Tullycast

Few Iraqis Are Gaining U.S. Sanctuary – New York Times

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Few Iraqis Are Gaining U.S. Sanctuary – New York Times:
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and ROBERT F. WORTH BAGHDAD,
Jan. 1 —

WAR CRIMINAL

With thousands of Iraqis desperately fleeing this country every day, advocates for refugees, and even some American officials, say there is an urgent need to allow more Iraqi refugees into the United States. Until recently the Bush administration had planned to resettle just 500 Iraqis this year, a mere fraction of the tens of thousands of Iraqis who are now believed to be fleeing their country each month. State Department officials say they are open to admitting larger numbers, but are limited by a cumbersome and poorly financed United Nations referral system. “We’re not even meeting our basic obligation to the Iraqis who’ve been imperiled because they worked for the U.S. government,” said Kirk W. Johnson, who worked for the United States Agency for International Development in Falluja in 2005. “We could not have functioned without their hard work, and it’s shameful that we’ve nothing to offer them in their bleakest hour.” Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat who is taking over the immigration, border security and refugee subcommittee, plans hearings this month on America’s responsibility to help vulnerable Iraqis. An estimated 1.8 million Iraqis are living outside Iraq. The pace of the exodus has quickened significantly in the past nine months. Some critics say the Bush administration has been reluctant to create a significant refugee program because to do so would be tantamount to conceding failure in Iraq. They say a major change in policy could happen only as part of a broader White House shift on Iraq. “I don’t know of anyone inside the administration who sees this as a priority area,”

Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment

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Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment – New York Times:

December 18, 2006 Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment By MICHAEL MOSS

One night in mid-April, the steel door clanked shut on detainee No. 200343 at Camp Cropper, the United States military’s maximum-security detention site in Baghdad. American guards arrived at the man’s cell periodically over the next several days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep. The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared. Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who have been held and released by the American military in Iraq, and his account of his ordeal has provided one of the few detailed views of the Pentagon’s detention operations since the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib. Yet in many respects his case is unusual. The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading. But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military…

Ken Starr Lives

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Crooks and Liars » He’s back! This Time it’s Free Speech:

Kenneth Starr will take the side of an Alaska school board against a student who displayed a banner that said: “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” off school property.

Frederick was suspended in 2002 after he unfurled the 14-foot-long banner — a reference to marijuana use — just outside school grounds as the Olympic torch relay moved through the Alaskan capital headed for the Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Even though Frederick was standing on a public sidewalk, school officials argue that he and other students were participating in a school-sponsored event. They had been let out of classes and were accompanied by their teachers.

Principal Deborah Morse ordered the 18-year-old senior to take down the sign, but he refused. That led to a 10-day suspension for violating a school policy by promoting illegal drug use. (h/t Joe)

New Yorker To Revamp Web Site – 12/08/2006:

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EVEN VENERABLE TITLES BELIEVE IN makeovers. That’s why there’s a new New Yorker Web site coming.

A relaunch of the famed weekly publication’s Internet address will appear before the end of February, confirmed a spokesperson for the Conde Nast publication. Web editor Blake Eskin and deputy editor Pamela McCarthy are teaming up to develop the site, and they have invited staffers throughout the publication to offer ideas.

The news originally appeared in yesterday’s WWD, a sister publication to The New Yorker.

A spokeswoman pointedly refused to confirm other details of the story, however–including speculation that the site would include blogs from several of the magazine’s writers, first vetted by its legendary fact-checking network.

She echoed David Remnick, the editor in chief, when he told the fashion title that “the site will reflect the values of the magazine” and “everything is up for grabs.”

Conde Nast acquired the social-news site Reddit in late October, similar to digg.com, with the strategy to integrate its structure into other online properties.

“We’re looking at various ways to leverage the Reddit technology across the various Conde Nast sites,” says Jennifer Miller, a CondeNet spokesperson.

Obama And Biden

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The Washington Monthly:

The MSM is the viciousness of junior high cliques amplified and concentrated a thousandfold but operating by the same rules. They dislike anyone who dares to be brighter, better informed, or even more attractive. It’s pack behavior.

Dean Swift indentified this tendency long ago in ‘Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting”:

“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”

Not that I believe Obama meets the standard of genius mind you.

Senator Joe Biden’s Unite Our States : Blog » Blog Archive » “Democracy Is More Than An Election; It Involves Fundamental Compromise” Says Biden:

BIDEN: I don’t believe he has the capacity to change, because, in fairness to him, he’s had a fundamental view, George. He concluded our meeting by saying, ‘I believe in freedom and liberty, universal principles everyone agrees are the same principles.’ My comment was, Sistani’s view of liberty is different than our view of liberty.

He has this wholesome but naive view that Western notions of liberty are easily transposed to that area of the world. As long as he thinks the Iraqis are about ready to jump up and embrace our notion of liberty, democracy might come into the present (inaudible). But Mr. President, democracy is more than an election. It involves fundamental compromise. And if you believe you are compromising your liberty if you conclude that you should move in one direction, then your notion of liberty is different than my notion of liberty.

Look, George, as I said to the president when he asked me a while ago, if every jihadi, every terrorist in all of Iraq was eliminated, the Lord came down and sat in the middle of this table and said, ‘They’re all gone,’ we still have a major war in Iraq that has nothing to do with terror.

Cheating on an Ethics Test? It’s ‘Topic A’ at Columbia – New York Times:

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Cheating on an Ethics Test? It’s ‘Topic A’ at Columbia – New York Times:

December 1, 2006
Cheating on an Ethics Test? It’s ‘Topic A’ at Columbia
By KAREN W. ARENSON

Cheating is not unheard of on university campuses. But cheating on an open-book, take-home exam in a pass-fail course seems odd, and all the more so in a course about ethics.

Yet Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism is looking into whether students may have cheated on the final exam in just such a course, “Critical Issues in Journalism.” According to the school’s Web site, the course “explores the social role of journalism and the journalist from legal, historical, ethical, and economic perspectives,” with a focus on ethics.

Nicholas Lemann, dean of the journalism school, said that students had to sign on to a Columbia Web site to gain access to the exam, and that once they did, had 90 minutes to write a couple of essays. But he was unwilling to detail how the cheating might have occurred.

Mr. Lemann said that no student had been formally accused of any violation, but that the issue had become “Topic A” at the school.

The situation was reported yesterday by RadarOnline.com.

The course was taught by Samuel G. Freedman, a professor of journalism at the school who also contributes columns on education and religion to The New York Times. Mr. Freedman confirmed yesterday evening that “there are allegations of cheating.”

“We are looking into them,” he said, adding that he did not want to comment further because of privacy concerns.

Students in the course, which is required of all students in Columbia’s basic journalism master’s program, have been told they must attend a specially scheduled additional session of the course today in connection with the exam. About 200 students took the course this fall.

“We have encountered a serious problem with the final exam, and will not register a passing grade in the course for anyone who does not attend,” David A. Klatell, vice dean at the school, wrote in an e-mail message, which was forwarded to a reporter by a student. Mr. Klatell did not respond to several telephone and e-mail requests for comment.

Mr. Lemann said that he was surprised that students might have been concerned about how they scored on the pass-fail exam, and that exams and grades at the school were rare.

“We are not a very grade-intensive institution,” he said. “Our school is run on a pass-fail basis.”

“Our students are strivers,” he added. “But they are striving to get good clips. It is not like law school, where fine differences in points make all the difference in the world.”

Because freedumb isn’t free!

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Welcome to AJC! | ajc.com:

Because freedumb isn’t free! We just had to fight for it, quit asking me why and making me think, you’re making my head hurt. Besides, dissent is treason. I know, I know, the original argument was about WMD, and that wasn’t anywhere to be found. We can’t dwell on the past now, we must move on. Troops are on the ground now, and we need to show support. The message is that you should say whatever you have to say to get a war started, and we will feel obligated to keep it going. That’s just how it is. Don’t think we won’t get you later on for lying! In the meantime, let’s blow some limbs around! WooHoo! You know, you should go over there and freedomize something, then see if you ask why. Take a freedom bullet, put it in your freedom gun, and send some freedom into someone. Maybe you can get some freedom in you, too. Then, you can come home and vote. Yep. Haven’t you heard? Ever since Iraq threatened our freedom, of course we couldn’t vote or speak freely, but since we went over there and fought to keep us free, the Iraqis were forced to stop screwing with our democratic processes, and we are free once again. Go Freedom! Fly on, oh proud Eagle!

US scientists reject interference

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BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | US scientists reject interference:

Some 10,000 US researchers have signed a statement protesting about political interference in the scientific process.

The statement, which includes the backing of 52 Nobel Laureates, demands a restoration of scientific integrity in government policy.

According to the American Union of Concerned Scientists, data is being misrepresented for political reasons.

It claims scientists working for federal agencies have been asked to change data to fit policy initiatives.