indies of gator and o&b....UNITE!

"Gator submitted bills which would have gotten rid of our right to have a special meeting by petition of 20 senators, raised the number to open the floor to alternative nominations instead of R&A’s recommendations from 1/5 to 2/5, allowed Judiciary to kill bills in committee just by tabling it twice (no no vote required) where today all they can do is recommend poorly on the bill but it has to come out of committee, and created a new rule which would have allowed the Senate to expel anyone in the room by a 2/3 vote for being “deemed disruptive” and then send them to SJA and call the cops to arrest the person (regardless of whether they were a Senator or sunshine statutes or anything). Gator withdrew the expulsion one and the meeting was long with people speaking against the other bills and allocation requests etc. We got to vote on the special meeting rule change and with the help of a few Gator moderates got the 1/3 to stop the change to the rules. (Needless to say, the renegade Gator folks who voted with us were up until 3am getting calls from Gator Party Leader Fager (ATO) threatening them, their cultural orgs, their houses, and their chances at a tap for such rebellion).

Additionally The Orange & Blue Party proposed a bill that would have defunded any building or operation that required as a condition of entry that students submit to biometric scanning of any type. Basically it would have forced RecSports to continue allowing UF students an alternative way to enter the gyms other than the hand scanners or they would’ve lost the 40% of their budget SG pays for. Gator voted against this thing with about 10 of their people joining us (largely the same group who voted with us on the rule changes)." --- Sam Miorelli

2008 was huge for the GDI's and 2009 will surely mark the next step for the Independent movement at UF. The Minority Party under Sam Miorelli is going up against a giant, which can raise an army of hundreds of campaign staffers in a 24hr period, whose budget may at times seem endless, and whose connections stem back well over seven decades. In an atmosphere where multicultural organizations seem their weakest and thus most subserviently aligned to the Majority, the Orange & Blue Party seems poised to stand the test, against all the odds and all the hype and go into this fight swinging in each round as if it were the first - and not just for the week of the elections, but for the whole year!