Public Figures Behaving Badly

[aggienaut]

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 business, rather than submit to videorecording.

   The reason given was that all people in the room had not given consent to be vidoed. However, the people who "didn't give consent" had absolutely no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in a public meeting in which public minutes are taken, and therefore have no right to, well, expect privacy. But another issue, which is more important to me, is that as a public meeting of a public governing board the public have an absolute right to government transparency which includes recording the proceedings.

   The video of yesterday's IAC incident is already on youtube. The outspoken lad is Paul "I Love the Status Quo" Harms, sitting next to him is Andrew "ACLU" Peake. You would think Mr ACLU would be more sensitive to people's rights for government transparency.


   I've always seen ASUCD as a sort of crucible, which shows people's true character. Its easy to criticize the American government when you can't be faulted for anything similar yourself. We all know college students love to criticize the government, but what happens when you give them a government of their own? Now don't get me wrong, there's good people in ASUCD, but I think ASUCD also shows us how many people who walk among us would make absolutely terrible leaders.
   People say they believe in people's rights versus the government, and they'll certainly maintain that they feel that way not because they aren't in government but because they are rightious like that. But you give these same people a government-like position and they do not hesitate to squash the rights of others to government transparency (and many other topics).
   And that is why I find it so interesting to follow ASUCD politics, and why I was so interested when the leaders of ASUC Berkeley were trying to make off with student money. Its self-rightious people showing us how badly your average person can behave if given a little bit of power.

   I do not believe that power corrupts, I believe that power enables those who are already corrupt to show themselves.


Thomas Lloyd's Legacy
   If one ever makes an edit to any page pertaining to Thomas Lloyd, one will find his all-seeing eye will immediately notice and jump into an edit-war with you. This is because Lloyd believes he has left an amazing legacy behind in ASUCD which vile detracters wish to taint. Also, he apparently believes that potential employers will look him up on Daviswiki, and presumably follow all the links to everything he ever touched, and be impressed (or not, which is his argument for eliminating anything negative about things pertainign to him). Finally, this is really creepy: it took him only an hour and a half to discover someone had created the ASUCD Legislative Clerk page despite the fact that he graduated over a year ago, and THREE MINUTES last time someone made an edit to his own page. To the right is an artist's impression of Thomas Lloyd.
   Anyway, creation of the Legislative Clerk position is one of many things that Thomas Lloyd did and still champions as another shining example of him benefitting society. Others alleged that the position is useless and Lloyd was just using it to boost his accomplishments (ie, that it was just pork). Lloyd of course immediately jumped in defending the position as highly useful, and urged detractors to take it up with the current clerk and/or their supervisor the Vice President if they thought it wasn't fulfilling its potential. ...but then the current Clerk weighed in saying he himself thought the position was just pork! Zing!!

Comments

[cedyeus.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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

That night IAC was planning on discussing the Pledge of Allegiance bill for the third time. The gentlemen videotaping knew this, as he works for the Leadership Institute which funds various campus convservative groups ala "The Davis Enforcer" ala Ostrowski.

The video footage is used to show potential donors of the Leadership Institute how liberal a campus is and thus how they need money to fight the "culture war". Thus if a group is making money off of IAC's images and discussion I say they get some of the loot.

I believe the person has a right to videotape the meeting, but I can also understand the context. The last time IAC discussed the Pledge Bill they got threatened with lifetime unemployment. I think Rivera made the right decision to adjourn in the face of a situation that could have escalated.
I also think its pretty petty for Ostrowski to call on "daddy Steve" (the filmers name was steve) to come help him out after being fired.

I am all for open government and the abilty to record it. But this is not a black and white issue and commissioners should not fear having their images smeared accross conservative websites as being anti-American.

[sostrowski.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.

[oeaschwab.livejournal.com]

But Ostrowski is still one bitter *&#$%*#$%#*%&!! &$@&$@! *@&$@*$! of a goat's butt.

[cedyeus.livejournal.com]

As a sitting member of the ASUCD Supreme Court, I cannot comment as to the goat buttish-ness of any member of the student body.

[sostrowski.livejournal.com]

I think that comment hurts our existing business relationship in ASUCD.

[cedyeus.livejournal.com]

we have an existing business relationship?

[sostrowski.livejournal.com]

Reply to Schwab.

Bitter Goat Butts

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Lol goat-butt. What about Steve the Elder?

Durability of Transparency

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Nevertheless, I don't believe one's right to record governmental meetings can be superceded because one is presumed to intend to show such recordings to third parties in order to gain support in opposing the actions of the governmental authorities (man that didn't sound like it had as many clauses in my head). In fact, so that one may show recordings to other parties with the intention of gaining their assistant in opposing the recorded actions is probably exactly what the right was invented for.