Yeah, I dunno know. Screw it. Let’s go drink…

This goes to Jeff Manasero for showing that all is not lost in the senate and that there is still some sort of morality present to keep quasi puppet presidents in check. 

This is not to say that Jeff is completely betraying his party since if another loophole can be found, he will support a bill that will again try to pay SA’s overpriced legal debt or that Oren is always a brainless puppet.  However, it does go to show that a person can gain respect for standing their ground on the basis that blatantly breaking rules is tacky, cheap and immoral.  

For all those who have been wondering why I’m not posting (yes, there are countless numbers of you folks out there), don’t worry, I’m still alive.  The alcohol hasn’t killed me…yet….

From now until school starts I will be on vacation.  Yes, that’s right folks.  Not only do I already spend EVERY day on vacation in a drunken stuper, but now I get to do it while traveling the world and sampling the alcoholic delights that other countries have to offer.  Be jealous.  Be VERY jealous.

I will be hopefully spending the next few weeks with any thoughts of Cal related things thousands of miles away from my mind.  If you can’t seem to break your addiction to Cal related thoughts, make sure you keep up with events.  I do, however, have my computer on me.  So, god forbid the ASUC should self-destruct again or the Daily Cal explode or accurately report something or any other "put my drink down to type" worthy events occur, I’ll be able to let everyone know what my drunken ass thinks about it. 

Until then, for all of you still stuck in the states, I say enjoy your last few weeks of summer by saying "Yeah, I dunno know.  Screw it.  Let’s go drink…"

it’s sunday and i assumed that i would be sober enough to write an analysis on the council’s decision.  but i’m reading it right now and i’ve realized that i’m probably a little tooo drunk to analyize anything so i’ll post it tomorrow.  until then, go to beetle, tilted fish or to calstuff to read some analysis. 

i have always believed in and respected all forms of government.  whether it be federal or "little people" i’ve always stood behind the belief that they are representative of an honorable process, one that can be trusted and believed in.  i always believed in the asuc and the judicial council to, despite all of their very human flaws, carry out their duties to the best of their abilities. 

i can honestly say that as of this moment, i no longer have faith in the judicial council or in the abilities of the ASUC.  the decision that the judicial council has made is both bothersome and flawed and is reflective of a much larger issue at hand.  this issue is having people in powerful positions who either won’t or can not stand up to the honor, distinction and pressure of the jobs that they have been charged with.  

simply put, this whole situation has gotten way out of hand and until now, there has been no one in a position to truly challenge each branch of the government to perform honestly and efficiently.  it is a sad time when that day finally comes and it becomes obvious that these unchallenged branches can’t stand up to the pressure. 

here is some advice for future members of the judicial council/senators/ and asuc execs: if you are going to accept the job with which you have been charged, you take an oath for a reason.  if you find that from the moment of appointment or election (certified OR not), that you are not strong enough, with enough character, or trustworthy enough to uphold it, then please, do everyone you will be serving a favor and decline to accept the office you have been offered. 

to be clear, this is not a rant about everyone screwing up bc sa won.  i not pro any specific person or party.  i am, however, for branches of the government executing their jobs to the best of their ability and not giving in to weakness or to taking the easy route, and unfortunately, that is what has occurred in this instance.

when i sober up, i’ll post analysis specific to the judicial council’s decision.  until then, be disgusted with the way in which your respresentitives in every branch of student government both past, but mostly present, have conducted themselves in the face of pressure and truth. 

this week there are two people who receive my coveted distinction of fbwaw.

The first goes to Karasek for her well prepared speech that was given during the city council meeting.  her responses to the questions that woz asks were the equivalent of a good ole smack in the face and boy did he ask for it.

the second goes to poor old woz himself.  after looking like such a needy jackass in public in front of not only his collegues, but also the citizens of berkeley, the students of cal and anyone else who reads local papers or watched the webcast a drink, or in his case maybe ten, are i’m sure, a much needed distraction.

here’s the link to the city council page where you can find the video of the council meeting regarding the whole SA/ASUC drama.  pay attention 20-30 minutes in and then at the very end.  everything else is just annoying blubbering.

if you have been drinking and feel like a good laugh, pay attention to what all the environmentalists say during public commentary.  if drunk enough, you won’t catch the parts that don’t matter, but you’ll catch the parts that make you go what the fuck, she’s more fucked up right now than i am. 

courtesy of the daily cal 

Apparently, I’m not the only one who has a whole lot of drunken nothing to do over the summer.  People managed to hack into the L&S site and leave messages on 15 pages with anarchist symbols and comments about what’s going on in the mid-east.

this brings up two points: kinda funny that it happened but how easy is it to hack into other cal websites??

i know it’s not as easy to hack into bearfacts or calmail, but it’s not impossible either.

i don’t even want to think about what would happen if people did manage to do it- i think i’ll think of a drink instead 

Woz gives HIS version of events, a "rundown" if you will

he then butchers karasek’s name

in his "rundown" he fails to mention that SA refused to remove their chalk after warned

Woz thinks this is important bc "this council recognizes and discusses events from around the world, and since this is in their own backyard, it should be considered."

he says at the least a letter should be written to the j-council, but not the chancelor, bc that would imply that the ASUC is not autonomous

eventually this gets seconded to be moved to discussion

sign holding occurs in the audience, but they are computer paper sized signs so i can’t see what they say- i won’t lie, this kinda bums me

 councilmember worthingotn calls this the most laughable council item of the entire year, but not as much as the teletubbies.  don’t know what they’re talking about, but all i know is that the ASUC just got put in the sentece with the word teletubbies- i’m speechless

says if superior court won’t hear SA, why should we interfere?

compares this to issues of peace and justice that the city of berkeley stands on and this is demeaning to everyone, including the students and ruling in favor would be unfathomable to do to the students

sa left out a lot of info, so this is proposterous, it’s not the city council’s role to be judge.  they must respect the integrity of the student and court’s processes

another councilmember brings up the pawns sign karasek was holding and he says "king’s maipulate pawns, and if one finds himself manipulated, one should know…" i didn’t get the rest.  he’s one of the guys who abstains from voting

next councilmember says college kids learn by making mistakes, and that this is a learning process and people must learn to live with their mistakes.

next guy says this is just stupid, he votes A BIG NO.  says this is premature, let the whole thing run its course first

woz at this point is completely defeated and looks like the biggest idiot ever and he tells the council that he’s dissapointed with them.  he hopes the j-council will make the right decision.

voting occurs: 3 abstain, 1 yes, all others no.

MOTION FAILS

then a councilmember tries to get the other members to apologize to the university’s 30,000 students for the council entertaining this.

 he’s basically told to shut up

so to sum up SA denied, AGAIN.  not a huge surprise.  woz just looks pathetic and everyone on the council at this point must be wondering wtf is wrong with him.

i’m at the point in the night where i either need more alcohol to energize myself or i’m going to pass out, i choose the passing out. 

just so there’s no confusion, yes, i know the typing is crappy, but i’ve been drinking, so do i care, nonot really

So, I turned the live webcast of the city council meeting about SA’s desperate whining into a family affair.  Let me tell you, there’s truly nothing like sitting in front of a flat screen on a Tuesday night with your parents, siblings, some intense surround sound and a shitload of alcohol to make things interesting.  However, nothing interesting has happened yet, so here’s a rundown of the events so far.

crazy bald guy with long nasty hair with what looked like a communism shirt on tells the city council "you people will look like fools" 

too bad they already do! 

Christian Picok, the kid who’s running for mayor, tries to make fun of the actual mayor and just looks like a douchy idiot instead.

Andy Morris gives his time to Wasserman, who to my surprise gave a professional speech about ASUC autonomy, not all ASUC internal avenues being exhausted as of yet, and the city council’s interference is something like a condescending parent-child relationship.

More cards get called and the people are asked by a council member (i think) in a "you’re wasting my time, get your asses up here, NOW" voice to hurry it up.

 Van Nguyen:  there is more than just elections at stake, you’re risking the autonomy of the ASUC

-city council can’t forget the struggle that led to ASUC’s autonomy in the first place.

-claims that he represents teh opinions of 3 political groups: BCR, and 2 others (my dad and I got bored here so we started taking shots and i lost track of the parties)

Lauren Karasek, who is strategically positioned right behind the podium, holds up a sign that says "Students are not pawns"

Christopher Canton: mentions something about the Woz, uses an analogy to the elections in mexico and the bush debacle to show the stupidity that is action item 42

Igor begins to hold up a "hands off student government sign"

Taylor Albright: talks about how she expected so much more from college (yawn) and how she doesn’t like having to potentially say that the ASUC is run by the berkeley city council and finishes it off with a "stay out of my business, thank you" to the city council.  appropriate, maybe a little too whiney though

Karasek goes up gives a nearly flawless speech, makes woz look like a dick when he asks her if she was a candidate after that was the first thing that she stated when she began and then asks is she came in second to which she remarks "no one has come in second as the elections have yet to be certified."  says something about getting a real job if she loses, thank god someone in this operation has some sense.  i was starting to think this was going become a brain surgery gone terribly wrong.

then she whips around before he can ask anything else.  major slap in the face to woz, but shit he was asking for it

I must say, just to make it CLEAR, that i have absolutely nothing against igor.  however, with a surround sound that is too powerful and booze induced hearing problems, going from lauren’s voice straight to igor’s, created some wtf moments for my family and the dog deciding to bark at the tv didn’t help the situation.

anyways, igor brilliantly related all the other concerns voiced by everyone else plus he mentioned some other points as well.

at this point karasek is hiding behind her sign cracking up, i’m not sure at what though 

right about here i pretty much went screw it because this was just so pointless and quite frankly not as humorous as i expected.  plus i was starting to get my buzz on, and well listening to the meeting was kinda killing it, despite being able to watch the amused faces of family members as they tried to make sense of the craziness. kinda priceless actually

environmental lady goes all science on everyone with talk of electrons and atoms and carbon dioxide, then she says something about trees being our friends and then says something like "will you give me a computer?" yeah, i dunno nor do i care to put in enough energy to figure out this one

luckily for all, jason overman was the last speaker before everyone was cutoff and said the same things that everyone else said.  but the one thing in his speech that i did catch, thanks to the sudden choking noises and majorly bugged out eyes of my parents, was his remark that the 2000 election was a "private" election.   ummm sure buddy, whatever you say… he’s running for a city council office right??  if yes, fuck we’re again screwed

all in all i think an effective effort at showing how stupid and pointless this little tuesday night event was.  but whatever, it gave me a legitimate excuse to drink, so i can’t complain.  

there should me more at 10, however i’ve been drinking heavily to make up for when i couldn’t bc of notetaking so coments for the second half should be entertaining to say the least. 

stay tuned for the shit show part ll