The Los Alamos lab may not return to UC control after 2005. The Department of Energy has anounced it will entertain bids from other institutions to run it. The UC is still invited to compete on an equal footing.Email This Post!

The Washington Post has a piece on new Raven Kyle BollerEmail This Post!

Berkeley received a massive donation to expand the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. (It's part of the big Lab complexes up in the hills.)Email This Post!

Ooh, I'm still raging over the Squelch's funding being cut.

The Squelch makes a massive effort to reach every student on campus-- that's why we print 11,000 copies per issue, distribute for free, and do it rain or shine for two weeks. Not to mention the non-profit comedy shows. Not a penny goes towards perks for membership, helping members of the Squelch find careers, etc. It's all oriented towards students, does not try to convert them to any religion or political view, and so forth. Of course, reaching out to all students is expensive.

In contrast, just about every student group is much more narrowly focused. When their money isn't spent on events that're group-specific, they're narrowly spent on a particular political ideology, ethnicity, major, etc. This leaves aside the pork-barrel projects that the ASUC loves. (Can anyone argue that CalFACTS, with similar funding, is more useful then the Squelch? Or the Greek Philanthropy fund, which doesn't even benefit students? Heck, we're probably more well-known then the entirety of the ASUC's projects...)

The problem with this is that while just about everyone likes and knows the Squelch, its support is spread very widely, making it an easy target for budget cuts. This is a cynical redistribution to groups with little representation but heavy influence on the ASUC.

This leaves aside a finance meeting that was announced a day before it was held, giving the Squelch no time to prepare a defense, talk to Senators, or mount support. Now instead of defending $15K in the budget we have the much more difficult fight for an extra $3K when the budget is already in deficit, thanks to the votes of two Senators and the abstentions of four others...Email This Post!

Squelch was boned by the ASUC Finance Committee last night.

First, some background info: Squelch spends approximately $20000 a year. That money is all printing costs: 6 issues at 11,000 copies an issue, approximately $3500 a print run. The Senate funds $15000 of that, the remaining $5000 being funded by ad sales, etc. So we're already spending far above purely ASUC money. The Squelch costs so much more then other publications because it's the only one that aspires to total, free distribution among students. That means dropping off issues at Co-ops, Sororities and Fraternities, all the Res Halls, and distributing like mad.

Regardless, the Finance Committee voted to cut us from $15000 next year to $10000, or where we were at three years ago. The logic seems to be that we get a lot compared to all other publications, and were only getting $10000 as early as two years ago. The vote was 1 person for, 1 person against, and 3 absentions, with Fi Comm Chair Ro breaking the tie in favor of cutting our funds. The only person originally voting in favor of the cut was Senator Ho, who had not consulted with us or even looked at our finance reports. We would've even of cheerfully accepted a cut of 1-2 thousand dollars.

$10000 represents half of what we spend in a year. Ad sales would be cut as well, since paper quality or magazine distribution would inevitably be cut drastically and the magazine would be less attractive to advertisers. So, if implemented, we're looking at only 3 Squelches a year.

Since I'm sure this year's Senate doesn't want to be known as 'the Senate that killed the Squelch,' I'm positive the Senate floor will refund us to some extent on Wednesday. We're only asking for $13000, which still gives $2000 back to the ASUC and places the Squelch as one of the top student groups to receive cuts.

Other nifty facts Mr. Duman came up with:

-Publications funding in general makes up only 3% of the entire ASUC Budget. The scope of influence of publications in general, and the Squelch in particular, is vastly more than 3% of the campus population

-The Squelch prints 66,000 issues which our distributed to the entire campus community, this represents a cost to the ASUC of less than $0.20 per issue (and each issue reaches more than one student).

It's nice that despite all the preaching about campus unity and 'events that reach all students,' when confronted with a publication that takes a reasonable stab at both, it scares the hell out of certain people. Email This Post!

New Squelch today. I've got an article and two newsflashes.

Republicans, don't bitch to me about the Reagan piece, because I had no idea.Email This Post!

Upcoming stuff:

David Landau, Editor of Ha’aretz Daily English Edition
Friday, May 2 1:00 pm
North Gate Hall Library (Graduate School of Journalism)
Mr. Landau, Editor of Ha'aretz English Edition, often considered the "Israeli New York Times," will be speaking to the general public. This is a perfect opportunity to gain insight into the workings of the media in Israel. Berkeley Hillel and the Graduate School of Journalism are sponsoring this program. He will also join Berkeley Hillel for Shabbat Dinner and be available for Q&A after dinner.

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The NFL Draft is underway. Cal QB Kyle Boller (not graduating! Tsk) was picked 19th in the first round by the Baltimore Ravens, as was somewhat predicted. More surprisingly, Defensive Back Nnamdi Asomugha was picked 31st in the first round by the Raiders.Email This Post!

The LA Times has an article on the College Republican's march down Telegraph, as does the Patriot. The Republicans were here for a long-planned College Convention, enthusiastically playing up the 'Republicans? In Berkeley?' theme. (The Conference was named 'Behind Enemy Lines.) The march went down Telegraph, yelled at hippies for a bit, then went back. Some idiot was waving a 'Peace sign = Swastika' sign, which the Republicans should be embarassed about.

Both the Times and the Patriot use the opportunity to survey the changing face of campus. The Times makes the obvious points: it's more Asian now, faculty are more to the left then the students, Sproul has more Christian groups then political ones, plus this nice quote:

The noontime information tables in Sproul Plaza, Brady noted, are much more likely to be set up by fundamentalist Christian groups and Asian ethnic societies than by the leftist political splinter groups of years past. "There's no longer any appreciable interest in socialist movements or groups, such as the SDS" -- Students for Democratic Society -- Brady said, "although those groups are still there."

This one is good too:

"I get the sense the community is much more into protest than the campus," Leonard said. "There is a culture of protest in the Bay Area that is steadily getting grayer and older."

Heck, the community is antagonistic to the campus.

The open question is still: where do the Republicans go from here? At a certain point being an oppositional group becomes hard to swallow: The Republicans have some 500 members, consistently hold ASUC spots, and are sufficently confident about their popularity that they'll run for Executive office. More to the point, the Republicans depend on members who come to Berkeley already Republican and with a chip on their shoulder, without a high conversion rate. Continued growth in membership will have to come from conversions and 'borderline' Republicans, like the Asian Christians. Still a pretty white group on Sproul yesterday. Email This Post!

Last night was the Bowlesman Rites of Spring. Sorry I missed it! But this e-mail of warning is classic on its own.

I just wanted to remind you all that tonite is the RITES OF SPRING. For those new to U4, it is the Bowlesmen's way of trying to be social...They strip to their underwear (sometimes less) and run through Stern Hall like animals.

In order to get into or out of Stern, they will likely run through the Hillside octagon and past bldgs 7, 8 at some point. This happens right around midnite.

They might be loud.

Please bear with them. It'll be over within a few minutes.

*(and counseling will be available for those who experience trauma or anxiety over this experience...)*

Thanks in advance for your understanding and patience.

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The Elections Council plans to count ballots on May 5th, barring changes from Judicial Council needs. It's tentatively in the morning and tentatively on the seventh floor.

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Mr. Duman reports that Albany Bowl was burglarized last night.Email This Post!

Berkeley's livejournal.Email This Post!

Column

I seem to have this great talent for writing columns that no one feels strongly about either way. No e-mails yet again. Email This Post!

From the Executive VP's office:

On April 28 and 29: Immortalize your student group. Make a quilt square to put in a unity quilt to represent our campus. Represent your student organization by completing a quilt square that will become part of a single quilt with squares decorated by Berkeley student groups. As an important part of the student body at Berkeley, a quilt representing our campus would be incomplete without your student organization. The quilt itself will be hung in the MLK Student Union and stand as a symbol of unity within our campus, where the unity is currently much lower than its potential. To join the unity quilt, simply stop by the Department of Student Group Services Quilt Square Table on Upper Sproul on Monday, April 28 or Tuesday, April 29 between 10am and 2pm, or, if you cannot make these times, email panny523@uclink.berkeley.edu to set up an appointment time on either of those two days between 9am and 4pm. If your organization has an office in Eshleman, we will also be stopping by if you cannot make it out to our table on S! proul. All supplies will be provided; the only things needed are you and your creativity.

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The usual suspects are planning a long list of May Day stuff at Berkeley. Schedule:

7am Welcome Center opens on Sproul Plaza. Come by any time during the day to find out where everything is going on, get the latest updates, and have some coffee.

12 noon - 1 pm Converge on Sproul Plaza for mass demonstration.

5 pm Final convergence on Sproul Plaza. Demonstrate in front of Sproul Hall, then take it to the streets! Form a contingent and march together.

ALL DAY LONG Actions will be taking place throughout the day all over campus. Organize your own action and participate in others'.

This looks like an attempt to emulate the SF protests. Small groups roaming and protesting, no centralized command, with occasional reconvergences, and a not-minimal level of violence. That'll teach 'em to raise our student fees!

The attempt to marry the traditional 'list of demands' to a decentralized group of troublemakers is a new thing.

1) No student fee hikes,
2) Fair contracts and living wages for university workers, and
3) No University compliance with racist and xenophobic targetings on non-U.S. citizens.

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Berkeley's quake likelihood is being revised upward. There's a 27% chance of a 6.5 or greater quake on the Hayward fault, and a 67% of a Bay Area quake, over the next 30 years. I don't need to remind anyone that Eshleman will topple, killing tens of people, in anything more then a 5.Email This Post!

Here's the newest Bear in Mind. Guests:

Chancellor Berdahl interviews Captain Lee Rosenberg, head of UC Berkeley's ROTC program; learns more about European perspectives on the war from three international students at UC Berkeley; and gets a preview of what we can expect from North Korea from Professor T.J. Pempel, who was instrumental in bringing delegates from that country to campus for a recent summit. The episode concludes with questions about fees and the war for the chancellor from students in the audience.

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Berkeley Professor Christopher Hitchens makes the Onion.Email This Post!

As usual, what the NY Times, Associated Press and Drudgereport consider important doesn't even make the Daily Cal. In this case it's Faculty/Student relationships. I've never had one. You've never had one. Email This Post!

Recruitment of minority students for Berkeley is going on. The LA Times has a piece on efforts to recruit from SoCal. UC President Atkinson has an op-ed Email This Post!

UPDATE: The Cal Libertarians allocation is a typo. They actually are getting some $1200, about in line with their age and purpose.

ASUC Budget Allocations are out for Student Groups, Publications, Executive Offices, etc. Big cuts across the board! As the Budget Officer notes,

As you look over your initial budget allocation, you may find that your budget allocations have been reduced from years past. This reduction is the result of budget problems from the previous year; however it is important to keep in mind that over all, we are still at a historically high funding rate for student groups. Deep cuts have been made from within the ASUC to preserve additional funding for student groups, who remain our first priority. While it is always our desire to fully fund every request, we regret that this year’s budget prevented the ASUC from giving the allocations we would have liked to be able to.

So lets go to the cuts! I'll note the big movements. There are probably very good reasons for all of the big changes, but I don't know them. It's also very possible the Budget figures are mixed up, and one typo can affect all the figures.

Publications received a 20% cut, from 56K to 45K, but increased their meager size of the budget from 2.73% to 3.05%. No surprises here except the large cut Hardboiled took.

Student Groups saw a 13% cut, but up from 12 to 15% of the total budget. Large cuts in: BAMN, Engineering Joint Council, Korean Student Association, and Pilipino Association in Health Careers. Strangely, Cal Liberatarians seems to have taken a 12,000 jump. Possibly a typo.

Service Groups took a massive 25% cut. Big cuts in United Leaders, Bridges, the Re-entry and Transfer Student Association, and a few others.

Executive Offices and other ASUC stuff went from 214K to 174K. Superb received a 50K cut, Cal Housing a 4K one.



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From Calstuff Correspondant Phil Nunez

I am sure you are a familiar with last week's election debacle, but I suspect you are not fully briefed on how the election was subsequently saved.

In brief, geeks from the Computer Science Undergraduate Association (CSUA) and the Open Computing Facility, together with Eshleman/MLK building operations staff, came in like gangbusters and saved the ASUC's ass. The elections would not have happened if not for their help.

If you would like to verify the authenticity of the events described below, just ask Tommaso, the elections chair (electionchair@hotmail.com). Alternatively, I can provide you with a complete listing of the IP addresses used by all campus polling stations, as well as the password used on all of the Linksys nat boxen.

Tommaso visited the CSUA and OCF about two weeks ago to ask if we could lend some machines for elections. As a result of this, one of the CSUA members (he's a friend of mine) ended up working closely with Tommaso, initially as a technical adviser, though by Tuesday (4/8) he got sucked in to the process more or less completely (he completely dissappeared that week until he recruited me to help out this past Sunday (4/13)). He's got some interesting stories from last week including running around at 3 AM with Tommaso and a UCPD officer keying into buildings to check ports, calling up a friend of his to put together a firewall at the last minute, and a truck slicing the ethernet cable at South Hall in half.

Anyway, this past Sunday, my friend put a call out to folks in the CSUA and OCF to find geeks to help out with the election. We got paid $10 an hour, which was ok, but realistically, this was charity work. Most of us consult on the side for anywhere from 5 to 50 times that.

We came in and got the geek shit done. A few of us were in Sunday evening checking nat box configurations, cables, etc., and then we had people working various shifts on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to get machines deployed and troubleshoot when problems arose.

Credit is also due to the Eshleman/MLK building ops staff, and the talented folks from the ASUC auxiliary professional staff we worked with. They rock.

Deployment worked as follows: A bunch of geeks and building ops staffers would pile into a van. At each site, we'd haul out the equipment (computers, ethernet, surge strips, nat box, router, etc.) and the tables and chairs. The ops guys would set up the tables and chairs, then we'd leave a geek at the site to bring up the machines. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

It seems simple enough, but doing this at over 15 sites with 70+ computers is by no means a trivial task.

These folks deserve credit for their work. They saved the ASUC a lot of money (which hopefully will go to student groups) and a lot of face. I know someone talked to a reporter from the Daily Cal, but they seem to have completely missed the ball on this. The geeks that helped out are:

Adrian Cahya [adrian]
Brett Cannon [drifty]
Charles Connaughton [ensign]
Jeff Emrich [jeffe]
Patrick Feyh [cpfeyh]
Debbie Hoo [debbie]
Nathan Hunsperger [njh]
Darin McGill [darin]
Myself [phillip]
Dan Silverstein [cubes]

I'll try to get a list of the building ops guys too.

- Phil

Once again, geeks save the ass of Poli Sci majors. Here's a possible campaign violation they might've found, mocked.

Here's the Building Ops list:

Jon 'Shadow' Green
Joey Kim
Mike Romano
Jeff Ehrman
Manuel Zepeda
Diana Carranza
Marcos Estrada
Vlad Kroll
Edith Perez
Andy Falzone
Norey Navarro
Fernando Casarez

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The Commencement Speaker has been revealed: it's Leon Panetta, former Clinton White House Chief of Staff. Not only is he our Commencement Speaker, he's speaking at Alan Ross's Poli Sci 179 class next Wednesday.

This is a neat list of Commencement speakers for the various departments. The CEO of Google... Barbara Ehrenrich...the Screenwriter of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.Email This Post!

UPDATE: Mr. Enayati writes in. The BJJ received $500, not $700. And while they were aware of the rules, they were repeatedly told by the ASUC's publication advisor, Xavier Hernandez, that no rule would be broken so long as the issue was paid with from non-ASUC funds. So the letter of the law was probably broken, but not the spirit of keeping ASUC funds out of ASUC politics. Apparently the Attorney General is working to clear up the miscommunications. The BJJ is also talking to the Senators it criticized to clear up any misunderstandings.

The Berkeley Jewish Journal needs to lose its ASUC funding. They received some $700 from the ASUC Contingency Fund and have used it to whore for ASUC candidates, strictly forbidden by the ASUC Constitution so that student money isn't diverted to ASUC politics. The cover shows a Cal figure shouting 'I want you' and giving life to a Frankenstein monster with a 'ZBT' belt buckle. The other endorsements are Mr. Lafata for EVP and Mr. Patel for External, plus assorted Senate candidates. The ASUC bylaws state:

The ASUC Senate, Student Groups, or any other organization affiliated with the ASUC shall not:

1. Endorse, fund, or otherwise take action positively or negatively on partisan activities related to ASUC elections;

2. Endorse, fund, or otherwise take action positively or negatively on campaigns for propositions in ASUC elections.

It'd be one thing if this was a new publication unaware of ASUC rules. But no, the Editor-in-Chief, Robert Enayati, is clearly aware of the restrictions, but feels that playing cheap language games is enough of a loophole to see his magazine through. But declaring that 'what you will see inside is not an endorsement' does not make it so. To call them 'spotlights' of candidates who 'have all been positive and supported the Jewish community,' is a blatant attempt to pull a legal figleaf over breaking the bylaws for ASUC political machinations.

It doesn't even meet the requirements of the bylaws. ASUC publications aren't allowed to take 'negative' actions either, but the BJJ writes about Senators Liang, Hammond, and Ghori? (Who isn't a Senator. He probably means Iqbal? Or maybe Mr. Ghori was subbing in?) and urges us to 'kick them out of office.' 'All I ask is that you don't vote for any explicit hypocrites like the ones listed above.'

But the 'positive' parts are enough. If writing 'Daniel Frankenstein for President' with a glowing profile isn't an endorsement, I can't imagine what is.

I don't want Hardboiled endorsing CalSERVE candidates and I don't want the Heuristic Squelch endorsing Squelch! candidates. There's many reasons why not: it keeps publication funding from being politically motivated, it gives publications more of a voice then the average student, and so on. But most of all, it takes student money that is meant to be used for activities and groups and uses it to whore for a political candidate. I don't want my student fees being used for this.

The candidates so endorsed better hope they aren't tied to it. The bylaws state

Purchasing paid political advertising, or soliciting unpaid political advertising, in an ASUC-Sponsored Publication.

...is a disqualifiable offense. Rightly so. If they didn't ask, the BJJ should be ashamed for getting their favored candidates in massive legal trouble.Email This Post!

It's time for the 2003 ASUC Awards! Make sure to nominate your fave-rave groups and peeps.Email This Post!

Last day of voting! If you haven't already voted for Kevin D and his Squelch! crue, now is your chance.Email This Post!

The Berkeley Art Museum is slavishly memorializing the Black Panthers. It's pretty sick. It's certainly possible to see the Panthers in a sympathetic light, as an outgrowth of repression that gave some measurement of empowerment to the Black community in a really turbulent time. Or even to see the murders they committed as a desperate response, rather then thuggish violence. You can do this and keep some measure of academic credibility! But to blatantly say 'The Panthers committed murders, and we wish for those murders to be forgotten,' is beyond hope for any academic honesty.

A jail photo of Newton just after he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Frey’s killing captures the youthful resolve of movement, she said. His handsome face is relaxed, his large eyes open and hopeful despite the recent conviction.

“He seemed to be very much the leader,” wrote Baruch, who passed away in 1997, about the photo. “Sensitive and responsive, Huey’s face was a joy to photograph.”

A picture of the Panthers after the murder of Panther Bookkeeper Van Patter would be more interesting. (From Dan Flynn:)

Van Patter, who served the Party in an accounting capacity, uncovered severe financial improprieties by the Panthers. On December 13, 1974, Van Patter disappeared. Her dead body, head caved in, would later turn up in San Francisco Bay.

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Nukees is once again relevant to today's news! I feel duty-bound to show someone, since no one will get the joke when it runs in the Daily Cal on September 2004.Email This Post!

BART is considering a 10 percent fee hike.

BART is considering a 10 percent fare hike, beginning Jan. 1, 2004, to help close a $38.8 million budget deficit. If approved, a trip from downtown Berkeley to downtown San Francisco would jump from $2.75 to $3.

The hike, which must be approved by the BART Board of Directors, would come on top of a 5 percent increase which was put in place this past January.

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Word on the street is that at least some Extension students are unable to vote in the ASUC Elections, due to a programming snafu. This is a potentially big problem, as it violates equal protection statutes. The program is being worked on.

UPDATE: The problem appears to be with Calnet's authorization system not working correctly, not the EC's program. The plan at this point is to send EC workers out with paper ballots for those who can't log in right.Email This Post!

The Public Health Library apparently experienced some 'severe flooding.' It should reopen today.Email This Post!

Even Nukees is taking on the Elections. Are they printing this one today, or will it run in six months when the backlog finally wends its way around to it?

Email This Post!

As Calwatch notes, Mayor Bates received the Jefferson Muzzle award for the Daily Cal thefts. Not impressive command of the facts of the situation, tho.Email This Post!

Oh, to browse the OCF site directory...

The #1 site on it traffic-wise is UCB Hot or Not. For kicks, try keywords 'oski' and 'stanfurd.' The rest appears to be insecure white/asian people hating on each other. Very cruel.Email This Post!

The Engineering Commencement speaker will be Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway.Email This Post!

Eric Schewe-- the Daily Cal's current Review Editor-- has won the DC's Editor-in-Chief election over Opinion Editor Thornton. Don't ask me how common it is for Arts people to ascend to the high office, as I don't know.

Bit of a biographical sketch of Mr. Schewe, who'll probably be a new name to the ASUC types who read Calstuff. (Strangely enough, Mr. Schewe was my neighbor in La Loma, Freshman year.) He's from Maryland, spent some time playing for the Cal Orchestra, and joined the Daily Cal his Freshman year, eventually working his way up. Ironically, the ultra-boring life in our suite was at least partly responsible for driving him to the more interesting arms of the Daily Cal. He can actually draw, too. He's a good guy.

Other vital questions: who'll be Opinion Editor next year? And should I seek a third term as Columnist, or am I all out of creative juices?Email This Post!

Praglib returns! Ex-Calstuff roomie David Duman-- one of the original Cal Bloggers and Creative Editor of the Heuristic - Fucking - Squelch - is back a-blogging. Email This Post!

CalWatch has a lot of excellent posts on the ASUC Elections action. Email This Post!

Mr. Penn's car has turned up in Richmond. I had dinner at Venus, the actor-friendly resturant with insufficient views of street parking, last night. It was excellent.Email This Post!

ColumnEmail This Post!

From Joe Henchman

I am writing this because I am sure that Thursday will be filled with curses and screaming about the actions taken by the ASUC Wednesday night. As a participant in those actions, and as someone who shares the concerns of ordinary students and candidates alike, I hope to clarify what the situation is.

The meeting last night was to find a way to rescue the election. I don't think I need to go into the details of the problems the election has been facing, but they are numerous. Essentially, closed polls, long lines, illegal online votes/firewall problems, and a pollworker shortage. Officially, the meeting was a hearing of the Judicial Council, and was under their auspices.

I was asked to attend the meeting, to represent the interests of independents and minor party candidates, of whom I gathered the input of about a dozen. I also was invited due to my knowledge of past elections, and because I have been assisting the ASUC Attorney General. Also at the meeting were members of the Judicial Council, Elections Council, representatives of the Student Action, CalSERVE, Squelch!, DAAP, and APPLE parties, the Daily Cal, most of the Senate, and other interested people.

The meeting lasted 7 hours, and the focus was essentially to determine what we do now. After much discussion, it was determined that if voting continued on Thursday, it would resemble Wednesday in terms of problems. The Elections Council chair has been awake for 55 hours, there was a massive shortage of pollworkers, everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and there was no confidence that these issues could be fixed by Thursday or even Friday. Proposals discussed were, in order of severity, 1) voiding the election and holding a new one in 2 weeks, 2) moving immediately to online voting, and 3) suspending voting for a few days to allow a time to regroup and then continue the election next week. Continuing the election on Thursday and Friday simply would have been more of the same problems that we have had this week thus far. After more discussion, option 3 was the one adopted.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday there will be voting at all locations and with sufficient computers to avoid lines. All votes cast thus far will be included in the tally. All campaign violations will carry over, as this is a continuation of the existing election, not a new election.

This decision makes no one happy. But this situation needed a remedy, and it is unfortunate that this was the only option open. Three more days of voting next week is awful, but it was the least awful option. If it were all possible, we would have sucked up and gone ahead Thursday and Friday. However, that's what we did Tuesday and Wednesday, and it's been a fiasco.

The Judicial Council has taken charge of creating a blueprint for managing the election, and many micromanaging details have been worked out to ensure absolutely positively that the mistakes of the past two days will not reappear next week. Funds have been committed by the ASUC Auxiliary to carry out a fair, legitimate election.

There was also a concern that whatever action taken by this group could be overturned by anyone who files a lawsuit, or by the President issuing an executive order (the Daily Cal erroneously states that the President can overturn any actions taken by the Judicial Council). I believe we remedied these issues; any lawsuits to invalidate the election based on the last two days will have a much higher standard to be accepted. The Judicial Council has the authority to override any executive order that conflicts with their ruling tonight, and has pledged to exercise their power to do so (since they don't want to have this hearing process be a waste). Suffice it to say that MTW voting is what is going to happen, and any attempt to overturn it will have a tough time, because any remedy that could be suggested has already been considered.

It has been a difficult week for many people. I just felt I had to provide a fuller story to answer the questions that will likely be asked, or screamed, Thursday.

Yours,
Joseph Henchman

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Voting is a complete catastrophe across all levels.. reports are rolling in about how bad it's been.

..One of the DCs not votable
..Computers have been left unattended on the ground.
..Waits of 20 minutes or more to vote.
..Slow or nonresponding polling places.

There's a meeting tonight at 7:30 in Eshleman between J-Comm, Elections Council, and Parties to figure out exactly what to do. Elections Chair Sciortino has agreed to forego his stipend.

I almost killed Elections singlehandedly today. I was IM'd this morning that it was possible to vote from home. Not being very up on elections bylaws, I put it on Calstuff along with a cheerful 'Vote Squelch!' message.

However, the real problem was a nonworking firewall that was allowing in outside IPs. After some confusion, it was discovered that only 16 people had voted from home, and the firewall is apparently patched. I took the message off Calstuff.

Breaking...
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News from our supposed sister campus, Baghdad U.

Two miles away from the celebration in Firdos Square, a Marine column moving into Baghdad from the east came under heavy fire Wednesday afternoon at Baghdad University.

CNN Correspondent Martin Savidge, embedded with the 1st Marines, 7th Battalion, said the university campus was a battlefield at one point, with black smoke rising from several buildings and machine-gun fire ripping around the fighting vehicles. (Full story)

The firefight erupted, Savidge said, suddenly after a long stretch of road where Iraqis gathered on street corners to cheer on the Marines.

"This was not the exact reception ... anticipated," he reported while under fire. "There's a lot of smoke and dust now and fire. ... [It's] a far cry from the jubilant crowds ... just hard to imagine two blocks away."

Savidge said the fighting ignited an ammunition cache on the campus, which burned and exploded for about 45 minutes after the Marines secured the area.

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How Berkeley created the Matrix:

Gaeta found the answer in 1997, at the annual visual effects convention Siggraph, where he saw a short film by Paul Debevec, George Borshukov, and Yizhou Yu called The Campanile Movie. The film - a flyover of the UC Berkeley campus - was generated entirely from still photographs. Like the 19th-century cartographers, Debevec and his team derived the precise shapes and contours of the landscape by triangulating the visual information in still photographs. Then they generated 3-D models based on this geometry, but instead of applying computer-generated textures to the models, they wrapped them with photographs of the buildings themselves. The trick worked spectacularly well. Instead of resembling something out of Toy Story, the buildings and the surrounding hills in The Campanile Movie looked absolutely real.

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As we've all noticed, no voting today.

Apparently the new Elections system only works if all the nodes are working. Since some still aren't, no one can vote.

From what I understand, the plan is to Emergency Order an extra day of voting on Friday.Email This Post!

On semi-hiatus until Thursday night...

The endorsements were a surprise, to me and everyone else. My picks were Franky, LaFata, Joshi, Mata, Yang. No one of my eleven entrants did any better then three of five, mainly due to an overwhelming preference for Frankenstein for President and Yang for SAO. That said, congrats to Wendy Lee, Gustavo Mata, and ProgCal for tying for first place in the second annual Calstuff Daily Cal endorsement race.

It'll be a lot less interesting next year. The smart money will just pick non-Student Action.Email This Post!

KEVINS SPEECH TO THE DAILY CAL ENDORSEMENT FORUM

Dear pus-encrusted members of the Shady Californian,

I come here today to condemn you as scum-sucking suckbags, full of hatred for all living beings. I spit on your lies. I dream that vultures will pick each hair off your head, leaving you bald, and on your naked scalp I will write 'Here is a bald piece of crap.' If I was alone with your mothers, I would… holy crap! It's my arch-nemesis, Columnist Kevin Deenihan of the Daily Californian!

C: You schmuck! You're full of hatred, not solutions. The Daily Cal provides an essential service for students, timely news.
S: Just because your voice sounds familiar to mine doesn't mean I'll ever agree with you. You used to be cool, Deenihan. Now you're just a $15 a column hack writing about Protests over and over.
C: Ooh, I'm so cool because I make tit jokes for the Heuristic- fucking- Squelch. What a shocker that students laugh at jokes about pee.
S: I see you're using your manly and muscular physique for EVIL, Columnist Deenihan. I represent real change in the ASUC: efficient updating of the ASUC website, responsible renovation of Eshleman and MLK, and throwing out non-rent-paying tenants.
C: You expect the Daily Cal to endorse someone who thinks 'extending time' would require some sort of crazy time machine. Whose sole experience with the ASUC Senate is drinking fake vodka during a meeting to get a stupid Column out of it.
S: Actually, you did that, Columnist Kevin.
C: Oh, right, sorry, Squelch Kevin This is all very confusing, seeing as we're wearing similar ties.
S: Columnist Kevin, I agree with your calls for responsible reform. By melding your calls for responsible reform with my talent as a publicity whore, we'll be unstoppable!
C: Kiss me you fool!

(Sloppy Kiss)
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The new Planet has pledged bias.

Rogers’ piece lays out what I call the “Greater Eunuch” theory of journalism: that the public is better served if newsies check their cojones at the door. Reporters should of course do their level best to keep their own ideas from influencing what they put in news stories. But papers should be written by humans, not robots. It’s easier to leave your own biases out of news if you know what they are. And strongly held opinions add flavor to pieces that are not just straight news reports.....

I was a political activist and even managed campaigns before I became a journalist. I ran a business after I was a journalist. Meanwhile, I raised three kids who went to the Berkeley schools. I know a lot about why the public schools are constantly running out of money because of my years in the PTO — a lot more than the kind of reporter whose main news source is the superintendent’s office.

Experience has convinced me that the public is best informed by people who from time to time cross over the line between participant and observer, not by journalists whose views have always been from the sidelines and never from the field.

Hey, this strikes kinda close to home!

It's very easy to say 'opinion papers are fun! Look at how well British tabloids do, and they have tons of opinion.' I don't think it's that simple. The British tabs have significant pressures to be entirely factually correct: a notoriously harsh libel law, incredible competition, and so on. This tends to keep them from being ideological circle-jerks of self-congratulatory 'journalists' writing obvious articles that agree with the biases of their readers. (Student Action sucks! Here's why! -ed.) It's not encouraging that Ms. O'Malley cites some notoriously circle-jerkesque op-ed writers as her guiding lights. It's like Conservatives citing Ann Coulter.

Not to mention that a brand new paper has a stronger need to establish factual reliability then to be an entertaining attack magazine. Email This Post!

I may yet vote for Mr. Frankenstein for President. (I'm weighing my respect for Daniel vs. my disrespect for Student Action.) But even I'm raising several eyebrows over how biased this article comparing him to his opponent is. What is it with the hardon the Daily Cal has for Mr. Frankenstein? And why are they taking so many potshots at Mr. Primm? His part of the article has three 'Althoughs.' An 'Although' in a news article means 'I am about to point out some hypocrisy or broken promise.' Mr. Frankenstein has 0 'Althoughs'

Although Cuaresma-Primm occupies a strong presence on campus, his voice in the senate is less pronounced.

Before joining Cal-SERVE this February, he almost always voted with the senate majority and abstained from symbolic bills, such as on affirmative action.

Unlike some other Cal-SERVE senators, he has written few bills.

'Inexperienced outsider doesn't like to vote, do Senate business.' His Greek support is dismissed as 'only writing one bill' to support Greeks. Leaving aside whether or not pork barrel politics are what benefits the Greek community, the ASUC has had substantially less money this year. Greek events are uniformly expensive. I would expect less to be written for them. In the event, most of the Greek bills were written by Senators Patel and Costa, both of whom are in bigger houses with more ties to Greek governing bodies then Primm's Chi Phi.

Although he has not personally talked to university administrators, he said he wants to set up a campus television station, reviving a campaign idea used by one of last year's presidential candidates.

Cuaresma-Primm said he had no plans to deal with the increase in student fees or campus safety.

Properly so, as those issues belong primarily to External.

Contrast this with the friendly treatment afforded Mr. Frankenstein, which is structured almost like a rebuttal to Mr. Primm. First the history, then his more-then-Primm vote for Greeks, then his more-then-Primm voting record:

He was a strong advocate for the Greek philanthropy fund, which sets aside $13,000 for fraternities and sororities to hold philanthropic events.

Not to say that I'm very impressed with Mr. Primm's record of service either, or that I wouldn't write in similar way in, say, an opinion piece. But not in a news article.Email This Post!

Student Action received 2 censures for flyering over student groups. (5 means party disqualification). SA is appealing.Email This Post!

I'll post more on this libel later.Email This Post!

Kevin D's Squelch! Platform:

1. Replace sixth floor of Eshleman with Kidstown, USA... only with more booze.
2. Revolutionize Senate by making seating alphabetical.
3. Replace immature Senators with older, more mature versions of themselves.
4. Continue Exec VP tradition of abandoning web-based projects.
5. Blow up Eshleman Hall metaphorically, by cutting student fees
6. Trapdoors underneath Senate Seats.
7. Get a small blurb at the end of a larger article in the Daily Cal for my Executive VP run.
8. Stop the stupid columnists from writing 700 words about themselves.

VOTE SQUELCH! Senate seats 98-103Email This Post!

Progcal has returned from hiatus.Email This Post!

The article on me and the competition. My goal is 600-800 votes.

Kevin Deenihan, Daily Cal columnist and blogger, is running on a platform of promises he promises to break.

He said he wants to kick the Daily Cal out of Eshleman Hall and replace it with the Squelch! party's Kid's Town U.S.A. supplied with beer.

"I'm the only one making crazy promises," Deenihan said. "Mine are stone cold crazy."

Mr. Lee sure comes off as a tool in this article.
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Presidential Candidate Frankenstein giving his Mommy a Kissy.Email This Post!

Lots of Berkeley related stuff in the news today. I'll sum up for those of us who don't subscribe to Berkeley's free 'Cal in the News' thing.

Firsts at Berkeley. All related to the upcoming Birthday.

A bit about Lobby Day. Another from Canada that says Cal is no longer activist.

The Regents are getting sued.Email This Post!

Student Action has sued the Elections Council over interpretation of flyer cost. As strange as this may seem to non-ASUC types, those 'DONE' flyers that were so widely posted over the past two weeks did not count as Election Material last year. Considering how much SA spends on them, counting them as campaign material really hits against their finance limit.

This interpretation seems to have taken them by surprise, but they were never on firm legal ground. Here's their argument:

The issue is that potentially inaccurate and illegal instructions are still on the website with regards to party fliers. It's factually incorrect because in NO previous year have general party fliers (including DONE!) counted against all candidates.

Counting fliers in the way spelled out is inviolation of Title IV, 18.1.5 of the by-laws, which states the following: "Accordingly, material that only explicitly advocates a non-campaign function of a party or does not advocate any function of a party, shall not be included in the definition of campaign material."

The spending limit in the by-laws and the Constitution is on campaign materials, and therefore, counting party fliers that don't explicitly advocate for an election outcome or include a candidate or position as part of campaign materials is in clear contradiction to 18.1.5.

Please also note that a DONE! flier only explicitly advocates an accomplishment, and something with only a party name on it (like the Calserve fliers) does not explicitly advocate any function at all.

To consider trumpeting accomplishments two weeks before an election a 'non-campaign function' is looking for a loophole at best. It requires a very blind interpretation of the flyer's intent and context. So, not looking good for Student Action.Email This Post!