17 Comments
In response to the recent increased frequency with which McCain has been criticizing Obama’s friendship with Weather Underground co-founder and TC ’87 Bill Ayers, over 1600 professors and academics have signed a statement of support for Ayers.
“It seems that the character assassination and slander of Bill Ayers and other people who have known Obama is not about to let up. While an important concern is the dishonesty of this campaign and the slanderous McCarthyism they are using to attack Obama, we also feel an obligation to support our friend and colleague Bill Ayers,” states the petition.
Columbia professors who signed include Rashid Khalidi (he of his own troubles with the McCain campaign), John Coatsworth, Mahmood Mamdani, light of Bwog’s loins Bruce Robbins, Gil Anidjar, Neni Panourgia, Paul Strohm, Mona Khalidi, Kenneth Frampton, Maxine Greene (who signed twice, actually), Thai Jones (son of Weather Underground cofounder Jeff Jones and current CU Ph.D. candidate), Victoria de Grazia, Saskia Sassen and others. And that’s just the first sheet.
And speaking of Obama, the National Review‘s blog the Corner has a theory about why Obama tends to avoiding mentioned your University. (Hint: this too has to do with Bill Ayers.)
According to the Corner, Obama studied under Edward Said (that’s them to the left, above the caption that says “Obama in conversation with Edward Said.”) Said was in contact with Ayers when the latter was at TC and both had a mutual respect for each other’s work.
The Corner suggests that Obama did not meet Ayers in 1995 as he has previously attested, but instead knew him through Edward Said during his time at Columbia. Of course, there is no evidence for such a thing, only the Corner’s bizarre implication that because Ayers and Obama both knew Said, they must have known eachother. Anyway, this is why Obama will not be your Class Day speaker. The end.
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17 Comments
@Jon Amster This is retarded. Ayers has been doing more work for charity the last ten years than you have your entire life.
@of course the terrorist sympathizer profs would sign this. they supported the hunger strike, too. idiots.
@Zayd Zayd Dohrn? As in Bernadine Dohrn, another former weatherperson? She’s a lecturer at UChicago now. Her and Ayers, then? Huh.
That said the whole business is a stupid distraction, and the implication that Obama is a terrorist sympathizer nauseating no matter which side of the spectrum you come from.
@NRO is disgusting: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2U5YTJiMzhjNDNhZTcwZGYyZjcyMzQyZWNmNjJjN2E=
and so is this pink/mauve/magenta color that apparently doesn’t have a name
@it's called purple.
it’s clearly a lavender.
@GS owl @ #4:
WTF? Hiding?
*shakes head*
@um, yes in hiding. hence, weather UNDERGROUND. they spent about ten years moving around, changing their names, etc.
@so this guy planted bombs? BOMBS?!
what the hell is wrong with professors these days? this is like that time in the 60s when they were all like, “yeah mao and stalin are pretty cool.” they’ll never learn
@Armin Rosen Got this one awhile ago: http://commentariat.specblogs.com/index.php/2008/09/05/columbia-profs-support-ayers/
@dear armin, yes, you did. no one noticed, though, did they?
do you know why?
because no one reads your blog.
and do you know why that is?
because your blog sucks.
you don’t know this, but that’s probably because you write all of it and your writing is smug despite the fact that it is overwhelmingly obtuse.
also, you are a dick for smugly posting on bwog every time you scoop them.
cheers, you suck.
@... your mom is smug despite the fact that she is overwhelmingly obtuse. she’s known as “the rubber band.”
@you forgot to mention that Ayer’s son, Zayd Dohrn, is a PhD candidate in Comparative Lit. He’s written plays about his childhood experiences in hiding on a Northern Californian commune, and taught my section of U Writing.
@Zayd was a great U.W instructor and a fascinating guy
@nice I have more respect for Obama knowing he was friends with Ed Said.
McCain actively seeking Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson’s endorsement is far more worrisome. Trying to impose a state religion & dis-uniting the country is almost as bad as Terrorism, and McCain’s links to these two is far more direct than this 6-degrees-of-separation game.
@FYI Jerry Falwell is dead, although I don’t think that discounts your point. The same year he spoke at Columbia he spoke at Liberty University, Jerry Falwell’s barely accredited university.
@GS owl Rise up, mighty Lions!
RNC grasping at straws…
@i hear you if mccain got his initial political support and was buds with a guy who was part of eric rudolph’s crew and who supported rudolph’s efforts I’m sure you wouldn’t care either.
It amazes me that people who are literally unrepentent ex terrorists are so blindly venerated in academica. In any event, I doubt most americans who do care about this issue will take solace from the fact that professors of this ideological bent are standing up for ayers.