4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 12, 2004
OPINION
I
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EDITED AND MANAGED BY
STUDENTS AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SINCE 1890
JORDAN SCHRADER
Editor in Chief
JASON Z. PESICK
Editorial Page Editor
Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority
of the Daily's editorial board. All other pieces do not
necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily.
NOTABLE
QUOTABLE
44'The child has
been born ... It may
be illegitimate, but
it's here, and it must
be reared and
educated."
- Cardinal Sodano, the Vatican's
Secretary of State yesterday, concerning its
recent decision to condone the deployment
of multinational troops in Iraq, as reported
yesterday by Telegraph.
4
COLIN DATLY J -1xI )
A falling star
JASON PESICK ONE SMALL VT'I
I
wo years ago, things
were very different
for Jennifer Gran-
holm. The young attorney
general was manhandling
Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus
in the state's gubernatorial
election. Her political skills,
intelligence and movie-star
looks propelled her not only
past Posthumus, but also onto the radar screens of
the national media.
Her primary victory against former Gov. James
Blanchard and U.S. Rep. David Bonior even got
the attention of The New York Times. Jonathan
Cohn wrote a favorable profile of Granholm
in The New Republic, which is a big deal for a
centrist Democrat like Granholm. In October of
2002, he wrote that if she were elected, " ... on
November 6, Granholm will instantly become a
figure of national importance - not just because
Michigan is such a critical state on the electoral
map but because her combination of intelligence,
charisma, and centrist politics make her an ideal
spokesperson for Democratic politics in the early
twenty-first century." He went on to note the com-
parisons political observers were drawing between
Granholm and Bill Clinton, and then continued, "
... if you hear one lament about Granholm from
her fellow Democrats, it's this: Because she was
born in Canada, she can never become president."
Boy, how things can change in politics. Her lack
of experience and understanding have caught up
with the state's first female governor. To be fair,
she does have very few friends in the state Legis-
lature, which Republicans dominate. Her cabinet
is made up of Republicans as well, with a Repub-
lican secretary of state and attorney general. She
also happens to be governor during difficult eco-
nomic times, when the trickle of revenue into the
state's budget ties her hand. And Granholm barely
controls her own party, split between economically
liberal labor Democrats and the rest of the party.
But even during difficult times, a governor
needs to set priorities, and those priorities should
help end the difficult times. Granholm has cho-
sen a priority, and that priority is trade, attracting
manufacturing jobs and not alienating the unions.
At the Democratic National Convention this sum-
mer, trade and jobs were the focus of her speech.
She repeated her call not just for free trade, but for
"fair trade," whatever that is.
The speech was not well received. It was poorly
delivered, poorly written and far from compelling.
The national media were not impressed. And on that
night, Granholm went from being a star in the Dem-
ocratic Party to another bland Midwestern governor.
This was an especially bad time for Granholm to
underperform. Arnold Schwarzenegger's national
popularity has contributed to a movement, headed
by U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), that is pressing
to amend the Constitution to allow foreign-born
individuals to run for president. It's a long shot, but
Granholm sure isn't helping her cause.
Granholm's convention speech focused on
the past - manufacturing and factory jobs. At
one point, Granholm actually had the gall to say,
"While good jobs for those without a college edu-
cation are on the decline, tuition is on the rise." The
logical response to that statement is that politicians
therefore need to work to increase the proportion
of Americans going to college, and one way to do
that is to keep tuition from spiraling out of control.
But in Granholm's state, funding for the
flagship university, the University of Michi-
gan, has declined by more than $43 million
dollars over the past two years. She's tried
to cap tuition, but cutting money from the
state's universities and then asking them to
keep tuition low is not sustainable. Speak-
ing about the Legislature and the governor,
former state Sen. Joe Schwarz, who is now
running for Congress, said, "I don't believe
public higher education has been a priority."
When Granholm was born, the state paid
for about 80 percent of the University's gen-
eral fund budget. Now that number is closer
to 30 percent. Two years ago, the Univer-
sity Investment Commission, made up of a
group of state leaders, released a report that
said that in order to close the gap between
what Michigan and the more affordable
states spend on higher education would have
required $270 million that year.
Although University President Mary Sue
Coleman told me she is optimistic about the
future, Granholm's efforts to improve high-
er education have been limited to creating
commissions and making vague statements
that she does not intend to find the money to
make a reality. At some point, the governor
needs to stop serving a slice of her constitu-
ency and start serving the people of the state
of Michigan, principally, by aligning her
priorities with the state's needs.
Pesick can be reached at
jzpesick@umich.edu.
I
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Presidential candidates
have different approaches
to the environment
TO THE DAILY:
President Bush and Sen. John Kerry
could not have more different approaches to
environmental protection and energy poli-
cy, although two articles in the Daily have
insinuated as such, Bush, Kerry surprisingly
similar on energy policies, (09/23/04), and
Official praises Bush environmental plan
(09/10/04). Bush has attempted to roll
back environmental protections, pulled
out of international environmental agree-
ments and appointed top level Environ-
mental Protection Agency and Department
of the Interior officials straight from tim-
ber, oil and gas industries. His record is
so disgraceful that he is the first president
to earn a failing grade from the League of
Conservation Voters, a nonpartisan envi-
ronmental organization. Kerry, on the
other hand, has garnered an impressive 92
percent lifetime score from the group and
has consistently supported increased envi-
ronmental protection, including banning
drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. His plan to invest in renewable
energies will create jobs and reduce pol-
lution. He recognizes the threat of global
warming and advocates mandatory reduc-
tion in carbon dioxide emissions. The
candidates differ enormously on environ-
mental and energy policies, and Kerry is
clearly the choice for a clean environment
and a safer future.
Ellen Kolasky
Residential College senior-
Daily columnist took
conservative cheap shots,
told lies about Democrats
TO THE DAILY:
Once again, D.C. Lee shows how out of
touch with reality he and other conserva-
tives are. His column Random thoughts on
Kerry, Edwards and Bush '04 (10/11/04)
disregards facts and spews hypocritical ad
homonym attacks on liberals. He chastises
Kerry for having the gall to not want to con-
tinue Bush's inane adventure in the Middle
East. He mocks liberals who dare to ques-
tion chicken hawks' supposed patriotism.
He makes fun of Edwards for speaking
metaphorically, disregarding the serious-
ness of the situation and the case Edwards
was fighting. He questions Hillary Clin-
ton's desire to oust the current president in
favor of one who won't lie to the public and
destroy every positive thing that Bill Clin-
ton accomplished in his tenure.
I could go on. It's clear that Lee doesn't
care at all about getting his story straight,
just getting in a cheap one-liner. The sad
thing is, this typifies conservatives around
the country and shows how egotistical,
manipulative and selfish they truly are.
Vote for Bush if you really want to, but
don't spout lies about Democrats and liber-
als when your side is even more guilty. The
kettle is calling the pot black.
Max Kimbrough
LSA senior
LETTERS POLICY
The Michigan Daily welcomes
letters from all of its readers. Letters from
University students, faculty, staff and
administrators will be given priority over
others. Letters should include the writer's
name, college and school year or other
University affiliation. The Daily will not
print any letter containing statements
that cannot be verified.
Letters should be kept to approxi-
mately 300 words. The Michigan Daily
reserves the right to edit for length, clar-
ity and accuracy. Longer "viewpoints" may
be arranged with an editor. Letters will be
run according to order received and the
amount of space available.
Letters should be sent over e-mail
to tothedaily@michigandaily.com
or mailed to the Daily at 420 Maynard St.
Editors can be reached via e-mail at edit-
page.editors @umich.edu. Letters e-mailed
to the Daily will be given priority over
those dropped off in person or sent via the
U.S. Postal Service.
I
4
VIEWPOINT
Following through
BY MICHAEL LEAR
"Licensees recognize that wages are the princi-
pal means of meeting the basic needs of employees
and their families, and therefore commit themselves
to a wage goal that enables employees to satisfy
these needs.
Licensees shall ensure that wages and benefits for
a standard working week meet at least legal mini-
mum standards and industry averages, whichever
is greater, and that net compensation is at least suf-
ficient to meet the worker's basic needs. Compen-
sation standards will be adjusted periodically based
on experience and increased knowledge concerning
local labor markets and living conditions."
ing Michigan apparel. While the committee
has been effective in facilitating enforcement of
some parts of the code, it is failing to ensure that
licensees adhere to all measures of the code.
While the above compensation clause has
been in effect since 2001, there still exists no
way to enforce compliance by licensees. Unfor-
tunately, there exists a void of information nec-
essary to enforce this measure of the code, and
neither the committee nor University President
Mary Sue Coleman is doing anything to fill it
despite the student support shown for wage dis-
closure during the Winter 2004 term. Simply
put, the enforcement of our code requires that
the University be aware of the wages that work-
the summer. This never happened.
The avenues through which this informa-
tion can be obtained have been proven to
exist, as the University of Wisconsin, Indiana
University and Western Michigan University
have already taken steps toward acquiring
this wage data. In addition, protocol for vali-
dating the wage information has been devel-
oped by the Workers' Rights Consortium, an
independent monitoring body that the Uni-
versity already pays to monitor its licensees'
factories for labor standards violations. Some
licensees, when asked if they would submit
such wage data, said that they would will-
ingly comply if all other licensees did.
di