January 31, 2010
Posted by yaman
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning political speech restrictions on corporations and unions, a chorus of voices from the Democratic Party has attacked the decision. Notably, President Obama claimed in his State of the Union address that the ruling “will open the floodgates for special interests… to spend without limit in our elections.”
I think we [...]
January 2, 2010
Posted by yaman
There is no doubt that the families of CIA operatives killed in Afghanistan have personal tragedies to attend to. However, is it a public tragedy? For it is no less the case that those hundreds and thousands of civilians–indeed even combatants–killed by Americans in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and now all over the world, also have [...]
December 12, 2009
Posted by yaman
One need not agree with whatever happened at the Chancellor’s mansion to resist the administration’s attempt to co-opt independent student forces by soliciting their blanket condemnation of the incident.
Governor Schwarzenegger finally took notice of public education after the incident, calling individuals who were allegedly involved “terrorists.” Earlier today the Chancellor and his PR spokesperson Dan [...]
December 6, 2009
Posted by yaman
UC Berkeley administrators are still dodging responsibility for police brutality on Berkeley’s campus during the occupation of Wheeler Hall on November 20. Measures that have been announced are meant to distract the campus community from the crucial fact that the problem is not necessarily with policing policy, but rather with policing as a policy.
November 21, 2009
Posted by yaman
Please forward to UC faculty, grad students, and friends
Dear UC Faculty and Friends,
There are few words that can describe the horror of police violence against students on UC Berkeley’s campus Friday November 20. Chancellor Birgeneau’s dispatches to the campus community, most recently those today pre-empting a critical outrage to what transpired, are disgraceful and must [...]
November 15, 2009
Posted by yaman
In a conversation on the law student mailing list, one student, understandably upset about the loss of a favorite mug, shared a warning with others about thefts in the library. To the dismay of other students, however, the cautionary message also expressed frustration to the effect of “I hope to accomplish two things with this [...]
March 2, 2009
Posted by yaman
UC Berkeley student group Tikvah’s “Israeli Peace and Diversity Week” makes two claims about Israel that are simply not borne out by history. The first is that there is such a thing as Israeli peace, even in the wake of the recent Israeli massacres that killed over 1,300 people in Gaza and prompted Amnesty International [...]
November 3, 2008
Posted by yaman
I put this graph together to get a visual representation of how much an individual person’s vote is worth when translated into an electoral college vote. I did this by dividing the number of electoral votes per state, by the population of each state. According to these numbers, each citizen of Wyoming has four times [...]
October 14, 2008
Posted by yaman
The cartoon above by Gretchen Faust in the Daily Cal pretty much sums up what it means to have a Panda Express on campus. First, it literally doesn’t fit. Second, it’s an ominous threat to the independent small businesses in the space. And Third, despite the way some people have been waxing philosophical about free [...]
September 1, 2008
Posted by yaman
According to Haaretz, Danny Ayalon, the ex-Israeli ambassador to the US and newly annointed member of Israel’s fascist Yisrael Beiteinu party (whose leader, Avigdor Lieberman, recently suggested that the Israeli state should do what it can to expel the 20% of Israeli citizens who are Palestinian), issued the following ‘warning’:
“If the government of Israel does [...]
OH, HELLO. Here’s some good news, after years and years of promoting the necessary destruction of Iraq and Iraqis, all for the purpose of a war that diverted the United States from pressing issues of national security, Tom Friedman has declared the Iraq misadventure to be a success and has officiall…
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com
(Discussion)
It’s time to rein in the way police and safety officers in New York public schools mistreat students.
Police the police.
(Discussion)
Produced by HuffPost’s Eyes & Ears Citizen Journalism Unit On March 4th, 2010, demonstrators in California and across the country took to the streets to protest massive cuts at all levels of education and government imposed austerity measures.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com
(Discussion)Frederick Douglas tells us that power concedes nothing without a demand: Street rebellions force the establishment to yield to the demands of the movement or be faced with an ungovernable, rebellious populace. In short, stopping highway traffic in protest of the dismantling of public education was a…
Source: occupyca.wordpress.com
(Discussion)
We would not be where we are today as a country if people who were politically marginalized had not stood up for their rights. As a student and human rights activist, I expect that our universities will allow space for all points of view, including my nonviolent and heartfelt protestations against O…
(Discussion)
On Sunday, February 28th the New York Times published an outrageous oped by Efraim Karsh full of lies, distortions and mistakes. Karsh claims that Muslims view themselves as part of the House of Islam and the rest of the world as part of the House of War. I have worked in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Soma…
Nir Rosen destroys many of the myths that are common to American approaches to Iraq, Muslims, and the Middle East in general.
(Discussion)Fear tactics? Not the best fundraising strategy. First, your plan divides Republican donors into two main categories: small donors who are “visceral,” “reactionary” and motivated by “fear,” and large donors who are “calculated,” “ego-driven” and motivated by “access.”
Source: www.washingtonpost.com
(Discussion)
Charles Washington with his wife Tracey, holding her 5-year-old son, speaks on behalf of his family at the Asian Law Caucus office in San Francisco.
Gavin Newsom wrecking homes and families in San Francisco.
(Discussion)
A noose hung to intimidate African-American students is the latest racist incident to spur activism at UC San Diego ahead of the March 4 Day of Action.
Especially noteworthy is the section about the Black Student Union denouncing the administration-led “leadership bodies” as “a tactic to divide student leaders from the student movement.” All student ‘government’ is a tactic to divide student leaders from students.
(Discussion)
The scandal is that many students at UCSD consider black people and communities as a product of their imaginations and consumer habits: an entertainment commodity we pay to watch on MTV, or hear on the radio. A stereotype we have the “right” to enjoy and take pleasure in, because we have paid good m…
(Discussion)