postcards from marilyn 37

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY WOMAN VOTER! !

m

1997: Princess Diana dies in Paris crash
Diana, Princess of Wales, is killed after her car crashes in a Paris underpass - the driver and her friend Dodi Fayed are also dead.

1994: IRA declares 'complete' ceasefire
The IRA announces a "complete cessation of military operations" after 25 years of bombing and killing.

1959: Anglo-US TV debate makes history
British prime minister Harold Macmillan and American president Dwight Eisenhower give an historic live television broadcast from Downing Street.

 Morocco 'breaks terror network'
Moroccan police arrest 15 people they accuse of planning al-Qaeda-inspired attacks.

August 26, 2008

Obama Needs to Explain His Ties to William Ayers

By Michael Barone

It doesn't help the Obama campaign that William Ayers is back in the news. Ayers, you'll recall, was the Weather Underground terrorist in the late 1960s and '70s whose radical group set bombs at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol. During the April 16 Democratic debate, Barack Obama explained his past association with Ayers by saying he was just a guy "in my neighborhood," meaning the University of Chicago enclave known as Hyde Park. But is that end of it? This is, after all, Chicago we're talking about; where political patronage and nepotism are the only ways one moves up the power ladder.

Decades after his radical youth, Ayers was one of the original grantees of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school reform organization in the 1990s, and was co-chairman of the Chicago School Reform Collaborative, one the two operational arms of the CAC. Obama, then not yet a state senator, became chairman of the CAC in 1995. Later in that year, the first organizing meeting for Obama's state Senate campaign was held in Ayers's apartment.

You might wonder what Obama was doing working with a character like this. And you might wonder how an unrepentant terrorist got a huge grant and cooperation from the Chicago public school system. You might wonder--if you don't know Chicago. For this is a city with a civic culture in which politicians, in the words of a story often told by former congressman, federal judge, and Clinton White House counsel Abner Mikva, "don't want nobody nobody sent."

That's how William Ayers got where he was. When he came out of hiding after the federal government was unable to prosecute him (because of government misconduct), he got a degree in education from Columbia and then moved to Chicago and got a job on the education faculty of the University of Illinois-Chicago Circle. How did he get that job? Well, it can't have hurt that his father, Thomas Ayers, was chairman of Commonwealth Edison (now Exelon) and a charter member of the Chicago establishment. As Mayor Richard M. Daley said recently, in arguing that the Ayers association should not be held against Obama, "His father was a great friend of my father."

In none of our other major cities is genealogy so important. The voters of Chicago and Illinois respect family ties in a way that voters in no other state or city do. Mayor Daley is, of course, the son of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley. The two Daleys have been mayors, and effective and competent mayors, of Chicago for 40 of the last 53 years. The attorney general of Illinois is the daughter of the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. The governor of Illinois is the son-in-law of the Democratic ward committeeman in Chicago's 33rd Ward. The congressman from the 2nd Congressional District is Jesse Jackson Jr. Jackson's predecessor-but-one in the district was Morgan Murphy Jr., whose father was chairman of (get this) Commonwealth Edison.

But my favorite example of the importance of family ties is 3rd District Rep. Dan Lipinski, who was first elected in 2004 to replace his father, Bill Lipinski, who was first elected in 1982. Bill Lipinski won the Democratic nomination in the March 2004 primary. But on Aug. 13, he announced he would not seek re-election and would resign the Democratic nomination. The deadline for replacing him was Aug.26, and a meeting was set on Aug. 17 for the 19th Ward and township Democratic committeemen to choose a new candidate. Lipinski announced his support for his son, who was then a professor of political science at the University of Tennessee and had not lived in Chicago for many years. Among the committeemen making the decision were: 11th Ward committeeman and County Commissioner John Daley, son of the late mayor and brother of the current mayor; 13th Ward committeeman Michael Madigan, Speaker of the Illinois House and father of Attorney General Lisa Madigan; 14th Ward committeeman Edward Burke, who succeeded his father as a council member in his 20s and was longtime chairman of the Finance Committee, and whose wife is a justice of the Illinois Supreme Court; 19th Ward committeeman Tom Hynes, former Cook County Assessor and father of Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes; and 23rd Ward committeeman Bill Lipinski. An electorate more averse to an argument against nepotism cannot be imagined. Lipinski advanced his son's name and said, "I'm optimistic, but one never knows in politics until the votes are counted." It did not take long to count them: Dan Lipinski was nominated without opposition. To the charge that the nomination was rigged, one participant dryly noted that anyone could have run.

One reason that Chicago and Illinois voters have acquiesced to the politics of nepotism is that its products--or many of them--are quite competent. Mayor Richie Daley, if I can call him that, has on the whole been an excellent mayor. Edward Burke is a cultured man of high intellect. Michael Madigan seems to be a solidly competent sort, and for all I know his daughter is, too. Dan Rostenkowski was a highly competent chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee for 14 years, until he was laid low by a bit of cheap chiseling; at that point he and his father had been the 32nd Ward committeemen for just about 60 years. (The younger Rostenkowski got his seat in the House in 1958 because his father, Joe Rostenkowski, had supported the late Mayor Daley in the 1955 Democratic primary against fellow Polish-American Benjamin Adamowski.) There are exceptions. Many political observers would put Rod Blagojevich, the son-in-law of 33rd Ward committeeman Dick Mell, on the top of the list of the nation's dumbest governors. But then, for Chicago, it has always been more important who is mayor than who is governor (not to mention out-of-town jobs like U.S. senator).

Which leads us back to Barack Obama, who is now a U.S. senator and will shortly become the Democratic nominee for an office that even Chicago regards as more important than mayor. And the question presents itself: How did this outsider from Hawaii and Columbia and Harvard become somebody somebody sent? His wife, Michelle Robinson Obama, had some connections: Her father was a Democratic precinct committeeman; she baby-sat for Jesse Jackson's children; and she worked as a staffer for the current Mayor Daley. Obama made connections on the all-black South Side by joining the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church. But was Obama's critical connection to le tout Chicago William Ayers? That's the conclusion you are led to by Steve Diamond's blog. And by the fact that the National Review's Stanley Kurtz was suddenly denied access to the records of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge by the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois-Chicago Circle. (Kurtz had already been given an index to the records.) Presumably the CAC records would show a closer collaboration between Ayers and Obama than was suggested by Obama's response at the debate that Ayers was just a guy "in the neighborhood."

The increasingly sharp McCain campaign had the wit to ask the University of Illinois to open up the CAC records. But it didn't seem likely the university will open them up; as John Kass puts it in a characteristically pungent column in the Chicago Tribune, "Welcome to Chicago, Mr. Kurtz." Now the University says the archives are open. But Kurt's friends wonder if they have been flushed of inconvenient documents in the meantime.

Does it matter if William Ayers was the key somebody who made Barack Obama a somebody somebody sent? I think it does. Not that Obama shares all of Ayers's views, which surely he does not. Or that he endorses Ayers's criminal acts, which, as he has pointed out, were committed while he was a child in Hawaii and Indonesia. But his willingness to associate with an unrepentant terrorist is not the same as Daley's:

"Bill Ayers, I've said this, his father was a great friend of my father. I'll be very frank. Vietnam divided families, divided people. It was a terrible time of our country. It really separated people. People didn't know one another. Since then, I'll be very frank, (Ayers) has been in the forefront on a lot of education issues and helping us in public schools and things like that.

"People keep trying to align himself with Barack Obama. It's really unfortunate. They're friends. So what? People do make mistakes in the past. You move on. This is a new century, a new time. He reflects back and he's been making a strong contribution to our community."

For Daley, family is paramount, and Ayers is admitted into le tout Chicago because his father is one of its pillars. And electoral politics is also paramount: In a city that is roughly 40 percent (and falling) white ethnic and 40 percent black, with an increasing gentrified white population, the current Mayor Daley has maintained very strong support from lakefront liberals, including the Hyde Park/Kenwood leftists like Ayers who were the original movers behind Obama's 1996 state Senate candidacy. It's in Daley's interest to work with these people and against his interest to do anything that seems like disrespecting them. As Bill Daley told me when I asked him some years ago whether his father would have approved of Richie marching in the gay rights parade, "Our father always told us when a group was big enough to control a ward; we should pay attention to them." Staying mayor is real important to Daley, and Daley staying mayor is real important to le tout Chicago. An unrepentant terrorist? Hey, we know your dad. And you control the 5th Ward.

For Obama, the outsider who gained the trust of the insiders, the position is different. He was willing to use Ayers and ally with him despite his terrorist past and lack of repentance. An unrepentant terrorist, who bragged of bombing the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon, was a fit associate. Ayers evidently helped Obama gain insider status in Chicago civic life and politics--how much, we can't be sure. But most American politicians would not have chosen to associate with a man with Ayers's past or of Ayers's beliefs. It's something voters might reasonably want to take into account.

Illegal Immigration: Feds Add Prosecutors to Las Cruces Field Office
to Combat Border Crime
August 13 -- Las Cruces Sun-News

LAS CRUCES  Federal authorities are getting help in fighting immigration and drug crimes along New Mexico's 180-mile international border with Mexico. Seven new prosecutors are expected to be in place by November. Four of the assistant U.S. attorney positions are going to the Las Cruces field office, where immigration caseloads have increased dramatically in recent years because the Border Patrol has clamped down on illegal entries. [more]

Economics: New Left Wing Anti-Energy Strategy: Drill Nothing,
Tax Everything
August 19 -- www.HumanEvents.com

The last few days have seen left wing anti-energy Democrats scrambling to find a survivable position. When we first launched the Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less petition drive at American Solutions, left wing anti-energy Democrats were deeply and decisively opposed. [more]

Energy & Environment: Oil, Green Donors Fix Colorado Senate Race
August 15 -- The Denver Post

Targeting Colorado's U.S. Senate race as a top political priority, energy companies and environmental activists are pumping money into Bob Schaffer's and Mark Udall's campaign coffers. Environmental groups from 2007 through June gave more money to Democrat Udall than any other Senate candidate or incumbent nationwide, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. [more]

Severance Tax: First Severance Tax Plan Makes Ballot
August 18 -- Education News Colorado

The proposal to redirect some severance tax revenues to Interstate 70 improvements has been certified for the Nov. 4 ballot as Amendment 52. The measure joins seven other interest-group initiatives and four legislative referenda on what is promising to be a very crowded ballot this year. Petitions for seven other proposals await verification. [more]

from the August 20, 2008 edition

New York - This fall, as customers shop for imported olive oil and pungent French cheeses at Fairway Market's stores in Manhattan, they will be in for a pleasant surprise: Their prices are coming down.

Lower food prices?

Yes, thanks to a somewhat more muscular dollar, the greenback is up 10 percent compared with other major world currencies in the past month. Some importers, such as Fairway Market, are trying to pass on the savings to customers. The rise of US currency is taking place in large part because the rest of the world is looking at slower growth or, in some cases, even recession.

A more powerful dollar has important implications. It takes some pressure off hedge funds to put money into oil, whose price continues to fall. A stronger dollar reduces some of the inflation pressures, which should give the Federal Reserve the opportunity to keep interest rates where they are.

But a more muscular greenback also means it becomes more expensive for Europeans to buy American condos and beach cottages. And exports of US goods, which have been strong, may run into head winds if the dollar keeps rising.

"The stronger dollar at this point is a net positive," says Scott Anderson, senior economist at Wells Fargo Economics in Minneapolis. "There has been enough depreciation to give us a boost and enough stability to help us on the inflation front."

Before the recent rally, the dollar had fallen about 45 percent from its peak in 2002. The short-term boost means the dollar is now down about 36 percent from that peak.

"If the dollar continues to strengthen, it does open the door for oil prices to move lower," says Jay Bryson, international economist at Wachovia Economics Group in Charlotte, N.C.

On Tuesday morning, the price of oil on the commodities markets fell below $112.50 a barrel, down from a peak $145.85 in early July.

One main reason for the falling price of oil and the rising dollar is the slowing world economy, Mr. Bryson says. For example, the German economy, a powerful engine for Europe, is starting to slow as global investment spending weakens.

"Whereas two months ago some thought the European Central Bank would raise interest rates, now things in Europe are looking pretty shaky," he says. "If anything, interest may be skewered to the downside."

In fact, the Japanese economy appears to already be in recession, says Sung Won Sohn, a professor of economics at California State University, Channel Islands. "Japanese exports are lower than a year ago, and that is the first time that has happened in the [post-World War II] period," Mr. Sohn says. "It tells you how slow the global economy is."

One indication of the change in trade flows to the United States can be seen at California's Port of Long Beach, the second-largest US port. For the past several years, the biggest export there was empty containers, says Larry Cottrill, director of master planning at the port. Now when vessels leave the port, he says, they are carrying more full containers.

"In San Pedro Bay [the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach], loaded exports increased 22.5 percent for the first six months of 2008 compared to the same period last year," Mr. Cottrill says. "The stronger dollar will not work its way through until 2009."

In part, this lag with the dollar is because of the long lead times for business. For example, Ransom + Scout, a recently established leather bag company in Santa Fe, N.M., purchased its first shipment of Italian leather in January and then reordered in June. "What we noticed is price increases," says Gary Hahs, managing partner, who was exhibiting the company's decorative handbags at the New York International Gift Fair this week. "The recent strength of the dollar hasn't trickled down yet."

A stronger dollar should help another handbag manufacturer, Murval Paris, says its chief executive officer, Bruno Zerdoun. His company, which manufacturers most of its goods in China, tried to absorb price increases while the dollar was weak, he says. "It was tough not to raise prices," says Mr. Zerdoun, who was also at the gift fair.

Many companies exporting to the US tried to cope with the falling dollar by pricing their goods in US dollars. Now, with the dollar increasing, this helps their profit margins. "It's good for business, bad for shopping in New York," says Tess Lloyd, a designer at Polli, a jewelry firm in Sydney, Australia. The Australian dollar has fallen compared with the US dollar.

Importer and exporter Paul Stewart-Stand of Brooklyn says the relatively weak dollar in June helped him win an order from a British firm for 24,000 collapsible cups. "The sale was driven by the strength of the pound sterling," he says. "With the type of volume we're dealing with, we don't feel a 5 percent change [in currency]."

However, grocer Steve Jenkins of Fairway says the stronger US dollar has helped restore his profit margins on the cheeses and imported foods for sale at his Upper West Side market. "We get 400 to 600 different types of cheeses, and the vast majority are European, from Italian Parmigiano Reggiano to Spanish Manchegos. I suspect we will be able to charge less," he says.

He anticipates the lower prices will also extend to olive oils. "We get 11 private brands of olive oil, plus one store label – all from the Mediterranean basin – not to mention 14 organic brands," he says. "I expect all will be less expensive this fall, even before the new crop is pressed."

The University of Illinois Chicago refuses to release documents held at the public institution's library relating to the Annenberg Challenge on Excellence in Education.

The Annenberg Challenge was run by none other than Barack Obama and was started by terrorist Bill Ayers, in whose home Barack Obama got his political start.

The Special Collections section of the Richard J. Daley Library at the university had agreed to make the documents available for review by reporters, but the university then refused.

The records now will not be released.

What is the University of Illinois hiding?  Is it destroying damning information about Obama before deciding to release the information?

Contact the Richard J. Daley Library at (312) 996-2724 and tell them to release the Annenberg Challenge files for public inspection.

Call Barack Obama at (202) 224-2854 and ask him to support the public release of the Annenberg Challenge files.

What are they hiding?  I suspect the documents will show that Barack Obama had a direct, substantial relationship with terrorist Bill Ayers -- a relationship Obama denies having.

But we will not know without your help.

Call now.

Sincerely yours,

Erick Erickson
Editor, RedState.com