ASUO Exec-elects Sam Dotters-Katz and Johnny Delashaw have submitted a Senate over-realized request to allow Knight Library to operate 24-hours a day, five days a week with regular hours on the weekend. The request for the amount of $54,000 would fund the extended library hours for a one-year trial period, during which student usage will be monitored. According to the request, “should the data indicate the extended service is worthwhile, funding for institutionalization of the program will be solicited from a variety of sources, including the University Administration, the Library Administration and the ASUO.”

This seems like as good a use of the over-realized fund as any. Actually, it sounds better, since it will benefit the whole campus. I’d be a fan of 24-hour library service, seeing as how I’m a raging insomniac and procrastinator. The request also noted that a previous library study found that “demand for extended library hours come disproportionately from non-traditional students who are busy during the library’s daily hours.” So there you go: 24/5 library service would also help minority students. And if it doesn’t work out, well, we can just scrap it after the trial period. Wait, a sensible plan coming out of the ASUO? Pardon me, I have to go find something to be curmudgeony about.

Albert Hoffmann, the guy who invented LSD, is dead at 102.

The Washington Post outlines some of the details of John McCain’s health plan. If I’m understanding it right, the key points are:

1.  Unlike the Democratic plan, his plan is market-based
2. It dissociates health insurance from the workplace, which McCain argues will force insurance companies to “no longer take your business for granted, offering narrow plans with escalating costs.”
3. It provides tax credits to individuals, rather than employers, for health insurance.
4. It will create a “GAP” (guaranteed access program) in the short-term to provide for “high-risk” patients until the “market matures”.
5. Lowering costs through a variety of methods such as tort reform and encouraging the prescription of generic drugs.
6. McCain also advocates the “health savings account” idea.
7. Interestingly, he also says “[g]overnment should promote greater access through walk-in clinics in retail outlets” to facilitate easier access to basic, preventative care.

As the Post notes, a lot of the McCain plan echoes President Bush’s spectacularly failed attempt at health care reform. Indeed, McCain is probably going to have a relatively difficult time selling his health care plan, whatever its merits, since he’s going to have to compete against either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, both of which are promising “free” health care for the masses. For McCain to succeed on this issue against his opponent (especially if he runs against Barack Obama), he’s going to have to find a simple, sensible way to explain to people how setting them adrift and trusting market forces is going to result in better health care at a lower cost than anything a massive, tax-funded government bureaucracy  can hope to provide.

Unfortunately for McCain, explaining economics to people is a lot more difficult than saying “the government will take care of you”.

Con Court Issued its decision today regarding Ed-in-Chief of the ODE Laura Powers’ grievance. Powers’ petitioned the Court to reconsider its controversial ruling that candidates for the ASUO may not advertise with campus media. The Court’s per curiam ruling denied Powers’ motion, stating “[t]he continued controversy surrounding Election Rule 6.12 should find correction through the political process, not this Court. The rule is clear on its face. If Members of this University do not like the rule, they should change the rule. Political options abound for such a result, and that is the proper avenue for change.”

That’s the Court’s entire decision, by the way. Seriously. Way to pass the buck, guys.

The full text of the ruling can be found here, along with Powers’ petition. Also, Con Court is set to recess on Wednesday, so they’re trying to clear their docket. There’s a whole slew of election related decisions coming out, all of which can be found on the Court’s website.

Finally, the ODE issued an editorial today calling for the reform of the Con Court.

This last week, the College Republicans celebrated Second Amendment Day, which simply involves taking a bunch of people off city limits and onto public land, and shooting a myriad of weapons. It is one of the more exciting parts of exercising our citizenship and Constitutional Rights.

A video by Kenny Crabtree can be found here.

As a final note, I just had the idea to exercise some of our other Constitutional Rights in a similar celebratory manner:
First Amendment Day - Overused by hippies, Bible Jim, Brother Jed, and protestors.

Sixth Amendment Day - Right to speedy trial

Eighth Amendment Day - No cruel or unusual punishment

16th Amendment Day - Authorization of Federal Income Taxes. I guess they already have one of these, it’s on April 15th.

My favorite: 21st Amendment Day - Repealing of 18th Amendment (Prohibition)

Voting ended today for the general ASUO elections. Here are the results:

• EMU Board at Large: Michelle Haley
• PFC at Large: Andrew “Andy” Cox
• ACFC at Large: Cassandra Gray
• ACFC at Large: Joey Freedman
• ASUO PFC Senator Seat One: Carina Marie Miller
• EMU Board Finance Senators Seat Five: Emma Kallaway
• ACFC at Large Seat Seven: Alexander “Alex” McCafferty
• Department Finance Committee Seat Ten: Hailey Sheldon
• AAA/Interdisciplinary Seat 12: tie between Yu Hin “Adrian” Ho and Nickolaus “Nick” Gower. Another run-off to be held April 21-23 (sigh).
• Social Sciences Seat 14: Lidiana Soto
• Science Seat 16: Michael “Mikey” Latteri

Sean Jin unfortunately lost his seat by a very close vote. Sorry, Sean. We would have loved to see you mix it up at the table.

Here are the top ten Oregon Commentator bloggers as far as number of posts.

1. Timothy Dreier - 476
2. Olly   - 375
3. Sho   - 272
4. Ian Spencer  - 260
5. Ted   - 154
6. Bret Jacobson  - 126
7. Pete   - 115
8. Ossie Bladine  - 108
9. Danimal   - 100
10. CJ Ciaramella  - 93

A notable author name on the list is Skeletor Ogboggle - username ‘other,’ - with 8 posts, my favorite of which is: OC In Depth: The Emerald After-Party

OC contributor Sean Jin has been appointed to PFC Seat One in the ASUO by a vote of 7-5-1. He was recommended to the position by ASUO Exec Emily McLain, who addressed the Senate and noted that Jin “is really involved all across campus.”

Jin then was given an opportunity to speak, saying he would work to bring better “outreach, transparency and professionalism” to the ASUO. Many of the senators had good things to say, noting that Jin was very qualified and experienced for the job. Sen. Jones called him a “Johnny-on-the-spot all around campus.”

Jin’s connection to the OC was brought up numerous times, surprisingly not as negative as one would expect. Sen. Zavrel actually suggested that Jin’s appointment was a good thing because it brought more diversity to the senate. That’s right, you heard it here: The OC improves diversity.

However, Sen. Diego Hernandez disagreed. “Sean wrote an article in the last issue of the Oregon Commentator that I found really offensive,” he said. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable with him on this body.” Of course, Hernandez was referring to the article where Jin called out the MCC on their rampant hypocrisy. Hernandez later went on to say that he considered Jin’s article “hate speech.”

But wait, you say. Where’s the asinine quote from Nate Gulley? Here you go: “I just think it needs to be understood that the Oregon Commentator isn’t a campus media source,” Gulley said. “It’s a student program.”

O RLY? I guess putting out a magazine and writing a daily blog about campus affairs doesn’t make you a media source anymore. The ‘Ol Dirty better step it up, lest they too become just another student program.

Congrats to Sean.

Stephen Colbert spins Oregon’s plan to put uninsured citizens in a “health care lottery.”

Now that the ecstasy of Barack Obama’s visit to our humble city is beginning to wear off (though one keeps expecting his most ardent disciples to show up on the doorstep one weekend morning wearing “Hope” t-shirts and asking if one has “heard the good news”…), the Democratic primary is once again looking like a political campaign rather than a messianic ascension into the hallowed Oval Office.

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Since Oregon’s own special little guy Peter DeFazio is making headlines by calling people “little pointy-headed neocon[s] with grand ideas about the future of transportation” with “bizarre, neocon view[s] of transportation, ” I thought I’d post up this fairly succinct explanation of basic neoconservative ideas.

It’s not long, it’s not detailed, and it’s not difficult reading. So if you’re one of those people who’s surprised when I tell you that the definition of “neocon” isn’t synonymous with “Nazi”, “Republican”, “imperialist warmonger”, or “someone I disagree with”, then maybe it’s time to take a couple of minutes and read that article. Heck, you might even come away knowing more about “the neocons” than Peter DeFazio who, by any definition, is a bit of a wanker.

With the perhaps not-so-stunning revelation that Barack Obama’s friend, pastor, and mentor, Jeremiah Wright (the title of “The Audacity of Hope” comes directly from Wright) has, among other things, suggested that the United States is responsible for AIDS, blamed the U.S. for bringing 9/11 upon itself, and suggesting that African-Americans (emphasis on the “African,” evidently) sing “God Damn America”, Barack Obama is once again in the same boat as he found himself when his wife made her “misunderstood” remarks about only just now being able to be proud of America. That is to say, the man who was supposed to be above it all, the man who was supposed to be beyond race, the man who was supposed to represent “change” is being dragged down into the slime of identity politics.

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Today from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Focus the Nation, a “national teach-in on climate change,” was held on the UO campus, mainly focused in and around the EMU. There were a multitude of panels, lectures and booths to help assuage your horrible, consumer guilt … I mean, uh, ecological footprint. Lectures were held every hour on the hour by university professors, and a sustainability fair was set up on the first floor of the EMU.

Here’s ten ways you can fight climate change, according to a poster board at the sustainability fair (and some helpful additions from me):

1. Recycle (or let hobos recycle for you)
2. Reduce, re-use
3. Buy green energy
4. Replace your bulbs
5. Ride bikes and buses (I would have suggested something classier, like “Save the earth. Ride me.”)
6. Go vegetarian
7. Turn things off (including other people’s computers and televisions)
8. Use less heat (the earth’s warming up anyways, right?)
9. Don’t use plastic (which is why I only use condoms made from sheep intestine)
10. Shop eco-friendly (as opposed to eco-ambivalent)

More of my experiences in sustainability land after the jump.

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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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I got a chance to speak with Andrew “Shadow” Hill, the president of the College Republicans, about the New Hampshire Primary and the election in general. The Daily Emerald ran a story on the NH primaries today, but they interviewed their own columnist, Nik Antovich, to represent the College Repubs. Classy, guys. The OC interviewed Hill back in 2006 when he was running for state office.

OC: Any general thoughts, gut reactions or detailed analysis of New Hampshire?

Hill: Well, I think the early primaries are a joke. All these states that don’t matter get bumped up in the primary schedule; I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet. It’s still a long, long road to the elections.

It kind of sucked that Ron Paul only got half of what he did in Iowa. As far as the Democrats, I was surprised that Hillary kicked Obama’s ass. Apparently, everyone felt sorry for her and that’s why she beat him.

OC: Who would you rather have get the Democratic nomination, Hillary or Obama?

Hill: They’re not very different, but I guess I’d rather have Obama … because he’s not Hillary. It seems like Obama at least actually believes what he’s saying, whereas I think Hillary is doing it 100 percent for personal gain. [OC alum] Andy Dolberg always said he wanted to see Hillary as president in ‘08 because it would speed up the revolution.

OC: Who are you voting for?

Hill: I like Ron Paul, and I’m going to vote for him. A lot of people call him a libertarian RINO, but he’s just a conservative.

I don’t like any of the front-runners. None of them are true Republicans. One of my friends described Huckabee as a populist, which he is. He’s kind of like Bush. He believes in traditional, conservative values, but he’s a big-government guy. And Mitt Romney is just as bad as the Democrats. He doesn’t understand the Second Amendment. I will not vote for him; I will vote third party. We’ve been playing this “vote for the lesser evil” game too long, and it’s time to let politicians know we’re fed up. I think it’s time to start voting third-party.

OC: Who do you predict will take the Republican nomination?

Hill: I think Guiliani will be a sleeper candidate. He’ll take New York, and if he can pull California and Texas as well, he’ll have the primary in the bag. Right now, I’m predicting Guiliani with McCain as his running mate; they’re pretty buddy-buddy. That’s not what I’d prefer, but that’s what I think will happen.

OC: Are the College Republicans doing any election events?

Hill: Yeah, we’re putting out a table, hopefully sometime next week in front of the EMU, with information, propaganda, etc. on all the Republican candidates.