Wingnuts Go Wild With White House Guest List

Legitimate journalists went out of their way today to write that White House visitors Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Michael Jordan and Michael Moore weren't THE ones that we all know. But that didn't stop the wingnuts from raising a fuss. They know fellow wingnuts don't care about truth. What's that? They'll simply say the White House is covering up. Paranoid minds. The price of transparency.

The White House warns that many names that may appear familiar — and controversial — do not in fact refer to the most famous people to carry those names. Jeremiah Wright is on the list, but it's not the president's former pastor. This Michael Jordan is not the basketball player. This Michael Moore is not a filmmaker. The William Ayers who took a group tour of the White House isn't the former radical from Chicago who figured so prominently in the 2008 campaign. And the Angela Davis on the list has a different middle initial than the activist and former fugitive. First Read.

See the White House visitor log here.

Limbaugh's More UnPopular Than Ayers

Apologies to Bill Ayers, who has reformed himself to do good, while people like Limbaugh spread their nastiness on a daily basis, doing harm, essentially, to everyone.

The democrats are gleeful that Rush Limbaugh is popping out of his bubble to stir things up. Even David Plouffe has piled on.

While republicans see no harm (they are largely out of touch), democrats know this: Americans don't like Rush.

Sure, he has 20 million listeners (I think a good chunk of them are people who like to hate Limbaugh, and I'm skeptical about that number) but the bulk of Americans find him gross because somewhere along the way we've heard him say something racist (most recently he said he wasn't going to agree with Obama just because he's black) or something despicable.

We all heard Rush wish failure upon Obama's policies. Rush Limbaugh would rather be right at the cost of America. 
Democrats have done polling: 

Politico: The seeds were planted in October after Democracy Corps, the Democratic polling company run by Carville and Greenberg, included Limbaugh’s name in a survey and found that many Americans just don’t like him.

“His positives for voters under 40 was 11 percent,” Carville recalled with a degree of amazement, alluding to a question about whether voters had a positive or negative view of the talk show host.

Paul Begala, a close friend of Carville, Greenberg and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, said they found Limbaugh’s overall ratings were even lower than the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s controversial former pastor, and William Ayers, the domestic terrorist and Chicago resident who Republicans sought to tie to Obama during the campaign.

Then came what Begala called “the tripwire.”

“I hope he fails,” Limbaugh said of Obama on his show four days before the president was sworn in. It was a time when Obama’s approval ratings were soaring, but more than that, polls showed even people who didn’t vote for him badly wanted him to succeed, coming to office at a time of economic meltdown.

Ayers Calls Afghanistan Surge Colossal Mistake

You remember Ayers, Obama's best bud. Ayers is far, far left and doesn't support any war. But he doesn't mind blowing up things to make a point. In an ideal world, I'd like to be a total peacenik but that's not reality. Ayers sort of proves that.

Swamp: Ayers had this to say about President Barack Obama committing an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan: "It's a mistake. It's a colossal mistake. And, you know, we've seen this happen before, Alan. We've seen a hopeful presidency, Lyndon Johnson's presidency, burn up in the furnace of war."

"I fear that this brilliant young man, this hopeful new administration, could easily burn their prospect of a great presidency in the war in Afghanistan or elsewhere,'' Ayers says in the interview airing at 9 pm EST on FOX's Hannity.

And Ayers had this to say about his own days in anti-Vietnam War protests, the group he cofounded sometimes making its point with bombs: read more

Bill Ayers on Good Morning America

This interview won't end anything.
I've read blogs that say Obama is lying because Ayers wrote that he was a "family friend." Ayres explained, but you had to be listening, that "family friend" describes how the blogosphere described him. This whole discussion is irrelevant at this point, but it's interesting to hear Ayers points of view, which will be lost on closed minds.

Part 2

3,000 Professors Profess For Support Ayers

It seems like Colin Powell touched off some sanity. Perhaps this endorsement by 3,000 professors was in the works. Whatever. McCain-Palin is the losing ticket even if they win. If they win, we will be the losers. Did anyone catch McCain Palin on NBC? They looked like two sixth graders and said nothing that a grown up would say. I've especially had it with Palin. What an unthinking human she is and every time she speaks I get so mad at McCain. She's so over and done with.
This is beautiful:

CNN: More than 3,000 educators nationwide, including six Brown University professors, have signed a statement supporting William Ayers -- the man Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain called a "washed-up terrorist" at the third presidential debate.

In recent months, the McCain campaign has criticized Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama for his connection to Ayers. McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have accused Obama of being "friends" with Ayers and claimed Obama has hidden the extent of their relationship.

Both residents of the Chicago, Illinois, area, Ayers and Obama first met in 1995 when they served on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school reform initiative. They also were board members of the Woods Fund, a Chicago charity, from 2000 to 2002.

Ayers, now a distinguished professor of education and senior university scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was a co-founding member of the radical activist group the Weather Underground in 1969. The group's extreme tactics to end the Vietnam War included planting bombs in the Pentagon and the United States Capitol.

In response to the McCain campaign's focus on Ayers' radical acts of the 1960s and 1970s, "Friends and supporters of Bill Ayers" are circulating a statement online to vouch for the professor he has become.

Perhaps this was the trouble with McCain and Palin

McCain's Debate Dilemma

McCain's supporters want McCain to go get em! Obama that is. They've practically been on bended knees at rallies, begging McCain to bring up Obama's "terrorist" ties. They want the "truth" to be told. What they believe to be the truth and reality are two separate things.

McCain Palin supporters don't care much about the economy. They care about abortion and gay marriage and opposing Obama. They care about asserting their moral superiority, which ironically isn't so moral or superior. McCain has promised that he would attack Obama at the debate.

I think McCain will bring up Ayers at the debate. But he won't bring it up the way his supporters want him to -- that Obama has terrorist instincts. Instead McCain is likely to use Ayers to say that Obama has questionable judgment. He'll use it to try and cast doubt on Obama's character.

But polls and analysts say McCain needs to talk about the economy.

CNN: "I think what he has to to do is talk about the issues. ... He's got to talk about his economic plan," CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger said. "Yes, he's got to convince voters that he's got the judgment to be president, but he's also got to convince voters to like him."

The third and final debate, taking place at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, at 9 p.m. ET, may be the last time the Republican presidential candidate may be able turn the race to his favor before Election Day, now less than three weeks away.

The 90-minute face-off, which will air on CNN and CNN.com, will undoubtedly focus on the economic crisis plaguing the country.

CNN political editor Mark Preston said the debate is will likely be McCain's "last chance to reach tens of millions of people with his vision for America."

"He needs a game-changer," Preston said.

My Friend Bill Ayers

It takes a warped mind to twist Obama into a terrorist because of an association with Bill Ayers. The folks who use Ayers to attack Obama's character never would have voted for Obama in the first place. They are people who live in the box, which for them is safe and secure. This is an editorial in the Wall Street Journal written by Thomas Frank, an author, historian and editor:

For days on end, the Republican presidential campaign has put nearly all of its remaining political capital on emphasizing Mr. Obama's time on various foundation boards with Bill Ayers, a former member of the Weathermen, which planted bombs and issued preposterous statements in the Vietnam era. Some on the right seem to believe Mr. Ayers is Mr. Obama's puppet-master, while others are content merely to insist that the association proves Mr. Obama to be soft on terrorism. Maybe he's soft on anarchy and repudiation, too.

I can personally attest to the idiocy of it all because I am a friend of Mr. Ayers. In fact, I met him in the same way Mr. Obama says he did: 10 years ago, Mr. Ayers was a guy in my neighborhood in Chicago who knew something about fundraising. I knew nothing about it, I needed to learn, and a friend referred me to Bill.

Bill's got lots of friends, and that's because he is today a dedicated servant of those less fortunate than himself; because he is unfailingly generous to people who ask for his help; and because he is kind and affable and even humble. Moral qualities which, by the way, were celebrated boisterously on day one of the GOP convention in September.

Mr. Ayers is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where his work is esteemed by colleagues of different political viewpoints. Herbert Walberg, an advocate of school vouchers who is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, told me he remembers Mr. Ayers as "a responsible colleague, in the professional sense of the word." Bill Schubert, who served as the chairman of UIC's Department of Curriculum and Instruction for many years, thinks so highly of Mr. Ayers that, in response to the current allegations, he compiled a lengthy résumé of the man's books, journal articles, guest lectures and keynote speeches. Mr. Ayers has been involved with countless foundation efforts and has received various awards. He volunteers for everything. He may once have been wanted by the FBI, but in the intervening years the man has become such a good citizen he ought to be an honorary Eagle Scout.
.....
Instead I want to note that, in its haste to convict a man merely for associating with Mr. Ayers, the GOP is effectively proposing to make the upcoming election into the largest mass trial in history, with all those professors and all those do-gooders on the hook for someone else's deeds four decades ago. Also in the dock: the demonic city (Chicago) that once named Mr. Ayers its "Citizen of the Year." Fire up Hurricane Katrina and point it toward Lake Michigan!

The McCain campaign has made much of its leader's honor and bravery, but now it has chosen to mount its greatest attack against a man who poses no conceivable threat to the country, who has nothing to do with this year's issues, and who cannot or will not defend himself. Apparently this makes him an irresistible target.

McCain: Ayers Will Come up at Debate

poster at Obamaartreport.com

McCain has no other choice. His thuggish supporters have been egging him on to fight like a man. These supporters believe Obama to be a full-fledged terrorist. No kidding.

Biden has egged McCain on to say it to Obama's face. Obama has wondered why McCain won't say it to his face. Obama and Biden have nothing to fear. The Ayers guilt by association thing has lost its wings.

It's only McCain Palin's radical supporters who believe in this Ayers thing and they've proven themselves to be a little on the extreme side. McCain doesn't even believe it. He always prefaces his criticism on this issue by saying he doesn't care about a washed up terrorist but says he wonders why Obama has lied about his relationship with Ayers. Obama hasn't lied. But McCain doesn't know that because he's been listening to his campaign wackos and the poor guy is being prodded by an angry mob.
McCain has taken the bait:

John McCain and Sarah Palin appear to have dropped the subject of Barack Obama's connection to 1960's radical Bill Ayers from the campaign trail, but the Arizona senator said in an interview that aired Tuesday he'll likely bring it up at the third and final presidential debate Wednesday night.

The comments, during an interview with St. Louis radio station KMOX, come after Obama and Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden were sharply critical of McCain for targeting the Illinois senator over Ayers at campaign rallies, but not when the two last met for a presidential debate.

"I was astonished to hear him say that he was surprised I 'didn’t have the guts' to do that, because the fact is the question didn't come up in that fashion," McCain said of the last debate. "I think he's probably ensured it will come up this time."

Obama's Ayers radio ad:

McCain Camp: Compare Obama to Osama

If the McCain camp is this desperate, Obama is going to win in a landslide. If these people came knocking, I'd give them an education.

Time: The McCain campaign invited me to visit Frederick and the Gainesville operation on Saturday morning, to get a first-hand glimpse of its ground game in Prince William County, Virginia, a fast-growing area about 30 miles from Washington, D.C.

With so much at stake, and time running short, Frederick did not feel he had the luxury of subtlety. He climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points — for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," he said. "That is scary." It is also not exactly true — though that distorted reference to Obama's controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. "And he won't salute the flag," one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, "We don't even know where Senator Obama was really born." Actually, we do; it's Hawaii.

Christmas Dinner With Ayers

This will go straight over McCain-Palin's wacky supporters' heads who don't care to know any truths about Obama. 

McCain-Palin's supporters just need a reason to hate Obama. Palin came along and gave them one. She's not worthy of the vice presidency. She appeals to those with lizard brains. Sorry, it's true. Then McCain signed on to Palin's campaign to win an election. 

McCain tried to reverse the tone of his campaign at a rally today in Minnesota. He tried to talk issues but people wanted to hate on Obama. One woman took the microphone and said Obama is an Arab. McCain shook his head and said no. But it's too late. That woman won't believe McCain. Neither will the rest of them. They're still trying to prove Obama's not a U.S. citizen.

Everyone tries to analyze too much. This is plain and simple deep rooted prejudices. If it wasn't Ayers, it would be something else. McCain Palin supporters are pretty radical. Moderate republicans are running away from McCain, or at least are disappointed in McCain's campaign.

Here's a story by David Tanenhaus, who teaches history and law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is the author of Juvenile Justice in the Making.

Slate: Like Obama's dealings with Ayers and Dohrn, mine centered on local issues. At the time, my research centered on the punitive turn in juvenile-justice policy. Scholars like William Bennett, John Walters, and John DiIulio were warning about a new generation of "superpredators" who were "feral pre-social beings" and posed a grave threat to safety in the nation's urban areas. Between 1990 and 1996, 40 states passed laws to make it easier to try juveniles as adults. In response to this spate of lawmaking, the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation began funding research on adolescent development and juvenile justice. The goal was to restore rational policymaking to this area of law.
The world's first juvenile court was established in Chicago in 1899, and since the 1920s, Hyde Park had been at the center of the national discussion about educational and juvenile-justice policy. In the 1990s, Ayers was a professor of education at the University of Illinois and also taught poetry in the classrooms of the juvenile court to children, mostly African-Americans and Latinos, who might spend the rest of their lives incarcerated. Dohrn directed the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University.

Ayer's book:

The publication in 1997 of Ayers' book A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court attracted much local and national attention. Drawing on his experience as a father and a teacher, he powerfully contrasted and compared the lives of his children, growing up in privilege, with those he had taught in prison. As he observed, "They are kids after all, and nothing they did can possibly change them into adults." That year, Chicago named Ayers its "Citizen of the Year." In November, Michelle Obama, who was then director of the university's community service center, convened a panel at the law school to discuss Ayers' book and the issues it raised.

Who Ayers is today:

In the intervening years, things have changed yet again. Leading Chicagoans, including Mayor Daley, now commend Ayers for his service to the city. "I don't condone what he did 40 years ago, but I remember that period well," Daley said last April. "It was a difficult time, but those days are long over. I believe we have too many challenges in Chicago and our country to keep refighting 40-year-old battles."
I now include the Weather Underground in the history surveys I teach to undergraduates. I do my best to place them in the context of the radicalism of the late 1960s. I sometimes find it hard to believe that the Bill and Bernardine that Barack and I met in Hyde Park in the 1990s are the same people that my students are learning about in class. I know them better as the couple that invited me into their home in 2000 to meet their extended family, make gingerbread-cookie houses, and share Christmas dinner. Our conversation that night, as it almost always did, focused on the future, not the past.

More from Obama:

Politico: In an interview with the sympathetic conservative talk radio host this afternoon, Obama offered the clearest explanation yet of how an extremely careful politician allowed himself anywhere near a former '60s radical who would become a Republican target in this year's presidential campaign.

Obama "had assumed" from Bill Ayers' stature in Chicago, he told the Philadelphia-based Michael Smerconish, that Ayers had been "rehabilitated" since his 1960s crimes.

In the interview, which was taped this afternoon and will air tomorrow, and which you can listen to above, Obama recalled moving back to Chicago after law school, and becoming involved in civic life there.

"The gentleman in question, Bill Ayers, is a college professor, teaches education at the University of Illinois," he said. "That's how i met him -- working on a school reform project that was funded by an ambassador and very close friend of Ronald Reagan's" along with "a bunch of conservative businessmen and civic leaders."

Here is the radio interview here.

Secret Service Tracking Egged On Palin Supporter

You know, the one who, after Palin practically said Obama is a terrorist, shouted "Kill him!" The McCain Palin ticket sure is inspiring.

The Secret Service is following up on media reports today that someone in the crowd at a McCain/Palin event suggested killing Barack Obama, according to Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley. The shout of "kill him" followed a Sarah Palin rant on Obama's relationship with radical Chicagoan Bill Ayers.
Wiley says the Secret Service did not begin looking into the matter until press reports, namely Dana Milbank's article in the Washington Post, surfaced today, because no agents at the event heard anything. "The Secret Service did not hear any threatening statements directed at targets under its protection and no threatening statements were reported to us by law enforcement or citizens at the event," Wiley told Radar. Also unclear: whether the remark was directed at Obama or Ayers if the words were actually "kill" and "him."

Lee County Sheriff Attacks Obama

Don't mind me while I get a little emotional for a moment. 

What a desperate and ugly man McCain is.
Same for his sidekick. She needs to never be in national politics again. I can't believe where this race has ended up. I don't care what McCain gave to this country. He's not giving it now. He's not presidential material. 

Obama is getting lumped in as an instigator in these negative attacks. What else is Obama supposed to do after Joe Six Pack assailed him yesterday and today, bringing up Ayers and Wright, accusing Obama of lying about "terrorist" ties and not being one of us.
I'm sickened by both of these people. They're inciting hate. That's not putting country first.

I have officially lost thousands of dollars in my stock holdings as have many, many others. It's a scary time. People have lost small fortunes and homes.
Given the dire state of our economy, which looks like it's heading for a full-blown depression, how dare they. They dare because they're clueless. Their attacks are like rubbing salt in the wounds and I'm hoping Americans reject McCain, wholeheartedly, giving Obama a landslide win.
I've watched this campaign from the beginning. I've watched an honorable man's character be ripped apart, first by Hillary, and her offshoot, the PUMAs, and now by the Gruesome Twosome, using much of the same tactics as Hillary.
Still, Obama's always tried to stay focused on the issues. He's taken the high road. That's what I want in a president.
Here's what happened today at Palin's rally in Florida:

Swamp: According to the Hotline, a Florida county sheriff introducing GOP running mate Sarah Palin made sure the crowd knew Barack Obama's middle name.

"On Nov. 4, let's leave Barack Hussein Obama wondering what happened," Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott told the crowd at Germain Arena in Estero, Fla.

Palin apparently was not present when Scott made his remarks. She was at a fundraiser in Naples.

And NPR reports:

McCain rejected the pejorative use of Barack Obama's middle name after an Ohio radio host derisively used it during a McCain warm-up act back in February. Now that it's October, the stakes are much higher. Nonetheless, the campaign immediately sought to distance itself from Sheriff Scott's Hussein-ing.

Can you imagine? A sheriff. He's supposed to serve the public. Despicable. McCain-Palin have given the thumbs up to hate. There are enough kooks out there without inspiring law enforcement. Here's the sheriff's number if you'd like to make a complaint. I did. 
Lee County Sheriff's Office
14750 Six Mile Cypress Pkwy.
(239) 477-1000

If I was a republican, I'd be embarrassed right about now. Wingnuts have once again taken over and the republicans have become the scary party, which is why they're losing. They don't stand for anything.
Here's the Sheriff.

Palin Goes Back Inside Bubble

poster by Sam Brown

The audacity of Bubble Girl is hard to believe. Her recent doozy: Obama is palling around with terrorists.
When you don't have the goods, you should keep your mouth shut. But she obviously believes in herself a little too much and doesn't know any better. She makes up for her incompetence by babbling, a sleight of hand trick. McCain's entire campaign has been a trick -- distract to try and create an illusion of caring about the poor and middle class. Sorry Palin. You don't even come close to being worthy to serve as vice president. Why is it the people who claim to be Christian are the ones with the worst behavior? But she's gotta do what she's gotta do because she's being egged on by the conservative base, who simply hate Obama for irrational reasons. Someone put those words about Obama palling around with terrorists in Palin's mouth. Don't expect her to be "speaking" her own words any time soon. She'll be given her lines. Her mission now is to shore up the racist vote. 

CNN Fact Check: Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt told CNN that after meeting Obama through the Annenberg project, Ayers hosted a campaign event for him that same year when then-Illinois state Sen. Alice Palmer, who planned to run for Congress, introduced the young community organizer as her chosen successor. LaBolt also said the two have not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mail messages since Obama came to the U.S. Senate in 2005 and last met more than a year ago when they encountered each other on the street in their Hyde Park neighborhood.

The extent of Obama's relationship with Ayers came up during the Democratic presidential primaries earlier this year, and Obama explained it by saying, "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood … the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago — when I was 8 years old — somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."

The New York Times article cited by Palin concluded that "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." Other publications, including the Washington Post, Time magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, The New Yorker and The New Republic, have said that their reporting doesn't support the idea that Obama and Ayers had a close relationship.

The McCain campaign did not respond Saturday to a request for elaboration on Palin's use of the plural "terrorists."

Verdict: False. There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now "palling around," or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are.

Chicago Mayor Knows Weatherman Too

swamp: The mayor (richard daley) released the following statement:

There are a lot of reasons that Americans are angry about Washington politics. And one more example is the way Senator Obama’s opponents are playing guilt-by-association, tarring him because he happens to know Bill Ayers.

I also know Bill Ayers. He worked with me in shaping our now nationally-renowned school reform program. He is a nationally-recognized distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois/Chicago and a valued member of the Chicago community.

I don’t condone what he did 40 years ago but I remember that period well. It was a difficult time, but those days are long over. I believe we have too many challenges in Chicago and our country to keep re-fighting 40 year old battles.

from hillary via swamp:

In a conference call with reporters today, Clinton spokesmen Howard Wolfson and Phil Singer sought to maintain that Obama’s political relationship with Ayers was more important than the decision by Clinton’s husband, President Bill Clinton, to commute the sentences of two of Ayers’ former Weather Underground members, Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans on terrorist related weapons charges.

Asked if Hillary Clinton had expressed any disagreement with her husband’s actions in commuting the sentences of Rosenberg and Evans, Wolfson said only that he would ask the candidate.

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