BILL AYERS AT OWS
The following piece was copied and pasted from The Blaze of Bill Ayers addressing the Occupy Wall Street crowd in Chicago: Former terrorist-turned-university professor Bill Ayers (you may remember him from his ongoing presence in 2008 presidential campaign theoretic), made an appearance last week at Occupy Chicago.
The former radical, a member of the infamous and violent Weather Underground, discussed his experience with “revolutions,” gave advice about how to handle the Tea Party and took a solid jab at President Barack Obama — a man many believe he was once friends with.Considering the Occupy movement’s ongoing calls for “revolution” and a major push for a fundamentally changed system, it’s no wonder Ayers was brought in to address the Chicago protesters. Among their many questions, his audience wondered how they should handle the media’s continued comparison between Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party.
“A big bright line running through the Tea Party movement is Jingoism, Nativism, racism,” he told the protesters. “A big bright line is funding from the Koch brothers.” Of course, Ayers didn’t mention anything about the large-scale progressive groups that are assisting with Occupy Wall Street and its sister protests.
While he characterized the conservative movement in these terms, he also said it‘s important to remember that those who associate with the Tea Party aren’t the Occupiers’ enemies. ”Even when they’re huffed up with false stupidity and manipulated by all kinds of forces,” he reiterated.
Rather than violence — a tactic his Weather Underground was never afraid to employ — Ayers directed the students to rely on their natural “tools”:
“I think you should use your brilliance, your humor, your wisdom, your body to dramatize the violence that exists. But we do not live in a neutral — not when there’s a trillion dollar military budget — the biggest in the world, not when they’re recruiting kids to be in the service, not when every athletic event begins with guns and marching…that‘s a violent culture and that’s where we live…”And, very oddly, he was sure to slip in a dig at Obama. ”Somebody like Barack Obama who drone strikes American citizens is saying ‘I want you all to be non-violent.’ Well, I want you to be non-violent,” he quipped.
COPIED AND PASTED FROM CHICAGO TRIBUNE: 2008
Q. Why did Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin accuse Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists"?
A. She was referring to Obama's association with 1960s radical Bill Ayers, now an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
A. She was referring to Obama's association with 1960s radical Bill Ayers, now an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Q. How are Ayers and Obama associated?
A. They both live in the Hyde Park area on the South Side, and Obama visited Ayers' home for a meeting at the start of his first state Senate bid in 1995. They were active in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an education reform group, and attended meetings together from the mid-1990s to 2001.
Q. Is Obama "pals" with Ayers?
A. In February, Obama strategist David Axelrod told the Politico Web site that Obama and Ayers are "certainly friendly." More recently, campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt told The New York Times that the two have not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mails since Obama joined the Senate in 2005. Their last encounter, LaBolt said, was more than a year ago when they ran into each other on the street in Hyde Park. In a CNN interview aired Monday, Axelrod said that when Obama went to Ayers' home in 1995, "he didn't know the history" of Ayers' radical past.
Q. Was Ayers a terrorist?
A. He was a founding member of the Weather Underground, a radical group opposed to the Vietnam War. In his 2001 memoir, "Fugitive Days," he wrote that he helped bomb official sites, including the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon. In bombings claimed by the group, no one was killed or injured. But some investigators have suspected the group in an unclaimed 1970 explosion that killed a San Francisco police sergeant. No one was ever charged in that case. Years later, while Ayers was no longer in hiding, fellow members of the group were linked to a Brink's robbery in which two police officers and a guard were shot to death.
Q. Was Ayers ever tried for his activities?
A. No. Federal charges had been dropped after FBI surveillance techniques were ruled unconstitutional.
Q. Has Ayers voiced regret for the bombings?
A. No. "We weren't terrorists," Ayers told the Tribune in 2001. "The reason we weren't terrorists is because we did not commit random acts of terror against people. Terrorism was what was being practiced in the countryside of Vietnam" by the U.S.
A. They both live in the Hyde Park area on the South Side, and Obama visited Ayers' home for a meeting at the start of his first state Senate bid in 1995. They were active in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an education reform group, and attended meetings together from the mid-1990s to 2001.
Q. Is Obama "pals" with Ayers?
A. In February, Obama strategist David Axelrod told the Politico Web site that Obama and Ayers are "certainly friendly." More recently, campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt told The New York Times that the two have not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mails since Obama joined the Senate in 2005. Their last encounter, LaBolt said, was more than a year ago when they ran into each other on the street in Hyde Park. In a CNN interview aired Monday, Axelrod said that when Obama went to Ayers' home in 1995, "he didn't know the history" of Ayers' radical past.
Q. Was Ayers a terrorist?
A. He was a founding member of the Weather Underground, a radical group opposed to the Vietnam War. In his 2001 memoir, "Fugitive Days," he wrote that he helped bomb official sites, including the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon. In bombings claimed by the group, no one was killed or injured. But some investigators have suspected the group in an unclaimed 1970 explosion that killed a San Francisco police sergeant. No one was ever charged in that case. Years later, while Ayers was no longer in hiding, fellow members of the group were linked to a Brink's robbery in which two police officers and a guard were shot to death.
Q. Was Ayers ever tried for his activities?
A. No. Federal charges had been dropped after FBI surveillance techniques were ruled unconstitutional.
Q. Has Ayers voiced regret for the bombings?
A. No. "We weren't terrorists," Ayers told the Tribune in 2001. "The reason we weren't terrorists is because we did not commit random acts of terror against people. Terrorism was what was being practiced in the countryside of Vietnam" by the U.S.
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