William Ayers' Role In Obama's Appointment As Annenberg Challenge Chairman
Politics | Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 10:28:12 pm PDT
Prepare yourself for a shock — the New York Times article on Barack Obama’s associations with former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers did not tell the whole story: NY Times Confirms Ayers’ Role in Obama Appointment as Chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.
I can easily understand why some readers may have become confused by the explosion of stories today on the Obama/Ayers relationship.
The partial story of the Ayers/Obama relationship told by the New York Times today is collapsing of its own weight but has likely added to the confusion. Since I am one of the “bloggers” referred to without an explanation in the Times’ story I thought I would summarize the top ten highlights of the current state of play.
It turns out as these ten key points confirm what I have argued all along - that Bill Ayers was responsible for the elevation of Obama to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge board and the New York Times reporting on this story actually supports my conclusion, though inadvertently.
And Now for Some Antoine Dufour
Video | Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 9:32:54 pm PDT
Some very clean, complex fingerpicking from Antoine Dufour.
Associated Press: A Full Court Press Against Sarah Palin
Politics | Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 6:52:12 pm PDT
They’re relentless.
The latest Associated Press masterpiece of journalistic malpractice: a headline that goes right to the edge of saying Sarah Palin called Barack Obama a terrorist (which she did not): Palin defends terrorist comment against Obama.
They’re parroting Obama campaign propaganda, word for word, and doing everything they can to minimize William Ayers’ terrorist acts.
But while Ayers and Obama are acquainted, the charge that they “pal around” is a stretch of any reading of the public record. And it’s simply wrong to suggest that they were associated while Ayers was committing terrorist acts. Obama was 8 years old at the time the Weather Underground claimed credit for numerous bombings and was blamed for a pipe bomb that killed a San Francisco policeman.
Can you spot the world’s biggest straw man in that highlighted sentence?
Fluffy Bunnies: Harmless?
Politics | Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 4:02:13 pm PDT
The Associated Press seems to sense, in some dim way, that they may have gone a little over the line with that ludicrous “analysis” by Douglass Daniel that tries to accuse Sarah Palin of racism for mentioning Barack Obama’s association with former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers.
In the latest revision, they’ve changed the headline from “Analysis: Palin’s words carry racial tinge” to: Analysis: Palin’s words may backfire on McCain.
Maybe not as much as this nasty bias will backfire on the Associated Press.
But the story also includes this unbelievably crass statement from “Democratic strategist” Jenny Backus:
“It’s a giant changing of the subject,” said Jenny Backus, a Democratic strategist. “The problem is the messenger. If you want to start throwing fire bombs, you don’t send out the fluffy bunny to do it. I think people don’t take Sarah Palin seriously.”
In an article about Sarah Palin’s subtle subtext of racism, this very unsubtle sexist slur against the Governor of Alaska goes unremarked, reported straight, as if it were a simple observation, nothing more. These people are completely beyond shame, both the Democrats who say these things and the Associated Press who enables them.
But remember, not all fluffy bunnies are as harmless as they seem.
(Hat tip: Sharmuta.)
Tech Note: Tabular Exorcism
Science | Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 2:30:23 pm PDT
The latest change behind the scenes is huge, but hopefully you won’t even notice.
Ever since LGF began, back in the Paleostinky Era, our main template has been based around a simple HTML table with three columns. No nested tables (gasp!) or anything like that, but in the world of web wonks, this kind of table-based design is akin to walking around with a piece of spinach stuck between your front teeth.
So at long last we’ve ditched the tables, flossed our web choppers, and deployed a modified version of the three column floated layout described in this excellent book: CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions: Andy Budd, Simon Collison, Cameron Moll.
There may still be some bugs to work out, but the worst of them have been crushed. The layout looks the same in Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Safari 3, and Firefox 3.
One big advantage is the increased accessibility. Using this sort of floated layout allows us to have the main content column actually appear first in the source listing, before the left and right sidebars; this means that visitors with impaired vision who use screen readers no longer have to wade through the whole left sidebar just to get to the real stuff.
There’s one area left in the template that still uses a table: the navigation panels that appear at the top and bottom of the middle column. But that’s due for an exorcism too.
UPDATE at 10/5/08 6:24:16 pm:
Main template exorcism completed, and I didn’t even need to call in Bobby Jindal (sorry, couldn’t resist). The navigation panels now use an unordered list, with everything floated, including the opening <ul> tag, which keeps all the floated <li>s from overflowing their containers. Because we all know how painful that can be.
And that leaves us with one more area of table abuse: the top line of each comment, with the commenter’s information, rating buttons, etc.
Sunday Morning Open
Open | Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 11:21:32 am PDT
Here’s an open thread as we wrestle with the CSS code. We’re experimenting with a table-less CSS design, but running into a problem that causes the left sidebar to disappear off the left side of the screen when the window is smaller than the width of the content. Tried setting a min-width on the body, but it has no effect. Back to the salt mine...
Associated Press Hits Bottom, Digs
Politics | Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 9:41:14 am PDT
The Associated Press article on Sarah Palin’s comments about William Ayers is a Category 7 jaw-dropper. Apparently, now even criticizing Obama’s associations with white violent radicals is racist: Analysis: Palin’s words carry racial tinge.
Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee “palling around” with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn’t see their America?
Her reference to Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.
Obama, who was a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, has denounced Ayers’ radical views and actions. ...
In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers’ day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.
Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as “not like us” is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.
This really is the election in which the mainstream media have thrown all their claims to impartiality right into the sewer. It’s sickening to see.
(Hat tip: Jorline.)
Ayers Was on Woods Fund Board with Obama When He Stepped on Flag
Politics | Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 8:40:39 am PDT
Barack Obama was much older than 8 when William Ayers was photographed stepping on a US flag in 2001, for an article in which Ayers said he had “No Regrets” for his violent actions in the Weather Underground.
In fact, at the same time Ayers was in a Chicago alley desecrating the flag, he and Barack Obama were serving on the board of the Woods Fund together: PolitiFact | Obama served on board with Ayers.
Deborah Harrington, president of the Woods Fund, a philanthropic organization in Chicago, said Obama was a director from 1994 through 2001. That overlaps Ayers’ time as a director by three years. It also means Obama served with Ayers for the final months of 2001, after Ayers made his comments to the New York Times.
