“I found what appeared to be a legitimate correspondence class that involved reading books, sending in papers and having them graded,” Perry said. “I was a victim of a scam like a lot of other people.” …
A cached version of Perry’s campaign website from eight years ago states he was awarded a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a minor in management and had a grade point average of 3.8 at Columbia State.
But according to 2004 testimony before the U.S. Senate from a former Columbia State employee, all students had to do to receive a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree was pay a fee, then complete a textbook summary and write a short paper.
The degree was mailed to students in roughly a month, the employee said.
“Columbia State University had no faculty, qualified or otherwise, no curriculum, no classes, no courses, no tests, no one to grade tests, no educational facilities, no library, and no academic accreditation,” testified Laurie Gerald, who pleaded guilty to mail fraud for her role in helping to operate the fake university. “There was nothing that could pass for ‘academic rigor’ at Columbia State University.”
Now, I can understand being taken in by slick advertising, paying your money, and then getting a crappy product and an obviously worthless diploma. Happens to lots of people; they are annoyed that they’ve been duped, but they chalk it up to posterity and move on. But here’s where this story gets a bit scary for a would-be congressman:
When state Rep. Jeffrey Perry first ran for office in 2002, the Sandwich Republican said on his website that he had earned two bachelor’s degrees. But one of those academic achievements is now absent from his resume….
The 46-year-old Perry, who said yesterday he doesn’t remember what year he signed up at Columbia State, also said he had no idea the school was a fraud until someone pulled him aside in 2002 after he included his Columbia State degree on his campaign website. As a small business owner, he was trying to get more management skills, he said.
In other words, Perry went through this obviously bogus course that involved summarizing a textbook and acquiring a bachelor’s degree “in roughly a month,” and then, instead of realizing that he’d been ripped off, he actually touted the degree on his campaign website, until someone else alerted him to the painfully obvious fact that he’d been scammed.
Is this really the guy you want representing you in Congress?
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p>Wow, you guys must be PETRIFIED of Jeff Perry, if you’re digging back to decade-old CACHED information. And as a MA-10 resident, I can certainly understand why you’re so scared– Perry has, by far, the most active campaign of any in this district, GOP or Democrat. He has three staffed campaign offices, is raising tons of $$$ at events all over the Cape and south shore, and he draws enormous crowds of supporters to all his events.
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p>Anyone who attended the recent WBUR-sponsored debate would clearly see that Perry supporters outnumbered Malone, Keating, and O’Leary supporters by a 4:1 margin. And in that same debate, a debate about ISSUES rather than re-hashed smear camapaigns, Perry gave the most articulate and intelligent answers to all questions asked.
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p>Perry has been a state legislator for nearly a decade, and he is the Ranking Member of the Committees on Education, Public Safety, Homeland Security. He also serves as a member on the House Ways and Means Committee and the Committee on State Administration. As for his education, go ahead and make fun of Columbia State all you want, but he managed to earn a JD from New England School of Law “where he was presented the Dean Timothy J. Cronin, Jr. Award, which recognizes the student who has shown the greatest promise of outstanding contributions to public service” after earning a BA from Curry College. You neglected to mention that, unsurprisingly.
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p>In short, Perry has the direct legislative experience, the mobilization and the organization to win this district– this district went BIG for Scott Brown in January, and the same people driving around here with Scott Brown bumper stickers (yes, on their TRUCKS) are now slapping down Jeff Perry stickers right next to them. So, be afraid, Moonbats, be very afraid!!!
I didn’t dig up anything. I read the Cape Cod Times. If you’ve got a problem with the story, go talk to them. We report, you decide. đŸ˜‰
Wow, you guys must be PETRIFIED of Jeff Perry, if you’re
diggingback FRONT-PAGING decade-old CACHED information. …a couple of questions for you.
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p>1. If you had signed up for an online bachelor’s degree and discovered that it consisted of summarizing a textbook, and you got your degree about a month later, would you have any concerns about the degree’s legitimacy?
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p>2. If not, why not?
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p>3. If you would have had concerns, would you nonetheless have touted the degree in materials describing your education?
Funny, that.
Article
Don’t you love Web Archive? đŸ˜€
I just have trouble at times trying to figure out the URL.
Do you think CACHED information is somehow invalid or less real or something? FYI- it’s just as real as UNCACHED information, or whatever the opposite would be.
The blog was CREATED to trash Jeff Perry and ‘Stupidtown’ (Sandwich) on the Cape Cod Today web site.
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p>I know Cape Cod Today, I’ve written for them and blogged for them, and am very fond of the 70-something proprietor, Walter Brooks, who has turned on-line papers into a real option for publishing.
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p>THAT SAID – laissez-faire doesn’t begin to cover Walter’s editorial policy (hell, he published me, right?) and the fact checking on the site can be…creative? OTOH, Walter has had many genuine scoops and has been cited by major papers as well, sometimes with attribution, sometimes not. My main gripe with Walter’s response to factual challanges is that he simply changes the blog/article and leaves no fingerprints behind, unlike BMG that makes such corrections and puts them into context. So, caveat reader.
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p>TRB deliberately wrote this in his literal truth-telling style to make it appear the Columbia degree was the only one, and ignored Jeff’s three subsequent degrees and his teaching at Cape Cod Community College, which generally takes academic credentialling seriously.
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p>So – carry on, but this expose isn’t all it’s represented.
as a real degree, though I’m quite sure he knew it wasn’t legit. Which, to my mind makes him not much better than that kid who made stuff up to get into Harvard. Of course, it’s no big revelation that politicians lie, so we might as well elevate another ambitious, dishonest guy to higher office.
Jeff Perry had to work hard not to know that his partner was sexually molesting underage women. Jeff Perry himself attempted to intimidate the parents of one victim by threatening to shame their daughter.
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p>His diploma-mill degree fits right in with the rest of his “qualifications”.
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p>If that’s the kind of person you want representing you, that’s certainly your choice.
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p>In my view, that choice reflects badly on you, the GOP, Congress, and the Commonwealth. Fits right in with Bill Hudak, though.
One has to be amused that next to this post there runs a post for “www.EarnMyDegree.com”
I meant advertisement, not post.
Had the same troubling behavior been attributed to a Democrat, I’m quite sure that the GOP scare machine, a tactic that Perry excels at, would be pumping out messages of sheer HORROR that this person would have the temerity to seek higher office. The hypocrisy of Perry’s defenders is indefensible. Perry himself cannot even explain himself, changing stories with regularity. All this before one even gets to his hand holding with the more extreme elements of the GOP. Well at least he got the Massachusetts Motorcycle PAC endorsement :).
Jeff Perry announced last night that he has now raised over $900,000.00 dollars from over 3,000 contributors with more fundraisers coming including two in Boston. It sounds to me that the Democratic Party trash mill is back firing against the Democrats.
We haven’t seen much come out of the Keating campaign; in fact his web page doesn’t list any fundraisers. He must be a secret man.
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p>The Voters in the 10th District see Jeff Perry is the most qualified and the best person to represent them in Washington and this will be confirmed on Nov 2nd, despite the trash the Democrats throw and their hiding from the issues. Heck, if I had Pelosi and Obama in my party, I’d hid from the issues too.
And it’s they’re not their. And backfiring is one word. And try brushing up on how to use a comma.
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p>
on the “hid,” “backfiring,” and punctuation points. However, I must reluctantly defend Mr./Ms. Veteran’s use of “their.” As I read the sentence, “their” refers back to the Democrats and “hiding” functions as a gerund. Hence, the use of the possessive “their” is proper.