Weather Underground's 2008 Tragical History Tour

Ever since Barack Obama's ties with former Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, became public, the pair, who are married, haven't been heard from.

That's not true. You just have to know where to look. And I found that they're talkative enough in the right forum. On February 12, they spoke at the Chicago History Museum about the events of 1968, which was recorded by the local National Public Radio affiliate, WBEZ-FM. I forgot to time it, but the show lasts about an hour.

Listening to it was a painful experience. Not because it caused any cognitive dissonance within me, but I figured it was very likely that members of the paying audience were swallowing their awful offal.

My quick take is this--they may not be terrorists anymore, but they are still left wing extremists.

The presentation gets off to a bad start when Liz Garibay, the museum's manager of public programs introduces the couple as "political activists, part of student groups (sic) called the Weathermen."

Student group? Uh, when did they go to class? Those Iranian "students" who held our embassy workers as hostages for 444 days were of the same breed.

Oh, about the name. The Weather Underground was originally known as "The Weatherman," one of the founders of the group was a Bob Dylan fanatic, and he took inspiration in the lyric, "You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" from "Subterranean Homesick Blues." Some within the terror group viewed the name as sexist, so they rechristened themselves "The Weather Underground."

Dohrn, who is a law professor at Northwestern University despite the fact she has no licence to practice law (the New York Bar Association denied her application because of her terrorist past), does most of the talking. Ayers is an education professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

She talks about all types of things that happen that year, including the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War, she said the "US Embassy was overrun by the South Vietnamese (sic) forces." In fact, while some Viet Cong made it onto the grounds of the embassy, but the building was not overrun. She goes on to discuss "...this suicide unit took the American embassy (My note: No they did not!)...pictures of GIs, frightened, running, was really in a way a foreshadowing of what would be another seven years later when the US evacuated the American embassy by helicopter and the entire country...the US strategy there was defeated.

I bet that made you very happy, Bernardine.

The distinguished professor moves out of 1968, and then declares:

For 15 years, really, until Gulf War I, the United States was constrained from invading other countries. That doesn't mean, in my opinion, the United States empire still wreaked havoc around the world. But it was done through proxy wars, it was done by creating the Contras in Nicaragua. They were contrained for 15 whole years from doing what they really wanted to do, and it was done instead by creating terrorist organizations, really, armed and financed and trained militarily by the US, y'know, around the world.

Well Bernardine, who better to judge who is a terrorist than yourself, an ex-terrorist? Of course I don't think the Contras, who were fighting Communists, were terrorists.

The question and answer session begins about halfway into the program, and one audience member asks, "Do you still stand by your decision, both of you, to embrace violence during the '60?"

Ayers gives a very long answer. Part of his reply was:

We made a decision not to hurt anybody, and except for hurting ourselves, we never did. We made a decision to hurt property and I find it hard to compare, on a moral plane, hurting y'know, a computer in the Pentagon, versus killing 2,000 people that very week. Mostly what I do, mostly what urge all of us to do, is to engage in non-violent direct action.

Well I'm glad Ayers is urging non-violent direct action now. But he still remains, in my opinion, an unrepentant ex-terrorist.

One Weather Underground bomb accidentally killed three members of the group in 1970, it also destroyed a New York City townhouse.

The bomb was packed with roofing nails (which don't do much damage to property); the device was said to be intended for detonation at an enlisted men's dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

A year earlier, during the Weather Underground riots known as the Days of Rage, future Cook County Sheriff Richard J. Elrod, then an attorney for the City of Chicago, attempted to tackle a member of the terror group--Elrod broke his neck, and was permanently paralyzed.

Sorry Ayers, you are wrong. Elrod was hurt. A lot.

Which brings us to one of Ayers' bombings. I've posted these quotes before, but they're too good to overlook here.

From his 2001 book, "Fugitive Days":

Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon. The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them.

Also from that book comes this nugget: "I don't regret setting bombs; I feel we didn't do enough."

Ayers also wrote in regards to future bombings, "I don't want to discount the possibility."

Thanks to The Rutles, again, for inspiring the headline.

Related posts:

SDS' 1968 Tragical History Tour
Obama visited home of ex-Weather Underground terrorists in '90s
Obama's Bill Ayers problem
Jonah Goldberg: Left wing terrorists never have to say "sorry"
Axelrod throws Ayers ball on ex-terrorist
University of Illinois at Chicago's Bill Ayers: Not a jarhead
The Weather Underground and Ward Churchill-UPDATED!
Bernardine Dohrn watch
David Horowitz says you should know about Bernardine Dohrn and William Ayers
Moron Professor Bill Ayers
More on Bill Ayers' wife, Bernadine Dohrn
Update on another campus radical: Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground

Technorati tags: democrats Barack Obama Obama Politics Illinois Bernardine Dohrn Bill Ayers terrorism history Chicago Weather Underground Bob Dylan Northwestern University Vietnam War Left Wing Extremists

Leap Year Day on the river

This is what the North Branch of the Chicago River looks like in the Linne Woods Forest Preserve in Morton Grove this afternoon on Leap Year Day.

Besides the quadrennial uniqueness of the day, something else is unusual today. The sun is out.

Technorati tags: Illinois photography photos Morton Grove nature weather snow Chicago River river Leap Year

Obama caught fibbing on NAFTA

Will the followers of Obama's Cult of Change let this story change their minds about their hero?

During Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate in Cleveland, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, both in full-pander mode, tried to play up to organized labor by tarring the North American Free Trade Agreement, claiming, although evidence doesn't back up their claims, that NAFTA costs Americans jobs.

In the general election, NAFTA-trashing won't get either of them very far. Most people support it. So what to do?

Here's how Obama's staff handled it. Will the New York Times follow up?

From the American Thinker:

Regardless, both candidates trashed the agreement and said they would reopen it to renegotiation. But Obama went a step further; according to Canadian TV he actually had one of his primary aides get in touch with the Canadian government and assure them that Obama was just demagoguing the issue and that he would not press for any major changes.

The Obama camp denied this story and called it a smear. Evidently CTV doesn't like being referred to as a liar because they have released the information that the Obama camp couldn't afford to have out there - the name of the Obama aide who spoke to the Canadian government:

The Obama campaign told CTV late Thursday night that no message was passed to the Canadian government that suggests that Obama does not mean what he says about opting out of NAFTA if it is not renegotiated.

From CTV:

However, the Obama camp did not respond to repeated questions from CTV on reports that a conversation on this matter was held between Obama's senior economic adviser -- Austan Goolsbee -- and the Canadian Consulate General in Chicago.

Earlier Thursday, the Obama campaign insisted that no conversations have taken place with any of its senior ranks and representatives of the Canadian government on the NAFTA issue.

On Thursday night, CTV spoke with Goolsbee, but he refused to say whether he had such a conversation with the Canadian government office in Chicago. He also said he has been told to direct any questions to the campaign headquarters.

Back to the American Thinker:

CTV is also reporting that their high level source in the Canadian government is reconfirming the visit by the Obama staffer.

Audacious!

Related post:

NAFTA, the Dem debate and some Chicago steelworkers

Technorati tags: NAFTA Canada Mexico méxico trade Barack Obama politics Democrats news Barack Obama Hillary Clinton hillary hillary CTV unions Cleveland

Ex-Gov. George Ryan transferred to new prison

Three of the last seven Illinois governors have ended up in federal prison. The newest member of this club of ill-repute is Republican George H. Ryan, who left office in 2003.

The Chicago Sun-Times has an update on Ryan, best known outside of the state for his anti-death penalty activism.

Ryan had been incarcerated at the federal facility in Oxford, Wisconsin. Ryan's age, however, forced a move to the Federal Prison Camp in Terre Haute, Indiana. The health care facilities are better there, and prison officials want inmates who are over 70--Ryan is 74--at correctional centers like Terre Haute.

At Oxford, the former governor's work detail involved janitorial duties.

Ryan's successor, Democrat Rod Blagojevich, lied to the people of Illinois when he said that he'd "govern as a reformer" during his 2003 inaugural address. Although he has not been accused of wrongdoing, two men who are close to the governor, Christopher Kelly and Tony Rezko, have been indicted. The charges against Kelly do not involve political corruption.

Related post:

Ex-Gov. Ryan in prison, but will his successor be indicted?

Technorati tags: politics illinois Democrats Illinois Politics Tony Rezko George Ryan Blagojevich corruption crime Christopher Kelly