A Communist??? What is this, 1953? Are we the Un-American Activities Committee? First he was a Muslim, now he's a Communist? I know, I know, but please, bear with me...

I just naturally tend toward extremes, so I deliberately temper myself when I see something that strikes me as alarming. Consequently, I didn't say a word when Hot Air posted the picture from a Fox News broadcast that showed one of Barack Obama's campaign offices with a Cuban flag on the wall, with a stenciled image of revolutionary murderer Che` Guevara  on it. I just figured that office would be getting a call from the Mother Ship sometime soon. Not that Obama would be all that irritated by it, but I didn't figure it meant much besides some hard lefties were working for Obama.

I also pretty much ignored it when Politico reported that Obama had sat down with 60s radicals Bernadine Dohrn and William Ayers in a local Chicago political meeting. Those are two very scary, unrepentant terrorists, but it was 1995, he met with them once, they actually had clout in the neighborhood (both teach at the University of Chicago now), and I figured there was not going to be any serious fallout to the Obama campaign. Yes, if it had been McCain and Rev. Bob Jones it would have been front-page news on the Times for 3 days at least, but the press flacks for the Democrats, we all know it, and that's that.

Then, I noticed this addition from Hot Air. See-Dubya there received links from readers: one showing a conference in 2002, where Obama and Ayers spoke together as two members on a panel discussing "Intellectuals in a Time of Crisis," the other showing Obama joining the Weatherman duo giving testimonials for Rashid Khalidi, an Israel-hating Columbia professor, in 2005. And Craig Kincaid at Accuracy In Media reports that Obama and Ayers both serve on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago.

Showing up on the same panels a few times doesn't make Obama and the Weathermen friends or associates, though the Woods Fund contact suggests they're at least acquaintances. Sitting on the same panels does, however, suggest that Obama thinks like those two on more than one issue, which is why their paths are crossing. (I suppose it's not theoretically impossible that Obama was called to balance other views, but balance isn't often among the stated values of gatherings that invite ex-Weathermen, so I regard this as unlikely.)

But in the light of the incidents above, I'm now paying closer attention to a several articles I've run across, which appear to be both accurate and relevant:

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