If Ayers is a terrorist, then McCain is an adulterer and I am a 6th grader.
If Ayers is a terrorist, then McCain is an adulterer and I am a 6th grader.
Joined: 12/31/69
If Ayers is a terrorist, then McCain is an adulterer and I am a 6th grader. #1
Posted: 10/14/08 at 3:39pm
Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune takes a look at every mention of Bill Ayers in his hometown paper during the 1990's and sees an interesting pattern; not everyone likes him but hardly anyone thinks his past is that big of a deal.
"Aside from Royko's "I still think he's a jerk" column in 1990, I found only two objections to Ayers' civic rehabilitation in the decade's news archives: a 1993 letter to the Tribune and a 1999 guest commentary.
If there were protests or organized efforts opposing Ayers, the papers didn't cover them.
If any of Mayor Richard M. Daley's feckless opponents tried to use his approval of Ayers as an issue in the 1990s, I can find no evidence of it.
And if any of the pillars of society who helped oversee the Chicago Annenberg Challenge education grants ever resigned or otherwise tried to distance themselves from Ayers, who played a key role in securing those grants, the available historical record is silent on the matter.
Revisionist history being promoted by Republican John McCain's presidential campaign is that Democrat Barack Obama "worked with terrorist Bill Ayers" when Obama chaired the Chicago Annenberg board, whose meetings Ayers attended, and served with him on another board.
And that it revealed a shocking lack of judgment when Obama allowed Ayers and Dohrn to host a meet-and-greet coffee for him when he was launching his political career in the mid-1990s.
Note the implicit present tense in this and other attacks on Obama. Not "former," not "one-time," but now:
"Ayers is a terrorist," as one commentator in this newspaper put it the other day, amplifying vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's charge that Obama is "palling around with terrorists."
Neither Ayers nor his wife was espousing or practicing terrorist acts in the 1990s when Obama met them. They haven't committed or advocated violent protest since the early 1970s.
If Ayers is a terrorist, then McCain is an adulterer and I am a 6th grader.
Perhaps history will one day judge harshly all of those who participated in educational reform efforts or other civic projects in which Ayers was involved. This will include former University of Illinois and Northwestern University presidents; top honchos at Ameritech, Continental Bank and the Field Museum; and even the former publisher of the Tribune."
If Ayers is a terrorist, then McCain is an adulterer and I am a 6th grader.
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/14/05
re: If Ayers is a terrorist, then McCain is an adulterer and I am a 6th grader. #2
Posted: 10/14/08 at 3:41pmI read this on the train today. Zorn is one of my favorite local writers.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/03
re: If Ayers is a terrorist, then McCain is an adulterer and I am a 6th grader. #2
Posted: 10/14/08 at 3:47pm
McCain + Keating = Thieves
Not true? Says whom?
Cindy McCain promotes alcoholism and drunkeness.
All liquor and beer distributors do.
ayers is a terrorist, mccain is an adulterer and joe just wants paddled#3
Posted: 10/14/08 at 4:17pmso public opinion and newspaper articles make a terrorist? good to know. trying to kill servicemen? nope. blowing up doemstic targets? nope. ink, baby. i'm sure eric rudolph and the gang from the army of god all feel better knowing this.
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/21/06
ayers is a terrorist, mccain is an adulterer and joe just wants paddled#4
Posted: 10/14/08 at 4:28pm
If Ayers is a terrorist, then McCain is an adulterer and I am a 6th grader.
No, what you are is a moron.
As he wrote in his own book, Fugitive Ways, Ayers bombed New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the United States Capitol building in 1971, and The Pentagon in 1972. That's a terrorist. What a f*cking idiot this Eric Zorn is. Worse yet, are the idiots who read and believe him.
ayers is a terrorist, mccain is an adulterer and joe just wants paddled#5
Posted: 10/14/08 at 4:31pm
Yup, you're right.
Now, if you'll pardon me, I'm off to a dual G. Gordon Liddy/Oliver North book signing, to be followed by a Chuck Colson sermon. Glory!
ayers is a terrorist, mccain is an adulterer and joe just wants paddled#6
Posted: 10/14/08 at 4:52pm
if it says liddy liddy liddy on the label, label, label
the brookings institute won't be stable, stable, stable
Joined: 12/31/69
Serious question#7
Posted: 10/14/08 at 6:43pm
Serious question: Ayers is a terrorist. Reprehensible fellow. Richard Daley, mayor of the third largest city in America, has had a long & friendly relationship with him. Gave him "Citizen of the year" award for 1997. The chairman of the Chicago Tribune is friends with him. The University of Illinois employs him. Republican Walter Annenberg (close friend of the Reagans) appointed him to the board of his charitible foundation.
Why do you suppose only his serving on a board with Brack Obama outrages?
Serious question#8
Posted: 10/14/08 at 6:53pmThank god the christians of this nation don't believe in redemption narratives.
serious question#9
Posted: 10/14/08 at 8:37pm
daley's a joke still riding daddy's long coattails.
chicago is corrupt beyond measure so nothing that happens there has the capacity to shock anyone.
a member of the media friendly with someone who said after 9/11 that america "makes me want to puke." a newspaper guy friendly with a man who has not renounced his acts of violence and who indeed said that he was not extreme enough? the shock, it silences me. almost.
a university also paid ward churchill.
he and his friends launched obama's career in their living room. the man who thought that blowing up the pentagon was a good idea was instrumental in making obama possible. it wouldn't be so bad if he said, "hey, you know we were wrong for blowing stuff up and i'm glad that nail bomb killed my buddy and girlfriend at the time rather than taking out a buncha servicemen like it was intended to do."
he's a guy who says, "maybe i'm the last communist who is willing to admit it." on that i give him kudos for having the balls to admit what obama won't.
but no, yer right, he's a paragon of virtue because he pals around with a corrupt joke like daley.
ayers' daddy's piles of cash probably helped smooth the way.
but i call someone who sets off bombs against one's own government a terrorist.
can i also just point out that had jack ryan been content with 7 of 9 there would have been no obama!!
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
Joined: 12/31/69
serious question#10
Posted: 10/14/08 at 8:49pmThe Jack Ryan question is a hotly debated one- I am of the school that by the time he dropped out, everyone knew Obama was a juggernaught and that's why no Illinois Republicans wanted to run against him.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
serious question#11
Posted: 10/14/08 at 10:55pm
I do not think anyone thought Jesus Christ was returning to earth so soon.
Obama reminds me of Elmer Gantry .
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/14/05
serious question#12
Posted: 10/14/08 at 11:27pm
papa, you are completely full of crap!
Mayor Daley has evolved Chicago from a cow town to a respected international city! When were you last here? This city is thriving with millions of visitors each year! He has transformed and beautified the Loop and countless of neighborhoods.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/12/06
serious question#13
Posted: 10/14/08 at 11:43pm
I certainly think Ayers is a terrorist but it ends at that. Obama doesn't have a relationship with the man outside of a working one he really was obliged to be in.
"he and his friends launched obama's career in their living room."
Is a lie. An absolute lie. Please show us your proof.
You know it's amazing to me all these people on the right tried to drive a divide between Clinton/Obama supporters but the real divide is in the Republican party. John McCain's campaign is a joke.
He is so freaking STUPID for trying to draw this connection. Most people working in his campaign have connections to people in jail, other law breakers (like Palin/McCain) rogue governments that are state funds of terrorism.
Go cry "one-termer" Papa, you lost. "Johnny Mack" is what he was 8 years ago a HACK.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/12/06
serious question#15
Posted: 10/14/08 at 11:57pm
"I do not think anyone thought Jesus Christ was returning to earth so soon."
You're the only one who keeps bringing up that comparison and making similar hyperbolic statements Roxy. And as is your wont you continue to repeat the notion again and again and again.
serious question#17
Posted: 10/15/08 at 12:12am
I don't think there has to be any proof of the fundraiser that Ayers and Dohrn threw in 1995. It's in the public record. There's also no proof needed that Ayers and Obama served together on the Woods fund and they cooperated on $110,000 of specific grants from the Walter Annenberg Foundation to fund minority groups. Obama himself has spoken and written about his work on that fund, and the University of Illinois papers detail that work.
What the Republicans have NOT shown is why this was wrong.
Ayers is an unrepentant radical, which is entirely legal in the United States of America. He was tried and not found guilty, his case dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct. After that, he was a free man.
But what is wrong with Obama "palling around" (a stupid phrase--fire that speechwriter, Sarah) with someone like that?
Look at the low-lifes Bush and Cheney "pal around" with.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/12/06
serious question#18
Posted: 10/15/08 at 10:14am
PJ - I'm surprised you're still not wrapped up in the Rezco lies.
"I don't think there has to be any proof of the fundraiser that Ayers and Dohrn threw in 1995. It's in the public record. "
I'm not asking you "what you think," I understand where the truth is and it is not in the statement "he and his friends launched obama's career in their living room."
What you are defending is a half-truth. That is not where and when he launched his "career." When will the McCain campaign learn that Clinton's playbook lost her the primary?
"Look at the low-lifes Bush and Cheney "pal around" with."
You don't have to look even that far. Look at McCain AND Palin. John McCain's closest "friends" have been shackled, his campaign is filled with lobbyists tied to some of the biggest state-funders of terrorists in the world. Palin's own husband is a successionist and she now aligns herself with the same people McCain does.
I think it's important to draw these connections and question them. Always, always, always follow the money. Frankly I would argue Obama has made much larger (scarier) connections since taking on this candicy which ARE even MORE questionable. It apparently comes with the territory and one can hope he will be diplomatic about it when he is inagurated.
The problem is the media and the American people are cool with sound bites and meaningless personal attacks. I want them to question these guys about connections to lobbying groups.
But when it comes to this "petty" stuff, by which I mean small time money and small time relationships Clinton VETTED Obama. If any of this had a basis in reality and held water Clinton would have destroyed the man. If there is anything to thank Clinton for besides registering Democrats it's this. She beat the crap out of him and he got up for the final round.
John McCain has clearly not learned a thing from all of this. Clinton saved McCain time and money and he is too stupid to see that. There is plenty to attack Obama on, either McCain is zoned out or his team is trying to sabotage him.
Updated On: 10/15/08 at 10:14 AM
Joined: 12/31/69
serious question#19
Posted: 10/15/08 at 10:17am
I am endlessly fascinated by this- Are the McCainiacs really outraged about this or do they just think it will "Play"? One Republican I know mentioned Obama's Terrorist connections and I played dumb: "who was it? What did he do?" and of course they had no idea- all they knew is that Obama had a good friend who was a terrorist.
My point at posting this article was that, in Chicago at least, Bill Ayers is not seen as a "terrorist." We've got a Black Panther Congressman. Bills Ayers is just a guy int he neighborhood.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/12/06
serious question#20
Posted: 10/15/08 at 10:25am
Well it's not like McCain has a HUGE following. Last week the media wanted us to believe that a few angry people = racists, turns out they were probably hired and not that many people show up to his events.
I don't like to personify these people because I don't know them. But it seems there is a conflict with McCain and his handlers. Nobody seems to be actually flying this plane.
The nice thing about campaigns is we get to see how these people will lead. Obama has had about 2 years and he has done an incredible job managing quite possibly the biggest campaign effort in our history. McCain can't figure out if he's coming or going. I was reminded yesterday that McCain kinda happened into this election. If Romney would have left sooner we would probably be facing Huckabee which I think would be a real challenge.
serious question#21
Posted: 10/15/08 at 11:30am
I love the fact that at these McCain rallies they pull the whole "pallin around with terrorist" thing and people scream hateful things....yet our own President and his administration (who many of these people screaming hateful things voted for) has sat down and "pals" around with heads of state from Saudi Arabia, who helped fund 9/11 attacks...weren't most of the 19 terrorist who attacked us from Saudi Arabia?
Yes Ayers is a terrorist and everything said about him is right but it's a fine line that McCain is walking
serious question#22
Posted: 10/15/08 at 11:35am
ALL of them were Saudi Nationals.
serious question#23
Posted: 10/15/08 at 11:48am
I do not think anyone thought Jesus Christ was returning to earth so soon.
Goth may disagree with you on that one.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/12/06
serious question#24
Posted: 10/15/08 at 12:06pm
The Saudis LOVE McCain. He has a history of S&L and banks scandals. It's a sticky mess to sort through but understand this man has benefited directly from state-sponsors of terrorism.
Just a bit in Newsweek
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