George Mason University – Page 5

By Bridget Wagner, UPI

The newly elected members of George Mason University’s executive branch both agree that change is needed in the White House, but they disagree on what changes.

Student Body President Zack Golden of Virginia Beach, Va., and Vice President Claire Forman of Bowling Green, Ky., were elected in the spring of 2008 on the same ticket, yet they have very different opinions about the election. Both have made their decisions on who to vote for.

Golden will vote for Barack Obama because he is ready for change and he likes what the U.S. senator has to offer.

Forman is disappointed with the choices that were presented on both sides. She has decided to vote for Bob Barr, who is the Libertarian Party candidate.

Golden and Forman are among young voters who may have a large impact on the election. According to CNN exit polls, the number of voters ages 18 to 29 who voted in the 2008 presidential primaries and caucuses increased in every state. Altogether, turnout increased 109 percent compared with previous elections.

Golden, a senior at George Mason, is majoring in government and international affairs. “We will see more people our age voting,” he said. “It has been a while since we have seen two candidates in their 40s. We can relate to them better.”

Forman, also a senior who is majoring in global affairs and Latin studies, believes that the presidential nominees are lacking. “Individuals have come out of the woodwork to give better options. It is not enough to change the course the country is on. (It is) closer, but not quite there.”

Although Forman is unhappy with the candidates, Golden has an idea of what an ideal president should be. “Candidates have to be intellectual and have courage to ask questions (and) to challenge assumptions. They need to be able rely on their staff to have critical thinking abilities to make informed decisions,” he said.

The most critical issue of the upcoming election for Forman is American foreign policy. “The candidates consider foreign policy to be the situation in Iraq and nothing more,” Forman said. “Global opinion has been damaged in the last eight years. The next four years should be about damage control,” stated Forman. “The candidates are making considerable effort, but it is not enough.”

The most important issue for Golden is education. He says college should be more affordable, the loan process should be simplified, and more subsidized loans should be added. But these issues are not high on the priority list for candidates.

“The candidates do not discuss higher education, they discuss the bread-and-butter topics such as the war and gas prices,” Golden said.

With six weeks left until the election, there is sure to be more disagreement by the candidates as they try to gain control of the White House.

By Noah Martin

As part of Fall for the Book, George Mason University hosted Eric Lichtblau, a journalist with the Washington bureau for The New York Times and the 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner for national reporting. Lichtblau spoke about his new book Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice to students and attendees outside of the Johnson Center on Sept. 24.

Lichtblau began his address by drawing a parallel between the White House’s current proposal for a $700 billion bailout package to resuscitate major Wall Street firms and the White House’s passage of the Patriot Act and push for military funding prior to invading Afghanistan in 2001.

In both cases, Lichtblau claimed, President George W. Bush’s administration emphasized the urgency and necessity of the proposals. In the current financial situation, Lichtblau said, the Bush administration is pressuring Congress to pass the $700 billion bailout package without delay in order to avoid a total financial meltdown. The executive branch gained additions to its powers following Sept. 11 through the Patriot Act legislation that it demanded be passed for the sake of national security. The powers were requested so that the White House could act with greater speed and efficacy when making decisions in the nation’s best interest but has since been under criticism for infringement of civil liberties.

“The White House has used a ‘trust us’ mentality that has been dangerous over the past seven years,” Lichtblau said. “The go it alone mentality has been its Achilles’ heel… Where the White House really went too far, to its own detriment, was refusing to play ball with the other branches of government.”

Lichtblau’s book traces how the executive branch was able to extend its powers over the past seven years and how that led to the wire tapping program eventually uncovered by the investigative reporting of Lichtblau and fellow New York Times reporter James Risen.

The wire tapping program, initiated by the White House, was a massive data mining operation used to compile profiles of potential terrorists based on a suspect’s country of origin, ethnic and racial profiling, and financial transactions.

The New York Times began investigating when rumors spread that there was dissent in the Bush Administration about issues of surveillance on American citizens. Reporting revealed that there was a revolt in the Department of Justice over the wiretapping program. Many of the lawyers refused to sign off the program, feeling it may be a criminal act to approve the program. The lawyers in the Justice Department were not liberal either, claimed Lichtblau.

“It was a battle between conservatives and even more conservatives,” Lichtblau said.

Lichtblau asserts that when The New York Times went to publish the story about the wire tapping program, members of the White house went to the editors and told them to stop. They said U.S. citizens would die if the Times ran the story and that the program was vital to national security and the pursuit of terrorists.

“I, as a lowly reporter, thought that the story should run,” Lichtblau said. “The administration was doing it without going through the courts, that mechanism had been completely circumvented.”

The story finally ran, on Dec. 16, 2005, 13 months after the presidential election in 2004.

“Journalism regained its footing after a period of complacency following 9/11,” Lichtblau said.