Bwog spent the first hour of George Krebs' presidency with the man of the hour and the rest of his camp in Krebs' Watt Studio.

Krebs bounded down the Watt stairs and greeted us. "Thank you!" he yelled. He ran back up the stairs and slammed the door to his studio open. "WOOOOO!" he yelled. His party and their drunken cohorts yelled affirmatively, and responded with similar "WOOOOs."

A random drunken cohort held up a pinata shaped like a donkey. Krebs grabbed a broom out of absolutely nowhere and pounded the pinata. More "WOOOOs." Six Coors Lights fell out of the pinata and they were snatched up within seconds.

"I was pleasantly surprised," Krebs said of his win. He described the soundtrack to his mood right now as the musical stylings of DJ Tanner. He then pointed to his left and introduced us to DJ Tanner. DJ Tanner was not surprised at the Krebs win.

"I'm going to put on a record!" Krebs yelled. "WOOOO!" He puts on a record and starts to dance. Other join.

Just over 45 minutes ago, voting ended for the 2008 CCSC Elections. Ballots were cast, the gauntlet was thrown. While the CC listserv won't receive an email announcing the winners til much later tonight, candidates are expected to receive a phone call around 9 PM with the results.

Bwog is going to embed itself with Experience Columbia and Connect Columbia, livebwogging all tension, awkwardness, and bravado of this very special night. Krebs and company will be gathered in Krebs' room in Watt, while Team Damooei is going to be holding a summit at the West End. Check back on this post for updates from both camps and around 9 PM for an announcement with the results. But no matter what happens tonight, I think we can all agree that the real winner is democracy.

The front page of today's Spectator features an article about George Krebs' plan to file a rules violation against Alidad Damooei in response to a comment made by outgoing CCSC President Michelle Diamond's that Damooei and his party were "a stronger ticket."

The Spec article (and Damooei, when Bwog spoke with him) claims that a rules violations deal was struck between Damooei and Krebs. The deal, which was facilitated by Elections Board Chair Andrew Ness, specified that Krebs would not file a rules violation against Diamond's statements (Diamond is not allowed to endorse any candidate), if Damooei would not file a rules violation against Krebs' party for posting a campaign flyer on the glass window of an EC computer lab, which is a violation.

According to Damooei, Ness explained to Krebs and him that if either of them were to file rules violations this late in the game, hours-long judicial hearings would prevent them from going outside and getting people to vote. Krebs and Damooei agreed that avoiding this was appealing, and the three shook hands.

In a very special [ed. note: and very sic] edition of Bwog Personals, we invite you to meet your eligible and handsome CCSC Presidential candidates. All interested parties should email bwog@columbia.edu and we'll arrange and pay for a date with one of these fine gentleman.

Well dressed and well rehearsed, CCSC E-board candidates strut their stuff for the final time this evening in Wien Lounge, as they debated for the second time, trying to wrangle every last vote before the moratorium on campaigning Tuesday morning. Alidad and George, both looking dapper with slightly loosened ties, recited their stumps as a meager crowd shuffled around trays of chicken wings and curly fries, clearly more interested in gastronomy than governance. A few interesting facts emerged, such as Donna Desilus's revelation that "Alidad is a critical thinker."

Mostly press and current CCSC members, the very brief question and answer period was devoted mostly to answering pragmatic problems posed by current VP Campus Life Lindsey Lazopoulos and Student Services Molly Conley.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Bwog Personals for Alidad and George as well as final endorsements counts.

-JJV

Bwog received startling news from Tipster Casey Johnston who photographed the distressing sign (see right) outside of HamDel. And just three weeks into Off-Campus Flex's brief flirtation with existence!

Bwog called HamDel, desperate for answers. "Um... I dunno," answered a HamDel employee when questioned about the disappearance (death?) of Off-Campus Flex. CC '09 President George Krebs responded first with disbelief ("I went last night and it was working fine. I haven't heard anything from the administration about the system going down") and later shock: "weird....."

However, to HamDel enthusiasts, the news of the deli's secession from the restaurants-united-in-Flex comes as no surprise. Explains one such HamDel loyalist: "In the last week they've been getting progressively (and visibly) more frustrated with the card reading device. They collectively roll their eyes and sigh deeply and sadly whenever I present them with my ID."

Responses from HamDel manager (who, according to previously mentioned HamDel employee will "probably be in tomorrow") and Michael Novielli, Director of Manhattanville Student Outreach forthcoming.

With only a week more of campaigning left, both CCSC E-Board candidates are starting to gather up endorsements. While Spec, Christian groups and other heavyweights have yet to back a candidate, Camp Krebs got a big boost with a CU College Dems endorsement. Alidad countered with BSO's first ever endorsement and is currently leading Krebs in Greek endorsements 2-1 (Alidad is a member of Beta).

The Arab and Muslim student groups are following former MSA President Adil Ahmed in supporting George while Korean student groups are doing the same for Jen Choi and Alidad. More endorsement gossip to come later in the week--so fret you not. Full endorsement list to date are after the jump.

-JJV

As we reported earlier, CCSC presidential candidate George Krebs challenged his opponent, Alidad Damooei, to a basketball showdown which was to be played this Friday in Dodge. As we also reported earlier, Krebs threatened that Damooei and Connect Columbia "be there or be square."

Neither there nor, arguably, square, Damooei has re-buffed Krebs' basketball throwdown with a counter-challenge: "If we are going to play a game, let it be for a good cause and a fair fight. Let us join together in the spirit of community service. On Saturday night between 6 and 9PM, the Blue Key Society is doing a spelling bee for charity. You have to raise $30 to sign up a team of 20. You bring a team and I bring a team. This way, we can promote this service project and have our competition serve a good cause."

Oh, shit. Counter-challenge: issued! What say you, Krebs? Or rather, what spell you? Damooei's full email after the jump.

DJ Tanner, the Pike-based hip-hop group comprised of Peter Capraro SEAS '09 and Michael Kosdan SEAS '09, has just released "The Experience," in which DJ T thoroughly reps Krebs and company, citing, among other things, their fresh tattoos and an ability to rock gold hearts like ice cubes. While you can hear the tune here, Bwog recommends watching the video, where you can see a series of goofy photographs of Capraro and the Experience crew, none of which is more amusing than the black and white mugshot of VP Policy candidate Adil Ahmed, pictured above. Bwog wonders, should the Kitchen Cabinet be expecting a phone call from Alidad?

Full message and video after the jump.

Today we saw our share of CCSC election controversy, but the E-board race has not been stirred too much.

Now that policy can be discussed, however, more substance has emerged from the Krebs and Damooei camps. Damooei seems to have taken the lead in the multimedia department, already having released five videos on Youtube. Expect a Krebs video later in the week. There is a quick breakdown of some of the party priorities after the jump.

Experience Columbia will experience a 10% decline in the number of available posters because of the now infamous letter of Adil Ahmed. The Elections Board ruled in their favor. Full letter after the jump.

The Official Bwog Poster Count:

Alidad Damooei: 1000
George Krebs: 900

-JJV

Tonight in the SGO, candidates had to file for positions on the Council. The only big surprise seems to be that Colin Drummond, once thought to be vying for the Exec Board, has decided to challenge Mark Johnson for 2009 Council. In what seems to be one of the least contested campaign seasons in recent memory: 2010 and 2011 councils are entirely uncontested races.

In other election news, the Elections Board should be coming out with an Adil Ahmed decision in the coming hours, Bwog will keep you abreast of the situation.

Full candidate listings after the jump.

-JJV

Because of this email, it looks like Alidad Damooei has filed a complaint against the Krebs camp for illegal campaigning before Spring Break. No comments from anyone right now, we'll see soon what the Judicial Board does. If Krebs and Ahmed are found guilty, this first violation would most likely result in 10% reduction in posters. Since an updated rulesbook is not yet public, however, Bwog still presumes innocence.

-JJV

A tipster forwarded Bwog editors an email sent at 2:48 AM last night by George Krebs' prospective VP of Policy Adil Ahmed. Apparently, Ahmed had sent an email to various student leaders describing his plan for CCSC: "When a bold vision is combined with concrete plans, I know that we can put aside any doubts and believe in and work together towards a more united, connected, opportunity-filled, and comfortable Columbia." Titillating!

This isn't technically campaigning, because that would be breaking the rules of the CCSC elections' timeline, and Ahmed addresses this issue, explaining: "I am not stumping, and I truly mean what I say." Then again, if saying that "We all have common struggles, but it's beautiful when we fight through them together" isn't stumping, Bwog really isn't sure what is-- though we have heard the email circulated around a limited number of readers.

The email is posted in full after the jump.

Another certain gossipy website was the focus of last night's CCSC meeting. Satow Room bureau chief Martha Turewicz reports.

From the first few minutes of last night's CCSC meeting, there some early indications of the intensity to come. Proceedings started a few minutes past 8, and while the next hour was lost to constitutional review, VP of Campus Life Lindsey Lazopoulos (who is always good for a quote) noted, "This is going to get heated."

CCSC President Michelle Diamond, coming straight from a bridal shower, explained that she was going on 2 hours of sleep and had a thesis draft due the next day. If she became snappy, she warned: "It's not personal."

But around 9 PM the room suddenly filled with people eager to discuss the night's pressing topic: juicycampus.com.

Neda Navab and Diamond opened the discussion with unbiased terms, and asked that audience members' comments go off the record, an attempt to establish a calm forum swiftly undermined by John Davisson (former Spec Editor-in-Chief), who retorted that since this was a public forum, it couldn't be treated as a closed discussion. Diamond rather tersely responded matter-of-factly that you could keep things off the record. Eventually, some sort of nebulous compromise was reached on the matter.