INNOCENT: Professor Haagen Responded

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
___________________________________

Readers Note: If you followed the recent NC State Bar trial resulting in former DA Mike Nifong’s disbarment, you know some of its most compelling, disturbing and saddening testimony concerned not Nifong, but the ordeal Reade Seligmann, his parents and attorney endured as they walked on May 18, 2006 to the Durham County Courthouse.

As they approached and entered the courthouse, they passed through a gauntlet of angry racists shouting physical threats at Seligmann. Once inside the courtroom things were, if anything, worse.

Duke’s response to the threats directed at Seligmann has been silence. President Brodhead has said nothing; nor has any Trustee; or any member of “Dick’s senior team.” The faculty, with few exceptions, has also been silent.

Since last May I’ve written Brodhead, the Trustees and others connected at Duke urging them to speak out in condemnation of those who threatened Seligmann and in support of him and his family.

At first I wanted Duke to speak out because of concern for Seligmann and his family, and in support of a civil Durham where law abiding citizens can go about without fear of being threatened by racists.

My hope was that President Brodhead would help organize an event at which the leaders of Duke and Durham, “town and gown,” would say the things which needed to be said and which every decent person would endorse and applaud.

As the months have past and nothing has happened, I've come to realize there's another reason Duke needs to speak out: to erase, in so far as is possible, the stain the Brodhead administration and its followers’ silence has brought upon Duke’s reputation.

Can you name another university in America where in the last 40 years a student was threatened by a mob of racists as Seligmann was not a mile from the campus and the university said nothing?

To date I and others had no success in getting Duke to right its wrong.

My email letters to President Brodhead and Trustees have never received even pro forma acknowledgements. Phone calls to Brodhead's office aren't returned. Letters to others at Duke are sometimes courteously acknowledge but say little else, except on occasion to direct me to someone else.

Among those who have replied only Arts & Science Faculty Dean George McLendon said he “deplored and condemned” the threats made to Seligmann and anyone else connected with “the Duke community, as a result of this tragically misguided prosecution and the events which surrounded it.”

McLendon was responding to a request I made this May that he place before the Academic Council my request that it condemn those who threatened Seligmann and affirm Duke's support for him and his family.

As precedent for such an action, I cited a prior instance just a year before when the Executive Committee of the Academic Council, acting in the name of the University faculty, condemned a series of three cross burnings in Durham one evening by a person or persons who has/have never been identified.

McLendon forwarded my request to then Academic Council Chair Paul Haagen, a professor in the Law School.

I did not hear from Haagen and contacted him in late June as his term as Chair was ending.

I then heard back promptly and want to share Haagen's response with you.

Below is first a copy of my letter to Haagen. I included for his convenience a copy of the letter I'd received from McLendon. Also for Haagen's convenience, I added to my letter a copy of the letter I'd sent McLendon.

If you are already familiar with those letters, you may want to scroll down to the double star line, following which you’ll find, first Haagen’s entire response to me, followed by a few of my comments concerning my next steps.

John
________________________________________

Paul H. Haagen, J.D.
Professor of Law
Duke University School of Law

Dear Professor Haagen:

Some weeks back I contacted Faculty of Arts & Sciences Dean George McLendon. I requested he ask the Academic Council to make a statement condemning those who on May 18, 2006 shouted physical threats, including death threats, at Reade Seligmann and expressing concern for him and his family for the ordeal they endured.

In addition to links to news reports of the threats, I provided Dean McLendon with a links to an account of the cross burning in Durham the previous May and the Academic Council’s formal condemnation a few days later of that odious event.

Dean McLendon responded as follows:

I have forwarded your email to Paul Haagen, chair of the academic council.(A [JinC] commentator astutely notes that I have no special standing with [the academic council] ).

I personally deplore and condemn any threats directed at Mr Seligmann,or at any other member of the Duke community,as a result of this tragically misguided prosecution and the events which surrounded it.

I’ve heard nothing from you in the weeks since Dean McLendon forwarded my request to you.

I know how easily things can fall off the radar screen, so I’ve included below a copy of the letter I sent Dean McLendon.

I look forward to your response, which I'll post in full at my blog:Johnincarolina.com

Sincerely,

John in Carolina
_______________________________________________

George L. McLendon, Ph.D.
Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences
Duke University

Dear Dean McLendon:

I hold two degrees from the University and blog as John in Carolina.

I’m writing as both an alum and a Durham resident.

You no doubt recall that last May 18, then sophomore Reade Seligmann was subjected to shouted physical threats, including death threats. They were made first as he walked to the Durham County Courthouse with his parents and attorney, the late Kirk Osborn, and then again within the courtroom.

The threats were widely reported in media. Britan’s The Guardian's account said:

Reade Seligmann, 20, sat in a suit at a court hearing. From the gallery one onlooker shouted: 'Justice will be served, rapist!' Seligmann largely ignored the taunts, but as he left came the call 'Dead man walking!' and he blanched.

Among those threatening Seligmann were members of the racist New Black Panther Party.

I know of no member of the Arts & Sciences faculty who spoke out publicly to condemn those threatening Seligmann or to offer their compassion to Seligmann and his parents after what was a terrible ordeal.

The A & S faculty’s silence reflects very poorly on it and Duke University.

That’s especially so when we recall the faculty’s prompt, clear and strong response almost exactly a year earlier to the anonymous and still unsolved cross burnings in Durham.

Here in full for your reference and JinC readers information is the Academic Council’s June 1, 2005, statement as posted for media distribution at Duke News:

As representatives of the Duke University faculty, the Executive Committee of the Academic Council wishes to add our collective voice to the recent events in Durham.

Cross-burning in the United States is a history we all hoped had ended. Such acts have been an extreme symbol of racial violence and of one group's desire to deny civil and human rights to another group. Cross-burning has re-emerged as a practice of intimidation in the present, still carrying the taint of white supremacist, segregationist, and other demeaning policies associated with a not-so-distant time in the life of Duke, Durham, and the surrounding region.

Intimidation and threats of violence against any group are anathema in both university contexts and in society at large. We condemn the cross-burnings that have disgraced our community -- and we renew our commitment to liberty and justice for all.

In June 2005 I was very glad the Academic Council made its cross burning statement as were fair-minded alums and Durhamites who learned of it.

Since May 18, 2006 I’ve been very troubled by the faculty’s silence regarding the threats made to Seligmann.

Why has there been no faculty statement that intimidation and threats of violence against Reade Seligmann or any other peaceful citizen are anathema in both university contexts and in society at large?

I don’t believe the intimidation and threats Seligmann, his parents and Kirk Osborn were subjected to last May 18 by two small groups of hate-filled people disgraced either Duke or Durham. But the wall of silence the University and the City have collectively thrown up since May 18 certainly has.

That wall of silence needs to fall.

I’m told that as Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences you are the proper administrator to place the matter of a faculty response to the events of May 18 before the A&S faculty for consideration of a request to the Academic Council.

That request would, I hope, ask the Academic Council to issue on behalf of the Duke faculty a statement as clear and strong in its condemnation of the threats made to Seligmann as was its June 2005 condemnation of the cross burnings.

I look forward to your response, which I’ll publish in full at my blog.

Thank you for your attention to this letter.

Sincerely,

John in Carolina

***********************************************************************
***********************************************************************

PROFESSOR HAAGEN'S RESPONSE:

John in Carolina -

I understood that the forwarding of the message to me was for my information and expected to hear something further if you intended to follow up with me. During the four years that I have been on the Executive Committee of the Council, it has not been my practice to participate in official or institutional condemnations. I recognize that you found such an instance from a time when I was not on the Council. The person who you want to contact is Paula McClain. My last day in office is Saturday and I am in Germany teaching at the moment. Professor McClain is my successor. Her term begins on Monday.

Paul H. Haagen
Professor of Law
Duke University School of Law
Science Drive and Towerview Road
Box 90360
Durham, North Carolina 27708-0360
tel. 919-613-7088
fax 919-668-0996
e-mail haagen@law.duke.edu

____________________________________________________

Folks,

I plan in the next week or so to follow-up on Haagen's suggestion and contact Professor Paula McClain. I'll include in my letter much of what you’ve read here.

I'll ask McClain to put my letter and the matter of a statement by the Academic Council before the Council for its consideration. I'll also ask her if she can conveniently provide a list of the Council members so I can contact them directly.

Concerning Haagen, I plan to write him in a few days. When law school professors remained silent during the Civil Rights Movement when students engaged in peaceful activities were threatened, it didn't go down well with me. And neither does Haagen's silence last May 18 and since regarding the threats directed against Seligmann.

I'll post copies of my letters to McLain and Haagen as well as any responses I may receive from them.

I'm sending Haagen a link to this post.

In a few minutes I'm taking the comments from the thread of "INNOCENT:To Prof. Haagen re: Seligmann threats" and posting them as a separate post: "INNOCENT: Duke's Haagen & Seligmann comments."

Those thread comments all concern how to change Duke from a place where the students on the lacrosse team were treated as they were and the University was silent on May 18 and since to a place where those kinds of things no longer happen and Duke's President doesn't keep telling us "the facts kept changing" and now we all need to "move on."

I hope many of you add your thoughts and suggestions to the thread of that post.

There need to be many changes made at Duke.

INNOCENT: Mystery Writer on “Nifong’s Follies”

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
__________________________________________

Many of you know Roger L. Simon through his wonderful PI Moses Wine mystery books. Others may recognize him as the screen writer for such films as Lies and Whispers and Scenes From a Mall, which starred Woody Alan.

Simon also blogs and on January 12, 2007, right after then DA Mike Nifong recused himself from the case, Simon posted “Nifong’s Follies.” Here it is in full:

What interests me in the strange case of Mike Nifong - the DA in the Duke Lacrosse Team alleged rape case (very alleged at this point) - is why a reasonably intelligent person, as I assume him to be, would come to make such a long and ultimately self-destructive fool of himself. He is now apparently and at long last trying to beat a retreat through a recusal.

Much of the talk I have read centers on the DA's election needs - and no doubt this factors in.

But his behavior, evidently hiding exculpatory DNA evidence from the defense, seems so neurotic it makes you think there were deeper and more complex forces at work.

Nifong also appears to be one of those given to the simplistic view that minority members are always right when confronting the scions of the evil majority. Or, more precisely, perhaps he was relying on that concept as zeitgeist for which he received great support from the Duke faculty that made similar assumptions- a kind of cultural relativist justice in which the same laws should not apply to the disadvantaged.

Of course at base this is racist - but not in the way Mr. Nifong thinks. Quite the reverse. This is yet another example of one of the hallmarks of our era - bourgeois liberalism become ultra-reactionary in its actions.

Nifong's big mistake is that he took that zeitgeist a few steps too far. He should have known better.

You can visit Simon’s eponymous blog here. He’s always worth reading.

I like especially Simon’s independent thinking: how many folks working in Hollywood would have written the post you’ve just read?

The Churchill Series – July 5, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Something different today: a post built on responses to reader comments.

One person who comments often noted the few comments the series draws, and said he wonders sometimes whether I was doing the series just for him.

I think the best answer I can give is no but …

No, in that I think there are many who read the series but for a variety of reasons feel no need to comment. For example, they simply like the posts and perhaps once a year say “Nice job, John.” Or perhaps they never say it. They’re under no obligation to do so.

Sometimes when people comment on the series, it’s often not on a series thread but on the tail of comment regarding another post: “And something else. I enjoy the Churchill series.”

Pundit Michael Barone once commented he liked JinC because its “a reliable and serious blog.” He added: “I like the Churchill series, too”

But the first commenter is right in so far as many people (it’s impossible to get an exact number) who visit the site avoid the series posts for one reasons or another. On the other hand, there are some who come to JinC only for the series.

Go figure.

Tomorrow I’ll say a bit more about why I think there are a good number of people out there reading the series. My reasons include the historical knowledge and technical expertise commenters reveal. I’ll start with Insufficiently Sensitive’s recent comments about Churchill's physical risk-taking and an Anon’s recent comment about a hand-held Mauser pistol which Churchill used at Omdurman being adaptable to a shoulder fired weapon when a wooden butt was added.

I hope you are back tomorrow for part 2.

Did you hair about Edwards?

The Washington Post seems intent on cutting up Democratic presidential nominee candidate John Edwards of North Carolina. We read in the July 5 WaPo:

For four decades, Joseph Torrenueva has cut the hair of Hollywood celebrities, from Marlon Brando to Bob Barker, so when a friend told him in 2003 that a presidential candidate needed grooming advice, he agreed to help.

The Beverly Hills hairstylist, a Democrat, said he hit it off with then-Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina at a meeting in Los Angeles that brought several fashion experts together to advise the candidate on his appearance. Since then, Torrenueva has cut Edwards's hair at least 16 times.

At first, the haircuts were free.

This kind of story often starts that way. But because:

Torrenueva often had to fly somewhere on the campaign trail to meet his client, he began charging $300 to $500 for each cut, plus the cost of airfare and hotels when he had to travel outside California.

Torrenueva said one haircut during the 2004 presidential race cost $1,250 because he traveled to Atlanta and lost two days of work.

We can all understand that. There are, after all, the two America’s: the one where most people by $30 or less for a cut, and the one where $1,250 is what John Edwards pays for his cuts.

But look at what he gets for it:

"He has nice hair," the stylist said of Edwards in an interview. "I try to make the man handsome, strong, more mature and these are the things, as an expert, that's what we do."

Gee, if someone could make me handsome, strong and more mature for just $1,250, that would be a great bargain. My wife would have her credit card out.

But the WaPo reminds us that this is really all serious stuff:

It is some kind of commentary on the state of American politics that as Edwards has campaigned for president, vice president and now president again, his hair seems to have attracted as much attention as, say, his position on health care.

But when his campaign reported in April that it had paid for two of his haircuts at $400 each, the political damage was immediate. With each punch line on late night TV his image as a self-styled populist making poverty his signature issue was further eroded.

Edwards said that he was embarrassed by the cost and that he "didn't know it would be that expensive," suggesting the haircuts were some kind of aberration given by "that guy" his staff had arranged. His wife, Elizabeth, made lots of jokes at her husband's expense and the campaign wished the whole issue would go away.

But Torrenueva's account of his long relationship with Edwards -- the first he's given -- probably guarantees that won't happen quite yet. And if $400 seemed a lot for a haircut, how about one for three times that?

There’s much more to the story before it ends with an account of the first meeting of Torrenueva and the man who wants to be the next President of the United States:

The stylist said he has a vivid memory of the first time he met Edwards, in 2003.

"My friend called me and said, 'Do you know who John Edwards is?' and I said yes, I had heard of him. My friend said he is going to be running for president, but his hair doesn't look right. I don't know what it is and I think you will know what to do."

Torrenueva agreed to meet Edwards at the Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles along with several fashion experts.

"There was a woman, an award-winning clothes designer -- I think she works in film and onstage, too. She was there with her swatches with materials for colors of suits, ties and what we were doing there was discussing his look. I was there for hair.

"What I did was, there was too much hair on top, always falling down, and it made him look too youthful. I took the top down and balanced everything out. He couldn't see it. But then we went into the bathroom. He looked in the mirror and said, 'I love this,' and that was it."

Well, folks, what do you say we cut this post short and part.

You can read the entire WaPo story hair.

INNOCENT: Brodhead didn't even whisper

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
__________________________________________

Last spring when the Duke students who played on the Men’s lacrosse team came under fire by much of the media and many at Duke after which three were picked by the disgraced Mike Nifong for indictment and trial, Duke President Richard Brodhead acted in ways that even many of his defenders say were inept, and his critics say were shameful.

Brodhead excuses himself for what he did and didn’t do by telling people it was a “confusing time” in which“[t]he facts kept changing. Every day we learned new things that no one knew the day before.”

Well, last April 19, the day after Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann were arrested, hand-cuffed and taken to the county jail, and nine months before Brodhead could ever bring himself to say anything critical of the disgraced Nifong, well-known defense attorney Roy Black wasn’t confused.

USA Today columnist Jon Saraceno reported:

Black told me Tuesday that the prosecution of the Duke players is "beyond difficult." An attorney for one of the accused told reporters his client wasn't even at the party at the time of the alleged rape.

"It almost reaches the level of absurdity," Black said. "I think it's driven more by local politics, race and class. How often do you see prosecutors give 30 press conferences before charges are filed?

Based upon what we know, the lack of physical evidence (beyond a hospital exam that cited injury consistent with rape), corroboration and conclusive DNA argue against a strong case here.

What you have here is her word, one certainly subject to serious credibility questions."

Now why couldn’t Brodhead have figured that out and at least have whispered it in the ears of people like Durham Herald Sun editor Bob Ashley, Duke Professor Peter Wood and Raleigh News & Observer columnist Ruth Sheehan?

Durham Mayor’s Bank Problems

On the front-page of the July 4 Raleigh News & Observer we read:

A bank whose board chairman is Durham Mayor Bill Bell has agreed to overhaul its operations after running afoul of federal and state regulators.

Mutual Community Savings Bank has agreed to an order that, among other things, calls for it to stop operating with "inadequate management" and "in such a manner as to produce net operating losses."

The order does not mean the bank is shutting its doors. "We're still in business, and that is the bottom line," Bell said Tuesday.

Mutual was founded 86 years ago by African-American businessmen, providing a financial lifeline that helped to create a black middle class during the decades of Jim Crow. It also was one of the anchors of Durham's famed "Black Wall Street." In addition to the mayor, its board includes prominent citizens, including two pastors and the provost of N.C. Central University.

The bank has been under a regulatory cloud since it disclosed in May that it had received a proposed cease-and-desist order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the N.C. Office of the Commissioner of Banks.

According to the order, which Mutual filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, regulators have "determined there is reason to believe the bank had engaged in unsafe or unsound practices and committed violations of law and regulations." Similar language is frequently used by the FDIC when it issues such an order.

Joe Smith, the state banking commissioner, and FDIC spokesman David Barr declined to identify the practices.

The order notes that Mutual Community has neither admitted nor denied any charges. The order calls for Mutual Community to stop:

* Operating with inadequate management.

* Operating with a board of directors that hasn't provided "adequate supervision."

* Operating with inadequate capital and reserves.

* Operating at a loss.

* Operating with inadequate information technology.

* Violating law, regulations, and policy as identified in an FDIC bank examiner's report which has not been made public. Such reports contain sensitive financial information and are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, said the FDIC's Barr.

Bell and the bank's CEO, William G. Smith, declined to comment on the alleged violations -- or any other specifics of the order. Efforts to reach other board members failed.

"We're working on a lot of different things to return the bank to profitability," Smith said.

Bell said that the board hasn't yet decided whether management will be overhauled.
Mutual recently disclosed, without explanation, that Albernard Bass Jr., the bank's senior vice president and chief operating officer, has resigned effective July 13. Bass couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

Smith said Bass left to consider other opportunities and his departure was unrelated to the order. . . .

According to the order, the bank has to evaluate whether its senior executives are qualified "to perform present and anticipated duties." The bank also must make a plan to "recruit and hire any additional or replacement personnel" within 60 days.

Any executives hired by the bank would have to be approved by the FDIC's regional director, Mark Schmidt.

The bank also must adopt a plan to boost its capital, which can include selling stock, and improve its earnings. And it must submit quarterly progress reports to regulators and adopt an "educational program" for training board members.

We obviously don’t have very important information regarding what the bank’s been doing that led the FDIC and the NC Office of the Commissioner of Banking to take such unusual steps including citing the bank for “inadequate management” and "violating the law," and its board of directors for failing to provide “adequate supervision.” But these are extremely serious matters that I hope the N&O will continue to follow and report.

Bell has announced that he will seek reelection to a four year term this fall. He’s expected to have opposition, most likely from city councilman Thomas Stith. Right now Bell would be a heavy favorite in such a race.

According to a side bar that accompanies the article, one of the two pastors serving on the bank’s board of directors is Bishop Elroy Lewis, pastor of Fisher Memorial United Holy Church.

From the time the Duke Hoax first broke, Lewis has been active in support of what NC NAACP chair Rev. Dr. William Barber II has called his organization’s “monitoring of the Duke rape case."

The N&O side bar states Lewis received $4,250 in 2006 for his part in failing to provide “adequate supervision” of the bank. ( Well, the N&O didn’t really say it that way but you can bet that, in fact, is what actually happened. – JinC )

The NC Central University Provost serving on the bank board is Dr. Beverly Washington Jones. She’s a former member of the Durham Public Schools' board of education (an elective office in Durham) and well-connected with the politically powerful Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People. The N&O reports her board compensation in 2006 was $4,500.

Bell, as bank board chair, received $7,500 for his 2006 service.

You can read the entire N&O story here.

The Durham Herald Sun has so far said nothing about the Durham bank's problems and the FDIC and NC Office of the Commission of Banking’s actions.

Another day in Durham.

INNOCENT: A Great Duke Story at Johnsville

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
_______________________________________________

In case you haven’t yet heard about it, there’s a great Duke story over at The Johnsville News. (You may need to scroll down)

It’s headed “All-ACC Academic Men’s Lacrosse Team” and begins:

All four league schools competing in men's lacrosse are represented on the inaugural team with Duke placing a league-high 15 student-athletes on the list. ( bold by TJN but I would have bolded it too. Who wouldn’t? - JinC )

Who would have believed that after all the slander and libel those students endured; after they were abandoned by Duke’s Dick Brodhead, the University’s President; by Duke’s Trustees; by the administrators who comprise “Dick’s senior team;” by all but a handful of faculty while viciously attacked by many faculty; after being trashed in the media and realizing the Durham Police Department was repeatedly lying about and endangering them in response to which their University and its Police Department said nothing; and having good cause to fear for their physical safety; those 15 students never the less achieved academic distinction and played on a championship team?

What those 15 young men achieved is testimony to the best that youth can be.

For that they deserve not only our praise, but our gratitude.

TJN’s post lists the 15 players along with their majors.

TJN remains one of my “must visit daily” blogs.

Final words: Go Devils!

America’s Finest

Readers Note: Some of you may recall Scott Pierce who blogged at Right in Raleigh before he moved with his family to New York. Scott was a fine blogger.

A friend of Scott’s, Mike Williams, just sent me the following and I want to share it with you. It’s a reminder of the outstanding men and women who serve in our armed forces.

Those men and women, their families, and veterans and their families have earned our deepest admiration and gratitude for the sacrifices they’ve made to protect our freedoms.

John
_________________________________________________________

Army vet Scott C. Pierce has a [West Point] classmate in the 1st Cav who is currently serving in Iraq. Here is an excerpt from an email Scott shared with me recently:

Much has happened since the last update, life has become so very dynamic around here. I just returned to the job as MiTT Chief after spending three weeks as the Brigade Commander while he was on leave.

The temperatures are hitting highs of 117 degrees in these first days of summer. It’s been truly an exhausting and amazing time to see Soldiers perform magnificently under the harshest of conditions, yet motivated and serving freely in a foreign place as your ambassadors.

Soldiers are the reason that this has been easier to deal with at all levels. You all would continue to be so proud of all they do every day, with their patience, vigilance, compassion, resilience and toughness.

We also received word about a three month extension, and it will probably work out to around a 2 month extension give or take a week and a half. Nevertheless, under the current plan, I will get home before Christmas and my 20th wedding anniversary!

No matter what any newspaper says, the Troops are over it – don’t get me wrong, we all want to get home and it wasn’t like we were jumping for joy, but we found out far enough out that we have been able to adjust our expectations to a point that we are just focused on a new date and getting our job done safely.

In all this, we are focused on helping the Iraqi Brigade we are working with to get past where they are in their administrative and logistical systems, as well as how they plan for and conduct combat operations. It is a real challenge for all of us, but there are many rewarding times.

The Iraqi people here in Diyala Province are beginning to work with us to get rid of Al Qaeda, and it is making it easier to see a way ahead for them. There is much work to do – a long hard road ahead to really see some results, but the key thing is that we have started to see a true change in the will of the people here.

Obviously the entire country of Iraq is not showing the same hope every day, but here in Diyala, despite the horrific events that we have seen, we are moving ahead and making progress.

The last couple of weeks have been fairly hopeful, and I attribute, again, to a true change in the will of the people. It is starting to catch fire across the Province, and I can only hope that similar things are happening everywhere. Please keep this in your prayers as you think about us.

I experienced a very special meal recently called Pachar. It is the head of the sheep with the feet, boiled and served with rice. I know that sounds pretty weird and nasty, but it is a great delicacy and was considered an honor that they served it to us.

I had fun digging right into it and challenging everyone to be “culturally sensitive” and dig right in with me (ha ha ha). Needless to say, there were a couple brave souls who tried it, but the majority decided to eat some rice and bread and just act like they weren’t that hungry. And of course there were some of us playing with the eyes and tongues before eating up.

Different cultures for different people!

Later I reminded many of the folks how hot dogs and sausages are manufactured and that the Iraqis may have a real hard time if they saw that process.

Diyala, you may recall, is in the Baghdad belts and one of al Qaeda’s former safe havens. Warriors like Scott’s classmate are truly heirs of The Greatest Generation.

And speaking of The Greatest Generation, we recently lost one of its most decorated heroes. He was a WWII submarine skipper who “sunk” a Japanese train, in addition to an aircraft carrier and assorted other ships. If you get a chance follow this link, and hoist the adult beverage of your choice to him and to Scott’s classmate as we celebrate our independence and our freedoms.

The Churchill Series - July 4, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Readers Note: A few days ago I promised to follow-up on the question of whether Churchill was something of a needless, even reckless, risk-taker. I'll do that tomorrow in a post in which I'll respond to a reader's comment.

Today, I want to repost major portions of a post concerning America's grant of honorary citizenship to Churchill. And I want to wish each of you a very happy Fourth of July.

John
___________________________________________________

On April 9, 1963 at a White House ceremony, President John F. Kennedy read a proclamation granting Churchill honorary American citizenship. Only one other person, the Marquis de Lafayette, had previously been so honored.

Age and ill health prevented Churchill from attending, but special arrangements were made for a live satellite broadcast direct to his home where he watched the ceremony.

Kennedy first read the proclamation a unanimous Congress had authorized. The president then spoke some words of his own. They were brief, graceful, and left no doubt Churchill deserved the honor he'd just been awarded.

Churchill's son, Randolph, then read a statement on his father's behalf. It too was brief and graceful. And it left no doubt that, even in the winter of his life, Churchill was strong for the things he had always valued and fought for.

Below, courtesy of The Churchill Centre, are the full texts of the citizenship proclamation, President Kennedy's remarks, and the new American citizen's response.
__________________________________________

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS Sir Winston Churchill, a son of America though a subject of Britain, has been throughout his life a firm and steadfast friend of the American people and the American nation; and

WHEREAS he has freely offered his hand and his faith in days of adversity as well as triumph; and

WHEREAS his bravery, charity and valor, both in war and in peace, have been a flame of inspiration in freedom's darkest hour; and

WHEREAS his life has shown that no adversary can overcome, and no feat can deter, free men in the defense of their freedom; and

WHEREAS he has by his art as an historian and his judgment as a statesman made the past the servant of the future;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOHN F. KENNEDY, President of the United States of America, under the authority contained in an Act of the 88th Congress, do hereby declare Sir Winston Churchill an honorary citizen of the United States of America.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-seventh.

JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY
___________________________________________________________

Remarks by President John F. Kennedy at
The White House, Washington D.C., April 9, 1963

We meet to honor a man whose honor requires no meeting -- for he is the most honored and honorable man to walk the stage of human history in the time in which we live.

Whenever and wherever tyranny threatened, he has always championed liberty.

Facing firmly toward the future, he has never forgotten the past.

Serving six monarchs of his native Great Britain, he has served all men's freedom and dignity.

In the dark days and darker nights when Britain stood alone -- and most men save Englishmen despaired of England's life -- he mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. The incandescent quality of his words illuminated the courage of his countrymen.

Given unlimited powers by his citizens, he was ever vigilant to protect their rights.

Indifferent himself to danger, he wept over the sorrows of others.

A child of the House of Commons, he became in time its father.

Accustomed to the hardships of battle, he has no distaste for pleasure.

Now his stately Ship of Life, having weathered the severest storms of a troubled century, is anchored in tranquil waters, proof that courage and faith and the zest for freedom are truly indestructible. The record of his triumphant passage will inspire free hearts for all time.

By adding his name to our rolls, we mean to honor him -- but his acceptance honors us far more. For no statement or proclamation can enrich his name -- the name Sir Winston Churchill is already legend.
____________________________________________________________

Sir Winston's response
28 Hyde Park Gate, London, April 6, 1963

As read at the White House
by Randolph S. Churchill, April 9, 1963

Mr. President,

I have been informed by Mr. David Bruce that it is your intention to sign a Bill conferring upon me Honorary Citizenship of the United States.

I have received many kindnesses from the United States of America, but the honour which you now accord me is without parallel. I accept it with deep gratitude and affection.

I am also most sensible of the warm-hearted action of the individual States who accorded me the great compliment of their own honorary citizenships as a prelude to this Act of Congress.

It is a remarkable comment on our affairs that the former Prime Minister of a great sovereign state should thus be received as an honorary citizen of another. I say "great sovereign state" with design and emphasis, for I reject the view that Britain and the Commonwealth should now be relegated to a tame and minor role in the world. Our past is the key to our future, which I firmly trust and believe will be no less fertile and glorious. Let no man underrate our energies, our potentialities and our abiding power for good.

I am, as you know, half American by blood, and the story of my association with that mighty and benevolent nation goes back nearly ninety years to the day of my Father's marriage. In this century of storm and tragedy I contemplate with high satisfaction the constant factor of the interwoven and upward progress of our peoples. Our comradeship and our brotherhood in war were unexampled. We stood together, and because of that fact the free world now stands. Nor has our partnership any exclusive nature: the Atlantic community is a dream that can well be fulfilled to the detriment of none and to the enduring benefit and honour of the great democracies.

Mr. President, your action illuminates the theme of unity of the English-speaking peoples, to which I have devoted a large part of my life. I would ask you to accept yourself, and to convey to both Houses of Congress, and through them to the American people, my solemn and heartfelt thanks for this unique distinction, which will always be proudly remembered by my descendants.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
______________________________________________________________

INNOCENT: A Nifong & Brodhead Parody

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
_______________________________________________

Readers Note: Last August I parodied the then Durham DA and now disbarred and disgraced Mike Nifong and Duke's President, Richard ("The facts kept changing") Brodhead in a post titled: "Nifong, Churchill, Brodhead and me."

I thought on this holiday the post might provide you with a smile or two, so I'm reposting it.

John
_________________________

Here's Durham DA Mike Nifong as quoted in the Mar. 29 Raleigh N&O:

"I would like to think that somebody who was not in the bathroom has the human decency to call up and say, 'What am I doing covering up for a bunch of hooligans?' " Nifong said.

"I'd like to be able to think that there were some people in that house that were not involved in this and were as horrified by it as the rest of us are."

This from the Presumption of Innocence article in Legal Encyclopedia, Thompson & Gale.

"In practice the presumption of innocence is animated by the requirement that the government prove the charges against the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt."

Here's Winston S. Churchill in a letter to the Times of London, July 8, 1902:

"[I]t is for the accuser to prove his charge, not for the defendant to prove his innocence.”

Here's Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead in his letter to the Friends of Duke University, July 25, 2006:

"We are eager for our students to be proved innocent."

And here I am today, Aug. 4, 2006:

"I would like to think that somebody on the Brodhead team who was not involved in drafting the letter has the human decency to call up and say, 'What am I doing covering up for a bunch that doesn’t understand the common law?'" John in Carolina said.

"I'd like to be able to think that there are at least some people in the Allen Building that were not involved in the letter, and are as horrified by the 'proved innocent' misconception as the rest of us are."

Ye Olde NY Times

Ye Olde NY Times

This time last year the New York Times had run a number of stories disclosing national security secrets. The Times used “the public needs to know” justification.

In response Scott Johnson at Powerline parodied the Times. I posted it last July 4 and it’s appropriate to post it again today.

So here’s the Ye Olde NY Times in early April, 1775

Some newspapers never change.

A Declaration of Independence Quiz

Who were the oldest and youngest signers of the Declaration of Independence? What states were they from? Why was Thomas Jefferson designated to write it? Which member of the Congress refused to sign the Declaration and why?

Ed Williams, editorial page editor of the Charlotte Observer, invites you to take a Declaration quiz.

It’s the kind of quiz we all wished for in school. Along with the questions, come the answers. Get you pencils ready. We’ll talk after the quiz.

Here's Williams:

Representatives of the 13 American colonies approved a document 231 years ago this Wednesday announcing the birth of a nation: the United States of America.

Test your knowledge about one of the most powerful documents ever written, the Declaration of Independence.

Q. When did the colonies break their ties to Britain?

In 1776, in a four-step process.

June 7: Richard Henry Lee, a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, presented a resolution that read in part: "Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

June 11: Congress postponed consideration of Lee's resolution and appointed a Committee of Five to draft a statement of the reasons for declaring independence: John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia.

July 2: Congress adopted the Lee Resolution and began considering the committee's declaration.

July 4: Congress approved the Declaration of Independence.

Q. Why was Jefferson the principal writer?

According to John Adams' account, Jefferson nominated Adams to write it. No, said Adams, it should be you: "Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise."

Q. Where did the ideas in the Declaration originate?

Jefferson maintained -- correctly -- that it contained nothing new in political thought. He was influenced by the 17th-century philosopher John Locke's ideas about liberty and the social contract and by the English Whig party's theories of government.

Q. Did the Declaration start the Revolutionary War?

No. The war had begun with the battles of Lexington and Concord, Mass., on April 19, 1775. By the summer of 1776 American patriots had taken control of every colony, expelled royal officials and created an army led by George Washington.

In August 1775, King George III declared his American subjects to be "engaged in open and avowed rebellion." An estimated 15 to 20 percent of colonists (called Tories) still supported the king.

Q. Five signers of the Declaration were taken prisoner by the British during the Revolution. What happened to them?

Four were captured while engaged in military actions against the British. They were treated as prisoners of war, not as traitors, and eventually released.

The other, Richard Stockton of New Jersey, was taken prisoner specifically because he had signed the Declaration. He was imprisoned in York City like a common criminal. He secured his release by recanting his signature and signing an oath of allegiance to George III.

Q. Who were the oldest and youngest of the 56 signers?

Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, 70, and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, 26.

Q. What was Benjamin Franklin's remark after signing the declaration?

Noting that the signers were committing treason against King George, Franklin said, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Q. Who was the only college president to sign the declaration?

John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister born in Scotland who was president of the College of New Jersey, later known as Princeton. (Among his descendants is Reese Witherspoon, the actress.)

Q. One member of Congress would not sign the Declaration. Who, and why?

John Dickinson of Pennsylvania. He was hoping for reconciliation with Britain.
He thought his abstention would end his public life, but he later was elected president (governor) of Delaware, then president of Pennsylvania. In 1787 he was a delegate the federal convention that adopted the U.S. Constitution and was one of the signers of that document.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, I got everything right. How about you?

I hope many of you email this post to friends. Also, that you print and share it at picnics and band concerts today.

And if your going to a fireworks display tonight, you know there’s always that time when your sitting waiting for it to get dark enough to start the display. Williams’ quiz would be an interesting “conversation piece” to share with those around you while you wait.

We have a great country. Thanks go to Ed Williams for reminding and informing us of some of its history as we celebrate this Fourth of July.

The Churchill Series – July 3, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

This post comes with a “Caution” label. I’ve selected some “Churchill quotes” from a site, Brainy Quote, that seems reliable but doesn’t cite sources for the quotes.

I checked about 50 of the Churchill quotes there and, with one exception, they’re all quotes I recognize as Churchill’s words.

The one exception is that old, well-worn “I may be drunk but you’re ugly; and tomorrow I’ll be sober and you’ll still be ugly.”

I don’t know of Churchill ever having said it. It or something very close to it has been attributed to just about everyone except Gandhi and Mother Teresa.

Now the Churchill quotes:

"Eating words has never given me indigestion."

"I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught."

"Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential."

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things."

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

Folks, as many of you know, the socialism quote reflects beliefs Churchill held throughout his political life. He despised socialism for just the reasons stated in the quote.

Now I’m not sure I should end with the following quote on the eve of the Fourth of July, but here it is anyway - -

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

INNOCENT: Ross Pipes Wasn’t “Confused”

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
__________________________________________

Last spring the students who played on the Duke University’s men’s lacrosse team were trashed and endangered during a witch hunt generated first by the false and racially inflammatory reporting of the Raleigh News & Observer followed by other news organizations; and then by the false and racially inflammatory statements of Mike Nifong and Durham Police spokesperson David Addison.

During that time, Duke President Richard Brodhead acted in ways that even many of his defenders say were inept, and which many of his critics say were shameful.

Brodhead excuses himself for what he did and didn’t do by telling people it was a “confusing time” in which“[t]he facts kept changing. Every day we learned new things that no one knew the day before.”

Now we turn to Ross Pipes whose letter appeared in the N&O on Apr. 12 under the head “Presuming guilt.”

Now that the DNA results have been announced (news story, April 11), the lack of DNA evidence strongly suggests the Duke lacrosse players are innocent of the district attorney's charges and his continued public presumption of their guilt.

With the primary election three weeks from now, it appears to me that Mike Nifong is continuing his investigation to benefit his election campaign. I have decided to publicly presume Nifong's guilt in using this case to further his political ambitions and to vote against him in the primary.

Ross Pipes
Durham

Ross Pipes wasn’t confused, was he?

INNOCENT: At The N&O Race Matters

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
__________________________________________

Many people, including some journalists, believe the Raleigh News & Observer’s editorial page and news reporting often show a racial bias that favors blacks over whites. They want the N&O to adopt a policy that favors neither race.

Those who criticize the N&O for racial favoritism note that when reporting crime stories the N&O often fails to include police descriptions of the suspect(s) or anything about the suspect(s) background.

At the N&O’s Editors’ Blog one of the paper’s deputy managing editors for news, Linda Williams, has just offered the N&O’s “explanation” for why that’s so. I responded to Williams on the thread of her post: “Suspect descriptions.”

Below is the key portion of Williams’ “explanation,” followed by my response.
_____________

Editor Williams told readers:

In recent days, local police departments have distributed "descriptions" of crime suspects that were not included in our reports on the crimes. Each assigned a racial label to the suspect, but were (sic) sketchy in details of the physical description.

Numerous readers have criticized the News & Observer for our policy against printing such descriptions. The policy is in place because such "descriptions" fail the tests of accuracy, completeness, usefulness, relevance and fairness.[. . .]

Dear Editor Williams:

You talk about police “descriptions” that “fail [the N&O’s] tests of accuracy, completeness, usefulness, relevance and fairness.”

Since when does the N&O use such tests?

Does the N&O really have a “policy against printing” the race of suspects based on “physical descriptions” that are “sketchy in details.”

Last March the N&O reported on a case involving 46 young men the police had named as suspects after a woman the N&O said was “the victim” reported she was brutally beaten, strangled, robbed and gang-raped by three men at a party the police and the N&O knew some of the 46 man hadn’t even attended.

In that case the Durham police didn’t even offer “sketchy in details” physical descriptions. The only physical descriptions the police provided for any of the 46 men was their race.

With the suspects’ race as the only physical descriptor the N&O had from the police; and without addressing for your readers the question of why the accusing woman and/or police were not providing at least “sketchy” descriptions of the three men alleged to have attacked “the victim,” the N&O reported on March 25, 2006 in a front-page story the race of all 46 men.

You then did criminal background checks on the men and the accuser.

On March 28 the N&O published on it front-page a story by reporter Benjamin Niolet detailing criminal charges against 15 of the man for such offenses as underage drinking and public urination: “15 players had prior charges” ($ req.)

But the N&O suppressed until April 7 any mention of the accuser’s far more serious criminal background that included stealing a car and assaulting a law enforcement officer.

When the N&O finally reported on “the victims’” criminal background in a story by reporter Samiha Khanna, it wasn’t on the N&O’s front-page.

The N&O buried its first mention of Crystal Mangum’s criminal record in the last three paragraphs of a page A14 story about the Durham City Manager’s explanation for the delay in searching the house where the alleged crimes took place: “Manager: Scanty info delayed search.” ($ req.)

Now, Editor Williams, I’m sure you’re thinking what everyone else reading this is thinking: “But in the case you’re talking about, JinC, the young men were all white males and Crystal Mangum is an African-American.”

You’re right. And that’s my point.

At the Raleigh News & Observer race matters.

The Churchill Series – July 2, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Churchill’s biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, writes:

On the night of March 19 [,1941] Churchill gave dinner at Downing Street to [two aides of President Roosevelt, Averell] Harriman and [Anthony] Biddle. While they were dining, there was a heavy air raid on London, whereupon [Churchill took his guests to the roof of the Air Ministry to watch the raid.] . . .

[One of Churchill’s Private Secretaries, Eric] Seal, who was present tht evening, wrote home to his wife of how, while the “pretty bad Blitz” was stil in progress, “the PM insisted on taking two Americans …..onto the roof, & a fantastic climb it was – up ladders, a long circular stairway, & a tiny manhole right at the top of a tower. No bombs fell whist we were up – although fire engines were continually passing, & the guns were firing all the time, with planes droning overhead.”

Seal later remarked that the Americans felt they were “at last in the war.” Who would doubt that?

Churchill taking his guests and aides onto the Air Ministry roof during the raid was, IMO, foolhardy.

On the other hand there are those, including his principal bodyguard during the war, Scotland Yard Inspector Walter Thompson, who say Churchill took such risks because he felt he needed to set an example of sharing in the dangers Londoners were facing during the Blitz.

Perhaps there were elements of both foolhardiness and brave exemplar in Churchill’s actions that night. What do you think?
_____________________________________
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour, 1939-1941 (Houghton Mifflin) (pgs. 1038-1039)

INNOCENT: Changing Nifonged

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
__________________________________________

According to the Urban dictionary Nifonged describes the railroading or harming of a person with no justifiable cause, except for one's own gain. It is someone being taken advantage of unfairly by someone without scruples or morals.

The dictionary gives as examples of usage: Being Nifonged, Getting Nifonged, Nifonged

We’re hearing Nifonged used by defense attorneys who feel their clients are being railroaded. A popular columnist recently suggested “a new reality show championing the cause of folks who’ve been trampled by such soulless narcissists. The show could be called, ‘Help! I’m being Nifonged!’”

I want the meaning of Nifonged to change. It will say something very good about our society if Nifonged comes to mean the disgrace and punishment of those who use police and prosecutorial power to railroad or harm people with no justifiable cause, except their own gain.

At newsobserver.com we read some of what I have in mind to change the meaning of Nifonged:

Mike Nifong today submitted his resignation as Durham district attorney effective immediately, just as a judge was scheduled to consider removing him. . . .

Nifong still faces criminal contempt of court charges for his handling of charges against three former Duke University lacrosse players.

A disciplinary panel of the State Bar last month disbarred Nifong . . .

I’d love to turn on the TV some day in the not too distance future and hear:

“The already Nifonged Nifong is expected to be Nifonged again tomorrow when he faces a federal judge at his sentencing hearing.”

We need to get to a time when innocent people don’t have to worry about being Nifonged, and prosecutors and police are careful not to do anything that could get themselves Nifonged.

Durham H-S Hypocrisy on Coulter

I’m no fan of Ann Coulter. She’s often needlessly offensive, even vicious.

Coulter’s remarks about those she disagrees with are frequently as venomous as some of the things current DNC chair Howard Dean and Sen. Teddy Kennedy have said.

Dean in an ’04 Democratic presidential nominee candidates' debate called President Bush “the enemy.”

And at the time of Abu Ghraib Kennedy slimed America and our military by announcing on the floor of the U. S. Senate:

"Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam's torture chambers reopened under new management: U.S. management."

No doubt those fighting our troops in Iraq and the Moveon.org folks found Kennedy’s words an aid and a comfort.

I don’t read Coulter’s column. If I never see Coulter on TV or see one of her books on a shelf: fine.

But the deserved bashing she’s getting now from much of MSM reeks of hypocrisy.

We see an example of that in the Durham Herald Sun’s Weekend Editorial that includes:

By now, most folks tuned into presidential politics know that Ann Coulter, the abrasive, loud-mouthed conservative columnist and author, doesn't like presidential candidate John Edwards.

In March, during a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Coulter used a gay slur to refer to Edwards.

Having had a good Southern upbringing, (if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all), Edwards didn't fire back at Coulter's gay slur and used it to raise money for his presidential campaign.

The opportunity to cash in on Coulter's big mouth presented itself again this week when Coulter clearly crossed the line while appearing on Chris Matthews' show, "Hardball." Her venom-filled comment about Edwards probably made Rush Limbaugh blush. Well, maybe not.

"If I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot," Coulter said in response to a question about the gay slur in March.

The comment was just too much for Elizabeth Edwards, who called into the show to let Coulter know that she didn't appreciate Coulter wishing death on her husband.

"It debases the political dialogue," Elizabeth Edwards said. "It drives people away from the process. We can't have a debate about issues if you're using this kind of language."

John Edwards also found his voice on Wednesday: "When these hatemongers, with their hate language, continue to speak out, we are not going to sit by quietly anymore," he said.

Some political pundits speculated that Coulter's remarks were a riff on a similar comment made by HBO's Bill Maher in March. Maher said "people wouldn't be dying needlessly" if Vice President Dick Cheney had been killed in an insurgent attack in Afghanistan.

Coulter and Maher's remarks are equally distasteful, and have no place in the nation's political discourse. …

Coulter and Maher’s remarks equally distasteful? I agree.

So why didn’t the H-S editorialize when Maher made his widely quoted and disgusting remarks targeting America’s Vice President?

The H-S is right when it says Coulter is “an abrasive, loud-mouth conservative columnist and author.” And Al Franken is an abrasive, loud-mouth liberal author and talk show host.

But how many times has the H-S referred to Franken or liberals like him as abrasive and loud-mouthed?

And has the H-S ever taken to task those who call the President of the United States “Hitler?”

What the H-S gave readers with its Coulter editorial is one more example of the double standard that’s so common at MSM news organizations.

Here's the URL for the H-S editorial:

http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsedits/56-861295.cfm

INNOCENT: DPD’s Real Shelton Problems (Updated)

READERS’ ALERT: The post below has been updated because of what I learned thanks to an Anon commenter who alerted me to information I wasn’t aware of when I posted.

If you go to the post thread, you’ll see that the first commenter, Anon @ 5:26, alerts me to the information.

Reading down the thread you’ll see where Anon @ 5:26 and I back-and-forth. That back-and-forth includes one instance in which I miss something important and Anon helps me find it.

Bottom lines:

The post as updated now says parenthetically that Sgt. Shelton did indeed do what I speculated he did: ID on 3/14 Kim Roberts as “the first 911 caller.”

Also parenthetically, I provide what I’ve learned is the “public” explanation for the erasures of the police radio communications of the night of Mar. 13/14 when Shelton would have been reporting to his supervisor what he had learned from Roberts.

Please read the thread, note the parenthetical updates and know I’m also deeply appreciative of Anon’s informed and generous help which added to my knowledge and helped make the post more informative.

John
__________________________


"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
__________________________________________

In today’s Raleigh News & Observer reporter Joseph (Joe) Neff has a story which begins:

When the Durham City Council's commission meets to review how police handled the Duke lacrosse case, the commission will have a lot to chew on -- particularly if members read the N.C. State Bar's files.

Further into Neff’s story he raises the question of whether testimony contained in the Bar’s files indicates DPD “was punishing or ostracizing” Sgt. John Shelton.

Let’s look at what Neff says about that matter and then I’ll offer some commentary. Neff reports :

But one of the most intriguing questions is whether the police department was punishing or ostracizing the one officer who, from the beginning, concluded that Crystal Gail Mangum was lying when she accused the three players of gang rape.

Alex Charns, a Durham lawyer who has successfully sued the Durham police several times, said the police have a history of using internal affairs investigations to silence internal critics or naysayers.

"In the past, internal affairs has been used to punish officers who displease those up the chain of command," Charns said.

Durham Police Chief Steve Chalmers declined to be interviewed, as did every other police official contacted.

On March 14, 2006, Sgt. John Shelton was the first officer to come into contact with Mangum, an escort service dancer and student.

Shelton was skeptical of Mangum's behavior when he first encountered her passed out in the passenger seat of a car at the Kroger supermarket on Hillsborough Road, records show.

Shelton got no response when he talked loudly to her; when he put ammonia smelling salts under her nose, she began breathing through her mouth, which Shelton deemed a sign that she was conscious. As Shelton put pressure on her wrist to goad her out of the car, Mangum grabbed the parking brake, struggling to stay inside. Once out, she collapsed on the parking lot.

Later, at the Duke Hospital emergency room, Mangum gave differing accounts of whether she was raped. After talking with her in the Duke Hospital emergency room, Shelton loudly announced, "I think she is lying."

Shelton apparently has held on to that opinion, which made him unpopular with his fellow officers and Nifong.

In testimony to the State Bar, Investigator Benjamin Himan testified that he spoke with Shelton about the case several times: "Basically, he just characterized it as that she was lying. In my opinion, I didn't think that he had handled it professionally."

In his deposition to the bar, Nifong derided Shelton's handling of the case, though the prosecutor said he had never read Shelton's report of the incident: "Officer Shelton did not seem to appreciate that this was a very serious situation at the time that he responded to the Kroger parking lot."

According to Linwood Wilson, Nifong's investigator, the police department thought Shelton's comments were inappropriate. Wilson said Capt. Jeff Lamb asked him to investigate the remarks.

"The police asked that I do that and keep Himan out of it because he had to work with those guys," Wilson said. "Obviously, it led to an internal investigation at the police department, and Himan would probably be, you know, a witness in that. So ... [Lamb] felt like it would be better for me to interview those people, so I did."

It would be highly irregular for a police captain to turn to someone outside the department to assist in an internal affairs investigation.

Lamb did not return calls. City Manager Patrick Baker said he did not know whether an internal investigation took place.

Wilson declined to be interviewed. His lawyer, Fred Battaglia, said he does not know the status of the internal investigation.

Bill Thomas, a Durham lawyer who represented a lacrosse captain not charged in the case, said he didn't believe Lamb would ask an outsider to investigate his officers, and certainly not for concluding that a witness was lying.

"Throughout history, police officers have called witnesses liars when they don't believe them," Thomas said. "Rather, it appears to be a transparent attempt to discredit this officer first on the scene and in the best position to evaluate her credibility." . . .

Attorney Bill Thomas is right about Nifong and some in DPD wanting to discredit Shelton.

But that tactic is going to backfire on Nifong just as it will on all those involved in the frame-up and on-going attempts to cover it up.

The real problem Shelton presents to them is not his stated disbelief of Mangum, but his actions the night of March 13/14 which provide critically important and irrefutable evidence that a brutal beating and gang-rape NEVER TOOK PLACE.

Shelton and his backup, Officer Willie Barfield, who arrived in the Kroger parking lot shortly after Shelton both know about the kinds of horrific physical injuries a woman suffers when she’s brutally beaten and raped by even one strong young man, to say nothing of being brutally beaten and raped by three strong young men for thirty minutes.

But Mangum had suffered no such injuries. She hadn’t even suffered slight injuries. A subsequent physical exam by Dr. Julie Manly at Duke Hospital confirmed that.

Had Shelton seen any signs of injuries when he first came upon Mangum “passed out drunk,” he would have arranged for her to be taken immediately to Duke Hospital, which is less than a mile from the Kroger parking lot.

Because there were no physical injuries, Shelton arranged for Officer Barfield to take Mangum to Durham Access, which provides short-term domicile and “support services” for substance abusers. Barfield only later took Mangum from Durham Access to Duke Hospital after she said at Access she’d been raped.

From the moment Nifong and those helping him learned what Shelton and Barfield had done, they knew what any police officer, any veteran prosecutor, any emergency room physician and any sensible citizen would know: absent serious physical injuries, Mangum was not the victim of a brutal thirty minute beating and gang-rape by three strong, young men.

I feel certain Shelton did other things the night of March 13/14 that are real problems for Nifong and his DPD helpers as they seek to avoid responsibility for what they did.

Shelton certainly ID’ed Kim Roberts ( Per readers' alart above, Shelton's notes, posted at The Johnsville News reveal Shelton did indeed ID Roberts as the caller - - JinC ). With the lap top in his cruiser, he would have checked her background and would very likely have learned there was an outstanding warrant out on her for probation violation.

He would have asked her where she and her friend had been and how her friend got so she "passed out drunk."

Roberts almost certainly told Shelton she and her friend were strippers at a party at 610 N Buchanan Blvd. She’d have no reason to lie about that. What she did is not illegal. And a woman in her position doesn’t want to lie to a veteran police officer if she doesn’t have to.

Shelton knew something about the party. He was one of two officers who responded to the “first 911 call” in which a woman complained that as she and a friend were passing the Buchanan Blvd house they were subjected to racial slurs as people were leaving the house and others were sitting across the street on the wall of Duke’s East Campus.

When shortly before 1 AM Shelton and another officer arrived at the house in response to the 911 call, they found it deserted.

It was about 30 minutes later that Shelton entered the Kroger parking lot and began interviewing Roberts.

You all see where I’m going. I think it’s very likely Shelton learned on March 14 Roberts was “the first 911 caller.”

Shelton would have reported everything he learned about Roberts over his police radio to his supervisor. That’s standard procedure. The transmissions between Shelton and his supervisor were recorded. That’s standard procedure.

Later all DPD radio transmissions for the time period during which Shelton reported what he had learned were erased. The public was told the erasure was “an accident” that DPD couldn’t explain but was looking into. ( Per readers' alart above, there is another explanation for the erasure which you can read about here. -- JinC )

When I heard about the erasures, I thought of the expression: accidentally on purpose.

In any case, when Shelton gets to testify about what he and Kim discussed in the Kroger parking lot, I predict what he says will be a real problem for Nifong and his helpers.

Neff’s entire story is here.

KC Johnson has posted on Neff's article.

I want to express appreciation and admiration to Liestoppers.com and The Johnsville News for the tremdous work they've done posting Hoax documents, putting together timelines, etc. That work is an invaluable resource to anyone seeking to understand and write about the Hoax. And they do that work in addition to their many outstanding posts and first-rate commentary.

Previous JinC posts concerning Sgt. John Shelton:

Duke lacrosse: The N&O finally tells about Gottlieb. So why now? (Sept. 10, 2006)

Easy DPD questions; some tough ones,too (Feb. 2, 2007)

Addison Series # 1 - "This horrific crime" (Feb. 16, 2007)

INNOCENT: Councilman Questions DPD Actions (Jun. 1, 2007)

DPD's Sgt. Shelton & Cpl. Addison (Jun. 3, 2007)

INNOCENT: Nifong's "f" & Sgt. Shelton (Jun. 26, 2007)

Australians As Teachers

At Right On The Right we’re reminded of something the Australians did during a recent “match” with the Iranians:

Remember the British soldiers that were temporarily captured by Iran, causing an international bruhaha?

Remember how they ranted for days and weeks about how there was no way they could've avoided capture?

The Australians managed to do it:

It turns out that Iranian forces made an earlier concerted attempt to seize a boarding party from the Royal Australian Navy.

The Australians, though, to quote one military source, "were having none of it".

The BBC has been told the Australians re-boarded the vessel they had just searched, aimed their machine guns at the approaching Iranians and warned them to back off, using what was said to be "highly colourful language".

The Iranians withdrew, and the Australians were reportedly lifted off the ship by one of their own helicopters.

They aimed their machine guns at the approaching Islamofascists, and used highly colorful language to make their intentions clear.

Lesson to Britain, that is how it's done.

Lesson to the rest of us: That is how it’s always done if you want to keep your freedom.

Hat tip: Instapundit.com

Michael Barone on C-SPAN 2

From C-SPAN 2

Michael Barone will join Book TV for a three-hour conversation about his books July 1 on In Depth.

Michael Barone is the author of the new book "Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America's Founding Fathers."

His previous books include "The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again," "Our Country: The Shaping of America from Roosevelt to Reagan," and "Hard America Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation's Future."

He is the principal coauthor of the biannual "Almanac of American Politics." Michael

Barone is a senior writer with U.S. News & World Report and a political contributor to Fox News Channel.

C-SPAN 2 will air the program three times:

Sunday, July 1, at 12:00 PM

Monday, July 2, at 12:00 AM

Saturday, July 7, at 9:00 AM

I think Barone is one of America's best informed and most judicious pundits.

I’m looking forward to watching Barone on In Depth.

BTW - Barone also blogs at Barone Blog.

The Churchill Series – Jun. 29, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

During WW II certain locked boxes arrived for Churchill on almost a daily basis wherever he was. He alone had the keys to those boxes. His closest aides did not know their contents. In his multi-volume History of WW II, Churchill makes no mention of the boxes.

The boxes, of course, contained principally the latest British decodings of German Enigma messages. They sometimes also contained intercepts and decodings of Italian and Japanese messages.

When he wrote his history, Churchill could not reveal the Enigma secret: that early in the war the British had begun to break the German code system which used encoding and decoding machines the Brits dubbed the Enigma machines. That remained a secret until 1974.

At Pico Technology’s website we learn more:

Situated about 50 miles to the north west of London at Bletchley Park is the former WW2 code breaking centre (also known as Station X). It was here that a dedicated team of talented mathematicians (including Alan Turing) worked to break the German Enigma codes and also the more complex codes used by Hitler and his high command.

The number of people working at Bletchley Park grew throughout the war to a point where there were literally thousands of people working around the clock decoding and analysing messages. Despite the number of people involved, the German high command had no idea that their security had been compromised and believed that their codes were unbreakable. . . .

During the war, many ingenious aids and machines were developed at Bletchley Park to aid the breaking of codes, one of these was Colossus — the World’s first electronic computer.

(For many years the honour of being the World’s first electronic computer was given to the American ENIAC. In recent years however, both the UK and US governments have declassified and released papers giving more information about Colossus. In the light of this historians have been forced to reconsider and most now agree that Colossus was in fact the World’s first electronic computer.) . . .

There’s much more at the Pico site which should be extremely interesting to anyone interested in the early development of computers.

I’d be interested to hear what you think of the part of the Pico dealing with Bletchley, especially from those of you with tech backgrounds.

Have a nice weekend, folks.

Senator Kennedy rails & fails

Senator Ted Kennedy uses the recent Supreme Court decision restricting race-based forced busing to rail in an op-ed [excerpt]:

Thursday's decision reminds us why Brown v. Board of Education was so important. The tragedy at the core of Brown was society's abandonment of African American children to second-class schools.

Today, too many students remain stuck in segregated schools that limit their opportunities. The harm to those children is not less just because this new segregation is the result of housing patterns rather than discriminatory laws. A majority of the Supreme Court understood that we cannot afford to ignore that reality by pretending that Brown was concerned only with formal consideration of race, rather than with the harm minority children suffer if they must attend segregated schools. (emphasis added)

In the more than 50 years since Brown declared that "separate but equal has no place" in our society, voluntary efforts by local school boards have benefited all of us.

As explained in a brief to the court in Thursday's cases that was written by more than 500 social scientists, the work of local school boards such as Seattle's to overcome segregation has helped children enjoy the enormous benefits of diversity in education -- including enhanced academic success for African American students, greater parental involvement in public schools and cross-cultural understanding. . . .

What you’ve just read comes from a man who sent his own children to private schools.

For more than 40 years Ted Kennedy has been the most powerful figure in Massachusetts politics.

During those 40 years liberal Democrats have dominated the elective offices in the state.

Boston is home to a number of universities with Education Departments or Schools of Education.

MIT and Harvard with its School of Education are nearby.

Among all those universities and colleges there must be many more than 500 social scientists.

And you know what: The Boston public schools are places where “too many students are stuck in segregated schools that limit their opportunities.”

Most social scientists at Boston area universities and colleges have hit on only one solution to help kids avoid getting stuck in the Boston public schools; and that solution helps only a very small number of the kids needing help avoiding public schools in Kennedy’s Boston fiefdom.

The solution is to send their own kids to private schools if they live in Boston or live in one of Boston’s toney and overwhelmingly white suburbs, where the kids can go to school while their social scientist parents commute to Boston.

Advice for Teddy Kennedy:

1) Stop trying to bus other peoples’ kids when you wouldn’t let your own be bussed.

2) Support voucher programs that will let some of those kids now stuck in Boston’s public schools get out of them.

3) Stop pandering to teachers’ union and that Democratic Party adjunct, the National Education Association, who oppose vouchers.

4) Call a meeting of 500 Boston area social scientists and Boston's elected officials, and say, “Look, we really need to stop blaming Bush for how bad things are in Boston’s public schools. They’ve been bad for decades. And people like us have been the dominate policy makers here. I’m beginning to think we’re the problem and we need to do much better.”

That’s what I think. How about you, folks?

PS – Some of you may be thinking: “Surely those folks in Boston and the surrounding area don’t blame the Boston public schools' problems on Bush.”

Folks, I go up there a few times a year. Many of the people I speak to have in the last 3 or 4 years taken to blaming him for their schools’ failings.

When I point out that the failings go back generations I’m told: “Yes, but they’re so much worse now since Bush came in.”

Kennedy's entire rail is here.

INNOCENT: Anderson’s Yeager/Pressler Review

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
__________________________________________

Professor and columnist Bill Anderson is one of the few who were out there “early and often” crying “foul” as Mike Nifong’s near-criminal enablers in news organizations, at Duke, and in “rights organizations” helped make possible what the now disgraced and disbarred former DA is being call to account for.

Bill’s just reviewed It’s Not About The Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives It Shattered, writer Don Yeager and former Duke lacrosse coach Mike Pressler’s compelling and detailed account of how Duke’s current administrative leaders and many faculty members reacted to the wildly improbable and conflicting claims Crystal Mangum began making in the early morning hours of March 14, 2006.

Bill’s review begins:

For more than a year, the infamous Duke Lacrosse Non-Rape, Non-Kidnapping, and Non-Sexual Assault Case has held front-and-center in the news. Readers . . . know about three lacrosse players being falsely charged with rape and other crimes. The name Michael B. Nifong has become synonymous with prosecutorial abuse and outright lying.

Yet, until [recently], when the North Carolina State Bar disbarred the rogue Nifong and a local judge later unceremoniously kicked him out of his office, only one person had lost his job over this affair: Mike Pressler, the former coach of the Duke University lacrosse team.

Pressler had to endure the lies that he let the team run wild, that he coddled a bunch of racists and rapists, and the unfair symbolism of being the enabler of White Jocks Gone Wild. . . .

The title comes from a statement that Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva said when he told Pressler that he wanted his resignation. When Pressler said, "We must stand for the truth," Alleva replied, "It’s not about the truth anymore." He went on, "It’s about the integrity of the university, it’s about the faculty, the city, the NAACP, the protesters, and the other interest groups."

Indeed, Alleva said what has become the "truth" about higher education in the United States, that being that while university administrators such as Duke President Richard Brodhead speak of "integrity" and the like, in the end, they try to convince the rest of us that "integrity" does not need the "truth" to accompany it. . . .

If you want to know about the events surrounding the affair, I would highly recommend this book. Granted, I doubt it will be as comprehensive as the upcoming book, Until Proven Innocent by K.C. Johnson and Stuart Taylor, but that book does not come out until September, and while both writers were "insiders" in terms of being fed information from the defense, neither had the ringside seat that Pressler "enjoyed."

The one drawback of the book is that it was hurriedly put together, but given the dates and events and deadlines, that is to be expected. Ironically, the release of the book was June 12, the same day that Nifong’s hearing with the North Carolina State Bar began, so readers of the book already had a sense of the massive crimes that Nifong committed in pursuit of the Great White Lacrosse Players.

In reading this book – which can be done in a day, despite its length – I could not imagine the stress and outright fear that must have been a daily portion of the lives of Mike Pressler and his family. Threatening telephone calls were on the regular menu, as well as signs placed in the yard demanding that the entire team confess to the alleged rape. Finally, in fear for his life and for the lives of his family, his wife and children moved out of the house to a safe place.

But that was not all. Pressler received two threatening emails from Duke student Chauncey Nartey, a black student who had been born in Africa, and was a favorite among the Duke administration. For writing an email that threatened Pressler’s daughter, Brodhead "punished" Nartey by having him attend Duke functions as an example of a "prized" student at the university. (Yes, the administration requested that Nartey "apologize," but he faced no discipline.)

No, one cannot make up this stuff. By the time Brodhead canceled the team’s season on April 5, as well as firing Pressler, the lacrosse players already were on the run.

If they went to class, professors outright accused them of being rapists – in front of other students. Even being on campus meant having to run a gauntlet of cursing and screaming students, as well as wanted posters with their pictures and signs demanding that they be castrated.

To make matters worse, 88 faculty members signed an advertisement in the April 6 Duke Chronicle that all-but-declared the team to be rapists, and that Duke University was little more than a repository for the Ku Klux Klan. It was the madness that seems to infect elite universities in full flower.

About a month before the infamous March 13 lacrosse team party, the leftists on the Harvard University faculty drove out Harvard President Lawrence Summers for some mildly controversial remarks made during a conference presentation. No doubt, Brodhead did not want to anger Duke’s vocal radical faculty members, so he did the convenient thing: he threw the players and their coach under the bus.

The craven attitudes at Duke were not limited to Alleva, Brodhead, and the radical faculty. John Burness, the corpulent Duke vice president, according to the book, regularly slimed the players and Pressler in "off-the-record" remarks to the press.
Thus, reporters were told that the players were "bad actors," with the coach having been warned the year before that his team was a "train wreck waiting to happen."

Unfortunately for Burness, there was no "train wreck" document. The year before, Duke lost in the NCAA championship game by one goal against Johns Hopkins (the same fate that befell the team this year), and the Duke administration awarded Pressler with a big raise and a long-term contract. It was not a team "out of control" by any means.

I hope you read the entire review which you'll find here. Bill offers a lot of telling details from the book and adds his own pungent commentary.


BTW - I’ve just read the Yeager/Pressler book and will be commenting on it starting in a few days.

Here’s purchase information ---

It’s Not About The Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives It Shattered by Don Yeager with Mike Pressler. New York: Threshold Editions. The book list for $25.

It's widely available in bookstores and can be ordered through Amazon.

INNOCENT: Nifong vs. Nifong

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
__________________________________________

The following is from the disgraced Mike Nifong’s deposition prior to his recent State Bar trial that led to his disbarment:

Q. When you decided to go ahead and -- I guess, is it fair to say from your answer, that when you talked with Mr. Saacks, you decided to go ahead and handle that case yourself directly and you would be the primary prosecutor on the case?

A. I don't know that I had made that decision specifically then; but, I mean, I was certainly aware that we were in the middle of an election. I expected that this was a case that the media was going to have some interest in, and for that reason, I figured that I was likely going to be asked about the case.(emphasis mine)

Then we have this from the 3/29/06 NY Times:

”The thing that most of us found so abhorrent, and the reason I decided to take it over myself, was the combination gang-like rape activity accompanied by the racial slurs and general racial hostility," Mr. Nifong said Tuesday in a telephone interview. (emphasis mine)

Pick your Nifong! Place your bets!

The Churchill Series – Jun. 28, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Historian and former President of the Churchill Center John Plumpton recalled the following anecdote when speaking at a Churchill Society dinner. Plumpton didn’t cite a source. So you may want to keep a few grains of a salt at the ready.

In any case the story is fun and sounds like the impish Churchill talking to trusted aides. According to Plumton:

Churchill was normally quite magnanimous towards political opponents but he had trouble forgiving former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin for leaving Britain unprepared and vulnerable to German aggression.

It may be apocryphal, but it is said that when Churchill heard of Baldwin’s death, during the war, he commented:

"Embalm

Cremate

Bury at Sea

Take no chances.”

I hope you’re all here tomorrow.

In the meantime, be careful. Take no chances.

INNOCENT: N&O “boots” questions

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
___________________________________
While searching archives today I found and read the transcript of MSNBC’s The Abrams Report for 3/28/06. It reminded me of some unanswered questions I have about the Raleigh News & Observer’s role in first, describing all the white members of the 2006 Duke lacrosse team as drunken, brutish racists, and then, second, helping enable the attempted frame-up of three members of the team.

To understand my questions let’s start with a portion of the transcript in which Dan Abrams asks a question of the N&O’s Samiha Khanna, one of two N&O reporters (the other was Anne Blythe) bylined on the N&O’s 3/24/06 story that first identified the Duke lacrosse players as suspects and seven times referred to the accuser as “the victim” or in the possessive form “victim’s,” without ever using “alleged” or some other qualifier.

Khanna and Blythe teamed for the N&O’s story the next day which, in front-page headlines, the N&O said was about “a night of racial slurs, growing fear and, finally, sexual violence.”

We pick up Abrams as he introduces Khanna

Samiha Khanna from the “News and Observer” down there who interviewed the alleged victim in this case.

ABRAMS: “All right, so what did she tell you?

KHANNA : “Well first, she sort of wondered how I had found her, and I assured her that her identity was not revealed in the newspaper and it was not going to be revealed, as we don’t publish the names of sexual assault victims.

I don’t know whether Crystal Mangum really “sort of wondered” how Khanna found her. In truth she could have been “tipped” that an N&O reporter was coming to interview her much the way the N&O itself was “tipped to be there” when the Duke lacrosse players showed up at the police building to provide DNA samples.

But I sure do wonder how and why the N&O was able to get to Mangum so quickly and secure the cooperation of the young mother who Khanna later in the interview says “was still in shock.”

Khanna doesn’t say what she said when Mangum, allegedly asked how Khanna found her. And Abrams didn’t ask Khanna anything about the matter.

I’ve asked the N&O’s Public Editor, Ted Vaden, how Khanna found Mangum. He won’t say. N&O Investigative Reporter Joe Neff, for all his writing on the witch hunt and frame-up attempt, has never reported how Khanna found Mangum.

And when readers have asked Melanie Sill, the N&O’s exec editor for news she’s usually ignored them.

The only instance I can find when Sill “answered” the question is on the thread of an Editors’ Blog post, "March 25 interview." Commenting at 10/06/06 Sill said [excerpt]:

The first day story was about a DNA roundup involving an unprecedented number of people from a single group. The second day we were working to talk to all the principals. We got the woman identified as the victim and interviewed her. […]

[It] wasn't an extensive or extensively planned interview -- it was boots on the street hustle to track down the key players.

Durham City has a population of more than 210,000 people.

In a city that size, you can do a lot of what Sill calls “street hustle” before you’d come to just the person you were looking for; and even then you wouldn’t know you’d come to “the right person” you were looking for unless you knew something about the person. Like the person’s name and address, for instance.

Sill’s “boots on the street hustle” is an attempt to lead gullible people to think she’s answered their question when, it fact, she’s avoided it. And she succeeds in doing that very often with tens of thousand of faithful N&O readers.

That leaves intelligent people to ask: Who told the N&O the accuser was Crystal Mangum and where to find her?

Sill could easily have answered that with something like: “An anonymous source phoned – we don’t know if it was a neighbor or someone else - and gave us the ID and address.”

That explanation would be plausible. The N&O actively seeks news tips, anonymous and otherwise. And everyday people on their own phone news tips to newspapers, often anonymously.

So why hasn’t the N&O used the plausible “anonymous tip” fob-off instead of the obviously fairy tale “boots on the street?”

“Perhaps, because the ‘anonymous tip fob-off’ is not true,” you say?

Folks, the N&O promulgated the deliberate falsehood that the players hadn’t cooperated with police while suppressing the news they had.

And as much as I deplore most of the NY Times’ Hoax reporting, it wasn’t the NY Times that withheld for thirteen months the exculpatory news the N&O learned in the Mangum/Khanna interview, was it?

“Not true” is not a Stop sign for Sill and the other people who control what “news” the N&O reports; it’s not even a caution light.

I believe the N&O hasn’t given us the “anonymous tip” or any other false explanation for how Khanna got to Mangum because:

1) the N&O was, in the lingo of journalists, “fed a tip;”

2) the tip came from someone very close to the case, such as someone in the DA’s office or on the DPD “investigation team;”

3) that someone undoubtedly assured Mangum she could speak “to the lady from the N&O” without any worry that the “N&O lady” would do anything to upset the case, especially the hopes Mangum had then for a “big settlement” from those rich, white Duke boys;

4) and that the N&O knows the someone who fed it the tip is likely at some time in the not too distant future to testify in a case, criminal or civil, in which the someone will explain how Khanna and the N&O really didn't need to do any "boots on the street hustle."

The complicity involving the N&O and someone(s) on the “Nifong/DPD investigative team” may be much more extensive than what I’ve suggested here.

Would you doubt that, even if Melanie Sill, Ted Vaden, and Joe Neff swore on a stack of tomorrow’s N&O it wasn’t true?

I hope not.

The Churchill Series - Jun. 27, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Churchill worked hard at being a good father to his only son, Randolph. But the two had a very strained relationship often marked by intense arguments and anger on both sides.

Churchill’s relationship with his grandson and namesake, born to Randolph and his first wife, Pamala Digby in October, 1940, was fun-filled, active, and warm.

The young Winston quickly developed an affection for his grandfather who he recalled in later years played trains with him on the floor and had a small trowel and mortaring kit made so he could lay bricks alongside his grandfather.

The younger Churchill also recalled in his autobirgraphaical Memories and Adventures (Weidenfeld & Nicolson ) a generous act by his grandfather and his response to it. At the time he was 20:

Before returning to Oxford I went to Stour to stay with my father, who told me that Grandpapa had made a settlement in my favour of the foreign rights to [his] History of the English-Speaking Peoples.. . .

I hastened to thank him for his generosity:

14 January 1961

Dear Grandpapa,

I returned from Switzerland today, and I am spending the night at Stour with Father before returning to Oxford tomorrow.

Father has told me of the handsome financial provision which you have made for me. It greatly exceeds any expectations I ever had and I am at a loss to find the right words to thank you.

I am so grateful for the mark of your trust which you have shown in giving me absolute control at the age of twenty-five of the money which you have settled on me, as for the money itself, and I shall endeavour to be worthy of your trust.

More than anything else, I am proud to bear your name and I will do my best to maintain its honour.

Your loving grandson,

Winston

This made me smile

The following is going around the net. A dear friend passed it on:

After starting a new diet, I altered my drive to work to avoid passing my favorite bakery.

But I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning, and as I approached, there in the window was a host of goodies.

I felt this was no accident, so I prayed ... "Lord, it's up to you, if you want me to have any of those delicious goodies, create a parking place for me directly in front of the bakery." And sure enough, my eighth time around the block, there it was!