10 THURSDAY. JUNE 26. 2008 JOSEPH R. SCHWARTZ OVER THE HIU? Joseph R Schwartz is a senior journalism ma|or from Chapel Hill. E-MAIL JOSEPH SCHWARTZOUNC EDU Duke football is as bad as bad gets It's rare, but sometimes law yers are able to present a piece of evidence so damn ing that the word “irrefutable" doesn't do it justice. Duke's football record fits the bill. If the linebackers can’t hit, you must acquit. If you missed this week's landmark case, the University of Louisville sued our bedeviled Durham riv als for breach of con tract after the Dookies backed out of a four-game contract with the Cardinal'. I guess they thought better of the deal after losing the opening game 40-.'} at home. Louisville's lawyers argued that Duke owed the school $450,000, $150,000 for each game that the school could nrr ftcmw ai COLUMNIST not find an opponent of “similar stature." Duke's lawyers countered that the school's team is so pitiful, tak ing time to detail a 6-45 record in the past five years, that nearly any group of 11 guys with shoulder pads and a school sticker on their helmets would bo its equal. Judge Phillip J. Shepherd was loft with little choice, writing in his ruling that “this is a threshold that o mid not lx- any lower." It's for this very reason that The Daily Tar Heel doesn't pro duce a spoof issue ofThe (Duke) Chronicle, whose editors see it fit to print “The Daily Tar Hole" each spring. We don't have to make this stuff up. Clearly, my testimony was not needed, but if 1 had taken the stand. 1 could have been cross examined on the year my father bought four Duke season tickets after realizing that he could take our family to six games, including the UNC contest, for less than the cost of attending one game at Kenan Stadium. What a year it was. 1 recall sitting in a sea of near-barren bleachers and listening to fans offering advice such as, “Why don't we just punt it on first down? At least that way, we wouldn't go backward." Still, I can't entirely dispute Duke athletic officials' .assertion that Wallace Wade Stadium is “one of the most comfortable in the Atlantic Coast Conference." As funny as that claim seems for a venue without seat backs, you certainly can't rival it for leg room. You could even set up an air mattress across a few rows. The stadium, which can hold 35,000, drew an average of 20,064 “fans" per game last sea son. It took five games for them to admit as many fans as Tennessee hosts on a single Saturday. And 6-45 in the past five years is just the tip of Duke's iceberg of shame. The team’s been lacing them up since 1888, and it’s only played in eight bowl games, the last of which was a loss 13 years ago. List season’s l-ll campaign was better than six past seasons when they failed to win a game. They haven’t won an ACC matchup since 2004, when they beat Clemson 16-13 on a 53-yard field goal as the clock expired. Duke fans rushed the field and tried in vain to tear down the goalpost before realizing they didn't have enough collective weight to wobble the structure. This isn't to say that Duke players haven’t gone on to suc cessful careers. The team’s media guide lists several who are promi nent lawyers and businessmen. One former wideout, Reggie Love, now is Barack Obama's personal body guard, making this the first time anyone can remem ber a Duke player successfully defending anything. Steve Wojciechowski has a better chance of picking coconuts than Duke’s secondary has of picking passes. But really, how much can you expect from a team with a quarterback named Zack Asack? At least it's easy for announcers. “Asack drops back, and it’s a sack " So enjoy your legal victory, Duke fans. You might not get another chance to celebrate a win for a while. EDITORIAL CARTOON ByDonWnght, Palm Beach Post j Governor fails smell test N.C. should eliminate its outdated hog w aste system Each year. North Carolina's hogs produce an appall ing 38 billion pounds of waste. That’s more than two tons per Carolinian. And though the state’s city dwellers usually do not see or smell their shares of that waste, last week environmental activ ists sought to rub at least one man's nose in it These concerned citizens brought a gallon of hog waste (which they delicately called an “unhealthy fecal marinade") to Gov. Mike Easleys doorstep and demanded something be done to improve the waste manage ment process. Though Easley has attempted to ease the environmental bur den on rural sections of the state, he has fallen short. At issue are the current methods employed for disposal of hog waste lagoons and sprayfields. Imagine if your house’s septic Easley should travel wisely Governor shouldn’t have spent hundreds of thousands Governor Mike Easley has been, by most accounts, a solid execu tive for North Carolina during his past two terms. Sure, he hasn’t been great, but he has avoided the pros titution rings, oral sex solici tations, freezers full of dirty money and most other con troversies that have wreaked havoc on politicians in recent years. He has done great work on the state’s education system, raising teacher salaries and creating an education lottery to help sustain it. Now, the nation’s economy is trickling through the gutter, and the value of the dollar is as low as Jacques Cousteau. North Carolinians are pay ing about four dollars per gal lon for gas. and thousands can not pay their mortgages. In these troubling times, Easley and his staff decided to take a little vacation to Italy in the hopes of drawing tourism and business to our humble Tar Heel state. But this was no routine busi News media ignoring Iraq Insiders tell how networks have let down the public Lara Logan, chief foreign correspondent for CBS News, recently spoke for frustrated Americans every where when she told The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart that “if I were to watch the news that you hear here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts." But what are the rest of us supposed to do? Logan’s statement comes on the heels of former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s tell-all book, in which he calls the media “complicit enablers" who are focused on a "campaign to sell the (Iraq) war" instead of on performing their watchdog function. Opinion system pumped its sewage into an open-air. clay-lined pond in your backyard where it then sat decomposing. That’s how lagoons work. Now imagine that pond's excess fluid being collected and sprayed onto your lawn. That's how a sprayfield works. The state has about 4.000 of these facilities. “We suffer from it daily. It makes our lives unbearable," the activists told the governor in a statement signed by eight organizations. Outside of the obvious prob lem of the stench, the lagoons experience a certain amount of seepage, meaning the waste enters into rivers, streams and groundwater. A 1995 spill in Onslow County illustrated the danger of this system. It unleashed 20 million gallons of hog waste into the New River. And, in a strange twist, last ness trip. No, Easley, his wife and their 12-person crew spent more than 170,000 bones on the nine-day venture, not includ ing the costs of the Easleys' security detail. That’s taxpayer money, by the way. Much of the bill was charged by Gov. and Mrs. Easley. The two traveled in style, spending extravagantly all across Italy. The governor and his wife spent almost $20,000 on first-class airline flights alone and more than 550.000 on a stretch Mercedes-Benz limou sine w r hile on the trip. Their three-night stay at a Venice hotel cost in excess of $2,000, and lunch with five others in Rome totaled more than S7OO. We at The Daily Tar Heel, like most w r ho have come across these figures, thought these prices to be a little excessive. So we decided to try our hand at the travel agency business. In other words, the main stream media continue to fail this country —and even the guilty parties agree. An analysis by The New York Times found that last year s Iraq coverage ate up a total of 1,157 minutes on the weekday broad casts for the three major news networks: ABC, CBS and NBC. As oflast Monday, Iraq's 2008 coverage totaled 181 weekday minutes. That’s an average of two minutes per week. Coverage of Afghanistan, while up from last year, accounted for a paltry 46 min utes. Has Iraq somehow become less newsworthy? Security has improved, but the country is still home to 200 attacks per week. week the activists were banned from bringing the gallon of hog waste to Halifax Mall because it was classified as a "hazardous" substance. In 1999. Gov. Jim Hunt dis cussed eliminating the lagoon system in 10 years. With only hundreds deactivated and thousands left stirring, assess ing Easley's progress is a simple matter. Regardless of political rheto ric. lagtxins will continue befoul ing the state's rural areas because they're currently the cheapest option unless the governor is put under enough pressure. Rodney Huffman, a profes sor of biological and agricultural engineering at N.C. State, said the stench is relative. “If you're the one that is mak ing money on the operation, it doesn't smell so bad." he said. “If you’re not involved in it, and it’s coming downwind to you, it’s not so pleasant." On Orbitz.com, we found a round trip flight to Italy to cost about $3,000 per person on average. On Expedia.com. the rates were similar, hovering near $2,000 per person. Now we also recognize the importance of our state’s sales man making an impressive first impression on potential customers. But when Easley and his wife can save about $16,000 of the taxpayers hard-earned money just by sacrificing a little foot room and moving to coach, we feel it is too large an expense to ignore. The role of chief ambassador is not one Easley often fills for our state, and it is an impor tant one. But to spend extravagantly and lavishly on an Italian vaca tion, all with taxpayers’ money, is absurd. For Easley to finish up his un-extraordinary term with this kind of mistake begs many questions. Namely, when did Easley morph into P. Diddy? It's still home to 150,000 U.S.-led coalition forces. So far in 2008,201 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, and hundreds more suf fered wounds. And, of course, there has been a massive, mostly-undoc umented toll suffered by the Iraqi people. Regardless of our opinions on the Iraq war, we must demand to know what's going on in the desert. After all, our tax dollars fund the weapons of war. Even if the news networks choose to close their eyes to the situation, it will not go away. Until they rediscover Iraq, we should tune them out and find news sources that give us a real picture of the world. QUOTE OF THE WEEK: *7 do really feel nostalgic. Parting is going to be sweet sorrow JAMES MOESER, UNC CHANCELLOR, ON HIS JUNE 30 DEPARTURE FROM THE OFFICE. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Due to space constraints, letters are sometimes cut. Read the full-length versions online at the letters blog, or post your own response to a letter. VISIT// apps.dailytarheel.com/wpblogs/archives/category/letters Officials should invest to make our residents safer TO THE EDITOR: As an artist, resident and mother, I can’t help but spend time thinking about the safety situation in downtown Chapel Hill. Would Ewe Carson be here today if we had taken more pre ventive measures? We can’t bring her back, but we can take the necessary, simple steps to protect our children and ourselves. Please enforce panhandling laws, have a stronger police presence and install more street lights. These would be taxpayer dol lars well-spent. If we focus on these issues, rather than tangential ones (how much starlight we would lose, the ramifications of the death penalty, etc.), only then does our children’s safety become cen tral. I urge Mayor Kevin Fov and the Town Council to be proac tive. Let’s lead to harness crime rather than react to it. Kimberly Rosario Chapel Hill Press the Senate to renew incentives for clean energy TO THE EDITOR: The federal clean energy tax incentives are set to expire in December. If this is allowed to happen, the renewable energy systems and energy-efficient products we need to begin to become energy independent will experience a severe setback. More than 100,000 jobs in the wind and solar industries could be lost. We urge the Senate to follow the House's lead anil vote H R 6049 into law. The bill pays for the renewable energy and energy -efficiency tax credits by closing tax loopholes for certain corporations and hedge-fund managers. Renewing these tax incentives makes sense; it will benefit the local and national economies by creating clean energy jobs, increase our energy security and independence and reduce car bon output. Please join us in urging our Senators to immediately extend these tax incentives. Michael and Amelia Collins Chapel Hill Editors were careless when discussing the mentally ill TO THE EDITOR: I do not accept The Daily SPEAK OUT WRITING GUIDELINES: ► Please type: Handwritten letters will not be accepted ► Sign and date: No more than two people should sign letters. ► Students: Include your year, major and phone number. >- Faculty/staff: Include your department and phone number ► Edit: The DTH edits for space, clarity, accuracy and vulgarity. Limit letters to 250 words SUBMISSION: ► Drop-off: at our office at Suite 2409 in the Student Union. ► E-mail: to editdeskOunc.edu ► Send: to P.O. Box 3257. Chapel Hill, N.C., 27515. ahr Dailii aar Hrrl PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS STAFF Customer Service: Krrswi Button. rtprtsentdtrvf Display Advertising: Luke Im and Megan Wmtertiaftei. xaxrt EDITORIAL STAFF Bohck. Jermtfet Ourham, Adam Grace. Nicholas Gules. David luthe- Cate Nagrer. Rachael Oehrnn Sarah Riaaatr. Allan Sharpe: Nicole Wyche JerwZeng Spors: M*e Ehrlich. Dand Ely. 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OFFICE: Suite 2409 Carolina Union CAMPUS MAIL ADDRESS: CM 5210, Carolina Union §P .20 IC>LI U.S. MAIL ADDRESS: P.0.80x 3257, 36 Chapel Kill. NC 27515-3257 Member EDITOR'S MOTE: Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Daily Tar Heel or its staff Editorials are the opinions solely of The Daily Tar Heel editorial board. It consists of editorial board members, the opinion editor and the summer editor The 2008 summer editor decided not to vote on the board ahr Daily (Tar Hrrl Tar Heel’s editing. Consider these lines from “Bill aims to strengthen gun control laws" (June 18). First: “Kinnaird said that the legislature tried to pass similar measures in the past but that the first bill was opposed by advocates for ‘the mentallv BL” Second: “The mental health community was not happy with the solutions we came up with. They felt that it w as stigmatizing and penalizing." With regard to the first excerpt, no matter how much someone wants to promote “the" mentally ill. editors ought not be duped by it. as they arc not by the drunk Mel Gibson's “the" Jews. It is a trap editors far too willingly fall into. Please put a stop to the policy. With regard to the second selection, no matter how much someone wants to promote the term “stigma." editors ought not be duped, as they an- not duped when someone tries to associ ate that term publicly with rape survivors. Please put a stop to the pol icy. And please, “the mental health community" does not speak with a single voice, there are those of us very aware of language who employ none of the above. Ever. Harold A. Maio Advisory Board Member American Journal of Psych ialric Rehabil it at ion Town correct to give green light to election financing TO THE EDITOR: The town of Chapel Hill has shown remarkable foresight in their decision to authorize a pilot public financing program for their town elections (“Town approves pilot election program." June 12). Instead of waiting for election costs to get out of hand and for special interest money to cor rode the process (as they have in some towns in the area). Chapel Hill is creating public safeguards now while running small dollar, grassroots campaigns is still ten able. This will help the town avoid being over-run with expecta tion-laden, high-cost elections and presen e the integrity of the town’s democratic process for years to come. At less than 50 cents per resi dent per year, the benefit of more fair and clean elections is well worth the modest cost. 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