http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/04/1524246


Informant: John Calvert

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/grn/omega51.htm

--------

CELLDAR utilises the radar frequencies associated with the mobile telephone transmissions
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/4582242/

"Zerstörerisches Management": DGB warnt vor "Industriefeudalismus" und ausrastenden Arbeitnehmern (04.01.06)

Der Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB) kann sich eine Radikalisierung bei Arbeitnehmern und innerhalb der Gewerkschaften vorstellen. "Zerstörerisches Management, durch das Betriebe geschlossen werden, obwohl sie profitabel sind, werden die Menschen auf Dauer nicht hinnehmen", sagte DGB-Vorstandsmitglied Dietmar Hexel der "Financial Times Deutschland". "Was da passiert, kann dazu führen, dass sich die Menschen radikalisieren, wenn es bei dieser Politik bleibt", so Hexel. Dies könne auch Einfluss auf die Gewerkschaftsarbeit haben.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12611

Privatsphäre: Experte sieht schwere Sicherheitsprobleme bei elektronischer Patientenakte (04.01.06)

Das aktuelle Konzept der elektronischen Patientenakte gefährdet nach Ansicht von Sicherheitsexperten die Privatsphäre der Versicherten in Deutschland. Die elektronische Patientenakte soll alle den Krankheits- und Behandlungsverlauf eines Patienten betreffenden Daten speichern. Krankenkassen oder Lebensversicherer könnten die Daten benutzen, um Gesundheitsrisiken aus der Versicherung auszuschließen, so das Ergebnis von Untersuchungen des TT-Sicherheitsberaters Thomas Maus. Banken könnten Kreditausfallrisiken entsprechend der Lebenserwartung der Kreditnehmer berechnen und Arbeitgeber die Einstellung von Mitarbeitern von erblichen Veranlagungen für Krankheiten abhängig machen. Die Free Software Foundation forderte angesichts der Mängel, das Konzept der elektronischen Patientenakte komplett neu zu entwerfen.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12615

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-01/uoc--gwc010306.php


Informant: NHNE

-----Original Message-----
From: aalsmin-l-bounces@lists.ubalt.edu
On Behalf Of Boyle, Francis
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 1:31 PM
Subject: [AALSMIN-L] Hague Regulations v Bush Jr. Notice in Guantanamo Detainee Cases

Article 23(h) of the 1907 Hague Regulations on Land Warfare, to which the USA is a contracting party, provides: "In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden...(h) To declare abolished, suspended or inadmissible in a court of law the rights and actions of the nationals of the hostile party." In addition, the Nuremberg Tribunal ruled that the Hague Regulations were customary international law as of the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. This would constitute a serious war crime.

fab.

Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820
USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax) fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
(personal comments only)


-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Gittings
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 2:09 PM
To: ASIL Forum
Subject: Govt Notice in Guantanamo Detainee Cases

Today the government filed the following notice in all of the Guantanmo deatainee cases pending in the USDC for D.C.:

NOTICE OF SUPPLEMENTAL AUTHORITY

Respondents hereby give notice of the recent enactment of legislation that, among other things, amends 28 U.S.C. � 2241 to remove court jurisdiction to hear or consider applications for writs of habeas corpus and other actions brought in this Court by or on behalf of aliens detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. See Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2006, Pub. L. No. ___, � 1005 (2005) (signed by President Bush on Dec. 30, 2005) (copy of relevant excerpts attached). No sooner than the week of January 9, 2006, respondents anticipate filing in each of 1 the above-captioned cases a motion to dismiss or for other appropriate relief based on the new legislation. Prior to or shortly after filing of such motion, respondents will consult with petitioners� counsel in an effort to agree upon a briefing schedule that can be proposed to the Court.

Dated: January 3, 2006

---

The original pdf and exhibit are available on the PEGC web site in this folder (along with show cause orders issued by Judge Walton in his assigned cases):

http://www.justicescholars.org/pegc/McCain-Graham/

The corruption investigation surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff shows the significant political risk that Republican leaders took when they adopted what had once seemed a brilliant strategy for dominating Washington: turning the K Street lobbying corridor into a cog of the GOP political machine.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010406Y.shtml

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3873/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Top Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff is set to sing, and his long list of former buddies in Congress and the Bush administration are quaking in anticipation of possible indictments stemming from the consummate Beltway hustler's crass reign as the king of K Street.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010406O.shtml

Even before the White House formally authorized a secret program to spy on US citizens without obtaining warrants, such eavesdropping was occurring and some of the information was being shared with the FBI, declassified correspondence and interviews with congressional and intelligence officials indicate.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010406L.shtml

Book Says

In a clumsy effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear program, the CIA in 2004 intentionally handed Tehran some top-secret bomb designs laced with a hidden flaw that US officials hoped would doom any weapon made from them, according to a new book about the US intelligence agency.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010406K.shtml

Lobbying is Washington's grubby secret. Some say lobbying is part of the democratic process. Others claim it is legalized bribery, even corruption. But love it or loathe it, it is the way Washington works.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010406J.shtml

Abramoff raised at least $100,000 for President Bush's 2004 re-election effort, earning the honorary title "pioneer" from the campaign.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010406I.shtml

by Paul Rogat Loeb, TomPaine.com

Democrats and moderate Republicans should challenge Bush's nominee at every turn.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060104/alito_and_the_f_word.php

by Russ Baker, TomPaine.com

Jack Abramoff's plea is just the beginning. DeLay's dealings with Russia should be one of the biggest stories of the year.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060104/to_russia_love_tom_delay.php

Portsmouth Herald
by staff

01/03/06

From a distance, it might appear that revelations that the Bush administration allegedly broke the law when it signed off on wiretaps without authorized warrants is just another case of inside-baseball politics, Washington style. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. And no matter how apologists for President Bush's desire to play the role of the all-knowing and unquestioned monarch when it suits him -- to protect, we are told, the American people from another 9/11 terrorist attack -- what is at stake is nothing less than the rule of law. It may be a few months before we know whether a full-blown constitutional crisis will occur...

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/01032006/editoria/80958.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Time
by Bob Barr

01/03/06

Back in the 1930s, when confronted with clear evidence he had violated the law, Georgia's then agriculture commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Eugene Talmadge popped his bright red suspenders and dared those accusing him of corruption to do something about it, declaring, 'Sure, I stole, but I stole for you.' He was elected Governor in 1932. Accused of breaking the law in the current debate over electronic spying, President George W. Bush has, in his own way, dared the American people to do something about it. For the sake of our Constitution, I hope they will...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1145243,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The American Prospect
by Matthew Yglesias

01/03/06

It was the year of the dogs that didn't bark. A newly dominant Republican Party was supposed to use its position to simultaneously transform American public policy and render the Democrats a permanently irrelevant minority party, isolated in a few coastal enclaves. It didn't happen. And, in fact, it started to unravel almost right away. The Bush administration went for broke with its plan to end Social Security as we know it and instead move to a system of individual stock ownership. The pretty version of how this was supposed to play into the Republican quest for a perpetual majority was that privatization would create a larger 'investor class' of stockowners, people who, in virtue of their shares, identified with corporate managers rather than workers or consumers, and therefore supported conservative economic policies. More prosaically, privatization was simply the latest iteration of GOP money-in, money-out machine politics...

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=10793


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AlterNet
by Garance Franke-Ruta

01/03/06

George Miller is the most important Democratic tactician you've never heard of. In the past year, there has been precisely one lengthy profile of him inside Washington, and none in any of the major national papers. And yet, in an environment where Democrats have been almost wholly stymied by the Republicans' iron grip on power, Miller has repeatedly come up with innovative ways to defend progressive interests. 'They have so corrupted the rules of the House of Representatives that you essentially have to engage in guerilla activity to try … to get a vote on a matter,' says Miller, who has become expert in the range of alternatives available during this time of one-party rule. 'We've just tried to be as creative as we possibly could be'...

http://www.alternet.org/story/30349/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Salon
by Michael Scherer

01/04/06

His head bowed and his pinstripes faded, the former dean of Republican lobbyists, Jack Abramoff, arrived Tuesday at the chambers of federal Judge Ellen Huvelle to confess his sins. Under detailed questioning from the court, he took the blame for a career spent stealing from his Native American clients, hiding from tax collectors and corrupting members of Congress and their staffs. It was a tortured performance played out in hushed tones. By the time Abramoff rose to beg forgiveness from the Almighty, his voice was barely audible from the gallery. 'Words will not be able to even express my sorrow,' Abramoff muttered. 'All my remaining days I will feel tremendous sadness and regret.' With that, Abramoff turned states' evidence... [subscription or ad view required]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/01/04/abramoff_plea/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Cato Institute
by Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren

01/04/06

The rise in fuel prices that followed Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has prompted many members of Congress to call for new and expanded federal reserves of crude oil, diesel fuel, home heating oil, jet fuel and propane. Proponents of stockpiling claim that if the government were to hoard those commodities when prices were low, it could unleash them on the market when supplies are tight, thus dampening price increases and stabilizing the market. But the experience in this country with the strategic petroleum reserve strongly suggests that such government-managed stockpiles are a waste of taxpayers' money. Rather than increasing the stockpile, the reserve should be emptied and closed...

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5351


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Kn@ppster
by Thomas L. Knapp

01/03/06

Why do I think the Busheviks want to tangle with Iran so badly? It's simple: Having irretrievably lost two wars in four years (and not doing so well on the general 'war on terror,' either), the only chance the War Party has to climb back up to a reasonably respectable place in history is to turn what they've falsely advertised as a 'generational war for survival' and 'World War IV' into the real thing. ... if the Busheviks can ignite a bona fide world war, there's some chance that 60 years from now Afghanistan and Iraq will be related to 9/11 as Wake Island and Bataan were to Pearl Harbor -- early, hopeless, necessary defeats instead of stupid, pointless defeats...

http://knappster.blogspot.com/2006/01/telling-futures.html

AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

01/04/06

In the tradition of Richard Perle, Halliburton, and the 'military-industrial complex' Dwight David Eisenhower presciently warned us against, Rubin and his fellow neocons have combined their ideological and financial interests into one seamless agenda -- and when their shenanigans are exposed, they are cited in the 'mainstream' media saying it's no big deal. Yeah, right: millions in government subsidies for the War Party, plus affirmative action for neocons. That's Rubin's idea of creating 'an even playing field.' The 'information warfare' campaign being carried out by the Lincoln Group and other sub rosa government contractors is not primarily directed at the Iraqis: the real target audience is Americans.... the generation of 'good news' is key to ensuring that the neocons' government-subsidized gravy train keeps on keeping on...

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8343


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

GovExec.Com

01/03/06

When Congress reconvenes this month, one of the first chores facing lawmakers will be reauthorizing the expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act, and newly disclosed documents could become a factor in the debate. ... President Bush signed the short-term extension into law Friday, so lawmakers now have about a month to negotiate their differences over the civil-liberties protections in the Patriot Act. Those opposing the current long-term reauthorization bill could have more rhetorical ammunition by the end of the month, as documents from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit trickle out of FBI offices. The Electronic Privacy Information Center early last year filed a FOIA request but received few documents until a federal district judge in November ordered the FBI to produce 1,500 pages of documents every 15 days until the requests are fulfilled. EPIC is scheduled to receive the latest batch of documents Wednesday...

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=33086&dcn=todaysnews


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CNN

01/03/06

Several U.S. agents in Iran were rounded up after the CIA mistakenly revealed clues to their identities to a covert source who turned out to be a double agent, according to a book that hit shelves Tuesday. In 'State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration,' author James Risen of The New York Times called the mistake an 'espionage disaster.' But while confirming the mistake, knowledgeable current and former officials told CNN that the allegations that agents were lost as a result are not true...

http://tinyurl.com/e3h8p


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

MSNBC

01/03/06

New York Times reporter James Risen first broke the story two weeks ago that the National Security Agency began spying on domestic communications soon after 9/11. In a new book out Tuesday, 'State of War,' he says it was a lot bigger than that. Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell sat down with Risen to talk about the NSA, and the run-up to the war in Iraq. Following is a complete transcript of the interview...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10697484/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Indianapolis Star

01/03/06

Congressional intelligence committees had at least a hint in October 2001 that the National Security Agency was expanding its surveillance activities after the 9/11 attacks, according to a letter released Tuesday by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The California Democrat had raised questions to Gen. Michael Hayden, then the NSA director, about the legal authority to conduct the eavesdropping work...

http://tinyurl.com/83t8j


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

USA Today

01/04/06

President Bush fired the first shot in the renewed battle over the USA Patriot Act, hosting on Tuesday a group of federal prosecutors who said the soon-to-expire law helped solve major crimes. ... Bush-appointed U.S. attorneys from 14 states and the District of Columbia said the law has helped them crack cases involving terrorist finances, weapons exchanged for drugs, and child abductions. Senate Democrats who blocked renewal late last year, such as Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said they support the law but want to make sure civil liberties are protected. Four Republican senators joined Democrats in blocking renewal of the law: Larry Craig of Idaho, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska...

http://tinyurl.com/a246d


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Fox News

01/04/06

With the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito less than a week away, his critics are making every effort to whip up opposition to Alito's joining the court. But ever since the defeat of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork a little more than 18 years ago, conservative activists have vowed not to let such critics go unanswered. ... Progress for America is spending about $500,000 on a television ad that quotes the writings of legal analyst Stuart Taylor, a columnist for The National Journal [in support of Alito] .... Meanwhile, a coalition of groups opposed to the nomination are preparing their campaign. Ralph Neas, head of People for the American Way, a liberal-leaning group, compares the coming battle to the 1987 fight over Judge Robert Bork...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,180500,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://tinyurl.com/7etwh


Informant: ireland

03 Januar 2006 - 16:13

Vorsicht: Fernablesung erfasster Heizkosten kommt/Rechtsprobleme

Deutschlands größtes Wärmemessdienst-Unternehmen, die Techem AG, kündigt an, Heizkosten künftig auch per Mobilfunk erfassen zu wollen. In der Liegenschaft einer Wohnungsgenossenschaft sollen die Verbrauchsdaten aus 29 Wohnungen per Mobilfunknetz an eine Rechenzentrale des Unternehmens übermittelt werden. „Hier“, so der Dienstleister wörtlich, „werden die Daten nicht nur für die jährliche Heizkostenabrechnung genutzt.“

Der Deutsche Mieterbund (DMB) sieht in der so beschriebenen Fernablesung große datenschutzrechtliche Probleme. Es bestehe die Gefahr, dass Vermieter in der Privatsphäre ihrer Mieter schnüffelten, dass das Heizverhalten der Mieter erforscht werden könne und dass diese Kenntnisse in Rechtsstreitigkeiten, zum Beispiel über Feuchtigkeitsschäden, gegen die Mieter eingesetzt würden.

Mieterbund-Direktor Dr. Franz-Georg Rips: „Wenn erklärt wird, dass die Erfassung von taggenauen Verbrauchswerten nur Sinn macht, wenn die erfassten Daten effektiv genutzt werden, oder die Fernablesung als richtig interessant bewertet wird, wenn sie für ein unterjähriges Verbrauchsmanagement benutzt wird, wenn auf Basis der so erhobenen Daten Vielverbraucher unter den Mietern angesprochen und beraten werden sollen, dann schrillen bei mir alle Alarmglocken. Das ist der ‚gläserne Mieter’. Gegen derartige Auswüchse werden wir uns wehren.

Wenn als weiterer Vorteil der Fernablesung darauf hingewiesen wird, dass der Vermieter die Vorauszahlungen für Betriebskosten anpassen könne, wenn sich deutliche Veränderungen in der Heizkostenabrechnung abzeichneten, so ist das rechtlich schlichtweg falsch. Anpassungen an die Vorauszahlungen“, so Dr. Franz-Georg Rips, „kann der Vermieter nur verlangen, wenn sich aufgrund der Vorlage der Jahresabrechnung ein Anpassungsbedarf ergibt. Das ist ausdrücklich so im Gesetz geregelt.“

Quelle: Mitteilung des Deutsche Mieterbundes (DMB) v. 03.01.06

http://www.ebelteam.de/wmview.php?ArtID=4182


Nachricht von der BI Bad Dürkheim

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/03/cloud_bt/


Best regards.

Agnes.
http://www.mast-victims.org

Omega News semaine 23-31/12/2005
http://www.next-up.org/pdf/omega/31_12_2005_omega_news_next_up.pdf

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/usa_supreme_court_clears_cell_phone_cancer_suits_for_trial.htm

Source:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/cell_phone_cancer_suits.html

--------

Court victory is a first for cell-phone programmers
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1033412/

By NEWS.com.au readers

04jan06

MOBILE phones are raising stress levels at home and at work, research has shown.

Their use is blurring the boundaries between work and home, causing professional worries to spill over into personal time, a study has found.

We asked NEWS.com.au readers whether they felt tied to their mobile and if they considered them a necessary evil. Below is a selection of the best responses we received.

http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,17727435%255E421,00.html

Thanks for sending on those very relevant revelations about the US psychiatric disaster. David Oaks of mindfreedom-news had also alerted me to them. Dreadful what is going on in psychiatric circles in the US and elsewhere. The info in the enclosed attachment sounds a little bit uplifting but then these poor students may ruin their career advancements by taking such an ethical stance. Tomorrow's ed. of the IRISH TIMES will carry an article by their regular science columnist, Professor William Reville on "the dilemmas we face when science and ethics collide. If it is any good and if I can get to an Ir. Times online edition will send it along to you for posting. Imelda


NEWS: Med students REFUSE drug corp. gifts, go PharmFree!
From: mindfreedom-news@intenex.net
Sat, 31 Dec 2005 13:38:24 -0800 An:

Here's an inspiring news article about medical students **REFUSING** to take drug company gifts for ethical reasons!


28 Dec. 2005 _The Christian Science Monitor_

Religion & Ethics

Backstory: A pill they won't swallow

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Correspondent of _The Christian Science Monitor_

BOSTON - Dutifully wearing collared shirts, ties, and the short white coats meant to keep all medical students humble, Chen Kenyon and Dustin Petersen don't look like rebels. They look scrubbed and eager to learn from any doctor in a long white coat.

But in the pockets of their shorter garments lurk symbols of a movement aiming to topple one of medicine's most entrenched traditions. Their pens read "PharmFree," which means they don't take personal gifts of any size from the pharmaceutical industry. And that is touching off a quiet ethics war reverberating through the halls of academia and hospitals across the country.

Messrs. Kenyon and Petersen are among a growing band of stethoscope-wearing students who believe the medical profession needs more detachment from big pharmaceutical firms.

Consequently, they're turning down everything from free catered meals to notepads, provoking debates among fellow students and quizzical looks from doctors.

"People will often ask, 'why didn't you take the pen? Or, why didn't you eat the lunch?'," says Kenyon, a Boston University medical student who packs a sandwich, apple, and granola bar almost every day so he won't have to eat meals sponsored by drugmakers.

"It gives you the green light to talk about it when somebody asks," adds Petersen, who swears his home-cooked pot roast and clam chowder leftovers taste better than the catered meals he refuses each week.

Behind the modest rebellion is the belief that taking gifts from drug companies creates a conflict of interest for doctors. The argument: To accept handouts is to feel indebted, and doctors indebted to drug firms may not be prescribing medicines based solely on what's best for their patients. The 60,000-member American Medical Student Association (AMSA) urges students and doctors alike to just say "no" to all personal gifts from drugmakers.

Doctors on the whole seem far less worried about the practice. The American Medical Association condones gift-taking from pharmaceutical representatives as long as no single gift is worth much more than $100. And drug companies seem to be finding plenty of takers: spending on marketing to physicians jumped from $12.1 billion in 1999 to $22 billion in 2003 ($16 billion of which was in free samples), according to data from Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

***

Against this backdrop, students are still convinced their cause is worth fighting, even if it means giving up a hot meal every day. "I don't think patients can trust us anymore," says Kristin Rising, a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco. "By accepting gifts, we're taking in biases that are going to affect patient care."

Others feel the same way. For the first time this year, between 500 and 1,000 students at 150 medical schools are canvassing 40,000 physicians nationwide. Their aim is to steer them to independent sources of information about drugs.

This "counter-detailing initiative" takes AMSA's three-year-old PharmFree project out of medical schools and into the trenches of the profession, where students hope to pique the consciences of future colleagues.

Other phases of the movement have been more brazen. Last year, for instance, a brigade of students marched on Pfizer offices in New York and dumped thousands of logo- emblazoned pens, given to the students by the company as gifts and intended as advertisements in their hands, back on the firm's doorstep.

Activist students insist their beef is more with the medical profession, which, they say, has come to feel it's entitled to the giveaways, than it is with the drugmakers. Even PhRMA distances itself somewhat from the practice, saying its member firms honor AMA guidelines to keep gift-giving at modest levels. "Any physician can decline a gift at any time," says Dr. Paul T. Antony, PhRMA's chief medical officer.

Challenging medicine's status quo, however subtly, often comes at personal cost. Example: Last year in Philadelphia, Kenyon wanted to make a good first impression with his new supervisor on a medicine rotation. But after the firm handshake, things deteriorated as the attending physician suggested they grab lunch - at a seminar sponsored by a drug company.

"I told him, 'I don't eat pharmaceutical lunches,' " Kenyon recalls. "He was sort of, like, 'Oh.' And stopped it there. In some way, it doesn't really matter to me, but he is the person evaluating me in the end."

***

Kenyon's predicament illustrates the heart of this struggle: Those making the moral case against gift-taking hold junior status in a hierarchical and tradition-bound profession.

"While I think we're right, people don't always want to hear what we have to say," says Ms. Rising. "I'm not in a position to say, 'you, my supervisor, are wrong' " to accept giveaways.

With no real standing to make their case to higher-ups, students rely instead on the shock power that comes with saying "no thanks" when offered coveted freebies. Fellow students, they say, respond with a mixture of surprise, curiosity, ridicule - and lots of discussion.

Take the case of Chris McCoy. A 2004 graduate of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, Mr. McCoy had earned a reputation as a stickler for ethics by complaining when fellow students proposed to get drug companies to sponsor the medical school's social events. After the proposal was defeated, students kept eating meals provided by drug firms, but discussion about the ethics of doing so lingered like garlic.

"They'd say, 'What would Chris think if he saw us eating the drug lunch?' " McCoy recalls.

Where tensions arise, activists say, is when a student sets a higher ethical standard than a supervisor. No words need be spoken for a supervisor in a buffet line to feel a bit snubbed when a student settles for a granola bar instead of "tainted" pharmaceutical food.

"In a lot of cases, people feel like you're pulling the moral high ground," Kenyon says.

Students who dream of higher ethical standards for medicine expect to pay higher personal prices as time goes by. As medical residents, they'll be among peers who feel they've "earned" drug-industry perks, says Bob Goodman, founder of "No Free Lunch," a physician group that urges colleagues to stop taking gifts from drugmakers.

What's more, residents with low salaries and high debt levels are famous for relying on drugmakers to keep them fed during long shifts. Residents say "once you see the reality of the way medicine is, you won't be so idealistic," says Yavar Moghimi, a George Washington University medical student. "I worry about that. [But] family members always congratulate me and tell me how important they think this is."

Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1228/p20s01-lire.html

- end -

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3869/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud, agreeing to cooperate in an influence-peddling investigation that threatens powerful members of Congress.

http://tinyurl.com/77g32


From Information Clearing House

Last year witnessed a decisive turn in Latin America. A growing number of countries in the region now seem determined to pursue their interests, regardless of what the United States desires.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11447.htm

Russia is being universally condemned by the Bush Regime and European leaders for the heinous crime of….practicing hard-nosed market capitalism. And for – horror of horrors! – mixing business and politics. Whoever heard of such a thing? Oh, those Scythian savages!

http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=385&Itemid=1


From Information Clearing House

In light of recent revelations concerning the US government's human rights abuses, the statement smacks of the pot calling the kettle black.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_382.shtml


From Information Clearing House

All eyes are on Syria as it stands accused of being behind the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Even before the UN commission of inquiry was completed, the US was planning - with France - a concerted offensive against the Syrian regime. But destabilising President Bashar al-Assad could lead to regional chaos, given the fragility of Lebanon and near civil war in Iraq.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11443.htm

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan06/Frank03.htm


From Information Clearing House

The Bush administration has succeeded in making the United States one of the most feared and hated countries in the world. The talent of these guys is unbelievable. They have even succeeded at alienating Canada. I mean, that takes genius, literally.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11446.htm

As America continues to tighten its grip on the world’s dwindling hydrocarbon resources, we can expect that the successes of the Iraqi resistance will offer a model to the other disparate groups who have no chance of beating the United States in open battle, but hope to bring the empire to its knees by making the costs of war too great to sustain.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11441.htm

The former exile who helped spur the U.S.-led invasion by feeding false intelligence to Washington about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, and who returned to Iraq after Saddam's fall to craft himself into a political leader, still has more cards to play.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13535019.htm


From Information Clearing House

Democracy Now!

Former NSA intelligence agent Russell Tice condemns reports that the Agency has been engaged in eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without court warrants. Tice has volunteered to testify before Congress about illegal black ops programs at the NSA. Tice said, “The freedom of the American people cannot be protected when our constitutional liberties are ignored and our nation has decayed into a police state."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11442.htm

In central Florida, Wal-Mart workers are fighting, and sometimes winning, campaigns using collective action to solve both shop floor and larger industry-wide problems.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010306LA.shtml

One question naturally arises when you hear that 67 million more people are on the way: do we have enough to go around? Last year raised worries about "peak oil," the notion that the glass of crude may be half empty.... Now get ready for peak water, and even peak food.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010306EA.shtml

Robert Parry writes that George W. Bush's dysfunctional relationship with the truth seems to be shaped by two complementary factors - a personal compulsion to say whatever makes him look good at that moment and a permissive environment that rarely holds him accountable for his lies.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306Q.shtml

Aitken RJ, Bennetts LE, Sawyer D, Wiklendt AM, King BV.

ARC Centre of Excellence in Biotechnology and Development, Discipline of Biological Sciences, and Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. jaitken@mail.newcastle.edu.au

Concern has arisen over human exposures to radio frequency electromagnetic radiation (RFEMR), including a recent report indicating that regular mobile phone use can negatively impact upon human semen quality. These effects would be particularly serious if the biological effects of RFEMR included the induction of DNA damage in male germ cells. In this study, mice were exposed to 900 MHz RFEMR at a specific absorption rate of approximately 90 mW/kg inside a waveguide for 7 days at 12 h per day. Following exposure, DNA damage to caudal epididymal spermatozoa was assessed by quantitative PCR (QPCR) as well as alkaline and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The treated mice were overtly normal and all assessment criteria, including sperm number, morphology and vitality were not significantly affected. Gel electrophoresis revealed no gross evidence of increased single- or double-DNA strand breakage in spermatozoa taken from treated animals. However, a detailed analysis of DNA integrity using QPCR revealed statistically significant damage to both the mitochondrial genome (p < 0.05) and the nuclear beta-globin locus (p < 0.01). This study suggests that while RFEMR does not have a dramatic impact on male germ cell development, a significant genotoxic effect on epididymal spermatozoa is evident and deserves further investigation.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15910543&dopt=Abstract


Informant:
Agnes
http://www.mast-victims.org

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060103/news_mz1e3hirsch.html


Informant: Kev Hall

(excerpt)

-----Original Message-----
From: Leuren Moret
leurenmoret@yahoo.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 3, 2006 06:26 PM

Subject: Plans for nuclear strike on Iran
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

January 2, 2006 -- Intelligence indications and warnings abound as Bush administration finalizes military attack on Iran.

Intelligence and military sources in the United States and abroad are reporting on various factors that indicate a U.S. military hit on Iranian nuclear and military installations, that may involve tactical nuclear weapons, is in the final stages of preparation. Likely targets for saturation bombing are the Bushehr nuclear power plant (where Russian and other foreign national technicians are present), a uranium mining site in Saghand near the city of Yazd, the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, a heavy water plant and radioisotope facility in Arak, the Ardekan Nuclear Fuel Unit, the Uranium Conversion Facility and Nuclear Technology Center in Isfahan, the Tehran Nuclear Research Center, the Tehran Molybdenum, Iodine and Xenon Radioisotope Production Facility, the Tehran Jabr Ibn Hayan Multipurpose Laboratories, the Kalaye Electric Company in the Tehran suburbs, a reportedly dismantled uranium enrichment plant in Lashkar Abad, and the Radioactive Waste Storage Units in Karaj and Anarak.

Primary target: Bushehr nuclear reactor and hundreds of Russian technicians

Other first targets would be Shahab-I, II, and III missile launch sites, air bases (including the large Mehrabad air base/international airport near Tehran), naval installations on the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea, command, control, communications and intelligence facilities. Secondary targets would include civilian airports, radio and TV installations, telecommunications centers, government buildings, conventional power plants, highways and bridges, and rail lines. Oil installations and commercial port facilities would likely be relatively untouched by U.S. forces in order to preserve them for U.S. oil and business interests.

There has been a rapid increase in training and readiness at a number of U.S. military installations involved with the planned primarily aerial attack. These include a Pentagon order to Fort Rucker, Alabama, to be prepared to handle an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 trainees, including civilian contractors, who will be deployed for Iranian combat operations. Rucker is home to the US Army's aviation training command, including the helicopter training school.

In addition, there has been an increase in readiness at nearby Hurlburt Field in Florida, the home of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command. The U.S. attack on Iran will primarily involve aviation (Navy, Air Force, Navy-Marine Corps) and special operations assets.

There has also been a noticeable increase in activity at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, California, a primary live fire training activity located in a desert and mountainous environment similar to target areas in Iran.

From European intelligence agencies comes word that the United States has told its NATO allies to be prepared for a military strike on Iranian nuclear development and military installations.

On November 17, 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin spent seven hours in secret discussions with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the the opening ceremonies in Samsun, Turkey for the Russian-Turkish underwater Blue Stream natural gas pipeline, festivities also attended by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

According to sources knowledgeable about the meeting, Erdogan promised Putin, who has become a close friend, that Turkey would not support the use of its bases by the United States in a military attack on Iran. That brought a series of high level visits to Turkey by Bush administration officials, including CIA chief Porter Goss, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Although Erdogan listened to Goss's and Rice's pleas for Turkish logistical, political, and intelligence help for an attack on Iran and Turkish Army Chief Yasar Buyukanit heard much the same from Pentagon officials during his recent trip to Washington, the word is that Putin now has enough clout in Ankara to scuttle any use of Turkey by the U.S. for an attack on Iran. [Mueller delivered Ankara intelligence "proof" of Iranian backing for Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas in Turkey. Intelligence agencies and business intelligence units around the world are now discounting any intelligence coming from the Bush administration as neocon propaganda invented by think tanks and discredited intelligence agencies in Washington, Tel Aviv-Herzliya, and Jerusalem].

A U.S. Attack on Iran: The Perfect Storm for wider nuclear conflict

U.S. political and military officials have also approached Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Jordan, Oman, and Azerbaijan seeking their support for a U.S. attack on Iran. Ina replay of the phony pre-war intelligence on Iraq, Washington is trying to convince various countries that a link exists between Iran and "Al Qaeda."

Polish intelligence sources report that Poland's Defense Minister Radek Sikorski assured Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of Poland's support for any U.S. strike against Iran. Sikorski is a former American Enterprise Institute colleague of such neo-cons as Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, and Lynne Cheney, the so-called "Second Lady" of the United States. Sikorski and Polish Foreign Minister Stefan Meller assured Rumsfeld and Rice, respectively, that Poland would stand by the United States during the split in NATO that will occur as a result of the American strike. Polish intelligence sources, who are unhappy with the arrangement of the new right-wing government in Warsaw with the Bush administration, leaked the information about the recent U.S. demarche to NATO in Brussels about preparation for the attack.

Similar intelligence "leaks" about the U.S. attack plans were also leaked to the German magazine Der Spiegel.

European intelligence sources also report that the recent decision by Putin and Russia's state-owned Gazprom natural gas company to cut supplied of natural gas to Ukraine was a clear warning by Putin to nations like Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Moldova, France, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Bosnia, Serbia, and Germany that it would do the same if they support the U.S. attack on Iran. Gazprom natural gas is supplied, via pipelines in Ukraine, from Russia and Turkmenistan to countries in Eastern and Western Europe. The Bush administration charged Russia with using gas supplies as a "political tool."

Putin has additional leverage on Western Europe since former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder accepted an appointment to the board of a joint Russian-German North European Gas Pipeline Consortium that is controlled by Gazprom. The pipeline will bring Russian gas to Scandinavia, Germany, Netherlands, and Britain, giving Putin additional leverage over Washington in Europe.

Southeast Asian intelligence sources report that Burma's (Myanmar's) recent abrupt decision to move its capital from Rangoon (Yangon) to remote Pyinmana, 200 miles to the north, is a result of Chinese intelligence warnings to its Burmese allies about the effects of radiation resulting from a U.S. conventional or tactical nuclear attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. There is concern that a series of attacks on Iranian nuclear installations will create a Chernobyl-like radioactive cloud that would be caught up in monsoon weather in the Indian Ocean.

Rangoon (Yangon) capital moved 200 miles north over fears of monsoon season Iran nuclear fallout?

Low-lying Rangoon lies in the path of monsoon rains that would continue to carry radioactive fallout from Iran over South and Southeast Asia between May and October. Coastal Indian Ocean cities like Rangoon, Dhaka, Calcutta, Mumbai, Chennai, and Colombo would be affected by the radioactive fallout more than higher elevation cities since humidity intensifies the effects of the fallout. Thousands of government workers were given only two days' notice to pack up and leave Rangoon for the higher (and dryer) mountainous Pyinmana.

In neighboring West Bengal, the leftist government and its national leftist allies around the country are planning massive demonstrations during Bush's upcoming trip to India. They are protesting the war in Iraq as well as the threats against Iran.

Reports from Yemen indicate that western oil companies are concerned about U.S. intentions in Iran since the southern Arabian country catches the edge of the monsoon rains that could contain radioactive fallout from an attack, endangering their workers in the country.

The Bush administration aborted last minute plans to attack Iranian nuclear and political installations prior to the 2004 presidential election. On October 9, Rumsfeld met with defense minister colleagues on the now decommissioned USS John F. Kennedy in the Persian Gulf to seek support for the attack. That meeting has been confirmed by the Danish Defense Minister who was in attendance, however, the topic of the meeting was not discussed. According to U.S. naval personnel on board the Kennedy, a special "war room" was set up to coordinate the attack. Britain, Australia, Italy, Netherlands, and Japan did not attend the meeting because of their opposition to the attack plans.

Intelligence and military officials around the world are also bracing for the results of a U.S. attack on Iran. This includes the distinct possibility of a major Shia retaliatory attack in Iraq, the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and Afghanistan against U.S. military, diplomatic, and economic targets in the region. Radioactive fallout from a conventional or tactical nuclear attack on Iran will result in major problems with Pakistan, India, China, Russia, Japan, and other downwind countries in Asia and the Pacific Rim, possibly including the fall of the Pervez Musharraf government in Pakistan and replacement by a radical Islamist regime having possession of nuclear weapons. That would provoke a military response from nuclear power India.

In a counter-attack, Iran would immediately launch its Shahab I and II missiles at the U.S. Green Zone in Baghdad, the Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, the US Navy base in Bahrain, Camp Doha base in Kuwait, Al Seeb airbase in Oman, Baghdad International Airport, the U.S. base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Iran would also launch its long-range Shahab III missiles on the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheba, Eilat, and the Israeli nuclear complex at Dimona. Iranian missiles would also be launched at US naval ships in the Persian Gulf and oil installations in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The virtual end of NATO as a viable defense organization may also result from an attack that will drive a final wedge between Washington and Europe. And China may elect to respond financially and militarily against the United States since Iran is China's second largest source of imported Middle East oil after Saudi Arabia and plans to use an Iranian terminal for the export of natural gas from Turkmenistan. [China now imports 60 percent of its oil needs, and Iran represents 17 percent of those imports].

Russia recently participated in, through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a three-way military exercise (code named "Indira 2005") between Russia, China, and India to prepare for any new U.S. power projections in Asia, including an attack on Iran, a prospective SCO member. Last August, Russia and China held their first-ever joint land-sea-air military exercises.

Iran also held a large military exercise in early December in Bandar Abbas on the Gulf. An Iranian C-130 carrying Iranian journalists from Mehrabad airport to Bandar to cover the exercise crashed into a Tehran apartment building on December 6, killing at least 116 people, including 68 journalists.

Within the U.S. military and across the globe, there is heightened tension about the intentions of the neocon Bush administration.


From CAMPAIGN FOR COOPERATION IN SPACE

Excerpt from
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=97220;show_parent=1

Jon Roland
Jan 3, 2006 01:17


-------- Original Message --------
Presidents, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2006 20:39:56 -0600
From: Jon Roland
jon.roland@constitution.org
Constitution Society
7793 Burnet Road #37,
Austin, TX 78757
512/374-9585
http://www.constitution.org

The following is an actual transcript of an interview with the president:

INTERVIEWER: So what in a sense, you're saying is that there are certain situations … where the president can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.

PRESIDENT: Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.

INTERVIEWER: By definition.

PRESIDENT: Exactly. Exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president's decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out, to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they're in an impossible position.

INTERVIEWER: So, that in other words, really you were saying in that answer, really, between the burglary and murder, again, there's no subtle way to say that there was murder of a dissenter in this country because I don't know any evidence to that effect at all. But, the point is: just the dividing line, is that in fact, the dividing line is the president's judgment?

PRESIDENT: Yes, and the dividing line and, just so that one does not get the impression, that a president can run amok in this country and get away with it, we have to have in mind that a president has to come up before the electorate. We also have to have in mind, that a president has to get appropriations from the Congress. We have to have in mind, for example, that as far as the CIA's covert operations are concerned, as far as the FBI's covert operations are concerned, through the years, they have been disclosed on a very, very limited basis to trusted members of Congress. I don't know whether it can be done today or not.

INTERVIEWER: Pulling some of our discussions together, as it were; speaking of the Presidency … you stated, quote, "It's quite obvious that there are certain inherently government activities, which, if undertaken by the sovereign in protection of the interests of the nation's security are lawful, but which if undertaken by private persons, are not." What, at root, did you have in mind there?

PRESIDENT: Well, what I, at root I had in mind I think was perhaps much better stated by Lincoln during the War between the States. Lincoln said, and I think I can remember the quote almost exactly, he said, "Actions which otherwise would be unconstitutional, could become lawful if undertaken for the purpose of preserving the Constitution and the Nation."

Now that's the kind of action I'm referring to. Of course in Lincoln's case it was the survival of the Union in wartime, it's the defense of the nation and, who knows, perhaps the survival of the nation.

INTERVIEWER: But there was no comparison was there, between the situation you faced and the situation Lincoln faced, for instance?

PRESIDENT: This nation was torn apart in an ideological way by the war in Vietnam, as much as the Civil War tore apart the nation when Lincoln was president. Now it's true that we didn't have the North and the South—

INTERVIEWER: But when you said … you know, "If the president orders it, that makes it legal", as it were: Is the president in that sense—is there anything in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights that suggests the president is that far of a sovereign, that far above the law?

PRESIDENT: No, there isn't. There's nothing specific that the Constitution contemplates in that respect. I haven't read every word, every jot and every tittle, but I do know this: That it has been, however, argued that as far as a president is concerned, that in war time, a president does have certain extraordinary powers which would make acts that would otherwise be unlawful, lawful if undertaken for the purpose of preserving the nation and the Constitution, which is essential for the rights we're all talking about.

Those with long memories have probably already figured out that the interviewer was David Frost and the (former) president was Richard Nixon.

Nixon was forced from office, though, not because of his view of the breadth of the president’s constitutional powers but because the nation became convinced that he was using those powers (whether or not they were constitutional) in bad faith for craven purposes. In the current situation, though, it appears (from all external clues, at least) that the president is using his power (whether or not in accordance with the constitution) in good faith, in the sense that he appears to believe that the actions he is taking will benefit the security of the nation. I am curious whether list members think that this apparent good faithNote will make a difference in adjudication of the president’s actions, and whether it should make a difference.

NBC
________________________________________

Neil B. Cohen
Jeffrey D. Forchelli
Professor of Law
Brooklyn Law School
250 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201
Telephone: (718) 780-7940 Fax: (718) 780-0375

Note from forwarder: Not discussed here is the position of those who follow the orders of the president. If the presdient lacks authority, and the actions are illegal, then so are their actions, and it is not a defence that they were "just following orders", even if the president is not impeached for it. Of course, they might expect protection from a presidential pardon, or from the statute that forbids prosecutions in federal court by private parties, leaving only presidential appointees to prosecute them. But in principle, they are subject to prosecution, especially if the president, to avoid blame of himself, decides to throw some of his underlings overboard as a ritual sacrifice.


-- Jon

==========================================

Samuel A. Alito Jr.

Released: Friday, December 23, 2005

1984 Justice Department memo Alito wrote expressing the view that the Attorney General should be immune from suit over illegal wiretaps [PDF text]. The memo was written in connection with a Reagan-era case involving wiretaps ordered by former Attorney General John Mitchell during an investigation into a suspected plot to kidnap National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger.

THIS CASE REF'S FISA AND WIRETAPES ETC... (IMPORTANT)
http://www.apfn.org/pdf/memoAlito-1984.pdf

Leon Hadar fears the answer is yes.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/hadar/hadar39.html

A Year of Living Dangerously
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis10.html

Hegemonic Hubris

Gabriel Kolko on the unstoppable decline of the empire.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/kolko2.html

Local organizations have planned over 70 Out of Iraq events around the country on or about January 7th. (See list at bottom.) Most of the events are town hall forums, and several will feature members of Congress, including Bobby Scott, Diane Watson, Jim McDermott, Adam Smith, Bob Filner, Martin Sabo, Jim Moran, and John Murtha. Several other events will feature congressional staff, congressional and senatorial candidates, local elected officials, and leaders of the peace movement, including Gold Star Families for Peace founder Cindy Sheehan, and After Downing Street Co-Founder John Bonifaz.

While all of these events will focus on ending the war, many of them will also address Congressman John Conyers' new resolutions to censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney and to create a select committee to investigate and make recommendations on impeachment.

To sign up for an event near you, go to:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/event


National Call-In Day on Accountability January 9th

Tens of thousands of members of Progressive Democrats of America and other organizational members of the After Downing Street Coalition will phone Members of Congress in their district offices on January 9, urging them to cosponsor three bills: H.Res.635 to create a select committee to investigate and to make recommendations on grounds for impeachment, H.Res.636 to censure Bush, and H.Res.637 to censure Cheney. More about these bills:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/5768

Congress Members' phone numbers:
http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/dbq/officials/?lvl=C


International Commission Taking "Indictments" to White House January 9th

On January 9, the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity By the Bush Administration will serve indictments on the White House for its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, its actions and policies on torture and illegal detention, its promotion of abstinence-only in the midst of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, its fueling of global warming, and its response to Hurricane Katrina. This is in preparation for its January 20-22 hearings at Riverside Church and Columbia Law School in New York City (where the Administration will be invited to present a defense). For more details, see:
http://www.bushcommission.org


ImpeachPAC Forms Citizens Impeachment Commission

On Monday, ImpeachPAC announced the formation of a Citizens Impeachment Commission to make 2006 the "Year of Impeachment."

Members of the commission include distinguished national activists, business leaders, elected officials, former government officials, historians and legal scholars, and talk show hosts, editors, bloggers, pundits, and authors.
http://www.impeachpac.org/citizens


Get "Enraged & Engaged" to Stop Alito

The National Organization for Women needs your help to keep abortion safe & legal. There is work to be done, both in Washington, DC and throughout the country. As a part of Freedom Winter 2006, NOW and Feminist Majority Foundation are working together to bring grassroots activists to DC between January 3 and January 20. We're also encouraging activists to organize in their communities.
http://www.now.org/defeatalito


Demand Strict Inspection of Diebold Software

It has been proven that Diebold electronic voting machines use code that is prohibited by federal law, but that hasn't stopped them from selling their machines and states from using them!

Please let Federal Election Commissioners know that citizens want the FEC to uphold the law and insist Diebold comply. You can use this one link to send an email to all commissioners. Please let them know that we are paying attention!
http://www.congressweb.com/cweb4/index.cfm?orgcode=VTUSA&hotissue=4

FORWARD THIS INFORMATION



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

With help from the US Justice Department and state prosecutors, corporations are getting away with serious crimes by using their executives as cannon fodder, according to a new report, which questions whether this new legal strategy is hindering or enabling corporate malfeasance.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306G.shtml

Remember the "nuclear option" compromise? When the group of 14 Senators reached their agreement last May, they said they'd support a filibuster only under "extraordinary circumstances," presumably if Bush nominated Attila the Hun. Paul Rogat Loeb suggests these circumstances apply not only to Samuel Alito's track record but also to his nomination's entire political context.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306F.shtml

A former British ambassador has published government documents he says prove that Britain knowingly received intelligence extracted under torture from prisoners in Uzbekistan.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306E.shtml

Paul E. Schroeder, who lost his son in Iraq, concludes that we should stop this war before more heroes are killed. "Though it hurts, I believe that his death - and that of the other Americans who have died in Iraq - was a waste. They were wasted in a belief that democracy would grow simply by removing a dictator - a careless misunderstanding of what democracy requires."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306C.shtml

The maligned punch cards that snarled the 2000 count are all but gone. But with electronic machines under attack as unreliable and vulnerable to hackers, there is little consensus about what the new technology should look like.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306P.shtml

Support for President George W. Bush's Iraq policy has fallen among the US armed forces to just 54 percent from 63 percent a year ago, according to a poll by the magazine group Military Times.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306O.shtml

E. J. Dionne Jr. writes that elections at midterm can be low-interest affairs or immensely important. This fall's congressional elections will be a big show with large consequences, because 2006 is looking a lot like the political years 1958, 1966 and 1978, all of which heralded major political transformations.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306N.shtml

Senator Joseph Biden Jr., the Delaware Democrat who will be one of those doing the questioning when confirmation hearings begin next week, said recently that Judge Alito's statements about one person one vote could do more to jeopardize his nomination than his statements about Roe v. Wade.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306K.shtml

While President Bush denies any wrongdoing in the National Security Agency domestic wiretap and data-mining program, saying yesterday that it was perfectly legal, actions by top officials in his own administration suggest Bush and his inner circle of confidants did indeed know the spying was wrong.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306J.shtml

A decorated Vietnam combat veteran who retired as a colonel after 37 years in the US Marine Corps, Murtha told ABC News's "Nightline" that Iraq "absolutely" was a wrong war for President George W. Bush to have launched.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306I.shtml

(excerpt)

During the last three weeks, the equatorial Pacific has clearly veered into a mild La Nina condition from Peru to 180 degrees. This emerging condition is accompanied with the evaporation of the hot spot in the North Pacific, which has driven the unusual jet stream and weather conditions in the Northern portion of the Western U.S. So the weather oddities will dissolve, but this will be a COLD WINTER for certain and it may easily deepen much more drastically during the next two weeks. So far it appears to me over the past five years that La Nina and high Sunspot Peaks tend to cancel out each other's influence in the Pacific, moderating each other's impact. La Nina reduces air flow. Sunspot Peaks increase it.

To check the latest status of the Change In The Earth and the location of Earth's Axis, go to:
http://www.michaelmandeville.com/earthmonitor/


Michael Wells Mandeville,
The Hills of Arizona
USA
at mwman@earthlink.net

03.01.06

Die "Hartz IV"-Gegner planen neue Formen des Protests. An Stelle der bisherigen wöchentlichen Montagsdemonstrationen sollen vielfältige Aktionen treten, wie Vertreter des bundesweiten Bündnisses "Agenturschluss" am Montag in Berlin erklärten. Das Netzwerk, das vor einem Jahr zur Einführung der Arbeitsmarktreformen die Proteste in vielen Städten Deutschlands initiiert hatte, zog jetzt in einem "Schwarzbuch" Zwischenbilanz.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12595

Für Steinkohle und Atom: Wirtschaftsminister Glos für längere Laufzeiten der Atomkraftwerke (03.01.06)

Bundeswirtschaftsminister Michael Glos (CSU) hat vor dem Hintergrund des Gasstreits zwischen Russland und der Ukraine die Debatte über den Atomausstieg neu entfacht. Darüber müsse man nun "neu nachdenken", sagte Glos am Montag und verlangte, auf in Deutschland verfügbare Energiequellen zu setzen. Neben Steinkohle seien dies Atomkraftwerke, die von der rot-grünen Bundesregierung aus "politischen Gründen zum Abschalten verurteilt" worden seien. Die Grünen verurteilten den Vorstoß als "Griff in die energiepolitische Mottenkiste".

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12594

Der schleswig-holsteinische Datenschutzbeauftragte Thilo Weichert hat zu Protesten gegen die zunehmende staatliche Überwachung aller Bürger ermuntert. "Die Menschen müssen es sich nicht gefallen lassen, dass ihnen ihr Datenschutz und ihre Kommunikationsfreiheiten genommen werden, dass sie zu Nummern reduziert werden, die mit etwas Glück in der großen Lostrommel von Missbrauchsbekämpfung und Sicherheitswahn einen Bürgerrechts-Treffer ziehen", erklärte der Leiter des Unabhängigen Landeszentrums für Datenschutz. 2006 dürfe nicht das "Jahr der Vorratsdatenspeicherung" werden. Das zivilgesellschaftliche und bürgerrechtliche Aufbegehren gegen die verfassungswidrigen Bestrebungen zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung müsse gestärkt werden, "um über eine umfassende öffentliche Diskussion die aktuellen Weichenstellungen in eine Überwachungs-Informationsgesellschaft rückgängig zu machen", so Weichert. Die geplanten Vorratsspeicherungen stellten Menschen ohne einen konkreten Anlass unter Gen eralverdacht. Sie trügen dazu bei, dass die Menschen ihr Vertrauen in den Rechtsstaat und in die Sicherheit elektronischer Kommunikationsdienste verlören.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12599

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MAX20060101&articleId=1699

It's More Important Than Halting Nuclear Proliferation
http://counterpunch.org/christison12292005.html


Informant: Carol Moore

From ufpj-news

The US government is not planning to continue funding reconstruction projects in Iraq, in what appears to be a major climbdown from the White House's one-time pledge to build the best infrastructure in the region.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306Y.shtml

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3867/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbccentral/content/local_news/epaper/2006/01/03/m1a_REEF_0103.html


Informant: binstock

by Robert B. Reich, TomPaine.com

If we measured average Americans' prosperity, the White House would be singing a different economic tune.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060103/our_worrisome_mdp.php

by Robert Dreyfuss, TomPaine.com

Reports that the Bush administration may strike Iranian nuclear facilities promise only further destabilization in Iraq.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060103/the_twin_crises_of_2006.php

Die Redaktion des LabourNet Germany und die „Aktion Agenturschluss“ veröffentlichen eine Jahresbilanz des Widerstandes gegen Agenturen, Erwerbslosenindustrie und Hartz IV. Presseerklärung des LabourNet Germany vom 2.1.06 (pdf)
http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/aktionen/pressehartzbilanz.pdf


Ein Jahr Hartz IV „Zum Jahresende wird im Medienwald Bilanz gezogen, leider mit wenig Überraschungen. Die Armut hat zugenommen mit dem Verelendungsprogramm Hartz IV. ALG II-EmpfängerInnen wurden und werden auf den Ämtern schikaniert, erhielten die ihnen zustehenden Zahlungen nicht und legten massenweise Widerspruch ein. Die Beratungsstellen erlebten einen massiven Ansturm, und arbeiteten selbst oft ehrenamtlich weit über die Erschöpfungsgrenze hinaus. Ob 2006 wieder mehr Protest auf der Straße zu erwarten ist?...“ Artikel von „Unsere Träume sind zu groß für Wahlurnen...“ vom 31.12.2005 bei indymedia

http://de.indymedia.org/2005/12/135905.shtml


Unzitat des Tages: "Hartz IV muss vom Kopf auf die Füße gestellt werden"

Ursula Engelen-Kefer in einem Interview mit der Nachrichtenagentur AP am 29.12.05, zitiert beim DGB

http://www.dgb.de/homepage_kurztexte/hartz.htm

Wir sagen immer noch: Weg damit, mit allen Hartz-Gesetzen!


Aus: LabourNet, 2. Januar 2006

Zeitung gegen den Krieg Nr. 22 ist erschienen

Schwerpunkte: Folterflüge und US-Airports in der BRD – Große Koalition und großer Krieg? – Die iranische Regierung und die Kriegsgefahr durch die US-Regierung – Kampagne gegen Armee-Rekrutierungen in den USA - Die Lage in den palästinensischen Autonomiegebieten: Gespräch mit Abdallah Franghi – Israel vor Neuwahlen – Atomare Aufrüstung in Großbritannien und Frankreich - Gespräch mit Konstantin Wecker - Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz 2006. Die neue Ausgabe der ZgK dokumentiert u.a., wie konkret die nächsten Kriege vorbereitet werden. Weitere Informationen und die Bestellmöglichkeiten auf unserer Sonderseite „Zeitung gegen den Krieg“

http://www.labournet.de/krieg/zgk.html


Aus: LabourNet, 3. Januar 2006

2005: Krankenstand weiter gesunken - Beschäftigte zwei Tage weniger krank als noch vor zwei Jahren

„Von Januar bis November 2005 ging der Krankenstand (3,4 Prozent) weiter zurück (2004: 3,6 Prozent und 2003: 3,7 Prozent, jeweils Januar bis November). 2005 sanken die Krankheitszeiten für die ersten elf Monate auf nur 11,5 Kalendertage, im Jahr 2004 waren es für diesen Zeitraum 11,9 Tage und 2003 noch 13,5 Tage. Somit waren die Beschäftigten von Januar bis November 2005 zwei Tage weniger krankgeschrieben als 2003 (Januar bis November). Damit ist zu erwarten, dass für das gesamte Jahr 2005 der Rekordtiefstand mit nur 13 Tagen Arbeitsunfähigkeit aus dem Jahr 2004 noch unterboten wird…“ Pressemitteilung des BKK Bundesverbandes vom 02.01.2006
http://www.bkk.de/bkk/pressemitteilungen/powerslave,id,262,nodeid,15.html


Detaillierte Informationen zu psychischen Erkrankungen, branchen- und berufsbezogene Auswertungen aller Krankheitsarten und weitere umfangreiche Analysen liefert der » aktuelle BKK Gesundheitsreport 2005

http://www.bkk.de/bkk/powerslave,id,855,nodeid,855.html


Aus: LabourNet, 3. Januar 2006

The New York Times is reporting that Jack Abramoff will plead guilty to three felony counts in Washington on Wednesday as part of a settlement with federal prosecutors, ending an intense, months-long negotiation over whether the Republican lobbyist would testify against his former colleagues, people involved with the case said.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010306Z.shtml

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/03/abramoff.plea


Informant: John Calvert

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/science/03crop.html


Informant: binstock

PETER WALSH

02 January 2006 11:45

Families are facing a fresh battle to stop a mobile phone mast being installed near their homes after a telecommunication giant appealed against a decision to throw it out.

More than 500 people signed a petition against the application by O2 for a 15metre mast near to the Moss Pharmacy in Colman Road.

The campaign, which was orchestrated by University ward councillor Roy Blower, led to planning officers throwing the proposal out in June.

Norwich City Council was not able to divulge why the plans had been rejected, although the council's planning department confirmed the application had been given delegated refusal.

That meant it was rejected before it reached the stage of going before councillors for approval.

However delight for the campaigners has proved short-lived as the phone giant has lodged an appeal with Norwich City Council.

A spokeswoman for O2 previously saidbecause of increased usage of mobile phones more masts had to be put up to help keep up required coverage.

"I'm hopeful that when the appeal is heard common sense will prevail," said Mr Blower.

"We're not arguing only on the grounds of health, but the total intrusion of the mast in a residential area is not what the community wants. I think other alternative sites could be looked at and for commercial reasons they haven't, so I'm hopeful that common sense will prevail."

Paul Brock, owner of Collins Fish Bar which has branches on Colman Road and Dereham Road, said he was disappointed O2 had decided to appeal.

"The majority of our customers are from that area and we support whatever the locals want and they obviously don't want it," he said.

"It would be sad if the people who have signed the petition lost. I don't really know what else you can do — O2 are a big company to fight."

The Evening News has campaigned, through the Put Masts on Hold campaign, against the installation of mobile phone masts near homes and schools until it is proved they are safe.

Dr Ian Gibson, a long-time supporter of our campaign, said: "Lets hope the planning committee can be consistent and help remove these hated masts."

In December 2002 telecommunications company Hutchinson 3G submitted plans to the city council to put up a 13m mast next to the Colman Road Area Housing Office car park.

A petition was raised against the application on the grounds it would have a negative impact of the surroundings the proposals were thrown out soon after.


Are you battling mobile phone mast plans where you live? Telephone Evening News reporter Peter Walsh on (01603) 772439 or e-mail peter.walsh@archant.co.uk

http://tinyurl.com/7j46v

Civil society

The Free Liberal
by Fred E. Foldvary

01/03/06

Civil society has three elements. First is the commercial element, the spontaneous order of an exchange economy, the market for goods and the factors of production. Second is the benevolent element, charitable donations. Third is voluntary association, the creation and organization of clubs, mutual-aid societies, and families. These elements are not distinct, but intertwine like strings in a fabric. The contrast to civil society is imposed government. Government is non-civil because it uses coercion to accomplish its ends...

http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/001766.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AntiWar.Com
by Michael Schwartz

01/03/06

There are several aspects to this new strategy that we need to keep in mind. First, this is an attempt to lessen the strain on U.S. troops -- the U.S. military in Iraq is in grave danger of collapsing, as it did in Vietnam. So the new strategy seeks to reduce the number of patrols (which are the most grueling and dangerous missions American soldiers undertake) and compensate with more air raids. The hope is that this switch in emphasis will make it possible for U.S. troops to endure more tours of duty in Iraq. But this probably won't work...

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/schwartz.php?articleid=8338


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland

01/02/06

Next time you go to the airport be sure to put on a happy face, even if you've been informed that your flight has been delayed by an hour and that you'll miss all your connections. You'll need this cheerful facade to make it through the TSA airport security checkpoint. As if being asked to strip off shoes, coats, belts and other clothing before going through a metal detector and getting your personal belongings x-rayed is not enough, the TSA will begin psychoanalyzing air travelers in 40 major airports next year. TSA screeners, who are not even fully trained law enforcement personnel, let alone professional psychologists, will perform behavior analysis screening on all passengers...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1644


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Alleghany Times

01/02/06

Whether you're at the mall, the automated teller machine, or driving down the highway, a surveillance camera may be stationed somewhere nearby, monitoring your every move. Cameras are stationed all over the place as property and business owners, along with police and schools, attempt to deter theft, crime and other mishaps by keeping a watchful eye through a hidden lens. Following the recent extension of the U.S. Patriot Act, debates over secret phone tapping, illegal spying and trampled civil liberties have begun to emerge. Although some may say it's nothing more than Big Brother paranoia, hidden cameras are in places you might least expect. Putting cell phone cameras and pocketsize cams into the mix stirs concern from some who see it as an escalating privacy issue. Wal-Mart has cameras pointed in and outside its store. PennDOT has cameras observing traffic on the highway systems. Even homeowners are installing cameras...

http://tinyurl.com/dwl8p


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Detroit Free Press

01/02/06

A new book on the government's secret anti-terrorism operations describes how the CIA recruited an Iraqi-American anesthesiologist in 2002 to obtain information from her brother, who was a figure in Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. Dr. Sawsan Alhaddad of Cleveland made the dangerous trip to Iraq on the CIA's behalf. The book said her brother was stunned by her questions about the nuclear program because -- he said -- it had been dead for a decade. New York Times reporter James Risen uses the anecdote to illustrate how the CIA ignored information that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction. His book, 'State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration' describes secret operations of the Bush administration's war on terrorism...

http://tinyurl.com/7dx5a


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The People's Email Network thanks you for your diligent participation over the last year, which has already started to result in policy victories, including saving the ANWR from desecration, affirming the ban against torture, and even derailing the Patriot Act.

YOU ASKED FOR IT, WE LISTENED TO YOU, AND NOW IT'S HERE!

With this email we announce the launch of a revolutionary NEW and more powerful way of doing online activism. You have reported to us repeated instances of large corporate ISPs blocking our email alerts, and as our numbers have grown we have wracked our brains for the ultimate solution to this problem. Because we are doing action pages for no charge for more and more other groups, you have asked us to find a way to prepopulate those forms for you so you don't have to enter your basic contact information every time. And most of all, because we may not always agree each of us on everything, we have had calls to go back to our original format of voting pages with Yes/No options for all questions. And here is what we have created for you.

http://www.usalone.com/index.php

From the page link just above you can download the new Desktop Action program. What it does is establish a direct communication link between you and the policy makers you want to talk to, right at your fingertips from your computer desktop, with no computer browser or conventional email alerts from us required. It automatically updates its own selection menus as new priority questions are at issue, and gently lets you know when there is a need for the people to rally to speak out. We have included many other special features like a function to save your personal comments, the ability to import address books, and other things you have been asking for.

http://www.usalone.com/index.php

On this same page you will also find links to the latest series of action pages, but if you download the Desktop Action program itself you can submit your personal comments on all of them so quickly and easily you will be astounded. The most pressing urgency is to get as many concerned citizens as possible to speak out now on what direction our Supreme Court should go. So please at least speak out on that one, and keep speaking out even if you already have, until the people prevail. With the abuses of presidential power growing more brazen and outrageous by the day, now is the time for the people to speak out together in the loudest voice possible to prevent the installation of a deciding vote for executive tyranny.

Please note, the ONLY way you can obtain a copy of the Desktop Action program is to download a copy directly from the site above. We will never under any circumstances distribute the program in any other way, and for this reason we ask you not to send a copy of the program yourself to anyone else you know, no matter how fantastic and wonderful you think it is. Instead, send all your friends a link to the site above, so they can actually visit the page and know you are getting the latest digitally signed security copy of the Desktop Action program.

RUN FOR OFFICE YOURSELF OR FIND US SOMEONE WHO IS

In the meantime, if you know anyone who is running for office, especially if there is an incumbent you think deserves to be challenged in their own PRIMARY, please contact us at once and we will set them up with the magic tools you will need to come from nowhere with no money and win. In particular, the best way to persuade those incumbents to vote the correct way now is to make them feel the heat from our side. Email us at once on this as time is of the essence.

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

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

Houston Chronicle

01/02/06

A plea agreement between prominent lobbyist Jack Abramoff and federal prosecutors is expected this week, bringing a wide-ranging corruption probe to the doors of Congress, according to sources close to the investigation. Abramoff, who collected millions of dollars in controversial fees from Indian tribes with interests in the gambling industry, reached a tentative deal with prosecutors in a Washington-based investigation late last week, according to one of the sources...

http://tinyurl.com/bb5go


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/03/AR2006010300474.html?referrer=email


Informant: Milo

The Man Behind The Vaccine Mystery

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2002

Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas, says he's behind a provision in the homeland security bill that protects Eli Lilly and Co. (CBS/AP)

Quote:

"It's a matter of national security. We need their vaccines if the country is attacked with germ weapons." House Majority Leader Dick Armey


(CBS) It's been a mystery in Washington for weeks. Just before President Bush signed the homeland security bill into law an unknown member of Congress inserted a provision into the legislation that blocks lawsuits against the maker of a controversial vaccine preservative called "thimerosal," used in vaccines that are given to children.

Drug giant Eli Lilly and Company makes thimerosal. It's the mercury in the preservative that many parents say causes autism in thousands of children – like Mary Kate Kilpatrick.

Asked if she thinks her daughter is a victim of thimerosal, Mary Kate's mother, Kathy Kilpatrick, says, "I think autism is mercury poisoning."

But nobody in Congress would admit to adding the provision, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Acosta – until now.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey tells CBS News he did it to keep vaccine-makers from going out of business under the weight of mounting lawsuits.

"I did it and I'm proud of it," says Armey, R-Texas.

"It's a matter of national security," Armey says. "We need their vaccines if the country is attacked with germ weapons."

Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., isn't buying it. The grandfather of an autistic child, Burton says Armey slipped the provision in at the last minute, too late for debate.

"And I said, 'Who told you to put it in?'" He said, 'No, they asked me to do it at the White House.'"

Critics say the Bush family and the administration have too many ties to Eli Lilly. There's President Bush's father, who sat on the company's board in the 1970's; White House budget director Mitch Daniels, once an Eli Lilly executive; and Eli Lilly CEO Sidney Taurel, who serves on the president's homeland security advisory council.

Officials at the drug giant insist they did nothing wrong. "No one, not our CEO, not myself, not anyone who works with me asked the White House to insert this legislation," said Eli Lilly spokeswoman Debra Steelman.

But Kathy Kilpatrick and her husband Michael argue that the thimerosal provision is not designed to protect the nation, but rather to protect Eli Lilly.

Asked what he'd say to a congressman who came forward and admitted he was responsible for inserting the provision, Michael Kilpatrick says, "I would ask him if he knew he was protecting mercury being shot into our kids."

Kathy Kilpatrick asks, "Why would anyone want to save Eli Lilly on our children's backs?"

Because Armey is retiring at the end of the year, some say the outgoing majority leader is the perfect fall guy to take the heat and shield the White House from embarrassment.

It's a claim both the White house and Armey deny.

© MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.


Informant: Milo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/02/AR2006010201730.html


Informant: binstock

http://www.gigaherz.ch/983

Mobilfunk, Mensch und Recht
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1356123/

http://openpr.de/news/73384
http://www.news4press.com/1/MeldungDetail.asp?Mitteilungs_ID=93094

Kommentar (Augenzeugenbericht) von Evi Gaigg, Vorstandsmitglied von Gigaherz.ch:

Die Pressemeldung

Omega siehe unter: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1306872/

ist unvollständig, denn es gab dazu weitere Referenten mit sehr interessanten Vorträgen. Dass keine Vertreter der Mobilfunkbetreiber eingeladen wurden, bezeichne ich nicht als Manko, denn diese werden doch in schöner Regelmässigkeit an alle anderen Info-Veranstaltungen geladen, jeweils mit dem Vorwand der "Ausgewogenheit" und meist erst noch in grosser Überzahl. Und dies, obwohl sie ja von vornherein schon am längeren Hebelarm sitzen. Genau auf diese Spezies konnte man leicht verzichten. Ich erinnere nur an Swisscom CEO‘s Carsten Schloter: "Mobiltelefonieren ist ein Menschenrecht" und Jens Alder: "Das Anschauen eines Fussballspiels auf dem Handy ist ein Menschenrecht." Was also hätten diese Leute beitragen können? Ihre Haltung ist ja bestens bekannt.

Was leider negativ auffiel, war eine Dame, die nach ihren eigenen Angaben die österreichischen Mobilfunkkritiker vertreten sollte, aber offenbar sehr eng mit den neuen Abwieglern in der WHO verbandelt ist. Die Frage stellt sich, wer sie an die WHO delegiert hat. Sicher nicht die zahlreichen Bürgerinitiativen Oesterreichs. Wäre das der Fall, müsste man sie schleunigst abberufen. Sie hat sich leider derart daneben benommen, während der Vorträge laut im Hintergrund Unterhaltungen geführt (trotz wiederholter Mahnung und Bitte der Moderatorin), so dass die Hörerschaft reklamieren musste. Sie fiel einem Referenten mitten im Vortrag ins Wort, um sich zu verbreiten und aufzuspielen, in geradezu widerlicher Art. Und als Gipfel von allem regte sie sich auf, dass Ärzte und Wissenschafter den WHO-Beauftragten, Dr. Michael Repacholi scharf kritisiert haben. Das Fact-Sheet 296 der WHO vom 5. Dezember 05 trägt Repacholis Handschrift und ist nicht mehr wert, als in den Papierkorb geschmissen zu werden (nachzulesen unter http://www.gigaherz.ch/981 ).

Diese Dame, namens Eva Marsalek, hat der Bewegung gegen die Auswüchse des Mobilfunks ganz allgemein einen denkbar schlechten Dienst erwiesen, jenen auf österreichischem Boden im Besonderen. Ihr Auftreten liess eine gute Kinderstube völlig vermissen, war gekennzeichnet durch Arroganz, Selbstgefälligkeit und übersteigerten Geltungsdrang. Es entstand der Eindruck, dass sie die Seiten gewechselt hat, aus welchen Gründen auch immer. Wozu hätten da wohl noch die Mobilfunkbetreiber eingeladen werden sollen? Das Kuckucksei war ja dabei.

Das stand in dem Artikel diepresse.com Wien nicht drin, sollte aber nicht verschwiegen werden. Ein Bericht über den Verlauf dieser sehr interessanten Podiumsdiskussion wird folgen, sobald es unsere Zeit erlaubt.

http://www.gigaherz.ch/984 (Auszug)

--------

Mobilfunkpolitik und Demokratie im Widerstreit
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1356128/

"On August 2, 2005, Congress had mandated the EPA create a rule that permanently bans chemical testing on pregnant women and children, without exception. But the EPA's newly proposed rule, is ridden with exceptions where chemical studies may be performed on children in certain situations like the followin:"

Children who "cannot be reasonably consulted," such as those that are mentally handicapped or orphaned newborns, may be tested on. With permission from the institution or guardian in charge of the individual, the child may be exposed to chemicals for the sake of research.

Parental consent forms are not necessary for testing on children who have been neglected or abused.

Chemical studies on any children outside of the U.S. are acceptable"

..... http://www.organicconsumers.org/epa6.cfm


ALERT: EPA TO ALLOW PESTICIDE TESTING ON ORPHANS & MENTALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

NOTE: This alert is now closed. Public comment period to the EPA expired on December 12, 2005. Sign up on our email list here, and we will keep you posted on this issue. Thanks for your involvement.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

EXPIRED ALERT TEXT: Public comments are now being accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its newly proposed federal regulation regarding the testing of chemicals and pesticides on human subjects. On August 2, 2005, Congress had mandated the EPA create a rule that permanently bans chemical testing on pregnant women and children, without exception. But the EPA's newly proposed rule, is ridden with exceptions where chemical studies may be performed on children in certain situations like the following:

Children who "cannot be reasonably consulted," such as those that are mentally handicapped or orphaned newborns, may be tested on. With permission from the institution or guardian in charge of the individual, the child may be exposed to chemicals for the sake of research. Parental consent forms are not necessary for testing on children who have been neglected or abused. Chemical studies on any children outside of the U.S. are acceptable. Send a letter to EPA here!

OCA's focal concerns with this proposed rule specifically involve the following portions of text within the EPA document (Read the full EPA proposed rule here: PDF --- HTML):

70 FR 53865 26.408(a) "The IRB (Independent Review Board) shall determine that adequate provisions are made for soliciting the assent of the children, when in the judgment of the IRB the children are capable of providing assent...If the IRB determines that the capability of some or all of the children is so limited that they cannot reasonably be consulted, the assent of the children is not a necessary condition for proceeding with the research. Even where the IRB determines that the subjects are capable of assenting, the IRB may still waive the assent requirement..."

(OCA NOTE: Under this clause, a mentally handicapped child or infant orphan could be tested on without assent. This violates the Nuremberg Code, an international treaty that mandates assent of test subjects is "absolutely essential," and that the test subject must have "legal capacity to give consent" and must be "so situated as to exercise free power of choice." This loophole in the rule must be completely removed.)

70 FR 53865 26.408(c) "If the IRB determines that a research protocol is designed for conditions or for a subject population for which parental or guardian permission is not a reasonable requirement to protect the subjects (for example, neglected or abused children), it may waive the consent requirements..."

(OCA NOTE: Under the general rule, the EPA is saying it's okay to test chemicals on children if their parents or institutional guardians consent to it. This clause says that neglected or abused children have unfit guardians, so no consent would be required to test on those children. This loophole in the rule must be completely removed.)

70 FR 53864 26.401 (a)(2) "To What Do These Regulations Apply? It also includes research conducted or supported by EPA outside the United States, but in appropriate circumstances, the Administrator may, under § 26.101(e), waive the applicability of some or all of the requirements of these regulations for research..."

(OCA NOTE: This clause is stating that the Administrator of the EPA has the power to completely waive regulations on human testing, if the testing is done outside of the U.S. This will allow chemical companies to do human testing in other countries where these types of laws are less strict. This loophole in the rule must be completely removed.)

70 FR 53857 "EPA proposes an extraordinary procedure applicable if scientifically sound but ethically deficient human research is found to be crucial to EPA's fulfilling its mission to protect public health. This procedure would also apply if a scientifically sound study covered by proposed § 26.221 or § 26.421--i.e., an intentional dosing study involving pregnant women or children as subjects..."

(OCA NOTE: This clause allows the EPA to accept or conduct "ethically deficient" studies of chemical tests on humans if the agency deems it necessary to fulfull its mission. Unfortunately, the EPA report sets up no criteria for making such an exception with any particular study. This ambiguity leaves a gaping loophole in the rule. Without specific and detailed criteria, it could be argued that any and every study of chemical testing on humans is "necessary." This loophole in the rule must be removed, based on this inadequacy of criteria and definition.)

By mail: Send two copies of your comments to:
Public Information and Records Integrity Branch (PIRIB)
Office of Pesticide Programs
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Mail Code: 7502C
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC, 20460-0001

Attention: Docket ID Number OPP-2003-0132


Q&A Section

1) Question: I read on Snopes that this alert is false. Is that true?

Answer: The Snopes/Urban Legends posting is actually in regards to an EPA proposed study called CHEERS and an alert we had sent out regarding that in late 2004
http://www.organicconsumers.org/epa-alert.htm . It is not directly related to this alert. The Snopes posting did a great disservice to that issue in their inaccuracy and lack of research into this issue. We spend massive amounts of staff time researching these issues, confer with outside experts on the topic, and cite dozens of references. The Snopes website, while valuable with most of its information, is not always accurate, and that is the case here. In fact, you'll find they reference only a couple of newspaper articles to backup their stance on this issue. Fortunately, enough concerned citizens, several nonprofits, dozens of mainstream newspapers, and many congress members, actually did their research on the EPA study and found that study was, in fact, very problematic. In fact, in early 2005, the EPA CHEERS study was permanently dropped, thanks to pressure from Congress. In August of 2005 Congress went a step further and mandated the EPA pass a rule that bans all testing of chemicals on children and pregnant women, without exception. That is what this alert pertains to. Snopes hasn't posted any information about this particular alert, and we hope they do their research this time. We ask our readers to do your research, as well. No single alert or single website will provide you with all of the information you need. We provided dozens of links on our alerts to external resources that allow you to further research and reference all of the information we provide. If you have questions, we're always happy to help out craig@organicconsumers.org

2) Question: I read the EPA website and part of the introduction of the rule, claims the rule is to prohibit all such testing and to establish sanctions. That sounds like a good thing. So what's the problem?

Answer: The EPA is proposing a rule that they would like to have approved. Anytime you are marketing a product, you sell its best points and hope that people won't look too deeply and find its flaws. The EPA website and the introductory description of the rule are very long winded and flowery, claiming this rule abides by the congressional mandate to ban all testing of women and children, without exception. In fact, if you read the rule, which is 30 pages of fine print, there are multiple exceptions. We have noted those in our template letter to the EPA and on our action alert page. This is a specific layout of the problematic text as taken directly from the actual EPA rule. In short, these are the loopholes in the document that need to be removed, as mandated by congress, which says the rule must have no exceptions.

3) Question: The rule says these waivers apply when the IRB sees a benefit of the test for the children involved, and also calls for supplementary protective measures when necessary. That sounds like a good thing. So what's the problem?

Answer: Actually, you are referencing a point made under subpart §26.405 of the rule. That subpart is designed to only address "research presenting the prospect of direct benefit to the individual subjects." In that subpart, it says that "more than minimal" risk to children subjects is acceptable if there is a chance it could benefit the child. Outside of that subpart, there are no stipulations requiring that the studies be beneficial to the test subjects. Anywhere else in the document where this type of situation is noted, it is under an "or" clause. In other words, the loopholes for this rule state that the rule can be disregarded if the study was done overseas, OR the test subject's guardian consents, OR if the study may be of benefit to society as a whole, OR if the study may be of benefit to the test subject, etc. The study also calls for supplementary protective measures when necessary but outlines no criteria for how this "necessity" is defined or determined. Without a clearly defined line of what is acceptable and what is not, it's at the whim of the IRB, EPA administrator or third party research organization to determine whether or not supplementary protective measures are necessary. In that sense, it could simply mean the IRB might determine, for example, a test subject should wear safety goggles when being doused with atrazine. In other words, without specific definition of what defines a situation that calls for further supplementary protective measures, this becomes a simple, flowery token statement with no meaning and no teeth.

6) Question: The EPA sent me a letter back that says "EPA's proposed rule would ban EPA from conducting or supporting any intentional dosing study of pregnant women or children with pesticides or any other environmental substances. All children are included in this ban. There are no exceptions." They seem to be saying this rule is for studies that don't involve intentional dosing. Is that correct?

Answer: That is incorrect and is misleading PR from the EPA that contradicts the text of their actual proposed rule. As you can see above, we have outlined the specfic text in the rule that we have problems with. Nowhere in the rule does the EPA say that all intentional dosing studies are banned, yet that is exactly what congress had asked them to do. In fact, the rule goes so far as to make make allowances for what it refers to as"ethically deficient human research." (70 FR 53857). In short, the EPA is making public relations claims that completely contradict what is clearly written in balck and white in the actual proposed rule.

5) Question: I can't get your email form to work. How can I send comments to the EPA directly?

Answer: By mail: Send two copies of your comments to: Public Information and Records Integrity Branch (PIRIB) Office of Pesticide Programs U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Mail Code: 7502C
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC, 20460-0001 Attention: Docket ID Number OPP-2003-0132

By email: send comments to opp-docket@epa.gov The subject line should read: "Attention: Docket ID Number OPP-2003-0132 "

If you have questions, we're always happy to help out, but please read all of the information provided on this alert page and follow the links on the right hand side of this page to further information prior to contacting us with questions. craig@organicconsumers.org

Other Organizations Working on this alert (These organizations also have further information about this alert on their websites)

Center for Health and Environmental Justice
Natural Resources Defense Council
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
Beyond Pesticides
Physicians for Social Responsibility
California Safe Schools
Pesticide Action Network of North America


Related News Articles:

12/16 - EPA regulation to put kids at risk
12/14 - EPA Chemical Testing Rules to Allow Human Toxicity Studies
(Source-The New Standard: NY)
12/9 - EPA's Own Scientists Speak Out Against Proposed Rule Allowing Chemical Testing on Children
12/8 - EPA comes under fire for testing pesticides on children (Source: News Target)
12/7 - EPA to Allow Pesticide Testing on the Handicapped
12/5 - EPA to Allow Chemical Testing (Source: WNY Media Network NY)
11/30 - Pesticide Action Network of North America launches campaign against EPA proposed human testing rule
11/29 -Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis Speaks Out Against EPA's Proposed Rule
11/29 - OCA's Rebuttal Letter Regarding EPA's Attempts to Discredit Those in Opposition to this Rule
11/29 - Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA) writes editorial to Environmental Law Institute condemning EPA's proposed human testing rule
11/28 - Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility Launch a Campaign Against EPA's Human Testing Proposal
11/27 - Center for Health and Environmental Justice Posts Serious Concerns about EPA Proposed Human Testing
11/26 - Natural Resources Defense Council Posts Comments Opposing EPA Human Testing Proposal
10/15 - San Francisco Chronicle Covers EPA Testing Proposal
9/26 - Baltimore Sun Posts Letter to the Editor from Natural Resources Defense Council Condemning EPA's Misleading PR Scheme on Human Testing Rule
9/20 - Natural Resources Defense Council Gives Background Q&A Sheet Refuting EPA's Claims That The Rule has no Exceptions
9/15 - Exceptions in new EPA rules would allow testing pesticides on children (Baltimore Sun)
9/8 - Washington Post Covers EPA Chemical Testing Proposal
7/1 - Senate Votes to Stop EPA from Allowing Testing of Toxic Pesticides on Humans
6/28 - Congress Questions EPA about Human Toxin Testing
6/28 - LA Times: EPA Criticized for Pesticide Testing Rules
6/28 - Congressional Flash Report on EPA's proposed rule changes
6/27 - Washington Post: EPA Proposal Would Allow Human Tests Of Pesticides
6/16 - EPA reviewing 24 human pesticide tests
2/8 - EPA Avoids Regulation of Chemical Experiments on Humans Send a letter to EPA here!

Forward this alert to friends and colleagues


Related Online Resources: Read the full EPA proposed rule (PDF --- HTML) National Academy of Sciences report to EPA on human testing, advising the agency discontinue unethical practices Environmental Health Perspectives scientific journal analyzes human chemical testing and public policy:
http://www.nacua.org/documents/ProtectionsSubjectsHumanResearch.pdf

Related Quotes from Congress and NGOs:

"Such rule shall not permit the use of pregnant women, infants or children as subjects; shall be consistent with the principles proposed in the 2004 report of the National Academy of Sciences on intentional human dosing and the principles of the Nuremberg Code with respect to human experimentation; and shall establish an independent Human Subjects Review Board."

Congressional Mandate to EPA, requiring the agency create a rule banning testing of pregnant women and children. The law was passed on August 2, 2005 , as part of the Department of Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006, Pub. L. No. 109-54


"A proposed rule on human pesticide testing that fails to protect children and families should be shelved immediately. A protective rule must be issued in its place,"

Senator. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) in an interview with the Washington Post on this issue


"For the first time in our nation's history, the EPA has proposed a program to allow for the systematic and everyday experimentation of pesticides on humans. Moreover, the proposed program is riddled with ethical loopholes."

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) in an interview with the Baltimore Sun


"I am especially concered that the administration's proposed rule fails to meet its congressional mandate and to provide the safety that Americans desire and deserve. For example, the proposed rule, despite its claims, allows intentional testing on pregnant women and children in at least three circumstances."

Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA) article in Environmental Law Institute


"EPA's proposal is the pesticide industry's dream, and the public's nightmare."

Richard Wiles, senior vice president of Environmental Working Group


"The exemptions are obviously driven by the pesticide industry's goal of relaxing pesticide safety standards. The rule says it's acceptable to test children if there is a direct benefit. How can any child possibly benefit from exposure to pesticides? What was EPA thinking about?"

Aaron Colangelo, a senior staff lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Fund


Informant: Friends

http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/Sham/
http://tinyurl.com/a226f

San Franciscos Flughafen testet Pässe mit Funkchips

03.01.2006 11:50 | von silicon.de

Das US-Ministerium für Heimatschutz wird ab Mitte Januar am Flughafen von San Francisco erstmals Reisepässe mit integriertem RFID-Chip (Radio Frequency Identification) testen. Australien, Neuseeland und Singapur haben bereits damit begonnen, entsprechend ausgestattete Reisepässe auszustellen. Da viele Personen aus diesen Ländern den Flughafen von San Francisco passierten, sei er der passende Ort, um die Funktechnologie zu testen, sagte eine Sprecherin des Ministeriums.

Im Oktober hatte das US-Außenministerium die endgültigen Vorschriften für Reisepässe erlassen, die nach Oktober 2006 ausgestellt werden. Demnach müssen die Dokumente mit einem RFID-Chip ausgerüstet sein, auf dem die persönlichen Daten des Besitzers und ein digitales Foto gespeichert sind. Vor San Francisco hat im vergangenen Herbst bereits der Flughafen in Los Angeles Test mit RFID-Pässen durchgeführt.

Darüber hinaus gibt es weitere Projekte. So wurden die Funkchips auch in die so genannten 'I-94-Formulare' integriert. Diese müssen Personen bei sich haben, die häufig die US-Grenze passieren. Erste Zwischenergebnisse der Tests an insgesamt fünf US-Grenzen werden im März präsentiert - danach soll über das weitere Vorgehen entschieden werden.

© 2003-2005 silicon.de. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

http://www.silicon.de/cpo/news-mobile/detail.php?nr=25803

Bring Back the 40-Hour Workweek

It was a great year for labor - if you worked at a call center in India, made your living as a CEO or sold real estate to big-box stores. But deep in Cubicle Nation, the average American worker had to contend with soaring workweeks, declining wages and benefits vanishing faster than you can say job security.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/010206LB.shtml

Many of the country's manufacturing workers are caught in a worldwide economic shift that is forcing companies to slash payrolls or send jobs elsewhere, leaving workers to wonder if their way of life is disappearing. The trend in the manufacturing sector toward lower pay, fewer benefits and fewer jobs is alarming.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/010206LA.shtml

The erosion of personal responsibility is, arguably, the most pernicious effect of the expansive role psychiatry has come to play in American life. It has successfully replaced huge chunks of individual accountability with diagnoses, clinical histories and what turn out to be pseudoscientific explanations for deviant behavior.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/010206HA.shtml

The price of uranium has tripled in the past two years, bringing with it the possibility of another uranium rush. Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., stirred to action by the memory of how dangerous uranium mining can be, issued an executive order in November banning uranium exploration on the three-state Navajo Nation.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/010206EC.shtml

Iraq's oil exports hit their lowest level since the war, according to figures released on Monday, heightening a sense of crisis as fuel supplies grow scarce and political leaders struggle to form a government.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/010206R.shtml

Procès-verbal du vice-président d'ASL par la Gendarmerie Nationale.

http://www.next-up.org/main.php?param=proces

NewsWeek

Mon Jan 2, 2006 21:48

Should the White House continue ordering selected wiretaps without warrants?

* 28451 responses Yes 13% No 86% I don't know 1%

==================================

Full Speed Ahead After 9/11, Bush and Cheney pressed for more power and got it. Now, predictably, the questions begin. Behind the NSA spying furor.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10663996/site/newsweek/

By Evan Thomas and Daniel Klaidman Newsweek

Jan. 9, 2006 issue - The talk at the White House in the days and weeks after 9/11 was all about suitcase nukes and germ warfare and surprise decapitation strikes. Every morning, as they crossed West Executive Drive on their way to work in the West Wing, Bush administration staffers recall seeing a plain white truck with a galvanized metal chimney. Sensors sniffing for pathogens or radioactivity, they guessed, though they couldn't be sure. Like just about everything else at that spooky time, the purpose of the truck was a secret.

Such chilling sights are not likely to inspire thoughtful ruminations about the separation of powers or the true meaning of the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. The message to White House lawyers from their commander in chief, recalls one who was deeply involved at the time, was clear enough: find a way to exercise the full panoply of powers granted the president by Congress and the Constitution. If that meant pushing the boundaries of the law, so be it. The Bush administration did not throw away the Bill of Rights in the months and years that followed; indeed, NEWSWEEK has learned, ferocious behind-the-scenes infighting stalled for a time the administration's ambitious program of electronic spying on U.S. citizens at home and abroad.

On one day in the spring of 2004, White House chief of staff Andy Card and the then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales made a bedside visit to John Ashcroft, attorney general at the time, who was stricken with a rare and painful pancreatic disease, to try—without success—to get him to reverse his deputy, Acting Attorney General James Comey, who was balking at the warrantless eavesdropping. Miffed that Comey, a straitlaced, by-the-book former U.S. attorney from New York, was not a "team player" on this and other issues, President George W. Bush dubbed him with a derisive nickname, "Cuomo," after Mario Cuomo, the New York governor who vacillated over running for president in the 1980s. (The White House denies this; Comey declined to comment.)

In a perfect democracy trying to strike a balance between civil liberties and national security, there would be reasoned, open debate between representatives of the different branches of government. But human nature and politics rarely work in neat and orderly ways. In moments of crisis, presidents, if they believe in executive power (and most inevitably do), will do almost anything to protect the country. Only after the crisis ebbs does the debate begin over the proper means and ends, and by then the people and their representatives are often shocked to find what the president has done in the name of protecting them. More than four years after September 11, America finds itself debating some of the oldest issues in our history: how to balance liberty and security, how much power we should cede to the White House and whether what the historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. dubbed "The Imperial Presidency" amid Watergate is a good thing, a bad thing or something in between. That the war on terror is unconventional and seemingly endless adds to the difficulty and raises the stakes.

After 9/11, President Bush and his top advisers faced, they believed, a mortal yet invisible enemy. The mightiest armed forces in the world were not effective against such a shadowy foe. Nor were human spies much help. Movies and novels notwithstanding, the CIA had rarely (if ever) penetrated a terrorist cell. America's one true weapon was technology. Spy satellites and the massive computers of the National Security Agency (so secret it was nicknamed "No Such Agency") were able to pluck telephone and e-mail conversations out of the air and ether. The NSA could cock a giant ear to America's enemies—and, ideally, overhear their plots.

As communications were increasingly digitized and encrypted, intelligence experts sometimes warned that the NSA was going deaf. Rare public statements by top NSA officials seemed to give credence to that worry. It appears, however, that the NSA was secretly working on sophisticated "data mining," computer programs that could sift through vast amounts of information searching for patterns and connections—in effect, "Googling" America's enemies. After 9/11, the government was criticized for not "connecting the dots," linking and following up on clues, like phone calls from hijackers hiding in the United States to their terror masters abroad. With the NSA's computers fully cranked up, Bush administration officials hoped, they would find other terrorist "sleeper cells" before they could strike again.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10663996/site/newsweek/page/1/
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10663996/site/newsweek/page/2/
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10663996/site/newsweek/page/3/
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10663996/site/newsweek/page/4/


Source:
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=97213;show_parent=1

RANDI RETURNS!

Defending the indefensible, Bush’s illegal wiretaps on American citizens is one more straw on a camel's back that was shattered a long time ago.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/01/AR2006010100428.html

Don’t buy into the lies that Fox and Drudge tell about Clinton & Carter.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/12/20/drudge-fact-check/

Media Matters: Top 12 media myths and falsehoods on the Bush administration's spying scandal.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200512240002

Meanwhile, CNN fills its Novak hole with Bill Bennett. Bin Laden’s niece shows her goods in GQ.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10587661/

1/5 of your president’s time is spent on the ranch!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/AR2005123001326.html

Oh, and by the way, we plan on screwing Iraq again.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/02/AR2006010200370.html

These stories and much more on today’s Randi Rhodes Show.


Source:
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=97211;show_parent=1

Only if we limit the feds. Article by Ron Paul.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul296.html

Cindy Sheehan in Ireland, England, and Spain.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/sheehan/sheehan25.html



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

03.01.2006

Waging am See. Eine gentechnikfreie Landwirtschaft zu unterstützen und die Gesundheitsvorsorge beim Ausbau des Mobilfunknetzes zu berücksichtigen: Diese beiden Anliegen will der Waginger Gemeinderat in den Landesentwicklungsplan aufgenommen haben. Die entsprechenden Anträge von Georg Huber wurden in der letzten Sitzung mit 14 gegen sechs Stimmen angenommen.

Konkret beantragt die Gemeinde Waging demnach, dass "die ausreichende Versorgung mit Telekommunikationsdiensten umwelt- und sozialverträglich erfolgen" solle. Dabei sei beim Ausbau der Mobilfunknetze besonders die Gesundheitsvorsorge zu berücksichtigen. Im Übrigen solle bei weiteren Mobilfunk-Maßnahmen auf einen sparsamen Flächenverbrauch und auf die Schonung der Landwirtschaft geachtet werden. Schließlich wird auch noch der zusätzliche Antrag gestellt, doch eine flächendeckende Versorgung mit öffentlichen Telefonzellen aufrecht zu erhalten. Die zunehmende Demontage öffentlicher Telefonzellen, so heißt es in der von Georg Huber formulierten Begründung, widerspreche dem landesplanerischen Ziel "einer unbeeinträchtigten Versorgung mit öffentlichen Telefonstellen".

Zum Thema Landwirtschaft soll, so der weitere Beschluss des Waginger Gemeinderates, noch eingefügt werden, dass "die Entscheidung vieler Landwirte und Verbraucher für eine gentechnikfreie Produktionsweise durch geeignete Maßnahmen zu unterstützen und substanziell zu sichern" sei.

Als Begründung für diesen Zusatz wird angeführt: "Die Ausbringung gentechnisch manipulierten Saatgutes kann zu unübersehbaren und nicht rückholbaren Folgen führen. Genmanipulierte Pflanzen können sich in der Natur unkontrolliert ausbreiten und eine gentechnikfreie Landwirtschaft unmöglich machen. Deshalb sollte die freie Entscheidung vieler Landwirte für eine gentechnikfreie Produktion als Ziel der Landesplanung begrüßt und staatlicherseits unterstützt werden."

Generell habe jede Gemeinde die Möglichkeit, so hatte Bürgermeister Sepp Daxenberger in das Thema eingeführt, Anträge zur Änderung des Landesentwicklungsplans zu stellen. Von daher bleibe es dem Gemeinderat überlassen, entsprechende Vorschläge einzubringen. Im Landtag werde sich dann ein dafür zuständiger Ausschuss mit den eingegangenen Anträgen zu befassen haben und über sie abstimmen.

Etwas skeptisch war dagegen Walter Staudinger: Er wisse nicht, so meinte er, ob solche Anträge wie die von Georg Huber gestellten wirklich Aufgabe des Gemeinderates seien. "Da ist schon viel Weltanschauung mit dabei!" Dennoch aber stellte sich der Gemeinderat schließlich mit deutlicher Mehrheit hinter die Anträge in Sachen Mobilfunk und Gentechnik. he

http://www.suedostbayerische-rundschau.de/lokal/text.php3?satz=10304

Business couldn't do any better than Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court. The prospect of the two on the Supreme Court signals to manufacturers and businesses that they will have allies in high places, say academics and business experts.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/010206G.shtml

The NSA operation - and particularly Bush's decision to bypass the generally amenable Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for authorization - has drawn fire not only from liberal Democrats but also from some of the most conservative in Bush's party.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/010206D.shtml

The US is again using white phosphorus, a chemical munition known more commonly in the military as Willy Peter, writes Danny Mayer. For the Pentagon, at least, the "shake and bake" missions are a "potent psychological weapon" that will drive the enemy "out of their holes." For those getting "smoked out of their holes," there is very little, if anything, psychological about Willy Peter.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/010206C.shtml

Dahr Jamail publishes an open letter to Mr. Bush he received recently from a friend who lives in Baghdad. "While there is deep concern about the possibility of civil war, the common talk between all groups now in Iraq is the poor infrastructure, poor electricity, deficiency of fuels, bad drinking water, poor health services, poor education and extensive unemployment."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/010206B.shtml