1 part "Anti-Bush," + 1 part "terrible journalism" = Requirement to be published in the Badger Herald

Its amusing every time I flip to the editorial section of the badger herald and scan the titles I am guaranteed to find at least two anti-Bush diatribes, one love session on President Obama, and every now and then one piece on how Republicans lost their way. Scanning through Thursday of Fridays edition I came across this gem of a title "Fixing America's torture debacle" and just had to read more. "Twenty-five is the number of detainees left in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba" AHNNNNN. I don't know which is more inaccurate, my attempted spelling of the buzzer sound, or the opening line and basis of this piece which probably should have been in the comics section. So the basis of the article, "over 95 percent of the supposed worst of the worst were in fact innocent...." lets dig a little bit deeper, and do a bit of actual fact checking which I believe some people in the world call actual journalism. 420 of 775 have been released, being released certainly did not mean these people were innocent, but rather not enough evidence or they were too low value to charge and keep. Some of these people, their home countries refused to allow them back, why is that you ask....oh because they don't want to take back dangerous terrorists. 270 to 200 remain at gitmo, the rest were sent back to their home country to be jailed, they were not sent out of gitmo because they were innocent. Also interesting how you fail to mention once in your piece the number of "innocent" prisoners freed who have returned to terrorism, I guess that number isn't very important... you say in your comment on the piece that the figure was disputed so you held it out, how about the oh-so innocent Abu Sayyaf al-Shihri. He was in gitmo than released, lets send him an apology letter, should I mail it to his house or the al qaeda HQ in Yemen which HE NOW RUNS.

I was curious as to why there was no retraction or at least change of the "only 25 left" figure on the online version, and then it dawned on me: that was the basis of the argument, without it, there could be no argument and surely the piece would fall apart. It is interesting to note that the author in the comment section on the online version states he got this number from an AP article.....A) I don't believe you, the AP has far higher journalistic standards than we do here. And B) If you followed Gitmo in the least bit you would surely know there are more than 25 terrorists being held there. So Badger Herald, time to take this piece off the website, actually know what leave it, it is a great show of the standards you guys hold yourself to.

Never forgotten

It's really too bad that the second G.W. stepped into his helicopter and flew away that he was instantly shoved out of Washington by the media...I don't know about you guys but I feel like that really says a lot about the level of respect our nation is willing to dish out.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/01/alone-among-net.html

Oh, Badger Herald... not you, too!

There was a time when I wouldn't even read the Daily Cardinal because the Badger Herald was so much better... not so much anymore. I'm all for free speech, but shouldn't staff writers be held to some sort of standard? I was a little concerned when I found the following on a blog post from Kyle Szarzynski concerning the termination of political student org columns.

"Rydell wrote fluff, Sara M is an idiot and Paul Pryse never wrote about local issues.... but the SPD column was almost always substantive and local..."

But then again, I guess I really shouldn't be surprised by this sort of thing when Kyle's superior, Sam Clegg, thinks the following comment from "Bill Cosby" is "hilarious":

"And just for the record, Sara Mikolajczak isn’t that hot, but she’ll do things other girls won’t. Sordid and disgusting things.... And, yes. Her favorite flavor is chocolate!"

Is this really the type of higher intellectual discourse the Badger Herald wants? The kind of discourse that, instead of being morally objective, rushes to insult people at the first sign of disagreement? It's not about Kyle thinking I'm an idiot or Sam being a pervert, it's about the Herald holding on to what small shreds of integrity they have left before they lose it all and go down in opinion-page flames like the Cardinal.

Cheer up! We're not going anywhere.

We may have lost the battle this time, but the war is far from over. It's November 5 and, despite the Democrats' best efforts, we're still here.

People will tell you that this is no time to be proud to be a Republican. Such a notion is ridiculous.

I'm proud to be a Republican because I know that we're the ones who value life, liberty, and personal responsibility. Without life, we could have no liberty; without liberty, we could not keep responsibility to ourselves; without personal responsibility, we would be stripped of our freedoms. The GOP is truly the party of freedom.

Why are you proud to be a Republican? Post your answers below.

Illegal Campaigning? CRs are better than that.

I received a couple of phone calls from city officials last night saying that there was illegal activity coming from campus GOP-ers. Such activities included tearing down and defacing Obama signs and placing McCain signs and stickers in illegal behaviors. I want to go on the record once again saying that this behavior is unacceptable and was in no way, shape, or form condoned by the College Republicans. Because of the nature of these activities, any CR found to have taken part in these offenses is going to be stripped of membership in the organization.

The Obama campaign has contacted the UWPD and there is a pending investigation to get to the bottom of last night's activities. If you have any information on anything suspicious that went on last night, feel free to email me at WisconsinCRs@gmail.com.

We are already the political minority on campus. With everything we go through on a daily basis just trying to be heard, there is really no reason for us to add to the harassment with illegal behaviors. Let them put up their Obama signs; most of them were placed illegally and taken down by UW Physical Plant anyway! There is no excuse.