In the wee hours of the morning yesterday, House and Senate negotiators agreed on an energy bill that does not meaningfully address our energy challenges. To make matters worse, this compromise bill will do real harm to our public lands, and to the environment generally, especially in oil and gas producing states. Despite the fact that the language of the agreement - over 1,700 pages long - has only recently become available, the bill's supporters are hoping to schedule votes on the flawed legislation by the end of this week. They hope to get it to President Bush before legislators leave for their August recess. We need your help immediately to stop this bill from moving forward so quickly.

To take action immediately, click here:
http://ga1.org/campaign/finalenergy/

BACKGROUND

This energy bill is appallingly flawed. It gives the oil and gas industry exemptions from bedrock environmental laws that were designed to protect our land, waters and communities. It exempts oil and gas construction activities from the Clean Water Act, and it creates a loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act that allows oil and gas companies to inject fluids laced with contaminants into oil and gas wells that penetrate underground aquifers. It also makes it easier to exclude a broad range of oil and gas drilling activities from the National Environmental Policy Act - a law that is designed to ensure balance, common sense, and openness in federal decision making. Although the bill does not - for now - authorize oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge, it does require that another Arctic area with important wildlife values - Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve - be completely sacrificed for oil and gas development.

The bill is also a financial disaster for taxpayers - although not for industry. The bill showers the electricity, coal, nuclear, natural gas and oil industries with at least $8.5 billion in tax breaks and billions more in loan guarantees and other subsidies. And instead of moving us forward toward a clean and sustainable energy future, the final version of the bill dropped provisions that would have required utilities to generate at least 10 percent of their electricity through renewable fuels by 2020, and that would have required oil savings of one million barrels by 2015.

Just as outrageous is the process through which this bill is moving forward. The bill's supporters are asking Congress to vote without giving it adequate time to thoughtfully review the fifteen hundred page bill. To ask our legislators to rush though a bill of this magnitude is wrong and irresponsible. Our representatives, and the American people, deserve better.

Your input is needed: http://ga1.org/campaign/finalenergy/

Tell your senators and representatives that Americans deserve a better energy bill. Ask your legislator to take the necessary time to really evaluate this bill's shortcomings and to do what it takes to fix it. And tell them that if asked to vote now, he or she must vote no.

Sample Letter

Use this link - http://ga1.org/campaign/finalenergy/ - to send a message from our website. To send your own message, use the text below. You can look up contact information for your Senators and Representatives at http://wilderness.org/lookup

A sample letter is below.

Subject line: Please vote NO on energy bill, HR 6

Dear:

I am writing you today about the energy bill, which you may be called to vote on this week. This legislation should be a roadmap for our nation's energy security and independence. Instead, it provides billions in taxpayer dollars as subsidies to mature, highly profitable multi-national corporations. It also would allow those corporations to ignore important environmental laws that protect our land, air, water and communities.

Instead of investing in technologies that could lessen our dependence on oil, this bill would risk the environment of vast areas in the West to for the purpose of exploration and development that cannot significantly reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Our country must do better than this, and your constituents deserve better than this.

I understand that this legislation is over 1,700 pages long. Surely few in the Congress have had a chance to read it, much less fully understand what it contains. Rushing to vote on this now precludes thoughtful consideration and the opportunity for the public to weigh in on it.

Please take the time to find out what is in it before you vote. I feel certain that once you are thoroughly briefed, you will vote No on H.R. 6, the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The Congress can and must do better than this to preserve America's energy future!

Sincerely,



http://www.wilderness.org
1615 M St, NW Washington, DC 20036 1.800.THE.WILD action@tws.org

..oder sicherheitsrelevante Daten, welche die Firma ruinieren können.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/20/20603/1.html

Keine Entwarnung nach einem starken Erdbeben - vielmehr drohen Folgebeben.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/20/20606/1.html

Innerhalb weniger Tage haben unterschiedliche Gerichte in Deutschland zweimal übereifrigen Sicherheitspolitikern Grenzen gesetzt.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/20/20608/1.html

27.07.05

Die zweitgrößte Molkerei Österreichs hat offenbar ihre gesamten Frischmilch-Produkte auf "gentechnikfrei" umgestellt. Die Niederösterreichische Molkerei (NÖM AG) verzichtet nach Angaben von Greenpeace auf genmanipulierte Pflanzen im Futter ihrer Milchkühe, ohne den Preis für die Verbraucher anzuheben. Deutsche Großmolkereien wie die Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller behaupteten bislang, dass die Fütterung ohne genmanipulierte Pflanzen nicht möglich sei. Greenpeace fordert, dem Beispiel aus Österreich zu folgen und nur noch Milch von Kühen zu verarbeiten, die keine Gen-Pflanzen zu fressen bekommen.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=11501

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/july2005/270705governmentplot.htm


Informant: Neo Mulder

Democracy Now

There is growing focus on an organization that Supreme Court justice nominee John Roberts claims he cannot remember if he joined or not: the Federalist Society. Amy Goodman speaks with Alfred Ross of the Institute for Democracy Studies, who uncovered John Roberts' membership in the right-wing organization.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072705K.shtml

--------

The Federalist Society is the ur-alpha-primo ultraconservative legal group in the whole country, writes columnist Molly Ivins. Since we have only two years worth of Roberts' decisions on the bench (in itself unheard of for nominations to the Supremes), the information about how this society plans to steer the country can be very revealing of his positions.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072805K.shtml

Part Four of our Downing Street memo teach-in series features Fernando Suarez del Solar, Fernando's son Jesus was one of the first Marines to die in Iraq. Jesus was killed by a US cluster bomb.

http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm

Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote, "It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own."

All over our country, corporation-serving Congressmen and Congresswomen are initiating bills that would decimate health freedom by eradicating the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). DSHEA is a law passed in 1994 that classifies nutrients as food and prevents any upper limits on nutritional supplements. Because of DSHEA and another law which says the US cannot harmonize with any regulation which violates US law, the anti-supplement policy of the US CODEX Office is currently illegal (because CODEX would enforce upper limits on nutrients and therefore goes against DSHEA). But if DSHEA were eliminated, the anti-supplement policy of the US CODEX Office would no longer be illegal. And our pending lawsuit against the US CODEX Office would become meaningless.

We must keep DSHEA the law of our land!

There is a very good reason why the corporation-serving Congressmen and Congresswomen are launching bills that would decimate DSHEA. It's not because they care about "consumer protection" or "health care". It's because as long as DSHEA remains intact, CODEX ALIMENTARIUS' destructive Vitamin and Mineral Guideline (ratified on July 4, 2005 in Rome) is barred from practical implementation in the U.S. With DSHEA gone, there would be virtually nothing to stop the anti-nutrient force of CODEX ALIMENTARIUS short of a massive, forceful, cohesive popular movement to drive back CODEX ALIMENTARIUS and reinstitute DSHEA.

The corporations, especially big pharma, whom these Congressmen and Congresswomen are serving, would be happy about the elimination of DSHEA. This is because natural health products, which DSHEA is protecting, causes people to turn away from pharmaceutical drugs.

Not only would the bills proposed decimate DSHEA, but there are simultaneous (and equally destructive) bills up for Congressional approval in both houses that would give the FDA draconian powers to eliminate nutritional supplements from the market. The funny thing is that the corporation-serving Congresswomen and Congressmen who are driving these anti-health freedom bills (and who deserve nothing less than to be swiftly removed from office come election time), are supporting tyrannical measures against safe nutritional supplements while pharmaceutical drugs continue to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. And they are not making a peep about drugs!

Their bills would grant hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to the FDA to "regulate" nutritional supplements (which are so safe that the hypocrisy of regulating and restricting nutrients while allowing Vioxx back on the market after it was proven to kill nearly two hundered thousand Americans is a demonstration of sheer insanity, not public service). The FDA, as you may be aware, is a rather sorry story of unwholesome influence by special interests and revolving door policies with pharmaceutical companies. Giving the FDA the power to eliminate nutritional supplements from the market is equivalent to giving the pharmaceutical industry the power to eliminate nutritional supplements from the market: this irresistible power would be used without missing a heartbeat.

At HealthFreedomUSA.org, we are serious about protecting and promoting health freedom. We are happy to have you by our side as a concerned natural health proponent. Our job is to inform you about what actions to take, and your job is to evaluate the information we provide you and then take action if you see merit in our calls to action.

It is time to take action on the anti-health freedom bills explained above. Now is the time.

Please click over to this new page we've created and follow the simple instructions to protest the 5 bills via the comfort of the Internet. If you don't take action right now on these bills along with the thousands of others who are getting this email, CODEX ALIMENTARIUS would be given free reign to make the pharmaceutical industry a fatter cat than it already is.

Click here now: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/bills

For the sake of the health of our children, let us take action now.

Yours in Health and Freedom,

Rima E. Laibow, MD Medical Director Natural Solutions Foundation

P.S. There is also a PRO health freedom bill on that page that we need to support. See you there.

Hear Dr. Laibow tonight on Internet radio! This evening, Wednesday July 27, at 7pm. Make a note in your calendar. Listen to the show by visiting http://ficaa.com/publications/ficaawradio/listenlive.aspx

Note: A couple of years ago I checked the home of a man who had just had surgery for a very aggressive form of brain tumor and found he was sleeping in a brass bed that had electric cords touching it. A large section of brass was just above his head. I no longer recall the amount of electrical pollution that I found in that circuit, but it was significant. He followed my advice regarding the installation of filters, keeping his bed free of electromagnetic fields and also some nutritional improvements, and remains cancer free.

-Shivani



Electrical Pollution & Brain Tumors
Is there a connection? Please help me to find out.

By Kris Brekke


I had an experience that suggests a link between brain tumors and high levels of electromagnetic radiation caused by “dirty power”, and am seeking the help of other brain tumor patients to participate in a study that compares the levels of electrical pollution in their homes and workplaces with those of a control group. This is an excellent opportunity to test your home and workplace for dangerous levels of electromagnetic radiation.

What is electrical pollution?

Power companies supply current that alternates between positive and negative 60 times per second. Malfunctioning electrical components can bounce this current back through your wiring in at multiples of 60 known as harmonics. These high frequency surges radiate power through your wiring like an antenna, and can cause “radio wave sickness” with symptoms similar to low level electrical shock. The power coming into your house can also be “dirty” if the power company does not have an adequate neutral wire returning to the power station.

Electrical Pollution and Cancer: My Story

In late January 2005, I was diagnosed with a 6cm anaplastic astrocytoma in my right occipital lobe. A biopsy and tissue test were done at UW Hospital in Madison, and the pathology was confirmed by MD Anderson in Houston. I had just turned 50, and had been exceptionally healthy until experiencing a seizure on Halloween 2004. I also had tingling in my left hand.

A friend of my mother told me about electrical pollution and recommended that I study the topic at electricalpollution.com and stetzerelectric.com. She also lent me a micro surge meter from Stetzer Electric that reads changes in voltage as a function of time (dV/dt). A healthy level is under 50. Most of my outlets showed a solid "1", with but some were fluctuating around 1900. I called Stetzer Electric and learned that the meter only displays up to 1999, and shows a "1" for readings above that. On the advice of Dave Stetzer, I checked our electrical panel, and found that the readings dropped when one circuit was turned off. By unplugging electrical devices on that circuit one-by-one, I found that an AC/DC power supply for a network router was causing the problem (this router had been continuously plugged in for about 4 years). After the router was replaced, micro surge readings throughout our house dropped by 99%. The tingling in in my left hand went away immediately. The best news came on June 16, 2005 when an MRI showed that my tumor had collapsed to a line that may be scar tissue.

I cannot be certain that electrical pollution caused my tumor, or that fixing the electrical problem influenced my recovery. In addition to conventional radiation and chemotherapy (410mg of Temodar 5 nights per month), I added flax oil blended with protein to my diet (see http://www.flaxoflife.com) and magnets to my drinking water (see http://www.wholly-water.com/WellnessWater.Jar.htm ).

More research needs to be done. Rather than wait for someone else to do it, I propose that we start collecting data ourselves by taking micro surge readings in our own homes and workplaces.

I will send my micro surge meter free to any ABTA member who wishes to check their power, and ask only that it be returned in a prepaid envelope with a short form listing the readings and some background information about your condition. Small donations to cover the cost of postage would be appreciated but are not required.

I am seeking the assistance of biostatisticians and epidemiologists to set up a control group and to analyze the data. If a significant correlation is found between high levels of electromagnetic radiation and brain tumors, some enterprising researcher may be motivated to seek funding for a more formal study.

As cancer patients, we live in uncertainty, and do not have time to wait for conclusive research. We must act with incomplete information to reduce exposure to as many risk factors as possible. Checking homes and workplaces for high levels of electromagnetic radiation is a good place to start. I hope that this information will benefit you, and would appreciate your participation in my modest study.

Kris Brekke
6426 Inner Drive
Madison, WI 53705
608 238 3550
brekke@bluebottle.com



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Brain+Tumors

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3153/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Opponents of a controversial free trade agreement with Central America said on Monday they still see a chance of defeating the pact, despite Bush administration claims it is nearing final victory with a vote this week in the House of Representatives.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072605Q.shtml

A call to action:
http://www.newstarget.com/009531.html


Informant: Friends

By DAVID TWIDDY, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, July 26th, 2005 09:57 AM (PDT)

News Tribune.com, Tacoma, WA KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - It may be President Bush's nickname for key political adviser Karl Rove, but some editors don't think it belongs in their newspapers. [...] Read the whole article at http://tinyurl.com/czhpq Okay, I don't usually do alerts, but I feel worried about NARAL and the rest of pro-choice America. NARAL is trying to have people call their Senators on Thursday to protest the choice of Roberts to be on the Supreme Court.

http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/retirement/callin_day.html


© Virginia Metze

July 24, 2005 -- 10:20 PM EDT

I've told you many times how Sen. Pat Roberts (R) of Kansas, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is a shame to the office, a wholly-owned subsidiary one.

The July 2004 report on Iraqi WMD should be enough to make the point.

But now there's more. [...] Read all about it at
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/006153.php or http://tinyurl.com/bap2c


© Virginia Metze

By Deborah Zabarenko


Sun Jul 24, 2005 11:41 AM ET

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The president of the American Library Association has one word for the USA Patriot Act's so-called library clause -- "Kafkaesque."

"It's very reminiscent of the '50s and the 'red scare' where people showed up at libraries trying to find which political books professors had read, because they were going to be put on a communist list or something," said Michael Gorman, a British-born librarian who heads the U.S. library group.

"Where it doesn't seem sinister, it seems comic."

Alluding to writers George Orwell and Franz Kafka, Gorman said of the Patriot Act, "I'm much too fond of Orwell to call it Orwellian, but it's Kafkaesque." [...] Read the rest at http://tinyurl.com/9zndt


© Virginia Metze

I wish to highlight a few points made in THE IRISH TIMES report below: the anti-pylon protestors' main concern is health; they are willing to be jailed, if necessary. Incidentally, this jailing business is not just a theatrical flourish on their part. There are five Irish protestors in jail right now (and will remain there indefinitely) who oppose, on health grounds, the laying of a Shell gas pipline on their land in Co. Mayo. (See below for details.) Best, Imelda, Cork


THE IRISH TIMES (ONLINE EDITION), TUESDAY, JULY 26

"Anti-pylon campaigners picket office Marese McDonagh

Opposition to the ESB's plan to erect high-voltage power lines at a number of locations throughout the country gathered momentum yesterday when protesters gathered outside the company's head office in Dublin.

About 130 campaigners representing groups in Bantry, Co Cork, Sligo, Roscommon and Fingal, Co Dublin, handed in a letter requesting that the lines go underground. The protesters say their biggest worry is the health implications of pylons.

Frank Mulligan, from Grange, Boyle, Co Roscommon, a member of the group opposing a planned 65km (40 mile) line from Flagford, Co Roscommon, to Srananagh, Co Sligo, said there was no reason why the lines could not go underground. "In our case they could reduce the length of the line by 15 miles if they buried it along the route of the N4," he said.

Mr Mulligan said the group was prepared to go "all the way" on this issue and would not be giving the ESB access to private land, even if ordered to do so by the courts.

"We already have a list of people who are prepared to go to jail if it comes to it and a second list of people ready to look after their property," he said.

An ESB spokesman insisted that there was no health risk from the pylons and said repeated studies had failed to establish any link. Full planning permission had been granted for the three lines which were the subject of yesterday's protest, he added.

"It is standard international practice to put these lines overhead because the cost of putting them underground is multiples of the overhead option," said the spokesman.

"The time to locate and rectify faults is obviously much longer if they are underground," he added.

© The Irish Times"

and


BreakingNews.ie: Shell pipeline protestors returned to jail Shell pipeline protestors returned to jail 14/07/2005

- 14:47:04 Dozens of supporters gathered outside Dublin’s High Court today as five Co Mayo men were ... http://breaking.tcm.ie/2005/07/14/story211699.html -

Shell pipeline protestors returned to jail

14/07/2005 - 14:47:04

Dozens of supporters gathered outside Dublin’s High Court today as five Co Mayo men were returned to jail over their protest against a controversial gas pipeline.

The relatives, friends and supporters of the men from Rossport in Co Mayo called for the Government to act as they were returned to Cloverhill Prison in Dublin.

“It really makes me very sad what is happening here today, to see fine men in jail for doing nothing except trying to defend the right to live at home in their own house,” Dr Jerry Cowley, an Independent TD, said.

“It has come about because Shell are persisting and the Government are persisting in not going for off-shore processing of this gas. That is the only way this can happen, because this pipe is dangerously close to people’s houses and it will always be.”

The five men – Micheál Ó Seighin, Vincent McGrath, his brother Philip, Willie Corduff and Brendan Philbin – were sent back to jail for failing to purge their contempt over a High Court injunction preventing them obstructing the construction of the pipeline.

Shell E & P Ireland is seeking to pump gas from the Corrib gas field along the pipe to an onshore refinery at Bellanaboy in Mayo as part of a €990m project.

The Independent TD said he was disappointed in Minister for Natural Resources Noel Dempsey’s reaction to the matter.

“I think he should take the power that he has and use it and insist Shell do an off-shore terminal,” Dr Cowley said.

Mr Dempsey said he had launched a safety review following a week of negotiations with the protesters from the Rossport area.

The review will examine all the documentation surrounding the design, construction and operation of the onshore pipeline in order to assess whether it meets health and safety standards.

After the court case, a statement from the five men, which was read out to supporters, said: “We are in jail as a last resort to protect ourselves and our families, our neighbours and our area from potential destruction by a gas pipeline rupture.

"That remains our position, our one and only requirement, no-one can do less.

“Pipelines rupture, no pipeline engineer intends this to happen but it does with sickening frequency.

"The outlandish pipeline proposed here to be forced in close proximity past our houses is the stuff of nightmares.”

The jailed men want Shell to build the gas refinery offshore, because they fear that pumping unrefined gas past their homes will lead to a health and safety risk.

Mark Garavan, who read out the statement on behalf of the men, said the families of the five Co Mayo men were suffering terribly.

He added: “They believe that by being in prison they are preventing the pipeline from going ahead, they think they are therefore doing their duty of care to their families and to the community.”

Mr Garavan said local people were still maintaining a vigil at the Bellanaboy terminal site.

“There are images of blockades which sound rather malevolent, what is going on there is nothing other than a velvet revolution,” he said. “It is simply a very warm very positive carnival atmosphere.”

Mary Corduff, whose husband Willie Corduff has been jailed over the injunction, said the visits to Cloverhill prison were very painful for the families.

“It is very hard for our children to see their dad being locked up for something they know and we all know he shouldn’t be in there for,” she said.

“All they are looking for is safety, to be able to live down in our own area equally as safe as everyone else in Ireland. And with this pipeline that won’t be possible.

“I think any father would do the same for his wife or his children or his area, which he is trying to protect.”

The men will appear before the High Court again on July 25 next.

27.07.2005

Vortrag über Mobilfunk am Freitag in Kronach

Kronach. „Wirken schnurlose DECT-Telefone und Mobilfunkanlagen auf unsere Gesundheit?“ Über dieses heiß diskutierte Thema spricht Dr. Cornelia Waldmann-Selsam am Freitag, 29. Juli, ab 17 Uhr in der Frankenwaldklinik.

Dr. Waldmann-Selsam ist Mitbegründerin des „Bamberger Ärzte-Appell“, einer Initiative von Ärzten, die sich seit Jahren mit den Strahlungseinwirkungen beschäftigen. Die Referentin spricht aus praktischer Erfahrung. In mehreren hundert Haushalten haben sie und ihre Ärztekollegen schnurlose DECT-Telefonstationen entfernen lassen. Nachher bestätigte sich, dass die vorher von ganzen Familien beklagten Symptome wie Schwindel, Kopfschmerzen, Schlaf- und Herzrhythmusstörungen sowie Stresserscheinungen nicht mehr zu beklagen waren.

Jeder Interessent kann seine Basisstation seines hauseigenen schnurlosen DECT-Telefons vor Ort in der Frankenwaldklinik auf Strahlungsintensität testen lassen. Die Ärztin bietet diesen Service kostenfrei an. Daher werden alle Teilnehmer gebeten, ihre Basisstation des schnurlosen Telefons mitzubringen.

Der Verein „Gemeinsam gegen Krebs“ lädt zu dieser Veranstaltung in die Personalcafeteria im 4.Stock der Klinik ein. eh

http://www.fraenkischer-tag.de/nachrichten/index.php?MappeCID=8qo04p4k0mkvfac0$~0t-&Hierarchie=25pvi2$09m$~yypa24hee&Seite=Lokales&SeiteSub=Kronach


Nachricht von der BI Bad Dürkheim

Center For Individual Freedom

by Alexander Schwab

07/26/05

A California toad is creating quite a stir in Judge John Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States. And no, it's not Barbara Boxer. Judge Roberts, whose indefatigably mainstream record on the bench has frustrated attempts to brand him an extremist, is now under fire for an opinion he penned that discusses the federal government's power over the habitat of the Arroyo Southwestern Toad. Never mind that the opinion was a dissent, and so establishes no precedent; never mind that the court was simply ruling on whether or not to hear the case; never mind that Judge Roberts was not alone. Judge Roberts' failure to support the toad (via the vehicle of federal regulation) proves he must be an anti-environmentalist reactionary...

http://tinyurl.com/8rn35


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Salon

by Phillip Robertson

07/27/05

As Salihee approached the patrol from the east, another car was turning around in front of him. He began to drive around it to the right. Exactly what happened next is in dispute. What is certain is that as Salihee went around the car, the two U.S. snipers, thinking he was a suicide bomber, opened fire. At least four rounds were fired. One blew out the car's right front tire; another ricocheted off the ground and pierced the gas tank. The final 7.62 millimeter round pierced the driver's side of the windshield, entering Salihee's right eye and shattering his skull. ... Yasser Salihee was not a suicide bomber. He was a physician and journalist who was going to his house on his day off to pick up his two-year-old daughter Dania and take her swimming...

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/07/27/sniper/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The American Prospect

by Matthew Yglesias

07/26/05

As just about everyone seems to agree, John Roberts is a shrewd choice to serve as Sandra Day O'Connor's replacement on the Supreme Court. By all accounts, he's a smart man and a clever lawyer, and he has no record of nut-job rhetoric or obviously mistaken decisions. He is, in other words, a tough nominee to oppose. At the same time, it seems clear that he'll be a bad justice. This basic reality has been obscured in much commentary from liberal legal experts, who've focused on the evidence that things could be worse. And, indeed, they could. There seems to be a reasonable chance that Roberts will turn out to be one of the 'good' right-wing justices -- the kind who do bad things in smallish, incremental steps rather than huge, gaping leaps of badness. That's nice, but it's still bad, and Democrats should say so...

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=10047


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Tom Paine

by Jamie Court

07/26/05

In a better world, the Senate confirmation hearings on the nomination of Rep. Christopher Cox [R-CA] to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission would be the Democratic Party's finest hour. The hearings offer a perfect opportunity to decry Wall Street's looting of Main Street and to put the GOP on trial for creating the conditions under which corporate criminals flourished. Instead, Democrats have been eerily silent on Cox, a right-wing Republican who wrote a 1995 law making it harder for investors to take corporate swindlers to court. Cox's Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, which became law over President Clinton's veto, has been blamed for allowing some of the nation's worst financial scandals -- including those at Enron and WorldCom -- to proceed unchecked...

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050726/soft_on_corporate_crime.php


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Unknown News

by Helen & Harry Highwater

07/26/05

For a free society, you just need two things. First, of course, you need people who want freedom. And second, those free people need the means to prevent others from taking freedom away -- a working Constitution, some functional system of checks and balances, or just a community spirit that says, 'Don't tread on me.' We spend a lot of time debating intricate details of that second ingredient. Perhaps surprisingly, though, it's the first ingredient that's really tricky -- finding people who want freedom. ... Freedom is more than just a word that sounds sweet. It has to be truly respected, cherished, and understood, and that's a mighty tall wall to climb. Most people love their walls -- their leaders, their rules and regulations, their cages -- more than they love freedom...

http://www.unknownnews.org/050726a-hh.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Frontiers of Freedom

by Phyllis Deroian

07/26/05

It is very difficult for many Americans to understand that when we succumb to laws that govern the way we go about our daily lives, we allow the State to adopt the attitude of overbearing parents. We become dependent children and lose the ability to discern. We absorb the status quo arguments and spew them out of our mouths without picking them apart to see if they have merit. Our forefathers were passionate about their desire to create a new nation, unlike any that went before, where citizens were truly free. They believed that people should govern themselves, and their plan was to keep government close to the people...

http://tinyurl.com/c4ceo

CounterPunch

by David Anderson

07/26/05

Perhaps the greatest outrage about the new New York City government's policy of random bag searches in the subway is the lack of outrage about it. Where are the stories about people turning around and not being searched, interviews with opponents of the policy, or even an in depth discussion of the legalities of it? ... What freedom do we have when the government can do exactly what it wishes because it has manufactured a climate of fear like this administration has, and what freedom do we deserve when we as a society and as individuals just lie down and take it?

http://www.counterpunch.org/anderson07262005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Liberty For All

by Roderick T. Beaman

07/27/05

Across the political spectrum, the American people are registering shock over the Kelo vs. New London decision just handed up by The Supreme Court. It baffles them that a person's property can be taken and given to someone else more favored by the government. It strikes at our fundamental sense of fairness. It also strikes at our constitutional presumption that all are equal before the law. Like everything else, Kelo has some history. Private property rights have been under siege since the advent of zoning laws. The first zoning laws were passed by the City of San Francisco to keep the Chinese out of certain neighborhoods. For that, they were declared unconstitutional but later passed muster when, supposedly, applied for the purpose of community improvement...

http://www.libertyforall.net/2005/aug7/Kelo.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AntiWar.Com

by Justin Raimondo

07/27/05

Usually, it takes more than a few years for the consequences of our foreign policy to blow back in our faces -- as in Afghanistan, where our errors percolated for a good decade before they finally mutated into what we now know as al-Qaeda, and yesterday were calling the Afghan 'freedom fighters.' By invading Iraq and shattering the Sunni monopoly on state power, we unleashed forces we can neither control nor, in good conscience, support. In this case, however, they are turning on us quickly, and with a vengeance. ... Dwarfing even our apparent inability to defeat the burgeoning insurgency, America's biggest failure is 'liberated' Iraq's growing ties with the government of Iran. This is a policy boomerang of epic proportions...

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=6763

LewRockwell.Com

by James Glaser

07/27/05

Somehow our government has decided that they have a right to send salesmen into our high schools. Military recruiters can have a shot at vulnerable young adults, some as young as thirteen. In our local school, which has all grades in one building, every child gets to see this 'nice Army man.' These recruiters wear dashing new uniforms, with medals and ribbons, or they come looking ready for combat in their desert fatigues. One way or the other, they are going to impress a wide segment of the student body. The only thing between those recruiters and a student signing on the dotted line, is the child's parents...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/glaser/glaser42.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Journal Now

07/25/05

The 50 states are having an identity crisis. And it's over driver's licenses. What started as a tool to fight terrorism is fast turning into a battle over states' rights. States are in an uproar over the Real ID Act, which Congress slipped into a financing bill for the Iraq war last month. As of mid-2008, Real ID all but forces states to make it tougher to get a driver's license. 'It would have been nice if they had consulted with the states,' said Kevin Hall, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia. Hall calls the new law a 'massive, unfunded federal mandate'...

http://tinyurl.com/78lka


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

USA Today

07/26/05

Most Americans don't believe the United States will succeed in winning the war in Iraq or establishing a stable democracy there, according to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll. But an ambivalent public also says sending troops to Iraq wasn't a mistake, a sign that most people aren't yet ready to give up on the war. 'There's a lot of conflicting impulses here,' says Andrew Kohut, director of the non-partisan Pew Research Center. A Pew poll last week also showed crosscurrents in attitudes toward the Iraq war...

http://tinyurl.com/9oo63


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

I have just learnt that 02 Airwave have appealed against a refusal for a 9 antenna TETRA mast on a football ground in Leeds, in a densely populated area, where there are already 8 masts, to include one TETRA.

There is already a higher than average death rate in older people for cancer related illness, and also a higher rate of tumours in younger people.

In the wake of the raids on Leeds after the 7/7 bombings in London, I suspect we will have a hard fight on our hands.

Sandi

--------

From Karen Barratt

I think anyone fighting TETRA masts will be up against from now on. Airwave will only have to mention emergency services and terrorism and applications will go through on the nod.

The Police Federation speaker at the recent Telecom Debate at Westminster confirmed that the police are being bullied into accepting a system, which they are all worried about. He did stress, however, that they have to have a system and at the moment. it's TETRA so they have to use it. They can't be left without a communication system.

The cost of scrapping TETRA was mentioned but it was pointed out that the future escalating cost of the system could justify the govt switching to Tetrapol. We're back to the same problem of convincing blinkered politicians that they are not stuck with TETRA, they could change and justify it on financial grounds.

--------

If it is the case that we need to convince politicians, many more of whom are not blinkered of late, then perhaps the way forward is for people in all areas across the UK to persuade their MPs that we do not have to stick to TETRA at any cost.

I don't see planning issues being carried out merely on a nod. Although planning has become more restricted, and councils could be penalised for too many appeals being granted after planning applications have been rejected by the council, appeals and applications still have to go through the due process of law.

We are not yet a lawless country, so each application or appeal should be decided on its own merit. It will be tougher, but not quite a pushover. Besides, according to Airwave the UK TETRA network is complete, all bar a few hitches here and there!

Sandi

--------

There is a small but interesting update about Airwave at the top of http://www.tetrawatch.net/national/excuses.php

Andy

Warwick Courier

West Warwick residents stepped up their protests to get a planning application refused this week.

Dolores Macias, of Goldsmith Avenue, has already voiced her concerns over the proposal to put up a mobile phone mast in Hampton Road, as reported in the Courier earlier this month.

And even though the community got behind her this week, Ms Macias fears her efforts will be in vain.

She said: "It's great that people have spoken out and one of the councillors for the area was enthusiastic in trying to help.

"I have sent six letters to the district council, and I know a lot of other people have written, so at least the application has to go to a committee decision now.

"That was the main aim.

"The Racing Club and the cricket club are against the plans as well because it is going to be built opposite their playing fields.

"But let's be honest, they are still going to put it up aren't they?

"This is a multi-million pound company we are talking about and there's only so much ordinary people can do.

"It is like banging your head against a brick wall.

"These masts are poisonous and no one will do anything about it.

"If we can defer the decision long enough for me to get my house decorated and sold I will see it as a success.

"I am emigrating to Spain, this country has gone to pot."

A planning committee will discuss the application at a meeting on August 3rd.

Warwickshire County Councillor Raj Randev (Lab, Warwick West) said: "The community has my support.

"I should have been consulted on this but had no idea about it until I read the Courier's report.

"I feel there are a lot of things going on in the background that people in my ward do not know enough about.

"That road is used by children going to Aylesford and Newburgh School and is also next to playing fields which are used regularly.

"Until we know the full facts I will support refusal on health grounds."

The application comes from British Telecom mobile phone operator 02 and carries permitted development rights.

Spokesman James Stevenson claimed that independent research, carried out on behalf of 02, returned no evidence to suggest any health risks will be posed by the mast.

Omega there is more than enough evidence to suggest many health risks which are posed by the masts http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Wissenschaft+zu+Mobilfunk/ http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Cancer+Cluster http://www.buergerwelle.de/body_science.html

Isn't this a contradiction in terms?? "Independent" and "on behalf of 02" - Can't have it both ways!

Sylvia

Maybe a printing error? Perhaps it should have read "independant research, heavily subsidised on behalf of 02, returned no evidence of any worth to man or beast"

Sandi

He also said a full public consultation will be carried out.

26 July 2005

http://www.sauvonsleon.fr/pages/fondsphotos_asl.php

As promised ASL has just posted on the internet, in section number 21 of the http://www.sauvonsleon.fr site the first series of about 120 photos and various documents of which a selection are in English. These documents relate to EMF (“electro-smog”) from mobile communication relay antennas and may be reproduced freely without copyright restriction.

On the same theme, a second series of documents will be posted on-line in a few days: dozens of certified witness statements (concerning the biological and health effects of irradiation from mobile telephone relay antennas) medical images, judgements of courts, etc.

26.07.05

Ein US-Bezirksgericht hat die Inhaftierung von Verdächtigen in Guantanamo für illegal erklärt. Derweil erhielt der dort inhaftierte in Bremen lebende Türke, Mehmet Kurnaz zum dritten Mal Besuch von seinem amerikanischen Anwalt, Baher Azmy. In einem Interview mit tagesschau.de berichtet der Bremer Anwalt von Kurnaz, Bernhard Docke über die Haftbedingungen in Guantanamo und die amerikanische Militärjustiz.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=11487