As you read this message, Kimberly-Clark http://www.kleercut.net/is clear-cutting ancient forests to make Kleenex and toilet paper. As the world's largest manufacturer of tissue products, K-C is in a unique position to damage or destroy entire ecosystems. Only 20% of our ancient forests remain and they are too precious to throw away or flush down the toilet!

*Join Greenpeace to take on the tissue tyrants: *Greenpeace is working with folks throughout North America to protect these endangered forests and the people and wildlife living in them by mobilizing pressure against Kimberly-Clark.

You can help!

*1) Take action today*

Send an email to Kimberly Clark CEO Thomas Frank at
http://kleercut.net/sendamessage?lst . *Read more about the campaign at http://www.kleercut.net

*2) Host a House Party *

Host a Greenpeace House Party on October 27^th and join activists around the country. Meet other people who care about our environment and learn how you can help! Greenpeace will provide a video for your party to watch, and will host a conference call. Email usa@kleercut.net for more information.

*3) November 3^rd Day of Action*

Mark your calendars! November 3^rd is an international day of action to save the Boreal Forest, North America's largest wilderness tract, the size of 13 Californias! Join campuses and communities around the world to stop K-C from trashing the Boreal. Check out the Kleercut Action Pack at http://kleercut.net/en/actionpack?lst for ideas on what you can do on November 3^rd . Download stickers, posters and fliers, and join a local Kleercut Group
http://kleercut.net/en/getlocal?lst . Email usa@kleercut.net with any questions.

Some businesses make an effort to meet the needs of their customers. Then there's Kimberly-Clark. If they can make a tissue that limits the spread of the flu, certainly they can make a tissue that doesn't flush away old-growth forests. It's obvious that the 'Kleercut' campaign is being discussed at the highest levels of the Kimberly-Clark corporation. That's a great start, but now it's time to increase the pressure so the company stops discussing and starts acting!

See you in the trenches,

Beka and Lindsey
Greenpeace USA
Forest Campaign

http://www.kleercut.net
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa

http://conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=46&contentid=2837


Informant: Neo Mulder

NOTE: Yes, I know, it's a petition directed at statists, but in this case the UN is apparently acting against its own mandate, so I don't see it as particularly problematic that I as an anarchist should draw their attention to this - even though I also realise that freedom for Papuans will not ultimately come through organisations like the UN, this will at least raise a bit of pressure regarding the current Indonesian occupation.

http://www.petitiononline.com/unreview/

To: United Nations Secretary General

To: Secretary General United Nations UN Plaza New York NY 10017, USA

Appalled by the ongoing suffering of the people of West Papua, we join a growing list of international parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations, and call on you as United Nations Secretary General to initiate a review of the UN's conduct in relation to the "Act of 'Free' Choice" in West Papua, 1968-69.

West Papua has entered its fifth decade of occupation by the Indonesian military.

Crimes against humanity have been and continue to be perpetrated against the West Papuan people. An estimated minimum of 100,000 West Papuans have died since Indonesia took over in 1963. There have been systematic violations of the human rights of West Papuans at the hands of the Indonesian regime, including extra-judicial killings, rape, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, violations of the rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, and denial of free access to NGOs, human rights groups, international observers and the media to freely carry out their work.

In 1969, instead of a proper independence referendum, 1,022 West Papuans were rounded up and forced to declare - unanimously and in public - their "wish" to integrate West Papua into the Republic of Indonesia, then ruled by the brutal dictator Suharto. The population at the time was estimated at some 800,000 people, so a fraction of one percent of the people took part.

The Act has been widely dismissed as a farce, yet no action has been taken to redress the injustice to date.

Former United Nations Under-Secretary General Chakravarthy Narasimhan, who handled the takeover, has since admitted that the process was a "whitewash":

"It was just a whitewash. The mood at the United Nations was to get rid of this problem as quickly as possible. Nobody gave a thought to the fact that there were a million people there who had their fundamental human rights trampled. How could anyone have seriously believed that all voters unanimously decided to join his [Suharto's] regime?. Unanimity like that is unknown in democracies."

The United Nations had certain responsibilities in relation to the Act, as specified in the New York Agreement, an international agreement signed at UN Headquarters by Indonesia and the Netherlands on August 15, 1962. However there is strong evidence that the UN failed to fulfill its obligations under the Agreement. A representative of the UK mission to the UN said in July 1969:

"Our strong impression is that the great majority of United Nations members want to see this question cleared out of the way with the minimum of fuss as soon as possible. the Secretariat, whose influence could be important, appear only too anxious to get shot of the problem as quickly and smoothly as possible."

In the years 1962-69, an estimated 30,000 West Papuans were killed and an atmosphere of fear and intimidation pervaded the country at the time of the Act.

Moreover, in the report of the Act by the then UN Secretary-General's Representative Ortiz Sanz, it was stated that "an act of free choice has taken place. in accordance with Indonesian practice". The New York Agreement referred to "in accordance with international practice". Evidence of what was considered international practice at the time can be found in UN General Assembly Resolution 1541 (XV) of 1960. This Resolution states that the integration of one territory with another should result from the "freely expressed wishes of the Territory's peoples acting with full knowledge of the change in their status, their wishes having been expressed through informed and democratic processes impartially conducted and based on universal adult suffrage". This crucial discrepancy was not pointed out to the UN General Assembly, which voted to "take note" of the report of the Act.

Detailed substantiating documentation on the case for a review was presented to your office on 26 March 2002.

An outline briefing is available at
http://westpapuaaction.buz.org/unreview and more background detail is provided in "The United Nations and the Indonesian Takeover of West Papua, 1962-1969" by Dr. John Saltford.

De-classified US documents released in 2004 and edited by Brad Simpson available at
http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB128/index.htm have further underlined the complicity. The US Embassy in Jakarta for example told the US State Department in a cable dated July 2, 1969 that "[private] political views of the UN team are. 95 per cent of the Irianese support the independence movement and that the Act of Free Choice is a mockery".

Former Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Sabam Siagian said in March 2004 that the Act of Free Choice in 1969 was never viewed as a truly democratic exercise.

In December 2004 a British foreign office minister admitted in parliament that the handpicked representatives were coerced into declaring for inclusion in Indonesia.

Given the overwhelming evidence, and appalled by the ongoing suffering of the people of West Papua, we therefore call on you as United Nations Secretary General to initiate a review of the UN's conduct in relation to the "Act of 'Free' Choice" in West Papua, 1968-69.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned


Informant: Andy

a paper says
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/technology/05phone.html

US-Wissenschaftler erläutern in einer Studie, wie von einigermaßen erfahrenen Angreifern das Handy-Netz einer Stadt oder auch eines ganzen Landes lahmgelegt werden könnte.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21081/1.html

Jesse Jackson writes that we're learning that when Bush promised to remove the legacy of racism in New Orleans, he meant he'd remove the poor who were victims of that racism.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100505P.shtml

The urge to be safe, to keep fear at bay, is certainly natural and understandable. But, Ira Chernus writes, after more than half a century in a state of heightened national insecurity, Americans have largely forgotten the other side of the human coin: The urge to be daring, to take chances that can lead to positive change.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100505M.shtml

Asked at a news conference whether he would release some or all of her legal work as White House counsel, Mr. Bush said that the principle of executive privilege was important, and that any Senate request for documents would be a distraction from considering Ms. Miers's qualifications.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100505J.shtml

An Army captain who has reported new allegations of detainee abuse in Iraq met Tuesday with Senator John McCain and staff aides on the House Armed Services Committee, and gave them additional accounts of abuse in Iraq that other soldiers had sent him in recent days.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100505I.shtml

Think it's fair to say that the combination Sunday of the Walter Pincus-Jim VandeHei piece in The Washington Post and George Stephanopoulos' bombshell on television's This Week felt like a tug on the noose around the White House's neck?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100505Y.shtml

Want free iTunes songs? Just sign up to be recruited by the National Guard.

http://tompaine.com/uncommonsense/index.php#6360

BY BEN MURCH

11:00 - 05 October 2005

Councillors have backed residents in their fight to stop a mobile phone mast. A battle has been raging over the scheme to site a mast on top of the Smile convenience store at Wellsway.

More than 100 people packed into St Luke's Church Hall in Wellsway to hear the Bath South Local Committee debate its verdict on Hutchinson 3G's plans.

Support came from opponents of rival company O2's proposals for a mast on Wellsway or at Alexandra Park, who joined forces with those fighting Hutchinson's idea last month.

In an impassioned speech, which was greeted by thunderous applause, Bloomfield Road resident Peter Sellwood said Bear Flat was a special area with a strong community and historic architecture. He told the Bath and North East Somerset Council committee it was not acceptable to allow mobile phone companies to impose masts on it without better consultation.

The majority of residents were not against mobile phones or masts, he said, but demanded a say in where they were put.

He said: "We are under threat from mobile phone operators who seem to be hell-bent on erecting unsightly and, dare I say it, potentially harmful electronic equipment slap bang in the middle of our patch."

Last night's meeting could only make a theoretical decision on the fate of the scheme because the council had taken too long to come to a view, triggering an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate by Hutchinson 3G on the grounds of non-determination.

Now a planning inspector will judge the issue - with the council deciding last night that it would have rejected the scheme.

The council will argue against the proposal at a formal planning inquiry in the future.

The majority of the councillors present supported a call for refusal from Cllr David Bellotti (Lib Dem, Lyncombe), with only Cllr Paul Crossley (Lib Dem, Southdown) abstaining, and councillors Nigel Roberts (Lib Dem, Odd Down) and Leila Wishart (Con, Combe Down) voting against.

Cllr Bellotti argued the mast would be damaging to the conservation area and the city's status as a World Heritage Site, would be an eyesore to hundreds of people as far afield as Oldfield Park, would be too close to people's homes, and could pose a health risk.

He also said that Hutchinson 3G and O2 had not spoken to each other about sharing a single site.

Cllr Marian McNeir (Lib Dem, Lyncombe) added that the stress of repeatedly having to fight off new phone mast applications was making residents ill.

The committee agreed to write urgently to the Planning Inspectorate calling for the appeal to take the form of a formal hearing rather than an exchange of correspondence.

Cllr Bellotti has also called on Mike Dolan, executive director of the Mobile Operators Association (MOA), to intervene in the issue.

He met representatives of the MOA at the Liberal Democrat Party conference two weeks ago where they told him and 100 other delegates of their commitment to openness in drawing up plans, consultation with communities and mast-sharing.

The Government has, on several occasions, cited the MOA's voluntary Ten Commitments as the code of conduct it expects operators to follow.

Cllr Bellotti said Bath's MP Don Foster had agreed to pursue the problem in Parliament if Mr Dolan could not help.

b.murch@bathchron.co.uk

Madame Michèle FROMENT-VEDRINE, Directrice Générale de l’Agence

Française de Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Environnement et du Travail (AFFSET),

Professeur Gilles BRÜCKER, Directeur Général Institut National de Veille Sanitaire (INVS),

Professeur Jacques ROLAND, Président de l'Ordre National des Médecins.

Santé Publique/Cem: Lettre ouverte des Médecins Allemands
http://www.next-up.org/main.php?param=dernieresinfos&date_news=2005-10-05

distribute this widely and wildly....

Iris Atzmon.

Through MWN http://www.microwavenews.com/fromthefield.html

Court victory is a first for cell-phone programmers
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-otumor02oct02,0,3048495,print.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

By Nancy McVicar Health Writer

October 2, 2005

Sharesa Price thought it was just another in a series of sinus infections. Her head and eyes hurt, and she was vomiting. But then Price had a seizure, and a brain scan found something far more troubling.

"When I got home, the phone was ringing. It was the doctor's office, and they told me, `Brace yourself. Honey, you have a brain tumor.' I was standing by the refrigerator, and I just collapsed, saying, `no, no, no, it can't be a brain tumor,'" she recalled.

After her diagnosis in 1999 and surgery to remove most of the tumor, Price started looking for answers. She became convinced that exposure to radio-frequency radiation on the job, where she programmed cell phones for new customers, had caused the tumor.

In May, an administrative law judge who handles worker's compensation claims awarded her $30,000 to pay her medical bills and other expenses. Price may be the first person to convince a judge that her illness was caused by radio-frequency radiation. The decision is unlikely to have widespread repercussions for the cell phone industry, however, because the settlement was small.

Price's customers at Advanced Communications Systems in northern California were doctors, firefighters, police departments and security departments for casinos, and she loved her work. She used a cell phone several hours each day, and the room in which she worked contained transmitters that emitted radio-frequency radiation, she said.

Price said when she filed a workers comp claim, her boss fired her, eliminating her health insurance. Then she lost the case. The Native American single mother of two daughters was devastated. She turned to Tribal Health, a government health agency for Native Americans, to get anti-seizure medication.

"If I hadn't been Indian, I would have died," she said.

Her former boss, Dave Bohlen, said that he did not fire Price, that she quit based on her doctor's advice that she not return to work there. Bohlen said he dropped the insurance because she was no longer an employee. He called her worker's comp case "frivolous" and said there was no proof her tumor was caused by working in his small shop.

"There's nothing harmful going on here," he said.

After Price recovered from brain surgery, she went to the Internet and found researchers studying the biological effects of radio-frequency radiation, and got to know them.

"I would call them up and say, `You are absolutely dead on. If a rat could talk, this is what it would say. I'm the human rat.' "

Price couldn't find an attorney to take her case until she contacted Carl Hilliard, a semi-retired lawyer and president of the Wireless Consumers Alliance, a California-based consumer-advocacy group. Hilliard volunteered to represent her pro bono and re-filed her workers comp case.

Hilliard said his group has represented cell phone users in issues involving poor service, billing problems and misrepresentations by cell phone service providers.

"We're the ones who filed a case saying federal law does not pre-empt state law [on consumer issues] and won that case four years ago," Hilliard said.

Hilliard brought in Dr. Nachman Brautbar, an occupational toxicologist and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, to review Price's medical records.

Brautbar has been an expert witness in a number of high-profile cases, including the chromium poisonings from polluted drinking water portrayed in the movie Erin Brockovich.

Brautbar reviewed Price's case and wrote a report supporting her claim that the tumor was caused by exposure to radio-frequency radiation.

"It's not a money issue, suing the company, it's a health and safety issue," said Price, who speaks to school assemblies and classes about the need to use a headset when talking on a cell phone. "We need to explain to people that just like putting on condoms, you have to take this precautionary measure to make the product be as safe as it can be."

Nancy McVicar can be reached at nmcvicar@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4593.

Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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Uncertainty on long-term cell phone use
http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=262

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USA Supreme Court Clears Cell Phone Cancer Suits for Trial
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1360300/

--------

Cell Phone War

By admin

The truth of cell phones has been buried by the industry, the health officials and governments. Health effects from radiation exposure is being allowed to continue

www.sun-sentinel.com

Court victory is a first for cell-phone programmers

By ....

If you use WIFI or WIMAX, be sure to TURN IT OFF when its not in use, why slowly kill your family, pets and neighbours or staff and customers (restaurants, cafe, hotels). not to mention yourself. avoid health risks and plug in. ... Daily Mail - http://www.zeusmail.us/

Court victory is a first for cell-phone programmers

By Nancy McVicar

Health Writer October 2 2005

Sharesa Price thought it was just another in a series of sinus infections. Her head and eyes hurt, and she was vomiting. But then Price had a seizure, and a brain scan found something far more troubling…



http://www.zeusmail.us/?p=1608


Informant: Martin Weatherall



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=health+effects
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sharesa+Price

"No blood for oil" was a popular refrain used by anti-war demonstrators in Washington late last month. The Bush administration denies this charge. But if oil was one of his goals, among others, the war has been far from a success. Iraqi oil isn't likely to provide much relief to tight world supplies and high gasoline prices anytime soon.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100405F.shtml

At a time when Latino immigrants are expected to form a big part of the Gulf Coast reconstruction labor pool, the Department of Homeland Security has temporarily suspended sanctioning employers who hire workers unable to prove their citizenship, essentially allowing contractors to hire undocumented workers. That move followed President Bush's Sept. 8 decision to lift in Katrina-hit areas the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act, which requires federal contractors to pay at least the average regional wage.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100405E.shtml

If President Bush's goal is to shift the Supreme Court in a more conservative direction, his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers yesterday signaled a desire to do so as quietly as possible. The nomination appeared designed primarily to avoid a major fight in the Senate and, said skeptics on the left and right, was made out of a position of political weakness, not strength.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100405D.shtml

Matthew Rothschild: After coming under withering criticism for cronyism, Bush turns around and appoints a crony to the Supreme Court. Other than being a successful corporate lawyer in Texas - oh, and don't forget, she served one term on the Dallas City Council, Bush boasted - the only qualification that Harriet Miers has is that she's ridden the W wave. Even the National Review online acknowledged her lack of qualifications for the job.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100405C.shtml

An AP photo reveals that Miers briefed Bush on famous Bin Laden memo, but newspapers are handling the AP Photo quite differently.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100405A.shtml

The House is moving new energy bills that would let the oil industry drill in the Arctic Refuge, plunder our coastal waters, and evade pollution controls. The first critical vote will come this Friday!

We need your support to mobilize the public against this onslaught.

Congressional leaders are bent on turning September's hurricanes into a massive windfall of profits and land grabs for the oil industry -- and they are in a frenzy to pass these taxpayer rip-offs into law!

The House of Representatives is moving two new energy bills that would exploit our national tragedy in order to fulfill the fondest dreams of the oil giants: to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge . . . to plunder America's coastal waters . . . and to evade pollution controls on their smog-spewing refineries.

Tell your Representative to vote NO on these shameless giveaways to the oil lobby.

And please make a donation right now so that the NRDC Action Fund can run hard-hitting ads, arm the media with the facts, and mobilize maximum public pressure on key members of the House of Representatives. We urgently need your support to stop these disastrous bills.

With massive oil spills still choking Gulf Coast wetlands to death, it is practically obscene that Congress would be rushing to hand over the rest of our coastal inheritance to the oil giants.

Yet the House Resources Committee, chaired by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), is moving a bill that would open our most spectacular and protected marine environments -- off Florida, New England and California -- to a blight of oil platforms and the threat of oil spills. The Pombo Energy Bill would also sacrifice the irreplaceable Arctic Refuge to oil drilling.

Meanwhile, the House Energy Committee is rushing "The Gasoline Act of 2005" (H.R. 3893) to a floor vote. It would excuse oil companies from a key provision of the Clean Air Act, allowing them to dramatically increase air pollution. This bill will be voted on this Friday!

These bills have nothing to do with helping hurricane victims, nor will they lower gas prices. They are a grab bag of pro-polluter policies so extreme, they didn't make it into last summer's Bush-Cheney energy bill.

The oil companies raked in more than $1 trillion last year by fleecing us at the gas pump. Now their cronies in Congress would hand them our greatest natural treasures as well.

Let's stop this travesty now. Tell your Representative to vote NO on these offensive bills.

http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/energybill/action.asp?step=2&item=53066

And please make a generous online donation to help the NRDC Action Fund move swiftly to build a nationwide outcry against this onslaught.

Sincerely,

John H. Adams
NRDC Action Fund


Informant: Martin Greenhut

The cast of administration characters with known connections to the outing of an undercover CIA agent, are....

http://www.thinkprogress.org/leak-scandal


From Information Clearing House

An Interview with Cindy Sheehan
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10520.htm



Cindy Sheehan
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sheehan

Charges against US Army soldiers accused of crimes against Iraqis are dismissed or withdrawn at a higher rate than charges in which the victims are fellow soldiers or civilian military employees.

http://tinyurl.com/8gsqw


From Information Clearing House

Few adults in the United States are satisfied with the way George W. Bush is dealing with the coalition effort, according to a poll by Princeton Survey Research Associates published in Newsweek. 62 per cent of respondents disapprove of the way their president is handling the situation in Iraq.

http://tinyurl.com/9usya


From Information Clearing House

There is now a widespread recognition shared among senior uniformed U.S. military officers and Washington foreign policy analysts that plans to rapidly build up the Iraqi army as a new, independent effective fighting force have failed disastrously.

http://www.spacewar.com/news/iraq-05zzzs.html


From Information Clearing House

How many Iraqi battalions are fully trained and equipped, capable of operating independently of U.S. forces? Windows Media:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10521.htm

“The invasion of Iraq will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history.” Odom says“

Real Audio and transcript
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10519.htm

Blood, Sweat & Tears

By David Phinney

Numerous former American contractors returning home say they were shocked at conditions faced by this mostly invisible, but indispensable army of low-paid workers. Third country nationals frequently sleep in crowded trailers and wait outside in line in 100 degree plus heat to eat “slop.” Many are said to lack adequate medical care and put in hard labor seven days a week, 10 hours or more a day, for little or no overtime pay.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10514.htm

Behind barbed wire in Guantanamo

"We are dying a slow death in here"

BY Letta Tayler

The cellblocks echoed with groans. Emaciated prisoners were vomiting blood or dropping unconscious to the floor. The military hospital overflowed with strikers being force-fed through their noses.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10513.htm

Competitive Enterprise Institute
by Sam Kazman

Disagreeing over policy is one thing, but not knowing who’s on what side is inexcusable. In a Sept. 27 news story, Colorado Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald claimed that state Treasurer Mark Hillman’s criticism of the 1998 tobacco settlement put him on the side of big tobacco. The Sentinel questioned her logic in its editorial of Sept. 29 but it should have gone on to note that she was dead wrong on the facts. Big tobacco does not oppose the settlement...

http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,04878.cfm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CounterPunch
by Nikolas Kozloff

10/04/05

In recent years, progressive third party efforts have hardly left a dent in the American political system. Recent polling data however suggest that the American electorate is restless and anxiously waiting for a change. The only thing which is missing is the spark and organizational vehicle. If progressives are smart, they might be able to launch a significant challenge to congressional incumbents in the 2006 election. An idealistic pipe dream? Not necessarily. Candidates who hammer the two parties on Iraq while linking this issue to domestic concerns such as disaster relief, health care, social security and energy policy could have the winning formula for 2006. Polling data suggests that the Republicans are dangerously out of step with the issues Americans hold most dear, while the Democrats refuse to capitalize on Bush’s political mistakes. This opens the door for independent candidates to pick up momentum...

http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff10042005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Villasge Vouce
by James Ridgeway

10/04/05

Sooner or later, senators pondering Harriet Miers's qualifications to be a Supreme Court judge will want to inquire into the byzantine dealings of the Texas Lottery Commission in the late 1990s, when she was its chair.

Miers has been portrayed as a tough administrator who cleaned up a scandal-plagued state board .... But that's not the last question stirred by Miers's tenure on the lottery commission. There's room for speculation about whether, even as she worked to clear out corruption, she stifled the claims of a key whistleblower...

http://villagevoice.com/news/0540,webmondo2,68584,6.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Slate
by Fred Kaplan

10/04/05

Further evidence that the war in Iraq is wrecking the U.S. Army: Recruiters, having failed to meet their enlistment targets, are now being authorized to pursue high-school dropouts and (not to mince words) stupid people. This year the Army set a goal of recruiting 80,000 active-duty soldiers, but it wound up with just 73,000 -- almost 10 percent short. As a result, the Army Times reported this week, the Pentagon has decided to make up the difference by expanding the pool -- by letting up to 10 percent of new recruits be young men and women who have neither graduated high school nor earned a General Equivalency Diploma. More than that, the Los Angeles Times reports today that 4 percent of recruits will be allowed to score as low as in the 16th to 30th percentile -- a grouping known as 'Category IV' -- on the U.S. Armed Forces' mental-aptitude exam...

http://www.slate.com/id/2127487/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Bittersweet Homecoming at Yale for UN Ambassador John Bolton
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1004-12.htm

As we watch thousands of our neighbors slowly return to take up lives shattered by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, most Americans hear a call to caring and compassion for those who have borne the unbearable.

But a few powerful politicians in Washington are seizing this tragedy as an opportunity to advance their anti-environmental agenda. Already they have moved to gut the Endangered Species Act, ravage the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and sell off our great western public lands, all under the disingenuous pretext of hurricane relief and reconstruction.

None of this will help hurricane victims, nor does it reflect the wishes of the majority of Americans. We don't respond to tough times by selling off our national parks and our last unspoiled forests. In good times and in bad, in war and in peace, Americans have always safeguarded the places that make our country special.

Thank you for all you have done over the past weeks to keep America strong, in spirit and in fact.

Kathy Kilmer Director, Electronic Communications The Wilderness Society

Go Wild

As autumn shortens the long golden days in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, animals are on the move. Tens of thousands of snow geese, their flight formations like bits of intricate lace against the blue sky, have departed. Millions of other birds -- eiders, tundra swans, and other species -- have flown to milder climates. A hundred thousand caribou (or more) have moved farther south, below the Brooks Range or into Canada where the winters are not so harsh.

But some animals call the Arctic Refuge home year-round, evidenced by the chirrup of a snowy-coated ptarmigan, the bark of an arctic fox, or the howl of an arctic wolf. Pregnant polar bears have set up dens. Moose and muskoxen will use mighty hooves to graze beneath the winter snow. Farther south, in the foothills of the Brooks Range, grizzlies begin their hibernation.

And in Washington, shortsighted officials plot, through propaganda and policy, to despoil this unmatched place forever.

Take Action

Your Calls Needed

More than 5,000 citizen activists came to Washington, DC, on September 20 to rally support for protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Together, we literally jammed the halls of Congress with people like you who understand that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is too wild to waste.

Now, it's time to build on the momentum of Arctic Refuge Action Day. Arctic Refuge drilling could come up for a vote any time this month as part of the pending budget reconciliation bill. Please take a moment to phone your Members of Congress. Congress is in recess until Thursday, but you should be able to leave a message. State your name and address (to prove that you are a constituent) then tell your Members of Congress to oppose ANY bill that would hand the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge over to oil companies.

You can look up the phone numbers for your Members of Congress here: http://ga1.org/wilderness/leg-lookup/search.tcl

Thank you for your continuing attention to this most important legislative battle! You can read more about Arctic Refuge Action Day at:

http://www.wilderness.org/NewsRoom/Release/20050920.cfm

In mid-September, a District Court ruled that the Administration must provide opportunities for public participation in decisions that affect all Forest Service lands. In particular, the court ruling affects certain projects that were classified as "categorical exclusions," a process which the Administration has increasingly used to eliminate environmental analysis and reduce public participation. Read the full story at:

http://www.wilderness.org/NewsRoom/Statement/20050929.cfm

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3457/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

With US heating bills expected to hit record highs this winter, the Bush administration Monday launched a conservation campaign featuring a cartoon mascot "Energy Hog," which critics said does little to discourage energy use.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/100405EB.shtml

The debate over what energy development is doing to wildlife is raging throughout the Rockies, where some of the nation's richest gas deposits lie under prime wildlife habitat.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/100405EA.shtml

A week after being arrested in Washington, DC with nearly 400 other protesters who refused to move from the sidewalk in front of the White House, Sheehan was in Phoenix to lead an evening march to Eastlake Park, followed by a rally and prayer service at the Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Memorial.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100405S.shtml



Cindy Sheehan
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sheehan

President George W. Bush asked Congress on Tuesday to consider giving him powers to use the military to enforce quarantines in case of an avian influenza epidemic.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100405Q.shtml

http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2005/000215.html


Informant: NHNE

BY ZENA HAWLEY
Derbyshire Evening Telegraph

09:30 - 04 October 2005

Governors are opposing plans to erect a 20- metre mobile phone mast in the grounds of a Derby secondary school.

At least one governor at da Vinci Community College is threatening to resign over the scheme by O2.

The mobile phone company wants to move its existing mast from the school's roof, which is to be demolished in a rebuilding project, to new tennis courts.

But if the move does not go ahead, O2 could claim hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation because it still has 10 years of a 25-year lease to run.

The lease was drawn up with High View School, the previous school at the site in Breadsall Hilltop, which later became da Vinci.

The school's governing body had been unaware of the application and the fact the deadline for objections had passed until informed by the Evening Telegraph. The deadline has now been extended to October 27.

Hazel Till, deputy chairman of the governing body, said: "At least we can now object. There is absolutely no doubt, we don't want this mast in the school grounds.

"With all the talk of possible health risks from mobile phone masts, how can we allow this move to happen?

"It will be our responsibility if there any problems in the future and I would resign rather than have that burden."

Additionally, another planning application from Orange for another mast to be resited from the school roof is also expected imminently.

Councillor Chris Wynn, city council cabinet member for children's services, said: "We all accept this is a very difficult situation, but the contract was arranged by High View School and the masts have been in place for many years."

In accordance with planning laws, the council does not have to take into account any potential health side-effects.

This is despite the much-publicised Stewart Report in 2000 which recommending masts should not be sited in school grounds without the agreement of the school and parents.

A spokeswoman for O2 said: "These masts are greatly needed in the area and are an essential part of the network in Derby."

All mobile phone operators state their masts operate within national safety guidelines.

Omega see "Base Stations, operating within strict national and international Guidelines, do not present a Health Risk?" under:
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/771911/

Several other city schools have phone masts on their roofs, including Derby Moor Community School, Littleover, and Noel-Baker Community School, Alvaston.

The council does not have a specific policy on the placing of mobile phone masts at schools.

Techniques of imperialism
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/balangiga.html

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20051017&s=anderson


Informant: Lew Rockwell

Robert Shetterly on the glorification of killing
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/shetterly5.html

http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/politics/national/features/14574/index.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/politics/politicsspecial1/05miers.html


Informant: NHNE