You would cry too, if this was happening to you. Via the Oregonian, the tale of the stunning implosion of the Oregon GOP:

“It’s a wake-up call,” says former state labor commissioner Jack Roberts. “We’ve been spending so much of our time arguing about who is more Republican, and the voters are electing people who aren’t Republican at all.”

A quick survey of the party’s status in Oregon tells the story: Democrats control both chambers of the Legislature. Democrats hold every statewide office. Democrats hold five of seven seats in Congress.

And the cherry on top? Last week it came to light that the Oregon GOP was a cool $300,000 in debt. I can only wonder what the atmosphere will be like at the Republican’s annual Dorchester Conference, which commences tonight. They must not be too worried, though, because I didn’t see any entry on the official agenda titled “OMFG, guys! What the hell are we going to do!”

As I reported on earlier, there was an informative meeting today on the upcoming student elections. The meeting was held in the Ben Linder Room of the EMU. In case you were wondering, Ben Linder was a happy, university peacenik who tried to bring his unicycling mirth to Nicaragua … and was subsequently killed by contras. Anywho, there’s a list of the info and insights gleaned from the meeting below the fold.

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Tonight at six p.m. in the Ben Linder Room of the EMU there will be an informative meeting about the upcoming student elections. Also, free pizza. I’m in it for the pizza, but if anything noteworthy or funny comes out, I’ll write a little something.

No word on free punch and pie.

Yesterday, the Oregon House held an atypical debate on natural rights, specifically a natural right to health care. The House Democrats successfully referred a bill to the November ballot that would make health care a constitutional right for every Oregon citizen.  From the Oregonian article:

House Joint Resolution 100 would amend the Oregon Constitution to make health care “a fundamental right” and order the Legislature to adopt a plan for giving every legal resident “access to effective and affordable health care on a regular basis.”

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The folks over at left-leaning Loaded Orygun have endorsed Democrat John Kroger for state Attorney General. (I previously wrote about Kroger’s ambitious, silly plan to end the “meth epidemic” here). However, reading through LO’s justifications for endorsing Kroger makes me wonder if they are actually running some sort of back-handed smear campaign against him. I mean, if someone wrote this about me, I might ask them to take the endorsment back (emphasis mine):

As pleasant and apparently very competent as Macpherson is, Kroger’s enthusiasm, sharply detailed vision and obvious desire for public service–in all senses of the phrase–make him the more compelling candidate. He better exemplifies the borderline-angry demand of the electorate for post-partisan change, post-fear. He’s ready to fight, but on principles for people, not for parties and politics.

What does “post-partisan change, post-fear” mean? Post-fear of what? Post-fear of witches? Post-Fear of a Black Planet? Read on to see the rest of the endorsement, with emphasis on the especially humorous parts. (more…)

In an interview Monday, January 14th with the Reno Gazette-Journal editorial board, Presidential candidate Barack Obama compared the type of presidency he hopes to have with that of former President Ronald Reagan. Many have taken these remarks out of context, including his opponent Hillary Clinton during the Debates on this past Monday. This was one of the main topics for the first 20 minutes of the smackdown. Here are both the pull quote and a link to the entire video.

“I don’t want to present myself as some sort of singular figure. I think part of what is different is the times. I do think that, for example, the 1980 election was different. I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. They felt like with all the excesses of the 60’s and the 70’s and government had grown and grown but there wasn’t much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think he tapped into what people were already feeling. Which is we want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.”

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Last night’s Democratic CNN Debate started off more like a WWF Smackdown than a presidential debate. Now that 5 primary events have passed (both caucuses and elections) and the media has had many a field day, the Democratic presidential candidates are going negative and aren’t looking back. It was not quite clear who was dominating whom with issues like ‘who is really running, you or your husband?’ and ‘how much do you love the republicans?’ being addressed. I had completely forgotten that John Edwards was even there until about 20 minutes into the debate when he finally spoke saying,

What I want to say first is, are there three people in this debate, not two? And I also want to know — I also want to know on behalf of voters here in South Carolina, this kind of squabbling, how many children is this going to get health care? How many people are going to get an education from this? How many kids are going to be able to go to college because of this?

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Tim Lussier, a 20 year-old employee of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has been caught trying to infiltrate the campaign of Democrat Jeff Merkley in what can only be described as a monumental failure in espionage. (more…)

The New Republic has all of Libertarianism abuzz over this story which reveals the racist, homophobic and generally crappy material in The Ron Paul Newsletter, The Ron Paul Survival Report, The Ron Paul Freedom Report, The Ron Paul Political Report, The Ron Paul Investment Letter and other publications linked to maverick Republican Presidential candidate. The New Republic has these selections available in .pdf format, so if you are a Ron Paul supporter you might just want to stop now and go take a look.

Paul has released a statement based on this hasty interview with Reason Magazine, in which he dismisses the newsletters as “Ancient History,”  and claims that much of the material was written by others. His campaign has since released this statement, which concludes “For over a decade, I have publicly taken moral responsibility for not paying closer attention to what went out under my name.”

Needless to say, the “Ron Paul Revolution” is over… or at the very least the name is going to have to change. I, for one, appreciate Paul’s proving to the Republicans that “Liberty matters” over the course of this election, but he wasn’t exactly poised to take the party over, either. In fact, this story will probably be spun mostly by Republicans in order to tar Libertarians with the “wacko” brush, and push them back from the political mainstream. Either way, the newsletters have nothing to do with the ideals of libertarianism, shouldn’t prevent people from embracing elements of Paul’s message even if they can no longer support the man.

Over at Loaded Orygun, Democratic candidate for Attorney General John Kroger has written a blog post outlining his plan to fight the scary meth pandemic. As you’ve probably heard from every news outlet in the state, meth has ravaged at least 95 percent of Oregon’s adult population (and now it’s coming for your kids!). Here’s the opening paragraph of his two-pronged assault on tweak:

As Attorney General, I will work hard every day to tackle Oregon’s number one crime problem – meth addiction. Every year, meth costs us hundreds of millions of dollars in prison and law enforcement costs, health care expenditures, and lost workforce productivity. Meth is the biggest cause of property crime and identity theft in the state. More important, meth is the single greatest cause of serious child abuse in Oregon. That is one reason Oregon recently received a grade of “D” on a child welfare report card issued by a leading child advocacy group. To me, that is simply unacceptable.

To deal with Oregon’s meth crisis, I have proposed a two part plan, emphasizing both a new drug treatment program and tougher enforcement. This plan is based on the lessons I have learned as a federal prosecutor, public policy expert, and law professor.

A lot of things about this catch my eye, such as confusing “meth addiction” with “crimes people commit while on meth” (although you could easily argue the two go hand in hand). Most odd, though, is when Kroger throws out “lost workplace productivity.” Meth results in less productivity? Last time I checked, carnivals wouldn’t exist without meth. Workplace productivity statistics are stupid anyways, but Kroger says his plan is based on experience, so it must have some merit, right? Well, lets see. (more…)

The results are in, and Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee have clinched first place in the Iowa Caucus. Both Obama and Huckabee are riding high thanks to some campaign trail assistance from helpful deities - Oprah and Jebus, respectively. No, seriously; check out these entrance poll numbers:

60 percent of voters said they consider themselves evangelical Christians. Huckabee is a Baptist minister. Far more than any other characteristic – 45 percent – Republicans said they are looking for a candidate who “shares my values.” Of those respondents, 44 percent said they were supporting Huckabee.

If by “shares my values” they mean “is a total douche,” then yeah, Huckabee’s the candidate of choice. (And here’s some more doucheness for good measure). Also, according to the entrance poll, Democratic women favored Obama over Clinton 35 percent to 30 percent - obviously the Oprah Effect in action. 

In other news, Hillary Clinton came in third place for the Democrats, meaning the apocalypse might not be as nigh as previously feared.

* Headline by Jake “keepin’ it classy” Speicher.

Maybe we shouldn’t be looking at Facebook as a place to gather information about politics, but with the addition of the US Politics application and the increased popularity of the facebook, I feel it is interesting if nothing else to do so. the young people of America are very strong with their support for Senator Barack Obama. He has 159,299 supporters, 100,000 more than the runner up, the lovely Senator Hilary Clinton with 50,453. And this is not just on the Democratic side. Out of 16 presidential candidates who have created profiles for themselves on Facebook Obama in the only one who has reached the 6 digit mark, and only 7 candidates have reached 5 digits. Ya’ll’ll get a real kick out of this. Ron Paul takes third with 35,078 supporters. Thats more than Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani combined. By the way, Giuliani is never going to win because his name is too darn hard to spell. Jesus! So things look pretty good for Obama now. The next step is getting all these youngins to vote…

That is, John Frohnmayer - brother of UO President Dave Frohny. Frohnmayer, who was appointed as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, only to be fired soon after for funding “obscene” art, will run in the 2008 election for U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith’s seat. But get this, he is running as an independant.

“We who have been Republicans should be weeping about the state of the Republican party,” he said. “Because the Republicans have always stood for fiscal responsibility and we have a president who has taken a $3 trillion surplus and turned it into an $8 trillion defecit in seven years.

Frohnmayer, who left the Republican Party in 2005, is a former student of the UO Law School. He currently lives in Corvallis where he is an affiliate professor of liberal arts at Oregon State, “where he teaches First Amendment issues and ethics in the history department.”

“The order of the day ought to be that partisanship ends when a person is elected, and for every minute the person is in office after that, the person ought to be doing the public’s business.”

In the video linked below, CNN is interviewing two university students, one Democrat and one Republican. CNN asks them who they think will take the primary for their respective parties, and are absolutely shocked when the Republican says Ron Paul. However, Miss GOP’s arguments make a lot of sense. Ron Paul really is a true conservative, and the majority of the Republican party has strayed from their traditional values.

The Democrat student, on the other hand, is the epitome of stupid Democrats. She doesn’t answer the question asked, and repeatedly generalizes, saying that “I just want a Democrat in office.” Has the thought ever crossed her mind that many politicians identify with one of the two big parties FOR political, not ideological reasons? Democrats vary from “gun-control, free pot, let all illegal immigrants have citizenship” crazies to moderates that say “we should stay in Iraq but change the course and maintain a strong presence abroad”.

I hope that not all Democrats are as dumb as she is. I know that these are just two people out of millions, but the Republican is clearly more of a thinker in this case, and solidly wins my confidence.

Yesterday CNN hosted its much-hyped YouTube presidential debate with the Democratic candidates. Rather than a traditional moderator, all the questions posed were submitted via YouTube by “average joes” (and a snowman). I guess this was the Internet’s big chance to make good on that whole “democratizing effect” promise we’ve been hearing about for the past ten years or so. Of course, the questions were still screened and selected by CNN, which explains the notable absence of YouTube’s regular fare (crazy Japanese prank shows, people ghostriding the whip and teenagers going out of their minds on salvia).

As for the content, it seemed marginally more interesting than a regular debate; there was at least the potential to put the candidates in the hot seat, such as when a lesbian couple inquired as to why they shouldn’t be allowed to marry. If nothing else, it was a step in the right direction, although Politico found it highly ironic that the debate itself failed to produce a “YouTube moment.” Also not impressed were the folks over at Wonkette, who live-blogged the whole thing (read: sat at their computers and got drunk as the debate unfolded).