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Where's Higher Education?

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Last year, I wrote an article about the leading presidential contenders’ stance on issues of higher education. As a college student, these issues are of particular relevance to me as many students look forward to year of paying back 5-figure, even 6-figure student loans. While the economy is collapsing around us, I applaud moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS for asking this question as way to close the debates: “The U.S. spends more per capita than any other country on education. Yet, by every international measurement, in math and science competence, from kindergarten through the 12th grade, we trail most of the countries of the world. The implications of this are clearly obvious. Some even say it poses a threat to our national security.

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Terrorist By Association

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“Treason!”

“Kill Him!”

“Terrorist!”

Sounds like someone must have betrayed the United States in a horrible way, doesn’t it? Maybe sold secrets to an enemy, put American soldiers in danger on purpose, something like that. Whoever it is must surely deserve those words, right? Otherwise, why say them?

Disgustingly, the words refer not to some despicable example of a human being that cares little for people or his country, but to Barack Obama. What’s more, they were said at a GOP rallies in Florida and New Mexico, during speeches by Sarah Palin and John McCain:

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The Vocabulary of the Economy

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Stick and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me. So goes the tune we were all taught as 7-year-olds to make ourselves feel better after getting mercilessly teased by the school bully. But flash forward to 2008 and it seems like the pen has come back with a mighty vengeance.

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Shrinking from Debate?

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What the hell just happened?

This was supposed to be the big week. I’ve been looking forward to this Friday for months. Finally, at long last, John McCain and Barack Obama were going to butt heads in an epic duel of the ideologies before a national audience. Maverick vs. Outsider.

Okay, so they were just having a debate. Please excuse the hyperbole.

The point is, this Friday is to be the first time that our would-be presidents would finally meet and the American people would be able to see who was made of stronger stuff, who had greater mental agility, who’s staff had better prepped them on the answers. Finally, it would just be the two men, alone on a stage, with nothing between them but Jim Lehrer.

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One Hell of a Hangover: Wall Street’s Credit Crisis

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It’s no surprise that as the market continues to dramatically fall apart, the intense debate around underage drinking has resurfaced. At least, that’s what my organizational behavior professor said earlier this week. Citing many regulatory failures and lack of oversight, many see the crisis as a product of an over-eager and greedy Wall Street that got out of hand. Just like your buddy who doesn’t know his tolerance and when to quit, Wall Street just needed one more drink and he would be set….

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Scandal in the Interior

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This past week, a new scandal emerged from the Department of the Interior. Given how lurid the details to the scandal are, it is more than a little surprising that it has not had a more explosive effect, and it is disappointing that there has been little coverage of it on media outlets..

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What Palin Says (or Doesn't)

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At the risk of becoming a one trick pony, today’s entry is something of an election follow-up to our first entry…

It’s now been one week since Gov. Sarah Palin gave her nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Party convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

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Palin's Contradictions

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From the corners of a poorly lit room in Collegetown and rising from the chambers of an art deco style dorm down in our nation’s Capital, we bring you Muckracking for Pennies. Here at MFP, our goal is to bring you the news from an insider’s perspective as Donial Dastgir’10 works from DC and Liz Manapsal’10 writes from Ithaca. We’ll blog about important news and events but also take time out to blog about news that might not make it to the front page of the newspaper but still have impact on college students and the nation at large. This is our first edition.

For better or worse, Wednesday night belonged to Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

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Gun Control Elicits Safety Concerns

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This is the third and final part of a series of articles examining gun control at Cornell, in the United States and in countries around the world.

Cornell is a safe place to be — at least it appears that way. Isolated in Upstate New York, it is removed from the violence typically associated with cities. But how safe is Cornell?
Isolation does not necessarily guarantee safety. In 1983, a gunman murdered two students in their dormitory room, slipping into the dormitory unnoticed with a rifle. Two years ago, a white Cornell student stabbed a black student from Union College in a racially motivated hate crime.

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Foreign Countries Divergent in Strictness of Gun Control

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This is part two of a three part series examining gun control in the nation, internationally, and on the Cornell campus.
While gun activists have been pressuring the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Washington D.C. residents should be able to own handguns in their homes for self-defense, many countries have implemented tough restrictions on guns in order to curb crime rates.
The democratic country with the most stringent gun control is Japan. According to David Kopel, research director of the Independence Institute, and a strong opponent of gun control, Japan entirely outlawed all rifles and handguns, resulting in a strong sense of security.