Tempers boil at hearing on academic bill of rights

Heated exchange cited as proof law is needed

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~61~1979695,00.html#


A nose-to-nose confrontation between a student and a professor during heated testimony in a wild legislative committee hearing Wednesday on the controversial Students Bill of Rights is the very reason a law is needed to protect students from abuse and proselytizing by their professors, Republican lawmakers said.

The bill, by Rep. Shawn Mitchell R-Broomfield, advanced to the full House after a 6-5 party-line vote in the House Education Committee.

The bill is aimed at protecting conservative students at state colleges from what they claim is harassment and discrimination by left-leaning professors.

It also prohibits faculty from persistently introducing controversial topics unrelated to course content and formalizes a grievance procedure for students - a process college administrators say already exists.

(more at link)

This happened a little over a week ago in Colorado. State governments are increasingly messing around with higher education. jchild has a thread about what happened at USM in the lounge. (I wish she would post her thread in GD as well.)

Conservative students, like many conservative adults invent the persecution myth.

I guess the Republican distaste for free speech starts very young.

It looks as if many Colorado state colleges are involved. And the guy who introduced this monstrosity is from my town!

They recruit like cults and indoctrinate like cults. The next batch of neocons are sitting in the back of poli sci classes with closed minds right now in classrooms right outside my window.

The last of the fliers from the repubs on my campus claimed that Buddha was a Repulbican.

;-)

OK. ?

and she can hold her own--she just took Logic and boy! can she shred illogical, non-sequitur bs... she has this wonderful ability to take apart weak logic, so I feel really sorry for the neocon, mediocre nutcases who are easily led into this frame of thinking because she's gonna shatter a bunch of illusions and artificial constructs these weak-minded clowns have built for themselves.

she said "all I have to do is stamp my foot at them and they run scared..., their arguments have no weight.."

don't have total control over what gets said. That's what this is all about.

ugh...poor Boulder, use to be a safe haven for liberals. I was up there last week to volunteer for Free Speech TV - only place I really saw some good anti-shrub stickers. Planet to Bush - STOP!

David Horowitz--another useless pundit started this crap!?

http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12073

"Last June, David Horowitz visited Colorado and suggested to lawmakers that an Academic Bill of Rights was needed to protect students from faculty abuses. In the months that followed, Students for Academic Freedom Clubs were formed across the state and began gathering evidence of these abuses.

Colorado Senate President John Andrews then sent a letter to every college president in the state asking them to provide statements describing their protections for students and detailing any problems on their campuses."

link http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/ and count how many stories are about CO vs other schools.

Whiny butts, they are lucky to be in college - many kids can't afford to go, and I would bet the kids that can't afford to go to college come from liberal families vs conservatives. Maybe that's it, kids of GOP parents are taking over the schools due to money and like everything else they want the bias to be on their side.

Only problem is, GOP kids don't go on to become teachers - pay sucks.

had previously thought!

they can sign up right now for their Emperor's war.
Come on you little snivelling chickenhawks...I have the enlistment forms right here...gonna sign up? NO? then SHUT UP.

according to this article:

http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/04/news040226_2.htm

The college rupubs (which are more like right wing catholic extrememists than anything else) have a "campus watchdog" list. The list has all the liberal teachers on campus, and they send them all a letter saying that the campus watchdog is watching them and that they aren't adhearing to the teacher bill of rights.

What pisses me off the most is the CR's are saying that I, as a college student, don't have the right state of mind to tell myself what is bullshit and what isn't. They think that we are all little kids and if we hear something in a classroom that we will believe it. Excuse me but I'm a little more intelligent than that (that's why I go to college). The CR's can blow me. :mad:

at CU? I can't remember. But then it went farther with this ridiculous legislation that the government is trying to push through, all suggested by none other than David Horowitz. :eyes:

I can't blame you for being insulted. This kind of thing will have a very damaging effect in college classrooms everywhere.

Edit: What state are you in, if you don't mind my asking?

the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. They came out and blatently said that they are keeping an eye on all the teachers in the list (sounds pretty Mcarthyistic to me). They even have a poster up in the student union saying that if you have a liberal teacher who shows their view in class that you can email someone at such-and-such address.

Maybe I'll go get his email address and we can all send him an email telling him what a loser he is.

should you post his address!

is devoted to complaints of bias.

fighting some the mythical left wing bias.

They'll use this to stops teachers from teaching evolution, from mentioning sexual issues, you name it. This thing is about OFFENSE, not DEFENSE.

the state schools already have a grievance process in place for those faculty members who occasionally cross the line.

But this is PURE politics and has no place in any higher ed classroom--or any classroom.

as College Democrats is: We are going to start to put out a newletter that has a section dedicated to positive things that our professors do (call it "props to profs or somethin') This way we can display our teachers in a positive light and it sticks it to the CR's without comming out and blatently saying that they are chodes. I hope it gets a good response from the students.

It's a very good idea. It might even force some of the whiners to think about what they're doing.

The Cultural Revolution...remember some of the intellectuals were executed?

that is gaining steam.

but I think this area (Colorado) has come up before.

The republican student union has a picture of the head of it sitting smoking a big cigar. i posted that i thought he looked rather old, but more hunting around proved he probably wasn't.

There is, it looks like, a well funded republican thinktank in the area, number of staff 8- 10, the appropriate section for this issue is run by a women.

They have done a report which is basically 10-20 students complaining about their liberal professors.

sorry so vague but that is all I can remember.

I'd guess that the cause of this bill is the fact that the republicans are well organised in Colorado.

(Warning: I may be mixing things up it's a while ago when i did this hunting around)

The guy with the cigar is Brad Jones, 20, head of this organisation:
http://www.colorado.edu/StudentGroups/CURepublicans/

where you can get T-Shirts "join us now ... or work for us later"

The think tank is called the Independence Institute:
http://i2i.org/

The lady is JESSICA PECK CORRY, the director of the Campus Accountability Project:
http://i2i.org/author.aspx?AuthorID=45

the report is actually testimony before the Colorado senate Dec. 18 2003:
http://i2i.org/articles/2003I.pdf

My daughter is currently a student there. It looks as if most of this has been happening within the last year, and it also seems as if it is going on throughout the state. I haven't heard much about it where I currently teach yet, but since the legislature made this a statewide matter, I'm assuming it's there as well.

Hardly surprising.

at journalism by the right wingnuts--a very shoddy one.

He (Jon Caldara) was asked to take the position of President of the Independence Institute in November 1998 after then-President Tom Tancredo was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. John Andrews, who is currently the President of the Colorado State Senate, founded the Institute in 1985.

http://i2i.org/author.aspx?AuthorID=1

We HAVE to get these nutjobs out of here!

When Richard Mellon Scaife runs out of millions for these political whores.

possibly from the Coors brewing family which could suggest where they are getting some of their funding money from:

ACX Technologies Inc., a company led by the Coors brewing family, says it expects to spin off its industrial ceramics subsidiary as a separately traded public company called CoorsTek Inc. at the end of the year.

Joe Coors Jr., 57, is set to be named president and chief executive officer of CoorsTek after the spinoff, which will go through if the Internal Revenue Service gives ACX permission to distribute CoorsTek shares.

<<snip>>

Jeff Coors, Joe's 54-year-old brother, will become chief of ACX and its surviving business, Graphic Packaging Corp. Peter Coors, 53, is chief executive of Coors Brewing Co., whose publicly traded holding company is Adolph Coors Co.

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m3469/51_50/59045142/p1/article.jhtml

Board of trustees:
http://i2i.org/trustees.aspx

http://www.mediatransparency.org/search_results/info_on_any_recipient.php?2121

their major funder is Castle Rock Foundation who were founded in 1993 with an endowment of $36,596,253 from the Adolph Coors Foundation.

Adolph Coors Foundation:
Financed by the Coors brewing family fortune., estimated by Forbes at about $770 million. Gives out about $2.5 million a year. Joseph Coors has been active in ultraconservative causes for many years. He was a key figure in creating the Heritage Foundation in 1973, sitting on its board since its founding.
http://www.mediatransparency.org/funders/adolph_coors_foundation.htm

Since when does the student determine what a professor teaches? Who's got the degree here? If a student has that much of a problem with course materials and having their mind's horizons opened with information not necessarily covered in the synopsis of the class at the beginning of the semester, then they and their parents need to take some responsibility for themselves and do a better job of investigating the school before plunking down a bunch of $$$ for it.

How freakin' stupid is that?

that a Professor that doesnt support the president be aloud to teach anyone!

What kind of support is being offered to counter this infringement of rights? It's not like these neocons are forced to attend college---it's not grade/high school. They choose to attend the university and it's up to them to make sure that whatever school they attend reflects and espouses the views they have.

Students never determine what gets taught... they don't have degrees to make that ascertainment. STudents who don't have a well rounded education are worthless once in a business environment because their shortcomings will be blatantly obvious in due time.

It's a national effort started by that king of morality, David Horowitz.

This battle is not going to really be fought on the campus. It will look that way, and the kids will wear their hip glasses and march around and continue their misspellings on their web pages--but it really isn't local campus matter at all. It's national politics.

They managed to take over the radio airwaves.. They pretty much have a lock on the televised airwaves now..They own most of the print media... They own or control most of the book publishers.. They have infiltrated the school boards and have affected the elementary/secondary curriculums and text book choices... They have infested the boardrooms of almost every corporation..They have weakend the labor organizations...

They have now turned to their "young soldiers" to drum up Faux Outrage, to force the faculty to tippy-toe around "their sensibilities"..

College has ALWAYS been the place where a free exchange of ideas is a GIVEN.. It's the place where kids from backwards places can go to OPEN their minds and finally realize that there is indeed a bid world outside their small little universe, and that not everyone on the planet thinks just like Mommie & Daddy... By the time a kid is 18, the influence of their parents is pretty well ingrained, so if they did a "good job" teaching them, their precious llittle angels will be just fine ..

The fundies know that the most effective way to change an organization is to take it over, and that's all they are trying to do here.. They have the legislators on their side, and they have the media in place to push their case.. It's gonna get ugly, folks :(

Have I chosen the wrong profession?

Speechless......

The thread is now in GD...I had mods move it.

I posted a response to your thread too.

A full frontal assault against free speech...that is what all of this boils down to.

I am reconsidering my professional choice. :cry:

to find a full-time, permanent position.

To hell with these thugs.

If you're half the prof I think you are, this is definitely not the time to think about doing anything else!

Edit: What I mean is, the students need you now more than ever.

Will the situation at USM be in the Chronicle, do you think? Has it been mentioned there yet?

I'm going to post in it some more.

conservative views foisted upon them by conservative professors? My daughter has one teacher who regularly discusses politics with her and he is NOT liberal. Now, she has thus far not been offended by him - she enjoys the conversations. My point is that they are making a law to protect students from liberal professors when it goes both ways??

transparent that no one would even entertain the possibility. Universities are places where the exchange of ideas is a virtue, but most faculty I know have no reason to discuss politics in the classroom.

Political science and history are different matters though, as are areas like women's studies, queer lit, and some others. Even so, again, most faculty lay the foundation for discussion, that's all. I've only known of two faculty members (who happened to be married) who went overboard with politics over course content, and they were gone from the university in very short order. (They were more interested in yapping about politics than they were in teaching students how to write.) Most universities have grievance processes in place for just such a situation.

This Horowitz scheme is just another pop political ploy of the far right.

"nothingshocksmeanymore". I wish I could say that. I am completely shocked. I had no ideal all this was going on. Thanks to you and jchild for bringing it to my attention. I will definitely be keeping my eyes and ears open and will be ready to help out when I can and when I'm needed.

However, I teach a course in Cosmology where the big bang is topic number one and evolution is also a major topic (we read "Coming of Age in the Milky Way" by Timothy Ferris, a book I highly recommend BTW). I am just waiting for the day that someone tries to tell me that this topic is too "controversial" to teach. It is happening all over the country in HS classrooms and it is just a matter of time before we are targeted at the college level.

Utah State Students Adopt the Academic Bill of Rights
By Gabriel White
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 14, 2003


The Associated Students of Utah State University Executive Council voted 9 to 5 with one abstention to approve a resolution entitled “The Academic Bill of Rights.” According to Gabriel White, Senator for the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and the sponsor of the legislation, “Academic freedom is something that we have always valued here at Utah State University.” “It is important that we as students stand up to the bias on campus.” The resolution has as its goal to support intellectual diversity on USU Campus. Some of the provisions of the legislation include:

Faculty will not use their courses for the purpose of political, ideological, religious or non-religious indoctrination.
Selection of speakers, allocation of funds for speakers programs and other student activities will observe the principles of academic freedom and promote intellectual pluralism.
Curricula and reading lists in the humanities and social sciences should reflect the uncertainty and unsettled character of all human knowledge in these areas by providing students with dissenting sources and viewpoints where appropriate, and that instructors should consider and make their students aware of other viewpoints.

http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=10813

It looks as if Horowitz likes to keep track and score points on his web site.

Academic freedom means the professors and researchers can study what they wish, and draw conclusions without fear of reprisal. But this Horowitz crap seeks to limit academic freedom.

Undergraduates don't have academic freedom to hear only viewpoints they've *already* decided they like. If they've already made up their minds about their opinions, why are they even in college? Oh that's right, to get a job.

It's interesting that Horowitz, with his views on affirmative action, is such a proponent of opinion-based affirmative action. He gets all pissy if anyone tries to hire black people to balance the scales, but apparently it's good to hire conservatives to balance the scales.

This is yet another instance where we have conservatives pushing the idea that all opinions are politically driven. If that's the case, then all opinions are equally valid. You don't hear the following too often: Maybe college professors are liberal because THEY KNOW MORE and HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT THINGS MORE and the liberal answer is simply the right answer.

It looks really interesting. I'm a grad student in astronomy, but I find that reading popularizations helps me to keep one foot in the real world. ;)

What sort of cosmology class do you teach? Is it for non-majors?

I bet you could scare off the fundies if you spent a class introducing them to four-vectors...

It is a non-technical look at the history of astronomy and physics, so I try to be gentle and not scare too many away (although the other day just for fun I wrote down the Einstein Field Equations of GR since they were mentioned by Brian Greene in the PBS special we watched, "Elegant Universe" :-) ). Since these are honors students, even the ones with strict religious upbringing tend to be somewhat open minded. I have never had any trouble with my own students or my administration. I am just waiting for some outside group like Horowitz's to try to tell me that I have to give equal time to pseudoscience like intelligent design. Actually, I have a lecture in the course on pseudoscience, and often the topic of creationism does come up there. :evilgrin:

BTW, if you like "Coming of Age" you can read the sequel, "The Whole Shebang" which is not quite as good but a little more up to date.

Your students are very lucky.

You are making me blush. Unfortunately the drop/add period is over or I would invite you to join the class.

Seriously!

As many of you know, Colorado is in a financial crisis. Higher ed is facing another round of huge cuts - to the point that the state universities have contemplated going private so they can raise tuition to stay afloat. The education committee is dominated by RW-ers who wouldn't bat an eye at requiring this legislation to pass before they approve more funding for higher ed.

OK OK, (putting on tinfoil hat),

but you gotta admit, it's pretty darn plausible around here.

There have been stories on CPR about our higher education crisis recently. Frankly, I'd like to see a tuition hike for out-of-state students. They can afford it. That's often why many of them come to CU Boulder in the first place.

This Orwellian bill has already passed in the Colorado House. It's beyond belief. Colleges and universities here have grievance procedures in place--this Horowitz farce exists only to gain some popular political and media attention.

"Going private" is code terminology. The liberal arts would wilt in a situation like that. Your tinfoil hat is not necessary in this situation. You are absolutely right.

I'm especially worried about the community colleges. Front Range has recently upgraded some of its courses so that they are automatically transerable to the four-year universities, but Front Range and other community colleges have so few funds that adjuncts like me are almost doing volunteer work. We teach because we love to. But the community colleges certainly won't "go private," because students would not be able to afford that.

I'll never forget seeing our current pResident talking to some community college faculty on national television. He seemed to think that community colleges existed for nothing other than vocational education--like car repair or something. (Not that there's anything wrong with vocational education or things like car repair, but there is a heck of a lot more going on at community colleges than that.) He honestly didn't have any idea.

and they don't pay us much, either! In their case, however, I think they're just greedy!

We lobbyied the Educ. Committee recently regarding their proposed date change for kids entering kindergarten (in our district they must be five before Dec 31; state law is changing to Sept 1 - will save the state more than $20 million - will cost us $800,000 and cut our incoming KG class in half).

Anyway, the committee is populated by the worst of the worst. Keith King, possibly the rudest legislator I've ever had the misfortune to meet; Spence, who hates public ed and would love to see it completely converted to private charters; Lynn Hefley - who is not only rabidly RW, but just plain dopey. Lee, who simply rubber stamps anything Spence and King say - And so on.

It's bleak and doesn't look to get any better anytime soon.

I have heard of Hefley. Who the heck is Spence, and why would someone like that be on the education committee?
I'm 46 years old, and public education has been a real concern to me, to my dead parents--to everyone. What is going on?

Spence is the heir apparent to the leading, somewhat moderate Republican of the old school, Norma Anderson. Sadly, Spence is a poor substitute (and that's saying something for a Republican).

I honestly think term limits have led to this. In Norma's day, both parties could at least meet together in some sort of joint conference committee and hammer out a compromise bill. Not so anymore. Spence, King, Hefley and Lee completely dominate the education committee, and will for the forseeable future.

I'm the CFO for a local school district and used to work at the Colorado Dept. of Education. I've been watching for a while.

It used to be that if you were a working-class kid, you had a shot at going to college. If you were downright poor, it was much, much harder of course.

The door is closing for lower income kids to get a decent education. Tuition and fees at the college I attended have nearly tripled in the fifteen years since I graduated. I received much financial aid, but even that wouldn't make up the difference, adjusted for inflation.

The future leaders in this country - those who will be in a position to recommend and make policy, or work in the media, are going to be drawn from a smaller and smaller pool. That pool will be much less likely to resist Republican objectives.

If they really want more conservative professors, they need to increase the supply. To get more conservative professors, you've got to appeal to that good old conservative motive: MONEY. See, left-wing fruitcakes like me have been willing to forgo the CEO-level salaries for lower wages because (in our wacko way) we believed in what we were doing. Many of my C students would graduate and make more money than I did. BUT if starting salaries for assistant professors were, say, $95K, the glorious free market would kick in, and more conservatives would apply.

There's an old saying in Colorado that you should put my money in your mouth ... uh ... take your money out of ... uh ... where your mouth is ... anyway, the legislature has got to put its money there.

liberal professors. Oh my- what are we to do now?

I've been seeing some buzz about this for awhile now. I think the big thing is that higher education is the last bastion of intellectual freedom, and where there is some stronghold of liberalism. They've taken over everything else, and now they are moving on the universities and colleges.

I admit to watching this whole business with a certain degree of apathy. There's kind of a sense of hopelessness, like there's nothing I can do about it anyway so there's no sense worrying about it. I've just about worried myself to death about what's happening in this country.

Anyway, I found this really interesting article in Boulder Weekly about the College Republicans at CU. I don't know if you've already seen it or not. They sound almost like Hitler Youth Brownshirts, really scary stuff.

This is the link, click on the scary picture to read the article:

http://www.boulderweekly.com/archive/021904/

deliberate, do you suppose? ;-)

they think they're pretty cool hipsters. Being a fascist Nazi brownshirt is, like, really in right now dude.

I'm really glad I'm not at CU anymore. I don't think community colleges are seen as such bastions of pinko liberalism that they attract the same kind of brownshirt crap. I hope not anyway.

Thank God!

By the way, do you like my new frog? I think he's really cute.:loveya:

though. From what I've read, they are just as vulnerable, and almost as involved.

and you absolutely must not buy into the massive spin being imparted to the incident at the end of this hearing.

a little backstory:

the set of legislations being proposed nationally, collectively known as the 'academic bill of rights,' is a product of the patient agitation of a coalition of individual leaders on the far right. at the center of this is david horowitz, legendary ex-left turncoat turned fringe right strategist.

this is all a massive set up, a manufactured spectacle intended to create a climate suitable for the silencing of the academy, who through objective research determines that the american right is fucked up in numerous key ways. when the goddamn research shows you a truth, you don't attack the research. you deal with the truth. anyway. horowitz came to denver last summer, and met in secret with all the of the prominent GOP leadership in the state. he laid out the agenda for the coming year. a few months later he appeared on my campus, preaching the need for 'intellectual diversity' on campus. in the back of the hall there was a college republicans recruitment table.

this gets important. because there's a guy, the leader of the brand-new auraria college republicans (established fall 2003), who's got this interesting GOP lobbyist past, and will more or less tell you under questioning that he was sent to our school to 'make trouble.'

and with a few months there are numerous, highly specious yet strangly accredited claims of bias against students, our student body president has been ousted by the college republicans, and there are concerted targetings of professors for grievances and other harassment. they have also made numerous attempts to openly disrupt the meetings of opposed groups on campus. and the bill. the bill, which seeks to prevent professors from "introducing 'controversial' subject matter substantially unrelated to the course content" in class. oh, and by the way, did you know that there is a $450 million dollar structual budget deficiet forecast for higher ed in colorado, which will likely for the colleges into bankruptcy of privatization by 2010?

think it's happening in a vacuum, people?

one more thing: the 'repressed' student that dr. gould 'confronted' in the hearing. this little punk had actually had the gall to ask the representatives to "send a chilling effect to these professors." you need to understand, we had sat there for hours waiting for the hearing to begin, it was hours late, with all these duplicious children bleating on about how their 'rugged individualism' doesn't play so well in their sociology or history class—and then this little jerkoff and his just deplorable statement. i'm not misquoting it—it's on the record. he deserved to be smacked down. this was more a question of timing, because if dr. gould had realized in his anger how they would turn his action into huge political capital, he wouldn't have done it.

and it's not over yet. getting it out of committee on a party line vote is not the same thing as becoming law...

PS—if you're interested in learning a little about horowitz and just what kind of witch-hunter he is, read this:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/politics/article/0,1299,DRMN_35_2660420,00.html

then go here to follow the network yourself. the hamas/habitat for humanity connection is particularly good stuff. you can also learn more about these issues in the education section at http://www.rmpn.org , and for a good relevant chuckle you can always check out http://thinkpol.net , the humble homepage of the metro state denver chapter of the students for an orwellian society.

Aware centrists and liberals are going to need to team up and treat this exactly like a real war fought with physical bullets and bombs.

There will need to be different divisions much like the real-world military; vanguard bomb-throwers, cavalry, flanks, the whole kidoodle.

There will need to be people willing to get their hands dirty so the "good guys" can keep theirs clean, so the "glorious ones" don't get bogged down into defending themselves and can stay on the offensive, but up and up.

I'm not joking. If sensible people don't recognize the real threat and organize against it, bye-bye Bill of Rights.

Anyone claiming to be a liberal who even dares suggest a Constitutional Convention is needed should be, metaphorically speaking, taken out back and shot at dawn.

oh, and by the way, did you know that there is
a $450 million dollar structual budget deficiet
forecast for higher ed in colorado, which will
likely <force> the colleges into bankruptcy
<or> privatization by 2010?

think it's happening in a vacuum, people?

You bet yer bippy it ain't, of course. My attention was drawn yesterday to an article at truthout, by my (also Canadian, in Canada) co-vivant who does a nightly rant about the careful plan to bankrupt the US government in the interests of ... well, need we say?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/030304F.shtml

Greenspan Testimony Highlights Bush Plan for Deliberate Federal Bankruptcy
By Michael Meurer
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Tuesday 02 March 2004

Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's Feb. 25 testimony to the House Budget Committee provided an unintentionally candid look at the Bush administration's deliberate fiscal policy of bankrupting the federal government to justify a sweeping program of privatization.

... Mr. Greenspan is laying the groundwork for a second Bush administration, not a balanced budget. His remarks, and most of the economic policies of the Bush administration, can only be understood against the backdrop of the little remarked right wing agenda of deliberate federal bankruptcy.

From the first months of the Bush administration, when their initial breathtaking tax cuts were presented to Congress, it has been obvious that the explicit goal of this administration is to bankrupt the federal government to justify a sweeping program of privatization. Pursuing federal bankruptcy is a deliberate policy.

This administration's pursuit of bankruptcy as deliberate policy had to be extraordinarily bold from day one because public programs such as Social Security were so extraordinarily solvent into the distant future, and the underlying strength and diversity of the U.S. economy was sufficient to keep them that way if spending priorities were not radically altered. The events of 9/11 provided the perfect cover for pursuing federal bankruptcy in the guise of an open ended war on terror.

Why just yesterday, while googling around to learn more about someone quoted (amazingly enough, approvingly) in a thread in J/PS -- about how Martha whatsername had been persecuted by the heavy-handed thugs of the federal government ("Free Martha!", the new rallying cry of the "libertarian" right ...) -- I ran across this:

http://www.mackinac.org/article.asp?ID=6313

Privatize the University of Michigan

... A privatized University of Michigan would almost certainly raise its tuition rates to help compensate for the loss of state revenue, as well it should. It is not unfair to ask those who benefit directly from earning the highly valued U of M degree to bear a greater burden to pay for it, especially considering the financial background of most of the school’s students.

Tuition hikes could actually help those students who truly need help — by enabling the school to offer greater outright gift aid and tuition reductions to students from low-income families, as is often the practice at private universities. Needy students at public institutions currently rely more on loans and work study programs.

<I believe this was Tony Blair's recent line in the huge round of tuition hikes just adopted in the UK.>

A private U of M could also strengthen its financial outlook by selling its hospital — whose assets alone are valued at more than $600 million, and would likely sell for much more — and adding that revenue to its $3.5 billion endowment. Further, campus institutions such as the Nursing and Kinesiology schools could continue to be taxpayer supported, under contract with a privatized U of M.

<Well damn -- who's benefiting from that degree now? Let the taxpayers pay a big chunk of getting the degree, and let the privateers reap the profits when the people with the subsidized degrees enable their private hospital to earn revenue.>

Cuts in state support are pushing public universities toward more private models of operation whether they like it or not. It would show true leadership and practical savvy if Michigan lawmakers were to come up with a plan for making the University of Michigan a private institution, for the benefit of students, professors, and taxpayers alike.

So ... get Horowitz to discredit universities and their academic staff, get the legislators and public to disingage from and de-commit to them, bankrupt them by starving them of funding ... and sell 'em off. And then see what, and whom, they teach.

Just like whom that sold-off hospital would heal, and whom any other element of the sold-off government will serve.

You got it, angka. It is NOT happening in a vacuum.


Btw, for an object lesson in not falling for the rhetoric of the right when they seem to be saying bad things about the Bush administration but are really saying bad things about the entire concept of the public delivery of public goods, check out that thread in J/PS, Ashcroft gets his pound of flesh (from Martha Stewart -- a Democrat who, of course, makes a good icon for somebody's complaint that the US federal government is a baaaad thing ... if we don't stop to think that it's the people who make up the current government who are the really bad thing, and what THEY really want is to disband that government and con us into going along with it).

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of Grover Norquist, whose stated aim is to starve government to the point that it can be "drowned in a bathtub".

For some good information on that see "Grover's Army" by Michael Scherer, an article in the Feb. 2004 issue of Mother Jones. I don't know whether or not it's online.

a while back. ;)

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/01/12_402.html

That's a synopsis of the article. The article itself is only available on line to subscribers -- maybe it becomes available at a later date?

Norquist calls it the "Leave-Us-Alone Coalition," a grouping of gun owners, the Christian right, homeschoolers, libertarians, and business leaders that he has almost single-handedly managed to unite. The common vision: an America in which the rich will be taxed at the same rates as the poor, where capital is freed from government constraints, where government services are turned over to the free market, where the minimum wage is repealed, unions are made irrelevant, and law-abiding citizens can pack handguns in every state and town. "My ideal citizen is the self-employed, homeschooling, IRA-owning guy with a concealed-carry permit," says Norquist. "Because that person doesn't need the goddamn government for anything."

Some of you guys really should come down and visit the gun dungeon, where David Horowitz, Judicial Watch, the Mises Institute, Lew Rockwell, and a bunch of their fellow travellers are being cited with abandon and approval, if you want to meet some of that "Leave-Us-Alone Coalition" up close. ;)

Thanks for the reference!

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There's also a really good article about the neocons and their organizations, about how they manipulated information during the buildup to the Iraq invasion. Both articles are really worth taking the time to read.

They do make me feel really scared about what's happening in this country.:scared:

You should go down and read it at your public library. I'm sure John Ashcroft won't be keeping track, just as long as you're browsing and not putting anything on your library card.:scared:

Ashcroft can keep his face out of *my* public library records -- that's what we have the Canadian Security Intelligence Service for, after all. ;)

Twenty-five years ago, back before CSIS when it was "RCMP Security" that answered my office phone line when I called my partner to say I'd be late one day, I didn't give a shit, and I still don't. I mean -- I didn't like them tapping my phone! but I didn't pay any attention, and still don't.

About 5 years ago, I had a friend doing "three and a half years to life" (you guys are so weird down there) in an upstate NY state prison for drug possession. I bought him a subscription to Mother Jones for the duration ... he was kinda rebelling in the wrong direction up til then, in the way described by that bit of the article I quoted, anti-government rather than anti-right wing ... and it was a huge hit among his dormmates. They also liked Harper's, so much so, and it being so cheap, that I got him a second subscription so he had one to give away every month and one to hide for himself. Now, I wouldn't have thought that an overwhelmingly African-American bunch of guys who hadn't gone to post-secondary school would have been that impressed with the ultra-white-liberal-middle-class-ness of Harper's, but it probably helped that the cover story on the first issue he got was precisely about them, and they took right to it after that.

It's that kind of thing that just makes me wish that people wouldn't be so hesitant to play to the base -- to go after the votes of people who really do get it because it's their lives, or at least would get it if somebody paid enough attention to them to connect it to their lives.

Anyhow, I do plan to resubscribe, and request that issue. It can also be read on line for very cheap, it seems. And thanks again. The co-vivant will want to read the article, so I guess the subscription will be for his birthday, along with the Lying Liars I ordered yesterday. Then he can renew my sub to The Guardian Weekly for my birthday ... and maybe we'll even decide to go nuts and pay the huge price for a year of The Economist. We Canadian lefties are eclectic. ;)

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You're very lucky. If W gets a second term can I come and move in with you?:P

We might have to consult the co-vivant if they're ... more than honourable.

A Canadian ex-immigration/refugee lawyer, to boot. A most desirable quality in a foreign friend these days. ;) But ... shh ... I'm afraid I've used up my quota of foreign spouses escaping militarism south of the border. Ah, the 60s were a wild and crazy time.

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would have something to do with your gender. I would have no objections to being a mail order bride if it would get me out of W's America.;-)

Otherwise, my intentions would be to simply leave dirty dishes around your house, stay up all night watching TV, sleep until 3 in the afternoon, and just generally be a pleasant house guest. I'm sure you wouldn't have any objections would you?}(

edited for correct Canadian spelling.

So what the heck. Sorry, that position has been filled -- we only need one person to leave dirty dishes around, stay up all night watching TV and sleep until 3 in the afternoon, and I'm it. No, wait, we job-share. I find that staying up all night watching TV is about all I can cover and still do the work that supports him while he leaves dirty dishes around and sleeps. And even though his tenure in his position might indeed be tenuous, the immigration dept. knows me as hetero female, so it might not work, but then they also know me as gay-friendly ("iverglas, this isn't another one of your lesbian clients, is it?" - spoken, I hasten to add, by the official who, 15 years ago, accepted her application so she could join her partner here, without ever saying that was what he was doing) ... .

The other qualification is the ability to expound at length on the Bush cabal's plans to bankrupt the US government and sell off / privatize everything in sight. (I get to do the philosophical/cultural counterpoint -- he knows about the PNAC and Greenspan economic plans and what's going on in the world, I know about their underpinnings).

And now we should probably stop meeting like this! but a kick for the morning can't hurt. And speaking of work ...

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Sorry, heterosexual female myself, wasn't sure of your gender, sorry if there was a misunderstanding.:)

I am still willing to be a mail order bride for any Canadian male in order to get out of this country if W gets a 2nd term. Also willing to become somebodies permanent house guest for the same purpose. Hope I cleared that up.:)

What angka points out really is important -- that the assault on academic freedom comes down to one skirmish in an organized attack on the public delivery of a public good -- education.

And that this assault is neither isolated in its intent, since what this US government is out to do is eliminate the public delivery of (and public control over the delivery of) all public goods; nor merely incidental in its effect.

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The RMPN is interesting; I enjoyed reading about the fidelity pledge.

I hope to keep in touch with you for further developments. These folks have no business nosing inside classrooms.

what a vast, slippery slope this is. ABOR, "senator" owens trying to figure out if he can keep it in his pants long enough to get elected senator (answer: probably not), the continuing saga of tom tancredo...

but i think the wind may be changing. more to come...

I assume this is your college republicans leader guy.

<<snip>>

George Culpepper keeps busy between classes at Colorado's Metropolitan State College of Denver doing just that.

Technically, his mission was to found an Auraria campus chapter of the College Republicans and motivate people to promote the party's agenda. But ask Culpepper about his favorite achievements, and he answers unabashedly.

"I've been stirring up trouble," he says.

Last fall, the 29-year-old ex-Marine raised his campus profile by resigning from a campus organization to protest what he calls the liberal leanings of the club's sponsor. He then started the Auraria College Republicans.

The group meets once a week to assign volunteer jobs, share dates of upcoming state Republican events and plan activities. At the end of the hour, they celebrate the coverage they've achieved in area newspapers.

Speaking out

In the past several weeks, that's included an affirmative-action bake sale and speaking out against a campus environment they describe as uncomfortably liberal.

Culpepper and another student have filed grievances against a political science professor, alleging she was biased against them because of their conservative politics. Those grievances were reported in the CU-Denver Advocate, along with a statement from the professor saying she has since received death threats and hate e-mails.

"It's a typical liberal tactic, making her look like a martyr," Culpepper says.

To reward Culpepper for keeping a high profile, the Colorado GOP asked him to be state chair of the College Republicans. He'll start the new job this month.

<<snip>>

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~45~1970914,00.html

important thread here

Little pukies upset at hearing thoughts and sentiments contradictory to their beliefs in Philosophy 101. Oh say it isn't so. Their little heads might go burst.

"lower" education. They've destroyed it. Did we think they were going to stop there?

until they've taken over everything. We have our own totalitarian movement which has been moving under the radar for the last 2 or 3 decades, and has now burst onto the scene and is making it's move.

Most of us, myself included have been completely oblivious to it, until very recently. Now it may be too late...

Combatting it will be difficult because they have several decades of preparation over us, are absolutely ruthless, have completed most of their takeover without us even being aware of it, and are funded to the teeth. Read Blinded by the Right by David Brock.

They also have the sort of organization that is characteristic of all totalitarian movements.

No wonder I've been in a deep depression over the past year.

I've been aware of the pieces for a decade or more, but it is only under Bush II that I connected all those dots and took a look at the big picture.

Don't make me think, Mr. Professor Man! Lawsuit! Lawsuit!

These are the people who SCREAMED about Political Correctness. Now they have their own version, so of course it is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

hmph.

http://www.wgoeshome.com

for a while, all across the country. There's a federal version of the Horowitz bill out there, too. Article in a North Carolina paper last week, about some conservative kid terrorized by some :silly: crack a "liberal" teacher made to him. Perhaps some adolescents do become upset upon hearing a political remark they don't like. But having taught for over twenty years, I think it's rare for anybody to inappropriately introduce politics into a classroom. Because the public schools are susceptible to legislative pressure, and the private schools are driven by market considerations, administrations today are often EXTREMELY sensitive to ANY student complaints about ANYTHING, so student complaints are likely to find a sympathetic ear:

"He didn't tell me I shouldn't cheat!"
"That's outrageous!?!"

I've seen some versions of bills encouraging schools to consider political party affiliation when hiring. That shouldn't be hard to shoot down. Horowitz has the idea that the conservatives can steal the mantle of academic freedom to wrap around themselves. I am eagerly waiting to hear these "friends of academic freedom" complain that there no Marxists are teach in the economics department. I can't imagine how such bills which prevent grading students on "religious beliefs" would affect the teaching of evolution in a geology or biology classroom: "It's patently unfair to make me learn about these fossils because the Bible already tells us what they are." I have actually met people who believed it sinful to look at stars through a telescope: what could you do in a college astronomy class with such a person, except hope not to be sued?

I saw more of that sort of innappropriate politicking from right wing professors than from liberal or leftist ones.

If they pull this shit, there should be a concerted plan to make sure that the law gets applied equally. Of course, if that happens, the RW professors and their little sycophants will scream some more about how they're being "persecuted". Go after them anyway. It's time we fought back.

I wonder if this is some kind of pop, flash-in-the-pan political fad or if it's more than that. I'm hoping it's the former.

there were people in the community 'monitoring' instructors

there was a big educational fight in Galveston (?) over some teaching/mention of Socrates in a high school class..

comments I remember from that fight...

...'Socrates was put to death by his society because of his subversive beliefs/teachings'

...'they're teaching about the ancient Greeks; those people had athletic contests in which the athletes competed in the altogether'

context...

...this was happening in a period leading up to the big civil rights movement

...also there was a documentary on the CA dock-workers strike being influenced by communists and being fought by the House Comm on Un-Am Activities (the documentary was shown in many churches in OK and TX)

there was also a large right-wing group, the Houston Minutewomen, which was extremely active

....

MANY OF US HERE AT DU LIVED THROUGH AND FOUGHT THIS GARBAGE ONCE. WE WON - WE WON.

SO NOW THE 'SORE LOSERS AND WHINERS' ARE TRYING AGAIN.

WE ARE TOO OLD TO HAVE TO FIGHT THIS GARBAGE AGAIN.

:puke: :puke: :puke: