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| 2004/4/21 [Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton] UID:13310 Activity:nil |
4/21 Do you notice a lot of non-Indian, non-Asian, non-Caucasian
CS/EECS students these days?
related article:
http://tinyurl.com/2mg2f
\_ It could be that the College of Engineering's sundry programs
for recruiting underrepresented minorities and making
sure they graduate in CS/EECS is actually working. (I believe
Cal's is headed by a black, female Materials Engineering
graduate who also distinguished herself as one of Cal's few
Rhodes Scholars.)-elizp
\_ tell me how smart or dumb the incoming class is. don't tell me
what race it is.
\_ or how privileged.
\_ it would be great if uc adjusted admission based on socio-
economic status (or lack thereof) rather than on race-
substitutes. (btw, i believe i saw reference to a study
that said, based on se status, asain attendance would
go up, whites stay flat, and other privileged minorities
would drop. sorry, no ref, so may just be faulty on my
part.)
\_ Why? Why not just have smart people rather than stupid
poor people? Oh wait, I forgot... -John
\_ we are. poor kid who did well tend to be smarter
than rich kid who performed at an equal level.
take bush and clinton for example. if clinton
has low IQ like bush, he would not have made it
to governor of arkansas.
\_ The Clintons are poor now? -- ilyas
\_ Bill Clinton grew up poor. Are you purposely
being stupid?
\_ Well I am not a Bill Clinton scholar or
anything, nor did I read any of his
biographies. Quick internet search turns
up at least middle class, given the jobs
of his mother and step-father. But yes,
Tom, I am purposely being stupid. -- ilyas
\_ that wasn't me, twink. I'm not sure you
can help being stupid. -tom
\_ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton
"Clinton grew up in a turbulent family.
His stepfather was a gambler and
alcoholic who regularly abused his wife,
and sometimes Clinton's half brother
Roger, Jr." Search harder padawan.
\_ I grant that he was a gambler and a drunk.
But poor? No way. Look up what Clinton's
parent did for a living again. -- ilyas
\_ "He rose from poverty to graduate
from Georgetown University with a
degree in International Affairs"
It does not matter how much money
you make, if you gamble it all away.
Your refusal to even bother reading
the first few paragraphs of the
refernce I found for you only
demonstrates your desire to
stay ignorant, the definition
of stupidity in my book. -!tom
\_ Well, I have a choice. One is
to take wikipedia's word for it,
and another is to look at what
his adult family members actually
did for a living... I ll take my
chances with that. I ll grant you
my stupidity if you want, just
to avoid having to talk about it
anymore. A short blurb from
wikipedia doesn't prove your
argument for you. I offered a
reasonable piece of information
for why he didn't grow up poor.
You just flamed. -- ilyas
\_ gambling can make you poor
even if you have a decent job.
\_ Yeah it may. Or not. It
would be nice to actually
look into that. But let's
just quote wikipedia some
more instead. -- ilyas
\_ http://csua.org/u/708
If you really are
interested.
\_ I am not the person
who quoted wikipedia.
\_ and rich kids who did well tend to be smarter
than other rich kids who did less well. so let's
control for se status.
\_ Cal does a "comprehensive review" which includes
looking at socioeconomic status. -tom
\_ And here I've been thinking that "comprehensive
review" is just court approved smoke screen
for "let's accept members of privileged
minority classes rather than members of
nonprivileged minority classes". Silly me.
\_ Somewhat related question. There have been many studies along
the lines of: send in white and black candidates for job/loan/
apt/whatever and observe white candidates getting better
response. Has there been a study where they sent in college
applications for black and white students of identical background/
grades/scores/recommendations/etc. and observe the admission
results?
\_ the scariest study of that nature I saw was one in which
computer-generatred resumes were sent to perspective employers
with fake randomized personal and profesional information, but
with some having "black sounding" names that are typically
associated with african americans, and some having more WASP
sounding names.
\_ Well who would this benefit? That's why it won't be studied.
Merit-based admission is the dream, but won't happen until
the educational playing field is leveled - which will be
never.
\_ Gee, isn't it worthwhile to find out if there's racial
discrimination in the college application process?
Color me curious.
\_ It would be interesting if we can attach a value for being
a member of <minority> in the college application process.
Someone enterprising might be able to take advantage of
that. A very straight friend joined all the usual gay/
lesbian/bi/transexual clubs as part of his med school
application process and got into some pretty impressive
schools that he thought he'd have no chance at. With no
control, it's hard to know what the effect of his club
membership might have had, but it'd be an intersting thing
to find out, no?
\_ We should screen for hot females. Old-time MIT-boys still tell
me how great the class of '86 was. |
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| tinyurl.com/2mg2f -> sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/21/MNGRO681SD53.DTL UC officials sent letters to the rejected students telling them they will be guaranteed admission to a UC campus if they attend a community college for two years. It is the first time that UC has not fulfilled the promise of the 1960 California Master Plan, which guarantees admission to all students who meet eligibility requirements. These are students who have worked very hard and took a rigorous curriculum and were told all through high school that they would be guaranteed a spot at UC, said Ilene Abrams, a college adviser at Berkeley High School. Abrams noted that one of her rejected students has a 39 grade point average and a score of 1,210 out of a possible 1,600 on the SAT 1 He is a very bright kid, and he is a kid who has worked very hard, Abrams said. The universitys action stems from the states on-going budget crisis and Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggers directive that the UC system sharply reduce enrollment this fall and offer rejected students delayed admission after community college. According to the UC data, those students who were redirected to community college under the Guaranteed Transfer Option had an average grade point average of 346, compared with a 38 average for admitted students. UC Berkeleys assistant vice chancellor for admissions, Richard Black, said UC owes the rejected students a profound apology but that steep state budget cuts forced the university system to choose between cutting enrollment and damaging the educational quality of the system for students who are admitted. I hope in the immediate future, next year, we will be able to restore a UC education for all eligible students, he said. Overall, 46,923 California freshmen were admitted from 64,146 applicants compared with 50,291 admitted from 66,410 applicants last year. About 2,661 freshmen who were rejected received an alternative offer of admission in winter or spring. Another 1,120 who had applied for an engineering major were offered admissions at UC Riverside, which is trying to expand its engineering program. The Legislature is considering a plan by Schwarzenegger to allow those students who were redirected to a community college to have their fees waived. Students in that program could be offered a transfer guarantee by a specific campus, although it may not be their top choice. UC Irvine and UC Santa Cruz offered a guaranteed transfer to every UC-eligible student in their pool who was rejected. Students who applied to other campuses, such as UC Berkeley, may not get a guaranteed transfer offer into that campus but would at least be offered admission to UC Merced, which is expected to open in fall 2005, said Susan Wilbur, director of undergraduate admissions for the UC system. One unexplained component of the new admissions data that took UC officials by surprise was a large drop in admissions of African American students, along with more modest reductions in acceptance of other represented minorities. According to UC, systemwide there was a 151 percent decline in freshman admissions of African Americans, a 32 percent drop for Latinos, and a 92 percent drop for American Indians. The admissions decline was 19 percent for Asian Americans and 84 percent for whites. Wilbur said in a phone conference that the declines among underrepresented minorities may reflect several things: the increased competition, a decline in applications and steep cuts in funding for academic outreach programs that have sought to inform students about UC and prepare them for admission. In the hyper-competitive admissions environment, admissions of underrepresented minorities dropped dramatically at the systems flagship campus, UC Berkeley, as did the admission of low-income students. At UC Berkeley, the number of African American freshmen admitted for fall 2004 dropped 292 percent from 298 to 211. The number of Chicanos and Latinos admitted fell 73 percent from 1,030 to 955. And the number of American Indians admitted decreased 216 percent from 51 to 40. Meanwhile, admissions increased 106 percent for white students, from 2,785 to 3,081, and 47 percent for Asian American students, from 3,380 to 3,538. In addition, there was a 10 percent drop in admissions of students who qualified for federal Pell grants, which are limited to students who have an average family income of $35,000 to $40,000. This is a matter that the university leadership takes very seriously indeed, Black said. It is unacceptable and we are going to have to examine other options. James Drake, 23, a UC Berkeley senior who has been advocating for the return of affirmative action, said the numbers are very disappointing. As a black student on this campus, it really feels like they dont want us here, he said. I know there are qualified black students out there who could go to this university. |
| en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton As a delegate to Boys Nation while in high school, he met President John F Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden. He rose from poverty to graduate from Georgetown University with a degree in International Affairs, attending England s prestigious Oxford University University College on a Rhodes Scholarship , and receiving a law degree from Yale Law School . At Yale, Bill Clinton met Hillary Rodham , and they married in 1975 . Early Political Career After teaching law at the University of Arkansas for a few years, Clinton was elected Attorney General of Arkansas in 1976 . Bill Clinton was first elected governor of the state of Arkansas in 1978 , and at the time he was the youngest state governor in the United States. His first term was fraught with difficulties, including an unpopular motor vehicle tax, and popular anger over the escape of Cuban prisoners from the Mariel Boat Lift detained in Fort Chafee in 1980 . Furthermore, Hillary Rodhams decision to keep her maiden name while Arkansas First Lady raised many eyebrows in the traditionally conservative state. After only one term, Clinton was defeated by Republican challenger Frank White in 1980 . Out of office, Clinton addressed the concerns that led to his political failure. He established new relationships with business interests, and made amends with the political establishment of the state. Hillary took her husbands surname and adopted a more traditional public role as a political wife, while quietly establishing herself as a political force in her own right through her skills as an attorney. Clinton was elected governor again in 1982 , and served five additional terms in Arkansas until 1992 . Clintons business-friendly approach mollified conservative criticism during his terms as governor. However, several deals the Clintons made during this period led to the Whitewater investigation, which dogged his later presidential administration. Presidency Clintons first major foray into national politics occurred when he was enlisted to speak at the 1988 Democratic National Convention , introducing candidate Michael Dukakis . Clintons address, scheduled to last fifteen minutes, became a debacle as Clinton gave a notoriously dull speech that lasted over half an hour. Despite this setback, Clinton prepared for a run in 1992 against incumbent president George H W Bush . In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War , President Bush seemed undefeatable, and several potential Democratic candidates passed on what seemed to be a lost cause. Bill Clinton chose then- United States Senator Al Gore to be his running mate on July 9 , 1992. Initially this decision sparked criticism from strategists due to the fact that Gore was from Clintons neighboring state of Tennessee . However, in retrospect, many now view Clintons choice of Gore as a benefactor in the successful 1992 campaign. Clintons opponents raised various character issues during the campaign, including Clintons apparent evasion of the draft during the Vietnam War, and his glib response to a question about past marijuana use. Allegations of womanizing and shady business deals also were raised. While none of these alleged flaws led to Clintons defeat, they did fuel unusually vehement opposition to Clintons policies among many conservatives from the very beginning of his presidency. Clinton was the first Democrat to serve two full terms as President since Franklin Delano Roosevelt . His election ended an era in which the Republican party had controlled the Presidency for 12 consecutive years, and for 20 of the previous 24 years. That election also brought the Democrats full control of the political branches of the federal government, including both houses of Congress as well as the Presidency, for the first time since the administration of Jimmy Carter . Immediately upon taking office, Clinton fulfilled a campaign promise by signing the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 , which required large employers to allow their employees to take unpaid leave because of a family or medical emergency. While this action was popular, Clintons initial reluctance to fulfill another campaign promise relating to the acceptance of openly gay members of the military garnered criticism from both the left for being too tentative in promoting gay rights and the right for being too insensitive to military life. After much debate, Clinton and The Pentagon agreed to a Dont ask, dont tell policy, which officially remains in effect. As president, Clinton was characterized as being a much more hands on president than some of his Republican predecessors. While Bush and Reagan had operated under what some critics dubbed an Imperial Presidency of bureaucratic courtiers, Clinton had much more fickle relationships with his aides, and did not delegate them significant powers. He went through four White House Chiefs of Staff - a record number of men in a position that had once been the epicenter of the Imperial Presidency. This is not to say that Clinton was without political confidants in the White House. The First Lady played an active role in helping the President form policy, and Clintons two best friends and most loyal supporters, Paul Begala and James Carville could often be seen defending the Presidents policies in Washington and on the media . After two years of Democratic party control under the leadership of President Clinton, the mid-term elections in 1994 proved disastrous for the Democrats. They lost control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years, in large part due to a failed attempt to create a comprehensive health care system under a plan developed by the First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton . After the 1994 election, the spotlight shifted to the Contract with America spearheaded by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich . The Republican-controlled Congress and President Clinton sparred over the budget, resulting in a series of government shutdowns at a political penalty to the Republicans. Before Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheik Mohammed Al Qaeda members started developing Operation Bojinka , a mass terrorist attack, Yousef was considering assassinating Bill Clinton during his late 1994 visit to the Philippines . Yousef thought of several ways to kill him, including placing a bomb on Clintons motorcade route, firing a stinger missile at Air Force One or the presidential limousine , and killing him with a chemical weapon called phosgene . Yousef aborted the idea, believing it would be too difficult to kill Clinton. Instead, Yousef would target Pope John Paul II and incorporate the Pope assassination plot into his project. Operation Bojinka was later exposed before it could be implemented after an apartment fire in Manila led investigators to Yousefs computer. Yousef was arrested a month later in Pakistan , but Mohammed was not arrested until 2003 . In the 1996 election , Clinton won re-election by a healthy margin over Republican Bob Dole , while the Republicans retained control of the Congress but lost a few seats. Clinton developed a close working relationship with Tony Blair , the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom , when he was elected in 1997 . He took a personal interest in The Troubles in Northern Ireland and paid three visits there while he was president in order to encourage peace. This helped both sides in the divided community there to begin to talk, setting in motion the process that lead to the Provisional Irish Republican Army commencing disarmament on October 23 , 2001 . In 1999, in conjunction with a Congress controlled by the Republican Party he balanced the US budget for the first time since 1969 . The economy during the Clinton adminstration Following the fiscal prudence of president George H W Bush and heeding the advice of Alan Greenspan , Clinton pursued a balanced budget and made attempts to keep inflation in check. Throughout the 1990s, Clinton presided over continuous economic expansion which, according to the Office of Management and Budget , began in April 1991 , reductions in unemployment, and growing wealth through a massive rise in the stock market . In addition to these factors, some Clinton supporters also credit the redu... |
| csua.org/u/708 -> www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/choice/bill/morris1.html It was very much a summit site and yet was under the control itself of one of the families, the Marcellos in New Orleans. Frank Costello, the New York crime boss, sent his emissary, Dandy Phil Castel to the American south in 1936 to divide up Louisiana and Arkansas and Kentucky and other states in the mid-south. And they assigned Hot Springs to a wonderful character named Ownie Madden who was an English gangster who had owned the Cotton Club in Harlem. Very colorful character, he settled down right away and married the daughter of the postmaster in Hot Springs and became not just the organized crime boss of the city but very much the economic and, and political force for everything that went on. He dictated the content of the city government, he gave his bribes to the state government in Little Rock where the governor was always accommodating, the legislature, of course, looked the other way. Gambling in Hot Springs is entirely illegal now, in the 1920s and 30s, and yet, for many, many years, into the 40s and 50s, even the mid-1960s- Ownie Madden dies in 1965-Hot Springs, Arkansas is the principle of illegal gambling in North America. Its take, we now know, from the committee investigations, exceeds that of Las Vegas, Nevada, where the gambling is legendary and quite legal. And its a place where the politics are utterly and relentlessly corrupt, as a result. Theres an effort to clean it up later in the mid 1960s after Owney Madden dies, but in many respects it only goes underground. So for most of the time that Bill Clinton is a little boy, growing up in Hot Springs, Arkansas, this is an organized crime capital, in America. And, the striking thing about all of this is that he is not divorced from it. His mother as we know from her own memoirs, frequented the track at Oaklawn, which was one of the centers of activity for the mob and was an almost nightly visitor to the clubs of Hot Springs. She frequented all of those with her husband, then Bill Clintons stepfather, and Roger Clinton. FL: What are the lessons, for lets say, a young kid like Bill Clinton, aspiring politician. What is it that he sees growing up and how does that shape him specifically. MORRIS: Well, we dont know what he really sees because its the want of American politicians never to talk candidly about themselves, not even in their memoirs, for which they always get a great deal of money. Shirley Abbott, the writer, grew up in Hot Springs, just a little older than Bill Clinton, and she wrote a wonderful memoir, called The Bookmakers Daughter . Her father, of course, was employed by the powers that be and was a bookie in the town for years and years. And she has a rather poignant sentence at the end of her memoirs, saying that Hot Springs, Arkansas deconstructs and demolishes the American dream. That it mocks all of the pretense of American democracy, of how the world seems to work, how Americans think their society works and how it really works. All the secret and covert arrangements by which, not just a political system but an economy and a society as well. Hot Springs of course was a very, very strong center of Baptist faith and practice. It was supposed to be a very religious city, full of churches and little Billy Clinton went down Park Avenue to the Baptist church every Sunday morning, with a Bible, with his initials engraved in the cover. And, lived that life on Sunday morning while his parents were attending the clubs and the race tracks and gambling, almost every night, of the week, and coming home with raging fights and a lot of abuse of the mother and of Bill and his brother by the stepfather. So there is, at once, an enormous gap, a kind of disparity between two realities, in the life of any child. Between the reality as one pretends it to be, as you pretend to the outside world, and the real working reality. The most influential male figure, very early in his life, and indeed later in his political start, is his stepfathers brother. A man named Raymond Clinton, who was the dominant figure in the Clinton family. Roger Clinton, Bills stepfather, was sort of the weak, younger brother who was never, never quite going to make it. Hed been set up in a Buick dealership in Hope, which is where he met Virginia, Bills mother, and married her, and that failed because he flitted away the company profits in gambling and dissipation and drinking and so on. The stronger, older brother was Raymond Clinton who had a Buick franchise in Hot Springs and was quite a political force. A member of the Ku Klux Klan and had extensive organized crime ties. He ran his own slot machines, out of the back, not only of the Buick dealership but other businesses and properties around town. And its important to understand that one didnt do that on a freelance basis. You didnt just come into a town owned by organized crime and set up your own vice. You did that only at the sufferance and with the cooperation, indeed collaboration of organized crime, and you gave kickbacks accordingly. So Raymond Clinton, who was a very important figure in the family often rescues Bill from abuse by his stepfather, and is a very dominant financial figure in their, fortunes, was closely linked to those elements. FL: Somebody said he felt that was the real father figure at that point. MORRIS: I think psychologists would say that it was probably emotionally incestuous. If he can talk to anyone, if he can really rationalize to anyone, if he has anyone to look at as an adult example, it is the mother. The stepfather is absent, of course, a great deal and when he is present, hes usually drunk and very abusive, entirely unpredictable. There are a few moments, that friends can recall and that Virginia herself recalls in her memoirs, moments of tenderness between the stepfather and the very little boy, scenes when Bill is 4 or 5 years old, and Roger Clinton is sitting on the floor playing with him, or with a mechanical train or something. But those moments are extraordinarily rare and even when Bill Clinton was asked in 1992 about such moments, he remembered one train ride, one trip to St. As I said earlier, shes always there at the nightclubs, shes frequenting the race track, shes rather addictive, a race track gambler, not a high roller but always there at the two dollar window. She wears very heavy makeup, shes a nurse working at the hospital, in anesthesiology and, I think had a good professional reputation although she acquires a lot of professional controversy later. There are lawsuits and all the rest, sort of mixed professional record. Shes attractive, she obviously has a number of male figures in her life besides Roger Clinton. Many of the scenes between them, public and private beatings are over the attentions of other men. And she admits in her own memoirs that she had moments of revenge against the abuse of her husband by courting the attentions of other men. So, shes a flamboyant, character whose moral and ethical behavior is, I would guess less than Baptist Hot Springs might have hoped for. She again is part of this divided world, that Bill Clinton grows up with. Shes one thing on the surface, quite respectable, nurse and mother. On the other hand, he witnesses her as a party girl, and a party girl well into his adolescence and well into her 30s and even 40s. Shes part of, I guess, a lower-middle class stratum in the American south which is sometimes difficult for the rest of the country to appreciate or to grasp. Shes very protective, worshipful really of her, of her little boy, and yet strangely absentee in his life. I think he spends a lot of time away from home and a lot of time in a very mixed feeling about his mother. On one hand, hes very proud of her, and shes attractive and his friends find her fascinating and congenial to be around. On the other hand, I think theres evidence that he was ashamed of her. And then later, of course, theres a terrific influence I think in what he finally preferred in women himself. Shes the woman who later becomes a morphine addict and is an extraordinarily powerful force, of course, in Bill Clintons life, but its the mother of Virginia, and we know from her memoirs... |