The Opinion page is a place of controversial thought and discourse. It is rarely the moderate thinker or the complacent observer who chooses to write in, as demonstrated by the Jan. 11 letter to the editor that led to the Multicultural Center’s ad purchase in today’s paper. Their impassioned response is valid, just misplaced.

The unconventional route taken to voice this grievance leads us to believe, as editors of the section, that our selection process may be unclear. What is referred to in the ad as “journalism” — which implies investigation, professionalism and objectivity — was nothing of the sort. Honest journalism is expected to be free of bias. The disputed article, a letter to the editor, was presented not as fact or endorsement but as opinion. It was a student submission unaffiliated with the Daily Nexus and its staff; the decision to publish it had nothing to do with our personal beliefs or attitudes toward affirmative action and our fellow students.

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It only takes a quick couple minutes to plug your votes into GOLD and the candidates, fees and amendment on the Spring Ballot are absolutely critical to your continued participation in the higher education system.

The Associated Students as a whole collect and disburse your student lock-in fee revenue, amounting to over $10 million of student money this year. The five executive offices on the ballot, in addition to the Off- and On-Campus representatives, are your appointed liasons between the student body, the university, the state government and the local community. They campaign on your behalf (or are supposed to) and get to spend your money every week (hopefully to your benefit).

If you do not vote in the elections, you have done nothing to support candidates who can make positive change in the student government. If you ignore the elections, then find yourself outraged by the excess and inefficiency of A.S. processes or frustrutated by the University, consider yourself partly responsible. If you think that you are slipping through the cracks, that the students’ voice has been lost, try starting with your vote on the spring ballot.

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The grassroots movement #occupywallstreet — a peaceful protest that began Sept. 17 in New York City — continues to draw attention to many scattered yet pertinent issues plaguing the nation. On its first day, a reported 2,000 individuals marched down Wall Street, protesting corporate greed and influence, social inequality and conservative politics. The group’s progressive activism is reminiscent of the Middle East’s pro-democracy movements which relied heavily on social media outlets to orchestrate (mostly) peaceful yet visible opposition.

It’s hard to say whether Occupy Wall Street’s cause for protest is particularly unified or constructive, as reflected by its 90 percent drop in attendance over the course of nine days, dwindling from thousands to 200. However, the productivity associated with proactive beha

vior is impossible to deny and should speak to the UCSB student population in more ways than one.

The UC system is a microcosm of the American government — the finger-pointing, false statements and promises and general absence of viable answers or solutions. As tension and desperation builds, so does the cycle of blame. The students demand more of the Regents, the Regents place the responsibility on the state and the state maintains that its hands are tied and points to the Regents’ risky business practices. In many ways, students can take a page out of the protestors’ book.

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Hey baby ‘Chos — Ima let you finish orientation, Ima let you finish, but once you’re done you gon have the best college experience of all time. OF ALL TIME.

First of all, thanks for picking up the Nexus; it was a good move for a lot of reasons. Obviously you’re trying to put your best face forward, and you just look smarter now that you’re holding a newspaper. Additionally, we, at the Nexus dungeon pooled our years of rookie mistakes and ensuing wisdom into this nifty travel guide to give you the insiders’ perspective on the famously raucous vacation destination that is now your home.

While your parents are busy hyperventilating over their recurring Floatopia: Part Trois nightmares and your friends from home can’t wait to come rage with you, take some time to look around and see which aspects of UCSB and Isla Vista appeal to you personally. Admittedly, your first few months here will be mired with wide-eyed adventures through foreign territory, dodging water balloons courtesy of the upperclassmen who can spot a freshly-oriented Gaucho from a mile away and explaining to drunk girls that you really don’t know what happened to their other high heel. But once the sparkling appeal of Del Playa’s bass-infused recklessness fades and the anonymity of being swept into a throng of revelers fueled by adrenaline, amphetamines and Amstel Light loses its comfort, you’ll find the things that will end up meaning the most to you.

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I like Isla Vista in the fog. People whisper and walk deliberately. Loud music gets muted, and streetside joint smoke disappears like it never was. In the dark, even the bros take off their imitation Ray-Bans for fear of walking into a hidden street sign. Particles of mist whirl around in the streetlight’s beam like dirty dirty hippies dancing at a music festival. It’s like the air itself is drunk.

I like Isla Vista in the fog. Who knows what awesomeness hides in mist?

Well, it was hiding my buddy’s girl. I walked by, unseen but close enough to touch, and heard him tracking her down on his cellphone. Trying to screw, or trying to get screwed no doubt, but you never can tell with screwing.

I was going somewhere or coming from something; I couldn’t remember which. Maybe the box of freshly brewed Firestone I’d enjoyed had something to do with that. Maybe.

From the street I saw something behind a house that I’d never seen before in I.V. Indecision gripped me. Should I crash and check it out? Or just be on my way?

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A while ago, when I was a much wilder and uncivilized version of the gentleman scholar that I am today, I found myself stranded in Lima, Peru for two weeks. I’m not particularly sure how or why, because Lima is not by any measure a particularly interesting or beautiful city, but hey, there it is.

I found myself a hostel in one of the nicer parts of town. Breakfast was included in the price and the hostel had a rooftop patio and clean sheets. The breakfast was fresh fruit, fresh juice and freshly baked bread served with jam and butter. The rooftop patio had a view of the street. There were potted plants that kept it cool, awnings for shade, couches and speakers that played smoothly streaming reggae music off the Internet 24 hours a day. Oh yeah, baby.

The owner and I became good friends. He was a big, 20-something bearded fellow with long, curly black hair and a goofy grin. He had set up the hostel a few years earlier with money loaned from his grandfather, a successful Peruvian industrialist. His friends had nicknamed him “El Mono,” or “The Monkey.” El Mono spent his days smoking reefer, drinking beer and scheming on all the college girls who came through his hostel. We got along just fine.

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The fight for the right to use hemp and laugh at one’s rulers has been happening constantly for centuries. The desire for a central authority to control and regulate the natural interconnectedness of living creatures stems from the fact that life is naturally awesome. According to the Book of Genesis in the King James Bible — the Judeo-Christian story of the creation of the universe — in the beginning, “the Earth brought forth grass and herb-yielding seed after its kind and the tree-yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

Life’s natural order is pleasurable and perfect enough to make a central authority unnecessary and irrelevant to the point that the authority must interrupt the natural flow of life to make itself seem more important. Without such artificial fear of loss, the central authority would quickly seem like arbitrary rules to the mind of the people. The Bible even predicts the attempts by some people to restrict the natural order and prohibit certain substances. “In latter times, some shall … speak lies in hypocrisy … commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving.”

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This spring, all of the Nexus’ student-approved lock-in money is up for reaffirmation — no increase, just the same wonderful three bucks and change that keeps us going today.

We ask that this April, you reaffirm our flat fee of $3.85 per quarter.

Two years ago, the Daily Nexus received 85 cents a quarter from its student-approved lock-in fee and stopped producing its Friday paper as a cost-cutting measure.

After two quarters without your Friday fix, we asked you to increase our funding from each student by $3.00 per quarter. You found reason to answer our request in 2009, which allowed us to bring back the Friday issue. Thanks to you, we stayed in print as an independent, informative student-run newspaper that publishes five days a week.

Contrary to popular misconception, the Daily Nexus does not receive fiscal support from the university, aside from free rent for our office underneath Storke Tower. Our advertising generates roughly 93 percent of total revenue, while the remainder is supplemented by the student lock-in fee. For less than a dime a day out of your pocket, the Nexus provides you with full coverage of the latest and most pressing topics in news, sports, opinion, science and artsweek, supplemented with photography and mature works of art, like the sex position of the week. Which is basically porn. You’re welcome.

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Political tension in the Middle East is nothing
unusual — in fact, the idea of peace in the region seems
almost impossible. Government censorship is also not
a new approach of political repression. Elites have long
subjugated the masses, quelling revolts by stifling the
exchange of information.
Shutting off Internet and cell phone service to a
whole country takes transgressions against civil liberties
to a new tyrannical low. On Friday, President Hosni
Mubarak halted the flow of communication in and out
of the country in an attempt to silence civil unrest.
His effort to sweep resistance under the rug, however,
has drowned him out and given credence to opposition
leaders, while a riveted global audience watches for reasons
more refreshingly progressive than the traditional
oil parlance.
Even now as Egyptian protesters gear up for another
day of demonstrations, journalists and observers from
other countries — the only ones able to consistently
post updates online — have flocked to the area, catching
the scent of something different in the air. Words
like “democracy” and “revolution” surface in coverage of
Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan, prompting nervous excitement
in the East as well as the West because a new
generation calls for reform.
The people of Egypt have decided that consent
is necessary for representation, and it’s obvious that
Mubarak no longer has theirs.
Youth in Revolt
Two-thirds of Egypt’s population is under the age of
30, and has therefore spent their entire lives under the
rule of one man: Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak has allegedly
rigged elections to keep his long lasting regime,
undermining civil and personal liberties for his constituents.
The striking element of the recent outcry in Egypt no
doubt lies with the youth’s involvement in demanding
reform in the face of a deficient government. In
America, the inalienable rights we have been given are
continually taken for granted, as integrally Yankee as
baseball and hot dogs. These Egyptian protesters should
serve as an important model for our own youth — they
should serve to inspire us, to cast off our political apathy.
The courage that is needed to attempt overthrowing a
tyrannical government is enough to make anyone think
twice, and yet advocates of reform and representation
in the Middle East are risking their lives to be heard.
In modern America, concepts of protests and revolution
have almost become a thing of myth— sure there’s
the American Revolution and Vietnam, hippie peace
marches and whatever — but what can our generation
say about being activists? What have we personally done
to secure our freedoms, to ensure that our voices are
continually heard?
Regardless of the political outcomes in Egypt, Yemen
and Jordan, there is much hope in the bravery that demonstrators
have shown. It’s inspiring to see someone risk
their own lives for the chance of their children living in
a brighter tomorrow. It’s refreshing to realize that activism
isn’t dead, at least somewhere in the world.
Communication
The Internet has become an undeniable part of our
social and political lives. The protests in Egypt were
first organized through social networks and 140 character
Tweets. But as the people learn how to employ social
media as means to their political ends, authoritarian
leaders are recognizing the dangers that unrestricted
digital speech pose for the stability of their regime.
As we’ve seen, Mubarak’s blockage of internet and
mobile service to almost the entire country rings of classic
censorship, but it’s been delivered with the frightening,
lightening-fast speed of the web. Easy on, Easy off.
Or is it?
When Mubarak’s administration shut down the
nation’s Internet, he did not simply just cut off the
people’s access to Facebook. He set a dangerous precedent
for the rest of the world’s governments. To shut
down the Internet was to attempt to isolate the people
of Egypt from the rest of the world. Citizens of Kim
Jong Il’s North Korea do not revolt because they satisfied,
but rather because they are ignorant of the other
liberties that much of the world enjoys. Unfortunately
for Mubarak, his people have already become a part of
the global community and trying to prevent them from
communicating with the outside world just sparked
more foreign interest.
Your Voice
Don’t take your freedom of speech for granted—it’s
a part of the First Amendment because it’s the most
important right you have.
Consider what you would do if your government
took away your ability to communicate on the Internet.
Not a mundane service outage, not a temporary loss of
Youtube video privileges— but a concerted effort to stop
you, your friends, co-workers and peers from connecting
with each other.
Living in the United States, the idea seems absurd.
Although Senator Lieberman has long crusaded for a
mass communication ‘kill switch’ to be made available
for the President’s use in emergency times, we at the
Daily Nexus strongly believe that Americans would
never let that happen. Nothing keeps the U.S. away
from Twitter and porn sites.
The world is becoming increasingly complex.
International relationships are increasingly intertwined.
As such, we move into closer proximity — intellectually,
politically, socially, economically, etc. — with our global
neighbors. This is a global community we are forming,
but not everyone has a chance to participate equally.
Those who have a voice have a duty to speak out for
those who are being stifled.

Tired, hungover tulips to the remarkably safe Halloween celebrations this year. The only disaster was a sudden cloud burst on Friday night, which only made the debauchery a little more wet than usual.

Conniving, scheming turds to the UC Regents for raising school fees during the Great Recession. We know it’s wrong. You know it’s wrong. And you wonder why you’ve lost our trust.

Shiny, foil-wrapped tulips to the new Chipotle in Storke Plaza. Another great stop for the midnight munchies. Well done, capitalism.

Frozen, shivering turds to Isla Vista’s subzero temperatures this fall. Sure, it happens every year, but there’s something wrong about having to bundle up on the beach under the California sun.

Blazed, defeated turds to California voters for voting down Proposition 19. Legalization was a ballot box away and we blew it.

Vibrant, healthy tulips to the defeat of Proposition 23 in the November midterm elections. Mother Nature took a deep sigh of relief.

Rancid, homophobic turds to the bullies that caused a wave of homosexual suicides this year. We hope that Karma’s a bitch.

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Last Tuesday’s midterm elections demonstrated a clear break from the Obama fervor of 2008, illustrating the American public’s dissatisfaction with the current administration and its policies. Taking at least 60 seats in the House, Republicans made Congressional gains that no party has seen since 1948. With control of the House, Conservatives will be able to call ethics investigations, hold hearings and withhold funding of key government programs, like national health care. Republicans made a big dent in the Democrat’s Senate majority, with a net gain of six seats, and now have control of over 30 governorships.

What’s striking is that California did not follow the nation’s general trend of Conservatism.

Jerry Brown defeated Republican challenger, Meg Whitman, by a significant margin, securing California as a Democratic stronghold amidst a wave of Republican victories. Barbara Boxer returned to a Washington that is becoming increasingly opposed to her progressive ideology. Despite our worries about her positions on economic policies, Lois Capps easily overcame her Republican challenger, Tom Watson, who made fiscal conservatism the centerpiece of his campaign. Even seasoned moderate Republican Mike Stoker was bested by an inexperienced, yet bold environmentalist, Das Williams. California stands as a political island unto itself, attempting to preserve the Obama agenda in a national climate that hungers for its repeal.

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The Daily Nexus editorial board has closely scrutinized measures and propositions to provide our readership with voting choices that can begin to heal our ailing economy and lead to social and civic progress.

The Daily Nexus’ official endorsements should be understood as nothing other than educated suggestions; the real power and responsibility lies in the voter.

It is your job as a citizen of California to research and understand the implications of each political candidate and proposition this Nov. 2.

The following are the ballot measures and propositions that we endorse for the upcoming Nov. 2 midterm election.

Santa Barbara Country Measures

Measures Q & R (Funding for Local School Repairs): Yes

Measure Q allows the Santa Barbara High School District to borrow $75 million for repairs and projects at local high schools and junior high schools, while Measure R allows for the borrowing of another $35 million for similar projects at local elementary schools. The funding would go toward fixing dilapidating structures, improving disabled student access and updating electrical equipment. Additionally, independent oversight of all funds will be performed annual and ensure fiscal responsibility. The Daily Nexus endorses this measure because we believe in the investment of youth through education.

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(Check Back Monday for the Daily Nexus Endorsements of California’s Ballot Initiatives)

The Daily Nexus editorial board has closely scrutinized potential candidates, measures and propositions to provide our readership with voting choices that can begin to heal our ailing economy and lead to social and civic progress.

Our official endorsements should be understood as nothing other than educated suggestions; the real power and responsibility lies with the voter. And, unfortunately, the reality of our situation is that any candidate — regardless of party affiliation — is going to face a host of tough decisions should he or she be elected.

It is your job as a citizen of California to research and understand the implications of each political candidate and proposition this Nov. 2.

The following are the candidates that we endorse for the upcoming Nov. 2 midterm election.

For Governor:
The Daily Nexus endorses Jerry Brown (D).

When picking between Attorney General Jerry Brown and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, it’s an easy choice.
Brown’s extensive experience and proven legislative record — he served as California’s governor from 1975 to 1963, was Oakland’s mayor from 1999 to 2007, and currently resides as the state attorney general — is a substantial testament to his ability to lead the state.

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In 1970, a wave of civil unrest turned the beachside town of Isla Vista on its head. As the unpopular Vietnam War raged overseas, the student ghetto took on a personality of its own that rivaled the counterculture and antiwar movements a few hundred miles north in Berkeley. The students of I.V. rioted, protested and famously burnt down a local Bank of America, a symbol of the war machine and the capitalist system that stood to benefit from it.

The night after the infamous incident, the California governor declared a state of emergency and Isla Vista was set on a curfew, a tame peacekeeping tool compared to the National Guard and Los Angeles County S.W.A.T. teams that were later called in to maintain order. Isla Vista residents of the 1970s were not afraid of their collective voice in challenging public policy and demanding representation. The history of the generations who roamed Del Playa before us is an important one to remember as we search for our own legacy in inhabiting the unique enclave of Isla Vista.

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The Social Host Ordinance, a countywide regulation that would impose civil penalties on residents that provide alcohol to minors, should not have passed in its present form.

The SHO is supposedly intended to prevent high-school-aged minors from gaining access to alcohol at private parties. However, it lacks clear guidelines to prevent the law from being unduly directed at the Isla Vista community and will primarily affect UCSB and SBCC students.

Admittedly, the availability of alcohol at parties in Isla Vista poses a number of dangers and creates challenges to police and emergency personnel who work overtime to ensure the safety of the community. Isla Vista is an easily accessible college town — with the size and number of parties on any given weekend, underage students and out-of-towners frequently stumble into open festivities and have easy access to generous amounts of alcohol. The unfortunate reality is that random, unidentified minors frequently enter large parties and could cause problems for responsible tenants of the legal drinking age.

So, let’s face it — Isla Vista has a drinking problem, a drinking problem that could probably be remedied. But the SHO, despite its best intentions, will create more problems than it solves.

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