Cronkite

Yes, I know he lost the Vietnam War for America all by himself, Billy Ayers notwithstanding, and that he got increasingly goofy after he retired (note that no mainstream obit mentions this), but what's up here:


Capri pants with cuffs. And nylon stockings. After the interview, did they go riding on a tandem bike?

Obligatory update: NTTAWWT.

Oblibatory update II: Can you imagine what their feet smelled like?

Ready to be jumped in

Moving the sprinkler in the front yard just now when two of the little girls who live a couple doors down walked by, one of them carrying a particularly cute example of the chihuahuas ubiquitous in the neighborhood.

By little girls, I mean six, at most. So I asked the one carrying the dog, "What's your doggie's name?"

She said, "Norteño," which she translated as "North Side"--the Hispanic gang hereabouts.

Then she flashed me a gang sign.

Wart speaks!

Trying to earn some of that $1.2 million he owes David Lane:

It is confirmed that at the 8th Annual National Think Outside The Bomb Conference at the [University of New Mexico] Law School August 13-16, 2009, Ward Churchill and Kathy Kelly will be speaking and delivering presentations. . . .

Think Outside The Bomb (TOTB) is a non-hierarchical network of young anti-nuclear activists from all over the world. We work towards the abolition of nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, militarism, racism, sexism, homophobia, and towards a total restructuring of society that embraces humanity and rejects corporate capitalist profits.

How original. And focused. You know, young anti-nuclear activists, that Wart embraces violence, don't you?

We are proud to announce that our 8th Annual National Conference will be held at the UNM Law School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 13-16, 2009. Registration is $20-$40 depending on how much you can give . . . .

Activities to include Speakers such as Ward Churchill, Kathy Kelly, Jackie Cabasso, Indigenous Anti-Nuclear activists from Crownpoint and Laguna/Acoma areas, and more! Workshops on art and revolution, lobbying, workplace organizing, direct action, zine making, non-hierarchical organizing, feminism, and more.

A music concert [as opposed to a cheese-eating concert], open mic night, a tour of a jack-pile uranium mine [any rides?] camping near Los Alamos National Labs, and more fun Stuff!

Fun Stuff.

Update: JWP links to Gamera blogger Richard Delgado's amazingly stupid and misleading piece on Judge Naves' ruling in the Churchill case. "May have." Sheesh.

Wart bin

From part two of Pravda's "Ward Churchill and the death of academic freedom":

Naves’ inanity went even further when he proclaimed that CU regents were entitled to the same type of “judicial immunity” that judges and prosecutors use to insulate themselves from civil liability whenever they abuse their power.

So who are the new faces of university recruitment: Gonzales and Yoo? Has the world of academia really sunk so low that lying, torture endorsing, constitution loathing war criminals are more preferable to have as colleagues than professors who use distasteful analogies to stress a point?

The answer, unfortunately, is yes. During the past few years the neo-fascist movement in America has taken control of the corporate-controlled media, dumbing down the nation with “reality” shows, celebrity “gossip,” pseudo-journalism, and an obsessive focus on sensationalism and superficiality. This, in turn, has allowed these fascists to steal elections, infiltrate classrooms, and influence policies in education. In public school systems across America, the use of random drug testing, the censorship of student newspapers, the banning of books that challenge conventional thought, and the reduction in the number of courses that inspire creativity and imagination—like music, art, theater and literature—have all served to fuel the neo-fascist ideology that indoctrination is more important than education.

Leave it to Pravda to assert that it's "neo-fascists" rather than post-Marxists who think indoctrination is more important than education. Despite the titty pics ("Megan Fox Wet Dress"), Pravda is still living in the Soviet era, say, about, 1976.

JWP's got stuff.

Missed this one last week in the Gamera:

Payson Sheets, an anthropology professor at CU, insists the academic setting is not the place for Churchill and doubts whether another university would hire him.

“He should not be in a university, or college, or junior college or high school — any kind of teaching — where honesty, candidness and doing your own research is important,” Sheets said. “My suggestion is that he go into a profession like used cars or real estate, where no one expects honesty or candidness.”

And that's an anthropologist. Eat it, Maxie. Okay, one more, from the same piece:

Rachel Dobkin, who works at the Left Hand Book Store in Boulder and has seen Churchill speak, said she agrees with Churchill’s decision to appeal and hopes he will continue to teach in some capacity.

“He is one of the most esteemed Native American scholars in the country,” Dobkin said. “To take teaching out of him would be like making Beethoven stop playing music. I don’t think a witch hunt in academia will keep him out of his life passion.”

Update: Dobkin, of course, is referring to Joe Beethoven, who plays a three-string guitar on the Pearl Street Mall and has been arrested several times for shitting in store doorways.

Carroll: Wart's charming personality helped do him in

Vinnie of the Post (still weird to write that):

In the end, it was not only Ward Churchill's professional deceit, fraud and lies that doomed his career at the University of Colorado, but also his incurable personal nastiness, a nastiness that has been on display for decades in his writings, public discourse and interaction with many of those who crossed
him. . . .

No one who reads this blog or PB would disagree with that.

Predictably, Kevin O'Brien at Race to the Bottom doesn't like Naves' ruling one bit:

What is remarkable about the judge’s decision is that it adopted almost every argument proffered by CU’s legal briefs. Reading today’s trial decision felt like I was re-reading the CU briefs. For example, by not awarding even front pay in lieu of reinstatement, Judge Naves effectively blocked an award of attorney fees to Churchill on the basis that the $1 award represents a Pyhrric victory invalidating the award of attoreny fees under existing case law (in the event his quasi-judicial immunity ruling in favor of CU is overturned and the reinstatement and front-pay issues are no longer moot).

O'Brien also apparently believes Naves should have ruled on CU's "quasi-judicial immunity" before trial, even though both sides agreed to wait on that till the end; and that Naves' ruling will be questioned because he graduated from CU's law school, an idea I hadn't heard before and that O'Brien, though he raises it, doesn't think will fly.

The Chronicle of Higher Ed singles out Naves' opinion that reinstating Wart would leave the impression that CU's Effnic Studies department "tolerates research misconduct."

"The evidence was also credible that this perception will make it more difficult for the Department of Ethnic Studies to attract and retain new faculty members. In addition, this negative perception has great potential to hinder students graduating from the Department of Ethnic Studies in their efforts to obtain placement in graduate programs," Naves wrote.

Bwaahahahahahack. Eagle feather stuck in my windpipe.

Update: Lib-lawyer-about-town Scott Robinson thinks it's far from over. Nah, stick a fork (one of those big suckers you use to get a turkey out of the oven) in Wart; he's done.

Update II: Who the hell, by the way, is going to pay for Chutch's appeal, which Lane said somewhere would take maybe a(nother) year?

Update III: The pusillanimous Michael Roberts at Westword doesn't like Naves' decision either. He approvingly quotes (and links to) Benjie ("among Churchill's most vocal supporters") and Ratsu, while getting another rip or two in at Dan Caplis.

Update IV: JWP and his investigative parrot hear from CU attorney Patrick O'Rourke that he intends to bill Churchill for out-of-pocket legal expenses (transcripts, etc.) but not, for legal reasons, attorney's fees. The pirate with the atomic peg leg also links to longtime Chutch critic (and real Indian) Jodi Rave's post on the ruling against Churchill.

Update V: The American Council of Trustees and Alumni's Anne Neal, while wholeheartedly behind Churchill's firing (of course) has some reservations about Naves' ruling:

The judge's decision? It gets some things right, but is also problematic. Yes, peer review is critical to shared governance, academic autonomy, and professional standards. Yes, to reinstate Churchill would send an awful message to students -- that academic standards don't matter. But is the authority of trustees in fact comparable to that of judges here, as the opinion says? I am not so sure.

The case has, regrettably, offered a venue for unending bombast (and falsehoods) by Churchill and his lawyer. So it's surely no surprise that both lay people and lawyers are mighty confused as to the legal matters under review and the import of the various findings by judge and jury. With this in mind, we will wait and watch for further developments.

(via Roberts)

Update VI: The Post: CU bill for Churchill to top $10,000. The Gamera says the bill may be close to $50,000.

Update VII: Caplis and Silverman will have Chutch nemesis Thomas Brown and Vincent Carroll on today.

Update VIII: America's dumbest professor, Peter ("Pip, pip!") Kirstein, weighs in:

The issue is not one of equipoise but justice; the issue is not whether to tolerate only consensus academicians who teach without controversy but to permit critical thinking and even controversial pedagogy in the classroom; the issue IS whether a democratic society can abide a tenured faculty member at professor rank being fired for an article which attempted to balance the 9/11 fury at Al Qaeda with a call for introspection.

When I was supended [update: late sic] for an anti-infanticide email, I could have cared less [update: another late sic--is English foreign to this moron?] whether the university wanted me to return or not or whether my return would be disruptive. My job was and is to teach history and do it well without apologies or coercion in a nation that proclaims its love of democracy and free speech–when it suits its antidemocratic, war criminal ends.

Anti-infanticide e-mail? If you remember, the e-mail was in reply to an Air Force Academy cadet who asked for help with a school project:

You are a disgrace to this country and I am furious you would even think I would support you and your aggressive baby killing tactics of collateral damage. Help you recruit. Who, top guns to reign [my sic] death and destruction upon nonwhite peoples throughout the world? Are you serious sir? Resign your commission and serve your country with honour [sic].

Pip fucking pip.

Update IX: The, er, irrepressible Marc Bousquet at the Chronicle of Higher Ed's Brainstorm blog starts this way:

In my last column, I pointed out that the nationalist and “cultural capital” function of literature classes are in decline. With their tenure lines evaporating, many literature faculty are grasping at the claim that they teach “reading” and “thinking.”

By this they generally mean the training of managers and professionals in a degraded version of New Critical reading practices—spotting (or producing) ambiguity, complexity, and irony. For those who care about this sort of thing, this is really a version of a much older claim, that they teach rhetoric.

Combined with the right higher-ed brand names, the capacity to produce ambiguity and complexity in the tax code or the National Labor-Relations Act can get sold to a corporate law firm for a million dollars a year.

Of course that requires further training in the ability to live with oneself while eating meals that cost more than a retail worker’s monthly pay. That’s where a corresponding ethical agility—learned in, say, philosophy or theology classes—comes in handy.

He does eventually get around to Wart. Read the comments.

Update X: Oh, this is rich. Pravda lumbers in: "Ward Churchill and the death of academic freedom."

Update XI: Maximilian Forte thinks long thoughts about the case--long, stupid thoughts.

(via JWP, who appears to be enjoying himself--always a danger sign)

Hit the road, jerk!

More after I read the story.

A judge has ruled that the University of Colorado doesn't have to give controversial former professor Ward Churchill his job back even though a jury found he was improperly fired.

Doing the Eagle Rock right now. And: no money:

"Professor Churchill's own statements during the trial established that he has not seriously pursued any efforts to gain comparable employment, but has instead has chosen to give lectures and other presentations as a means of supplementing his income. Reportedly, he even 'received a few job offers' that he declined to pursue. Under these circumstances, I do not believe an award of front pay is appropriate," Naves wrote.

Update: Naves' ruling (pdf).

Update II: JWP notes how Wart's (and his lawyer David Lane's) big mouth helped keep him unemployed.

Update III: The Chronicle of Higher Ed reports the story with the strangely passive headline: "Judge Refuses to Order University to Give Ward Churchill His Job Back." They say they'll have more tomorrow.

Update IV: Caplis, KHOW: "Good won, evil lost." Even a stopped
clock . . .

Silverman: "I put the chances of Churchill and Lane prevailing on appeal at about 10 percent . . ."

Update V: Lane will hold a press conference at 4:00 p.m. I imagine KCOW will cover it. C & S also have all kinds of goofs lined up to comment. Listenzee here.

Update VI: C & S are truly unbearable in their sucking up to CU and O'Rourke.

Update VII: Former CU prexy Hank Brown. Krep, krep, krep. Sample. Caplis: It was great to see Left and Right come together about Ward Churchill. Uh-huh.

Volokh Conspiracy (which links to the Michael Jackson of the Churchill case, JWP) asks for legalistical opinions on the ruling.

Update VIII: Former, permanent all-high ex- (and present-) chancellor Phil DiStefano is up now. He sucked on the stand. "O'Rourke did a much better job than [Lane, in the reinstatement hearing]."

Update IX: No live coverage of Lane's press conference. Interview of KHOW reporter. Did he just say that Lane accused Naves of plagiarism? Damn, I missed it. Only Lane, all by his lonesome. Lane: Dumbfounded, angry, every time I objected was overruled. Bitter, bitter, bitter.
Caplis: David realizes he's done, so now he's lashing out at the judge.

Judge Naves' order ignores the Constitution, academic freedom, etc.

Silverman: Don't think that bodes well for attorneys' fees . . .

Reporter: Lane would have asked for $1.2 million, but now he's out . . .

Caplis: Churchill deserved to lose; liar, cheat, tried to get young people to commit violence. . .

Reportron: Lane is functioning out of a lot of anger. Never heard an attorney go after a judge like Lane did . . .

Update X: Let's go to the callers. Mickey! "I haven't been this happy since my wedding day in 1953." Mickey apparently is a big Columbus Day parader, tho a Jooooooo.

Silverman notes Wart's hypocrisy in denying Columbus Day paraders their First Amendment rights . . .

Mickey's so happy she's doing the Tarantella . . . As noted above, I did the Eagle Rock . . .

Silverman: [Former CU student Dave--the guy who said "Fuck the Ballerinas!" at some Churchillpalooza event] Staub's testimony was bad for Churchill; Wart has the capacity to twist young people . . .

Caplis did bet Lane a steak dinner that Chutch wouldn't be reinstated . . . "Ripping on the judge today was just a concession . . ."

They're trying to get Thomas Brown on . . .

Silverman: "I like to see bullies put in their place . . ." Me too.

Update XI: Benjie reacts (via JWP): He knew it all along. Benjie earlier: "Money's nice, too."

Update XII: Bill "Howdy Doody" Owens is up. "Naves always seemed of judicial temperament" (He would say that.)

Owens: Naves demolishes every single argument Churchill made. . . Juries make mistakes, and I think Judge Naves properly corrected that error. . . What I most appreciated was how Naves placed the blame back on Churchill . . . The problem with placing Ward Churchill back at CU would be . . . Ward Churchill.

The phone call with Betsy Hoffman. Silverman: Hoffman whimpered out of Colorado . . . What would you say to her now?

Owens: I was stunned by her recollection of our phone visit . . . I told her to lead. . . She whimpered, she whined . . . [I can attest to that, at least in her deposition--she also looked like hell] . . . But her testimony was most damaging to the defense . . . She claimed that she was just as much a victim as Wart . . . She and Wart were both drummed out of Colorado . . .

Owens: The system worked. Churchill has abused the system. . . My reading of that decision is that he has almost no chance on appeal . . .

Update XII: Westword: nada, yet. Michael "breaking" Roberts must be on a retreat.

Update XIII: Man O' the Hour, Pat O'Rourke.

Caplis: Talk about total victory!

O'Rourke: It's been a little bit of a roller-coaster ride . . .

Silverman: What about you? Brilliant! (blech). Tell us all about it.

O'R: We got the news and it was a really wonderful ruling from the judge, that said Chutch did things he really shouldn't do . . . We knew from the title what the outcome was . . . He made some pretty detailed findings . . .

Caplis: How'd you feel?

O'R: I was as boring as always . . . (this is all paraphrased, by the way) . . .

S: How many hours did you put in on this?

O'R: Me no know, big buddy. We were on our toes the whole time. David Lane has my tremendous respect . . . But the university was vindicated in saying we get to say what good scholarship is . . .

Silverman: How do you like your chances on appeal?

O'R: I like them. The judge cited some very specific evidence . . . I heard David Lane's press conference, and I'd be upset too . . .

Lane presser: [Naves] is ignoring the law and the jury, and the whole jury system of the state of Colorado . . . [that'll work]. . .

Oops, that's all they had time for . . .

Update XIV: I made several comments over at Benjie's place, two of them were "Heh." The other was "You lose." All deleted. What a putz.

Update XV: Smiley O'Reilly mentioned it, but to no point.

Update XVI: NYT: "The ruling is a clear victory for the university."

Update XVII: JWP has underemployed Hollywood Indian and alleged murderer Russell Means' reaction. Pompous, as always. Rigoberto Menchu, Russ? Please.

Quote of the Day!

This is from last month, but its timelessness is apparent:

[A]merican citizenship is not citizenship but conversion: it involves brainwashing and imposition of a single, fixed nationalistic identity that turns the citizens into patriotic zombies. Uttering a single word against the State is out of the question. . . .

--From a review in the Times by Ziuddin Sardar of Resa Aslan's How to Win a Cosmic War: Confronting Radical Islam.

(via Oliver Kamm)