RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Barack Hussein Obama in '08?

Yes. How DARE the media ask a presidential candidate about his friendship with an admitted terrorist?

URBANA, Ill. (AP) — The University of Illinois on Thursday denied 1960s radical William Ayers emeritus faculty status after trustees Chairman Christopher Kennedy noted Ayers dedicated a book to, among others, the man who killed Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy.

All nine voting trustees either opposed granting Ayers, a recently retired University of Illinois-Chicago professor, the largely honorary status or abstained from the vote. Universities often grant emeritus status to distinguished retired faculty members. At Illinois it doesn’t come with any monetary benefits, spokesman Tom Hardy said.

Ayers co-founded the Weather Underground, an anti-war group held responsible for a series of bombings during the Vietnam War era, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.

Trustees voted after a speech by Kennedy in which he noted the 1974 book “Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism,” by Ayers and other members of the Weather Underground. The book includes a dedication to a lengthy list of revolutionary figures, musicians and others, including Sirhan Sirhan, who shot Robert Kennedy to death in 1968 after the New York senator declared victory in the California Democratic presidential primary.

“There is nothing more antithetical to the hopes for a university that is lively and yet civil, or to the hopes of our founding fathers for their great experiment of a self-governing people, than to permanently seal off debate with one’s opponents by killing them,” Kennedy said. “There can be no place in a democracy to celebrate political assassinations or to honor those who do so.”

Ayers did not return an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Trustees approved emeritus status for a number of other retirees Thursday, and Hardy said it was unusual for anyone to be turned down.

“Nobody could remember a similar circumstance in the last several decades,” he said after asking other university officials.

Retired faculty ask for emeritus status, and it’s then signed off on by several levels of university administration before heading to trustees, Hardy said.

Ayers announced his retirement in August after more than 20 years as an education professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Ayers was a fugitive for years for his role with the Weather Underground until surrendering in 1980. Charges against him were dropped because of government misconduct.

His past became a campaign issue during the 2008 presidential race because he once served with now-President Barack Obama on a Chicago charity’s board.

Ayers has since been invited to speak at U.S. universities, though some of those invitations — such as one from the University of Wyoming this year — have been withdrawn over protests about his history.

G-man posted this in the religion forum but since it's Obama spiritual advisor it deserves a post here as well...

RAW
This isn't something you just quietly dissagree with & expect to win a general election.

MKs on the Right expressed outrage on Thursday night at US President Barack Obama’s call for the creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, in an exchange of territory for security.

They called upon Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to reject Obama’s plan when he meets with him on Friday in Washington.

“Barack Hussein Obama adopted Yasser Arafat’s staged plan for Israel’s destruction, and he is trying to force it on our prime minister,” Likud MK Danny Danon said. “All that was new in the speech was that he called for Israel to return to 1967 borders without solving the crisis. Netanyahu has only one option: Tell Obama to forget about it.”

you act like if FDR wasn't a Democrat, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton wearn't Democrats or that we've NEVER EVER had a Democrat in office before and you act as if a "Democrat" winning an election means that communism is taking over.

if it says anything it's that you guys have fallen hook line and sinker to all the crap the extreme right shovels to the point where you think Democrats truly are some enemy presence.

I know i know, it's in jest.... But really, some part of you believes this nonsense.

Nine senior commanding generals have been fired by the Obama administration this year, leading to speculation by active and retired members of the military that a purge of its commanders is underway.

Retired generals and current senior commanders that have spoken with TheBlaze say the administration is not only purging the military of commanders they don’t agree with, but is striking fear in the hearts of those still serving.

The timing comes as the five branches of the U.S. armed forces are reducing staff due to budget cuts, and as U.S. troops are expected to withdraw from Afghanistan next year.

“I think they’re using the opportunity of the shrinkage of the military to get rid of people that don’t agree with them or not tow the party line. Remember, as (former White House chief of staff) Rahm Emanuel said, never waste a crisis,” a senior retired general told TheBlaze on the condition of anonymity because he still provide services to the government and fears possible retribution.

“Even as a retired general, it’s still possible for the administration to make life miserable for us. If we’re working with the government or have contracts, they can just rip that out from under us,” he said.

Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, an outspoken critic of the Obama administration, said the White House fails to take action or investigate its own, but finds it easy to fire military commanders “who have given their lives for their country.”

“Obama will not purge a civilian or political appointee because they have bought into Obama’s ideology,” Vallely said. “The White House protects their own. That’s why they stalled on the investigation into fast and furious, Benghazi and Obamacare. He’s intentionally weakening and gutting our military, Pentagon and reducing us as a superpower, and anyone in the ranks who disagrees or speaks out is being purged.”


A Pentagon official who asked to remain nameless because they were not authorized to speak on the matter said even “young officers, down through the ranks have been told not to talk about Obama or the politics of the White House. They are purging everyone and if you want to keep your job — just keep your mouth shut.


[more on the generals fired at link]

Back in the day when it was fashionable for the press to criticize the president and senior military officials for mismanaging a war--that is, from 2003 to 2009--such stories often focused on the colonels, majors, and captains who saw firsthand the practical problems with their superiors' approach and who pushed hard to change policy based on that hard-fought experience.


In journal articles such as "A Failure of Generalship," and in long profiles in the New York Times (repeatedly) and elsewhere, they ventilated major problems in the military's thinking and created substantial political pressure on the White House, Pentagon, and military bureaucracy to correct the course.

Ultimately, the need to retain majors and captains, precisely in order to maintain the long-term quality of America's military capabilities, became a substantial political issue. Shortly before President Obama entered office, incoming Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy argued that the Army would "need to retain a higher percentage of its experienced officers to lead the force"; the Center for American Progress argued that "Majors are the Army’s future senior leaders, but they are exiting the service at increasing rates during a period of military growth."

But the clearest call for retaining majors and captains came from Candidate Obama himself, in a 2007 speech before the VFW in Kansas City (emphasis added): "Retention rates of West Point graduates are approaching records lows. We need to keep these battle-hardened majors and captains so they can become tomorrow's generals."

Fast forward seven years, and those words are long forgotten. As the AP reports this week, President Obama's Defense Department will lay off 550 majors, including many currently stationed overseas. This comes on the heels of the decision last fall to fire more than 1,000 captains.

Tom Ricks summarized last fall's decision succinctly: "Army to its captains: Thanks for your service. Now, 20 percent of you, get lost!"

Evidently President Obama doesn't find "tomorrow's generals" as valuable as he used to. But America can't make the same mistake.