Obama/Ayers Update: Chicago Annenberg Challenge Donor Revealed
By Steve Diamond on September 8, 2008 at 6:35 PM in Annenberg Chicago Challenge, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Chicago School Reform Collaborative, Chicago politics, Crown family, Penny Pritzker, William Ayers
As Global Labor readers are well aware the University of Illinois at Chicago denied Stanley Kurtz of National Review access to the official records of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the six-year-long $160 million education reform project led by, among others, Barack Obama and Bill Ayers.
The denial of access to the archives of the CAC was unusual and possibly illegal. It was done after the University, again without any legal justification that I am aware of, contacted someone they said was the “donor” of the records. That “donor” wanted to examine the records prior to their release to the public.
This is highly unusual in light of the fact that the records had been deposited with UIC in 2002 and had been processed by UIC librarians and made ready for access by researchers. Only when Mr. Kurtz, a conservative, requested that he be allowed to see them was the “donor” contacted.
Thanks to the diligent efforts of a 3rd year law student in Chicago who filed a Freedom of Information Act request with UIC, Global Labor can reveal tonight that the alleged “donor” who was contacted by UIC and who tried to block Dr. Kurtz’ access to the CAC records was Ken Rolling, former Executive Director of the CAC and a former staff member of the Woods Fund in the 1980s when the Woods Fund provided financial support to the Developing Communities Project which was then headed up by Barack Obama.
Thus, someone with a 20 year history with Senator Obama was tipped off in advance and in secret by a public University about the interest of a political opponent of the Senator in these public records. The CAC was a non profit corporation organized under the laws of the state of Illinois to serve the interests of the people of Illinois. Of course, Ken Rolling now has no legally cognizable interest that I am aware of in the long defunct CAC. Legally, the successor organization to the CAC is the Chicago Public Education Fund, on whose board sits Obama Campaign Finance Chair Penny Pritzker and Obama supporter Susan Crown.
I am reviewing now the documents that were produced as a result of this FOIA request. As soon as I complete my review and assessment I will post the documents here as well as my conclusions.
- Steve Diamond (biography and blog)
::::::::::::::::::::::
SusanUnPC’s Note: Read all of law professor Steve Diamond’s articles on the six-year, $160-million Annenberg project that Barack Obama never mentions — curious, isn’t it — when he’s asked about executive experience.
Others here, including Larry Johnson, have also written about the Annenberg project. Larry’s most recent article was “The Obama-Ayers Coverup [Update] .”
Awesome, just awesom. Can’t wait!
It is pathetic that we think we live in a free country when the MSM buries this story for over a year. Sen. Obama is friends with our enemies and works with home grown terrorist. This is a fact. Now we know what Hillary was talking about when she said that he has not be vetted! Think about it…it was not until the ABC debate that this was exposed and guess who refused anymore debates…People we have been swindled, bamboozled, by the DNC…FISA was passed because of this type of lie…
Hillary campaigned by endorsing Obama today in spite of all that. No? Obviously she thinks all of those problems don’t matter. I have no idea why.
Clinton needs to do this, campaign. As far as I can tell, she speaking about the economy. Florida is going Repbulican, anyway. No matter what Clinton says. After little boots loses there will be a purge of our party. Clinton needs the down-ticket Dems for the coming house cleaning. Heads will roll, (figurally speaking speaking, major house cleaning, Clinton needs those IOUs.
Yeah, they chase after a story about some silly little spat called troopergate but completely ignore this. Why is that?
Meanwhile, Obama goes after mothers:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Obama_on_Palin_Mother_governor_moose_shooter.html
Oh, my goodness! What the hell is wrong with this man? Can he be more sexist? Can he sound more elitist?
Did anyone else notice Biden’s reaction at Obama’s first comment about Palin?
When Obama stated she had a “terrific story…uh personal story”.
Biden bit his lip like he was thinking…’Ya fool…that is all YOU have…don’t go there!’
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6596227117151452737&ei=D8nFSPLGK5jUqAO-s5i7BQ&q=obama+%2B+compelling+story+%2B+palin&vt=lf
Now he has to make fun of the story he found ‘compelling and terrific’ a few days ago.
Since it is based in reality and not some ‘fairy tale’ constructed for the masses like his story is.
I think that is pretty damn cool that she’s a mother, governor and moose shooter.
No, no, it is. I mean that sincerely. Father, community organizer, hoop shooter.
He’s got the code language ‘down’. Recall how dailykos idiots used to talk about “dog whistle” this and “dog whistle” that, always about racism? Well that is because Obama has mastered the art of dog whistle, except he uses it against women.
0bama clearly can’t stand the thought of a woman getting more attention than him.
In another thread which I can’t find anymore I responded to someone about the perception that Michelle was boss.
I don’t think so!
Her bravada is for the outside world. 0bama is too much of a sexist narcissist to let her control things.
He’s obsessed with Palin. It’s really so undignified and un-Presidential for him to even be speaking about her.
He will always be elitist to the uneducated trailer trash on this blog - accept it, you all live in a cesspool, with Larry as its helm.
Nancy,
He is not an elitist, he is trailer trash, I hate that awful voice of his, those big blue lips and huge ears. Michelle looks like a baboon with that chin that juts out a country mile. Its their attitudes more than anything too,
the affirmative action attitude of blacks that
feel that they are owed by the white community.
The Obamas are trash, not elitist, maybe wannabes but not really elitist.
The evaluation report on the Annenberg Project in Chicago Public Schools is available through ERIC (the Education Research resource for all education research in the US). Go to ERIC and then put in Annenberg Challenge Chicago Public Schools. BTW, records for public schools must be public.
I am looking forward to the findings in these documents.
I mean dude it take a pair to claim he stands for education. The Annenberg Challenge put 49.2 million dollars in Obama & Ayers’ hands and then 60 million more was added by the state other contributions. From 1995 to 2001 Ayers and Obama woked to “improve” inner-city schools.
At the end of the challenge the independent review stated that the CAC failed to meet any or all of the stated goals of the project.
When comparing the Annenberg schools to non-Annenberg schools in the same area there was no difference in the performance of students.
No reduction in truancy
No increase in graduation
No improvement in scores
No improvement in the number of students going on to college.
SO what did the 110.2 million dollars go to?
How does this help us trust Obama to improve education? In my mind it proves he hasn’t a clue about education or the needs of inner-city families.
Thanks for all your hard work, Steve. You’re a patriot.
Indeed, I agree wholeheartedly ~ Thank You Steve!
Jesus was on the Board of the Annenburg Challenge
and
Pontius Pilate was the guy who investigated it.
A thought for you Jeremiah, my friend:
A driver is stuck in a traffic jam going into downtown Chicago. Nothing Is Moving north or south. Suddenly a man knocks on his window.
The driver rolls down his window and asks, ‘What happened, what’s the hold Up?’
‘Terrorists have kidnapped Barack Obama, Bill Ayers and his wife, and the Reverends Wright and Pfleger. They are asking for a $10 Million ransom. Otherwise, they are going to douse them with gasoline and set them on fire. We are going from car to car, taking up a collection.’
The driver asks, ‘On average, how much is everyone giving?’
‘About a gallon.’
omg LOL!!!!
whoooooot!
I get banned for making fun of known criminal and sociopath Larry Sinclair but this kind of sick joke with homicidal implications is fair game? That’s okay, I’ll link this to as many other blogs as I can right away. Thanks, Zeke, this “joke” epitomizes the malignant tumor that is NoQuarter.
Nobody likes a tattletale…
And one more thing sparky… each one of these sonsofbitches wants my country to die. Fuck them and fuck you too…
Nuttier than a porta potty at a peanut festival. Go deal with your post traumatic stress syndrome in a less public place, fuckface And for everyone’s sake, PLEASE, stay away from small children and animals!!!!!! Again, though, thanks for the link;-).
You are a useless douche…
GFY
twotermObama,
Larry Sinclair is a sicko, a criminal who has spend many years in jail, a liar and a con man, I agree with you on that one, I did not see your joke here but
Obama is dangerous for our country, Larry Sinclair will go away soon for no one is paying any attention to him now and they should not be.
Obama is corrupt, inexperienced and sexist and could do some real damage to our families and our country.
He is behind in the polls now and the Republicans are just waiting for the right time to unleash the truth and the proof of what he really is. He won’t win and it becomes more apparent each day.
That’s a good one Jeremiah!!!!!!!!!!
Just posted this on another blog–hope you don’t mind.a
I would bet the bad stuff has been purged by the BHO klan..
not that it needs to be said but
watch your back Steve!!
so I’m thinking that the wanker who donated the documents on the CAC somehow managed to get a nice tax write off for this incredibly philanthropic act. So maybe he can get his tax deduction stuffed up his rectum for fiddling with
what should probably be seen as “documents in the public domain”? — the university of Illinois being a state college and all. just hopin’.
They should have learned from Sandy Burger what might happen.
I very much want to see those documents–especially the names of organizations and people receiving funds from from CAC and its two subsidiaries. Then, what did these organizations do with the money. Did it go to Barack, Michelle, and Bill’s friends? How much went to ACORN, Rezko, Rev. Wright, and possibly Farrakhn, and others.
Not to mention Rashid Kahlidi.
Check it out! Coming in from a bicycle ride, and see Lou Dobbs featured ACORN and alleged election fraud! Hooray! It’s about time someone in the MSM covered this, even if it’s just Lou’s “Independents’ Convention”.
I appreciate you all covering ACORN at this site.
I like Lou…He’s funny.
Those are some bas ass dentures!
HEY DAWN!
Hey Steve! If you need a bodyguard drop me a line! Believe me, I am not being cute when I say this either!
Thanks Steve!
Hey the gangs all here tonight!
What up Paul! LOL
Had to go native on that shout out! LOL
Peekaboo Dragon!
Steve Diamond:
But do we know if all records at the library were released intact or whether Mr. Rolling confiscated some???
I thought of that when I first read this breaking story. What’s to say that Ken Rolling did not remove some of the juicer transcripts or have one of his flunkies do the deed?
We may yet find that Obama is dirtier than we all know him to be. I only hope that it comes to light BEFORE the Election. Nothing would make me happier than to see him preform the PERP WALK of SHAME!
I do not personally believe he can be dirtier than I think he is.
But I do only look out through these eyes. He might be worse…
“What’s to say that Ken Rolling did not remove some of the juicer transcripts or have one of his flunkies do the deed?”
My thoughts exactly.
I still think Hillary will be President in 2008.
Seriously…
sigh….
pal3
If only…I keep visualizing “her” swearing in.
that’s what I am asking Santa for this year…:-)
awww you can’t still be hoping for that?
sigh
that part of it is over (sadly) and she’s gonna lose a lot more support if she looks weak by kissing bambi’s butt
he should FAIL or SUCCEED on his OWN
she’s losing me with speeches like I heard part of today
(yes my left brain realizes she’s only doing what she has to do but my right brain thinks she could BREAK the CODE for what is truly HONORABLE and win a LOT more karma points) otherwise my daughter will put Hillary in the same pot with the rest of the politicians after all this finally gets reported! I really don’t want her to think ALL WOMEN are traitors to all OTHER WOMEN!!!
REALLY!!
An early Christmas present?
Eartha Kitt Santa Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOMmSbxB_Sg&feature=related
Ayers&Obama=change the structure of the Penatagon we can believe in…
http://clearblogs.com/larry/
Thank you so much Steve Diamond! Great job. I wonder if anything happened to those papers before Stanley Kurtz got to look at them…? Who knows. I don’t trust anyone close to Obama.
I am really looking forward to Kurtz’ next article, as far as his findings.
I’m so disgusted with the media and how they just never seem to fully vet Obama. It. just. takes. forever. to. get. through. to. the. MSM.
Supposedly tomorrow night’s Bill O’Reilly interview involves Ayers (and other associates). I somehow doubt that he will bring up CAC. We’ll see. Maybe! That would be good.
Thank you again for all your great research and articles, I know it must take a lot of time. Thank you!
I tried to watch BO/O’Reilly tonight but couldn’t get past the first minute. I’m not crazy about O’Reilly but BO makes me sick. He’s the one he’s been waiting for.
I think the interview resumes tomorrow night. Maybe I am wrong.
Ya, believe me, I can’t stand watching BO, but his interviews are a little amusing, like this past Sunday’s “my muslim faith” gaffe/ slip..
I didn’t see where 0′Reilly wiped the floor with 0bama so far.
I withold judgement til tomorrow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFbfAqJ4hRM
Video of McCain’s return visit to Hotel Hanoi.
Off-thread but I just watched part 2 or 4 of the O’Reilly interview with Obama. Too short and lacked substance. Interview overhyped and I am suspecting the same for tomorrow–especially as O’Reilly named tonight that Rev. Wright is topic and didn’t mention Ayers and CAC.
Now the show is getting interesting. Juan Williams is usually a pushover but tonight he’s hitting back hard at O’Reilly. Worth watching even if I don’t particularly like Williams’ views and past writings.
Juan Williams is in the tank for Obama. And a nasty little f–er with that passive aggressive smile of his. what a pissant.
Yeah but when did that happen? He was always very fair about Clinton but he couldn’t contain his anger when Palin was picked.
I don’t get it.
TY Steve…. yes it would be nice to see Obama flown off to distant lands far away from the Whitehouse!!
Ambassador to Bang-the-Desk?
Anybody suffer through Olberman and his lovefest with Obama?
I will only watch Olbermann if his finale includes diving into a tree chipper.
I’ve been following Steve’s work for some time. Bravo, Steve!
I find the whole thing confusing. What is the significance of Ken Rolling?
thanks
I’m eager to find out what it is they’re hiding. Do you think papers were removed or is that impossible to know?
Thanks for doing this work–good material for a book!
If the right investigator is on it..If there’s paper missing, I would hope they see this and report it,as it would look very suspicious.imo..
Ask the Librarian a few questions,,maybe try the waterboarding trick,that usually works,lol Just kidding..
The truth needs to get out,before the elections.
Thank Goodness Lou Dobbs is an independent,and doesn’t have too many kind words about Obama.
Forensic document examiners can usually spot missing documents and inconsistencies.
I’m sure this has been posted here already today, but it can’t be posted too often.
Forward this link on to others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8
Timothy McVeigh and Obama’s friend, William Ayers are two of a kind.
Obama thought about enlisting;
Then there is John McCain.
Wow thanks for that post. I had not seen that video. I will share it with many friends.
Oh I really cannot listen to Obama at all and the media make me cringe how they go on about him.
One thing is the MSM went overboard too much that everyone is fed up of hearing his name he’s no policies he’s an empty suit. If he had half an ounce of knowledge and was interesting to listen to would not be so bad.
20months of this is just torture…
There’s no great mystery here.
Access to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge records was delayed because the records contained confidential salary information and personal employee information, including Social Security numbers. Additionally, the University of Chicago had no legal authority to release the records, which are not actually the University’s property. That authority has since been obtained and the records were made available for public examination August 26th.
Bill Oreilly said the Ammemberg Paper with Obama will start that story tomorrow nite..He said the story with Obama and Rev Wright.will start tomorrow.
Could someone post the interview with Obama tonite..I have company and unable to watch
thank
I seriously doubt that those papers would have been handed over to any entity with people’s personal info and SS#s intact.
They were always owned by the University, the story about ownership is B.S.. This Library has a policy of not spending money getting the papers in order unless they have complete ownership. Evidently quite a bit of work is necessary to organize and catalogue these papers.
Clearly you’re wrong, FYI.
First of all, it was the UIC.
Secondly, there’s this:
http://globallabor.info/Annenberg%20Documents/University%20FOIA%20Records/Ken%20Rolling%20UIC%20Email.pdf
Thats a keeper link. Mr. Clean was here.
Medusa , awesome response. Thanks.
You’re correct, I misstated the facts. It was UIC, not the University of Chicago.
I was just taking their August 19th statement at face value:
“The University Library supports the teaching, research, and service missions of the University by acquiring, organizing, preserving, and providing access to information. The Library is open to the public and dedicated to free inquiry. The University has not received ownership rights to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge collection. The University is aggressively pursuing an agreement with the donor, and as soon as an agreement is finalized, the collection will be made accessible to the public.”
On cnn today they announced there were 27% against Obama mostly Puma, now that number is down to 19%…Has some pumas gone over to the dark side?
Do we now believe CNN?
Hope not, I prefer Fox, I just heard the numbers,and I would think Puma numbers are going up and not down..
Just wanted to know the total now for Puma;s..
They will be the deciding voters.imo
Oh, don’t trust CNN or MSNBC, or really any polls.
The number of people who won’t vote for Obama is higher than anyone can imagine.
There are the official pumas; the people who do not know they are pumas; all those democrats who were polled after primary voting (in places like PA, NC, Indiana, KY, WV, etc) who said they would not vote for Obama; and then all those people who DID vote for Obama, before his Wright scandal, bitter/ cling, and more came out; plus there are the republicans who voted for Obama but who will now support McCain-Palin ticket; there are the cross over repubs who will go back to business as usual; plus there are progressives who are pissed about war-Biden, FISA, etc who will not vote for Obama again; then there is the Bradley effect–those who say they will vote for Obama but then won’t when they are alone, and then there are sadly, simply racist democrats who will never vote for Obama in general election even though they are registered dems.
There is NO WAY that polls can *truly* gauge all that.
And who knows how many women, blue collar, rural, catholic, hispanic, senior, pro-hunting/ gun rights, veteran independent / democrats McCain-Palin are really picking up.
Did they use their standard number of one hundred random calls to suburban Washington D.C.? Or was this the one hundred calls to south Chicago? Maybe it was the three a.m. poll.
I’m convinced that on Nov. 4th-5th, polls will indicate that all the people who were going to vote for Obama were confused by the directions on the bottoms of their boots and didn’t know if they were supposed to piss in the boots first if there wasn’t any already in them.
No.
Also, many PUMA’s changed their registration from Dem to Indy or Repub in the last few weeks.
So it makes it look like Bambi is not losing as much among Dems - but he is. Some of the Dems are no longer Dems, so are not included in that Dem sample.
Like me. Called my Voter Registrar to confirm and I am now a new Independent.
I believe we may have gone from 27% to 19%. Look at Gerry Ferraro and Gloria Allred. That being said, I’m quite happy with 19%. That’s a BIG FAT number. That’s a lot of people!
Wry,
My bet is that our original numbers are actually higher but aren’t reflected due to peer pressure. Hell, we’ve been talking about dense siblings all day. Sometimes gentle people stay quiet and then surprise everyone come election day.
That being said, 19 or 20 percent of 18 million is still over three million voters. How many did Gore lose by?
Obama is in terrible jeopardy right now and he knows it. Its reflected in his eyes and demeanor, his speech patterns and slip ups and now, even the polls, crafted to spread his propaganda, are failing to prop up the lie.
His candidacy is dying… weaker each day, filled with denials, scraping and carping and whining about how unfair it all is. He’s beginning to sound like that water soaked melting witch in the Wizard of OZ.
Grief stricken at its own demise…
Waiter, more water, please…
Signs.
Damn Baby monitors.
Obama talked about giving 95% a tax break by taxing the other 5%. He supports over 50% tax rates for those earning over 250k. OReilly called him “Robin Hood Obama” and he laughed. Sen. Obama is too far to the left to be President.
He’s backing off already on his tax plans, isn’t he?
I don’t know. What were they ten minutes ago?
women moving to mccain
http://abcnews.go.com/images/PollingUnit/1070a1AftertheConventions.pdf
Only to the extent that he has to do so to get elected. Once he’s in the White House, all bets are off. Taxes will go up. A lot.
I think we have already seen two examples of where Soetoro said one thing and voted another? Think about what this means. It means not only can he not be trusted; it also means he and his aides (Axel of Evil et al) really don’t give voters much cre