It was absolutely amusing to read the hogwash the liberal left had been uttering today. According to this article published by the Associated Press, Bill Clinton claims that his wife would make an “excellent president” should she decide to run. According to President Clinton: “If she [Hillary] did run and she was able to win, she’d make a very, very good president …” In an interview that same day on Meet the Press, Senator Joe Biden already argues that Hillary would be the likely nominee in 2008, even though he himself may run.

Any reasonable person would oppose either of these candidates. First, take a look at Senator Clinton’s voting record. I don’t know how it’s possible to be more out of the mainstream. (Wait a second, that’s innacurate - Just take a look at who the DNC elected as their Chairman). According to her voting record, Senator Clinton “strongly opposes” privatizing social security, school vouchers, and tax cuts for the wealthy. In addition, she strongly favors seeking the UN approval for military action.

It is these issues among others that Senator Clinton supports that the American people voted against in 2004, will vote against in 2006, and will doom Hillary in 2008.

And her inability to be electable transcends even beyond her voting record Even despite attempts to moderate herself, Senator Clinton won’t be able to escape the fact that she’s a Northeastern liberal from a historically blue state–rather reminiscent of another recent nominee from Taxachusetts. She’ll always be associated with the “Hillary Care” health plan that failed disastrously, the scandals that plagued the Clinton administration from start to finish will plague her - namely, Whitewater, Vince Foster’s suicide, the missing billing records, the last-minute pardons, among others ..

As for Senator Biden who is considering running, I highly doubt that Americans will nominate, let alone elect, a man repeatdly accused of being a plagiarist:

Biden campaigned for the U.S. presidency in 1988, but dropped out of the race amidst scandal. He was found to have plagiarized a speech from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. Biden unsuccessfully defended the plagiarism claims arguing that he had previously correctly credited Kinnock on other occasions but failed to do so in an Iowa speech that was recorded and distributed to reporters by aides to Michael Dukakis, the eventual nominee. It was also revealed that he had plagiarised in law school 20 years earlier when, unaware of the appropriate standards for legal briefs, he’d used a single footnote while lifting five full pages from a legal article. A series of related problems created a barrage of negative publicity that his candidacy was unable to withstand, including his exaggeration of his academic record during a campaign speech and many other examples of unattributed quotes pilfered from past Democrats through his speeches.

The above is taken from Wikipedia

So one may well ask who the Republicans will nominate in 2008? Well, I can think of quite a few strong candidates including Senator John McCain and Former NYC Rudy Guiliani,. Senate Majority leader Bill Frist has said he’ll go back to Tennessee after he completes his second term as a Senator. Florida Governor Jeb Bush has also declined to run in 2008 although his term as Governor expires in January 2007; however, since he is only 52, he could conceivably run 12 or 16 years from now.

But the point is, we have very little to worry about. We’re in the best position we’ve been since when Teddy Roosevelt was president, having strong margins in both houses of Congress, and a very popular president. The Democrats are already jumping the gun and thinking about 2008 . They seem to be forgetting they need to have a respectable showing in the 2006 midterm elections to even stand a chance of winning the election in 2008. And given their track record over the last few years, I don’t believe this is possible - And even less so with Coward Dean as their party chairman.

As this month closes, we celebrate a milestone. According to our server logs, this is the first month in years where “glory holes” isn’t the number one search term. Congratulations to Professor Yoo for dethroning the long running champion!

john yoo		387	7.6 %
glory holes		335	6.6 %
naked people		223	4.4 %
california patriot	112	2.2 %

Berkeley School District teachers protest; students rejoice:

Berkeley teachers, demanding a pay raise after two years without one, are refusing to work any more hours than their contract requires, and the impact is being felt throughout the school district.

Kids within the Berkeley Unified School District are not being assigned written homework because teachers won’t grade papers on their own time. A black history event was canceled Friday evening. And parents had to staff a middle-school science fair one recent night.

Power to the people! Down with homework! Something like that…

Redonha Means, the mother of a daughter in the second grade at Emerson, was not pleased, though in general she believes the teachers are underpaid.

“I’m disappointed in the timing,” said Means, vice president of the Emerson Parent Teacher Association. “It is a very significant month for African American students.”

Your daughter is receiving a substandard education in reading, writing, math, science… All you’re worried about is her missing Black History Month?

More details from the Daily Planet:

Flanked by a phalanx of red-armband-wearing teacher representatives from each of the district’s schools, a visibly angry BFT president Barry Fike told district directors and Superintendent Michele Lawrence at this week’s board meeting that beginning next week, teachers would work the exact hours called for in their contracts, but no more.

I wonder if the armband had a hammer and sickle?

In a chant delivered in unison following Fike’s presentation, teachers said the red armbands “show our anger and our passion. We want the contract to be completed so only our passion remains.”

Catchy chant.

The American Thinker has a short opinion piece on the issue. Putting aside the negative impact unions have on the education system, maybe cutting this and cutting that and cutting some more could leave some extra cash for the teachers.

A bit of (unintended) irony in today’s Daily Cal:

The African American Student Development office won’t reopen its doors for another two weeks, but the office’s new director, S. Nzingha Dugas, has been at UC Berkeley for more than a decade preparing for its opening.

Dugas says she will use her nearly thirteen years of experience on campus to create original ways to help alleviate the division between different racial groups she has observed for years.

She then proceeds to talk about not reaching a critical mass (a.k.a. quota) of blacks, about a blacks-only student retreat, and about special services and resources for blacks only.

This is just my opinion, but maybe a better way to “alleviate the division between different racial groups” would have been to keep this center and others like it closed.

Ward Connerly’s term as a Regent is nearing a close. A look back, in his own words, in the Sacramento Bee. Props to Res Ipsa Loquitur for finding the article, which they have posted in whole. And it looks like they’ve reenabled comments, so leave them a couple. Here’s some highlights from the article:

Tuesday, I will end what I have affectionately called a 12-year “sentence” on the Board of Regents of the University of California. For the better part of that period, I was the target for many political snipers who viewed me as an enemy of the people, a despicable Uncle Tom and an agent of America’s political right-wing.

And, yet, there are those who have described me as a public figure who has had more influence on public policy affecting race in California than any other elected or appointed individual of the past two generations. For whatever they are worth, my own insights might be of some value.
—
One of the things I have learned as a regent, is how anxious those of us in the public arena are to invoke and apply ideological labels - “liberal” and “conservative” - to those with whom we disagree.

Admittedly, I lean to the right on most political issues. But, when I became a regent, I left my ideological label at the door. There is nothing uniquely “conservative” about wanting all students to be treated equally when they apply to UC. There is nothing conservative about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which guarantees equal treatment before the law “without regard to race, color or creed.”

How conservative can I be by wanting same-sex domestic partners to receive equal health and medical benefits as other employees? Is it a measurement of my conservatism that I oppose raising student fees when our students and their families can least afford such increases? Am I conservative because I want UC’s 200,000 employees to have a voice at the governance table alongside the regents, faculty, alumni, students and others who comprise the UC family? In short, these ideological labels are merely a tool for demonizing those with whom we disagree on specific issues and using those labels, once applied, to rally others to oppose our enemies.

Before I became a member of the Board of Regents, I never heard the term “black conservative” applied to me. Now, it is rare that such a label is not applied. And, once the label is applied, we close the door to further communication with individuals merely because they now belong to an ideological set to which we have assigned them.

Check it all out. Then check out our post about him from last month, for more links.

It was pretty interesting to read that during his meeting with President Bush on democratic reform, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the Bush Adminstration of firing CBS New’s Dan Rather.

According to a Time Magazine Article:

George Bush knew Vladimir Putin would be defensive when Bush brought up the pace of democratic reform in Russia in their private meeting at the end of Bush’s four-day, three-city tour of Europe. But when Bush talked about the Kremlin’s crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed. If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed. “Putin thought we’d fired Dan Rather,” says a senior Administration official. “It was like something out of 1984.”

The Russians did not let the matter drop. Later, during the leaders’ joint press conference, one of the questioners Putin called on asked Bush about the very same firings, a coincidence the White House assumed had been orchestrated. The odd episode reinforced the Administration’s view that Putin’s impressions of America are often based on urban myths fed to him by ill-informed aides. (At a past summit, according to Administration aides, Putin asked Bush whether it was true that chicken producers split their production into plants that serve the U.S. and lower-quality ones that process substandard chicken for Russia.) U.S. aides say that to help fight against this kind of misinformation, they are struggling to build relationships that go beyond Putin. “We need to go deeper into the well into other levels of government,” explains an aide. –By John F. Dickerson

So here’s what I have so say to Mr. Putin -

Dear President Putin:

People in the American media retire or resign out of their own volition. In America, we have what is called a “Bill of Rights,” endowing EVERYONE in society with freedom of speech and freedom of the press. I know “human rights” might be a foreign concept to Soviet Russia where you grew up, but you should really think about instituting them in your own country. Doing so will set a good example for the rest of the world and WILL make your region and the world a safer and better place.

With regards,
Kevin Dayaratna

PS: I’m not even going to comment about the chickens.

A new exhibit at the Berkeley Public Libary attempts to show the warm and fuzzy side of the Black Panthers:

Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover once called the Black Panthers the “greatest threat to the internal security of the country.”

But a collection of black-and-white photographs on display at the Berkeley Public Library shows a softer and more philanthropic side of the militant organization that came of age in the 1960s and 1970s.

In tandem with Black History Month and next year’s 40th anniversary of the Black Panthers, “Serving the People: Body & Soul” will run through March 19 at the main library in downtown Berkeley.

Next month, I assume they’ll be presenting the softer side of the KKK.

“When people see these photographs, they say, ‘I didn’t know the Black Panther Party was doing these things in the community,’” said Billy X. Jennings, the party historian who set up the photo exhibition.
—
Jennings said the party did good for the community that was not widely publicized.

By the end of 1969, the group’s free breakfast program for schoolchildren was feeding thousands of youngsters nationwide before they went to class each day.

The group also registered thousands of people to vote, distributed free bags of groceries to thousands more and ran urban medical clinics, Jennings said.

“This is something we are not given a lot of credit for,” said Jennings, who was Newton’s personal assistant and Seale’s campaign manager.

Well since you were such nice guys giving out free food to the kids, we’ll overlook your violent revolutionary Marxist ideology.

Beatrice Stuart has something to complain about in today’s exciting issue of the Berkeley (Library) Daily Planet:

I am a longtime resident of Berkeley and a longtime library lover. What I love most besides the books and movies I check out regularly are the interactions I have with the friendly staff at my local branch. Now the director wants to spend our limited money on automating the checkout and replacing the workers with machines? Why should I trust her when she couldn’t even get Berkeley to pass the tax measure? Why don’t they replace the director with a machine instead?

For the past few weeks, it seems like all they write about is some lame library scandal. Anyway, why shouldn’t they replace the workers with machines? She acknowledges the “limited money,” but she can’t see that automation would save money in the long run? Apparently, she wants the residents of Berkeley to pay more taxes so she can continue to have her beloved “interactions.” Sorry, but I don’t think the government should be in the business of providing you a social club.

For responses to the other lame letters about the library, check out Beetle Beat.

On the issue of Iraq, there are basically four different viewpoints. Like a good Republican, I support the war, and I support the troops. Anti-war folks say they don’t support the war, but still support the troops. These idiots are against the war and against the troops… (More coverage and discussion at CalStuff). But we rarely hear from the fourth group. They have finally found a voice in this Onion article entitled: “I Support The Occupation Of Iraq, But I Don’t Support Our Troops.”

The U.S. went to war in Iraq to remove an evil and dangerous political adversary from power. Now that we have done that, the American troops must remain in Iraq until the country is a fully functioning democracy, able to spark change throughout the entire Middle East. While I find this obvious, there are still a lot of people in our country who fail to grasp it. I support Bush-administration foreign-policy goals, but I stand firmly against the individual men and women on the ground in the Persian Gulf.
—
Need I remind the reader that it is our flag, not the troops, that we salute? It is our nation-state, not a bunch of 20-year-olds in parachute pants, that deserves our allegiance. As a patriot and true American, my heart sings at the thought of the Pentagon, and the zealous, calculating measures undertaken by the proud military bureaucracy of this great superpower. I feel a surge of pride when I think about our high-tech GBU laser-guided bombs, capable of carrying a 2,000-pound warhead. I tied a ribbon around my tree for the safe return of our nation’s F-16s, because our military aircraft are instrumental to finishing our work in Iraq. And on the back of my car, I have a sticker stating my support for the CIA’s ongoing efforts in Iraq.

Read it all; it’s funny. And unlike that recent opinion piece in the Daily Cal, we know that this isn’t to be taken seriously.

I’d like to share this little vignette from the National Review. It fits in with this month’s theme of multiculturalism (and I promise to find something else to blog about next month…)

(I’m talking about white people, of course — white liberals.)

Do you know this type? They flip through magazines, searching for black models in the ads; if there aren’t enough of them, they complain to the magazine. They judge a neighborhood, an institution, or even a cocktail party by its degree of integration. They can’t look at a crowd without taking a little racial census, mentally.

One of the reasons I affiliate myself with the Republicans is that I abhor this racial-mindedness. I think of what Condoleezza Rice said, when she spoke to the 2000 Republican convention in Philadelphia. She was explaining why she became a Republican. She began, “I joined the party for different reasons. I found a party that sees me as an individual, not as part of a group…” That was number one, note.

We know the type…

In the course of my work, I often ask people how they came to be conservative (I talk to a lot of conservatives). You may recall the piece I did on Indian Americans in a recent NR. (You are reading the print magazine, aren’t you? Good — I wanted to be assured.) I included in that piece a statement by an Indian American — a Muslim, as it happens — who outlined for me his political history. (Please bear in mind that when I say Indian American, I’m talkin’ Subcontinent, not Navajo.)

He said, “I became a Republican when I was 17, at Berkeley, of all places. This was in the ’80s, and the number-one issue on campus was affirmative action. I had gone to a high school where there were kids of every stripe and color, and race was never an issue. When I got to Berkeley, I thought I was in the Balkans, because everyone hated each other. I couldn’t stand the racial fixations. That’s what drove me to the Republican party.”

And 20 years later, things are as they were.

I was just walking back home from campus, and I noticed that yellow police tape surrounded my usual path. On the alternate route, I saw a “Police Bomb Unit” van and some officers being interviewed by the local media. I’ll try to find further details. This is all that’s up on the Berkeley NewsCenter at the moment:

BERKELEY – The campus community should be aware that the pathway through the Eucalyptus Grove and Grinnell Natural Area to downtown Berkeley and BART has been temporarily cordoned off by the UC Police Department.

Pedestrians and bicyclists at the west end of campus should use Frank Schlessinger Way instead.

Let’s hope it was nothing.

UPDATE
Good news:

BERKELEY – UC Berkeley police reopened the pathway through the Eucalyptus Grove and Grinnell Natural Area to downtown Berkeley and BART at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday night (Feb. 24) after determining that a suspicious package left on the west campus path did not represent a danger.

The package, a large black bag with the word “boom” written on it, was reported to UCPD just before 3 p.m. Thursday. Campus police cleared the area, cordoning off the pathway, and brought in the UCPD bomb squad to investigate the suspicious package.

The good news was that the package was a hoax. However, it is crime to leave a hoax bomb, and UCPD is continuing to search for suspects. In addition to criminal charges, those involved could be required to pay for the cost of the investigation and police response.

So Hunter S. Thompson has apparently killed himself (making the title of this post insensitive). And some members of the Berkeley blog community couldn’t care less. I haven’t read any of his books and, from what I know about him, I disagree politically. But I have read some P.J. O’Rourke, who some consider Thompson’s successor (with a right-wing twist!), and I find him quite entertaining. So he can’t be all bad.

And now to make the Berkeley connection. Here’s an article from the September 27, 1965 issue of The Nation entitled “The Nonstudent Left“. It deals with the Free Speech Movement and the role of nonstudents. It’s kind of long, but hopefully someone out there will find it interesting. An excerpt:

“We don’t play a big role politically,” says one. “But philosophically we’re a hell of a threat to the establishment. Just the fact that we exist proves that dropping out of school isn’t the end of the world. Another important thing is that we’re not looked down on by students. We’re respectable. A lot of students I know are thinking of becoming nonstudents.”

“As a nonstudent I have nothing to lose,” said another. “I can work full time on whatever I want, study what interests me, and figure out what’s really happening in the world. That student routine is a drag. Until I quit the grind I didn’t realize how many groovy things there are to do around Berkeley: concerts, films, good speakers, parties, pot, politics, women — I can’t think of a better way to live, can you?”

Not all nonstudents worry the lawmakers and administrators. Some are fraternity bums ho flunked out of the university, but don’t want to leave the parties and the good atmosphere. Others are quiet squares or technical types, earning money between enrollments and meanwhile living nearby. But there is no longer the sharp division that used to exist between the beatnik and the square: too many radicals wear ties and sport coats; too many engineering students wear boots and levis. Some of the most bohemian-looking girls around the campus are Left-puritans, while some of the sweetest-looking sorority types are confirmed pot smokers and wear diaphragms on all occasions.

Seems like nothing much changes in 40 years.

This is cool (Hat tip).

We constructed a fully functional augmented trashcan. The augmented can exposes city dwellers to the pattern of trash interactions as told from the point of view of a single city trashcan… Mounted within the trashcan, an overhead camera records the top layer of trash in the bin. A laptop computer connects the devices and projects an appropriate visualization from the trashcan’s opening onto the city street.

Add another to the long list of cool and useful inventions invented at Berkeley. Well, I’m sure the bums would find it useful. It’s like a fridge with a glass door! And I swear I see a Daily Cal somewhere in there…

The Chronicle has a great article on why, sometimes, black isn’t black:

When educators and politicians argue for giving more African Americans the chance to thrive at top universities, they see people like UC Berkeley fourth-year student Obi Amajoyi as a perfect example of what they have in mind.

He’s a biology major who has emerged as a peer leader and athlete. He recruits high school students and is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. But while Amajoyi was born in the United States, his parents are from Africa. He considers himself both African American and Nigerian.

“I definitely identify with all the struggles that we as African Americans have had to go through,” said Amajoyi, 21. “But at the same time, I have this (other) history from my parents.”

First of all, I have to take issue with this ‘identity’ thing. If you’re 21 years old, you can’t identify with a thing. You’d have to be at least 40 or 50 to identify with Jim Crow laws. If you have any experiences with slavery, I sure would like to hear them. And what’s up with this ‘we’ business? The only struggles you can identify with are the ones ‘you’ go through. Even better, don’t identify as a victim. Most people that look at you don’t think ’slave’ so why think of yourself as one?

Anyway, back to the article:

But Amajoyi is not a direct descendant of American slaves. And critics say his presence at the university — and that of other black immigrants and their children — shows institutions have failed to reach those who were the original targets of diversity outreach efforts.
—
But outgoing UC Regent Ward Connerly says the debate only shows how affirmative action has always failed to help those blacks most in need.

“Over the years, preference programs, affirmative action programs, have really not benefited low-income blacks, those who were the descendants of slaves,” said Connerly. “They have benefited middle- and upper-income blacks.

“Recent immigrants are the beneficiaries of this terribly flawed program, ” said Connerly. “The institutions don’t care about that — all they care about is chalking up the numbers.”

Yet people still defend it (*cough* BAMN *cough). How about vouchers instead?

Nathan Hare, who fought to establish the first ethnic studies program in the United States at San Francisco State University in 1968 and is co-founder of the Black Think Tank in San Francisco, blames these numbers on old stereotypes.

“I have nothing against immigrants, but there are sociological realities we have to look at,” said Hare. “They don’t have the stereotypes of them being lazy and so on.”

I don’t think racists are ones to differentiate between shades of black. “Hey you lazy negro, get off my property! Wait a minute, you’re Jamaican! My mistake, sir. You have a nice day.” See, it doesn’t work that way.

On a recent day, Amajoyi and some other students gathered on UC Berkeley’s campus to discuss the challenges they face at the elite institution.

“I’m not sure how deep the line between being from Africa or the Caribbean or being African American is,” said Amajoyi, who was born in Texas and grew up in Southern California. “Because our numbers are so low, just being black on campus brings you together. The first thing is you’re black.”

Why is your color the first thing that describes you? And it literally is, because I’m not sure how much African, Caribbean, and African-American cultures overlap. If we’re going to buy the argument (and I don’t) that your ethnic background defines you, then maybe Chinese or Indian student groups have a better case for existence. Is diversity only about raw numbers?

Branden Turner, 20, a third-year biology major from Los Angeles, recalled taking an African American studies class taught by a professor from the Caribbean. His teacher’s background was the topic of discussion on the first day of class.

“His point was that even though he came to America, once you walk onto American soil, you deal with the black struggle,” said Turner. “I’m perceived (by classmates) as not being as intelligent as the others in my class.”

This being Berkeley, your professor’s point was that America is inherently racist. Leftist BS, but we expect it from Ethnic Studies.

Rabiah Burks, 21, a fourth-year student majoring in history and African American studies, grew up in South Central Los Angeles. She says kids in her inner-city high school suffered from a lack of books and other supplies.

“We didn’t have proper teachers. We didn’t have proper books,” said Burks. “My calculus class had no books. Our teacher worked off a board. Nobody invests in black children.”

I presume that everyone invests in the kids from African and the Caribbean? I really doubt it. I like what Bill Cosby has to say about the topic. Thomas Sowell has a lot to say about all of this, but I just need to find the specific articles/texts.

So these were my random thoughts in response to portions of the article. I find it funny how American blacks feel somehow threatened by these new immigrants. And how they’re not “really black.” And how they can’t succeed because of this and that. Nothing is holding any of these groups back (besides the government and themselves, as Cosby says). Also, the whole thing is a joke because it shows how absurd dividing people up by race is. A lot to discuss in this article.