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.

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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!

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 9995Email This Post!

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!

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!
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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!

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 '



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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!

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!

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!

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!
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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.


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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

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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!

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!

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.






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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.


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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!

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!

Patriot editor KG Barnett reports that the money has been flowing, thanks to well-wishers across the nation.

I'll mention two of the best:

A Professor at USC wishes to donate in memory of Daniel Pearl, once a colleague of his. (And, incidentally, a member of my fraternity, ADPhi)

Another person out of Texas volunteered to pay for the entire replacement cost of the issue. That's a couple of grand.

Thanks to the two above, and all others who donated.

The new print run should be out sometime next week. Barring any arrests or other developments, Calstuff will be back to its usual staple of local government, student politics, and random Berkeley miscellany. In other words, I'm saying goodbye to all my sweet, sweet hits until late next week.

Before you go, please note the Amazon tipbox. We students are poor.


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Turns out Berdahl is even more upset than anyone thought.

The word on campus is that Dean Kenney had to convince Berdahl to tone down the original letter, which called for the 'Conviction' of the scoflaws responsible. This was changed to 'prosecution.'

Beware, evildoers! The Chancellor has been enraged!
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The Thursday Daily Cal, which means Opinion. Roundup time.

BIGGEST SURPRISE: Hands down, Chancellor Berdahl. In its entirety:

Theft of publications or any interference with the access of individuals or groups to freedom of expression is unconscionable behavior ("Copies of California Patriot Stolen; Publication Staff Allegedly Harassed," Feb. 27). Such actions are completely antithetical to the values that form the foundation of our democracy, and such actions are particularly egregious in an educational setting. Over the past few years, there have been several instances of this behavior. These acts diminish our community. Despite heightened attention by the campus police and the Office of Student Life, we have not yet been able to identify the perpetrators. We will continue to do our utmost to identify those responsible, and we will bring criminal and student charges to bear on those individuals.

As usual, it's a bit dry, but there's a couple of decisive breaks from his past responses.

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.

2. It vows to bring in those responsible in the strongest terms. 'Perpetrators' and declarations to bring criminal charges? Unusual.

I could say that my previous calls for a harsh anti-Berdahl letter now look completely unwarranted.. but that wouldn't be Kevin!

Instead, I think it seems obvious that Berdahl read Calstuff and, fearing its calls for his head on a stick, decided to come down hard on criminals! Calstuff gets results!Email This Post!

Here's the op-ed the Patriot is sending to the Daily Cal tomorrow.

It's well-written and the thrust towards the Administration is spot on. I'd've been much more fiery, tho. Get close and personal with Chancellor Berdahl. He can safely ignore a respectful Op-ed; ignoring one full of piss and vinegar is tougher to dismiss.

It’s Time to Defend Free Speech

For years free speech has been under attack at U.C. Berkeley. Now it’s time to defend it.

In the fall of 2000, guest speaker Daniel Flynn was shouted down by an angry mob of people as he tried to talk about the facts of the Mumia Abu Jamal case. A year ago, David Horowitz made national headlines when the Daily Cal apologized for printing his advertisement criticizing reparations for slavery. Just a few months ago, thousands of issues of the Daily Californian were stolen and destroyed by students outraged over a controversial cartoon. And now, the office of the Berkeley College Republicans has been broken into and the entire press run of the California Patriot has been stolen.

As leaders of the Berkeley College Republicans and California Patriot, this is extremely frustrating not only because our office was broken into and our property was stolen, but also because it represents a form of thought-policing tactics unimaginable on the campus where the free speech movement was born. More troublesome, however, is that these events do not come as a surprise because it’s happened before and it will likely happen again.

Students have heard the university pay lip service to the importance of diverse perspectives and unhindered expression, but in recent years it’s been all talk and no walk.

If the University truly supports free speech it must act to defend it. If there is to be a free exchange of ideas on this campus, the University cannot sit idly by as thousands of publications are stolen year after year. Now is the time for the University to not only talk about free speech, but to defend its ideals, which should be an essential part of every college campus.

We call upon Chancellor Berdahl and his administration to pursue individuals who undermine free speech through actions that violate state law and campus regulations – both now and in the future. This sort of felonious conduct should not be tolerated, and we feel that it is the University’s responsibility to make this a safe academic environment for all students and all perspectives.

Purchasing an ad in the Daily Cal condemning these acts and pleading for people to get along will not be good enough. The administration has done that in the past and has seen little change. To defend free speech is to remove any presence on campus that undermines this guiding principle. Whether it be through punishing the leaders of offending student groups, the withdrawal of university and student monies going to these groups or individuals, or ultimately, arrests and prosecution, there must be consequences. These campus marauders have been able to run roughshod over any university regulation, law, or policy for decades. Consequences must be dealt not only to punish the offenders, but also to set an example that this kind of sanctioned thought theft will no longer be tolerated.

As Mario Savio said in December of 1964 when discussing free speech at Berkeley, “In our free-speech fight at the University of California, we have come up against what may emerge as the greatest problem of our nation -- depersonalized, unresponsive bureaucracy.” Mario, we know what you mean. Some things never change.

Robb McFadden, President of the Berkeley College Republicans
Kelso G. Barnett, Publisher of the California Patriot

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Media fallout today...

Despite the Daily Cal's insistence that the story merits below the fold at best, more wires have picked it up then their lead: 'Mayor Dean calls for Firefighter pay raise.' Those wacky news services don't know what they've got.

Besides Instapundit, there's been stories at Opinion Journal and National Review.

NBC Local news did a segment for the six o'clock news. Their new bit: the thieves entered through a crawlspace in the roof, not through the door. This argues that the perps must have good knowledge of the little known secrets of Eshleman Hall, which MECHA does. Overall, a good segment with heavy quotes from KG Barnett, the Patriot's Editor in Chief. The best part was the rebuttal from MECHA to the charge they harassed Patriot-eers yesterday. 'As far as I could tell, they were harassing us.'

Not only is this shockingly untrue, it's also completely impossible: there's no way to identify a MECHA member unless they come up and identify themselves. There's no way a Patriot person initiated some sort of harassment. MECHA had to start it. They also apparently plan to sue the Patriot. Libel lawyers everywhere are lining up to take that case, I'm sure.

Tonight MECHA will pack the ASUC Senate to bitch at Republican Senator James Gallagher. I can't attend, but hopefully a Calstuff Correspondent will be on the scene.

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A few people have asked how to donate to the Cal Patriot. Three ways.

1. Direct mail to

Berkeley Conservative Foundation
P.O. Box 4428
Berkeley, CA 94704

2. Paypal

3. Amazon (Should be up shortly)

If possible, include address and name to get a subscription. Email This Post!

Maybe I got a little overexcited down there.

My sources have hinted that they're pretty certain about who wrote the strange parody screed about the Republicans. Not sure if that corresponds to the burglars.

This is the Article on MECHA that the Patriot-eers think provoked the burglary.

Nevermind the item below about there being security cameras. Apparently, and the Executive VP only found this out today as well, those cameras have been broken for several years.

I shouldn't be so tough on EVP Justin. Security, while nominally his concern, is really under the purview of the building manager. There isn't anything I or anyone else would've or could've done differently. And as soon as Justin found out about the break-in, he took all the right steps in contacting the police and working with the Patriot-eers. So kudos to him.Email This Post!

Guess what!

Another Calstuff exclusive! Guaranteed to be on the front page of the Daily Cal tomorrow morning.

UPDATE: It's on the front page, all right.. in the bottom-left corner. This boring, possibly libelous story on stupid frat boys is the lead. Stanley Kurtz of the National Review has already slammed the journalistic priorities demonstrated.

I mentioned yesterday that the new Cal Patriot was out, featuring my article on the ASUC. There were two controversial articles: an article on MECHA, the semi-nationalist Latino group on campus, and one on ISO/Anti-War, which I've already posted here. I've never read the MECHA one, because I couldn't get ahold of a copy today. I'm sure it's as firebrand Republican-y as anything the Patriot has ever written.

Reason being, last night someone broke into the Patriot's Office on the third floor of Eshleman Hall and stole the entire print run. Not just a simple walk-in, walk-out theft, either. The door was locked.

Right now 9/10's of the Republicans on campus are on Sproul plaza, fuming about it. To add insult to their injury, someone wrote a parody screed about Republicans and flyered campus with it.

Executive VP Justin Christensen didn't find out about the break in until I told him, in another triumph for Eshleman Security.

Has to be MECHA who engineered it. One of their members apparently asked Patriot Editor KG where the Patriot office was, after all. In addition, they're on almost the same floor as the Patriot-eers. Motive, opportunity, and probably means. The better question is: who else knew about it? All these ethnic organizations are surprisingly tight-knit, and I'm sure many of them know who was planning it.

Some of Eshleman has security cameras, so perhaps we'll get to see some faces, too.

Ready for some rough and tumble controversy with the jerk Leftist types as the bad guys? I know I am!

Yo!



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Might as well give a short rundown on the various Berkeley publications while I'm on the topic. They've been stacking up by my desk. I'll employ Kausfiles' Patented Series-Skipper Technology to give out the highlights. (Unlike Kaus, I'll be doing entire magazines at a time.)

X

HEADLINE: The brash newcomer onto the Berkeley scene, and a fascinating magazine.

GIST: A joint publication of La Voz, Hardboiled, Onyx Express, and Al Bayan. These are, respectively, the Latino, Asian, Black, and Muslim student publications, all mashed into one big ethnic mixandmatch. The focus is on generally minority issues (whitewashing, interracial dating, immigration,) coupled with a Left-wing/Identity outlook.

LAYOUT: Highly impressive. Strong tinge of former Hardboileds, but that might be just me. (I only really got ahold of Hardboiled, of those four.) Unfortunately, every single bit of text is italicized, which really starts to grind.

BEST QUOTE: '...any attempt to deny equal representation of critical Chinese History in a 'comparative politics' course would be like a discussion of fluttering white doves, flapping long black leather jackets, and blazing double guns without mentioning John Woo'

QUICKEST ARTICLE TO GET TO THE POINT: 'The United States prides itself for having been built on the principles of equality, democracy, and justice since birth, yet its trajectory has been a living experiment in robbery, ethnocentrism, and genocide.'

KEVIN'S GRADE: A, despite the knowledge that me grading X will bug every member in it. It isn't the competitor to the 'Shady Cal' that it wants to be, but it's the best political magazine on campus. Not that I agree with, y'know, anything that they say, but the 'level of discourse' measure has shot up the charts.


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The new Cal Patriot is out. This noticeable mainly because my article on the ASUC is included.

Haven't picked up my own copy yet, but it appears Rory's article on the Anti-War/ISO types is the cover story. More coverage to follow once I get a full copy.Email This Post!

Calstuff welcomes Student Advocate-Designate and new Calstuff reader Salam Rafeedie to the crew! (Please note corrected spelling of first name.)

I'm sure she'll agree that all Berkeley residents-- and members of the media nationwide-- should monitor Calstuff like several hungry hawks!
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Roommate Dave has pointed me towards this perfect story about Berkeley.

Best quote: 'By the time the camp is finished, "the spirit of expression has filled their brains and hearts," said Jamison, artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. "This energy is often transferred to their families, motivating them to make improvements in their lives as well.'

The camp involves 'ballet, modern, jazz and West African dance.' not to mention 'writing, photography and studio art classes and receive counseling in nutrition, conflict resolution, drug abuse prevention, decision-making and goal setting,' and 'Science, math skills, basic engineering, computer science' (I made that one up.)

Speaking as an Economist, I give three cheers to camps like this. Go for it. You seem excited, motivated, and well-trained. But what does bother me is the priorities established. The 'private and corporate donors' who funded this camp could also've helped the Berkeley school district dig itself out of a 4 million dollar budget shortfall. Or funded another program with a wide applicability to young middle school students. Instead, they've funded one with a very narrow appeal: dance and ballet are speciality pursuits. Even a typical camp with a wider range or some sort of scholarship program would've had wider appeal.

Oh well. I hate to complain about charity when there's so much worse out there.Email This Post!

I missed this story on Thursday about the vain attempts of External VP Josh Fryday to establish a more-heavily student dominated District in the redistricting game the Berkeley City Council plays.

Kudos go to Mr. Fryday for being so tenacious. Out of all four Executives this year I ranked him first for effort. But this is a lost cause for even the most capable External VP, for thousands of thousands of reasons. Here's the three most important:

1. Students have no political clout

The way to win the game is to have either a small group of very tenacious activists, IE most of the neighborhood groups, or a reasonably large group of vaguely discontented people, IE most of the school-related stuff. Cal has a very, very large group of people who don't give the slightest damn. Every City Council member knows that Fryday walks into their office without any significant backing, no matter how well he hides it. It shows in the way Fryday is reduced to pleading the fairness of it all, instead of a more powerful arbitrating position.

2. The ASUC is being too threatening

Here's where I think the ASUC is screwing up. They haven't defined their goal as enlarging the power of students, but as the much more ambitious one of installing a Student on the City Council. Sounds great for students, but there's the tricky fact that for a student to get on, someone else has to lose. In a remarkably tense atmosphere like the City Council, barging in without popular support in favor of the 'Get Rid of One of You Bastards' plan isn't a great idea.

Not only that, but Fryday seems to think the current rep, Kriss Worthington, should be pleased that we're trying to unseat him.

1."This whole process is run by people who are only concerned with keeping themselves in power," Fryday said.

"The ballot amendment, Fryday said, may give Worthington a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of Fryday and the ASUC."

3. Kriss Worthington is smart

Not only is the ASUC actively attempting to overthrow a member of the City Council, but they're trying to overthrow the most powerful member on it. Kriss Worthington, the current representative of the foreseen 'student district,' is the unofficial leader of the controlling Progressive faction. Let me say that again: out of nine possible targets, Fryday is taking on the most powerful of the nine. Just in terms of pure power politics, this would pretty much guarantee failure.

(Not to blame Fryday for this; it's pure coincidence that the only district capable of being student-majority is also Worthington's. But it still hurts.)

Not only that, however, but Worthington has proven a master of talking out both sides of his mouth.

He could be honest and say something like 'Look, I do what I can to represent students. I go to Senate meetings, help with lighting up Southside, and generally do my job. But I'm not gonna participate in my own destruction vis a vis Redistricting, especially when I'm in a life and death struggle with the Moderates.'

But instead he's pretending to be utterly confused as to why this district thing just can't pass.

While Councilmember Kriss Worthington says he is UC Berkeley students' biggest ally on the council, he was one of the plan's biggest opponents. Worthington cast one of only two votes against the proposal.

"For something called a student plan, I'm sure it meant well but it wasn't practical," he said.

(I've seen some other mealy-mouthed quotes in earlier news stories that I'm too lazy to link to.)

Hopefully, Fryday's master plan is to ask high and settle for a reasonable increase in Worthington's district. That me might get. But a student-run district is a pipe dream for years yet.
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Instapundit beats me to this commentary from the Weekly Standard on the Sexuality Class. Bockhorn has obviously not been reading Calstuff; he asserts that

Last semester's "Male Sexuality" course featured an orgy; a party game involving matching anonymous Polaroid shots of students' genitalia with the correct student; and a field trip to a gay strip club to watch course instructors strip and have sex.

despite reasonable proof that these activities were done outside of class.

Doesn't really matter, since he just wants the opportunity to rail against Sexuality classes in general, under the idea that 'Do today's college kids really need help talking about sex?' Of course they don't: they talk about and have sex all the time! No need for a class. You'd almost expect him to go on to complain about English classes, since Kids These Days talk in English all the time. It's obvious why he doesn't: English classes at Cal take a kid reasonably exposed to literature and expand on that. Well, same goes for the Sexuality Class. If he wants to argue that expanding Sexual knowledge is a bad thing, fine. But don't make lame arguments like that one.

His 'putting in perspective' paragraph is spot on, though.

Every year or two, courses like this appear on the national media's radar screen, and the inevitable Kabuki dance begins: Conservatives display the requisite outrage, university administrators stammer in defense of "academic freedom," and eventually the whole mess blows over. Depending on how extreme the content is, the course either disappears forever, or returns a year or two later in barely modified form, sans outrage. (The Wesleyan course was killed by embarrassed administrators; the Michigan course, however, returned intact last fall, with much less hullabaloo.)

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The Sexuality class controversy has escalated to a National thing, embarassing Cal's fragile reputation even further. Apparently it's been in both the NY and LA Times, along with the NBC Nightly News and local news outlets throughout the country. The usual wave of 'Berkeley is full of yuppie morons' letters has flooded the Daily Cal's opinion page.

I don't mind the usual Berkeley controversy, but I do mind an imaginary one. And this one is completely imaginary, based on the lazy reporting of writer Brittany Adams. (This is a picture of her midriff, by the way. She posed for the Daily Cal's REview section.) My insiders at the Daily Cal let me know they were considering printing up to three paragraphs worth of corrections. They settled for an Ombudsman report sometime next week.

So it's up to Kevin! to debunk this silly game.

The criticism of the Sexuality Class is based on three false conclusions.

1. The Orgies were held as part of the class curriculum.
2. Students received class credit for Orgies.
3. The Sexuality Classes are an integral part of the course curriculum.

Uno: Orgies held as part of the curriculum.

Untrue! Adams' wrote this:

A party organized for the male sexuality class was held in the home of some of the course's instructors after the class's year-end outing to a strip club last semester. There, some of the students engaged in sexual activity.

The key words here are 'organized for the male sexuality class,' which sound like the Orgy was organized 'for' the class, instead of 'by members of the class.'

In a letter to the Daily Cal, one of the instructors emphasized 'we also arrange parties outside of class' That's right: Outside of class.

Adams' compounds the error by writing

A party organized for the male sexuality class was held in the home of some of the course's instructors after the class's year-end outing to a strip club last semester. There, some of the students engaged in sexual activity.

That's all true, but somehow the 'year-end' part got dropped from the rest of the article. The Instructor clarified: 'We do have an end of the semester party where we go out to a strip club. '

How can this be part of the class when the semester has ended? Classes are over! The oversexed people who attended these things arranged something after class. Considering the level of hormones floating around, I'm surprised they managed to hold on until after the semester has finished off. To reiterate: student sexual exploits were outside the class, and they received no credit for them.

The accusation that the general course content is stupid holds no water. First off, why now? The class has been going on for over five years. It's been no secret that along with more typical stuff like class discussion of human sexuality and guest speakers there's the ocassional learning trip to a Strip Club. I've heard no complaints about the rest of the content, so why the outcry over this one, small, facet? Would a course on Marine Mammals be invalidated if we got to spend a day petting dolphins? If the naysayers were arguing that the inclusion of strip clubs demeans the rest of the material, that's fine. But they're arguing that the strip clubs invalidates the whole class, which there's no proof for.

Part of the problem is that Adams didn't specify what the course content is, making it appear the crux of the course was vapid expressions of personal sexuality. Actually, it involves

'The male sexuality class is a robust course covering a universe of topics, from masturbation and sex toys to pornography and safe sex. The class features an extensive reader, a plenitude of guest speakers (including Carol Queen, Cleo Du Bois, and James Green), and emotional in-class discussion.'

A path towards a meaningful education? Probably not. An interesting supplemental class? Certainly. And that's all anyone's ever claimed it to be.

And let me put the class in perspective compared to the rest of Cal. It's meaningless. No one takes DeCal courses for the credit; they take it for the experience. These classes frequently involve as much hard work as a typical 3-4 unit class, while only granting a meaningless 1-2 units. (I'm taking 20 this semester.) The only classes that are meaningful for units are Breadth Requirements, Major requirements, and Reading and Writing Requirements. DeCals are taken for love of the material.

A pox on you, Brittany Adams! Your salacious reporting and lazy construction of events has confused us all. And a pox on you, mainstream news, for failing to recognize the triviality of this story.

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So we've had the first controversy of the semester. Disappointingly, it's this stupid Sexuality class one. Apparently it made the NBC Nightly News on Sunday.

I'm amazed this made the nightly news. First off, the original article was horribly written. It failed to establish its basic premise: that all the nasty-orgy stuff was done as part of the class. Instead, its increasingly clear that all the orgasm stuff was done more or less on the side by a small subgroup of the people involved in the class. Class units didn't go into it.

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And while I'm on the topic of Palestinians, the APPLE Party agreed to endorse one of their more prominent members for the position of Student Advocate. Student Advocate, for those who don't know, is the fifth Executive in the ASUC. She represents students with their legal problems in the University, including cheating and grade disputes. Traditionally it's been a non-partisan position, with the previous year's Chief of Staff being unanimously nominated for next year's Advocate.

Salam Rafeedie is this year's nominee. She was my Resident Assistant in the dorms last year; cheerful lady. The entire office supports her, she's party neutral, she's well-trained, and everything is absolutely perfect about her except for lingering suspicions that she hates Jews.

Salam is also a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, whose mantra is 'We don't hate Jews, we hate Zionists.' So here's the concern: can we nominate in good faith someone who may be a member of SJP first and Student Advocate second? Is she really willing to represent ALL students, regardless of ethnicity, faith, or position?

Personally, I think yes. So I voted for her. But I'll be watching her like several hungry hawks. After all, in her interview with Student Action she declared 'I will not run {on the same ticket} with a Zionist.' She also said 'I'm Salaam first and Student Advocate seventy-seventh.' in her interview with us. But she also promised to be totally viewpoint neutral, and I trust that. Email This Post!

I was supposed to go the the Students for Justice in Palestine Conference over the weekend, but there was confusion over my press pass and payment, so I took the opportunity to bone up on my Math instead. I was told the Press Conference was on the second floor of the Student Union, but the only thing there was a chess tournament for way-young kids.

That part was a little unnerving, since my first thought was 'Geez.. these kids are members of SJP? And they're all excellent chess players?' Training their minds to prepare for running the new Palestinian state, no doubt.

My article for the Patriot will be called 'Palestine, sooner or later.' It'll be an article on how the Palestinian folk foresee their State, assuming they ever get one.

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For some reason Drudge has linked to this story about a Berkeley DeCal that devolved into a bit of an orgy. No one got hurt, the Administrators took swift action as soon as the allegations came to light, and no laws were broken. So who cares except Matt Drudge?

I think he might believe this class is an established part of the course curriculum. Not true; it's a DeCal, a student-run course with minimal instructor oversight. Granted, it's been a badly-kept secret that the Sexuality class is like the SATs for campus sluts. The ones who make it are the best of the best. Or the worst. Whatever.

Maybe it's the connection to Women's Studies, as a kind of 'tee-hee, stupid feminists' thing. Could be.

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