Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of posts that never made it here when they were originally conceived. This post was written last November and posted at californiapatriot.blogspot.com.

A law in San Francisco is about take effect that will ban plastic bags in many grocery stores. The plastic bags, deemed a danger to the environment, will in many cases be replaced with paper bags. The San Francisco Chronicle has the explanation:

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi then introduced legislation to ban the bags altogether, which passed the board and was signed by Mayor Gavin Newsom earlier this year.

“It was really the only choice,” Mirkarimi said. He said the resistance from grocers resulted from their being “creatures of habit.”

“Part of that habit is imposing the cost of convenience on customers and city governments,” said Mirkarimi, who added later that he is considering a “menu of possibilities” for further measures. He would not say what those are, though, because of the experience with the bag fee.

I would like to know if Supervisor Mirkarimi thinks this new policy of the city government is imposing any cost upon grocers and customers.

For some comparison, according to an NPR report from March of this year, South Africa, Taiwan, and Bangladesh have already banned the plastic bags, while Ireland has a tax on them.

If the city is going to engage in social engineering, they should at least do it right. If they really wanted to make a statement, they would outlaw all new paper and plastic bags. They would require people to bring their own bags or reuse boxes like they do at Costco. Paper kills trees, and as I have been told by many a person, trees are sacred and have feelings too.

The next time my housemates and I go to the Berkeley Bowl, we will bring some fine California Republican Party canvas bags. As we bag our organic produce, we will be saving the environment one paper or plastic bag at a time.

For those of you far away from Berkeley who have not heard, this week is spring break. I have been enjoying the land of Orange County.

In case you missed any news this weekend:

Over 400 motorcyclists drove into Berkeley to support the military and the Marine recruiting center. Insidebayarea.com has the story.

Also, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about College Republican support for McCain. The story quotes the Patriot’s own Rohit Joy.

Since school is on break and I am away from Berkeley, my material for posts has dwindled. To give you some entertainment, I am going to post some items that I thought were interesting but for one reason or another never made it to this blog.

On Monday classes and the utter madness of the ASUC elections will start.

Wednesday was the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. The normal protesters were out to celebrate, with the usual yelling, lewd gestures, and even trying to burn our flags. If they were advocating for peace, they could have started by pacifying themselves.

I missed seeing the fun myself, as today also happened to be the day of my cosmology and high energy astrophysics midterm, the last Physics midterm of my undergraduate education. Luckily, the Patriot’s own News Editor Derek Yee was in attendance as well as Arnaud-Victor Monteux. I am pleased to present Derek’s first hand account of what happened in Berkeley and San Francisco.

Earlier today, the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, anti-war protesters gathered from across the Bay Area. As they converged on the Marine Recruiting Center on Shattuck, the Berkeley College Republicans took the opportunity to counter-protest. Code Pink and the World Can’t Wait were out in full force. “Soul,” of Berkeley Liberation Radio, a faithful protester, sported a cap with a medical marijuana pin. Though short in stature, she brandished the megaphone and belted out some of Code Pink’s anti-war ditties.

While I was holding an American flag, an elderly woman stuck out her tongue and her middle finger at me. I told her not to “disrespect our country.” She said that she was not American, but of the “universe.” Another protester, claiming to be a Native American, proceeded to call me a racist, and told me to get the f— out of the country.

Later in the afternoon, BCR joined forces with Leigh Wolf and the SFSU’s CRs at the Civic Center protest in front of San Francisco’s City Hall. Three BCR members walked through the center of the protest bearing American flags. One of the peace activists greeted us by attempting to set our flags on fire, and even tried to use her lighter on my friend’s clothing.

The anti-war activists were so dangerous the police asked us to move across the street to a secure place.

On this, the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, may God’s comfort be with the families of those who have been killed in the conflict. May God’s strength gird those who are fighting for freedom in Iraq. May God Bless America.

Pictures courtesy of Arnaud-Victor Monteux, the Frenchman who loves American more then many Americans.

I just received this. It is the official list of who is running for what with what party and their numbers:

Please note that names listed here are NOT the final ballot names and do not yet include nicknames

President
Taylor-Hochberg Frederick SQ 21
Lee Curtis SA/UG/AE 22
Cruz Ronald DAAP 23
Winston Roxanne CS 24
Kim Johnathan BU 25
Lingenfelder Ross FU 26
Hug Joshua 1000 Year 27

Academic VP
Hollingsworth David SQ 31
Kim Johnathan BU 32
Monteux Arnaud-Victor FU 33
Osmena Christian SA/UG/AE 34
De la Cruz Carlo CS 35

External VP
Kim Johnathan BU 41
Ochman Lina SA/UG/AE 42
Rothberg Joe SQ 43
Vasquez Matthew FU 44
Jirachaikitti Dionne CS 45
Gathi Vanessa DAAP 46

Executive VP
Pasco Krystle CS 51
Shen Grace SA/UG/AE 52
Kunert Chad SQ 53
Kim Johnathan BU 54
Page Chistopher FU 55

Student Advocate
DeMartini Matt 61
Hug Joshua 1000 Year 62
Kapelanski Peter FU 63
Morris Andy SQ 64
Kim Johnathan BU 65

Senator
Hussain Saira 101
Denney Christopher 102
Froehle Bradley 103
Atkins Matthew 104
Demetral Melissa 105
Owens Thomas BCR 106
Nahabet Edward SA 107
Dhar Meghana SA 108
Caimi Marcus SA 109
Kramar Andrea SA 110
Shin Yuna SA 111
Li David SA 112
Zuo Yishi SA 113
Choi Eric SA 114
Ruvalcaba Aaron SA 115
Calderon Christian SA 116
Raffi Tara SA 117
Cho Sarah SA 118
Guilhem Matthew SQ 119
Rothberg Sarah SQ 120
Rothberg Joe SQ 121
Kunert Chad SQ 122
Weiner Gabriel SQ 123
Granen Krista SQ 124
Hollingsworth David SQ 125
Hallahan Brett SQ 126
Defreitas Brian SQ 127
Morris Andy SQ 128
McGarry Gregory SQ 129
Larson Harmony SQ 130
Osipov Benjamin SQ 131
Toolis Sinead SQ 132
Bronitsky Will SQ 133
Taylor-Hochberg Frederick SQ 134
Davidson Catherine SQ 135
Cloudt-Barrall Ashile SQ 136
Felber Jessica SQ 137
Moghtader John SQ 138
Tran Tu AE 139
Nordel David AE 140
Kuo Winnie AE 141
Labog Regine AE 142
Lemberg Alex CM 143
Oatfield Christina CM 144
Kim Johnathan BU 145
Shah Kifah CS 146
Ude Obiamaka CS 147
Yang Stephanie CS 148
Pareja Jenab-i CS 149
Stevens Gregory CS 150
DeNieva Jeremy CS 151
Kelley Andy CS 152
Mairena Oscar CS 153
Rodriguez Claudia CS 154
Montes Danny CS 155
Jirachaikitti Dionne CS 156
McCullough Grace CS 157
Richardson Katie CS 158
Miller Isaac CS 159
Tran Lisa CS 160
Cho Allen CS 161
Mathur Anurati CS 162
Sakaue Lyell CS 163
Flores Mary June CS 164
Hug Joshua 1000 Year 165
Cruz Ronald DAAP 166
Salas Sara DAAP 167
Hezi Talya DAAP 168
Solano Melissa DAAP 169
Lamas Gavin DAAP 170
Hernandez Martha DAAP 171
Hall Sharyn DAAP 172
Trinh Linh DAAP 173
Hernandez Zaira DAAP 174
Mendoza Belen DAAP 175
Lewis Kerima DAAP 176
Stewart Selene DAAP 177
Misse Blanca DAAP 178
Hemmermich Iris DAAP 179
Kanbar Sarah DAAP 180
Gathi Vanessa DAAP 181
Bilici Reyhan UG 182
Smelko Will UG 183
Miller Chris UG 184
Chen Sheila UG 185

It’s already been reported everywhere else, so check out the Daily Cal Article for more, but here are the basics.

Cal Senior, former baseball player Cyrus Allizadeh was found dead on the afternoon of Sunday the 16th from apparent self-strangulation. He was a red-shirt freshman on the baseball team, until a shoulder injury caused him to pursue other interests.

I didn’t know this person, but it is always hard to hear about young deaths, especially when it’s likely a suicide. I hope we don’t have any more of these this year.

There has been some buzz recently about a deal between Berkeley, Microsoft, and Intel. It was officially announced today by the Newscenter:

The University of California, Berkeley, is partnering with Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. to accelerate developments in parallel computing and advance the powerful benefits of multi-core processing to mainstream consumer and business computers.

Microsoft and Intel announced today (Tuesday, March 18) the creation of two Universal Parallel Computing Research Centers (UPCRC), the first at UC Berkeley and another at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The two centers comprise what is considered the nation’s first joint industry and university research alliance of this magnitude that is focused on mainstream parallel computing.

I read in a different source some of the research would be make available to the public via open source licenses.

Over the next five years, Intel and Microsoft expect to invest a combined $20 million in the two university centers, with each center receiving half. Researchers at the UC Berkeley center have also applied for a UC Discovery Grant, a matching grant mechanism that uses state and university funding to leverage industry investments in UC research.

People will probably say this is another example of the University selling itself out to corporations as they said about the BP deal. As I said for the BP deal, I will repeat. The University is not selling out. Berkeley is getting the prestige and funding to do cutting edge research. Professors and students are gaining invaluable experience and creating the next generation of technology. This is a win-win situation.

If Berkeley said no to this and every other deal that came up with corporate funding, the money would simply go to other universities. First the money would leave, then the research, the professors, and the students would follow it elsewhere.

I can’t wait to see the hippies in the trees make signs saying, “Stop Microsoft and Intel.”

The San Francisco Chronicle, covers a new proposal to bring MUNI’s budget into the black. Unfortunately, a large chunk of the money for the bus and rail system would come from people who might never set food on MUNI.

The cost to park in San Francisco - legally or illegally - may be on the rise as city officials scramble for ways to close a projected two-year, $82 million deficit at the agency that runs the Municipal Railway.

The Municipal Transportation Agency’s chief financial officer has outlined in a new report a number of moneymaking options to help balance the budget, including hiking the price of parking fines, parking meter rates and residential parking permits.

The targets for more revenue are increased parking fines, higher meter rates, higher costs of residential parking permits, and an increased cost of a monthly bus pass. While the last of these ideas is sensible, the first three are not connected to the operation of a public transit system.

MUNI’s main cost of operation is from the bus and light rail lines. It would make sense, that the cost would be covered by the riders who actually use this service. The agency should start with a basic evaluation of the budget. If running bus and light rail lines is not fiscally sound, the reason why that part of their operations is failing should be evaluated. Taking money from drivers to fund a public transportation system they don’t use, as opposed to the riders who do use the buses, is a wrong and unsustainable move.

If everyone stopped driving cars in San Francisco tomorrow, which is something many people want, MUNI would still have this deficit.

I am not a transportation expert and I do not know the specifics of the MUNI budget or operations. However, I do see a pattern of ways the city is trying to to make life harder for drivers and take money from drivers to pay for public transportation they don’t use. A year ago I commented on a proposal to tax downtown businesses to fund MUNI more.

If the city can’t make public transportation a financially viable option to driving, without stealing money from drivers, it should not expect everyone to hop on board with them.

Joyous news on the latest tree sitter. After a rally and dialogue today “Fresh,” the tree name of the person staying in the tree by Wheeler Hall, finally came down. He cited the successful dialogue among students that occurred on Friday as a reason for him to end the tree sit. The Daily Cal has an article with more details.

I was not around when “Fresh” finally came down, but I was around for the rally and commotion by the tree around noon. A group organized through Facebook, “Students against Hippies in Trees,” circulated papers and online messages encouraging students to show up on Friday and yell their feelings of disgust and disagreement at tree sitter “Fresh.”

When I walked toward the tree around noon, there was a large crowd gathered. One of the supporters of the tree sitter, who I have seen at the trees by the stadium and even at campus events, was selling stones to stone people.

A Conservation with Pro-tree People
As I circled the police perimeter, a gentleman with a hefty beard and two Whole Foods bags asked me what I thought about the tree-sitter. I explained there was no point to him being in the tree. While the tee-sitters by the stadium were protesting the constriction of a gym, this person had no reason to be in the tree. The gentleman said “Fresh” was there to advocate democratizing the Regents, the body which sets the policy of the University of California. He went on to explain how the Regents got their jobs for political favors they did for the governor. Another gentleman, this time an older one, joined in and said how the Regents should be picked by a panel of faculty, students, citizens, and a farmer. I retorted by saying the Regents are appointed by the governor, who is elected by the people of the state.

This illustrates the problem with most protests in Berkeley. Many people show up with their own pet issues to protest. It is hard to figure out the main reason why “Fresh” went into the tree from simply walking by. There were signs, chalking, and small displays decrying the UC’s involvement with nuclear weapons, the $500 million BP deal, the construction of the gym by Memorial Stadium, the housing of Native American remains, democratizing the Regents, and other issues.

One group of people sat down in a circle and started to dialogue about issues, like corporate contracts with the University. Another group of people colassed around a couple of people who were having a heated argument. The anti-tree sitter communicated that many people on campus were against the tree-sitter and wanted him to come down and stop making Berkeley a laughing stock.

I should comment, all the people I talk to, except for the few who spent all their time at the foot of trees with people living in them, think the tree-sitters are stupid and need to come down. However, almost all the people I talk to are Republicans and Rally Committee members.

A tree sitter supporter held up a sign asking, “Does your Grandmother know you are at a hate rally?” The vocal anti-tree sitter responded by asking the person if his Grandmother knew he had no job, sat around all day by a tree, and was a failure.

I am glad the person is out of the tree. All we have to do now is get the rest of the hippies out of all the other trees.

The filling period for ASUC elections is now over. Who is running for what? This is what I know.

Update: SQUELCH!’s press release has been posted by Beetle and I have made additions.

President:
Roxanne Winston (CS)
Curtis Lee (SA)
Fred Taylor (SQUELCH!)
Ross Lingenfelder (FUCK)
John Kim (Bears-United)

Executive Vice President:
Krystle Pasco (CS)
Grace Shen (SA)
Chad Kunert (SQUELCH!)
Chris Page (FUCK)
John Kim (Bears-United)

External Affairs Vice President:
Dionne Jirachaikitti (CS)
Lina Ochman (SA)
Joe Rothberg (SQUELCH!)
Mateo Vasquez (FUCK)
John Kim (Bears-United)

Academic Affairs Vice President:
Carlo de la Cruz (CS)
Christian Osmena (SA)
David “Ron Paul” Hollingsworth (SQUELCH!)
Arnaud-Victor Monteux (FUCK)
John Kim (Bears-United)

Student Advocate:
Matthew Demartini
Andy Morris (SQUELCH!)
Peter Kapelanski (FUCK)
John Kim (Bears-United)

I saw SQUELCH!’s slate last night, but I don’t remember everyone who was running so I will wait for their press release. I am also waiting for a press release from Bears-United, which I think I am supposed to help create.

There is also a fee to support SUPERB on the ballot.

Additional information or corrections are appreciated.

I am just as (un)enthused about the ASUC elections as the next person. Apparently, so are the Friends Urging Campus Kindness party.

There is more on this slate at the Daily Cal in this article.

I was just at a rally on Sproul to eliminate the SAT. The rally claimed the SAT was biased and a tool of discrimination to keep low income people and minorities out of college. Organized by BAMN, By Any Means Necessary, it was a standard rally of theirs. All of the usual BAMN suspects were there, like Ronald Cruz who has been around as long as anyone can remember and Yvette Felarca, who graduated two years ago after a ridiculously long time here.

In the words of Ronald Cruz, standardized tests are “degrading and anti-human.” He said they do not measure his leadership, his Filipino heritage, or the struggles he faces as a gay man. What Cruz should know is the SAT does not measure those things for anyone who takes it. No one is awarded an advantage or disadvantage for those factors only how well they can do on the test.

There are two things that mystify me. If BAMN really wants high school students to do well and get into college, why do they hold rallies on a college campus in the middle of the day and encourage high school students to come? Going to a rally in the middle of a school day will not help any student learn any of the subjects necessary to do well in school.

Secondly, why were they chanting in Spanish? With the exception of language classes, all classes at this University are in English. If they want students to get into college and be successful they should be encouraging and using the English language. Yelling “Yes we can” in Spanish is pointless.

BAMN does not have a history of doing what is helpful to anyone but itself. If anyone wants an example of how far BAMN has gone to get what they want, check out what happened three years ago when they took the ASUC to court.

Beetle beat me to this and linked to the whole press release, but I have the official pictures they sent out. Thanks to Shawn Jain for the information and pictures.

From the official CalSERVE release:

President: Roxanne Winston (current ASUC Senator)
Executive Vice President: Krystle Pasco
Academic Affairs Vice President: Carlo de la Cruz
External Affairs Vice President: Dionne Jirachaikitti (chief of staff in the Office of EAVP)

The CalSERVE website is also being updated.

Roxanne placed high in the Senate votes last year so slating her makes sense. However, I don’t think she can reach out too far beyond her current constituency, espically against the SA presidential candidate. I don’t know too much about the other people. You can draw your own conclusions about how well they fit into the model of slating people from different minorities.

Done flyers return

On Monday I saw some Done flyers up. However, the ones I saw along College Ave. were torn down by the time I was walking back from class that afternoon so I could not get a picture of them. Luckly, the Daily Clog has a few pictures.

Some of these items Done were done a long time ago. If anyone has better information, please correct me, as it is 3 in the morning and this stuff was years ago.

From all Perspectives Show: This was done by Chris Abad, who was a senator two years ago.
ASUC Bookswap: This was happening my freshman year. There was also a flap when around $30,000 was stolen my freshman year.
Greek Opportunity fund: Is this the Greek Philanaphropy fund (which was before my time here) renamed?
Dance Marathon: My sophomore year this was around.
$140,000 in ASUC Grants: Last year the Done flyers only claimed $100,000. I think this money is coming from the Berkeley Student Foundation, which just sits there and keeps paying out money like any other endowment like thing.

It looks like SA changed their slogan from Actions Speak Louder Than Words (which was perfect considering their actions the previous summer), to Expect More. Get Results. Below is a classic Done flyer from last year.

If anyone is keeping score, that is one campaign violation for flyering over an ASUC sponsored group flyer (Charter Week was brought to us by Rally Committee). But no one ever files campaign violations against a major party.

Calling all Candidates

If Student Action, SQUELCH!, or any other groups would like to announce their candidates, I would be glad to post about them. Also, if there are candidates that are interested in being interviewed by the Patriot and considered for its endorsement, let me know and I will arrange an appointment. Click my name in the byline of the post to send an email.

The anonbots, from both SA and CS are already appearing on Beetle. This election is going to be fun.

I was looking through the East Bay Express and came across a story they picked up from the Associated Press.

Welcome to Oaksterdam University, a new trade school where higher education takes on a whole new meaning.

The school prepares people for jobs in California’s thriving medical marijuana industry. For $200 and the cost of two required textbooks, students learn how to cultivate and cook with cannabis, study which strains of pot are best for certain ailments, and are instructed in the legalities of a business that is against the law in the eyes of the federal government.

I don’t think this is a good idea, it is teaching people how to run an illegal business. I already covered the take downs of some pot shops and brought up some legal questions last year.

It should be noted this thriving industry recently lost a quarter of its shops in San Francisco do to legal concerns. There is some information from an article in last month’s San Francisco Chronicle.

In late December, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sent letters to landlords of buildings that housed medical cannabis dispensaries in the city, telling them they face the loss of their property and possibly prison if the businesses stay open.

[As of early February], seven of the city’s 28 dispensaries have closed or are on the verge of closing, according to medical marijuana supporters and activists. They fear more will follow.

If laws are important enough to be on the books on the federal level, they need to be enforced. Then they can be challenged in court and overturned if they should be.