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Hi, This is a pretty frightening attack on academic freedom which you may or may not be aware of: a University of Wisconsin history professor, William Cronon, wrote a blog entry titled, "Who’s Really Behind Recent Republican Legislation in Wisconsin and Elsewhere? (Hint: It Didn’t Start Here)" - http://scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net/2011/03/15/alec/ The blog entry details the working of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group whose "goal for the past forty years," Cronon writes, "has been to draft 'model bills' that conservative legislators can introduce in the 50 states. Its website claims that in each legislative cycle, its members introduce 1000 pieces of legislation based on its work, and claims that roughly 18% of these bills are enacted into law." Apparently his blog entry took off and was read by half a million people, journalists, etc. Cronon also wrote a NYTimes op-ed that appeared on March 22: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/opinion/22cronon.html The Wisconsin Republican Party then filed a state open records request to get access to his personal e-mail to examine what went into writing the piece: "Under Wisconsin open records law, we are requesting copies of the following items: Copies of all emails into and out of Prof. William Cronon's state email account from January 1, 2011 to present which reference any of the following terms: Republican, Scott Walker, recall, collective bargaining, AFSCME, WEAC, rally, union, Alberta Darling, Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke, Rob Cowles, Scott Fitzgerald, Sheila Harsdorf, Luther Olsen, Glenn Grothman, Mary Lazich, Jeff Fitzgerald, Marty Beil, or Mary Bell. We are making this request under Chapter 19.32 of the Wisconsin state statutes, through the Open Records law. Specifically, we would like to cite the following section of Wis. Stat. 19.32 (2) that defines a public record as "anything recorded or preserved that has been created or is being kept by the agency. This includes tapes, films, charts, photographs, computer printouts, etc."" ---- The issue is detailed at Talking Points Memo: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/03/my_worlds_collide.php Professor Cronon wrote a response here: http://scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net/2011/03/24/open-records-attack-on-academic-freedom/ He writes, "The timing of Mr. Thompson’s request surely means that it is a response to my blog posting about the American Legislative Exchange Council, since I have never before been the subject of an Open Records request, and nothing in my prior professional life has ever attracted this kind of attention from the Republican Party. It doesn’t take a great leap of logic to infer that Mr. Thompson and his colleagues aren’t particularly eager to have a state university professor asking awkward questions about the dealings of state Republicans with the American Legislative Exchange Council. This open records request apparently seemed to Mr. Thompson to be a good way to discourage me from sticking my nose in places he doesn’t think it belongs." Just trying to pass the word along. Dan ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
