Mister Tredyffrin and Friends

This post is part of a series dealing with decisions made by our local newspapers this week:

• Part 1: Does Republican Candidate Tom Like Farm Animals?
• Part 2: All Hail C.T.
• Part 3: Debbie Nails Yale
• Part 4: An Editorial Decision

Debbie vs. the Taliban

So a concerned mother writes with a very reasonable request:

I have been pondering the up and coming election for the Tredyffrin/Easttown School Board. Debbie Bookstaber states on her blog: “If I were to be elected, I would represent all households – not just the Republican households. I don’t believe partisanship belongs in a school board campaign.” I think our voters should be aware that Mrs. Bookstaber has past ties with a group that proudly called themselves “Give Yale the Finger.”

Along with another former Yale alumni, Mrs. Bookstaber wanted to rally to have a certain student deported and thrown out of Yale for his beliefs, as they opposed her own.

Mrs. Bookstaber rose to immediate prominence in right-wing circles when John Fund of the Wall Street Journal published a letter she sent to Yale. That letter was published by Michelle Malkin, and the rest is history.

As a mother of three children in the district, I personally wouldn’t want someone with such strong ties and beliefs representing our youth. It would be an unbalanced representation on the board. It is a direct lie for Bookstaber to state that she is indeed representing all households. Her ties to Michelle Malkin and Steve Doocy are hardly open-minded. Our board needs a balanced board that serves the hearts and minds of not only our children but our educational staff. The balance of our board is imperative if we want to keep TE schools at the top and in a forward direction.

Having someone with such extreme thoughts and ties represent our board is not in the best interest of this school district. I’ll agree with Mrs. Bookstaber she is right – politics has no place on the school board.

Kelly J Hudson

Well done, Mrs. Hudson. The issue is a right-wing politico, who by the way served as a face for the university interviewing high school seniors, turning against the administration to air her own extreme views.

I honestly don’t know how evil this kid was. But we’re not talking about admitting him as an undergraduate, allowing him to matriculate for a degree, or anything like that. He wanted to take some courses, study, talk to people. Urged by an American friend at CBS, he explored the possibility of studying at Yale. After a lot of consideration, the University made a decision to allow this to happen.

No question that the Taliban are bad guys. It is a horrible, oppressive regime reknowned for its horrid treatment of women. So some, understandably, did not understand why the Yale chose to let this person study at the university.

So Clint Taylor and some of his friends, including Debbie Bookstaber, started a campaign to get rid of this Rahmatullah guy. As part of that campaign, they encouraged everyone to send red press-on nails to the university, recalling the alleged Taliban practice of yanking off the fingernails of women who wore nail polish. Many went further and sent in real human fingernail clippings. Disgusting.

The University responded by restating its goals and philosophy behind the admission:

Yale has allowed Mr. Hashemi to take courses for college credit in a part-time program that does not award Yale degrees. Contrary to what has been reported by some in the media, he has not been admitted as an undergraduate to Yale College or to any of the other schools at Yale.

We hope that his courses help him understand the broader context for the conflicts around the world. We acknowledge that some are criticizing Yale for allowing Mr. Hashemi to take courses here, but we hope that critics will also acknowledge that universities are places that must strive to increase understanding, especially of the most difficult issues that face the nation and the world.

According to the State Department, Ramatullah Hashemi was issued U.S. visas in 2004 and 2005, first on a tourist visa and then in 2005 on a student visa. The mandatory procedures were followed, which, in his case, included vetting through an interagency security clearance process. He was cleared by all agencies.

That didn’t stop Debbie. She essentially threw her alma mater under the bus for an education/administration decision, all because it went against her personal political beliefs. She made all the papers, was quoted in all the conservative blogs, was interviewed on a conservative Fox News program by Chris Wallace. Ann Coulter watch out! Here comes Debbie.

Agree with her or not, her methodology is extremely suspect. What will happen if she found something politically objectionable to her in a T/E school? Will she fly off in a similar manner and start a national Nail TE campaign? In the face of her fellow school board members and established education philosophy?

Yeah, that’s what we need. Her sense of priorities is clear. Politics first.

But enough about Debbie. How did the TTGOP-controlled Main Life Life respond when they received this letter? Well, let’s see. There’s a letter from Debbie about the issue right under Mrs. Hudson’s. She complains, “I understand that my involvement in that Yale Taliban protest is being misrepresented.” No one else has mentioned Nail Yale that I know of. A wild coincidence? Nah… I think they gave ole Debbie a call and let her know that there was a letter that she might not like was going to be published. And, by the by, would she like a chance to respond? In the same issue of the newspaper? What a joke. This kind of partisan journalism is simply an insult to our community’s intelligence.

So, just how did she respond? She avoided the issue and instead talked about how evil and bad Rahmatullah is. Whatever. Not the point, Debbie. And then she told people to google “Nail Yale” to get the real story. I, too, encourage folks to do just that. Go ahead. Go. I’ll wait. Did you take special notice of who’s web sites you end up at? What other stories are there? Hmmmm? It’s a virtual Who’s Who of right-wing nutcase blogs. “Nail Yale” was picked up by all those ultra-conservative web sites because it is an ultra-conservative story about ultra-conservatives.

What Main Line Life did was just plain wrong. Normally the object of a letter gets to respond in the next week’s paper. The TTDems were not called and invited to respond to T.C.’s blither. The candidate that J.D.’s campaign was horsing around with (down, Tom…) was not invited to make a response. A couple weeks ago I wrote about how Ellen Brotman Austin couldn’t get the paper to publish her letter. And she actually addressed the issue at hand and had a good point! But the rules are different for the Republicans. Warren Kampf was given advance notice of letters about him. And Debbie the Taliban Slayer had to be given a chance to assert herself, too. On the very same page. Right under Mrs. Hudson’s thoughtful letter. What a crock.