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RHA senator seeks support for mail bill By JACOB DAVIS STAFF WRITER RHA Senator Patrick Walsh proposed a resolution at Tuesday night’s RHA Senate Meeting that urges USC to make their postal service more efficient or drop the new $20 post office fee on campus residents must pay this year. Walsh, a senator in RHA and Student Government, said it is unfair to charge students the excess fee when the services are not comparable to those available off campus. “We’re just asking that they fix the system. I don’t know how, and it’s not my job to tell them how to do their job, but it’s not fair to charge students this fee if the service is not expedient and comparable to what is available elsewhere,” said Walsh, a fourth-year sports management student. Walsh said he had mailed two letters to his home last Tuesday, one from the U.S. post office, the second from the USC post office in the Russell House. The letter sent from the USC post office took a full week longer to arrive, he said. Pointing out that this delay is comparable to the one experienced by incoming mail, Walsh reiterated the problems with the system. “1 know the mail has to come through the Columbia post office, and the USC post office on Main Street, but that should take a day or so at most. When you are getting magazines a week after they’ve come out, or you are getting a bill two days before it is due, that’s just not right,” Walsh said. The RHA Senate voted to approve the measure, which Walsh said would be used to show that the call for action was coming from the entire student body. The Senate also voted down an act 32-19 which would have-established a non-executive level office to oversee the running of hall governments. | The act, proposed by Sen. Jonathan Ross, would have had RHA President Adam Hark appoint the consultant on Internal Affairs. The consultant would have overseen the actions of hall governments, assuring that the bodies were acting within RHA guidelines and effectively benefiting their residents. “Making sure that the hall governments are functioning properly is in the best interest of everyone in RHA. Creating this position can help ensure communication between RHA Senate and the halls, especially at the beginning of the year,” said Ross, a first-year political science student. Problems arose when senators began discussion on the act, and a number of them raised questions as to whether the position was necessary, or could even function as stated in the act. “I think this is a really broad type of thing. I’m not sure what kind of problems there are that would require that this position be created,” said Milyton Brittingham, a senator from East Quad. Some senators also questioned whether the job was too big to be handled by one person. Hark, who could not participate in debate on the act because of his executive status, took time out after the new business session had ended to address the body on the matter. “As some of you could probably tell, I was in favor of this act, but I don’t think by not passing it you’ve done anything detrimental,” Hark said. ‘We can still do business. What it does do is put more responsibility on all of us. You’ve seen fit to say you don’t need this position, and I hope that means you are all taking care of your duties on your own.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gurm.sc. edu www. aailygamecock. com Georgia marriage amendment target of gay rights supporters By KRISTEN WYATT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ATLANTA — As promised, gay rights supporters filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to throw out a same sex marriage ban voted into Georgia’s constitution last week. They say the amendment contained misleading language, asking voters only if they wanted to define marriage as between a man and a woman, not whether they wanted to ban civil unions. The measure passed 3-to-l last Tuesday, winning with huge margins among almost every demographic. * In the Fulton County lawsuit, the gay-rights supporters call the amendment “fatally flawed” and said the language on the ballot “had the effect of unfairly attempting to influence voters.” The plaintiffs include two Democratic state legislators and a University of Georgia law professor. The group of gay-rights supporters also tried unsuccessfully to block the amendment vote, on the same grounds that it was misleading. The state Supreme Court ultimately decided it could not intervene until after a vote was taken. The lawsuit names Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue as defendant. Monday, at a caucus meeting for Republican members of the state House, members of the GOP promised to fight the lawsuit. “We will take all actions necessary to defend the decision of the people and will not look kindly upon any tampering with our state constitution,” said Rep. Glenn Richardson, R-Dallas. Georgia was one of 11 states, including four in the South, that approved a same-sex marriage amendment last week. Already a lawsuit has been filed in Oklahoma, another state that approved the amendment. A spokeswoman for Perdue, Loretta Lepore, said, “The governor recognizes that 80 percent of Georgians voted yes for this amendment, and he has an obligation to defend it.” One of the lawmakers suing, Democratic Sen. David Adelman of Atlanta, said voters were misled by the amendment. “I know that I have voters in my district who support civil unions but not gay marriage,” Adelman said. “People shouldn’t be required to vote against something they favor in order to vote for something they disfavor.” One of. the plaintiffs, Saint John’s Missionary Baptist Church in coastal Brunswick, Ga., argued that its members were put in a bind by the amendment. “Members have differing views on the issue of marriage for same-sex couples, but most or all are in favor of civil unions,” the lawsuit reads. Those voters “were unable to cast a vote ... consistent with both beliefs.” The lawsuit will be argued by the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, a gay-rights law advocacy group. The director of Georgia’s ACLU, Debbie Seagraves, said she expected to prevail and force the Legislature to revisit the gay-marriage amendment. “The Georgia Constitution is quite clear that only one subject can be there,” she said. The Georgia lawsuit is similar to one filed successfully in Louisiana, ■ FALLUJAH Continued from page 3 senior insurgent leadership is a goal of the operation, Metz said he believed the most wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had escaped Fallujah. It was unclear how many insurgents stayed in the city for the fight, given months of warnings by U.S. officials and Iraqis that a confrontation was in the offing. Metz said troops have captured a very small number of insurgent fighters and “imposed significant casualties against the enemy.” Before the major ground assault that began Monday night, the U.S. military reported 42 insurgents killed. Fallujah doctors reported 12 people dead. Since then, there has been no specific information on Iraqi death tolls. The latest American deaths included two killed by mortars near Mosul and 11 others who died Monday, most of them as guerrillas launched a wave of attacks in Baghdad and southwest of Fallujah. It was unclear,how many of those died in the Fallujah offensive, but the 11 deaths were among the highest for a single day since last spring. But the toll in Fallujah could have been higher. Early Tuesday, a helicopter gunship destroyed a multiple rocket launcher aimed at the main American camp outside of the city. “That saved our lives,” Col. Michael Formica, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division’s 2nd Brigade, told the crew. “We have no idea how many soldiers here were saved by your good work.” U.S. commanders said the operation v^s running on or ahead of schedule, and Iraqi officials designated an Iraqi general to run the city once resistance is broken. However, the American command said the insurgents were massing in the southern half of the city, from which U.S. troops were receiving mortar fire. Some U.S. units were reported advancing south of the main highway but not in strength. Formica said the security cordon around the city will be tightened to ensure insurgents don’t slip out. “My concern now is only one _ not to allow any enemy to escape. As we tighten the noose around him, he will move to escape to fight another day. I do not want these guys to get out of here. I want them killed or captured as they flee,” Formica said. U.S. officials said few people were attempting to flee *the city, either because most civilians had already left or because they were complying with a round-the-clock curfew. A funeral procession, however, was allowed to leave, officials said. Electricity has been cut off in Fallujah, once a city of 200,000 to 300,000 people. Residents said they were without running water and were worried about food shortages because most shops were closed. Anger over the assault grew among Iraq’s Sunni minority, and international groups and the Russian government warned that military action could undermine elections in January. The U.N. refugee agency expressed fears over civilians’ safety. The Sunni clerics’ Association of Muslim Scholars called for a boycott of the elections. The association’s director, Harith al-Dhari, said the Sunnis could not take part in an election held “over the corpses of those killed in Fallujah.” The call is expected to have little resonance within the rival Shiite Muslim community, which forms about 60- percent of Iraq’s 26 million people. Sunnis make up the core of the insurgency. » they want to continue. Washington continued to buzz with speculation about the futures of Secretary of State Colin Powell and — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Powell, en route to Mexico City, said late Monday he has an ambitious travel schedule in Europe in the weeks ahead in hopes of patching deep divisions stemming from the Iraq war. He gave no hint about his own plans beyond the early December meetings, although he is widely expected to leave his job at the end of Bush’s term or early in the second term. Senior aides to Rumsfeld say he would like to remain in the job for at least part of Bush’s second term. Rumsfeld told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that he had not discussed it with Bush since the election, and he did not say whether he wanted to remain. Rumsfeld ran through a list of Pentagon accomplishments during his tenure, prompting some at the White House to suggest that his remarks had a valedictory tone. But Pentagon aides discouraged the idea he was hinting at any intention to leave. Condoleezza Rice, the president s national security adviser, is considered a possible successor for either Rumsfeld or Powell. 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