A Shabby Crusade in Wisconsin

[groovedaddy]

The latest technique used by conservatives to silence liberal academics is to demand copies of e-mails and other documents. Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli of Virginia tried it last year with a climate-change scientist, and now the Wisconsin Republican Party is doing it to a distinguished historian who dared to criticize the state’s new union-busting law. These demands not only abuse academic freedom, but make the instigators look like petty and medieval inquisitors.

The historian, William Cronon, is the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas research professor of history, geography and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin, and was recently elected president of the American Historical Association. Earlier this month, he was asked to write an Op-Ed article for The Times on the historical context of Gov. Scott Walker’s effort to strip public-employee unions of bargaining rights. While researching the subject, he posted on his blog several critical observations about the powerful network of conservatives working to undermine union rights and disenfranchise Democratic voters in many states.

In particular, he pointed to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group backed by business interests that circulates draft legislation in every state capital, much of it similar to the Wisconsin law, and all of it unmatched by the left. Two days later, the state Republican Party filed a freedom-of-information request with the university, demanding all of his e-mails containing the words “Republican,” “Scott Walker,” “union,” “rally,” and other such incendiary terms. (The Op-Ed article appeared five days after that.)

The party refuses to say why it wants the messages; Mr. Cronon believes it is hoping to find that he is supporting the recall of Republican state senators, which would be against university policy and which he denies. This is a clear attempt to punish a critic and make other academics think twice before using the freedom of the American university to conduct legitimate research.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/opinion/28mon3.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211

[geardaddy]

1. Welcome to the new fascist state.

Fuckers.

[WingDinger]

2. Thats OK, we have performance art protests. Scare them silly.

[HereSince1628]

3. Having read Cronon's blog, it seems he's in no trouble...

He was aware of the professional limits placed on equipment and his computer account at UW Madison.
By keeping his activities separate he has protected himself.

Mostly this will now come down to having hateful people looking through his emails trying to come up with something that can cause him trouble. That might be uncomfortable, there will likely be idiots who try to make federal cases out of comments taken out of context.

But, that storm will pass, and the Kochs will have dumped another few hundred thousand dollars into the trash compactor.

Everything that consumes their money helps us.

[midnight]

4. K&R To help educate the public on the History of Labor and

information that shows how it is being destroyed....

[Doctor_J]

5. Every academic in the country should walk out tomorrow

might even get AFL-CIO & teamsters to join in . These fucking fascists need to be hit back at, hard.