In case you have been stuck on Mars for the last few months, the election year hoopla is in full swing. Americans are being pounded daily by clips of speeches, ads and pundits telling anyone who will listen why their guy is better than the other guy. What's scary is that the election is still 200 days away!

Even so, the race to be the lesser of two evils is on, and as if the seemingly endless media coverage of anything related to the election has not been enough to saturate the usually politically apathetic American public, the political ads have been released earlier than ever. And so, let the mudslinging begin. [Read article]

For those of you who don't have calendars, spring has officially arrived here at the UA: The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the students are eager to take advantage of the warm weather - by that, I mean they are ready to take off their heavy winter clothes. The skimpier the clothing, the more popular it is.

What better way is there for you girls to show off your hot, spring-break tans than to wear your tightest-fitting clothes to class? You can turn heads as your walk between classes becomes your own personal fashion show. Unfortunately, we males don't get the same opportunities as you girls do to exploit our own bodily features. [Read article]

Let's get one thing straight: Drunken driving is a terrible societal ailment that yields immeasurable risks and consequences to those who drive drunk and to those innocents who share the roads with them. There is little in this country that has affected more people or hurt more innocents than drunken driving. It is an issue that we as a society must address. Consequently, Arizona legislators are currently trying to come up with new, "innovative" ways to curb drunken driving. [Read article]

Last week, the Recording Industry Association of America announced a new round of subpoenas in its fight against music piracy, targeting those people who use peer-to-peer networks to share music files on their computers.

What makes these new subpoenas so interesting at the UA is that the RIAA has now demanded that the university hand over the names of the students who downloaded large numbers of songs using the university's network. [Read article]

Remember last year when Michael Moore made his infamous Oscar speech? Among other things, he called President Bush a "fictitious president" in "fictitious times" over a booming mixture of applause and boos. Mr. Moore (just like anyone who criticized our president during that time - see the Dixie Chicks) faced an immense backlash and resentment from those who follow Dubya's orders like dogmatic law. [Read article]

Now that John Kerry has wrapped up the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, the George W. Bush re-election campaign is ready to start up for real. In the next few months, we will be witness to millions of dollars' worth of attacks, manipulations and artificial portrayals of Americana. Very little in the world of political campaigning adheres to rules of morality and civility, but that doesn't mean that campaign advertisements can't rile up some anger and resentment in the voter population. [Read article]

The last few months in America have seen a resurrection of the crusade against the omnipresent menaces of indecency and offensive material. Suddenly, America has become one big, furious, hysterical mob, ready to pounce on anything that can be viewed as not being politically correct or that can be conceived of as any bit offensive to any person or group. The corporate giants have heard the impassioned cries of these sanctimonious throngs of offended people, and they have responded with zeal. Just look at the last few months for CBS. [Read article]

If you've been following the news lately, you've seen some renewed interest in the controversial topic of affirmative action and its place in today's colleges and universities.

Conservative student groups across the country are trying to push the issue back to the forefront of national discussion. They have spent too many generations fighting to survive in this minority-controlled world; they have begun to rise against their minority oppressors! [Read article]

Brace yourselves, loyal readers, for we are about to take a trip. We are going to delve into the minds and thought processes of the ultraconservative to try and make sense of them.

That's right, we're going to try to understand those strange people who walk among us with their Bush-Cheney stickers neatly affixed to the precise center of their notebooks. We will try to see the world from their point of view so that we may better understand where they are coming from whenever our next political argument may arise, whether it be in a class, in an office or at an Ann Coulter book signing. [Read article]

It's been over a week since Nipplegate, when Justin Timberlake shocked America by tearing away part of Janet Jackson's bustier and exposing her breast at the Super Bowl halftime show. And ever since that day, the American public and media have shown their true idiocy by turning a stupid two-second gaffe into the scandal of the year.

Of course, the whole event gives parents a legitimate reason to be upset with the show. The performance was unnecessarily provocative; it was really too sexually driven for a halftime show, whether or not the boob had made an appearance or not, planned or unplanned. [Read article]

The day has finally come for Arizonans to join in the presidential election process. Today, thousands of Arizonans will go to the polls to cast their votes for the Democratic candidate they want to replace George Bush in November. It is one of the greatest opportunities for Americans to make their voice heard in the political world. However, there is one segment of the Arizona population whose voice will not be heard today. They will be discriminated against for their political beliefs, and they will be denied the opportunity to vote for their candidate of choice. What's going on? Someone get Jesse Jackson here in Arizona to stop this injustice! [Read article]

The last few years here at the University of Arizona have seen many significant changes in the atmosphere and condition of the campus, the students and the establishments on campus that provide the goods and services that the students require on a daily basis.

Of course the university needs to evolve in order to keep up with the changing needs of a large university and its population. However, the last few years have seen a disturbing, growing trend here at the UA. Today, the goal of everything campus-related seems to be to pry as much money as possible from the wallets of the students and their parents. Whether it be through the bookstore's overpricing of textbooks and minimal buyback rates or the price gouging incurred daily at the U-Mart, students are constantly hit up for cash when they really have no alternative but to spend the money to make departments and campus stores more profitable. Money, rather than service to the students, is the driving force of the campus. [Read article]

It's that time once again. It's that pesky and obligatory custom that comes every four years and assures us of the continuing function of the little experiment we like to call American democracy. Yes, that's right: It's yet another presidential election year.

Now I know it seems like we just had the last election. Remember that whole fiasco in Florida with all the dimpled chads, the recounts and the images of the elderly residents of Palm Beach County endlessly staring through the lens of a magnifying class at the countless numbers of butterfly ballots? Of course, there's been plenty to take our minds off politics in recent years. We've had wars, terror attacks, recalls, tuition hikes and reality television to keep us thoroughly occupied in the time since one of the most heavily contested presidential elections of all time. [Read article]