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Pelosi Wells Up While Recalling Political Murders
thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ^ | September 17, 2009 | Bernie Becker

Posted on 09/17/2009 10:38:43 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who usually keeps her emotions in check, got choked up at her weekly news conference on Thursday after being asked whether she was worried about how harsh the political atmosphere had become.

After saying she had “concerns about some of the language” in the current political debates, the speaker got emotional while discussing the rhetoric that “created a climate” that led to violence in San Francisco in the late 1970s — a seeming reference to the murders of Harvey Milk, the gay activist and member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and the city’s mayor, George Moscone, in 1978.

“And so I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made, understanding that — that some of the people — the ears it is falling on are not as balanced as the person making the statement might assume,” Mrs. Pelosi added.

(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agenda; bloggersandpersonal; democrats; liberalfascism; pelosi; sourcetitlenoturl
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1 posted on 09/17/2009 10:38:43 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
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To: Berlin_Freeper

That Botoxed b***c is one of the primary reasons for the political atmosphere that we see today.


2 posted on 09/17/2009 10:40:00 AM PDT by Carling (Gatesgate: Obama's Waterloo)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

3 posted on 09/17/2009 10:40:18 AM PDT by envisio (Wanna understand all the problems with this country? Google "Kanye West".)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Vince Foster and Mary Mahoney?


4 posted on 09/17/2009 10:40:44 AM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: Berlin_Freeper

I’m confused, what makes them “political” murders?


5 posted on 09/17/2009 10:41:24 AM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

I wonder how she feels about the Democrat’s KKK lynching political opponents.


6 posted on 09/17/2009 10:41:38 AM PDT by Tarpon (The Joker's plan -- Slavery by debt so large it can never be repaid...)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Just think Diane Feinstein and Willie Brown and just left the office that those murder had taken place.


7 posted on 09/17/2009 10:41:43 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Oh, now that is one precious Yawn.

Thanks. Makes the day worth it.


8 posted on 09/17/2009 10:42:10 AM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
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To: <1/1,000,000th%

She is so full of crap...


9 posted on 09/17/2009 10:42:20 AM PDT by DonaldC (A nation cannot stand in the absence of religious principle.)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

“Boo Hoo! Why won’t everybody just do what I want? Wahhhh! I’m right! They’re mean! Wahhhh!”


10 posted on 09/17/2009 10:42:38 AM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: Carling

“And so I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made....”

Can I presume that she is including her own sorry self after all the vitriol SHE has spewed? No?

Didn’t think so.


11 posted on 09/17/2009 10:42:40 AM PDT by EggsAckley (There's an Ethiopian in the fuel supply. W.C. Fields)
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To: Carling
That Botoxed b***c is one of the primary reasons for the political atmosphere that we see today.

No kiddin'! Am I'm getting so sick and tired of Harvey Milk... he wasn't killed because he was gay... he was killed because he pissed off someone who ate lots of twinkies...

Here's a thought... why don't you run the House like it is supposed to work... for the better of our country instead of your party... hmmm? Nancy?

12 posted on 09/17/2009 10:42:50 AM PDT by John123 (If Teddy was the lion of the senate... then we were the prey.)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

How about Weather Underground and their radical bombings and protests....

Weather Underground. East coast members favored a commitment to violence and challenged commitments of old leaders, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers and Jeff Jones.
JEFF JONES/Apollo Alliance/Stimulus Bill author

[edit] Style
The rhetorical style of the Weathermen was described by one early observer, referring to Bill Ayers’s speech, “A Strategy to Win” delivered in Cleveland, as “outrageously arrogant:”

It typifies the aggressive tone Weatherman began to adopt towards those in and out of SDS who questioned Weatherman politics or plans for the National Action (Days of Rage). It best captures the rhetorical flavor of Weatherman on the attack—combative, uncompromising, confident, and outrageously arrogant.[24]

This style, expressed as open advocacy of resistance, resonated with the SDS’s student base at that time.[25]

[edit] Practice
Shortly after its formation as an independent group, Weatherman created a central committee, the Weather Bureau, which assigned its cadre to a series of collectives in major cities. Members of collectives engaged in intensive criticism sessions which attempted to reconcile their prior and current activities and political positions to Weatherman doctrine. Monogamy and other exclusive sexual relationships came under attack. Martial arts were practiced and occasional direct actions were engaged in.[26] This formation continued during 1969 and 1970 until the group went underground and a more relaxed lifestyle was adapted as the group blended into the counterculture.[27]

[edit] Armed propaganda
Following their initial clumsy experiments which resulted in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion the organization adapted a new paradigm of direct action set forth in the communiqué “New Morning, Changing Weather” which abjured attacks on people.[28] A relatively sophisticated program of armed propaganda was adapted. This consisted of a series of bombings of government and corporate targets in retaliation for specific imperialist and oppressive acts. Small well constructed time bombs were used, generally in vents in restrooms, which exploded at times the spaces were empty. Timely warnings were made and communiqués issued explaining the reason for the actions.[29]

[edit] Activities and Suspected Activities
See also: 1970 bombing in San Francisco suspected of the WUO

[edit] “Days of Rage”
Main article: Days of Rage

The Haymarket Square police memorial (1889 photo)One of the first acts of the Weathermen after splitting from SDS was to announce they would hold the “Days of Rage” that autumn. This was advertised to “Bring the war home!” Hoping to cause sufficient chaos to “wake” the American public out of what they saw as complacency toward the role of the US in the Vietnam War, the Weathermen meant it to be the largest protest of the decade. They had been told by their regional cadre to expect thousands to attend; however, when they arrived they found only a few hundred people. According to Bill Ayers, “The Days of Rage was an attempt to break from the norms of kind of acceptable theatre of ‘here are the anti-war people: containable, marginal, predictable, and here’s the little path they’re going to march down, and here’s where they can make their little statement.’ We wanted to say, “No, what we’re going to do is whatever we had to do to stop the violence in Vietnam.’”[5]

The protests did violate expectations:

Of the police:

We were faced with revolutionaries.[30][31]

Of the city:

We never expected this kind of violent demonstration. There has always been a big difference between what they say and what they do.[31][32]

Headlines read:

SDS Women Fight Cops[33]

A comment in the press:

Here we see a new breed of pro-black, pro-Viet Cong hooligan revolutionaries who not demanding this or that change, but are out to totally disrupt the very fabric of this society, out the smash this social order.[33]

Shortly before the demonstrations on October 8, 1969, they blew up a statue in Chicago built to commemorate police casualties incurred in the 1886 Haymarket Riot.[34] The blast broke nearly 100 windows and scattered pieces of the statue onto the Kennedy Expressway below.[35] The statue was rebuilt and unveiled on May 4, 1970 (coincidentally, the same day as the Kent State massacre), only to be blown up by the Weathermen a second time on October 6, 1970.[35][36] The statue was rebuilt once again and Mayor Richard J. Daley posted a 24-hour police guard to protect it.[35]

Though the October 8, 1969 rally in Chicago had failed to draw as many as the Weathermen had anticipated, the two or three hundred who did attend shocked police by rioting through the affluent Gold Coast neighborhood. They smashed the windows of a bank and those of many cars. The crowd ran four blocks before encountering police barricades. They charged the police but broke into small groups; more than 1,000 police counter-attacked. Many protesters were wearing motorcycle or football helmets, but the police were well trained and armed. Large amounts of tear gas were used, and at least twice police ran squad cars into the mob. The rioting lasted approximately half an hour, during which 28 policemen were injured. Six Weathermen were shot by the police and an unknown number injured; 68 rioters were arrested.[6][34][37][38]

For the next two days, the Weathermen held no rallies or protests. Supporters of the RYM II movement, led by Klonsky and Noel Ignatin, held peaceful rallies in front of the federal courthouse, an International Harvester factory, and Cook County Hospital. The largest event of the Days of Rage took place on Friday, October 9, when RYM II led an interracial march of 2,000 people through a Spanish-speaking part of Chicago.[6][37]

On October 10, the Weatherman attempted to regroup and resume their demonstrations. About 300 protesters marched through The Loop, Chicago’s main business district, watched by a double-line of heavily armed police. The protesters suddenly broke through the police lines and rampaged through the Loop, smashing the windows of cars and stores. The police were prepared, and quickly isolated the rioters. Within 15 minutes, more than half the crowd had been arrested.[6][37]

The Days of Rage cost Chicago and the state of Illinois approximately $183,000 ($100,000 for National Guard expenses, $35,000 in damages, and $20,000 for one injured citizen’s medical expenses). Most of the Weathermen and SDS leaders were now in jail, and the Weathermen would have to pay over $243,000 for their bail.[38]

[edit] Declaration of a State of War
In December 1969, the Chicago Police Department, in conjunction with the FBI, conducted a raid on the home of Black Panther Fred Hampton, in which he and Mark Clark were killed, with four of the seven other people in the apartment wounded. The survivors of the raid were all charged with assault and attempted murder. The police claimed they shot in self-defense, although a controversy arose when the Panthers and other activists presented what was alleged to be evidence suggesting that the sleeping Panthers were not resisting arrest. The charges were later dropped, and the families of the dead won a $1.8 million settlement from the government. It was discovered in 1971 that Hampton had been targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO.[39][40]

We felt that the murder of Fred required us to be more grave, more serious, more determined to raise the stakes and not just be the white people who wrung their hands when black people were being murdered.

—Bernardine Dohrn[5]
In 1970 the group issued a “Declaration of a State of War” against the United States government, using for the first time its new name, the “Weather Underground Organization” (WUO), adopting fake identities, and pursuing covert activities only. These initially included preparations for a bombing of a U.S. military non-commissioned officers’ dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey in what Brian Flanagan said had been intended to be “the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory”.[41]

[edit] New York City Arson Attacks
On February 21, 1970, gasoline-filled molotov cocktails were thrown at the home of New York State Supreme Court Justice Murtagh, who was presiding over the trial of the so-called “Panther 21,” members of the Black Panther Party over a plot to bomb New York landmarks and department stores. One bottle full of gasoline had broken against the front steps, and flames scorched the overhanging wooden frame until its contents burnt out. In addition windows were broken, and another molotov cocktail caused paint charring on a car. Painted in red on the sidewalk in front of his house was “FREE THE PANTHER 21”, “THE VIET CONG HAVE WON”, and “KILL THE PIGS”.[42] The same night, molotov cocktails were thrown at a police car in Manhattan and two military recruiting stations in Brooklyn.[43] The son of Justice Murtagh claims that the Weatherman were responsible for the attempted arson,[42] based on a letter promising more bombings sent by Bernadine Dohrn to the Associated Press in late November, 1970,[44] although that letter is generally assumed to refer to an October bombing of a Queens courthouse.[45] While nobody ever claimed responsibility, or was caught or tried, for the arson attempt,[42] several sources[46][47][48][49] state that the arson attempt was enacted by the Weathermen but was considered a failure.

[edit] Greenwich Village explosion
Main article: Greenwich Village townhouse explosion
On March 6, 1970, during preparations for the bombing of a Non-Commissioned Officers’ (NCO) dance at the Fort Dix U.S. Army base and for Butler Library at Columbia University,[2] there was an explosion in a Greenwich Village safe house when the nail bomb being constructed prematurely detonated for unknown reasons. WUO members Diana Oughton, Ted Gold, and Terry Robbins died in the explosion. Cathy Wilkerson and Kathy Boudin escaped unharmed. It was an accident of history that the site of the Village explosion was the former residence of Merrill Lynch brokerage firm founder Charles Merrill and his son, the poet James Merrill. The younger Merrill subsequently recorded the event in his poem 18 West 11th Street, the title being the address of the house. An FBI report later stated that the group had possessed sufficient amounts of explosive to “level ... both sides of the street”.[50]

The bomb preparations have been pointed out by critics of the claim that the Weatherman group did not try to take lives with its bombings. Harvey Klehr, the Andrew W. Mellon professor of politics and history at Emory University in Atlanta, said in 2003, “The only reason they were not guilty of mass murder is mere incompetence. I don’t know what sort of defense that is.”[2]

[edit] Underground
After the Greenwich Village incident, the group was now well underground, and began to refer to themselves as the Weather Underground Organization. At this juncture, WUO shrank considerably, becoming even fewer than they had been when first formed. The group was devastated by the loss of their friends, and in late April 1970, members of the Weathermen met in California to discuss what had happened in New York and the future of the organization. The group decided to reevaluate their strategy, particularly in regard to their initial belief in the acceptability of human casualties, rejecting such tactics as kidnapping and assassinations.

They wanted to convince the American public that the United States was truly responsible for the calamity in Vietnam.[5] The group began striking at night, bombing empty offices, with warnings always issued in advance to ensure a safe evacuation. According to David Gilbert, “[their] goal was to not hurt any people, and a lot of work went into that. But we wanted to pick targets that showed to the public who was responsible for what was really going on.”[5] After the Greenwich Village explosion, no one was killed by WUO bombs.[51]

We were very careful from the moment of the townhouse on to be sure we weren’t going to hurt anybody, and we never did hurt anybody. Whenever we put a bomb in a public space, we had figured out all kinds of ways to put checks and balances on the thing and also to get people away from it, and we were remarkably successful.

—Bill Ayers[5]

Investigators search for clues after the May 19, 1972 Weatherman bombing of the PentagonOn May 21, 1970, a communiqué from the Weather Underground was issued promising to attack a “symbol or institution of American injustice” within two weeks.[52] The communiqué included taunts towards the FBI, daring them to try and find the group, whose members were spread throughout the United States.[53] Many leftist organizations showed curiosity in the communiqué, and waited to see if the act would in fact occur. However, two weeks would pass without any occurrence.[54] Then on June 9, 1970, their first publicly acknowledged bombing occurred at a New York City police station,[55] saying it was “in outraged response to the assassination of the Soledad Brother George Jackson,”[5] who had recently been killed by prison guards in an escape attempt. The FBI placed the Weather Underground organization on the ten most-wanted list by the end of 1970.[34] On May 19, 1972, Ho Chi Minh’s birthday, The Weather Underground placed a bomb in the women’s bathroom in the Air Force wing of The Pentagon. The damage caused flooding that devastated classified information on computer tapes. Leftist groups worldwide applauded the bombing, illustrated by German youth protesting against American military systems in Frankfurt.[34]

[edit] Prairie Fire
The Weather Underground’s ideology changed direction in the early 1970’s. With help from former Progressive Labor member, Clayton Van Lydegraf, the Weather Underground sought a more Marxist-Leninist approach. The leading members of the Weather Underground collaborated on ideas and published their manifesto: “Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism.”[34] By the summer of 1974, five thousand copies had surfaced in coffee houses and bookstores across America. Leftist newspapers praised the manifesto.[56] Abbie Hoffman publicly praised Prairie Fire and believed every American should be given a copy.[57] The manifesto’s influence initiated the formation of the “Prairie Fire Organizing Committee” in several American cities. Hundreds of above-ground activists helped further the new political vision of the Weather Underground.[56] In the late 1970s, the Weatherman group further split into two factions — the “May 19 Coalition” and the “Prairie Fire Collective” — with Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers in the latter. The Prairie Fire Collective favored coming out of hiding, with members facing the criminal charges against them, while the May 19 Coalition continued in hiding. A decisive factor in Dohrn’s coming out of hiding were her concerns about her children (Bill Ayers, “Fugitive Days: Memoirs of An Antiwar Activist”, Beacon Press, 2001, 978-0-8070-3277-0). The Prairie Fire Collective started to surrender to the authorities from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The remaining Weather Underground members continued to attack US institutions.

[edit] Timothy Leary prison break
In September 1970, the group took a $20,000 payment from a psychedelics distribution organization called The Brotherhood of Eternal Love to break LSD advocate Timothy Leary out of prison,[5] transporting him and his wife to Algeria. Leary joined Eldridge Cleaver in Algeria; his initial press release contains revolutionary rhetoric sympathetic to the Weather Underground’s cause. When Leary was eventually captured by the FBI, it is alleged he offered to serve as an informant to capture the Weather Underground members to reduce his prison sentence. Others, such as Robert Anton Wilson, claim he was just feeding false information (and/or information he knew they already had) to the authorities in an attempt to reduce his sentence. Ultimately no one was charged, and Leary served a few more years in prison.[citation needed]

[edit] COINTELPRO
Main article: COINTELPRO
In April 1971, The “Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI” broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania.[58] The group stole files with several hundred pages. A majority of the files targeted radical left wing groups, and some individuals, for criminal or subversive activities. By the end of April, the FBI offices were to terminate all files dealing with leftist groups.[59] The files were a part of an FBI program called COINTELPRO.[60] However, after COINTELPRO was dissolved in 1971 by J. Edgar Hoover,[61] the FBI continued its counterintelligence on groups like the Weather Underground. In 1973, the FBI established the “Special Target Information Development” program, where agents were sent undercover to penetrate the Weather Underground. Due to the illegal tactics of FBI agents involved with the program, government attorneys requested all weapons- and bomb-related charges be dropped against the Weather Underground. The Weather Underground was no longer a fugitive organization and could turn themselves in with minimal charges against them.[62]

After the Church Committee revealed the FBI’s illegal activities, many agents were investigated. In 1976, former FBI Associate Director W. Mark Felt publicly stated he had ordered break-ins and that individual agents were merely obeying orders and should not be punished for it. Felt also stated that acting Director L. Patrick Gray had also authorized the break-ins, but Gray denied this. Felt said on the CBS television program Face the Nation that he would probably be a “scapegoat” for the Bureau’s work.[63] “I think this is justified and I’d do it again tomorrow,” he said on the program. While admitting the break-ins were “extralegal,” he justified it as protecting the “greater good.” Felt said:

To not take action against these people and know of a bombing in advance would simply be to stick your fingers in your ears and protect your eardrums when the explosion went off and then start the investigation.

The Attorney General in the new Carter administration, Griffin B. Bell, investigated, and on April 10, 1978, a federal grand jury charged Felt, Edward S. Miller, and Gray with conspiracy to violate the constitutional rights of American citizens by searching their homes without warrants, though Gray’s case did not go to trial and was dropped by the government for lack of evidence on December 11, 1980.

The indictment charged violations of Title 18, Section 241 of the United States Code. The indictment charged Felt and the others

did unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to injure and oppress citizens of the United States who were relatives and acquaintances of the Weatherman fugitives, in the free exercise and enjoyments of certain rights and privileges secured to them by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America.[64]

Felt and Miller attempted to plea bargain with the government, willing to agree to a misdemeanor guilty plea to conducting searches without warrants—a violation of 18 U.S.C. sec. 2236—but the government rejected the offer in 1979. After eight postponements, the case against Felt and Miller went to trial in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on September 18, 1980.[65] On October 29, former President Richard M. Nixon appeared as a rebuttal witness for the defense, and testified that presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt had authorized the bureau to engage in break-ins while conducting foreign intelligence and counterespionage investigations.[66] It was Nixon’s first courtroom appearance since his resignation in 1974. Nixon also contributed money to Felt’s legal defense fund, Felt’s expenses running over $600,000. Also testifying were former Attorneys General Herbert Brownell, Jr., Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, Ramsey Clark, John N. Mitchell, and Richard G. Kleindienst, all of whom said warrantless searches in national security matters were commonplace and not understood to be illegal, but Mitchell and Kleindienst denied they had authorized any of the break-ins at issue in the trial.

The jury returned guilty verdicts on November 6, 1980. Although the charge carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, Felt was fined $5,000. (Miller was fined $3,500).[67] Writing in The New York Times a week after the conviction, Roy Cohn claimed that Felt and Miller were being used as scapegoats by the Carter administration and that it was an unfair prosecution. Cohn wrote it was the “final dirty trick” and that there had been no “personal motive” to their actions.[68] The Times saluted the convictions, saying that it showed “the case has established that zeal is no excuse for violating the Constitution”.[69] Felt and Miller appealed the verdict, and they were later pardoned by Ronald Reagan.[70]

[edit] Dissolution
Despite the change in their status the Weather Underground remained underground for a few more years. However, by 1976 the organization was disintegrating. The Weather Underground held a conference in Chicago called Hard Times. The idea was to create an umbrella organization for all radical groups. However, the event turned sour when Hispanic and Black groups accused the Weather Underground and the Prairie Fire Committee of limiting their roles in racial issues.[62] The Weather Underground faced accusations of abandonment of the revolution by reversing their original ideology.

The conference increased divisions within the Weather Underground. East coast members favored a commitment to violence and challenged commitments of old leaders, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers and Jeff Jones. By the end of 1977, the Weather Underground would collapse.[71] An FBI estimate in 1976, or slightly later, of current membership was of less than 30 current members.[72]

Within two years, many members turned themselves in after taking advantage of President Jimmy Carter’s amnesty for draft dodgers.[34] Mark Rudd turned himself in to authorities on January 20, 1978. Rudd was fined $4,000 and received two years probation.[34] Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers turned themselves in on December 3, 1980, in New York, with substantial media coverage. Charges were dropped for Ayers. Dohrn received three years probation and a $15,000 fine.[34]

Certain members remained underground and joined other radical groups. Years after the dissolution of the WUO, former members Kathy Boudin, Judith Alice Clark, and David Gilbert formed the May 19 Communist Organization, which eventually joined with the Black Liberation Army. On October 20, 1981, in Nyack New York, the group robbed a Brinks armored truck containing $1.6 million. The robbery turned violent, resulting in the murders of two police officers and a security guard.[34] Boudin, Clark, and Gilbert were found guilty and sentenced to lengthy terms in prison, considered the “last gasps” of the Weather Underground.[73]

[edit] Legacy
Widely-known members of the Weather Underground include Kathy Boudin, Mark Rudd, Terry Robbins, Ted Gold, Naomi Jaffe, Cathy Wilkerson, Jeff Jones, David Gilbert, Susan Stern, Bob Tomashevsky, Sam Karp, Russell Neufeld, Joe Kelly, Laura Whitehorn and the still-married couple Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. Most former Weathermen have successfully re-integrated into mainstream society, without necessarily repudiating their original intent.

Weatherman was referred to in its own time and afterwards as “terrorist.”[74][75][76] The group fell under the auspices of FBI-New York City Police Anti Terrorist Task Force, a forerunner of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The FBI, on its website, describes the organization as having been a “domestic terrorist group,” but no longer an active concern.[77] Others either dispute or clarify the categorization, or justify the group’s violence as an appropriate response to the Vietnam war. In his 2001 book about his Weatherman experiences, Bill Ayers stated his objection to describing the WUO (Weather Underground Organization) as “terrorist.” Ayers wrote: “Terrorists terrorize, they kill innocent civilians, while we organized and agitated. Terrorists destroy randomly, while our actions bore, we hoped, the precise stamp of a cut diamond. Terrorists intimidate, while we aimed only to educate. No, we’re not terrorists.”[78] Dan Berger, in his book about the Weatherman, “Outlaws in America,” comments that the group “purposefully and successfully avoided injuring anyone... Its war against property by definition means that the WUO was not a terrorist organization.”[79]

Bill Ayers, now a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was quoted in an interview to say “I don’t regret setting bombs”[80] but has since claimed he was misquoted.[81] During the presidential election campaign of 2008, several candidates questioned Barack Obama’s contacts with Ayers, including Hillary Clinton[82], John McCain and Sarah Palin.[83][84] Ayers responded in December 2008, after Obama’s election victory, in an op-ed piece in The New York Times:

We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war. ... The responsibility for the risks we posed to others in some of our most extreme actions in those underground years never leaves my thoughts for long. The antiwar movement in all its commitment, all its sacrifice and determination, could not stop the violence unleashed against Vietnam. And therein lies cause for real regret.[85]

Brian Flanagan has expressed regret for his actions during the Weatherman years, and compared the group’s activities to terrorism. Flanagan said: “When you feel that you have right on your side, you can do some pretty horrific things.”[86] Mark Rudd, now a teacher of mathematics at Central New Mexico Community College, has said he has “mixed feelings” and feelings of “guilt and shame.”

These are things I am not proud of, and I find it hard to speak publicly about them and to tease out what was right from what was wrong. I think that part of the Weatherman phenomenon that was right was our understanding of what the position of the United States is in the world. It was this knowledge that we just couldn’t handle; it was too big. We didn’t know what to do. In a way I still don’t know what to do with this knowledge. I don’t know what needs to be done now, and it’s still eating away at me just as it did 30 years ago.

—Mark Rudd[5]
A non-violent faction of the Weather Underground continues today as the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee. Their official site reads:

We oppose oppression in all its forms including racism, sexism, homophobia, classism and imperialism. We demand liberation and justice for all peoples. We recognize that we live in a capitalist system that favors a select few and oppresses the majority. This system cannot be reformed or voted out of office because reforms and elections do not challenge the fundamental causes of injustice.[87]


13 posted on 09/17/2009 10:43:04 AM PDT by buffyt (I didn't like President Clinton, Carter, or Johnson either, does that make me RACIST????????????????)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Yes, slinging “racist” at your opponent at every opportunity does tend to make them pretty angry, as well as it generates an atmosphere of vitriol. Go figure.


14 posted on 09/17/2009 10:43:15 AM PDT by thecabal (Destroy Progressivism)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Hmmm, so maybe stopping to call people who disagree with the President “unAmerican” and Nazis would be a start?


15 posted on 09/17/2009 10:43:34 AM PDT by Unam Sanctam
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To: Berlin_Freeper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF-Fv_1uq-w


16 posted on 09/17/2009 10:44:27 AM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (http://www.muckety.com/7BECFF40501E647D3741343C37265A57.map)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

The “Failed Pelosi administration” has emotions?

who would have guessed


17 posted on 09/17/2009 10:44:54 AM PDT by Mr. K (THIS ADMINISTRATION IS WEARING OUT MY CAPSLOCK KEY DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT!!!!!)
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To: John123

I believe the twinkie-dude was after someone else, Milk was martyred tangentially.


18 posted on 09/17/2009 10:45:00 AM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: Berlin_Freeper
The Real Logo of the Democrat Party! Click the Pic
Click the Pic

19 posted on 09/17/2009 10:45:09 AM PDT by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: Unam Sanctam

CLINTON BODY COUNT

By: Ether Zone Staff

Here is the latest body count that we have. All of these people have been connected with the Clintons in some form or another. We have not included any deaths that could not be verified or connected to the Clinton scandals. All deaths are listed chronologically by date. This list is current and accurate to the best of our knowledge as of January 13, 1999 August 1, 2000.

Susan Coleman: Rumors were circulating in Arkansas of an affair with Bill Clinton. She was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head at 7 1/2 months pregnant. Death was an apparent suicide.

Larry Guerrin: Was killed in February 1987 while investigating the INSLAW case.

Kevin Ives & Don Henry: Initial cause of death was reported to be the result of falling asleep on a railroad track in Arkansas on August 23, 1987. This ruling was reported by the State medical examiner Fahmy Malak. Later it was determined that Kevin died from a crushed skull prior to being placed on the tracks. Don had been stabbed in the back. Rumors indicate that they might have stumbled upon a Mena drug operation.

Keith Coney: Keith had information on the Ives/Henry deaths. Died in a motorcycle accident in July 1988 with unconfirmed reports of a high speed car chase.

Keith McKaskle: McKaskle has information on the Ives/Henry deaths. He was stabbed to death in November 1988.

Gregory Collins: Greg had information on the Ives/Henry deaths. He died from a gunshot wound to the face in January 1989.

Jeff Rhodes: He had information on the deaths of Ives, Henry & McKaskle. His burned body was found in a trash dump in April 1989. He died of a gunshot wound to the head and there was some body mutilation, leading to the probably speculation that he was tortured prior to being killed.

James Milam: Milam had information on the Ives & Henry deaths. He was decapitated. The state Medical examiner, Fahmy Malak, initially ruled death due to natural causes.

Richard Winters: Winters was a suspect in the deaths of Ives & Henry. He was killed in a “robbery” in July 1989 which was subsequently proven to be a setup.

Jordan Kettleson: Kettleson had information on the Ives & Henry deaths. He was found shot to death in the front seat of his pickup in June 1990.

Alan Standorf: An employee of the National Security Agency in electronic intelligence. Standorf was a source of information for Danny Casalaro who was investigating INSLAW, BCCI, etc. Standorf’s body was found in the backseat of a car at Washington National Airport on Jan 31, 1991.

Dennis Eisman: An attorney with information on INSLAW. Eisman was found shot to death on April 5, 1991.

Danny Casalaro: Danny was a free-lance reporter and writer who was investigating the “October Surprise”, INSLAW and BCCI. Danny was found dead in a bathtub in a Sheraton Hotel room in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Danny was staying at the hotel while keeping appointments in the DC area pertinent to his investigation. He was found with his wrists slashed. At least one, and possibly both of his wrists were cut 10 times. All of his research materials were missing and have never been recovered.

Victor Raiser: The National Finance Co-Chair for “Clinton for President.” He died in a airplane crash on July 30, 1992.

R. Montgomery Raiser: Also involved in the Clinton presidential campaign. He died in the same plane crash as Victor.

Paul Tully: Tulley was on the Democratic National Committee. He was found dead of unknown causes in his hotel room on September 24, 1992. No autopsy was ever allowed.

Ian Spiro: Spiro had supporting documentation for grand jury proceedings on the INSLAW case. His wife and 3 children were found murdered on November 1, 1992 in their home. They all died of gunshot wounds to the head. Ian’s body was found several days later in a parked car in the Borego Desert. Cause of death? The ingestion of cyanide. FBI report indicated that Ian had murdered his family and then committed suicide.

Paula Gober: A Clinton speech writer. She died in a car accident on December 9, 1992 with no known witnesses.

Jim Wilhite: Wilhite was an associate of Mack McClarty’s former firm. Wilhite died in a skiing accident on December 21, 1992. He also had extensive ties to Clinton with whom he visited by telephone just hours before his death.

Steve Willis, Robert Williams, Todd McKeahan & Conway LeBleu: Died Feburary 28, 1993 by gunfire at Waco. All four were examined by a pathologist and died from identical wounds to the left temple. All four had been body guards for Bill Clinton, three while campaigning for President and when he was Governor of Arkansas.They also were the ONLY 4 BATF agents killed at Waco.

Sgt. Brian Haney, Sgt. Tim Sabel, Maj. William Barkley, Capt. Scott Reynolds: Died: May 19, 1993 - All four men died when their helicopter crashed in the woods near Quantico, Va. - Reporters were barred from the site, and the head of the fire department responding to the crash described it by saying, “Security was tight,” with “lots of Marines with guns.” A videotape made by a firefighter was seized by the Marines. All four men had escorted Clinton on his flight to the carrier Roosevelt shortly before their deaths.

John Crawford: An attorney with information on INSLAW. He died from a heart attack in Tacoma in April of 1993.

John Wilson: Found dead from an apparent hanging suicide on May 18, 1993. He was a former Washington DC council member and claimed to have info on Whitewater.

Paul Wilcher: A lawyer who was investigating drug running out of Mena, Arkansas and who also sought to expose the “October Surprise”, BCCI and INSLAW. He was found in his Washington DC apartment dead of unknown causes on June 22, 1993.

Vincent Foster: A White House deputy counsel and long-time personal friend of Bill and Hillary’s. Found on July 20, 1993, dead of a gunshot wound to the mouth — a death ruled suicide. Many different theories on this case! Readers are encouraged to read our report in Strange Deaths.

Jon Parnell Walker: An investigator for the RTC who was looking into the linkage between the Whitewater and Madison S&L bankruptcy. Walker “fell” from the top of the Lincoln Towers Building.

Stanley Heard & Steven Dickson: They were members of the Clinton health care advisory committee. They died in a plane crash on September 10, 1993.

Jerry Luther Parks: Parks was the Chief of Security for Clinton’s national campaign headquarters in Little Rock. Gunned down in his car on September 26, 1993 near the intersection of Chenal Parkway and Highway 10 west of Little Rock. Parks was shot through the rear window of his car. The assailant then pulled around to the driver’s side of Park’s car and shot him three more times with a 9mm pistol. His family reported that shortly before his death, they were being followed by unknown persons, and their home had been broken into (despite a top quality alarm system). Parks had been compiling a dossier on Clinton’s illicit activities. The dossier was stolen.

Ed Willey: A Clinton fundraiser. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on November 30, 1993. His death came the same day his wife, Kathleen, was sexually assaulted in the White House by Bill Clinton.

Gandy Baugh: Baugh was Lasater’s attorney and committed suicide on January 8, 1994. Baugh’s partner committed suicide exactly one month later on February 8, 1994.

Herschell Friday: A member of the presidential campaign finance committee. He died in an airplane explosion on March 1, 1994.

Ronald Rogers: Rogers died on March 3, 1994 just prior to releasing sensitive information to a London newspaper. Cause of death? Undetermined.

Kathy Furguson: A 38 year old hospital worker whose ex-husband is a co- defendant in the Paula Jones sexual harassment law suit. She had information supporting Paula Jone’s allegations. She died of an apparent suicide on May 11, 1994 from a gunshot wound to the head.

Bill Shelton: Shelton was an Arkansas police officer and was found dead as an apparent suicide on kathy Ferguson’s grave (Kathy was his girl friend), on June 12, 1994. This “suicide” was the result of a gunshot wound to the back of the head.

Stanley Huggins: Huggins, 46, was a principal in a Memphis law firm which headed a 1987 investigation into the loan practices of Madison Guaranty S&L. Stanley died in Delaware in July 1994 — reported cause of death was viral pneumonia.

Paul Olson: A Federal witness in investigations to drug money corruption in Chicago politics, Paul had just finished 2 days of FBI interviews when his plane ride home crashed, killing Paul and 130 others on Sept 8 1994. The Sept. 15, 1994 Tempe Tribune newspaper reported that the FBI suspected that a bomb had brought down the airplane.

Calvin Walraven: 24 year on Walraven was a key witness against Jocelyn Elder’s son’s drug case. Walraven was found dead in his apartment with a gunshot wound to the head. Tim Hover, a Little Rock police spokesman says no foul play is suspected.

Alan G. Whicher: Oversaw Clinton’s Secret Service detail. In October 1994 Whicher was transferred to the Secret Service field office in the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Whatever warning was given to the BATF agents in that building did not reach Alan Whicher, who died in the bomb blast of April 19th 1995.

Duane Garrett: Died July 26, 1995-A lawyer and a talk show host for KGO-AM in San Fransisco, Duane was the campaign finance chairman for Diane Fienstien’s run for the senate, and was a friend and fundraiser for Al Gore. Garrett was under investigation for defrauding investors in Garrett’s failed sports memorabilia venture. There was talk of a deal to evade prosecution. On July 26th, Garrett canceled an afternoon meeting with his lawyer because he had to meet some people at the San Fransisco airport. Three hours later he was found floating in the bay under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Ron Brown:. The Commerce Secretary died on April 3, 1996, in an Air Force jet carrying Brown and 34 others, including 14 business executives on a trade mission to Croatia, crashed into a mountainside. The Air Force, in a 22-volume report issued in June of 1996, confirmed its initial judgment that the crash resulted from pilot errors and faulty navigation equipment At the time of Brown’s death, Independent Counsel Daniel Pearson was seeking to determine whether Brown had engaged in several sham financial transactions with longtime business partner Nolanda Hill shortly before he became secretary of commerce.

Charles Meissner: died: UNK - Following Ron Brown’s death, John Huang was placed on a Commerce Department contract that allowed him to retain his security clearance
by Charles Meissner. Shortly thereafter, Meissner died in the crash of a small plane. He was an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for International Economic Policy.

William Colby: Retired CIA director was found dead on May 6,1996 after his wife reported him missing on April 27,1996. Apparently, Colby decided to go on a impromptu canoeing excursion and never returned. Colby who had just started writing for Strategic Investment newsletter, worried many in the intelligent community. Colby’s past history of divulging CIA secrets in the past were well known. Strategic Investor had covered the Vince Foster suicide and had hired handwriting experts to review Foster’s suicide note.

Admiral Jeremy Boorda: Died on May 16,1996 after he went home for lunch and decided to shoot himself in the chest (by one report, twice) rather than be interviewed by Newsweek magazine that afternoon. Explanations for Boorda’s suicide focused on a claim that he was embarrassed over two “Valor” pins he was not authorized to wear.

Lance Herndon: Herndon a 41 year old computer specialist and a prominent entrepreneur who received a presidential appointment in 1995 died August 10, 1996 under suspicious circumstances. He appeared to have died from a blow to the head. Police said no weapons were found at his mansion, adding that Mr. Herndon had not been shot or stabbed and there was no evidence of forced entry or theft.

Neil Moody: Died -August 25, 1996 Following Vincent Foster’s murder, Lisa Foster married James Moody, a judge in Arkansas, on Jan 1, 1996. Near the time Susan McDougal first went to jail for contempt, Judge Moor’s son, Neil died in a car crash. There were other reports that Neil Moody had discovered something very unsettling among his stepmother’s private papers and was threatening to go public with it just prior to the beginning of the Democratic National Convention. He was alleged to have been talking to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post about a blockbuster story. Witnesses said they saw Neil Moody sitting in his car arguing with another person just prior to His car suddenly speeding off out of control and hitting a brick wall.

Barbara Wise: Wise a 14-year Commerce Department employee found dead and partially naked in her office following a long weekend. She worked in the same section as John Huang. Officially, she is said to have died of natural causes.

Doug Adams: Died January 7, 1997- A lawyer in Arkansas who got involved trying to help the people who were being swindled out of their life savings. Adams was found in his vehicle with a gunshot wound to his head in a Springfield Mo. hospital parking lot.

Mary C. Mahoney: 25, murdered at the Georgetown Starbuck’s coffee bar over the 4th of July ‘97 weekend. She was a former White House intern who worked with John Huang. Apparently she knew Monica Lewinsky and her sexual encounters with Bill Clinton. Although not verified, it has been said that Lewinsky told Linda Tripp that she did not want to end up like Mahoney.

Ronald Miller: Suddenly took ill on October 3rd,1997 and steadily worsened until his death 9 days later. (This pattern fits Ricin poisoning.) Owing to the strangeness of the illness, doctors at the Integris Baptist Medical Center referred the matter to the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s Office. The Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s Office promptly ran tests on samples of Ron Miller’s blood, but has refused to release the results or even to confirm that the tests were ever completed.

Had been investigated by authorities over the sale of his company, Gage Corp. to Dynamic Energy Resources, Inc. was the man who tape recorded Gene and Nora Lum and turned those tapes (and other records) over to congressional oversight investigators. The Lums were sentenced to prison for campaign finance violations, using “straw donors” to conceal the size of their contributions to various candidates. Indeed, Dynamic Energy Resources, Inc. had hired Ron Brown’s son Michael solely for the purpose of funneling $60,000 through him to the Commerce Secretary, according to Nolanda Hill’s testimony.

Sandy Hume: On Sunday, February 22nd, 1998, Sandy Hume, the 28 year old son of journalist Britt Hume, was reportedly found dead in his Arlington, Virginia home. Aside from the statement that this was an “apparent” suicide, there remains in place a total media blackout on this story, possibly out of concern that the actual facts will not withstand public scrutiny. Worked for Hill magazine, about Congress for Congress.

Jim McDougal: Bill and Hillary Clinton friend, banker, and political ally, sent to prison for eighteen felony convictions. A key whitewater witness, dies of a heart attack on March, 8 1998. As of this writing allegations that he was given an injection of the diuretic lasix has not been denied or confirmed.
Died on March 8, 1998

Johnny Lawhon: 29, died March 29, 1998- The Arkansas transmission specialist who discovered a pile of Whitewater documents in the trunk of an abandoned car on his property and turned them over to Starr, was killed in a car wreck two weeks after the McDougal death.. Details of the “accident” have been sketchy — even from the local Little Rock newspaper.

Charles Wilbourne Miller: 63, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head on November 17, 1998 in a shallow pit about 300 yards from his ranch house near Little Rock. Police found a .410 gauge shotgun near Miller’s body and a Ruger .357-caliber revolver submerged in water. Investigators concluded the Ruger was the weapon used by Miller to kill himself. Yet, two rounds in the handgun’s cylinder had been spent.

He had long served as executive vice president and member of the board of directors for a company called Alltel and was deeply involved in his own software engineering company until the day he died. Alltel is the successor to Jackson Stephens’ Systematics, the company that provided the software for the White House’s “Big Brother” data base system and that was behind the administration’s plan to develop the secret computer “Clipper” chip to bug every phone, fax and email transmission in America.

Carlos Ghigliotti: 42, was found dead in his home just outside of Washington D.C. on April 28, 2000. There was no sign of a break-in or struggle at the firm of Infrared Technology where the badly decomposed body of Ghigliotti was found. Ghigliotti had not been seen for several weeks.

Ghigliotti, a thermal imaging analyst hired by the House Government Reform Committee to review tape of the siege, said he determined the FBI fired shots on April 19, 1993. The FBI has explained the light bursts on infrared footage as reflections of sun rays on shards of glass or other debris that littered the scene.

“I conclude this based on the groundview videotapes taken from several different angles simultaneously and based on the overhead thermal tape,” Ghigliotti told The Washington Post last October. “The gunfire from the ground is there, without a doubt.”

Ghigliotti said the tapes also confirm the Davidians fired repeatedly at FBI agents during the assault, which ended when flames raced through the compound. About 80 Branch Davidians perished that day, some from the fire, others from gunshot wounds.

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for the congressional committee chaired by Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., said that police found the business card of a committee investigator in Ghigliotti’s office. Corallo said Ghigliotti’s work for the committee ended some time ago.

Tony Moser: 41, was killed as he crossed a street in Pine Bluff, Ark on on June 10, 2000. Killed 10 days after being named a columnist for the Democrat-Gazette newspaper and two days after penning a stinging indictment of political corruption in Little Rock.

Police have concluded that no charges will be filed against the unnamed driver of a 1995 Chevrolet pickup, which hit Moser as he was walking alone in the middle of unlit Rhinehart Road about 10:10 p.m

Police say they have ruled out foul play and will file no charges against the driver because he was not intoxicated and there was no sign of excessive speed.

“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”


20 posted on 09/17/2009 10:45:12 AM PDT by buffyt (I didn't like President Clinton, Carter, or Johnson either, does that make me RACIST????????????????)
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