On Monday, Sen. Rand Paul got busted for lifting several paragraphs verbatim from Wikipedia for a speech he recently gave:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Here, from the Courier-Journal, is part of his theft:
Paul said: “In the movie ‘Gattaca,’ in the ‘not to distant future,’ eugenics is common and DNA plays a primary role in determining your social class.”
The Wikipedia entry said, “In ‘the not-too-distant future,’ liberal eugenics is common and DNA plays the primary role in determining social class.”
Paul said, “Due to frequent screenings, Vincent faces genetic discrimination and prejudice. The only way to achieve his dream of being an astronaut, is he has to become what’s called a ‘borrowed ladder.’ ”
Wikipedia’s passage is this: “Due to frequent screening, Vincent faces genetic discrimination and prejudice. The only way he can achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut is to become a ‘borrowed ladder.’ ”
http://www.courier-journal.com/...
Tuesday, Andrew Kaczynski at BuzzFeed.com found yet ANOTHER example of Paul's lifting huge chunks of text directly from Wikipedia for a speech:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/...
Rachel Maddow said Tuesday evening that this second instance of plagiarism was in a speech Senator Paul gave more than once.
In both cases, Paul was stealing the synopses of popular movies. Yesterday, it was the Ethan Hawke Sci-Fi Thriller GATTACA. Today, clips were found of Paul using Wiki's summary of Stand and Deliver, starring Edward James Olmos.
Watching the clips, one gets the feeling that Paul never thought he'd be caught - to him, these Wiki texts were an easy way to play the entertaining educator while flexing his charming Southern drawl. What a smug, lazy jerk.
According to Rachel Maddow, the senator has so far refused to answer any questions about the findings - including queries from his hometown newspaper.
There go his presidential aspirations.
