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One-hundredfifteen years ofeditorialfreedom

www.michigandaziy.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXVI, No. 21 2005 The Michigan Daily

NAACP
slams
BAMN
By Donn M. Fresard
Daily News Editor
The campus chapter of the NAACP has condemned the pro-affirmative
action group BAMN in response to the group's use of black middle- and
high-school students in a Thursday rally.
BAMN, a prominent advocate of the University's affirmative action
policies, has often come under fire from critics - including other sup-
porters of affirmative action - for what they call its radical politics and
confrontational approach.
Alex Moffett, vice president of the NAACP, said BAMN tokenized and
presented black students in a bad light when it bused in hundreds of black
middle- and high-school students from Detroit for the Thursday rally on
the Diag.
During the rally against the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, a proposal
that could ban the use of affirmative action by the University and the state
if it is approved by voters next year, the Detroit students were given micro-
phones and could be heard yelling profanities and slurs at anti-affirmative
action protesters at the back of the crowd. Moffett said the students came
across as uneducated about affirmative action and faulted BAMN for put-
ting them under the spotlight without preparation.
"Some of them didn't even know why they were there - they were just
there as tokens, so people would see a large number of black students,"
Moffett said. "(BAMN was) just perpetuating untruths about young black
students. As a community, we find that totally unacceptable."
Moffett said the NAACP's executive board will decide what actions to
take against BAMN at its meeting tonight, and that she will announce its
plans during tomorrow's Michigan Student Assembly meeting.
"Our main concern is that students of color are represented in a way that
shows their intelligence," Moffett said."(BAMN) really only succeeded in
making the struggle a lot harder for black students."
Ben Royal, an organizer for BAMN, called the NAACP's position
"ridiculous" and counterproductive.
"Slandering the black youth of the new civil rights movement is not
something that the U of M NAACP should be doing," Royal said. "We
need unity in the defense of affirmative action against MCRL"
Although BAMN has been the most visible campus group supporting
the University's affirmative action policies through their years of court
battles, other student organizations that support the policies have frequent-
ly tried to distance themselves from the controversial group. Among the
chief complaints critics have leveled against the group are that its tactics
and tone are overly confrontational and that its leaders are non-University
students. Some have also criticized BAMN for its ties with the Revolution-
ary Workers League, a Trotskyist organization.
In 2001, a coalition of student groups formed Students Supporting
Affirmative Action as an alternative to BAMN. SSAA became mostly
inactive after the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the Univer-
sity's right to use race as a consideration in admissions. The group, which
includes members of the NAACP, reassembled last year in response to the
threat of MCRI.
See NAACP, Page 7A

Former Sen. John Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate, shakes hands with students on the Diag on Friday.
Edwards rallies studentsat 'U

By Ben Beckett
Daily Staff Reporter

A year ago, former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) had his
sights on becoming the vice president of the United States.
Yet the Kerry-Edwards ticket lost and Edwards was out of
a job.
But a year later, Edwards continues to champion the same
issues raised in his vice presidential bid.
Friday he spoke to a crowd of about 2,000 people on the
Diag as an anti-poverty advocate encouraging students to
start a new grassroots movement.
Edwards's speech was the final stop on a two-week tour of
college campuses sponsored by the Center for Promise and

Opportunity, a group that works to pass anti-poverty legisla-
tion, for which Edwards serves as honorary chair.
In his speech, Edwards encouraged students to think on
a more national level. He said that after seeing the abject
poverty in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the country is
uniquely receptive to the issue of alleviating poverty, but that
students' voices are needed to keep it in focus.
"You need to speak out loud ... and in big numbers, so
that those people in Washington who can do something
about 37 million people who live in poverty will actually
take action," Edwards said.
To engage students' emotions and sense of compassion,
most of Edwards' remarks revolved around anecdotes involv-
ing the poor, especially the poor of New Orleans, many of

whom were trapped in the city after Hurricane Katrina.
"People have this idea that folks who live in pover-
ty are just lazy, of no account, irresponsible. It's a lie,"
Edwards said.
Edwards spoke briefly about specific proposed programs.
He conceded that some liberal policies had "created a cycle
of dependency" in the past.
To veer away from the same cycle, he proposed policies
geared toward helping the poor make it on their own. When
Edwards said that the national minimum wage should be
raised to at least $7.50 an hour, cheers and loud applause
from the crowd ensued.
Edwards suggested a program of work bonds, to encour-
See EDWARDS, Page 7A

Democrats urge Rove to resign over CIA leak case

Some conservatives call on Bush to
revamp his administration by adding
'new blood' to the White House
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate Democratic leader
said yesterday that presidential adviser Karl Rove should
resign because of his role in the exposing of a CIA officer's
identity, and a veteran Republican senator said President Bush
needs "new blood" in his White House.
Rove has not been charged, but the investigation continues

in the case that brought the indictment and resignation Friday
of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the top aide to Vice President
Dick Cheney.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said yesterday he
was disappointed that Bush and Cheney responded to the
indictment by lauding Libby. He suggested they should
apologize for the leak that revealed the identity of covert
CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose husband, former ambas-
sador Joseph Wilson, has been critical of the Bush admin-
istration.
"First of all, the vice president issues this very terse state-

ment praising Libby for all the great things he's done," Reid
said. "Then we have the president come on camera a few min-
utes later calling him Scooter and what a great patriot he is."
"There has not been an apology to the American people for
this obvious problem in the White House," Reid (D-Nev.) told
ABC's "This Week."
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said on "Fox News Sunday"
that Cheney should "come clean" about his involvement and
why he discussed Plame with Libby before Libby spoke to
reporters about her.
"What did the vice president know? What were his inten-

tions?" Dodd said. "Now, there's no suggestion the vice
president is guilty of any crime here whatsoever. But if our
standard is just criminality, then we're never going to get to
the bottom of this."
Democrats appearing on Sunday talk shows portrayed Lib-
by's indictment as one of many serious problems surrounding
the White House and one of several allegations raising ques-
tions about Republican ethics.
Republicans repeatedly said the charges have been made
against only one individual and that Libby should be pre-
sumed innocent until proven guilty.

Students battle
poverty with NGO


N Crossing Borders gives
students chance to join
global service projects
By Carlssa Miller
Daily Staff Reporter
To enhance student awareness and
action, two University undergraduates
launched a new nongovernmental organi-
zation last Thursday that enables students
to participate in international service proj-
ects based on their personal interests and
goals.
Known as Crossing Borders, the NGO
was founded by LSA juniors David
Duong and John Leahy after they traveled
t^ V+am m a rPnrh .rarnt from the

experiences sparked the idea of Crossing
Borders.
"I want to promote awareness and give
(other students) a means and an oppor-
tunity to do the sort of work David and I
were able to do" Leahy said.
Duong added that one of Crossing
Borders's main objectives is to provide
students with a hands-on experience that
is not available in other undergraduate
international programs.
"We are promoting something other
than academic tourism and the study
abroad experience," Duong said. "It's
important for undergrads to have an inter-
national discipline in their area of study.
We can't assume that we live in this bub-
ble separate from everyone else."
CSR ASmn o enfund the organ ization.

Community
remembers
Rosa Parks
By Carissa Miller
Daily Staff Reporter
A small group of staff and residents of Stockwell Hall
came together in a candlelight vigil last night in memory
of civil rights activist Rosa Parks, who passed away one
week ago.
"Her passing signals an end of an era and a spirit of
resistance and rebellion," said Stockwell hall director
Ericka Roberts. "We honor her tonight to keep the spirit
of fighting inequality and injustice alive," she said.
Sponsored by Students In Stockwell Transmitting
Ethnic Relations or SISTER, the vigil - which included
a moment of silence and reactions to Parks's passing -
was organized to recognize and emphasize the impact of
Parks on the civil rights movement and the black com-


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