Some of my readers seem to think I’m being a little harsh on Senator John Kerry. Perhaps it’s because I don’t spend much time criticizing Bush - I figure there’s plenty of others out there taking care of that for me. Meanwhile, let’s do a quick side-by-side comparison of Kerry and Bush’s respective Vietnam records.
“TONIGHT, Monday, February 23, 2004
7:00 PM
Fixing Elections
- Get Out The Vote Efforts
- Touchscreen Voting Machine Scandals
- Instant Runoff Voting
Arbor Brewing Company
Taproom
114 E. Washington, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Talks by
Alma Wheeler Smith, Former Michigan State Senator
and Craig Harvey, Michigan Focus on Reforming Elections
Sponsored by Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice”
In an update I posted on February 17 titled “Healthy, Secular, and Political,” I interpreted the results of a survey of college freshman that U-M participates in that seemed to show students at the University were more political, healthy, and engaged than ever.
Nationally, the picture isn’t so bright, but this editorial by the Los Angeles Times defies explanation. They see it as a good thing that more students than ever are concerned with money (could that be due to the slipping economy?), complain about high tuition bills (perhaps due to record-low funding of education coinciding with record-high funding for war), concluding that “The annual student survey also found growing political interest and conservatism among starting college students and declining drinking, partying and smoking, more encouraging news for parents.” Is it just me, or are we speaking a different language here? Here’s the editorial:
“Here’s some encouraging news for parents across the country. The latest American Freshman Survey has found that new college students are beginning to realize what life is all about: money.
A popular image of college students depicts fresh, idealistic faces and minds focused on justice and equality. But nearly three-quarters of the 267,449 students surveyed last fall on 413 campuses said a prime interest in their life was being “very well off financially.” That’s the largest number in 13 years. A record low 39% still don’t get it: They said, get this, developing “a meaningful philosophy of life” was of primary concern.
Don’t laugh. They’re freshmen, and freshmen are, well, fresh to the realities of life outside a cloistered home bedroom full of mess, music and pounds of unidentifiable crumbs from a food grouping known as chips.
These idealistic youngsters should come around in another semester or two. All it takes is patient tutoring by responsible parents showing them a few more tuition bills that teach a different lesson about college than the glossy brochures touting old buildings and something called higher learning.
The only thing higher than the learning at these places in recent years are the numbers being added to the aforementioned tuition bills. A College Board study last fall revealed that tuitions at four-year colleges jumped nearly 50% in 10 years at state schools and 42% at private schools, a good deal larger increase in income than that experienced by the average family asked to pay it.
Tuition, in fact, is growing faster than inflation, faster even than medical bills from doctors who, not coincidentally, also attended these institutions of higher learning.
The annual student survey also found growing political interest and conservatism among starting college students and declining drinking, partying and smoking, more encouraging news for parents.
The puzzle remains, however: Where in the world could so many college freshmen, whose parents pay so much money to expensive universities for them to earn a degree to get more money in a future job and maybe someday afford a house, a car and a doctor’s visit, get the idea that money is such an important part of modern life? It’s really inexplicable.”
> LA Times: “Learning how to cash in”
Have a Michigan driver’s license? Your personal information is now part of a highly secret, potentially illegal multistate database operated by a private corporation. What’s wrong with that? Let’s not forget the only reason Bush is president is that in 2000, Republican operatives in Florida including that State’s Secretary of State Katherine Harris expunged tens of thousands of people from the voter rolls even if their names were only somewhat similar to the name of a person who had committed a felony through the (intentionally) clumsy use of computer databases. The undemocratic uses of massive, secret databases are plentiful, and there are plenty of innocent Americans unable to fly, or who face intense security screening if they attempt to, because their names are similar to people who may or may not have any connection to terrorism whatsoever.
Yes, guilt by association was a key component to 1950’s McCarthyism, and the USA PATRIOT act established at least one new computerized database in the name of security. This trend torwards a neo-McCarthyism in America, super-charged with computer technology, has been described by Vijay Prashad, one of the participants in the SAAN conference I attended a few weeks ago in an article he has titled: “The Green Menace: McCarthyism after 9/11″ I think McCarthyism is a good way to think about the plight of former Ann Arbor resident Rabih Haddad (see my page on Mr. Haddad) and his family - although never convicted of any crime, and although the government wasn’t able to even produce any convincing evidence connecting him to criminal activity, the charity organization he helped found was raided repeatedly, had their funds frozen, and was blacklisted as officially “suspicious.” Finally, though the selective application of a mild immigration violation he and his family were effectively forced to leave the country, even though he intended to take up permanent residence here and was heavily invested in the community.
“DETROIT - Following a news report released yesterday in which the Michigan State Police admit that it has released information to a multistate police database, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan today submitted a third “Freedom of Information Act” request about Michigan?s participation in the new “MATRIX” surveillance system. This admission comes on the heels of the state denying involvement in the program in response to two previous FOIA requests.
… Even the Michigan Secretary of State has raised the privacy issue of a program such as MATRIX and has warned the MSP that it may be in violation of the 1997 Michigan Driver Privacy Protection Act,” added Moss. …
According to Congressional testimony and news reports, the MATRIX (which stands for “Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange”) creates dossiers about individuals from government databases and private-sector information companies that compile files on Americans’ activities for profit. It then makes those dossiers available for search by federal and state law enforcement officers. In addition, MATRIX computer programs comb through the millions of files in a search for “anomalies” that may be indicative of terrorist or other criminal activity.
While company officials have refused to disclose details of the program, according to news reports the kind of information to be searched includes credit histories, driver’s license photographs, marriage and divorce records, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and the names and addresses of family members, neighbors and business associates.
Raising even more issues, the Matrix is operated by a private company, Seisint Inc. of Boca Raton, Florida. Ironically, the company’s founder was forced to resign after buried information about his own past came to light: according to Florida police, he was formerly a drug smuggler who had piloted multiple planeloads of cocaine from Colombia to the U.S.
Two other states, Georgia and Texas, have already withdrawn their involvement because of legal and financial concerns. According to a letter from the Texas Department of Public Safety, “The fiscal responsibility in participating in this endeavor cannot be reconciled in view of existing budget constraints and the potential recurring out year cost of over $140,000 per month. Further, there are other legal, ethical and financial considerations in providing non-public data sets at our expense to a private company to sell back to us.”
“We’re concerned that the state may be in violation of more than one law and we will be looking toward litigation, if necessary, to protect the privacy of Michigan citizens,” Moss stated. …”
> ACLU of Michigan PR: “ACLU Questions Michigan State Police Involvement in Data Surveillance Program”
Thanks to Steve Cherry for posting on this, who also found use of an excerpt from George Orwell’s 1984.
Ralph Nader has announced he will be running for president, again, but this time as an independent. My firm and unwavering opinion: Bush must go. So when November rolls around, if you live in a state so red it’s dripping republicanism, vote Nader (if he’s on the ballot). If you vote anywhere you’ll vote actually might matter (Michigan and Florida come to mind) vote for whatever the Democrats cough up, in all his tax-cut voting, Iraq-war approving, Patriot-Act supporting New Democratic splendor.
John Kerry voted for the Iraq War and the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, and some of the Republicans’ tax cuts (although not the big $1.3 trillion one that is helping create an alleged tens of dozens of jobs). He also voted for the much-disliked Digital Millenium Copyright Act that the RIAA is using to harass 13-year-olds who downloaded a Britney Spears song and made cracking a DVD, even for academic purposes, a “terrorist” offense. (The Electronic Freedom Forum is a good resource on the DMCA)
> See John Kerry’s voting record on Project Vote Smart
> See some analysis from The Nation on Nader
Like a naive child struggling to keep perspective as it learns about the world, the Ann Arbor News recently discovered the U-M’s Office of Property Disposition. The Property Disposition office is a little-known entity that sells the University’s extra stuff on the cheap. Yes, the series raises some interesting questions regarding whether the University could make more profit on the way they get rid of excess equipment and whether proper steps are taken to maintain privacy (by expunging computer hard drives, for example). However, did that really warrant FIVE lead stories in the Sunday Ann Arbor News? They’re searching for some sort of award I fear, and failing in the process (remember the exhaustive, exhausting, and ultimately mediocre coverage of the greenbelt?)
> AANews: “Who’s minding the store” and “Audit finds private data on computers” and “U-M’s loss often scavengers’ gain” and “Schools pick over used computer equipment” and “A few finds at U-M’s flea market”
> Some of the fun being picked up by the Associated Press wire: “Bargain hunters find deals on used equipment at University of Michigan”
Graduating in May?
The University’s “Graduation Guide” website has lots of information for graduating seniors and applications for the student speaker at spring commencement are due Wednesday, March 3rd. The Michigan Union is also sponsoring their annual “Grad Fair” to be held on the ground floor of the Union on March 10th and 11th featuring representatives from a wide variety of graduation-related organizations, offices, and businesses including the Michiganensian, Caps and Gowns, Black Celeb, and the Alumni Association.
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