Great idea! And you can use some of the trillion dollars from the Obama Stimulus bill!

No one is trying to connect Senator Obama with acts that Ayers committed “over 40 years ago”.

We’re connecting him to the years he spent working closely with Ayers. Obama continued closely working with Ayers even after the September 11, 2001 story in the New York Times which showed Ayers stomping on the American flag. Obama stayed in contact with Ayers–that we know of–until just a few years ago, when political expediency forced his to disavow the domestic terrorist.

The “two men appear not to be close”?

The record is otherwise–a trip through Google will convince anyone not connected with the Obama campaign or writing for AP or the NY Times. Obama’s ever-shifting statements on his relationship with Ayers have changed as more information has come to light.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

Smear groups and now the McCain campaign are trying to connect Obama to acts Ayers committed 40 years ago – when Barack was just eight years old. Here’s what the New York Times reported on the connection (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html)

But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.”

Barack has publicly denouncedAyers’ radical actions from the 1960′s (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_weatherman_connection.html):

Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.

Smear groups and now the McCain campaign are trying to connect Obama to acts Ayers committed 40 years ago – when Barack was just eight years old. Here’s what the New York Times reported on the connection (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html)

But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.”

Barack has publicly denouncedAyers’ radical actions from the 1960′s (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_weatherman_connection.html):

Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.

ORGANIZING AND ISLAM

Organizing in neighborhoods has taken two paths that reflect historic dichotomy between integrationist and nationalist strategies. Many top conununity leaders collaborate on urban issues through city’s grasgroots network, forging multi-racial coalitions, while others take black nationalist approach, looking only within the African-American community for leadership and resources.

In first category are Ani Russell of community policing network, 312-461-0444; Jacky Grimshaw, former strategist for Harold Washington now working an community transportation issues; 773-278-4800, ext. 133; and Barack Obama, 773-684-4809, whose work to empower blacks has included his law practice, community organizing, philanthropy and most recently electoral politics: he is a candidate for state senate. A quiet leader with broad vision of empowerment and redevelopment in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood is Sokoni Karanja, 773-373-5700, whose nonprofit Centers for New Horizons provides social services, youth programs, education and child care.

Chicago is national center of black nationalist thought and organization. Head of the nation’s largest secular black-nationalist organization, the National Black United Front, Conrad Worrill, 773-268-5658, is a professor at Northeastern Illinois University’s Center for Inner City Studies and was prominent speaker at last year’s Million Man Man March. Another Northeastern professor, Robert Starks, 773-268-7500, heads local Task Force for Political Empowerment, along with Worrill was major organizer in Harold Washington campaigns. Radio commentator and former newspaper columnist and publisher, Lu Palmer, 773-624-0242, holds forth two nights a week on a WVON-1450AM political talk show. He founded the Black Independent Political Orgization and Chicago Black United Communities. Eddie Read, 773-663-0704, is president of both organizations mentioned above; CBUC members have shut down construction sites where blacks don’t get fair share of jobs. Salim Muwakkil, 773-643-3730, is senior editor of In These Times and contributing columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. He has done extensive coverage of black activism and the black nationalist movement.

Chicago is home base for African-American Muslim organizations. Muslims have been visible forces for organizing and stability in many neighborhoods, only some of them aligned with controversial leader Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam. Organizer Kublai Toure, 773-538-7217, is a member of Jim Brown’s Amer-I-Can youth organization, with projects ranging from helping arrange gang traces to trips to Chicago Cubs baseball Sitines for public housing youth. Mikail Bilal, 773-721-6588, is chek of the Muslim addiction-prevention group Millati Wami, with twice-weekly meetings on South Drexel St. for recovering substance abusers. Abdul Rashid Akbar is the Muslim chaplin at Cook County jail, 773-721-6588, where many incarcerated African-Americans convert to Islam. The Nation of Islam’s contact point for the media and editor-chief of The Final Call newspaper is James Muhammad, 773-602-1230. Ayesha Mustafaa reports on the larger Muslim community as editor of The Muslim Journal, 312-243-7600.

Saul Mendelson
You joined the Socialist movement at the age of 18. You chaired the Socialist Club at the University of Chicago. You taught and inspired students at DuSable High School. You fought in the civil rights struggles with the NAACP, with CORE, and with the Negro American Labor Council. You have held fast to your belief in democratic socialism

“At the memorial service held at the 1st Unitarian Church on South Woodlawn, speaker after speaker recounted Saul’s contributions. The service was ably MC’d by a retired colleague, Bob Clark. I spoke first and was followed by Saul’s friend Deborah Meier, a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient who is now starting a new school in Boston. Amy Isaacs, National Director of the ADA, spoke of what Saul had meant on foreign affairs to the ADA. Other speakers included Senator Carol Moseley Braun, Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, State Senator Barak Obama….”

The Fairness Agenda
I. Enact a Fairness Budget for America

America’s abundant resources must be used to build a decent society. We propose cutting military spending and corporate giveaways and reinstating progressive taxation, while redirecting revenues to invest in human resources, such as schools and health care, and in infrastructure, such as mass transit.

II Ensure Jobs, Living Wages, Benefits and Worker Rights for All

Our nation depends on a vigorous and innovative workforce that is assured basic rights. We propose government job creation, especially in areas of high unemployment; laws requiring profitable companies to compensate workers and communities affected by job cuts; elimination of tax breaks for companies that provide excessive executive compensation; and stronger protections against labor rights violations and all forms of discrimination.

III Ensure Equality for All

Despite recent progress, there is still widespread discrimination in this country based on race, gender, disabilities, age and sexual orientation. Wage gaps by sex and by race and de facto segregation still exist. Two means of addressing these problems include sufficient funding for agencies that administer anti-discrimination laws and reinforcing affirmative action while exploring the integration of class-based criteria into such programs.

IV Promoting a Just and Sustainable Global Economy

Free trade agreements and World Bank / IMF structural adjustment programs have increased inequalities at home and abroad. We propose an international dialogue to develop alternative trade and development initiatives that encompass the protection of worker and women’s rights, environmental standards, and food security, and tackle the issues of immigration and the need to reduce inequalities.

V Support Demilitarization, Human Rights and a New Internationalism

We propose: cutting military expenditures; negotiating to eliminate all nuclear weapons; shifting R&D priorities toward pressing domestic needs; stopping NATO expansion; banning landmines; ending subsidies for arms exporters and arms transfers for dictators; banning covert operations; shifting from unilateral military aid and U.S. controlled peacekeeping missions abroad to multilateral responses; and promoting real human rights abroad, which includes political, economic, social and cultural rights.

VI Guarantee Sustainable Communities and Environmental Justice

We propose: distribution of more no-strings federal funds, especially to poor communities; revisions in trade agreements to allow communities to enact strong environmental and labor laws; and retargetting federal insurance, subsides and loans for community development. On environmental justice, we propose: promoting the right to a clean environment and replacing subsidies for polluters with subsidies for ecologically sound products and services. We also support a shift to more sustainable agriculture that supports rural communities and a safe food supply.

VII Provide Adequate Social Investment

We propose: preserving Social Security and protecting it from privatization, remaking economic security structures to address the needs of the poor, offering universal access to affordable quality healthcare, protecting and expanding Medicare eligibility to people of all ages and income, creating a bill of rights to protect health care consumers, increasing funds for low-income housing assistance, and providing adequate funding for quality public education.

VIII Limit Private Money in Politics

Public outrage is increasing over the abuse of campaign finance loopholes, systematic influence-peddling, and political favors granted to special interests. Candidates who reject contributions from private sources, accept spending limits, and run shorter campaigns should have the options of receiving clean, disinterested money for their elections. Such a voluntary system would provide an alternative to private fundraising, create a financially level playing field and tighten loopholes.”
(Mycomment: except when it comes to Obama)