September 2009 Volume 6 Issue 1

North KoreaHina Sakazaki

Page 6

California’s Budget WoesHenry Gens

Pages 10-11

Is Israel Acting in Defense?

Israel’s Right, but is it Right?Ben Bendor

Pages 12-13

The Mask Covering Israeli AgressionArjun Bharadwaj

Page 13

The Regulars

Gunn UpdateRobert Chen

Page 4

The LifeAaron Guggenheim

Pages 4-5

Where We’re AtAndrew Liu

Pages 5-6

Review: Harry Potter 6Prya Ghose

Page 14

Is Universal Health Care Necessary?

Obamacare, a BriefingNaor DeleanuPage 7

The Need for Universal Health CareAndrew LiuPages 8-9

Universal Healthcare: The Wrong Prescription to an Ailing EconomyYoyo TsaiPage 9

Chari tDelivering Gunn’s Culture and Politics

Editors-In-ChiefRobert Chen

Aaron Guggenheim

Senior EditorsBen Bendor Andrew Liu

Associate EditorsTBD

Copy EditorsTommy Huang

Graphics/LayoutBrittany Cheng

Scott Wey

CirculationTBD

PublicityPriya Ghose

Contributing WritersYoni Alon

Arjun BharadwajCorey Brier

Naor DeleanuAndre Garrett

Heny GensJacob Guggenheim

James GuptaAlice LiJeff Ma

Sam NeffHina SakazakiVivian ShenYoyo TsaiIan WilkesStanley Yu

Ethan YungOmer Zach

Foundation/Group Sponsors

Palo Alto Host Lions ClubPalo Alto Roller-Masonic

Lodge

Patrons ($100+)Robert M. Russ Jr. and

Pauline A. Navarro

Sponsors ($50-99)Garret and Lalitha Swart

Jeff and Vivian Saper

Contributors ($21-50)Marina Brodskaya and

Bill GuttentagCathy Zui and Robin Roy

Special thanks toAdvisor, Marc Igler

2 September2009

Join Chariot!We are currently looking for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors who are inter-ested in political affairs and would like to write about their views. We are also searching for a student with experience using InDesign software to help with the layout. If you are interested in either position, please contact us at gunnchariot@gmail.com

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A Letter from the EditorsAs editors-in-chief for 2009-2010, we will be making will be some large-scale changes to Chariot. First of all, you may notice that we have changed our name. We felt that our old one, the Partisan Review, did not accurately represent the focus of the content.

We are going to be shifting the focus of our publication from content solely about heavy hitting political news to more coverage of life at Gunn and society. Expect to see articles on technology, the Internet, and maybe even pirates. However, we will still be keeping true to our roots with the traditional pro/con article format and coverage of the major relevant political issues of the day.

We also hope to write about issues relevant to you. This will range from includ-ing your opinions alongside our articles (letters to editors and short opinionated quotes about the issues of the day are most welcome) to conducting polls.

To help make this shift, we will be introducing three regular columns. The Life follows our shift in focus by incorporating non-political topics. The Gunn Update shows you our intention of making Chariot more relevant to you. And finally, Where We’re At shows our continued commitment to the larger global issues that matter.

Sincerely,Aaron Guggenheim and Robert Chen

Editors-in-Chief

About UsChariot is intended to create and promote political discussion at Gunn. We ask that you respect all opinions which are reflected in our publication, and write let-ters to the editors if you wish to voice your opinion.

Visit our website, www.gunnchariot.com if you wish to view any issues from previ-ous years or for more information about us. Any questions, comments, sugges-tions, or requests to join can be sent to gunnchariot@gmail.com

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Ted Kennedy DiesAt the age of 77, Senator Ted Ken-nedy of Massa-chusetts passed away after suffer-ing for 15 months with brain cancer. He had served as a senator for 46 years, rising to become a Demo-cratic giant. He was known as a bipar-tisan deal maker

whose compromises got legislation passed. A social progressive, he worked as an advocate for the poor, vulnerable, old, and different. His great legislative achievements include the Americans with Disabilities Act, WIC food program, and State Children’s Health Insurance Program. His goal of universal health care was stopped short by his death.

Mexico Relaxing Drug LawsIn an effort to free up time, jail space, and police forces, the Mexican government decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana (5 grams), cocaine (0.5 grams), methamphetamine (40 milligrams), LSD (0.015 milligrams), and heroin (50 milligrams). In the past few years, cartels’ clashes with the government and each other have resulted in over ten thousand deaths. By passing this law, they target the distributors of the drugs instead of the roughly 300,000 drug addicts. When caught with possession, instead of being treated as crimi-nals, these people will be referred to free treatment programs and treated as patients. Under the same law, those found with up to 1,000 times the personal dose would be considered dealers and would be dealt with by local police. Those exceeding that amount would be considered traffickers and be subject to federal prosecution. This law puts Mexico amongst many other countries such as Great Britain and the Netherlands that are rethinking the all-out War on Drugs approach set forth by Nixon and Rea-gan.

Obama Reappoints Ber-nanke to Fed ChiefPresident Obama nominated Ben S. Bernanke to a second term as Federal Reserve chairman on August 25, stating that “Ben approached a financial system on the verge of collapse with calm and wisdom, with bold action and outside-the-box thinking that has helped put the brakes on our economic free-fall.” Mr. Obama credited Mr. Bernanke’s experience as a leading scholar of the Great Depression with bring-ing the “economy back from the brink.” Despite a field filled with strong candidates for the position, Mr. Obama reportedly only offered the position to Mr. Bernanke. Mr. Bernanke was also a favorite among many economists and policymakers who praised his decisive action. Mr. Bernanke’s success, along with the support he has received in Washington, makes Senate confirmation and a second term almost cer-tain.

The World in a Blurb

What’s That?

Cash for ClunkersThe Cash for Clunkers program was signed into law by President Obama to bolster car purchases as well as to help get less fuel-efficient cars off the road. Cash credit, ranging from $3,500 to $4,500, was given out to those who traded in their cars. The program was a wild success with over 457,000 cars turned and traded for cash credit. As a result, clean-er, less polluting cars are now on the roads and the auto industry has received a much-needed boost.

SchedulingCo Editor-in-Chief

Robert Chen

There were several improvements over last year. Firstly, the registration was completed online. The move to electronic records is better because of its efficiency, easy access, and en-vironmental friendliness. Secondly, there was a screening line for picking up a ticket, which helped to weed out those who just wanted better teachers and could not come up with a good excuse.

However, these two changes didn’t affect the two bottlenecks in the sys-tem now: the shortage of counselors and instructional supervisors. While rescheduling, all students have to ei-ther go through a counselor, of which there are six, or the department IS, of which there is usually one per class change. For those changing several classes around, getting all the IS sig-natures is a pain. Having all the in-structional supervisors in the same place alleviates the situation, but the long lines remain. Besides the solu-tion of hiring temporary counselors or having teachers volunteer to do scheduling for the first week, one pos-sibility would be for all rescheduling to be done online. This would have the benefits of eliminating lines, decreas-ing hassle, and saving students’, counselors’, and teachers’ time.

However, one drawback is that it would make teacher shopping easier. A student’s teacher for a given class has such a small impact on the stu-dent’s grade or knowledge when com-pared to the inputted effort, participa-tion, and studying. Here, +’s and –‘s don’t affect GPA, so a harsh grader should not make enough of a differ-ence to significantly drop GPA. And if

he or she does, a student’s effort will have an even larger effect than sim-ply getting another teacher. In many classes, independent learning on the part of the student is an expectation, so a poor explainer should matter less than help from peers or time spent studying. Essentially, getting a “bad” teacher is not an excuse.

Another issue that would arise is that large groups of friends would all enroll in the same class, which would make teaching hard for any instructor. And I’m not talking about being in the same classes as a best friend; I’m talk-ing about being with the same six or so core group of friends. This doesn’t occur now because completely ar-ranging classes to match a friend’s is not worth the trouble, because many classes are already fully enrolled, and because the counselors who monitor the process prevent it.

The problem of teacher shopping can be addressed by simply listing a course’s periods but not the instruc-tors. The issue of groups of friends enrolling together can be avoided by having the administration pre-enroll classes to prevent students from completely building their schedules ground up. This way, classes would fill before groups of students could enroll together.

This issue comes down to how much independence the administra-tion is willing to give students. By opening up the system and putting it online, the process becomes smooth-er, faster, and more efficient. Howev-er, this would take away the adminis-tration’s ability to micromanage the distribution of students and reduce counselor input in scheduling matters.

Please Don’t Do this to Yourself

Co Editor-in-Chief Aaron Guggenheim

I know that you have all heard the phrase “Do not procrastinate”, but I think that very few of you have actual-ly taken it to heart. As an incoming se-nior, I can attest to the rigors of junior year. Unfortunately, it is pretty stress-ful and a lot of work, but with good time management, you can also enjoy yourself. You can have more time to do the things that you actually want to do and less stress.

In my junior year, I had to balance my commitments to cross-country, school, a social life, and the SAT. To put it bluntly, I had limited time on my hands. It soon became apparent to me that I needed to get a decent amount sleep to do well in both running and school and that I could never manage to start my homework before 6:30 at night. I decided that the only way in which I could survive with these re-alities was to use every available min-ute. During my prep period, I sat down at a desk and did homework. When I had extra time during class, I would pull out the English book that I was reading and would catch up on read-ing. When I got home from practice, I ate, showered and then sat down

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and did my homework. During these periods, friends or the Internet did not distract me; I strictly concentrated on the work.

By doing this, I always managed to get my work done well and on time. I also knew that I could never procras-tinate on an essay, major project or test. To prevent this, I set timetables to do the major project or essay in and made sure that it was done 2-3 days beforehand so that I could look over it before I turned it in. I also would study up to a week before any major test. As a result of making these simple ad-justments, I almost never went to bed past 10:30 because of homework. I usually had half an hour of free time every day, very little homework on the weekends and I never freaked out over a major project, test or essay because the likelihood was that I had already done it or studied for it.

But, I did have a couple of slip-ups during junior year and they were not fun. One time, I decided not to do my unit of history notes until the night before. I honestly just did not feel like doing them. They had built up, week upon week. It was an enor-mous amount of reading and notes. That night, after completing my other homework I sat down to tackle the notes. They took seven hours to do. Seven straight hours of reading and taking notes because I had let them build up. It was miserable and I lost a lot of sleep trying to finish something that should have already been done. If I had spaced out the notes through-out the week, I would never have had the problem I had and I would have learned the material better. Instead, I suffered for something I shouldn’t off.

The moral of my Junior is to man-age your time well; the better that you manage, the more time you have to do what you want to do. Get work done on schedule or ahead of time. Use the periods where you do your homework effectively, don’t be dis-tracted by friends or the Internet. Hon-estly, just better yourself; don’t pro-crastinate.

Signs Point to Fragile Revival

Senior EditorAndrew Liu

Despite the drastic impact of the current Great Recession, many signs now point to a revival, albeit a fragile and precarious one, of both the do-mestic and global economies.

Home sales, often imputed as one of the biggest causes of the domes-tic economic downturn, had risen for three straight months as of July, a first since 2004. In the financial sector, big banks like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America announced large profits, driving up the stock market 44 per-cent since March. In July, the U.S. economy lost fewer jobs than in any other month since the Lehman Broth-ers’ collapse last fall, leading to a drop in the unemployment rate, from 9.5 (June) to 9.4 percent (July). Between September 2008 and March 2009, the national economy shrank 6 percent; since then, it has contracted only 1 percent.

On August 12, the Federal Reserve announced that “economic activity is leveling out” and said that it would begin to rollback its two years’ worth of intervention. This confidence, how-ever, was tempered by warnings that the recovery would be slow and weak and that unemployment would remain high, projected to climb to as much as 9.8 percent in 2010. Economists generally agree that jobs will be one of the last of the economy’s aspects to recover from the recession’s impact. That being said, the White House has pointed out that less than 10 percent of employment recovery from the stimulus money will occur in 2009, implying that most of the promised 5 million “preserved or created” jobs will

take place next year.Whether or not all of these positive

indicators mean substantial economic recovery in the near future is up for debate. While historical precedent tells us that a deep downturn is fol-lowed by a strong recovery, a growing aggregate of skeptics contends that never before has an economic crisis been so deep, global, and transfor-mative. Furthermore, they point out that the optimistic economists touting economic growth figures are celebrat-ing only the technicalities of economic expansion while ignoring other crucial aspects of the economy.

In particular, halts on credit flow and lack of both domestic and global consumption could prove to block or inhibit any economic recovery. In U.S. banks and credit markets, there have been few, if any, signs of anything but a dysfunctional system and restriction on credit. But credit recovery will be crucial. “Credit fuels housing. It fu-els consumer durable goods. It fuels business investment. It’s in every part of the economy,” said Carmen Rein-hart, an economist at the University of Maryland. “Credit makes recessions after a financial crisis longer, and all the signs are that [it] is happening this time as well.” Consumption, too, con-tinues to decline as consumers rein in their spending. Retailers this summer predict the worst back-to-school shop-ping sales performance in a decade. In the U.S., the disposable income savings rate shot up from 1.2 percent in early 2008 to 5.2 percent in early 2009. Less consumption means less money flowing around in the econo-my, leading to a deprived credit sys-tem. Lack of credit reinforces flailing consumption by keeping money flow stagnant. This system of positive feedback has proven devastating, and could hinder successful recovery.

The lack of consumption especially

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Where We’re At

becomes a problem on the interna-tional front, where for years, American spending has been a juggernaut be-hind growth of export-oriented coun-tries and the entire global economy. Missing a substitute for American buy-ing, a global recovery may fall short of substantial, according to the Washing-ton Post.

Nevertheless, a recent spate of economic expansion in foreign econo-mies brings signs of hope for global recovery. Japan’s economy, which had shrunk 11.7 percent in the first quarter of this year, grew 3.7 percent from April to June. In China, forecast-ers predict growth as high as 9 per-cent this year. And the European Union’s economy contracted 0.3 per-cent from April to June 2009, much better than the 2.5 percent decline in the last three months of 2008.

Change in North Korean PoliticsContributing Writer

Hina Sakzaki

On March 17th 2009, North Korean border guards seized two American reporters, Euna Lee and Laura Ling. The two were sentenced to 12 years in jail for hostile acts and illegal entry

to the North. They were released when former presi-dent Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang in August. But, a question remains: why were these Americans re-leased while many other captives of different nationali-ties were held in-definitely?

K i d n a p p i n g s have occurred in the past; North Korea abducted more than sixteen Japanese civilians from 1977 to 1983. Only five have returned and the oth-ers are still missing. South Korea has also suffered from kidnappings; an es-timated 84,532 South Koreans were taken during the Korean War, with an additional 3,795 people after the war. 480 South Koreans still remain in North Korea against their will.

Neighboring nations are also left in fear of the North’s military capabili-ties. Constant threats of nuclear test-ing and rocket launches threaten East Asia daily. In January 2003, North Ko-rea broke off from the Nuclear Prolifer-ation Treaty, and in July 2003, claimed that they could manufacture nuclear weapons. And yet, after agreeing to take down nuclear facilities in 2007, the North rearmed with threats of mis-sile testing. The broken promises in nuclear disarmament agreements in recent years have left North Korea to be labeled as inconsistent and dan-gerous.

This same sort of inconsistency also exists in North Korea’s international relations. South Korea is at a constant risk of destruction at the hands of the North. The relationship of South Ko-rea and North Korea is crucial to an overall peace, but is also known to be mercurial and volatile. But now, North Korea has agreed to an open border with South Korea, allowing for tourism and family reunions. Though these

new policies are favorable, many in-quire why.

All of the answers may lie in Kim Jong-Il. Although his dictatorship has caused many to hate North Korea, these new policies couldn’t have hap-pened without him. He is the “dear leader” of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; everything goes through him. It is his 15th year of reign, and his health is in jeopardy. He suffered from a stroke in August 2008 and then diabetes. He was also hospi-talized in October 2008 for neurosur-gery and couldn’t appear in public for the rest of the year. It is also known that he may be suffering from pancre-atic cancer.

With his health at risk, Kim Jong Ill has made plans for the future. He an-nounced in June 2009 that his young-est son, Kim Jong-Un will be North Korea’s next leader. Jong-Il may be trying to improve relationship with oth-er countries to make things easier for his successor.

Now it is time for change and hope. Although Kim Jong-Un is described as the exact same as his father and en-joys a luxurious life, he questions the lives of average people. Hopefully, this will be a young leader who will change North Korea for the better.

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Obamacare, a BreifingContributing Writer

Naor Deleanu

The United States spend far more than any other country on health care, yet it is ranked thirty seventh in the last health system rankings.

President Obama has made univer-sal healthcare a legislative priority, as have top Democrats in Congress. In his presidential campaign, Obama promised to have a plan that would cover all 45 million uninsured Ameri-cans by the end of his first term. How-ever, proposals for health reform have turned into legislative nightmares for Congress, and Obama’s approval rat-ing has plummeted. Most Americans have expressed support for a univer-sal health care system, but they are growing increasingly wary of Con-gress’s proposals. In addition, a vo-cal minority has protested attempts at health reform, with some disrupt-ing Democratic town hall meetings. There has been outrage among some elderly over so-called government “death panels” even though nothing of the sort has been proposed.

There are several health care bills that are going around various commit-tees in the Senate. Three main ways to cover the uninsured have been pro-posed. One proposal is a completely government-run health care system, doing away with private insurers com-pletely. This is known as a “single-payer” system and is currently used effectively in several countries, includ-ing Canada and England. Govern-ment-run universal health care sys-

tems have been proven to be cheap and relatively high quality. Most of the top health care systems in the world are government-run. Conservatives, however, have criticized single-payer health care as an inefficient bureau-cracy, with long wait times and ration-ing of care. A single-payer system is unlikely to come close to passing any time soon.

President Obama’s current propos-al is a compromise between private insurers and the government. It would allow people to continue their current health care program, but would pro-vide a government-run “public option” for the uninsured or those dissatisfied with their current plan. The govern-ment would compete with private insurance compa-nies, hopefully bringing cheaper, higher qual-ity care. Conser-vatives and health insurance compa-nies have bashed the public option, purporting that the government has an unfair advantage be-cause it doesn’t need to worry about things like profits or taxes. A bill containing a public option passed with a slim majority in the House, but it seems unlikely that a similar bill will make it through the Senate. Efforts at a public option have been thwarted by the more moderate “blue dog” Demo-crats. Any bill in the Senate needs 60 votes to break a filibuster and bring it to a vote. No Republican has en-dorsed a public option.

Although many liberal Democrats remain insistent upon a public option, some have proposed further compro-mises with their more conservative constituents. The newest proposals involve health care co-ops. These are non-profit institutions run by their members, in contrast to shareholder based corporations. Conservative Democrats have backed proposals based on government-aided co-ops. However, there has yet to be any measurable Republican support for Democrat-endorsed bills.

In addition to insuring the unin-sured, health care reform will have

to combat the rampant waste in American health care today. Ac-cording to a recent study, more than half of the $2.2 trillion spent on health care in America annu-

ally is wasted. President Obama has proposed,

among other things, pay-ing doctors based upon

quality of care instead of upon the number of procedures they perform or the number of patients

they see. However, under current circum-

stances, any govern-ment-aided plan is go-ing to cost an enormous amount of money and

add to the $9 trillion federal deficit. It remains to be seen whether a health care bill will be passed, or if health re-form will flounder as it did during Bill Clinton’s presidency. This major piece of legislation looks to be a defining moment in Obama’s young presiden-cy and will shape our country for years to come.

September 2009

Universal Health Care: A Step in Which Direction?

The Need for Universal Health Care

Senior Editor Andrew Liu

For the 15 percent of Americans without health insurance, inaction on health care reform only means fur-ther suffering. The case for universal health care is growing, not only be-cause there is a moral imperative to guarantee health insurance for all, but also because there are practical, cost-effective ways to achieve this goal without afflicting the rest of Americans.

The Census Bureau reports that 45.7 million Americans remained un-insured as of 2007, and that number has skyrocketed since the advent of this economic recession, with 14,000 more losing health insurance every-day. We have an obligation to help the underprivileged obtain the health care that is basic to an individual’s security and well-being.

Especially in the United States, Ronald Reagan’s “last best hope of man on earth,” the inequality in health care is a travesty of our basic rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap-piness. It is shocking that among the 30 Organization of Economic Coop-eration and Development (OECD) member nations (the high-end na-tions of the world), only three do not provide universal health care: Mexico,

Turkey, and the United States. Mexico and Turkey have the excuses of po-litical instability and lack of wealth. We cannot claim either of those, so what is our excuse for not providing health care for all?

Some of us simply have not been moved to act. Especially in Palo Alto, where many of us are privileged enough to have quality health care. But, we must realize that any one of us could join the ranks of the uninsured with the loss of a job, sickness, or an employer’s decision that health care is too expensive to pay for. This problem is just as much ours as it is anyone else’s.

Others assert that universal health care is impractical and too costly. But that claim ignores countless examples of successful, cost-effective universal health coverage. For example, in a World Health Organization ranking of health care across the world, univer-sal health systems in Italy (ranked 2), Spain (7), Japan (10), and the United Kingdom (18) spend 9, 9, 8, and 7.5 percent of their GDPs, respectively, on health care, while the United States (ranked 37) spends 15 percent. Clear-ly, universal health care is not only successful in other developed coun-tries, but it also seems to be of better quality and is less expensive.

And for those who contend that we cannot compare the United States to other countries due to demographic

differences, Massachusetts’s univer-sal health care plan shows the benefits that coverage for all could have for the United States. Three years into Mas-sachusetts’s policy of “obtain health care or pay a tax”, the statewide rate of uninsured is 2.6 percent (the national average is 15) and the rate of unsub-sidized premium increase is 5 percent (the national average is 10.3). More than 40 percent of the newly insured have bought private policies without taxpayer dollars, and all the govern-ment had to do was “require” health insurance. Of course, Massachusetts subsidizes insurance premiums for low-income residents so that the un-derprivileged can meet the demands of the policy, but that is the only “cost” to universal health care.

That being said, skeptics warn that costs of such subsidies on a national level would be much larger. But univer-sal coverage itself would actually bring down costs in several ways. First, universal care would incentivize all to take advantage of cheap, accessible preventive care such as checkups and mammograms, forestalling chronic dis-ease and exorbitantly costly treatment later on. Also, the costs of emergency room care to hospitals would plum-met as all patients would be insured (currently, hospitals have to provide emergency care whether they receive compensation or not). This would en-courage hospitals to lower consumer

8 September 2009

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costs and bring down expensive rates. Universal health care would pave the way for more government involvement in health care and consolidate costs. This could possibly happen through a centralized database of patient records to eliminate wasteful inefficiencies such as insurance submissions, du-plicate paperwork, and claim approv-al. Depending on the implementation of universal care, industry regulation could also bring down costs because the government would be able to buy drugs or treatment in bulk. These sav-ings would make universal coverage much more affordable than our current system.

And even if this new system needs more revenue, there are plenty of ways to raise this money. Reallocat-ing money that is currently wasted in certain federal health programs would raise much more revenue than many give it credit for; for example, we pay $100 billion in subsidies to insurance companies under Medicaid while do-ing nothing to improve the quality of health care. Also, a tax on the wealthy like the one President Obama has pro-posed would raise $544 billion over 10 years while affecting only 1.2 per-cent of United States households, the same households that benefitted dis-proportionately from the Bush tax cuts.

Health care is now at the center of national debate, and this is our chance to push for universal health coverage. There are fair, practical, and cost-ef-fective ways to achieve universal care. If we allow the status quo, we continue a fundamental inequality in America.

Universal Healthcare: The Wrong Prescription to an Ailing Economy

Contributing WriterYoyo Tsai

As of 2008, one in six Americans under the age of 65 does not have health insurance. As a result, many have begun to support a universal healthcare system sponsored by the national government. However, it is not the responsibility of the government to provide universal healthcare and it is not any more efficient than privately sponsored insurance. Though it may sound like a good idea, its name is misleading. Universal healthcare only means access to a waiting list and not always healthcare for everyone.

Worldwide, there are many nations that have a large government role in medical care. However, these nations are not in a better position than the United States from a medical stand-point. Though people may say that life expectancy is greater in Canada and England, life expectancy also depends on factors unrelated to healthcare, in-cluding injuries and homicide. What really matters is not life expectancy, but the chances of surviving a major illness. The American Cancer Society reports that American patients have better survival rates for most types of cancer than those in Canada and Eng-land.

Not only are survival rates lower in other nations, but after a govern-ment is involved with an industry, it never sits back. After universal healthcare is es-tablished, the gov-ernment will then further decide what drugs, treat-ments, and pro-cedures should be released to the market – or not. For example, with-

in the years 1998 and 2002, the US market released 85 new drugs to the people, as opposed to the 48 drugs that were made available in Europe during that same period of time.

Besides looking at the healthcare worldwide, we can also look at the government controlled insurance com-panies within the nation. Government programs like Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP pile so much paperwork upon doctors that most of their time is spent filling them out instead of seeing actual patients. The Medicare program itself is directed by 110,000 pages of rules and regulations. So while doctors are expected to see more patients, they are also required to fill out unneces-sary paperwork for each patient that they see. Not only are they expected to fill out paperwork and see numer-ous patients, they must also learn to deal with the politics of the profession they love, which is definitely not what they intended on doing. In the end, this will only provide burned out doctors who retire early. What use is providing medical care to everyone when there are no doctors available to do so? This will only produce longer waiting lists with more side accidents as a result.

Last but not least, studies show that universal healthcare results in a decrease of quality in medical care. Pressured by time, energy, and the government, doctors lack the ability to give quality care to every patient they come across. Since when has it been right for quantity to be greater than quality in a medical field? Never. Doctors are pledged to serve the best quality care to every patient, but due to government hindrance, they are no longer able to.

It is true that something must be done to help those who want health care but cannot receive it due to costs. However, universal health care is not the right way. We must learn from the example of other nations and not fall into the misrepresentations and lures of a universal healthcare system.

September 2009

California’s Budget Woes

Contributing WriterHenry Gens

Perhaps you’ve noticed the rag-ing debate and panic of the last sev-en months as Californian lawmakers scrambled to resolve a gaping $60 bil-lion state budget deficit. Even though the state budget was finally closed a little more than a month ago on July 24th, the implications for California’s system of monetary allocation still re-main after its latest broken showing.

The crisis began in early Janu-ary when the Office of the Governor released its outline of the California 2009-10 budget, which predicted a gap of $41.6 billion for the current and next fiscal year. Following on the heels of this unsettling announcement, the legislature resumed debate on ham-mering out a budget that would some-how appease both the Democrats, staunch supporters of maintaining social welfare programs and services, and Republicans, who were adamant-

ly opposed to tax increases of any kind in the budget. After much heated debate in February, amongst which Senate leader Darrel Steinberg had to tell fellow lawmakers to bring their toothbrushes in anticipation of all-night marathon sessions over resolving the looming gap, the legislature was able to pass a budget that covered the $42 billion breach on the 19th. Governor Schwarzenegger signed the budget on the 21st and placed certain provi-sions on a May 19th ballot.

The special election held on May 19th, the sixth in 36 years, only contrib-uted yet another fiasco to the debit cri-sis. Of the ballot measures 1A through 1F, dealing from a “Rainy Day” budget stabilization fund (through extended temporary taxes) to borrowing against future lottery earnings, only Proposi-tion 1F passed; it prohibits increases in salaries for top government officials and members of the legislature if the state is expected to end the year with a dearth in the General Fund. Much of the blame for the overwhelming failure of these measures can be placed on the utter confusion surrounding them,

from the lack of explanation to unin-telligible wording on the ballot itself. Nevertheless, voters managed to show their widespread disapproval for the government’s handling of the deficit by passing proposition 1F with a commanding 74.3% in sup-port.

Still, even if all six ballot mea-sures had passed, California would have faced a $15.4 billion hole, down from $21.3 billion prior to the special election vote. Either way, the government had to resume dis-cussion on closing the state budget in late May.

Legislature again started de-bate over a compromise on filling the gaping budget, and managed to work out an agreement on June 30th, the last day of the fiscal year (and also past the June 15th bud-get deadline for the 28th time in the last 32 years). Governor Schwar-zenegger, however, vetoed the plan and thus California entered the fis-

cal year on July 1st with an enormous $26.3 billion shortage. This led the Governor to declare a state of fiscal emergency, giving lawmakers 45 days to resolve the budget crisis. With no end to the deficit in sight, state con-troller John Chiang had to resort to issuing IOUs (formally known as “reg-istered warrants”) to pay back banks and investors for the second time ever in California’s history since 1992. Such action led to the further downgrading of California’s bonds, already the low-est-rated of any state, to within an inch of “junk” status—making it even more difficult for the state to raise funds.

Despite the impending sense of fiscal Armageddon, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger finally signed a deal closing the last of the budget deficit on July 20th and the legislature approved of the deal, apportioning $25.3 billion four days later. The deal contained $15.6 billion in cuts with the rest made up of fund shifts, borrowing, deferrals, revenue solutions and $921 million in reserve funds.

And so the budget lives to fight an-

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10 September 2009

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other fiscal year. However, now more than ever is the time to take a closer look at the causes of California’s pe-rennial plague. Firstly, deadlock over deficit is nothing new to California due to the unique organization of its gov-ernment. Any proposed budget must pass both houses of legislature by a two-thirds majority vote. Furthermore, a similar two-thirds majority in both houses must be garnered for any pro-posed tax increase as well. California is the only state to possess both of these provisions, and combined they create regular impasse in fiscal mat-ters, as the current Republican minori-ties (enough to prevent a two-thirds majority) handily demonstrated in this last budget crisis.

On the issue of taxation, California is the owner of one of the most vola-tile systems in the country. Due to the infamous Proposition 13, which Cali-fornian voters passed in 1978, initiat-ing the “taxpayer revolt” across the country, the taxes levied on property are capped and cannot be raised to provide a greater source of revenue for the state government. Thus the government has to rely in large part on personal and corporate income tax, which is an unsteady source of rev-enue, unlike property taxes. In boom years, the government, rather than setting aside money for future fluxes in the economy, spent ever more money. Now in the midst of a global reces-sion, California is faced with a serious dearth in its main source of revenue from income taxes.

The flaws in the tax system also il-lustrate another glaring issue in the state government: the voter initiative. This heralded form of direct democ-racy, introduced to the state in 1911, has been used since the late 1970s to further fuel California’s financial woes. Even though California is among 24 states that allow voter referendums, recalls, and initiatives, it is the only state that does not permit its legisla-ture to override a successful measure. This leads to the voters making de-mands for spending ever more money,

money that the state government does not have and must then find. Further-more, California’s initiatives do not have sunset clauses, provisions that let them expire. Once they’re passed, they’re here to stay and the effect is often an incomprehensible mess of overlapping jurisdictions that makes many functions of the government un-necessarily complicated.

As if direct democracy in California wasn’t convoluted enough, its system of representative democracy takes the cake for unreasonableness. Through excess gerrymandering and geo-graphical concentration of party vot-ers, California has produced one of the most partisan states in the nation. Furthermore, Primaries are closed for each party meaning that voters can only elect politicians in the party they are registered with. This creates elec-tions between candidates within the same party, with each vying to be the most extreme candidate and appeal to voters solely within their party. Thus a whole host of partisan politicians are sent to the Capitol; with such ex-tremists running the government, the amount of stalemate should come as no surprise. And this representative government does a very poor job of representing voters, the majority of which are of political moderates.

California urgently needs to reeval-uate its system of government if it wishes to avoid continued states of fis-cal emergency in the future. This last budget crisis nearly destroyed the world’s eighth-largest economy; if Cali-fornia does not work to avert such di-saster in the future it may very well find itself facing one hole it can’t climb back out of. Such a calamity would not only have catastrophic effects on Califor-nia, but on the entire global economy as well. Though, with no reform in sight, perhaps Governor Schwar-zenegger spoke best for the California budget crisis when he said, “I’ll be back.”

September 2009

CA Budget, 2009-2010General Fund Expenditures(in millions)K-12 Education:$35,658, 40.0% of total

3.4%

Human and Health Services: $24,953, 28.5% of total

13.4%

Higher Education: $10,547, 12.0% of total

3.4%

Corrections and Rehabilition: $8,210, 0.1% of total

18.0%

Israel’s Right, but is it Right?

Senior EditorBen Bendor

When Israel launched its offen-sive in Gaza last December, many criticized Israel for excessive re-taliation. Undoubtedly, Israel should have done more to prevent the un-fortunately heavy civilian casualties that occurred, the main issue in this conflict is not whether or not Israel had the right to retaliate or was act-ing in defense. Even Human Rights Watch (HRW), perceived by many as having somewhat of an anti-Is-rael edge, did not challenge Israel’s right to retaliate, but merely criti-cized Israel’s methods. To be fair, HRW also blasted Hamas’ indiscrimi-nate use of rockets against Israeli civil-ians (which created an environment of pervasive fear) and its tactic of hiding in the most densely populated areas in order to increase Palestinian civilian casualties.

In a move late July (partly inspired by Palestinian opinion) that could have a significant impact on the conflict, Hamas stated that it would no lon-ger use its infamous Qassam rockets against Israel, though it neglected to mention longer-ranged rockets which it currently does not possess. Seeing as rocket attacks have provoked Is-raeli retaliation in the past, this move could help to reduce violence and ease some of the tension. Still, the fact re-mains that if Hamas does attack, Israel can strike back. Given that Israel not only has the right to retaliate against attacks, but also faces significant pres-sure from its citizens to do so, it is es-sential for the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) to tread carefully and avoid civil-ian casualties as much as possible in the event of a conflict. This is important

obviously from a short term humanitar-ian point of view, as well as from a long term strategic point of view. If the IDF kills more civilians, it will only advance Hamas’s attempt to demonize the state of Israel. First of all, Israel must rule out the heavy use of artillery and air strikes. As much as a hindrance that that might be for the IDF, artillery and air strikes are bound to kill lots of civil-ians when Hamas hides in civilian-in-habited areas. Furthermore, any strike should be conducted only with proper intelligence beforehand as to the loca-tion and numbers of armed enemies, and sufficient warning should be given to civilians potentially in the line of fire. While such measures may hurt the IDF’s ability to easily kill militants, it will help improve the image of Israel; any peace talks will be impossible if Israel is seen as the devil incarnate.

Israel must use not only the stick but also the carrot. While Hamas’s original 1988 charter calls for the destruction of Israel and refers to Hamas’s conflict with Jews in general as opposed to simply Zionists, in the 2006 elections Hamas tried to conciliatorily ignore that

provision. Indeed, in April 2008 Hamas indicated a willingness to agree to a two-state solution that would return Israel’s borders to those before the 1967 Six-Day War, given that Israel granted the “right of return” to all Pal-estinian refugees. Based on opinion polls, the part of this deal that Israelis find most objectionable is the right of return, not the borders. There is pos-sibly some common ground on the ba-sic foundation of the potential deal, but more details need to be worked out. While it would be nice for Palestinian refugees to return, such a provision could not only hurt the chances of a deal being reached, but it could lead to conflicts over land. The more prudent agreement would be to allow gradual amnesty of refugees and easy access to foreign aid for those refugees not initially given amnesty. Furthermore, details regarding the status of Jeru-salem are crucial to any peace deal, and unfortunately could end up derail-ing what could otherwise be promising talks. Admittedly, the conflict in Gaza took place months after Hamas’ state-ments, but it would be foolish for Israel

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12 September 2009

Is Israel Acting in Defense?

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to assume that Hamas has totally giv-en up. Israel should cautiously make an overture, but make it clear that while it would like peace, any attacks will be met with forceful, measured retaliation. If Hamas fails to renounce violence (or large sections of Hamas do), then Israel should proceed to negotiate with organizations such as Fatah which are open to negotiations, albeit with preconditions.

If peace is to be reached any time soon, both sides must do their best to not only restrain their trigger fingers, but also make it clear that they have definite desire for peace. For Israel this does not necessarily mean giving up the option of force if attacked first, but it does need to stop hitting first and must strike carefully when fighting. Ideally both sides will learn that any further violence is counterproductive, and as cliché as it is, peace can be reached only by reasonable and civil negotiations.

The Mask Covering Israeli Aggression

Contributing WriterArjun Bharadwaj

Israel is the strongest nation, mili-tarily and economically, in the Middle East. It is one of the few nations with nuclear weapons, and it has been suc-cessful in military campaigns against

all its neighbors. Despite this, the me-dia has always portrayed Israel as a victim, one constantly under threat from the Arab nations surrounding it. This portrayal is the opposite of reality, given Israel’s recent aggression and human rights violations in the Gaza strip.

Despite conventional wisdom, Is-rael has acted equivalently to a per-son shooting a tiger that ate his or her family and then inhumanely destroy-ing a zoo on the suspicion that the ti-ger may have come from there. Israel has attacked civilian targets, including food industries and densely populated neighborhoods. While proponents of Israel argue that these attacks are necessary as Hamas, the current party controlling the Gaza strip, uses guer-rilla based tactics, they fail to explain more recent strategies of the Israeli military, including the use of unarmed Gaza civilians as human shields, or the fact that Israeli soldiers gunned down civilians waving white flags dur-ing the recent Gaza offensive.

Israel’s defense for this behavior boils down to a single, repeated story: that terrorists were or could have been in the crowds, and that the Israeli De-fense Force (IDF) was trying to defend Israel. This does not justify Israel’s ac-tions. That the IDF fired shots into a crowd waving white flags or bombed a building due to mere suspicion of terrorist activity demonstrates Israel’s use of immoral and criminal force against unarmed civilians.

No, Israel’s attacks were not a jus-tifiable defense against attack, but more of a show of dominance over its neighbors. This is not the first time Is-rael has attempted to control the Pal-estinian areas.

It is easy to forget Israel’s hand in the creation of the radical group Hamas, although pro-Israel adherents will argue that Hamas was a grass-roots movement in Gaza based on Islamic charity and Islamic fundamen-talist groups. For Israel to consort with these forces, Israel supporters argue, would be suicide. But the main enemy

of Israel at that time was not the re-ligious extremists but more secular groups, such as Fatah and the Pales-tinian Liberation Organization (PLO). According to Zeev Sternhell, head of the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and contributor to the Israeli News-paper Haaretz, “Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists [Hamas] against the PLO.” The early charity movements that defenders of Israel point to as the source of Hamas were in fact encouraged by Israel to undermine Fatah, which had its hands tied with the Oslo Accords, something that Israel had wanted undone. The founder of Hamas, a paraplegic fun-damentalist known as Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, was in fact released from a life sentence “on humanitarian grounds” by the Israeli government in order to destabilize the Fatah Government in Gaza. These “humanitarian grounds” did not stop IDF from later killing Yas-sin, along with his family, when he no longer “cooperated.”

Despite the time that has lapsed since Hamas’s formation, Israel’s re-cent attacks in Gaza show that Israel’s inveterate habit of justifying aggres-sive tactics in the name of “security” has not gone away. As the evidence shows, Israel’s supposed defensive actions are in reality an almost imperi-alist push to claim dominance over the Palestinian territories.

September 2009

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

ReviewPublicity

Priya Ghose

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: the legendary boy wizard deals with Voldemort for the sixth time… and manages to mesmerize the audience yet again. This movie, though lack-ing in action in comparison to the first five, is as entertaining and as visually stunning as all the rest. The icing on the cake is that the young trio’s acting chops are finally developing and that they each hold their own throughout the movie.

The plot is complicated with several subplots. For fans of the book, this is perfect because they already un-derstand what goes on. However, for those movie-goers who have never read the books, the movie may seem confusing and the sub-plots may seem unnecessary. The main plot revolves around Dumbledore teaching Harry about Voldemort’s past through others’ memories. Another im-portant story line is Harry’s quest to prove that Draco Mal-foy, his arch nemesis, has be-come a Death Eater (follower of Voldemort). Other subplots in-clude various romances among the trio and the antics of the new Potions master Professor Slughorn, who “collects” talent-ed or famous students (includ-ing Harry) as if they are prizes. Another subplot, the inspiration for the name of the book and movie, is Harry’s secondhand Potions textbook, which has notes about spells (even newly invented ones) in the margins written by a past student who calls himself “the Half-Blood Prince”. The notes help Harry ace Potions, but slowly the trio begins to realize that the Half-

Blood Prince, while a Potions genius, could also be an evil fiend.

The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Rupert Grint and Emma Wat-son as Harry’s loyal best friends Ron and Hermione. In previous movies the adult actors had talent but the inexpe-rience of the three kids showed. No longer. Growing up in front of a cam-era has finally rubbed off on them and their acting is authentic. By far the best actors in this movie, however, are the villains. Bellatrix Lestrange, who has a bigger role in the movie than she had in the book, is truly frightening as a Death Eater who clearly enjoys oth-ers’ pain. Alan Rickman’s portrayal of Severus Snape is, as in the last five movies, so convincing that even those of us who have read the final book and may have changed the opinions we once held of Snape once again find ourselves plotting horrible things against him when he coldly kills some-one (ahem) towards the end of the

movie. Though he always has a very distinct slow speaking voice and an in-different tone, his face and prolonged gazes manage to communicate his emotions. Young Voldemort played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and Frank Dil-lane (at different ages) is a handsome, charming young man. Somehow, both young actors are able to lend his char-acter a subtle evil that is even scarier than the unmistakably evil Voldemort we met in the earlier movies.

The screenplay is both the rise and fall of the movie. The screenwriter, Steve Kloves, took great liberty in the manuscript, adding conversations, and even scenes that are not in JK Rowling’s book. The dialogue remains lighthearted and funny throughout a very serious movie, keeping the movie from feeling too dark (as past movies have). However, the plot often strays too far from the book, inventing use-less scenes while leaving out impor-tant ones. The movie opens with one

such imagined scene where Harry is hitting on a pretty Mug-gle waitress in a restaurant, before Dumbledore shows up and drags Harry off on a trip with him. The scene adds noth-ing to the movie and no similar situation is ever even implied in the book. In another scene, The Burrow, home of the Wea-sleys, is set on fire by Bellatrix Lestrange, for no apparent rea-son other than to add action to the movie (never mind that the book’s primary action scene, the battle between Death Eat-ers and Hogwartians towards the end, is almost entirely cut from the movie).

Overall this movie is definite-ly worth seeing for fans of the books. The sets and the acting make the events in the book seem more real to me. Howev-er, if one has not read the book, I would advise seeing the mov-ie only with a friend who has read the book, as there are many layers to the plot.

14 September 2009

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