0 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, November 3, 2008 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, November 3, 2008 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
NEW YORK
Analysts agree
economy will rise
next year
Most analysts believe the bat-
tered stock market has nowhere to
go but up next year, no matter who
ends up in the White House - and
history will probably give the vic-
tor credit even if he actually had
little to do with the rally.
"The timing couldn't be better,"
Florance said.
Still, the stock market is just
one part of the economy, and
under either Barack Obama or
John McCain, the United States
needs to recover from a downturn
whose severity has not yet been
determined. And either candidate
will face a budget deficit of around
$500 billion when he's sworn into
office - a shortfall expected to
climb to $1 trillion nextyear.
Because of the deficit, the finan-
cial climate might end up affect-
ing the new president's policies
more than his policies will affect
the financial climate.
"This whole financial crisis will
largely serve as an agenda buster
for at least the first year," said
John Lynch, chief market analyst
at Evergreen Investments.
BAGHDAD
Iraq waiting for
U.S. response on
security pact
Iraq expects an American
response to requested changes in
a draft security pact soon after
this week's U.S. presidential elec-
tion, an aide to the prime minister
said Sunday.
Another Iraqi official aaid the
U.S. indicated it would accept all
the proposed changes except one
- greater Iraqi legal control over
American aoldiera and contrac-
tors.
Yassin Majeed said the U.S.
response would come after Tues-
day's vote so the president-elect
- either Barack Obama or John
McCain - could be briefed on
the Iraqi proposals, which were
submitted by Iraq's Cabinet last
week.
Iraqi lawmakers say the chang-
esaare essential in order to win
parliamentary approval for the
deal, which would keep American
troops in this country until 2012
and give the Iraqis a greater role
in the conduct of U.S. military
operations.
SEATTLE
Machinist union
agrees on contract
with Boeing
Machinists union members
ratified a new contract with The
Boeing Co. on Saturday, ending an
eight-week strike that cut the air-
plane maker's profits and stalled
jetliner deliveries.
The vote by members of the
union, which represents about
27,000 workers at plants in Wash-
ington state, Oregon and Kansas,
was about 74 percent in favor of
the proposal five days after the
two sides tentatively agreed to
the deal and union leaders recom-
mended its approval.
The workers are expected to re-
turn to Boeing's commercial air-
plane factories, which have been
closed since the Sept. 6 walkout,
starting Sunday night.
DETROIT
Poll: Mich. voters
support both ballot
initiatives
A new poll says likely Michigan
voters support ballot proposals to
expand stem cell research and le-
galize medical use of marijuana.
The phone poll for the Detroit
Free Press and WDIV-TV shows
people favoring the stem cell pro-
posal 51 to 40 percent and the
marijuana proposal 61 to 30 per-
cent.
Selzer & Co. of Des Moines,
Iowa, polled 616 people Tuesday
through Friday. Results have a
margin of sampling error of plus
or minus 4 percentage points.
An Oct. 26-28 poll of 600 like-
ly voters by EPIC-MRA for The
Detroit News and TV stations
WXYZ, WILX, WOOD and WJRT
found 46 percent backing the stem
cell proposal and 44 percent op-
posed.
The marijuana proposal led 57
percent to 36 percent. Results also
had a 4-point margin of error..
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Attempts to dissuade
Nader rails against
voters from polls rising both pai
NADER, From Page 1A
rties at rally
Voters wary of
tricks as Election
Day approaches
(AP) - In the houts before
Election Day, as inevitable as win-
ter, comes an onslaught of dirty
tricks - confusing e-mails, dis-
turbing phone calls and insinuat-
ing fliers left on doorsteps during
the night.
The intent, almost always, is to
keep folks from voting or to con-
fuse them, usually through intim-
idation or misinformation. But in
this presidential race, in which a
black man leads most polls, some
of the deceit has a decidedly rac-
ist bent.
Complaints have surfaced in
predominantly African-American
neighborhoods of Philadelphia
wherefliershavecirculatedwarn-
ingvotersthey could be arrested at
the polls if they had unpaid park-
ing tickets or if they had criminal
convictions.
Over the weekend in Virginia,
bogus fliers with an authentic-
looking commonwealth seal said
fears of high voter turnout had
prompted election officialsto hold
two elections - one on Tuesday
for Republicans and another on
Wednesday for Democrats.
In New Mexico, two Hispanic
women filed a lawsuit last week
claiming they were harassed by a
private investigator working for
a Republican lawyer who came
to their homes and threatened to
call immigration authorities, even
though they are U.S. citizens. -
"He was questioning her status,
saying that he needed to see her
papers and documents to show
that she was a U.S. citizen and was
a legitimate voter," said Guadal-
upe Bojorquez, speaking on behalf
of her mother, Dora Escobedo, a
67-year-old Albuquerque resident
who speaks only Spanish. "He
totally, totally scared the heck out
of her."
In Pennsylvania, e-mails
appeared linking Democrat
Barack Obama to the Holocaust.
"Jewish Americans cannot afford
to make the wrong decision on
Tuesday, Nov. 4," said the elec-
tronic message, paid for by an
entity calling itself the Republican
Federal Committee. "Many of our
ancestors ignored the warning
signs in the 1930s and 1940s and
made a tragic mistake."
Laughlin McDonald, who leads
the ACLU's Voting Rights Project,
said he has never seen "an election
where there was more interest
and more voter turnout, and more
efforts to suppress registration
and turnout. And that has a real
impact on minorities."
The Obama campaign and
civil rights advocacy groups have
signed up millions of new voters
for this presidential race. In Ohio
alone, some 600,000 have submit-
ted new voter registration cards.
Across the country, many of
these first-time voters are young
and strong Obama supporters.
Many are also black and Hispan-
ic. t
Activist groups say it is this
fresh crop of ballot-minded citi-
zens that makes some Republi-
cans very nervous. And they say
they expect the dirty tricks to get
dirtier in final hours before Tues-
day.
"Oh, there's plenty of time fore
things to get ugly," said Zachary
Stalberg, president of The Com-
mittee of Seventy, a Philadelphia-
based government watchdog
group that is nonpartisan.
Other reports of intimidation
efforts in the hotly contested state
of Pennsylvania include leaflets
taped to picnic benches at Drexel
University, warning students that
police would be at the polls on
Tuesday to arrest would-be voters
with prior criminal offenses.
In his Jewish neighborhood,
Stalberg said, fliers were recently
left claiming Obama was more
sympathetic to Palestinians than
toIsrael,andshowedaphotograph
of him speaking in Germany.
"It shows up between the
screen door and the front door
in the middle of the night," Stal-
berg said. "Why couldn't someone
knock on the door and hand that
to me in the middle of the day?
In a sense, it's very smartly done.
The message gets through. It's
done carefully enough that people
mightread it."
Such tactics are common, and
are often impossible to trace.
Robo-calls, in which automated,
bogus phone messages are sent
over and over, are very hard to
trace to their source, say voting
advocates. E-mails fall into the
same category.
top car company executives have
mismanaged their companies and
should be fired.
"These top executives have
tanked their companies, unem-
ployed their workers, shredded
their shareholder values, jeopar-
dized the workers pensions, unem-
ployed hundreds of thousands of
workers and, in effect, surren-
dered the auto market to a rapidly
advancing foreign car industry," he
said.
Nader, who's running on the
Natural Law Party ticket in Michi-
gan and is on the ballot in 45 states,
spoke at length about what he calls
a "two-party prison," and what he
sees as a lack of proportional rep-
resentation in U.S. government.
Real Clear Politics, a website
that averages other political polls,
estimates Nader will receive 2.3
percentofthevotenationally, down
from 5 percent in mid-September.
Nader said he hoped to receive mil-
lions of votes on Tuesday.
He accomplished that in 2000,
when he took 1 percent of the
national vote asa Green Party Can-
didate but received slightly more in
Florida. Many Democrats blamed
Democrat Al Gore's loss in Florida
- and the presidency - on Nader's
participation in the election. Gore
lost by just 537 votes to George
Bush there.
Though most consider Nader
a left-leaning political figure, he
attacked Obama several times dur-
ing his speech. He suggested that
the Illinois Democrat's campaign
didn't represent any real change,
which has been Obama's main
claim since entering the presiden-
tial race almost two years ago.
"You are about to be exposed to
one of the biggest political con jobs
in American history," Nader said..
"He's turned his back on the peo-
ple. He's raised more money from
corporate interests than McCain."
Despite record voter registra-
tion among college-aged voters
and the general population, Nader
said he didn't think the youth vote
would factor heavily on Tuesday's
election. He cited voting statistics
from past elections.
LSA junior Alesha Barnes, who
described herself as a longtime
Nader supporter, attended the
rally.
Barnes said it was the first time
she had seen Nader in person. She
said the rally was different from an
Obama event she attended earlier
this year because Nader on policy
rather than politics.
"I think he wasn't as glitzy or
as glamorous as any of the other
candidates, but he actually spoke
to the issues." Barnes said. "I've
been to an Obama rally, and he
just hyped up the crowd instead of
actually speaking to the issues that
matter."
LSA freshman Chris Photiades,
who said he used to support McCa-
in supporter but voted absentee
for Obama, said he attended the
rally without knowing much about
Nader.
"I disagree with alot of the ways
he goes about saying things, but I
thinkit'sgreatthathe'schallenging
the status quo and the monopoly of
the two party system," Photiades
said.
Army medical centers treating
soldiers who don't need care
Response to reports
of subpar care leads
to over-admittance
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP)
- In a rush to correct reports of
substandard care for wounded
soldiers, the Army flung open the
doorsofnewspecialized treatment
centers so wide that up to half the
soldiers currently enrolled do not
have injuries serious enough to
justify being there, The Associated
Press has learned.
Army leaders are putting in
place stricter screening proce-
dures to stem the flood of patients
overwhelming the units - a move
that eventually will target some
for closure.
According to interviews and
data provided to the AP, the num-
ber of patients admitted to the 36
Warrior Transition Units and nine
other community-based units
jumped from about 5,000 in June
2007, when they began, to a peak
of nearly 12,500 in June 2008.
The units provide coordinated
medical and mental health care,
track soldiers' recovery and provide
broader legal, financial and other
family counseling.Theyserve Army
active duty and reserve soldiers.
Just 12 percent of the soldiers
in the units had battlefield inju-
ries while thousands of others
had minor problems that did not
require the complex new network
of case managers, nurses and doc-
tors, according to Brig. Gen. Gary
H. Cheek, the director of the
Army'sawarrior care office.
The overcrowding was a "self-
inflicted wound," said Cheek, who
also is an assistant surgeon gener-
al. "We're dedicating this kind of
oversight and management where,
truthfully, only half of those sol-
diers really needed this."
Cheek said it is difficult to tell
how many patients eventually will
be in the units. But he said sol-
diers currently admitted will not
be tossed out if they do not meet
the new standards. Instead, the
tighter screening will weed out
the population over time.
"We're trying change it back,"
to serve patients who have more
serious or multiple injuries that
require about six months or more
of coordinated treatment, he said.
By restricting use of the coor-
dinated care units to soldiers with
more complex,long-term ailments,
the Army hopes in the long run to
close or consolidate as many as 10
of the transition units, Cheek said
during an interview in his Virginia
office near the Pentagon.
In the past, a soldier with a torn
knee ligament would have surgery
and then go on light duty, such as
answering phones, while getting
physical therapy. But last October,
the Army began allowing soldiers
with less serious injuries such as
that bad knee to go to the warrior
units.
The expansion came in thewake
of reports about poor conditions at
Walter Reed Army Medical Cen-
ter in Washington, D.C., including
shoddy housing and bureaucratic
delays for outpatients there.
Brigade commanders began
shipping to the transition centers
anyone in their unit who could not
deploy because of an injury or ill-
ness. That burdened the system
with soldiers who really did not
need case managers to set up their
appointments, nurses to check
their medications and other spe-
cialists to provide counseling for
issues such as stress disorders.
The Army's goal now, as spelled
out in a recent briefing given to
Defense Secretary Robert Gates,
is to screen out those who do not
need the expanded care program,
shifting them to regular medical
facilities at their military base or
near their homes.
Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran
and chairman of VoteVets.org, said
the Pentagon is makinga fair argu-
ment. He acknowledged that some
soldiers with less serious injuries
mightnot need the units' services.
Buthesaidcommandersneedto
be able to move their soldiers who
cannot deploy due to an injury to
the units because that is the only
way they can get a replacement
before going to war. Otherwise,
the brigade goes to battle without
the forces needed.
"The larger concern here is that
the problem that is driving this
is the manpower problem," said
Soltz. "The Army is overextended.
We don't have enough guys."
It is vital, he said, that the medi-
cal system care for all the solders
who need help and that any chang-
es should not threaten that care.
Raymond F. DuBois, a former
actingundersecretary ofthe Army
and manpower adviser under
then-Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld, said the units address "a
problem that was not made aware
atthehighestlevels"anddoit well.
Buthe has worried for monthsthat
the unitswere overstretched.
"Guess what? They did itso well
everybody wants in," said DuBois,
now an adviser at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies.
Cheek stressed that the new
more stringent screening process
will not deny care to soldiers in
need or limit the treatment units
to those with battle wounds.
"We don't really care about the
source ofthe wound,illness or inju-
ry. We really care about the sever-
ity of the wound, illness or injury,"
said Cheek. "So if it's a severe, very
acute condition that needs reha-
bilitation and aslot of management
and oversight, regardless of where
it comes form, that soldierneeds to
be in this program."
The latest data shows that it is
working: The patient load is start-
ingto inch down, from the peak of
12,478 in June to less than 11,400
in October.
Cheek estimates that the screen-
ing process will reduce the number
to between 8,000 and 10,000.
As those numbers come down,
the Army is also reviewing which
units get more use. The list of
potential closings include warrior
transition units at Fort Rucker and
Redstone Arsenal, in Alabama;
Fort Leavenworth in Kansas; Fort
Dix in New Jersey; and Fort Irwin
in California. According to Army
data, many of them either have
only a dozen or so patients now,
or can be combined with another
nearby facility.
At Fort Campbell in Kentucky,
however, more than600 soldiers are
inthetreatmentprogram.Staffthere
are bracing for a surge of patients
when the three101st Airborne Divi-
sion brigades start returning home
in the coming months.
Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice
chief of staff, toured the unit in
late October. He gathered more
than two dozenstaff around a long
table to hear their concerns about
how the program is operating.
Afterward he marveled that they
talked not about their own admin-
istrative complaints, but about
specific problems they were trying
to solve for their patients.
In a small office down the hall,
Lisa Gaines was blunt about what
the unit meant to her.
"It's done wonders for our fam-
ily," said the mother of five.
Seated next to her, Spc. Sean
Gaines nodded quietly as his wife
talked about the strains his injury
had on the family and how the
staff worked to heal all wounds -
physical and emotional.
Deployed to Iraq in 2004 with
the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne
Division, cavalryscout Gaines was
shaken but not bloodied by the
blasts of several car bombs and
a house explosion. Yet when he
returned home, he began having
pain and his body went numb. The
medical diagnosis was a crushed
cervical disc - an injury he got
either in Iraq or in training, only
to surface later.
After surgery in October 2007,
he came to Fort Campbell's war-
rior transition unit - but he need-
ed more than physical therapy. He
had been told he could no longer
serve asa scout.
"He loves the Army, he loves the
military. For them to tell him he
could no longer be a scout, it was
difficult. It was a strain," recount-
ed Lisa Gaines. He was agitated,
angry and withdrawn, she said.
In response, the warrior unit
gave him underwater training
as therapy for his injury, coupled
with family counseling, budget
management and career help.
"I realized I had options, I
could continue to serve," said
Sean Gaines, who soon will leave
the transition unit and take on a
new Army job doing transporta-
tion management.
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