[T]he consequence is very clear. Marriage loses its significance. People will stop getting married. Homosexuals will not get married; heterosexuals will stop getting married. And that to me is the real threat to the American family and to the culture generally.

NUMBER ONE: KERRY RANKED 'MOST LIBERAL' IN SENATE ROLL CALL VOTES, TOPS KENNEDY, CLINTON

NATIONAL JOURNAL on Friday claimed Democrat frontrunner John Kerry has the "most liberal" voting record in the Senate.

National Journal's vote ratings rank members of Congress on how they vote relative to each other on a conservative-to-liberal scale in each chamber.

[edit]

Last year, Kerry, Edwards, and other congressional Democrats who were seeking the presidency, including Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, missed many votes. To qualify for a score in National Journal's vote ratings, members must participate in at least half of the votes in an issue category. Of the 62 Senate votes used to compute the 2003 ratings, Kerry was absent for 37 votes and Edwards missed 22.

As a result, in the 2003 vote ratings, Kerry received a rating only in the economic policy category, earning a perfect liberal score. Edwards received ratings in the categories of economic and social issues, also putting up perfect liberal scores.

To be sure, Kerry's ranking as the No. 1 Senate liberal in 2003 -- and his earning of similar honors three times during his first term, from 1985 to 1990 -- will probably have opposition researchers licking their chops. As shown in the accompanying chart, Kerry had a perfect liberal rating on social issues during 10 of the 18 years in which he received a score, meaning that he did not side with conservatives on a single vote in those years. That included his 1996 vote, with 13 other Senate Democrats, against the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibited federal recognition of states' same-sex marriage laws. Along the campaign trail, Republicans likely will remind voters of Kerry's stance on that issue.

But interestingly, during Kerry's second term, from 1991 to 1996, he dropped back into the pack of Democratic senators and voted more moderately. In those years, he earned composite liberal scores in National Journal's vote ratings ranging from 78.2 to 85.8.

Kerry was especially moderate in his second term when it came to foreign-policy issues. He opposed the liberal position in key Senate showdowns on missile-defense and intelligence spending in 1993, and on procurement of additional F-18 Navy fighters in 1996. Such votes could provide Kerry with some useful talking points for his presidential campaign. Kerry also voted with President Clinton and congressional Republicans, but against many liberals, in favor of welfare reform in 1996, and he occasionally split from organized labor on workplace issues.

1999 - 72.2
2000 - 80.8
2001 - 68.2
2002 - 63.0
2003 - 94.5

Jim Talent, R-Mo.
Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.
Wayne Allard, R-Colo.
Sam Brownback, R-Kan.
Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C.
Mike DeWine, R-Ohio
John Ensign, R-Nev.
George Voinovich, R-Ohio
Richard Shelby, R-Ala.
Ted Stevens, R-Alaska
Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill.
Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas
John McCain, R-Ariz.
Gordon Smith, R-Ore.
John Sununu, R-N.H.
Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska
Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo.
Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
Olympia Snowe, R-Maine
Susan Collins, R-Maine
Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was the guest of a Kansas law school two years ago and went pheasant hunting on a trip arranged by the school's dean, all within weeks of hearing two cases in which the dean was a lead attorney.

The cases involved issues of public policy important to Kansas officials. Accompanying Scalia on the November 2001 hunting trip were the Kansas governor and the recently retired state Senate president, who flew with Scalia to the hunting camp aboard a state plane.

Two weeks before the trip, University of Kansas School of Law Dean Stephen R. McAllister, along with the state's attorney general, had appeared before the Supreme Court to defend a Kansas law to confine sex offenders after they complete their prison terms.

Two weeks after the trip, the dean was before the high court to lead the state's defense of a Kansas prison program for treating sex criminals.

[edit]

Scalia later sided with Kansas in both cases.

A secular baptism ritual would have five main functions: naming the new born child, welcoming the child, expressing solidarity with the parents, marking a commitment by the parents and others, and being an expression of the sense of wonder for the miracle of birth.

[edit]

The wording for the naming ceremony could go like this.

CELEBRANT: We meet together on this special day to celebrate the birth and naming of this child, and to witness solemn undertakings on his/her behalf made by her/his parents and godparents.

TO PARENTS: You have brought your child here to be welcomed into the circle of your family and friends. What name have you chosen?

PARENTS: We have chosen the name ............................. (first name(s) and surname if wished).

CELEBRANT: Will you care for ............................., keep him/her, clothe him/her, shelter and protect him/her, for as long as he/she needs you, as best you can?

PARENTS: We will.

CELEBRANT: Will you try and show ............................. by your example, how to live a true and good life?

PARENTS: We will.

CELEBRANT: Will you surround ............................. with affection and love? Will you encourage and support him/her as she grows up, helping, especially in times of trouble, and making as sure as you can that no harm comes near him/her?

PARENTS: We will.

CELEBRANT: Who are the godparents of .............................?

The GODPARENTS say their names.

CELEBRANT: Will you, as best you can, help to take care of ............................., to protect him/her at all times from harm, encouraging and supporting him/her, and if need be looking after him/her as you would your own child?

GODPARENTS: I will ... I will etc.

CELEBRANT TO EVERYONE PRESENT: I call upon everyone present to join in the celebrations for the naming of this child. But especially the brothers and sisters of ............................. into whose care also we commend him/her. Dear (names of children) here is your sister/brother. Will you be kind to her/him and help look after him/her?

The CHILDREN say yes

CELEBRANT TO EVERYONE: I commend ............................. to your loving care. Watch over her/him and cherish her/him, see he/she is happy and honest and true. Be a rock of safety to anchor to.

The PARENTS could light a candle, saying if they wished:

In honour of our child ............................. we shall proceed to light a candle. The light stands for a new life and the hopes we have for our child. The warmth of the flame represents the warmth of human love and friendship. We light it because today is a very special day, more important even than an ordinary birthday which comes later in life, because it only happens once.

"Our opponents have not offered much in the way of strategy to win the war," Mr. Bush said. "So far, all we hear is a lot of old bitterness and partisan anger.

"Anger is not an agenda for the future of America. We will take on the big issues with optimism and resolve and determination," he said. "We stand ready to lead our country for the next four years."

Returning the International Community and Offering a Real Partnership to Rebuild Iraq

Internationalizing the Troops in Iraq

Creating a Specific Time Table for Transferring Political Power and the Responsibility for Reconstruction to the People of Iraq

Rebuilding Iraqi Security Forces

Promoting American Security in the 21st Century

Securing Afghanistan

Giving Our Military the Tools and Support it Needs

Promoting Democracy and Respect for Human Rights

Supporting Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Measures

Last May, 6-year-old Shashir was playing outside her home near Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), when armed militia appeared. The terrified child was carried kicking and screaming into the bush. There, she was pinned down and gang-raped. Sexually savaged and bleeding from multiple wounds, she lay there after the attack, how long no one knows, but she was close to starving when finally found. Her attackers, who'd disappeared back into the bush, wiped out her village as effectively as a biblical plague of locusts.

[edit]

In the Congo today, age is clearly no protection from rape. A woman named Maria was 70 when the Interahamwe, the Hutu militia that led Rwanda's 1994 genocide and now number between 20,000 and 30,000 of the estimated 140,000 rebels in the DRC, came to her home. "They grabbed me, tied my legs apart like a goat before slaughter, and then raped me, one after the other," she told me. "Then they stuck sticks inside me until I fainted." During the attack Maria's entire family--five sons, three daughters and her husband--were murdered.

[edit]

Rape has become a defining characteristic of the five-year war in the DRC, says Anneke Van Woudenberg, the Congo specialist for Human Rights Watch. So, too, has mutilation of the victims. "Last year, I was stunned when a 30-year-old woman in North Kivu had her lips and ears cut off and eyes gouged out after she was raped, so she couldn't identify or testify against her attackers. Now, we are seeing more and more such cases," she says. As the rebels constantly seek new ways to terrorize, their barbarity becomes more frenzied.

I, too, was sickened by what I saw and heard. In three decades of covering war, I had never before come across the cases described to me by Congolese doctors, such as gang-rape victims having their labia pierced and then padlocked. "They usually die of massive infection," I was told.

Dear _________,

This year did not turn out like we planned.

But you should be proud of what we accomplished together.

You helped to create this powerful grassroots movement that captured the imagination of the whole country. We wanted Bush out of the White House and today Bush's re-election is in serious doubt.

What we accomplished together will last beyond a single campaign. We created a movement that reenergized the electoral process and returned political power to individuals ... and we will keep fighting together.

But before we can take the next step, we must ensure that Dean for America has the funds to shutdown its operation in a professional manner.

When these things were ordered we thought we could win key early contests and use the momentum to secure more victories in other states.

But things did not go as we had hoped ... Now we are scrambling to retire this debt quickly.

“And now, direct from Ground Zero, heeeeeeere’s the president!”

Well, that’s not exactly how President Bush is likely to be introduced when he gives his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Sept. 3, but it might be something equally dramatic and theatrical.

According to sources privy to convention planners’ discussions, the 2004 GOP conclave at New York’s Madison Square Garden will be unlike any previous quadrennial gathering of either party. In fact, not all of the main events will be held at the Garden, sources involved in planning the Aug. 31-Sept. 2 convention said.

“The entire format and actual physical setup could be radically different,” one GOP insider commented. “They might not even have a podium, or maybe a rotating podium or even a stage that comes up from underground. It would be like a theater in the round, with off-site events that are part of the convention.”

The source, a veteran official of past GOP conventions, said the 50,000 delegates, dignitaries and guests would watch off-site events on giant TV screens. “Now, we’ll go to the deck of the USS Intrepid as the U.S. Marine Corps Band plays the national anthem,” he said, pretending that he was playing the part of the convention chairman.

“Or, and this is a real possibility, we could see President Bush giving his acceptance speech at Ground Zero,” he added. “It’s clearly a venue they’re considering.”

It was one of corporate America's biggest hidden profit centers in the past decade -- the tax shelter -- and it became so lucrative that last year it helped major U.S. companies cut their tax rate to just half of what they had historically paid, leaving individual taxpayers to make up the difference.

The General Accounting Office estimates that illegitimate tax shelters cost the government more than $85 billion in recent years.

"Anything that's not being paid that should be paid, that's basically what the honest taxpayer is making up," asserts Charles Rossotti, a Republican businessman who became commissioner of Internal Revenue in 1997 and spent five years battling bogus shelters. Rossotti estimates that because the government is not collecting all that is owed -- the biggest piece of which is illegitimate tax shelters -- everyone else is paying 15 percent more than they should.

In "Tax Me If You Can," FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith investigates the rampant abuse of tax shelters since the late 1990s. Through interviews with government officials, tax experts, and industry insiders, Smith uncovers an avalanche of bogus transactions -- created by some of America's biggest and most-respected accounting firms, law firms, and investment banks -- that were then aggressively marketed to big corporations and wealthy individuals.

"... federal security forces demonstrated little respect for basic human rights. There were credible reports of serious violations, including numerous reports of unlawful killings, and of abuse of civilians ... Parliamentary elections held on December 7 failed to meet international standards, although the voting process was technically well run. Criminal charges and threats of arrest or actual arrest against major financial supporters of opposition parties, and seizure of party materials from opposition parties, undermined the parties' ability to compete."

"There were credible reports that law enforcement personnel frequently engaged in torture, violence, and other brutal or humiliating treatment and often did so with impunity. Hazing in the armed forces remained a problem. Prison conditions continued to be extremely harsh and frequently life-threatening. Arbitrary arrest and lengthy pretrial detention, while significantly reduced by a new Code of Criminal Procedure, remained problems, as did police corruption.

"... Government protection for judges from threats by organized criminal defendants was inadequate, and a series of alleged espionage cases continued during the year and caused continued concerns regarding the lack of due process and the influence of the FSB in court cases. Authorities continued to infringe on citizens' privacy rights.

"Government pressure continued to weaken freedom of expression and the independence and freedom of some media, particularly major national television networks and regional media outlets; this resulted in the elimination of the last major non-state television station; however, a wide variety of views continued to be expressed in the press. Authorities, primarily at the local level, restricted freedom of assembly ..."

"The surgery that was required is a huge shock to the system and would be dangerous even for a 50-year old, let alone an 84 year-old. Anyway, she remains in ICU, mostly sedated. We are still at a point where we simply don't know what will happen; all we can do is wait to see if she improves.

"... On a humorous note, the doctors were giving Evelyn (his mother) a mental acuity test before she went into surgery last week. They asked her basic questions, including who the president was. Her response: "Well, I know the answer, but I certainly won't say his name."

Look, Jon, the only reason my wife and I got married in the first place was because it was something gays couldn't do. Our wedding was conceived entirely as a giant homosexual taunt. But now, now the vows I made to my wife seem as shallow and empty as the vows I made to my three previous wives.

Let's say there was a bill before the Senate called the "Herd all mothers and small children into concentration camps" bill. Obviously, it's a terrible bill, and no one in their right mind would vote in favor of it.

But, let's suppose, that one of the sponsors manages to slip a small provision into the bill that amounted to a resolution stating that the "United States is the greatest country in the history of the world."

Now, let's assume that a certain Senator votes against the total bill because it's, on the whole, a terrible bill.

His opponent in the next election can then claim that this Senator voted against a provision declaring that the "United States is the greatest country in the history of the world." What they won't tell you is that it was embedded in the "Herd all mothers and small children into concentration camps" bill, and that's what Senator X voted against.

Politicians do this all the time. They deliberately attach popular provisions to horrible, or unpalatable bills in order to give opposing legislators a hobson's choice: Either vote in favor of a bill they can't stand to avoid getting attacked for voting down some popular provision, or get attacked for voting down some popular provision.

A militia led by a commander named "Cut-Throat" massacred more than 100 civilians and soldiers in southeast Congo, the army said Tuesday, as the government and United Nations struggled to gain control of Congo's lawless east.

The U.N. mission for Congo has sent a team to investigate the killings, the latest in a series reported since January in remote regions of Katanga province, U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure said in Kinshasa, the capital.

In one attack, the government-allied Mayi-Mayi fighters threw a grenade into a church during a Sunday Mass, killing 25 people, Congo Gen. Dieugentil Mpia Nzambe Nzambe said.

The Congo army and rights groups blame the killings on Mayi-Mayi leader who uses the Swahili name of Chinja-Chinja, or 'Cut-Throat." He allegedly mutilates many of his victims for fetish rites.

Suspected Muslim militants armed with guns and bows and arrows killed at least 48 people in an attack on a farming village in central Nigeria. Most of the victims died as they sought refuge in a church, police said Wednesday.

Massive street protests after a massacre by rebels in northern Uganda turned violent Wednesday, with mobs beating rival tribesmen and burning houses and police shooting into the crowd. At least nine people were killed.

The U.N. tribunal for Rwanda convicted a former senior military officer of genocide Wednesday and acquitted two other suspects, including a former transport minister.

Former Lt. Samuel Imanishimwe was sentenced to 27 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity, said tribunal spokesman Roland Amoussouga. The court ruled that Imanishimwe, as army commander of a southwestern Rwandan region, ordered his soldiers to take part in the massacre of thousands of civilians in 1994.

Eagle Scout Accused of 'Arrogance' Murder
Investigators Accuse Popular Eagle Scout of Murdering to See if He Could Get Away With It

Hirte was the city's first Eagle Scout in 20 years. He was an honor student and a 6-foot-4, 270-pound member of the track, wrestling and football teams, and has a steady 14-year-old girlfriend.

Washington Post-ABC News Poll (Feb. 18-22)

Support constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage ....... 35%
or Let states make their own laws on gay marriage ........ 56%

President Bush on Wednesday rebuffed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's appeal for immediate security assistance to head off a rebel advance and warned Haitians not to flee to the United States.

[edit]

Speaking in the White House Oval Office, he also said he had instructed the U.S. Coast Guard to "turn back any refugee" from Haiti who seeks to land on U.S. shores.

In testimony before the House Budget Committee, Greenspan said the current deficit situation, with a projected record red ink of $521 billion this year, will worsen dramatically once the baby boom generation starts becoming eligible for Social Security benefits in just four years.

He said the prospect of the retirement of 77 million baby boomers will radically change the mix of people working and paying into the Social Security retirement fund and those drawing benefits from the fund.

"This dramatic demographic change is certain to place enormous demands on our nation's resources — demands we will almost surely be unable to meet unless action is taken," Greenspan said. "For a variety of reasons, that action is better taken as soon as possible."

President Bush said he had not seen Greenspan's comments ... Bush said that "my position on Social Security benefits is, those benefits should not be changed for people at or near retirement."

He renewed his call for personal savings accounts for younger workers that he said "would make sure those younger workers receive benefits equal to or greater than that which is expected." And Bush repeated his promise to cut the deficit in half over five years.

While Greenspan urged urgency, Congress is unlikely to take up the controversial issue of cutting Social Security benefits in an election year.

Greenspan, who turns 78 next week, said that the benefits now received by current retirees should not be touched but he suggested trimming benefits for future retirees ...

It may be that Washington's original purpose in excluding the clergy from public benefits was benign, and the same might be true of its purpose in maintaining the exclusion today. But those singled out for disfavor can be forgiven for suspecting more invidious forces at work. Let there be no doubt: This case is about discrimination against a religious minority. Most citizens of this country identify themselves as professing some religious belief, but the State's policy poses no obstacle to practitioners of only a tepid, civic version of faith. Those the statutory exclusion actually affects--those whose belief in their religion is so strong that they dedicate their study and their lives to its ministry--are a far narrower set. One need not delve too far into modern popular culture to perceive a trendy disdain for deep religious conviction. In an era when the Court is so quick to come to the aid of other disfavored groups, see, e.g., Romer v. Evans, 517 U. S. 620, 635 (1996), its indifference in this case, which involves a form of discrimination to which the Constitution actually speaks, is exceptional.

[President Bush] said he wanted to "define marriage as a union of man and woman," while "leaving the state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage." But the president's announcement was highly misleading, exaggerating the need for an amendment and misstating the effect of a proposed amendment now before Congress.

Even though the White House did not endorse a specific text, it said that a proposal by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., is consistent with the president's principles. In fact, the Musgrave amendment would shut the door on equity for same-sex couples.

After stating that marriage "shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman," the amendment adds this important language: "Neither this constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups."

In other words, no state can give same-sex couples or domestic partners the same rights as traditional married couples. This could invalidate Vermont's civil unions law and domestic partnership laws in New Jersey, California, and Hawaii. And it would bar other states from giving same-sex couples equal rights.

When Jim Ellis, a key aide to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, was preparing to deliver money to an arm of the Republican National Committee, a DeLay ally in Texas had a blank check sent to Ellis with the amount to be filled in later.

John Colyandro, executive director of DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority, said in a deposition that he had the blank check sent because Ellis had a meeting with Republican National Committee officials scheduled the next day.

It has been known for almost a year that Texans for a Republican Majority gave $190,000 in corporate donations, which could not be donated legally to candidates, to the Republican National State Elections Committee. In a single day two weeks later, the national committee cut seven checks to Texas House candidates totaling $190,000 in money that could be legally given to candidates.

The contributions are part of a criminal investigation of whether corporate money was illegally used in the 2002 state legislative elections

[edit]

In Texas, the law bars using corporate donations as campaign expenditures.

In unusually blunt language, DeLay, R-Sugar Land, lashed out at Earle over the investigation of a DeLay-formed group, Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee, at his weekly news conference.

"This is nothing more than a vindictive, typical Ronnie Earle process," said DeLay. "The district attorney has a long history of being vindictive and partisan. He did it to Kay Bailey Hutchison and lost that case. He's done it to other people so that he can get press but doesn't follow through and file charges. This is so typical. This is an attempt to criminalize politics, and we have a runaway district attorney in Texas."

Earle said Tuesday that he was just doing his job.

"Being called vindictive and partisan by Tom DeLay is like being called ugly by a frog," Earle said in a telephone interview.

"In this new era," [Huntington] writes in his forthcoming book, "Who Are We," "the single most immediate and most serious challenge to America's traditional identity comes from the immense and continuing immigration from Latin America, especially Mexico."

These new immigrants, he argues, are not like earlier immigrants. Many have little interest in assimilating. "As their numbers increase, Mexican-Americans feel increasingly comfortable with their own culture and often contemptuous of American culture," Huntington argues.

Instead of climbing the ladder of success, he says, Mexican and other Latino immigrants are slow to learn English. They remain in overwhelmingly Hispanic neighborhoods and regions and tend not to disperse, as other groups have. Their education levels, even into the fourth generation, are far below that of other groups. They are less likely to start companies or work their way up into managerial and professional jobs.

Most important, Huntington concludes, they tend not to buy into the basic American creed, which is the bedrock of our national identity and our political culture. "There is no Americano dream," Huntington writes, "There is only the American dream created by an Anglo-Protestant society. Mexican-Americans will share in that dream and in that society only if they dream in English."

Obviously, Huntington is not pulling his punches.

America was created by 17th- and 18th-century settlers who were overwhelmingly white, British, and Protestant. Their values, institutions, and culture provided the foundation for and shaped the development of the United States in the following centuries. They initially defined America in terms of race, ethnicity, culture, and religion. Then, in the 18th century, they also had to define America ideologically to justify independence from their home country, which was also white, British, and Protestant. Thomas Jefferson set forth this "creed," as Nobel Prize-winning economist Gunnar Myrdal called it, in the Declaration of Independence, and ever since, its principles have been reiterated by statesmen and espoused by the public as an essential component of U.S. identity.

HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

"In recent months, however, some activist judges and local officials have made an aggressive attempt to redefine marriage.

"In Massachusetts, four judges on the highest court have indicated they will order the issuance of marriage licenses to applicants of the same gender in May of this year.

"In San Francisco, city officials have issued thousands of marriage licenses to people of the same gender, contrary to the California Family Code. That code, which clearly defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, was approved overwhelmingly by the voters of California.

"A county in New Mexico has also issued marriage licenses to applicants of the same gender. And unless action is taken, we can expect more arbitrary court decisions, more litigation, more defiance of the law by local officials, all of which adds to uncertainty."

By now, Uganda's success story has become virtually synonymous with the so-called ABC approach to HIV/AIDS prevention, for Abstain, Be faithful, use Condoms. And, indeed, it is clear that some combination of important changes in all three of these sexual behaviors contributed both to Uganda's extraordinary reduction in HIV/AIDS rates and to the country's ability to maintain its reduced rates through the second half of the 1990s. Beyond that, however, the picture becomes considerably less clear.


[edit]

Meanwhile, U.S.-based social conservatives in and out of government—even as they pay homage to the ABC mantra—continue to confuse all of these issues. For them, ABC has become little more than an excuse and justification to promote their long-standing agenda regarding people's sexual behavior and the kind of sex education they should receive: A for unmarried people, bolstered by advocacy of B, but for most people, "anything but C."

[edit]

The evidence, therefore, points to the existence of a range of complementary messages and services delivered by the government and a wide diversity of nongovernmental organizations. To be sure, those messages included the importance of both young people delaying sexual initiation and "zero grazing" (monogamy). But contrary to the assertions of social conservatives that the case of Uganda proves that an undiluted "abstinence-only" message is what makes the difference, there is no evidence that abstinence-only educational programs were even a significant factor in Uganda between 1988 and 1995.

"Training someone to lead a congregation is an essentially religious endeavor. Indeed, majoring in devotional theology is akin to a religious calling as well as an academic pursuit."

While we're on the subject, I'm going to officially announce my candidacy for Congress in Florida's 9th district on Saturday at the West Pasco Democratic Club meeting and the Pasco Women's Democratic Club the same day.

I'm going to challenge long time Republican incumbent Mike Bilirakis. Now I have to work on raising about $500,000 for the campaign. Bilirakis spent over $800,000 in his last campaign.

I don't think the slogan, "Put another (P)rick in congress" will take me very far, so henceforth when I post, I'll use my real name, which is Rick Chapman, and you can check out the Florida Division of elections website, and see that I've officially filed. I'll have my own website up and running soon.

The politician formerly known as
(P)rick

Rick Chapman

Unnoticed Genocide

In the remote Darfur region of western Sudan, a human disaster is accelerating amid uncontrolled violence. The United Nations' undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs has called it probably "the world's greatest humanitarian catastrophe." Doctors Without Borders has observed "catastrophic mortality rates." And yet, so far as most of the world is concerned, it isn't even happening.

There have been what Amnesty International calls "horrifying military attacks against civilians" throughout Darfur by the Sudanese government and its militias. The government has sent bombers to attack undefended villages, refugee camps and water wells. The United Nations estimates that 1 million people have been displaced by war and that more than 3 million are affected by armed conflict.

Sudan - Darfur: "Too many people killed for no reason"

This document contains some of the findings of Amnesty International's mission to Chad as well as information collected over the past few months on the conflict. It describes the grave abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law which have been committed against civilians with impunity throughout 2003, by government forces and government-aligned militias in Darfur and the failure of the Sudanese government in protecting the lives of its own civilians.

According to the information available to Amnesty International, the prime responsibility for the grave human rights abuses committed against civilians lies with the Sudanese government and militia aligned to it. The government has bombed indiscriminately civilian towns and villages suspected of harbouring or sympathizing with members of the armed opposition, unlawfully killing many non-combatants. But the main perpetrators of violence against civilians and destruction of civilian objects in Darfur appear to be a militia aligned with and supported by the government army, known as "Arab militia" or the "Janjawid" (armed men on horses). The Janjawid have killed, tortured, arbitrarily arrested or detained civilians while they have burnt to the ground homes and even entire villages, burnt, stolen or destroyed crops and looted cattle. Meanwhile, the armed political groups seem to have failed to take measures to protect civilians such as ensuring that military objectives are not located close to densely populated areas. Civilians have become hostages to the situation in Darfur.

Those of us who supported this president in 2000, who have backed him whole-heartedly during the war, who have endured scorn from our peers as a result, who trusted that this president was indeed a uniter rather than a divider, now know the truth.

[snip]

The president has made it easy. He's a simple man and he divides the world into friends and foes. He has now made a whole group of Americans - and their families and their friends - his enemy.

No matter what happens in the coming months, Log Cabin will stay in the GOP and fight--fight for fairness, liberty and equality. We will be a strong presence in New York at the GOP’s 2004 convention.

Log Cabin Republicans is the nation's largest gay Republican organization....

“Leaders of the Republican Party often speak of tolerance for gay and lesbian Americans. We agree with this sentiment, but GOP leaders must remember that actions are more important than words. And this action—to support an anti-family Constitutional amendment—sends a disturbing message that part of our American family should be singled out for discrimination,” continued Guerriero.

[snip]

Log Cabin Republicans have been loyal members of the GOP. We have been on the front lines with this President through good days and bad days. Log Cabin members believe so strongly in conservative principles that we have stood with this party even when we disagreed on some issues. Our principles have been attacked by the radical right and the far left, but we have stuck with our party. We’re not going to leave this party now, but we will not remain silent while some in the GOP try to use our Constitution as a tool for discrimination.

“Log Cabin’s mission is bigger than any one person, one election or one issue. We will not abandon our conservative principles, even as others toss their principles aside for short-term political gain,” concluded Guerriero.

No matter what happens in the coming months, Log Cabin will stay in the GOP and fight—fight for fairness, liberty and equality. Hundreds of Log Cabin leaders will gather in California this April for our largest national convention ever. And in August, Log Cabin will have a strong presence in New York for the GOP’s 2004 national convention. We will mobilize all our resources and grassroots strength to fight this anti-family Constitutional amendment.

"After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization," the president said in urging Congress to approve such an amendment. "Their action has created confusion on an issue that requires clarity."

The purpose of Coulter and Steyn in writing the sentences they wrote wasn’t to convey an accurate picture of Cleland’s military and political career (a task which would have taken many, no doubt tedious, volumes). It was rather to demean and belittle him in the eyes of their readers and to neutralize him as a critic of the US Republican Party and the Bush administration.

"September the 14th, 2001, I stood in the ruins of the Twin Towers. I remember a lot that day," Bush told 1,400 Republican donors at a fund-raiser for GOP governors, recalling his trip to New York after the attacks.

Mr. Kerry's time in combat was relatively short — four months — but it was intense, with forays into rivers and canals while under constant threat of ambush from Vietcong on the banks. Mr. Kerry was wounded three times, and anyone with three Purple Hearts [or with a daddy in Congress-Ed.] qualified for transfer to a safe post.

Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., who devised the swift boat operation, said officers on the boats had a 75 percent chance of being killed by enemy fire.

[snip]

It was on P.C.F.-94 that Mr. Kerry experienced his fiercest weeks of fighting: he won the Silver Star for leaping ashore, chasing down and killing a guerrilla with a rocket launcher, and the Bronze Star for saving Mr. Rassman [by pulling him from the water under enemy fire].

Defying Orders

There was another incident for which Mr. Kerry received no medals — he acted against orders — but which the crew members and the other swift boat skippers remember with pride.

The crewmen saw some mysterious dirt mounds near the shore and shouted repeatedly over loudspeakers for anyone there to come out. No one did. Mr. Kerry jumped ashore with his M-16 and discovered 42 emaciated women, children and old men. Disregarding orders, the swift boats brought them in for treatment.

"He did something I wouldn't do, putting himself at risk to find out who was there," said Mr. Barker, whose boat accompanied Mr. Kerry's on that mission.

After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization. Their actions have created confusion on an issue that requires clarity.

On a matter of such importance, the voice of the people must be heard. Activist courts have left the people with one recourse. If we're to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in America. Decisive and democratic action is needed because attempts to redefine marriage in a single state or city could have serious consequences throughout the country.

President Bush last week caused a stir when he declined to endorse a projection, made by his own Council of Economic Advisers, that the economy would add 2.6 million jobs this year. But that forecast, derided as wildly optimistic, was one of the more modest predictions the administration has made about the economy over the past three years.

Two years ago, the administration forecast that there would be 3.4 million more jobs in 2003 than there were in 2000. And it predicted a budget deficit for fiscal 2004 of $14 billion. The economy ended up losing 1.7 million jobs over that period, and the budget deficit for this year is on course to be $521 billion.

[W]e stand for a culture of responsibility in America. We're changing the culture of America from one that said, "if it feels good, do it," and "if you've got a problem, blame someone else,"' to a culture in which each of us understands we're responsible for the decisions we make.

President Bush defended his tax cuts yesterday as economic fuel for the small-business sector in response to mounting criticism from Democratic presidential candidates that the cuts chiefly benefited the wealthiest Americans. But the president's contention that upper-income tax cuts primarily benefit entrepreneurs conflicts with some of the government's own data.

Democratic Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and John Edwards (N.C.) have pledged to restore the top two income tax rates to a maximum of 39.6 percent if elected president, but Bush and Republican allies say such a move would disproportionately punish small businesses, most of which pay individual income tax rates on their profits.

"If you're worried about job growth, it seems like it makes sense to give a little fuel to those who create jobs, the small-business sector," Bush told a gathering of the nation's governors at the White House.

... Internal Revenue Service statistics cited by a Democratic senator this month show that the vast majority of small businesses do not earn nearly enough money to fall into the highest income tax bracket. ... Nearly 88 percent of business filers reported income of less than $100,000, keeping them comfortably below the top two tax brackets of 33 percent and 35 percent, which Kerry and Edwards propose to raise.

Republicans point to a different statistic: Of the 750,000 tax filers that pay the top rate, more than two-thirds receive some small-business income from sole proprietorships, partnerships or small businesses incorporated as S corporations, according to the Treasury Department and the Republican staff of the congressional Joint Economic Committee.

... But under Treasury's definition, both Bush and Vice President Cheney are members of the entrepreneurial class. In his 2002 tax return, the president reported $1,549 from rental real estate, royalties, partnerships, S corporations and trusts, including income from GWB Rangers Corp., a remnant of his days as co-owner of the Texas Rangers. Of the Cheney household's $1.2 million income, $238,682 was from business ventures within the White House's definition of small business.

Economists say the broad Republican definition of "small-business man" includes not only doctors, lawyers and management consultants but also chief executives who earn $3,000 renting out their chalets in Aspen or report $10,000 in speaking fees. An aide on the Joint Economic Committee conceded that the definition includes the army of accountants and consultants at such giant partnerships as KPMG LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, not the firms that "small business" brings to mind."

"Mr. Wilson, your support now is critical," writes Vice President Cheney. "Mr. Wilson . . . a group of wealthy liberals plans to accumulate $500 million to defeat President Bush and me."

But former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV is probably the last person in America the Bushies should try to hit up. He's the uranium-in-Africa debunker, Iraq war foe and fierce administration critic married to CIA operative Valerie Plame -- the leaking of whose name is the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. He is supporting Democrat John Kerry for president. Wilson, an admirer of President George H.W. Bush, had given $1,000 to his son's campaign in 1999, so he remains on the current president's thank-you list.

Wilson recently received a picture of George and Laura Bush and, he says, a personal call from the Republican National Committee. "The RNC called me at dinner like a telemarketer," Wilson says. "He started in with: 'I want to thank you for all you've done.'

"Do you know who I am?" Wilson asked the solicitor, who confessed ignorance.

"Just tell Ed Gillespie you called Joe Wilson," he said, referring to the RNC chairman. "And put me down for a no."

"The decision of the French president to issue a law to prevent Muslim girls from covering their heads in schools is another example of the Crusader's envy, which Westerners have against Muslims," the voice said in Al-Arabiya's tape. "This envy boils in their hearts and overflows in their chests and they pass it on to the generations."

[snip]

The voice on Al-Arabiya's tape singled out Egypt's foremost religious leader, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the grand sheik of Al-Azhar, calling his support of the French decision "a scandal."

Tantawi issued an edict early this year asking Muslim women living in France to comply with French laws on religious symbols. His first remarks defending the ban were made Dec. 30, so the tape would have been made sometime after that.

The French decision has sparked protests across the Islamic world.

A French Foreign Ministry official, responding to the tape, reiterated Tuesday his country's position that the law is meant to protect the country's secular foundations and is not directed at Muslims or any particular religion.

President Yoweri Museveni apologized Tuesday for a rebel attack in northern Uganda last weekend that killed dozens of people, and blamed it on army mistakes.

Visiting the area where officials say 200 civilians were hacked, shot and burned alive at a refugee camp, Museveni said the army should never have allowed the attack to occur. He recalled the regional commander for further training.

"It's very sad, on behalf of the government, or the army, I apologize to the people because the mistake is on the side of the army," Museveni said after visiting a hospital packed with survivors. "They (the army) did not coordinate well but we have got a long struggle, we shall overcome."

Rebels with the Lord's Resistance Army raided the Barlonyo camp Saturday, shooting some people and burning others in their homes.

In a statement to the state-owned New Vision newspaper, Museveni said the army shouldn't have allowed the camp to be set up and didn't protect it properly. The troops there didn't notify other units of the attack until it was over and the rebels had fled, he said.

Don't use drugs, kids, or you might end up with the kind of permanent brain damage that Rush Limbaugh has inflicted upon himself.

Pentagon Opens Halliburton Criminal Probe

The Pentagon said on Monday its criminal investigators were examining allegations of fraud against Halliburton Co. unit Kellogg Brown and Root, including potential overpricing of fuel delivered to Iraq.

"The Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the criminal investigative arm of the Inspector General's office, is investigating allegations on the part of KBR of fraud, including the potential overpricing of fuel delivered to Baghdad by a KBR subcontractor," said a Pentagon spokeswoman.

But the Bushes don't have a reputation as the Corleone family of the Republican Party for nothing. The next time Mr Cheney takes that jet to go duck-shooting, he may well find James Baker slipping into the seat behind him, with “a litl' proposal to discuss for the good of the party”.

Education Secretary Rod Paige called the nation's largest teachers union a "terrorist organization" during a private White House meeting with governors on Monday.

Democratic and Republican governors confirmed Paige's remarks about the 2.7-million-member National Education Association.

"These were the words, 'The NEA is a terrorist organization,'" said Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin.

... Neither the Education Department nor NEA had an immediate comment on Paige's comments. Both indicated that statements were forthcoming.

Education has been a top issue for governors, who have sought more flexibility from the administration on President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law, which seeks to improve school performance in part by allowing parents to move their children from poorly performing schools.

Democrats have said Bush has failed to fully fund the law, giving the states greater burdens but not the resources to handle them.

Missouri Gov. Bob Holden, a Democrat, said Paige's remarks startled the governors, who met for nearly two hours with Bush and several Cabinet officials. Bush was not present when Paige made his statement.

... Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, a Democrat, said the comments were made in the context of "we can't be supportive of the status quo and they're the status quo. But whatever the context, it is inappropriate — I know he wasn't calling teachers terrorists — but to ever suggest that the organization they belong to was a terrorist organization is uncalled for."

"It isn't just about 'abortion rights,' the battle is about abortion profits," Miranda explained. "The axis of profits that undergirds the fight in the Judiciary Committee is the axis between trial lawyers - who want particular types of judges who rule in particular ways on their cases - and, not the 'abortion rights' lobby, but the abortion clinics ' lobby.

"The 'abortion rights' lobby is just a front for something much worse," Miranda continued, "which is the abortion clinics' lobby, represented by the National Abortion Federation."

Miranda claimed abortion clinics make, on average, $1,000 profit for every abortion they perform.

In 2000, the cost of a nonhospital abortion with local anesthesia at 10 weeks of gestation ranged from $150 to $4,000, and the average amount paid was $372

The MSHA’s statement that there was a ‘‘change in agency priorities,’’ without explanation, is not informative in the least; it is merely a reiteration of the decision to withdraw the proposed rule.

They claim that Clinton had 248 judges confirmed versus 63 blocked - meaning that 20% of Clinton's nominees were blocked.

President Bush has had 171 confirmed versus 6 blocked - meaning that only 3.4% of his nominees have been blocked

Clinton's record would be 377 out of 440 = 14.2% blocked

Bush's record would be 171 out of 238 = 28.5% blocked

The word “recess” also requires interpretation. In 1901, an Attorney General opinion distinguished between the meaning of “adjournment” and “recess” in such a way as to limit adjournment to brief periods in the middle of a session, whereas recess referred to the period when Congress adjourned at the end of a session. Both words meant the suspension of legislative business, but adjournment implies “a less prolonged intermission than ‘recess.’” An adjournment means a “merely temporary suspension of business from day to day, or, when exceeding three days, for such brief periods over holidays as are well recognized and established and as are agreed upon by the joint action of the two Houses.” Recess refers to “the period after the final adjournment of Congress for the session, and before the next session begins.” Congress “adjourns” in either case, but “[i]t is this period following the final adjournment for the session which is the recess during which the President has power to fill vacancies by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of the next session.”

"The debate is mostly between those who want [to legalize same-sex marriage] because they see it as part of their demand for equal dignity for gays, and those who don't for a host of philosophical and religious reasons," he said. "But for all the intensity of the debate, it doesn't take you very far down the road of discussing marriage."

So, does Blankenhorn favor gay marriage or oppose it?

"I don't have a dog in that fight," he said.

"What got me into this whole field some 15 years ago was the disturbing phenomenon of father absence. Thirty-five percent of our children are living without their fathers, a fact that exacerbates a whole range of social problems -- and almost the entire problem of father absence is due to heterosexual behavior. But that doesn't make the opponents of gay marriage wrong.

"As Isaiah Berlin taught us, in a liberal society, a lot of our difficult choices are between two goods. That's the case here. There is the social good of equal dignity for all people. I support that. Equal dignity is a very American idea, in theory if not always in practice.

"On the other hand, if there is one thing in this life I know, it's that children need mothers and fathers."

"This is my whole public life, that children deserve, as a sort of birthright, mothers and fathers -- preferably the mothers and fathers who brought them into this world."

But does same-sex marriage interfere with that ideal any more than, say, adoption? Blankenhorn thinks it might.

He points to no-fault divorce, a development many of us hailed as a move toward giving women equal rights and allowing them an honorable escape from oppressive or abusive marriages. Blankenhorn wouldn't argue. But he points out that making divorce easy goes against his notion that children have a birthright to mothers and fathers. The more we focus on marriage as a personal relationship between two adults, the weaker the position of children becomes, he believes.

"The first thing that would happen if we legalized same-sex marriage is that we would find ourselves talking about parents, not fathers and mothers. And even the term 'parent' would be changed to something like 'the person in the home caring for the child.' That is not a definition in the long-term interest of children. We'd have to change the way we talk about marriage -- in our schools and textbooks and in our curricula.

"And finally, if I say -- as I deeply believe -- that every child needs a mother and father, I will be venturing dangerously close to hate speech."

Iran's most troubled election in a quarter-century appeared Monday to have produced a record low turnout, leaving religious conservatives with control of parliament but only a dubious claim of representing a greater share of the population than the 10 percent of Iranians who have traditionally provided their base.

In a country that in three previous elections voted overwhelmingly for reformist candidates who were barred from Friday's ballot, about half of Iran's 46 million eligible voters stayed home, the Interior Ministry said.

The word "caucus" strongly suggests a meeting, and the posted hours led some friends of mine to presume that they were expected to spend six hours "caucusing" before they could indicate their preference for president. The event on Feb. 14 was a primary election, not a caucus. If it had been billed as such, I'm sure turnout would have doubled or tripled.

The fact that only one voting station was opened in each ward contributed to the fiasco as well. The Ward 3 voting station had lines out the door; some voters didn't bother to wait a half-hour or more to cast their ballots.

The final insult was reading the next day that those of us who participated in the "caucuses" will select only 10 of the 39 delegates who attend the Democratic National Convention. The remainder will either be selected by "the local party" or are "superdelegates" or "top local and national Democratic leaders who can support any candidate" ...

I cannot imagine any other jurisdiction in this country in which voters would accept a presidential selection process in which they pick fewer than half the delegates who will choose their nominee.

When asked about the president's Air National Guard service he said, the president's and John Kerry's service "compare very favorably... He (i.e. the president) signed up for dangerous duty. He volunteered to go to Vietnam. He wasn’t selected to go, but nonetheless served his country very well …"

When the president signed up for the National Guard there was a check box asking whether he wanted to volunteer for overseas service. And he checked off "do not volunteer."

"I've often wondered what it must feel like to be one of the bigots immortalized in civil rights-era photographs and news footage, sicking dogs on peaceful protesters, shouting and spitting at little children walking meekly into public school buildings .... Wouldn't it be shameful to come upon one's own face in one of these images, in a museum exhibition, documentary film, newspaper retrospective or textbook?

"... Twenty years from now, I'd like to look up some of the people, such as President Bush, who are inclined to chisel restrictions on same-sex marriage into constitutional stone. I would ask them how it feels to be on the wrong side of history. ... It's just a matter of time before gays and lesbians are recognized to have the same human right to state-sanctioned marriage as heterosexuals.

"When that time comes, people who say gay marriage threatens heterosexual marriage, that gay marriage is an abomination in the sight of God and that gay marriage is disgusting and immoral are going to appear as mean and ridiculous as people who said those things about interracial marriage. Or who made similar arguments in support of slavery and against women's right to vote.

"... Black ministers in Boston reacting to the court ruling in their state got a jump start on landing on the wrong side of history by staking out an official position that discrimination against homosexuals in marriage is not a civil rights issue at all, and that, in fact, same-sex unions constitute a new threat to black families. Talk about pulling up the ladder after yourself."

I hadn't wanted to say anything about this, because it seemed like a personal matter, but Pat Robertson isn't the only one who has heard from God.

I heard from God just the other night. God always seems to call at night.

"Andrew," God said to me. He always calls me "Andrew." I like that.

"Andrew, you have the eyes and ears of a lot of people. I wish you'd tell your viewers that both Pat Robertson and Mel Gibson strike me as wackos. I believe that's one of your current words. They're crazy as bedbugs, another earthly expression. I created bedbugs. I'll tell you, they're no crazier than people, said God.

"Let me just say that I think I'd remember if I'd ever talked to Pat Robertson, and I'd remember if I said Bush would get re-elected in a blowout."
...
That is what God said to me. That's about all he did say to me because I'm sure God has a lot more important things to do than talk to someone on television.

My own question to Pat Robertson is this: The election looks as though it could be close, certainly not a blowout. If George W. Bush loses the election to a Democrat, will you become an atheist?

My question to Mel Gibson is: "How many million dollars does it look as if you're going to make off the crucifixion of Christ?"

[The White House says] "111 million taxpayers will save, on average, $1,586 off their taxes"

The $1,586 figure is indeed an accurate statement of the average cut received by those who are getting a cut, according to the Treasury Department. However, it is far from typical.

For one thing, the figure does not take into account the 25% of all individuals and families who are receiving zero tax cut this year. It is an average only of those who are getting some cut. When those who get nothing are added in the average cut drops to $1,217, according to the Tax Policy Center.

But most importantly, the average is inflated by the fact that most of the money is going to a relatively few taxpayers at the top of the income scale ... Taxpayers making more than $1 million a year get an average cut of nearly $113,000 this year. Such huge cuts at the top tend to pull up the numerical average that the President is fond of citing.

A more meaningful number is the median -- or mid-point. The Tax Policy Center calculates the median cut received for income earned in 2003 is $470.

That means half of all individuals and families get less than that, and half get more.

The Pentagon is moving elements of a supersecret commando unit from Iraq to the Afghanistan theater to step up the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

A Defense Department official said there are two reasons for repositioning parts of Task Force 121: First, most high-value human targets in Iraq, including Saddam Hussein, have been caught or killed. Second, intelligence reports are increasing on the whereabouts of bin Laden, the terror leader behind the September 11 attacks.

[edit]

Speculation that the United States is close to finding bin Laden heightened last month when military officers in Afghanistan predicted that the terror leader would be killed or captured by year's end.

"We have a variety of intelligence, and we're sure we're going to catch Osama bin Laden and [Taliban leader] Mullah [Mohammed] Omar this year," Army Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in January. "We've learned lessons from Iraq, and we're getting improved intelligence from the Afghan people."

A few days earlier, Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told the BBC: "You can be assured that we're putting a renewed emphasis on closing this out and bringing these two individuals to justice, as well as the other senior leadership of that organization. They represent a threat to the entire world, and they need to be destroyed."

Government forces swept through villages in northern Uganda on Monday in pursuit of rebels who killed nearly 200 unarmed civilians seeking shelter at a displaced persons' camp.

[edit]

The rebels, armed with assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, raided Barlonyo camp north of the town of Lira late Saturday, shooting people as they fled and burning others in their mud and grass huts. It was one of the worst attacks in recent years by the shadowy group, which has been fighting the Ugandan government for 17 years.

One survivor, George Okot, winced in pain as he recalled the massacre.

"When they came I ran inside the hut, then they started shooting," said Okot, wincing in pain at a hospital in Lira. "When we tried to run outside the hut, they would shoot you, when you remain inside, they burn you."

More than 100 rebels, dressed in camouflage uniforms, took part in the attack, he said.

However, a civilian population that has continued to be attacked by rebels even in the camps perceives [the desire to protect them] as a weak explanation. The LRA is reported to have attacked 16 of the existing 35 IDP camps in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader between June and September 2002 alone and continues to do so persistently. Not only are the camps inadequately protected, but also living conditions there are chronic. As a religious leader said, “The IDP camps are a death warrant to the people. There is hunger, disease, insecurity, malnutrition.” One woman in Kitgum town talked of how grateful she was not to be in a camp:

Myself I can say I am lucky. At least I don’t stay in the camp, and at least I have some money. Women in the camp are the ones that suffer the most. They do not have food, and they have to risk going to the farms every day to look for food to feed the children. Women are raped by both rebels and soldiers and sometimes by criminals. People are sick and hungry in the camps…. People are not safe in the camps. They are crowded and close together which makes it easy for the rebels to abduct them and steal food. When people were in their homes, they were far apart and could easily hide. When rebels attack they surround the camps and make it hard to run away. The army is here but the soldiers cannot do anything.

As a result, the majority of the displaced harbour considerable anger towards the government for having forced them out of their homes and then having been unable to protect and provide for them.