This just in from Chris Page, who is live at the election results forum:

CalSERVE wins every executive office.

But the good news is Tommy Owens, the Berkeley College Republicans candidate, made it to the Senate.

More news to follow.

UPDATE: Thankfully, the issues have been fixed and tabulation will occur tomorrow, Tuesday at 5PM in 101 Morgan.

There is an expectation that the ASUC election results will be tabulated tomorrow. However, there is no word from the election council about a time or location. I think I have a reason why.

I friend of mine said they can’t find one of the scripts for tabulation of the votes. He also said this problem has happened in the past and they just rewrite it every year.

Beetle has been running around spreading rumors all day, while I have been cooking burgers and hot dogs on a tiny grill on Sproul.

Things might get resolved and tabulation could be tomorrow. However, with the level of knowledge and organization of all the people involved, I am not optimistic.

I thought my endorsements would be simple, but then I saw the Daily Cal’s endorsements and I have a few things that need to be articulated. For example, I thought the Patriot was the only publication that had alcohol at their ASUC endorsement meeting.

Lets start at the bottom of the list.

NO on the SUPERB fee

Senate: Tommy Owens # 106
I have worked with Tommy and know he is up for the job of senator. He also understands how people have to work together to get things down without compromising their own values. It is not just his party affiliation, but his entire candidacy that leads me to strongly endorse Tommy Owens # 106 for Senate.

AAVP: Christian Osmena

Christian has experience dealing with academic groups from sitting on two academic committees. I known him personally and have great confidence in his abilities and commitment to serving students.

What I remember from Carlo at the Patriot’s endorsement meeting was a lot of general statements. I am strongly supporting Christian for AAVP.

EAVP: Dionne Jirachaikitti

Dionne has the experience and knowledge necessary to be taken seriously by the lawmakers she will meet.

However, I give Lina a lot of credit for suggesting Berkeley should pull out of the UCSA if things do not work well, even if the chance of that happening is almost non-existent.

Minor parties are fun
For most of these races, placing random BEARS-United, Friends Urging Campus Kindness, and SQUELCH! candidates before the serious (a.k.a. no fun) candidates is always encouraged. As long as you rank the CS or SA person you want higher then the other one your vote will remain valid through several drops. If you vote for DAAP, all hope for your soul is lost.

EVP: Chris Page

The fact the Daily Cal mentioned Chad Kunert in the same breath as Ben Narodick is troubling. I saw Ben in action in the Senate, and Chad is no Ben Narodick. I am also miffed the Daily Cal completely ignored my campaign in both the EVP profile piece last week and their endorsement. While I am graduating, I could do a great job if elected and have a long record of connecting students to the ASUC.

I was asking for a better ASUC website and covering ASUC corruption before Chad was even a student.

Due to my knowledge and exciting plan (it is in a box and will not be revealed until he is elected) I will be voting for Chris Page.

If I am disqualified because of magic chalk or an unreported blimp, put Grace Shen on the ballot right after me. Grace has spent a lot of time dealing with senate rules.

President: Curtis Lee

I am not excited by his candidacy, but he is better then the other serious alternative of Roxanne.

I will be putting Curtis on my ballot, after the FUCK, SQUELCH!, and BEARS-United candidates.

Student Advocate

My ballot order:

1. Peter Kaplenski (if your roommate was running you would vote for him too)
2. John Kim (this is a wasted vote, as he will win a higher office)
3. Andy Morris (experience breaking rules can be helpful)
4. Matt DeMartini (yes he is the best qualified, but high chance he will win)

If you know something relevant I don’t about these people, please share.

This morning a roommate of mine, who was out flyering for Student Action, told me about some anti-SA flyers that were out. The flyers are on par with SA’s own Done flyers for playing fast and loose with the truth. I will comment on what I do know of regarding the flyers.

EAVP: Lina Ochman

No lobby visits

If the people are referring to Cal lobby day, it should be known the EAVP office usually puts it on. The lack of it would be their fault, which would be a CalSERVE failure. However, eliminating lobby day in favor of other things is worth a try. Why would lawmakers listen to students at their office one day out of 365?

Voter registration campaigns

For the academic year, there was a primary in February, but not a general or special election like there has been in the past three years. The lack of an election would imply the lack of a registration campaign

Where in the ASUC constitution does it say the EAVP should conduct voter registration? There are numerous campus groups that register voters of their own accord and do so without the ASUC overhead. The people who are passionate about politics and really care will vote in the primary. If someone does not want to get involved in the primary, they should stay out.

Not advocating for lowering student fees

Almost no on in the ASUC actually works for lower student fees. A lot of people claim to, then they let stupid fee increases go to voters, like the SUPERB fee.

AAVP: Christian Osmena

This attack is the most comical. They don’t actually attack Christian’s record, but that of a congressman he worked for. Then they put up a picture of President Bush, even though the only connection is both Rohrabacher and Bush are registered Republicans. The President does not even act like a Republican. This reminds me of the anti-Dwight flyers last year, but those flyers quoted something the candidate had actually wrote.

Also a No vote on the energy conservation tax act by Congressman Rohrabacher might mean he is actually against higher taxes and fees, which seemed to be a big issue in the above attack.

EVP: Grace Shen

Nutrition information in campus restaurants

If I remember correctly, I asked Grace about this campaign point at an endorsement meeting and she said when she was took office it was already underway. Check out this nifty thing.

President: Curtis Lee

This makes the best points of this flyer series. I asked Curtis about the student web portal and was told about a 2012 plan, which is marginally better then the mid-semester evaluations that never happened.

These flyers make the point a few of the candidates are bad. However, if you took the CalSERVE candidates I don’t think you will find they are all great leaders who do incredible things.

The Patriot’s official endorsements are out, along with our April issue.

For the executives it is a Student Action sweep.

President: Curtis Lee
Executive VP: Grace Shen
External Affairs VP: Lina Ochman
Academic Affairs VP: Christian Osmena

The full article on the executive offices is here.

As for the SUPERB fee NO
Supported by a piece by the leading expert in all things ASUC.

For Senate: Tommy Owens #106
My interview with the Patriot writer here.

I will post how I will be voting, which is slightly different, later today.

I am surprised by how little I have had to say about the ASUC elections so far. It also helps Beetle has been sharing his massive amounts of election knowledge and reporting on stuff. A lot of the election is the same as previous years. I talked about the SUPERB fee and how ridiculous it was last year. The same arguments still apply and now it is even worse because students already voted on it and it failed just a year ago.

As for the candidates’ platforms’, they are all the same rehash from the past few years. Andrew gave a quick rundown here and here. If I had a dollar for every candidate that has promised lower textbook prices over the last four years, I would have enough money to buy all my textbooks.

This weekend brought some semi-interesting election sights.

On Saturday I was walking down College Ave. to campus and I saw a person. He was middle aged, well beyond college age. He was tearing down Student Action and BCR candidate Tommy Owens #106 flyers. I don’t know if he had it in for ASUC fliers in general or just those parties, as there were no CalSERVE flyers on the poles he ripped the fliers from.

After I spotted this person, a well placed Student Action member approached him and asked what he was doing. The person responded by saying he did not want to talk about it.

I have heard stories in previous years of a party getting bums to rip down their opposition fliers, but I don’t know if this is an example.

On Sunday I went to Crossroads for breakfast. I had a lot of company at the DC. No less than two executive candidates talked to me. Neither of them was actually campaigning, since campaigning in the DCs is illegal and we had preexisting relationships of sorts. I think I even saw a third executive candidate there, but I might have been suffering ill effects from a lack of coffee early in the day.

Seeing all these people gave me an idea. The next time I go to Crossroads, I will need to play ASUC candidate BINGO. I can play with my friends to see who can find the most candidates without looking. If you do find enough for a BINGO, I don’t know if you win or lose.

…the Attack of the Clones.

Who isn’t one? As I showed before, CalSERVE candidates offer little variation in their platforms. But like CalSERVE, Student Action has its share of diversity mongers. You may be wondering why I haven’t included the Defend Affirmative Action Party in the Race for the ASUC series, but it really goes without saying that DAAP’s entire existence is centered on racial conflict. It’s blatantly obvious in their party name so I’m not going to spend a separate post on them. Besides, when a party is pulling elementary school kids out of class to campaign for college students, you’ve got something way more interesting to talk about.

But back to Student Action. First up is Meghana Dhar, #108. Her platform includes a plan to “Engage cultural communities”

As a senator, I will promote an active and involved campus and cultural community through intergroup networking and relations that allow for more campus-wide events and multicultural coalition-building. Specifically, I want to bring together the South Asian community in order to grant greater access to university funding and provide more opportunities for community-building events.

What she is really saying: I want to bring the campus together, and by “campus” I mean the students who identify as South Asian, and by “bring together” I mean give them more money. I would have preferred that she cut to the chase like a CalSERVE candidate and just say she was primarily concerned about South Asian students.

Tara Raffi, #117, will use the ASUC to enhance Jewish community life.

The Jewish community is a large and active component of our diverse campus. I will work closely with JSU leadership and its subsidiary groups to develop and enrich cultural life for the Jewish community. As a senator, I will work diligently to foster cross-cultural interactions through continued support for funding and activities.

Again, the issue is not individuals maintaining strong ties to their cultural identities, but individuals using government to favor some groups over others. Even at the lowly level of the ASUC, government should not grant special privileges to any group or individual.

For Sarah Cho, #118, an ASUC Senate seat is small potatoes compared to the very prominent position of power she already holds.

Cultural Solidarity
As a representative of the Korean-American community, I realize the importance of cohesion in fighting for common goals on our campus and beyond. As a senator, I will collaborate with students active within different cultural groups to form ties between communities (through multicultural events), and thus better represent the wide variety of students that Berkeley proudly embodies.

When were the elections for Korean-American community representative? Do other Korean-Americans know Sarah is their representative? Hopefully I can cast a provisional ballot in the next election, since I missed the election for the Filipino-American community representative.

Will Smelko, #183, managed to combine Diversity with Entertainment, thus demonstrating that he has the political intuition to make it through an ASUC election.

Diverse Entertainment
The ASUC can provide the student body with a diverse array of quality entertainment. It is my goal to bring in bigger bands at lower prices, and also to open up space to allow for an expansion of events like multicultural art shows and film festivals. Also, I want to increase the students’ voice, allowing them to influence what kind of entertainment is provided to them.

He is clearly more concerned about the Entertainment part of his platform, but throws a bone to the multiculturalists just in case he comes off as too culturally unaware for the Senate. That is the work of a true politician; he feels your pain and is thinking of the children even when he is talking about something totally unrelated.

One could argue that the diversity peddling in these candidate’s platforms isn’t a big deal. But the ASUC’s bias toward achieving diversity at all costs isn’t imagined; we’ve been there before. And if we don’t pay attention, we just might be there again.

Since my freshman year, I have been promised “representation” for my community, but I’m still not sure what my community is. At first, I thought my community was UC Berkeley, but then some ASUC candidates insisted that I was underrepresented. Imagine, for all these years, I naively thought that UC Berkeley students had 100 percent representation at UC Berkeley. I guess I was wrong.

Of course, the communities to which these candidates are referring are racially and ethnically defined. ASUC Election Season gives future Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons the opportunity to tell you how bad you have it at Berkeley, and why you need them to make your Berkeley experience much better. For those of you who have already been drowned in the sea of eager candidates on Sproul Plaza, the one word that was probably peddled to you the most was, “Diversity.” No candidate, especially the ones from CalSERVE (though Student Action is just as guilty), can leave racial appeal out of their platforms. Some are delightfully more explicit than others. Thus, I present to you the senate platforms of the worst race-baiters of the ASUC election, starting with CalSERVE:

First up, we have Allen “Fo Sho” Cho, #161. His Agenda:

Development Of A Korean-American Caucus
The Korean community on campus is very divided; we don’t have a UNIFIED voice to represent the issues our community faces in the ASUC.

So if you’re a student of Korean descent at Berkeley, get ready to fall in line! Stop dividing the community with your independent, individual thinking and start thinking like a Korean, whatever that means! To create solidarity, Allen plans to create a Korean Community Caucus. This seems odd, considering the rationale for his next item:

Establishment Of A Multicultural Center
Even though UC Berkeley is rich in history, culture and social movements, it is currently one of the few campuses without a multicutural center. In order to continue pushing for positive change, we need to continue bridging community. As your ASUC Senator, I will advocate for a permanent multicultural center to encourage cross cultural solidarity and dialogue.

So let’s divide the campus along race, and then struggle to bring it together again. I’m sure Allen is fully aware of this conundrum, as exploiting it gives him more power and clout in his “community.” We probably wouldn’t need a multicultural center to fix the problem of groups not interacting with each other if people like Allen weren’t busy creating separate caucuses for racial groups in the first place.

Next is Anurati “For Health” Mathur, #162. Anurati promises change through Coalition building. Did she mention that this coalition only includes South Asian students?

An Empowered You: The Power of Coalition Building
Through successful campaigns such as the Count Me In initiative, the Asian Pacific American Coalition has shown the power of coalition building. Based upon the success of this coalition and others, I will work with South Asian student organizations to create a coalition so that we will then have the ability to make change together.

She forgot Poland.

Claudia “si se puede” Rodriguez, #154, doesn’t beat around the bush. Her Spanish nickname is a dead giveaway, but her platform is still worth examining. Her platform seems to indicate that if you aren’t Chicano or Latino, you’ve got to find yourself another senator:

Increasing Academic Resources for Chican@/Latin@ Communities
There are few Chican@/Latin@s moving into graduate level work at Cal. As Senator, I will work to improve and increase the academic resources needed for current students moving into graduate-level work, by advocating for retention and professional development programs that will support and benefit the campus community at large.

I could make the whole role-reversal, double standard argument, but that’s just too easy and too obvious. What is most insulting is Claudia’s attempt to make this part of her platform appear non-racial. She complains of the lack of Chicano’s entering graduate school, but argues that increasing academic resources will help all students in the undefined “community at large.” If she really wanted to help all students, she would have omitted the opening tidbit specifically targeting Chicano and Latino students.

Then there’s Jenab-i “count me in” Pareja, #149,who really only has one issue, but describes it in three different ways to make it seem like he has a full platform, so it is not worth examining in detail. The main legs of his platform: Increasing Diversity, Building Community, and Creating Accountability. All you have to know is that Jenab-i really cares about diversity. He cares about it so much, that it is the only thing he is running on, and he promises to do a bunch of things to make diversity reign supreme. However, judging from his experience, Jenab-i isn’t exactly Mr. Diversity himself; his extra-curricular involvement has been limited to Asian student groups.

Jeremy de Nieva, #151, wants to be “a voice for silenced communities.” That voice seems to include a back door affirmative action plan:

I will be a voice for marginalized populations by increasing the presence of underrepresented populations through recruitment and retention funding, securing funds for philanthropic organizations to focus more on their activities than on fundraising, and advocating collaboration between different groups in order to achieve a more integrated campus community.

Lyell Sakaue, #163, not only wants us to recognize multiculturalism, he wants us to give it a big hug.

Embracing Multiculturalism
Groups and spaces dedicated to raising awareness and promoting multiculturalism on campus need more funding and greater visibility. I will advocate for existing and ermerging opportunities for promoting multiculturalism, including culture shows, student groups, conferences and the creation of a permanent multicultural center.

Mary June “MJ” Flores, #164, wants to learn more about her ethnicity, and wants you to pay for it.

Enriching The Ethnic Studies Department
Every year, the Ethnic Studies Department suffers through budget cuts, which in turn severely affects the collection and number of classes offered. As senator, I will work with faculty, staff, and administration to advocate for more funding for the department’s needs and the creation of more diverse classes. I will also work with students to take steps towards establishing a Pilipino/Pilipino-American Studies program by advocating for more Pilipino tenured professors.

So Mary June’s assumption is that if you have a tenured Filipino professor, he will automatically be working in the Pilipino Studies department. Never mind that Filipino academics can also be found studying Economics, Biology, Astronomy, and many other subjects. But hey, a Filipino is a Filipino. Mary June seems to think that all Filipinos will have the same academic interests anyway, so if you get more of them, you’re guaranteed to have a Pilipino-American studies program!

Obiamaka “Obi” Ude, #147, wants to give us “An ASUC for Every Student.” As a conservative, Southern-Californian, left-handed, patriotic American of Filipino descent that wants more left-handed desks, I wonder what Obiamaka can do for me. Probably very little, as her platform states:

As Senator, I will continue the fight for a multicultural center, create an ASUC-sponsored women’s forum for different women’s groups to come together, and increase publicity and outreach efforts to students from marginalized communities.

Like many of her colleagues, Obiamaka wants the ASUC to be all things to all students. Based on her platform, some students will get a little more.

Oscar “Oski” Mairena, #153 is just the male version of Claudia Rodriguez (or Claudia is the female version of Oscar), placing at the top of his platform the goal of “Increasing Retention Services for Chican@/Latin@ Students.”

Finally, Stephanie “Strawberry” Yang. #148, wants to defy stereotypes, and she can only do this as an ASUC senator.

Challenging The Model Minority Myth
Last fall, the Regents released a report that they would increase diversity on campus by admitting more non-Asian students. However, the “Asian” label does not do justice to the diversity of communities that are represented under that term. As Senator, I will work to peel off the “model minority” myth by making sure that the institution recognizes the diverse backgrounds of people grouped under the Asian-American term.

To minimize the model minority myth, I believe Stephanie’s first act as senator will be to fail all of her classes. She will then drop out of UC Berkeley, meet with the Regents wearing a t-shirt displaying her abysmally low GPA, and beg for an affirmative action program that is designed solely for increasing Asian enrollment. Victimhood, of course, is true progress for Asian students.

Many of these senate candidate complain of communities not working together, yet they seek to magnify the divide by catering to distinct racial niches within the campus. Without campus division, CalSERVE would have nothing to run on, so I’m not too confident that a Berkeley united beyond racial distinction will exist under CalSERVE auspices.

As I wrote before, Student Action is equally guilty of diversity-pandering. Part II will look at their worst offenders.

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

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.

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.

Today the Daily Cal ran an interview with ASUC President Van Nguyen. It is nothing ground breaking, but it is what Van wants to get done through his office. The goal I liked is restoring students’ trust in the ASUC. Van starts out the year without the taint of 2006’s summer ASUC election fiasco. Also his party CalSERVE has been able to capitalize on student’s frustration with Student Action, which controlled the ASUC executive offices for the last few years.

While it is not one of his stated goals, just a year ago he ran for senate as Van ‘Repeal Prop. 209’ Nguyen. We will see what happens in the next few months.

Our ASUC President at Calapalooza next to our other President.

For more specific commentary, check out Beetle.

Last week the Berkeley City Council approved a measure that will extend the operating hours of businesses on Telegraph Ave. The exact details can be seen under Item 9 on the city council summary for last Tuesday.

A quick summary from ACCESS via Facebook post:

Under this package, businesses that do not serve alcohol are allowed to remain open from 7am to midnight on weekdays and from 7am to 2am on weekends. Businesses with an alcohol permit are allowed to remain open until 10pm on weekdays and midnight on weekends.

The most notable thing is the efforts students put into supporting this measure. For many months students have been lobbying the local government trying to extend Telegraph business hours. Leading the charge, the group ACCESS has been focusing action on this issue since last fall. I have received numerous messages from them asking me to write letters and attend city meetings.

There is also a lesson in leadership here. ACCESS achieved results because their members are truly concerned and dedicated to affecting local policies to directly help students. They had neither the huge budget nor the scores of interns the ASUC Office of External Affairs had, but they had persistence.

This is great for the businesses as well. They can be open longer without having to go through a lengthy permit process. Hopefully, the increased foot traffic on Telegraph later into the night will reduce crime and make everyone feel safer walking around later in the night.

It will be great to see the changes on Telegraph when school starts in the Fall.

I received an interesting email from a friend. It was commentary about the recent Judicial Council case against DAAP that was sent out to the Berkeley BAMN email list. I put the complete version below interspersed with a few comments. If you want an alternative view so you can assess the validity of their statements see Beetle’s posts about DAAP.

This is a satire about the recent ASUC Judicial Council
Shenanigans, written by the Defend Affirmative Action Party.

- Yvette Felarca, BAMN Northern California coordinator
(Title for identification purposes only)

======================================
Court of the Absurd – cancel the “ASUC judicial council
procedures” sock-puppet theater for good.
======================================

Friends, Californians, Enemies – let us not suffer through
sock-puppet theater next election season – let us drag the
name of our school and student body through the fetid morass
of stupid election charges no longer!

We should not forget how DAAP dragged the name of our school and $15,000 of student fees through a “fetid morass” two years ago.

Facing two charges – ostensibly brought for violation of the
election rules – has forced our party to think once again
about the arbitrary and truly stupid character of the post-
election tradition at Cal of “ASUC judicial council
procedures.” It is a simple and universally known fact that
ASUC elections are fair – the candidates who get the votes
win the seats.

Both of the circus-worthy charges that our party faced have
been dismissed – limping out of existence just as
pathetically and honorlessly as they came about. The first
was dropped when the “charging party” was 49 minutes late for
the hearing. Apparently this “charging party” has failed to
appear a number of times this judicial procedures season.

It is really the story of the second charge whose full
telling is deserved. It is our hope that, next, election we
can convince the three branches of student government not to
debase themselves, to set aside the clown suits and cancel
the “judicial procedures” sock-puppet theater for good, out
of embarrassment, self respect, or maybe because one or two
democratic principles survive - starved and outcast though
they may be.

Perhaps the finest example of the Senate debasing itself this past year was the filing of impeachment charges (by DAAP Seantor Dimitri Garcia among others) against Judicial Council Chair Sonya Banerjee. Coverage of this from the Patriot blog in exile here and Beetle here. Canceling out the judicial procedures would make the government run easier, since it would then have two and not three branches.

The second charge against DAAP was for a campaign phone call
into a dorm room. This action was alleged to have violated
the prohibition on “campaigning in the dorm.” The stupidity
of this charge, the fact that the election rule plainly is
intended to prohibit the physical presence of campaigners was
not enough to cancel the sock-puppet theater date. The fact
that the case would be moot - DAAP did not win an ASUC seat -
that was not enough. The fact that if the Judicial Council
upheld the charge it would prohibit the use of all modern
means of communication in ASUC elections was not enough. The
“charging party” did not have a single witness - no matter! -
the sock-puppet theater show must go on!

If anyone bothered to read 12.3 of the elections bylaw, the campaigning in the dorms prohibition applies to more then just a campaigner.

Due Process had a small, tragic part in the sock-puppet play;
it was not a speaking part and died early. During the two
hours of hearing in which pre-oral argument motions were
heard, no standard of the Judicial Rules of Procedure was
above summary elimination by the Judicial Council. The
problems went beyond just trampling the protections enshrined
in the stone tablets of the Judicial Rules of Procedure.
Basic democratic standards that have been in place in more or
less every society in the world for hundreds of years were
casually tossed aside by the Judicial Council in a fog of
blissful ignorance. Just when the unbridled foolishness of
the hearing had lost its novelty and was becoming genuinely
annoying, the sock-puppet theater gods intervened with
redemptive generosity.

The hearing was cut short.

Apparently the stone tablets of judicial procedure that had
been up on the ASUC website for some time were outdated. A
new hearing, “starting again” was set for several days later
(this time on the basis of the “new, improved JRP”) despite
no allowance for this procedure in the Judicial Rules of
Procedure themselves.

DAAP’s lawyer got involved and threatened to sue regardless of the outcome of the case. The word “intimidation” is used in the Daily Cal article.

In the intervening days a pretext was contrived as a face-
saving device to extricate the “charging party” from the
hopeless idiocy of the judicial procedure. It was
“discovered” by the “charging party” that the voice message
left on their dorm phone did not have a date.

Thus the tragic/comic sock-puppet theater one-act came to an
embarrassing, sputtering, pathetic end.

- Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)

The text goes wrong in many places. This is where Beetle can do a great section by section analysis. Again, I will refer everyone to Beetle’s entries that include DAAP. The further back you read, the more you will be enlightened.

I am glad to know we will not be deprived of entertainment next year just because DAAP no longer has a senate seat.