A week ago I sent an email to the president of WISPIRG asking him to see if his organization would be interested in collaborating for a debate. He responded that they had too much going on. I responded that it was too bad that they did not want to be involved in this discussion, and that it would be taking place on Dec. 7th if they wished to join let me know. No response.

I got to thinking... did any of the other PIRGs know about the challenge? I had a plan for how to inform them- crash their meeting.

So, with a few of my fellow students holding signs and a video camera, we challenged the PIRGs to a debate at their meeting, to be held Monday Dec 7th.

I was surprised at how interested in the prospect of a debate the PIRGs were; I fielded questions about format, topics, and time and place.

The debate is scheduled to coincide with the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, and will cover topics such as anthropogenic climate change, efficacy of legislation,

WTMJ in Milwaukee is reporting that Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett will decide whether or not he will run for governor by the end of the week.

Since both Gov. Jim Doyle and Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton have announced they will not seek the state's highest office, many Democratic leaders and possibly even the White House have pushed the mayor to run for the Democratic nomination. Barrett previously ran for the nomination along with Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and Doyle, the eventual victor.

One of his biggest concerns seems to be his family, as MJS reports that he doesn't want to have to move his family to Madison.

Understandable. But we don't want to end up with Paul Soglin or this 18-year-old kid. So hopefully, for the party's sake, Barrett throws his hat in the ring.

Diversity; Climate; Plan 2008: buzz words as of late. The administration here at UW-Madison seems obsessed with their little social experiments and their preferential admission standards. They think that the one thing missing from our education is more minority classmates. To paraphrase State Senator Glenn Grothman, they think students don't know how to get along with people of color. They are racist, for they assume that a difference in skin pigmentation necessitates a difference in character that us white students have to learn to accept. They are bigoted, for they assume that we somehow have to acclimate ourselves to interacting with minorities as if 2008 was no different than 1954.

Instead of simply focusing on recruiting the best and brightest students, the administration laments that they need to make minority students more competitive for admission. With mixed results at the expiration of Plan 2008, especially in regards to minority student retention, the administration is obsessed with forming a new plan to garner even more colored people as students. Do they think that the University of Wisconsin is some drawing on a refrigerator or something, and that black, yellow, red, and brown are the crayons missing from their Crayola box necessary to create a picture of perverted social perfection in their liberal eyes in order to achieve some gold star?

When one looks at the numbers, it is hard to believe the administration is still whining that we need more diversity in the student body. The freshman class of 2008 was composed of 13.3 percent minorities. In their report, the office of admissions seems a little dismayed by this number, but it is arguable that this number is slightly high considering that UW-Madison is a state ran university, and thus, it is suppose to be representative of the state population. Cry all you want that 13.3 percent of the freshman class of 2008 is too few minorities, but the state, according to 2008 figures, is still 89.7 percent white.

It is undeniably racially preferential for the University of Wisconsin to pursue an increase in the racial diversity of admitted students rather than judging applicants solely on their academic competence and non-demographically based criteria especially considering that current admission statistics show that the university's student body is already representative of the state population as a whole. What the administration deems academic enrichment is really liberal social doctrine, racist in the name of equality, feeding us students pc ignorance as a creed to live by and insulting our intelligence and character.

As Obama spoke at Wright Middle School on Wednesday, I couldn't help but reflect on the president's choice of speaking venue. In a town famous for its left political leanings, why wouldn't the president speak to a group of voting adults? So many people in Madison received exactly what they wanted in the election of President Obama. The country is looking more and more like a social democracy every day, and yet, when the president is being slammed across the country for his controversial policies, he chooses to speak to preteens rather than garner positive PR for himself and his party going into the next election cycle by speaking to devoted supporters

Obama talked Wednesday about introducing accountability in public schools and encouraging success in America's youth. Beyond being the least controversial of the president's policy initiatives, Obama's education policy appeals to republicans, mainline democrats, and independents alike. And yet, he spoke in a closed door speech to a bunch of na�ve, star-struck adolescents rather than achieve some positive regard in the minds of the voting public when he desperately needs it. Maybe Mr. Obama was simply fulfilling a ceremonial function in visiting the school, but I think there is a deeper, more politically tinged reason for the venue choice.

President Obama sold us all on "hope" and "change." Few questioned the president's ability to render positive change in America during the election of 2008, but 10.2 percent unemployment, falling approval ratings, and grassroots opposition as seen in Tea Parties and Town Hall meetings definitely put "change we can believe in" in doubt for many voters. Maybe the fact that less than four months after his election, 8,000 people were on the steps of the state capitol protesting the stimulus package and the president's tax and spend policies, or maybe it is the healthcare town hall meeting with keynote speaker John Stossel that attracted over 2,000 attendees that makes the president shudder at that thought of delivering a public speech to some of his most loyal supporters in the 2008 election.

Many of the most liberal members of congress have been called out at public forums by there once loyal supporters on a host of issues relevant and irrelevant to the topic of the forums they have held. Perhaps with the quick rise of descent in Dane County, the president would rather speak to a bunch of youth rather than astute voters. Reading the reactions of the students at Wright Middle School to the President's visit, hope was enough for them, and in a time when the rest of America isn't so star-struck, Obama needs to speak to any group that is still willing to believe in the bastardized change he pimped to America that now has so many Americans royally pissed.