13
Mai
2005

US-held detainees at risk of torture

Amnesty International: Prisoners detained by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere are still at risk of torture and ill-treatment, Amnesty International said on Friday.

http://snipurl.com/evdj


From Information Clearing House

More evidence on why the Iraq war is a George Bush folly

At least it finally settles this ridiculous debate about how Dear Leader Bush just wanted to bring democracy all along and we did it all for George Washington.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0505120037may12,1,4263103.story


From Information Clearing House

Losing hearts and minds

On Wednesday, National Public Radio broadcast a piece that made it appallingly clear that we have not cleaned up our character in Iraq. Humiliation remains a primary weapon. For all the soldiers who have a heart, a lot also appear to have lost their minds.

http://snipurl.com/evd4


From Information Clearing House

America’s honor and prestige at the lowest point ever

The family released a statement...

"Mass round-ups and detentions of innocent civilians, torture and abuse of prisoners and detainees, America’s honor and prestige at the lowest point ever, and investigations that whitewash the president’s men and blame it all on the enlisted personnel.

by Michael Gillespie

The obscene spectacle of the grieving families at funerals forced by the president’s dishonesty to defend the honor of their dead even as they mourn: Small wonder that the president, desperately attempting to hide behind a façade of rigid religiosity that glorifies war and false patriotism that exalts the very evils it claims to despise, never attends the funerals of those who have died in the line of duty. How could he?"

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8830.htm

Ausstieg aus der zivilen und militärischen Nutzung der Atomtechnologie sofort und weltweit

Öffentliche Bemerkungen zur Veranstaltung anläßlich des ersten Spatenstichs für die Biogasanlage in Jameln am 13. Mai 2005 mit Bundesministerin Renate Künast, Avacon (Atomstrombetreiber) und Opel AG:

(Heute informieren Ministerin Künast, AVACON und Opel AG über ihre Vorstellungen von Agrarwende und Energiewende! – Unsere Ziele gehen weit darüber hinaus!)

Agrarwende?

Doch wir sehen:

· Ausweitung der Agrarwüsten (Bäume und Hecken werden verstümmelt, abgeholzt und gerodet),

· Verseuchung von Böden, Grundwasser und Luft durch Pestizide und Agrarchemie,

· Abgase, Bodenverdichtung und Lärm durch immer gigantischere Agrarmaschinen,

· unaufhaltsames Vordringen der Gentechnologie (mit nicht mehr rückholbaren Schäden und einer weiteren Beschleunigung des Artensterbens),

· mangelhaften Verbraucherschutz (seltene Kontrollen als Alibi?),

· pestizidverseuchtes Obst und Gemüse (Menschen als „Gift- und Schwermetall-Endlager“),

· Einknicken der Regierung vor den Profitinteressen der Agrarmultis und „Lebensmittelindustrie“: u.a. Verabschiedung eines vor Ort wirkungslosen Bundes-Naturschutzgesetzes!

Energiewende?

Doch es gibt weiterhin:

· einen Ausbau der Atomindustrie (Erweiterung der Urananreicherungsanlage in Gronau, Bau neuer Reaktortypen etc.),

· das tägliche Risiko eines atomaren Infernos für uns alle (grundgesetzwidrige Zumutung!),

· Weiterbetrieb der AKW’s – ohne Endlagernachweis,

· keine versprochene fundierte Endlagersuche!,

· radioaktive Verseuchung der Umwelt im Ausmaß „eines sich jährlich ereignenden großen kerntechnischen Unfalls“ durch die Wiederaufbereitungsanlagen in La Hague und Sellafield im „Normalbetrieb“ (WISE Paris, Studie für die EU 2001),

· keine Aufklärung über die Unfälle, Pannen und Vertuschungen in Atomanlagen weltweit (Beispiel: Leukämiefälle bei Geesthacht/Krümmel, jüngster Plutonium-Unfall in Sellafield),

· unkontrollierte Subventionierung der Atomkonzerne, Profitabsicherung und Machterhalt durch unangetastete Mrd.-„Rückstellungen“ und EURATOM-Vertrag (im Bundestag mit der EU-Verfassung gerade bekräftigt!),

· Festhalten an Öl und Kohle,

· keine echten bezahlbaren Energiesparautos (trotz technischer Möglichkeiten),

· keine konsequente Energie – Spar – Politik!

· bundesweite Pressezensur für Kritik an Atomtechnologie!

· Zurückhaltung von Sicherheitsgutachten durch BfS und RSK!

Wir fordern die AVAVON auf, aus der lebensbedrohenden Atomtechnologie auszusteigen und alle frei werdenden Mittel einzusetzen für Investitionen in erneuerbare Energien!

Wir fordern die Opel AG auf, endlich bezahlbare saubere (recycelbare) Energiespar-Autos auf den Markt zu bringen (statt zur Profitsicherung Arbeitsplätze abzubauen und das Lohnniveau abzusenken)!

Wir fordern die Bundesregierung und die Europabgeordneten auf, den EURATOM-Vertrag umgehend aufzukündigen!

Wir fordern die Bundesregierung auf, die Milliarden-Rückstellungen der Energie- und Atomkonzerne in einen öffentlich-kontrollierten Fond einzubringen!

Wir fordern: Ausstieg aus der zivilen und militärischen Nutzung der Atomtechnologie sofort und weltweit!

Schluß mit der Zementierung des ungeeigneten Salzstocks Gorleben als Endlager-Standort!

Weg mit der „Veränderungssperre“! - Keine weiteren Castor-Transporte!

Eine Initiativgruppe des wendländischen Widerstands gegen die Atomenergie (Lüchow-Dannenberg, Jameln, 13. Mai 2005/ T.: 05864-986 422)

Wir fordern ALLE zu sofortigem Stromwechsel auf (hin zu einem Anbieter mit ausschließlich regenerativen Stromquellen)!! – siehe auch: http://www.attac.de/wendland

Liebe Freundinnen und Freunde,

wir fordern Euch auf, an der nächsten Auftaktdemo im November 2005 (voraussichtlich: Anfang Nov. 2005) und – nach Euren Möglichkeiten - an den weiteren Protestaktionen gegen die Atommülltransporte im Wendland teilzunehmen (etwa von Sa. bis Di./Mi.). Eure Solidarität mit dem Widerstand gegen die Atomindustrie ist enorm wichtig!

Wir protestieren gegen die Atomenergie,

Ø weil diese umweltzerstörend und todbringend ist,

Ø weil sie überflüssig und ungeheuer teuer ist,

Ø weil sie die dringend erforderliche Energiewende behindert,

Ø weil sie zwangsläufig einen demokratiefeindlichen Polizei- und Überwachsungsstaat mit sich bringt,

Ø weil sie auf’s Engste mit der Atombombe und der globalen Verseuchung verknüpft ist (Uranmunitioneinsatz in Jugoslawien, Irak),

Øweil weltweit das Entsorgungsproblem nicht gelöst werden kann (der Salzstock Gorleben ist –gutachterlich untermauert- u.a. durch Laugeneinbrücke im Deckgebirge völlig ungeeignet),

Ø weil die Regierungen die Profite der mächtigen Energiekonzerne schützen und dafür unsere Grundrechte opfern,

Ø weil das Gerede vom Atomausstieg eine Lüge ist, vielmehr wird die Atomindustrie nach wie vor hoch subventioniert,

Ø weil Milliarden dafür ausgegeben werden, die besser für unsere Kinder und soziale Aufgaben eingesetzt würden.

Wenn der Castor rollt, herrscht im Wendland der Ausnahmezustand: 20.000 Polizisten gegen 50.000 Einwohner. Die Medien-Öffentlichkeit wird weitgehend ausgeschlossen oder polizeilich gesteuert. Das darf es nicht mehr geben!

Gegen Kriminalisierung und den Abbau der Grundrechte hilft nur eins:

Kommt alle im November ins Wendland, wenn der Atommüll aus dem französischen La Hague in nicht genehmigten Behältern quer durch die Republik nach Gorleben rollt. Denn, lieber mit Spaß aktiv, als todtraurig radioaktiv. Der wirksamste Schutz der Grund- und Freiheitsrechte besteht darin, sie aktiv wahrzunehmen und zu verteidigen.

Im Wendland ist der Widerstand lebendig. Es ist für alles gesorgt: Übernachtungsmöglichkeiten in Camps oder Familien (manchmal auch bei der Polizei), Verpflegung, Musik, Spaß und Aktion…Wir fordern: Schützt uns, nicht die Atomindustrie! Sofortige Stillegung aller Atomanlagen weltweit! Suche eines geeigneten Endlagerstandortes sofort!

Übrigens, den persönlichen Atomausstieg kann jeder sofort –ohne Mehrkosten- vollziehen: Wechsel des Stromanbieters - hin zu atomenergiefreien Versorgern mit Strom aus regenerativen Energien! Info:
http://www.eurosolar.org
http://www.robinwood.de
http://www.lichtblick.de
http://www.ews-schoenau.de
http://www.greenpeace-energy.de

Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow-Dannenberg e.V., Drawehner Str. 3, 29439 LüchowTel.: 05841/4684 – Fax: 05841/3197 – e-mail: bi-luechow@t-online.de – Internet: http://www.bi-luechow-dannenberg.de, http://www.castor.de, http://www.widersetzen.de, http://www.attac.de/wendland


Jürgen Kruse

How Real ID will affect you

http://news.com.com/FAQ+How+Real+ID+will+affect+you/2100-1028_3-5697111.html


Informant: Simo Hayha

The latest on Bolton

A funny thing happened on the way to John Bolton's confirmation as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

First, 55,986 of you sent Senator Lincoln Chafee a strong message in a petition we delivered to his office Thursday morning, urging him to live up to his reputation of having an independent streak and vote against John Bolton.

Senator Chafee didn't take a stand during Thursday's Foreign Relations Commitee hearing -- but believe it or not, after see-sawing back and forth, he is still holding open the option of voting against Bolton on the floor of the Senate. The Senator could have been a real hero to reasonable people everywhere by killing the nomination in committee, but that wasn't to be.

However, I know that the overwhelming lobbying effort you made -- including thousands of phone calls and petition signatures -- has kept hope alive as to Senator Chafee's final vote on the matter.

Second, Republican Senator George Voinovich of Ohio gave an incredibly masterful speech against Bolton in the Committee. Voinovich called Bolton "the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be" and went on to say: "We have sought to appoint an Ambassador to the United Nations who himself has been accused of being arrogant, of not listening to his friends, of acting unilaterally, and of bullying those who do not have ability to properly defend themselves."

Because of Voinovich, the Foreign Relations Committee on which I serve was unable to vote out Bolton with a positive recommendation. Committee Republicans were only able to muster enough support to vote him out without recommendation, a highly unusual thing -- only the sixth time this has happened since 1988.

Of course the Bush Administration, including Secretary of State Rice, is trying to put the best face on it, and it is true that the fight goes on. But that's the point: Despite Republican control of the Senate, we're still in this fight, and we will not shrink from it!

John Bolton is a man who has nothing but disdain for the United Nations, someone who would politicize intelligence and stretch intelligence to create phantom "imminent threats" -- a very dangerous man indeed. Further, Bolton has been called a "serial abuser" in terms of his relationships with those over whom he held power, and he tried to fire hard-working, independent intelligence analysts who didn't and wouldn't agree to give him the false information he was requesting.

Earth to George Bush: Can't you please find someone who deserves this job to represent us at the United Nations?

Well, the answer to that question is clearly no, and so we continue the fight. I have placed a "hold" on the John Bolton nomination, meaning that we won't proceed to debate his nomination by unanimous consent and must have a vote before we do so. I have placed this hold because there are several important documents requested by Committee Democrats which we still have not received. We don't know what these documents will reveal, but we do know that we deserve to have them. Until we do, my hold stands.

So hope springs eternal, mostly because you give me the strength to step out and do what my job requires on behalf of the people I represent -- to ask the tough questions, get the answers, and cast the hard votes.

While I continue to do everything I can to stop Bolton in the Senate, there's much more that you can do as well:

* If you haven't already, please email your Senators, urging them to oppose John Bolton. http://ga4.org/campaign/bolton/b85g574q5jen57?

* Then send an email to the White House, urging President Bush to send us a new common-sense UN nominee who can receive bi-partisan support in the Senate -- and across America. http://ga4.org/campaign/new_nominee/b85g574q5jen57?

* Plus, don't forget to invite your friends and family to email their Senators, and tell them to email President Bush as well.
http://ga4.org/campaign/bolton/forward/b85g574q5jen57?

Stay in close touch with me on this. I will be back to you as issues unfold.

In Friendship,

Barbara Boxer

Email your Senators
http://ga4.org/campaign/bolton/b85g574q5jen57?

Email the White House
http://ga4.org/campaign/new_nominee/b85g574q5jen57?

Anti-US Protests Rage from Afghanistan to Pakistan

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051305Y.shtml

Four M-Class Flares in Last Two Days

May 13th 2005

EARTH CHANGES TV NEWSLETTER

Well it appears NASA and Dr. Hathaway may need to re-think their formula as it pertains to solar cycles. This weeks activities would certainly get in the way of the notion of a calming Sun. In fact, today’s sunspot count reached 110, not far below NASA’s predicted “maximum” of 150.

Stop Everything - This just in…

As I’m writing this article, a new M-Class flare just fired off. It appears a large CME has followed and may be Earth directed. The M-Class flare appears to have measured a M8, this is just a few points from being an X-Class flare. Evidently there is something out there that is charging the Sun. In fact, this is the premise of my second book coming out next spring (working title) “Cosmic Rain”, which is the next sequence of my research following my current book due to be out before Christmas titled “Solar Rain”.

“Cosmic Rain” takes us one step further than “Solar Rain” which identifies the Sun-Earth Connection. In “Cosmic Rain”, we look at what causes the solar cycles themselves. Here is a sneak preview….It appears the conductor of solar cycles, is two fold. First, there is the currently known ‘pole reversals’ which happen every (approx) 11 years, but then there is a second more pronounced cause to extended solar cycles with I call “Mega Cycles”. This is in part, is caused by “cosmic gamma ray burst, as well as other less known charged energy fields. And yes, my hypothesis suggest the! re is a “rhythm” to such gamma ray burst (GRB). It is not just from pulsars or imploding stars. There is much more to this story.

Take a look at the magnetic flux. It suggest quite the storm could be heading our way.

Magnetic Flux: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/elec_3d.html

Here is a snap shot of the M8-Class flare fired off just moments ago.

GOES X-Ray Flux: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_5mBL.html

Here the Kp Index show the geomagnetic storm already hitting the Earth’s magnetic field from the first series of M-Class flares.
Kp Index: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html

What does this all mean? First off, it means the theory of our being on the down hill slope to a solar “minimum” appears to have some serious flaws to this premise. It also means we may have some pretty nasty weather coming our way in the next 48 to 72 hours. Watch for extreme temperature shifts, sudden hail storms, straight-line winds, micro-burst, and wind shears. Also watch for the possibility for sudden tornadoes.

Equation:

Sunspots => Solar Flares => Magnetic Field Shift => Shifting Ocean and Jet Stream Currents => Extreme Weather and Human Disruption (Mitch Battros)

Pfingsten: 41. Montagsdemonstration in Leipzig gegen Agenda 2010 und Hartz IV

13.05.05

Am kommenden Montag findet in Leipzig erneut eine Demonstration und Kundgebung gegen Hartz IV und die Agendapolitik der rot-grünen Bundesregierung statt. Es ist die 41. Montagsdemonstration seit dem August des Vorjahres. Seitdem finden die montäglichen Demonstration mit anschließender Kundgebung auf dem Augustusplatz getragen von einem breiten Aktionsbündnis ohne Unterbrechung statt.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=11060

Better Late Than Never

The Washington Post finally reports on the earthshaking Downing Street Memo...12 days after it was released.

http://tompaine.com/uncommonsense/index.php#4883

A Tribute To Right Power

by Nick Penniman, TomPaine.com

Last night's party for DeLay shows just how willing conservatives are to sacrifice principles for power.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050513/a_tribute_to_right_power.php

The GOP's Attack On Voting Rights

by Rep. John Conyers Jr., TomPaine.com

The only election reform bill Republicans want to advance is one that does nothing—or takes us backwards.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050513/the_gops_attack_on_voting_rights.php

A Systemic Approach to Occupational and Environmental Health

Part 1 of 2:
http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?issue_ID=2499


RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH NEWS #818
http://www.rachel.org

May 26, 2005

Part 2 of 2:

The Structure of Harm

A Systemic Approach to Occupational and Environmental Health

By Skip Spitzer*

[In this second part of a two-part series, activist campaigner Skip Spitzer continues describing "the structure of harm" -- some of the institutional and cultural features of U.S. society that make large-scale harm inevitable. Corporate power and economic concentration, patriarchy, racism, governments beholden to corporate wealth, media that reflect and reinforce the corporate system, and an international trade regime that has weakened governments' influence on corporate behavior -- make up the "structure of harm." We will all want to continue working locally, but if we can tie our local work to a bigger-picture analysis -- and to a growing global justice movement with a common agenda of democratic inclusion; environmental sustainability; class, racial, and gender justice; diversity; and fundamental change -- perhaps we can transform the "structure of harm" itself into something life-affirming and life-sustaining. That is the hope. --Editor]

Government safeguards the basic needs of industry

That corporate wealth buys broad influence in law and public policy is well documented and widely acknowledged.[1] Yet much government predisposition toward industry is less direct.

Holders of high office themselves frequently have significant ownership in large corporations and other corporate ties and histories. For example, virtually every member of the Bush cabinet has extensive corporate connections,[2] including outgoing Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, who was a director of the biotech company Calgene[3] (now owned by Monsanto) and served on the International Policy Council on Agriculture, Food and Trade, a group funded by Cargill, Nestle, Kraft, and Archer Daniels Midland.[4] Many Clinton cabinet members had similar ties.[5]

Governmental bias toward industry is also based on the state's dependence on economic growth as a generator of tax revenues and creating conditions favorable to perpetuation of political power. This structural position of the state is reflected in a general nonpartisan orientation of government toward ensuring a prosperous business climate, particularly for the largest companies. Clinton Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, for example, reflected this "What's good for General Motors is good for the rest of America"[6] perspective when he said that the good news about economic concentration in agriculture is that it means that "We're strengthening our global competitive edge."[7]

Media and other institutions reinforce corporate values and ideas Institutions of beliefs and knowledge-such as the mass media, public relations, science and education-also reflect the exigencies of the corporate system. As with politics, there are direct avenues of corporate influence, including: legal threats; lobbying, flak and other manipulation of journalists; and funding university research, research institutes and think tanks. In education, corporations provide schools with curriculum, funding, teacher training, advisors, exhibits and contest programs to, in the words of one industry newsletter, "get them started young."[8]

Interestingly, while many acts of corporate influence are orchestrated in-house, the market itself generates goods and services for extending corporate influence. For example, Lifetime Learning Systems develops "corporate sponsored" materials for schools and asks corporations to "Imagine millions of students discussing your product in class. Imagine their teachers presenting your organization's point of view."[9]

Many mechanisms of ideological influence are less direct. In science, for example, many researchers sit on corporate boards, own stock or have other financial ties to the companies to which their research relates. One member of a National Academy of Sciences panel on agricultural biotechnology acknowledged, "It would be kind of hard to find [scientists] who didn't have some funding from biotechnology groups."[10]

In media, likely the most important institution of beliefs and knowledge, there are numerous ways in which the structure of the industry passively shapes the range of news and entertainment content. For example, media is itself an extremely concentrated industry and depends on the good graces of business advertisers. Journalists and writers are selected from the ranks of the mainstream.[11] Larry Grossman, former president of NBC News, put it this way: "the press are terribly conventional thinkers.... and that's why they are there. That's why they reach millions."[12]

The general effect of direct and indirect corporate influence is that the mass media portray the world in ways that are consistent with the basic needs of industry. For example, a recent Associated Press story on biomonitoring[13] for pesticides and other industrial chemicals concluded "There's still debate among advocates over which of the 75,000 chemicals to specifically look for when biomonitoring. And even when chemicals are found, there's little an individual can do."[14]

In fact, the more significant discussion among advocates is how best to challenge the chemical industry by mobilizing the public with this new documentation of corporate "chemical trespass." A study of sources for U.S. TV network news found such bias across the board, concluding that there is "a clear tendency to showcase the opinions of the most powerful political and economic actors, while giving limited access to those voices that would be most likely to challenge them."[15]

Much debate about news media focuses on the issue of liberal vs. conservative bias. This framing misses the point that what liberal and conservative outlets have in common is that they rarely question the systemic role industry plays in causing social and environmental problems or its extensive institutional influence, or describe what the public can do to change the structure of harm.

Patriarchy and racism

While the structural features sketched above focus the corporate power, patriarchy and racism are also systemic sources of harm, which interact with the market dynamics.[16] Patriarchy refers to male dominance in a society, a universal condition that predates and is influenced by the market economy. For example, gender relations changed dramatically as industrialization broadly shifted economic production from the home to separate workplaces, and again with the relatively recent mass entry of women into the paid economy.

Today, women in the U.S. workforce face unequal pay, hiring standards, working conditions, training opportunities, prospects for promotion, participation in workplace decision-making, as well as segregation in lower-level occupations. These factors lead directly, and through lower social status, to negative occupational health and other impacts. Assessments of "safe" levels of pesticide and other chemical exposure, for example, have typically relied on male subjects and generally ignore women's greater sensitivity to exposure.[17] For women, patriarchy also results in domestic violence, disproportionate shares of poverty and household work (even when holding a paid job) and other impacts.[18]

Likewise, racism occurs independently of and is influenced by the corporate system. Racism, in the broadest sense, refers to prejudice or discrimination based on race (i.e., perceived physical differences) or ethnicity (i.e., socially defined cultural characteristics), and to institutional discrimination (i.e., differing treatment regardless of individual attitudes about race and ethnicity). Racism plays a significant role in education, occupational, health and other disparities. For example, African American, Latino, Native American and Asian American communities are disproportionately impacted by hazardous waste sites, landfills, incinerators, and polluting industries. In fact, race is the most significant variable associated with the location of hazardous waste sites.[19,20]

Culture

The most general expression of the structure of harm is a dominant culture that reflects and reinforces values, beliefs, actions and lifestyles that are essentially consistent with the corporate system. A citizenry engrossed by individualism, the mythology of the free market and the measurement of personal success by wealth, and that is consumption-fixated, inwardly focused and often unaware and too busy for political engagement, enables business and politics as usual and undermines public action. It is difficult, for example, to mobilize the U.S. public in opposition to court appointments given that, according to a recent national poll, 64% of respondents could not name a single member of the Supreme Court, but 66% could name all three characters used to market Rice Krispies cereal.[21,22]

Global dimensions

Of course, the social structures of harm discussed above have important international dimensions. U.S. corporations have remarkable global reach. Exports of goods and services in July 2004 alone were roughly $96 billion[23] and private investment abroad for 2003 was about $7.8 trillion.[24] One result of international investment is the ability of corporations as a group to influence public policy in weaker economies on threat of capital flight.[25]

Likewise, the U.S. government pursues a wide range of foreign political, economic and military policy, often to advance corporate interests. For example, international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are mechanisms through which industrial powers are able to influence national policy, principally within the global South. As conditions of lending, these institutions impose Structural Adjustment Programs, which typically require shifts to export production, slashes in social spending and other terms that prioritize expansion of markets for foreign firms and servicing debt held by foreign banks.[26] Similarly, corporate rights are globalizing through powerful new international trade and investment agreements such as those of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and a battery of new regional and bilateral pacts. These emphasize "freeing" the market through sweeping limits on regulatory policy, while granting corporations new intellectual property and other rights and largely ignoring the anti-competitive nature of multinational corporations.

Military policy is also geared toward corporate interests. Extreme lobbying and other influence by the arms industry to promote military spending and shape U.S. foreign policy constitutes a "military- industrial complex," about which outgoing president Eisenhower warned.[27] Some have argued that this has lead to a "permanent war economy," in which military spending and intervention play a central role in national economic stability.[28] At a minimum, it is clear that in most cases, geopolitical concerns, access to resources and markets, and corporate positioning underlie official pretexts for intervention. In Iraq, for example, the Bush administration brought in business leaders to head up reconstruction (such as former Cargill executive Dan Amstutz in agriculture) and established a neo-liberal interim government with U.S. advisers in all departments.[29] U.S. corporations are acquiring reconstruction contracts (more than $20 billion so far), ownership of Iraqi resources (including oil and water)[30] and intellectual property protections[31] (playing a key role in the corporatization of the nation's agriculture).

Corporate activities overseas, foreign policy, international institutions and military action profoundly exacerbate social and environmental problems. Looking at just pesticides and the WTO, for example, free-trade rules undermine national policy-making and international environmental agreements which can reduce pesticide use, and foster the industrial agricultural model at the center of pesticide-reliant farming.[32]

Seeing structure

Although social structures are by nature difficult to see, the above sketch should begin to form a picture of key underlying institutional features that are the context of contemporary change making. In sum:

** Corporations are pervasive, economically and socially powerful actors compelled to pursue narrow self-interests in a system that drives economic concentration, generates socially and environmentally harmful models of production and requires perpetual growth.

** Those charged with public policy are fundamentally compelled by corporate influences and the primacy of economic growth to safeguard corporate interests.

** Mass media, public relations, science, education-and the dominant consumption- and wealth-oriented culture as a whole-significantly reflect and reinforce the corporate system.

** Patriarchy and racism are sources of harm that interact with the corporate system.

** Corporate interests are projected internationally through economic, military, political and other activity, including a rapidly developing trade and investment framework undermining the ability of governments to control corporate behavior.

From this vantage point, strategies for moving beyond near-term, issue-based action can be more easily assessed. For example, it is clear that there is nothing about incrementalism that necessarily transforms the structure of harm.

Making systemic change

How can those engaged in near-term, issue-oriented approaches advance systemic change? Fortunately, this is not a matter of "reform or revolution." It is true that partial victories and reformism can drain potential for mobilization (as when banning residential uses of a pesticide, while leaving only farmworkers and other marginalized communities affected). This is an important strategic point. However, the notion that conditions should be allowed to worsen so that mobilization for systemic change can more readily take place overlooks the fact that in many ways conditions for deep change already exist. One useful reconciliation of the reform/transformation question is to integrate the near-term with the transformative, such that issue-based action explicitly functions to advance systemic change. This approach accommodates the reality of urgent harm that cannot be ignored. It also maintains a focus on concrete entry points for engaging and mobilizing the public. The point, however, is not that both orientations are useful; it is that they can be integrated so that they are mutually reinforcing.

The following are a few practical points for furthering this integration.

Building a broad, global movement

One crucial insight drawn from a structural perspective is that movements must be bigger, multi-issue and international. Fortunately, if there is anything opportune about the structure of harm it is that it is emerging as a unifying concern of people and progressive movements around the world. For example, most toxics groups in the U.S. taking a "NIMBY" (Not In My Backyard) position in the early 1980's developed at least a perspective of the larger context of harm.[33] Today there are truly global movements (such as the anti- or alternative-globalization movement and Via Campesina[34]), processes (like the World Social Forum[35]) and statements of unity (like the "Rio Earth Summit Declaration of Principles"[36])-all of which emphasize common themes of democratic inclusion; environmental sustainability; class, racial and gender justice; diversity; and fundamental change. There are ample opportunities to tie near-term change efforts to these expressions of the unifying global progressive movement.

Making connections and deeper alliances

Alliance-making based on common near-term goals is an obvious strategy. Yet identifying connections based on a common structural perspective can provide a basis for deeper alliances, fostering new synergies and broader movements. For example, the equitable distribution and growth of organic foods, which often cost more than conventional counterparts, suggest additional reasons for raising prevailing wages. The role of pharmaceutical companies provides a deep connection point for joint action between AIDS and other healthcare activists, opponents of genetically engineered foods and sustainable agriculture advocates. Issues such as corporate power, intellectual property rights and the production of drugs using transgenic "biopharm" crops will appeal to target audiences of multiple movements, which can be mobilized in new ways.

Building alliances between labor and other movements is particularly important. Human labor plays an essential role in production and therefore has the potential to disrupt it. This is a special form of resistance, but one that has been plagued by anti-labor policy, union cooptation, and undemocratic practices and narrow focuses by unions. Fortunately, there is a resurgence of the idea of "social movement unionism," in which the labor movement makes linkages between workplace, civil society issues and the larger structure of harm.[37]

Solidarity and agenda broadening

Deep alliances require deep solidarity-acts of mutual support that extend beyond a group's specific mission or objectives. One way to achieve greater solidarity is to reexamine organizational agendas. Most groups with a particular focus are run and supported by people concerned about a wide range of issues. Reconsidering a group's work in light of the structure of harm can suggest useful restatements of mission that make deep solidarity a more explicit goal, without losing particular focus.

Reframing problems

Another way to integrate systemic change is to recast the problems a group seeks to remedy. Pesticide reform groups, for example, frequently make the case that pesticides are harmful and need to be banned or restricted, and that pesticide manufacturers undermine the regulatory process. A broader framing, however, might include that:

** Most of what happens in the food system is based on the decision- making of an increasingly small set of increasingly large corporations (such as DuPont, Conagra, Kraft Foods and Wal-Mart)-which, by design, pay little attention to externalities such as pesticide poisonings, genetic contamination, excessive energy use, abuse of farm labor and obesity;

** these companies have created an ecologically and socially devastating model of food production and continually develop new technologies which pose new risks or harms (such as biopiracy and contract farming[38]);

** government fundamentally works to support the industrial food system, seeing its success as part of the national interest; and

** media, public relations, science, education and other institutions orient the public in support of the industrial food model through incomplete and tainted information, and the promotion of cultural traits (such as the desire for unblemished produce) that are typically antagonistic to campaigns for reform.

Systemic reframing places big picture issues in plain view, raising public consciousness, identifying connections and suggesting goals and requirements for long-term change.

Integrated campaigning

Campaigns are strategic programs of action designed to move targets and other social forces so that a specific set of goals is obtained. It is a highly focused path to specific victories, generally at the expense of issues outside of the campaign frame. Yet there are ways to integrate systemic transformation goals into campaigns.

In integrated campaigning, campaign goals are determined not simply by asking the question "What do we want our campaign to change?" The broader question is "What larger systemic changes do we want to achieve toward which our campaign will move us?" In this way, near- term, winnable goals can be developed that are important in their own right and serve as a foundation for or step to broader change. For example, if the broader systemic goal is to create a national regulatory system based the Precautionary Principle,[39,40] campaign goals might include:

1. enacting such an approach around a specific local issue, and

2. taking concrete steps to position the movement for a national campaign (through building relationships with untraditional allies, creating an international network, developing popular language about the structure of harm, raising awareness about corporate power and the limits of contemporary regulatory systems, and the like). Developing alternative institutions Just as issue-based change often requires development of alternatives (such as benign methods of pest management), systemic change requires the development of alternative institutions and visions of how societies can be organized to maximize justice and sustainability. There are many intriguing contributions in this area, from alternative global institutions to participatory economics.[41] Yet much more of this work needs to be done. What, for example, would a viable precautionary approach to regulation of production really look like? Developing concrete systemic alternatives helps answer legitimate questions about structural critiques, inspires mobilization for near- and long-term reform, helps activists and the public break out of mainstream ideological frameworks and offers real options when opportunities for deep change occur.

Springboarding

Many projects contribute on a local level to the development of alternative institutions. These include community gardens, local currency ventures, energy independent homesteads, community-run healthcare facilities, and green and worker-owned businesses. Yet much of this work reflects an incrementalist notion of change, with no or little engagement with movements for systemic change.

"Springboarding" entails using such points of public engagement to raise awareness and support action around the structure of harm. Some community gardens, for example, have displays providing information to participants and visitors not only about the merits of organic production or green space, but also about the problems with the industrial food system, corporate power and how to join campaigns. Springboarding helps integrate local alternatives with broader movements.

Hope

Systemic change, of course, can be overwhelming, requiring change- makers to communicate a sense of hope. Fortunately, there are in fact good reasons to be optimistic. Virtually all societies are highly contradictory and subject to relatively rapid change. Nominally democratic societies provide at least some avenues to influence the balance of political power. Harmful societies invariably generate resistance. Mechanisms of social control are imperfect. Thus, expansion of popular rights and other fundamental change has occurred over decades, sometimes just years. Arguably, there has never been a time of so much popular action worldwide around so many issues stemming from the structure of harm. The global progressive movement has people-power, rich capacities, moral positions and increasingly a structural awareness, common vision and organization with which to chart a new institutional order in which the earth and popular rights come before the free market.

Ultimately, however, hope is something independent of optimism - something we may therefore always hold and convey. As Vaclav Havel put it:

"Hope is a state of mind, not of the world.... Either we have hope or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation.... Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed."[42]

Positive systemic change may be daunting, but it is essential. Recognizing this need, understanding underlying structures of harm and creating an integrated activist practice are some key steps in raising the likelihood and pace of success.


This article will appear in a forthcoming special issue of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health.

*Skip Spitzer coordinates corporate accountability and industrial agriculture work at PANNA, Pesticide Action Network North America, in San Francisco. He has worked for almost 25 years as an activist on a wide range of social and environmental issues. As part of PANNA's Resources for Action work, he provides training in grassroots organizing, campaign development, non-violent direct action, and other activist skills.

[1] See for example: Sifry M, Watzman N. Is that a politician in your pocket?: Washington on $2 million a day. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley; 2004.

[2] See for example: Center for Responsive Politics. The Bush administration: corporate connections [Web page]. Available at:
URL: http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/cabinet.asp. Accessed September 22, 2004.

[3] Vidal J. GM lobby takes root in Bush's cabinet. Guardian (UK) 2001 Feb 1.

[4] Center for Responsive Politics. The Bush administration: Ann M. Veneman [Web page]. Available at: URL:
http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/cabinet/cabinet.veneman.asp . Accessed May 20, 2003.

[5] Savio N. The business of government: Clinton's corporate cabinet. Multinational Monitor 1993 Apr;15(4).

[6] General Motors Chairman Charlie Wilson said this to a Senate committee in 1955. See: Hartman D. What's good for General Motors.... Chronicles Magazine 2002 May.

[7] United States Department of Agriculture. Remarks of Secretary Dan Glickman at the USDA Small Farms Commission public forum; Memphis, TN; July 28, 1997; release no. 0251.97 [Web page]. Available at:
URL: http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/1997/07/0251. Accessed September 22, 2004.

[8] Manning S. Students for Sale. Nation 1999 Sep 27.

[9] Jacobson MF, Mazur LA. Marketing madness. Boulder, CO: Westview Press; 1995.

[10] Fred Gould on: National Public Radio. Science Friday: Ag biotech and developing countries [radio program, April 14, 2000]. Available at:
URL: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1072932 .

[11] For more on the structure of the mass media see: Herman E, Chomsky N. Manufacturing consent: the political economy of the mass media. London: Vintage; 1988.

[12] Pack journalism: horde copy [transcript of television program Nightline]. ABC News 1989 Sep 27.

[13] Biomonitoring refers to analysis of blood, urine, serum, saliva or tissue to identify exposure to, or the presence of, chemicals in the human body.

[14] Elias P. Scientists measure pollution in humans. 2003 Dec 27.

[15] The study also reported that 92% of all U.S. sources interviewed were white, 85% were male and, where party affiliation was identifiable, 75% were Republican. Howard I. Power sources. Extra! 2002 May.

[16] For literature emphasizing interactions between race, gender and class see: Belkhir J, American Sociological Association. Race, gender, and class bibliography [Web page]. Available at: URL: http://www.asanet.org/sections/rgcbiblio.html.

[17] Ostlin P. Gender inequalities in occupational health. Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies working papers 2000 Sep;10(9).

[18] For more about patriarchy in the U.S. see: Sapiro V. Women in American society. 4th ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield; 1999. For a global survey of the status of women, see: United Nations Statistics Division. The world's women 2000: trends and statistics. New York: United Nations Publications; 2000.

[19] Commission for Racial Justice. Toxic wastes and race in the United States. New York: United Church of Christ; 1987. For an interesting analysis of EPA data, showing disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards in communities with higher concentrations of lower income people and people of color, see Ash M, Fetter RT. Who Lives on the Wrong Side of the Environmental Tracks? Evidence from the EPA's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators Model. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute; 2002. (Working Paper Series; number 50).

[20] For more on racism in the U.S., see: Shaefer RT. Race and ethnicity in the United States. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall; 2004.

[21] A lack of awareness about the judicial system is particularly important in advancing business interests, since corporate rights typically have been advanced through court decisions. For an activists's summary of such cases, see: Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Timeline of Personhood Rights and Powers. Available at http://reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood. Accessed September 22, 2004.

[22] The Polling Company. More Americans can name Rice Krispies characters than Supreme Court justices! April 19, 2002 [Web page]. Available at:
URL: http://www.pollingcompany.com/News.asp?FormMode=ViewReleases&ID=50.

[23] Bureau of Economic Analysis. U.S. international trade in goods and services. Washington, DC: United States Department of Commerce; 2004 Jul.

[24] Includes private U.S.-owned assets and direct investment abroad at market value. Bureau of Economic Analysis. U.S. net international investment position at yearend 2003. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce; 2004 Jun 30.

[25] This is also true of national policy in the U.S. (were it to become out of kilter with corporate interests), owing to the high degree of foreign investment in the U.S. (which exceeds U.S. investment abroad).

[26] For more on these programs see: The Structural Adjustment Participatory Review International Network (SAPRIN). Structural adjustment: the SAPRI report. London: Zed Books; 2004.

[27] Hartung WD. Eisenhower's warning: the military-industrial complex forty years later. World Policy Journal 2001;18(1).

[28] Melman S. In the grip of a permanent war economy. CounterPunch 2003 Mar 15.

[29] Mekay E. U.S. business pushes for Mideast trade. Inter Press Service News Agency 2004 Oct 7.

[30] Juhasz A. The corporate invasion of Iraq. LeftTurn Magazine 2003 Aug.

[31] Coalition Provisional Authority Order No. 81: patent, industrial design, undisclosed information, integrated circuits and plant variety law of 2004. CPA/ORD/26 April 04/81.
Available at: URL: http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20040426_CPAORD_81_Patents_Law.pdf. Accessed October 20, 2004.

[32] Spitzer S. The WTO and pesticide reform. Global Pesticide Campaigner 2000;10(1).

[33] Epstein B. Grassroots environmentalism and strategies for social change. New Political Science 1995;32(Summer).

[34] For more see: Via Campesina [Web site]. Available at:
URL: http://www.viacampesina.org/.

[35] For more see: World Social Forum [Web site]. Available at
URL: http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/home.asp.

[36] See: Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development June 1992, Annex I: Rio declaration on environment and development. Available at URL: http://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-1annex1.htm. Accessed October 20, 2004.

[37] See for example: Lambert R. Globalization: can unions resist? South African Labour Bulletin 1998;22(6).

[38] In contract farming, agribusinesses manage certain aspects of production through highly constrained contracts with farm producers.

[39] In essence, the Precautionary Principle affirms that regulatory restrictions may be appropriate even if causal relationships are not fully established scientifically.

[40] For more see: American Public Health Association. The Precautionary Principle and children's health. In: Policy statements adopted by the governing council of the American Public Health Association, November 15, 2000. Am J Public Health 2001;91:495-496.

[41] See for example: Alternatives Task Force of the International Forum on Globalization. Alternatives to Economic Globalization: A Better World is Possible. San Francisco, California: Berrett-Koehler; 2002. And: Albert M. Parecon: Life After Capitalism. London: Verso; 2003.

[42] Havel V. Disturbing the Peace. London: Faber & Faber; 1990.



RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH NEWS
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 160
New Brunswick, N.J. 08903
Fax (732) 791-4603;
E-mail: erf@rachel.org


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

E-Mails Show Prosecutors Feared Part of Detroit Terror Case Was Weak, 'vindictive'

The e-mails revive questions about the fairness, thoroughness and conduct of a government case that once was hailed by the Bush administration as a major victory in the war on terror before it collapsed.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB9W5PKM8E.html


From Information Clearing House

The film US TV networks dare not show

Adam Curtis has recut his explosive war on terror documentary The Power of Nightmares into a feature film - and is taking it to the festival.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8818.htm

American Exceptionalism and the Multilateral Pretence

Or, John Bolton and the New Lawlessness : John Bolton's nomination to the position of US envoy to the United Nations signals that for the US, multilateralism now means little else than the unquestioning acquiescence of the world to the demands of a military superpower that is heady with its own strength and accountable to none. The international community has ample reason to worry.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8819.htm

Anti-U.S. Riot Turns Deadly in Afghanistan

Afghan students burned an American flag and shouted slogans against the U.S. military on Thursday, as protests at reported abuse of Islam's holy book at the U.S. jail in Guantanamo Bay spread to the capital and into Pakistan.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5000444,00.html


From Information Clearing House

The people vs. Bush’s war: Put the war on trial

TESTIMONY FROM: Pablo Paredes | Monica Benderman | Howard Zinn Dr. Salam Ismael | Jo Wilding | Justin Alexander Monique Dols | Dahr Jamail | Bill Davis

http://www.socialistworker.org/2005-1/543/543_06_WarOnTrial.shtml

The veneer of fraternity

Tony Blair is not the first British prime minister to embrace a US president's mendacity, but he could well be the last.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8820.htm

Indignation Grows in U.S. Over British Prewar Documents

Critics of Bush call them proof that he and Blair never saw diplomacy as an option with Hussein.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8822.htm

Iraqi Families Take Refuge in the Desert

On the first day of a major U.S. offensive, two shells landed in Um Mazin's house. Grabbing what she could, she fled with four other women and 21 children. "We ran away from the American bombings," said Um Mazin, as the wind picked up, sending sand swirling around her. "The Americans do not hit the gunmen, they hit the houses of civilians."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050512/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_refugees


From Information Clearing House

The religious right of America is anti-American

by Carolyn Baker

The religious right of twenty-first century America is anti-American, inherently violent, and a cruel, tyrannical, punitive, force of death and destruction. In its mindset, adult human lives do not matter because the human condition itself is inherently evil resulting in eternal and everlasting punishment in hell unless its members are redeemed.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8816.htm

Good War Myth: 60 Years is Enough

by Mickey Z.

After whipping the original axis of evil in a noble and popular war, the US and its allies can now wave the banner of humanitarianism and intervene with impunity across the globe without their motivations being severely questioned...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8815.htm

No Child Left Behind is underway - Attention all parents and people opposed to military recruiters getting names of high schoolers

A campaign to get 1 million kids opted out from the little known provision of No Child Left Behind is underway. You probably know that public high schools must hand over personal information about students -- including minors -- to local military recruiters. Parents can get their kids off this list by submitting a request in writing to their school district superintendent. The website is http://www.leavemychildalone.org

I was wondering if you could help by passing this information on. The groups who initiated this action are looking for people willing to hold house parties in their area for a letter writing campaign on June 1st so feel free to forward this to them or start one in your neighborhood.

And please, even if you don't have kids in high school, you can help by supporting legislation by Mike Honda, the Student Privacy Protection Act. Just go the the website, http://www.leavemychildalone.org

Thanks!

Kim

"Real ID" Bill, Patriot Act "Sneak and Peek"

http://mitglied.lycos.de/newsomega/news/may_12_2005_aclu.htm

Rupert Murdock fights for the right to lie to us

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=83657;show_parent=1

Let's face it - the state has lost its mind

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=83629;show_parent=1

The Tide Turns Against Bolton

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=83624;show_parent=1

Airports begin next step - Iris Scans

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=83617;show_parent=1

The Destruction of America

http://www.destructionofamerica.4t.com/
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=83616;show_parent=1

BUSH MENDACITY WILL SHOCK HISTORIANS

Bill Gallagher, a Peabody Award winner
Niagara Falls Reporter
May 10 2005

DETROIT -- When historians write about our times, they'll shake their heads and wonder how so many people could believe so many lies for so long. They might actually write two parallel books -- one describing the cascading lies and deceptions George W. Bush and the Republicans sold and the other telling the truth.

We're told, in effect, that trampling on civil liberties and eroding freedom are a sure way to protect us from terrorists who envy our freedom. That colossal lie will be one of the lasting stains on this era, and I fear the day coming when the Busheviks or their political heirs, gripped in fascist fever, will silence those who expose the fraud. [...] Read the rest at: http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/gallagher213.html


© Virginia Metze

Bush Seeks to Regain GOP Support

by TOM RAUM
The Associated Press
04:46 PM EST May 11, 2005


WASHINGTON - He can't just blame the Democrats. Some lawmakers in President Bush's own party are giving him an increasingly hard time over everything from Social Security to a free-trade pact for Central America to his plan to ease immigration laws. It may be an early lame-duck warning for his presidency.

Bush returned from a celebratory trip to Europe to a domestic agenda badly in need of his quick attention. And one of his chores is to shore up GOP support where possible. [...] Read the rest at AP News: http://tinyurl.com/737e9


© Virginia Metze

Senator Kennedy's Floor Speech on the Nuclear Option

“America has stood for fairness, opportunity and justice. Generation, after generation, our nation has been able, often with intense debates, to give greater meaning to these values in the lives of our citizens.

But what we have seen in recent years is a breach of these values in order to reward the powerful at the expense of average Americans.

Those in power passed massive tax breaks for the wealthy and short-changed everyone else.

They granted sweetheart deals to Halliburton Corporation in Iraq while our troops went without armor. [...] Read more of this great speech from Ted Kennedy, who has suffered so much at the hands of Republicans, but still "hangs in there." http://tinyurl.com/djosk


© Virginia Metze

Report says Bush administration targets refugees instead of terrorists

bY ALFONSO CHARDY
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Posted on Tue, May. 10, 2005

MIAMI - (KRT) - Samir J. Hussain, an Iraqi national, was detained by Border Patrol agents when the Greyhound bus that he was traveling on stopped in Fort Lauderdale on July 24, 2003.

Hussain was taken to the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade where he was held for months while his case was resolved.

While in detention, he says, he was "harassed and taunted" by other detainees, "labeled a terrorist" and "blamed for the 9/11" attacks. [...] Read the rest at the Lexington Herald-Leader at kentucky.com: http://tinyurl.com/blvmj


© Virginia Metze

Large payments from Diebold are fueling influence-peddling for a $45 million Cook County/Chicago voting machine contract

Black Box Voting forums, May 9, 2005:

Large payments from Diebold are fueling influence-peddling for a $45 million Cook County/Chicago voting machine contract. Diebold has been lobbying both Ohio and Cook County/Chicago through a small corporation formed by a Republican and two well-connected Democrats. Diebold is reportedly making payments directly to the individuals and payments are also flowing through a corporation formed by the three partners. These payments are then paid out to others. When asked what the payments to others are buying, Black Box Voting was told that the Diebold funds pay “subcontractors.” We asked what the subcontractors do, and were told that they do “largely persuasion.” [...] Read the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/agh6n


© Virginia Metze

Family values, GOP style

Tim Grieve
May 10, 2005
Salon.com "War Room"

We've been so busy lately noting the nuclear-specific hypocrisy of Republican politicians that we've been derelict in our duty to bring you news of the usual, garden-variety GOP hypocrisy. But that particular brand of news never really stops -- especially when it comes to matters of "family values" -- so perhaps we're due for an update.

We begin in Denver, where Vice President Dick Cheney made a stop Monday to raise campaign cash for Rep. Marilyn Musgrave. What did Cheney have to say about his flip-flopping support for Musgrave Monday? Well, nothing, only that it turns out that Musgrave has turned out "to be exactly the right person for the job." [...] Read the rest at Salon.com: http://tinyurl.com/72fyf


© Virginia Metze

Janice Karpinski says Rumsfeld knew about Abu Ghraib

Video - Nightline:
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/nightline_janice_karpinski_rumsfeld_050512-01.rm


Informant: David Edwards

Has the War on Iran Begun?

Jim Lobe on the violence in Khuzestan.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/ips/lobe209.html

MPs demand parliamentary inquiry into voting reform

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=637994

Human Rights Watch report shows US sending dozens to be tortured in Egypt

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2775/

Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

America losing the war of occupation in Iraq

http://www.theinsider.org/mailing/article.asp?id=1178

America has made Iraq much worse

http://www.theinsider.org/mailing/article.asp?id=1182

America refuses British climate change measures

http://www.theinsider.org/mailing/article.asp?id=1184

Bush questioned about secret Iraq war decision

http://www.theinsider.org/mailing/article.asp?id=1181

American TV afraid to show British war on terror documentary

http://www.theinsider.org/mailing/article.asp?id=1179

Speak up for Saskatchewan's Wildlands

http://www.wildcanada.net/documents/aa-221f.asp

Whales 'led astray by magnetism'

FYI - Anna

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4538959.stm

Brutaler Spaß: Schlägereien per Handy filmen

http://www.xonio.com/news/news_15344974.html?tid1=7400&tid2=0


Dreijähriger gerät mit Hand in Rolltreppe

Nach 15 Minuten war das Kind befreit. Für die Mutter war die Rettungsaktion zu viel: Die Frau fiel in Ohnmacht.

Zu ihrem Glück übrigens: So musste sie nicht mitansehen, wie skrupellose Schaulustige das leidende Kind mit dem Handy fotografierten. Der Bub wurde in die Klinik gebracht.

http://www.tirol.com/chronik/oberland/10100/index.do (Auszug)


Nachricht von der BI Bad Dürkheim

Hochfrequenzen wirken auf Organismus

Dr. Cornelia Waldmann-Selsam aus Bamberg berichtete von ihren Erfahrungen mit Mobilfunksendemasten

BAD STAFFELSTEIN. "Mobilfunk macht krank" lautete das Thema eines Vortrags des Bund Naturschutz im Foyer der Adam-Riese-Halle. Referentin und Ärztin Dr. Cornelia Waldmann-Selsam aus Bamberg berichtete von ihren Erfahrungswerten und die Risiken der Hochfrequenzen.

Elisabeth Kraus erläuterte zu Beginn, dass das Thema Mobilfunk und dessen Risiken auch in Bad Staffelstein ganz vielen Leuten auf den Nägeln brenne: Grund dafür sei das Bestreben der Mobilfunkbetreiber, den bestehenden Sendemast zu verstärken. Problematisch sei dabei, dass sich der Sender in unmittelbarer Nähe zum Alten- und Pflegeheim, zur Obermain Therme, zu Arztpraxen und zum Klinikum befinde. Die Risiken dieser Technologie bedenke man dabei nicht: Die Hochfrequenzen hätten negative Auswirkungen auf den menschlichen Organismus - und außerdem sei das Bad Staffelsteiner Netz bereits jetzt ausreichend abgedeckt im Bereich des Mobilfunks.

Tumorerkrankungen

Dr. Cornelia Waldmann-Selsam berichtete von nachgewiesenermaßen erhöhten Fallzahlen von Tumorerkrankungen in unmittelbarer Nähe zu Sendemasten (Studie Naila), doch keiner gehe hin und überprüfe, warum das der Fall sei: "Der Grund liegt auf der Hand: Man will schlichtweg nichts finden", betonte die Referentin.

Gleiche Beobachtungen habe man in Hof gemacht: Hier stehe seit zehn Jahren ein Mast direkt im Wohngebiet, im Umkreis von 100 Metern sei es zu 40 Karzinom-Erkrankungen gekommen: "Diese Zahlen sind Wahnsinn - doch es passiert nichts, keiner kümmert sich." Dass elektromagnetische Felder und Hochfrequenzen keine Gesundheitsgefahren darstellen, sei eine irreführende Behauptung: "An keinem einzigen Standort Deutschlands wurde vom Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz oder anderen Wissenschaftlern eine Erhebung über Kopfschmerzen oder Schlafstörungen gemacht. Außerdem sind nicht die Physiker und Radiologen Experten für die menschliche Gesundheit, sondern wir Ärzte", mahnte sie.

Erfolgreich gewehrt

In Bamberg habe sich die Bürger- und Ärzteschaft gegen weitere Sendemasten gewehrt, habe dem Stadtrat die Risiken aufgezeigt: 130 Ärzte haben sich zum "Bamberger Appell" zusammengeschlossen - und es habe gewirkt, man konnte das Aufstellen weiterer Sendemasten (vorerst) verhindern. Selbst habe sie sich ein Messgerät für elektromagnetische Felder und Hochfrequenzen gekauft. In 356 Haushalten in ganz Oberfranken habe sie dann Erhebungen und Messungen gemacht - und das Ergebnis sei erschreckend gewesen: Je höher die Belastung pro Quadratmeter, desto mehr klagten die Menschen über Schlafstörungen, Wesensveränderungen, Konzentrationsstörungen, Unruhe, Unbehagen, Immunschwäche, Tinnitus, Übelkeit und mehr. "Auch der DECT-Standard bei schnurlosen Telefonen ist sehr bedenklich: 24 Stunden am Tag funkt die Basisstation, sogar durch Decken und Wände", erläuterte die Ärztin. Anders dagegen der Standard "CT1+", der nur funke, wenn man wirklich auch telefoniere. "Eine DECT-Basisstation ist nichts anderes wie ein Sendemast im eigenen Haus", unterstrich Dr. Cornelia Waldmann-Selsam. "Hochfrequenzen führen zu einem neuen Krankheitsbild mit vielen Symptomen", bilanzierte die Bambergerin. Hautnah ließen sich die Zuhörer von Gabriele Zieglschmid aus der Domstadt schildern, wie sich durch die Einwirkungen von Hochfrequenzen durch einen nahen Sendemasten ihre ganze Familie veränderte. Sie sprach sogar von seiner "Mobilfunk-Mafia", die sich nur um den Profit und nicht um die Gesundheit der betroffenen Menschen kümmere.

"Wir dürfen uns unsere Zukunft und unsere Gesundheit nicht zerstören lassen", forderte auch Dr. Cornelia Waldmann-Selsam. Sie verwies auf ein Volksgehren "Für Gesundheitsvorsorge beim Mobilfunk", das vom 5. bis 18. Juli laufe. Ein reger Erfahrungsaustausch mit Diskussion schloss sich an. Einige Gäste allerdings mahnten, dass man so realistisch sein müsse, dass Handys für einige Berufe unabdingbar seien und nicht völlig verbannt werden können. Dennoch müsse man sich über die Risiken von Mobilfunksendern in Wohngebieten klar werden und Lösungen finden.

Wenig Interesse bei Stadträten

Moniert wurde gegen Ende, dass sich vom Stadtrat nicht gerade viele hatten blicken lassen, obwohl das Thema Bad Staffelstein derzeit akut betreffe. Anerkennenden Applaus gab es dagegen für Werner Freitag (SBUN), Heike Kolb (SPD) und Zweiten Bürgermeister Jürgen Kohmann (CSU), die als einzige aus dem Gremium zum Vortrag gekommen waren. -mdr-


http://portal.obermain.de/pub/index.php?mid=75&aid=408&if=71983607.html


Nachricht von der BI Bad Dürkheim



Krebs Cluster
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Krebs+Cluster

Wissenschaft und Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/293807/

Abstimmung der Ahnungslosen – Die EU-Verfassung im Bundestag

http://www.ndrtv.de/panorama/archiv/2005/0512/eu_verfassung.html

Der Link zum Video (5 Min., Real Player)
http://tinyurl.com/8f8jm
bzw.:
http://video.ndr.de/ramgen/video/vs/20050512_214300_tv_panorama_2145_eu_verfassung.rm

Ärger mit Mobilfunkmasten: Info-Abend der Bürgerinitiative „Gesundleben in Allach“

Bürgerinitiative Gesund leben in Allach informiert

Info-Abend der Bürgerinitiative „Gesundleben in Allach“

Ärger mit Mobilfunkmasten
Dienstag, 31. Mai 2005, 20 Uhr
Vereinsheim Allach, Eversbuschstr. 161

Referenten:
Prof. Dr. habil. Klaus Buchner, Atom-Physiker, ÖDP
Dr. Claus Scheingraber, Zahnarzt, Arbeitskreis Elektro-Biologie

Weitere Informationen:
http://www.franz-titscher.de/mobilfunk/html/infoabend.html

Einladung als pdf bitte runterladen, drucken und verteilen!
http://www.franz-titscher.de/mobilfunk/Infoabend.pdf

Inquiry into cancer cluster fears at 'tower of doom'

Residents' Association chairman Bill Marrow, 65, said: "Every time I pick up a headache these days I'm worried I could be the next person to be struck down.

"We're a very close-knit community here and it's our friends and family who keep falling victim to the disease at an alarming rate."

Neighbour Reg Blakemore, 77, who is currently nursing his wife Monica back to health after she fell victim to cancer, said: "We love it here. It's been a fantastic place to retire to but we're so worried that our health is suffering with each passing day. I fear that one day someone will come along and tell us we were right about this all along."

Eileen O'Connor of Seriously Concerned Residents Against Masts (SCRAM) says the Liscard House curse reflects a growing trend.

She said: "Every piece of research undertaken shows that at buildings where many masts are present there is always a cancer cluster within 400 yards. This case follows a survey in Birmingham where a number of residents in high-rise flats were suffering serious illnesses."

Duncan McGraw, community liaison officer for Orange, said last night the telecommunications company would do everything possible to work with the PCT during its investigation.

He said: "The radiation coming from the mast is well below the guidelines from ICNARP (the International Commission of Neon Ironising Radiation). But we will do everything possible to allay the residents' concerns.."

Vodafone was unavailable for comment last night.

jessicashaughnessy@dailypost.co.uk

http://tinyurl.com/79o9n


Informant: Sylvie


Clusters in England
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/678769/

'Electric Comet' Could Burn The House Of Science

http://www.rense.com/general63/elele.htm
http://www.thunderbolts.info/velikovsky-ghost.htm


Informant: V

Bush dances to sour music

05/12/05

As I was speaking, I realized that my tone has changed. Usually, when I talk about Bush, anger spits from my mouth. But now unspeakable sadness permeated my voice and spirit. Although half the people in America feel the way I do, the world sees us all as authoritarian, materialistic, greedy, arrogant, ignorant, sadistic and cruel. The most painful part, I told my friend, is that I see no good coming from any of this. Bush is a puppet dancing to sour music, and for the first time in my life, I am without hope...

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0512-20.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

from Common Dreams, by Joyce Marcel

Misery accomplished

05/12/05

Has it really been two years since George W. Bush stuffed his codpiece and solemnly announced, 'Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed?' Mark Follman dredged up that quote the other day in Salon's War Room, which is always worth the price of admission. The price of Bush's admission? He'll never admit to failure, but the Marines of Lima Company are feeling the pain of that, as the Washington Post's Ellen Knickmeyer reports this morning. The major combat operation in Anbar Province, near the Syrian border, has practically wiped out one of Lima's squads...

http://villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/000924.php

from Village Voice, by Ward Harkavy


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Stay angry about Real ID

05/12/05

If I could tell people one thing about the Real ID Act, that would be it: Stay angry. Stay very, very angry. I'm amazed at the calm in the aftermath of Senate passage of this Stalinist monstrosity. And I don't just mean I'm amazed at the mainstream media's lack of clue. I mean that civil libertarians and other commentators on 'our side' are largely treating the Real ID Act as just one more bad development in an era in which bad developments have become routine. ... The Real ID Act is not just one more ugly development. The Real ID Act imposes a national ID card. (And don't argue that different states will have different card cosmetics; and don't use phrases like 'sets the stage for.' This is national ID.) This is not just another bad development. This is a defining moment...

http://www.clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00001399.html

from WolfesBlog, by Claire Wolfe


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Politics in an age of fiction

05/12/05

Perhaps in a way all rulership has to be a kind of fiction. The difference is that [King of Spain Philip II's] equivalent today, the head of the globe's 'lone superpower,' is at the center of a vast machine for the creation of fiction, a kind of ever-growing assembly line for its production. I suppose the truth is that the human ego -- whether that of the man who 'runs' America (and desires to run much of the [known] world) or the CEO of any globe-spanning transnational corporation -- only has so much expandability. Even a single megalomanic ego, an ego stretched to the limits, would have no way of taking in, no less governing, such a world. Not really. Perhaps this is why, increasingly, the President of the United States has himself become a kind of fiction...

http://tinyurl.com/ayup6

from Mother Jones, by Tom Engelhardt


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Speaking of Iran

05/13/05

Since the United States is not only dishonoring the treaty by not reducing its weapons, but in fact has been developing new nuclear weapons, non-nuclear nations are condemning the U.S. for violating the treaty while trying to impose it upon other nations. George Bush has responded to these condemnations by saying that -- you guessed it -- 9/11 changed everything...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/browne/browne55.html

from LewRockwell.Com, by Harry Browne


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Iraq falls apart

05/13/05

The Bush administration's response to 9/11 has been anything but rational. The worldwide wave of anti-Americanism created by our actions -- the invasion of Iraq, the threats to Syria and Iran, the arrogant posturing that has turned even the president's Russian soul-mate against us -- is properly laid at the White House's doorstep. Instead of keeping us safe, U.S. foreign policy is endangering each and every American, at home as well as abroad. That is why the threat of terrorism is greater today than ever. As members of Congress and other government officials ran from the U.S. Capitol, squealing with terror, surely an approximation of this thought must have crossed their minds. For the first time since 9/11, the city of Washington, D.C., went into Code Red -- the highest state of emergency. It's about time...

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=5936

from AntiWar.Com, by Justin Raimondo


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The End of America: May 10, 2005

05/11/05

On Tuesday, May 10, 2005, America became a true police state. Your U.S. senators voted -- unanimously, with no discussion, and without even reading the bill -- to create a national ID card. The Real ID Act blackmails state governments into turning their drivers licenses into a draconian tool of the federal homeland security apparatus. ... We can expect lawsuits against national ID, including at least one suit led by state governments. However, nearly all the opposition from state governments focuses on one area: They're upset because the federal government didn't offer them extra money to enslave us. If Congress bribes them with enough millions and billions, they'll gladly sell our freedom. Ultimately, real resistance is up to us, as individuals. There are certain courses of action JPFO cannot recommend. But every freedom lover should be pleased if all the people who had a hand in creating Real ID act lost their jobs -- soon. And those individuals who truly value their (and their children's) futures should seriously consider making national ID their line in the sand...

http://jpfo.org/alert20050511.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Bush and Blair Agreed in July 2002 to Invade Iraq

According to the Los Angeles Times, " ...the documents [released in the United Kingdom on May 1] help prove that the leaders [Bush and Blair] made a secret decision to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein nearly a year before launching their attack, shaped intelligence to that aim and never seriously intended to avert the war through diplomacy."

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3219

Nations say US shirks its arms vows

The United States is seeking to use a major UN conference on nuclear nonproliferation to highlight the dangers of North Korea and Iran, but has been undermined by allegations from some developing countries that Washington itself has backtracked on commitments to reduce its nuclear arsenal, according to UN diplomats and delegates to the conference.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3213

Blix Blames U.S. for Nuke-weapons Stalemate

Washington isn’t taking “the common bargain” of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as seriously as it once did, and that’s dimming global support for the U.S. campaign to shut down the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector said. Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, by questioning the value of treaties and international law, has also damaged the U.S. position, Hans Blix said.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3212

Stand Down: Army to Spend Day Retraining Recruiters due to Widespread Scandals

Recruiting has fallen through the floor and through the basement, as citizens vote with their feet against the Iraq War. Recruiting usually improves during economic hard times, but not now. Will the Marines stand down as wel because they can't meet their goals? Do these developments portend a return to the military draft to support the Iraq War?

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3211

Alltägliche Schikanen

"Verkaufen Sie sich nicht unter Wert - sagen Sie lieber gleich ab". Die Absageagentur schliesst am 15.5.2005

Am Freitag, den 13.05.05 gibt es ab 20:00 Uhr eine Abschlussfeier: Ausstellung aller verschickten Absagen sowie einem Großteil der Kommunikation, die durch die Absageagentur zustande kam. Danach Party mit DJs und DJanes. Am Sonntag (15.5) hat die Agentur von 14-19 Uhr letztmalig geöffnet… Falls Sie nicht aus Berlin sind, haben Sie die Möglichkeit, eine Dokumentation des Projektes inkl. einer Auswahl der verschickten Absagen auf unserer Homepage anzusehen: zu finden ab 15.05.05 unter: http://www.absageagentur.de


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 8

Arbeitsverwaltungen wehren sich - wogegen?

„Alles im Argen“, die Wirklichkeit in den Job-Centern

Ende April versandte ver.di Bezirk Nordhessen einen Offenen Brief an die Landräte der Landkreise Kassel, Schwalm - Eder, Waldeck Frankenberg, Werra Meißner, den Oberbürgermeister der Stadt Kassel und die Direktorin der Bundesagentur für Arbeit in Kassel. Wir dokumentieren den Brief samt der Resolution (pdf)

http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/realpolitik/zwang/imargen.pdf


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 8


An alle SozialarbeiterInnen, BetreuerInnen und solche, die Ein Euro-JobberInnen anleiten!

„Der Text wurde von einer Genossin der Kölner Kampagne Agenturschluss geschrieben und beschreibt auf einfühlsame wie eindringliche Weise die veränderten Bedingungen der Sozialarbeit und -pädagogik in Zeiten von Hartz IV. Wir geben ihn der betroffenen erufsgruppe mit Freude als Denkzettel an die Hand. (H. Stuhlfauth)…“ Kommentar vom 20.05.05 von „Eine kritische Sozialarbeiterin“ bei der FAU http://www.fau.org/artikel/art_050520-134907


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 13

"Kommunen missbrauchen 1 E Jobs" - ver.di Personalräte befürchten Arbeitsplatzabbau

Abendschein: "Kommunen missbrauchen 1 E Jobs" - ver.di Personalräte befürchten Arbeitsplatzabbau

„Anlässlich ihrer Frühjahrstagung am 11. Mai haben sich die ver.di Personalräte der großen hessischen Städte intensiv mit der Umsetzung der Hartz IV Gesetzgebung befasst. Im Mittelpunkt stand neben der andauernden personellen Unterbesetzung der neu geschaffenen Arbeitsgemeinschaften und in den optierenden Kommunen die Einführung von Arbeitsgelegenheiten für Langzeitarbeitslose (sogenannte 1 € Jobs) im Kommunalen Bereich. Die Personalräte sehen in ihren Dienststellen viele Versuche, zur Zeit nicht besetzte oder in den letzten Jahren trotz fortbestehender Aufgaben abgebaute Stellen mit „1 Euro - Jobbern“ zu besetzen und auf diese Weise die strapazierten Haushalte zu sanieren…“ Meldung vom presse.dienst von ver.di Hessen vom 12. Mai 2005.

http://www.verdi-hessen.de/meldung_volltext.php3?si=42836d0ce73d3&id=4283656f91509&akt=news


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 8

Kreishandwerkerschaft wirft Dortmunder Diensten (DoDi) vor, sich mit 1-Euro-Jobbern in den Markt der Maler und Lackierer zu drängen

Lackierer haben die Nase gestrichen voll

Jetzt ist der Streit da: Die Kreishandwerkerschaft wirft den Dortmunder Diensten (DoDi) vor, sich mit 1-Euro-Jobbern in den Markt der Maler und Lackierer zu drängen. Die haben die Nase davon gestrichen voll. "Wir haben Informationen darüber, dass DoDi 2004 rund 1000 Eimer Farbe à 12,5 Liter bestellt hat", so Assessor Joachim Susewind, "und die können ja auch noch woanders Farbe kaufen." Es gehe um Verschönerungsarbeiten in Schulen. Dies sei eine Menge, die ein 10- bis 12-Mann-Betrieb jährlich benötige. "Wir reden hier nicht mehr über Kosmetikarbeiten", fügt Susewind an, "das sind klassische öffentliche Aufträge fürs Handwerk." Die Firmen zahlten schließlich Steuern, "da gehört es sich, die Aufträge öffentlich auszuschreiben". Artikel von Dirk Berger in der Westfälischen Rundschau vom 09. Mai 2005.

http://archiv.westfaelische-rundschau.de/main_mappe2.asp?file=1&docid=01415506&verid=001


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 8

Nach dem Studium: Hartz IV - Arbeitsgelegenheiten für HochschulabsolventInnen

Das Studium soll sich wieder lohnen. Meint wohl die Caritas und bietet „einige interessante Arbeitsgelegenheiten für HochschulabsolventInnen“ an. Selbstverständlich alle im „öffentlichen Interesse“ und „zusätzlich“. Wer das Studium also endlich geschafft hat, ganz groß rauskommen und endlich arbeiten will, statt immer nur zu protestieren, findet weitere Informationen auf der Seite der Katholischen Hochschulgemeinde an der Uni Frankfurt.

http://www.khg-frankfurt.de/sose2005/frameunten/gesellschaftethik/hartz_iv.htm


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 8

Ein-Euro-Jobber kämpft um sein Recht: 52-Jähriger fühlt sich als "billige Arbeitskraft" missbraucht

Gütetermin vor Arbeitsgericht scheitert

„Nur eine "Güteverhandlung" vor dem Arbeitsgericht. Doch die Klage von Helmut W. wird bundesweit Wellen schlagen. Davon ist Wolfgang Lubig von der DGB-Rechtsschutz überzeugt. Erstmals nämlich besteht ein Euro-Jobber darauf, dass die Regelungen des Sozialgesetzbuches II eingehalten werden - nicht nur von den durch Hartz IV Gebeutelten, sondern auch vom "Maßnahmeträger"…Artikel aus dem Oberpfalznetz vom 05.05.2005.

http://www.zeitung.org/onetz/712635-118,1,0.html


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 8

Hartz IV: Strenge Ämter, milde Richter

Strenge Ämter, milde Richter. Vom Auto bis zur Eigenheimzulage: Im Zweifelsfall klären die Gerichte, was ein Arbeitsloser behalten darf.
„Gut vier Monate alt ist das Hartz-IV-Gesetz mit seinen einschneidenden Änderungen. Und schon gibt es über ein Dutzend Urteile, in denen Sozialgerichte im so genannten einstweiligen Rechtsschutzverfahren (ER) Entscheidungen der Arbeitsagenturen aufgehoben oder bestätigt haben…“ Artikel von Wolfgang Büser in der Sueddeutschen Zeitung vom 10.05.2005.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/jobkarriere/erfolggeld/artikel/885/52833/3/


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 8

Das unfehlbare Ministerium

Bundeskanzler Schröder dürfte es daher als späte Genugtuung empfunden haben, daß Trittin die erstbeste Gelegenheit nutzte, das Bundesamt an die kurze Leine zu legen. Zum Nachfolger des BfS-Präsidenten Kaul, eines mit rund 350 wissenschaftlichen Veröffentlichungen ausgewiesenen Experten für Strahlenphysik, ernannte Trittin Wolfram König, einen Ingenieur für Architektur und Gartenbau, der bei den Grünen eine Blitzkarriere gemacht hatte. Vom Sprecher des Regierungspräsidenten von Hannover war er zum Umweltstaatssekretär in Magdeburg aufgestiegen. Von der Atmosphäre, die der fachfremde neue Präsident König in seiner Behörde verbreitet, zeugen anonyme Briefe, die von Einschüchterungen, Vetternwirtschaft und manipulierten Ausschreibungen handeln.

http://tinyurl.com/a9s5k (Auszug)

AlgII und Wohnen

Bundeskoordinierungstreffen von Erwerbslosen- und Sozialhilfeinitiativen ruft zu massenhaftem Widerspruch auf

„Zur eheähnlichen Gemeinschaft und zur Nicht-Anrechnung der Eigenheimzulage gibt es nun eine Reihe richtungweisender Entscheidungen verschiedener Sozialgerichte. Das Bundesstreffen der Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Erwerbslosen- und Sozialhilfeinitiativen (BAG-SHI) nimmt diese für die ALG-II-Betroffenen erfreulichen Gerichtsentscheidungen zum Anlass, zum massenhaften Widerspruch und zur Klage gegen die bisherigen Ablehnungsbescheide der Behörden aufzurufen. Wirtschaftsminister Clement wird aufgefordert, nun von Amtswegen zu handeln und den Betroffenen endlose und unsinnige Widerspruchs- und Gerichtsverfahren zu ersparen…“ Pressemitteilung der BAG-SHI vom 09.05.2005 mit den wichtigsten Entscheidungen zur eheähnlichen Gemeinschaft.

http://www.bag-shi.de/presse/archiv/050509-pm-bundestreffen


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 8

Leitfaden Alg II/Sozialhilfe

Endlich ist es geschafft. Rainer Roth (Prof. für Sozialwissenschaften an der FH Frankfurt) und Harald Thome (Referent für Arbeitslosen- und Sozialhilferecht bei Tacheles e.V.) haben den umfangreichen Leitfaden zum Thema Arbeitslosengeld II/Sozialhilfe fertig gestellt (ISBN: 3-932246-50-0). Er ist auf dem neusten Stand (März 2005), hat 364 Seiten und erläutert anhand von 123 Stichpunkten die aktuelle Rechtslage. Er kostet inklusive der Versandkosten 7,50 Euro und kann folgendermaßen bestellt werden: per Brief: AG TuWas; Gleimstr. 3; 60318 Frankfurt oder per email: agtuwas@web.de mailto:agtuwas@web.de bzw. per Fax: 069/1533-2633. Im Internet: http://www.agtuwas.de

Alle Stichpunkte, die im Leitfaden behandelt werden finden sich unter: http://www.agtuwas.de/leitfaden_sozhilfe.html Dort finden sich auch Leseproben zu folgenden Stichworten: Arbeit; Arbeitsgelegenheiten; Einstweilige Anordnung; Regelsatz.


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 8



Wir müssen unseren Newsletter vom Freitag, dem 13.05.2005 korrigieren. Die Seite der „AG tu was“ ist momentan vom Netz. Daher gelten für alle InteressentInnen des neu erschienenen „Leitfadens ALGII/Sozialhilfe“ neue Links: Endlich ist es geschafft. Rainer Roth (Prof. für Sozialwissenschaften an der FH Frankfurt) und Harald Thome (Referent für Arbeitslosen- und Sozialhilferecht bei Tacheles e.V.) haben den umfangreichen Leitfaden zum Thema Arbeitslosengeld II/Sozialhilfe fertig gestellt ( ISBN: 3-932246-50-0) Er ist auf dem neusten Stand (März 2005), hat 364 Seiten und erläutert anhand von 123 Stichpunkten die aktuelle Rechtslage. Er kostet inklusive der Versandkosten 7,50 Euro und kann folgendermaßen bestellt werden: per Brief: AG TuWas; Gleimstr. 3; 60318 Frankfurt oder per email: agtuwas@web.de bzw. per Fax: 069/1533-2633.

Einige Stichpunkte, die im Leitfaden behandelt werden sowie Textauszüge finden sich unter: http://www.bag-shi.de/leitfaden-alg2


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 10

PSÜV Service- Point für Humankapital: Nutzwertanalyse des Grades der Gesellschaftsfähigkeit von Personen

Prolet oder Faktor Arbeit? Bestandsaufnahme des aktuellen Menschenbildes

PSÜV Service- Point für Humankapital

Der PSÜV (Psychisch-Sozialer-Überwachungs-Verein) ist der TÜV für den Menschen. Sind Sie noch gesellschaftsfähig? Lassen Sie sich checken! Der PSÜV bewertet psychosozial, ökonomisch und gesundheitlich. Persönliche Verhältnisse werden analysiert und führen zu einer Bewertung des Menschen. Funktionieren Sie noch oder funktionieren Sie schon nicht mehr? Welchen Beitrag leisten Sie zur Gesellschaft? Haben Sie noch Arbeit? Wie viele Kreditkarten besitzen Sie? Ist Ihr Alter abgesichert? Haben Sie einen iPod? Wie sieht Ihre Zukunft aus? Der PSÜV ermittelt in einer Nutzwertanalyse den Grad der Gesellschaftsfähigkeit von Personen. Nun auch online:
http://www.peterkees.de/psuev.htm


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 8

Finger weg vom Geschäft mit den entrechteten Zwangsdiensten

Aktion Agenturschluss

Am Freitag, den 20. Mai wird es in mehreren Städten Aktionen gegen die Vermittlungsstellen und Beschäftigungsträger von Ein-Euro-Jobs geben. Unsere Forderung lautet "Finger weg vom Geschäft mit den entrechteten Zwangsdiensten!"

Stellt Eure Berichte und Fotos bei http://de.indymedia.org ins Netz. Wir sammeln die Beiträge und stellen sie auf der Agenturschluss-Seite zusammen.

Falls Ihr Eure Aktion vorab bekannt machen wollt, könnt Ihr eine Ankündigung/Pressemitteilung an agentur_schluss@yahoo.com schicken. Die lokale Pressearbeit machen die Gruppen vor Ort selbst.

Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 8

Auswirkung des Mobiltelefonierens auf die roten Blutkörperchen

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/568914/

Wissenschaft und Mobilfunk

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/293807/

Bleibende Mutationen in Fruchtfliegen durch Handy Strahlung

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/688725/ (Englisch)

Wissenschaft und Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/688802/

Permanent mutations in fruit flies by cell phone radiation

Friday May 13th 2005, 10:51 am

On May 3rd on this list I posted an article on how two German high school students investigated the influence of using a mobile phone on the red blood cells.

Omega see under:
Cell Phones May Harm Blood Cells
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/592426/

Now we have a American high school student (below) researching for mutations in fruit flies exposed to wireless RF radiation. A growing trend I hope.

Its good that these young researchers didn’t first get expert advice from the likes of Motorola. According to Motorola’s brought-and-paid-for scientists, Swicord, Joyner and Elder, they already have all the data to show that all is wonderfully safe with cell phones, even for toddlers - so why waste scarce research funds on doing “unnecessary” research.

Replace “unnecessary” with “damaging” and its more to the point.

Don Maisch

PRESS RELEASE MAY 12, 2005

Permanent mutations in fruit flies by cell phone radiation
http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=47



Effects of mobile phone radiation on reproduction and development in Drosophila melanogaster
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287969/

Effect of GSM 900MHz Mobile Phone Radiation on the Reproductive Capacity of Drosophila Melanogaster
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/327118/

NUKING DEMOCRACY

With the Republicans threatening a vote on the judges next week, I thought the enclosed article might give some ammunition to pressure any possible swing Senators, to not blow up 200 years of Senate traditions, just so the Republicans can ram through any ultra-right judges that they choose.

Do please pass it on to anyone whose voice might be heard.

PL



NUKING DEMOCRACY

At the height of the nuclear arms race, those who marched against it used to say that in the ashes of a nuclear war, no one could tell a capitalist from a communist. "Not necessarily," others would joke, "Richard Perle could tell." For Perle, even total annihilation would have its victors and losers, and he knew which side he wanted to be on.

Perle has continued to preach the virtues of usable nuclear weapons while helping orchestrate our invasion of Iraq. Now he's a key allied strategist of an administration willing to obliterate democracy itself if they don't get their way on judicial nominees and everything else.

I'm thinking of the ease with which Trent Lott, Bill Frist, and other Republicans have talked of a "nuclear option" to intimidate the Democrats into capitulating on every right wing judge that Bush sends to Congress.

Although Republicans have backed off from using the phrase since it began polling negative, it may reveal more than they intended about their Party. They doesn't just seek to enact particular programs, but have done their best to turn politics into total war, seeking to annihilate the opposition completely.

Their talk of political nuclear strikes in fact goes further than the actual Cold War arms race. The logic of Mutually Assured Destruction was at least partly defensive, even if its brinksmanship almost destroyed the planet. The Soviets wouldn't attack us for risk of being annihilated. We'd do the same. A precarious balance would hold. Of course the US didn't just use nuclear weapons for nuclear deterrence: We brandished them against the Chinese in Korea and offered them to the French in Vietnam. Nixon, through Kissinger, threatened their use on North Vietnam if they didn't surrender, then backed off in response to massive US anti-war demonstrations. But with the exception of people like Perle and Herman Kahn, our leaders mostly justified ultimate risks in the name of preventing an ultimate cataclysm.

So what is the threat that merits blowing up 200 years of the Senate's right to require more than a bare majority to confirm lifetime judicial nominees? That they might only get 95% of their nominees through? That Republican presidents would end up with just an overwhelming majority of judges already appointed, and not every single one? That someone somewhere might not bend to their will? The only threat they're facing is resistence to their absolute power, but that now seems to be threat enough.

Honorable conservatives used to warn against the raw power of the state. It was Lord Acton who wrote, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." But now that the political right controls more and more of our key institutions, the love of power has become their religion, and the slightest notion of checks or balances heretical treason.

In relations with the world, this administration has pulled out of every international rule and treaty from global warming, to bio terrorism, to land mines--substituting a rule of raw force that insists we can do whatever we choose because God is on our side. John Bolton as UN nominee just flaunts this approach. Now this administration is trying the same thing on the domestic front. Surrender or be obliterated.

The filibuster hasn't always been used for good. It was a prime tool of Southern segregationists blocking civil right bills promoted in part by moderate Republicans. But to annihilate 200 years of tradition simply because you happen to hold the reins of power is to worship this power as a God. They may not be destroying the world to save it, but they'd be perfectly content with the ashes of democracy.

Paul Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear (Basic Books), named the #3 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and American Book Association, and of Soul of a Citizen. See http://www.theimpossible.org

BOLTON BATTLE REVEALS EXTREME POLARIZATION

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-051205assess_lat,0,4241813.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Republican partisanship chief factor in muted opposition to Iraq war

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2215/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Dissidents Warn of Death of Labor Movement

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/051205LC.shtml

Bolton Asserts Right to 'Interpret' Intelligence

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051205Z.shtml

Combat Stress

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051205O.shtml

Body Counts

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051205M.shtml

Washington Press Corps Takes Steps to Loosen Bush's Grip

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051205L.shtml

God's Own Party?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051205H.shtml

The Young and the Jobless

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051205G.shtml

Everything You Wanted to Know about the "Nuclear Option"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051205F.shtml

Flushing Koran Down Toilet at Gitmo Spurs New Violence

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051205B.shtml

Secret Bush-Blair War Plan Sparks Outrage

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051205A.shtml

Bolton Vote a "Slap at the President"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051205X.shtml

Wal-Mart crushes union by closing store

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=637423


Informant: NHNE

12
Mai
2005

Let's Hit the "Paper Trail"

Let's Hit the "Paper Trail" on June 9

Are you passionate about the need for laws requiring voting machines to produce a voter verified paper ballot?

Here's an opportunity to make a real difference.
http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M68816236459860614607365

As of today, 20 states have passed "paper trail" laws - a tremendous achievement. (Two of these bills await the governor's signature to become law.) However, these laws are not equally effective; while some are terrific, others are weak. Some have a long waiting period before they go into effect.

There is a better way. As you know, Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Senators John Ensign (R-NV) and Harry Reid (D-NV) have introduced bills in the House and the Senate respectively - H.R. 550
http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M68816246459860614607365 and S. 330 http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M68816256459860614607365
- that would make voter verified paper ballots mandatory across the country. Unfortunately, both bills are stuck in committee.

So let's get them moving! Come to Washington, DC, on June 9 and 10 to talk directly with members of Congress. With enough co-signers onboard, we can get this legislation to the floor for a vote.
http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M68817336459860614607365

Sign up to reserve your spot for our national paper trail lobby days by going directly to:
http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M68816266459860614607365

http://www.commoncause.org/RSVPforPaperTrailLobbyDays

Our coalition of organizations includes Electronic Frontier Foundation, Rock the Vote, Verified Voting, VotersUnite, VoteTrustUSA, and Working Assets. Join us and our coalition partners for Capitol Hill Lobby Days on June 9 and 10 to talk to our federal lawmakers in person and advocate for the passage of these crucial election reform bills:

http://www.commoncause.org/RSVPforPaperTrailLobbyDays

If you have never lobbied before, have no worries. It's fun! Besides, we're planning a training session on the morning of June 9, where you'll get all the information you'll need to feel like an old pro. We will also help you find lodging for your visit and there's a Capitol Hill party planned for Thursday night, too, with special guests.

It's even more fun if you come with a friend, so spread the word.
http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M68816296459860614607365

For more information about what Common Cause is doing to reform our broken election system, visit our Action For Elections center.
http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M68816306459860614607365
If you have not done so, don't forget to sign our Save Our Elections petition.
http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M68816316459860614607365

We hope you can come to the Capitol Hill Lobby Days on June 9 & 10 - we'd love to meet you in person. In the meantime, thanks for your passion and commitment to election reform.
http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M68817346459860614607365

Sincerely,

The Election Reform Team
Barbara Burt
Election Reform Team Leader
http://www.commoncause.org/Elections

Alex, DJ, Ed, Jenny, Lisa, Mary, Mike, Murshed, Rachel, and Susannah

Citizen Group Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Order the FCC to Study Health Effects of Cell Tower Emissions

http://www.emrpolicy.org/news/press/10may05_sc_letterhead.pdf

Supreme Court Petition filed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Janet Newton - The EMR Policy Institute
Tel: (802) 426-3035
Email: JNewton@emrpolicy.org

CITIZEN GROUP ASKS U.S. SUPREME COURT TO ORDER THE FCC TO STUDY HEALTH EFFECTS OF BROADCAST TV, RADIO AND CELL TOWERS EMISSIONS

Washington, D.C., May 10, 2005 -- EMR Network, a nationwide advocacy group of citizens and professionals concerned with the environmental impact of radiofrequency (RF) radiation, today filed a petition in the United States Supreme Court asking the Court to order the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to research the impact on human health of continuous low-power ultra-high frequency wireless transmissions.

The group’s petition for certiorari asks the high court to overturn an FCC order and Court of Appeals decision refusing to gather information and thoroughly investigate the consequences of 24/7 exposure to signals from TV/Radio broadcast facilities and cell towers that power 180 million mobile phones across the country.

Current FCC RF exposure limits make no distinction between children, the elderly, or the ailing among the general population.

Whitney North Seymour, Jr. is providing legal counsel for this appeal pro bono. His legal career has included private practice, a term as federal prosecutor for New York, and public interest work with a particular interest in environmental law, having co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1969. He also served as a senator in the New York State Assembly. The EMR Policy Institute assisted in preparing the petition.

Background information and the Petition for Writ of Certiorari are found at: http://www.emrpolicy.org/litigation/case_law/index.htm


Janet Newton, President
The EMR Policy Institute, P.O. Box 117, Marshfield VT 05658
Tel: (802) 426-3035 FAX: (802) 426-3030
Web Site: http://www.emrpolicy.org

An Attack on Liberty, 100-0

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/smith-h1.html

Desperately Seeking Virtue in the Bush Administration

http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski110.html

Prophetic Noahs and Paul Reveres sound alarms

05/11/05

The prophet Noah talked to people about changing their ways. They ignored him. Noah built an ark, gathered his family and hosted animals to join them. They survived and rebuilt civilization after the flood. Those who ignored Noah's warning and continued their destruction perished. We live in mythic times. 'The British are coming!' Paul Revere broadcast, awakening the slumbering colonists. Now some 230 years later, perhaps the appropriate warning would be something like, 'The Americans are creating a global catastrophe!' A civilization-destroying flood or the British Empire no longer threaten us, but other dangers abound. According to four recent books, America and those on its industrial highway may be heading into contraction, turbulence, chaos, or even collapse...

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0511-20.htm

from Common Dreams, by Shepherd Bliss


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Attac-Aktion vor dem Bundestag: Nein zu dieser EU-Verfassung

Attac Deutschland
Pressemitteilung
Berlin, 12. Mai 2005

* Attac-Aktion vor dem Reichstagsgebäude (Fotos online):
* "Nein zu dieser EU-Verfassung" / Botschaft nach Frankreich

Mit einer symbolischen Aktion haben Mitglieder des globalisierungskritischen Netzwerks Attac parallel zur Bundestagsentscheidung gegen die EU-Verfassung protestiert. "Für ein soziales, friedliches, ökologisches Europa - darum: Nein zu dieser EU-Verfassung" stand auf einem zehn Meter großen Transparent, das quer vor dem Besuchereingang des Reichstagsgebäudes aufgespannt wurde. "Entgegen aller Schönrederei im Bundestag schreibt diese Verfassung eine neoliberale und militaristische Politik dauerhaft fest", sagte Stephan Lindner von der Attac-EU-AG.

Im Vorfeld des französischen Referendums schickten die Attac-Mitglieder, die von Aktivisten von 'solid und der Friedensbewegung aktiv unterstützt wurden, mit ihrer Aktion auch eine Botschaft nach Frankreich: Mit der Parole, "Amis francais, dites NON au nom des Allemands" baten sie die Franzosen, auch in ihrem Namen mit Nein zu stimmen. Zudem bildeten sie aus ihren Körpern ein "NON" in den Farben der Trikolore. "Die breite Mehrheit im Bundestag ist nicht repräsentativ, denn in Deutschland gab es kaum Informationen, keine Debatte und keine Mitbestimmungsmöglichkeit für die Menschen", kritisierte Peter Wahl vom Attac-Koordinierungskreis. "Jetzt ruhen die Hoffnungen auf Frankreich, Belgien und Dänemark. Mit einem Nein zu dieser Verfassung können sie die Voraussetzung für ein demokratischeres, sozialeres und friedlicheres Europa schaffen."

Die Attac-Kritik am Verfassungsentwurf hatten zuletzt 188 Intellektuelle und politisch Aktive in einem öffentlichen Aufruf unterstützt, der Belege für den neoliberalen Charakter der Verfassung und die weiterhin bestehenden Demokratiedefizite liefert (siehe http://www.attac.de/eu-verfassung/anzeige/ ).

Fotos von der Aktion in druckfähiger Auflösung:
* online unter http://www.attac.de/eu-verfassung/non

Für Rückfragen:
* Stephan Lindner, Tel. (0176) 2434 2789
* Peter Wahl, Tel. (0160) 823 4377
* Tobias Pflüger, MdE, Tel. (0174) 765 0483


------------------------------------------------
Malte Kreutzfeldt
Pressesprecher Attac Deutschland
------------------------------------------------
Post: Münchener Str. 48, 60329 Frankfurt/M
Tel.: 069/900 281-42, Mobil: 0170-233 4746
Mail: presse@attac.de, Fax: 069/900 281-99
-------------------------------------------------

Aus: Attac-eu-info

Update from the Field 5/12/05

Buffalo Field Campaign
Update from the Field
May 12, 2005

------------------------------
New to the Issue? Check here for background:
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/issueinbrief.html
------------------------------
* Update from the Field
* Call Montana's Governor
* Prayer Ceremony for the Buffalo this Saturday
* BFC Volunteer Takes the Buffalo's Story Home
* Tonight @ 7:30: Montana PBS Documentary on Buffalo
* Last Words (by Japhy Ryder Sanchez)

------------------------------
* Update from the Field

As the Spring tide flows and the sun waxes high, the landscape dons a greener mantle, giggling pink, purple, yellow and white flower-shaped secrets. Red and yellow buds burst from the stalks of willows, aspens finally begin to show signs of red life. All the ice is gone, driven away by rain. These past few days have been very wet, cool and windy and today on this mid-May morning, we awoke to a surprising light cover of wet snow. It is still falling as I write.
Out on Horse Butte where the vernal dance comes alive from beneath and between the quartz and lava rock, brand new baby buffalo take their first steps. These are the last wild buffalo's chosen calving grounds. Perhaps there are certain plants to aid childbirth that only grow there, that only buffalo-wisdom can pick out to ease labor or offer succulent nutrition. Perhaps it is simply the huge south-facing slope, the first to be touched by the sun. As water falls from the sky, we wonder to each other if the grass tastes sweeter all wet with rain. Some try it and say "yes." All around us, buffalo grunt and breathe, munching the sweet grass, while tiny red buffalo suckle their mothers, dance around and get to know their new legs, each other and their amazing surroundings. It is good to be alive! Even better to be a wild buffalo on Horse Butte in the height of Spring!

But, after yesterday's nefarious government activities, nearly all the buffalo are gone. The Butte is sadly empty. Haunted, too, are the surrounding forests and willows that lead to this sacred site. The landscape holds large and tiny footprints, fertilizing droppings, some hairs caught on branches, but nothing else. The buffalo are gone. Mothers, babies, and bulls--all run off of their chosen land. Their absence is heavily felt. They have been pushed back. Forced away. Hazed. Chased. Hounded to exhaustion. Walked and run and kicked off their ancestral landscape in sad humiliation and with utter disrespect. Helicopter, horses, ATVs, and trucks roared through here and created a sick void where once the gentle, shaggy giants and the little red babies played. Slightly to the north and east lay the empty spaces of Fir Ridge, Duck Creek, and Cougar Creek. Favorite haunts of gigantic bull buffalo, magnificent in their masculinity. Accompanying crazy young bulls seem to make a dangerous game of crossing the road and challenging semis, giving BFC volunteers who warn motorists of their crossings anxiety attacks. Unpredictable in their awesome wildness, we catch our breath as they graze and then dance across the road that bisects the land, back and forth and back again. They were making their way toŠ to wherever it is they would go if they were simply allowed to be buffalo.

In Montana, however, it is a crime to be a buffalo. The penalties are harsh and severe. It doesn't matter if you are weeks old, pregnant, in labor, unable to transmit cattle diseases, and never have anyway. Being a wild buffalo in Montana is against the law. And it doesn't even matter that there are no cattle around. No matter that this is native buffalo habitat. The empty landscape cries out loud in it's need for wild buffalo. Everywhere we feel their absence and wish to catch a glimpse of their dark, mountainous shapes. The buffalo's rightful landscape has been stolen for (invisible) European cows.

Instead of celebrating the magical, sacred, native buffalo, the livestock industry of Montana lashes out in fear and takes a violent, offensive position. They say they fear the transmission of a disease called brucellosis; a disease given to native wildlife by European cattle. A disease buffalo have developed immunities to. The buffalo are the targets of a centuries-old range war that manifests itself in the form of disease eradication. Intolerance. Control. Greed. Fear. DOL agents mock cowboys and with the financial and active support of the United States Government, drive the native buffalo off of their habitat, which consists primarily of National Forest lands. They sent out a helicopter again yesterday to scare up moms, babies, and bulls. It chased them down like a monster, blades cut the air, terrorizing the ecosystem and surrounding neighborhoods. DOL agents dress to the nine in cowboy attire, mount their horses, and smile as they forcefully drive the country's last wild buffalo across state lines, federal lines, pushing them into an arbitrary man-made box: Yellowstone National Park. Take out a map of the country. The buffalo once roamed nearly the entire space of it. Now take a look at Yellowstone National Park. Comparatively, it's a small dot on the map. This is currently the only place where state and federal officials will let wild buffalo be. When wild buffalo migrate, when they choose to cross these invisible lines, they are hazed, captured, quarantined, or slaughtered. They "threaten" macho livestock interests with a disease domestic cattle gave them, one that wild buffalo have never spread. Native buffalo have been displaced by European cattle, and if they dare set foot onto the lands they lost, wellŠ there's hell to pay.

This is the way it is, but it doesn't have to remain so. There are solutions. Cattle can be contained, public lands grazing allotments can be relocated off of wild buffalo habitat, stronger fences can be built for cattle on private lands, better vaccines can be developed and administered to cattle. Let us protect migratory corridors that allow buffalo to be buffalo and reclaim their native lands and restore the prairies. Let the Department of Livestock hold authority over cattle. Let the wolves manage the wild buffalo. Let Montana celebrate the buffalo as a valued and respected native wildlife species. Let the state's wildlife agency - not livestock interests - resume management authority. The cattle industry in Montana boasts $1 billion annually; the tourism industry boasts over $3 billion. Tourists come to see the wilds of Montana, not it's cattle. Cattle are everywhere in America. The last wild buffalo are now only here. Let them roam! Restore the grasses. End public lands cattle grazing! Bring the landscape back to life. Bring back the wild buffalo! Visualize it. Demand it. Speak up. Take action. It will happen if you want it to.

For the Last Wild Buffalo,
~Stephany
-----------------------------
* Call Montana's Governor

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer has the power to get the ball rolling for wild buffalo in Montana. He has the power to remove management authority from the Department of Livestock. He has the power to secure critical habitat for wild buffalo in the state. He has the power to respect buffalo as a valued, native wildlife species. He has the power, but he will only act on it if he hears from you. A great friend of wildlife, Brock Evans, says "endless pressure, endlessly applied" is what it will take. So be it. For the last wild buffalo, please call Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer today!

406-444-3111
-----------------------------
* Prayer Ceremony for the Buffalo This Saturday, May 14
This Saturday, May 14, we will gather here in West Yellowstone and throughout the world in prayer for the Yellowstone buffalo. Clem, a dedicated supporter of the buffalo, has generously arranged to pay for flights for he and Keith, a Dakota Sioux and Ojibway medicine man who will lead our volunteers in ceremony for the buffalo. We have been busy gathering the items necessary for the ceremony and are looking forward to the weekend.

If you live in the area and would like to join us, please contact us for more information. If you live afar and would like to gather with friends and others who care about the buffalo, please join us in prayer late Saturday afternoon.

Please write to dan@wildrockies.org with any questions.

-----------------------------
* BFC Volunteer Takes the Buffalo's Story Home

Stuart Tedrick, BFC coordinator and volunteer extraordinaire recently returned home to Maine for a spell. While he was there he was busy spreading the word in his hometown community about the country's last wild buffalo. Here's a news article that his former school ran:

http://www.kentshill.org/common/inc_detail.asp?newsid=171810&L1=5&L2=1

Nice work, Stu! Thanks for your hard work and dedication all in the name of the last wild buffalo!

-----------------------------
*Tonight @ 7:30: Montana PBS Documentary on Buffalo

Montanans, if you have television, consider watching this PBS documentary, "Bison of Yellowstone: Managing an American Icon." Airing at 7:30 pm Thursday, then again at 11:00 on Monday morning, the documentary aims to demonstrate that the buffalo's story is a conservation success, and that the American bison now flourishes. However, with all due respect, we beg to differ. It is true that there are approximately 500,000 buffalo in the country, yet the vast majority of these have been domesticated as livestock and polluted with cattle genes. The Yellowstone herd is the only continuously wild and genetically pure herd left in the country, and their nubers have been diminished from 60 million to a mere 4,200. If they leave Yellowstone and enter Montana, they are systematically hazed, captured, quarantined and slaughtered by state and federal agencies. They are treated by Montana as an animal "in need of disease control" and are not allowed to migrate, as is the buffalo's nature. They are not respected as wildlife, even though they are a native wildlife species and an integral part of the country's grassland ecosystems. The last wild buffalo are radio-collared, tagged, shaved, and striped with black dye, vaccinated with an ineffective livestock vaccine, and females are being fitted with invasive vaginal transmitters. They are repeatedly run off of their native habitat, and prevented from their instinctual migration. Their story can hardly be considered a conservation success. We have a long way to go. Please consider watching the program, and based on the information given and what you know, write to PBS and thank them for running a story about buffalo. If it's not covered, let them know the truth about what is happening to the country's last wild buffalo and urge them to do a story that tells it from the buffalo's perspective.

For more information on the program, visit http://www.montanapbs.org/Terra/episode102/ .
To contact PBS, call or email them at (800) 426-8243 or feedback@montanapbs.org.

P.S. We don't have TV here. If you can record it, would you send us a copy? Thanks!

-----------------------------
* Last Words

Why the Buffalo are Important

The buffalo are important to me because at one point they gave their lives to the people. The people loved the buffalo and the buffalo loved the people. The people used every part of the buffalo; hides for tipis, hooves for glue, bladder for water skins, food from its body, tools from its bones, cups from the horns, rope from its hair, even sleds from its ribs. The people needed the buffalo and the buffalo needed the people. Now, 200 years later, the buffalo are being killed off by the hundreds by the thousands. Right now the buffalo are important to me because they're gentle creatures and they wouldn't hurt a fly. Unless of course they had to protect themselves. They're beautiful creatures. All they ask for is their freedom. What else would you ask for if you were being hazed, harassed, penned up in cages, being poked and prodded and shot?

Think about that.

I want to see the buffalo roam free. I want to see the babies play peacefully in the sage. And I want to see mother buffalo being able to calve on their traditional calving grounds.

By Japhy Ryder Sanchez
Age 8 (okay, he's almost 9)

------------------------------

Media & Outreach
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

BFC is the only group working in the field every day
to defend the last wild herd of buffalo in America.

Stay informed! Get our weekly email Updates from the Field:
Send your email address to Stop-the-Slaughter-on@vortex.wildrockies.org

Speak Out! Contact politicians and involved agencies today!
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/politicians.html

Write a Letter to the Editor of key newspapers!
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/lte.html

Help the buffalo by recycling your used printer cartridges! It's free and easy.
Visit http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/support/recycleprint.html.

WEEKLY WATCH 123

from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor

Yet again, inspiring news comes from India, this time in the form of a public interest lawsuit to stop the release of GMOs (ASIA).

We have an update on the catalogue of failure, death and illness that is MEDICAL BIOTECH. And a revealing report from America that completely squashes the old biotech claim that growing pharma drugs in open fields of food crops is cheaper than producing them in the traditional way, in contained conditions (THE AMERICAS).

Claire claire@gmwatch.org
http://www.gmwatch.org / http://www.lobbywatch.org


CONTENTS
LOBBYWATCH

ASIA
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
MEDICAL BIOTECH
QUOTE OF THE WEEK


LOBBYWATCH

+ GM CROP USE "LIMITED" IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES - UN REPORT
In contrast with the usual industry hype, the use of GM crops by developing nations is very problematic and has been limited, says a recent UN report. The US accounted for a hefty 59 percent of of GM agriculture in 2004. Only 16 other countries grew GM crops, led by Argentina (20 percent of the total area), Canada and Brazil (6 percent each), China (5 percent), Paraguay (2 percent), and India and South Africa (a mere 1 percent each), according to the report.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5227

+ DISPELLING MYTHS?
In 2003, the American Soybean Association (ASA) published "Correcting the Myths" to counter the "misunderstandings, half-truths and sometimes blatant falsehoods" spread by the critics of "ag biotech".

Two years later, according to ASA's Technical Issues Director, Kimball Nill, "we realise our document needs to be updated - because the facts just got better." The result is a new ASA report, "Dispelling the myths".

According to Nill, "We wanted to add the rational, independent farmers' voice to the world's biotech debate."

Independent? Prior to joining the ASA, Nill served "in several positions supporting Monsanto Company's venture capital and biotechnology R&D efforts". His current employer, ASA, has also enjoyed a close relationship with Monsanto, receiving a significant part of its multi-million dollar budget from the likes of Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred, BASF, and others.

Nill also works for the Agriculture Commodity Coalition which is funded by the biotech-industry backed Council for Biotech Information (CBI) to run a coordinated pro-GM public information campaign under the slogan "Farmers for the benefits of Biotechnology".

Part of Nill's ASA role is to "proactively" deal with "threats & opportunities" arising from "emerging international technology related issues that could impact U.S. soybean exports".

Being backed by the biotechs to protect American farm exports gives a whole new meaning to adding the "independent farmers' voice to the world's biotech debate"!
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5231

Meanwhile the American Corn Growers Association is reporting how biotech arrogance is losing U.S. farmers important exports. (see THE AMERICAS)

+ BLAIR APPOINTS BIOTECH LOBBYIST TO GOVT
British prime minister Tony Blair has just placed in the Ministry of Defence the man who has been tipped to be Lord Sainsbury's successor as science minister - Lord Drayson, the former head of the BioIndustry Association - motto: 'Promoting UK Biotechnology'. Like Sainsbury, Drayson is a major donor to the Labour Party and has been given a peerage by Blair in highly controversial circumstances.

Drayson made a substantial donation to Labour while the Ministry of Defence was deciding who should be awarded a smallpox vaccine contract. Drayson gave a further donation of half a million pounds to Labour just six weeks after the PM made him Lord Drayson. The Blair government awarded Drayson's company the GBP32million smallpox vaccine contract without any competition.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5220

The Guardian comments on the Drayson appointment: "... one's eye is caught by the appointment of Lord Smallpox, aka Paul Drayson, whose enoblement last year was swiftly followed by a cheque to party funds of half a million pounds. The noble lord is now a minister at the Ministry of Defence. It may be unkind to Lord Drayson to suggest that he effectively purchased a seat in parliament, but if the same thing happened in an African kleptocracy we might find it altogether less amusing."
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5224

+ GM PHARM FIRM CLAIMS GREENPEACE SUPPORT
Eric Murphy, chief scientist with Agragen, a North-Dakota based company that wants to genetically engineer flax, has been claiming that Greenpeace favours GM plant-made pharmaceutical production of a form of omega-3 fatty acid. It's not the first time that desperate GM companies have made spurious claims about Greenpeace support. False stories have been circulated by the biotech lobby that Greenpeace dropped its opposition to GM crops in the case of Golden Rice. Murphy also claims that the European public is becoming more relaxed about pharma plant production!
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5215

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+ IMPORTANT LEGAL CHALLENGE LAUNCHED IN INDIA
A new legal challenge to the release of GMOs was launched in India on 12 May with a press conference attended by three TV channels and other media organisations. The challenge calls for a moratorium on the release of all GMOs into the Indian environment and for biosafety testing.

The legal action looks set to throw up some extremely interesting material and issues that are as important to the rest of the world as they are to India.

EXCERPT from the press release:
Dr Arpad Pusztai... in a prepared statement to the Supreme Court says: "No comprehensive health and environmental risk assessment has been carried out with Bt cotton and even less published in peer-reviewed science journals. With a potentially toxic crop [which goes into the food chain via animal feed] whose anti-nutrients, (toxins such as gossypol, cyclopropenoid fatty acids or the potent carcinogenic aflatoxins, are well-known to accumulate in the subcutaneous fatty tissues of consumers... In the absence of conclusive evidence for the lack of toxicity, responsible GM regulatory authorities must prevent the cultivation, commercialisation and food use of GM cotton and its products".
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5230

+ SEIZE ILLEGAL GM COTTON SEEDS - NGOs
Farmers' organisations and NGOs have urged India's regulatory body to direct state governments to seize stocks of illegal and unapproved varieties of Bt cotton seeds before the sowing season.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5217

+ WHY SEEDS BILL IS DISASTER FOR INDIA'S FARMERS
Critics say that India's proposed Seeds Bill will destroy farmers' livelihoods. "It is a Bill drafted under pressure from seed manufacturing MNCs like Monsanto. It has the potential to spell doom for Indian agriculture. Most of the seed varieties used in Indian agriculture today are farmer-produced. If farmers are not allowed to save and sell their own seeds, there can't be any agriculture here. The only aim of this Bill is to force the farmer to buy seeds from the market," says Vandana Shiva of Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5214

+ URGENT RETHINK NEEDED OVER GOLDEN RICE
Dr Md Shahjahan Ali, Professor in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, has warned that the experimental cultivation of golden rice in Bangldesh "may cause deformity of other varieties of rice. It is a matter of great concern to us that if this variety starts polluting the environment it would be very difficult to take remedial measures".
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5214

+ INDIA'S NATIONAL BIOTECH DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY NEEDS RADICAL OVERHAUL
In a powerful critique, Dr Suman Sahai says the draft report lays out a biotech policy tfor India that "will be more lax and negligent than almost any other in the world. This is even more frightening when one thinks that this is being proposed in a country where agriculture and food are sensitive issues, where small farmers are vulnerable and where the agricultural research system and the regulatory systems have large question marks hanging over their performance."
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5214

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THE AMERICAS
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+ HEALTH CANADA WHISTLEBLOWERS WIN REVIEW
Three Health Canada scientists who say they were fired for raising questions about the way that the agency approves veterinary drugs have won another round in their years-long battle in their campaign for reinstatement.

The Federal Court quietly released a decision on April 29 ordering the public service integrity office (PSIO) to reconsider complaints from Shiv Chopra, Margaret Haydon, and Gerard Lambert that they, and the late Cris Bassude, had been pressured - and then sacked - for speaking out about the dangers of mad cow disease and about the use of Monsanto's GM growth hormones and antibiotics in the food supply. The PSIO had decided in 2003 that the allegations submitted by the applicants were unfounded.

The PSIO has no idea when the review will take place. "They are trying to starve us out," one of the fired scientists, Shiv Chopra, said. "But if that's what they think, they are wrong." Chopra, who is now 70, has no income and is trying to sell his house. "What are they going to do? They've fired me once, they can't fire me again." Chopra is using his time to finish a book he's calling Corrupt to the Core - Memoirs of a Whistleblower, which he expects to finish this summer.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5213

+ U.S. DERAILS GM LABELLING
The international Codex Committee on Food Labelling on 11 May deferred a decision on the mandatory labelling of GM food after the US and four other countries tried to derail global support for an international standard for labelling of GMOs from European, African and Asian countries.

Forty countries have mandatory labelling of GM and this accounts for one third of the world's population. Despite this, a handful of countries tried to terminate discussions on the GM labelling guidelines at Codex, namely the US, Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Philippines.

In two cases - Australia and Thailand, governments of countries that already have labelling sought to help the US block labelling spreading!http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5228
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5232

Report by US Public Interest Research Group on the US's role in stalling the 12-year-old effort to achieve labelling:
http://pirg.org/ge/GE.asp?id2=7253&id3=ge&

+ BIOTECH ARROGANCE IS LOSING U.S. EXPORTS - AMERICAN CORN GROWERS
The American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF) and the American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) are warning US corn farmers that key US corn gluten exports are being lost due to unapproved GMO varieties that are unacceptable in various markets.

"Blundering biotech companies and their arrogance toward world buyers and consumers cost the US the valuable, cash paying European Union (EU-25) corn market since 1996, and caused substantial corn export reductions to Japan. Now, adding insult to economic injury, some biotech companies and their carelessness is putting the EU-25 import market for US corn gluten feed and meal in serious jeopardy, with the EU-25 now testing every cargo," says Dan McGuire, CEO of ACGF.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5222

+ VENTRIA'S GM PHARMING NO CHEAPER THAN CONTAINED PRODUCTION
The lure of GM pharma plants is supposed to be that you can manufacture expensive pharmaceuticals more cheaply in plants. But it now seems that the human proteins which the California based bio-pharma firm, Ventria Bioscience, is wanting to grow in rice, can be produced just as cheaply in contained conditions!

Indeed, according to an article at
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5218
another firm is already doing just that. "Our actual costs," says Rick Barsky, chief executive officer of Agennix Inc, "are comparable to [Ventria's] best guess of their projected costs."

+ MOMMY, IS AUNT SALLY IN THE RICE PUFFS?
A very readable article with the above title on the craziness of Ventria Bioscience's plan to put human DNA into rice is at
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5221

EXCERPTS:
Pharmaceutical rice could be spread by cross-pollination, floods, rice-eating birds, rice grains in farm equipment, or human error in distribution. Risks from pharmed rice include allergic reactions, aggravation of bacterial infections, and autoimmune disorders.

Farmers might be less nervous if Ventria had liability insurance. But instead of purchasing enough insurance, Ventria has its public relations artists spin the yarn that dangers are too little to worry about. "It can't happen here" is the essence of its message. But it has happened. The StarLink corn incident of 2000 led to a $1 billion recall...

... When Grandpa is spliced into a pollinating plant, he just keeps blowin' in the wind forever. His DNA becomes part of the diet of all who eat the plant. Unlike exploding gas tanks, Grandpa's genes can't be recalled.

+ BIOLOGY PROF RESIGNED OVER GOVT USE OF GM RESEARCH
Dr Martha Crouch, a former biology professor at the University of Indiana, ran a lab dedicated to plant research but decided to end her career when she found that biotech companies were co-opting her research for profit. See interview at:
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5209

EXCERPT:
Dr Crouch: This was 15 years ago, about 1990, and it was at the very beginning of genetic engineering in agriculture... I could see the writing on the wall, from the consulting that I was doing that genetic engineering was going to promote industrial agriculture. And I feel industrial agriculture is one of the major reasons that the environment is in the sad shape it is today. So, I couldn't, in good conscience, continue that kind of research.

...I was doing work on canola... We didn't have any particular application in mind, but we were doing some consulting with Unilever in Great Britain, and they were using oil palm plantations around the world to make edible oil. They used some of our research to make the trees more genetically uniform so that they could grow larger plantations, and in the process, they cut down a lot of rain forests, kicked Indians off their land, polluted the rivers with the waste products of the processing of the oil. I was horrified by that because my own allegiance is with the small farmers and with the rain forests, and the idea that the kind of knowledge we were generating about how genes work was primarily being used to promote that kind of destruction, really sent me back to the basics of why research is funded... I shut down my lab.

+ ALASKA: BILL REQUIRES LABELLING OF GM FISH
In an important setback for the biotech industry, GM fish will need to be labelled as such when sold in Alaska. The Alaska House approved the measure unanimously.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5223

+ NEW CAMPAIGN: STOP FEEDING KIDS GMOs!
The Sierra Club has announced the release of its new campaign to Stop Feeding Kids GMOs! The campaign aims to get GMOs out of school meals and replace them with safe food. The Club is offering school meal campaigners a packet of materials, which includes the video, Hidden Dangers in Kids' Meals, and a CD titled, You're Eating WHAT? produced by Jeffrey Smith, director of the Institute for Responsible Technology.
www.sierraclub.org/biotech
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5223

+ DEMAND FOR ORGANICS SOARING
In the US, the market for organic foods has soared from $3.57 billion in 1997 to $10.38 billion in 2003, according to Organic Trade Association.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5223

+ U.S. GOVT MUST COME CLEAN ON SECRET DEALINGS WITH SYNGENTA
Environmental and food safety groups have demanded in a letter to the heads of three US regulatory agencies that the government remove unapproved GM corn from the nation's food and seed supply pending a thorough risk assessment. The groups also called for the public release of details surrounding the government's secret dealings with the crop's developer, Sygnenta.

Several hundred tons of the unapproved Bt10 corn, enough to plant 37,000 acres, were mistakenly sold to US farmers under the name of an approved variety from 2001 to 2004. The resultant harvest of an estimated 165,000 tons have been sold as food or feed in the US and abroad.

Syngenta first informed the US government of the mix-up in December 2004, but federal regulatory officials did not inform the US public that they were eating the untested corn until the story leaked four months later. US trading partners were also kept in the dark about possible importation of the corn.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5229

+ "FATHER OF GENE THERAPY" STILL FACING SEX ABUSE CHARGES
A judge has dismissed two of six sex abuse charges against William French Anderson, because they fell outside the six-year statute of limitations. Anderson still faces one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14 and three counts of committing a lewd act upon a child.

Considered the "father of gene therapy," Anderson has been placed on administrative leave as director of the Gene Therapies Laboratories at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. He was Time magazine's runner-up for man of the year in 1995.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5219

Quote from French Anderson on gene therapy: "...we realised that, that we just didn't know enough about what was going on, that the body had reactions, had defences that we didn't really understand, and it really required going back and really rethinking everything we were doing."
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5226

Biotech and porn:
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=155
http://ngin.tripod.com/071101b.htm

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EUROPE
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+ "SECRET" DEALS SPLIT BEE ASSOCIATION
A bitter dispute is tearing the British beekeeping world in two. There has been dark talk of secret deals with big business, pickets of meetings, open rebellions by infuriated bee- keepers and now a plot to form a breakaway association. The controversy centres on a series of deals agreed behind closed doors between the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA), and four of the world's largest agro-chemicals companies.

To the dismay of many beekeepers, the BBKA has agreed to sponsor several pesticides that can be lethal to bees. Firms such as Syngenta, FMC, Bayer and BASF now boast they are endorsed as "bee friendly" by the BBKA. In return, the association has earned tens of thousands of pounds, funding a Syngenta-sponsored beekeeping book for schools, a beekeeping display, and roof repairs to the BBKA's Warwickshire headquarters.

According to the rebels, these are deals with the devil. Furious at the association's decision to make them without consulting its members, they allege these pesticides are to blame for wiping out hives. The Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD), the official government agency, recorded 372 suspicious poisonings of honey bees, some involving entire hives of thousands, between 1994 and 2003, with pesticides to blame in more than 120 cases.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5212

For more on the privileged role played in the BBKA by scientists from institutions (like Rothamsted Research) with strong links to agrochem companies:
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=188

For how agrochem company Zeneca (now part of Syngenta) established links with the Medical Toxicology Unit, London which deals with cases of human pesticide poisoning:
http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/pn50/pn50p3.htm

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MEDICAL BIOTECH
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+ GRIM TALLY OF GENE THERAPY
An article in The Scientist says investors are still interested in gene therapy, in spite of its appalling record.

EXCERPT:
The tally is grim: three high-profile cancer cases, including one death, in French boys who underwent pioneering gene therapy for X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (X-SCID). Yet Edward Lanphier is upbeat about the future of gene therapy.

"It's a very, very broad field," says Lanphier, CEO of Sangamo BioSciences, a Richmond, Calif., biotechnology company focused on gene regulation. "It's sort of like saying there's been an awful auto accident, is there a future for the transportation industry? Is there a future for gene therapy? Categorically yes. Will companies pursue this from a commercial perspective? Categorically yes. And the outcomes in France in some of the SCID trials, as tragic as they are, are extremely informative."

PROF JOE CUMMINS COMMENTS:
Comparing gene therapy to the transportation industry is very nutty. In spite of the billions poured into the industry it has never produced anything that works! Biotech is rather like the invention of a square wheel, it really does not work!

There seems to be a sickening philosophy among the gene therapy researchers that the death of a few children and injury of others is a small price to pay for large grants and high salaries among the elite researchers.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5226

+ DEATHS, ILLNESS, UNEXPLAINED SIDE-EFFECTS: GM INSULIN
An excellent article from the Daily Mail (2002) on the disaster that is GM insulin is at
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5225

EXCERPTS:
Tony Blair, for one, has hailed human insulin as a shining example of the benefits of GM technology.

Since its introduction 20 years ago this summer, genetically engineered insulin has been linked not only to an increasing number of unexplained deaths but to a range of side-effects that some patients say have destroyed their lives. These range from unexpected hypos to massive weight gain, violent mood swings, memory loss, joint pains, mental confusion and crippling exhaustion.

SEE ALSO QUOTE OF THE WEEK BELOW.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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"It ticks you off. You begin to have serious doubts. You say to yourself, 'Maybe I should chuck this and go buy a gas station.'"
- Former Seattle medical biotech researcher Bob Schroff, on wasting 12 years of his life working on one failed GM drug after another
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5216

Störung des natürlichen Gleichgewichts des Universums

Eine russische Astrologin klagt gegen das Nasa-Projekt "Deep Impact", bei dem ein Projektil einen Krater auf den Kometen Tempel 1 schlagen soll.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/20/20080/1.html

Kein Zweck heiligt die Mittel: Amnesty betont ausdrückliches Folterverbot auch in Zeiten von Krieg und Notstand

12.05.05

"Nein zur Folter. Ja zum Rechtsstaat." Unter diesem Titel veröffentlicht amnesty international (ai) am Donnerstag einen Aufruf, den 182 Persönlichkeiten und Organisationen des öffentlichen Lebens unterzeichnet haben. Die Menschenrechtsorganisation versucht damit nach eigenen Angaben zu verhindern, dass in Rechtsstaaten wie Deutschland das absolute Folterverbot aufgeweicht wird. Weite Teile der Bevölkerung wie auch hochrangige Politiker und Juristen wollten Folter in für sie "begründeten Einzelfällen" zulassen, heißt es in dem Aufruf.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=11048


http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Nein+zur+Folter%2C+Ja+zum+Rechtsstaat

"Tiefpunkt an politischer Ehrlichkeit und Transparenz": EU-Verfassung nur von "Repräsentanten" ratifiziert

12.05.05

Die Debatte um die EU-Verfassung war laut Bundesausschuss Friedensratschlag "ein Tiefpunkt an politischer Ehrlichkeit und Transparenz". Dieses Fazit zog ein Sprecher der Friedensgesellschaft im Anschluss an die Abstimmung im Bundestag, die ein überwältigendes Ergebnis für die Ratifizierung des Verfassungstextes erbrachte. In der Bundestagsdebatte hätten die kritischen Einwände von globalisierungskritischer Seite oder von Seiten der Friedensbewegung so gut wie keine Rolle gespielt. Es sei "beschämend für die höchste demokratische Instanz der Bundesrepublik, wenn die EU-Verfassung nur in ihren Schönwetterpassagen" zitiert werde, so die Friedensgesellschaft.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=11049

Corporations and governments

05/11/05

The idea that big corporations are untamed beasts that wreak havoc upon civilized society is immensely popular throughout the academy everywhere in the world, including the United States of America. Most professors in the humanities and social sciences, a great many writers, journalists, artist, and entertainers -- centered mainly in New York City and Hollywood -- cling firmly to their view that corporations are a threat to the well being of nearly everyone in society and that those who do not share this belief are deluded, period. It is not only Ralph Nader who embraces this idea and the only reason Nader hasn’t reached national political office is that he is viewed as a naïve idealist who wants to take on forces that must be appeased, not fought...

http://www.freemarketnews.com/pview/5834/1536/html/index.php

from Free Market News Network, by Tibor R. Machan


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

National Insecurity Cards

05/11/05

The potential privacy encroachments of an ID card system are far from minor. And the interruptions and delays caused by incessant ID checks could easily proliferate into a persistent traffic jam in office lobbies and airports and hospital waiting rooms and shopping malls. But my primary objection isn't the totalitarian potential of national IDs, nor the likelihood that they'll create a whole immense new class of social and economic dislocations. Nor is it the opportunities they will create for colossal boondoggles by government contractors. My objection to the national ID card, at least for the purposes of this essay, is much simpler. It won't work. It won't make us more secure. In fact, everything I've learned about security over the last 20 years tells me that once it is put in place, a national ID card program will actually make us less secure...

http://www.alternet.org/rights/21977/

from AlterNet, by Bruce Schneier


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

An army of robots that reproduce

05/12/05

It has been the dream -- and nightmare -- of science fiction writers for decades. Now a team of engineers has conjured up a robot that can reproduce itself. The robot can self-replicate in much the same way that some living organisms are able to reproduce by cloning themselves. Although the machine in question serves no useful purpose other than to make copies of itself, scientists believe it has set a precedent for a future in which robots will proliferate on their own. In the long term, the scientists envisage a day when armies of self-replicating robots will be able mend themselves when broken, expand their population, explore space and even establish self-sustaining colonies on other planets...

http://tinyurl.com/cjteu

from Independent [UK]


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Save Our Waters from Sewage

http://action.lcv.org/campaign/sewage01/s57wi7415jwbtt


Informant: Lori R. Price

An Open Letter to the American People

by Elouise Cobell
http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1372&issue_id=112


Long Standing Indian Trust Abuses by Interior

Over the past 100 years, according to accounts from whistle blowers, money belonging to individual Indians and tribes was pilfered, skimmed, redirected, or thrown in with general government funds by the U.S. Department of the Interior or its appointed representatives. Yet, the Interior Department has not identified or repaid any known thefts and losses of trust resources, proceeds, or royalties. After struggling for decades to receive a hearing, American Indian families went to federal court to plead their case.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a class-action suit in favor of half a million Native Americans whose funds have been handled ineptly and unethically. The court stated, "The underlying lawsuit is both an Indian case and a trust case in which the trustees have egregiously breached their fiduciary duties." Yet, the U.S. government has continued to appeal these court rulings and tried to avoid responsibility. Now the Congress may intervene to help address the issue.

Native people know this is an historic moment when finally the federal government may be obliged to correct a hard-hearted and flawed system and pay redress for a century of negligence. They are keenly aware that this is a one-time opportunity to receive financial justice and to reform a totally broken trust management system. They also know Congress and the White House could support or undercut this break-through.

Background

What is all of this about? Parade magazine (September 9, 2001) put it this way, "When the U.S. government took control of Native Americans’ property rights in 1887, the Indians were assured they would receive the income from their land. They never did–and now they’re fighting for it." Indians have received checks from the Bureau of Indian Affairs but they are irregular and smaller than they should be in far too many instances. A Los Angeles Times Magazine (July 7, 2002) story gives the example of Josephine Wild Gun who receives less than $1,000 a year even though 7,000 acres of family land were leased out for grazing, oil, minerals and timber.

The federal government has collected $13 billion in land-use money that belongs to Indian land owners but cannot show how much money it paid out. It threw out, lost, or never kept records. Withholding money from Indian families--or "losing" their money-- is part of a shameful pattern.

Why should we care?

Although successive administrations have denied the facts affirmed by the courts, the federal government owes a huge amount of money to Native Americans-- money that was in earmarked trust funds, money that was theirs. This is not only wrong but is a troubling precedent that should gravely concern the public.


All trust funds, including Social Security, depend on a system of honesty, integrity, and accountability. This is essential to maintaining the public trust. In the private sector, trustees are jailed, fined, and otherwise punished for taking or not returning other people’s money. This is true for bankers, lawyers, accountants, and individuals who manage accounts for the disabled or elderly. The Bush administration stresses that good government involves transparency, effectiveness, and accountability in government. The government must practice what it preaches.

The native plaintiffs in this court case (Cobell v. Norton) are quite close to getting redress in the court, but will Congress do the right thing? . The plaintiffs need our support. With our advocacy help, American Indian families can get back their own money, money that could bring thousands of families out of stark poverty. You can help.

1. Ask your senators and representatives to find out more about this issue. You can write them a letter on FCNL’s web site: http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/

2. Sign up to receive the FCNL Native American Legislative updates by email twice a month. Go to http://www.fcnl.org/forms/forms.php?type=ls and check the box to sign up for the Native American Legislative Update.

3. Support FCNL’s Native American Program work: http://www.fcnl.org/support.htm

Additional Information

An Open Letter to the American People, by Eloise Cobell: http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1372&issue_id=112

Trust Fund Responsibilities Unmet: The Story of the Cobell v. Norton Case: http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1266&issue_id=112

Cobell: Native Americans Trying to Recover Funds: http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1222&issue_id=112

Stop New Nuclear Weapons! Find out how, http://www.fcnl.org/nuclear

The Next Step for Iraq: Join FCNL's Iraq Campaign, http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/index.htm

Contact Congress and the Administration: http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/


Informant: Martin Greenhut

Bush's Black Hole

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=htw7sgbab.4l8gm9n6.vuc6sgbab.tiniiyn6.80374&p=http%3A%2F%2Ftompaine.com%2Funcommonsense%2Findex.php%234875

God's Own Party

by Jim Wallis, TomPaine.com

The latest news from North Carolina is the logical, inevitable result of the road taken by the religious right and some Republicans.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050512/gods_own_party.php

Bolton's Yellowcake

by Ray McGovern, TomPaine.com

John Bolton deliberately used discredited intelligence to support the president's case for war.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050511/boltons_yellowcake.php

Two Amigos And Their Gulag Archipelago

by Lou Dubose, TomPaine.com

The sordid tale of how Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff greased the wheels to keep a for-profit American labor gulag humming.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050512/two_amigos_and_their_gulag_archipelago.php

BKA-Chef Ziercke: Kontrolle im Internet muss gestärkt werden

http://www.tecchannel.de/news/internet/20789/

Grundeinkommen statt Grundsicherung

„Viele Menschen wünschen sich, in ihrem Leben grundlegend abgesichert zu sein gegen die existenziellen sozialen Risiken und Bedrohungen. Jede und jeder stellt sich allerdings unter einer solchen Absicherung etwas ganz anderes vor. Entsprechend unterschiedlich sind die Konzepte, Begriffe, Begründungen und Argumente für das, was jeweils unter sozialer Absicherung verstanden wird. Im Folgenden stellt Anne Allex das Konzept eines garantierten, bedingungslosen und ausreichenden Grundeinkommens, das ältere Modelle zu einem Existenzgeld in sich aufnimmt, vor, grenzt es zugleich gegen real existierende »Grundsicherungen« unter Hartz IV sowie mögliche Einwände ab und diskutiert den Zusammenhang mit der Forderung nach Mindestlöhnen und Arbeitszeitverkürzung…“ Artikel von Anne Allex. Der Beitrag wurde auf der 2. Berliner DGB-Arbeitslosenkonferenz am 12. Februar d.J. gehalten und für den express überarbeitet.

http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/existenz/allex.html


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 7


Der fünfte Newsletter des Netzwerks Grundeinkommen vom April 2005 (pdf)
http://www.grundeinkommen.info/fileadmin/Text-Depot/Newsletter5.pdf


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 10

Blackmail Globalisierung: Anmerkungen zur »Rolle der Gewerkschaften in einer globalen Ökonomie«

„Das A und O einer erfolgreichen Erpressung ist, dass irgendjemand die angekündigte Bedrohung für bedrohlich und für wahr, d.h. realisierbar hält. Genau darüber streiten sich nicht nur die Geisterseher im Falle der »Globalisierung«: Während wohl kaum jemand offene Grenzen ablehnen würde, wenn es die weltbürgerlichen Freuden der Globalisierung, z.B. um’s touristische Vergnügen im Welterlebnispark geht, werden die Grenzen mitunter ganz schnell dicht gemacht, geht es um die Migration des Kapitals bzw. der von ihm abhängigen ArbeitnehmerInnen. Denn an der Frage, wie real die Drohungen mit einer Produktionsverlagerung ins Ausland oder einer Substitution inländischer Arbeitskräfte durch billigere Arbeitskräfte aus dem Ausland im Rahmen globalisierter Konkurrenz sind, hängt vieles und hängen viele - nicht zuletzt die materiellen Grundlagen für die Teilhabe an den Versprechungen offener Märkte und Grenzen….“ Artikel von Werner Sauerborn

http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/wipo/glob/sauerborn.html


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 7

Prekarisierung: Kein Ort – Nirgends? Viele Orte – überall?

Eine Veranstaltung der Workers Center-Gruppe Rhein-Main

„Ein großes Wort, doch mit oft entweder diffuser oder vorschnell vereinheitlichender Bedeutung: Prekarisierung. Noch schwerer wird es entsprechend, wenn es um Antworten auf den so genannten Prekarisierungsprozess geht. Ein Blick über die Grenzen kann hier erhellend sein: Er zeigt, dass MigrantInnen und prekär Beschäftigte schon seit den 80er Jahren angefangen haben, eigenständige Strategien zu entwickeln, wo traditionelle Formen gewerkschaftlicher Interessenvertretungspolitik an ihre Grenzen stoßen oder gar nicht erst greifen - weil wechselseitige Vorbehalte bestehen, weil Kapazitäten oder Interessen fehlen oder weil »der Betrieb« nicht mehr als sozialer Ort und Anlass für die Bildung von Gemeinsamkeiten funktioniert und »Orte der Begegnung« fehlen. Workers Center sind ein solcher Versuch, lokale Treffpunkte außerhalb des Betriebs zu bilden. Inwieweit dies ein fruchtbarer Ansatzpunkt unter hiesigen Bedingungen sein könnte, damit beschäftigte sich eine Veranstaltung der Workers Center-Gruppe Rhein-Main, über die Nadja Rakowitz berichtet…“

http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/realpolitik/prekaer/wcgrm.html


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 7

Warum ich gegen Mobilfunk bin (so, wie er zur Zeit ist)

http://mitglied.lycos.de/newsomega/news/warum_ich_gegen_mobilfunk_bin.doc

Quellen:
http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/elektrosmog-liste/message/5289
http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/elektrosmog-liste/message/5286


Nachrichten von Eckardt Giese

Es geht um Ihre Gesundheit: Handy-Nutzung und Funkantennen sind gefährlich

Es geht um Ihre Gesundheit: Bitte Lesen !!

KEIN SCHERZ: Handy-Nutzung und Funkantennen sind gefährlich!

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=26535&item=7155414196&rd=1
http://mitglied.lycos.de/newsomega/news/handyzertruemmerung_verkaufsteam.htm

National ID Card Draws Fire

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,67490,00.html


Informant: NHNE

Egypt Conducting Torture for US

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051105Y.shtml

States May Disobey New Drivers License Rules

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051105M.shtml

Political Bluster and the Filibuster

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051105F.shtml

Bipartisan Opposition to Patriot Act Grows

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051105B.shtml

NO A CHANCE to filibuster Judicial nominations

There is NOT A CHANCE to filibuster Judicial nominations...learn why.

I was fortunate to be convalescing a bout of food poisoning that kept me home from work and which gave me a rare chance to listen to C-Span, live, this morning.

Professor Smith below, explains the procedural Senate rule that will allow the Republicans to circumvent any attempts by Democrats to filibuster Federal or Supreme court nominations.

I know it and Democrats know it. All we'll be seeing is an elaborate production with judicial nominations sparring.

Below is a link to the video clip of this presentation on C-Span. The segment I point to starts at about the 22 1/2 min mark. In case you want a quicker reference to the 2 minute segment, below is an audio clip excerpt I prepared:

http://PlayAudio-123.com/play.asp?m=175879&f=NIAWIQ&ps=13&p=1 (2 minutes)


Steven Smith, Co-Author of "Politics or Principle? Filibustering in the U.S. Senate" and Political Science Professor at Washington University in Stl Louis, discusses the history of U.S. Senate filibusters.

5/11/2005: WASHINGTON, DC: 45 min.

Or, if the link does not work, go to:
http://www.c-span.org/videoarchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,&ArchiveDays=100


Informant: Jack Topel

Pentagon Is Asking Congress to Loosen Environmental Laws

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/051105EB.shtml

"STICK IT UP THEIR BEHIND" DAY: No Gas on May 19th

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/05/288695.shtml

IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES.

AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES.

THEREFORE MAY 19TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT UP THEIR BEHIND" DAY AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY.

THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT.

WAITING ON THIS ADMIN STRATION TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REDUCTION AND CONTROL IN PRICES THAT THE ARAB NATIONS PROMISED TWO WEEKS AGO?

REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF GASOLINE GOING UP BUT AT THE SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING MATERIALS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO!

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY, WE WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN.

SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND MAKE MAY 19TH A DAY THAT THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH".


Informant: arrarita7

John Bolton's Nuclear Blunder?

In the neo-con's quest for ever more power, they place our Nation in danger. "Since last fall John Bolton, President George Bush’s embattled nominee to be America’s ambassador to the United Nations, has aggressively lobbied for a senior job in the second Bush administration. During that time, Bolton did almost no diplomatic groundwork for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty conference, these officials say." Not mentioned in the article below, Bolton tried unsuccessfully to use dubious claims about weapons of mass destruction in Cuba, and Bolton was involved in preventing the counting of citizens' votes in Florida in 2000.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3210

Iraqi police vent anger at US after car bombings

Iraqi police hurled insults at US soldiers after two suicide car bomb blasts in Baghdad killed at least seven people and left 19 wounded, including policemen. "It's all because you're here," a policeman shouted in Arabic at a group of US soldiers after the latest in a bloody wave of attacks that have rocked Baghdad this month.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3207

Whale activists in danger - please help

We urgently need your help to protect our activists in Korea and stop a whale meat factory from being built.

Click here to take action now!
http://prefs.greenpeace.org/mail-links/clicks/6937.1584613.5409

As many of you know, we recently uncovered plans by the city of Ulsan in South Korea to build a factory for butchering whales. We immediately set up a camp near the site to expose the plan and oppose it with our presence: we called it our Whale Embassy.

The city council is highly embarrassed by our presence, and has tried every way they can to shut us down and shut us up. Yesterday they gave us an official eviction notice with a DEADLINE OF THIS MONDAY, MAY 16TH to take down our geodesic dome tent, remove our educational exhibits about whales, and get out of the way.

We've said we'll be happy to leave -- just as soon as the city cancels the plans for the whale factory.

Click here to take action now!
http://prefs.greenpeace.org/mail-links/clicks/6938.1584613.5409

Whale campaigner Jim Wickens says: "It is quite clear that they want to stifle any criticism of their plans to build the factory... We have told them that any attempts to evict us forcibly will reflect very badly on their international image."

There have already been several attempts at intimidation, official and unofficial. According to Wickens: "Last night at four in the morning four local fishermen turned up looking for trouble, luckily there were others awake to come and help. We have been tipped off that in Korea in sensitive political protests, the authorities sometimes hire thugs to do the dirty work. There is a distinct possibility that they may do this in the form of fake fishermen coming to beat us up, or even inflaming local fishermen to actually do it for them."

The factory Jim and his fellow activists are opposing will be used to process whales which have been "accidentally" killed by entanglement in fishing nets. In reality, there's nothing accidental about these killings. Fishing fleets around the world report annually how many whales they kill by accidentally nettings, and this usually amounts to one or two whales for an entire nation's fleet. In Korea, which allows the sale of meat from accidental kills and where a whale carcass can be worth $100,000, the annual kill rate can be up to a 100 times that.

The picture at left is of an "accidentally" caught juvenile minke whale, which we witnessed butchered and sold for $30,000.

The man with the power to protect our activists AND stop the whale factory is the town's mayor, Mr. Park Maeng-woo. Unfortunately, the mayor is being pressured by fisherman and local businessmen, like the deputy vice president of Hyundai corporation, who strongly support building the factory. If Mr. Park Maeng-woo is to make a balanced decision, he needs all the facts. He needs to know that the world is watching, and that people who don't want to see whales killed for commerce are paying attention to what he does about our activists and the factory.

Please, time is very short: send a message right now to Mr. Park Maeng-woo and let him know we want our activists protected and we want the whale factory stopped.

Click here to take action now!
http://prefs.greenpeace.org/mail-links/clicks/6939.1584613.5409

Horror of USA's Depleted Uranium in Iraq Threatens World

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051105K.shtml


Informant: JHW369

Journalist urges Americans to search for truth, freedom

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=83552;show_parent=1

Iraqi Children Paying High Price for Freedom: Thousands are Dying, Thousands are Dead

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=83550;show_parent=1

Judge who exonerated Cheney is on the payroll of Exxon

CLG Exclusive --Research, commentary by Mary Titus, CLG Contributing Writer. Additional input, Lori Price, CLG Gen. Mgr.

This comes on the heels of the headlines Tuesday about an appeals court dismissing the Cheney energy task force case.

See the article at Citizens for Legitimate Government:
http://tinyurl.com/ccn4l


© Virginia Metze

Powell Aide Says Armitage, Bolton Clashed

Apparent Supporter of U.N. Nominee Said to Have Questioned HisDiplomatic Tone

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 10, 2005; Page A02

Former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage, who last week appeared to endorse John R. Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador, had frequent battles with Bolton over his diplomatic tone, a top aide to former secretary of state Colin L. Powell said in an interview released yesterday by Senate investigators. [...] Read the rest at the Washington Post: http://tinyurl.com/8e8oz


© Virginia Metze

Democrats open fire, citing numerous GOP senators who have blocked nominees

Some senators filibustered more than 10

Article originally published May 9, 2005.

RAW STORY

One thing is for certain: On the filibuster, Democrats aren't taking it lying down.

As Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) works to negotiate with Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), Democrats circulated a document Monday detailing each of the Republican senators who had ever filibustered or blocked a nominee. [...] Read the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/b97pk


© Virginia Metze

Sen. Harry Reid Reveals Sharp Tongue

by LAURIE KELLMAN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 10, 2005; 1:55 AM

WASHINGTON -- In an institution that prides itself as a last bastion of civility, the Senate's new Democratic leader has on occasion turned to playground taunts and name-calling in his four-month tenure.

After accusing President Bush of lying about his role in a fight over judicial filibusters, Sen. Harry Reid last week called the president a "loser." And Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan? He's a "political hack," according to the formerly soft-spoken Nevada Democrat. [...] Read the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/dwp7r


© Virginia Metze

Stranger Than Fiction

by BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
The New York Times
Published: May 9, 2005ay 9, 2005

When Bob Woodward asked President Bush if he had consulted with his father about the decision to go to war in Iraq, the president famously replied, "There is a higher father that I appeal to."

It might have been better if Mr. Bush had stayed in closer touch with his earthly father. From the very beginning the war in Iraq has been an exercise in extreme madness, an absurd venture that would have been rich in comic possibilities except for the fact that many thousands of men, women and children have died, and tens of thousands have been crippled, burned or otherwise maimed.

The world now knows that the weapons of mass destruction were a convenient fiction. Less well known is that bumbling administration officials eagerly embraced the ravings of a foreign intelligence source known, believe it or not, as "Curveball." He helped promote the fantasy that Iraq had mobile laboratories for the manufacture of biological weapons. [...] Read the rest at the New York Times: http://tinyurl.com/a6gog Crusaders trying to make the country realize the dangers of our using depleted uranium in weapons were overjoyed to see this article in the Lone Star Iconoclast , in Bush's home town of Crawford, Texas: http://www.iconoclast-texas.com/News/19news02.htm While on the Iconoclast web site (see above) I found this article announcing that Karl Schwarz, formerly a Republican, is running for president and initiating an Independent movement in the country. http://www.iconoclast-texas.com/News/19news01.htm


© Virginia Metze

US real wages fall at fastest rate in 14 years

by Christopher Swann in Washington
Published: May 10 2005 17:59 | Last updated: May 11 2005 15:20
Financial Times ft.com

Real wages in the US are falling at their fastest rate in 14 years, according to data surveyed by the Financial Times.

Inflation rose 3.1 per cent in the year to March but salaries climbed just 2.4 per cent, according to the Employment Cost Index. In the final three months of 2004, real wages fell by 0.9 per cent.

The last time salaries fell this steeply was at the start of 1991, when real wages declined by 1.1 per cent. [...] Read the rest at the Financial Times web page: http://tinyurl.com/9hxfv


© Virginia Metze

1 June 2005: Remove George Bush Day - WORLDWIDE MOVEMENT TO REMOVE BUSH

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=83577;show_parent=1
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=83580;show_parent=1
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=83583;show_parent=1

Be part of a coordinated effort to remove Bush. Hit the media and politicians hard. Try it !

Join possibly the biggest rally against Bush that the world will ever see. The aim is for all of us to speak against Bush with `ONE VERY LOUD VOICE' via millions of emails to all American media news desks and politicians on Wed 1 June 2005. I've already contacted hundreds of activist organisations across the world but also need your help NOW.

1. Email everyone you know asking them to email everyone they know (blind copy them if you like).

2. Your email tells everyone to contact media news desks and politicians on Wed 1 June 2005 requesting that Bush

(a) Face charges of war crimes,

(b) Be thoroughly investigated for conflict of interest and abuse of position with personal financial interests in Middle East pipelines and military equipment manufacturers.

3. For Wed 1 June 2005, email addresses of hundreds of American media news desks and politicians are listed at
http://MediaNewsDesks.blogspot.com or
http://www.rumormillnews.com/MEDIA_EMAIL_ADDRESSES.htm

4. Write the date on your calendar !

5. You can also sign an on-line petition to impeach George Bush at
http://www.votetoimpeach.org or
http://votenader.org/get_involved/impeach.php

You have support: In a poll of 22,000 people across 21 countries, 58% expected Bush to have a negative impact on peace and security, only 26% considered him a positive force, and dislike of Bush is translating into dislike of Americans in general.


Informant: abolishbush

-------

From: Never Surrender and JHW369
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 6:46 AM

WORLDWIDE MOVEMENT TO REMOVE BUSH

PLEASE PARTICIPATE AND RE-DISTRIBUTE

June 1, 2005 -- World's biggest protest against Bush!

Be part of a coordinated effort to remove Bush. Hit the media and politicians hard. Try it !

This will be the world's biggest protest against Bush.

All of us will speak with "ONE VERY LOUD VOICE" via millions of emails to all American media news desks and politicians on Wednesday, June 1, 2005.

I've already contacted hundreds of activist organizations across the world but need your help NOW!!!

1. Email everyone you know asking them to email everyone they know (blind copy them if you like and aim for local and overseas people).

2. Your email tells everyone to contact media and politicians on Wed 1 June 2005 requesting that Bush

(a) Face charges of war crimes,
(b) Be thoroughly investigated for conflict of interest and abuse of position with personal financial interests in Middle East pipelines and military equipment manufacturers.

3. For Wed 1 June 2005, email addresses of hundreds of American media news desks and politicians are listed at

http://MediaNewsDesks.blogspot.com or
http://www.rumormillnews.com/MEDIA_EMAIL_ADDRESSES.htm

4. Write the date on your calendar!

5. You can also sign an on-line petition to impeach George Bush at http://www.votetoimpeach.org

You have support: In a poll of 22,000 people across 21 countries, 58% expected Bush to have a negative impact on peace and security, only 26% considered him a positive force, and dislike of Bush is translating into dislike of Americans in general.

The Precautionary Principle and Regulation of Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields

http://www.terra.es/personal/kirke1/noti65/hrbc.htm

Basic Considerations

ICEMS (International Commission for Electromagnetic Safety)

Regulation and limitation of exposure to nonionizing radiation was introduced for some occupations and military applications in the 1950s, but exposure standards for the general public and broader occupational categories were not established until the 1980s. At that time distinctly different approaches to standardsetting were applied in the Western World as compared to the Soviet Union, Eastern European countries and China. Efforts of WHO to reconcile the different approaches have not been successful. While the two approaches have some similarities, still there are considerable discrepancies in procedure and resultant guideline levels of most Western countries as compared to Russia, China and Eastern European countries. Furthermore, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and regional authorities of other countries apply guideline and limit values that are based on still other procedures and considerations.

There is considerable public concern in many countries, especially about possible long-term effects of EMFs, that is at least partially due to these discrepancies and the legitimate scientific controversy surrounding them.

Basis for Limiting Exposure to EMFs

A fundamental error of reasoning can be demonstrated in numerous statements of international and national EMF standard-setting organizations and committees. Its essence is the assumption that science-based, ‘objective’ guidelines have to rely on ‘established’ evidence only. It is significant that none of these documents that abundantly make use of the term ‘established’ make any effort to define it.

Furthermore, this ‘scientific’ and ‘objective’ method is often contrasted to the falsely labeled ‘political’, ‘subjective’ and ‘ultimately arbitrary’ one that is related to the precautionary principle.

For two reasons this line of argument is faulty.

First, any effort to define how results become ‘established’ must acknowledge that the process includes an arbitrary aspect of subjective acceptance. Second, the derivation of an exposure guideline itself can never be based solely on science, i.e. on empirical data and a sound theory that has withstood serious tests to refute it. Guideline decisions are made that contain subjective elements of values or policy.

An illustrative example is the application of safety factors to adjust for variations in environmental conditions and susceptibility in the population that should be protected. These factors are rarely based on evidence and rather introduced by convention or even economical considerations and technical feasibility. In risk assessment all the evidence pertaining to the scientific issues has to be considered and nothing makes it ever ‘established’ except an ultimately subjective decision.

More- or less-standardized procedures for deriving national and international exposure guidelines for issues other than EMF have been developed in the past decades for environmental and occupational factors that are typically based on evidence from epidemiological studies, experimental investigations in animals and humans, in vitro studies and theoretical considerations about the mechanism of action.

Although weight and/or strength of evidence is thoroughly considered, a decisive element of these procedures is their precautionary approach. Because it is recognized that derivation of guidelines is conjectural and open to scientific controversy and discussion, the precautionary approach demands in case of uncertainty the evidence should be weighted to err in the direction that leads to the higher margin of safety. Examples of this procedure can be found in the Air Quality Guidelines for Europe by WHO.

Concerning EMFs, differences in exposure standards are mainly due to different answers to the following questions: What evidence should be used as the basis for the derivation? How should the broad spectrum of EMFs be subdivided? Which aspects of the multidimensional exposure situation must be considered? What are the relevant dosimetric quantities? Which safety factors should be introduced and what values should they take on?

In the face of such complexity, there is a great temptation to take the short cut for answering these questions. In fact, the procedure used by ICNIRP, IEEE, and other national and international standard-setting organizations reduces the problem to answering only the last of the questions stated above. These organizations maintain that the only evidence to start from are immediate short-term effects such as nerve excitations due to induced currents or temperature increase from absorption of...

Read the rest under: http://uh22.umwelt.univie.ac.at/icems/Pp150203.pdf


Informant: Sylvie

Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons

Savaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic Chemicals, Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were committed in Iraq?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htm

Nuclear Fundamentalism and the Iran Story

Years from now, when historians look back at agenda-building for a missile attack on Iran, they should closely examine a story that took up the USA's most coveted space for media spin -- the upper right corner of the New York Times front page -- on the first day of May 2005.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0505-20.htm


From Information Clearing House

Guantanamo abuses show U.S. needs a dose of truth

Saar's account illustrates the long road that many Americans must travel to accept truths about how far our nation's military has fallen during this global war on terror from the ideals we thought defined our nation.

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.php?ntid=39475&ntpid=12


From Information Clearing House

U.S. "Sent Detainees To Egypt"

A new report by a leading human rights group says the United States and other countries have secretly sent dozens of Islamist detainees to Egypt, where they have most likely been tortured, in the past decade.

http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=111425&region=6


From Information Clearing House

Neocon Zalmay Khalilzad, Signed Infamous PNAC Letter That Called For Iraq Invasion

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm


From Information Clearing House

Ridge reveals clashes on alerts

The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8813.htm

Neocons Fight Back

Not by actually fighting, mind you
http://villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/000922.php


From Information Clearing House

"Confronting the Architects Of Torture"

by Sister Dianna Ortiz, OSU

Sister Ortiz relates her personal experiences and tell us that U.S. personnel were present in interrogation and torture rooms,” in Guatemala in 1989 when she was kidnapped, taken to a secret prison and repeatedly raped and tortured by troops commanded by General Hector Gramajo (a CIA asset and graduate of the U.S. Army School of the Americas).

Watch it here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8807.htm

Saudi Oil Infrastructure Rigged For Catastrophic Self Destruction

by Huffington Post

According to a new book exclusively obtained by the Huffington Post, Saudi Arabia has crafted a plan to protect itself from a possible invasion or internal attack. It includes the use of a series of explosives, including radioactive “dirty bombs,” that would cripple Saudi Arabian oil production and distribution systems for decades.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8802.htm

Lies Run Big, Facts Small in U.S. Media

by Ted Rall

We shouldn't blame the White House for producing lies; that's what politicians do. But we expect better from the media who disseminate them.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8811.htm

Terror Alerts Were Used As Electoral Weapons

Combined with what Ridge has said, and the chart linked above, can there be any doubt that the Bush administration was frequently raising the terror alerts to help his election chances and increase his political capital rather than to signal actual threats?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8814.htm

The last of Canada's rainforests are at risk: Its time to protect them

http://www.canadianrainforests.org/


Informant: Deane
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