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Posted on Sun, May. 28, 2006

Quitting over Rice's speech
By STEVE ALMOND
SPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM

The Associated Press/Chitose Suzuki
Faculty members march into the 130th commencement at Boston College in Boston on May 22 as they protest Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who delivered the commencement address.
SOMERVILLE, Mass. --Two weeks ago, I resigned my position as an adjunct professor at Boston College in an open letter published by The Boston Globe.
I felt it was wrong for Boston College to invite Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be this year's commencement speaker, given that she has lied to the American people repeatedly in an effort to justify the Bush administration's disastrous foreign policy.
My decision was a simple act of conscience.
Soon after my letter of resignation was published, my e-mail box began to fill with notes from outraged citizens accusing me of being (among other things) a Communist, a pansy and a traitor.
This was only the beginning.
During the next few days, I received harassing phone calls at home, was maligned by a host of media demagogues and even had someone calling radio stations pretending to be me.
Call it my unofficial introduction to the politics of personal destruction.
This, I'm sorry to say, is the modus operandi of today's conservative movement. Its members have no coherent political or moral philosophy, and no way of defending President Bush's disastrous record, so they appeal to the public's primal negative emotions: hate, fear and grievance.
I realize that some of you reading this -- and the letter that follows -- will react with precisely these feelings. That's your right as an American, just as it is my right to speak out against an administration that has misled this country into an unconscionable war, amassed an unprecedented debt by sopping billionaires and oil barons, and ignored the science of our own environmental ruin.
It's called democracy.
Here's a copy of the letter, which was printed May 12 in the Boston Globe:

An open letter to William P. Leahy, S.J., president of Boston College

Dear Father Leahy,
I am writing to resign my post as an adjunct professor of English at Boston College.
I am doing so -- after five years at BC, and with tremendous regret -- as a direct result of your decision to invite Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be the commencement speaker at this year's graduation.
Many members of the faculty and student body already have voiced their objection to the invitation, arguing that Rice's actions as secretary of state are inconsistent with the broader humanistic values of the university and the Catholic and Jesuit traditions from which those values derive.
But I am not writing this letter simply because of an objection to the war against Iraq. My concern is more fundamental. Simply put, Rice is a liar.
She has lied to the American people knowingly, repeatedly, often extravagantly over the past five years, in an effort to justify a pathologically misguided foreign policy.
The public record of her deceits is extensive. During the ramp-up to the Iraq war, she made 29 false or misleading public statements concerning Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and links to al Qaeda, according to a congressional investigation by the House Committee on Government Reform.
To cite one example:
In an effort to build the case for war, then-National Security Adviser Rice repeatedly asserted that Iraq was pursuing a nuclear weapon, and specifically seeking uranium in Africa.
In July of 2003, after these claims were disproved, Rice said: "Now if there were doubts about the underlying intelligence ... those doubts were not communicated to the president, the vice president, or to me."
Rice's own deputy, Stephen Hadley, later admitted that the CIA had sent her a memo eight months earlier warning against the use of this claim.
In the three years since the war began, Rice has continued to misrepresent or simply ignore the truth about our deadly adventure in Iraq.
Like the president whom she serves so faithfully, she refuses to recognize her errors or the tragic consequences of those errors to the young soldiers and civilians dying in Iraq. She is a diplomat whose central allegiance is not to the democratic cause of this nation, but absolute power.
This is the woman to whom you will be bestowing an honorary degree, along with the privilege of addressing the graduating class of 2006.
It is this last notion I find most reprehensible: that Boston College would entrust to Rice the role of moral exemplar.
To be clear: I am not questioning her intellectual gifts or academic accomplishments. Nor her potentially inspiring role as a powerful woman of color.
But these are not the factors by which a commencement speaker should be judged. It is the content of one's character that matters here -- the reverence for truth and knowledge that Boston College purports to champion.
Rice does not personify these values; she repudiates them. Whatever inspiring rhetoric she might present to the graduating class, her actions as a citizen and politician tell a different story.
Honestly, Father Leahy, what lessons do you expect her to impart to impressionable seniors?
That hard work in the corporate sector might gain them a spot on the board of Chevron? That they, too, might someday have an oil tanker named after them? That it is acceptable to lie to the American people for political gain?
Given the widespread objection to inviting Rice, I would like to think you will rescind the offer. But that is clearly not going to happen.
Like the administration in Washington, you appear too proud to admit to your mistake. Instead, you will mouth a bunch of platitudes, all of which boil down to: You don't want to lose face.
In this sense, you leave me no choice.
I cannot, in good conscience, exhort my students to pursue truth and knowledge, then collect a paycheck from an institution that displays such flagrant disregard for both.
I would like to apologize to my students and prospective students. I would also urge them to investigate the words and actions of Rice, and to exercise their own First Amendment rights at her speech.
Steve Almond is a writer and former reporter for the El Paso Times.
Steve Almond is the author of the story collections "The Evil B. B. Chow" and "My Life in Heavy Metal."

source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/14682499.htm
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Texas Author Series heats up with political scandal book
By Glenn Dromgoole
May 28, 2006

Ben Barnes will discuss his book, ''Barn Building, Barn Burning,'' at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Abilene Public Library as part of the Texas Author Series, sponsored by the Friends of the Abilene Public Library and the Abilene Reporter-News. The session is free. Sandwiches available for $3 while they last.
Ben Barnes book sheds light on Texas politics
Ben Barnes stunned Texas political observers by winning a seat in the Texas House of Representatives at age 22. He became the youngest speaker of the House at just 26 and lieutenant governor at 30.
Lyndon Johnson publicly predicted in 1970 that Barnes would someday be president. But in 1972, political fallout from the Sharpstown scandal led to Barnes' defeat in the governor's race, even though Barnes himself was not implicated in the case. At 34, his promising political career was over.
Since then, Barnes has worked behind the scenes as a businessman and lobbyist. He made and lost a fortune in the Austin real estate boom and bust of the 1980s, then turned his keen political instincts to consulting, lobbying and fund-raising.
Barnes tells about his rise and fall in Texas politics in his new book, ''Barn Burning, Barn Building: Tales of a Political Life, from LBJ to George W. Bush and Beyond'' (Bright Sky Press, $24.95 hardcover). Barnes, now 68, came to power in the 1960s in a state that was controlled by the Democratic Party. Back then, conservative and liberal wings of the party typically fought it out in the primaries, then came together to win the general election. Barnes was firmly entrenched in what he calls the moderate-conservative wing that had strong support from the business community but also championed progressive legislation. Former President Johnson and former Gov. John Connally were two of his mentors. Today, of course, Texas is as solidly Republican as it once was solidly Democrat.
According to Barnes, Connally played a key role in the Bush family's rise to political prominence. Late in 1970, Barnes says, he was at Connally's ranch when President Nixon called for Connally. He wanted the former governor to be treasury secretary, the only Democrat in his cabinet.
Connally, who later became a Republican, insisted that he couldn't consider the offer unless Nixon also found a place for George H. W. Bush, who had just lost a Senate race to Democrat Lloyd Bentsen.
''Connally's insistence finally brought Nixon around,'' Barnes writes, ''and he ultimately made Bush the ambassador to the United Nation.
''If it weren't for Connally's pull with Nixon, Bush would have been left twisting in the wind and would never have continued to ascend the party's ladder to the vice presidency, then the presidency. In turn, his son George W. Bush would almost certainly never have been president.''
Barnes said he regrets using his influence as speaker of the House to help get George W. Bush into the Texas Air National Guard so he wouldn't be drafted during the Vietnam War.
''I thought at the time that I was simply doing political favors,'' he writes, ''but as I got older, I came to realize I'd been playing God. For every privileged boy like George W. Bush that I helped, another young man was shipped to Vietnam.''
In the final chapter, ''Where We Go from Here,'' Barnes discusses the ''culture of incivility'' in politics today, which he traces back to Nixon, and offers suggestions for the Democratic Party to regain influence and strength in Texas and nationally. These include:
Shift the focus away from single-issue politics.
Reclaim a place in the national discussion on religion and morality.
Bring back the culture of bipartisanship, volunteerism, and service.
Find a way for moderation to prevail.
Cultivate leaders who stand for honest political ideals.
Cultivate a business community that has a longer-term vision than the next quarterly report.
Reclaim public service as an honorable profession.
Lead rather than follow, being proactive rather than reactive.
source: http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/et_columns/article/0,1874,ABIL_7910_4732648,00.html
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Barnes bemoans trends in politics
Former lieutenant governor promoting book

By Ken Ellsworth / ellsworthk@reporternews.com
May 28, 2006
Before arriving in Abilene Tuesday for a speaking engagement, former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes will be a pallbearer at Lloyd Bentsen's funeral.
The former U.S. senator, treasury secretary, and vice presidential candidate died May 23. Being asked to serve as a pallbearer at Bentsen's funeral illustrates just how highly Barnes, a once rising political star, is still thought of in certain circles.
Barnes, 68, will speak at the Abilene Public Library at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday to promote his new book ''Barn Burning Barn Building.'' (Note: Time was changed from noon because of Bentsen's funeral.)
The Abilene stop will come after serving as a pallbearer Tuesday morning.
''Right after that I'll get on a plane and be in Abilene as close to noon as I can make it,'' Barnes said in a telephone interview from Austin.
Barnes' political ambitions were dashed by a loan and stock scandal in 1971 when Barnes was the lieutenant governor of Texas.
The Comanche County native and Democrat remains a powerful force in Texas and national politics as a political consultant, fundraiser and lobbyist. Barnes founded and leads the Austin-based consulting firm, EntreCorps.
Barnes noted the death of the gentlemanly, dignified Bentsen.
''He was a very good friend,'' Barnes said.
He said Bentsen was a moderate Democrat who could put aside partisan politics and ''work across the aisle'' for the good of the nation, an issue that Barnes said he addresses in his book.
''Severe partisanship has brought Washington to a standstill,'' Barnes said, adding that it has also hurt Texas. ''I'm hungry for the days of the likes of Lloyd Bentsen, John Tower and Charlie Stenholm.''
He said he resents the politics of people like Tom DeLay, whose redistricting tactics cost Texas the seats of several high-ranking members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Barnes predicted Democrats could make a comeback in November and make a serious run for the White House in 2008.
He said he has no ambitions to run for political office.
''But I'd bet some people are speculating that I do, because of this book tour which will have me speaking in a lot of places,'' he said. ''No, I don't have any ambitions for myself, but I've got a lot of ambitions for Texas.
His book, he said, is partially aimed at young people who feel alienated by today's political climate.
''I'd like them to read the book and to get interested in politics,'' Barnes said.
Barnes was quite young when his own political ambitions blossomed. Born in 1938, he won a seat in the Texas House when he was 22 and a law student at the University of Texas in Austin. In 1965, he was elected speaker.
At age 30, Barnes was elected lieutenant governor and served from 1970 to 1974. The late President Lyndon B. Johnson called Barnes the ''next president from Texas.''
However, Barnes was defeated in his bid for re-election as lieutenant governor in the wake of the Sharpstown scandal of 1971. The banking, loan and stock purchasing scandal involved several of Barnes' fellow Texas Democrats in Austin.
He was never directly implicated, but Sharpstown cost Barnes and others their jobs and the scandal became the beginning of the end of Democratic dominance in Austin.
In 2004, Barnes was a major fundraiser in Sen. John Kerry's run against President George W. Bush. In that same year, Barnes stepped back briefly into the national political limelight by claiming on national television that as Speaker of the House in 1968, he used his political weight to help get the youthful Bush into the Texas Air National Guard, allowing Bush to avoid serving in Vietnam.
The claim was disputed by many, but Barnes makes the claim again in ''Barn Burning.''
''It was wrong for me as a young man to have that much power, to make life and death decisions,'' Barnes said. ''I'm ashamed of what I did.''

If you go:
What: Former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes to speak in Abilene
When: 12:30 p.m. Tuesday (Note: Time was changed from noon.)
Where: Abilene Public Library, 202 Cedar St.
Subject: Barnes' new book, ''Barn Burning Barn Building,'' published by Bright Sky Press of Albany, $24.95
Details: The event is sponsored by the Friends of the Abilene Public Library and the Abilene Reporter-News. Limited number of sack lunches available, $3; drinks free.

More information:
Barnes will be also have a book signing from 3-3:45 p.m. Tuesday at the Texas Star Trading Co., 326 Cypress St.
Barnes will be featured in a live radio interview at 4 p.m. Tuesday on KWKC-AM (1340)
source : http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_local/article/0,1874,ABIL_7959_4733305,00.html