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Senator Gulley should be recalled

In lieu of the recent comments by Senator Nate Gulley in last night’s Senate Meeting (see thread below) the Commentator would like to highlight this message posted yesterday afternoon on Facebook by Senator Gulley:

Also, it’s a good thing I am going out of town this weekend. Because if some shit goes down, all the evidence is going to point to me. For example, my recent Google searches include:

“Rates of Spontaneous Combustion Among Greek-Americans”

…and…

“Top Ten Most Effective Ways to Throw a Hand Grenade at Targets That Rhyme With Smapailiou”

Alright Nate, calling fellow Senators racist in public is one thing, but suggesting deadly violence against the Senate President, Athan Papailiou, is one of the crudest, most despicable and immoral actions an elected representative of a student body can perform. This is a public threat toward a fellow official. We believe this type of behavior is detrimental to the ASUO Senate and is worthy of a recall. We encourage the entire student body along with the ASUO Senate and the ASUO Executive to hold government representatives accountable for actions that demean and demoralize the ASUO and the student body is serves.

  1. SimGuy says:

    I have it on high authority that Frohn loves the OC and considers it a vital asset to the UO community.

  2. Sho says:

    I do recall that Frohnmayer took it in good (or, uh, bad) humor, or at least did not do anything to punish us (though he would not have been able to do so legally). I think Bill saw him once at some sort of president/student leaders shindig and the Frohn just raised an eyebrow when Bill mentioned he was the editor of the Commentator.

  3. Danimal says:

    That was not before my time, that was definitely squarely in the middle of my time. But I should mention that it was all Beutler’s idea.

  4. niedermeyer says:

    I think we can all agree that tasteless jokes look way better in print…

  5. T says:

    No, no, no, there were no references to the disorder, Tim. We should point out, however, that the death notice (on the back cover) was printed shortly after Frohnmayer suffered a heart attack … so … yeah. I should mention that was before my time.

  6. Timothy says:

    On a more serious note here, let’s keep in mind that the OC did once print a fake death notice for The Frohn. That was before my time, but there might’ve been some jokes about his daughters’ awful genetic disorder in there, I really don’t recall. So, you know, Gulley is a douche, but this isn’t the right angle of attack here.

  7. niedermeyer says:

    Oh, I just wasn’t sure of my usage/spelling there, that’s all… I don’t trust my Firefox spell check because it randomly underlines some words even when they are spelled correctly, and it’s way easier to mutter a brief prayer to the OC guardian angel of usage/spelling than to update my browser. Sorry.

    Also, Lauren T’s sense of relative creepiness seems in need of some calibration here. Besides, there’s this fantastic feature of facebook that makes your profile viewable only by your “friends,” not to mention the other multitude of private methods for expressing private opinions among friends some of which don’t even involve the internet.

  8. Olly says:

    Ted N:

  9. Sean says:

    Anything in the world can be explained through a Youtube video.

  10. Timothy says:

    Jesus, I go out of town to get wasted in SF for a few days and I miss all the fun.
    Although, I believe the best explanation of the situation can be found here.

  11. Sean says:

    Cock a doodle doo

  12. Blaser says:

    I don’t know Lauren T… and what a declasse name… I think it’s creepier that you brought up someone’s cock to get your point across after you got electronically bitch slapped. In fact, I think it brings this “Web Log” to a new low.

  13. T says:

    She’s obviously German.

  14. Jan says:

    “Web Log”? You’re kidding, right? Is that, like, something you find on the Interwebs? For somebody who tries to win debates with the superior logic of how people spell their names, one would hope you wouldn’t talk about the Internet like it was 1995.

    Oh, and “Cock” is not a proper noun, unless you’re Bill Clinton.

  15. Lauren T says:

    Meghann.. what an unecessarily pretentious spelling… Please take Ted N’s Cock out of your mouth long enough to realize that public or private, the screen shot speaks to the underlying creepiness that resides in this here Web Log.

  16. Olly says:

    “After all, context is everything, and his long record of indecorous (Olly?)…”

    What?

  17. Timbo says:

    “In this day and age”

    This phrase, regardless of context, puts my bullshit meter in the red.

  18. Jacob Daniels says:

    Wow

  19. Niedermeyer says:

    Ok, then at least we are making some traction on the point that this is a particularly egregious example of Gulley’s repeated breaches of senatorial decorum. That’s all it takes to get homeboy recalled, and I don’t think the point needs to be belabored any further past that point. After all, context is everything, and his long record of indecorous (Olly?) behavior makes this example a candidate for the straw that breaks the cliche’s back.

    At the very least, someone should request another hearing on this matter from the Senate ombudsman, if only because the last time this happened Gulley simply pulled out a smokescreen to avoid answering any questions about his own behavior. Lightning doesn’t strike twice, and as paltry as the specifics of this matter may be, at least it may lead to him finally having to publicly defend his indefensible actions.

  20. Danimal says:

    I think the point that we are all missing is that it is up to Senator Papailiou to decide if he feels threatened by these public statements.

    Can y’all just set down the word “threat” and back away? Because what this thread boils down to, I think, is a misunderstanding of whether Gulley’s silliness has crossed a free speech line or a senatorial decorum line. (For my part, yes to the latter and no to the former.)

    “Threats” are unprotected speech, and that word has raised the hackles of the alums here because that is exactly how certain speech of ours was spuriously characterized by the “victim” in a little ruckus we had not too long ago. That in mind, it’s worrisome to see people from the OC so willing to allow the “victim” to define what constitutes a “threat,” and also so quick to classify any speech as such themselves.

  21. Meghann says:

    Privacy? Please tell me you’re joking, Lauren T. You do realize that screen shot is of a, uh, PUBLIC FACEBOOK PROFILE, right? I hopped onto facebook and brought it up in about two seconds.

    Blocking out names to protect privacy. Good one!

  22. Jan says:

    Smapailiou rhymes with Papailiou? Holy shit, get this man a record deal, he’s the next Jay-Z!

  23. Lauren T says:

    Taking screenshots of someones page is creepy. whats worse all the other people on the page not names Gulley were not blocked out to protect their privacy.

  24. de lancie says:

    Lee, you ole scumbag you.

  25. de lancie says:

    there is always a little truth in a joke. when i say to my best friend, “you ole scumbag you”, I don’t think he is a scumbag all the time, but in the back of mind, I remember that time that gives a little truth to the comment. hey, it was really funny when he did it and it did make me like him more, but i still think he is a fucking scumbag.

    yeah, yeah…another hypothetical which says nothing about how dangerous i think this all is…

    but its a funny hypothetical and gulley’s writing is a suggestion of violence regardless of how likely it is to happen. the point is this is completely innapropraite behavior of someone i pay each month. and we didn’t call the post “Senator Gulley Threatens Life of Papailiou”, we called for his recall. its what we all want anyway. can’t we all just get along?

  26. Lee says:

    controversy challenge:
    anime > gulley

  27. Ossie says:

    Fern Gulley is a joke.

  28. Vincent. says:

    We also need to remember that Senator Papailiou is being targeted by Senator Gulley because of his steadfastness to defend the rules and regulations outlined in the Green Tape Notebook.

    *ding-ding-ding*

    We have a winner.

  29. Yeah, obviously Gulley is a douche. That has been amply established. The Facebook post was grossly unprofessional, kind of disturbing and another shining example of Gulley’s doucheness, but I don’t think it crosses the line into an actual threat. I’m all for posting it on the blog, but I’d have to agree with T that anytime the OC starts taking inane blabber like that seriously we’re firing a catapult (or perhaps a trebuchet) in a glass house.

  30. Olly says:

    Ossie: “From what are you guys drawing from where we say that this situation is dangerous? We have not said anything about the looming danger that is Sen. Gulley.”

    From the post: “…but suggesting deadly violence against the Senate President, Athan Papailiou, is one of the crudest, most despicable and immoral [“immoral” substituted for “unmoral” since the last time I quoted this passage] actions an elected representative of a student body can perform. This is a public threat toward a fellow official.

    I don’t think I’m reading anything into that paragraph that isn’t there. What I’m saying in response is that Gulley’s statements really, honestly do not constitute a “public threat toward a fellow official.” Nor do they “suggest deadly violence against the Senate President.” (The use of “hand grenades” is pretty clearly rhetorical.) Nor are they in any way racist. And I have absolutely no idea where Nicole is getting her “lynching” hypothetical from, or why it is supposed to be comparable.

    Believe me, nobody would be more amused than me if Gulley actually crossed a line on Facebook and got busted. But this ain’t it, folks, and it’s no use pretending it is just because you (that is, we) don’t like the guy. All this sort of thing does is detract from the excellent posts that you produce when – as happens on a regular basis – Gulley says or does Something Really Stupid. (TM)

    “There have now been several instances when Gulley

  31. Niedermeyer says:

    Blaser’s last point is the clincher for me. Papailiou earned these creepy comments by simply following up on a violation of the rules (which very much needed to be followed up on, as it turned out). Gulley made these comments because a friend of his (Jerome Roberts) wasn’t going to get away with not paying back the ASUO because of the actions of Sen Papailiou. How much more obvious can corruption get? I could almost understand comments like these if they were over policy or ideological differences, but no elected official deserves to be personally attacked (however “subtly”) for making sure that the rules are enforced.

  32. ChrisD says:

    These are the same Senators who eat popcorn and giggle while dolling out student funds. Is anyone seriously surprised by immature Facebook wall writing? It is loud snacks during meetings, and not silly threats of violence, that are really getting in the way of the process…

  33. Blaser says:

    I think the point that we are all missing is that it is up to Senator Papailiou to decide if he feels threatened by these public statements. I know if I were on the other end of jokes which involved violence and my ethnicity, I would probably feel creeped out, confused, and generally put-off that someone would think that was funny in any way. As well, if these statements were made by a co-worker and someone with whom I was charged to make very important decisions with each week, I would probably not feel comfortable being in the same room with them.

    And Sho, while I would agree in any other circumstance that this is just Nate Gulley at his finest and that we should not take him seriously, I think we all forget as well that he is an elected official. I know, it is scary, but he is bound to Oregon Public Law, the law of the ASUO, and so on. No matter how he may come up short in many characteristics we hope to see in any representation, he is still held to higher standards than other students because of his status as a Senator. One could argue that one of those is general respect for his fellow Senators, which anyone can see is not happening now, nor has it happened in the past.

    We also need to remember that Senator Papailiou is being targeted by Senator Gulley because of his steadfastness to defend the rules and regulations outlined in the Green Tape Notebook. Seeing that not even Con Court is doing this anymore, I think it is very important for organizations like the OC, who defend accountability and transparency at any level, to defend individuals like Senator Papailiou.

  34. Ossie says:

    From what are you guys drawing from where we say that this situation is dangerous? We have not said anything about the looming danger that is Sen. Gulley. We are talking about a public official who is too unstable and self-serving to represent 20,000-plus students.

    T: Shouldn

  35. Niedermeyer says:

    This situation really tears me. I understand the reservations that alums have in using something like this to remove Gulley, because we have so tenaciously stuck to our principle that a sense of humor is important, and shrill outrage has such a detrimental effect on said principle.

    On the other hand, I think the argument that “if people didn’t care before, they won’t care now” fails to take into account the nature of the ASUO. The sad fact is that the ASUO basically only responds to shrillness… the OC didn’t invent this fact, and our efforts to change it (mock it) have, if anything, only made the problem worse. Nate has cashed in quite a few chips with his “allies” including generating a tempest in a teacup to distract from his own loutish and defamatory behavior, and this incident should prove to them what I have believed all along: that Gulley is entirely cynical and self-serving in his use of other people’s principles and struggles. I think that this senseless statement should cause Gulleys former backers to see through his hypocrisy and selfish exploitation of noble causes, and should be calling for his removal as well.

    In short, the incident in question is ugly, but the circumstances are unique. I disagree that this situation is the same as T’s Robocop fiasco… this is not so much about creating an unsafe environment (although some will doubtless argue that it does) but about proving an unchanging pattern of behavior from a Senator who should have been booted a long time ago. Throw the rat out!

  36. Vincent. says:

    Completely unprofessional? Yes. Further evidence of aforementioned douchery? Yes. Painfully un-funny? Yes.

    But dangerous? Come on, guys. Any time wasted on this Gulley bozo and his sad little Facebook dribble is time you could be spending organizing some kind of proper response to that Holocaust denier who’s coming to campus in a couple of weeks.

  37. Sho says:

    I merely posted the screenshot for verification, but I have to side with Olly and T here. There’s no need to give anything Gulley ever says any value. Olly and T are right: Nate Gulley is a douche and will be remembered as such so long as this blog exists.

  38. T says:

    Also, let’s not compare Gulley’s words to race hate. These silly “what-if,” hypothetical scenerios get us no place. They’re always much worse than what’s ACTUALLY happening, so what’s the fucking point of even imagining them? (Yeah, it would be pretty shitty if Athan were a racist asshole and made lynching jokes on Facebook. So what? Why even imagine that? To prove there are double standards? Of course the standards are different, because they’re not the same fucking situation.) I mean, that’s the shit the Catholic League does.

  39. T says:

    “I do not for a second think that Nate Gulley would intentionally physically harm Athan Papailiou, but making a joke out of the blowing up of another human being is sick. But I also agree with Ossie, although I think he was semi-joking, that you can never be to sure. Always handle a gun as if it is loaded until you are 100% sure it is not. We are not trying to censor him either. Gulley is allowed, obviously, to say whatever he damn well feels like, but under classical liberalism, which recognizes the freedom of speech, individiual freedom only comes with reason, justice, toleration, and diversity.”

    Um, you guys understand how this attitude can come back and bite you in the ass, right? I seem to remember a certain someone in student government who was under the impression that a certain magazine was making fun of a certain Australian basketball player for having had his limbs lopped off, when in fact his limbs were intact, and the reference to dismemberment was merely a childish joke at the expense of the player’s wildly varying height. Oh, and there was the non-threat to the senator’s genitals, made by Robocop in OC Asks. Remember how fucking stupid those accusations seemed?

    This was a joke, people. Gulley’s a douche, but it was still a joke. And Olly’s right: If people didn’t give a shit before about his behavior, they won’t care now — not even if you run around talking about how offended you are. Fight fire with fire and make fun of Gulley back. But make sure your jokes are funny (i.e. Don’t have Robocop say that he has shot someone in the penis).

    Don’t pull a CR stunt.

  40. Jake says:

    “We encourage the entire student body along with the ASUO Senate and the ASUO Executive to hold government representatives accountable for actions that demean and demoralize the ASUO and the student body is serves..”

    Accountability? I think someone tore that word from all the dictionaries in the ASUO office like 10 years ago.

  41. de lancie says:

    I do not for a second think that Nate Gulley would intentionally physically harm Athan Papailiou, but making a joke out of the blowing up of another human being is sick. But I also agree with Ossie, although I think he was semi-joking, that you can never be to sure. Always handle a gun as if it is loaded until you are 100% sure it is not. We are not trying to censor him either. Gulley is allowed, obviously, to say whatever he damn well feels like, but under classical liberalism, which recognizes the freedom of speech, individiual freedom only comes with reason, justice, toleration, and diversity.

    Consider also if the tables were turned. What if it had been Papailiou who wrote on a friend’s wall about his “recent Google searches”:

    “How to Pick Out the Thief From an Africian-American Line-up”

    or

    “Top Ten Ways to Tie Knots in Big White Ropes for Hanging Things That Rhyme With Smermoberts”

    Would you be taking Papailiou’s words seriously?

  42. Eva says:

    Given Gulley’s documented propensity for calling other senators racist, how does he justify his own racist comments about Papailiou’s Greek ethnicity? Whether or not he’s serious, it’s totally creepy.

  43. Ossie says:

    In this day and age, you can never be so sure.

    Actually, we didn’t say anything about there being a serious threat of violence in this situation. Even if it is a joke, however, is it still not some type of threat? There are different kinds of threats than threats of physical harm.

    Do you think that this action is in accord with the Senate’s mission statement?

    Senate shall endeavor to represent the students professionally, ethically and in a manner deserving of the respect of the ASUO and the staff, faculty, administration and State Board of Higher Education.

  44. Olly says:

    As has been attested in this comment section more often than I can count, let the timeless truth resound once again: Nate Gulley is a douche. And certainly, in the past, he’s done things that would merit being kicked off the Senate if anyone actually cared.

    However.

    “…suggesting deadly violence against the Senate President, Athan Papailiou, is one of the crudest, most despicable and unmoral [sic] actions an elected representative of a student body can perform. This is a public threat toward a fellow official.”

    Dudes. Treating Gulley’s imbecilic Facebook post as a serious threat of violence? Is this really a road you want to go down?

  45. Lee says:

    What did I sign up for….

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