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!

Last night saw the Winter Olympics come to an end. America won the overall medal count and host country  Canada won the most gold medals. One victory celebration in general caused an uproar. The Canadian women’s hockey celebrated  their gold medal victory by smoking  cigars and drinking beer.

The International Olympic Committee  was not pleased with the celebration and called in the international hockey committee and the Canadian Olympic International  to inform them they will be investigating the situation. The biggest problem with the celebration according to media outlets is that 18 year old Marie Philip Poulin was photographed drinking beer, 19 is the legal drinking age in British Columbia.

Stories like this just prove that American media has become too sensitive. Poulin scored the only two goals in the gold medal game. She spends most of her time training in Alberta where  the drinking age is 18. Yes, there are different “states” in Canada, they are called provinces or territories,  for all the geographically ignorant. The team won the biggest game of their careers and achieved the highest level of success in women’s hockey. Let them celebrate with some beer.  They did not drink or smoke while spectators were in the arena, give them a break.

If a 18 year old wants to drink a Molson after winning an Olympic gold medal I say let them drink up. It’s an amazing accomplishment that many strive for their whole lives. If that person score the only two goals in the gold medal game, there should be people lining up to buy her a drink. This was a goal oriented successful young woman (pun intended) celebrating with her teammates , not some high school drop out getting drunk by the train tracks.

In what was a meeting that could have put any insomniac to sleep, the ASUO was able to get through more actual business than they have in recent weeks. 

• UO Forensics received funding for their end of the year tournaments. 
• HKSA received funding for their upcoming Hong Kong Appreciation night event. The menu looks fantastic by the way, I will be attending based on that fact alone. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the ASUO ticketing office. 
• The Take Back The Tap resolution was passed and will be voted on by the rules committee next senate meeting. 
• The EMU board came in to to have it’s budget passed. It will cost 4.8 million dollars next year of the ASUO’s budget to maintain the EMU this is up $225,000 from last year’s budget. 
• Included in the EMU’s budget will be the Bike Loan Program which will receive permanent funding for the first time ever. If you are unfamiliar with the Bike Loan Program it is a program that allows students to rent bikes for a small fee, I believe it is a $60 deposit. Pretty much it’s a free bike for the term if you do not break it or lose it. Great program overall, if you don’t have bike next year I strongly urge you to take part in this program. 
• PFC came in to present their spending model which was approved. The ASUO lowered the total budgets of the 110 programs by .81%. Fiscal conservatives rejoice! That means they will not have to have repeat PFC sessions to reevaluate budgets, AKA we still have a stripper pole line item. Which will be used in our eventual long term goal of sending a OC member to the Olympics. 

Overall it was a tame meeting. No out bursts, one silly hat, and a great job the PFC.

There was a letter to the editor in Monday’s Emerald signed by members of the Climate Justice League (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Heart!) denouncing the ACFC’s recent decision not to fund OSPIRG. In part, the letter said:

“Although OSPIRG provided all of the materials and information the committee asked for, ACFC never clearly articulated a reason to not fund OSPIRG, except a vague sense of uncertainty.”

Of course, those who have read anything about the ACFC’s decision understand that the ACFC clearly outlined why they decided not to fund OSPIRG. Even more surprising is that many of the signers of the letter — including Sen. Jeremy Blanchard — attended the meeting and heard the ACFC’s reasons in person. A response was printed yesterday, signed by ASUO Senate President Nick Gower and Sen. Demic Tipitino (in addition to many others, including myself) that said:

“The problems with OSPIRG were clearly articulated, and they have been for years. OSPIRG sends student money off campus to pay non-students to lobby for issues that have little relation to the University of Oregon campus. Additionally, OSPIRG’s system is structured in a manner that partial funding would make the organization ineffective and an even greater waste of student dollars.”

Do the Planeteers need this outlined again? Let’s go “bulletpoints” on this one, shall we?

(more…)

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.

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.

(more…)

As the Pacifica Forum resolution finally passed Rules Committee on Wednesday, so too did it bring quite the controversy with it–and this time, no Nazis were present. Towards the end of the evening a bomb was dropped on the Senate (an odd happening in the same night the new ASUO logo had been debated) as tensions over a point of order rose to such that Senate Vice President Nicholas Schultz called for Senate President Nick Gower to resign by shouting, “Step down! Step down!”

The controversy started when Gower did not follow the speakers list–an ordered list for members to abide by–and instead called on Senator Lindsay Reichardt, out of turn. Schultz accused Gower of abuse of power, and called to question Gower’s action. Sens. McCafferty and Gower told Schultz he was not allowed to question that specific action of the Chair (Gower). Schultz, along with ASUO President Emma Kallaway, left the meeting for approximately 40 minutes and came back with a book of Robert’s Rules of Order–the governing rules the ASUO abides by.

From here, the situation escalated into a term I’m trying to coin here lately (patent pending)–a McDisasterfuck. Schultz had figured out that Gower and McCafferty were wrong, and that if two or more Senators called to question the actions of the Chair (Gower) then they could indeed discuss it.

(more…)

Proposed State of Oregon Senate Bill 1018 has a noble cause–stopping drunk driving. Unfortunately, it also carries with it the essence of the nanny state. The bill would allow for police departments all over Oregon to set up roadblocks to catch drunk drivers.

SECTION 1. (1) As used in this section, “sobriety checkpoint” means a roadblock established for the purpose of apprehending persons who are driving while under the influence of intoxicants in violation of ORS 813.010.

Of course, anyone who’s been caught by the EPD in an end-of-the-quarter ticket sting knows that roadblocks like the ones proposed in the bill will inevitably act as a means of guaranteed tax generation. And you best believe that most of the tickets issued won’t be for “issues pertaining to sobriety”. Nay, these roadblocks act as way to nickel-and-dime ordinary citizens (or at the very least, harass them). And what better way to do it? Why have actively patrolling police officers, wasting gas and time when you can just pay a few sheriffs to hang out, let the money come to them and check to make sure everyone has their papers in order?

These laws are the precursors to systems like that of Britain, in which–I kid you not–the roads have “average speed” cameras. They don’t just take a picture of your license plate as you drive by, they actually make you average at or below a set speed between a certain distance.

I’m not sure what the state legislation is thinking on this one. Maybe they were tired of us not paying the toll for driving on the King’s road.

Dear voter people,

This is how I feel about voting. Stop fucking calling me.

Love,
Pete Lesiak

Last night Nick and I decided to attend a presentation by Sidney Milkis, a professor from the University of Virginia, hosted by the Poly. Sci. department entitled “Great Expectations: Obama and the Politics of Reform.” I thought this would be an even breakdown of Obama’s political moves in the past year, and for some reason I wasn’t quite expecting a worship session of the messiah, but it came fairly close. Yes indeed, a year post-election and we’re stilling talking about Hope and Change.

For a large portion of the time, and the beginning of the evening, Milkis spoke a lot on the subject of multi-culturalism (as if we aren’t beat over the head with it enough here in Eugene). According to Milkis, Obama was a multi-racial man who consciously chose to be African American, and he reaffirmed his intentions of remaining African American by marrying Michelle Obama. I wasn’t aware that one has such reign over their ethnicity; nevertheless the speaker seemed to be suggesting Obama was brave for making the choice. He then continued on his multi-cultural shpeel, talking about the ability of Obama to represent America, despite being black. Apparently Obama is the “first African American to truly embody America’s values.” (MLK only does on the third monday of January each year) Oh, I also learned that Barrack’s middle name, Hussien, is iconic of everything good and righteous in American politics.

(more…)