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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2008
NEWS 5A
POLITICS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fomer Kansas senator and presidential candidate, Bob Dole, walks on the floor of at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Wednesday.
Dole cracks jokes at RNC tribute, endorses McCain
BY FRANCESCA CHAMBERS
fchambers@kansan.com
MINNEAPOLIS - ST. PAUL, Minn. — Bob Dole told Kansas delegates at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday that he was getting old, but that he had not lost his sense of humor.
At a private tribute on his behalf, the 85-year-old joked about his sexual libido, Barack Obama's inexperience, and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson's acting career.
Dole, who is the namesake of
KU's Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, was honored by Ceron, a health care information technology solutions company, for his dedication to
health care reform in the U.S.
When Dole was given his award, which a Ceron executive said was "a small token of their appreciation". Dole said, "What is this? Viagra?"
Dole served in the Senate from 1969 to 1996, and was the U.S. Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987. He was the Republican vice presidential candidate in the 1976 election and the party's presidential candidate in the 1996 election.
"It's a slam dunk. John McCain has the experience," Dole said of the presidential election.
This week he took a break from campaigning for his wife in North Carolina to attend the convention. Dole's wife, Elizabeth, is currently up for reelection to the Senate.
Dole took a stab at former president and Democratic rival. Bill Clinton, during his speech while describing his role in Elizabeth's campaign.
KANSAN.COM
■. Read the Kansan Convention Center blog at kansan.com/blogs.
Dole told attendees he thought McCain "rolled the dice" by choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, but backed McCain's selection, and said Palin was a good conservative. He said everyone had problems, but unlike other people, Sarah Palin had dealt with her problems well.
"But I'm not doing like Bill Clinton," he said. "I'm trying to help her."
He also attacked current Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, playing on the junior senator's lack of experience. Dole said that when Obama heard about the violence in the country of Georgia, he bought a ticket to Atlanta.
"I bet everyone in this room has had a problem or two, and it makes you a better person," he said.
Dole's speech was not all about
politics. He also took the opportunity to kid former presidential candidate Fred Thompson. Thompson, who is a good friend f Dole's.
attended the tribute.
"I don't really like any program but 'Law and Order', Dole said. "But what I really like is the marathons."
He said Thompson sent him tapes of the show, but he did not need to watch them because he had seen every episode of the show.
Dole and Thompson served in the Senate together from 1994 to 1996, when Dole retired from the Senate. Dole took Thompson under his wing, helping the new senator learn the ropes.
Several Kansas and Missouri Republican politicians honored Dole at the ceremony as well, including Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Todd Tiddht of Kansas.
"He'll always be in my leader," Thompson said in a speech. "I'll always be proud of those years."
Brownback, who recently said he would not run again for his Senate seat in 2010, will address the Kansas delegation again at a breakfast today, the final day of the convention.
Edited by Kelsey Hayes
English debate spills onto fall ballots
NATION
Brenda Serpes, right, holds hands with Mijael Blanco as they study during a summer history class at Benson High School in Portland, Ore. There is a ballot measure up before Oregon votes in November to limit the amount of time students can spend in ESL.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PORTLAND, Ore. — In a high school classroom, Xavier Chavez is trying to teach a group of restless teenagers about Manifest Destiny
— the 19th century belief that the United States was divinely fated to stretch from sea to shining sea.
But these students are children of immigrants, and they first have to learn English. They might soon have to learn it faster if Oregon voters approve a ballot measure in November to limit the amount of time students can spend in Englih-as a-second-language classes.
The proposal, modeled after similar laws in California, Arizona and Massachusetts, is one of a handful of immigration-related ballot measures that will appear this fall on state and local ballots across the nation.
"We call it the battle of the states," said William Gheen, president of the North Carolina-based group Americans for Legal Immigration. "More people have tried to get something like this on the ballot this year than ever before."
A year ago, groups that wanted to crack down on illegal immigration had hoped to push the topic front-and-center in the presidential campaign.
But the once-explosive issue has simmered down nationally, particularly since both major presidential candidates have endorsed a "path to citizenship" for the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
Now the immigration battles in November will be fought on ballots in Oregon, Missouri and California.
Chavez and his fellow teachers acknowledge that most of their students pick up colloquial English within two years, giving them enough fluency to poke fun at a teammate, answer a text message
There are 64,000 non-English speakers enrolled in Oregon's public schools,the vast majority of whom are Spanish speakers.The proposal would limit high school students to two years of ESL classes, even less for voucher students.
or order a slice of pizza.
Faculty members worry instead about academic English — the skills that will let students succeed in advanced classes, whether they are deconstructing "Beowulf" or reciting the principles of photosynthesis.
The Oregon initiative is "just a diversion to the real problems." Chavez said. "We are not looking at what English language learners need. We are just looking to take away. Let's talk about the quality of instruction."
Chavez's students have mixed feelings about the proposal, partly depending on future goals.
Carlos Perez, 17, took Chavez's summer history course to catch up after oversleeping and often missing his first-period class during the school year. He thought limiting ESL to just two years would be no problem for him or his friends.
But Beatriz Munoz, 16, who said she wants to be a doctor or a lawyer.
sharply disagreed.
"For me, it is not enough, just two years," said Munoz, who is transferring to a private Catholic school in Portland with a strong academic reputation. "I am worried, what if I don't understand? I have to go to college."
Long-term studies have shown that full mastery of academic English takes five to seven years, said Dr. Jim Cummins, a professor at the University of Toronto who specializes in second language acquisition and literacy development.
Cummins said non-English speakers are trying to catch up to a moving target as their English-speaking classmates also improve. And complex academic language isn't something students can pick up on the streets, he said, because it's generally used only in classrooms or textbooks.
But Bill Sizemore, sponsor of the Oregon measure and a longtime
anti-tax activist who was the GOP's gubernatorial nominee in 1998, said the measure was intended to help immigrants, not sideline them.
He said schools warehouse their students in ESL courses for longer than necessary to keep federal and state money flowing. If Oregonians approve the change, students will join the mainstream faster with the tools they need to compete, he said.
Voters in Arizona approved a similar measure in 2000. Since then, there's been no reduction in the dropout rate, and no evidence that ESL students are doing any better on standardized tests, said Beth Witt, who is involved in Arizona's ESL organization.
In Missouri, voters will decide whether to make English the only language of state government.
POLITICS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palin accepts nomination, pleases crowd at RNC
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claimed her historic spot on the Republican ticket Wednesday night, uncorking a smiling, slashing attack on Barack Obama and vowing to help presidential candidate John McCain bring real change to Washington. Scarcely known a week ago, she drew tumultuous cheers from the Republican National Convention.
"Victory in Iraq is finally in sight; he wants to forfeit," she said of Obama. "Al-Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America; he's worried that someone won't read their rights."
The 44-year-old Palin had top billing on the third night of the convention. The first woman vice presidential candidate in party history, she spoke to uncounted millions of viewers at home in her solo national debut.
To the delight of the delegates, McCain strolled unexpectedly onto the convention stage after the speech and hugged his running mate.
"Don't you think we made the right choice" for vice president? he said as his delegates roared their approval. It was an unspoken reference to the convention-week controversy that has greeted her, including the disclosure that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter was pregnant.
The packed convention hall exploded in cheers as McCain stood with Palin and her family — including mother-to-be Bristol and the father, 18-year-old Levi Johnston.
The audience also shouted in agreement at line after line delivered by the 44-year-old Alaska governor, the first woman ever named to a Republican national ticket.
She had top billing at the convention on a night delegates also lined up for a noisy roll call of the states to deliver their presidential nomination to McCain. At 72, the Arizona senator is the oldest first-time nominee in history, collecting his party's top prize after pursuing it for the better part of a decade.
Palin drew cheers from the moment she stepped onto the convention stage, hundreds of camera flashes reflecting off her glasses.
If McCain and his campaign's high command had any doubt about her ability at the convention podium, they needn't have. With her youthful experience as a
sportscaster and time spent in the governor's office, her timing was flawless, her appeal to the crowd obvious.
"Our family has the same ups and downs as any other, the same challenges and the same joys," she said as the audience signaled its understanding.
In her solo debut on the national stage, she traced her career from the local PTA to the governor's office, casting herself as a maverick in the McCain mold, and seemed to delight in poking fun at her critics and her ticketmate's political rivals.
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Attention: KU Students
Areyou interested in politics?
Are you interested in politics? Would you like to develop more effective leadership skills? Want to meet and interact with professional strategists?
If so, the Dole Institute of Politics is the place for you!
To find out how you can become involved in our programs and activities, join us for our first Student Advisory Board meeting Tuesday, September 9,2008 at 5 p.m. at the Dole Institute on West Campus
Please e-mail dolesab@ku.edu to let us know if you plan to attend! RSVP by Monday, September 8, 2008 at noon.