The Vanderbilt Torch

Take your illegal alien to college day

Think you pay a lot for college tuition? Well good news: if you’re an illegal immigrant in Colorado you may get a break! Currently in the works is Senate Bill 170, which was recently approved by a state Senate committee on a 5-3 party-line vote, with Republicans voting no. The bill awaits a vote in the full Senate.

S.B. 170 would provide in-state college tuition to non-U.S. citizens provided the student attended high school in Colorado for at least three years and the student goes to college within one year following graduation or earning a GED. The bill requires that students 21 or older sign an affidavit stating that they have applied for permanent residency. 

Gifts for guns, but no less crime

This past winter, big cities around the country took a “you’ll shoot your eye out” stance during the holiday season offering a “Gifts for Guns” exchange, giving people the opportunity to turn in their firearms for gift cards.

The program was begun in 2005 in Compton, California, following a spike in gun and gang violence in the already dangerous city.  Compton, located outside of L.A., is consistently ranked among the country’s most crime-ridden cities, mostly due to racial tension and the activities of gangs like the Bloods and the Crips.

Torch Debate: English or Bust

"In the first place we should insist that the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equity with everyone else…But this is predicated upon the man's becoming an American and nothing but an American.  There can be no divided allegiance here…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."  These words, spoken by Theodore Roosevelt in a letter to the American Defense Society in 1919, are often forgotten in today’s embrace of America’s “salad bowl” instead of the original melting pot metaphor.  People throw around words like “xenophobe,” “racist” and “discriminatory” at any effort to define English as America’s language.  But, finally, voters can take a stand.

UCLA's Race for Race

“A growing body of evidence strongly suggests that UCLA is cheating on admissions…I am therefore resigning, in protest, from the [admissions] committee.  To do otherwise would condone and make me complicit in what appears to be illegal activity.”  With those words, followed by 89 pages of details, University of Los Angeles political science professor Tim Groseclose resigned from his position and sparked a flurry of controversy surrounding the possible under the table—and illegal—race-based affirmative action on UCLA’s campus.

Supreme Court Pulls Trigger

On March 18, the Supreme Court began its oral arguments on District of Columbia vs. Heller, regarding the D.C. handgun ban and its possible violation of the Second Amendment. The Founding Father’s statement in question reads: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Gun ban advocates insist that the “right of the people to keep and bear arms” applies only to state militias, whereas many D.C. residents, as well as pro-gun conservatives, maintain that the Amendment applies to private gun ownership as well.  The D.C. gun ban is considered to be the most stringent gun ban in the country, restricting residents from owning handguns and also requiring that rifles and shotguns be kept “unloaded, disassembled, or bound by a trigger lock.”   

Romney 2012: He'll Bring Sexy Back

The Republican Party’s lack of a definitive candidate at the beginning of the nomination race prompted a scramble for the “most-like-Reagan award,” as each candidate tried to liken himself to the conservative icon.  It has been interesting to follow Mitt Romney’s progression from his earlier, more liberal positions (like his 1980s abortion and same-sex marriage policies) to his current, extremely “Reaganite” rhetoric.  Of the Republican candidates, Romney has stood on one of the most conservative platforms, but perhaps the most interesting question of all is whether or not Mitt Romney’s recent step-down has been his most Reagan-like action yet.

The Benazir Bhutto You Haven't Heard Of

Just a few months following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan looks just as divided as ever. On one hand is the President Musharraf, on the other, Bhutto’s husband, son, and supporters of Pakistani democracy. Where before her death Benazir and Musharraf had joined in an alliance for Pakistan, Pakistan has since then seen nothing but internal divisions and the prospect of more hard times to come. 

Torch Debate: Chuck Huck

One can’t deny that Mike Huckabee’s persona is a refreshing blend of eloquence, humor, and down-to-earth charm, and it’s pretty darn hard to disagree with Chuck Norris, but for “true conservatives,” Mike Huckabee is a nightmare waiting to happen. Or, one could even say a continuation of the nightmare of Bush’s Republicanism: populist and pro-big government.

Election 2008: Immigration

For most Republicans, and perhaps almost two thirds of the voting public, the problem of 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States demands some sort of strict and timely response. Unfortunately, the positions of the current Republican candidates include a significant amount of pandering and no great willingness to tackle the issue.

2nd Amendment Shootout!

"On every occasion...[of Constitutional interpretation] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying [to force] what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, [instead let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed." –Thomas Jefferson, June 12, 1823, Letter to William Johnson

For the first time in 60 years, the Supreme Court has decided to hear a case regarding the Second Amendment, and the ruling will impact future laws, current regulations, and possibly even the upcoming elections. The Court’s decision to hear the case was the result of legislative upheaval caused by a series of cases in the lower court systems, in which the D.C. gun bans forbidding private ownership of handguns were called into question.