Welcome to the Oregon Daily Emerald’s new (maybe eventually) award-winning blog coverage of the government of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon.
We decided to create this site for the best, noblest reason, one that befits the high-minded guardians of the Fourth Estate: the ASUO governs how your money is spent (at least a miniscule quantum of the umpty-trillion dollars you pump into that Anthropology degree annually) and without the constant oversight we provide, they could use it for nefarious purposes and you would never know. That and the Commentator has an (definitely actually) award-winning politics blog. And in it they call us “The Dirty.” Sometimes even in lowercase.
To the new ASUO reporter for the ODE, I give you the same inspirational words I gave to the last one: Welcome to hell.
[I]n a finding that contradicts much of the available research on racial and ethnic diversity in higher education, Mr. Herzog found that about the only educational benefit associated with exposure to black, Hispanic, and American Indian students was that it appeared to increase the likelihood that other students from those racial and ethnic groups would stay in college to complete their degrees.
Using objective measures of learning, Mr. Herzog did not find any evidence that being exposed to diversity in their classrooms or taking classes intended to promote appreciation of diversity fostered students’ cognitive growth.
Don’t worry, ethnic studies majors. As you well know by now, it’s not your job to explain to people why they’re wrong (and racist). Just let your outrage and tears prove you right.
Courtesy of Thoreau at Unqualified Offerings comes this warm and uplifting story about the power of Tequila:
A team of Mexican scientists found that the heated vapor from 80-proof (40% alcohol) tequila blanco, when deposited on a silicon or stainless steel substrate, can form diamond films.
That’s right, bitches, you can make diamonds from Tequila. The good stuff anyway. Sounds like CJ needs to get busy writing an over realized request for some Patron and sheet metal. I smell alternate income stream.
Last week there was the beautiful OSPIRG bashing by Matt Petryni, and yesterday I opened the Ol’ Dirty in my attempts to play Sudoku and Wordsearch during class to find this:
It is likely that 2010 and 2012 will be good years for Republicans, especially with the horde of problems facing the Democratic Party. While the Republican Party under Bush has suffered greatly and become ideologically corrupt, it is not as far gone as many currently assume. The next four years will be the true determining factor.
True, it did come from Ohio State University’s student paper, The Lantern. However, it’s not very often that you see decent commentary in the Ol’ Dirty, but somehow its happened twice in two weeks. And here I was waiting for another Ty Schwoeffermann-esque piece to make the KKK look race-friendly. Of course the letter to the editor immediately underneath this op-ed makes me wonder where the readers of the Emerald have been living for the past few years:
Racism is still alive and well in our nation. Sometimes I wonder, am I really living in the 21st century? Because the racism I have witnessed and heard seems like something from the 1800s. Haven’t we come far enough to disregard someone’s skin color, the pigmentation of their skin? Obama’s race should not matter. His policies and performance matter. I hope Obama’s leadership and performance in office will change people’s minds.
I was in the Knight Library today looking for some research material and I discovered, stuffed in between books about Hitler and the Holocaust, dozens of copies of “David Irving’s Action Report” and issues of “American Free Press“. David Irving is, of course, a notorious Holocaust denier who was brought to campus by the lovely people at the Pacifica Forum last year. The “American Free Press” is a publication descended from conspiracy-minded periodical “The Spotlight“, which has ceased publication since 2001. Both papers are associated with noted anti-Semite and David Duke associate Willis Carto.
Sadly, the addressee of the issue of the American Free Press had the forethought to tear off the address label before distributing this garbage. The only good thing about finding this crap is that the AFP issue is dated from 2006 and the “Action Report” was published in 1998. Since it seems fairly unlikely that dozens of copies of Holocaust denial literature printed on bright yellow paper stuffed in between books across an entire section in the library have been totally overlooked by library staff for the last decade, I suppose we can rest assured that Eugene’s neo-Nazi scum aren’t spending a lot of time keeping up-to-date with their own “literature”.
Eugene Weekly special investigator Alan Pittman has a great, definitely-not-socialist article in this week’s EW titled “Spread the wealth in Oregon.” Here’s the lede:
With Barack Obama popular in Oregon while calling for a tax increase on those earning more than $250,000, could such a tax plan work here?
Tell me, Alan Pittman! I certainly can’t guess what your answer will be.
If Oregon state income taxes were raised 10 percent on those earning more than $250,000 adjusted gross income, taxes on everyone else could be cut about 4 percent, according to an EW analysis of state tax return data. That’s an average savings of $86.
Why, what a novel idea! It’s practically foolproof. For example, if I was an evil, evil rich person, I certainly wouldn’t move to a different state to avoid getting raped by taxes. Nope, I would sit tight and make less money. All that stuff about people being “rational actors” is just plain phooey. In fact, I’m sure the wealthy would flock to Oregon! Nothing drives entrepreneurs and business into a state like a draconian state income tax. Hold on, I’m going to quote something else silly Pittman said:
Oregon’s wealthiest could easily afford a tax increase. In the last three decades the income of the wealthiest 1 percent of Oregonians has doubled while the wage of the typical Oregon worker has dropped slightly after adjusting for inflation, according to the Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP).
Oh yes, easily. But who cares if they can afford it? It’s their fault for being so inconsiderately wealthy in the first place. Pittman is right; the rich are a resource to be harvested, like timber or zinc.
By the way, this isn’t Pittman’s first call to action against the landed gentry. I’m going to go out on a limb and venture that he is not in the $250,000 income bracket. Just a guess.
ODE columnist Matt Petryni had a column yesterday laying into OSPIRG, probably one of the harshest criticisms of the group I’ve ever seen run in the Ol’ Dirty. To wit:
In the past, I have volunteered with OSPIRG. While there was some good work done, the program’s incredible overhead and fundraising operation clearly consumed most of its resources. It should come as no surprise, then, that more than two-thirds of its ASUO stipend goes not to on-campus work, but to staffers in Portland, Ore.
[…]
Now, let me be clear. If you want to donate to the harassment squad that trolls our campus on a near-daily basis, that’s perfectly fine with me. Should students be forced to pay a portion of their incidental fee to a program some do not agree with, few actually understand, and almost no one can account for? The answer is clearly no.
Yeah, get some! This is what the ODE opinion page needs more of: strongly worded columns about concrete campus issues. Petryni wins a beer next time I see him at the bar. Don’t get me wrong; I love reading Anastasia STRGAR’s sex columns, but …
The 25th Anniversary Issue is now online. Inside you can find articles from OC editors past, including a really funny picture of Olly Ruff and Tyler Graf looking like lumberjacks. Hate mail, outrage and corrections can be directed to ocomment[at]uoregon.edu. Cheers!
Consider this post the Oregon Commentator Elections Headquarters, where our team of crack political analysts will tell you exactly which states are still too close to call. If any other OC bloggers want to post stuff here, go for it. Also, have at it in the comment thread. And … here we go:
For anyone interested, the ol’ Commentator crew will be heading down to Rennie’s at about 6:30 p.m. to watch the elections coverage.
Kentucky called for McCain and Vermont for Obama, via Politico.
OC alum Bill Beutler has this nifty application he wants us to pimp out. It’s one of those, uh, visual aggregator twitter thingies. Check it out after the jump.
The Ol’ Dirty reports on the absolutely shocking news that UO employees donated more to Dems than Republicans. Funny, almost like I’ve read that somewhere before.
According to a recent Slate article if Obama loses it will spell the biggest political, societal and media fail ever.
… and then it proceeded to talk about how Obama’s camp wasn’t being overly optimistic, which was proceeded by analysis showing Obama being overly optimistic.
The worst part about this article, though, is really the ending:
“Great: Now another American institution could be in peril: If Obama loses, we may have reason to doubt the power of family, too.”
The writer might be acting facetiously, but come on. I don’t think I’ve read any articles this year that have been so straining for Obama like this one. Haha, family time couldn’t save Obama’s election.
Well, when you’ve been whipped by your wife like Obama has, then I could see how that might not save you. I’m personally looking at the photos where Obama and his daughters are all smiling and Michelle Obama seems to be imitating a chimpmunk. I’m just saying: take a look.
Just had her wisdom teeth removed or caught mid bite during the family picnic?
On Wednesday, October 29th, right after I left the meeting, Senate decided to not include a “code of conduct” outlining the ethical responsibilities expected of ASUO Senators. This conduct code was based on the ethics bill authored by Senator Kate Jones and former Senator Neil Brown last school year (2007-2008).
Both Neil and Jones ran on the original Campaign for Change featuring Sara Hamilton and Athan Papiliou, which ran on a platform of ethical behavior and, as the name of the slate states, change. After sweeping the elections, Neil and Jones wrote the first ethics proposal in memorable history.
Oregon Commentator operatives are currently in the process of infiltrating major political and economic centers across the globe. Sudsy has already been spotted in China and Washington, D.C. Our latest dispatch comes from agent Matt Perreault, who was cool enough to take the time to upload a video of himself and Sudsy O’Sullivan hanging out at the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul:
I am also reasonably confident we will soon be receiving intel from operatives stationed in Kazan and other key locales around Russia. The Conspiracy(tm) continues!
FIRE has just released a report on one of the most overt and chilling thought-reform program I have ever heard of at an American university. The University of Delaware’s office of Residence Life forced students to attend its ResLife program, which sought to turn them into little social justice shock troops. From the report:
Mandatory group sessions singled out and shamed non-minority students because of their “privilege” in American society. Staff members kept individual files on students and their beliefs – which were to be archived after graduation. RAs were trained in the zero-tolerance policy against anything “oppressive” – an untoward word would trigger immediate notification of the campus police. RAs were required to report their “best” and “worst” one-on-one sessions to their superiors, including students’ names and room numbers. Posters and door decorations provided the ResLife messages everywhere; one could not escape them. One administrator of the program, Sendy Guerrier, wrote that students “should be confronted with this information at every turn.” Students with “traditional” beliefs had to become “allies” and “change agents” by their senior year.
There’s so much outrageous material I don’t even know where to start. For example, these are two definitions that were taught to RA’s during training sessions:
A RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of discrimination…
REVERSE RACISM: A term created and used by white people to deny their white privilege. Those in denial use the term reverse racism to refer to hostile behavior by people of color toward whites, and to affirmative action policies, which allegedly give ‘preferential treatment’ to people of color over whites. In the U.S., there is no such thing as “reverse racism.”
What’s more disturbing is the University of Delaware shopped its cutting-edge “curricular approach” to resident education to other universities in annual “Residential Curriculum Institutes.” You can see how organized and entrenched the social justice crowd is on college campuses. They all use the same buzzwords and methods, whether at the University of Oregon or the University of Delaware, and they use their positions in student and university government to force their twisted worldview on students.
Please read the full report, as I can’t really do it justice. If you like going to college without having to be “re-educated,” you should check out FIRE anyways. (FIRE once defended the Commentator’s First Amendment rights when the ASUO tried to defund us.)
