Police today arrested 21 people and charged them with trespassing for entering the Bush/Cheney '04 campaign offices and chaining themselves to the entrance of the building. Those arrested were among about 100 AIDS/HIV activists who showed up this afternoon to protest White House policies at Bush's reelection headquarters in Arlington, Va.

"Under the Bush administration, the Ryan White Care Act has been flat-funded as the number of people with AIDS has increased," said Terri Smith-Caronia, director of New York public policy for Housing Works Inc., a non-profit AIDS/HIV advocacy group that organized the protest. "They have refused to increase the funding to keep up, and that equals a cut in services. It's particularly ironic because it's the law his father signed into law."

She was also critical of Dick Cheney's statement during the vice presidential debate that he was unaware of the sharp increase in the number of black women living with AIDS and HIV. She said some of the protesters who chained themselves to the front of the campaign headquarters were HIV positive.

"These are the women that Cheney doesn't know exists," she said.