Saturday, December 9, 2006
Typical of groups like Ron Francis's Somerville Divestment Project is the parasitic use of legitimate groups to make it seem as though they have some credibility themselves. For instance, the SDP was recently caught claiming that the Somerville Teacher's Union had endorsed their ballot questions:
Apologies for the odd "screenshot," it's actually a scan of a hard-copy of their web page. A hard copy of screenshot are the only places you'll find this claim, as they were informed in short order that their claim of an endorsement was false. Perhaps Ron Francis took for granted that his control of the Somerville Union was as complete as his control of the Andover Teacher's Union. Apparently, he was quickly disabused of the notion.
Note also SDP's claim that even a ringing defeat is really a success. Any wedge this group and their allies can get that makes it seem as though regular people support them will be used and twisted to their advantage. They should be sending a big Christmas gift to the folks in Andover this year.
A similar lie the SDP was caught in was claiming that the Somerville Human Rights Commission had absolved the group of anti-Jewish rhetoric. This was correct by the Somerville Journal (quote from the same article here, but the original is no longer online):
In a letter to the Journal last week, Maria Leza of the Somerville Divestment Project wrote that the city’s Human Rights Commission had essentially absolved the group’s Web site of anti-Jewish rhetoric.
Susan Goldstein, a commissioner, told the Journal this week Leza’s comments were inaccurate. Goldstein said the commission never absolved the group of being anti-Jewish on its site. At the very least, Goldstein said, some statements and content on the site are inaccurate.
The phenomenon is similar to what I pointed out with organizers of a terrorist art event at the Episcopal Divinity School claiming the school was part of Harvard U (EDS wasn't enough, apparently). I'll likely have another item on that event shortly, BTW.
