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Nap Time!!!

Friday, February 20, 2009
Pistols at Dawn

Dueling Op-Eds. I think the best line in either piece comes from the intro to Dalia Marina's piece:
When I think of the ASUC senate, I picture intelligent, articulate, well-intentioned students whose concern is the well-being of our campus.
I don't know if that was supposed to be the killer line, but it certainly had me launching a roflcopter.
Moghtader and his friends dispute what happened next, but with numerous witness testimonials, UCPD's investigation concluded in a recommendation that Moghtader be charged with assault and battery with an enhancement of a hate crime.
Pointing to the UCPD as if they should be trusted with factual determinations has been one of the most important symbols of disingenuousness on the part of SJP. Deference to police authority is not something one typically associates with SJP, and I hope the next time they bitch about the police doing something, folks point to this episode.
A person who cannot tolerate the word "Palestine" in discourse, or the Palestinian flag on campus, does not belong in a body which requires full freedom of speech for all students.
SJP cannot tolerate flagpoles without Palestinian flags on them, and can't tolerate symbolic walls without writing "Free Palestine" on them. I don't know why this is, but I guess I just don't have a whole lot of sympathy for SJP's bitching on this topic.
I would like to believe UC Berkeley is a place where disrespect, intimidation and violence are not acceptable ways of expressing one's opinions and are certainly, not the kinds of actions our student leaders would perform.
Again, "respect" is not something I associate with SJP, though perhaps their history has colored my views. But the real flaw of this statement is the idea that ASUC Senators are "student leaders."
Sadly, it is those unacceptable expressions that have led us to where we are now, into a corner where we must waste thousands of dollars to remove a Senator who was implicated in a hate crime-something the Senate should have prevented by impeaching him after SQUELCH! removed him from its party last semester.
Hmm... So the Senate should have prevented this by doing something they have no authority to do after waiting for the go-ahead from the leadership of a political party? Or am I reading that incorrectly?
John Moghtader has repeatedly demonstrated he is not fit to represent our community.
I don't think he ever really claimed to. That's how proportional representation works.
For more information about the recall campaign, you can visit www.no2hate.org.
I guess you could go there, though right now I see it telling me that the election was last month.

Let's move on to John Moghtader's op-ed.
As the wise Fergie once articulated, "No no no no baby, no no no no don't lie. What you gonna do when it all comes out, when I see you and what you're all about? Stop, st-stop st-stop stop stop lying."
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The recall petition was distributed using dozens of CalServe listserves and the petition itself, which was written by an SJP member, reads like a roster of CalServe party members.
Does it really? The names on the petition were never made available, which, while ridiculous, makes Moghtader's claim a bit tough to buy. It actually reads like a roster of random letters (PDF).
For a party that talks about protecting student fees, CalServe has no problem blowing $25,000 amidst of a budget crisis.
In fairness to CalSERVE, they don't really talk a lot about protecting student fees when it comes to ASUC stuff. In fact, they seem to be big fans of spending money.
The CalServe candidate for ASUC President is going to be Oscar Mairena, whose chat status during a contentious Senate meeting earlier this year was, "Fuck heterosexuality and Free Palestine." It's no wonder they're trying to recall me...
Because Moghtader is straight? If true, though, that is a pretty funny story. (Update: Mariena says not true)
While the Daily Cal endorses me, SJP and CalServe are the ones who have hijacked the student body and are holding it hostage for $25,000.
How does this hostage situation work? Is the student body bound and gagged in a basement somewhere, until someone pays $25,000? I guess you could argue the mechanisms of the ASUC have been hijacked and will now cost the student body $25,000, but the Senate has control of what those mechanisms are, and so Senators can't really complain all that much. I doubt the recall would have ever happened had the Senate made the trivial extension of the petition process specified in the By-Laws to apply to recall petitions after someone pointed out that the By-Laws don't address recalls at all (and yes, that someone was me), but they were too busy passing bills that said "Go Bears!"
The situation is quite simple: Those trying to recall me did not want me elected in the first place. If elections were held again today, I would receive as many votes as I did last spring. Oddly, this election requires that I get drastically more votes to keep my seat than I did to win it originally. That, along with the fact that CalServe-SJP can waste so much of your money by telling lies, means we're dealing with a backwards, unfair and illogical process.
I'm in total agreement that it's a backwards, unfair and illogical process, and would love to sponsor a Constitutional amendment to fix it. But I can't, because I'm not a Senator. What's his excuse?

You may be able to tell from this post that I'm just sick of public opinion wars on Cal. They're so incredibly stupid, and being the slightest bit informed reveals this to be true. Take a look at some Daily Cal comment sections on the recall to see what anonybots do to form public opinion, because it's ten times worse. The most pathetic part of it all is that people buy it. Instead of becoming informed, they decide to believe people they know they shouldn't trust to give them the whole picture. I can understand not caring enough to be informed, but then why would you care enough to take a position?

posted by Beetle Aurora Drake 2/20/2009 01:53:00 AM #
Comments (3)
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Comments:
Daily Cal did not allow students to write op-eds making specific claims about John anymore, so it was necessary to defer to the UCPD report. John threatened to sue them for libel, and now they won't let the victims say what happened in their own words.
 
Keep the anonybotting coming. SJP has been pointing to the police report all over the place, not just the Daily Cal, so no, that excuse won't fly.

You've also made an unsupported claim about the Daily Cal. If true, it would actually be something important and worth reporting, but you've made the accusation as an anonybot, so instead of shedding light on anything, we have yet another attempt to manipulate public opinion without informing.
 
i think everyone's sick of moghtader vs. sjp/cs.

get to the juicy part plz.

kifah shahahahaha for evp.
 
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