World-News

Lifelong Republican, Marine veteran and former Congressman Pete McCloskey has left the GOP and registered with the Democratic Party. McCloskey says he is disgusted with the "succession of ethical scandals, Congressmen taking bribes, and abuse of power by both the Republican House leadership and the highest appointees of the White House."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041707H.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McCloskey

Climate change threatens to prolong the war on terrorism and foster political instability that some governments will be unable to cope with, an influential panel of eleven retired US generals has warned. "On the simplest level, it has the potential to create sustained natural and humanitarian disasters on a scale far beyond those we see today," said the panel, which includes retired General Anthony Zinni, former commander of US forces in the Middle East.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041707E.shtml

George Bush and Dick Cheney are determined to secure another $100 billion blank check for the Iraq war despite a growing consensus among intelligence and military analysts that the war strategy is in chaos and on course to gravely damage US interests in the Middle East. Having solidified support among Congressional Republicans and still backed by a powerful right-wing news media, Bush and Cheney appear to have concluded that they can force Congressional Democrats to back down over legislative language seeking a phased withdrawal from Iraq.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041707D.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Parry
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=withdrawal+from+Iraq

Dean Baker writes: "The public is outraged over the enormous paychecks that are now standard for people who run large corporations. Compensation packages routinely run into the tens of millions of dollars, and it is no longer unusual for a top executive to walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars for their service. In fact, Robert Nardelli, the CEO of Home Depot, got paid $210 million to go away when the company dumped him for his failed turnaround effort. When it comes to CEO pay, it seems pretty clear that corporate America simply has no control."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041707C.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dean+Baker

New details emerging from Justice Department interviews and emails suggest that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and perhaps President Bush were more active than they've acknowledged in the firings last year of eight US attorneys, lawmakers said Monday.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041707B.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=firing+attorneys
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gonzales

A House task force will take the first steps Tuesday in an investigation of a Florida Congressional election decided by 369 votes amid complaints that voting machines failed to count thousands of electronic ballots. The House, which has final authority over its membership, typically waits until legal challenges are completed before taking action. But Florida Democrats last month asked the House Administration Committee to begin reviewing the election after reports of an anomaly in the touch-screen voting machines that recorded about 18,000 skipped votes in Sarasota County.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041707A.shtml



With GOP On Board, FL-13 Task Force Moves Forward in Election Dispute

House Republicans yielded their protest yesterday and sent two members to the first meeting of a task force assigned to look into the contested House race in Florida's 13th district, setting in motion a legitimized process for the House to review the contest.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041807O.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Florida+Election
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=voting+machines
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sarasota
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP

Das Backwood-Slasher-Revival und das nationale Unbehagen.
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/25/25039/1.html

Waisen, Witwen, Lügen
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/25/25093/1.html

The World Bank president and Bush administration agent has a series of ethical pratfalls.

http://ga3.org/ct/Hp20pgF1VzQA/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wolfowitz

Ernteeinsatz wird zum Pflichtprogramm

Arbeitsagentur gibt nach. Strenge Vorgabe für Anteil Deutscher an Erntehelfern gelockert

„Die Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) will nur noch motivierte Arbeitslose zu Ernteeinsätzen vermitteln, gegen Arbeitsverweigerer aber mit Abstrichen beim Arbeitslosengeld vorgehen: Das sehe eine neue Dienstanweisung zur Vermittlung von Erntehelfern vor, berichtete eine BA-Sprecherin. Falls in Einzelfällen nicht genug deutsche Arbeitslose für die Feldarbeit gefunden würden, könnten Betriebe bis zu 90 Prozent der Stellen mit ausländischen Saisonkräften besetzen. Zuvor war der Anteil ausländischer Erntehelfer auf 80 Prozent begrenzt….“ Meldung in der Frankfurter Rundschau vom 16.04.2007 http://www.fr-online.de/in_und_ausland/politik/thema_des_tages/?em_cnt=1115534


Mit dem Spargel-Video fit für den Acker

„Bei Mainz werden nur noch motivierte Arbeitslose in die Ernte geschickt. Das Ausbuddeln des Spargels wird vorher geübt. Polnische Erntehelfer gehen inzwischen lieber nach Spanien oder Südfrankreich - dort gibt es mehr Geld zu verdienen…“ Artikel von Klaus-Peter Klingelschmitt in der taz vom 17.4.2007 http://www.taz.de/dx/2007/04/17/a0064.1/text


Betrifft: Geplante Zwangsarbeit in der Landwirtschaft

„Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, anbetracht der jüngsten Pläne der Bundesagentur für Arbeit durch Androhung von Leistungskürzungen Zwangsarbeit für ALG II-Bezieher in der Landwirtschaft (Erntehelfer) durchzusetzen, fordere ich Sie auf, diesen Verfassungsverstoß durch gesetzliche Regelungen zu unterbinden…“ Petition und öffentlicher Kommentar von Armin Kammrad, Augsburg, vom 14.04.2007 http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/realpolitik/zwang/spargel07.html


Aus: LabourNet, 17. April 2007

--------

Erntehelfer aufgepasst: Erfahrungsberichte gesucht

4,78 Euro die Stunde der gesetzliche Mindestlohn und Arbeitszeiten von 12 Stunden ( ab 6 oder 7 Uhr auf dem Feld, Feierabend gegen 18 Uhr, zwischendurch zwei Stunden Mittagspause) bei einer 5 - 6 Tage Woche - Arbeitsbedingungen die ans Mittelalter erinnern. Wer möchte da bei sommerlichen Temperaturen von mehr als 30° nicht gerne ca. 1000 Euro brutto im Monat verdienen?

Vielfach wird aber berichtet, das diese Verdienste nur dann erreicht werden, wenn die Erntehelfer, die vom Landwirt gesetzten Mindestmengen in guter Qualität einbringen. Bei Minderleistungen oder schlechtem Erzeugnis wird der Mindestlohn sogar unterschritten, in dem Überstunden nicht bezahlt werden bzw. eine Entlohnung überhaupt nicht auf Stundenlohnbasis erfolgt, sondern auf der Basis der geleisteten Erntemenge.

Nun sucht der Sozialticker Erntehelfer, die bereit sind über Ihre Erfahrungen aus vergangenen oder aber auch aktuellen Ernteeinsätzen zu schildern und ob die versprochenen Vergütungen auch eingehalten wurden.

Senden Sie Ihre Erfahrungsberichte an : info@sozialticker.com oder nutzen Sie das Kontaktformular auf: http://www.sozialticker.com

Helfen Sie durch Ihre Erfahrungsberichte mit, Missstände aufzudecken und den Ernteeinsatz objektiv für andere zu schildern.

Der Sozialticker e.V.i.G.
Alte Dorfstr. 4
15926 Luckau,
Deutschland
info (at) sozialticker.com
http://www.sozialticker.com



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Zwangsarbeit
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Erntehelfer

„Vom 05.-06. Juni 2007 findet das 5. Potsdamer Forum für Führungskräfte im öffentlichen Dienst statt. Das Potsdamer Forum wird gemeinsam von ver.di, der Bertelsmann Stiftung und der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung durchgeführt. Die Veranstaltung richtet sich an Führungskräfte mit Personalverantwortung.“ So die Homepage zur Veranstaltung http://potsdamer-forum.verdi.de/

Siehe dazu auch:

Man traut manchmal seinen Ohren und Augen nicht und dennoch...

„die Realität, sie ist meist grausam und hart. So muss ich als ver.di-Mitglied zur Kenntnis nehmen, dass meine Gewerkschaft eine Veranstaltung für Führungs- und Leitungskräfte in Bund, Land und Kommune anbietet - das „Potsdamer Forum“-, in der den Abgesandten des größten deutschen Privatisierungs-Think-Tank, der Bertelsmann Stiftung eine wundervolle Bühne geboten wird!...“ Offener Brief an ver.di von Jürgen Bauch, Sprecher der ver.di-Betriebsgruppe an der Fachhochschule Hannover. http://www.labournet.de/branchen/dienstleistung/oed/bauch.html


Krake Bertelsmann: Auch bei ver.di und der Hans Böckler Stiftung hat er seine Fangarme

„Vom 05.-06. Juni 2007 findet das 5. Potsdamer Forum für Führungskräfte im öffentlichen Dienst unter dem Motto „Der öffentliche Dienst - besser als sein Ruf! - Leistungsfähigkeit für Menschen und Demokratie“ statt. Veranstalter ist ver.di und die Hans-Böckler-Stiftung gemeinsam mit der Bertelsmann Stiftung. Wohl passend zu Reinhards Mohns Mission hält Dr. Johannes Meier, Vorstand der Bertelsmann Stiftung sein Referat „Der öffentliche Dienst und die Zivilgesellschaft“. Den Workshop “Erfahrungen mit der Einführung von Leistungsbezahlung” moderiert Oliver Haubner, ebenfalls Bertelsmann Stiftung. Last, but not least: Hinsichtlich der Übernahme der Verwaltungen durch Bertelsmann-Tochter “arvato” in der britischen Kommune East Riding dürfte wohl kaum überraschen, dass der „Bertelsmann“ Dr. Andreas Osner, den Workshop “Privatisierung öffentlicher Dienste – nützlich oder schädlich?” moderiert und lenkt …“ Meldung vom 3. April 2007 bei den Nachdenkseiten

http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=2228


Nochmals Krake Bertelsmann: Auch bei ver.di und der Hans Böckler Stiftung hat er seine

„In einem Beitrag vom 3. April haben wir unser Erstaunen ausgedrückt, dass ver.di und die Hans-Böckler-Stiftung gemeinsam mit der Bertelsmann Stiftung das 5. Potsdamer Forum für Führungskräfte im öffentlichen Dienst unter dem Motto „Der öffentliche Dienst - besser als sein Ruf! - Leistungsfähigkeit für Menschen und Demokratie“ veranstaltet. Ein Insider hat uns dafür Hintergründe dargestellt…“ Meldung vom 10. April 2007 bei den Nachdenkseiten http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=2241


Siehe Informationen zu Bertelsmann-Aktivitäten hinsichtlich „Verwaltungsreform“ sowie „Kommunalpolitik und sog. Bürgergesellschaft“ bei der Bertelsmann-Kritik http://wiki.bildung-schadet-nicht.de/index.php/Bertelsmann-kritische_Informationen_und_Materialien#Verwaltungsreform

Siehe dazu auch im LabourNet:

Branchen > Medien u. IT > Bertelsmann http://www.labournet.de/branchen/medien-it/bertelsmann/index.html

und

Diskussion > Wipo > GATS, Privatisierung und Widerstand allgemein http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/wipo/gats/index.html

Weitere Informationen und eine Protestvorlage folgen in Kürze! Wir bitten gut informierte LeserInnen aus dem ver.di-Umkreis um hilfreiche Hinweise und Hintergründe an die Redaktion!


Aus: LabourNet, 17. April 2007

--------

Das Potsdamer Forum – kungelt ver.di mit der Bertelsmann Stiftung?

Die Beiträge über ver.dis Mitwirkung im sogenannten "Potsdamer Forum" haben Wirkung gezeigt: Eine Briefoffensive, mit der sowohl die "Nachdenkseiten" und auch LabourNet Germany, als auch der Hannoveraner Kollege Jürgen Bauch "beglückt" wurden. Es gibt aber auch ganz andere Haltungen in ver.di als die der Menschen auf (finanzieller) "Augenhöhe" mit Bertelsmännern - die Bundesfachbereichskonferenz des Fachbereichs 7 (Gemeinden) hat am 19. April 2007, auf Initiative der hessischen Delegation einen Initiativantrag mit großer Mehrheit angenommen, der die Zusammenarbeit der ver.di mit der Bertelsmannstiftung, auch auf dem Potsdamer Forum, kritisiert und die Einstellung dieser Zusammenarbeit fordert.

Der angenommene Initiativantrag auf der Bundeskonferenz des Fachbereichs 7 - Gemeinden: http://www.labournet.de/branchen/dienstleistung/oed/gemeindeanti.html

Briefwechsel des ver.di Bundesvorstandes, Ressort 12 mit Jürgen Bauch: http://www.labournet.de/branchen/dienstleistung/oed/potsdambrief1.html


Aus: LabourNet, 26. April 2007



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bertelsmann

The mast array on top of Bucklemaker Court multi in Dundee’s Hilltown.

Dundee City Council is taking rent on land it leases for mobile-phone mast sites, at the same time as councillors are voting against the erection of masts in the city (writes Brian Smith).

A spokesperson for the council has confirmed the council charges rent, but declined to reveal how much income the sites generate, on the grounds of commercial confidentiality.

The information emerged in the wake of questions posed by the Evening Telegraph, following the most recent reversal of a decision to refuse planning permission for a mobile phone mast in Gillies Park in Barnhill.

After a large-scale public campaign opposing the Gillies Park mast, councillors on the development quality committee voted unanimously to refuse planning permission.

That decision was subsequently overturned by an official from the Executive planning inquiry unit following an appeal by the telecoms operator Vodaphone.

The Tele asked if, as owners of the park, the council could say it simply would not allow the mast to be built on its land? Had they done this at any other site they own? Do they own sites where masts are located and, if so, do they charge rents?

Leisure and arts services convener Charles Farquhar was asked if the city council had ever said no to a mast in one of their parks. He said, “To my knowledge, we have never got to that stage yet.”

The council has several options if it chooses to continue to resist an application for a mast after losing the first appeal. All are likely to be lengthy, complex and expensive. And in the case of a further appeal under planning legislation, the advice from officials has been not to go ahead because of the expense and there being little prospect of success.

Refusal to allow construction on the basis that it is the landowner is possible if the leisure and arts services committee voted to do so, but that decision could take the council to court in an even greyer legal area.

The main mobile phone operators do have powers under the Tele- communications Act 1984, as amended, to, amongst other things, install equipment in the street and to apply to the courts for an order to place equipment on another’s property where they have been unable to obtain agreement to so do.

There are various caveats, procedures and conditions associated with these, and the other powers, in the Act. These powers do not override the need to obtain planning permission.

Perth and Kinross Council said they have only one phone mast from which money is accrued. A spokesman said, “This is located at the Canal Street car park in Perth. The council receives a rent of £7000 per annum from Orange for the mast.”

Ken Duncan, management services team leader with Fife Council, said, “The Council does not have any telecoms masts on council buildings or within schools or on residential properties.

“We lease sites for operators to build masts on and we have operators on some council-owned masts. At present, there are five leases for sites and two mast-sharing agree- ments. This produces an annual rental income to the council of £55,000.”

© All copyright D C Thomson & Co Ltd., 2007

http://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/output/2007/04/17/story9574008t0.shtm

The Bush administration's allies in Congress on Monday blocked a bill that would require the White House to disclose the locations of secret prisons run by the Central Intelligence Agency, and to reveal the amount spent annually by American intelligence agencies.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041707M.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=secret+prisons

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's assertion that he was not involved in identifying the eight US attorneys who were asked to resign last year is at odds with a recently released internal Department of Justice email. That email said that Gonzales supported firing one federal prosecutor six months before she was asked to leave.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041707K.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=firing+attorneys
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gonzales

Boston Globe
by James Carroll

04/16/07

This week, spring fever takes the form of the fever pitch to which concern over global warming is rising. Last Saturday was the National Day of Climate Action, a campaign organized by writer Bill McKibben, aimed at getting Congress to ’step it up’ and cut US carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. Next Sunday is Earth Day — part festival and part political demonstration, always a call to action for the environment. The urgency of such events comes from recent scientific reports that make impending ecological catastrophes more vivid than ever. Nations and municipalities must begin now to plan for effects on drinking water, sea levels, toxins, and various social dislocations that already seem inevitable. Not even the Bush administration any longer argues that climate change is a minor issue, unrelated to human activity...

http://tinyurl.com/27566z


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bill+McKibben
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Carroll

Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland

04/16/07

America’s problems in Afghanistan and Iraq may have one positive effect: They will cause the U.S. public to withhold support for future military interventions that are not absolutely necessary for U.S. security. That’s exactly what has happened in the past and there’s no reason to believe the current failed adventures will be different. In the Korean War, for example, after back and forth offensives, the front stabilized at the 38th parallel, where the conflict had begun. With casualties mounting and no clear-cut victory in sight, the war lost much of its support. President Harry Truman was so unpopular by this time he decided not to seek re-election. During the subsequent eight years of the Eisenhower administration, the war-weary United States directly intervened militarily just once, in Lebanon in 1958...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1956


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ivan+Eland

The Free Liberal
by Paul Jacob

04/16/07

On April Fool’s day, it did command The Washington Post front page. Maybe the story was just a funny joke. But I didn’t get it. The article, ‘Corruption Stains Timber Trade,’ details total disregard for both the law and the environment in a number of repressive regimes — Burma, China, Russia and Indonesia. Logging companies pay off government officials to ransack land supposedly protected. There’s scant regard for private property and lots of looking the other way. No surprise, just another argument against tyranny and repression. But no, the lead quote in this article features an unnamed ‘American environmentalist’ explaining that, ‘Western consumers are leaving a violent ecological footprint in Burma and other countries’...

http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/002714.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Plant trees, lots of them, you can never plant enough!
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/3515163/




http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Jacob

New Jersey Star-Ledger

04/16/07

Jean-Claude Tassot felt the sunshine spilling over his shoulders. It was unseasonably warm for January — a good day, he decided, to check his honeybees. So Tassot jumped in his truck and rumbled over the back roads of Morris County to the first of the eight farms where he stores his boxes of hives. ‘When you first take the cover off, usually you can see the bees,’ said Tassot. ‘But when I looked, there was nothing. I kept looking (but) the hives were all dead.’ Tassot drove to the next farm, then the next and the next. At every stop it was the same thing. Out of 171 hives, 140 were wiped out. Even the few dozen that remained were weak at best. ‘It was a catastrophe,’ he said...

http://tinyurl.com/2s3ojx


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bees
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=bees

Aberdeen American News

04/16/07

As the world warms, water — either too little or too much of it — is going to be the major problem for the United States, scientists and military experts said Monday. It will be a domestic problem, with states clashing over controls of rivers, and a national security problem as water shortages and floods worsen conflicts and terrorism elsewhere in the world, they said. At home, especially in the Southwest, regions will need to find new sources of drinking water, the Great Lakes will shrink, fish and other species will be left high and dry, and coastal areas will on occasion be inundated because of sea-level rises and souped-up storms, U.S. scientists said...

http://tinyurl.com/2tfvcj


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Baton Rouge Advocate

04/17/07

President Bush surrounded himself with military families on Monday to push anew for a war-funding bill that isn’t tied to pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq. The Senate’s Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, responded that Bush must choose between holding to ‘discredited policies’ in Iraq or working with lawmakers on a new course...

http://tinyurl.com/2uyson


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Harry+Reid

Thousands of Iraqis are going without food and basic supplies as the country's food distribution infrastructure crumbles, according to a new report. The country's Public Distribution System (PDS), set up in 1995 as part of the UN's Oil-for-Food program, has been hit by insecurity, poor management, corruption and a lack of political will.

http://electroniciraq.net/news/3012.shtml



UN Refugee Agency Turns Spotlight on Iraqis

Nearly four million Iraqis have been displaced in and outside their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, making it the largest exodus of people in the Middle East since the creation of Israel in 1948. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, on Tuesday will convene a two-day conference in Geneva to address Iraq's deepening humanitarian crisis.

http://electroniciraq.net/news/3010.shtml



US and UK Bear Special Duty to Aid Refugees

Iraq's neighbors are closing off escape routes to Iraqi asylum seekers, just as the international community has begun to respond to the 2 million refugees from the war, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. As high-level officials, including ministerial-level representatives for Iraq and all countries in the region, meet in Geneva on April 17, 2007 for a conference to coordinate the international response to Iraqi refugees and internally displaced people, Iraq's neighbors are refusing entry, imposing onerous new passport and visa requirements, and building barriers to keep refugees out. In cases, they are also expelling Iraqis back to Iraq, Human Rights Watch said.

http://electroniciraq.net/news/3011.shtml

Stories of downward mobility in America's suburbs have not exactly cluttered the headlines over the past decade. Gated communities of dream homes, mansions ringed by man-made lakes and glass-cube office parks: These are the images typically evoked by the posh, supersized subdivisions built during the 1990s technology boom. Low-wage jobs, houses under foreclosure, families unable to afford food and medical care are not. But venture beyond the city limits of any major metropolitan area today, and you will encounter these things, in forms less concentrated - and therefore less visible - than in the more-blighted pockets of our cities perhaps, but with growing frequency all the same.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/041607LA.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=foreclosure

With Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the ropes over the firings of eight US attorneys, his deputy, Paul J. McNulty, is quietly testing the waters for a new job. He may need one, if critics have their way.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041607S.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gonzales
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=firing+attorneys

"The rhetoric over recent days and this morning makes it clear that Vice President Dick Cheney is still in charge of Iraq policy," says Ray McGovern. "He seems supremely confident that the Democrats can be intimidated into giving the White House the only thing it really wants - enough money to stave off defeat until President George W. Bush and Cheney are safely out of office. That, of course, is also what lies behind the 'temporary surge' in troop strength."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041607R.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+funding
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ray+McGovern

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2058785,00.html


Informant: binstock

TELL CONGRESS: IT'S TIME FOR BIG CHANGES FOR ELEPHANTS IN ZOOS!

Hobbled by arthritis, Toni at National Zoo
At the St. Louis Zoo, Clara's feet were so debilitated leans to relieve painful pressure on her legs that she had to wear sandals. She died there last year.

On Wednesday, April 18, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) will take to Capitol Hill for its "Congressional Leadership Day."

This is a great opportunity for us to speak up and bring attention to the plight of elephants in zoos!

While AZA seeks increased federal support, let's remind Congress that elephants are suffering in zoos and it's just not right!

ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18TH, WE ARE ASKING EVERYONE TO CALL, FAX, OR EMAIL YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS AND DEMAND THAT THE ZOO INDUSTRY MAKE BIG CHANGES FOR EARTH'S LARGEST LAND MAMMAL.

The U.S. Animal Welfare Act requires zoos to provide adequate space and conditions to maintain elephant health and well-being. Zoos are violating this federal law by holding elephants in cramped and inadequate conditions that cause them to sicken and die prematurely.

IDA has submitted a Citizen Petition to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) calling for enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act at zoos holding elephants.

Ask your Senators and Representative to support the IDA petition by calling the Secretary of Agriculture and the House and Senate Agriculture Committees.

It's time for zoos to stop violating the Animal Welfare Act. If zoos cannot provide the vast space and naturalistic conditions that elephants need to thrive, they should not hold elephants.

The Capitol Hill Switchboard is (202) 224-3121. For email and fax information for your representatives, see www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.

Please use the talking points below:

In the wild, elephants: - Walk for miles every day on soft ground and grasses. - Live in large, tightly-knit extended families in which females live together for life. - Possess a sophisticated ability to communicate, intricate social structure, and mourn their dead.

In zoos, elephants: - Spend their entire lives in tiny yards of only a few acres or less. - Live in small groups of unrelated elephants. - Cannot exercise adequately and are forced to stand on damaging hard surfaces, such as hard-packed dirt and concrete, for years on end. - Are confined to concrete-floored barn stalls for extended periods of time, especially during the winter. - Develop painful problems with their joints and feet, as well as other disorders, due to zoo conditions.

Recent surveys document that a majority of elephants in zoos suffer from painful and often fatal arthritis and foot disease -- a direct result of spending their lives in cramped, unnatural and inadequate zoo exhibits.

Elephants need large, naturalistic habitats to thrive. The two U.S. elephant sanctuaries provide the model for zoos to follow.

"As a scientist who has studied elephant behavior and communication among free-living individuals for 30 years, I am stunned that the AZA is not able to perceive the empirical evidence that elephants need much more space than what is currently allotted to them." - Joyce Poole, Ph.D.

"Small enclosures with a subsequent lack of exercise causing poor muscle tone, therefore poor joint support, lead to osteoarthritis and eventually degenerative joint disease. Enclosures made with concrete, or other unyielding substrates where elephants cannot avoid standing in their own urine and feces, predispose elephants' feet to toenail cracks, sole abscesses, and eventual osteomyelitis which leads to death." - Mel Richardson, DVM

For more information, visit http://www.helpelephants.com or call (919) 732-8983.



National Call In To Congress Day for Elephants: Clarification

Today you received an alert asking you to call your Congressperson and Senators asking them to support IDA's citizens petition to the USDA calling for enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act at zoos holding elephants.

A number of people have called to request contact information for the Secretary of Agriculture and the Chairs of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, who we suggested your federal representatives call in support of the petition.

If you would like to contact these individuals and ask them to make sure that the USDA moves swiftly on the IDA petition to force zoos to comply with the Animal Welfare Act by providing adequate space and conditions to elephants, here is the contact information:

Mike Johanns
Secretary of Agriculture
Tel: (202) 720-3631
Email: Mike.Johanns@usda.gov

Collin Peterson
Chair - House Agriculture Committee
Tel: (202) 225-8510
Email: agriculture@mail.house.gov

Tom Harkin
Chair, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
Tel: (202) 224-3254
Fax: (202) 224-9369
TDD: (202) 224-4633
Email: http://harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm


From: In Defense of Animals

What are your thoughts on 'wi-fi-hi-jacking?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/vine/yoursay_tue2.shtml

Does anyone feel like phoning in now to this show?

WiFi hijacking on radio 2 until 2pm phone in (or e-mail in)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/vine/

What about paedophiles tapping into schools computers?!

Wi-Fi: a phone mast in the classroom?

thanks
sarah



My contribution to the prog, Sarah

Sylvia


From SylviaWright
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 08:35:05 EDT
To: vine@bbc.co.uk

We are failing our children from the aspect of both health and safety - in the name of progress. WiFi is just another example of this - following hard on the heels of junk food, junk TV and junk fashion. The safety of young people using the internet either at home or at school is being taken out of the hands of their guardians - creating yet another "loophole" which will need to be addressed. The wireless industry are pushing numerous "beneficial applications" of the technology to maximise profits - little thinking of the consequences. That our Government and Health Protection Agency do nothing to curb their enthusiasm is lamentable - if not bordering on neglect!

I have had occasion to research this subject for several years and am constantly amazed at the ignorance of the scientific findings in other parts of the world - could it be that the facts are too unpalatable? One prime example is the rapid disappearance of recent "T Mobile buried report" article..... [ http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3586360/ ]

Cllr Sylvia Wright
S Staffordshire



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wi-Fi
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Wi-Fi

http://www.stopcorporateabusenow.org/campaign/nestle_call_in



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nestl%C3%A9

The ACLU Congressional Scorecard provides you with a quick summary of important civil liberties measures and how your elected officials have voted. By looking at their actual voting record, you can go beyond the soundbites that characterize much of today's campaigns to better understand your elected officials' positions.

http://snipurl.com/1grl0


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=ACLU

The burgeoning congressional focus on the supposedly "missing" emails of White House political czar Karl Rove and almost two dozen other presidential aides who were doing political work on the taxpayers' dime is not limited to questions about the eight U.S. Attorneys who were fired.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20070414/cm_thenation/1185976


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Conyers
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Karl+Rove
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=missing+emails
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=firing+attorneys

There will be a time when future generations will look at us and wonder why President Bush and Vice President Cheney were not removed from office. They will look at us and question why, when confronted by the most corrupt and incompetent administration ever witnessed in the United States, nothing was done to stop Bush and Cheney.

http://www.reformer.com/search/ci_5657073


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach

Zubaydah, captured in 2002, also told the hearing at Guantanamo Bay that he had been tortured in U.S. custody and confessed to things he did not do just to stop the abuse, according to a Pentagon transcript released Monday.

http://snipurl.com/1grko


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Zubaydah
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture

In a Democracy Now! special from Boston, two of the city's leading dissidents, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, sit down for a rare joint interview.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/16/1338223



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Noam+Chomsky
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Howard+Zinn

The US military has come under fire again from a coroner hearing inquests into the deaths of servicemen in Iraq.

http://snipurl.com/1grk9


From Information Clearing House

Photographs showing the severe beating suffered by an Iraqi civilian who died in British custody were released today as the House of Lords begins a hearing into whether human rights law should apply to British forces abroad.

http://snipurl.com/1grk5


From Information Clearing House

By Mike Whitney

Two years ago, anyone who wrote about the housing bubble was dismissed as a conspiracy nut. Now hardly a day goes by that the headlines aren't splattered with the grim details of the massive meltdown in the real estate market.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17543.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=housing+bubble
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Whitney

By Scott Horton

We have a duty to posterity, and that is to bear witness to these events. We must document them carefully. We must act to avoid the destruction of valuable evidence-and recognize, as we have already seen, that it is in the character of those who commit crimes to destroy the evidence of their misdeeds. In this way we lay the path for the justice which will in good time be meted out to those who betrayed a nation's trust.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17540.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Scott+Horton

Matt Taibbi Interviews Seymour Hersh

"We know from the Pentagon Papers -- and to me they were the most important documents ever written -- that from 1963 on, Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon lied to us systematically about the war. I remember how shocked I was when I read them. So . . . duh! Nothing's changed. They've just gotten better at dealing with the press. Nothing's changed at all."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17542.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Seymour+Hersh
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Matt+Taibbi

http://www.oe24.at/zeitung/wissen/article126144.ece



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bienen
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Bienen

328 pages of secret French documents related to 9/11 leaked to 'Le Monde'
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/6094/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

--------

September 11, 2001: The French Knew Much About It

Le Monde has obtained 328 pages of the French secret services' Osama bin Laden file. The huge leak confirms some information about what was known before September 11 and raises a few questions about intelligence service operations.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041707J.shtml

--------

France Warned CIA of Hijack Plot in 2001

By Angela Donald
Associated Press Writer

Nine months before al-Qaida slammed airliners into the World Trade Center, French intelligence suspected the terror network was plotting a hijacking - possibly involving a U.S. airline - and warned the CIA, former French intelligence officials said Monday.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17548.htm



September 11, 2001: The French Knew Much About It

By Guillaume Dasquié
Le Monde -Monday 16 April 2007

It's an impressive mass of documents. From a distance, one would imagine a doctoral thesis. On closer inspection: nothing of the kind. Red stamps "Confidential-Defense" and "Strictly National Usage" on every page. At the top on the left, a royal blue logo: that of the DGSE, Direction générale des services extérieurs [General Directorate for Foreign Services], the French secret services. In total, 328 classified pages.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17551.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=9%2F11

http://www.allgemeine-zeitung.de/region/objekt.php3?artikel_id=2790363

Handys können Krebs auslösen
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3261806/

Zunahme der Hirntumore bei Handy-Vieltefonierern: Risiko steigt um 39 Prozent
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3261838/

Lösen Handys Krebs aus, Krebs durch Handy-Strahlung?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3265429/

Handy am Ohr: Hirntumor?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3270151/

Langzeitstudie aus Dänemark: kein Krebsrisiko durch Handy-Strahlung?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3040849/

Kein Beweis für ein erhöhtes Risiko durch Handys?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3271250/

Elektrosmog als Krebsrisiko: Kein Krebsrisiko durch Handy-Strahlung?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3271439/

Flucht aus Oberammergau: Pfarrer flüchtet vor Handy-Strahlung
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3258411/

Mobilfunk und Gesundheit
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3300771/

Wissenschaft zu Mobilfunk
http://tinyurl.com/93epp

Ärzte und Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/408385/
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=%C3%84rzte+und+Mobilfunk



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Handystrahlen
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Handystrahlen

2007 Pulitzer Prize: Charlie Savage, National Reporting
http://www.boston.com/news/specials/savage_signing_statements/


Informant: Jack Topel



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Charlie+Savage

http://bermudasun.bm/Main.asp?SectionID=24&ArticleID=33198


Informant: Mark G.

by Nancy Levant

In brief, the implementation of universal mental health screening in schools, which is currently operating in our school system, is a public-private partnership deal between the federal government and the pharmaceutical industry. It is a money scam. If you read Dr. Cuddy’s series, you will clearly follow the money trail from pharma to Fed and back. How do American parents stop this insidious, unconscionable attack upon our children? You break the money trail. Pull you children out of the public school system immediately......

http://www.newswithviews.com/Levant/nancy84.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=dictatorship
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mental+health+screening
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Pharma
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=cuddy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/Levant

CITY planners say they are getting weary of schemes for mobile phone masts on the edge of Rothwell Park.

A Defra inspector has dismissed an appeal for permission to put up a fake telegraph pole with associated equipment on the south-west side of Leeds Road at Oulton.

Coun Don Wilson (Lib Dem, Rothwell) told Leeds East plans panel: "This is about the fifth or sixth refusal on this particular site.

"I think telephone companies are working on the principle that if they put in plans often enough they will wear us down.

Procedure

"Is there a way of refusing this so we don't have to go through the whole procedure again?"

Planning officer John Redding said that under new legislation the plans panel could refuse to consider a scheme at the third time of asking – if it was basically the same scheme.

"In this case the applicants made it slightly different by making the pole look a little less fake. But the inspector wouldn't wear it."

In his report the inspector concedes this is the best location for the mast. But it would damage the green belt and so he turned it down.

All rights reserved ©2007 Johnston Press Digital Publishing

http://www.leedstoday.net/news?ArticleID=2704221