In response to the fall of Lehman Brothers and the sixth worst day ever on Wall Street, John McCain said, "I promise that we won't put America in this position again... this is a failure."

McCain should know - he voted for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which led to the banking deregulation that allowed the mortgage industry to adopt predatory loan practices that offered mortgages to those with a poor or thin credit history who had unreliable or low incomes.

The legislation also permitted spikes in the interest rates and monthly payments of these mortgages, which led to millions of Americans losing their homes.

Basically, McCain voted to allow the mortgage industry to become Check-N-Go.

So much for "the ownership society" Bush campaigned on in 2004.

What is worse is that the author of the bill, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, is McCain's chief economic advisor. You might remember Phil Gramm as the guy who said that people who complained about economic hardship are "whiners."

Not only did McCain support this catastrophic deregulation upon its inception, he has made its author his chief economic advisor. McCain clearly lacks the judgment and desire to give America a new direction on the economy and give Americans a better quality of life.

I guess he wasn't kidding when he said he didn't know much about the economy.

David Tibergien, Muskegon graduate student

Baugh 'excellent professor'

In Monday's edition of Central Michigan Life, Dennis Lennox II argues that political science professor Joyce Baugh has some kind of agenda when it comes to organizing Central Michigan University's Constitution Day forum, implying that she is attempting to instruct the students of CMU with "radical propaganda" aimed at "indoctrinating young, impressionable collegians."

I think I can safely say that this is one of those "pot calling the kettle black" moments.

Baugh is an excellent professor here at CMU, with a teaching ability that is second to none among her peers. She is also a wonderful, well-meaning person and a credit to the political science department. Although Baugh may have an agenda (one that is based on common sense), she would not allow this to get in the way of her job, which is to educate the students of CMU.

Lennox, on the other hand, most assuredly has an agenda that does get in the way of things, more often than not. While I do not believe in his formulated right-wing plan (as I see it as nothing more than tired hogwash), the fact remains that he has the right to believe in it. Annoying as most of his go-nowhere diatribes are, they are protected by the First Amendment, like it or not.

However, Lennox does not have the right to accuse someone of not knowing the material they were hired to teach, simply because they do not agree with him or his skewed, distorted political meanderings.

In any case, Lennox should attempt to back up his anti-Baugh "knew what she was teaching" arguments with solid, credible evidence. If he cannot do this, my advice to him is to stick to the annoying camera work he prides himself on.

Lee Nelson Saint Louis senior

Enforce smoking violations

The smokers on Central Michigan University's campus are becoming a problem. While some smokers stand the appropriate distance away from campus buildings, there are those who do not observe the current policy, which is to smoke at least 25 feet away from any campus building.

For us nonsmokers, the situation has gotten ridiculous: When we witness students, employees and even professors leaning up against campus buildings smoking, we lose respect for CMU, or when ashtrays are placed right next to buildings, it - in turn - lures smokers to come within the 25-foot radius.

Students walking into buildings usually will walk right through the cigarette smoke and drag that awful stench in with them. CMU needs to start ticketing smoking policy violators or even banning smoking on campus altogether.

When I came to CMU, I was surprised to see how many college kids smoked. I politely asked an acquaintance one time why he smoked, and his response, I must say, was not surprising: "It helps relieve stress," he told me.

If I were to ask every smoker on this campus the same question, I would hear, for the most part, the same response. The bottom line is, stress should not have to be relieved through the usage of a drug (Yes, nicotine is a drug, a very addictive one, in fact).

As a result, the nonsmokers on this campus have to walk through their exhaled smoke clouds they leave in their wake. And we are tired of it.

Ticketing smoking violators would be a great way for CMU to enforce its policy, but banning it on campus altogether would make nonsmokers' walk to class more comfortable.

Even though CMU advocates tolerance, adopting this sanction would also benefit smokers in the long run; it would condition them into not having to smoke at the top of every hour, and that is what most employers like to see.

Robert Reynolds Cadillac sophomore

Voting Rights

Recently I was informed of an effort to add insult to injury by certain Republican members to take away a fundamental right from the victims of the housing collapse by not allowing voters who have lost their home to vote this November. This is an outrage to me as an American to imagine anyone would even think of, let alone try, to take away citizens' right to vote. Well, you may ask what you can do. I instead will tell you what I will do on Nov. (4). If I see a person being turned away for losing his home, I will speak up - I will make noise. I will speak up for that person because freedom is not free and it's not just paid in the blood of our soldiers but also in the bravery of the people speaking up when something is wrong to them. I encourage you all to make the sacrifice for freedom by following the Founding Fathers' example and declaring your rights.

Dale Moore Mount Pleasant resident