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Vol. XXVII, Issue 2 Sept 29, 2005“My cleavage looks like the Eiffel Tower”
 
Page 2Current Events 
It seems that some progress is beingmade in Gaza. Israelis have just finished clear-ing an area that they have occupied for 38 years,pacifying Palestinians, temporarily at least.Palestinian President Abbas, has toldhis people that they may now celebrate, sayingthat “[today] our people have the right to cele-brate their freedom, their dignity. This placewas a taboo for us…and now we are standinghere.”He has been quoted as saying that hewould gain control of Gaza - what he referred toas being “one large prison” - by the end of 2005,leaving him able to enter peace talks with Israelabout other areas of concern.Mr. Husseini, the Chief of Staff inPalestine, has promised that Abbas would com-ply with the conditions demanded by Israelbefore discussions can commence. This meansdealing with the terrorist groups in Palestineand Abbas is showing ruthlessness by disarm-ing the small groups within his own Fatah first;large organizations such as Hamas and Il – Jihadwill be targeted next.This all sounds comforting after theseemingly endless acts of violence in both coun-tries, with suicide bombings and killing on bothsides resulting in over 3000 deaths and 29,000injuries since January 2001 in Gaza alone, notto mention other regions in Israel and Palestine.However, the conflict has hardly beenresolved. While Palestinians are currently cel-ebrating their acquisition of Gaza, they are notsatisfied, with Abbas commenting “[today] Gaza,tomorrow the West Bank and [East] Jerusalem,”referring to all the territories captured in the1967 Middle East war.What does this mean for Israel, though?Already, Prime Minister Sharon has had to dealwith massive demonstrations nationwide inresponse to his decision to return Gaza toPalestine. The pullout itself resulted in morethan 300 arrests, several road blocks and hasbeen the first time that Israel has removedestablished settlements from those areas in fourdecades of contruction and expansion.Sharon has made public his plans for thenear future, including such projects as estab-lishing a security line in critical areas, contin-uing the war against terrorism (where have weheard this before!) and the erection of theSecurity Fence. After recent meetings withGeorge W. Bush, Sharon is able to state that“The U.S. President is a friend to Israel andleads the international campaign against terror.He admires the State of Israel and the Israelipeople for our resolved and determined stand inthe face of terror.”He claims that the support promised toIsrael will have a great impact on the decisionsthat Sharon is intending to make concerning theongoing Palestinian crisis. With the US’s sup-port of “Israel’s right to secure and protectiveborders, and ‘defensible borders’” and “recog-nition of Israel’s right to defend itself by itself anywhere and to preserve its strength of deter-rence against any threat,” Sharon will undoubt-edly be granted a degree of confidence withwhich to approach the conflict.The most controversial aspect of the US’sinvolvement in the affair? The fact that Bushacknowledges that there will be no Israeli with-drawal to the ’67 lines and the promise of tak-ing Israel’s side when in negotiations withPalestine.Sharon also listed all the advantages of the Disengagement Plan in an attempt to gainmore support for the project, including suchpromises as: the preservation of Israel forever;insurance that the Palestinians will end theirviolent terror, hence relieving political pres-sure from Israel; and making it so that Israel isthe “leader” and the “initiator.” He said thatwhoever disagrees with the Disengagement Planforfeits all the accomplishments made so farand that he believes that the Plan is ultimatelygood for Israel.Besides the social implications, thatsettlers have been forced to leave their homesand build their lives from scratch, the future of Israel seems filled with instability, discontent-ment and, undoubtedly, violence. It seems that,despite Sharon’s optimism concerning thefuture of his country, the road to peace will con-tinue to be a long and rocky one, even with theassistance and promises of his friend Bush.Not much seems to have been achievedby the returning of Gaza to Palestine, for theirappetite for land seems unsatiable and Israel isreluctant to give up any more settlements. Itappears that thousands of people were drivenout of their homes without achieving much inthe name of peace and that is the saddest part of this conflict.So while one nation is finding new hopein achieving their goal – integrating what istoday Israel into Palestine – another is anxiousabout retaining their independence.
Gaza - The Beginning or the End for Israel?
ByKarenShidlo
DISPLACEMENT INGAZA Courtesy of Israeli Withdrawel
How much evidence of incompetence isneeded to remove a clueless official from office?New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin first proved hisincompetence to the world by not evacuating theresidents of New Orleans in a timely and effi-cient manner; then he tried to let people comeback to their destroyed homes against theadvice of FEMA, only recanting his advise afterthe reality of Hurricane Rita was all over televi-sion screens. This guy has got to go! He is anutter moron no matter how you look at it. AnyDemocrat stupid enough to stand up for him justbecause he is not a Republican is equally igno-rant, and any blind partisanship will get theDemocrats nowhere.Now onto who is going to pay to rebuildthe Gulf Coast: Don’t even think of raising taxeson the rest of us! The American taxpayersshould not have to pay for the idiocy of Louisiana officials, especially after so manygood-hearted Americans have willingly openedtheir wallets and homes to the victims on theirown accord. It’s time our elected officialsacross all political parties started to cut back on spending across the board. That goes forGeorge W. Bush as well; we need less governmentinterference in our lives; true conservative pol-icy calls for cutting back on spending and cre-ating tax laws that encourage Americans to takethe country back into their own hands. Bush’sfaith-based initiatives are a step in the rightdirection; whether you are religious or not it isclear to see that such groups are much better athandling post-disaster recovery than the gov-ernment. The Salvation Army is the best exam-ple of an effective religious organization.Right now, the government has a perfectopportunity to change our country for the bet-ter. The need to rebuild such a large area of thesouthern United States creates an opportunitythat I could never have dreamed of myself. Wecan finally take a serious step towards protect-ing our environment and reducing our need forforeign oil. The answer is simple: alternativeenergy. If every single home and business onthe Gulf Coast is rebuilt using recycled materi-als and powered with solar energy this will doworlds of good for our entire country. Thistechnology already exists and it works. Theonly thing standing in the way is the govern-ment; if our congresspersons and senators real-ly want to do good for the whole country theywill get together and pass laws giving tax advan-tages to companies that take all of the rubblefrom these areas and recycle it into usablebuilding products. They will also pass lawsthat give businesses producing solar panels andsolar roof shingles tax advantages so they canefficiently grow these businesses and competewill the less-efficient old-world buildingindustry. By cutting back on the need for oil topower our homes we won’t have to worry aboutthe cost of home heating oil and gasoline sky-rocketing every time a hurricane hits ourrefineries in the Gulf, not to mention the polit-ical effects in the Middle East.Americans want energy-efficient alter-natives; this has been made clear by theincreasing popularity of hybrid cars. The gov-ernment tells us that it is giving tax-incentivesto businesses researching fuel-cells. I’ll be the
Recall the Moron and Don’t Even Try to Makethe Rest of Us Pay for His Idiocy!
ByNatalieSchultzContinued on next page
“The only thing stand-ing in our way is gov-ernment...”
 
Page 3 Current Events 
Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines,the third and fourth largest air carriers in thecountry, have filed for bankruptcy protection.The filings, which occurred within minutes of each other, were the result of a long buildup of financial problems for the American air travelindustry.One of the main factors in Northwest’sbankruptcy was the cost of labor. The airlinehad been flying for a month withits unionizedmechanics on strike, after failing to secure con-cessions on wages, and faces a $3.8 billionshortfall in payments to employees’ pensionplans. Both Northwest and Delta were also hurtby competition from smaller, lower-cost domes-tic carriers, and a dramatic increase in the costof jet fuel. Northwest expects a fuel bill of $3.3billion for 2005, significantly higher than itscosts of $2.2 billion in 2004 and $1.6 billion in2003. Delta’s costs are 50% higher than theywere last year.The air travel industry has never reallyrecovered from the slump in traffic followingthe September 11 attacks. Delta and Northwest join United, the second largest American airline, and US Airways, the seventh largest, inbankruptcy, meaning that nearly half of thenation’s air capacity is running on bankruptcarriers. American Airlines, the country’slargest carrier, narrowly avoided bankruptcy in2003, and has returned to profitability.Overall, the American air travel industryexpects to lose a total of $8 billion this year.Northwest, which had been struggling longbefore the attacks, was granted massive taxpay-er-funded bailout packages from the state of Minnesota, in exchange for maintaining jobs inthe state in 1991 and 1994, but another suchdeal is unlikely. Minnesota Governor TimPawlenty, when asked if he would consideranother aid payment, said “Given how farthey’re in debt, it is really beyond the capacityof the government to save the day.”Analysts say that failures of manage-ment to react to changes in the market are asmuch to blame for the poor performance of air-lines as rising fuel prices. A reluctance to alterlabor relations and respond to the threat of low-cost, low-fare upstarts dragged down the largestcarriers. In most cases, the attempts that weremade at cutting costs came far too late. Forexample, until October of 2004, Delta’s pilotswere being paid under a contract negotiatedbefore 9/11. Some critics of the system believethat government aid and the protection of bank-ruptcy court allows large airlines to maintainpoor business practices without the fear of actually being hurt.The nearly simultaneous bankruptcieshave led some in the industry to speculate on amerger between the two carriers. Delta andNorthwest have had talks in the past, but noth-ing came out of them. The merger would be pos-sible, as the carriers have very little route over-lap. Delta, based in Atlanta, primarily servic-es the eastern US, and launches many dailyflights across the Atlantic. Northwest is con-centrated in the Midwest, with extensive serviceto Asia. The lack of overlap means that a merg-er between the two would not significantlyeffect competition in either of their primaryareas of focus, increasing the chance that such amove would be allowed by federal regulators.Both airlines intend to continue flyingunder bankruptcy, hoping to minimize theeffect on passengers, although services willprobably be scaled back as they reorganize andcut costs. Many smaller cities, some of whichare serviced exclusively by Delta or Northwest,are likely to be hurt by the reorganizations.The restructuring of the companies will alsoinvolve delegating more flights to regional part-ners, and of course, cutting jobs. Northwest hasannounced it will begin laying off employees(including 400 pilots) before the end of theyear, and Delta plans to cut 9,000 jobs, on top of the 24,000 it has eliminated since 2001. Deltaalso intends to shed nearly 20% of its fleet. Inthe aftermath of these changes, assuming that nomerger occurs, it is likely that Delta andNorthwest will be more similar to the low-costcarriers, such as Southwest and Jet Blue, whichhelped push them into bankruptcy.
Big Airlines in Trouble, Oh No!
ByAlexWalsh
99 JET BLUE PLANES ON THE WALL, 99 JET BLUE PLANES, TAKE ONE DOWN...Courtesy of Jet Blue
first to admit that I love fuel-cell technology,but at the moment harvesting hydrogen withoutthe use of gasoline is not feasible; therefore thegovernment must give American car companiesincentives to push out hybrid vehicles as fast aspossible. Hybrid technology may not be thegodsend of alternative energy, but at themoment it is the only truly efficient technologythat actually works. The government must wakeup to reality and embrace the technology thathas already been proven to work, otherwise theToyota Prius is going to be the only car on ourAmerican roads.Europeans are way ahead of us when itcomes to harvesting the natural powers of theearth. Homes in Europe are often being builtwith solar power, including windows that cap-ture solar power. Ordinary homes are beingheated by harvesting the geothermal heathoused in abundance in the very earth beneathour feet. Ground source heat pump technologyalready exists and it works, but mostAmericans have never even heard of this won-derful source of home heating power. Our gov-ernment must wake up to reality and give inno-vative companies the tax incentives necessary tocompete with ordinary companies that buildhouses that waste energy. Many state govern-ments, including New York, already do givehomeowners tax incentives to convert to solarpower. Even G.W. Bush’s own home in Crawford,Texas is super-green. Its high-time that thefederal government give tax incentives acrossthe board to individuals and businesses alike tostart harvesting the clean powers of the earth,rather than just sitting back and letting usdestroy the earth with old-fashioned inefficienttechnologies that only cost us humans lots of money and cost the earth all of its natural glory.We are in the midst of a deadly hurri-cane season as I write this. Hurricane Rita isCategory 5, heading towards Texas at themoment. Scientists tell us that this may last 30years or more. Whether you believe that this isdo to global warming or not, is it really worththe risk of sticking with the status-quo when somany good earth-friendly alternatives exist?Some conservative lawmakers toss this kind of advice off as tree-hugging leftist hippie rheto-ric. Take it from a self-proclaimed Reagan con-servative: This is not rhetoric; no, this is themost economically efficient way to take oureconomy forward. It might be worth a look back at the presidency of Richard Nixon; after all itwas Nixon who initiated the most environmentalreform policies of any other president. Fiscalconservatives, its time to realize that environ-mental conservation is the most economicallyconservative road we can take.
Recall the Moron and Don’t Even Try to Makethe Rest of Us Pay for His Idiocy!
ByNatalieSchultzContinued from previous page
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