Calstuff
Don't mess this up!
-Kevin Deenihan,
Emeritus


Home
Archive
Extended

Help CalStuff!

Disclaimer: Calstuff and/or the opinions expressed are not affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley.
Recent Guest Posts
Tenants' Rights Week
by Jason Overman
Search

Powered by:
Contact

FaceBook CalStuff!
Allen L.
 About
 
 IM
Andy R.
 About
 
 IM
Ben N.
 About
 
 IM
Cooper N.

 About
 
 IM
Syndication
Site Feed (ATOM)
Comments Feed
Add to LJ Friends

Subscribe in NewsGator Online
Subscribe with Bloglines
Berkeley Blogs
CalJunket
With humor.
Cal Patriot Blog
Conservative Blog
UC Berkeley Livejournal
Discussion Forum
California Patriot Watch
Self Explanatory
Brad DeLong
Econ Prof
The Bird House
Cal Prof on everything
Cal Politik
Rants & Raves
Beetle Beat
Full Time Whiner
"Frat" Life
Cal "Frat" Boy
Cal Tzedek
Jewish Students Blog
Personal as Public
Soft Boiled Life
Hilariously Un-PC.
Cal Alumni/ Squelch Blogs
Kedstuff
Remember him?
I Fought the Law
Optimus Primed
Zembla
With Cuteness
Ne Quid Nimis
With Photography
Friday, March 29, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 12:24 PM

It's irritating that two myths about the MeCHA/Patriot incident have been so widely repeated.

From the Wall Street Journal's website:
SCHOOLS FOR SCANDAL: Each April Fools' Day, the Collegiate Network (www.isi.org) releases its list of the worst campus outrages. A little birdie tells us that this year's top Polly--so dubbed for the political correctness that usually lies behind such outrages--will go to the University of California at Berkeley. There the conservative student newspaper had its press run stolen and then faced death threats when editors reported the theft to the police. The paper's editors believe the attack was in response to an investigative article about Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, a Hispanic student group whose national Web site is filled with anti-Semitic language and whose Berkeley branch receives $20,000 in university funding.

1. The Patrioteers didn't receive death threats following the thefts. They received death threats last year during the David Horowitz incident. For some reason, the Daily Cal turned this into current death threats.

2. The anti-semitic website, while using much of the same rhetoric as MeCHA, doesn't have any known affiliation to anybody besides the webmaster. It appears safe to say he's just some random nutcase.

Any Patriot staffer could tell you these... have any of these commentators done any followup on the original Daily Cal article?



Email This Post!

Thursday, March 28, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 4:33 PM

Calstuff: Watched from Above!

On my AOL Buddy List I put a Subprofile function. Basically, when someone checks my Profile message it puts them on the list of 'People checking Kevin's SN.' This is most fun when it's someone I don't know.

Today I found a new name on it, one I didn't recognize: 'Ho**alum' (Changed slightly so I'm not a jerk.)

Since Ho**alum was online, I sent a cheerful IM asking who they were. BAM, I'm added to their blocked list.

Slightly taken aback, I search Ho**alum on Google. And who does it end up being but 'Wally Adeyemo, Ho**alum@aol.com '

Calstuff welcomes Cal's President to his Profile messages! He wonders why Calstuff needs to be blocked from saying Hello.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 2:49 PM

Berkeley Observer writes

Let's be fair to the 'Shady Cal' (an interesting choice of words, I might add, considering the accusation is that it's "too white"): it's what the students make of it. Whose fault is it that there are "0 ties" between the Daily Cal and minority communities, anyways? The Daily Cal certainly isn't in the business of turning away writers, ethnic or otherwise, so long as they write well. It's ridiculous for the minority poo-bahs on campus to level these charges when they have every opportunity for reform. If there are really no ties between the DC and Cal's minority communities (which isn't even true, but there is room for improvement), then I suggest that they show up to 6th floor Eshleman and start making some. I doubt that they would be turned away.

But they don't, and I think this is telling. For this is The Berkeley Way(TM). With so much of their identity invested in a persecution complex literally decades in the making, it would be near-fatal for their detractors to suddenly become amenable to them. What would half the "movements" on this campus be if they could not measure themselves by and channel their wrath against the perennial, antinomic specters of the UC, the Daily Cal, the "system"? Nothing, I say, nothing at all.

Why win the war when you can prolong the battle? Clearly, if the means, not the ends, is what interests you (e.g. you came to Berkeley to fight, which many did), then you're not going to want to stop the "movement" anytime soon. Which is why one can expect to (and does!) encounter a large disconnect between rhetoric (to wit, "Shady Cal"; or when the Cal Patriot calls the DC "a national joke" in their March, 2001 issue; or when Hard Boiled 5.1 (October, 2001) runs an article cryptically titled, "Daily Cal : Thriving on Ignorance"; or when La Voz de Aztlan, in a September, 18, 2001 dispatch calls the paper racist; or my God, where to even begin with the ASUC; or for that matter, much of calstuff.blogspot.com) and action in this community. To my knowledge (I could be incorrect here), no one in MeChA, BCR, or APA--or you--writes for the Daily Cal, or has even tried to in recently memory. One would think that the pervasive, egregious, and overt shoddiness of the DC, which so many proclaim so frequently with such alacrity, might spur one--just one!--person to try to right these wrongs. Maybe we should be asking ourselves why this does not happen.
Makes sense to me.
Email This Post!

Wednesday, March 27, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 11:03 PM

Nolo Free beats me once again to commentary, making all the right points about this mostly-pointless article rehashing the Patriot scandal in light of the recent round of faux-Anthrax mailings.

One thing I can add: the writer claims that X will serve as the new counterbalance to the Patriot, which is silly in many ways. First off, X doesn't care about the Patriot. It was started to counterbalance the 'Shady Cal.' Most minority groups roll their eyes at the Patriot, knowing that attacking them is an automatic loss, but hate the Daily Cal with a passion. Reason: since the DC is made up of mostly upper-middle class white collar kids, they have pretty much 0 ties to the minority community. Not to mention the innate hostility between the First Amendment loving Press and the 'No Hate Speech' loving X crowd.

Second reason: the writer makes it seem like X sprang from the cooperation of ethnic groups to do battle with the evil Patriot. But X is an amalgation of four existing ethnic publications, not groups. Same writers, same layout people, etc. Certainly the resource pooling helps outreach and distribution, but there's a big difference between creating the single 'voice for the marginalized' and merely adding a fifth onto four existing voices.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 8:36 PM

Speaking of X, they finally put a website up.

So far, it seems like Hardboiled is providing the Layout staff and Web design staff of this enterprise. Considering it's supposed to be a joint effort by four magazines, does this concentration mean anything?
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 8:22 PM

Daily Cal flashback time!

Right, blast from the past. David Brock is the most prominent Daily Cal alum that I know of. Back in 91 he was a leader in the Conservative push to get Clarence Thomas on the bench, and in doing helped to attack Anita Hill. Recently, he's recanted his Conservative days and written a book about the experience. (So basically, he's prominent as a bit of a dip who's easily led at best and a complete liar at worst.) Here's an excerpt about his days as a Daily Cal guy from a longer piece in Slate about his untrustworthiness:
While campaigning to be editor in chief of the Daily Cal at Berkeley, Brock was "caught in an embarrassing lie" about an editor he didn't like. He told the Daily Cal's outgoing editor in chief that the university's vice chancellor had phoned to complain about a story that the enemy editor had presumably mangled. It wasn't true, and Brock got caught.
Great.

So my question is: who's the most prominent and respectable alum of the Daily Cal? I know you Daily Cal guys read this. Now's your chance to slam back against the constant barrages of Daily Cal criticism. E-mail today!

Thanks to ASUC Senator Sajid A. Khan for reminding me what X calls the Daily Cal: the Shady Cal. Heh heh.

Email This Post!

Tuesday, March 26, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 1:04 PM

NOLO FREE concludes I'm comparing 'apples to oranges' with the two molds of Leadership thing, and concludes my praise of the secretive, insular 'civic activist' set is overblown.

Hm, probably true! But I don't think the insularity is all that extreme. Contrary to Nolo's claim, it seems to me that Rally Committee tries pretty hard to recruit. They have a large informal recruiting crowd of RAs and just general members, plus they table during CalSo and sometimes on Sproul. Frats and Sororities recruit hard. Oski Committee is secretive mainly because its controlled by a single Fraternity, with all the secret ceremonies and rituals that entails. And I doubt students want Oski to be unmasked: Cal takes a certain pride in the fact their mascot is the only secret one left in the US.

Anyway, the way these two groups are so close to each other and yet have so little in common continues to interest me. Lets not forget the large ethnic dimension to this: Rally Comm, and football crowds in general, are significantly whiter than average. Probably because football continues to be of interest mainly to Caucasians, but it creates another divide. Especially in view of how political groups are composed mostly of minorities.

Another question: which of these two is the 'wave of the future?' Rally Comm and co. have been around since the early days, but have remained inherently static. They have their duties; they stick to them. The Political crowd is only some 35-odd years old, but already dominates news coverage of Cal and control of its finances and operations. Yet they've been unable to build any significant movements in years. Seems like we've reached equilibrium.



Email This Post!

Monday, March 25, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 10:29 AM

OK, Hiatus is over. While other, lesser Berkeley Bloggers take Spring Break off, Calstuff will be bringing you new material all week long!

So lets talk about the Order of the Golden Bear again. I think that's where the essential divide between the two groups of Leadership at Cal is. On the one side is the political activism: the ASUC, of course, but also the too-many political activist groups that crowd Sproul. That means all the ethnic groups, most of the Lefty groups, and certainly the Cal Democrats and Berkeley College Republicans. This is the group I've been associated with for the longest time, and to tell the truth, I don't really like them. Too grasping, too gossipy, too High School.

But it turns out there's another branch of school leadership, one much more tied into Cal as an institution rather than a base of operations. This includes, most especially, Rally Committee. But it also includes most of the Fraternities/Sororities at Cal, the various Octet groups, the Band, etc. I'd call this the civic activism side of Cal.

The differences between the two keep growing. There's the ineffable matter of personality, which I have yet to grasp. There's a large geographic factor. The political activists congregate around Eshleman Hall and Sproul Plaza. The civic activists use the older and more historically impressive symbols of Cal: the Campanile, the Greek Theater, the Big C. The aims differ: one is about political power and gaining converts, the other is about community and spirit.

And it seems that civic activism is much more geared towards continuity, a constant problem in the ASUC. There is none in the political activist groups: they're formed, they get in the papers, they die away. But the civic activists don't lose their institutional knowledge every three years. That's why they form the Oski Committee, run Big Game festivities, and do all these things year in year out without fail.

So it becomes less of a surprise that they form the vast bulk of the Secret Order of the Golden Bear. Why would OGB care for members of, say, Berkeley Global Justice? It's an activist group; give three years and it'll be gone, leaving no trace of itself on campus. OGB, from what I can discern, is built around people who see The University as a place to look inward; for forming a community of scholars and thought. Political activists are all about looking outwards, for using their time at University to affect what goes on outside it.

There's also institutional factors: the nominating methods of OGB are geared towards continuity, since they require nominations of three current members. And this creates a certain self-selection bias.

Of course, I just moved into the Frat House, so perhaps I'm on a 'Old-School California' kick at the moment. Time will tell!
Email This Post!

Wednesday, March 20, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 6:13 PM

All this ASUC writing is getting me down. Too, too insidery. So I'm taking a two week hiatus from ASUC stuff, starting again only with the last week of the campaign or *major* news stories.

One parting shot: CalASUC, if you want to prove that Salaam quit Student Action over the Zionist issue, do better than an example from a year ago. I'm not denying it's possible that's her motive, but I haven't seen any proof for it yet.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 1:07 AM

ASUC Candidates meeting tonight, so there's a couple of things from that worth posting.

1. I yelled at OP Chief of Staff Karen Lu for cutting ahead of about 10 people and me in line. I don't feel good about it, but I don't feel like I should've just stood there.
2. I'm the new Squelch Signatory.

3. The actual news: Salaam Rafeedie is refusing Student Action's nomination to protest their general shadiness. Practical effect: nil, but a strong gesture against Wally and Co. Unclear to what degree her personal disgust with Wally is the crux, and what degree her disgust with SA produced the change.

Smoking Bear is reporting that this is because she decided not to run on a slate 'with a Zionist.'

Since SB is in effect accusing Salaam of being an Extremist Palestinian that hates Jews, I wish he'd have more proof than a breezy statement. The reason she gave APPLE was disgust with SA's campaign tactics. Unless she lied to us on at least two separate occasions, I'm inclined to believe that.

Also, SB mischaracterizes the nature of her endorsement and legal effect. She had already decided before the meeting, mainly for legal reasons, to run as an Independent that would be 'endorsed' by all the major parties. This would avoid the legal trouble that Johnny Sircar landed in last year when he was cross-slated with three parties last year. Thus, her decision not to be endorsed by SA is almost entirely symbolic; it doesn't effect their campaign budget.
Email This Post!

Tuesday, March 19, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 4:04 PM

Shan't be posting until Friday.

Midterm on Thursday. Pledge event tonight. Candidate meeting tonight. Finishing Literature. Finishing Buttons. Work on Cal-FACTS. Finish BPR article. Move into Frat house. All by Friday night.
Email This Post!

Monday, March 18, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 2:47 PM

**Calstuff Folds under pressure!**
Relentless nagging of Smoking Bear takes toll

Calstuff Editor-in-Chief Kevin Deenihan announced on Monday that his party, APPLE, will begin adding blocks of text to their flyers explaining how the claims were accomplished. He credited local blog Smoking Bear with the change.

'I don't think what we're doing right now is unethical, or even important,' said Deenihan, 'Certainly the way Student Action has gotten slammed proves that the current monitoring system works. And no one is being 'deceived.' But sure, we'll add blocks of texts. Doesn't hurt us, could conceivably help students.'

Deenihan went on to threaten Smoking Bear for his snotty sense of moral superiority. 'I kill you, bitch! You mess with APPLE, you die!'

He was then restrained by friends.

Email This Post!

Saturday, March 16, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 4:59 PM

The Smoking Bear is calling the round of APPLE flyers 'unethical,' and that they 'employ campaign tactics that deprive voters of critical information and trivialize the election.'

Since I made those flyers, I may as well respond.

First off, his history is off. APPLE did this last year, and every party prior to APPLE has flyered. Not only that, but every political party since the dawn of time has sent out material trumpeting their accomplishments. But apparently doing this without including contextual information 'even in the fine print' constitutes gross corruption. Not only that, even if the accomplishments are true Smoking Bear feels every flyer needs a complete chronology of 'information indicating who "really did" these things or when they were "really done"' To do otherwise is 'deceptive advertising on the part of APPLE.'

Imagine SB's logic in practice:

'Clorox Bleach makes sheets cleaner! Note: this was accomplished by the Clorox corporation in Fall of 1998, under the team of Smith, Weinfield, and Ericcson. Their crucial discovery was the hydrocarbon controlling metafluoride production in textiles. Smith provided the crucial insights, and then passed them onto his team, which created the report for Product Manager Adil Hoxha. After testing, the new product was found to work. Once again: Clorox, Fall 1998, Smith, Weinfield, Ericcson.'

So what does SB want? A big block of text at the bottom with the text of Sunny Lu's 'Cal Song' bill? Details of how she ran the contest? All that's online at www.asuc.org for the interested.

Or how about we have the Attorney General verify that such claims are true, and if they are, leave well enough alone? Oh, sorry, that's what we already do. That's why Student Action got dinged for the Co-op funding claim last year. That's why students can generally trust that the claims are true: if they aren't, then parties get punished. What's left is a system whereby parties get to claim credit for their accomplishments on the year. It's called 'Accountability to Voters:' no accomplishments, no flyers, no votes.

Does chopping it down into one handy slogan 'trivialize the election?' Well, what's the alternative and who's getting hurt? The alternative is to have paragraphs explaining the details. What goes in that and what goes out? What's the purpose, to assure voters that the claims are true? To explain how they were accomplished? The first is already done by the Attorney General and the second is irrelevant. Who's getting hurt? Voters who now believe APPLE produced the first ever Campus Rave? That's a true claim. Voters misled by the claim that Student Action held a 'Historical Lobby Day?' They did hold a Lobby Day, and no students are stupid enough to think 'Historic' is anything but an opinionated adjective.

The important thing is that campaigners don't lie or hurt other campaigners. To try and destroy forms of campaigning based on the proposition that voters are too stupid to recognize advertising is to stifle free speech and part of what makes Democracy work.

Mmmm... Democracy
Email This Post!

Thursday, March 14, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 11:52 PM

CalASUC thinks it has an exclusive on the ugly APPLE Joe-purge of last semester. And that's kinda true. Let me tie up the loose ends, tho.

The background, which Joan misses, is the level to which APPLE's Senators disliked Joe at that point. At least two, and another was considering, were going to leave APPLE if Joe became Party Chair. The reasons why are complicated, but centered on his way-high level of intensity and perceived inability to build coalitions. And personal factors really got involved.

I was anti-Joe, but at least had the balls to explain why. Here's the e-mail I sent to him at the time:
Hi Joe,

I don't intend on speaking at the meeting on Tuesday, but I will be voting
for Kenny.

My reasons why;

1. I don't believe you can unify the party. By the end of last year all
three APPLE Senators were alienated from you. Already, one of our Senators
will quit if you become Chair.

2. I'm still unhappy with last year's legal battles. I disagreed with
taking a hard legal tack at the meeting in AEP last year and saw it backfire
in our faces. This carries over into this year's declarations that you'll
'shut down' the ASUC with your three loopholes.

3. Kenny has more ties outside the ASUC. He has large ties to Engineers,
Ravers, etc and etc. Inside the ASUC, he can work with SA, Cal-SERVE, and
Independents without a history of partisan wrangling.
By the time of the Election, it was pretty obvious that APPLE's elected officials and more involved members, with the exception of Jimi Hendricks, would be voting for Kenny.

I don't understand where Daniel's speech gets so important. Daniel says a lot of things. And 'Hours of Talk' didn't follow. Maybe 30 minutes. Jimi was never running APPLE-Engineering; that was Anthony. Any 'walkout' was held after the vote, with Jimi and Joe. Brandon left the party, but he didn't walk out at the time and came back. The 2/3rds issue was fudged.

Following that, Kenny tried to reconcile the split by offering Joe a co-chairmanship in order to keep him in the party, something I bitterly opposed. Joe eventually turned that down and offered his resignation letter, a mistake on its own, since it was pretty bitter. It led to Matteen's infamous resignation letter, later appearing in the Daily Cal out of context.

Hmm... who leaked to Joan?
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 9:09 PM

RACHEL KLEIN went up on the block tonight, for the Office of Academic Affairs' second annual Date Auction. She fetched the highest amount of the night: $130. The winner was Mr. Noah Schubert, a Judicial Council member. Bidding was spirited. Three guys and I were in it until $115, agreeing to split the cost.

Probably the biggest surprise of the night was Boback Ziaerrian, Editor in Chief of the Heuristic Squelch, getting bought for $25. The buyer? Rachel Klein.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 10:47 AM

IS THERE ANY POINT to the article on 'Students and the Middle East' in the Daily Cal today? It's incidental to the fight for free speech, but it does help when the publication in question is working hard and staying objective. Articles like this make it harder.

In an article about an area 'where violence is a daily reality for Palestinians and Israelis' alike, the reporter can't seem to find any Palestinians.

Barron quotes:
1. A student with family outside Tel Aviv
2. Another student with family in Israel
3. Rory Miller, who is quoted as a 'Third-year Classics major' and man on the street despite being a bigtime Israeli supporter.
4. The Treasurer of the Jewish Student Union
5. The Co-Chair of the Israeli Action Committee

And 6. One Palestinian guy, Will Youmans. Plus he's the head of a militant organization, SJP, that many people hate. No interviews with 'man-on-the-street Palestinians'

Most likely this is because the reporter happens to know a lot of Israelis, not from an active avoidance of Palestinians. But the product is biased, and the quality of the Daily Cal suffers accordingly. I'd be happier supporting Israel without articles like this.






Email This Post!

Wednesday, March 13, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 11:33 PM

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***
**CALSTUFF ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR SENATE/AAVP**

Kevin Deenihan, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of marginally useful Berkeley Blog Calstuff, announced his intention to run for both Senate and Academic Affairs Vice President yesterday. Deenihan will be running on the Squelch ticket as Kevin 'Batman' Deenihan.

'I intend to present myself as the candidate for all ethnicities,' remarked the playfully handsome Deenihan, 'for instance, many candidates claim to represent Asian Girls, but only I know all the names of the Sanrio 'Hello Kitty' characters. A percentage of my family is from Pakistan, India, China, Korea, the Phillipines, Russia, Israel, America, and Ireland. I'm also a practicing Catholic, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Asian Christian, and Agnostic.'

Said the intelligent yet modest Kevin, 'I'll be running on a platform of winning the election. Towards that end, I'll be leveraging my vast support in the 2418 Dwight district and widespread name recognition among Packy and Shauna Deenihan.'

Pledging to run an honest campaign against his worthy opponent, Tony Falcone, Deenihan announced 'Skullfuck Tony. Fuck him dead. I'm going to win this thing, and anyone standing in my way shall be crushed.'

Anyone wishing to donate to Campaign Deenihan 2002 can contribute at the tipbox on the left. Visit the website of Kevin's idol for more information on him.

Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 12:12 PM

Might as well finish up analyzing candidates. The only remaining mystery is Cal-SERVE's candidate for Academic VP, so lets get that out of the way: it's Peter Gee.

Academic Affairs VP: Peter Gee

Analysis: Tony Falcone is one of the most beatable candidates to come along from Student Action in the past five years. All Cal-SERVE had to do was put up someone with a reasonable amount of experience and good popularity. Instead, they nominated a Freshman whose major experience in the ASUC is an incompetent monthlong stint in Academic Affairs. Peter is a Gay, Asian guy with most of his ties to the APA/Progressive community. Good ties to the Asian community, but mostly to the Progressives.

Interesting Because: He was nominated above Patrick Hammond, who is both more experienced and more popular. The rumor is that everything about Patrick was perfect except for him being all white and male. Hence, Peter. Will showcase if the Progressive Asian community is powerful, and if Cal-SERVE can put together a strong campaign.

Beatability: High. Tony will have to beat himself to lose. I mean, probably 80% of APPLE, including myself, will vote for Tony above Peter. Even those that hate Tony respect his experience.

External VP: Evan Holland

Analysis: Moderate, concilliatory Cal-SERVE member with a strong sense for compromise and political reality. Has been good on Finance Committee this year. Strong ties to Progressive community outside of normal Cal-SERVE ties.

Interesting Because: African American vs. African American. No inside info on how that fight will go down. Winner will, however, probably ignore the Black community and pick up the big voting blocks, while hoping the other person concentrates on it too much.

Beatability: Low/Medium. If Cal-SERVE runs any sort of campaign, Evan will win over Jimmy. Far superior experience, strong aura of competence, etc. But preliminary signs out of Cal-SERVE aren't encouraging. They appear to be as unorganized as last year, if not worse.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 11:59 AM

Student Action ran the first large-scale flyering run of the year.

Party Flyering is a reasonably pointless activity. It probably alienates just as many people as it impresses. I certainly doubt it gets any votes for candidates, except for a possibly larger desire to Block vote. And since SA and APPLE can roughly flyer in equal amounts, the noise cancels out.

The main reason, I think, is a sort of skirmish war. Flyering is a good way to teach Candidates what campaigning really entails, as well as molding the volunteers into a devoted force. It also is a good way to test the strength of The Enemy; I doubt Cal-SERVE will flyer, and that says something.

The strange thing about SA's run is that they reused accomplishments from last year. I doubt this is because they have no accomplishments this year, or that last year's was so good they're bringing them back for bragging rights.

I suspect that my run with APPLE-Engineering on Sunday was the prime mover. Student Action has always depended on their speed and organization, but so far I've beat them to First Flyering and getting party buttons out. (Actually, most of the credit for Sunday's flyering belongs to Anthony Paganini.) Granted, we only did four-five Engineering buildings, but SA is always first to flyer. This must've been an embarassment. So they probably rushed out what templates they had available-- IE, last year's,-- and posted those. The reaction speed is impressive, but I don't understand why they couldn't make new ones.
Email This Post!

Tuesday, March 12, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 10:26 AM

Holy smokes! ASUC Senator and Executive VP candidate Han Hong's website is up!

The content is meager at this point, outside of an unusual 'journey of my life' sequence that's interesting.

The biggest thing is the very impressive web design and numerous animations. Wow.

Han and I, strangely, both spent years in Plano, Texas. I hated it there; nearly died thanks to red ant bites and our neighborhood was very trashy. Plus the whole 'Heroin capital of America' thing. Han appears to have enjoyed it much more.

I'm sure Sajid's site will be up any day now :)
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 10:05 AM

Joan SAPPLESERVE calls me out as unethical for printing under a pseudonym in the Cal Patriot.

This is my first inter-blog war! I'm very excited.

I think the question hinges on whether or not readers would take the column as actual reporting, or as a gossip piece. I think the odds of anyone taking anything in the Patriot as serious journalism is unlikely. Not only that, but I consciously wrote it as a gossipy, column-like thing, under the obviously-slanted title of 'ASUC Insider.' That's not the title for a disinterested outsider. And I should point out I wasn't too slanted towards APPLE, mainly because I think all the Senators and Executives this year have been disappointments. (My highest rated Executive is Fryday, actually.)

Not only that, but there's no difference between Anna Poole and Kevin Deenihan in the minds of everyday Berkeley students. They don't know who I am. It would've been slightly more truthful to print something like 'BTW, I'm an APPLE partisan,' but I could've printed that under either name without it making a difference. It certainly didn't make a difference in the ASUC; it's no secret who writes that column.

Back to you, Joan!
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 7:28 AM

Two more Berkeley Blogs, reducing Calstuff's monopoly to a pathetic remnant of a once mighty empire.

First out of the bag is Ian Chaffee's Bay Blog. God bless the man, he's actually using his real name. I was worried that I would be completely surrounded by anonymous insiders. Ian's a big SA guy and proud of it, but has apparently ditched the ASUC for a more worldly focus on Bay Area politics, culture, and life.

On the other hand, there's The Smoking Bear, written by the famous johndoeno1@hotmail.com. His first post puts the Bret Heilig controversy in perspective, the second one scoops the Daily Planet.

I think Smoking Bear is Andy Katz, or someone close to him.
Email This Post!

Monday, March 11, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 11:44 PM

The aforementioned Rory Miller has also thrown his hat into the Berkeley Blogging ring.

He has a scoop to start off, but not a happy one. Apparently another Berkeley student has suicided in Evans Hall, the second in three years.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 3:49 PM

From today's SF Chronicle, by columnist Harley Sorenson:
The first part of the GOP platform adds a bit to a familiar phrase. It says Republicans believe in the inalienable rights of each individual, "including the rights to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness."

Property? Owning property is an inalienable right? Too bad John Hancock didn't know that. He could have included it in the Declaration of Independence.
John Hancock did not write the Declaration of Independence!

Thanks to Rory Miller for pointing this out.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 1:46 PM

Good dialogue at Berkeley Anonymous over the MECHA Article.

I finally got my copy of the Patriot; the new print run is out. Should be distributed tomorrow, although the issues are being kept in the same office as before. Apparently there's just no other place to keep them. Oh well.

MECHA is circulating a flyer announcing a 'Town Hall Meeting about the Patriot.' Whatever.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 1:40 PM

Calstuff has obtained a copy of the Asian American Association's new policy regarding elections. Interesting stuff between the lines.

AAA has traditionally been a Student Action stronghold, based on the success of former AAA President Teddy Liaw in winning the ASUC Presidency. President Wally attends their events with regularity, and proudly wears his AAA t-shirt from time to time. Plus AAA funnels interns directly into his office.

But there was a mini-scandal earlier this year when Teddy abused his authority to pick up women, and Wally tends to grate. It's possible this letter marks AAA's withdrawal from politics and abandonment of SA. Of course, it could also mean Han Hong and co. don't want APPLE trying to pick up votes from their preserve, assuming they have it locked up. But I think it's the first one, especially with the severity of the efforts to keep campaigners out. Any AAA insiders out there who can clue me in?

Italics are mine.

AAA has always done its best to maintain status as one of the leading organizations of the Asian American population on campus. Last week's cabinet meeting in particular tackled many difficult questions facing this semester's elections. In particular, there has always been a strong debate as to whether AAA should take a leadership role concerning elections and educate its members about some of the candidates that are running. Where's the dividing line between neutrality and passivity?

In the end, we have decided that we must treat ASUC elections similarly to how we treat other student groups on campus. Our email lists, club events, and meetings will be reserved solely for AAA's internal member purposes. We've realized that we cannot support any one person, platform, or organization without harming another. No promotions for candidates will be permitted at our events, even if done on just a person-to-person basis. Our members come to our events just to have fun, develop our community, and enjoy themselves.

This is not to say that we do not encourage student activism in politics. We have made it a focus last week to encourage all of our members to learn and voice their issues and to go out and vote when the time comes. After explaining our above policy on neutrality, we also made it clear that all people of all other clubs, ethnicities, and political parties are very, very welcome at all of our events.


Email This Post!

Sunday, March 10, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 10:29 AM

A couple of e-mails have wondered if the anti-semitic 'Voz De Aztlan' really is connected to MECHA, as I had implied. So I did a little research.

Physically speaking, there doesn't seem to be any ties. None of the other MECHA sites around the web make any mention of Jews; they go for unspecified complaints about 'Gringos' and Anglo-Americans who took over Aztlan back in the 1800's. Some MECHistas spent time in their Consitutions pledging to fight sex and sexual orientation discrimination. Others even spend special time complaining about 'multi-national Left organizations--' Left wing euphemisms for the Socialists-- trying to take over MECHA.

And most tellingly of all, Aztlan.net never ever uses the name MECHA outside of that one article. So there is a clear separation.

But Aztlan.net clearly comes from the same philosophical root. There's the same emphasis on winning back Aztlan from the invaders, praise for 'brown nationalism', and other MECHA goals and ideals. There just happens to also be a belief that the Jews control everything.

So maybe this is what MECHistas whisper to themselves and dare not put on their own web pages. But probably not.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 1:19 AM

Here's a find for my faithful Cal fans; an old fight song from 1932. Only sung by Rally Committee these days, and they've updated it a bit.

Warning: it's REALLY DIRTY!
But it's also great!

Sing to the melody of 'Rambling Wreck' from Georgia Tech.
The Cardinal Be Damned

Here’s to Cactus Jack boys
the dirty son of a bitch
I hope he dies of clap and syph combined with
seven year itch
and when he’s old and feeble
a syphillitic wreck
may his spine fall through his asshole and
break his fuckin’ neck

CHORUS
The Cardinal be damned boys the
Cardinal be damned
The Cardinal be damned boys the
Cardinal be damned
If any Stanfurd son of a bitch
Don’t like the blue and gold
He can pucker up his rosy lips
And kiss the Bear’s asshole

Here’s to Tyrone Willingham
the dirty son of a bitch
I hope he dies of syphilis
combined with seven year itch
If you take his prick as radius
and project his balls in space
you can prove by laws of limits
that his asshole is his face (chorus)

Come California coeds and
Listen well to me
Don’t ever let a Stanfurd man an inch above
Your knee
He’ll take you down to Menlo
And fill you with gin fizz
And once the night is over
Your maidenhood is his
(chorus)

If ever we find a Stanfurd man
Within our sacred walls
We’ll take him down to Sather Gate
And amputate his balls
And if that doesn’t fix him
I’ll tell you what we’ll do
We’ll stuff his ass with broken glass
And seal it up with glue
(chorus)

Harvard’s run by Princeton
And Princeton’s run by Yale
Yale is run by Vassar
And Vassar’s run by tail
From what we hear of Stanfurd
They run it off by hand
Oh the masturbating bastards
Are the assholes of the land
(chorus)

Twas a warm November 20th in 1982
The Stanfurd band was on the field
they thought the Bear was through
But the clock read just four seconds
but we kept the ball alive
And said “eat shit you Stanfurdites it’s twenty-twenty five”
(chorus)

The Stanfurd Hoover Tower is the
biggest prick of all
But like the fuckin’ Stanfurdites the
tower’s got no balls
The farm boys are assholes who think
that they’ve got class
But they can take that giant cock of
theirs and shove it up their ass (chorus)

Oh the farm is full of jerk-offs,
their steeped in shameful bliss
They pucker up to toilets and give the bowl a kiss
They mount each other doggy style each brother with his sis
Then they all go to Hoover Town to
drink each other’s piss (chorus)

Oh Stanfurd has the money
the students always pass
It’s damn a good thing or else the
football team would have to go to class
The farm girls are so grotesque their
cum is red and white
The farm boys are all hard up
they tuck themselves all night (chorus)

I’m just a whore from Stanfurd I’ll fuck for fifty cents
I’ll lay my ass upon the grass
my pants upon the fence
I’ll lick your slimy belly,
I’ll suck your cock with glee
But get off my back you son of a bitch
if you’re from USC
(chorus)

If I had a little girl I’d dress her all in green
And send her down to Menlo
just to coach the Stanfurd team
But if I had a little boy I’d dress him all in blue
And he’d yell “To hell with Stanfurd”
like his daddy used to do (chorus)

If I had a prick of steel and balls of shining brass
I’d find a marble statue and ram it up her ass
I’d breed a race of giants who’d roam throughout the land
Just to swell the mighty chorus of the Cardinal Be Damned! (chorus)
Email This Post!

Saturday, March 09, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 11:24 AM

I think I'll analyze a couple of APPLE's Executive Candidates while I'm up here.

President: Sean 'Fresno' Byrne

Analysis: Sean is Rally Committee's Finance Officer. (I think he's Oski, but I have absolutely no proof.) Also works in the Office of Student Life, which gives him good ties to many student groups. Outsider to the ASUC, but well-known on campus. Can call on legions of volunteers.

Interesting Because: Why is he running? Or more specifically, why is he running so hard? Despite relative lack of ASUC information, has absolutely committed himself to running as hard as possible. One possibility: Rally Comm, which has bad blood with the ASUC at the moment, has decided to take matters into their own hands. Other possibility: working in OSL gave Sean desire to remove the pain in the ass that is the ASUC budgeting process from the lives of his student groups.

Beatability: Medium. Still a cipher. His campaign structure is excellent, and he understands the importance of volunteers. But unproven ability to broaden appeal beyond Rally Comm. Must get into various communities-- Greeks, Engineers, Asians-- to have chance of victory. Could look like winner right into voting and still lose.

Executive Vice-President: Sajid Khan

Analysis: Independent, ran with Goat Milk last year. Strong background with MSA, Southeast Asian groups. Good campaign structure and volunteers so far. Record of dissing Daily Cal will hurt him come endorsement time.

Interesting Because: Pits ethnic groups right up against each other. Han Hong's Asian groups vs. Sajid's Indian/Muslim groups. Best hope for APPLE: SA's embarassments in AAA this year vis a vis Teddy Liaw's wandering fingers will lessen their traditional Asian support. Will also determine if Southeast Asians are effective as a voting block. That may have emerged last year, but could've been a fluke.

Beatability: Relatively High. Not for lack of trying, but Hong is SA's toughest candidate this year. Must hope she tries to coast on Asian support, and he can get out other constituencies. Will also use ties to Progressive communities.

Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 11:08 AM

THE MYSTERY OF JOAN: Joan SAPPLESERVE is a bit miffed I changed the description of her CalASUC site to 'Student Action's Blogger.' Mostly because it implies she's toeing the party line.

Actually, it's more because I'm trying to figure out who she is. (And I should clarify: I don't even know if Joan is a she.) All I know so far is that she's in Student Action, and relatively high up inside their organization.

Here's what we know:

1. Knows that I wrote under the name 'Anna Poole' for the California Patriot. Significance: Not common knowledge at all. Not very hard to find out, but means she reads the Patriot and knows people who know my SECRET IDENTITY. I'm sure every Senator and Executive knows this, and probably a very limited number of Eshleman people.

2. Paid close attention to One Campus event this Tuesday. Significance: has sources inside the Office of the President.

3. Knows all about what happened with Bret Heilig last year. Significance: at least a Sophomore.

4. This quote: 'While to the outsider it might appear that Student Action is a monolith, there is really a great degree of internal disagreement on most issues. However, Student Action tends to solve those problems in house rather than blabbering about their differences to the outside world.' Significance: Virtually admits that Joan is privy to inside SA disagreements.

Kevin's Picks for 'Who is Joan SAPPLESERVE:'
1. Tony Falcone
2. Brooke Rowland
3. Little known SA insider
4. Alex Kipnis

Time will tell!
Email This Post!

Thursday, March 07, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 11:20 PM

ABC 7, reacting with impressive swiftness, carried a story on their 11 broadcast on the power outage.

Apparently a substation blew near the Haas School of Business. Power is 'unlikely' for tomorrow.

Free day! Woo!

Power Outage Hotline: 1 800 979 9995
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 6:08 PM

POWER'S OUT on the entire campus right now. Classes were abruptly canceled, and Eshleman Hall is closed off entirely. All of Berkeley's servers are offline.

My former roommate, Nick, has this to say:
the great uc berkeley power outage of '02 ... this is the stuff cs nightmares are made of. with the rapidly approaching due date of the first major project of the semester, cs students flocked to soda to feverishly hack away at their finicky code.
little did they know what misfortune they would meet at 5:03 (the time that the campinile still displays). the power flashed off. and the darkness came, and a bit of sadness and frustration followed. hours of work that might have been lost, and no way to continue working on any code.
no ssh, no ftp, no lab machines, these cs students are a sad bunch. they huddle outside the labs in the cold wind for minutes, hours, still no knowing whether power will ever resume.

... such are the rigors of a cs student ...

No idea what went wrong yet, although one of my sources said smoke was rising from vents near the Campanile. Might be just rumor, tho.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 4:21 PM

CALSTUFF PAYS FOR ITS HUBRIS. Following my smug assertion that Calstuff owned the Berkeley blogging market, the Lord has shown me humility. No less than TWO new Berkeley-based bloggers have set up shop.

First out of the box is Berkeley Anonymous. First postings include a detailed analysis of the original MECHA article that started the whole Patriot flap, (gosh, God Forbid the paper-stealers try THAT,) and commentary on the latest news on the City/University friction over building. The blogger, Nolo Free, is apparently a Classical Liberal as well, although one a bit to the left of me.

He/She also pledges to remain anonymous, which sounds like a lot of fun for me. HEAR ME, NOLO! I SHALL DEVOTE MYSELF TO FINDING YOUR SECRET IDENTITY! AND WHEN I DO, I WILL BUY YOU A DONUT!

The second newbie is CalASUC. She'll be working the ASUC, which will be more and more fun as elections draw nearer. The overview of parties is something I've been meaning to write myself. Good to see someone with skill has done the job.

So will this ragtag band of rebels, coupled with Calstuff's roommate Praglib, bring down Calstuff's Evil Berkeley Empire? Or will all four join forces to create a new form of decentralized news and commentary, of a type never before seen? Time will tell!
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 3:55 PM

TODAY WITNESSED what was quite possibly the worst-ever protest on Sproul. I mean worst-ever in the 'hopelessly pathetic' sense. Despite flyering campus, reserving the steps on Sproul, and making signs, the protest attracted *seven people.*

As far as I can tell, they were protesting the new oversights on DeCal courses, 'witchhunts for Leftists,' and there were probably a few other things in there. When I walked by they were explaining why no one else was protesting. Something about the relation between Communism and Socialism.

Although maybe the witchhunt for Leftists has been so effective, there's only seven left. Could be.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 3:51 PM

I'VE BEEN MEANING to write about the big f---ckup in the Daily Cal article on the Patriot-stealings. They wrote:
Some members of the staff received death threats, though that is nothing new to members of the two groups
Actually, the Patriot received no death threats this time around. They mentioned, while talking with the DC, that they received death threats during last year's Horowitz flap. Through the magic of the Daily Cal, time and space were altered and this all became present tense.

The consequence: all the news outlets who picked this up, from the Washington Times to Fox News, prominently reported the death threats. Why they don't do basic doublechecking of the reporting of a college newspaper is beyond me. Hell, the headline of the Times story is 'Berkeley conservatives tell of death threats for criticism '



Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 12:49 AM

To be honest, I didn't know MECHA was all that bad. I figured they were the usual crew of identity-politics leftists with a bone to pick at not being given preferential status in admissions. But no, it's way worse than that.

This is astoundingly anti-semitic.
Email This Post!

Wednesday, March 06, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 2:24 PM

Notice from the Patriot:
3. At our Editorial Board meeting last night, we not only decided that we
would rerun the February issue but also we decided that we will produce a 16
page March issue. The theme will loosely follow "Racial and Religious
Segregation". The issue will include responses from both sides about the
MEChA controversy and all that has happened in the past week. We must include
the coverage of the DeCal class on Male Sexuality in this issue (instead of
the April one on education) while it is still relevant. Professor Moore from USC (the
college roommate of Daniel Pearl) has put up the money for the reprint of the
February issue in memory of his friend and we will include and article from
him about Daniel Pearl.
Sounds good.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 2:16 PM

VISITING IMPORTANT SCHOLARS, media people, and other big time guys: Now is your chance to hire Calstuff!

Calstuff's Editor-in-Chief, Kevin Deenihan, needs some sort of job this summer. Internships, grunt jobs, paper-pushing: all offers cheerfully considered. E-mail him (at ked@uclink.berkeley.edu) for more information today!

Actual posting is below:
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 2:09 PM

THE OTHER CONTRADICTION TO RUNNING CALSTUFF: it's tricky to have national distribution of what is supposed to be a local blog.

My intention was never to spend most of my time going after the hard Leftists. Not that I don't enjoy the hits it gets me. Those are great. But basically, it's just too easy. The Anti-war groups held another sparsely attended march calling for Bush to choke to death? Yawn. SJP held a protest to call attention to the poor Palestinians? Nothing new to say there, either.

Ultimately, the most interesting stuff at Cal for actual Cal students is the intricate interplay of student government, news sources, the city government, the Administration, etc. It's very convoluted, very fascinating, and an area where I can really write something new. But it's also completely Greek to anyone without a year's education in Berkeley politics. No one else knows, or really cares, about how Student Action's Presidential candidate reacted to today's news story about his campaign tactics. Or an analysis of how the ASUC is fighting the City on redistricting.

So that's 95% of my material. But every so often something big will come along: Sex orgies, or paper stealings, or something else Berkeley-esque that captures national attention. Certainly I'll cover that; watching the national press rely on a lazy Daily Cal staff writer's collection of misquotes and inaccurate references makes me wince. But then the question is: once everyone drifts away from the local stuff, how do I get them onto the important ones?

I think the answer will probably be more important Blogs, such as Instapundit. I send Glenn a quick e-mail with the header 'Nude Rachel Klein Pics!!!' to make sure he reads it quickly. If he decides its newsworthy, its up in five minutes. From there the rest of the blogsphere (I want to call the system the 'Civilsphere,' which I think sounds really cool.) can pick it up if it's useful. From there, a mainstream news source can find it pretty easily.

Echoing Kurtz's idea, seems to me local blogs should be the next big thing. Clearly the market in generalized poliblogs is saturated, and the pecking order has been roughly established. So time for the next level of strata: semi-journalistic, specialized blogs that can go indepth, developing sources and such. Already we can see the development of specializations within the major blogs: Charles Johnson has been focusing increasingly on the Middle East, Joanne Jacobs works school choice, and so on.

Calstuff: setting trends since 2002!
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 1:50 PM

STANLEY KURTZ has nice things to say about Calstuff:
Any college students out there in blogland? Here’s an idea. Two important scandals at Berkeley have just drawn national attention, at least in the conservative press--the male-sexuality course featuring live (possibly gay) sex and a party game with genital photographs, and the theft of a campus conservative paper (probably because of a story exposing reverse racism by a college Hispanic organization). I’ve written on both scandals here on The Corner, and thereby played some small roll in spreading the story, but it’s really Kevin Deenihan’s CalStuff blog that enabled the rest of us to spread the story. What if we had at least one good conservative blog at every college that now has a campus conservative newspaper? Right now, there are a tremendous number of PC outrages on campuses across the country that no one ever finds out about. It’s increasingly clear that one of the best things about the Internet is the end-run it allows us to make around the iron control of the liberal media. With conservative blogs on campuses across the country able to link quickly to national blogs and to campus newspapers alike, we could break through the barrier of politically correct campus censorship and rapidly expose any number of scandals. The general public would quickly start to act as a counterweight to the campus Left. Look at Berkeley. As a result of all the blogging, the campus conservative paper has collected thousands of dollars in contributions, reprinted its stolen press run, and spread knowledge of reverse racism on campus nationally. Let a hundred bloggers bloom!


Thanks Stanley! And I liked your article on Islamic veiling!

This probably as good a time as any to talk about the internal contradictions of running Calstuff. There's two. But they're long ones.

The first: not only am I not a Conservative, I'm a Democrat. And I think a lot of people criticizing any college campus misunderstand that, assuming the nationwide battle of Democrats and Republicans is repeated on campus. Not true! Pretty much every campus votes Democratic overwhelmingly, with a smattering of embattled Conservatives.

The real fault line is far to the left of the national center. It pits those with a basic faith in Capitalist Democracy and the American system against those opposing it. So my allies in the ASUC Senate and elsewhere are Liberal Democrats, hardcore Conservatives, and Moderates: all three believe in free speech, the integrity of the US, etc. My enemies believe that 'rights' are effective defenses of discrimination, that America systematically violates them, and that pretty much everything will have to go.

Not that my enemies make up a large part of the campus: I'd crudely estimate that they're between 10-20% of all students. But they're loud, angry, and adept at getting their way by Any Means Necessary. Their opposition is weakly organized. So that's why I have so much in common with the Berkeley Republicans: we both believe that theft is wrong, and our opponents don't.


Email This Post!

Monday, March 04, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 11:17 PM

Statement by the writer of the MECHa article:
As the author of the article in the California Patriot which led to its theft "MEChA: Student Funded Bigotry and Hate"), I would like to state that, although it is unfortunate that the California Patriot was stolen, along with its theft is also the theft of my right to speech. This is a particularly egregious abridgement of a fundamental right guaranteed by our government and constitution. Just as the First Amendment protects the hate speech of MEChA, so too does it protect my fundamental right to speak the truth about MEChA. As a result, amidst the clamor, it is also unfortunate that the relevant issue has drifted from a hate issue to a speech issue. The fact that the California Patriot was stolen serves as a testament to the sad state of free speech on our campus.

I was hoping to increase the public's awareness of what amounts to the equivalent of a Mexican Ku Klux Klan (MEChA) at every university in California, and instead the debate has steered towards free speech. The fact remains: MEChA is a hate group, funded entirely by your compulsory student fees, operating under the guise of "cultural identity" as a "student initiated service organization." Of course there can be no defense coming from the Mechistas, because their own words (El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan) were used in establishing them as a hate group in my article. If you don't believe MEChA is a hate group, just ask the Anti-Defamation League (which is not exactly a conservative organization) about the anti-semitism inherent in MEChA's political activities and public declarations. Visit MEChA's web site at www.aztlan.net. Better yet, read the article I wrote in the California Patriot- if it ever sees the light of day.

The theft of the California Patriot is typical of the Stalinist thought reform that occurs in the classrooms and elsewhere on campus. Students must resist the systematic thought oppression, incessant liberal political orthodoxy and the "stripping away" of American cultural identity through classroom indoctrination and racist bureaucratization.

It is a shame that I have to remain anonymous for fear of my own safety, for simply speaking the truth. This anonymity is particularly unsettling, for I will constantly be looking over my shoulder, wary of cultural terrorists who wish to silence me. If the Mechistas are able to resort to criminal theft to suit their ideological purposes of violent irredentism, what would they do to me if they knew who I was? When Subcommandante Marcos leading the revolution in Chiapas reveals his identity, so too will I. Until then, I must remain anonymous for my own safety, for there is no one to protect me from imminent, violent revenge.

Moreover, in reporting the incident, the Daily Californian staff has deemed the theft of a goat more important than the theft of someone's right to free speech- just look at where the incident was placed on the front page. If the Daily Californian is so committed to free speech, then why doesn't it print the article that was so effectively silenced by the thugs in question? Perhaps the leftist-liberal bias of the Daily California has reared its ugly head for everyone to see. Even the token conservative is relegated to Friday, when no one reads the paper. Whatever happened to "journalistic integrity?" Conservatives know that the advisory board of the Daily Californian is made up of wealthy liberals whose bias is self-evident with each issue of the Daily Cal.

Finally, I am a person who considers himself a mestizo, and MEChA does not speak for my people or my culture. I have no tolerance for hate, racism and bigotry in whatever form it manifests itself. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said that "sunlight is the best disinfectant." Unfortunately, what I have to say has been summarily, via criminal theft, kept in the shade. What MEChA needs is sunlight, public scrutiny of its mission, principles and doctrines of hate.

Incidents such as the theft have happened in the past and will happen in the future under an oppressive University regime dominated by the left- and the McCarthyism from the left will continue for many years to come unless someone takes a stand. I am not very optimistic that anything will be done about the theft, because history has shown that nothing has been done in the past. Thus, a leftist monopoly of the marketplace of ideas will continue long after I have left this wretched institution. The students at this University should stand up, take notice, and demand their right to speak the truth.


Juan Carlos Leal Solis
Student, UC Berkeley
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 11:12 PM

The Patriot thing hasn't gotten quite the national play I was hoping for... especially considering the ludicrous distribution of the Sex-Ed story. It's been pretty much in the Conservative press, none others. But at least the Washington Times has picked it up.

I'm a bit miffed that Horowitz at Frontpagemag linked straight to the original MECHA article without giving credit to Calstuff for putting it up.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 10:52 AM

Columnist Bryan Ritchie throws some stupid incendiary firebombs today.

You'd think that rule one of accusing someone of being a Holocaust Denier and AIDS fantisist would be to have proof. And Ritchie is claiming the entire Ethnic Studies department at Berkeley High is a large anti-semitic, unwatched rogue department. But his entire proof is one statement from a single BUSD Boardmember. Nothing from the Teachers accused. The interview with the department head is taken out of context.

Does he even realize how incendiary these accusations are? This would be national news. This would make the BBC. More importantly, if not true, this is almost Libel. And he has one source.

Ritchie must not know how important this is. After all, those accusations are merely a segue towards a more moderate rant against the BUSD in general, not something very unusual.

Either Berkeley is about to make national news again or the Daily Cal is screwed. Take your pick.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 10:44 AM

A couple of weeks ago the Daily Planet ran an item on how a bunch of Berkeley residents would be heading off to Merry Olde Cuba for yet another look at 'an alternative to Capitalism.'

And y'know, of course I was cynical, but I had a little hope. Maybe this time the irrefutable evidence that Cuba is a craphole dictatorship couldn't be glossed over. Perhaps this crew would catch a glimpse of something horrible that would dissuade them. Maybe they'd have a Ronald Radosh moment where some Cuban brags about how his country has more lobotomies per capita than any other country. Or they'd be pestered by the one encouraged industry on Cuba: prostitution. Or Castro would make an offhand remark about how much he enjoys jailing homosexuals.

We almost got lucky: a group of Cubans rammed into the Mexican embassy in hopes of freedom while the Americans were visiting. What other object example does anyone need? But it happened shortly after they left, even if it would've mattered.

But no, there's no hope. They had a super time. Viva Cuba! Viva Castro!

The group, which spent time in the capital city of Havana and the rural province of Pinar del Rio, visited a pair of radio stations, a facility which produces chamomile and aloe vera for medicinal purposes, and a local doctor participating in Cuba’s system of nationalized health care.
'Participated' like New York 'participated' in 9.11 or an inmate 'participates' in prison. Good word choice.

With the countryside struggling to produce and transport an adequate supply of crops to the cities, he said, the government gave away land to urban residents willing to produce crops. Today, according to Bourque, one-third of Cuban produce comes from city gardens.
God, isn't this an obvious lesson? The 'countryside' has struggled because of the inefficent method of collectivization. Only privately run city gardens can run anything, and that's no better than a stopgap. But no, this is a wonderful alternative.

Bourque said the exchange of ideas in the press was limited, but not as limited as some Americans might think.

“Any fundamental critique of the government isn’t reported,” he said. “But there is a lot of debate within the system. I think that’s something people miss when they say, ‘oh, it’s state-run media.’ ”
'They murdered hundreds of thousands of Tutsis,' he said, 'But some escaped to the hills and forests. I think that's something people miss when they say 'oh, it's genocide.'
Bourque added that the Cuban media does not dig into the personal lives of politicians like the American media.

“It’s refreshing. Why should we spend so much time on a president’s personal life,” he asked, in reference to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, “when there are such pressing public issues?”
Which aren't allowed to be reported on? Oh my. Worse than I thought.






Email This Post!

Saturday, March 02, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 10:58 AM

Since Councilmember Polly Armstrong announced her retirement, the 'elect a student' timetable of the External Affairs Office got an unexpected boost at the same time it finally met with failure. (The district lines were finalized, without the major shifts Fryday was calling for.)

Student Andy Katz is planning on running. So lets talk about Andy.

He's probably the most talented External Affairs person that's come along in the past four or five years. Member of the Zoning board, effective and well-informed housing advocate, patient. Anyone's guess how much of Fryday's accomplishments this year would've happened free of Andy. (Opposition people whisper that Fryday is a moron supported by a skilled staff. Not hardly, but it's true that Fryday came into the office without any background in it.)

The strangest thing about him is that he's never been External Vice President, and we don't know why. The simplistic APPLE party reason is that he wasn't committed enough to his party, Student Action, and so was never slated. Or that he was committed, but was too wrapped up in the job to have time to run. Also possible that he never wanted to run, and that running for City Council was his goal all along. After all, who wants to be in charge of the stupid ASUC when there's real power out there?

District 8 is a nice section of Berkeley, dominated by Greek housing and the wealthy Claremont section. Besides the Greek students, who don't vote, i don't know if he has any ties in the area. Most likely the Moderates will find a well-known homeowner in the area and win, although the Progressives could run someone and hope the Moderates and Andy split the 'sensible' votes.


Email This Post!

Friday, March 01, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 5:39 PM

I think I'm in the know, but when it comes to Berkeley city politics, I bow to the East Bay Weekly.
Email This Post!


# posted by Kevin @ 5:03 PM

Reader Matthew Picioccio writes
I think your analysis of Berdahl's statement misses a crucial point. You
have made the issue that the stealings are likely ideologically motivated.
The op-ed (reprinted under Berdahl's on your website) mentions this as well.
Berdahl is calling them perpetrators and speaking of jail time because he is
trying to avoid making this an ideological issue. This is quite the
opposite of what you suspect - "1. It makes reference to past attacks,
drawing clear parallels. Before, every paper-stealing or book burning was
taken on its own terms, with the ideologies involved being ignored and no
blame being placed. But this ties all the attacks together as one giant
community-dimishing whole." The ideologies are once again being willfully
ignored - if I may indulge in an extreme metaphor, it's like saying that Bin
Laden is a hoodlum who is in no way connected to radical Islam and it's
ideals. Pay no attention to the ideology behind the curtain.

"The personal is political" - this statement has now drawn us to one of it's
inevitable conclusions; namely, that your (free) speech doesn't please me,
therefore I should seek redress and deserve to do so and, what's more, it's
"right." Believe me, that's their mentality. I saw it all the time at
University of Maryland - we had similar shouting-down-of-speaker incidents
(we were one of the schools profiled in Stossel's excellent piece about this
behavior of a couple years back).

It's good that Berdahl is willing to speak strongly about the people who
actually did this. It's unfortunate and sadly predictable that he would
ignore the groups and the ideologies that drive those actions

Keep fighting the good fight.

Good points! Berdahl announced he'd be actively policing the boundaries of the debate, not the participants. I should've realized that.

Just to continue the Blogger tradition of getting in the last word, I doubt Berdahl could ever be driven so far as to single out groups or ideologies, and I'm not sure I want him to. Believe it or not, there are certain limits to the controversy I want on this silly campus, and the Chancellor attacking MECHA would cause every sorta-lefty group on campus to rise up in indignation.

Nor do I believe this would be good for the campus. I don't want an actively crusading Administration. Their preponderance of power leads to bad things. What I want is one that acts as impartial referree, safeguarding my rights of freedom of speech, freedom from harassment, etc. So I think Berdahl struck the right tone here.
Email This Post!

Home
Advertisements
Advertising Policy

Place an Ad on Calstuff



Get Firefox!

Cal Magazines
Heuristic Squelch
Humor Mag
California Patriot
Conservative
Hardboiled
Lefty/Asian mag.
Bezerk
Comics Mag
In Passing
Bloggish
Cal Newsites
Daily Californian
Student Newspaper
Daily Planet
City Newspaper
Berkeleyan
Faculty/Staff news
Newscenter
Administrative Announcements
Indybay
Hard Left News
East Bay Express
Alt-weekly
Cal Other
UC Rally Committee
Stand nineteen feet tall! Be united! Be tough! Be proud!
CyberBears
GO BEARS!
ASUC
Cal's Student government
One
Cal's Student Portal
Berkeley Bookswap
Good Deals

Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com