Watcher of Weasels:

What I now find concerning, despite all relevant fact and truth, is the defense by the Mainstream News Media of Ward Churchill.

What does THAT say?

Have any of you actually read the essay? What points there are arguable? Did Mr. Churchill not state what the US has actually done at home and abroad? Or are we all living in a period of revisionism and sheep-like gullibility?

Mr. Churchill’s right, you know, that as long as the US acts like the world bully, it risks getting smacked on the head with a brick, an analogy from the movie 'Friday'. Bullies never seem to learn till you knock them to the ground. It’s the 21st. century, folks, we’re not dealing with bows, arrows, swords and the like anymore. One determined group with the proper tools can take out a metropolis, not just two buildings. This current group has already given us two lessons, in case you haven’t noticed. Think about that, re-read the Churchill essay, and meditate on the probable futures that you wish to experience as an American and the reasons America may experience them thereof.

America’s self-given privilege of enforcing its vision of "what we say, goes" with the unilateral use of military violence, is IMHO, long past overdue for change. Such meme smacks of a despicable bully mentality incompatible with membership in a civilized international community, and like it or not, is very similar to the memes of fascist regimes. Learn from the lessons of the past, fellow Americans, or we’ll all be doomed to repeat them. Even Mike Tyson eventually got thumped.

Finally, does anybody have Mr. Churchill's e-mail address? I'd love to write him a letter commending this brilliant and powerful essay.

The latest speculation is that Churchill is a murderer.

I'd say he's got it in him.

In the academic world, one can't overcome an opponent by deleting his posts or outspending his political campaign; one must engage in actual debate. That's why progressives, who tend to win debates with conservatives and fascists, have more power there than in government and business. But government officials and businessmen have some power in the academic world by virtue of position and wealth, and it is that influence that prevents the left from completely dominating there as it otherwise would.

None of the smears against Churchill stand up to scrutiny, but that does not slow down their repetition by participants in the witch hunt. We see Churchill ambushed by a TV crew, in between classes and death threats. The interviewer's insolent tone ("looks like you ripped it off") leads me to doubt his denial that the camera crew initiated the physical confontation. Given the context of what appears to be a well-orchestrated campaign, my guess is that the crew entered the campus with the mission of assaulting Churchill and filming his response, much like police who assault people and then charge them with the crime they themselves have just committed.

As for the plagiarism charge, I believe Churchill's explanation that he had the original artist's explicit permission. It's a little difficult to settle the issue, given that the artist is no longer around; but the raising of such an obscure point when the overriding issue is Churchill's political activity suggests that someone put a lot of effort into digging up dirt and found damned little of any substance.

Regarding the attack by Thomas Brown, read this:
http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/indian/ThomasBrown.htm

And here is a good perspective on the whole thing:
http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/s11/churchill_rwor.html

Churchill is highly regarded by his students, academic colleagues, and by legions of progressives (including me) who value him as both scholar and leader. His tenure was well-deserved and well-earned, and is now serving precisely the purpose for which tenure is designed, namely, as a bulwark against political attack. Almost none of Churchill's attackers can even quote him accurately. This discussion is not really about anything Churchill has done wrong. Rather, it's about what he's done right. He's being targeted for clarifying our understanding of American oppression and the the stuggle against it, and for inspiring those engaged in that struggle and related ones around the world.

Mr. Churchill has been exposed as both a plagiarist of written work and art work. While many will defend his position, they are doing so by comparing apples and oranges. The relationship between indigenous Americans and the US government in the past is indefensible; but even indigenous peoples (along with other persons of color and marginal ethnicity who have been maligned) are busily trying to move forward. The struggle was also an internal one, and was economically and racially motivated.
The attacks of 9/11, while having economic tone and influence, were religious, cultural, and a symptomatic expression of the disease that is fanaticism. Comparing PAST internal acts of repression with CURRENT external acts of terrorism is faulty logic and shows a complete lack of critical thinking skills.
In academia professors are urged to publish. They are called upon to constantly refresh the public discussion of the subjects they teach. Ward Churchill LOWERED and defamed the level of discourse.
Now the university is talking about buying him out to get rid of him. Ironically, dip-sh*ts who are as apparently as clueless as he is dishonest continue to defend this moron long after he has come to the conclusion that the gig is up.

There are certainly enough idiots both on the left AND right to go around. It just so happens that this idiot is on the left -- deal with it.
As far as socialists changing the self-description to progressives... pa-leese! Repeat after me "I'm a socialist", "I'm responsible for all the morons and their bad choices". What this country needs is a reintroduction of concepts of individual accountability and responsibility. Churchill should be responsible for his dumb-a$$ comments and accountable for claiming his 'native' heritage.

I've read Churchill's comments. I've read much of the responsive chatter as well. And as someone who was helping with triage on City Hall lawn when WTC2 fell and later lost a nephew to combat in Iraq, I've as much reason to get worked-up over his bloated rhetoric as anyone. But Churchill, like every other provocative voice along the political continuum, is simply saying what he presumably thinks is true. His analytical approach may be ill-conceived, but he's certainly entitled to speak his mind. What troubles me is his arrogance. He's described the rhetorical attacks on him as "gratuitous," which sounds truly odd coming from someone who likened WTC office workers to a principal architect of the Nazi Holocaust. Not only is that analogy inapt and ultimately empty, it places the institutionalized homocidal insanity of the Final Solution on par with a few religious fanatics wielding box-cutters. Shallow crap like Churchill's just doesn't really advance the larger discourse we should be having as Americans and world citizens. And we should judge his true relevance based as much on the unprincipled and intellectually dishonest gaffes he makes as from anything else he says. At least he's talking instead of shooting, which is more than can be said for the knuckleheads threatening to kill him.

FYI-

Ward Churchill\'s e-mail is Ward.Churchill@Colorado.EDU.

You all should be so ashamed for taking Mr. Churchill\'s comments out of context like that. In fact, he really is part American Indian. His Cherokee name is Kiyuga Uliwovsthi, which means \"Little Chipmunk Carcass.\" I dream of puffing him through a glory hole.

Fuck you.

Quote: "Finally, I have never characterized all the September 11 victims as "Nazis." What I said was that the "technocrats of empire" working in the World Trade Center were the equivalent of "little Eichmanns." Adolf Eichmann was not charged with direct killing but with ensuring the smooth running of the infrastructure that enabled the Nazi genocide. Similarly, German industrialists were legitimately targeted by the Allies."

Churchill is saying that America is committing genocide abroad. I would like to see the evidence of that claim. It has been 5 fucking years since his essay... he is an enabler of Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles will deceive us all and return to burn the Earth and kill us all. He works through maggots like Churchill, plying his yarns of destruction into the very fabric of our reality. One day you will awake to see a blood-soaked skull atop your bedside table. There will be a torso hanging from a chain in your kitchen. The agents of Belial are already here paving the path for complete destruction. Hitler was the ninth agent of Belial. Adolf Eichmann was seduced by the succubus of the Rhine while riding naked atop a King Tiger tank. The dead Nazis are about to rise from the water and sack LUTETIA PARISIORUM as prophecised in Belial 2:10.

You now must go and put on your fucking mask because very soon the fire will suck all the air from your lungs.

You actually have a good point now that I look at it that way. This was article was more about markup than anything. haha I should restrain myself from commenting in the wee hours of the morning and going on my own rant. cnlogistic A yes I do I agree with you. At the end of the day It’s all about mark up. winrelocation It’s what makes the difference.