If Bill Ayers had been a Branch Davidian (est. 1912) or a white seperatist in Idaho and made explosives, Federal agents would have killed him and/or his family, and received awards for doing so.

Fortunately, he is so unimportant that his relationship with the next President is disregarded.

Kinda remembers me sect leaders who, interrogated about their follower's actions, claim innocence. The whole "I never killed or injured anyone" spiel is troubling. I never killed anyone neither but I don't feel the need to claim this as a badge of good conduct.

I think Radwaste brings another nice little point here; if this psycho Bill Ayers was less politically correct, how long it would had took to send him into "Early Retirement"? But, hey, he's a "Leftist" so he got a job teaching at a University.

I was appalled by the headline on the New York Times website. (I just looked, it's still there at 740am PST): "Op-Ed: Bill Ayers Speaks"

I hate that locution... Hate it, hate it, hate it. It's a despicable throwback to days when papers were published three times a day and pre-teen boys were running through ethnic neighborhoods calling out the headlines. As if we were all desperately waiting to hear from Bill Ayers, a man whose beliefs and feelings were a gnawing concern in the weeks since the election.

I hate it. I mean it. The last time I saw this used was when Newsweek used it on their covers story for an interview with Timothy McVeigh from the jail cell. As if we'd been waiting to hear his side of things... 'Cause, you know, he was an important political figure, not just an indescribably pathetic virgin / army reject / hillbilly / child of divorce.

(And by the way, even without the other events of 2001 to distract us, his execution did a wonderful jobs of taking him and his ilk out of the headlines, which is important. All these guys got going for them is the illusion that the rest of us care, a monster that the pathetic media elites are once again eager to nourish.)

Years and years ago, I worked on a cheesy syndicated series called Crimes of the Century, and we did the townhouse bombing. I called up a number of the participants, and of all the people I contacted, only Ayers and Dohrn wanted money--$10K each. I got Carl Ogilsvy instead, who was fascinating. I don't fault them for asking for money, but the amount was ridiculous. I wonder how much he got from the NYT?

And why did the paper let him lie? Of course they targeted people--the bomb was intended for an enlisted man's dance. Who's he kidding?

Oh, how can you be so hard on him. Have you seen Bernardine's waist-hip ratio?

> Ayers and Dohrn wanted money--
> $10K each

Now that's an anecdote.

I am not fond of Bill Ayers. I don't know much about him other than what I've read in the press and his interview on Fresh Air.

I think he was an obnoxious, privileged, rich kid, and he grew into being an obnoxious, privileged, rich adult.

But Bob Owens has been involved in a series of total hoax screw-ups as the Confederate Yankee. Pushing stories that end up being complete nonsense.

I'm not sure what to make of Larry Grathwohl. FBI Informants don't always have the best reputation of being truthful, and almost always have some other agenda they are working on. (Possibly reputation rehabilitation, his own book/movie deal, ... )

Given the two, I look on the interview with a pretty skeptical eye and would want to see confirmation from other sources.

I find John Murtaugh's account much more damning, and I would love for someone to ask Ayers about that.
http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0430jm.html

I think he was an obnoxious, privileged, rich kid, and he grew into being an obnoxious, privileged, rich adult.

Funny how things so often work out that way.

Speaking as someone who would probably one of the 25 million people Ayers and Dorhn casually talk about eliminating, I always love listening to the desperate pleadings of the counter-culture that they should be respected as patriots and intellectuals.

"We stopped a war!" No, you simple-minded idiot, the guys in the black pajamas crawling through the jungle stopped the war. And they did it in the way that wars have been stopped for centuries - by winning it.

You just facilitated their win. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese killed in re-education camps thank you.

Child Victim of William Ayers Nail Bomb Speaks Out
In this video clip (running 4:21), Fox news interviews the now grown child of a judge. His house was bombed by Bill Ayers, using a nail bomb, and there were four bombs!. Nail bombs are designed to kill people (ordinary bombs do a pretty good job too), and houses are not "small vacant offices" (as if that mattered).

Correction to the above. I should not have believed the title of the cited story. The bombs used on Murtagh's (the child of the story) house and family car were firebombs. The Weathermen built nailbombs for other cases, but it seems didn't use one here.

I can't possibly improve upon what Crid and Conan have already said.