Because, see, his group never killed anyone (except for those cops, but I guess the pigs don’t count right Bill?).

The man who once said “Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that’s where it’s really at.” and told the New York Times on September 11th “I don’t regret setting bombs” is now telling us how dishonest it is to call him and his fellow radicals “terrorists.”

Here’s part one of the video:

And part two:

Frankly, I find his arguments to be bogus.

Terrorism isn’t necessarily about murder and violence (though the Weather Underground is guilty of both).  Terrorism is about pursuing a political agenda by using fear.  If the Weather Underground wasn’t trying to scare people into going along with them then why were they rioting and setting bombs and threatening murder?

I could listen to an argument about degrees of terrorism, and certainly Ayers isn’t a terrorist worth listing on the same page as someone like Osama bin Laden, but for the purposes of mainstream political discourse once you’re using violence to get your message across you’ve crossed a line.

Ayers crossed that line.  He espoused murder and violence and fear to achieve his political goals.  He tried to subvert the democratic process in this country by intimidating the electorate.  He’s never apologized for that, and nothing he says now or since the days of his most virulent radicalism excuses it.