Jan
27
How to vote in VFM – Interpolated Consensus,WTF?
Posted by: Neal Yonson | January 27, 2008 | 11 Comments
Voter Funded Media, the contest that accompanied the AMS elections for the second year this year, is an idea that’s meant to award media public funds by the will of the people, thus fostering better journalism, more informed voters, better elected leaders, and healthier democracies. The assumption is that media, as opposed to candidates or […]
Jan
26
Best of AMS Elections 2008
Posted by: Neal Yonson | January 26, 2008 | 20 Comments
Hi everyone still reading the Insiders. This is Serious Steve from the Devil’s Advocate, bringing you the Best of the 2008 AMS Elections, as nominated by the VFM candidates and decided by me. (And before you ask, yes, yes I did hack the Insiders website. Because I’m that good. Watch my post stay up here […]
Jan
25
Elections Results: photos and mockery.
Posted by: Neal Yonson | January 25, 2008 | 5 Comments
Last night, I took photos. This morning, I mock people. You know you like it. Aaron from UBC Devils, undoubtedly plotting. Austin from UBC Devils. I’m a firm believer in keeping one’s friends close and their enemies closer. Andrew Forshner, of whom I cannot take a photo without it looking like he’s singing. Stef Ratjen, […]
Jan
25
Results! (prefunctory)
Posted by: Neal Yonson | January 25, 2008 | 21 Comments
Here are the results. That is, the results before the 3 to 5 student court challenges that should be comin forward in the next week or so due to voting irregularities. Note the Bottom-of-the-barrel voter turnout. This is worse than this year’s SUS elections, if memory serves. To quote the Devil’s advocate: “Brendan Piovesan. DISENDORSED.” […]
Jan
23
Ineptitude? Carelessness? Cheating? Elections train is off the rails
Posted by: Neal Yonson | January 23, 2008 | 21 Comments
In a surprising announcement today, Elections Administrator Brendan Piovesan confirmed that the race for VP Administration, between incumbent Sarah Naiman, “Scary” Mike “the Rabbi” Kushnir, and Yian Messoloras, has been cancelled. The exact reasons are yet unclear, but they involve campaign rules transgressions on the part of one candidate. Apparently, Messoloras broke the rules when […]
Jan
23
Issue of the Day: The Musqueam Issue
Posted by: Neal Yonson | January 23, 2008 | 25 Comments
Now for something a little more controversial. Somebody who I work fairly close with recently questioned my leftist politics. That’s fair – I feel quite comfortable in the bureaucracy of the AMS, and I feel quite comfortable trying to balance the 42 000 different opinions of AMS members, and I even support many CASA policies. […]
Jan
23
Issue of the Day: Sustainability
Posted by: Neal Yonson | January 23, 2008 | 3 Comments
I like to think of myself as an environmentalist, and its definitely how I got my start in student politics – co-chairing the Student Environment Centre for two years. Those two years were spent feeling frustrated and overwhelmed – partly because of the generally poor organizational structure of the SEC (and other Resource Groups), and […]
Jan
23
Letter to the Editor, re: VFM
Posted by: Neal Yonson | January 23, 2008 | 14 Comments
This was sent to us as an anonymous letter to the editor, and we would like to run it as continued discourse on the VFM: How to Drink the VFM’s Milkshakename withheld upon request The VFM contest would have very easy to hack this year. The main problem with VFM is that it is extremely […]
Jan
22
Disconnected sundry thoughts
Posted by: Neal Yonson | January 22, 2008 | 13 Comments
VFM Hasn’t FailedLast year we (the VFMs, collectively) created a discourse around issues in the election, and there was a meaningful campaign for the first time in a long while. This year has been less successful, but the media are still influencing how candidates comport themselves and, heck, we even convinced a joke candidate to […]
Jan
21
Maayan's Endorsements
Posted by: Neal Yonson | January 21, 2008 | 19 Comments
Well, I figure there’s no point waiting any longer. If you care, here’s who I’ll be voting for, and briefly why. I haven’t included a scientific dissection of each candidate’s pros and cons, though I’m happy to discuss this in more detail in the comments. President: Erin Rennie – I talked about this in an […]