The-Ave.US

Allison Barber, Chancellor, Western Governors University of Indiana. Formerly worked in the Defense Department under GW Bush where her job was to provide PR for the Iraq war.

Ed. Western Governors University is now officially a campus under the state of Indiana’s University system. The-AVE has commented on WGUI at this link. This post is an update and discussed WGUI’s peculiar choice of a Chancellor whose main credentials seem to come from being a right wing propagandist.

This makes me worry that WGU, along with the huge online success of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, may be part of a concerted effort to replace the credibility of the American higher education system with something quite different.

The new “campus” has its own chancellor, Allison C. Barber. Ms. Barber comes to the job with a bachelors and a masters in elementary education and a prominent role in the GW Bush Defense Department  as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2008.    Her job at the DOD was public relations.  She is best known for having staged “conversations” between GW Bush and allegedly scripted troops and for holding similar online sessions intended to promote the war.  An excerpt below demonstrates Ms. Barber’s talent at PR:

from Pen and Sword

Joshua, from Miami, FL writes: _Secretary Barber, How has all of the negative media about Iraq and Guantanamo effected (sic) the morale of our troops? Does the viceral nature of those opposed to the war have a negative effect on our troops?

Allison Barber
Great question Joshua. You are absolutely right to ask about the morale of our troops around the world. Having traveled to Iraq personally, and being the spouse of an army reservist that just returned home from a yearlong deployment to Iraq, I can tell you wholeheartedly that our troops get their strength and their determination from the knowledge that they have the full support and backing of the folks backs home. The negative images on TV and unfortunate comments by some trying to make a political point can all effect (sic) the morale of our troops. But as we here back home know first hand, the vast majority of Americans stand steadfast with our troops. Making sure they know they have that support is the #1 goal of America Supports You…

Pen and Sword comments: In any other place, at any other time, with any other organization than the Bush administration, this transparently crafted “Ask the White House” session would have come off like a conscious self-parody. But the Bushlanders and their supporters take this kind of stuff dead seriously.

Click for post on Liberty Universities 1/2 billion in federal funding for its online program.

Ms. Barber’s job also included managing the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS), often the only English language source available to US troops abroad. Barber admitted that AFRTS selects programs based on content rand was responsible, therefore for Rush Limbaugh’s huge presence on AFRTS and for canceling  the planned debut of liberal talk show host Ed Shultz’s radio program from the Armed Forces Radio schedule.

In October 2008, Barber announced her resignation from DOD following an investigation of her possible commingling government activities with private fund raising by America Supports You, a Pentagon program that Barber headed.  TheNew York Times reported that ASY’s fundraising practices were under investigation by the Defense Department‘s Inspector General. One issue was whether officials who ran ‘America Supports You,’  helped arrange a fund-raiser for a private foundation—the America Supports You Fund—set up in December 2006 by former Bush administration appointees,..

After leaving the DOD, Barber returned to  her own PR firm, Sodenta.
Previous “Ask the White House” sessions conducted by Harriet Miers indicated that the “hosts” don’t write the answers themselves. That Barber’s answers in this may well have been ghosted or plagiarized is somewhat disturbing. But it’s even more disturbing to consider that they may well have been answers to real questions asked by real people. Well, real Stepford people.

Heck, that whole Fourth of July America Supports You weekend production was disturbing. The administration, deflecting blame for its woebegone Iraq fiasco by demonizing the press and hiding behind the troops. The big propaganda production staged in Washington D.C. disguised as a pep rally.

Taxpayers funded the rally, but apparently didn’t have to shoulder the whole cost. America Supports You has a slew of Corporate Team Members that includes outfits like Anheuser Bush, McDonalds, and MARVEL Enterprises.

It’s a sad commentary on American culture when big companies can use human suffering and our troops to sell beer, hamburgers, and comic books and nobody bats an eye about it.

If you’ve ever been stationed overseas with the military, you know that these outlets are often the only English language media available. That goes a long way in explaining why a Zogby poll conducted in February of this year indicated that 85 percent of U.S. troops in Iraq think their mission is to “retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9/11 attacks.”

Which just goes to show how you can shape young minds when you can hold them captive to the Big Brother Broadcast.