Frank Rich, The New York Times, October 7, 2007 What's the difference between a low-tech lynching and a high-tech lynching? A high-tech lynching brings a tenured job on the Supreme Court and a $1.5 million book deal. A low-tech lynching, not so much. Pity Clarence Thomas. Done in by what he calls “left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony” — as he describes anyone who challenged his elevation to the court — he still claims to have suffered as much as African-Americans once victimized by “bigots in white robes.” Since kicking off his book tour on “60 Minutes” last Sunday, he has been whining all the way to the bank, often abetted by a press claque as fawning as his No. 1 fan, Rush Limbaugh. We are always at a crossroads with race in America, and so here we are again. The rollout of Justice Thomas’s memoir, “My Grandfather’s Son,” is not happening in a vacuum. It follows a Supreme Court decision (which he abetted) outlawing voluntary school desegregation plans in two American cities. It follows yet another vote by the Senate to deny true Congressional representation to the majority black District of Columbia. It follows the decision by the leading Republican presidential candidates to snub a debate at a historically black college as well as the re-emergence of a low-tech lynching noose in Jena, La. Perhaps most significant of all, Mr. Thomas’s woe-is-me tour unfolds against the backdrop of the presidential campaign of an African-American whose political lexicon does not include martyrdom or rage. “My Grandfather’s Son” may consciously or not echo the title of Barack Obama’s memoir of genealogy and race, “Dreams From My Father,” but it might as well be written in another tongue. It’s useful to watch Mr. Thomas at this moment, 16 years after his riveting confirmation circus. He is a barometer of what has and has not changed since then because he hasn’t changed at all. He still preaches against black self-pity even as he hyperbolically tries to cast his Senate cross-examination by Joe Biden as tantamount to the Ku Klux Klan assassination of Medgar Evers. He still denies that he is the beneficiary of the very race-based preferences he deplores. He still has a dubious relationship with the whole truth and nothing but, and not merely in the matter of Anita Hill. Read More Here

April Marciszewski, The Tulsa World, October 6, 2007 In response to allegations that Oral Roberts University money was misspent, regents decided on Friday to strengthen the university's financial accountability by retaining an additional independent auditing firm. "While I am confident that these ongoing efforts will confirm that the practices currently in place are complete and appropriate, I and the board of regents are committed to any and all recommendations and considerations made in order to place the university in the highest possible place beyond reproach," ORU President Richard Roberts said in a written statement released after a two-hour meeting of the board's executive committee on Friday night. Roberts said he pays for his family's personal expenses, contrary to allegations in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Tulsa County District Court. Three former ORU professors -- John Swails, Tim Brooker and Paulita Brooker -- filed the lawsuit against ORU, Roberts and three university administrators. The lawsuit includes a summary of a report allegedly developed by Roberts' sister-in-law Stephanie Cantese that claims the Roberts family used ORU and Oral Roberts Ministries money for personal expenses. Roberts' written statement outlines current accountability measures for ORU and Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association finances. Read More Here

  Justin Juozapavicus, The Associated Press, October 6, 2007 TULSA, Okla. - Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts' university, or else he would be "called home." Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal. Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay. She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males." At a chapel service this week on the 5,300-student campus known for its 60-foot-tall bronze sculpture of praying hands, Roberts said God told him: "We live in a litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against another person whether they have a legitimate case or not. This lawsuit ... is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion." San Antonio televangelist John Hagee, a member of the ORU board of regents, said the university's executive board "is conducting a full and thorough investigation." Read More Here