Heath Ledger died this past January, taking with him what looked to be a promising acting a career. What he left was a spell-binding and dark turn as the Batman's arch-nemesis The Joker in this summer/year's blockbuster The Dark Knight. However, with this positive contribution came a negative one. A wave of Ledger-style Joker look-a-likes dotting our Halloween eve. The Office already did a great job of parodying this in last night's episode, one I'm sure even Bill enjoyed.

Now, on the heels and in the heat of the Presidential election comes another costume trend set to dominate the night; that of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. From the first time Tina Fey marched on stage as the fiercely attractive Governor of Alaska, one had the feeling that female political friend and foe alike of the governor would be donning frame-less glasses, bun-style hair and a fierce and fake accent ala Fargo. Well, my nightmare has already come true. I saw one fake Palin this afternoon, complete with a huge sticker of an Elephant meant to parody the Governors famous brooches, and I know that tonight will just bring more.

I fear tonight the Joker and the Governor will be out in multitudes.

Now for something awesome

UPenn's Daily Pennsylvanian has an article on the campaign against JuicyCampus in which Matt Ivester makes an interesting claim:

"Some administrators and students have mistakenly recommended a massive spam attack," Ivester said. "It's a felony, and it's not a great idea."

Hrm. Putting aside questions of effectiveness (I do appreciate the arguments of those claiming that "spam" attacks are ineffective and possibly counterproductive), this is serious business.

I'm not a lawyer, and I'm aware that Ivester has a few in his retinue, given the legal rigmorale through which some state governments have put his site, so I'll post this question to him (or to any of our readers with more than a passing understanding of internet law): are we experiencing a confusion of definitions here? What, exactly, does "spamming" denote according to the law? Is its definition wide enough to make "spammers" of students who casually post song lyrics, Whitman's poetry, Bible verses, or Wikipedia articles on JuicyCampus?

And one further question of personal relevance to those of us here at The Patriot who have advocated the "misuse" of JuicyCampus: should we look into obtaining counsel, Mr. Ivester?

Some Halloween Inspired Links...

• It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
• The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow
• 20 Costumes That Will Earn You A Halloween Beatdown
• 10 Quick Facts About Disney's Haunted Mansion
• The Cost Of A Good Scare
• "Spread The Wealth" This Halloween
• Evil Ben Bernanke Halloween Masks Sell Out
• How Do You Make A Monster?
• The Kids Halloween Candy Code

• The Santification of Irresponsible Borrowers
• The Market Is Afraid Of A New, New Deal
• Economic Mythology
• Blame Greed: Has America Been Punk'd?
• Could A Libertarian Buy Iceland?
• How The Investor Class Will Be Targeted In 2009
• Saddam's Yacht For Sale

Flex Your Rights has the tips on how to refuse a search in the DC Metro. Read it, learn it, and live it: this is important stuff, and could mean the difference between successfully protecting your privacy and ending up in a WMTPD holding cell. Two of their guidelines:

That's right.

I was born in Pago Pago, and I served in the U.S. Navy for three years before attending college. Also, while we're at it, I'm forty years old, I am a licensed pilot, and last year I earned a Ph.D. in Agriculture from the University of Tokyo. My name is actually George.

"But wait," you might object, "you're obviously lying to me."

Well, since when did that matter?

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An excerpt from a discussion with Matt Ivester, the founder of JuicyCampus. The full transcript of our interview will be included in our forthcoming print edition.

GW Patriot: What would you say to the people who have been the subjects of malicious gossip on your site?

Matt Ivester: We get e-mails all the time [from people complaining about gossip]. What we always say is, everyone has an equal voice on JuicyCampus, so if you see something you disagree with, reply to that post with additional information or your own opinion or start a new thread entirely and change the conversation. We just can’t get in the middle of determining what is and isn’t right. With thousands of posts everyday, we don’t know the people involved and we don’t know anything about what they're doing. I think the other thing I would say to people is, take this for what it is: unsubstantiated anonymous gossip. And I don’t think a reasonable person believes everything they read on a gossip site like ours anyway.

GWP: One of the reasons there seems to be a lot of malicious and false gossip on the website is the anonymity of posters. Do you think that the benefits of anonymity to free speech make up for the risk of providing people with unlimited license to say whatever they wish?

MI: Well I think there’s actually more limited risk than some other people might think. I think there are tremendous benefits to anonomity--namely, that it actually allows you to speak more honestly. I think you can talk about controversial topics and opinions and not have to worry about repercussions from school administrators or students, and you can do that honestly when it’s anonymous. I understand the flip side of that argument, which is that it allows people to make irresponsible comments. But I think that everyone understands the flip side of that argument, so a reasonable person reading JuicyCampus, again, isn’t going to believe everything that they read. And that’s where I would say the risk is minimized.

GWP: Do you think the average college student is a reasonable person?

MI: I do, I do.

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"But I do tell you that if the Democrats win, and have substantial majorities, Congress of the United States will be more bipartisan," said Pelosi.

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I know. I know. I should be so absolutely outraged with our Student Association. They are out control! Who do they think they are . . . to throw such an extravagant and costly ball for campus?

However, that gut instinct would be difficult to ascribe, given the magnitude and success of last night’s event. Always finding it difficult to pinpoint exactly what influence the SA has in my life aside from consuming my student fee; I saw them put together a great event last night that rose above arbitrarily allocating funds to various student factions. Last night, the Student Association, with $50,000 in addition to fees for tickets, threw a party in one very expansive ballroom full of great food, for all of campus to enjoy. Now, some may argue that the price tag for this was a bit excessive. Yet, finding a venue to arrange an event of this size in Washington DC for a bunch of lively college students does not come cheap.

Unity Ball completely caught me by surprise and greatly surpassed my initial expectations. Moreover, I was even more overcome by the shear participation of campus. It is worthy to note that the ballroom was packed throughout the night despite the rainy weather that kept many home. Though I will likely always be an SA skeptic, the event last night is vindicated from much if not all of the criticism of this event in my humble opinion.

The Washington Post illuminates one of the new strategies used to defend threatened congressional seats.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/25/AR2008102501998.html?nav%3Drss_politics&sub=AR

The fears are rising among many Washington insiders, especially among the rank-and-file members of the GOP, that this election may usher a supermajority in both legislative chambers and the Presidency. Many analysts have already presumed Senator Obama’s presidential bid won. In the Senate there appears to be a possibility of a filibuster-proof Democratic majority.

Many Republican candidates, struggling in the polls, have clung to a new issue. Seeing that the other issues in their platform are not translating into the necessary votes, they have embraced new tactic- to raise fears of a one-party government. And who has a better authority to do so than them? During the 108th Congress, the Republican majority continued to spend recklessly despite pledging not to do so, but at least democratic majority rule may be a little more honest about their intentions to increase spending.

Nevertheless, as an example of how desperate some Republican candidates are, many have are beginning to use the fear of one-party rule to motivate constituents to vote against the other candidate. This strategy seems largely ill conceived. Honestly, how many voters actually take into account the make-up of a 535-member body when electing their individual congressman? This is not to claim that one-party rule doesn’t have its drawbacks. It simply seems weak that candidates are trying to use this issue to increase their chances of getting elected. Chances this will be the make or break issue . . . Unlikely!

I went to Unity Ball and despite my best efforts, had a decent time. Now, a cool list of the highlights of the evening.

• 10: The number of non-greeks that were actually there last night. That's probably a generous number
• 9: The number of drink stations that dotted the event. $50,000 bought a lot of booze
  
• 8: The cost of one alcoholic cocktail. You would think $50,000 would have at least bought an open bar.
  
• 7: The number of speeches that were given at the beginning of the evening.
  
• 6: The number of speeches that used the words "unity" and "diversity" at least 20 times.
  
• 5: The cost of a soft drink. I nursed my Coke for the entire night
  
• 4: The number of times Michael Tapscott (Director of the Multicultural Student Services Center) yelled at the crowd to be quiet and listen while he gave his speech; a not so brief history of the world "Unity".
  
• 3: The number of girls from OLAS (Organization of Latin American Students) who performed a step-show during the speech time.
• 2: The number of dessert tables, complete with creme puffs, three types of coffee, and chocolate fondue, by far the best part of the $50,000.
  
• 1: The number of sober people at the dance; yours truly.
  

Highlight of the Night: Michael Tapscott and several of the other speakers actually expecting the liquored up crowd to pay attention to their speeches, then yelling at them for not doing so.

Lowlight of the Night: The DJs refusing my request of "Flashlight" by Parliament-Funkadelic

The Patriot, along with at least one other member of Our Fair University's campus media, has been offered an opportunity to interview Matt Ivester, the founder of JuicyCampus and CEO of Lime Blue, Inc., the website's parent company. Their intention is clearly to drum up publicity for the website, but we hope to make it worth our while by accomplishing our own goal: advancing a fair, nuanced discussion about JuicyCampus and college life. We have strong opinions about JuicyCampus, but no argument has only one side, and The Patriot was never intended to be an echo chamber for its writers.

I want to open this opportunity up a bit to our readers: what do you want to ask Ivester? How do you feel about JuicyCampus? Tell us in the comments, or e-mail me with your suggestions. We're looking for questions that will engage Mr. Ivester and force him to go beyond regurgitating talking points to defend his website and his work.

The transcript of our interview--sans any extensive editorial commentary--will be reproduced in the forthcoming print edition of The GW Patriot, alongside an article criticizing JuicyCampus.

I've heard the Patriot referred to as many things since I started writing for it last year, but today was the first time I ever heard it called a "spam blog." I logged on today only to find a warning that the blog was locked and I could not make any new posts. Since you're reading this post, I was obviously able to correct the error, but it still makes me wonder what happened. Below is Google's sparse description followed by similar sounding stories:

Your blog is locked

Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What's a spam blog?) Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.

We received your unlock request on October 25, 2008. On behalf of the robots, we apologize for locking your non-spam blog. Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam.

Find out more about how Blogger is fighting spam blogs.

Related articles

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Some lighthearted links for the weekend

• Real Ad Men Talk About Mad Men
• 7 Hamburgers Of The Apocalypse
• I Can Has Lolcat Artshow?
• Who Wants To Be An Afghani Millionaire?
• Bloggers Get Liability Insurance

As much as I have railed against the $50,000 subsidized Greek Prom known as the Unity Ball, I will be attending it tomorrow night.
Originally Bill was going to go to the Ball via a free ticket from the SA to report on the event for the Patriot. Bill has since handed over his ticket to me. So, now I will be there reporting in his stead. I will be hovering around the Hor D'oeuvres, I plan on making this $50,000 work. Expect a full report immediately following the event.

Full disclosure, I am a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

Logan will be there as well.

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Say what you will about Stossel, but he's the only one right now pushing a libertarian agenda in the MSM.

Part 1:


Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Feel like getting your debate on? The Enosinian Society is looking for speakers for next week's debate (on October 29th). The resolution: Science should not exist without ethics.

Their "framing paragraph":

Through out the ages science has been responsible for many civilization-changing discoveries. Examples in the modern age span from medical advances such antibiotics and genetic engineering, and sophisticated weaponry like biological warfare and the atomic bomb. Many believe that the application of scientific advances are more likely to harm society and be used for evil purposes if science is pursued unrestrained by an ethical code. Any science that can potentially create, alter, or destroy life must be viewed through the lenses of ethical morality. The opposing argument states that potential scientific discoveries are hindered by the arbitrary stipulations of morality that governing institutions would place on science. Pure science and empirical thought have the ability to regulate the implicit good and evil with their realm and should exist above any ethical framework imposed by the political community. Society has many reasons to fear and admire the power of science, especially in an age of increasingly global issues that turn to science for a solution. In the face of challenges such as global warming, should political institutions govern the use of science? Who decides the rules by which science must abide? Is the pursuit of science really morally neutral? The consequences of science must be considered, as should scientists' responsibility to society as a whole. However, is ethical regulation of science due to fear in the modern age due to fear of discovery or fear of human nature?

If you're interested in participating, contact Society President Jacqueline Posada at jposada@gwmail.gwu.edu.

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The question has a double meaning. In the first place, precisely what went down at last night's S.A. Senate meeting? In the second, why in the world was the liveblog so darned lame?

I'll admit, it was lackluster. Formatting problems with regard to The Patriot's blog layout meant that the right side of the liveblog application was cut off. Also, the liveblog only lasted for 36 minutes--not because I ducked out early, mind you, but because the entire Senate meeting lasted only 36 minutes, from gavel to gavel. I was shocked, not the least because the last meeting afforded me three solid hours of liveblogging fun.

Anyway, here's a run-down of precisely what happened last night:

1) Logan's bill passed. We all wanted this at The Patriot, and we got it with only one dissenting vote (Sen. Rodriguez, Grad at-large). You can expect the writers of The Patriot to be using our access to student organizations' allocations spending records. We suggest that you do the same. Often. Chas Pressner needs work!

2) Freshman senator voting was a no-go. It wasn't voted down. As a matter of fact, it wasn't even discussed. The Senate actually voted it off the table before any debate. I'm not sure how I feel about that. (I'm inclined to think that frosch senators deserve a vote.) What do you think? Let us know!

3) Kyle Boyer released a two-page outline on the new Greek Affairs Commission. The Commission will be releasing a report on Greek Life at Our Fair University in March. Details on this will be posted later.

4) Unity Ball is this weekend. A great opportunity to bring the GW community together for a homecoming-style celebration, or a $50,000 mandatory party for the Greek Community? You be the judge. Just remember: it's a cash bar, folks.

5) I'm in the process of developing an S.A. Senate drinking game. Suggestions are welcome, though "drink every time someone makes a lame joke and falls flat on their face" will definitely be featured prominently.

And that's just about it from the S.A. beat. I don't like government, so you'd think I would be pleased by a relatively passive Student Association. In fact, I'm just bored.

9pm. Right here. S.A. Senate liveblog. It's less boring than it sounds, I swear. Check out the last meeting here. And remember, this time I'm using the CoverItLive application, so it's going to be even easier to read. No refreshing necessary!

See you then.

Oil changes everything.

IHE has a nice article about the multi-blog effort at Our Fair University to spam JuicyCampus into impotency. It's worth noting that midterms and a general slackening of interest have slowed down the spamming rate, but the campaign must move forward. From their article:

[A] group of bloggers at George Washington and elsewhere have found that they can use the unregulated nature of the site against it — burying the nasty stuff with irrelevant Wikipedia entries, nonsense poetry and dada potpourri.

Max McGowen, a GW student who blogged about JuicyCampus this month, publicly criticized the site when he and some of his friends were called out by name in several posts. His blog entry on the subject, titled “The Chains of Identity Released, the Plastics of GW Attack,” called for a boycott and attacked the student culture at GW as part of the problem.

“As one of my friends astutely observed, reading GW’s page is like reading the script of Mean Girls. Except that instead of North Shore High School, now it’s Foggy Bottom. What JuicyCampus has effectively done for GW students is enable them to express their true selves — their true, exceptionally soulless selves,” he wrote. The site’s GW-focused section launched several weeks ago.

But other bloggers piled on, arguing that a boycott would be ineffective. “For the health of the student community, we can’t ignore this forum. We need to turn GW’s JuicyCampus into a joke. Then, maybe, other students will realize the absurdity of it all, and play along,” wrote The GW Patriot, which encouraged students to “flood the forum as if we aren’t a tiny minority of its posters,” invoking the presidential campaign of Ron Paul.

“If we can keep this up for long enough, people will find the site unreliable and unusable,” said a post on the blog The Colonialist. “The hidden ugly content will be flooded with poetic responses and Wikipedia entries. No one will need to use the site anymore. No one will develop the habit of reading it every day. Juicy Campus will cease to be relevant.”

JuicyCampus’s founder, Matt Ivester, has publicly defended the site on free speech grounds and stated that the discussions it fosters happen on college campuses anyway. By that logic, according to its critics, the same goes for the assortment of e.e. cummings verses and Scripture that now finds its way into the site’s message board threads.

My only regret: comparing the spamming of JuicyCampus to the Ron Paul campaign and Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism. Terrible, terrible choice of examples. Now that the "Engaging JuicyCampus" piece is fast becoming my most linked-to and quoted-from contribution to this blog, I'd like to admit that it was poorly written--so poorly, in fact, that it pains me to read it. I originally intended for that monster to be a throw-away post, but the internet had other plans. Go figure.

Enough. Regrets distract from the important point. Ladies and gentlemen, say it once more with feeling: JuicyCampus Delenda Est.

From Taxing Tennessee:

Lets see....we have "fixed" the problem of "affordable" housing. Now, we see strong evidence that we have"fixed" the problem of teen unemployment.I just can't wait until we "fix" the healthcare crisis.

Comment: People often look at the good intentions of a law, rather than the consequences of the enactment of the law. Yes, people should be paid more, but not by artificially raising the minimum wage. Clearly, the losers of this artificial increase are people 16-20, because when the cost of paying workers goes up, the supplies of low wage jobs goes down -- simple economics.

In an effort to spur further scientific inquiry and research, a group of geneticists has endeavored to make individual’s genetic codes public. Bloomberg reports that the Harvard research-related group will release the volunteered genetic codes of 10 individuals today via internet.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a8j8Fqma4PBw&refer=home

The group hopes to resolve many of the ethical woes associated with genetic research in addition to spurring further genetic research. Their goal is to have more than 100,000 individuals genetic codes voluntarily shared on the web. By emphasizing the enormous degree of similarity, while attempting to draw attention to the small portions of the genetic code that hold the secrets to genetic disorders and predispositions to diseases, these researchers hope to bring more vigor to the current research taking place in their field.

Their efforts nonetheless are not without criticism. One cannot help but be reminded to the Social Darwinian concept of eugenics and attempt to reconcile the similarities and differences with this cause. By all means, the group has noble intentions in its publicity of the shared humanity and emphasis on focusing on the rare and greatly under researched genetic flaws and mutations that may be resolved through further research.

Nonetheless, publicly announcing one’s generic code in effect involuntarily announces anyone’s shared genetic identity within a particular family lineage or ethnic connection. The article aptly points this out and reveals that this may indeed be a perplexing ethical dilemma. The big question is whether this group’s intent will result in more tolerance and understanding or unintentionally stigmatize genetic disorders or possibly different ethnic backgrounds or genders. Or might genetically public material potentially affect employment opportunities for individuals with an underlying genetic flaw?

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I want to open this question up to answers in the comments section, because maybe I am just not that smart and can't figure it out:

I was watching Bill Maher's show just now and Bernie Sanders kept going on and on about how the top 1% controls so much of the wealth in the country and that we need to spread some of that wealth around more. The argument, therefore is that more taxes will bring about a "fairer" society. Nevermind the fact, the top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all income taxes, the top 10% pay 71%, and the top 50% pay 97% of all taxes. The bottom 50% pays less than 3% of all income taxes paid. Hardly fair now!

Seeing as though we've had a progressive income tax since the ratification of the 16th amendment in 1913, and it hasn't solved the problem of "fairness" in the United States, why do people still think raising taxes will bring more "fairness?"

So anyone got an idea?

P.S. - This actually is MY question, I seriously can't figure it out!

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Just to ensure that it gets out there before tomorrow's S.A. senate meeting, I present this staff editorial. (It would have appeared in our forthcoming print edition, but it is too time-sensitive and already partially out-dated. Alas.):

On October 8, the Student Association Senate met to consider this year's bill of allocations for our University's student groups. With a few amendments, the bill passed. We may quibble with its details, but The Patriot's editorial board is neither surprised nor particularly bothered by this—and neither should you be. We do, however, note with sadness that Senator Logan Dobson's bill, the "Open the Financial System Act," was sent back to the Rules Committee. The bill—which has been endorsed by The Patriot and The GW Hatchet and cosponsored by Senator Rob Lockwood, Executive Vice President Kyle Boyer, and President Vishal Aswani—would have allowed all students to review details about the use of allocated S.A. funds by student organizations.

Concerns were raised by Student Activities Center Director Tim Miller about the propriety of releasing University financial information to students. Miller suggested that the Senate consult the University's Office of General Counsel. We at The Patriot agree that this consultation is necessary, but believe that it was not necessary for the Senate to delay passage of this popular bill. Certainly, General Counsel could have been contacted between the Senate's and Aswani's respective endorsements of the bill. Alternatively, it would seem a small matter for the University's administrators to unilaterally dispose of the bill after passage if they deem it an unacceptable violation of financial privacy (which The Patriot believes it is not).

Sometimes it can be hard to understand why complex debates about parliamentary procedure and arcane Student Association bylaws should matter to students. The editorial board of The GW Patriot believes that here, though, their importance is clear. We will all benefit from fiscal responsibility and transparency in the Student Association and among student organizations. This bill is an important step toward achieving those goals, and we are opposed to any delay that jeopardizes it. The Senate should now move as quickly as possible to resolve their doubts, reconsider the bill, and pass it. Any further delay is unacceptable.

Senator Dobson said he was "extremely disappointed with the failure of this bill to pass." So are we.

I will admit, going into W last night I was nervous. I was nervous at the prospect of having to sit through two and a half hours of inaccurate character assassination of President Bush. Worried that I would be forced to defend the President among the two anti-Bush fans that I went with, even though I myself am no fan of some of his policies. This, in retrospect was the wrong approach to take.
For those of you wishing to see W to have your own hatred of George W. Bush exercised upon the screen, then I believe you will be very disappointed. Oliver Stone's bio-pic of our 43nd President is accurate, insightful, and above all fair. Stone never paints Bush as the idiotic warmonger that his enemies portray him as. The Bush we see, with an Oscar-worthy performance by Josh Brolin, is sincere yet confused, strong-willed yet naive. The movie is Pro-Bush, the person. His administration is another story. Stone is not so kind to Cheney and Rumsfeld (played by Richard Dreyfuss and Scott Glenn, respectively). Both are protrayed as manipulative war-mongers with the "Dead Certain" attitude that many believe led us into folly in Iraq. Stone however avoids making them the puppet masters of Bush, showing several scenes where W is the one making the decision (he is the "decider") and putting the two in their place. The most unfair protrayal of the movie is Thandie Newton's Condellezza Rice. Newton's Rice is a nerdy bookworm in love with Bush's high-school jock. While there is much debate over Rice's feelings towards Bush, it seems Stone takes a few too many liberties, making her into a lovedrunk little girl who at times seems to lap at the feet of President Bush. Stone's Karl Rove (played by Toby Jones) is also interesting; he is a number-crunching weasel constantly telling talking points into the ear of Bush, something that in all honesty is most likely true. Jeffrey Wright's Colin Powell is cast as the hero of the movie, the man who warned of the trials of nation-building. While Bruce McGill's George Tenet is seen as a lazy buffon who could have easily stopped things over Iraq (namely, the "yellow cake" fiasco) had he the will power.
The rest of the cast fills out nicely as well, Stone tends take his most creative liberty with Bush's cabinet as well as with H.W Bush, a man who seems to not truly respect W, a situation that Bush 43 is constantly trying to overcome.
The film, though made on the fly, is very well done. It is at times funny and at others highly serious and psychological. I suggest that when you see it, you go with an open mind and non-partisan friends. This isn't a movie about Bush the Failure, it is a true and honest story of Bush the man and how he rose from drunken laziness, to the President of the United States.

Grade: A-

The "Bradley Effect"--the controversial (and probably incorrect) theory that black candidates in American elections poll better than they ultimately perform in elections because many Americans are afraid of being perceived as racists by poll workers--may have a counterpart in Wales. Check this comparison of pre-election Welsh polls with the actual results from 2007.

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Following up on my regrettably long liveblog of the S.A. Senate meeting, I'll be doing the same for the next Senate meeting this coming Tuesday at 9pm. I hadn't expected this to become a "regular thing" (the original liveblog venture was undertaken on a lark, after all), but it just might. Aren't you excited?

Well, you should be, because this coming liveblog is going to be totally second-generation! I'll be using a new service called CoverItLive, which should make the liveblog easier to read (and write) by moving it all into a snazzy-lookin' application window within a small blog post. You won't have to refresh it. The liveblog will be right here at The Patriot's blog: same place, same time, brand-new design. The S.A. hasn't looked this hot since Audai Shakour.

For an example of what all of this will look like, check reason Magazine's staff liveblog of last night's Presidential Debate.

TL;DR no more!

Will brought up the issue of college costs and college attendance last night in the comments section of my post. For the daily links today, I am going to repost Thomas Sowell's excellent pieces on the economics of college:



Thomas Sowell presents a three part series on the economics of college:

• Part 1: How many people would go to college if they had to pay the real cost of all the resources taken from other parts of the economy?
• Part 2: What if instead of taxpayers subsidizing education, college students sign enforceable contracts by which lenders would pay their college or university expenses in exchange for a given percentage of their future earnings?
• Part 3: Why does college cost so much?

Mr. Sowell lays out some very convincing points for the economics of college. Simply put, college education is where it is today because there are no market forces acting in academia. Tuition is at an all-time high because people are willing to pay that much for it. What incentive is there for colleges to reduce costs if the federal government will subsidize the cost of education? In addition, what incentive is there for students to take full advantage of their college experience if they do not have to bear the full cost of education. Would there be as many "party schools" if students had to factor in the costs of partying instead of thinking about their $30,000 a year investment? If students were faced with the reality of using their own money, instead of using a government subsidy, how many would still study "alternative" majors instead of ones that will allow them to pay off their education?

I know I am coming off all high and mighty, but Mr. Sowell has it right. Higher education should be there for those who want it and who find it a worthy investment in their future, not simply because it's what society says you should do after high school.

Sorry, I know we at The Patriot hate to talk too much about national politics. Frankly, you can find better analysis on national issues on blogs where people actually get paid to comment and I don't want the Patriot to turn into NRO's The Corner. But something that has been brought up a lot has been the issue of earmarks, and how they play a part in the national budget. I just heard Obama, and Pat Ford from time to time, dismiss the problem of earmarks as something minute -- a small percentage of the national budget. However, while the total $ amount of earmarks is a small percentage of the budget, they are a very crucial part of the budget process. Often, earmarks are tied to votes on other bills. It is a blatant, "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" culture. Earmarks are a part of the budget process not just to get pet projects put into bills, but to ensure that others will vote for other bloated bills down the line. It is a process that currently is shrouded by a process that inserts spending without debate and cannot be solved until all earmarks are allowed to be debated on the floor, or ultimately taken off bills with a line item veto.

Oh yeah, and Obama just said every student will get $4,000 for college in exchange for national service. Isn't that indentured servitude?

According to a source at the Student Association, the much hyped "Unity Ball" will cost upwards of $50,000. The Ball was originally going to be an "All-Greek Formal", but IFC and Pan-Hell couldn't raise enough money just from allocations, so they requested a $5,000 SA cosponsership. Another $6,000 will be coming from the SA's executive budget. This along with money coming from IFC, Pan-hell, Multicultural greek council, BSA, JSA, ISA, and various other student orgs will bring the grand total of the "Ball" to around $50,000 of student money. Think this means free tickets? Not quite, they will be $20.

Is this a good allocation of our funds?

You can pay somebody to do just about anything for you:

We provide persons to stand in line anywhere in the greater Washington DC area, and specialize in United States Congressional hearings and their respective committees.

• Deregulation Was Not The Problem
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• What's The Deal With Personal Seat Licenses?
• An Incovenient Truth About "Shipping Jobs Overseas"
• Iowa Governor Says States Need Federal Bailout Too!
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• Who Needs Calorie Transparency
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Reinier Alcantara, soccer player.

He ran away (literally) from the team when they were here in D.C. for a World Cup qualification match against the U.S. team:

He ran, and ran, and ran. Six to eight blocks. At full speed, looking over his shoulder the whole way, worried that someone would snag him and deliver him back to the Cuban delegation. Finally, when he realized nobody was chasing him, Alcantara stopped at a corner, caught his breath, and flagged down a taxi.

He speaks very little English, but he used what he knew when he got into the taxi cab. "Drive me far," he told the driver, motioning with his hand. "Go far, far, far."

According to Senator Logan Dobson at Inside the S.A., an attempt to bring back a three year-old overhaul of the S.A. Constitution is in the cards:

The Student Court invalidated this constitution in 2005, however. The court argued that the new constitution had never passed the senate with the 2/3 of all senators it required, and thus could not be enacted.Polk's attempt to bring back this constitutional amendment will certainly be tricky. According the leaked email, which was sent to people who had been involved in the last constitutional fight, Nick feels that a new senate and court would be more receptive to the constitutional changes.

Some of the proposed changes: division of the responsibilities of the Executive Vice President, expansion of the Student Court, and the elimination of the Joint Elections Committee.

• Negative Advertising
• Our Everyone Gets A Trophy Economy
• Laying The Groundwork For Recovery
  
• A Libertarian Voting Dilemma
• The Rich Support McCain, The Uber-Rich Support Obama
• Economist Arnold Kling Asks A Great Question To The Candidates: If half of the troubled mortgage loans are for non-owner-occupied homes, that is for houses owned by speculators, do your proposals still make sense?

• States That Can't Pay For Themselves
• The Light At The End Of The Crisis
• Mark-To-Market Accounting Wrecks Banks
• The Underground Economy In Germany
• Curious Case Of Louisiana Film Subsidies
  
• Fogies: Ready To Lead
  
• Homemade Cookies Banned At School...Too Risky
  
• Because You Never Know When Marietta's Gonna Become Fallujah

As students of the George Washington University and many other schools around the country trudge off to class on this national holiday, there will be little, if any, discussion on the holiday being ignored. If there is any conversation, it will surely be to ensure that people understand why it should be ignored. Some even think ignorance should be replaced by activism against the holiday's supposedly deplorable source.

If you don't already know, today is Columbus Day. Although Christopher Columbus was heralded as a hero for hundreds of years after his voyage, modern multiculturalists have torn his name to shreds. Although the District of Columbia, Columbia University, Columbus, Ohio, Columbia, South Carolina, etc... are named after the man, these stand as nothing more than bloody reminders of the West's imperialistic past to some. Indeed, in many ways the heritage of the western world's exploration of the New World is irrevocably tied to Columbus and his journey.

And the story of Columbus is not without its historical falsities. For example, no serious thinkers at the time of Columbus' departure believed the world to be flat. The most obvious misconception is that Columbus did not discover America, but the Americas, which were not even named so until after his death. The Vikings were on our continent long before Columbus set sail. But there have been other disputes as well. Some claim he was a "genocidal maniac" who's main legacy is wanton slaughter. Others see him as a religious fanatic with mass conversion in mind (as if that would make him a fanatic).

But the Christopher Columbus critic is a med-school specimen of insane multiculturalism, riven with the pathologies particular to that world-view. It triggers every multiculturalist cliche, from "White Man vs Dark Man" to "Christianity vs. Rich Indigenous Culture" to "Rich Imperialist vs. Poor Localist." They also claim he brought slavery to the New World. This radical revisionism demands evaluation.

William J. Connell, a historian at Seton Hall University, has studied Columbus extensively and was featured in a New York Times article on the subject in 2000. Connell claims that, despite the shortcomings of Columbus' actual landing spots, it is without doubt that Columbus brought glory to exploring the New World, and his popular voyage was seen as opening the proverbial floodgates to western exploration. His arrival marks ''where we as a country and as a hemisphere began our identity,'' said Mr. Connell. ''It's a question of the contact that matters. There wasn't a significant or important tradition that survived from the voyages of the Vikings.''

As for claims that Columbus brought slavery to the New World, they are radically mistaken. It is now believed that slavery existed amongst the tribes of the western hemisphere for centuries prior to the arrival of Columbus. In fact, Columbus' views of slavery were rather benign and average for the time. Whereas many held slavery as a product of racial prejudice, Columbus' concept of slavery was rooted in the Aristotelian concept that ''if a person is captured in war, they're legitimately a slave,'' Connell explains. ''There was nothing racial about it.''

The Times article then addresses the claims of genocide:

Moreover, widely spread accounts that Columbus's followers wiped out the Taino people of the Caribbean were inaccurate, says Jorge Estevez, himself of Taino lineage, who is a program coordinator at the National Museum of the American Indian in Manhattan. Mr. Estevez says that although many natives were murdered, fell victim to European diseases, or were taken captive, others intermingled with the Spanish settlers. And the settlers who were given Tainos as slaves were required to pay taxes on them, resulting in the undercounting of the Tainos as a form of tax evasion and leading to reports of their eradication.

In fact, most of the "devastation" caused by Columbus was accidental, caused primarily by the unintentional exposure of disease to natives.

These inaccurate criticisms are rooted primarily in Columbus' status as a western and Catholic hero. His mission of conversion, though seen as deplorable by irreligious people, was without a doubt a mission of love undertaken with the salvation of of a backward people in mind. Are we to believe that the indigenous faiths of the Americas, such as the Aztecs, were better and more peaceful than Christianity? If we are to teach children of the evils of Columbus' conversion mission, shouldn't we explain to them that in one day 20,000 Aztec slaves were slaughtered in a religious sacrifice?

We as a society have gone back and drawn a Snidely Whiplash mustache on Columbus' luckless countenance. Formerly a hero, he is now a villain. As usual, the truth is somewhere in between the two. But if we as a society are to chose between Che Guevara and Christopher Columbus, the choice is easy. As Mr. Connell says, "'Celebrate' is a word we could use for Columbus's genius, his persistence against the odds in getting people who were much more powerful than he was to back him in a risky enterprise that had results way beyond anyone's imagination. We can celebrate his enterprise and ingenuity. A more appropriate word for what happened would be 'commemorate.' ''

I'll commemorate the brave actions of Christopher Columbus. Will you?

It's probably important to remember that Krugman is not just The New York Times' lefty op-ed writer. He's also a well-respected trade economist, and he's being honored for the latter, and not the former:

Mr. Krugman received the award for his work on international trade and economic geography. In particular, the prize committee lauded his work for “having shown the effects of economies of scale on trade patterns and on the location of economic activity.” He has developed models that explain observed patterns of trade between countries, as well as what goods are produced where and why. Traditional trade theory assumes that countries are different and will exchange different kinds of goods with each other; Mr. Krugman’s theories have explained why worldwide trade is dominated by a few countries that are similar to each other, and why some countries might import the same kinds of goods that it exports.

Congratulations, Professor Krugman.

I was digging through GW's website and I stumbled upon a document known as the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities. Check it out. Especially interesting are the rights that I didn't know we had here at The Patriot:

The student press and media shall be free of censorship and advance approval of copy, while being governed by the canons of responsible journalism.

Editors and managers of student publications or broadcast stations shall be free from arbitrary suspension and removal because of student, faculty, administrative, or public disapproval of editorial policy or content. Only for proper and stated causes shall editors and managers be subject to removal and then by orderly and prescribed procedures. Such removal shall be deemed a form of disciplinary action and therefore subject to prescribed due process in disciplinary cases. The agency responsible for the appointment of editors and managers shall be the agency responsible for their removal.

Even though certain publications may be financially dependent on the University, in the delegation of editorial responsibility to students, the University shall provide sufficient editorial freedom and financial autonomy for the student publications to maintain their integrity of purpose as vehicles for free inquiry and free expression in an academic community.

All student publications that are published and financed by the University shall explicitly state on the editorial page that the opinions expressed are those of the publication and are not necessarily those of the University or the student body.

Any committees for the supervision of such publications or media shall have student members.

There were a few things I didn't get the opportunity to say on air today, so I'll say them now.

Joe, the speaker on behalf of gun control, gave us a heartfelt, terrible story about his father's experiences with guns. (His father has been "held up" three times, but never shot.) He then asked us a question. To paraphrase: why should his father have to experience that? Why should anyone?

It's a good question, and we might agree that the world would be a better place without guns. (Surely, that would be the only world in which no one would have to experience what Joe's father experienced.) It is not, however, an adequate argument in favor of gun control. Arguments for gun control have to do more than simply pointing out the danger of guns--they have to show that gun control actually solves the problem. Joe never did that, and it made his terrible story seem like a cheap, shallow appeal to emotion.

We can feel for Joe's father without believing that gun control would have prevented his experiences from occurring. What, for example, would Joe say to the thousands of people who were victims of gun crime in DC while the city had some of the strictest gun control laws in the country? How can he tell them (or us) that gun control is the solution to their problem?

Joe's shortcoming, I think, was that he placed too much trust in the state. It's understandable: we want the state to represent us, care for us, and defend us. It can be difficult to admit that the state is often incapable of doing these things. We have to do them for ourselves--and our society isn't any less "civilized" if we choose to do them with guns.

...Today from 12-1. We will be debating DC v Heller and the whole idea of "gun control". Should be a basket of fun.

Don't laugh. This is actually an amazing midterm distraction.

Apparently YAF didn't get enough people mad last year...because Islamo fascism week is making a triumphant return. This should be fun.

Would it be better for the uninformed to NOT vote?

How To Fix America's Health Insurance Crisis:

This is the statement from EVP Kyle Boyer regarding the creation of the Greek Affairs Commission:

Approximately ten years ago, the leadership of the Student Association came together to form an impartial commission to evaluate Greek Life at GW, and to provide subsequent recommendations to both Greeks and the University administration. In addition to marking the ten-year anniversary of that commission, 2008 marks the 150^th anniversary of Greek Life on our campus. Therefore, it is more than appropriate to once again, conduct an open, organized, and objective self-assessment of Greek Life at GW.

I have commissioned a diverse group of 13 students to serve on a 2008-2009 Greek Affairs Commission. Each member of the GAC brings a unique perspective. Sitting on the GAC are students from several fraternities, several sororities, Multicultural Greek Life, non-Greek students, the Student Association leadership, as well as each academic year. Together they represent the best of student leadership within Greek Life.

I have tasked the GAC with producing a thorough and extensive assessment of Greek Life. While initiated out of my office, the GAC has full autonomy to conduct all meetings, interviews, and research necessary to produce a comprehensive report. I should also note that the Charge delivered to the GAC was developed in consultation with Student Activities administrators.

All GW students should look forward to the work of the GAC, the potential of their findings, and the benefits that our campus will enjoy.

Kyle J. Boyer

Executive Vice President

Student Association

*EDIT* Here is the 13 member commission (from a different press release):

The two (2) co-directors of Greek Affairs: Carly Schildhaus, Akif Merchant

The Chair of the Student Life Committee: Michelle Tanney

Two (2) SA Senators: Chris Pappas, Logan Dobson

Two (2) members of IFC Fraternities: Roland Shaw, Phil Bianchi

Two (2) members of Panhellenic sororities: Kate Prescott, Alex Byrd

One (2) representative of Multicultural Greek Life: (Female TBD), Jeffrey Chan

One (1) non-Greek Student: Andrea Criollo

One (1) Greek member of the freshman class: Matt Lebow

Next Wednesday, October 15, the Enosinian Society (the oldest student group here at GW), will be holding a debate in The Honors Building at 714 21st Street NW. The topic:

Resolved: Organized religion is a distraction not a solution

The Enosinian Society is easily the most underrated group here at GW. I haven't been able to make it to one of their debates in a while (last Wednesday I attended the CFL's abortion debate, which was sadly scheduled at the same time), but I remember them being good fun for all and very edifying. Their topics are typically abstract enough to be classic subjects for discussion, but topical and specific enough to be relevant to anyone that pays attention to the news.

The debate starts at 8pm. Be there, bring your Bible and your Dawkins, and get your debate on!

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• Plunging Oil Prices Puts OPEC On Bailout List (Satire)

By this point in the semester we already have too much reading to do. Between normal reading assignments, midterm studying, and obsessively checking JuicyCampus for something to complain about, who has time to read about the current economic crisis?

I give you my three favorite visual aids that describe what's happening:

1. A brilliant presentation describing how people financing home purchases became a global financial apocalypse: http://tinyurl.com/subprimepresentation



2. A new graphic by the New York Times showing the timeline of government intervention since last year: http://tinyurl.com/NYTtimeline



3. If you're still confused about terms like "economy" and "recession" the Harvard Business Review has your back. Their annotated graph of a century's economic growth in America does not yet include the current global crisis, but it gives you a quick background in the cyclical nature of economic growth and recession: http://harvardbusiness.org/flatmm/hbextras/200805/recessions/

It's been a while since I contributed to the Patriot Blog so I'll regal you with some shorter items of interest.

The United States government may be taking ownership stakes in banks in exchange for bailout money. Something that has always confused me is how things would be different if America had kept re-chartering the Bank of the United States.

The National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of digits. It's replacement, due next year, will be able to accurately record up to a quadrillion dollars worth of debt. In other words, it will last until Obama is up for re-election.

Two illegal immigrants were arrested and will be sent back to their native country. Not especially noteworthy except that the pair are American citizens who where touring Lebanon.

The McCain campaign is being sued by left-of-center musicians who take issue with their music being used in his campaign ads and rallies. The GOP (and presumably the Democrats as well) maintains licenses for "millions of songs" for use in campaigns. I'm sure the whining artists don't mind their royalty checks. Do you think that someone might think that the use of a song in a campaign ad implies endorsement? Tell me in comments.

• Fear Will Subside
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• Private Retirement Accounts Still Make Sense
• Not Paying My Health Insurance, Cuz It's A Right And All...
  

A Hatchet editorial endorses our fight to spam JuicyCampus into oblivion:

We applaud the student life blogs the GW Patriot and the Colonialist for their campaign to undermine Juicy Campus. Their creative, funny initiative to spam the site by posting random, banal information in place of gossip is inspired and shows ingenuity.

General student reaction has been encouraging, as most students agree that the site needs to be rendered useless. Juicy Campus is alive and well on other university campuses, and we are genuinely pleased that GW students are showing strong character by calling for everyone to spam the site into impotence.

Thanks, Hatchet.

EDIT: It's also good to see that they noticed this:

In a stunning case of nepotism, at Tuesday's meeting, Sen. Michelle Tanney (SPS-G) advocated on behalf of the student organization Student Political Interest Network (SPIN). She argued that the $150 SPIN received in its initial allocation was insufficient and that the group should have $2300 from the SA. Many student org leaders came to the meeting to ask for allocations increases, and this would all be fine - except that Tanney is also president of SPIN.

A parade of student organizations stood up during public comment to request more money from the Senate. None of those groups had officers in the Senate who allowed themselves to be used as shills. I thought that this sort of behavior was unacceptable at the time, and I still do.

Transparency advocates, begin kvetching:

A bill designed to increase transparency in the student organization financial process was sent back to committee at the Student Association senate meeting Tuesday night after the advisor to the SA encouraged senators to allow the University General Counsel to review the bill.

Tim Miller, executive director of the Student Activities Center, said he did not urge senators to vote against the bill, but rather for them to allow the counsel to say whether or not they were comfortable with allowing University financial records to become public.

Of course, the bill may be passed in the future, but that's a pretty big "may be."

That is, What Would Nozick Do?

In regard to the bailout, of course. Richard Epstein is a man after my heart:

Now that yesterday's market nosedive shows the disappointing Congressional bailout has not calmed markets, let the post-mortem begin. Disasters like this latest financial meltdown don't just happen. Mistakes this huge require an impoverished political philosophy to grease the skids. Fannie and Freddie didn't design their horrific lending policies by chance. No, behind this lending fiasco lay the strong collective preference for the "patterned principles" of justice that Robert Nozick attacked so powerfully in his 1974 masterpiece, Anarchy, State, and Utopia.

H/T: The Volokh Conspiracy

• The Bailout And The Vanishing Taxpayer
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All studying Thucydides and no play makes Bill a dull boy, so I'll be posting some observations from tonight's S.A. meeting. Senator Dobson's bill will be up for a vote first thing, it seems. And then, allocations. Good fun will be had by all!

Highlights: Dobson's bill is sent back to committee (9:36-10:10pm). GSPM's "SPIN," a group with a Senator for a fiduciary officer, receives a $550 increase (10:22-10:40pm). Colonials For Life, a group without a fiduciary officer in the Senate, is denied a $50 increase (11:48-11:50pm).

----------
11:54pm - The S.A. is taking their sweet time finishing up. But I'm done. It's been real, folks. Tool-baggery FTW!

11:53pm - Lame joke from Luke Wilson.

11:52pm - They're passing the gavel. So close to being done!

11:51pm - The budget is up as a whole. It passes. Duh. Dobson dissents!

11:50pm - LOGAN DOBSON WINS AT STUDENT ASSOCIATION!!!! We should go see the GC about this!

11:50pm - Amendment fails. CFL gets no increase. GW gets no justice.

11:48pm - Senator Dobson is arguing that CFL should get $50 more. Totally fair.

11:47pm - Laverone and Dobson are the only dissenters. WRGW now gets $3,488.

11:46pm - Steve Glatter's motion passes for WRGW. Logan is the lone-wolf dissenter. Chris Pappas' motion now gives WRGW $3,488. Dobson doesn't believe they need ANY increase.

11:39pm - WRGW Direction Hannah Byam is speaking on behalf of an increase for the radio station. She seems to be claiming that they'll go under without an increase.

11:34pm - A question I'll open up to readers. If allocations should cover "operational costs," how should we define "operational costs"? In the balance, almost $2,000 of funding to WRGW.

11:32pm - The Senate is discussing WRGW funding. Currently: $2,770.

11:31pm - Kyle Boyer, professional friend. Don't stab him.

11:29pm - Bindelglass the Fiscal Conservative: we can't keep increasing allocations. The S.A. money-pit does have a bottom.

11:26pm - FAIL.

11:25pm - We're finally voting on the DPE increase. Laverone wants $50 more.

11:21pm - Logan Dobson SUCKS AT HAND SIGNALS.

11:19pm - Laverone wants to increase the Delta Phi Epsilon allocation. (Current: $350.) He's a member, but not an officer. And it's PHEE, not PHY, people. Get it RIGHT.

11:18pm - Apparently, Senator Laverone studies Ancient Greek.

11:18pm - Banaa gets nothing. Their $200 amendment fails.

11:14pm - Applause. Josh Lasky has made an appearance.

11:11pm - So true. And Vishal still hasn't said anything about it. Unacceptable.

11:10pm - Senior Class amendment carries. Ugh.

11:10pm - The Hatchet pwns me. The speaker's name was Tabesa Walwema.

11:07pm - The Drama Llama showed up for a moment as Boyer enforced a time limit on a speaker talking about the Senior Class Gift issue. (Can't remember her name, unfortunately. I'm a bad liveblogger.)

11:04pm - Increasing the allocation for the Senior Class Gift? NOOOO.

11:00pm - Downtime entertainment. While we wait for some procedural stuff.

10:55pm - Just to let people know, I'm on AIM at WCFlanigen. I welcome observations/comments via Instant Message, because I can't access my e-mail and blog simultaneously. Long story there.

10:54pm - The C-A Student Association gets $1,100 (the same as last year).

10:51pm - Motion to give the Chinese-American Student Association $1300. It's only fair.

10:50pm - Things are coming to order again. I'd like to take this moment to plug the jointly-sponsored GW Patriot/Colonialist effort to DESTROY JUICYCAMPUS.

10:42pm - Five minute break. Where's the fucking water fountain? I need cigarettes.

10:40pm - It's official. SPIN gets $700. That's $550 of favoritism, methinks. Anyone want to set the over-under on ANY OTHER GROUP getting an increase that large?

10:39pm - Logan motions to amend: give SPIN $700, instead. It looks like the amendment passes.

10:34pm - I'm going to come out here and editorialize a bit: it's foul business to give an organization more money because they happen to have a Senator in their leadership. They should have the same handicap placed on them that other, less fortunate groups do. Foul, foul business.

10:33pm - I flipped the liveblog. It's better now. Liveblog redux. The Senate is considering a vote on whether or not to vote on an amendment to an amendment. Whew.

10:27pm - Kudos to those Senators that object to using a Senate seat to ask for more money for your own organization. If I were a Senator, I wouldn't be shilling for The Patriot. (Our allocation this year: $0. Precisely what we requested.)

10:22pm - Senator Tanney is shilling for the GSPM's "SPIN." (Allocation: $150. She wants more. Pineres agrees.)

10:20pm - The silence is me resting my fingers.

10:10pm - Pineres' motion to refer the bill back to the rules committee (to be checked by the GC) passes overwhelmingly. Four nays (including Dobson and Lockwood) and one abstention. The bill won't be passed tonight, ladies and gentlemen. On to allocations!

10:07pm - I'm sensing a serious erosion of support for Dobson's bill.

10:05pm - Dobson understands the nature of government. Postponing a bill may kill it. "Why don't we just pass it now, if [the GC doesn't] like it, they can get rid of it."

10:04pm - Pineres wants "due diligence" from the Rules Committee on the bill.

10:02pm - A sunrise amendment fails. Pineres motions to move the bill back to the Rules Committee. Shitstorm of objections.

9:58pm - Boyer encourages Senators not to think "too deep into this" bill. Pineres slaps him down for "editorializing." As the EVP, he shouldn't be advocating, but moderating.

9:55pm - "Money" is "a very controversial issue at this University" (says Senator Tanney). Speak it, sister. I'm taking some credit for this.

9:51pm - Dobson is pulling the Constitution out. Uh oh. He says we don't need the GC's permission. Ricardo Pineres complains about the wording of a sunrise clause amendment.

9:50pm - This liveblogging experience (my first) is actually turning out to be oddly Zen-like. Very enjoyable.

9:49pm - A motion to postpone the bill fails.

9:45pm - Rob Lockwood wants to vote on the bill now, then enact it after the General Counsel passes on it. Break out your copies of Robert's Rules, folks. It's getting complex.

9:43pm - There's a seconded motion to table the bill on the basis of Miller's objection. Dobson's objection: we should vote on the bill and then invite any concerns from the General Counsel.

9:40pm - SAC Director Tim Miller asks that we talk to University General Counsel about the propriety of releasing "university financial records." Dobson responds: if the Finance Committee and Pressner can look at the records, why can't the rest of the student body?

9:38pm - According to the bylaws, Pressner (VPFA) is actually not allowed to give out the records for group spending of allocated funds. Unacceptable.

9:36pm - Dobson's bill is up. SO EXCITED.

9:35pm - Pressner on the Chinese-American Student Association: give them money. Is Pressner shilling for Big China? Seriously, though, it sounds like their group was shafted.

9:34pm - Chas Pressner takes over Vishal's mike, hikes it up, and tells Vishal that he's "kind of short."

9:33pm - Vishal reiterates his support for Senator Dobson's bill.

9:32pm - OMG VISHAL IS HERE.

9:30pm - Impromptu singing of Happy Birthday. S.A. Senate = Serious Business.

9:25pm - A paperwork fuck-up resulted in an $700-800 decrease in Colonials For Life's award. (This year: $100.) Ouch.

9:23pm - David Anderson, who is organizing the Senior Class Gift, claims that voting will occur within a week on the legacy gift. Seniors pay heed.

9:18pm - Basically, requests for more money (or any money at all) are pouring in, so I'm not listing them anymore.

9:17pm - Makwei Mabioor Deng is making an appearance. He's the first Sudanese student going to GW on a full-ride scholarship. (Not to speak...just to be seen.) Kudos!

9:13pm - President Desai, from the GW South Asian Society, complains about not having received an allocation at all. Fairly, it seems, he actually admits that he's here to "complain." Straight up: he probably should be.

9:11pm - Phi Alpha Delta, the pre-law "frat"...does the same. (Their allocation this year: $150.) Pork-fest, or Oliver Twist-like plea for sustinence? They compare themselves to the business fraternity that received a $750 allocation.

9:09pm - The President of the Sikh Student Association stands to do the same. (Their original allocation was $100, and they're requesting an increase to $250.)

9:07pm - WRGW's Director stands for public comment, requesting a larger initial allocation from the S.A.

8:56pm - Senators and such-like types are filtering in. It's like the Oscars, except not.