A poisonous right wing infection has gotten hold of the Senate Republicans. They've got a narrow Senate majority that's not enough to get their extremist judges on the courts. So they're scheming to change the fundamental Senate rules, silence Democrats, and get their judges approved. It's an assault on the Constitution and the whole system of checks and balances that makes our democracy work.

This unprecedented scheme will reach a crisis in the coming days. The focal point may be William Myers, a nominee rejected last year who's been nominated again. He'll be the test vote on this far-out power grab.

I'll say no on William Myers - and no to the poisonous abuse of power Republicans are trying to foist on the Senate. My colleague, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts, is helping to lead the battle against William Myers' confirmation. Senator Kennedy's website is hosting a petition against Myers' confirmation – a petition I am pleased to support.

Please take a moment to join me in this effort and sign Senator Kennedy's petition:

http://www.tedkennedy.com/NoMyers

The vast, vast majority of President Bush's nominees - over 95 percent - have been confirmed by the Senate for the federal courts. But the Senate refused to confirm a handful of them who are too extreme to swallow - the worst of the worst, the very bottom of the right-wing barrel.

Bush has nominated Myers for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals - the largest federal court of appeals, and a potential stepping stone to the Supreme Court. It also has jurisdiction over vast expanses of public land and priceless natural resources - which makes a person like Myers especially unfit to serve.

He's spent his career trying to dismantle the legal protections our courts exist to protect. As a lobbyist for mining interests, he was handpicked by President Bush to regulate that industry. His only experience has been manipulating laws and regulations for corporate gain, against the public interest.

Myers and the other rejected nominees make up a band of corporate facilitators and right-wing crusaders who don't deserve lifetime power to shape laws that govern us. We have to say no:

http://www.tedkennedy.com/NoMyers

On the merits, there is simply no case for why William Myers should be confirmed.

Fortunately, the Constitution and two hundred years of Senate history give a minority of Senators like Democrats are today the right to say no to irresponsible nominees like Myers.

But Republican leaders won't take the Constitution for an answer. They want to change the basic long-standing Senate rules, silence the minority, and force Myers to the federal court for life.

We need your help. If we all stand together, if we stand with my good friend Ted Kennedy, we can stop this madness. Please - say no to Myers now:

http://www.tedkennedy.com/NoMyers

In Friendship,

Barbara Boxer

Bürgerrechtsorganisationen warnen vor einem im Aufbau befindlichen globalen Projekt einer umfassenden sozialen Kontrolle.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/19/19937/1.html

"Gas prices hit record highs and are expected to rise" roared a recent Associated Press headline -- and, as predicted, prices have continued to rise with no relief in sight. In "response", President Bush and fellow big-oil Republicans in Congress have played on Americans' frustration at the pump to push their corporate energy bill as the answer. The awful irony here is that -- according to the Department of Energy itself -- the House of Representatives plan would further increase gas prices AND increase America's dependence on imported oil. [1]

Instead of embracing 21st century solutions to address America's modern energy needs, Bush and the House majority have caved -- yet again -- to big-oil lobbyists, and presented us with the failed energy policies of the past. According to the Associated Press, the new House Energy bill pumps $7.5 billion into oil and gas and old energy technologies, compared with a mere $500 million investment in clean and renewable alternatives. [2]

We no longer have to take the corrupting influence of big-oil lying down, because viable new energy solutions exist which every one of us -- and every honest politician -- can stand for! No new energy bill takes effect until both houses of Congress pass it, and the President signs it into law. That's why we must tell the President and Congress today that America can do better than another oil dominated energy policy, and that we want real investments in new energy now!

Tell President Bush and Congress today: "Just say no to big-oil, and yes to American energy independence!"

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=89466

A generation ago, John F. Kennedy inspired Americans to accomplish what was believed to be an impossible task -- to put a man on the moon in less than a decade. Kennedy's Apollo project sparked a unique brand of American innovation committed to the idea that a strong, prosperous nation can accomplish anything it sets its mind to.

Today's Apollo Project is not to put a man on the moon, but to declare energy independence by the year 2015. It's time to enact a modern-day Apollo Plan that will:

>>Free America from over-reliance on unstable and undemocratic oil regimes through real investments in modern energy-saving technologies.

>>Create millions of new jobs here in America through real investments in the energy industries of the future and strategies to re-tool our communities for high-performance energy efficiency.

>>Protect our natural environment through real investments in pollution-reducing technologies like bio-fuels, energy efficient buildings, solar and wind power, and a new generation of clean power plants.

>>Reduce gas prices by helping Americans reduce oil demand through real investments in hybrid cars, renewable fuels, and efficient mass transportation.

Tell the President and Congress that it's time to stop serving big-oil and stand with the American people by embracing a modern day Apollo plan. Tell them today to "Just say no to big oil, and yes to American energy independence!"

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=89466

A new Apollo plan is something that progressives can stand FOR -- not just another Republican proposal to rail against. Apollo will break our addiction to oil, protect our natural environment, create millions of good paying jobs and set America free from the influence of despotic oil regimes. It's time for the President and his fellow big-oil Republicans to end their lip-service, and deliver an energy bill that moves America away -- with a giant leap! -- from the failed energy policies of the past to an independent new energy future.

Tell the President and Congress today: "Just say no to big-oil, and yes to American energy independence!"

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=89466

Thank you for helping make a new Apollo plan a reality today!

Sincerely,

Bracken Hendricks, Executive Director
Apollo Alliance

ECUADOR'S AMAZON RAINFOREST

In Ecuador's Amazon, ChevronTexaco has closed its eyes to the human rights implications of oil spills that have contaminated both the soil and the groundwater of the communities in the area and threatened the economic and cultural bases of Indigenous peoples' survival.

Sign the online petition to ChevronTexaco's Board of Directors:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=677776&l=12610

Learn more:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=677776&l=12604

En español:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=677776&l=12614

In Bhopal, Dow Chemical refuses to take responsibility for a horrific chemical disaster that has killed tens of thousands, contaminated the area and devastated the local community.

Take action to defend the rights of communities in Bhopal:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=677776&l=12601

Learn more:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=677776&l=12609

http://www.civicworldwide.org/index.html
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0421-31.htm

Aid worker uncovered America's secret tally of Iraqi civilian deaths
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/642359/

Country's Violence Catches Up to U.S. Crusader in Iraq
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/642279/

Marla Ruzicka: The senseless death of the woman who fought George Bush
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/637239/

Despite more lenient grading standards than in past years, a Drum Major Institute Report found that more than 90 percent of Republicans consistently voted against the interests of working families in 2004.

http://www.tompaine.com/uncommonsense/index.php?dateid=20050421#4594

by John Prados, TomPaine.com

The Bolton hearings uncovered two ways to politicize intelligence: to threaten analysts directly and to 'Boltonize.'

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/boltonized_intelligence.php?dateid=20050421

We are happy to be passing along an exciting new resource: a power point presentation that links the struggle against nuclear weapons with our efforts to end the war in Iraq: http://tinyurl.com/aveqf

This is particularly timely as we approach the mass mobilization being organized in New York City for Sunday, May 1st.

If you have a computer with power point software you can open this attachment. If not, please ask others in your group if they have that software and forward this message to them. Please show the presentation to your members and share it with other groups. You should also check the UFPJ web site in a few days; we will be converting the power point presentation into pdf files which you will be able to download.

We especially hope you will be able to use this resource in the coming week or so, as we gear up for the May 1st mobilization.

The Bush administration brought us to war in Iraq because of a supposed threat of "weapons of mass destruction" - including nuclear weapons. The whole world now knows this was a lie to justify a war to control Iraq's oil. The war rages on with tens of thousands killed and maimed, Iraq in ruins, and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted while our schools, health care and other vital services suffer, hitting people of color, the poor and working people the hardest.

This May, world leaders, mayors and citizens of dozens of countries are coming to New York City. They will meet at the UN to decide the fate of the endangered Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Signed by 189 nations, including the United States, the treaty prohibits non-nuclear states from acquiring nuclear weapons, and requires nuclear nations, including ours, to negotiate the elimination of nuclear weapons.

The Bush administration threatens war against Iran and North Korea, charging them with violating the NPT, but ignores its own treaty obligations, spending $40 billion a year on nuclear forces and threathening to use them first.

This is the 60th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On Sunday, May 1st, tens of thousands of people are marching to support the call to abolish all nuclear weapons and to bring our troops home from Iraq. We have a historic opportunity to help people see how these issues are connected. And the power point included as an attachment is a valuable tool in this educational process. We hope you will be able to use it widely.

peace,

Leslie Cagan
National Coordinator
UFPJ

As the Global Network (GN) prepares for its 13th annual space organizing conference in New York City, on April 29-30, a call came into our office today from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The ACLU office in Brevard County, Florida (where NASA and the Kennedy Space Center are located) called to inform the Global Network that an ACLU investigation of the Brevard County Sheriff's department has revealed 600-700 pages of internal files documenting extensive infiltration and surveillance of the Global Network and other anti-war activities in the county during recent years. The files contained descriptions of Global Network members as being "anti-American."

The ACLU investigation, which began last January, also revealed that NASA was gathering information on European demonstrations against the launching of weapons and nuclear power in space during recent years. In addition, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI), based in Tampa, Florida, had infiltrated the Global Network as late as October of 2002 during the organization's annual Keep Space for Peace Week.

According to the ACLU the investigations centered on Global Network Coordinator Bruce Gagnon and Global Network members Mary Beth Sullivan and Maria Telesca. In addition to infiltration of the organization, the ACLU noted that the investigations included background checks, driving histories, address histories, as well as other information gathering activities.

The ACLU has requested permission to pursue legal action on behalf of Bruce, Mary Beth, and Maria. The ACLU intends to attempt to retrieve all surveillance files gathered on Global Network members and to pursue a possible lawsuit.


Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (Our blog)


Informant: sash

Throw Lying Cops Off the Force: In an Orwellian twist, the authorities even censored their own tapes to delete evidence of police lies.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8595.htm

In an Unseen Front in the War on Terrorism, America is Spending Millions...To Change the Very Face of Islam.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/050425/25roots.htm


From Information Clearing House

Before I read this book, I couldn't understand it either. In every country I've visited throughout the world, I have witnessed anti-American sentiment. I thought people were just ignorant and jealous of our wonderful nation.

http://www.mercola.com/2005/apr/20/economic_hitman.htm


From Information Clearing House

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=7686


From Information Clearing House

Panorama investigates the "neo-conservatives", the small and unelected group of right-wingers, who critics claim have hijacked the White House. They brought us war against Iraq - what do the hawks in Washington have in store for us now?

Real Video.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8581.htm

We are now in an America where it's a commonplace for our President, wearing a "jacket with ARMY printed over his heart and 'Commander in Chief' printed on his right front," to address vast assemblages of American troops on the virtues of bringing democracy to foreign lands at the point of a missile.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=2334


From Information Clearing House

All is quiet in Falluja, or at least that is how it seems, given that the mainstream media has largely forgotten about the Iraqi city. But independent journalists are risking life and limb to bring out a very different story.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6890A8DA-AF79-45AD-BB4F-42C060978A07.htm


From Information Clearing House

In 2004 the US-based scientist Dr Les Roberts led a survey into deaths caused by the invasion of Iraq. His results showed that approximately 100,000 Iraqis had been killed after the invasion. He spoke to Joseph Choonara about his survey.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=6271


From Information Clearing House

A week before she was killed by a suicide bomber, humanitarian worker Marla Ruzicka forced military commanders to admit they did keep records of Iraqi civilians killed by US forces.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8598.htm

This is the story of the hidden agenda behind the invasion of Iraq. How much has this war really been about control over a dwindling resource?

Real Video
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8582.htm

by Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

8:18 PM PDT, April 17, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq — She hugged and laughed her way through war zones with an effervescence belying her seriousness of purpose.

No pass to get through a checkpoint? She leaned across her Iraqi driver to show the stern American guard the shock of blond hair beneath her flowing black robes. "Please, please, please, please, please," she said, and then, "Where are you from?" She waved aside tough-looking guards from all corners of the world, never looking back to see if they had raised an AK-47 in her direction. In her one-woman mission to make the United States take responsibility for the innocent victims of its wars, 28-year-old Marla Ruzicka bubbled with a passion that seemed to lift her beyond danger. [...] Read more about her and her death at http://tinyurl.com/7ceo7

© Virginia Metze

by Steve Mills
Tribune staff reporter

Published April 20, 2005

AUSTIN, Texas -- With Texas' criminal justice system the subject of intense scrutiny for a crime lab scandal and a series of wrongful convictions, a state Senate committee heard testimony Tuesday about the possibility that Texas had experienced the ultimate criminal justice nightmare: the execution of an innocent person.

Fourteen months after Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in the nation's busiest death chamber, a renowned arson expert and Willingham's lawyer told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee that they believed Willingham might have been innocent but found nobody willing to listen to their claim in the days before the execution in February 2004. [...] Read the rest about justice in Bush's home state, where he was governor in the Chicago Tribune: http://tinyurl.com/758a2

© Virginia Metze

http://www.WantToKnow.info/050420gmocoverup


Informant: Friends

North Tyneside Guardian

Councillors call over phone mast requests

COUNCILLORS are calling on their local MPs to back a Parliamentary bill which aims to increase the powers for refusing planning applications for phone masts.

Under current legislation, councils can only refuse phone masts based on their appearance despite concerns from residents about the potential health impacts.

But that could change as a private members' bill was recently introduced by Andrew Stunell MP in the House of Commons, aimed at giving local authorities greater powers in refusing a development without planning permission and allowing councils to have regard to health issues.

Now North Tyneside Council has agreed to call on the three local MPs to support the bill after a motion was unanimously backed at a full council meeting last week.

Coun David Ord said: "We're asking for greater powers to decide whether these things should be allowed. We're asking for our MPs to support this bill."

Lib Dem colleague Coun Graeme Brett said he was concerned about the number of planning applications which were rejected by the council after a democratic debate, and taken to an appeal where they were approved by someone hundreds of miles away, often without visiting the area.

Conservative councillor Ken Mewett said they were happy to support the motion and the parliamentary bill as it seemed sensible legislation, especially considering local residents' views on mobile phone masts.

And Labour leader Coun John Harrison said: "We support this in principle."

19 April 2005

Wednesday 20 April 2005

'No' to mast plan

Plans to site a mobile phone mast close to homes on a Bicester estate have been refused.

Mobile phone firm O2 wanted to install a 40ft mast beside Southwold Lane, opposite the Southwold estate and between the Banbury Road roundabout and the Caversfield/ Fringford turn.

Cherwell District Council's south area planning committee turned down the application on the grounds that it would be an eyesore and too close to homes.

O2 said it would appeal against the decision and it believed local people and planners had no objection to the application.

Chairman Catherine Fulljames said: "Generally the committee thought it was ugly and too close to houses."

But she pointed out the committee could only consider planning issues and not any alleged health risks.

Andy Bowne, a sales manager, of Juniper Gardens, Southwold, thought the mask was a health risk but was also concerned that not enough residents had been consulted.

He said: "I'm pleased and I think it's very unusual. If there is concern about health risks, the council has an obligation to residents."

Chris Partridge, chairman of Southwold Community Association, said he was delighted.

"Everyone on the committee was against it. We are all aware these masts have to go somewhere, but this was not the best place. It would have been a real eyesore."

Jim Stevenson, a spokesman for O2, said: "We are very disappointed. We did speak to local people and we thought we had their backing and the planning authority's."

http://www.zeit.de/2005/17/RFID


Nachricht von der BI Bad Dürkheim

http://www.portel.de/news/view_redsys_artikel.asp?id=6325


Nachricht von der BI Bad Dürkheim

Here in Denmark two days ago a case of MFR-vaccination causing autism in a girl was turned down at the High court. Their verdict was that this vaccine cannot cause autism in children. The girls' parents and their lawyer has been suing the manufacturers at various courts for over 9 years. Now they have to give up, because this is the highest court. Their perfectly normal daughter became autistic a few days after being vaccinated with this vaccine.

Sianette Kwee


Mercury-based preservative in children's vaccines, may cause autism

Do I need to make any comments about the pure evil of this Bill and the people who are sponsoring it? I don’t think so. You are invited to share this with anyone who has children who have been vaccinated and with those young parents who are expecting children to be born in the future.

Playing politics at kids' expense

Bill would insulate pharmaceutical firms from liability

by ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.

Knight Ridder Newspapers

06:42 PM PDT on Sunday, April 10, 2005

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/syndicated/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_11_autism.f42d.html

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has buried a provision in the "Protecting America in the War on Terror Act" to insulate the pharmaceutical industry from liability for venal actions that may have poisoned an entire generation of Americans.

Mounting evidence suggests that Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in children's vaccines, may be responsible for the exponential growth of autism, attention deficit disorder, speech delays and other childhood neurological disorders now epidemic in the United States.

Prior to 1989, American infants generally received three vaccinations. In the early 1990s, public-health officials dramatically increased the number of Thimerosal-containing vaccinations without considering the cumulative impact of the mercury load on developing brains.


AP photo
Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in children's vaccines, may be responsible for the exponential growth of autism.


Warning Issued

In a 1991 memo, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, one of the fathers of Merck's vaccination programs, warned the president of the company's vaccination division that 6-month-old children administered the shots on schedule would suffer mercury exposures 87 times the government safety standard (400 times the current U.S. government's safe level). He recommended that Thimerosal be discontinued, "especially when used on infants and children."

Merck ignored Hilleman's warning and, for eight years, government officials added seven additional shots for children containing Thimerosal.

Mercury is a known brain poison, and autism rates began rising dramatically in children who were administered the new vaccine regimens. A decade ago the American Academy of Pediatrics estimated the autism rate among American children to be 1 in 2,500. Today, the CDC places the autism rate at 1 in 166, or one in 80 boys. Additionally, one in every six children is now diagnosed with a related neurological disorder.

In 1998 the CDC's lead Thimerosal researcher, Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, complained to his colleagues in a secret memo that, despite rerunning and rethinking the research, the links between Thimerosal and autism "just won't go away."

Secret Meeting

In 2000, CDC, FDA and pharmaceutical companies called a secret meeting to review Verstraeten's findings. According to transcripts, participants were alarmed about the undeniable link between the mercury preservative and autism. Dr. Bill Weil told the group, "You can play with (the results) all you want. They are statistically significant."

Dr. Richard Johnston acknowledged he feared his grandchild getting vaccinated. But the group was most concerned with keeping the findings secret.

Numerous animal, DNA, epidemiological and other studies point to Thimerosal as the culprit in America's epidemic of neurological disorders.

Autistic children have been shown to have higher mercury loads than nonautistics, and there have been reports of significant improvements in some brain-injured children by removing mercury from their bodies.

Most of the symptoms of autism are similar to the symptoms of mercury poisoning. Recently, scientists have been able to induce autism in certain mice by exposing them to Thimerosal.

In a recent study, former FDA scientist Dr. Jill James uncovered a scientific link that helps explain why Thimerosal injures some children and not others. That study found that many autistic children are genetically deficient in their capacity to produce glutathione, an antioxidant generated in the brain that helps remove mercury from the body, a harmless difference until the child is exposed to large quantities of mercury.

Porter Bridges' experience is typical. In 1993, this healthy 4-month-old slipped into a coma hours after receiving his vaccines.

Today, 11-year-old Porter is autistic, hyperactive and severely brain damaged. He requires minute-to-minute supervision, is frequently afflicted with violent seizures and is not yet toilet-trained.

After a seven-year legal fight, the U.S. government acknowledged that Porter was damaged by his vaccines. There are now 520,000 autistics in the United States with 40,000 new cases each year.

High Cost of Care

The cost of caring for autistic children is conservatively $40,000 annually. Families with children with autism and other neurological diseases have filed more than 4,200 claims in the special federal "Vaccine Court." Some plaintiffs have also filed in trial courts.

Some Drug Makers Act

Thimerosal defendants include Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Aventis, Weyeth and Eli Lilly. Frist's newly proposed "anti-terror" legislation would create insurmountable burdens of proof for plaintiffs in these cases and forbid states from banning Thimerosal.

Drug makers wary of liability have reduced Thimerosal in children's vaccines in recent years, with the exception of Chiron and Aventis' pediatric flu vaccine. Mercury-laced vaccine stocks were given to children until the end of 2003.

Thimerosal's inventor, Eli Lilly, donated $226,000 to Frist's national Republican Senate Campaign Committee in 2002 and bought 5,000 copies of Frist's book on bioterrorism. Congress will vote on Frist's bill in the near future.

Instead of demanding the immediate removal of Thimerosal from all vaccines, and making the drug industry help defray the public and private costs of caring for injured children, Frist's bill would give the industry a free ride at public expense.


Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the chief prosecuting attorney for Riverkeeper and a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Winfried Wolfs neue flugschrift Nr. 4 (48 Seiten für 2 Euro) ist brandneu erschienen. Hieraus im LabourNet Germany:

Der Inhalt und Bestelladresse
http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/wipo/allg/welt-ww.html

Gleichgewicht des Schreckens - Zur Lage der Weltwirtschaft im Frühjahr 2005 (pdf)
http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/wipo/allg/gleichgewicht.pdf


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 24, Eintrag 12

Exterritoriale Flüchtlingslager der Europäischen Union

Wir fordern eine öffentliche Inspektion der menschenrechtswidrigen Internierungslager von Flüchtlingen und MigrantInnen in den Mittelmeerländern, um der Forderung nach ihrer Schließung Nachdruck zu verleihen.

Internationaler Appell des Komitees für Grundrechte und Demokratie (zusammen mit der Forschungsgesellschaft Flucht und Migration) gegen die Errichtung exterritorialer Lager in verschiedenen Sprachen beim Komitee http://www.grundrechtekomitee.de/ub_showarticle.php?articleID=151

Der Krieg gegen die trikontinentale Massenarmut - Migration, Flucht und die Rückkehr der Lager, Hintergrundartikel von Thomas Hohlfeld und Dirk Vogelskamp vom 17.03.2005
http://www.grundrechtekomitee.de/ub_showarticle.php?articleID=150


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 24, Eintrag 12

Die Fotoreportage der Begehungsaktion von Arbeiterfotografie: 'Workfare is not fare - Ein-Euro-Jobs stoppen' - Protest gegen Lohndumping und Zwangsdienste

http://www.arbeiterfotografie.com/galerie/reportage-2005/index-2005-04-15-koeln-1-euro-job-protest.html

Erster Untersuchungsspaziergang zum Thema Ein-Euro-Jobs
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/641853/


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 24, Eintrag 12

Erster Ein-Euro-Spaziergang in Köln

"Im Rahmen des bundesweiten Projekts Dokumentationsstelle Hartz IV hat nun auch in Köln der erste Untersuchungsspaziergang zum Thema Ein-Euro-Jobs stattgefunden. Rund 25 Leute haben am 15. April zwei der leider mittlerweile zahlreichen Beschäftigungsträger besucht, die bereitwillig Ein-Euro-Jobs anbieten und weitervermitteln. Die Geschäftsführung fand die Situation offenbar so unübersichtlich, dass sie überhastet die Polizei rief…" Bericht von Agenturschluss Köln vom 20.4.05 http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/aktionen/koelnsp05.html

Fotoreportage der Begehungsaktion von Arbeiterfotografie
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/641859/

Treffpunkt für den zweiten Recherche-Spaziergang ist Do. 28.04. 10:00 U-Bahn-Haltestelle Lohsestraße (Ausgang Neusser Straße)


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 24, Eintrag 12

Position der ver.di-Frauen zur Mehraufwands-Entschädigungs-Arbeitsgelegenheit (MEA oder 1€Job). Positionspapier des ver.di-Bundesfrauenrates vom April 05 (pdf) http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/realpolitik/hilfe/euroverdifrau.pdf

Aus dem Text: "Durch die Zumutbarkeit jeder Arbeit für Arbeitslose werden Frauen, auch bereits junge Frauen, noch mehr als bisher an die Ränder der Beschäftigung verwiesen. Die Befürworter eines flächendeckenden Einsatzes der MEA machten von Anfang an deutlich, dass mit diesem Instrument eher diverse Löcher gestopft werden sollten, so z.B. der zunehmende Ausfall Zivildienstleistender, die Deckung von Personaldefiziten in Kindergärten und Schulen, die schlechte Finanzlage vieler Kommunen, die mangelnde Personalausstattung in der institutionellen und häuslichen Pflege usw. (…) Das Vorhandensein der 1€Jobs für Arbeitslose und ihre Androhung für noch Beschäftigte macht schon jetzt prekäre Beschäftigung und Niedrigstentlohnung zu einem von Arbeitgebern propagierten und politisch akzeptierten Beschäftigungssegment in der Privatwirtschaft. Dies hat nicht nur verheerende Wirkungen auf die ohnehin mehrheitlich in den prekären Arbeitsverhältnissen beschäftigten Frauen, weil ihnen so ein Ausweg immer schwieriger wird, sondern verstärkt insgesamt den Druck auf die Beschäftigungsbedingungen in der Privatwirtschaft…."


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 24, Eintrag 12

Mindestlohn-Debatte: Billig, willig und fleißig. Wenn die Lohnarbeit so transnational wird, wie es das Kapital schon lange ist. Artikel von Robert Kurz in Freitag vom 15.04.2005 http://www.freitag.de/2005/15/05150102.php


Zitat des Tages:

"Mindestlohngesetz

Im Rahmen ihres Sorgerechts für die deutsche Wirtschaft bringt die Bundesregierung mit diesem Mindestlohngesetz zum Ausdruck, daß sich künftig für Unternehmen der Einsatz von Arbeitskräften - wie der Name schon sagt - "mindestens lohnen" muß. Aus diesem Grund gelten ab sofort folgende gesetzliche Bestimmungen:

§ 1: Mindestlohn bedeutet, daß übergangsweise für lohnabhängig Beschäftigte mindestens noch Lohn zu zahlen ist.

§ 2: Der Mindestlohn darf 1 Euro pro Arbeitsstunde nicht überschreiten. Damit ist er nach wie vor allerdings erheblich teurer als die Postgebühr für einen Standartbrief.

§ 3: Alle weiteren Regelungen fallen daher unter die Postgebührenordnung. Die Entlohnung darf vom Arbeitgeber mit sofortiger Wirkung aus der Portokasse finanziert werden und ist steuerlich voll absetzbar.

§ 4: Unfrankierten Arbeitslosen ist die Arbeitserlaubnis unter Androhung eines Strafportos zu verweigern.

§ 5: Nach Ablauf der Übergangsfrist zahlt die Gebühren (also den Mindestlohn) der Empfänger (der Beschäftigte)."

Aus: Deutscher Einheit(z)-Textdienst von Werner Lutz Extra 5/05


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 24, Eintrag 12

"Lohnstruktur nach unten öffnen". Hartz-Reformen und "Kampf gegen Lohndumping" widersprechen sich. Artikel von Velten Schäfer, erschienen in ND vom 13.4.2005 - wir danken der Redaktion für die Freigabe!

http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/realpolitik/kombilohn/mindestnd.html


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 24, Eintrag 12

Thesen für eine europäische Mindestlohnpolitik

"Angesichts von Dumpinglöhnen in Osteuropa und der umstrittenen EU-Dienstleistungsrichtlinie wird auch hier zu Lande über Sinn und Unsinn von Mindestlöhnen gestritten. Experten aus Deutschland, Frankreich und der Schweiz kommen in ihren Überlegungen zu dem Schluss, dass das Problem europaweit gelöst werden muss. Wissenschaftler des Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Instituts (WSI) in der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung haben zusammen mit Kollegen des Schweizer Denknetzes und des französischen Forschungsinstitutes Ires Thesen für eine europäische Mindestlohnpolitik entwickelt…." Dokumentation in der Frankfurter Rundschau vom 19.4.05

http://www.fr-aktuell.de/ressorts/nachrichten_und_politik/dokumentation/?sid=48477979ccd74b79da360e31a2959297&cnt=663652

Wir erheben den Titel "Wer arbeitet, soll auch essen" zum Unzitat des Tages, denn da war doch was mit der Anti-These…. ?


WSI plädiert für europäische Mindestlohn-Politik

Erweitertes Entsendegesetz erster Schritt auf dem Weg zum Mindestlohn / Beschäftigungsrisiken nicht belegt

"Mit der von der Bundesregierung geplanten Erweiterung des Entsendegesetzes würde erstmals in Deutschland eine weitreichende Mindestsicherung eingeführt. Das Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Institut (WSI) in der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung sieht darin einen wichtigen Schritt, um Lohndumping und die weitere Zunahme von Armutslöhnen einzudämmen. Allerdings ist nach Einschätzung des WSI absehbar, dass auch nach einer Erweiterung des Entsendegesetzes große Lücken bei der Absicherung von Mindestlöhnen bleiben. So können die tariflichen Mindestlöhne nur in Branchen für allgemeinverbindlich erklärt werden, die über gültige Flächentarifverträge verfügen. Das ist jedoch in vielen Branchen nicht der Fall. Keine Lösung bietet das Entsendegesetz auch für Branchen, in denen die unteren tariflichen Lohngruppen mit Beträgen zwischen 4 und 6 Euro pro Stunde deutlich unterhalb der Armutsschwelle liegen..." WSI-Meldung vom 18.04.2005

http://www.boeckler.de/cps/rde/xchg/hbs/hs.xsl/547_34534.html


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 24, Eintrag 12

DWW 4/2005
Prof. Dr. jur. Klaus Kniep
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/abwehransprueche_gegen_mobilfunkanlagen.doc
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Prof.+Kniep

PLANNERS deferred making a decision on whether a mobile phone mast should be built just 400 metres away from a primary school. Parents of children at Bourne Abbey Primary School fear radiation from the mast could affect the health of pupils.

South Kesteven District Council's development control committee said it wanted more information before it could accept or reject the 20-metre high mast, which will have three antennae and three dishes. Planning officers had recommended the application for approval in their report to the committee.

Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd wants to build the mast at the former DW Green site, off Pinfold Road.

Parents only found out about the plans on the last day of the Spring term, while the Robert Manning Technology College, which is also near the proposed site, was not aware of the plans. Eamon Duff (48), of Gladstone Street, Bourne, has a five-year-old daughter, Niamh, at the school. He said: "I don't think mobile phone masts should ever be put near a school. "There are plenty of other places they could go."

Susie Norris (39), of Stanley Street, Bourne, whose seven-year-old son Kyle attends the school, said she was extremely concerned by the health issues surrounding the masts. She said: "I don't want anything like this near our schools. It should be placed out in the middle of the Fens."

Mast Sanity, a campaign group for the sensible positioning of phone masts, says a mast should be at least 600m from a school and has urged all those concerned to lobby their councillors. Co-ordinator Lynne Edwards said: "Radiation is emitted in several directions. In addition to the main beam, which has the most powerful level of radiation, the masts give off several side beams."

Radiation has been shown to increase the risk of children developing cancer, leukaemia and growths in later life and councillors were faced with a number of objections from parents when they considered the application.

Bourne Town Council also expressed its concern about the mast's close proximity to the school field, as did a resident of Arnhem Way. The application has been made because of public demand for phone coverage for the eastern side of Bourne and the A151.

Verity Stanford, of 3 Mobile, said a base station was needed in the area for that demand to be met and reassured concerned parents and residents. She said: "Radio waves only travel short distances, so we need base stations close to where people want coverage. "The industrial unit is the best location for this area. "It will be to the west of the main industrial site, within a large concrete parking area and away from any sensitive land use."

The mast would be 200m from the nearest homes and be partially screened by a number of 10m high cyprus trees, which line Pinfold Road.

The committee will look at the matter again at its May meeting.

20 April 2005

http://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=829&ArticleID=1002324

http://tinyurl.com/9ee2p


Informant: Sylvie

04/21/05

George W. Bush was preoccupied with going to war even before he was elected. Brown and Root have expanded and profited immensely from their government contracts from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The similarity between what happened in the south Texas election of 1948 and what happened in the presidential race in Florida in 2000 along with the connection of Brown and Root to both LBJ and Cheney/Bush makes it appear history has repeated itself. There are other interesting similarities between LBJ and GWB besides their shared bond with the Lone Star State...

http://www.libertyforall.net/2005/may1/Texas.html

from Liberty For All, by Jessi Winchester


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

04/20/05

Social Security is nothing more than a bankrupt welfare program, one that is funded entirely by monies taken from young and middle-aged people. Medicare is another welfare program whose spending is going through the roof and whose regulations have plunged the medical profession into depression, despondency, and dependency. The Drug War is a decades-long program that has utterly failed to accomplish its supposed end and whose actual results have been overwhelmingly destructive.

http://www.fff.org/comment/com0504f.asp

from Future of Freedom Foundation, by Jacob G. Hornberger


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

04/20/05

[W]e shouldn't be laughing. What's going on in the United States, crystallized for many of us more dramatically than ever in these recent weeks, is nothing to laugh about. It doesn't get much more serious. The country is in the hands of extremist zealots who want to merge church and state and do away with every piece of socially ameliorative [sic] legislation passed in the last 70 years. The recent trifecta of shame began with the Schiavo matter. Its importance was that it showed that utterly no principle ... retains any meaning at all when it bumps up against the hungers of the religious right. ... [W]hat's going on now is not just politics. On the surface, the Schiavo case looked like the principle of minimal federal interference in states' matters competing with the 'principle' of life. Nonsense." [editor's note: Apperarances to the contrary, this is more than just "leftist ravings" - SAT]

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=9558

from The American Prospect, by Michael Tomasky


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

04/20/05

Interview with Scott Parkin of Houston Global Awareness (which is organizing activities in Houston the week of May 15 around the Halliburton Shareholders Meeting): "We are beginning a long term direct action popular education campaign against Halliburton that will go beyond the shareholder's meeting. Anti-war and global justice activists here recognize that corporate war profiteering is an important pillar of Bush's power in occupying Iraq. We will continue to make a political, social and economic climate that makes it difficult for Halliburton to continue operations in Iraq...

http://www.counterpunch.org/zeese04202005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Less than two years after it was plunged into a rape scandal, the Air Force Academy is scrambling to address complaints that evangelical Christians wield so much influence at the school that anti-Semitism and other forms of religious harassment have become pervasive.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3063

Studie
http://www.tecchannel.de/news/business/20487/

04/20/05

At the end of the Cold War, Americans said yes to military power. The skepticism about arms and armies that pervaded the American experiment from its founding, vanished. Political leaders, liberals and conservatives alike, became enamored with military might. The ensuing affair had and continues to have a heedless, Gatsby-like aspect, a passion pursued in utter disregard of any consequences that might ensue. Few in power have openly considered whether valuing military power for its own sake or cultivating permanent global military superiority might be at odds with American principles. Indeed, one striking aspect of America's drift toward militarism has been the absence of dissent offered by any political figure of genuine stature...

http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2005/04/bacevich.html

from Mother Jones, by Andrew Bacevich


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

04/21/05

The idea the US can somehow by violence change entire cultures is itself a belief in a type of White Magic to counter the Black Magic and the Evil Eye. Bush and the neocons are so deluded I don't know what else to call their beliefs except Magic: we will zap them with our White Magic to wipe out their Black Magic. We wave our magic wand. . .chango-presto, they become like us. The envy and the Evil Eye disappears; human nature is transformed! White Magic, Black Magic, the Evil Eye ... all hidden under a farrago of neocon verbiage. Added to this atavistic mess is a President who believes God chose him, meaning we now have a Priest-King. We appear to be stuck in a third-rate fantasy novel ...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/wallace/wallace206.html

from LewRockwell.Com, by Bob Wallace


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

04/20/05

One might expect conservatives, for many of whom Roosevelt remains a bête noire, to be chary of borrowing pages from his playbook, as with the Constitutional Restoration Act, which seeks to strip courts of the jurisdiction to review government's 'acknowledgement of God.' Any judge who exceeded her jurisdiction under the law -- say, by considering almost any plea for relief under the Establishment Clause -- would be subject to impeachment. To make sense of this strange appropriation of FDR, it's really necessary to watch the proceedings at the 'War on Faith' conference held earlier this month and absorb the sheer quantity of bile spewed on the black robes...

http://www.reason.com/links/links042005.shtml

from Reason, by Julian Sanchez


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

04/20/05

Currently we're getting used to revelations that the Iraq War (Act II) was started on the basis of completely false intelligence; in other words, a total screw-up, a massive blunder. However, this is nothing new. Most other wars also started as a result of government incompetence and/or government malevolence in some mix, and the exception usually perceived, World War Two, is no exception at all...

http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/davies/davies10.html

from Strike the Root, by Jim Davies


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

04/20/05

The Republican chairman of the House ethics committee offered on Wednesday to begin an investigation of Majority Leader Tom DeLay to end a stalemate that has kept the panel from functioning this year. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Washington, made the proposal at a news conference flanked by three of the four other Republicans on the ethics panel. The evenly divided committee also has five Democrats."

http://tinyurl.com/cyyvj

from CNN


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/crest1.jpg
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/crest2.jpg


Informant: Sylvie

Last posted: Wednesday 20 April 2005 16:40

A MOBILE phone company has unveiled new proposals to extend a controversial phone mast.

Communication giant O2 has submitted plans to increase the height of a pole in an alleyway next to Foundry Street, Little Lever, from 12.5 metres to 15 metres high.

The telecommunications firm tried to extend the mast last year, but Bolton Council rejected the application for being out of character with the surrounding area.

Now O2 has produced an amended design which shows a slimmer phone pole, broadening out at the top of the mast to include extra antennae.

The mast is situated in the village centre, near the shopping parade on Market Street.

It part of the company's Third Generation Network project, improving the network's coverage and allowing users to deal with large amounts of data.

Councillors in Little Lever say the mast would look like a "porcupine".

Cllr Mary Woodward, ward member for Little Lever, said: "A 15m phone pole in the middle of the precinct would be too high and it would be detrimental to the area, which is built-up.

"The mast would be out of character and become a total eyesore.

"The application for an extension was unanimously refused last time, and it should be again."

Ann McCracken, from O2, said: "We hope this new application will reduce any fears residents have about the mast's appearance.

"We wrote to local councillors in March to inform them about this further application."

Last year, O2 applied to Bolton Council to share an existing mast with rivals Vodafone at Little Lever Cricket Club, but this was rejected by planning bosses.

O2 also held talks with officials from a nearby church to try to find an alternative site.

The mast has a long history, with a successful campaign launched by villagers in the summer of 2003 to stop the monopole being erected.

But four months later, a government inspector agreed the phone mast should be built despite residents' concerns.

Residents had objected due to fears that the mast would be "an intrusive feature" and could attract vandalism.

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/lancashire/bolton/news/NEWS3.html


Informant: Sylvie

http://www.textatelier.com/index.php?id=996&blognr=547
http://www.gigaherz.ch/902

Mobiltelefone darf man nicht anfassen
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/639038/

Kein höheres Risiko für Hirntumore durch Handys
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/641113/

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/624703/

Die Akademie der Wissenschaften New York, warnt vor Handys und Sendemasten, dass Kinder ein höheres Risiko hatten, an Blutkrebs zu erkranken: http://www.s-p-i-r-i-t.net/science/c-mobilfunk1.htm

Machen Handys wirklich schwachsinnig?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/641128/

Mobiltelefone darf man nicht anfassen
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/639038/