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Commentary Oregon Daily Emerald Thesday, October 19, 2004 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 JEN SUDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR 1ARED PABEN AY1SHA YAHYA NEWS EDITORS PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTER MORIAH BALINCIT MEGHANN CUNIFF KARA HANSEN ANTHONY LUCERO CANELA WOOD NEWS REPORTERS CLAYTON (ONES SPORTS EDITOR ION ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR NATASHA CHIUNGER1AN SENIOR PULSE REPORTER DAHVI FISCHER AMY LICHTY RYAN MURPHY PULSE REPORTERS DAVID JAGERNAUTH EDITORIAL EDITOR ILNNIFER MCBRIDE AILEE SLATER CHUCK SLOTHOWER TRAVIS WILLSE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR GABE BRADLEY NEWS FREELANCE EDITOR/ DIRECTOR OF RECRUITMENT DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR IAUREN WIMER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER TIM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER ERIKBISHOFF PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHER hRET FURTWANGLER GRAPHICS EDITOR KIRA PARK DESIGN EDITOR ELLIOTT ASBURY CHARLIE CALDWELL DUSTIN REESE DESIGNERS SHADRA BEESLEY 1FANNIE EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BLACKF1ELD PAULTHOMPSON SPORTS COPY EDITORS AMANDA EVRARD AMBER LINDROS NEWS COFY EDITORS LINDSAY BURT PULSE COPYEDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR SLADE LEESON WEBMASTER BUSINESS (541)346-5511 IUDYRIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER REBECCA CRITCHIHT RECEPTIONIST NATHAN FOSTER AIB1NG GUO ANDREW LEAHY JOHN LONG MALLORY MAHONEY HOLLY MISTELL DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER ALEX AMES MATT BETZ 1IERON CA1JSCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN ELISA JESSOP MAEGAN KASER-LEE MIA LEIDELMEYER EMILY PHILBIN SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES KELLEE KAUFTHEIL AD ASSISTANT CLASSIFIED (541)3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KATY GAGNON SABRINA COWETTE LESLIE STRAIGHT KER1 SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541)3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA SLOAN PRODUCTION COORDINATOR IEN CRAM LET KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAUT ANDY HOLLAND DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub lished daily Monday through Fri day during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Ore gon, Eugene, Ore. The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private properly. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law THE XOO'* CAWAI6H HIT* A NEW tow... ...AN\> XT HAS ALSO &GCM j ;Gll docomcnte?) -that MT ^ OPPONENT OOtSM'T fLOSS O\0 ^ REGULAR ^,AG\G... XS THAT 'He \<m\> 0P o^al HVGXMC/ row wam-t oGT\ce? { • than s rnght, x '/A ~ God s giet to (TArtv\ / - -_AKJD r APPRO UC '[ - Mathis message... / ^ ' Eric Florip | Freelance illustrator ■ In my opinion RCffy barely the lesser oftWO CVlls For liberals who so desperately want to see George W. Bush lose the White House it’s easy to gloss over John Kerry's faults. Starving men don’t critique the menu. Mean while, the Democratic Party has closed ranks around Kerry, defend ing him against every attack and re fusing to admit the candidate may have a few chinks in his armor. This leaves voters few places to get an honest assessment of Kerry — it certainly won’t come from the Re publican Party. Almost no one backed Kerry from the beginning of the Democratic nomination process. Howard Dean had many young liberals wrapped around his finger, and organized la bor threw its weight behind longtime union champion Dick Gephardt. Af ter Gephardt and Dean destroyed each other in the Iowa caucus with a nasty ad war, Kerry snuck to the top and stayed. This left Democratic ac tivists with a candidate they could tolerate, but not love. The Bush campaign has relentless ly hammered Kerry as a flip-flopper, a charge that has considerably dam aged the senator’s campaign. Here’s the rub: It’s true. Kerry has never met a politically advantageous posi tion he didn’t like. As Bush has re peated ad nauseam, Kerry did indeed vote for the $87 billion package for Iraq before he voted against it. He voted for the USA Patriot Act, then criticized it repeatedly. The same goes for the No Child Left Behind Act, Bush’s clever attempt to subvert public trust in the whole concept of public education. Kerry was once a principled oppo nent of the death penalty, even for terrorists. Now he says he supports executing terrorists. Democrats have always had a difficult dance with the death penalty, a policy many of them CHUCK SLOTHOWER TAKING ISSUE appose but can’t fight too hard against because most Americans support it. But instead of providing leadership on the issue, Kerry has taken a politically palatable but morally nonsensical position. Why does Osama bin Laden deserve the death penalty but not a serial killer? Kerry also undermined his claim that he’s “fighting for us” when he promised during last week’s debate to lower corporate tax rates. Corpo rations already pay a ludicrously small portion of the national tax bur den; the last thing America needs is lower corporate taxes, especially with a projected deficit in the tril lions of dollars and Kerry’s expansive new spending proposals. This is one issue on which Ralph Nader has a point: Corporate America has far too much power, and neither party wants to address it. Kerry has also been less than forthright with the American people about the future of Iraq. He asserts that he can persuade foreign nations to contribute more troops and money to Iraq, but nations such as France and Germany have been burned so badly that they aren’t eager to do America any favors, regardless of who wins the White House. Kerry also says he will accelerate the train ing of Iraqis to police their own :ountry, but American soldiers in Iraq have already tried that tactic with mixed results. Whoever he roines president will find it difficult to turn the situation in Iraq around. I fear the war in Iraq will be an issue in the 2012 election. The Kerry campaign has also done a poor job of highlighting Kerry’s ac complishments in the Senate. From listening to his campaign, you wouldn’t know Kerry led the Senate investigation into Ronald Reagan’s Iran-Contra machinations. Kerry has also been a longtime defender of the environment, but the Kerry cam paign has only briefly touched on his record or that of George W. Bush, who has in some cases allowed pol luting industries to actually write en vironmental regulations. In last week’s debate, Kerry threw a few bones to the left, promising a gradual increase in the federal mini mum wage to $7 an hour and univer sal health care. But liberals who think Kerry is the second coming of Franklin D. Roosevelt will be in for a rude awakening should he win the White House. Kerry would almost certainly have to tangle with a Re publican-controlled House of Repre sentatives, a chamber that repeatedly frustrated Bill Clinton’s best efforts. Furthermore, despite his pledge to the contrary, Kerry would eventually have to raise taxes across the board. Bush has run up the deficit so high that the next president will have no choice but to increase taxes. Just as Reagan’s historic tax cut in his first term was followed by a historic tax hike in his second term, so will Bush’s unaffordable tax cuts see a significant reversal. A Kerry presidency would repre sent the best chance for liberals to influence the White House since Lyndon Johnson’s term in office. Should he win, let’s hope he doesn’t waste it. chuckslothower@ daily emerald. com OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@dailyemerald.com a submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office EMU Suite 300 Electronic submissions are preferred. Letters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words Authors are limited to one submission per calendar month dfl^crefonclh toe'orwrald^ nUmter ^ ^ ven,lcatlon'1716 Emerald ^serves the right to edit for space, grammar and style Guest submissions are published ■ Editorial Student Senate: four strikes... who's out? There is absolutely no doubt that the ASUO Student Senate has violated Oregon Public Meetings Law four times by failing to provide the Emerald and the public with advanced no tice of its intent to hold an executive session. Colin Andries’ contention (ODE: “Violations by ASUO senators debatable,” Oct. 18), that no tice of an executive session is not required when it is part of a general meeting, is simply absurd. The Oregon Attorney General’s Public Records and Meetings Manual, which provides general legal advice based on the attorney gen eral’s interpretation of the Public Meetings Law, states: “Notices for meetings that will include both an executive session and a non-executive session should give notice of both and state the statutory authority for the executive session.” We have yet to find someone willing to offer a different interpretation of the law, except for Andries, who ironically is a law student. When asked if he had received outside legal advice, Andries refused to comment. We know what you are thinking: Why does the Emerald keep harping on this? Why should the average Joe and Jane care? The answer is simple. It’s your money that the senate is spending — you should care what they do with it. It is the Emerald’s responsibility as a campus newspaper to be at every meeting on your behalf in order to inform you about how the senate spends your money. But for us to do our job properly, Public Meetings Law must be followed. Advance notice of executive sessions allows our reporters to ensure that public matters are not discussed in private. The media is allowed to observe an executive session but not report on it, unless there is a vio lation of the law. It is in the senators’ best interest to follow both the spirit and the letter of the law, because the Emerald vows to report on the con tent of every executive session that is not properly called. We have stopped short of filing a formal complaint at this time, but any student on cam pus has the right to do so on their own. Our goal is to see the senate achieve full com pliance with the law, which doesn’t seem like too much to ask. Unfortunately, the senate has con tinued to rationalize its behavior with an interpre tation of the law that is dubious at best and goes against the interpretation of every lawyer, profes sor and journalist we have talked to, as well as the interpretation of the attorney general himself. The members of the ASUO Student Senate are either ignorant of the law or are so arrogant as to think they are above the law. Either way, it is appalling. What the Emerald originally saw as a mis take has now turned into a flagrant disregard for state law by the officials elected to represent the University. We again demand that the student senate cease this illegal behavior, issue a formal apolo gy and institute an orientation session so student senators can be briefed on public meetings law. The student senate’s best possible move at this point would be to air this whole mess out, take responsibility and get back to the business of addressing student issues instead of going through the whole “damage control” routine of denying, rationalizing and making excuses. Seriously, there ought to be a law... EDITORIAL BOARD Jennifer Sudick Editor in Chief David Jagernauth Editorial Editor Steven R. Neuman Managing Editor Gabe Bradley Freelance Editor
