SDS History vs. Clinton Dynasty History

Even when he attended Oxford University in the late 1960s, 2008 Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Rodham-Clinton’s husband, Bill, apparently did not impress most U.S. radical activists as being that ethical a guy. According to a former classmate of Bill Clinton, “a `long-haired hippie type’ who had been active in Students for a Democratic Society [SDS] used to reproach Clinton for paying only lip service to the antiwar movement” and “Clinton…was perceived as a `hypocrite, a faker, and a phony, because he wouldn’t stand up for his convictions.’” (On The Make by Meredith Oakley)

During his 1982 campaign for Arkansas governor, some observers also apparently accused the campaign of Hillary’s husband of “buying” African-American votes to secure Bill’s margin of victory. According to On The Make:

“An analysis of [1982] election returns and voting patterns revealed that black voters had given Clinton the winning edge. They had turned out in record numbers…only voting for governor. The conventional wisdom was that `street money’ distributed to local black leaders had produced the turnout…It was…taken for granted that in some communities, particularly in the Delta, black voters were for sale and had been bought. Certainly, Democratic supporters chauffeured many poor and elderly voters, blacks and whites, to the polls…”

In the same book, Oakley also stated that “During the many years I covered his political activities in Arkansas…I documented the numerous falsehoods, broken promises, and ruses, some of which never saw their way into print” and “Clinton fans are difficult to find in Arkansas.”

(Downtown 11/23/94)

Next: University of Minnesota’s DARPA War Research

IDA's 21st-Century Weapons Research Work

In the 21st-century ‘era of permanent war” and blogging, the Institute for Defense Analyses [IDA] continues to do weapons research work for the U.S. war machine. On its web site at www.ida.org, IDA revealed, for instance, that after the Pentagon “lost about 100 helicopters from fall 2001 to spring 2005” in Afghanistan and Iraq, it “asked IDA to examine available data and records to identify why the helicopters were lost and to develop options for reducing future losses.”

IDA researchers found that “about one-third” of Pentagon helicopter losses in Afghanistan and Iraq “were due to engagements by enemy forces, which primarily used shoulder-fired missiles, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), and small arms.” IDA’s weapons research study then “identified several options” for the Pentagon “to improve rotorcraft survivability” in still-occupied Iraq, “including: enhancing the onboard countermeasures suite to counter shoulder-fired missiles; modifying tactics and procedures to minimize exposure to RPGs and small arms;” and “developing a lightweight sensor package integrated with software-based terrain avoidance to improve aircrew performance in degraded environments.”

University of South Carolina President Emeritus John Palms, University of Texas at Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs Professor Edwin Dorn, MIT Institute Professor Sheila Widnall, MIT and Harvard University Broad Institute Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Programs Director Jill Mesirov and Harvard University JFK School of Government Lecturer in Public Policy John White all currently sit on the IDA board of trustees.

Next: SDS History vs. Clinton Dynasty History

"Waitin' For The People"

Oh, I’m waitin’ for the people to strike at my foes
And I’m hopin’ that the students will change the world well
So in our parks we’ll dance
And on our streets we’ll kiss.

And I’m down on professors who try to put me down
And I think it’s so stupid to always strut around
Just give me some peace to play
And someone to love today.

Their careers are wastelands, they live selfishly
I’m working to make ideals realities
As long as one baby is murdered
To bull-shit in class is wrong.

And down with all artists who have no concern
For people who are starved by Amerika
I ain’t no poet or singer
I’m just a rebel bored worker.


To listen to "Waitin' For The People" folk song, you can click on following music site link:

http://www.last.fm/music/Bob+A.+Feldman/Protest+Folk+Songs/Waiting+for+the+People

This protest folk song was written in a Bronx slum apartment between October 1970 and July 1971.

Next: IDA’s 21st-Century Weapons Research Work

Kunstler And The '60s

In My Life As A Radical Lawyer, the now-deceased William Kunstler summarized some lessons of the 1960s:

“Looking back, I realize that the individuals and groups that protested and dissented were all part of one enormous struggle against evil…

“During that decade, we made great strides in civil rights, checking the power of government, and all human rights. But we have to keep working not to lose ground and to continue gaining. If we don’t fight, evil will win…We certainly can’t trust the government to protect us. This is because the American judiciary, from the Supreme Court on down, and the rest of the system are not friends of the people…

“The struggle continues today, although more subtly than in the ‘60s…

“If the ‘60s taught me anything, from the South in the early years to Chicago in 1969 and after, it is that those with power will never quit, that the Establishment will not rest until it roots out and destroys all opposition.”

In concluding his 1994 autobiography, Kunstler observed that “I would like to be remembered as someone who did what I wanted to do with my life, who did it with some other end in view than the mere acquisition of tangible, material goods, who had some effect on the lives of people that I touched” and “who contributed…to the holding on to whatever rights and liberties are still available to Americans.”

(Downtown 9/20/95)

Next: Waitin’ For The People lyrics

MIT's War Research In 2007

Besides being represented on the Pentagon’s Institute for Defense Analyses [IDA] weapons research think-tank board of trustees by two Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] professors, MIT also continues to do war research for the U.S. war machine in 2007. As Bryan Bender noted in a February 27, 2006 article on the Boston Globe’s http://www.boston.com/ site, which was headlined “Pentagon to invest $3 million in MIT bomb research,” the Pentagon is “staking a $3 million investment on a small team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students to help the military.”

The MIT war research project is being led by MIT chemistry professor Keith A. Nelson and funded by the Pentagon’s Office of Naval Research. The goal of MIT Professor Nelson’s research project is “to pinpoint how the so-called improvised explosive devices—known as IEDs—work and find techniques to detonate or short-circuit them” by “studying the molecular composition of explosive materials,” according to the Boston Globe article.

In his February 27, 2006 article, Bryan Bender also reported that the Pentagon “believes the highly controlled experiments underway at MIT and two research partners—Washington State University and Michigan Tech—have significant promise to bear results” and that “the funding is part of a military program, called the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative.” IEDs, according to the Globe, “pose one of the most nettlesome problems” for the Pentagon troops that have still not been withdrawn from occupied Iraq by the U.S. Establishment’s Bush Administration.

Since the Bush Administration began its military occupation of Iraq in 2003, the value of MIT’s Pentagon war research contracts has jumped from $300 million to over $500 million.

Next: Kunstler And The ‘60s

Shifting Gears

Shifting Gears

Now that I’ve finished posting Sundial: Columbia SDS Memories on this blog, I’m going to shift gears a little. I’ll be posting more information about recent Institute for Defense Analyses [IDA] weapons research projects and examples of how U.S. universities collaborate with the U.S. war machine in the 21st-century. I’ll also be posting alternative current news about Columbia University.

Since 1970, I’ve written many protest folks songs, so I’ll also be posting the lyrics to some of these songs from time to time on this blog.

Finally, I’ll be posting (when they still seem relevant) some of the column items and articles that I wrote between 1990 and 1997 for the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative newsweekly Downtown that you may have missed.

Next: MIT’s War Research In 2007

Sundial: Columbia SDS Memories: Epilogue: From Berkeley To Kent State

Epilogue: Columbia SDS Memories: From Berkeley To Kent State

From news of the Berkeley revolt to the Columbia revolt to news of Ted’s death to news of Kent State in less than 6 years. Within these years are my Columbia SDS memories. Freedom Now and World Peace and Equality had not been won yet. And the 1960s had still not brought me the sustained romantic love relationship I had hoped to discover with Rona in 1965. But I had learned the truth about U.S. society and I felt that I was one of its un-indicted outlaws, in some ways.

The time between the Berkeley Student Revolt and the Kent State Massacre had revealed why a Revolution was necessary in the United States for a genuinely democratic society to be established within its borders. The test of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 21st-century was whether my generation could collectively make that Revolution happen, despite the intensified repression that the U.S. imperialist Establishment appeared willing to lay on us, in order to try to turn us into docile, but cheerful, robots—as we aged.

Seize their TV
Then speak freely.

Turn 2008 into 1968.

All Power to the People!

THE END