Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 31, 2006)
2 Commentai4/ Republic stagnates under Republicans . Rev. Sam Krause 11 The Clackamas Print Reports of ABC journalists’ phones being tapped, warrant less wire-tapping of internation al calls to domestic citizens and other clandestine activity by the Bush administration have creat ed a general contempt and mis trust amongst a wide political array of eligible voters towards the entire government. One of the worst aspects of the Bush administration, Congress and the Supreme Court is the blatant abuse of a representative government by the majority. I believe that the Constitution was written to protect the minority from, as Alexander Hamilton put it, “the tyranny of the majority.” The Great Compromise, which basically defined our Republic’s congress as we know it, encom passes Hamilton’s approach to the constitution. Hamilton’s view should be carried over into today’s politics: a respect for the minority. Another repercussion of one- party rule is a lack of account ability. Why should the Senate subpoena a member of the House of Representatives or Bush administration and grill them on the stand when in fighting and negative press cov erage just reflects poorly on the political party that is in control of government? That would be political suicide and strategi cally unwise. I believe that’s tution. Every two years, all eligible voters have the oppor tunity to influence the fed eral government in a peaceful and lawful manner. It is in the House that impeachments begin and the Senate is where they end. Come November, it is possible to replace the House of Representatives and one third of the Senate. why various leaks of classified information have not been held responsible - it would look bad on the Republicans. The answer to a stagnant republic is an interested and informed public. Congress is still the strongest branch of gov ernment, no matter how much the Bush administration under mines congress and the .consti- John Hughes Contributing artist Net neutrality needed The Internet came close to being gutted by greedy corporations I Laura Cameron | Commentary Editor Who here can tell me what the best thing is about the Internet? No, not porn. Anyone else? Ah yes, up there, the prat in the back! “The wealth of knowledge and information available to us instantly!” That’s absolutely cor rect, Timmy! The Internet, if used correctly, can pro vide the eager student with all the information they need for lab reports, term papers and the like. Tell the aver age college student to write a research paper without using the Internet and watch them spontaneously combust! Now imagine being denied access to useful sites like Google or lii.org. How much more difficult has that terny paper suddenly become? This is the future that may await us if we lose something known as network neutral ity. For those with a life beyond the Internet, here are Clackamas Print 19600 S. Molalla Ave. Oregon City, OR 97045 (503) 657-6958 ex. 2309 The C laomm « Print is a weekly student publication and is distributed every Wednesday except finals week. Clackamas Prii Wednesday, May 31, 2006 the bare bones of the matter: currently, any user can access any website through any ISP. Due to lobbying from the big telecommunication firms, however, there is now a bill before Congress that would allow ISPs to restrict or deny access to websites of their choosing (read: any site that doesn’t pay them). Passage of this bill would mean a lot of money for the telecoms that own the ISPs. It would also destroy the essence of the Internet. Let’s look at this from the point of view of a fiction al Clackamas student named Bob. Bob has been assigned to write a 10-page report on the genetics of black leop ards. Whistling merrily, Bob sits down at his computer, pulls up his browser and directs it to Google. Oh no! Bob uses NetZero and Google doesn’t pay them, so they won’t let Bob access that site. Grumbling, Bob closes the browser and goes nextdoor to use his friend’s computer. Success! Bob’s friend Bill has AOL, whom Google has paid. Bob can use Google Scholar to do research for his paper. He searches for “genetics of black leopards” and gets a link to an article on just that topic that was printed in the journal Nature. Bob is happy - this should get him some wonderful infor mation for his paper! Oh, not so fast, Bob - Nature doesn’t pay AOL. The article is just out of his grasp, on the other side of the block set up by the greedy ISP. Bob is angry now and decides to ask his Internet friends for help. So he enters the address for his favorite discussion forum and discovers that it, too, is blocked by AOL. Enraged, Bob slides out of the chair, drops to his knees and, rais ing clenched fists toward the uncaring heavens, screams “KHAN!” Well, OK, maybe that last bit is a little unlikely, but the rest of our hypothetical situation is entirely possi ble. The fact that it actually is possible worries me. Limiting access to infor mation should never be done lightly. The idea of allow ing others to limit access to information for monetary gain is downright abhorrent and should be scornfully rejected. Let’s not allow America, Land of the Free, to become America, Land of the Bought. E ditor - in -C hief : Ben Matas C opy E ditors : Katie Weinberg, E. E. West N ews E ditor : Katie Wilson C ommentary E ditor : Laura Cameron F eature E ditor : C.J. Ciaramella S ports E ditor : Mike Guidice A&E E ditor : Tayo Stalnaker P hoto E ditor : Jeff Sorensen A d M anager : Sam Krause A d A ssistant . Helen Conley / S taff W riters : Derek Erickson, Justin Goe, Elizabeth Hitz, Frank Jordan, Mike Kimberling, Megan Koler, Adam J. Manley Matthew Olson, Kyle Steele, David Stark, N. P. Delzell, Helen Conley P roduction A ssistants : Adam J. Manley,-Kim Maier, Elizabeth Open primaries: good ii theory, bad in practice Ben Maras Editor-in-Chief Last week I was accosted right here on campus while enroute to my WR 123 class. The overzealous orator shoved a clipboard in my face and attempted to get me to sign a petition to put an open primary bill on the November ballot. Judging by the look on his face when explaining that I didn’t support them, I could have sworn he misheard me saying that I eat infants (which I do -* I consider it my duty as a good little Commie - but that’s beside the point). If only he had listened to my point. Here in Oregon we have what is known as a closed pri mary system, where a voter may only vote in the primary of the party which they are registered for (Democrats for Democrats, Republicans for Republicans, Greens for Greens, etc). This has recently come under attack lately, because it completely leaves non-affiliated voters off the electoral process. This is a huge percent age of Oregonians. About one in five voters-here are registered as independent - about 400,000. This is often used as justification by the open primary supporters for their cause - what they don’t explain is why opening the primaries would undermine what Oregon is famous for. Closed primaries are an intricate part of maintaining a mixed and balanced gov ernment in Oregon. If prima ries were opened, it would allow another window for tyranny of the majority. For example, if a state contains a high number of registered Democrats and a lesser number of register Republicans, an open priml would allow a large sum of Democrats to vote ini Republican primary, and h| sway it in the direction! a favorable or weak can) date. Here the Republic] are being suppressed witl their own party. Furthermore, a major] party could easily use t| power to manipulate the pi J al points of debate in an eft tion. For example, thejj.l could use voters to sway I Democratic election in fal of a candidate who would] softer on issues on which t| are vulnerable (corporate n fare, national debt, big Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, h wiretapping, President-sn sored raids on Democn Senators’ offices, Karl Rc Social Security, and CIA Id ... to name a few). Even more vulnera though, is the many third ties which reside in Ore] The number of party m bers for these groups is m smaller than either of] two dominating parties -| this makes them much m vulnerable to an oppres movement by a majority p to sway their own election This would develop another variant method t by both the Republicans the Democrats to sway e tions - invest money and t into a third party candi which will draw votes a from the other. Lest we forget, polia parties are private orgaa tions and should be treate such. Meddling with peon ability to hold an elec within their own organ] tion constitutes govern] abuse, and as they say, il rolls downhill (back onto] people). So forgive me fon signing my name to it. 1 Letter to the editor Immigration face-off missing one point I found both sides of the very complex issue of illegj immigration to be well-written. However, I would like to poi out that our ancestors were the first illegal immigrants: then were native peoples here before we arrived. Diane Averill English Instructor The Clackamas Print encourages reader responsi Submissions must be received by 1 p.m. Friday in order to a printed in the following week’s issue. All submissions mJ be accompanied by the writer’s full name and contact infol mation; requests to remain anonymous will be considered Please limit letters to approximately 200 words, essays a] guest columns to approximately 550 words. Submissions mJ be edited for space and clarity, not for content. Please sen] submissions to chiefed@clackamas.edu, or. drop them offon\ disk in RR 135. Hitz, Chris Anderson, Scott Risvold P hotographers : Adam J. Manley, Lara Hedbor, Elizabeth Hitz, Matt Olson, N. P. Delzell D epartment A dvisor : Linda Vogt D epartment A ssistant . Chris Hennel G oals : The C lackamas Print aid to report the news in an honesfl unbiased, professional manner I The opinions expressed do not I necessarily reflect those of the st] dent body college administrate its faculty or The Print E-mail I comments to chiefed@dackaniM edu. I
