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Show "7/ie habit of giving only enhances the desire to give." Walt Whitman ?0 Monday, April 2,2007 797-1762 statesman@cc.usu.edu www.utahstatesman.com O !fi Forgive our skepticism, but this feels familiar Utah Statesman O HOSPITAL Staff The university will be debuting a new program to take the place of WebCT as soon as next fall. We are skeptical about how Blackboard Vista, the new WebCT replacement will go over here at USU. WebCT is working well for students and the thought of replacing it begs the question: Why fix what isn't broken? jr rp Of course progress should not UUr Vl6W be Editor in Chief Elizabeth Lawyer News Editor Di Lewis Arie Kirk Features Editor Holly Mitchell Editorial ~ Assistant Features Editor Manette Newbold Sports Editor Seth Hawkins Assistant Sports Editor Samuel Hislop A Waiver for New Orleans The city has a new plan to build on higher ground After months of false starts and a raft of So far, the Bush administration is not interincoherent plans, New Orleans Mayor C Ray ested. Since Washington included grants to Nagin, D, announced a redevelopment plan cover the 10 percent local contribution for last week that might actually stand a chance of projects in the latest $4.2 billion allocation becoming reality. Rather than pursue a blan- to Louisiana, administration officials seem ket approach to reviving the city devastated mystified by the waiver clamor coming from by Hurricane Katrina, the proposal targets 17 Louisiana. Yet a waiver would allow federal areas for direct investment that Mr. Nagin and funds now earmarked for covering the FEMA others hope will spur private development. requirement to be put to better use funding There's one hitch: the federal government. projects that would allow New Orleans to The $1.1 bil- rebuild on higher ground. The exemption the lion plan relies on state is seeking was granted to New York after bonding and state the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and to Florida grants, but the big- after Hurricane Andrew. A waiver has passed gest share of the both houses of Congress, but it is tacked on financing depends on the Federal Emergency to the supplemental spending bill for Iraq and Management Agency waiving a requirement Afghanistan that President Bush has promised that loca1! jurisdictions in Louisiana supply 10 to veto. percent of the funds for infrastructure projects The 17 sites, spread throughout the city, financed by FEMA. That would have the effect represent a welcome willingness of Mr. Nagin of freeing up $324 million that Mr. Nagin to prioritize the city's redevelopment efforts. and his renowned recovery chief, Ed Blakely, The extra commitment from the federal govcould leverage to attract private dollars to the ernment could be the signal that the private Crescent City. Not only that, the waiver would sector is waiting for to make a firm commitfree New Orleans from the burdensome red ment to New Orleans. And it would allow Mr. tape required for every project that uses FEMA Bush to make good on his solemn vow that money, putting in a new streetlight generates "this great.city shall rise again." a sheaf of documents'trjat slows down rather; Thjs editorialappeared in Sunday's Washington than spurs the city's rebiith>:^^^^^~**'"^ %''''v*??i Post. Nat'l View The definition of 'The Difference' Dug in on Iraq, Bush weighs options The tragedy in the escalating confrontation between President Bush and the Democratic Congress over Iraq is that each has something the other needs. Bush has the authority to engineer a change of direction in the war. But helacks the credibility with the public to re-retahlisn consent for his MherJ/oices Nat'l View course. Congressional Democrats, even after their seismic Senate victory Tuesday, ultimately lack the leverage to mandate a new course in Iraq. But they offer Bush his only possibility of rebuilding a public consensus over America's role in the war. Because neither side can set a sustainable course on its own, their choice is either to continue colliding in polarized confrontations like Tuesday's Senate vote narrowly approving a time limit for withdrawal, or to seek agreement on a strategy for Iraq that a broader coalition in Congress and the country might support. While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called Tuesday for such negotiations, Bush is approaching this intensifying debate with what appears to be utter denial about his political situation. In Gallup polls, Bush's approval rating has languished below 40 percent for most of the past year, a record of futility unmatched by any president since Jimmy Carter in 1980. In a Gallup survey released Tuesday, just 28 percent of Americans said they approved of Bush's handling of the war. In that same poll, three-fifths of Americans said Congress should approve a timetable mandating the withdrawal of all troops from Iraq by fall 2008, a finding echoed in another national survey released Monday. In a country so closely divided between the parties, that's about as close to a national consensus as we get. n Assistant News Editor stifled just because we're ^ comfortable with what we ' have. After all, the new program could be superior to the old one. However, thinking about an example of an upgrade gone wrong from the past - the recent upgrade of WebmaiT - gives us ample cause for skepticism. Many students believe that the new and improved Webmail is inferior to the original. Some say it is a less user-friendly and less intuitive program. We don't want the WebCT that we're used to replaced with something difficult and inferior. Students who have already used Blackboard Vista report various concerns, including incompatibility of the program with older computers, the need to disable pop-up blockers, and it not being as userfriendly as WebCT. Because many students own older computers, this could pose a problem for them. It requires downloads that some students' computers may not have or cannot handle. Students are left out of these decisions and forced to figure out a completely new program on their own. Formal education or training on the program could be helpful. This training could take place in the classes that use the program or specific training classes could be formed for interested students. Quick online courses could even be included in the program itself. The students who have tested the program have said it is difficult to find what they are looking for. A little training could go a long way. As Blackboard Vista is ushered in, the jury will be out, judging the program against its predecessor. This could be a good change if the program is better than or at least as.good, as WebCT, and if students and professors are given proper training. It ! even though Democrats control both chambers. Increasingly, the White House is demonstrating not only defiance but disdain in its dealings with Congress. On Iraq, Bush has rejected any role for Congress other than approving his demands for more funding. He's been equally confrontational in ignoring the ample precedent of public congressional testimony by White House aides and insisting that his advisers will provide only unsworn, untranscribed, private testimony on the U.S. attorneys controversy. On both fronts, Bush has approached Congress with the attitude of a teacher determined to discipline unruly kindergarteners, not as the head of a coequal branch of government. The White House last week asserted that Congress has no oversight authority over the executive branch. Dan Bartlett, the White House counselor, declared that Bush would not negotiate over testimony on the U.S. attorneys issue with "members of Congress who In that climate, it's delusional for the White House to imagine that it can restore public support for its Iraq plans without validation from the Democratic Congress. Yet Bush, in a second flight of fancy,, appears convinced that he can still impose his will on >IRAQ Congress through sheer resolve, see. page 7 7 i Diversions Editor Steve Shinney Copy Editor Rebekah Bradway Photo Editor Jamie Crane Assistant Photo Editor Tyler Larsen Editorial Board Elizabeth Lawyer Di Lewis Seth Hawkins Steve Shinney Holly Mitchell About letters • Letters should be limited to 350 words. • All letters may be shortened, edited or rejected for reasons of good taste, redundancy or volume of similar letters. • Letters must be topic oriented. They may not be directed toward individuals. 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I recently heard on the news l would be willing to bet that groundbreaking research that any person in this socihas been released proving the ety, when asked whether they hard-wired differences between would have success in a presmen and women1. We spend tigious career or have success millions of dollars each year on watching their children be sucresearch and literature explain- cessful and impacting society ing the differences between the for good, they would choose two genders. the second. However, we now I don't mean to boast, but live in a world where the word I'm pretty sure 1 could've told housewife has been synonythem the differences between mous with subjectivity and men and women as soon as I powerlessness. learned to speak, and I would Encouraging women to stay have gladly done it for free, home is not endorsing the idea could tell you that mommy of creating a male-dominatstayed home to make me sack " ed society. Just as the skills lunches and help me with read- of a mason and a blacksmith ing and daddy went to are both different but work and then came Scott Anderson necessary, the home to play baseball ' ' same is with the with me in the back skills of men and yard. women. Both are Today this is not the important, differcase. Too many chilent, and necessary. dren live in homes The femiwhere the nanny makes nist movement the sack lunches and -™**rw\ _.was a series of helps with reading A n y Questions? campaigns in because mommy is seonderson@ccmu.edu 1960's on issues too busy with her own such as reproduclife. Women have become so tive rights, domestic violence, Online poll self-centered that even their equal pay and sexual harassFeeling the pressure from own children become second ment. The movement spread finals yet? to their own desire for success across the globe. The goals outside the home, and that isn't of the movement varied from • Yes from assumption but rather opposition to female gential • No cutting in Sudan to the glass from personal experience. remember stories my grand- ceilingg in Western countries. mother told me about women The movement took off, who held their role as wives burst through _ oglass ceiling o the and mothers in high esteem, and d exploded l d d in i a political liil and when it was needed, they campaign to change the perVisit us on the Web at held the factories together ception of women all togetner. www.utahstatesman.com while the men were out at war. When the first birth control pill to cast your vote. Then when the men returned came out it was marketed as a from fighting, the women went -•o o' -*•—• •• —•- campagin for women to have Check out these links on back to the home. The women the ability to be free from the www.utahstatesman.com: went where they were needed, bonds of men and the burden when they had to" work to sup- of children so they could focus Archives port the war effort, they would on what they saw as really Dining Guide COMING! choose one mother to watch important, themselves, Comics the children while the others The demand for access to Activities and events made the sacrifices necessary both abortion and divorce skyClassifieds to support their families. rocketed. In 1960 there was Wedding/Engagements f ' h i I fear'this sort off sacrifice only .07 abortions per 1000 Slide shows & Video will never be witnessed again, live births, today there are over The role of a wife and a mother 315 - - - abortions • • • per 1000 •• births is the most selfless career on the market, but unfortunately, too many women are not will- • M A R S & VENUS ing to take it on. see page 7 7 I I i i Jm |