The bad kind of tingling
If Gov. Sarah Palin “sent a tingle down the spine of Middle America,” as Alexander Pherson, young Republican sycophant claims, it was that tingling, uncomfortable feeling you get right before you know you’re going to pee your pants in an imminent car wreck. As tingles go, this wasn’t a happy one.
Christopher Eaton
Silverlake
Palin deserves the hassle
The Daily Bruin (Oct. 6) ran a column by Alex Pherson titled “Media-hassled Gov. Palin deserves more respect.”
Pherson regurgitates ““ in Fox News fashion ““ Republican talking points to mislead Daily Bruin readers about the events of this heated election cycle.
His latest claim in last Monday’s column is that Palin’s performance at the vice presidential debate was “brilliant” and that she deserves more credit from the media which has handed her a “vicious beating.”
In reality, as polls suggest, the American people saw right through Palin’s rehearsed one-liners and question dodging. She came into this debate intent on ignoring the moderator’s questions and answering with unfounded attacks. She indeed spoke confidently and with conviction ““ avoiding the train wreck 70 million Americans tuned in to potentially see.
But she was certainly not brilliant. This was Palin’s chance to prove that she was educated about the issues and ready to run this country as Sen. McCain’s replacement.
She did the opposite, assuring her doubters that she was a purely political VP choice and one worthy of increased media criticism.
It is clear why Pherson and the Republican Party have been increasing the severity and quantity of their outrageous attacks ““ they are desperate. Sen. Obama has been steadily gaining in the polls and now has a substantial lead in most swing states.
The issue with Pherson’s columns is not that they are published or that they are factually wrong, but that there is no counterpoint column presented alongside them.
Gon Carpel
Third-year, communication studies
Possible VP should answer questions
Regarding Alex Pherson’s “Media-hassled Gov. Palin deserves more respect” (Oct. 6), I think Gov. Palin deserves more media hassling. Yes, she’s charismatic. Yes, she resonates. Yes, our 24-hour media monster rips public figures to shreds.
But Gov. Palin is running for the second-highest office in America, and I am disgusted every time I hear people say to leave her alone. Media attacks may not be pretty, but every candidate in this race endures them.
Monitoring media babble for sexism has its place in this election, but so does free speech. And when the backers of a pro-life Republican candidate start throwing around “feminist” arguments, maybe it’s the perfect time to debate exactly what American feminism is.
According to Pherson, “the more they criticize Palin, the more they roil women and evangelical voters who consider an attack on her a personal affront.”
Should we lower ourselves to these warped standards? Should we stop weighing candidates’ qualifications because some people want to reduce the political arguments of Palin’s critics to personal ones?
This diminishes Palin’s standing as a serious politician (something she needs no help doing) and is precisely the sort of condescending attitude feminists fight against.
As university students ““ the next generation of American thought ““ we must preserve the right to debate a woman’s, and anyone’s, suitability to lead.
We must not let the fear of sexism allow female candidates, especially unknowns like Palin, to escape the hard questions. Wouldn’t we want a McCain-Palin administration to answer them?
Sarah Rogozen
Second-year, undeclared
Palin only appeals to GOP “base”
Despite the blather about Gov. Sarah Palin’s supposed popularity, most of “Middle America” will never like her ““ not even most conservatives. She appeals only to the meanest, most violent and sometimes racist “base” of the Republican Party. Palin’s one talent is smiling pretty while she spreads false rumors and dirty innuendo.
The GOP “base” would vote for a trained macaw if it said “tax cuts.” At the debate, Palin said “tax cuts” in response to every unrelated question. On the rare occasion when Palin’s sentences are coherent, they’re lies.
As governor, Palin enacted huge tax hikes on oil companies. She demanded $450 million for the Bridge to Nowhere. After Congress refused her, only then did she give up on the bridge, but “Sarah-Cuda” still took our $450 million anyway. She offered $500 million to subsidize a gas pipeline, when energy companies are making record profits and could build their own. Palin is a big spender, as long as rich corporations get our money.
This is the same Palin who, at the debate, smirked and lectured Sen. Joe Biden about how Obama will raise your taxes, and raising taxes makes jobs disappear. Oh yeah? How many jobs did you make disappear when you raised taxes? Shameless hypocrite!
McCain and Palin have no choice but to lie, considering the disastrous consequences of conservative politics. McCain fervently supported the nearly $1 trillion Iraq war. The financial crisis was caused by the doctrine that “all deregulation is good,” of which the most devoted fundamentalist was McCain. He repeatedly called himself “fundamentally a deregulator,” and recently insisted, “The fundamentals of our economy are strong.”
Given this miserable record, McCain now makes the centerpiece of his campaign the false accusation that Obama and all liberals hate America. On Oct. 4, Palin said, “(Obama) is not a man who sees America … how I see America. … (He) sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists.”
She cited a New York Times article, which in fact made it clear Obama never “palled around” with an ex-bomber from the ’60s, although they both served in a charity organization. She accuses Obama of secretly hating America, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary.
Last Monday, more lies: “(Obama) said that our troops in Afghanistan are just, quote, “˜air-raiding villages and killing civilians.’ See, John McCain … believes in our troops.” Palin pulled the verbs out of Obama’s sentence and put her own words around them to portray him as being against the troops.
But in that quote and others, Obama called for more support, not less, for troops in Afghanistan. At recent rallies, Palin and McCain lied about Obama, the radical who hates America, then audience members shouted out “Kill him!”, “Terrorist!” and “Treason!” After Palin whined about the “mainstream media,” an audience member shouted racial epithets at a black journalist.
Not all Republicans are as racist as this vile “base.” However, Palin does not appeal to “Main Street” as claimed, but rather to the meanest, most violent and sometimes racist aspects of the human character. Luckily, McCain and Palin have underestimated the intelligence of “Joe Six-Pack,” and they’ll get theirs on Election Day.
Frank Pettit
Staff Research Associate, UCLA Institute for Genomics & Proteomics
DREAM Act allows all to contribute
In response to Gergana Panteva’s letter “DREAM Act not fair to other students” (Oct. 9): Actually, I am sure the reporters have considered the impact on the state’s economy by giving financial aid and other educational funding opportunities to undocumented students.
Without giving aid to undocumented students and a path to legal residency, our state accrues a population of at least 15,000-20,000 students each year with degrees in teaching, engineering, mathematics, English, the sciences and many other subjects that would be able to contribute largely to today’s society. Instead, these students are unable to work legally.
In essence, without the DREAM Act, our state’s economy gets an exponentially growing pile of eager, talented, educated people with marvelous potential, but cannot access them or their intellectual resources. Why? Because they are forced to be on the periphery of a community to which they want to contribute. If the DREAM Act was not vetoed, imagine how much these students could help the economy grow in a time of deepening recession.
The reporters, as well as students, are well-aware of the processes to apply for permanent residency, as well as worker and student visas. If you go on the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services Web site (uscis.gov) and read the eligibility requirements, every single form for permanent residency requires legal entry to the United States and being here on unexpired visas. There are some ways to get around the process. I could marry a citizen for two years, do you think that is OK?
Let us instead keep it on the law-abiding front. I, too, am here for a reason. My parents and I emigrated from Pakistan when I was 6 months old. Like Bulgaria, Pakistan has a poor public education system.
It also has a corrupt and unsafe environment for religious minorities. We entered here legally on a tourist visa that lasted five years. My parents did not have the funds to apply for residency. So, we overstayed our visa. Technically, that makes me a “legal immigrant,” I’d say.
I did apply for a worker’s visa, a work permit, as well as a student visa, and my applications were denied. Again, if you read the rules, anyone here who does not have a legal visa or is not at all in the immigration process is ineligible to apply. Though I have entered legally, since I am here illegally now, that makes me ineligible.
If we actually did have ways to apply for residency and a visa or both, why wouldn’t we? I have been here for 21 years, and I have enough patience to take a longer route to residency. If such ways actually existed, then bills such as SB 1301 to actually make such a path wouldn’t exist! Logic, my friends, logic.
Now, let’s get to taxes. We have been over this time and time again. It is quite possible to pay taxes without a Social Security number. All one needs is an ITIN, which is like a tax ID number. My parents have been paying taxes since the first year they got here.
If Panteva had done her research before making such claims, she’d realize that most illegal immigrants, from car-wash workers to strawberry pickers to undocumented University of California students, pay their taxes, and happily. As undocumented students, we pay tuition, part of which goes into a financial aid fund we do not have access to.
I hope, dear readers, I have earned the right to get some of that money back. These are my resources as much as they are yours.
Legal immigrants like Panteva have the privilege of applying for jobs with some level of security and benefits, grants, loans, and scholarships. Undocumented students speak to attorney after attorney, trying to find a legal path to residency, no matter how tedious.
Such a path simply does not exist. If you can find one, please let me know, for I would be more than happy to pursue it. It is time for some shortcut to be established, because a path to legal residency or citizenship is impossible to achieve for undocumented students.
Concerned American
Fourth-year, sociology