4 2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 5, 2002 NATION/WORLD Bush's court NEWS IN BRIEF nominee withdraws France, Germany oppose U.S. resolution Top 10Qreasons to sign up for High-Speed Internet at Best Buy 10. Use online registration to schedule all classes after 11 a.m. 9. Share compromising photos of your roommate with friends and classmates. 8. Place a last-second online auction bid for Galaxy Crusher action figures. 7. E-mail home Every. Single. Day. Just like you promised. 6. Video chat with hometown sweetheart; instant message campus sweetheart. 5. Look up correct spelling of William Shizzakespeare. 4. Two words: online dating. 3. Go head-to-head with XtRmn8r_66 in Destruction Arena 3: This Time It's Personal. 2. Find missing tracks for your My One and Only Special Someone mix CD (volume 22). candidacy Democrats deem Estrada too conservative to sit on appellate court WASHINGTON (AP) - Miguel Estrada, whose nomination became a flash point for Democratic opposi- tion to President Bush's judicial choices, withdrew from considera- tion for an appeals court seat yester- day after Republicans failed in seven attempts to break a Senate fil- ibuster. President Bush called Estrada's treatment "disgraceful." But Senate Democrats said he was a casualty of the White House's insistence on stacking federal appeals courts with conservative ideologues. "This should serve as a wakeup call to the White House that it can- not simply expect the Senate to rub- ber-stamp judicial nominees," said Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass), one of the leading opponents to Bush's nominees. Republicans, however, promised to push forward on other Bush nom- inees who have been blocked by fil- ibusters. "(Yesterday was) a shameful moment in the history of this great institution," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), in a speech on the Senate floor. "The United States Senate has been denied the right to confirm or reject a brilliant and qualified nominee because of the obstruction of a few." For Estrada - who at one point was rumored to be a possible Supreme Court nominee - the withdrawal ends a two-year waiting game in which his nomination for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit never got beyond the Senate floor. "I believe that the time has come to return my full attention to the practice of law and to regain the abil- ity to make long-term plans for my family," he said in a letter to Bush. Estrada, who was in Miami yes- terday, told reporters there he had nothing to add to his letter. Estrada, 41, a private attorney who had never served as a judge, wanted a seat on the D.C. Circuit, which currently is split evenly between Republican and Democrat- ic appointees. The court decides important government cases involv- ing separation of powers, the role of the federal government, the respon- sibilities of federal officials and the authority of federal agencies. Democrats argued that Estrada and Bush's other blocked nominees are too conservative to serve on the court, the regional courts that han- dle federal court appeals around the nation. They pressed Estrada to make clear his views on issues like abortion rights, but he declined. The White House refused Democ- rats' request for the release of inter- nal memos Estrada had written while serving in the office of the solicitor general in the administra- tion of Bush's father. Republicans, in turn, accused Democrats of bias against Bush's nominees. They sought to portray Estrada, a Honduran immigrant who graduated from Harvard Law School, as a modern-day Hispanic Horatio Alger and accused Democ- rats of being anti-Hispanic. M E MEEE NESEEE M MMM E N O M M T-SHIRTS PRINTING LOWEST PRICES! HIGHEST QUALITY! FASTEST SER VICE! * 1002 PONTIAC TR. U 994-36471"" France and Germany refused yesterday to support a U.S. draft resolution that would spread the burden of running postwar Iraq, but said they believed a com- promise was possible. French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder demanded that Washington give the United Nations more influence in Iraq's polit- ical future. Their stance threatened to reopen a barely healed trans-Atlantic rift over their ardent opposition to the Iraq war. Under the draft resolution circulated Wednesday at the United Nations, Wash- ington seeks money and troops from other countries but would not cede political or military control in Iraq. Chirac seemed particularly critical of the U.S. initiative and was adamant that the draft foresee the United States' giving up control of the political process in Iraq. France is one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, meaning it has veto power over council actions. Yet Chirac and Schroeder, meeting in Dresden for informal consulta- tions, struck a conciliatory note. They said they saw a chance to negotiate a compromise at the United Nations, where talks over the draft are expected to be tough and lengthy. AMALLAH West Bank Abbas confronts Palestinian parliament Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas asked parliament yesterday to either support him or strip him of his post, saying infighting is keeping him from making progress on a U.S.-backed peace plan. Weakened by a power struggle with Yasser Arafat, Abbas told legislators he must be given full power to carry out reforms required by the "road map" peace plan. If the demand is met, Abbas would have a stronger hand against militants he is pressing to stop attacks against Israelis. Abbas, summing up his first 100 days in office, stopped short of seeking a vote of confidence that could topple him, but said he is leaving his future in parliament's hands. "I am not attached to this post and I am not (making) and will not make any effort to keep this post. It is a difficult mission that many describe as impossible," Abbas said. At the start of the parliamentary session, about 200 activists in Arafat's Fatah movement demonstrated in support of their leader. Seven masked men from the crowd broke down a door to the building and smashed windows before unarmed guards forced them out. (i;6 WASHINGTON House approves pay raise for Congress The House approved a 2.2 percent pay raise for Congress yesterday - slightly less than average wage increas- es in private business but enough to boost lawmakers' annual salaries to about $158,000 next year. The House members decided to allow themselves a fifth straight cost- of-living raise after rejecting them for several years during the 1990s. Their annual pay has risen from $136,700 in 1999 to about $158,000 in 2004, if the legislation clears Congress and is signed by the president. Their salary this year is $154,700. As in past years, the congressional COLA was automatically included as part of pay increases that all fed- eral civilian and military employees will receive- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wages among all non-government workers rose an average 2.7 percent from July 2002 through June 2003. WASH INGTON Democrats contest limits on gay unions Democratic senators said yesterday they opposed a constitutional amend- ment to preserve the definition of mar- riage as a man-woman union, saying the law defining marriage as such is not at risk. They were responding to wit- nesses in a Judiciary subcommittee hearing who pushed for an amendment because they believe the law may soon be challenged in court. - "No courts have questioned that law ... I don't think anyone has seriously suggested that law is in danger," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). The law, known as the Defense of Marriage Act, was passed in 1996. It denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages and allows states to ignore same-sex unions allowed elsewhere. Some politicians, including President Bush, have been concerned that U.S. courts might overturn the federal law. NEWARK, NJ. . . . Officials note rise in freight-train robberies Instead of six-shooters and horses, these modern-day train robbers use two-way radios, night-vision goggles and bolt cutters. Train robbery, a quin- tessentially 19th-century crime, is rolling on into the 21st century. But along with the technology, the targets have changed - instead of gold and cash, today freight trains loaded with such merchandise as electronics, cigarettes and tires are the lure. "If you can sell it on the street easy, they'll get it," said James Beach, a captain for the Union Pacific railroad police in Fort Worth, Texas. Recently, law enforcement agents launched a sting operation along the U.S.-Texas border after Union Pacific suffered 122 robberies and 87 burglaries in nine months near El Paso, Texas. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. 4 The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by stu- dents at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily's office for $2. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $105. Winter term (January through April) is $110, yearlong (September through April) is $190. 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