8A - Monday, November 22, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com a 8A - Monday, November 22, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Obama tells Republicans not to hold up arms treaty with Russia Obama tells GOP weekly radio and Internet address a thousand questions answered - alleviate joblessness. He said Dem- to focus on international affairs at it would have to start over from ocrats had exploded the national senators they're a time of increased political grid- scratch in January." debt with the stimulus and other lock at home as the GOP prepares And it would face tougher odds spending programs, and were now abandoning Reagan to take control of the House in the as the Democratic majority loses asking Americans for more money. new Congress next year. six seats. He said it was imperative that the nuclear diplomacy Describing his nuclear efforts as Without ratification, Russia may Bush-era tax cuts that expire this 1 r v r, 0 WASHINGTON (AP) - Presi- dent Barack Obama took aim Saturday at Republican senators standing in the way of a nuclear arms reduction pact with Rus- sia, saying they were abandoning Ronald Reagan's lesson of nuclear diplomacy: "Trust but verify." The Senate's GOP leader accused his Democratic counter- parts of wasting Congress' lame- duck session on issues from gays in the military to environment regulations. Sen. Mitch McCon- nell, R-Ky., didn't mention Obama's push to ratify the new START weapons treaty with Russia, but said extending expiring Bush-era tax cuts needed to be the top pri- ority. Obama, speaking from a NATO summit in Portugal, used his part of a five-administration con- tinuum, Obama said the treaty to cut the permitted number of U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear warheads by a third was "funda- mental to America's national secu- rity." The president went to great length listing the prominent Republicans from previous admin- istrations who back the deal, including former secretaries of state Colin Powell, George Shultz, Jim Baker and Henry Kissinger. He cited GOP Sen. Dick Lugar's support, but suggested that other Republican senators were playing politics with national security. "Some make no argument against the treaty - they just ask for more time," Obama said. "If the Senate doesn't act this year - after six months,18 hearings, and nearly be less cooperative in enforcing strong sanctions on Iran, securing loose nuclear material from ter- rorists or helping the U.S. equip troops in Afghanistan, Obama said. He said no agreement with Russia meant no U.S. inspectors watching over one of the world's biggest nuclear arsenals. "Those who would block this treaty are breaking President Rea- gan's rule - they want to trust, but not verify," Obama said. At the NATO meeting, officials from Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Norway and Bulgaria told reporters Saturday that failing to ratify the treaty would set back European security. McConnell, in the GOP radio and Internet address, focused on the stubbornly high unemploy- ment rate and Democrats' failure to year be extended. "Americans don't think we should be raising taxes on any- body, especially in the middle of a recession," McConnell said. "But instead of giving Americans what they want, Democratic leaders plan to use the last few days that lawmakers expect to spend in Washington this year focusing on everything except preventing this tax hike, which will cost us even more jobs: immigration; a repeal of the 'don't ask, don't tell'; a reorga- nization of the FDA; more environ- mental regulations." Obama appears ready to com- promise with Republicans on tem- porarily extending the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush, despite previous opposi- tion to continuing them for couples making over $250,000. -1 4m JAKE FROMM/Daily Defensive coordinator Greg Robinson on the sidelines during Michigan's game against Wisconsin on Saturday. ver14,,, mn iilK3MW-. SMARTPHON ES TALK FREE. Add any smartphone to a Nationwide Family SharePlan* and share minutes for free. First2 lines for $69.99 mo. access (plus other charges).* Additional smartphones require $29.99 data pak. STAPLETON From Page 1A for the coach - it sounds a lot like an excuse. But at some point, an excuse becomes too valid to dis- regard. "I'm not making excuses. People will say, 'Ah, he's making excuses,' but it's not - it's reality," Rodriguez said at the podium, get- ting a little animated. "I've never coached and had five true fresh- men playing Division L Are you kidding me? I mean, think about that. Again, those guys are playing their tails off, and they're going to be better hopefully next year because of it. But you guys are pretty smart, go find a school that has five or six true freshmen play- ing significant time on defense." It's an excuse and reality. As much as I would like to say it, the biggest problem with the defense isn't the abjectly awful coaching of defensive coordinator Greg Rob- inson (Though it certainly doesn't help - as gaudy as Wisconsin's offensive numbers were, they could havebeen a lot worse if the Badgers would've taken advan- tage of the WIDE-open middle of the field through the air). It's the youth in the secondary. Some say, without thinking, that this is Rodriguez's fault. He should've recruited more (and better) defensive backs. Here's the thing: he had defensive backs. They all just kinda ... left. That, or they got injured. JT Turner, Donovan Warren, Vlad Emilien, Boubacar Cissoko, Troy Woolfolk, JT Floyd - even Demar Dorsey's failure to qualify all contributed to the secondary's woes this year. There are still those who will say - again, without thinking - that it's Rodriguez's fault all those ELECTION From Page 1A Deshpande added that he believed the collaborative efforts of MSA with LSA-SG and UMEC contributed to the increase in voter turnout. "A large number of factors go into voter turnout, (MSA) being just part of it," Deshpande said. "I believe that this past election was less contested than previous elec- tions, however, I believe that our work did do a great job of helping push that turnout up, regardless." In an e-mail interview on Friday, LSA junior Zach Berlin, elections director for LSA-SG, commended the efforts of the student governments to increase voter turnout among the student body. "(LSA-SG), UMEC and MSA's collaborative efforts were steps in the right direction, and we are looking to forward to exploring other ways to get more people engaged in government activi- ties," Berlin wrote. The exact voter turnout num- bers for the student government elections had previously been delayed by a batch of exception ballots. "An exception ballot is sim- ply any student who votes who players left. But that's stupid. It's each player's own individual deci- sion. Look, a football coach is sup- posed to be mean; he's supposed to upset you; he's supposed to yell and scream and get up in your face so close you can feel the spit hit your cheeks. If a player comes to camp and can't handle not being treated the same way he was when he was being recruited, then he should leave. And the family val- ues thing? That still just makes me laugh. The fact is, much of what's wrong with the defense is out of Rodriguez's - or even Robinson's - control. The Badgers moved the ball at will against Michigan, gaining 357 yards on the ground. It was like watching grown men play against boys. You know why? Because that's exactly what it was. It's impossible forthe defense to get much better from now until next weekend, when the Wolver- ines play Ohio State. It sucks, but that's just the way it is. All Michi- gan fans can do is look forward to having a defensive backfield loaded with valuable, albeit pain- ful, experience nextyear. So yeah, I feel for Rodriguez. He's stuck with an extraordinarily young defense full of tough, hard- working players who desperately want to win but keep finding that will is no match for experience and strength. Michigan running backs coach Fred Jackson said it betterthan I could: "They fought hard, and it's a testament to them - shows the character that these kids have. To me, that's what this program has always been about. Tough kids with a lot of character. I think they showed it to you today, they tried." - Stapleton can be reached at jstaple@umich.edu. isn't known to be affiliated with a particular school," Deshpande said. "So that simply means that this year either there were stu- dents who weren't already on the list of students from the different schools who said that they were and we need to validate whether those students are indeed in the school they claim to be." Deshpande explained that the exception ballots are an issue of students representing them- selves, and not an issue that MSA was able to control in the elec- tion. Additionally, complications * with ITS in the election for the School of Nursing also caused delays in releasing the final voter turnout numbers. In an interview last week, Deshpande told the Daily that ITS had used an incorrect eli- gibility list when setting up the election for School of Nursing students. ITS corrected the prob- lem and contacted Nursing stu- dents to explain the issue. MSA also extended the Nursing elec- tion by 24 hours to allow students who may have previously experi- enced complications to vote. The error also caused a larg- er number of exception bal- lots, which underwent the same review process as in the rest of the student government election. *Our Surcharges (indl.Fed. Univ. Svc. of12.9%of interstate & int'I telecom charges (varies quarterly), 13( Regulatory & 83( Administrative/line/mo. & others i olb t h by area) are not taxes (details: 1-M8-684-1888); gov't taxes& our surcharges could add S%- 39%to your bill. Activation fee/line: $35 Icolbration wit IMPORTANT CONSUMER INFORMATION: Subject to Cust. Agmt, Calling Plan, rebatenform & credituapproval. Up to $350 early termination fee/line & add'l charges for extra Alcatel- Lucent minutes, data sent/received& device capabilities.Offers& coverage, varyingby svcnotavailable everywhere;seeavzwcom. Restockingfee mayapply. Rebate debit card takes up to6wks&expiresin12months.n02010VerizonWireless. MSHOY CMMI-DO047-MICHIGAN DAILY-7.625X15-4C-11.22 WANT TO JOIN THE DAILY'S NEWS STAFF? 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