You know a person has contempt for an idea as he pays lip service to it when he describes it in quotation marks. Take this column in the East Bay Express by Robert Gammon. Gammon writes a feature column which calls for Berkeley Law Professor John Yoo to be fired for those infamous torture memos. The last paragraph pretty much summarizes his approach:

If you’re a professor, and you cross the line with a coed, it will cost you your job. On the other hand, you can violate moral, ethical, and legal standards. You can hurt the reputation of your university and your country. You can bring shame upon the nation and harm its standing in the world. You can put our soldiers at risk unnecessarily. You can enable people to be humiliated, tortured, and possibly even killed. And, aparently, you can do it all in the name of “academic freedom.”

The short response is “yeah, that’s pretty much right,” but the lines are phrased to encourage negative responses that are independent of actual consideration of the issues involved, and the ideological goal is hidden with quotation marks as if it’s being presented as an excuse.

The article includes a hyperbolic discussion of various topics framed to make Yoo look as bad as possible, somehow including both complaints about how Yoo wrote a torture memo because non-torture methods weren’t working on Abu Zubaydah (”He started the government’s torturing ways!!!”) and complaints about how Yoo wrote the torture memo after Abu Zubaydah was already being tortured (”He was participating in a cover-up!!!”). It also references a Nuts and Boalts post, referring to the blog as a “campus web site,” which is true for some values of “campus web site,” in the sense that it includes a bunch of Berkeley Law students who often deal with campus issues, but it has no direct affiliation with the campus.

The discussion of academic freedom is a tortured (pun intended) treatment of the subject, and one I’ve seen quite often. While first explaining that Yoo probably won’t be convicted of a crime, a standard suggested by Dean Christopher Edley, Gammon shows his true colors with this paragraph:

But what if no court ever indicts Yoo? Does that mean he’s destined to mold the minds of tomorrow’s top lawyers while continuing to stain Boalt and UC Berkeley’s reputation for the next quarter century or more? Not necessarily. Despite Edley’s contention that he has no options, it turns out there are plenty of ways to get rid of Yoo.

The honest approach to academic freedom does not include the plan suggested here: First pick which professor you want to get fired because of his views, and then look for some kind of rule you can use to fire him. The comparison to Ward Churchill is perhaps apt on this score, as he appeared to be a victim of much the same way of thinking, since the university didn’t care about his academic misconduct until he sparked a different controversy with his ideological comments. The rest of the comparison, though, is laughable:

The University of Colorado ultimately decided that Churchill’s essay was protected by academic freedom. But during its investigation discovered that Churchill had committed research misconduct in some of his other scholarly work. A university panel charged him with “plagiarism, misuse of others’ work,” and “falsification and fabrication of authority.” In essence, he ripped off other people’s ideas and made stuff up.

“Made stuff up” is not even close to the issue here, but Gammon uses the simplistic phrase so that he can then apply it to Yoo, who he claims made up a legal theory that helped the administration. Making up theories is part of a professor’s job. To say that the theory was unsupported is a claim of the work being shoddy, not intellectually dishonest.

In comparison “making stuff up” on Churchill’s part was not writing unsupported theses. Churchill ghostwrote essays to provide supporting points for his papers, and then cited his own work without identifying it as such to bolster his argument. He also described false events as factually true, and falsely attributed statements to authors.

To try and treat these two forms of “making stuff up” as comparable intellectual dishonesty is itself an act of astounding dishonesty. As the East Bay Express moves away from challenging corrupt government authority through deep investigation and adopts the San Francisco Bay Guardian’s model of “rah rah” attacks on safe targets, it puts some of us in the strange position of supporting corporate-run, rather than independent, alt-weeklies.

Some time around 3:45 this afternoon, someone was shot in the Southside Top Dog parking lot. I was at La Burrita next door at the time, I believe, but didn’t hear anything or notice anything amiss until I saw the cops running by as I was leaving. Later, I saw an enormous police response, and even the Parking Enforcement Vehicles were being used to block traffic. As always, the first place to gather information was the UC Livejournal Community.

UCPD Crime Alert

Daily Cal

Greetings, Patrioteers.

With the end of the academic year comes the time for a tearful farewell to our friends, buddies, comrades, and objects of wrath who happen to be graduating. Among those departing for greener pastures is Online Editor Christopher Page, who has maintained this blog through rough waters and (additional meaningless metaphors excised).

That means someone has to take up the slack, and while I couldn’t possibly handle the load that Chris has handled during his time with the Patriot, I’m going to be managing the Patriot Blog for the foreseeable future.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be cleaning up some of the dead links and adding new ones. If you have suggestions for the blog, please let me know.

While I won’t actually be posting anything beyond administrative messages like this one, I’m also hard at work finding new authors to bring a diverse set of conservative views to the blog. Hopefully, you’ll start seeing their posts soon.

Because celebrating Israel’s 60th Birthday is so unacceptable at Berkeley, some people decided to fly the Palestinian Flag on the university flag pole, located between VLSB and California Hall. I’m celebrating with alliteration.

All this week, the pro-Zionist student group Tikvah will be celebrating Israel’s 60th year of sovereignty. So it was no coincidence that the Palestinian flag was hoisted above campus. I also recognized some members of the Students for Justice in Palestine on sproul today wearing keffiyehs around their necks, which was probably not in recognition of Cinco de Mayo.

The Patriot’s own Ben Chapman took these photos of the Palestinian flag raised at half mast:

According to Chapman, UCPD took down the flag at around 2:40 pm because the flag was flown without the university’s permission.

Tikvah’s first event of the week, a special lecture from talk radio host Dennis Prager, drew no protesters. The topic of Prager’s talk was “Why Berkeley should be celebrating Israel’s 60th birthday.” Nearly all of the seats in 145 Dwinelle were filled for tonight’s presentation. Prager came with his usual on-air wit, straight-forward wisdom, and a few good stories.

He argued that universities, Berkeley included, are teaching students to hate Israel. One particular example came from a female UCLA student, whom Prager confronted on his radio show. The student had written an op-ed in the Daily Bruin that Prager described as “venomously anti-Israel.” She told Prager that her family was strongly pro-Israel, and so was she…until she got to her university.

Colleges have little reason to hate Israel, Prager contended, since the values of Israel are the same values cherished by our colleges. Israel, unlike its neighbors, is egalitarian, democratic, supportive of liberty, free speech, women’s rights, equal treatment of gays, and overall the type of society a school like Berkeley should be celebrating.

One of the most important points that Prager made was during the Q&A session. When asked if he was further polarizing the opposing sides by ignoring the alleged wrong-doings of Israel, Prager said, “Ask yourself this question: If Palestinians announced that they will put down their weapons today, what would the Israeli response be? And if Israel announced that they will put down their weapons today, what would the Palestinian response be? If Palestinians put their arms down, there will be peace. If Israelis put their arms down, there will be Holocaust.”

Celebrate Israel’s 60th birthday with Tikvah this Thursday at noon on Sproul Plaza. There will be free food, dancing, and music. Check out their Facebook group for info on other events taking place this week.

A Berkeley Senior was killed last night. The victim was Chris Wooton, a Berkeley senior originally from southern California. He was stabbed at a party at his fraternity, Sigma Pi, while trying to break up a fight. The Daily Cal mentions that he might have been in a fight, but close sources told me he was not involved in the fight, but was stabbed when he tried to separate those who were involved. I am also told that the attacker was not a student (updated). He was pronounced dead at the hospital. Chris would have attended UC Berkeley for grad school in the fall.

I post it not because we should follow every grisly detail of each death around campus, but because the area around campus, where we all walk and pass through frequently, isn’t as safe as it should be. Everyone should be prepared to confront a situation like this, with the hopes that more could be prevented. The liberal utopian enclave that Berkeley has tried to form itself into has failed another of it’s own, and its really a shame.

Edited to add more information.

If anyone is interested in a more real debate on issues then what has been going on in the recent comments, there is an event going on tonight I heard about from Igor. It is being up on by the ASUC External Affairs Office.

Tonight in 87 Evans from 6-7:30pm there will be a debate on Propositions 98 and 99, which are on the June 3 ballot. There will be speakers from the Berkeley Property Owners’ Association and the Rent Stabilization Board. I have also heard there will be free snacks from Chipotle.

In case anyone is wondering, in May’s Patriot, which will be out tomorrow, Rohit has an article saying YES on 98 and NO on 99.

On Monday night Dinesh D’Souza will be speaking on campus. His talk will be about Christianity, Islam, and the War on Terror. It will be related to his new book, What’s so great about Christianity It starts at 7PM in 2060 VLSB and will include a question and answer time. The talk is being hosted by the Berkeley College Republicans with support from the Young America’s Foundation.

I have heard him speak and read his Letters to a Young Conservative. D’Souza is a smart and well researched speaker. Even if you disagree with him, he is worth hearing.

As the facebook event says:

Dinesh D’Souza
Monday, April 28, 2008
7:00pm - 8:00pm
2060 VLSB

College Republicans in California are in a unique position to deliver a meaningful blow to special interests and hypocrites everywhere by praising Governor Schwarzenegger for his fiscal responsibility, even though his intended actions come at our own personal cost. The governor’s proposed budget for 2008-2009 includes an across-the-board 10% cut in spending. This would naturally include a roughly $1 billion cut to higher education.

Students who marched on Sacramento yesterday demanded that higher education be given special treatment over all other state expenditures. I would like to ask protesting students from where they think the extra funds should be extracted. Should the money come from a reduction in the quality or number of teachers for primary education? Perhaps we could stop paying our social workers, or rescind programs aimed at protecting the environment. The causes behind these expenditures have their own special interest groups that will be feeling just as disenfranchised as students once the cuts take effect. To serve all of the special interests would require spending money that simply does not exist unless we want to leave massive debt for future generations of Californians.

As a college student, I regret the real effects that budget-cuts to this University will have on me and my peers. Still, I recognize that subsidized education is a privilege and not a right; it is only available to me at the cost of others. I urge all campus Republicans, along with any other champions of reason, to remind other students that these cuts are the result of fiscal responsibility, not a de-emphasis of the importance of higher education.

In response to this article by Editor in Chief Alisa Farenzena, the following letter was composed by some of the Patriot’s editorial board.

Fellow Patriots,

We strongly disagree with Alisa Farenzena’s Conservative Case for Abortion article.

The article claims supporting abortion is consistent with small government principles. However, the article then goes on to say the government should fund this heinous procedure, giving poor women a perverse incentive not to bear their children. Forcing taxpayers to fund such a disgraceful practice is certainly not small government.

The argument in the article is similarly devoid of family values. The most important value in any family is the love and worth accorded to each member. The youngest and most vulnerable people in a family are the most needing of protection and care, not a death sentence.

Many times the Hippocratic Oath is mentioned. This ancient oath specifically instructs doctors to not engage in abortions.

We, the undersigned staff of the California Patriot, recognize the importance and value of life in the womb and stand firmly against abortion.

Rohit J. Joy
Publisher

Derek Yee
News Editor

Charles Huang
Design Director

Christopher Page
Online Editor

Andrew R. Quinio
Editor Emeritus

This just in from Chris Page, who is live at the election results forum:

CalSERVE wins every executive office.

But the good news is Tommy Owens, the Berkeley College Republicans candidate, made it to the Senate.

More news to follow.

UPDATE: Thankfully, the issues have been fixed and tabulation will occur tomorrow, Tuesday at 5PM in 101 Morgan.

There is an expectation that the ASUC election results will be tabulated tomorrow. However, there is no word from the election council about a time or location. I think I have a reason why.

I friend of mine said they can’t find one of the scripts for tabulation of the votes. He also said this problem has happened in the past and they just rewrite it every year.

Beetle has been running around spreading rumors all day, while I have been cooking burgers and hot dogs on a tiny grill on Sproul.

Things might get resolved and tabulation could be tomorrow. However, with the level of knowledge and organization of all the people involved, I am not optimistic.

Even though the ASUC elections are over, the April issue of the Patriot still has a lot of good material.

Some pieces of interest include Roshanne Katouzian’s report on the end of the “Fresh” tree sit. Tommy Owens examines the costs of all the protests in Berkeley. The great Derek Yee talks about the court ruling and the value of home schooling.

If you want to read something that will get you riled up we have something for you. Justin La Grange writes on why gays should be Republican. Alisa Farenzena makes her conservative case for abortion.

If you think any of the articles in the magazine come up with stupid points or think they are complete loads of crap (like the abortion one), write a letter to letters@californiapatriot.org.

I apologize in advance for any bad links in the April issue. I am on campus and cannot fix them immediately.

I thought my endorsements would be simple, but then I saw the Daily Cal’s endorsements and I have a few things that need to be articulated. For example, I thought the Patriot was the only publication that had alcohol at their ASUC endorsement meeting.

Lets start at the bottom of the list.

NO on the SUPERB fee

Senate: Tommy Owens # 106
I have worked with Tommy and know he is up for the job of senator. He also understands how people have to work together to get things down without compromising their own values. It is not just his party affiliation, but his entire candidacy that leads me to strongly endorse Tommy Owens # 106 for Senate.

AAVP: Christian Osmena

Christian has experience dealing with academic groups from sitting on two academic committees. I known him personally and have great confidence in his abilities and commitment to serving students.

What I remember from Carlo at the Patriot’s endorsement meeting was a lot of general statements. I am strongly supporting Christian for AAVP.

EAVP: Dionne Jirachaikitti

Dionne has the experience and knowledge necessary to be taken seriously by the lawmakers she will meet.

However, I give Lina a lot of credit for suggesting Berkeley should pull out of the UCSA if things do not work well, even if the chance of that happening is almost non-existent.

Minor parties are fun
For most of these races, placing random BEARS-United, Friends Urging Campus Kindness, and SQUELCH! candidates before the serious (a.k.a. no fun) candidates is always encouraged. As long as you rank the CS or SA person you want higher then the other one your vote will remain valid through several drops. If you vote for DAAP, all hope for your soul is lost.

EVP: Chris Page

The fact the Daily Cal mentioned Chad Kunert in the same breath as Ben Narodick is troubling. I saw Ben in action in the Senate, and Chad is no Ben Narodick. I am also miffed the Daily Cal completely ignored my campaign in both the EVP profile piece last week and their endorsement. While I am graduating, I could do a great job if elected and have a long record of connecting students to the ASUC.

I was asking for a better ASUC website and covering ASUC corruption before Chad was even a student.

Due to my knowledge and exciting plan (it is in a box and will not be revealed until he is elected) I will be voting for Chris Page.

If I am disqualified because of magic chalk or an unreported blimp, put Grace Shen on the ballot right after me. Grace has spent a lot of time dealing with senate rules.

President: Curtis Lee

I am not excited by his candidacy, but he is better then the other serious alternative of Roxanne.

I will be putting Curtis on my ballot, after the FUCK, SQUELCH!, and BEARS-United candidates.

Student Advocate

My ballot order:

1. Peter Kaplenski (if your roommate was running you would vote for him too)
2. John Kim (this is a wasted vote, as he will win a higher office)
3. Andy Morris (experience breaking rules can be helpful)
4. Matt DeMartini (yes he is the best qualified, but high chance he will win)

If you know something relevant I don’t about these people, please share.

This morning a roommate of mine, who was out flyering for Student Action, told me about some anti-SA flyers that were out. The flyers are on par with SA’s own Done flyers for playing fast and loose with the truth. I will comment on what I do know of regarding the flyers.

EAVP: Lina Ochman

No lobby visits

If the people are referring to Cal lobby day, it should be known the EAVP office usually puts it on. The lack of it would be their fault, which would be a CalSERVE failure. However, eliminating lobby day in favor of other things is worth a try. Why would lawmakers listen to students at their office one day out of 365?

Voter registration campaigns

For the academic year, there was a primary in February, but not a general or special election like there has been in the past three years. The lack of an election would imply the lack of a registration campaign

Where in the ASUC constitution does it say the EAVP should conduct voter registration? There are numerous campus groups that register voters of their own accord and do so without the ASUC overhead. The people who are passionate about politics and really care will vote in the primary. If someone does not want to get involved in the primary, they should stay out.

Not advocating for lowering student fees

Almost no on in the ASUC actually works for lower student fees. A lot of people claim to, then they let stupid fee increases go to voters, like the SUPERB fee.

AAVP: Christian Osmena

This attack is the most comical. They don’t actually attack Christian’s record, but that of a congressman he worked for. Then they put up a picture of President Bush, even though the only connection is both Rohrabacher and Bush are registered Republicans. The President does not even act like a Republican. This reminds me of the anti-Dwight flyers last year, but those flyers quoted something the candidate had actually wrote.

Also a No vote on the energy conservation tax act by Congressman Rohrabacher might mean he is actually against higher taxes and fees, which seemed to be a big issue in the above attack.

EVP: Grace Shen

Nutrition information in campus restaurants

If I remember correctly, I asked Grace about this campaign point at an endorsement meeting and she said when she was took office it was already underway. Check out this nifty thing.

President: Curtis Lee

This makes the best points of this flyer series. I asked Curtis about the student web portal and was told about a 2012 plan, which is marginally better then the mid-semester evaluations that never happened.

These flyers make the point a few of the candidates are bad. However, if you took the CalSERVE candidates I don’t think you will find they are all great leaders who do incredible things.