Got the audio clip with the HEARTLESS response from Bush to lady w/3 JOBS!

( I bet this woman will some how mysteriously get a new single job that more than pays her bills or just mysteriously disappear, so she won't how up on talk hows)

I took my tape recorder with me today, in case Air America Radio replayed the audio clip with the response from Bush to a lady, Ms. Mornin, who was holding 3 jobs (See text below)

Sure enough, Randi Rhodes, of Air America Radio, played portions of it this morning. It is about a minute long but I kept recording her and included the additional comments she presented. THEY ARE VERY WORTH WHILE TO LISTEN TO.

There are two personal observations I would like to include:

1. At the end Bush told Ms Mornin not to worry that "nothing will change" as a result of the Social Security program he is pushing. My thought were: "Oh, does that mean she gets to continue working on 3 jobs?"

2. Bush was WRONG to say that holding 3 jobs is "uniquely American". Bush is obviously unaware that holding 2 and 3 jobs, for many people, is common place in second and third world countries... THE LEVEL TO WHICH HE IS TAKING OUR MIDDLE CLASS AND WHICH HAS BEEN IN THE PLANNING, FOR DECADES, WITH WHAT IS KNOWN AS "THE PLAN 2000".

PLEASE TURN YOUR COMPUTER VOLUME UP AND CLICK ON LINK TO LISTEN

http://PlayAudio-123.com/play.asp?m=146365&f=HRKQCK&ps=13&p=1
(7 min)


Jack Topel


-----original messages----

Gloria,

I also happened to be in my car when I heard the actual audio clip about the interchange that took place with Bush and that poor lady, Ms Mornin from Omaha Nebraska, who told the president she is holding down 3 JOBS! in order to make ends meet. Reading about it here does not even come close to hearing the actual interchange.

There was one more thing that was left out, in the transcript below, which Bush told Ms Mornin at the end. He said "That is great!" (that she is holding 3 jobs) and Bush himself initiated the round of applause which the audience followed.

The tragic thing is that she, probably, voted for Bush, given that they only allow Bush supporters in the carefully screened rallies he holds.

HOW PEOPLE HAVE BEEN "PROGRAMMED TO VOTE AGAINST THEIR OWN BEST INTERESTS, IS BEYOND ME!

The hosts of the "Majority Report" on Air America said that they were going to make the clip available on their Blog. I looked for it today but could not find it. I sent them a note requesting that they make it available.

I URGE EVERYONE TO CONTACT THE SHOW AND REQUEST THAT THEY MAKE THIS AUDIO CLIP AVAILABLE SO THAT WE CAN SHARE IT FAR & WIDE!!!

Below is the link to write to the show:
http://www.airamericaradio.com/shows/majorityreport/contact.asp

Gloria

I was shocked (not really) when I heard how our compassionate conservative president responded to a single mom who is working three jobs. I can't find the link but you can already buy a t-shirt which reads...I work three jobs...That is uniquely American. I heard this on Air America yesterday and was further shocked to listen to the audience laughing at Bush's apathetic response. He has no heart.
See below.

GT
Gloria


*BUSH: HOLDING THREE JOBS 'UNIQUELY AMERICAN'

Tues Feb 8 2005 9:27:01 ET

Last Friday when promoting social security reform with 'regular' citizens in Omaha, Nebraska, President Bush walked into an awkward unscripted moment in which he stated that carrying three jobs at a time is 'uniquely American.'

While talking with audience participants, the president met Mary Mornin, a woman in her late fifties who told the president she was a divorced mother of three, including a 'mentally challenged' son. The President comforted Mornin on the security of social security stating that 'the promises made will be kept by the government.' But without prompting Mornin began to elaborate on her life circumstances.

Begin transcript:

MS. MORNIN: That's good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.

THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?

MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)***


Jack Topel


Informant: ranger116

by The Dreyfuss Report

Named and anonymous intelligence sources go on the record about the United States' lack of knowledge about what's happening in Iran.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/stupid_intelligence.php

by Cory W. Smith, TomPaine.com Exclusive

Today Congress debates a bill that will "protect" America from people fleeing persecution and torture.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/keep_your_huddled_masses.php

Recently confirmed attorney general, Alberto Gonzales is under pressure from the ACLU to show his commitment to justice by immediately appointing an outside special counsel to investigate and prosecute any criminal acts by civilians in the torture or abuse of detainees by the U.S. government.

"Alberto Gonzales must demonstrate his willingness to uphold the oath of office as attorney general by appointing an independent special counsel that will credibly investigate and prosecute the high-level government officials who were responsible for allowing torture and abuse to take place," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero.

After three days of rigorous debate, the Senate confirmed Gonzales on a vote of 60 to 36, one of the narrowest confirmation votes ever for an attorney general. The ACLU noted that a recurring concern raised by senators was the Bush administration's policies on the torture and abuse of detainees. At his confirmation hearing, Gonzales failed to adequately answer questions from senators of both parties about his involvement with those policies and their implementation.

Read the ACLU's letter to the Senate urging a special counsel:
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?orgid=n&ID=17374&c=206&MX=1884&H=1

Take Action! Urge Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to appoint an independent counsel for torture abuses and to release all torture related documents!
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?orgid=n&ID=17420&c=206&MX=1884&H=1

Michael Chertoff, nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security and the force behind the unprovoked detention of hundreds of Arab, South Asian and Muslim men after 9/11, showed no regrets for that roundup during his Senate confirmation hearing. He also acknowledged he was consulted on the development and implementation of a notorious Justice Department torture memo.

In the days after the terrorist attacks, hundreds of Arab, South Asian and Muslim men were detained using minor immigration violations that would not normally warrant detention, a racial and religious profiling policy that was developed and carried out by Chertoff.

As a matter of policy, the ACLU neither opposes nor endorses cabinet-level appointments. It does examine and publicize nominees' civil liberties records, as it has done with Chertoff and recently confirmed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The ACLU's memorandum on Chertoff's civil liberties record can be found here:
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?orgid=n&ID=17378&c=206&MX=1884&H=1

Take Action! As with Attorney General Gonzales, the unanswered questions swirling around Chertoff need to be addressed if the Senate is to properly exercise its "advise and consent" authority. Urge your Senators to ask the tough questions:
http://www.aclu.org/NationalSecurity/NationalSecurity.cfm?orgid=n&ID=17384&c&MX=1884&H=1

mailbox:///C|/DOKUMENTE%20UND%20EINSTELLUNGEN/ZWERENZ/ANWENDUNGSDATEN/Mozilla/Profiles/default/jhcng299.slt/Mail/mailin.t-online.de/Trash?number=356026#story1

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2005/cr020905.htm


Informant: Shanti Renfrew



A National ID Bill Masquerading as Immigration Reform
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul234.html

Watch Ron Paul deliver this speech to the House of Representatives on video:
http://recap.fednet.net/archive/Buildasx.asp?sProxy=80_hflr021005_008.wmv&sTime=00:00:32.0&eTime=00:04:00.0&duration=00:03:29.0&UserName=reppaultx&sLocation=&sExpire=1

"Soziale Autisten": IG Metall-Chef fordert eine Verschärfung des Kündigungsschutzes (10.02.05)

IG-Metall-Chef Jürgen Peters hat in der Debatte um Stellenabbau bei wirtschaftlich erfolgreichen Unternehmen deutsche Konzernvorstände scharf angegriffen. Unternehmen wie die Deutsche Bank versündigten sich an der sozialen Marktwirtschaft, sagte Peters der "Bild"-Zeitung laut Vorabbericht. "Die Gewinnmaximierung auf Kosten der Allgemeinheit ist Verrat an der Gesellschaft. Solche Firmen sollten wir ächten, die müssen moralisch an den Pranger", forderte Peters. Der Gewerkschaftschef warf den betreffenden Führungskräften Gefühlskälte vor. "Einige Manager sind zu sozialen Autisten mutiert, die emotional völlig von ihren Belegschaften entfremdet sind und die Menschen nur noch als Kostenfaktor betrachten. Vor dem Hintergrund der aktuellen Massenkündigungen verlangte Peters eine Verschärfung des Kündigungsschutzes.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.jpberlin.de/www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=10415



Hessische SPD-Vorsitzende Andrea Ypsilanti ruft zum Boykott der Deutschen Bank auf
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/513836/

Nato und Bush: Proteste gegen Kriegspolitik angekündigt (10.02.05)

Um gegen Krieg und die zunehmende Militarisierung der Außenpolitik zu protestieren, hat das globalisierungskritische Netzwerk Attac seine Mitglieder zu Demonstrationen gegen die so genannte Nato-Sicherheitskonferenz in München und beim Besuch von US-Präsident George Bush in Mainz aufgerufen. In München tagten am kommenden Wochenende Regierungsvertreter, Militärstrategen, Generäle und Verteter von Rüstungskonzernen "hinter verschlossenen Türen", erklärte Attac. Das Motto "Frieden durch Dialog" führe dabei in die Irre, sagte Hagen Pfaff von Attac München. In München gehe es nicht um Frieden und Sicherheit, sondern ums Gegenteil. "Hier werden Militärstrategien koordiniert und Kriegskoalitionen für gemeinsame Angriffskriege geschmiedet."

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.jpberlin.de/www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=10417



Demonstration zum Bush-Besuch - Termine zum Bush-Besuch
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/496994/

Rechtsgutachten: Generelle Vorratsspeicherung von Kommunikationsdaten verfassungswidrig (10.02.05)

Eine Pflicht zur generellen Vorratsspeicherung von Kommunikationsdaten, wie sie derzeit im Rahmen der EU angestrebt wird, ist unverhältnismäßig und daher mit verschiedenen Grund- und Menschenrechten unvereinbar. So lautet das Ergebnis eines Rechtsgutachtens des Frankfurter Juristen Patrick Breyer. Demzufolge steht der zu erwartende Nutzen einer Vorratsspeicherung dieser Daten in einem deutlichen Missverhältnis zu den damit verbundenen Nachteilen für die Betroffenen und die Gesellschaft insgesamt. Wegen vielfältiger Umgehungsmöglichkeiten seien Auswirkungen einer Vorratsspeicherung auf das Sicherheitsniveau, also auf die Kriminalitätsrate, nicht zu erwarten.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.jpberlin.de/www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=10399

President Bush is on the defensive. After his State of the Union speech, the White House launched a four state blitz to sell his Social Security privatization scam. But in every state he visited, the Campaign for America's Future, and our allies, organized thousands of people to greet Air Force One with protest.

Our message was carried by nearly every TV station and every newspaper in each city visited by the President -- reaching hundreds of thousands of people. Because of our efforts, the White House is running scared and has now doubled the scope of its opening sales pitch to hit another four states with its pro-privatization rhetoric.

We need to raise $15,000 in the next two days to get people on the ground in every state that Bush plans to visit, and continue trumping him with highly visible protests against privatization.

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=78275

"Social Security is the soft underbelly of the welfare state," declared White House ally Stephen Moore of the radically right wing Free Enterprise Fund and Club for Growth. "If you can jab your spear through that, you can undermine the whole welfare state."

The Campaign for America's Future is on the front lines of a battle to protect a basic American value: that after a lifetime of hard work, our government should guarantee American families a life above the poverty line.

Please help us continue to take the fight to the President in each and every state he's planning to visit.

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=78275

The President is extending his tour because he knows we're winning. We have to keep up our momentum. Last week, together with our allies, we hounded the media and organized thousands of people to meet the President at every turn. One Nebraska newscaster put it this way on the evening news: the Campaign for America's Future "thinks nationally and speaks locally." (KETV Channel 7, Omaha, 2/3/05)

We didn't plan on the President extending his trip, but he's doing it to bolster his flagging support for Social Security privatization. We need to raise $15,000 in two days to make sure that we can stay on the offensive and turn up the heat on the White House. In the coming days, we will rally thousands of people, print countless signs and make sure the local media in each town the President visits knows exactly what his privatization scam means for their community.

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=78275

We're leading the charge to save Social Security, but, don't just take our word for it. According to the Associated Press, "The Campaign for America's Future is leading a coalition of 20 organizations traditionally aligned with the Democratic Party: labor unions and advocacy groups for civil rights, women, senior citizens and the disabled." (Associated Press, 2/1/05) We are proud to be working with powerful allies like USAction, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the AFL-CIO, and MoveOn.org in this important fight.

See more about our recent successes and help keep the great momentum -- against privatization -- going strong!

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=78275

Campaign for America's Future Co-Director Roger Hickey was quoted in USA Today this Monday as saying: "It's an epic battle. If Bush succeeds here, he's changed the whole paradigm of what government is out to do."

The road ahead will be difficult, but with your help, we will win.

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=78275

Thanks for everything you do,

Adam Luna, Policy Director
Campaign for America's Future

Iraq Watch Specials: From Peace No War Network

February 9, 2005

URL: http://www.PeaceNoWar.net

Latest Iraq Body count Number:

Minimum: 15654

Maximum: 17884

URL: http://www.iraqbodycount.net

UK to Air Show on Torture Techniques

by THOMAS WAGNER

.c The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) - Two people vomited, two wet their pants, another suffered signs of hypothermia - all for the cameras - after volunteering to spend 48 hours locked up in cages and subjected to sexual humiliation, forced nudity and sleep deprivation allegedly like prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

A British television station plans to air "The Guantanamo Guidebook,'' a program that recreates some alleged techniques used at the U.S. prison camp for terrorist suspects.

Channel 4 says it wants to make the public aware of such abuses, but a human rights group said Wednesday the program violates U.N. conventions banning torture and shouldn't be shown.

"Your program may have undesirable effects of acclimatizing the audience to the use of torture. The real issue is: how do we make an end to impunity for torturers,'' said Brita Sydhoff of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims in Denmark. The group represents 200 rehabilitation centers for torture victims.

The show's producers say they have recreated some of the milder forms of alleged abuse used at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The methods used on seven volunteers included religious and sexual humiliation, forced nudity, sleep deprivation and extreme temperatures, Tim Carter, the show's producer and director, said Wednesday.

The volunteers were locked in a warehouse with cages, interrogation rooms and surveillance equipment for 48 hours. In the end, after getting sick or suffering symptoms of hypothermia, three of the seven volunteers quit before the 48 hours was over, Carter said.

"We made the program to show viewers how devastating even the milder techniques such as sleep deprivation and playing on personal phobias can be,'' said Carter, who made the program for the Twenty Twenty Television production company in London.

The Bush administration has denied using torture at the Guantanamo prison, where many of the 545 detainees are held without charge. However, some detainees have said they were wrongly imprisoned and allege mistreatment, including beatings, forced nudity and sexual humiliation.

Tom Wilner, a lawyer for 11 Kuwaiti prisoners, recently told The Associated Press that most of his clients falsely confessed to belonging to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or the al-Qaida terror network as a way to stop alleged abuse.

Carter said many forms of purported abuse at Guantanamo have been publicly described by alleged victims, their lawyers and in memos and other documents released under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

A broadcast date for "The Guantanamo Guidebook'' has not been announced, but Yad Luthra, a spokesman for Channel 4 in London, said it is one of four programs dealing with torture planned for a one-week period in the next month.

Carter said TV stations in other countries have expressed interest in the show, but none has bought the rights.

The other programs include a documentary by Clive Stafford Smith, the first British lawyer allowed into Guantanamo, that explores the issue of whether torture ever works when used on alleged terrorism suspects.

Another by former BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan is about how the United States and other nations allegedly take terrorist suspects outside the country to torture them.

Gilligan resigned from the British Broadcasting Corp. after a senior judge, Lord Hutton, criticized his story in 2003 that alleged Prime Minister Tony Blair's office had "sexed up'' an intelligence dossier about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction before the Iraq war.

The fourth Channel 4 documentary is about alleged torture in U.S. prisons.

On the Net: http://www.irct.org

Associated Press writer Christian Wienberg in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.

02/09/05 16:28 EST

Photos of U.S. Military Torture in Abu Ghraib Prison
http://www.peacenowar.net/Iraq/News/April%2004-Photos/Abu%20Ghraib.htm

Los Angeles Times has a complete biographical Information on U.S. Soldiers Killed:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/external/fmmac2.mm.ap.org/war2/adv_search.php?SITE=CALOS&SECTION=MIDEAST

For more photos and Videos from Iraq, visit:
"Report from Baghdad" July, 2003
http://www.actionla.org/Iraq/IraqReport/intro.html

Objector.org
http://www.objector.org/


Peace, No War
War is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate
Not in our Name! And another world is possible!


Informant: SIUHIN

From ufpj-news

Fast on the heels of the prominent article on Irish Doctors Environmental Association (IDEA) coming up with strong evidence that cellphones do cause health problems to vulnerable members of the population, in Ireland, posted at
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/16470166?source=Evening%20Standard
is the following, printed in today's (Thursday, 10 February, 2005) print edition of the IRISH INDEPENDENT.

Best, Imelda, Cork, Ireland



IRISH INDEPENDENT, THURSDAY, 10 FEBRUARY, 2005, PAGE 5

"Doctors call for ban on child mobile phone use

Young children should be stopped from using mobile phones because of health risks, a doctors' group warned yesterday.

The Irish Doctors Environmental Association (IDEA) said children could be sensitive to electromagnetic radiation emitted from the devices.

Dr. Philip Michael, chairman of IDEA, said: "The Government needs to act by at least stopping children." He referred ministers to a report from the British National Radiological Protection Board which advised parents not to give mobiles to young children.

Dr. Michael said there was a body of research from Scandinavian countries which highlighted sensitivity to the effects of electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones. "They haven't been proved to be safe, while there is no conclusive evidence against them," he said.

Dr Michael said the studies, mainly from Sweden and Britain, had pointed to irritation, drowsiness and lethargy from using the phone.

He said there was no major research carried out in Ireland, but the group had carried out a small study among 16 people from the Irish Electromagnetic Radiation Victims Network [IERVN] over the last few years. This pointed to distressing side-effects from radiation, including excessive fatigue, confusion, paraesthesia (tingling) and dizziness.

Dr Michael said there was no recognition of this risk from the Government.

He added that IDEA had proposed a motion to come before a meeting of the Irish Medical Council suggesting that the Government should discourage children from using mobile phones except in emergencies.

Other motions also include a request that the government bans the building of base stations on or near schools.

Dr Michael said health experts would be carrying out a further phase of their study to see if they could prove the effects. He said the group had already made a submission to the Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources in relation to mobile phone radiation.

The Department of Communications said there was no valid scientific reason to warn against the use of mobile phones by children."


Irish Doctors Environmental Association (IDEA) Position on Electro-Magnetic Radiation
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/502478/

SENSITIVITY TO NON-IONISING RADIATION IN IRELAND
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/518018/

Gaby Gottwald, ehemalige Bundestagsabgeordnete der Grünen, hat ihren Laden zum 31. Dezember 2004 dicht gemacht und damit auch ihren Job aufgegeben: Sie war Geschäftsführerin von "Abakus", einem gemeinnützigen Beschäftigungsträger in Hamburg, der Langzeiterwerbslose auf Basis des SGB III und des BSHG, also z.B. als ABM-Kräfte, sozialversicherungspflichtig beschäftigt, qualifiziert und wo möglich in Arbeitsverhältnisse des so genannten "ersten Arbeitsmarktes" vermittelt hat - bis Ende letzten Jahres. Aufgrund der neuen Konkurrenz durch 1-Euro-Jobs seit dem 1. Januar 2005 sei Abakus die betriebswirtschaftliche Grundlage zur Erfüllung dieser Aufgabe entzogen, so Gottwald. Im Folgenden begründet sie, warum es nicht nur ökonomische Gründe waren, die bei Abakus dazu führten, die weitere Tätigkeit des Vereins einzustellen. Demnach wird Abakus kein Einzelfall bleiben..., es sei denn, es regt sich doch noch breiterer Widerstand der Beschäftigungsträger (s. dazu das Interview mit Michael Burbach im Anschluss an diesen Beitrag):
http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/realpolitik/hilfe/gottwald.html


"Die Versuchung wird groß"

Ein Gespräch mit Michael Burbach über gute Gründe, keine 1-Euro-Jobber einzustellen

Michael Burbach ist Geschäftsführer des BVZ e.V. in Frankfurt a.M., eines gemeinnützigen Vereins, dessen Aufgabengebiet vor allem die Betreuung und Verwaltung von Kindertagesstätten, aber auch Angebote zur Jugendarbeit und -bildung umfasst. Eigentlich ein typischer "Arbeitgeber" für die seit 1. Januar zulässigen "1-Euro-Jobber". Doch im Unterschied zu den großen Wohlfahrtsverbänden und vielen anderen kommunalen Beschäftigungsträgern bzw. deren Nutznießern lehnt das BVZ den Einsatz solcher "Arbeitsgelegenheiten" ab - nicht zuletzt, weil es sich dabei gar nicht um "Arbeitsverhältnisse" oder auch nur "Jobs", sondern um "staatlich verordnete Zwangsverpflichtungen" handele, so Burbach. Wir sprachen mit ihm über diesen und weitere Gründe für die entschiedene Haltung des nicht eben kleinen "Arbeitgebers" BVZ, sich nicht an der Umsetzung von Hartz IV zu beteiligen:
http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/realpolitik/hilfe/burbach.html


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 22, Eintrag 8

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/education/s/145/145770_phone_mast_health_shock.html


Informant: Sian

From Mast Network

by Bill Moyers

In These Times

02/09/05

One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a worldview despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. The offspring of ideology and theology are not always bad but they are always blind.

... One-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup Poll is accurate, believes the Bible is literally true. This past November, several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in what is known as the 'rapture index...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1915/



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Robert Scheer

The Nation

02/08/05

In a heightened display of saber rattling, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been saying nasty things about Iran's 'unelected mullahs.' This is apparently so we'll be able to tell the difference between the theocracy in place in Tehran and the one coalescing in Baghdad. ... In his State of the Union address, Bush denounced Iran as 'the world's primary state sponsor of terrorism.' At the same time, he celebrated an Iraqi election that handed power to Shiite ayatollahs who were sponsored for decades by their co-religionists in Iran and who share much of Tehran's vision of religion and politics. ... The final returns from the Iraqi election are not in, but it seems clear that the slate headed by the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution is going to have a clear majority in the new constitutional assembly...

http://tinyurl.com/62aj8



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Cesar Conda

FreedomWorks

02/09/05

In the Democratic response to President Bush's call to make Social Security a better deal for younger workers through voluntary personal retirement accounts, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid likened the plan to a risky game of 'roulette.' New York Times columnist Paul Krugman called it a 'system in which workers engage in speculation that no financial advisor would recommend.' In opposing personal accounts, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) launched national ads stating: 'Winners and losers are stock market terms. Do you really want them to become retirement terms?' Given the way the Democrats and some commentators are talking about stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, you would assume that none of them invest any of their own money, and instead keep sacks of cash in their mattresses...

http://tinyurl.com/6p8hl



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Jonah Goldberg

National Review

02/09/05

About a decade ago, Columbia University professor Andrew Delbanco wrote an elegant book, The Death of Satan, in which he argued that America had lost the ability to speak in terms of evil. He called it a 'tragedy of the imagination,' and he was right. For decades, a therapeutic culture of 'understanding' was on the rise. Except for acts of racism and so-called homophobia, there was a mad rush to 'understand' evil people. Were they victims of a racist culture? Were they abused themselves? Were they expressing their natural frustration with the patriarchal capitalist system? Blah, blah, blah. The tragedy of the imagination was that we couldn't appreciate that evil is real and it exists...

http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200502090800.asp



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Francisco Unger

ZNet

02/08/05

Provided with two clear-cut options, blind patriotism or objective defiance, Americans have fallen smoothly into the first, eager to conform with mainstream belief and eager to make clear on which side they stand. With such a decisive outlook, few will question what it is that is so celebrated in a soldier, what it is that we are fighting for, or who it is that we are fighting against. Under this condition, Americans have surrendered all rights of free thought, creating a population uniform in belief, and in the process signing a blank check for leaders in Washington...

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=51&ItemID=7200



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Jorge & Vickie E. Castro

Common Dreams

02/09/05

What makes the war real is when your doorbell rings at 8:00 pm and you open it to see an Army soldier standing there in his dress uniform, with all his medals on display. And then you know, you know that it is all too real. You know that REAL people die; you know that they have come to rip your heart out. They regretfully inform you that your only child, the center of your universe, is gone. Dead! The word screams in your head over and over. DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!! That is exactly what happened, Dec. 21, here in our own community. Another soldier died, another family was destroyed, I know because he was my soldier, my son and it was my family that was destroyed..

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0209-20.htm



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CGI Joe

by Ed Halter

Village Voice

02/07/05

Waging war isn't about fun and games. Or is it? A visit to one of the world's biggest conventions for military training technology reveals that today's armed forces are taking cues from video games, theme parks, and Hollywood. Find out how the Pentagon is funding the future of new media at Orlando, Florida's I/ITSEC: the Defense Department's own Disney World...

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0506,halter,60855,6.html



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Eric Boehlert

Salon

02/10/05

The Gannon revelations come on the heels of the discovery that Bush administration officials signed lucrative contracts for several conservative pundits who hyped White House initiatives and did not disclose the government's payments. The Talon News fiasco raises serious questions about who the White House is allowing into its daily press briefings: How can a reporter using a fake name and working for a fake news organization get press credentials from the White House, let alone curry enough favor with the notoriously disciplined Bush administration to get picked by the president in order to ask fake questions? [subscription or ad view required]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/10/gannon_affair/



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Thomas L. Knapp

Free Market News Network

02/09/05

Any truthful way you cut it -- pun intended -- the FY2006 budget proposal is bigger than the FY2005 budget. So, when a Republican begins to brag, or a Democrat starts to whine, about the 'budget cuts,' don't believe'em. And, in reality, the FY2006 budget is going to be a lot larger than the FY2005 budget. We're only just beginning to discover the tricks that the White House played, even to get its request down to a 'modest' increase...

http://www.freemarketnews.com/pview/5837/863/html/index.php

CNSNews.com

02/09/05

Those who believe that campaign finance 'reform' didn't reform anything are rallying behind a newly re-introduced bill called the First Amendment Restoration Act. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett [R-MD], is intended to overturn portions of the McCain-Feingold law that prevent advocacy groups from running certain political ads in the days leading up to an election. Free speech advocates describe Bartlett's bill as an antidote to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, which they see as an effort to protect incumbent politicians from criticism. 'Passing the First Amendment Restoration Act will be a good and necessary first step toward repairing the damage done to Americans' constitutional rights by so-called 'campaign finance reform' ... [and] begin to give Americans back their free speech rights,' said Reid Cox, general counsel for the Center for Individual Freedom...

http://tinyurl.com/5ll7n



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Palm Beach Post

02/02/05

A Florida State University center has used more than a half-million in education tax dollars to put a positive spin on President Bush's key school policies, including hiring a public relations firm to teach charter schools to be more media-savvy. Despite conflicting studies on the success of charter schools and other alternative education programs, the School Choice Center at FSU touts them as ways to 'increase student achievement, increase parental involvement, promote school improvement through constructive competition, and accomplish racial and ethnic diversity.'

http://tinyurl.com/4rcbv



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CNN

02/09/05

Former U.S. chief weapons inspector David Kay urged the United States on Wednesday not to make the same mistakes with Iran that he said it made with Iraq ahead of the second Persian Gulf War. Former President Jimmy Carter, meanwhile, said that even a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities 'would not be successful,' but he agreed with U.S. officials who have demanded more transparency from the Islamic republic...

http://tinyurl.com/4quhw



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Houston Chronicle

02/09/05

The U.S. retirement system can be stabilized through a series of smaller fixes and does not need a major overhaul that would include private accounts, the nation's largest lobby group for the elderly said today. The AARP, formerly known as the American Association for Retired Persons, said the amount of wages that can be taxed for Social Security should be raised from $90,000 to $140,000. The change could be phased in over about 10 years and would cut the projected shortfall by 43 percent...

http://tinyurl.com/5us68



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Las Vegas Review-Journal

02/09/05

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran on Wednesday that it risks U.N. action if negotiations with Europe over its nuclear program don't progress. Nearing the end of a fence-mending tour of European allies, Rice also said she encountered 'a kind of coming together of common purpose' on another troubled front: Iraq. Several countries committed to help train Iraqi forces and participate in an upcoming NATO training mission. 'I heard devotion to helping more on the reconstruction side and, most importantly, to helping with the training of the security forces inside of Iraq, outside of Iraq, in the NATO training mission,' the secretary said...

http://tinyurl.com/59t3v



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Delaware Journal

02/10/05

A former Wilmington [DE] resident whose softball questions at White House press conferences have prompted heated criticism from online media watchdog groups has sworn off presidential press conferences. James D. Guckert, who reported under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon, resigned late Tuesday as Washington bureau chief for Talon News, a conservative Internet news outlet owned by the Web site GOPUSA."

http://tinyurl.com/3qhvw



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Los Angeles Times

02/10/05

A bill aimed at blocking states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants appeared headed for passage today in the House of Representatives, aided by a strong endorsement from the White House and broad support within the Republican majority." [editor's note: Section 102 of the bill in question allows the head of Homeland Security to suspend any and all laws, at his discretion, and bars judicial review of his actions - TLK]

http://tinyurl.com/68mw9


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.tni.org/books/publicwater.htm


Informant: Kate Harris

http://capwiz.com/liberty/issues/alert/?alertid=6938731&type=CO


Informant: omnisprinter

Victoria Times Colonist

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

VICTORIA - An environmental group is raising the alarm over International Forest Products' construction of a logging road into the Hesquiat Lake Creek valley north of Tofino.

Friends of Clayoquot Sound on Monday described the building of the road as "an ecological crime" and called on Interfor to halt construction. The group said this marks the first time in 14 years that an intact wilderness valley in the sound has been subject to road-building and the falling of ancient temperate rainforest.

But Interfor's West Coast division area manager Don McMillan said the company has necessary approval from both government and first nations to conduct the road work.

"We've got approvals at all levels,' " McMillan said. "We're following all of the very strict science panel recommendations and government and first nations in terms of the plans that have been signed off and approved."

Diego Garcia, a Friends of Clayoquot Sound spokesman, said even though Interfor may have the legal right to construct the road, that doesn't mean it should.

Undisturbed valleys are rare on Vancouver Island, where 75 per cent of the original productive forest has been logged, the group said in a news release. It calls on Interfor to immediately cease all forestry activity in Clayoquot's intact valleys.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005


Informant: Deane T. Rimerman

1.15 million New Zealand children target of untested experimental vaccine

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00064.htm


Informant: Andrea Ball

Moving on from its phase of embedding journalists, or as some would say, 'a policy of restricting and controlling the flow of information,' the Pentagon will now produce and disseminate the news itself. It will be beamed to the public at no charge.

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=4272a7ec26944f6c
http://tinyurl.com/5bvhd


From Information Clearing House

http://www.counterpunch.com/whitney02072005.html


From Information Clearing House

http://207.44.245.159/article8011.htm


From Information Clearing House

When we look back at the past, people's responses to perceived threats often strike us as disproportionate or simply crazy. Past panics tend to be quietly forgotten, or dismissed as embarrassing reminders of our capacity for group hysteria.

http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/02/07/news/edbourke.html
http://tinyurl.com/4ru79


From Information Clearing House

In 2005 Iran will launch a new oil exchange that is expected to put an end to Western domination of the international oil trade. The US and UK, currently home to the world's largest oil markets, are unlikely to allow Iran to undermine their control of the oil trade without putting up a fight.

http://www.theinsider.org/mailing/article.asp?id=0508


From Information Clearing House

Iran is a sponsor of state terrorism and should realise it must not seek to obstruct progress towards a Middle East peace settlement, Tony Blair said yesterday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/09/nblair109.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/02/09/ixnewstop.html
http://tinyurl.com/3pdx4


From Information Clearing House

Rice made a statement in Italy accusing Syria of supporting terrorism and threatened the country with "isolation." Rice emphasized that terrorists in Iraq were supported by Damascus and said the Damascus administration "supports at least the terrorism in the south of Lebanon" and asked for cooperation.

http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&hn=16391


From Information Clearing House

http://www.nypress.com/18/6/news&columns/AlexanderZaitchik.cfm


Informant: Lew Rockwell

Making the Solar System Safe for Democracy

Vulcans target Titan. Article by Leon Hadar:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/hadar2.html

Common Cause

posted 02/07/05

Tell United States Senators not to support changing long standing Senate filibuster rules to blatantly advance one party's goals.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=6784145&url_num=9&url=http://www.commoncause.org/site/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=317178&en=6oJJIPOkF6KCIIOjF9JLLNNjF8JLL0MDLjIIJMNoFgKVJ7K


From Moving Ideas Network

National Priorities Project

posted 02/09/05

National Priorities Project has produced a breakdown of the budget's impact on each state for: the total of all discretionary federal grants to state and local governments; Low-Income Home and Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP); community and economic development funds, the No Child Left Behind Act; and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=6784145&url_num=8&url=http://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget


From Moving Ideas Network

posted 02/03/05

A reality check to Bush's plans for Social Security, Iraq, and his other priorities for the upcoming year.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=6784145&url_num=7&url=http://www.movingideas.org/content/en/on_the_hill/2005_sou.htm

posted 02/04/05

Senate to vote on bill that would dramatically curtail the rights of consumers to pursue class action claims.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=6784145&url_num=6&url=http://www.movingideas.org/content/en/on_the_hill/class_action_fairness_act_2005.htm

We urgently need your help to protect the wildlife and people living along our borders, as well as to ensure the purity and safety of our air, water, and wild lands.

Tomorrow Congress could vote on a bill that would allow the Homeland Security Department to IGNORE ALL FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION LAWS, effectively giving them free reign to destroy national parks, forests, monuments, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas along our borders.

Click here to send a free fax to your Representative urging him or her to vote NO on these unnecessary and harmful exemptions before it's too late! Or if you're a registered user, simply hit "reply" then hit "send" and we'll send the letter below on your behalf:
http://www.saveourenvironment.org/ctt.asp?u=2205119&l=5912

This legislation will allow the Homeland Security Department to completely ignore long-standing laws like the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. That means increased risks of air and water pollution for all of us.

Many of our border areas run through national parks, forests and monuments, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas and other environmentally sensitive areas. This bill could have a devastating impact on some of our last remaining wild lands!

Our border areas are home to hundreds of species of endangered plants and animals. If the Homeland Security Department is allowed to sidestep all environmental protection laws, animals already on the brink of extinction like grizzly bears, jaguars, and wolves could vanish forever.

Not only are these exemptions dangerous, they also appear to be unnecessary. Not one single Congressional hearing has illustrated a need for these broad exemptions. Never before has any federal agency been provided with such a breadth of unjustified exemptions from our laws.

We need your help to stop this legislation today! The House is expected to vote on this bill as early as tomorrow February 10, 2005, so there's no time to spare. Click here to take action now!
http://www.saveourenvironment.org/ctt.asp?u=2205119&l=5912

We also need your help to spread the word about this dangerous legislation. Once you have taken action, please forward this email to your friends, family and co-workers and urge them to contact their Representatives too!

Thank you for your help!

Sincerely,

Katelyn Sabochik
Online Campaign Manager
info@saveourenvironment.org



Dear Representative,

I am extremely concerned about the sweeping exemptions from the landmark laws that protect our air, water, land and wildlife that would be given to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security if H.R. 418, The Real ID Act of 2005 were to become law. The bill includes unprecedented language allowing the secretary of Homeland Security to exempt the agency from all federal, state and local environmental laws when constructing walls, fences, roads and other barriers along U.S. borders. I strongly urge you to vote NO on this unnecessary and excessive piece of damaging legislation.

It is critical to note that this provision is not limited to a single fencing project along the San Diego border, but would apply to all areas along and "in the vicinity" of our international boundaries with both Mexico and Canada. Under this sweeping waiver, Homeland Security would be free to undertake large construction projects anywhere along our borders without oversight, accountability or legal constraints - from the densely populated border communities in California, Texas and Washington, to the remote wilderness of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona, to the pristine islands and waters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. Never before has any federal agency been provided with such a breadth of unjustified exemptions from environmental laws.

We are a nation founded on the rule of law. To place any federal official above any law of their choosing - whether environmental, labor or civil rights - is a step that should not be taken lightly. In addition, Homeland Security has not demonstrated a need to waive any or all laws. In fact, there has not been a single congressional hearing that has illustrated a need for these broad exemptions. Furthermore, the removal of all avenues of judicial review is a direct affront to the most basic principles of checks and balances and separation of powers in our Constitution. We believe that it is possible to ensure border security while shielding the public and the environment from harm and have not seen evidence otherwise.

We strongly urge you to reject this attempt to include language that would allow Homeland Security to waive environmental laws or other important health and safety statutes.

Sincerely,
[your name here]

http://www.publiceyestv.org/global_warming_news_archive_1.htm


Informant: cobra

Please quickly sign this important petition for ELECTION REFORM -- cosponsored by Boxer and Clinton

The following letter is from Hilary Clinton. She and Barbara Boxer (our hero from Jan 6, 2004) are cosponsoring a bill for ELECTION REFORM.

And they need YOU to sign their petition:
http://activate.friendsofhillary.com/t?ctl=B7E7C5:3302CBE

It literally takes A SPLIT SECOND to sign. So, please do sign it RIGHT NOW, and then forward to others.

It is vitally important that you sign, EVEN if you somehow remain convinced that the last 2 elections were completely legitimate.

Thank you!!!
Kai


Dear Friends,

It's time to tell those who celebrate elections and voter participation in countries around the world that we must make sure every vote is counted in elections right here at home! That's why I am asking you to sign on now as a citizen co-sponsor of vitally important election reform legislation.

Sign the petition:
http://activate.friendsofhillary.com/t?ctl=B7E7C5:3302CBE

Next week, I will introduce the Count Every Vote Act of 2005, co-sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer. This comprehensive election reform bill will:
- Provide a verified paper ballot for every vote cast in electronic voting machines;
- Set a uniform standard for provisional ballots, so that every qualified voter within the state will know their votes are treated equally and will be counted; and
- Require the Federal Election Assistance Commission to issue standards that ensure uniform access to voting machines and election personnel in every community. It's outrageous that some people in predominantly minority communities had to wait up to 10 hours to vote, while people in other communities often voted in minutes!

In 2004, I introduced legislation similar to the Count Every Vote Act. But, it never saw the light of day. I couldn't even get a hearing for my bill before the Senate Rules Committee. We can't allow this new legislation to suffer the same fate.

The Republicans who control Congress don't want to address this issue. So, we've got to build grassroots momentum to make sure they don't have any choice but to act. That's why I am determined to keep moving forward - on the Hill, with advocacy groups, and with all of you!

Sign the petition:
http://activate.friendsofhillary.com/t?ctl=B7E7C5:3302CBE

Will you join me in calling for action to Count Every Vote? Will you sign up to become a citizen co-sponsor of this bill, so that we can demonstrate that the American people won't sit still for inaction on legislation so essential to our freedom?

Please forward this e-mail to your friends, and ask them to join us.

And then, consider making a contribution to Friends of Hillary to help us keep this important project going.

Make a contribution:
http://activate.friendsofhillary.com/t?ctl=B7E7C7:3302CBE

Together, we will restore the credibility of American democracy, and make sure that we count every vote.

Sincerely,
Hillary Rodham Clinton


P.S. You have been such a good friend and supporter, and I appreciate everything you have done. The Count Every Vote Act is one of the most important bills I will ever introduce as a Senator. I hope you will be able to help me now.

Please help spread the word by forwarding this message to your friends and family!

To view the Friends of Hillary Privacy Policy, please visit:
http://activate.friendsofhillary.com/t?ctl=B7E7C9:3302CBE

All content copyright 2005 Friends of Hillary

Paid for by Friends of Hillary, 1717 K Street, NW, Suite 309A,
Washington, D.C. 20036
Karyn Kai Anderson, PhD, MPH
KKA_AUG18@yahoo.com
410-889-4176

http://proliberty.com/observer/20020216.htm


Informant: Be Kind Whenever Possible

"Phaser auf Betäubung!" Die Non-lethal weapons kommen.

Im Mai findet in Deutschland das 3rd European Symposium on Non-Lethal Weapons statt, eine Art Leistungsschau der Branche, auf der auch internationale "Gäste", wie etwa John D. Alexander, der Vater des amerikanischen Non-lethal-weapon-Programms, gesehen werden können. Nicht unwesentliches Detail am Rande: Vertreter des österreichischen Bundesheeres gehören zu den federführenden Organisatoren der Veranstaltung ...

Mikrowellen-Waffen wie im Raumschiff-Enterprise, Ultra- und Infra-Schallkanonen, Plasma-Teaser, EMP-Bomben - das Arsenal der modernen Kampfmittel ist groß und scheint auf den ersten Blick aus dem Fundus der Science-fiction zu stammen. Dennoch werden verschiedene "Nicht-tötende Waffen" (nicht nur) in den USA von der Polizei bereits zur "Crowd-control" bei Demonstrationen eingesetzt.

NÄHERE INFORMATIONEN ÜBER DIE NÄCHSTE SENDUNG SIND AB KOMMENDEM WOCHENENDE AUF DER HOMEPAGE DER BIG BROTHER NEWS ZU FINDEN: http://www.bigbrothernews.org/

Action Alert

Terminate the Terminator
http://www.organicconsumers.org/un.htm

Sign Petition to United Nations
http://www.organicconsumers.org/un.htm#factoryfarm


Informant: garden beekeeper

--------

Email this article to a friend!

Stop GE terminator technology

ETC Group received confidential documents stating the ministers from Canada intend to force overturning the international moratorium on genetic seed sterilization known as terminator technology, at a United Nations meeting in Bangkok February 7-11. It is not too late to stop this assault by the Canadian government.

ETC Group, IATP, along with indigenous and farmer groups are calling on people to write the Canadian government and urge them to continue supporting the international moratorium on terminator technology.

A draft letter can be found here:
http://foodfirst.org/action/2005/terminator.html

For more information:
http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=498

--------

From: Phil Silberman

Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 11:30 PM
To: 'John Grove'
Subject: FW: FW:URGENT ACTION ALERT!!!

Check this out..

The ETC Group (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration) headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada issued a press release (posted below) on Monday.

They received a confidential memo that reveals that at a United Nations meeting this week in Bangkok, the Canadian government will attempt to overturn an international moratorium on Terminator seed technology.

The Campaign has launched an ACTION ALERT in response:
http://www.thecampaign.org/alert_terminator.php

Terminator seeds are genetically engineered to be sterile and thereby prevent farmers from saving seed. This is an extremely risky and controversial technology. Some scientists worry about what could happen if the terminator is unleashed on the environment. They fear that terminator technology could migrate from one farm to another, or from a farm to wild plants.

And activists in developing nations are concerned that the technology would put too much power in the hands of a few international agribusinesses.

The Campaign has set up an ACTION ALERT that allows you to send an instant e-mail to the following Canadian officials:
1) Prime Minister Paul Martin
2) Hon. Andy Mitchell, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
3) F.B. Fadden, President, Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Visit the following web address to TAKE ACTION NOW:
http://www.thecampaign.org/alert_terminator.php

Thanks for taking the time to contact these Canadian government officials.


Craig Winters
President
The Campaign
PO Box 55699
Seattle, WA 98155
Tel: 425-771-4049
E-mail: label@thecampaign.org
Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org



Date: February 7, 2005

ETC Group
News Release
7 February 2005
http://www.etcgroup.org

Canadian Government to Unleash Terminator Bombshell at UN Meeting: All-out push for commercialisation of Sterile Seed Technology

A confidential document leaked today to ETC Group reveals that the Canadian government, at a United Nations meeting in Bangkok (Feb 7-11), will attempt to overturn an international moratorium on genetic seed sterilisation technology (known universally as Terminator). Even worse, the Canadian government has instructed its negotiators to "block consensus" on any other option.

"Canada is about to launch a devastating kick in the stomach to the world's most vulnerable farmers - the 1.4 billion people who depend on farm saved seed," said ETC Group Executive Director Pat Mooney speaking from Ottawa. "The Canadian government is doing the dirty work for the multinational gene giants and the US government. Even Monsanto wasn't prepared to be this upfront and nasty. Canada is betraying Farmers' Rights and food sovereignty everywhere."

Terminator technology was first developed by the US government and the seed industry to prevent farmers from re-planting saved seed and is considered the most controversial and immoral agricultural application of genetic engineering so far. When first made public in 1998, "suicide seeds" triggered an avalanche of public opposition, forcing Monsanto to abandon the technology and prompting the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to impose a de facto moratorium on its further development. According to the leaked instructions to Canadian negotiators at SBSTTA 10 (a scientific advisory body to the CBD), Canada will insist on Wednesday (9 Feb.) that governments accept the field testing and commercialization of Terminator varieties (referred to as GURTS -- Genetic Use Restriction Technologies). Canada will also attack an official UN report, prepared by an international expert group, which is critical of the potential impacts of Terminator seeds on small farmers and Indigenous Peoples. In stark contrast to Canada's position, the expert report recommends that governments seek prohibitions on the technology.

In Bangkok, civil society and Indigenous Peoples are calling on the Canadian government to abandon its endorsement of Terminator and to join with other governments to prohibit the technology once and for all. Many African and Asian governments have called for Terminator to be banned and the European Union has also been supportive of the existing moratorium.

"It is outrageous that Canada is backing an anti-farmer technology and shameful that it will 'block consensus' on any other outcome. Governments from around the world must not accept this bullying tactic," says ETC Group's Hope Shand from the negotiations in Bangkok. "If Canada blocks decision-making on this issue, the moratorium will be in jeopardy and terminator seeds will be commercialized ending up in the fields of small farmers."

The full leaked text of the Canadian government's instructions to its negotiators on Terminator/GURTS follows.

Hope Shand and Jim Thomas of ETC Group can be contacted at SBSTTA negotiations in Bangkok on cell phone +44 (0) 7752 106806 or by email jim@etcgroup.org or hope@etcgroup.org

Pat Mooney (in Ottawa) +1 (613) 241-2267 etc@etcgroup.org
Kathy Jo Wetter (USA) +1 (919) 960-5223 email kjo@etcgroup.org

The Head of the Canadian Delegation in Bangkok is Robert McLean, Environment Canada email Robert.Mclean@ec.gc.ca tel +1 (819) 997-1303



"Advice on the report of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTS);

Canada has major reservations regarding the recommendations in the AHTEG report. Canada notes that the experts were unable to reach consensus and that while this is recognized in para. 15 of the report, this should have been made clear in the recommendation section of the report. Unfortunately, the report leaves the impression that consensus was achieved on all of the recommendations when this was clearly not case and in particular in terms of recommendation (b) which reads as follows, "In view of the current lack of data, recommends that Parties and other Governments consider the development of regulatory frameworks not to approve GURTs for field-testing and commercial use."

Canada will suggest that the document clearly indicate in the Annex that there is no consensus on for the recommendations. Alternatively, the AHTEG report can be referred to as the "Chairs' report". Canada also believes that the AHTEG report contains scientific inaccuracies and a lack of balance in terms of reflecting both potential positive and negative impacts of this technology, and these issues should be addressed before the report is further distributed. We believe that it would be beneficial for Parties and other governments to submit comments to the Executive Secretary/CHM to represent national views to improve the accuracy of the document, and that these be made available to both the 8j working group and COP.

Additionally, Canada will propose that SBSTTA adopt a recommendation for decision at COP8 based on the revised wording of recommendation "b" below and will propose this recommendation be incorporated for consideration at the 8j meeting:

NEW WORDING for recommendation b) of AHTEG report
(b) In view of the current lack of data, recommend that Parties and other Governments consider the development of domestic regulatory frameworks TO ALLOW FOR THE EVALUATION OF NOVEL VARIETIES, INCLUDING THOSE WITH GURTS, FOR FIELD TESTING AND COMMERCIAL USE BASED ON PROPRIATE SCIENCE-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL RISK/SAFETY ASSESSMENTS.

In Canada's opinion the revised wording we are suggesting, strengthens the recommendation and provides for a strong scientific assessment of risk.

If we are unsuccessful in obtaining these additions (indication that recommendations in the AHTEG report were not based on consensus OR agreement to have national views submitted) AND changes to recommendation "B" --or any other outcome which clearly addresses our concern over a defacto moratorium on GURTS-- Canada is prepared to block consensus on this issue."


Informant: oscully



Further proof---as if we needed any---that the world has lost its collective marbles. I can't imagine a single argument for advocating this practice in a sane world. Please send e-mails to the Canadian Prime Minister at pm@pm.gc.ca

Party leaders:

Copps.S@parl.gc.ca , Minister_Ministre@hc-sc.gc.ca , just@parl.gc.ca , jack@fed.ndp.ca , Harper.S@parl.gc.ca , Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca

Government Newsroom
newsroom@canada.gc.ca

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
http://www.agr.gc.ca

Plant Gene Resources of Canada
http://pgrc3.agr.gc.ca/

Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration
http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/

Canadian Wheat Board
http://www.cwb.ca/en/index.jsp

All government emails in pasteable form at:
http://ghostchild.com/Canadian_Government_Email_list.htm

PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS INFORMATION WIDELY


ETC Group
News Release
Friday, February 11, 2005
http://www.etcgroup.org/

Suicide Seeds - Bombshell in Bangkok

Canadian-Led Coup to Allow Terminator Technology Narrowly Squelched at UN Meeting

Percy Schmeiser, a Canadian farmer who was sued by Monsanto, spoke today at a UN meeting in Bangkok - harshly criticizing his governments' efforts to promote field-testing and commercialization of Terminator seeds (plants genetically-modified to render seeds sterile at harvest time).

"The Canadian government has acted shamefully. It is supporting a dangerous, anti-farmer technology that aims to eliminate the rights of farmers to save and re-use harvested seed," said Schmeiser. "Instead of representing the good will of the Canadian people or attending to the best interests of the Biodiversity Treaty, the Canadian government is fronting for the multinational gene giants who stand to win enormous profits from the release of Terminator seeds around the world."

Schmeiser is the 74-year old Canadian farmer who was sued by Monsanto for patent infringement when the company's patented, genetically modified canola seed invaded his farm - unwanted and unwelcome. A victim of genetic pollution and a champion of Farmers' Rights, Schmeiser courageously fought Monsanto all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court.

A Canadian government proposal to unleash Terminator was leaked to the ETC Group on the first day of a UN meeting in Bangkok, February 7-11 (SBSTTA, the scientific advisory body to the Convention on Biological Diversity - CBD). The news stunned farmers' organizations, government delegations, and civil society worldwide. Ottawa's instructions to the Canadian delegation in Bangkok called for an all-out push for field-testing and commercialisation of sterile seed technologies, effectively un-doing the precautionary, de facto moratorium on Terminator seeds adopted by governments in 1998. Even worse, the Canadian delegation was instructed to "block consensus" by governments attending the meeting if it didn't get its way. ETC Group has also learned that, in advance of the Bangkok meeting, Canadian embassies around the world asked governments to support a recommendation for "field testing and commercial use" of Terminator.

Canada's blatant promotion of an anti-South technology does not bode well for the G8 meeting of world leaders in July in Scotland where Canada will propose to introduce nanotechnology on the G-8 agenda.

After being swamped this week by protest emails and letters, the Canadian government was forced to soften its public position on Terminator, but it continued to press a solidly pro-Terminator view in the corridors and in a committee appointed to negotiate draft text on Terminator. (The drafting group on Terminator included representatives from Canada, the European Community, Peru, Tanzania, and the Philippines.) By Thursday morning Canada and its seed industry allies had drafted text that included language promoting Terminator field trials, capacity building for the use of Terminator in the developing world and specifically invited the research participation of "private sector entities."

"The draft text on Terminator released Thursday morning was appalling - it looked like it was written by the multinational seed industry," said Jim Thomas of ETC Group, speaking from Bangkok. "It strongly reflected the Canadian government 's pro-Terminator position as revealed earlier this week in the leaked document."

Suicide Seed Squad: Canada hasn't been working alone in Bangkok. The UN meeting was crawling with representatives from the biotech industry and related trade groups - including Monsanto, Delta & Pine Land, Crop Life International, PHARMA (pharmaceutical manufacturers), the International Seed Federation and more - who lobbied against current restrictions on the development of suicide seeds. New Zealand and Australia also backed the position of industry and Canada, while a fleet of US government representatives observed from the sidelines. (The US government is not a Party to the Biodiversity Convention.)

Thankfully, disaster was averted due to key interventions by the governments of Norway, Sweden, Austria, the European Community, Cuba, Peru and Liberia, on behalf of the African Group. The good news is that these governments managed to delete the most offensive wording. The final text and recommendations reaffirm earlier decisions, amounting to a continuing, but fragile, de facto moratorium on Terminator. The issue now bounces to another CBD advisory body (the Working Group on 8(j)) in March 2006.

Interminable Terminator? The bad news is that decisions made in Bangkok will allow the issue of Terminator to be re-examined and re-studied interminably. In ETC Group's view, the CBD continues to dilly-dally and delay decisions on Terminator while the industry is moving full-speed ahead to bring sterile seeds to market.

"The international community needs to know that Terminator technology is a real and present danger. The biotech industry is chomping on the bit to commercialize suicide seeds. Nothing short of an all-out ban on Terminator will stop it from being unleashed in farmer's fields," said Hope Shand of ETC Group.

For more information:

Pat Mooney, ETC Group (Canada) etc@etcgroup.org:
Hope Shand and Kathy Jo Wetter, ETC Group (USA) hope@etcgroup.org: 919 960-5223

Silvia Ribeiro, ETC Group (Mexico) silvia@etcgroup.org: 52 55 55 632 664 Jim Thomas, ETC Group (UK) jim@etcgroup.org: 44 (0)7752 106806 (mobile)



Canada Backs Terminator Seeds

By John Vidal

The Guardian U.K.

Wednesday 09 February 2005

An international moratorium on the use of one of the world's most controversial GM food technologies may be broken today if the Canadian government gets seed sterilisation backed at a UN meeting.

Leaked documents seen by the Guardian show that Canada wants all governments to accept the testing and commercialisation of "terminator" crop varieties. These are genetically engineered to produce only infertile seeds which farmers cannot replant.

Jointly patented by the GM company Monsanto and the US government, the technology was condemned in the late 1990s by many African and Asian governments who called for a permanent ban.

Monsanto and other GM companies which were developing similar technologies voluntarily pulled out of research after concerns were also raised about the "terminator" genes spreading to non-GM crops, and international outrage that poor farmers would not be able to use seeds from their crops, as they have always done.

But leaked instructions to Canadian government negotiators at the Bangkok meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, a group which advises the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity, show that Canada will request today that all countries open their doors to the technology.

The papers, leaked to the environment group ETC, also show that the Canadian government will attack an official UN report critical of the potential impact of "terminator" seeds on small farmers and indigenous peoples. The report recommends that governments prohibit the technology.

The Canadian government team in Bangkok was last night unavailable for comment.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021005X.shtml


Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, Med
ICIS-Institute for Cooperation in Space
3339 West 41 Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6N3E5 CANADA
Tel: 604-733-8134
Fax: 604-733-8135
Email: alw@peaceinspace.com
Campaign: http://www.peaceinspace.org
Exopolitics: http://www.exopolitics.com
ICIS: http://www.peaceinspace.com


Informant: Bea Bernhausen

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/09/1458256


Informant: Friends

Sydney Morning Herald

February 3, 2005

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Rumsfeld-supports-bombs-to-target-Iran-sites/2005/02/02/1107228771907.html?oneclick=true

The Pentagon wants to revive a controversial program to build nuclear warheads capable of penetrating hardened underground targets such as Iran's covert nuclear facilities. A leaked memo from the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to the Energy Department proposed funding for the scheme to begin next year. "You can count on my support for your efforts to revitalise the nuclear-weapons infrastructure and to complete the RNEP [robust nuclear earth penetrator] study," Mr Rumsfeld wrote in a memo seen by the Washington Post. An official from the Energy Department said on Monday that $US10.3 million ($13.3 million) to restart that study is expected to be included in the Bush Administration's budget, which is to be released next week. The memo leak seems certain to trigger a major row with Congress, which eliminated the scheme from the budget last year. That decision was made at the behest of Republican legislators angered by estimates suggesting the program would cost more than $US500 million. The Bush Administration has long emphasised the scheme is merely a question of research and that Congress would have to approve the production of such weapons. AdvertisementAdvertisement Democrats also were outraged, arguing that programs to improve nuclear weapons made their use more likely and undermined efforts by the US to halt the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in other countries. The Arms Control Association, a pressure group that has opposed the bunker-buster scheme, said: "The Administration is missing a key opportunity to make good on the congressional decision last year ... it sends the wrong signal to the international community on the US approach on non-proliferation." Opponents of the proposed new weapon have argued that sealing off underground facilities could be done as well with smart, precision-guided conventional weapons, a position supported in 2003 by Admiral James Ellis, then head of the US Strategic Command. The US military has been studying bunker-busting weapons with renewed vigour since the September 11 attacks. Osama bin Laden is believed to favour underground caves as a hiding place and used the Tora Bora network in the mountains of Afghanistan when he fled US-led forces in late 2001. . North Korea has reprocessed 8000 spent fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium - potentially enough material to produce six atomic weapons - and appears to have exported nuclear material to Libya, the US informed its Asian allies, Japan, South Korea and China. The nuclear material that North Korea may have exported to Libya was uranium hexafluoride which can be enriched into weapons-grade material if it is fed into nuclear centrifuges. The Telegraph, London; The Washington Post and The New York Times

-- Posted for educational and research purposes only, ~ in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~ NucNews Links and Expanded Archives - http://nucnews.net


From FoE Sydney

by Guy Dinmore in Washington

Published: February 4 2005 Financial Times

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c2f02ab8-76ef-11d9-b897-00000e2511c8.html

How far the second Bush administration can take its charm offensive in rebuilding its traditional alliances is already being put to the test by newly promoted "nuclear hawks" committed to a hardline approach on arms control and non-proliferation.

Tensions are emerging between the US and its allies over what non-nuclear nations see as a lack of sincerity by the superpower towards nuclear disarmament, even as it pushes for a tightening of the international nuclear regime and a tougher response to the ambitions of North Korea and Iran.

Senior diplomats are concerned that a review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a conference held every five years and due to reconvene in New York in May, will produce no outcome.

The "nuclear hawks" or "bomb lovers" as one former official described them include Jack Crouch, named this week as deputy national security adviser; Robert Joseph, expected to be named soon as undersecretary for arms control; and John Rood, who replaces Mr Joseph in the White House as special adviser.

The hawks--supported by Vice-President Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary--are known for their scepticism towards arms control agreements, their commitment to missile defence and development of new nuclear weapons, such as "bunker busters", and an appreciation of covert operations.

In his Senate confirmation hearing in 2001, Mr Crouch was questioned about his support for nuclear testing and his 1995 recommendation for attacks on North Korea's nuclear complexes should agreements fail.

Discussions over the NPT review agenda are stalled, in part because of the US refusal to reaffirm the "13 steps" adopted at the 2000 conference. Those steps included a broad commitment to undertake nuclear disarmament and not to resume testing.

"Times change. Debate moves on. The debate will be relevant to conditions that prevail today, not in 2000," Stephen Rademaker, assistant secretary of state for arms control, told a panel discussion organised by the independent Arms Control Association this week.

Roberto Abdenur, Brazil's ambassador to Washington, was visibly upset. Reflecting the sentiment of countries that have renounced development of nuclear weapons, he warned that the NPT review conference, to be chaired by Brazil, could fail. "If a nuclear power says the 13 steps belong in the past, what confidence do we non-nuclear developing states have in the NPT?" he said. "Let's be careful about this."

Failure at the review conference to produce a consensus has happened before. It would by no mean spell an end to the NPT. But diplomats say it would weaken the main pillar of non-proliferation at a critical moment.

The US administration insists the NPT remains the cornerstone of global arms control and non-proliferation efforts. Under the bilateral 2002 Moscow Treaty, the US will reduce (but not destroy) its operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 about one-third of the level in 2002 in the next seven years. Since 1989, the US says it has cut by nearly 90 per cent the number of non-strategic nuclear weapons.

The hawks were instrumental, while George W. Bush was campaigning for office in 2000, in drawing up a review of US nuclear strategy, adopted in 2002 that foresaw an expanded role for nuclear weapons.

Washington affirms it will not resume nuclear testing, even though it refuses to become a party to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Despite these declarations, Joseph Cirincione, head of the non-proliferation project at the Carnegie Endowment, is among analysts and former officials concerned that the review conference is heading for a "train wreck".


-- Posted for educational and research purposes only, ~ in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~ NucNews Links and Expanded Archives - http://nucnews.net


From FoE Sydney

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_3-2-2005_pg7_60


Informant: FoE Sydney

See these Newsmax (Republican magazine) stories issued today:
GOP to Launch 'Stop Hillary' Web site http://tinyurl.com/6ou4d
Poll: Hillary Leads Giuliani in Senate Match-up http://tinyurl.com/3jvss


copyright Virginia Metze

by Cliff Kincaid | February 4, 2005

Accuracy in Media

It was a big story for the liberal media that they had finally caught a conservative journalist or commentator doing something wrong. They found out that Armstrong Williams had taken federal money through a public relations firm. But our journalists know something about public relations, too. The Associated Press reported in January that journalism organizations are planning a nationwide campaign in March, dubbed "Sunshine Week," to press the case for freedom of information and the right to know. According to AP, "For a week beginning March 13, news outlets will run stories, editorials and cartoons on the subject."

This is nothing but a public relations campaign by, of and for the media.

It just so happens, according to AP, that Tom Curley, president and CEO of the Associated Press, is part of the effort. AP quotes him as saying, "From city hall to Congress, and from police chiefs' offices to the attorney general's office, the trend toward secrecy is unmistakable. The most important thing from our standpoint, of course, is to connect what we do to the public interest, and to line up with the people and remind them how important it is that they get access to what their elected representatives are doing."

Isn't it nice that the media report favorably on initiatives from the media? But isn't it curious that AP runs a story on the subject quoting the president of AP and no one who questions what the campaign is all about? Fortunately, there is a publication called PR Week, which covers the public relations industry. And when it found out about "Sunshine Week," it seemed to recognize a public relations stunt. What's more, PR Week journalist Erica Iacono came to Accuracy in Media for comment. ... More about this at http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/2605_0_2_0_C/


copyright Virginia Metze

Capital Games by David Corn
The Nation February 8, 2005

If it's budget time, it must be disinformation time. That's how it goes in the Bush II era. George W. Bush released a budget today that he claims is responsible, honest, and designed to cut the $400 billion-plus deficit in half by 2009. Not so. By now, you probably have heard the obvious criticisms. The budget does not include the $80 billion Bush is asking for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (And that probably won't cover the full tab.) It doesn't account for the $1 trillion to $2 trillion that Bush needs to pay for the private investment accounts he wants to carve out of Social Security. It also doesn't recognize that several hundred billion dollars will disappear from the revenue stream when the government rejiggers the alternative minimum tax--which it must--to prevent this tax (written to apply to corporations that make creative use of loopholes) from hitting middle-class individual tax filers. ... Read the rest at: http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=2179 or http://tinyurl.com/4qlec


copyright Virginia Metze

Center for American Progress

February 9, 2005

President Bush's 2006 budget makes the wrong choices for our nation. As the embodiment of the president's policies, it reflects skewed priorities and runs counter to our deepest held beliefs. The budget embraces the administration's disastrous economic policies while at the same time failing to put forward a vision of what the United States should be. What America needs instead are responsible policies that reflect our values, help bring our nation together, and invest in the future by expanding opportunity. ... read the rest at
http://tinyurl.com/524bn Full report in pdf available on site.


copyright Virginia Metze

Alberto Gonzales, the new U.S. attorney general, is the perfect example of the New Racism.

by Osha Neumann, AlterNet. Posted February 7, 2005.

... “A few carefully bred turkeys,” she said, “the occasional Colin Powell, or Condoleezza Rice ... are given absolution and a pass to Frying Pan Park. The remaining millions lose their jobs, are evicted from their homes, have their water and electricity connections cut, and die of AIDS. Basically they're for the pot.” And so, Arundhati asked “Who can say that turkeys are against Thanksgiving? They participate in it!” ... read the whole article at:
http://www.alternet.org/rights/21193/


copyright Virginia Metze

Inspector General Had Reported Mismanagement, Security Flaws

by BRIAN ROSS AND RHONDA SCHWARTZ

ABC News Investigations February 8, 2005

The man who has issued many critical reports about the mismanagement and security flaws at the Department of Homeland Security was told Wednesday night that he was out of a job.

Clark Ervin made himself very unpopular by issuing a series of stinging reports on security programs that he said had failed, officials he called inept, and fraud that he suspected. His year-end report, out today, alleges that millions of dollars have been wasted or are unaccounted for by the department. ... Read the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/53nql


copyright Virginia Metze

Remember Katherine Harris, Secretary of State in Florida and Bush's campaign manager there in 2000? Well, another reward is coming her way, probably to all of our regret ....

Plum assignment awaits Harris

She's a candidate for a coveted seat on the Homeland Security panel

by JEREMY WALLACE

Herald Tribune.com (Southwest Florida's Information Leader)

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

A high-ranking member of Congress says U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris will be given one of the most sought-after committee assignments on Capitol Hill.

U.S. Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., told a Sarasota crowd at a Republican fund-raiser on Friday night that Harris would get a coveted seat on the Homeland Security Committee. It is a post that Harris, R-Longboat Key, has quietly lobbied to get for months. ... Read the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/6qgq3


copyright Virginia Metze

Someone posted a very interesting chart comparing military spending of the U.S. with other large countries. You will find it fascinating. See: http://www.globalissues.org/images/USvsWorld2004Top25.gif

The web site, http://www.globalissues.org , appears to have a lot of data relating to (surprise) global issues!


copyright Virginia Metze

Bush’s Budget Fails to Protect Consumers’ Critical Resources: Energy, Food and Water

Statement by Wenonah Hauter, Director, Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program February 7, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Bush’s budget proposal will do little to protect the health and safety of consumers in three critical areas: energy, food and water. These are essential resources that every citizen must be able to afford, have access to, and most importantly, know are clean and protected. ... read rest at:
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1871 There are other good articles on this site that you may want to browse if you have time, such as "Defrauded Consumers Call for Defeat of Pro-Business Class Action Legislation in U.S. Senate This Week." Check that out at:
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1869


copyright Virginia Metze

George Bush’s aggressive push to privatize Social Security is causing concern — inside his own party.

By Mary Lynn F. Jones, AlterNet. Posted February 8, 2005.

Just last year, congressional Republicans had a powerful scapegoat in Congress. Anything they couldn’t accomplish, they blamed on Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). Unable to confirm President George W. Bush’s controversial judicial nominees? It was the “obstructionist” Daschle’s fault. Couldn’t get the energy bill through the Senate? Daschle was to blame. ...

The biggest obstacle for Bush this year is not any Democratic congressional leader, however. It’s the Republicans in Congress who are thinking about their next election, something Bush doesn’t have to worry about ever again. “The real fireworks this year will be between the GOP Congress and the Republican White House,” says Brad Bannon, a Washington-based Democratic consultant. “Bush wants to leave a legacy and there’s no better legacy than to dismantle the FDR New Deal legacy, even if it destroys the congressional majority in his own party.” ... Read this story at Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/story/21201/ Mary Lynn F. Jones is online editor of The Hill. http://www.thehill.com/


copyright Virginia Metze

http://slate.msn.com/id/2112697/


Informant: Bob Reuschlein

From ufpj-news

RED ALERT!

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=75513;show_parent=1

http://www.counterpunch.org/shivani0813.html


Informant: Friends

Hi Di, I know many may be sick of seeing this, but this site has the lot. Cheers Old Bob.

http://911review.org/Wiki/Meyssan,Thierry.shtml


Informant: Cactus Mary

By E.J. Mundell, HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) - Driving while talking on a cell phone adds decades to a young driver's life -- at least in terms of impaired driving ability, researchers say.

A new study finds the reaction time of young drivers using cell phones slows to levels roughly equivalent to those seen in 70-year-old drivers not using cell phones.

"They aged 50 years in five seconds, just by turning on their cell phones," said researcher Frank Drews, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Utah.

The findings, published in the current issue of Human Factors, included some good news for elderly drivers: their cell phone use did not further slow their reaction time any more than that of the young.

Drews and his colleagues first came to public attention in 2001, with a study pinpointing "inattention blindness" -- a splitting of available attention between the phone conversation and the road ahead -- as the main cause of impaired driving while on cell phones. That study raised questions as to whether legislation in New York and New Jersey banning handheld cell phone use while driving (in favor of hands-free devices), was really a solution to the problem.

In their latest research, Drews and co-researcher David Strayer examined the effects of cell phone use on two groups of drivers that federal statistics suggest are at highest risk for traffic accidents -- the young (between 18 and 25 years of age) and the elderly (between 65 and 74 years of age).

Using hi-tech, virtual-reality driving simulators, they had 20 people from each age group maneuver through busy highway traffic -- first without using a cell phone, and then while engaged in a long cell phone discussion.

While on cell phones, "people exhibit what we call sluggish driving behavior," Drews said. "They basically don't respond to the onset of the pace car's brake lights as well, and they aren't applying their brakes as strongly as someone who's not talking on the cell phone."

For example, in young drivers using cell phones, reaction times in hitting the brakes slowed from an average of eight-tenths of a second to just over nine-tenths of second. That difference may not sound like much, the researchers say, but it's roughly the difference in braking reaction times between a 20-year-old and a 70-year-old.

In terms of virtual-reality "accidents" occurring during the simulation, there were six, all rear-enders. Four of the six occurred while the drivers were talking on cell phones, and only one of those four involved an older driver. The other three involved young motorists, the researchers said.

Drews stressed that these numbers were far too small to reach statistical significance, so no firm conclusions can be drawn as to whether or not cell-phone use ups accident risk. However, he pointed out, "All of the previous studies [on the issue] show more accidents when people are talking on a cell phone than when they aren't."

The study did reveal the good news for elderly drivers: "We expected to find that [cell phone-linked] impairment would be much more when you're old than when you're young," Drews said. "But we found no such interaction." That's probably because older motorists compensate by bringing extra experience and caution to their driving, he added.

The Utah researcher shied away from any recommendation that cell phone use while driving be banned altogether, preferring to let the data speak for itself.

"I'm not a politician, but I think politicians should carefully review the existing literature and make an informed decision about the risks," Drews said. "We as a society have to determine, also, at which point we are no longer willing to take the risks associated with cell phone use while driving."

Drews did point to findings from one other study he helped conduct, however.

"We compared one accepted [legal] threshold of risk -- being legally drunk -- and compared the driving behaviors of people who were drunk vs. people who were on cell phones," he said. "We didn't find a lot of difference."

More information

To learn more about cell phone use and driving, go to the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov


SOURCES: Frank Drews, Ph.D., assistant professor, psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City; Winter 2005 Human Factors

Copyright © 2005 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

All content © Copyright 2000 - 2005 WorldNow and WLNS. All Rights Reserved.


Informant: Don Maisch

There has been much misunderstanding, and dare I say it, misinformation, regarding the EU Food Supplements Directive and ANH’s legal challenge to it.

As ANH Partners and Members it is vital that you understand what is really going on and I am going to attempt in this letter to put you in the picture.

It is quite involved and may take a little time to read but I urge you to persevere as your continued access to quality and effective food supplements depends on YOU taking appropriate informed action.

What’s wrong with the Food Supplements Directive?

The British Government and many MPs and MEPs when asked about the Food Supplements Directive (“FSD”) will insist that it is a good piece of EU legislation because it harmonises the currently very different laws of all EU Members States in respect of food supplements and ensures high quality standards at the same time. Thereby trade in supplements is increased across the EU and consumers can feel safe.

Seems reasonable you might be thinking.

But what is the price tag?

6 key things principally;

The FSD reverses the burden of proof as regards showing that food supplements are safe. Previously a food supplement could generally be sold as food unless the Regulator could prove scientifically that it is unsafe. (This is the position in the USA for example under DSHEA). Now in the EU it will be for the manufacturer to prove at great cost that it is harmless before he can sell it. It creates a very restricted list (known as the “positive list”) of allowable nutrients which favours synthetic nutrients over those much closer to how they are found in nature. It will, in time set what are anticipated to be very low maximum doses of nutrients In order to get on the positive list of allowable nutrients a technical and very costly Dossier will required which may or may not ultimately be acceptable to the EU Regulators.

If a nutrient (or its source) is not on the restricted list it will be banned across the EU from 1 August 2005 regardless of the fact that it was previously happily allowed to be sold in various EU Member States for perhaps many years.

At present the FSD only applies to vitamin & minerals. However it is a framework Directive and is intended in time to apply to all nutrients and their sources. So the negative pattern we see here applying now to vitamins and minerals will in time be applied to all nutrients.

So what have we got?

Under the guise of a harmonisation Directive ostensibly seeking to improve the supply of food supplements across the EU, we in fact end up with a measure which will ban many nutrients presently on sale in the EU.

And for those that get through, the maximum dose levels are likely to be very impotent.

The Directive thus defeats the whole purpose for which many people take food supplements, namely to supplement their diet in order to promote optimal well being through the addition of key vital nutrients which they cannot get in their normal diets any more (unless they happen to live in an organic tropical paradise).

The fact that the FSD has a negative effect is impossible to hide.

The UK Government when it undertook its Regulatory Impact Assessment (measuring the impact of the implementation of the FSD in the UK) concluded that on balance the FSD had a negative cost / benefit for the UK and conceded that the ban on nutrients which are currently allowed to be sold in the UK (unless they get requalified by submission of a dossier) was “unnecessary”.

You’ll see many statistics flying around but in essence we are looking at the ban of around 75% of the vitamin and mineral sources (“forms”) currently on the EU market. This will translate into a banning of some 300 vitamin and mineral ingredients and possibly around 5000 products currently available.

Now remember, if this is what is happening to vitamins and minerals now what will happen to all other nutrients in the future?

Keep well in mind the 3 FSD bogey men:

The reversal of the burden of proof

The restricted list of allowable nutrients unless proved harmless at huge cost

The very low potencies which will be allowed even if a nutrient gets through and onto the positive list

In summary what the FSD is really doing is to impose quite arbitrarily and unnecessarily, a drugs style licensing regime on food supplements or more particularly on food nutrients which hitherto we have been eating happily for thousands of years!

Well if this is so bad you might be asking how on earth did it get passed into EU law?

Indeed.

ANH has exhaustively researched this question and bottom line no one seems really to be able to justify what has happened.

The usual reason given is as I have explained above. The FSD will promote trade in safe food supplements across the EU.

And yes the price tag for the UK and other more liberal regimes may be high but that was the best we could get in our negotiations in Europe, so says the UK Government in particular.

But we say at ANH that the price is far too high and quite unnecesary and unacceptable.

The international Dimension

You might be reading this from a country outside the EU and thinking well that’s pretty tough for those Europeans but we’re ok here.

True for now, but perhaps not for long.

You may be aware that the EU has the dominant vote in the setting of Codex international standards for food. Thus what they want they can push through even if other countries protest.

This is a complex area of international law but in brief ANH and others are extremely concerned that an EU regime for the treatment of food supplements may be exported world wide under the auspices of Codex and made to have regulatory teeth through the WTO.

More, on this complicated subject in another letter.

But for the time being I repeat my point.

Bad things that happen in Europe may very well in time also negatively affect the rest of the world.

And that means YOU.

The ANH Legal Challenge

As you are well aware pretty early on ANH came to the view that the only way to deal with the FSD was to challenge it in the Courts and ultimately that meant bringing a case in the EU supreme court; the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”).

I will not bore you with the details of our case (for those who are interested, the key documents are available in the “ANH Legal Challenge” documents area of our web site).

But in essence we are saying the following.

Food supplements are food, not drug. Therefore they do not need a drugs style regulatory regime imposed upon them.

You do not need a license to sell food.

Under existing law throughout the EU, food is perfectly well regulated from a legal point of view ensuring quality and safety.

The Food Supplements Directive, if it really was intended to harmonise and promote the supply of safe food supplements across the EU, did not require a ban on nutrients which were not on the positive list.

It could have and indeed should have had merely a minimum list of acceptable nutrients which all Member States were obliged to accept across the EU (sometimes called a "White List"). Whilst leaving individual Member States free to allow a wider selection of nutrients to be used in food supplements within their particular borders if they wanted to.

Indeed we go further and argue that under EU law, the FSD,in imposing a sweeping and draconian ban across the EU without even attempting to provide a scientific justification or rationale, actually infringes EU law.

We conclude that the FSD should be allowed to remain and but should do its job properly.

Thus without the ban.

It would then act as a minimum white list of vitamin and mineral nutrients which all Member States would be obliged to accept across the EU.

That would increase trade.

What are our chances of success?

Cautiously we would say that we are optimistic. EU legal precedent is on our side.

The UK Government chose not to make present oral submissions at the Hearing of the case in the ECJ on 25 January 2005. Paul Lasok QC, our barrister said that in his experience it is most rare for the UK to not attend an oral hearing where it has filed Written Observations as it has done here.

The only Member State to present oral submissions was Greece.

And despite repeated questioning from the Advocate-General (a very senior independent lawyer who advises the ECJ in its deliberations), none of the Community Institutions were able to adequately explain exactly how the procedure for getting a nutrient on to the positive list actually works.

Indeed in some consternation the Advocate-general exclaimed at one point that as far as he could see it the procedure had “the transparency of a black box”.

Aside from being amusing this comment is significant because if the ECJ finds that there was no proper and transparent procedure for getting on the positive list that itself would be a ground for finding the ban as being unlawful under EU law.

As you will have seen from our press releases the Advocate-General will be giving is Opinion on 5th April 2005. This is not the judgment of the Court which will follow probably in June 2005. However as the ECJ tends to follow its Advocate-Generals' Opinions in 80% of cases this Opinion is going to be very significant.

What you can do

First and foremost please understand that we are all in this together.

It’s not a question of you helping the ANH with “its problem.”

No, rather we, together with you are in an alliance to protect the continued supply and availability of natural advanced and safe food supplements in the EU and indeed the world which are able to do their job properly.

What job?

Supplying vital micro-nutrients which are now missing from our western diet.

So when you help the Alliance you need to see that you are helping yourself and your family and those who are dear to you, to be able to maintain optimal health.

More particularly here are some key actions points for you:

Tell your friends and contacts about the problem and forward this and other ANH e-mails to them so that they know what is going on. Recruit your friends and contacts to join the Alliance.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW!


Remember that without you there is no Alliance!

Thanks for all that you do.

Yours in health!


David C. Hinde LLB Solicitor Legal Director Alliance for Natural Health http://www.alliance-natural-health.org

Act Now: Budgets Are Moral Documents

by Sojourners

A budget that tramples the poor and powerless is immoral. Tell your representative to consider how the budget affects people in poverty.

http://www.tompaine.com/action/#003662

by Sen. John Edwards, TomPaine.com

The former senator expounds on his vision for creating an "Opportunity Society."

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/the_flickering_light_of_america.php

by Robert L. Borosage, TomPaine.com Exclusive

Bush's budget burdens the weak and protects the privileged:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/squandering_americas_future.php

by Dan Bacher

While all other Western nations have abolished the “outdated, immoral and illegal” practice of Capital Punishment, the U.S continues executing people, said Mike Farrell, former MASH TV star and President of Death Penalty Focus, in Davis recently. “If killing is wrong, then it is at least as wrong for the state to kill in cold blood,” he said. “It’s a cold, dehumanizing ritual that teaches us that taking life is permissible.” The U.S. Supreme Court allowed states with newly drafted laws to resume executions in 1976. Thirty-eight states now have death penalties. A total of 877 people have been executed since 1977, when executions resumed. The nation's largest death row is in California, with 625 condemned inmates. The state has executed 10 people since 1976....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb05/Bacher0209.htm

by Matt Reichel

The current project of the neoliberal economic machine is approval of the European constitution: with the aim of solidifying the political ties that have made it easier for transnational corporations to control European economic affairs. Thus far, champions of the constitution have sloughed off the opposition as the extreme right and extreme left up to their old tricks: using nationalism and class antagonism to destroy the journey of liberal peace-making. However, this idea was dealt a blow on February 3 when France’s largest trade union, the Confédération Général du Travail (CGT), urged its membership to oppose the constitution. Despite the support thrown at the project by the Socialist Party (PS) and most mainstream leaders of the Left in France, there is growing fear that the rank-and-file will not be going along. To no one’s surprise, the major parties are completely in bed with the spread of neoliberal political economy, while real people and their communities have grave fears. Indeed, what’s brewing in Brussels ought to be opposed by anyone on the Left. The consolidation of a trans-European neoliberal economic model will have untold consequences for workers, independent shopkeepers, retirees, and families throughout the continent. The growing controversy over the treaty is just another sign of the increasing resentment through the world of the Washington consensus....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb05/Reichel0209.htm

by Ken Sanders

As the graphic images of torture, degradation, and abuse at Abu Ghraib slowly fade from America's collective consciousness and as scapegoats are prosecuted while those who created legal loopholes justifying torture are promoted to the President's Cabinet, it is worth noting that very little has actually changed. The U.S. and its proxies still engage in torture and abuse as part of the global war on terror. At the same time, the White House, Congress, and U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies continue, in the words of Senator Lindsey Graham, “playing cute with the law.”....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb05/Sanders0209.htm

From: Angus

Help Establish a U.S. Department of Peace! A Call to Action

September 14th, 2005

HELP SPREAD THE WORD!

On September 14th, 2005, legislation to establish a U. S. Department of Peace will be re-introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The primary function of a United States Department of Peace will be to research, articulate and facilitate nonviolent solutions to domestic and international conflict. The Department of Peace will employ proven and effective strategies for reducing violence in our country and around world, including nonviolent communication skills, conflict resolution techniques and cultural relationship building.

Learn more at The Peace Alliance website:
http://www.ThePeaceAlliance.org

We need your support to help make this bill law -- by calling, faxing and/or emailing your representative and also by spreading the word to everyone you know (you can copy this alert and forward to your email address book.)

Nothing you can do will have as much impact as contacting your member of Congress on, right before or after, Wednesday, September 14th. Further instructions are given below.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

*** CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE *** Contact your Representative at the U.S. capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121. To find your Representative, visit http://www.vote-smart.org Tell the staffer who answers your call that you want your Representative to sign on as a co-sponsor of the Department of Peace legislation. Request a written response explaining your member's position and the reasoning behind it. (You can call your local office as well.) It is most effective if you call the D.C. office first, then follow-up with a fax or email.

*** WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE *** To write your Representative, click below to get started. This will allow you to send an email or a fax to your congressperson.

http://www.thepeacealliance.org/action

NOTE: you can first visit our website to see if your congressional representative is already a co-sponsor at: http://www.thepeacealliance.org/endorsements.htm If they are a co-sponsor, it is important that you still call to thank them and ask them to help garner more support with their colleagues in congress.

There will be no bill number assigned until after 11:00 a.m. eastern on the 14th. We will post the bill number on our website as soon as it is available on that day. In the meantime, just tell your Representative that you want them to support the Department of Peace bill. H.R. 1673 is last sessions bill number for reference. Call now and on the day the bill is re-introduced.

Please also call your senators and ask them to introduce the bill into the senate. Find your senators at http://www.vote-smart.org

Join us now. Create a Department of Peace. Help make history. Together, we can do this.

You can also contribute to our campaign by making a financial donation on our website at http://www.ThePeaceAlliance.org/donate, and by participating in and/or starting up a local campaign group. We already have active groups in more than 265 Congressional districts in over 46 states. Visit http://www.thepeacealliance.org/organize


HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE LEGISLATION:

-- Provide much-needed assistance for the efforts of city, county, and state governments in coordinating existing programs in their own communities, as well as programs newly developed and provided by the Dept. of Peace -- Teach violence prevention and mediation to America's school children -- Effectively treat and dismantle gang psychology -- Rehabilitate the prison population -- Build peace-making efforts among conflicting cultures both here and abroad -- Support our military with complementary approaches to ending violence -- Gather and coordinate information and recommendations from America's peace community -- The Department of Peace will create and administer a U.S. Peace Academy, acting as a sister organization to the U.S. Military Academy.

Learn more at http://www.ThePeaceAlliance.org


Informant: Martin Greenhut

--------

"The time for peace is now. At the dawn of a new millennium, there is no better time to review age old challenges with new thinking that peace is not only the absence of violence, but the presence of a higher evolution of human awareness.” ~Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Participate in an historic citizen lobbying effort to create a U.S. Department of Peace, sponsored in the House of Representatives by Congressman Dennis Kucinich. This bill establishes nonviolence as an organizing principle of American society, providing the U.S. President with an array of peace-building policy options for domestic and international use. (The bills re-introduction for the 2005/2006 congressional session is forthcoming. To read our update, click here:
http://en.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=20350866&u=185417

The Department would focus on nonmilitary peaceful conflict resolutions, prevent violence and promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights. Domestically, the Department would be responsible for developing policies which address issues such as domestic violence, child abuse, mistreatment of the elderly, and other issues of cultural violence. Internationally, the Department would gather research, analyze foreign policy and make recommendations to the President on how to address the root causes of war and intervene before violence begins, while improving national security, including the protection of human rights and the prevention and de-escalation of unarmed and armed international conflict.

Please read the following letter describing our latest organizational efforts to move this work for peace forward, followed by more information about the Department of Peace legislation and how you can help make it happen!

Please help us spread the word! Forward this email...

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE HISTORIC DoP LEGISLATION
(HR1673)

-Hold peace as an organizing principle in our society;

-Endeavor to promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights;

-Strengthen non-military means of peacemaking;

-Address matters both domestic and international in scope;

-Work to create peace, prevent violence, divert from armed conflict, use field-tested programs, and develop new structures in non-violent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of conflict, and structured mediation of conflict;

-Develop new programs that relate to the societal challenges of school violence, guns, racial or ethnic violence, violence against gays and lesbians, and police-community relations disputes.

-Facilitate the development of peace summits at which parties to a conflict may gather under carefully prepared conditions to promote non-violent communication and mutually beneficial solutions;

-Submit to the President recommendations for reductions in weapons of mass destruction, and make annual reports to the President on the sale of arms from the United States to other nations, with analysis of the impact of such sales on the defense of the United States and how such sales affect peace;

-Create new policies and incorporate existing programs that reduce drug and alcohol abuse;

-Develop new policies and incorporate existing policies regarding crime, punishment, and rehabilitation;

You can read the entire bill at http://www.DoPcampaign.org


More Dept. of Peace Information...

The Dept. of Peace was introduced into the House of Representatives by Congressman Dennis Kucinich and currently has over 54 congressional co-sponsors. This bill establishes nonviolence as an organizing principle of American society, providing the U.S. President with an array of peace-building policy options for domestic and international use. From international conflicts to domestic issues such as gang, school and domestic violence -- the DoP would systematically root out the core causes of violence in our culture. A Department of Peace is no new idea, George Washington was one of the first people to declare how important such an effort would be to creating real peace on Earth.

The thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery; the nineteenth amendment providing women's suffrage; the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960's, were all critically important shifts in direction for our nation. Yet they weren't efforts born from within congress, they were brought to the forefront by strategic, well organized, well funded efforts ignited out of the will of we the people -- citizens making demands -- that pushed these issues into the mainstream and got them passed into law.

Similarly, we believe the Dept. of Peace is such an effort, and worthy of our collective support. Over the course of history people have always dreamed of peace, but we have never had a broad-reaching, well-funded, systemic structure to help make it a reality. We know that as a nation, now is the time that we must cultivate a real and lasting peace- the consequences of not doing so are almost too difficult to imagine. The Dept. of Peace legislation provides substance and meaning to the political yearnings of our generation. It systematically applies the power of peace to the eradication of root causes of violence.

Please call your representative today and ask them to support the legislation (you can find your congressperson at http://www.congress.org). We have a step by step guide for how you can be an effective citizen advocate on our "Take Action" section of our website at: http://dopcampaign.org/action.htm

We hope that you will learn more about this legislation at our website: http://www.DoPcampaign.org


Please help us spread the word! Forward this email to everyone you know...

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiples it.

Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate, In fact violence merely increases hate.

So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSERS OF THE DoP LEGISLATION:

Amnesty International
Global Exchange
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Peace Action
N.O.W.
Veterans for Peace
Tikkun
and more...



The Peace Alliance and Foundation
PO Box 3259 - Center Line, Michigan 48015 USA
(586) 754-8105
http://www.thepeaceallaince.org -- info@thepeaceallaince.org

Please, have a look at this very interesting news item:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/16470166?source=Evening%20Standard


Olle Johansson, assoc. prof.
The Experimental Dermatology Unit
Department of Neuroscience
Karolinska Institute
171 77 Stockholm
Sweden)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=609177


Informant: Zahi Damuni

From ufpj-news

"Anforderungen an die Politik": Hessische SPD-Vorsitzende ruft zum Boykott der Deutschen Bank auf (09.02.05)

Die Ankündigung der Deutschen Bank vom vergangenen Donnerstag, trotz eines Gewinns von 2,5 Milliarden Euro rund 5200 ihrer global 65 000 Arbeitsplätze abzubauen sowie 1200 Stellen in Standorte mit niedrigeren Kosten zu verlagern, führte zu bemerkenswerten politischen Reaktionen. Die hessische SPD-Vorsitzende Andrea Ypsilanti hat am Dienstag die Kunden der Deutschen Bank aufgefordert, ihre Konten abzuziehen. Die Bank treibe ein zynisches Spiel mit den Beschäftigten, wenn sie trotz sinkender Steuern und Lohnnebenkosten und trotz Gewinnen in Milliardenhöhe Tausende Arbeitsplätze abbaue. "Damit bleibt einmal mehr das soziale Gewissen auf der Strecke. Jeder Kunde der Deutschen Bank kann sich überlegen, ob er nicht mehr für Arbeitsplätze in Deutschland tut, wenn er zu einer öffentlich-rechtlichen Sparkasse oder Genossenschaftsbank wechselt", sagte die SPD-Politikerin. Wenn die Manager der Deutschen Bank sich ihrer gesellschaftlichen Mitverantwortung entzögen, sollten sich die Kunden ihrer Verbrauchermacht bewusst werden.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.jpberlin.de/www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=10410



IG Metall-Chef Peters fordert eine Verschärfung des Kündigungsschutzes
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/515752/

http://www.rense.com/general32/kissde1.htm


Informant: Tim White

Sue,

Thanks for phoning me about Trevor's programme. Once again, things were not studied in depth and no mention was made of the dreadful suffering engendered by these emissions. I understand this to a certain extent, as I feel loathe to 'worry' people, yet is it fair that some people are suffering effects without realising it? Surely it's time 'spades' were referred to so that they can join in the protests?

This is the third time I have seen reference to the increase in white bloodcell count in the presence of emissions (first was in the Pandora document) - we have two cases within 100 metres of the Orange mast in Kensworth there being no infection present in either case and Doctors unable to find a cause!

There have also now been 4 cases of stroke/heart attack 20 to 100metres from the mast as well as eight cases of severe nosebleeds amongst adults and children (one of them a visiting father whose baby could not get to sleep in the front bedroom. Dad changed places with the baby and suffered severe nose bleeds for two nights after which he took his family home and said he wouldn't go there again until the mast was moved!

And of course, we have all the usual symptoms - chronic insomnia and headaches, nausea and vertigo; tinnitus and earache; sore eyes; ulcerated mouths and throats with accompanying severe thirst etc etc.

Yet we still get replies from Dept of (Ill?) Health saying there is nothing they can do and the non-thermal effects are completely ignored!

Who can blame folk from pulling down masts?

Feeling bitter, Gill Lyden


From Mast Network

http://www.rense.com/general34/pay.htm


Informant: Tim White

by Julian Lee, Marketing Reporter

January 13, 2005

The mobile phone industry has ruled out changes to marketing to children in light of a warning by a leading scientist that the phones could still pose health risks.

The British Government's leading adviser on radiation, Sir William Stewart, has urged parents of children under 10 to deny them access to mobile phones until scientists can say handsets are safe.

His warnings come as the number of six- to nine-year-olds using mobiles in Australia hit 2 per cent, far less than the reported figure of 14 per cent in Britain.

Australia's mobile phone operators claim they are doing enough already to ensure that figure does not rise.

"Our position to not market to under 10s remains solely a social issue. Our resolve in this respect has not changed. The health issues remains a separate issue," a Virgin Mobile spokeswoman said.

"There's nothing new in the research and it confirms that mobile phones do not cause adverse effects," a Telstra spokesman said. Telstra is exploring a handset for the under-10s and promotions in magazines targeting 10- to 14-year-olds are acceptable because Telstra classifies them as "youths" not "children". Vodafone and Optus are not changing their guidelines that prohibit marketing to under-16s.

As chairman of Britain's National Radiation Protection Board, Sir William concluded in 2000 that there were no adverse health effects for the general public but that children should only use mobiles for essential calls.

This week he told the London-based Daily Telegraph that making mobiles available to children under nine was "ludicrous". He was more concerned about the possible health hazards than he was five years ago because the number of mobile phones had doubled, the paper reported.

In October, Stockholm's Karolinska Institute found there was an increased risk of a brain tumour for people who had used mobiles for more than 10 years.

The Federal Government agency that monitors radiation levels, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, is satisfied with the emission levels of handsets but a spokesman admitted there was still a "degree of uncertainty".

A specialist in occupational medicine, Dr Bruce Hocking, said: "There are still major concerns about the safety of handsets so if people are going to be serious where children are concerned then they should urge them to use SMS or a landline in ordinary circumstances."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/No-halt-to-downward-mobile-marketing/2005/01/12/1105423557223.html


Informant: Don Maisch

http://www.luxefaire.com/020805/index.html


Informant: billder

Beneath the incomprehensive federal budget numbers - a $2.57 trillion budget, a $427 billion deficit, $419 billion in military spending - the federal budget is a moment of truth. It reveals what we value, what kind of nation we are and what we seek to build. In this regard, the Bush budget is a stunning disservice to the nation, and it must be rejected.

To bank roll more tax cuts for millionaires and a sell-out of Social Security to Wall Street, President Bush has gone to new lengths to cut essential services from most American people. The President defies common decency and common sense in what he proposes to leave out of his budget and who, in turn, he would leave on their own.

The silver lining is that what the president proposes, Congress disposes. None of Bush's cuts will happen if Congress rejects his budget. This is where we come in. Congress needs to hear loud and clear from the American people: the Bush budget should be dead on arrival.

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=77878

Below are ten misguided Bush budget decisions that particularly offend American values and squander our country's future. Please help to get 100,000 signatures to Congress demanding that they reject spending like this -- spending that is fundamentally out of step with the needs of the American people.

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=77878

Tell Congress to reject Bush's indecent budget proposal! Tell them that you don't want your government to...

1) Undercut schools in need by reneging on $12 billion in funding promised to schools by President Bush himself. [1]

2) Eliminate childcare assistance for 300,000 children by 2009. [2]

3) Keep college out of reach for qualified students by failing to raise the maximum Pell Grant as promised [3] -- and by freezing work-study funding. [4]

4) More than double the co-pay charged to many veterans for prescription drugs, in addition to requiring some vets to pay a new $250 yearly "user fee" for promised healthcare services. [5]

5) Eliminate Community Development Block Grants - a lifeline for cities around the country to build and maintain clinics, day-care facilities and housing developments. [6]

6) Eliminate the Even Start literacy program that helps impoverished children and their illiterate or semi-literate parents learn to read. [7]

7) Cut funds from Medicaid that would pay health care for 1.8 million low-income children. [8]

8) Cut food stamps benefits for up to 300,000 of the working poor, largely parents and children. [9]

9) Force deeper cuts in basic domestic programs by adding new tax cuts that will cost $1.6 trillion over ten years. More than half of these cuts would go to households that earn more than a $1 million yearly, while virtually none target households earning less than $100,000 per year. [10]

10) Balloon the federal deficit to $1.4 trillion by 2010 due to war spending and new tax cuts. [11]

Congress has the power to overrule Bush's grossly misguided spending priorities. Please contact your representatives today and demand that they reject the Bush budget and realign America's spending priorities to serve us all not just a privileged few.

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=77878

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,

Robert L. Borosage Co-Director
Campaign for America's Future

Senator Hilary Rodham-Clinton (D-NY) and Congressman Luis Fortuno (R-PR) have teamed together to introduce legislation to extend wilderness protection to over 10,000 acres in Puerto Rico's Caribbean National Forest. Although the smallest of the 155 national forests, it boasts the greatest number of native tree species at over 240 and is home to trees over 1,000 years old.

Find out more about this effort to create El Toro, the nation's first tropical forest wilderness area:
http://www.wilderness.org/NewsRoom/Release/20050203.cfm

Inside Story

New Mexico's Otero Mesa, Wyoming's Great Divide and northeastern Utah's Vernal region are home to breathtaking scenery, countless species of wildlife and rare plants as well as prehistoric ruins and Native American art. But soon, these lands may be home to oil rigs and off road vehicles thanks to new Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to open 8 million acres of land of public lands to oil and natural gas development.

"Now that the election's over, the Interior Department is rolling out plans that largely ignore public input and reflect a tremendously unbalanced approach to how our public lands will be used," said The Wilderness Society's Nada Culver.

Click here to read the full story:
http://www.wilderness.org/NewsRoom/Release/20050203b.cfm

Take Action

Hundreds joined Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Rep. Ed Markey outside the Capitol last week as the two announced legislation to forever protect the Arctic Refuge coastal plain from oil drilling. Also on hand were Norma Kassi, with the Gwich'in Steering Committee and Bill Meadows, president of The Wilderness Society. Since introduction of the bill, more than 100 House members and more than 20 senators have signed on.

Please take action on this important legislation, by asking your congressional members to co-sponsor S. 261 and H.R. 567, or thanking them for doing so.

You can take action now at:
http://ga1.org/campaign/ArcticWild/wd8ks5x4a758675

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0208/dailyUpdate.html


Informant: NHNE

http://www.sobran.com/columns/2005/050120.shtml


Informant: Lew Rockwell

http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011005E.shtml


Informant: Di

http://www.foxreno.com/news/4170085/detail.html


Informant: Di

by W. James Antle III

Intellectual Conservative

02/08/05

When the January 30 elections proceeded with high turnout and relatively low levels of violence, defying most predictions, many conservatives in the United States, especially those belonging to the chattering class, were almost as jubilant as the Iraqis dancing in the streets of Baghdad. But now it's time to lose the purple ties and put on our thinking caps. ... the religious Shiite political party linked to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani appears to be headed for a big win. The ticket associated with U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is trailing badly. Key Shiite leaders are now speaking openly of imposing some version of Islamic law on the country. Let's be frank: This is almost exactly the opposite of what most war supporters intended to achieve in Iraq. Put aside for a moment your affection for President Bush and your enthusiasm for the Republican Party. Would you have wanted to go to war to replace a secular state with one ruled by clerics?

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article4136.html



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Joan Vennochi

Boston Globe

02/08/05

They still don't get it. Senator John Kerry gives yet another interview about the 2004 election. Sounding like Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens announcing that God told him his injured ankle was ready for the Super Bowl, Kerry suggests God will tell him whether to run for president in 2008. He also continues to insist, 'I am not a flip-flopper on anything.' Two days before Iraqis go to the polls to vote in a historic election, Senator Edward M. Kennedy calls for US troops to withdraw from that country; rather than acknowledge that his timing is off, Kennedy keeps the drumbeat going in speeches and interviews...

http://tinyurl.com/3whcd



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by David Smith-Ferri

CounterPunch

02/08/05

By any measure of meteorological activity, the last two years have been a season of foul weather for US soldiers and their families. One storm after another, and long-term forecasts for more of the same. Sent into Afghanistan and Iraq in the emotional wake of 9/11, commissioned to liberate people from tyranny and to protect Americans from terrorist attacks, they find themselves instead fighting a never-ending guerilla war, the moral handholds of which are as difficult to locate and as unreliable as a trail in a sandstorm...

http://www.counterpunch.org/ferri02082005.html



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Perry O'Brien

Common Dreams

02/08/05

I joined the Army on August 27th, 2001, just two weeks before the terrorist attacks of 9/11. As naive as its sounds, I wasn't thinking about going to war when I signed up. I was thinking about jumping out of planes, learning medical skills, and getting a tangible experience that would be somehow more 'real' than the previous two years of college. Enlisting was totally spontaneous, and I never took time to sit down and consider how I really felt about war. A year and half later I found myself working in a field clinic in Kandahar, Afghanistan. As a company of medics, my unit saw the worst consequences of war: mutilated children, traumatized civilians, dead soldiers. Even then, at least for the first few months of my deployment, I didn't take time to consider the implications of what I was doing; I was too busy doing my job. It was the Afghani children that finally got me thinking...

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0208-20.htm



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Pat Buchanan

LewRockwell.Com

02/09/05

When the British left Palestine, Irgun terror ended. When the French left Algeria, FLN terror ended. When Israel left Lebanon, Hezbollah terror largely ended. These countries chose to resolve their terror problem by giving up their occupations and letting go. Their perceived imperial presence had been the cause of the terror war, and when they departed and went home, the wars faded away. The president says we must fight them over there, so we do not have to fight them over here. But, before we invaded Iraq, not one American had been killed by an Iraqi in a dozen years. Since we invaded, 1,500 Americans have died and the number of insurgents has multiplied from 5,000 to 20,000. By Don Rumsfeld's own metric, our intervention is creating more terrorists than we are killing. We are fighting a guerrilla army that our own invasion called into being...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan25.html



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Michael Gaddy

The Price of Liberty

02/09/05

I do not believe for a moment that people in the military today are 'serving their country,' nor do I believe we 'support the troops' by sending them in harm's way, thousands of miles from home to fight wars based on lies, while thousands of illegals from foreign countries, many from countries who have sworn to destroy us, cross our virtually undefended southern border each and every day. This country's military long since ceased to serve their country, but instead, fight and die for the duplicitous State...

http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/05/02/09/gaddy.htm



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Brian Doherty

Reason

02/05

Review of The Woman and the Dynamo, by Stephen Cox: "Paterson was appalled by the love for state planning that ruled the literary intellectuals of the '30s. Many were fascists, many communists, but hardly any believed that individuals or markets should be left to run freely. The standard opinion of the time was that markets required technocratic planning. The political themes fully expressed in The God of the Machine began showing up in Paterson's columns (which were never strictly about reviewing books) in the '30s and early '40s. These ideological intimations led Edmund Wilson to dismiss her as irrelevant, declaring her 'the last surviving person to believe in those quaint old notions on which the republic was founded'...

http://www.reason.com/0502/cr.bd.our.shtml



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Ilana Mercer

AntiWar.Com

02/09/05

People with no principles look to consequences to justify their actions -- the Republican Party and its media megaphones now contend that Iraq's first democratic election has provided a final and irrefutable justification for America's invasion and conquest. That Iraqi Shi'ites turned out en masse for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and sharia law doesn't alter the truth -- we waged an illegal, unjust, and unnecessary war. However, with Fox and Friends continuing to claim that WMD were probably moved to Syria, and al-Qaeda and the Ba'athists were an item, it falls to the 'reality-based community' to periodically remind them of the facts...

http://www.antiwar.com/mercer/?articleid=4772



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Houston Chronicle

02/06/05

Sean Huze enlisted in the Marine Corps right after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and was, in his own words, 'red, white and blue all the way' when he deployed to Iraq 16 months later. Unquestioning in his support of the invasion, he grew irritated when his father, a former National Guardsman, expressed doubts about the war. Today, all that has changed. Haunted by the civilian casualties he witnessed, Cpl. Huze has become one of a small but increasing number of Iraq veterans who have formed or joined groups to oppose the war or to criticize the way it is being fought...

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3025120


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Putin cronies exposed in new list of Russia's rich:

Independent [UK]

02/09/05

Russia's political class has amassed as much wealth as power under President Vladimir Putin, according to a new 'rich list' published yesterday. In revelations which will outrage many pensioners, who have recently campaigned against welfare cuts, Finance magazine reported that three regional presidents, 20 MPs, 11 senators, a regional governor and a deputy regional governor were among the country's 468 wealthiest individuals...

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=609193



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Cincinnati Enquirer

02/08/05

The scientist who attracted the world's attention by cloning Dolly the Sheep is about to take another major step for medical research: cloning human embryos and extracting stem cells to unravel the mysteries of muscle-wasting illnesses like Lou Gehrig's disease. Ian Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly at Scotland's Roslin Institute in 1996, was granted a cloning license Tuesday by British regulators to study how nerve cells go awry to cause motor neuron diseases. The experiments do not involve creating cloned babies, but the license has nonetheless stirred fresh controversy over the issue and prompted abortion foes and other biological conservatives to condemn the decision...

http://tinyurl.com/474ka



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Tampa Tribune

02/08/05

White House officials and Congress' top budget writers tried rallying support Tuesday for President Bush's $2.57 trillion budget, but cracks in Republican unity showed as lawmakers digested the plan's proposed spending cuts. 'Stay in the game the rest of the year,' House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, urged colleagues who have voiced support for paring the deficit since the budget's release Monday. 'Don't claim you want to cut the deficit in one breath and demand we spend more in the next.' Joshua Bolten, Bush's budget chief, told Nussle's committee that the president 'won't hesitate' to veto excessive spending bills -- which he has yet to do in four years...

http://tinyurl.com/663hd


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

[Karl Rove, the political mastermind known as "Bush's brain" (was that his voice the president was hearing through his listening device during the debates?) will now occupy a position called "deputy chief of staff."[1] -- While White House officials said his involvement with international affairs would be "limited," these limits will be hard to define, given his mandate to, in Scott McClellan's words, "coordinate" the National Security Council, the National Economic Council and other advisory panels to ensure that their ideas were "complementary."[2] -- The Bush White House has turned the "knowledge is power" dictum on its head, and embraced the view that "power is knowledge" -- a perspective that justifies Rove's promotion. -- "He is one of the president's most trusted advisors, who has played an integral role in the strategy and policy development for a long time," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "So now he has a more expanded role." -- There is nothing new in this. In Ron Suskind's *The Price of Loyalty*, Paul O'Neil described the attitude: "The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That’s not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'" --Mark]

Read further under:
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2231/


From ufpj-news

http://mobilfunk-allgaeu.de/arbeitsblaetter/handzettel-lehrer.pdf


Russland: Mobiltelefone und Krebs bei Kindern
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/520546/

Kinder und Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/311977/

Mobilfunk in der Schule
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/338094/

Schule und Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/403986/

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/handystrahlung_schaedigt_erbgut.tif


Aktion Elternbeiräte
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/507980/

http://www.buergerwelle.de/body_newsletter_290904.html


Aktion Elternbeiräte
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/507980/

http://www.buergerwelle.de/body_newsletter_10604.html


Aktion Elternbeiräte
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/507980/

http://www.silicon.de/cpo/news-mobile/detail.php?nr=15457&directory=news-mobile


Aktion Elternbeiräte
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/507980/

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/handy_kein_spielzeug.tif


Aktion Elternbeiräte
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/507980/

Studie: 90 Prozent der Jugendlichen haben ein eigenes Handy
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/55586


Aktion Elternbeiräte
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/507980/

http://www.aerztezeitung.de/docs/2005/01/17/006a0404.asp?cat=/news



Aktion Elternbeiräte
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/507980/

von Dieter Keim

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/wissenschaftler_an_die_front.doc

http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/news/20050207_tonight.asp


Informant: Gary

From Mast Network


If people read down to the Sitefinder map they will see just how bad London has become: http://www.sitefinder.radio.gov.uk/ to look up UK cell sites.

One primary school in London, in Soho, has about 120 base stations within a 1000 feet circle.

Yes, 120, I am NOT kidding. The world has gone cell-phone mad. They are coming to a place near you soon!

Alasdair


Informant: Don Maisch