NY Dem Assembly speaker wants the state to "punish" Columbia.

[madfloridian]

I thought perhaps we had reached the ultimate absurdity when Democrats in the Senate voted to condemn a liberal activist group. I was wrong.

From Glenn Greenwald:

Columbia to be punished by NY State

But what is new, and what most certainly is worth commenting upon, is this extremely disturbing report from The New York Sun regarding the threats made by Democratic State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to use state power to punish Columbia for inviting a speaker whom Silver dislikes. Silver -- who, among other things, has long been a leader in efforts to free convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard from prison -- did not even bother to disguise the threats he was making:

In an interview with The New York Sun, the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said lawmakers, outraged over Columbia's insistence on allowing the Iranian president to speak at its World Leaders Forum, would consider reducing capital aid and other financial assistance to the school.

Lawmakers warned about other consequences for Columbia and its president, Lee Bollinger, who has resisted campus and public pressure to cancel Mr. Ahmadinejad's appearance today, arguing that Columbia's commitment to scholarship requires the school to directly confront offensive ideas.

"There are issues that Columbia may have before us that obviously this cavalier attitude would be something that people would recall," Mr. Silver said. "Obviously, there's some degree of capital support that has been provided to Columbia in the past. These are things people might take a different view of . . . knowing that this is that kind of an institution" . . .

"It's not going to go away just because this episode ends. Columbia University has to know . . . that they will be penalized," an assemblyman of Brooklyn, Dov Hikind, who also attended the rally, said. The lawmaker said Mr. Ahmadinejad should be arrested when he sets foot on campus.

When did this kind of thing happen here? When did Democrats start threatening and warning and condemning those who speak and act in a controversial way?

Threatening a university? As bad or worse than threatening your own activists to avoid talking about the death and dying in the Iraq debacle?

Lying about the state of war is a terrible betrayal. Attacking truthtellers is betrayal as well

....we can be honest. A deep and unpleasant underbelly of our Democratic party was again exposed to view today. It has happened before, and the denial is usually swift just like today. We can ignore it, or we can discuss it openly and come to terms with it. Perhaps we can even get some in the party to see it.

Punishing a university for having a speaker they don't approve of is going way too far in a country like ours.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. So, Democratic politicians are now anti-education?

Pathetic.

[SteveM]

2. If a university can't invite a controversial figure to speak, it ain't a university.

[BobRossi]

3. When Democrat politicians quit being Democrats....

And became polititcians, that's when it happened.

[HeraldSquare212]

4. Why are we giving capital aid

to a private college that charges a high tuition that could fund its needs? There are plenty of State University schools that could use it.

[madfloridian]

7. I don't effing know.

Don't live there. Private universities get help in a lot of states.

My point is not that...it is the effing Democrats becoming censors of freedom.

[Tian Zhuangzhuang]

12. Yeah but Columbia needs money like Saudi Arabia needs money.

Columbia's endowment 5.9 BILLION dollars.

to put that in perspective the District of Columbia's entire Budget is only 5 Billion

[movonne]

5. You will find that many of our dem reps. are repugs...thats why we

cannot get anything done.

[EST]

6. What's the history on this "Silver?"

Is it possible that he is only a (d) so he could get the job? I prefer to associate with people who believe in freedom, especially when it's inconvenient.
That's why I hang around people who call themselves democrats.

[madfloridian]

8. When I attended college, we had a great series of guest speakers

from all over the world. They were treated politely and with courtesy.

It is what universities and colleges do.

Are we becoming that afraid of free speech?

[TahitiNut]

9. It reminds me of the furor over a Communist speaking at my University in the 60s.

You'd think the sky was falling ... with all the hyper-patriots throwing hissy fits over this American - a former expatriate to the Soviet Union and his daughter speaking at our University. We were overrun with demonstrators and police on our urban campus.

Young and curious, I went to watch the zoo ... and I found a good vantage point off to the edge in front of the auditorium where the speech was to be held. They opened the doors and the crowd actually pushed me into the place - I'd never planned on going to listen, but I had very little choice. So, I go'd with the flow. Borderline boring! The guy gave mild endorsements of Marxism and spoke of his experiences. Hardly worth writing home about ... and not worth the gasoline burned up in all the police cars.

[Chovexani]

13. I went to Brooklyn College

In the '50s they called it the Little Red Schoolhouse. :rofl:

[Bitwit1234]

10. OK so now we are supposed to be afraid of colleges and free speech

I find it so damn stupid, that everyone thinks that this guy could influence any person in this country. If they did it just shows how stupid and afraid we are. Let him talk. Any body with sense will ignore him.

[madfloridian]

11. Looks like it.

A shame.