-------
------
Today's items - updated:
------Duke Students for an Ethical Duke:
Chronicle Intentions Become Clearer -- On Monday, we posted on the peculiarity that the Chronicle opted not to report on Stuart Taylor's speech on Duke's own campus while several other, far larger papers did. We also noted that instead, the Chronicle published a highly flattering front page article in the Chronicle on President Richard Brodhead. Specifically, we noted the preposterous and (perhaps) wishful assertion that the "lacrosse scandal [is] nearly behind him." Meanwhile, the Herald Sun published an article of the much more accurate title Author: Lacrosse case will 'get uglier'.
Today, the Chronicle made clear that the absurd assertion was no accident with a staff editorial officially endorsing Brodhead by repeating the assertion with a slight modification. In what has to be one of the worst examples of journalistic hackery, to borrow a bit of vernacular, from the Chronicle, the staff editorial preposterously claims to speak for all Duke Students [...]
The Chronicle has no business whatsoever claiming to offer the "students' perspective" - not even in an editorial, and especially not in a staff editorial. [...]
related:
John in Carolina:
Chronicle Editorial: Parody or Bloviation? -- Question: Is it possible that what editorial page editor Ryan McCartney and his fellow board members are doing today is engaging in some self-parody? Is today’s editorial a kind of mirthful prank the undergrads all caught but this aging alum missed? [...]
Michael Gaynor:
Duke case: The Chronicle supports Brodhead! -- The lacrosse case did not magnify Mr. Brodhead's character. Instead, it revealed that he lacked character. The discussion of Mr. Brodhead's lacrosse case performance in Until Proven Innocent: Political correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, by Stuart Taylor, Jr. and KC Johnson, conclusively demonstrated Mr. Brodhead's unfitness. The words "moral meltdown" should reverberate across the Duke campus until Mr. Brodhead improves the overall quality at Duke by leaving. [...]
David Wong / Cracked.com:
5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen
-------
Matt Dees / News & Observer:Bell decisively wins Durham mayor's race -- The mayor says he hopes the result sends a message, but Stith defends his campaign tactics -- Mayor Bill Bell handily defeated challenger Thomas Stith III on Tuesday, fending off a well-funded opponent who has been on the offensive for more than a month.
Bell won a fourth term by capturing 58 percent of the nearly 32,000 votes cast, to Stith's 42 percent.
Stith raised and spent more than $150,000 -- more than twice what any previous candidate ever spent on a local Durham race -- and used it mainly on mailers and television ads attacking Bell for tolerating murder and major blunders at City Hall.
But Bell said he won because he was able to convince voters both that Stith's charges were unfounded and that they were being levied in a nasty manner.
"When you sit on council for eight years, and then start to say all things are bad, I wasn't going to let him get away with that," Bell said of Stith, who did not seek re-election to his at-large City Council seat to challenge Bell.
"I hope this sends a message ... that Durham is not the city for that type of campaign."
Stith said he had no regrets, contending that his campaign materials were "hard-hitting" but truthful and an important part of sparking debate about serious issues.
"We heard a message from citizens that they wanted change," Stith said.
"That didn't happen today. But there are issues of concern, and I'm still concerned about them -- probably even more so now because there's the potential for the status quo to remain."
A status quo vote
Voters interviewed Tuesday said that's what the race boiled down to: Is the status quo OK?
Bell supporters said they were insulted by Stith's insistence that Durham was riding off the rails. [...]
related:
WRAL
Bell Wins; Transfer Tax Loses
Ray Gronberg / Herald-Sun [reg. req.]:
Bell sweeps to fourth term -- Mayor Bill Bell swept to his fourth term Tuesday night, fending off a re-election challenge from City Councilman Thomas Stith by a margin of 58 percent to 42 percent.
Bell secured 18,576 votes on the way to victory, running ahead of Stith everywhere except in a handful of precincts on the fringes of the city. Stith received 13,289 votes. [...]
KC Johnson
Update: Resounding Vote for Status Quo
-----
Hero in midst of chaosLynn Rosellini / Reader's Digest:
The Key Witness -- A cabdriver caught up in the Duke University rape case dares to tell the truth. -- Scare Tactics
The taxi driver thought of his own two-year-old son, Mohammed, back in Sudan. He hoped the boy would grow up in America, maybe become a doctor. How could he let this other man’s son go to jail?
“I will testify,” he said. “I will stand up and tell the whole truth.” Elmostafa swore out an affidavit and even produced a cell phone bill that listed a call from Reade Seligmann’s phone at 12:14 a.m. on the day of the alleged assault. The cabbie repeated his story to detectives.
Two weeks later, the same detectives showed up at the taxi office with a warrant for his arrest. Elmostafa was confused. Hadn’t he done everything you’re supposed to do in America? Hadn’t he told the truth? Kamal Balal, his business partner, watched police take his friend away in handcuffs.
Elmostafa’s heart pounded during the ride downtown. In Sudan people could be arrested for next to nothing and sometimes languished in jail for years without a trial.
At the station, Elmostafa was booked on a misdemeanor larceny charge. It dated back to September 2003, when he’d driven a woman to a department store, waited for her in his taxi and then driven her home. The woman later pleaded guilty to shoplifting $250 in handbags from the store. Elmostafa told investigators he was unaware of what his passenger had done. [...]
discussion:
LieStoppers blog:
Moezeldin Elmostafa - Hero -- September 7, 2007 - Moezeldin Elmostafa watched as disgraced, disbarred, and former DA Nifong reported to jail [...]
From Duke University Medical Center to almost every organization in Durham that touched this Hoax we saw a consistent and persuasive attempt to not only hide from the truth, but assist in the promulgation of falsehoods.
Then there is Elmo, as we affectionately call him. Moezeldin Elmostafa, the local Durham cabdriver who stood up to Nifong and told the truth. [...]
LieStoppers forum:
A Key Witness, Moezeldin Elmostafa Readers Digest Hero
Duke Students for an Ethical Duke:
Everday Hero: Moezeldin Elmostafa
related:
TJN: Duke Case: Cabbie escapes Nifongery - Aug. 29, 2006 (Moez Elmostafa trial date)
-------
LieStoppers blog:The Missing Poems -- Cowhand Brodhead corrals the Duke Cash Cow.
Oh, he may be on the campus
The title's his for now
But Brodhead's a nervous cowhand
Hiding behind... that Duke Cash Cow.
For riding herd with Nifong
He's writing checks like WOW.
Brodhead is buying silence
Hiding behind...that Duke Cash Cow.
He thought of Larry Sommers
When the 88 began to howl.
Now he thinks... in millions
Hiding behind that Duke Cash Cow. [...]
------
Higher Education's Downward SpiralJohn Leo / JewishWorldReview.com
Brainwashing 101 -- The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) sent Patrick Harker, the president of the University Of Delaware, a voluminous set of papers on how their residence life program was run. [...]
The papers laying out the residential curriculum at the University of Delaware have a number of gassy euphemisms for insisting that students accept the ideas being imposed. One is "competency attainment" - in plain English the acceptance by students of ideas they are told to accept. The same insistence is available in clear language as well, often in sentences that begin "Students will." One example: "Students will recognize that systemic oppression exists in our society." [...]
In addition to its indoctrination, the residence program has its own speech code. [...]
-------
