IT’S HERE!  IT’S HERE!  IT’S HERE!  IT TOOK A FEW WEEKS, BUT IT’S HERE!

Now, there are a few people out there who shall remain nameless, let’s call them Rose Bowl Before I D., no wait that’s too easy, what about R. Bowl Before I Die, yes, anyway, there are some people out there who think we here at the California Golden Blogs are obsessed with jerseys.  Really, it’s just me.  Yeah, sure, Yellow Fever has that Cal JJ jersey that his girlfriend mistakenly bought for him.  But truly, of the four of us, I am the one obsessed with the jerseys.  Which is why I was so excited when my brand new Marshawn Lynch Buffalo Bills jersey came in the mail.  Yay!   

A jersey so amazing it attracts cats, as evidenced by Lord Alexander Tigerlilly The Third’s irresistable love for it.  It’s a true love story in 2 acts.  2 acts, shown above.

Giordano with the pick six!  Sweet!

Anyway, now I gotta go take it to a place that does alterations to get that red taken out.  Who invented the Bills colors?  Who were these people???? Buffaloans?

Either way, GO BEARS!

For no reason more apparent than boredom, I have decided to give Bob Gaelson a chance.  Who is Bob Gaelson, you ask?  I can only assume, the fake name of some of the Ewokian Tree People currently angering Brent Musburger so greatly.  His real name is probably something like Rainbow Von Harmony.  In the old country, it was Von Harmonystein. 

His collected works seen in comment form here or at his blog here, certainly are quite harmonious.  Or Apocalypse Now-esque.  One of the two.  The horror.  The horror.

I’ve delved into Mr. Gaelson’s writings and, having lived to tell the tale, wanted to take a bit of a deeper look at it.  You’ll notice that his headline is:

 “Cal Stadium Project Shows How Cities Must SUE Schools, Under CBPC 17200-17208, Unfair Business Practices Law.”

His argument seems to be basically that Cal (and other similar schools) are violating CBPC 17200-17208.  So, what is CBPC 17200-17208?  During my 2l summer, I worked for a firm that did some work with the UCL (that above-noted series of laws), so, while I might be a bit rusty, perhaps I can shed some light on this.

Firstly, if you want to see the text of the UCL, here it is. 

The first few sections are just definitions, but then the part with teeth hits in California Business and Professions Code §17203:

"Any person who engages, has engaged, or proposes to engage in unfair competition may be enjoined in any court of competent jurisdiction.”

So, Mr. Gaelson (who may or may not be the son of a St. Mary’s fan) wants the City of Berkeley to sue Cal to get an injunction against Cal, because they have engaged in unfair competition.  What are these unfair competitive acts?  I’ll spare you combing through the delusion rantings and highlight what I think might be what Mr. Gaelson is trying to say are the acts:

"THE CITY OF BERKELEY must prevail over all illegal interests here gathered, or suffer litigation, for abetting nuisance by UC, State, and rabble, and their now-insufferable traffic and deepening tendency, to neglect cleaning up their own media mess, which deepens enmity, to tout illegal construction, which straw breaks a camel, which we all must ride!

TAKE NOTICE that THE CITY OF BERKELEY and STATE OF CALIFORNIA neglect notice of their collusion and fraud at cost-passing that is conspiracy to interagency fraud, with their rampaging, seditious, illegally-funded, hedge-fund-info center that is CAL at Berkeley, a nuisance for immediate injunctive restriction, OR FOR REMOVAL AND FOR ABOLITION, to be replaced with modern online education, without assets tainted, to incite and induce further obstruction and sedition, now to be un-funded.

The City and its well-heeled lawyers and their illegal partners in collusion to suppress notice of INFLATIONARY COST-PASSING must desist at PUBLIC NUISANCE and at despicable proximate hazards, caused by sedition and obstruction and evasion of review for conspiracy.”

Note the usage of “illegal construction” and “illegal partners in collusion to suppress notice of inflationary cost-passing.”  I think he’s trying to say that the recent increases in tuition are unfair competition in regards to other colleges.  People want to go to Cal so bad they can charge whatever fees they want and students will pay them.  And Cal apparently has a monopoly on education, so they are a trust.  Further, that the stadium plan is just one in a line of many Cal construction projects that are ruining Berkeley (the camel we must all ride). 

But who can bring this action?  Mr.  Gaelson could bring it as a private attorney general, but a recently passed proposition (Proposition 64), which Mr. Gaelson refers to as illegal, would restrict his abilities to bring it.  In the post-Prop 64 UCL world, the wording for standing is as follows:

"Any person may pursue representative claims or relief on behalf of others only if the claimant meets the standing requirements of Section 17204 and complies with Section 328 of the Code of Civil Procedure, but these limitations do not apply to claims brought under in this state."

Without getting into the specifics of CCP 328, it relates to class actions.  If Mr. Gaelson wanted to bring the action on behalf of Berkeley citizens as class action, he would now have to prove actual damages.  Before you didn’t have to prove actual injury to the class.  You could just claim actual injury.  So, what could this injury in fact be?  Having to pay more money for college?  The burning of ones eyes after seeing Soda Hall?  I don’t know.  I’m sure Mr. Gaelson has a litany of perceived injuries and injustices practiced upon the citizens of Berkeley by Cal.

But let’s assume for the time being that the court wouldn’t allow a private attorney general to bring this action, because the Court won’t certify the class.  The other option is the City Attorney brings it.  If you look at CBPC Section 17204, it shows the requirements for a City Attorney.  It’s kind of confusing, but if I parse it correctly, you need to have 750,000 people in the city for the City Attorney to bring a UCL action.  Or get DA approval.  This interpretation seems to be backed up by the fact that 17204.5 allows for San Jose’s City Attorney to bring a UCL action even though they don’t have 750,000 in that city.

According to Berkeley’s Wikipedia article, they have about 100K in the city, well below the necessary population requirement.  So, they would need to get DA approval.  And I get the feeling that the DA might not want to waste their limited resources bringing an UCL action against the world’s greatest university, which, in a nice turn of events, is in their back yard.  Hopefully, the Alameda County DA’s would not be as potentially insane as Berkeley’s City Attorney.  This is not to say that the Berkeley City Attorney is chomping at the bit to do this.  But it is Berkeley, who knows?

So, it looks to me like Mr. Gaelson would have some problems getting an injunction effectively destroying in favor of modern online education.  The new Proposition 64 requirements would limit his ability to personally bring suit on behalf of the citizens of, because he would have to prove injury in fact.  And it seems doubtful the Alameda DA would sign off on a UCL action against.

Now, perhaps I have interpreted this all incorrectly.  Feel free to pipe up with your own analysis.  I would be shocked if we WEREN’T to hear from Rainbow Von Harmony himself.

Yellow Fever: I think the best part of Colorado State Rams football is their wacky alums.  You’ve got Joey Porter, a man who was once shot in the buttcheek, completely flipped out on Jerramy Stevens before the Steelers played the Seahawks in the Super Bowl, and then sucker punched Bengals left tackle Levi Jones in a Vegas casino in the offseason.  And he somehow managed to get 19 million in guarantees from the Dolphins even after the Steelers figured he was making too much money - at half that.  Then you’ve got Bradlee Van Pelt, a guy who was a career backup on the Broncos for a few years, who ended up being far more famous for attending a Colorado/CSU game and in Boulder and flipping off the home Colorado crowd, prompting Sonny Lubick to rethink his policy of allowing former players on the sidelines.  Fort Collins is like bizarro world.

Ragnarok: Perhaps, but they do make good beer there.  I’m a big fan of the New Belgium Brewing Company (they of Fat Tire ale), and was considering making the trip solely for that reason. Certainly not because of the Colorado State football team, which is now on an eight-game losing streak.

http://www.newbelgium.com/beers_ft.php

YellowFever: Oh man, they make Fat Tire there?  Ok, I’ve just increased my appreciation for Fort Collins.  Maybe Van Pelt was drunk then.

Ragnarok: I can certainly see that.  Remember, at those high mountain altitudes, it takes much less alcohol to get drunk.  Besides, how many times have you flipped off an entire crowd while drunk, only to have no one care because you weren’t famous?

HydroTech: I wish I could say something insightful about Colorado State but I know nothing about them.  The only thing I know is that they almost beat Colorado last week but their linebacker dropped a game-winning interception in the 4th quarter with only 16 seconds remaining in the game.  And then Colorado almost missed their game-tying field goal.  And then their CSU’s quarterback threw the game-ending interception in overtime. 

Looking at the over time portion of the game I see them using some zone run blocking, counter runs with double OL pulls, and frequent use two and three TE formations.  Oh, it looks they’re a slight run-heavy team.  Last game against Colorado they ran the ball 50 times or so and only passed 27 times.  The stats show they ran 56 times but some of those are QB sacks or scrambles off of pass plays.  Looks like this team will be a test for our run defense.  Their quarterback looks average at best.  Looks like they also like twin WR sets and trips WR sets too when they pass to s p r e a d things out.  That shouldn’t be anything to worry about since Cal has been seeing a lot more of the spread in the past few years.

YellowFever: Usually when I’m drunk, I don’t flip entire crowds off.  I wade in and start giving people hugs.  But that’s why they call me "Hugs" and not "Bradlee Van Pelt" or "Michael Vick".  Since he did do that too, after all, before the whole dogfighting imbroglio.

The game won’t be on national television so I won’t be able to see it, but I can’t say that I care all that much.  I expect our Bears to win by at least 21 (which would cover the current spread of 14), though I wonder if anyone will be silly enough to kick to DeSean.  For the sake of his Heisman campaign, I hope they do, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t get a chance to return a punt for the rest of the season.

HydroTech: I think Colorado St. is going to kick to Desean.  Smart?  I don’t think so.  Gotta give them props for taking the risk though. 

Ragnarok: Well, they gotta take some risks if they wanna pull the upset.  When you’re a big underdog, a conservative game plan is going to get you beat every time.  I’m sure they’ll take some risks, throw it deep a few times, and hope they’re still in it in the fourth quarter.  If the game is still close late, the fans will smell the upset and that’s when things will really get tough for the Bears.

Also, the kicking game is different in Colorado.  Remember last Saturday, when all the kicks were short and everyone started with great field position?  Well, we’ll be seeing a lot of that this year, but probably not this weekend, when the thin mountain air will help kickers reach the end zone.  If CSU’s punter can maintain a healthy hangtime, this might be the one weekend when it doesn’t hurt to kick to DeSean.

HydroTech: Here’s the article which says that CSU will punt to THA1. 

http://cbs.sportsline.com/columns/weblogs/entry/10331943

Ragnarok, you say that the thin air will be beneficial to the punter, but I propose the opposite.  While the thin air will allow for the ball to go up in the air easier, and thus staying in the air longer, and thus giving the punt coverage more time to converge on Desean, he could easily out punt his coverage too.  The punter can only really take advantage of the thin air if he punts the ball high, but not so high as to out-punt his coverage. 

If the punter is smart, he should just pop the pigskin up nice and high but not too far.  Go for a solid 40 yard fair catch punt rather than a 50 yarder with a possibility of return.

TwistNHook: Boy did I offer NOTHING to this conversation.  How expected!

HydroTech: TwistNHook, other than your comedic remarks, obsession with jerseys, perpetual flaunting of your weird scarf-around-the-neck style, and crappy football pictures, we really don’t expect much from you.  But it’s okay.  You’re our blog-father.  So no matter how little you bring to the table, we still love you.  In the heterosexual manly kind of way. 

Ragnarok: Really, I think the biggest issue involved with this game is where Bear fans are going to watch it.  Back in the pre-Tedford days, a non-televised away game was nice — if you didn’t see the beat-down, did it really happen?  Now we’ve come to expect every game to be televised, and the Colorado State game only barely qualifies.  Am I the only one who actually gets CSTV?  Has anyone ever actually heard of this network before?

YellowFever: I can only assume they’re related to the website, but I didn’t know they had an actual channel until I visited my parents last week and saw it on their TV listings.  I’ll probably be spending this Saturday either watching the LSU/VT game or UFC 75 anyway.  I’ve always liked Rampage Jackson.

TwistNHook: I just checked last night and I don’t get it.  I’m guessing they aren’t going to open up the stadium a la Wazzu last year.  Sounds like McCovey’s Cove yet again.