.....

I am sad. I finally sent the letter to Oxford saying I won't be able to go and I can't seem to come to terms with the situation. I know I should have sent it earlier so that some eagerly waiting student could get through, but... It should have been me. I should have been the one packing my bags to go to Oxford this summer. I wanted to go there ... I guess I deserved not going too....Well I am going back to UH this Fall....its not that bad at all, now that I am closely looking into who does what kind of work and stuff....If I am cut out for grad school or not is a different question, but I am ready for it....

Goodbye Oxford I guess then....aaaa this is hard...I didn't think I would feel this way but....

Terrorism.....does it really exist?

I was watching the news this morning and a weird question hit me- Does terrorism really exist? I don't have a justification for this question, but it almost seems that we create terrorism out of anything and everything. We just need a tiny bit of opportunity and we are good to go. I don't know why it hit me , so I am going to stop here

~shreya

Executive over Judiciary over Legislative over Nation over World!

In short, I am pissed. President Bush commuted Lewis "Scooter" Libby's 30 month prison sentence; he wanted to reduce his sentence!That he was involved in the leaking of a CIA case is no matter anymore because he has the support of the President and of course, the Vice- President. These are people we attest to since they are apparently the leaders of the nation. I guess then like my dad says," What harm had Paris Hilton done?" CIA leak case- a.k.a breach of national security. How come these cases of misconduct are not deemed as terrorist activities? A jury made a decision, a judge made a ruling, that's it. END OF STORY! You face your punishment just how you gave into your temptation of leaking the identity of another CIA agent. If you ask me, 30 month prison sentence, probation and fines are still less for a crime like this. Its like sending Lindsay Lohan to drug/alcohol rehab. Might as well leak classified information to foreign agents if you are a close aide to the White House. Ken Lay should have been just sent to jail for a month then, there should be no question of capital punishment anymore and most importantly, free everyone from Gitmo Bay for the bulk of them are only suspects and not actually serving sentences.

Such an act by the President is what I call Dictatorship within Democracy. For those of you who are laughing, you know it makes sense. This is that subtle form of dictatorship that some of us condemn and some of us condone. Its amazing how the constitution allows the President do to something. That means the whole idea of checks and balances is a farce. Congress votes on something, and immediately is vetoed if it does not pertain to the whims and fancies of the President. President is unhappy with the judiciary he uses his power of clemency. Then where does democracy feature here, where does checks and balances feature here???!!!! Might as well let the President make all decisions right? Everything is guaranteed by the Constitution anyways!?! Censorship of the war is something I have not been able to gulp. No one knows what the real picture is over there, all we get to know is what they wants us to know. Fear of bringing about a revolution like what happened during the Vietnam war has brought the Cabinet to this conclusion. Then what wrong did Chavez do when he stopped the subscription of a national channel since they were apparently anti- socialist (Just for the record, I am not condoning Chavez. What he did was ghastly, atleast the US has a democracy, I consider Chavez to be a dictator). What wrong did Saddam Hussain do, we did not even have substantial evidence that he had Weapons of Mass Destruction. The President in a recent press conference said (and I paraphrase) that he didn't know why Saddam didn't have wmds. If this is the state of our desperation to justify the war, it is plain sick.

What irritated me more was Nytimes. I am an ardent fan of the Nytimes what little I read from it, but when the whole commuting thing came into light, they went into the semantics of how commuting was not the same as pardoning. ITS ALL THE SAME! Pardoning is a full pardon, but commuting isn't. Why did the President not commute the probation and fines? Technically, Libby is a free man now! You cannot justify the President's action by saying, "Well they aren't the same thing! "

The executive branch has way too much power. Checks and balances are tipped over towards the executive. The people need to do something about this!!!

~Shreya