According to the NRA-ILA, the University of Arizona wants to withdraw its firearms from the Arizona 4-H Shooting Sports Program.

I can't say whether this is political correctness in action yet; we don't know UA's reasons for wanting to cancel the program.

Pages I've found here and here indicate that UA has a heavy role in 4-H across the state, not just in shooting sports. Both are hosted on UA servers, and the second page talks about more than just shooting.

So is UA ending the entire cooperative extension described in the second page or just the shooting program? There's not much telling from what's public right now.

The Tucson Comrade Citizen reports that two UA graduates, former U.S. Senator Dennis DeConcini and businesswoman Anne Mariucci, have been appointed to the Arizona Board of Regents.

This time I haven't been playing poker. Rather, 日本語を勉強をしてましたので、I'm not researching the pair until later.

A Yahoo! cache of ASUA senator Alex Dong's Xanga site reveals that on December 2nd he quoted information on about the current allegations against ASUA president Cade Bernsen along with the comments "I really don't want to deal with sexual harassment stuff, it really should be a dean of students issue.[sic] Nonetheless, it'll be on the agenda for Wednesday's meeting." Dong subsequently removed the post from public viewing, as it's no longer there, meaning that it's either "protected" (restricted to certain users), "private" (restricted to himself only), or deleted.

As noted earlier, it never was part of the Wednesday meeting agenda, as the charges are being postponed to January to give time for the ASUA Supreme Court justices, all of whom are law students, to take their final exams. This is mandated in the ASUA Constitution.

I'm not sure what to think of this. Not sure at all. But there clearly is a reason why it's not there anymore, right? For the uninformed, the Dean of Students makes the decision whether Bernsen is suspended or expelled, but cannot simply remove Bernsen from office by her own whim. Do expect some consideration on their part.

In the meantime, we have yet another objectivity issue. The whole thing is just pathetic.

Full disclosure: Earlier, Mr. Dong requested friend status with me on Facebook. I declined in order to maintain objectivity. I should note that his profile currently lists 506 friends, so it's unlikely that he considered our lack of personal contact when making the request.

The cache will probably be deleted in the future, so stand by for another cache on one of my own servers somewhere. --GPO

Clarification: There were two removed posts: one on Dec. 1 and the other on Dec. 2. The former merely quoted news articles and gave no opinion of who ought to deal with the proceedings other that "We have to deal with it," which to me seems neutral enough. The Dec. 2 post is what is reported above.

Update and more full disclosure(Jan. 4, 2006): The Yahoo cache is gone as predicted. Check for it here. Moreover, Mr. Dong and I ended up in the same jury group the Monday following the end of the semester and had some personal contact as a result.

The ASUA Senate has postponed the pending impeachment charges against president Cade Bernsen until next semester because of a constitutional provision mandating ample time for the supreme court to hear the case. I suppose this postpones my coverage of the situation as well.

The Phoenix Business Journal cites anonymous sources who say Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) could succeed Peter Likins as the next UA president. I've been up all night playing poker and N64 with friends, so you'll have to forgive the lack of analysis/ranting.

The website of UATV's Daily Dose has an interesting headline marking its Nov. 30th broadcast: "ASUA Cade Bernsen pulls a Clinton!"

And some people call the Wildcat sensational.

The video is taking a long time to download. Stand by.

Update: Should I even have bothered with the video? It's using some weird codec that Windows Media Player won't download. I got the audio, and there's not much from it except for comments from one individual who knows Bernsen as a friend.

As you should know by looking at the bottom of the left column on this page, I have a Site Meter which records information about visitors. I mainly use this to figure out who is linking to my blog. If you are using a webmail account and your username is in the URL of your program, you are sending me your username when you click on the link to my site from the email somebody sent you that said "Hey, check out this O'Hara idiot." Especially considering how so many usernames are based off actual names, if you do this, chances are that I now know your real name.

Surely, you can trust Garrett O'Hara; I have nothing to gain from knowing your name save a few ego points. But the rest of the Internet is also able to see these statistics, meaning you are telling the entire world exactly when you logged into my website, along with location, IP address, web browser, and more. For the sake of your own privacy, stop clicking on links in emails; copy and paste the URL into a new browser window.

So far I have positively identified two UA students and a lawyer from Beaumont, Texas (Cade Bernsen's hometown) using this method. I even have pictures of you. For your own sake, knock it off. And don't sue me.

Update: Make that three positively identified UA students.

Law student "Shar Bahmani" writes in today's mailbag that the Wildcat "jumped the gun", calling their reporting a "neighborhood gossip announcement." Surely, any law student should have the right to say this, typically.

An anonymous commenter who wishes for his or her comment not to be posted (and appears to be the same person who commented here) notes to me that "Shar Bahmani" is an ASUA Supreme Court associate justice, one of five of whom would have to vote yes or no on removing Cade Bernsen from office. A four-fifths vote in favor of removal is required.

The ASUA Supreme Court webpage claims that the associate justice in question is "Shar Bahami", which appears to be a spelling error. Bahmani has a profile on Facebook, an online personal profile service, which indicates that he is a law student (as the Wildcat correctly says). Moreover, "Bahmani" can be found in the UA Phonebook, but not "Bahami." We can reasonably conclude that the website probably made a spelling error.

Moreover, the commenter notes that Bernsen himself appointed three of the five justices!

U.S. Supreme Court justices are known for having to keep their mouths shut, as we clearly saw during the John Roberts and Harriet Miers confirmation hearings. As the anonymous commenter noted, "This situation is out of control." Stand by.

ASUA Club Advocate Michelle Gregory, apparently acting in her official capacity as Club Advocate by placing that title in the letter, attacks the Wildcat for revealing the accusers' majors, class years, and positional information, making it very easy to find who the accusers are via services like Facebook. Regardless of Facebook, major and class information are already public via other means. What was the Wildcat thinking?

Bernsen's former Chief of Staff and now former Elections Commissioner Tyler Carrell has resigned citing the need for more time on his studies while denying that it has anything to do with the current allegations. Carrell lives with Bernsen. There's no telling what this part means, except that Bernsen has lost a trusted friend from the ASUA office.

Update: I should also mention that Bernsen missed yesterday's Arizona Board of Regents meeting held here at UA. While an impeachable offense, the Senate appears disinterested in levying charges considering the current situation. Nonetheless, if the Supreme Court situation prevents Bernsen's removal for harassment, will the Senate use this as a political excuse later on?

Second Update: The Supreme Court website has the corrected spelling of Shar Bahmani's name now.

I previously reported both yesterday and in May of 2004 regarding the possibility that former ASUA President Alistair Chapman had visited a strip club off ASA student money. Chapman has personally contacted me and clarified that the article, poorly written in both of our opinions, was about an accountability contract that would prevent future incidents such as this. So in fact, when I was criticizing Mr. Chapman, I should have been singing his praises. I'd like to personally thank Mr. Chapman for the clarification and hereby take full responsibility for the error.

Once again, not G-rated. --GPO

Jen Spillane of Power is the Ability Not to Have to Please claims to have been an elementary and high school classmate of embattled ASUA President Cade Bernsen. She writes, "None of us are surprised about this. Cade was always inappropriate and domineering, using manipulation and aggression to get his way."

Writing to the Wildcat asking not to be published in the paper, Spillane calls Bernsen "a frightening individual who, it seems, has become more reckless and out of control as he ages."

That's not the worst of it, either. Consider the pre-college track record a developing story.

Update (Jan. 5, 2006): I have since found that Jen Spillane has since removed the letter she wrote to the Wildcat from her post without note. The comments I have published from the letter will remain here, but I won't be publishing the entire letter.

In today's Wildcat, Cade Bernsen includes a statement regarding the accusation:

The allegations against me reported in the Arizona Daily Wildcat yesterday are totally and completely false. These allegations are embarrassing and hurtful to me, my family, my friends and to the Associated Students of the University of Arizona. I first learned of these allegations within the past 48 hours.

I have been informed and it has been discovered that there have been ongoing secret meetings by certain individuals to manufacture this attack on me and to force me out of office. These meetings have been used to orchestrate the particular allegations, the timing and release of these allegations to the media and others, and the recruitment of participants to support their scheme.

It is my intent to defend myself to the fullest. However, I will try my case before the dean of students, and I will not violate procedures, policy and spirit of the process by attempting to do so in the press.

I trust you understand my position.

Cade Bernsen
ASUA president

The mailbag already has two complaints: one about Bernsen and one about the Wildcat's mention of the accusers' methods of appointment, academic major, and class year.

I'll give them credit; it seems the girls aren't as bad as the guys. Check the December 1st archive yourself.