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ONLINE POLL Are you worried that Social Security p - might not be there when you retire? Let rage 3 us know at www.dailygamecock.com. Friday, February 25, 2005 Results posted Friday. tii Gamecock EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR Michael LaForgia NEWS EDITOR Jon Turner VIEWPOINTS EDITOR Wes Wolfe THE MIX EDITOR Jennifer Freeman ASST. VIEWPOINTS EDITOR Patrick Augustine SPORTS EDITOR Jonathan Hillyard DESIGN DIRECTOR Chas McCarthy COPY DESK CHIEF Steven Van Haren IN OUR OPINION White House lacks respect for journalism Following revelations that executive-branch agencies paid columnists for favorable press on Bush administration policies, and that the Department of Health and Human Services produced television spots that masqueraded as legitimate news, the media has every reason to be wary of the relationship between itself and the White House. After a three-judge panel decided to jail two New York Times reporters that refused to name the source of a leaked name of a CIA operative, it’s fair to assume the government considers it open-season on reporters doing their job legally within the confines of the First Amendment. The penultimate sign that those at the highest levels of power in the United States are choosing Q|j§h to ^aunt t^ie standards of respon administration must sible Professional j°urnallsm’ abandon its policy though’is thc news that of consciously white House gave Press creden manipulating the rials to a former Marine named media. James Guckert with a shady past who wrote for political Web sites tied to a major Bush donor in Texas. Guckert has no media back ground, and asked leading questions such as, “How are you going to work with people [Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.] who seem to have divorced themselves from reali ty? Furthermore, he attended briefings and did business in the West Wing under the assumed name of “Jeff Gannon,” all the while entering the grounds daily with another name on his driver’s license. Obtaining press credentials means the individual must undergo a background check, and so it can be readily assumed that the White House both knew and overlooked Guckert’s past because of his political connections. While an employee of The Gamecock could not get credentialed to sit in the briefing room, campaign contributions were enough to secure access. The Bush administration must make a conscious decision to abandon its policy of manipulating the media for its own aims if Americans are to be able to trust their government. More impor tantly, journalists must become more rigorous in their research of the facts behind what the government states to be truth if democ racy is to thrive at home, much less in Iraq. 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. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK EDITOR Michael LaForgia DESIGN DIRECTOR Chas McCarthy COPY DESK CHIEF Steven Van Haren news editor Jon Turner asst, news editor Kelly Cavanaugh viewpoints editor Wes Wolfe THE MIX EDITOR Jennifer Freeman asst, the mix editor Carrie Givens , sports editor Jonathan Hillyard ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Stephen Fastenau SENIOR WRITER Kevin Fellner PHOTO EDITOR Jason Steelman SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR Katie Kirkland PAGE DESIGNERS Jillian Garis, Staci Jordan, Jessica Ann Nielsen, Megan Sinclair COPY EDITORS Jessica Foster, Brindy McNair, Daniel Regenscheit, Jason Reynolds, Katie Thompson, Shana Till ONLINE EDITOR Ryan Simmons PUBLIC AFFAIRS Jane Fielden, Katie Miles TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Columbia, S.C. 29208 £ax: 777-6482 * ---^-—-II -* CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. The Editor’s office hours are Monday and Wednesday from 1-3 p.m. Editor: gamecocked itor@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 s I UUENT MEDIA director Scott Lindenberg 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 ADVERTISING STAFF Robert Carli, Breanna Evans, Ryan Gorman, Caroline Love, Katie Stephens, McKenzie Welsh 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 Gamecock. The Department of Student' Media is the newspaper’s parent organization. The Gamecock is supported in part by student-activity, fees. One free copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $1 each from the Department of Student Media. U.5. COVLO 5WUT OOWN 6UO0AL P05lTlototNb 5AT£U.I7£5 To Thwart u5e gv TeRRomsTS_ f' Hoyt57, eovt, TmY-. H/c / MU5T HAMt TufZVtV Ott Aee THt y^ \ 5 AX teems BtCAuse X Coueov'r ), HiC... WAV /y / CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Who doesn ’t love a shaved goat story? ■ The Gamecock has plenty of love for USC’s Greek Village people The Gamecock loves USC Greeks. Teehee. We shower fraternities with positive coverage and look sexy doing it. Our shaved-goat coverage was a watershed moment for shaved goats everywhere, and Greeks got press by association. The putrid goat was the news, boys, not the porch where the putrid goat was tied up. It was a win-win-win situation for similarly putrid animals, Greeks and the holiest tenets of journalism. Let’s dear this up right now: There is no bias toward Greeks at The Gamecock. We all know that 99 percent of USC fraternities and sororities would never associate with shaved goats or even the occasional neatly trimmed ibex, the goat’s charming cousin. Leave shaved goats to Clemson kids — for datin’ and such. Most Greeks go Greek for friendship and service. I guess that’s OK, but they’re missing out on some great ice breaking games. And now, the next great gesture of friendship from The Gamecock to that 1 percent of Greeks that love shaved goats. It’s all right, chaps. Thank me later. Wink. Nod. Secret handshake. Nothing says “Hello, future platonic male friends” quite like a jovial elephant walk around the living room. We’ve all seen an elephant walk at the circus, whereby elephants form a chain, linking trunks to tails. Frat boys don’t have trunks or tails, so they use fingers and certain rear body cavities. Other variations include hands g-|-[Ty£|^ and trunk-like VAN ra a,‘ e u a DCM appendages. Sweet mother, THIRD-YEAR is MECHANICAL friendship ENGINEERING " P', STUDENT Somebody cue up “That’s What Friends are For." I need me some Dionne Warwick. This 1 percent of the Greeks is surely the same 1 percent of my middle-school class that mercilessly called my friends and me “gay” for listening to rock and/or roll and not holding three all male wrestling records each. “You guys are gay. Well, I’m off to pile drive Lance.” I don’t understand why we never get news releases about elephant walks. Some Greeks in that 1 percent complain about lack of good coverage. Well guys, if you get a PR rep and photographer willing to witness and record something so enchanting as an elephant walk, we’ll talk business. Again, we’re looking out for you. The elephant walk is just one of many colorful Greek events The Gamecock could cover. Sure, we cover Greek fund raisers, donations and bone-marrow drives. Those are great events. (Brief serious interjection: I joined the bone-marrow search for third-year psychology student Caroline Terry on Tuesday, and I hope more people knew about it because they saw The Gamecock’s coverage. And it’s not too late to join. Go now.) But hazing looks like fun, and we could really work that angle. If something bad happens, like the Feb. 2 water-drinking death of Chico State student Matthew Carrington, we’ll either spin it or bury it. We’ll push the elephant-walk angle to re-soften your image, tossing in some quote about how shameful it is that “fraternities are getting away from traditional elephant walks and alcohol-related death, games." Our new prez, Justin Williams, threatens that 1 percent. Not to kiss butt, but he’s everything good about Greek life and student leadership in general. I know, I know, the editorial board didn’t endorse Justin, but he was our close second choice, whether you believe me or not. It was nice to see a representative of that good 99 percent, not an elephant-walk veteran made soft and fat by four years of PBR and, “The farmer said goats mature at 30 months. Thank God she was legal!” The Gamecock loves Greeks — the good and the bad. The good ones know how to sell their news. The bad ones spend their time fighting it. Newsprint lasts forever, so if you associate with shaved goats, your legacy will be that of the barnyard variety, and your fight song will be Spinal Tap’s “Sex Farm.” IN YOUR OPINION Gay issues pale to civil rights struggle I am appalled by the recent — well, not so recent, but fairly recent to me — depiction of the gay marriage issue. My attention is brought to the fact that gays compare their “fight” to the civil rights battles of last century. As a young white male growing up in a small rural town, racism was evident more than people can ever imagine. Most of the time it was subtle, almost accepted as the normal everyday routine: We don’t mess with them they don’t mess with us. I went to a school that was predominately black, and some of my best friends in my short life were black. I witnessed segregation even in my own family when I brought friends home, and only now do I see it clearly. The gay rights issue is minute in comparison. Let’s look at the evidence. During the peak of the fighting between civil-rights activists and segregationists, blacks were being hung and dragged on the back of trucks at the drop of a hat. Police were influenced by groups such as the KKK, one of the worst groups to ever walk the face of this earth, and would not pursue justice. However, if a black man so much as looked at a white woman, he was hung out to dry like the sheets on a summer day. 1 don’t mean to be crude about it, but that is the way it was. Now, unless I have missed something, I don’t see this occurring with gays at the rate it did with blacks. Some nuts will go on a binge after drinking too much, but other than that, you don’t see the aggression toward gay people as you did toward blacks. We also have to remember that the civil-rights issue was a battle for basic human liberties. Gay rights are an idea/ such as the religions they claim oppress them, and in no way shape or form compare to civil rights. This was a battle for the right to exist. Gays are allowed to exist in their present state. Blacks were not. Nature made every man and woman the same, despite their color or beliefs. Nature made us so that we fit together like a puzzle piece, if I could be so modest. We go together a certain way, and no other. Marriagi is part of that puzzle piece. Studies show that relationships need a feminine (woman) and a masculine (male) role in a growing child’s family. It’s nature. In aspects of evolution, man and woman evolved to come together in a certain way that cannot be duplicated correctly by gays. Now don’t get me wrong — gay people should have every basic right afforded to every human, but they need to stop comparing their “fight” to civil rights. It’s just not the same. WADE SPEER First-year computer science student Belief in evolution leaves room for God In Wednesday’s letter to the editor, “Faith does not need scientific evidence,” the author makes a well-meant declaration of why she and possibly many others believe in creationism over evolution. However, why is there even a debate here? Creationism is a religious belief that varies from religion to religion and evolution is a scientific theory. What Scott Currier ("Chow culls theories in evolution debate,” Feb. 18) means when he says, “Many Christians made their peace with evolution decades ago,” is that most people recognize that creationism and evolution are members of two separate spheres — the scientific and spiritual. And, in addition to this (and probably to the chagrin of many somewhat fundamentalist Christians), the two theories are not even mutually exclusive. The Bible says it took God a week to create the universe and humankind from God’s point of view. Given that God is eternal, a couple hundred-thousand years could be a nanosecond to him or less. Evolution is merely a process by which one species or part of a species survives to propagate and pass on its surviving genetic code. Those Christians who take the Bible literally might have a problem with this, but those of us who view the Bible as a text to deepen our spiritual selves and improve our person as a whole (as opposed to a literal truth) do not necessarily have this problem and might view evolution as the process that he used to create us in his image. However, the point is really mute because evolution is the only theory that has solid evidence to support it, and this means that it should be taught as that — a scientific theory, just like the theory of relativity and the theory of quantum mechanics. If creationists can find scientific fact to support intelligent design, then it , should be taught as a theory as well. Until then, religion at church and science at school. Each has its place and time. People can chose to believe what they want, but to make a decision, you have to be educated on the choices. BRANDON 0. EUBANKS Second-year physics student 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 gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777 7726 for more information. Democrats need better chairman than Dean ■ If they want the South back, Dems need to be a bit more moderate When Democrats recently chose Howard Dean as their chairman, it renewed in me happiness. Despite the wheels coming off the wagon before his journey to the presidency had even begun, Democrats still believe that this is the man to lead their party. With the sting of the election defeat still fresh, JUSTIN Democrats SIMMONS doubtless find Dean’s FOURTH-YEAR , . , POLITICAL enthusiasm the SCIENCE balm for a wound STUDENT that has been open since Gore’s collapse in 2000. However, easing the pain through enthusiastic cheerleading doesn’t heal the wound. As a Republican, I have no problem with this, but as an American, part of me wants to see the Democrats succeed in rebuilding their base if for no other reason than the sake of parity. Among the issues plaguing Democrats are their inability to penetrate the “solid South,” and the inability to get out from under many liberal stances by more fringe elements in their party. One of the contenders for the job of DNC chairman recognized the former problem to a greater extent than Dean or possibly any other Democrat. Donnie Fowler ran on the concept of reinvigorating the grassroots organization of the Democrats, The grassroots are the only way to break the stranglehold of the Republicans on the South. My hometown in Georgia votes Democratic by a substantial margin in every cictuon, anu yei ar me university there the College Democrats lay in a dormant state. If you can’t maximize your potential party support in areas you can. control, you can kiss the swing areas goodbye just about every election. For ' the Democrats, grassroots organization is the key to putting southern cities, counties and even states back into contention come election time. Organizations imbedded in these communities are the ones who can build support for the Democratic Party, not the former governor of Vermont. The second issue preventing Democratic success in more conservative areas such as the South is the liberal positions that have come to be associated with the Democratic Party. You can’t approach issues such as abortion or gay marriage the same way in the South as you can in other areas that are traditionally more liberal. One of the * reason’s why Bill Clinton was able to be so successful as a Democrat in the South was that he was able to portray his stances ' on social issues as moderate at worst. He ■ did not renounce being pro-choice, but !, said that abortion should be not only legal but also rare. He was able to walk a ' fine line between acceptance of the more liberal planks of his party’s platform and endorsement of those issues. It is extremely hard to come into the conservative ooutn and win it you push liberal social issues to the forefront. Rather than holding up these decisive issues, I believe there is more success to be found in pushing agendas on which everyone can agree. For instance, Southern states are notoriously low in education rankings, as well as being worse off economically. Democrats need to look to the near future when taking back Southern states could be a real possibility should Republicans fail to deal with these pressing issues. But they can only do that if an organization is already in place to take advantage of the opportunity The Democratic Party was once strong in the South. And while many of its stances that made it popular at that time should never be resurrected (segregation being one), there are also a number of issues that if successfully addressed by the Democratic Party will make it a winner once again south of the Mason-Dixon. ONLINE POLL Do you think the men’s basketball team will make the NCAA Tourney? Yes 38% No 62% _FROM WWW.DAILYGAMECOCK.CC. »M