Check out Time’s cover. It has Berkeley students.

In the back on the left is the Patriot’s own editor in chief Alisa Farenzena. In the middle row on the right is consistent Patriot writer and Berkeley College Republican Executive Director Alex Marlow. Even BCR’s External Vice-President Kyle Tibbits made it into the back row. And let’s not forget ASUC External Affairs VP Danny Montes in the back right.

The article talks about the importance of the youth vote. However, the Berkeley students on the cover don’t get any mention in the text of the article, only a couple of lines in the caption of pictures of them hanging out around campus. The picture of Alex does a great job of capturing the dark weather we have had for the last two weeks in Berkeley.

The University has launched a couple of websites for the upcoming election.

Just today the Berkeley Newscenter reported the Institute of Governmental Studies Library has a website with information about the propositions in California’s upcoming February 5 election. It offers the basic facts about the propositions and has many links to polls, studies, and recent articles about the issues.

Last week, the University launched a website that highlights professors who specialize in different political and policy areas. They highlighted a couple of professors in areas of campaigning and politics, economy and taxes, education, environment, gender, health care, immigration, international relations, legal issues, and voting technology. Looking at the descriptions of their expertise, I would guess they are more liberal then the average group of people you would find on the street. The website is intended to help reporters covering the Presidential election get in contact with experts from the University.

As my majors take me far away from political science classes, I don’t know how any of the above linked professors are as teachers. If you are looking for a political science class to take, one person I have heard good things about is Dan Schnur. He worked on many campaigns, including John McCain’s 2000 Presidential effort where he was the communications director. While the department only considers him a lecturer and not a professor, he has a lot of experience.

Today the Wall Street Journal came out with rankings for the best MBA programs in the country. Berkeley’s own Haas School of Business is #2.

From the Haas Newsroom:

The Haas School jumped to #2, up from #5 last year, in the 2007 Wall Street Journal ranking of MBA programs published on September 17. This marks the strongest showing of the school’s full-time Berkeley MBA program in any major, popular ranking.

A few words from Dean Campbell via Haas Newsroom:

“We are absolutely delighted at this vote of confidence from our recruiters,” said Dean Tom Campbell. “Our students are among the best in the world, and our career services staff has developed excellent programs to provide the best possible service to students and to recruiters. We are very pleased to see that our efforts resonate with employers.”

While the rating is for the MBA program, its success bodes well for the undergraduate business program. I know many (maybe even too many) people at Haas and today both the students and professors have a lot to be proud of.

As Amaris pointed out, the Los Angeles Times ran a story today that profiled two people in adverse political environments. One was our own James Fullmer, a Republican in Berkeley, the other Jacqueline Bujanda a Democrat in Garden City, Kansas.

Fullmer has been the California Patriot’s Managing Editor for the past two years and was the External Vice President of the Berkeley College Republicans for a year. While Fullmer has been very active, the resistance he encountered has been experienced by many other conservatives as well. I have received more dirty looks then I can remember. In the picture on the right James is setting up for an event to celebrate Ronald Reagan.

From the Times:

“It makes the other side defend their own turf, which means the less opportunity they have to go after yours,” said Dan Schnur, a UC Berkeley political science professor who was a spokesman under Republican Gov. Pete Wilson of California. “It can also be motivating for your supporters in other places.”

Both Bujanda and Fullmer see signs of a better future. Several leading Kansas Republicans, including the former chair of the state GOP, have switched political affiliation to become Democrats since 2004, signaling a possible sea change in state politics. And with Democratic groups splintering, the Berkeley College Republicans have established themselves as the largest political club on a campus long known for its razor-edged radical liberalism.

In Kansas, Bujanda has encountered similar resistance for being in the political minority.

Rural Kansas businesses are boycotted for Democratic sympathies. At one county clerk’s office, workers stared dumbfounded when Bujanda introduced herself as the new Democratic regional field coordinator. “There was total silence,” she recalled, “as if what I was doing was just an unheard-of thing.”

Intolerance of opposing political viewpoints goes both ways. At least Republicans don’t trumpet themselves as accepting and tolerant of everyone.

Eight murders in four days ocurred in Oakland, including that of reporter Chauncey Bailey who was killed on Thursday, were reported by Fox Newschannel tonight. Two died on friday outside a nightclub, three on saturday evening, one early this morning, all apparently unrelated. Residents interviewed cited neighborhood security, drug and alcohol related issues, and “neighbors not knowing each other” as reasons for violence and concern.

Further information regarding Bailey’s shooting: the raid of Your Black Muslim bakery netted the arrest of seven people in connection with Bailey’s shooting and “other violent crimes” according to SFGate News:

Authorities on Saturday said they believe the gunman was Devaughndre Broussard, who was booked on murder charges and worked as a handyman for the group. Other suspects have been booked on charges including murder, kidnapping and assault, police said, but the only one named so far is the CEO, Yusuf Bey IV.

Also:

Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said the raids were part of a yearlong investigation into a variety of violent crimes, including two homicides this year and a kidnapping and torture case.

This group has claimed to have “played a positive role in Oakland’s black community”.

On Wednesday the Daily Cal ran a piece about Berkeley Blogging. I have a few comments to make, considering I have been doing just that for a year.

First I should mention I feel left out. The Daily Cal did not mention us at California Patriot. Even though last year we got an honorable mention in their Best of Berkeley (the best was the live journal community, but I don’t think they are a blog), we are not news enough. I would think a student run conservative blog that discussed Berkeley would be worth a note but I apparently. I would be curious to know how many links the Daily Cal gets to their site from here compared to the other mentioned blogs.

My ideas of blogging are similar to Beetle’s. What makes a blog unique is the coverage of things or informed analysis that you can’t find elsewhere. Anyone in the country can write about national politics and events, but a person who knows and talks to the movers and shakers in a field or carefully follows an obscure topic has something beyond the normal fare. Beetle has the best coverage of the ASUC in the world because he talks to some of the important people and has followed everything the ASUC has done for the past several years.

A Case Study: ASUC Mess Over the Summer

One interesting example of blogs’ usefulness was seen in the ASUC elections mess last summer. The only print paper that covered it regularly was the Daily Cal, and they only published twice a week, and even then some bad reporting or a desire to not assign blame obscured what was happening. The blogs filled this vacuum. Calstuff, Beetle Beat, JKoo, a few others, and me provided information as it happened and filled in the gaps. There were also people who were directly involved in the happenings writing online, like Ben Narodick and Andy Ratto along with experts in everything ASUC, like Beetle.

One of the other advantages of having these online updates and commentaries is dialogue. Any incorrect information or bias could immediately be challenged. A lot of the stuff online placed the Student Action party and some of its members in a negative light (I was one of them and still stand behind my conclusions). People engaged in discussion about this assignment of blame presenting arguments and countering them. There were so many anonymous supporters of Student Action they got the term SA-anon bots. There were cries of bias against SA, but at any time a Student Action supporters could have started a blog to counter what was said, (I even offered to publicize such a blog but was not indulged by anyone).

In short, the blogs and their interactive format were the best and most timely source of information. In this way and for these reasons among others, print newspapers are being overshadowed.

Another advantage of the online medium is the possibilities for links. So far in this post I have linked directly to half a dozen different articles or websites I have mentioned. You an instantly look at the sources I mention and not simply take my word on what they say.

There is also decal in progress this semester about blogging. If you get a chance check them out. The Catalytic Triad has even posed a few thoughts on blogging.

So this is old news by now, but Rudy Giuliani announced his intended candidacy for President this week and was on Fox news on Tuesday I believe. I happened to turn it on and listened to some of what he had to say. I feel like he presented himself very articulately and well, especially on some of the more contentious issues for social conservatives, like gay rights, gun control, and abortion.

The two fairly clear sides are those who feel a more moderate candidate will split the Republican ticket, paving the way for whoever the Dems nominate, and the others who believe he (or another such McCainesque moderate) is the ticket to defeating Hillary. So far, some polls show Giuliani ahead of McCain, 34% to McCains 22%, followed by 15% percent for Gingrich, actually. This RealClearPolitics poll showed only a 5% lead over McCain, with the third pick being Romney at around 6%.

However, we all know that polls are polls, and whoever gets out of the Republican gate will still have to race the Democrat’s horse, although it likely won’t be a dark one. I looked (albeit perfunctorily) through some Google searches for some Clinton/Obama/Edwards poll numbers (or anyone else) but the internet wouldn’t give up it’s secrets to me easily. That and I’m lazy. However, something interesting I did find on Mr. Obama. It’s no secret that he’s got Muslim heritage, and that he attended an “Islamic School” when he was younger, nor is it secret that he has had brushes with drugs. You would think both would be equally concerning to voters right? This article highlights that the Muslim issue apparently interests internet searchers more. Of millions of Obama searches on the internet in the last four weeks, the top five searches had a mention of the Muslim connection, while none of the top 20 hits concerned the drug issue. Call it a concern based on the current war, ‘islamophobia’, or whatever you want, but it’s on American’s minds. It’s just one article though, don’t get all jumpy.

This should be an interesting race due to the speeded-up primaries and lack of any incumbents. New blood should be interesting though. So what does everyone think? Who will get the Dems/Repubs nominations? Will we vote for an African-American, a woman, or a religious minority? Should Hillary stop wearing the pants?

From the pages of the New York Times comes this article, the latest salvo in the battle against meritocracy in college admissions. The campus discussed is our very own, and the problem? Apparently there are too many Asians.

That’s right. Forget the supposed underrepresentation of other minorities, the substandard public schools that lead to differing educational opportunities, or any of the other myriad reasons cited in arguments for the reintroduction of affirmative action. The biggest problem caused by Proposition 209 seems to be that it has increased the number of Asians on campus. After a few paragraphs of reminiscing about the good ol’ days of protests, pot, and Peoples’ Park, the author describes today’s Cal as something more like a “small, industrious city of über-students” due in large part to its ever-increasing share of Asians. Yeah, that’s not stereotypical or anything.

And, of course, if we’re not careful, this demographic nightmare could happen at other schools too!

“IF Berkeley is now a pure meritocracy, what does that say about the future of great American universities in the post-affirmative action age? Are we headed toward a day when all elite colleges will look something like Berkeley[?]”

I’m not one to cry “racism” needlessly, but seriously, why is it okay to talk about there being too many Asians on a college campus (or mock Asian languages) and not okay to do this for other people? Oh, that’s right, because there aren’t any prominent Asians who make a living by telling people that it’s not okay.

This double-standard aside, it’s yet another example of how the proponents of racial preferences seem to think that race is a truly defining characteristic of a person. Diversity is hard to achieve if 41% of the people on your campus are all exactly the same…again, that’s not at all racist to think along those lines.

Now, okay, hyperbole aside, let’s take a long hard look at this reasoning.

“The oft-cited goal of a public university is to be a microcosm — in this case, of the nation’s most populous, most demographically dynamic state — and to enrich the educational experience with a variety of cultures, economic backgrounds and viewpoints.”

That’s all well and good to say, but if we want to be truly representative of all of California, shouldn’t we be taking people who aren’t academically qualified at all for Berkeley? People who haven’t completed high school? People who didn’t pass the high school exit exam? Reminds me of G. Harrold Carswell, the supposedly mediocre nominee for the Supreme Court who was defended by a couple Senators who argued that mediocre Americans deserved representation too.

Obviously a university isn’t trying to be truly representative of its state, not in all senses. Why then is race a special category? Diversity’s nice, but a school looking for students should try and pick the best *students*, whatever racial mix that process yields.

I came across this clip during the downtime and knew that I had to post it. It’s a campaign commercial from the 1964 presidential election. Watch, react, then comment. HT: Right-Thinking.