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Mascot issue: identity crisis

When I look at the debate growing about the mascot for UC Merced (setting aside all the laws broken to get the living mascot bobcat incarcerated at the city zoo), I see an identity crisis. But, as local sentiment against the choice of the fairy shrimp over the bobcat grows, I see that the identity crisis is a little more complex than it first appears.

Badlands letter to UC Merced students

The Badlands editorial staff is not among the members of the Merced community advising UC Merced students to "love it or leave it." We remember that one from another era and another futile imperial war.

We also remember from that period a great educator, Clark Kerr, president of UC, who designed the "knowledge factory multiversity," whose latest outcropping the UC Merced students now occupy, like ducks land in a Los Banos duck club wetlands, and with possibly not much better chance of a successful migration on the life path.

Pombo's Ghost haunts the McClatchy Chain

Our questions this evening for the McClatchy Chain's Washington correspondent are:

1) Didn't the federal Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Commerce and representatives of 15,000 Friant irrigators settle with local, state and national environmental organizations on the question of letting water flow in the San Joaquin River again on behalf of the Chinook salmon, which is listed as a threatened species under the Engandered Species Act?

Not invited to the funeral

The Badlands Journal editorial staff has few opportunities to defend the honor of the Merced Sun-Star. But, fair is fair. A working girl's got rights, too. On Primary Election night, the Sun-Star committed an act of photojournalism. It took a picture of Jesse "The Crestfallen" Brown, director of Merced County Association of Governments and manager of the failed Measure A campaign. Brown's face expressed bewilderment and despair in a painful moment of political defeat.

Cardombo the Gofer

Upon receiving the terrible news of the defeat of Rep. RichPAC Pombo, not-yet-indicted-Tracy, developers were alarmed at the possible loss of the Pomboza, that giant wannabe Endangered Species Act Slayer that stalked the north San Joaquin Valley casting its dark and menacing shadow over every square foot of remaining open space and wildlife habitat.

Rumor has it the Pomboza lives on, if only in mutation.

5:15 p.m. Election Day -- What it is about

Informed Comment
by Juan Cole
http://www.juancole.com/2006/11/is-bush-unhinged-calling-hannah-arendt.h...

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Is Bush Unhinged?
Calling Hannah Arendt

Journalist Bill Gallagher of Detroit's Channel 2 News joins Andrew Sullivan in asking the increasingly unavoidable question: Is George W. Bush Criminally Insane? Gallagher writes:

Vote NO on Measure G

The Central Valley Safe Environment Network urges you to vote NO on Measure G.

A flyer against the Merced County Transportation Tax Measure G appeared in the Merced Sun-Star Monday morning. We have included it below and attached it to this message.

Federal court orders delay in certification of local elections in Merced County

A federal district court has ordered Merced County and four cities not to certify all local elections held on Nov. 7 until a motion for preliminary injunction arguing violations of the Voting Rights Act is heard on Nov. 21. One election that won't be affected is for the 18th Congressional District. Rep. Dennis Cardoza, whose offices are on the third floor of the Merced County Administrative Building, fount of the "alleged" violations of the act.

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