1-12-10

MUSTANG DAILY TOMORROW: Showers High 62˚/Low 42˚

CA L I F O R N I A P O LY T E C H N I C S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y World-renowned dance troupe to visit Harmon Hall.

Sarah Palin gets new gig as FOX News contributor.

IN ARTS, 6 Volume LXXIV, Number 58

IN NEWS, 3

Total HomelesS by Region

in SLO county

n w no nk U ted ra po ity or nc O C ni SL ch U a Be o es sm obl Pi R so ay Pa o B r or ch M ea rB o ve er d ro G sca e d ta A ran G o ON I oy rr EG R A

Percent 4.2 7.4 9.7 2.3 20.1 1.7 36.1 17.6 1.0

(of total in SLO County)

mustang daily

According to the 2009 Homeless Enumeration Report conducted by the Homeless Services Coordinating Council (HSCC), on any given day in San Luis Obispo County, 3,829 people are homeless. The homeless shelters are brimming with newcomers while county officials work together to build new homeless campuses to house the 1,500 more homeless than were reported in 2006.

IN SPORTS, 12

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Homelessness on the rise in SLO County

Katie Grady

Santiago, Keeler rewarded for performances in first week of Big West play.

Working as partners with the San Luis Obispo County Board of Directors, the Homeless Services Coordinating Council began meeting monthly in October with two purposes: homeless awareness and oversight. With representatives from every city, the council is currently focused on a plan developed in 2007 by more than 100 people from different agencies called, “A Path to a Home: A Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.”

According to Dana Lilly, a member of the advisory council from the

San Luis Obispo County Planning Department, this “Ten Year Plan” includes constructing a new all-hours homeless campus in San Luis Obispo. The way the system works now, a homeless person can go to the Prado Day Center during the daytime and bus two miles to the Maxine Lewis Memorial shelter at night.

“The current centers are old modular buildings that are just worn out. We need a one-stop see Homelessness, page 2

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Kiplinger Rates Poly a ‘Best Value in Public Colleges’ Will Taylor mustang daily

Cal Poly ranked number 50 on a list of “100 Best Values in Public Colleges 2009-10.” Cal Poly was the only California State University to make the list and climbed from a number 58 ranking in the study last year.

The list, released by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, a Washington DC-based publication, gave Cal Poly the dead-center position in the yearly review based on factors including tuition, student-to-teacher ratios, graduation rates, retention rates and admissions rates.

Despite budget cuts that resulted in furloughs, department cuts and larger class sizes, Cal Poly is staying true to its core values, according to Provost Robert Koob.

“The ranking reaffirms that Cal Poly still offers a good, affordable education,” Koob said. “It’s a question of preserving options in the deficit.”

Koob said that there are two reasons Cal Poly climbed eight spots on Kiplinger’s list this year. The first is the increasing graduation rate and the second is increasing incoming

student scores (SAT, ACT).The graduation rate is rising even more (it’s by far the highest in the CSU system) because of Cal Poly’s recent push to get students to graduate on time.The incoming student scores are rising because of more stringent application standards in admissions.

Cal Poly is No. 5 on the list in terms of admissions with a 34 percent acceptance rate.

Cal Poly students said that they applied and came to the university because it offers a top-notch education for a fraction of the price of other schools like those in the University of California system or private colleges.

This was one of the considerations in the Kiplinger list.

“One of the biggest draws was the $16,000-ish price for one of the best engineering colleges there is,” materials engineering sophomore Brent Plehn said. “Plus I love it here. From the college to the town, I would not want to go anywhere else.”

But not everyone is happy with the recent changes Cal Poly has undergone. Furloughs and class sizes have been discussed, protested and criticized across the campus this school year. see Value, page 2

Suspect in attempted flight attack enters not-guilty plea Ben Schmitt, David Ashenfelter and Joe Swickard detroit free press

DETROIT ­— As he was being whisked from a federal courtroom in Detroit by U.S. Marshals following his three-minute arraignment Friday, a slight and soft-spoken Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab looked over his shoulder.

If he was looking for family members or friendly faces, he had to search hard — one woman inside, who had flown in from Nigeria, identified herself as a lawyer for his parents.

Standing in U.S. District Court in Detroit, shackled at the ankles and speaking in barely audible tones, Abdulmutallab faced a judge over his alleged attempt to blow up a Detroitbound airliner on Dec. 25.

Abdulmutallab spelled his name

and told U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Randon that he understood the charges levied against him by a grand jury in a six-count indictment.

Randon repeatedly questioned Abdulmutallab to ensure he understood the proceedings and the charges against him and to ensure that his lawyer consented to his continued detention at a federal prison in Milan, Mich.

Among the questions asked by the magistrate was whether the suspect had taken any kind of medication in the past 24 hours.

Abdulmutallab — who suffered severe burns to his body in his alleged attempt to blow up Northwest Flight 253 and the nearly 300 passengers and crew aboard as it made its way to Detroit from the Netherlands — responded: “In the last 24 hours?

Some painkillers.”

The 23-year-old Nigerian na-

tional was flanked by his lawyer, federal defender Miriam Siefer. He wore white socks and blue canvas slip-on shoes.

Abdulmutallab, a self-professed alQaeda operative, looked physically fit in his brief court appearance, though he walked with a slight limp. He was barely taller than Siefer, who stands at 5 foot 2 inches.

Siefer informed the court that their client would stand mute — meaning he did not plead guilty or not guilty. But a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf by the court, which is routine at the outset of most federal criminal cases.

After the arraignment, Siefer declined to speak at length, saying: “This is just the first step in a very long process.”

However, she scotched rumors that a new legal team was going to take over the case.

“Who represents him? We do,” she said.

Siefer said she met with her client for about 45 minutes before the arraignment. Abdulmutallab faces life in prison for the most serious charge of trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction. Authorities say the weapon was a homemade bomb hidden in his underwear.

The defense team is expected to file various motions to get documents and other evidence from the government to learn more about the case being built against Abdulmutallab.

“This case is going to take months,” said criminal lawyer James Thomas, who represented one of four North African immigrants in a 2003 terror trial in Detroit.

“There are so many agencies — with initials you know and initials you don’t — involved in a case that

transcends territorial boundaries,” Thomas said.

With evidence being gathered in Yemen, Nigeria, the Netherlands and elsewhere, he said it will take months to digest, declassify and share with the defense team. There will be legal skirmishes.

Once the defense digs into the evidence, it must decide whether to go to trial or negotiate a plea deal for Abdulmutallab, who faces up to life plus 90 years in prison on charges of trying to blow up the airliner.

Legal experts say that, given the reported admissions he made to people on the plane and to investigators on the ground in Detroit, his case is unlikely to go to trial.

Hebba Aref, 27, who is from Bloomfield Hills, Mich., but lives in Kuwait, where she is a corporate attorney, was on Northwest Flight 253 see Suspect, page 2

2

Value continued from page 1

Melody DeMerritt, a Cal Poly English instructor of 33 years, said that Cal Poly’s educational value has dropped with budget cuts and increased fees.

“The big picture is ‘Everyone loves Cal Poly,’ but the small picture is the details department to department of what we’ve let go of,” DeMerritt said. “It makes education less relative to a student’s future work life.”

DeMerritt gave the example of an English student who, with the budget cuts, cannot get a technical writing certificate because the certification program was cancelled. Which English graduate gets a job? The one with the technical writing certification or the one without the certificate? DeMerritt said these losses are immeasurable.

Other faculty said that although the losses that Cal Poly has seen are unfortunate, administrators are doing as good a job as they can at keeping Cal Poly competitive with other universities.

“In general, Cal Poly is dealing with a bad situation pretty well,” political science assistant professor Matthew Moore said. “Given the limits on the financing we get from the state, I think Cal Poly has tried to figure out how to handle that and has done a pretty good job.”

Homelessness continued from page 1

shop that has both centers,” Lilly said.

The Homeless Services Coordinating Council plans to get the new shelter approved by the Airport Land Use Commission this year and to start building in 2011. Facilitated

by Architecture Instructor Charles Crotser, Cal Poly students held a reception last year at the Prado Day Center displaying models for the new shelter in the form of senior projects.

Based on these models and occupying a vacant lot on the corner of S. Higuera and Prado Rd., this comprehensive shelter could house nearly 200 people, a substantial increase from the 49 spots available at the Maxine Lewis Memorial Shelter. Where, first-time members are guaranteed a bed for the first 30 days, and after that, beds are harder to come by.

There are roughly 20-35 spaces available in an overflow unit provided by the Interfaith Coalition for Homeless. This unit is reserved for families, children and women, but case manager Pamela Hughes said they are still turning people away nearly every night. Hughes works together with clients to aid in things like applying for social security and jobs or getting on wait lists for low-income housing.

“I used to be able to get them jobs,” Hughes said. “I could make a single phone call or trucks would drive by daily asking if we had anyone who could work.That’s just not happening now.”

Aside from an obvious increase of homeless individuals in the past year, Hughes points out the uncanny amount of the educated homeless coming through. She explained how up to 10 individuals have had master’s degrees, three have had doctorates, and many more have

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Moore said that although furloughs aren’t ideal, they probably provide the least impact to students.

Although the professors are there 10 percent less during the quarter, at least you can get to know your professors and talk to them in office hours, he said.

“One really nice thing about Cal Poly is we’ve hit the middle ground between, say, the UCs, where you’re going to be in large classes...and a liberal arts college where you might have a homogenous population,” Moore said.“It’s a larger school with a lot of different majors, a lot of different interests and at the same time you can walk down the hall and knock on your professors’ doors.

You get the best of both worlds.”

Moore said he was optimistic about Cal Poly’s future and that the school continues to be a “pretty good bargain.”

Although class sizes have changed, teachers have been furloughed and budgets have been cut, Cal Poly and its students continue to change according to electrical engineering senior Michael Jenkins.

“It’s tough,” Jenkins said. “You understand why they have to make the cuts, but at the same time, I’ve had some frustrations getting classes.

“But you always find a way around it. I’m here for my fifth year, which isn’t great, but it works.”

graduated from college with bachelor’s degrees.

When the sun rises, the Prado Day Center sees a constant flow of homeless as well. Serving breakfast and a hot lunch seven days a week in addition to providing laundry facilities, hot showers and donated clothing, the center has roughly

I want us to take the view that our work is not done until no one is homeless.

—Lee Collins Director or the San Luis Obispo Department of Social Services

120-130 people coming though daily according to manager Darlene Mims.

“Almost every day we get newcomers,” Mims said. “We are seeing more families and more individuals in general. Many are victims of mental illness, some of domestic violence, and others are just passing through.”

The majority of the meals are prepared and served by local churches. Cristian Rojas, a recent Cal Poly graduate and member of the the Seventh Day Adventist Church, has been volunteering at the Prado Day Center since 2004.

“We go to the center the fourth Sunday of every month and serve lunch,” Rojas said. “Every time I volunteer there’s a lot of people showing up.”

News Suspect

News editor: Kate McIntyre News Designer: Kasey Reed mustangdailynews@gmail.com Tuesday, January 12, 2010

continued from page 1

on Dec. 25 — seated six rows behind Abdulmutallab. And she was seated behind him again in the federal courthouse Friday.

“It was strange, not frightening, to see Abdulmutallab in court today,” she said. “I felt something in my stomach and in my heart. At the time of the incident, he was completely blank.This time, he was talking.”

Describing the failed bombing attempt, she said someone yelled, “Fire!” and that she “saw a flash.”

Aref, who attended the hearing with her parents, was escorted to one of the front rows in the courtroom. She said she was satisfied with the charges against Abdulmutallab.

“This person has changed my life and the way things are done in the United States,” she said. “I just wanted to see who this person was again.”

A woman who was escorted out of the courtroom by security officers was swarmed by a crowd of news spectators and protesters who mistakenly believed her to be the mother of Abdulmutallab.

Dave Alwatan, 36, of Dearborn Heights, Mich., shouted at her: “Shame on you! ... Shame on you for how you raised your kids.”

As she left, the woman was asked repeatedly by the news media about

Due to the chilly winter months, the Prado Day Center recently extended its hours to remain open at night. Even with minimal sleeping accommodations, this should hopefully relieve some of the pressure on the nighttime shelter.

The city of San Luis Obispo has the highest percentage of homeless persons with 36 percent of the county’s homeless population followed by Paso Robles with 20 percent. Half of the homeless in the county have been without a place of their own for over a year.

The homeless community also has a high amount of social and family ties to the area. Twenty-six percent reported they have friends and family in the San Luis Obispo area and 38 percent are originally from the county.

On Nov. 24, a San Luis Obispo rancher by the name of Dan De Vaul was released from county jail after being arrested and fined in September for housing as many as 73 homeless people on his Sunny Acres ranch through a recovery and rehabilitation program he founded in 2001.

“A homeless guy asked if he could put a truck and camper on the corner of my property ... he showed up a week later with a homeless friend who happened to be classmate of mine from the class of 62’ at San Luis Obispo High,” said De Vaul when explaining the beginnings of his operation. This classmate still lives on the Sunny Acres property nine years later.

De Vaul’s sentence included two misdemeanor violations of building and safety codes.

Though officials and agency workers indicate an increasing homeless community, comparisons between the 2006 and 2009 reports may be skewed because last year’s report had an increased number of volunteers and was recorded at a different time of year.

Not only focussed on shelter expansion in San Luis Obispo, the

eric seals detroit free press

Ibrahim Aljahim, left, and Maged Moughni hold a sign in front of the Theodore Levin U.S. Federal Courthouse in downtown Detroit, Michigan, Jan. 8, 2010. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian national accused of trying to blow up an airliner as it descended toward Metro Airport on Dec. 25 had a hearing at the courthouse. the case, but she wouldn’t comment.

Earlier, the woman told reporters inside the courthouse that her name was Maryam Uwais and that she was an attorney from Nigeria appearing in court on behalf of Abdulmutallab’s parents.

“The family asked us to be here,” said Uwais, who confirmed she flew from Nigeria for Friday’s arraignment. A lawyer accompanying her, Mahmud Kazaure, said he lives and practices law in the United States.

The day concluded with the Detroit police bomb squad shutting

down a street alongside the courthouse after a suspicious package was discovered.

A U.S. Marshals Service employee noticed an envelope placed on the ledge of a ground floor window of the federal courthouse.

Twenty minutes later, Detroit Police Inspector Don Johnson said an embarrassed woman told police she was smoking a cigarette near the window and accidentally left the envelope there, touching off the scare.

Johnson said the unidentified woman was very apologetic.

“Ten Year Plan” includes the construction of three additional regional campuses, short-term housing subsidies, promotion of community volunteering and expansion of affordable housing.

Lee Collins, director of the San

Luis Obispo Department of Social Services described it as an ambitious plan to not just reduce, but to end homelessness entirely.

“I want us to take the view that our work is not done until no one is homeless,” said Collins.

mustang daily

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 www.mustangdaily.net

News

Palin joining Fox News as contributor Matea Gold and Mark Z. Barabak

mcclatchy newspapers

mcclatchy-tribune

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin talks to fans during her book signing at Barnes & Noble at The Villages, Florida, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. cording to Nielsen.

But whether Palin is able to use her perch at the network to enhance her stature for a possible 2012 presidential run remains to be seen.

“It will be hard for her to use this to broaden her political base,” said Darrell M. West, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution and author of the book “Celebrity Politics.” “It will strengthen her support among conservatives, but she already does well among that group.”

Since exploding into public view as Sen. John McCain’s running mate in 2008, Palin has drawn a mixture of adoration and indignation for her provocative statements, delivered in her trademark folksy manner.

While clearly comfortable with the camera, Palin nevertheless strug-

gled in some television interviews during the race, particularly during an infamous series of sit-downs with CBS anchor Katie Couric, in which she rambled and appeared unprepared.The interviews inspired a widely disseminated spoof on “Saturday Night Live” and caused considerable angst within McCain’s campaign.

During an interview with “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, top McCain strategist Steve Schmidt said Palin also caused problems by frequently making incorrect public statements, such as claiming falsely she was exonerated by an ethics investigation in Alaska.

“That opened the door to criticism that she was being untruthful see Palin, page 4

3

Chain’s calorie counts required for new health care bill David Lightman

los angeles times

NEW YORK — When Sarah Palin abruptly stepped down as Alaska governor in July before the end of her first term, many questioned how she could maintain a national presence without the platform of elected office.

That hasn’t proven a problem for the onetime Republican vice presidential nominee, who has kept herself at the center of political debate with a best-selling book, an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and controversial Facebook postings. Now Palin has found another way to stay in the spotlight: by signing on as a contributor for the top-rated Fox News Channel.

Palin, who will make her debut tonight on “The O’Reilly Factor,” will appear regularly as a commentator on the network. She’ll also be one of the hosts of an occasional series called “Real American Stories” about how everyday Americans cope with challenges.

With her hiring, Fox News gets a high-profile figure whose pronouncements on issues such as health care reform have helped drive contentious partisan debate — it was her Facebook post that first raised the term “death panels.”

“She is one of the most talked about and politically polarizing figures in the country,” said Bill Shine, the network’s executive vice president of programming. “First off, we hope she brings that.”

Palin, in turn, gets a large megaphone. Last year, Fox News drew a record primetime audience of nearly 2.2 million viewers, more than CNN and MSNBC combined, ac-

Wire Editor: Jennifer Titcomb

WASHINGTON — Calorie counts for every pizza, blueberry muffin, chef ’s salad or anything else that comes from many chain restaurants and vending machines would be instantly available to consumers, thanks to a few paragraphs in Congress’ health care legislation.

Under the health care bills passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives, restaurants that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations doing business under the same name would have to post on the menu or menu board the calories contained in most items.

Such information would also be available for food “sold at a salad bar, buffet line, cafeteria line, or similar self-service facility, and for self-service beverages or food that is on display and that is visible.”

The requirement doesn’t apply to condiments, “daily specials,” custom orders or items that appear on menus for less than 60 days a year.

The restaurant also would have to make available right away, upon request, other information such as calories from fat in a product, as well as amounts of fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrates, complex carbohydrates, sugars, dietary fiber and protein.

Vending machines owned by large operators also would have to have calorie labels so that consumers could see them before they bought an item. That presumably would mean that on

machines where the product is not visible, label cards would be posted on the machine.

The measure has widespread support.

“It shows the government wants to take action on obesityrelated issues. It’s symbolically important,” said Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

Politically, the provision is a rare example of lawmakers from both parties agreeing on a nuance of the mammoth health care bill.

Democratic leaders are trying to meld versions passed by the Senate and House last year into a final version that can be enacted into law.

There’s little disagreement on the calorie counting, which is expected to take effect about a year after the legislation is enacted.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is one of the effort’s main sponsors, while Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, hailed the bill as providing “concrete steps to fashion a society in which the healthy choice is the easy choice.”

Not everyone, though, sees the change as a great idea. Some see it as the government micromanaging their businesses, while others question cost and other issues.

At the National Automatic Merchandising Association, which represents the vending industry, Ned Monroe, senior vice president for government affairs, said that while “we’re not opposed to calorie disclosure, we do see Calorie, page 5

4

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

News

Pakistan terrorist violence spiked in 2009, report says Saeed Shah mcclatchy newspapers

mcclatchy-tribune

Pie chart shows how civilans were killed in 2009; bar chart shows the increase in civilians killed and injured, 2006-09.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan suffered its worst year of terrorist violence last year, with more than 3,000 people killed, as Islamic insurgents, some of them allied with al-Qaeda, targeted civilians and destabilized the country, according to a new report.

The tally compiled by the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, a research organization based in Islamabad, found that terrorist attacks killed 3,021 people and injured 7,334 in 2009. There were 87 suicide bombings amid 2,586 terrorist strikes, a 45 percent increase over the previous year.

Pakistani extremists had been careful to limit their targets to the police and military but toward the end of 2009 they began to hit civilian targets, including Islamabad’s International Islamic University and markets in the cities of Lahore and Peshawar.

“The most important trend to emerge was attacks on soft targets,” said Abdul Basit, a researcher at PIPS. “The distinction between combatants and non-combatants is gradually disappearing.”

The violence far outstripped the

bloodshed in neighboring Afghanistan, and the mounting terrorist challenge in Pakistan underscored what appear to be growing ties among Arab, Afghan, Pakistani and other militant groups as al-Qaeda leaders try to relieve the pressure on their refuge along the Afghan-Pakistani border and generate friction between the U.S. and its allies by launching attacks elsewhere.

The attacks in Pakistan, for example, could prompt Pakistani officials to concentrate on the domestic threat and continue to resist the Obama administration’s demands that they start attacking Afghan insurgents based in Pakistan.

“What we are seeing in this region is a fusion of (extremist) interests and ideologies. The overriding ideology is that of al-Qaeda,” said Imtiaz Gul, the author of “The Al Qaeda Connection. “It is al-Qaeda that’s connecting people. ... But can you take them all (extremist groups) on in one go? That’s Pakistan’s dilemma.”

Pakistani forces last year launched their first concerted military response to Islamic extremism since the country sided with the U.S. following the 9-11 attacks, killing 7,945 terrorists, according to the PIPS study.

Pentagon report to focus on military’s failings in Fort Hood rampage Henry Chu los angeles times

WASHINGTON — A Pentagon report on the November massacre at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas will pinpoint the role of the military’s administrative failings leading up to the incident, including how the accused shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, repeatedly earned favorable performance ratings in spite of mounting concerns about his views and behavior.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is expected to announce preliminary findings Thursday of the investigation into the military’s actions leading up to the attack at the Fort Hood base in which 13 people were killed, defense officials said.

Among other issues, investigators have examined how it was that Hasan received repeated positive performance reviews that allowed his military career to advance despite concerns about inappropriate behavior, including charges that he proselytized patients and discussed extremist Islamic views with colleagues, according to defense officials.

The investigation was led by retired Adm. Vernon Clark, a former chief of naval operations, and Togo West, a former secretary of the Army.

Because of the ongoing criminal investigation of Hasan, a military psychiatrist, a defense official said that findings released Thursday will focus on the military’s administrative failings, avoiding details about Hasan’s actions.

But the findings are expected to explore why concerns about Hasan’s

mcclatchy-tribune

Soldiers and civilians await the start of the memorial service for victims of the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, Tuesday, November 10, 2009. performance at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were not passed on to his supervisors at his next assignment, at Fort Hood.The investigation is also supposed to point to ways to overhaul the military’s performanceevaluation system.

As widely practiced in Army culture, few performance reviews contain negative comments, and almost all seem outwardly positive. However, at senior levels and in competitive fields, where only a few officers are promoted, an evaluation that is less than effusive in its praise can derail an officer’s promotion.

In less competitive fields and at junior levels, the Army has promoted the vast majority of its officers.

Hasan was a highly trained Army specialist.With a shortage of mentalhealth personnel, few such special-

ized experts are blocked from promotion.

Especially now, the culture that encourages issuance of mainly positive evaluations has undercut the usefulness of the system for evaluating officers’ strengths and weaknesses, according to some military officials.

Some argue for a system that better alerts others to potential problems with officers’ past performance.

Hasan’s performance at Walter Reed, as described by officials and by those who knew him, should have raised red flags and prevented his promotion and transfer to Fort Hood, many both inside and outside the military have argued since the Nov. 5 rampage. see Report, page 5

U.S. unmanned American drone aircraft unleashed at least 51 missile strikes on Pakistani-based extremists, and the study found that the drones killed 667 people and injured 310 — but casualty figures for the strikes vary widely and are considered unreliable.

The current extremist campaign in Pakistan started in summer 2007, after the military stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad, a radical stronghold, and killed some 100 people holed up inside, an event that al-Qaeda seized upon to call for an Islamist rebellion in the country.

That insurrection led to the formation of a Pakistani Taliban movement that fought not in Afghanistan but at home, and that linked up with older militant groups in the country.

The study found that a total of 25,447 people, including extremists, were killed and injured in militancyrelated violence in Pakistan last year, eclipsing 8,812 such casualties in Afghanistan. In comparison, at the height of the violence in Iraq four years ago, some 3,000 Iraqis were dying each month.

In 2009, for the first time, after Pakistani Taliban took over the Swat valley in the northwest, public opin-

ion turned against the extremists’ claim that they were fighting for Islam. That allowed Pakistani forces to launch operations in Swat, and also later in South Waziristan on the Afghan border.

Washington is now pressing Pakistan to send its forces into North Waziristan, a refuge for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Pakistani officials have pleaded repeatedly that they can’t open too many fronts simultaneously, with ongoing commitments in Swat, South Waziristan, other parts of the tribal area, as well as needing to guard Pakistan’s eastern border with archenemy India.

Some U.S. military and intelligence officials think their top Pakistani counterparts remain unwilling to take on some of the Islamists. The Pakistani army, they note, has been close to certain extremist groups, including two major Afghan insurgent groups led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

“There is now a broad realization that militancy as a tool of policy cannot work,” said Zahid Hussain, an analyst and author of Frontline Pakistan.“This is going to be a prolonged war.”

Palin

Democratic speechwriter and director of USC’s Norman Lear Center, which studies the impact of entertainment on society, said Palin’s new gig will not help her overcome her biggest vulnerability: her limited experience in public office. When she left office, she had 18 months remaining in her first term.

“The narrative that hurts her the most is one that she herself began, which is she’s not interested in governing,” Kaplan said.

It is not unusual for a presidential aspirant to play pundit. From 1975 to 1979, Ronald Reagan helped build his national following by delivering more than 1,000 threeminute radio broadcasts on subjects ranging from the Soviet Union to personal reflections on marriage, religion, war and death.

But no one has ever moved from a TV studio to the Oval Office. Patrick J. Buchanan, a combative staple on the cable talk-show circuit, tried three times and failed to win the presidency.

David Winston, a Republican pollster and strategist, said it’s up to Palin whether she can use her airtime as a launch pad.

“You’ve certainly got plenty of people who spend a lot of time doing commentary on TV who’ve got some really thoughtful and interesting things to say,” he said.

“And there are plenty of people who don’t. It will depend on her to come up with the quality and the content that engages people.”

continued from page 3

and inaccurate,” Schmidt said.

“And I think that is something that continues to this day.”

Palin’s suggestion on Facebook this summer that “death panels” would determine whether seniors and the disabled deserved health care was voted the biggest political lie of the year by readers of Politifact.com, the nonpartisan factchecking site run by the St. Petersburg Times.

Shine said he was not concerned Palin would make false assertions on the air.

“Along the way, we’ll talk to her and have conversations and I’m sure everything will be fine,” he said, adding that the expectations that Palin will utter something controversial will likely drive viewership.

“In the end, that’s probably going to help us in that that’s what people will want to watch.”

Republican strategist David Carney, a veteran of the first Bush White House, said Palin was canny to sign up for a limited role on Fox News. The occasional, selected appearance “is probably safer for keeping her presidential possibilities open than a daily show where she’d have to come up with something innovative and entertaining and provocative for 42 minutes, five days a week,” he said.

Still, Marty Kaplan, a former

WHAT’S YOUR

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 www.mustangdaily.net

News

Briefs

Word on the Street “What do you think about Obama’s plan to send more troops to Afghanistan?”

“My uncle is in the military.

I’ve seen his post-traumatic stress and don’t want to see any soldier with it.

-Sam Huskins, graphic communication sophomore

“I’m opposed to it. I wish people would have realized sooner that all politicans lie to get elected. I have a friend leaving in a month; I’m devastated.”

-Tia Andrews, agribusiness senior

State

National

International

SAN LUIS OBISPO (MCT) — A storm expected Tuesday will deliver up to an inch of rain and create waves more than 15 feet high by Wednesday, local forecaster John Lindsey said.

The storm could generate sets of waves up to 30 feet high about a tenth of a mile out to sea. Waves of this size typically cannot support themselves as they near the shoreline, said Lindsey, a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. community relations representative and expert on Central Coast weather.

Still, the waves will be big no matter where they break.

Lindsey said the waves would be some of the largest to hit the Central Coast since a June 1983 storm.

LOS ANGELES (MCT) — Hepatitis B and C remain serious threats to public health, but many health care providers fail to screen at-risk patients and don’t know how to treat those infected with the viral diseases that can cause liver failure and cancer, according to a report released Monday by the National Academy of Sciences.

The long-awaited assessment calls for a campaign to educate the public, doctors and lawmakers about the diseases, an approach similar to HIV/AIDS outreach that has made that issue prominent in people’s minds.

Most of the estimated 3 million to 5 million people with chronic hepatitis B and C don’t know they have the diseases. Infected people can show no signs of illness for years, and by the time they start to show symptoms, they may have already developed scarring of the liver or liver cancer and can be close to death.

LONDON (MCT) — Northern Ireland’s top leader announced Monday that he was stepping down temporarily amid an explosive scandal over his wife’s affair with a teenager and allegations of an ethical lapse of his own in connection with the relationship.

Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland’s first minister, said he was giving up his post for six weeks in order to concentrate on clearing his name and on caring for his wife, Iris, an influential lawmaker whose spectacular fall from grace has rocked the province’s political scene.

The revelation last week of her affair with a 19-year-old and allegations that she solicited secret loans to help him open a coffeehouse have left her career in ruins and put her in need of “acute psychiatric treatment,” Peter Robinson said.

•••

“He said in his campaign he would take troops out of Iraq and put them in Afghanistan, so I’m not surprised.”

-Alex Lee, agribusiness senior

“I don’t think the public knows enough about the situation to comment on it. I hope he’s making the right decisions with the information he has.”

SACRAMENTO (MCT) — More than 20,000 California homebuyers could get state tax credits of up to $10,000 this year under a new stimulus proposed Wednesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The governor’s plan to allocate $200 million in credits to buyers of new or existing homes is part of a job creation strategy. It goes now to state lawmakers for consideration.

“This is about helping eliminate extra housing to get construction back on tap,” said Victoria Bradshaw, Schwarzenegger’s secretary of labor and workforce development, in a call with reporters.

Calorie continued from page 3

-MaryAnn Sharf, fruit science junior

“I think he should just bring everyone home.”

-Phil Hurst, manufacturing engineering senior

“At this point it’s about all he can do, because stability is low there and without stability you can’t achieve any other progress” -Jesse Kinsell, political science freshman

compiled and photographed by jennifer titcomb

www.mustangdaily.net Always in color

have other concerns.”

Among them are potential legal problems — for instance, what if someone attached the wrong label to a vending machine product? He also called the provisions costly.

“The vending industry is under severe economic strain,” he said, and the one-year cost to achieve labeling is an estimated $56.4 million. About 7.5 million vending machines would need product labels, a task that’s generally done by a senior route driver.

Currently, about a dozen states and cities have calorie disclosure requirements; but the bill, said

•••

WASHINGTON (MCT) — The camera-shy justices of the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a halt Monday to the planned video coverage of the San Francisco trial of California’s Proposition 8.Apparently concerned witnesses opposed to gay marriage could face harassment if they were shown on YouTube.

It was the second time in three months the high court had intervened on behalf of defenders of “traditional marriage.”

National Restaurant Association President Dawn Sweeney, would help consumers by setting “a uniform national standard for chain restaurants.”

Researchers at Yale’s Rudd Center studied the potential impact. In a study published last month, they split 303 adults from the New Haven, Conn., area into groups that saw menus with no calorie information, menus with calorie labels and menus with more detailed data, including calories and recommended daily caloric intake for an average adult.

Those in the two groups whosaw the calorie labels ate 14 percent fewer calories than the other group. When after-dinner eating was included, the group with the more detailed menu labels ate an average of 250 fewer calories.

•••

TOKYO (MCT) — Fifty-seven years after the end of the bloody Korean conflict, always unpredictable North Korea on Monday proposed a peace treaty to formally end the hostilities.

The socialist state suggested that it would sign the document as it returned to the stalled six-party talks to end the regime’s nuclear ambitions. But first, North Korea officials say, they want all international sanctions imposed last year to be lifted immediately.

Report continued from page 4

For instance, Hasan’s superiors faulted his light caseload and said he shirked professional responsibilities.

He was admonished for discussing religion with his patients and criticized for the subject of at least one research paper on the internal conflicts of Muslim soldiers.

At the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, he was put on academic probation shortly after he began in 2007, and took six years to graduate from a four-year program.

Despite those problems, Hasan was promoted to captain in 2003 and major in 2009, and even superiors who had raised questions about his work wrote in references that he was competent.

tuesday, january 12, 2010

arts & Entertainment editor: cassandra keyse

Unique dance troupe to showcase at Harmon Hall Daniel Triassi mustang daily

“And the wheel keeps turning”

An ode to the energy, grace and power of the human body, the internationally known dance company Momix will perform in the Harman Hall of the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Momix has been celebrated for its ability to materialize a world of surrealistic images through dynamic use of lights, shadows, props and humor. The dancers often wear fluorescent costumes and perform under black lights, creating a unique visual experience.

This is the second time Momix has performed at Cal Poly, said Peter Wilt, Cal Poly Arts program manager.

“It’s exciting, it’s different, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” Wilt said.

Momix is not solely based on contemporary dance but mixes acrobatics, dance and gymnastics.

“It emphasizes more athleticism, not modern dance, not ballet, but more movement and athleticism,” Wilt said.

The first time at Cal Poly, the dance ensemble performed “Opus Cactus,” inspired by a giant saguaro cactus seen by director Moses Pendleton in the Arizona Desert. “Opus Cactus” presented a vivid recreation of the colorful plant and animal life that exists in the desert.

Bringing the desert landscape to life in “Opus Cactus,” the dancers of Momix twisted and contorted themselves into tumbleweeds, cacti and reptiles including a Gila monster, a species of venomous lizard native to the United States.

“The show began with performers formed like a lizard with a tongue,” Wilt said.

On Wednesday, the group will perform “Best of Momix,” a series of dances based on the company’s most popular pieces, said Lisa Woske, public affairs for Cal Poly Arts. The program will include various segments such as

courtesy photos

Momix Dance Troupe will perform a variety of pieces during their “Best of Momix” show. A scene from “Dream Catcher” is pictured above. Below, dancers perform in a trio.

“Dream Catcher,” “Pole Dance” and “Medusas.”

“The evening will be a compilation of the company’s finest and most thrilling works, sure to transport the audience from the mundane everyday to the absolutely magical,” Woske said.

A free pre-show lecture will be presented by Moon Ja Minn Suhr, theater and dance department faculty emeritus at 6 p.m.

Suhr founded the Orchesis Dance Company, Cal Poly’s oldest concert dance organization founded in 1969, and has been teaching dance for 40 years.

The name Momix came from

Moses Pendelton. “Mo” came from his name, “mix” came from the mixture of movement, Suhr said.

Momix is based in Washington, Connecticut and has toured throughout the United States, Europe, South America, Asia and Australia.

Student and adult tickets for the performance range from $20 to $44 and may be purchased at the Performing Arts Center Ticket Office or by phone at (805) 756-2787. Student rush tickets may be purchased at the door one hour before the event for $10 cash with a student I.D.

mustang daily

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 www.mustangdaily.net

sex column

‘Furries’ just want to be cuddled

Nowadays, most people have heard of furries. But they probably haven’t heard anything good.

Whether online or on TV, furries tend to be the scapegoat of the modern age, used whenever something funny, weird, disturbing, perverted or generally strange is needed to keep things going.

Unsurprisingly, there are few facts involved in such portrayals, so most people don’t really even know what a furry is.

The common, word-of-mouth description of these seemingly unknowns is “people who dress up like animals when they have sex.” But this definition is incomplete, if not inaccurate. Such a definition just would not do for me, so I searched through Web sites created by furries and non-furries alike and tried to come up with a better one.

The most basic definition of “furry” is someone with a significant interest in anthropomorphic animal characters. This term doesn’t apply to the everyday dog or cat, but to animals with human characteristics, such as intelligence and standing on two legs. Think of the Disney version of Robin Hood. Naturally, this sort of creature is quite hard to come up with in everyday life, as animal-human hybrids do not exist (yet), so this explains why the arts are so important in the furry community.

Furry characters can be easily drawn, painted, etc. and there are many galleries throughout the internet. However, for those who wish to interact with other people in the guise of an anthropomorphic animal that they relate to personally (a “fursona”), there is only so much a picture will do. Hence, the presence of 3D avatars in role playing systems such as Second Life, and of course the infamous practice of wearing costumes.

In the media, we tend to mostly

see fursuits, which are full-body costumes, similar to those worn by some sports mascots. However, most furries do not own one, as they are quite expensive, and I feel it is more common to rely on a pair of ears and a tail to relay the message, especially in our age group.

This practice has been around for a while, and can be relatively mainstream when done by women, as in the whole “Playboy Bunny” idea, as well as the more modern Kemonomimi in anime and manga.

These last two are of course quite sexualized, so it is barely surprising that the entire furry community has been stereotyped as being primarily focused on sex. It’s definitely no surprise that furries have sex in the first place, as most people do, so there must be some other reason why they are viewed so negatively.

Is it because other people feel threatened? This isn’t likely since furries are usually attracted to each other. So if there isn’t really any way that a non-furry person could be affected, why is there such fear of the community?

It is instinct for people to treat something that they don’t understand with suspicion and fear, just in case it could actually be harmful. This sort of thinking should go away once it is understood that something can’t be harmful, and there is pretty much nothing harmful a furry can do to you. Even if you still can’t get your head around furry art, costumes, life or sex, all you have to get your head around is the fact that it doesn’t affect you in any way. Live and let live is a good policy in this case, because really, you have more serious things to worry about.

Anthony Rust is a biological sciences junior and Mustang Daily sex columnist.

mustangdaily.net

Arts

Arts editor: Cassandra Keyse mustangdailyarts@gmail.com

7

Rapper RZA ready for next step Chris Lee los angeles times

LOS ANGELES — Call the RZA hip-hop’s foremost alchemist.

The self-professed former drug dealer-turned-Grammy-winning rapper-producer has defied all odds to spin not lead into gold, but demode pop culture and arcane philosophical beliefs into platinum disc upon platinum disc.

And now, after spending years under the tutelage of several highprofile filmmakers, including Quentin Tarantino, he’s preparing to unleash his unique mash-up sensibility on the big screen, in a project that will be part chop-socky flick, part spaghetti Western and all RZA. As founding father of the hardcore Staten Island rap collective Wu-Tang Clan, RZA (pronounced “rizza,” given name: Robert Diggs) conflated the spiritual enlightenment found in ‘70s kung fu movies with racially incendiary teachings from the Five-Percent Nation of Islam, adding to the mix references to Taoism and comic books, numerology and snippets of mafia don movie dialogue, articulating a plaintive yet hard-bitten ghetto cri de coeur.

The upshot was an almost unparalleled string of hits that started with the Clan’s epochal 1993 debut LP, “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers),” and encompasses such releases as Method Man’s multiplatinum-selling “Tical,” Raekwon the Chef ’s “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx ...” (widely regarded as one of hiphop’s greatest albums) and Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s gold-selling “Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version,” another ranking rap classic.

But after the Wu’s tightly knit fabric started to unravel around 2004, RZA began to focus more on film.

In recent years, he has been scoring such movies as “Blade: Trinity” and making cameo appearances in Jim Jarmusch’s “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” and other films. His encyclopedic knowledge of Hong Kong cinema notwithstanding, the producer didn’t have any particular ambition to set moviedom on fire.

Until, that is, he got a fateful phone call from then-Miramax Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein.

“Hey RZA, it’s Harvey,” the RZA recalled, lapsing into a raspy imitation of Weinstein’s cigaretteseasoned growl. “I want you to be in my movie. You got a new career now.”

Since that appearance with Clive Owen in 2005’s “Derailed,” RZA has built a respectable filmography with small roles in a number of high-profile, big-budget studio movies, among them Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” and Ridley Scott’s

mcclatchy-tribune

Rapper RZA, founder of Wu-Tang Clan, is expanding his list of movie credits to include a new film titled “Man With the Iron Fist.”

“American Gangster,” as well as a turn in “The Hangover” director Todd Phillips’ upcoming comedy, “Due Date,” and Paul Haggis’ “The Next Three Days” — a role that reunited him with “Gangster” co-star Russell Crowe.

“I’m working up in the movie business,” RZA said. “Maybe in the movie business, I’m working down.

How long are you going to be a celebrity? I like the art. I like how it feels to act.”

So do such other rappers-turnedactors as LL Cool J, Common, Xzibit, Ludacris, DMX, Ice Cube and even Snoop Dogg. But befitting the producer’s magpie ability to glean and repackage cultural stimuli from across the high-low divide, RZA says his acting efforts are in the service of his next career act: a move behind the camera.

With no small amount of backup from a cadre of top-flight filmmakers — including independent cinema luminary Jarmusch and Hong Kong action movie ace John Woo, but most significantly, Tarantino — the RZA-rector, as he is sometimes known, is now in final preparations for his debut as a writer-director, “The Man With the Iron Fist.” And unlike the fates of some musicians’ directorial efforts (say, Madonna’s “Filth and Wisdom” or Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst’s “The Edu-

cation of Charlie Banks”), RZA’s movie industry backers swear he has the right combination of creativity, chutzpah and discipline to achieve liftoff at the box office.

Planned as a genre-busting opening salvo to the industry, the movie is being produced by “torture porn” poster boy Eli Roth, the writer-director of such low-cost, high-yield horror films as “Hostel” and “Hostel: Part II.” (For the time being, though, both filmmakers prefer to remain mum on specific plot points, although Roth allows that “Man With the Iron Fist” should appeal to “an audience that’s hungry for kung fu but not grindhouse. Something that’s modern, like ‘Blade.’”)

“RZA is such a creative fountain.

The script is great, he’s got characters, jokes. What he does with lyrics, he does with dialogue,” Roth said.“And he’s done such a great mix: spaghetti western, kung fu, modern fighting infused with hip-hop and multiculture. He has this whole comic book universe figured out. I know he’s going to make a brilliant film.”

Of course, none of it would be possible without Tarantino, who godfathered Roth’s “Hostel” into production as an executive producer and introduced the filmmaker to see RZA, page 8

8

mustang daily www.mustangdaily.net

RZA continued from page 7

RZA. A longtime admirer of WuTang Clan’s sonic melange, with his own deeply felt appreciation for the Shaolin monk movie cannon, Tarantino first hired RZA to create the electro-ambient, quasi-hip-hop score for his two-volume kung fu drama “Kill Bill.” But their working relationship didn’t end there.Tarantino has allowed the RZA to soak up production know-how on the set of every movie he’s done since 2003.

Tarantino said he identifies with the hip-hop producer’s skill in macromanaging the nine Clan members’ unwieldy energies into a cohesive form. “You have to understand that even though they’re very different, being a producer on a record is not too different from being a director of film — especially with something like Wu-Tang Clan,” Tarantino said. “All these guys have their different contributions. Everyone has a say. But ultimately, the album is RZA’s decision.

That’s very similar to what a director does. It’s a lot like how I was influenced by Phil Spector.”

Still, RZA says he would not make the move into filmmaking without Tarantino’s explicit blessing.

“Tarantino is my teacher,” RZA said solemnly, echoing — whether intentionally or not — the kind of dialogue you’d hear in a martial-arts film. “I’ve watched hundreds of movies with him and spent hundreds of hours learning craft from him. I’m a disciple of Tarantino.”

He continued: “When Eli said, ‘I want to help you make your movie,’ we had to go to Quentin.The teacher.

He said, ‘You and Eli are ready. You

have my blessing.’”

Spend an afternoon with the RZA and, as any of his moviemaking consigliere will attest, you’ll be hardpressed not to be bowled over by the breadth of his polymathic learning. Conversation ricochets between electrical innovator Nikola Tesla and an extended recitation of what FivePercent Nation of Islam followers call “the knowledge,” from the travails of Job to RZA’s sober recollection of fleeing New York’s meanest streets with a stolen gold necklace, a Koran and a gun — a story the producer elaborates on in his recently published memoir-spiritual enlightenment guide, “The Tao of Wu.” The immediate take-away: Dude is open to new ideas.

“It says in the Koran you find signs every day,” the producer said, seated on the sun-dappled terrace of his San Fernando Valley mini-mansion. “But most people aren’t wise enough to see them.”

So, when the chance presented itself to befriendWoo in 1997 — around the same time Wu-Tang Clan ascended to pop cultural ubiquity with its chart-topping, Grammy-nominated album “Wu-Tang Forever” — RZA jumped at the opportunity. The producer had won points with Woo by sampling dialogue from his operatic shoot’em-up epic “The Killer” on “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx ...” And Woo was a major fan of the Shaolin cinema responsible for RZA’s creative mojo. Moreover, RZA introduced the director to his shifu, or master teacher, Shi Yan Ming, founder of the USA Shaolin Temple in New York. He arranged for the two to receive kung fu tutorials together.

Woo and RZA remained regular dinner companions between 1997

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Arts

and 2000, precipitating a mutually beneficial business proposition.

“For many years, I was getting my lessons from John,” RZA recalled.

“His movie ‘Bullet in the Head,’ he said I can make it over (as a director).

He said, ‘You will get no resistance from me.’ “ Meanwhile, Jarmusch (the force behind such indie favorites as “Stranger Than Paradise,”“Mystery Train” and “Dead Man”) enlisted RZA to create the soundtrack for his 1999 samurai crime-drama “Ghost Dog,” only to discover the producer had begun laying the groundwork for a film career.

“He came on the set of ‘Ghost Dog’ for several days, just to absorb moviemaking,” Jarmusch recalled.

“He was interested in which lenses did what and how we chose to move the camera. How we were thinking about capturing images. He was definitely clocking stuff.You can almost hear the gears in his brain turning fast.”

Jarmusch continued to keep tabs on the RZA’s filmic efforts over the intervening years, being among the few to screen the producer’s short movie, “Domestic Violence,” as well as two 45-minute segments of a film companion piece to RZA’s solo album (under the nom de rap Bobby Digital) “Digital Bullet” — although none of these films has yet seen the light of release.

After reading several early drafts of “Man With the Iron Fist,” Jarmusch is optimistic about RZA’s filmmaking prospects.“The guy’s talents are so broad. His interest in cinema is linked to everything else he’s passionate about in this beautiful way,” he said.

Likewise, Tarantino brought RZA on to compose original music for “Kill Bill:Vol. 1.” But when he invited the producer to watch him film, it

became evident that RZA’s interests superseded the job for which he’d been hired.

“I started noticing he was checking how you do it: Me working with the cinematographer, how you do a fight scene in a practical sense,” said Tarantino. “He’d sit on a box somewhere, writing on a sketch pad and taking it all in. Spending two weeks in China just to soak up the vibe — this isn’t just for a musical contribution.”

Their friendship bloomed, however, with the two “battling” to oneup each other by screening ever more obscure kung fu flicks. Eventually, RZA’s “teacher” imparted him with a more well-rounded knowledge of cinema.

“He’ll pull out a movie I didn’t think of watching at all,” RZA said.

“Suppose we watch the movie for action. But he’ll say, ‘Listen for the dialogue in this.’ Watching it with him, it’s different.”

More crucially, Tarantino invited RZA on a New Year’s Eve trip to Iceland with him and Roth, where Tarantino was hosting a triple-bill screening of rare kung fu movies.

Roth and RZA’s return trip to Los Angeles was delayed in Roth’s hometown, Boston, however. So the horror-meister did the companionable thing and invited his new hip-hop pal back to his family’s home for dinner.

And over the course of their enforced layover, RZA detailed the feature film he was putting together.

“After that, we were like family,” Roth recalled.

When the writer-director launched Arcade, his film production company devoted to genre fare such as horror and sci-fi, in 2007, his first thought was to inquire about RZA’s “Man With the Iron Fist.”

“I called him up, read it,” Roth said. “I said, ‘This is great, but we can make it even stronger. Everything you have — the core idea, the characters — are so good, we can revamp this. I can do for you what Quentin Tarantino did for me on ‘Hostel.’ “ The only thing left for Roth and RZA to do was to get their teacher’s blessing.

“Quentin said, ‘You are ready, just don’t start too much up here,’” RZA said.“That meant, don’t let my budget exceed $10 million. Don’t start like that, yo!You start like that, expectation is going to be so high, you may never come again.That’s great advice.”

Although Roth and RZA say that they have already secured independent financing for “Man With the Iron Fist” and that a shooting draft has been written, the movie’s production schedule has not yet been set.

Drawing intently on a cigarette and taking in the suburban torpor of his current digs, RZA voiced caution for those Wu aficionados expecting the producer to serve as his own leading man. “I don’t know if I’ll be the star,” he said, laughing.“The ladies will be the star. There’s a lot of ladies in this film.”

opinion/editorial Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Editor in chief: Emilie Egger Managing Editor: Alex Kacik

mustangdaily@gmail.com www.mustangdaily.net

mustang daily The voice of Cal Poly since 1916

9

For added airport security, U.S. should take pointers from abroad Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s underwear bomb failed to detonate properly on Christmas day, but the intended damage was done.

Thankfully, Umar failed to kill the nearly 300 people on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. However, Umar did successfully instill fear in the American population. This fear should prompt change, but not the change terrorists intend.

Terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman suggests in the Washington Post that al-Qaeda’s strategic shift from the “knock-out blow” in 2001 to the new “death by a thousand cuts approach” has given the terrorist organization new vitality.

This new five-point strategy calls for smaller attacks over a longer period of time, meant to bleed America to death. It attempts to cripple our will as well as our infrastructure. This includes overloading already taxed intelligence organizations with false or irrelevant information. Our current reactionary measures, including heightened security and new hightech screening solutions, all of which are very expensive, play into al-Qaeda’s new strategy that wants to slowly “bankrupt America.”

Hoffman’s outlook on the immediate future of American security does not look bright. “Over the past 18 months,” Hoffman declared, quoting American and British intelligence officials, “well over 100 individuals from such (unsuspecting non-Islamic) countries have graduated from terrorist training camps in Pakistan and

have been sent West to undertake terrorist operations.”

The “systematic failure” of intelligence analysis and delayed responses stem from a combined misunderstanding of al-Qaeda’s new strategy and failure to embrace change, Hoffman claimed.

Hoffman’s argument points out the necessity of a new American counter-terrorism strategy.

Unfortunately, responses from individuals in the current administration, such as Secretary Na-

politano’s highly publicized claim that the current Homeland Security strategy is working, indicate the administration’s resistance to acknowledging this problem and embracing change.

American security could learn a valuable lesson on recognizing and responding to changing terrorist strategies from the safest (and most targeted) airline on earth: El Al, Israel’s national airline.

MSNBC reports that, “Israeli officials — and a growing number

of American security consultants — agree that aviation security has to be multipronged in its approach.”

They argue that even the most advanced technology, such as X-ray machines and metal detectors, are no replacement for current intelligence about passengers, tamperproof cockpit doors, hand searches and some degree of “profiling,” carried out by properly trained security personnel. This would be a complete shift from the current U.S. model of random checks, run on one in every 10 passengers, according to Israeli Security Chief Rafi Ron. A shift to the Israeli security strategy could bring much improvement to the one-in-10 chance of catching a terrorist, odds that Ron calls “unacceptable.”

The Obama administration continues to cling to Bush-era policies, but the fact remains that more than 100 Pakistani-trained terrorists are positioning themselves to carry out terrorist acts in the near future. Until there are significant changes in American security policy, we are left with few options.

Living in fear of is simply not one of them, lest we let the terrorists win. Therefore, we must live our lives not in fear, but in vigilance. The last line of defense against terrorism is the American citizen.

Nathan Tsoi is a computer science senior and Mustang Daily political columnist.

GUEST COMMENTARY

Veritas forum not an equal playing field Life and meaning are the deepest of questions, and we all seek true answers from the bottom of our hearts.

In these fragile states of mind and strong emotions, we must carry an extra burden of skepticism against those who might take advantage of us.

Last Thursday, the Mustang Daily published an article on the Veritas forum.The story’s unmatched, misleading advertisement under the guise of journalism was dishonest. We readers deserve full journalistic disclosure of the reporter’s Christianity and former involvement with Campus Crusade for Christ (SLO Crusade). Veritas is not an open discussion of life’s big questions — it is a funnel of directed lectures promoting the Christian worldview. I have attended every forum since 2006. To my knowledge, it is not now, nor has it ever been an equal or open stage for all worldviews.

Veritas, the Latin word for truth, claims balanced inquiry into the historical evidence and contemporary relevance of Jesus Christ and the Christian faith. It is sponsored by SLO Crusade and Associated Stu-

dents, Inc. But which definition of “truth” are we using?

(1)the property of being in accord with fact or reality, verified (2)ideal or fundamental reality apart from and transcending perceived experience The testable, verifiable, naturalistic, scientific method-refined reality of the first definition is symbolized by our empirical instruments, like microscopes. Veritas uses a microscope as a logo. This false advertising is troublesome. These misdirections and evasions are made at the expense of us students. When Veritas wants credibility, it reaches for the empirical knowledge gained without gods by using the instruments of science, but Veritas is not bound by science’s methods and rules of evidence. The credibility of science is a consequence of the methods.

Debates are excellent for policy, but obtaining good evidence puts limits on our options. Evolution and the origin of life cannot be debated.

The evidence is presented and the

best models are tentatively drawn up.

Predictions are made on possible future evidence to search for. Chelsea Morrell encourages discussion over a spread spectrum from creationist to evolutionist. A spectrum must be continuously comparable, but creation is to evolution as homeopathy is to modern, clinical, peer-reviewed medicine. One is placebo and the other has evidence and usefulness in spades.

Evolution is the backbone of biology. It is used in fields as far as computer science for its proven usefulness in genetic algorithm searches.Veritas is harming our intellectual community by undermining the early education of university students in fundamental matters like evolution. America is slowing down its technological ability to compete — and economical ability follows. It needs more scientists and engineers educated in reality.Veritas is sowing weeds among our future food crops under the guise of equality for ideas. We will pay a high future cost for our gullibility.

I love having Veritas on campus. I want as many ideas as possible in our population. This diversity gives us

strength and flexibility. I do not want any one idea to become so dominant that it kills off this diversity. I want better ideas to be selected for and acted on.

One good idea we act on is Cal Poly’s learn by doing philosophy. It encourages empirical knowledge — ideas derived by experiment and observation to be useful. Theory, modeling and analysis equally strengthen our knowledge.

We must wear our skeptical hats when people offer us that which is too good to be true. It takes selfreflection and courage to honestly approach life and the meanings we project on it. Critical thinking and skeptical inquiry have served as our best sources of knowledge for centuries. Veritas makes a parody of this honest inquiry. Curiosity on our spectrum of cultures allows a question more noble than “Is there God?”; ask instead “Why are there gods, what is the purpose of religions, and how do they exist over time?”

Nicholas Utschig is a computer engineering senior and Mustang Daily guest columnist.

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Monday, January 12, 2010 Volume LXXIV, No. 58 ©2009 Mustang Daily

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Carroll continued from page 12

of the league's Rooney Rule that requires the interview of minority candidates, but Carroll met Sunday in Los Angeles with Seahawk officials to complete the deal.

"The mantra and what Coach Carroll lives by is all about competition, so you can't blame him for wanting to do that at football's highest level," USC middle linebacker Chris Galippo said. "That's what all of us want to do."

Quarterback Matt Barkley said he was watching television with teammates, who had gathered to discuss the team's situation, when he saw the screen flash with news that Carroll had resigned.

"I'm really blessed that I got a chance to play under him for a year," Barkley said.

Barkley said the assembled teammates "all figured Coach would be gone sooner or later," and that they talked of different scenarios that could be in their immediate future.

"It really shows you how much

Basketball continued from page 12

Santiago, who leads all Big West players with 19.6 points per game and ranks second with 7.4 rebounds and a 54.5 percent field goal mark, scored 19 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and converted a career-best 11 free throw attempts to help key Cal Poly’s 73-61 conference-opening victory against UC Irvine on Jan. 4. Santiago then notched her

McGwire continued from page 12

McGwire's voice repeatedly cracked with emotion as he recounted telling his wife, parents and son that he had used steroids. His voice breaking, McGwire told the AP, "It's the first time they've ever heard me, you know, talk about this.

I hid it from everybody."

McGwire also said he called commissioner Bud Selig and Cardinals manager Tony La Russa earlier in the day to personally apologize.

In 1998, while with the Cardinals, McGwire broke the singleseason home run record held by Roger Maris. McGwire hit 70 that season, a record that stood until Barry Bonds broke it in 2002.

The reason McGwire acknowledged the use in a statement Monday, he said in the release, was because of imminent return to the game as the Cardinals hitting coach.

Manager Tony La Russa announced in November that McGwire would be joining the coaching staff.

Promises by the organization then to make McGwire available "sooner rather than later" did not manifest as attempts to put McGwire before the media were unsuccessful, due to scheduling or other reasons. In the release, he says his return to baseball is a reason for him to "come clean" on subjects he couldn't five years ago in front of Congress.

Called before Congress in 2005, McGwire refused to talk about whether he used performance-

11

mustang daily

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 of a business this is, especially at a Division I college football," Barkley said. "Every player has to live with the fact that this can happen."

Carroll did not return messages and USC and Seahawk officials remained mum.

USC players, who return to campus and begin spring semester classes Monday, had been anxiously awaiting news regarding Carroll, who guided the Trojans to a 97-19 record and seven Pacific 10 Conference championships in nine seasons.

"I like Coach Carroll and I'm going to miss him being our coach," senior cornerback Shareece Wright said. "I'm confident we'll find somebody else. Whoever it is, we'll show him respect and play hard."

With Riley remaining in Corvallis, USC is expected to turn its attention to candidates such as Jacksonville Jaguars Coach Jack Del Rio, who played at USC. Steve Sarkisian, a longtime assistant under Carroll, just completed his first season at Washington and said last week that he was in Seattle for the long haul. But he is not ex-

third double-double of the season with 27 points and a career-high 13 rebounds during Cal Poly’s 63-53 victory at Pacific on Jan. 7.

Santiago attributes her individual performance to the way her team is performing around her.

“We play really good team basketball,” Santiago said. “My team is always looking for me and viceversa, I am always looking for them to kick it back out and they know that. So, I think when we play, we have really good chemistry on the

enhancing drugs during his career.

Pressed on the matter by representatives, McGwire deflected the questions with a phrase that hooked onto his career: He refused to "talk about the past."

McGwire said he was sorry for using steroids in the statement Monday.

"During the mid-90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years," McGwire said in the statement. "I experienced a lot of injuries, including a rib cage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle.

It was definitely a miserable bunch of years and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster.

I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries too.

"I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids," he continued. "I had good years when I didn't take any and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids and I had bad years when I took steroids.

But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry."

McGwire has been eligible for the Hall of Fame in the previous four votes, and each time he's hovered around the 23-percent mark.

That keeps him on the ballot, but he needs 75 percent for enshrinement.

McGwire retired after the 2001 season with 583 career home runs.

McGwire has already started some of his responsibilities as Car-

sports

mcclatchy-tribune

Pete Carroll has accumulated a 33-31 record in the NFL prior to agreeing with the Seattle Seahawks. Carroll coached the New York Jets in 1994 and the New England Patriots from 1997-99. He made the playoffs twice. pected to be completely out of the picture now that Riley is out.

Carroll earned $4.4 million per year at USC, according to the most

recent salary figures available. He is expected to earn $6.5 million annually with the Seahawks.

Having full control of an or-

ganization has always been a huge factor for Carroll, who didn't have that in his previous stints as an NFL head coach with the New York Jets

court and they are able to find me.”

Head coach Faith Mimnaugh said that Santiago is more than just a point and rebound contributor night in and night out. She said she is just as much a team leader as she is a point scorer. “(She is a) player that allows other players to shine as well,” Mimnaugh said. “Everybody believes in her … She has so much say in the locker room and on the court.They believe in her; what she

says is gold.”

During the opening week of Big West play, Santiago shot 51.9 (28-for-54) percent from the floor, 82.6 percent from the free throw line and also paced all Mustangs with 75 total points, 32 rebounds, nine steals and four blocks.

Santiago, who has reached double-digit scoring figures during all 14 of Cal Poly’s games this year and led the Mustangs in scoring 11 times, requires just 23 additional points to become the ninth player

in program history to score 1,000 during a career.

Off to the program’s best overall start in five seasons, Mimnaugh’s team (9-5, 2-1) hosts Big Westleading Cal State Fullerton (8-8, 4-0) inside Mott Gym at 7 p.m.

Thursday. Cal Poly’s men’s basketball team travels on the road to take on Cal State Fullerton Thursday night as well.

Brian De Los Santos contributed to this article.

mcclatchy-tribune

Mark McGwire recorded a .263 batting average in his 16-year stint in the MLB. He accumulated 583 homeruns, 1414 RBI, 1,626 hits and 1,317 walks in his career with the Athletics, Cardinals and Blue Jays. dinals hitting coach. He has requested video of the hitters he'll be working with. He also worked personally with Skip Schumaker and Brendan Ryan this winter.

Schumaker and Matt Holliday have also worked with McGwire during recent offseasons.

"I'm grateful to the Cardinals for bringing me back to baseball," McGwire concludes in his state-

ment. "I want to say thank you to Cardinals owner Mr. DeWitt, to my GM, John Mozeliak, and to my manager, Tony La Russa. I can't wait to put the uniform on again and to be back on the field in front of the great fans in Saint Louis. I've always appreciated their support and I intend to earn it again, this time as hitting coach. I'm going to pour myself into this job and do ev-

erything I can to help the Cardinals hitters become the best players for years to come.

"After all this time, I want to come clean. I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my Congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I'll do that, and then I just want to help my team."

mustangdaily.net Tuesday, January 12, 2010

SPORTS

sports editor: Brian De Los Santos

mustangdailysports@gmail.com

MUSTANG DAILY

Keeler, Santiago grab player of the week honors mustang daily staff report

The Big West Conference honored Cal Poly men’s senior guard Lorenzo Keeler and Cal Poly women’s junior forward Kristina Santiago with player of the week accolades Monday.

Keeler has helped lead the Mustangs to a 2-1 Big West record, while also putting forth a career-high 38point effort in the opening week of the conference play. For the season, the senior is averaging 15.4 points per game, 1.9 rebounds and shoots 88 percent from the line.

In the three games last week, Keeler averaged 26 points, making 60 percent of his shots from the floor and 46 percent of his three pointers. He was 24-40 from the field and 10 of 22 from long range.

He made 20 of 22 from the line.

“It feels good,” Keeler said. “The Big West is a great conference and to be named player of the week out of all these athletes (in the Big West); it’s a big honor.”

Already leading the team in scoring through non-conference play, Keeler decided to refine his game and become an effective slasher heading into last week’s contests.

“I wanted to come out these last couple of games and attack the basket, get to the hoop and make the defense play defense… A lot of good things can happen (when you attack the rim),” Keeler said. “You get higher-percentage shots, you get fouled, go to three free-throw line, knock free throws down, and when the team collapses, you can

nick camacho and ryan sidarto mustang daily file photos

In Big West play, senior guard Lorenzo Keeler leads the conference in scoring, averaging 26 points per game.

Junior forward Kristina Santiago also leads the conference in scoring averaging 25 points per game. dish. Then I let my outside shot come after I get a little warm.”

Keeler led the Mustangs to a 9581 win over UC Irvine in the conference opener on the road. Keeler scored a career-high 38 points when he hit 12 of 18 shots from the floor and 6 of 11 from beyond the

arc. His all-around performance in the game included four rebounds, three assists and a block. Keeler did not miss a shot at the line, sinking all eight attempts.

“A lot of my success these last couple of games is because (we’re) being successful running the of-

fense, being patient, staying in formation; my teammates are finding me and I’m getting good shots.

Rhythm shots, wide-open shots — fortunately I’m making them,” Keeler said. “It’s a team effort.”

The Escondido native scored a team-high 18 points in the loss to

conference-leading Pacific. Keeler made 5 of 10 shots from the floor and was again perfect at the line on six attempts. “(My teammates) are making it a lot easier (for me to score),” Keeler said. “I think everybody believes in the offense now, I mean we see how much success we get out of the offense, my teammates now where I am going to be, I know where my teammates are going to be and it just makes it that much easier to make baskets.”

In the Mustangs’ 72-69 win over UC Davis on Sunday, Keeler led the team in scoring with 22 points.

He was 7 of 12 from the field and 2 of 4 from beyond the three point stripe. The Aggies kept the game close, but the Mustangs were able to pull out a victory.

“They went up, made a couple of runs, but we didn’t put our heads down,” Keeler said. “We know that teams are going to make runs, that’s just a part of the game, but what is most important is that if we can counter that and make our own run, and fortunately we did that.”

In the game against the Aggies, Keeler missed his first free throw since Dec. 5. He had converted 27 consecutive from the line before the miss.

On the women’s side, Santiago averaged 25.0 points and 10.7 rebounds per game in Cal Poly’s opening three Big West games.

The junior matched career singlegame highs for points and steals last week. see Basketball, page 11

Pete Carroll to the Mark McGwire: “I used steroids” Seattle Seahawks Gary Klein and Sam Farmer los angeles times

LOS ANGELES — Pete Carroll is leaving the University of Southern California, and the coach the school considered its top choice to succeed him is no longer available.

Several Trojans players said Sunday night that they were informed by text message from staff that Carroll would become coach of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.

According to a source familiar with the negotiations, the deal will be signed Monday morning and Carroll will be introduced as the

Seahawks coach Tuesday.

Meantime, Oregon State Coach Mike Riley, who had been targeted by USC as Carroll's possible successor, agreed to a three-year contract extension.

"Due to the fact there is a lot of speculation on my future, I want to make it known that I'm very excited to be coaching at Oregon State University and I anticipate doing so for a long time," Riley said in a statement released by Oregon State.

Carroll's return to an NFL sideline for the first time since 1999 has been regarded as a near foregone conclusion since Friday when it became clear that the Seahawks had targeted the 58-year-old coach to succeed the recently fired Jim Mora.

The Seahawks offered Carroll a five-year contract that would pay him nearly $33 million and give him control of the football operation.

There were a few obstacles along the way, a dust-up over the Seahawks' apparent skirting see Carroll, page 11

mcclatchy-tribune

Former MLB player Mark McGwire admitted to steroid use during 1989-90, 1993 and 1998 seasons, Monday.

Derrick Goold st. louis post-dispatch

ST. LOUIS — Mark McGwire acknowledged it was "time for me to talk about the past" and admit he used steroids during his playing career in a statement from the former slugger released Monday by the St. Louis Cardinals.

"I used steroids during my playing career and I apologize," McGwire said in the statement released by the Cardinals to media outlets around the country. "I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989-90 off season and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again. I used them on occasion throughout the nineties, including during the 1998 season. I wish I

had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era."

McGwire also conducted a 20minute telephone interview with The Associated Press after the statement was released. AP reported that see McGwire, page 11