundation funded by a mainstream, Republican business leader and led by an overwhelmingly mainstream, civic-minded group of individuals. Ayers’ involvement in its inception and on an advisory committee do not make it radical – nor does the funding of programs involving the United Nations and African-American studies.

This attack is false, but it’s more than that – it’s malicious. It unfairly tars not just Obama, but all the other prominent, well-respected Chicagoans who also volunteered their time to the foundation. They came from all walks of life and all political backgrounds, and there’s ample evidence their mission was nothing more than improving ailing public schools in Chicago. Yet in the heat of a political campaign they have been accused of financing radicalism. That’s Pants on Fire wrong.

Attacking Kotowski on the Pay Raise? Really?

Seriously–the Republicans have lots of targets out there and lots of issues, but attacking Dan Kotowski on the pay raise when he sponsored the amendment to block it, gave a portion of his salary to a scholarship, and refused his overtime stipend.  That’s what the Republicans have?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mK7zEBhYlE[/youtube]

That said–to my fellow Democrats, when we get stuck with Todd and Rod it’s pretty much a given this sort of thing is going to happen.

Returning to Sweeney, if he’s so strong against pay raises, he might want to return the $3,716 he received extra as Elk Grove Township clerk over the last three years.

Elk Grove Pay Raise document here

Hinz on Obama/Ayers

Nothing new to readers here:

Well, Mr. Obama apparently had a lot of company at work. Among those who served on the boards of the two Chicago charities at the heart of the Ayers-Obama “connection” are the former president of Northwestern University, the head of the city’s most powerful business group, officials from petroleum giant BP Amoco and banking heavyweight UBS, and the ex-publisher of a noted liberal rag, the Chicago Tribune.

Kinda gives it a different spin, no? The story of the Ayers affair isn’t that the radical Vietnam-era protester was embraced by Mr. Obama. The story is that a wide swath of Chicago’s establishment, rightly or wrongly, gave Mr. Ayers a second chance — and that Mr. Obama, not one to challenge Chicago’s power structure, raised no objections.

Sometimes people can act like grownups even:

A bit later, Messrs. Obama and Ayers overlapped again on the board of the Woods Fund, which helps community and arts groups. Among others on the board during Mr. Ayers’ tenure, which continues to this day: BP’s Midwest community affairs director, USB Investment Bank’s public affairs chief and R. Eden Martin, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club.

Mr. Martin knew of Mr. Ayers’ past. “One can simultaneously have one’s own opinion about things that occurred 35 years ago and deal with them on contemporary issues.” He adds, “Ostracism, excommunication is not the way we usually run our lives.”

Sigh:

The only other known joint activity between Hyde Parkers Obama and Ayers came in 1995, when Mr. Obama declared for the state Senate and attended a brunch with about 10 people at Mr. Ayers’ nearby home.

Mr. Obama “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist,” Ms. Palin says. But others active in these events, including Dr. Quentin Young and Rabbi A. J. Wolf, say the coffee was one of several held that day and may not have been the first.

On top of all of this, it appears the right wing narrative includes that Obama was somehow paid for his work on the Annenberg Challenge.  He was not. He was Chair of the Board that hired the Executive Director. Of course, Ayers wasn’t on the Board–he was on the Collaborative that made recommendations to the Board.  The Chicago effort focused on democratic localism which meant each school would have more direct input from parents and the community. It turned out not to work very well and as everyone can see, the CPS has gone the other way. There was nothing radical about it though. It was an effort to experiment with local governance.

Watch Out Below

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I hear this has been seen outside the White House as well:

Twenty-three percent of all adults — and 18 percent of political independents — gave the president good marks, putting him within a point of Harry S. Truman‘s record low in a February 1952 Gallup poll. The low ratings continue to have a dampening effect on McCain: More than half of voters, 51 percent, said that McCain, if elected, would largely continue to lead the country in the direction Bush has, and those voters overwhelmingly prefer Obama.

What’s unfair about this is Rod Blagojevich still has two years to even end up lower than Bush. I’ve kind of enjoyed the dueling race to the bottom by the two of them.

Hey Marty–What are Cheney’s numbers?

Daily Dolt: Illinois Review

Wingnuttia Unleashed:

The two educators Ms. Nelson lauds are Michael and Susan Klonsky, and the event at which she met them at the Ayers/Dohrn home was a book signing of Klonksy’s new Small Schools: Public School Reform Meets the Ownership Society.  The title alone should raise eyebrows — “Ownership Society “– anti-capitalist term if we’ve ever heard one.

I’m not sure I even need to link to the next thing I’m going to for those of us who have been conscious since 1999, but for the slow out there:

Fact Sheet: America’s Ownership Society: Expanding Opportunities

“…if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of our country. The more ownership there is in America, the more vitality there is in America, and the more people have a vital stake in the future of this country.”

-President George W. Bush, June 17, 2004

The White House even offers the Spanish Language Translation.

The modern wingnut, beyond parody.