As Sen. Barack Obama made history by becoming the first African-American to be a major party’s presumptive nominee for president of the United States, 20 Cornell faculty members were pursuing a more humble, albeit equally profound, change of course.

The Cornell Faculty Institute for Diversity gathered for three days at a conference center in Canandaigua, N.Y., June 1-4 to discuss ways to diversify Cornell’s curriculum to address such issues as class, disability, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion and sexual orientation. The conference, organized by Cornell’s Center for Learning and Teaching and the University Diversity Council, focused on how faculty can incorporate elements of diversity into new or existing courses by fall 2010.

Read the full article at Cornell University

Hat-tip to Queen Kathy Shaidle, who alerted NRB to this MUST READ post at Coren’s Comment:

Dear Ms. Coulter,

I understand that you have been invited by University of Ottawa Campus Conservatives to speak at the University of Ottawa this coming Tuesday. We are, of course, always delighted to welcome speakers on our campus and hope that they will contribute positively to the meaningful exchange of ideas that is the hallmark of a great university campus. We have a great respect for freedom of expression in Canada, as well as on our campus, and view it as a fundamental freedom, as recognized by our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I would, however, like to inform you, or perhaps remind you, that our domestic laws, both provincial and federal, delineate freedom of expression (or “free speech”) in a manner that is somewhat different than the approach taken in the United States.I therefore encourage you to educate yourself, if need be, as to what is acceptable in Canada and to do so before your planned visit here. You will realize that Canadian law puts reasonable limits on the freedom of expression.

Read the rest at Coren’s Comment.

Just a reminder in case anyone had forgotten: the rest of the world does not believe in freedom.

Queen Kathy has some contact information for anyone who would like to explain how great the first amendment is to our Canadian neighbors. Remember to be nice.

Here we are in crunch time and it occurred to me: Why hasn’t the first principle of medical care itself – ”First, do no harm“ – not been the rallying cry of conservative, common sense opposition to federal takeover of health care? Not just rallying cry, but conservatives’ rhetorical cudgel-of-choice to wield against proponents of this massive (395,096-word) and massively unpopular piece of socialistic legislation.

The question has been posed as an echo, not a sound. Last December one piece at NR asked the question, armed with facts but otherwise almost absent-mindedly. A couple of weeks ago The Economist posed the question, but in terms of doing no harm to the environment! Lest we forget, Ronald Reagan set the standard for conversational, statesmanly, detailed criticism of national health care programs with an LP record opposing Medicare

and in his most-famous debate zinger against Jimmy Carter (Clip 1).

A generation later, the Paul Krugmans of the world swat down aspiring conservative leaders when they draw on this legacy. Keith Olbermann criticizes supporters of the Democrats’ health care bill for “largely fail[ing] to understand the terror, the fear of death, that underlies this debate.” Note to Olby: the government is not responsible for managing or mitigating the one struggle shared by every individual.

So in the final hours of the Democratic health care reform debate, let 216 Congressmen draw on that Reagan gravitas and charm. When the vote comes around, let them intone:

First, do no harm…. Second, do no harm…. Third, do no harm….

all the way up to

217th, do no harm.

—–

Jeremiah Duboff blogs as Jeremayakovka.

Saying that Bart Stupak is a “principled pro-lifer” who has been “snookered” by Barack Obama is giving Bart Stupak too much credit.

The only people surprised that Bart Stupak is caving live in one of the 49 states not named Michigan.

Bart Stupak has used his pro-life credentials to appear more moderate than he is for some time.  He got his 15 minutes of fame during this debate.  Don’t forget he voted for Obamacare the first time because he BELIEVES in it, not just as a deal for passing the ban on abortion funding.

As for his vaunted “principles,” Bart Stupak is a joke among the Michigan congressional delegation.  Among the reasons for that is he is a former State Trooper who is still collecting a full disability pension for a knee injury sustained while chasing down a suspect.  However, he is now regularly the MVP and high scorer on the Congressional Democrats’ basketball team.

Investing hope in Bart Stupak was always a sucker’s game.

It looks like pro-life Democrat Bart Stupak has lied to Americans in opposition to the current health care bill. He never intended to vote against the legislation when it came down to final vote. Listen to this video of  Bart Stupak recorded last year, when he was unaware he was being recorded.

Hat Tip to Stand In The Gap and Gateway Pundit

For those who aren’t familiar with Star Wars, Jar Jar Binks was an annoying, good guy character in the prequel Star Wars trilogy.  Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) has been annoying to the Left but a good guy by those against Obamacare until now.  With Stupak’s dramatic switch to support of the Senate version of the health care bill, he appears to be mirroring a similarly pivotal mistake that Jar Jar Binks made in Star Wars.

Jar Jar was a goof ball, but played a major role as a hero in Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in fighting off the Trade Federation.  However, in Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Jar Jar had a small but very significant role.  Jar Jar stood before the Senate of planets and gave a speech convincing the majority to grant Chancellor Palpatine vast emergency powers.  Fans of Star Wars knew that Palpatine was actually an evil Sith Lord named Darth Sidious, and Jar Jar’s act gave Palpatine the power he needed to become a totalitarian emperor.  Jar Jar thought he was helping his people, but his act actually led to the demise of freedom.

Let me say it again: Bart Stupak is Jar Jar Binks.  Stupak had been been a hero to all those who have stood up against the march towards socialism that is government takeover of health care.  Up until today, Stupak proclaimed that he would lead a small group of Democrats to vote against the Senate version of health care reform.  He would only change his vote if there were significant changes to remove government funding of abortion that was in the bill.  As reported earlier, President Obama convinced Stupak’s group to vote for the bill by promising to sign an executive order that he claims guarantees no funding of abortion.

Stupak’s Democrats announced at 4pm today in a press conference that the executive order was enough for them.  And their swing in votes now ensures that Obamacare will pass.  The Democrats clearly have the 216 votes they need to pass the health care bill.  In fact, some claim that they have more than enough and now some Democrats will be allowed to vote against it just to help them keep their seats in the November elections.

Today Congressman Jar Jar Stupak has handed about 1/5th of  our economy over to the US government.  And he did so solely based on the word of President Obama.  The problem is that an executive order can be rescinded tomorrow or by the next President.  There are no guarantees at all that abortion will not be covered by federal dollars with this new health care legislation.  There are other problems with the executive order that I and David Swindle have previously reported on.

Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) responded to the issue well.

“It is disappointing that 30 year pro-life Democrats would trade in their views for a piece of paper from the most pro-abortion President in American history.” -Mike Pence (my rough transcript from television interview)

Congressman Dr. Paul Broun (R-GA and an M.D.) was even more blunt.

“If you vote for this bill you can never call yourself pro-life again.” – Rep. Paul Broun

Stupak who has been thrown under the bus for months by people like Rachel Maddow, Michael Moore, and countless Democrats has now become their hero.  Stupak was supposed to be the conservative fire wall against Obamacare and may now prove to be the man who set the match to the Constitution.

From Politically Incorrect:

In the Copenhagen township of Nørrebro that has been solidly in Muslim hands for a long time, Jews must hide their faith in order to avoid persecution. Yellow stars get stuck to the backs of Norwegian schoolchildren, and the teachers don’t intervene. In the “enriched” Swedish town of Malmö, many Jewish families have already fled (PI reported).

In all of Scandinavia, the persecution of Jews by “persons from the Near East” has increased enormously. The Frankfurter Rundschau reports:
The attacks escalated in the previous year, when 200 Jewish demonstrators held rallies for peace and compassion for the civilian victims of both sides but were hounded out of the place by an even larger group of Palestinian counter-demonstrators with rocks, bottles and Molotov cocktails

Teachers and parents reported on Norwegian TV that the class instruction about the Holocaust was boycotted and statements like “The Jews were behind 9/11″ went unanswered. When one pupil complained that he was mortally threatened because he was a “Jewish pig,” the teacher dismissed him with the statement that these things could happen to anyone.

Read the rest here.

Rep. Bart Stupak cannot see the forest for the trees.

The principled* pro-life Democrat recently announced his surrender to Obamacare. He will vote for the bill because of a promised executive order to prevent funding for abortion.

My friend Paul Cooper has pointed out that President Obama’s executive order could easily be rescinded. That’s only part of the story, though.

What Stupak does not seem to be able to comprehend is this: if you want to prevent the federal government from paying for abortions then you MUST be opposed to anything that will lead to a single-payer healthcare system. And that’s all this bill really is. That’s all it’s ever been: Obama’s pragmatic, brilliant move to eventually get America into a single-payer system. This is just the Democrats’ first steps toward implementing a system in which the federal government pays for everyone’s health care (and radically raises our taxes, restricts our freedom, and eventually bankrupts our nation.)

That’s what 60% of Democrat voters and a comparable number of Democrat politicians actually want and are now much, much closer to achieving in our lifetime. When the federal government is not just paying for SOME abortions but for ALL abortions then each of those dead fetuses can be laid at Stupak’s feet. He will be responsible. (And as many NRB readers might know I’m not a pro-life culture warrior in any fashion but I still don’t want the federal government paying for abortions.)

The man’s been snookered. And such is the common fate of all who are cowardly enough to try and carve out a political home in that nebulous zone known as “the political Center.”

*UPDATE: David Forsmark sets me straight on Stupak In the Trenches. My post is revised accordingly.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) has announced his small group of Democrat pro-life voters are swinging their votes to support Obamacare.  His reasoning is based on an Obama Executive Order that will supposedly keep the new health care bill from paying for abortions.

Pro-life groups have warned that this move is smoke and mirrors and that the Executive Order is not enough. The Susan B. Anthony list explains:

1. An executive order can be rescinded any time. President Obama could reverse it next week, next month, or next year. Should another pro-abortion president be elected in the future, it could be rescinded on inauguration day.

2. An executive order will not prevent insurance companies that provide abortion from participating in the exchanges.

3. Abortion funding in the health care legislation can be only be removed using the legislative process. An executive order not only doesn’t fix the problem, it isn’t needed to fix the problem, and could not stand a legal challenge. If Democrats are serious about protecting taxpayers from funding abortion in the health care bill, they must use the legislative process to fix the problem.

Barring unseen events, this should give Democrats enough votes to vote in the Senate health care bill.  Stupak, who has been viciously attacked by the Left will now become their hero.  With the latest Fox News poll showing only 30% of Americans supporting this bill, has representative government just died?

David Shuster has…problems. Not the least of which is his inability to conduct an interview with an ideological adversary with any level of professionalism. And by “professionalism” I mean refraining from engaging in personal feuds and/or accusing the Clintons of “pimping out” their daughter. More recent incidents have included an on-air fight in January with Andrew Breitbart and a “twitter fight” with Breitbart’s associate (and ACORN slayer) James O’Keefe. Oh, the maturity.

It is speculated that after the incident, Shuster’s twitter privileges were revoked by MSNBC. An MSNBC spokesperson told Politico that the comments were inappropriate and that they had talked to Shuster about them. However, the news outlet has issued “no comment” on whether they took action to prohibit him from tweeting. Shuster has not used twitter for nearly four weeks following the dispute except for some rather enigmatic messages last Tuesday.

The tweets look to be direct messages inadvertently disseminated to all his followers and were later deleted. He said:

Thanks shag. I hope to get the green light to twitter again soon. Cheers. d

This was followed by:

– Thankyou. I appreciate it. I’m hoping mgmnt will revisit the twitter issue soon. Thx again 4 your great support.

– Problems with direct text function.

– Yes

Oops! Is it telling when even MSNBC is embarrassed by your unhinged leftist zealotry? When asked about the tweets, MSNBC again said, “no comment.”

Steve Brusk of CNN just tweeted:
“Stupak says “getting there” on language with White House lawyers…no deal yet.”

The abortion issue is the hinge on which a group of pro-life Democrats swing their ‘yes’ or ‘no’ votes.

Fox News’s Major Garrett is reporting that the Obama administration are trying to first see if they can get the votes without passing an executive order on abortion funding.

The United States is at war with al-Qaida. Al-Qaida carried out the attack on the World Trade Center that killed 3,000 Americans. Al-Qaida is killing Americans in Iraq and elsewhere. So one would think the fact that al-Qaida has found a powerful ally would be a big story in the American media and by a big priority for setting off U.S. government anger.

And this would be especially so if that was explained by one of the most respected men in the country, a man who has access to the highest-level intelligence.

Not at all.

Read the full article.