Commissioner Sherow's Comments at the Dec 18 City Commission Meeting

By Way of Introduction,

Let me be clear about a few things right from the get go.

First, I was elected to represent the citizens of this community, and I thank you all for being here and working to make our participatory democracy function. I also want to thank all who have written to me, called me, or visited with me about this issue. And whether I agree or disagree with my fellow commissioners, I accord each one good faith in his actions, thoughts, motives and ultimately their votes.

I, too, have watched the planning board meetings regarding this proposed amended PUD, and have taken careful note of what was said and presented in each meeting. From the first proposed amended PUD to the second, it is obvious DIAL has made some strides to address community concerns. Moreover, HyVee is a fine company, and may make a valuable contribution to the retailing in our community. It’s important for DIAL to understand that the issue here is one of design and accommodating the community vision.

PUDs require a higher standard of execution than do conventional zoning applications. The non-amended PUD represented the very minimum standard in terms of design acceptable to the community.

More importantly, while the City resources may be deeply invested in this redevelopment effort, the City needs to follow the same zoning procedures applicable to any applicant. In fact, the City should be a model applicant in every respect.

A Little Background on my involvement in Downtown Redevelopment and some history of how redevelopment has unfolded up to this point.

For several years I have been involved in historic preservation and traditional neighborhood revitalization efforts.

I first became aware of efforts toward Downtown redevelopment with Brent Bowman’s and the Chamber’s neighborhood presentations that sought community feedback. Across the board, people, including me, were excited about the prospects. Understand clearly that I want to see this Downtown redevelopment project work; I even wrote an editorial to that effect. I want to see this work – to meet high standards in urban design.

Then in 2003-04 I was appointed to serve on the Citizens Steering Committee for Downtown Redevelopment, and chaired its sub-committee on environment, design, and historic preservation. That committee, comprised of Gwyn Riffle (now president of DMI), Dave Colburn (member of the school board and manager of The Pathfinder), then mayor-elect Brad Everett, and Brend Foreoster (a former board member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and former dean of the School of Architecture at KSU), carefully studied, and debated the site design. We were all disappointed with the final concept reported out of committee in the spring of 2004.

We reported that we were concerned about too much surface parking for a legitimate urban development. We thought it looked too much like a strip mall than urban infill. We underscored the importance of housing, and while we accepted a projected 400 units of mix levels of housing, we asked that room be created for as many as 600. We asked if housing was key to the redevelopment, and the representatives from DIAL, RTKL, the Chamber, City Staff, all agreed that it was. We were also told that a good faith effort would be made to move about 5 serviceable bungalows and that the 4 square at the corner of Laramie and 4th along with the Strasser House would be integrated into the Redevelopment. What a rough road we have all traveled to end up where we are tonight.

In January 2005, at the Chamber Leadership Retreat in Kansas City, here’s what the plan for Downtown Redevelopment looked like at that time. (Show the site plan on the overhead.) Not one retail space exceeded 40,000 square feet, and there was a heavy emphasis on landscaping. The four square at the corner of Laramie and 4th Street, and Strasser House next to it were both slated for retention.

At the same retreat, Mr. Bob Welstead made a presentation in which he reported the following about acquiring leases for the north end.

33% of the square footage was under negotiation

32% of the square footage was under contract

13% of the square footage had contracts pending

22% of the square footage was under no obligations

Consider now Downtown Redevelopment News, Feb. 2005, and what it presented to the community as the goals for the project.

(Show the newsletter on the overhead)

1. Small Shop Retail

Specialty retail reflecting a local flavor serving both visitors and residents. Buildings are focal points of the project and shall be high quality signature designs.

2. Existing Buildings Remaining

Existing structures/uses that remain shall be integrated into the vehicle and pedestrian flow; will compliment the overall design of the district.

3. Restaurant Locations

Mix of National, Regional, and Local Dining experience that attracts visitor and locals to Downtown to serve new and existing downtown residents.

4. Major Retail

A mix of national and regional retailers that complement and enhance the Downtown shopping experience, while providing a pedestrian oriented environment with public spaces.

5. Townhomes

Old fashioned Row-houses and Townhomes set close to the sidewalk with raised first floors and distictive designs that are sensitive to existing residential communities to the west side of 4th St. Predominantly "For Sale" units.

6. Apartments/Condominiums

A mix of "Owner Occupied" and "For Lease"; unites with a variety of price points creating a mixed-income, diverse neighborhood that truly reflects the Manhattan community. There will also be ground floor office/retail options along 3rd Street.

This was the community expectations for the north end redevelopment.

Things got worse considerably worse after that.

By the end of summer 2005, RTKL was gone with no explanation why, and the DMI board began having some serious concerns about the direction of the project. RTKL was the main reason why anyone had faith in that the design would reflect community-wide expectations.

Soon afterward I began working with Downtown Manhattan, Incorporated, and served as chair of its economic development committee. DMI is a Main Street Program certified by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. DMI was and continues to be concerned about the design for redevelopment not meeting community expectations and purported public goals.

In August, several recommendations were made among which were:

1. Review the redevelopment economic feasibility analyses

2. Review the financing scenarios

3. Select a redevelopment oversight committee

4. Selection of an experienced real estate development coordinator

5. Update the 2002 Community of Manhattan Market Analysis

None of the above was acted upon except for the market analysis.

The Canyon Report, which was released this year, noted among its findings that:

1. Current Manhattan market reach had a gap of $20 m annually in grocery sales

2. Current Manhattan market reach had a gap of $22 m annually in higher end restaurant sales

3. Current Manhattan market reach could accommodate an additional 400,000 square feet of retail

Now, Real Estate Research Consultants findings report that our current market reach can support an additional 46,000 square feet of grocery while HyVee , depending upon how one wants to measure these things, wants at minimum 78,000 square feet with the possibility of expanding to well over 90,000 sq. feet. Even if the grocery portion were to be only 53,000 square feet, the store would still exceed current market capacity by at minimum 7,000 square feet.

Moreover, Real Estate Research Consultants did not factor into its calculations the effects of military purchases at the Fort Riley post commissionaire, sales at People’s Groceries or the International Grocery. Moreover, the grocery purchasing habits of university students were also excluded from its calculations. Obviously, something, somewhere has to give in our current grocery markets if HyVee is going to reach its full potential in this proposed location as a 90,000 plus square foot facility.

Also, Ray’s Supermarket has made it clear that a HyVee store of 64,000 square feet, which is what the PUD calls for, would be welcomed by it.

So, we do we stand now in terms of contracted square footage in the North End? Not much further along than we were in 2005. Why? Especially if, according to the Canyon Report, the city’s current market reach can accommodate an additional 400,000 sq. feet of retail?

Why is it that the core Downtown has no problem filling its retail sites when they come open? Why does the Mall have no difficulty filling spaces when they come open? Why does Seth Childs Commons and Heritage East have no problems filling their open retail spaces?

WHY DOES DIAL HAVE TROUBLE FILLING WHAT IS CALLED FOR IN THE PUD? AND WHY IS IT THE CITY’S RESPONSIBILITY TO BAIL THEM OUT WITH AN AMENDMENT TO THE PUD?

This current PUD, approved in June 2006, was a considerable step down, in my opinion, to what was proposed in 2005, a plan which many throughout the community had concerns about even back then.

But the community was assured that DIAL was well underway in securing its leases. By the summer of 2007, it was apparent that wasn’t the case, and Commission had to decide whether or to proceed with property acquisitions in the South End. I voted for that given that many property owners had already relocated and would be later waiting for their payments.

The city has a moral and ethical obligation to pay all the property owners in the South Side what is due them. No matter how it is done, whether through the STAR bonds or not, my vote will be to pay them what their contracts call for.

It is important that the South Side Redevelopment get done right regardless by which method the current property owners are paid. The conference center, hotel and theater makes the South End a viable development regardless what else is added to it including whether or not the discovery center becomes a part of it.

Why do so many in the community have a lack of trust in DIAL? One example amply illustrates this for me. At the end of the Summer 2007, Mike Mecseri, representing the preservation alliance, and myself met with Rick Kiolbasa to discuss the Strasser House. Besides lame promises for moving this stone house intact, I asked Rick about the housing that was to built in the North End.

I remember the conversation like this:

(JIM) Rick, will you have the housing built by December 2007

(RICK) Jim, that’s not part of the contract. (Reminded by city staff that indeed this was part of the North End Redevelopment agreement)

(RICK) Jim, those are simply guidelines.

Is this how DIAL treats its contractual obligations – as simply guidelines?

(JIM) This (moving the Strasser House and substantially changing the North End design) is going to get really hot!

(MIKE) There is considerable concern with North End design as it now stands. Changing it will raise a public outcry.

(RICK) I haven’t heard this.

Was DIAL officials listening at all before? And were we listen to then? No, not at all.

No surprise, then, that the planning board rejected out of hand by a 7 to 0 vote the first proposed amendment to the PUD.

Then DIAL submits a plan coming closer to the original PUD, but still DIAL isn’t meeting community expectations, and again, it’s rejected by a 4 to 2 vote.

As the City memo notes, a 64,000 square foot store could go in immediately without being reviewed by either the Planning Board, or the City Commission. So why are DIAL and HyVee pushing so hard for this larger version when a 64,000 square foot store would end the controversy. Why is HyVee so set on this larger design when it is building several 60,000 square foot stores in other locations? Obviously, it’s not a lack of ability to build a store of this size. So why hasn’t, and isn’t DIAL listening to the community?

DIAL and HyVee’s lack of concern for community expectations, fitting into the PUD, and meeting redevelopment goals shakes to the core my trust in them.

And now, here we are.

Let’s also consider what PUDs are suppose to accomplish, and what amending a PUD entails. Then, let’s see if DIAL has made a legitimate case for amending this PUD.

PUDs require a higher standard of execution than do conventional zoning applications.

Now is it true, as Rick Kiolbasa stated during the December 3, Planning Board meeting that:

"We’re providing an urban solution to a suburban problem."

I find this a disingenuous argument:

1. The district was never a suburban part of the city.

2. This plan has the distinct feel and look of a suburban strip mall

Does this proposed amendment truly meet the objectives in the Comprehensive Land Use Plan?

According to the staff it stated:

"7.Conformance with Comprehensive Plan.

The Manhattan Urban Area Comprehensive Plan shows the site as Central Core District (CCD), which is a special purpose designation for the Downtown Core. The amendment site is also designated as a primary redevelopment area for expansion of the Central Business District, in Downtown Tomorrow – A Redevelopment Plan for Downtown Manhattan, Kansas, adopted in May 2000. The proposed amendment conforms to the Comprehensive Plan."

Are there other aspects of the CLUP where the staff overlooked where conformance is lacking? Let’s review some other provisions of the CLUP beginnning with Chapter 4: Land Use and Growth Management. It states:

". . . to promote an urban development pattern that represents the sustainable use of land, energy and other resources by encouraging orderly, contiguous growth and minimizing single-use or low-density, dispersed development."

Goal #1: "Promote land use and development practices that consider current and future economic, social, and environmental impacts, ensuring the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

One of the Guiding Principles: "Promote land use and development that protects investments and provides opportunities for individual initiative and choice."

Land Use Policies: Residential:

"The Comprehensive Plan encourages that new neighborhoods in the Manhattan Urban Area be designed as walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods. They are intended to be a setting for a variety of housing types combined with complementary and supporting non-residential uses that serv the neighborhood and are designed and operated in harmony with the residential characteristics of a neighborhood . . . They shall be designed to include a network of direct and interconnected streets, pedestrian, and bicycle connections."

Commercial: Central Core District (CCD)

The CCD "consist of a variety of civic, cultural, retail, commercial, business and professional offices and financial institutions, as well as residential uses in a compact, vibrant setting enhanced by a large inventory of older, and in some cases historic, structures and a pedestrian-friendly scale. ‘Superstore’ and big box centers could be incorporated into identified redevelopment areas in the downtown core, if they are designed as part of a master planned development that is compatible with and complimentary to the traditional downtown urban fabric by maintaining a pedestrian oriented streetscape, and are of exceptional design quality."

This plan does not tie into the neighborhood to the west. The wall, street parking design, lack of pedestrian circulation patterns, poor design of the smaller apartments at the north end are all a poor fit and match to the neighborhood to the west. The residents there have a much better handle on this than does DIAL. Moreover, the housing is a poor economic development given that the units are over-priced by nearly 100% given current rates of around $300 per bedroom. This is not my vision, nor that of a majority in our community, of what a walkable, mix-use neighborhood is.

This amendment also does not promote practices that consider current and future economic . . . impacts. The market studies clearly show that something will have to give in our grocery markets if a store the size that HyVee wants goes in. Ray’s investment of $1 million and a 20 year lease at its eastside location is vulnerable as is the operations of Dillons. Also, there will be a loss to city property and sales tax revenues if this amendment is approved. What the final amount will be is a matter of informed debate, but a loss of some sizable amount will be felt.

So, this amendment fails to consider fully current and future economic . . . impacts.

DIAL insists that C4 Zoning doesn’t require off-street parking, and C4 Zoning allows for all of uses that DIAL proposes.

While this is true regarding C4 zoning, a PUD is intended to go far beyond in terms of quality design than what would have been required under the initial zoning designation, in this case C4. In other words, a PUD should supercede regular zoning classifications. So, providing adequate off street parking for the residential units is an important consideration for this

design.

Are Zoning Regulations adopted on October 3, 2006 duly considered? I think not.

Article IX, PUDs: Purpose and Objectives (IX-1)

1. A maximum choice of living environments by allowing a variety of housing and building types

2. A more useful pattern of open spaces and recreation areas

3. A development pattern in harmony with land use density, transportation facilities, and community facilities

4. An environment . . . which will afford greater opportunities for better housing, recreation, shops and industrial plants for all citizens of the community

5. A development plan [that] . . . results in a project that provides greater public benefit than would be provided under conventional zoning

6. A mixture of compatible uses which might not otherwise be permitted in a single district, or which may restrict the range of land uses more than in a single district.

(F)Character of the Neighborhood

The development should take into account the character of the area in which the development will be located and assure that proposed structures, signs and other improvements are compatible to both the proposed sit and surrounding neighborhood. (IX-5)

Again, the adjacent neighborhood is going to be adversely effected given how traffic is routed through the neighborhood, along 4th Street, and the parking is situated along 4th Street. Fourth Street is effectively working as a barrier to the neighborhood.

Consider this:

During an initial neighborhood meeting when redevelopment was first being proposed, I made one recommendation that relates to the importance of connecting redevelopment to existing neighborhoods. Brent’s initial plans called for cutting off Pierre Street at Fourth Street to "protect" the residential neighborhood. I made the argument that doing so would destroy the neighborhood. The neighborhood needed to tie into the redevelopment seamlessly, and had it been cut off then I think that the Boys and Girls Club would not be building at 5th and Pierre, nor would Big Brothers and Big Sisters have located their new office in the same neighborhood.

9-108 Amendments and Modifications

1. Whether the proposed amendment is consistent with intent and purpose of the approved PUD, and will promote the efficient development and preservation of the entire PUD;

2. Whether the proposed amendment is made necessary because of changed or changing conditions in or around the PUD, and the nature of such conditions; and

Tonight Mr. Welstead said that the amendment was necessary because:

"We need to amend the existing PUD to further the revitalization effort."

In the first place, I don’t see how this constitutes in any manner a changed or changing conditions in or around the PUD. If this amendment is arising from the needs of meeting the obligations of The North End Redevelopment Agreement, then it is very important to understand that the agreement is not part of the PUD. The PUD stands apart from the agreement, and the agreement itself, recognizes this as such. I quote from the FINAL DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT: "In the event there is a conflict between the requirements of the PUD and the Design Guidelines, or between the PUD and this Agreement, the requirements of the PUD shall control." p. 11

In a recent memo, city administration wrote that: "the proposed amendment to the Manhattan Market Place PUD is not a conventional rezoning from the City government perspective.

This raises some serious questions about what is the City government’s perspective: is it that of the staff, or the commission from whom nothing has been voiced until tonight? And who does the commission represent if but not the City, and is not the City the comprised of the people who live in it?

Again, I reiterate what I said earlier: While the City resources may be deeply invested in this redevelopment effort, the City needs to follow the same zoning procedures applicable to any applicant. In fact, the City should be a model applicant.

The memo goes on to state: "This particular PUD is part of a larger project in which the City is an active participant. It is a redevelopment project that not only has been approved by action of the City Commission but in which the City is a financial partner."

I take a different view of this. DIAL is supposed to be the economic tool whereby the community achieves its vision for redevelopment. What we have here is DIAL’s vision of redevelopment, one that does not conform to the wishes and aspirations of the community.

3. Whether the proposed amendment will result in a relative gain to the public health, safety, convenience or general welfare, and is not granted solely to confer a special benefit upon any person. (IX-21)

I don’t see a relative gain to the public health, safety, convenience or general welfare, but I do see granting a special benefit to DIAL as it has not made a case that conditions have changed in or around the PUD. Moreover, the tax revenue implications means that City revenues will suffer and thereby place a higher than warranted burden on taxpayers.

In conclusion, the ordinances establishing the Redevelopment Plans make it clear that, and I quote:

"The Project Plan permits the community, through its elected and appointed officials, as well as through input from its citizenry, to control the redevelopment of the City’s central business district in such a way that the design of the development is compatible with the desires of the community."

In this light, this amendment does not meet this objective at all.

What we have here, is DIAL’s plan for redevelopment, not that of the community’s as represented in the PUD.

In Summary:

1. In keeping with the stated goals of the ordinances that created this PUD in the first place, this proposed amendment does not represent the "input from the citizenry to control the redevelopment in a way compatible with the desires of the community."

2. The City is more than the opinion of its staff. The City embraces all of the citizens who live within its boundaries. Therefore, to meet the stated goals of the ordinances creating the PUD it is incumbent for the Planning Board and the City Commission to represent the will of the City writ large, which has expressed its overwhelming opposition to this proposed amendment.

3. The City staff has not made a case for this being an exceptional zoning request.

4. The proposed amendment to this PUD is not in conformance with the City Land Use Plan.

A. The amendment does not fit with the adjacent neighborhood

B. The apartments are a poor fit for the community in terms of design and economic viability

C. The amendment does not take into consideration current & future economic impacts on existing and future investments

5. The amendment is unnecessary because the applicant has not demonstrated any changed conditions in the environment of the current PUD – "to further revitalization efforts" is not a changed condition.

6. The current PUD meets only the minimum of community expectations and goals for the North End Redevelopment, and the proposed amendment reduces, not enhances, the quality of the current PUD.

7. Does the denial of this proposed amendment force an abandonment of the South End Project? Absolutely not!

There are viable options, which are beyond the responsibility of the Planning Board to devise. These are political questions suitable for the community to undertake and the Commission to implement.

A denial of this proposed will force DIAL to conform to the community expectations and goals as expressed in the original PUD.

There is less harm in admitting to making past mistakes, and in formulating a different way toward doing the South End than there is in approving an amendment that is unimaginative and produces low quality results.

Only a lack of will and imagination will force an abandonment of the South End Redevelopment, and not the denial of this proposed amendment to the PUD.

8. Most importantly, the financing of the South End Redevelopment, including the acquisition of STAR bonds, must not be the driving factor in the acceptance or denial of this PUD amendment. The standards for PUDs in the city of Manhattan should not be treated as inconvenient obstacles in the pursuit of a downtown redevelopment plan that has fallen far below the expectations of the original PUD and the general public.

The Final Development Agreement affirms this position:

"In the event there is a conflict between the requirements of the PUD and the Design Guidelines, or between the PUD and this Agreement, the requirements of the PUD shall control." p. 11

For the reasons that I have stated above, I will not support DIAL’s request to amend the PUD.

It's still not just Imus

From Media Matters. Visit them at: http://mediamatters.org/index

Media Matters for America usually takes the opportunity at the end of the year to name a Misinformer of the Year, an individual or media entity who in that year has made a noteworthy "contribution" to the advancement of conservative misinformation. This year -- a year in which Don Imus was removed from his decades-long radio program following a reference to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" (Imus returned to the air in December) -- Media Matters has decided to change the focus of the year-end item. The Imus controversy resulted in intense media attention to the subject of speech concerning race and gender. At the time, Media Matters thought it necessary to remind the media that "It's not just Imus" -- that speech targeting, among other characteristics, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity permeates the airwaves, through personalities including Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Michael Savage. But offensive and degrading speech is not limited to conservative media personalities and "shock jocks," although they are, of course, well-represented on any such list. As Media Matters has documented throughout this year, speech that targets or casts in a negative light race, gender, religion, ethnicity, national origin, and sexual orientation can be found throughout the media, and it often bears directly on politics and policy. That speech has earned the title of Misinformation of the Year 2007.

Race or national origin

• Fox News host John Gibson, discussing events surrounding the so-called Jena Six during the September 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated Fox News Radio show, asserted that the demonstrators who had gathered the previous week in Jena, Louisiana, "wanna fight the white devil." Gibson aired news coverage of the Jena 6 protests and challenged protestors' claims that the incidents in Jena were representative of ongoing racism in this country. He said: "[W]hat they're worried about is a mirage of 1950s-style American segregation, racism from the South. They wanna fight the white devil. ... [T]here's no -- can't go fight the black devil. Black devils stalking their streets every night gunning down their own people -- can't go fight that. That would be snitchin'."
  
  Gibson also stated during the October 10 broadcast of his radio show, while discussing an incident in which a student shot four people at his Cleveland high school before killing himself, that "I know the shooter was white. I knew it as soon as he shot himself. Hip-hoppers don't do that. They shoot and move on to shoot again."
• Nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage claimed on Martin Luther King Day (January 15) that "civil rights" has become a "con" and asserted, "It's a racket that is used to exploit primarily heterosexual, Christian, white males' birthright and steal from them what is their birthright and give it to people who didn't qualify for it."
• On the February 7 edition of the Christian Broadcasting Network's 700 Club, host Pat Robertson said that people who have received too much plastic surgery "got the eyes like they're Oriental" while he put his fingers up to the side of his face.
• Discussing a dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia's, during the September 19 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Bill O'Reilly stated that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." Later, during a discussion with National Public Radio senior correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams about the effect of rap on culture, O'Reilly said: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' You know, I mean, everybody was -- it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all." O'Reilly also stated: "I think black Americans are starting to think more and more for themselves. They're getting away from the Sharptons and the [Rev. Jesse] Jacksons and the people trying to lead them into a race-based culture. They're just trying to figure it out. 'Look, I can make it. If I work hard and get educated, I can make it.'"
• On the June 18 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Neal Boortz advocated building a "double fence along the Mexican border, and stop the damn invasion." Boortz continued: "I don't care if Mexicans pile up against that fence like tumbleweeds in the Santa Ana winds in Southern California. Let 'em. You know, then just run a couple of taco trucks up and down the line, and somebody's gonna be a millionaire out of that."
  
  On the June 11 edition of his show, a caller asked, "Why can't we just load them on planes and keep on loading them until they're back?" Boortz later responded, "We're not gonna throw these people out of airplanes with taco-shaped parachutes."
  
  During his June 21 show, Boortz offered a suggestion he said he got from a listener's email: "When we defeat this illegal alien amnesty bill, and when we yank out the welcome mat, and they all start going back to Mexico, as a going away gift let's all give them a box of nuclear waste." Boortz continued: "Give 'em all a little nuclear waste and let 'em take it on down there to Mexico. Tell 'em it can -- it'll heat tortillas."
• In his book Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart (Thomas Dunne Books, November 2007), MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan writes that America is "on a path to national suicide" and later asks: "How is America committing suicide?" answering: "Every way a nation can." He proceeds to claim that "[t]he American majority is not reproducing itself. ... Forty-five million of its young have been destroyed in the womb since Roe v. Wade, as Asian, African, and Latin American children come to inherit the estate the lost generation of American children never got to see." On the November 26 edition of Hannity & Colmes, Buchanan asserted: "You've got a wholesale invasion, the greatest invasion in human history, coming across your southern border, changing the composition and character of your country. You've got the melting pot that once welded us all together, which has broken down."
• On the May 17 edition of his radio program, Savage labeled Hispanic advocacy group the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) "the Ku Klux Klan of the Hispanic people." Savage also said of NCLR, "This is the most stone racist group I've ever seen in this country!" despite noting, "It's true they haven't hung anybody."
• During his July 5 radio show, Savage discussed a hunger strike organized by five students in the San Francisco area to show their support for The DREAM Act, a provision of the 2007 comprehensive immigration bill that was blocked in the Senate on June 28 (S.1639). The DREAM (or Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act would provide a pathway to citizenship and other benefits for certain illegal immigrants who entered the United States before the age of 16 if they graduate from high school and enroll in either college or the military. In discussing the students, Savage stated: "I would say, let them fast until they starve to death then that solves the problem. Because then we won't have a problem about giving them green cards because they're illegal aliens, they don't belong here to begin with." The DREAM Act was later brought up in the Senate as a stand-alone bill (S.2205). That bill was also blocked.
• On the January 16 broadcast of his radio show, O'Reilly agreed with a caller's assertion that illegal immigrants "bring corrupting influences" to the United States, including "a third-world value system" that "can corrupt the education system." O'Reilly replied: "Absolutely. And that's why the dropout rate is so high."

Gender

• During the December 17 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, while discussing endorsements Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) received for her presidential campaign, host Chris Matthews claimed: "Every day I pick up the paper and there's another quote out there from somebody who's a wannabe, saying whatever the Clinton people told them to say apparently." Moments later, Matthews asked Financial Times U.S. managing editor Chrystia Freeland: "[A]ren't you appalled at the willingness of these people to become castratos in the eunuch chorus here or whatever they are?"
• On the March 20 edition of MSNBC show, Tucker Carlson said of Hillary Clinton: "[T]here's just something about her that feels castrating, overbearing, and scary." Carlson has also said: "[W]hen she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs."
• Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh repeatedly used the expression "testicle lockbox," suggesting that Clinton has one.
• On the March 15 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Glenn Beck said: "Hillary Clinton cannot be elected president because ... there's something about her vocal range." He went on to say, "There's something about her voice that just drives me -- it's not what she says, it's how she says it," adding, "She is like the stereotypical -- excuse the expression, but this is the way to -- she's the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?" Beck also asked: "[A]fter four years, don't you think every man in America will go insane?" and pleaded, "I'm sorry for being such a pig. But please, America. Please. I don't think I could do it for four years. I mean, sure the country is going to go to hell in a handbasket, but could we make this about me for a second? I just don't think I could take it from her." He also said that "there is a range in women's voices that experts say is just the chalk, I mean, the fingernails on the blackboard."
• On November 12, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (AZ) fielded a question from a woman who asked, "How do we beat the bitch?" On the November 14 edition of CNN's American Morning, during a discussion with co-anchor Kiran Chetry about McCain's response to the question, Politico chief political correspondent Mike Allen said, "[W]hat Republican voter hasn't thought that? What voter in general hasn't thought that?"
• On the October 15 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, Carlson asserted that "the Clinton campaign says: 'Hillary isn't running as a woman.' ...Well, that's actually completely false, considering the Hillary campaign -- and I get their emails -- relentlessly pushes the glass ceiling argument. 'You should vote for her because she's a woman.' They say that all the time." Guest Cliff May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, responded: "At least call her a Vaginal-American."
• Discussing Rep. Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) speech following her election as the nation's first female Speaker of the House, Limbaugh noted on the January 5 broadcast of his show that Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) said that, in Limbaugh's words, "his 2-year-old daughter ... is inspired by Nancy Pelosi's ascension to the speakership." Limbaugh then commented, "His 2-year-old can't possibly know who Pelosi is other than as a cartoon figure on television. Maybe Pelosi breastfed him, I don't know, when the kid was pregnant. Who knows? She's capable of doing everything else." Limbaugh later added: "[L]ook at Ms. Pelosi. Why, she can multitask. She can breastfeed, she can clip her toenails, she can direct the House, all while the kids are sitting on her lap at the same time."
• On the December 12 broadcast of his radio show, Savage referred to Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and Pelosi as "yentas," said Harman should "[g]o home and cook verenikis," and suggested that the three were in office because they "have rich husbands who put them in power with their money, so they could have a little hobby in between getting their nails done." Savage later asked his "board operator" if he would rather "be waterboarded for 30 seconds or eat Jane Harman's ravioli" and whether he'd rather "be waterboarded or eat Nancy Pelosi's tortellini."

Religion

False attacks on Obama

• On January 17, the conservative online news magazine InsightMag.com published an article headlined "Hillary's team has questions about Obama's Muslim background." The article alleged that "researchers" connected to Clinton's campaign had "discovered" that Obama "was raised as a Muslim by his stepfather in Indonesia," and "spent at least four years in a so-called Madrassa, or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia." The article cited only unnamed "[s]ources close to the background check" on Obama. The story was quickly debunked by CNN and others, who found that the Indonesian school Obama attended as a child was not a "madrassa," and that claims of Obama's "Muslim background" were based largely on incomplete and inaccurate reporting. After investigating these claims, the Chicago Tribune reported that "Obama was not a regular practicing Muslim when he was in Indonesia." Moreover, as ABC News chief political correspondent Jake Tapper noted in a January 25 ABCNews.com post, the allegation that the Clinton campaign was behind the Obama smear was a "charge that remains unproven and unsubstantiated." Despite the Insight article's thin sourcing and the fact that it was quickly debunked, the article became a flash point for a smear against Obama that has persisted in the media.
• On January 23, KSFO Morning Show hosts Melanie Morgan and Lee Rodgers repeated the accusation that "researchers connected to" Clinton have said that Obama "spent at least four years in a so-called madrassa, or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia." Rodgers stated that Obama "went to a Muslim school, a madrassa they call it ... those things are funded by Saudi Arabia," adding, "It's basically a school for terrorists." Morgan noted that there was "controversy" surrounding the InsightMag.com story, but that "Insight magazine is standing by its story," and also charged that the story came from the presidential campaign of former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC).
• On the June 25 broadcast of his radio show, Savage said that Obama was "indoctrinated" by a "Muslim madrassa in Indonesia."
• In the April 12 edition of her "Notebook" video blog, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric asked, "Is America ready to elect a president who grew up praying in a mosque?" and proceeded to repeat debunked rumors surrounding Obama's childhood years in Indonesia. Couric claimed that Obama's "background sparked rumors that he had studied at a radical madrassa, or Quranic school -- rumors his campaign denied, declaring that Obama is now a practicing Christian." But Couric did not note in her initial posting that the rumors had been debunked. Couric's "Notebook" was later updated to note that the madrassa "rumors [were] later disproved" and that the source for the claim that Obama "grew up praying in a mosque" later backed off that assertion.

Smearing Obama's church

• During the "Obameter" segment on the February 7 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, Carlson claimed the church "sounds separatist to me" and "contradicts the basic tenets of Christianity," a subject Carlson said he was "actually qualified to discuss." Carlson pointed to the "disavowal of the pursuit of 'middleclassness' " in the church's tenets, calling the church's mission a "racially exclusive theology" and "a theology that ministers to one group of people, based on race." Carlson claimed that Trinity's theology is "racially exclusive" and "wrong," adding that "it's hard to call that Christianity."
• On the February 28 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Hannity stated that "many" call Trinity "separatist," adding that "in some cases, even drawing comparisons to a cult." Guest Erik Rush, a columnist for the conservative website WorldNetDaily, said that the church's "scary doctrine" is "something that you'd see in more like a cult or an Aryan Brethren Church or something like that." Hannity has also repeatedly accused Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright -- Trinity's pastor -- of holding "these black-separatist views, about the Black Value System" without mentioning Wright's explicit denial on the March 1 edition of Hannity & Colmes that his church embraces separatism. And on the December 19 edition of Hannity & Colmes, Hannity said: "You know, Barack Obama's pastor... has this whole list of the Black Value System. It seems like he's supporting a segregated church."

Coulter's comments about Jews

• During the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea, host Donny Deutsch asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: "If you had your way ... and your dreams, which are genuine, came true ... what would this country look like?" Coulter responded, "It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that's what I think heaven is going to look like." She described the convention as follows: "People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America." Deutsch then asked, "It would be better if we were all Christian?" to which Coulter responded, "Yes." Later in the discussion, Deutsch said to her: "[Y]ou said we should throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians," and Coulter again replied, "Yes." When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws."
  
  After a commercial break, Deutsch said that "Ann said she wanted to explain her last comment," and asked her, "So you don't think that was offensive?" Coulter responded: "No. I'm sorry. It is not intended to be. I don't think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to live up to all the laws. What Christians believe -- this is just a statement of what the New Testament is -- is that that's why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don't believe our testament." Coulter later said: "We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian is not offensive at all."

Attacks on Islam or Muslims

• On the March 14 edition of Fox News' Your World With Neil Cavuto, Richard "Bo" Dietl, a private investigator and former New York City Police Department detective, discussed a lawsuit filed by six imams who were removed from a US Airways flight in 2006 and suggested that instead of flying, passengers such as the aforementioned imams should "call their cousin up there, Ali Baba Boo, and go by cab."
• On the June 12 edition of The 700 Club, following a report on Muslims in Minneapolis seeking religious accommodations at school and work, Robertson stated, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have to recognize that Islam is not a religion. It is a worldwide political movement meant on domination of the world. And it is meant to subjugate all people under Islamic law." He characterized the American Muslim community as "Islam light" and went on to say Muslims "want to take over and we want to impose Sharia on you. And before long, ladies are going to be dressed in burqas and whatever garments they would put on them, and next thing you know, men are going to be allowed to have wife-beating and you'll be beheading adulterers and so on and so forth."
• On the October 4 edition of his CNN Headline News show, Beck hosted Sharida McKenzie, a Muslim American who had recently organized the Muslim Peace March, to discuss a report that a Toronto mosque's website "says that Muslims should stay completely away from Halloween, Christmas, New Year's, anniversaries, birthdays, and Earth Day." During the discussion, Beck asked: "But how do we know the difference -- I mean, you're reasonable. How do we know the difference between you and those that are trying to kill us?"

Sexual identity or orientation

• During a March 2 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Coulter said she "can't really talk about" Democratic presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (NC) because "you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot' " -- a comment that drew loud applause from the CPAC audience. Then on the March 6 broadcast of Hannity's nationally syndicated radio show, Coulter defended her comment, explaining: "I don't think there's anything offensive about any variation of faggy, faggotry, faggot, fag. It's a schoolyard taunt. It means -- it means wussy." She went on to conclude that "faggot" is a "totally excellent word."
• In 2007, Savage claimed that same-sex marriage "makes me want to puke" and that same-sex parenting is "child abuse"; blamed sexual reassignment surgery for the Columbine massacre; pointed to sexual reassignment surgery and lesbian fertility clinics in claiming that the September 11 terrorist attacks "was God speaking"; referred to Media Matters as "a gay smear sheet," the "homosexual mafia," and the "gay Mafioso"; and declared that a "loving, kind lesbian" is "the type that stuffed ovens in Hitler's concentration camps."
• On the July 11 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly objected to the San Diego Padres' decision to host a gay pride night and a children's hat giveaway promotion during the same July 8 baseball game, claiming that "cluster[ing]" gays near children is "insane" and "inappropriate." After a viewer challenged him by noting that "kids are around gays every day, O'Reilly elaborated on his position on the July 12 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, saying that "thousands" of gays in one place "can be confusing to children."
• In an August 21 post on his CBNnews.com blog, Christian Broadcasting Network senior national correspondent David Brody addressed a federal complaint filed against then-presumptive Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson by blogger Lane Hudson, writing: "Well, now Fred Thompson has an angry girlfriend. His name (don't go there) is Lane Hudson." Since then, Brody had appeared three times on NBC's Meet the Press and four times on MSNBC's Hardball to discuss the 2008 presidential race. Despite referring to a male blogger as Thompson's "angry girlfriend," Brody was invited to appear on the September 9 broadcast of Meet the Press to discuss the election.

Congress's Bullying Pulpit

By Sally Quinn
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Washington Post

As a child, I went to a small school in rural Alabama near an Army post where my father was stationed. It was a very Christian town, and our teacher was "born again."

This was decades ago, but I remember clearly how she used to tell us that we must accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior. Then she would ask for hands to see who had. By age 11 I had become a nonbeliever. My father was in the Army and had fought in World War II and Korea; I concluded quickly that no loving God could have allowed those atrocities to be committed.

But we had all seen our teacher, when crossed, call an unlucky member of our class up to the front of the room, make the student lie down on her desk and be paddled. The humiliation was worse than the pain. So, when she called on us to admit that we had accepted Jesus as our savior, I dutifully raised my hand.

Thank goodness, those days are over, you might be thinking. Nothing like that could happen in this country today.

Well, think again. It happened this month, right here in Washington.

On Dec. 11, H.R. 847 was passed in the House of Representatives. Just listen to what our lawmakers have resolved:

"Whereas Christmas, a holiday of great significance to Americans," it begins, "is celebrated annually by Christians throughout the United States. . . ." It goes on to state, among other things, that "Christianity [is] the religion of over three-fourths of the American population," that "American Christians observe Christmas, the holiday celebrating the birth of their savior, Jesus Christ," and that "Christmas is celebrated as a recognition of God's redemption, mercy, and Grace."

"Now, therefore be it Resolved, that the House of Representatives . . . expresses continued support for Christians in the United States . . . acknowledges and supports the role played by Christians and Christianity in the founding of the United States . . . rejects bigotry and persecution directed against Christians, both in the United States and worldwide; and expresses its deepest respect to American Christians."

For brevity, I have omitted the resolution's references to Christianity around the world.

This resolution passed with 195 Democratic yea votes, 177 Republican yeas and nine Democratic nays. No Republicans voted against it. Ten House members voted "present." Forty were not there, including the bill's sponsor, Rep. Steve King of Iowa.

Among those voting for the resolution was a Jewish member of Congress who has asked me not to print his name. He was outraged and appalled by the bill, he told me. But he was also afraid. He thought it would hurt him with his mostly Christian constituency if he voted against it. He told some of his colleagues about his anguish. They advised him not to be stupid. It would be better for him politically if he voted for it.

It's possible that the 10 who voted "present" also had problems with the bill but decided it was safer not to vote against it. One could also assume that some of those who were absent were not there so as not to have to deal with the problem.

Earlier this year the House also passed resolutions honoring Islamic and Indian holidays but nothing that so equated a single faith with America and Americans.

How could this happen, in what will soon be 2008, in a pluralistic, multicultural, multireligious society, a society based on the concepts of religious freedom and separation of church and state? What were they thinking?

This resolution was as anti-American as anything Congress has ever passed. It disenfranchised and marginalized millions and millions of men and women, reducing them to second-class citizens.

How about this next time around: "Whereas all holidays have great significance to some Americans, be it resolved that the House of Representatives expresses its deepest respect to Americans of all faiths and non-faith alike."

The writer is a co-moderator, with Jon Meacham, of On Faith, an online conversation on religion at http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith.

Some other points of view:


Posted by one of the many bloggers who picked up the 12/21/07 "Military Evangelism Deeper, Wider Than First Thought" article from truthout.org


Posted in the comments on the 12/19/07 "'God's Basic Training' Coming under Fire" article on Military.com

Closer to Home:

Claim says Fort Riley violates freedom: Ongoing lawsuit adds evidence to bolster religious freedom charge

By John Milburn

The Associated Press

Published Wednesday, December 19, 2007

A religious freedom foundation has uncovered evidence it says bolsters its federal lawsuit claiming that the military is permitting widespread violations of religious freedom at installations across the country, including Fort Riley.

The evidence is part of a lawsuit filed by Army Spc. Jeremy Hall and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation against Maj. Freddy J. Welborn and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The evidence disclosed Tuesday includes several photos and videos of religious materials and activities at Fort Riley, the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Fort Jackson, S.C.

Examples at Fort Riley, where Hall is stationed, included a display outside his military police battalion's office with a quote from conservative columnist Ann Coulter saying, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

Another photo from Fort Riley shows the book "A Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam" for sale at the post exchange.

"These astonishing and saddening evidence which our foundation is making public today only further buttress our lawsuit filed in federal district court," said Mike Weinstein, an attorney in Albuquerque, N.M., and president of the foundation who graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1977.

Fort Riley spokesman Maj. Nathan Bond said the matter was being referred to post commanders for investigation. He said it is the Army's policy to accommodate all religious beliefs to the extent they don't conflict with military missions.

"We do take this seriously," Bond said. "The things you have mentioned to me, if they are true, do not seem in line with the Army values of respect, and we will look into it."

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., in September, alleges Welborn threatened to file military charges against Hall and to block his reenlistment for trying to hold a meeting of atheists and non-Christians in Iraq.

Hall was serving his second tour in Iraq and has since returned to the United States. He is with the 97th Military Police Battalion out of Fort Riley.

The suit also alleges Gates permits a military culture in which officers are encouraged to pressure soldiers to adopt and espouse fundamentalist Christian beliefs. It also alleges Gates allows a culture that sanctions activities by Christian organizations, including providing personnel and equipment.

It also says the military permits proselytizing by soldiers, tolerates anti-Semitism and the placing of religious symbols on military equipment, and allows the use of military e-mail accounts to send religious rhetoric.

The Pentagon has said that the military values and respects religious freedoms but that accommodating religious practices shouldn't interfere with unit cohesion, readiness, standards or discipline.

Evidence Weinstein made public Tuesday included a video, reportedly from Campus Crusade for Christ International, that shows Air Force cadets participating in religious gatherings at the Colorado installation. In interviews, cadets say the ministry allows them to network and combat the isolation that they feel once the arrive as freshmen.

Weinstein also said that Military Ministry, part of Campus Crusade for Christ International, was active at Fort Jackson with an effort called "God's Basic Training." Included in the evidence were photographs of soldiers posing with a rifle in one hand and a Bible in the other.

Weinstein said the materials for the ministry's Bible studies teach soldiers that the U.S. military and government are instruments to spread the word of God.

A spokeswoman for Campus Crusade for Christ International said officials with the ministry hadn't had a chance to review the evidence and declined to comment.

Weinstein previously has sued the Air Force for acts he said illegally imposed Christianity on its students at the academy. A federal judge threw out that lawsuit in 2006.

Doctors Without Borders Lists Top 10 Most Underrated HumanitarianStories of 2007

From Doctors Without Borders, December 20, 2007

Displaced Fleeing War in Somalia Face Humanitarian Crisis

As violence in Somalia escalated this year to some of the worst levels in over 15 years, both assistance for and attention to one of the most challenging and acute humanitarian situations in the world seemed to wane. Ethiopian troops and Transitional Federal Government forces, supported by international partners such as the United States and the European Union, clashed with a range of armed groups, including remnants of the Islamic Courts Union. The fighting caused an unknown number of civilian casualties and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from the capital, Mogadishu.

In 2007, MSF increased its presence in Mogadishu in different locations and opened an emergency response program in Afgooye, just outside the capital, where an estimated 200,000 internally displaced persons sought refuge, living in extremely harsh conditions with little access to food, water, and shelter. Many of those remaining in Mogadishu are staying in makeshift camps with little more than ripped cloth and plastic sheeting for shelter and are exposed to a high degree of violence.

In a country where a 16-year conflict has resulted in some of the world’s worst health indicators, with an estimated life expectancy of 47 years, few international aid organizations managed to run effective independent aid programs. Present since 1991, MSF increased its operations in 2007 and is now running projects in 10 out of the 11 regions of south and central Somalia. Nevertheless in many areas, especially in the Mogadishu area, MSF is extremely frustrated by its inability to reach more patients due to security concerns.

In August, MSF called upon all parties to the conflict to respect the safety of medical workers and allow access to medical care in and around Mogadishu. Throughout MSF hospitals, from Kismayo to Galcayo, the medical services provided range from primary and maternal to surgical care, with nurses and doctors treating malnutrition, tuberculosis, kala azar, cholera, and war-related trauma on a daily basis.


Political and Economic Turmoil Sparks Health-Care Crisis in Zimbabwe

Women queue to collect water from a spring outside the capital city of Harare. Zimbabweans, especially those in high-density areas, are facing massive water shortages.

Rampant unemployment, skyrocketing inflation, food shortages, and political instability continued to wrack Zimbabwe in 2007. Up to 3 million people are believed to have fled to neighboring countries in recent years among a population of 12 million.

The national health-care system, once viewed as one of the strongest in southern Africa, now threatens to collapse under the weight of this political and economic turmoil with the most acute consequences potentially for the estimated 1.8 million Zimbabweans living with HIV/AIDS. Currently, less than one-fourth of the people in urgent need of life-extending antiretroviral (ARV) treatment receive it. This translates into an average of 3,000 deaths every week. And the prospects for a further scale up of the national AIDS program are dim.

Trained medical professionals are leaving the country, the government program for HIV/AIDS treatment is oversubscribed, and the lack of ARV supplies has stifled further expansion. Patients often face obstacles to reach hospitals or clinics because of high fuel and transport prices.

Through programs in Bulawayo, Tshlotsho, Gweru, Epworth, and various locations in Manicaland province, MSF provides free medical care to 33,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, 12,000 of whom are receiving ARV treatment—nearly one tenth of all people on treatment. However, MSF’s ability to care for more people in need is hindered by the lack of trained health workers, restrictions on which staff can prescribe ARV drugs, and stricter administrative requirements for international staff to work in the country.

At the same time, Zimbabweans are feeling the health impact of degraded or nonexistent water-and-sanitation systems. During the year, outbreaks of diarrhea affected people living in the capital, Harare, and Bulawayo, the second largest city. Fleeing the country is also a dangerous enterprise as evidenced by the reports of refugees being beaten and raped along the South African border, and those who do make it across may be destined to live in the shadows with little or no access to health care.

Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Spreads As New Drugs Go Untested

Every year, tuberculosis (TB) kills an estimated two million people and another nine million develop the disease. In spite of the rising human toll, there have been no advances in treatment since the 1960s and the most commonly used diagnostic test—sputum smear microscopy—was developed in 1882 and only detects TB in half of the cases. An estimated $900 million is needed annually for research and development for TB, but only $206 million is invested worldwide.

Existing treatments and diagnostics are even less adapted for people living with HIV/AIDS, the easiest prey for the TB bacilli. And for those who become infected with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB)—more than 450,000 people every year—or develop it as a result of incomplete treatment, the prospects for survival are even bleaker. The only guarantee for the few who are able to access treatment for MDR-TB is up to 24 months of ingesting a daily cocktail of highly toxic and expensive drugs that often trigger violent side effects.

In MSF programs in Armenia, Abkhazia, Georgia, Cambodia, Kenya, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan, even under the best conditions, only 55 percent of MDR-TB patients completed the 18 to 24 month treatment. The remaining proportion died, did not improve, or stopped treatment altogether because of side effects.

Adding to the frustration for medical staff on the TB pandemic’s front line is the fact that not all new drugs are being tested in the neediest patients—those with MDR-TB. A recent article authored by international experts and published in the open-source medical journal PLoS Medicine, called for the testing of new drugs in patients whose TB is resistant to standard treatment. This approach could make it easier to detect anti-TB activity of new drugs and ultimately accelerate drug development.


Expanded Use of Nutrient Dense Ready-to-Use Foods Crucial for Reducing Childhood Malnutrition

Mothers feed their children a ready-to-use food (RUF) product called Plumpy’Doz at an MSF outpatient nutrition center in Maradi.

Acute malnutrition in early childhood is common in large areas of the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, and South Asia—the world’s “malnutrition hotspots.” Every year, malnutrition is associated with the deaths of five million children under the age of five.

Recently, an effective response has emerged in the form of nutrient dense ready-to-use foods (RUFs) that can save the lives of acutely malnourished children. These products come in the form of milk- and peanut-based pastes enriched with all the vitamins and nutrients needed for rapid recovery. And they do not require refrigeration or preparation, allowing most malnourished children to be treated with RUF at home. But so far these products are only available to a tiny fraction of the severely malnourished children who need them.

MSF urges international donors to support systematic purchasing and use of RUF in countries where it’s needed. RUF also has the potential to prevent children from becoming acutely malnourished by treating at earlier stages. This means international food aid programs targeting young children must incorporate RUFs to treat less severe forms of malnutrition and to prevent acute malnutrition from developing in areas of high prevalence.

In Niger in 2007, MSF launched a pilot program using a modified RUF as a supplement to prevent some 62,000 children from becoming malnourished during the period of seasonal food shortages. The program has helped to stanch a rise in acute malnutrition in one of the country’s high prevalence districts.

In addition to calling for urgent scale up of RUF for children most in need, MSF is urging further efforts to use supplemental RUF to prevent children from becoming dangerously malnourished in the first place.


Civilians Increasingly Under Fire in Sri Lankan Conflict

A wounded woman and child receive treatment at MSF’s surgical program in Vavuniya, a town close to the front lines of the ongoing conflict between government and rebel forces.

Caught in the middle of fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam (LTTE), civilians in Sri Lanka’s eastern and northern regions live in terror. Sri Lanka has been in the grips of this fighting on and off for nearly 25 years, but the conflict has received very little attention, especially in terms of the toll it has taken on civilians living in the conflict zone.

Targeted bombings, killings, mine attacks, suicide bombings, abductions, forced recruitment, extortion, restrictions on movement, and arbitrary arrests make day-to-day life in Sri Lanka increasingly precarious. Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans in need of humanitarian assistance have been displaced since the resumption of major fighting in August 2006.

The dire nature of the situation is compounded by a general climate of hostility and suspicion toward humanitarian aid organizations. As a result, humanitarian aid is increasingly restricted and civilians suffer from the resulting lack of access to lifesaving emergency assistance. This lack of respect for humanitarian aid comes at a time when areas near the front line of fighting have lost nearly all of their medical specialists and hospitals no longer have the human resources to treat the wounded.

After having to evacuate in late 2006, MSF is now providing medical, obstetrical, and surgical care in Point Pedro, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, and Mannar.


Conditions Worsen in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

A displaced woman recovers after amputation surgery in MSF’s Rutshuru Hospital in North Kivu province.

The headlines emerging from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2007 paid scant attention to the humanitarian crisis currently unfolding in the eastern province of North Kivu. More than a year after the first democratic elections in decades were supposed to bring stability to this conflict-ridden region, fighting between armed groups has continued in North Kivu.

Supported by MONUC, the UN force, the government is now in open combat with the forces of rebel leader Laurent Nkunda. A number of different groups such as the Mai Mai and the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) are involved in the fighting.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes in the past year, many of whom have been displaced multiple times. The displaced are often forced to hide in the forest, with little access to food or basic health care and under constant threat of attack from the various armed groups. With few avenues to receive health care, displaced Congolese are increasingly vulnerable to easily treatable diseases and conditions such as malnutrition, malaria, respiratory infections, and obstetrical complications. Outbreaks of cholera have struck Rutshuru and Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu.

MSF teams have reinforced their activities to try to meet the increasing medical needs, but fighting and insecurity make it difficult for humanitarian workers to deliver assistance to the population. Large areas remain inaccessible, with many roads simply cut off by the insecurity.

One particularly disturbing aspect of DRC’s conflict is the alarmingly high rate of sexual violence. In North Kivu, MSF cared for more than 2,375 victims of sexual violence from January through October 2007. In the DRC’s Ituri district, the setting of conflict between different armed groups from those operating in North Kivu, 150,000 internally displaced people are still unable to return home. In a state of utter destitution, they remain vulnerable to exploitation and assaults.

Through the Bon Marché hospital in Bunia, capital of the Ituri region, MSF has treated 7,400 rape victims over the last four years. More than one-third of these people were admitted over the last 18 months. MSF also responded this year to a number of disease outbreaks in other provinces, including an epidemic of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in southern West Kasai province.


Living Precariously in Colombia’s Conflict Zones

Graciela and her family are a few of the millions of Colombians who have had to flee their homes to escape fighting between government, rebel, and paramilitary forces over control of the country’s narcotics trade.

Largely fuelled by a fight over control of the narcotics trade, Colombia’s decades-old civil war often makes headlines, but its impact on the civilian population of the country is rarely the focus of attention.

Over the years, as many as 3.8 million people have been driven from their homes by violence brought on by government troops, paramilitary, and rebel forces battling for territorial control, ranking Colombia third in the world after Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo for the largest number of internally displaced people.

Armed groups have a stranglehold on roughly half of Colombia’s rural areas, depriving civilians of access to health care by making roads impassable, forcibly conscripting children into militias, and murdering those suspected of collaborating with rivals. These civilians are equally treated with suspicion of potentially “collaborating” with armed groups by Colombia’s armed forces and often face harsh reprisals as a result.

In desperation, families flee their homes for urban slums with little more than the clothes on their backs; and when they arrive, looking for work and shelter, they often find conditions that are as threatening as those they fled. Their new homes are overcrowded shacks without adequate facilities. The living conditions can lead to respiratory infections and diarrheal disease, but there is little access to health care. There are also very few internally displaced persons who have the option of returning safely to the homes they were forced to abandon.

MSF has a presence in 13 of Colombia’s 32 departments, working in isolated rural areas through mobile and stationary clinics and in urban areas where displaced families have gathered. Teams provide medical care ranging from vaccinations to reproductive care and emergency services, and offer psychological care to victims of violence. As the conflict in Colombia rolls into its sixth decade and armed groups continue to target civilians in their war for control, many Colombians do not remember a time when daily life was not ruled by guns and terror.


Humanitarian Aid Restricted in Myanmar

A father waits with his son to receive health care at an MSF clinic.

Isolated from the outside world since the ruling military junta came to power in 1962, the people of Myanmar (formerly named Burma) suffer from the consequences of repression and neglect.

The crackdown on monks marching for democracy in September brought international attention to this long-suffering population, but it did not expose what ordinary Burmese go through every day. Faced with high malaria and HIV rates, the impoverished population is provided with little assistance—only 1.4 percent of the regime’s budget supports health-care services.

In spite of the overwhelming need, there are few humanitarian aid groups working in the country and, for those on the ground, operating in an independent and impartial manner is difficult. Moreover, donor governments and agencies are reluctant to fund programs that might support the regime. Travel inside the country can require time-consuming visas, which can make responding to emergencies impossible and needs assessments challenging. In some regions, such as those gripped by armed conflict involving Karen and Mon rebels along the eastern border with Thailand, government restrictions have stymied humanitarian aid efforts, including MSF’s.

Some of the largest gaps in health services are in the western Rakhine state, where MSF treated 210,000 people for malaria in 2006. Muslims from Rakhine state, known as Rohingyas, live in particularly precarious circumstances. Denied citizenship rights by the state, this group suffers numerous forms of abuse. MSF provides basic medical care and HIV/AIDS treatment to Rohingyas.

The slow response to the country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic has fueled the spread of the disease. In Yangon, Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan states, MSF offers comprehensive HIV/AIDS programs, but these meet just a fraction of the need. While there is little independent information to shed light on the number of Burmese in clinical need of life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, of the UN-estimated 360,000 people who are living with HIV, only 10,000 are believed to be receiving ARVs. MSF provides ARV therapy to 8,000 of them. And even fewer have access to care for complicating diseases like tuberculosis. As a result, the UN estimates that 20,000 people die annually from HIV/AIDS.


Civilians Caught Between Armed Groups in Central African Republic

A mother sits with her child in Massabiou, a village that was attacked by armed militia in April, causing thousands to flee. Those who have returned are now destitute, struggling to survive without food, water, or shelter.

Fighting between government forces and various rebel groups in northern Central African Republic (CAR), which started in late 2005, has caused significant displacement of the population. In the northwest, villages have been attacked, pillaged, and burned, forcing people to flee into the surrounding, inhospitable forest, and severely restricting their access to health care. Civilians are also the victims of violence at the hands of roadside bandits.

In 2007, MSF supported health structures and provided primary and secondary health care in and around Kabo, Batangafo, Paoua, Kaga Bandoro, Markounda, and Boguila in the northwest, and Birao and Gordil in the northeast. In the first eight months of the year, more than 100,000 consultations were carried out and tens of thousands of people—many of them children under five years of age—were treated for malaria and other infectious diseases often associated with poor living conditions.

Acts of harassment and general insecurity frequently forced MSF to stop its mobile clinics on short notice, which sometimes left people without access to health care for up to eight weeks. In June, MSF aid worker Elsa Serfass was shot and killed by rebel gunfire, leading to a lengthy reduction of MSF operations in northwestern CAR. The violence in the northwest has also forced close to 30,000 people into neighboring Cameroon, where they have suffered from a lack of shelter, food, and medical assistance.

During the year, MSF carried out a nutrition intervention after alarming rates of malnutrition were discovered among children within this refugee population. Affected children were treated and MSF also carried out distributions of supplementary food rations. More than 45,000 CAR refugees also gathered in southern Chad, where MSF works in a district hospital and provides assistance to refugees in camps and local residents.

In parts of Vakaga province in northeastern CAR, home to approximately 45,000 people, violence between rebel groups and government troops has forced thousands of people to flee their destroyed homes and villages. Many sought safety in the nearby forest. The region suffers from a near-total lack of health care and MSF provided assistance to the beleaguered population through mobile and fixed clinics in Birao and Gordil.


As Chechen Conflict Ebbs, Critical Humanitarian Needs Still Remain

It has been nearly four years since the most intense fighting subsided between Russian government and rebel forces in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya. Tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs), who had fled to the neighboring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan, have returned to Chechnya. At the same time, reconstruction has increased in the Chechen capital, Grozny, the scene of indiscriminate bombing less than a decade ago, and the republic’s airport has been reopened.

Yet the Caucasus region remains highly volatile. Fighting outside Chechnya has increased and a large military presence still inhabits the region. Abductions, disappearances, assassinations, and bombings continue in Ingushetia, North Ossetia, and Dagestan. Inside Chechnya, the security situation is still precarious for civilians. Dangers may range from being caught in the middle of sporadic gunfire to getting into a car accident involving heavy military vehicles, the latter recently having become a common cause of trauma.

Basic health services, particularly in the areas of obstetrical and gynecological care, are woefully lacking and, when available, remain out of reach for many impoverished returnees. Through clinics in and around Grozny, MSF and local Chechen doctors see a population with high levels of chronic illness, including lung, kidney, and cardiovascular diseases.

Furthermore, the MSF teams also witness widespread needs for psychosocial care, caused by years of exposure to violence and displacement. An MSF survey of IDPs living in temporary accommodation centers in Ingushetia and Chechnya found that nearly all the people interviewed were suffering from anxiety, insomnia, or depression.

Chechnya’s wars also took their toll on the republic’s tuberculosis (TB) control system. As a result, MSF supports TB hospitals serving a population of 400,000. And many survivors of the wars still need care for crippling injuries. MSF has tried to meet some of this need by operating a reconstructive surgery program in Grozny hospital No. 9 since 2006.

This article is from Doctors Without Borders. If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to visit their Web site and register an account, if necessary, to view all their articles on the Web. Support quality journalism.

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Impeach Cheney

Rep. Robert Wexler (FL-19) and two other Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee - Luis Gutierrez (IL-04) and Tammy Baldwin (WI-02) - today called on the committee to begin impeachment hearings for Vice President Cheney.

They declared, "The charges are too serious to ignore. There is credible evidence that the Vice President abused the power of his office, and not only brought us into an unneccesary war but violated the civil liberties and privacy of American citizens. It is the constitutional duty of Congress to hold impeachment hearings."

The three Democrats wrote an op-ed to announce their position, but none of the nation's leading newspapers would publish it - just as they refuse to include impeachment in their polls, and just as they refuse to publish their own investigations of the crimes of the Bush Administration. Why? Because the Corporate Media is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party, as it has been since the Reagan Revolution of 1980.

You can read the full op-ed at Rep. Wexler's new site - http://wexlerwantshearings.com - where you can also watch a powerful video by Wexler.

Rep. Wexler needs to collect 50,000 signatures to convince his Democratic colleagues that the American people truly support impeachment hearings. So please sign his petition:
http://wexlerwantshearings.com

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