4A - Tuesday, September 2, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 74} l$iC~tigan EaihJ Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu ANDREW GROSSMAN EDITOR IN CHIEF GARY GRACA EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR GABE NELSON MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position oftthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views ofttheir authors. F ROM T HE DAI LY Wh ile you were away Looking back on the summer and forward to a new semester Whether you spent your summer taking classes in Ann Arbor, fetching coffee in New York City or saving the world somewhere in the Eastern Hemisphere, those days of fun are over. Welcome back to college. And because the last thing on your mind during the past four months was keeping up with the news, the Daily's editorial board is here to get you up to speed. So put away your swimsuits and unpack your "Change We Can Believe In" signs; here's what you missed this summer and what you can look forward to this fall. It's important to have a president who doesn't choke on the word 'union:" -Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, speaking in Detroit's Hart Plaza yesterday. The Palm problem s I tried to think of how I felt things like "I'm trapped now, please ence as a judge. Worse, the pick had about John McCain naming rescue me." It isn't a huge shock that the odious stench of tokenization: one Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin his Brown was in too far over his head woman for another, regardless of how running mate last - at least not since we learned that he dissimilar their ideologies may be. week, one name had fabricated even the little relevant And so we come full circle back jumped to my mind. experience listed on his r6sum. to McCain. Granted, Palin is not his No, it wasn't Sen. Brown resigned a couple of weeks close friend (alarmingly, he seems to Hillary Clinton or later, and you would think we would have only met her once before select- former Democratic all come away a little wiser. Posi- ing her as his running mate), but he vice presidential tions within the government and its did pick her for reasons of political candidate Geral- bureaucracy, even those, ho-hum, expedience rather than qualifica- dine Ferraro; it associate-director-of-something-or- tion. She's been governor of our most was someone much other variety, are very significant and removed state, and even that for more ideologically IMRAN cannot be taken lightly. The president only 20 months. Before that, she was congruent to Palin. SYED must consider the importance of each mayor of a townwith less people than But before we name and every one of his appointments my high school (it's a big school, but names, let's remi- because they all serve a purpose. still). nisce a little. Mayhem can result if the wrong peo- Let's go back three years to Oct. ple are in charge. 2005 when this other woman had AndthenU.S. Supreme CourtChief her 15 minutes of fame. Hurricanes Justice William Rehnquist passed Experience Katrina and Rita had just over- away. Bush appointed John Roberts whelmed the Gulf Coast and virtually as the new chief justice, but with Jus- matters - Just look destroyed a major American city. In tice Sandra Day O'Connor's prior res- the weeks that followed, government ignation creating another vacancy, he at Bush's terms. officials began to admit that not all had to make another appointment. had gone right, mistakes had been We don't really need the parable of made and apologies were in order. Michael Brown to understand that a We learned in that tragedy the many Supreme Court appointment is a very The stench of tokenization? It's faults of our bloated bureaucracy. serious matter. And who should know here, too; apparently McCain believes Exhibit IA was Michael Brown, that better than Bush, who owes his that Hillary Clinton's 18 million sup- former director of the Federal Emer- very presidency to the high court's porters will jump at anything in a gency Management Agency. He was ruling in Bush v. Gore? pantsuit. And in the greatest of iro- generally a good guy with one big But it turns out there were no les- nies, even Mother Nature showed up problem: He was completely unquali- sons learned. Bush's nomination for for this hapless re-enactment - in fied.for his job. Before joining FEMA, the second Supreme Court vacancy is the form of Hurricane Gustav. Brown had spent about a decade in the answer to our little game: Harriet And let's face it: John McCain is a high-level position at the Interna- Miers. True, Miers was at least a law- very old. If he manages to pull off a tional Arabian Horses Association. yer and White House counsel. She miraculousnwin in November, we can He was essentially fired from that was also a close friend and impor- safely say that the heartbeat separat- post for what The Boston Herald tant advisor to the president. But as ing Palin from the Oval Office isn't called "alleged supervision failures." far as convention for Supreme Court a reliable one. Can we really afford Talk about foreshadowing. appointments, Miers was an ineape- to hae a person as far removed and Despite garnering some kind rienced pick out of left field: irrelevant as Palin as our president? words for his efforts from President That Miers's nomination was even- Of course not, but try telling that to Bush ("You're doin' a heck of a job, tually withdrawn because of political McCain: He's too busy hugging Bush Brownie"), it was clear that Brown pressure is not the issue. What mat- on yet another issue. himself felt completely inadequate ters is that the president chose to go to handle the massive disaster relief with a close friend and party-base Imran Syed was the Daily's fall/ effort following Katrina. In e-mails pleaser for a powerful post, instead winter editorial page editor in 2007. He to his friends, a desperate Brown said of someone who actually had experi- can be reached at galad@umich.edu. WANT TO BE AN OPINION COLUMNIST DURING THE FALL? E-MAIL GARY GRACA AT GRACA@MICHIGANDAILY.COM LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 300 words and must include the writer's full name and University affiliation. All submissions become property of the Daily. We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedaily@umich.edu. This summer was all about the economy. After seven years of a lonely recession, the rest of the country decided to join.Michi- gan. The housing market collapsed. The U.S. dollar's value plummeted. Unemployment became such a concern that even President Bush took notice, signing a bill to extend unemployment benefits from 26 to 39 weeks. Meanwhile, the cost of everything - wheth- er it's gas, milk or steel - soared. The University kept up with the trend. In case you haven't checked your tuition bill on the new-and-improved Wolverine Access yet, the University tacked an extra 5.6 per- cent onto undergraduates' bills. To be fair, it also increased undergraduate financial aid by 10.8 percent. So,.together the increases in tuition and aid bring the cost of the atten- dance to the level of "barely manageable" for in-state students and "better leave it to mommy and daddy" for their out-of-state counterparts. Speaking o'ffiscal responsibilityat the Uni- versity, the Athletic Department chipped in $2.5 million plus attorneys' fees to end head football coach Rich Rodriguez's embarrays- log scandal with West Virginia University. But whether that money could have been better spent on the tuition, room and board of 113 undergraduates is a moot point, as the Athletic Department's budget is separate from the University's. That makes 't all bet- ter, right? If big-budget college football isn't your sportef choice, you had 28 other sports to choose from during the Olympics in Bei- jing. The games doubled as a rise-to-power party for China and the perfect backdrop to ignite a second Cold War. During this Red Scare, though, we can keep a few extra handguns around the house thanks" to newly expanded Second Amendment rights. Unfortunately, also thanks to the , U.S. Supreme Court, our president won't be able to detain Russians indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay. And alas, after eight torturous years, the reign of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney is soon to end. Replacing them will either be the keeper of the American dream, -Barack Obama, and his worldly gaffe machine, Joe Biden, or the straight-talking corpse, John McCain, and former-beauty-queen-turned- politician Sarah Palin. While Obama looks like he's on his way to a unanimous victory from inside the Ann Arbor bubble, in the rest of the state and country there is actually a contest. So whenyou're thinking about the upcom- ing semester, do yourself a favor: Plan ahead. Assume that Ramen noodles will be the only product cheaper than a dollar. Estimate that attending the University will cost you a few extra thousand dollars next year. Learn a foreign language - maybe Mandarin. More importantly, register to vote before the volunteer army of election workers marks you with a scarlet letter. Apply for an absentee ballot if you don't plan to vote here - Michigan's deadline is Oct7. Make plans to vote in person if you're a first timer. And put Nov. 4 on your calendar so you remem- ber to vote. In the meantime, we'll help keep the debate civil. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Harun Buljina, Emmarie Huetteman, Emily Michels, Kate Peabody, Robert Soave, lmran Syed ANDREW GROSSMANE 'NOTE user's guide to the Daily KATE PEABODY VIEWPO 4 4 You, your e-mail and the election It's good to be back. Today marks the start of the 118th school year in which the Daily has been published. For many students, the way the Daily works is a mystery. It shouldn't' be. This is your newspaper. Here are some answers to questions people often ask about the Daily. If you have others, please e-mail me at grossman@michigandaily.com or call me at 734-647-3336 and I'll try to answer them. Can you really print whatever you want? Yes. All editorial decisions are in the hands of students. When we send the paper to the printer at 2:30 a.m., only students are in the building (we have a beautiful newsroom and offices at 420 Maynard St.). There are some professionals.around during the day who do important work helping keep our finances in order and assisting the student business staff, but they don't have any say over what goes into the print paper. Of course, we don't print whatever we want. We strive to tell the most important, inter- esting stories about life at the University of Michigan. We work to provoke debate about the issues that matter (or should matter) to students. We try to be fair and accurate. But sometimesyou aren't fair or accurate. That's true. Like most organizations run by humans, we sometimes make mistakes or let our biases cloud our coverage. If we get something wrong, we want to fix our mistake. Please let us know by e-mailing us at correc- tions@michigandaily.com. We're not going to be upsetifyou report anerror. We're not going to hold a grudge against you or your organiza- tion. We're going to thank you. If there's something that you keep seeing in the Daily that you don't think belongs there, get in touch with me at the above address or phone number and we'll talk about it. If you think you could make the IDaily better and have a little bit of free time, come join us. Who runs the Daily? The Daily's editorial staff(as opposed to the business staff, which is responsible for gen- erating the $1 million in revenue every year that this newspaper requires) elects editors every year. Those editors are usually experi- enced staffers who are ready to take on more responsibility. Becomingan editor at the Daily is often a grueling process. Candidates stand in front of their section (or in the case of the editor in chief and the editorial page editor, the entire staff) and field questions for hours before staffers vote. Those editors are then responsible for managing the paper for a cal- endar year. Can Ijoin the Daily? As long as you're a University student. The Daily hires dozens of new staffers every semester. You don't have to have any journal- ism experience or be an English major. We want people from every corner of campus on our staff. For more information about joining the Daily, e-mail me or stop by one of our mass meetings. They're on the second floor of the, Student Publications Building, which is locat- ed at 420 Maynard St., right next to the Stu- dent Activities Building. Here are the dates: e Thursday, Sept. 4, 8p.m. * Wednesday, Sept. 10, 8 p.m. " Tuesday, Sept. 16, 8p.m. Ihave anideafor aDailystory.Who should Itell? If there's something going on at the Uni- versity that merits coverage, e-mail news@ michigandaily.com or call the newsroom at 734-763-2459. Please let us know if something interest- ing is going on. We want to cover as much of campus as possible. Help us out a bit by let- ting us know what's going on in your neck of the woods. How can I express my opinion in the Daily? You don't need to work at the Daily to get your voice in the paper. Here are a few ways to use the Daily to express your opinion. " Send a letter to the editor by e-mailing it to tothedaily@umich.edu or visiting michi- gandaily.com/letters. * Submit a viewpoint. We're always looking for people to share their thoughts or experiences on the Daily's opinion page. Viewpoints should be 400-600 words and shed some insight on an issue that's impor- tantto campus. Sendviewpoints orviewpoint ideas to Editorial Page Editor Gary Graca at graca@michigandaily.com. " Apply to write a column. Applications are due by Friday, Sept. 5 and are available at michigandaily.com/column. Thanks forreading. I'm serious aboutread- ers e-mailing and calling with questions, ideas and comments. This is your newspaper. Don't let us screw it up. l .-....1 ,. Andrew Grossman Editor in Chief Did you takea shower this morn- ing? If not, first apologize to the person next to you, then answer me this: Did you check your e-mail? That's what I thought. Because of your late alarm, you sacrificed your neighbor's nose in order to see if that kid you met Friday night final- ly accepted your friend request. You're connected. Whether you check your e-mail once a day or every time your BlackBerry hums, you are a part of the digital age. I don't blame you for being obsessed with your colorful Gmail tabs or your new iPhone application. But take five minutes that you would have spent Facebook stalking and stalk a different - albeit relevant - topic. Did you know that both John McCain and Barack Obama have comprehensive technology policy plans? Undoubtedly, you will be affected by these policies when one of these two men becomes presi- dent. So check the candidates'websites and then take a detour to a Google news search. Did you realize that former Hewlett-Packard execu- tive, Carly Fiorina, is an economic advisor to McCain? Ask yourself how that's going to affect McCain's technology policies. If you read his website, the overall picture looks pretty corporate friendly. Who should the president be looking out for: the public or private sector? In contrast, Obama plans to use technology to hold government more accountable and make it more transparent. He also .intends to appoint the nation's first chief tech- nology officer to focus on techno- logical issues, including updating the nation's surveillance policies to better protect citizens' privacy rights. He also plans to reform the patent system to encourage innova- tion. Both candidates want to expand Internet access, making high- speed, wireless connections avail- able to everyone. Such an ambitious plan would improve education in this country. But it might also gen- erate new economic competition. Will McCain be up to the task if it upsets some of his party's corpo- rate base? Will Obama be up to the task if it sacrifices some American jobs? How are the candidates going to target piracy and intellectual prop- erty? Will colleges be required to turn over names of students who, illegally download music? Trends suggest that this could be a possi- bility. Likewise, Internet provid- ers could be required to collect and turn over names, too. Will individ- ual privacy be exploited to protect corporate America? Policy is broad and sometimes blandly impersonal. It's hard to relate to something when you have absolutely no idea how it will affect you. A lot of the time, these presi- dential policies seem bigger than you. But it's in the simple tasks like your morning routine that these policies will crop up. When you flood your Cinnamon Toast Crunch in milk and check the latest Perez Hilton update, will you have a reli- able and private connection to the Internet? That's something that should matter to you. These types of issues are also the ones that can make a presidential election too often diluted by shameless gossip actually relevant. Now go check your e-mail. I'm pretty sure your GSI e-mailed you back about not having section tomorrow. Kate Peabody is an LSA senior and a senior editorial page editor. HARUN BULJINA E-MAIL BULJINA AT BULJINAH@UMICH.EDU " The face behind the boogeyman at the Democratic National Convention. 4 I p