G.O.P. Super PAC Plans Massive Dirty Attack on Barack Obama!

Dear Commons Colleagues,

An article on page one of the New York Times provides an inside look at the sleazy side of super PAC political operations.  The article reports:

“A group of high-profile Republican strategists is working with a conservative billionaire on a proposal to mount one of the most provocative campaigns of the “super PAC” era and attack President Obama in ways that Republicans have so far shied away from.

Timed to upend the Democratic National Convention in September, the plan would “do exactly what John McCain would not let us do,” the strategists wrote.

The plan, which is awaiting approval, calls for running commercials linking Mr. Obama to incendiary comments by his former spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., whose race-related sermons made him a highly charged figure in the 2008 campaign.

“The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,” says the proposal, which was overseen by Fred Davis and commissioned by Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. Mr. Ricketts is increasingly putting his fortune to work in conservative politics.

The $10 million plan, one of several being studied by Mr. Ricketts, includes preparations for how to respond to the charges of race-baiting it envisions if it highlights Mr. Obama’s former ties to Mr. Wright, who espouses what is known as “black liberation theology.”

The group suggested hiring as a spokesman an “extremely literate conservative African-American” who can argue that Mr. Obama misled the nation by presenting himself as what the proposal calls a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln.”

A copy of a detailed advertising plan was obtained by The New York Times through a person not connected to the proposal who was alarmed by its tone. It is titled “The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama: The Ricketts Plan to End His Spending for Good.”

The proposal was presented last week in Chicago to associates and family members of Mr. Ricketts, who is also the patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs.

Brian Baker, president and general counsel of a super PAC called the Ending Spending Action Fund, said Mr. Ricketts had studied several advertising proposals in recent months and had not signed off on a specific approach to taking on Mr. Obama.

“Joe Ricketts is prepared to spend significant resources in the 2012 election in both the presidential race and Congressional races,” Mr. Baker said in an interview Wednesday. “He is very concerned about the future direction of the country and plans to take a stand.”

The document makes clear that the effort is only in the planning stages and awaiting full approval from Mr. Ricketts. People involved in the planning said the publicity now certain to surround it could send the strategists back to the drawing board.

But it serves as a rare, detailed look at the birth of the sort of political sneak attack that has traditionally been hatched in the shadows and has become a staple of presidential politics. “

Tony

 

Video: European Time Lapse Map – AC.1000-2003!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iU40lxostE

To expand the screen to full size, click on [  ] in the lower right corner.

Dear Commons Community,

For history buffs, check out this time-lapse map in the video above, which has boiled down Europe’s  history into just three-and-a-half minutes.  The map traces changes in Europe’s borders from 1000 AD until 2003, and was created using software from the Centennia Historical Atlas.

Watch the empires and nations grow and fall, all accompanied by a great  soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.  Be sure to expand the screen to full size by clicking on [ ] in the lower right corner.

Tony

 

Librarian at Shorter University Refuses ‘Lifestyle Statement’ Requirement: 60 Staffers Leave Georgia Baptist School!

Dear Commons Community,

A tenured librarian at a Georgia Baptist university is refusing to sign a “lifestyle statement” against homosexuality, adultery, premarital sex, drug use and drinking in public.

“It’s a matter of conscience,” said Michael Wilson, who has worked at Shorter University in Rome, Ga., for 14 years, to the website Inside Higher Ed.  The New York Daily News reported:

“Nearly 60 staff members are leaving because of policy changes at the school, according to Save Our Shorter, a group fighting to “reveal the truth about what is happening on the Shorter campus.”

Shorter University has been affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention since 1959, but its troubles with the convention didn’t begin until 2001, when the organization sought to take more control of the school, according to Inside Higher Ed.

The convention began to delegate the school’s trustees, prompting Shorter’s board to vote to cut ties with the organization.

The Baptist group filed suit, arguing that Shorter could not unilaterally become independent, and won.

In 2008, the school joined the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, known for hiring mostly only evangelical Protestants, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Wilson, who is gay, continued to work at the school, but notes that the atmosphere began to change at that time, as Shorter grew stricter under the convention.

But in October, the announcement that employees would be required to sign the “lifestyle statement” appeared to be the last straw.

The statement, which also required faculty to be active members of a local church, sparked controversy on campus as several staff members resigned before they were even circulated.

Wilson waited, read the statement, and returned his with one line crossed out:

“I reject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery, and homosexuality.”

Congratulations to Mr. Wilson.

Tony

 

L. Rafael Reif: New President of M.I.T. Led Online Learning Initiatives as Provost!

Dear Commons Community,

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Wednesday filled its top leadership position with one of its own. L. Rafael Reif, the university’s provost and an MIT faculty member (electrical engineering) for 32 years, will assume the presidency on July 2, officials announced.

Mr. Reif, 61, will succeed Susan Hockfield, who announced in February that she would step down after seven years as the university’s first female president.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Reif (pronounced “rife”) emphasized his immigrant story. Born to a poor family in Venezuela, Mr. Reif spoke little English when he arrived at Stanford University as a graduate student in 1974. He earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford and joined MIT’s largest department, electrical engineering, in 1980.

Of becoming MIT’s president, Mr. Reif said, “I cannot tell you that it is a dream come true, because it’s a dream I never dared to imagine.”

Mr. Reif led the development of MITx, the institute’s new online-education program, university officials said. He is also credited for his lead role in the formation of edX, a new partnership between MIT and Harvard University that will offer free online courses from both institutions.

During a news conference, Mr. Reif was asked how his administration might differ from that of Ms. Hockfield. He drew no sharp contrasts, other than to say that “education and innovation” would be his priorities.

Tony