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(11/03/11 4:00am)
Admit it: No matter how much of a music elitist you may be,
you’ve found yourself dancing un-ironically to a Lady Gaga song at
least once in your life, but probably even more. But, regardless of
how you feel about her pop tunes, you will find it pretty difficult
to hate on her latest venture. Gaga teamed up with two unlikely
partners — the MacArthur Foundation and Harvard University — to
create the Born This Way Foundation, a nonprofit organization that
aims to instill the youth with a healthy self-confidence, as well
as combat bullying and similar issues. According to a statement
from the singer herself, “We hope to establish a standard of
bravery and kindness, as well as a community worldwide that
protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and
abandonment.”
(11/03/11 4:00am)
Often, when a state finds itself in a budget crisis, some of the
first things hit hard by the cuts are state parks. Like art
programs in public schools, parks are seen by many as things that
are really nice but, ultimately, completely unnecessary. As soon as
money starts to run out, all the benefits of public parks are swept
under the rug, and the parks themselves are left to rot. Thankfully
for the residents of New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie has a plan
that will prevent the same fate from befalling our state parks.
Christie wants to privatize certain aspects of New Jersey’s state
parks to save the state money and save the parks from abandonment
and disrepair.
(11/02/11 4:00am)
As if it weren’t already difficult enough to maintain some
semblance of privacy on the Internet, Google is now indexing
Facebook comments left on non-Facebook sites. For example, if you
sign into a news website using your Facebook account and leave a
particularly scathing message for the author in the comments
section, people will now be able to search for and find that
comment using Google. Luckily, comments left on Facebook proper are
not yet being indexed — although, perhaps there will come a day on
which that happens. Still, though, this is an issue every Facebook
user should be aware of.
(11/02/11 4:00am)
The Supreme Court ruled in 2010, in the case of Citizens United
v. Federal Election Commission, that it would be unconstitutional
for the government to regulate the money corporations donate to
political campaigns. According to the Supreme Court, spending money
to influence elections is a form of free speech, and since the
corporations are considered people, their free speech must be
protected. Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, is challenging this notion with a
proposed constitutional amendment, which, if passed, would
essentially reverse the Citizens United ruling. As of now,
corporations are free to spend money however they so desire in
elections. Udall’s amendment would make three major changes. First,
it would give Congress the ability to regulate the money raised and
spent by federal campaign contributors and allow individual states
to regulate the money raised and spent in state-level elections.
Second, it would regulate independent expenditures. Third, the
amendment would grant Congress the power to pass future campaign
finance reform laws, as long as those laws themselves are not ruled
unconstitutional. Udall’s amendment would effectively return the
power of democracy back to the people, wrestling it away from the
hands of these corporations.
(11/01/11 4:00am)
In the war on undocumented immigrants, the Department of
Homeland Security is, perhaps surprisingly, not an omnipotent
authority. In fact, according to documents which have recently come
to light thanks to the efforts of a coalition in opposition to the
Secure Communities program — which allows federal authorities to
examine the fingerprints of people arrested by local police
officers in order to detect undocumented immigrants — local police
officers are not required to comply with detainers issued by the
DHS. A detainer is a request issued by immigration authorities to
police departments, asking those departments to detain suspected or
confirmed undocumented immigrants. This is particularly good news
for police departments in Cook County, Ill., Santa Clara, Calif.,
and San Francisco — three areas that have all stopped complying
this year with detainers issued to them. It is also good news for
police departments all over America because it means that the DHS
does not have power over them.
(11/01/11 4:00am)
Ever since Lyndon B. Johnson signed it into law in 1966, the
Freedom of Information Act has been giving United States citizens
avenues through which to access important government information
that may otherwise have been kept from the public. But, as with all
good laws, someone has come along to tamper with it. The U.S.
Department of Justice has proposed a change to FOIA which would
allow the department to deny the existence of requested records if
the records are considered part of an ongoing investigation and,
therefore, too sensitive to release. If officially enacted, this
rule would allow the Department of Justice to outright lie to the
American people. Rather than just informing requestors that the
documents they wish to obtain cannot be released, officials would
be allowed to brush them off with the deceptive answer that those
documents do not exist.
(10/31/11 4:00am)
To borrow and partially corrupt the words of Jane Austen, it is
a truth universally acknowledged that smoking is bad for you. For
years, doctors, public service announcements and your parents
warned you against picking up the habit. Now, even your boss may be
on your case about your cigarette habit. Some companies are looking
to make employees who live unhealthy lifestyles — like smokers and
the obese — pay higher for health care. Among these companies is
Wal-Mart, which plans to specifically raise the premiums of smokers
in 2012, and Veridian Credit Union, which is going after both
tobacco users and obese workers. The reasoning behind moves like
these is all about the costs. Greg Rossiter, a spokesman for
Wal-Mart, points to the fact that employees who use tobacco utilize
about 25 percent more health services than employees who don’t use
tobacco. Companies like Wal-Mart and Veridian believe that facts
like this make it necessary to charge unhealthy employees more for
health care.
(10/31/11 4:00am)
From day one of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, Obama
has made it publicly clear that he does not and will not accept
donations from lobbyists. On the surface, it looks like he has kept
that promise. Obama makes his records of top campaign financiers
available to the public, and none of the names appearing in those
records belong to registered lobbyists. The problem, though, is
that plenty of these people are involved in lobbying without
officially bearing the title of lobbyist. Fifteen of Obama’s top
“bundlers” — which ABC News defines as “volunteer fundraisers who
gather contributions from their deep-pocket friends” — work for law
firms or other offices which traffic in lobbying. For example,
Sally Susman, who is the chair of Pfizer’s political action
committee, has bundled more than $500,000 for Obama. Likewise,
David Cohen, the head of Comcast’s government affairs and public
affairs departments, has also contributed $500,000 of his and other
people’s money to Obama’s campaign. If Obama is going to make a
promise that lobbyists will not line his pockets, then he has to
live up to that promise. These people may not be official
lobbyists, but they are essentially de facto ones.
(10/28/11 4:00am)
Bobby Montoya is a transgender child who, like most little
girls, wanted to join the Girl Scouts. When Montoya’s mother took
her to see a troop leader about signing up, though, the leader
denied her, citing the fact that Montoya had “boy parts” and was
therefore not a girl. Luckily, though, the Girl Scouts of Colorado
have since decided that denying Montoya was a mistake, and the
organization has extended membership to her. We give the Girl
Scouts a laurel for ultimately making the right choice in this
situation. They may have originally forced some pretty oppressive
gender stereotypes on the 7-year-old, but they learned their
lesson. In the end, what could have been yet another upsetting
instance of gender discrimination turned into something rather
uplifting.
(10/27/11 4:00am)
Voters in Mississippi will be faced with amendment 26 come Nov.
8. If passed, the amendment would grant legal personhood to a
fertilized human egg. This would effectively make abortion in any
case, including rape and incest, into murder. Some forms of birth
control, like the Plan B pill, would also become murder under the
amendment. This sort of pro-life reform has a wider scope than
anything else that Americans have seen to date, and that is exactly
the point. According to Brad Prewitt, the executive director of the
Yes on 26 campaign – whose goals you can probably surmise –
“Personhood is bigger than just shutting abortion clinics; it’s an
opportunity for people to say that we’re made in the image of
God.”
(10/27/11 4:00am)
The relationship between the New Brunswick Police Department and
the residents of the city is tense these days, in the wake of last
month’s highly contested shooting of Barry Deloatch. In order to
repair that strained relationship, University alumnus and New
Brunswick community organizer Charlie Kratovil has suggested an
amendment to the city’s ordinances, which would place a residency
requirement on all city police officers. If the amendment is
approved, a person would be required to live in New Brunswick for
three years before being allowed to apply to become a police
officer. Proponents of the amendment argue that a residency
requirement would bring the officers closer to the communities they
serve, thus fostering in them a respect for the city in and of
itself. Likewise, residents would feel closer to officers whom they
know to be members of their very community, not just authority
figures.
(10/26/11 4:00am)
In elections, there are winners and losers. That’s just a fact
of democracy. Some of those losers, however, turn out to be sore
losers. Perhaps the sorest of all is former Rep. Steve Driehaus,
D-Ohio. After serving one term in Congress, Driehaus lost his bid
at re-election. Rather than accepting his fate, Driehaus decided to
take the matter to court. Driehaus is suing the Susan B. Anthony
List, a pro-life group that publicly identified him as a traitor to
the pro-life cause during the 2010 election on the grounds that he
voted in favor of President Barack Obama’s health care reform.
Driehaus claims the group is responsible for his “loss of
livelihood” and, surprisingly enough, the U.S. District Court has
actually allowed the lawsuit to proceed.
(10/26/11 4:00am)
It’s rather common for a politician to pen a memoir or two at
some point in his career. Less common, though, is the federal
government spending tens of thousands of dollars on those memoirs.
The U.S. Department of State spent more than $70,000 on copies of
President Barack Obama’s books, mostly on “Dreams from My Father.”
An analysis of the department’s financial records shows that this
is not something the State Department does for every president.
Obama’s most recent predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton,
have seen no such mass effort to purchase their works, although
each has released an extremely popular memoir since leaving the
presidency. State Department spokesman Noel Clay claims that there
is absolutely nothing wrong with this level of expenditure on the
grounds that the books purchased are being used to stock libraries
and facilitate talks between officials. Others, however, do not
agree with Clay’s assessment of the situation, including the group
Citizens Against Government Waste, who have identified these
expenses as nothing but wasteful. We’re inclined to agree with
CAGW.
(10/25/11 4:00am)
One of the most fascinating aspects of Barack Obama’s 2008
presidential campaign was the way his team utilized the Internet to
garner supporters, specifically through Facebook. It was truly the
first time that social media had such a massive impact on America.
Now, Obama’s 2012 campaign is set to advance the state of social
media in politics yet again with the introduction of the official
Obama 2012 Tumblr page. For those who don’t know, Tumblr is a
microblog that is especially popular among cat enthusiasts, Glee
fans and the elusive hipster — but with the addition of an Obama
blog, the website could find itself gaining levels of popularity
similar to Facebook or Twitter.
(10/25/11 4:00am)
Following 42 years of tyrannical rule, Moammar Gadhafi is dead.
While it’s a cause of joy for the Libyan people and their
supporters across the world, Gadhafi’s death is not without
controversy. His capture by rebel forces is documented in extremely
graphic cellphone videos, which show the former ruler bloodied and
beaten. The United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights and human rights groups have raised concerns over this
footage. As Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the OHCHR, explains
it, “More details are needed to ascertain whether he was killed in
some form of fighting or was executed after his capture.”
Appropriately enough, the OHCHR has seen it fit to launch an
investigation into Gadhafi’s death, to set the record straight
regarding the possible human rights violations that may or may not
have occurred. While it is an extremely touchy subject, such an
investigation is absolutely necessary in this case.
(10/24/11 4:00am)
Washington Post reporter Eli Saslow’s new book, “Ten Letters,”
is more interesting than you would probably expect a book about
letters presidents read to be. That is because of one small bit of
information contained within the book’s pages. According to
Saslow’s account, President Barack Obama admitted to sending
personal checks to troubled citizens whose letters moved him. To be
sure, the White House has yet to officially comment on this claim,
but Saslow seems rather certain of it as the truth — at least,
enough to include it in his book. If it is true that Obama
sometimes sends checks to some of the desperate people who write to
him, then we have a problem with our leader. We appreciate the
gesture, but such an action is unethical for the president of the
United States, who is supposed to treat the concerns of all
citizens equally.
(10/24/11 4:00am)
As students of a public university, we have all witnessed
firsthand and, in some senses, been victims of the seemingly
endless budget cuts with which schools across the United States
have been inflicted since the recession began in 2008. These cuts
always seem to hit where it hurts the students most — in the
faculty, educational resources, basic services, etc. Richard
Rubsamen, the president of Sierra Nevada College until Thursday,
found himself faced with the task of deciding where his school,
like so many others, would cut and, shockingly, he threw himself in
front of the blade. In order to prevent cuts from affecting the
students as much as possible, Rubsamen figured that the best course
of action would be to step down. In his own words to Inside Higher
Ed, Rubsamen explains that although, “the idea of leaving the
college is very difficult, it is the right thing to do. I need to
lead by example and practice what we teach.” Some lauded Rubsamen’s
decision to step down as an example of a truly “students first”
mindset. Julene Hunter, communications director at Sierra Nevada
stated that, “Looking at the current economy, colleges across the
nation … are making cuts that are affecting the students. We’re
doing the exact opposite … Everything we could do to protect the
students was done.”
(10/21/11 4:00am)
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Facebook was good for
nothing but procrastination. For most of the website’s existence,
that was precisely the case. Now, however, things are changing —
Facebook is becoming productive, thanks to the establishment of the
Social Jobs Partnership. A collaboration between the U.S.
Department of Labor and Facebook, the partnership will create a
Facebook page that presents users with a conglomeration of
job-search services all in one easy to access place. This is a
great idea, not only because it places a variety of job-search
tools in one place, but also because it raises the visibility of
these tools. Almost everyone uses Facebook these days, so everyone
can use these tools. We give the Department of Labor and Facebook
laurels for this partnership.
(10/20/11 4:00am)
As the 2012 elections creeps up on the American public,
President Barack Obama is in a strange position. Not only is he the
current president, but he is also a presidential candidate, hoping
to ensure four more years in office for himself. It is inevitable,
then, that there were will be some tension between Obama’s
presidential duties and his presidential campaign duties. Such a
contest arose earlier this week, when Obama set off on a three-day
bus trip that the White House claims is official business. As such,
the whole trip is funded by taxpayer money. But the problem is that
it looks more like campaigning than presidential business to a lot
of people, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has spoken out
against Obama’s decision to use tax money to fund his trip.
(10/20/11 4:00am)
While the New Brunswick campus may have a reputation as the
University’s main campus, the Newark and Camden campuses are just
as much a part of the University and its traditions as the College
Avenue, Busch, Livingston, Cook and Douglass campuses. According to
some suggestions made by the Gov. Chris Christie’s Task Force on
Higher Education, though, the University may one day lose the
Camden campus entirely. In a December 2010 report, the task force
suggested merging four South Jersey institutions of higher
education into one conglomerate school. If the proper authorities
decide to follow this suggestion, Rutgers-Camden, Rowan University,
the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford and Cooper Medical
School would all be fused together into one massive outlet of
education. This proposal was obviously voiced purely out of
pragmatism, as it does not take into account at all the individual
traditions of these schools and the experiences of the students at
them. But even on pragmatic grounds, the suggestion does not seem
like a great idea.
