Congress
OPINION: Unpaid internships are something to avoid
|Students, professors, columnists and social scientists are all talking about the rise of the so-called “new normal” is the unpaid internship.
Unpaid labor has always been in existence, yet, more than ever, the unpaid internship has taken a prominent position in American economic culture.
According to the Association of Colleges and Employers, over 63 percent of the nation’s class of 2013 had an internship or “co-op” of some kind. Of those who had an internship, 48 percent worked without monetary pay.
OPINION: Why sequestration is problematic
|The United States cannot sustainably spend more money than it takes in—period. There will be a point where we are so tragically in debt, countries will stop buying our bonds and investing in the American economy. At the point that the world recognizes our budgetary issues cause us to be an unsustainable black hole, America itself will lose potency and further degrade its reputation.
OPINION: Career politicians pose a problem for the American democratic system
|One of the things about Mason that I have always enjoyed is the political activity and enthusiasm of its students. Though Mason’s proximity to Washington D.C. may be a cause for this involvement, I also believe that a lot of it has to do with the students and faculty alike—they are passionate about politics, protecting their values and promoting the issues that they find important. GMU has a thriving student population of which many members are majoring in government and international politics. Some of them, although pursuing majors in other fields, also intend to work for the government. I am included in the latter population; however, one of the things I have commonly heard on campus terrifies me greatly: “When I finish school, I want to be a politician.”
OPINION: Move:DC, power in numbers and how we can change the course of history
|On Saturday, Nov., 17 over 10,000 people convened at Washington D.C.'s Walter E. Washington Convention Center for something quite extraordinary. As part of the non-profit organization Invisible Children, individuals from across the United States and more than 60 countries came to demand justice as part of Move:DC.
OPINION: The political motivations behind legislative nomenclature
|With the nation just a few weeks away from electing our representatives in Washington, Congress is bottlenecked with legislation. Bills addressing a range of issues, from the financial crisis to foreign affairs, lay waiting for committees to act on them. In reflection of the campaigns’ tones and messages, authors of these bills have adorned their legislation with explicit titles aimed at specific issues.
Fimian vs. Connolly race called
|Mason Votes is calling Virginia’s 11th congressional district race for Gerry Connolly (D). The Virginia Board of Elections’ unofficial results say that with 100 percent of precincts reporting, Connolly received 111,695 votes, or 49.22 percent, while Keith Fimian (R) had 110,727 votes, or 48.79 percent.