Stanford Students Protest Rumsfeld Appointment
STANFORD, California - More than 100 Stanford University students demonstrated on Thursday against a decision to make former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution amid campus discontent over a symbol of U.S. failings in the Iraq war.
To date, nearly 4,000 Stanford faculty, students and alumni have signed a petition begun by a faculty member to reject Rumsfeld’s appointment announced in September, but John Raisian, the institute’s director, said Rumsfeld deserved the honor of being a “distinguished visiting fellow.”
“Donald Rumsfeld has a remarkable record of achievement,” Raisian told the Stanford Faculty Senate. “Like it or not, he has had a distinguished career.”
Rumsfeld twice served as defense secretary under President Gerald Ford and President George W. Bush. He also served under President Richard Nixon; in the House of Representatives; as an ambassador to NATO; and as chief executive of two Fortune 500 companies.
“The concern with Secretary Rumsfeld is that he might be distinguished for the wrong reasons,” said David Spiegel, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. “The fact that he is available for this appointment speaks to his difficulties.”
The position does not require residency in the San Francisco area, one of the hotbeds of anti-Iraq war sentiment since Bush launched the war that toppled Saddam Hussein.
“If you consider his entire career, you could make an argument for the title distinguished,” said Debra Satz, an associate professor in the department of philosophy.
“But really, we’re talking about the last six or seven years and I think across the board, he has been an incompetent secretary of defense.”
(Reporting by Clare Baldwin; writing by Adam Tanner; editing by Todd Eastham)
© Reuters2007
I guess it pays to commit war crimes. My hope is that this guy will be arrested when he visits Europe and then promptly transferred to The Hague.
Why would Stanford compromise its credibility by aligning even obliquely with this man. Surely an institution of this caliber can differentiate between those who contribute to their society and those who play leading roles in decimating the credibility of an entire nation in the eyes of the world. We stand in stunned disbelief at an America that has lost its way and forfieted its global moral leadership; but elevating its villains…?
I totally agree with oldguy. Rumsfeld is a scumbag. No honors for him!!!!!!! I am extremely disappointed in the institute’s director, John Raisian.
Having Rumsford at Stanford makes as much sense as Condi Rice being invited to speak to the graduating class of ‘07 at Boston College, a Catholic Jesuit institution. It is all about prestige, money and fundraising, not intellectual honesty.
In the name of God, the All Merciful, the Mercy-giving
Well sure Rumsfeld has a remarkable record of achievement guys! But so did Hitler…I mean, who else conquered Europe as fast as he did?
Is that how we are supposed to rank people: just by quantity and totally forget quality? God, that is sick. But it is a very imperial way of looking at things.
salaam
Honors for Rummy? Why not, after giving such a thing to a person of his character perhaps Stanford could award former President I. Amin a Humanitarian post.
Rummy should be arrested, tried, convicted and incarcerated for Crimes Against Humanity. While we are at it, let’s Impeach and jail the rest of the NeoCoNazis, beginning with Darth Cheney. Only then can we go after BuShit, Condi, and the rest of them.
John Raisian should be inundated with letters, emails, phone calls, postcards, whatever berating him for appointing the notorious war criminal Rumsfeld to a distinguished position at Stanford. Yes, Rumsfeld is distinguished but for his crimes not for his accomplishments.
If they can’t stop his appointment, they need to picket his every appearance on campus.
Hey guys - Stanford had Condi as a professor for a while. They evidently like the crooks and criminals to be on their faculty. Pity the poor students- perhaps they can change schools and deprive Stanford of their exhorbitant tuition.
UNBELIEVABLE - FOR ANY SCHOOL OF GOOD REPUTE, BUT DOUBLY UNBELIEVABLE FOR STANFORD TO APPOINT RUMSFELD, THE WARMONGER, TO ANY POSITION AT THE HOOVER INSTITUTE, EVEN VISITING FELLOW!
THERE GOES ANOTHER BALLOON OF IDEALISM, POPPING OFF AND LEAVING ME DISAPPOINTED IN THE REALITY THAT IS.
Are you really committed to keeping Rummy away from Stanford…?
Then pay your tuition a dollar at a time and get the rest of the 100 to do the same, until he’s identified for what he really is, a visiting anti-Constitutionalist, Geneva Convention subverting M.O.F.O. (Man Of False Oaths)
Money speaks louder than gasps of morality. I believe this is taught in Econ 101.
HA! This is like protesting against Bush in Crawford, Texas.
People need to read the history of Leland Stanford and his university. The Fascism was built in from the start.
Stanford was a robber baron and genocidal, murdering millions of Native Americans, and using Shanghaied Chinese laborers like cattle.
Stanford was a key founder of the so called ‘new’ Republican Party, which was in fact the discredited Whig Party in new threads… he was instrumental in organizing the California Republican Party… sort of like their Patron Saint.
He started out as a con-artist… hustling to get Abe Lincoln lined up, and exploit the slavery issue to make the old Whig-Republican robber-baron machine look humane. In fact what was sought was freed slaves as cheap labor for the new factories built in the North while capitalizing on the contemporary outrage over the inhumanity of slavery. Lincoln himself admitted that the main issue was national unity, and slavery could go hang itself if the issue divided the nation.
Sorry to offend innocent victims of the Stanford Corporation/University’s crypto-fascist scam, but Stanford, from Day One, is a pseudo-liberal de-facto right-wing institution designed to cook up ways to deceive the American people into corporate fascism. One of its prize possessions now is Arno Schwazi.
The liberal facade of the University is needed to maintain the deceptive image, and to attract liberal students to ’see what they are thinking’… to feed the Fascist propaganda machine.
Under Chicago-mafia Cal Gov Pete Wilson, an attempt was made to ‘merge’ Stanford with the Univ of California San Francisco campus, and of course Stanford got the money, the most breaks, the upper hand, and the purse strings in the accounting department and information systems department. The facts were revealed briefly, a scandal ensued, local newspapers changed hands, the Hearst media empire shut the facts up, a coup was pulled off in Sacramento to put Schwazi in office via weirdly rigged elections, and the merger was nominally dissolved, but not in reality… and won’t be as long as California has a Republican governor.
The agenda is for the Republicans to ‘win’ the hearts and minds’ of young people through ideological indoctrination, including cleverly packaged pseudo-liberal doublespeak propaganda.
What is most appropriate is that Stanford remain either a Private School, or be else be fully absorbed into the Univ of Cal system… with all campuses, and be subject to the same guidelines as other campuses. Otherwise, we end up with pseudo-liberal de-facto right-wing Private Schools using their corporate goons to undermine the fundamental principles of democratic public education, and end up with NAZIS like Rumsfeld parading around with the freedom that Goebbels and Goering did when the Austrian immigrant Hitler reigned in Berlin.
In short, the problems is FAR, FAR deeper than just Rumsfeld, although he is a most brazen example.
And as for Condi Rice, well she has been used just like Lincoln’s slavery issues were… for the image. Because, in fact, look at the genocide in Africa being implemented with the help of the CIA these days. What a slick trick to have a Black Woman as Sect of State to implement genocide on people of African ancestry! Also looks good as a cover for Middle Eastern genocide. Only the likes of the Stanford fascist double-speak propaganda machine (where 2 generations of Bushs congregate with Sun Myung Moon and others of their ilk for ‘prayer meetings’) could come up with something so clever! And with some funding slipped over from the Univ of California during the ‘merger’ privatization/corporatization process.
Genuinely socially-conscious Stanford students should consider asking for absorption into the UC System, with the State of California (not the Stanford Corporation) in control, and thus have a better chance of corporate fascism ceasing to dominate and destroy the credibility of their Alma Mater.
Leland Stanford was a greedy, ruthless jerk, and so have been the people truly running his little university from the date of its founding.
His university is one of the key elements of the New Fascist machine directed in part by Bush-Cheney-Rumsfled and their secret friend Schwazi (who knows he has to make it look like he doesn’t agree with them in order to stay in power in California)… they are oh so proud of how they have Duped so many people, including well-educated ones, into slipping America the Fascist pill on the sly. And we have fallen for it.
For how much longer?
Three universities in this country are at the vanguard of supporting neofascist ideology (what has been rebranded as Neoconservatism): Yale University, the University of Chicago, and Stanford University.
You mean to tell me that that commercial with old Mr. and Mrs. Stanford sitting respectfully in the Harvard Dean’s office while the Dean believes they’re just an old farm couple. All they want to do is donate a building in their dead son’s name, he who so wanted to graduate from Harvard. So they were put off, and so they departed and started a whole new university.
“My eyes are dim I cannot see
I have not brought my specs with me…
For it’s gin, gin, gin
That makes you want to sin
On the farm. On the farm…
On the Leland Stanford, Jr. farm.”
“distinguished visiting fellow(s)”
Must be what the Vatican thought of Hitlers best men when they gave them protection and transported them to Argentina.
Rummy will be brought up on crimes against humanity just as Bushe and Dickhead will after they retire from Dictatorship in the coming decades.
Really, with all of the money going to Stanford for war research and development, Rummy’s appointment cannot be considered untoward: Hoover has to thank Rummy for its monied existence, just like the vacuum cleaner must thank the dirt for its existence.
Oh yeah…. “Like it or not, he has had a distinguished career.”
He is a mass murdering war criminal and so far has gotten away with that…. rather distinguished.
And agian…“But really, we’re talking about the last six or seven years and I think across the board, he has been an incompetent secretary of defense.”
Oh really? His incompetence bothers you? Don’t worry, he was pretty competent in killing half a million people in Iraq. If that is not competency then I don’t know what is.
Why they “went with the visiting fellow they had, instead of the visiting fellow they wished they had” is “unknowable”.
**Internal Memo**
When we previously stated, “Raisian told the Stanford Faculty Senate: “Like it or not, he has had a distinguished career.”
-we had of course, meant to say that this failed human being, (Ronald Dumsfeld) has had an *Extinguished* career.
Thankyou.
Why would such a prestigious institution as Stanford????? Wasn’t Condoleeza Rice the Provost of Stanford at one time? If so, why are you shocked they want Rummy to grace their ivy covered halls? Don’t the two deserve each other?
I don’t even want Rummie in California, much less spewing his mean-spirited drivel to students at Stanford.
Rumsfeld’s appointment should be at The Hague. He planned and waged an illegal war, kidnapped, disappeared, tortured and falsely imprisoned large numbers of people, most of them innocent, enriched his war-profiteer cronies with absurdly lucrative no-bid contracts and has caused the deaths of approximately a million people, most of them noncombatant women and children. Nearly five million have been driven from their homes and into destitution. We hanged Germans and Japanese for doing the things he has done. If he is to go to Stanford, why not appoint OJ Simpson and Dusko Tadic? The values of the Hoover board are disgusting, to say the least. And in 2009 will Stanford welcome back Condoleezza Rice?
Here’s my intuit-hit.
* Iran refuses US treasury notes for anything (oil).
* We launch cruise missiles.
* Russia & China respond & they through out - FLOOD US $$ everywhere.
* Our US economy collapses–we are in Chaos–most in fear.
* The super secret military pulls off a fake, (mock) negative ET landing (s).
* Martial law is imposed due to the most scariest “realities” taking place.
One thing I always wondered was how did such a dork, who supposedly always worked on a government payroll, ever amass a fortune of over 800 million dollars? No doubt due to his “intellect” and “astute” investments.
Fellow fellows of the HI (Wikipedia): Condoleezza Rice, George Shultz, Newt Gingrich, Thomas Sowell, Dinesh D’Souza, Shelby Steele, Edwin Meese and Pete Wilson, nutcases to the person. DR will fit right in. For those unfamiliar with Stanford (a private institution), HI is basically a far-right think tank housed conveniently on one of the world’s most preeminent college campuses.
Lets examine one of these achievements. This is about the one million dollars Rumsfeld made from the Avian Flu vaccine. George Shultz and Mrs.Pete Wilson were also big achievers for such a little known biotech company. Part of Bush’s plan to spend 7.1 billion dollars for a potential epidemic, consider too that states had to agree to the liability if any lifesaving vaccine caused harm, disability, or death.
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld sees growth in Gilead stake - Oct. 31, 2005
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/?cnn=yes
I expect the “distinguished visiting fellow’s” speech, on his return from the Hague, will be an interesting discussion for faculty and students.
Breaking and entering charges may just be one item up for discussion. Not guarding ammo dumps, will no doubt, be a REGRETTABLE oversite.
All’s fair in rape and plunder.
These young people have taken a stand for common decency! We owe them a huge debt of gratitude. Good for them; and good for the country!
The Hoover Institution is a quasi-independent den of human filth parked on the Stanford campus. It is financed primarily by Mr. Mellon Scaife. That should tell you everything you need to know. Rumsfeld will fit right in.
Why would the Hoover Institution want to hire a man charged with war crimes as a “visiting fellow”? There are perhaps more war crimes charges against him in the US and other countries than people are generally aware of:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/search/node/rumsfeld
Would they want to hire Hitler’s or Pol Pot’s underlings to sit in their midst and contribute to their governmental policy recommendations?
Here’s a copy of the email I sent to the Hoover Institution:
=====
Why on earth is the Hoover Institution considering bringing Donald Rumsfeld on as a “visiting fellow”, when he has been charged with war crimes in the US and other countries?
I know you’re a conservative “think tank” and that’s okay in my book, but it’s incomprehensible why you’d want him sitting in your midst and helping prepare government policy proposals. As a member of the Bush administration, HE AUTHORIZED AND ORDERED THE TORTURE of innocent people.
For God’s sake, and the sake of America, come to your senses!
Sincerely,
=====
I sent it to the Public Relations Department.
If you want to send them a message, you can do it on this page:
http://www.hoover.org/contact
Thanks. My respect for your web is restored…We, for a democracy in all matters that affect our lives…, have a “healthy” paranoia (no oxymoron in this society) about being excluded from the public airways which are “owned” by the People and given license to provate media…, for their own profit purposes, but NOT to deny OUR presence in any public forums
dduring election times (Equal Time Clause of the FCC) …which is the fascistic situation today, and which is being contested by fair minded people including some Congressmen.
The restrictive opposition to Equal Time for minority parties during election time periods, (Mostly the corporate media to whom We, the People, gave market rights) to the Amendment Clauase hide behind the falacious argument that the Equal Time Clause is government imposition on their freedoms to choose programs of their choice… Fairness dictates any free time given to the major political parties to broadcast their positions, such as are the debates between the two major parties,requires that legitimate third parties are afforded equal time…This goes back to when Nicholas Johnson was the FCC chief.
The FCC Equal Time Clause is one foundation stone we still have in what we euphemistically describe as an open, democratic society. Between the public political dictatorship which controls our civic lives, that we call Representative government, and the private corporate government, in which we have not even a sliver of representation, which controls our economic lives, we, the majority citizenry, are a “kept” population at the disposal of the dominant economic and political classes that effectively sewrve this system as our “ruling classes,” and sadky, this kind of political construct has been duplicated on our local levels of government.
We need new, democratic institutions which can serve our want and need for a society of peace and prosperity.
Any ideas for a legal and peaceful second American Revolution?
It’s interesting how many right wing nuts prefer to retire to San Francisco, one of the governments that provides more subsidies for housing, health-care, etc.; and also which employ more government oversight and controls than most cities in the nation.
Now it’s Rummy and before it was Milton Friedman. The lunches might not be free, but it sure helps when everyone in the city is chipping to pay the bill.
The Hoover Institute, The American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundations—they all have austere, academic sounding titles, yet are nothing more than a mouthpiece for the fossil fuels’ industry and neocons. What is amazing is how pervasive they have become recently.
Stanford students and faculty should not just protest the appointment of Donald Rumsfeld, but the presence of the pseudo Institution in general.
The spread of biased information from these institutions is doing a great deal of harm, as the source of funding ( Exxon Mobile, for example) is not immediately apparent. When the AEI says global warming is a hoax, it lends credibility to this preposterous notion.
It was not that long ago that prestigious Universities had a more liberal slant. Now Stanford is rewarding one of the biggest offenders in the Bush administration. A few weeks ago, the President of Columbia University successfully humiliated the Iranian President who was clearly trying to avoid an impending attack from America.
The use of bribery is rampant, unprecedented. The effects are disastrous.
I think Donald Rumsfeld is unsuitable for ANY employment, public or private sector.
In any just world Rummy et al would be emptying bedpans and mopping up at Vet’s Hospitals for the rest of their miserable lives.
Not thinking.
Anacharsis
I agree. That would be an excellent consequence for Rumsfeld et al to face.