The OC Blog Back Issues Our Mission Contact Us Masthead
Sudsy Wants You to Join the Oregon Commentator
 

Archive for April, 2007

ASUO ELECTIONS: PRIMARY RESULTS

April 13th, 2007 by Niedermeyer

With all precincts reporting, the 2007 ASUO Primary results are as follows:

Executive: Runoff between Sara Hamilton and Athan Papailiou of Campaign For Change and Emily McLain and San SunOwen of Working For You (3rd place, Ari Lesser and Phil Wood with 750 votes) (more…)

Racism and The Return Of Hill-Meyer

April 13th, 2007 by Niedermeyer

Racism is having the Best Week Ever! Imus is going down for his “nappy-headed ho’s” comment, ASUO Exec candidate Ty Schwoeffermann called white rappers “appropriation” and “minstrelry” before kicking off a white-boy rap showdown in the amphitheater between his VP Paul Kammerzelt and ASUO Exec hopefull Ari Lesser, and to top it all off, Tobi Hill-Meyer came back like deja-vu to declare “There is an epidemic of racism in the student senate.” It’s like, the more I hear about it, the less this cracker-ass honky understands racism.

I wrote a guest commentary for the Emerald, in response to Hill-Meyers piece. It was a bit rushed, and I don’t feel particularly comfortable writing on this topic, but I felt like someone needed to respond. My problem with what is going on is that accusations are being made and not explained. Students have to deal with these accusation of racism hanging over their heads, without so much of a shred of evidence to support them.

This smear tactic raises real questions about the motivations of those making the accusations. How are senators supposed to correct their racist ways if they aren’t informed/educated about how they are, in fact racist. If racism is so entrenched a problem as Hill-Meyer claims, why is it only brought up during elections? Is racism, or lack thereof, tied to dollars and cents of Incidental Fee funding? The entire situation has the reek of McCarthyism to it, where the suggestion is made, guilt is presumed, and it is up to the accused to defend themselves from undocumented and nebulous charges. Then, as now, it is incumbent upon the accuser, not the accused, to substantiate such serious charges. Furthermore, if racism is truly a problem on Senate, then there must be a solution other than character assasination. The health and harmony of our political system depends on it.

Good night, and good luck.

And We’re Back

April 12th, 2007 by Timothy

I apologize to everyone for today’s website outage, we were migrating to a new server. Thanks to Sho for his many years of diligence with this little piece of the web: since 2000 Sho’s been a big part of making sure the OC site looks good and keeps working, and he was a big help getting this blog off the ground on blogger back in 2002. Big up to Mr. Ikeda, even if he does hate me for my whiteness.

Both the domain registration and the hosting have been transferred to me, and I’ll be keeping both paid for in perpetuity or until I can’t afford $4 a month, whichever comes first. Again, sorry for the outage at such an important and busy time of year, but we should be good to go from here on out.

OC Elections Interview Series: Lee Warnecke

April 10th, 2007 by Niedermeyer

Lee Warnecke is running for Seat 11 against Jamin Burchard this week in the primary election for the ASUO senate. We would like to remind you that voting began today, and urge you to participate in the process! Hey, the ASUO may be fucked up, but it’s our student government, and we need to do something about it. Vote.

(more…)

Gaga For Grievances?

April 9th, 2007 by Niedermeyer

So, the “Emily and San Campaign” has become the first target of the ubiquitous-in-election season grievance. Grievances, which roughly translate into “whining,” are traditionaly hurled between campaigns over every possible perceived breach of election rules and common courtesy. As ineffective as grievances typically are, it seems that they may now be doomed to practical irrelevance.

The ASUO Elections Board ruled, as noted earlier, that the Mclain/Sunowen ticket had violated election rules. The ruling has been appealed by Mclain, on a number of points, which are summarized here. So confident is the Mclain/Sunowen campaign that the Elections Board ruling will be overturned, that they apparently have decided to go ahead and campaign (according to eyewitnesses) despite the one-day ban imposed on them by the Election Board ruling. Are they right? Are they wrong? You play Con Court.

As I hinted at before, grievances are just another stupid little game to make ASUO-types feel important, and really don’t make any difference. Whether or not Mclain/SunOwen used the College Dem’s listserv doesn’t make much of a difference, considering how tight Ms. Mclain is with that organization. If you care about this kind of thing, go ahead and file a grievance against Richard Nile, who’s campaign sent out this email via an Econ 399 listserv. Or, you know, whatever…

Elections Update 4/9/07

April 9th, 2007 by Niedermeyer

Grievance Upheld Against Mclain/Sunowen

The first grievance filed this year was against the Mclain/Sunowen campaign for the use of the College Democrats listserv, and for posting campaign materials in the Leadership Resource Office. The Mclains/Sunowen campaign was found in violation of election rules on both counts, but was only sanctioned for use of the CD listserv. According to the ruling,

The Emily and San for ASUO Executive Campaign is banned from distributing any and all campaign material including but not limited to campaign shirts, fliers, pencils, buttons, cups, and posters. This ban is to begin 12am April 9, 2007 until 12am April 10, 2007.

Candidates Withdraw From Race

According to the ASUO Elections Coordinator Dante Vivanco, four candidates have withdrawn from the race. Sharanya Kanikkannan has withdrawn from the race for Senate Seat 1, Hollina Ung has withdrawn her eligibility for Senate Seat 13, Tom Bode will no longer be seeking Seat 15, and Jamin Burchard has withdrawn from the race for Seat 11. Seat 11 is now the only uncontested race on the ballot.

Niedermeyer Drops The Science

In a podcast interview with the Emerald, Executive candidate Ted Niedermeyer explains the threat presented by International Douchebaggery. Check it out here.

 

Election Issue Released

April 6th, 2007 by Niedermeyer

Can’t decide who to vote for in the upcoming ASUO elections? There’s a Commentator for that!

The all-new Elections Issue of the Oregon Commentator is finally done, and has been released for the web in PDF format. Look for the issues on stands around the UO campus early next week.

As always, please enjoy the Commentator responsibly.

Tinkering

April 5th, 2007 by Timothy

I have installed a new plugin to help with the comments around here. It will automatically close comments on posts after 14 days, so anything older than two weeks can’t be commented on any longer. This should help cut down on the comment spam. It should also cut down on the folks googling up year old stuff from the archive and leaving fresh, new comments.

That is all.

World of Warcraft Comes To Life In China

April 3rd, 2007 by Niedermeyer

This shit is crazy. Say what you want about economic stratification in this country, at least we don’t have mining barons hunting humans while dressed as Orks or level 60 Mages, or whatever. Yeesh.

Professor Weighs In On Arena Debate

April 3rd, 2007 by Niedermeyer

UO Architecture Professor Richard Sundt has a commentary piece in the Register-Guard today, in which he voices his opposition to plans for the new basketball arena. Sundts thesis is that existing plans are overly grandiose, and that their realization is a forgone conclusion that has already cost Bill Moos his job, and put Pat Kilkenny into power. Furthermore, Sundt alleges that funds from the Westmoreland sale will be going toward purchasing property for the arena, indicating that the University has skewed its priorities unnecessarily towards athletics. Sundt writes:

“The earmarking of Westmoreland money for possible use on the arena makes everyone stakeholders in the project. This arena venture should not, therefore, be allowed to stay in the hands of two or three UO administrators and a couple of donors.”

The piece brings up a number of serious concerns with the Athletic Departments clout, and its fixation on lavish goals which would well hurt the Universities academic mission. These issues cut to the heart of one of the biggest debates on campus, and should be more extensively discussed across the campus community.

Random Thought

April 3rd, 2007 by Timothy

Every now and again on the UO campus there’s an “against patriarchy” conference. I’m sure you can guess how deliciously stupid it is. I was thinking this morning about the pending trade war with China, and that it might be neat for somebody (decidedly not me) to organize an Against Autarky conference. Firstly, nobody will get it so there might be relatively few protesters. Secondly, maybe it would get some accidental donations from the anti-autism folks.

Discuss.

OC Election Interview Series: Senate Seat 15: Noor Rajabzadeh

April 2nd, 2007 by Niedermeyer

This is the third in our series of online interviews with candidates for ASUO office. Noor Rajabzadeh is running for Senate Seat 15 (Academic: Social Science), and today we feature her answers to our stock questions. On a quick editorial note, our obsession with the drinking habits of candidates does not prejudice us against Muslims, or anyone else who abstains from alcohol for personal or religious reasons. We’re just a bunch of raging drunks, thats all.

(more…)