Seriously, man, do you even read the Commentator? How well do you really think we fit in with “mainstream conservativism?” Honestly, I don’t even care how you perceive our politics, it’s the fact that you think we get our positions spoon-fed to us that pisses me off. Ask anyone on the committees I served on this year (budget reform, Rec Center reform) if my approach was formulaic or overtly political. Hell, you were at our Symposium on Fiscal Responsibility, Slade, did we sound like spoon-fed ideologues there?

Unfortunately, the response to any suggestion of reform is almost always paranoid and defensive. Yes, the ASUO has been operating without any real changes for 15 years now and it wouldn’t be the end of the world if it were unchanged for another 15. However, since there are common-sense places to make sensible reform, why not do it? Oh right, because everyone has been conditioned to fear change, and to demonize anyone who who ruins the comfortable arrangements at the I-Fee feeding trough. If that’s what being liberal on this campus means, then you can keep the label… it has nothing to do with what I grew up admiring about liberals.

Right. The appropriate analogy here would be if the Leadership Institute was writing the OC’s editorials. That would be a) unethical and b) hilarious.

You mean like on the masthead, where it says “Member Collegiate Network”? C’mon, Slade, you can cast better aspersions than that.

Seriously, since when are we not open about our corporate 501(c)3 paymasters? It’s also not as if the CN or the LI have any say over the content: they don’t. The reason we didn’t get any LI money during my time with the magazine was they wanted to dictate the slant. After the ISI put in the new leadership at the CN, that organization was also less than super excited about the content of the magazine. Heck, for a while the CN didn’t even have a link to the OC’s site from their publications list. That’s since been restored, but the OC is in nobody’s pocket and I, frankly, object to the insinuation that it is.

Furthermore, there’s a difference between getting a grant to publish your content and setting up a coalition with off-campus powers to elect members of student government sympathetic to their cause.

I don’t think you folks do anything wrong or unethical, either; I just think it’s a bit hypocritical to critcize a few lefty folks for getting together to give some advice to interested students as being some kind of conspiratorial tampering, and not be open about the people who support you folks.

And, yes, the OC isn’t as bad as other conservative journals. But the ASUO thinks it’s filled with Nazis nonetheless. That’s not surprising; members of the ASUO refer to the ODE as the “enemy,” right?

The LI sends a lot of books. I’ve never known anyone to read one. They’re terrible. Sometimes they send money, which you can verify with the controllers. Jesus, man, step outside the Mystery Machine for two seconds and realize that there is no secret conspiracy, at least concerning the OC.

I’ve never been a defender of the Senate, as pretty much anyone who’s talked to me on the subject can tell you.

And, in the OC’s defense, I do think you folks are much better than a lot of conservative campus papers. You’re not as dependent on outside organizations as your counterparts on some other campuses I know.

And I’m honestly curious about what they send you folks.

Poisonous spiders trained to attack liberals, Slade. It’s all a part of a masterful conspiracy.

Good response though, Ted. The LI has always been a marginal part of the OC. Like the Collegiate Network, it’s filled with some decent, normal people, and also a lot of crazy wingnuts. To imply that the OC doesn’t know who the wingnuts are is silly.

Slade is also implying that he goes through your ASUO mail. Class act all the way.

What, you mean the organization that endorsed Oscar and Kari in the elections?

I’m curious Slade, why is it so incomprehensible that my positions on ASUO issues simply come from the reality of the situation? Shouldn’t political systems have some balance? Do you really think the display at the last Senate meeting was the product of a healthy, balanced political institution? It’s sad when legitimate criticism is dismissed out of hand because of who it comes from. So much for liberal open-mindedness.

Come on Nieders, you can’t tell me you want the campus to have “it’s own natural political dynamic,” and keep working for the organization you work for.

Four other details are on my mind: “new” is spelled incorrectly for “knew,” Ashley Rees is spelled Ashley Reese, Guzman lacks the punctuation accent, and there is a single space after periods.

Those who forget silent “k” often take an aural approach to English. The incorrect spelling of Rees suggests she is the person most removed from the writer, since the rest of the names mentioned were spelled correctly with meticulous detail. For instance, the proper capitalization of “L” in McLain. Guzman lacks the proper punctuation, but we all know that only other Chicano/a students include the accent, which is exactly why Guerra intelligently ommitted it.

Finally, I am not sure why the document is not single spaced between sentences. The details suggests a Freshman or Sophomore wrote the document, since they have not yet permanently changed the high school habit of pressing the space bar TWICE after sentences. Because Guerra is a senior, he most likely hits the space bar twice without being conscious of the fact, but some majors are more disciplined in instilling proper grammar than others.

Just some thoughts.