"Barack Obama's friend tried to kill my family."

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Weather Underground Victim Says Obama Should Have Known of Ayers' Past

Weather Underground Victim Says Obama Should Have Known of Ayers' Past
John Murtagh says Barack Obama should have known better than to associate with William Ayers, whose Weather Underground group claimed responsibility for firebombing his family's home nearly four decades ago.


FOX News
Thursday, October 09, 2008



A Yonkers, N.Y., councilman whose home was bombed nearly four decades ago by the Weather Underground says Barack Obama should know better than to associate with the domestic terror group's co-founder, Bill Ayers.

"Barack Obama constantly says, 'I was only 8 years old when this happened.' That's kind of his throwaway line," John Murtagh told FOX News Thursday morning.

"I'm not questioning what Barack Obama was doing when he was 8 years old. I'm questioning his behavior as an adult to choose his friends, mentor and longtime personal and professional colleague."

Murtagh discussed the 1970 bombing as John McCain's campaign put renewed focus on Obama's ties to Ayers, who lives in Chicago and is an education professor at the University of Illinois.

Murtagh, whose father was a New York Supreme Court justice when his family's home was targeted, put out a statement on behalf of McCain's campaign Wednesday claiming "Barack Obama's friend tried to kill my family."

Obama has said his relationship with Ayers did not extend beyond serving with him on an education board in Chicago. He has condemned Ayers' Vietnam War-era attacks, and his campaign has said Obama did not know of Ayers' radical past when Ayers held a campaign event at his home for Obama in 1995.

But Murtagh cast doubt on the narrative out of the Obama campaign, saying it would make the Democratic presidential candidate "the dumbest man that ever graduated from Columbia and Harvard Law School" if he didn't initially know about Ayers' past.

Murtagh also alleged that Obama's ties to Ayers probably go back earlier, since Ayers' wife, Weather Underground radical Bernadine Dohrn, at one point worked at the same firm where Obama's wife, Michelle, worked.

"The Weather Underground launched an attack on our family home ... looking to kill us," Murtagh told FOX News. "I believe if the senator were to come clean and tell us the full story, we'd find out this relationship well predates the fundraiser held in the Ayers home. It goes back to the '80s."

McCain released a Web video Thursday criticizing Obama for his relationship with Ayers.

Obama told ABC News Wednesday that McCain's campaign is making these assertions simply "to score cheap political points."

Source

Imagine the screaming that would result from a Republican being associated with a former Klansman. But no, because it was during the Vietnam War, he was a "freedom fighter".

:cen:ing bullsh!t
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The things that bothers me the most is Americans in droves are saying "it doesnt matter".

Right now all our servicemen and peace officers who died fighting for freedom and against terrorism must be rolling in their graves.
 
y'know what riles me?

this smear campaign going on for both sides..


So Barack Obama's friend tried to kill someone's family... since when have you control over your friends?

if the guy had told obama and obama had said "ya shur np lol" then there'd be a problem.
 
Talk about Guilt by association...Obama was 8 years old when Ayers was doing his radical activities.

And speaking of Guilt by association McCain was in his late 50's and a US Senator when he was accepting his close friend Charles Keatings dirty money.

Ayers was never convicted of crime, and became a model citizen after the 1960s, Charles Keating did time in the Federal Pen and McCain was wrist slapped for showing poor judgement. Incidently Cindy McCain had a large Real Estate project with Charles Keating at about the same time of the scandal.

Let me repeat myself: Obama met Ayers on a few occasions (to discuss education in Illinois) and he even condemned Ayers radical past. John McCain and his wife was a business associate and close friend of a conficted fraudster.

So if anyone wants to tie Obama to Ayers, they might want to take a look in the mirror first.
 
So rehashing discredited allegations is all you have left?

I realise the old maxim of "say something often enough and people will believe it" is accurate but this isn't the 1950's anyone with an open mind can go and validate what you say within minutes of saying it and that usually ends up working out as a negative modifier if what you say is incorrect or misleading.

Not that I expect this to be any more than a patented drive by posting with no attempt to defend it.

So without further ado I present to you.

October 5, 2008
Fact Check: Is Obama 'palling around with terrorists'?
Posted: 09:00 AM ET

Gov. Palin commented about Sen. Obama and William Ayers at a rally in Carson, California Saturday.

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The Statement: Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin said Saturday, October 4, that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is "someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."
Watch: Is Obama a terrorist's pal?
Get the facts!

The Facts: In making the charge at a fund-raising event in Englewood, Colorado, and a rally in Carson, California, Palin was referring at least in part to William Ayers, a 1960s radical. In both appearances, Palin cited a front-page article in Saturday's New York Times detailing the working relationship between Obama and Ayers.
In the 1960s, Ayers was a founding member of the radical Weather Underground group that carried out a string of bombings of federal buildings, including the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol, in protest against the Vietnam War. The now-defunct group was labeled a "domestic terrorist group" by the FBI, and Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn — also a Weather Underground member — spent 10 years as fugitives in the 1970s. Federal charges against them were dropped due to FBI misconduct in gathering evidence against them, and they resurfaced in 1980. Both Ayers and Dohrn ultimately became university professors in Chicago, with Ayers, 63, now an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Obama's Chicago home is in the same neighborhood where Ayers and Dohrn live. Beginning in 1995, Ayers and Obama worked with the non-profit Chicago Annenberg Challenge on a huge school improvement project. The Annenberg Challenge was for cities to compete for $50 million grants to improve public education. Ayers fought to bring the grant to Chicago, and Obama was recruited onto the board. Also from 1999 through 2001 both were board members on the Woods Fund, a charitable foundation that gave money to various causes, including the Trinity United Church that Obama attended and Northwestern University Law Schools' Children and Family Justice Center, where Dohrn worked.
CNN's review of project records found nothing to suggest anything inappropriate in the volunteer projects in which the two men were involved.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt told CNN that after meeting Obama through the Annenberg project, Ayers hosted a campaign event for him that same year when then-Illinois state Sen. Alice Palmer, who planned to run for Congress, introduced the young community organizer as her chosen successor. LaBolt also said the two have not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mail messages since Obama came to the U.S. Senate in 2005 and last met more than a year ago when they encountered each other on the street in their Hyde Park neighborhood.
The extent of Obama's relationship with Ayers came up during the Democratic presidential primaries earlier this year, and Obama explained it by saying, "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood … the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago — when I was 8 years old — somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."
The McCain campaign did not respond Saturday to a request for elaboration on Palin's use of the plural "terrorists."
Verdict: False. There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now "palling around," or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are.


Talk about Guilt by association...Obama was 8 years old when Ayers was doing his radical activities.

And speaking of Guilt by association McCain was in his late 50's and a US Senator when he was accepting his close friend Charles Keatings dirty money.

Ayers was never convicted of crime, and became a model citizen after the 1960s, Charles Keating did time in the Federal Pen and McCain was wrist slapped for showing poor judgement. Incidently Cindy McCain had a large Real Estate project with Charles Keating at about the same time of the scandal.

Let me repeat myself: Obama met Ayers on a few occasions (to discuss education in Illinois) and he even condemned Ayers radical past. John McCain and his wife was a business associate and close friend of a conficted fraudster.

So if anyone wants to tie Obama to Ayers, they might want to take a look in the mirror first.

Well this one is also mentioned on the site...

Fact Check: Did McCain intervene on behalf of Charles Keating?
Posted: 06:01 PM ET

Monday the Obama campaigned rolled out a Web site and online documentary about Sen. McCain and Charles Keating.

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The Statement: The campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama on Monday, Oct. 6, unveiled a Web site noting that Republican opponent Sen. John McCain played a key role in the Senate's "Keating Five" scandal of the 1980s. "McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating with federal regulators tasked with preventing banking fraud, and championed legislation to delay regulation of the savings and loan industry — actions that allowed Keating to continue his fraud at an incredible cost to taxpayers," the site says.
Get the facts!

The Facts: Keating was sentenced to prison and required to pay more than $1 billion in civil penalties after being convicted on fraud, racketeering and conspiracy charges centered around his running of Lincoln Savings and Loan, which he bought in 1984. On April 14, 1989, Lincoln was seized by the government at an eventual taxpayer cost of $3.4 billion, then the most expensive thrift bailout in history. Lincoln and Keating became national symbols of the savings-and-loans collapse of the '80s — much as lending firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have symbolized the current financial meltdown.
McCain had been friends with Keating since the early '80s — their families vacationed together several times, according to previous CNN reporting. Keating was an early financial supporter of McCain's political career and donated to his campaigns repeatedly over the years. Keating's first company, American Continental, was headquartered in Arizona, the state McCain represents. McCain became one of the so-called "Keating Five" — five U.S. senators investigated over accusations they tried to interfere in a federal investigation of Keating's role in the savings-and-loan's collapse.
In January 1985, while in the U.S. House, McCain co-sponsored a resolution that would have delayed the effective date of proposed government limits "on direct investment in real estate, service corporations, and equity securities by federally insured savings and loan associations." He was one of the early sponsors, although a majority of Congress eventually signed on to sponsor it. The legislation would have impacted Keating's business, but would have regulated the entire industry, not specifically Lincoln Savings and Loan.
McCain also wrote several letters to government regulators and other officials regarding the issue. One, dated Jan. 30, 1985, to White House chief of staff James Baker, called the proposed regulations "unwise," saying the effort "flys (sic) in the face of our recent efforts to remove the hand of government from the affairs of private enterprise."
On April 9, 1987, McCain and the other senators attended a meeting with federal regulators investigating Keating. McCain has since said he regrets doing so. "He asked me to help him," he said during an October 2002 interview with Chicago's WGN-AM radio station. "I said I wouldn't do certain things. He called me a wimp. I threw him out of my office, but I still went to a meeting with four other senators with a group of regulators."
McCain testified that he never asked for anything inappropriate during the meeting, and the Senate ethics committee found that, after regulators said the firm was being investigated not just for insolvency, but on criminal grounds, McCain took no further action on Keating's behalf. In the end, the committee recommended McCain and Sen. John Glenn be dropped from the probe — although McCain was rebuked by the Senate for using "poor judgment" in his relationship with the millionaire banker.
The Verdict: True. McCain did push to delay regulations that would have cracked down on savings-and-loans practices and intervened on Keating's behalf, although he was cleared of wrongdoing in the "Keating Five" case.
 
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You know Hillary tried to make the Ayers meeting connection too during the primary and it resulted in Nothing.

If McCain is down to this it just shows how desperate (and ill suited) he is to be President. He's losing and he knows we know it.
 
To be fair they are both "bending" the truth and pointing fingers, as is the nature of politics I guess, in terms of McCains campaign he was always going to have trouble given Bush's unpopularity not only does he have to separate himself from Bush he has to do it while keeping Republicans on his side and hopefully swaying the undecided vote where as Obama just has to connect McCain to Bush to score points.

To date the only one that seems to have kept his powder dry is Biden but that may be due to limited coverage of him in this part of the world.

I do find it incredible though that at a time when the polls clearly show people wanting answers real questions and problems all they are given is mud slinging and innuendo, I suspect that in the last week of this process the guy who is actually prepared to focus on answering questions is going to walk away with the prize.
Right at the moment it does appear that the McCain campaign has decided to play the dirtier of the two but Obama seems to be catching up fast and I think that will count against him in the long term.
 
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Obama hasn't talked to the guy in 10 YEARS! And they served on a council together--they weren't exactly best friends.

Do remember that Obama was in Elementary School when the Weather Underground was in power.
 
Obama hasn't talked to the guy in 10 YEARS! And they served on a council together--they weren't exactly best friends.

Do remember that Obama was in Elementary School when the Weather Underground was in power.

That's like me saying it's okay to hang out with Castro because I wasn't born yet when he killed. Or that I can hang out with Nazis because it was so long ago and that they haven't done anything since.

A terrorist is a terrorist! Simple enough.
 
That's like me saying it's okay to hang out with Castro because I wasn't born yet when he killed. Or that I can hang out with Nazis because it was so long ago and that they haven't done anything since.

A terrorist is a terrorist! Simple enough.
Or saying that if you worked in the postal service with the Unabomber you are a terrorst.
 
That's like me saying it's okay to hang out with Castro because I wasn't born yet when he killed. Or that I can hang out with Nazis because it was so long ago and that they haven't done anything since.

A terrorist is a terrorist! Simple enough.

So how do you feel about John McCain's relationship with Gordon Liddy?

With friends like these ...

McCain finds his own radical friend


Steve Chapman May 4, 2008 Can a presidential candidate justify a long and friendly relationship with someone who, back in the 1970s, extolled violence and committed crimes in the name of a radical ideology -- and who has never shown remorse or admitted error? When the candidate in question is Barack Obama, John McCain says no. But when the candidate in question is John McCain, he's not so sure.

Obama has been justly criticized for his ties to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, who in 1995 hosted a campaign event for Obama and in 2001 gave him a $200 contribution. The two have also served together on the board of a foundation. When their connection became known, McCain minced no words: "I think not only a repudiation but an apology for ever having anything to do with an unrepentant terrorist is due the American people."What McCain didn't mention is that he has his own Bill Ayers -- in the form of G. Gordon Liddy. Now a conservative radio talk-show host, Liddy spent more than 4 years in prison for his role in the 1972 Watergate burglary. That was just one element of what Liddy did, and proposed to do, in a secret White House effort to subvert the Constitution. Far from repudiating him, McCain has embraced him.

How close are McCain and Liddy? At least as close as Obama and Ayers appear to be. In 1998, Liddy's home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Over the years, he has made at least four contributions totaling $5,000 to the senator's campaigns -- including $1,000 this year.

Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as "an old friend," and McCain sounded like one. "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family," he gushed. "It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."


Which principles would those be? The ones that told Liddy it was fine to break into the office of the Democratic National Committee to plant bugs and photograph documents? The ones that made him propose to kidnap anti-war activists so they couldn't disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention? The ones that inspired him to plan the murder (never carried out) of an unfriendly newspaper columnist?

Liddy was in the thick of the biggest political scandal in American history -- and one of the greatest threats to the rule of law. He has said he has no regrets about what he did, insisting that he went to jail as "a prisoner of war."

All this may sound like ancient history. But it's from the same era as the bombings Ayers helped carry out as a member of the Weather Underground. And Liddy's penchant for extreme solutions has not abated.

In 1994, after the disastrous federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, he gave some advice to his listeners: "Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests. ... Kill the sons of bitches."

He later backed off, saying he meant merely that people should defend themselves if federal agents came with guns blazing. But his amended guidance was not exactly conciliatory: Liddy also said he should have recommended shots to the groin instead of the head. If that wasn't enough to inflame any nut cases, he mentioned labeling targets "Bill" and "Hillary" when he practiced shooting.

Given Liddy's record, it's hard to see why McCain would touch him with a 10-foot pole. On the contrary, he should be returning his donations and shunning his show. Yet the senator shows no qualms about associating with Liddy -- or celebrating his service to their common cause.

How does McCain explain his howling hypocrisy on the subject? He doesn't. I made repeated inquiries to his campaign aides, which they refused to acknowledge, much less answer. On this topic, the pilot of the Straight Talk Express would rather stay parked in the garage.

That's an odd policy for someone who is so forthright about his rival's responsibility. McCain thinks Obama should apologize for associating with a criminal extremist. To which Obama might reply: After you.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/oped/chi-oped0504chapmanmay04,0,3136852.column
 
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