Was on KWVA to talk about OSPIRG and no one from the OSPIRG side showed up. Alex Tomchak Scott tried to get about 4 pro-OSPIRG people to come, and they either all canceled or couldn’t come. Lyzi Diamond showed up though.

In any case, it was fun because we talked about Tree Bomb and the EMU renovation. I alluded to the fact that “only the winning side decided to show up.”

Sorry, all.

I’ve been invited to talk about OSPIRG on KWVA 88.1 campus radio later tonight. The downside? Robert D’Andrea will be part of the guests as well.

Tune in tonight to 88.1 or listen from iTunes at 6:30PM.

Just added a sweet new button for y’all to buy Sudsy Tees from us if you’re not in the direct vicinity. Due to eBay costs and shipping, the price of the shirt is $16.95 when purchased online, but you can use your credit/debit card or Paypal to buy it!

As always, you are also welcome to send us a check for a mere $15, or come down to the office in person and purchase a shirt less the shipping and eBay tax for just $10.

CLICK HERE TO BUY A SUDSY TEE

This morning I opened the pages of the Daily Emerald opinion section to find something so rare, something so seldom captured by the human eye that it must be commented on. Yes, the Daily Emerald actually ran an editorial. This is a rare finding, seeing as how the space is usually occupied by cartoons with incorrect spelling and “thumbs up, thumbs down” enlightenment.

The editorial masquerades as a warning to those considering involvement in the ASUO next year, citing coming registration for this Spring’s ASUO elections.

“Filing for the elections starts next week. If you are interested in taking on this process, learn about it. Talk to people holding office in the ASUO, read the Green Tape Notebook (which includes the rules for being an ASUO senator), attend the pre-campaign meetings and be prepared to work hard.

…

Taking on this process requires no less than an absolute commitment: Be very aware of what you are getting into.”

While I have to agree that this year’s rash of ASUO resignations is rather odd and frankly, disheartening, the Emerald‘s editorial offers blanket statements of disappointment towards all that have resigned.

“An ASUO Senate position is a lot of work. You have a hand in controlling a $12-million-dollar budget and will be leading 20,000 of your peers during their education. It should be no surprise that this requires time, energy and dedication. In spite of this, resignations have become typical.”

The editorial essentially complainins about the abdicated spots in the ASUO as “letting down the students”. This from an organization that has fired two news editors, an opinion editor and had another news writer quit because of the firings. And those are the people I know about.

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There has been quite a bit of talk lately about a growing political movement by newly-minted Constitutionalists called the “Tea Party movement”. It has been touted as a “grass roots rebellion” all over the conservative airwaves and news media, despite the huge names endorsing the ideas.

In an article by David Barstow, he describes the movement as being a separate mechanism away from the Republicans, and that it has a more “traditionally conservative” background.

“[A] significant undercurrent within the Tea Party movement that has less in common with the Republican Party than with the Patriot movement, a brand of politics historically associated with libertarians, militia groups, anti-immigration advocates and those who argue for the abolition of the Federal Reserve.”

Barstow’s article goes on to describe the aforementioned Constitutionalists as only recently coming to political awareness when they realized that “Washington was a threat”. Further, several of them mention the possible, if not probable, impending need for revolution, “Mrs. Stout said she felt as if she had been handed a road map to rebellion.” This theme of militias actually being called into action is widely apparent throughout Barstow’s article and in Tea Party ideals.

“In Indiana, Richard Behney, a Republican Senate candidate, told Tea Party supporters what he would do if the 2010 elections did not produce results to his liking: “I’m cleaning my guns and getting ready for the big show. And I’m serious about that, and I bet you are, too.”

What has essentially happened, however, is that the Tea Party movement has been touted so fervently by conservative media that it hardly qualifies as a grass roots movement. Last April, Fox News pushed for the Tea Parties so hard that it actually fabricated video footage in order to make a Tea Party seem larger.

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I noticed this personal ad in the Emerald yesterday. It’s eerily similar to the one that appeared on our own back cover, and indeed to the one that I placed in the Emerald just last week.

I’m not sure who’s responsible for the ad (I haven’t asked the whole staff yet) but whoever is, I salute you.

Those lovable scamps down at our campus newspaper, the Daily Emerald, decided to offer up a little Valentine’s Day gift to students by giving out free personal ads to celebrate the holiday. Wanting to fully take advantage of such an offer, the Oregon Commentator decided to run a personal ad of our own, which ran in today’s edition of the Emerald. The image is above, but the text reads:

Let’s meet for a drink

You: Fair skin, temperament to match. Hair and eyebrows like midnight. Powerful. Me: Golden complexion, rotund, a little white on top. Smoking enthusiast. Let’s stop playing games. Be my Valentine.

Anyone want to take a stab at who “You” and “Me” is?

Guess/comment away.

Sarah Palin gave a speech to a “tea party” a few days ago, one in which she said “America is ready for another revolution.” Palin’s comments, according to a Register-Guard article, were typically hilarious.

“We need a commander in chief not a professor of law.”

“Foreign policy can’t be managed through the politics of personality,” she said.

Which is exactly why the M.I.L.F decided to quit her job halfway through to join Fox News as a “pundit”. Oh, it gets better.

She assailed the $787 billion stimulus plan — “Did you feel very stimulated?” she asked

(Insert snarky sexual innuendo here)

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This swastika was spray painted on the carpet of the LGBTQA on Sunday

There has been a candlelight vigil. There has been a march. As DPS continues to investigate the spray painting of a swastika in the office of the LGBTQA, we still have yet to find any answers. And, looking at the happenings going on in the Daily Emerald columns and their comments section, many people are jumping to rather rash conclusions.

Members of the LGBTQA have already tied the swastika directly to the Pacifica Forum, as seen in today’s Emerald, “LGBTQA Co-Director Alex Esparza linked the Forum’s rhetoric to the incident and criticized the ASUO’s decision. ‘I would like to see a student government that takes a stand against acts of hate like this,’ he said as EMU staff were removing the pieces of carpet upon which the symbol was painted.”

This is a slippery slope, legally speaking, as the organizers of the Forum exercise no control over what speakers say.  So even if a speaker got up and incited the crowd to immediately go break into the LGBTQA with spray paint only the speaker would be guilty of incitement.

Of course, now from the other side (quoting here from the Emerald‘s comments section) there has been much discussion as to whether or not the LGBTQA, “may have painted it on their own office floor.” Again, this is a serious allegation, one of political violence as a means to an end.

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An outsider’s view of the McDisasterfuck that is the PF.

FIRE Article

A flyer found on a Commentator distribution rack

I found this flyer on our distribution rack downstairs in the EMU. In addition, our “take one” sign had been yanked off or flipped or something. The flyer is advertising some “love-in” for the anti-Pacifica movement.

Attention “activists”. Be advised that the Oregon Commentator distribution racks are private property, and as such citizens are subject to all laws regarding the vandalism of said property. In addition to this, the Oregon Commentator itself is public property and again, is subject to all laws regarding vandalism, theft or obstruction of its distribution.

Have a nice day.

[Update] Our Art Director, Josh, just called me and said he noticed this flyer inside one of our black outdoor distribution boxes as well. Not only is it vandalism, but it is supression of a student’s hard work in student programming, “I worked really hard on that cover–about 4 hours–and they put their Xeroxed flyer on top of it? That’s pretty shitty,” he said.

For Christ’s sake anti-Pacifica people, think about someone other than yourselves.

Cattermole noticed this picture today in the Emerald. Take a look at what website our beloved ASUO Senate is looking at during their meeting.

I gave a review copy of By the Barrel: 25 Years of the Oregon Commentator to the Register-Guard when it came out a few months ago. I was mailing a package today when Ken, one of the postal clerks, told me that he’d read a blurb about the book in the paper recently. Needless to say, this was news to us here at the Commentator, where no one was contacted or interviewed for the story.

I’ll save you the “pithy” details, but writer Randi Bjornstad ends her review with a comment that, I should clarify, is right on target:

“[Scott] Camp’s pithy bottom line sort of sums it up. Depending on your personal philosophy, “By the Barrel” will put you somewhere on the continuum between outrage and hero worship.

In any case, glad you’re keeping your standards the way you like them, RG.

Maybe pick up the phone next time.

O’Keefe keepin’ his pimp-hand strong. In jail.

It seems that James O’Keefe, the pimp in the ACORN prostitution scandal, has been arrested for trying to tap the phones of a Democratic Senator from Louisiana.

Of course, as I reported in our Holiday Issue, I’ve seen O’Keefe speak in person. Oddly enough, he spoke during an “Ethics in Journalism” portion of the seminar. The consensus between Drew, Guy and I was that O’Keefe had a loose concept of journalistic integrity. That or he chose to ignore it. Either way, he advocated asinine concepts like, “Start insane student groups that your student government wouldn’t want to fund. Then report them to your students when they do fund something like ‘Students for Beastiality’ ” as the Dartmouth Review did in the 80’s. Other gems of wisdom from the disgraced O’Keefe? “Kill your Dean’s dog. That’s a headline!”

Obviously O’Keefe was never respected for his moral compass. Even the nature of his ACORN scandal was still more along the lines of manufacture than of investigation. Now, with O’Keefe facing criminal charges it’s hard to wonder how anyone took him seriously in the first place.

Especially with those ridiculous glasses.

“Rage against the machine, man! Now, where’s my stipend paycheck?”

The Student Insurgent had its PFC meeting tonight, one in which they asked for a mere $23,519. Unfortunately, they had to settle for just $22,222.

There were several crucial moments in the hearing, most of which hovered around the Student Insurgent‘s rather dubious delegation of their funding. The Insurgent admitted to printing only 7 issues last year (actually, they guessed because “no one could remember”. We personally think it was more like 5) on a budget of $21,427 – a whopping $3,061 an issue. They vowed to increase their production this year all the way up to 9 issues, meaning each issue for next year will have a reasonable price tag of just $2,469.

If you’d like a little comparison, the Commentator expects to produce 15 issues this year at an average cost of about $1,500 an issue.

A question was then raised about the conduct at the Anarchist Book Fair in San Francisco. Sen. Alyssa Diamond mentioned a letter from a non-Insurgent staffer that was printed in an issue of the Insurgent last Spring. In the letter, Diamond mentioned that the student had reported “Not attending the fair and that all they did was party”. Abby Bluth, an Insurgent Co-Editor noted that, “It goes against what we are to control what people are doing [at the book fair].”

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