World-News

Manu Raju, of The Hill, reports: "Even though Democrats are not shy about pointing to March 19, the five-year anniversary of the start of the war, they are not eager about holding this week's votes on Iraq because they know they could be used by Republicans looking for more ammunition against their candidates, aides say. As soon as the votes end, the chamber will immediately turn to a bill aimed at easing the housing crunch, which - unlike the Iraq measures - Democrats plan to talk about at length this week, including after their policy luncheon Tuesday afternoon."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022608L.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Manu+Raju

Mendocino County planners urge U.S. Cellular to look around for alternate sites

By GLENDA ANDERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Mendocino County officials said no to a proposal to build a U.S. Cellular tower near the City of 10,000 Buddhas in Talmage, a decision greeted with whoops, whistles and applause by opponents of the project.

Read More...
http://northbay.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080222/NEWS/802220330/1033/NEWS01


Informant: Bob Banner

Die große Koalition will Online-Durchsuchungen im Falle eines entsprechenden Urteils des Bundesverfassungsgerichts noch vor der Sommerpause im BKA-Gesetz verankern. Das kündigte der innenpolitische Sprecher der CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion, Hans-Peter Uhl (CSU), in der in Halle erscheinenden "Mitteldeutschen Zeitung" an. "Ich gehe davon aus, dass das Bundesverfassungsgericht Online-Durchsuchungen prinzipiell für zulässig erklärt", sagte Uhl. Der Erste Senat des Gerichts in Karlsruhe verkündet am 27. Februar sein Urteil.

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?H=N&Nr=17359



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Online-Durchsuchung

Sam Stein, reporting for The Huffington Post, writes: "On the stump, Sen. John McCain often cites his work tackling the excesses of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff as evidence of his sturdy ethical compass. A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022608E.shtml



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

Joshua Holland, reporting for AlterNet, interviews Andy Worthington. He writes: "In his book, 'The Guantanamo Files,' historian and journalist Andy Worthington offers a much-needed corrective to the draft of the Afghanistan conflict that most Americans saw on their nightly newscasts. Worthington is the first to detail the histories of all 774 prisoners who have passed through the Bush administration's 'legal black hole' at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But his history starts in Afghanistan, and makes it abundantly clear that the road to Guantanamo - not to mention Abu Ghraib - began in places like Kandahar."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022608B.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Abu+Ghraib
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Andy+Worthington
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joshua+Holland

Leslie Griffith, writing for Truthout, says: "On Friday, at a United Nations meeting in Geneva, the United States broke a series of legal promises. Keeping those promises would have proved extremely embarrassing to the United States government by pointing out that human rights abuses are being committed here at home and at US military installations abroad."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022608A.shtml



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

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/26/7299/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Hillary
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kevin+Martin

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/26/7290/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=renditions
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=state+secrets
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Fisher

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/26/7286/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Oil

http://www.universidadindigena.org/uii/id70.html


Informant: MoJo

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/0,1518,537876,00.html



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

Auch 2008 gibt es zahlreiche Gentech-Versuchsfelder. Auf etlichen davon werden Experimente rund um die Auswirkungen des Mon810 gemacht werden – genauso wie im kommerziellen Anbau verbreiten sich die Gentech-Pollen weit um die Versuchsfelder herum. Über den Mais hinaus werden in Freisetzungsversuchen allerdings auch etliche andere gentechnisch manipulierte Pflanzen draußen ausgesät: Die Universität Gießen beispielsweise startete schon 2006 Versuche mit Gengerste, die Uni Rostock brachte den extrem auskreuzungsfreudigen Raps gentechnisch manipuliert ins Freiland und sogenannte Cholerakartoffeln mit Gensequenzen von Krankheitserregern. Besonders skandalös ist der Versuch mit Genweizen in Gatersleben. Weizen ist für uns eines der wichtigsten Ernährungsgrundlagen. Der manipulierte Winterweizen wächst nun in direkter Nachbarschaft zu den Flächen der Genbank Gatersleben, die wichtigste öffentliche Saatgutbank in Deutschland. Dort werden alte und neue Pflanzensorten aus aller Welt aufbewahrt und damit die Grundlage für unsere Nahrungspflanzen der Zukunft gehütet. Die Genbank kann ihre Sorten über einige Zeit gekühlt keimfähig halten. Aber alle paar Jahre muss sie die Pflanzen aussähen, die neuen Körner ernten und wiederum kühlen. Es ist ein Skandal, dass die Versuche in der Nachbarschaft dieses lebendigen und sensiblen Schatzes genehmigt wurden. Das Umweltinstitut München sammelte 2006 über 35.000 Unterschriften unter ihre Einwendung gegen die Genehmigung – und trotzdem startete der Versuch. www. (umweltinistitut) In Gießen organisierten unabhängige Gentechnikgegnerinnen und -gegner eine Feldbefreiung auf dem kleinen Uni-Versuchsfeld. Im April soll gegen vier von ihnen ein Prozess beginnen.

http://www.gendreck-giessen.de.vu



Viel zu viel Genmais 2008

Drei Monate vor der Aussaat müssen alle Landwirte, die gentechnisch veränderte Pflanzen anbauen wollen, die betroffenen Felder beim Standortregister anmelden. Nicht jedes angemeldete Feld wird tatsächlich im April zum Gentechacker – oft überlegen es sich die Bauern noch anders. Dennoch ist es bitter: Während in zahlreichen Nachbarländern kein Mon810 ausgesät werden darf, sind es im deutschen Standortregister mehr Flächen denn je. Trauriger Rekordhalter ist und bleibt Brandenburg, aber in Sachsen sind auch erschreckend viele und große Felder angemeldet worden. Und nach langer Zurückhaltung scheint Genmais jetzt auch im Westen massiv kommerziell angebaut zu werden. Ausgerechnet in Bayern, wo sich viele Bauern gegen Gentechnik engagieren, sind jetzt 120 Hektar angemeldet worden, die meisten davon im Raum Würzburg. Jede/r kann sich selbst informieren: http://www.standortregister.de oder
http://www.greenpeace.de/gen-mais-karte



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mon810
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Genmais
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gentechnik
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gatersleben
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Versuchsfelder

Western calls for sanctions against Iran ignore IAEA report
http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1038&thisview=item

--------

IAEA report confirms peaceful Iran's nuclear program: German expert

"I personally feel that if the IAEA was to follow its own rules of the game, it should confirm to the Iranians that it has to a large extent met the demands of the international community for more transparency and that there are no signs that Iran would pursue military use," he added.

http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0802270104212516.htm


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=El+Baradei
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=IAEA
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=sanctions+Iran
http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/

Die Initiatoren des sich in Gründung befindenden »Europäischen
Friedensrats Türkei« haben sich mit einem Aufruf an die Öffentlichkeit
gewandt. Sie wenden sich gegen die Großoffensive der türkischen Armee und
fordern den sofortigen Rückzug der türkischen Streitkräfte aus dem
Nordirak. Siehe die Medieninformation der Initiatoren des Europäischen
Friedensrats Türkei vom 25. Februar 2008 mit dem Wortlaut des Aufrufs:
http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb5/frieden/regionen/Tuerkei/irak13.html


Aus: LabourNet, 26. Februar 2008

--------

Turkey's Northern Iraq Incursion
http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1029&thisview=item

Sonderseite beim Friedenspolitischen Ratschlag http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb5/frieden/bewegung/Ostermarsch2008/Welcome.html

Sonderseite beim Netzwerk Friedenskooperative http://www.friedenskooperative.de/om2008.htm

Liste der Ostermärsche und -aktionen 2008 http://www.friedenskooperative.de/om2008ges.htm

Das zentrale Ostermarschbüro ist per e-mail zu erreichen unter: frieden-und-zukunft @t-online.de


"Dem Frieden eine Chance - Truppen raus aus Afghanistan!"

Dokumentiert: Die Ostermarschaufrufe 2008 aus Frankfurt a.M., Kassel und Erfurt beim Friedenspolitischen Ratschlag http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb5/frieden/bewegung/Ostermarsch2008/aufrufe3.html


"Abrüstung statt Sozialabbau! Deutschland atomwaffenfrei!"

Dokumentiert: Die Ostermarschaufrufe 2008 aus Hamburg und dem Rheinland/Ruhrgebiet beim Friedenspolitischen Ratschlag http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb5/frieden/bewegung/Ostermarsch2008/aufrufe2.html


"Militäreinsätze beenden - Neue Kriege verhindern!"

Dokumentiert: Ostermarschaufrufe 2008 aus Augsburg, Baden-Württemberg und München beim Friedenspolitischen Ratschlag http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb5/frieden/bewegung/Ostermarsch2008/aufrufe1.html


Aus: LabourNet, 26. Februar 2008

--------

50 Jahre Ostermärsche: Aktionen gegen Kriegseinsätze und Atomwaffen

Friedensgruppen propagieren Alternativen für Zivile Konfliktbearbeitung.
http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741683254ms91



Ostermärsche propagieren Alternativen zu Krieg und Militär

Klimapolitik ist Friedenspolitik | Auch die aktuelle Lage in Tibet wird aufgegriffen | Vorschläge für Zivile Konfliktbearbeitung im Nahen und Mittleren Osten.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741683287ms92



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

EU-Maßnahmen gegen zunehmende Datenschutzbedenken
http://tinyurl.com/28tx7p

RFID: Die unsichtbare Überwachung
http://www.verivox.de/News/ArticleDetails.asp?aid=75087&pm=1

Online-Umfrage zu RFID und Datenschutz
http://www.golem.de/0802/57970.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=RFID
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Überwachung
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Datenschutz

Slate
by John Dickerson

02/25/08

Barack Obama’s chance came on Tuesday, when the Drudge Report claimed Clinton staffers were passing around a picture of Sen. Obama in the native dress of Wajir, a rural desert area in northeastern Kenya. Drudge didn’t explain to whom the picture was being sent, and the only context for the picture was a quote from an alleged Clinton staffer asking: ‘Wouldn’t we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?’ It was just the opening a presidential candidate craves …. The swift reaction from the Obama forces was good damage control and even better umbrage-taking, a political tactic that has been elevated to a high art in the 2008 campaign. There was once a time when campaigns didn’t respond to items like this for fear of giving them too much publicity. But if done correctly, candidates can exploit flamboyant displays of public upset to gain attention, raise money, put their opponents on the defensive, and distract from an unfavorable story...

http://www.slate.com/id/2185180


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Hillary
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Dickerson

CounterPunch
by Robert Weitzel

02/24/08

On February 13 the Senate narrowly passed-on a 51-45 party-line vote-an intelligence bill that will, among other things, ban waterboarding as an ‘enhanced interrogation technique,’ a Bush-era euphemism for torture. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese, traded his principled stance against waterboarding for a White House endorsement of his candidacy and voted against the ban. Torture is now officially a plank in the GOP platform. Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama were too busy campaigning to go on congressional record as either supporting or opposing the ban...

http://counterpunch.org/weitzel02252008.html



The age of barbarism light

Asia Times
by Karen Greenberg

02/23/08

Upon entering one of a series of gloomy, cave-like rooms, filled with the implements of the dismal craft that had its heyday from the 15th to the 18th centuries, you would notice a range of mechanical devices and iron tools (also illustrated in drawings galore), all once meant to pierce, prod, or otherwise drive some poor heretic into the agony of confession. Often in those years before video cameras were available, all this was done in public sight. And then, as you wound your way through the exhibit, you would come upon one of its centerpiece displays — the ‘water torture table’ to which Bradbury alludes...

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JB23Aa01.html



Core values

Strike the Root
by Glen Allport

02/25/08

Love for others, compassionate treatment and respect for children, and the understanding that this world (including the experience within each one of us) is important regardless of any world beyond — these things would seem undeniably healthy and positive...

http://www.strike-the-root.com/81/allport/allport6.html



The 4 main kinds of ethics: An introduction

Rebirth of Reason
by Ed Thompson

02/25/08

Morality is about the kinds of things that need to be done in order to live well as a human being. When different ethics compete, they compete by taking different positions on what it means for us to live well as human beings. Sometimes, for instance, guarding and defending the welfare of animals, or the ‘welfare’ of nature, is taken to be what it is that is needed for us to live well as human beings. Other times it has been supposedly understood that always doing whatever you feel like doing is what is needed for us to live well as human beings. At still other times it has been supposedly-understood that a following just a few key rules would make everything right. The purpose of this short essay is to introduce the 4 main ways that we can think about morality and to get a glimpse at how those 4 mutually-exclusive and altogether-exhaustible views result in radically different ethical recommendations...

http://tinyurl.com/yqbs9s



Individualism, the collectivists’ nemesis

Future of Freedom Foundation
by Tibor R. Machan

02/22/08

It is individualism that the American Founders elevated into political prominence and it is individualism that most politicians and governments, including America’s, find most annoying because it is the bulwark against arbitrary power. If, as the Declaration of Independence states, individual human beings have unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, no one may violate these rights. Every adult individual is sovereign, a self-ruler and not subject to the rule of others...

http://www.fff.org/comment/com0802h.asp


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=waterboarding
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=interrogation+technique
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McCain
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Hillary
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Weitzel
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Karen+Greenberg
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Glen+Allport
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tibor+R.+Machan

Boston Globe
by James Carroll

02/25/08

The unfolding political contest is a window into America’s soul. The nation is arguing with itself. The candidates embody separate impulses. As voters choose sides, a red state-blue state polarity again takes shape. Within the Democratic Party, the dispute is narrower, but still sharp. Yet in truth, each citizen carries within herself or himself the structure of the conflict: hard versus soft, experience versus change, programmed versus spontaneous, self-interest versus empathy, hope in an open future versus lessons from the past. Politics, by isolating these positions and attributing them to one candidate over against another, parodies the interior struggle of every American...

http://tinyurl.com/2dzj6d


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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

Fox News/Heritage
by James Jay Carafano

Since Sept. 11, the biggest disaster of the long war on terrorism has been the Bush administration’s response to concerns about its wartime detention policies. This is particularly true of the way it has handled charges regarding Guantanamo Bay, the detention center for ‘the worst of the worst’ captured in that war. Amazingly, the administration has managed to make its public-relations disaster even worse. The latest bombshell fell with a recent Associated Press report that Rear Adm. Mark Buzby, head of military detention operations at Guantanamo, confirmed the existence of a ‘Camp 7′ on base. The hitherto-unknown maximum security facility is home to about a dozen ‘high-value’ detainees. There is, of course, nothing wrong with maintaining separate facilities for different types of detainees. There could be several good operational reasons to do that.” (02/22/08)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331875,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gitmo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detention
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detainees
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Jay+Carafano

San Francisco Chronicle

President Bush on Monday lobbied again for an intelligence law allowing government eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails, as the tone of the dispute between the White House and Congress over terrorist surveillance grew increasingly sharp. ‘To put it bluntly, if the enemy is calling into America, we really need to know what they’re saying, and we need to know what they’re thinking, and we need to know who they’re talking to,’ Bush said at the start of his annual meeting with the nation’s governors at the White House. ‘This is a different kind of struggle than we’ve ever faced before. It’s essential that we understand the mentality of these killers,’ Bush said...

http://tinyurl.com/2lqvl2



US spies looking for terrorists in games

Wired

02/22/08

Having eliminated all terrorism in the real world, the U.S. intelligence community is working to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massive multiplayer games...

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/nations-spies-w.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=surveillance
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=eavesdropping
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=spying

Fox News

02/25/08

The national Democratic party wants campaign finance regulators to investigate whether Sen. John McCain would violate money-in-politics laws by withdrawing from the primary election’s public finance system, filing an official complaint Monday with the Federal Election Commission. McCain, who had been entitled to $5.8 million in federal funds for the primary, has decided to bypass the system so he can avoid spending limits between now and the GOP’s national convention in September. FEC Chairman David Mason notified McCain last week that he can only withdraw from public financing if he answers questions about a campaign loan and obtains approval from four members of the six-member commission. Such approval is doubtful in the short term because the commission has four vacancies and cannot convene a quorum...

http://tinyurl.com/34ugwz


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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

Mid Sussex Today - Haywards Heath, England, UK

SCHOOLCHILDREN would be put in danger if a mobile phone mast is put up
close to a school, claim worried parents. More than 100 have signed a
petition ...

Read More...
http://www.midsussextimes.co.uk/509/Parents-worry-over-mobile-phone.3811703.jp
http://www.worthingherald.co.uk/509/Parents-worry-over-mobile-phone.3811703.jp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=school+mast

Robert Pear, The New York Times, reports: "Governors of both parties strongly objected on Saturday to a half-dozen new federal Medicaid regulations that they said would shift billions of dollars in costs to the states, forcing them to consider cutbacks in services."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/022508HA.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=medicaid
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Pear

NOW reports on "a Bush administration effort [to] open hundreds of thousands of acres of public land to private development."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022508T.shtml

Scott Pelley of CBS News investigates growing suspicions that the imprisonment of a former Alabama governor had more to do with his political affiliation than his particular crimes. In a related article, the Institute for Southern Studies says the station that "blacked out" the "60 Minutes" broadcast has close ties to President Bush.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022508S.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Don+Siegelman
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Scott+Pelley

RADARSAT - The Warfighters’ “Eye in the Sky” and its links to “Missile Defense”

Press for Conversion! March 2006 Issue #58
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/58/58.html


From Global Network



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=missile+defense

http://www.slate.com/id/2184890/


Informant: Lew Rockwell



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

http://www.lewrockwell.com/chartier/chartier98.html



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

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/red-state-triumph.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McCain
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=fascism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/rockwell

http://futurezone.orf.at/it/stories/259426/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Funkchips
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=RFID

http://groups.google.com/group/mobilfunk_newsletter/t/6d35fc26e84e9660



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

Samantha Power discusses Obama’s foreign policy platform
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/25/barack_obamas_senior_foreign_policy_adviser


Informant: John Calvert



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