World-News

Debate on the Voting Rights Act, the landmark law that has guaranteed equal access to the ballot box for millions of Americans, has reached the floor of the U.S. Senate. Voting will likely happen TODAY.

While there is strong bipartisan support for the bill, some senators have sought to add amendments that would gut the protections of the Voting Rights Act.

It is critical that you call both of your senators right now, toll-free, at 1-866-808-0065. Tell them to renew the Voting Rights Act and oppose any weakening amendments.

The House has already passed this vital legislation, and just yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee passed it by a vote of 18-0. Now it’s up to the full Senate to act so that every American voice is heard and every vote is counted.

Please both call your senators right now at 1-866-808-0065 to make sure they get your message before they vote. We cannot let a small group of senators turn back the clock on 40 years of progress.

Sincerely,

Signature

Caroline Fredrickson
Director, Washington Legislative Office American Civil Liberties Union

P.S. Go to http://www.votingrights.org for more information and a link to watch the LIVE debate on the Senate floor.

The greatest way to grow our influence is to grow our numbers. Please, forward this to your friends and urge them to act!

Southgate residents have reignited their fight against a mobile phone giant determined to build a mast in their neighbourhood.

Orange wants to install an 8m high mast on a central traffic island at the junction of Prince George Avenue and Merrivale.

The company has submitted a revised application to Enfield Council, after the authority turned down its first proposal to build a nine metre mast in October 2005.

Planning bosses turned down the plans after more than 300 residents objected.

Resident Dennis Ambrose, spearheading the latest campaign, is rallying residents to attend a public meeting at the proposed mast spot at 10am on Saturday.

He said: "This proposal has reared its ugly head again.

"We don't want a phone mast here, it will look like a great monstrosity in our neighbourhood, and would destroy the look of a highly residential area.

"We are also concerned about health issues relating to phone masts. Of course phone companies will tell you there is no risk, but how do you really know what health implications there might be years down the line?"

A spokeswoman for Orange said the proposed mast was necessary to keep up with network demand.

She said: "There are now more than 61 million mobile phone subscriptions in the UK and that really gives a good indication of the pressure in networks, Orange included, to build and maintain robust networks.

"The structure would be a replica telegraph pole with wood effect to keep in character with the area.

"It is the most suitable and visually obtrusive design available to us in this situation and there is no reason to believe it would be any more obtrusive than a BT telegraph pole."

4:55pm today

© Copyright 2001-2006 Newsquest Media Group

http://tinyurl.com/jt2e5

ISIS Press Release 20/07/06

Pollution, destructive overfishing and increasing commercial exploitation are threatening the planet’s cradle of life, warns the UN. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

Overfishing and pollution Pollution and overfishing are damaging the oceans, especially the deep oceans, the United Nations warns in a new report [1-3]. Time is running out to save them, and urgent legislation is required to halt this wanton destruction of the planet’s “cradle of life”.

More than 90 percent of the earth’s living biomass (weight of living matter) is found in the oceans, and 90 percent of that is made up of single cell and microbial species. With 90 percent of the oceans yet to be explored, the scale of devastation already happening has become all too obvious

In 2005, 84.5 million tonnes of fish were taken from the world’s oceans, 100 million sharks and related species were butchered for their fins, 250 000 turtles got tangled up in fishing gear and 300 000 seabirds including 100 000 albatrosses were killed by illegal long-line fishing. Nineteen out of 21 albatross species are now threatened with extinction.

Read the rest of this article here http://www.i-sis.org.uk/OceansInDistress.php

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34027


Informant: NHNE

Poverty forced its way to the top of President Bush's agenda in the confusing days after Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast and flooded New Orleans. As it happened, poverty's turn in the presidential limelight was brief. Bush has talked little about the issue since the immediate crisis passed, while pursuing policies that his liberal critics say will hurt the poor.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072006O.shtml

"Last week, President Bush put on a silly charade in which he boasted that better than expected revenue numbers for 2006 vindicated his tax cuts. As many news stories eventually pointed out (after first buying the charade), better than expected tax collections were largely a fluke resulting from an unusually strong stock market performance last year," writes Dean Baker. "No one, not even the Bush administration's own economists, is predicting that this uptick in tax revenues will be sustained. Claiming that a one-year upturn in tax revenue proves the success of the tax cuts is like arguing that global warming is not a problem based on a weeklong cold spell."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072006N.shtml

Faced with almost daily reports of sectarian carnage in Iraq, Congressional Republicans are shifting their message on the war from speaking optimistically of progress to acknowledging the difficulty of the mission and pointing up mistakes in planning and execution.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072006M.shtml

"Reale Gefahr": Pau befürchtet "Totalüberwachung" durch Mautsystem auf Bundesstraßen (20.07.06)

Die Lkw-Autobahn-Maut könnte ab 2007 auch auf Bundesstraßen ausgedehnt werden. Die stellvertretende Vorsitzende der Linksfraktion, Petra Pau, sieht in diesem Zusammenhang eine "reale" Gefahr der "Totalüberwachung". Eine Lkw-Maut auch auf Bundesstraßen erscheine auf den ersten Blick verkehrs- und umweltpolitisch sinnvoll. So könne diese verhindern, dass sich "Verkehrsströme über Bundesstraßen ergießen". Sie verhindere aber keine Zunahme des Lkw-Verkehrs. "Als Innenpolitikerin" warnt Pau jedoch vor den Möglichkeiten der Überwachung der Bürger.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14053

Bush will soon formally propose a tribunal structure to try terrorism suspects with only minor changes from the military commissions that were ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court last month.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072006F.shtml

After months of negotiations with other lawmakers and Bush administration officials, Specter announced a "compromise" agreement last Thursday. But critics - some of whom are challenging the National Security Agency's (NSA) spying program in court - say the proposal is a "sham" that eliminates Congressional oversight over the executive branch and any meaningful legal review of the program.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072006D.shtml

"Now it turns out that President Bush himself blocked an internal Justice Department inquiry into the administration's decision to eavesdrop on domestic phone calls without a warrant from a judge, as required by a 1978 law. The short-circuiting of that investigation makes it all the more important that Congress mandate full judicial review of the program's legality," writes the Boston Globe.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072006C.shtml

The Bush administration's notion that toppling Saddam Hussein would stabilize a turbulent region is among the casualties of this week's Middle East carnage. Bush must now battle the perception, certainly throughout the Arab world, that he has embarked on a policy of failure.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072006B.shtml

In an interview with Brad Friedman (of BradBlog), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explains that "the Republican Party, the Republican National Committee, has been using old-fashioned, Jim Crow, apartheid-type maneuvers to steal the last two national elections."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072006A.shtml

Gibt es eigentlich eine Verantwortung für die Folgen einer militärischen Intervention, selbst wenn sie unter besten Motiven, aber mit fahrlässiger Planung begangen worden wäre?

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/23/23147/1.html

La carte d'Atmo Rhône-Alpes du 20 Juillet 2007: Du Jamais vu !

http://www.next-up.org/pages/nouvellesdumonde_pollutions.php

Mutualist Blog
by Kevin Carson

07/17/06

Major parts of the American electorate resent the power exercised over their lives by both big government and giant corporations. My guess is that a large portion of the two big parties' bases share this feeling; the problem is that the respective party establishments divert the sentiment in opposite directions. The GOP establishment channels populist resentment almost entirely against government bureaucrats and liberal intellectual 'elites,' while falsely portraying the mega-corporation as the product of sucess in the 'free market.' The latter spin no doubt sits uneasily on Thomas Frank's Kansans, many of whom are as economically populist as their Wobbly and Socialist ancestors of a century ago, but feel like a captive constituency. The Democratic establishment appeals to anti-corporate populism, but presents an agenda which props up corporatism and hands society over to a welfare and educational establishment dominated by the same managerial elites who control the big corporations...

http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2006/07/good-big-tents-and-bad.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Investor's Business Daily
by staff

07/17/06

A Fed study says the U.S. is going broke and that 'radical reform' of fiscal institutions is needed for our economic future. But rearranging the Titanic's deck chairs is not reform. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has released an analysis with the attention-grabbing title 'Is the United States Bankrupt?' The author is Boston University economics professor and National Bureau of Economic Research associate Laurence J. Kotlikoff. Kotlikoff said Washington 'is, indeed, bankrupt, insofar as it will be unable to pay its creditors ... current and future generations to whom it has explicitly or implicitly promised future net payments of various kinds.' And he provides some scary data ... our current 'fiscal gap' -- the difference between all future government spending and debt service and all future revenues -- is now nearly $66 trillion. That figure -- which many economists would consider an exaggeration -- is five times our GDP and double America's total wealth. Kotlikoff says that basically leaves us with a choice between doubling personal and corporate income taxes or cutting Medicare and Social Security benefits by two- thirds -- unless we go in a bold new direction he outlines...

http://tinyurl.com/l5og3


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Strike the Root
by John Markley

07/19/06

Most American conservatives are Christians, and any Christian would no doubt be shocked and offended by the suggestion that he is an idolater. After all, the Bible strictly and repeatedly condemns the worship of images, symbols, and physical objects. Considering recent events in American politics, however, I think there are strong grounds to say that idolatry is a very real force in much of modern conservatism. ... The state and its works serve as a sort of substitute (or supplement) religion for some people...

http://www.strike-the-root.com/62/markley/markley1.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Strike the Root
by Ali Hassan Massoud

07/19/06

And yet it persists. People still are trying to build the perfect 'bridge to nowhere.' ... Once you agree that the state serves some useful or necessary purpose in human existence, the rest is quibbling over the details of your enslavement and oppression...

http://www.strike-the-root.com/62/massoud/massoud1.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

NewsWithViews
by Sherri Tenpenny

Parents across the country have reported that their pediatricians have discharged them for refusing vaccines for their children. The individual reports seem to confirm the results of two studies published in 2005 that investigated this recent phenomenon...

http://www.newswithviews.com/Tenpenny/sherri9.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

We need to talk

Frontiers of Freedom
by Lady Liberty

07/19/06

When people notice that the government is trampling all over their rights, they don't like it much. They protest. They make calls and write letters. Horror of horrors, they show up in their representatives' offices or speak up at public meetings and demand explanations and relief. Sometimes, they even vote en mass and craft change as a result. When people notice that the government is trampling all over their rights, they jump up and down until it stops — or at least until they're offered some kind of mitigation (all too often mere sops, but the point is still valid)...

http://tinyurl.com/sxlmu


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CNN

07/19/06

The U.N. special representative for Iraq has urged Iraqis to find a way to stop the killings in the war-torn country, calling them a 'national tragedy.' Ashraf Qazi was speaking on Wednesday the day after the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq issued a report saying more than 14,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq this year, and that more than 5,800 deaths occurred in May and June alone...

http://tinyurl.com/jmkqe


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CNN

07/19/06

Two Democrats called on President Bush to use his rare appearance before the NAACP's annual conference to renew the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, arguing that such a step would ensure a basic right for minorities. Signing the legislation, however, would require Bush to pressure the Republican-controlled Senate to act quickly in passing the renewal that the House approved last week...

http://tinyurl.com/gvuny


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Help California Fight Global Warming: Email Your Legislators.

Tell your state representatives to pass the Global Warming Solutions Act.
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/CA_climate3?rk=%5fp1uMSp12REiE


Informant: bigraccoon

Ein Spezial zur WM 2006 und Grundrechten

Weltmeisterschaft der Sicherheit

Größere Befugnisse für die Polizei, erweiterte Videoüberwachung des öffentlichen Raumes und massenhafte Anwendung der Rfid-Technik: Die Fußballweltmeisterschaft war ein Gewinn für die Freunde der inneren Sicherheit. Artikel von Ron Steinke in der Jungle World vom 19. Juli 2006 http://jungle-world.com/seiten/2006/29/8140.php


Aus: LabourNet, 20. Juli 2006

Kiss the 4th Amendment Goodbye
http://tinyurl.com/jw6gs

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2006/190706bushgropes.htm


Informant: shane_digital



Bush, Merkel, and the quickie neck rub
http://tinyurl.com/lkopr


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The four-year investigation focused on allegations that 148 black men were tortured in Chicago police interrogation rooms in the 1970s and '80s. The men claimed detectives under the command of Lt. Jon Burge beat them, used electric shocks, played mock Russian roulette and started to smother at least one to elicit confessions.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=2211448


From Information Clearing House

Shiv Shankar Paul, the computer analyst at the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), who was arrested recently on charges of alleged leaking of secret documents to a US diplomat, has said in his bail application before a city court that there are "Big Guys" from the NSC behind the espionage ring, apart from him and Mukesh Saini.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1767834.cms


From Information Clearing House

The public must be prevented from learning the contents of a conversation between Tony Blair and President George Bush about the conduct of the war in Iraq - crucial evidence in a forthcoming official secrets trial - an Old Bailey judge ruled yesterday.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14063.htm

By Patrick Cockburn in Iraq

In the past 10 days, while the world has been absorbed by the war in Lebanon, sectarian massacres have started to take place on an almost daily basis, leading observers to fear a level of killing approaching that of Rwanda immediately before the genocide of 1994.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14066.htm

Scrutiny of Executive Windfalls Intensifies

A widening federal investigation of stock-option trickery is part of a larger story: an unfinished effort to transform the governance of American corporations.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906Q.shtml

Congressman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) must be enjoying himself. Since the New York Times released his May 18 letter to President Bush in which Hoekstra, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, condemned the intelligence community for keeping secrets from Congress, he has been feted as a Republican who is willing to stand up to the administration. But for more than six months, the congressman has been keeping his own secrets - and someone else’s.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906P.shtml

Study Highlights

"The NYT had a good article this morning highlighting a new Brookings report that details how people living in inner city areas often pay far more for goods and services than people living in more affluent areas. The report is worth reading and the NYT gets credit for calling attention to it," writes Dean Baker. "Unfortunately, the report suffers from a serious lack of imagination in its proposed remedies, highlighting greater public-private cooperation in bringing lower cost services to the poor."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906O.shtml

"Bombs were exploding and innocents dying, from Beirut to Haifa to Baghdad, and yet George Bush managed to pose for yet another photo op, smiling as he gave the thumbs up at the close of the G8 summit. Thanks to an unsuspected open mic, however, we could also glimpse the mindset of a leader unaccountably pleased with his ignorance of the world," writes Robert Scheer.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906M.shtml

Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition and a former Republican lobbyist involved in the Jack Abramoff scandal, suffered an embarrassing defeat in his effort to win the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor on Tuesday. Mr. Reed’s candidacy was viewed as a test of the effects of the Washington lobbying scandal on core Republican voters.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906K.shtml

A US District Court judge has sent the lawsuit Holder v. McPherson back to state court. This is a victory for the voters of the state of California and is a first step in stopping the use of Diebold touch-screen voting machines in the state.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906H.shtml

"Under a mandate from Congress's Deficit Reduction Act - passed last year - the US Department of Health and Human Services has acted to further restrict educational opportunity," writes Maureen Lane. "The objective of TANF should be to stabilize families and help them move from poverty to self-determining economic security.... It is a crushing blow to read these regulations and know they translate into American dreams denied."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906F.shtml

In a five-month period both before and after Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on iPods, dog booties, beer-making equipment and designer jackets, Congressional investigators have concluded. More than 100 laptop computers and a dozen boats also bought by Homeland Security employees are missing.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906E.shtml

As the Bush administration plans to increase imprisonment of illegal immigrants by 6,700 by the year 2007, as well as spending on enforcement, some of the biggest beneficiaries will be companies building and running private prisons around the country.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906D.shtml

Conservative intellectuals and commentators who once lauded Bush for what they saw as a willingness to aggressively confront threats and advance US interests said in interviews that they perceive timidity and confusion about long-standing problems including Iran and North Korea, as well as urgent new ones such as the latest crisis between Israel and Hezbollah.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906C.shtml

Meanwhile, in Iraq ...

"It has become something of a challenge to stay abreast of the continuing carnage in Iraq," writes William Rivers Pitt. "We still have tens of thousands of soldiers there. Nineteen of them have died since the beginning of July, and 2,553 have died since the whole thing started. 150 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the last three days, adding to the 6,000 civilians who have been killed in the last two months, adding to the tens of thousands who have been killed over the last three years."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906J.shtml



In Iraq, Civil War All but Declared

Retaliatory massacres by gunmen and bombers linked to rival Muslim sects have left more than 130 people dead across Iraq over the last two days, the latest casualties of what some politicians now are calling an undeclared civil war.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906A.shtml

http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_07_31/feature.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

19.07.2006, 15:37

Teens mit Handys: Nutzungsverbot in der Schule.

In Bayern dürfen Kinder und Jugendliche ab dem kommenden Schuljahr ihre Handys nicht mehr in der Schule benutzen.

Gegen den Widerstand von SPD und Grünen beschloss die CSU-Mehrheit im Landtag eine entsprechende Änderung des Bayerischen Erziehungs- und Unterrichtsgesetzes.

Kultusminister Siegfried Schneider (CSU) verteidigte das neue Nutzungsverbot für Handys. Die Möglichkeiten, Gewalt- und Pornodarstellungen per Mobiltelefon zu übermitteln, stiegen von Monat zu Monat, sagte er und verwies auf Fälle, in denen Kinder einen Mitschüler traktieren, die Grausamkeiten aufnehmen und den Film dann weitergeben. "In der Schule hat so etwas nichts zu suchen", sagte Schneider. Es gebe keinen Grund, warum Kinder im Unterricht oder der Pause telefonieren sollten. (dcn)

Bayern: Landtag berät über Handy-Verbot für Schüler Gewalt-Videos: Schülern droht Handy-Verbot http://www.chip.de/news/c1_news_19168207.html

(c) CHIP Xonio Online GmbH 2006

http://www.chip.de/news/c1_news_20815825.html?tid1=9226&tid2=0

--------

OBERPFALZ/BAYERN

Meldung vom 21.07.2006, 12:51 Uhr

Breite Zustimmung für Handy-Verbot an Schulen


Handy-Telefonieren auf dem Pausenhof: Wer überwacht ein Verbot? Foto: dpa

Lehrer und Eltern aus Ostbayern halten Anordnung für sinnvoll / Große Frage: Wie soll man das kontrollieren?

Von unseren Regional-Redaktionen

REGENSBURG. Das von der CSU-Mehrheit im bayerischen Landtag beschlossene Handy-Nutzungsverbot an Schulen ist von ostbayerischen Lehrern und Eltern weitgehend mit Zustimmung aufgenommen worden. Einige Schüler hielten die Änderung des Erziehungs- und Unterrichtsgesetzes für überzogen, räumten aber ein, dass immer wieder „geschmacklose Dinge“ auf den Handys zu finden seien.
Kriminalhauptkommissarin Marianne Kargl aus dem Sachgebiet Verbrechensbekämpfung des Polizeipräsidiums Niederbayern-Oberpfalz erklärte gegenüber der MZ, in Ostbayern seien an Schulen schon „einige wenige“ Handys mit pornographischen oder gewaltverherrlichenden Schriften und Bildern sichergestellt worden. Die Lehrer hätten die Polizei informiert, die Anzeige erstattete. Allerdings sei noch kein Fall bekannt, bei dem Schüler-Misshandlungen fotografiert oder per Video aufgenommen worden seien.

Kurt Bauer, Lehrer für Deutsch und Religion am Gymnasium Neutraubling (Kreis Regensburg), hält das Handyverbot an Schulen für einen Schritt in die richtige Richtung. „Die Schulen dürfen sich nicht blind stellen und tatenlos zusehen.“ Die schwierige Frage sei, wie das Handyverbot in der Praxis umgesetzt werden kann. „Wie wollen wir hier in Neutraubling am Pausenhof 1200 Schüler kontrollieren? Dafür bräuchten wir ja sämtliche Lehrkräfte.“ Vorstellbar wäre ein rigoroses Vorgehen mit drastischen Konsequenzen für die Schüler, die erwischt werden. Aber unter solchen Maßnahmen würde die gesamte Schulatmosphäre leiden. Ob das dann der richtige Weg ist, sei mehr als fraglich.

Kooperation mit den Eltern

„Ich verstehe, dass man da eingreifen muss“, sagte Katharina Perzl (18), Schülersprecherin der Johannes-Turmair-Realschule Abensberg (Kreis Kelheim) zum Handyverbot, „aber gefallen tut es mir nicht. Das ist wie bei vielem: Weil ein paar Gewaltvideos auf dem Handy hatten, müssen alle darunter leiden.“ Perzl hatte das Handy in der Schule sehr nützlich gefunden. „Man kann schnell mal anrufen, wenn man zum Mittagessen geht und später heim kommt, oder wenn man Noten bekommen hat; gerade jetzt in der Zehnten. Da konnte man schnell mal eine SMS nach Hause schicken.“ Allerdings räumte sie auch ein, dass es bisweilen schon von „geschmacklosem Humor“ zeuge, was manche auf das Handy heruntergeladen hätten – vor allem Jungs „in meinem Alter“.

Anneliese Utler ist Elternbeiratsvorsitzende des Carl-Friedrich-Gauß-Gymnasiums in Schwandorf. Zum Thema „Handy-Verbot“ an Schulen ab Herbst diesen Jahres sagt sie: „Ich finde es eigentlich ganz gut. Allerdings können sich die Kinder diese Gewaltvideos aus dem Internet auch in der Freizeit besorgen – das ist also kein plausibler Grund für das Verbot, finde ich.“ Die Eltern müssten ihre Kinder einfach mehr kontrollieren. Am CFG-Gymnasium schätze sie die Gefahr durch solche Videos allerdings sehr gering ein. „Nur wenige laden sich sowas runter.“ Kein Handy zu haben könne problematisch sein wenn die Kinder zuhause anrufen müssten, z.B. wegen Hitzefrei. „Aber das wird sich schon einpendeln. Früher gab es auch kein Handy.“

In der Johann-Brunner-Volksschule in Cham setzt Rektor Raimund Bergler die Anordnungen des Landtages um. Auch bisher waren Handys im Unterricht und bei Prüfungen verboten. Schon das Mitführen galt als Unterschleif. Dass Handys künftig unter dem Gesichtspunkt des Jugendschutzes nicht mehr eingeschaltet sein dürfen, hält Bergler für sinnvoll. „Kontrollierbar ist das natürlich nur mit einem großen Aufwand“, sagt der Schulleiter und setzt auf die Zusammenarbeit mit Eltern. „Wenn wir Missbrauch feststellen, wird das Handy abgenommen. Es wird erst auf schriftliche Anforderung oder bei persönlicher Abholung der Eltern wieder ausgegeben“, so Bergler.

http://www.mittelbayerische.de/SID_9e2a748f81fe2ee6b732a24d391c7eb8/nachrichten/opfbayern/meldung.shtml?rubrik=mz&id=70560

--------

Handy-Verbot an Schulen
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/1677088/

Ein Bericht der Bürgerrechtsorganisation Southern Poverty Law Center über Rechtsextremisten in der US-Armee wird vom Pentagon bislang ignoriert und von den Massenmedien nur beiläufig erwähnt.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/23/23135/1.html

Der "Dritte Weltkrieg"

Die Kongresswahlen im Herbst werfen ihren Schatten voraus, der aktuelle Nahostkonflikt dient Newt Gingrich dazu, die Amerikaner wieder für die Republikaner und ein militärisches Vorgehen im Weltkrieg gegen den islamistischen Terrorismus zu gewinnen.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/23/23136/1.html

"Keine Bedenken": Regierung offenbar für Überwachung von Lafontaine durch Verfassungsschutz (19.07.06)

Die Bundesregierung hat angeblich keine Bedenken gegen die umstrittene Überwachung von Abgeordneten durch den Verfassungsschutz. In ihrer Antwort auf eine parlamentarische Anfrage verweise die Regierung auf das Bundesverfassungsschutzgesetz. Dies sehe "keine privilegierende Sonderbehandlung" von Parlamentariern vor, berichtet die "Süddeutsche Zeitung". Deshalb dürfe auch in diesem Fall "ohne Ansehen der Person" überwacht werden. Anlass der Anfrage waren Berichte, wonach mehrere Bundestagsabgeordnete der Linksfraktion überwacht werden. So sollen Fraktionschef Oskar Lafontaine und dessen Stellvertreter Bodo Ramelow im Visier der Geheimdienste sein.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14049

"Menschenrechtswidrige Ausländer- und Asylpolitik": Kritik an Verbänden wegen Teilnahme am Integrationsgipfel (19.07.06)

Die Vereinigung deutsch-ausländische Solidarität (VDAS) Rüsselsheim wirft Kirchen, Gewerkschaften, Wohlfahrts- und Migrantenverbänden ihre Teinahme am Integrationsgipfel bei Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel vor. Sie hätten sich "vor den Karren derer haben spannen lassen, die seit Jahren eine restriktive, menschenrechtswidrige Ausländer- und Asylpolitik betreiben und gerade jetzt wieder eine weitere Verschärfung des sogenannten Zuwanderungsgesetzes planen", kritisieren Yeter Ayboga, Guido Casu, Otto Jaenisch und José Ramirez-Voltaire vom Solidaritätsverein aus Rüsselsheim. "Brutale Abschiebungen selbst bestens integrierter Menschen, das Auseinanderreißen von Familien, Verhinderung von Familienzusammenführung, Verhängung von Lagerhaft seien der Alltag in Deutschland." Die meisten der Politiker, die sich in Berlin getroffen hätten, seien dieselben, die alles daran setzten, Deutschland und Europa vor Flüchtlingen hermetisch abzuriegeln. Die Vereinigung verweist beispielhaft auf den in Deutschland wegen Folter in der Türkei anerkannten kurdischen Flüchtling Yusuf Karaca, dem nach einem Urteil des Oberlandesgerichts Frankfurt die Auslieferung in die Türkei drohe.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14042

by Art Levine, TomPaine.com

Threats to fair elections still exist, but there are strategies for fighting back. http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/07/19/protecting_the_2006_vote.php

nlnews@archant.co.uk

19 July 2006

MOBILE phone mast misery continues for Muswell Hill residents after they learned operator O2 is planning to put a new mast in Grand Avenue - next to another Vodaphone mast which they waged a bitter campaign against last year.

The company is hoping to bypass Haringey Council's planning process - claiming it does not need to get planning permission as the mast is replacing an existing one, which is no longer in use on top of the old BT exchange building.

But anti-mast campaigners claim that the new mast will look different, will operate differently and is from a different company so must go through the official planning process.

The existing mast was a two-way radio mast for private businesses supplied by Dolphin.

Sarah Purdey, who set up pressure group Muswell Hill Against the Masts, said: "If they have bought Dolphin they would have bought the planning permission and everything else. How can the council give it to somebody else?"

A spokesman for O2 said: "We may not have to get planning permission for that. We are talking to the council and we are talking to the people who do the telephone exchange.

"We are hoping there won't be too much difficulty.

Copyright © 2006 Archant Regional. All rights reserved.

http://tinyurl.com/r5qbw

A FARMER at the centre of a row about a mobile phone mast has accused opponents of scaremongering in order to block its siting.

Colin Griffiths has farmed Jeffreys Farm in Horsted Keynes for nearly 50 years and his own house and another one owned by him are among the four houses within 300 metres of the proposed mast site.

He also maintains that he is not benefiting directly from any fee that would be paid by communications company Orange as the land is owned by one of his children.

"And even if I was, I am 78 so I wouldn't have thought I would see much of it myself," he said.

Mr Griffiths accused campaigners against the mast of scaremongering about perceived health risks and the location of the mast.

"Leaflets have been distributed around the village which are both intentionally misleading and inaccurate," he said. "The proposed site is almost perfect to improve local reception and cannot be seen from roads, footpaths or houses."

Orange wants the 20 metre mast on land off Keysford Lane to improve reception for Orange users within Horsted Keynes. Its latest application for planning permission varies from a previous one earlier this year in the access to the mast site.

Jeffreys Farm, and much of the village, is within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and structures which could damage the area are severely restricted by planning regulations.

Opponents have until Friday (July 21) to register objections to the mast with MSDC.

Neighbour Mary Elston, who lives with her husband, Stephen, at Tyhurst Farm, 120 metres from the proposed mast site, said concern about it was affecting their health.

"There is no mileage in us objecting on grounds of perceived dangers as they are not planning considerations," she said. "The only reason to object is because of the AONB and that people in Lindfield as well as the surrounding area will be able to see this mast.

"We do not want to fall out with our neighbours and we are not anti-masts per se, but we came to live here for a rural life, not an urban one, and a mast here is totally out of keeping with the area."

middy.news@sussexnewspapers.co.uk

19 July 2006

All rights reserved © 2006 Johnston Press Digital Publishing.

http://www.midsussextimes.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=516&ArticleID=1636327

USA Today
by Richard Wolf

07/18/06

The law signed by President Clinton on Aug. 22, 1996, has transformed the way the nation helps its neediest citizens. Gone is the promise of a government check for parents raising children in poverty. In its place are 50 state programs to help those parents get jobs. In the 12 years since caseloads peaked at 5.1 million families in 1994, millions have left the welfare rolls for low-paying jobs. Nearly 1 million more have been kicked off for not following states' rules or have used up all the benefits they're allowed under time limits. Today, 1.9 million families get cash benefits; in one-third of them, only the children qualify for aid. About 38% of those still on welfare are black, 33% white and 24% Hispanic...

http://tinyurl.com/e7stn


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Lew Rockwell.Com
by Butler Shaffer

07/19/06

Throughout the world and human history, men and women have been conditioned in the view that, because their political system is aligned with the forces of 'good,' and opposing groups are the epitome of 'evil,' there must be a 'good' and a 'bad' side in every war. President Bush recites this mantra with nary a break in meter, reminding the boobeoisie that an 'axis of evil' threatens their lives. But Osama bin Laden and the forces of al Qaeda are peddling the same mindset to their followers. While the United States employs sophisticated weaponry to kill and maim innocent civilians, al Qaeda recruits suicide bombers to carry out the same insanity. But what is important to understand is that each side is playing the same deadly game and for the same purposes: to control -- and, in so doing, aggrandize power over -- their own populations. The vigor that one sees poured into the war system reminds me of marathon dancing, a craze that infected the minds of many in the 1930s...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer140.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Atlas Magazine
by Russell Madden

07/06

A basic principle of morality that is honored more in its breach than in its observance is the idea that 'the ends never justify the means.' I would wager that Americans would overwhelmingly say they support this notion, just as a majority of citizens get all misty-eyed when they speak of their love of 'freedom.' The reality of another truism, however -- that 'actions speak louder than words' -- demonstrates that observance of the proper relationship between means and ends is as much hollow lip-service as is our country's supposed devotion to liberty. Carefully scrutinizing what people do reveals the full extent of the (self?) deceit of these clever scam artists...

http://www.russellmadden.com/Ends_and_Means.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Reason
by Jacob Sullum

07/19/06

The 'findings' that precede Arlen Specter's National Security Surveillance Act are full of tough-sounding rhetoric about the limits of executive power, including former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's observation that 'a state of war is not a blank check for the President.' Unfortunately, the National Security Surveillance Act is...

http://www.reason.com/sullum/071906.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

#Die Linkspartei.PDS: Pressemitteilungen

19. Juli 2006

Heute hat Vizekanzler Müntefering im Kabinett seine Initiative "50 plus" vorgestellt. Dazu erklärt der stellvertretende Parteivorsitzende Wolfgang Methling:

Es gibt bessere Konzepte, beispielsweise für Existenz sichernde Arbeitsplätze in einem öffentlich geförderten Beschäftigungssektor. Voraussetzung ist, die für den Kombilohn geplanten Mittel und die gesellschaftlichen Gesamtkosten der Arbeitslosigkeit Arbeitslosengeld, Kosten der Unterkunft, Mehraufwandsentschädigungen etc. werden dafür eingesetzt. Der Kombilohn ist ein untaugliches Instrument zur Verringerung der Arbeitslosigkeit, weil Unternehmen geradezu animiert werden, regulär bezahlte Arbeitnehmer zu entlassen, um die Förderung zu kassieren. Die Einführung von Kombilöhnen ob für über 50jährige oder für unter 25jährige würde darüber hinaus den Billiglohn-Sektor ausweiten. Deutschland darf sich am Wettlauf um die billigsten Arbeitskräfte in Europa nicht beteiligen. Nicht zuletzt verzerren Kombilöhne den Wettbewerb. Auch bei der Europäischen Kommission werden Beschäftigungszuschüsse deshalb und wegen der Mitnahmeeffekte kritisch gesehen.

http://sozialisten.de/presse/presseerklaerungen/view_html?zid=33398

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science
http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming


Informant: bigraccoon

By Melanie Vass

CONTROVERSIAL plans for a mobile phone mast near two schools have been rejected even though councillors admitted their case was weak.

The heads of Stourfield Infants and Stourfield Junior Schools joined forces to urge Bournemouth's planning committee to refuse the plans for an O2 mast on land at the rear of Warnford Road, Iford.

And they were delighted when councillors obliged, voting against their officer's recommendation in the process.

The plans sparked 165 letters of objections while more than 550 concerned residents and parents signed petitions of protest.

Emma Rawson, head of Stourfield Junior School, told councillors the prospect of a 12.5 metre mast 200 metres from the school boundary went against all their efforts to keep children safe and healthy.

And Catherine Kirkham, head of the infants school, said: "I've been head teacher for some 11 years now and in all honesty I have never experienced a parental voice so strong.

"Together we teach 800 pupils they start school at four years old. No matter how small the measured risk might be, it's still a risk that need not be there."

Ward councillor Adrian Fudge said: "You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. It would be lovely to be able to say no to all these masts but I've not heard any planning reasons to turn it down."

But fellow ward councillor Fran Ketchley proposed refusal, pointing out that much of the surrounding land had been bought for future development and could eventually accommodate dozens of young families.

Cllr Ron Whittaker said: "I appreciate we've got very weak grounds but if we fail to listen to the community I don't think we're fulfilling our job properly as a planning board."

10:50am today

© Copyright 2001-2006 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.thisisdorset.net/display.var.839832.0.schools_joy_as_phone_mast_plan_is_rejected.php

By Robert Fisk

Mast campaigners stop the crane from leaving the site

A CAMPAIGN group has vowed to keep fighting against mobile phone masts on a telephone exchange roof.

Members of Orpington Residents Against Masts (ORAM) are trying to get Bromley Council to make Vodafone take its three masts off the roof of the building in Goodmead Road, Orpington.

The campaigners believe the masts were put up illegally because Bromley Council assured residents it would not let Vodafone install masts until it had got legal advice.

This was voted on at a planning meeting in January but the council is still awaiting a response from the legal team. continued...

Brian George, 41, is angry with the way Vodafone has dealt with the situation.

The mobile phone giant brought a crane to the site at about 7.30am on July 8 to put the masts up.

Campaigners were too late to stop the crane from getting through the gates but lay down outside to stop it from leaving.

They managed to stop it for about 45 minutes before the police moved them on for causing an obstruction.

Father-of-three Mr George said: "It is blatantly disregarding the residents.

"If you know the residents are fighting then just to go on and plough through is disgraceful."

Now Mr George says they have been told T-Mobile wants to put three masts on the roof.

He said: "We will continue to do our demos. We are not giving up.

"If we know what day and what time, we will be on the gates."

Bromley Council is planning to visit the telephone exchange to see how the masts have been installed.

But Mr George, a nurse, does not think the council is doing enough to stop companies from putting up the masts.

Mr George said: "We are furious at the incompetence of the planning department and the inactivity of Bromley's legal department on this issue.

"The council takes decisions on behalf of the community and we feel it has let the residents down."

A Bromley Council spokesman said: "We have received legal advice which we are considering.

"We will then make a decision about when and how to proceed.

"We can empathise with residents on what must seem to them a long procedure but we must make sure we get this right."

A Vodafone spokesman said: "We notified the council of our proposal in November and, as yet, it has not disputed this development accords with legislation.

"As we have a need to provide 3G coverage to the area a decision was taken to proceed with the development."

8:54am today

© Copyright 2001-2006 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/display.var.839396.0.group_motivated_against_mast_bid.php

Congress is dithering and the American public doesn't even seem particularly concerned as the administration of George W. Bush systematically trashes such fundamental American values as justice, due process, respect for human rights and submission to the rule of law.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14047.htm

Some 84 percent of the analysts disagreed with President George W. Bush's assessment that the United States was winning the war on terror.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14049.htm

The live microphone exchanges captured yesterday between George Bush and Tony Blair offer a snapshot between an articulate but ultimately subordinate Prime Minister and the verbally stumbling President.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14046.htm

The champions of American global empire are using the latest upsurge of violence in the Middle East to give new life to their discredited plan to extend the war in Iraq to Syria and Iran. The neo-con Weekly Standard has taken the lead in its July 24th cover issue, proclaiming that the current violence is "Iran's Proxy War" against the West.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/39048/


From Information Clearing House

2 Minute Video

"I think the last thing we want to do now is to start talking about ceasefires"

Click here to watch Windows Media
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14041.htm

An average of more than 100 civilians per day were killed in Iraq last month, the highest monthly tally of violent deaths since the fall of Baghdad. The death toll, drawn from Iraqi government agencies, was the most precise measurement of civilian deaths provided by any government organization since the invasion and represented a dramatic increase over daily media reports.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071806S.shtml

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an internal probe of the warrantless eavesdropping program that monitors Americans' international calls and e-mails.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071806R.shtml

by Geoff Metcalf

I have often observed that all our bumbling elected officials take a sacred oath. They still put their hands on a bible and swear to “preserve and protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” It still bugs me that those same officials seem incapable of recognizing the irony of their rhetoric, votes and abuse of power, which specifically seek to undermine and abrogate the same document they have promised to “preserve and protect.”.....

http://www.newswithviews.com/metcalf/metcalf189.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0718-31.htm


Informant: binstock

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/17/neocons-middle-east-war/


Informant: shane_digital