An anonymous source from inside the ASUO is reporting that Amelie Rousseau, a candidate for ASUO President in the upcoming spring elections, has violated campaign rules by using the ASUO office to print campaign materials.

Signage is posted around the ASUO office and the entrances which tell candidates that there is to be no campaigning inside.

The source said that no grievance was scheduled to be filed, “She got reprimanded for it and paid for it.”

When asked who reprimanded Rousseau the source replied, “She is on [the ASUO executive] staff still. That makes her subject to who she works under.” Rousseau is the ASUO Executive’s events coordinator.

The source declined to comment on what happened to the aforementioned printed material saying only that it had been destroyed or thrown away.

It looks like the ASUO elections season is starting to heat up, and Cpt. Lesiak hasn’t even made anyone walk the plank yet (his proposed Executive punishment for waste of student dollars). The Students for Responsible Government, a group that has existed for some time, seems rather angry about Tomcat’s article. Here’s what they had to say in an e-mail.

In a recent press release to the Elections Committee and general student body, Tony Mecum announced the creation of the Students for Responsible Government. SRG, according to Mecum, is “a watchdog group to monitor campaign promises and rules by creating awareness about this year’s student government elections.”

Mecum, who resigned today from the EMU board, declares that he is tired of the elections being a “giant circus show” and that “for too long have special interest groups poisoned the democratic free allocation process.” He plans to wage this ASUO war with “every constitutional power granted to free paying members of this association.” The group is “nothing short of excited” and has received support from leaders across campus, according to Mecum. SRG is looking forward to the coming weeks, and is already analyzing wire tips.

Well all I can say is that it’s hight time that the UO finally has a group to keep an eye on the ASUO. Despite their stunning effectiveness as a governing body, you never know when the ASUO might misallocate hundreds of thousands of dollars to some kind of shady lobbyist group, or potentially break constitutional law. It’s great that we have upstanding men people in our student body willing to speak out against these abuses. I can rest easy tonight knowing that though ASUO elections loom on the horizon, Mecum and his group “are committed to this cause. Justice will be served.”

May the ASUO fear this face.

According to a Tomcat article published in the Emerald on Friday, the ASUO Elections board — the same that threatened the Commentator with punishment for Cpt. Peter Freedom Lesiak’s poster – decided against doing so late last Thursday night “unless a student formally files a complaint against him.”

Of course, any student filing a complaint against Lesiak would have to take into consideration that all of the other presidential candidates have had posters on this website as well. Twice. Since Lesiak did not post his flyers under his own volition, filing a complaint against Lesiak would require filing a complaint against all the other candidates as well.

Of course, the real lesson here is that the ASUO Elections Rules have some pretty asinine provisions. Coupled with vague language, the rules that punish candidates for separate entities actions is fucking stupid. Glad to hear the ASUO Elections Board came to their senses.

(We apologize for the delay for the posters. Proper Facebook clearance was needed.)

Looks like the ASUO Elections season is underway! Here’s some sweet posters!

Apparently there has been “multiple complaints” about our post “supporting” Cpt. Peter Freedom Lesiak. Good thing the ASUO Elections Board doesn’t understand the scope of their organization. Here it goes:

Regarding your recent post promoting Peter Lesiak for ASUO President-

While we as the elections board are glad that your publication wants to be involved with the ASUO Elections by supporting your candidate, we have had multiple complaints regarding your recent post endorsing Peter Lesiak for ASUO President. In order to prevent further actions being taken against Peter, it is in his best interest that the “poster” portion of your recent post be taken down by tomorrow morning. Please look at section 6 of the Elections Rules, and feel free to contact us with any questions you have regarding this issue.

Thank you, and we appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

–
ASUO Elections Board
EMU Suite 4
1228 University of Oregon
Eugene OR 97403

The Oregon Commentator decided to respond. Here’s what we had to say.

Regarding your complaints about the post on our website. We assume you are calling to question with regards to ASUO Elections Rules, section 6.7 A (vii) “Publications produced with University and/or student funds; But does not include publications where student funds are used for a subscription of a given publication which include, but are not limited to, the Oregon Daily Emerald” as well as ASUO Executive Rule 82.4 “No incidental fees may be spent to support the campaign of any individual, or party, for public office. Fees may be used to promote appearances and discussions between several candidates for public office, in order to increase student knowledge of the issues of candidates.”

You may also recall a situation two years ago in which Con Court decided that campaigns cannot pay for ad space. We then decided to donate an ad, which is not against the rules, to a campaign. You can read all about it in our editorial from that issue, titled “Con Court can lick our collective nuts”. You can find it here.

In any case, you’re in luck because the Oregon Commentator website — the place in which Cpt. Lesiak’s poster is hosted — is a privately-run website, free of Incidental Fee money. You don’t need to worry your pretty little head about the website because it is not paid for by any student funding.

Thanks for playing along. Maybe next time.

Sincerely,
The Oregon Commentator

Glad we could start this off on the right foot. As a show of solidarity, here’s yet another one of Cpt. Peter Freedom Lesiak’s posters.

Okay, just got another e-mail from the ASUO Elections Board, this time more pretentious than the last:

Dear Oregon Commentator,

We understand that your online publication is a privately run website, and while we understand that the Oregon Commentator can not be held accountable  for this post, Peter himself CAN be. Please read section 1.2 and 1.3 to  better understand the definition of campaigning. Also, we recommend you  look over sections 6 and 7 of the Elections Rules again, focusing on  section 6.12 and section 7.2. Part of our job is to make sure that every  candidate has a fair opportunity in this election, and by posting the  campaign poster on your website, we believe you are giving an unfair  advantage to Peter, which is unacceptable. Again, while the Oregon  Commentator can not be held accountable, the individual candidate can.  Furthermore, your article of the Con Court ruling holds absolutely no merit  in this situation, because the issue we are concerned about is the fact  that the candidate is campaigning before the time designated for  campaigning. Which is in direct violation of the current Elections Rules.

Again, we ask that you remove the poster portion of your post by tomorrow morning. If this is not done, the individual candidate will be contacted to  discuss the issue.

Thanks for your cooperation.

And of course, our response:

ASUO Elections Board,
We would like to point out that Mr. Lesiak is not doing any campaigning, nor is the website a campaign in itself. From a technical standpoint, announcing your candidacy on our website is no different than other candidates announcing their candidacy in the Daily Emerald.

Of course, you can use your rules however you want. We don’t really care. The elections board is out of its mind and its jurisdiction. The posters will not come down from the website, for reasons previously stated.

In the words of Cpt. Lesiak, “Yarrr! We must first battle the squalls to find the calmer seas, littered with the treasure chests of a thousand plunders!”

Sincerely,
The Oregon Commentator

It looks like the ASUO Elections board is challenging Cpt. Lesiak to a duel with that ultimatim at the end. Swords at dawn!

OK got another response form the Elections Board. Here it is:

Oregon Commentator,

Because you refuse to comply with our request, we will be notifying the candidate of the potential violation and consequences of your actions. Our only goal is to make sure the upcoming elections run as smoothly as possible, and that the elections are run fairly. Again, feel free to contact us with any questions regarding the Elections.

Your professionalism has been greatly appreciated.

Man they got us with a real zinger there at the end! Golly! Here’s our response:

Avast!
You’ll never make me walk the plank, you scalywags! I’ll surely join the depths of Davy Jones’ locker by plunging myself into the blue before I let you dogs push me end on end! Full about, broad side sweeps o’er their bow before we prepare to board, men! Their elections rules are no match for our 50lb. grapeshot! Aim for their masts! They’ll never take us alive!

Sincerely,
The Oregon Commentator

Oh, here’s Cpt. Lesiak’s response to the Elections Board as well:

Dear ASUO elections board,

It has been brought to my attention that the Oregon Daily Emerald recently printed a front page article of candidates running and intending to run, with photos depicting their likeness and describing the basis of their campaign. I am merely advertising my intention to run and describing the basis of my campaign, exactly like the other candidates. But unlike the other candidates, my outlet is not run on the basis of student funds, where as the Oregon Daily Emerald is.

In all fairness I will comply with your demands to remove my “Intention To Run” image from the Oregon Commentator Website as soon as you remove all issues of the Oregon Daily Emerald featuring the other candidates from campus or arrange for my own front cover photo and interview in the Oregon Daily Emerald. Their names are already out there in a student funded publication, and students were able to read their names and what they are all about. Highly unfair to those students who were not included, don’t you think? Or have I been misinformed about what the ASUO elections board is supposed to be doing.

Maintaining A Fair Election.

Swashbuckling yours,

Captain Pete Freedom Lesiak

An e-mail between a former OSPIRG employee and last year’s ASUO Executive Sam Dotters-Katz

This morning I came to the office, and one of our staffers gave me a hard copy of an e-mail given to her by a person who wished to remain anonymous. It was an e-mail sent last year to then-ASUO Executive Sam Dotters-Katz by a former staffer at a branch of what I believe is SOUPIRG (The redacted parts, from what I can make out, say “SOU”–Southern Oregon University). I contacted Mr. Dotters-Katz this morning to confirm the legitimacy of the e-mail, which he verified. The e-mail is rather interesting. Here’s the body:

“Sam,

I felt compelled to write you after watching part of the Senate meeting last night, especially the part involving OSPIRG’s appeal. I am currently a grad student at U of O, but I was an OSPIRG organizer for one term in REDACTED, when I worked at the REDACTED campus.

Toward the end of my term, I began to feel increasingly uncomfortable “selling” OSPIRG to REDACTED students, as my job basically required me to do. The main reason was that it became so apparent that the decision-makers in the organization weren’t the students, but were the staff. The OSPIRG board meeting I attended then were essentially shames, where students would read from a script prepared by a staff  member and then ram all staff proposed decisions through.

When our student chapter at REDACTED tried to request a small amount of money for a Hunger and Homeless Benefit, we were subjected to a horrific bureaucracy. To be blunt, the student’s couldn’t even retrieve a portion of their own money [emphasis original].

(more…)

Last night’s ASUO senate meeting passed the most recent resolution to be voted on by the rules committee next week. The resolution that we have currently does not have last night’s amendments included. We have requested the revisions, and will post them up as soon as possible. The final revision that will be voted on will come out next Monday.

When it was time for the ASUO executive announcements, student body president Emma Kallaway unveiled the newest model for the upcoming ASUO logo.

When this was revealed Sen. Ben Fisher muttered under his breath that the logo looked like a mushroom cloud sending the whole room into uproar. Kallaway mentioned that the logo had been screened by fifty people and no one had noticed the resemblance.  It’s kinda like that picture that can be either an old lady or pretty woman depending on your perception. ASUO is still looking to solidify a slogan, and for that we would like to start our newest contest! Best ASUO slogan suggestion in the comments section wins a new sudsy shirt! New shirts are coming next week in green, navy blue, and black.

The meeting was a pretty tame one in contrasts to more recent ASUO senate meetings, but that all changed in the last five minutes. Senate President Gower was called out by Senate Vice President Schultz for violating the speakers list. Seconds before the meeting ended Schultz called for Gower to step down from his position.

Yes loyal readers, ASUO  fight club is back, and just in time for election season.

Not Sarah Michelle Geller or Sarah Jessica Parker, but Eugenes own favorite Sarah Palin! According to the Register Guard, she’ll be at the Hilton Eugene April 23 to “speak to the faithful”. My question is whether they’ll have the meeting in the conference center or if they’ll be able to fit everyone in Sarah’s hotel room.

From what the article says, Palin’s coming as a keynote speaker for the republican annual Lincoln Day Fundraiser (they’ll be a few months behind by April 23). Republican Party Leaders have been working for almost a year to bring her to Eugene.

No information was disclosed as to how much it cost the party to bring Palin to Eugene, or how much seating at the convention will cost. Interested Republicans can sign up by calling 541-342-4166.

I’ve got a lot of ground to cover in this post, so I’m going to use the bulleted format that’s been so popular in the past. We had several rejections

• Our top story (Things people who read the blog might actually care about edition): After discussions with ASUO President Emma Kallaway and her staffers, the Athletic Department has scrapped its ticketing system, replacing it with a “tiered” one in which students will log on to get tickets at different times based on their class standing, like the one for the 2008-09. At least for the Nov. 14 Arizona State game. They are still open for suggestions about how to do the Civil War on Dec. 3. If you have any ideas, send them along, because I’m pretty sure they’re desperate. (READ MORE BELOW THE FOLD!)
• (more…)

What happens when an influential Senator dies and the law says that he can’t be replaced without holding a special election? Just get rid of the law, which your party put in place back in 2004 to prevent the rival party from potentially taking a vacated Senate seat, so you can appoint this guy to the seat and have 60 “aye”’s when it’s time to vote on health care:

Racism. It’s at the heart of every disagreement with “progressive” policy reforms. Meet Diane DeVillers of Eugene, who lays it all out in today’s issue of the Eugene Weekly:

There is not as much confusion about the health care issue as we are led to believe. Much of the resistance is all about not wanting President Obama to succeed. The town hall haters, gun-toting radical right wingers, have been steaming since our President was elected. It has taken them this long to finally have the nerve to tell America how much they hate the fact that a black man won the election. It is all about being racist.

While the sane people in America try to get health care reform, the minority is trying to mislead and ruin any attempt for this bill to pass. This includes the whole Republican party… Their loyalties are only to themselves. The majority of people elected this president, so they need to get used to it.

…

The majority of Americans want health care reform, so the Democrats should just do it, any way they can…

Everyone in the room should yell back for them to be silent and let the discussion continue.

(more…)

I’ve been reading Fivethirtyeight.com lately, and I thought I should point out something particularly interesting and rather insane. Nate Silver, after successfully predicting Obama’s win, has followed through on his promise to try to predict senate races. While the model is solid for the moment it’s important to remember that it’s long term accuracy is admittedly shaky, even by it’s creators.

In any case, the exercise is pretty cool and if it all goes to pot then at least it will be funny. Here’s what the top 15 races look like for the month of August.

Of course, if somehow the world cruises along at it’s current pace and the model holds, then we will have another amazing prediction from Nate Silver and his buddies. In case you don’t know who Mr. Silver is by now, he’s the guy who predicted the winners of the Oscars and the presidential election within fractions of their actual outcomes. Oh yeah, and this.

Kudos to Dracobly for this one.

Crossposted over at The Weekly Standard:

I received an email at my University of Oregon account today informing me that there are “intern opportunities with Organizing for America,” formerly Obama for America. According to the email, OFA is launching what it calls the “National Organizing Internship” for college students around the country. From the email:

 

Organizing Interns work side by side with OFA staff and community leaders to help build support for President Obama’s agenda. They will learn core organizing principles that are crucial for any campaign.

President Obama describes his time as a community organizer by saying: “It was the best education I ever had, because I learned in those neighborhoods that when ordinary people come together, they can achieve extraordinary things.”

This is your chance to get that same education.

If you’re passionate about making sure every American has quality health care, reviving our economy, and building a clean energy future, don’t miss this great opportunity. No previous experience is needed in order to apply.

Yes, you, too, can learn how to walk door-to-door and hand people flyers! You will also learn core phone-banking principles and how the OFA staff prefers their coffee. And yes, students are eligible to receive college credit for pushing the president’s agenda, provided they set it up with their school. Become a cog in the great hope machine today! Just don’t call it astroturfing!