World-News

http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0517-04.htm

Protest Cheney Speech at West Point



http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ki7dYXLLJY


The West Point May 26th Organizing Committee: Peace Groups Announce Final Plans For Protesting Cheney Speech To West Point Graduation, May 26, 2007.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0524-02.htm

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PROTEST CHENEY AND THE WAR!

Below is the final press release on this Saturday's WEST POINT PEACE RALLY. Please Circulate Widely:

Please join us in Highland Falls, NY--the home of the West Point Military Academy--in Orange County of New York State's Hudson Valley. If you are in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut/Pennsylvania area, its a lot closer than you think. Think of this as an investment in all of our futures...

For the complete list of speakers and sponsors, as well as directions, you can check out http://www.westpointrally.org .

If you'd like to see info on this event from YouTube go to:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ki7dYXLLJY

Guest speakers include Elliot Adams of Veterans for Peace, Brian Becker of ANSWER, Connie Hogarth of the Center for Social Action, Jack Smith of the Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter, Debra Sweet of World Can't Wait, Jim Murphey of Viet Nam Vets Against the War, and many others from organizations like UFPJ, Women in Black, Code Pink and more. Special Guest Speaker is ANN WRIGHT, State Dept official who resigned in protest of the invasion of Iraq. Music by The Flames of Discontent and the Walkabout Clearwater chorus. We are gathering to tell Cheney that his lies and manipulations aren't working any longer---and his own history of five military deferments negates his right to wage any war, let alone one built on deception and greed. Let's demand peace now!

In Solidarity,
John Pietaro
http://www.flamesofdiscontent.org


For Immediate Release:

PEACE GROUPS ANNOUNCE FINAL PLANS FOR PROTESTING CHENEY SPEECH TO WEST POINT GRADUATION, MAY 26, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- MAY 24, 2007

THE WEST POINT MAY 26th ORGANIZING COMMITTEE http://www.westpointrally.org

Contacts: Michael Sussman, sussman1@frontiernet.net 845-469-3581, phone/fax 845-294-3991 and 845-294-1623 Bennett Weiss, BenWeiss@aol.com 845-569-8662 Steve Greenfield, bicyclesax@earthlink.net 845-255-2516, 845-532-0280

PEACE GROUPS ANNOUNCE FINAL PLANS FOR PROTESTING CHENEY SPEECH TO WEST POINT GRADUATION, MAY 26, 2007

"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war... I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity. War settles nothing." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 5-Star General, 34th President of the United States, West Point Class of 1915

Hudson Valley, NY - Elected officials, veterans, military families, and grassroots citizen activists for peace, freedom, and justice will hold a march and rally at Veterans Park, Highland Falls, New York commencing at 8:30 am on May 26, 2007 as Vice President Dick Cheney delivers the commencement address to the graduating class of 2007 at the United States Military Academy.

Colonel Ann Wright, who reopened the American Embassy in Kabul but later resigned from the U.S. diplomatic corps over disagreement with plans by the Departments of State and Defense to invade Iraq, will be the featured speaker ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Wright ).
Representatives of various chapters of Veterans for Peace http://www.veteransforpeace.org/ ,
Iraq Veterans Against The War http://www.ivaw.org/ ,
Gold Star Families for Peace http://www.gsfp.org/ ,
and Military Families Speak Out http://www.mfso.org/
will all be on hand to help bolster our demands to end this immoral, illegal, and failed policy and to truly support our troops by bringing them home safely and providing them with proper health care and benefits upon their return. Colonel Wright can be contacted by phone 808-741-1141 and by Email: microann@yahoo.com.

"As a 29 year US Army/Army Reserve veteran who retired as a Colonel and a 16 year US diplomat who reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December, 2001 and who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq, I will protest Vice President Dick Cheney's presence on May 28 at the West Point graduation," said Ann Wright, in announcing her decision to attend the West Point rally. "I strongly believe President Bush and Vice-President Cheney's war of choice on Iraq is a war of aggression, which is a war crime. Their policies of undercutting the Geneva Conventions have put our own soldiers at risk. Encouraging torture in violation of domestic and international law has undercut the professionalism and ethics of our military. Our cadets at West Point are at risk because of these policies. I believe every citizen should be protesting the policies of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. I will proudly do so on Saturday, May 28 at West Point. -- Ann Wright, Colonel (Ret) US Army Reserves (Colonel Wright can be contacted by phone 808-741-1141 and by Email: microann@yahoo.com)

Jim Murphy, who served in Vietnam in 1968, Quang Tri (Northern I Corps), concurred. "When these West Point graduates were first thinking about coming here to serve their country, the Bush Administration was secretly planning this war, a war of choice based on lies," said Murphy, who is speaking on behalf of Veteran's for Peace. "If the war continues, they will be leading young men and women into combat to kill a enemy created by our immoral foreign policy. They will see their own soldiers killed and wounded but equally sad they will bear witness to dead children, dead old people, people that had just hoped to survive. AND like all veterans, whatever they see and whatever they do will always be with them... always," Murphy added.

With over 45 organizations now sponsoring, including several with national reach, and a favorable weather forecast, record attendance is expected. People will begin assembling in Veteran's Park, Highland Falls, at 8:30 AM, and after a period of music and speakers during the gathering period, begin the march to the Thayer Gate by 10:00, followed by the concluding rally back at the assembly point. The main message of the rally is best summed up by Military Families Speak Out, a group consisting of family members of active-duty U.S. servicemembers serving overseas.

"Military Families Speak Out continues to call on Congress to end funding for the war in Iraq, save what is needed to bring our troops home quickly and safely. Funding the war is not supporting our troops. The way to support our troops is to bring them home now and take care of them when they get here."


From ufpj-news

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Protesters Barred From Cheney's West Point Speech
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/26/1477/

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Fear-mongering and fiction

Mother Jones
by Paul McLeary

05/26/07

As Cheney told the graduates of the enemies they may soon face — terrorists ‘who oppose and despise everything you know to be right, every notion of upright conduct and character’ — there were moments when it seemed that he had simply recycled an old speech from 2002. Indeed, long after most members of the Bush administration have distanced themselves from some of the more insidious claims that propelled the U.S. into war with Iraq, the vice president continues to repeat them as fact. … In a subtle irony, the vice president last addressed graduating West Point cadets the very year the class of 2007 entered the academy, in 2003. It was close to a month after the president declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq and Cheney crowed that ‘the battle of Iraq was a major victory in the war on terror.’ At the time, two West Point graduates had been killed in Iraq. Since then an additional 49 tombstones have risen on West Point’s campus …

http://tinyurl.com/34a4fu


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/17/1265/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Edwards

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/17/1256/

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Gore Book Excerpt: "The Assault on Reason"

Al Gore writes in an excerpt from his book "The Assault on Reason": "American democracy is now in danger - not from any one set of ideas, but from unprecedented changes in the environment within which ideas either live and spread, or wither and die. I do not mean the physical environment; I mean what is called the public sphere, or the marketplace of ideas."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051707R.shtml



The New Assault on Al Gore

Robert Parry writes: "An irony about Al Gore's new book, 'The Assault on Reason,' is that the former vice president blames TV much more than the print media for America's drift into the world of the irrational. Yet, while author Gore has encountered mostly respectful interviews on TV, his book has been savaged by major newspapers and print reviewers, often distorting the contents and resurrecting one of the favorite press themes of Campaign 2000 - that Gore is an obnoxious pedant."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060507C.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Al+Gore
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Parry

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/17/1244/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Marie+Cocco

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/17/1274/



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

Es herrscht Krieg im Irak, aber Deutschland erklärt den Norden für sicher.
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/25/25304/1.html

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,483415,00.html



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

A Texas businessman listed as a major fundraiser for President George Bush has made millions of dollars in profits from a federal reading program that critics say favored administration cronies at the expense of schoolchildren.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051707H.shtml

Tom Engelhardt writes: "Over the next 100 years - the heart of your life and that of your children - the Earth could lose its glaciers (major sources of water in places like South Asia); the Greenland ice sheet could radically melt down; and up to half this planet's wealth of species could go extinct. You could also experience the onrush - evidently already underway - of ever more extreme weather patterns (massive hurricanes, typhoons, monsoons, 100-year droughts, and the like), the spread of lethal diseases to new locales, and a host of other unnerving phenomena. ...Even those of you who claim to doubt the reality of global warming sense that this is so...."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051707F.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Engelhardt

The editors of The New York Times write: "There were many fascinating threads to the testimony on Tuesday by the former deputy attorney general, James Comey, who described the night in March 2004 when two top White House officials tried to pressure an ailing and hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft into endorsing President Bush's illegal wiretapping operation. But the really big question, an urgent avenue for investigation, is what exactly the National Security Agency was doing before that night under Mr. Bush's personal orders. Did Mr. Bush start by authorizing the agency to intercept domestic emails and telephone calls without first getting a warrant?"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051707C.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gonzales
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Comey
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ashcroft
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=wiretapping

Senate Democrats, spurred by revelations that then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales pressured hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2004 to approve a secret spying program, are stepping up a probe of the Justice Department.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051707B.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gonzales
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ashcroft
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=spying

The Justice Department considered dismissing many more US attorneys than officials have previously acknowledged, with at least 26 prosecutors suggested for termination between February 2005 and December 2006, according to sources familiar with documents withheld from the public.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051707A.shtml



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

Do the politicians foaming at the mouth over Iran know anything about Iran?
http://ga3.org/ct/Nd20pgF1jmYV/

From Quagmire To Progressive Victory

by Thomas I. Palley, TomPaine.com
http://ga3.org/ct/N120pgF1jmYZ/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Thomas+I.+Palley

by Frank O'Donnell, TomPaine.com

To block tougher clean air standards, Bush has a new play to run out the clock.
http://ga3.org/ct/Np20pgF1jmT1/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Frank+O'Donnell

http://ga3.org/campaign/data_privacy?qp_source=feingold



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Leahy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Feingold

Congressional investigators have learned that the Justice Department considered firing two more US attorneys in Florida and Colorado, states where allegations of voter fraud and countercharges of voter intimidation have flown in recent years. That brings to nine the number of battleground election states where the Bush administration set out to replace some of the nation's top prosecutors.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051707N.shtml



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

The ousting of Wolfowitz from the World Bank took a bizarre U-turn with Wolfowitz challenging the bank's directors to vote him out, knowing that the United States would oppose the move. Previously, Wolfowitz had been doing everything in his power to prevent such a vote. In effect, bank officials said, he is using the fear among some European leaders at the bank of a possible rupture with the Bush administration. The saga seems to be playing out according to a time-honored Washington formula: confrontation, impasse and crisis, followed by sudden negotiations to avert a possible breakdown of the institution.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051707M.shtml



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

The Justice Department on Wednesday told an angry Senate Judiciary Committee chairman that it does not have the documents described in a subpoena demanding all materials relating to Karl Rove's possible involvement in the US attorney firings. Instead, it said, Rove's lawyer must have them.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051707K.shtml



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

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales came under renewed pressure on Wednesday as two more Republican senators came out against him and Democrats challenged his truthfulness about President Bush's no-warrant eavesdropping program. And on Tuesday, a quarter-page open letter was published in the Washington Post by 56 members of Gonzales's graduating class at Harvard Law School, excoriating their former classmate for his "cavalier handling of our freedoms."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051707J.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gonzales
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=eavesdropping

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/22589


Informant: David Swanson

From ufpj-news



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jonathan+Schwarz

May 16 2007

FEARS surrounding mobile phone masts are nothing new, but they remain a topic that is rarely out of the headlines. With residents in Dorking ready to do battle against plans for a mast at Haybarn House, in South Street, SSIIO uncovers how many other masts are in Mole Valley

WITH mobile phones an essential part of everyday life for the vast majority of Britons,it is not surprising that the likes of Vodafone and O2 are always searching for better signal coverage.

We all want to be able to use our phones whenever and whereever we like and that demand has led to an explosion in the number of telecommunication masts going up around the country.

In the past five years Mole Valley District Council has decided on 110 applications for phone masts or related items. Of these, 74 have been allowed.

Locations for these masts range from railway stations, shops and golf clubs to theatres, post offices and pubs.

Farms are also a popular venue, and there are even some to be found at local churches.

The last full count of masts that Mole Valley District Council carried out was in 2002 when it listed 56 masts across the area.

But it is in the five years since this survey was carried out that the 110 applications were made for mobile phone masts in the area.

The council permitted 69 of these and refused 41. But of those that were refused 14 went to appeal and five were subsequently allowed - bringing the total in the district to 74.

Of all the telecommunication masts found in the region, Mole Valley District Council received rent on just one.

Income from that mast, which was located on the top of Wenlock Edge in Goodwyns,ended in February.

The total rent received amounted to just over £20,000 from the period of March 2002 to February 2007.

Time and again concerns are raised about possible health risks when masts are erected close to homes and schools.

The visual impact on the area is also often cited as a reason not to position a mast in a particular area.

The Ramblers' Association (RA), Britain's largest walking charity, has expressed concerns at the growing proliferation of masts and has been campaigning to ensure that developers are required to consult with communities affected by any mast proposal and that consideration is given to ways to minimising the impact of masts on the landscape.

A spokesman for the group said: "The RA believes that it is important for developers to carefully examine the visual impacts of masts before sites are chosen and high priority should be given to mast sharing and camouflaging in areas of countryside sensitive to visual impacts."

© owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror Southern Limited 2007

http://tinyurl.com/2zxc8k

05/16/07

Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G. Hornberger

Ron Paul once again roiled Republican presidential politics on the issue of foreign policy during last night’s debate, finishing second in the post-debate poll conducted by Fox News and first in the poll conducted by MSNBC. Pointing out that U.S. foreign policy is the root cause of the anger and hatred that has engendered terrorism against the United States, including the 9/11 attacks, Paul suggested that America would be better off ending the U.S. government’s role as world policeman as wells its longtime policy of interventionism...

http://www.fff.org/comment/com0705f.asp


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ron+Paul
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Giuliani
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jacob+G.+Hornberger

Washington Post
by Jessica Dawson

05/12/07

Soon after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. government mistook Hasan Elahi for a terrorist. On a return trip from Europe, the Bangladesh-born, New York-raised artist was flagged at the airport and interrogated. To prove his whereabouts, Elahi showed them his Palm PDA, a device that yielded enough information — from calendar notes of appointments and classes he teaches at Rutgers University — to placate his interrogators. … The artist hatched a plan. If Big Brother wanted proof of his coordinates, why not surveil himself? Recording his own moves could, theoretically, seal his alibi. And, when conceived of as art project, the action might satirize federal intelligence gathering. From the day in 2002 when Elahi implanted a GPS-enabled device in his cellphone, art and life merged. Several times a day, the artist input his location into the phone and his computer recorded the data (he hopes to incorporate a live GPS tracker soon). He then created a Web site that allowed viewers to see where he is at any given time — you can visit at http://www.trackingtransience.net ...

http://tinyurl.com/yrp4t6


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Cato Institute
by Jim Harper

05/16/07

In 2005, Congress passed the REAL ID Act in the name of national security. By next May, states will have to force their citizens to comply with strict federal standards for driver’s licenses and other forms of identification or their driver’s licenses and IDs won’t be usable for ‘federal purposes’ like passing through airport checkpoints. Civil liberties advocates believe REAL ID reduces Americans’ freedom and privacy, but what’s most important is that it doesn’t appreciably increase security. In fact, the law is likely to reduce Americans’ security in important respects. Add to this that the Department of Homeland Security estimates that the bill cost states and individuals $17 billion — over $50 for every person in the country — and the recipe for state rebellion is complete. Arkansas, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Washington, North Dakota, Colorado, and Hawaii have already passed bills to protest or refuse the REAL ID Act, and there is unrest in other states. Now Illinois is joining the fray...

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8242


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jim+Harper

WorldNetDaily
by Pat Buchanan

05/16/07

The World Bank and IMF were created when the United States was the greatest creditor on earth. The bank was to lend for the reconstruction and development of Europe and Asia. The IMF was to provide loans to help members with balance of payments problems. When Europe and Asia recovered, the need for the World Bank came to an end. By 1971, when the United States closed the gold window and let the dollar float, the need for an IMF to maintain fixed rates of exchange, in a world of floating rates, disappeared. Yet both institutions reinvented themselves as lenders of last resort to bankrupt Third World regimes, and Republican presidents and a Republican Congress went along. Why?

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55714


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pat+Buchanan

Salon
by Sidney Blumenthal

05/16/07

Loyalty has always been the alpha and omega of George W. Bush’s presidency. But all the forms of allegiance that have bound together his administration — political, ideological and personal — are being shredded, leaving only blind loyalty. Bush has surrounded himself with loyalists, who fervently pledged their fealty, enforced the loyalty of others and sought to make loyal converts. Now Bush’s long downfall is descending into a series of revenge tragedies in which the characters are helpless against the furies of their misplaced loyalties and betrayals. The stage is being strewn with hacked corpses — on Monday, former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty; imminently, World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz; tomorrow, whoever remains trapped on the ghost ship of state. As the individual tragedies unfold, Bush’s royal robes unravel...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/05/17/loyalty/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McNulty
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wolfowitz
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sidney+Blumenthal

Chillicothe Gazette

05/16/07

A top Justice Department official thought President Bush’s no-warrant wiretapping program was so questionable that he refused for a time to reauthorize it, leading to a standoff with White House officials at the bedside of the ailing attorney general, a Senate panel was told Tuesday. Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he refused to recertify the program because Attorney General John Ashcroft had reservations about its legality just before falling ill with pancreatitis in March 2004...

http://tinyurl.com/2rjckc


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Comey
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ashcroft
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=wiretapping

Abilene Reporter News

05/17/07

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales came under renewed pressure Wednesday, as two more Republican senators came out against him and Democrats challenged his truthfulness about President Bush’s no-warrant eavesdropping program. The developments revived a debate over Gonzales’ fitness to head the Justice Department a day after a former deputy attorney general recounted a dramatic hospital bedside confrontation between Gonzales and his predecessor, John Ashcroft...

http://tinyurl.com/2qj7oe


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gonzales
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=eavesdropping
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ashcroft

By Gerran Grimshaw

LOCAL councillors have reacted angrily to plans for a 15-metre mobile phone mast in Selby, claiming it would be an eyesore.

Mobile network operators Hutchinson 3G have applied for planning permission for the mast on Barlby Road, the old A19, outside the Greencore Foods factory.

A similar application from the company for a mast on the other side of the road was refused several months ago, because of the open aspect of the site.

But Dianne Dumbell, the clerk to Barlby Parish Council, said the new plans would mean the mast was insufficiently concealed.

"The applicants realise the shortcomings of the site as there have been negotiations concerning seven other potential sites," she said.

"Due to the failure to secure one of these sites, they now wish to place their equipment adjacent to the public highway.

"It is stated that this is their least obtrusive equipment and that the mast is not a prominent structure - this is totally unacceptable."

She said the mast would be five metres taller than nearby street lights, and would not be integrated into the street scene.

Coun Stephanie Duckett, who sits on Barlby Parish Council and Selby District Council, said: "The views we're getting from residents around there is that there are better sites available.

"3G are proposing to put it on an open grass verge on a public highway.

"They could put the mast in the Barlby woodland, to the north of Greencore, then it would be hidden better.

"It would also be further away from the houses in Magazine Road. These are housing association properties with young families in them.

"Moving the mast would, I think, give them peace of mind."

Brian Spooner, a spokesman for Hutchinson 3G, said: "As part of our application, we have researched a number of sites.

"A number have been discounted in radio and planning terms.

"The Barlby Road site meets both environmental considerations and the needs of the Hutchinson 3G network."

© Copyright 2001-2007 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1404584.mostviewed.mast_scheme_eyesore_row.php

By East Lothian Newsroom

18/5/07

FRESH plans to erect a 10 metre-high mobile phone pole at Station Yard Industrial Estate are to be contested by community councillors.

Mobile giant T-Mobile wants to position the telegraph pole at the east end of the estate, just off Station Road.

The pole would support three mobile phone antennae inside a plastic shroud.

But a number of concerns were expressed at a meeting of Haddington Community Council.

“We can’t simply say ‘no’ to telecoms mast sites, but should continue our objection to this one on the grounds that the location in Station Yard is the most visually intrusive from the West Road,” said planning liaison officer Norman Lawrie.

“The alternatives outside Station Yard have not in our view been thoroughly examined, and the option of an alternative site inside Station Yard, at the same height or perhaps on a lower location but with a higher pole, has not been considered.”

Chairman Jan Wilson agreed, saying it was important that T-Mobile looked at all options.

“We need to make the point that they haven’t considered other sites in the area,” she said.

Community councillor Effie Renton said she was surprised that proposals for mobile masts had not been submitted closer to the farmland at Letham, which is zoned to have at least 750 new houses built.

“Why do they have to be 10 metres high?” she asked.

Fellow community councillor Colvin Denholm said he suspected this depended on the surrounding area and the ease of transmitting signals over the hills.

In a submission to East Lothian Council planners from T-Mobile’s agent, Daly International, it was claimed that there was a lack of other appropriate sites for such a pole in the area.

“Finding an unobtrusive design for this region of the Haddington area proved difficult due to the prevalence of open parkland and low-rise, medium density residential development,” said the submission.

“For the chosen site a steel structure was considered, as this type of installation is generally preferred in an industrial area.

“However, due to the abundance of trees and shrubbery in the surrounding district it was felt the lowest possible wooden structure that could be installed would be more appropriate.”

The submission revealed that a previous application for a telecommunications installation on the site had been refused “due to design issues”.

The fresh application, however, was considered to have overcome “all of the negative aspects of the original application”.

T-Mobile’s bid follows last year’s proposal by rival firm O2 to install a mobile phone base station in the tower of West Church, Haddington. The plan was ditched following local opposition.

http://www.eastlothiancourier.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=2305&format=html

By Katya Mira

Three mobile phone masts planned for rural sites have been turned down for the second time.

Applications to put the telegraph poles at East Preston, Findon and Rustington were dismissed at appeal. They had already been turned down by planning officials at Arun District Council because of the impact they would have on the countryside around them.

Coun Ricky Bower said: "These are all welcome decisions. The inspector recognises that while national policy encourages the development of the telecommunications network, it also requires that environmental impact be kept to a minimum."

© Copyright 2001-2007 Newsquest Media Group

http://tinyurl.com/3xh2cq

(excerpt)

Hartford ad Click to see the full-size ad
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/R?i=mqL91uJkopVGDQlu_cdd8w..

The gripping Congressional testimony yesterday of James B. Comey, former Deputy Attorney General under John Ashcroft, lifts the curtain ever so slightly on the lengths that the Bush White House went to carry out its illegal and secret spying program against the people of the United States.

The hearing was called to investigate the political firings of U.S. Attorneys by the Bush White House. Mr. Comey's testimony reads like a John Grisham novel, except the events are all too real. We have included the New York Times article as a link at the conclusion of this email. The testimony proves the bare knuckle approach to subverting the Constitution, just as Bush has subverted all pretense to honesty about the illegal invasion and war in Iraq.

The big question now, as Bush’s crimes become increasingly exposed and as his political isolation reaches near record levels, is whether our elected officials will be compelled to take action and introduce Articles of Impeachment. The Democratic National Committee insists that no Articles of Impeachment be filed. But why the spinelessness? It is not too late for Congress to do the right thing. Any argument that suggests that impeachment is a bad political maneuver for the Democrats must be rejected. It is a violation of the Constitution to allow high officials to commit criminal acts and avoid responsibility and accountability.

Meanwhile, people all across the country from state to state are organizing, taking action and demanding that articles of impeachment be filed by their elected representatives. This conflict between Congress and the people they are supposed to represent is growing.

Congress' timidity is also based on a failure to understand basic lessons from even recent history.

President Clinton was impeached in spite of enjoying a 70% approval rating. It all took place as his administration was winding to a close. The Articles of Impeachment against Clinton were filed in December 1998 and the Impeachment trial was held in 1999.

Why is it that a popular President can be impeached for lying about an extra-marital affair in the calendar year before a Presidential election, while George Bush can live free from this constitutionally mandated action?

Bush's political base has shriveled and his crimes are so great in comparison to that for which Clinton was impeached: waging an illegal war in Iraq, secretly spying on Americans, permitting torture and targeted assassinations and more.

The Democratic National Committee is without courage or honor. The people must act now to insist that the elected officials keep the oath they swore upon taking office. They must uphold the law of land and the Constitution. They must listen to the people who are demanding impeachment all over the country.

If President Bush and Dick Cheney are not impeached, it tells every future administration that “anything goes” -- that government officials are above the law. It is imperative that we step up the pressure and create such momentum that makes impeachment an irresistible force.

This is a matter of principle and we will not rest. All over the country people are organizing impeachment events, rallies, demonstrations. ImpeachBush.org is helping to sponsor important protests when Bush speaks on May 23 in New London, Ct. at the Coast Guard graduating ceremony and three days later, May 26, when Dick Cheney speaks to West Point’s graduating class.


From all of us at,

ImpeachBush.org/VoteToImpeach

To read the New York Times article on the White House-directed eavesdropping program, click on this link. http://www.impeachbush.org/site/R?i=n29mpVuDGHoKrQMCXT3-SA..



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

Canada's vast forests should be protected much more than they are now to preserve wildlife and water and to fight global warming, according to a group of 1,500 scientists from around the world.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/051607EC.shtml

--------

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

Australia's drought is a "wake-up call" on global warming, the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit has heard. Mayors from some of the world's largest urban areas - including Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore - have united and called on cities to take the lead in tackling climate change.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/051607EA.shtml

NOW investigates why many cars now on America's roads get no better gas mileage than the ones we were driving twenty years ago.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051607U.shtml

Senate Judiciary Committee members asked Gonzales if he stands by his 2006 testimony that Comey and other Department of Justice officials did not have concerns about the NSA wiretapping program, which would be in contradiction to Comey's testimony yesterday.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051607S.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Comey
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gonzales
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=NSA+wiretapping

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Michigan), along with committee members Zoe Lofgren (D-California) and Linda Sanchez (D-California), sent a letter yesterday to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, which pressed him to explain the events surrounding the dismissal of Todd Graves, the ninth US Attorney to be fired.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051607R.shtml



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

NASA scientists say they have found mass evidence of the effect of global warming in Western Antarctica where a massive amount of snow and ice had melted in January 2005 in response to warm temperatures.

http://www.axcessnews.com/index.php/articles/show/id/10999


From Information Clearing House

His departure would include an acknowledgment from the bank that he doesn't bear sole responsibility for the controversy surrounding a generous pay package for his girlfriend, the official said.

http://cbs4denver.com/business/finance_story_136132724.html



Chomsky Takes on the World (Bank)

Michael Shank interviewed Chomsky about the conflict between Congress and the U.S. president over Iraq and Syria, the scandal enveloping World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz, and the nature of foreign debt.

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4236


From Information Clearing House



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

An angry and bitter Paul Wolfowitz poured abuse and threatened retaliations on senior World Bank staff if his orders for pay rises and promotions for his partner were revealed, according to new details published last night.

http://snipurl.com/1kvhy


From Information Clearing House



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

"My husband is a Gulf War Veteran. He can tell you the TRUTH." "To the military, you are cannon fodder."

http://www.progressive.org/mag_mc051407


From Information Clearing House

Remember, it was Cheney who did everything in his power to hype the Iraq War and scuttle any possibility of a diplomatic solution prior to that conflict. Now he's doing the same with Iran.

http://www.progressive.org/mag_wx051407


From Information Clearing House



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

While arguing that economic sanctions against Teheran still have a chance of bearing fruit, a top strategic expert predicted on Tuesday that the Bush administration could conduct a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities toward the end of its term in office.

http://snipurl.com/1kvh5


From Information Clearing House

No trials occur, but the detainees languish often for many months - in some cases for more than a year.

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/05/hbc-90000064


From Information Clearing House

"The United States strategy in Iraq, hereafter, shall be conditioned on the Iraqi government meeting benchmarks,'' a draft of the proposal says.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6637092,00.html


From Information Clearing House



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

Before we can purge our country of the hatred that is fed by greed, we must purge our own hearts of the hatred that is fueled by bitterness. Let's stand peacefully, yet firmly and fearlessly in the face of the war machine that devours our children with their blood soaked hatred.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17717.htm

Click:



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kent+State

By Ramzy Baroud

When regional control, political interests and economic booty are all at stake, human lives, especially those of these least importance - peasants, nomads and defenceless innocents with little clout - become a pawn in the hands of those who wish for conflict to perpetuate.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17712.htm



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

By Francis A. Boyle

I am not going to bother to recite here all the grievous deficiencies of the Gitmo Kangaroo Courts under International Law and U.S. Constitutional Law. But suffice it to say that the Gitmo Kangaroo Courts constitute war crimes under the Laws of War.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17714.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gitmo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Francis+A.+Boyle

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17710.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Manuel+Valenzuela

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/business/news/2007/05/15/78ac7ef8-bd1c-4a14-ac9d-21bf630f8e0d.lpf


Informant: Doctor Plum

IDA Fights Portland Furrier's Lawsuit
http://www.furkills.org/feature_070516.shtml

Federal and State authorities violate Constitutionally-protected rights of observers on public lands.

http://ga0.org/campaign/bfc



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bison
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Buffalo

http://tinyurl.com/2ukljw


Informant: Doctor Plum

Soon there will be no escape.....

Martin


http://www.computing.co.uk/2164144

Electronic barcodes to replace magnetic strip boarding passes by 2010 Dave Friedlos, Computing, 14 Sep 2006 BA planes

By 2010 UK airline passengers could be checking in and boarding flights using an electronic barcode transmitted to their mobile phone, industry experts predict.

Airlines including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are considering mobile technology as an alternative to traditional magnetic strip-based boarding passes.

International Air Transport Association (Iata) spokesman Eric Leopold says barcode boarding passes, both printed and on mobile phones, will replace magnetic strip-based boarding passes.

‘We believe some UK airlines will have mobile phone check-in capability by 2008, and magnetic strip boarding passes will be replaced by 2010,’ he said.

‘The biggest challenge is installing infrastructure capable of detecting a barcode.’

The technology is already in place at some international airports. At Tokyo and Peking, passengers register their fingerprint for security purposes and a barcode acting as the boarding pass is sent directly to their phone.

However, some airlines are sceptical about the practicalities.

‘Mobile phone check-in is something we are interested in, particularly as the majority of passengers have access to a mobile phone,’ said a BA spokeswoman. ‘However, a few issues need to be resolved, such as standardisation of mobile phone technology.’

Virgin Atlantic ecommerce project manager Lisa Rogers says the airline is also looking into mobile boarding passes, but has no firm plans to implement it.

Ryanair IT director Brona Kernan doubts the technology will be widely adopted in the UK.

‘Mobile phone check-in is more convenient for passengers but not for airlines,’ she said. ‘All we would be removing is a paper ticket that the passenger prints themselves anyway.’

by Cliff Kincaid

Rudy Giuliani’s much-publicized but misleading put-down of Ron Paul during Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate should have been tempered by a report that Saudi Arabia, the country that spawned most of the 9/11 hijackers, has been one of Giuliani’s lucrative foreign clients. However, Fox News questioners Chris Wallace and Wendell Goler did not bring it up....

http://www.newswithviews.com/Kincaid/cliff150.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Giuliani
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/Kincaid

by Dr. Patrick Johnston

Will our love of money birth an anarchy that will make tyranny appear to be the lesser of two evils? Are we not becoming a nation of government dependents accustomed to state’s nipple, long weaned of the adventure of liberty? When the fear-mongers of terrorism shout louder than the lovers of freedom and righteousness, a nation full of emasculated sucklers will cry for government-insured cribs to keep them safe.......

http://www.newswithviews.com/Johnston/patrick10.htm



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

http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0516-05.htm



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

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/16/1226/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Stephen+Zunes

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/16/1231/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mark+Morford

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/16/1238/



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

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/16/1237/



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

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/16/1239/

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CBS silences General Dissent

Truthdig
by Amy Goodman

05/30/07

Listening to retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, you sense his intense loyalty to the military. He commanded the Army’s 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, capping a 31-year Army career. So why did CBS News fire him as a paid news consultant? A straight answer from CBS seems as elusive as those Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The short answer: Batiste appeared in a television advertisement sponsored by VoteVets.org, a nonpartisan group that advocates for veterans.

http://tinyurl.com/2v4lmz


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Batiste
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Amy+Goodman

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/16/1222/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gonzales
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ashcroft

Earth Meanders
by Dr. Glen Barry
http://earthmeanders.blogspot.com/
May 16, 2007

The Earth is entering a new phase in its human caused decline. We are witnessing the advance edge of bioregional and continental scale ecological collapse -- the final stage of environmental decline before global ecological collapse. For millennia human caused ecosystem loss and decline has destroyed plant communities and devastated landscapes, but generally the global matrix of terrestrial, oceanic, aquatic and atmospheric cycling of energy and nutrients continued relatively unabated. Until now, as the cumulative impact of poor land, water and ocean management, and a failing atmospheric system, is becoming widely evident.

Humanity has become the dominant force of nature. We are witnessing the logical consequences of over-developing large regions and even continents without regards to ecology. Given this advanced state of eco-decline, this essay posits that saving the Earth and achieving global ecological sustainability will require development of bold policy decisions and their difficult implementation; rather than half-measures that nibble around the edges but do not get at the root of the Earth's disease. This is demonstrable ecological science based truth, not some apocalyptic vision based upon millennia old myth.

A Whole New Scale and Intensity of Environmental Problems

Australia is an arid, ecologically fragile continent. As such it is not surprising that its current extreme drought conditions are first indications of what to expect with extreme weather caused by climate change. Years of terrible land management including farming marginal lands and clearing sparse forests have greatly exacerbated this lack of water. This is not your garden variety dry spell -- many areas have experienced virtually no rain for years, and the nation's primary river system has essentially gone dry. The Australian Prime Minister has the situation well in hand, asking Australian citizens to pray for rain. If rains are not received to replenish reservoirs soon, within weeks there will be no water for agriculture in the nation's breadbasket.

North America is also beginning to experience spatially extensive environmental decline. The list of symptoms is voluminous, so let's be selective. In past weeks the United States' mid-section suffered major flooding. At the same time the forests of Southern California, Northern Minnesota and Florida and Georgia are ablaze after experiencing severe climate induced drought conditions; again exacerbated by years of terrible land management practices that failed to maintain healthy, intact ecosystems. Another terrible ecological disaster looms as huge numbers of bee colonies are dying. Causes are not clear -- with suggestions ranging from cell phones to some sort of viral disease -- but almost certainly climate change and habitat fragmentation have played a part. Lack of pollinators could devastate the continent's food production.

The situation is much the same around the world. Southern Europe is undergoing extreme desertification threatening to lay barren vast regions. China's river systems are a toxic mess, and they are virtually mining their water aquifers. Their miracle economy exists on the back of a water bubble. Drought and climate change continues to victimize Africa, leading to social strife and widespread death. In all these cases, we are witnessing the phenomena of environmental decline that is of unprecedented scale and intensity. Each involves the interplay of too many people having so diminished terrestrial ecosystems and polluted the atmosphere that as climate change sets in, lack of ecosystems and of resiliency of what remains becomes readily apparent.

The Consequences and What Must be Done

I have written at length on other occasions of the potential for great social and economic harm resulting from broad-scale ecological collapse. As abrupt and run-away climate change, terrestrial ecosystem collapse, droughts, floods, lack of pollinators and a whole host of other environmental malignancies ripple through cosseted human civilizations; we are talking of widespread death and social disintegration. Resource scarcity leads to militancy and conflict. I believe we are talking of the end of being -- either the complete loss of advanced life including humans, or humanity reverting to barbarity, living in a depleted Earth that is a shadow of its former bounty.

As the magnitude of ecological dysfunction increases the only sufficient response is for conservation to think bigger and more ambitiously. As individuals we must all continue changing light bulbs, driving less, eating organic and less meat, having small families; and all the other things we can do to try to bring our lives in line with Gaia. Yet the world is on track to go from 6.5 to 9 billion people, and the vast majority is yet to realize their desired potential consumption levels. The forces destroying the Earth are such that personal efforts are necessary but not sufficient, and there exist societal requirements for global ecological sustainability that must be implemented with all haste. Many are so momentous and revolutionary that to even suggest them is to invite ridicule. But at this late date, there is really no other way to save ourselves and our Earthly habitat.

It all begins with human population and relative consumption levels. Human population growth needs to peak and total human population begin receding soon. Major financial, preferential access to education and other incentives are necessary to promote zero, one and two children households. As we work to cut human population levels by at least 75%, we must discourage excessive conspicuous consumption while ensuring that all humanity's basic needs are met. This will require carbon taxes and means to encourage voluntary sustainable simplicity. Reduced population and equity in consumption are prerequisites for global ecological sustainability -- yet even this is not enough.

Current population and consumption trends have left the biosphere's processes of energy and nutrient cycling and patterns of diversity, structure and function in tatters. We are well past the point where any further natural ecosystems, particularly ancient forests, can be lost or diminished. We must find a way as a society to place all remaining primary forest ecosystems under strict protection as global ecological reserves, and do so in a matter that fairly and justly compensates governments and local peoples for not having deforested or industrially diminished their lands. We must stop treating our atmosphere, inland waters and oceans as garbage dumps. Foremost, there is no place for coal burning that pumps its carbon waste into the atmosphere. And we must begin continental scale ecological restoration one region at a time. The trend lines are so clear that anything less means miserable terror filled death, destruction and pestilence for the future of humanity.

It used to be that a river catching fire, or an oil spill, constituted an environmental catastrophe. Now we are witnessing whole regions drying up, catching on fire, and losing nearly all their life giving potential. As we move from local, to regional and global ecosystem collapse, we are just one step from global ecological collapse and the end of being as we know it. We need to build the political movement to do what is necessary based upon global ecological science to save the Earth, ourselves, and species with who we share existence. Having ended slavery, walked on the moon, and developed freedom and liberty as a form of government; I have no doubt that if the threats are understood and we work hard, humanity can make peace with our Mother Earth. Can you hear Gaia calling? Go to her.


Earth Meanders is a series of personal essays that places questions of environmental sustainability within the context of other contemporary issues. Comments can be made, and past writings can be found, at: http://earthmeanders.blogspot.com/ . Emailed comments will be posted there as well. Permission is granted to reprint this essay provided it is properly credited.