Posted on 08/21/2008 1:54:10 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Conservative writer Stanley Kurtz—researching an article for the National Review about connections between Barack Obama and former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers—made a big mistake.
The poor man took a wrong turn on the Chicago Way. Now he's lost.
Kurtz's research was to be done in a special library run by the University of Illinois at Chicago. The library has 132 boxes full of documents pertaining to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a foundation vested heavily in school reform.
Kurtz believes the documents may show Obama and Ayers were close—far closer than Obama has acknowledged—over oodles of foundation gifts on education projects the two worked on together.
First the librarians told Kurtz yes, come look. But by the time Kurtz landed in Chicago, the librarians changed their minds. The donor of the documents hadn't cleared his research. Perhaps they'll let him look at the documents on Nov. 5.
The relationship between the ambitious Obama and the unrepentant Ayers is a subject that excites Republicans, who haven't really thwacked that pinata as hard as they might. It really irritates Obama and his political champion, Chicago's sovereign lord, Mayor Richard M. Daley.
"This is a public entity," Kurtz told us Wednesday. "I don't understand how confidentiality of the donor would be an issue."
You don't understand, Mr. Kurtz? Allow me to explain. The secret is hidden in the name of the library:
The Richard J. Daley Library.
Eureka!
The Richard J. Daley Library doesn't want nobody nobody sent. And Richard J.'s son, Shortshanks, is now the mayor.
Obama, wearing the reformer's mantle, has generously offered to extend that reform to Washington, even to Kenya, but not Chicago, because he knows Shortshanks would be miffed.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
This is probably precisely the thing that would finish Obama, if it only had legs in the MSM
"By offering support through professional development and technical assistance, teaching and learning improved, the quality and quantity of professional development increased, and the community became more knowledgeable and better equipped to create successful school reform."
Sounds great, except that there was no measurable success in improving education. For an objective, non-political assessment of both the national Challenge and the Chicago Challenge by professional educators, see this link.
As the case studies reveal, expecting reformers outside the system to work with that system to reform the system itself proved to be a tall order -- especially when the outside reform groups also had their own ideas to implement, agendas to advance, and budgets to worry about. The experiences of New York and Chicago show that even reformers armed with $25-50 million are no match for school districts with budgets in the billions. There turned out to be no practical way to get a district to cooperate with a reform plan if the district didn't share that plan's philosophy -- and its theory of change....
As we read these case studies, we imagined going on a treasure hunt, carefully following the map one is handed, and eventually arriving at the location marked with an X. Yet there's no treasure to be found. For it turns out that one was handed the wrong map. It was said to lead to a stash of diamonds but in fact it led to a picnic table, a bicycle repair shop, or the road out of town....
The Chicago Annenberg Challenge, supervised by Obama and Ayers, made most of its grants to those "outside reform groups." Who and what these "reform groups" were is the question. Only one is known for sure: The Small Schools Workshop, headed by former SDS radical Mike Klonsky, an avowed Maoist Communist in the '80's, but a Chicago cabdriver in the '90's.
Kass is correct -- these records will never see the light of day.
Mike Klonsky, the Maoist Hardliner, Obama supporter and former best friend of the Weatherman terrorist group founders William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, received a $175,000 grant from the William Ayers/Barack Obama-led Annenberg Challenge to run the Small Schools Workshop.
Klonsky belonged to the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and was best friends with William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn who later became famous for their acts of terrorism when the SDS broke up and the Weathermen terror group was formed.
Between 1979 and 1981, Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (CPML) chairman and Obama supporter Mike Klonsky was repeatedly feted with state-dinner-level visits to Beijing.
Yesterday, Klonsky was posting a blog on the Obama website:
But, that was yesterday.
Today his blog was removed from the Obama website.
Comrade Klonsky is no longer with us.
The Daley family has owned Chicago for 4 decades. The entire downstate of Illinois pays homage to Chicago in the form of outrageous taxes and fees.
Can you think of any other major city with an airport that was destroyed by bulldozers overnight? Meigs Field in Chicago was plowed under because Daley wanted to build a park for his wife. The approval for the plans was too slow in coming, so Daley sent bulldozers out at midnight and simply plowed up the runway. He built Millenium Park on the spot, and that project had cost overruns in the millions.
The entire state pays for this through property taxes. Yearly taxes on a property valued at 150K are $4,000.00 downstate. On a 500K property in Lake County, they're in the $50,000.00 range.
If Obama is elected, look for Chicago to become the next Detroit. Dick Daley will finish what his father started.
No more insider scoops from City Hall for Mr. Kass ...
He's no longer on the (visible) Obama bus, but he's still out there on his very own blog -- writing exactly according to expectations.
This is about hiding Obama's connections with a Terrorists.....William Ayers...and the Weathermen
Will it stay closed? Or will Billary rip him apart? Sooooo many things coming up that seem to die in the media. IMHO, Billary is keeping score, gathering facts (maybe lies for Dems) and will neuter Obama at the Convention.
http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/08/behind-annenberg-gate-inside-chicago.html
Great article The more I read, the madder I get.
This is a comprehensive report, indeed. It deserves wide distribution.
http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/08/behind-annenberg-gate-inside-chicago.html
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