Categories
Politics & government

[753] Of scandal in MSA election

Whoa! Scandal!

The results of this year’s fierce Michigan Student Assembly election almost weren’t released last night.

The Michigan Progressive Party, clearly the loser by the vote count, accused Students 4 Michigan of violating the election code.

People affiliated with S4M attempted to overload and shut down MPP’s website Monday night as the polls opened. That night, a computer program downloaded a single file from MPP’s website more than 200,000 times in an attempt to crash the website at a crucial time.

S4M admitted involvement.

This is the most interesting campus election yet!

BTW, Students 4 Michigan won. MPP was promising but too bad they didn’t manage it.

Categories
Activism Politics & government

[752] Of 2006 Michigan Student Assembly election

It’s one of those weeks again when aspiring politicians at Michigan try to get themselves elected into the Michigan Student Assembly. And that means solicitation.

Yes. To put it bluntly, spam and tons of them.

While I was a student there, I’d put a “no solicitation” sign at my door. Worked pretty well. Unfortunately, there’s nothing as effective as that in the virtual world. As of right now, I’ve already gotten seven emails, most of them are about “vote me, vote me”. Even Environmetally Justice Group, which I was part of, mailed me, asking me to vote for Michigan Progressive Party:

The Environmental Justice Group fully supports and urges everyone to vote for all candidates in the Michigan Progressive Party in the UM Student Government elections. MPP is the only party which clearly supports the Coke ban, fair trade coffee in the dorms, LEED certification for new campus buildings, and money for student group to do lobbying. Voting begins tonight at midnight. Vote MPP.

Who’s MPP? I’ve no idea. And I bet a majority at Michigan don’t give a damn about it. Whatever the outcome, chances are that the Assembly is going to be dominated by left of center candidates. In 2005, I suspect almost all representatives positioned themselves as left of center. That’s probably why the Coke ban motion was passed with ease a couple of months ago.

Anyway, I can’t vote anymore since I’ve graduated. For those who can, er, vote for MPP. Or not. But whatever you do, don’t vote for Student Conservative Party (psst, they’re Bush lovers) and Defend Affirmative Action Party (these guys are just annoying).

Heh. Let’s see if the next representatives would waste $20,000 by inviting Ludacris back to campus all over again. But if you don’t want to see that again, vote Students 4 Michigan Party out of office.

And opss… that leaves only MPP behind, doesn’t it?

Just vote for MPP. Even the Daily endorses MPP. BTW, the Daily still suck.

The result is due on Thursday, eastern standard time. Michigan Daily’s poll currently looks like this, if you are interested. Vote here. For candidates’ statement, go to Michigan Daily.

p/s – LOL! I can still vote! Well, I’m doing EJ a favor and voting for MPP. But my guess is that, my vote would probably be discounted later.

pp/s – as I thought so. An email from ITD:

Anyone with a uniqname and password can submit ballots. Ballots are
not counted unless they are submitted by a voter registered in the
appropriate academic program for a particular election.

If your uniqname is “***”, you are not currently registered,
according to our data, and any ballots you submit will not be counted.
Let us know if you believe your registration status is not accurate.

Oh well.

Categories
Environment Sports

[751] Of equinoctial Earth Day

Today is equinoctial Earth Day , otherwise, the International Earth Day. It thought it was supposed to be tomorrow on March 21 but I wasn’t observant enough to realize earlier that today is equinox. Either way, I’m used to celebrating Earth Day on April 22 – that’s 33 days away. Moreover, everyday is an Earth Day. =)

But for now, yeah, happy International Earth Day!

p/s – Nicol David fails to earn any kind of medal for Malaysia at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Too bad. We totally need more Malaysian supporters at Australia. On TV, there was almost nobody to give her a hug when she lost. =(

But tomorrow, Malaysian men hockey team will be up against South Africa! Malaysia currently tops its group with two games played, one win and a draw; nine goals for versus one against. Go Malaysia!

pp/s – w00t! Malaysia 2 – 1 South Africa!

ppp/s – testing backlink

Categories
Personal

[750] Of in memory, of Faz

One of Ann Arbor’s best known personalities, owner of Hello Faz Pizza, is gone.

He told people to come when they had money, but especially to come when they didn’t. He was a local icon, a businessman who said his job was not to make money but to feed people.

Faz Husain, owner of Ann Arbor’s Hello Faz Pizza, died of pulmonary fibrosis Thursday. He was 54.

Husain had been diagnosed with idiopathic lung disease several months ago. He is survived by a wife and three children.

Although he no will longer stand behind the counter of his shop at the corner of West Liberty Street and Stadium Boulevard, friends and family said the cheerful pizza man will remain in their memories.

He will remain in mine too. Though I may not know him too well, I recognize his face and enjoyed his pizzas while I was in Ann Arbor.

May God bless his soul.

p/s – testing backlinks.

pp/s – a person mailed me, asking me to let people know that a memorial service for Faz will take place at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School on Thursday the 23rd at 7pm. There’s also a website dedicated to Faz.

Categories
Science & technology

[749] Of TMNet sucks ass so much

It’s been hard and frustrating to update this blog for the past several days. I’ve contacted my host and they said that TMNet’s data center has issues with bandwidth limit. Worse thing is, TMNet expects to only resolve the problem by the end of March. That’s like half a freaking month!

The site feed is also in bad shape, thanks to TMNet.

Bah. I want compensation.