Talk:Bill Ayers

Cleanup

This article was/is a total mess. I deleted all of the quotations and most of the obvious hagiography. Someone else want to try improving this? Cheers, Skinwalker 00:05, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

"co-conspirator's bomb" is ambiguous. It was either also his bomb because he was a co-conspirator or a bomb someone also in the weathermen had created without his help, in which case he was not a co-conspirator. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.217.235.147 (talk) 00:19, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Obama

I removed the paragraph about Obama. The links to him are strained and malicious. These two figures live and work in politics in the same neighborhood. Of course they're going to be on the same project or panel occasionally. The only intent of making these links is to suggest a close relationship and smear Obama by association. They are misleading and are not relevant to Ayers' biography. --PFR 17:27, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

It seems that there should be some sort of information about how Ayers is a controversial figure whom many regard to be a terrorist. It's oddly absent.--Gloriamarie (talk) 18:31, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Given that the Ayers/Obama link, no matter how tenuous, is an increasingly salient topic of discussion among some people, including in the Times of London, this controversy does need to be reflected in this entry. Oregondesert (talk) 19:39, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

i will admit that i am no obama fan but i think politico.com is a pretty credible source. obama has been to the guys house, while it may be true that people who want that information on the page have "malicious intent" that by itself those not discredit the facts. Ben Smith at politico is a non-biased journalist i think, and he reported that obama had a much closer relationship than you guys suggested. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.80.96.75 (talk) 02:52, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

i added the obama thing back. its just a copy and paste from bill smith's article at politico. i think its fair but i know that there are some real obama lovers out there. It is an issue btw, its talked about on FOX news. I just heard them talking about it on Hannity and Colmes. I don’t think its fair to just suggest that some right wing blog is trying to sabotage obama so the information should not be reported. It may very well be used in the general election. Hannity already said that he was going to bring it up, so that makes it a relevant issue in the political race even if its not fair. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.80.96.75 (talk) 03:03, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

here is the url to 1 example of main stream media talking about obama's relationship with ayers. http://www.foxnews.com/video2/player06.html?030308/030308_hc_2rove&Hannity_Colmes&Karl%20Rove%20Part%202&acc&Hannity%20%26%20Colmes&-1&Shows&342&&&new —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.80.96.75 (talk) 03:26, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

ok someone took away me edit. i know you guys apparently have had this issue with other people, and have decided to not include it in the article, but could someone at least explain why ? its talked about in the main stream media, its not some dumb internet thing like calling obama a muslim. people, he is running for the president of the USA, it is very dangerous to shield him from criticism just because you think he is the best. also the link between obama and bill is not as weak as the above posters suggest. did you guys read the article at politico.com . are they biased and stretching to ? the only argument i see is that people who want the criticism have an ulterior motive. ummm ya, they want to have people informed when they are choosing their president. i think a supporter of obama should factor this into his decision. just to label people as part of a right wing conspiracy is an illogical fallacy, this is news, its reported on, i don't understand you people ahhhhhhh. check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV_h-XwchkY , it makes a lot of claims about obama with ayers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.80.96.75 (talk) 04:30, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

I've reverted again because you added it back contentiously. It would take a lot to explain, but the citations used to support the edits are not reliable - they're political sites. Saying that this person is a "friend" of Obama, or that Obama visited his house, is not relevant to his own history. This is an article about Bill Ayers, not Obama or the 2008 presidential campaign. It's only relevant to the attack politics surrounding the election. The fact that Fox News says it, and then someone else talks about it because Fox News talked about it, and now it's an election issue, is utterly unconnected to the notability of Bill Ayers. We're an encyclopedia, not a political pundit site. Please don't keep adding weakly sourced material that has no consensus here. Wikidemo (talk) 07:35, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Either you are wrong or Wikipedia has thousands of articles that should be deleted immediately. Wikipedia has articles about utterly unimportant persons like JonBenét Ramsey, Laci Peterson and Natalee Holloway which are notable ONLY because Fox News and other media are endlessly talking about them. So if Obama and Ayers connection is completely bogus, there should still be section about the fact that Sean Hannity of Fox News is talking about it every single day. And face it, that is practically only reason why anyone reads this article anyway. Again, considering the way how Wikipedia handles media controversy, there should be article about Ayers - Obama connection even if Ayers were completely fictional person made up by Sean Hannity!!! Warbola (talk) 10:45, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

That argument amounts to "because we have a lot of junk we should have some in this article too", which isn't an inclusion criterion here. Those other examples don't relate to this case but in any event a Fox News pundit advocating an issue does not make it worth covering on Wikipedia, nor does it make the issue relevant to any particular article. Wikidemo (talk) 16:25, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

check out http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080401/NATION01/603988821.

He served on the board of the Woods Fund, a small radical foundation, with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn late of the Weather Underground, the radical cell that killed cops and tried to plant a bomb in the U.S. Capitol. They're married to each other now and after a decade on the run turned themselves in and served prison time. They're unrepentant. In an interview with the New York Times, Prof. Ayers boasted that he had no regrets about setting bombs to kill innocents: "I feel we didn't do enough."

When the senator and the unrepentant bomber served together on the Woods Fund board, the Fund awarded $6,000 to Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church "in recognition of Barack Obama's contributions of Woods Fund as a director." Later the Obama-Ayers board awarded a generous grant to the Arab-American Action Network. It's entirely possible that Barack Obama missed the board meetings when such awards were made. He says he missed Jeremiah Wright's incendiary sermons, too. The man has a gift for avoiding the wrong place at the right time.

ok, so its not just about being friends. it is relevant to ayers life because its what he is doing now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.130.90.42 (talk) 23:26, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Obama served with Ayers on the board of a small, leftist foundation, the Woods Fund. Ayers later chaired the board and is still a member. Obama served from 1999 until 2002 and received several thousand dollars annually as compensation. According to the 2001 annual report, the fund made a $6000 discretionary grant to Rev. Wright's Trinity United Church "in recognition of Barack Obama's contribution of services to the Woods Fund as a director." Serving with Obama and Ayers was the prominent Palestinian activist, Rashid Khalidi, then a historian at the University of Chicago and now the Edward Said Professor at Columbia. (While they were all on the board, the Woods Fund gave a generous grant to the Arab American Action Network, headed by Khalidi's wife, Mona.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/realclearpolitics/20080331/cm_rcp/four_stumps_in_the_water_for_o

to the moderator, this is recent publications. please review these articles before making the same decision. I’m not just adding it again and again to be rebellious, this info came out in the last 3 days.

[[Category:]]

Heads up

This is on the front page of Redstate. Page protection might be in order.

http://www.redstate.com/blogs/moe_lane/2008/feb/22/and_obamas_pet_minitruthers_start_editing_bill_ayers_wiki_entry --Vlvtelvis (talk) 23:33, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Why page protection? Do you have real evidence of RightWingers defacing pages? It's usually not the Right defacing free speech in the name of some greater "New Speak". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Steve LA (talk • contribs) 00:55, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

ok, i think i met wikis criteria.

Ayers serves presently on the board of the Woods Fund, a leftist foundation. Notable members have included Barack Obama who worked there from 1999 to 2002

ref http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080401/NATION01/603988821

i know, i know, its so perfectly fair and balance, i don't know how i do it. thank you thank you