q/depesche 2005-12-12T18:18:31

Datenspeicherpflicht: Ein Eurofighter pro Jahr

Nach ersten Schätzungen österreichischer Internet-Provider wird diese Überwachung der Benutzer jährlich 80 bis 120 Millionen Euro kosten. Die Kosten, umgerechnet eine 13. Monatsgebühr, werden Konsumenten und Steuerzahler zu tragen haben. Fest- und Mobiltelefonie erwarten ebenfalls Belastungen im mehrstelligen Millionen Euro Bereich.


Subject: Datenspeicherpflicht kostet einen Eurofighter pro Jahr Date: Montag, 12. Dezember 2005 09:31

Datenspeicherpflicht (Data Retention) kostet einen Eurofighter pro Jahr

Nach ersten Schätzungen österreichischer Internet-Provider wird diese Überwachung der Benutzer jährlich 80 bis 120 Millionen Euro kosten. Die Kosten, umgerechnet eine 13. Monatsgebühr, werden Konsumenten und Steuerzahler zu tragen haben. Fest- und Mobiltelefonie erwarten ebenfalls Belastungen im mehrstelligen Millionen Euro Bereich.

Die Justiz- und Innenminister der EU Staaten sowie die EU Kommission sehen vor, die Verbindungsdaten jeglicher Kommunikation über Telefon, Mobilfunk und Internet aller 450 Millionen Europäer aufzuzeichnen. Dies wird offenlegen, wer mit wem über Festnetz-, Mobil- und Internet-Telefon gesprochen hat, wer wem eine E-Mail geschickt hat, welche Websites ein Nutzer besucht hat und sogar, wo Menschen mit ihren Mobiltelefonen waren.

Telekomunternehmen und Internet-Provider wären gezwungen, alle Verbindungsdaten ihrer Kunden aufzuzeichnen und zu speichern. Polizei und Geheimdienste in ganz Europa hätten Zugriff auf diese Verbindungsdaten. Als Speicherdauer dieser Aufzeichnungen sind bis zu vier Jahre vorgesehen.

Nicht einmal in den USA, wo als Folge der Anschläge vom 11. September 2001 Bürgerrechte zum Teil empfindlich eingeschränkt wurden, gibt es eine Datenspeicherpflicht (engl. data retention) von Verbindungsdaten. Der US-Kongress hat entsprechende Gesetzesvorhaben mehrfach mit der Begründung abgelehnt, dass eine Vorratsdatenspeicherung zu weit in die Grundrechte eingreife.

Ein breiter gesellschaftlicher Konsens von Wirtschaftskammer, Arbeiterkammer, Datenschützern bis zur Internet Service Provider Association Austria (Links zu den Stellungnahmen unten) hat sich gegen dieses Vorhaben ausgesprochen.

Folgende Argumente sprechen gegen das geplante Vorhaben der Vorratsdatenspeicherung:

1. Die Speicherung personenbezogener Verbindungsdaten ist nach Artikel 8 der Europäischen Menschenrechtskonvention untersagt. Artikel 10a des Staatsgrundgesetzes sowie das Datenschutzgesetz 2000 stellen sicher, dass das Fernmeldegeheimnis nicht verletzt werden darf und Ausnahmen nur über richterliche Befehle gemäß bestehender Gesetze zulässig sind.

2. Die Verhältnismäßigkeit ist nicht gegeben:

Da durch eine Speicherung von Verbindungsdaten Straftaten nicht verhindert werden können. Die von der Kommission geforderten Maßnahmen sind trotz ihrer Änderungsvorschläge weder notwendig, noch effektiv. Im Kontrast zu Behauptungen der Notwendigkeit und Effektivität dieser Maßnahme ergibt die einzige bisher durchgeführte Studie keinen Nutzen einer Strafverfolgung durch Vorratsdatenspeicherung. Selbst die European Confederation of Police hat dazu ihre deutlichen Zweifel geäußert. Personen, die ihre Identität verschleiern möchten, können auf eine ganze Reihe von Möglichkeiten wie anonyme Accounts, Pre-Paid-Handies oder öffentliche Internet-Terminals zurückgreifen.

3. Eine Speicherung von Verbindungsdaten birgt ein enormes Risiko, da erst mit den gespeicherten Daten Delikte wie Wirtschaftsspionage möglich werden. Ebenso besteht die Gefahr, dass das Arzt-, Redaktions- und Anwaltsgeheimnis untergraben wird.

4. Sind die Daten einmal gespeichert, kann der Zweck von der in der Direktive geforderten Verwendung gegen Terrorismus oder organisiertes Verbrechen schnell erweitert werden. In aktuellen Entwürfen ist bereits von einer Ausdehnung auf minderschwere Vergehen und Überwachung von Filesharing-Netzen die Rede.

5. Die bereits bestehenden Möglichkeiten der Untersuchung und Verfolgung von Straftaten stellen der Exekutive ausreichende Mittel zur Verfügung. Zudem ist bei diesen Maßnahmen durch richterlichen Befehl der Einsatz klar geregelt.

6. Die Kosten für diese Maßnahme haben alle europäischen Konsumenten zu zahlen. Das würde europaweit zu einer Kostenexplosion bei der Mobil- und Festnetzkommunikation sowie bei Internetdiensten führen. Die Folge wäre eine geringere Nutzung moderner Kommunikationsmittel und damit ein massiver Wettbewerbsnachteil für den Wirtschaftsstandort Europa.

Weiterführende Informationen finden Sie unter:

http://www.arbeiterkammer.at/www-192-IP-24419.html
http://portal.wko.at/wk/sn_detail.wk?AngID=1&DocID=405619&StID=203171
http://www.ispa.at/downloads/86dad947a09f_ISPA_Positionspapier_Data-Retention.pdf
http://wien.arbeiterkammer.at/www-397-IP-24419.html
http://www.rechtsanwaelte.at/www/getFile.php?id=709&nav=1
http://www.quintessenz.at/data_retention/
http://wiki.dataretentionisnosolution.com/

-- Quintessenz - Verein zur Wiederherstellung der Bürgerrechte im Informationszeitalter http://www.quintessenz.at -- VIBE!AT - Verein für Internet-Benutzer Österreichs http://www.vibe.at/

relayed by Chris

Online Version:
http://quintessenz.at/cgi-bin/index?id=000100003437

Cindy Sheehan asks, "Why do we as Americans sit complacently by and watch our government use chemical weapons in Iraq? George Bush says that Saddam Hussein is 'a bad man' because he used chemical weapons against his own people. What does that make George Bush and the leader of the War Department? I think that makes them bad men. Why do we allow it to continue?"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121205N.shtml



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

12.12.05

Die Behindertenbeauftragte der Bundesregierung, Karin Evers-Meyer, unternimmt einen neuen Vorstoß für ein Antidiskriminierungsgesetz. Es schockiere sie jedes Mal aufs Neue, in welcher Form zum Beispiel Behinderte von Diskriminierungen betroffen seien, sagte die Politikerin der "Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung". Das gelte insbesondere für das Tourismus- und Beherbergungsgewerbe, aber auch für Versicherungen und Banken. Auch der Bundesagentur für Arbeit warf Evers-Meyer eine Vernachlässigung behinderter Menschen vor.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12494

12.12.05

Kurz vor Beginn der WTO-Ministerkonferenz in Hongkong haben die Behörden laut Medienberichten Einreiseverbote gegen Globalisierungskritiker verhängt. Einem Bericht der Sunday Morning Post zufolge gibt es eine schwarze Liste mit 300 Globalisierungskritikern, denen die Einreise verweigert wird. Auch der bekannte französische Bauernaktivist José Bové wurde nach Angaben des globalisierungskritischen Netzwerks Attac am Flughafen in Hongkong zunächst zurückgewiesen. Attac und die NGO Weed verurteilten die Einreiseverbote gegen WTO-Kritiker. Mit solchen Einschränkungen der Demonstrations- und Meinungsfreiheit werde "die Legitimationskrise des ungerechten Welthandelssystems verstärkt", meint Oliver Moldenhauer von Attac. Die entwicklungspolitische Organisation Germanwatch redete einem Protektionismus das Wort: Eine Marktöffnung sei nur ein Dogma und nütze den Entwicklungsländern nicht. Diese müssten ihre Märkte vielmehr vor den Agrar- und Nahrungsmittelindustrien schützen können.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12491

12.12.05

Der Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) und 18 weitere Verbände haben Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel aufgefordert, sich für eine konsequente Umsetzung der EU-Chemikalienreform REACH einzusetzen. REACH steht für Registrierung, Evaluierung und Autorisierung von Chemikalien. Vor der morgigen Abstimmung des EU-Wettbewerbsrates wendeten sich die Verbände in einem offenen Brief an die Regierungschefin. Sie erinnerten Merkel daran, dass sie in ihrer Amtszeit als Bundesumweltministerin eine Selbstverpflichtung der Industrie zur Chemikaliensicherheit ausgehandelt habe, die über die derzeit diskutierte REACH-Regelung hinausgehe.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12495

12.12.05

Die Kritik an der geplanten europaweiten Speicherung aller Telefon-, Handy- und Internetverbindungsdaten reißt nicht ab. Einen Tag vor der geplanten Beratung im Europaparlament warnte der Verband Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger, die Pläne würden den Informantenschutz untergraben und damit die Pressefreiheit gefährden. Informanten müssten befürchten, enttarnt zu werden. Doch gerade in Zeiten des Terrorismus, in der der Staat Bürgerrechte vermehrt beschränke und geheim agiere, sei jede Demokratie auf eine effektive und robuste Pressefreiheit angewiesen. Am Wochenende hatten weitere Organisationen kritisiert, die Richtlinie stelle 450 Millionen EU-Bürger unter Generalverdacht. Sie warnten, dass einmal geschaffene technische Möglichkeiten über kurz oder lang Begehrlichkeiten weckten, diese Möglichkeiten auch zu nutzen. Sie verwiesen als Beispiel auf die Forderungen, die eigentlich nur zur Maut-Erfassung gedachten Kameras auch zur Fahndung einzusetzen.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12490

12.12.05

Die deutsche Rüstungsexportpolitik stößt bei den beiden großen Kirchen in Deutschland auf scharfe Kritik. "Wenn deutsche Waffen im vergangenen Jahr in 122 Länder exportiert worden sind, ist das ein Besorgnis erregender Beitrag zur weltweiten Militarisierung", sagte der evangelische Vorsitzende der "Gemeinsamen Konferenz Kirche und Entwicklung" (GKKE), Stephan Reimers, am Montag bei der Vorstellung des GKKE-Rüstungsexportberichts 2005 in Berlin. Auch 2004 sei Deutschland als viertgrößter Lieferant hinter Russland, den USA und Frankreich in der Spitzengruppe der Rüstungsexporteure geblieben. Ebenfalls am Montag kritisierte die christliche Kampagne gegen Rüstungsexport, dass am Ende des Jahres 2005 die Bundesregierung immer noch nicht ihren Rüstungsexportbericht 2004 veröffentlicht habe. Damit verhindere die Bundesregierung nach Ansicht sowohl eine zeitnahe Diskussion durch das Parlament als auch eine kritische Würdigung durch Friedens- und Menschenrechtsorganisationen. Der GKKE-Vorsitzende Karl Jüsten hielt Rot-Grün vor, ihren selbstgesetzten Ansprüchen zur Begrenzung der Rüstungsexporte nicht gerecht geworden zu sein.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12489

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) threatened yesterday to strip Democrats of the power to filibuster if they block the vote on Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121205Y.shtml

World Can’t Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime Calls on President Bush to Step Down in full-page New York Times ad.

Today, The World Can’t Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime organization placed a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for George W. Bush to step down from office, and take his program with him (page A17). Similar calls for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, or Dick Cheney have appeared, but this is the first time an organization has run an ad in a national media outlet calling for the removal of the entire Bush regime and their program.

The World Can’t Wait-- Drive Out the Bush Regime’s Call states that “your government” has not only waged a "murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq,” but is "moving closer each day to a theocracy”. It spells out the reasons why they should step down before the 2008 election. The Call’s list of signers includes Gore Vidal, Harold Pinter, Cindy Sheehan, Kurt Vonnegut, Jonathan Kozol, Jane Fonda, and Cornell West.

The Call ends with the point that “history is full of examples where people who had right on their side fought against tremendous odds and were victorious” but it is also “full of examples of people passively hoping to wait it out, only to get swallowed up by a horror beyond which they never imagined.” The ad calls for a nationwide action intended to “drown out” Bush’s State of the Union address in January. This will consist of local actions as well as a national demonstration in Washington D.C. on the Saturday following the State of the Union Address.

http://www.worldcantwait.org


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


Informant: C. Clark Kissinger

From ufpj-news

Anfang 2003 hat der Europäische Rat der US-Regierung angeblich die "Benutzung von Transiteinrichtungen" gestattet, weswegen womöglich die EU-Regierungen von den CIA-Flügen lieber nicht wissen (wollen).

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21550/1.html

Villagers in West Felton have formed a protest group to try to stop a mobile phone mast being switched on in their area. Campaigners were knocking on doors yesterday, collecting signatures for a petition.

The 50-foot structure was put up near The Avenue in the village near Oswestry in September by mobile phone giant Orange.

Local people, who knew nothing of the plans, fear that it could pose a health risk. They say it is already a blot on the landscape.

Oswestry Borough Council says Orange went through all the proper legal channels in 2002 to get permission for the 15-metre high 3G mast, although new rules mean that councils now have to inform people near mast sites when they are about to be put up.

Protestor Carol Corbett said: “We are fighting for the total dismantling and removal of the mast and have organised a meeting in our village hall on January 18 at 7.30pm.”

“Our MP Owen Paterson is giving us his support and has agreed to present the petition for us.”

The full version of this story appears in the Oswestry edition of tonight’s Shropshire Star.

http://www.shropshirestar.com/show_article.php?aID=40249

Lib Dems oppose ex-church scheme

Lucy Harvey

A MOBILE phone mast will be built on top of a Grade II listed former church in Sheffield if city councillors follow planning officers' advice, even though some of their colleagues on the authority object to the plan.

Plans to site the mast on top of the former Walkley Ebeneezer Methodist Church on the corner of South Road and Greenhow Street have provoked concern among residents and strong objection from three local councillors. Previous planning applications to site a 6.5 metre-high flagpole antenna on top of the two-storey building, now used as student accommodation, were refused after residents raised a petition and collected hundreds of signatures.

But a different applicant has now asked permission to use the site to mount smaller flat panel antennae on each face of the building's south-west chimney. The firm has requested an equipment cabinet be based in the cellar of the building with cabling and power feed to the antennae run through a mock drainpipe.

The proposals have prompted 11 letters of objection, including comments from Liberal Democrat councillors Diane Leek, Veronica Hardstaff, and Jonathan Harston.

Objectors highlight possible health implications from the mast and say it is inappropriate in a residential area, close to community groups and a medical centre; it will have a negative impact on local businesses and discourage people from moving to the area.

They also believe it will devalue property and have a detrimental effect on the appearance and character of the listed building.

And they fear because the mast is at the bottom of a hill the signal will be restricted and lead to similar applications for a taller mast in the future and say there is existing mobile phone coverage in the area.

But at the west and north planning and highways board tomorrow planning officers will recommend planning permission is granted.
"The first application proved having a mast there is not the right thing and it was refused on good grounds. Now another company has come in and they think they can do better, but that is against all common sense," said Coun Leek.

"They were very crafty jumping in on the back of the last application and a lot of local people didn't realise there was a new application.

"We have already got masts nearby. This is in the wrong location at the bottom of the hill so it is not going to be able to reach the signals and it sets a dangerous precedent for them to make it bigger in the future. I would not trust them.

"It still has not been proved that the radiation that comes from them is not harmful.

"There is a high concentration of people in the area and it's in a shopping location."

Planning officers report: "Owing to the size, design and stealth appearance of the antennas the development is not considered to detrimentally affect the character and appearance of the listed building or visual amenities of the locality.

"The external finish of the antennas will not be prominent or obtrusive from both short and long distance vantage points of the building. The applicants have discounted a number of alternative sites, which they say are unacceptable from design and siting perspectives and for technical coverage reasons."

12 December 2005

http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1084&ArticleID=1282950

The fate of Stanley Tookie Williams now rests in the hands of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't spare Williams's life. On the one hand, Schwarzenegger is under pressure from right-wing Republicans to refuse clemency. But there's also high-profile pressure on him in California to grant clemency and prove his campaign claims that he really is a moderate.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121205Z.shtml

Christian Science Monitor
by Daniel Schorr

12/10/05

Speaking to a group about politics in the spring of the year 2000 when the primaries had hardly gotten under way, I was challenged to predict who would be the next president. Not having the foggiest idea, I said, deadpan, that the Democratic convention would break up in chaos, unable to nominate anybody, the Republicans would nominate George W. Bush, who would run unopposed -- and lose. It was just a joke, mind you, but it is now happening that Americans, fed up with Republicans and not seeing much better among the Democrats, are more and more inclined to express their disillusionment with the political system by saying, 'a plague on both your houses'...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1209/p09s02-cods.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The American Prospect
by Robert Gordon & Josh Lynn

12/09/05

Progressive critics of the budget reconciliation bills now being melded together by a joint House-Senate conference committee usually attack the measures as tax breaks for the wealthy, paid for with budget cuts for the poor. That’s true, as far as it goes. Many of the cuts now being considered -- reductions in Medicaid, Food Stamps, and child support enforcement, together with increases in interest rates on student loans -- wouldn’t even finance one-seventh of the recent tax breaks for Americans making over $380,000. But progressives might get more traction by arguing a slightly different point: that conservatives are pushing to eliminate incentives for the work of poor Americans as a way to reduce taxes on the accumulated wealth of the most fortunate. In tax policy, many progressives already complain -- and rightly so -- that President Bush is shifting the tax burden away from capital and onto labor. But the argument equally applies to cuts in programs that provide work incentives by offering the working poor benefits like health care and child care...

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=10704


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Boston Globe
by Derrick Z. Jackson

12/10/05

' ... 'Twas two weeks before Christmas, and all through the House, $50 billion was cut for those considered a mouse. Tax breaks instead hung by the chimney with care, for investors and CEOs, hands already there. America's rich nestled all snug in their beds as $95 billion danced in their heads. It was expected, of course, that the House of Representatives would do the deed they promised to do before Thanksgiving. They cut $50 billion last month from programs serving low-income Americans. This week they passed the final part of what amounts to $95 billion in tax cuts. It represents a height of taking from the poor to give to the rich. Out went billions for student loans, Medicaid and food stamps. In came billions for stock dividends and capital gains. Regardless of political leanings, economists know where the money is going...

http://tinyurl.com/9f8fu


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Free fall

The American Prospect
by Terence Samuel

12/09/05

The holidays are coming, people are not broke and they are feeling pretty good about themselves, and that for the moment may have arrested George W. Bush’s downward spiral in the polls. It’ll be interesting to see how Democrats react to that piece of good news for the White House. In fact, the Democrats have one, simple job for the next 11 months: to not do anything stupid to get in the way of the GOP’s overall campaign of self-immolation. And to that end, the evidence suggests that, at least for a little while, they shouldn't say anything at all. For one thing, there is a credible argument to be made that no one is listening anyway. And there is an even larger fear that they will say the wrong thing. The recent attempts by President Bush to rescue his Iraq policy offer yet another example of why the biggest thing Democrats have in their favor is a White House that has lost its swagger. Their biggest problem may be a Democratic Party that can’t seem to find its own mojo...

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=10703


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

(2nd of 2 parts)

Boston Globe
by Jeff Jacoby
12/11/05

Last month, by a vote of 237-4, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a pastoral statement calling for an end to the death penalty. ... The bishops acknowledge in passing that Catholic teaching has never banned the death penalty outright or declared it 'intrinsically evil.' Nevertheless, they insist, since the modern state 'has other nonlethal means to protect its citizens, the state should not use the death penalty.' ... But the new document is shockingly blunt in brushing aside the suffering of the victims, or the viciousness of the murder, as irrelevant to the question of capital punishment. 'No matter how heinous the crime,' it says, 'if society can protect itself without ending a human life, it should do so.' Executing killers, in other words, has nothing to do with justice. No act of murder, however calculated or cruel or catastrophic, requires as a matter of sheer decency that the murderer forfeit his life...

http://tinyurl.com/bvqqf


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CounterPunch
by Alexander Cockburn

12/11/05

The Bush era has brought a robust simplicity to the business of news management: where possible, buy journalists to turn out favorable stories and, as far as hostiles are concerned, if you think you can get away with it, shoot them or blow them up. As with much else in the Bush era, the novelty lies in the openness with which these strategies have been conducted.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn12102005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Atlantic Monthly
by Nir Rosen

12/11/05

At some point -- whether sooner or later -- US troops will leave Iraq. I have spent much of the occupation reporting from Baghdad, Kirkuk, Mosul, Fallujah, and elsewhere in the country, and I can tell you that a growing majority of Iraqis would like it to be sooner. As the occupation wears on, more and more Iraqis chafe at its failure to provide stability or even electricity, and they have grown to hate the explosions, gunfire, and constant war, and also the daily annoyances: having to wait hours in traffic because the Americans have closed off half the city; having to sit in that traffic behind a US military vehicle pointing its weapons at them; having to endure constant searches and arrests. ... There is no panacea. ... But a continued US occupation can only get in the way...

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200512/iraq-withdrawal


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AlterNet
by Global Exchange staff

12/12/05

Corporations carry out some of the most horrific human rights abuses of modern times, but it is increasingly difficult to hold them to account. Economic globalization and the rise of transnational corporate power have created a favorable climate for corporate human rights abusers, which are governed principally by the codes of supply and demand and show genuine loyalty only to their stockholders. Several of the companies below are being sued under the Alien Tort Claims Act, a law that allows citizens of any nationality to sue in US federal courts for violations of international rights or treaties. When corporations act like criminals, we have the right and the power to stop them, holding leaders and multinational corporations alike to the accords they have signed...

http://www.alternet.org/story/29337/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Rebirth of Reason
by Tibor R. Machan

12/12/05

Does President Bush believe that by his announcing that critics of the Iraqi war dampen morale among the troops he will have managed to prevent such criticism? Does he believe his words will silence critics and heighten troop morale? Ladies and gentlemen, this is America and if Americans share a common trait it is most likely rebellion at those who wield power over them too overtly. Well, they used to, anyway -- most of them. Because the country was born in revolution. Those who wage revolutions usually know what they are doing, why, how others ought to pay attention, and how pointless it is to try to still it...

http://tinyurl.com/7dbrj


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Joe Republican?

Slate
by John Dickerson

12/09/05

George Bush can't stop talking about Sen. Joe Lieberman. For the last two weeks, the president has been citing the Connecticut Democrat in his major speeches about the war in Iraq. Bush has quoted Lieberman as saying that we have made progress in Iraq and have a strategy for winning, then he declared: 'Sen. Lieberman is right.' Vice President Dick Cheney also quoted Lieberman approvingly this week. Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman and White House spokesman Scott McClellan name-checked Lieberman, too. Last January, George Bush gave Lieberman a kiss on the cheek before the State of the Union. The way things are going, this January Bush might give him a back rub. Why so much affection? Lieberman, a conservative Democrat, has credibility, and Bush is trying to regain his...

http://www.slate.com/id/2131900/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

12/12/05

The official end date of the UN investigation into Hariri's assassination is Dec. 15, but you can be sure that Bolton and the rest of the get-Syria crowd will try to ensure that its life span is extended. They are determined to gin up another war, and they don't care how transparently false the pretext is: these people have raised lying into a sophisticated art form, of which the Mehlis propaganda blitz is just the beginning. They don't care how far-fetched the indictments of their targets appear, nor how often they are debunked: what they're counting on is the residue left by 'news' stories trumpeting 'evidence' that Syria killed Hariri and is wreaking havoc in Lebanon. The debunking takes place on the back pages, while the initial charges were given front-page headlines. This is how the propaganda assault works: keep flinging dirt in the hope that at least some of it will stick. If your 'evidence' turns out to be false, and your 'witnesses' start recanting, then don't backpedal – instead, invent new charges. Attack, attack, attack!

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8233


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.reason.com/hod/bo120905.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Indianapolis Star

12/11/05

Months before Karl Rove corrected his statements in the Valerie Plame investigation, his lawyer was told that the president's top political adviser might have disclosed Plame's CIA status to a Time magazine reporter. Rove says he had forgotten the conversation he had on July 11, 2003, with Time's Matt Cooper. But the magazine reported Sunday that in the first half of 2004, as President Bush's re-election campaign was heating up, Rove's lawyer got the word about a possible Rove-Cooper conversation from a second Time reporter, Viveca Novak...

http://tinyurl.com/cklep


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

USA Today

12/11/05

Melting glaciers, the shrinking ice cap, warming oceans and rising sea levels — all are urgent concerns around the world, and cause for frustration among many nations that believe the United States has set a glacial pace toward reversing the onset of global warming. Critics said the Bush administration's isolation at the United Nations-brokered international climate talks that ended last week in Montreal doesn't make much sense...

http://tinyurl.com/dcmge


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

(FTD) Unmittelbar nachdem der Chef der deutschen Industrie- und Handelskammer in der Bild am Sonntag einen besseren Schutz deutscher Marken gefordert hatte, legt Bundesjustizministerin Zypries einen Gesetzentwurf vor, der seinen Wünschen entgegenkommt.

Erst vor wenigen Tagen lehnte Zypries es ab, sich um die Menschenrechte von Gefangenen und durch den US-Geheimdienst Verschleppten zu bemühen: es sei ausreichend auf eine Erklärung der amerikanischen Regierung zu warten. Zypries war bereits verantwortlich für das Gesetz zum EU-Haftbefehl, das die Rechte der Betroffenen soweit minimierte, dass das Gesetz im Sommer dieses Jahres vom Bundesverfassungsgericht als verfassungswidrig gekippt wurde. Während sich Brigitte Zypries in dieser Weise desinteressiert an der Durchsetzung von Bürger- und Menschenrechten zeigt, erkennt sie offensichtlich allerhöchste Priorität im Schutz der Interessen der Industrie und ihrer Produktmarken. Aus ihrer Reaktion am Folgetag nach der Forderung des Hauptgeschäftsführers der DIHK Wansleben nach besserem Markenschutz zeigt uns, dass sie sich offenbar an einer sehr kurzen Leine der deutschen Konzerne befindet. Da wir uns ein wenig für den Ablauf solch vordringlicher Regierungsgeschäfte interessieren, fragen wir uns, ob die DIHK und ihr Geschäftsführer Wansleben so zuvorkommend waren, Frau Zypries den Gesetzentwurf rechtzeitig vor ihrem heutigen Auftritt per Post zu übermitteln.: Gegenüber solch hochwichtigen Maßnahmen sind Menschenrechte natürlich absolut nachrangig: sie könnten die wichtigen diplomatischen Kontakte zur amerikanischen Regierung gefährden, anstatt die Interessen und Umsätze auch der US-Konzerne wie Nike & Co. zu fördern.

G.Wendebourg / metainfo hamburg

Link zum Beitrag / Hintergrundinfo oder Pressehinweis:
http://www.hh-online.com?lid=23168 und
http://links.net-hh.de?lid=23168

WE NEED THE STRONGEST POSSIBLE OPPOSITION RIGHT NOW

One issue that unites activists of many persuasions is their distrust of the Patriot Act, the provisions of which megalomaniacs inside our government were pushing for years before America was attacked, and for whom those attacks were nothing more than the excuse they'd been waiting for. The fact is these unlimited powers are ALREADY being abused, and they have not made us safer. With all the emphasis on airline security the best they can do is murder confused passengers in cold blood as we saw this week. Please contact your members of Congress now and tell them to vote AGAINST the conference report.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.millionphonemarch.com

And the cat killer is out of the bag as Frist stated today that if there was a possible filibuster against Sam Alito their trigger fingers would go right back to the nuclear option. The cowardly capitulations of the past have gained us precisely nothing, just as we argued at the time. This is all the more reason to reject not only Alito, but any hardcore, biased, right wing agenda driven nominee they might put up in his wake. We must tell our Senate that NO conservative is acceptable as a replacement for Sandra Day O'Connor. Otherwise there will be nobody left to protect us when the outrageous dictatorial new powers being seized by the President are challenged in court, as they surely must be. Please speak out now while we have the chance.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.nocrony.com

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.

Powered by The People's Email Network
Copyright 2005, Patent pending, All rights reserved

Juan Cole, professor of modern Mideast history at the University of Michigan, an expert on Shiism and jihadism, and a prolific writer and commentator on Iraq is interviewed on his thoughts prior to the war in Iraq and the possible government that could develop due to the US presence.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121105H.shtml

After the US forces and the bombings, Iraqis are coming to fear those bands of men in masks who seem to operate with the Iraqi police.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121105C.shtml

More than a year before President Bush declared in his 2003 State of the Union speech that Iraq had tried to buy nuclear weapons material in Africa, the French spy service(DGSE) began repeatedly warning the CIA in secret communications that there was no evidence to support the allegation.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121105B.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroeuro


Informant: beefree

From beefree:

For those who want to understand our soon to be..... US constitution go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_law

8 trillion in debt, avian flu, bombing Iran, weather manipulation etc...and now this !

http://www.asiantribune.com/show_article.php?id=2620

Pentagon devising scenarios for martial law in US

By Patrick Martin – World Socialist Web Site

According to a report published Monday by the Washington Post, the Pentagon has developed its first ever war plans for operations within the continental United States, in which terrorist attacks would be used as the justification for imposing martial law on cities, regions or the entire country.

The front-page article cites sources working at the headquarters of the military's Northern Command (Northcom), located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The plans themselves are classified, but "officers who drafted the plans" gave details to Post reporter Bradley Graham, who was recently given a tour of Northcom headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base. The article thus appears to be a deliberate leak conducted for the purpose of accustoming the American population to the prospect of military rule.

According to Graham, "the new plans provide for what several senior officers acknowledged is the likelihood that the military will have to take charge in some situations, especially when dealing with mass-casualty attacks that could quickly overwhelm civilian resources."

The Post account declares, "The war plans represent a historic shift for the Pentagon, which has been reluctant to become involved in domestic operations and is legally constrained from engaging in law enforcement."

A total of 15 potential crisis scenarios are outlined, ranging from "low-end," which Graham describes as "relatively modest crowd-control missions," to "high-end," after as many as three simultaneous catastrophic mass-casualty events, such as a nuclear, biological or chemical weapons attack.

http://www.rbi-aktuell.de/cms/front_content.php?client=1&lang=1&idcat=30&idart=2916

--------

Strahlend ins Internet - WLAN
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1054573/

FBI put peaceful protesters in terrorism files:

The names and license plate numbers of about 30 people who protested three years ago in Colorado Springs were put into FBI domestic-terrorism files, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado says.

http://tinyurl.com/c736h


From Information Clearing House

The waters have receded but the mainly black, low-income citizens of New Orleans are now the victims of rising rents, forced evictions and plans that favour the better off, reports Peter Beaumont.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1664630,00.html


From Information Clearing House

The ultimate neocon goal is a U.S. war with Iran over the nuclear issue.

http://www.wrmea.com/archives/March_2005/0503032.html


From Information Clearing House

Military's Information War Is Vast and Often Secretive:

The 1,200-strong psychological operations unit based at Fort Bragg turns out what its officers call "truthful messages" to support the United States government's objectives, though its commander acknowledges that those stories are one-sided and their American sponsorship is hidden.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11285.htm



It Takes a Potemkin Village:

WHEN a government substitutes propaganda for governing, the Potemkin village is all. Since we don't get honest information from this White House, we must instead, as the Soviets once did, decode our rulers' fictions to discern what's really happening. What we're seeing now is the wheels coming off:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11286.htm

The Bush era has brought a robust simplicity to the business of news management: where possible, buy journalists to turn out favorable stories and, as far as hostiles are concerned, if you think you can get away with it, shoot them or blow them up.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn12102005.html


From Information Clearing House

The European Union secretly allowed the United States to use transit facilities on European soil to transport "criminals" in 2003, according to a previously unpublished document. The revelation contradicts repeated EU denials that it knew of "rendition" flights by the CIA.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11276.htm

Harold Pinter: "The Crimes of the United States Have Been Systematic, Constant":

Harold Pinter, British playwright and this year's Nobel Literature prize winner, on Wednesday delivered a searing attack on US foreign policy.

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,389251,00.html


From Information Clearing House

British Petroleum, Shell and Chevron Win Iraqi Oil Contracts.
http://www.warprofiteers.com/article.php?id=7989


From Information Clearing House

He has harsh words for the Bush administration and its policies in the Mideast as well as for the yellow-ribbon crowd that refuses to question U.S. leadership. "Occupation breeds resentment," he said. "When you have a boot on someone's neck, they don't appreciate it."

http://www.charleston.net/stories/default_pf.aspx?newsID=58041


From Information Clearing House

The ignorance of the American strategists and their allies -- Ahmed Chalabi, Rend Rahim, Kinaan Makiyah, Falih Abdul-Jabar, and the like -- who theorised the US invasion of Iraq is such that they took their interests as reality, forgetting Iraqis' pride in their free will and independence, and in their Arab-Muslim identity which passes to them from father to son.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11278.htm

By Harold Meyerson

This is a story that implicates all of us. Torture, and fear of torture, are factors in holding costs down in our new-age globalized production system.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11274.htm

By "Der Spiegel

Since Sept. 11, the CIA has played a vital role in the war on terror. But what role is it? Operating in the shadows, American secret services have been given wide-ranging powers by the Bush Administration. And they include murder, abduction and torture.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11284.htm

An Ethiopian claims that his confession to al-Qaeda bomb plot was signed after beatings

By David Rose in New York

Binyam Mohammed, 27, says he spent nearly three years in the CIA's network of 'black sites'. In Morocco he claims he underwent the strappado torture of being hung for hours from his wrists, and scalpel cuts to his chest and penis and that a CIA officer was a regular interrogator.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11277.htm

Incalculable Pain

The Pentagon is underreporting the number of American soldier casualties in Iraq, say House Democrats.

By Mark Benjamin

A group of seven House Democrats wrote President Bush this week, accusing the Pentagon of underreporting casualties in Iraq. It's a shocking charge. The letter writers argue that Pentagon casualty reports show only a sliver of the injuries, mostly physical ones from bombs or bullets. But war doesn't work like that, the Democrats declare, adding that the reports skip a horrible panoply of accidents, illness, disease and mental trauma.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11287.htm

q/depesche 2005-12-12T01:26:37

Die Datensüchtigen jubeln, denn ihnen ist fast unbemerkt ein riesiger Beschaffungscoup namens Registerzählunsgesetz gelungen. Praktisch alle Datenbanken der öffentlichen Hand und der Sozialversicherungen werden endlich im Innenministerium zusammenlaufen.

Der Trick: Den Bürgern wird erzählt, sie bräuchten hinkünftig bei Volkszählungen keine Fragebögen mehr auszufüllen, alles laufe elektronisch. Das Anonymisierung oder Verschlüsselung der Daten nicht geplant ist, wird als Detail am Rande nicht mal ignoriert.

heise online berichtet: Die Opposition (SPÖ und Grüne) hat der Regierungsvorlage im Nationalrat aufgrund datenschutzrechtlicher Bedenken ihre Unterstützung versagt: Durch das Gesetz werden im Innenministerium personenbezogene Daten zusammengeführt. Dies sei für die Volkszählung gar nicht erforderlich, schaffe erhebliche Missbrauchsgefahr und ermögliche die "Rasterfahndung auf Vorrat gegen jeden Österreicher", kritisiert SPÖ-Verfassungssprecher Peter Wittmann. Er wirft der Regierung außerdem vor, das neue Gesetz am Datenschutzrat vorbeigeschleust zu haben, indem der amtierende Vorsitzende keine Sitzung einberufen habe.
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/67224

Es geht um Daten ohne Anonymisierung aus dem Melderegister, der Sozialversicherung, den Bildungsanstalten (Schulen, Universitäten und anderen), den Finanzämtern, dem Arbeitsmarktservice, dem Unternehmensregister sowie dem Gebäude- und Wohnungsregister; dazu können das Zulassungsregister für Kraftfahrzeuge, das Familienbeihilfenregister, das zentralen Fremdenregister, die Datenbanken der Sozialhilfeträger (die dank /Vorsorgeuntersuchung Neu/ bestens gefüllt werden), die Daten von Bund, Ländern und Gemeinden in ihrer Eigenschaft als Dienstgeber und wer/weiß/was/sonst/noch kommen...

Grundsätzlich aber ist die SPÖ für ein Registerzählungsgesetz.

Der Treppenwitz: Die Städte prophezeien, dass aufgrund der schlechten Datenqualität weiterhin Fragebögen die Runde machen müssen.


relayed by Babuschka

Online Version:
http://quintessenz.at/cgi-bin/index?id=000100003436

Weaselly Rice Tortures Facts
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1211-25.htm

--------

Does the secretary of state think anyone is buying her spiel?:

Our secretary of state's tortuous defence of supposedly non-existent CIA torture chambers in Eastern Europe was an acid flashback to Clintonian parsing.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1211-25.htm


From Information Clearing House

THANKS. Suddenly, ALL of contemporary and past History makes sense, if there is any sense at all to be enslaved by GREED & HATE, INC.

----- Original Message -----
From: Gregory Delaney
Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2005 10:01 AM
Subject: The Lost Science of Money

A free copy of Stephen Zarlinga's $60.00 book, "The Lost Science of Money" is now available for free download at: http://tinyurl.com/djg7m

This is the book that has the bankers eating extra doses of nerve medicine and anti-acids. Here's the write up:

Ninety-five percent of the world's problems are caused by money. Those who control money do not want the rest of us to understand money. Even the politicians and the economists either do not know what money is or they purposely avoid the problem. This very readable history and perceptive insight will draw away your confusion and place you firmly into the light of knowledge of what is money and how does money work? And what happens when people do not know what money is.

WHAT'S GONE WRONG?

Unheard of wealth concentrates into very few, largely undeserving hands. Americans work harder and produce more than ever but increasingly fall into debt and bankruptcy while corruption rules and predators plunder society by merely shuffling papers. Less than 1% of the population now owns about 50% of the wealth, and receives 70% of the income! The Lost Science of Money shows how a false concept of money allowed it to happen, and tells how to reverse it.

SECRET POWER UNMASKED

Here are the keys that unlock the mystery of the money power - the hidden force secretly exercised by those holding society's monetary reins.

The Lost Science of Money exposes the mythology created to protect those who are embezzling from society, under cover of a deceptive ideology of money.

This group has immorally used economic theory as a tool of class war for the past three hundred years, while screaming accusations of "class warfare" against those who question their power!

The author provides the weapons needed to protect self, family, nation, and humanity from the predations of this gang that has shrouded itself under cover of "econo-speak" for so long.

These ideas are presented accurately, but in "down-to-earth" language, without the confusing economic jargon that has usually served to obfuscate the subject. Historical cases with 119 illustrations help to convey the author's unique message.

A GENERATION MISLED

The gates protecting America have been left undefended. September 11th demonstrated only one aspect of this problem. Our people have been under monetary attack from within and from abroad for most of our history; and the physical, financial and psychological damage has far exceeded the terrible losses at New York's Twin Towers.

An entire generation has been led astray into market worship and other forms of religious fundamentalism. A dysfunctional media focuses on the elections and sex habits of politicians while the real outcomes in society are determined behind the scenes by the structure of the nation's money system.

This problem goes much deeper than accounting and stock fraud, and even beyond the graduate schools of business that inculcate such criminal behavior. The deeper causes lie hidden in the structurally corrupt core of our banking system and our schools of economics. It arises from the falsehoods they have spread on the nature of money, allowing their patrons to control the money power, and in turn, to dominate our society.

Those who really want to get to the bottom of the problem will find this book's message timely and valuable.


From ECOTERRA Intl.

The Star-Ledger [Newark, NJ] Sunday, December 11, 2005

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1134279889280670.xml&coll=1

Rutgers students march on Marine recruiting office

BY JOHN WIHBEY, Star-Ledger Staff

Marine Capt. Sharon Dubow sat calmly doing paperwork yesterday afternoon in her New Brunswick recruitment office.

It was just another day on the job. Almost.

A group of 50 or so Rutgers University students and anti-war activists were howling "Liar" and holding signs that said "Killing Iraqis is Not a Career" just a few feet behind her. A pane of glass separated the Marine from protesters.

"I think that it's their right, and we respect it," Dubow said afterward. She said there have been "no big changes" in recruiting numbers from last year to this year.

But the revved-up group of anti-war campaigners wanted to change that.

Rafael Greenblatt, a Rutgers graduate student and event organizer, told a crowd that marched from the school to downtown Monument Square the solution is "to starve the military of the recruits they need to keep this war going."

Speaking in front of a Christmas tree, Greenblatt said, "The only way to resolve these human rights abuses in Iraq is to bring the troops home."

Two activists were arrested last week on Rutgers' New Brunswick campus for disrupting a government recruiting session, and protesters said yesterday they were energized by that event.

One of those arrested last week, Tom Howard, 27, a writer from Mendham Township, said it had been "time to take a principled stand" against what he believed was a CIA recruitment event. He was the final speaker at yesterday's rally, where he and other members of a workers' solidarity group led anti-war chants.

President Bush and administration officials were the ultimate targets of the day's speeches.

"They are filling their pockets on the blood of our children," said Sue Niederer, a Mercer County resident whose only son, Army 2nd Lt. Seth Jeremy Dvorin, 24, was killed in Iraq while defusing a roadside bomb on Feb. 3, 2004. "We must ask them, 'Why aren't your children fighting?'"

The protesters were seeking everything from an end to the war to a change in the military's policy on gays. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week on whether universities receiving federal funds could ban military recruiters because of the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" rule.

One of the Rutgers protesters' chief gripes yesterday was an advertisement Dubow and the Marines had placed in the student newspaper in October offering "free helicopter rides" to students.

Alex Van Schaick, a senior at the university, said it was an attempt "to get people to feel real macho" to seduce them into joining the Marines.

Dubow said the newspaper notice merely had informational value.

"A lot of people don't know Marines fly. That's why we do it," she said. "When we're up in the air, it's not as if we tie you up and make you sign something."

Two counter-protesters showed up waving American and Iraqi flags and a banner that read "Support Our Troops." One wore sunglasses and gave his name as Tom Dolan. Police told him to leave the area because he did not have a parade permit.

"We're just having a peaceful protest, and they're here trying to block us," Dolan said of an anti-war activist who batted at his flags.

Bruno Corry, a 58-year-old former Marine Corps reservist, said he saw the Iraq war as "a repeat of Vietnam." He and Dolan's compatriot engaged in a shouting match.

"He's trying to tell me they're not using dirty tactics to recruit," Corry said. "I know it's a damn lie."


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


Informant: William K. Dobbs

From ufpj-news

12/11/2005 01:00:00 AM

By Katy Human
Denver Post Staff Writer
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3298451

In the Amazon, chopping trees to plant crops can warm the weather almost as much as extra greenhouse gases do. In Colorado, turning woodlands to wheat may counteract global warming, according to a new study.

Land-use changes profoundly affect local and regional climates, scientists wrote in a paper in Friday's issue of Science.

"The bottom line is we've changed the climate system in more significant ways than we realized," said one co-author, Linda Mearns, with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.

"Land use is a major change that will have important impacts on regional climates. They may not be as strong as greenhouse gases, but they're certainly nontrivial."

Colorado State University climatologist Roger Pielke Sr. said the new study should "finally" make international climate scientists recognize that the planet's climate system is far more complicated than they once thought.

"I feel vindicated. Very much so," said Pielke, who has argued for a decade that land use can affect climate. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, emitted during fossil-fuel combustion, are only part of the climate story, Pielke said.

On Colorado's Front Range, for example, the expansion of irrigated crops has made summers cooler and wetter than they were a few decades ago, he said.

Pielke is not an author of the new study, but commented on it in Science.

"I think Roger (Pielke) thinks this is a bigger deal than I do," said Johannes Feddema, a University of Kansas geographer and the lead author of the new paper.

For the new analysis, Feddema's team plugged land-use changes into a computer model of Earth's climate and asked how the changes would affect climate. In the tropics, converting forest to agriculture warmed the land, accelerating warming caused by greenhouse gases.

In other regions - such as most of the United States - cutting trees for crops actually counteracted warming, Feddema said.

The effects were triggered by a complicated interplay of soil-moisture level, rainfall, snow and albedo - the tendency of the land's surface to absorb or reflect sunlight.

The authors conclude that to predict Earth's future climate, modelers must take land-use changes into account. "We have a long way to go," Feddema said.

Still, he and Mearns said, greenhouse gases generally influence climate much more powerfully than do land-use changes.

In Colorado, for example, a conservative computer model predicts that doubling the carbon-dioxide level in the air will lead to a warming of about 5.5 degrees by 2100, Mearns said. Converting forest into crops might counteract part of that, leading to 3 degrees of warming, she said.

Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-820-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com


Informant: binstock

For first-time visitors, finding Kevin Flynn's house in the Santa Cruz Mountains takes detailed instructions, an eagle eye for weathered signposts and, often, a plaintive last-minute cell-phone call from the road.

In this remote neighborhood near Los Gatos, homes are nestled along narrow roads that dip and curve through a fragrant redwood forest, and residents draw their water from mountain streams.

It is a close-knit, eclectic community -- artists, doctors, lawyers, police officers, people who work in Silicon Valley, families, retired couples -- that has galvanized in recent months to oppose a logging proposal by the San Jose Water Co. that residents say will ruin their idyllic neighborhood.

The privately held company wants to chop down many of the largest coast redwoods and Douglas firs in the forest near their neighborhoods.

"It will be a fight to protect our community," said Flynn, 46, a marketing manager in the Internet security field who lives in Chemeketa Park, one of several woodland neighborhoods near the 1,000-acre logging site.

On one side of the battle are residents, who fear that logging will muddy their creeks with sediment, increase the risk of forest fires and landslides, and disrupt their peaceful existence with buzzing chain saws, whining tractors, whirring helicopters and rumbling logging trucks.

On the other side of the debate is the water company, which says the logging will comply with state laws designed to protect the health of the forest, including its creeks and hillsides, and will reduce the fire hazard posed by dense tree stands on the property, which was clear-cut more than 100 years ago and has not been logged since.

"We own a lot of land, and it's our fiduciary duty to ratepayers and to shareholders to manage it as best we can," said Andrew Gere, a civil engineer and director of operations for the water company, which provides water service to more than 1 million customers.

Gere said proceeds from the logging will help fund expensive work in the watershed, such as repairing historic fire roads, terracing steep creek banks to stem erosion and removing brush and hardwoods by hand.

"In the long run, you're going to see an improvement in water quality, if anything, certainly not a degradation," he said.

Terry Clark, 56, who has lived in the mountains for nearly two decades, criticized the company, saying, "They want to turn this watershed into a tree harvesting farm."

Clark, a recreation program planner in Los Gatos, questioned the company's decision to log the largest redwoods in the forest, some of which are more than 3 feet in diameter.

"Those are the trees that survive fires," said Clark, a member of Neighbors Against Irresponsible Logging, which is fighting the logging proposal.

Because the proposal has generated so much controversy, Santa Clara County has hired Thomas Lippe, an environmental attorney whose client list includes the Sierra Club, to scrutinize the plan.

"He is going over the plan with a fine-tooth comb and will identify which issues are of primary concern," said Rachael Gibson, an aide to Santa Clara County Supervisor Donald Gage, who represents people living in the Santa Cruz Mountains. "We really need some help because we don't have any foresters on our staff."

In a 450-page plan submitted to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in October, the water company proposed harvesting the forest in stages, sending loggers into 100-acre parcels every other year.

The company's ability to log trees on the property, which is located within the 5,000 acres it owns in the Los Gatos Creek watershed, is limited by special rules governing logging in the state's coastal forests.

Trees must be individually selected for logging, and the impact of removing trees on the health of the remaining stands -- and their soil, streams and wildlife -- must be taken into account.

Andrew Morse, a forester with Big Creek Lumber Co., the water company's logging partner, said selective harvesting reduces fire risk by decreasing the number of trees whose branches are touching. It also creates gaps in the forest canopy that allow intermediate-size trees to get more sunlight and nutrients.

"A big part of what we do when we're marking trees for harvesting is look for trees that will benefit from creating some of those small gaps in the canopy," he said.

One of the rules governing selective harvesting allows the water company to remove up to 60 percent of the largest trees (measuring 18 inches or more in diameter) and up to 50 percent of the smaller trees (measuring 12 to 18 inches in diameter) in a forest.

That is a prospect that has caused widespread alarm among people living near the site.

"It would be fair to say it scares the heck out of us, too," said Gibson.

In its proposal, the company said it will log up to 40 percent of the largest trees, 20 percent less than the maximum allowed. So far, though, its attempts to convince critics it will stick to the lower percentage have failed.

"We're left with them wanting us to take them at their word," Gibson said. "That would make anybody nervous."

She said the stakes are high because the plan, once approved, will forever govern logging on the property.

The water company's Gere insists the water company will be a responsible steward of the forest.

"In 15 years, the volume of timber that was removed from a given parcel will have replaced itself," he said. "We can't remove any more trees until that happens."

To address concerns of residents about the impact of logging on forest fires, the water company has hired an independent fire scientist who is creating a model showing how fire will behave in the forest as it exists today, and after it has been logged.

Gere described the $125,000 study -- expected to be completed by spring -- as a good-faith effort to convince residents it is serious about reducing fire hazards.

"When we get those results, we're going to share them with our neighbors," he said.

Clark, of Neighbors Against Irresponsible Logging, said people who live in the Santa Cruz Mountains know the area is prone to fires. "We are certainly in favor of responsible fire prevention," she said. "But that's not what San Jose Water's proposal is all about. It's about commercial logging."

Critics of the logging plan say the company can reduce the fire risk by thinning trees instead of logging the forest.

That is how the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission handles fire suppression in the 23,000-acre watershed around Crystal Springs Reservoir, said spokesman Tony Winnicker.

"We do an annual survey of our lands, and selectively thin vegetation, especially in areas that are close to urban centers or homes and businesses," he said. "We selectively and strategically eliminate trees and clean some of the ground cover. That tends to be brush and eucalyptus trees, which are rapidly growing and extremely combustible."

The state forestry department, which has completed its first review of the San Jose Water Co. plan, has sent it dozens of questions seeking clarification and additional information.

A variety of government agencies are reviewing the plan, including the California Department of Fish and Game, the California Geological Survey, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District.

A public hearing on the plan is expected to be held in early 2006.

E-mail Kathleen Sullivan at ksullivan@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/11/BAGLCG6CNT1.DTL


Informant: OLYecology

http://911review.org/Wiki/OperationMockingbird.shtml
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/cia-media.htm
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/mockingbird.htm
http://www.whale.to/b/mock.html
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/06-07-05/discussion.cgi.55.html
http://operation-mockingbird.blogspot.com/2006/08/operation-mockingbird.html
http://www.prisonplanet.com/analysis_louise_01_03_03_mockingbird.html



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Mockingbird

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
Fri Dec 9, 7:22 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional Republican leaders will press for passage next week of a new Patriot Act to combat terrorism, but a Senate filibuster looms on a measure that liberal and conservative critics alike say is a threat to individual liberties.

"Just as the Senate did four years ago, we should unite in a bipartisan way to support the Patriot Act, to stand up for freedom and against terror," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Thursday as GOP negotiators from the House and Senate sealed their White House-backed compromise.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, issued a statement saying the measure would aid "in the detection, disruption and dismantling of terrorist cells before they strike."

Key provisions cover the ability of law enforcement officials to gain access to a wealth of personal data, including library and medical records, as part of investigations into suspected terrorist activity.

The measure provides a four-year extension of the government's ability to conduct roving wiretaps - which may involve multiple phones - and to seek access to many of the personal records covered by the bill.

Also extended for four years is the power to wiretap "lone wolf" terrorists who may operate on their own, without control from a foreign agent or power. An earlier, pre-Thanksgiving stab at compromise had called for seven-year extensions of these provisions.

Yet another provision, which applies to all criminal cases, gives the government 30 days to provide notice that it has carried out a search warrant.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, described the final product as "not a perfect bill but a good one," and credited the White House with helping bring the House and Senate negotiators together.

But lawmakers in both parties attacked the measure. "This battle is not over," said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who complained that the bill lacked "adequate safeguards to protect our constitutional freedoms." He vowed to do everything he could, including a filibuster, to stop the bill from passing. [...] Read the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/7fz7u

Read a statement by Senator Feingold on the Patriot Act Conference Report at Truthout on December 8: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120805A.shtml


© Virginia Metze

By MAUREEN DOWD
December 7, 2005
New York Times OP-ED columnist

Our secretary of state's tortuous defense of supposedly nonexistent C.I.A. torture chambers in Eastern Europe was an acid flashback to Clintonian parsing.

Just as Bill Clinton pranced around questions about marijuana use at Oxford during the '92 campaign by saying he had never broken the laws of his country, so Condoleezza Rice pranced around questions about outsourcing torture by suggesting that President Bush had never broken the laws of his country.

But in Bill's case, he was only talking about smoking a little joint, while Condi is talking about snatching people off the street and throwing them into lethal joints.

"The United States government does not authorize or condone torture of detainees," she said.

It all depends on what you mean by "authorize," "condone," "torture" and "detainees." [...] Read the rest at
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/12/07/opinion/07dowd.html or http://tinyurl.com/ctxue


© Virginia Metze

OMB Watch
Published on 12/01/2005

OMB Watch released a report entitled: "Dismantling the Public's Right to Know: EPA's Systematic Weakening of the Toxic Release Inventory." The report details how under the Bush administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is slowly dismantling its flagship environmental information tool: the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).

The program has been protected and improved for over the last 15 years, since it was put in place during the Reagan administration. The TRI database enables the public to learn about the environmental risks in our workplaces and communities by providing information about hundreds of toxic chemicals released into the environment. Moreover, the TRI program has served as a constant example of the vital role information plays in a democracy, and the importance of the public's right to know. Unfortunately, the program's success has made it a target for those that seek to reduce corporate oversight and accountability. [...] Read it all at: http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3199/1/1


© Virginia Metze

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: December 9, 2005
Op-Ed columnist
The New York Times

Sometimes reconstruction delayed is reconstruction denied.

A few months after the invasion of Iraq, President Bush promised to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure and economy. He - or, at any rate, his speechwriters - understood that reconstruction was important not just for its own sake, but as a way to deprive the growing insurgency of support. In October 2003 he declared that "the more electricity is available, the more jobs are available, the more kids that are going to school, the more desperate these killers become."

But for a long time, Iraqi reconstruction was more of a public relations exercise than a real effort. Remember when visiting congressmen were taken on tours of newly painted schools?

Both supporters and opponents of the war now argue that by moving so slowly on reconstruction, the Bush administration missed a crucial window of opportunity. By the time reconstruction spending began in earnest, it was in a losing race with a deteriorating security situation.

As a result, the electricity and jobs that were supposed to make the killers desperate never arrived. Iraq produced less electricity last month than in October 2003. The Iraqi government estimates the unemployment rate at 27 percent, but the real number is probably much higher.

Now we're losing another window of opportunity for reconstruction. But this time it's at home. [...] Read the rest at the New York Times: http://tinyurl.com/dp5bn or at http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2005/12/krugman-promiser-in-chief.html or http://tinyurl.com/9kcs8


© Virginia Metze

Article by Sydney Blumenthal
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11245.htm


Informant: Lew Rockwell

What the regime has done to American standing in the world. Article by Paul Craig Roberts.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts135.html

Bill Walker on the myth of world energy shortages.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/walker/walker16.html

Why I threw out all my toothpaste, and my family brushes with Ivory Soap (not Dove or any other soap)....we have no dental bills...except cleaning's and our dentist say's we dont even need that! If you know of someone with dental problems tell them to try Ivory Soap as a toothpaste for a month or two...get ready for a happy experience.

beefree


Article:

At first glance, fluoride seems harmless enough. It is a naturally occurring element that has dental protection properties, right? Wrong, look at where fluoride comes from and you will soon begin to see the problem. It is a toxic waste by-product from the aluminium manufacturing process. Highly toxic with proven unwanted side effects. It is harmful to all animal life and is to be avoided at all costs. Fluoride is linked to 10,000 cancer deaths yearly. Fluoridation is also responsible for 40 million cases of arthritis, dental deformity in 8 million children and allergic reactions in 2 million people. - Dr. Dean Burke and Dr. John Yiamouyiannis, National Cancer Institute, USA, 1997

The best solution to oral hygiene would be a natural one, free from alcohol, sodium lauryl sulphate and fluoride. Increasingly, responsible manufacturers are offering a complete range of dental products, specifically designed for families who want safe, yet powerful, dental care - from keeping cavities at bay and plaque under control to eliminating tooth decay and bad breath.

http://www.kjay.com/01/

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3757/


Informant: jensenmk

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