Friday, February 22, 2007
Primary Progress
• Barack Obama has won primaries in 22 states and is currently
in first place in the Democratic delegate count with 1,319. This
week Obama won the Wisconscin primary, which was his 9th
straight victory over Hillary Clinton.
• Hillary Clinton is just behind Barack Obama this week in dele
gate count at 1,250 but has only won 13 states thus far in the pri
maries. Clinton is hedging her campaign on the upcoming pri
maries in Ohio and Texas on March 4. If Clinton wins one or
both of these states, the race for the Democratic ticket could go
until the convention in August.
If Clinton is successful in the two upcoming primaries, the
Democratic Pennsylvania primary on April 22 could become
very significant
• John McCain is dodging claims from The New York Times that
he engaged in a romantic affair with a 40-year-old lobbyist, Vicki
Iseman during his first run at the white house in 2000.
Both McCain and Iseman deny the allegations.
McCain is the runaway favorite for the Republican nomination,
with only Mike Huckabee still opposing him in the race. Two
weeks ago. McCain’s advisors released a memo stating that it
would be mathematically impossible for Huckabee to make a
comeback and win the race.
McCain currently has 918 delegates while Huckabee has only
217.
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Behrend Bandits are ready for playoffs
By Scott Muska
managing editor
smisoB2 (<■' psu.edu
Last Saturday, the newly formed Behrend Bandits
fan group was kicked out of the mens basketball
game because of a dispute over inappropriate jeers
made towards the opposing team's bench.
Fortunately for the school's athletic programs and
the entire Behrend community, they haven't been
dissuaded.
“I guess we did some questionable things during
that game that some people would find inappropri
ate. and we realize that now." said Mark Ferguson,
one of the catalysts that formed the Bandits.
“We've been told about the limitations and rules
that we have to go by. but it won't make us quit
cheering.
“We'll be even crazier than ever when next week
end rolls around, and we hope that a lot more peo
ple decide to get involved, because this isn't all
about the basketball team or anything like that, it's
about being proud of where you go to school and
getting involved with other kids."
When Ferguson mentions next weekend
talking about the mens AMCC conference tourna
ment next Thursday and Friday. The Lions will be
hosting the event at the Junker Center as a reward
for their first place finish in regular season confer
ence action
"I'm not going to say we finished first in the con
ference because of the Bandits." said Lions guard
Adam Kaiser. "But it's really fun to play in front of
so many people, especially as loud and excited as
they get. It's nice to get that kind of support."
The Bandits began to grow in popularity last
month when Ferguson and some of his friends
began sending out invitations to games on
Facebook.com. They decided that having humor
ous themes for each game would encourage more
people to come out and support the team, and have
since had themes that encouraged students to wear
blue and white, suitcoats. all white in support of
Penn State, and all pink for hreast cancer awareness.
"We did all those themes, which was pretty cool."
said Michael Buesink, one of the Bandits that can
always be found in the front row. "But the one con
stant we've always had has been the bandanna
thing. That's our trademark, and where we girt the
whole Behrend Bandits name from."
Buesink was impressed with the turnout for
Wednesday's game against Lake Erie that the Lions
won 70-65 to clinch the regular season champi
onsltip. The theme was a "white-out." and students
were supposed to w ear as much white as possible.
"That was cra/\." Buesink said. "I couldn't
belies e all of the kids that came out for that. It was
a great game for it. because Lake Eric is one ot
those teams that has a big fan following, and they
travel with them. I think our fans surprised them."
The Bandits hope to keep the large turnout from
Wednesday going for this weekend's tournament,
when the Lions will be playing games on back-to
back nieliis.
"Obviously we're not going to feel as much
fatigue as the basketball team." said Bandit Evan
Shaffer. "But cheering can be hard. We're going to
make sure we rest our vocal chords and drink plen
ty of liquids after Friday night's game, because I
assume that we ll he playing Lake Erie in the cham
pionship on Saturday, and everyone knows it's hard
to beat a team three limes in on year."
In ;m exclusive Beacon interview with the
Bandits, they said that they weren't ready to declare
a definite theme for next w eekends games, but were
confident that they could come up with two that
would satisfv most of Bchrcnd's students.
"We want it to be something that everyone wants
to anti can actually do." said Frank Nagy, the Bandit
that helped engineer a discussion between the group
and the SAC to plan Wednesday's white-out. “The
SAC had that white-out idea, which is something
they kind of borrowed from the football fans at
University Park, and it wasn't our most original
idea, but it definitely got the biggest turnout, which
is ultimately our goal. Just because we're comfort
able enough to draw lies on our chests with body
paint and wear plaid suit coats doesn't mean that
evervone's uoine to come and do that."
The Bandits say they will begin sending out invi
tations on Faeebook.com as soon as they decide on
their themes, and that they will be published in next
week's Bau tin, so everyone will know prior to the
"If you don't get an invitation on Faeebook.com.
we apologize in advance." said Nagy. "We only
hav e so many friends, and if you saw our antics you
might understand why. Don't think we don’t want
you to be there. Just cheek out the paper and come
readv to cheer."
Oh. and make sure vou wear a bandanna." he
The Behrend Beacon I