Bill Ayers Speaks

[kskiska]

Source: WP

CHICAGO -- In his first interview since he became an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground leader, said today that he had a distant relationship with Barack Obama and that Obama's opponents had turned him into "a cartoon character."

Ayers, now an education professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said he thought the accusation by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin that Obama had been "palling around with terrorists" was absurd.

"Pal around together? What does that mean? Share a milkshake with two straws?"Ayers said. "I think my relationship with Obama was probably like thousands of others in Chicago. And, like millions and millions of others, I wish I knew him better."

Republicans have tried to make Ayers into Obama's Willie Horton. His name and face -- a mugshot from his radical anti-Vietnam War days -- have appeared in campaign advertisements across the country. His story, as told by his critics, is a cable television fixture.

Yet Ayers, 64, said he does not "feel very victimized." Although he declined media interviews and received reported death threats, he continued to teach and write, postponing the release of one book because of the controversy. "I didn't do anything. It's all guilt by association. They made me into a cartoon character, they threw me up on stage just to pummel me," Ayers said. "I felt from the beginning that the Obama campaign had to run the campaign and I had to run my life."

He said he had no contact with the Obama campaign. "That's not my world," he said.

Read more: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11/04/bill_ayers_speaks.html?hpid=topnews

[billyoc]

1. "What does that mean? Share a milkshake with two straws?"

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Catherine Vincent]

2. Yeah. That is a good quote.

I like him! LOL!:)

[DefenseLawyer]

7. If you have a milkshake and Bill Ayres has a straw that reaches across the room...

no wait, wrong quote...

[AwakeAtLast]

9. Ayers just drank McCain's milkshake

;)

[DissedByBush]

11. These people deserve to be "victimized"

Ayers, unrepentant former terrorist who is not in jail only because of FBI malfeasance in his case.

Khalidi, anti-semite, pro-Palestinian movement (the founder of which was Amin al-Husseini, who was in cahoots with Hitler to exterminate the Jews, and he's still their hero).

People like that deserve what they get.

The victim is Obama, whose professional-only relationships with these people were cast as best-buds by the Republicans.

[BunkerHill24]

3. There is another guy who was victimized as well and accused of being Holocaust denier

without shred of evidence; and that is Prof. Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University. My sympathies go out to him and his family.

[DissedByBush]

14. How can he deny it?

The hero of his movement was part of it. Had Hitler won in Europe, the Holocaust would have moved to the Middle East under Palestinian management. As it is, their Mufti had many Jewish refugees rerouted to places such as Poland so they could be killed by the Nazis instead of ending up in Palestine.

Deny it? He may be proud of it. From their dear leader after the war:

"Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world. I asked Hitler for an explicit undertaking to allow us to solve the Jewish problem in a manner befitting our national and racial aspirations and according to the scientific methods innovated by Germany in the handling of its Jews. The answer I got was: 'The Jews are yours'." -- Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (leader of the Palestinians)

[Oregone]

4. Congrats to him for keeping it in...

[AnnieBW]

5. If I was him

I'd be speaking... to a lawyer. I'd sue the McCain/Palin campaign and the RNC for defamation of character.

[mzmolly]

6. What a great statement.

:hi:

[Xenotime]

13. HE's a great american.

[mascarax]

8. I appreciate that he didn't take their bait

and remained mum until now. Good for him.

[kskiska]

10. Ayers will be in Grant Park tonight

(snip)

One day last summer, Ayers said, he received two threats on his office computer while he was in his downtown office. One said a posse was coming to shoot him; another said a gang would kidnap and waterboard him.

A university police officer who had known Ayers for years arrived and told him, "Gosh, I hope the guy who's coming to shoot you gets here first."

Ayers said Obama's expected victory is an "achingly exciting moment." He planned to join the throngs at Obama's election night rally in Grant Park.

He is not an invited guest.

[otherlander]

12. Oh, fuck you, Ayers.

You stupid sellout. You're the one who was pallin' around with terrorists... those terrorists being the Reagan administration, who you started sucking up to the instant revolution wasn't considered "cool" anymore. You know what you are, Bill? You're a CHICKENSHIT CONFORMIST LIKE YOUR PARENTS. So shut up and go away. This is a time for celebration, for victory is close at hand, a new vision is being forged, and you, my fairweather friend, have no place in it.