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VASHINGTON (AP) — Congress
eApened Wednesday with lawmak-
irs demanding a swift response to
he devastating terror attacks in
New York and Washington.
Hn a day devoted entirely to the attacks,'
;he common theme was that terrorists who
crashed hijacked jets into the twin towers of
the World Trade Center and into the
Pentagon had committed an act of war
ag$mst the United States.
■When diplomacy fails, said the Senate's
second-ranked Democrat, Harry Reid of
Nevada, “We must use military force in this
wai against terrorism.”
■“We will rid this world of the
stench of your existence,” Rep. Shelley
Berkley, D-Nevada, said of the terror
ists. “There is no such thing as a meas
ured response to this horrific attack.
This act of war will be avenged.”
■Both the House and Senate took up a res
olution condemning terrorism and express
ing solidarity with the president in his deter
mination to “punish the perpetrators of these
attacks, as well as their sponsors.”
■ A room was set up in a House office
building for lawmakers to donate blood.
■ Lawmakers also began work on a request
from President Bush for an unspecified
amount of emergency funding to help vic
tims, begin reconstruction and bolster
defenses against terrorism.
'On Tuesday senators and representa
tives were ordered out of their offices in
what Capitol Police said was the first
mandatory evacuation ever of the entire
Capitol complex. Lawmakers were eager
to get back to work Wednesday because.
Senate Republican leader Trent Lott
said, “It’s so important that we show
that even these terrible acts cannot stop
America from going forward.”
Bin Laden is at war with the
United States, and it is time that
we reciprocate.
— Sen. Arlen Specter,
R-Pennsylvania
“Yesterday changed our world,” House
chaplain, the Rev. Daniel P. Coughlin, said in
his opening prayer before an unusually well-
attended session. “Today we are changed.”
Australian Prime Minister John Howard
had been scheduled to address a joint session
of Congress on Wednesday. That was can
celed, but Howard attended the House open
ing, sitting in the visitors’ gallery in what
House Speaker Dennis Hasten termed a
show of solidarity with Americans.
Both the House and Senate broke during
the day for closed-door briefings with
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and
other Cabinet secretaries. Congressional
leaders also went to the White House to con
fer with the president.
Beyond the resolutions of unity, sever
al members were proposing concrete
action: Sen. Arlen Specter, R-
Pennsylvania, suggested that Congress
officially declare war against Osama bin
Laden, the top suspect in the terrorist
attacks, and his coconspirators. “Bin
Laden is at war with the United States,
and it is time that we reciprocate,” he said.
Reid recommended that Congress create
an office whose head would oversee the
nation's fight against terrorists. Sen. Kay
Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said she would
propose legislation to put sky marshals on
random commercial aircraft.
There were voices of restraint: Rep.
John Conyers, D-Michigan, whose home
town of Detroit has a large Arab-American
population, saw a “real danger that this
tragedy could result in prejudice, discrimina
tion and crimes of hate against Arab-
Americans and others.”
Rep. David Dreier, R-Califomia, said he
had a problem with a declaration of war
against bin Laden while the role and involve
ment of the Saudi-born, Afghanistan-based
militant was still unclear.
Almost all committee hearings scheduled
for Wednesday were canceled. One that did
go forward, in the Senate Governmental
Affairs Committee, examined the terrorist
threat to the nation’s computer and telecom
munications systems.
“If we are serious about commencing a
war against terrorism,” said Rep. Joe
Lieberman, D-Connecticut, the panel’s
chairman, “we have to understand it’s going
to be a different kind of war.”
ftf NEWS IN BRIEF
College Station City Council considers
tax rate increase
A proposed tax increase is on the agenda for the College Station
City Council meeting today.
The proposed property rate hike would raise taxes to $0.4777 per
$100 valuation.
The proposed tax increase would generate an estimated $11.9 mil
lion to offset the city's general debt and help fund the city's mainte
nance requirements. If the council considers increasing tax revenues
by more than three percent over the effective tax rate, it must hold a
public hearing.
The city council will schedule a public hearing for the tax rate and
announce when the vote on the tax rate will be taken.
Also on the agenda, the council will vote whether or not to adopt a
proposed budget for the 2001-2002 year. The total of the proposed
budget is $154,835,922, a decrease from last year’s total budget of
$172,387,643. This decrease follows the decrease in the number of
College Station capital projects.
Other issues to be discussed include the donation of properties to
Habitat for Humanity, consideration of professional auditing con
tracts, rezoning and gas operations.
Prior to the regular meeting, a workshop will be held to discuss
issues that are important to College Station residents. The workshop
will begin at 3 p.m.
Bryan City Council approves $215
million budget, sanitary rates increase
The Bryan City Council approved a $215 million budget Tuesday for
the 2001-2002 fiscal year, which will begin Oct. 1.
The council did not raise property tax rates, but rates for city serv
ices will increase. Property owners will have to pay more for water,
sewage and garbage collection.
While the budget focused on maintaining current city services, it did
give funding to some new programs. The city will spend $4 million on
a radio and mapping system that will improve communication
between police, fire and other city departments. The city will also add
a litter-cleanup program, which will consist of four new employees
who will pick up trash on city streets daily.
The budget, which is $49 million less than the previous year’s
budget, was passed unanimously and without comment from citizens
or council members.
See Bryan on page 6.
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Darwin s deadline has come. The claims of Darwin s
theory have not been verified, and evolutionary theory
continues to face problems it cannot solve.
Meanwhile, information theorist William Dembski claims
another explanation for life’s origin:
Intelligent Design
William A. Dembski is a mathematician, philosopher and associate
research professor at Baylor University and a senior fellow with
Discovery Institute’s Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture in
Seattle. Dr. Dembski has taught at Northwestern University and the
University of Notre Dame. He completed postdoctoral work in mathe
matics at MIT, in physics at the University of Chicago, and in computer
science at Princeton University. At the University of Illinois at Chicago
he earned an M.S. in statistics and a Ph.d. in philosophy. He also holds a
doctorate in mathematics from the University of Chicago and a master
of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. Dr. Dembski has
published articles and books on mathematics, philosophy, and theology.
His book titled The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance Through
Small Probabilities (Cambridge University Press) examines the design
argument in a post-Darwinian context and analyzes the connections link
ing chance, probability, and intelligent causation.
The Christian Faculty Network at Texas A&M University will be
hosting the Veritas Forum and Distinguished Lecture program series for
the 2001-2002 academic year. Dr. Bill DembskPs lecture on
Intelligent Design is titled “Darwin’s Unpaid Debt”
September 18,2001
8:00 pm
Rudder Theater
Sponsored by
Christian Faculty Network
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