[George_1950]

See this interesting article by Stanley Kurtz in National Review Online: Stanley Kurtz on Barack Obama, Bill Ayers & Chicago Annenberg Challenge on National Review Online
"When Obama made his first run for political office, articles in both the Chicago Defender and the Hyde Park Herald featured among his qualifications his position as chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a foundation where Ayers was a founder and guiding force." Kurtz was granted permission to review much of the exhibit: "The records in question are extensive, consisting of 132 boxes, containing 947 file folders, a total of about 70 linear feet of material."
But he hit a snag along the way: "The Special Collections section of the Richard J. Daley Library agreed to let me read them, but just before I boarded my flight to Chicago, the top library officials mysteriously intervened to bar access. Circumstances strongly suggest the likelihood that Bill Ayers himself may have played a pivotal role in this denial."
The Kurtz article cites additional work on this investigation: "the key reporting on the Obama-Ayers connection via the Chicago Annenberg Challenge has been done by Steve Diamond, at Global Labor and Politics." Global Labor and Politics: UPDATED 6/23 That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship

[tomder55]

Obama doesn't want the extent of his relationship with Ayers known .To me it just leads to suspicion that it was Ayers calling the shots on who and what got funded even though Obama was supposedly in charge. It amazes me that the University is complicit in this coverup . Either the records are for public perusal or they aren't .Supposedly they are.

Here is contact information to demand that the records get released :

Administrative Staff and Offices, President B. Joseph White, University of Illinois system

[BABRAM]

There probably is something that could be used as a campaign negative against Obama and since they no longer have permission, they can't research. Period. Cindy McCain didn't want everybody into her tax information. McCain's Keating five. Nixon's got caught. Reagan can't remember. Clinton lied. Dubya's Iraqi war motives, etc...

[Galveston1]

So, Bobby, does that make Obama just like all the rest of the politicians?

[BABRAM]

In what manner?? I prefer him on some issues over his opponent. That's why I'm supporting him.

[tomder55]

Will you stop with the Keating 5 garbage already. The Democrat investigator cleared McCain and Glenn from any wrong doing . But the partisan Congress falsely officially criticized McCain for "questionable conduct " because he was the only Republican involved. Even that was bogus. They found that only the Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle had interfered with the FHLBB in its investigation of Lincoln Savings.

[BABRAM]

Tom, that's odd. Most everything is bogus about McCain, but not about Obama? I've never heard you chastise Republicans that post every email they get, as if it's truth.

[tomder55]

No I don't although I have often done so when I had proof they are wrong.

As for McCain ;I have levelled harsher criticism against him than the Keating non-scandal. Hey ;keep up the Keating 5 talking point all you want to .If that's the best that can be dug up about McCain then he will be the next President.

[BABRAM]

As compared to the Obama is a Muslim extremist, or being a messiah, or the antichrist doldrums? Which has been proved wrong over and over, yet you remained silent for the most part, or cultivated the likes of the SkyGem types just because you prefer McCain. That's bs, Tom. You're fooling only yourself. Another thing you're wrong on so many fronts here. Number one, the issue of the OP was connecting Obama to highly questionable friends or acquaintances, in which I agreed that's not so uncommon and is probable. Number two, I pointed out that McCain, guilty or not of actions, has highly questionable friends. i.e. Keating five. Number three, I also pointed to actions and questionable connections of past presidents, Republican and Democrat. In conclusion, I have BBQ'd McCain over so many things from his taxation of middle and lower classes vs. Obama, to his plodding war first initiatives, to his often disorientated understanding of the middle east, because he's such an easy target on meaningful issues. It's no wonder Dubya won the Republican 2000 nomination over the "old white haired dude." It''s not that McCain lacks the ambition to president, obviously he does, but that's about all he has going for him.

[tomder55]

I have repeatedly said that the Muslim thing is a non-issue and that Obama opponents should hammer him on the many other weaknesses. The messiah stuff Obama brings on himself . Yeah with Skygem I had some fun ;but I was always open in my motive; to keep the Democrat nomination process ongoing and contentious as long as possible. Given the concession by the Obama camp to let Evita dominate 1/2 of the convention air time I'd say it worked.

[tomder55]

George ,

I think I've figured out what the delay tactic is all about. They are just buying time so they can get Sandy Burger to rummage through the documents first.

[BABRAM]

The messiah stuff Obama brings on himself . .

Tom, more bs. Back in the early days of the primaries I specifically challenged the McCain supporters, you, to withhold from negative campaign fairy tales. But you could not. In general terms the McCain support rhetoric, including their uneducated email campaign, is the plot of the worse cut-throat liars in the name of the religious right, in US history. Rarely does an issue of any substance get posted on these boards.

Yeah with Skygem I had some fun ;but I was always open in my motive; to keep the Democrat nomination process ongoing and contentious as long as possible. Given the concession by the Obama camp to let Evita dominate 1/2 of the convention air time I'd say it worked.

You were always an open accomplice to a habitual liar. Congratulations.

[tomder55]

Bobby lol even Nanacy Pelosi called Obama God's gift.

"a leader that God has blessed us with at this time."

Ben Smith's Blog: Obama: 'I will win' - Politico.com

So don't blame McCain supporters .All we are doing is quoting Obama and his sycophants.

[BABRAM]

Tom, more bs. The guy you voted for twice, Bush, supposedly heard from god to attack Iraq. Ask McCain if he considers himself a man of god! Many in the Republican party think so. And when did Obama claim to be the messiah?

[tomder55]

Obviously he never directly said he was the Messiah .But the things he's said has exposed him to that satire.Here is the one in his own words :

"We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We are the hope of those boys who have so little, who've been told that they cannot have what they dream, that they cannot be what they imagine. Yes, they can."

"This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."

"A light will shine though that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany... And you will suddenly realized that you must go to the polls and vote for Obama."

"I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

"I've been a receptacle for your hopes and dreams."

[BABRAM]

Ok. Now you're done hanging yourself. Nothing he implied or said that other politicians haven't campaigned before. In fact every breathing Jew on this planet that has an ounce of observance (and tradition) believes the same about him/herself. We call that "tikkun olam," repairing the world. We should all want to leave this place better than we found it. Wonderful! Good for Obama! Another reason to vote for him over McCain.

[George_1950]

...The guy you voted for twice, Bush, supposedly heard from god to attack Iraq....

Do you have a cite for this, other than daily kos?

[BABRAM]

Do you have a cite for this, other than daily kos?

George, you old FOX of a guy, there's a life outside of Rupert Murdoch's closet. Really!

Bush Says God Speaks Through Him

Subject: Does God Speak to Bush?

Bush: God told me to invade Iraq - Americas, World - The Independent

Chris Floyd: The Revelation of St. George

Bush says he cries on God's shoulder

'Bush says God sent him to war': World: News: News24

God told me to invade, says Bush - Iraq - Features - In Depth - theage.com.au

http://www.bushwatch.org/evangelist.htm

USATODAY.com - Strain of Iraq war showing on Bush, those who know him say

e.thePeople : Article : Is Bush criminally insane?

100-god-talks-to-bush

Does Bush Think He's Channeling God?

[George_1950]

Thanks, Bobby, I will check this stuff; but you don't object to a sinner leaning on Providence, do you? And you believe that one can discern the will of God, right? Even the POTUS? Lincoln closed his second inaugural address with this observation: "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." Should the president seek the will of God, or the will of his detractors, or Europe, in leading the USA?

[BABRAM]

To be perfectly frank with you, any of our past presidents that don't think they are making solid decisions for our public, regardless if they claim using overtones of religion, or just inherent common (or learned) sense, would be weak otherwise. Ultimately we either agree with their decisions or not.