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.

The Patriot’s official endorsements are out, along with our April issue.

For the executives it is a Student Action sweep.

President: Curtis Lee
Executive VP: Grace Shen
External Affairs VP: Lina Ochman
Academic Affairs VP: Christian Osmena

The full article on the executive offices is here.

As for the SUPERB fee NO
Supported by a piece by the leading expert in all things ASUC.

For Senate: Tommy Owens #106
My interview with the Patriot writer here.

I will post how I will be voting, which is slightly different, later today.

I am surprised by how little I have had to say about the ASUC elections so far. It also helps Beetle has been sharing his massive amounts of election knowledge and reporting on stuff. A lot of the election is the same as previous years. I talked about the SUPERB fee and how ridiculous it was last year. The same arguments still apply and now it is even worse because students already voted on it and it failed just a year ago.

As for the candidates’ platforms’, they are all the same rehash from the past few years. Andrew gave a quick rundown here and here. If I had a dollar for every candidate that has promised lower textbook prices over the last four years, I would have enough money to buy all my textbooks.

This weekend brought some semi-interesting election sights.

On Saturday I was walking down College Ave. to campus and I saw a person. He was middle aged, well beyond college age. He was tearing down Student Action and BCR candidate Tommy Owens #106 flyers. I don’t know if he had it in for ASUC fliers in general or just those parties, as there were no CalSERVE flyers on the poles he ripped the fliers from.

After I spotted this person, a well placed Student Action member approached him and asked what he was doing. The person responded by saying he did not want to talk about it.

I have heard stories in previous years of a party getting bums to rip down their opposition fliers, but I don’t know if this is an example.

On Sunday I went to Crossroads for breakfast. I had a lot of company at the DC. No less than two executive candidates talked to me. Neither of them was actually campaigning, since campaigning in the DCs is illegal and we had preexisting relationships of sorts. I think I even saw a third executive candidate there, but I might have been suffering ill effects from a lack of coffee early in the day.

Seeing all these people gave me an idea. The next time I go to Crossroads, I will need to play ASUC candidate BINGO. I can play with my friends to see who can find the most candidates without looking. If you do find enough for a BINGO, I don’t know if you win or lose.

…the Attack of the Clones.

Who isn’t one? As I showed before, CalSERVE candidates offer little variation in their platforms. But like CalSERVE, Student Action has its share of diversity mongers. You may be wondering why I haven’t included the Defend Affirmative Action Party in the Race for the ASUC series, but it really goes without saying that DAAP’s entire existence is centered on racial conflict. It’s blatantly obvious in their party name so I’m not going to spend a separate post on them. Besides, when a party is pulling elementary school kids out of class to campaign for college students, you’ve got something way more interesting to talk about.

But back to Student Action. First up is Meghana Dhar, #108. Her platform includes a plan to “Engage cultural communities”

As a senator, I will promote an active and involved campus and cultural community through intergroup networking and relations that allow for more campus-wide events and multicultural coalition-building. Specifically, I want to bring together the South Asian community in order to grant greater access to university funding and provide more opportunities for community-building events.

What she is really saying: I want to bring the campus together, and by “campus” I mean the students who identify as South Asian, and by “bring together” I mean give them more money. I would have preferred that she cut to the chase like a CalSERVE candidate and just say she was primarily concerned about South Asian students.

Tara Raffi, #117, will use the ASUC to enhance Jewish community life.

The Jewish community is a large and active component of our diverse campus. I will work closely with JSU leadership and its subsidiary groups to develop and enrich cultural life for the Jewish community. As a senator, I will work diligently to foster cross-cultural interactions through continued support for funding and activities.

Again, the issue is not individuals maintaining strong ties to their cultural identities, but individuals using government to favor some groups over others. Even at the lowly level of the ASUC, government should not grant special privileges to any group or individual.

For Sarah Cho, #118, an ASUC Senate seat is small potatoes compared to the very prominent position of power she already holds.

Cultural Solidarity
As a representative of the Korean-American community, I realize the importance of cohesion in fighting for common goals on our campus and beyond. As a senator, I will collaborate with students active within different cultural groups to form ties between communities (through multicultural events), and thus better represent the wide variety of students that Berkeley proudly embodies.

When were the elections for Korean-American community representative? Do other Korean-Americans know Sarah is their representative? Hopefully I can cast a provisional ballot in the next election, since I missed the election for the Filipino-American community representative.

Will Smelko, #183, managed to combine Diversity with Entertainment, thus demonstrating that he has the political intuition to make it through an ASUC election.

Diverse Entertainment
The ASUC can provide the student body with a diverse array of quality entertainment. It is my goal to bring in bigger bands at lower prices, and also to open up space to allow for an expansion of events like multicultural art shows and film festivals. Also, I want to increase the students’ voice, allowing them to influence what kind of entertainment is provided to them.

He is clearly more concerned about the Entertainment part of his platform, but throws a bone to the multiculturalists just in case he comes off as too culturally unaware for the Senate. That is the work of a true politician; he feels your pain and is thinking of the children even when he is talking about something totally unrelated.

One could argue that the diversity peddling in these candidate’s platforms isn’t a big deal. But the ASUC’s bias toward achieving diversity at all costs isn’t imagined; we’ve been there before. And if we don’t pay attention, we just might be there again.

Since my freshman year, I have been promised “representation” for my community, but I’m still not sure what my community is. At first, I thought my community was UC Berkeley, but then some ASUC candidates insisted that I was underrepresented. Imagine, for all these years, I naively thought that UC Berkeley students had 100 percent representation at UC Berkeley. I guess I was wrong.

Of course, the communities to which these candidates are referring are racially and ethnically defined. ASUC Election Season gives future Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons the opportunity to tell you how bad you have it at Berkeley, and why you need them to make your Berkeley experience much better. For those of you who have already been drowned in the sea of eager candidates on Sproul Plaza, the one word that was probably peddled to you the most was, “Diversity.” No candidate, especially the ones from CalSERVE (though Student Action is just as guilty), can leave racial appeal out of their platforms. Some are delightfully more explicit than others. Thus, I present to you the senate platforms of the worst race-baiters of the ASUC election, starting with CalSERVE:

First up, we have Allen “Fo Sho” Cho, #161. His Agenda:

Development Of A Korean-American Caucus
The Korean community on campus is very divided; we don’t have a UNIFIED voice to represent the issues our community faces in the ASUC.

So if you’re a student of Korean descent at Berkeley, get ready to fall in line! Stop dividing the community with your independent, individual thinking and start thinking like a Korean, whatever that means! To create solidarity, Allen plans to create a Korean Community Caucus. This seems odd, considering the rationale for his next item:

Establishment Of A Multicultural Center
Even though UC Berkeley is rich in history, culture and social movements, it is currently one of the few campuses without a multicutural center. In order to continue pushing for positive change, we need to continue bridging community. As your ASUC Senator, I will advocate for a permanent multicultural center to encourage cross cultural solidarity and dialogue.

So let’s divide the campus along race, and then struggle to bring it together again. I’m sure Allen is fully aware of this conundrum, as exploiting it gives him more power and clout in his “community.” We probably wouldn’t need a multicultural center to fix the problem of groups not interacting with each other if people like Allen weren’t busy creating separate caucuses for racial groups in the first place.

Next is Anurati “For Health” Mathur, #162. Anurati promises change through Coalition building. Did she mention that this coalition only includes South Asian students?

An Empowered You: The Power of Coalition Building
Through successful campaigns such as the Count Me In initiative, the Asian Pacific American Coalition has shown the power of coalition building. Based upon the success of this coalition and others, I will work with South Asian student organizations to create a coalition so that we will then have the ability to make change together.

She forgot Poland.

Claudia “si se puede” Rodriguez, #154, doesn’t beat around the bush. Her Spanish nickname is a dead giveaway, but her platform is still worth examining. Her platform seems to indicate that if you aren’t Chicano or Latino, you’ve got to find yourself another senator:

Increasing Academic Resources for Chican@/Latin@ Communities
There are few Chican@/Latin@s moving into graduate level work at Cal. As Senator, I will work to improve and increase the academic resources needed for current students moving into graduate-level work, by advocating for retention and professional development programs that will support and benefit the campus community at large.

I could make the whole role-reversal, double standard argument, but that’s just too easy and too obvious. What is most insulting is Claudia’s attempt to make this part of her platform appear non-racial. She complains of the lack of Chicano’s entering graduate school, but argues that increasing academic resources will help all students in the undefined “community at large.” If she really wanted to help all students, she would have omitted the opening tidbit specifically targeting Chicano and Latino students.

Then there’s Jenab-i “count me in” Pareja, #149,who really only has one issue, but describes it in three different ways to make it seem like he has a full platform, so it is not worth examining in detail. The main legs of his platform: Increasing Diversity, Building Community, and Creating Accountability. All you have to know is that Jenab-i really cares about diversity. He cares about it so much, that it is the only thing he is running on, and he promises to do a bunch of things to make diversity reign supreme. However, judging from his experience, Jenab-i isn’t exactly Mr. Diversity himself; his extra-curricular involvement has been limited to Asian student groups.

Jeremy de Nieva, #151, wants to be “a voice for silenced communities.” That voice seems to include a back door affirmative action plan:

I will be a voice for marginalized populations by increasing the presence of underrepresented populations through recruitment and retention funding, securing funds for philanthropic organizations to focus more on their activities than on fundraising, and advocating collaboration between different groups in order to achieve a more integrated campus community.

Lyell Sakaue, #163, not only wants us to recognize multiculturalism, he wants us to give it a big hug.

Embracing Multiculturalism
Groups and spaces dedicated to raising awareness and promoting multiculturalism on campus need more funding and greater visibility. I will advocate for existing and ermerging opportunities for promoting multiculturalism, including culture shows, student groups, conferences and the creation of a permanent multicultural center.

Mary June “MJ” Flores, #164, wants to learn more about her ethnicity, and wants you to pay for it.

Enriching The Ethnic Studies Department
Every year, the Ethnic Studies Department suffers through budget cuts, which in turn severely affects the collection and number of classes offered. As senator, I will work with faculty, staff, and administration to advocate for more funding for the department’s needs and the creation of more diverse classes. I will also work with students to take steps towards establishing a Pilipino/Pilipino-American Studies program by advocating for more Pilipino tenured professors.

So Mary June’s assumption is that if you have a tenured Filipino professor, he will automatically be working in the Pilipino Studies department. Never mind that Filipino academics can also be found studying Economics, Biology, Astronomy, and many other subjects. But hey, a Filipino is a Filipino. Mary June seems to think that all Filipinos will have the same academic interests anyway, so if you get more of them, you’re guaranteed to have a Pilipino-American studies program!

Obiamaka “Obi” Ude, #147, wants to give us “An ASUC for Every Student.” As a conservative, Southern-Californian, left-handed, patriotic American of Filipino descent that wants more left-handed desks, I wonder what Obiamaka can do for me. Probably very little, as her platform states:

As Senator, I will continue the fight for a multicultural center, create an ASUC-sponsored women’s forum for different women’s groups to come together, and increase publicity and outreach efforts to students from marginalized communities.

Like many of her colleagues, Obiamaka wants the ASUC to be all things to all students. Based on her platform, some students will get a little more.

Oscar “Oski” Mairena, #153 is just the male version of Claudia Rodriguez (or Claudia is the female version of Oscar), placing at the top of his platform the goal of “Increasing Retention Services for Chican@/Latin@ Students.”

Finally, Stephanie “Strawberry” Yang. #148, wants to defy stereotypes, and she can only do this as an ASUC senator.

Challenging The Model Minority Myth
Last fall, the Regents released a report that they would increase diversity on campus by admitting more non-Asian students. However, the “Asian” label does not do justice to the diversity of communities that are represented under that term. As Senator, I will work to peel off the “model minority” myth by making sure that the institution recognizes the diverse backgrounds of people grouped under the Asian-American term.

To minimize the model minority myth, I believe Stephanie’s first act as senator will be to fail all of her classes. She will then drop out of UC Berkeley, meet with the Regents wearing a t-shirt displaying her abysmally low GPA, and beg for an affirmative action program that is designed solely for increasing Asian enrollment. Victimhood, of course, is true progress for Asian students.

Many of these senate candidate complain of communities not working together, yet they seek to magnify the divide by catering to distinct racial niches within the campus. Without campus division, CalSERVE would have nothing to run on, so I’m not too confident that a Berkeley united beyond racial distinction will exist under CalSERVE auspices.

As I wrote before, Student Action is equally guilty of diversity-pandering. Part II will look at their worst offenders.