That was hilarious! Thanks for that. We "trusted" those clowns for 8 years and what did it get us?

I too was at Grant Park in 1968. In fact, it was where I met my wife.

One of the things I remember about Vietnam is that we dropped the equivalent of one ton of TNT for every 16 square feet of the entire country.

What has constantly amazed me is how hard it is for people in our counry to see how warlike we are, as a nation. If you go back through our history, it is hard to find any appreciable period when we have not been warlike somewhere.

Holding ourselves out as peaceable and stalwarts of free and fair elections is mythical.

coopted into the "ain't America grand, the system worked" narrative that encompasses such things as Nixon's (eventual resignation, no trial), the Iran Contra investigation (damn few prosecutions of a bunch of criminal types who later staffed the GWBush administration) and the 2000 election (because the supreme court ruling apparently prevented rioting in the streets, or something) ...

The anti-war movement did make a difference ... but the big boys stopped the war only when they realized it was politically expedient to do so ... and only years after taking the "winds out of the sails" of the movement by beginning "negotiations"...

yeah that thing about "doomed to repeat it" applies here too ... long live Obama who voted no ... what a difference a day makes, or not.

The Weather Underground opposed a regime that used its superior military power to terrorized against other nations. The WU were extremely careful not to harm innocent bystanders. The WU never killed a cop, defense department officials, military personnel or politicians supporting the Vietnam war. The only people killed were 3 WU members when a bomb they were preparing went off. How exactly do Bill Ayers and his WU members qualify as terrorist while the likes of GWBush, GHWBush(remember the invasion of Panama and the killing of 3000 Panamanian civilians?), Niixon, Cheney, Rumsfeld, McCain(who specifically attacked civilian targets when a bomber pilot, a clear war crime) don't?

To paraphrase:

"A young man/woman who is no revolutionary has no heart. An old man/woman who still is a revolutionary has no brains."

In our unforgiving culture, youthful transgressions are rarely overcome. Few convicted of a youthful crime are ever readmitted into the mainstream of society. As a result many who could become useful members of society are shunted to the side lines because they did something in their youth that was politically incorrect. It is encouraging that Ayers was able to do it. And it says a lot about those who tried to use him to bring down Obama.

but none of the sleazy associations mattered becuz we were all swept up in electing the first black presidink. If we can keep the stock market from disappearing before he gets in office we'll have a chance to see if there is buyers' remorse -- whether reformed Republicans in Congress will help in '10 as with Clinton or whether it will be "Jimmy Carter's second term" and Sarah will serve his second term.

..."on the other hand, if he does what most of you want"...

what is it you think obama's supporters want? y'all throw this drivell out with nothing back it.

to be clear, the first thing i want is to stop tossing money into an ill advised rat hole in iraq and start spending it here...to help all americans, including you!

Please read the post, "You Had To Be There". The writer hits the nail on the head.

I was there also. I remember the outrage caused by our government's lying and coverups during the Vietnam War. I remember having serious doubts about going to Vietnam if my Army Reserve unit was called to action (we were on Active Standby).

I remember the sincerity and the outrage of the war protestors, and the sometimes violent responses to peaceful protests. I remember the "America haters" taunts by people supporting that useless war.

America was in a constant state of rage, it seems. A virtual nightmare. So groups like the Weather Underground gained traction because there seemed to be no other way to get the attention focused on just how wrong the Vietnam War was.

Remember this: 55,000 Americans killed, many, many more badly wounded, God knows how many Vietnamese died, and America torn apart as a nation.

That is the legacy of that War.

By your definition, then, let us also consider the following persons:

George W. Bush

Richard "Dick" Cheney

Richard Addington

John Yoo

Alberto Gonzales

http://torturingdemocracy.org/ This excellent PBS documentary should help you to better understand your own definition and the ones that seem to elude those supportive of, but not fighting for democracy in our time (though, we all hope, using peaceful means to achieve their ends).

If any sane American were left today, they'd be advocating for wholesale impeachment or criminal charges not against the Bill Ayers of the world, but of the very leaders who continue to drag the idea of human rights and dignity through the dirt.

Go to sleep well tonight, JoleneB et al, knowing that people who continue to practice and engage in wholesale torture, terrorism and other criminal acts are still running the show.

He and the rest of the Bush regime are still scumbags, by whatever name you might otherwise refer to them.

Both of you appear to be laying the blame for the deaths of an armored car guard (Paige) and two police officers (O'Grady and Brown) during a robbery, at Ayers feet. The problem is, Ayers was not at all involved. In fact, of the bombings the Weathermen were involved in, only their own members were killed.

The Brink's robbery occurred in 1981, committed by members of the BLA and the May 19 Communist Organization. Not only had the Weathermen begun to splinter in the early 1970s, it had dissolved completely by 1976. Ayers and his wife had turned themselves in to the police in 1980, a full year before the robbery.

The only link between Ayers and that robbery is the fact that some members of the May 19 group were, years before, Weathermen.

I have no problem with people making up their own minds about how they view Ayers and his actions. I'm certainly not going to argue that blowing up buildings, empty or not, was anything other than the wrong thing to do. However, if you are going to revile someone, do it because of their actual behavior, not because of a list of fictitious wrongs.