Read UNLV’s President recommends which programs should be cut via ktnv.com and the full 15 page dipshit report here.

[05/10/10 @ 2:30p PST] The plot (and plight) thickens as I have tried for two days now to access the Dept. of Informatics web page to no avail.  Has it already been deleted by OIT?  What the hell is that all about?

On a personal note, all decency aside, President Smatresk, the Faculty Senate and the JET and PRC can all go F themselves.  I spent a bit of time soul-searching last night, thinking I may try to channel my energy and desire to work on a PhD and work into a different program, but the more I thought about it, the more I got pissed at UNLV and Nevada as a whole for being so grossly short-sighted, so now I’d rather go spend my tuition dollars somewhere else where the administration (and government) actually thinks about what the importance of a program is rather than purely considering current dollars.  Nothing like a budget deficit to put yourselves into an even faster tailspin, and only increases my spite towards programs that I think should have been looked at more closely but weren’t even considered.

Great SOTU speech by the Man last night IMHO.  It was clear, detailed, lucid, and the GOP response was, well, pretty lackluster and inexplicit.  But whatever.  Exactly what O-man said about dropping the partisan issue and changing the way of political thinking…it’ll never happen.  Lobbyists will still continue to bust the hopes of the rest of middle America (amazing, aren’t they American’s too?  Don’t they leave their cushy jobs at night and go back home the same as the rest of us, just with better pay?).

But I digress, here’s the report…

It’s a nightmare that anyone with a Twitter account is vaguely afraid of, but no one before the year 2005 would have ever dreamed of having to worry about: Major Garrett, Fox News’ White House correspondent, accidentally tweeted the wrong link to his 13,059 followers. He intended to send out a shortened link to a transcript of last night’s State of the Union address. Instead, the link that went out was one to a Las Vegas call-girl website. Gawker managed to nab the series of tweets before he took them down:

“To overcome the numbing weight of our politics” and other Obama SOTU excerpts http://bit.ly/d6W Wed 27 Jan 18:22

Horrified, he deleted and explained:

I apologize. Bit.ly turned my original link to SOTU excerpts to a soft-porn link. NOT my intention. http://bit.ly/d6WZBu Wed 27 Jan 19:21

The link just posted works. Any frequent visitor here knows that is not my style. Sorry. Shld have caught it sooner. Wed 27 Jan 19:23

Enraged, he admonished and ordered:

For those suckling snide syrup. I publicly acknowledged an innocent mistake and corrected it. If that’s not good enuf, take a hike. Wed 27 Jan 20:18

As Gawker observes, it’s extremely unlikely that bit.ly would make that kind of error. But why would Washington-based Garrett be looking up a Vegas-based website like that?

If Garrett joins the press corps on Obama’s trip to Vegas later in February, we guess we’ll have an answer.

Maybe he should re-tweet it – might as well ride the wave, eh!

The sheer momentum was palpable and it was moving to just be in it.  I have been an avid supporter since the beginning – I truly believe that whether it is the man himself or simply the ideal that he brings to the minds of a newly reborn America, he will be the catalyst for a much needed change in this country.  Congratulations to President-elect Obama.

Photo by Jeannette Ramos

And Palin is still a putz.

This latest round of posturing – first taking credit for trying to reach across party lines to make a statement about the bailout plan after it was documented that Obama made the first move, then by positioning himself to be on standby while the congressional leaders who are involved take care of business (let’s be real, McCain has no position within the economic groups, though neither does Barack), then by trying to be the “leader” by pushing off the debate in the interest of the party (life doesn’t stop because of an economic crisis – we still had debates while Sherman marched on Atlanta and during D-Day) and coincidentally to push it off to the same day that the VP debate is scheduled for – is preposterous.

To be sure, I am not registered with either party, I was a Young Republican during my college years and some after (the Reagan era), and I did go to the same (prep) school as Barack (and yes, Punahou is a proud and tightly knit community).  I am not a bleeding heart liberal but I am definitely more left of center than not.  I believe we should be able to own guns, that women have the right to choose and are guided by God, that taxes are a necessary evil, that all citizens should have healthcare, that immigrants should have services (where would the country be without them, and I mean back all the way to the 17th century), that energy policy will change the face of economics, that 60 years of oil reserves is a drop in the bucket in the scope of life, that cooperatives help bring communities together, that everyone should have equal access to education and that working for it through patriotic service is a phenomenal plan, that military service is extremely honorable and that I wish to this day that I had served (but I don’t believe we ever had a reason or right to be in Iraq), that I find it ironic how similar the amount of money spent on the war is so close to the bailout figure (though in reality if we hadn’t spent in on the war our fruitless Congress would’ve spent it on something else totally useless), that the national sales tax is a great plan, that the idea of Sarah Palin in a national office scares the shit out of me (and not because she’s a woman, because she’s f—ing scary), and that we all have a voice in our government despite that sometimes its a whisper.

 So for the five of you who actually read this entry…change (and let’s remember who brought it up first in this election) is the only thing that will move us forward.  But change begins with ourselves…what can we as Americans do to change the face of our quickly dying country? The first thing to be sure is to exercise your right and your responsibility to vote.  Whether or not you like either primary candidate and irregardless of my own convictions, there are four politicos on the ballot this year and not choosing one is a cowardly way out.

For me, you can bet, I won’t be voting for the puttering putz.  And I don’t truly expect Obama to make good on every promise he’s made this campaign; if he makes good on 25% of them, that’s better than average.