OCR Text |
Show 4 Tuesday, March 11,2008 OPINION www.dailyutahchronicle.com THF CHRONICLE'S VIEW Kudok to Huntsman Being able to open the door to £ John M. Huntsman Sr. anmore patients was vital to the • {,' nounced March 5 that he plans continued success of the insti| | to double the size of the Huntstute. The ability to treat more '•• ikvinan Cancer Institute. There <" could not be a more warranted • patients will likely draw more treatment specialists as well as and welcome expansion on this open up more jobs for people in 4, campus. this community. Irlf Twice the amount of paA "job well done" has to go to i:;tients will be able to have Huntsman. Without his experiV their medical needs addressed ence with the disease and his =.. thanks to the new expansion, -.& which is slated for completion 1 philanthropic nature, people in need of the types of treatS!.by 2011. ment available at HCI would .^ • Although the HCI is somebe forced to seek treatment & thing important to our campus, elsewhere. f ;;it is even more important for a ^community coping with a frightA big kudos should also go to ening disease. Cancer patients the Utah State Legislature for /need a place like the HCI. The • approving the bonds needed pvHCI, which is part of the 21-hos- for construction. They saw the '*.£ pital National Cqinprehensive genuine need for cancer treatCancer Network, is renowned ment in the Intermountain West for its comfortable facilities, pa- and realized that an expansion J^tient care and, most importantly, of the HCI would benefit count•(y/its specialists. less people. • The HCI, which houses the Everything that this expan- ;> world's largest genetic database, sion represents is highly posi- :; is the premiere hospital in the tive. No one could have asked •] & Intermountain West where for a better way for money to be ^people can be treated by the spent at the U than helping the X best specialists in the field. people who need it most. Unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of The Daily Utah ^Chronicle Editorial Board. Signed editorials, editorial columns and let--^t ; - ters to the editor are strictly the opinions of the author. The forum ere- y , \ a t e d on the Opinion Page is one based on vigorous debate, while at the \ ',*£ same time demanding tolerance and respect. Material defamatory to a n ' | ; individual or group because of race, ethnic background, religion, creed,,K gender, appearance or sexual orientation will be edited or will not b ^ g h pp h d l b blihd li || published. All letters to the editor will now be published online at www. McCain's hypocrisy Say 'no' to 'glow' know he mumbles out of the side of his mouth a lot lately, but did any of you understand that? Senator Straight Talk did not have sexual relations with that woman, the lobbyist! No thong snapping, no cigars and no blue dresses. And that will be all he has to say about the matter, thank you very much. Poor John McCain has been feeling some heat recently after The New York Times reported that several of his campaign aides were forced to intervene in what they described as an "inappropriate" relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman during his failed 2000 White House run. Shortly after the story was published, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee held an obligatory, finger-wagging press conference with his bewilderedlooking wife in tow and was, naturally, shocked and appalled that the paper would dare to dig into his sex life. Nice try. The issue, of course, is not the sex. That is a matter for his family, and the rest of us should butt out and get a life if that is what interests us. What we are right to be interested in, however, is whether the relationship interfered with his job as a U.S. senator and if any special treatment resulted. This was a lobbyist, after all—not an intern. The evidence so far points to a I DAVID SERVATIUS from federal regulators and facing the threat of seizure. John McCain enjoyed a cozy relationship with Keating dating back to 1981, when the two met at a Navy League dinner and became fast friends. By the time Keating needed help in 1987, McCain had served in the U.S. House of Representatives and was newly elected to the Senate from Arizona. In that time, Keating contributed more than $112,000 to McCain's various political campaigns. He also flew the McCain family to the Bahamas on his private jet on several occasions and worked out a sweetheart shopping mall deal with Cindy McCain, the senator's wife. The Arizona Republic reported, "As federal auditors crawled all over Lincoln, Keating was not content to wait and hope for the best. He'd spread a lot of money around Washington, and it was time to call in his chits."And when he called, John McCain delivered. He and four other senators, who would come to be known as The Keating Five, quickly arranged a series of meetings with members of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the agency handling the investigation. Board Chairman Ed Gray said at those meetings, he was blatantly pressured by handful of questionable yet ultimately benign favors being done by McCain for the companies Iseman represented at the time—really nothing more than the "business as usual" in Washington D.C. that he is so contemptuous of, at least in his rhetoric. What is more troubling is that the episode seems to be part of a larger pattern for the Arizona senator. The whole thing brings to mind another, earlier relationship between McCain and a lobbyist that was not only inappropriate but also ruined the lives of thousands of innocent people. During the deregulated 1980s, careless investment practices caused the collapse of the entire savings and loan industry and led to a costly government bailout. In 1987, flamboyant Arizona mega-developer and anti-porn crusader Charles Keating found himself in the middle of the mess and in need of some help. His Lincoln Savings and Loan company was under heavy scrutiny See SERVATIUS Page 5 On "We must make legal immigration easier" (Karin Abel, March 3, 2008) Opinion zeezil posted 3/03/08 @ 5:54 AM WIST Following the law, abiding by the law and supporting the law is "work" that illegal aliens just won't do. Two different groups have emerged in America today due to the effect of illegal immigration: those who have to obey the law (citizens) and those who don't (illegal aliens). Legalizing an illegal alien's presence in America by rewarding his or her illegal behavior through amnesty is not the way to build a good system of law and order. It only invites more criminal activity and more avoidance of our laws. We tried "comprehensive immigration reform" in 1986. We gave amnesty to 3 million illegal aliens in exchange for the government promising to secure the borders, conduct workplace enforcement and enforce immigration law. It didn't work because the government lied and did nothing besides process the amnesty paperwork. Due to that folly, we now have 20 million or more illegal aliens here demanding amnesty. Don't you think it is far beyond time that we engage in comprehensive immigration ENFORCEMENT rather than comprehensive immigration reform? Get on the phone, fax and e-mail your senators and representatives and DEMAND that they engage in comprehensive immigration Enforcement, not amnesty reform. W hether or not Utahns may suffer from cancer, birth defects, other illnesses or may glow in the dark someday currently lies in the hands of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The NRC ANASTASIA is currently NlEDRICH considering a proposal that would allow EnergySolutions to import 20,000 tons of nuclear waste from Italy to the U.S., 1,600 tons of which would be buried at the EnergySolutions' waste disposal site in Tooele County. The largest amount of waste that the NR.C approved for import prior to now was 6,000 tons. The size of this request is over three times that previous record amount. EnergySolutions' Tooele site is one of a handful of sites in.the nation that currently takes in lowerlevel nuclear waste from other states and countries. It is estimated that the other sites will either be full to capacity or near to capacity by the year's end. What does this all mean? Unless things change and Utah acts now, Utah may soon become the only viable dumping ground in the nation for U.S. and On "Election posters vandalized" (Michael McFall, March 10, 2008) News international nuclear waste. While proponents of nuclear waste storage in Utah (i.e., EnergySolutions) say this waste is "lowlevel and safe," and Utah already stores this kind of waste, opponents say that even "low- > level" nuclear waste can be harmful or even deadly. There is always the risk during transport through the state that the waste could spill, or that even after storage for many years, a leak could occur, permanently poisoning the ground and water sources. Although this risk, based on previous incidents, may be minimal, it is still there. The point is that the safety of storing this waste is in dispute, and there is risk of major harm resulting from it. We only need to recall the repercussions of nuclear testing earlier in the 20th century and the effect those tests had on the "downwinders" in Utah to see what exposure to nuclear materials can do to a person. The potential consequences of nuclear exposure are abominable and unacceptable. I am an Air Force brat who spent See NlEDRICH Page 5 ^ Davey Davis posted 3/10/08 @ 12:51 AM MST Hah! Remember, remember the 5th of...March? Really, though, mustaches and missing posters hardly amount to headline news. I think Graham Anderson puts it best with his comment in the article. It might be worthwhile to consider the amount of resources we're putting into an election system that is unnecessarily partizan and essentially based on popularity and poster output. If you have an issue that you want to forward on campus, whether within a party or for ASUU in general, you should run on that interest or issue and speak within your department or campus organization, not a cleverly colored T-shirt or a $3 poster. Otherwise, it's just resum6-mongering and just plain useless for the rest of us on campus. Although I'm probably going to vote for the Focus party because of its approach to communication on campus and focus on activism and sustainability, I couldn't help but notice the Spork campaign has similar goals. So why are they different parties? •Anyway, vote this week, vote in November, do Crucial s*** somehow. |