OPINION
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2004
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
www.kansan.com
EDITORIAL BOARD
Late Night during break shouldn't hinder crowd
After last weekend's exhilarating victory over Kansas State, students are hungry for more. For KU sports fans, this is a great time of year. As the football team sprints toward a tough home stretch with a potential bowl game in sights, the basketball team is beginning to rev up. This year we were treated to a sneak preview with the team's Labor day excursion up to Canada for some exhibition games. On Friday, fans will get their first chance to see the team up close at Late Night in the Phog.
The beginning of basketball season is something that should be celebrated on this campus. However, there has been some grumbling among students about Late Night this year. The event will take place during fall break. Though this is unfortunate for the fans and the team, it was the only choice the administration had. The only way this wouldn't have happened was if
the University were to schedule fall break and homecoming on the same weekend. Having Late Night on fall break is an inconvenience, but having homecoming over fall break would be a bigger blow to school spirit.
Bill Self and the team would probably prefer to not have this scheduling situation, but its doubtful that you'll hear them complain about it. The team is too busy preparing for a run at the national championship. This promises to be a big year with Keith Langford, Aaron Miles, Michael Lee, and Wayne Simien wrapping up their KU careers.
Undoubtedly, many students will be out of town this weekend. Many will still be in Lawrence, though. For those who will be here, Late Night will be the best party in town. It is hardly a bold prediction to declare that a packed house will be there as always this year.
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checks herself into a mental institution after she commits suicide. Now, I'm not a genius, but if she committed suicide, I don't think she'd be checking herself into anywhere because she would be dead. Just a thought.
I'm thirsty, Somebody tell that giant walking carton of 2% milk to come back.
I just saw some kid playing his trump pet out of his car. I don't know if he was trying to be funny, but he must have not had very many friends in high school.
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I hear Broadband Man is having an affair with his intern, Net Woman.
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Unless God votes, religion should not be in politics.
Hey! Fridays are the new Fridays. Oh,
yeah!
checks herself into a mental institution after she commits suicide. Now, I'm not a genius, but if she committed suicide, I don't think she'd be checking herself into anywhere because she would be dead. Just a thought.
All you have to do is make a Christian rock song is take a generic rock song and change "baby" to "Jesus." It's that simple. Now you can be a rock star.
checks herself into a mental institution after she commits suicide. Now, I'm not a genius, but if she committed suicide, I don't think she'd be checking herself into anywhere because she would be dead. Just a thought.
Hey, Blockbuster! I was just reading the back of the movie "Girl, Interrupted" and it says that a girl
It's called Delta Force
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All right, Princess Jasmine is definite by the hottest cartoon character of all time.
So, let me get this straight: To the Christians these days, gay marriage is a more important issue than war. That doesn't make any sense at all.
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Hey, I think I know what the candidates are doing during the debates. They're playing Tic Tac Toe and I think whoever wins the Tic Tac Toe battle, when that comes out, that's who's gonna win the election.
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Sideways caps and high socks aren't cool. I'm a loser and I know that.
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TALK TO US
Henry C. Jackson
editor
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Some guy just took a picture of me on Mass Street. It's called a pic and run.
This is to the pastor and all of his followers protesting God's hatred towards homosexuals: 1 John 4:20-21 says, "If anyone says, 'I love God' yet hates his brother, he is a liar; for anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." So, obviously you don't know the Bible as well as you think you do.
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In the 2000 election, Douglas County was the only county in all of Kansas that voted for the Democratic party.
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No more apathy; vote on Nov.2
GUEST COMMENTARY
We are sure that you are aware that next month there will be an election. We are also sure that at least once in the last month someone has tried to convince you that this is the most important election of our lifetime.
Now, this statement may have confused you at first. "The most important?" you ask. "Then why did a political cartoon in the Kansan lampoon both candidates, the debates and the entire political process, implying that I shouldn't care at all?"
JASON BOOTS & KATIE WOLFF
opinion@kansan.com
Recent media coverage such as the Oct. 6 political cartoon in The University Daily Kansan portrayed the debates and politics in general as something that is neither pertinent nor interesting to the nation. This unfortunate portrayal of the process will only prolong the image of the United States as an apathetic nation.
We urge you to look past the media images driving their shouts about the apathy of our generation into our skulls. As students and members of a younger generation, we are often considered to be the least politically involved of the population. We cannot allow this inundation of media coverage to disenfranchise us by convincing us that voting isn't hip. Look around you. You can see political activism gleaming in peoples' eyes. Students on this campus have broken school
records with the number of new registered voters. We are here to assure you that you do care and for good reason, too.
This election will have important ramifications. With foreign policy issues concerning the use of troops in Iraq, domestic issues such as the future of social security and homosexual rights, state issues like education funding and possible local referendums about the Lawrence smoking ban, there issues for all interests. These will directly affect your life and you should demand that your elected officials choose policy that will best serve you. As a resident of Kansas, we welcome you to cast your vote in this lovely state. Don't worry; you can still register until Oct. 18.
It is easy to fall prey to the lure of horse-race political analysis. The whole affair seems simple when broken down into neatly drawn pie charts. But do you really want a pie chart to rule your
life? Of course not. The Student Legislative Awareness Board, the nonpartisan governmental affairs wing of Student Senate, has taken the time to compile helpful information for you, from biographies to surveys filled out by the candidates themselves on the important issues at hand. As Election Day nears, visit us at www.ku.edu/ -slab for all of your election needs.
Our hope is that by Nov. 2, your interest has been sparked and you have registered to vote. The SLAB website is bookmarked on your computer and you can recognize the names of most of the candidates that will be on your ballot.
On Election Day, you will arrive at your designated polling site and cast your vote. It will be a relief to release all of that pent up political activity so after you vote, take a stroll around our beautiful campus, and be content that you have contributed as a citizen. Somewhere in the back of your mind you will recall a phrase that will become clear to you. What was it again? Oh, that's right. Engage in your Community. Commit to your world.
Boots is a Plano, Texas, junior and Student Senate Community Affairs Director. Wolff is a Shawnee senior and Student Senate Legislative Director.
Kerry gains ground in debates
To some surprise, Kerry drew first blood on Sept. 30 in Miami, showing himself to be "presidential" — an ever-present word lately, despite any common definition of what it means or looks like — while Bush devolved into catch phrases and seemed caught offguard by the split-screen technology employed by each network telecast
The debates during the past two weeks, predicted on this very page to be more about style than anything else, have illustrated in decisive fashion the issues, positions and personalities of John Kerry and President George W. Bush.
The debate was considered a clear victory for Kerry, and the pictures of a frustrated Bush became useful for Democratic Party advertising.
RYAN SCARROW opinion@kansan.com
Kerry and Bush participated in the only town-hall type debate of the campaign, and Kerry was able to keep Bush from setting the agenda.
GUEST COMMENTARY
In the first part of the debate Bush, had trouble keeping his attitude under check, seeming at times to be overtly displeased at Kerry, moderator Charlie Gibson and even the audience.
Kerry uncharacteristically addressed the President directly at times, but in a stunning reversal was able to seize the quality most associated with Bush by seeming warm and personable with the audience; fully in grasp of his material, and the President's own tax returns. Kerry advanced his arguments with ease for the entire hour and a half.
WED
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At times in each debate he seemed particularly exasperated and resorted to "strawman" arguments and tired labels. He took facts out of context on many issues. And most of all, he looked even more detached from reality than we had come to believe before the debates.
With these two debates down and one to go, we already have some indelible images, not the least of which being that of a president who appears to have difficulty dealing with people who challenge his statements and record. Upon Kerry's direct questioning of the administration's record on various issues Bush would clinch his jaw or slump over his podium, his body language indicating a man who has become too comfortable with the prescreened audiences he has addressed for four years now, and from whom he can expect no dissent from the party line.
After a month in which attacks on American troops have skyrocketed and deaths of U.S. soldiers marked yet another increase from the previous month, the
M Mem staff knew at I Schu
President said the situation in Iraq was improving. In a week in which the Iraq Survey Group reported that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction since the late 1990s and no capacity to produce them at the time of the invasion, the president said it vindicated his decision to go into Iraq.
On the day job employment numbers for September showed a significant decrease, Bush stuck to his script regarding taxes and the economy.
regarding taxes.
Kerry did not fully explain some of his positions and proposals: how to deal with military over-extension and how to cut the deficit without dramatic tax policy shifts being the most crucial of these items. He neglected to address or even bring up some issues of importance to the liberal wing of the electorate, such as poverty and civil rights. But his answers gave the impression of a mind at work.
Kerry's most important goal for the first debate was to establish himself as a clear alternative to Bush. Now he can work on making people want to vote for him, rather than just against the president.
If he can make a clean sweep of the debates tonight and deny Bush from regaining any momentum going into this last three-week stretch before Election Day, then it might be Kerry's race to lose.
Scarow is Humboldt senior in history