The Return of Susan?...

The Radikal has received posts from me at FIU, Target Copy Centers, and now...yes... Peter Gruskin's borrowed laptop! Stranely enough, UFSG never loses its edge, it remains interesting, constantly re-inventing itself. The current situation is awkward, the Greeks seemed for the most part in disarray, some are hoping for a Lindsay Cosimi surprise run, others are skeptical of the Chris Carmody'esque bid of John Boyles (apparently w/ substantial Greek support), and yet a few Greeks are wondering whether or not they should screw fmr. IFC President Jared Hernandez for a second straight year or perhaps see what the Sig Ep law student has up his sleeve (I mean Bryson was pretty damn cool, why not 'ole Jared).

Now I'm always sitting on here talking about the "yellow and blue" and true enough the old guard remains in the news. Diane Kassim is out on the prowl with Old Guard party boss Andre Samuels; John Boyles and Old Guard Access colleague Mackenzie Moritz are officially the tag team of 2006; Christian Duque (you know...ME) is working with ACCESS; and of course a few sell outs from the old guard party remain with Gator, probably dusting off their old stickers, laughing over at the swamp with laura gonzalez and joe goldberg.

Oddly though, in an almost Voice'esque way, Progress or 'independent elements' are pushing for Susan Vaz Henriques to run for treasurer this Spring. I myself wrote a letter to the Alligator urging Goldberg, Cosimi, & Co. to consider the fmr. Progress candidate for what seemed a vacant treasurer's position just a couple of weeks ago. Still, I find it very interesting that Mackenzie is running John's campaign, meanwhile administering Susan's campaign blog. My guess is, Mackenzie will split Progress, by helping Boyles at the presidential level ( i.e. how Andre Samuels directly ran Jamal Sowell's campaign), meanwhile Susan Henriques might start out as a free agent and then out of no where emerge with the Engage bid and run alongside Boyles. With Susan on an Engage ticket, she could assume the position or inherit the load of Frances Harrell and James Argento insofar as overseeing her own campaign as well as lending attention to the senate races. There can be no question that all of us that ran in 2004 were inspired by the Access campaign, its successes will probably live with us our whole lives in one way or another, so when we embark on campaigns of our own, I believe a great deal if not the bulk of the direction can be attributed to or compared to, Access 2004.

I became Andre Samuels with Voice in 2005, meaning I ran a party my way and got things done as I saw them needed. It's not safe to say Mackenzie ran the day-to-day operations of Progress b/c for one he was a candidate and second of all b/c I happen to have worked side by side with his campaign team while I worked with my own for Voice. In a way I'm not at all surprised Mackenzie is not running for an exec seat. Running a party means a great deal of power. I don't mean appearing as a party president, I mean being the top dog.

This election will be very interesting.

Crossovers Or Betrayals?

What happened to Access? Where did the ideals of the Spring 2004 go? By the early Spring 2005 John Boyles abandoned ACCESS, next Diane Kassim would abandon Impact, next Becca Guerra would abandon Impact/Progress, and now (if rumors are true) Mackenzie Moritz has abandoned his own party to work for his 'friend' John Boyles. At the risk of losing a somewhat touching Gatorpedia entry, I must say that I'm quite disappointed to say the least in the former Progress presidential candidate, I mean let's not forget where John Boyles was last semester! Let's also not forget that since back in the early days when John Boyles was a favorite of Mike Provenzale that our once Access loyal colleague had begun to let his true colors shine from the very start. I can shake hands with Joe Goldberg and I have no problem being professional-even-cordial with members of Florida Blue Key, but at least I know whom I'm dealing with. I can't honestly say that I ever truly knew who John Boyles was or what he was about. I can say that on a personal level I wish him the best, but politically I don't believe he's good for the student body.

Also, at the risk of distancing myself and pushing myself even farther into the fringes, I don't believe traitors deserve to be part of the kind of student government we are trying to build. If you betrayed the students once, I don't believe Access should enable you to be able to do it a second time. You can drink and rub elbows with whoever you want, but the moment you sell your ass for a quarter or for a senate seat, then you're a worthless scumbag that I would prefer not to have in my company. I for one want a clean SG and I want to work with people that are serious about change, not serious about their own personal advancement. Now these are some fiery statements I'm making and they are not directed at Mackenzie (the people I'm talking about know exactly who they are) . However, I think Mackenzie (if really going over to Boyles) should weigh in the consequences of his decisions.

If Mackenzie crosses over, will he be professional enough to work from scratch with Boyles? Or, will Mackenzie pull a Ryan Belanger (2004 Innovate candidate for senate). Mr. Belanger had unsuccessfully run with the Student Alliance Party against Ignite backed Kyle Jones in 2003. In 2004 when Ignite fractured between Innovate and Access, Belanger sealed a seat with the larger Greek faction and tried to say that the Student Alliance followed him over to Innovate which was a lie. Thanks to SAP leaders like Frances Harrell, Eric Gordon, and Brian Offenther, the truth about SAP's true support came to light. While the Mackenzie switch is all rumors up until now and while the extent of my knowledge on the Progress Party is limited at best, I believe Progress like Voice were parties that pushed the Independent card to the limit and I seriously doubt that the party would support a character like John Boyles.

That's all for now. As usual I don't expect any serious comments or to be carried in any of the Greek-fueled blogs, but TheRadikal continues to be an important medium for reading an ALTERNATIVE viewpoint. I'm out.

Christian Duque

ACCESS: Safe Again!

Last semester when Impact was marrying Progress and the steady trickle of sellouts crossing the strike lines seemed catastrophic, I had counseled my esteemed colleague and ACCIONUF partner Sen. Ansell Fernandez to register the Access Party' name so as to keep it safe. I knew last Spring that John Boyles would be back, I knew last Fall that "Becca" Guerra would be back, and sure enough I had counseled Sen. Fernandez to re-register the Access name for the Spring '05 elections and use it for what it was always intended, as the war cry of the Independent community. Sure enough, as we turned in the paper work that secured the ACCESS name to the side of the independent, the downtrodden and forgotten...sure enough we ran into a certain former ally, one of the 'converts' too late to steal the name that had brought her and her presidential hopeful, that had brought me and countless other independents to office in the Spring of 2004 to office. How low have these sellouts gone that not only have they sold their souls to the FBK devils but now they'd sink so low as to sell perhaps the last good thing they could have assoicated themselves with, the party of Francis Harrell, of James Argento, of Eric Gordon, of Christian Duque, of Peter Gruskin, of Eric Waters, of Dennis Ngin, of Thomas Jardon, of Andrew Hoffman, of so many fighters tried and true. I don't think so! I was not going to permit the sellouts to further defile their roots or the party that put all of us on the map.

ACCESS is safe, Ansell Fernandez is the party president, and with some hardwork we will elect a better man to the SG presidency than one whom sleeps with the enemy.