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ONLINE POLL Were you aware of the Creed Week events? Go to www.dailygamecock.com to vote. Results posted Friday. thbSamecock EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR Adam Beam DESIGN DIRECTOR David Stagg NEWS EDITOR Michael LaForgia THE MIX EDITOR Meg Moore COPY DESK CHIEF Gabrielle Sinclair VIEWPOINTS EDITOR Wes Wolfe SENIOR WRITER Kevin Fellner ASST. NEWS EDITOR Jon Turner i IN OUR OPINION Get out and make your voice heard Unless you’ve stayed in your dorm room for the past six months with no TV or Internet, you know Tuesday is Election Day. But on Election Day, all of the money spent on voting cam paigns and all of the hype espoused by members of the media mean nothing. All of the talk shows, newspaper articles, campaign rallies and talking heads have been leading up to this point. Now, it’s up to you. Here are a few pointers. First, if you’ve lost your voter registra All of the talk shows, newspaper articles and campaign rallies have been leading up to this point. Now it’s up to you. tion card, don’t worry. Just show your driver’s license at the polls, where they can look you up on their rolls and check you off the list. If you’re voting on an elec tronic voting machine, and it just doesn’t make sense to you, you are entitled to ask for assistance. Also, based on the number of voter registrations and absentee bal lot requests, turnout for this election could reach record numbers. So leave early and plan for long lines. Allot yourself a reasonable amount of time, like an hour, to get through the line and vote. Finally, your vote really does matter. Yes, South Carolina is a solidly Republican state and will undoubtedly cast its electoral votes for President Bush. But if you’re a Kerry supporter who is questioning whether your vote can make a difference, consider that the number of votes Democrats receive in this election will send a message to the national party as to how much money they should spend in this state. If the Democrats feel, based on election results, they have strong support in South Carolina, they will make a more concerted effort in this state in the future. Same goes with the Republicans. But the U.S. Senate race will not be decided through the Electoral College. It’s the simple majority rule: whoever gets the most votes wins. With the Senate majority hanging in the bal ance, you can help decide which party has the edge. So on Tuesday, voters will decide who’s in charge. Your input will help make that decision. IT’S YOUR RIGHT Exercise your right to voice your opinion Create message boards at www.dailygamecock.com or send letters to the editor to gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. I-, ABOUT THE GAMECOCK EDITOR Adam Beam DESIGN DIRECTOR David Stagg COPY DESK CHIEF Gabrielle Sinclair NEWS EDITOR Michael LaFofgia ASST. NEWS EDITOR Jon Turner VIEWPOINTS EDITOR Wes Wolfe THE MIX EDITOR Meg Moore SPORTS EDITOR Jonathan Hillyard ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Daniel Kerr SENIOR WRITER Kevin Fellner PHOTO EDITOR Jason Steelman SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR Katie Kirkland PAGE DESIGNERS Erin Cline, Staci Jordan, Jennifer Logan, Chas McCarthy, Jessica Ann Nielsen COPY EDITORS Jennifer Freeman, Anna Huntley, Daniel Regensheit, Jason Reynolds, Jennifer Sitkowski, Shana Till, Steven Van Haren, Joey Wallace ONLINE EDITOR E.B. Davis PUBLIC AFFAIRS Jane Fielden, Katie Miles CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. The Editor’s office hours are Monday and Wednesday from 3-5 p.m. Editor: gamecockeditor@gwm.sc.edu News: gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu The Mix: gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu Sports: gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu Public Affairs: gamecockPR@yahoo.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726; Sports: 777-7182 Editor’s Office: 777-3914 STUDENT MEDIA DIRECTOR Scott Linden berg FACULTY ADVISER Erik Collins CREATIVE DIRECTOR Susan King BUSINESS MANAGER Carolyn Griffin ADVERTISING MANAGER Sarah Scarborough CLASSIFIED MANAGER Sherry F. Holmes PRODUCTION MANAGER Garen Cansler CREATIVE SERVICES Burke Lauderdale, Chelsea Felder, Laura Gough, Joseph Dannelly, Kristen Williams ADVERTISING STAFF Robert Carli, Breanna Evans, Ryan Gorman, Caroline Love, Jesica Johnson, Katie Stephens The Gamecock is the editorially independent student newspaper of the University of South Carolina. It is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the fall and spring semesters and nine times during the summer, with the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the editors or author and not those of the University of South Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher of The Samecock. The Department of Student Media is the newspaper’s parent organization. The Samecock is supported in part by student-activity fees. Dne free copy per •eader. Additional sopies may be aurchased for $1 each :rom the Department of student Media. TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 y Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax: 777-6482 Sen. KERRY WILL LET TERRORISTS NUKE U.S. CITIES. KERRY WILL DESTROY SOCIAL SECURITY AND PUT YOUR GRANNY OUT ON THE ICE. HE'LL HAND IRAQ TO OSAMA, AND GIVE THE NEW MASS-GRAVE DIGGING CONTRACTS TO THE FRENCH. HE1L FORCE YOUR KIDS TO MARRY SAME-SEX POLYGAMOUS TRANS VESTITES, AND PERSONALLY RIP THE STEM CELLS OUT OF YOUR CAT. OH, AND DID I MENTION THAT HE’LL SAY ANYTHING TO GET ELECTED?.... CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS S.C. needs Inez in the U.S. Senate ■ DeMint’s big ideas would cause more harm than good for America What do you call a man who doesn’t show up for his own job, but calls you a whiner when you lose your own job? What do you call a man who wants to raise your taxes and send your job overseas? In South Carolina, you call that man Jim DeMint, the Republican nominee for Senate. DeMint claims to be the candidate ' of “big ideas.” But a big idea that is bad is nothing but a big, bad idea. DeMint’s big idea on tax reform is to replace the income tax with a 23 percent national sales tax. According to the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, this would raise taxes on 95 percent of all South Carolinians. Anyone making $120,000 would pay more under the DeMint plan. Sure, DeMint’s plan gets rid of the IRS, but it replaces it with three new bureaucracies to collect the sales tax — the National Sales Tax Bureau, the Excise Tax Bureau and the Office of Revenue Allocation. Only in Washington is it a good idea to replace one old federal bureaucracy with three new bureaucracies. DeMint’s other big idea is to support every single trade agreement that has sent jobs overseas. DeMint was the only Congressman in S.C. to support the Chinese Trade Deal that has sent thousands of jobs overseas. And when he was asked about his ANNA FOX MEMBER, USC YOUNG DEMOCRATS support of unfair trade agreements, he told the Hilton Head Island Packet that people should “stop whining about job losses.” But DeMint’s own j o b performance leaves much to be desired. According to the Clerk of the House of Representatives, DeMint missed more than 300 votes in Congress this year - the third worst attendance record in Congress. With bad ideas like these, it is no wonder that DeMint and his campaign surrogates have had to resort to empty name-calling and negative campaigning. They say that Inez Tenenbaum wants to raise taxes by 40 percent. But if you apply the same fuzzy math to the DeMint tax plan, sales taxes would increase 560 percent - from 5 percent to 28 percent. Republicans accuse Tenenbaum of being a liberal - despite the fact that she supports the death penalty, our troops in Iraq and 98 percent of the Bush tax cuts. Republicans accuse Tenenbaum of wanting to raise taxes — despite the fact that her economic plan contains 10 different tax cuts. You can read it for yourself at www.inez2004.com DeMint talks about how close he is with President Bush. But even if Bush wins, he will only be in office for four more years. The U.S. Senate term is six years long. And if Fritz Hollings and Strom Thurmond are any indication, the senator we elect on Tuesday will be in office for a few decades. Presidents come and go, but a U.S. Senator is forever. We need someone who can deliver for South Carolina no matter who is in the Oval Office. Tenenbaum is the only candidate in this race who can and will work with both parties to put the interests of South. Carolina first. How do I know this? Because Tenenbaum has already done so as superintendent of education. Inez worked with Republicans and Democrats to reduce class size, fund new school construction without raising taxes, and strengthen accountability standards. We need a Senator who will put South Carolina first. Tenenbaum is that candidate. South Carolinians have watched a long, contentious and competitive Senate race. Tomorrow, they decide who will represent us in the U.S. Senate. The long-awaited end to the campaign cycle is here - the end of the TV ads, phone calls and counties? volunteer hours. Election Day 2004 is tomorrow and for South Carolinians this means a new senator - that senator will be Inez Tenenbaum. IN YOUR OPINION We deserve better political discourse As we approach Election Day, the state of American politics falls farther and farther into disrepair. All around the country, candidates stage campaign events which look and feel more like a high school pep rally than an expression of political ideas. Supporters are worked into fervor before being sent off - full of tired cliches and meaningless rhetoric - to rally others around their cause. Campaigns, parties and interest groups run misleading ads designed only to vilify their opponents and convince Americans that their way is the only way to achieve a brighter tomorrow. While it would be nice if we could simplify our current political issues and debates into yes or no choices, it is important to recognize that the reality is much more complicated than Bush vs. Kerry, Inez vs. DeMint or Moore vs. Limbaugh. We should also realize that the current political atmosphere applauds attempts to mock the opposition more than efforts to support and justify a position. Campaign tactics unfortunately only encourage such thoughts and actions. Recently, a group of students at USC passed out stickers asking others to “Flush the Johns” and press the lever on a nearby toilet — complete with the candidates’ faces underneath the seat. Although it is hilarious to note that both members of the Democratic presidential ticket have first names which can be used in place of the world “toilet,” doing so contributes nothing to the mature discussion of American politics which is vital to our democracy. The Kerry-Edwards campaign team also engages in such juvenile actions and should not be viewed or acknowledged as. merely the victim of such attacks. Both groups should be equally ashamed of themselves. The bitter, polarizing arguments of our candidates and parties have assailed the mentality of American civic participation. The candidates attempt to replace substantive discussion of issues in government with heated, empty shouting matches similar to those of football fans on a Saturday afternoon. The “politically aware” now gather at bars to watch televised debates so that they can order another round as they listen to the latest, carefully crafted catchphrases and quips. A candidate’s supporters high-five, hug and howl with laughter after one side reels off a zinger - all the while eagerly buying into the “us vs. them” nature of our current political atmosphere. While it is nice to see Americans taking some interest in the political system, it is disheartening to see and hear my peers treat government as though the upcoming elections were little more than a football game. Debates should not be something that can be won or lost. They should be forums for the discussion of issues, the presentation of ideas, and the recommendation of solutions. American government is not supposed to be Clemson vs. Carolina. Carolina fans should tailgate every Saturday, hurl insults at Tommy Bowden and Brad Scott, talk trash about “Tiger Rag,” and despise every possible shade of orange. However, we should not and cannot continue to mistake our democratic system for a trivial athletic event. The elections should be a time for Americans to come together, think rationally, discuss options and decide on the best course of action for our country. How can we better America on Nov. 2 when we insult, humiliate and disenfranchise our fellow countrymen on Nov. 1? VANN HOLDEN Graduate student in the College of Education Submission Policy Letters to the editor should be less than 300 words and include name, phone number, professional title or year and major, if a student. E-mail letters to gamecockopi nions@gwm.sc.edu. Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777 7726 for more information. DeMint will make Senate vote count ■ President Bush needs a second conservative senator to help him out The race between Republican Jim DeMint and liberal Inez Tenenbaum gives South Carolina the chance to make a huge difference ip the nation. We have RANDY DARGAN CO-CHAIRMAN, USC COLLEGE REPUBLICANS an opportunity to send another Republican to Washington to help Lindsay Graham support President Bush. A Democrat will no longer cancel out Sen. Graham’s vote and South Carolina will have her voice in the Capitol. The main focus of the election has been the war on terror and the war in Iraq. Mrs. Tenenbaum will join hands with Tom Daschle and Hillary Clinton to oppose President Bush’s tax cuts, judicial appointments and, most importantly, the war on terror. We are making progress in Iraq and on aJ Qaeda and need President Bush and a Republican-controlled Congress to stay the course to defeat terrorism. With Osama bin Laden on the loose and U.S. forces getting closer to him each day it is no surprise that he endorsed John Kerry. We have to say on track with the war; we have to prevent any other 9/1 Is. Despite Mrs. Tenenbaum’s best attempts she is very mush a liberal and a supporter of John Kerry. She said that she is “very much comfortable” with being on the Kerry ticket in South Carolina. Tenenbaum will continue to cancel out Lindsey Graham’s vote for South Carolina and label us as a liberal state. Tenenbaum is a Democrat and will vote like one. She has attempted to claim herself as an independent; I ask why she still has a “D” beside her name. Tenenbaum is a liberal to the worst degree: she’s not only in favor of abortion, she lobbied for it and has received the endorsement from EMILY’S List. On the other side we have an opportunity to send help to President Bush and Lindsey Graham. Jim DeMint represents South Carolina and its values. In Congress, Jim DeMint voted for rax cuts and supported a ban on gay marriage. Electing Jim DeMint will give South Carolina two votes instead of zero because of a Democrat canceling out Graham’s vote the past two years. DeMint will fight for South Carolina to keep President Bush’s tax cuts permanent and judicial appointments approved. The most important thing Jim DeMint will do is ensuring that we win this war on terror and in Iraq. He will fight for the troops and make sure they are adequately supplied and protected. The war in Iraq is the most important issue we face on the ballot Tuesday. We have a choice between Jim DeMint, who will stand with President Bush and his leadership, or Inez Tenenbaum who wants to stand with John Kerry and his indecisive ability to take a stand. We have to show our support of Bush and send him help in the form of Jim DeMint. We have to take a stand on terrorism and stick with it; the liberals in this country have disrespected the war for their political gain and we have an obligation to our nation to fight terrorism wherever it may be and to make this world a safer place. Tomorrow you have a choice between someone who stands firm against terrorism and someone who will flip-flop on the issue for political gain. You have a choice between someone who will help that flip-flopper or someone who will fight for South Carolina and stand strong with President Bush to keep America safe. Jim DeMint is the answer - he will fight for our country and for the people of South Carolina. COLLEGE QUOTE BOARD MINNESOTA DAILY ITY OF MINNESOTA e’s ideology should not, in theory, affect his or her ability to interpret the s exist not to push agendas or make laws, but to interpret them. Admittedly, sometimes it’s hard to determine where interpretation starts and leg islating from the bench begins. Still, both politicians and society have unfortu nately made judicial nominations overly political. DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Often, in the last days of a dose dection, unsubstantiated rumors and ideologi cal bickering will trump mature debate on policy. While a certain amount of this is unavoidable, try not to let it dominate your personal discussions and interactions. Clarify your understanding of the candidates’ positions. Motivate your friends. Know your polling place, and if you do nothing dse Tuesday, just get out and vote. U-WIRE