68 Comments

1. NahnCee:

Oh, goody. Now we get to take pot-shots and make malicious personal comments about B. Hussein’s staff and political picks. Somebody throw up a picture of Gorelick so I can comment on her skirt length and facial hair.

Nov 9, 2008 - 8:12 pm 2. wretchard:

I think it was John F. Kennedy who said you could tell a lot about someone by studying who he honored. Gorelick isn’t Attorney General yet. Nor do Dohrn or Ayers have any positions in Washington. So there’s no data yet. Just prospective data. But it’s hard to miss the lip smacking anticipation. Gorelick said they called her “Sir” back when she was in office. I’m guessing that before long it will be Mr. Ayers and Ms Dohrn to us all. But that’s just manners. We should all address each with such courtesy.

Nov 9, 2008 - 8:27 pm 3. MG:

My problem w/ Gorelick are the policy errors she made in the 1990’s.

Nov 9, 2008 - 8:46 pm 4. Doug:

Definitely NOT terrorists!
That SF Policeman Dohrn herself murdered in Cold Blood was Bovine, not Human, thus she and her Subscum Parter are “Definitely NOT terrorists!“

Nov 9, 2008 - 8:55 pm 5. Doug:

Obama Weighs Quick Undoing of Bush Policy

The president-elect is poised to reverse actions that President Bush took using executive authority, possibly including policies on stem cells and drilling.
—
Brilliant, simply brilliant!
Hire all the Bad Actors responsible for the majority of our present problems, then pile on some more damage by appeasing the psychotic New Age Enviros.

Nov 9, 2008 - 8:59 pm 6. Doug:

Porcine, I guess.

Nov 9, 2008 - 9:00 pm 7. F:

I keep telling myself to give the new president the benefit of the doubt. There is less doubt every day, though. And if Dorn, Ayers and Gorelick are resurrected there will be no doubt at all. F

Nov 9, 2008 - 9:15 pm 8. Thrasymachus:

What breathtaking corruption. Gorelick sets up the conditions for the 9/11 attacks, then investigates herself. She works for Fannie Mae, helping set up the current financial collapse, and goes on to be Attorney General. I would like to believe this won’t happen, but I’m afraid it will.

Nov 9, 2008 - 9:23 pm 9. OldSalt:

Jamie Gorelick as AG at Justice guarantees America will have no justice, nor security either She’s the most incompetent fool ever to hold the post of Deputy AG.

Nov 9, 2008 - 9:30 pm 10. wretchard:

The New York Times is on a roll today.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The leader of a jihadi group in Iraq argued Friday that the election of Barack Obama as president represented a victory for radical Islamic groups that had battled American forces since the invasion of Iraq. … “It would be no exaggeration to say that we Arabs and Muslims were the main unseen voters who decided the outcome of these elections,” wrote Abdelbari Atwan in Wednesday’s issue of the London-based pan-Arab daily newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi.

He wrote, “The transformation that will begin in the U.S. starting today in various political, economic, military, and social domains may well have been delayed for decades, had the new American century been crowned with victory, and had the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan taken the directions sought by the neo-cons — in other words, had there been political stability and economic prosperity, and had the citizens of the two countries targeted by the U.S.’s designs been totally subjugated by it.”

Translation. America almost won. But, Allah be praised, fate intervened.

Nov 9, 2008 - 9:52 pm 11. ledger:

With the radical left in control of the House, Senate, and Executive Branch I cannot think of on good reason they should not revert back to their ’60s old days/ways (Spitting on soldiers as they return home).

It’s a trifecta for them. And, soon, the Judiciary will be stacked with leftists and activists which should give them even more control.

I don’t see any thing stopping them from doing what they please – from gutting the military, to cleaning out peoples 401Ks (or soon to be 0.401Ks).

They could set us back to Carter years – or worse. I see no good coming for this.

If anybody can see how to stop Axis of Obama, Pelosi and Reid, and speak up.

Nov 9, 2008 - 9:57 pm 12. whiskey:

Yemeni paper is reporting (Ace has the details) that AQ plans a “major” strike at the US, “bigger” than 9/11.

No doubt Obama will appoint Ayers, Wright, Dorhn, and Gorelick to look into the aftermath, find the proper apologies.

After all, he said he would back Muslims against America if there was another attack. A cheap shot since he figured there would be no further attacks. Bush’s policies, including secret military raids on AQ anywhere, anytime, kept us safe.

Now, that’s about to end … with military trials for the “war criminals” including SOC and personnel, headed no doubt by Ayers and Dohrn and Wright. Perhaps Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden can sit on the commissions too.

Nov 9, 2008 - 9:57 pm 13. Graziana:

So Dorhn doesn’t think they were terrorists when they blew up NYC police headquarters? Or when they killed that cop in the bank heist? Or when they bombed a State Supreme Court Judge’s house? What did she think they were? Freedom fighters?

The Weathermen was a bunch of psychotic sociopaths probably deranged by acid, who were very very very ugly young people (they were all hideous, to wit Ayers and Dorhn, yuck) who knew that the only way they could get laid in college and that anyone would think that they were cool is if they got “political.” Unfortunately, they were so egregiously ugly, they had to get really really radical. Even with all that, they only slept with each other.

Losers.

They better hope they don’t run into me.

Nov 9, 2008 - 9:57 pm 14. trangbang68:

Agree with F , I really want to give Obama the grace that the left never gave Reagan or Bush. I pray for him and hope he finds the wisdom for the job. But instead of approaching the job with humility, it seems in arrogance he already is pushing hard left and embracing figures who surely will only cause more bitter polarization.
Dohrn will go to the grave on my craplist. She is an unrepentant enemy of all I hold dear. Hayden is a weasel who sued Hanoi Jane for alimony. What a piece of work.

Nov 9, 2008 - 10:11 pm 15. Alexis:

Of course al-Qaeda is planning a new gigantic attack on the United States soon. It’s the usual hazing ritual where al-Qaeda takes the measure of a new president by committing yet another massive unforgivable atrocity against Americans.

First 1993. Then 2001. 2009 won’t be a surprise.

Nov 9, 2008 - 10:23 pm 16. USpace:

.
I want to believe that Obama won’t be as bad as some people think, but I’m quite sure, that at best, he won’t be as good as most people hope he will be.

I wish this site had come out earlier, I had some Obamabot friends finding out that they had big differences with Obama’s positions:
http://www.barackobamatest.com/

Years ago I was knocked off the voting rolls here in this very Blue City when I was a Republican, on election day I found out I was knocked off as an Un-Affiliated. Next time I should register as a Democrat, maybe I won’t get knocked off then.

The biggest dangers come from the Left anyway, so my votes in this Blue State’s closed primaries would be more important there.

Telling Moonbats I’m a Democrat would stop some in their tracks too, maybe making it easier to chip away at the false veneer of so-called ‘progressivism’.

Let’s hope he does well, at least not too badly, with the least amount of despair possible. May God Bless and help guide President Obama. And may God Bless and help save America! Keep the faith!
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe hates
history either way

America WILL survive
we MUST still fight for freedom

.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
ELECT socialism

let the young people see
survive the false promises

.
creating MORE jobs
will spread NEW wealth around
- it is NOT finite

.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
give up the search for truth

stop trying to show people
how the world really works

.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
Bush was worse than Hitler

and Stalin and Mao
and Castro combined

.
All real freedom starts with freedom of speech. If there is no freedom of speech there can be no real freedom.
.
POTUS-Elect BHO Thrills Earth!
.
USpace

.

Nov 9, 2008 - 10:23 pm 17. JMH:

I usually try to be at least a little polite and avoid juvenile snits, but…

All you Einsteins who voted for Obama or Barr because McCain wasn’t conservative enough? Go stick your head in a toliet and flush. Repeat many times. And don’t ever, ever vote again. You’re not smart enough to do it right.

Nov 9, 2008 - 10:33 pm 18. Doug:

Evidently, most just stayed home, as predicted.
Now many propose more of the same “moderation” that led the GOP to this sorry state, as the cure for the disease.

Nov 9, 2008 - 10:50 pm 19. Wadeusaf:

I am not at all sure this is President elect Obama’s doing. Although I am positive the leaks to the times were his or someone on his side or someone who felt sure they could get away with more leaks now. Would leaking confidential material be considered a war crime? Could the VP elect or his staff be charged with such conduct (hazarding a guess here based on past known conduct)?

I am guessing this is a part of the in fighting we’ll be witness to as various parts of the Democrat coalition of lefties try to pin the future president on a definite course as well as pin as much of the fault for the perception of “failed policies” on the current administration. I am confident that in the days and weeks ahead we will be witness to more leaks more stories and more scuffles than the past two years combined have provided, it is after all the Chicago, erm the democrat way.

If the President elect is not a part of this, he ought to call the dogs off quickly and state the fact that he is master of his own agenda. If he remains passive I can only assume his agenda is the same as this manure spreader, AKA the NYT.

Nov 9, 2008 - 10:53 pm 20. flicka47:

So,do cabinet positions need to be approved by congress?

I would suggest then that we make sure that every appointment gets the Clarence Thomas treatment from the Republican side of Congress. We should all be calling every member of any committee that will be “advising” on these folks and letting them know why we do not want them approved.
If we all make enough noise then some of the worst will not be confirmed.(Think the immigration bill,and the bailout. We can make congress listen to what we want)

We may not be able to stop this trainwreck,but we might slow it down.

Nov 9, 2008 - 11:12 pm 21. fred:

Jaime Gorelick is a walking disaster. Incompetent, corrupt, ambitious, venal, greedy, and other vices as well. This woman has cost this nation more blood and treasure than any foreign enemy has ever exacted from us.

I am repelled at the thought of this woman being appointed as the head of the U.S. Justice Department.

Things really are going to be very dark for the next four years.

Nov 9, 2008 - 11:42 pm 22. whiskey:

Obama’s group is certainly a Clown Show.

Nov 10, 2008 - 12:03 am 23. JMH:

Jaime Gorelick is a walking disaster. Incompetent, corrupt, ambitious, venal, greedy, and other vices as well. This woman has cost this nation more blood and treasure than any foreign enemy has ever exacted from us…I am repelled at the thought of this woman being appointed as the head of the U.S. Justice Department.

Let’s just say that in a sane world, Gorelick’s involvement with the Justice Department would be of a significantly different nature than running it.

Nov 10, 2008 - 12:07 am 24. Doug:

Wish we’d had Ashcroft for 8 years.

—
Anger Erupts After Executions in Bali Blasts
Hundreds demonstrated after the executions of three men for their roles in the bombings that killed 202 people. Above, the coffin of Imam Samudra in Serang.

Nov 10, 2008 - 12:30 am 25. Rubber Ducky:

Given the central roles of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the current global financial crisis, it is inconceivable that Gorelick should be seriously entertained for a high position in government. The same can be said regarding Rahm Emmanuel. Both of them enjoyed executive positions at these GSE’s during the times of great abuse and mismanagement. It can also be said of several other people surrounding Obama.

There’s no small amount of chutzpah in foisting these people on us, and its going on in broad daylight to boot.

It’s simply creepy to watch.

Nov 10, 2008 - 12:48 am 26. wretchard:

Imagine you are presented with an urn which is said contain an equal number of red and yellow marbles. You can’t look inside but you can reach in and draw marbes. So you pick out a red, a red, a red, a red and a red. Despite your efforts to shake the contents round, you keep pulling out reds with only the very occasional yellow. Now what’s the probability the urn was correctly labeled as containing an equal number of red and yellow?

Students of stats can calculate the answer if they knew the numbers of reds and yellows drawn at apparent random. But the exercise is not unlike watching Obama announce his cabinet. Obama is a labeled moderate. A transformative person. Right. Now we watch him announce his cabinet. Appoint his key officials. Each appointment is like a marble from an urn conveying information about the true value of Obama’s political soul, not the labeled value. It’s early days yet. But keep track of the marbles. Even if you can’t convince anyone else what the sample means, at least you will know, from empirical evidence, what the probable truth is.

Nov 10, 2008 - 1:02 am 27. Peter Boston:

Jamie Gorelick is the Typhoid Mary of American politics. She was instrumental (if not the architect) in constructing the Wall between US intelligence agencies that made 9/11 possible, and she grossly enriched herself as a senior executive at Fannie Mae while the books, and many people’s futures, were being cooked.

It’s unusual to be able to so precisely point the finger at one unelected Washington insider directly responsible for so much human suffering and mayhem as Jamie Gorelcik. Her appointment to anything would instantly dash any hope than an Obama administration will not be as destructive to American values and American persons as was most feared.

The MSM’s pathetic rehabilitation of Ayers is but another indicator that we are still a long way from penetrating the darkness that has engulfed us.

Nov 10, 2008 - 1:29 am 28. vb:

I can’t believe that a Gorelick appointment won’t produce some backlash from families of 9/11 victims and from law enforcement people. If the backlash is early enough and loud enough, it could give The One second thoughts.

BTW, Wretchard, I’ve seen Abdelbari Atwan numerous times on BBC’s Dateline London. This guy should be on meds. You could mention that this nice cup of tea really hits the spot, and he would respond with a rant about Bush the warmonger and the plight of Palestinian tea pluckers.

Nov 10, 2008 - 1:49 am 29. 3Case:

“Barack is combing through Bush’s Executive Orders….”

That’s standard stuff. Goes on with every change of administration. It’s no different than, say, the right to replace U.S. Attorneys at will…oh!…never mind….

Anyway, love the sly RMN reference in the thread title and the “watch the marbles” advice, W. The choice of Emmanuel for CoS is quite disturbing. Gorelick as AG would be mindblowing…a shattering of the glass (rubber?) ceiling of The Peter Principle….

Nov 10, 2008 - 3:09 am 30. CPT, Charles:

My two cents: these are the people you will see.

My gut tells me that our new ‘Dear Leader’ [henceforth to be labeled by me as DL...] will have a circle of advisors that you WON’T see. Given the state of secure digital conferencing technology, and they’ll never need to step through the WH gates [except to attend the glittering state dinners/parties our DL will be throwing...].

No vetting, no oversight, no security clearances and probably no NYT tattle tails.

Nov 10, 2008 - 4:38 am 31. Roland THTG:

Robert Malley has been rehabbed.
The once and future mideast advisor is back on the job.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128308

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3897414.ece

Nov 10, 2008 - 5:39 am 32. slade:

My two cents are only worth a penny these days so here’s mine.

Obama will make the same mistake Clinton made by reaching out deep into minority/women pools to select staff.

I cannot believe Gorelick’s name on a short list is anything but that. If she receives the appointment, then I’ll be dusting off my own personal “off-grid” plans.

Nov 10, 2008 - 6:28 am 33. Mark:

It’s always disturbing when you walk in to the kitchen late at night, turn on the light, and see that the cockroaches have infested the place. But at least you know it’s time to take measures and call in the Orkin guy.

One of those guys is Norm Coleman of Minnesota, a former prosecutor who knows how to grill persons testifying at hearings. The democrats are desperately trying to cheat their way to defeating him in a ‘recount’ in Minnesota. He’s on the Judiciary Committee, Jaimie.

Peter Boston writes:

“Jamie Gorelick is the Typhoid Mary of American politics.”

That’s a good one.

Nov 10, 2008 - 6:54 am 34. Michael Hoskins:

Wretchard #26,
Standard minimum sample size, to achieve a reasonalbe confidence level, somewhere around 40. We will be able to project very early in the process.

Otherwise, Rev: 13 5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. 6 He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 7 He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.

Nov 10, 2008 - 6:56 am 35. Disillusionist:

Jamie Gorelick: The first person in the history of the world in large measure responsible for two separate, trillion-dollar disasters. She should have been getting grilled (perhaps literally) by the 9/11 commission, not one of its members. Disaster follows her like sharks follow blood. Her tenure at Fannie Mae was marked by deliberate concealment of its investment debacles so that she and her cronies could reap millions in bonuses.

I believe that the Russians have already taken Obama’s measure, and found it most wanting. I expect Russian tanks will roll across the Ukrainian border at 10:00 on the evening of Inauguration Day.

Nov 10, 2008 - 7:47 am 36. Mike Sylwester:

In February 1990 Back Obama was elected to the position of Editor of the Harvard Law Review. A short time later, while Obama was still a Harvard student, he received a $125,000 advance to write a book about race relations and education. The advance was paid by a small publisher named Poseidon, a deal arranged by book agent Jane Dystal, who had grow up in Chicago.

Obama graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991 and returned to Chicago. The University of Chicago wanted to hire him into its faculty and so provided him with a fellowship and an office to work on his book. He was supposed to finish the book in one year, but he did not do so. Nevertheless, after that year he began to work as a lecturer in 1992.

Why and to whom was it important that Barack Obama write a book about race relations and education in the early 1990s?

William Ayers had received his PhD in Education from Columbia University in New York and then moved back to Chicago in 1987. In the following years, Ayers was focused mainly on the goal of establishing a foundation that would successfully obtain charitable grants to research and affect educational policy. William Ayers collaborated in this effort with his brother John Ayers, the president of an organization called Leadership for Quality Education (LQE), a corporate group that administered the umbrella Small Schools Coalition.

http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/news/index.php?item=1723&cat=35

[quote]

Chicago’s small-schools advocates got their inspiration in New York City, where the movement began almost 25 years ago. In 1991, Alexander Polikoff, head of Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI), visited several small schools in Harlem and was won over. Soon after, BPI brought to Chicago a New York expert to meet with teachers, principals and school reform groups in Chicago. “That really kicked off the small schools effort in Chicago,” Polikoff says. “We said, ‘Hey, this is good stuff.’ Logically, it made good sense.”

Polikoff then began working with University of Illinois faculty member William Ayers—his children had attended a small school in Harlem—to lead informal meetings with teachers and principals interested in setting up schools-within-schools. In 1992, Ayers, the brother of LQE’s John Ayers, got a $150,000 foundation grant to open the Small Schools Workshop, a laboratory to study and create small schools in Chicago.

[unquote]

In order for the Ayers brothers to obtain more such grants, their organization would be much better positioned in its proposals if its board of directors included an African American who had published a scholarly book on the subject of race relations and education.

In June 1993, a huge opportunity to obtain charitable grants for education proposals was announced:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Annenberg_Challenge

[quote]

In June 1993, Annenberg announced he was making the largest individual gift to private education in history—$365 million to four schools: $120 million each to the communication programs at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California, $25 million to Harvard College, and $100 million to his alma mater, the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey.

In October 1993, Annenberg announced an unrestricted $25 million gift to Northwestern University bringing his total donations to Northwestern to $55 million, his last major gift to higher education for five years as he shifted the focus of his philanthropy to public K–12 education.

Annenberg told Newton Minow, senior counsel of Sidley & Austin, chairman of the Carnegie Corporation (1993–1997), Annenberg Professor of Communications Law and Policy at Northwestern University (1987–2003) and director of its Annenberg Washington Program (1987–1996): “Everybody around the world wants to send their kids to our universities. South America, Asia, Europe, all of them. But nobody wants to send their kids here to public school. Who would, especially in a big city? Nobody. So we’ve got to do something. If we don’t, our civilization will collapse.”

[unquote]

In mid-1993, however, Obama still had not finished his book about race relations and education — a book for which he had been paid a $125,000 advance in 1990. Now in 1963, however, it was extremely urgent that Obama finish such a book in order to become a valuable resource on the board of directors of an organization applying for an Annenberg grant.

Because Obama had failed to finish his book the Poseidon publishing company had canceled his contract. Obama’s agent Jane Drystal therefore arranged for another publisher, Times Book, to give Obama another advance of $40,000 to finish his book. This book was then re-designed and ghost-written by Bill Ayers during 1994 and was published in June 1995 under the title Dreams of My Father.

During 1994, as the manuscript approached completion, Obama was appointed to two boards of directors — of the Woods Fund and of the Joyce Foundation. In 1995, when the book was published, he was appointed also to the board of directors of the Chicago Annanberg Challenge (CAC).

CAC’s founder William Ayers had submitted a draft proposal for an Annenberg grant in June 1994 and a final proposal in December 1994. Subsequently the Annenberg Foundation awarded a $49 million check to the CAC in January 1995. This $49 million matched $49 million in other donations that the CAC had arranged. In order to distribute the $98, the CAC established a board of directors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Annenberg_Challenge

[quote]

An 8-member Board of Directors made up of representatives of organizations that had no vested interest in Annenberg money was recruited to approve grants, hire an executive director and project staff, and determine which funds could count towards the required $98.4 million match. The Board of Directors was handpicked by Adele Smith Simmons, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ….

At a meeting with Simmons and Patricia Albjerg Graham, Deborah Leff suggested that Barack Obama would make a good board chairman. After meeting and being impressed by Obama, Graham told Obama that she wanted him to be chairman of the Board of Directors. Obama said that he would agree to serve as chairman if Graham would be vice chairman, to which Graham agreed. …. On June 22, 1995, [the same month when Dreams of My Father was published] the Chicago Annenberg Challenge announced the members of its Board of Directors ….

[unquote]

———-

Now, let’s look backward a decade, to the summer of 1985. Barack Obama had just received an offer to leave New York and move to Chicago to work as a community organizer in a position that had been organized by the Woods Fund. The money to pay the organizer’s salary had been arranged by that Woods Fund’s executive secretary Jean Rudd.

Obama was uncertain about whether to accept the offer. He thought about it and consulted with associates whose advice he trusted. While he struggled with his decision, Obama took a walk along the Hudson River and observed that the current flowed in two directions. Somehow, this observation about the Hudon River’s two-direction currents prompted him to make up his mind and move from New York to Chicago to work in the position that had been funded by the Woods Fund.

http://www.cashill.com/intellect_fraud/nautical_metaphors.htm

As Obama (Ayers) told the story in Dreams of My Father, Obama met with “Marty Kauffman” at a Lexington Avenue diner, the man from Chicago who was trying to recruit him as a community organizer. After the meeting, Obama “took the long way home, along the East River promenade.” As “a long brown barge rolled through the gray waters toward the sea,” Obama sat down on a bench to consider his options.

While sitting, he noticed a black woman and her young son against the railing. Overly fond of the too well remembered detail, Obama observes that “they stood side by side, his arm wrapped around her leg, a single silhouette against the twilight.” The boy appeared to ask his mother a question that she could not answer and then approached Obama:

“Excuse me, mister,” he shouted. “You know why sometimes the river runs that way and then sometimes it goes this way?”

The woman smiled and shook her head, and I said it probably had to do with the tides.

Obama used the seeming indecisiveness of this tidal river as a metaphor for his own. Immediately afterwards, he made up his mind and headed for Chicago.

Ayers, in his own book To Teach, tells a story about a teacher who took his students to that same view of the Hudson River. When they got to the river’s edge, one student said, ” Look, the river is flowing up.” A second student said, “No, it has to flow south-down.”

Not knowing which was right, the teacher and the students did their research. What they discovered, writes Ayers, was “that the Hudson River is a tidal river, that it flows both north and south, and they had visited the exact spot where the tide stops its northward push.”

Nov 10, 2008 - 7:57 am 37. Mike Sylwester:

In February 1990 Back Obama was elected to the position of Editor of the Harvard Law Review. A short time later, while Obama was still a Harvard student, he received a $125,000 advance to write a book about race relations and education. The advance was paid by a small publisher named Poseidon, a deal arranged by book agent Jane Dystal, who had grow up in Chicago.

Obama graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991 and returned to Chicago. The University of Chicago wanted to hire him into its faculty and so provided him with a fellowship and an office to work on his book. He was supposed to finish the book in one year, but he did not do so. Nevertheless, after that year he began to work as a lecturer in 1992.

Why and to whom was it important that Barack Obama write a book about race relations and education in the early 1990s?

William Ayers had received his PhD in Education from Columbia University in New York and then moved back to Chicago in 1987. In the following years, Ayers was focused mainly on the goal of establishing a foundation that would successfully obtain charitable grants to research and affect educational policy. William Ayers collaborated in this effort with his brother John Ayers, the president of an organization called Leadership for Quality Education (LQE), a corporate group that administered the umbrella Small Schools Coalition.

catalyst-chicago.org/news/index.php?item=1723&cat=35

[quote]

Chicago’s small-schools advocates got their inspiration in New York City, where the movement began almost 25 years ago. In 1991, Alexander Polikoff, head of Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI), visited several small schools in Harlem and was won over. Soon after, BPI brought to Chicago a New York expert to meet with teachers, principals and school reform groups in Chicago. “That really kicked off the small schools effort in Chicago,” Polikoff says. “We said, ‘Hey, this is good stuff.’ Logically, it made good sense.”

Polikoff then began working with University of Illinois faculty member William Ayers—his children had attended a small school in Harlem—to lead informal meetings with teachers and principals interested in setting up schools-within-schools. In 1992, Ayers, the brother of LQE’s John Ayers, got a $150,000 foundation grant to open the Small Schools Workshop, a laboratory to study and create small schools in Chicago.

[unquote]

In order for the Ayers brothers to obtain more such grants, their organization would be much better positioned in its proposals if its board of directors included an African American who had published a scholarly book on the subject of race relations and education.

In June 1993, a huge opportunity to obtain charitable grants for education proposals was announced:

wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Annenberg_Challenge

[quote]

In June 1993, Annenberg announced he was making the largest individual gift to private education in history—$365 million to four schools: $120 million each to the communication programs at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California, $25 million to Harvard College, and $100 million to his alma mater, the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey.

In October 1993, Annenberg announced an unrestricted $25 million gift to Northwestern University bringing his total donations to Northwestern to $55 million, his last major gift to higher education for five years as he shifted the focus of his philanthropy to public K–12 education.

Annenberg told Newton Minow, senior counsel of Sidley & Austin, chairman of the Carnegie Corporation (1993–1997), Annenberg Professor of Communications Law and Policy at Northwestern University (1987–2003) and director of its Annenberg Washington Program (1987–1996): “Everybody around the world wants to send their kids to our universities. South America, Asia, Europe, all of them. But nobody wants to send their kids here to public school. Who would, especially in a big city? Nobody. So we’ve got to do something. If we don’t, our civilization will collapse.”

[unquote]

In mid-1993, however, Obama still had not finished his book about race relations and education — a book for which he had been paid a $125,000 advance in 1990. Now in 1963, however, it was extremely urgent that Obama finish such a book in order to become a valuable resource on the board of directors of an organization applying for an Annenberg grant.

Because Obama had failed to finish his book the Poseidon publishing company had canceled his contract. Obama’s agent Jane Drystal therefore arranged for another publisher, Times Book, to give Obama another advance of $40,000 to finish his book. This book was then re-designed and ghost-written by Bill Ayers during 1994 and was published in June 1995 under the title Dreams of My Father.

During 1994, as the manuscript approached completion, Obama was appointed to two boards of directors — of the Woods Fund and of the Joyce Foundation. In 1995, when the book was published, he was appointed also to the board of directors of the Chicago Annanberg Challenge (CAC).

CAC’s founder William Ayers had submitted a draft proposal for an Annenberg grant in June 1994 and a final proposal in December 1994. Subsequently the Annenberg Foundation awarded a $49 million check to the CAC in January 1995. This $49 million matched $49 million in other donations that the CAC had arranged. In order to distribute the $98, the CAC established a board of directors.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Annenberg_Challenge

[quote]

An 8-member Board of Directors made up of representatives of organizations that had no vested interest in Annenberg money was recruited to approve grants, hire an executive director and project staff, and determine which funds could count towards the required $98.4 million match. The Board of Directors was handpicked by Adele Smith Simmons, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ….

At a meeting with Simmons and Patricia Albjerg Graham, Deborah Leff suggested that Barack Obama would make a good board chairman. After meeting and being impressed by Obama, Graham told Obama that she wanted him to be chairman of the Board of Directors. Obama said that he would agree to serve as chairman if Graham would be vice chairman, to which Graham agreed. …. On June 22, 1995, [the same month when Dreams of My Father was published] the Chicago Annenberg Challenge announced the members of its Board of Directors ….

[unquote]

———-

Now, let’s look backward a decade, to the summer of 1985. Barack Obama had just received an offer to leave New York and move to Chicago to work as a community organizer in a position that had been organized by the Woods Fund. The money to pay the organizer’s salary had been arranged by that Woods Fund’s executive secretary Jean Rudd.

Obama was uncertain about whether to accept the offer. He thought about it and consulted with associates whose advice he trusted. While he struggled with his decision, Obama took a walk along the Hudson River and observed that the current flowed in two directions. Somehow, this observation about the Hudon River’s two-direction currents prompted him to make up his mind and move from New York to Chicago to work in the position that had been funded by the Woods Fund.

cashill.com/intellect_fraud/nautical_metaphors.htm

As Obama (Ayers) told the story in Dreams of My Father, Obama met with “Marty Kauffman” at a Lexington Avenue diner, the man from Chicago who was trying to recruit him as a community organizer. After the meeting, Obama “took the long way home, along the East River promenade.” As “a long brown barge rolled through the gray waters toward the sea,” Obama sat down on a bench to consider his options.

While sitting, he noticed a black woman and her young son against the railing. Overly fond of the too well remembered detail, Obama observes that “they stood side by side, his arm wrapped around her leg, a single silhouette against the twilight.” The boy appeared to ask his mother a question that she could not answer and then approached Obama:

“Excuse me, mister,” he shouted. “You know why sometimes the river runs that way and then sometimes it goes this way?”

The woman smiled and shook her head, and I said it probably had to do with the tides.

Obama used the seeming indecisiveness of this tidal river as a metaphor for his own. Immediately afterwards, he made up his mind and headed for Chicago.

Bill Ayers, in his own book To Teach, tells a story about a teacher who took his students to that same view of the Hudson River. When they got to the river’s edge, one student said, ” Look, the river is flowing up.” A second student said, “No, it has to flow south-down.”

Not knowing which was right, the teacher and the students did their research. What they discovered, writes Ayers, was “that the Hudson River is a tidal river, that it flows both north and south, and they had visited the exact spot where the tide stops its northward push.”

Nov 10, 2008 - 7:59 am 38. MichellO de Vulgarian:

Do you know where the money from Fannie Mae go? Surely a lot of it went to BO’s campaign. He can buy the election with your tax money and you don’t even know about it. How brilliant!

Nov 10, 2008 - 8:08 am 39. Mike Sylwester:

Here is some information about Ayers’ activities in New York.

texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/1981-new-york-city-just-a-bizarre-coincidence/

(mostly from comments 103 and 117)

Son Zayd Atheola Dohrn/Zayd Douglas was born on April 26, 1977, in San Francisco.

Ayers and Dohrn moved to NYC sometime in 1978, renting an apartment at 520 W 123rd in December, 1979, where Malik was born on Feb. 1, 1980. They gave their previous address as a studio apartment at 457 W 46th. (Which may or may not be correct). They told acquantances they had moved from California. In NYC they used the names Christine Louise Douglas/Lou Douglas and Anthony J. Lee/Tony Lee.

During those two years in NYC, Dohrn worked as a part-time waitress at a restaurant/bar named “Teachers,” and from September 1979 until shortly before the birth of Malik on 2/1/80, at Broadway Baby, 2244 Broadway, near 82nd St.

Ayers first worked as a baker at The Bread Shop, a health food bakery at Broadway and LaSalle Street, before going to work at BJs Kids for $150/week.

Ayers went to BJs Kids a preschool on 85th Street to enroll Zayd and is hired by the owner BJ Richards: “He’s magical with children,” Richards says. “The moment he left, my co-worker and I looked at each other and said, ‘He has to work here.”’

On or around Nov. 13, 1980, Ayers and Dohrn packed up the kids and moved, telling their employers they had to return to Chicago because of an illness in the family. (Although Federal charges had been dismissed due “prosecutorial misconduct,” they were actually going to surrender to state authorities, apparently pre-negotiated, on outstanding IL state charges relating to the “Days of Rage” in ‘69).

At this time also living in the Upper West Side is Kathy Boudin under the alias Lydia Adams/Lynn Adams. Her address is 50 Morningside Ave. Her roommate is Rita Jensen is a reporter for Stamford (Conn) Advocate.

August, 1980 Chesa Jackson Gilbert Boudin/C. Adams is born to Kathy Boudin and another Weatherman, David Gilbert. Kathy Boudin applies for and receives welfare under the name Lydia Adams.

In December 1980, after negotiations with authorities, Ayers and Dohrn resurface. They soon return to New York City.

Late summer of 1981: Obama transfers from Occidental to Columbia for his junior year and moves to NYC. He lives at 339 E. 94th St with roommate Sohale Siddiqi.

Oct 20, 1981: Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert commit triple murder in the Brinks Robbery. The get-away car was rented with personal identifcation stolen from customers of Broadway Baby.

(One of the robbers, Nathaniel Burns, calls himself Sekou Odinga. He took that name from Odinga Odina, the father of Rail Odinga, Barack Obama’s cousin in Kenya. Odinga Odina had been Kenya’s vice president in the 1960s and had come to the USA, specifically to Los Angeles and San Francisco, on a state visit in the late 60’s. There he met some Black Panther members, who included Burns. Impressed by this visit, Burns subsequently called himself Sekou Odinga.)

May 18, 1982: New York’s newspapers report that Dohrn refuses to testify to Grand Jury about the robbery. For refusing to testify, Dohrn is sentenced to jail for contempt. In October 1982, on a weekend furlough she and Ayers are married. The telephone directory lists their residence as 243 W 15th St. Ayers is enrolled at Bank Street Education College, near Columbia University.

Fall of 1982: Obama starts his senior year at Columbia. His address remains 339 E. 94th. per telephone directory.

1983: Obama graduates from Columbia. His address remains 339 E 94th St, per the telephone directory. He starts work at Business International Corporation.

1984: Obama works for NYPIRG at City College. Address is still shown as 339 E 94th.

Ayers received his degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College. He enters Teachers College at Columbia University.

Dohrn takes the NY bar Exam in Feb. 1984 and passes but is refused admission to the NY State Bar due to character and fitness concerns. She is a legal clerk at the New York office of the Chicago Law Firm of Sidley Austin, LLP.

1985 Obama moves to Chicago to take a position as a community organizer.

Ayers continues at Teachers College, Columbia University and Dohrn continues her employment at Sidley Austin in NYC.

In 1988 Ayers receives his degree and he and Dohrn return to Chicago.

BJ Richards moved to Chicago in the late 1980s and first lives at the 2473 North Albany Address (since vacated by Ayers and Dohrn) and then at an address in Oak Park (at duplex owned by John Ayers and Judi Minter). She runs a preschool/day care with John Ayers’ wife Judi Minter.

Nov 10, 2008 - 8:14 am 40. Mike Sylwester:

I apologize for the long posts. I’ll try not to do it ever again.

Nov 10, 2008 - 8:15 am 41. Michael Hoskins:

Mike S.
Apology not accepted. I thoroughly enjoyed the post.

Nov 10, 2008 - 8:17 am 42. slade:

Small incestuous communities.

Everywhere you look.

Nov 10, 2008 - 8:32 am 43. slade:

I apologize for the long posts. – Mike S.

Paragraphs make all the difference. (said in my best NahnCee-lite voice ::)) I think of them as signal/noise delimiters.

Nov 10, 2008 - 8:41 am 44. F:

Mike Sylwester, #35: make sure you save those Wikipedia entries: they’ll doubtless disappear soon as the incoming administration begins to “clean” its image. Wouldn’t want anyone to know that Ayers ghost-wrote “Dreams of My Father,” would they? F

Nov 10, 2008 - 8:43 am 45. Voltimand:

You want to read something pathetic? Read PowerLine these days, where the advice is to respect our president “right or wrong” (courtesy of Stephen Decatur), and told to enjoy life. Responses to this line are about as one might respect.

Every day is going to be a revelation of more excrement coming out of the White House. Be prepared. The one good thing about this is that Obama has the capacity to overreach–there will be a tipping point where enough is enough, and then–I hope–the reaction will start to set in.

My local newspaper has Obama supporters writing in to castigate McCain supporters for being McCain supporters. “Trust us,” they say.

I do, I do trust you–to be exactly what your are: a mix of stupidity, venality, and terminal intellectual blindness.

Obama will be his own worst enemy. The only question is whether the opposition will maintain the cojones to go after him.

We may see 2nd civil war yet.

Nov 10, 2008 - 8:58 am 46. julie:

Tell us more Mike.

Nov 10, 2008 - 9:06 am 47. slade:

You want to read something pathetic? – Voltimand

My thinking is that it’s coming from a greater security concern – both home-grown and abroad. But I could be wrong. We’re living in paternalistic times. Feminized world indeed. Not from where I sit.

Nov 10, 2008 - 9:11 am 48. cedarford:

Well, guess what, any Party that wins the election will have fringe crazies that start saying they deserve power – and normally don’t get it. Ayers, Wright, and Dohrn have as much chance as a rattlesnake-handling Fundie did under Bush getting in charge of Justice or a Christian militia member did of getting DOD.

*************
Alexis:

Of course al-Qaeda is planning a new gigantic attack on the United States soon. It’s the usual hazing ritual where al-Qaeda takes the measure of a new president by committing yet another massive unforgivable atrocity against Americans.

First 1993. Then 2001. 2009 won’t be a surprise.

Alexis makes stupid use of statistics that show no correlation between small (as real war goes) terror attacks and any timing that they only happen to “test new leaders”. Most have happened when a President or PM is well seated in power, for many years.

Surviving leaders caught and interrogated (93 bombers, Khalid Shekh Mohammed) say that they attacked on only one timing consideration: When They Were Ready

KSM conceived of 9/11 in ‘98 and had orginally hoped to get it done in the summer of 2000, but decided that he could not count on recruiting reliable Arab, Indonesian commercial or military pilots and had to get 4-5 committed AQ members trained from scratch. Even then, he did not trust the “muscle” – the 15 non-pilots – so they were (his original Indonesians replaced by Binnie with Saudis to embarass the monarchy) – never told it was a martyrdom mission, just a dangerous hijacking where it would be necessary to kill crew and passengers who resisted.

And of course, we have Whiskey, now locked into being a DEBKA Hysteric, warning us that some goatherder in Yemen is bragging the “Next Big Attack” is coming. After which the poor boy does his 500th: “We’re doomed! We’re doomed now! The Islamofascists will win! Game over, man! They will have won if they kill a dozen someday….because any casualties, and we are defeated…That is why we have to be perfect everday as Beloved Maximum Leader and New Churchill President Bush was.
Now Obama is elected.
We’re Doomed I tell you! Doomed!

Whiskey, take a big chill pill.

**************************
vb:

I can’t believe that a Gorelick appointment won’t produce some backlash from families of 9/11 victims and from law enforcement people. If the backlash is early enough and loud enough, it could give The One second thoughts.

The Era of the 9/11 Families and “Hero” cops having unlimited moral authority and through Victimhood, a voice greater than all other Americans in “terror stuff” is over. Long over, and it should have been over even sooner.
Same with the “Victim Families” of Iraq somehow having “victim mothers” like Cindy Shaheen feeling entitled to dictate to us all from “unlimited moral authority”.

For that matter, we gave far too much deference to John McCain and the Cult of the POW than we should have. Creating the Cult was one of the sadly enduring bad achievements of Nixon, amidst his better ones, because it has lasted so long and shaped public perception that a POW is a hero on level of a Medal of Honor winner or a rock star because they “suffered at the hands of the enemy”. Whereas Nixon deliberately ignored the maimed and disabled by the enemy as unfortunately not politically resonating with the public the way a kidnap victim or a “soldier in captivity” resonated in focus group studies, so he did not push “recovering in a VA hospital with two limbs gone” bracelets and had no brass bands awaiting the casualties.

Nov 10, 2008 - 9:25 am 49. JMH:

the exercise is not unlike watching Obama announce his cabinet. Obama is a labeled moderate. A transformative person. Right.

Obama constantly reminds me of the movie Mars Attacks!

“We come in peace. (Blam! Blam!) Do not flee. (Blam!) We are your friends. (Blam! Blam!) We mean you no harm. (Blam! Blam! Blam!)”

Nov 10, 2008 - 9:47 am 50. Justin:

I caught a headline yesterday that Medvedev wants to have a meeting with Barak ASAP. I believe Wretchard recently wrote about the disastrous consequences of JFK’s summit with Kruschev in Vienna 1961. Funny how they never taught any of that in school. Or how Kennedy’s weakness on Germany lead directly to the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Medvedev is no Kruschev, but certainly he is no pushover with Putin pulling his strings. With Russia placing missiles on Poland’s border, why am I being overcome with an unshakable sense of deja vu? Medvedev is pushing to change term limits on the Presidency and, according to the Russian paper Vedomosti, it’s all a part of a plan to get Putin back in the Chair for another 20 years. Imagine Barak scheduling the meeting with Medvedev only to have Putin show up for the tea party? Putin must have a thrill going up his leg.

Nov 10, 2008 - 9:49 am 51. Michael Hoskins:

Justin,
Perhaps P wants to give O ideas about changing US term limits. After all, once a messiah, always a messiah.

Nov 10, 2008 - 10:05 am 52. Sean:

It is good to see some comic relief on this thread.

Nov 10, 2008 - 10:06 am 53. mika2k1:

#416 – War is Peace, Slavery is freedom, Ignorance is Profit

http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/27954

Nov 10, 2008 - 10:08 am 54. E. Nigma:

Caution: The appearance of Jamie Gorelick’s name may be no more than shameless self-promotion.

Other alternatives to AG: Deval Patrick (oh really?), Tim Kaine (Virginia)

Also consider that Jamie Gorelick’s name may be dis-information, so when someone else’s name appears, we all act relieved.

Would be a similar Department of partisans, anyways. And they and the new Congress will show you all what REAL Oversight hearings are all about.

Also interesting are the “rumors” that Gates may stay on as SecDef. I think this is also dis-information to calm the sheeple. I can’t imagine Gates staying on with the whole bureaucracy underneath him changing to Obama loyalists.

But we shall see.

Nov 10, 2008 - 10:38 am 55. Eggplant:

E. Nigma said:

“Also consider that Jamie Gorelick’s name may be dis-information, so when someone else’s name appears, we all act relieved… Also interesting are the “rumors” that Gates may stay on as SecDef. I think this is also dis-information to calm the sheeple.”

Wise analysis. Right now, everything Obama says and does is to calm the sheeple before he assumes actual power (disinformation and lies). We’ll know nothing about Obama’s true intent until about June 2009. The person to watch closely is William Ayers. If Ayers is elevated to a position of responsibility or made a close advisor then we’ll know we’re in serious trouble.

Nov 10, 2008 - 11:03 am 56. ketchikan:

Are there any Dems in the Senate with a Republican Govenor whom Obama could appoint to something and their seat be replaced by a Republican?

Nov 10, 2008 - 11:08 am 57. Alexis:

It is a standard practice on the Left to question the intelligence and/or sanity of any person who disagrees with leftist orthodoxy. This technique is highly effective for keeping professors and students in line on college campuses, as no professor likes getting his intelligence and/or sanity questioned. The Soviet Union routinely labeled political dissidents as “insane” and locked them up into mental hospitals. Other forms of repression have been less drastic.

So, it should not be a surprise if these methods of totalitarian repression should be employed now or in the future.

Watch for anybody who questions the intelligence and/or sanity of those who deviate from orthodoxy.

Nov 10, 2008 - 11:19 am 58. slade:

we gave far too much deference to John McCain and the Cult of the POW – Cedarford

Beg to differ. Don’t see it that way although the media sterilized the spark to connected with most people – the personal story – not the cult. Everyone who read the book connected personally with the courage and the time frame – five years. Think about it.

I also agree with those – and warning, this is presumptuous statement as I have no personal knowledge of the man aside from what I read – but I agree that McCain was “broken” during captivity. This is trauma most of us will never know. It is far beyond the sterilized *cult* of mass media formulation. We respected his courage and his ability to survive and move on. It was the personal story. And it was heroic, whispers and shadows of which graze the ordinary footprint of most lives.

Nov 10, 2008 - 11:45 am 59. NahnCee:

Sooooo … if O hires a whole bunch of ex-Clintonites, who do you suppose they might be reporting inner-circle secrets to after they get home?

This could be fun. I think we should encourage the appointment of entities such as Gorlick, Madeline Albright, Janet Reno, Warren Christopher … Monica Lewinsky.

Nov 10, 2008 - 11:55 am 60. aconservativeteacher:

Be real people. Once a leopard gets in office, of course it will change its spots. It would be silly to think that a liberal community organizer who is friends with terrorists wouldn’t become a totally different person once they become President.

Nov 10, 2008 - 12:33 pm 61. WSL:

During the campaign period, mention of names with whom Obama associated was quickly dismissed as a diversion. When some suggested that associations do matter and could be used to infer something about Obama’s personal thinking, we were told that Obama’s political philosophy should not be measured by the company he keeps, or once kept. Now he is in office and many of the first names being mentioned for possible cabinet positions do not look reassuring. I wonder if we weren’t being sold a bill of goods by those who lectured us not to judge a person by those he calls his friends.

Nov 10, 2008 - 12:34 pm 62. Eggplant:

NahnCee said:

“if O hires a whole bunch of ex-Clintonites, who do you suppose they might be reporting inner-circle secrets to after they get home?”

If Obama hires ex-Cintonites then we can breath a sigh of relief (it’ll mean that Obama is under Democratic party control and he’ll probably time-out harmlessly after 4 years). However if Obama loads his staff up with 1970s radicals, wealthy liberals and/or left-wing academics from outside Washington then we maybe in serious trouble.

That will be his first milestone. The economy is really outside of his control but the noises that he makes about the economy will be of interest.

Eventually the Islamic fascists, Putin or the Chinese government will test Obama and that will be his moment to shine or seriously fail.

Nov 10, 2008 - 12:34 pm 63. 11-10-08 | Drive Time Happy Hour:

[...] Richard Fernandez: Who’s looking forward to the next four years? “Three former political radicals” predicted the rebirth of social activism in America at an art gallery gathering. [...]

Nov 10, 2008 - 12:36 pm 64. sgi:

Just in time for Obama’s presidency, a new book by William Ayers, re social justice in education, due out December 2008.

http://www.routledge.com/books/Handbook-of-Social-Justice-in-Education-isbn9780805859287

Nov 10, 2008 - 12:40 pm 65. ricpic:

It must be wonderful to go through life like Dohrn or Hayden, or Gorelick for that matter, without the dragweight of a conscience.

Nov 10, 2008 - 12:45 pm 66. slade:

First 1993. Then 2001. 2009 won’t be a surprise.

I thought the reference was to the internal rhythm of *cults* which AQ is, according to the “all camel no turbin” theory.

They say success is where preparation meets opportunity. It is not unreasonable to assume that, given a minimum degree of complexity, “success” has a meta-rhythm that fits a statistical distribution describing the likelihood of two conditions being present at the same time.

Nov 10, 2008 - 12:54 pm 67. NahnCee:

How can O hire ex-Clintonites and not hire Hillary for anything?

Nov 10, 2008 - 3:54 pm 68. Mike Sylwester:

Barack Obama began writing a book about race relations and education in 1990, after a book agent named Jane Drystel arranged a $125,000 advance from Poseidon Press, which was (until 1993) a part of the Simon & Schuster book publishing company.

This arrangement might have been more complicated. There were two companies — Poseidon Books and Poseidon Press. Poseidon Books is a vanity press, which charges authors to publish their own manuscripts.

If you run a Google search for “Poseidon Books” “Poseidon Press” you will find that many books have been published by both publishers. Apparently if a book published as a vanity product by Poseidon Books showed significant potential, the book then was published by as a non-vanity product by Poseidon Press (i.e. by Simon & Schuster).

So, was the $125,000 advance paid to Obama by Poseidon Press (i.e. by Simon & Schuster), or was it paid by someone else who had contracted with Poseidon Books to initiate Obama’s book as a vanity project?

Here’s how this project might have been arranged. In 1990 some unknown initiator wanted to pay law student Barack Obama $125,000 to begin writing a book about race relations. For some reason, however, the initiator did not want to give Obama the money directly but rather indirectly through an intermediary, so that the initiator’s role remained concealed. Therefore the initiator gave the money to a book agent, who wrote a book contract advancing $125,000 to Obama for the future book. The book agent then would have paid a standard vanity-press fee to Poseidon Books so that the contract named a real publisher. The initiator would have paid that vanity-press fee and also some money to the agent, so the initiator’s total expense would have exceeded $125,000.

Three years later, Obama still had not finished the book, but no book publisher was economically harmed and concerned. Only the unknown initiator had paid any money for the unfinished manuscript, and if he wasn’t complaining, then there was no problem.

In 1993 Simon & Schuster dissolved Poseidon Press and therefore dissolved its indirect relationship with Poseidon Books. Those dissolutions freed Obama to re-sell his book project to Times Books, a part of Random Press, which gave him a new $40,000 advance for a manuscript, written by Ayers, that was almost ready for publication.

Nov 11, 2008 - 8:20 am

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.