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Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools By STANLEY KURTZ Despite having authored two autobiographies, Barack Obama has never written about his most important executive experience. From 1995 to 1999, he led an education foundation called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), and remained on the board until 2001. The group poured more than $100 million into the hands of community organizers and radical education activists. [Obama and Ayers] AP Bill Ayers. The CAC was the brainchild of Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground in the 1960s. Among other feats, Mr. Ayers and his cohorts bombed the Pentagon, and...

What if Barack Obama’s most important radical connection has been hiding in plain sight all along? Obama has had an intimate and long-term association with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), the largest radical group in America. If I told you Obama had close ties with MoveOn.org or Code Pink, you’d know what I was talking about. Acorn is at least as radical as these better-known groups, arguably more so. Yet because Acorn works locally, in carefully selected urban areas, its national profile is lower. Acorn likes it that way. And so, I’d wager, does Barack Obama....

Howard Kurtz issues a rather amazing analysis of John McCain’s ad connecting Franklin Raines to Barack Obama. The Washington Post media analyst calls the basis of the McCain ad a “disputed premise” — despite his own newspaper’s reporting on the Raines-Obama relationship: Analysis: This John McCain ad is based on a disputed premise. There’s no dispute that Obama has no background in economics — but then, neither does McCain, which makes this an odd charge for the Arizona senator to hurl. Fannie Mae did collapse, requiring a government takeover, and Raines, its former chairman, paid $25 million in April to...

No Left Turns wonders what made a fairly reasonable Liberal journalist snap and appear to go batshit crazy like the anchorman Howard Beale in “Network.” Watching somebody go unhinged in public is both fascinating and repellent. It makes you realize the beneath that urbane exterior there was a boiling cauldron of repressed fury that colored every word uttered or written. It strips Howard Kurtz naked and to see the naked Kurtz is not a pretty sight. Gone is the pretense of objectivity; gone is the pretense of seeing all sides, gone in a single essay is any pretense of impartiality....

Howard Kurtz Claims Sarah Palin was easy. Exact words. Then he claimed that John Gibson proposed a nuclear strike on Israel. Exact words. Interestingly, the media's coverage was an "attack on Christianity" itself. Exact words. Please go to Kurtz’ article and see how any quotes you can get without from anti-religious Howard Kurtz.

Anyone who said that Charlie Gibson might go easy on Sarah Palin might want to quickly delete those comments. What the ABC newsman conducted yesterday was a serious, professional interview that went right at the heart of what we want and need to know about the governor: Could she be president? Does she understand the nuances of international affairs? Does she have a world view? He was all business, respectful but persistent. ~snip~ Lots of conservative ridicule for this sentence in a Wendy Doniger piece on Palin for WP/Newsweek's On Faith blog: "Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that...

Ifill is working on a book called Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, focusing on the Democratic nominee and such up-and-coming black politicians as Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 11, 2008; 10:09 AM The media are getting mad. Whether it's the latest back-and-forth over attack ads, the silly lipstick flap or the continuing debate over Sarah and sexism, you can just feel the tension level rising several notches. Maybe it's a sense that this is crunch time, that the election is on the line, that the press is being manipulated (not that there's anything new about that). News outlets are increasingly challenging false or questionable claims by the McCain campaign, whether it's the ad accusing Obama of supporting sex-ed for...

While running in the Democratic primaries Obama pointed to one of his very, very few legislative endeavors and — in his post partisan, post-racial mode — posed as someone who championed it: “It’s no secret that most Americans think the country is on the wrong track,” Obama told the group. “But the reason isn’t just failed policies. It’s a system in Washington that has failed the American people. A system that has not kept the most fundamental trust of American democracy: that our government is of the people, and that it must govern for all the people - not just...

From the moment Sarah Palin stepped onto the national stage, she was mauled, minimized and manhandled by an openly skeptical media establishment. That lasted six days. By Thursday morning, after a speech in which she chided the journalistic elite, the previously obscure governor of Alaska was being hailed by many of the same media gurus. The media's tattered reputation has not fared as well, not after the frenzy over Palin's mothering skills, her baby and her pregnant teenage daughter. The uproar handed John McCain's team an opening to declare war on the press, his aides fuming over what they see...

Accusations of a connection between Barack Obama and ex-Weatherman Bill Ayers have recently been gathering steam in conservative journals thanks to Weekly Standard and National Review contributor Stanley Kurtz. For the uninitiated, the Weather Underground was a domestic terrorist group that grew out of the New Left in the '60s and '70s. The group sought to transform America into a communist nation. Obviously, Obama does not seek such a transformation, but relationships with people like Ayers do raise other questions. More to the point is that Mr. Kurtz, along with many other journalists and lawyers, is investigating files that were...

Dennis Prager was on the air last week on the day Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was named to the Republican ticket, and without missing a beat, the conservative radio host pronounced her "an American Margaret Thatcher." Her speech to the convention, Prager said Thursday during a break in his program, "just reconfirmed my love at first sight." Across the table, Sen. Orrin Hatch was slipping on the headphones to join him and immediately went on offense when he went on the air. "I've really been offended by how the mainstream media have tried to smear her by attacking, in essence,...

COMMENTARY "When the heavy hand of the state is imposed on the press, all of us lose," Barack Obama told a group of Kenyan journalists during an August 2006 trip to Africa. "The media does not have a formal role in the government, but it serves a critical function in providing information to the public so that they can hold the government accountable," he said. Mr. Obama's remarks implied he supports the First Amendment. His comment that "Democracy can't function properly without a free press," suggested he understood the importance of robust scrutiny of elected officials. Yet, when given the...

Hannity has led the media pack in repeatedly playing videos of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's controversial former pastor, and questioning his association with William Ayers, a member of the violent Weather Underground in the 1960s. In a recent interview with Glamour magazine, Obama said Fox News and others went after his wife, Michelle, "in a pretty systematic way. . . . If you start being subjected to rants by Sean Hannity and the like, day in and day out, that'll drive up your negatives."

It appears Team Obama will stop at nothing to intimidate and harass those who would expose his long and cozy relationship with terrorist William Ayers. As in the '60s, lefties think freedom of speech applies only to them. We have written extensively on the socialist past of Barack Obama as expressed in his proposals and associations, both personal and organizational. One of those associations is between Obama and Ayers, a leader of the Weather Underground, a '60s terrorist group. It's true Obama has condemned and disassociated himself from the terrorist actions of Ayers and the Underground. But Ayers has never...

When Markos Moulitsas saw that one of the contributors to his liberal blog was accusing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of lying about her 4-month-old baby, he was a bit skeptical. "I feel a little weird about the questions being asked," he says. "But I also feel a little weird about saying, 'Shut up, people.' It takes a lot for me to step in and squash what's on Daily Kos." In less than 48 hours, the allegations by a Kos diarist known as ArcXIX ricocheted into the mainstream media, when John McCain's designated running mate announced Monday that her 17-year-old daughter...

In today's Sun Times, there is a terribly dishonest editorial making Obama's time on the Annenberg board with Bill Ayers nothing out of the ordinary. The first bit of dishonest and misleading is done as such. The issue of Obama’s role arose when a blogger for National Review raised questions about his relationship with Ayers, a favorite election-year target of conservatives. The blogger felt quite sure that the pair were much closer than Obama intimated when he said he knew Ayers "from the neighborhood" where both live. The blogger hinted darkly that the pair were really ideological soul mates and...

The Editors of National Review Online have a good editorial summarizing researcher and writer Stanley Kurtz's investigation of the ties between Barack Obama and radical terrorist William Ayers, and the reaction of Obama campaign and its supporters to their critics: ... WGN, has made a stream of the broadcast available online, here, and it has to be heard to be believed. Obama's robotic legions dutifully jammed the station's phone lines and inundated the program with emails, attacking Kurtz personally. Pressed by Rosenberg to specify what inaccuracies Kurtz was guilty of, caller after caller demurred, mulishly railing that "we just want...

Do Democratic presidential campaign committees think we are all stupid or do they suffer from some sort of group delusion? In 2004 they tried to peddle a man who made claims about his military career that were easily proven to be lies (Christmas in Cambodia, outrageous charges about war crimes by his fellow soldiers) as a war hero “reporting for duty.” This time around they are trying to take a man whose entire career has linked him with far-left anti-American characters, political agendas focused on redistribution of wealth, and racial spoils and pawn him off on us as a...

Supporters of Barack Obama made thousands of calls and sent thousands of e-mails Wednesday in an organized campaign to intimidate a Chicago radio station – WGN-AM – into canceling the appearance of a conservative writer on one of its long-time popular talk shows. The campaign did not work, according to the talk-show’s producer. “We’ve probably had 4,000 to 5,000 e-mails,” said Zack Christenson, producer of “Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg.” “There’s no way to measure the calls. The only thing I can tell you about the calls is that from about 7:30 p.m. to about midnight that night, the phone...

Even as Barack Obama gave his soaring speech Thursday night, his campaign was playing hardball with its critics. Team Obama has launched an offensive against WGN, the Chicago Tribune's radio station, for interviewing Stanley Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz is a conservative writer who this week forced the University of Illinois to finally open its records on Sen. Obama's association with William Ayers, the unrepentant 1970s Weather Underground terrorist.

For months, Barack Obama has complained about the poverty his family suffered while earning a mere $200,000 per year. Last night he ridiculed his political opponent for a joke he had made about high-income earners qualifying as “middle class.” Last night, the man who opposed welfare reform bragged that while serving in Illinois he had “moved more families from welfare to work.” The man who misled the public for four years about his vote to let a Chicago-area hospital continue leaving premature abortion survivors to die, and who promised that his first act as president will be to re-legalize partial-birth...

Even as Barack Obama gave his soaring speech Thursday night, his campaign was playing hardball with its critics. Team Obama has launched an offensive against WGN, the Chicago Tribune's radio station, for interviewing Stanley Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz is a conservative writer who this week forced the University of Illinois to finally open its records on Sen. Obama's association with William Ayers, the unrepentant 1970s Weather Underground terrorist. An Obama campaign email to supporters called Mr. Kurtz a "slimy character assassin" whose "divisive, destructive ranting" should be confronted. WGN producer Zack Christenson says the outpouring of negative calls and emails is...

Let’s suppose that a public official has something in his past that he would prefer remain there. Something that might make voters wonder whether the rhetoric of today is something that should be believed. Let’s suppose that someone got their hands on documents about the skeleton in the closet, and went on a popular radio show to talk about them. And let’s suppose that instead of a civilized debate about what may have happened years ago, the public official ordered his legions to jam the radio station’s phone lines in an effort to make sure that whatever happened all those...

Given that I thought the Hollywood soundstage, with its faux columns, would make Barack Obama's nomination speech seem strange and offbeat, my prognostication skills aren't much. The speech was superb -- not as good as his race speech, or his 2004 convention speech, but very good nonetheless. But I see trouble on the horizon for him. This attack ad now being aired by 527 independent groups is going to shake up a lot of people who didn't know about Obama's friendship with former Weatherman Bill Ayers. I think it's far more damaging to Obama than Rev. Wright. Whenever I wirte...

On Monday, Obama demanded that the Justice Department stop TV stations from airing a documented, accurate independent ad spotlighting Obama's longtime working relationship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. Obama summoned his followers to bombard stations, many of them owned by conservative-leaning Sinclair Communications, with 93,000 e-mails to squelch the commercial. On Tuesday, the Obama campaign sent another letter to the Justice Department demanding investigation and prosecution of American Issues Project, the group that produced the Ayers ad, as well as Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, who funded it.

I am honored to be here tonight. A proud mother. A proud Democrat. A proud American. And a proud supporter of Barack Obama." So went Hillary Clinton's opening line Tuesday night to the faithful gathered in Denver to make Barack Obama's nomination as the Democrats' presidential candidate official. What's missing in that line? Bill Clinton. The only time she mentioned the man responsible for her being the former first lady, for her being the current junior senator from New York, and for coming oh-so-close to the Democrat nomination for president, was when she said, "And when Barack Obama is in...

Obama Desperately Trying to Keep Lid On Bill Ayers Story The Bill Ayers story must be striking a VERY sensitive nerve because the Obama campaign is fighting so hard to keep the lid on the cover-up. At issue is the Chicago Annenberg Challenge an organization created by Ayers and which Obama was a board member. Last week when Stanley Kurtz went to read the files of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge he was thwarted at the last minute by Obama Loyalists. Then when Harold Simmons launched an independent TV spot criticizing the Obama/Ayers connection the Obama campaign went to the department...

Stanley Kurtz's appearance on the Milt Rosenberg radio program in Chicago last night provided an unsettling look into the authoritarian tactics being employed by the Obama campaign to stifle and intimidate its critics. I happened to be in the WGN studios for the entire affair because my friend, Zack Christenson, produces the show in question. He was aware of my previous reporting on the Obama-Ayers connection and kindly invited me to sit in on the two-hour interview. (For full disclosure, I work for two other radio stations in Chicago, WIND, and WYLL). As I arrived at the downtown Chicago studios...

Barack Obama, Aspiring Commissar By the Editors While the Obama coronation proceeds apace in Denver, it is in Chicago that Americans are getting a disturbing demonstration of his thuggish methods of stifling criticism. Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a Harvard-educated social anthropologist and frequent contributor to National Review, among other publications. He is widely respected for his meticulous research and measured commentary. For months, he has been doing the job the mainstream media refuses to do: examining the background and public record of Barack Obama, the first-term senator Democrats are about to...

<p>"WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "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."</p>

For two hours last night, Obama minions beseiged retired conservative U of IL professor, Milt Rosenberg's WGN radio show during his interview with Stanley Kurtz about the Obama-Ayers connections during the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Reminiscent of Obama's first IL Senate run... where his legal team systematically eliminated all primary competitors by challenging all petition signatures... Obama has sent the lawyers in to attempt to quash the McCain Obama-Ayers ad, criticizing McCain's suggestion that Obama had a relationship with Ayers beyond that of another guy in the 'hood. Barack Obama's supporters insist that an ad from a conservative group attacking his...

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...

August 27, 2008, 7:30 a.m. Obama’s Friend, America’s EnemyBy the Editors Have you ever been a friend or business associate of a terrorist? Not someone who, to your shock and horror, turned out secretly to have bombed government buildings. No, the question is whether you’ve ever befriended an unreconstructed radical whose past was well known to you when you entered his orbit and walked through doors he opened for you. Have you been chummy with an unapologetic terrorist who, years after you’d known and worked closely with him, was still telling the New York Times he regretted only failing...

Some interesting happenings on the search for truth front. The indispensable National Review columnist Stanley Kurtz has been doing some much needed digging on the extent of the relationship between Barack Obama and Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers. Well yesterday, Kurtz went on WGN Radio in Chicago to discuss his findings and what sort of trouble he’s run in to, and the Obama campaign let out this incredibly dishonest email...

Members of Barack Obama’s campaign HQ in Chicago tried to shut down a local radio show on the City's most powerful radio signal, WGN 720, because they didn't like a conservative guest that was on going on the air to discuss Senator Barack Obama's ties to local terrorist William Ayers. This is a shocking attempt at stifling political free speech and a bald attempt to quash debate by the office of the Democratic Party's nominee. The funny thing is, WGN is the most liberal station in the City with every host but one slavishly supporting the junior Senator from Illinois.

While the Obama coronation proceeds apace in Denver, it is in Chicago that Americans are getting a disturbing demonstration of his thuggish methods of stifling criticism. Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a Harvard-educated social anthropologist and frequent contributor to National Review, among other publications. He is widely respected for his meticulous research and measured commentary. For months, he has been doing the job the mainstream media refuses to do: examining the background and public record of Barack Obama, the first-term senator Democrats are about to make their nominee for president despite the...

Members of Barack Obama’s campaign HQ in Chicago tried to shut down a local radio show on the City's most powerful radio signal, WGN 720, because they didn't like a conservative guest that was on going on the air to discuss Senator Barack Obama's ties to local terrorist William Ayers. This is a shocking attempt at stifling political free speech and a bald attempt to quash debate by the office of the Democratic Party's nominee. The funny thing is, WGN is the most liberal station in the City with every host but one slavishly supporting the junior Senator from Illinois....

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign organized its supporters Wednesday night to confront Tribune-owned WGN-AM in Chicago for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its air. "WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "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." Kurtz, a conservative writer, recently wrote an article for the National Review that looked at Obama's ties to Ayers, a...

“Slimy.” “Smear merchant.” “Character assassin.” This kind of name-calling tends to undermine an argument against character assassination, especially when the argument comes with no supporting evidence at all. Yet the Barack Obama campaign feels comfortable with this kind of ad hominem attack on Stanley Kurtz as a means to get him silenced: The campaign e-mailed Chicago supporters who had signed up for the Obama Action Wire with detailed instructions including the station’s telephone number and the show’s extension, as well as a research file on Kurtz, which seems to prove that he’s a conservative, which isn’t in dispute. The file...

Members of Barack Obama’s campaign HQ in Chicago tried to shut down a local radio show on the City's most powerful radio signal, WGN 720, because they didn't like a conservative guest that was on going on the air to discuss Senator Barack Obama's ties to local terrorist William Ayers. This is a shocking attempt at stifling political free speech and a bald attempt to quash debate by the office of the Democratic Party's nominee. The funny thing is, WGN is the most liberal station in the City with every host but one slavishly supporting the junior Senator from Illinois....

In a surprising attempt to stifle broadcast criticism of its candidate, the presidential campaign of freshman Illinois senator Barack Obama is organizing supporters to confront Chicago's WGN radio station for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its main evening discussion program. "WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail sent to supporters. "He's currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. (Wednesday night) pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and University of Illinois professor William Ayers."

The Obama campaign has tonight again demonstrated that it will try to silence voices with which it does not agree. This should chill all Americans, for it offers a preview of the tactics to which a President Obama might harness the power of the federal government. The means chosen include harassment of television stations running the 527 group Ayers ad, a demand for a Justice Department investigation, and just last night, disruption of a radio talk show in Chicago that dared have Dr. Stanley Kurtz of National Review, who has been examining the archives of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, in...

Obama campaign confronts WGN radio by John McCormick and Steve Schmadeke DENVER -- Sen. Barack Obama's campaign organized its supporters Wednesday night to confront Tribune-owned WGN-AM in Chicago for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its air. "WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "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." Kurtz, a conservative writer, recently wrote an...

DENVER -- Sen. Barack Obama's campaign organized its supporters Wednesday night to confront Tribune-owned WGN-AM in Chicago for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its air. "WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "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." Kurtz, a conservative writer, recently wrote an article for the National Review that looked at Obama's ties to...

DENVER -- An ABC News producer was arrested outside a downtown hotel here Wednesday while he and a camera crew tried to shoot footage of corporate donors leaving a meeting with a group of Democratic senators.[...] We expect to see this kind of behavior in Myanmar, not in Denver, Colorado, at a national political convention where a reporter is trying to videotape big-money donors trying to meet with elected officials," said ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider. Footage of the incident showed one police officer constantly pushing Eslocker as the producer walked backwards across the street, and another officer placing his hand...

From the Chicago Tribune today — "Files linking Obama to '60s radical a hot commodity." Also, NR and NRO contributor Stanley Kurtz is going to be on WGN radio in Chicago with Milt Rosenberg discussing the Annenberg files from 9-11 central time. If you're not in the Chicago area, you can listen here. (link in body below)

The Ad: Barack Obama knows a lot about housing problems. One of his biggest fundraisers helped him buy his million-dollar mansion. Purchasing part of the property he couldn't afford. From Obama, Rezko got political favors including 14 million from taxpayers. Now, he's a convicted felon, facing jail. That's a housing problem. Analysis: This John McCain ad attempts to drag back into the news Obama's dealings with a corrupt fundraiser, which the senator from Illinois has already described as a "boneheaded" mistake.

For months, CNN's Howard Kurtz has been one of the loudest mainstream media voices accusing his fellow press members of being disgracefully in the tank for presumptive Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama. On Sunday, Kurtz continued his finger-pointing by accurately stating, as it pertains to the focus on the junior senator's trip to the Middle East, "the media in general, not just the networks, are -- seem to me to be covering Obama as if he were already president.

Barack Obama's upcoming swing through Europe and the Middle East is now guaranteed to be a major media event, certified by the presence of the three network anchors. The Washington Post has learned that Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric will travel overseas next week, lured by the prospect of interviews with the presumed Democratic candidate. That means the NBC, ABC and CBS newscasts will originate from stops on the trip and undoubtedly play it up.