MSNBC 11:50EST: Smearing university faculty ("Jihad on Campus")

[Karmadillo]

Repeating Tucker Carlson and Josh Gerstein of the NY Sun discussing all the anti-Americanism on campus. No specifics, of course, (at least no specifics in the part I heard) and no chance for rebuttal by anyone living in the land of the sane. We really are at the point where we either fight the corporations and their media and their government or we live the rest of our lives as neo-feudal serfs. While criminals are attempting to destroy this country and this planet, the best MSNBC can do is try to whip up hatred for university faculty.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Just heard on AAR news

that a mosque complex in OH was vandalized-and that this was a part of a pattern of vandalism on mosques. Oh, I forgot. The war is on Christians, isn't it-because not saying "Merry Christmas" will destroy their churches...:sarcasm:

[Golden Hand]

3. Maybe

The Islamic association says there's been a pattern of vandalism. Might turn out to be like the black-church-burning non-spree.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

16. No, the Islamic association didn't say there's been a

pattern of vandalism. The announcer on AAR said that as an addition to the story.

[Golden Hand]

2. Some specifics

Pretty darn good student-newspaper article. Doesn't draw conclusions, just discusses issue in detail.

We really are at the point where we either fight the corporations and their media and their government or we live the rest of our lives as neo-feudal serfs.

So, you're saying America is an undemocratic land of corporate slaves led by liars and whores. That's not anti-American? Doesn't seem really PRO-American.

[mmonk]

4. Intimidation of free speech isn't American.

[Golden Hand]

9. True. But free speech doesn't mean uncriticized speech.

I don't think that tenured professors should be threatened physically or economically for spouting stupid opinions. But it's perfectly fair game to denounce their stupid opinions as stupid. And their job protection is because of tenure and academic freedom, not the First Amendment.

The free-speech guarantee says the government won't STOP you from speaking. It doesn't say it will protect you from the consequences of your speech (other than the normal protections afforded to all).

So, prior restraint -- No. Libel suit -- OK.

Tenured professor says Amerika is a fascist, imperialist running dog -- allowed under academic freedom. Student TA says the same -- loses his grant. McDonald's worker posts sign on cash register criticizing customers for their hoggish greed -- he gets fired.

[mmonk]

11. Professors and intellectuals are canaries in the cave.

Look at history and particularly, fascism.

[FreedomAngel82]

14. I'm a college student

and never had any problems with professors. :shrug: I go to a local community school. The only time politics has come up in a class was when a math teacher told the school was only getting 60% of the money we should be and the teacher couldn't print out stuff for us unless it was really important and needed (like a test or homework assignment). We had to print out syllabuses and stuff like that ourselves at home or whatever.

[pop goes the weasel]

12. so you really can't see the difference?

Academics are in the business of critique. They have to be free to criticize the powers that be. It's part of the process of providing the needed introspection democracy requires.

An employee of McDonald's is in the business of getting what passes for food out to you in a prompt fashion.

See the difference?

[Karmadillo]

8. Corporations and the current government equal "America"?

Interesting concept you have.

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:dzrRYF4d7YgJ:www.tompaine.com/action/+thomas+paine+corporations&hl=en

June 06, 2005
Losing The American Revolution
Bill Moyers

<edit>

I'm not making this up. It's right there in the record. The historians tell us that a boundless continent lay open and ready for their exploitation and "all the bounties of nature were allowed to fall into the hands of strong men and powerful corporations." Clever lawyers came up with new devices for the legal aggrandizement of private fortunes (shades of today's Federalist Society!) No labor laws or workingmen's compensation nets interfered with their profits (shades of DeLay's "Petri dish of capitalism!") No public opinion penetrated the walls of their conceit (shades of "The Great Republican Noise Machine.")

They're back, my friends. They're back in full force and their goal is to take America back - to their private Garden of Eden in that first Gilded Age when "the strong take what they wanted and the weak suffer what they must." Look no further than today's news: William Donaldson, who made a decent stab at enforcing post-Enron reform on Wall Street, is out as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; according to USA Today, the President's big donors - the captains of finance - cashed in their IOUs and came away from the White House with his head on a platter. In his place: A right-wing congressman who takes a dim view of shareholder suits and favors eliminating the estate tax, the dividend tax, the - well, there's no tax on wealth he doesn't want to eliminate. Once again the chicken coop is sold to the fox.

Back in the first Gilded Age it was the progressives who took them on, throwing themselves at the juggernaut to try and keep it from rolling over the last vestiges of democracy. They lost the first rounds and only because they kept fighting for many long years did in time America begin to balance the power of concentrated wealth with the claims and needs of ordinary people. Nowadays it's you who stand between that regenerated juggernaut and those families in Milwaukee, those folks in Tamaqua, and the millions like them around the country. You must be like the Irishman coming upon a street brawl who yells in a loud voice: "Is this a private fight, or can anyone get in it?" Not waiting, he wades in.

Wade in! Go home and tell the truth to your neighbors and fight the corruption of the system. But it's not enough just to say how bad the others are. You owe your opponents the compliment of a good argument. Come up with fresh ideas to make capitalism work for all. Ask entrepreneurs to join you - they know how to make things happen. Show us a new vision of globalization with a conscience. Stand up for working people and people in the middle and people who can't stand on their own. Be not cowed, intimidated, or frightened - you may be on the losing side of the moment, as the early progressives were, but you're on the winning side of history. And have some fun when you fight - Americans are more likely to join the party that enjoys a party. Come to think of it, go out and argue that working people should have more time off from the endless hours of tedious work that devours the soul and the long commutes that devastate families and communities.

Above all, know what you believe and why. So I have some homework for you. Here's your summer reading: Thomas Paine and the Promise of America, by Harvey Kaye, soon at your bookstores (along, I might add, with a revised and updated paperback version of Moyers on America.) Thomas Paine was the foremost journalist of the American Revolution who called forth the better angels of our nature, imbued us with our democratic impulse, and articulated our American Identity with its exceptional purpose and promise. It was Paine who argued that America would afford "an asylum for mankind," provide a model to the world, and support the global advance of republican democracy. In these pages is tonic for flagging spirits facing great odds - because it was Thomas Paine who insisted that "it is too soon to write the history of the Revolution." And writing the history of the Revolution is now up to you. That's what truly is at stake.

[pop goes the weasel]

10. It's unAmerican

For large international coroporations to have more rights and power than real living and breathing American citizens. It would be UN-American to think plutocracy and oligarchy are a good substitute for a democratic republic. It's UN-American to not fight to maintain individual rights. And it is ANTI-American to condemn those people who do fight to maintain individual rights.

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. So, you're saying America is an undemocratic land of corporate slaves led

by liars and whores."

Yep. That's pretty much it. And those corporate liars and whores are Bushco.

[Daphne08]

17. I think you're lost.

I also think you don't know a darn thing about America!

You need to study some history! My father fought fascism in WWII.

Un-American. I'll tell you what's un-American... going after the intellectuals first, then those of a different religion, then those whose race isn't yours!

Figure it out!

[Tactical Progressive]

5. Hey, that's their job!

And they've been perfecting their performance for twenty-five years now.

[shenmue]

6. I saw that yesterday

Incredibly shallow and partisan. One giant rhetorical question. Nasty and low-quality, even for MSNBC.

Tucker Carlson should be slapped.

:grr:

[shenmue]

7. Sorry, double post

Delete. Oops.

[FreedomAngel82]

13. Ugh

There was this rightwing propoganda movie a while back called "Brainwashing 101" where it was conservatives (and one democrat) who claimed the staff was rude to conservative students. They had no proof of their claims. Nothing like Michael Moore did in his film F911 where he showed news reports etc. All it was was pure hearsay. And I remember reading a while back reports that conservative students would go to professor doors that they knew were leftist (or at least suspected) and would put the swatsaki (Nazi version) on their doors and provoke them. So in reality it's backwards. They're harrassing teachers and other students.