PrintSeptember 23, 2008
Obama Dollars
Watch the money flow. Obama dollars can tell us a lot.
1. $120,349. Other People's Money.
Senator Obama received more political contribution money from now-collapsed mortgage banks Fannie Mae [Federal National Mortgage Association] and Freddie Mac [Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp] than all but one of the 353 other senators and congressmen who received political contributions from these two entities which were recently taken over by the federal government.
Even more dramatic is the fact that 19 years (from 1989 - 2008) of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac political contribution statistics show Senator Obama received his $120,349 despite having been in the U.S. Senate for just three years. Only Senator Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut -- who has been in Congress for 33 years (1975-81, House of Representatives; 1981-Present, Senate) -- received more.[1]
2. $195,000. Other People's Money.
Soon after her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate, his wife Michelle Obama received a $195,000 raise (to $316,962 in 2005 from $121,910 in 2004); subsequently, in 2006, Senator Obama requested a $1,000,000 earmark for Mrs. Obama's employer, the University of Chicago Hospitals, where she handles "community outreach"[2] -- which is apparently akin to being a handsomely paid "community organizer" but with better contacts.
3. $1,000,000. Other People's Money.
Soon after her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate, his wife Michelle Obama received a $195,000 raise (to $316,962 in 2005 from $121,910 in 2004); subsequently, in 2006, Senator Obama requested a $1,000,000 earmark for Mrs. Obama's employer, the University of Chicago Hospitals, where she handles "community outreach"[3] - which is apparently akin to being a handsomely paid "community organizer" but with better contacts.
4. $250,000. Other People's Money.
When asked during the Democrat presidential nomination race how much money Chicago slumlord and now-convicted felon Tony Rezko had raised in contributions to his campaign, Senator Obama waffled and wafted like the slim timber he is and said his "best guesstimate" was $10,000 to $15,000. In fact, it was $250,000.[4] Mr. Rezko is a long-time associate of Senator Obama and was his first substantial financial backer. Also, "when Obama bought his $1.65 million South Side home, there was an adjacent landscaped lot, which Rezko's wife purchased on the same day for the full asking price of $625,000." [see #5 below].
5. $625,000. Other People's Money.
Senator Obama and his wife, Michelle, purchased a $1.65 million Georgian revival mansion in Chicago, where they now reside. While wealthy Syrian-born Chicago slumlord Tony Rezko was already known to be under federal investigation, the senator approached Mr. Rezko about purchasing the two adjoining properties, then toured the home with Mr. Rezko (now a convicted felon on those charges). Soon after Senator Obama bought the mansion for $300,000 less than the asking price.[5] On the same day, Mr. Rezko's wife purchased the adjoining vacant lot for the full asking price of $625,000.[6]
6. $75,000. Other People's Money.
Senator Obama served as a paid director to a "progressive" Chicago-area non-profit organization, the Woods Fund, from 1999 until almost 2003. William C. Ayers -- who, despite the senator's protestations to the contrary, is a long-time friend and political ally -- served with Senator Obama on the organization's board of directors.
Mr. Ayers is an unrepentant and unpunished American terrorist. Mr. Ayers and his now-wife, Bernadine Dohrn, were leaders of the radical Left, terrorist group, the Weather Underground which was responsible for 25 bombings in the 1960's and 70's including bombings of the New York City police headquarters, the Capitol in Washington, and the Pentagon. After successfully fleeing to avoid prosecution for ten years, Ayers and Dohrn turned-in themselves in 1980 but were never prosecuted due to improper police investigatory actions. "Dohrn was once on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted List and was described by J. Edgar Hoover as the ‘most dangerous woman in America.'"[7]
Almost unbelievably, but nevertheless true, on September 11, 2001, Mr. Ayers told the New York Times in an interview, "I don't regret setting bombs; I feel we didn't do enough."
In 2001 the Woods Fund gave a $40,000 financial aid grant to a group with ties to the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) -- the Arab American Action Network -- which was co-founded by radical Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi and whose president is conveniently Mr. Khalidi's wife, Mona. In 2002, the Woods Fund gave the Arab American Action Network a second gift of $35,000. Mr. Khalidi and his wife are successful fundraisers for Senator Obama.
The Arab American Action Network opposes the existence of Israel as a state, calling its founding a "catastrophe." Mr. Khalidi, the Arab American Action Network's co-founder, "was reportedly also a director of the official PLO press agency WAFA in Beirut from 1976 to 1982, while the PLO committed scores of anti-Western attacks and was labeled by the U.S. as a terror group. Khalidi's wife, AAAN President Mona Khalidi, was reportedly WAFA's English translator during that period." Both deny this but Palestinian diplomatic sources have confirmed it.[9]
While both Senator Obama and terrorist William Ayers were on the board of the Woods Fund, it also made a $1,000,000 contribution to Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) -- what essentially became Mr. Ayers' failed Leftist attempt to redesign education in Chicago schools in his own image. Senator Obama chaired the CAC from 1995 through 1999 [see #9 below].
7. $325,000. Other People's Money.
As a state senator Obama directed $225,000 of Illinois taxpayers' money, and later as a U.S. Senator earmarked another $100,000 in federal tax money, for programs run by radical political activist and Catholic priest (now removed from his church), Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church on Chicago's South Side.[10] Senator Obama identified Father Pfleger, with whom he has been involved for 20 years, as "a key source of spiritual guidance."[11]
Father Pfleger's Catholic parish, like that of Obama spiritual mentor and advisor Reverend Jeremiah Wright's church, espouses a brand of black exclusivity based in the "black liberation theology" of James Cone and has done so, also like Reverend Wright's church, for two decades.
Pfleger is not only a long-time political associate of Senator Obama and Reverend Wright, but also of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan[12] whom Wright described "as one of the...giants of the African-American religious experience" and praised for his "integrity and honesty" -- despite the well-known fact Farrakhan is an outspoken anti-Semite and admirer of Adolf Hitler. Wright and Farrakhan once traveled together to visit Libyan dictator, Muammar al-Qaddafi -- whose government was responsible for blowing up an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing everyone aboard. Nevertheless, in December, 2007 Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ awarded Farrakhan for his lifetime "achievements."[13]
National Review's Stanley Kurtz (among others) has written extensively about and revealed the extremist political interdependencies of Senator Obama, radical Catholic priest Michael Pfleger, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan.[14] In a lengthy, in-depth article about Trumpet, the slick, nationally-distributed magazine of Senator Obama's church (and one in whose issues he has frequency appeared) Kurtz noted:
...that Wright's theology and politics have more in common with black-nationalist sources (both Christian and Muslim) than with those of conventional Christianity. In particular, Wright is closely allied with a radical and highly controversial Catholic priest named Michael Pfleger, and with Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan. While his specific ties (if any) to Farrakhan are unclear, Barack Obama appears to be very much a part of the broader Wright/Pfleger/Farrakhan theological-political nexus.
It is clear Obama was aware of Wright's views; indeed, the specifically political character of Wright's liberation theology is what drew Obama to Christianity.[15]
Kurtz continued:
Pfleger is just as far as Wright is from the majority of American Christians. Although Pfleger is white, he heads a largely black congregation on Chicago's South Side. Like Wright, Pfleger follows the black-liberation theology of James Cone.
As insightfully penned by James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal, here is what the hoopla over Senator Obama and his spiritual advisors ultimately boils down to and why it matters so much for America and her future:
Wright proclaims himself an exponent of "black liberation theology." He cites James Cone, a distinguished professor at New York's Union Theological Seminary, whom he credits for having "systematized" this strain of Christianity.Here is a quote from Cone, explaining black liberation theology:Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community. . . . Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.Could Obama really have been unaware for all these years that his spiritual mentor follows a racially adversarial theology, one that demands of God that he be "for us and against white people" and that he participate "in the destruction of the white enemy"? It doesn't exactly sound like the sort of "change" we can believe in.[16]
Stanley Kurtz further pointed out that none of Senator Obama's rhetorical dissimulating can explain away:
The nature and status of this kind of Christianity.... There is a profound difference between "black-liberation theology" and Christianity as conventionally understood. Trinity [Church] itself recognizes this difference, to the point where Wright, his followers, and his theological mentors often present conventional American Christianity as both false and evil.[17]
Senator Obama has said he never saw Wright's views as being "particularly controversial." Perhaps that is why he secured $325,000 in tax dollars for his radical friend's community (organizing?) events.
8. $15,000,000. Other People's Money (yes, you read that right, $15 million)
Over the past 15 years Senator Barack Obama's church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois, and its pastor, Senator Obama's "spiritual mentor" Reverend Jeremiah Wright has received $15,000,000 in grant money from the federal government.[18] Senator Obama has been a church member for 20 years.
Reverend Wright's church also espouses "black liberation theology" as systematized by James Cone. Black liberation theology's doctrines (only very briefly touched upon in #7 above) are not only extremely different from Christian spirituality but from Christianity as a whole. Reverend Wright has now become infamous due to the reportage of his widely-sold video-taped sermons in which he frequently makes anti-American and anti-white pronouncements from the pulpit, and repeatedly asserts (just as a small example) that: America is the USKKKof A; the United States purposefully invented the AIDS virus and infected Third World peoples with it in order to maintain America's standard of living; America brought the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attack in New York City upon itself by its own terrorism; and that the U.S. supports state [Israel] terrorism against the Palestinians.[19]
Reverend Wright even turned his "Pastor's Page" over to a member of the Muslim terrorist organization, Hamas, to use as a bully pulpit in a screed against Israel, and by extension, the United States:[20]
Sen. Barack Obama's Chicago church reprinted a manifesto by Hamas that defended terrorism as legitimate resistance, refused to recognize the right of Israel to exist and compared the terror group's official charter - which calls for the murder of Jews - to America's Declaration of Independence.The Hamas piece was published on the "Pastor's Page" of the Trinity United Church of Christ newsletter reserved for Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., whose anti-American, anti-Israel remarks landed Obama in hot water.....Hamas, responsible for scores of shootings, suicide bombings and rocket launchings against civilian population centers, is listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.
Now remember, Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Senator Obama's church received $15,000,000 in grant money from the United States government.
9. $100,000,000. Other People's Money (and again, yes, you read that right, $100 million).
The Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) was established in 1995 after a $49.2 million grant proposal by Obama friend and unrepentant-terrorist-bomber-now-educator William Ayers [see #6 above] was awarded. Both Senator Obama and Mr. Ayers were deeply involved - Senator Obama as founding Chairman - in the failed, five-year CAC educational "reform" fiasco, which wasted over $100 million of other people's money on Mr. Ayers' pet authoritarian educational theories.[21]
The C.A.C.'s own final technical report issued in 2003 repeatedly noted that it was an utter failure.
In order to receive the grant money, an equivalent amount of matching funds had to be raised. $110 million quickly was, $1,000,000 of which was awarded by the Wood's Fund -- the "progressive" non-profit organization of which both Senator Obama and William Ayers were board members.
Not coincidentally, not only was William Ayers one of the first CAC grantees despite being the co-chairman of one of its two operational arms, but his decades-long friend and political ally, communist Michael Klonsky who founded the American-birthed Maoist Communist Party[22] was as well. Mr. Klonsky initially received a $175,000 grant for his Small Schools Workshop, and was later given another $482,622.[23]
Until recently, Mr. Klonsky operated a blog at the official Obama Campaign website. All of its content has now been removed. Additionally, Senator Obama's official campaign web site contains an endorsement page entitled, "Marxist / Socialist / Communists for Obama"[24]
Education is a crucial policy issue in America. Its form and substance should never be left to either the Barack Obama's of the world, nor to William Ayers who, as news editor Ed Lasky noted, "Barack Obama has been attempting to burnish Ayers' reputation by characterizing him as a university professor -- still one of the more honored and respected professions in America. He peddled the notion that Ayers is an educator now and this should absolve him of the burden of his bomber background." Mr. Lasky observed that Ayers adopted an ideology of radicalism over education when he attended Columbia University's Teacher's College:
Ayers has subsequently written a best seller used in ed-school courses which focuses on the moral imperative of teaching "social justice" to students in K-12 classrooms. He has been active in ‘teaching teachers' that capitalism is a curse and imperialism is an American obsession. [....]Instead of educating teachers to prepare their students for the real world, and to acculturate immigrant children into the civic culture of America, Ayers is helping to create a cadre of teachers who will promote a view that is radically at odds with the mores of most Americans and that is divorced from the traditions of education in America.[25]
Likewise, Sol Stern of City Journal has written extensively about the nexus of Senator Obama and William Ayers regarding education in America, and argues that the more critical aspect of the senator's affiliation with an unrepentant and unpunished terrorist is his refusal to acknowledge Mr. Ayers' all-consuming political agenda:
The more pressing issue is not the damage done by the Weather Underground 40 years ago, but the far greater harm inflicted on the nation's schoolchildren by the political and educational movement in which Ayers plays a leading role today. [....]Ayers's politics have hardly changed since his Weatherman days. He still boasts about working full-time to bring down American capitalism and imperialism. This time, however, he does it from his tenured perch as Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago. [....]Ayers's influence on what is taught in the nation's public schools is likely to grow in the future. Last month, he was elected vice president for curriculum of the 25,000-member American Educational Research Association (AERA), the nation's largest organization of education-school professors and researchers.[26]
Senator Obama, with the help of such people, attempted to radically change the entire Chicago, Illinois education system. Fortunately, he failed. If elected President, he might not.
10. $0 , at last,... Obama Dollars
Now remember, Senator Obama's campaign theme is "Hope" and "Change You Can Believe In," nevertheless, the senator's half-brother, George Hussein Onyango Obama, lives in dire poverty in a tiny, collapsing, dirt-floored hut on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. According to Kenyan-born George Obama (who is pictured outside his hut in the Telegraph U.K. newspaper as well as Vanity Fair magazine (Italian edition) and the Chicago Sun-Times) he exists on approximately $1 a month. Senator Barack Obama met with him in 2006, and had already been a United States Senator for at least a year.[27]
Other people's money is one thing. Obama dollars are something else. There is a lesson here on the man's friends and family, and most importantly, his character.
[1] "Barack Obama's Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Connection," by John Gibson, Fox News, September 16, 2008; available from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,423701,00.html; accessed September 20, 2008; and "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Invest in Democrats," by Lindsay Renick Mayer, Open Secrets, July 16, 2008 and updated September 11, 2008; available from http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html; accessed September 20, 2008.
[2] "Obama's Odd Coincidence?," by Thomas Lifson, American Thinker, May 10, 2008; available from http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/05/obamas_odd_coincidence.html; accessed May 10, 2008.
[3] "Obama's Odd Coincidence?," by Thomas Lifson, American Thinker, May 10, 2008; available from http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/05/obamas_odd_coincidence.html; accessed May 10, 2008.
[4] "Obama's Poor Judgment and Poorer Excuses," by Peggy Shapiro, American Thinker, March 16, 2008; available from http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/03/obamas_poor_judgment_and_poore.html ; accessed March 16, 2008; also see http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/03/oooops_rezko_raised_at_least_2.html.
[5] "Obama Discloses New Rezko Details," by Rhonda Schwartz & Justin Rood, ABC News, February 20, 2008; available from http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4315880&page=1; accessed, September 22, 2008.
[6] "Obama on Rezko Deal: It was a misake," by Dave McKinney & Chris Fusco, Chicago Sun-Times, November 5, 2006; available from http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/124171,CST-NWS-obama05.article; accessed September 22, 2008.
[7] "Meet Obama's new Bill Ayers' associate: Ex-communist leader tied to terrorist eliminated from campaign website," by Aaron Klein, World Net Daily, September 14, 2008; available from http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=75282; accessed September 15, 2008.
[8] "Obama once visited 60's radicals," by Ben Smith, Politico, February 22, 2008; available from http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8630.html; accessed, March 17, 2008; "Ax on Ayers," by Ben Smith, Politico, February 28, 2008; available from http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0208/Ax_on_Ayers.html; accessed, March 17, 2008; "Terrorist Acquaintances," by Steve Chapman, Real Clear Politics, April 20, 2008; available from http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/obamas_terrorist_connection.html; accessed April 20, 2008; and "Obama Worked with Terrorist," by Aaron Klein, World Net Daily, February 24, 2008; available from http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=57231; accessed March 17, 2008;
[9] "Obama Worked with Terrorist," by Aaron Klein, World Net Daily, February 24, 2008; available from http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=57231; accessed March 17, 2008.
[10] "Irrelevant Apologies," by Thomas Sowell, June 3, 2008, Real Clear Politics; available from http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/06/irrelevant_apologies.html; accessed June 3, 2008; Also see: "Obama, Black Liberation Theology, and Karl Marx" Part 2, by Kyle-Anne Shiver, June 5, 2008, American Thinker; available from http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/06/obama_black_liberation_theolog_1.html; accessed June 7, 2008; and "The Demonic Father Pfleger," by James Lewis, American Thinker, May 30, 2008 [journal online]; available from http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/05/the_demonic_father_pfleger.html; accessed May 31, 2008
[11] "Left in Church - Deep inside the Wright Trumpet," by Stanley Kurtz, National Review, May 20, 2008; available from http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MjRhNDQ4MGFlYjk0YzUwNDk0MzYyNTE1ZDkwYmNmNDc= ; accessed June 2008.
[12] "Left in Church - Deep inside the Wright Trumpet," by Stanley Kurtz, National Review, May 20, 2008, supra.
[13] "Obama and His Minister, by Ronald Kessler, Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2008; available from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120545277093135111.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries; accessed March 14, 2008; also see "A Candidate, His Minister, and the Search for Faith," by Jodi Kantor, New York Times, April 30, 2007; available from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/us/politics/30obama.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&oref=login&oref=slogin; accessed March 17, 2008.
[14] "Preaching Envy as Gospel," by Ralph R. Reiland, American Thinker, June 16, 2008; available from http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_572675.html; accessed June 16, 2008.
[15] "Left in Church - Deep inside the Wright Trumpet," by Stanley Kurtz, National Review, May 20, 2008; available from http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MjRhNDQ4MGFlYjk0YzUwNDk0MzYyNTE1ZDkwYmNmNDc= ; accessed June 2008.
[16] "The Religious Wright," Best of the Web - Wall Street Journal, by James Taranto, March 17, 2008; available from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120568855824539755.html?mod=Best+of+the+Web+Today; accessed March 17, 2008; also see "Obama, Black Liberation Theology, and Karl Marx," by Kyle-Anne Shiver, American Thinker, May 28, 2008; available from http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/05/obama_black_liberation_theolog.html; accessed May 28, 2008. In this article, Shiver makes the observation that "liberation theology is Marxism dressed up to look like Christianity." Part 2 of Shiver's article appeared under the same title on June 5, 2008 and is also available from American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/06/obama_black_liberation_theolog_1.html .
[17] "Left in Church - Deep inside the Wright Trumpet," by Stanley Kurtz, National Review, May 20, 2008, supra.
[18] "Obama's Ex-church Has Received $15M in Federal Grant Money," by Jeff Goldblatt, Fox News, June 2, 2008; available from http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/06/02/obamas-ex-church-has-won-15m-in-federal-grant-money/; accessed 6- 2-08.
FOX News has learned that over the last 15 years, Trinity [United Church of Christ] has received at least $15 million in grants from the federal government - in other words, taxpayer money. .... So, how did Trinity, given Wright's controversial criticism of the government, get millions of dollars in handouts from Washington over the years? .... Jay Shafritz, an author and professor emeritus of public administration from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, says at some level, politics invariably influences how government grant money is awarded. "This is very much a sophisticated operation of convincing the people in government that you are the most deserving person, because these grants are very often competitive," he said. "It's very much like good old fashioned patronage. In the old days, political machines had jobs to give their constituents. Nowadays, they offer them grants," Shafritz continued. Shafritz examined the grant documents provided by FOX News and found no wrongdoing.
Yet, he said there's no way to know exactly how Trinity spent its millions in taxpayer money, since grant awards usually afford some latitude for discretionary use. He stressed that it's clear the grants have helped Wright grow his once tiny ministry into a massive empire. "Before he embarrassed himself on national television with his rantings, he was a very, very sophisticated guy in terms of growing organizations. He knew how the game was played and he played it very well.
[19] "A Candidate, His Minister, and the Search for Faith," New York Times, April 30, 2007, by Jodi Kantor; available from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/us/politics/30obama.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&oref=login&oref=slogin; accessed March 17, 2008.
[20] "Obama church published Hamas terror manifesto. Compares charter calling for murder of Jews to Declaration of Independence," World Net Daily, March 20, 2008, by Aaron Klein; available from http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=59456 ; accessed March 20, 2008.
[21] "Obama's Lost Annenberg Years Coming to Light, by Thomas Lifson, American Thinker, August 21, 2008; available from http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/08/obamas_lost_annenberg_years_co.html; accessed August 21, 2008; "‘That Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood': Behind the Ayers/Obama Relationship," by Professor Steve Diamond, June 18, 2008; available from http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/06/that-guy-who-lives-in-my-neighborhood.html; accessed September 11, 2008; and "The Chicago Annenberg Challenge: Success, Failures and Lessons for the Future - Final Technical Report of the Chicago Annenberg Research Project," August, 2003, by Mark A. Smylie, Stacy A. Wenzel, et. al.; available from http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/downloads/p62.pdf; accessed September 21, 2008.
[22] "Obama's Boys of Summer: A Who's Who of 1968 Radicals Supports the Candidate," by Daniel Flynn, City Journal, June 29, 2008; available from http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0629df.html.
[23] "‘That Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood': Behind the Ayers/Obama Relationship," by Professor Steve Diamond, June 18, 2008, supra.
[24] For many months the official Obama Campaign for President web site has maintained a page touting its support from, "Marxists/Socialists/Communists for Obama." The hyperlink on his campaign web site to is: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/MarxistsSocialistsCommunistsforObama; accessed May 23, 2008. Also see "Communists for Obama," by Oleg Atbashian," Pajamas Media, May 23, 2008; available from http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/communists-for-obama/; accessed May 23, 2008. This article details how the 75,000 people who attended the Obama rally in Portland, Oregon apparently actually came to hear the communist-inspired rock band, "The Decemberists," who provided the pre-rally entertainment and who begin every concert with the old Soviet Union's national anthem. The 75,000 number is now being touted by mainstream media outlets such as the Chicago Tribune as the number drawn by the "electrifying oratory" of his "stump speeches."
[25] "Bill Ayers and the Subversion of Education," by Ed Lasky, American Thinker, April 25, 2008; available from http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/04/bill_ayers_and_the_subversion.html; accessed April 25, 2008.
[26] "Obama's Real Bill Ayers Problem" by Sol Stern, City Journal, April 23, 2008; available from http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0423ss.html; accessed April 24, 2008. Also see, "The Ed School's Latest - and worst - Humbug," by Sol Stern, City Journal, Summer 2006; available from http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_3_ed_school.html; accessed April 24, 2008. In this lengthy article, Mr. Stern details how William Ayers "social justice" and "urban education" curricula not only undermine American education but prove to be a "cruel hoax" on disadvantaged inner city youth who don't happen to live in the Ayers-Obama wealthy, ultra-liberal neighborhoods.
[27] "Obama's half-brother to Vanity Fair: ‘No one knows I exist," by Stephano Esposito, Chicago Sun-Times, August 21, 2008; available from http://www.suntimes.com/news/1119352,CST-NWS-brother21.article; accessed September 22, 2008; and "Barack Obama's ‘lost' brother found in Kenya," by Nick Pisa, The Telegraph, U.K., August 20, 2008; available from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2590614/Barack-Obamas-lost-brother-found-in-Kenya.html; accessed August 20, 2008.
