Churchill to speak at "Israeli Apartheid Week"

That's the fourth annual Israeli Apartheid Week at Ryerson University in Toronto. The pantsload will speak on "Nakba and the Right of Return." I'd go, but duty demands my presence elsewhere (nsw, maybe).

(via Dust My Broom and the P of B)

No, not "Editorial writing made easy"

Former Rocky Mountain News editorial writer Thom Beal, fired for plagiarism (though editor John Temple never called it that) in 2005, is teaching a journalism course at the University of Denver:

INTS 4558 Mass Media & International Affairs Instructor: Thomas Beal Methodology/Skills This course examines the interaction between politics, conflict and media, and explores the impact of media communications in its relationship to the international system and interaction with foreign policy. . . . The course's emphasis is on media in practice and the harsh realities of the conduct of politics and news reporting in the information age. (5 credits hrs)

At least it's not media ethics.

Speaking of DUh journalism, Romanesko (yes, the Romanesko) had this today:

The photo editor of University of Denver's Clarion says his adviser thought the sky was too white in a photo and that "I should have colored the sky blue in Photoshop so that it looked better." Justin Edmonds refused to do it. "She then told me that if I didn't do what she asked to make the pictures better then she would find someone else who could." Dozens of SportsShooter.com readers have commented on Edmond's post. Here's the second batch of reader reactions.

(both sad stories from "a weird bird")

Fascinating

Say it like Spock.

The three top "World" headlines in the Denver Post right now:

1. Al-Quaida commander killed in Afghanistan.

2. Al-Quaida commander in Afghanistan killed.

3. Top Al-Quaida figure killed in Pakistan.

All AP, all about the same guy, Abu Laith al-Libi. Good line from the jihadist website that made the announcement of his death:

"We congratulate the Islamic nation for the martyrdom of the sheik, the lion, Abu Laith al-Libi," it said.

And who can't get behind that?

Ward: paper told me to fake letters

In an update to an update of an update, Westword's Michael Roberts provides background on Ward Churchill and his followers' particular enmity toward the Boulder Daily Camera, including Ward's claim (now this is ironic) that some unnamed "they" at the Camera suggested he write letters to the editor under other people's names:

and that they'd run them with a wink and a nod, thereby letting me have 'my' say while still maintaining 'appearances' (of what was left a tad mysterious). My response to that proposition was to ask why, if they felt material arguing my case [could] appear under names other than mine, they weren't publishing the material submitted by people like [University of Hawaii American Studies professor David] Stannard. I got no answer."

In his reply to Roberts, Camera editor Clint Talbott notes Ward's unwontedly generous preservation of the anonymity of "they," and includes 7000 words worth of letters in support of Churchill that the paper ran from the start of the Churchill mess in early 2005 through July, 2006, including a few from CU faculty who should (but probably won't) be embarrassed to read them again. Talbott also said the paper had no record of a letter from Stannard, and that he was unfamiliar with the name.

Benson named only finalist for CU president

Daily Gamera:

University of Colorado regents late Tuesday night voted 7-2 to name oil and gas executive Bruce Benson, former chairman of the state's Republican party, the sole finalist for the president's post.

This is good:

Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, was among those considered for the job, sources said. Cheney, who has a master’s degree from CU, is a founder of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative group that monitors universities.

Damn. One of the (imagined) leaders of the Get Ward Churchill conspiracy, MIM's "Ms.-Halliburton-on-the-Federal-Dole-Moneybags," might have been CU president. Can you imagine how the Little Churchills would have reacted to that?

Interesting, too, that the sole dissenting regent vote in Wart's firing, Cindy Carlisle, apparently voted for a Republican oil and gas man.

Update: Speaking of Cheneys and Little Chutches:

Secret Service agents and aides to Vice President Cheney who gave statements for a Colorado lawsuit have asked a judge not to release videos of their testimony, saying they might wind up on YouTube or "Comedy Central."

The arguments Wednesday came as a federal magistrate ordered the government to present its reasons why Cheney should not be subpoenaed to testify in a lawsuit by a Denver-area man who claims comments he made to the vice president about the Iraq war led to his arrest in June 2006.

David Lane, an attorney for Steve Howards, said that Secret Service agents and Cheney's employees all provide different versions of Howards' actions, which raises questions that only Cheney — the alleged victim of the assault — could answer.

Update II: Strangely relevant:

A transient is accused of hanging out naked inside residence halls at the University of Colorado, and could face charges of attempted sex assault, burglary, indecent exposure and trespass.

Nimroid Boles Folsom, 34, was arrested at 1 a.m. Wednesday near 20th Street and Broadway after reports that he was spotted in Farrand, Aden and Hallett halls, according to police.

Nimroid. Today is a good day.

Update III: Oops, forgot the link to The Story of Nimroid.

Update IV: "Hanging out"?

Quote of the NIght

The scholar is protected in his right to think and to say things which might not be tolerated in the marketplace because of the assumption that he is a man devoted to the conservation and the advancement of Truth. If, deserting Truth, he lusts after Power, then he loses his claim to the special freedom of the academy. And as a friend of mine says who has had much experience of American universities, when some professors nowadays talk about academic freedom, language has lost its meaning for them. They really are not talking about academic freedom, but only about academic power. They are very little interested in conserving or advancing Truth, and are still less interested in securing intellectual or academic freedom for others. What they mean, when they say "academic freedom," is power to dominate the wills of their colleagues and to force the minds of their students into an ideology that they happen to fancy. It is because of these persons that academic freedom is endangered today--Rahsaan Russell Kirk, "The American Scholar and the American Intellectual" (1956).

Update: Little joke there. Ha. The real Russell Kirk's wiki.

Update II: "I didn't ask my mother to buy me a trumpet or a violin. I started right on the water hose"--Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Slime brothers

Westword's Michael Roberts lets Ben Whitmer and Ward Churchill spew filth on Boulder Daily Camera reporter Heath Urie and city editor Matt Sebastian over the dropping of assault charges Urie had filed against Ward's aging bullyboy, Josh "Killer" Dillabaugh (background hier und hier.)

I like this from Benjie:

My understanding is the charges were dropped because the case couldn't be proved - i.e., Mr. Dillabaugh's lawyer talked to the DA, told them the Camera had a longstanding animosity towards Mr. Churchill and that if the case went to court, he'd run roughshod over Urie. Granted, that came to me secondhand, but that's the way I heard it.

Of course, one look at the police report of the incident, in which Urie initially couldn't even identify who had assaulted him, and you knew the charge would never fly. Roberts, by the way, apparently hasn't seen the report, which also noted Urie's charge that Dillabaugh had later stood in front of him while he was trying to interview Churchill, repeatedly blowing cigarette smoke in his face. (You'd think that in itself would constitute assault in Boulder.)

Roberts talked briefly to Wart, too, who naturally said it was Urie who should have been charged with assault (as well as menacing, trespassing, and harassment). Roberts asked Churchill:

Were you interviewed by representatives of the Boulder Police Department in relation to the charges?

WC: Nope. Nor by the campus cops, although I was standing within a few feet of the investigating officers" at a couple of points while they were on the "scene." That in itself would have made for some interesting testimony when I took the stand at trial, doncha think?

So why didn't Ward buttonhole one of them himself? If Urie had truly acted the way these two astounding liars say he did, Churchill would have been in the cops' faces, not standing shyly to one side, hoping against hope that one of them might notice him.

Interestingly, by the way, neither in this nor in Roberts' "The Message" column (p. 2), which it updates, is Dillabaugh himself quoted. Nor does Roberts mention Dillabaugh's threat to kill your darling D-blog, which seems, to me at least, relevant.

Pirate Ballerina has more on the "Genocide of Benjie's Hand."

Celebrating 20 years, Z-Net gets makeover

But the ultra-drone rad mag needs money, or they might have to cut back again. Especially wanted: sustainers (even socialists need to budget). Pretty good deal, too. At the $3-a-month level and above you get your own personal blog "space" on which you can post your own personal picture, like this (dude), or, if you think you have a dramatic profile, this.

The makeover is nice, too; sad that the content is so stupid. In this month's Z, por ejemplo, there's a sort of review of last year's anti-war protests (upshot: they weren't pathetic. The corporate news media made them look pathetic). Fave anecdote, from the September 15 D.C. protest:

In one of the more iconic examples of civil disobedience, a man stepped onto a barricade and shouted, “What do we want?” to which those behind him replied, “Peace.” Thrusting a sign that read “Support the troops, bring them home,” he called out: “When do we want it?” “Now,” they shouted. Wearing a pink crown and looking something like a 21st century Christ, the man jumped into a group of swarming officers. It took four of them to wrestle him to the ground. Still he held his sign and called out, “What do we want?” Even when they ripped the sign from his grip and put a knee in his back, his voice persisted: “When do we want it?” “Peace…now,” replied his fellow protesters.

Iconic all right. (Interesting fact: several European churches still have treasured pieces of Jesus' (perhaps legendary) Pink Crown mouldering in their reliquaries.)

A subset of marchers scolded the police, chanting: “The whole world is watching, the whole world is watching.”

God, it's embarrassing just to read that. Recreate 68! Recreate 68! Losers.

This month's issue also has a (big) dose of Chomsky on Iraq. Many familiar lies and truth-twistings, expressed in the familiar arrogant style. Strangely, the piece is from a speech from June 2007, which makes C.H.O.M.P.S. sound even more crazily out of touch than usual. His family must fight over who has to invite the senile old bore for Thanksgiving.

Speaking of bores, Arundhati Roy gets all Churchillian on the U.S.:

Since the United States is the richest and most powerful country in the world, it has assumed the privilege of being the World's Number One Genocide Denier ["WNOGD", pronounced "Dub-Nog"--ed.]. It continues to celebrate Columbus Day, the day Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas [oh--ed.], which marks the beginning of a Holocaust that wiped out millions of native Indians, about 90 per cent of the original population. (Lord Amherst, the man whose idea it was to distribute blankets infected with smallpox virus to Indians, has a university town in Massachusetts, and a prestigious liberal arts college named after him).

Lord College in Lord, Massachusetts. More interestingly, Z-Net is still using that 20-year-old picture of Roy which makes her look, irkingly, like a hot patootie. (Update: she's still got a certain hot patootishness, damn her.)

Speaking of hot patooties, Ward Churchill still has his Z Space page ("messages from friends (0)") even though, after contributing dozens of articles in the decade-and-a-half before 2005, he's written nothing for the mag since April of that year. Z founders Michael ("God, I'm Dull") Albert and Lydia Sargent must have been mightily displeased when Ward blamed them for (one instance of) his plagiarism of the Canadian group Dam the Dams (p. 83 of the Chutch Report (pdf)).

(By the way, did anyone ever, like, ask Albert and/or Sargent about Ward's version of that incident? The Chutch Report says only that Churchill's claim that Z left off Dam the Dams' author credit when they published "The Water Plot" in 1993, and wouldn't fix it even after Ward asked them to, was, "like many of Professor Churchill's claims . . . difficult to disprove. . . " (p. 87). One possible way would have been to ask the poor schmucks he blamed.)

(Another question: Are Albert and Sargent on CU lawyers' list of people to depose for the school's defense against Churchill's lawsuit?)

What the hell was I talking about? Oh yeah, Z-Net. Screw 'em--but be sure to read the testimonials on the begging page (first link).

Panel might recommend halt to most pot prosecutions

The News:

The mayor's panel on marijuana policy might consider recommending that the Denver city attorney halt most prosecutions of people who possess less than an ounce of pot.

The idea was floated Monday by one of Mayor John Hickenlooper's panelists, attorney Frank Moya. He said the panel would fulfill its job to ensure last year's marijuana ordinance is implemented to the "greatest extent possible" as required by the initiative.

More than 57 percent of Denver voters approved Initiative 100, an ordinance making private adult marijuana possession of less than an ounce the city's lowest law enforcement priority. As part of the initiative the mayor was required to appoint an 11-member Marijuana Policy Review Panel, which met for the first time Monday.

MIM in mourning

Mao's English-language tutor has died, according to the AP:

Zhang Hanzhi, Mao Zedong's English tutor and an interpreter during the historic 1972 meeting between the Communist leader and President Nixon, has died. She was 72.

"I want everyone to remember her smile, her loyalty to love, her kindness of heart and how grandiose she was. . . . " Zhang's daughter, Hong Huang, a well-known publisher, wrote in her blog. "Mother ... we will still be together."

Grandiose?

She met Mao in 1950 at a party to celebrate the first anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and again in 1963 at Mao's 70th birthday. He seemed relaxed and happy and asked to be her student when he found out she taught English. "Why not?" he asked, when she said she wouldn't dare.

"The Chairman wanted the lessons to start the following day! I was dumfounded," Zhang wrote in a 1999 article for Time magazine. "I was to teach the great leader whom over a billion people worshipped as their god?"

Uh-huh.

Update: A couple of very strange lines in that (strange overall) 1994 book review I just linked to, by Nicholas Wade, who is (and probably was then) a science reporter for the Times:

Mao has been widely portrayed as a great 20th-century leader who saved his country from invasion and disunity and won the loyalty of such gifted colleagues as Zhou Enlai.

and

Historians would doubtless contend that no man is a hero to his valet and that the personal idiosyncrasies described by Dr. Li, even if true, are flyspecks on the grand structure of Mao's achievements.

The Times is further left than I thought.

Waiting for Wardo

Tim Giago on fake Indians in the Huffpo:

There is a recurring problem in Indian country that has been a bother for many years. I hear Native Americans discussing it oftentimes with a lot of anger. It's a very touchy issue and some would even find it offensive, but it is not a problem that should not be addressed.

The problem involves those people claiming to be Native American although they are not enrolled with any particular tribe.The problem that seems to be the biggest in Indian country is that of individuals claiming tribal status in order to secure highly desirable jobs. Ward Churchill, a man who held key job positions at the University of Colorado, has never been able to prove tribal membership and yet he was given jobs that could have, and probably should have, gone to legitimate members of a state or federally recognized tribe.

Hold on there, Giago. Ward is an enrolled member of the Keetoowah band of Cherokee. He says so (or used to say so) all the time, and one of these days he's going to post that video to prove it.

Rally for Lynne Stewart tonight

All kinds of people are going to be there: Ward Churchill, Cynthia McKinney, Pam Africa, Ralph Schoenman, the Rapping Grannies--sure would like to see the Rapping Grannies.

Update: Rats, it's the Raging Grannies. I'm not going.

Sunday NIght at the Radio!

Jack Benny! "Jack Goes to the Dentist" (4 March 1951).

And Jack's bandleader, Phil Harris, in The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show. "Brawl at the Grocery Store" (16 October 1949).

No Oscar for Glenn Morris

The misshapen scofflaws at the Ward Churchill Solidarity Network whine about the verdicts against the Columbus Day protesters:

During the first trial of the 2007 Transform Columbus Day protesters, the judge refused to allow the defenders to talk about previous Columbus Day Parades, and cut short their explanations concerning their motivations and their arguments under international law. It was, therefore, almost impossible for them to explain to the jury why they believed it necessary to protest Denver’s annual celebration of Columbus’ legacy of slavery and genocide.

In other words, this time they couldn't grandstand or bring up irrelevancies. How horrible.

And of course, they weren't just protesting, they were preventing others from exercising their own First Amendment rights, which is why the jury convicted.

MIM will be so jealous

The Boston Globe has an amusing piece on the Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Bob "Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party" Avakian:

IT WAS HARD to miss, splashed recently across a full page of The New York Review of Books: an advertisement featuring the boldface words, "Dangerous times demand courageous voices. Bob Avakian is such a voice."

Wrapped around those words, Talmud-page-style, were, to the left, a short essay about the importance of Avakian's "compelling approach to Marxism" and, to the right, a list of dozens of signatories, including academic superstars like Cornel West, performers like Rickie Lee Jones and Chuck D., and activists like Cindy Sheehan.

World-historical genius Ward Churchill signed as well (as an "independent scholar"):

No one was more certain of Avakian's silencing than Churchill, the former University of Colorado professor who was much attacked for writing in 2001 that "the little Eichmanns" in the World Trade Center were not innocent in their own deaths. I wrote an e-mail to Churchill, who signed the Avakian ad, suggesting that nobody was conspiring to deprive Avakian of the right to speak. He replied, in part, "I mean, you can't possibly be that naive, can you?"

Bet he asked the guy if he could tie his own shoes, too. Ward doesn't have much of a repertoire.

Coincidentally (maybe), the Maoist Internationalist Movement was giving the RCP hell over Ward just the other day:

The Really Chauvinist Party zombies still have not answered up on their role in derailing pro-Ward Churchill rallies. Specifically MIM has already hammered them on their white nationalist lynchmob ideology that they spread to the National Lawyers Guild in a locale that was building Ward Churchill rallies.

First of all, as a matter of method, whether or not there was a rape rumor, there was nothing correct about raising it in connection to supporting a Ward Churchill rally. Already at that level the Really Chauvinist Party zombies and their friends stand exposed, including the two-faced ones who said they'd at least show up for the rally but did not. White people unreasoning stands exposed, the true nature of the Really Chauvinist Party.

I have several questions. No, just one: Rape rumor? Of course, Security Minister is using his cryptic communication abilities, so that's basically it. Maybe Wart or his dog Benjie will explain.

"Intellectual diversity" bill introduced in state senate

With all the kickin' 'n' grinnin' goin' on at the Colorado legislature, the introduction of a bill to ensure "intellectual diversity" on state campuses kind of slipped by [added: slipped by me, anyway--see update]).

Sponsored by the hypercubic Sen. Dave Schultheis (R-Colorado
Springs--bet you didn't see that coming), the bill, S.B. 45, would require state schools to (among other stuff): "conduct a study to assess current intellectual diversity on campus"; "encourage a balanced variety of campus-wide panels and speakers"; "establish clear campus policies ensuring that hecklers or threats of violence do not prevent speakers from speaking; "ensure freedom of the press and to track any reported incidents of interference with the production and distribution of student newspapers; and to "develop clear policies on hiring, tenure, and promotion that protect individiuals against discrimination based on political viewpoint and that track any reported political viewpoint and that track any reported political viewpoint discrimination grievances."

Doesn't stand a chance, thank God, but interesting. It's already gotten a sneer-o-gram in CU's Silver & Gold Record from one "David Stahl, pediatrics":

While politicians are free to spew whatever rhetoric they please to an unsuspecting public, professors are expected to present state-of-the-art material that has undergone the process of intense scholarly review.

Like Ward Churchill.

The fact that the ideas of today's neoconservatives are not regularly presented in college classrooms is in fact the result of bias, because professors are obliged to present logical, documented, peer-reviewed and factual material to their students.

See above.

Make no mistake that Schultheis and his ilk would rather have us present the diatribes spewing forth from quasi-institutions like Colorado's Independence Institute and the national Heritage Foundation. Groups such as these publish
material written by persons not qualified to do so and the material rarely, if ever, undergoes the process of peer review.

So yes, Mr. Schultheis, our universities are biased in the presentation of course material. They are intentionally biased to weed out the mindless drivel you would like to see pass as credible scholarship.

Continue to see above. Stahl ends on a hopeful note:

Maybe with the departure of the man that has greased the wheels for the Schultheis bill, President Hank Brown, we too will see the departure of this partisan fecal matter from our institutions of higher learning. If not, then I suspect we'll be hearing from the ACLU.

Mmmm, partisan fecal matter. Expect more verbiage like this, if not the ACLU (no one expects the ACLU) as the bill progresses.

Update: The S & G R had a good story on the bill last week.

Country wisdom

Saturday "You Said It," Grand Junction Sentinel:

Douglas Bruce and Tom Tancredo are two of the biggest embarrassments ever to surface in Colorado. The saying goes that bad things come in threes. I shudder to think of what’s coming next. Oh, wait — Ward Churchill.

Weird Bird Friday

What, me? Forget Weird Bird Friday? Never! How could I, with it hanging over my head?


from here.
--Drunkawife

Churchill's attorney wins settlement for Hell's Angels

Busy guy. The Post:

For the second time in five years, Denver police apologized to the Hells Angels motorcycle club for possibly violating the group's Constitutional rights.

In a settlement released Thursday, attorney David Lane said Denver and Mountain View police agreed to pay a total of $14,000 to the group, and apologize for a Sept. 2, 2005 traffic stop in Mountain View. . . .

Tain't the first time, neither:

In 2003, the city wrote a similar letter to the Hells Angels and paid $50,000 after a Denver police raid on the group's clubhouse.

Update: If I were Ward I'd be wondering how much time Lane could possibly be spending on my pro bono case. Now he's trying to subpoena the vice president. AP:

An attorney for a man arrested after telling the vice president that his policies in Iraq were "disgusting" asked U.S. marshals Thursday to force Dick Cheney to testify about the matter.

Steve Howards has said he lightly touched the vice president on the arm after making the comment at a mall in Beaver Creek, a resort town two hours west of Denver where Cheney was attending a conference in June 2006.

Attorney David Lane mentions in the papers a "shocking lack of consistency" among the defendants and witnesses as to what occurred.

"Mr. Cheney is clearly the best eyewitness to the events in question," Lane said in the motion to subpoena him.

Update II: "Lightly touched the vice president." It sounds so perverted.

Columnist: Columbus Day protesters made my child afraid of Indians

It was the drums. And the blood. The Independence Institute's Jessica Peck Corry on the conviction of the three Columbus Day protesters, and how the protest traumatized her two-year-old daughter:

[A]s this week’s verdict demonstrates, the public is growing tired of this annual battle. By continuing on, Lane and his radical clients have done nothing to help their cause, especially in my household, where my two-year-old daughter is now deeply afraid of American Indians.

Her fear is not the result of some bigoted Hollywood movie production. Rather, it’s because of the radical activists themselves. On a morning walk with my husband not far from our home in downtown Denver on the day of the last parade, my daughter heard the sound of drums and wanted a closer look. As she leaned forward in her stroller, protestors jumped out in front of her, splashing their “blood” onto the street.

Nearly four months later, she still talks about the event. Every time she hears the sound of a drum, she says “boom, boom, boom. Indians scare me, Mommy.”

Racists are made, not born, he said as if he actually knew this for a fact. Corry somewhat awkwardly transitions:

I’m scared too, but for a different reason. I’m worried about what will happen to my country if our legal system allows the logic of those like Lane, Churchill and Morris to prevail.

In fact our legal system has allowed the logic of those like Lane, Churchill and Morris to prevail for years. This conviction is a first, and Corry should be heartened by it. As for her child, it's just unfortunate that being frightened by Columbus Day protesters is a key indicator--along with animal torture and bedwetting--of a future serial killer.

Means: "We own it"

PB links to an interview with the Chief Facilitator of the so-called (damn, I see why Wart uses that phrase so much. It simply trips from the tongue with a delightful tingle) Republic of Lakotah, Russell Means, who keeps claiming that the republic can place liens on all property transactions within their so-called (whee!) territory:

The power we have is based on U.S. law. The negotiation tool that we will use with the city, county and state governments is the power to put a lien on any and all real estate transactions in that five-state region. What that does is that it puts the burden of proof on the seller of the real estate.

Favorite line:

Our people are being exterminated, much like the African slaves were exterminated from their homeland and separated from their way of life.

Maybe he means exonerated.

Annette Benning sure was cute, though

Westword editor Patty Calhoun on the trial of the Columbus Day protesters:

Throughout the trial, [Denver County Court Judge Claudia] Jordan's courtroom had been crowded — not just with physical bodies, but with references to MLK, Hitler, Mayor John Hickenlooper, who'd called the MLK marchers "administrators
of democracy," and even Michael Douglas in The American President, as quoted by the city attorney. But in the end, what swayed the jury was not the specter of celebrity, but the letter of the law.

Michael Douglas in The American President? The only line of his I can remember from that movie is, "We're going to get the guns."

House censures Rep. Bruce for kicking photographer

The News says the vote was 62-1. Did Bruce vote on his own censure?

Update: El Presidente has more. No, he didn't. Hard to believe, though, that this was the first censure in the 131-year history of the Colorado legislature. Well, they're pretty easygoing over there.

Update II: Outrage: They censured Bruce even after he compared himself to Jimmy Stewart in Mistuh Kurtz Goes to Washington:

Rep. Douglas Bruce’s efforts to cast himself as a victim hounded by the press, including invoking the image of movie legend Jimmy Stewart, didn’t spare him the first censure in the legislature’s 131-year history.

“This resolution is the real overreaction to the nudge of an unruly photographer who broke his promise that he would not interrupt my participation in the prayer,” Bruce said.

But at least he acknowledged his error:

“I made a mistake,” Bruce said. “I trusted a journalist and I won’t do that again.”

Bruce compared himself to Stewart in the 1939 film about a crusader who became a member of Congress, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Mr. Smith “is set up and provoked by the press even before being sworn in,” recounted Bruce, who himself was only sworn in two hours after booting Manzano.

Mr. Smith “responds by punching several reporters,” Bruce said contrasting that response to his mere “poke” to Manzano’s knee. . . .

Rep. Al White, R-Hayden, rejected his Republican colleague’s cinematic comparison.

“Rep. Bruce, you’re not James Stewart and this is not a 1939 movie,” White said. “This is today. . . .

A comment from Glenn Spagnuolo

The Recreate68! leader and hardcore Little Churchill responded to yesterday's post on R68's upcoming meeting at the Iliff School of Theology to plot strategy (On Ruckus!) and tactics (Now, SDS!) for disrupting (On! Unconventional Action!) the Democratic National Convention this summer. The entire message (all sic, natch):

hey asshole, nice comments on last years meeting that took place at Illif. Get some updated info.

Glenn is referring to this post, in which I noted the then-upcoming Columbus Day "Truth Commission" hearings, also at the Iliff School and sponsored by Transform Columbus Day, the other simp-rad organization for which Glenn (along with freshly convicted pal Glenn Morris) has played a leading role.

While I'd be happy to post any "updated info" on the commission that's out there, the truth is, there isn't any. The last word, it seems, was Workers World's deluded yet boring account (how do you commies do it?) published a week after the event and to which I dully, er, duly, linked. Remember that, Glenn?

The Truth Commission, just like the International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina/Rita, provided the true history of people. As the struggle to stop imperialist wars abroad and the war against the oppressed and workers in the U.S. intensifies, this truth becomes increasingly more important and provides the history that will inundate the lies of the oppressors.

Mm-hm. But that's pretty much all that's out there, update-wise. Which is funny because at the time Glenn's (that is, TCD's) press release said that the Truth Commission's report ("along with audio and video documentation") would be provided to "educators, students, and political, religious and community leaders" on request. That was almost four months ago, but it's still, as far as I can tell, unavailable. It's not even mentioned at TCD or AIM. Post that report, Glenn (along with its accompanying audio and video documentation, of course), and I'll update the hell out of it.

Columbus Day parade organizer: Protesters got "a little spanking on the hand"

Kind of a weird image, actually. The Rocky (the Post gave the verdict five paragraphs this morning):

The organizer of the 2007 Columbus Day parade is glad protesters were found guilty of blocking the event, but he's not happy with the low fines they received.

"How many times could I break the law before I got severely punished?" George Vendegnia, a Denver businessman who organized the parade, asked today.

The procession has been stopped by protesters every year since 2000, when the celebration was revived. But until Tuesday, no protester had been convicted.

A four-woman, two-man Denver County Court jury convicted protest organizer Glenn Morris of disrupting a lawful assembly. Rev. Julie Todd was convicted of obstructing passage on a street, and Koreena Montoya, of Denver, was found guilty of resisting arrest and interfering with police.

Vendegnia said the protesters should have received jail time.

"They just got a little spanking on the hand," he said. . . .

"This was the discovery of this great country that we live in, and if we let a small group like this change this holiday, you know the next holiday they're going after is Thanksgiving," Vendegnia
said. . . .

Oh yeah:

Vendegnia says his group is planning a 2008 Columbus Day Parade.

Columbus Day protesters found guilty

Glenn Morris's alleged eloquence is getting a little threadbare. The Rocky:

The first three of more than 80 protesters to be tried for blocking a Columbus Day parade in October were found guilty in Denver District Court on Tuesday.

Sentenced to fines were University of Colorado political science professor Glenn Morris; the Rev. Julie Todd, a Methodist minister; and Koreena Montoya, of Denver.

An appeal is possible, said David Lane, one of five defense attorneys on the case. . . .

Hope you're not going to let your focus be diverted by this, David. Ward needs you.

Lane told the jurors that the delay of the Columbus Day parade was insignificant compared with the suffering of Indians since Columbus landed. . . .

And the jury, praise God for vittory, called bullshit:

Jury Foreman Terry Smith, a retired Ford executive, said that the panel based the decision only on whether the evidence showed the defendants committed the acts with which they were charged — not the message the protesters were trying to convey. . . .

Wonder who'll be first to call the jurors racists? Anyway, don't expect to see Morris holding a "why lie, I just want a beer" sign at a street corner any time soon:

Morris, who has participated in several of the protests against the annual Columbus Day parade in recent years, was given a $200 fine, plus $41 of fees.

Morris also must pay $323.53, the cost of cleaning up the theatrical blood.

The cost is so high because police called in a hazardous materials unit to do the cleaning before the parade was allowed to proceed.

Todd was fined $100, with $50 suspended, and Montoya must pay $200.

Drazen-Smith had asked Jordan to impose a one-year suspended jail term on Morris. She said a tough stance against illegal protests will help deter trouble during the Democratic National Convention in August, when protesters are expected to descend on Denver.

Heh.

Morris said at his sentencing that the protest was “an act of conscience.”

“Our country is taken. Our people are destroyed, and we are the criminals. There’s no justice in that,” he said.

What a creep.

Update: Just noticed that Churchill's dog Benjie over at Try-Works hasn't posted a word about the trial, and he participated in the protest (though in some miraculous and still-unexplained manner he failed to get arrested). Now why might that be? Maybe because even the defendants' testimony made his lies about a protest "bloodbath" look more ludicrous than they already did?

Tuesday Night at the Radio!

Suspense! "The Hitchhiker" (2 September 1942). Orson Welles keeps passing himself on the Road of Life. Don't miss the war-bond plea at the end.

And The Adventures of Philip Marlowe: "Who Shot Waldo" (12 June 1947). An audition show starring Van Heflin, who reads Raymond Chandler's famous opening to "Red Wind" verbatim, and blows it. Still, an interesting show.

Catching up with: Recreate68!

In the parlance of their favorite year, the organization is gettin' it on:

The Recreate-68 Alliance would like to invite all interested parties to join us in our first public meeting in regards to our plans and yours for the 2008 DNC. Please be aware that this meeting is not intended to serve as a place to condemn or debate our choices (Protesting the DNC, not our tactics and actions at the convention, that is open for discussion) [nice sentence--ed.] We will set a proper time and program for just that reason in the near future. This meeting is for the community members who wish to participate in, and learn about, the organizing efforts. Any other reasons for participation in the public meeting will be highly discouraged (that includes media and police).

Like Ward Churchill and his minions, Recreate68! has always been utterly open to the light of scrutiny. (R68! leader Glenn Spagnuolo, of course, is one of Wart's bestest buds, and a longtime participant in the Columbus Day protests.) The Meet 'n' Learn-to-Agiteet is February 12 at the Iliff School of Theology, which seems to have become something of a flophouse for those of the Churchillian persuasion.

More Recrating: Just before Christmas poster "StrongWindsAhead" gave hys or hyr frustrated inner poet a chance to sing:

Twas the night before the Convention, when all through the land a revolution was stirring, the people were making a stand;

The spy cameras were hung by the police with care,
In the hopes of snaring a protestor and claiming it’s fair;

The homeless were nestled all snug in new beds,
to hide them away from democrat heads;

When out on the street there arose such a clatter,
The police sprang from the station to see what was the matter.

Away to the Pepsi Center they flew like a flash,
with batons swinging looking for heads to smash.

The smell of tear gas permeated the night
all knew that the oppressors were in for a fight,

When, what to America’s wondering eyes should appear,
But Recreate 68, showing no fear,

More rapid than eagles the protestors they came,
And comrades whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Troops Out Now! now, SDS! now, R-68!
On, Unconventional Action! on Ruckus! Don’t be late!
To the top of the Capitol! Tear down the security wall!
the people’s power in action, oh what a ball!"

Jolly, what? Especially when one remembers that the city and the Democratic National Committee have been negotiating with these cretins from the beginning.

Read the comments, too. The poem has created a schism in the movement.

Columbus Day protest case goes to jury

The Rocky:

Jurors deciding the fate of three people accused of blocking last fall's Columbus Day Parade have begun deliberating.

Shameless as ever, David Lane compared the protesters to--guess who:

In closing arguments this morning, defense attorney David Lane invoked the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., saying that much like the civil rights activist, the protesters were standing up for what they believed — that the Oct. 6 parade honored a person responsible for starting a genocide against American Indians.

Glenn Morris as MLK. My shrink is going to be so mad when she sees I've started self-mutilating again.

Assistant City Attorney Melissa Drazen-Smith argued that no matter how passionate a protestor might feel, he or she must respect other people and act lawfully.

Well, duh.

Those on trial are University of Colorado political science professor Glenn Morris, who has been in several of the annual Columbus Day protests; the Rev. Julie Todd, a Methodist minister who is a doctoral candidate at the Iliff School of Theology, and Koreena Montoya of Denver.

On Friday, Todd and Montoya told the Denver County jury that they were sitting, waiting for buses at Stout and 15th streets when police used strong-armed tactics to detain them.

Waiting for buses. Rosa, is that you?

This will be a nice little tuneup for David Lane before he tries Ward Churchill's lawsuit later this year. Jury selection, witnesses,
"experts". . .

Critics: Denver not cowtown

Speaking of which, if you haven't been yet (Denver residents: it's the law), this is the last week of the National Western Stock Show!

Social notes: The reclusive "Mr. B." visited the Drunkablog fambly from Somewhere Else this weekend. Everybody is safe. Yesterday walking around downtown we noticed the Sloane Gallery of Contemporary Russian Art:


Molotov ("Mr. B.").



Washington holding the heads of Hitler and Stalin.


Detail: Stalin's head ("Mr. B.").



Neo-realist rendering of The Father of Our Country.

Update: nature-type pics also taken this weekend:


Downy Woodpecker ("Mr. B.", but I cropped the hell out of it so you could see the little bastard).


Platte River just below Confluence Park ("Mr. B.").



Mule deer (the D-a-W).

Update II: Mmmmm, a palace of beef.

Final arguments in Columbus Day protest trial tomorrow

Closing arguments in the trial of American Indian Movement creep Glenn Morris and two others charged with blocking the Columbus Day Parade route in Denver last year will be heard Tuesday, Colorado Indymedia says:

The defense presented its case on Friday in the first trial for [Transform Columbus Day] defenders. Defenders Glenn Morris, Koreena Montoya and Reverend Julie Todd gave eloquent and moving testimony about their reasons for taking a stand against the "convoy of conquest" last October.

By "eloquent" I suppose the writer means that Morris, at least, didn't directly threaten anybody during his testimony. This blog says a verdict will come tomorrow as well, though, of course, they couldn't know that.

Also, check out the blog Towanda's Window, apparently by one of the non-leader defendants in the case, of which there are 75 or so still to be tried (though if the leaders get off, charges against the rest may well be dropped, as happened in 2005). Here's part of her longish account of Friday's trial action:

All three defendants testified, as well as a couple of witnesses. The judge had forbidden any expert witnesses on behalf of the defense (to establish why columbus and columbus day should not be honored). However, Glenn Morris, Colorado AIM leader and one of the defendants, is himself an expert. He testified eloquently for at least 45 minutes on the disastrous actions and legacy of columbus, without a peep from the judge or city. The two women on trial were also able to give their reasons, which were similar but with their own flavor.

The women were strong, articulate, genuine, and completely unintimidated by pit bull city attorney (also a woman). They remained strong even while having to watch video and see photos of themselves being brutalized by the police and then explain what was happening for the jury. They were amazing. A favorite line from K, after explaining how she was initially attacked by police, including having her face squashed into the asphalt, watched her friend be hauled away, and then be left in the street: "As I sat there shaking I realized that everything I was there to protest was happening right in front of my eyes."

Try to read the whole thing, but if you notice blood in your vomit, stop at once. The writer's a student at the Iliff School of Theology, and a fine example of the Christian activist segment of the Ward Churchill demo. Towanda!

Update: All about Towanda:

I am a 37-year old woman. Most of the time I feel like I'm 27. Or 6. What does 37 feel like? Heck if I know. I still like to splash in mud puddles, play catch, and eat popsicles.

Friday Night at the Radio!

Yes I know it's Saturday. In honor of the miraculous resurrection of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, it's All I Was a Commie for the FBIiiiii Night on Friday Night at the Radio!

"Forged Faces" (15 April 1953).

"The Dangerous Dollars" (9 July 1952).

Ya lousy reds.

Weird Bird Friday

Here's a blog in which every post appears in a word bubble coming out of a strange little bird's mouth:

It's an interesting design concept.

Here's another interesting design concept:

--Drunkawife

P.S. Sorry I'm so late this week. What can I say? Some of us actually work on Fridays!

Doug Bruce and Ward Churchill--together at last!

A Grand Junction Sentinel writer makes a comparison:

So, what’s the difference, exactly, between Douglas Bruce and Ward Churchill?

It’s a fair enough question.

Dumb, but fair.

Sure, one revels in destruction, and the other destroys the revelry, but there’s a deeper commonality, as will likely be played out in the coming days.

Douglas Bruce, now a Republican state representative from El Paso County, has a long history in Colorado, starting with his shepherding of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights into the Colorado Constitution in 1992. He parlayed that success late last year into an appointment to complete an unexpired legislative term, and this week, just before he was to be sworn in, took a kick at a photographer on the statehouse floor.

Judging by his follow-through, there’s more of David Treadwell than Jason Elam in Bruce’s right leg (maybe he just needs a placekicking holder), but the fact is, Bruce hauled back and put the foot to a photographer.

During a prayer, no less.

Ward Churchill also needs no lengthy introduction. He’s the former University of Colorado professor who branded as Nazis the nearly 3,000 people who died in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Now, Douglas Bruce and Ward Churchill might not agree on much in any political sense, but they’re mirror images in the way they look at things. Mostly, it’s always somebody else’s fault.

Bag the revisionist

Security Minister of the Maoist Internationalist Movement gets sentimental over MIM's first quarter-century in his latest eructation, "Mass Line and MIM's 25th Anniversary." While acknowledging up front the bitter truth ("we have not overthrown imperialism"), Security Minister admits to no bitterness, but writes lyrically on youth, women, lumpen, Marxist science and Ward Churchill. Gone, finally, the lacerating self-criticism of the last few months; withdrawn, apparently, the vow to shut down the website.

No, Security Minister has discovered, and answered (at least to his own satisfaction), the real question: why has MIM, despite being (as he modestly notes) "the vanguard in the imperialist countries over these last 25 years," failed to overthrow (or even be noticed by) imperialism? Other people's stupidity and cowardice, of course:

Where we continue to have difficulty is that we have people looking at what we are doing, but still do not grab a hold of science and practice it. Once we practice the science of revolution for a while, we see that scientific integrity requires guts. Without guts, science lies unapplied or even worse, breaks down into falsehood. Fear leads to ignorance.

But MIM, at least, still has the guts to apply science as it should be applied--to everything, even affairs of the heart:

We had a recruiting situation with a female once, where she had a serious romantic relationship with a revisionist. The scientific judgment of this female told her that the party was correct on line. She also had persynal friends in the party and suspicion was, potential boyfriends in the party as well. The party told her to bag the revisionist before she could join the party.

Do you suppose MIM has, like, a clubhouse or something? What am I talking about? They don't even have an e-mail address. So how do these licentious leninists meet up? In any case, from this Landersian analysis Security Minister turns to Ward Churchill:

Another example of the mass line we have learned about, even in connection to intellectuals is Ward Churchill. The University of Colorado said Ward Churchill could just be removed, and it was Lynne Cheney behind that. . . .

Don't forget Bill O'Reilly and David Horowitz!

On the other hand, we can imagine if we had gone to the University of Colorado and said, "love Ward Churchill," this actually would have set back the scientific struggle. . . . That means in that context, we absolutely have to give the imperialists their shot at Ward Churchill. So if they say Ward Churchill is like diseased excess toe-nail that can just be removed without recurrence of disease, we have to listen to them say that and let people chew on that, let them try to prove their point. . . .

Security Minister is almost Proustian here--madeleines, diseased excess toenail, same diff.

If we say "love Ward Churchill," we sabotage him by making him look dumb. We say Ward Churchill is not a dead-ender, because the oppression of the First Nations cannot be extirpated from history, despite casino and Uncle $am money being spread around to promote profits of Disney productions on the North American natives.

As it turns out, there was no scientific substance in the University of Colorado's Law School-led report and the University of Colorado had to admit that its report on Churchill compiled by several scholars has no academic merit--none.

Funny, that's exactly what the Little Churchills say. And Chief Deputy Little Chutch Ben Whitmer returns the favor by saying MIM "spews shit" (third update). Ungrateful puppy. For, as Ward himself has well and truly said, "the Maoist International Movement have used their weekly papers to advance some of the best analysis of my case and its implications yet published." Security Minister continues:

It took a long time for the University of Colorado to figure that out, but hey, it could have been worse. . . . At least they did not wait till he was dead to pay attention to the critics of Churchill's critics. . . .

There is that.

As we stated in the example of a lesbian outsider attacking the party [just read the damn thing], the reverse is also true concerning love/fuzz logic. Some people go for years without letting a Churchill state his case. They do not read what he says or maybe they have a question that Churchill never was asked to confront. That is a breakdown in mass line and it can come as a what-goes-around-comes-around from denying truth. If we say KKK leader David Duke is wrong when he says 2+2=4, then we cannot be surprised when people tune out Ward Churchill for equally stupid reasons. In this case, it's gutlessness in Churchill's attackers. They do not read Churchill's works and MIM's
defenses. . . .

Some of us do.

Yet the attackers are prepared to nuke him, with all the international consequences.

Have to admit, I'd never considered the international consequences of nuking Ward Churchill.

This is a breakdown for emotional reasons, and MIM always said fear leads to ignorance. What difference does it make if we "love Ward Churchill?" Whether or not smallpox killed as many as Ward Churchill says maybe even months or years after a settler leaves a place is a question that can be asked of third party public health professionals, as many as one could want.

Churchill's most important discovery: the "formite" transmission of disease.

It has nothing to do with Churchill in a certain way . . .

No, of course not.

. . . but one must have the guts to ask. MIM did and published the result on our web page. The scholars at the University of Colorado did not ask the question, and the result was racism.

Er . . .

MIM has been vindicated on this point time and time again, but only among people who cool off enough to ask, and fortunately they do, sometimes years after a struggle, as our 25 years can attest to.

Happy birthday, MIM, and many, many more.

Authors interviewed

American Indian Mafia authors Joe and John Trimbach were interviewed by some Limey gink named Cliff Roles the other day on his Sarasota radio show. They do a sort of father-and-son brother act, and quite well, too. (Roles, unfortunately, is a halfwit, but, duh, I already said he had a radio show.)

(via Snapple, of course, to whom the Trimbachs are GODS, and who alleges she'll have all the interesting facts and figures from the interview later.)

Update: Joe Trimbach: "We've received very few negative comments [about the book], and they've been from the bloggers who, no matter what we said or did, they weren't going to like us."

Hmmpf. Somebody's got to tell them about Snapple.

Kickgate

Bootgate? Kneegate? Footgate? Anyway, a "special" committee has been appointed to investigate state Rep. Doug Bruce's florsheiming (I'm really trying here) of a Rocky photographer yesterday:

House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and House Minority Leader Mike May this morning announced the creation of a special committee to investigate Rep. Doug Bruce's kicking of a Rocky Mountain News photographer on Monday.

Bruce this morning called his swift kick more of a "nudge or a tap" but said the House leaders are "entitled to have any committee about any incident that they want." . . .

Note the blurred blucher in the Rocky pic of Bruce's reenactment of the foul assault. Slow shutter speed. He's probably lucky they didn't photoshop some cartoon speed lines in.

Romanoff said he thinks the committee can ask for subpoena power, but that he would look into the matter further. . . .

Oh, boy! Subpoena power! But they promise to use it only for good:

May emphasized the committee will be investigating Bruce's behavior exclusively. "We're not here to examine the press," he said.

Look ma, I'm a collateral functionary of the state!

The overflowing drool-buckets at the Ward Churchill Solidarity Network link to an article in The Nation on supposed government efforts to stifle dissent, spy on "peace and justice" organizations and create "homeland security campuses" at universities across the country. They also include a link to a brief Democracy Now (is there supposed to be an exclamation point in there somewhere?) piece from last October in which Wart opines flatulently on H.R. 1955, the "violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism" bill.

Update: It's Democracy! Now.

Update II: H.R. 1955

Wrong man

David Brooks makes a bizzare reference to Ward Churchill in tomorrow's (here in Denver) New York Times column on the "identity politics" of Hillary and Barack:

Both Clinton and Obama have eagerly donned the mantle of identity politics. A Clinton victory wouldn’t just be a victory for one woman, it would be a victory for little girls everywhere. An Obama victory would be about completing the dream, keeping the dream alive, and so on.

Fair enough. The problem is that both the feminist movement Clinton rides and the civil rights rhetoric Obama uses were constructed at a time when the enemy was the reactionary white male establishment. Today, they are not facing the white male establishment. They are facing each other.

Indubitably.

All the rhetorical devices that have been a staple of identity politics are now being exploited by the Clinton and Obama campaigns against each other. They are competing to play the victim. They are both accusing each other of insensitivity. They are both deliberately misinterpreting each other’s comments in order to somehow imply that the other is morally retrograde.

True again. But then Brooks outs with this:

All the habits of verbal thuggery that have long been used against critics of affirmative action, like Ward Churchill and Thomas Sowell, and critics of the radical feminism, like Christina Hoff Summers, are now being turned inward by the Democratic front-runners.

What's that again? Ward, against affirmative action? The self-identified Indian? Brooks must have glitched on the name, and the editors (layers and layers of 'em) just missed it. That'll be a nice surprise for Thomas Sowell, finding himself linked romantically to Ward Churchill like that.

Update: "the" radical feminism? That sounds as weird as MIM's habit of leaving out the definite article before "FBI."

Update II: As roughly 24,000 people have noted, Brooks meant Ward Connerly, not Churchill.

Update III: Fixed, way too late, via stealth edit.

Monday Night at the Radio!

I've played only one of these before: Our Miss Brooks, with Eve Arden. This one's called "The Hair Do" (6 March 1949). Geeky student Walter was played by Richard Crenna; shy biology teacher Mr. Boynton by Jeff Chandler.

And Suspense: "Drive-In," with Judy Garland (21 November 1946).

Tim Blair in hospital

The great blogger was diagnosed with stomach cancer and will undergo surgery next week. He says the prognosis is good, but, man, at its best it's going to be no fun at all. Go over and send him your best wishes, he said peremptorily.

Must have caught his bad side

Doug Bruce kicked a Rocky Mountain News photographer today during the Colorado House's morning prayer, and then was sworn in as the august body's newest representative:

The swearing-in to a near-empty chamber just after 1:30 p.m. followed a wild morning during which Bruce had kicked a Rocky photographer during the House morning prayer and later faced a 22-1 vote by the Republican Caucus to push for replacement of the appointed representative if he didn't take the oath by day's
end.

He's always been kind of ornery, as his surprisingly detailed wiki makes clear. Back to the kick:

Earlier in the morning, the Colorado Springs Republican tried to make light of the gaggle of reporters and photographers following him around this morning.

But his patience snapped as photographers from the Rocky and Denver Post crouched before him to shoot his picture as he stood for the House's morning prayer.

Bruce told Rocky photographer Javier Manzano "Don't do that again," and then gave him a swift kick in the knee.

There's tape (which doesn't show the kick), and the picture Manzano took which provoked the punt.

Ward Churchill, Lynne Stewart, Irwin Corey--together at last!

Little Green Footballs has video of Professor Ward Churchill speaking at a benefit for radical lawyer Lynne Stewart. Ancient comedy drunk Professor Irwin Corey (notice how there's no strikeout through his title) makes a guest appearance, Wart uses the phrase, "the way of my people," and Stewart is very short:



Update: A commenter at LGF notes that Ward is wearing a t-shirt bearing the likeness of cop-killer Assata Shakur, who, after escaping from prison in 1979, fled to Cuba, where she lives the high life to this day.

Update II: Professor Irwin Corey was born in 1914, which makes him 94. He looks older than that.

Update III: Oops, the video is from a year ago. Oh well, I'd never seen it before. Consider it a warmup to his next scheduled appearance with the terrorist enabler on the 28th.

Update IV: Speaking of the usual suspects, unrepentant Stalinist and anti-Israel jerk Grover Furr is at the top of Accuracy in Academia's bottom-ten academics list for 2007. (via Buzzy at PB and Phi Beta Cons)

Leads that engage

The Post:

A man is charged with a felony and his son is dead after the man allegedly killed a kitten that chewed through his ailing wife's oxygen tube last month.

Update: Headlines that don't engage, also from the Post: "Modern nuns less conventional."

Anarchismoe

A black bloc-head lays it all out for la gente: "On Strategy: Collective Ownership and the Self-Defense of our Communities. Leadership and a Distrust of the Privileged." The piece opens:

This is an essay I wrote in the spirit of creating dialogue in the movement. It is a critical look at where we’re at today, and where we need to be, while learning from our ancestors and those who came before us.

Our predecessors, too! It goes on for a long time, of course, but there are a few other good lines. Only an anarchist could come up with a subhead like:

We’re an Ulcer in the Belly of the Beast

Some of us are, some of us ain't. Ward is quoted or paraphrased. Read it, or, you know, not.

Ice Ice Baby

Ice.



Ice.



Ice.



Ice.



Ice.



Happy little spermatozoa. No, wait. It's ice.

Abstract of the week!

AVOIDANCE INSTRUCTIONS HEIGHTEN THE AWARENESS OF THE OBJECT TO BE AVOIDED

Ironic-cognitive-processing theory served as the basis for two investigations. While the theory is complicated and involved [oh, no!], the practical import of its findings are relatively simple.

The practical import are simple? I are so relieved!

Ss (M = 50; F = 52) watched a videotape of a series of events involving Australian Rules Football players, coaches, and umpires. Study 1 had some Ss listen to an out-of-sync ["His story will break your heart"--the Drunkablog] audio tape of game commentary and background noise as a condition of high cognitive load. A general-instruction condition consisted of receiving the instruction; "Your task is to closely observe what each person is doing in the video. Whatever you do, do not pay attention to what the umpires are doing." In the suppression-of-umpires condition Ss received the instruction; "Your task is to closely observe what each person is doing in the video" [NSW!]. [But read the comments.] "Whatever you do, do not pay any attention to any player who intentionally tries to harm another player." . . .

You already know the results from the title, but they bear repeating:

It was revealed that Ss were more aware of individuals, in this case umpires, when instructed not to attend to them. . . .The "ironic" effect was that Ss increased their attention more to the objects they were told not to attend to.

That's just dumb.

And the same to you!

The offal-eating maggots at the Ward Churchill Solidarity Network wish you a Happy New Year:

We hope 2008 finds each of you healthy and in good spirits, ready for a new round of struggles for a just and sustainable world.

A quick update: In addition to teaching a weekly voluntary class organized by students at the University of Colorado, Ward Churchill had a full fall of speaking engagements across the U.S. Most recently, he spoke on Zionism and Manifest Destiny to an overflow crowd at the University of California at Davis. Despite the usual threats of disruption, the event went smoothly and was well received, illustrating, as Ward’s talks consistently do, that when people actually get to hear a “controversial” speaker, they find themselves challenged by and appreciative of new ideas. In addition to engagements in Canada, from Toronto to Vancouver, Prof. Churchill was also a featured speaker at the National Book Fair in Caracas, Venezuela, in early November.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we were all challenged and appreciative. But what's new in Wart's World?

Ward Churchill filed suit in July against the University of Colorado, charging CU with having fired him in retaliation for speech protected by the First Amendment, and having used the bogus “investigation” of his scholarship as a pretext. That case is now in the “discovery” phase, in which each side will be taking depositions, posing/answering written interrogatories, and producing documents pertaining to the underlying facts. It will probably get to trial before a Denver jury in late summer or fall of 2008.

Oh, I hope CU's lawyers are ready for this. And, the pitch:

In the meantime, we have many expenses. We received generous donations from many folks, but still need to raise approximately $30,000 for court reporters, transcripts, copies, airfare and expenses of witnesses, and the hiring of experts.

All funds raised will go directly to attorney David Lane, to be used to cover these costs. Please consider planning a fundraiser, or sending a donation to: David Lane, Esq. c/o WCSN PO Box 20035 Boulder, CO 80308.

A fundraiser, eh?

The network also mentions the Modern Language Association's decidedly lukewarm resolution on Ward's case--though, of course, not calling it "decidedly lukewarm."

Update: CU president Hank Brown named "Citizen of the West":

Hank Brown accepted a job in 2005 that could hardly have been more undesirable.

To be genteel about it, the University of Colorado was navigating choppy waters. The athletic department had run amuck, fund-raising was in a tailspin, the football team was embroiled in a rape/prostitution/recruiting scandal and loudmouth warrior Ward Churchill was getting nightly national television exposure for his nasty rants and sloppy scholarship. . . .

Since then, he has helped calm the waters at CU. Ever the statesman, he won over faculty with his dedication to academics. He pulled well-heeled donors back into the silver and gold tent. Last year, CU broke its all-time fundraising record by collecting $133 million.

That's great. What about Wart?

He settled the high-profile rape case by agreeing to pay the alleged victim $2.5 million. But it was his humanity that helped make the case go away. Brown met with the accuser privately, and later said he regretted that she "underwent a very traumatic experience while a member of our university community."

How touching. What about Wart?

Even his football team has rebounded. Finishing the regular season 6-6 under a new coach, CU played in its first bowl game since 2005.

The PetroSun Bowl! I bet Brown drew up some plays. But, what about Wart?

For all of this, and his previous long record of service, Brown has earned the Citizen of the West award — a prestigious, well-deserved honor handed out each year by the National Western Stock Show.

But, but--what about Wart?

Update II: PB notes the slobidarity network's latest effusion too, and, sadly for the prospects of critical thinking, is even less respectful.

Weird Bird Friday

A smiling bird that had disappeared for 40 years was rediscovered in Colombia last year. It was seen and photographed near the site where the Virgin Mary appeared in a tree root in 1709. Coincidence? I think not!


The Recurve-Billed Bushbird

While we're on the subject of smiles, here are a couple of other smiling creatures.

From the unbelievably ugly...



...to the unbelievably cute.



Keep smiling!

--Drunkawife

Both sides now

Denis Dutton, creator of the semi-indispensable Arts and Letters Daily, has a new website that might (but probably won't) be just as interesting--Climate Debate Daily:

The site links to scientific articles, news stories, economic studies, polemics, historical articles, PR releases, editorials, feature commentaries, and blog entries. The main column on the left includes arguments and evidence generally in support of the IPCC position on the reality of significant anthropogenic global warming. The right-hand column includes material skeptical of the IPCC position and the notion that anthropogenic global warming represents a genuine threat to humanity.

Glopal warpenists get the lefthand column, eh? Appropriate. (Dutton himself, incidentally, says he is an AGW skeptic.)

Exonerated

Frequent PB commenter Fred notes a wiki interview with Canupa Gluha Mani (aka Duane Martin) of the Lakota Freedom Delegation (he cut up his drivers license at the press conference to announce the delegation's withdrawal from the United States), as well as a radio interview from last month in which he says many of the usual things--that American Indians' problems are all the fault of colonialism, that genocide is ongoing, that if Indians were just left alone by European death-culture everything would be hunky-dory, etc. Mani also downplays rumors of a split between him and Republic of Lakotah "Chief Facilitator" Russell Means, and uses the word "exonerated" peculiarly.

Update: Yesterday's scheduled interview with Ward Churchill on the University of Winnipeg's campus radio station was postponed by a power outage. They're trying to reschedule the "highly anticipated" segment.

Update II: CU's Silver & Gold Record has the latest "top ten stories of 2007" list in history, and Ward Churchill's firing is only number two--the top story is CU's settlement of suits by two women who were sexually assaulted at an off-campus party attended by CU football recruits and players.

Illogical dissent

Republican former state senate majority leader Mark Hillman on the election of Democrat Peter Groff as the first black president of the Colorado senate:

For three years, Groff and I served together in the Colorado Senate. We stand on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but his integrity, his well-considered principles and his unapologetic advocacy of those principles set him apart from even many of the most respected legislators.

Wonderful!

He cast the lone vote against a resolution condemning Ward Churchill's hate-filled remarks about 9/11 - not based on the substance of Churchill's insipid comments but based on the principle that he had a right to say it.

Insipid?

"I understand what you're saying, and in a way I agree with you," he said in debate. "But we have to stand up for freedom. (Churchill) has the right to shout his ignorance and his arrogance."

Can't find the resolution, but I doubt it said anything about curtailing his right to shout his ignorance and arrogance. Despite Hillman's admiration for his principles, Groff's misapprehension is not confidence-inspiring.

Wednesday Night at the Radio!

Information Please. This week's edition has the "erudite catcher" (and later, spy) Moe Berg and J.P. McAvoy, a playwright about whom I can find out almost (second graf) nothing (21 November 1939).

Dragnet. Big Tomato (25 January 1951). A band of dope peddlers launches a full-scale operation in your city. Their merchandise? Marijuana. Their victims? High school students. Your job? Get 'em.

Dead traitor skates again

Oliver Kamm quotes the Guardian on the death of Philip Agee:

Philip Agee, a former CIA agent who became a bitter critic of Washington's Cuba policy, has died aged 72, Cuban state media reported today. Agee quit the CIA in 1969 after 12 years in which he mainly worked in Latin America. He was later denounced as a traitor by George Bush Sr and was threatened with death by his former colleagues. His famous 1975 book, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, cited alleged CIA misdeeds against leftwingers in the region and included a 22-page list of people he claimed were agency operatives.

And so on. As Kamm notes, however, the paper omits a significant fact:

It is extraordinary that the report makes no mention of the fact that George Bush Snr's description of Agee was a simple statement of the literal truth. Agee was no mere political dissenter from CIA misdeeds. His affiliation was confirmed by documents smuggled to the West by the late Vasili Mitrokhin, the KGB's chief archivist from 1972 to 1984. These were made public in The Mitrokhin Archive, 1999, by Mitrokhin and the Cambridge historian Christopher Andrew. The authors state (p. 300): "Agee became in effect the CIA's first defector. In 1973 he approached the KGB residency in Mexico City and offered what the head of the FCD's Counter-Intelligence Directorate, Oleg Kalugin, called 'reams of information about CIA operations'."

With self-defeating circumspection, the suspicious KGB resident turned Agee away. So Agee turned to the Cubans, who unsurprisingly welcomed him enthusiastically and shared the information that he brought. . . .

(Kamm, don't forget, is a British socialist.)

Apparently no one else has mentioned the archivist's smuggled docs either. Not Reuters or AP or the Times' blog The Lede or even Mother Jones. All any of them say are that "defectors" or "the U.S. government" have in the past accused Agee of working for the commies (as opposed, of course, to just helping them out like any good egg would.) Why the free pass?

In any case, Kamm's close will do for Agee's obit: "His was an ignoble life, and I do not mourn his passing."

Update: The sheer crap Agee spewed over the years reminds me of someone. (Sorry, this is who I mean, of course. Just can't believe I didn't get a single comment on that separated-at-birth post the other day.)