ATTALIOn'
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srs
/on
ployea
it pem'M
ay. June 7, 2001
o PINION
Page 5
THE BATTALION
)N, v .
telecomm
ucent Ted
f feting vol
note than
ill removes
â–  ity officials
across
nit
erical
cl Monday
.‘ither
for a
check your guns
cities’ rights, but offers no added protection in return
thi
:ir t£
Texas
â–  gasped when
^â– xas Senate
jyees targttcM a that
icstly muidB remove a
s light to ban
sealed weapons
ml lie property.
snian ^ or ' l ®le the bill has not received final
cent. AllthR.^ that it passed the Senate at all
* 1 ?’‘ ire insanity.
insitM-niakers who support the bill said
is designed to eliminate confusing
Biat differ from city to city and
Bilish the state’s power to regulate
igims.
Bile this is a noble goal, the execu-
is lacking.
h(| state has not laid down concrete
s for where handguns can be car-
.1 his is like building a boat from
top down and launching it before
At the bottom on.
o,hfthe bill ultimately passes, the
; would have the power to over-
lilcal regulations on where hand-
s could be carried, but so far it has
made any substantial limitations
vhcre concealed handguns could
arried.
Inder state law, it is illegal to carry a
[Bled handgun into a bar, prison,
isement park, school or at collegiate
rqressional sporting events.
t€Hl it COr I {ns ever, the law is not specific
i-UCent... utlnany other public locations. For
7 ino no5l! ' ant e ’ ^ t ^ ie Senate’s current bill
_ f / “T .c.ye to pass, concealed guns would be
/. / ,v>, j p U i ) ii c pools, churches and
rtroonis.
^ te !o, the only way for a city to attempt
Lehman E e A late any of the hundreds of
' "res not covered in the current state
' 1 isio lobby the legislature in two
noo others rs |o impose limitations,
selling oper p his
is absurd. How can local gov-
About 2,00i natuts be expected to operate effi-
•y the end ofiH
an AT&T
financial ta
lid a sluggisl
micadons
and sonic j
has fallen
Ians
')0 ii
ciently if they are forced to sit on their
thumbs for two years and pay lobbying
fees up to $100,000, simply to be heard
by the legislature?
This two year limit puts an unrea
sonable burden on Texas citizens. If
the Senate bill passes, every Texan will
be forced to look over his or her
shoulder while in public. This will
continue for at least two years, or until
the legislature gets its act together,
which will undoubtedly be much
longer than two years.
No parent should have to watch oth
er parents at a public pool to make sure
they are not carrying a weapon around
children.
No party in a court proceeding
should have to hire bodyguards to make
sure they are not shot during a lawsuit.
No city, municipality or county should
be disavowed of its right to defend its
citizens.
Presumably, the authors of the bill
had good intentions. However, imple
menting those intentions leaves a lot to
be desired.
Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, said
in a statement to the Dallas Morning
News that the bill was passed so the
government could keep its records
straight.
“Driver’s licenses, hunting licenses,
fishing licenses, professional licenses are
all controlled from the state perspec
tive,” Staples said. “As a matter of con
sistency, the regulation of fireanns
should be done at the state level as well.”
Staples may be right, but the state
should provide for the safety of its cit
izens before considering the best way
to do its bookkeeping. One can only
hope that legislators will come to their
senses before this bill is passed, or we
will all have to go around armed.
Jason Bennyhoff is a senior
journalism major.
3ut 104,000 k
Tde.
iccepting the
receive impro 1
enefits, incluii
sting of stock fl umors are flying
not have beenfj around Capitol Hill
time, althougb-^ th;1t another senator
.less now give^J by thinking of bolting
np tumble sine ; RepubHcan Party, and
tncial problem^ senator is none other
ic in 1999 njohn McCain of Ari-
the offer,’ empl 1 ! If McCain wants to
rible to retire T e ^ GOP, Republicans
they have at le|§| t ' | et:
McCain ran for the Republican nomination
-mallv for anet P resi dent last year, and lost a bitter cam-
full pension, tli S 11 to President Bush - The laded campaign
-jf service must! 1 left Mc Gain consistently opposed anything
t the president has sent to the Senate floor.
. l " McCain was one of two Republicans to vote
another cor? „ . , , r .
nnst Bush s tax cut package, using traditional
i mocratic phrases such as “the president has
ny sources preoT® 1
>f those getting®
will take themanfl
Republicans should bid
i
left the lower classes behind” to state his oppo
sition. McCain recently spent a weekend in Ari
zona with Senate Majority Leader Tom
Daschle, while refusing to come to the White
House to meet with the heatl of his own party.
Some of McCain’s supporters have taken this
to mean that he will switch parties. Then, A^c-
Cain will confront Bush in 2004 as an inde
pendent and be victorious.
Before he joined die senate, McCain was rec
ognized as a hero, a man who withstood five
years of imprisonment in the “Hanoi Hilton”
and never cracked. Sadly, it is time to recognize
McCain as a political fraud. He could never be a
Democrat — he is far too conservative on a
wide variety of issues. McCain strictly interprets
the Second Amendment and has one of the
most consistent pro-life records in the Senate.
McCain good riddance
Both of these would not make him an asset to
Democrats.
His crusade for campaign finance reform is
one of Washington’s ultimate hypocrisies;
McCain was busted for taking illegal cam
paign contributions from Charles Keating.
Why would one of the “Keating Five” sud
denly have such a change of heart? Perhaps
because it is easier to cheat when you make
the rules.
McCain’s staffers often note that McCain’s
hero is Teddy Roosevelt. Former President
Roosevelt left the Republican Party in 1912 to
run against his self-appointed successor,
William Howard Taft.
Roosevelt’s need for the limelight helped split
the Republicans and gave the presidency to De
mocrat Woodrow Wilson. Is this what McCain
wants to do in his seemingly blind desire to get
back at Bush?
But who is to say that McCain is not a De
mocrat in waiting? McCain himself, allegedly.
“I have no desire to leave the Republican
Party,” he said in a press release this Monday.
He probably could have fooled President Bush
and Minority Leader Trent Lott. Is this the
same individual who said, “The Republican
Party needs to grow up?”
Is McCain a rabble-rousing moderate who is
turned-on by the charms of the Democratic
Party, or is he the strong conservative his voting
record says he is? The truth is simple. McCain
is the guy in front of the TV cameras, and that
is where he will continue to be found.
Mark Passwaters is a senior
electrical engineering major.
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TUs Weft RteoNMF ©
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Guest worker program bad for all
O n May 21, U.S.
Attorney General
John Ashcroft an
nounced the Bush Ad
ministration is planning
on working with Mexico
to establish a guest work
er program. Proponents
of the program try to
make the plan sound beneficial to the Unit
ed States, but the plan would hurt more
than help on both sides of the border.
A guest worker program between the
United States and Mexico would give mil
lions of illegal Mexican immigrant and mi
grant workers automatic legal status if they
sign up for the program once it is in place.
Thereafter, they must return to Mexico and
reapply for guest worker status every year.
One of the strongest supporters of this
program is Sen. Phil Gramm. In his 2001
prospectus for the guest worker program
he states, “It would encourage them (illegal
immigrants) to come out of the shadows, to *
work in dignity, and then to return to their
families in Mexico with the capital and
skills they acquire as guest workers in the
United States.”
Gramm and other supporters say they
have the best interests of both countries at
heart with this plan. However, the guest
worker program does not offer significant
solvency for current problems, such as low
ering the number of illegal aliens entering
and residing in the United States, stimulat
ing the United States and Mexican
economies and providing stronger interna
tional relations.
The program calls for all undocumented
workers to apply for legal status and it be
automatically granted. Doing this will cer
tainly lower the number of illegal aliens be
cause the plan in essence eliminates the tide
“illegal alien.”
Gramm is right when he says the pro
gram will allow illegal workers “to come out
of the shadows.” However, he neglects to re
alize there are American citizens in those
shadows too. Turning illegal immigrants
into legal workers means the workforce will
grow. If the guest wi TKer program is imple
mented then a possibility exists for mini
mum wages to remain stagnant for years.
Stimulating the economies of both coun
tries is another reason supporters of the pro
gram encourage its passage. Gramm’s plan
does not explain how allowing millions of
Mexican workers to remain in the United
States benefits both countries.
Supporters of the program, especially
those along the border, say that a guest
worker program will end the recent deaths
of illegal immigrants coming over with
“coyotes,” people who guide immigrants
across the border for a fee sometimes as
great as $1,000.
Andres Morales, an illegal immigrant cur
rently working in the United States stated in
a Dallas Morning News article, “Why would I
want to do that if it would mean having to
come forward and then I’d have to reapply
every year? If I’m not selected, I will have to
pay a coyote again. What’s the point?”
During the Clinton administration, a
guest worker program was never enacted
because there was no confidence that it
would benefit the United States. The Com
mission on Immigration Reform in 1995
stated that “a large scale agricultural guest
worker program ... is not in the national in
terest ... such a program would be a grievous
mistake.”
Any guest worker program offered by
Mexico or the United States must be met
with harsh criticism,' because of the possibil
ities of reduced wages and a greater compe
tition for low wage jobs.
Reid Bader is a junior
journalism major.