the revival of ANTI ISRAEL MUSLIM FUNDED Cynthia McKinney by Cornell U

[Batman]

MORE SOURCES:
Radical Islamist Group Hands Out Honors


http://www.cornelldailysun.com/articles/8817/
McKinney Debate IsReal

By JAKE HONIGMAN

Michael Moore, in his 2002 book Stupid White Men, called Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) his favorite member of Congress. A few months later she was gone. Now the controversial figure will be joining the Cornell community as a visiting professor, enlivening campus for several weeks a year over the next three years.

The announcement of her appointment has prompted Cornellians to note her strong opposition to the Iraq War and other criticism of the Bush administration's policy. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) writes that she is brave and unapologetic in her views. But to someone interested in understanding McKinney's history, none of that really answers any questions -- she lost her seat before the Iraq debate took center stage, and Hinchey's characterization could be, and is, said of politicians of any stripe. Think Bush.

So who is Cynthia McKinney, and what happened to her seat in the House?

She was indeed an unabashed progressive, and her condemnation of Bush's handling of Sept. 11 -- even as he enjoyed overwhelming support in its wake -- was rare, and courageous, really, by any standards. But that's only half the story.

McKinney had been an outspoken opponent of the strong friendship between the US and Israel throughout her term in Congress. In what would be her final term, she brought her anti-Israel attitudes to the forefront. The August 2002 primary that she lost to Rep. Denise Majette (D-Ga.) was heavily charged with the issue of American support of Israel. Surely other concerns factored into the race, but, to a degree, McKinney was judged on this issue and lost. Her extremist views and allies haunted her during the campaign, and eventually were enough to send her packing.

An email sent out by the Ohio-based Council on American Islamic Relations' PAC (CAIR-PAC) a month before the election might put the controversy into perspective. The email called her "our strategic choice." Why? She is "against aid to Israel." Maybe this email wasn't supposed to be seen by anyone outside CAIR's mailing list. But it was. And more importantly, McKinney's vociferous encouragement that we leave Israel to stand on its own in the Middle East drew quite a bit of attention. Which had consequences I don't think McKinney liked too much.

About a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, McKinney wrote a letter to Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal thanking him for his offer of $10 million to aid New York City -- an offer which had been refused by Rudy Giuliani due to the comments which accompanied it. The prince wrote that the US "should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced view of the Palestinian cause." It starts out a fair enough statement, though perhaps poorly timed -- not to mention slightly ironic coming from a member of the Saudi royal family -- but when he explains that these "policies" are America's support of Israel, he stops looking so nice. Alwaleed was all but blaming the US-Israel relationship for Sept. 11, and McKinney was loving it. She thanked him, reviled Israel's "atrocities," and concluded by suggesting that his highness consult with her office, which would advise him on what to do with the $10 million.

Immediately the pro-Israel community reacted. In the months leading up to the primary, Majette noticed a boon of support from people who normally showed little interest in Georgia's Fourth District, as many nationwide donated money to show their disapproval of her opponent's stances.

Simultaneously, McKinney raked in money from those on the other side of the issue. The Washington Post wrote that she "received campaign contributions from at least 18 donors who are either officers of Muslim foundations under investigation by the FBI, have voiced support for Palestinian and Lebanese terrorist organizations or have made inflammatory statements about Jews."

Maybe these activists were impressed with her sympathy for the terror-supporting Saudi monarchy. Maybe they were primarily trying to counter the Jewish and pro-Israel weight that was being thrown behind Majette.

Either way, the tone of the race came to be dominated by this divergence. Majette herself broached the subject with McKinney in a televised debate, poignantly accusing that "on Sept. 11 while the rest of the world watched in horror ... you were counting money received from some people who have been named as Arab terrorists."

McKinney lost. 58 to 42 percent.

Her conservative adversaries rejoiced, while some liberals lamented losing her outspoken ideology.

But the loudest reaction to her defeat stemmed from the cessation of her anti-Israel voice in Congress. The Executive Director of the National Jewish Democratic Council expressed relief that "one of the most antagonistic persons -- if not the most antagonistic person -- to the US-Israel relationship is gone." And in the magazine Counterpunch, the author of an article on McKinney's defeat asserted that "the pro-Israel groups funding Majette [are] supporting and helping fund terror" by virtue of their backing the Jewish state.

McKinney herself showed off her disgust for Israel several months after her defeat, when she wrote that chastising Saddam Hussein and not Israel shows that "we have different standards for different countries."

McKinney will come to campus soon, and should have some worthwhile things to say about Bush's policy in the Middle East. His willingness to go to war with everyone but Saudi Arabia while neglecting our soldiers and veterans deserves way more attention than it gets. I look forward to hearing a dynamic progressive viewpoint, and a debate on affirmative action.

But her anti-Israel stance can't be ignored. Without it, she wouldn't be here.



Jake Honigman is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at jmh95@cornell.edu Guest Room appears periodically.

Copyright © 2003 by The Cornell Daily Sun, Inc.
All rights reserved.

[Mediocrates]

Tell the Indian American contingent as well


McKinney Blames Indians for her defeat

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...?msid=24079685

Lobby Power - US, Indian, Jewish groups incisive

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...how?msid=84952

Indian Americans help unseat US lawmaker

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...?msid=21601535


Indian Americans help unseat US lawmaker

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...?msid=19791564


Cynthia McKinney is an antisemitic, anti Hindu bigotted racist pig monster who needs to be driven from her posting. She is an abomination who proudly supports Islamic terrorism directed against America, against India and against Israel.

[Batman]

Originally posted by Mediocrates
Tell the Indian American contingent as well


McKinney Blames Indians for her defeat

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...?msid=24079685

Lobby Power - US, Indian, Jewish groups incisive

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...how?msid=84952

Indian Americans help unseat US lawmaker

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...?msid=21601535


Indian Americans help unseat US lawmaker

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...?msid=19791564


Cynthia McKinney is an antisemitic, anti Hindu bigotted racist pig monster who needs to be driven from her posting. She is an abomination who proudly supports Islamic terrorism directed against America, against India and against Israel.

Love it! it's about time we say how we freekin feel! no one says it better Mediocrates! More power to you, man!

[danholo]

Cynthia McKinney is an antisemitic, anti Hindu bigotted racist pig monster

What an eloquently put description. Absolutely perfect.

[Batman]

Originally posted by Mediocrates
Tell the Indian American contingent as well


McKinney Blames Indians for her defeat

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...?msid=24079685

Lobby Power - US, Indian, Jewish groups incisive

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...how?msid=84952

Indian Americans help unseat US lawmaker

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...?msid=21601535


Indian Americans help unseat US lawmaker

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...?msid=19791564


Cynthia McKinney is an antisemitic, anti Hindu bigotted racist pig monster who needs to be driven from her posting. She is an abomination who proudly supports Islamic terrorism directed against America, against India and against Israel.

great idea about the American Indians...thanks

[minusthejihad]

Speaking of Michael Moore, he is obviously a blind supporter of the ISM. Check out his links to thei site on:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/news/index.php

Man, and I spent money on his first film. Nasty!

[frizzer1]

And she's black. Coincidence?

If anyone's going to answer....forget calling me a racist ( I don't care what you think) and just answer it, Ok?

[RichardP]

Originally posted by minusthejihad
Speaking of Michael Moore, he is obviously a blind supporter of the ISM. Check out his links to thei site on:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/news/index.php

Man, and I spent money on his first film. Nasty!

I fear these traitors are as dangerous as the Islamist Terrorists they support. Michael Moore is a fraudulent slug who has become the darling of the kiss-butt, east coast, west coast elitist-wannabes. I would like to see him on stage performing with his icon, Arafat... I'm certain that they could give Madonna and Britney, some competition in the tongue-in-cheek playoff!!

[Mediocrates]

Originally posted by Batman
great idea about the American Indians...thanks

Indian Americans, not American Indians.

[Batman]

Originally posted by Mediocrates
Indian Americans, not American Indians.

got it

[Batman]

FOR ARTICLES THAT HAVE THE READ MORE CLICK ON BELOW LINK:

http://www.cornelldailysun.com/perl/...uery=+McKinney

MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2003
http://www.cornelldailysun.com/articles/8805/
Outspoken Bush Critic, McKinney, Named Rhodes Visiting Prof
Appointment attracts national attention, conservatives' criticism

By PETER NORLANDER

Former Congress member Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), who gained national attention for her opposition to the war in Iraq and strident criticisms of the Bush administration, will visit Cornell for a few weeks a year for the next three years as a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor. A committee of 13 faculty members and deans representing a broad range of disciplines and interests approved her appointment, which was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday.

In an e-mail, McKinney wrote that she is "exhilarated and thrilled to become a part of the Cornell and Ithaca families" and that she looks "forward to an exciting, invigorating and challenging semester." McKinney did not say when she would come to campus, but she is likely to visit for two or three weeks at a time to give public lectures and seminars and to attend classes.

McKinney first became a candidate for the Rhodes professorship when Prof. James Turner, Africana studies, invited her to give a speech at the Africana Studies Summer Institute earlier this summer. McKinney accepted the offer, and Turner recommended her to the committee, according to committee chair Porus Olpadwala, dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning. The Africana Studies and Research Center will act as McKinney's sponsor during her visit.

Turner could not be reached for comment.

According to Olpadwala, the Rhodes candidate review process begins when faculty sponsors first "show how the person has achieved something for themselves and for society." The committee then looks into that applicant's "breadth of support across the campus," examines if they will "interact well with faculty and students" and makes sure that no academic discipline is either over- or underrepresented in the visiting professor program.

A 10-year veteran of Congress, McKinney lost the Democratic primary in 2002.


One of McKinney's colleagues in the House of Representatives, local Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), has also been a frequent critic of the Bush administration, exploring the possibility of impeachment proceedings before deciding that the time was not right, according to the New York Times.

Writing by e-mail from California, Hinchey said: "[McKinney] and I were elected to the House together in 1992, so I've had the pleasure of knowing and working with her for 10 years. She is one of those rare, gutsy politicians who has the courage of her convictions and does not apologize for her beliefs.

I've come to consider her a close friend, so it will be my great pleasure to welcome her to Ithaca.

"After 10 years as a member of the International Relations Committee, [McKinney] is well-respected for her leadership in human rights and voting rights and for her international activism on these issues. She is going to be a wonderful resource for Cornell students and a great asset to the entire community."

McKinney is a controversial figure. She is a 1978 graduate of the University of Southern California and has a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. In 1992, she became Georgia's first African-American congresswoman.

In March 2002, McKinney said that the administration of President George W. Bush should have known about the Sept. 11 attacks and asked two questions in the liberal magazine Counterpunch that attracted most of the media firestorm surrounding her: "What did this Administration know, and when did it know it about the events of September 11? Who else knew and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered?"

McKinney also wrote that "persons close to this administration are poised to make huge profits off America's new war."

While he did not challenge the truthfulness of those statements, Chris Suellentrop, writing in the online magazine Slate, called her paranoid and labeled her "the Girl Who Cried Racism." Further negative reaction to McKinney has included portraits of her as variously paranoid, villainous and unpatriotic.

Jonah Goldberg, writing in the influential conservative weekly National Review, said, "For a representative to tell the American public, in order to help her own career, that the government murdered thousands of its own citizens for material gain is disgusting (it also will undoubtedly be picked up by our enemies in the Arab world, mark my words). Of course, it may not be as bad as the accusation that Bush killed thousands of Americans, but we at least know that accusation isn't true."

In an e-mail to The Sun, President Jeffrey S. Lehman '77 defended the process Cornell used to select McKinney.

"The University assigns responsibility for the appointment of Rhodes Professors to a faculty committee. ... That committee made the academic judgment that [McKinney] would contribute meaningfully to our collective intellectual life on campus," he wrote.

Prof. Michael Evangelista, peace studies, is happy to see McKinney come and defends her views.

"I'd be happy to have her speak to my class," he said.

McKinney did not immediately respond to questions about her views on recent events, although she hinted that her future plans include running for another office. With rumors of McKinney running for president on the Green Party line or a rematch for her old seat in Congress, she said in an e-mail that she would "return to New York City on the weekend of September 11 to look at the policies arising from September 11, 2001 that now direct our country's actions at home and abroad. I look forward to raising these issues in my next campaign."

The Sun obtained a speech that McKinney gave Tuesday in Brooklyn to families of troops serving in Iraq. In it, she criticized cuts in troops' overtime pay and other Bush administration policies: "Not only are [soldiers] underpaid, but the powerful Administration that holds their fate in the cup of its hands, has obfuscated, dissembled and outright lied to them about their central mission and why they have been placed on the four corners of our globe."

McKinney further blasted the Pentagon's treatment of soldiers, accusing the mandatory anthrax vaccination program of being a corporate giveaway that has resulted in troops dying of pneumonia, and asked, "How is it that one-quarter of those who sleep on our streets every night are veterans of war?"

McKinney then shifted her attack to racism in the armed services: "It appears that America's poor and people of color are the cannon fodder for Bush's New American Century. ... And [former Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan] Caspar Weinberger suggests that America's people of color are more patriotic than America's young white kids are, and that's why there are disproportionately more people of color in our all-volunteer military. It is utterly despicable to make that suggestion in the face of a recession-driven economy that has produced the highest unemployment in a generation and pushed more people of color below the middle class. Sadly, George Bush stands in the doorway of opportunity at America's colleges and universities just like his predecessor in spirit, George Wallace, did two generations before him. Dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, the anti-affirmative action stance of this Administration harks back to more shameful days in our country."

McKinney's appointment has already enticed some conservatives to slam Cornell and to revisit McKinney.

A New York Post editorial on Friday said that McKinney is "not likely to add any luster to the prestigious Ivy League school's academic sheen."

The biggest dig, however, was reserved for McKinney: "We have absolutely no idea what McKinney could possibly teach her students -- unless it's a course titled Demagoguery 101."

When asked about this reception, the response of Cornell officials has been a chuckle and a strong defense for their chosen Rhodes candidate.

"The purpose of the professorship is to bring diverse voices to campus and stimulate debate -- and I think McKinney obviously will," said Linda Grace-Kobas, interim vice president for communications and media relations.

Olpadwala made similar comments but added that "she's not going to 'teach,'" focusing more on seminars and public speeches as well as visiting classes.

McKinney is not the first controversial liberal professor to visit Cornell; former Attorney General Janet Reno '60 encountered polite audiences and civil debate during her return to Cornell last semester.

In response to questions about McKinney, Lehman wrote that "Cornell classrooms are marked by open, civil and serious discussion about important issues, and I fully expect that her classes will meet those standards."

McKinney's time in the spotlight, however, is both more recent and relevant to current issues than was the case during Reno's visit -- and it remains to be seen how McKinney will be received by a campus with its own share of controversy.



Copyright © 2003 by The Cornell Daily Sun, Inc.

[Batman]

FOR ARTICLES THAT HAVE THE READ MORE CLICK ON BELOW LINK:

http://www.cornelldailysun.com/perl/...uery=+McKinney

OPINION THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 04, 2003
Prof's defense exemplifies double standards
Professor Lowi's "Double Rebuttal" (Opinion, Sept. 3, 2003) to Joseph Sabia's opinion piece "Malcolm X in the Middle" (Opinion, Sept. 2, 2003) exemplifies the double standards that some often find convenient to place on others with differing political ideologies. Sabia, according to Prof. Lowi, "goes on to use the issue [of McKinney] as one more opportunity to vilify liberalism and liberal professors … and to poison political discourse … He defines McKinney and all she stands for as a 'perfect fit for Cornell's Leftist faculty.' He neatly ties that to liberals as a class." Here, Prof. Lowi is taking issue with Sabia's tying McKinney, the liberal party, and the liberal professors of Cornell together. Yet, only 11 lines later in his piece, Professor Lowi goes on to lump the conservative party and right-wing radicals together as being mean, intolerant, close minded, and power oriented. His generalization clearly shows that Prof. Lowi does not feel that he should be held to the same level of accountability as the mean, intolerant, power-oriented, fact-laden, "close minded", conservatives out there.
READ MORE >>>



OPINION WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 03, 2003
A Double Rebuttal
I was away part of last week attending the annual meetings of the American Political Science Association and did not see Mr. Joe Sabia's op-ed piece of August 26 until I returned.
READ MORE >>>



OPINION TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 02, 2003
Rhodes Program Lacking a Conservative Voice?
Re: "Outspoken Bush Critic, McKinney, Named Rhodes Visiting Prof" (News, Aug. 25, 2003). Interesting article; given that: "The purpose of the professorship is to bring diverse voices to campus and stimulate debate -- and I think McKinney obviously will," said Linda Grace-Kobas, interim vice president for communications and media relations. I would ask how many conservative "voices" have been awarded this position or a similar professorship in the past 3-5 years to bring "diverse voices" to the students of Cornell?
READ MORE >>>


Copyright © 2003 by The Cornell Daily Sun, Inc.

OPINION FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2003
McKinney debate is deeper than column claims
In Umair Kahn's "Word to the Wise" (Opinion, Aug. 28, 2003), it appears that he is equating global crisis with the controversial hiring of a professor, two issues which are not parallel. When we feel the administration of our university has made an error, it is an important right of ours to inform them; this is our school. The controversy that surrounds the hiring of Cynthia McKinney is not an issue of conservatives vs. liberals, of republicans vs. democrats, of pro-war vs. antiwar. The Washington Post has reported that Cynthia McKinney has received campaign contributions from at least 18 donors who are either officers of Muslim foundations under investigation by the FBI, have voiced support for Palestinian and Lebanese terrorist organizations or have made inflammatory statements against Jews. If this is not shocking enough, some of these campaign contributions came on September 11, just hours after twin towers came crashing to the ground. As a Cornell student it is disturbing that the administration has bestowed such a prestigious title to such an individual.
READ MORE >>>



OPINION FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2003
Heroes & Villains
The editors of The Sun recently considered nixing the Heroes and Villains spot because we felt that in this day and age, perhaps it isn't fair to so blatantly label news-making happenings and individuals as either Heroic or Villainous. Maybe the world is too big of a place for such pithy division. Perhaps the categorical, black and white approach is outmoded. Maybe we're just too darned judgmental around here.
READ MORE >>>

OPINION THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2003
Word to the Wise
This year will bring many changes to Cornell, including a BYOB policy, cramped quarters due to over-enrollment (happened my freshman year and probably years past), an end to block parties and perhaps most importantly, a new president. However, there are some things that don't change, Cornell still has its very own version of the Neo-conservative cabal that unfortunately dominates the scene here in our nation's capital, swimming in the gorges, and last but not least there's still the "Freshman 15."
READ MORE >>>

OPINION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2003
McKinney an Affront to Cornell's Intellectualism
The selection of Cynthia McKinney as a Class of '56 professor is an affront to the intellectualism of Cornell University. Ms. McKinney is a racist and anti-Semite of the first rank. If she were white and male, she would be David Duke. It is unfortunate that the selection committee was so open minded that its collective brain fell on the floo
READ MORE >>>


OPINION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2003
Controversial McKinney unworthy of Class of '56 Professorship
Re: "Pros of the Cons" (Editorial, Aug. 26, 2003): I'm glad you mentioned that John Pilger was named a Rhodes Class of '56 professor at the same time as Cynthia McKinney; I hadn't seen such information elsewhere. Evidently, the theme of the Rhodes Class of '56 Professors this year is "Bush is a Nazi!" Although, McKinney and Pilger will have more tact than to spraypaint their beliefs all over downtown hopefully.
READ MORE >>>




EDITORIAL TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2003
http://www.cornelldailysun.com/articles/8812/
Pros of the Cons
U. will benefit from McKinney, despite controversy

By SUN STAFF

Letters to the Editor often serve as a gauge of public interest in those issues raised by a publication. If a newspaper's readership is interested, impassioned and involved enough to sit down and shoot off an email or pen a letter, it's generally a sign that what's being covered is pertinent and worthy of media attention.

In much the same way, if a university makes a policy decision or outlines any particular initiative that provokes little response, it may be an indication that the university should spend its energies elsewhere.

Last week the University announced that former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) will serve as one of Cornell's new Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professors. The decision has already garnered a reaction from a variety of national media sources. Unfortunately though, it seems that those reporting on McKinney's appointment do not understand the purpose of the Rhodes professorship.

Friday's edition of The New York Post contained an editorial stating that Mckinney is unqualified to play a role in academe, unless she wants to teach a course entitled "Demagoguery 101." But what the editors of the Post failed to acknowledge was that there is an inherent academic value in bringing a figure like McKinney to our campus.

The Rhodes Class of '56 Professorship was created so that accomplished and intriguing individuals representing a variety of fields could share their experiences with colleagues and students while participating in a variety of on-campus lectures, forums, round table discussions and other events.

If McKinney can use her time at Cornell to foster discussion and encourage intelligent debate about a variety of pertinent topics, then the question becomes why would Cornell not offer her the position? The University is not handing McKinney a pulpit from which to inundate the Cornell population, but is offering students the opportunity to interact with, to learn from and to debate with a politician who -- for better or worse -- helped shape the history of a post Sept. 11 America.

Though it only began in 2000, the program has already hosted the scientist and entertainer Bill Nye '77, former United States Attorney General Janet Reno '60, famed architect Richard Meier '56 and the president of Merck Research Laboratories Edward M. Scolnick.

Additionally, as the first female African-American congressional delegate from Georgia and as an important member of various House committees, McKinney should be an intriguing addition to the Hill. And if Cornell gets a little heat for the hire, so much the better. It gives McKinney and Cornellians that much more to prove, potentially raising the intellectual bar on her weeks spent at Cornell.

The only downside to the controversy surrounding McKinney's appointment is that John Pilger, the Emmy Award-winning documentarian and journalist who was named a Rhodes Class of '56 Professor at the same time as McKinney, isn't getting the attention he deserves.

Copyright © 2003 by The Cornell Daily Sun, Inc.

[Batman]

COLUMN TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2003
http://www.cornelldailysun.com/articles/8813/
The McKinney Debacle

By JOE SABIA

Racially segregated dormitories and racial quotas are not enough for Cornell anymore. Like a porn addict needing increasingly explicit images to get his next "fix," the University administration has quenched its craving for racial division by appointing Cynthia McKinney -- a disgraced former congresswoman from Georgia -- as a visiting professor under the Andrew Dickson White Professors-at-large Program.

McKinney was widely regarded as one of the most incompetent members of Congress by Democrats and Republicans alike. As a prominent member of the ultra-Leftist Congressional Black Caucus, McKinney often spewed incoherent conspiracy theories about Jews and whites plotting to murder people and prevent her re-election.

The most famous of her baseless claims was that the Bush administration had prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. According to McKinney, members of the Bush administration conspired to remain silent in the face of Sept. 11 warnings in order to wage a war that would benefit oil companies. In a March 25, 2002 interview with Berkeley radio station KPFA, she claimed:

"We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11th. ... What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11th? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered? ... What do they have to hide?"

Where did McKinney get her explosive information that President Bush knowingly permitted 3,000 of his fellow countrymen to be slaughtered? Aboard a UFO? Through a coded message received through her tinfoil hat? Or did her Rice Krispies talk back to her that morning?

Senator Zell Miller (D-Ga.) responded to McKinney's ludicrous remarks by issuing a press release:

"At first glance, it would be easy to pass this off as just another loony statement. But at second glance, it is more than that. It is very dangerous and irresponsible."

Similarly, an embarrassed Democratic congressman, Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), sheepishly uttered, "I can't say that [McKinney's claim] would be a widely held view among lawmakers."

When McKinney wasn't blaming the Bush administration for the Sept. 11 attacks she was blaming the Jews. Amid much fanfare, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal offered then-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani $10 million for relief efforts. Along with his offer, Talal expressed his view that American support for Israel was the root cause of the Sept. 11 attacks:

"At times like this one, we must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack. I believe the government of the United States of America should reexamine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause."

Giuliani immediately rejected the $10 million, correctly recognizing the "gift" as blood money from anti-Israeli forces. Cynthia McKinney, on the other hand, saw her chance to cash in. She penned a letter to the Saudi prince in which she agreed with him on all his major points:

"Although your offer was not accepted by Mayor Giuliani, I would like to ask you to consider assisting Americans who are in dire need right now. I believe we can guide your generosity to help improve the state of Black America and build better lives ... Let me say that there are a growing number of people in the United States who recognize, like you, that U.S. policy in the Middle East needs serious examination."

When McKinney was assailed for her willingness to take money from a man who blamed Sept. 11 on Israel, she promptly asserted her First Amendment rights. Huh? No one questioned her constitutional right to speak. Critics questioned her sanity. And she had no defense of her mental stability other than to assert that criticism of her position was akin to censorship. (When liberals respond to criticism of their unpopular, treasonous views with non-sequiturs like "Free speech!" you know you've won the argument.) This is the woman that the administration wants to mold young minds at Cornell.

Attacking Jews is apparently a family trait for the McKinneys. Shortly after Cynthia was defeated in a Democratic primary by state judge Denise Majette (58 to 42 percent), her father, state representative Bill McKinney (D), went on local television and blamed the defeat on "Jews -- that's J-E-W-S." Isn't that special? The congresswoman did not repudiate her father's anti-Semitic remarks.

Ed Kilgore, policy director of the Democratic Leadership Council, was pleased with McKinney's defeat in the primary, citing her campaign's shameful financial ties with "a variety of Islamic sources with ties to Hamas, Hezbollah, and even al-Qaeda." McKinney had, indeed, accepted a $2,000 campaign contribution from American Muslim Council founder Abdurahman Alamoudi. At a Washington, D.C. pro-Palestinian rally, Alamoudi proclaimed:

"I have been labeled by the media in New York as being a supporter of Hamas. ...We are all supporters of Hamas. ... I wish they had added that I was also a supporter of Hezbollah."

Even after Alamoudi made this public statement in support of two terrorist organizations, McKinney refused to return his campaign contribution. When McKinney was asked to account for her accepting his financial support, she replied that she "would not racially profile" donors. Awwwww, how sweet.

Cynthia McKinney was a disgrace to the U.S. Congress. The Democratic voters of her Georgia district rightfully tossed her out of office because they were tired of her increasingly overt anti-Semitism, her claims that the president of the United States was a mass murderer, and her consistent support for America's enemies.

So why is Cornell hiring a former congresswoman who is at best incompetent and at worst an appeaser of international terrorism? Clearly, the McKinney hire is a political payoff to the Africana Studies and Research Center (ASRC). Prof. James Turner, Africana studies, invited McKinney to speak at Cornell this summer, recommended her hire, and has sponsored funding for her appointment. Rather than hire an ideologically balanced professor -- or, heaven forbid, a conservative! -- the administration once again caved to radical Leftists who use race to their political advantage.

The anti-American policy positions that made Cynthia McKinney so unpalatable to the American people will make her a perfect fit for Cornell's Leftist faculty. She'll blend in quite nicely with her fellow professors. In fact, she might even tilt Cornell rightward. But after the splash surrounding McKinney's hiring has worn off, where will Cornell go for its next race-baiting fix? Prof. Farrakhan, anyone?



Joe Sabia is a grad student in economics. He can be reached at jjs10@cornell.edu. No Shades of Gray will appear on Tuesdays this semester.

Copyright © 2003 by The Cornell Daily Sun, Inc.

[Mediocrates]

I really hate to say this but can SOMEONE get .....ug....Anne Coulter (A.B. '84) to say something about this? She's a named Alumnus 'of Note'.

[danholo]

Hey man. I understand your pain. That woman is a real weirdo.