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

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 

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

 

Daily Cal article about the City Council needing to stay out of the ASUC drama.  It’s on the right track regarding the whole ordeal.  My head hurts, so I’m going to stop writing, but this article explains itself, so I think it’s ok that I leave you all to fend for yourselves on this one.

And props to the Daily Cal on updating the site today!!! 

Telegraph needs to put in some major time to think about opening something that students actually want or need.  In recent conversation, a friend suggested a movie theater.  Personally, I think that would be one the best additions to Telegraph.  Movie theaters are so far away from campus that it makes it impossible to just be spontaneaous and go see the newest flick.

I think another thing to consider would be a comedy club.  A real legit one that has known funny people appearing.  Also, it needs to be 18 and over, not 21 and over.  Limiting the age to 21 definately hurts business and much needed traffic.  

Also, a chain drugstore would be a nice addition as well. 

But one thing is for sure, Telegraph, like People’s Park has become what it is now because of decades of ignoring issues that are now so big, it’s hard to decide how to handle them. 

I’ll be completely honest, I know zip about the politics of People’s Park.  There’s a letter to the editor in the Daily Cal about it.  I don’t know how accurate the facts are, but the argument seems to make enough sense. 

I just don’t understand why People’s Park has to be such a drawn out process.  The first thing that needs to happen is stopping all the drugs and violence.  Until that happens, I don’t see what else can be done.

As reported by Calstuff and Beetle Beat, Student Action is attempting to win the hearts and minds of the Berkeley City Council in an unbelievable web of lies and manipulation.  While I’m not shocked by this move, I’m saddened by it, as I’m finally forced to believe what I have known for all too long: that 3 people are being led by a pawn who’s parents believe it is his divine right to rule the students of Cal.  This means this whole debacle won’t truly end until SA gets their way, and for no better way to put it, they really are acting like spoiled toddlers, who for the first time, have been told no and are grasping at anything to get some form of their original demand.

SA keeps contesting that the will of the student body was made known when students "overwhelmingly" voted in all four of SA’s execs and that is basically all that should matter.  There is one sad reality to this statement though.  The student body elected people that they believed they could trust and who would, IN ANY SITUATION, BE PUTTING THE STUDENT BODY WHO ELECTED THEM FIRST.

If things could be done over, with the student body knowing what they do now about the SA executives, I think there would be an overwhelming move to make sure SA does not get elected.  SA’s recent behavior shows that they are not only grasping for any support they can get, since they have none from those associated with the school.  It also shows the lengths that desperate people are willing to go to win.  This is disturbing in the respect that NONE of these executives, to this day, believe that they have done anything wrong and that they are still very much so entitled to the posititions that they ran for.

Believe me, I know how hard they worked for months leading up to the election, but maybe, beyond learning that hard work pays off, there is a greater lesson to be learned.  Perhaps this is a lesson about dignity, grace and true leadership.  If the SA execs could just truly look at what they have been doing since elections have ended, they might realize how rediculous, pathetic and power hungry they look.  They are becoming perfect examples of what elected leaders should strive to not be and at the same time, explain why so many on our campus don’t care about student politics- they see what the SA execs still don’t, that this entire time, it has been about them, not the students that they swear to represent.

True leaders do what is best for those they are leading, even if the right choice is not favorable for themselves.  Perhaps that is why real leaders are so hard to find.  This type of leader must possess many unselfish qualities that allow them to look out for the future well-being of the greater good, or in the least, be able to, in the present, protect the greater good from people willing to use them as a means to an end.  That seems to parallel the situation that we all find ourselves currently in. 

Simply stated, it comes down to one painfully obvious and over-simplified truth:

SA is willing to sacrifice both the ASUC and Cal students as a means to an end, an end that they may never actually get… 

No matter who’s side you are on, it should be obvious that the above actions are not, by any definition or stretch of the imagination, the actions of someone who claims to be a leader or a responsible individual.  Rather, those are the actions of a very confused person.