Boccieri Announces Nearly $296,000 in Recovery Dollars for Research at The College of Wooster

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Congressman John Boccieri (D-Alliance) announced today the College of Wooster will receive nearly $296,000 in Recovery funds to purchase two x-ray machines that will enhance the university's research and educational opportunities.

"These federal funds are an investment in the long-term competitiveness of our district's students," said Boccieri. "By giving our students the tools they need to succeed, we not only produce the next generation of people who can critically think, multi-task and problem-solve, we ensure our ability to compete in the global marketplace for years to come."

According to Meagan Pollock, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology at the College of Wooster, undergraduate research opportunities will be transformed by the new x-ray lab.

Pollock said, "The instruments will give us the ability to analyze the compositions of rocks, minerals, soils, and even archaeological artifacts. Students will be able to conduct authentic research in class, which will better prepare them for the challenges of our nationally recognized independent study (I.S.) program.

"I.S. students will be operating the instruments and performing their own geochemical analyses, providing them with hands-on experience and analytical skills that many students don't encounter until graduate school. Since the lab will be used by geologists, chemists, physicists, environmental scientists, and archaeologists, I anticipate that the new instruments will spark a great deal of interdisciplinary research. We are all very excited to add the new x-ray instruments to our excellent analytical facilities on campus."

These Recovery dollars will help purchase an x-ray diffractometer (XRD) and the x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer. According to the National Science Foundation, the availability of the x-ray machines helps all students at the university fulfill their independent study requirement and receive better training. The funding will also benefit existing outreach programs that target middle school girls, high school students, and local teachers by allowing them access to the equipment.

The XRD and XRF will support mineral phase identification, crystallographic structure refinements and elemental analysis of natural materials, respectively.

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Wooster 912 Project & Teabaggers: Where is the Outrage?

We have pointed out numerous examples where the Teabaggers' grievances seemed to have no grounding in policy. If it did, then of the two current political parties, they would side more often with Democrats.

But the Teabaggers in general, and the Wooster 912 Project specifically, have a chance to be genuinely outraged by government intrusion. The new anti-immigration law passed in Arizona creates the closest thing we have seen to a "police state" in America. Even Teabagger favorite Mark Rubio, running for Senate as a Republican in Florida, calls the new law akin to a “police state.” Believe it or not, Seth Myers of Saturday Night Live sums up best what this new law does:

"This week, Arizona signed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country which will allow police to demand identification papers from anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. I know there’s some people in Arizona worried that Obama is acting like Hitler, but could we all agree that there’s nothing more Nazi than saying "Show me your papers?" There’s never been a World War II movie that didn’t include the line "show me your papers." It’s their catchphrase. Every time someone says "show me your papers," Hitler’s family gets a residual check. So heads up, Arizona; that’s fascism. I know, I know, it’s a dry fascism, but it’s still fascism." Seth Meyers

Think about that for a moment. Republican elected officials in Arizona created a law that genuinely has roots in fascism. This law was then signed by a Republican governor. Yet we don't hear any cries from the Teabaggers about fascism or Nazism. Why? They don't have any trouble shouting these words at President Obama? Again, there doesn't seem to be any policy basis behind the Teabagger movement.

Linda Greenhouse, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Supreme Court correspondent for the New York Times, had this to say about the law:

What would Arizona's revered libertarian icon, Barry Goldwater, say about a law that requires the police to demand proof of legal residency from any person with whom they have made "any lawful contact" and about whom they have "reasonable suspicion" that "the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States?" Wasn't the system of internal passports one of the most distasteful features of life in the Soviet Union and apartheid-era South Africa?

Just a question I haven't heard anybody ask: Shouldn't the tea party crowd be having a cow over this new immigration bill that Arizona just passed? Doesn't that sound like big government tyranny to them? Giving the police the power to demand "papers" from someone just on their own suspicion?

Any chatter from the tea party folk to this effect? I haven't seen any. Link

On the home page of the Wooster 912 Project is a Mission Statement. The first two paragraphs read as follows:

Our Mission is to have a non-partisan place of gathering for like-minded Americans who believe that this country was founded on the basis of God given rights and liberty for all citizens.

We believe that the government has grown too large and is no longer responsive to its constituents.

"Liberty for all citizens" and "government that has grown too large." That would certainly seem to fit the new law in Arizona. We should expect to see protests and letters to the editor protesting this new law from Teabaggers very shortly.

Update: American-born citizen is taken away in handcuffs by Arizona police because he didn't have enough paperwork with him. Outraged yet?