As reported a few days ago, the College Republicans have been considering bringing Jim Gilchrist, co-founder and president of the Minuteman Project—a controversial group aiming to stop illegal immigration—back to speak at Columbia.

For those of you who don’t remember Gilchrist’s last visit to campus in October 2006, violence broke out between a group of protestors and some of Gilchrist’s supporters. The ensuing controversy dominated the national media for some time.

Now, Spec has spoken to Gilchrist, who has expressed a great deal of interest in returning. According to Gilchrist, he’s “been in touch with [the College Republicans], and they have given [him] an overture of interest but no formal invitation.” The topic of the speech would reportedly be a combination of immigration and free speech—the latter being relevant to Columbia, according to Gilchrist, because “free speech on the campus environment has been compromised by indoctrination.”

Gilchrist candidly remarks on the incidents that occurred during his last visit: “I expect next time will be less rabble-rousing and more interest in listening with mature debate and questioning.” In addition, Gilchrist himself (or at least whoever controls his Facebook account) left a lengthy comment on the Spectator article, included below.

Read Gilchrist’s comment

Ahmadinejad at Columbia circa 2007

It began innocently enough. The Columbia International Relations Council and Association (CIRCA, formerly known as Model UN) announced to their members that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (who gave a speech at Columbia in 2007), in town for the United Nations General Assembly, had invited them to a dinner on September 21st (the logistics of this invitation are unclear). Bwog has obtained a copy of the email sent to the CIRCA listerv. Here’s an excerpt:

II. DINNER WITH IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD
When: Wednesday, September 21
Time: 6:30 PM
Where: Midtown
Why: To learn about Iran from her president! Noting high demand for
this event, will be accepting names of interested CIRCA members on a
first-come-first-serve basis. We cannot guarantee spots. Please email
CIRCA Vice President of Academics, Tim Chan (timars.chan@gmail.com),
with your name, school, and class year. If you are a veteran CIRCA
member, please briefly list your involvements with the club.

Soon after, Spec wrote a story about the planned meeting, which did not make clear whether or not the meal was actually confirmed, or simply a possibility. Their article, like everything else relating to this situation, was not without controversy. The Spec article includes a quote from Tim Chan, CIRCA’s Vice-President of Academic Affairs. Rhonda Shafei, CIRCA’s president, tells Bwog that Chan tried to retract his comments before the story was published in the print edition of the paper (although the story had been published online for over a day), but Spec refused. Otherwise, CIRCA had no comment on the story.

Spec’s article brought the planned dinner to the attention of national media, including Fox News and The New York Post, who accused Columbia students of “dining with a madman” and being desperate for attention.
Read more…

Any business operator knows that if you kill your rival, you might get his customers. It’s just that who knew Mr. Softee was so cutthroat? (Gothamist)

If you drink and drive, bad things may happen. Luckily for you, you’ll be drunk, so everything will be fine. (Reuters)

If Teachers College says Bloomberg has no right to boast about rising graduation rates in NY public schools, then he’ll definitely stop doing it. (NY Daily News)

If you offer Blogging (or a “Master of Science” program at the J-School) people might be kind of interested.

And for those times when  Bedford, NY and Manhattan hotels alike slam the door in your face; “Silly despots,” dontcha know? If you want to pitch a Bedouin tent on U.S. soil, you pitch it outside of Low. (HuffPo, NY Post, Examiner)

The Helmsley Hotel has cancelled a banquet scheduled for next weekafter learning that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was expected to attend and speak.  Ahmadinejad, shown, growls toothily in response.  (NY Post)

The summer’s high incidence of shoplifting has inspired storeowners’ increased attention to security.  Filling your Tupperware with free salmon dip at Westside Market just got more exciting. (Spec)

Gay marriage-advocating politicians tell audience “politicians are weak.” Next week: do they really like kissing babies? (Spec)

NYC comptroller William Thompson is airing his first mayoral campaign ads today, and “he will receive a major political endorsement, from Gov. David A. Paterson, in Manhattan.” In other news, the word “major” has been redefined as “completely useless, will likely drag down the endorsed’s numbers.” (NYT)

A Connecticut school bus driver has been arrested after leaving a sleeping five-year-old alone on the floor of his bus for over an hour.  Now that’s just nasty… (1010WINS)

Apparently overjoyed with his previous New York sojourn, our overseas pal Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (we even remember how to spell that from the last go-around!) is returning to our fair city to attend the U.N.’s General Assembly in September.

According to Mahmoud himself, he’s coming around to “defend Iran’s rights” and remedy the “unjust” Western way of administrating international organizations.

Bnai Haman is going to have the most quasi-topical Purim ever. But first, some background: Bnai Haman is an activist group formed as a response to Bollinger, Bulliet, and Coatworth’s invitation of Iranian President Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia—an invitation which in their opinion never should have been extended. Purim is the Jewish holiday celebrating the Jews’ escape from Haman’s plot (yes, as in “Bnai Haman”) to slaughter all Jews living in the Persian Empire.

Which brings us to Bnai Haman’s Purim celebration, which will be Ahmadinejad-themed this year. Says a Bnai Haman spokeswoman: “And just as Haman found those in ancient Persia who would listen to his incitements, so too did Columbia University provide a platform for Ahmadinejad to espouse Israel’s destruction to a global media audience.”

Party-goers will dress as Bollinger, Bulliet, Ahmadinejad and Coatsworth. Perhaps the role of Esther can be re-interpreted as a certain nasally female translator?

Bwog was puzzled when news of a delegation of Columbia professors going to Iran to apologize to President Ahmadinejad for PrezBo’s performance in September appeared in our inbox yesterday. The article by the government-sponsored Mehr News agency cited only one anonymous source and seemed completely improbable, Bwog brushed it off as Iranian propaganda and went about its day. 

The New York Sun, however, ran a whole article (followed by a pro-PrezBo comment signed as CB9 chair Jordi Reyes-Montblanc) about the “visit,” which also made it into the pages of such reputable news outlets as the New York Times and Michigan Daily, as well as a handful of blogs. No professors confirmed the story, Richard Bulliet didn’t know anything about it, and a Columbia spokesman said the university “has no knowledge or information about the claims being made in the Iranian media.” Now City Room has a fat post on the non-story, consisting of multiple denials of the rumor and a rehash of the whole affair.

If any professors are planning to head east, they might not be professors for much longer, since PrezBo apparently banned official visits last month. Bwog suggests a telegram.

- LBD

How has 2007 been the year for Columbia’s prevalence within the mainsteam media? Let Bwog count thy ways…

Ahmadinejad’s remark about homosexuality in Iran (namely lack thereof) was noted in Salon‘s Year in Sex. The same comment was also included in City Room’s 2007 synopsis under the heading “Widely noted denial of sexual identity”, as well lists of 2007′s most memorable quotes according to The Guardian, AP, and Dave Barry.

Gothamist also included Columbia in its Top News of 2007. As well as the requisite nod to Ahmadinejad, the University was also noted for its rampant hate crimes and foray into Manhattanville. Go Lions?

In brief pockets, the press also recognized Columbia for its academics and not for its Ahmadinejad. We landed the #9 spot on US News and World Report’s annual ranking of America’s Best Colleges, while a right-wing resource for matters concerning American families, the succinctly-named Family Security Matters, honored Issues Dividing America as the 8th “Most Dangerous College Course in America.” All the godless communists out there with competitive streaks take note: You’re going to need to step it up a notch in order to match DePaul University’s Islam in Global Contexts course that was honored as #1.

To the protesters, supporters, studiers, slackers, liberals and conservatives, a warm thank you from the press.

The above picture is from The New York Times’ year in pictures. 

Remember Richard Bulliet? Remember the whole Ahmadinejad fiasco? Well history professor Bulliet was the one who extended the invite. Though for most people the drama has died down, some grudges remain. The site Richard W. Bulliet — Ratfink pretty much says it all. It’s even listed on Wikipedia as the “Unauthorized Richard W. Bulliet Homepage,” emphasis on the unauthorized.

Bulliet better be careful, someone actually spent money on a domain name to slander him. That means business.

A bit of late news that was recently brought to our attention: according to the ominously-titled website House of Bnai-Haman, September 24, 2007 will now permanently be referred to as “Columbia’s Day of Shame,” which the site asks to readers to make sure “is never forgotten.” Granted, the blog was actively updated for a grand total of two weeks, so we’re not sure how long people will remember such an appellation — never mind the nifty bit of poetry in the left hand column. Hey, at least its’s got those sister sites loaded and running (more or less, anyway).

He even makes up quotes from PrezBo himself! Here’s one selection:

“Since Hitler is no longer available and Amadinejad has already spoken, I want our students to have the chance to hear from this scummy scoundrel,” Bollinger said’ in a news release.

While Professor Constantine told news outlets covering the story that she found the incident “very personal and very degrading,” Bollinger said the feelings of all victims matter not.  “What counts,” Bollinger said, “is that in America, everyone from the corner grocer to the corner cannibal has his or her opportunity to besmirch the reputation of our campus.”

Now that would require some serious sensitivity training.

Well we’re giving them some anyway in light of the dapper gentleman they’ve chosen as their poster child (maybe Andy Samberg helped pick out the picture?). Oh, and their catchphrase is kinda clever in an inadvertently self-negating kind of way…

Also featured on CUCR posters for Friday’s Horowitz visitation: a man hanging from a rope and a woman being buried alive. Reminiscent of Hillel’s people who were active in Hillel but not posting on behalf of Hillel’s posters heralding Ahmadinejad, actually, but less colorful.

In case you were curious about what other things came up in the last 24 hours or so:

•   Robert Kraft, alumnus and New England Patriots owner extraordinaire, just donated a crapload of money to Columbia Athletics ($5 million, to be exact). Consequentially, Lawrence A. Wein Stadium has become the Stadium Formerly Known as Wein, AKA, Robert K. Kraft Field.

• Apparently another noose was found on a lamppost outside a ground zero post office yesterday afternoon. Indeed, no words can probably describe our reaction to this better than “WTF?”
• In case you were wondering on how much Professor Hamid Dabashi had to say on the Ahmadinejad/Bollinger face-off, he’s got a recent lengthy response to the incident in a Cairo publication. To cut it short: he’s not happy, and he mentions Rudyard Kipling.
• Former J-School visiting professor/VP Al Gore has been announced as co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (alongside the IPCC) for his fight with global warming. It’s kind of surreal, actually.

On a sidenote, the weather is suddenly much cooler, and there are many more people walking around campus with scarves than usual.

Put this one in PrezBo’s corner.

Sick of hearing about Ahmadinejad? Of course you are! But watch this anyway.

And are you sick of real estate tycoons conspiring with major universitites in order to mind-control unsuspecting students using electromagnetic satellites? Then you, my paranoid friend, have something in common with a former SIPA student who has spent the past week spamming dozens of news outlets with a “Letter to President Bollinger.”

Writes former American Prospect staffer and blogger David Maxwell Fine:

“In your introduction of the President of Iran you said, ‘Lastly, in universities (sic), we have a deep and almost single-minded commitment to pursue the truth.’ 

   

The truth happens to be that these satellite-broadcast advanced electromagnetic technologies that can control human anatomy and physiology are secretly influencing

our world in many ways today, up to the highest levels, and have been for decades.”

The culprit? Why who else but New York real estate magnate Robert Tishman, the criminal mastermind behind these “advanced satellite electromagnetic technologies which can control human anatomy, physiology, and the brain.”

Far be it for us to poke fun at this obviously-distressed (or, conversely, comedically ingenious) individual. We nevertheless note, in all seriousness, that this is probably the most cogent analysis of last week’s events that Bwog has come across.

-ARR

One week from the infamous day, we offer this SNL original. It’s no “Dick in a Box,” but it’s pretty close.

Andy Samberg and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, together at last.

Meanwhile, tipster Samiha Rahman pointed out that over on Capitol Hill (or rather California’s 52nd congressional district), Republican congressman/dubious quasi-misogynist Duncan Hunter has introduced a bill called the Restore Patriotism to University Campuses Act. Hunter hopes to prohibit federal grants to or contracts with Columbia, and draw more attention to his presidential campaign. Hunter, armed with only a ferocious distaste for logic, took a stance against Bollinger’s invitation of Ahmadinejad. “Through their invitation, Columbia University provided a public, prestigious platform on United States soil from which on September 24, 2007, President Ahmadinejad spoke and defended his wide-ranging support for terrorist activities,” Hunter wrote. Dick in a box, indeed.

- JNW