Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers speaks out on the criticism Barack Obama fielded during the presidential campaign for his ties to the 1960s radical.

Bill Ayers, the Sixties radical whose ties to Barack Obama dogged the president-elect during the presidential campaign, accused his critics on Friday of trying to “exploit the politics of fear” by encouraging others to dig into their relationship.

FILE: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn walk with their son in New York in 1982. (AP Photo)

The co-founder of the Weather Underground, which carried out bombings at the Pentagon and the Capitol, also defended his violent past, repeating a line he has said before: “I don’t think we did enough.”

Ayers used the interview, his first since the election, to downplay his relationship with Obama. Ayers said there is “no dark, hidden secret.”

“It’s not at all true that [Obama] sought me out to listen to my radical ideas, or that I sought him out,” Ayers told ABC News’ “Good Morning America.”

“The truth is we came together in Chicago in the civic community around issues of school improvement, around issues of fighting for the rights of poor neighborhoods to have jobs and housing and so on, and that’s the full extent of our relationship.”

Ayers and Obama served on a Chicago school reform group and a foundation board, and Ayers hosted a meet-and-greet for Obama more than a decade ago. During the campaign, Republicans suggested their relationship ran deeper than that. John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, said in the run-up to Election Day that Obama was “palling around with terrorists.”

Ayers, who kept a low profile during the campaign — unlike Obama’s controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. — dismissed such charges on Friday.

“This idea that we need to know more, like there’s some dark, hidden secret, some secret link — it’s just a myth. And it’s a myth thrown up by people who want to kind of exploit the politics of fear,” he said.

Ayers, now an education professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said he doesn’t believe that “guilt-by-association should be any part of our politics.”

But Ayers says in a new afterword to his memoir that he and Obama were neighbors and “family friends.”

Ayers’ reflections appear in a new paperback release of his 2001 memoir, “Fugitive Days.” The Associated Press obtained a copy of the new afterword Thursday.

“In 2008 there was a lot of chatter on the blogosphere about my relationship with Barack Obama: we had served together on the board of a foundation, knew one another as neighbors and family friends, held an initial fundraiser at my house, where I’d made a small donation to his earliest political campaign,” Ayers writes.

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt declined comment on Ayers’ new writings. Obama has denounced Ayers’ violent past and has said Ayers was never involved in his presidential campaign.

Ayers lives a few blocks from Obama on Chicago’s South Side with his wife, former fellow radical Bernardine Dohrn. Now a law professor at Northwestern University, Dohrn was a fugitive for years with her husband until they surrendered in 1980. Charges against Ayers were dropped because of government misconduct, which included FBI break-ins, wiretaps and opening of mail.

Ayers writes that Obama’s enemies saw their connections as a chance to “deepen a dishonest narrative about him.”

“That he is somehow un-American, alien, linked to radical ideas, a closet terrorist, a sympathizer with extremism,” Ayers writes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more at: http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/14/ayers-accuses-critics-using-politics-fear/

FOX News’ Greta Van Susteren went to Alaska to get Gov. Sarah Palin’s reflections on the presidential election.

After a whirlwind campaign alongside Sen. John McCain, Sarah Palin is defending herself against criticism stemming from the tens of thousands of dollars spent on her wardrobe as well as several reported foreign affairs missteps.

Nov. 9: FOX News

“When I arrived at the convention, there were clothes waiting for me, and clothes being ordered for me and the family, for eight of us,” the Alaska governor told FOX News’ Greta Van Susteren, in an interview that aired Monday night. “And ever since then, those clothes, knowing that they didn’t belong to me … we boxed them all up, sent them back to the rightful owners, the Republican National Committee, and that’s the story on the clothes.” 

Attorneys for the Republican National Committee are still trying to determine exactly what clothing was bought for Palin and exactly what has been returned, The Associated Press reports.

Palin dismissed the controversy over the reported $150,000 bill as “irrelevant,” along with claims from Republican aides that she could not identify the members of NAFTA or that she thought Africa was a country — and not a continent.

“It just seems like such an irrelevant issue when you consider what is going on in the world today and how a new administration is being ushered in and people being concerned about the direction of the nation and policies that will be adopted,” Palin said. “Clothes just seem irrelevant.”

Palin continued, “I just think that there was unfair criticism that maybe lingers today, that my family and I asked for anybody to pay for any our clothes.”

Regarding the reported Africa gaffe, Palin said, “And never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or is it a continent? I just don’t know about this issue. So I don’t know how they took our one discussion on Africa and turned that into what they turned it into … Along those same lines, of course, was the criticism that supposedly I didn’t know who the participants in NAFTA were.”

Amid speculation nationwide about Palin’s political future, the governor told FOX News that she’s unsure of what 2012 will bring, but added that she doesn’t intend on running away from future criticism.

“Your life is an open book and you open yourself up to criticism and you’d better be ready to take that criticism,” Palin said. “In other words, don’t run for office if you can’t handle it.”
Palin, who could seek re-election in 2010 or potentially run for president in four years, said she will rely on faith.

“Putting my life in my creator’s hands — this is what I always do,” she said. “I’m like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door … And if there is an open door in ‘12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I’ll plow through that door.”

Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, told the Associated Press that Palin spent part of the weekend going through her clothing to determine what belongs to the Republican Party.

“She was just frantically … trying to sort stuff out,” Heath told AP. “That’s the problem, you know, the kids lose underwear, and everything has to be accounted for. Nothing goes right back to normal.”

Palin’s father said his daughter told him the only clothing or accessories she personally had purchased in the past four months was a pair of shoes.

The McCain-Palin campaign said last week that about a third of the clothing was returned immediately because it was the wrong size, or for other reasons. However, other purchases apparently were made after that, a campaign official told AP.

In Wasilla, her hometown backers welcomed their former mayor, putting aside their disappointment over her unsuccessful bid.

Jessica Steele, proprietor of the Beehive Beauty Shop and keeper of the governor’s up-do since 2002, cannot wait to see what Palin does next move.

“That’s something I want to talk to her about: What’s our vision for her hair?” Steele told AP. “I can’t wait to see her and say, ‘OK, I’ve got you alone for three hours. Just relax, and how are you, really?”‘

While Palin remains popular, the reality of defeat is evident.

Bags of fan mail, as many as 400 letters a day, partially fill a room at her parent’s house. But Palin’s parents no longer meet Secret Service agents when they pick up their children at Cottonwood Creek Elementary, where Palin’s youngest daughter, Piper, is a student. The reporters and camera crews are gone from the Palin home on Lake Lucille, once patrolled by Coast Guard boats. Now a thick sheet of ice covers the lake.

Four state troopers still guard the governor 24 hours a day, Heath told AP — something Palin never had before.

And in a bit of familiarity, Heath said he brought a pot of moose chili to Palin’s house this past weekend.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More at http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/10/sarah-palin-defends-criticism-post-election-interview/

Just because you had to cut down to one meal a day to buy your iPhone doesn’t mean you can’t afford cool apps for it.

You finally have that long-coveted iPhone. True, you had to sell all your worldly possessions to swing it, but you’re content—almost. It’s not that sleeping on park benches is so bad—the surroundings are pleasant enough—but being unable to afford nifty applications for your gleaming communicator has you sliding into existential crisis. Take heart—free apps abound, and we’ve brought together reviews of four to provide the reassurance you need.

The fact that you own an iPhone means you live to communicate, so being unable to access your Facebook account because you hocked your computer must cause unbearable stress. Your anguished cries have been heard. Now there’s Facebook for the iPhone. For the moment, the features are pretty basic, so it may not fully sate your social-networking craving, but it can keep you from going into wholesale withdrawal.

Likewise, you needn’t live without streaming audio—Pandora for the iPhone brings that capability to your shiny Apple phone. The mobile app includes many of the features you’ll find in its big brother, including the popular capability that lets it deliver tunes geared to your tastes based on what you’ve listened to previously.

You don’t have to sacrifice news of your favorite sports teams, either. Sportacular will keep you up to date on baseball, pro and college football, NBA and college basketball, the NHL, and Major League Soccer. Sadly, there’s no NASCAR, but you have to be willing to sacrifice to own an iPhone.

Yahoo! oneConnect, which integrates contact management for Yahoo! users and for those of other networks, officially makes the service’s IM facility available on the iPhone. The application still has a long way to go if it’s ever to meet its goal of being the hub for your social-networking services, but Yahoo! Mail users who want easy access to their address books may find it useful.

You can read the reviews of these products by clicking on the links in this article. Take a look to reaffirm your belief that, when compared with sleek high-tech gadgets, four walls and a roof are way overrated.

Update – 11/6/08

Indianapolis – Lines were long and tempers flared Wednesday not to vote but to get paid for canvassing for Barack Obama. Several hundred people are still waiting to get their pay for last-minute campaigning. Police were called to the Obama campaign office on North Meridian Street downtown to control the crowd.

The line was long and the crowd was angry at times.

IMPD Running Crowd Control

“I want my money today! It’s my money. I want it right now!” yelled one former campaign worker.

A former spokesman for the Obama campaign said 375 people were hired as part of the Vote Corps program and said people signed up to work three-hour shifts at a time. Three hours of canvassing got workers a $30 pre-paid Visa card.

The workers showed up to get their cards Wednesday morning at 10:00 am.

“There was a note on the door saying 1:00 pm and then at 1:20 pm everybody was like why is nobody here. They just got here and they’re trying to get it organized,” said Heather Richards, a former campaign worker.

The large gathering of around 375 people prompted police to call in extra officers and set up temporary barricades. The barricades helped keep the crowd from spilling out onto Meridian Street. Police say the several hundred people in line were for the most part orderly.

“No arrests. Some of the people were upset at first because the line wasn’t moving as fast as they thought it should. But we really haven’t had any problems,” said Major Darryl Pierce, Metro Police.

Eventually people did start getting paid, but some said they were missing hours and told to fill in paperwork making their claim and that eventually they would get a check in the mail.

“Still that’s not right. I’m disappointed. I’m glad for the president, but I’m disappointed in this system,” said Diane Jefferson, temporary campaign worker.

“It should have been $480. It’s $230,” said Imani Sankofa.

“They gave us $10 an hour. So we added it. I added up all the hours so it was supposed to be at least $120. All I get is $90,” said Charles Martin.

“I worked nine hours a day for 4 days and got paid half of what I should have earned,” said Randall Waldon.

Some people weren’t satisfied with filling out a claim form for money they felt was still due to them.

“They say that they gonna call you or they going to mail it to you, but I don’t know. We’ll see what happens,” said Antron Grose.

“Talking about they’ll mail it to us. I ain’t worried about that, man. They’re not going to mail nothin’,” said Martin.

Indianapolis – A delay over paychecks caused several hundred campaign volunteers for Barack Obama to line up outside the Meridian Street office Wednesday.

Obama Campaign Workers Out Some Money

Around 375 people lined up in front of the office in the 800 block of North Meridian in downtown Indianapolis Wednesday. They were hired do to last-minute canvassing before Tuesday’s election, which saw Indiana go “blue” for the first time since 1964.

When the workers showed up in the morning, they were told that the office didn’t have the money to pay them. They were told to come back in the afternoon.

Indianapolis Metro police officers noticed the long line and came out to control the crowd by setting up barricades to make sure people didn’t spill into the street. Some workers were angry, demanding to be paid today.

Someone affiliated from the Obama campaign office said it was unfortunate, and that they were working to get the money to pay the workers. Some workers claimed they were not being paid in full for the hours they worked, and they were asked to fill out a form and make a claim.

One has to wonder if this is just a sign of whats to come from the Obama administration… Promises promises promises – no delivery…