People are already lining up in droves for the Obama rally tonight at Mac Court. Lawn chairs and blankets are set up all along the lawn in front of Esslinger. A guy is selling Obama “hope” t-shirts and probably making a killing.

I went down to the ASUO controller’s office and asked if the student government was shelling out any money for the event. It was hard to get a definitive answer, but I was told that no incidental fee money was spent that the controller knew of. We might request the purchase orders to verify all of this.

I also finagled my way onto the press list, so expect a write-up of the rally.

Here’s the Register-Guard write-up of the pre-Obama ballyhoo, complete with a lede about ASUO Senator Nate Gulley crying when he found out he was going to miss the rally. Wow, it must be real tough for Gulley, being stuck over in Hawaii on the student body’s dime to discuss “environmental racism” and all. My heart goes out to him.

Finally, here’s an article on Obama from The Onion.

Does anybody else think this should be required viewing for the ASUO?

Not trying to get the bobby-soxers in a tizzy or anything, I just think it’s a pretty significant speech. It also offers a fantastic contrast to the tone of so-called “race relations” on this campus.

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.

I got a call today while working in the ASUO from a member of the Barack Obama campaign saying that Obama is planning on coming to Eugene on Friday, and they need to find a 10,000 plus occupant arena. I informed them that there would not be many students on campus at this time, at which point he responded, saying, “Yes, President Frohnmayer just informed me of that.” Of course you talked to the president of our university before little ol’ me. I don’t know if this is all for real. It might have been a hallucination caused by pulling an all-nighter in the library, taking too much aderall and the disillusionment caused by working in the ASUO. Maybe it was a premonition from God that the Messiah is coming. I will keep you posted.

Update: Word is 90% sure that Obama will be at Mac Court at 8:30pm on Friday March 21st! But this isn’t official. I am just trying to share my vision with the world. I hope no one is freaking out about this. 

Update 2: Just found a bit of confirmation for you all that my premonition about this might just in fact be true. KMTR commented on their website regarding the visit saying that is was for sure the he would in Portland on Friday and possibly Eugene.

Update 3: The Register Guard has confirmed that Obama will hold an event Friday at Mac Court. For the record, I scooped them all. It’s just too bad it’s Obama and not my man McCain.

I wasn’t planning on covering the Iraq war protest in Eugene yesterday, but I happened to run into it on my way to the office and decided to play “embedded reporter.”

By the time I had arrived at the EMU, there was already a large crowd gathered, hoisting various signs and such. I unfortunately missed Ty Schwoeffermann’s speech and a rap by Ari Lesser, although I imagine both were spectacular. I did, however, make it in time to hear a speech by U of O sociology professor Gregory McLauchlan. The speaker who introduced him noted that McLauchlan “has been a peace and social activist since Berkley.” (And we all know how well that turned out). (more…)

Rockne Roll, friend of the OC and Executive Editor of The Liberty over at OSU, is running for the Oregon House of Representatives District 16. He will be facing Democratic incumbent Sarah Gelser. Although I don’t know Gelser, I can almost guarantee that Roll has finer taste in clothes and cigars. Best of luck to Roll in his campaign.

P.S. Via NW Republican, Matt “The Law” Lindland, a former Olympic wrestler and ultimate fighter, is running for House District 52.

I must say, I really must say, that I am sick and tired of election season already. No, I am not talking about the ASUO Elections. Those have just started and I am giddy in anticipation for the first grievance to be filed. I am sick and tired of the race for the 2008 Democratic Presidential Nominee. It dawned on me today that maybe the Democratic Party is not torn between two transformational leaders, but that it simply is not satisfied with what it is left with. This is not to say that Barack Obama and/or Hillary Clinton are not transformational leaders, or that the DP doesn’t like them.

Maybe the initial media hype of “the first woman president” and “the first African-American president” that kept both candidates high in the polls (this speaks more to Obama polling higher than Edwards) is beginning to wear off. With almost identical policies, characteristics (combative, strong, dedicated, organized), and messages (Clinton’s initial campaign slogan was “If you are ready for change-she is ready to lead”),  the only things differentiating these two are their skin-color, gender and that Obama got a better graphic designer. Hopefully not a single one of these differences will be the one that decides who gets the nomination, but then what will?

Wait…I don’t care so shut up about it already! 

Is anyone really surprised that a white woman living in Eugene, OR has been caught peddling fake memoirs of growing up as a half-Native American orphan, running drugs for the Crips in a Southern California ghetto?

The kind of “street cred” that comes along with a story like that is the wet dream of countless bored, white, middle-class “progressive” types who seem to associate people trapped by poverty, violence, and misery with some sort of authenticity. Remember Ward Churchill’s various chicaneries regarding his military service and supposed Native American heritage? Even more extreme examples include the perverse glorification of the Palestinian “resistance” and breathless assurances that life in Castro’s Cuba is lovely, thanks to 100% literacy and free health care — excuses in both cases proffered by comfy activists much like Margaret Seltzer, who justified her lies by claiming she was “[putting] a voice to people who people don’t listen to.”

If anyone doubts the “authenticity” aspect of all of this, the New York Times excerpts a few bits from her book:

There are “some parts of me that did die in L.A.,” she adds, “and that I’ll never get back, and other parts of me that die daily because I exist away from the city, in a world where people can’t begin to imagine what it was like where I grew up… I made it out of L.A. with what life I had left. ”

Like Ward Churchill’s various pronouncements on the tragedy of Native American history and by-the-numbers declarations of genocide in Gaza by Hamas PR men, Seltzer’s narrative is intended to instill both a sense of shock and reverent awe among the Prius-and-latte set as well as a sense that the world has gone horribly wrong and justice must be restored.

But while her former editor called Ms. Seltzer “very, very naive,” the truth is that Margaret Seltzer was just another comfy charlatan activist who made it her business to profit from the misery of others, supposedly in the service of a “larger truth”.

Barack Obama was the leading presidential candidate in a survey by American University. When asked who they would vote for if the presidential election was held today, 54 percent of respondents chose Obama, with McCain coming in second at 19 percent.

However, a similar poll by the Oregon Commentator found Ron Paul leading by 100 percent. Although Paul has been popular with the college crowd, this is a surprising surge and could cause trouble for current Republican front-runner McCain. The results also indicate that 100 percent of university students are registered Independents, functional alcoholics and named Ossie Bladine.

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!”

Instapundit links to some criticism of attempts at another university (Columbia, specifically) to departmentalize something akin to an “Ethnic Studies” program (Native American Studies, specifically). In particular, critics point out statements made by advocates of the program that would seem to suggest that a Native American Studies Department at Columbia would be an explicitly political organization.

Ahem. Not that I’m suggesting that any of the concerns raised have any relevance whatsoever with current goings on at the University of Oregon.

Now, on the other hand, if there was a push at the U of O to departmentalize Ethnic Studies, I might be somewhat more worried. Since that isn’t the case, however, I can rest assured that an overtly politicized Ethnic Studies Department at this institution is nothing to fret about for the time being.

Well, I wish my first post here was for a happier occasion, but, as I noted in an off-topic comment below, conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr. has died. Whether or not you agreed with everything the man ever wrote (and I did not), it’s undeniable that he was a massively influential figure in the national debate, and a pretty classy one at that.

[edit]

More here.

It seems that the lifeblood of the ASUO is the language and hot-topic phrases debated each year by the student government. Last year it was “institutional racism” and this year it is “viewpoint neutrality.” Here is a good, concise explanation of viewpoint neutrality from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). As noted below by Neil Brown, two major court cases defined the role of viewpoint neutrality in the allocation of student fees at state colleges and universities.

Together, the rulings show clearly that (1) any student organization at a state school that is denied funding because of its views can sue claiming viewpoint discrimination; and (2) students may opt out of funding an objectionable group only if that state university does not distribute its money in a viewpoint neutral manner.

(more…)

Communism might not be over, but the man who has been in power for as long as most of our parents can remember said early this morning, “I will not aspire nor accept - I repeat I will not aspire or accept - the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief.” That was, obviously, Fidel Castro.

The newly elected Cuban Parliament will meet this Sunday and will choose the new council of state, including the president. Since he grasped power in 1959, his brother Raul, who is years his junior, has been positioned to take over the presidency.

So what new foreign policy cackles has Castro — a rather irrelevant dictator by modern standards, frankly — raised in his last few months as el Presidente? Surprisingly, he’s raised a few.

Fidel and U.S.presidential hopeful John McCain have been in a back-and-forth verbal battle over Cuba’s involvement in the torture of U.S. POWs during the Vietnam War. Earlier this month Fidel wrote an article in the Granma, the newspaper of the Central Committe of the Cuban Communist Party, that denied McCain’s accusations, calling them unethical. Fidel attacked him further saying: “The commandments of the religion you practice prohibit lying.” McCain responded with the whole “to respond is to dignify, and I will not dignify” bit. He says this is a matter of record which is not up for debate. It seems odd that Fidel would choose to comment on these allegations now, but I wouldn’t put it past Hillary’s strategists, if she has anymore left that is.

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.”

(more…)