Obama's Terrorist Buddy Urges Him Not to Honor Confederate War Dead

William Ayers, Chicago professor and unrepentant domestic terrorist, didn't want his buddy Barack Obama to continue the tradition of sending a White House wreath to the memorial for Confederate war dead. He was unsuccessful:

Today, there were wreaths to go around.

Several dozen professors had called upon the first African-American president to forgo a Memorial Day tradition of laying a wreath at a monument to Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery, the grand hillside preserve across the Potomac River from the Capitol on the onetime estate of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Instead, the White House sent wreathes to both the Confederate memorial at Arlington and to the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington's historically black U Street neighborhood north of the Capitol.

Presidents traditionally visit Arlington to personally leave a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, bearing the remains of unidentified U.S. military members who died at war. And President Barack Obama did that today, during his first Memorial Day ceremony as president. They have aides deliver wreaths to other memorials - including, today, at the mast of the USS Maine and at the Spanish American War Memorial.

About five dozen professors had petitioned the White House last week to omit the Confederate memorial.

"The Arlington Confederate Monument is a denial of the wrong committed against African-Americans by slave owners, Confederates and neo-Confederates, through the monument's denial of slavery as the cause of secession and its holding up of Confederates as heroes," they wrote. "This implies that the humanity of Africans and African-Americans is of no significance."

Among the petitions, Unversity of Illinois at Chicago education professor William Ayers, who helped found the radical Weather Underground in the 1960s and who had supported Obama's early campaign for the state legislature. Republicans had attempted to link Obama with Ayers during the 2008 presidential campaign, with Republican Sarah Palin accusing Obama of "pallin' around with terrorists.''

Even Memorial Day is becoming politically correct.