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Domestic Politics

Judging Miers: Bush’s Nominee Feels the Wrath of the Right – Brian Wantz

The nomination of Harriet Miers may prove to be a critical turning point in the life of the Bush Administration. Until now, the President was hovering on the brink of ruin: with his political party embroiled in scandal, the nation’s energy prices rapidly rising, and more U.S. military dead coming out of Iraq every day, the President’s approval ratings teetered at around forty percent—a number generally considered both an important psychological barrier and a minimum level of support needed to push policy in a friendly Congress. But with the nomination of Miers, CBS polling shows the president at a record low of 37 percent approval, with 58 percent of respondents disapproving. [more]

Unintelligent Design: The Christian Right’s Junk Science – William Ma

Creationism by any other name is still…well, Creationism. One of these names is Intelligent Design, the latest attempt by Creationists and radical Christian Fundamentalists to infiltrate our public school system. For a long time, the Christian Right has been working to push God back into the classroom on a national level, and have failed every time, thanks to a little obstacle called the Constitution. Undeterred, they continued to try and in many instances succeeded in pushing their agenda at the grassroots level. Their latest scheme is to sell Creationism, a doctrine of Christianity, as science. [more]

Opinion

Proposition 73: Teens’ Safety is Our Responsibility – Brianna MacPherson

On the surface, Proposition 73 sounds reasonable. However, we all know that those on the far right are masters of obfuscation, often proposing one thing but meaning something totally different. For example, there was Bush’s Clear Skies Act, which will lead to more polluted skies; his Healthy Forests Initiative to allow commercial logging in national forests; and the PATRIOT Act, which strips fundamental rights from an accused and tears away at our privacy rights (hardly “patriotic”). Anyone who remembers these examples should be leery of any neocon proposal that seems reasonable at first glance. [more]

A Hard Pill for CA to Swallow – Caitlin Metzger

Proposition 78 is a fake. Like scam health insurance (you’ve seen The Rainmaker, right?) or a very superficial plastic Barbie doll, this initiative promises something it is unable to deliver. Written by drug companies and marketed as establishing a discount prescription drug plan, what Proposition 78 actually does is allow “qualified individuals” to pay an annual fee of $15 in return for the possibility of receiving discounted medications. [more]

Policy Making for Dummies: Why Proposition 74 Swings and Misses – Sarah Edwards

In Public Policy 101, budding policymakers are taught to devise effective alternatives for their chosen problem and to ultimately select the solution that works to most closely achieve their stated goal. It is clear from reading Proposition 74 that our illustrious governor never attended UC Berkeley’s Goldman School, as his solution for improving California schools only exacerbates our educational system’s problems. [more]

Column

Cal Dems Digest – Scott Lucas

Hello and welcome, everyone! It’s my pleasure to have the opportunity to share with you a little bit about what our club is doing and how you can get involved. [more]

War & Peace

Post-Disengagement: What Comes Next in the Middle East? – Robert Kaufman

Israel’s historic disengagement from the Gaza Strip and several other settlements in the northern West Bank in August has set the stage for genuine and lasting peace between Israelis and the Palestinians. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, known for being the originator of the settlement movement for several decades, literally risked his entire political career on this unprecedented plan. [more]

The Politics of Feeling: Who Decides if a War is Worth Fighting? – Andy Sponring

I am no politician. I know what I believe, but I do not in general find my beliefs to make for interesting conversation. Sometimes it even takes a good jolt, a pang of some feeling, to make me remember why I believe what I believe. [more]

Eye on the Nation

Two Presidents, Two Disasters, Two Reponses – Eli Davidson

In the wake of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Eli Davidson constrasts the President's response with that of our last great president, William Jefferson Clinton. [more]

When the Water Recedes: Where Should We Go From Here? – Severine Fleming

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we are forced to consider the possibility that we are attempting to inhabit an uninhabitable place. The fact that a city is a complex place that holds our history, the origins of much of our music, our culture, and our children’s memories does not change the unfortunate reality of its potential geological unsuitability. Our aspirations, our expectations and our visions of continuity for our great cities of culture must be congruent with the ecological reality. [more]

How Was Your Weekend? – Andy Ratto

Working at Crossroads cafeteria was loads of fun. I got to spend most of my time chatting with freshmen, grazing, and playing tag with my coworkers. One day I was wiping hummus off a table when a recent Chinese immigrant who worked full time at Crossroads asked me for some assistance with her English. “Can you help me say words?” she asked. I happily obliged. [more]

“The Greatest of these is Charity”: Why We Need a Real Christian in the White House – Eric Lopez

George W. Bush is a fundamentalist Christian. Everyone says so. Even he does. He has actively pursued the policies of the evangelical right at every turn, he has appointed conservative Christian judges, and he has filled his administration with Reagan conservatives. So you may rightly ask how could I, a loyal blue-blooded Democrat, possibly want him to become more Christian? The answer is that while he may have a great deal of faith, President Bush is not a fundamentalist Christian. [more]

Humor

No CA Sun for Bert, Ernie: Long-Time Couple Announces Cancellation of Plans to Move – Eric Panzer

New York, NY – Beloved Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie have canceled their plans to relocate to California, blaming Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent veto of California’s first marriage equality bill. [more]