Fuck You to Ashcroft, Bush, Gonzales

Sami Al-Arian, a Florida professor and Palestinian American activist, was acquitted on most of the counts against him brought under the Fascist ("Patriot") Act. The jury deadlocked on others. I can say nothing but "Fuckin A," and that when ordinary citizens are given the chance to decide these cases, instead of secret military tribunals, sometimes justice will out.

Comments

[AK-49]

Have you read the recent issue of _Thought and Action_, a university journal of pedagogy? It's a special issue dedicated to questions of University free speech impingements in the 9/11 era. Chomsky's in there, though less bitchy than usual, but perhaps the most disheartening piece comes from a History professor at Minnesota-Duluth who documents an e-mail campaign started by conservative students to whip up a frenzy about her teaching. Evidently, one or two offhand analogies, and she was branded as a Bush-hater who was imposing her political agenda on poor little defenseless conservative students. It's wonderful how readily the right has embraced victimhood in the Academy: after bitching and moaning about the culture of victimization for well over a decade, they now see it as a wonderful way of forestalling critique.

This case in Florida, at least, shows one guy coming out the other side, although he lost his job, didn't he?

-AK

[vemos]

Losing his job was a foregone conclusion, once he was featured all over "The O'Reilly Factor" a couple of years ago. I'm just happy he's not going to jail for, literally, uttering the words "death to Israel" at a pro-Palestinian rally.