From: "Rich Gauszka" 

I'm not the one refusing to read the entire article and ignoring the
Administration inspired change in the hiring procedure - that decided to
skip a strict apolitical vetting procedure


"Gary Britt"  wrote in
message news:464bc7c6{at}w3.nls.net...
> There were many more anti-religious and anti-Christian statements in the
> piece than just that one example, its just your own prejudices that keep
> you from seeing that.
>
> Pulitzer prizes in political reporting are meaningless crap.   Its like
> saying Michael Moore won an award.  Doesn't make his lies and deceptions
> any less lies and deceptions.  These awards aren't about quality, they are
> about rewarding a specific point of view.  Jason Blair won a Pulitzer for
> all I know or care.
>
> Gary
>
> Rich Gauszka wrote:
>> It also has to do with how hiring standards changed in justice as  civil
>> rights law and the average ranking of the law school attended by the
>> applicant became less of a factor over a more conservative ( perhaps even
>> religious ) zeal.
>>
>> FWIW I can understand a portion of your objections as I felt the law
>> school prayer in a religious university was superfluous to the gist of
>> the story.
>>
>> The reporter recently erred his way to a Pulitzer prize reporting on the
>> Bush signing statement revelations
>>
>> http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070417/NEWS/704170423/1
052
>> Gary Britt wrote:
>>> That's far from all they wrote Rich you no better than that.  The very
>>> first thing they wrote was a snide bigoted comment about a private
>>> religious law school class saying a brief prayer.  That's got nothing to
>>> do with anything except anti-religious, anti-Christian bigotry.  The
>>> article had a couple of facts, many factual errors and a ton of bigotry.
>>> Not worth the read.
>>>
>>> Gary
>>>
>>> Rich Gauszka wrote:
>>>> So to report the grant of preferences to a lowest rank tier 4 school
>>>> smacks of religious bigotry? If you read the article in
it's entirety
>>>> it did mention that Regent has improved it's standards since 1999 (
>>>> Gooding's class ) where 60 % failed the bar exam ( 71% now pass ) .
>>>>
>>>> I agree that not all those that graduate from a 'prestigious'
>>>> university are the best and the brightest - George W Bush
comes to mind
>>>>
>>>> "Gary Britt"
 wrote in message
>>>> news:464b7251$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>>>>> There are so many anti-religious, anti-Christian
bigoted statements
>>>>> and attempted slurs in this article that it is not
possible to any
>>>>> part of it seriously, unless one's own bigotry
predisposes them to
>>>>> agree with the slurs and bigotry contained in the article.
>>>>>
>>>>> 1.  First it starts out by attempting to say by implication that
>>>>> prayer in a religious private law school means
something bad about the
>>>>> students in that school.  Time to stop reading really
right there.
>>>>>
>>>>> 2.  It states Monica Goodling worked at DOJ when that
is false.  She
>>>>> worked at the WHITEHOUSE and was liaison from the
whitehouse to DOJ.
>>>>>
>>>>> 3.  It states as though it were fact that if you don't have
>>>>> prosecutorial experience you can't have anything to do
with evaluating
>>>>> statistics that measure performance criteria and
aren't qualified to
>>>>> evaluate whether a person is following policy
directives set by the
>>>>> head of the executive branch.  Then it goes on to
imply that graduates
>>>>> from a different school that doesn't pray but have
absolutely no more
>>>>> prosecutorial experience are qualified to do these things.
>>>>>
>>>>> 4.  It states by implication that a person from Harvard is more
>>>>> qualified for government work than a person from
another University,
>>>>> and argues we should let the Harvard/Yale sycophants
hire only other
>>>>> socio-economic bigots and religion hating atheists
from the same in
>>>>> bred left wing academies from which they were spawned.
>>>>>
>>>>> 5.  Similar articles have appeared recently
complaining that somebody
>>>>> who was a member of the conservative federalist
society was hired and
>>>>> he didn't come from Harvard but came from the
University of Kentucky.
>>>>> Oh my god!  The horrors.  I hope he didn't once hang
up on somebody
>>>>> without saying good bye like John Bolton.  Then there
was another
>>>>> recent complaint about somebody who was hired from a
school other than
>>>>> Harvard or Yale who actually kept a bust of James
Madison (author of
>>>>> many of the federalist papers) in his office instead
of the mandatory
>>>>> Karl Marx bust.  Ok I made up the Karl Marx part, but
they really
>>>>> complained the guy wasn't qualified because he thought
highly of James
>>>>> Madison (Madison is of course a favorite of the
federalist society
>>>>> lawyers and that alone is a disqualification to DOJ
service to the
>>>>> likes of the bigots like the author of this useless
crap you linked to
>>>>> and quoted from.
>>>>>
>>>>> 6. God forbid the DOJ should have people in it that
wouldn't give a
>>>>> cover-up sweetheart deal to Sandy Berger and then not
even enforce the
>>>>> terms of that sweetheart deal by not requiring him to take a lie
>>>>> detector test that he agreed to take to detail what he
stole, what he
>>>>> destroyed, and what information was in the materials
he stole and
>>>>> destroyed that have been permanently kept from the
9/11 commission and
>>>>> the American people. Yes it was those kinds of career
civil servants
>>>>> in the DOJ that should determine who is hired at DOJ.
>>>>>
>>>>> The DOJ and much of the shadow government known as the federal
>>>>> bureaucracy needs are sharp kick in the ass out the
door.  I think
>>>>> everyone under Gonzales and above Janitor at DOJ should be fired
>>>>> immediately.  The place wreaks from decades of
inbreeding and incest
>>>>> of type this moron you cite argues should be the norm
in perpetuity.
>>>>>
>>>>> Gary
>>>>>
>>>>> Rich Gauszka wrote:
>>>>>> From Oral Roberts University?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/04/08/scandal_
puts_spotlight_on_christian_law_school/
>>>>>>
>>>>>> VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The title of the course was
Constitutional
>>>>>> Law, but the subject was sin. Before any casebooks
were opened, a
>>>>>> student led his classmates in a 10-minute
devotional talk, completed
>>>>>> with "amens," about the need to preserve
their Christian values.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Sin is so appealing because it's easy and
because it's fun," the law
>>>>>> student warned.
>>>>>> Regent University School of Law, founded by
televangelist Pat
>>>>>> Robertson to provide "Christian leadership to
change the world," has
>>>>>> worked hard in its two-decade history to upgrade
its reputation,
>>>>>> fighting past years when a majority of its
graduates couldn't pass
>>>>>> the bar exam and leading up to recent victories
over Ivy League teams
>>>>>> in national law student competitions.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But even in its darker days, Regent has had no
better friend than the
>>>>>> Bush administration. Graduates of the law school
have been among the
>>>>>> most influential of the more than 150 Regent
University alumni hired
>>>>>> to federal government positions since President
Bush took office in
>>>>>> 2001, according to a university website.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> One of those graduates is Monica Goodling , the
former top aide to
>>>>>> Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who is at the
center of the storm
>>>>>> over the firing of US attorneys. Goodling, who
resigned on Friday,
>>>>>> has become the face of Regent overnight -- and drawn a harsh
>>>>>> spotlight to the administration's hiring of
officials educated at
>>>>>> smaller, conservative schools with sometimes
marginal academic
>>>>>> reputations.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Documents show that Goodling, who has asserted her
Fifth Amendment
>>>>>> right against self-incrimination to avoid
testifying before Congress,
>>>>>> was one of a handful of officials overseeing the
firings. She helped
>>>>>> install Timothy Griffin , the Karl Rove aide and
her former boss at
>>>>>> the Republican National Committee, as a
replacement US attorney in
>>>>>> Arkansas.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Because Goodling graduated from Regent in 1999 and has scant
>>>>>> prosecutorial experience, her qualifications to evaluate the
>>>>>> performance of US attorneys have come under fire.
Senator Sheldon
>>>>>> Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, asked at a
hearing: "Should we
>>>>>> be concerned with the experience level of the
people who are making
>>>>>> these highly significant decisions?"
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And across the political blogosphere, critics have
held up Goodling,
>>>>>> who declined to be interviewed, as a prime example
of the Bush
>>>>>> administration subordinating ability to politics
in hiring decisions.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "It used to be that high-level DOJ jobs were
generally reserved for
>>>>>> the best of the legal profession," wrote a
contributor to The New
>>>>>> Republic website . ". . . That a recent
graduate of one of the very
>>>>>> worst (and sketchiest) law schools with virtually
no relevant
>>>>>> experience could ascend to this position is a sure
sign that there is
>>>>>> something seriously wrong at the DOJ."
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The Regent law school was founded in 1986, when Oral Roberts
>>>>>> University shut down its ailing law school and
sent its library to
>>>>>> Robertson's Bible-based college in Virginia. It
was initially called
>>>>>> "CBN University School of Law" after the
televangelist's Christian
>>>>>> Broadcasting Network, whose studios share the
campus and which
>>>>>> provided much of the funding for the law school. (The Coors
>>>>>> Foundation is also a donor to the university.) The
American Bar
>>>>>> Association accredited Regent 's law school in 1996.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Not long ago, it was rare for Regent graduates to
join the federal
>>>>>> government. But in 2001, the Bush administration
picked the dean of
>>>>>> Regent's government school, Kay Coles James , to
be the director of
>>>>>> the Office of Personnel Management -- essentially
the head of human
>>>>>> resources for the executive branch. The doors of
opportunity for
>>>>>> government jobs were thrown open to Regent alumni.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "We've had great placement," said Jay
Sekulow , who heads a non
>>>>>> profit law firm based at Regent that files
lawsuits aimed at lowering
>>>>>> barriers between church and state. "We've had
a lot of people in key
>>>>>> positions."
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Many of those who have Regent law degrees,
including Goodling, joined
>>>>>> the Department of Justice. Their path to
employment was further eased
>>>>>> in late 2002, when John Ashcroft , then attorney
general, changed
>>>>>> longstanding rules for hiring lawyers to fill
vacancies in the career
>>>>>> ranks.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Previously, veteran civil servants screened applicants and
>>>>>> recommended whom to hire, usually picking top
students from elite
>>>>>> schools.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In a recent Regent law school newsletter, a 2004
graduate described
>>>>>> being interviewed for a job as a trial attorney at
the Justice
>>>>>> Department's Civil Rights Division in October
2003. Asked to name the
>>>>>> Supreme Court decision from the past 20 years with
which he most
>>>>>> disagreed, he cited Lawrence v. Texas, the ruling
striking down a law
>>>>>> against sodomy because it violated gay people's
civil rights.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "When one of the interviewers agreed and said
that decision in
>>>>>> Lawrence was 'maddening,' I knew I correctly
answered the question,"
>>>>>> wrote the Regent graduate . The administration
hired him for the
>>>>>> Civil Rights Division's housing section -- the
only employment offer
>>>>>> he received after graduation, he said.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The graduate from Regent -- which is ranked a
"tier four" school by
>>>>>> US News & World Report, the lowest score and
essentially a tie for
>>>>>> 136th place --  was not the only lawyer with
modest credentials to be
>>>>>> hired by the Civil Rights Division after the
administration imposed
>>>>>> greater political control over career hiring.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The changes resulted in a sometimes dramatic
alteration to the
>>>>>> profile of new hires beginning in 2003, as the
Globe reported last
>>>>>> year after obtaining resumes from 2001-2006 to
three sections in the
>>>>>> civil rights division. Conservative credentials
rose, while prior
>>>>>> experience in civil rights law and the average
ranking of the law
>>>>>> school attended by the applicant dropped.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> As the dean of a lower-ranked law school that
benefited from the Bush
>>>>>> administration's hiring practices, Jeffrey Brauch
of Regent made no
>>>>>> apologies in a recent interview for training
students to understand
>>>>>> what the law is today, and also to understand how
legal rules should
>>>>>> be changed to better reflect "eternal
principles of justice," from
>>>>>> divorce laws to abortion rights
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We anticipate that many of our graduates are going
to go and be
>>>>>> change agents in society," Brauch said.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Still, Brauch said, the recent criticism of the
law school triggered
>>>>>> by Goodling's involvement in the US attorney
firings has missed the
>>>>>> mark in one respect: the quality of the lawyers
now being turned out
>>>>>> by the school, he argued, is far better than its image.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Seven years ago, 60 percent of the class of 1999
-- Goodling's
>>>>>> class --  failed the bar exam on the first
attempt. (Goodling's
>>>>>> performance was not available, though she is
admitted to the bar in
>>>>>> Virginia.) The dismal numbers prompted the school
to overhaul its
>>>>>> curriculum and tighten admissions standards.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It has also spent more heavily to recruit
better-qualified law
>>>>>> students. This year, it will spend $2.8 million on
scholarships, a
>>>>>> million more than what it was spending four years ago.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The makeover is working. The bar exam passage rate
of Regent alumni ,
>>>>>> according to the Princeton Review, rose to 67
percent last year.
>>>>>> Brauch said it is now up to 71 percent, and that
half of the students
>>>>>> admitted in the late 1990s would not be accepted
today. The school
>>>>>> has also recently won moot-court and negotiation
competitions,
>>>>>> beating out teams from top-ranked law schools.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Adding to Regent's prominence, its course on
"Human Rights, Civil
>>>>>> Liberties, and National Security" is co
taught by one of its newest
>>>>>> professors: Ashcroft.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Even a prominent critic of the school's mission of
integrating the
>>>>>> Bible with public policy vouches for Regent's
improvements. Barry
>>>>>> Lynn , the head of the liberal Americans United
for the Separation of
>>>>>> Church and State, said Regent is churning out an
increasingly
>>>>>> well-trained legal army for the conservative
Christian movement.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "You can't underestimate the quality of a lot
of the people that are
>>>>>> there," said Lynn, who has guest-lectured at
Regent and debated
>>>>>> professors on its campus.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In light of Regent's rapid evolution, some current
law students say
>>>>>> it is frustrating to be judged in light of Regent
alumni from the
>>>>>> school's more troubled era -- including Goodling.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> One third-year student, Chamie Riley , said she
rejected the idea
>>>>>> that any government official who invokes her Fifth
Amendment right
>>>>>> against self-incrimination could be a good
representative of Regent.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> As Christians, she said, Regent students know
"you should be morally
>>>>>> upright. You should not be in a situation where
you have to plead the
>>>>>> Fifth."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>

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