Tuesday, February 3, 2004
News 3
Heart drugs benefit
bypass patients.
NYC-based quintet the Walkmen mature on their latest LP ... Arts, Page 5.
ill Jjfoti c atu:i r
TOMORROW.-
Opinion 4 Columnist Jess Piskor
promotes radical soci-
etal change.
Sports 9 A breakdown of Jeff
Tambellini's shot.
One-hundred-thirteen years of editorilfreedom ,
www.michigmdaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXIII, No.88 ©2004 The Michigan Daily
DECONSTRUCTING A PATRIOT
Bush's budget
plan receives
mixed reviews
By Robert Dean
For the Daily
Members of Congress from both sides of
the aisle waged assaults on President Bush's
fiscal policy yesterday, this time over the
administration's Fiscal Year 2004-2005 budg-
et request.
It calls for 7-percent increased defense
spending to support the war on terror. An
additional 10-percent increase in homeland
security would strengthen the nation's borders
to prevent future attacks, Bush told Congress
yesterday.
The remainder of the budget would freeze
all other spending by restricting increases
below the expected rate of inflation.
Budget allotments for higher education
the economy is rebounding, a gamble admin-
istration officials hope will eventually shrink
the deficit.
"I'm confident our budget addresses a very
serious situation," Bush said at a Cabinet
meeting.
"And that is that we are at war and we had
dealt with a recession. And our budget is able
to address those significant factors in a way
that reduces the deficit in half."
But some Democrats and Republicans have
said they are skeptical of the president's plan.
"He is making a lot Republicans angry;
however, I think he's making do with what he
has right now," said LSA senior Steve
MacGuidwin, president of the University
College Republicans.
MacGuidwin added that he did not think
BRETT MOUNTAIN/Daily
LSA Senior Irfan Shuttarl (left), member of the executive board of Muslim Student Association and LSA senior Salah Husseini, President of the Arab
American Anti Discrimination Committee and Vice Chair of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, have changed their views on President Bush.
Renewal ofPatrot Act may
cost Bush Arab, Muslim vote
have been expanded under
the new budget. Bush
requested that the maxi-
mum amount for individual
Federal Family Education
Loans rises from $2,625 to
$3,000, according to the
White House website.
Additionally, students
would see increases over
2004 in the Teacher Loan
Forgiveness program, an
initiative Bush proposed in
2002 that pardons college
loans for students entering
the teaching profession.
More than $170 million
"(Bush) is making a
lot of Republicans
angry; however, I
think he's making do
with what he has
right now."
- Steve MacGuidwin
President, University College
Republicans
Bush's fiscal liberalism
would dienchant his
Republican base.
"It's kind of naive to
think we wouldn't have as
big a deficit as we do
right now (under a differ-
ent president)," he said.
But LSA junior Court-
ney Skiles, secretary of
the College Democrats,
said the ever-deepening
defecit will likely cost
Bush in the election.
"The fact that he has
spent so much in the past
term will definitely harm
By Farayha Arrine
and Michael Kan
Daily Staff Reporters
As the election year begins, the Arab and
Muslim communities on campus are gear-
ing up to send President Bush a strong sig-
nal. Many have reconsidered their support
for him, in part because of the Patriot Act
that Bush has asked Congress to reaffirm.
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001 the
Patriot Act was almost unanimously passed
by a Congress still shaken by the al-Qaida
terrorist attacks.
Measures of the act allow for surveil-
lance of suspected homes, tapping of
phone lines and access to personal records
to better protect against future terrorist
attacks.
Many Muslim and Arab students claim
the Patriot Act comes at the cost of every-
one's civil rights and particularly their own.
Because the Sept. 11 attackers were of the
Islamic faith, many Muslim students said
they feel that U.S. officials have used the
Patriot act to target Muslims.
Last week's State of the Union address
has only caused more frustration as Bush
told Americans they must renew the Patriot
act, alarming some Muslim student groups
who were awaiting the expiration of certain
parts of the act in 2005.
LSA senior Irfan Shuttari, a Muslim stu-
dent on campus, believes the continuation
of the act will further endanger the rights
of Muslims in America.
"An action like the Patriot act is the
extent we wanted to take (to protect
America from terrorism), but ... hundreds
of citizens have lost their rights. So even
though we voted for him, it's not what we
See PATRIOT ACT, Page 7
more is proposed to the program.
Cuts are proposed in health care, educa-
tion, transportation and veterans benefits.
Costs for the war in Iraq were not included.
The federal deficit, expected to reach a
record high in 2004, has been a source of
criticism for the administration.
The Bush administration hopes to cut the
deficit in half by 2008.
Bush and his economic team maintain that
as tax receipts recover from the recession in
2001 and 2002, the increased revenue will
justify the president's current levels of spend-
ing. Already, they say, future indicators such
as "continued strength in housing starts" and
"extraordinary productivity growth" suggest
him," Skiles said. She added that Bush's
defense spending constitutes "misallocated"
expenditures, as millions of jobs have van-
ished domestically while the government con-
tinues to spend overseas.
MacGuidwin countered that statement, stat-
ing that the U.S. occupation of Iraq is now a
necessity and thus a fixture of the budget.
"The reality of the situation is, we're not
going to pull out of Iraq now and it would be
best to plan for it," he said.
"The president clearly does not understand
the economic, social and security challenges
that our nation faces today," said Sen. John
Kerry (D-Mass.), a leading presidential con-
See BUDGET, Page 7
Students meet to
discuss, oppose
SAPAC changes
By Aymar Jean
Daily Staff Reporter
As Southern primary
approaches, activist
" stresses civil rights
Responding to recently announced
changes in the administration of sexual
assault services, students and advo-
cates met yesterday to voice opposition
to the plan.
Held in the chambers of the Michi-
gan Student Assembly, the meeting -
organized by the newly-formed Our
Voices Count, "a coalition dedicated to
preserving SAPAC's mission and serv-
ices" - sought to educate students on
the effects of the changes and enlist
students in ways to oppose plans to
reorganize the Sexual Assault Preven-
tion and Awareness Center.
SAPAC, along with Counseling and
Psychological Services and the com-
munity-based SAFE House,
announced that it would change its
counseling and crisis intervention serv-
ices yesterday.
University administrators said the
changes will streamline its response to
incidents involving sexual assault and
domestic violence. No changes will
take effect until this summer.
As one major change, SAPAC's two
counselors will be transferred to work
full-time at CAPS - a move intended
to lessen the burden of ongoing coun-
seling and strengthen education and
advocacy.
But some students view the changes
- allegedly made without student
See SAPAC, Page 3
By Jameel Naqvi
Daily Staff Reporter
When the Democratic presidential
candidates fought a fierce battle in Iowa
and New Hampshire, one man was con-
spicuously absent - the Rev. Al Sharp-
ton.
Sharpton skipped these early contests
to focus his efforts on South Carolina,
which holds its primary today along
with four other states. While his com-
petitors braved the subzero New Eng-
land winter to campaign in the Granite
State last week, Sharpton, a Baptist
preacher from Brooklyn, N.Y., delivered
sermons in South Carolina churches to
mostly black congregations. Despite his
efforts, Sharpton came in at 7 percent in
r a Zogby Doll of South Carolina primary
Before his presidential bid, Sharpton
rose to prominence as an activist in New
York City. Under the tutelage of the Rev.
Jesse Jackson, Sharpton championed
civil rights and protested police brutality.
In 1999, he led a march across the
Brooklyn Bridge after West African
immigrant Amadou Diallo was shot to
death by New York City police officers
who mistook Diallo's wallet for a
weapon. Following Sharpton's protests,
the city moved the officers' trials from
the Bronx upstate to Albany.
"I think (Sharpton) brings a level of
legitimacy to some of the issues that not
only African Americans, but poor and
working Americans have in South Car-
olina...,issues such as job opportunities,
certainly civil rights issues," James said.
Sharpton has built his platform on
BRENDAN O'DONNELL/Daily
Students gathered In the Michigan Student Assembly chambers yesterday to
discuss changes to the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center.
Business dean upsets student group by
cancelling lecture for MLK symposium
By Farayha Arrine
Daily Staff Reporter
With two weeks of the 17th annual Reverend Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium remaining, mem-
bers of the Black Business Students Association say
they are regretful that they were unable to sponsor an
event to commemorate King.
In the past, the BBSA has participated in the
Eleven days before the event, Dolan informed
the BBSA through e-mail that the event was can-
celled. He suggested the BBSA commemorate
the day through another activity, which he
believed was a better celebration of King -
business planning for the Heidelberg Project in
downtown Detroit, which aims to revitalize com-
munities through art.
Dolan said he thought doing the event on a day
"We were told that 'the dean's
office would handle it.'"
- Rodney Emerson
Treasurer, Black Business Students Association
"Do you celebrate Christmas in July? No, you