“It’s a dangerous road, but we have no choice,” a top McCain strategist recently admitted to the Daily News. “If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose.”

As long as we’re talking about Ayers again, how about talking about the fact that McCain has stood up for a man who admitted to murdering a civil rights activist?
http://www.annistonstar.com/breaking/2008/as-localupdate-1006-jflemingcol-8j06o5456.htm
In the early 1990s, Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., wrote a letter to the State Department regarding James B. Fowler, who was at the time imprisoned in Thailand on narcotics charges.
McCain’s State Department letter was dated Nov. 15, 1991. It briefly explains Fowler’s situation and asks Assistant Secretary Elizabeth Tamposi of the Office of Consular Affairs to look into his case.
In 2005, The Star published an interview with James B. Fowler who admitted publicly for the first time that he shot Jimmie Lee Jackson, during a melee in February 1965 in the west Alabama town of Marion. Fowler insisted it was in self defense.
Jackson’s death a few days after the shooting proved pivotal for organizers of the civil rights movement, leading indirectly to the Selma-to-Montgomery march and, many historians argue, the passage by Congress of the landmark Voting Rights Act in August 1965.
But of course, I’m sure that doesn’t matter to you because McCain is a Republican and Obama’s a Democrat with a funny name, right Michele?

Oh, and the Alaska Independence Party that Sarah Palin’s husband was a member of until 2002? It has direct ties to Iran:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/10/07/palins_unamerican/
You want to talk about terrorist connections? Look no further than Todd Palin’s political past from just a few short years ago. Not only did the AIP want to secede from the U.S., but they looked to Iran to help them do it.

The AIP is an interesting link. Todd Palin is an ethnic minority who lived in the land we call Alaska long before Russia “claimed” it and long before Russia sold that land to the United States. Here is a statement from the actual AIP website (which evidently you have not bothered to read):
“The platform of the AIP is, as one would expect, centered on Alaskan issues. Although it is widely thought to be a secessionist movement, the Party makes great effort to emphasize that its primary goal is merely a vote on secession, something that Party advocates say Alaskans were denied during the founding of the state. A plebiscite was, in fact, held in Alaska at the state’s inception in 1958, but AIP members argue that voting was corrupt and that residents were not given the proper choice between statehood, commonwealth status, or complete separation — something they say has been granted to other U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico.
Here is another:
“The call for this vote is in furtherance of the dream of the Alaskan Independence Party’s founding father, Joe Vogler, which was for Alaskans to achieve independence under a minimal government, fully responsive to the people, promoting a peaceful and lawful means of resolving differences.”
Peaceful and lawful vote…promoting a group that bombed the Pentegon…slight difference. (note, that comment was not aimed at Todd Palin OR Barack Obama – but rather their freedom of association, and the judgment required to choose that association.)

Minnie…can we just look at the timeline in your comment for a minute?
In 1965, Fowler shot Jackson
In 1991, McCain wrote a letter asking that Tamposi look into the “matter” (drugs in Thailand)
In 2005, Fowler admitted for the first time that he had shot Jackson.
Is ESP now a requirement for McCain? Should he be blamed for not knowing in 1991 that Fowler committed a crime that he admitted to for the first time in 2005?
On the other hand, Ayers connection to the group that car-bombed John Murtagh’s house long before Obama chose to be chairman of the board for a group that Ayers created…

Here is a statement from the actual AIP website (which evidently you have not bothered to read)
That’s rich coming from a Republican. Utterly hilarious.
Why bother with a canned and updated statement when the views of the AIP’s founder are clear enough? He was violently opposed to the United States, and looked to Iran as a way out for this country. And Todd Palin was a member of that group.
That’s all that needs to be known. I mean, he spent years in the group, surely he agreed with the violent and anti-American sentiment of the AIP.
I’m only holding Todd Palin to the same standard you Republican hypocrites are holding Obama to over Ayers. They served together on a community board and met socially a handful of times. That’s the same as being a member of a secessionist group founded by a man violently opposed to the United States, right?

Oh…You must mean why bother with actual source material, when you can rely on such things as the Huffington Post and Salon…you know…neutral.
Tell me, Minnie…whose house did the AIP fire bomb?
Which government building did they bomb again?
Even the article that you quote, quotes Vogler, “Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people.
Ayers said, “I’m going to fight them with any means at hand.”
vote vs. car bombing…you decide.

If Ayers is so important, why didn’t McCain mention him once during the debate? He was standing just a few feet away from Obama. Why not bring it up if it matters so much?
Guess it must not mean all that much to John McCain, then.

Uh…because they didn’t ask a question.

MZ ELLEN, YOU ARE RIGHT. THE VERY FIRST QUESTION SHOULD HAVE BEEN, SO, OBAMA, EXPLAIN TO US WHY YOU ASSOCIATED WITH A TERRORIST EVEN WHEN YOU WERE IN INDONESIA AND EIGHT YEARS OLD. WHO PAID YOUR FLIGHTS BACK TO THAT RESTROOM WHERE YOUR FRIEND BLEW UP THAT BOMB? AREN’T YOU ASHAMED? TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOTS WANT TO KNOW.

Uh…because they didn’t ask a question.
Which would only reinforce what I’ve said all along. NO ONE CARES ABOUT AYERS. It’s irrelevant in the fact of our current economic collapse. The only people who care about this nonsense are the ones who wouldn’t vote for Obama in the first place.
If Ayers mattered at all, someone would have asked a question about him, or McCain would have brought it up on his own. Since it wasn’t mentioned, it shows that the American public has their minds on other, far more important things.

“On the other hand, Ayers connection to the group that car-bombed John Murtagh’s house long before Obama chose to be chairman of the board for a group that Ayers created…”
that’s right. loooong before obama knew him, ayers was connected to the group that car bombed murtagh’s house (38 years ago). so the game is to slime obama using guilt by association… by association. here’s the deal. the vietnam war is over. the protests are over. move on mccain.
again, if you want to talk about terrorists, talk about bin laden for a change. or why not go back to the “obama is a muslim” thing? that was at least more believable.
no, on second thought i think that mccain should continue to kick this dead horse. it seems to be working so well for him, in light of the current economic collapse and all. unfortunately every time he opens his mouth, the dow drops another 500 points.
minnie: “Why not bring it up if it matters so much?”
ellen: “Uh…because they didn’t ask a question.”
like how to solve the current economic crisis. like how to capture bin laden. like the danger of obama’s ties to a radical of 40 years ago. these are all very critical to mccain, but he’s going to wait until someone asks. sure, that’s plausible.

VERY IMPORTANT READING FROM THE NATION AND STEVEN WALDMAN’S BLOGUE:
Biblical scholars in Colorado Springs have uncovered startling evidence that Senator John McCain may be the Antichrist. Their conclusions, while highly controversial, may have a dramatic impact on the 2008 elections, since many Bible-believing Christians have already expressed doubts about McCain’s fealty to Christianity.
The analysis was conducted by the respected True Bible Society, and it will be published next month in the End Times Journal.
The analysis was especially ironic, given that it came out just one day after McCain was accused of subtly hinting that Barack Obama could be the Antichrist. McCain ran a commercial depicting Obama as “The One,” giving rise to charges that he was sending a subliminal messages to anti-Obama Christians.
“What started us looking at this issue is the fact that Senator McCain has declared his intention to maintain US forces in Iraq for a hundred years,” said David Jenkins, a leading Biblical scholar. “That means that McCain wants to control Babylon for at least a century.” According to many scholars of the Book of Revelation, the Antichrist will try to rebuild the ancient city of Babylon in order to use it as a springboard for an international effort at world domination. Ultimately, the Antichrist will marshal forces from Babylon to spark a showdown with Christian and Jewish-led forces in the battle of Armageddon.
“We believe that the End Times is near, based on the pattern of wars, earthquakes. and other strange phenomena we’ve been witnessing since the start of the New Millennium,” said Jenkins. “Given that it may be imminent, the person who controls Babylon must be the Antichrist.” Until 2003, many Christians believed that Saddam Hussein might be the Antichrist, since he started excavations to restore Babylon in the mid 1970s. But Hussein’s death meant that the Antichrist is someone else. Since Obama wants to get out of Iraq, he can’t be the Antichrist either, concluded Jenkins.
Jenkins said his teams suspicions were further heightened when genealogical research showed that McCain’s great-grandfather was actually not John McCain, but John Mihai. Mihai is an ancient Romanian name, and according to Bible-believing Christians, the Antichrist is likely to be a Romanian. “What clinched it for us was that the name Mihai means ‘who is like the Lord,’” said Jenkins. “As far as we’re concerned, that was enough. It means that McCain might easily pretend to be the Redeemer.”
McCain’s geniality and folksiness are consistent with his being the Antichrist, Jenkins said. “Many people think that the Antichrist will be a evil-seeming leader, but in fact the Bible tells us that he will be charming.”
So far the McCain campaign has refused to comment on Jenkins’ study.

My friend Dave, aka RIGHTY, has been signing at me for an hour to help him post the following, also run by Steven Waldman:
Biblical scholars in Colorado Springs have uncovered startling evidence that Senator John McCain may be the Antichrist. Their conclusions, while highly controversial, may have a dramatic impact on the 2008 elections, since many Bible-believing Christians have already expressed doubts about McCain’s fealty to Christianity.
The analysis was conducted by the respected True Bible Society, and it will be published next month in the End Times Journal.
The analysis was especially ironic, given that it came out just one day after McCain was accused of subtly hinting that Barack Obama could be the Antichrist. McCain ran a commercial depicting Obama as “The One,” giving rise to charges that he was sending a subliminal messages to anti-Obama Christians.
“What started us looking at this issue is the fact that Senator McCain has declared his intention to maintain US forces in Iraq for a hundred years,” said David Jenkins, a leading Biblical scholar. “That means that McCain wants to control Babylon for at least a century.” According to many scholars of the Book of Revelation, the Antichrist will try to rebuild the ancient city of Babylon in order to use it as a springboard for an international effort at world domination. Ultimately, the Antichrist will marshal forces from Babylon to spark a showdown with Christian and Jewish-led forces in the battle of Armageddon.
“We believe that the End Times is near, based on the pattern of wars, earthquakes. and other strange phenomena we’ve been witnessing since the start of the New Millennium,” said Jenkins. “Given that it may be imminent, the person who controls Babylon must be the Antichrist.” Until 2003, many Christians believed that Saddam Hussein might be the Antichrist, since he started excavations to restore Babylon in the mid 1970s. But Hussein’s death meant that the Antichrist is someone else. Since Obama wants to get out of Iraq, he can’t be the Antichrist either, concluded Jenkins.
Jenkins said his teams suspicions were further heightened when genealogical research showed that McCain’s great-grandfather was actually not John McCain, but John Mihai. Mihai is an ancient Romanian name, and according to Bible-believing Christians, the Antichrist is likely to be a Romanian. “What clinched it for us was that the name Mihai means ‘who is like the Lord,’” said Jenkins. “As far as we’re concerned, that was enough. It means that McCain might easily pretend to be the Redeemer.”
McCain’s geniality and folksiness are consistent with his being the Antichrist, Jenkins said. “Many people think that the Antichrist will be a evil-seeming leader, but in fact the Bible tells us that he will be charming.”
So far the McCain campaign has refused to comment on Jenkins’ study.

but he’s going to wait until someone asks. sure, that’s plausible.

In a debate, those are the rules, yes.
The Ayers thing matters because to this date, he does not regret what he has done. Nor does Jeremiah Wright.
Even more than the terrorist aspect is the radical nature of both the Weather Underground and Black Liberation Theology. It is likely that Obama will be the next president. And the nation will make a dramatic shift to the radical left. There will be no middle ground.
Righty, uh…I am beyond words. There was a boy who was about Obama’s age in Murtagh’s house when the Weather Underground bombed it. Do you think that the experience does not color his views today?
We are all affected by our past and Ayers is no different. And the fact that he has never said, “I was wrong” weighs in here.
It’s irrelevant in the fact of our current economic collapse
And yet, for many thinking people, associations are an indication of how a person would govern and where their values are.
For McCain, his VP and Todd Palin…the AIP platform includes reducing government intervention and allowing Alaskans the right to vote on their status. I don’t see that plank as a bad thing.
Anyway…out of time, I have a job…

McCain is a cowardly hypocrite who sends Palin out to do his dirty work for him. He wouldn’t dare say a word about any of this to Obama’s face in the front of the whole nation because he knows it would only be yet another embarrassment for him in a series of blunders.
And it’s clear McCain knows this whole Ayers business is irrelevant except in terms of shoring up his shrinking base of haters and idiots, inciting them to violent fantasies. If McCain really believes there’s anything “dangerous” about Obama, he owed it to the entire nation to stand up and say so last night. Instead, he’ll send the yappy little chihuahua out on the trail and see if she can whip up a crowd to yell “kill him!” again so they can get in the news. Kind of hard to compete with a global economic collapse, though; especially when it happened on your party’s watch.
The entire country saw who was the better man last night. McCain said we “need a steady hand at the tiller”; America knows whose hand that is.

The right wing is just flailing away- they are desperate.
Nobody gives a rat’s rear end about Ayers, even in Chicago. He was a nut 40 years ago, and now he’s a teacher. Whopee.
With the economy as it is, people are terrified, and with good reason. And you’re telling them to get all upset over Ayers? That’s like telling somebody who just got a cancer diagnosis that they should be really, really worried about that hangnail.
The whole right wing needs a timeout . They need to get sent to the corner to think for a long time.

Looks like the McCain campaign is dropping all mentions of Ayers, Wright and Rezko:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_10/015082.php
I guess reality finally set in that no one cares about any of those men as long as the economy is in a shambles. Either that or their internal polling on the subjects was brutal and reinforced the point that people weren’t interested in hearing about Ayers at all.

“In a debate, those are the rules, yes.”
since when does that matter, if it’s so important? you saw on the 2nd presidential debate that they bent the rules. palin in the v.p. debate answered questions that were never asked. that’s a lame excuse. and what about outside of the debates, up until this week when his campaign was desperate he didn’t think these were issues.
“The Ayers thing matters because to this date, he does not regret what he has done. Nor does Jeremiah Wright.”
what did ayers do? he blew up some statues. does bush regret what he has done?
“And the nation will make a dramatic shift to the radical left. There will be no middle ground.”
while i completely disagree with that hysterical outlook (and there is nothing to support it), considering the dramatic shift toward the radical right that we’ve had over the past 2 decades, i would welcome a leftward shift before the ship capsizes.
“And yet, for many thinking people, associations are an indication of how a person would govern and where their values are.”
so, if mccain wins, we would suffer more economically while he and his cronies deregulate more and profit politically from the likes of keating. anyone and everything that the religious right took issue with (abortion doctors, environmentalists, evolution scientists, public education, homosexuals, minorities, jews, atheists, secularlists) would continue to be attacked.

this is what the bushies and the radical right have turned this country into. they wipe their asses with the constitution.

that’s funny that miichele relies on such sources as p.u.m.a. for information, an amateur blog of obama haters and closet republicans that still questions obama’s u.s. citizenship.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
and guess what cnn found. NOTHING.
A CNN review of project records found nothing to suggest anything inappropriate in the volunteer projects in which the two men were involved.

First Obama claims that over a TWENTY YEAR period, he never heard a single anti-American racist sermon from Jeremiah Wright … never noticed the anti-American racist literature in the church’s lobby … never agreed to the ‘Black Values System’ that all the church members swore to … never subscribed to the Marxist ‘Black Separation Theology’ espoused on the church’s website … never knew anti-American racist Louis Farrakhan, who the church awarded a life time achievement award to … and, never knew unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, when Obama launched his campaign from Ayer’s living room, sat on a board together, and whose wives worked at the same law firm http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2008/10/devastating_vid.php
. Obama also worked with Acorn, who has been caught in massive voter fraud, in behalf of Obama. Obama obviously shares an anti-American racist, and criminal philosophy with some very unsavory people, continues to lie about it, and does not have the character, or integrity to be President of the United States of America !!!

Hate hate hate. Smear smear smear.
There were plenty of Republicans on these boards and at these same meetings. They make it sound as if it was just Bill and Barack. Have you never been on a board or at a meeting? How about with someone you didn’t know well? How about with someone with a bad reputation. It’s quite possible Barack enjoyed working with someone who gets the job done. Even someone who had turned their life around.
I am so thankful that Obama takes the high road at every turn and is not dragging pure old John McCain and his trophy wife through the mud. As president he will be able to be respected for his integrity.
In a 2 year process of vetting, if this is the best the Republican party can do, they really ought to lay off. They are starting to foam at the mouth.

that’s the way fascists work. they have no proof of wrongdoing on obama’s part. they have no proof that he’s a radical, that he’s a marxist, that he is a terrorist, or that he’s a muslim. that’s why they talk in generalities… whisper campaigns and email floods. propaganda and fearmongering by malkin and limbaugh and loyal wing-nuts across the airwaves and blogs. mccain and palin incite mob-like rabid frothing of their followers. they throw out the epithets and innuendo and fear and let the human imagination fill in the blanks. heck, these righties are victims of it themselves.
it’s time to turn the tables. time to black list the anti-choice protesters and war profiteers and right-wing radicals and rightist fringe groups and rabid nra members. put them on the terrorist lists, so that when any republican sits on a board with one of them we can tar and feather them, too.

A R – How true. “They throw out epithets and innuendo and fear and let the human imagination fill in the blanks.”
That explains why the Republican party is for the most part home of the Religious crowd. They are already used to being sheepled.