ASUO Sen. Carina Miller has resigned from the senate. She is the 6th senator to resign this year. If the senate keeps up at this pace it seems that the senate will have quorum when three senators show up. I’ve already called up CBS and suggested that the next season of Survivor take place in the Walnut Room, Sen. McCafferty would probably win, he is coldblooded.

In other ASUO news the executive staff has named senoir Nolan Gary ASUO elections coordinator. ASUO elections coordinator is more like the ringleader of a mellow dramatic circus. I have no idea why anyone would ever want this position it turns in to a shit show every year. In 2008 Kendell Tylee bore the brunt of the elections broo-hah when she nearly pulled the Dotters-Katz and Delashaw from the running when they advertised with the Ol’ Dirty. Last year Beergate almost had Michelle Haley kicked off the elections ballot.What will they think of next year.

Speaking of elections, the OC has announced that it will end it’s haitus in running for ASUO president and will throw it’s name into the hat. Watch out, Nolan.

Morality has never been hotter.

There has been a disturbing run of PSA’s on MTV lately (not to mention South Park syndication) that I am sure will throw Nancy Grace into a hissy fit.

Athinline.org is the website the MTV ads are pushing lately, and I’m sure that for some people the website does some good, so I won’t write it off completely. Most confusing about the advertisements, however, is their appearance on MTV itself – a channel which produces constant surveillance of celebrities and promotes the over-sexualization of precarious individuals.

Conversely, the website’s messages of “Anti-Sexting” (sexy-texting for those of you who don’t speak LE3T) and how to counter “Constant Messaging” doesn’t seem to coincide with the basic concept of MTV’s programming.

In any case, I’m glad that MTV has decided in recent years to run seemingly obligational, horribly contrived messages to their younger viewers preaching responsibility. It fits right in.

Now, who’s up for a wet t-shirt contest in Cabo? Spring Break is right around the corner.

The recent string of Bank Robberies in Eugene finally have a suspect, and he’s a star. Joshua Tel Warner of the hit reality show “Deadliest Catch” has been named the suspect in the case.  I have always wondered what crab fishermen do when they are not aboard the fishing boats and now I finally have my answer, they rob banks. 

Eugene Police detectives have identified a suspect in three Eugene Bank Robberies and surprisingly the suspect has been on national television.

Joshua Tel Warner, age 23, who appeared as a crewmember aboard the “Wizard” on Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch,” is wanted for the October 19, 2007 robbery of Washington Mutual Bank at 2840 Willamette Street, the April 3, 2009, robbery of Pacific Continental bank at 1450 High Street, and the August 28, 2009, robbery of the same Pacific Continental Bank.

Warner’s date of birth is June 29, 1986. He is a white male, 6’1″, weighing approximately 185-195 pounds. He has an unknown tattoo on his right thigh.

Warner was accompanied by a second male during the most recent robbery. Police have identified the second suspect but an arrest warrant is being sought prior to publicly naming him.

Warner, a former Oakridge resident, is aware that police are looking for him. He has likely fled the local area and may have gone to the east coast. There are also concerns he may try to flee to Canada or Mexico.

Warner came to national attention during the 2008-2009 Alaskan King Crab season featured on the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch.” He was a “green-horn” deckhand aboard the “Wizard” where his actions and confrontations with deckhands and the captain made him well known to the show’s followers.

Prior to fishing in Alaska, Warner was a Dungeness Crab fisherman on the Oregon coast and a wildland firefighter.
Anyone with information about Warner’s whereabouts is asked to contact their local police department or Detective Jeff Donaca of the Eugene Oregon Police Department at (541) 682-5193. Also, anyone with additional information about the robberies or other crimes involving Warner and his accomplice is asked to contact Detective Donaca.

Well

Happy New Term!

The first winter term edition of the Daily Emerald came out today, inexplicably without any editorial or opinion column whatsoever (where’s my D’Andrea retrospective on the last decade?) What the paper chose to run on its opinion page was instead an enlarged section of its “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down” blurbs.

Now if you’re not familiar with the section, they are essentially uncredited (read: without a byline, standing as the general editorial stance of the newspaper) paragraph blurbs about news stories the Emerald approves or disapproves of. My favorite of today? This one:

“Thumbs Up for No Smoking – North Carolina, the nation’s top tobacco-producing state, went smoke-free inside bars and restaurants Jan. 1. If it can happen there, it’s hard to imagine why smoking would be allowed anywhere else. Say, on campus, for instance.”

Glad to see the Emerald still has the wonderful editorial slant that disallows private business owners to make decisions for themselves. And if they had it their way, students as well.

It’s good to be back.

[UPDATE] The second edition of the Emerald came out today, and despite their 5-person paid opinion staff, the entire opinion page had borrowed columns from Portland State’s The Vanguard. I wonder if the Vanguard staff collected a stipend for that?

R.I.L.F. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer) helped push the initiative for more governmental transparency.

The State of Oregon launched a website this week that is supposed to act as a large step forward in governmental transparency. The website, which is found at www.oregon.gov/transparency has several categories for enraged voters to pour over including: State Budget, Agencies and Performance, Revenue and Expenditures, Contracts and State Employment.

The press release included:

“The Department of Administrative Services (DAS) has been working on the site for the past six months and they were able to develop this new venture using existing resources. “I was very pleased to see the “can-do” approach from DAS, especially during tough budget times,” Thatcher noted, “the upcoming tax measures have generated a lot of questions from voters about the state budget and this new site should help them dig down for some answers.”

Representative Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer) is one of the names attached to the movement and the website, but to be honest I was hoping for a better showing from my hometown representative. You see, after much clicking around I failed to figure out how much money the website itself had cost taxpayers to create. One would think that would be, you know… relevant.

Oh well. I suppose it is still a work in progress…

Ruining family values, one supervillain at a time.

In sticking with the concept of global natural rights, it seems that the country of Uganda is considering passing a law that makes homosexual activity punishable by death. No mucking about with jail time – it’s straight to the gallows for Barry and Terry.

To give you an idea of just how against homosexuality Ugandans are, here’s a quote from a New York Times article:

“Uganda’s minister of ethics and integrity (who previously tried to ban miniskirts) recently said, “Homosexuals can forget about human rights.”

Uganda has a rich history of being mind-fucked by Evangelical Christians, so it should come as little surprise to learn that their fervor for Christian Orthodoxy has dribbled into their legislative system. Although many U.S. citizens fail to act on their homophobic feelings (with exception) apparently Uganda has missed the memo on that bit.

Of course, the Ugandan leaders are considering their options as several countries, including the United States, has threatened the removal of international aide if the law is passed. One can only hope that the law does not pass, but indeed it seems probable that it will in a country so staunchly against basic human rights (you know, the one that lets you live if you’re gay). The issue hits especially close to home for us here in the U.S. considering the current political climate. Let’s hope that if/when the law passes, the U.S. actually has the balls to back up its threat by yanking its aide.

The cartoonist who drew this image, held as one of the most controversial in 2006, was attacked in his home in Denmark recently.

One of the cartoonists of the famous Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons was attacked recently, alongside his granddaughter, inside his home in Denmark. The man, 73, was attacked with an axe by a Somali man (whose name has been withheld in accordance to Danish law) who apparently “has close relations to the Somali terror organization Al Shabab and leaders of Al Qaeda in East Africa”.

The Commentator has always been supportive of the publishers of the cartoons as far as their right to free speech was concerned. Indeed, the Commentator ran the cartoons in their entirety in 2006 and was one of the only western media outlets to do so. Thousands of editorials were printed all over the country, but no one had the balls to contextualize them by re-printing the comics. Indeed, the Commentator found this depressing, and in that issue’s editorial, publisher Bryan Roberts wrote:

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