You call Keating, Ayers, ACORN et all serious debate?
Posted By: gourdpainter on 2008-10-16
In Reply to: Seriously - WTH
I don't. How about the economy, the wars, the exploding national debt, unemployment, homelessness. That's the issues I'd like to see discussed and your proposed solutions, not who can sling the most mud. Get it?
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Like Ayers and Wright and ACORN?
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you call this debate?
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Yes, key word is FIGHT, you don't debate. You name call and badger, and when that fails
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Keating Five
History, it is said, is written by the victors. Or alternatively by John McCain, who has proclaimed that his role in the 1989 Keating Five corruption and racketeering scandal -- which led to the Lincoln Savings and Loan (S&L) bailout, part of the larger United States S&L crisis of the late 1980's and 1990's -- is his "asterisk." Excuse me? His asterisk? This writer begs to differ.
But apparently the American corporate media agrees, judging by its all but collective failure to report on McCain's primary role in the one incident in American history where the exact same catalyst, government deregulation, led to a comparable financial shipwreck, albeit not on the same gargantuan scale as the present, historic economic collapse.
This is not to say that the S&L crisis was not big. To the contrary, the immensity of the Lincoln Savings and Loan collapse, indeed of the entire S&L sector--and John McCain's role in it--is impossible to overstate. At this point, a bit of historical context is in order.
It all began when Charles Keating's American Continental Corporation purchased Lincoln in 1984. In the span of five years, with Keating as chairman -- and with the S&L industry newly deregulated -- Lincoln's assets ballooned from 1.1 billion to 5.5 billion. Much of this booty was the result of using customers' federally insured deposits to engage in high risk, highly speculative real estate and junk bond dealings.
By 1986, Lincoln had $135 million in undisclosed losses, and they had surpassed the newly imposed cautionary 10 percent "direct investment" limit of institutional assets by $600 million dollars. It doesn't take a financial wizard to recognize that this did not bode well for Lincoln's individual depositors -- or for the government's insurance fund, the Federal Depositor Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In 1989, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), growing increasingly alarmed by Lincoln's use of FDIC-insured funds for commercial real estate deals, initiated a probe into Lincoln's free-wheeling investment practices.
Once Keating got wind of the investigation, he decided to capitalize on his political investments, his estimated $1.3 million in campaign contributions to various U. S. Senators. And John McCain, the deregulator's deregulator, was the recipient of the most cash, $112,000 -- which may not seem like much by today's standards, but it was a bundle back in the 1980's.
And that doesn't include the other fringe benefits afforded to McCain, like private jet rides to Keating's opulent Bahamas estate, myriad fund raisers for McCain's House and Senate campaigns, or Cindy McCain's (and her father's) involvement with Keating in a "sweetheart" shopping mall deal in Arizona. As the Feds closed in, Keating decided to call in his markers.
Keating orchestrated at least two April 1987 meetings between several San Francisco FHLBB board members, including its chairman Edwin Gray, and five U. S. Senators -- The Keating Five -- including the good John McCain. In spite of this blatant obstruction of justice, the San Francisco regulators found Lincoln guilty of unsound lending practices and recommended its seizure. The Keating Five exerted pressure and the takeover was delayed for 2 years. Gray was replaced. Meanwhile, Lincoln's customers were steered into extremely risky, uninsured investments, junk bonds held by Keating's American Continental Corporation, which ultimately went belly-up in April 1989. Lincoln was finally seized by the FHLBB that same month.
Meanwhile, more than 21,000 mostly elderly depositors lost their life's savings in the sordid affair, to the tune of $285 million, prompting an approximate $2 billion federal government bail-out. Keating was found guilty of fraud and racketeering and served 50 months of a 12-year prison sentence. McCain was cleared of any wrongdoing and chided for "poor judgment" by the Senate Ethics Committee.
In the two decades since this disgraceful affair, McCain has maintained that he did not knowingly do anything wrong. All the money and graft did not influence his actions.
Not so, according to Keating who is quoted in the 2003 book, Philosophical Dimensions of Public Policy. When asked if his political donations amounted to quid pro quo, Keating reportedly said "I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope so."
No such candor from John McCain. To let the senator from Arizona tell it, he was only helping Keating because he was one of the largest employers in his state. Besides that, Keating's accountants vouched for Lincoln's financial viability. Even Alan Greenspan authored a favorable report commissioned by Keating, McCain routinely deflects. How could anyone blame him for not knowing that Keating was looting Lincoln? (This is kind of like the Bush Administration's circular defense of the massive "intelligence failure" with regard to Saddam Hussein's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.)
At any rate, that is McCain's story, and he has been sticking to it for almost two decades now. Not that he has had to talk much about it in recent years. He has been too busy straight-talking about ethics and campaign finance reforms, not unlike the burglar who repents and becomes an anti-theft crusader. And lo and behold, so far it has worked. In perhaps the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy, it would seem that McCain has succeeded in making The Keating Five mess his self-proclaimed asterisk. And who can blame him for trying to sanitize this most shameful chapter of his political career? But the so-called Fourth Estate's silence is another story altogether.
It is nothing less that mind-boggling that most of the media establishment, America's supposed "watchdog" is ignoring this crucial chapter of the McCain story. Really, when you think about it, it is obscene; and an objective history will judge them harshly. Particularly when one considers that this is the same media that acted as drum majors in the run-up to the Iraq War, and were enthusiastically embedded with the military in the delusional days of "shock and awe." Or were they in bed with the Bush Administration?
This is the very same media that obsessed over Bill Clinton's sexual peccadilloes and savaged AL Gore for inconsequential things like visiting a Buddhist temple or kissing his wife too passionately after his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Committee...and who barely made a sound when the Supreme Court basically overturned an American Presidential election. And it is the same media that was basically complicit in the swiftboating of the decorated Vietnam veteran, John Kerry.
The same press corps that has rendered the Democrats spineless and, for the last eight years, afraid to act as a true opposition party (and too fainthearted to raise the Keating Five in this election cycle) lest they too be savaged by the Republicans who, with a wink and a nod, constantly rail against the "liberal media" who have now apparently taken a vow of silence about John McCain's "asterisk."
In a clear-eyed, reasonable, straight-talking society, the Keating Five would be the lead of any John McCain biography, second only to the Hanoi Hilton. Some might even argue that the monumental racketeering scandal should take a back seat to nothing in the story of this man who would be president -- particularly at a time when this nation's economic infrastructure is literally crumbling. Count this writer in that number.
Two words... KEATING FIVE!! nm
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The Keating Scandal
Over the weekend, John McCain's top adviser announced their plan to stop engaging in a debate over the economy and "turn the page" to more direct, personal attacks on Barack Obama.
In the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, they want to change the subject from the central question of this election. Perhaps because the policies McCain supported these past eight years and wants to continue are pretty hard to defend.
But it's not just McCain's role in the current crisis that they're avoiding. The backward economic philosophy and culture of corruption that helped create the current crisis are looking more and more like the other major financial crisis of our time.
During the savings and loan crisis of the late ྌs and early ྖs, McCain's political favors and aggressive support for deregulation put him at the center of the fall of Lincoln Savings and Loan, one of the largest in the country. More than 23,000 investors lost their savings. Overall, the savings and loan crisis required the federal government to bail out the savings of hundreds of thousands of families and ultimately cost American taxpayers $124 billion.
Sound familiar?
In that crisis, John McCain and his political patron, Charles Keating, played central roles that ultimately landed Keating in jail for fraud and McCain in front of the Senate Ethics Committee. The McCain campaign has tried to avoid talking about the scandal, but with so many parallels to the current crisis, McCain's Keating history is relevant and voters deserve to know the facts -- and see for themselves the pattern of poor judgment by John McCain.
The point of the film and the web site is that John McCain still hasn't learned his lesson.
And this time, McCain's bankrupt economic philosophy has put our economy at the brink of collapse and put millions of Americans at risk of losing their homes.
Watch the video to see why John McCain's failed philosophy and poor judgment is a recipe for deepening the crisis:
http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo
It's no wonder John McCain would rather spend the last month of this election smearing Barack's character instead of talking about the top priority issue for voters.
It's long (13 minutes) but information every voter should know.
Why don't you ever mention the other 4 in the Keating 5 were....
Democrats? Three of whom were much more than "rebuked." The Keating 5 was a small part of the article. The lead with the pic of the "indicted" guy has been refuted...and Obama also has an "indicted" friend..Rezko. But you did not bring that up either.
Google and look.....for instance the Keating 5....
one of those was also Senator John Glenn of Ohio, a Democrat. Did we see HIS name prominently in the letter? People love John Glenn and NO ONE ever mentions HE was one of the Keating 5. In fact, all the other 4 were Democrats. John Glenn and John McCain were the only 2 that the senate ethics committee said were NOT centrally involved and cleared of impropriety. Both ran for re-election the next year and both were re-elected. And John McCain has apologized for any involvement, said it was poor judgment, and mentioned that again at the Saddleback interview. At least he admits when he is wrong and takes responsibility. Yet another reason I like him.
THAT is what I mean about getting the WHOLE story.
Let's talk about McCain and the Keating Five or his
Let's talk about how he left his wife who waited for him while he was in prison for five years. Then he dumped her because she was disfigured in an accident. Now he has Cindy who makes life wonderful with $100 mil a year. He needs to be president to bring something to the table for HER because his war vet thing is nice but not really as prestigious as PRES and as PRES he could do a lot for rich people like wifey.
And he's related to Charles Keating!
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Like JOHN MCCAIN - Keating 5 Scandal
I guess JM is a crook, too
http://www.mahalo.com/Keating_5_Scandal
Keating 5 cost taxpayers $125 billion.
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McCain has spoke ad nauseam about Keating 5
Get over it already!
The corrupt ACORN bunch are still at it and Obama is backing them every inch of the way. They are his push into office don't ya know?
Debate, lets debate
Honey, I dont know if your problem is Alzheimer's or Parkinson's but I have debated all over this board..I have tried and tried again and again to debate with your cohorts..It starts out okay and then your conservative friends start attacking and it continues through the debate to where then there is no longer a debate. I ask for you to check the archives and you will see this..nothing but personal attacks against me, which then I attacked back..Debate..lets debate..I WOULD LOVE TO DEBATE WITHOUT ATTACKS..Place an issue and lets debate..Who knows..my consciousness might be raised or yours might be..Lets do it,,
Call me what you want, just don't call me late for dinner. LOL....
GP, I like your sense of humor.
You call it hysteria, some call it concern for the
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Ayers
barack was 8 years old when Ayers was active. I would not hold anyone responsible for knowing an acquaintance's history that remote. The real question in this election is how is the country doing under repub administration?. Are things going well for your family and neighbors? Are you for endless war, repeal of women's right to chose, and putting Social Security in the hands of Wall Street? Do you want your country in the hands of people who insist on presenting messages about decades-old news and accusations of "celebrity" and think that economically we are basically okay?
Big O and Ayers...
http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/08/obama-ayers-top-ten-10-highlights-of-20.html
Well, Ayers is bad enough but what about his
Ayers' wife is Bernadine Dohrn. This woman is also a radical nutjob, a member of the Wethermen Underground terrorists, of which she has proudly proclaimed to be.
Now, these two are VERY involved with Obama; they helped launch his political career and have been throwing money at it, as well as directly related to jumpstarting his fundraiser.
And for this man to sit there and say he doesn't know them that well at all...
I'm sure most of our mother's told us to choose your friends wisely because you will be judged by the company you keep.
This man sat in the HOME of Ayeres and Dohrn and announced his first campaign for the Illinois State Senate. Yet he says he has NEVER been in their home, has never been friends with them, just sat on a board with them. Bull crap!!
And when backed in a corner he says, "I assumed he had been rehabilitated".
Ayers's wife publically professed that she thought the Charles Manson murders were wonderful! What kind of person uses anything and anyone in order to further his career. That is just unsettling. The Weatherground Underground were largely responsible for those sick people standing around while our Vietnam vets came home and they spit on them and called them murderers.
How can Obama think Ayers was rehabilitated when Ayers has NEVER shown any remorse for his crimes?
Ayers was asked again in 2001 if he would bomb again and he said he wouldn't discount that possibility. Obama thought he was rehabilitated?
And now Obama's campaign is back peddling just a couple of days ago, saying Obama must have been talking about his education work when he thought Ayers had been rehabilitated. Huh?
Ayers: Here we go
So according to Ayers interview he and Obama were family friends, they did a fund raiser together and Ayers donated money to Os earliest campaign. NOT what O said. Not at all what O said. So, if this was a lie, what is next? Hamas and O are not too hard to believe. You guys just wait, the truth will all come out. When i posted about the required statement on his website, i was bashed that this was not true, but look IT WAS.
Obama and Ayers
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_weatherman_connection.html
It is not about how old Obama was when Ayers was ....
bombing things...it is his adult associations with the man. Either you have not researched the relationship other than the mainstream media and connected the dots, or have connected the dots, know there is a relationship and don't care. Some of us DO care.
I am not as concerned about the above post as I am about the radicalism of Bill Ayers that Barack Obama shares. He will not be up front about that because he knows it would cost him the election. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure that out.
They tried to put Ayers in jail! He got off on a
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ayers is a jerk
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What is even scarier is those who would believe Ayers...
Ayers called Obama a family friend
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-talk-ayers-14nov14,0,2979315.story
ayers isn't scary
He's a big fat jerk who belongs in jail. He probably feels stupid about what he did in the late 60s, realizing there really isn't anything hip or cool about it. College students shouldn't be allowed to use government money to classes from a terrorist.
This should be posted under the Ayers garbage.
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Okay, now explain away Bill Ayers.
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another endearing thing about Ayers...
described himself as communist with a small "c." Ahem.
Why is Obama friends with Ayers?
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=sTy00vCy9d0&NR=1
Actually, even though Ayers' terrorism was that long
ago, he was quoted on 9/11/01 in the NYT as saying he feels "we didn't do enough."
See link below for the article.
Let bygones be bygones? NOT. He is only out free because of a legal technicality.
and brezinski, ayers, obama, and
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Then call it what it is...or call for conservation...
but don't make up a myth to try to gain control. That is what Gore is after...what all the global warming hoohah is after. They have an agenda...pure and simple. And the base fact is that a very low percentage of the greenhouse gas effect is from cars. Every time you breathe out, you contribute. Are we all going to stop breathing? Are cows going to stop belching? I have no problem with ethanol...I have used it. My husband is from Iowa...I would love it if we started using ethanol more extensively. But in previous years, Democrats (Hillary being a primary one) opposed the use of ethanol. I guess if I believed any of those people out there hawking global warming actually believed what they were saying it would be different...but I don't. The science is not there. As I said...if the real interest is conservation with the side benefit of less CO2...fine. Just say so. But as the article pointed out...if it is as bad as they say it is, you can't stop it anyway. It just does not make good sense to me.
Fine. Call if whatever you want to call it....
I will call it as I see it. I look at a totality of things. He has embraced black liberation theology which is racist and has Marxist tones for 20 years. There is no way the man went to that church for 20 years and did not know their doctrine. But, if you choose to believe that, again, fine. I do not. I believe he knows that theology backward and forward and believes it to his core. You don't have to. That is the wonderful thing about America. We can agree or disagree. On this we disagree.
Yes, I am feeling a pinch. But I don't think the government should take money from you and give it to me. I don't think they should take money from any private business and give it to me. If you think that is fair, fine. I don't. That is how socialism/Marxism takes hold. Historically it ends the same way. I don't want that for America. Perhaps you do...you want the pinch eased for you and if that means taking money from someone else that they earned, and giving it to you, who did not earn it, to you it is all good. To me it isn't.
He never has said who the $1000 checks are going to. I am thinking not every person in the whole US of A...so not only does he get to choose who he takes the money from, he gets to choose who to give it to. That would be another interesting piece of the puzzle. If he confirms to the Marxist view, it would be issuing checks to the "poor." And he gets to define who that is. You may be okay with that...me, not so much.
And by the way...have you ever researched an oil company profit margin? It is not as huge as Obama would like you to believe. But, again, he is counting on no one researching what he says. They hear free money and that's all they want to hear. Also, do you think oil companies don't employ people? You think it is one CEO at a desk in an office raking in billions? You don't think there are rank and file regular folks who work for oil companies? Whose jobs might be impacted by you and others wanting to take money away from their employers and doling it out to people who have not earned it? You think there is a chance they might have a problem with that?
I call, fax, and call again and I do campaign....
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I will reserve any opinion on the Ayers thing...
until the documents are made public that Columbia University just released regarding Ayers and Obama. Obama may have been 8 when Ayers was active, but just looking at the people Barack was connected with during that time I don't entertain any doubts that he knew exactly who Ayers was and what he had done. If it was in the past, that's one thing. But the man still says he is not a bit sorry that he did what he did. And if he has Obama's ear in any way...that would be a problem for me. But, that being said, it would just be one more thing, because I am not voting for him anyway.
With all due respect, the last few years have been under a democratically-controlled congress, and it has been in the last few years that things got really bad. Not saying it is all their fault, but they certainly haven't done anything to try to fix it. If they are going to be able to suddenly miraculously fix it if a Democrat is elected...all that tells me is that they are dragging their feet at our expense. The American public knows that...that is why Congress' numbers are lower than Bush's.
As a matter of fact, things are going pretty well for my family and my neighbors. The biggest thing, of course, is gas, but I remember when Clinton was in office we had a really LONG run of household fuel (for oil furnaces) was higher than it is now. I am not saying it was Clinton's fault because I don't think turns in the economy are any one man's fault. It is up to Congress to fix that sort of thing, not sit on their hands during a political season. I would be saying the same thing if it was a Dem administration. Has nothing to do with the party, it has to do with a lazy inactive Congress...which is, of course, made up of folks from both parties.
As to endless war...this country has had soldiers in other countries during most administrations since Viet Nam...Clinton had them in Kosovo and Somalia. Might have been "peacekeeping missions" but Americans still died there. And by the way, McCain did not say that the war in Iraq could go on for 100 years. What he said was that there might be an American presence there, like bases. We still have bases where we fought many wars. We had bases in Germany for many years. That has often been misquoted. That being said, he is not my favorite either; however, he fits the bill, for me, better than Obama.
In deference to my erstwhile fellow posters, I will not go into the abortion issue. :-)
The only thing I know about social security and wall street is it was proposed that if someone wanted to, they should be allowed to have control of their social security money and invest it if that was their choice. I have never heard anyone say it was mandatory. Personally, I would like to have control of mine to put into CD's where Congress couldn't raid it to pay for other things. If we had privatized it before, it would still be there because Congress couldn't have gotten their grubby paws on it to "borrow" it. Which, by the way, was done during a Democrat administration.
As to the celebrity and all that, I don't pay attention to attack ads on either side. I have seen some from Obama's side that are pretty harsh and about as silly. I wish they would both stop that stuff and stick to the issues...but that is just me.
Obama's Ayers Problem Deepens
Obama’s Ayers problem deepens
By Michelle Malkin • August 27, 2008 09:34 AM
The Chicago bully tactics aren’t going to work. While Obama sics his lawyers and Kossack minions on TV stations that dare to air an independent ad about his close relationship with Weather Underground terrorist-turned-academic Bill Ayers, the truth is seeping out. Thanks to the efforts of NRO’s Stanley Kurtz, blogger Steve Diamond, and intense pressure from Internet readers and talk radio listeners, the University of Illinois - Chicago was forced to release a trove of papers that a former official attempted to shield from public view. There are some 140 boxes and 1,000 files to sift through — and MSM outlets have barely scratched the surface. Kurtz is in Chicago to review the documents and will report tonight on his findings for two hours on Chicago station WGN’s Milt Rosenberg Show. (Good background here, too, in an in-depth discussion on the malign influence of Ayers’ educational philosophy and practice.)
Despite only partial review of the papers, some outlets are pooh-poohing the disclosures. The Chicago Tribune writes: “A partial examination of the documents did not reveal anything startling about the link between Obama, the Democratic presidential contender, and Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground, a Vietnam-era anti-war group that claimed responsibility for several bombings.”
And yet:
The UIC records show that Obama and Ayers attended board meetings, retreats and at least one news conference together as the education program got under way. The two continued to attend meetings together during the 1995-2001 operation of the program, records show.
At a Democratic debate this year when the association between Obama and Ayers was raised, Obama said: “This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood. . . . He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.” Obama called Ayers’ past radical acts detestable.
But critics note that Obama visited Ayers’ home for a meeting at the start of his first state Senate bid in the mid-’90s.
The UIC records showed that Ayers was instrumental in securing the $50 million education grant to reform Chicago Public Schools, part of a national initiative funded by the late Ambassador Walter Annenberg. . After Chicago was awarded the money, Obama served as president of the Challenge’s board of directors, the fiscal arm that disbursed the grants to schools and raised private matching funds. Ayers participated in a second entity known as the Chicago School Reform Collaborative, the operational arm that worked with the grant recipients.
Fox News’s James Rosen uncovered more of Ayers’ unrepentant, radical face while researching his latest book:
William Ayers, who was a founder of the 1960s and 1970s radical group the Weather Underground, told FOX News correspondent James Rosen in a candid 2004 interview that he still believed he was “on the side of justice” years after the group’s wave of attacks.
In the interview, conducted three years after the September 11 attacks, Ayers argued the U.S. government had carried out “many other acts of terror … even recently, that are comparable,” and claimed he and his bomb-planting comrades were “restrained” in their actions.
Ayers, now a professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, served with Barack Obama on the board of the charitable Woods Fund of Chicago for three years and helped launch Obama’s political career in Illinois by hosting in his Hyde Park home an informal campaign event for the future state senator in 1995.
Ayers claimed the Weathermen were driven by “hope and love,” not despair, and said he did not think the group’s violent acts, targeting federal officials and local law enforcement officers, were “a big deal.”
…Interviewed in May 2004 in connection with Rosen’s book “The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate,” published recently by Doubleday, Ayers affirmed that 9/11 was “an act of pure terror,” one that had caused him to weep, and that terrorism is “always wrong, always evil.” But Ayers also condemned the Bush administration for using the attacks “to advance a right-wing agenda on every front: every uterus must be examined, every tree chopped down, every oil well dug. I mean, it’s absolute madness.”
“I mean, the only group of people that I know who weren’t weeping for the next several weeks [after 9/11] were the people who were busy typing legislation into their computers,” Ayers continued.
When asked about some Palestinians who had been captured on videotape dancing in the streets after the attacks, Ayers said coverage of those individuals had been “overwrought” in the U.S. media, and added: “[E]verybody in the world knows that Americans are geographically challenged and historically challenged. We don’t have a sense of who we are or where we are. So I think every American that I know was weeping over the next several weeks, and devastated and shocked. Was that an act of pure terror? It absolutely was.
“And there are many other acts of terror carried out by our government, even recently, that, that are comparable.
Ayers is not only a flag-trampling apologist for domestic terror. He’s an inveterate liar. Andy McCarthy refreshes your memory.
Obama can wrap himself in the flag and attempt to gag his critics, but his false portrayal of Ayers as just a guy in the neighborhood is not going to fly. Obama’s friend is America’s enemy.
And America deserves to know.
I have found all liberals this way. Avoid Ayers,
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Go Big Red!!!!....My hometown kicks Ayers to the curb...sm
UNL cancels speech by Ayers
By Henry J. Cordes and Khristopher J. Brooks
Published: Saturday, October 18, 2008 4:28 AM CDT
Midlands News Service
LINCOLN - The University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Friday evening rescinded its speaking invitation for 1960s radical-turned-educator William Ayers.
University officials cited "safety reasons" for canceling Ayers' Nov. 15 appearance.
Spokeswoman Kelly Bartling declined to elaborate on what safety concerns would keep Ayers from addressing a College of Education and Human Sciences event.
Earlier Friday, Gov. Dave Heineman strongly condemned the invitation and called on the NU Board of Regents and President J.B. Milliken to block it.
An Omaha charitable foundation announced it was pulling all of its contributions to the university. Several other donors also have indicated to university fundraisers that there could be a financial cost if Ayers speaks.
And Nebraskans by the hundreds continued to register their opposition with university administrators and others, lighting up phone lines and filling e-mail boxes.
Heineman said Ayers' invitation was "an embarrassment" to the state and that it goes beyond the bounds of the university's mission.
"Our citizens are clearly outraged and want action," Heineman said in an interview. "This is their university. This isn't even a close call. The university should immediately rescind the invitation."
Dean Marjorie Kostelnik said she spoke Thursday night with UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman about "the climate around this issue."
She said she also has spoken with representatives of Milliken's office.
Other public officials weighed in about Ayers on Friday, a day after the UNL speech was announced.
Both Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat, and Rep. Lee Terry, a Republican, called for cancellation of the speech.
"The invitation made to William Ayers to speak at my alma mater in the midst of a heated national election when he is such a highly controversial figure is an outrage," Terry said.
Nelson said the visit would not promote the unity now needed in the nation.
Said Attorney General Jon Bruning: "Academic freedom doesn't require us to lose our good judgment and common sense."
State Auditor Mike Foley sent the university a long request for information on Ayers' trip, its planning and how it is being funded. UNL officials have said Ayers' appearance would be privately funded.
Ayers was a member of the Weather Underground, a radical group that staged domestic bombings to protest the Vietnam War. Ayers was charged with conspiracy to incite riots, but the charges were dropped because of misconduct by prosecutors.
Ayers went on to gain respect in the education field and become a scholar known for his ideas on school reform. At UNL, the plan was for him to limit his speech to graduate education students to that topic.
The invitation to Ayers was extended in February, long before he became a household name in this year's presidential election because of his ties to candidate Sen. Barack Obama through their shared work a few years ago with a school reform effort.
The Gilbert M. and Martha H. Hitchcock Foundation in Omaha told the university Friday that it would halt all contributions to the university unless the UNL education faculty rescinded Ayers' invitation. The foundation has given millions to the university in the past.
While other donors haven't been as explicit, Clarence Castner, who leads the University of Nebraska Foundation, said it became clear that other contributions were "in jeopardy."
Scholars said a decision to pull an invitation to Ayers could be seen by educators nationally as a school-sponsored curb on academic freedom.
It would make UNL a less attractive school to the faculty members it seeks to recruit, said David Moshman, a UNL education professor writing a book on academic freedom.
Heineman said Friday that "there is no way" the university should lose contributions over Ayers. There are plenty of other respected educators the university could invite to speak, he said.
http://www.nptelegraph.com/articles/2008/10/18/news/60001219.txt
I did hear him explain his relationship with Ayers
other than just saying he lived in the neighborhood and it seemed logical enough to me.
I really believe we are on the brink of a Civil War. I fully expect that if the 95% of blacks who support Obama don't get their man in office they'll pitch a major hissy fit. And don't think the white supremists will sit idlely by if Obama is elected. The biggest difference as I see it is 95% of whites don't support McCain. So with that 95% it isn't hard for me to believe this race is about race whether anyone wants to admit it or not.
It's been said that the South will rise again and I believe truer words were never spoken although I don't think this Civil War will be anything like the last one.
This is just my opinion so need in calling me a racist. I've already said I'll take a chance on the unknown and vote against McCain.
No matter how long ago it was, Ayers still has the same beliefs sm
He has shown that by not apologizing, but even saying right after 09/11 in 2001 saying that he still didn't feel they had done enough and wished they had done more. People died in those bombings. He was and is a terrorist right here in homeland. He has posed in recent years with himself standing on top of a crumpled American flag - and yet we buy Obama's excuses as to why he won't acknowledge respect of our flag? You really think those two things are not related? That Obama on national television is in essence giving a "wink and a nod" to his cohorts? It screams obvious. And now all the voter fraud with Acorn, and I guess Obama is just coincidentally involved with them too?
And just think, Ayers has now had 40 more years to plan & implement. sm
He now has better technology, more sophisticated recruits, better communication via internet. Since he has never changed his mind or regretted his actions, he has had all these years to prepare. Very scary thought.
Ayers is not running for president. He is not O's advisor.
O's sponsor. Dr. Ayers is entitled to vote for whomever he likes. He can donate to the campaign of his choice. They served on the board of a community organization which addressed poverty relief and social mobility. I find that to be a noble cause and certainly do not hold it against either of them. The Ayers smear campaign is beyond absurd. I agree with Stardust. Time to move on.
What about judgement? Wright, Rezko, Ayers,
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"I barely knew Bill Ayers"
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You fear-mongers are much scarier than Ayers.
"I knew Barack Obama, absolutely. And I knew him probably as well as thousands of other Chicagoans," Ayers said. "And like millions of other people worldwide, I wish I knew him better right now."
Ayers, now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, calmly dismissed any belief that he and Obama are covering up a deeper bond.
"This idea that we need to know more, like there's some dark hidden secret, some secret link, is just a myth, and it's a myth thrown up by people that wanted to exploit the politics of fear," Ayers said. "And I think it's a great credit to the American people that those politics were rejected. The idea that we should continue to be frightened and worried and barricaded is falling down, and it should."
Obama and Ayers forced radicalism in schools...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212856075765367.html
Wow, this is explosive stuff!
Also, James Johnson, who headed Obama's VP vetting committee...one of the Fannie CEOs who walked away with a several million golden parachute. Obama is on the Fannie list of donation recipients...#2 on that list, topped only by Chris Dodd. Wow...that is explosive stuff. Another advisor...Franklin Raines...another fired corrupt CEO from Fannie...walked away with a golden parachute in the multimillions...wow...explosive stuff.
Campaign kickoff at Ayers' HOME? Friends? Yes.
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Who Obama listens to.........Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers,
Bernadine Dohrn publicly approved of the Charles Manson murders. And she thought it was great!
These are the people who helped him start his career, such as it is. Now in 2007, not when Obama was 8 years old, but 2007, Ayers hosted Obama's first fundraiser and his good 'ole pal Bernadine Dohrn was sitting there with him. Now, those are the kind of people who he LOVES to spend time with.
You gotta do better than that. You really just do not want to know the truth.
Don't forgot Bernadine Dohrn....Ayers' wife
This lady is just as dangerous as Ayers'. She is one of the Wethermen terrorist and has helped with Obama's fundraisers to boot. O really has some dangerous/sick friends. She has also served on panels with him. He considers her a friend. She also thought the Manson Murders were a good thing!!!
I dont believe any "Pubs" used Ayers home to kick
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