8/14/2019 The VanCougar: October 27, 2008

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Gov. Chris Gregoire recentlycalled for cuts to the State budget asthe decit soared above $3 billion.The action took place as electionsgrew nigh. A saving measureforthe State or for her campaign?

As important as it is, lets notthink this election is only about vot-ing for our next President. There aretwo important initiative measures onthe ballot and several other positionson the roster including Governor.Two candidates vie for that o ce: In-cumbent Christine Gregoire (D) andformer Senator Dino Rossi (R).

Dont think your vote doesntmaer in this election. With our econ-omy in disarray and a state budgetdecit of $3.2 billion, the Governorsrace couldnt be more important.

While some of the past Washing-ton State Governors have been lilemore than ribbon-cuers, there arethose, like Gregoire, who are activemovers and shakers. Not since DixieLee Ray (1976-1980) has Washing-ton State had such a vocal and active

Governor. However, an active Gover-nor does not necessarily add up to agood Governor.

We would do well to ask our-selves what Gregoire has actuallydone for us before considering a re-placement. We must also ask whatRossi might do for us were he in theGovernors shoes.

Gregoires stint in o ce hasmade a dierence. Lets look at someof the things shes accomplished andyou can decide if retention is in or-der. She boasts creating more than

200,000 new jobs and doubling ourexports, and yet our unemploymentrate is higher than ever and indus-tries are laying workers o at alarm-ing rates. Gregoire is also responsiblefor the current state-wide hiringfreeze that has aected WSUs abilityto hire needed facultyand depend-ing on your course of study, possiblyaect your education.

She says she believes in health-care, but her emphasis has been onlyupon children. Like you, I believehealthcare is a right, not a perk. Sowe got results that provided health-care coverage to 84,000 more of ourkids and, she said, I took the nextstep and established a goal of cover-

ing all kids by 2010.Healthcare for kids is a good

thing, but, as college students, whatdoes it do for you?

Not only is her healthcare focuson children, so is her educational fo-cus. Gregoire recently cut the State budgeta necessity due to its $3.2 billion decit under her reign. Andwhat did she cut? Higher educationfundingthat is funding for Wash-ington State University as well asstudent aidto fund K-12.

She should have frozen K-12

building , and channeled the moneysaved into salaries and the arts.

In this issue:

The Eyes, Ears and Voice of the Students at WSU-V

By Gregory E. ZschomlerEDITOR-IN-CHEIF

Gov. Gregoire cutshigher ed funding

Washington State University -Va October 27, 2008 www.vancougar.com

Gov. alienates voting agecollege students by cuttinghigher education funding.

Presidential Picks

PICKS andPREDICTIONS

If you care these are OUR picksand predictions for the issues

and candidates. BELOW

Our greater editorial sta ex-pressed reluctance at a personal stamember by sta member endorse-ment. Nor did we feel that a news-

paper is proper in endorseing a can-didate, though they traditionally do.We feel this way for two reasons:

One, it is unfair to the sta asthey likely do not all personally en-dorse a single candidate. How canthe paper speak for them all?

Two, it presents the media ashaving a bias. Thus, how can the re-porting be seen as impartial?

In the case of The VanCougarwe also feel that we represent thevoice of the students and those voic-es are varied. Therefore we wish toextend an opportunity to you to ex-press your opinion and be heard.

You can participate in our elec-tions survey by clicking the link at

our website: www.vancougar.com. Just for the record I (Greg)will be turning on my long historyas a Republican and voting Obamafor change. McCain would give usmore Bushism and I am soooo tiredof Bush, and the Iraq war, and...Bushhas been beating the same dead horsefor long enough; we dont need Mc-Cain to continue.

I also will be voting for Rossi inthe gubernatorial race, Ill endeavorto retain Sam Reed as Sec. of Stateand Im voting NO on both initatives(see my commentary on the back).

I (Kati) am doing what is kindof the same-old-thing for me andvoting Democrat. I have actively

aempted to conceal my political

stance not only as an editor, but as astudent for several reasons.

I certianly did not want peoplewho know me, as a person or edi-tor, to think that I am biased in myreporting. I have never let politicaldierences get in the way of acuratenews. [Greg: Nor I.]

As all can clearly see, this isnot something I usually do, but hereI will share my political decisionsand the reasoning behind them.

First and foremost, I am votingfor Barack Obama because I feel thatthe war started by George W. Bushwhich will also be continued in aMcCain Presidencyis not only im-moral, but one of the reasons for ourcurrent economic troubles.

As far as the gubernatorial racegoes, I am voting for Chris Gregoirein spite of her decision to cut highereducation funding. While I am a col-lege student who will be moving onto graduate school in the next year, Icant vote for my own interests alone.The money that would have gone tohigher ed will now go to K-12 ed.

I happen to work for the Van-couver School District, and I haveseen rsthand the need that K-12schools have for funding. Not onlyare students in need of materials, but the teachers and paraeduca-tors (like myself) dont get paidnearly enough. In addition, thereisnt enough funding for special edand life skills students in the publicschool system. I am voting for ChrisGregoire because, like her, I feel Imust put the education of childrenbefore my own interests.

OUR PREDICTION: Obama will de-finately win the Presidental race inWashington State. We believe hehas a very good chance of winningthe election nationally.

By Kati Hughes & Greg ZschomlerTHE VANCOUGAR

SPECIA

L

SUPPLEMEN

T

As you may have read in theabove article, Governor ChristineGregoire recently cut higher edu-cation funding so that K-12 public

school can be beer funded. Know-ing this, it may come as a surpriseto hear that President Elson Floydreceived a substantial raise in sal-ary this year.

While this decision was madein August - before Gregoire madeher decision the current economicclimate raises an important ques-tion: where does all of this moneycome from?

Floyds salary has increasedfrom $600,000 to $750,000. Wherewill this come from? With the ris-ing costs of tuitionand every-thing else under the sunmy guessis out of our pockets. I also wonderwhat The Board of Regents could

have been thinking, given the factthat Floyd had recently called forextensive spending cuts and a Uni-versity-wide hiring freeze when thepay increase was voted in.

I would love to get a 20%raise right now, but with the econ-omy falling down on our heads Iwouldnt want to take it from any-one else. Especially the studentsIm supposed to represent.

Pres. Floyd raise

JAKE theRAKEIs the election one sided? A donedeal? Our own Jake the Rakethinks so. See why on the back.

By Kati HughesMANAGING EDITOR

As tradition would have it,we could, as a newspaper,endorse a candidate. Wehave chosen not to, but...

WSU Pres. calls for ex-pense cuts and a hiringfreeze then gets a raise onhis $600 ,000 salary

The basis of our government beingthe opinion of the people, the veryfirst object should be to keep thatright; and were it left to me to decidewhether we should have a govern-ment without newspapers, or news-papers without government, I shouldnot hesitate a moment to prefer the

latter. ~Thomas Jefferson (1787)

TAKE OUR ONLINE ELEC-TIONS SURVEY on ourwebpage at www.vancou-gar.com. See the resultsin the next issue.

8/14/2019 The VanCougar: October 27, 2008

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The VanCougar2 EDITORIAL

No need for drastic measuresTHE WASHINGTON DEATH WITH DIGNITY

ACT: Initiative Measure No. 1000, AN ACT Relating todeath with dignity; amending RCW 70.122.100; reenact-ing and amending RCW 42.56.360 and 42.56.360; addinga new chapter to Title 70 RCW.

My mother suered from a disabling disease known

as Supernacular Palsy. Basically, her muscles, over time,became ridged like stone. The whole process seemed totake about three years. First her arms and legs slowly be-came non-functional, then her speech, then her ability toswallow. At that point she could have been fed trough atube, but chose not to. She lived out her remaining dayswasting away, though not in physical pain. Funny, shecould still smile. And even though she could do lile toparticipate in our times together, you could tell how valu-able they were to her. She died peacefully one day. Hos-pice was good. The care facility was good. Mom was atrooper, she faced death with true dignity.

Long illnesses and severe debilitating conditionsare not pleasant to think about and much less so to livethrough. But, to end ones life? Youre not nished tilyoure nished. (Who knows what you might add to thelives of others in your remaining days?) Pain can be man-aged, death is nal. Ive always felt that Someone greater

then I was beer at deciding when my number was up.I urge you to seek life; vote NO on 1000.

BTW: The measure calls for an Informed deci-sion mean[ing] a decision by a qualied* patient, to re-quest and obtain a prescription for medication that thequalied patient may self-administer Fully informedmeans that they would be advised of the potential risksassociated with taking the medication to be prescribed.Thus, Possible side eects include death. *read measure.

WASHINGTON REDUCE TRAFFIC CONGESTIONINITIATIVE

Initiative Measure No. 985 would open carpoollanes to all during non-rush hours, require cities to syn-chronized trac signals on main streets, and providemore money for emergency roadside assistance in order

to clear accidents more quickly. I-985 would also create aspecial account to be spent for trac congestion relief, tobe funded by revenues already being collected: 15 percentof the sales tax on vehicle sales, the former half-percent-for-art money if it comes from a transportation-relatedpublic works program, and revenue from red-light ticketcameras in cities.

Lets go through this line by line. Carpool lanes,good; synchronized trac lights, good; roadside emer-gency funding Whoa Nelly! Did you read that? Fund-ingthe word was funding. By using 15% of the salestax. If it can be spared, why not just reduce our tax by thatmuch? Revenue from red light ticket cameras?! Oh, boy!Thereswhere the funding will come from.

Maybe we ought to rethink that one. This would pri-marily benet the Puget Sound area anyway. Lets voteNO and let them pay for it with a city tax. Oh, and letsreinstate the % for art money. Art will be retiring soon,

he needs the bucks to buy his RV.

For more info and the full text of these initatvessee the Washington State Voters Guide online at:http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/osos/en/Pages/Onli-neVoterGuideGeneral2008.aspx

~Editor-in-Chie

Staf Writers & Photographers

Beau Baxter Rosser, Rosann Bartel,Robert Chu, Matt Hunter, Collin

Rickman, Willy Chi Shue Tsang, LouiseWynn, Jason Garcia, Hannah Walker,

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Illustrators

Danielle Mosier and Anita Fleming

Layout and Design

Greg Zschomler and Kati Hughes

Web Editor

Michael Hatch

2008 Te VanCougar

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Jake the Rake

Initiative 1000: Assisted suicide. Initiative 985: Transportation issues.

One Sided Election in 2008By Jake Kleinschmidt

The election was over in September. Senator Obamahas had the lead in the polls since then despite what themedia tries to push a close race. If you follow the Gal-lup polls its fairly obvious that for the Republican Partyits more of an embarrassment than a race.

Joe six packs and Joe the plumber (who isnt regis-tered to vote) are not enough to save the McCain cam-paign. During the primary elections the Clinton campaigncriticized Obama for not wearing an American ag lapelpin at a rally. Interestingly enough, at least two of the de-

bates Senator McCain has been lacking his own pin andlacking approval.

It could be said that Governor Palin was not the primechoice for a running mate. It could also be admied thatsuch an opinion would be subjective. Lets turn to CNNs

election tracking and Gallup polls. If you add the num-bers from all the polls up it generates 353 electoral votesfor Obama and 185 for McCain. A conservative estimatewould give Obama 326 votes and 212 for the Arizona Sen-ator. If John McCain won every remaining bale groundstate in the nation, Obama will still have 277 votes andwin the election.

The chances of John McCain winning the baleground states are next to nil since the endorsement ofObama from the republicans former secretary of stateColin Powel. For the McCain campaign, it isnt a maer ofwinning the election; its a maer of how badly are theygoing to lose.

Despite this evidence, some of you will vote for theArizona Senator. Washington is a blue state; it is leaningtowards Obama and will be won by him. Voting for Mc-Cain is in essence voting for a 3rd party candidate. Someof you may yet still vote for the Republicans out of prin-ciple; statistically 40% of you do this for the Republicanor Democrat up for election just because they have a D orR next to their name. This leaves 20% of the population todecide who wins the election.

By now most of you have probably already voted,and its too late to change your decision. In four years youwill have a chance again to cast your vote for the propercandidate. Next time the right choice might be a Repub-lican. Then again, given that incumbents almost alwayswin there may not be a chance for you to vote R. It would

be nice to nally have a viable 3rd party candidate so wecould vote neither D nor R and actually have a real choice

besides two complete opposites trying to look neutral.

NOTICE: The articlesherein are opinion pieces,and, as always, the opin-ions expressed are thoseof the authors and notnecessarily those of TheVanCougar staff, nor thestudents, staff or facultyof WSU-V.

Usually when I dont agree withsomeone, I cant see the logic of theirside. The situation Im in right nowwith I-1000 is unusual, because I cantotally see the logic of voting no, butI myself will be voting yes.

My personal experience withdeath has been extensive and varied.My mother has said to me on manyoccasions, youve dealt with a lotof death in your short life, kid. Itstrue. Ive watched an aunt, an uncle,two grandmothers and a grandfathersuer through illness and die.

All but my aunt were strickenwith cancer, and they all chose to be troopers like Gregs mother,may she rest in peace. I admire that,and personally think it is the rightchoice to make. However, I see it asa choice.

Who are we to say that ending

ones suering isnt even an option?Aer watching so many that I lovesuer for months and eventuallyspend their last weeks incoherantand in severe pain, I can see why aperson would want it to end.

I am voting yes on I-1000 be-cause although I admire the strengthit took my relatives to hold on untilthe end came naturally, if any one ofthem had chosen to end their ownsuering I would not have tried tostop them. While I think that life isthe right choice, voting yes actuallymakes it a choice.

Im not going to tell anyone how

they should vote on this very impor-tant issue. I will only say this: voteyour conscience. Thats the AmericanWay.

~Managing Editor

My take on I-1000