I haven’t been paying much attention to LSU basketball this season, though my stepfather has repeatedly told me that I should.  And I didn’t watch much of yesterday’s first round games in the annual celebration of Madness (except, of course, the bit that I caught while I was having my nails done.  Yes, I was the only customer, and the guy who did my manicure was a guy, and the only other employee in there was also male, and there was basketball on the television set.  The whole thing was a little odd).  But I did have a wincing moment of precognition when I first saw the bracket, given that the Atlanta regional bracket looked like this:

What did I foresee?  LSU getting slaughtered by Duke in prime time.  And now, given that the bracket has begun to look more like this –

– well, it’s beginning to look pretty much inevitable.  I guess there are worse ways to go out.

So I just got what is probably the best—and without question the cheapest—french manicure I’ve ever gotten.  Weigh that on the one side.

On the other, I’m a teency bit skeeved by a couple of things.  First, granted, it was 2.30 in the afternoon, but I was the only customer in the joint.

Second, the guy (yes, guy) who did my manicure itched.  Non-stop.  And paused to scratch something about every 45 seconds.

So:  super-cheap and really good manicure?  Or does everybody in town know something I don’t?

Hey—how come none of you guys told me that all of my category links in the archive menus were broken?

Well… they’re fixed now.

Remember back when I was asking all those questions about why an FBI task force had shown up on campus asking questions of a Venezuelan-American colleague?

Can anybody say ”Nigerian yellowcake”?

Yes, they’re wingnuttier than most over there at the Washington Times, but one begins to sense which way the wind is blowing…

And yes, we need a SPOILER ALERT already…

Read the rest of this entry »

I confess to having a very bad case of ”yeah, but what have I accomplished lately,” something against which I’ve struggled pretty much my entire adult life.  And boy, there’s nothing like finishing a major project and taking the afternoon off to read a novel (and then the evening to watch television, but that’s another post) and then sitting at your desk the next morning thinking, well… now what?

But actually, I’ve managed to clear out a bunch of annoying little things that I really needed to have dealt with weeks ago, things that I’d put off until the index was done.  And now it is!  And they are!  (At least some of them.) And I’m feeling a bit more organized and generally ready to go.

So this afternoon I’m starting in on the book review that I owe RCCS.  And once that’s done, I’ve got two articles that I want to work on, one of which has a May deadline and the other of which is, I hope, looking forward toward the next big project.

And it’s just dreamy to have, at last, the kind of brainspace (not to mention clockspace) available for thinking about such things.

The best news I’ve gotten in a long time:  that the index, completed and submitted about an hour ago, is pleasing unto my publishers.

And that the next thing I’ll see from them is books.

Which means that this bloody project, begun a decade ago (and I wish I meant that a little less literally than I do), is DONE.

Again, via email:

To the Pomona College Community:

This afternoon, I received a phone call from the Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Office of the FBI, who apologized for any disruption caused on our campus by the visit of two members of the Joint Task Force on Terrorism to Professor Miguel Tinker Salas’s office on Wednesday. He assured me that no intimidation was intended and that he regretted that the timing and location of the interview request suggested otherwise.

A short time later, the FBI’s Los Angeles Office released the attached public statement. There has been a great deal of media interest in these events, and I believe that these latest developments may be covered by several news channels this evening or this weekend.

We are grateful to all of you who have helped bring about this apology by virtue of your communications with professional colleagues and professional associations across the country. I am very sorry that our colleague was subjected to this treatment, and I’m sure you join me in hoping that we will not have a repetition of this kind of incident in the future.

David Oxtoby

The attached public statement:

For Immediate Release

DATE:  March 10, 2006

FBI STATEMENT REGARDING INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW OF POMONA COLLEGE PROFESSOR

Agents of the FBI and its state, local and federal task force partners routinely conduct interviews in the course of daily activity.  Being interviewed by FBI Agents or Task Force Officers should not suggest wrongdoing on the part of the interviewee.  The FBI takes great pains to avoid publicity when interviews are conducted.

The FBI and its task force partners in state, local and federal agencies are mindful of the need to respect the circumstances that might surround the timing and location of an informational interview.  When requested to participate in interviews, individuals are free to indicate a preference regarding these issues. 

With regard to the interview of the professor, the purpose of the interview was to seek information.  There was no intent on the part of the FBI, regarding the timing or location, to place the professor, his students or Pomona College in an uncomfortable situation.

I’m not quite sure that rises to the level of an apology, given the (mighty blatant, to my surprise) note of desire to avoid publicity, but I guess we take what we can get.  Thanks to any of you whose outrage helped provoke a response, and remember, when requested to participate in interviews, you are free to indicate a preference regarding these issues.

Miguel’s story has now been picked up by the Pacific News Service.

Come on, LA Times; we’re waiting…

[Further UPDATE, 12.57 pm CST:  My pal John Seery has a post about this outrage today at the Huffington Post.]

[UPDATE, 3.11.06, 11.45 am CST:  The LA Times catches the story today...]

This came in just now, via email:

To the Pomona College community:

On Tuesday, March 7, Miguel Tinker Salas, Arango Professor of Latin American History and Chicano Studies, was visited in his Pearsons Hall office by two men from the Los Angeles County Sheriff/FBI Joint Task Force on Terrorism. To avoid rumors, I wanted the Pomona College community to be aware of the facts.

The agents asked Professor Tinker Salas a number of personal questions as well as questions about the Venezuelan government and the Venezuelan community in the U.S. During the meeting, they told him that he was not a subject of investigation. The tone and content of the questioning, however, troubled him deeply. He was also troubled by the fact that the agents reportedly questioned some of the students outside his office while waiting to see him.

Miguel, as all of you know, is a superb Wig Award winning teacher and a fine scholar on Latin American history, politics, and culture who is sometimes asked by the news media to comment on topics related to his research, including Venezuelan politics. The College supports him and his scholarly work without reservation.

I am extremely concerned about the chilling effect this kind of intrusive government interest could have on free scholarly and political discourse. I am also concerned about the negative message it sends to students who are considering the pursuit of important areas of international study, in which they may now feel exposed to unwarranted official scrutiny.

The College is currently consulting with legal advisors about the most effective way to register a strong official protest about this intrusion into our scholarly and educational activities, and we will take appropriate action as soon as their advice is received.  We are also asking for their help in assuring that all members of the College community are fully informed about their rights and their options in such situations.

David Oxtoby

Here’s Miguel’s recounting of the event, which is circulating via email:

Estimado/as Colegas,

I write to inform you that yesterday during my office hours (Tuesday 2:30-4:30) I was visited by two agents of the LA County Sherrifs/FBI Joint Task Force on Terrorism (JTFT).

The arrived at about 2:40-2:45 pm sat out side my office while attended to a students, and then asked to see me.

They had with them a copy of my profile from the Pomona Web page, and other materials I could not see.

After identifying themselves, they proceeded to ask about my relation to Venezuela, the government, the community, my scholarship, my politics. They were especially interested in whether or not I had been approached by anyone in the Venezuelan government or embassy to speak up on Venezuelan related matters. In addition, they raised a whole host of other troubling questions, too long to summarize here.

After they departed, the three or four students who were outside my office informed me that these individuals had asked them about my background, my classes, what I taught, my politics and they even wrote down the cartoons that are on my door.

I consider this to be an attempt at intimidation and cast on matters of academic freedom.

I am planning a response, and I am open to your comments.

saludos

Miguel

I’m appalled, to say the least.  And, in fact, too infuriated to write anything sensible right now.  I’ll hope to be able to process this and comment more fully soon.

[UPDATE, 5.10 pm CST:  While I’m not ready to comment at length, I can now at least articulate some of the questions spinning in my head:

-- Has Venezuela been added to the list of Most Distrusted Nations?  Does Hugo Chávez insulting Dubya really rise to the level of terrorism?

-- If Venezuela is in fact the subject of official anti-terrorist scrutiny, how much of that scrutiny really has to do with terrorism?  How much has to do with the threat of socialism?  How much has to do with oil?

-- If somehow this concern about Venezuela is bound up in political economy, does that explain why it suddenly feels like the 1950s in here?  To what extent is this “global war on terror” a hotted-up Cold War in disguise?

-- If we are back in the Cold War again, is this part of a growing trend of intellectual witch-hunts?  I’ve been watching the maneuvers of David Horowitz and his ilk for some time and wondering if that’s where we were headed, but I guess I naively imagined it to be operating a little more covertly than this.

-- Miguel, thank goodness, is a full professor with a named chair, who has taught at Pomona for 13 years.  What if someone less tenured, less well-known to the college community had been the subject of such a visit?

-- Why is the questioning of Miguel’s students the part of this that I’m the most infuriated by?

More to come, no doubt.]

[UPDATE, 11.46 pm CST:  According to vemos, who got the word from one of Miguel’s grad students, two bits of bizarro information.  First, Miguel gave a talk in DC last weekend on US policy toward Venezuela, which is what apparently triggered the interest.  And second, the guys who questioned him may have been only affiliated with the Sheriff’s department, and not the FBI at all...]