Back in March when the ASUO Senate heard over-realized fund requests, the Black Women of Achievement student group received $64,050 of student money for a hair show. This seems like a hell of a lot of money for a hair show, but it’s par for the course for the ASUO. However, we recently obtained a letter from former ASUO Executive Emily McLain to President Frohnmayer that brings to light some startling information. From the letter, dated March 23:

[T]he ASUO Executive has concerns regarding the $64,050 BWA proposal. Our concerns are twofold. The first is that there are organizational concerns regarding the ability of the group to spend the full amount approved for them. This is noteworthy because if a group does not spend money allocated to them it can have disastrous effects on the next budget for the organization. Our other concerns are of a more confidential nature. Individuals within the group have not been in student standing who are acting on behalf of the group. Moreover, some members of the group have expressed concerns to our administration regarding the nature of this proposal and the support, or lack thereof that this proposal has within the organizations involved. This is confidential because we handle student issues through the ASUO Programs Administrator and also our ASUO Programs Coordinator. The ASUO Executive worked to resolve this situation by speaking with some members of the group and gathering information. The timing was simply too hsort to finish this work. Because our concerns and information arose after the process was finished we recommend that Liora Sponko, the ASUO Programs Coordinator, be consulted to work with the group to determine whether these funds will be used or whether they should be denied. Because of the uncertainty of this proposal happening as well as the confidential nature of some concerns we cannot approve this proposal. Though, pending the consultation with the ASUO Programs Coordinator and Administrator and members of the organization, through normal means, this Executive will trust the decision of the University President.

(Full PDF of the letter, with the above section found on pages two and three.)

According to our sources, BWA Director Ashleigh Callier brought the proposal before the Senate, even though she allegedly was not a student at the time. Questions regarding the dubious use of this money and objections from other BWA and BSU members are being looked into. Unfortunately, other corroborating evidence is hard to come by, since both the original over-realized request and the minutes from that meeting are no longer on the ASUO website. This is odd because every other over-realized request is available in PDF.

As is made clear by the letter, Emily McLain was fully aware of these problems, but instead of vetoing the request she passed the buck to the Administration. How wonderful that we allow people not even attending the UO to waltz in to the Senate and walk off with tens of thousands of dollars in student money. How much more wonderful that the ASUO not only tries to ignore it but goes so far as to cover it up by removing public records from its website. Stay tuned for more on this tragi-comic escapade of irresponsibility.

Straight from PDX, this has the potential to be the best thing ever. Is this what new media advocates mean when they talk about citizen journalism? Sometimes the Internet makes me so happy.

Okay, this is totally awesome:

 Socialite Paris Hilton has made a spoof advertisement in response to a jibe by US presidential hopeful John McCain.

…

Reclining on a chair in a swimming costume and gold stilettos, she said: “Thanks for the endorsement, white-haired dude.

“I want America to know that I’m, like, totally ready to lead.”

At the beginning of the star’s film, an announcer called Mr McCain “the oldest celebrity in the world, like super-old; old enough to remember when dancing was a sin and beer was served in a bucket”.

Hilton’s spoof also intersperses images of Mr McCain and Yoda from Star Wars and the cast of TV show The Golden Girls.

The 27-year-old suggested a hybrid of Mr McCain’s offshore oil-drilling plan and Mr Obama’s incentives for new energy technology.

“Energy crisis solved. I’ll see you at the debates,” she said.

A spokesman for Mr McCain’s campaign, Tucker Bounds, said: “Paris Hilton might not be as big a celebrity as Barack Obama, but she obviously has a better energy plan.” 

This is officially turning into the most hillarious presidential campaign season ever.

The City of Eugene is currently considering an ordinance that would allow the city to ban alleged lawbreakers from the downtown area for up to 90 days. And by “alleged lawbreakers” they mean “goddamn street kids.”

The proposal was spurred in large part by Betty Snowden, owner of the Glamour Girls and Guys shop in downtown (and host of the totally awesome “Hats Off” public access show). A couple of weeks ago, Snowden testified before the City Council about the constant harassment she faces. From the R-G article:

Snowden, who is black, said the conflicts have escalated in the past year. She refuses to let the mostly young people congregate in front of her store, and she said they are retaliating against her with threats, racist epithets and vandalism. She said she was struck by a young man last year. The gangs, as she calls them, vomit, urinate and defecate in front of her store when it’s closed.

[…]

“When we get there, ‘nigger’ is already (written) on our door,” she said, her voice rising, mixed with anger and heartbreak. “Then they’ll pass by. This isn’t three or four of them at a time. This is 20 or 30 of them, passing by over and over and over (saying) ‘You nigger. You bitch. You are going to be killed.’ This goes on on a daily basis.”

And from today’s R-G article:

The morning after the article was published, Snowden said she found human feces in front of her door.

Last week, surveillance cameras that Snowden uses to monitor the front of her store videotaped a young man ramming a bicycle into the front door, and other young men trying to pry plywood off the storefront. The plywood was covering a window broken in an earlier vandalism.

Mayor Kitty Piercy said she was reluctant to give her support to the proposal because it allowed for people who were only “alleged criminals” to be evicted and denied them a trial. I agree that the proposal is a little odd and sounds hard to enforce, which is why I plan on introducing another proposal, the “Spray Street Kids With Pressure Washers and Soap Until They Leave Act of 2008.”

In all seriousness, though, the real solution is greater police presence, which thanks to the testimony of Snowden is now happening.

After a couple months of lallygagging and general tomfoolery, we’ve finally finished up the Summer Issue. Click on the picture to the right to see all of our beautiful content, including (but not limited to):

• Possibly our most disturbing cover ever
• Tater awards
• Year in Review
• 100 percent true, definitely not false coverage of the Olympic Trials

Hate mail, outrage, corrections and hand-wringing can be directed to ocomment@uoregon.edu.

Writing about the quickly-retracted idea for a new law requiring adult cyclists to wear helmets, Carla Axtman plays at being a libertarian:

 I use that label to infer the idea of the “leave me alone” ethos that tends to be an intregal part of what we’re about in the west. As a rule, the western U.S. seems to be a region whose citizens have a strong preference for government to remain out of their personal decisions… we tend to cast a jaundiced eye at any law which would give the government power over the way we choose to live our lives.

Alright. So far, so good…

We’re not opposed to government taxation and spending per se. In fact, we’ll be the first to embrace it in many cases. [emphasis added]

Hm. Yeah, I’m not entirely sure she gets it. One of her commenters does, though:

I’m not sure from where this ethos began. Perhaps it was from all of those independent-minded pioneers who ventured from parts east on the continent

I’m guessing the ethos began right at about the time a bunch of bicycle riding Portland liberals came to understand that their ox would now be gored by Prozanzki and the rest of his legislative nannycrat buddies.

Heh.

Some guy was handing out Socialist street poetry down on 13th the other day. He asked me if I wanted some, and I declined.

I’m not sure if this is from the same guy or not, but thankfully, a co-worker took a poorly-photocopied poetry booklet from someone, which I subsequently found in the garbage. Check below the fold for an example of one Michael Chusid’s fine verse, from his epic “A Life of Livelihood: Workers of the World, Relax!”:

Read the rest of this entry »

Kari Chisholm at Blue Oregon is expressing shock! and indignation! at a new plan floated by Oregon Republicans: selling water to water-starved states like Nevada and California (though interestingly, his link to the Republicans’ “Leadership Fund” doesn’t mention the plan at all). He quotes Jeff Mapes at the OregonLive blogs:

David Nelson, R-Pendleton, who convinced the Senate R caucus to take up this idea, insists that times have changed and that Oregon could be a Saudi Arabia of water. “We wouldn’t allow them to take it,” he says of other regions. “We would sell it to them.” And he adds that it could make the kind of profits that will help support a level of state services that the taxpayers aren’t willing to fund.

Mapes points out that there are several problems with the plan, not the least of which is that Oregon is already embroiled in all sorts of water-rights litigation involving Native tribes, farmers, and fishermen. Such criticisms are certainly fair and, as the continuing controversies surrounding the Columbia and Klamath flows illustrate, the issues involved are delicate and often intractable.

Chisholm, on the other hand, seems to feel that the idea itself is beyond comprehension, having little to add aside from

Seriously.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Perhaps Kari Chisholm is unaware that the Bonneville Power Administration already sells massive amounts of hydroelectric power from the Columbia to neighboring states and that California already gets huge amounts of water from sources like the Colorado River, which has experienced increasingly smaller flows as places like Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico (which is legally entitled to part of the Colorado River flow), to say nothing of California itself, require increasingly large amounts of water to sustain growth.

Or perhaps he does know that electricity generated by the BPA is consumed in other parts of the country and is simply under the same misapprehension as one of the people posting in his comments section and believes that BPA power is simply given away free to people outside the Pacific Northwest rather than being put to good use near where the power is generated.

Either way, and admitting that there are some real potential issues that arise if we start selling water to California and elsewhere, why does Chisholm think that the plan is so utterly beyond the pale? If the water can be spared without endangering fish runs and Tribal fishing rights, etc., one fails to see how making up for budget shortfalls by selling water is supposedly so outrageous.

After all, we all know that the budget isn’t going to shrink itself since taxpayers aren’t terribly excited about taking even more money out of their pockets and the government isn’t willing to alienate interest groups by cutting programs. It’s clear we can’t rely forever on Band-Aid measures like Federal timber payments, so if a profit can be made using some of Oregon’s natural resources, and it can be done without endangering other interests that Oregonians have decided are important (fish runs, etc.), it seems incredibly short-sighted to pass up that opportunity.

[EDIT]

Then again, maybe Kari Chisholm was too caught up in basically calling Gordon Smith a fatty poo-poo head to be bothered to write anything more substantial about potential plans to exploit Oregon’s natural resources.

Newsweek publishes one of the worst pieces of journalism I’ve ever read.

One of the titans of 20th Century literature has died, aged 89.

Reading The Gulag Archipelago, which I picked up for 50 cents at the local library in my home town, was really the first time I started to grasp the full enormity of the horror of the Soviet Union. While Solzhenitysn in his later years transformed himself into something resembling a hardcore Russian nationalist with a nasty religious bent, most people, myself included, will remember him as a brave dissident and a writer who helped inoculate many of us against collectivist thinking.

[EDIT 08/04]

Some thoughtful comments from Ilya Somin.

Plus, BBC’s “Life in Pictures“.

And more from Hitchens.

The USA Today Coaches top 25 poll debuted today with the University of Georgia taking the number one spot. Oregon placed 20th on the pre-season poll.

The poll, used as one of the factors to determine who plays in the BCS championship game, rounds out its top five USC, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Florida.

The only other Pac-10 team to crack the top 25 is Arizona State at number 16.

• Sports Editor Andrew Grief has an interesting article about the rise in applications for concealed carry permits in the wake of budget cuts that have gutted the Lane County Sheriff’s Office:
  

Faced with longer response times and fewer deputies, many of the 93,500 Lane County residents who live outside city limits in the county believe having a concealed handgun is a necessary step. The Sheriff’s Office expects a record of more than 1,250 permits to be issued this year in the county, up from 680 in 2005, 811 in 2006 and 950 last year. 

Huh. It’s almost like people feel like their Second Amendment rights are valuable and necessary when the government cannot provide for their well-being.

• The OC’s own Drew Cattermole and his upcoming radio spot, The Cattermole Minute were mentioned in a story about upcoming ASUO programs. The Commentator, however, is disapponted that Senior News Editor Robert D’Andrea (who got a special birthday shout-out at last week’s roller derby) mistook Drew’s ASUO president bid last year as “not-so-serious”. We can assure Mr. D’Andrea that Drew Cattermole was deadly serious. Deadly.

• A whole page of re-printed Associated Press stories, with a couple more spread around the issue for good measure? Really? I mean, seriously… this shit shows up every day in Firefox’s built-in RSS news feed. It seems like that space could’ve been better used re-printing some of the more colorful posts left on the comments section of Jeffrey Dransfeldt’s infamous piece on wrestling. I mean, there’s 813 of them to choose from, and most of them are more fun to read than a recycled story about Ehud Olmert from a few days ago. Highlights include:
  • “Jeffery, maybe Mommy didn’t love you enough. I don’t know what your problem is, but the anger you carry from your early puberty is going to hamper you throughout life. Taking glee in the demise of people who have sacrificed more than you will ever know is just a sign of the sickness that dwells in your tortured little body and shadow of a soul. Your rantings sound like those of the VT shooter.”
  • “Your arrogance is disgusting.”
  • “With your neck as shown in the picture, you’re lucky you broke your arm.”

I was going to post this as a comment, but it’s pretty goddamn long.

In comments to this thread, commenter protagony writes:

and even taking insurance out of the picture, obesity effects other people besides the individual, for example that persons children, who will probably grow up to burden the system as well.

If you take the things government does to disburse this effect across many, many pocket books, you’ll notice that being a fat ass only kills you. I might also suggest that learning the difference between affect and effect will help you communicate your unfortunate ideas more clearly. I’m just looking out for you there, mate.

What you’re neglecting is that the same informational problems faced by the poor are faced, in aggregate, by the government. In fact, third-party decision makers have less information than first-party decision makers do so you’re looking at even more informational difficulty. This LA ban is especially ironilicious given that the said same politicians worked hard to keep out Wal-Mart and it’s large, cheap selection of produce. If South LA is anything like San Antonio, it wouldn’t surprise me if many times the produce quality is actually better at Wal-Mart than it is at the local grocery. About 60% of the time that’s true for me, and I live in a fairly affluent part of town.

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The neighborhood of South Los Angeles, in an effort to take a bite out of obesity, is considering a moratorium to ban new fast food restaurants from opening for one year.

While obesity is a problem in America, (hovering around 33% in adult men, according to CDC) stopping new fast food restaurants is hardly the solution. Here we have another case of government babying its citizens in an effort to make them be better people. Unfortunately, I think we’ve all experienced on a personal basis that it is literally impossible to make someone be a better person and lead a better lifestyle. They have to choose to it themselves.

Furthermore, this well-intended policy has huge potential for negative ramification. First, how are they going to make a definition of what ‘fast food’ is? The article linked does not specify what ‘fast food’ will be defined as, but no matter the criteria, there will be exceptions where new restaurant that is considered fast food could be perfectly healthy.

The article says that the moratorium is intended to give the city time to find and attract healthier food options to the area. What the council members are failing to look at are the economic reasons that healthier food options weren’t naturally flourishing in the city in the first place. Not to mention that this policy with its criteria of what fast food is and isn’t, will create more needless red tape for new businesses to start in the area, fast food or not.

The Princeton Review has just released it’s annual college rankings, and I have to say I am sorely disappointed. The UO didn’t even crack the top twenty party schools, and we only ranked 14 in the “reefer madness” category. Do you know which university was ranked #1 party school? Florida. That’s right, those asshats at Florida.

Ladies and gentlemen of the UO, our honor has been besmirched.  Seriously, this is the campus where they filmed Animal House. I call on all students to redouble their efforts in the coming year and restore our rightful place as one of the top party schools in the nation.

P.S. Back in 2005, High Times ranked the UO as the number four school to get a “higher education.”