Rev. Jeremiah Write Speaks, William Ayers in Attendance

Posted for no other reason than it has made Sean Hannity furious.

[Excerpt]

Rev. Wright gives the keynote address at FMO’s State of the Black Union

Rev. Jeremiah Wright had offered the audience nothing more than a slight slouch and the occasional grin, but his very presence was enough to garner him two long, roaring standing ovations by the time he walked up to the Cahn Auditorium podium on Friday to deliver his keynote address. . .

Read more at: North by Northwestern

More on John McCain's Association with Rashid Khalidi

Picture from Washington Post

When I heard about the "missing tape" of Barack Obama at a party for Rashid Khalidi this morning on good ol' right-wing radio this morning, I had a brief "uh-oh" moment. October Surprise?

The tape was actually shot, and reported upon back in April, and is apparently the latest "scandal" to burble up from right-wing blogs and talk radio. Sean Hannity did it with William Ayers and Reverend Wright. Fringy, pointless stories keep somehow wending their ways into the actual campaign. And Hannity's already hyper-inflated ego must be barely containable these days.

But I should have known better. First, Obama's association with Khalidi seems tangential at best, and actually less than John McCain's association with the man. Of course. And on a side-note, are people like Khalidi and Ayers able to sue for the treatment that they've been given? I mean, however bad their past actions may have been, they appear to be law-abiding people these days. And yet they are being cast as the worst kind of villain today. I don't doubt that both men, and several others slimed in this campaign have had their lives rocked by this campaign.

Anyway, more on the story, here.

[Excerpt]

The Khalidi Gambit: McCain Attacks Obama for Connection to Palestinian Activist Whose Work McCain Helped Fund

. . .McCain today said, “The Los Angeles Times refuses to make that videotape public...I’m not in the business of talking about media bias...but what if there was a tape of John McCain with a neo-Nazi outfit...I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly different.”

But McCain has his own connection to Khalidi.

In 1993, McCain became chairman of the International Republican Institute. He still chairs that respected organization. . .

Read more at: ABC News

So, About the William Ayers Guy. . .

Image from source, Wikipedia

To this liberal, when I hear Sean Hannity and those like him squawking about ACORN or Bill Ayers for weeks, if not months on end, it's pretty easy to ignore. They seem, after all, to be the only ones squawking about it. Then, when it bleeds over into the John McCain campaign, I don't automatically think, "Hey, could this be true?" What I think is, "Hey, is Sean Hannity running McCain's campaign?"

But since McCain is talking about Ayers, it is of course now a topic for all of the media and the public. I've already done enough reading about ACORN to know that it is a typical overblown right-wing non-issue. So, could the Ayers story be the same?

What we keep hearing is that he's an "unrepentant terrorist." That he bombed government buildings, and killed people. And I'm thinking, really? And he's not only walking around free, he's a respected professor, and a member of Chicago's movers and shakers (with Republicans and Democrats alike)? How bad could he really be?

Unfortunately, respected journalists like Tom Brokaw seem to have bought the Hannity line. From what I can glean, Ayers didn't bomb anybody. He didn't kill anybody. And his lack of repentance is about his activism against the Viet Nam war, not acts of terrorism--which he says he never committed. How do you repent from something you didn't do?

If these details are accurate--and I'm willing to admit I may not have investigated it enough yet--Barack Obama is being slammed for his association with a guy who used to be associated with a group that contained terrorists, the Weather Underground. That's guilt by association, by association. And that doesn't seem very American, does it?

[Excerpt]

Tom Brokaw Get your Facts Straight – Are you a Journalist or Part of the GOP Echo Chamber?

. . .Well Tom, if you’ve been paying any attention to this issue, or if you’d done any research on it before spouting off, you’d know that Ayers did have this to say about it:

"I heard Sean Hannity tell Senator John McCain that I was an unrepentant terrorist… extolling bombings against the U.S. and even advocating more terrorist bombs. Senator McCain couldn’t believe it (that is, before Obama became his principle barrier to the presidency), and neither could I. I’m often quoted as saying 'I have no regrets'. That is not true. "

Read more at: Democratic Undergound

EDITOR'S NOTE: Even the Wikipedia article linked above (which can't to be taken as gospel) says he participated in planning bombings, was a cofounder of the Weather Underground, and other unsavory details. So, who knows what the real story is about the guy. But the point remains, that William Ayers is a free man, not a terrorist today. He has associations with politicians of both parties. And however evil or scummy he may have been in his hippy days (not saying he was, just playing devil's advocate here), he isn't that guy now. So, when Sarah Palin says "Barack Obama is pallin' around with terrorists," quite simply, she is lying.