Future Hope column, Nov. 13, 2005

By Ted Glick

How do activists become activists? How do they choose what issue or issues to work on? And how do they decide to change focus and work on a new one, perhaps continuing with the old issue(s), or not?

I've been thinking about this recently. I've been doing so because of my own personal situation.

About two years ago I made a conscious personal decision that I wanted to devote more of my energy to the issue of global warming. This followed over 30 years in which the main issues I'd worked on were peace, tenants' rights, neighborhood development, racism, coalition-building and independent politics.

This wasn't an overnight decision. It grew on me over several years as I read, studied and followed developments in the world. By early 2002 I was convinced that this was a huge issue that I had a responsibility to address. I did so during my Green Party U.S. Senate campaign that year in New Jersey. The second paragraph of my basic brochure said, "Move towards energy independence, reverse global warming and create jobs through a crash program to get energy from the sun, the wind and other renewable fuels."

But I think what really pushed me to make this my major activist priority was what happened in Europe in the summer of 2003. A brutally hot August led to at least 20,000 and as many as 40,000 deaths, mainly elderly people. In the words of Wikipedia, the free internet encyclopedia, "The heat wave has inevitably been linked to unprecedented weather extremes in other parts of the world taking place in the same general period (such as the worst drought in recorded history in Australia during the previous Australian summer, and massive floods in the USA) and attributed to global warming."

I already knew that islands in the Pacific were likely to disappear and that major parts of countries like Bengladesh would do the same as the oceans continued to rise. I knew about the vast melting of Arctic sea ice and its effects on Inuit people and others. But to read in the newspapers about tens of thousands of heat-caused deaths in Europe, a continent of relative privilege, in a such a short period of time really hit home.

Two years later I'm immersed in this issue. Three weeks from now there will be actions all around the world on December 3rd, on what has developed as an International Day of Action to Stop Global Warming. In the United States there will be probably upwards of at least 100 localities, perhaps many more, where action of some kind will be taking place.

December 3rd was chosen because it is right in the middle of a major United Nations Climate Conference in Montreal, Quebec, meeting from November 28th to December 9th. 12,000 people from over 150 nations will be present. Most will be signers of the Kyoto Protocol. The U.S., one of the few countries which has not signed, will be there, literally obstructing the efforts of other countries to strengthen world action on this crisis.

It is important-no, it is URGENT-that these actions on December 3rd, particularly in the USA, be as extensive and as large as possible. Global warming, catastrophic climate change, isn't just another issue, one more thing to feel badly about. It is a transcendent issue, one which is related to so many more. We need a rapid, global transition to energy conservation, energy efficiency and clean, sustainable energy sources like the sun, the wind and the tides, rather than the heat-trapping burning of oil, coal and natural gas. Without this clean energy revolution, the conditions of life for people all over the world will continue to deteriorate as we experience stronger hurricanes, droughts, floods, rising seas and the spread of diseases like asthma, malaria and West Nile virus. Societies will be massively disrupted, and we will see an escalation of energy wars, in the Middle East, Latin America and possibly elsewhere, and a continuation of terrorist attacks. Those hardest hit, as we saw in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, will be those most vulnerable because of poverty and racism.

The peace movement has a special responsibility, it seems to me, to take up this issue and integrate it into their on-going work to end the Iraq war. The connection is obvious, given that the war is all about control of Iraqi oil and a remaking of the Middle East to make it even more directly a U.S.-dominated region to the benefit of U.S. energy companies and our society's ecologically unsustainable economic practices. Conversely, we must educate ourselves and the general public about the fact that there is another way, that we can and must decrease our use of oil. We must end our military and neo-colonial entanglements in the Middle East while providing a positive economic alternative for these countries via support for extensive solar and wind farms.

We must articulate the positive vision of an international clean energy revolution that, in the words of author Ross Gelbspan, "will create millions of jobs around the world, increase the overall wealth and equity of the global economy and provide a platform to bring the countries of the world together around a common global project."

Let December 3rd be a wake-up call to the world that this urgently-needed popular movement has arrived!


Ted Glick is coordinator of Climate Crisis, USA Join the World! http://www.climatecrisis.us . He can be reached at usajointheworld@igc.org, 973-338-5398 or P.O. Box 1132, Bloomfield, N.J. 07003.


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


From ufpj-news

13.11.2005

In einem angeblich unter republikanischen Politikern zirkulierenden Memo sollen Ereignisse wie ein erneuter Anschlag genannt werden, die den Abwärtstrend von Bush und den Republikanern umdrehen könnten.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21339/1.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/v-pfriendly/story/365053p-310911c.html


Informant: acpollack2

From ufpj-news

Blair Faces New Inquiry into Iraq War Impeachment Campaigners

Claim Former Ministers will Join 200 Supporters to Force Commons
Probe

by James Cusick

MPs organising the campaign to impeach Tony Blair believe they have enough support to force a highly damaging Commons investigation into the Prime Minister's pre-war conduct.

A renewed attempt to impeach Blair over claims he misled parlia ment in making his case for war against Iraq, will be made in the Commons within the next two weeks.

The impeachment process effectively stalled last year when just 23 MPs signed a Commons motion. But the scale of the government's defeat on its anti-terror legislation last week - where 49 Labour MPs rebelled - has galvanised the momentum for proceedings to be invoked.

Organisers say they are expecting 200 cross-party signatures, including those of former government ministers, to force the Commons to set up a Privy Council investigation that would examine in detail the case for impeachment against Blair.

The size of the Labour revolt, allied to unified opposition benches, is said to have changed the climate inside the Commons.

SNP leader, Alex Salmond, one of the key figures in the impeachment campaign, said he now believed that the cross-party attempt to bring the government to account over the Iraq war "would become more urgent than predicted problems associated with social legislation in England and Wales".

Following the Commons defeat, it was predicted that future flashpoints for Blair would include a new education reform bill, likely to be presented next spring and new legislation to broaden reform inside the NHS with greater competition from the private sector.

Potential backbench revolts are also predicted if Blair makes any move to update the Trident nuclear programme or tries to introduce a new era of nuclear-generated energy.

Next month, a Green Paper on welfare reform, expected to include moves to cut incapacity benefit, was expected to be the first attack point for Labour dissidents.

However, any parliamentary success on the matter of impeachment is likely to over-shadow other issues.

If the promised signatures materialise, and a vote on the impeachment process is taken, the opportunity to deliver a substantial knock-down blow to Blair is not likely to be passed up by Labour rebels and opposition alike.

One MP last night: "This would be a golden opportunity. It would be pay-back time for Blair over the way he manipulated parliament before the Iraq war in 2003.

"Last week's defeat changed the atmosphere in the Commons. The hunt is on, as they say."

Although the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, has remained publicly loyal to Blair since the defeat, last night, one of Brown's closest parliamentary allies disobeyed his call to back the Prime Minister unquestioningly.

The former Treasury minister, Geoffrey Robinson, insisted the Prime Minister had to allow his successor sufficient time to win a fourth term. The comment effectively challenges Blair's claim that he will serve out a "full third term".

Blair has acknowledged how difficult the task ahead of him now is. He said in a newspaper interview this weekend that he now faced "a rough ride" to push through his reform agenda. But he insisted there would be no spectacular U-turn, saying he was still determined to "continue doing what was right, not what is easy".

An organiser of the impeachment campaign told the Sunday Herald : "We have been promised 200 signatures and are now hopeful this process will go ahead as it should have last year. There will be a vote and an investigation will be set up. Does this have the potential to finish Tony Blair? Yes it does."

Copyright © 2005 newsquest (sunday herald) limited

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1113-03.htm


Informant: John Calvert

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) conveys why the US should staunchly oppose 'cruel, inhumane, or degrading' treatment of all detainees in the course of interrogations.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111305Y.shtml

From fables to false fortunes, Frank Rich views the Bush Administrations and Republicans alike as reciting compelling hyperboles of a government that does not condone torture, on the brink of a GOP victory over an anti-torture bill.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111305Z.shtml

Please forward to anyone who might be interested!

* NATIONAL DAY OF COUNTER-RECRUITMENT *
December 6, 2005 Campus Antiwar Network http://www.campusantiwar.net

ENDORSED BY: Pablo Paredes, war resister; David Airhart, Iraq War vet and Kent State student facing expulsion for peaceful counter- recruitment; Tariq Khan, George Mason University student assaulted for peaceful counter-recruitment; Charles Peterson, Holyoke Community College student assaulted for peaceful counter-recruitment; Traprock Peace Center; Anthony Arnove, editor, Iraq Under Siege and co-editor with Howard Zinn, Voices of a People's History of the United States

* Say No to the Solomon Amendment!

Campus Anti-War Network is calling for actions around the country to show the federal government that they cannot intimidate schools for kicking out military recruiters. On December 6, the Supreme Court will hear the FAIR v Rumsfeld case (brought by several universities), which will decide whether schools can ban military recruiters wihout losing federal funding. Currently, the Solomon Amendment allows the government to cut off federal funding from schools that ban military recruiters. This policy forces schools to accept military recruitment, even though the military's anti-gay "don't ask, don't tell" policy violates university anti-discrimination policies.

* Bring the movement for COLLEGE NOT COMBAT to a recruiting station near you!

On Dec 6, when the Supreme Court hears FAIR v Rumsfeld, students will hold protests at military recruiting stations across the country, including in San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York City, and many other cities. In Washington, D.C., a press conference and demonstration will take place outside the Supreme Court.

This action comes amid increasing revelations of the horror of the Iraq occupation. Recent video footage shows that the US used chemical weapons (white phosphorus) in Fallujah, laying bare the lies about "weapons of mass destruction." Occupation is not liberation. On December 6, we refuse to let the military recruit young people to kill and die in a war based on lies.

December 6 is also the one-year anniversary of Navy petty officer Pablo Paredes' refusal to board his ship in protest of the war, which sparked a national campaign that displayed and strengthened the growing refusal of soldiers to fight this war. Recently, the counter-recruitment movement won a victory in San Francisco, where 60 percent of voters approved a proposition to oppose military recruiters in schools and support scholarships to counteract the poverty draft, which targets the poor, and people of color.

Let's mobilize on Dec 6 to counter the military's ability to wage its illegal war and to support the right of universities to oppose military recruiting on their campuses.

Say No to the Solomon Amendment!
COLLEGE NOT COMBAT! TROOPS OUT NOW!

We welcome all organizations to endorse this day of action or to sponsor it with us. If you want to endorse, or you want to organize an action in your area, email recruitersout@yahoo.com and check out our website at http://www.campusantiwar.net


Ashley Smith

Loughran SP, Wood AW, Barton JM, Croft RJ, Thompson B, Stough C.

aBrain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn bAllergy Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, The Alfred Hospital and Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Previous research has suggested that exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields increases electroencephalogram spectral power in non-rapid eye movement sleep. Other sleep parameters have also been affected following exposure. We examined whether aspects of sleep architecture show sensitivity to electromagnetic fields emitted by digital mobile phone handsets. Fifty participants were exposed to electromagnetic fields for 30 min prior to sleep. Results showed a decrease in rapid eye movement sleep latency and increased electroencephalogram spectral power in the 11.5-12.25 Hz frequency range during the initial part of sleep following exposure. These results are evidence that mobile phone exposure prior to sleep may promote rapid eye movement sleep and modify the sleep electroencephalogram in the first non-rapid eye movement sleep period.

PMID: 16272890 [PubMed - in process]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16272890&dopt=Abstract


From FGF-Infoline 10.11.2005

Baohong W, Jiliang H, Lifen J, Deqiang L, Wei Z, Jianlin L, Hongping D.

Zhejiang University, Medical College, Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health, Hangzhou 310006, Zhejiang, PR China.

The aim of this investigation was to study the synergistic DNA damage effects in human lymphocytes induced by 1.8 GHz radiofrequency field radiation (RFR, SAR of 3 W/kg) with four chemical mutagens, i.e. mitomycin C (MMC, DNA crosslinker), bleomycin (BLM, radiomimetic agent), methyl methanesulfonate (MMS, alkylating agent), and 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4NQO, UV-mimetic agent). The DNA damage of lymphocytes exposed to RFR and/or with chemical mutagens was detected at two incubation time (0 or 21 h) after treatment with comet assay in vitro. Three combinative exposure ways were used. Cells were exposed to RFR and chemical mutagens for 2 and 3h, respectively. Tail length (TL) and tail moment (TM) were utilized as DNA damage indexes. The results showed no difference of DNA damage indexes between RFR group and control group at 0 and 21 h incubation after exposure (P>0.05). There were significant difference of DNA damage indexes between MMC group and RFR+MMC co-exposure group at 0 and 21 h incubation after treatment (P<0.01). Also the significant difference of DNA damage indexes between 4NQO group and RFR+4NQO co-exposure group at 0 and 21 h incubation after treatment was observed (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The DNA damage in RFR+BLM co-exposure groups and RFR+MMS co-exposure groups was not significantly increased, as compared with corresponding BLM and MMS groups (P>0.05). The experimental results indicated 1.8 GHz RFR (SAR, 3 W/kg) for 2h did not induce the human lymphocyte DNA damage effects in vitro, but could enhance the human lymphocyte DNA damage effects induced by MMC and 4NQO. The synergistic DNA damage effects of 1.8 GHz RFR with BLM or MMS were not obvious.

PMID: 15935405 [PubMed - in process]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15935405&dopt=Abstract


From FGF-Infoline 10.11.2005

Regierung des Kantons Wallis stoppt UMTS-Ausbau
http://www.gigaherz.ch/968

--------

Funkstille im Wallis: Staatsrat stoppt Ausbau des Mobilfunknetzes

Wallis / Zermatt / Der Walliser Staatsrat legt sich quer: Mit Urteil vom 5. Oktober 2005 verbietet der Staatsrat jeden weiteren Ausbau der UMTS-Netze auf dem ganzen Kantonsgebiet.

Von Walter Bellwald

Der Entscheid ist historisch: Nachdem die Gemeinde Zermatt die Aufrüstung der Kirchturm-Mobilfunkantenne sistierte, hat der Kanton Wallis den Grundsatzentscheid der Gemeindebehörden gestützt. Damit ist die Aufrüstung der Mobilfunkantenne bis auf weiteres verboten. Die Folge: Der grösste Mobilfunkanbieter der Schweiz ist verärgert und droht mit einer Verwaltungsgerichtsbeschwerde.

Keine genauen Messwerte

Damit hatte niemand gerechnet: Nach dem gemeindeinternen Stopp zur Aufrüstung der Kirchturm-Mobilfunkantenne in Zermatt hat jetzt auch der Staatsrat sein Veto gegen eine Aufrüstung und Inbetriebnahme des UMTS-Netzes (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) eingelegt. Die Begründung: Keine zuverlässigen Messwerte. In der Urteilsbegründung heisst es: „...da eine zuverlässige Messung der realen Strahlung bei UMTS-Anlagen nicht möglich ist und demnach die zuständigen Bewilligungsbehörden nicht in der Lage sind, mit Sicherheit kontrollieren zu können, ob die einmal in Betrieb genommene UMTS-Anlage die Anlagegrenzwerte im massgebenden Betriebszustand überhaupt einzuhalten vermag, ist die entsprechende Anlage erst gar nicht zu bewilligen...“. Im Klartext: Bis auf weiteres ist jeder weitere Ausbau des UMTS-Netzes auf Walliser Kantonsgebiet verboten. Auf eine entsprechende Anfrage wollte sich Leander Schmidt vom Amt für Strahlenschutz nicht äussern.

Historisches Urteil

Der Entscheid des Walliser Staatsrats wurde schweizweit mit grosser Überraschung zur Kenntnis genommen. „Ich bin fast vom Stuhl gefallen, als ich davon gehört habe“, freut sich Hans-Ueli Jakob, Präsident der Schweizerischen In­-teressengemeinschaft Elektrosmog­be­troffener (Gigaherz). „Ich bin erstaunt über den Mut der Walliser Kantonsregierung und zolle den Herren meinen grössten Respekt.“ Für Hans-Ueli Jakob ist dieses Urteil die einzig vernünftige Entscheidung. „Man kann doch nicht irgend eine Technologie verbreiten, ohne die ge-sundheitlichen Folgen zu kennen“, ärgert sich Jakob, dessen Verein mittlerweile 500 Ortsgruppen angeschlossen sind. Nach Jakob dürfte der Entscheid des Walliser Staatsrats ein wegweisendes Urteil bilden, welches Präjudizcharakter für die ganze Schweiz haben dürfte.

Unverständnis und Kopfschütteln

Demgegenüber hat die Swisscom den Entscheid mit Bedauern zur Kenntnis genommen. „Mir ist kein ähnlicher Fall bekannt, in dem sich eine Kantonsregierung derart explizit gegen einen Ausbau des Mobilfunknetzes geäussert hat“, wundert sich Josef Frey, Pressesprecher der Swisscom. Der Ausbau der bestehenden Mobilfunkanlagen sei unumgänglich, um die Kundenbedürfnisse abzudecken. „Das UMTS-Netz ermöglicht es, einen optimalen Multimediadienst in der mobilen Datenkommunika­tion zu gewährleisten“, erklärt Frey. „Dazu gehören unter anderem ein schneller Internet-Zugang, multimediale Video- und Datenanwendungen und die mobile Bildtelefonie.“ Das Verbot der Walliser Kantonsregierung habe zur Folge, dass sich das Projekt nun zeitlich verzögern werde.

Gerichtsbeschwerde angedroht

Für die Swisscom eine ärgerliche Sache. „Aus der Sicht des Betreibers kann dieser negative Entscheid nicht nachvollzogen werden“, so Frey. Für den Swisscom-Pressesprecher umso unverständlicher, als dass sich die Mobilfunkbetreiber strikte an die kantonalen und eidgenössischen Gesetzgebungen halten würden. „Unser Massstab sind nicht emotionale Überlegungen. Wir arbeiten nach dem Vorsorgeprinzip und achten streng darauf, die gesetzlichen Vorgaben und Richtlinien einzuhalten.“ Nach Rücksprache mit ihren Rechtsexperten habe sich die Swisscom jetzt dazu entschlossen, eine Verwaltungsgerichtsbeschwerde an den Kanton Wallis einzureichen. Sollte diese Beschwerde abgewiesen werden, dürfte wohl der Gang ans Bundesgericht anstehen.

Ihre Meinung interessiert uns!
mailto:seeholzer@rz-online.ch,%20escher@rz-online.ch,%20bellwald@rz-online.ch

http://www.rz-online.ch/news2005/Nr45-17nov/01.htm

(excerpt)

http://www.booktv.org/PublicLives/index.asp?segID=6418&schedID=385

I just watched the author of "One Women's Army", Janis Karpinski, on book TV tell how she was made out to be the fall guy in "command" (she never was) of Abu Ghraib interrogation unit. She was the one star general who was demoted to Colonel while "gitmo" Miller, the guilty party, was promoted from two star general to three, as was his superior (from three to four star) the overall Iraq commander Sanchez. Typical Bush logic. Fire Powell and give WMD "slam dunk" Tenant, "fire Iraq army" Bremer, and "protect the oil ministry only" Franks "Medals of Freedom". Just like demoting Richard Clarke and obstructing all pre 9-11 inquiries was used to get their Pearl Harbor. FBI's Franca was promoted for that.

Excerpt from Mark Danner article:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/06/02_torture2.shtml

Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the overall commander in Iraq, who on October 12 (about the time Red Cross investigators were making their two unannounced inspections) signed a classified memorandum calling for interrogators at Abu Ghraib to work with military police guards to "manipulate an internee's emotions and weaknesses" and to assume control over the "lighting, heating ... food, clothing, and shelter" of those they were questioning. (Including dogs, according to Karpinski on C-SPAN.)

I'm glad retired "Colonel" Karpinski is getting a book out of this, she deserves a multimillion dollar lawsuit, if only this were the private sector. We've got to get congress back so Karpinski can testify at the beginning of the torturegate impeachment of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.

Aren't the Geneva Conventions a Senate approved constitutional Article I section 6 "highest law of the land"? If so, our top officials have violated their constitutional oaths.

Bob Reuschlein


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545

From ufpj-news

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=303

Rectification: the date of this press article is NOVEMBER 11, 2005, not October 11, 2005.

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/11/11/Corrupt_Leadership_Class:_The_Political_Establishment.htm


Informant: Milo

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3629/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3630/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Some weeks ago in the USA and in the Caribbean we experienced hurricane Katrina, then Rita, then Wilma and lastly Alpha and Beta. Shortly before that, we had damages in billions of dollars caused by Typhoons in Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea. And before that we had floodings in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. The causes of the increasing amounts of natural disasters is mainly the greenhouse-effect. And the cause of the greenhouse-effect is our energy-policy...

http://www.sonnenseite.com/index.php?pageID=60&article:oid=a3983&template=article_detail.html

10.11.2005

Über 1000 Physikerinnen und Physiker, vornehmlich aus dem Wissenschaftsbetrieb der USA, haben bisher Bushs neue atomare Erstschlag-Doktrin verurteilt. Bush drohe, den Atomwaffensperrvertrag auszuhebeln und damit die Menschheit in eine atomare Katastrophe zu treiben...

http://www.sonnenseite.com/index.php?pageID=6&news:oid=n4008&template=news_detail.html

http://fornits.com/renegade/peaars.cgi?fetch=8599&found=8599:8598:8596:8597:8595:8593:8594:8592:8591:8590&table=Renegade


Informant: STRIDER

For those Americans who think George W. Bush has been wrong all along about Iraq, it is entirely appropriate - and entirely possible - to support the troops and oppose the president.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111205Z.shtml