The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, September 13, 2007 - 7A s

As shutdown looms,
legislators still at odds

At a policy speech in Iowa yesterday, Barack Obama called for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. combat brigades from Iraq,
with the pullout being completed by the end of next year.
Obama lays out plan for Iraq
withdrawalb end of

Plan would leave
some troops to attack
terrorists, train Iraqis
By JEFF ZELENY
and MICHAEL R. GORDON
The New York Times
Sen. Barack Obama yesterday
presented his most extensive plan
yet for winding down the war in
Iraq, proposing to withdraw all
combat troops by the end of next
year while leaving behind a force of
unspecified size to strike at terror-
ists, train Iraqi soldiers and protect
American interests.
Speaking in Iowa, Obama com-
bined an attack on both parties in
Washington for having gotten the
United States into the war with the
outline of an approach for getting
out that immediately drew criti-
cism from the left of his party for
being too timid and from Republi-,
cans as being irresponsible.
"What's at stake is bigger than
this war: It's our global leader-
ship," Obama said. "Now is a time
to be bold. We must not stay the
course yr take the conventional
path because the other course is
unknown."
Obama, of Illinois, used the
speech to highlight again his early
and consistent opposition to the
war, and to compare it to the votes
in 2002 by Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton of New York and John
Edwards, then asenator fromNorth
Carolina, to give President Bush the
authority to go to war in Iraq. But
Obama's strategy for where to go
from here, especially in maintain-
ing an American military presence
in Iraq and the region, is similar to

the plan embraced by Clinton, who
is leading the Democratic field in
most opinion polls.
One day after questioning Gen.
David H. Petraeus as he testi-
fied before Congress, Obama and
other candidates took their respec-
tive cases to voters. On one side of
Iowa, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.),
argued the administration's strat-
egy should be given more time to
succeed, while across the state,
Obama offered a conflicting view.
"The best way to protect our
security and to pressure Iraq's
leaders to resolve their civil war is
to immediately begin to remove our
combat troops," Obama said. "Not
in six months or one year - now."
In his address, Obama proposed
removing U.S. combat troops from
Iraq atla pace of one or two brigades
a month, which is about twice as
fast as American commanders in
Iraq have deemed prudent. There
are currently about 20 combat bri-
gades in Iraq, which Petraeus has
committed to reducing to 15 next
summer.
Under the Obama plan, no more
than 10 brigades would be in Iraq
at that point. Military experts who
supported the administration's
"surge" strategy called the troop
levels proposed by Obama insuf-
ficient.
"That is a precipitous withdraw-
al," said Jack Keane, the farmer
vice chief of staff of the Army and
an early pryponent of the adminis-
tration's strategy. "What it does is
squander all the gains we made in
the past five to six months. What it
would do is turn Baghdad over to
the extremists."
Polls suggest that there is con-
siderable public support for the
approach outlined by Obama. In

the latest New York Times/CBS
News poll, 56 percent of Americans
said they favored reducing troops
levels in Iraq, but leaving some
forces in place to train Iraqi forces,
fight terrorists and protect Ameri-
can diplomats.
Twenty-two percent favored a
complete withdrawal in the next
year, and 20 percent favored keep-
ing the same number of troops
"until there is a stable democracy
in Iraq."
Several of his Democratic rivals,
though, said yesterday that Obama
was taking a step backward by not
imposing a specific deadline for
withdrawal.
"Sen. Obama has a gift for soar-
ing rhetoric, but, on this critical
issue, we need to know the sub-
stance of his position with specific-
ity," said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd
of Connecticut.
Gov. Bill Richardson of New
Mexico said, "Leaving behind tens
of thousands of troops in Iraq for an
indefinite amount of time is noth-
ing new. This plan is inadequate
and does not end the war."
Obama delivered his remarks
during an address at Ashford Uni-
versity in Clinton, Iowa. While he
did not directly mention Hillary
Clinton by name, the words in his
speech and the name of the city in
which he chose to give his speech
made his point clear.
"Too 'many politicians feared
looking weak and failed to ask
hard questions. Too many took the
president at his word instead of
reading the intelligence for them-
selves," Obama said. He added, "I
opposed the war in 2002. I opposed
it in 2003. I opposed it in 2004. I
opposed it in 2005. I opposed it in
2006."

BUDGET From page 1A
have to reach some consensus ifa
partial shutdown of government
services is to be avoided. A major
sticking point is agreeing on how
much money needs to be raised,
and how much could be covered
by government restructuring and
other cost-cutting moves.
Lawmakers' efforts to avoid a
state budget crisis continue to get
tripped up on the question of rais-
ing taxes.
And that sets up another show-
down over tax issues for the bud-
get year that starts Oct.1 when the
Legislature reconvenes Friday.
The sales tax increase propos-
al would give voters a chance to
replace other income tax and ser-
vice tax increases that the House
mayvote on Friday
"Our plan is to stay in session
until we get this problenisolved,"
said House Speaker Andy Dillon,
a Democrat from Redford who
wants a clearly bipartisan, long-
term budget solution. "If it means
going back to the ballot initiative,
we'll do that ... we'll stay until the
job gets done."
Senate Majority Leader Mike
Bishop, a Republican from Roch-
ester, had mentioned the sales tax
increase going before voters as a
possible part of an overall budget
fix. But if Republicans were going
to support that concept, it was to
be targeted to the November bal-
lot - not the January election,
TEXTING
From page 1A
that the message made them more
likely to vote.
Those who received text mes-
sages were 4 percent more likely
to vote than those in the same age
bracket who didn't receive the
,messages.
However, not all participants
had a positive reaction to the text
messages. Twenty-three percent
of the participants found the text
message reminder to be bother-
some and 1 percent said they were
less likely to vote because of the
text message.
Allison Dale, co-author of the
report and doctoral student of
political science at the University,
said it's very unusual for a cam-
paign tactic that doesn't use per-
sonal contact to be so effective.
"Political candidates will be
very interested in this," Dale said.
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which would come more than
two months later. The deadline to
make the November ballot passed
last week.
"It doesn't address the present
budget shortfall," Bishop said of
putting the proposal on the Janu-
ary ballot, which means that even
if voters approved it new revenues
wouldn't kick in until March.
"There was really no reason to doit
except to try and prove a point, and
I'm not really sure what the point
was they were trying to prove."
The time left to adopt a new
budget for state government may
be a little shorter than some law-
makers realized. A memo from
the House Fiscal Agency suggests
lawmakers must act before they
adjourn Sept. 27 to have an official
budget in place by October.
That would allow time for the
state's office of Financial Manage-
ment to pay bills without violating
the state constitutional provision
prohibiting payments without an
appropriation.
Bishop and Dillon huddled
briefly on the Senate floor after
yesterday's legislative sessions
had ended.
Bishop said the House appears
to be gridlocked and operating in
"an environment of fear" over the
budget crisis. Senate GOP leaders
say they are poised to vote on more
than $1 billion in cuts if the House
doesn't send over a tax increase
proposal soon.
Rep. Craig DeRoche, the top
Several 2008 presidential cam-
paigns, including John Edwards,
Barack Obama and Mitt Rom-
ney, already offer text message
reminders and updates to inter-
ested voters who sign up on their
website.
In other parts of the world, text
message reminders have already
been used in elections.
Thailand used textmessagingto
remind more than 25 million of its
citizens to vote in a 2005 election.
,The study said that text mes-
saging was a cost-effective means
of rallying votes based on the
response rate, costing $1.56 for
each additional vote.
"The difficulty is that it will be
hard to get cell phone numbers,"
Dale said. "Those that would give
their cell, phone numbers to cam-
paigns are probably the people
that don't need to be reminded."
The study also found that short
and to-the-point text messages
proved to be the most effective,

Republican in the House, said his
party didn't support the sales tax
vote yesterday because it did noth-
ing to balance the state's budget by.
the Oct.1 deadline.
In addition to the sales tax bal-
lot initiative, it is likely the House-
will vote tomorrow on a proposal
to at least temporarily raise the.,
state's income tax. The most prob-
able scenario would be a proposat
that raises the income tax from its
current 3.9 percent to 4.4 percent
or 4.6 percent, the same rates that
were in place in the 1990s.
Another possibility is a sales tax
on some types of services. That
might include a tax on sporting
event and concert tickets, a pro-
posal that sparked a radio show'
protest at the Capitol on yesterday~
afternoon.
Some senators, particularly on"'
the Democratic side, aren't happy"
about waiting on the House to act-
on a tax increase. The Senate is bet-
ter equipped to move first because
its members have more experience'
and tend to get along better than in
the larger, more fractured House,
said Sen. Michael Switalski, a
Democrat from Roseville.
"Citizens see us a single entity
- government," Switalski said.
"Theymakenodistinctionbetween
House and Senate, Republican or.
Democrat."
Senate Democrats introduced
bills this week they say would
allow the chamber to move first on
the tax increases.
yielding a five percent increase in
voter turnout.
Several different versions of the
reminders were used.
One read: "A friendly reminder
that tomorrow is Election Day.,
Elections often come down to a,
few votes, so please vote."
When information about the-
location of polling places was
added, the messages-did narlproe
to be as effective, the study said.
Dale said this could be because
extra information made the text
messages more confusing.
Public Policy senior Hillary Doe
said she supports the idea, but she__
expressed concern for those who'
would be charged for receiving a
text message.
LSA senior Kirsten Rose said"
she likes the idea because so many-
people have cell phones.
"Text messaging and e-mail
seem like a good idea to me," she
said. "Nothing else is as wide-
spread."

Ann Arbor mayor wants
more wind power for city

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WIND From page 1A
energy."
But DTE spokesman John Aus-
terberry said DTE isn't hesitant to
develop renewable energy sources
- as long as consumers will pay for
them.
"It's more expensive, but if cus-
tomers are willing to pay a little bit
extra, we're willing to provide it,"
he said.
Austerberry said there are cur-
rently 4,000 customers signed up
for the GreenCurrents program
that allowscustomers to receive a
portion of their energy from renew-
able sources like wind.
He said the program was
designed to promote the devel-
opment of renewable sources as
demand for them grows. For DTE,.
this alleviates the risk associated
NETWORK
From page 1A
The Big Ten Network would
charge Comcast $1.10 per month
per subscriber for the right to use
its content. Demming said Com-
cast would then pass that cost on to
individual subscribers. Silverman
said he has been willing to negoti-
ate the cost of the network to Com-
cast in order to spur talks.
Comcast, which serves approxi-
mately 1.3 million subscribers in
the state of Michigan, has remained
adamant about adding the network
as part of the sports tier package

with supporting the new technol-
ogy by putting the financial burden
on the consumer, not the, stock-
holder.
Larry Flowers, a team leader at
the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory who spoke Tuesday at
the School of Natural Resources
and Environment during Energy
Fest, called this "the out for the
utilities."
DTE can dip its toe into renew-
ables at its leisure, but energy com-
panies in25 other states are required
by law to provide a certain percent of
renewable energy to consumers.
There is no such law in Michi-
gan.
"(Michigan) lacks the political
will at the state level," Hieftje said.
Ann Arbor City Council mem-
ber Stephen Kunselman (D-Ward
3) works as an energy management
throughout the negotiations.
"That way, those fans who want
the extra content can pay for it
while others who are not interested
will not be burdened with the cost,"
Demming said.
Silverman says he's not wor-
ried about reaching an agreement
with Comcast because deals have
already been inked with several
Comcast competitors, including
satellite providers Dish Network
and DirecTV as well as 125 small
cable distributors.
Charter Communications and
Time Warner, two other national
cable providers, haven't added the

liaison for the University. He said
state regulations make it harder for
people or groups who want to buy
renewable energy to do so.
"A lot of organizations are going
to have to contend with how to pur-
chase renewable energy under cur-
rent state regulatory structures,"
Kunselman said.
Duncan Callaway, a University
researcher in SNRE studying the
implementation of wind energy,
said he is optimistic about DTE's
GreenCurrents program. He said
the demand for wind energy will
soon be high enough that the com-
pany will want to sign a long-term
contract for wind energy.
He is hopeful about harnessing
wind near Ann Arbor, too. ,
"I think we'll have turbines in
two years in Washtenaw County,"
Callaway said.
network either.
Those two companies also want
to offer the network on a special
sports package, Silverman said.
The Big Ten Network has already
aired 13 football games along with
original programming and has
attracted about 400,000 viewers
during its first two weeks.
It received increased visibility
when its season started with the
Michigan vs. Appalachian State
football game earlier this month.
Many Wolverine fans couldn't
watch the historic upset because it
was only televised on the Big Ten
Network.

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