World-News

The economic evidence is clear, according to John Irons and Lee Price: the president's tax changes have not worked to improve the health of the economy.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021806I.shtml

The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee wants the panel to look into whether the National Security Agency was eavesdropping without proper authority in the weeks after the September 11 attacks.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021806D.shtml

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/4097/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Who Care2 make a difference.

Front Page News
http://www.care2.com/news/member/870323169?sort=front_page

http://my.care2.com/team_omega
http://www.care2.com/news/member/870323169?sort=submitted
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/sharebook/870323169

Omega's Groups
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/omega_group
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/mindcontrol

Post History
http://tinyurl.com/33tn3w

http://www.nzz.ch/2006/02/18/al/newzzEJTRDEED-12.html

(NZZ) Wie das amerikanische Fachjournal "Science" berichtet, werden Klimaforscher von der US-Regierung massiv unter Druck gesetzt, keine von der Regierungspolitik abweichenden Informationen zu veröffentlichen. Hinweise auf den durch Treibhausgase verursachten Klimawandel werden danach weitgehend der Zensur unterworfen.

Der Chefredakteur des renommierten Wissenschaftsjournals Kennedy wies darauf hin, dass die Regierung jeden Hinweis auf die durch CO2-Emissionen verursachten Gefahren ignoriere und unterdrücke. Klimaforscher der staatlichen Behörde NOAA wurden Kontakte mit den Medien verboten. Vorträge von Wissenschaftlern müssten vorab mit der Washingtoner Regierung abgestimmt werden und einzelnen kritischen Forschern wurde bereits mit persönlichen Konsequenzen gedroht.


Link zum Beitrag / Hintergrundinfo oder Pressehinweis: http://www.hh-online.com?lid=23566 und http://links.net-hh.de?lid=23566


Infopool / metainfo hamburg http://www.hh-online.com

Wirral News 15.02.06

PHONE giant T-Mobile has bowed to public pressure and agreed to remove a contro-versial mast from a site in Greasby.

The mast, on land at Greenhouse Farm in Arrowe Road, will be removed later this week following six years of campaigning by Wirral West MP Stephen Hesford, residents' group Greasby Against Mobile Masts Association (GAMMA) and pressure group MastAvengers.

It brings to a close a battle which began in 1999, when householders living in nearby Rigby Drive saw bulldozing equipment rip through protected greenbelt land on a field to the south of the farm. The residents formed the action group GAMMA and have fought for the mast's removal ever since.

Mr Hesford has lobbied on behalf of the public who were against the erection of the mast from the beginning. Wirral councillors finally voted to serve a 'Discontinuance Notice' to get the mast taken down.

Mr Hesford said: "I am delighted that the phone company has finally decided to listen to the public and remove it. I would like to thank the public who have played a massive part in this success by doing all they can to help the cause.

"This is a win for the people of Greasby who have worked so very tirelessly with myself to remove this mast from Green House Farm. This mast should have never been set up in a greenbelt area and I will be very happy to see the area restored to the way it should be."

T-Mobile was given planning permission to build the phone mast in 1999 due to a technicality, when the company was not notified in time that it had been refused planning consent to build under develop-ment regulations.

GAMMA presented the council with a 1,740-signature petition and more than 200 letters urging them to remove the mast.

Feb 14 2006

Stafford Post

A Stafford man diagnosed with a brain tumour after phone masts went up near his home is demanding to know if they were responsible for his illness.

And this week the Post has had reports of one other resident in the area who has also developed brain cancer.

Seventy-year-old Jim Eaglen (pictured) is calling for phone companies and local councils to carry out urgent investigations into the effects of the towers after he was taken ill last August.

The grandfather-of-three underwent hours of emergency surgery to remove a tumour and doctors told Jim he would only have survived for two months if they hadn't carried out the procedure to remove the growth.

This week he was celebrating after one of three masts which had stood on land near his home at Home Farm, Creswell, for more than three years was removed by telecoms giant Hutchinson 3G. The firm has also withdrawn an appeal to have the mast re-erected on the site after pressure from householders and councillors.

But despite the good news, Jim, who has lived in Creswell with his wife Rosemary for 40 years, told us he feared he may have fallen victim to the effects of the masts on the community's skyline.

He said: "I had always been concerned about them since it was first publicised about the possible health effects down in Sutton Coldfield.

"The transmissions are like microwaves. We do not see anything and we do not feel anything, but they are putting them on schools, on churches, they are down our streets, and you cannot see them."

He slammed the lack of information on the masts: "There needs to be more literature about these things. More than 'we are putting a mast up'.

"We always object when the firms put the planning applications in, but they do not say how safe the mast is.

"If I wanted to put a tip here in a field I would have to do all sorts of things about what was going to be put on it, so why shouldn't they?"

The retired construction worker, who helped build the M6 which runs near his home, described the terrifying moments last year when he realised he was seriously ill.

"I was having breakfast and I got up and this pain came into my head, terrible it was."

Paramedics rushed Jim to hospital, but despite medics giving him the all-clear, Rosemary wasn't satisfied with the diagnosis. After a trip to his GP and then to a specialist, the tumour was discovered.

He said: "The specialist did a scan and he said if we don't operate now you've got two months, if we do you'll have two years. It was aggressive and apparently they can grow in just a few days."

Since his operation at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stoke, Jim has undergone months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

His life has been severely restricted by the illness. He can no longer drive and even says he has to be supervised when doing the simplest of household chores in case he has a seizure.

Whilst undergoing treatment specialists would not comment on the possible connection between the masts and Jim's illness, increasing his suspicions about a link.

He said: "They would not rule it in or out and it was the same with the nurses.

But what the nurses were saying was they were seeing an enormous number of people, especially young people, with brain tumours."

Other Creswell residents confirmed a spate of cancer cases within the community, including another person recently diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Richard Thomas, Creswell Parish Councillor, said: "We do keep pushing for more information and research. We do seem to be getting these clusters of masts, and the health implications must be worse if there are more of them together."

Paul Freeman, spokesperson for Stafford Borough Council, told the Post the safety of the masts was regulated at a national level.

He said: "Any company putting in an application to install a phone mast needs to comply with national legislation on emissions. And when they do apply to us they have to submit a certificate-that they are complying-with that legislation."-Expert opinion on the health effects of masts and mobile phones is split.

Alasdair Philips is director of Powerwatch, an independent body providing information on the effects of radiation on the public.

He said some evidence suggested susceptibility was genetic and up to 10 per cent of the population could be at risk from masts.

"There is definitely cause for concern. There are no practical restrictions on where they are sited. Ideally, they should be away from residential areas and should be at least twice the height of residential buildings."

But Dr Michael Clarke, from the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) which provides the government with information about the health risks from radiation, said masts are completely safe.

"There is no evidence of cancer. More research is needed to make sure, but most scientists believe that genuine uncertainty lies in the handsets themselves and not the masts."

What's your view? Contact the Post on 01785 212370 or write to us at 35 Eastgate Street, Stafford, ST16 2LZ. Alternatively, e-mail lynn_grainger@mrn.co.uk


From Mast Sanity/Mast Network

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SERIOUS CONGLOMERATES OF CANCER AND OTHER PATHOLOGIES THAT HAVE BEEN TIE BY THE POPULATION NEXT TO ANTENNAS OF TELEPHONY
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/466717/

A Holocaust survivor warns against a second holocaust and calls for the Pope to interfere
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/1584040/

A row has broken out after a legal loophole allowed a mobile phone mast to be erected despite local protest.

BBC News website

It has been revealed that a Bournemouth Borough Council letter to Vodafone did not state clearly enough that permission for the mast was refused. That allowed the firm to claim it had not been told of any refusal in the given 56-day period laid down by law. The council is furious with the company for "exploiting" the loophole. Vodafone says it has "deemed consent". Proposals for the mast on the corner of Wentworth Avenue and Fishermans Avenue saw heated protest from local residents, who were delighted when the council backed them. But because the council's letter of refusal - which detailed all the objections - did not actually state permission had been refused, the company was technically allowed to put up the mast. Its officers are now calling for the company to make a fresh application, moving the mast to a less prominent site. Mike Holmes, head of planning and transport, said: "Whilst technically we omitted to tell Vodafone that their application had been rejected, in our view it is clear that from the numerous points made in the letter that the actual outcome was obvious. "We were concerned to learn of this loophole and would like to ensure residents that internal changes have been carried out to see that this does not happen again." Deemed consent Jane Frapwell, a spokeswoman for Vodafone, told the BBC News website the company was happy to talk to the council. But she added: "Planning legislation states that if you do not get a refusal within 56 days you have deemed consent. "We do understand the council's point of view but if, for the sake of argument, we reapplied and they refused it we would go to a planning inspector to appeal the decision. "The inspector would say we already have deemed consent. That's the position we are in."

Feb 17 2006

icSolihull

HUNDREDS of protesters are expected to turn out when a Government inspector visits Solihull to view the site of a planned mobile phone mast.

T-Mobile's application for a mast nearly 15 metres high, on the corner of Streetsbrook Road and Woodlea Drive, was turned down on environmental grounds by Solihull Council last October, but the company appealed against the decision.

Residents have been fighting the plan since it was announced last July and more than 1,000 of them have either sent letters of objection or signed a petition opposing the 3G mast.

Greg Shakeshaft, of Streetsbrook Road, who is leading the residents' campaign, said: "We don't need the mast and we don't want it. The mast would be totally out of character with the area.

"The nearest house is less than 30 yards away and we think Oak Cottage Primary School in Greswolde Road would be within the radiation field of the mast.

"If the mast is erected it will be a blight on our neighbourhood."

Mr Shakeshaft, two of whose three children attend Oak Cottage School, added that the Streetsbrook Road proposal was only one of more than 200 new mobile phone masts planned for Solihull by 2007.

Feb 16 2006

By Lyndsay Young,
Formby Times

PLANS have been mooted to site a mobile phone mast on a historical Formby church.

The proposal is for a Vodafone base station at Holy Trinity Church in Rosemary Lane.

Residents received letters from QS4 Limited, which installs of masts on Church of England churches for phone companies.

Holy Trinity Parochial Church Council voted in favour of the proposal and wants residents' views before deciding whether to seek permission from the Diocese.

Sheila Grey, secretary of Holy Trinity PCC, said: "It was passed by a majority. As far as I know it would be hidden and would be in the little bell tower."

The church, built in 1889, is situated in the heart of Formby Village and next to residents' homes..

Formby Civic Society has confirmed its opposition to the proposed mast which could be installed by April 2007.

Ray Derricott, amenities secretary of Formby Civic Society, said: "We shall write a letter objecting to the proposal.

"It is in a residential area and we do not want them near children or where people congregate."

The process is at the consultation stage and planning permission would first be sought from the Diocese.

John Swain, head of sales at QS4, said: "The church actually called us. Generally churches are chosen because they are the right height, they are in the centre of the general population and it's a prime location to give maximum coverage.

"If they don't get the right height, they may have to put several lower level small masts in its place."

In its letter, QS4 stated the equipment will not affect the appearance of the building and the church will benefit from the rent.

It gave assurances it would issue a license forcing mobile phone companies to measure emissions routinely.

Bolton Evening News Saturday

18 February 2006

MOBILE-PHONE masts are being banned from land owned by Bolton Council amid fears they pose a health risk. Councillors backed a resolution preventing companies from using council-owned property to erect masts - except in extreme cases where the site is on open land and is the most suitable location available. The move will also see existing masts taken down when their current contracts expire. Cllr Barbara Ronson, the council leader, will personally consider all bids to erect masts on council property on a case-by-case basis. Tory councillor Andy Morgan, who was behind the resolution, said not enough was known about the health risks posed by masts. He told a meeting of the council: "This is a genuine attempt to address the safety fears around phone masts. "We have a chance to say "stop" and to demand more information." But in some cases, where council land was further away from homes and buildings than other available sites, companies could be permitted to erect masts. Under planning law, councillors on the planning committee are unable to refuse applications for mobile phone masts on health and safety grounds on land it does not own. But Cllr Morgan says the councilís new rule will give it more control over the erection of masts. Fears over the safety of mobile phone masts have existed since they were first introduced 15 years ago. The microwaves they generate have been linked to a number of health problems, from headaches to nosebleeds. Five of the current 129 phone masts in the borough are on council-owned land, earning the local authority around £30,000 per year. They are at Stapleton Avenue, Heaton; Duddon Avenue, Breightmet; Rainford House, Haydock Street on the School Estate; Brandwood Street School, Daubhill; and Horwich Leisure Centre. Cllr David Wilkinson, the Liberal Democrat executive member for regeneration and development at Bolton Council, supported the resolution. But he said: "You can’t just say mobile phones are terrible, because the public are voting with their feet and buying these things from shops. "Unfortunately, no government will ever allow a report that says mobile phones are harmful." Labour councillor Laurie Williamson said: "There are some good examples of council land that is ideal for phone masts, such as the golf course in Regent Road. "Masts could be moved on to council land to get them off the public highway."

Published: 17th February 2006

GIVE us a push... Hare and Hounds landlord Stephen Shepherd gives Alistair Fitton a helping hand from the pub car park.

IT’S a mystery that has got motorists in Wardle scratching their heads.

They are trying to find out what it is that is preventing them from starting their cars in the vicinity of the Hare and Hounds pub.

Vehicles have been affected in the pub’s car park on Ramsden Street and nearby in East Street.

Drivers switch on the ignition and the immobilisers immediately become jammed.

They claim this strange phenomena began 18 months ago, about the same time as a mobile phone mast was erected in the grounds of Birch Hill.

Frustrated Ramsden Street resident Alistair Fitton said: "One night mine, the landlady’s and another man’s car just wouldn’t start. The immobiliser on all three cars had mysteriously frozen.

"Ever since then pub regulars and six of my neighbours have been having the same problem."

They have now come up with a back-breaking solution – a free push into the corner of the car park, where a bottle bank just happens to be in line with the mast.

Mr Fitton is unable to park near his home and now leaves his car at the bottom of East Street.

He said "I was driving my father’s MG and I completely forgot about the problem.

"I then had to push the heavy car down the street to get it to start – I nearly put my back out. As I’ve been doing it for the last 18 months, I am getting used to it."

A spokesman for Orange said: "The Orange mobile phone network operates at a frequency of between 1800 and 2100 Mhz and no other technology is permitted to operate at that frequency.

"My advice to the drivers is for them to take the cars to the garage and get the immobiliser checked out.

"The answer to the mystery may lie elsewhere."

Technical whizz, Howard Stapleton, thinks the solution may lay with an amateur radio enthusiast or the new Tetra police communications system.

Telecommunications regulator Ofcom said that every so often this type of problem emerges with immobilisers and electronic key fobs.

Spokesman Simon Bates said: "The new mast may or may not be the cause, but it’s likely the immobilsers are of an inferior quality and can’t cope with the interference.

"We advise anyone affected to call Ofcom on 020 7981 3000 and we will be happy to investigate the matter.

"We may find that we can explain the problem and take action." Shaun Almond

First published by the Rochdale Observer

Submit your comments
http://www.rochdaleobserver.co.uk/news/comments/form.html?story_id=209500

© Copyright 2006 Guardian Media Group

http://www.rochdaleobserver.co.uk/news/s/209/209500_a_mysterious_force_is_nonstarter_for_drivers.html

http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/06-1om/Reece.html

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In West Virginia, citizens battle against the mining companies carving off their mountaintops

Sunday, February 26, 2006
*By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette*

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06057/661362.stm


Informant: Teresa Binstock

--------

We Won: Saving West Virginia mountains
http://www.stopmountaintopremoval.org/

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Mountain Justice Summer III the mountains strike back!

**PLEASE FORWARD AND POST FAR AND WIDE**

Do you love Appalachia?

MOUNTAIN JUSTICE SUMMER MAY 20-28 2007

THE MOUNTAINS STRIKE BACK!

It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Although the Death Star has been destroyed, Imperial troops have driven the Rebel forces from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy.

Evading the dreaded Imperial Starfleet, a group of freedom fighters led by Luke Skywalker has established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Hoth.

The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space…

You are cordially invited to the Mountain Justice Summer 2007
(mountainjusticesummer.org) at the Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center
( http://www.narrowridge.org/ ) in Tennessee. Greedy soul-less corporations are blowing up highland watersheds in order to rip coal from the earth. We are the people fighting to stop them, and we need your help!

Mountains and highland watersheds are still being blown apart for short term profit. As the general assemblies of Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia play a game of "its better than it used to be" countless acres of Appalachian forest are being clear-cut, blown apart and dragged off. The mining is WORSE than it has ever been and we need your help to wake everyone up as to this fact.

Coal companies want people to believe that Appalachian rivers are "better than they have ever been" without standing by chocolate streams as they pour sediment into navigable rivers. There is a silent environmental menace which is the often uncounted cost of fossil fuel energy production, strip mining. Strip mining and coal not only strips the land, it often sucks the aquifer beneath it dry and clear cuts any forest.

Global climate change has caught the worlds notice—and energy companies are frantically trying to adjust using doublespeak like "clean coal". Everyone in the energy industry is working to provide solutions like carbon sequestration to global warming—put hope people don't look behind the curtain and see strip mining. Coal can never be "clean"—coal has never been clean—its very acquisition is destructive. Where ever men have ever ripped coal from the earth human misery and suffering has followed. Blowing up watersheds to burn "clean coal" is clearly unacceptable and not "clean."

All four states in the MJS network need you to fight strip mining this summer. We need people to do water testing, lobbying, demonstrating, painting, drawing, writing and in general helping us to resist strip mining.

Have ever enjoyed being alone in the forest? Pay your rent! The magnificent planet humans are abusing so terribly is our source of life on this planet. This is a call to folks who have sat on moss covered boulders watching it rain under a forest canopy. This is a call out to those who love streams, forest and mountains. If you hunt, fish, camp, hike, and love mountains and forest this is a call to you. This is for you if you have ever jumped in a mountain stream or like clean drinking water.

WHAT IS THE MJS TRAINING CAMP?

The MJS camp is the time that folks from the states fighting get together to train. This year's camps emphasis will be field training. Volunteers will get both field and class room training in water testing, oral history recording, strip mine documentation, map reading, guerilla theatre, Appalachian cultural sensitivity, demonstrations, and other skills that MJS volunteers will using this summer.

This is our third camp, and our third summer of resistance against strip mining—we won't quit till they quit.

We use the camp to train everyone we can who is going to help fight strip mining that summer. Its like a basic training in strip mining—and the end of the camp participants should basically have the broad skills needed and a good idea of what going on in the broader campaign against strip mining.

We are also looking for volunteers to travel the world as emissaries to other movements in the world fighting strip mining. Currently peoples fighting strip mining world wide! If you can travel this summer come to our camp before you go! We need you to talk with people in other countries fighting strip mining to tell them they are not alone! In Columbia there is a mining conference for community groups in August we need to send representatives to.

If you can draw, take pictures, drive, take water samples, live in a town near or in the coalfields, write, have an off road vehicle, can post video to youtube, edit videos, cook, can give a talk, are self sufficient, we can use your help this summer.

PLEASE REGISTER TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CAMP!

This part MJS III is really serious about. We have to know how much food, space, transport, water we have to provide for in advance of the camp. Goto our website and follow the links to register. Let us know if you're thinking about coming. It's disturbing to find you someone goes into show when they get stung in the field.

We really really need to know about allergies, if you're diabetic, etc. The camp is a field camp and though we can accommodate folks on field work we really would prefer to know that yellow jacket stings put you into anaphylactic shock BEFORE you go out on one of the field trips. Please call or email mountainjusticesummer.org prepared to provide two people who will vouch for you we can call.

PLEASE COME PREPARED TO CARE FOR YOURSELF

The Appalachian counties which have been impoverished by the "benefits" of king coal (and clear cut logging) are as a direct consequence poor. As a result many of the organizations fighting strip mining in the Appalachians are poor. Come prepared to be self sufficient and to camp for a week. The land has fields and is by a lake so you can swim. But in general if you come to help us for a summer please do your own dishes and come prepared. In short, autonomy.

WHAT TO BRING

Something to swim in, towels, toothbrush, soap, snacks, bug juice—oh yes, about the bugs...

Come prepared to stay clean in the field. Ticks, chiggers, (snakes to!)—the southern Appalachians in the spring are not for the entomologically challenged. There will be classes in how to survive in the field—but come prepared. Long pants tucked into your socks may make you look weird—but it keeps ticks and mosquitoes off your skin. The best mosquito and tick repellant known is patchouli. Garlic is a lie mosquitoes love the stuff—ddt is ok if you don't mind cancer.

Raingear—you will be camping in a rainforest for a week. Think about rain allot as you prepare to come to Tennessee. Those plastic bags they give you at grocery stores are great for chambering off your clothes. It could go for days without rain...or it could rain for days. With some basic preparation whether it is raining or not won't affect your fun. Actually it's recommended you sit under a tarp alone in our forest while it is raining at least a few times.

Tent and tarps—bring them, they are your friend. Also bring a knife, boots, plate, bug spray, water bottle, hat, umbrella, and personal meds.

Bring a book or two was well—and documentation tools. Bring cameras, pens, paper—come prepared to document what you see in the field.

Instruments—any music you can make please please bring. If you're a musician you are vitally important to our campaign. Come and play music.

Cars—oh hell yes if you have your own transport that helps allot!!! We really really really need off road 4 wheel vehicles and trucks. If you can show up with gas and a licensed and insured off road truck we can use you 24/7 in the field. If you're a science field geek and you want to put your boots in the dirt bring a Subaru outback. Water testing, photography, scouting—its all about how we get people to the field. The dream vehicle would be a diesel off road which we could run veggie oil in. You can cover up hippy stickers with clear masking tape, then a layer of duct tape after that—peels right off when you're out of the field.

Soccer balls and Frisbees are encouraged.

WHAT WE NEED:

You.

Cameras (both still and video), GPS units, CB radios, Tarps, food for an army, Compasses, cars and trucks (see above), gas, gas cards, houses where people can stay, people who live in these states to get involved. If you live near any of the areas where strip mines are active

Houses. trailers and barns where people can stay.

WHAT NOT TO BRING:

Dawgs, no dogs please! Please if there is anyway you can avoid it do not bring your dogs.

Drugs. Do not bring or transport drugs to any of our MJS events. Police occasionally set up checkpoints in some coal communities as a harassment tactic. Additionally no one under the influence of anything should be driving where there are coal trucks. The coal drivers have enough speed and drugs in their own systems to more than make up for what you might lack.

Drama. Too few people are doing too much work in the campaign to stop the geologic annihilation of one of most ancient mountains and watersheds on Earth. For many organizations fighting strip mining a day of drama can lose a mountaintop. Mutual aid presupposes mutual respect.

That's it. Come prepared to have fun and train hard. The camp is a tool we have developed to fight back against the strip mine companies and the damage they are doing to our earth.

Give a summer for watersheds!

MOUNTAINJUSTICESUMMER.ORG mountainjusticesummer@yahoo.com

Organizations fighting strip mining in Appalachia:

Links about Mountain Top Removal
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4902852916257526734&pr=goog-sl

http://www.ILoveMountains.org is a resource and action center in the fight against surface mining in Appalachia. This website has lots of great Google Earth maps and videos.

West Virginia
http://www.crmw.net/ http://www.ohvec.org/

Tennessee
unitedmountaindefense.org

South Western Virginia
http://www.samsva.org/

Kentucky
http://mountainjusticesummer.org/kentucky/

ELSEWHERE

Arizona

MJS stands in solidarity with Black Mesa Indigenous Support - Dine residents living near Black Mesa in Arizona are actively opposing the destructive mining practices of Peabody coal company at the Black Mesa Mine.

http://www.blackmesais.org/

Utah
http://altoncoalmine.com/

New Zealand
http://www.savehappyvalley.org.nz/

http://www.ILoveMountains.org is a resource and action center in the fight against surface mining in Appalachia. This website has lots of great Google Earth maps and videos.

Yall come!

Moving Mountains

Questioning whether the Bush administration is manipulating science for political ends, Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., called for an inspector general's investigation into why federal funding was suspended for a study that goes against White House-supported legislation to speed up logging after wildfires on national forests.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/021706EC.shtml

Despite opposition from some of their colleagues, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have decided to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/021706EB.shtml

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales brushed aside requests on Thursday that he remove himself from the investigation of Jack Abramoff and the lobbyist's ties to Bush administration officials and members of Congress. Thirty-one Senate Democrats said in a letter to Gonzales that he was too close to the president and top administration officials who have had dealings with Abramoff and immediately should step aside from the investigation.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021706S.shtml

Barbara Lee: "Before I voted against the resolution that the president and his attorney general now use to claim that he is above the law, I remembered what one of the clergy members said at the National Cathedral memorial service for the victims of the September 11 attacks: 'As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.'"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021706R.shtml

Could he have been excluded to ensure the presence of President George W. Bush at the "first lady'' of civil rights' funeral?

http://tinyurl.com/c3v5c


From Information Clearing House

The Little-Noticed Order That Gave Dick Cheney New Power

Have you ever heard of Executive Order 13292?
http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200602160841.asp



Ted Rall: The Shootist

What is Dick Cheney Covering Up?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11959.htm



Shoot First, Avoid Questions Later:

The White House's secretive response to Cheney's misfire cannot be understood apart from the society of Texas royalty.

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,401260,00.html



Guns and Roses: Why It's Still Cheney's Chappaquiddick
http://tinyurl.com/axdrd


From Information Clearing House

--------

Referencing Dick Cheney's latest horrific folly, shooting people and pen-raised, domesticated animals...

"All hunting would be a sport...If the animals could shoot back."

-Michael Benner, KPFK radio 90.7FM Los Angeles on his weekly radio program, Inner Vision, 2006-Feb-17, 2:57pm


Informant: sasha

Greenhouse gases are being released into the atmosphere 30 times faster than the time when the Earth experienced a previous episode of global warming.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article345928.ece


From Information Clearing House

Through the justifications it has put forth for warrentless wiretapping, the Bush administration is almost literally crossing the Rubicon, beginning the process of transforming the United States from a republic into to a presidential dictatorship.

http://tinyurl.com/b3ccp



Despotism & Democracy

Measures how a society ranks on a spectrum stretching from democracy to despotism. Explains how societies and nations can be measured by the degree that power is concentrated and respect for the individual is restricted. Where does your community, state and nation stand on these scales...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4971.htm



The Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism

Flash Presentation
http://www.bushflash.com/14.html



Charles Sullivan: The Making of a Zombie Culture

The systematic torture of captives is a non-event for the consumers of the corporate news, whose minds have been deftly manipulated to reach this conclusion without their knowledge.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11972.htm



Putting a Wrench Into the Gears of This War Machine"

On Wednesday, February 15, 2006, a group of war resisters began a 34 day liquids only fast in Washington, DC. The fast is sponsored by the Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

http://tinyurl.com/d35ll


From Information Clearing House

The next Iran war

A new report examines the likely course and proliferating dangers of an United States attack on Iran.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/themes/article.jsp?id=2&articleId=3274


From Information Clearing House

Now that the cakewalk that was to be our invasion of Iraq is nearing its third anniversary and the roses that were to be thrown at us have turned into improvised explosive devices, it has become official — we are engaged in a long war. Make that “The Long War.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11971.htm

ABC News has learned today that President Bush will ask Congress for an additional $65.3 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It brings the total funds requested this year to more than $110 billion for those operations.

http://tinyurl.com/akwna


From Information Clearing House

By N K. A

We will know we have lost when we do what we have done in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Diego Garcia, Bagram and the other entirely secret and not so secret CIA and military detention centers round the world. We will know we have lost when the first target in the massacre of a village or city is its hospital.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11963.htm

Aus: Sondernews zum Thema Vogelgrippe - bitte verbreiten
http://www.bunkahle.com/Forum/YaBB.cgi?board=neues;action=display;num=1140213098

Vogelgrippe-Virus ist nach Auskunft eines Mikrobiologen überhaupt nicht nachgewiesen - die erzeugte Medienpanik ist unnötig bzw. sogar schädlich

Dieses Interview führte die Zeitschrift faktuell mit dem Mikrobiologen Dr. Stefan Lanka zu Vogelgrippe und H5N1:

Frage: Herr Dr. Lanka, sind wir in Deutschland durch die Vogelgrippe bedroht?

Lanka: Nur indirekt. Im nächsten Jahr wird es in Deutschland viel weniger Babys geben. Folgt man den Medien, werden alle Störche durch die Vogelgrippe dahingerafft werden. Darauf sollten wir uns jetzt einstellen.

Frage: Meinen Sie das ernst?

Lanka: Genauso ernst, wie irgendeine Gefahr für uns durch das behauptete Vogelgrippevirus H5N1 besteht. Die Gefahr oder die Katastrophe liegt ganz woanders.

Frage: Wo liegt nach Ihrer Auffassung die Gefahr oder die Katastrophe?

Lanka: Wir haben uns abgewöhnen lassen, unseren Verstand zu benutzen.

Das ganze Interview kann man hier lesen: http://www.faktuell.de/Hintergrund/Background367.shtml

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Angebliches Vogelgrippe-Virus wird resistent gegen Tamiflu

Es gibt die ungeheure Behauptung und Beobachtung, daß das Medikament Tamiflu in höchstem Maße giftig ist und bei einem völlig gesunden Menschen, extreme Krankheitssymptome erzeugt, ja sogar in entsprechenden Dosen bis zum Tode führen kann. Mit anderen Worten: Man will den Teufel mit dem Beelzebub austreiben. Wie anders könnte es zu erklären sein, daß - obwohl ein Vogelgrippe-Virus nun ja gar nicht nachgewiesen ist, folgende Nachricht im Umlauf ist: Zitat: "Die Vogelgrippe-Viren werden Medizinern zufolge zunehmend resistent gegen Tamiflu. In Vietnam seien zwei mit dem Virus H5N1 infizierte Patienten gestorben,obwohl sie mit dem Grippemittel behandelt wurden", schreibt ein internationales Team im US-Fachmagazin "New England Journal of Medicine" vom Donnerstag. Es muß richtigerweise heißen: Nicht obwohl sie behandelt wurden, sondern weil sie damit behandelt wurden. Die komplette Nachricht:

http://www.vogelgrippe-aufklaerung.de/t174f5-Vogelgrippe-Virus-wird-resistent-gegen-Tamiflu.html

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Wer verdient wirklich an der Panik um die Vogelgrippe?

Vogelgrippe lässt Rumsfelds Kasse sprudeln:
http://www.saar-echo.de/de/art.php?a=28455


Nachricht von Gerd Zesar

*Bad Chemistry*

by Gay Daly

*Hundreds of man-made chemicals -- in our air, our water, and our food -- could be damaging the most basic building blocks of human development*.

http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/06win/chem1.asp

http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/06win/chem.pdf

* * * *

Postscript: For decades, an industry song and dance has had the lyrics, But there's no proof that these chemicals are affecting humans. However, this past year, major findings have demonstrated that humans too are affected by endocrine disrupting chemicals.

*EPA's current 'reference doses' for exposure to several phthalates may be far too high, perhaps by as much as a factor of 100-fold or more.* The reference dose is the level thought low enough to cause no adverse effects. This conclusion is based upon calculations, using pharmokinetic models, of the maternal exposures that would have been required to cause urinary phthalate metabolite levels associated with altered genital tract development in boys.

http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/oncompounds/phthalates/2006/2006-0205marseeetal.htm

* * * *

PSS: Some of us have read one or more of Theo Colborn's scientific papers. the pdf above includes a picture of the lovely, caring, 78yo Theo Colborn.

Teresa

By Amanda Griscom
Little Grist Magazine
February 17, 2006

http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/printthis.pl

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has earned a rep as a global leader in the fight against climate change, and, at least in part, he has Sir David King to thank for it.

King, the U.K. government's chief scientific adviser and an outspoken advocate of aggressive action to forestall global warming, has pushed the climate crisis up the PM's priority list. He was instrumental in making the U.K. the first nation to commit to greenhouse-gas reductions that go beyond Kyoto, and in positioning climate as one of two top issues at last year's G8 summit, hosted by Blair.

King's headline-grabbing rhetoric has put climate change in the spotlight, and King himself in the hot seat. He's become a target of the American right and been publicly heckled by U.S. climate skeptics during lectures. He has also raised the ire of some in the environmental community for arguing that nuclear power, gasified coal, and carbon sequestration are necessary weapons in the battle against global warming.


QUESTION: Your comment that climate change poses a bigger threat to humanity than terrorism turned a lot of heads internationally. How did you come to this conclusion?

ANSWER: That sentence originated from an article I wrote in Science. I pointed out that, for example, the 30,000 deaths in Europe from the hot summer of 2003 -- which have been closely correlated to global warming -- indicate the kind of security problems we are faced with.

Let me be clear: I in no way diminish the threat of terrorism to our society and way of life, quite the reverse. It is a very serious threat. But I don't think it is even comparable to the threat to our civilization that global warming represents.

QUESTION: How did you help bring climate change to the prime minister's attention?

ANSWER: I engineered an invitation to give a lecture on the current state of climate-change science in 2002, the Zuckerman Lecture http://www.foundation.org.uk/801/311002_2.pdf [PDF], that went around to all the cabinet and many influential people in British government. The most important turning point was the decision the prime minister made very quickly after that -- he is, by the way, a very decisive sort of person -- to look at the U.K.'s energy policy in light of global-warming science. That led to further research and eventually a white paper in 2003 that committed the government to reducing carbon dioxide 60 percent by 2050. It was the first time a government had come forward and said, "We are going to go beyond Kyoto."

QUESTION: Was it intended as a challenge to other heads of state to follow suit?

ANSWER: In part. We put ourselves on that path so as to provide Britain with a strong position in negotiating with other countries. The prime minister has followed this up with clear advice to his cabinet ministers to raise the profile of climate change worldwide. I became his unofficial ambassador on the matter, and in the past 18 months, I've delivered over 140 lectures on climate science around the world at his behest.

QUESTION: What was the 60 percent CO2 reduction figure based on?

ANSWER: It was consistent with figures from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Without reductions of 60 percent by mid-century, I believe the melting of the Greenland ice sheet would be irreversible, and sea levels would rise by seven meters from that alone. Knowing that the world's great cities are on coastlines and would therefore be underwater, we felt that was something to be avoided.

QUESTION: What would the global-warming impacts be on the U.K.?

ANSWER: We did the most detailed analysis yet conducted of the impact of climate change on any one country, examining the flood and coastal defense risks for the U.K. over the next 80 years. It demonstrates that if we globally continue burning fossil fuels at the current rate, by 2080 it will be extremely difficult to protect British homes and cities from coastal flooding, fluvial flooding, and flooding from rainfall in our cities.

QUESTION: Are you already seeing impacts?

ANSWER: Rainfall patterns are already changing across cities. Just in the last decade, we've been seeing flash floods from tropical storms that bring a lot more water to our cities than we've previously experienced. Our drainage and sewage systems are not able to cope, so we get massive flooding.

QUESTION: Many of the politicians and oil-industry executives of the U.K., such as Lord John Browne of BP, are seen as global leaders on the climate issue. Why, would you say, are your leaders ahead of the game on this matter?

ANSWER: It's a nontrivial fact that the U.K. has always been very interested in the weather. Remember that Britain developed its leadership position through trade and war. In order to be one ahead of the opposition, you need to predict weather better than they do. So our meteorological office is placed within the military, which means it has always been exceptionally well funded. That's why the Hadley Center, which is in the Ministry of Defense, is a world leader on modeling climate change. It is widely respected in the U.K., both by our leaders and our citizens. A recent opinion poll revealed that about 90 percent of the British public believes that global warming is a real threat.

QUESTION: You've been heckled at your lectures by U.S. climate skeptics who argue that climate science is "in its infancy" -- an opinion that has also been voiced by members of the Bush administration.

ANSWER: I've been chased around by several people funded by the Competitive Enterprise Institute who make these kind of statements that simply fly in the face of all the evidence. To say that climate science is in its infancy is quite simply puerile. The greenhouse effect was established by [Joseph] Fourier back in 1827. By 1896, [Svante] Arrhenius had calculated that we would see global warming by five degrees centigrade if the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere doubled. That's pretty close to what current scientists are saying. So the state of knowledge is 100 years old plus.

QUESTION: What's your opinion of the Bush administration's approach to climate change, in particular its argument that both Kyoto and domestic regulations could pose a threat to the U.S. economy?

ANSWER: What I'm not going to be able to do is criticize any other government. I can say that in Britain our economy since 1990 has grown by about 40 percent, and our emissions have decreased by 14 percent. So to argue that you destroy your economy by reducing emissions is blatantly incorrect.

Furthermore, we feel we have a competitive advantage in getting into the Kyoto CO2-trading program early; we believe it is an incredibly important new commodity exercise that will spur crucial technology development and soon begin to pay dividends for our country.

QUESTION: You were quoted in a recent BBC article as saying that the U.K.'s targets of reducing carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2010 are "a bit optimistic." Why?

ANSWER: Meeting the 2010 target will be challenging, despite the significant program of action under our 2003 white paper. The key problem is the rapid decline in the contribution of nuclear power to the U.K.'s energy mix that will be seen over the next decade as existing plants reach the end of their lives. Ministers are currently considering what further steps can be taken to get back on track, but it will be a tough call.

QUESTION: So do you worry that your mid-century targets are not achievable?

ANSWER: I will not deny that significant further policy and technology innovation will be needed over time for this to happen. I do think that we have the framework right and will see emissions continue to decline significantly to 2020 and beyond. The targets do not need to be adjusted; they are achievable.

QUESTION: To what extent will nuclear play a role in achieving these targets?

ANSWER: Deploying a range of technologies to radically decarbonize our energy systems over just a few decades is a challenge that should not be underestimated. We need every tool in the bag to address it. Even taking the most optimistic projections, dramatic investments in energy efficiency and renewables will not be enough. I believe the government is right to revisit now the question of new nuclear. The question of nuclear waste is of course an important one. It is worth noting that the next generation of nuclear plants would add only around 10 percent to the U.K.'s nuclear waste pile over a 40-year period, given the greater efficiency of more modern reactors.

QUESTION: What about coal generation and carbon sequestration?

ANSWER: It also seems certain that fossil fuels -- coal and gas -- will continue to contribute significantly to meeting U.K. and global energy needs for at least the majority of this century. This is a political and practical reality that it is important to acknowledge. Carbon capture and storage technologies offer the possibility to address this.

QUESTION: What have you personally and the British government in general done to improve your energy efficiency?

ANSWER: I drive around in a Toyota Prius. The government car service in London is shifting over to hybrid-engine vehicles as fast as we can get them. We are also deploying energy-efficiency measures on government buildings and bolstering public transport systems.

The bigger point, however, is that there's a tremendous effort within our government to get more people into science and technology. We are doubling our funding in this area and now producing more science, engineering, and technology graduates as a proportion of 22-year-olds than almost any other country in the world.

QUESTION: How much progress do you think was made at the recent Montreal climate negotiations in the effort to forge a foundation for a post-Kyoto international agreement?

ANSWER: Excellent progress was made in Montreal on a number of important fronts, including strengthening of the practical mechanisms for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol and the agreement to launch a process for targets beyond 2012. Perhaps the most encouraging aspect for me was the very constructive approach to the discussions adopted by developing nations such as China and India.

But it is of obvious importance that any future framework be inclusive, bringing in the U.S. and involving fully key developing nations. There is no question that the international community has a long way to go if it is to minimize the risk of the most dangerous climate-change impacts occurring.


Amanda Griscom Little writes Grist's Muckraker column on environmental politics and policy and interviews green luminaries for the magazine. Her articles on energy and the environment have also appeared in publications ranging from Rolling Stone to The New York Times Magazine.


Informant: NHNE