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(11/07/13 1:00am)
Unlike the heated midterm elections of 2010, Election Day 2013 was a relatively quiet affair. There was little fallout from the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” despite the continued snags and “glitches” of the new health care law’s rollout.
(11/05/13 11:05pm)
The film “Ender’s Game,” based on the novel of the same name, came out in theaters on Nov. 1 to a great deal of controversy and proposed boycotts.
(10/23/13 1:15am)
Long-time Arizona Sen. John McCain told local conservative talk radio station KFYI on Tuesday that he is considering running for another term. McCain is two years into his fifth six-year term as senator and would not need to run for re-election until 2016.
For those with short memories, McCain was the Republican nominee for president in 2008 when President Barack Obama was elected with more than 60 percent of the 538 Electoral College votes.
In stalwartly Republican Arizona, McCain has fared much better in each of his electoral races since he first rain for Congress in 1982 and later replaced former presidential candidate and long-time senator Barry Goldwater when he retired from the Senate in 1986.
McCain later ran against George W. Bush in the 2000 Republican president primary, which he went on to lose — the first race he’d lost since beginning his career in Washington.
McCain’s devotion to duty and his history of military and public service are admirable traits, even for those who disagree with him politically, as I do.
Whether his party was in the majority or minority in Congress, McCain has always embodied the “loyal opposition,” sticking to his guns but not choking on blind partisanship.
Along with Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., McCain is a member of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight,” working on a comprehensive immigration bill. According to The Arizona Republic, some have speculated that McCain’s willingness to work toward a compromise between wildly different visions of “comprehensive reform” might indicate that his career is “winding down.”
Often, politicians will stay away from sponsoring legislation on “hot button” issues, such as immigration or entitlement reform, for fear of angering their constituents or provoking a primary challenge from their own party — thus, when politicians decide they’re done running for office, they are “liberat(ed) from electoral pressures” and can compromise with impunity.
But it seems McCain is unafraid of the challenge — that’s why he has such a long-standing reputation as a “maverick.”
His status as a maverick, however, is not always a bonus in the modern Republican Party — after he endorsed incumbent Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., for the Republican primary race, Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Enzi’s opponent, condemned McCain.
“Liberal Republican senators like John McCain and Olympia Snowe have endorsed my opponent,” Cheney wrote in her fundraising materials. “We must be doing something right if these folks are fighting so hard to preserve the status quo.”
For those in any doubt as to McCain’s ideology, it’s so far from being liberal that those claiming otherwise can only be looking to shill their own ideology with little regard for the constituents McCain has represented so well for these past 30 years — who have chosen to re-elect him time and time again.
While I myself have never voted for McCain, I’m sure glad he’s around.
Reach the columnist at skthoma4@asu.edu or follow her at @savannahkthomas
(10/22/13 10:47pm)
California-based surf-rock duo Best Coast released its new EP “Fade Away” on Oct. 22 to little fanfare. Music magazine SPIN called the seven-track mini-album “Ambien-inspired,” while NME compared singer Bethany Cosentino’s vocals to a “snail-paced Jenny Lewis.”
(10/16/13 9:59pm)
Grammy-nominated folk rock band, The Avett Brothers, released an eighth studio album on Oct. 15. Titled “Magpie and the Dandelion,” the new record straddles the divide between a stand-alone album and collection of B-sides.
(10/10/13 12:55am)
Since the 26th Amendment to the Constitution passed in 1971, every citizen older than 18 has had the right to vote. Voting is an essential exercise of one’s citizenship.In the ongoing war against phantom voter fraud, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne issued an opinion on Oct. 7 that would create a two-tiered system for voting in the state. Those who registered to vote using the federal voter registration form, which does not require proof of citizenship on the form itself, would only be eligible to vote in federal elections and not in any state races.
A 2004 state law requires one of several modes of identification to prove citizenship to register to vote, including a driver’s license number or the last four digits of one’s Social Security number. This past June, a U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled the law unconstitutional, as states cannot alter voting requirements for federal races. The federal forms still require individuals to affirm, under penalty of perjury, that they are indeed citizens of the U.S.
State officials have landed at a workaround — just create new ballots for those who have registered with the federal form, which will cost an estimated $250,000.
The changes will only affect a few thousand voters across the state, according to The Arizona Republic.
It will not only affect the ability of certain voters to cast ballots, but it will also prevent them from signing petitions for ballot initiatives or referendum petitions, as well as candidate or recall petitions, an equally important component of the electoral process.
Voting rights groups are concerned the new rules will lead to confusion at polling places, already plagued with long lines, and may discourage voters.
Florida is well known for problems with chaotic polling locations — just read any coverage of a presidential election from 2000 to 2012. More than 200,000 voters did not cast ballots in the most recent presidential election: “Voters either waited for some time but left before voting, or simply saw the long lines and turned away,” according to Ohio State University professor Theodore Allen.
This is the fate voter registration advocates fear, though the rule would affect as few as 1,400 voters, according to Cronkite News Service.
Arizona has more than 3.2 million registered voters, of which 1,400 is about .04 percent. That doesn’t seem like much, but in state and local races, elections can be decided by very small margins.
Political junkies are well aware of the phenomenon of races being “too close to call” — which is not in itself a bad thing. The election results for Arizona’s 9th Congressional District, in which ASU is located, were not finalized until a week after the election, as provisional and absentee ballots still had to be counted. Democratic candidate Kyrsten Sinema was elected to Congress with a margin of less than 10,000 votes.
A few votes can make a big difference in state and local elections. Keeping voters from exercising their franchise in contests where their votes matter most is playing politics with civil rights and is not worthy of the state of Arizona.
Reach the columnist at skthoma4@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @savannahkthomas
(09/11/13 12:34am)
In the days of Twitter, Reddit and viral videos, you might think people would consider their actions a bit more before doing something that might end up with their story splashed on the front page of The Huffington Post.
(09/04/13 11:39pm)
We are constantly victims of semantic satiation. It's a psychological phenomenon, a form of mental fatigue which occurs when a given stimuli, such as repetition of a specific word or phrase, continues to the point that it no longer makes sense.
(07/23/13 8:33pm)
While the debate about same-sex marriage laws continues on in the U.S., the U.K. has legalized gay marriage. Same-sex unions in England and Wales will be available as early as next year.The bill to legalize gay marriage in the U.K. was passed by both houses of Parliament and granted "Royal Assent," which is more or less the equivalent of the president signing a bill into law.The queen's decision to give her assent (when she has the option to abstain or withhold) is much less dramatic than President Barack Obama's rather sudden shift on the issue last May when he became the first sitting president to publicly support same-sex marriage. There are many similarities between the American legal system and the British legal system, but one striking difference is that the U.K., unlike the U.S., has a state-sponsored religion. It will be interesting to see how the Church of England adapts to the new rules, as this is a point of contention between religious and gay rights groups in the U.S. — does the fact that same-sex marriage is legal in certain U.S. states mean that religious institutions must perform marriages that they do not believe are valid?The answer, of course, is no. Even the U.S. Supreme Court's decision striking down Section 3 of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibited recognizing a marriage between two individuals of the same sex as legitimate for all federal purposes, does not and will not threaten the rights of religious institutions as some fear it might.Individual states are beginning to legalize same-sex marriages, while only five or six years ago states were falling all over themselves to ban them through either amendments to the state constitutions or state law.In 2012, voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington decided to allow gay marriage, while a proposed ban in Minnesota failed to pass — the first time that same-sex marriage was put to a majority vote and won.For the most part, public opinion polls in recent years have shown levels of support and opposition for same-sex marriage have been more or less in equilibrium.After the Supreme Court handed down its decision that invalidated part of the Defense of Marriage Act in late June, a USA Today poll indicated a near or all-time high level of support for gay marriage, with 55 percent in favor and 40 percent in opposition. Whatever your views on same-sex marriage, it's clear that fewer and fewer people in the U.S. and in other parts of the world are willing to let their own views and beliefs dictate the way other people live their lives.Tell Savannah your thoughts on gay marriage at skthoma4@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @SavannahKThomas
(07/09/13 6:49pm)
There is a prevailing sentiment in this country that the so-called Millennial generation, who came of age in the years immediately before and immediately after the new millennium, are lazy, entitled, selfish and vain, among other adjectives.There is an op-ed expressing this view in nearly any mainstream media outlet. The primary example that comes to mind is columnist Joel Stein's piece in TIME Magazine in May with the headline, "Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation."The general tone of these articles is that somehow our Baby Boomer and Generation X parents have let this generation devolve into a brainless, spineless all-consuming parasite leeching off our parents and then whining when we can't find jobs.It must be nice to be able to make a real living painting these pretty pictures that only serve to artificially confirm older generations' bias against a newer cohort they can't seem to understand. Those who subscribe to this point of view merely come across as tone-deaf when we consider what the Millennial generation faces: a dwindling Social Security endowment, inflation, low-wage jobs, rising costs of attendance at four-year universities and the ever-growing amount of student loan debt.It's nothing we haven't heard before: College tuition has been rising steadily, and more and more students have been turning to federal student loans to finance their education. There are currently 37 million student loan borrowers and only a quarter of those still owe less than $6,000. Fifty-eight percent of federal student loan debt is held by students whose household net worth lies in the bottom 25 percent, while only 9 percent of debt is held by those in the top 25 percent. According to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, "Federal student aid policy has steadily put resources into student loan programs rather than need-based grants, a trend that straps future generations with high debt burdens."As of July 1, the interest rates on federal subsidized student loans increased from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent after the federal law that reduced the rate to 3.4 percent expired with no replacement. This would add $1,500 to the total amount owed by the average student borrower, and would add $4,000 for those who borrowed the maximum amount of subsidized loans.Student debt is a considerable economic force these days. The problem isn't that students must pay back their loans — that's a given and agreeing to do so is a necessary step in procuring the loans in the first place. The problem is that students are graduating college with astronomical amounts of debt and then either entering a lackluster jobs market or diving back into advanced degrees in order to defer student loan repayment (which may require additional loans to finance).It's not a great choice either way. Considering that student loans often lack consumer protection measures that nearly every other financial institution has to honor — for example, you can't declare bankruptcy if you default on your student loan — it doesn't seem like a lower interest rate for subsidized loans is really that much to ask. The government will get its money back no matter what, and students whose loans go into default will be charged fees galore — there goes even more money.Tell me more about how spoiled and entitled this generation is.Tell Savannah about your plan to repay student loan debt at skthoma4@asu.edu or follow her at @SavannahKThomas
(06/18/13 8:30pm)
Too often, the power to make decisions that substantially affect the way people live their lives rests in the hands of those who have never had to do without.
(06/04/13 7:55pm)
And now the story of a rabid fan base who got another season of their beloved show, and the unreasonably high expectations that kept them from enjoying it.
The new season of “Arrested Development” has been the highlight of my summer thus far. Some friends and I got together to enjoy refreshments and marathon our way through the 15-episode arc that began streaming nearly a full 10 years after the first season aired on Fox.
It was magical to see our favorite characters return to the screen and watch the new hijinks as they unfolded.
Like every other TV show, film, book or video game to ever exist, the new season has its haters.
The general sentiment seems to be “it’s just not the same” — not necessarily that it isn’t as good as the original series, but that it doesn’t capture the same whimsical and mischievous absurdity that was more or less the defining feature of “Arrested Development.”
To those people I say, “Were we watching the same show?”
The new season is clearly not the same. It is more of a spin-off, taking the plot in a million different directions that eventually mesh together (but only once you’ve gotten through a few episodes.)
But after 10 years, how could any show have delivered on the insanely high expectations so many of its fans placed on it?
Too many “Arrested Development” fans seem to have been expecting the second coming of Michael Bluth and adjusted their expectations accordingly. Anyone who has watched the series knows that any time one of the characters expects to be successful, their efforts usually end in disaster or at least mild hilarity. It’s fitting, then, that the spider web of plot lines ends in a disappearance and yet another Bluth family member whose development is arrested (hey, that’s the name of the show!)
One of the worst things a fan can do is expect more of a work than can possibly be delivered. The most we can reasonably expect from any TV show or film is to be entertained. If we’re looking for particular qualities that make it “good” or “bad” — acting, directing, cinematography, whatever — those are secondary features to the overall goal, which is to entertain (and encourage or facilitate advertisements.)
If we aren’t entertained, the work has not succeeded. That’s all the new season of “Arrested Development” had to do. It didn’t have to adhere to the standards of every single fan. It just had to entertain us. If you were entertained, as I was, we can be satisfied.
If you were not entertained or felt let down by what you think is or was one of the greatest TV shows to have ever aired, you must have had wildly inflated hopes for a simple TV show.
To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, reserving judgment and managing expectations is a matter of infinite hope. Expecting greatness will lead to a let-down, but hoping your expectations will be exceeded leaves room for wonder and awe. Tell Savannah what you thought about the new "Arrested Development" season at skthoma4@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @SavannahKThomas
(05/21/13 8:20pm)
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard the phrase “the liberal media” or “the media elite” in the past four years alone, I could probably afford to pay the rumored $660 million asking price for The Tribune Company.
The Tribune Company is home to several major U.S. newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune and may (or may not) be for sale for over half a billion dollars.
Among the company’s potential “suitors” are Tea Party linchpins Charles and David Koch, whose amassed fortune totals over $34 billion each.
The progressive nonprofit organization The Other 98% hopes to prevent any such sale to the Koch brothers and has started “Free the Press,” a crowdsourced fundraising campaign to “take back” and “democratize the media.”
So far, over 1,300 “funders” have pledged funds, totaling $100,000 — no small feat, but an almost laughable pittance compared to $660 million (you have to wonder if tax is included in the price).
According to the campaign page on IndieGoGo, the Other 98% theorize that just as the Green Bay Packers are community-owned and operate on a non-profit basis, so too can major newspapers operate free of corporate control.
It’s all a bit pie in the sky, and thankfully this fact does not escape the founders of the campaign; they consider this a stepping stone for a broader conversation about media ownership and the effects of a “corporatized media.”
Few can possibly doubt the unyielding and unceasing impact of the media on individual lives. The news media in particular provides crucial information that helps individuals make relatively informed decisions and those decisions in turn affect others around them.
Coverage of major events can range from incisive and groundbreaking (rare) to trite and downright manipulative, a charge leveled at news organizations representing myriad political perspectives. People simply don’t trust the media anymore.
Gone are the Walter Cronkites and the Edward R. Murrows. Instead, we have pundit culture, the scandal culture, the celebrity trial culture. Stories that might have once graced the cover of the trashiest tabloids are now apparently tickertape worthy, and coverage stories with more substance than flash get pushed to the B block or buried on page A-26.
Is this the fault of corporate control or is this the natural and inevitable result of the freedom of the press?
The free press is usually seen as a democratic ideal, necessary for the maintenance of a healthy democracy (or in our case, a republic). But the First Amendment’s protection of the freedoms of the press only applies to the state and federal governments.
Does a truly free press require complete independence, even from corporations?
One of the inherent and most glaring contradictions of the media is that larger news outlets are generally considered more credible. If a report in The New York Times differs from a report in The Podunk Town Blog, you can usually bet the Times has it right. If given the choice between The Wall Street Journal and the Drudge Report, the Journal is again the better source.
The Times and the Journal are corporately owned by The New York Times Company and Dow Jones & Company (which is owned by News Corporation), respectively.
Credibility and accuracy are not necessarily one and the same, of course, but the major players in the news media world are supported and controlled by corporations.
To the Other 98%, this is a serious problem facing American democracy. After all, how free can your press be if it has to please corporate owners, who by definition have interests that differ vastly from the concerns of ordinary American citizens?
Reach the columnist at skthoma4@asu.edu or follow her at @SavannahKThomas
(04/23/13 11:48pm)
I was raised on watching baseball. It's the only sport I can really stand to watch for extended periods of time. Hockey does hold a special place in my heart, though. While other sports obviously have halls of fame and keep records, baseball has a completely different level of history to it. Do football or basketball have traditional and iconic songs written specifically about the experience of going to a game? No. Only baseball has that — though the dudes who wrote "Take Me Out To the Ball Game" had never actually been to a single baseball game in their lives before writing it.My loyalties to different teams tend to shift. Sometimes I'm a St. Louis Cardinals fan, as long as they aren't playing the Arizona Diamondbacks. But the only time I would ever root for the San Francisco Giants is when they're playing in the World Series. I will never root for an American League team unless that team is playing the Yankees, whom I loathe. I was a Braves fan for a year after visiting Atlanta when I was 5 years old. No matter what, I will always be a loyal Diamondbacks fan, even when I can't watch the games thanks to the MLB's restrictive broadcasting. I don't have a television, and I'm technically in the media market, so I still can't watch on my computer. Talk about lame.Reach the columnist at skthoma4@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @SavannahKThomas
(01/24/13 12:00pm)
For most of us, Facebook is the mainstay of our online social interaction. Facebook connects us to former friends, classmates and far-flung relatives. We switch back and forth between open tabs on our web browser while we do our homework. (Don't look at me like that, you do it, too.)
(12/05/12 12:22am)
In my world, no morning is complete without a hot cup of coffee and the day’s newspaper. I suppose I’m old fashioned like that. Given the chance, I would prefer to read the news in hard copy to reading it on a laptop or a tablet.
(11/27/12 11:39pm)
Recalling Kanye West: Twilight, I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you finish, but Harry Potter was one of the best film franchises of all time.
(11/21/12 12:42am)
Elizabeth Warren, the new U.S. Senator-elect from Massachusetts, is a woman on a mission.
(11/15/12 12:13am)
The American electorate is always changing. Sweeping electoral mandates are hard to come by these days.
(11/05/12 12:07am)
Ah, November.