In the Ayers Tonight

Bill Ayers: Terrorist mastermind or gas station attendant?

According to the media, John McCain and Sarah Palin are ready for a month-long smear campaign against Barack Obama. As Palin so colorfully put it, "The heels are on, and the gloves are off." (Golly gee whiz don'tcha know) As one might imagine, McCain is in no particular hurry to talk about the economy, so he's planning to make personal attacks against Obama. This may sound ridiculously biased as I summarize it, but his campaign actually admitted this in public. They were proud of it. They "want to shift attention away from the economy" and "focus on the character" of Obama.

I don't particularly care about the negative campaigning. Politics is full of character assassinations; it pretty much comes with the territory. But their initial volley about Obama palling around with terrorists irritates me... not because it's sensational, but because McCain and Palin are adamently sticking to this story even though EVERY SINGLE news organization has reported that it's total bullshit.

Allow me to back up for a moment. In the last week, McCain and Palin have both been making much ado about Obama having met Bill Ayers in the past. Bill Ayers is a former 1960s anti-war activist who co-founded the radical left terrorist organization "Weather Underground," which was active in the '60s and '70s. Ayers participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the United States Capitol Building in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972. As you might be aware, all of these buildings are still there, so you can surmise that his bombs weren't particularly powerful or effective.

In fact, from what I can gather, Ayers and his bunch were about as effective at causing mischief as Dick Dastardly and his crew in Wacky Races. Despite bombing some of the most populated public buildings in the country, Ayers never actually killed anyone. Oh, they certainly caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage, but the entire organization never once killed a person. In fact, the only ones who ever died at the hands of "The Weathermen" were two of their own people as they tried to assemble a nail bomb. These people took their name from a Bob Dylan song for crying out loud. I wouldn't exactly be quaking in my boots over these guys.

Nevertheless, the government doesn't take kindly to having their shit blown up, so they pressed charges against Ayers and his wife, who went undergound for a decade to escape jailtime. When they turned themselves over to federal authorities in 1980, charges against them were dropped due to prosecutorial miscondunct.

This is when the guy really goes off the deep end: he decides to become a college professor. That's right! Billy boy pictured at the top is now a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he holds the honor of "Distinguished Professor." (Again, why can't I get a job??) Ayers has worked for years with the Chicago Mayor's office in shaping the city's school reform program, and he served on the board of directors of The Woods Fund of Chicago, an anti-poverty philanthropic foundation.

Here's where Obama comes in. Barack Obama also served on the board of directors of The Woods Fund of Chicago. As you recall, Obama used to be a community organizer in Chicago. You don't just snub the guy who's essentially driving education reform in your city. It's just not what you do if you're trying to organize a community. The Associated Press along with every major newspaper and news network in the country has reported this stuff, along with the fact that the board met no more than a dozen times between 2000 and 2002 (when Obama and Ayers were on the board together).

Of course, some media organizations are less reliable than others. I can always count on my local news to let me down. A few days ago, WPXI News in Pittsburgh (Channel 11) was ending every segment by saying, "New at 6:00, Sarah Palin is accusing Barack Obama of associating with terrorists!" By the time 6:00 rolls around, they finally get to this segment, and they go on to list the various smear tactics that McCain and Palin are employing without fact-checking a single one!! They don't mention what terrorist she was talking about or the fact that every other news outlet has decided that this accusation is bogus.

Now most politicians when confronted with their obvious bullshit have the common sense to say, "Aw shucks, you caught me," before too many people realize what happened. Or at the very least, they just stop saying it. I'm almost impressed by how adamently McCain and Palin are sticking to this. Palin declared the other day, "The Associated Press is wrong" though she failed to inform the rest of the country which secret sources she was using to refute them, and McCain said, "I don't need lessons in telling the truth to the American people." Their response to being called out on their nonsense is a resounding, "NUH UH!!!" One has to almost admire that kind of stunning bullshit.

I think this is why the election is interesting me so much. The political issues are nice, but the rhetoric of the campaigns and the media sensationalism is what really grabs you by the nuts and makes you go, "Hey, what the hell is going on??" Astute readers will note that I promised not to blog about politics anymore, and in my defense.... it's my goddamn blog, and the election coverage has my knickers in a twist. I suppose the bullshit wouldn't surprise me if I thought McCain was genuinely a slimey and dishonorable guy, but from what I've been able to gather from the internet and old media interviews, McCain used to be a very reputable and decent public servant. It makes me wonder if his "win at all costs" campaign strategy gives him pause at night.

Media analysts have determined that people often only read the headlines of newspapers and news websites (I admit to being guilty of this), so when a headline reads, "Barack Obama linked with terrorist?" or "Palin Associates Obama with Terrorism" your average person doesn't read the rest of the story to find out that the answer to the first headline is "NO" and the end to the second headline is "and she's full of shit." Your friendly Joe Six-Pack (that slovenly saucy All-American home slice we hear so much about) simply files "Obama = Terrorist" into his feeble little brain and goes onto beer number seven.

Stupid people make for great comedy, and politics just shines a bright light onto the best sources of entertainment that money can buy. I certainly don't have a boner for the democrats (that's why I'm registered independent), but they're not making such colorful asses out of themselves like the Republicans are.

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Bill Ayers: Less of a threat to national security than Shaggy and Scooby Doo.