Kent State University: Plans To Open Recruiting Office In China

KENT, Ohio (TDB) -- KentNewsNet.com says Kent State University is "poised to establish a presence in China," including a recruiting office to bring new foreign students to the campus in Ohio. The move comes at a time when state officials from Gov. Ted Strickland on down have been pushing for more Ohioans to attend college. They have argued that a more educated population at home will help the state compete better in the global economy; and one of the major competitors is China.

KSU officials seem to be intent on aiding China. Steve Michael, vice provost for diversity, is in charge of the state school's initiative.

"It is one of the fasted growing economies in the world with over a billion people who are determined to speak English and determined to move their economy forward."

Kent State Shooting Victim Memorialized: Idiots Say Death Came 37 Years Late

KENT, Ohio -- "Well, he got his wish. He wanted to disappear!"

That's what somebody calling themselves thinblueline posted on a Website about James Russell, a former Kent State University student who was shot May 4, 1970 on the campus during Vietnam War protests. Four died and nine, including Russell, survived wounds from Ohio National Guard gunfire. Russell passed away June 23 in Oregon, but was memorialized at KSU this weekend after classes ended Friday evening. He was a witness during several years of legal proceedings that followed the shootings and was an anti-war activist until the end of his life. [Note: The picture above is from Kent State's files, and was taken the day of the shootings.]

Videos of some of Russell's remarks over the years were played at the memorial ceremony and he said in one:

"I discovered the legal system is not the justice system. It's weird, every time I come here I'm back in 1970."

Thinblueline was full of hate in a comment posted on the Web site of the Kent-Ravenna Record Courier, whose reporter Matthew Fredmonsky covered the ceremony for James Russell. Thinblueline said:

"Blood brother my ass. He wouldn't have been injured if he would have obeyed the law and left the campus when ordered."

Another commenter called DoWhatIsRight was equally scornful.

"I am sick and tired of these troublemakers being treated as some big shot. In my opinion, they went looking for trouble and found it. The true facts of this act was in the Portage County Grand Jury's investigation. The one that the Federal government destroyed."

There are plenty of archival law enforcement records available about the shootings, including these 78 pages of Ohio Highway Patrol reports. The reports include interviews of witnesses at Kent State on the day the National Guard opened fire.

Ohio Editor Quits To Teach Ethics At Kent State: Here's A Question, Prof

CLEVELAND (TDB) -- Tom O'Hara steps down today as managing editor of The Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, and is headed to academia where he'll teach ethics and open government at the Kent State University journalism school. O'Hara starts in January, and The Daily Bellwether is presenting a question he can wrestle with. Is it proper for an MSM journalist to become so involved in a statewide political campaign that she recruits and participates in the hiring of the campaign manager?

There's more (yes, it's a long question) -- the MSM news outlet has publicly declared its policy is neutrality.

This isn't a hypothetical. Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Connie Schultz did become involved in a campaign while she was picking up a weekly paycheck from a certain large metropolitan newspaper in this state. Guess who was the managing editor at the time? Schultz is the spouse of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Brown ran and defeated two-term Republican incumbent Mike DeWine in 2006, and Schultz has described how she helped put that campaign on track. Up until she helped land the campaign manager in mid-January 2006, she says, "Our campaign was a mess."

Shultz's choice for campaign manager: John Ryan, then president of the Cleveland AFL-CIO. Not everybody, of course, would agree that journalists should keep themselves out of an active role in politics. But it was enough of an issue in December 2005 that the newspaper's former editor, Doug Clifton, wrote na explanatory note to readers:

"She has a keen understanding of the delicate position she -- and our paper -- are in. She understands that she can't both campaign for her husband and write a column. And I understand that she is a supportive spouse who will be at her candidate husband's side from time to time."

Turns out, the understanding apparently was designed for public events, not behind-the-scenes campaigning. Here's what Connie writes in her book . . . and His Lovely Wife about her involvement in the selection process of Brown's campaign manager. The account is on pages 44 and 45:

'John Ryan believes in you,' I said.
'John Ryan believes in the work,' Sherrod said.
'You can trust him.'
Sherrod nodded. 'Nobody works harder than John Ryan.'
Sherrod walked upstairs to his office and made the call.
He came downstairs, his face clouded.
'He's thinking about it,' he said. 'He's not sure he's up to it.'

Connie says that Ryan remembers that she called him immediately. She does not remember the call, but adds that if Ryan says it happened it did.

According to John Ryan, I picked up the phone and dialed his cell number.
'John Ryan?'
'Hey, Connie. Hi.'
'I know Sherrod just called you, and I know what he wants you to do.'
'Okay. Well, I'm going to give it a lot of thought --'
'Look, John Ryan. If this is about your family, then I understand why you can't do this. But otherwise I don't want to hear it. We need you.'
And then John Ryan says I hung up on him.

Ryan took the job. Connie was still working at her newspaper.

Here's some bio and background information about Tom O'Hara that was in a memo to The Plain Dealer's staff. H/T Jim Romenesko who publishes a journalism blog for the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank.

Again, the question raised by Connie's report of her involvement in recruiting and selecting Sherrod Brown's campaign manager goes to whether a journalist owes allegiance to journalism, or to partisan politics. By day, can one be an MSM journalist working for an ostensibly neutral news gathering organization, and by night be an insider hiring the people who run a U.S. Senate campaign? Are the dual roles inherently conflicted? What has first allegiance; journalism or the campaign?

Kent State University Gives Big Play To Islamic Prof (Not That Islamic Prof)

KENT, Ohio (TDB) -- The current issue of Kent State University's alumni magazine has a major write up about Nowal Ammar, a Muslim woman and professor of Justice Studies who says her religion is not violent though many Islamic nations are wracked by violence. The article appeared while another faculty member is under fire for suspected ties to violent jihadists.

Ammar is an expert on honor killings, a barbaric practice. Women are put to death by fathers or brothers in places like Pakistan and Jordan if they lose their virginity outside marriage. Rape is no excuse. The woman dies and the male attacker often remains unharmed. Sexual assault means the female has been defiled and her family's honor soiled.

KSU is the home of another Muslim faculty member, Julio Pino, who has drawn the interest of Pho's Akron Pages and The Plain Dealer. The school portrays Ammar as a heroine who advocates for immigrant women's rights and deplores a practice -- honor killing -- that she says predates her own Muslim faith.

"Islam is not a violent religion. Sadly, though, Muslims have used violence for political reasons. While a number of countries with Muslim majorities are suffering from poverty, war and occupation, the use of violence is not a justifiable means to the just and deserving causes in many Muslim communities."

KSU's report says the actual number of women killed in honor killings is unknown, but that in Jordan -- an Islamic nation -- honor killings could account for one-third of all violent deaths. Pakistan has had more than 2,000 since 1998. The KSU article says:

"Honor killings also have occurred in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Ecuador, Italy, Sweden and the United States. However, these killings often remain a private, family affair, so an accurate picture of the practice and its frequency does not exist."

Strange coincidence that KSU has two profs making news at the same time about Islam?

Kent State University Denies Links to 'Jihadist' Professor Web Site

KENT, Ohio (TDB) -- Kent State University issued a statement today that strongly denies any involvement with an Islamic jihadist Web site that openly supports terrorist groups and Osama bin Laden's goals in Muslim world.

"Julio Pino, an associate professor of history at Kent State University, is being accused of authoring an anti-American Web site. This site has no connection to Kent State, and we object to having the university's name linked to it," the statement says. It was issued as an uproar develops over suggestions that the that the NE Ohio school could have looked the other way while a faculty member advocated slaughtering Americans. Rightwingers are disseminating the story at the speed of light, and even some liberals and centrists are wondering what was going on in Portage County.

[UPDATE: The latest from The Plain Dealer's Jesse Tinsley says Pino's comments about suicide bombers earlier this decade triggered a flap. He also writes that KSU is issuing "cease and desist" orders to blog and other sources to stop them from linking the school to the jihadist news service. That wording indicates some kind of legal action may be in the works.]

[UPDATE 2: Pho's Akron Pages delves into the hubbub and says the incident leaves many questions to be answered. He's level headed.]

The school said it investigated and has so far found "no evidence that this Web site is authored by Pino -- that is NOT [original emphasis] his picture on the site, and it contains no reference to him or to Kent State. In any case, there is no connection between this site and the university."

It also said no school servers were used to create or maintain the site, and that hate mail and threats are coming in against Pino and Kent State. It did not say if any disciplinary action will be taken against the professor, who was described as a competent teacher who converted to Islam.

A link to the jihadist site that is at the root of the tumult is HERE , and it definitely seems to cheer when Americans are killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Matt Naugle at RightAngleBlog was first to break this story in the Ohio blogosphere, and he got the scoop from Townhall.com, a conservative operation that brought the issue to light in the first place.

Kent State U. Sex Poll: When Does 'No' Mean 'No'

KENT, Ohio (TDB) -- An interactive sex poll has been placed online by Kent State University's student newspaper and the question of the day is -- when does passion end and sexual battery begin. The campus is being gauged about the moment that consensual intimacy can into rape.

"What happens when a man and woman, or anyone for that matter, start having sex and then one of the partners changes his or her mind and the other person doesn't stop. Is that rape?" Commendably, the student newspaper editorial board that presents the sex poll also points out that love ought to be part of the equation, too.

The online poll is HERE , and when last checked the people who said one partner doesn't have to stop were in a slight majority. The Daily Kent Stater's editorial board raised the issue because some states -- Maryland and North Carolina -- say it is not rape if a woman consents then changes her mind. The editorial thinks that's a confusing legal standard than only muddle things up.

"We realize there is a difference between the violence of a sexual assault and a woman changing her mind. If a woman tells her partner to stop, that should be the end of it. It doesn't matter if she wanted to at first; if either partner is unwilling to have sex, then it shouldn't happen, no matter how passionate the moment," the editorial says.

Ohio Anti-War Rallies: Pentagon Spied In 2005

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- A federal appeals court in Cincinnati today will be the site of a legal showdown between Bush Administration and ACLU lawyers over the constitutionality of the NSA's now-abandoned warrantless eavesdropping program. But other government documents reveal the Pentagon monitored recent peace demonstrations, including an Akron protest in 2005 and another at Kent State University.

The ACLU obtained the records under the Freedom of Information Act last year via a U.S. District Court lawsuit in Pennsylvania. The documents contain summarized information about 186 "anti-military protests or demonstrations in the U.S." The Akron rally was described in a Pentagon database as possibly affiliated with terrorism. -- even though the plan was merely to read names of slain American troops.

''Protests against the war in Iraq were a common trigger for TALON reporting," the ACLU said. "For example, a protest entitled 'Stop the War NOW!' was reported as a potential terrorist threat in a March 2005 TALON. The TALON describes the protest, aimed at a military recruiting station and federal building in Akron, Ohio, as including a rally, march and "Reading of Names of War Dead."

A Kent State University event scheduled by Veterans For Peace also was monitored by the Pentagon even though the St. Louis-based organization is described as a "peaceful anti-war/anti-military organization." VFP does believe that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be impeached for the war. Could that have made the group a target of monitoring?

The ACLU considers the government's efforts to track anti-war activities part of a broader infringement on personal liberty. In others words, in a free society it is not the business of the military or spy agencies to poke around gathering data about citizens and lawful activities.

"The Pentagon's misuse of the TALON database must be viewed in the wider context of increased government surveillance," the ACLU said. "With the help of phone companies, the National Security Agency has been tapping phones and reading e-mail without a warrant. The FBI has gathered information about peace activists, and recruited confidential informants inside groups like Greenpeace and PETA. All of these actions are part of a broad pattern of the executive branch using "national security" as an excuse for encroaching on the privacy and free speech rights of Americans without adequate oversight."

A complete version of the ACLU's report is HERE. It is not clear yet how much of an airing the NSA eavesdropping will receive before the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today. Some legal strategists in the Justice Department contend the case in moot, and the government has tried to cloak the dispute in a national security mantle.