Wednesday, October 13, 200 News 3 Michigan Great Lakes bill awaits passage 4"SOUTH PARK" CREATOR'' GETS POLITIC(:AL IN NEW1 FILM ... ARTS, PAGE 9 LIMt J4UTImi Weather Opinion 4 Sports 31 Wal-Mart is invading Mexico Why hate the Yankees? It's the fans H 6 tW:43 TOMORROW: 57/; One-hundred fourteen years of editorial freedom www.mizhigandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan * Vol. CXV, No. 11 c2004 The Michigan Daily Debate tackles domestic policy By Jameel Navi Daily Staff Reporter President Bush and Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry are busy prepping for what will be the final word in a series of debates that have grown increas- ingly heated. The final debate will be held tonight at Arizona State Univer- sity at 9 p.m. and will focus on domestic policy. The debate will allow the can- didates to confront each other on what voters consider to be the sec- ond most important issue of the election: the economy. It will also be the last oppor- tunity the candidates will have to address the entire nation and directly influence public opinion. Kerry will likely seize on last month's unemployment report from the U.S. Department of Labor to support his claim that the eco- nomic recovery has been largely jobless. The report found that job gains during the month of September were weaker than originally pro- jected. On the campaign trail, Kerry has capitalized on popular fears over outsourcing and attacked Bush for catering to corporations that cre- ate new jobs overseas. "I'm going to close the loopholes that actually encourage compa- nies to go overseas. The president wants to keep them open," Kerry said in last week's debate. Kerry has promised incentives such as tax breaks for firms that keep their operations in the U.S., although economists say these pol- icies are unlikely to stem the tides of globalization. Bush has pursued mostly liberal economic policies, with an empha- sis on free-trade agreements at the regional and global levels. He has also enacted protection- ist policies, including tariffs on steel imports and increased aid to the already heavily subsidized agricultural industry. The steel tariffs resulted in penalties from the World Trade Organization, which have forced Congress to repeal the trade bar- riers. The president will likely tout his tax cuts, which he claims have sped the economic recovery. "We cut taxes for everybody," he said in last Friday's debate. "Everybody got tax relief, so that they get out of the recession." But Kerry argues these tax cuts have done more harm than good. Bush has signed three tax cuts while drastically increasing spending on homeland security and defense. This policy has racked up record deficits that the younger genera- tion - which also must bear the burgeoning cost of Social Security and Medicare as baby boomers retire - will have to pay off. "It's the president's fiscal poli- cies that have driven up the biggest deficits in American history," Kerry See DEBATE, Page 8 AN AUTUMNAL VIEW Latino houses to reshuffle Three chapters weigh options after dropping out of rmulticult ral Greek organization By Victoria Edwards Daily Staff Reporter When three out of four of the Latino organizations in the Multi- cultural Greek Council discovered at the end of last semester that Jaya Soni, president of the coun- cil, had joined Michigamua - a secret society of University seniors whose historic practices have been called racially demeaning of Native Americans - they immediately demanded her resignation from the council. "The council didn't take it as seriously. So we decided that the council was not looking out for our best interest. (As a result) we resigned from MGC at the end of last year," said Ricardo Ramos, a member of the Latino fraternity Lambda Theta Phi. But when Soni refused to step down, the three Latino groups dropped out instead. Now, the Latino organizations are exploring three options for their future, Ramos said. One option is to only secede from the Multicultural Greek Council for a year, rejoining after Soni gradu- ates. Another possibility is to team up with black fraternities and soror- ities in the National Pan-Hellenic Council. Finally, they say they may form their own council comprised of just the three groups. Ramos, an LSA senior, said his fraternity, along with the Latino sororities Sigma Lambda Gamma and Lambda Theta Alpha, dropped out of the council out of respect for their close relationships with Native American students on campus. "There were always good rela- tions between the Native Ameri- can students and Latino students. We collaborated a lot," said Matt Stehney, Native American Student Association president and an LSA junior. Still, some of the groups that remained loyal to Soni do not sup- port possible reorganizations of the council. Gabby Nguyen, a Kinesi- ology junior and publicity chair of Alpha Kappa Delta Phi, a member of the MGC, said she is opposed to the Latino organizations forming their own council outside of the MGC. See COUNCIL, Page 8 MIKE HULSEBUS/Daily A student goes to class early yesterday morning as seen from a lifting device of Diag horticulturists, who were working on the trees. Democrats send lawyers to monitor polls By Donn M. Fresard Daily Staff Reporter Jason Moon. - Citing fears that Republicans will try to intimidate and disenfranchise voters at the polls, the state Democratic Party announced yesterday that it will send lawyers to hundreds of polling sites with high proportions of minor- ity and student voters to ensure that election rules are followed properly. Polling places at the University and in other parts of Ann Arbor are expected to be among those targeted by the team of about 400 attor- neys, said state Democratic Party spokesman Democrats pointed ELEC to the 2000 presidential election in Florida, where they allege that some voters in predominantly black areas were turned away from the polls wrongly, as an example of the type of situation they hope to prevent this year in Michigan. "We just want to make sure that all voters are aware of their rights and not intimidated at the polls by Republicans as they have been in past elections," Moon said. But the state Republican Party has accused Democrats of making empty accusations in T order to score polit- IONS '04 ical points. Chris Paolino, a state GOP spokesman, said the Democratic Party rebuffed offers from Repub- licans to enact a bipartisan poll-monitoring effort on election day. "They rejected (the offer) in favor of playing politics," Paolino said. "Unfortunately, after the last election people are cynical. ... (Demo- crats) basically just used (poll watching) as a chance to attack the Republican Party." Paolino said Republicans will still send vol- unteers to observe polling sites. Software takeover won't shake 'U' Jamaine Dickens, a spokesman for the Mich- igan Democratic Party, said students attempt- ing to vote are vulnerable to intimidation or misguidance because they often are unaware of their rights and are voting away from home. "We believe that the Republican Party has a 20-year history of intimidation and voter rights violations," he added. Moon said one technique that has been used in the past against student and minority voters waiting in line at the polls is to "ask them ques- tions about whether they've paid their parking tickets - things totally unrelated to casting See POLLS, Page 8A " computing One ongoing suit between the companies will decide whether PeopleSoft has illegally made a takeover exceedingly costly for Oracle, and another involv- ing the government ended with a California district court's decision that Oracle's takeover would not vio- late antimonopoly laws. Steve Swasey, spokesman for PeopleSoft, said Oracle's actions have damaged its business and his firm is seeking $1 billion in compensatory damages. The chance of a takeover caused consumers to be wary of purchasing new software and thus affected PeopleSoft's business. In a news release, PeopleSoft said Oracle's over- tures were "a deliberate campaign to mislead People- Soft's customers and disrupt its business." Oracle says it is interested in acquiring PeopleSoft because the combined company will be more inno- See PEOPLESOFT, Page 8 By Koustubh Patwardhan Daily Staff Reporter Despite mutliple court contests between Oracle Corp. and PeopleSoft, Inc., the University and its systems that are supported by PeopleSoft software will remain unaffected, University officials say. In June 2003, Oracle proposed a takeover of PeopleSoft despite management's resistance, issu- ing a series of bids for the company that PeopleSoft rejected wholesale. Linda Green, spokeswoman for University Administrative Information Services, said even if Oracle were to purchase PeopleSoft - the firm that manages Wolverine Access and some University records and payroll services - University opera- tions would not be affected. "If Oracle is acquiring PeopleSoft, they will have According to PeopleSoft, the company rejected all of Oracle's bids because they did not reflect the true value of the company. purchased the software as well as a customer base," she said. The University switched to its new Wolverine Access system in the winter term to honor its con- tract with PeopleSoft. She added that currently the University has a good relationship with Oracle and that she hopes that this continues even if PeopleSoft is acquired. Jennifer Glass, vice president of global external affairs for Oracle, said Oracle would continue to support existing PeopleSoft customers for 10 years before transferring them to Oracle software. The takeover process between the firms has caused much commotion. According to press releases from PeopleSoft, the company rejected all of Oracle's bids because they did not reflect the true value of the company. The transaction has also generated court battles: DPS won't follow Michigan SState's rules on tailgating --I The crackdown Michigan State new regulations No beer bongs, roulette wheels, or tables and boards By Melissa Benton and Ashley Dinges Daily Staff Reporters Despite recent tailgating regula- tions put in place at Michigan State University to curb binge drinking before football games, the University of Michigan does not have reason to enforce similar regulations, said becoming a problem," Denbow said. The on-campus tailgating lots regulat- ed by the new policy fall under the juris- diction of Michigan State's Department of Police and Public Safety. Public safety departments at both Michigan State and the University of Michigan generally have jurisdiction only over university- owned property, and Brown said most i I R r .a .. .v.... ,. ,.