#116 WILD NORTHWEST, January 26, 2005
A Message from Northwest Ecosystem Alliance
=====Keeping the Northwest Wild=====

Protect Imperiled Forests and Wildlife
Preserve the nation's leading green building standards: They work!

The US construction industry consumes vast quantities of wood, often from endangered forests, watersheds, or the habitat of critically endangered species like mountain caribou. Fortunately, the US Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) encourages builders to use wood from more environmentally benign sources, like forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Today, LEED standards are the largest single driver of FSC-certified wood use in the US.

Unfortunately, the Green Building Council is now under heavy pressure by the timber industry's American Forest & Paper Association to promote wood from forests logged under the association's Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and its Canadian industry counterpart. Because the SFI allows and certifies unsustainable practices such as large-scale clearcutting and logging of old-growth forests, this change would make LEED standards misleading and less able to protect the world's forests.

Please show your support for strong building standards that protect our forests and wildlife. Comments are needed by February 1.

Send a message through the US Green Building Council site, https://www.usgbc.org/LEED/Drafts/drafts_main.asp. (You may have to register first. From submit comments at the bottom of the page, choose Materials & Resources; then choose MR c6 Renewable Materials to comment. Technical difficulties? Send comments directly to nc@committees.usgbc.org .)

Please urge the US Green Building Council to:

1) Only give credit and recognition to wood from forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and other systems that provide equal or greater protection to sensitive, non-renewable forest resources and forests.

2) Not give credit or recognize wood certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), or other industry-dominated logging standards. The SFI allows and certifies non-renewable practices such as logging rates that exceed forest growth rates; the logging of old growth and endangered forests; and the elimination of biodiversity through conversion of diverse natural forests to monocultural tree farms.

For more information, visit http://www.dontbuysfi.com.

The FSC is an independent, non-profit, non-government organization whose mission is to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests. For more on the Forest Stewardship Council, go to http://www.fsc.org/en/

Please reply to this email to let us know that you took action. And thank you for helping keep Northwest forests wild!

Erin Moore
Communications Coordinator
Northwest Ecosystem Alliance
1208 Bay St., Ste. 201
Bellingham, WA 98225
360.671.9950 ext. 24

Your Suspicions Were Correct:
http://www.tcsn.net/jackie/voter_fraud.htm


Informant: adtome2004

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/012505_personal_data.shtml


Informant: Friends

As reported on Democracy Now!

The second of inauguration of George W Bush Thursday was met by thousands of protesters who took to the streets of Washington DC amid unprecedented levels of security to oppose the policies of the Bush administration - but you wouldn't have known it by watching the corporate media.

The major cable news networks showed footage of the presidential inauguration on the Capitol, the motorcade through Pennsylvania Avenue and President Bush and the first lady getting out of their heavily-armored Cadillac to walk the last block to the White House. In the evening, news anchors reported from glamorous events as they followed the president and his wife to nine inaugural balls.

This past weekend, the organization MediaMatters issued a report criticizing the major cable news networks for ridiculing the protesters at the inauguration and for downplaying their numbers. It is estimated over 10,000 protesters took to the streets of Washington.

At one point Fox News reported only a few dozen people showed up at a large rally organized by the ANSWER coalition. On the next day the New York Times reported thousands of protesters had shown up in the area where ANSWER receive a protest permit CNN host Wolf Blitzer described the protesters as "angry, angry people" and he also explicitly tried to downplay the protesters significance.

On air he said, "We don't want to make too much of the protesters, because we don't know how many there were. Certainly, the nature of this business, the nature of television, we could over-exaggerate based on the images, and they might just be a tiny, tiny overall number."

And Fox News host Brit Hume said the fact that protests were occurring "isn't very important." In addition, MediaMatters also tracked the degree that Republican and conservative guests and commentators outnumbered Democrats and progressives. On Fox, the ratio was 17 to 6 on FOX. It was 13 to 2 on MSNBC and 10 to 1 on CNN.

On Democracy Now we continue our coverage of inauguration 2005 by bringing you the voices of dissent not aired in the corporate media. During the official inauguration proceedings Thursday, a number of protesters managed to disrupt President Bush during his address. We caught up with two of them after they were removed from the Capitol by security officials.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/24/1542206


Informant: John Murphy

I need your help to persuade California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be a savior, not a terminator, of California's and America's last wild forests.

The governor campaigned on protecting forests but has acquiesced as the Bush administration prepares to strip 58 million acres (4.4 million in California alone) of pristine, unroaded forests of their protection against roadbuilding, logging and drilling.

Governor Schwarzenegger says he wants to capture "the center" of American politics by being a champion of the environment. And he has indeed shown leadership on popular state laws that will combat global warming and protect marine life.

But apparently he hasn't registered how much Americans care for their national forests.

The governor's inaction has made it easier for President Bush to advance his appalling plan for terminating our last wild forests and throwing them open to greed-driven timber and energy corporations.

It's time that Governor Schwarzenegger heard from hundreds of thousands of people in all 50 states who want to save our last wild forests. Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/takeaction.asp right now and send a message telling the governor to speak for the bipartisan majority by publicly opposing President Bush's plan.

If influential officials like the governor let him, the president will eliminate the hugely popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule that protects unspoiled national forest lands from coast to coast.

From California's Sierra Nevada to the Appalachian Trail, from Alaska's Tongass to the Rocky Mountains, this historic measure protects some of America's greatest sanctuaries for wildlife and people so that their timeless beauty will remain untouched forever.

The Bush administration is trying to open the floodgates to massive timber and energy sales that would send an armada of bulldozers, chainsaws and gas rigs into these last untrammeled forests.

Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/takeaction.asp right now and tell Governor Schwarzenegger to stand up for California's and all of America's national forests.

Sincerely,

John H. Adams
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12063396%255E30417,00.html


Informant: NHNE

Posted on Tue, Jan. 25, 2005

Bill would restrict human microchips

JOE KAFKA

Associated Press

PIERRE, S.D. - Legislation introduced Tuesday in the South Dakota House would make it illegal to require people to accept implanted microchips that can be used to identify them.

Rep. Tom Hackl, R-Hoven, is the prime sponsor of HB1114. The bill would restrict the use of radio frequency identification technology in humans.

The microchips, which are the size of rice grains, are being widely used to track business inventories and supplies. They also are being used to track livestock and even let pet owners identify runaway animals.

Radio frequency technology is being used in a limited basis in humans, too. At least 160 people who work for the Mexican attorney general had the chips implanted in their arms last year to gain access to secure areas of the office.

People also have had the chips implanted to relay their medical information to hospital workers in cases of emergency. Scanning devices can download a chip's serial number, which is then used to access a person's health records.

The chips cannot be easily removed because they are housed in glass capsules that are designed to break if tampered with.

"Do we want to put something so permanent into a person?" asked Hackl. "I think it would be an acute case of privacy down the road."

While HB1114 would bar someone from requiring a radio frequency chip to be implanted in another person, the measure contains no penalty.

The legislation was assigned to the House State Affairs Committee but is not yet scheduled for a hearing.


Informant: Mark Marks

Thursday, December 30, 2004; Page VA10

I read the article in Fairfax Extra by Karl Polzer ["Schools Are No Place for Cell Towers," Nov. 18] and the rebuttal ["Cell Phone Antennas No Threat to Schools," Dec. 2] by John Walls, vice president of public affairs for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association.

"While the wireless industry appreciates the concerns of some parents in this instance, they can be assured that no one's health, particularly their children's, would be subjected to any unnecessary risks. The possibility of negative health effects on people in close proximity to cell phone towers has been exhaustively researched by the world's leading health organizations, and all of them have reached the same conclusion: Observing prescribed standards of power emission, such facilities do not pose any threat to human health."

This statement is blatantly false. His reference is to a fact sheet on the World Health Organization Web site that was last revised in 2000 and is now out of date. Even in 2000 the health effects were not "exhaustively researched," and indeed there is much disagreement about what is considered safe. That is why radio frequency guidelines worldwide range more than six orders of magnitude! Since biological effects associated with radio frequency radiation are likely to be the same in Austria, Italy, China, Hungary, Switzerland and Russia, why do these countries have much lower guidelines than the United States?

Recent studies show that people who live within 300 meters of mobile phone base stations have a number of symptoms that are now referred to as electrical hyper- sensitivity and were originally called radio wave illness. These include fatigue, sleep disturbances, headaches, difficulty concentrating, depression, memory loss, visual and hearing disruptions, irritability, skin problems and dizziness. Symptoms are particularly severe for those within 10 meters (30 feet) of a cell phone mast.

Electrical hypersensitivity is a very real phenomenon and is classified as a disability in Sweden. The World Health Organization organized a workshop in October in Prague on electrical hypersensitivity.

Guidelines for radio frequency exposure in the United States and Canada are based on thermal effects. There is now considerable evidence that non-thermal effects exist below existing guidelines and that these may be "associated with adverse health effects," according to the Royal Society of Canada.

These studies tell me that we should be careful with the placement of mobile phone base stations. If in doubt, do not place these base stations near schools and homes and places where people spend considerable time. The adverse biological effects and eventual lawsuits are simply not worth the price of this shortsighted thinking.

Magda Havas
Associate Professor
Environmental and Resource Studies Program
Trent University
Peterborough, Ontario

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35421-2004Dec29.html

With respect to negative health effects on people living in close proximity to cell phone towers, there are three different epidemiological studies, including our recent study.

All of them found statistically significant relationships between exposure to radiation and health effects. The findings are from 2002 and 2004. It is important to note that cell phone antennas emit microwave radiation all the time and may act as a chronic stressor at low exposure levels. Two of the studies did measurements in subjects' bedrooms and found significant increases in stress-related symptoms as well as neurological symptoms above exposures to 0.005 microwatts per centimeter squared. This is roughly 500,000 times slower than U.S. exposure standards for cell tower radiation. The main symptoms reported by our study were depression, fatigue, sleep disorders and concentration difficulty. These symptoms were related to exposure levels, not distance from the antennas.

Concerning cellular phones, recent research from a project called EU-Reflex, or European Union Risk Evaluation of Potential Environmental Hazards From Low-Frequency Electromagnetic Field Exposure Using Sensitive In Vitro Methods, shows that cells exposed to cell phone radiation exhibit chromosomal damage well below the exposure guidelines of the World Health Organization. Also, a new study by Swedish researchers confirms previous findings that long-term exposure to cellular phones increases the risk for acoustic neuroma, a benign type of brain tumor.

Exposure guidelines proposed by the World Health Organization are based only on short-term effects and are not designed to protect the public from long-term effects and non-thermal effects.

There is increasing evidence showing that microwave radiation is a threat to well-being and health. Schools and all other places where humans, and especially children, stay for long periods should have safe exposure levels. Before an antenna is mounted, it is possible to calculate the theoretical exposure. It should be noted that under the antennas there can be higher exposure levels because the side lobes of radiation touch ground in close proximity to the radiation source.

In order to reduce the health risks from cell towers significantly, the public health department of Salzburg in Austria recommends exposure levels not exceeding 0.001 microwatts per centimeter squared outside and 0.0001 microwatts per centimeter squared inside buildings. The basis of this recommendation is the empirical evidence that is backed by all three epidemiological cell tower studies.

Because children's bodies are developing and research is not complete on the health effects of microwave radiation, greater caution should be taken in siting cell towers near places where children spend considerable amounts of time. As a general rule, cell towers should not be placed near schools.

Gerd Oberfeld, MD
Public Health Officer for Environmental Medicine
Province of Salzburg, Austria

On Nov. 18 and Dec. 2, Fairfax Extra published guest columns discussing both sides of a debate about the Fairfax County School Board's commercial venture to build cell phone towers at schools. The columns prompted the following letters from two researchers on radio frequency radiation.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35421-2004Dec29_2.html


Informant: Robert Riedlinger

Die gelegentlich grotesken Züge der Terrorhysterie in den USA:
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/19/19316/1.html

http://tinyurl.com/78mqy

We are launching a boycott campaign against Tesco, the world's third-largest retailer, for its involvement in item-level RFID tagging trials. These trials, involving tens of thousands of British shoppers, set an unacceptable example for the retail industry.

I appeared on BBC's Newsnight program to announce the boycott to millions of UK consumers last night. (Streaming video of this announcement will be available online today only; see details below.) Tesco is taking the boycott seriously and issued a statement to the BBC acknowledging the trials, while attempting to downplay their importance.

If you are a Tesco shopper, please join the boycott. Stop by your local store this week and tell the manager that you intend to shop elsewhere until they stop putting RFID tags on consumer products. If you cannot avoid shopping at Tesco, we ask that you purchase only strictly necessary items there.

Next, please refer friends, family members and colleagues to our informational website, http://www.BoycottTesco.com, and ask them to join you. If you have a website or blog, please print a mention of the boycott and post a link to the new site.

The boycott will remain in effect until Tesco assures us that no products on their shelves have been RFID tagged. The only way to stop the escalation of RFID on consumer products is to send a strong economic message to Tesco that consumers won't stand for it.

In freedom,
Katherine Albrecht, CASPIAN


VIEW THE BBC SEGMENT ONLINE (AVAILABLE UNTIL TONIGHT ONLY)

Tuesday's Newsnight program will be available for replay today until 10:30 PM London time/5:30 PM New York time at the Newsnight website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/tvseq/newsnight/newsnight.ram.

Real Player users can scroll forward to the 30:44 time stamp to view the Tesco RFID segment.


OUR PRESS RELEASE

January 26, 2005

CASPIAN ANNOUNCES WORLDWIDE TESCO BOYCOTT ON BBC TELEVISION

Consumers react to UK retailer's planned expansion of item-level RFID

CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) has launched a worldwide boycott of Tesco in response to the retailer's escalating use of RFID on consumer products. CASPIAN Founder and Director Katherine Albrecht made the announcement to millions of viewers watching BBC Newsnight, the popular UK news program, on Tuesday. Tesco is the world's third largest retailer, with over 2,300 stores across Europe and Asia.

RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification, a controversial technology that hooks miniature antennas up to tiny computer chips smaller than a grain of sand to track items at a distance. The technology raises privacy concerns because RFID tagged items can be monitored invisibly right through items consumers normally consider private, like clothing, purses, backpacks and wallets.

During the BBC segment, Albrecht outlined CASPIAN member objections to Tesco's expansion of its item-level RFID tagging trials, saying they "would involve potentially hundreds of thousands more shoppers....it essentially means that more people will be taking home items containing [RFID] spychips." She concluded, "that's simply unacceptable."

Newsnight correspondent Paul Mason said Tesco was taking the announcement of the boycott "seriously," and read a prepared statement from the retailer that was intended to assure consumers that the store did not have plans to track products after purchase.

Mason concluded that "all the big names in this [RFID] industry will be watching this battle very intently."

Tuesday's Newsnight program will be available for replay until Wednesday evening at the Newsnight website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/tvseq/newsnight/newsnight.ram. Real Player users can scroll forward to the 30:44 time stamp to view the Tesco RFID segment.

CASPIAN has launched http://www.boycottTesco.com in conjunction with its boycott announcement. The site details Tesco's RFID involvement, including its past misconduct with the controversial Gillette RFID "smart shelf."

Albrecht vows to maintain the boycott until Tesco complies with the moratorium on item-level RFID tagging of consumer goods as outlined in a position statement endorsed by CASPIAN and over 40 of the world's leading privacy and civil liberties organizations. (See Position Statement on the Use of RFID on Consumer Products at
http://www.spychips.com/jointrfid_position_paper.html)

"We believe Tesco's decision to pursue item-level RFID tagging is irresponsible," Albrecht added. "We're calling on consumers to boycott the chain until the practice is stopped. If people must shop at Tesco, we are asking them to reduce their purchases. After all, as Tesco says, 'every little helps.'"



Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) is a grass-roots consumer group fighting retail surveillance schemes since 1999. With thousands of members in all 50 U.S. states and over 30 countries worldwide, CASPIAN seeks to educate consumers about marketing strategies that invade their privacy and to encourage privacy-conscious shopping habits across the retail spectrum.

For more information, see:
http://www.spychips.com and http://www.nocards.org

http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/DM/y/hdZO0IEmZM0Nzt0uoO0EL

Even as matters go from bad to worse in Iraq, the Bush administration appears to have begun military operations in an additional ten countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Most prominent among these countries is Iran, where the stated goal appears to be identifying targets related to Iran’s nuclear program that could be subject to a preemptive attack.

Click here to take action!
http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/DM/y/hdZO0IEmZM0Nzt0uoO0EL

According to an explosive article by renowned investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, President Bush has signed a series of executive orders and Presidential findings authorizing the Pentagon to send in reconnaissance teams into a number of countries to prepare for military action without any congressional oversight. Underlying the mission in Iran appears to be the prediction that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would lead to regime change, throwing out the fundamentalist mullahs who largely control the country. The only analysts who share this view also incorrectly predicted that our troops occupying Iraq would be greeted with flowers rather than an insurgency.

Tell President Bush to rescind his executive orders authorizing Rumsfeld to send troops into countries with which we are not at war.

Click here to take action!
http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/DM/y/hdZO0IEmZM0Nzt0uoO0EL

Please forward this newsletter to your friends and help spread the word about this important campaign!

Primary Sources: Byrd Is The Word

by Sen. Robert Byrd and Sen. Edward Kennedy

...and Kennedy, too. Read the bluntly critical speeches both senators made challenging Condoleezza Rice's nomination.

http://www.tompaine.com/action/#003470

Inauguration Week proved to be a very productive time for the Peace Movement thanks to AFSC's volunteers and supporters. As approval for the Iraq War continues to fall, it seems that we have reached a turning point.

First, thank you to everyone who signed the Iraq Peace Petition calling for a withdrawal of U.S. troops. Last Friday, we were able to deliver more than 13,000 signatures to the President.

Given the rate that signatures are being added, we know that we have only hit the tip of an iceberg of opposition to the war. So we're extending the life of the petition and will make further signature deliveries through the spring. Please sign the petition now or, if you've already signed, please ask more of your friends and family to do so.

Click here to visit the Iraq Peace Petition:
http://ga3.org/campaign/iraq_peace/wwwundu4a5n3ti8

On Martin Luther King Day, we launched our Wage Peace bracelet. The blue bracelet is a practical way to make the pro-peace majority more visible. To date we have distributed more than 4,000 online and at the Eyes Wide Open exhibit. Proceeds benefit our work to end the war.

Click here to get your bracelet:
http://ga3.org/ct/z7A7S5F1Hm_z/bracelet/

A special thanks is also due to the hundreds of you who called the White House switchboard on the morning after the inauguration to ask the President to "Wake up and end the war" on the first day of his second term.

During inauguration week, AFSC's Eyes Wide Open exhibit made stops at the Washington National Cathedral and the National City Christian Church. At the National Cathedral, the boots were the centerpiece of an interfaith service for Martin Luther King Day that included a moving speech by AFSC Board Chair Paul Lacey.

Click here to read Paul's speech and see exhibit photos:
http://ga3.org/ct/S1A7S5F1Hm_L/eyes-dc

Media outlets from across the country covered the exhibit over the course of the week, reaching millions of people. This would not have been possible without the more than 100 local volunteers who unloaded and reloaded the Eyes Wide Open truck, lovingly arranged boots, and guided people through the exhibit. Thank you!

Eyes Wide Open will be at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis from January 28-31 and in Little Rock from February 1-3. If you're nearby, please visit the exhibit and/or volunteer. If you have friends or family in the area, please forward the information.

See the Eyes Wide Open web site for more dates, locations and local contacts: http://ga3.org/ct/zpA7S5F1Hm_S/eyes/

Stay tuned for more information about how we can work together to end the Iraq war. A supplemental appropriation bill to fund the war will be introduced very soon and we'll be asking you to get in touch with your Congressional delegation. On the weekend of March 19-20 there will be events across the nation to mark the second anniversary of the war.

The momentum to end the war is building. Working together, we can bring the troops home and give Iraq back to the Iraqi people.

Peace,

Peter Lems
AFSC Iraq staff

http://tinyurl.com/3vb9f

GLOBAL BAN ON GM-TREES
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/393916/

by Zbignew Zingh

Just as the American empire was crowned as the world's one and only super power, the energy that sustains that power sputtered and started to give out. Regardless whether oil production has already peaked or whether it peaks in one year or two, petroleum's high energy return on the energy invested to produce it is a thing of the past. So, too, are all hydrocarbon empires. Whatever oil remains to be pumped out of the earth will be very expensive to produce, and the resulting economic toll will be charged to us all (as has already happened) as inflation. It will be passed on to us in the degradation of our schools; the hollowing out of our health care system; the malnutrition of our retirement plans, our legal system, our transportation systems, our libraries, and our environment....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan05/Zingh0126.htm

by Lynn Landes

Something's got to give. Another election is just around the corner. What's it going to be? Another opportunity to document election “irregularities” and computer “glitches”? Another chance to analyze mysterious exit polls? Another exercise in frustration? Another charade. Democrats will need a mighty good reason to go back to the polls. Many believe that our elections are rigged. And they have good reason. Republicans own the voting machine companies that count 80% of the votes. Congress and the courts are unlikely to change that. And the Democratic leadership has hardly made it an issue. So, let's do something different. We'll go to Plan B. We'll organize our own “Parallel Elections”....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan05/Landes0126.htm

by Rosa Faiz

If, as betrayed by the announced plans of the fanatics dreaming up Another American Century, Afghanistan and Iraq are the antechambers of hell on earth in the Middle East, the “Iranian Campaign” would constitute the inner-chambers. Weapons of Mass Destruction present or not, speedily coming up next on the agenda for another century of barbarity: when (not if) and how to militarily attack Iran, a nation at peace with its neighbors, and most of the rest of the world. No apologies for belaboring the point that Iran is also a nation that has already been subjugated to premeditated US aggression, in a 1953 CIA-conducted coup that overthrew our democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh; an aggression that completely changed the course of our modern history, for the worse. More, the invasion of our country by Iraq in 1980 was completely and actively supported militarily, financially and logistically by the successive Carter and Reagan administrations. And now the Americans are back for more mass murder and mayhem in our country....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan05/Faiz0126.htm

by John Chuckman

A writer at The NY Times counted 27 references to freedom in Bush's inaugural speech. The speech contained not one reference to his ugly war in Iraq, but for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis the only freedom established by Bush's invasion was their freedom to miserable deaths or future lives as cripples. Bush promised he would bring freedom to the world's dark corners. It is worth noting that none of the world's people asked Bush to assume such a task, and every poll of those living outside the United States shows Washington now widely regarded as one of the world's darkest corners, a source of fear itself rather than freedom from fear....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan05/Chuckman0126.htm

The Pharisee’s Fire Sermon: Terror, Perpetual War, and the Holy Empire in Bush’s Second Inaugural Speech

by Lila Rajiva

Not having had a chance to listen to the inaugural speech, I read it in transcript and was struck like everyone else by those ominous, symmetrical allusions to fire in it. . . . In Bush’s religio-political theater, fire isn’t a damp metaphoric squib but a powerful symbol, the leitmotif of the soaring neo-conservative soundtrack -- fire consuming the twin towers, fire as inspiration, and then fire as “freedom” crackling over the globe, warming its friends and incinerating its enemies. This isn’t vague bombast. The meanings are precise and meant to resonate with deep-rooted themes in American culture....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan05/Rajiva0126.htm

CANADIAN PRESS
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1106565247742&call_pageid=968256289824&col=968342212737

OTTAWA — Water levels in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan have dropped by 80 centimetres since the 1800s — and will continue to drop with major environmental costs unless remedial action is taken, says a study released today. "Georgian Bay wetlands are the most ecologically diverse, significant and pristine found anywhere on the Great Lakes," she said in a teleconference today.

People living around the Great Lakes have seen the unpleasant results of low water levels in the last decade, said Tim Eder of the U.S. National Wildlife Association. Water levels of the "middle" Great Lakes have declined because of dredging, gravel-mining and shoreline alteration over the last 140 years, says the report commissioned by the Georgian Bay Association, a citizens group.

Activists are calling for a moratorium on further dredging, research aimed at finding corrective measures and firm rejection of proposals to expand the St. Lawrence canal to accommodate larger ships. "Without implementation of compensation measures, this drop represents an irreversible decline in the long-term average lake level," says the study.

"This is very significant with potentially extensive socio-economic and environmental implications." Mary Muter of the association, which raised $200,000 to pay for the study, said wetlands around the area are drying up with devastating effects for wildlife.

The study attributes the continuing decline in water levels to erosion in the St. Clair River, at the bottom of Lake Huron. The river is compared to the drain of a bath tub — when the drain is larger, the water drains faster. Ironically, one factor in the deepening of the St. Clair is shoreline protection built by property owners upstream to prevent erosion of their waterfronts.

This reduces the supply of sand that is carried to the river and that would help keep it shallow. "Low water levels are serious problem for people and wildlife. When water levels go down, impacts include shorelines that dry up and expose mud flats instead of beach fronts.

"Ships must carry lighter loads. Recreational boaters found that docks . . . were high and dry. Countless boaters ran aground."

The International Joint Commission which manages Canada-U.S. boundary waters is studying the report, said a spokesman.


Informant: Teresa Binstock

http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/012605A.shtml

Pentagon Files Reveal More Allegations of Abuse in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/012605B.shtml

I do solemnly pledge that I will faithfully execute the office of citizen of the United States, and that I will, to the best of my ability, help create a truly democratic world by

(1) going beyond mainstream corporate news media to seek out information about important political, economic, and social issues;

(2) engaging fellow citizens, including those who disagree with me, in serious discussion and debate about those issues;

(3) committing as much time, energy, and money as possible to help build grassroots political organizations that can pressure politicians to put the interests of people over profit and power; and

(4) connecting these efforts to global political and social movements fighting the U.S. empire abroad, where it does the most intense damage. And I will continue to resist corporate control of the world, resist militarism, resist the roll-back of civil rights, and resist illegitimate authority in all its forms.

Courtesy of Robert Jensen, activist and professor at UT Austin, and meant for citizens and residents of anywhere in the world.


Source: http://www.codepinkalert.org

January 25, 2005

On January 20th, 2005, during Bush’s presidential inauguration, tens of thousands of people took to the streets, across the country and the globe, with a collective message of peace and resistance to the Bush administration’s detrimental foreign and domestic policies. In Washington DC, CODEPINK activists, coming from Arizona, Washington, Hawaii, Florida, New York, Ohio, and all over the country, bared freezing temperatures and snow storms to peacefully counter the Bush administration and let them and the world know that as long as there is injustice, we will continue to resist and speak out.

And speak out we did!

As Bush gave his inaugural address in front of the U.S. Capitol, eight CODEPINK activists, including CODEPINK founders Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans, and Diane Wilson, stood up on their chairs in the VIP section and shouted bring the troops home!The women also raised banners reading No War, Out of Iraq Now, and Bush Mandate: Troops Home Now. While these brave women made a splash on the inside, thousands took part in actions in the street. CODEPINK protested outside inaugural balls, reminding Bush supporters that while they sip champagne, soldiers are dying in an illegal, abhorrent and expensive war that they themselves launched. We helped organize an inspirational women’s rally and march, complete with a New Orleans style jazz band. And we even managed to hang our signature “pink slip” banner out the window of a downtown DC building a block from the White House, with a message of “Bring the Troops Home” for parade goers and protesters alike.

For pictures and articles on CODEPINK actions, go to:
http://www.codepinkalert.org/National_Actions_J20.shtml

CODEPINK wasn’t the only group that was active and visible in DC. DAWN (DC Anti-War Network) organized a massive, coffin lined, anti-war march. The ANSWER Coalition fought and won for their right to hold bleachers along the parade route, which were filled with 10,000 anti-war protestors. The parade was also lined with demonstrators who participated in “Turn Your Back on Bush” as his motorcade drove by. Over the week-end National Organization for Women organized a large pro-choice rally at the Supreme Court, in honor of the anniversary of Roe V. Wade, and Progressive Democrats of America held a three day summit which CODEPINK participated in.

We left DC feeling energized and full of great ideas from CODEPINK meetings, the PDA conference, and all the wonderful interactions we had with activists from across the country. Many groups began talking about a possible joint campaign to get governors to call back their states’ National Guard troops. More on that and other ideas coming soon!

Remember, George Bush’s inauguration wasn’t the only one that happened on January 20. That day also saw the inauguration of the second term of the peace and justice movement. We made sure that Bush supporters weren’t able to forget that the war and killing in Iraq didn’t stop because of the U.S. presidential inauguration, and neither did the activism of the peace movement! As part of the launch of CODEPINK’s second term, we took a “citizen’s oath” that we plan to uphold in the coming years. We’ll leave you with that, urging you to do the same and pass it on to friends and family.

Citizen’s Oath*

"I do solemnly pledge that I will faithfully execute the office of citizen of the United States, and that I will, to the best of my ability, help create a truly democratic world by (1) going beyond mainstream corporate news media to seek out information about important political, economic, and social issues; (2) engaging fellow citizens, including those who disagree with me, in serious discussion and debate about those issues; (3) committing as much time, energy, and money as possible to help build grassroots political organizations that can pressure politicians to put the interests of people over profit and power; and (4) connecting these efforts to global political and social movements fighting the U.S. empire abroad, where it does the most intense damage. And I will continue to resist corporate control of the world, resist militarism, resist the roll-back of civil rights, and resist illegitimate authority in all its forms."

In peace,
Andrea, Carol, Claire, Dana, Gael, Jodie, Medea, Nancy, Tiffany, and everyone who made our J20 actions possible http://www.codepinkalert.org


*Courtesy of Robert Jensen, activist and professor at UT Austin, and meant for citizens and residents of anywhere in the world!


Coronation farce deepens
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/469496/

JIM CROW RETURNS TO THE VOTING BOOTH
DOES AMERICA HAVE APARTHEID VOTE-COUNTING SYSTEM?

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

by Rev. Jesse Jackson and Greg Palast

The inaugural confetti has been swept away and with it, the last quarrel over who really won the presidential election.

But there is still unfinished business that can't be swept away. After taking his oath, the president called for a "concerted effort to promote democracy." The president should begin with the United States.

More than 133,000 votes remain uncounted in Ohio, more than George W. Bush's supposed margin of victory. In New Mexico, the uncounted vote totals at least three times the president's plurality -- and so on in other states.

The challenge to the vote count is over, but the matter of how the United States counts votes, or fails to count them, remains.

The ballots left uncounted, and that will never be counted, are so-called spoiled or rejected ballots -- votes cast by citizens, but never tallied. This is the dark little secret of U.S. democracy: Nationwide, in our presidential elections, about 2 million votes are cast and never counted, most spoiled because they cannot be read by the tallying machines.

Not everyone's vote spoils equally. Cleveland State University Professor Mark Salling analyzed ballots thrown into Ohio's electoral garbage can. Salling found that, "overwhelmingly," the voided votes come from African American precincts.

This racial bend in vote spoilage is not unique to Ohio. A U.S. Civil Rights Commission investigation concluded that, of nearly 180,000 votes discarded in Florida in the 2000 election as unreadable, a shocking 54 percent were cast by black voters, though they make up only a tenth of the electorate. In Florida, an African American is 900 percent more likely to have his or her vote invalidated than a white voter. In New Mexico, a Hispanic voter is 500 percent more likely than a white voter to have her or his ballot lost to spoilage.

Unfortunately, Florida and New Mexico are typical. Nationwide data gathered by Harvard Law School Civil Rights Project indicate that, of the 2 million ballots spoiled in a typical presidential election, about half are cast by minority voters.

The problem is that some officials are quite happy with the outcome of elections in which minority votes just don't count. They count on the "no-count."

Before last November's election, the American Civil Liberties Union sued five states for continuing to use punch-card machines, those notorious generators of "hanging" chads and "pregnant" chads that disproportionately disenfranchise black voters.

Four of those states settled with the ACLU by adopting simple fixes to protect voters. One state, notably, refused: Ohio, which forced 75 percent of its voters to use punch-card machines. In minority and low-income areas, these old machines on average spoil an unacceptable 8 percent of the votes cast on them. In high-income white districts, spoilage is typically 1 percent.

In Ohio, the decision to keep the vote-destroying machines in place in African American districts was made by the state's Republican attorney general, Jim Petro, and its secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell. Blackwell, not incidentally, co-chaired the Bush-Cheney re-election committee. The election in Ohio was fundamentally flawed, a fact compounded by the widespread use of electronic voting machines susceptible to manipulation and hacking.

This election saw an explosion in a new category of uncounted, ballots: rejected provisional ballots. In Ohio alone, more than 35,000 of these votes were never tallied. Once again, the provisional ballots were cast overwhelmingly in African American precincts.

Why so many? In November, for the first time since the era of the Night Riders, one major political party launched a program of mass challenges of voters on Election Day. Paid Republican operatives, working from lists prepared by the party, fingered tens of thousands of voters in Ohio, Florida and elsewhere, questioning their right to a ballot.

One of these secret "caging lists" was obtained by BBC Television from inside Republican campaign headquarters in Florida. Every one of the voters on those sheets resided in African American neighborhoods, excepting a few in precincts of elderly Jewish voters.

These lists helped Republican poll workers challenge voters on the basis of an alleged change of address. An analysis of one roster showed that several of those facing challenge were African American soldiers whose address changed because they were shipped overseas.

Challenged voters were shunted to "provisional ballots," which, in Ohio and elsewhere, were not counted on the flimsiest of technicalities.

Who won the presidential race? Given the millions of ballots spoiled and provisional ballots rejected, the unfolding mystery of the exit polls and widespread use of electronic voting machines, we will never know whether John Kerry or George W. Bush received the most votes in Ohio and other swing states

But we can name the election's big winner: Jim Crow.

Last Thursday, the president said, "Our country must abandon all the habits of racism."

From benign neglect of the voting machinery to malign intent in challenging minority voters en masse, the United States is turning that ill habit into an electoral strategy.

In 1965, Congress gave us the Voting Rights Act, promising all people the right to cast a vote. It is now time to making counting that vote a right, not just casting it, before Jim Crow rides again in the next election.


Rev. Jackson is founder of Rainbow Coalition/ People United to Save Humanity (Operation PUSH). Greg Palast, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, investigated the election for BBC Television.

Conservatives Mean It

Paul Craig Roberts on their plans for world dominion:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts92.html

The Napoleon of DC

Steven LaTulippe on dreams of world conquest:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/latulippe/latulippe42.html

http://www.mercola.com/2004/mar/20/cancer_rates.htm

Omega a reason more:

Childhood brain cancer and EMFs
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/375650/

Children and cell phones
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/295280/

Children and Cell Phones: Is there a health risk ?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/295277/

Branchenreport von ver.di Fachbereich Handel, Bereich Branchenpolitik, erstellt durch Dr. B. Warich (Berlin) vom 11. Januar 2005 (pdf):
http://www.verdi.de/handel/einzelhandel/branchendaten/branchendaten/branchenreport_einzelhandel-prognose_2004


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 21, Eintrag 16

Mittwoch beginnt Weltwirtschaftsforum. Public-Eye-Awards für globale Sauereien

"In Davos treffen sich abseits des WEF auch Kritiker der vorherrschenden Wirtschaftstendenzen. Matthias Herfeldt ist einer der Koordinatoren von "Public Eye on Davos". Er kommt aus der Bewegung "Erklärung von Bern". Interview von René Heilig in ND 25.01.05 http://www.nd-online.de/artikel.asp?AID=66402&IDC=2

WEF gehört die Stadt. Am Samstag stand die Schweizer Hauptstadt ganz im Zeichen der Proteste gegen das Welt-Economic-Forum

"Wer am Samstag nichtsahnend durch die Berner Innenstadt spazierte, kam aus dem Staunen nicht heraus. An einer Ecke beteten junge Leute im Mönchskostüm als Kapitalisten und Polizisten verkleidete Menschen an, woanders liefen Leute mit kleinen Radios herum, die die neuesten Informationen von verschiedenen Aktionen in der ganzen Schweiz bekannt gaben. Auffällig verkleidete Straßenkehrer fegten die Plätze von Bern. "Wir fegen jeden Proteste gegen das Wef von der Straße", hieß es auf großen Schildern, die an den Besen festgemacht waren. "WEF gehört die Stadt", hieß es auf bunten Luftballons. Andere waren etwas frecher mit der Parole "WEF zum Platzen bringen"…." Artikel von Peter Nowak in telepolis vom 24.01.2005:
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/19/19302/1.html

Übersicht Aktionen gegen das WEF vom 20.01.2005 bei indymedia
http://de.indymedia.org/2005/01/104565.shtml


Public Eye Awards für unverantwortliches Konzernverhalten. Übergabe in Davos parallel zur Eröffnung des Weltwirtschaftsforums /BAYER-Konzern nominiert

"Am morgigen Mittwoch werden in Davos erstmals die Public Eye Awards für unverantwortliches Konzernverhalten vergeben. Der Preis wird in den Kategorien Menschenrechte, Umwelt, Arbeitsrechte und Steuern vergeben. Nominiert sind rund zwanzig Konzerne, die sozial und ökologisch verantwortliches Verhalten vermissen lassen. Die Verleihung findet zeitgleich zur Eröffnung des Weltwirtschaftsforums in Davos statt…" Presseerklärung der Coordination gegen BAYER-Gefahren (CBG) vom 25. Januar 2005
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/Ubersicht/Presseinfos/Presseinfos_2005/Pi-Public_Eye_Awards/pi-public_eye_awards.html


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 21, Eintrag 16

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/01/18/media-fairyland-/


Informant: Sylviane

Döbelner Allgemeine Zeitung am 14.01.2005

Funk-Lochmühle erregt Bissigkeit der Netzbetreiber

Rückzugsgebiet Talsperre für elektrosensible Urlauber

E r l e b a c h. Im Funkloch Urlaub machen - Was ist daran erstrebenswert? Na gut, die Lochmühle an der Talsperre Kriebstein ist schon ein idyllisches Fleckchen. Dass dort Mobiltelefone aller Netze Funkstille haben, könnte für einige „Elektrosensibelchen“ von Bedeutung sein.

Kein harmloses Problem: Laut Weltgesundheitsorganisation WHO gibt es in Deutschland etwa 10 Millionen Menschen mit Symptomen von Elektrofühligkeit. Wie der Augsburger Ulrich Weiner. Bei einem Besuch in Mittweida vor einem Dreivierteljahr brachte er mit Kopfschmerz und Ohrensausen seine Messgeräte in Anschlag, um mit dem Wohnwagen ins funkstille Örtchen an der Talsperre zu flüchten.

Pension soll entstehen

Der 27-Jährige Kommunikationselektroniker, Fachrichtung Funktechnik, mag die idyllische Lochmühle, will sie zur Pension, Ausflugsziel und Tagungsort für ein elektrosensibles Klientel ausbauen.

Verkaufsgespräche mit dem Zweckverband Kriebsteintalsperre laufen. Am Mittwoch stellte Weiner das Projekt Funk-Lochmühle detailliert vor, und zwar vor Vertretern des Zweckverbandes wie den Bürgermeistern von Mittweida und Kriebstein sowie den Wirtschaftsförderern des Landkreises Mittweida. Ebenfalls in der Runde: Vertreter der Funknetzbetreiber D1, D2, E Plus und O2. Mittweidas Bürgermeister Matthias Damm, seines Zeichens Zweckverbandsvorsitzender, charakterisierte deren Auftreten mit einem Wort: “Arrogant.“ Neben Damm bewertet auch dessen Amtsbruder Thieme aus Kriebethal das Vorhaben Funklochmühle gegenüber der DAZ aus Sicht der Tourismusförderung als interessant. Doch halten sich beide zu den technischen Belangen in puncto Funkwellen bedeckt.

Der Fachmann ein rotes Tuch

Die Funknetzbetreiber dagegen gingen voll in Contra-Haltung. Dabei hatte Weiner eine Kleinigkeit erbeten: Ob sie ihm auch künftig Funkwellenfreiheit für die drei Hektar Lochmühlen-Areal und von einem bisschen mehr des größtenteils unbewohnten Geländes an der Talsperre zusichern könnten. Weiner kann sich die Bissigkeit erklären: „Wenn das Beispiel Schule macht, befürchten die Netzbetreiber ähnliche Forderungen von anderer Seite.“

Seit zwölf Jahren selbst im Funkkommunikationsgeschäft tätig, stellte sich bei Weiner vor fünf Jahren die Elektrosensibilität ein. Bei Bürgerinitiativen und Verbänden ist er eine angesagte Adresse. „Als Mobilfunktechniker mit den Messgeräten der Mobilfunktechniker messe ich die Strahlungen von Anlagen der Mobilfunktechniker. Mich kann man nicht als unwissenden Eiferer abstempeln.“ Mit der Funklochmühle meint er es ernst. Es bedeutet für ihn die berufliche Umorientierung, weil ihn seine bisherige Tätigkeit krank machte.

Handy-Wellenfreiheit in der Funklochmühle, so sieht es auch Dr. Katharina Sparrer vom Tourismusverband Sächsisches Burgen- und Heideland, könnte für den Gesundheitstourismus durchaus ein Marketing-Argument sein. Sie unterstützt das Projekt.

Steffi Robak


Bald an der Talsperre: Urlaub im Funkloch
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/488575/

Handy-Irrsinn: Bayer will strahlenfreies Kriebstein
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/488677/

Aktuelles aus der Funklochmühle
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/433570/

Wie geht es weiter mit dem Mobilfunk in Bamberg? Stadt will sensible Bereiche schützen

Nach dem Moratorium der Kompromiss: Die Stadt will im Konflikt zwischen den Interessen der zahlreichen Bamberger Anti-Mobilfunkinitiativen und denen der Mobilfunkbetreiber künftig zwischen geschützten und ungeschützten Bereichen unterscheiden.

WEITER: http://tinyurl.com/4pkd7


Nachricht von elektrosmognews

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/bayer_will_strahlenfreies_kriebstein.doc


Aktuelles aus der Funklochmühle
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/433570/

http://www.guerrillafunk.com/thoughts/doc612.html

Informant: SIUHIN

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/urlaub_im_funkloch.doc


Aktuelles aus der Funklochmühle
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/433570/

by Andrew Young

Strike the Root

01/25/05

Many parents try to discourage violence by shielding their children from violent video games and movies. However, they indoctrinate their children with patriotism, which is far more likely to lead to violent behavior; it motivates young men to enthusiastically kill other young men they would befriend under different circumstances. At best, patriotism provokes blind support for politicians who start wars. At worst, it encourages participation in organized killing...

http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/young-an/young-an4.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Justin Raimondo

AntiWar.Com

01/26/05

On Jan. 17, the Cryptome Web site posted a remarkable document that affords us a glimpse inside the secret war now taking place all around us. I refer, of course, to the war on terrorism, which, we've all been informed, will be a 'generational' struggle, the outcome of which is uncertain -- and, what's more, its history is fated to remain in the shadows until long after it's all over. But the Cryptome document -- consisting of 'morning brief' reports issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) covering sporadic episodes from Sept. 26, 2003 to Jan. 16, 2004 -- gives us access to the raw unvarnished truth. It also permits entry, albeit briefly, into a strange twilit world, where that barely noticeable shadow over there in the corner could be as insignificant as it seems -- or could turn into a deadly menace...

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=4581


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Doug Bandow

The American Spectator

01/26/05

President Bush may look forward to liberating foreign lands, but the majority of Americans believe that his chief priority should be dealing with Iraq. How long we stay there ultimately must be decided based on American, not Iraqi, interests. One reason the U.S. military is badly stretched is that Washington continues to maintain garrisons around the globe. Traditional commitments in Asia and Europe have been supplemented by sporadic intervention elsewhere, including the ongoing presence in Iraq. America should defend foreign nations and base troops overseas based on its interests, not those of other countries. U.S. deployments should advance Americans' security, not other people's desires...

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=7686


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Jeremy Brecher

Common Dreams

01/25/05

It's time for all Americans to face our responsibility to halt Bush administration war crimes. It's time to give our support to those who are refusing to participate in those crimes. It's time for a new 'Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority.' I for one will say right now that I support those who refuse illegal orders to participate in this illegal war. I know there are many who will join me. To Alberto Gonzales, I would like to say that I encourage all Americans, military and civilian, to disobey orders based on your memos justifying torture. I say it's their legal right, indeed their legal and moral duty, to disobey such illegal orders...

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0125-31.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Pat Buchanan

WorldNetDaily

01/26/05

Where Woodrow Wilson was going to make the world safe for democracy, George W. Bush is going him one better. President Bush is going to make the whole world democratic. As he declared in his Inaugural Address, our 'great objective' is 'ending tyranny' on earth. And how does the president propose to achieve it?

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42557


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Destroying Social Security does nothing to advance individual freedom.

by Matthew Yglesias

The American Prospect

01/25/05

"[A]s the president's case that Social Security is in crisis continues to crumble, conservatives are busy ginning up new reasons to phase the program out and replace it with a system of mandatory investments in private stock funds. As George Will put it on January 20 in The Washington Post, the really important reasons for destroying the most successful program in American history are 'philosophic.' It's all about choice. All about freedom.

... My friend Will Wilkinson ... now a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, ground zero for privatization, recently recommended Daniel Shapiro's old Cato paper 'The Moral Case for Social Security Privatization,' which argues that privatizing social security is all about 'maximizing individual choice and liberty...

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=9104


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Richard Gwyn

Toronto Star [Canada]

01/25/05

In his inauguration speech last week, Bush told the world what he intends to do during his last term. Essentially, he intends to make the world like the U.S. Or, more exactly, like Bush's version of the U.S. After all, outside critics, while applauding his use of the word 'freedom' and its synonym 'liberty' 41 times in a brief speech, might wonder how much freedom and liberty there is to the unknowns incarcerated without trial in Guantanamo, or was to the prisoners in Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail, or to the Americans shorn of civil liberties by Bush's Patriot Act. This is the boldest, most visionary and most ambitious, but also the most hubristic and vainglorious foreign policy program ever enunciated by an American president. Even World War I leader Woodrow Wilson only wanted to remake Europe..

http://tinyurl.com/5ndsw


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Sydney H. Schanberg


Village Voice

01/25/05

In the new America, images rule. Positive images. That's because reality is annoying. So in Washington now, the images are of Oz. President Bush, in his invisible bell jar, has just been inaugurated for the second time -- $40 million worth of fat-cat parties and banquets and balls. In Baghdad, there are explosions -- not celebratory thank-you fireworks, just explosions. And then bodies in the streets. But in the new America, we're not supposed to publish pictures of the bodies of the American dead in the streets -- only the Iraqis. The president and his image makers say that showing American corpses is disrespectful. He has barred even the taking of photos of American coffins -- too upsetting. Reality only gets in the way...

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0504,schanberg,60421,6.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Robert L. Johnson

Strike the Root

01/25/05

George W. Bush likes to surround himself with patriotic trappings. He's big on talking, to the best of his very limited ability, about God, country, and values. He enjoys playing dress-up as various icons of Americana, like a fighter pilot or a cowboy. But behind this empty facade of being an American patriot, I believe, is treason. Treason to America and her people...

http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/johnson/johnson4.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Thomas L. Knapp

Knappster

01/25/05

Commentators on all sides held on to the hope (or, in some cases, trudged forward through a haze of dread) late last year that George W. Bush's second term would begin with the announcement of a timely withdrawal from Iraq and the swing back toward an at least nominally sane foreign policy. No such luck, it seems -- if the events of the last few weeks are indicative of Bush's second-term agenda, expectations of a Thermidor for the Republican Surrealists were premature indeed. Their Robespierre isn't finished. As a matter of fact, he's just getting started...

http://knappster.blogspot.com/2005/01/false-spring-in-dc.html

Las Vegas Review-Journal

01/25/05

The White House will project that this year's federal deficit will hit $427 billion, a senior administration official said Tuesday, a record amount partly driven by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The official, among three who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said the estimate was a conservative one that assumed some higher spending than other analysts use. Last February, the White House projected that the 2004 shortfall would hit $521 billion, only to see it come in at $412 billion. The official said the figure represented progress because it would be smaller than last year's record $412 billion shortfall when compared to the size of the growing U.S. economy. That ratio is a key measure of the deficit's potency...

http://tinyurl.com/6z67x


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Alberto Gonzales' support of torture has a tremendous impact on our troops, according to a letter signed by 12 retired generals. They wrote that Gonzalea has "Fostered greater animosity toward the United States; Undermined our intelligence-gathering efforts; and Added to the risks facing our troops serving around the world." There is still time -- Veterans for Common Sense urges you to contact your U.S. Senator now and oppose the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as the next U.S. Attorney General.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2738

1/23/05 - UPI (United Press International)
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20050123-072909-2717r

A group of whistleblowers and Sept. 11 relatives, alarmed by what they say are increasingly aggressive administration efforts to suppress public discussion of problems inside the nation's security and intelligence agencies, said they will launch a campaign this week in support of fired FBI translator Sibel Edmonds.


From WantToKnow.info

In den letzten Wochen häufen sich die Fälle der publik gewordenen - und kontrovers diskutierten - Nebeneinkünfte von Abgeordneten des Deutschen Bundestages. Im Folgenden sollen die prominentesten Fälle der aktuellen Debatte kurz zusammen gefasst werden:

http://www.campact.de/deutsch/Nebeneink%FCnfte%20offen%20legen/Infos/Kritisierte%20F%E4lle/page.html


43.068,- Euro steuerfrei - gleiches Recht für alle - wie ein Bürger gegen die Aufwandspauschale der Politiker zu Felde zieht
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/493081/

Siemens bezahlte Vorsitzende des Forschungsausschusses
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/462540/

Forscher und Forschungsergebnisse von der Industrie bezahlt
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/281056/

Lobbyismus entschärfen - Nebeneinkommen offen legen
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/488263/

Lobbyismus entschärfen – Nebeneinkünfte veröffentlichen
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/516946/

Campact-Newsletter 02/05

Mittwoch, der 25. Januar 2005
es schreibt: Günter Metzges

Begleitet von großer Medienresonanz ist die neue Campact-Kampagne "Lobbyismus entschärfen: Nebeneinkünfte offen legen!" gestartet. Über 30 Journalisten besuchten die Pressekonferenz, ARD, RTL und ntv waren mit Fernsehteams vor Ort, die großen Agenturen sowie spiegel-online, yahoo und heise.de berichteten ausführlich und dem Deutschlandfunk war der Start der Kampagne der zweite Nachrichtenplatz wert (siehe http://www.campact.de/pressespiegel). Ein großer Erfolg für unsere junge Organisation. Doch der brachte auch ein „Problem“ mit sich: es griffen so viele Menschen in kürzester Zeit auf unsere Webseite zu, dass sie nur sehr langsam arbeitete und verschiedene Module nicht funktionierten. Wir haben seitdem die Technik verbessert, so dass die Webseite in Zukunft auch bei großen Zugriffszahlen zuverlässig läuft.

Alle, die deshalb die Petition und die E-Mail an ihre Wahlkreisabgeordneten nicht abschicken konnten, bitten wir doch dies unter http://www.campact.de/offenlegen möglichst gleich jetzt nachzuholen.

Politische Situation - es kommt Bewegung ins Spiel

Am vorletzten Wochenende glaubte die rot-grüne Fraktionsspitze noch den öffentlichen Unmut über die Skandale durch eine Verschärfung des Strafmaßes für ohne Gegenleistung erhaltene Nebeneinkünfte besänftigen zu können. Zunehmender öffentlicher Druck setzt die Koalition aber unter Zugzwang. Jetzt kristallisiert sich nach Angaben von SPD-Fraktionsgeschäftsführer Wilhelm Schmidt eine Kompromiss heraus: Nebeneinkünfte sollen im Internet nach Einkommensgruppen gestaffelt veröffentlicht werden. Je nachdem wie detailliert die Gruppen voneinander unterschieden werden, käme dieser Vorschlag unserer Forderung nach einer Offenlegung aller Gehälter und Nebeneinkünfte recht nahe. Ein Erfolg für unsere Kampagne wird greifbar (siehe http://www.campact.de/logbuch ).

Doch noch ist bei weitem nicht alles in trockenen Tüchern.

In den Reihen der Koalition wie der Opposition gibt es weiter Widerstand gegen eine Offenlegung. Entscheidend wird es sein, den öffentlichen Druck in den nächsten Tagen und Wochen so hoch zu halten, dass sich die Politik nicht aus der Verantwortung stehlen kann.

Dafür sind wir auf Ihre Unterstützung angewiesen:

- Unterschreiben Sie – falls noch nicht geschehen – die Sammelpetition an den Bundestag und fordern Sie Ihre Wahlkreisabgeordneten auf, sich für die Offenlegung von Nebeneinkünften einzusetzen:
http://www.campact.de/offenlegen (die Module sollten jetzt einwandfrei funktionieren! Wenn dennoch Probleme auftauchen, bitte eine kurze Mail an webmaster@campact.de. Die bisher aufgetretenen Probleme bitten wir zu entschuldigen).

- Schicken Sie Freunden und Bekannten eine E-Mail und fordern Sie sie auf, an den Aktionen teilzunehmen. Einen E-Mail-Text zum Weiterleiten haben wir für sie am Ende vorbereitet.

- Helfen Sie uns die Kampagne im Internet noch bekannter zu machen. Platzieren Sie einen Banner auf der eigenen Webseite, beschicken Sie Newletter und E-Mail-Listen, weisen Sie in Diskussionsforen auf die Kampagne hin, fragen Sie bei Webmastern nach, ob Sie auf die Kampagne verweisen können. Entsprechende Texte und Banner halten wir für Sie unter www.campact.de/publish bereit.

Günter Metzges



E-Mail-Text zum Versenden an Freunde und Bekannte:

Liebe/r

mit dieser E-Mail möchte ich Dich/Sie auf die Kampagne des Online-Bürgernetzwerk Campact für einen Offenlegung von Nebeneinkünften von Abgeordneten hinweisen. Wähler müssen wissen, welche Abgeordneten wirklich ihre Belange und welche in erster Linie die Interessen einzelner Unternehmen vertreten. Auf der Webseite http://www.campact.de kannst/können Du/Sie eine Sammelpetition an den Bundestag unterschreiben und per E-Mail Deinen/Ihren Wahlkreisabgeordneten auffordern, sich aktiv für eine Offenlegungspflicht für Nebeneinkünfte einzusetzen. Die Aktion wird von Transparency International unterstützt. Weitere Infos: http://www.campact.de/.


Lobbyismus entschärfen – Nebeneinkünfte veröffentlichen
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/516946/

Das Who ist Who - Kritisierte und Debatierte Fälle von Nebeneinkünften
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/488351/

Siemens bezahlte Vorsitzende des Forschungsausschusses
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/462540/

Forscher und Forschungsergebnisse von der Industrie bezahlt
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/281056/

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/01/24/gop_eyes_plan_to_secure_benefit_cuts/


Informant: DitziSis

All day today, January 25, experts from Amnesty International, National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and Center for Policy Alternatives will be answering questions about efforts in the states to halt the death penalty.

Don't miss this opportunity to ask an expert about death penalty legislation and policies today at http://www.movingideas.org/chat/linkchat.php.

You can also learn more about the death penalty and read answers from the panelists at http://www.movingideas.org/chat/deathpenalty.php.

Featured Panelists:

David Elliot, Communications Director, National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=5997904&url_num=4&url=http://www.ncadp.org/

Bernie Horn, Policy Director, Center for Policy Alternatives
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=5997904&url_num=5&url=http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=5468501&url_num=6&url=http://www.stateaction.org/

Kristin Houle, Program Associate, Amnesty International USA
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=5997904&url_num=6&url=http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=5468501&url_num=7&url=http://www.amnestyusa.org/

I hope you will join us for this powerful discussion about state opposition to the death penalty!


Diana Onken

Strategy Director, Moving Ideas



Online Chat: Opposition to the Death Penalty

Read the transcript from the Moving Ideas and Amnesty International online chat about opposition to the death penalty in the states.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=6053513&url_num=4&url=http://www.movingideas.org/chat/deathpenalty.php

Solar storms could disrupt mobile telephones, television: scientists
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/britainsciencesun


Informant: Susan

Extreme weather reports from various areas - from one of my groups

....Anna

Begin forwarded message:


I live in the center of Brazil. In Mato Grosso do Sul. This time of the year is of rains and it is going to March. It is the time of the full of the Pantanal (Swampland). Area where many wild animal live with cattle farms. It happens that it is raining direct, without stopping this whole month. In other areas of the south of Brazil where the climate was cold, it is making 42 degrees C. the area is of drought where there was never before. For the first time we had a hurricane in Brazil and this year there was another similar storm.

The climate is completely crazy here also.

Mauro

http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/6075300p-5966353c.html


Informant: Teresa Binstock