Public Figures Behaving Badly

[emosnail]

A Right to Shadiness?   Yesterday in the ASUCD Internal Affairs Commission, a member of the public tried to videotape the proceedings. Several various ASUCD officers got extremely upset, with Paul Harms even threatening to call the police and/or sue the individual. The commission's chairman ended up adjourning the meeting without addressing any

Comments

[cedyeus]

You posit an interesting theory as to the fundamental nature of mankind.
The best part about it is that IAC et al managed to generate a controvery where none should have existed. Like CSPAN, the internal working of government make for a rather boring spectator sport. They did exactly what the man with the camera wanted them to do, for now he and his supporters can simply say "Why does thou protest too much?", thus instantly conjuring up images of shadiness and phantom political intrigue.
Good thing the rest of the general student population doesn't care about what happens on the 3rd floor, or this whole thing might actually gain some traction and lead to something unforeseen.

[emosnail]

Hahaha indeed. They could have easily just voted it down. Though personally I'd say they should be able to even actually ::gasp:: express the reasons they think it should be voted down, upon which I'm sure they all agree, and then vote it down ... but I guess they do believe Cameron Menezes prophecy that people would judge them for not wanting to require the pledge of allegiance to be said?

[jtleathers]

Wow. Now I'm just tempted to show up at every Senate and Commission meeting with my video camera. Better yet, AGTV should turn into ASUCD C-SPAN.

[emosnail]

Hahaha oh I forgot about the AGTV angle.. which is that AGTV has for a long time thought about maybe covering some ASUCD stuff, but after several years and tens of thousands of dollars of funding, still can't manage to get the kind of coverage Ostrowski's associate got.

[oeaschwab]

I think if they did film the IAC meeting, the commissioners should ask for royalties and here is why

[sostrowski]

Mike had no ASUCD legal right to adjourn the meeting like that. And I doubt you can get royalties on theoretical donations. But if someone wants to write up a contract I'm game.

[cedyeus]

I speak not as an ASUCD Justice, but as a private tudent who is extremely well-versed in both parliamentry procedure and the ASUCD bylaws. Commission Chairs have a extremely wide degree of latitude as to how to run their meeting. Until and unless a majority of the body votes to overturn his ruling, the chair is pretty much free to do as he pleases. That is not always the most politically sound strategy to run a committee, but technically well within their right to do so.
So despite your ardent desire for Rivera to be wrong, he wasn't.

[cedyeus]

Such is the price one must consider before treading out into the public limelight. As college is suppose to be a learning experience, so too should anyone in the IAC consider this but a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny taste of the horrifically bitter partisanship that exists in our political environment. Better that they learn now being called "Unamerican" for no better reason than to disagree with someone hurts, than to naively enter the realm of real politics without the proper psychological and emotional armor to fight in the legislative gladiatorial arena.