IntenseDebate - Patrick

12 years ago @ North Park Street - Can a White person be ... · 0 replies · +3 points

I've always had a thought that was almost the reverse of this. I don't like using the term African-American for most black people. For the vast majority of them, their ancestors last lived in Africa longer ago than most white people's ancestors lived in Europe. Since most white people identify first and foremost as just an American, I see no reason why black people should be relegated to the second class American-ness of being a hyphenated American.

While I don't care how anyone self-identifies their own heritage, I prefer to reserve hyphenated American terms for immigrants or the children of immigrants if I ever feel a need to use them.

12 years ago @ North Park Street - New ASM Constitution: ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Agreed. Even most of my knowledge of a lot of what Kurt did on SSFC is second hand after the fact type stuff that I learned dealing with SSFC when I was the President of WSL.

12 years ago @ North Park Street - New ASM Constitution: ... · 7 replies · +7 points

In addition to question who exactly Kurt & Co. were, I'm very curious what Rainey meant when he said:

"that doesn’t stop me from disagreeing with his tactics or politics."

What kind of tactics does he think Kurt used? The reason people didn't like Kurt was because he was so damn effective at making quality arguments on behalf of the legislation he wanted passed and getting the votes to get things passed. His political opponents couldn't beat him over the table where it mattered, so they resorted to fabricating lies, slandering his character and plotting to remove him from positions.

And in terms of his politics, what is an example of something he advocated for that you so disagree with? The cause of the major complaints against him and his signature policy achievements were SSFC reforms. Do you think MCSC needs a million dollar budget again?

12 years ago @ North Park Street - New ASM Constitution: ... · 0 replies · 0 points

Haha. I think that post was one of my best observations.

12 years ago @ North Park Street - USSA Issues a "Student... · 0 replies · +2 points

How was your first comment not suggesting that he wear a suit? It's making me question how well I know you.

12 years ago @ North Park Street - What is it that makes ... · 0 replies · 0 points

Yes obviously, we are answering two different questions and your question and framework do have merit.

However, before there is the kind of discussion of monumental once a decade change in and attempt to improve things within your framework as it seems people are attempting to have, I think the questions my framework poses require answers and discussion. For year to year changes and blog posts, your framework is much more useful because the kinds of changes my framework forces people to address are often too large of an undertaking to be useful.

12 years ago @ North Park Street - What is it that makes ... · 2 replies · +2 points

I must say that I reject Kurt's premise that the ineffectiveness of ASM must be blamed either on structure of leadership.

If we really want to start this discussion from the beginning, I think we ought to be asking whether a student government is in the first place is the most effective organization to accomplish a given goal and in fact discuss what are the goals that a student government ought to be pursuing.

I personally think that in my time on campus the most effective arms of ASM have been the ones that a student government is most suited for, such as allocation of student funds to student groups through SSFC. Many of the things that ASM fails at, such as attempting to unite students behind common political goals for advocacy outside of the UW, ASM fails at because a student government just isn't the best organization for such purposes.

12 years ago @ North Park Street - A short rebuttal on mo... · 0 replies · +1 points

That's a whole different argument that I will leave most of for another day.

However, I am curious, if you believe that free speech rights ought to differ between individuals and corporations, do you also believe that corporations ought to be subject to lesser freedom of the press protections? Both are rights protected by the First Amendment.

12 years ago @ North Park Street - A short rebuttal on mo... · 0 replies · +3 points

That's a good way to look at the counter arguments. I've come to realize that a lot of the anti-Citizens United advocates really aren't against money in politics so much as they are advocates of equal speech for everyone.

12 years ago @ North Park Street - Guest Post: The Incons... · 0 replies · +2 points

I agree that Google/FB/Reddit aren't relying on First Amendment protections, however I think there is a strong case to be made that stopping these sites has a "chilling effect" on free speech and therefore they are deserving of First Amendment protections. I don't think they rely on free speech rights, but I do believe they could use a First Amendment defense in some cases.

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