From a young high school boy in Hawaii to a powerful State Senator in Chicago...and it's all tied to Chicago Mayors Mayor Richard J. Daley and his son, Richard M. Daley.
And then there's "the other" Ayers connections...
Also, the many intricate ties to the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"A delightful web of intrigue and charm, woven into an Epic Novel, a Great Saga, and a Bestseller - and now, soon to be a Major Motion Picture! What a Ride!" - Bud Meyers Book Club
(Click photo to enlarge)
But first, let's play a little game of "Connect the Dots"
I'll start with Bill Ayers (yes, him again) - William Charles Ayers, born December 26, 1944 - Author of ''Fugitive Days". Ayers' father, Thomas, was chairman and chief executive officer of Commonwealth Edison of Chicago, chairman of Northwestern University and of the Chicago Symphony; and he was a mediator to Mayor Richard J. Daley (father to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley) in 1966 when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched in Cicero, Ill., to protest housing segregation.
*Note for later: In 1979, the University of Illinois system president Stanley Ikenberry consolidated the Medical Center to the Circle Campus to form the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). In 1982 it was completed. Stanley Ikenberry was president until 1995. (Google "The Stanley O. Ikenberry Commons " - University of Illinois dining and residential building. Construction of the complex is scheduled in a 20-to-25-year development plan. (Funding?)
Enter Obama: Following high school, Obama moved from Hawaii to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College.
"Obama's Occidental College Years - 1979 to 1981"
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog1.php/2009/09/10/obama-s-occidental-college-years
"Obama's Years in New York City
1981 - Obama enters Columbia University (NYC, NY) majoring in political science (graduating with a B.A. in 1983).
1982 - Obama's father died in a car accident in Kenya in 1982 when Obama was 21.
From 1981 to 1985 is a very "under-defined" part of Obama's life. In 1983 after Obama graduated from Columbia University (NYC, NY), when exactly did he move to Chicago? Did he remain in NYC for a two more years after graduating? Bill Ayers was also in New York attending the Bank Street College of Education receiving degrees from 1984 through 1987.
See "Why Obama's Columbia Years Went AWOL"
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2008/10/why-obamas-colu.html
1985 - ACORN opens in Chicago, Obama moves from NYC to Chicago - become DCP (Developing Communities Project) director for next 3 years.
1988 - Obama is baptized at Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ (He was an active member there for twenty years ever since then, until 2008 when Obama resigned from Trinity during the Presidential campaign, but only long after controversial statements made by Rev. Jeremiah Wright became public. (More below)
Also in 1988 - Obama visits Kenya for the first time, and also leaves Chicago to enter Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA.
In 1989 Obama meets his future wife Michelle while both are at Harvard (nee Michelle Robinson, born and grew up on the South Side of Chicago. FATHER: a city water plant employee and Democratic precinct captain. MOTHER: a secretary at Spiegel's catalog store). Michelle's paternal great-great grandfather, Jim Robinson, was an American slave in the state of South Carolina. After attending and graduating from Princeton University and Harvard Law School (from scholarships?), Michelle then moved back to Chicago to work for the Chicago law firm of Sidley-Austin and was assigned for three months as Obama's adviser (she mentored him while he was a summer associate).
*NOTE: Sidley-Austin first originated in Chicago in 1866 and Sidley's web site now boasts of being one of the most prominent and progressive proponents of "diversity".
Obama While At Harvard
1991 - After graduating with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude from Harvard, he returns to Chicago.
Obama and Michelle became engaged in 1991- It was then that Michelle introduced Obama to Valerie Jarrett, a Chicago lawyer and "civic leader". Jarrett was then the Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard Daley (now Jarrett is one of Obama's closest advisors). The Obamas were married a year later on October 3, 1992.
Obama's Wedding Photo
In 1995, as a director at Chicago’s Woods Fund, Obama successfully pushed for a major expansion of assistance to ACORN, and sending still more money ACORN’s way from his post as board chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (See Bill Ayers). Through both funding and personal-leadership training, Obama advanced ACORN, and now many believe, may have had a major role in precipitating the subprime crisis.
Obama's close ties to ACORN's leader Madeline Talbott (do a Google search on her) who personally led Chicago ACORN’s campaign to intimidate banks into making high-risk loans to low-credit customers, used provisions of a 1977 law called the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). By doing this, Chicago ACORN was able to delay and halt the efforts of banks to merge or expand until they had agreed to lower their credit standards - and to fill ACORN’s coffers to finance “counseling” operations like the one touted in a Chicago Sun-Times article.
And all during this time in 1995 Ayers worked with Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley in shaping the city's school reform program, and in 1997 Chicago had awarded him its Citizen of the Year award. (Michelle Obama also worked on the staff of Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley.)
Ayers was the one that kicked off Obama's presidency campaign by holding a party for Obama at his house. This doesn't include all the hours they spent working together. Ayers gave Obama money to disburse to organizations of his choosing. Obama chose ACORN as one of them. Obama eventually moved to Hyde Park (money earned from royalties from his books?) where Bill Ayers lived. They lived only a few blocks from each other. Ayers and wife have lived in Hyde Park since 1980 when they had first surrendered to authorities. (Money Ayers earned while working as a college student/teacher? See IRS tax records for this time period.)
Ayers is currently a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which plays a leadership role in Illinois healthcare, operating the University of Chicago Medical Center. Obama's wife Michelle worked at the University of Chicago Medical Center...first as executive director for community affairs and, beginning May 2005, as Vice President for Community and External Affairs, when Michelle's salary jumped to $317,000 (en.wikipedia.org reports $273,618) a year after her husband became a Senator.
See David Axelrod's connection here - "Michelle Obama - Patient Dumpimg"
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog1.php/2009/07/23/michelle-obama-patient-dumpimg
Obama's two daughters went to The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a progressive institution where Bill Ayers children also attended. (See "Indoctrination in Early Childhood Education"). The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools is also affiliated with The University of Chicago (It was founded by John D. Rockefeller for $80 million).
*As an aside: Rockefeller was the owner of Standard Oil that once held a monopoly on all oil and refinery in the U.S. at that time. As a percentage of the United States' GDP (almost 1%), no other person's personal fortune, including that of Bill Gates today, would ever come close to Rockefeller's.
Obama's daughters now attend Sidwell Friends School (See "Obama- He's In the Money!") described as the "Harvard of Washington's private schools". Vice President Joe Biden's grandchildren also attend the school with the Obama girls. Previously, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Bill Clinton sent their children to Sidwell as well.
*Note: Approximately 22% of the students at Sidwell Friends School receive some form of financial assistance, yet the school does not release its SAT average scores or college admission list. (See The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 which is an Act of Congress that requires the full disclosure to the public of all entities or organizations receiving federal funds - a bill that was introduced by Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) for himself, Tom Carper (D- Delaware), John McCain (R-Arizona), and guess who? Senator Barack Obama (D - Illinois).
Jeremiah Wright Continued:
After he left the Navy in 1967, he went to college, and then became the 4th pasture of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago on March 1, 1972 - only about 90 or so were actually attending worship by that time. (By 2008, the membership was 8,500 ). He adopted the new church's new motto "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian" and the new mission statement that encapsulated the church's new vision "...confronting, transforming and eliminating those things in our culture that lead to the dehumanization of persons and tend to perpetuate their psychological enslavement." Wright's response to the question "How do you see the role of the Black Church in the black struggle?" indicated he was the only possible candidate for Trinity, but this author has yet to find the actual question that was asked - will update.
Because of political liabilities, Obama now keeps his distance from Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, but only until after he's served his one term as President. But for now, will Van Jones be the next one kicked off the bus?
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