I knew who they were. I was in NY at the same time Obama was. He was in the hot bed of the NEWs in the 1980’s.

I was in High School and I knew who they were and what they were. If a Poli-Sci major at Columbia didn’t have a clue when all the crap was in the paper then he is an imbecile.

Obama knew and approved until it became politically useful to throw Ayers under the bus, like his grandmother, like his reverend.

Ayers teaches English and a healthy dose of Anarchy–look at the readings for his class.

THe fact that he had a rich daddy is the only reason that creep breathes free air.

He is a criminal, who benefits from our nation and tries to undermine it in the same breath.

THe fact that anyone associates with that man is a sign that we have lost our standards as a people.

Ayers now teaches college where he continues to pollute young, impressionable minds with his personal brand of radical, destructive rhetoric.

This is so offensive and should be to all Americans

If Ayres had taken the punishment for his actions then returned to society still believing what he did was honorable, he could stand like a man and discuss his ideas. But no, Ayres never suffered the consequence of his actions and instigation’s. And aside from a few months in jail, neither did Dohrn for hers.

Yet he is allowed to profess his outdated, failed ideas in a University setting.

And they are outdated and failed, just look at the outcome of the one above board chance Ayers had the CAC. With the CAC Ayers had all the money and support he needed to implement his goofie ideas and they failed miserably and the school children of Chicago lost out, though not as badly as his young college friends lost when they were subjects of his social experimentation.

Yet Ayers is allowed to romanticize urban gorilla warfare and lead more young people into dangers he knows nothing about. Remember Boris and Natasha on Bullwinkle? How they always took a powder when things got tuff? What did they say as they left others to suffer their consequences - We are too important?

2. The “technicality” spoken of was prosecutorial misconduct. Specifically it was COINTELPRO that was the nub of the problem.

“In the Final Report of the Select Committee COINTELPRO was castigated in no uncertain terms:

“Many of the techniques used would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO went far beyond that…the Bureau conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association, on the theory that preventing the growth of dangerous groups and the propagation of dangerous ideas would protect the national security and deter violence.”

The “technicality” happens to be the 1st and 4th amendments. The “technicality” happens to be that the F.B.I. itself grossly violated the law when it investigated the Weather Underground and other radical left organizations. Leave it to a former F.B.I guy to leave out his organization’s own bad faith in the investigation of Bill Ayers and how it let an admitted criminal walk.

3. Other than the actual method of violence, bombing, there is no link either ideologically or historically of Timothy McVeigh to Ayers. The bombings Ayers participated in caused property damage and were small devices. The Pentagon bomb was two pounds. McViegh, on the other hand, used a entire delivery truck as bombing platform. McViegh was an outsider, a fringe associate of a fringe movement. He peripherally traveled in far-right wing Christian Identity groups. His main influence was “The Turner Dairies.” It is unlikely he had even a passing knowledge of SDS never mind the militant Weathermen that Ayers formed. The link between OBL and Ayers is even more ridiculous. The only thing OBL shares with Ayers is that members of their respective organizations accidentally blew themselves up.

4. The group that Ayers and Obama were a part of was the Annenberg Challenge. It was a group dedicated to improving the education of children in Chicago’s under performing schools. It had nothing to do with radical politics, bomb throwing, or overthrowing the government. It was funded by a Rock-ribbed Republican Mr. Annenberg former ambassador to the UK under Richard Nixon. Ayers help to write the grant proposal with two other people. If one bothers to actually look at the actual composition of the Annenberg Challenge and how it operated for its five years any notions of subversion would be quickly erased. Annenberg was a straight-down-the-middle (if left of center) school reform program. No foaming-at-the-mouth radicals of any stripe allowed.

5. It would be impossible for Barack Obama to object to Mr Ayers 2001 comment of being unrepentant back in 1997 when he penned a few nice blurbs about Ayers book. More to the point the book itself may have had actual value. Nixon wrote numerous books, some which were highly praised, after his disgraceful exit from politics. Nixon was also never convicted of any crime, just like Aryes.

6. While the Weather Underground was formed by Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn they were not part of the group that caused either death or injury. The death of Police Officer Brian V. McDonnell was never solved. Both the Weathermen and the Black Panthers were investigated but nothing came of it. After the Greenwich Village explosion the Weather Underground killed no one. Some members of WU were convicted for crimes they participated in as members of the Black Liberation Army but this was long after the WU as a movement was dissolved. That particular crime, the robbing of a Brinks Truck, occurred a year after Ayers and Dohrn ended their underground existence.

7. Obama did condemn, denounce, and otherwise tut-tut Ayers when it became a matter of national concern. As a matter of local concern, there was none. Chicago had long ago moved beyond Ayers past. In Chicago Ayers was a respected voice in the field of Educational reform. Obama was not the only person who gave him such deference, so too did captains of industry and a veritable who’s who of Chicago’s civic society some of them very main-line Republicans. Many other Chicagoans served on that board. None of them had any problems with Bill Ayers. Either you must believe the entire civic and political establishment of Chicago plus the Annenberg were culpable of bad judgment or maybe just accept that Bill Ayers had something valuable to contribute to the reform of urban schools in Chicago.

8. The relationship between Ayers and Obama has been fully vetted as any relationship in politics will ever be (sort of like the relationship between John McCain and Charles Keating or John McCain and the sexy blond telecoms lobbyist.) Besides even if Obama gave you every last detail, you would still accuse him of holding back. Ayers is not really the issue. Obama could come out tomorrow and literally kick Ayers down a flight of stairs and no one at N.Q. would be impressed.

9. While Scott Nelson is entitled to his opinions and his long service to nation is much appreciated, his arguments fail to impress. It is the same old N.Q. / right wing nonsense, the same old guilt by association that McCain and the Republicans have been bandying about for months now. It is the same old talking points, the same over the top conflation that does not hold water. Obama is not Aryes. Obama’s association with Ayers only proves a mutual interest in improving the Chicago school system. It the same old tiered lies repeated over, and over, and over again. Obama’s first fund drive was held in a Holiday Inn not Aryes house. Obama’s relationship with Aryes was tangential at best. By the time Obama met Ayers William Ayers was a respected community leader in the field of education.

10. William Ayers is still a respected teacher, leader and role model for many students of Education. He energizes people to become great educators. His classes are sought out by students and he has mentored many great educators. The city of Chicago awarded him Citizen of the Year in 1997, they did this despite his radical past. No one at the University of Illinois, Chicago has a problem with Bill Aryes, activist, professor, educator. He is a Senior Scholar and a Distinguished Professor and like every other good professor in the Publish or Perish world of Academia he has written many books on his chosen subject. That is the man Barack Obama knew in Chicago. The other William Aryes, the fugitive radical, he turned himself into the authorities in 1980. Thanks to F.B.I mis and malfeasance he never was held accountable for his actions.

That William Ayers was nobody and nothing to Obama. He was a footnote at best in a History book that Obama read perhaps in High School. For Obama weathermen were the guys on T.V. telling you if it was going to rain on the weekend. Barack Obama was just getting into college when William Ayers finally became legit. By the time Ayers had his overprice cup of coffee with Obama in 1995 the former fugitive from justice had been a law abiding citizen for over 15 years. By the time Obama ran for president Ayers had been a model citizen for more than a generation. To steal from Douglas Addams, the Bill Ayers Obama knew was “mostly harmless.” While Scott Nelson may disagree with that conclusion, it is an accurate assessment of Professor William Ayers today.

Shame on You Senator Obama.