Ayers Cries A River About The Poor Treatment He Has Received

Bill Ayers writes in the Star:

Obama's rivals and enemies thought they saw an opportunity to deepen a dishonest perception that he is somehow un-American, alien, linked to radical ideas, a closet terrorist who sympathizes with extremism – and they pounced.

On March 13, Senator John McCain, apparently in an attempt to reassure the "base," sat down for an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News. McCain was not yet aware of the narrative Hannity had been spinning for months, and so Hannity filled him in: Ayers is an unrepentant "terrorist," he explained.

"On 9/11, of all days, he had an article where he bragged about bombing our Pentagon, bombing the Capitol and bombing New York City police headquarters. ... He said, `I regret not doing more.'"

McCain couldn't believe it.

Neither could I.

On the campaign trail, McCain immediately got on message. I became a prop, a cartoon character created to be pummelled.

When Alaska Governor Sarah Palin got hold of it, the attack went viral. At a now-famous Oct. 4 rally, she said Obama was "pallin' around with terrorists." (I pictured us sharing a milkshake with two straws.)

The crowd began chanting, "Kill him! Kill him!" It was downhill from there.

My voicemail filled up with hate messages. They were mostly from men, all venting and breathing heavily. A few threats: "Watch out!" and "You deserve to be shot." And I got some emails like this one from satan@hell.com: "I'm coming to get you and when I do, I'll waterboard you."

The police lieutenant who came to copy down those threatsdeadpanned that he hoped the guy who was going to shoot me got there before the guy who was going to waterboard me, since it would be most foul to be tortured and then shot.

The good news was that every time McCain or Palin mentioned my name, they lost a point or two in the polls. The cartoon invented to hurt Obama poked holes in the rapidly sinking McCain-Palin ship.

The McCain-Palin attacks not only involved guilt by association, they also assumed that one must apply a political litmus test to begin a conversation.

In a robust and sophisticated democracy, political leaders – and all of us – ought to seek ways to talk with many people who hold dissenting, or even radical, ideas. Lacking that simple and yet essential capacity to question authority, we might still be burning witches and enslaving our fellow human beings today.

Maybe we could welcome our current situation – torn by another illegal war, as it was in the '60s – as an opportunity to search for the new.

Yeah, "a search for the new." Would that be "Change"?

What a fucking idiot. In a sane world, a traitor like this would have been executed.

The comments are great, though:

Why Ayers was a real issue

For the record, I was one of the people who blogged about William Ayers relationship to Barack Obama (back in Spring). Prior to that the only thing I ever blogged about was movies on TheMovieBlog. I am a science teacher with masters degrees in geosciences and education. I'm also a graduate of UC, Santa Cruz, so I'm very familiar with radical professors. My concern was never about Ayer's terrorist past. During my graduate studies in education, I became familiar with the theories of educational radicals like Ayers. As a professor, Ayers has sought to indoctrinate future teachers in his radical communist (his word not mine) ideology. And through both his programs and college student, impose communist politial views on K-12 students. An American child is entitled to a real education, that leads to skills that will help that child succeed in life, not an indoctrination.

Posted By Science Teacher at 10:04 PM Saturday, November 08 2008

Mr. Ayers - Admitted Communist & Domestic Terrorist

Ayers has said that he a communist, with a small "c". Lenin & Stalin were "Big C" Communists, as well as mass-murderers. Ayers wanted to kill people by setting off a nail-packed bomb at a dance. Someone who tried this might be considered a homicidal lunatic. Once aquitted, Ayers said he was "guilty as sin and free as a bird, America is a great country". Mr Ayers has said he wished he had set off more bombs in America. I can only assume he wished he had killed more people, since that is what bombs do. So, a guy who says he is a member of a political party that killed millions, tried to kill Americans with shrapnel bombs, wished he had set off more shrapnel bombs, is an Obama supporter. Obama is friends a guy who thinks Lenin & Stalin were OK and it is OK to kill people with shrapnel bombs. Most journalists supported Obama, a president who befriends homicidal lunatics. I guess homicidal lunatic killers are good people, so long as they are Democrats.

What you forgot to mention...

Ah yes -- "the exhilarating and difficult years of resistance against the American war in Vietnam". The good old days when one could just plant a bomb at someone's home, not really caring who got killed. You somehow forget to mention the part where you tried to murder people during the "exhilarating" days of the 60s, didn't you Bill?

Posted By mjolnir at 12:29 PM Saturday, November 08 2008

You are a Terrorist, Bill.

You and your friend, B. Hussein Obama couldn't pass an FBI background check that your friend, B. Hussein Obama's body guard must pass. Sucks to be you, doesn't it?

Posted By PatrioticAmerican at 12:23 PM Saturday, November 08 2008

It goes on like that. Read all the comments. Add your own.