Tuesday
www.dailyemerald.com
An independent newspaper
A frosty finish
The Oregon cross country season ends in the Iowa
cold at the NCAA Championships. PAGE 7
Hunger satisfied
The Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Event
aims to expand community knowledge. PAGE 3
November 21,2000
Volume 102, Issue 60
Weather
TODAY
high 50, low 40
Lengthy hearing leaves legal teams hanging
Gore steam
seemed
content, but
Republicans
had concerns
about the
justices’
questioning
ByAnneGearan
The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Supreme
Court justices seemed anxious to find a way out
of the state’s presidential election jam Monday
that would let disputed manual re-counts con
tinue, as long as the delay wouldn’t jeopardize
the state in the Electoral College vote.
The central questions hanging over the state
election — should ballots be recounted? How?
For how long? — landed in Florida’s high court
nearly two weeks after the Nov. 7 vote.
There was no word on when a ruling might
be expected, but some of the justices showed a
sense of urgency to answer the questions,
which are of paramount importance to Democ
rat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush.
At a nationally televised hearing that ran
nearly two-and-a-half hours, the chief judge of
the court, Charles T. Wells, repeatedly pressed
both sides to predict how continued re-counts
would affect the Dec. 18 Electoral College vote.
“Tell me when Florida’s electoral vote would
be in jeopardy,” Wells said to Bush lawyer
Michael Carvin, a question he had earlier asked
of Paul Hancock, lawyer for the state’s Democ
ratic attorney general.
Both sides said they were intent on having Flori
da's vote counted—no need to note their disagree
ment on how they wanted that vote to come out.
The hearing dealt only glancingly with ma
jor issues that both sides have been fighting
Turn to Elections, page 4
lom Patterson Oregon Daily Emerald
‘It’s beautiful,’ passer-by Rodney Johnson says of the art on the wall of Shoe-A-Holic, a downtown Eugene business. ‘I wish there was more of
this around town.’
These walls were made for painting
The Lane
Arts Council
designated
‘free walls'
to give
graffiti
artists a
legal venue
for painting
By Lindsay Bucnele
Oregon Daily Emerald
There has always been tension between local
graffiti artists and the Eugene Police Department,
and both sides say the conflict will continue de
spite city-funded programs aimed at providing
graffiti artists with places to paint.
Graffiti artists consider themselves artists with the
right to free expression, regardless ofwhere they paint.
Police, however, see graffiti as vandalism and
have struggled to find a way to convince the
artists of this fact.
There are two types of graffiti: One involves de
tailed pictures, and the other, known as “tagging,” fea
tures a word or words, especially the author’s name.
“Tagging becomes a turf issue,” Eugene Police
Department community service coordinator Lin
Holmquist said. “Competing taggers will tag any
where it can be seen.’’Currently, there are two
wavs for Eugene taggers to do their work: Either
find an “art wall,” a place designated for graffiti
art or tagging, or tag illegally on private or public
property and possibly face a Class C Felony con
viction if the damage exceeds $750.
Holmquist said that, despite the possibility of
Turn to Graffiti, page 5
Effectiveness of
recall uncertain
■The campaign to oust the ASUO president may be
a wasted effort
By Jeremy Lang
Oregon Daily Emerald
If the campaign to remove ASUO
President Jav Breslow from office suc
ceeds, it might not mean Breslow’s last
days in student government.
According to the ASUO Constitution,
Vice President Holly Magner would as
sume Breslow’s duties and powers if a
student vote ousted him — but she
would not gain the office of president.
Magner could then use her presidential
power to appoint Breslow to his old job.
“It would be the most logical thing to
do,” Magner said. “We work well to
gether. This office works well together.”
Magner said she and Breslow have al
ready discussed a scenario where Mag
ner would appoint herself president
and Breslow vice president. She said if
she were then recalled, Breslow would
regain his old job and the ASUO Exec
utive would be the same as it is now.
But that plan wouldn’t work. The
ASUO Constitution forbids an appoint
ed vice president from becoming presi
dent. If Magner appointed Breslow to
vice president, he couldn’t reclaim the
presidency.
Whatever Magner chooses to do, her
decision will need final approval from
the Student Senate. Magner sits on the
senate and would cast the final vote in
the case of a tie.
But Senate President Peter Watts said
that if the recall succeeds, Magner
shouldn’t make the senate decide
Turn to Breslow, page 4
BRESLOW
It would
be the most
logical
thing to do.
We work
well
together.
This office
works well
together.
Holly Magner
ASUO vice
president^ ^
Eugene urged to bust consumerism on Buy Nothing Day
Ad busters’
upcoming Buy
Nothing Day
celebrates
frugality on the
biggest
shopping day
of the year
By Josh Rynea!
Oregon Daily Emerald
Some people get ill from eating too
much on Thanksgiving, but rushing to
the sales the day after makes others sick
to their stomachs.
The day after Thanksgiving is widely
recognized as the biggest shopping day
of the year, but Adbusters, a media ad
vocacy organization in Vancouver,
British Columbia, has rechristened it
Buy Nothing Day. The event is a call for
people to boycott stores and shops in an
effort to curb consumerism.
The organization, according to its
Web site, is “dedicated to reinventing
the outdated paradigms of our consumer
culture and building a brave new under
standing of living,” and is perhaps best
known for its newsletter and parodies of
famous commercials. Buy Nothing Day
is an 8-year-old invention of Adbusters,
and observances are held all over the
world, including Eugene.
Hope Marston, organizer of the Eu
gene Buy Nothing Day celebration, said
that the “holiday” was createjl to en
courage people not to buy something on
the biggest shopping day of the year.
“Rampant consumerism is a sickness
that affects a lot of people. It’s a real
waste," she said. “It’s not OK to buy junk
just to throw it away later.”
Instead of taking her credit card to the
mall Friday, Marston has organized the cel
ebration’s first annual winter coat exchange
to encourage people not to buy new ones.
“Instead of trying to convince people in
malls about why they should buy nothing,
we’re trying to do something positive for
the community,” she said. “There’s a really
good spirit about this kind of thing in this
community, though I don’t think Aber
crombie & Fitch will go along with it. ”
Tom Liacas, campaigns manager for
Adbusters, said Buy Nothing Day is
meant to be a media event as much as an
actual celebration.
“We as a society are gearing up for an
other round of shopping, but can we
ecologically afford to keep buying stuff
we don’t need?” he said.
The concept, Liacas said, was not real
ly intended to halt consumer spending
completely on Friday, but rather to spark
Turn to Buy nothing. page4