Finally, there's someone from the SCLM who cares about the assault on universities by congressional Republicans. Today's Washington Post actually manages
an article that touches on the Truth Committee that Republicans and other enemies of evil want to establish to look over the shoulders of stray academics.
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"In recent months, Pipes and other conservatives have begun pushing for stronger congressional oversight of the $95 million in government subsidies for Middle East and other area studies programs. Legislation under consideration by Congress includes a provision for the establishment of an advisory board to ensure that government-funded academic programs "reflect diverse perspectives and [a] full range of views."
Some Middle East experts fear that the seven-member board would be dominated by spokesmen for the Bush administration and strong advocates of Israel."
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I'm glad to see that we won't be giving any money to fund academic scholarship that disproves what conservatives think. Sort of like not funding research into global warming or quashing budgetary models that show severe deficits.
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"Academic colleagues, get used to it," wrote Martin Kramer, a Pipes ally and author of "Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America." "You are being watched. Those obscure articles in campus newspapers are now available on the Internet, and they will be harvested. Your syllabi, which you've also posted, will be scrutinized. Your websites will be visited late at night."
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Well, how's that for scary? I sure hope the intrepid Mr. Kramer won't be probing around on Kos late at night, because he just might get into the kind of debate he's so eager to stamp out elsewhere.
Oddly enough, the article says that the House passed HR 3077 unanimously. I'm not an expert on procedure, so I'm not sure if this means there was a "unanimous consent" motion that was not objected to, or whether there was an actual vote and everyone voted the same way. If it was the latter, every Democrat (and every congresscritter) ought to be ashamed. I thought they'd learned their lesson about the radicalism of Republicans. I guess they have not realized that today's Republican party and its spokeswoman, Ann Coulter, love Joseph McCarthy and Joseph Stalin all at the same time.
And Jonathan Chait thinks congressional Democrats don't deserve the bad rap they get from Dean.