The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Monday, October 6, 2008 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
NEW YORK
Investors face
post-bailout
uncertainty
The world's financial markets
face an uncertain and possibly
volatile week as investors await
details about how the Treasury
will implement the government's
financial rescue package - and
watch for any further fallout from
the credit crisis around the globe.
The markets have switched
their focus to the world economy
now that the $700 billion bail-
out plan has become law. And
there's reason for their concerns
- governments across Europe are
rushing to prop up failing banks.
Yesterday Germany said it would
follow suit with Ireland and
Greece in guaranteeing all private
bank accounts.
LAS VEGAS
Simpson held in
isolation for safety
O.J. Simpson is being isolated
from other prisoners for his own
safety but continues to hope for a
new trial and a strong bid to re-
verse his conviction for kidnap-
ping and robbery, his lawyer said
yesterday.
Attorney Yale Galanter told The
Associated Press that Simpson
will be living a lonely life, advised
by his lawyers to do no media in-
terviews and allowed to see only
family members and a few friends
placed on a special list at the jail.
Simpson will be held in the
Clark County Detention Center
until his Dec. 5 sentencing and
then is expected to be moved to
state prison. Galanter said he will
pursue a request for Simpson to be
released on bond during the ap-
peals process.
NEW YORK
Auto dealers feel
pressure of credit
crisis
Hundreds of thousands of new
cars and trucks that would have
quickly made their way to people's
driveways a year ago are now
stacking up on dealer lots across
the country, with potential buy-
ers worried about whether they'll
keep their jobs, be able to pay for
gas, or qualify for a car loan.
For auto dealers already suf-
fering under the worst U.S. sales
downturn in 15 years, the increas-
ing cost of the credit they use to
keepinventoryintheir showrooms
means every Ford Focus and Jeep
Grand Cherokee with a sale sticker
in the window is chipping away at
dealers' razor-thin profit margins
every day and threatening to send
more of them out of business.
Like the banks that have been
collapsing under the weight of the
credit crunch, auto dealers are
highly leveraged, making them
some of its first victims, said Shel-
don Sandler, founder of Bel Air
Partners, a New Jersey-based firm
that helps car dealers find options

when they want out of the busi-
ness.
WASHINGTON
RNC plans to file
r complaint against
Obama campaign
The Republican National Com-
mittee plans to file a fundrais-
ingcomlaint against Democrat
Barack Obama's presidential
campaign Monday, alleging it has
accepted donations that exceed
federal limits as well as illegal
contributions from foreigners.
RNC officials acknowledged
yesterday that they do not have a
list of foreign donors to Obama's
campaign. Instead, the complaint
is based largely on media reports,
including one from the conserva-
tive Web site Newsmax.
The complaint asks the Federal
Elections Commission to audit
Obama's campaign fund, RNC
chief counsel Sean Cairncross said
in a conference -call with report-
ers.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
4,177
Number of American service
members who have died in the
war in Iraq, according to The
Associated Press. There were no
deaths identified yesterday.

Students wake up Man falls over
to stranger in room railing at Mitch's
Police unsure of mentwas called to Mtchs-P

ace on

S. Quad residents
had left door ajar
By LISA HAIDOSTIAN
Daily NewsEditor
The University police issued
a campus crime alert Saturday
night after two South Quad res-
idents awoke that morning to
find an unknown man in their
room.
The man apparently entered

the room through the door,
which was left ajar, police said.
After the man left at about 11
a.m., the students discovered
some items, including a wallet
and MP3 player, were missing.
The suspect appeared to have
been unarmed.
Police spokeswoman Diane
Brown said that when one of
the students awoke, there was a
"verbal exchange that included
the guy saying he was looking
for a particular person." When

the resident responded that he
didn't know who the person
was, the suspect left the room.
The suspect was described as
a five-foot-1O black male in his
30's with a stocky build, short,
black hair and a full medium-
length beard. He was report-
ed as wearing a grey hooded
sweatshirt and carrying a dark-
colored backpack.
Anyone with information
about the crime is asked to call
734-763-1131.

cause, case is under
investigation
By TREVOR CALERO
Daily StaffReporter
A man was found lying on the
floor unconscious and severely
injured at a popular bar near cam-
pus after he apparently fell over a
second-floor railing, police said.
The Ann Arbor Police Depart-

South University Avenue at about
1:30 a.m. on Sunday. The case is
under investigation.
Shortly after police arrived, the
manwas transportedby ambulance
to the University Hospital for fur-
ther evaluation.
"Initial indications are he may
have fallen," Sgt. Earl Fox said.
Police questioned those in atten-
dance, but don't have any leads
about the cause of the fall. Police
didn't know if the man was affili-
ated with the University.

Palin's 'terrorist' comments might backfire

Attacks on Obama
viewed as
unsubstantial
WASHINGTON (AP) - By
claiming that Democrat Barack
Obama is "palling around with ter-
rorists" and doesn't see the U.S.like
other Americans, vice presidential
candidate Sarah Palin targeted key
goals for a faltering campaign.
And though she may have scored
a political hit each time, her attack
was unsubstantiated and car-
ried a racially tinged subtext that
John McCain himself may come to
regret.
First, Palin's attack shows that
her energetic debate with rival Joe
Biden may be just the beginning,
not the end, of a sharpened role in
the battle to win the presidency.
"Our opponent...is someone who
sees America, it seems, as being so
imperfect, imperfect enough, that

he's palling around with terrorists
who would target their own coun-
try," Palin told a group of donors
in Englewood, Colo. A deliberate
attempt to smear Obama, McCain's
ticket-mate echoed the line at three
separate events Saturday.
"This is not a man who sees
America like you and I see Ameri-
ca," she said. "We see America as a
force of good in this world. We see
an America of exceptionalism."
Obama isn't above attacking
McCain's character with loaded
words,releasing an ad on Sunday that
calls the Arizona Republican "errat-
ic" - a hard-to miss suggestion that
McCain's age, 72, might be an issue.
"Our financial system in tur-
moil," an announcer says in
Obama's new ad. "And John McCa-
in? Erratic in a crisis. Out of touch
on the economy."
A harsh and plainly partisan
judgment, certainly, but not on the
level of suggesting that a fellow
senator is un-American and even a

friend of terrorists.
In her character attack, Palin
questions Obama's association
with William Ayers, a member of
the Vietnam-era Weather Under-
ground. Her reference was exag-
gerated at best if not outright false.
Noevidenceshowstheywere"pals"
or even close when they worked on
community boards years ago and
Ayers hosted a political event for
Obama early in his career.
Obama, who was a child when
the Weathermen were planting
bombs, has denounced Ayers' radi-
cal views and actions.
With her criticism, Palin is tak-
ing on the running mate's tradi-
tional role of attacker, said Rich
Galen, a Republican strategist.
"There appears to be a newfound
sense of confidence in Sarah Palin
as a candidate, given her perfor-
mance the other night," Galen said.
"I think that they are comfortable
enough with her now that she's got
the standing with the electorate to

take off after Obama."
Second, Palin's incendiary
charge draws media and voter
attention away from the worsen-
ing economy. It also comes after
McCain supported a pork-laden
Wall Street bailout plan in spite
of conservative anger and his own
misgivings.
"It's a giant changing of the sub-
ject," said Jenny Backus, a. Demo-
cratic strategist. "The problem is the
messenger. Ifyouwantto start throw-
ing fire bombs, you don't send out the
fluffy bunny to do it. I think people
don't take Sarah Palin seriously."
The larger purpose behind Pal-
in's broadside is to reintroduce the
question of Obama's associations.
Millions of voters,-many of them
open to being swayed to one side or
the other, are startingto pay atten-
tion to an electiona month away.
For the McCain campaign, that
makes Obama's ties to Ayers as
well as convicted felon Antoin
"Tony" Rezko and the controver-
Asian mar

sial minister Jeremiah Wright ripe
for renewed criticism. And Palin
brings a fresh voice to the argu-
ment.
Effective character attacks have
come earlier in campaigns. In June
1988, Republican George H.W.
Bush criticized Democrat Michael
Dukakis over the furlough granted
to Willie Horton, a convicted mur-
derer who then raped a woman and
stabbed her companion. Related
TV ads followed in September and
October.
The Vietnam-era Swift Boat
veterans who attacked Democrat
John Kerry's war record started in
the spring of 2004 and gained trac-
tion in late summer.
"The four weeks that are left are
an eternity. There's plenty of time
in the campaign," said Republican
strategist Joe Gaylord. "I think it is
a legitimate strategy to talk about
Obama and to talk about his back-
ground and who he pals around
with."
kets fall
er, part of a scramble by European
governments to save failing banks.
On Sunday, Belgian Prime
Minister Yves Leterme said that
France's BNP Paribas SA had com-
mitted to taking a75-percentstake
in troubled bank Fortis NV. British
treasury chief Alistair Darling also
said he was ready to take "pretty
big steps that we wouldn't take in
ordinary times" to help the coun-
try weather the credit crunch.
A dismal report Friday on the
U.S. job market also added to the
gloom, raising concerns about
weakening American consumer
demand for Asian exports.
"This credit crunch looks like
it's not going away any time soon,"
said Alex Tang, head of research at
brokerage Core Pacific-Yamaichi
in Hong Kong.

Ike left environmental
destruction in its wake

At least half a
million gallons of
oil spilled into Gulf
WASHINGTON (AP) - Hur-
ricane Ike's winds and massive
waves destroyed oil platforms,
tossed storage tanks and punc-
tured pipelines. The environmen-
tal damage only now is becoming
apparent: At least a half million
gallons oferude oilspilled into the
Gulf of Mexico and the marshes,
bayous and bays of Louisiana and
Texas, according to an analysis
of federal data by The Associated
Press.
In the days before and after the
deadly storm, companies and resi-
dents reported at least 448 releas-
es of oil, gasoline and dozens of
other substances into the air and
water and onto the ground in
Louisiana and Texas. The hardest
hit places were industrial centers
near Houston and Port Arthur,
Texas, as well as oil production
facilities off Louisiana's coast,
accordingto the AP's analysis.
"We are dealing with a mul-
titude of different types of pol-
lution here ... everything from
diesel in the water to gasoline
to things like household chemi-
cals," said Larry Chambers,
a petty officer with the U.S.
Coast Guard Command Center

in Pasadena, Texas.
The Coast Guard, with the
Environmental Protection
Agency and state agencies, has
responded to more than 3,000
pollution reports associated with
the storm and its surge along the
upper Texas coast. Most callers
complain about abandoned pro-
pane tanks, paint cans and other
hazardous materials containers
turning up in marshes, backyards
and other places.
No major oil spills or hazard-
ous materials releases have been
identified, but nearly 1,500 sites
still need to be cleaned up.
The Coast Guard's National
Response Center in Washing-
ton collects information on oil
spills and chemical and biological
releases and passes it to agencies
working on the ground. The AP
analyzed all reports received by
the center from Sept. 11 through
Sept.18 for Louisiana and Texas,
providing an early snapshot of

Ike's environmental toll.
With the storm approaching,
refineries and chemical plants
shut down as a precaution, burn-
ing off hundreds of thousands of
pounds of organic compounds
and toxic chemicals. In other
cases, power failures sent chemi-
cals such as ammonia directly
into the atmosphere. Such acci-
dental releases probably will not
result in penalties by regulators
because the releases are being
blamed on the storm.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry also
suspended all rules, including
environmental ones, that would
inhibit or prevent companies pre-
paring for or responding to Ike.
Power outages also caused sew-
age pipes to stop flowing. Else-
where, the storm's surge dredged
up smelly and oxygen-deprived
marsh mud, which killed fish and
caused residents to complain of
nausea and headaches from the
odor.

SINGAPORE (AP) - Asian
stock markets plunged Monday as
investors took scant comfort from
Washington's .passage of a $700
billion bank bailout and focused
instead on deepening financial
turmoil in Europe that threatens
to slow global growth.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225
average was down 4.4 percent to
10,452, while Hong Kong's Hang
Seng index slid 3.7 percent to 17,198.
Markets in mainland China, Aus-
tralia, South Korea, Singapore and
Thailand also fell. Indonesia's key
index plunged more than 5 percent.
Traders were spooked by Ger-
many's announcement Sunday of
a new bailout package totaling 50
billion euros ($69 billion) for Hypo
Real Estate, the country's second-
biggest commercial property lend-

The
Piceton
C Rview

! I-2RevieiPrincetonReviewcom
-HE,

0

4

i