|
October 28, 2008
More on the respectable Mr. Ayers
In a riveting interview piece titled "Eyewitness to the Ayers Revolution,"Bob Owens has more on the incredible story of the plan (by Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and others) to kill 25 million Americans: Pajamas Media: You stated in your interview in No Place to Hide that you wanted us to "imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people." A lot of people have now had the opportunity to listen to you, and contemplate the horrors these people planned. Can you recall who these people are by name, and who the ringleaders of this plan were?It may sound absurd, just I'm sure Hitler's murderous plans for the Jews would have sounded absurd in the early 1920s. While the plan to murder 25 million Americans is so outrageous as to seem unbelievable, the fact is that monstrous people with monstrous plans have come and gone many times in human history. The ones who stand out in history are the ones who succeed. The Weather Underground are remembered because they had some success, although they of course came nowhere close to acheiving their despicable goals. As despicable goals go, murdering 25 million is about as despicable as it gets. I'm glad that Barack Obama has condemned Bill Ayers' actions as despicable, and while no one has seen fit to ask him about the plan to murder 25 million, I don't doubt that he would condemn that out of hand, and he'd probably point out that not only didn't he know Ayers or Dohrn at the time, but he was just a small boy. And he would have been only 15 or so when Ayers dedicated his book to Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan. But by the time 9/11 rolled around and Ayers was stomping on the American flag and saying he hadn't done enough, Barack Obama was in his 40s. By that time, he had: When I point these things out, Ayers' defenders come here and leave endless comments to the effect that Obama's association with Ayers was minor, and that Ayers also associated with Republicans. I guess if that makes Ayers OK, then the fact that serial murderer John Wayne Gacy managed to pose with Rosalyn Carter should make him OK too. This is not to suggest that Ayers was like Gacy, because the latter didn't just plan mass murder; he actually did kill 33 people. And his murders were not ideologically driven, but committed for pleasure. However, I do think Ayers is comparable to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, who no one would argue should ever be allowed to become respectable. Something is wrong with allowing a man who advocated the genocidal murder of 25 million of his fellow countrymen to become respectable. I realize Ayers has supporters, but I think it is a mistake to elect as president a guy who thinks such respectability is OK. Even if he hardly knew the guy in the neighborhood who helped launch his career in whose book he was mentioned and whose book he blurbed and with whom he shared a work address for a few years and with whom appeared on panels and boards and with whom he distributed millions, why can't he just say that Ayers should not be respectable? posted by Eric on 10.28.08 at 02:37 PM
Comments
"worked in the same building for years" goes to the "barely knew the guy" defense. Buy, hey, at least you have the "I wasn't even born yet when the building in which I worked with Bill Ayers for years was built." defense. The "Ayers also associated with Republicans." defense is, as Jim Treacher pointed out, as valid as "the 9-11 terrorists commandeered planes built by Boeing." And, really, associating oneself with an unrepentant terrorist list Ayers is like playing golf with OJ Simpson. THAT's a scaryScarySCARY lapse in judgment. furious · October 28, 2008 03:54 PM furious "Buy, hey, at least you have the "I wasn't even born yet when the building in which I worked with Bill Ayers for years was built." defense." I have no idea what that means. "The 'Ayers also associated with Republicans.' defense is, as Jim Treacher pointed out, as valid as 'the 9-11 terrorists commandeered planes built by Boeing.'" The whole thing is silly. That's the point. Whether Obama's connections with Bill Ayers are more telling than McCain's connections with G.Gordon Liddy, whether the hundreds of people with similar connections to each of the former should be considered having "palled around with terrorists"...it's all just silly. And you know what? The electorate is recognizing it as such. Which is heartening to me, but obviously very frustrating for you, Eric, and Sean Hannity. Dr. Nobel Dynamite · October 28, 2008 04:07 PM As vile a person as Liddy is, to the best of my knowledge, he never plotted genocide, or advocated the occupation of the United States by our communist adversaries. I don't think the two are even in the same ballpark. Here's the difference though, I think it does in fact, speak negatively of McCain that he associates with Liddy. Obama supporters seem to think Ayers is no big deal, and we're all nuts for being concerned about Obama's association with him. Sebastian · October 28, 2008 07:14 PM While I don't think Ayers and Liddy are in the same ballpark (for reasons I explained in detail here), I think Obama had closer associations with Ayers than McCain did with Liddy. But once again, I think the larger issue is not who associated with who or when, but whether or not Barack Obama believes that someone with Bill Ayers' background should ever be considered respectable and mainstream. Eric Scheie · October 28, 2008 07:43 PM Sebastion You're right, I suppose. Liddy only proposed murdering a few people, firebombing a few buildings, and kidnapping a few political enemies. It's not like he's talked about murdering federal agents in the last twenty years or so, right? But it's definitely not like McCain ever had a friendly chat with a known murderer, torturer, and all-around douche-bag like, oh, I don't know...Augusto Pinochet, right? I mean, by 1985, the world had a good idea of the kinds of things Pinochet was doing to his own people, so you'd have to assume that anyone who would have a "friendly" or "warm" chat with a such a brutal dictator probably approved of Pinochet's actions, right? Of course, the real issue isn't whether McCain palled around with people who advocated the murder and kidnapping of American citizens in an attempt to undermine our democratic process and advocated the murder of federal agents, or whether McCain was in the habit of having friendly chats with men who murdered and tortured tens of thousands of innocent people. The larger issue is whether people like that should ever be considered mainstream or respectable. See the rabbit hole this whole guilt-by-association farce takes us? It's silliness that doesn't do a damn thing to address foreign policy, our economic mess, healthcare, or energy policy. It's just fearmongering by an ideologically and morally bankrupt campaign. Dr. Nobel Dynamite · October 28, 2008 10:03 PM Liddy has acknowledged preparing to kill someone during the Ellsberg break-in “if necessary”; plotting to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting with a “gangland figure” to murder Howard Hunt to stop him from cooperating with investigators; plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution; During the 1990s, Liddy reportedly instructed his radio audience on multiple occasions on how to shoot Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents and also reportedly said he had named his shooting targets after Bill and Hillary Clinton. Liddy is an unrepentent, convicted criminal who has instructed his audience to Federal agents. Liddy has given thousands of dollars over the years to McCain in campiagn donations including $1000 this year. Ayers "respectability" stems from the fact that Annenberg made Ayers a shining star in Illinois and beyond by accepting Ayers grant for almost $50 millions for an education reform program. Governor Jim Edgar (Republican) and many prominent members of Chicago establishment, jumped on Ayers bandwagon, enhancing his respectability! Ayers was given Chicago's Citizen of the Year award after securing the city a $49.2 million Annenberg Award for school reform. Ayers owes his respectability directly to Republican Annenberg. Meyrav Meyrav Levine · October 29, 2008 09:37 AM ML, you're fond of bringing up Liddy, but that has nothing to do with whether Ayers should be respectable. Obviously, you think Liddy (whose "plots" were hypothetical in nature and rejected by his government superiors -- as voluminously detailed in his autobiography) is worse than Ayers. Which means what, precisely? That Liddy should not be made Chicago's citizen of the year, and should not be given millions of dollars by elderly philanthropists? Ayers owes his respectability directly to Republican Annenberg. If so, then Obama should by all means take advantage of this opportunity to attack the Republicans for making Ayers respectable. Eric Scheie · October 29, 2008 11:40 AM Post a comment
You may use basic HTML for formatting.
|
|
October 2008
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR
Search the Site
E-mail
Classics To Go
Archives
October 2008
September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 May 2002 AB 1634 MBAPBSAAGOP Skepticism See more archives here Old (Blogspot) archives
Recent Entries
Ideological heirs
Another Anecdote HillBuzz Needs Your Help McCain Has A Poll The PUMA Question More on the respectable Mr. Ayers It Is Not About Race In chilling detail "We are not amused!" Dean Barnett, R.I.P.
Links
Site Credits
|
|
Eric
When "worked in the same building as Ayers for years" makes your bullet-pointed list of scaryScarySCARY fun facts, you might be getting a bit desperate.
This has got to be frustrating for you folks.