The First meeting is changed to October 12! We will have Dr. Schafer speaking on critical thinking in politics and the news. Go to the Events section to learn more.

When this idea started we had no idea what kind of response we would receive. We published 6000 copies of our first issue on campus September 13. That day,  over 170 students came by the club fair and signed up on our interested member list, and many professors stopped by as well. The general message from the public was clear: what we are doing is long overdue. We had many students tell us how they are not political but enjoyed our newsletter and want to get more involved. E-mails have come from all different types of students excited about reading and writing. We made a Facebook group that is growing by the day. We’ve even had students tell us how one of our articles was cited in class by a political science professor. We are excited you are getting involved, we want your input and we value your opinions.

“Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
“There is no such thing as a good tax.” – Winston Churchill

There is probably no other political debate so controversial, speculative and historically long-winded as that of taxes. This is mainly due to the fact that taxes are viewed from so many different perspectives regarding their purpose and their effects on the economy and the individual. Considering their extreme complexity, this article will simply try to familiarize the reader with on both sides of the argument.

Why do governments tax?

Dr. Louis Day, recipient of a doctorate degree in Mass Communication from Ohio University, has been teaching media law for 25 years and ethics for two decades. He is the author of one of the top-three ranking media ethics texts used at the university level, he has worked as a television and radio news reporter, writer, editor and spent two years in public information with the U.S. military.

Department of the Interior

Purpose: To manage Federal land (amounting to about one-fifth of the entire U.S.), waterways, Indian Reservations & to conduct research concerning the use of resources

Established: March 3, 1849

Annual budget: $16.4 billion annual budget, with “$6.3 billion in revenues collected from energy, mineral, grazing, timber, recreation, land sales, etc.”

Structure: A Decentralized agency, headed by a Secretary (Dirk Kempthorne) and a Deputy Secretary (P. Lynn Scarlett); broken down into various Bureaus including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

If you haven’t heard about terrorism and terrorists nonstop for a few years, then you’ve been under a pretty big rock. We hear about it everyday: wars on terror, roadside bombings and insurgents keep our 24-7 news cycle running. With all this going on, what defines a terrorist and why are some called terrorists and others just scare us.
The United States Code, Title 18, Section 2231 sets out definitions for forms of terrorism, international and domestic, and sets up a definition for who terrorism effects. The most in-depth definition involves international terrorism; understanding this definition will consequently make domestic terrorism easier to grasp.

Thank you for coming to our site! It is under a lot of construction but we hope to have a final product by September 25. The first issue’s articles can be found below. Feel free to comment.

For now please also visit our forum at www.studentsforreform.org/community where you can creat a profile and begin posting. Thanks again!

Below is my letter from the first issue:

Francis Heitmeier is a Democratic senator running for Louisiana Secretary of State this November.

At a glance, Senator Heitmeier seems ordinary: moderate lawmaker with long-term experience serving in the state legislature. Move along, nothing to see here, right?

Wrong.

There are more than a few things the average voter might be interested in knowing about this candidate before they make their decision at the ballot box next month.

Levee boards are known to be rather inefficient governing bodies here in Louisiana. That is, without oversight they tend to serve the interests of the board members instead of the interests of their district. Many point fingers at the ineffectual levee boards when dealing with the response failure after Hurricane Katrina.

The Social Security Act, signed by President Roosevelt on August 14th, 1935, was enacted to: “frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age”. In January 1937, taxes were collected for the first time and the first one-time, lump-sum payments were made that same month. Ernest Ackerman was the first person to receive Social Security benefits, he got a payment of seventeen cents that January. Ongoing monthly benefits started in January of 1940.

Now that we have entered, or at least partially entered, the real world we hear so much about, we have to start balancing our own budgets. Similar to most college students, I suffer from two vices: alcohol and pizza. As the months go by, the pizza-booze fund slowly shrinks and I have to make adjustments. Our state’s budget works the same way. Legislators propose and enact a budget based on the money we have and what they feel the state will generate. As the months go by, they don’t always hit their projection- so they cut into their beer and pizza fund. Except with our state it is edjucation and healthcare.