An interesting new initiative from Dan Gillmor of the Bayosphere:

Starting in 2006, I’ll be putting together a nonprofit Center for Citizen Media. The goals are to study, encourage and help enable the emergent grassroots media sphere, with a major focus on citizen journalism.

I’m thrilled and honored that the center will be affiliated with two superb universities in a bi-coastal partnership.

• Here on the Pacific Rim, where I live, the center will collaborate with the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. As an I.F. Stone Teaching Fellow, I’ll do a class next fall, and my principal physical office will be at Berkeley as well.
• Our Atlantic-facing partner is the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University Law School, where I’ll be a Research Fellow. I’ll visit there regularly — at least once a month — to work with other fellows, faculty and students.

We also plan to sponsor regular gatherings at both locations (and, I hope, elsewhere in my travels) for people interested in citizen journalism.

Why do this? We need a thriving media and journalism ecosystem. We need what big institutions do so well, but we also need the bottom-up — or, more accurately, edge-in — knowledge and ideas of what I’ve called the “former audience” that has become a vital part of the system. I’m also anxious to see that it’s done honorably and in a way that helps foster a truly informed citizenry. I think I can help.

Seems like a good idea to me. It’s good to see our campus keeping up to date with the latest trends. Maybe the arrival of this center could help engage the local community, by encouraging new student blogs and publications and whatnot.

Just to prove that we’re about more than just nudity, the HTML version of our December issue is now online.

As is tradition during finals week, a bunch of Berkeley students go streaking through the library. No one but the organizers know beforehand when and where the run will take place, but those in the right place at the right time get to witness a time-honored Berkeley tradition. Though nothing will ever take the place of being there, with the power of the internet and cameraphone technology, the rest of us aren’t deprived a peek.

Here is the inital LiveJournal report, which includes an account of the police response and some anonymous comments by an actual particpant. In a later post, another student provided a link to a video clip. From my estimates, around 50-60 students partcipated, but you can judge for yourself. Below the fold are some NSFW screencaps.

Temporary local mirror of video clip (22.6 MB Quicktime, right-click/save-as) Mirror 1 / Mirror 2 / Mirror 3 / Mirror 4 / Please post any other mirrors in the comments

Kind of. Here’s the link to the pdf. If you want a hard copy, I guess pick one up next month or something. The html version will be up after I’m done with my 3 finals on Saturday (beat that).

Anyway, some highlights: thoughts on America’s “gift to the world,” the Patriot holiday gift guide, some Christmas articles, and a Festivus Airing of Grievances just for kicks.

Check it out and discuss amongst yourselves.

BAMN is still keeping up their whining on the Erika Williams/Sherman Boyson incident. While most students were busy with tests, the group held a press conference on Monday. Here’s some IndyBay coverage from the event:

After a long semester of battling with the University over Affirmative Action, allowing the Hurricane Katrina victims to stay at CAL until the graduate, and getting rid of sexist/racist social welfare advisor Sherman Boyson, BAMN is still on the grind with demanding justice. BAMN is a veteran civil rights group fighting for an equal opportunity to get an equal education for all students regardless of race or creed.

Monday’s press conference was a move to pressure Chancellor Birgeneau into using his authority to push forward an agenda of justice which includes firing the sexist-racist-bigot advisor Sherman Boyson (who called a black CAL student a “Nigger” and her and her friend “Bitches”) and also to plead for keeping the Hurrican Katrina students permanently at CAL as opposed to allowing them to stay only for this semester.

There is so much unnecessary stress, anxiety, and uncertainty that the New Orleans students will be put through if they are not allowed to stay at CAL for the rest of their college careers. This is an issue of interstate solidarity and American patriotism. Shame on the Chancellor and the U.C. Regents if they fail to implement these calls of justice.

In this picture, the protestor with the red sign was able to avoid embarrassment by naming the correct hurricane on only her second try. In this video clip (Quicktime), “Tamara” complains that the university robbed her of the chance to find housing and a job with their unsolicited gesture of temporary accommodation.

I haven’t heard much coming from the administration about the Boyson case, but I hope to see some kind of resolution by next semester. One, because it’s a free speech issue. Two, because it was off-campus and, thus, none of the university’s business. And three, because I want to see BAMN’s apoplectic reaction.

Here’s my favorite comment to come out of this whole Tookie Williams controversy:

“Who’s going to stop the killings now?” said James Richards, 61, an electrical contractor in San Francisco and a member of Average Black Man, a group of older African American men reaching out to young men in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood.

“Is (the governor) going to write some books?” Richards said after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had rejected Williams’ bid for clemency. “Is he going to go down to L.A. and get some help and hope to the kids in the Crips?”

I give it a couple of days before the hysteria runs out of steam. So who will be the next superstar death row inmate to be deified by the clueless?

A complete report from the Chronicle

During finals season, it’s common for people to find ways to procrastinate. I’m currently wasting my time with these interesting debates on the Berkeley LiveJournal community. Here’s one on racism, which eventually expands into the topics of affirmative action, Tookie, and more. Another is on the recent Australian riots, with tangents on human nature and genocide.

Ok, back to studying.

From the SF Chronicle, Dec. 9:

Editor — Lighten up, folks. It was comedy. It was parody. It was satire.

Please, San Francisco, don’t become like your humorless, Stalinist neighbor, Berkeley, where freedom of speech has disappeared.

The Chronicle story (”Video scandal rocks S.F. police,” Dec. 8 ) noted that Mayor Gavin Newsom, before condemning the video, “consulted in his office with his chief political strategist …” I think that says it all.

MARK JOHNSON
Berkeley

Dec. 10:

Editor — Regarding Mark Johnson’s Dec. 9 letter (”Is that all there is?”):

Q.: How many Berkeley Stalinists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A.: That’s not funny.

STEVEN WALSTEAD
Berkeley

From the SF Chronicle:

Berkeley has renamed its historic old City Hall in tribute to longtime Councilmember Maudelle Shirek, bestowing an honor denied by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives who blocked a move earlier this year to name a post office after the progressive activist.

The Berkeley City Council unanimously adopted the resolution Tuesday after spending months trying to find a way to recognize Shirek, 94, who left the city council last year after serving for 20 years…

Berkeley officials were dismayed when the House voted 215-190 to reject the symbolic tribute to Shirek. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, led the opposition, accusing Shirek of failing to represent American values. He also said she had ties to the Communist Party because of her support for an Oakland Marxist Library.

King did not respond to calls yesterday for his reaction to Berkeley’s decision to honor Shirek.

Lee, who spent two years trying to have the Post Office named after Shirek, said she was thrilled by the Berkeley resolution.

The Berkeley blogosphere covered this issue when it first came up.

I think that this is the best possible outcome (besides the fantasy of not having our politicians waste time on this stuff). The left-wing got a building named after their hero. The right-wing can applaud this demonstration of federalism. There’s a reason why our government is divided into many different levels, each one assigned to a certain sphere of duties. In theory, when governments stay within their proper realm, the most effective solutions are put into place and the most people are pleased. It’s a wonder why we don’t try it more often.

Conservative columnist George Will, via The Agitator:

No matter how deeply you distrust the government’s judgment, you are too trusting.

In yesterday’s LA Times, Dan Schnur, a lecturer at UC Berkeley and USC, and a friend of BCR, posed an interesting question: Should Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger run for reelection as an independent?

THE UNIQUE dynamics of the recall election had allowed Schwarzenegger to run from the center, helping him avoid a GOP primary in which his moderate social and environmental positions could have caused him problems with a right-leaning electorate. Running for reelection as an independent would allow him the same opportunity. State law would have to be changed to allow him to alter his party registration so close to an election. But leaders of both major parties would have a vested interest in persuading their supporters to approve such a change.

For California’s conservative movement, an independent Schwarzenegger candidacy would present its members the opportunity to support a more ideologically acceptable candidate. Could that candidate take 35% to 40% of the vote against Schwarzenegger and the Democratic nominee? It’s certainly more attainable than the 50% required in a traditional two-party race. Although Democrats would have to be wary of a centrist Schwarzenegger repeating his recall performance and attracting enough independent and moderate Democratic support to win reelection, organized labor and other party mainstays could support another candidate, one more strongly committed to their most important policy goals.

Arnold could very well win again, as an independent. However, since Republicans would no longer feel obligated to vote for him, the GOP candidate would actually be a contender in a three-way race. This would be a very nice set up for, say, Tom McClintock to ditch the Lt. Gov race and run for governor. In some ways, it would be like the recall matchup all over again: Arnold vs. McClintock vs. random Democrat. If Arnold can attract enough Dems, and McClintock holds onto the party faithful along with the conservatives and libertarians, we might have a chance yet.

Stephen Frank discusses the hypotheticals on his blog.

On yesterday’s CBS Sunday Morning News, the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, were interviewed. The interviewer pointed out that the show’s political commentary is one of the reasons for the show’s popularity. When she asked them if they liked “sticking it to the conservatives or the liberals better” they responded:

Lately liberals. Liberals get so mad when you make fun of them.

At the end of the segment, they continue:

We’re very middle of the road, middle ground people. It’s just that no one can figure out… There is a disconnect between how do you do something that’s counterculture and also not exclusively liberal. People just can’t figure it out and their brains just short out.

Interesting interview. It is available to download here, complete with an introduction by an animated Charles Osgood.

As a “South Park Republican” myself, I completely agree with their observation that a non-liberal counterculture is seen as odd by the rest of society. Everyone is expected to be a member of one of two camps: liberal or conservative, Red or Blue. So you reluctantly pick one and immediately get tarred with preconceptions about what you believe in. “Oh, you’re a Republican…” The left goes: “You fool, you support X instead of Y!” While the mainstream right goes: “You’re a fine young patriot for supporting X over Y!” When you finally get around to telling them that you support Z, both sides look at you funny. Their brains really do short out.

Luckily, shows like South Park are on the air to show that you don’t have to be liberal to be counterculture. Sooner or later, all the kids who watched the show behind their parents’ backs will grow up. Hopefully, the lessons that they learned from the foul-mouthed fourth-graders will translate into a real transformation in our political culture. I’m waiting for the day when South Park’s libertarianism becomes mainstream, and liberals and social conservatives are the ones looked at funny. In the mean time, I’ll keep doing my part on this blog to help make it happen.

One of our readers wanted to pass this event along to anyone interested:

Date: Thursday, December 8
Time: 11 AM
Location: 110 Wheeler
Event: Dr. Walid Phares is an expert on terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, and Jihad movements. He holds degrees in international law, political science, international relations, and strategic studies, and he is currently a professor at Florida Atlantic University. He has written seven books on the Middle East and has published hundreds of articles in newspapers and scholarly publications. Dr. Phares has appeared in the international and national media, including CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and BBC as well as on radio broadcasts.

This non-partisan lecture is being co-sponsored by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the Undergraduate Political Science Association.

I was watching The O.C. with my roommate last night… Hey, all the guys are doing it. Anyway, one of the subplots consisted of the gang thinking about where they wanted to go to for college. The father (Sandy) is an alumnus of UC Berkeley, so it wasn’t surprising to see him wanting his son (Seth) to go there too. Every time the show name dropped our school, I alternately cringed or was filled with pride. My buddy gave a hearty “Hell no!” to the dad’s suggestion, as if he was trying to save the fictional high school senior from the toil and misery that Berkeley is known to dispense.

Seth, however, is aiming for Brown or anywhere else on the East Coast, since he’s been aching to get as far away from Orange County his entire life. I can somewhat relate, as my top choices were on the East (MIT and Carnegie Mellon) and I wanted out of OC too. Though after being rejected and wait-listed, respectively, I settled on Berkeley. I now realize that my dream of “getting out” was pretty foolish and now I hope to eventually settle in the kind of suburb that gets its own television show. Watching Seth come to the same realization would make my day.

On the other hand, two of the other characters (Ryan and Marissa) are seriously considering Berkeley. I doubt that it’ll happen, but if it does, I’m sure the writers could come up with some interesting plotlines. Ryan gets mugged while walking through People’s Park and has to whip out those fists of fury that he vowed to never again unleash upon the world. Marissa, as she is prone to do, has a little too much to drink and is filmed urinating out of a frat house. Both of them are called “crackers” by an Ethnic Studies advisor so they take it upon themselves to stop the hostile climate on campus. They run into the campus O.C. fan club and the universe collapses into itself. They go home for the holidays and finally get some decent fast food. Limitless possibilities.

Of course, the proper television approved way to deal with this situation is to have all the kids graduate and somehow attend the same college. I imagine that they would end up at USC, UCLA, UCI, or the fictional equivalent of one of the three. But it sure would be interesting if they all wound up as Cal students. They’d only need to change one letter in the title too.