Obama’s First Fulltime Job: a Company with Ties to the SDS

At The Volokh Conspiracy:

Obama’s first fulltime employer, Business International, had substantial SDS ties in the 1960s. After graduating from Columbia in 1983, Obama’s first fulltime job was to work for an international business newsletter firm, Business International. From all accounts (including Obama’s), it appears that this company was business-oriented and mainstream politically, unlike his other fulltime employers before law school.

For that reason, it is a strange coincidence that in the 1960s, Business International also appears to have had closer ties to the SDS than any other American business firm. Yet, because Obama’s college concentration within political science was in international relations, the coincidence may not be as strange as it first appears.

I learned this yesterday when, for a project I’m doing, I had occasion to read Carl Oglesby’s memoir of his days as a leader of the SDS in the 1960s, Ravens in the Storm: A Personal History of the 1960s Anti-War Movement. Oglesby, who was President of SDS in 1966 and 1967, led the largely nonviolent wing of the group in its battles with the violent revolutionary wing (which became the Weathermen). SDS at the time had three national secretaries, two of which were Bernardine Dohrn and Mike Klonsky. Dohrn and Klonsky led the attack on Oglesby and his radical (yet liberal) vision. Although the broad difference in philosophy was the overarching reason for the split, the chief bone of contention at the time was Oglesby’s development of SDS contacts with Business International, a business information and consulting service led by Eldredge Haynes. Indeed, Haynes or Business International are discussed on over 25 pages of Oglesby’s memoir, and they are part of the subtext of many more pages.

(hat tip:Charles the hater)

Ayers Republished His Revolutionary Manifesto in 2006

Yesterday we linked to Zombie’s new report on “Billy” Ayers’ and Bernardine Dohrn’s 1974 communist declaration of war against the United States.

Little did we realize that Ayers actually republished this book dedicated to Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan … in 2006: Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiqus of the Weather Underground 1970 – 1974: Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Jeff Jones: Books.

Outraged by the Vietnam War and racism in America, a group of young American radicals announced their intention to “bring the war home.” The Weather Underground waged a low-level war against the U.S. government through much of the 1970s, bombing the Capitol building, breaking Timothy Leary out of prison, and evading one of the largest FBI manhunts in history.

Sing a Battle Song brings together the three complete and unedited publications produced by the Weatherman during their most active period underground, 1970 to 1974: The Weather Eye: Communiques from the Weather Underground; Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism; and Sing a Battle Song: Poems by Women in the Weather Underground Organization

Sing a Battle Song is introduced and annotated by three of the Weather Underground’s original organizers-Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, and Jeff Jones-all of whom are all still actively engaged in social justice movement work. Bernardine Dohrn, who during her years underground was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, today is a child advocate and professor of children’s law and international human rights. Bill Ayers, education professor and author of numerous books on democratic education is the author of a memoir, Fugitive Days. Jeff Jones, an environmentalist, fights global warming and other environmental threats that disproportionately harm the lives of the world’s poor.

Idealistic, inspired, pissed-off, and often way-over-the-top, the writings of the Weather Underground epitomizes the sexual, psychedelic, anti-war counterculture of the American 1960s and 1970s.

About the Author
Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and Jeffrey Jones are former leaders of the Weather Underground. Dohrn teaches law and runs the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University

(Hat Tip:Leftwing Operative Charles Johnson)

Sowell: The Real Obama

Thomas Sowell says it all:

Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, William Ayers and Antoin Rezko are not just people who happened to be at the same place at the same time as Barack Obama. They are people with whom he chose to ally himself for years, and with some of whom some serious money changed hands.

Some gave political support, and some gave financial support, to Obama’s election campaigns, and Obama in turn contributed either his own money or the taxpayers’ money to some of them. That is a familiar political alliance— but an alliance is not just an “association” from being at the same place at the same time.

Obama could have allied himself with all sorts of other people. But, time and again, he allied himself with people who openly expressed their hatred of America. No amount of flags on his campaign platforms this election year can change that.

(Hat tip:Nasty Chaz)

Obama Was Not Ignorant About William Ayers

Barack Obama’s claims that he had no idea about William Ayers’ violent, radical history are simply false: Was Obama Ignorant About Bill Ayers? Of Course Not.

Videos: The Ayers connection; Update: Obama doesn’t read newspapers?

William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn were very open, even boastful about their past. How many times does Barack Obama think he can get away with his “see no evil” act?

(Hat tip:Nancy)

Associated Press Hits Bottom, Digs

The Associated Press article on Sarah Palin’s comments about William Ayers is a Category 7 jaw-dropper. Apparently, now even criticizing Obama’s associations with white violent radicals is racist: Analysis: Palin’s words carry racial tinge.

Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee “palling around” with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn’t see their America?

Her reference to Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.

Obama, who was a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, has denounced Ayers’ radical views and actions. …

In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers’ day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as “not like us” is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.

This really is the election in which the mainstream media have thrown all their claims to impartiality right into the sewer. It’s sickening to see.

(Hat tip:Chas)

Ayers Was on Woods Fund Board with Obama When He Stepped on Flag

Barack Obama was much older than 8 when William Ayers was photographed stepping on a US flag in 2001, for an article in which Ayers said he had “No Regrets” for his violent actions in the Weather Underground.

In fact, at the same time Ayers was in a Chicago alley desecrating the flag, he and Barack Obama were serving on the board of the Woods Fund together: PolitiFact | Obama served on board with Ayers.

Deborah Harrington, president of the Woods Fund, a philanthropic organization in Chicago, said Obama was a director from 1994 through 2001. That overlaps Ayers’ time as a director by three years. It also means Obama served with Ayers for the final months of 2001, after Ayers made his comments to the New York Times.

(Hat tip:Nancy)

Tuesday Evening Politics Jam

Barack Obama, on his associations with radicals like Reverend Wright and William Ayers:

Barack Obama: All I’m sayin’ is – I expect to be held responsible for the things I say and do. And one of the things that’s happened in this campaign – and I think that you have the power to help correct the record on this – is not to put me in a position where every tangential relationship …

O’Reilly: It isn’t … [Obama: eh, eh…] there’s a pattern of behavior [Obama: no, no…] here…

Obama: No, there is not a pattern of behavior. It is classic guilt by association.

Bill Ayers: Violent Resistance Not Necessarily the Answer

Former Weather Underground terrorist and long-time Barack Obama associate William Ayers has posted a cartoon at his blog, trying to explain away his statement that he feels he “didn’t do enough” during his tenure as a violent radical.

Here it is; pay particular attention to the last sentence: “I don’t think violent resistance is necessarily the answer…”

Maybe Ayers would also like to explain this statement that he made during the “Days of Rage” riots:

“We’re not urging anyone to shoot from a crowd. But we’re also going to make it clear that when a pig gets iced, that’s a good thing, and that everyone who considers himself a revolutionary should be armed, should own a gun, should have a gun in his home.”

Source: Rolling Stone, September 30, 1982

(Hat tip:Our #1 Contributor, Charles)

Obama Campaign Trying to Silence Discussion of William Ayers

The Obama campaign is asking supporters to bombard Chicago radio station WGN-AM with complaints, because they interviewed writer Stanley Kurtz about Obama’s many documented, factual connections to Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers: Obama campaign confronts WGN radio.

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 Ayers, a former 1960s radical who later emerged as a school reform advocate in Chicago.

The magazine had been blocked in its initial attempts to obtain records from the University of Illinois at Chicago regarding a school reform initiative called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which Obama chaired and Ayers co-founded. Obama critics were quick to suggest that political clout could be involved in seeking to protect Obama from embarrassment. The school later reversed its position and made the records available Tuesday.

On Wednesday evening, Obama’s campaign urged supporters to call the radio station to complain. “Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse,” the note said.

“It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our public airwaves,” the note continued. “At the very least, they should offer sane, honest rebuttal to every one of Kurtz’s lies.”

Also see:
Confederate Yankee: Do Not Blaspheme, Non-Believers
A Blog For All: The Chicago Annenberg Challenge Story Wont Die

UPDATE at 8/28/08 8:53:08 am:

Obama’s Friend, America’s Enemy.

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 to carry out more attacks — and that America still “makes me want to puke”?

Barack Obama has.

Obama Memorabilia

LGF reader “Megulator” was vacationing in Maine and came upon a “living history museum” that contained a historic post office building. Inside was a cache of FBI wanted posters from 1971, the date the post office building officially closed. Among them: the original FBI Most Wanted poster for Barack Obama associate Bernardine Dohrn:

(Hat tip:Nancy@LGF)

New Anti-Obama Ad Targets Ayers Relationship

You know the Obama campaign will try to call this one a “smear,” but every assertion in it is factual.

(Hat tip:Charles the jerk)