The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asserts that there is much that we don't know about the plot uncovered last week to blow up 10 airliners over the Atlantic, flying between Great Britain and the United States. We know that the war in Iraq is not a "war on terror." We know that the loss of 2,600 good Americans, the injuries of 19,000 others and the wartime expense of $320 billion have been a tragic waste. We know that because of the cost of Iraq, measures that might truly enhance homeland security, like technology that would spot sinister liquids at airport checkpoints, are hardly affordable.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081306G.shtml
The New York Times's December 16th article that disclosed the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping has led to an important public debate about the once-secret program. And the decision to write about the program in the face of White House pressure deserved even more praise than I gave it in a January column, which focused on the paper’s inadequate explanation of why it had "delayed publication for a year."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081306C.shtml
The Frightened
William Rivers Pitt writes that the Bush administration and the GOP have spent the last year making political hay by being the frighteners in chief. Today, those same tactics carry a note of hysteria. They have nothing else to run on. They have become the frightened.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081306X.shtml
A message from Eleanor
Original Message:
Hi friend, I would like to bring this petition against cruelty to your attention.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/985195393
Best wishes
Irina
I have today lodged a complaint with the BBC regarding today's airing of the "Click" feature. It was trailered as continuing information regarding a new website for family research. When the programme actually went out, this information took up only a few seconds of the slot - most of the air time devoted to a new mobile phone about to be launched and the WIFI services and free texting it will allow.
I have complained that this section of BBC News is now nothing more than a marketing exercise for the mobile phone industry and even when the down-side of the technology is featured it is riddled with inaccuracies and "balanced" views, although these balanced views are never evident when "pushing" the technology.
Sylvia
PS - I also noticed that, during the initial coverage of the terrorism threat at Heathrow - a table showing all types of drinks bottles were shown with a mobile phone in the foreground. All later coverage had removed the phone. And has anyone noticed that phones are rarely mentioned in the "electronic devices" which cannot be taken in hand luggage. We have heard that key fobs, electronic cameras, laptops, etc. must be put into the hold, but nothing about mobiles (although I know they are also prohibited). And, despite the fact that the people arrested in the US had been purchasing a huge amount of phones (reported in our local newspaper yesterday) nothing has been said on the national news.
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Phones on planes
I do not think phones are being allowed on planes Sylvia and I wonder how this terrrorist alert will affect plans for masts on planes so the poor business men can use their phones on the planes.
Personally I think business people are so stressed nowadays and under such pressure from companies to perform that it would do them the world of good not to have laptops and phones on planes.
As the government is so keen to promote the mobile industry I wonder how they will get around this problem of terroists and phones on planes particularly as some airlines were due to have masts from next year.
The airports themselves are only interested in retail, not airlines, passengers etc. They are only interested in making money in retail so I am sure corperate pressure will win again. People can buy in the departure lounge airside and collect it when they come home although I don t know what is currently happening as I gave up working at stansted a few weeks ago.
Regards
sue g
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My son and his girlfriend went back to Copenhagen Friday from B.ham airport, after a weeks holiday with us.
All the info we got before going to B.ham told about mobiles as no one forbidden in the plane cabins.
All they were allowed to take with them was: ticket, passport, necessary medicine and keys without a fob, in a clear plastic bags.
This was also made clear in Fridays B.Ham Post and Daily Mail.
There were still a lot of people in the airport having to repack their cases to put electronic gadgets into them.
A lot of people were sitting on the floor putting away mobiles, laptops ipods etc.
But the instructions were quite clear, and everything got checked.
Regards.
Agnes
What role did Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff play in allowing American companies to profit by exploiting tens of thousands of female workers in the Northern Marianas Islands?
http://www.alternet.org/story/35458
From Information Clearing House
A documentary film by John Pilger
'Global economy' is a modern Orwellian term. On the surface, it is instant financial trading, mobile phones, McDonald's, Starbucks, holidays booked on the net. Beneath this gloss, it is the globalisation of poverty, a world where most human beings never make a phone call and live on less than two dollars a day, where 6,000 children die every day from diarrhea because most have no access to clean water.
Click here to view
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14517.htm
by Greg Evensen
We have become accustomed to standing quietly on the sidelines while our local police Chiefs and Sheriffs have accepted huge amounts of federal dollars and military equipment for their special response units. They are all under a variety of mission specific names and classified standing orders. Once they take the cash however, they are handcuffed to the Feds for whatever future “mission” they may be assigned.....
http://www.newswithviews.com/Evensen/greg.htm
A top State Department official said Friday that Castro's decision to temporarily hand over power to his brother signals "the beginning of political change in Cuba." Shannon's words were the most expansive US government comments on Cuba since the news of Castro's health crisis broke more than a week ago.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081206H.shtml
US Muslim groups have criticized US President George W Bush for calling a foiled plot to blow up airplanes part of a "war with Islamic fascists," saying the term could inflame anti-Muslim tensions.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081206F.shtml
Homegrown 'Islamic fascists'
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14513.htm
The oxygen-starved "dead zone" along the Pacific Coast that is causing massive crab and fish die-offs is worse than initially thought. Weather, not pollution, appears to be the culprit, scientists said, and no relief is in sight. Strong upwelling winds have pushed a low-oxygen pool of deep water toward shore, suffocating marine life.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081206C.shtml
13.08.2006
Claus Hipp erneut gegen grüne Gentechnik - Landwirtschaftskammer-Präsident Schwarzböck sichert diese Freiheit für die österreichische Landwirtschaft zu.
http://www.sonnenseite.com/index.php?pageID=6&news:oid=n5836
Ölwechsel – Der Kampf um die Ressourcen
Wir führen heute einen doppelten Krieg: Einen Krieg gegen die Natur und Verteilungskämpfe um Gas und Öl. Aber die Politiker der wichtigsten Energieverbrauchsländer werden – in Abhängigkeit von der alten Energiewirtschaft – auf ihrem Gipfel wieder einmal empfehlen: Weiter so wie bisher!
http://www.sonnenseite.com/index.php?pageID=17&article:oid=a5402
