NOT Obama Part 1

THINGS THAT CONCERN ME ABOUT BARACK OBAMMA. These bother me more because they are not isolated, they are taken together to make me concerned about what is really going on in his head:

His failure to give any credit as role models to his WHITE grandparents, while he idealized his father who had abandoned him, his sister and his mother. (I am also troubled by his failure to include his sister when he talks about how he was the center of his mother's life).

His relationship with William (Billy) Ayres (a convicted terrorist bomber) with whom Obama served with the Woods Fund, hosted "meet the candidate dinners for Obama in the 90's, etc.

His 20 years at the Trinity Church with Jeremiah Wright and then saying he did not know about Wright's hate America speeches, and had not in 20 years heard them. DVD's obtained from the churches own bookstore show that this was not a recent turn for him, but had been a regluar topic for some years.

The fact that he has been reported to have the #1 most liberal voting record in the Senate (left of Hillary, left of Kennedy).

Michelle Obama's public statement in February 2008, told a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, crowd, "For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country."William (Billy) Ayres
Source: Wikipedia.com (Heavily footnoted)

The Obama–Ayers controversy arose during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign by Hillary Clinton regarding Presidential candidate Barack Obama's contact with Bill Ayers, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a former leader of the Weather Underground communist terrorist organization. His position as a professor led to him serving on two nonprofit boards with Barack Obama, who lived in the same neighborhood. Ayers and Obama made several joint appearances and Ayers was an early contributor and supporter of Obama’s political career.

Ayers participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the United States Capitol building in 1971, and The Pentagon in 1972, as he noted in his 2001 book, "Fugitive Days."

In an interview he gave to the New York Times (2001) on the occasion of the memoir's publication. The reporter quoted him as saying "I don't regret setting bombs" and "I feel we didn't do enough", and, when asked if he would "do it all again" as saying "I don't want to discount the possibility." Ayers has not denied the quotes.

Ayers was asked in a January 2004 interview, "How do you feel about what you did? Would you do it again under similar circumstances?" He replied: "I’ve thought about this a lot. Being almost 60, it’s impossible to not have lots and lots of regrets about lots and lots of things, but the question of did we do something that was horrendous, awful? ... I don’t think so. I think what we did was to respond to a situation that was unconscionable."

In an interview published in 1995, (when he was first supporting and promoting Obama) Ayers characterized his political beliefs at that time and in the 1960s and 1970s: "I am a radical, Leftist, small 'c' communist ... [Laughs] Maybe I'm the last communist who is willing to admit it. [Laughs] We have always been small 'c' communists in the sense that we were never in the [Communist] party and never Stalinists. The ethics of Communism still appeal to me. I don't like Lenin as much as the early Marx."

In 1970 Ayers was called "a national leader" of the Weatherman organization and "one of the chief theoreticians of the Weathermen". The Weathermen were initially part of the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM) within the SDS, splitting from the RYM's Maoists by claiming there was no time to build a vanguard party and that revolutionary war against the United States government and the capitalist system should begin immediately. Their founding document called for the establishment of a "white fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other "anti-colonial" movements to achieve "the destruction of US imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism." In June 1974, the Weather Underground released a 151-page volume titled Prairie Fire, which stated: "We are a guerrilla organization [...] We are communist women and men underground in the United States

Both Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, hosted Alice Palmer's meet-and-greet for Obama at their home in 1995 in the Hyde Park section of Chicago, where the Ayers and the Obamas lived. (The meeting has also been called a fundraising event.) It was at this meeting that then State Senator Alice Palmer introduced Barack Obama as her chosen candidate for the 1996 Democratic primary. Although the exact date of the meeting is not known, it was sometime in the second half of 1995, according to Ben Smith, a reporter for The Politico. Chicagoan Maria Warren wrote in 2005 on her Musings & Migraines blog: "When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the livingroom of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. They were launching him — introducing him to the Hyde Park community as the best thing since sliced bread."

Obama served as president of the board of directors for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a large education-related nonprofit organization that Ayers was instrumental in starting. The board disbursed grants to schools and raised private matching funds while Ayers worked with the operational arm of the effort. Both attended some board meetings in common starting in 1995,retreats, and at least one news conference together as the education program started. They continued to attend meetings together during the 1995-2001 period when the program was operating.

Obama and Ayers served together for three years on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, an anti-poverty foundation established in 1941. Obama had joined the nine-member board in 1993, and had attended a dozen of the quarterly meetings together with Ayers in the three years up to 2002, when Obama left his position on the board, which Ayers chaired for two years. Laura S. Washington, chairwoman of the Woods Fund, said the small board had a collegial "friendly but businesslike" atmosphere, and met four times a year for a half-day, mostly to approve grants. The two also appeared together on academic panel discussions, including a 1997 University of Chicago discussion on juvenile justice. They again appeared in 2002 at an academic panel co-sponsored by the Chicago Public Library. One panel discussion in which they both appeared was organized by Obama's wife, Michelle. Ayers donated $200 to Obama's 2001 state senate campaign.

At the Democratic Party primary debate in Philadelphia on April 16, 2008, moderator George Stephanopoulos questioned Obama about his association with Ayers, asking the candidate: "Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won't be a problem?" Obama responded as follows:

"This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense, George"

WE NEVER GET THE FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS:

What do you mean, "on a regular basis?"

But, Senator Obama, it is NOT a matter of simply knowing him, he was a supporter of you, he contributed to your early campaigns, he promoted you, it appears that he had influence in having you appointed to charitable boards to serve side by side with him AND you made joint appearances with him, one organized by your wife. AND it is not just a matter of "engaging in detestable acts when you were 8 years old" he has not repented, recanted or expressed regrets, he continues as a self proclaimed communist who TO THIS DAY does not regret his "detestable acts."

Senator Obama, if such a man is an enthusiastic supporter and promoter of YOU, how does that reflect on YOUR beliefs, politics and how you will govern as President of the United States?