Chutch lives!

Anybody notice that ex-professor Ward Churchill is still listed and pictured on the ethnic studies faculty page, and that his bio is still posted? Just a small memorial to the disgraced faker, one supposes, from his ethnic studies colleagues. Solidarity.

Churchill's dog and CU instructor Benjie Whitmer, by the way, appears to be "teaching" only one class this fall, the ambiguously titled but unquestionably rigorous American Indian Films (ETHN 2203-001-MWF 2-2:50).

Update: More signatures to the Free, er, Reinstate Ward Churchill petition: Reggie "But I'm Not a Moron" Dylan:

The Native American genocide is a FACT, not a footnote! Reverse the firing of Ward Churchill and defend dissent and critical thinking in academia.

"Anthony Abraira" says, faux-cogently:

If the educational system is actually an indoctrination system, then this firing is called for. However, if our institutions are there to give insight and educate people to uphold their declared liberties, than this man should be promoted for realizing an instance of practiced Americanism.

Juliana Simpson appears to be Homer's sister:

Academic Freedom is part of our "democracy" the world is tired of the lies and deceit used to manipulate anyone who actually uses their mind.

"Mike Unteswet" (I saw that one!) adds a comment, then "paul C sutton" weighs in at #421 (skyrocketing, I tells ya):

The media is bought and paid for. Academics are some of the few people with the authority to say that the emporer is wearing no clothes. You action will have a chilling effect on academic freedom. Please rescind - we always need dissenting voices - right or wrong.

Or lying.

Update II: With 400-odd signatures, still only Benjie (after I pointed out that he hadn't yet) and Elisa Facio from CU ethnic studies faculty have signed.

Could it be that department chair Albert "Although Professor Churchill has been the primary subject of scrutiny and of investigation, it is evident that he has not been the only person placed under the academic, bureaucratic and political microscope" Ramirez has told them to keep their yaps shut? To sacrifice Churchill for the good of the Kollective? Could be.

PSA

This has been on the internets for months, mostly on British blogs, but the Drunkablog believes all Americans should see it too. So here is now-Prime Minister Gordon Brown last March during PM's Question Time, picking his nose and eating the results.

No, no, don't thank me, though if Peacejam deserves a Nobel Prize, so (hint, hint) does the Drunkablog.

Sunday Night at the Radio!

By popular request--mine (and you know how popular I am)--here's an episode of Amos and Andy. Yep, the show was racist. But as John Dunning always said before occasionally playing it on his own show (and as the wiki bears out), Amos and Andy was important historically, besides being highly entertaining, with characters that at the time of the show linked here, the whole country was enthralled with.

This is old stuff--circa 1929. "Stepping on Andy's Toes."

Fair warning

Missed this thumbsucker in the News Friday by CU Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson, on the future of Colorado's flagship university:

During the next several weeks, the University of Colorado at Boulder will welcome the class of 2011, one which will rival last year’s as one of the largest, best-qualified and most diverse classes in the history of CU-Boulder and one that will help us build on the tremendous momentum established this past year.

Momentum?

However, as delighted as we are about the current state of things, great universities must always set their sights on tomorrow.

Delighted? (Check out the poll. Eighty-nine percent supported Churchill's firing.)

At CU-Boulder, that is exactly what we are doing.

Next week, I will present a draft of our strategic plan, a plan that will carry our university forward 25 years and ensure that we are serving Colorado’s needs now, and in the future. We call this plan “Flagship 2030.”

In 25 years it'll be 2032, Spud. In his favor, though, Bud has a way with the budzz words:

I’m pleased to report that this effort has not been an internal exercise, but one that has been led by a Steering Committee of 60 stakeholders from inside and outside the university.

We have added to this group the perspectives of other “core contributors” — people with an interest in the planning process who are supplementing the ideas of the Steering Committee — and this summer we have reached out to 15 communities across the state of Colorado to solicit their thoughts, ideas and visions of how CU-Boulder can better serve the needs of their communities and of the state. We have done this by interviewing the people who help to shape these communities and their futures.

These “thought leaders” include economic development leaders, school superintendents and parent-teacher organization presidents, newspaper editors and publishers (including John Temple, editor of the Rocky Mountain News), community service leaders and government officials from communities such as [a bunch of cities].

And how exactly does this differ from every other such endeavor in the long, crapulent history of education?

In Flagship 2030 we are not just identifying goals, we are developing "transformational concepts” — strategies and action plans that will help us prepare our students for the world of tomorrow.

Oh.

One of these concepts requires each of our students to participate in two experiential learning opportunities before graduation.

Two experiential learning opportunities? Slow down, you radical!

These could be study-abroad, service-learning or internship experiences, or other programs designed to help students see and better understand the world around them.

CU appears to be transforming itself into Ward Churchill's alma mater, Sangamon State University, circa 1970. This calls for more clichés:

With global communications making Beijing as close as Fort Collins, this requirement will position our graduates to enter the “real world” prepared to assume their role as global citizens and leaders in business, government, education or any other field they choose to pursue.

So, when I present the first working draft of the Flagship 2030 plan to President Hank Brown and the CU Board of Regents on Aug. 15, our university will be setting sail toward the broadest horizons it has ever envisioned.

Batten down the hatches, mateys.

A few more insightful comments

From signers of the petition to reinstate Ward Churchill.

Pigs

Reinstate Ward Churchill!!!! It was wrong to fire Professor Churchill for telling the truth. Those people in the Towers were pigs, and had it coming.

Superior insight

As a fellow unenrolled Cherokee, I know from first-hand experience that people like Ward and I have superior insight into the colonialist mindset than those of you without Indian blood. Where do you get off sitting in judgment of Indian peoples? Sitting bull is more like it. The force of truth is on our side.

"The force of truth." Now where have I heard that before?

UK academic terrified

As a young academic in the UK I find this saga of violations terrifying ... needless to say the international scholastic community will, I suspect, systematically withdraw from engagement with American academics should a culture of intimidation remain legitimised ...

Gee, pretty soon Brit academics will have only themselves to talk to.

Huffpo writer on Ward

At least, Jayne Lyn Stahl starts with the Ward Churchill case:

Several weeks ago, a university professor was fired. Ward Churchill, who taught for more than twenty years at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was dismissed for an essay he wrote, shortly after 9/11, which expressed controversial views about 9/11. . . . But, the larger issue here is not academic freedom; the larger issue is censorship, and the insidious practice of this government to outlaw ideas, and convert communication into contraband.

But quickly moves on to other pet peeves, like banned books:

If it were up to some conservative Christian groups in California, New York, Minnesota, and Michigan, Harry Potter would be banned, and removed from classrooms, and school libraries on the grounds that the books promote interest in "the occult." (NCAC) Some other titles that made the top ten 2006 banned books list include The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, for its sexual content, And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson, for homosexuality, The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier, for sexual content, and Scary Stories, by Alvin Schwartz, for the occult, and satanism.

Okay, maybe not banned, exactly. Year after year, decade after decade, heavily covered and intensely mocked attempts at banning are evoked as evidence of imminent fascism.

When they fire academics for essays they write which espouse contrarian, and unorthodox views, university chancellors demonstrate the same mindset that prohibits modern classics from being read by students in our public schools. This is a disgrace just as it is a disgrace that we have so-called "free speech zones" in which demonstrators may protest this president, and citizens being arrested for wearing anti-Bush teeshirts.

The jackboots! Here's a fine non sequitur:

Arguably, an even bigger disgrace is the fact that Paris Hilton got more coverage than the controversy over Harry Potter, or Ward Churchill. This administration has managed to put a silencer on the press.

George Bush forced ordinary American citizens to watch Paris Hilton! And corporations are helping him out by silencing some of our most important thinkers:

Last weekend, when Pearl Jam performed one of its songs, AT & T chose to turn the volume down when lead singer, Eddie Vedder's lyrics included some disparaging statements about President Bush. . . .

And nobody said a word. Nobody. They're all scared of Dick Cheney and his ice pick.

It is flat out unacceptable for any lyric to be muted out during a concert because it is derogatory just as it is flat out unacceptable that a college educator face expulsion for expressing dissenting views of a national tragedy, however repugnant those views are.

As always, though, the biggest problem is just how plain dumb everybody but HuffPo-reading liberals is:

At stake here is a complacent, and apathetic public that is allowing itself to be railroaded, and manipulated by a top-heavy, power-hungry, radical right, neo-conservative Christian government which has had phenomenal success in regulating what we see, hear, as well as discuss in our college, and public school, classrooms. And, by extension, in our movie theatres, bookstores, and T.V.s too.

Not our TVs! Please!

The fact that a professor was fired without much fanfare, or the kind of media focus given to six men trapped in a midwest mine, or the collapse of a bridge, speaks to the values, and lack of perspective, which enables the same kind of Salem Bay mentality which led to previous witchhunts, and cries of heresy.

That's right. Stahl thinks Wart's firing should have received more coverage than those six trapped miners (it doesn't look good) or the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

Finally Stahl gets around to accusing anti-Wardites of McCarthyism, managing, at least, to muster an original take:

Had Cryonics existed at the time of Senator Joe McCarthy's demise, and had he requested to be defrosted in Washington, D.C., in the year 2007, rest assured that he would feel perfectly at home there.

Yes, but would Washington feel perfectly at home with him? Peroration:

There is a cancer in the body politic that has metastasized, and has now spread to our classrooms, book shelves, television screens, newspapers, and public libraries. As with racism, it is not the overt display of prejudice that poses the gravest threat, but the more subtle, and subliminal, often unseen, forms of prejudice.

That we can live side by side with space travel, and instant communications with those who live 9,000 miles away and, at the same time, countenance the kind of mind policing that results in silencing dissenting writings as heretical, and occult smacks of ethical leprosy [great sentence!]. How can we not be impacted by what we are not allowed to say, or see, as well as what we stop ourselves from saying, and seeing.

Um . . .

Passivity, and acceptance, will prove to be our undoing. In the words of great Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, we must not "go gentle into that night," but "rage, rage, against the dying of the light."

Do these people ever listen to what they're saying, or do they just string random words and ideas together?

Update: PB has more comments from Ward Churchill supporters! They're really dumb!

Update II: Ward gives an interview to Boulder Weekly and, as PB notes (same linkie), does what comes naturally: tells lies.

Update III: Greg Gutfeld:

But I do think we need independent voices like Vedder. And, thank God he continues to raise the issue of censorship! Because it really is a growing problem. People are getting censored everywhere. Like, for example.....I can't think of a single one. Let me get back to you on that.

Plagiarism at the New Yorker?

Slightly former Rocky Mountain News editorial writer Linda Seebach (she retired just last month) has been blogging for about two seconds and has already managed to catch a New Yorker writer in what sure looks like plagiarism. The writer, Michael Spector, responds in comments:

I saw your blog entry on my Spam piece in last week’s New Yorker and wanted to let you know what happened. The short answer is I screwed up; a longer one would, I hope, make it clear to you that there was no plagiarism in the mistake or the story.

Judge for yourself.

Update: the piece was in last week's issue; couldn't find any correction or explanation in this week's.

Revolution facilitated

An analysis of Ward Churchill's situation from the unbearably named Shubel Morgan: the Art of Maoism:

[U]nlike the 1945 German communists, Ward Churchill doesn’t have the reinforcement of the victorious Soviet Red Army ensuring his right to freely speak the most important honest things to naturally say about amerikkka and amerikkkans. That’s regrettable.

Bet Ward agrees with you there, Shubel. [Update: "the most important honest things to naturally say"? What a communist way of putting it.]

He identifies just a paltry few Little Eichmanns by name and boom, after recovering from a collective fainting spell, amerika erupts in witch-hunting, railroading, and full blown kangaroo kourting.

Boom. Kangaroo kourting.

Ward Churchill, in naming names in amerika, speaks for the oppressed against the oppressors and their functionaries. Others who in the past spoke for the oppressed, could they be with us now, would say point blank Ward Churchill is right. The communists of Germany, 1945, would say yes, we’ve seen this Litle [sic] Eichmann movie before, and Ward Churchill is right. And is there any doubt where John Brown would stand? He stood against the Little Eichmanns of slavery and would certainly stand against the Little Eichmanns of imperialism. Old John Brown the revolutionary, could he be here, would bear witness to the now global “crimes of this guilty land” and declare Ward Churchill to be absolutely right.

"Shubel Morgan" was an alias used by John Brown.

More Chutch: AK Press reminds us that they have lots of Ward's books for sale. Get 'em before they're pulped.

Update II: Shubel, meet Security Minister. You guys will have a lot to cryptically communicate about.

More petition tomfoolery!

The petition to reinstate Ward Churchill has 20 or 30 more names than it had last time I looked yesterday, so the number of signers is still, as Pirate Ballerina put it the other day, "skyrocketing." New comments from a few of the deeper thinkers (all errors, of course, sic):

Scaredy cats

Only fear could have caused a university to do what the Univ. of Colorado did in firing Ward Churchill. Fearful universities are very scary places. We don't need them.

Honor genocide

in order to heal the earth and its beings, we must honor the genocide on this land and those help us to remember the deep rooted sadness and pain. we shall overcome. thanks for helping us to remember Ward. may the government corporation wake up to and consciously evolve.

Can't stand Keanu Reeves

free speech or democracy ....is it just an illusion of the matrix? We will remember your university for future enrollment of our students.

I am alumni

I am alumni of the University of Colorado at Boulder. To lose Mr. Churchill as a professor would be a catastrophic loss to the current student body in its critical development. My experience while I was a student at the University of Colorado introduced me to Mr. Churchill as perhaps the most intelligent individual I have had the fortune to engage in discourse. To lose him as a professor would be a shame. I definitely support his employment as a teacher and overwhelmingly trust his guidance for the future generations of students.

Rich with footnotey goodness

ward churchill is an important voice of dissent. his books are rich with footnotes, endnotes, and references of his source material. the allegations of plagarism are therefore hard to understand. i cannot see how your decision to fire Professor Churchill has any merit. indeed, by blacklisting such an accomplished and important scholar, you are confirming his very statements about the inability of the ruling powerstructure to handle any serious criticism that goes beyond a surface level squabble.

Update: Don't believe I've ever seen "powerstructure" rendered as one word before. Onward toward the Socialist dawn!

CU: Churchill case has cost $352,000 so far

The Post:

The University of Colorado racked up $352,000 in legal fees and court costs in its investigation and ultimate firing of controversial professor Ward Churchill, CU officials said Thursday.

However, that price tag doesn't include costs incurred in defense of pending legal action, said David Lane, Churchill's attorney, who has sued the university claiming defamation of character.

"We will be going to trial in this case for the simple reason that Ward Churchill has basically been slandered at this point and his reputation tarnished," Lane said. "And if we win at trial, CU can expect to pay me my attorney's fees.

"I can bill with the best of them," Lane said [my emphasis].

No hearing date has been set in the case, and CU has yet to respond to the court filing, Lane said. . . .

University spokeswoman Michele McKinney said the investigation into multiple allegations against Churchill was a "thorough yet difficult and complicated process."

"The more than two year investigation was costly to the university," McKinney wrote in a prepared statement. "To fully investigate charges of research misconduct against professor Churchill, and to provide him the full due process as required by Regent Law and Policy, the university had to incur costs in the areas of legal fees, investigative costs and hearings."

Churchill, who taught ethnic studies through the fall of 2005, was fired for academic misconduct in an 8-1 decision by the Board of Regents last month.

In addition to the legal costs, CU also will pay Churchill a year's salary of $93,000.

I thought it was $96,000.

Update: the News has details:

In May 2006, a faculty investigative panel released a 124-page report showing serious and recurring problems with Churchill's work, including plagiarism, fabrication and questionable citations. At that point — more than one year into the investigations — the case cost had surpassed the $150,000 mark.

The university hired Eric Elliff, a top Denver trial lawyer with Morrison & Foerster, to provide legal guidance for the panel as it did its work and interviewed witnesses.

Also, four CU employees who were serving on the school's Standing Committee on Research Misconduct were compensated a total of $33,463. The faculty members had received grants for summer research but instead invested much of their time on the Churchill investigation.

Regent Pat Hayes, chairwoman of the nine-member board, said she was surprised by the total cost but wouldn't do anything differently.

"It is certainly money we wish we didn't have to spend," she said. "But it was well spent because we needed to do things according to regent law. In the long run, we had to do it right."

In addition to the $352,000 in expenses, a four-decades-old CU rule will require that the school keep Churchill on the payroll for one more year, cutting him checks that will amount to more than $96,000.

The payout stems from a 1966 regents' decision to adopt portions of the American Association of University Professors guidelines on tenure and academic freedom. One of those rules requires that professors dismissed for reasons not involving "moral turpitude" receive salaries for at least a year from the date of dismissal.

Update II: It worked so well for the country, why not in the classroom? Ward Connerly in Frontpagerag:

Personally, I oppose the "Fairness Doctrine" for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it presumes the ignorance of the public and our inability to discern facts from horse manure. But, most significantly, broadcast stations are not owned by the government and should not be considered as government activity. With so many different sources of information - newspapers, major television networks, cable television and talk radio, for example - it is difficult for any one source to give us a "snow job." But, there is one area of American life where I believe something equivalent to a "Fairness Doctrine" ought to be applied: the college classroom.

(via the parrot-abuser of PB)

Weird Bird (Houses) Friday

In the interest of providing a little variety to Weird Bird Friday...oh, okay, really it's because I'm running out of pictures of weird birds...here are a couple of Weird Bird Houses!

From Poco Cocoa: Chocolate Covered Blog.

Thursday Night at the Radio!

I keep forgetting to mention that the Maoist Internationalist Movement has disappeared the three or four posts that referred to me at their website.

The first one was a bizarre little item that began by mentioning "A major from Colorado Springs who died in the Korean War." Snapple, with her cryptic communication skills, figured out that this was me. Now it, and subsequent posts mentioning Maj. John G. Martin, are gone. I'm freaking out again!

While I do, how about another episode of I Was a Communist for the FBI (bet you didn't see that coming). Tonight: "The Red Record" (20 August 1952--almost exactly 55 years ago, he noted pointlessly).

Regional beefs

Er, briefs.

A suspenseful lead from AP on the six Utah miners:

If the six trapped miners are alive, they may be sitting in inky darkness, their headlamps having burned out. Wearing thin work clothes in the 58-degree cold, they could be chilled to the bone if water is seeping into their chamber 150 stories below ground. How much air they might have is anyone's guess.

Today, more than three days after the thunderous cave-in, a drilling rig in the mountain above the Crandall Canyon mine closed in on the men, trying to bore a hole a mere 2 1/2 inches wide to bring them air and lower a two-way communications device and a tiny camera to check for signs of life.

Everybody has the same story. And just by way of contrast. Oh, MIM!

The UNC reserve punter who stabbed his rival to get the starting job was convicted today:

Mitch Cozad was convicted of second-degree assault in a knife attack on University of Northern Colorado punter Rafael Mendoza, but he was acquitted of a more severe charge of attempted first-degree murder.

Prosecutors said Cozad stabbed Mendoza in a desperate bid to get the starting-punter job. The defense argued it was another student who attacked Mendoza.

Mendooooooooozaaaa! Cozad's girlfriend initially lied to the cops to give him an alibi, but recanted.

Smarmarama: Peacejam nominated for Nobel Peace Prize:

Arvada-based PeaceJam Foundation is a nominee for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize, Gov. Bill Ritter announced this morning on the Capitol steps.

Co-founders of the 11-year-old youth leadership program, Dawn Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff, said they were flabbergasted by their nomination, made by six Nobel Peace Prize laureates from five countries.

"We are incredibly humbled by all of this," Engle said. "We really are just two very average flawed people. We're from Detroit. We're the children of Detroit factory workers."

Medium-sized barf bag, please.

PeaceJam's mission is the creation of "a new generation of young leaders committed to positive change in themselves, their communities and the world through the inspiration of Nobel Peace Laureates."

Suvanjieff said PeaceJam wanted to find great role models for young people because of the "Paris Hiltonization" of contemporary society and the abundance of really bad role models.

The Drunkablog posted repeatedly on Peacejam's visit to Denver last year.

Cops caught a priest jogging nekkid in Frederick yesterday:

The Archdiocese of Denver has placed a Frederick priest on administrative leave after it became public knowledge that he had been charged with indecent exposure for allegedly jogging in the nude.

Whipkey, 53, the pastor for three Roman Catholic churches in Frederick, Mead and Erie, was stopped by Frederick police at 4:30 a.m. on June 22 for walking down the street naked. He told police he had been jogging at the Frederick High School track and was walking home.

According to the police report, Whipkey told the officer, "I'm a heavy man, and wearing clothing while running makes me sweat profusely. I know what I did was wrong."

Whipkey!

Glub glub:

A group of 12-year-olds from Colorado hold a world record today after they became the youngest swimmers to cross the English Channel.

More than Ward Churchill's ever done for them:

Wishing to build goodwill among American Indians and the broader Denver community, the Democratic National Convention Committee is helping Native American Bank increase its portfolio of small-business loans.

The committee deposited $2 million into a zero-interest account at the Denver-based bank Wednesday morning and said it would leave the money there until late
spring.

"It's very important to us that the convention is a team effort," said Leah Daughtry, the DNCC's chief executive, before handing over the check.

The money is meant to bolster Native American Bank's efforts to build economic strength among American Indians, who the bank's officials contend are underserved by the traditional banking industry. About 85 percent of the bank's loans are extended to American Indians, officials said.

The DNCC deposit is part of $16.3 million the Federal Election Commission gave to the DNCC this summer as part of the normal convention operations budgetary process. Federal rules preclude the committee from earning interest on the money.

White folks run screaming into streets: for the first time, Denver is majority minority:

The U.S. Census Bureau announced Wednesday that Denver has crossed a cultural threshold: Sometime between 2005 and 2006, white non-Spanish/ Latino/Hispanic residents became a minority.

Denver is the largest of eight counties nationwide to cross this line during that period, census officials said, based on population data collected over the past year that showed a continuing international influx.

Dumb kid? Blame it on Baby Einstein:

Baby Einstein - the DVD and video line that turned its Centennial [CO] founder into a multimillionaire praised by President Bush - may hurt infants' language development, a study released this week has found.

Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University of Washington, the study's team found that for every hour per day that infants watched baby videos and DVDs from such companies as Baby Einstein and Brain Baby, they understood six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them.

Jeez, pretty soon a kid would be back to not knowing any words at all. I'd rather have the Baby Eisenstein, anyway.

And last, a light-hearted story to go out like Kent Brockman:

Tall horse in Denver or Arvada or somewhere (update: it's Fort Collins, and he's not there yet):

Hay! You gotta hand it to this horse.

Because when it comes to hands, Radar stands at 19 — plus 3 1/2 inches — which, of course, would convert his height to a mane hair over 79 inches tall.

Read the whole thing. If you need me I'll be hanging from the shower rod. No, I'm not sure whose.

"Speakout" aids idiot-spotting

In the News, an unedited Speakout column on Ward by Andrew H. Dral starts slow:

As an alumnus of the University of Colorado, receiving my MBA in 1989, I am very troubled by the witch hunt conducted by University of Colorado President Hank Brown and the Colorado Board of Regents against Ethnic Studies Professor
Ward Churchill. . . .

But perks up:

Talking about taking responsibility for errors, when will the US fess up to the great genocide perpetrated against the American Indian. Who were the 20 academics [sic] which [sic] found a pattern of misconduct? The same academics that condoned the massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, which resulted in at least 18 medals of honor for the 7th Cavalry for gunning down a few hundred innocent women and children by Gatling Gun.

Sheeee-ew. "The same academics who condoned the massacre at Wounded Knee." Mimi Wesson really is evil. In fact, Dral blames these "20" academics for everything. After shaming them for condoning the Trail of Tears, in fact, he works his way to (surprise!) their supposed support for Israel:

Most likely these are the same academics that would support Israel right or wrong, as it continues to perpetrate both the economic and carnal genocide [sic] of its Arab neighbors. For these academics the Lebanese massacre orchestrated by Ariel Sharon at Sabra and Shatila never occurred. These same academics probably discount the 3 to 1 kill ratio
of Palestinians. . . .

And thence to Vietnam and Korea and Iraq:

To these same academics the killing of 3 million Asians never occurred during the Vietnam War, No Gun Ri the killing hundreds of women and children in South Korea was an aberration, so was My Lai in Vietnam and of course Fallujah in Iraq. After No Gun Ri the US military knew there would be no penalty for gunning down hundreds of unarmed civilians during war time. . . . .

Eventually though, Andrew wanders back to CU:

Who is in denial at the University Colorado? Unfortunately, history has new twists and turns, the powerful interests of the day will distort and obfuscate the truth for their own ruthless ends. Academics must have the freedom to question history, the writers of history, and the current powers of the day unencumbered, so the truth finally wins. The massive hate against the US by various people around the world is clear, legitimate, palpable, and understandable.

Something of a theme here recently, but Churchill supporters are the lousiest writers I've seen since I graded freshman essays for the English teachers at North High School (the worst public high school in Denver). Dral:

Hank Brown and his Regents [great band name] don’t get it and may never get it. Ward Churchill gets it. Hank Brown and the Regents have harmed academic freedom and the first amendment, sending a chilling message to those who question conventional thought that may later be found baseless in truth, but just the propaganda of the day.

Huh? Dral recovers with a new and particularly vile analogy to the Third Reich:

Hitler sent the same message to the citizenry of Germany by executing Sophie Scholl of the White Rose Society for distributing pamphlets against Germany’s role and atrocities committed in World War II at the University of Munich.

Ward Churchill as Sophie Scholl. Just--disgusting:

How much different is this from what Hank Brown and his Regents have orchestrated? Both methods get the job done, snuff out the truth by killing the messenger. If anyone should be removed from the university, it should be President Hank Brown and his Board of Regents.

Is there any point in arguing with somebody who thinks like this?

Update: Hank Brown and His Regents.

Update II: Actually, it's the Delltones.

Churchill: P&T committee says CU violated confidentiality

The wombats at the Ward Churchill Solidarity Network:

A week after he had been fired, Ward Churchill was notified that a [Privilege and Tenure Committee] panel had decided that, in fact, former Interim Chancellor Philip DiStefano and the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct (SCRM) had breached his rights to confidentiality.

While linking to a number of "key documents," however, the WCSN somehow fails to provide the document in which the P&T Committee informed Churchill of this.

Whatever. Even if true, it would be ludicrous to claim that but for CU breaking confidentiality, Churchill wouldn't have been fired.

Update: PB notes that Churchill's response to the P&T committee's report hadn't previously been posted, and that his craptacular CV has grown from merely overweening to truly monstrous size.

He understands Ward, though

On one of his nine or ten blogs, Oz-blogger John "You Can Call Me" Jay Ray quotes (as we and others around here did a while ago) the LA Times' Gregory Rodriguez on the Ward Churchill case. I've been an intermittent reader of Ray for years, even linked to him, but when he's not quoting huge hunks of somebody else's writing, without comment and with the pitiful attribution "source," he's exhibiting all the warmth of a spokesman for the Australian Asperger's Syndrome League.

Or whatever it's called.

More: In a post hilariously titled "May the enemies of Democracy tremble," The Existentialist Cowboy (wow, hip) congratulates himself for being thrice-named a "thinking blogger" by a bunch of paranoid idiots, and compiles a list of blogs catering to the Ward Churchill demographic. Take this example from a blog he cites:

i think that it is mind boggling that in a country with less want than possibly any other country on the planet- that we should covet anything that anyone else has. much less blow up their families to get it. think about that for a moment

That's from what EC calls a "veritable oasis of reason," "The Peace Tree." Another blog he recommends: "70 Reasons to Doubt," which discusses 70 (no more, no fewer) reasons to doubt that 9-11 was pulled off by Al-Quaeda, but rather planned by you-know-who.

Then there's Intelligentaindigena Novajoservo, which "explores the plight of indigenous peoples all over the world. A recent post: Ward Churchill: An Indigenist activist willing to stand up for what is right."

And how about the Department of Homeland Conspiracy, which "is new to my blogroll but putting issues even more bluntly: The United States of America is Dead."

I've taken a sudden re-liking for the word "bonehead."

More petitionidiocy

PB has a couple of high-larious posts on the latest petition in support of Ward Churchill from the the Hugh Jaynuses of the WC Solidarity Network, but I found a few good quotes too. From a Canuck:

Although hardly a singular example, Ward Churchill's case, nonetheless, fills many of us with foreboding as we watch the world's most powerful nation become more bellicose in its foreign policy and more authoritarian, at times bordering on protofascist, in its internal behaviour.

Several others take the "fascist" route, so consider that comment representative.

From James M. Craven ("Omahkohkiaayo i'poyi"):

What this is really about, in addition to pure retribution for content of speech and the exercise of free speech, is Genocide/Holocaust Denial and Cover-up: This is part of a demonstrable ongoing ultra-rightist conspiracy and atttempt to smear a major scholar . . . and to plant a "poison pill" and deterrent against the use of the body of his past, present and future work by other scholars on Genocide/Holocausts in the present and future.

Karen M. Welles is in no-doubt-twisted love: "Please reinstate this incredible scholar and irreplaceable professor immediately."

Incredible scholar. Heh. One of a number of anti-Chutch signers, "A little Eichmann":

Ward is so right about everything. I deserved to be murdered because I worked as a stock broker. Rehire Ward, so he can insult more dead people and make up lots more history.

"Teacher, writer, peformer" soledad decosta seems to believe the Churchill investigating committee went after her, personally:

Contrary to the unfortunate (and inaccurate) finding of your board, Ward Churchill's widely-cited work has been a significant influence in my work as a performer, lecturer and public educator, as well as thousands of others. Please reconsider your misguided stance towards this important member of our community.

Sincerely, solidad decosta teacher, writer, peformer

From a "Rev. Kurt A. Kuhwald": "I lived and worked in Boulder 1996 - 2000. I was most appreciative of the strong moral model Professor Churchill brought to our American life."

Strong moral model. Professor Chris Mato Nunpa is typically concise and professorial:

We in Indigenous Nations Studies do teach from an Indigenous world-view and perspective which is not only radically different but also most of the time diametrically opposed to what is taught of U.S. history in the educational systems of this country. We, Indigenous academics, scholars, & educators, definitely present alternative historical interpretations which portray the U.S. in an unfavorable light. For example, the peoples who had their lands stolen are going to look at and tell things differently than the people who stole the lands. The United States stole approximately three billion acres within the continental United States from the Indigenous Peoples, etc. We can list example after example of this type of alternative interpretations. This is what Professor Ward Churchill teaches - he teaches the TRUTH! And, for this, challenging the status quo and encouraging critical thinking, Dr. [update: sic, as PB noticed] Churchill has been, and continues to be, harrassed and punished.

Other signers include Julio Pino, Elisa Facio, and Glenn Spagnuolo, who liked it so much he signed it twice. His comment:

Lets [sic] remember, this was about an essay that made Americans uncomfortable confronting what is done in their names. The rest is just a smoke screen created by CU to give an air of respectability to their violations of Ward's First Ammendment [sic] Rights!

Funny, by the way, how the zippernecks at the Solidarity Network keep proving the nonexistence of support for Ward even among academics. I count about 199 legitimate signatures so far on the petition, the same number of CU faculty who signed a Ward-supporting petition at the beginning of the scandal. Right now I can spot only one CU faculty member: poor dumb Elisa Facio.

In fact, the petition is more interesting for who hasn't signed than for who has. No one from CU's ethnic studies department besides Elisa--not even Churchill's mutt Benjie Whitmer. No Tom Mayer, who carries a pen in all three hands just to sign Ward Churchill stuff. No Margaret LeCompte. No Glenn "you'll be getting it" Morris. And no Dean Saitta, who has clearly abandoned ship (while not, of course, admitting error--after all, he's in mid-career).

Update: Robert Robideau signs and comments:

As an enrolled member of the trutle [sic] mountain and white earth Ojibwa tribes I fully agree with the points outlined in this petition. I especially veiw [sic] this attack on Ward Churchill, as an attack on all Native American Indian scholars and teachers who challenge mainstream academia.

Update II: PB notes that Benjie has gotten around to signing, at #221. Three-fisted Tommy Mayer? Apparently still MIA.

Update III (9 August): Okay, we got Tommy signed now at #256.

Pickin' 'n' Grinnellin'

Speaking of pretty little towns, on the drive home Sunday I stopped in Grinnell, Iowa, to see Louis Sullivan's "jewel box bank":







Be sure to enlarge this one. [Update: check out the itty-bitty lion at the bottom. He's hilarious.]



Too dark, but the only decent picture I got of the whole building.













The building was closed, but check out some not-very-good pictures of the incredible interior here.

Turns out Grinnell has a bunch of neat buildings, including the Grinnell Herald Building, also on the National Register of Historic Places:


Check out this pic from the Grinnell architecture website. Same car parked out front. Maybe the editor lives there, too.









Too dark again, but another neat public bandstand or gazebo or whatever.


The Interior Telephone Company Building, also on the NRHP ("Nerp").

Like George Costanza, I've always wanted to pretend to be an architect.

Mumia speaks!

In that bizarre white-newscaster's voice of his, convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal devotes another prison radio commentary to Ward Churchill:

Indeed [Churchill's] works, many of which are anti-imperialist in nature, has [sic] also made him an enemy of the nationalists and fascists in the corporate media [you got Bill Moyers in that cell with you, Mumia?--ed.]. . . .

It may sound rhetorical to compare Americans to "little Eichmanns," but before the war Nazi and fascist support groups were flourishing in America. Nazi sympathizers filled Madison Square Garden under the North American Bund. Fascist groups were electing councilmen and mayors. Perhaps the only group with more clout was the Klan. . . .

This may prove unpopular for Americans to hear, but it is the truth. Ward Churchill is precisely the kind of scholar Americans need to read and hear. He is a brave and brilliant man, who has slain [and eaten!--ed.] his share of sacred cows. As America engages in a global war based on lies, they need him now, more than ever.

(via Liberator Magazine)

Small town unradical

Sunday on the drive back to Denver I stopped to visit Ward Churchill's home town, Elmwood, Illinois, a tiny (pop. 1,945) but prosperous and pretty central Illinois farm town 20-odd miles from Peoria.
































A sculpture by Lorado Taft called, natch, "The Pioneers."





The old Elmwood High School. The classrooms are apartments now, but it must still have been used for its original purpose back in 1965 when Ward graduated.







The old high school. Farmers State Bank. Heroic pioneers (and their dogs). Cutesy gardens. Municipal bands. American flags.

Ward Churchill. A 60-year-old adolescent, still rebelling against the small town that symbolizes everything he hates. Facile, maybe, but it fits.

By the way, I didn't interview townsfolk about Ward because there weren't any. Sunday afternoon, about 96 degrees and 96 percent humidity, and downtown was empty. Maybe next time.

Update: an e-mailer in a position to know says he doesn't think Ward graduated from Elmwood High School, but lived with an aunt in Peoria his last two years so he could attend a school with an art program. Bright lights, big city.