Monday, November 27, 2006



TR & the Alligator remain in contact. My hope is that every student will know of the block.

Wow! Finally got my friggin dsl back! Sorry about the quality of that last post. Now to address some of the hecklers. The funniest of all comments was "don't post late at night, watch the basketball game," that one had me in tears. Second of all, the Cingular Bill has come & gone but I don't think it's necessarily a moot issue and I will explain why in a moment. Additionally, I wanted to keep the [Cingular] window open a little longer so that we could read the much awaited response by Sen. J. Clayton Brett (well worth the wait). Thirdly, on the Alligator. I'm not surprised they decided not to print the story on Sam Green. Considering that the Alligator in recent years has already earned itself the scorn of the African American community quite nicely, it would have been radikal, even trend-setting had they taken the initiative to relay news worthy of print to the masses, the Student Body.


I continue to have faith in Stephanie Garry.


While gone I've also received a flurry of emails regarding the "Minus Debate." While I really want to tackle this issue, there simply isn't the time in my already busy schedule to start delving into academic matters. The best email I received on this matter came from a fmr. co-worker of mine (Kyle Counce) and I've asked him to write a few words on the matter.



From Sen. Jordan Loh:
STUDENT SENATE BILL 2006-XXXX

WE, THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, HEREBY RESOLVE:


TITLE: Resolution Regarding Cingular Wireless Service at the University of Florida.

AUTHOR: Senator Jordan Loh

SPONSORS: Josh Richard

WHEREAS, The 51,700 students at the University of Florida represent a great number of present and potential customers of Cingular Wireless; and

WHEREAS, Cingular’s service on the University of Florida campus has been unacceptable; and

WHEREAS, Students have been informed, when attempting to make a phone call, that the ‘network is unavailable’ and that the ‘system is busy’ despite having full reception; and

WHEREAS, Many students rely on their cellular phones as their only means of telephone communication; and

WHEREAS, Recently, there has been some improvement in Cingular’s service on the University of Florida campus; and

WHEREAS, Service has not yet reached an acceptable level; then

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the students of the University of Florida commend Cingular Wireless for recent efforts to improve network coverage at the University of Florida; and

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the students of the University of Florida admonish Cingular Wireless to continue its efforts to improve coverage, until the time that Cingular’s service at the University of Florida campus becomes acceptable.

***Thank You Sen. Loh
p.s. I agree w/ you, this bill should have passed.
Hopefully w/e Party Sen. Loh is with, will use this as a platform initiative come Spring! STUDENTS DO CARE ABOUT THIS.


Brett's Letter & The Cingular Bill

Cited from the first sentence (second part) of his letter, Brett states: "if one were to base their entire opinion about the bill, Senator Baker, and myself on the content of that single article, then yes, we look like huge elitist jackasses."

Naturally it's expected of someone such as myself to at least dig deeper, to find out what was really said. Any member of SG that read this article would also dig deeper (e.g. call people, request the senate minutes, or speak to the senators on a 1:1 basis). However, in representing the GDI's (and these GDI's may or not may not be the ones you konw as elected officials), I wanted to relay the general reactions of the student body, of average students at reading the article written over the Cingular debate. While Brett's letter is amazing, it recognizes my prime concerns immediately.

The CINGULAR BILL aside; anything an elected official says in chambers may be printed in the student paper. I guarantee you that for a lot of people, what they read in the Alligator forms or seriously helps form their opinions of SG. These opinions of SG are usually acted out through disregard of SG, disapproval of elected officials, and voter apathy. Everything after the fact, from explanations to wonderfully and eloquently-written verses mean little-next-to-nothing, what matters most is what the Gator Nation reads and what they read were two senators that happened to be great and wonderful civic leaders (though they had no way of knowing this) come off as "elitist jackasses" to quote JCB & that's that. Damage's been done, all I'm saying is watch what you say. Been there, done that, not worth it.



Sam Green

The Pro Tem is in a very interesting position. While I would never have applied to FBK, I was never in a position like Green. How's it going to be (yes like the song), when Green sits at senate this upcoming Tuesday night, facing his legislative-constituents as well as representing the general student body that elected him and having to carry the shame of getting nastily blocked from an organization (one that prides itself on campus leadership) that he truly wanted to join. The block was anything but cut & dry from what I've read, he had strong chances of being admitted and succumbed to determined parties wanting him left out.

I've heard arguments that make the case that FBK only admits leaders that have completed their terms and that the Pro Tem should wait his turn. I have heard much more genuine arguments conceeding that6 Green was blocked over his presidential ambitions and certain choices he's made (or been thought to make). Currently Green is Senate's second-in-command and if the Alligator did it's work, Green could be in the spotlight. A year from today, he will probably not be in a high-level leadership role, he may not even be in senate. Personally...rejecting Green when he's a little guy again seems a lot easier and even better for PR than blocking him now. My point is, if Green is being told to wait a year and he does so without incident, he might as well grab himself a shovel and help dig his own grave.


All Questions for the Argento Interview, Due 11/30/06


My Positon on FBK

I will keep this brief but feel I should set this for the record. I am not an enemy of Florida Blue Key as an organization. I feel it should exist and flourish, no differently than Savant, IDEAL, the Lion's Club, Rotary, Kiwanis, etc. I do have issue on certain fiscal matters and on a personal level am not quite fond of their alleged role in SG or on what basis they recruit & admit. This having been said, I think the organization has improved by leaps and bounds since the days of Charlie Grapski and all but redefined itself from the Pork Chop Gang days of its inception.

There are many wonderful people in the organization, people I followed and served like Jamal Sowell, friends I will talk to for the rest of my life, and politicos that till this day have left me speechless to have been able to work with them and had the chance to have seen them shine.

FBK-the organization did not block Green. The people that blocked him are on record and did so for whatever their reasons might have been. I have not been accused by anoyone of implying FBK as an organization wanted Green out, but I fear some of you might secretly suspect this is the case. I for one do not think FBK as an organization encompassing countless alumni wanted Green out and I don't think anyone else should subscribe to this sort of thinking.

Till next time. :)

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think FBK votes by Secret Ballot. Correct me if I'm wrong...and get all those vote records to post here!

Christian Duque said...

Believe it or not, I have been offered interesting tidbits of FBK-lore since the Boyles/Hernandez election. Usually I pass on the stuff offered my way, primarily because I want to keep this blog as fair as possible to both sides.

It's rough being an Independent and trying to run a blog fair to all parties involved. Most people fail to realize just how decent of a guy I am, others call me vulgar. I've turned down several pages of questionable information (as well as a very 'unusual' recording that could put several people in a very uncomfortable light). My best advice: keep it one:on:one and make sure you're not being recorded. LOL

If anyone wants to post, do so at your own risk. At least for this blog's sake, I'm going to respect certain boundaries and if that means passing on sensationalist leaks then that's what it will meann. Even if I had access to the FBK voting records, posting them to draw bad PR to those against Green based merely on their vote would be as bad as the allegations that they based their rejecting Green solely on beliefs he may or may not have had or has.

I won't stoop to that level. I don't have to.

Anonymous said...

Christian there is no record of who voted for who in FBK because all ballots are secret. We are given a list of names numbered numerically in alphabetical ordeer and a scantron sheet. We fill in A for yes and B for no.

Christian Duque said...

That makes sense.

Anonymous said...

Then how come different people have different numbers of votes? can you omit?

Anonymous said...

Yes, I believe you can omit on votes.

Anonymous said...

Of course, you can turn in a blank ballot if you want. It defeats the purpose of sitting there for 6 hours, but sometimes if you don't know someone and no one has approached you about the person you might be inclined to skip that number and leave it blank.

Christian Duque said...

A few questions.

1). Who counts the votes
2). Are absentee ballots permitted & if so, whom is eligible to vote this way?
3). Where was the formal vote held?

TY

Anonymous said...

The vote was held in the law school room 180 A. To be eligible to vote you must be an active member meaning you paid your dues and have no more than two unexcused absences. We vote in voting booths that look like the ones SG uses. We turn in our scantrons to Dr. Frank Maturo our faculty advisor. He and the Vice President take the scantrons to Academic Services to be scored and then comes back to the meeting to read the results. We then repeat this process for second round. The whole thing takes about six hours. There are absolutely no absentee votes allowed.

Anonymous said...

Up to 14 houses committed! O'Connell picked up DZ and DG for me today. You can't stop the Dead Man's Bandwagon!

Next week, the Ghost of George Smathers will be treating members of prominent cultural groups to lunch at the Swamp. I hope to get at least the endorsement of two of the four major groups.

Anonymous said...

Too bad you died in 1971.

Anonymous said...

Where would one be able to obtain a record of the votes?

Anonymous said...

Come on Christian, I was being serious/sarcastic with my comments. Saturday night after thanksgiving - like many other UF students, you could be home scrapping the turkey legs no one like, watch the basketball game on TV, get wasted in a bar, or in Tallahassee enjoy your time after a long day with fellow students like Argento. Instead, here you are, in Target, sipping coke and paying money to update a blog. I might be wrong, but You were a senior when I came to UF, and now I'm about to get out, and its my 5th damn year. And here you are criticizing kids that got out of High School 2 years ago for whatever game they are playing. Its not like Jesse Palmer comes down and tell Tebow what to do. No one should be. And as a regular student, I'm more concerned about Tebow throwing an INT vs. some cupcake than Sam Green getting tapped. And even then I don't want Jesse Palmer to come down here. You're not Coach Duque. So how about taking things little easy, moving on, may be study for LSAT, can't be worse than appearing in The Bachelor.
SG makes as much difference in my life as Zook's blowout vs. San Jose State. They'd have the Rec Center regardless of SG controlling some $11M.

Christian Duque said...

I'm glad you like my blog. LOL
Your kids will prolly write here 2.

Anonymous said...

hey christian, when you get a chance start emailing me those questions (it doesn't have to be all of them), that way i will have some time to answer them when i am not studying for finals next week.

- JA

Anonymous said...

Oh Christian, you have my email right?

Christian Duque said...

I keep losing the AIM boxes (Lol).
Send me your aol email at Chris@ChristianDuque.com

JA = My Mentor :)

Anonymous said...

I just sealed DPhiE, Lawton brought ATO in line.

My vote margin will be impressive.

Anonymous said...

Good Spessard. It's about time you got your own house (ATO) on board.