The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 10, 2004, Page 6, Image 6
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.
For more information or special assistance
call 777-7130 or visit cp.sc.edu
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