The Tearful Tirade

Only in Hollywood or Vegas do honeymoons last shorter of than that between the Gold Administration and the 61st Session.

A couple of crazy kids, in love with the University and with high hopes for each other, dreamt big, their eyes fixes into an unclear future, a future free of limits.

That is, except for Checks and Balances.

The analogy can only go so far, however, because their story ends with a tongue lashing from the Executive.

Best. Marriage. Ever.



Are Senators to be expected to stand idly by while being ridiculed for exercising their constitutional powers and fulfilling the duties to which they swore themselves?

No tears or choked up voice will ever convince us to turn back on what is most important- our Honor.

We Do What We Are Charged To Do...

Well...I think that this past meeting was a great meeting. We said goodbye to a great 60th Session (even though we didn't override the veto for the open records) and said hello to a great 61st Session. Many people may feel that Senate did not do their job correctly this evening, however, I believe that the Senate conducted itself in a respectful, dignified and parliamentary way that reflects good upon the Senate. We did what the Constitution of SGA allows us to do. We scrutizines, questioned, and discussed, and made decisions to better the students. The idea that trust was betrayed is a ridiculous arguement and I stand behind every decision that I made and will support every other Senator in theirs. I think that this is a great start to the year, as we have shown that we are going to ask questions and not be pushed around. At the confirmations last Spring for the 60th Session, we did not ask questions or debate against individuals. We can look at the past executive council and see that if we would have, and not confirmed some individuals, then we could have possiblity stopped problems before they happened. I think the senate decision shows that we are not going to wait to be retroactive, but be proactive in the decisions and the confirmations that we make!

Keep up the good work! I know this is going to be a great year!

McLovin' v. Election Commission- Update

A Northside Senate write in candidate came into the office asking if all his votes were counted. He contended that his nick-name "McLovin'" should be counted in his vote count. There is a good chance that if these votes are counted he would have the 11 votes to make it to the run-off.

I only hope and pray that if he writes a case against the Election Commission it be titled McLovin V Election Commission.

Update- No, I did not make this up. You can ask Tyler, Landon, and Chris (Gilchrist guy). This happened, no joke.

Election Commissioner Bathman Removed

At 9:00 am this morning Jack Bathman was removed from his position as Election Commissioner.

I will update this with more info later.

SBP candidates are human...

I am tired of hearing about how great the candidates are. I know each to have many quality traits. I however know each to be mortal as some of you may not believe. I would like to point out where each lacks. With the exception of platform, it is a given that all SBP candidates are required to have no substantial platform and overall just repeat a few buzzwords over and over. We will go alphabetical by last name.

Nick Adams- Keeps talking about communication and how hes been a great communication chair of Exec. This is crap, Senate approached Exec during SSFAB voting to get the Comm team to go out and get student opinion. The Exec Communication team and Conner said no. If any member of SGA wants to get information from the Student Body the Comm team should be excited to help. I suspect that the questions were going to be about Greek life and Nick did not want himself associated with anything Anti-Greek.

Terry Dike- If I understand correctly Terry is a member of the track team. I know that almost all athletic teams practice un-Godly amounts each week. This hold especially true for our excellent track team that continues to improve and get better. No doubt this will be true next year when we are hosting the NCAA championships in track. How can we expect an SBP to be practicing each day and still devoted wholly to the position. Granted, I am not sure if he plans on running (unintended pun) next year but I do believe he has another year or eligibility.

Mark Gold- Besides being the candidate with the most glaring absence of a platform (I know I promised not to speak of this seeing as none have a coherent platform but his lack of a platform is exceptionally impressive) Mark has virtually no experience in the field of legislation or execution of legislation. Mark has no experience in any real governmental position. He was chair of Fish Aides. Fish Aides is simply an SBP machine that produces ideal candidates each year and more times than not they win. They serve no real purpose other than this, at least not that I can see.

Dustin McKnight- I will admit he is the candidate that I know least about. He worked with Rich Pontious in Student Services this last year. As much good as Dustin did I can guarantee that Rich did 99% of the work. The fact that I know little about him may be a good thing or a bad thing (I am sure he considers it a good thing).

Ryan Rieger- Ryan has not put his name on any significant or controversial legislation this session. Ryan does a fine job handling himself in Senate but this glaring hole really makes me wonder about him. I sincerely doubt he supported the way every single piece of legislation was handled and so I wish he would have spoken up a bit more. This lack of stances and lack of controversial debate makes me hesitate a bit.

Jody Sanmuen- Jody is awesome, I really like the girl. However she was elected to the position of Northside Senate and resigned to take over an RHA position. As noble as this is I do think that she should have remained in her position that the students elected her to.

I mean none of this as disrespect to any of the candidates. I simply mean to put this out there as these people are human and are not that great of candidates. As much as I like these people on a personal level I do not think any of them are very qualified for the position of SBP. I do not think anyone on campus this year is qualified either (except maybe Balla Jim Reed). Whenever you get elected to a leadership position you are never qualified at first, however in the position you begin to shine and take control of the responsibilities. In conclusion, I think they all suck equally and a bunch. Whoever you vote for will not accomplish anything and it will continue the cycle of slouch SBPs (Conner don't sell yourself short, you are a tremendous slouch :-).

Candidates or staff, feel free to respond I could care less. Nobody reads this anyways.

Few updates...

Sorry for not posting recently. I have been working on something really big and you all will probably find out about it not next Senate meeting but the next. It has little to do with SGA but some of you may get a kick out of it, I know at least one Senator will be very happy about it.

For non-senators, nothing new or exciting has happened in Senate the last two meetings. Just everybody desperately trying to get Exec council positions for next year by sucking up to the SBP candidates that they think could possibly win (suckups you know exactly who you are).

JCourt and EC stuff- I won my case declaring that Jake Bathman's actions were against the Election Regulations. Funny that the one person who is supposed to know the Election Regulations has screwed up several times. The Regulations are really not that hard to understand, it probably requires a fifth grade reading level at best.

Moving on, Jake is once again refusing to release information that belongs to the Student Body. I was approached by a concerned campaign worker about a potential JCourt case and I was asked to help him look into something. I then asked Jake to let me see the midterm campaign finance reports (information that I have been allowed to see each of the last two elections) and Jake refused. This is not the first time he has refused to release the Student Body's property. If you remember the first JCourt case I filed it was for the release of information that he was illegally holding back as well. The court granted my mandamus and Jake was ordered to release the information.

I really do not know why he continues to act like this but it is getting ridiculous, his actions are childish at best. I did not like all the decisions of the last two Election Commissioners but at least I had respect for them. They always had sound reasoning behind their decisions and were always backed up by the rules. All too often the current Election Commissioner will do something stupid and then say the reason for it was "because I said so."

Jess, Alden, Austin, and some other guy all filed cases to get back on the ballot. Alden and Austin won their cases. Jess did not win although he probably had the strongest case simply because he did not present it properly. You must always go into JCourt prepared and know exactly what the Court wants to hear. He didn't and paid the price for it. It is a shame because although I do not agree with him that much he is a catalytic character in the Senate.

Edit- I suck at spelling. Thanks Michele

Legislation for Tonight

No news yet. I will update this and post during the first part of the meeting if I can find a computer.