Oct 21st, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Ayers Video
Some wingnuts put together this ad which they deem “the McCain ad you’ll never see.” Presumably they think you’ll never see it because McCain is too weak-kneed to air it. In fact, you’ll never see it because it’s way too long and also incredibly unpersuasive:
The collective meltdown over at the Corner over the past few weeks makes me tempted to say that a lot of folks have oozed down to Mark Steyn’s level, but actually Steyn’s getting dumber, too, as witnessed by his huzzahs for the ad and puzzlement that no wealthy 527 donors want to pick it up. But here’s a clue — the ad, while a damning indictment of Bill Ayers, has nothing on Obama. There’s not even a proper insinuation of wrongdoing here.
80 Responses to “Ayers Video”
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October 21st, 2008 at 6:25 pm
good god that’s lame. *yawn*
October 21st, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Is that even a damning indictment of the weathermen? I mean, they failed pretty miserably at killing people. Indeed, it points out that the right wing wackos who were behind the Oklahoma City bombing were far more despicable terrorists.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:26 pm
In desperate, panicky times, people tend to have diminished critical thinking capacities – such as the ability to gauge the persuasiveness of a particular argument.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Still, you gotta hand it to the right wing nutbags for making the absolute most out of one of the most ridiculous, indirect, tenuous, meaningless connection in political history.
But then, this is a society in which people like Elliot Abrams and John Negroponte run countries instead of having been hung by their necks ’til death for running death squads, so, you know, more power to ‘em, I guess.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:32 pm
What’s with the De Palma-esque score? I kept waiting for Michael Cain dressed as a woman with a straight razor.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I can’t watch it right now, but I hope they mentioned that Obama and Ayers once worked on the same floor. I still can’t believe he wasn’t jailed for that!!
October 21st, 2008 at 6:38 pm
If only these concerned citizens had been protesting the University of Chicago these past (many) years for hiring a known terrorist!
October 21st, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I’m sorry, I reached my giggle quota at the John Wayne Gacy part.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Actually William Ayres WAS prosecuted but the charges were dropped because the government illegally spied on him.
Nixon let a terrorist off the hook because the evidence against Ayres couldn’t be lawfully used just as a shit load of terrorists will get off because Bush is a dumbass who can’t follow the law.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:47 pm
But of course, you can’t argue with the fuck heads at National Review, since the final solution for a terrorist is always a bullet to the back of the head, the law be damned.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I can’t remember where I saw it today, but someone had a post saying that many of the 527s were hurting this cycle because those wealthy contributors that normally donate have been wiped out pretty good by the market tanking.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:56 pm
But of course, you can’t argue with the fuck heads at National Review, since the final solution for a terrorist is always a bullet to the back of the head, the law be damned.
This isn’t a case of argument. They know the Ayers issue is a nullity. The piece is designed as inflammatory rhetoric.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:06 pm
weather underground was a very bad, stupid, and criminal outfit, but I’m pretty sure they did not “kill or maim” anyone. In fact, they targeted buildings that were empty to avoid civilian deaths. Their only casualties were the three underground members blown up in NYC building a bomb.
small point
October 21st, 2008 at 7:13 pm
So who would Timothy McVeigh or John Wayne Gacy vote for?
October 21st, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Has anyone else looked at http://www.TNOYF.com, the website that takes credit for making the Ayers spot? The website features “Islamic Rage Boy” as its mascot… The website is so fringy and nuts that it seems sort of fake… Worth a little browsing. Or maybe everyone else knows about this website, and I’ve been ignorant all this time.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:19 pm
to add to anonymoose: This is the link to the WaPo article about how Republican 527s have not had the same funding as in previous years: $17 million so far this year compared to $130 million in 2004. Steyn obviously hasn’t realized that even wealthy Republican donors have been hit by the Bush economic disaster.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:19 pm
This looks like a dark and haunting movie – The Dark Knight meets 24 meets Munich. Can’t wait for it to come out.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:20 pm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/18/AR2008101801687.html
sorry – the link didn’t get added.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:29 pm
No one will pick it up? When it has all the production values of a 15 year old’s first powerpoint presentation? Gee, I wonder why.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:37 pm
The picture of John Wayne Gacy with Rosalynn Carter is a nice touch. We all know what despicable terrorist softies those Southern Baptists are. SNL once ran that picture along with one of her with Jim Jones. It’s funny in its own pathetic way – madmen working the system, as it were. But the Ayres/Obama connection suffers for the very lack of any picture. Hence, the mood music from Nixonland.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Another reason they might not be airing it is because it brings up one of history’s most unpopular Republicans: Ted Bundy.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Rule 1 of Weather Underground: You do not talk about Weather Underground!
October 21st, 2008 at 8:18 pm
LMAO at that music!
October 21st, 2008 at 8:21 pm
The cheap horror movie score is bee-youtiful, if a bit extravagant. However, the ad’s most glaring liability is that both the Young Ayers & the Old Ayers do not look especially frightsome. The 103d hanger-on at the Spahn Ranch circa 1968 was scarier looking. Also, in the serial murderer ghoul category – they could’ve done a whole lot better than Gacy or Bundy. There’s no one more tried and true than Charlie Manson. The fact that wingnuts love this ad merely reveals their conspicuous lack of knowledge re the ins and outs of producing an effective :30-60 horror movie TV teaser.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:30 pm
William C. Ibershof appears to be from a place where they have hot tubs, so he cannot be taken seriously.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:51 pm
the ad, while a damning indictment of Bill Ayers, has nothing on Obama. There’s not even a proper insinuation of wrongdoing here.
I think the authors have their heads buried so deeply into editing their screed, they’ve forgotten that not everybody instinctively maps every action Ayers has ever taken directly onto Obama. They need an outside editor, but I doubt there’s anyone they’d trust.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Speaking of absurd videos, have you seen the Palin interview? CNN has it up now: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/10/21/griffin.palin.interview.cnn
October 21st, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Also, Drew Griffin is a hack?
October 21st, 2008 at 9:23 pm
And since I’m on a roll…
Palin is still a fucking nut. Good god. And yeah, Drew Griffin is a hack.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Yeah, there were a couple things like that in the video. As mentioned above, Ayers was prosecuted, he just wasn’t convicted. And I could be wrong, but I don’t think he said he wanted to kill more people, but that he wanted to bomb more. I’m pretty sure that if your targets are empty buildings, then you pretty specifically DON’T want to kill more.
The thing is, I don’t think they’re lying. I honestly think they’re too stupid to know what the truth is.
And yeah, that was horrible. Boring, long winded, and failing to make their case. Pretty typical of the idiots on the right.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:51 pm
It was dismissed because of illegal activities, including wiretaps, break-ins and mail interceptions, initiated by John N. Mitchell, attorney general at that time, and W. Mark Felt, an F.B.I. assistant director.
Felt was convicted criminaly, despite Nixon’s testimony on his behalf, and was pardoned by Reagan. It was only later we learned that Felt was “Deep Throat”. For some reason, that always has struck me as pretty damn bizarre.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:04 am
Ayers simply said that he wished he’d done more to end the war in Vietnam. He never said ‘kill’ or ‘bomb’ because at the point in time he was interviewed in 2001 he had left that lifestyle behind and was a respected member of society at least in some Chicago and educational circles. But of course, the right wing would never point that out.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 am
This clip is like porn for people who like crazy serial killers. It gives me the creeps.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:17 am
LOL. Double the tinfoil on your hats, wingnutters! Obama’s mind control rays are getting stronger!
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:13 am
What a Democratic 527 could have done is put out at an ad that really explains who Ayers is. You buy into this crap, Matthew, way too much. What are you condemning him for– the fact that, unlike rich kids like you, he was a rich kid willing to risk his life for something he believed in? My real beef with Ayers and the Weathermen was their flagrant narcissism. From what I’ve read, he is repentant about that. I reject those who feel entitled to decide who gets to live or die– but the Weathermen were not about killing people primarily, but about scare tactics. And for the long list of places they bombed, nobody was hurt in a lot of them. They thought overwhelming violence must be answered with violence. Its not hard to see how the times were radicalizing to young people like Ayers– even if you don’t agree with his actions.
Ironically, in places such as Germany, there is a much greater collective acceptance of what the radicalism of the 1960s was about. The frickin’ foreign minister, Joshka Fischer, was a radical who was caught on camera kicking a cop in the head! He never did resign, nor really apologize: it sufficed to say, “I wouldn’t do what I did then now.”
Ayers is a leading specialist in public education! He has published 16 books (something I hope you never do.) Stop pandering to rightwing nonsense about Ayers, Matthew.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:26 am
Ye gods, Eddie; you actually think it makes sense for the Democrats to keep talking about the issue?
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 am
Kathy Shaidle, who wrote the ad and hosts the site, is a Canadian. A real one — she lives in Canada.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:35 am
AlanC9: I think it makes sense for Matthew and other bloggers of his ilk to set the record straight at some point down the line. Of course, its much easier to be on the safe side of the issue by condemning Ayers, or saying that something is damning of him. In reality, Ayers is not really a controversial figure, which is why all those Republicans funded a foundation of which he was a member. Whats the point of saying: yes he’s a heinous figure, but Obama didnt have ties with him? He is not a heinous figure. The US was a heinous state that murdered people at home and abroad when he caused some material damage to a few government buildings. That’s all.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:36 am
Yeah, whats funny about the whole Ayers debate is that the wingnuts act like he’s another OJ Simpson to them, who got away with murder.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:39 am
By the way: Kudos to Ayers for keeping his mouth shut this whole time. He obviously isn’t as vain as Reverend Wright.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:48 am
I had previously thought that the Weathermen were a bunch of rich, radically political college kids who just blew stuff up but meant no harm to living, breathing people. I didn’t know they had actually tried to kill people at one time. Lowers my opinion of them.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:32 am
I’m sorry, but I tried to watch Palin’s CNN interview, and that woman gives me a headache. It’s just hard for me to listen to her. She’s a joke.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:33 am
Obnoxious correction, but…
Ayers teaches at/was hired by the University of Illinois at Chicago. Obama taught Con Law at the University of Chicago. It’s like the difference between CUNY and NYU, or UCLA and USC. Perhaps a minor distinction in that both are considered by right-wingers as bastions of left-wing elitism, but: UIC is a big public research university and U of C is a private research university with a conservative reputation and lots of conservative law and economics professors (and alumni). Safe to say that Ayers would never have been hired there. Not to mention that U of C abolished their education department in the late 1990’s. Just in case anyone wanted to be accurate. Sometimes the right wing confuses this and says that Ayers and Obama were professors together, at the same university, so of course they worked together! Which of course assumes that anyone in education and law ever cross paths let alone work together, but I repeat myself.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:54 am
The narrative of the piece is that Bill Ayers is a dangerous anti-American radical in sheep’s clothing who “groomed” Obama to be just like him. Cue the scary music.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Someone who will not express remorse for engaging in a domestic terror/bombing campaign is unfit for civil society, because such a person is reserving the right to engage in such a campaign again, in a society in which he was and is free to disseminate political messages, and thus affect the outcomes of elections which can change political decisonmakers. The only possible excuse for Obama and others have to associate themselves with such a person, after Ayers had been quoted on 9/11/2001, in the NYT, that he did not regret engaging in such a bombing campaign, is that they were unaware that he had made such comments. I suppose it’s possible, but somewhat unlikely.
The fact that some anonymous plumber without a license, who was approached by Senator Obama, and then asked a question, can be subject to widespread public ridicule, while a man who states that he has no regrets about setting off bombs can be considered respectable company, says a lot about our political culture, and none of it is flattering.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
X wrote: What’s with the De Palma-esque score? I kept waiting for Michael Cain dressed as a woman with a straight razor.
Please leave Rudy Guliani out of it! There is NO proof that Dressed to Kill was in any way based on Rudy’s political career (indeed, the movie was made BEFORE he was Mayor), nor is there any evidence that Rudy’s sexual proclivities extend beyond dressing up as a woman and into murdering those he finds sexually threatening.
Please do not stoop to this level. It’s worse than trying to connect Obama to Ayers.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Okay, they actually were trying to bomb the dance, it wasn’t going to be empty, there were supposed to be people there. There’s no reason we should have warm fuzzy feelings for these guys. They were rich narcisstic jerkoff kids who thought poor people who joined the army were fair game to kill because they were part of the system or some such crap. None of that has much to do with Obama who was a casual acquaintance with this guy, but we shouldn’t have a lot of stupid illusions about the weathermen, they were bad people.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
the idea that there is some good version of mark steyn is what separates yglesias from the pack. i will read him because he can make a cogent point (yglesias, that is) but i will always know he is a wannabe member of the elite who trucks in false moral and ethical equivalancies just in case someone might have a better job for him in the future.
mark steyn is and has always been a pernicious tool and pathetic propagandist. while yggy knows this he can’t say it. i’d be surprised by yggy but this is who he is. good luck with that NYT op-ed column, matty, i sure hope all this whoring pays off.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Any organization that would hire Katy Jean Lopez! to do anything besides get coffee is automatically “dumber.”
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Two pipe bombs were going to kill more people than the Oklahoma City truck bomb?
Powerful pipe bombs.
Makes you doubt the other claims.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Gabe, could you please specifically quantify on how many boards one can serve with a person, and how many fundraisers one can have in a person’s home, before such a relationship ceases to be casual?
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
“Steyn’s getting dumber” Steyn has more wisdom and insight in his hemorrhoids than Yglesias has in his whole body.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Will Allen,
Oh, come on. I’m not endorsing the Weathermen bombings, but least Bill Ayers was on the right side of the big questions of the day, and Nixon and company were on the wrong one. America is a fundamentally corrupt and unjust society- Ayers was quite right about that, and about the Vietnam war.
I suppose Bill Ayers will apologize for the ‘terror bombings’ about the same time you guys apologize for U.S. conduct in places like Vietnam and Nicaragua.
I’d certainly rather be friends with Ayers than friends with you.
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Hector, every last society on earth is fundamentally unjust and corrupt, because people, with some frequency, advocate evil. Like when you stated, in another forum, that the state has a legitimate claim of ownership with regard to human beings. I consider it rather comforting that an advocate of slavery like you would rather not be my friend.
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Scumbag Will Allen does not deny that he supported the U.S. wars of imperialism against Vietnam and Nicaragua. Scumbag Will Allen does also not deny that he supported the U.S. war of terror and intimidation against Cuba, or the U.S. invasion of Iraq. What a scumbag Will Allen appears to be. The only one advocating evil here is Will Allen.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
“I’m not endorsing the Weathermen bombings, but least Bill Ayers was on the right side of the big questions of the day, and Nixon and company were on the wrong one.”
Well said, Hector.
Let me further add that the weathermen did not target civilians.
Without condoning Ayers’ tactics, let me just remind you, Will, that when war crimes are being committed, even cadets are arguably legitimate targets. The US was killing 2,000 people/ day in Vietnam.
There is no moral equivalency between what Ayers did and what the US government at the time was doing.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Hector, you plainly advocated the position that the state owns the human beings it rules. Do you think people might be a bit terrorized, when informed that they are owned by the state?
You are evil.
Eddie, you are correct. The U.S. government was carrying out the policies, for better or worse, of the politicians who were elected by the majority of the population. Willaim Ayers was reserving to himself the right to assasinate his fellow citizens, thus obviating the need to persuade his fellow citizens to agree with Ayers’ political positions, via peaceful actions.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Will Allen thinks that a government being ‘elected’ grants it automatic legitimacy. Given that the American electorate in the 1960s was made up largely of racist yahoos, it’s hard to see why. But then again, Will Allen is quite the yahoo himself.
Ayers is not without blame, but unlike Will Allen, Nixon, Reagan and the rest of that crew, he’s not a complete moral retard.
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