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

Archive for April, 2003

April 14th, 2003 by Bret

They Hate What We Were, What We Are

We all know those ungrateful bastards who despise America. If you don’t know one personally, you can read his thoughts in the ODE.

We are going to impose “freedom” on any dunderheads who don’t realize democracy is better than anything they’ve figured out in all the millennia they’ve been around.

Such are the sarcastic thoughts of Joseph Bechard, who writes of things he does not know — and writes of them in the Pulse section. I have the feeling that if it were the EU leading a charge against some nation that used torture and fear and murder to suppress its people, Mr. Bechard would probabaly take a different tone. But we will never know, because he will most likely continue to busy himself bashing our country.

April 14th, 2003 by Bret

CNN Digging Itself Deeper

According to a CNN source, the network’s decision not to report on news of planned murders from Saddam & Sons was not about maintaining access, but about keeping people alive.

CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson: The decision not to report these particular events had nothing to do with access, and everything to do with keeping people from being killed as a result of our reporting.

So …. how does that mesh with not reporting plans to kill two of Saddam’s sons-in-law who returned to the country but were then murdered? CNN’s excuses don’t match up with reality.

April 13th, 2003 by Timothy

Please, Remind Me…

Exactly how the United States are the “baby killers” in this war, but first, read this.

April 13th, 2003 by Sho

For the OC Candidates of the Past, Present and Future

Each of the candidates from the Oregon Commentator has done reasonably well for usually spending the lowest amount of money out of all of the ASUO exec campaigns. Jeremy Jones has snagged about 125 of 2,257 (5.5%) votes with his greatest expenditure being his campaign ad in the last issue of the Commentator.

Managing Editor Tim Dreier got 98 of the 2,346 (4.2%) votes while fighting the commies on campus and competing with nine other tickets. Tim ended up coming behind one serious campaign by seven votes.

Oddly, the Emerald website doesn’t have my results in any article from the 2001 primary elections. However, they do have my interview. I believe I received over 100 votes out of 1,500 (6.7%).

Unfortunately in 2000, Former OC Editor Ed Madrid was dropped from the ballot when he couldn’t keep “All these people are idiots” as his official moniker. However, OC contributor Dan Atkinson ran on a “left-handed student rights” platform winning 4.2% of the vote.

1999 was host to one of the most memorable election debates, with Former OC Editors William Beutler and Tamir Kriegel and OC AP writer Brandon Hartley creating most of the chaos.

The best finish of any OC canidacy was in 1998 when Kriegel teamed up with Greg Labavitch to win an amazing 409 out of 2,040 votes and land in third place. I believe their campaign slogan was, “Tamir and Greg Rhymes with Beer and Keg.”

A freshman Madrid and his running mate Sal 2000, a talking computer, took on the big leaguers in 1997 and won 6% of the total votes.

And so the OC continues its proud tradition of mocking the ASUO elections for the farce that it is. Here’s to next year’s elections!

April 13th, 2003 by Brett

The PFC: masters of fiscal responsibility in a comparative world…

I’ve never been too impressed with the way our university handled the almighty dollar until I read this.

April 13th, 2003 by Timothy

Read This

Steven Den Beste runs one of the best blogs out there. Go, read it.

April 12th, 2003 by Bret

Rummy And Coke … And Sex. Hilarious idea.

April 12th, 2003 by Bret

All Hail The Emporer

Jones pulled off a pretty amazing 125 votes in the ASUO elections with his plans to become all-powerful emporer and return OSU to its rightful owner — us. I think the vote was close enough Jones should demand a recount!

April 12th, 2003 by Bret

The Hindsight Scoreboard

NRO has gone back and looked at the statements of Gen. Barry McCaffrey, Maureen Dowd and Chris Matthews. There are plenty of others in the list they hit as well, including Kristof, Arnett and Alterman.

People should keep in mind that as Russia, Germany and France meet, there is the possibility that the sole mission is not to create a rival power to the U.S. That surely is one reason, but more likely it is to deal with the immediate problem that those countries supplied Iraq with WMD capabilities, and that fact may not look good for them. A guest column on NRO says we should deal with the suppliers.

April 11th, 2003 by Sho

“A Journalistic Enron Scandal”

Because of my ineptness, I failed to see that Bret had already posted this link to Eason Jordan’s article at NYT. So now I will post some links to criticism aimed at Jordan’s admissions:

Mickey Kaus at Slate (you’ll have to scroll down a ways to see his comments)

Jonah Goldberg at NRO

The New Republic

Found these links at Instapundit. Glenn Reynolds is all over it.

April 11th, 2003 by Sho

The News They Kept to Themselves

Eason Jordan, chief news exec at CNN, writes in the NY Times about the atrocities journalists and others suffered during Saddam’s regime in the 1990s. Most of these incidents could not be reported for fear of further punishment from the Iraqi government. I am sure we will be hearing even more untold horror stories in the coming weeks and months.

April 11th, 2003 by Bret

What Price Freedom? What Price Your Safety?

House Dem Leader Nancy Pelosi still thinks it was a mistake to go to war, and cites the budget as a major concern:

The cost in human lives. The cost to our budget, probably $100 billion. We could have probably brought down that statue for a lot less. The cost to our economy. But the most important question at this time, now that we’re toward the end of it, is what is the cost to the war on terrorism?

It’s fantastic that the biggest spokesperson for that party apparently has less interest in security and in the freedom for those in the Middle East than concern over short-term budget issues. Meanwhile, IA Sen. Tom Harkin (also a Democrat, unsurprisingly) called Saddam a “paper tiger.”

You gotta love liberals, my friends. For these two outspoken critics (heroes to the left?) made their grand pronouncements right as a former CNN newsman wrote about atrocities during the 1990’s the news group didn’t report, including torture and execution by Saddam and his sons. Good to see the Dems are still the sly political machine of old.

One last note: The EU will investigate US contracts in the rebuilding of Iraq. Why is that not surprising? Because that’s all Europe does — they ponder, they consider, they talk of conspiracies, but they do not act and they do not fight for safety or moral right. That is why Europe, whether you think they are in a “post-historical” world or whether you think they are simply and cynically playing their weak hand, is and will be largely irrelevant. All the more reason the UK should get out of the EU and the construction of a new network of trade and defense should begin with former Soviet bloc countries.

April 11th, 2003 by Timothy

News Tip of The Day

There’s nothing like the power of hearsay…last night The Commentator recieved a call from a concerned student. Ryan C. (last name somewhere on a piece of paper in the office) called to inform us that he’d heard rumor of improper copying behavior by some members of the Maddy&Eddy campaign. Apparently, an employee of Kinko’s stated that a member of the Maddy&Eddy campaign had stolen copies (ie, walked out without paying) and then later returned to pay because of guilt. I cannot confirm this story, nor can I confirm the rumor that this was called into the Emerald and ignored, but it’s certainly interesting if it’s true. ODE, you’re a daily, get on it.

April 10th, 2003 by olly

A Touch of Class

One of the reasons I prefer Hitch to Sullivan. The Von Hoffman awards were spot-on, but I usually find him a bit too strident. Not this, though. This is just delicious.

All of this has been done in my name, and I feel like bearing witness.

Careful, Chris. Statements like that have a way of coming back to haunt you.

April 10th, 2003 by Bret

A Sea Change?

It might not feel as liberal as it used to be on campus. I’ve heard from two different long-time administrators that students now seem more moderated, with increasing numbers of openly conservative students on campus. It seems some professors don’t like that fact, and I guess it makes sense. They’re finally losing one of their monopolies. But, no doubt, we’ll keep seeing their crap and abuse for a good while longer. At least kids at the OC know how to deal with it.

And Those Poor NYT-Wits: The NYT got a cross-burning story wrong recently.