Weather Forecast for the Future: Sunny Skies Ahead

BY GENNADY SHEYNER
Editor

Summer is almost here, and once again President George W. Bush finds himself at the butt-end of world opinion.

NANA MORIMOTO / SPECIAL TO THE GUARDSMAN

The world's scientific community has largely agreed about the consequences of global warming, the phenomenon by which accumulated carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere causes a gradual temperature increase that may possibly result in catastrophes such as droughts, mass extinction and floods of Biblical magnitude.

While Bush is not known to be particularly critical of intelligence he receives, he refuses to bulge on global warming, calling the scientific evidence flimsy and inconclusive.

Bush's skeptical stance is hardly surprising. His withdrawal from the Kyoto Treaty (a protocol that re- quires developed nations to restrict their greenhouse gas emissions) two months after he took office showed the world that he isn't losing any sleep over warm weather.

His refusal to impose restrictions on greenhouse emissions is a marriage of bad policy and bad politics. Bush's solution is the "Climate Leaders" program, under which America's biggest po lluters would voluntarily curb their emissions by 10 percent or more in the coming de-cade. Bush lauded his ap- proach as one that "recognizes that economic growth is the solution, not the problem." The fact that out of tens of thousands of U.S. polluters only 50 have joined the program affirms the ineptitude of his approach.

Not since Ronald Reagan declared in 1981 that "trees cause more pollution than automobiles" has a president shown such ignorance of a vital global issue. Bush thinks that any environmental concessions would lead to economic downfall. However, most of the companies that joined "Cli-mate Leaders" did so because it made economic sense. Development of hydrogen-fueled cars and carbon scrubbers would not only decrease carbon dioxide emission levels, but also open up new mar- kets and give America a larger stake in the global economy.

Perhaps more importantly, strong action on global warming would help restore America's reputation around the world. Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's staunchest ally, recently reaffirmed his commitment to Kyoto and called global warming "the most serious long-term threat facing the planet."

As the world's biggest polluter, the U.S. can't afford to pretend that global warming is other nations' problem. Bush needs to act now to help prevent this pending disasters and, by doing so, silence his critics around the world.

Letters to the Editor

Editor:

Ongoing violence against women is one of the serious problems of today. So it is important to point out tragic events in Mexico, where 370 women have been brutally raped and killed in Chihuahua State since 1993. Another 400 women are currently missing.

The disturbing lack of police involvement encourage the criminals to continue their onslaught. While desperation grows among locals, families of victims have nowhere to turn for justice.

Even though Special Co-mmissioner Guadalupe Mor-fin and Federal Prosecutor Maria Lopez Urbina were appointed by President Vi-cente Fox to carry out an investigation, Chihuahua women are still in great danger. The urgent issue req-uires the Fox administration to take prompt action in this serious matter.

Lenka Belkova
City College student

Editor:

Diverse views are non-existent in City College. Stu-dents have learned to calmly nod their head as some flaming liberal radical is spewing hate in every ear that will stand still.

These neo-hippies hate this country. The Anarchists, for example, advocate violence against police. They want people to stop volun-teering for the military. What do they want, a draft? These groups are ungrateful. They spit on the very country that gave them the freedom to protest.

These organizations are hate groups disguised as bohemian intellectuals. This whole school believes it is open-minded. I wonder how open-minded we would be toward someone who opposes gay marriage, a supporter of pro life, a Republican or a war supporter? They would be met with loud bullhorns and defamatory posters that clutter the halls.

We are only open-minded toward the issues we agree with, and that is intolerance

D. James
City College Student

Editor:

I am a part-time student at City College. During a recent class, our instructor passed out copies of a letter from Dean Bruce Smith asking students for money to oppose state budget reforms proposed by Governor Schw-arzenegger.

College officials who use teachers to lobby students for self-serving political agendas, listen up! Not all CCSF students support taking large amounts of money from taxpayers, including working people who've never attended college, to fund our higher education! Does the phrase "Not In Our Name!" ring a bell? California taxpayers of all political persuasions pay your salaries. We deserve a school run in a politically neutral and unbiased manner!

Smith's letter also said CCSF art classes were making an anti-budget reform sculpture. Did students who disagreed with this political agenda feel compelled to participate? Guardsman editors, please investigate! And please editorialize against inappropriate political lobbying by college personnel!

Starchild
City College Student

EMPIRE OF DIRT

BY JORGE PARADA
Editor

Following the murder of San Francisco Police Officer Isaac Espinoza, several pro-minent members of the community -- including Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Police Chief Heather Fong -- have chastised District Attorney Kamala Harris for her re-fusal to pursue the death penalty for David Hill, the alleged killer.

"I know emotions are running high," said Officer Kevin Martin, secretary of the Police Officers Assoc-iation, in an interview with Bay City News. "But everything we want to do will be done in memory of Isaac and for his family."

Killing yet another man is no way to honor a dead police officer.

Harris did the right thing by following her conscience and not pursuing the death penalty. A San Francisco jury would have never condemned Hill to death.

Once you get beyond the emotional arguments in favor of the death penalty, there are several compelling philosophical arguments a-

gainst it to consider.

If you look closely, the death penalty by its very nature is hypocritical. The state punishes a murderer by sanctioning another murder. Look even closer and you will see that the state violates its own laws by premeditating the murder of a condemned inmate.

Technically, that is murder in the first-degree.

There is also the possibility of executing an innocent person. Illinois recently abolished the death penalty after exonerating several death row inmates because of DNA evidence.

The arbitrary application of the death penalty is unjust. Some societies punish "undesirable" persons in this manner. Look back through history to when Athens condemned Socrates to death. China routinely executes its political prisoners. In the United States, a large number of death row inmates are poor and unable to afford a good attorney. A large number of them are also mentally disabled.

In California, the death row population is comprised of 615 men and 15 women. What's up with that? Women can be just as violent and deadly as men.

The Mouth of Miles

BY MILES HARWELL
Staff Writer

Bush Gets the Pink Slip

Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry stated that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have no business criticizing either his military service in Vietnam or his anti-war record.

"I think a lot of veterans are going to be very angry at a president who can't account for his own service in the National Guard, and a vice president who got every deferment in the world and decided he had better things to do, criticizing someone who fought for their country and served," Kerry said.

Kerry's status as a decorated Navy veteran has been well-documented, but Bush's service as a member of the Texas Air National Guard is questionable. He still hasn't accounted for the gaps in his service record.

Bush is dancing around the issue of his own military involvement so much that he's obviously hiding something. Kerry is lashing out, but considering that he was in Vietnam, and both Bush and Cheney used excuses to get out of it, he has the right to bite back if they criticize him.

I could see how veterans would be angry. If I went to war, I wouldn't want someone claiming to have been through what I had been through, which is exactly what Bush is doing by saying that he served his country proudly, even though he can't manage to produce any sort of proof of this.

Signing off for the semester, you can take that, plus everything else I said, to the bank, because it came From the Mouth of Miles.

PEACE