Mississippi College abandons SSN for Student ID

An email arrived in my inbox today, causing a smile to cross my face. The opening read like this:

 

New Mississippi College ID Cards

In an effort to curtail identity theft, the Social Security Administration has encouraged educational institutions to avoid using social security number as an identifier. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in American society. As part of Mississippi College’s campaign to phase out the use of social security numbers for identifying students, faculty and staff, new MC ID cards will be issued to all members of the University community beginning August 13.

 

Never again should it be said your Student Senate does not do anything. At the beginning of the 2006-2007 session, a certain Junior Senator wrote this resolution:

 

SR 2006-07-01

Sponsor: Dylan McLemore, Campus Improvements Chairperson

Action Taken: Passed

Vote: Y All N 0 A 0

 

Whereas, currently a student uses his/her Social Security number as an identification number for on-campus affairs;

 

Whereas, the use of Social Security numbers as student identification numbers poses risk of identity theft;

 

Be it resolved by the Student Senate:

 

Student and faculty of Mississippi College shall be issued identification numbers to be used in place of Social Security numbers for all campus affairs, with the exception of cases in which a Social Security number is required by another party involved (e.g., federal aid, work study).

 

I am glad the new student identification program is going into effect. No longer will an SSN be needed to play intramural flag football, nor will the digits of your SSN echo down the halls of Nelson as you have to audibly pass it along to the bursar.

 

But, uh, Dr. Royce and you other folks on the hill, next time… a little credit?

The “Class” of 2007

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick pleaded not guilty to charges of operating an illegal dogfighting ring. The indictment details sickening treatment of the animals, including electrocution. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has barred Vick from training camp for the time being, and Falcons owner Arthur Blank may release Vick in the coming weeks. If only this thug was already riding the pine a few seasons before, then the best QB on that roster for the past three seasons, Matt Schaub, would not be in Houston.

 

NBA referee Tim Donaghy resigned after 13 seasons after it was discovered that he bet on games he called. The FBI is investigating now, looking for proof of fixing the games to fall within the point spread.

 

At the Tour de France, now forgotten in America after the doping scandal of Floyd Landis and the end of Lance Armstrong’s reign, numerous riders have been removed mid-race for using illegal drugs. Italian cyclist Cristian Moreni was followed for one stage by a police car, waiting to arrest him for illegal use of testosterone. The same day, race leader Michael Rasmussen withdrew after continued refusals to take drug tests. German and French teams completely withdrew because of doping. Now, the International Olympic Committee says cycling may be removed from the Games because of rampant scandal.

 

Barry Bonds is one home run away from tying Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record. 755 – the most sacred record in sports is about to be broken. But it is being broken by a villain. A man who despises the spotlight; a man who is not loved by fans. A man whose forehead grew to the size of the center field scoreboard at AT&T Park. Bonds steroid use is not proven, but it seems an extreme likelihood. The fans don’t believe him. In this historic chase, that’s all that really matters.

 

When sports leads the evening news, there is trouble. Sport is in shambles. But today, in a tiny town in upstate New York… hope. The man who once saved baseball, with a legendary wingman at his side, may have saved sports.

 

70,000 people descended upon Cooperstown, New York, this morning to see Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The largest crowd recorded for an induction ceremony by more than 20,000, Baseball Tonight’s Tim Kurkjian said it will never be topped. Indeed, it would be hard to imagine a pair who would attract more adoring fans.

 

In 1995, a year after the strike that cancelled the World Series, Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak of 2,130. To top it off, Ripken hit a home run early in the game that was paused halfway through so the “Iron Man” could circle the entire stadium, shaking the hands of his fans. Baseball was back.

 

Ripken’s streak went to 2,632 games, and I dare say, will never be broken.

 

His dramatic flair didn’t stop that night. In Ripken’s final All-Star Game, at Safeco Field in 2001, he took a Chan Ho Park lackluster fastball into the seats. I watched both games, and also Ripken’s Camden Yards farewell later that season. No player earned the emotional attachment of the fans quite like Cal Ripken Jr.

 

Ripken was a 19-time All Star, two-time All Star MVP, and the all-time leader in fan voting. He won two American League MVPs, eight Silver Slugger awards, two Gold Gloves, Rookie of the Year in 1982, and a World Series in 1983. He was named to the All-Century Team and game #2,131 was voted the most memorable moment in baseball history. Oddly enough, the Iron Man has the record for most double plays grounded into (350), but also the most double plays turned by a shortstop in the A.L. (1,682). He finished his 21-year career with over 3,000 hits and 400 home runs.

 

Tony Gwynn always seemed to play in anonymity. In 20 seasons with the San Diego Padres, “Mr. Padre” was a quiet guy and perhaps save Ted Williams, the purest hitter in baseball history. He never hit below .309 in a full season and only struckout 434 times in 9,288 career at-bats.

 

Fitting to his approach to the game, Gwynn joined the 3,000 hit club on the road at Montreal, with only a few thousand in attendance. Not the big hurrah of Ripken’s 2,131, just business as usual.

 

Gwynn won eight batting titles in his career – only Ty Cobb has more. He was a 15-time All Star, seven-time Silver Slugger, five-time Gold Glover, and reached two World Series with the Padres.

 

On June 19, 2007, Tony Gwynn Jr. made his major league debut for the Milwaukee Brewers, getting a double for his first career hit. On June 19, 1983, Tony Gwynn Sr. made his major league debut for the San Diego Padres, getting a double for his first career hit. You can’t make this stuff up.

 

Ripken and Gwynn spent their entire careers with the Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres, respectively. It just doesn’t happen anymore. Both were class acts, playing in an era where it becomes more and more clear everyday that there weren’t too many playing by the rules (see Bonds). They are respected, and if the crowd today didn’t show it, maybe the balloting does. Ripken was elected on 98.5% of the ballots, second most all-time. Gwynn got 97.6%, putting him seventh.

 

This was a special Hall of Fame induction for me, and apparently many others. When I was growing up, collecting baseball cards and pretending I was in the big leagues as I pitched in the front yard, I had a handful of players I really looked up to.

 

1) Ken Griffey Jr.

2) Greg Maddux

3) Cal Ripken Jr.

4) Tony Gwynn

 

In a time where nothing but bad news is dominating the sports page (and spilling over to the front page), I could care less. This is my big story. And note to the media, this was a lot of people’s big story. As Linda Cohn said on ESPN Radio Friday, we’ve had enough of Mike Vick, let’s talk about the good times.

 

So, congratulations to Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn. And thank you for saving sports again, if only for a few days.

A “Generalized Assertion of Privilege”

Executive privilege. A power of the executive branch, designed to protect information that needs to be kept private for the security of the nation. It trumps search warrants and subpoenas. A needed concept, but one open to abuse. Who better to abuse such a power than our current president? George W. Bush has already made more executive signing statements than every president in our nation’s history combined, essentially thumbing through laws passed by Congress with a red pen and some whiteout. He has also turned a blind eye to the unjust firings of district attorneys under the department of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.

 

Congress wants answers. Gonzalez’s testimony only revealed that our A.G. has the memory span of a 2-month-old. So, former White House aides Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor were subpoenaed. Enough hiding, time for the executive branch to participate in American justice. Or not.

 

President Bush played the executive privilege card. The White House would release no relevant documents and the former aides would not reveal any information the administration wanted to keep hidden. Taylor testified at the hearing, answering a few questions, but claiming executive privilege throughout. Miers did not even come to the hearing, a slap in the face of Congress that may lead to contempt charges. Even if these charges are pursued, and Miers convicted, most speculate that the president would pardon her, or maybe commute her sentence like that of Scooter Libby.

 

So executive privilege stonewalls justice. In case you missed how it works, President Bush offered a second illustration Friday.

 

The House Oversight Committee is investigating the death of Pat Tillman, and more importantly, the cover up. A safety for the Arizona Cardinals, Tillman passed up his multimillion-dollar contract to serve with his brother in Afghanistan. When Tillman was killed in 2004, Americans rallied around his amazing story. Support for the war rebounded.

 

Months later, it was revealed Tillman actually died as a result of friendly fire. The information was known all along. I don’t believe for a second that Tillman’s courage would have been any less celebrated had this information been shared from the start. The Bush Administration would have gotten their morale boost either way. However, someone chose to conceal the facts of the death, and now Congress wants to know who and why.

 

Yet, inexplicably spitting in the face of justice again, President Bush is saying “no.” The White House, again declaring executive privilege, will not release documents nor testify in the investigation.

 

This is a carbon copy argument of the commuting issue. It shows utter arrogance and disregard for the law. Of course, President Bush is completely within the law to use executive privilege, but it still makes a mockery of the spirit of justice.

 

The Supreme Court had their say on the scope of executive privilege in 1974. When President Nixon refused to hand over recordings relating to Watergate, the United State v. Richard Nixon ruling stated the following (from findlaw.com – case references were removed for ease of reading):

 

4. Neither the doctrine of separation of powers nor the generalized need for confidentiality of high-level communications, without more, can sustain an absolute, unqualified Presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances. Absent a claim of need to protect military, diplomatic, or sensitive national security secrets, the confidentiality of Presidential communications is not significantly diminished by producing material for a criminal trial under the protected conditions of in camera inspection, and any absolute executive privilege under Art. II of the Constitution would plainly conflict with the function of the courts under the Constitution.

 

 5. Although the courts will afford the utmost deference to Presidential acts in the performance of an Art. II function, when a claim of Presidential privilege as to materials subpoenaed for use in a criminal trial is based, as it is here, not on the ground that military or diplomatic secrets are implicated, but merely on the ground of a generalized interest in confidentiality, the President’s generalized assertion of privilege must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial and the fundamental demands of due process of law in the fair administration of criminal justice.

7. Since a President’s communications encompass a vastly wider range of sensitive material than would be true of an ordinary individual, the public interest requires that Presidential confidentiality be afforded the greatest protection consistent with the fair administration of justice, and the District Court has a heavy responsibility to ensure that material involving Presidential conversations irrelevant to or inadmissible in the criminal prosecution be accorded the high degree of respect due a President and that such material be returned under seal to its lawful custodian.

 

The message is clear: executive privilege is not to be used frivolously, nor is it to be confused with absolute privilege. Neither current situation remotely relates to national security. However, neither current situation is a criminal proceeding. The justices are careful to mention criminal justice in relation to their ruling, not legislative hearings.

 

I believe that if this use of executive privilege were to be brought before the courts, it would be allowed. However, the 1974 ruling captures the essence of what is wrong about 2007. The president is responsible to his constituents. That means a certain amount of openness, even when you goof up, even when you intentionally deceive and get caught. We the people deserve to know what our elected officials are up to when they are representing us. That includes the executive branch of the federal government. This use of executive privilege by President Bush seems to be for nothing more than to cover up two incidents that pile on to the already established shamefulness of this administration. It is brash, it is arrogant, and we the people should not allow the president we elected to decide when he does or does not want to uphold the laws, justice system, and principles of our great nation.

Factor Fiction: Terrorist Bombings

The latest reason Bill O’ Reilly is an idiot: In his Talking Points memo on July 9, O’ Reilly attacked NBC News for allowing a guest to call the failed London car bombings a “non-event.” This from a man who considers actual bombings in Iraq that kill civilians and U.S. soldiers “meaningless.” That quote, and this one, from O’Reilly’s Talking Points memo June 12:

 

“We don’t highlight every terrorist attack because we learn nothing from that. And that’s exactly what the terrorists want us to do. I mean, come on, does another bombing in Tikrit mean anything other than ‘War is hell’? No, it does not.”

 

And The Radio Factor from the same day:

 

“Do you care if another bomb went off in Tikrit? Does it mean anything? No. It doesn’t mean anything.”

 

———

On the docket: Bush’s executive privilege and Sanjay Gupta vs. Michael Moore.

 

And yes, I stole the title from Olbermann. “It’s time for Factor Fiction, wherein we catch that bastard Bill O’Reilly lying again.”

Live Earth sends an S.O.S.

7-7-07 was a special day for numerology buffs. Weddings were the thing (I emceed a reception that afternoon). Mothers induced labor to have their children on the supposed lucky day. Carlos Delgado of the New York Mets hit a homerun at 7:07 p.m., freaky. Also taking advantage of the triple 7’s was the former vice president turned activist turned rockstar Al Gore. Live Earth, a worldwide concert to raise awareness of the climate crisis, took the stage Saturday hoping to hit the jackpot.

Following in the footsteps of Live 8 and Live Aid, Live Earth was a simultaneous worldwide rock show, artists performing to raise awareness for an issue. Unique to Live Earth, all seven continents got in on the act. Even a group of scientists in Antarctica set up a stage and played. Probably not quite as popular as the bands playing in New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Hamburg, Sydney, Shanghai, and Tokyo.

The sheer scale of Live Earth was amazing to me. Organizers say 2 billion people were reached. No explanation of that exorbitant number was given. There were, however, 10 million viewers on MSN, making it the most watched webcast in the history of the Internet. 400,000 people were at the Rio de Janeiro beach stage alone. Stadiums full, millions and millions watching worldwide on television, millions more reached through media reports and word of mouth. 150 artists performing. It was massive.

Forget the cause for a moment; I love live music. John Mayer, Lenny Kravitz, and Dave Matthews were among my favorites. Madonna for her stage show; Shakira for her… well, as the song says, her hips don’t lie. Seeing the legends like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Duran Duran, and Smashing Pumpkins was also cool. But I was waiting for The Police. Naturally, they were the last performance on the entire planet. Sting and company closed it out by inviting Mayer and Kanye West for a rendition of “Message in a Bottle.” We could have done without Kanye’s off-rhythm rapping.

To segue between the music and the cause, I focus on Melissa Ethridge. Her set was a non-stop mix of song and rally cry.

“When I was in school, it was America,” Ethridge said. “People were doing things, people were standing up when it was an unjust war. I remember when we had a President who was a criminal. I remember America rose up and said uh-uh. Our democracy is sacred. What happened to us?”

Today, the critics unleashed upon Gore and Live Earth, calling it a failure and hypocrisy. The most common attack was the “hypocrisy” of promoting conservation of energy by flying artists around the world in jets to play on stages with elaborate lights where fans would pile up garbage. Gore was villainized for taking a train to the event. All of the stadiums had recycle bins for trash, in London, virtually everything was biodegradable, and grease used to cook food will be turned into biodiesel. And as for using fuel to travel, shall we teleport Foo Fighters to London? Shall Gore fly a french fry grease-powered helicopter? It definitively reached millions, possibly billions. It was worth the energy.

Critics also blasted the organizers of the Johannesburg site for blaming climate change for a poor turnout. This is stupidity searching for strings. The organizers blamed extremely cold weather for the poor turnout. The tongue-in-cheek comment, “Is it climate change?” came after the point.

What weak arguments. This is an issue that somehow got turned into Democrats vs. Republicans, which is ludicrous. President Bush and plenty of Republicans in Congress have realized the need to be green. Why do right-wingers insist on claiming climate change is liberal propaganda? What does it hurt to be environmentally conscious? Oh yeah, oil companies.

I won’t deny that Gore is a bit over the top in his global warming forecasts. Gore claims 20” of sea level rise, scientists say the number is closer to 14”. Apples and oranges – and it’s causing the big picture to be missed. It is some arrogance and more ignorance to think that all of the pollution humans put in our environment has no effect on our planet.

Even if it turns out that we are in a natural climate cycle causing warmer temperatures, humans still need to be more environmentally conscious. We need to find alternative, clean energy sources, if not because of global warming, because oil won’t last forever. We need to recycle, if not because of global warming, because it cuts production costs and eliminates landfills. We need to conserve electricity, if not because of global warming, because it saves households money.

Gore has gone from being the most boring man on Earth to a hero cheered like a rockstar and pleaded with to run for president. I am a full supporter of his cause, even if he turns out to be dead wrong. The scientific community suggests he’s right. We can argue details and potential extents of possibility to these theories that won’t play out for decades, but instead, let’s “answer the call.” At worst we improve our standard of life, at best we save our planet. Last time NASA checked, it’s the only one we’ve got.

 

——

And believe me, the latest example of President Bush’s disregard for our nation’s laws is next up on the docket around here. Well, after a quick Bill O’ Reilly blast.