John Murtagh - A Bombing Victim of Bill Ayers is Running for Mayor of Yonkers

One of the good guys is running for Mayor. Chicago elected Rahm Emanuel last April, by a huge majority. Yonkers, NY has an opportunity to elect one of the good guys -John Murtagh.

Like my Alderman here in the 19th Ward of Chicago, Matt O'Shea, John Murtagh is a young guy who has served his community out of a genuine sense of public service. In America these days we too often go for the packaged product - people of whom other people say are 'really great,' These yolks tend to make careers of public service via the back-door - they get appointed to positions of power, because they are endorsed by PACS, or come from politically approved families - Brahmins, like Chris Kennedy, Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon, Forrest Claypool & etc.

Good people learn public service from the sidewalks up to the porches and eventually are welcomed into the homes of real people. Grassroots, for politically naive, is made up of concrete and flagstones.

John Murtagh and I have maintained a respectful dialog for the last three years - he still cannot understand my loyalty to the Democratic ticket. My loyalties are tribal. I vote for good people, like Matt O'Shea, because I see the results of their labors and know their stories.

John Murtagh's family was targeted by retired distinguished professor of education and terrorist Bill Ayers. The Murtagh family home was fire-bombed, while I was a student at Loyola University.

Though no one was ever caught or tried for the attempt on my family’s life, there was never any doubt who was behind it. Only a few weeks after the attack, the New York contingent of the Weathermen blew themselves up making more bombs in a Greenwich Village townhouse. The same cell had bombed my house, writes Ron Jacobs in The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground. And in late November that year, a letter to the Associated Press signed by Bernardine Dohrn, Ayers’s wife, promised more bombings.

As the association between Obama and Ayers came to light, it would have helped the senator a little if his friend had at least shown some remorse. But listen to Ayers interviewed in the New York Times on September 11, 2001, of all days: “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Translation: “We meant to kill that judge and his family, not just damage the porch.” When asked by the Times if he would do it all again, Ayers responded: “I don’t want to discount the possibility.”

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0430jm.html

Since that time, John Murtagh studied, married and entered public service. Now, his neighbors have tapped John Murtagh to run for Mayor, like we used to do here in Chicago.

Mayor Phil Amicone and former Republican gubernatorial candidate John Faso will join Westchester Republican County Chairman Doug Colety and Yonkers Republican City Chairman John Jacono as Honorary Co-Chairs of a “Unity for Yonkers” Reception for John Murtagh.

Former Yonkers City Councilwoman Dee Barbato, Councilman John Larkin, and Councilman Dennis Shepherd will serve as the Co-Chairs of the Reception.

The Reception Committee includes Republican Ward Leaders Henry Sershen, Helen Calabrese, Mike Ramondelli, Justin Tubiolo, Rich Barbato, Stan Alexander, Mike Breen, Pat Dickerson, and Geri Esposito.

The “Unity for Yonkers” event will be held on Thursday, June 23 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at Byrne & Hanrahan’s, located at 640 McLean Avenue in Yonkers. Ticket prices are $150, $250, $500 and $1,000. You may purchase tickets using a credit card online right here or at the door on June 23.

We in the Murtagh campaign are delighted to have such a broad-based coalition of Republican leaders and activists coming together to support John Murtagh’s candidacy.


Meet John Murtagh

John Murtagh has been the voice of civic reform and transparent government in Yonkers for nearly two decades.

He co-chaired the Committee for Term Limits in 1994, leading the successful fight to make Yonkers one of the first municipalities in New York State to impose term limits on elected officials.

As a first-term Councilman in 2004, Mr. Murtagh refused to accept a “free” city car, making it clear from his first day in office that he would not participate in the go-along-to-get-along politics that has marred Yonkers government and overburdened Yonkers taxpayers for decades. Over the past seven years, he has fought to cut spending and end overtime abuse, and has been the leading conservative voice in local government.

Getting Results

Councilman Murtagh is the author of the tough new Ethics Code for the City of Yonkers and the Board of Education, and he successfully amended the Rules and Procedures of the City Council to increase public participation.
As co-chair of the Real Estate and Economic Development Committee from 2004 through 2005, Councilman Murtagh represented the community’s interests in a number of major development projects. Since winning re-election, he has introduced cutting edge “Green Building” legislation; legislation to protect property owners from eminent domain abuse, and to reform unethical lobbying practices in Yonkers.

Councilman Murtagh was elected Republican Minority Leader of the Yonkers City Council in 2010, and serves as Chairman of the Municipal Operations and Environmental Sustainability Committees. He is a member of the Real Estate and Economic Development, Budget and Rules committees.

Serving the Community

Mr. Murtagh is a former Chairman of the Four Rivers District Boy Scouts of America, and currently serves as a member of the Executive Board of the Westchester Putnam Council Boy Scouts of America. He is a former Chairman of the Board of Pregnancy Care Center, a counseling and residence program for expectant Westchester mothers.

Mr. Murtagh, an attorney with Gaines, Gruner, Ponzini & Novick LLP, is a graduate of Fordham College (B.A. 1982) and Fordham Law School (J.D. 1986). He served as an Adjunct Professor at the Fordham College of Liberal Studies, where he taught courses on urban policy and government. He is a frequent lecturer on open government and the Freedom of Information Law. His political and legal commentary has been featured in The New York Times, The Journal News, City Journal, National Public Radio, WVOX Radio, The Westchester County Business Journal and NY Habitat Magazine. Mr. Murtagh has been a featured guest on Hannity & Colmes, Fox & Friends, Inside Edition, and the Greta Van Sustren Show.

He has been married for twenty-four years to Margaret Murtagh, a nursery school director. The Murtaghs have two sons – John, 23 and James, 19.

BTW - I made a drop to the John Murtagh Unity Campaign. My widower's mites helped Matt O'Shea, perhaps the lucky nickels will help John Murtagh.

Click my post title for more on a fine young man!

Grandson of Ayers Bombing Target Judge Murtagh Helps Boston College Toss the Louse!

My Pal John Murtagh, who was bombed by Billy Ayers and the Weather Underground, sent me this news item - the grandson of the targeted Judge Murtagh helped Boston College toss the louse Ayers from a speaking engagement.

Boston College is the last Catholic University in America! Go Eagles!

After the school's decision, Americans for Informed Democracy and the campus group College Democrats held a lecture last night to discuss the controversy. More than 50 students attended the forum, "Academic Freedom at BC."

"I thought it was really powerful how many people thought this was a real problem," said Alicia Johnson, a BC student. "[It is] a recurring theme at BC; it's not just about Bill Ayers."

BC student John Murtagh III had a more personal story.

His grandfather, John Murtagh, a New York Supreme Court judge, was presiding over the "Panther 21" trial when the Weather Underground planted three bombs at his house in New York in February 1970. Murtagh, a senior, said he wanted to inform other students of the real controversy surrounding Ayers.

"This wasn't just about the school squashing free speech. There was a lot behind the actions of Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground," Murtagh said. "There is a lot more to why it was canceled. Since I had a close, personal connection to the story, I felt I had to come here and let everyone know what the real controversy behind Bill Ayers was."

When Bill Ayers gets all of the attention he actually merits as a moron - no mention, no where no how - America will have grown up.

Great work on keeping this Louse Ayers seen for what he truly is, Family Murtagh!

John McCain: How many Houses did Billy Ayers Blow Up - NY's John Murtagh's Home?

First a bit of Progressive Poesy:

It Takes a Bridge - That Someone Don't Blow up


Billy Da Bomber and His Odious Ma’ma,
are roachin’ from under the Fridge.
The Library Thing -that is taking such Wing
Is Blowing Up Barry’s nice Bridge!


John McCain's bride is loaded. John McCain is a U.S. Senator; they do Okay.

Billy Ayers is loaded. He's an insulated Trust-fund radical tenured professor who is self-professed a domestic terrorist.
Barack Obama worked for Billy Ayers at Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Barack Obama is doing Okay, like McCain a U.S. Senator.

The McCain's have . . . Oh, let's see . . . seven (7) homes - not bad.

Barack has a swell igloo over in Hyde Park where Billy Ayers hangs his fanny pack and tummy wallet. Barack had Tony Rezko help with his real estate matters. Hell, I would too, but then again I'll never run for President. Thanks Be to God! I'd loot this country six ways to Sunday.

Billy Ayers and his gang bombed homes - the home of a judge. Billy's Pop got him and his odious Old Lady out of all manner of jambs*.

Here's the account of John Murtagh, whose home was fire bombed, when his Dad, a New York judge, was prosecuting Billy Ayers' pals - The Weathermen:

John M. Murtagh
Fire in the Night
The Weathermen tried to kill my family.
30 April 2008
During the April 16 debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, moderator George Stephanopoulos brought up “a gentleman named William Ayers,” who “was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, and other buildings. He’s never apologized for that.” Stephanopoulos then asked Obama to explain his relationship with Ayers. Obama’s answer: “The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn’t make much sense, George.” Obama was indeed only eight in early 1970. I was only nine then, the year Ayers’s Weathermen tried to murder me.

In February 1970, my father, a New York State Supreme Court justice, was presiding over the trial of the so-called “Panther 21,” members of the Black Panther Party indicted in a plot to bomb New York landmarks and department stores. Early on the morning of February 21, as my family slept, three gasoline-filled firebombs exploded at our home on the northern tip of Manhattan, two at the front door and the third tucked neatly under the gas tank of the family car. (Today, of course, we’d call that a car bomb.) A neighbor heard the first two blasts and, with the remains of a snowman I had built a few days earlier, managed to douse the flames beneath the car. That was an act whose courage I fully appreciated only as an adult, an act that doubtless saved multiple lives that night.

I still recall, as though it were a dream, thinking that someone was lifting and dropping my bed as the explosions jolted me awake, and I remember my mother’s pulling me from the tangle of sheets and running to the kitchen where my father stood. Through the large windows overlooking the yard, all we could see was the bright glow of flames below. We didn’t leave our burning house for fear of who might be waiting outside. The same night, bombs were thrown at a police car in Manhattan and two military recruiting stations in Brooklyn. Sunlight, the next morning, revealed three sentences of blood-red graffiti on our sidewalk: FREE THE PANTHER 21; THE VIET CONG HAVE WON; KILL THE PIGS.

For the next 18 months, I went to school in an unmarked police car. My mother, a schoolteacher, had plainclothes detectives waiting in the faculty lounge all day. My brother saved a few bucks because he didn’t have to rent a limo for the senior prom: the NYPD did the driving. We all made the best of the odd new life that had been thrust upon us, but for years, the sound of a fire truck’s siren made my stomach knot and my heart race. In many ways, the enormity of the attempt to kill my entire family didn’t fully hit me until years later, when, a father myself, I was tucking my own nine-year-old John Murtagh into bed.

Though no one was ever caught or tried for the attempt on my family’s life, there was never any doubt who was behind it. Only a few weeks after the attack, the New York contingent of the Weathermen blew themselves up making more bombs in a Greenwich Village townhouse. The same cell had bombed my house, writes Ron Jacobs in The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground. And in late November that year, a letter to the Associated Press signed by Bernardine Dohrn, Ayers’s wife, promised more bombings.

As the association between Obama and Ayers came to light, it would have helped the senator a little if his friend had at least shown some remorse. But listen to Ayers interviewed in the New York Times on September 11, 2001, of all days: “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Translation: “We meant to kill that judge and his family, not just damage the porch.” When asked by the Times if he would do it all again, Ayers responded: “I don’t want to discount the possibility.”

Though never a supporter of Obama, I admired him for a time for his ability to engage our imaginations, and especially for his ability to inspire the young once again to embrace the political system. Yet his myopia in the last few months has cast a new light on his “politics of change.” Nobody should hold the junior senator from Illinois responsible for his friends’ and supporters’ violent terrorist acts. But it is fair to hold him responsible for a startling lack of judgment in his choice of mentors, associates, and friends, and for showing a callous disregard for the lives they damaged and the hatred they have demonstrated for this country. It is fair, too, to ask what those choices say about Obama’s own beliefs, his philosophy, and the direction he would take our nation.

At the conclusion of his 2001 Times interview, Ayers said of his upbringing and subsequent radicalization: “I was a child of privilege and I woke up to a world on fire.”

Funny thing, Bill: one night, so did I.

John M. Murtagh is a practicing attorney, an adjunct professor of public policy at the Fordham University College of Liberal Studies, and a member of the city council in Yonkers, New York, where he resides with his wife and two sons.


Barack is friends with Billy Ayers. If I were invited to a free Surf & Turf at Ruth's Chris House and Ayers and his Old Lady were in the same restaurant, I'd have to bolt. I could not be in the same building with them - though I would not need to fear of it blowing up!

* Yep, that's how I meant to spell it - door jamb -meant to suggest a porch climbing, breaking and entering gutless little punk-ass sneak - like the distinguished professor of education at Cement City - University of Illinois at Chicago (Circle).

John McCain: The Firebombing of John Murtagh's Home by Ayers Weatherman is Getting Legs

H/t to John Murtagh, the New York attorney and professor whose family was victimized by the Weatherman lead by Chicago's radical relic Billy Ayers.

Silvio Canto of My View by Silvio Canto writes this:

Again, no one is holding Obama responsible for what Ayers did in 1970. At the same time, why is Obama hanging around with people like Ayers, specially after what he told The NY Times on 9-11-2001!

Ayers was not convicted because of a legal technicality. He was very lucky. However, it does not take away from the domestic terrorism that he practiced.

Today, Ayers is a college professor with strong ties to the Chicago left. He blessed Obama's candidacy years ago. Like Rev. Wright, Ayers opened a lot of doors for Obama in Chicago.

Again, I don't blame Obama because Ayers bombed a few buildings years ago. Nevertheless, I do wonder why Obama hung around with so many radical lefties.

What was it about the "radical left" that attracted Obama so much?

Get ready for Ayers: He is the next big chicken to come home to roost!

Ed Morrissey has the last word on this:

"As Murtaugh notes, the fact that they remain unrepentant about their terrorism makes it exponentially worse.

Ayers refuses to acknowledge that bombing people like the Murtaughs to subvert the judicial system and to force political change he couldn’t achieve through the ballot is, in fact, terrorism.


As late as last November, Dohrn continued to call for the “overthrow of capitalism”, while Ayers approvingly quoted Mao henchman Chou En-Lai while hysterically warning of an “unimaginable authoritarianism” in the US.

For a politician with no track record, Obama wants us to rely on his judgment.
Working with domestic terrorists who targeted not just public buildings but children like John Murtaugh makes that judgment highly suspect.

Obama claims it ancient history because it happened when he was eight.

Murtaugh feels fortunate that his assassins failed in ending his life at nine.
It’s not ancient history to him, nor should it be for the rest of us."

Mr. Canto presents the case for the more halting journalists picking up paychecks - the point is, as with Rev. Wright, the issue of choosing to cozy up with people who actively parade their contempt for American values. Those who will do and say anything to undermine any and all faith in our government and, more importantly, devalue the historical record in order to conform with a radical agenda that seeks to undo our Republic.

Ayers, Dorhn, and Wright share a comfortable and elite life in the very society they profess to hate. The real villains are those who make their lives so comfortable and insulated.

John McCain: John Murtagh - One of Bill Ayers' Victims Speaks Out

The fact that Bill Ayers continues to trod the terra with liberal palms before him in Hyde Park, speaks volumes about societal hypocrisy, elitism, and academic pusillanimity. The Medill Journalism octopus wraps up Ayers and his odious wife Bernadine Dohrn and keeps them from scrutiny and a long overdue public ridicule.

Here is an account of Bill Ayers's activities as leader of the Weatherman Underground, which killed police officers in New York, crippled Richard Elrod, bombed scores of buildings and got glossed over by journalists.

John Murtagh, a victim of Weatherman bombing terror, speaks out.

In February 1970, my father, a New York State Supreme Court justice, was presiding over the trial of the so-called “Panther 21,” members of the Black Panther Party indicted in a plot to bomb New York landmarks and department stores. Early on the morning of February 21, as my family slept, three gasoline-filled firebombs exploded at our home on the northern tip of Manhattan, two at the front door and the third tucked neatly under the gas tank of the family car. (Today, of course, we’d call that a car bomb.) A neighbor heard the first two blasts and, with the remains of a snowman I had built a few days earlier, managed to douse the flames beneath the car. That was an act whose courage I fully appreciated only as an adult, an act that doubtless saved multiple lives that night.

I still recall, as though it were a dream, thinking that someone was lifting and dropping my bed as the explosions jolted me awake, and I remember my mother’s pulling me from the tangle of sheets and running to the kitchen where my father stood. Through the large windows overlooking the yard, all we could see was the bright glow of flames below. We didn’t leave our burning house for fear of who might be waiting outside. The same night, bombs were thrown at a police car in Manhattan and two military recruiting stations in Brooklyn. Sunlight, the next morning, revealed three sentences of blood-red graffiti on our sidewalk: FREE THE PANTHER 21; THE VIET CONG HAVE WON; KILL THE PIGS.

For the next 18 months, I went to school in an unmarked police car. My mother, a schoolteacher, had plainclothes detectives waiting in the faculty lounge all day. My brother saved a few bucks because he didn’t have to rent a limo for the senior prom: the NYPD did the driving. We all made the best of the odd new life that had been thrust upon us, but for years, the sound of a fire truck’s siren made my stomach knot and my heart race. In many ways, the enormity of the attempt to kill my entire family didn’t fully hit me until years later, when, a father myself, I was tucking my own nine-year-old John Murtagh into bed.

John M. Murtagh is a practicing attorney, an adjunct professor of public policy at the Fordham University College of Liberal Studies, and a member of the city council in Yonkers, New York, where he resides with his wife and two sons.

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