Kennedy falls for library hoax
 

Better Read Than Ted
Yesterday's Boston Globe featured an op-ed by Sen. Ted Kennedy* in which he huffs and puffs about jackbooted government thugs:

"Just this past week there were public reports that a college student in Massachusetts had two government agents show up at his house because he had gone to the library and asked for the official Chinese version of Mao Tse-tung's Communist Manifesto. Following his professor's instructions to use original source material, this young man discovered that he, too, was on the government's watch list.

"Think of the chilling effect on free speech and academic freedom when a government agent shows up at your home--after you request a book from the library."

First of all, "The Communist Manifesto" was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848, not by Mao, who wasn't born until 1893. More important, this story appears to be a hoax. Here's the American Library Association's statement:

A senior at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth says he was visited at his parents' home by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security who were investigating why he had requested a book by former Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong through interlibrary loan. The student, who has asked university officials to shield his identity, told two UMD history professors that the incident took place in late October or early November after he attempted to obtain a copy of the first English edition of the Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, published in Beijing in 1966 and popularly known in China as the "Little Red Book," for a class on communism.

The story broke in the December 17 New Bedford Standard-Times as the result of an interview with UMD faculty members Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, who mentioned the incident as an example of government monitoring of academic research. Williams told American Libraries, "The student told me that the book was on a watch list, and that the books on this list had changing status. Mao was on the list at the time, hence the visit, which was also related to his time abroad." . . .

The UMD chancellor's office released a statement December 19 that said, "At this point, it is difficult to ascertain how Homeland Security obtained the information about the student's borrowing of the book. The UMass Dartmouth Library has not been visited by agents of any type seeking information about the borrowing patterns or habits of any of its patrons." Chancellor Jean F. MacCormack stated, "It is important that our students and our faculty be unfettered in their pursuit of knowledge about other cultures and political systems if their education and research is to be meaningful."

Kirk Whitworth, a spokesman for the DHS--the U.S. cabinet department that oversees the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the Secret Service, and Citizenship and Immigration Services, among others--said in the December 21 Standard-Times that the story seemed unlikely. "We're aware of the claims," he said. "However, the scenario sounds unlikely because investigations are based on violation of law, not on the books and individual[s who] might check [them] out from the library."

An earlier report that the incident occurred at the University of California at Santa Cruz has proven false.

TedKennedy.com, the senator's re-election Web site, features a comment attributed to Mary Jo Kopechne: "Teddy lied while I died." It's probably not really her, but it's about as believable as Ted's tales.

- OJ (great source for real news)

"Used with permission from OpinionJournal.com, a web site from Dow Jones & Company, Inc."

Ted Kennedy is a Putch!:mad:

He is the biggest Free Loader if not one of the Biggest in Legislative History.

He should have been gone after Mary Jo, the lying sack of Crap!:mad:

Respect, He should have None!:mad: Why The Peeps In Mass. Keep Him There is totally beyond Me!:rolleyes:

And, this is actually the reason the I worry about the Patriot Act and G Ws NSA Wire Tapping!

Start Small and Grow like a spider web.

Re: Kennedy falls for library hoax
 

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Re: Kennedy falls for library hoax
 

I just don't get why he still has a position after all these years.

What exactly does he give the people he represents that they would keep giving him the vote? Is it the Irish-Catholic thing? Because there have to be better Irish-Catholics out there if that's the case. He's not even attractive (not that I would know what makes a man attractive) like JFK or his son.

-Rudey

Re: Re: Kennedy falls for library hoax
 

You're right, and I have added the necessary source info. Is this now correct?

Am I just too tired? Where does it say that this alleged situation is a hoax.

I read that a government spokesperson says it is "unlikely" that this happened. That's not proof. Is it?

I hope it is a hoax, but I don't see proof, unless I'm missing something fairly substantial.

(I also don't see anything to prove it's true.)

As for Kennedy, he's Irish Catholic and an incumbant of many years. What else does it take to get elected in Mass?

More to the point, he's a Democrat and his last name is Kennedy. He makes local appearances, and The Boston Globe loves him. Their editorial page is better than any press office he could build.

Re: Re: Kennedy falls for library hoax
 

Listen, we all know you think Bobby is attractive. It's okay to admit it.

-AXiD670
--Feelings like those are perfectly natural.

I was going to say, the Kennedy's are like royalty around here..

I've never seen anything like it; you combine the "local boy" aspect with the name and the tremendous amount of money he can raise, and I think he'll be in office for the rest of his life.

It's Mao or Never
"The UMass Dartmouth student who claimed to have been visited by Homeland Security agents over his request for 'The Little Red Book' by Mao Zedong has admitted to making up the entire story," reports the Standard-Times of New Bedford, Mass.:

The 22-year-old student tearfully admitted he made the story up to his history professor, Dr. Brian Glyn Williams, and his parents, after being confronted with the inconsistencies in his account.

"Used with permission from OpinionJournal.com, a web site from Dow Jones & Company, Inc."

So it was a hoax.

Had the student made his "tearful confession" before Kennedy responded in the paper?

Or, was it still considered a legitmate story?

Did Kennedy wait for an investigation?

Or perhaps he and Mao share something in common - guilty until proven innocent?

-Rudey

From all we can tell from the quoted article, he didn't wait for an investigation, but neither did he level any charges. He talks about "reports" and a potentially "chilling effect."

I'm not a Ted Kennedy fan at all. I think he's a blowhard.

I'm also not a fan of misleading thread topics. I think this is probably one.

There were "reports" that Ted Kennedy and John Kerry were shameless traitors.

Adding those few words to the beginning doesn't exactly give someone freedom to make accusations or protect them from criticism when they are wrong afterwards. Perhaps if they waited to find out if the claims were correct or even investigated them to see which way the truth leaned, it might make their use more acceptable.

-Rudey