Sci & Tech 1 - Emergency Vehicles

Anyone who walked by Science and Technology Building 1 will have noticed the police presence, emergency vehicles, caution tape, and, until recently, the helicopter. For those interested, there has apparently been some sort of chemical spill on the forth floor of the building. The helicopter was there to evacuate people. It is believed that a significant amount of sulfuric acid was spilled in the building.

Election Results Come In

First:

Live election results at Broadsideonline.com:

State Senate
House of Delegates

As expected, it appears as if the Democrats are winning at the moment [10:43PM].

The following districts seem to be experiencing some sort of difficulty involving the posting of their votes, the counts seem to be distinctly... odd:

----

Springfield District

According to the state board of election site, Mike McClanahan has a 99.84% majority while the Fairfax County site has McClanahan with 9,303 and Herrity has 13,015.

[11:28PM] Broadside has an UPDATE.

Providence District

----

Also Loudoun County appears to be experiencing delays in the posting of its numbers.

Halloween Costumes

In a sort of follow up on the recent editorial in Broadside entitled "Or Are They Spooks?"

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/11/06/chertoff-myers/

A sample:

Chertoff Claims ‘Zero Tolerance’ For Discriminatory Halloween Costume, Excuses Julie Myers’ Role
Julie Myers, head of Homeland Security’s immigration division, has come under intense criticism for awarding “Most Original Costume” to an employee “who dressed in prison stripes, dreadlocks and dark makeup for a Halloween gathering at the agency.” Myers was part of a three-judge panel that awarded the prize.

Today, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff appeared on MSNBC and said that he had put the employee who wore the costume on “administrative leave.” He added that he has “zero tolerance” for discriminatory acts. But when it came to Myers, Chertoff refused to condemn her and indicated that she would face no punitive action:

Vote!

Hello fair readers, I am writing to you early this morning as I gather together all my methods of identification and prepare to vote.

If you have not picked up a Broadside election guide, listing all the local candidates, now is the time. If you want another list of candidates and their websites, you can find it here.

If you are registered to vote in VA then you must bring a form of identification to the polls. This includes a Passport, a VA-issued drivers license or DMV special ID Card, an employer-issued ID, or your social security card.

If you are not sure where to vote, you can look up your polling place at the Virginia State Board of Elections site.

If you are, like me, registered to vote under your on-campus address, then your voting place is:

WOODSON HIGH SCHOOL
9525 Main St
Fairfax VA 22031-4006
(FAIRFAX COUNTY)

and here is how to get there from on-campus:

1. 1 Depart Rivanna River Way
2. 2 Turn left onto Patriot Circle 0.1 mi
3. 3 Turn left onto Shenandoah River Ln 0.2 mi
4. 4 Turn left onto Roberts Rd 1.0 mi
5. 5 Turn right onto SR-236 East / Main St 1.3 mi
6. 6 Arrive at 9525 Main St, Fairfax, VA 22031-4006 The last intersection is Whitacre Rd If you reach SR-237 / Pickett Rd, you've gone too far

Now, don't be foolish. Change does not come from sitting on your arse. It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican or an Independent; liberal, conservative or libertarian; now is the time to do your civic duty, one of the things this country requires of you that you can be proud of no matter what else you disagree with. Get out there (before 7 p.m.) and vote.

Democrats Rally at George Mason University

Today, the Democratic candidates for Virginia's local elections gathered with other local luminaries, supporters, and students. Broadside was on the scene and other people will have a more detailed report. However, for your amusement, I've simply dropped my entire un-edited set of photos on to google. Perhaps 90% of them are crap, and I'll sort it out later, but a few interesting ones should be in there.

You can find the amateur-hour album entire here:

Dems Rally

That guy thinks they were ok. :P

More highlights:

Thumbs Up: David E. Bernstein, Professor at the George Mason University School of Law

One big thumbs up to Professor David E. Bernstein, for his recent article in the LA Times on the continuing issues with Free Speech on College Campuses around the nation. Though I can't agree with his analysis of Larry Summers (the former president of Harvard University fired for sexist remarks), nor do I believe the fault lies entirely with the far left, the constitution should protect people's right to speak, even asshole university presidents.

From the article:

The Chemerinsky episode, disturbing though it was, should not distract us from the primary challenge facing academic freedom in American universities: the rise of an academic far-left establishment that seeks to use universities as a base for political activism, and is perfectly willing to violate accepted standards of academic freedom to achieve that goal. Anyone concerned with the future of American higher education has the duty to defend the values of scholarship and open debate against authoritarian political correctness. Unfortunately, by disinviting Summers, the UC regents failed miserably.

One wonders what Professor Bernstein might say about his own (and our) university's serious free speech problems.

Full Article

Giuliani, now Two Times Worse Than Bush

Sorry to follow up one Giuliani article with another, but this was so striking that I had to post it.

For the second time in a single month (The first being the August edition of Harper's cover article "A Fate Worse Than Bush") Rudy Giuliani has been declared by a media source as not only bad but in fact (almost unbelievably so) worse than our current President.

The well known Huffington Post (via Yahoo, via Google) posted an article titled "Giuliani: Worse Than Bush" detailing the past NYC Mayor's frightening idea of a foreign policy.

Starting off by speaking about how the US should never have left Vietnam, Giuliani continues to go off on a policy so violent that it makes Apocalypse Now look like a walk in the park.

HuffPost continues to say:

He does not conceive of, admit to, or even mention the possibility of a region-wide political settlement which even now the Bush Administration is apparently contemplating. In addition, he would "press ahead" with an anti-ballistic missile system -- regardless of its outsized costs or ineffectiveness. And he would, as he says, "pursue the gains made by the USA Patriot Act and not unrealistically limit electronic surveillance or legal interrogation." Sounds a lot like an embrace of unrestricted presidential power and possibly torture.

On the UN, HuffPost notes Rudy's divorce from reality on the issue of the UN:

he goes further and argues that the UN has "proved irrelevant to the resolution of almost every major dispute of the last fifty years." This is a breathtaking display of incomprehension. Just a reminder: the UN stopped the invasion of South Korea; settled the Suez crisis of 1956; assisted in the ending of the Cuban missile crisis of 1963; ousted Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991. It brought peace to conflicts in Guatemala, Angola, Mozambique, El Salvador, Cambodia and helps keep the peace in Cyprus. More recently, it aided Haiti in holding an election and ending violence, pushed the Syrians out of Lebanon, enforced a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon and presently supports a dozen or so other peacekeeping missions.

Even odder, his ideas on NATO:

Now we come to the ex-mayor's most bizarre suggestion -- that NATO be encouraged to act "globally," be reconfigured to confront "significant threats to the international system," and "we should open the organization's membership to any state" -- though it is a European-based body. Is Mr. Giuliani thus proposing that NATO replace the UN as the world's arbiter? And why not? Since the US dominates NATO, this would give Washington a direct means to extend its security purvey over the entire planet. This is a vision consistent with the authoritarian instincts with which Mr. Giuliani governed NYC.

I'm pretty sure that this should be universally disturbing. Even the most die-hard rightest should recognize the enormous negative economic impact that making the US arbiter of an ad-hoc nuUN would bring. As for those, like myself, on the left the entire thing should scare the shit out of you.