World-News

"The United States had complete command of the moral and ethical high ground in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. Most of the world was with us," writes Bob Herbert, "For some reason, the Bush administration deliberately abandoned those heights to pursue policies that were not just morally questionable, but reprehensible."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072106G.shtml

Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition, has become the first political casualty of the Jack Abramoff lobbying and money scandals with his loss yesterday in Georgia's lieutenant governor's race to a previously unknown state senator.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072106F.shtml

Glenn Greenwald writes, "The US Supreme Court's June 29 ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld - that the Bush administration's military tribunals violated federal law and the Geneva Conventions - resoundingly rejected the theories of radical executive power that the administration has used to justify a whole array of controversial governmental programs. But for now, it seems that the Bush administration remains intent on defending its actions while doing the minimum to comply with the ruling."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072106D.shtml

Declaring that he believes the situation in Iraq has devolved into a civil war, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday he plans to try to bring the war back up for debate on the Senate floor.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072106C.shtml

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and his relatives have claimed millions of dollars in tax deductions through a type of charitable foundation they created that until recently paid out very little in actual charity, tax records show.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072106O.shtml

Bush Gets Chilly Reception at NAACP

Declaring it a "tragedy" that the Republican Party has alienated black voters, President Bush ended his five-year boycott of the NAACP convention on Thursday with a pledge to repair his relationship with the country's oldest civil rights group. But although Bush won a rousing ovation for his promise to sign a renewal of civil rights-era voting laws, he received a chillier reception as he laid out his ideas for improving the state of black America.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072106N.shtml

--------

Bush at the NAACP Convention

God lost this time. I counted: Bush mentioned God only six times in his speech to the NAACP today. The winner was ‘faith’ — which got seven mentions, though if you count “The Creator” as God, well, then the Lord tied it.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14111.htm

A federal judge Thursday refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Bush administration’s domestic spying program, rejecting government claims that allowing the case to go forward could expose state secrets and jeopardize the war on terror.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072106K.shtml

This month, the Exxpose Exxon campaign celebrates its one year anniversary, and you've helped us accomplish so much!

On our anniversary, we're very close to another milestone – mobilizing half a million people to take action to stop ExxonMobil's dirty tactics! We are just a few thousand activists from our goal so please celebrate our anniversary by helping us reach our goal of 500,000 Exxpose Exxon activists. With your help, we can reach 500,000 Exxpose Exxon activists by the end of July!

Click here now to spread the word about the Exxpose Exxon campaign to at least three friends, family members, or co-workers, and encourage them to sign up!

http://ga3.org/campaign/ExxposeExxonTAF/forward/

Thanks to you, the campaign has already been a great success. We've mobilized consumers against ExxonMobil, and are actively exposing them for what they really are – a short-sighted, profit-hungry company with little regard for America's citizens or its environment.

The campaign is pressuring ExxonMobil to do the following:

* Stop blocking progress on the reduction of global warming pollution;

* Stop funding global warming skeptics;

* Invest in alternative renewable energy

* Pull out of Arctic Power, the lobby group trying to open the Arctic Refuge; and

* Pay the punitive damages owed to the victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Most of all, we demand that ExxonMobil start helping our nation secure a renewable energy future that will strengthen our economy, create jobs, and protect our health and our environment.

Please help us reach half a million activists by the end of July!

Click here to forward a message to your friends asking them to stand up to ExxonMobil and demand a secure and sustainable energy future.

http://ga3.org/campaign/ExxposeExxonTAF/forward/

We never expected victory overnight, but our progress has surpassed all our expectations - see the list of accomplishments below.

We need just a little more of your help to push us over the top and set a new precedent as the fastest growing environmentally-focused corporate campaign ever. Click here to tell three friends to join the campaign to Exxpose Exxon!

http://ga3.org/campaign/ExxposeExxonTAF/forward/

Thank you again for your dedicated support and your commitment to demanding a clean energy future for this and future generations.

Best,

Shawnee Hoover
Campaign Director
info@exxposeexxon.com


We're proud to report that:

- Close to 500,000 activists have joined the campaign and over two million online actions have pressured ExxonMobil to change its ways.

- Over 50 Exxpose Exxon protests have taken place across the country and over 250 Exxon or Mobil gas stations are being "adopted" by activists to pressure station owners to join our effort and to educate local communities and reporters.

- Over 2,300 people tied up ExxonMobil’s phone lines on the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in March to ensure it wasn’t just another day at corporate headquarters and to demand the company pay the spill victims what they owe.

- Over 2,000 letters to the editor were sent to newspapers across the country exposing the dirty tactics of ExxonMobil.

- Exxpose Exxon activists made a visible presence in the halls of Congress before policy makers and the press as ExxonMobil’s CEO and others testified before the Senate.

- Over 100 protesters captured the attention of ExxonMobil's CEO, shareholders, and the national press outside ExxonMobil's shareholder meeting in May.

- Fortune Magazine's 2006 feature of ExxonMobil as the Fortune 500 Company of the Year dedicated part of its story to the Exxpose Exxon campaign.

- The campaign has successfully exposed ExxonMobil in news stories by the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Reuters, CBS News, ABC News, USA Today, numerous radio and TV stations and other major newspapers across the country.

We couldn't have done any of this without your help!



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Exxpose+Exxon

Halliburton's Hella Good Deal

by Charlie Cray, TomPaine.com
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/07/21/halliburtons_hella_good_deal.php

by Robert Dreyfuss, TomPaine.com

As hell is unleashed in a civil war, Bush refuses to see the situation for what it is.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/07/21/iraqs_bloody_july.php

Oh Man, Oman

by David Sirota, TomPaine.com
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/07/21/oh_man_oman.php

T-MOBILE have put plans to build a mobile phone mast near Horncastle's Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School 'on hold'.

The company decided this week to pull back from the idea after worries were expressed by headteacher Tim Peacock about the safety of pupils.

T-Mobile has also cancelled an information drop-in for locals planned for Wednesday July 26 at the Admiral Rodney in Horncastle.

The session would have given people a chance to see the plans to build the phone mast on the Reindeer Close Industrial Estate, near the school.

No plannng application had been submitted to East Lindsey District Council for the mast.

A spokesman for T-Mobile said: "We do listen to people. We have put the proposal on hold and will look again at other potential sites.

"Our raison d'etre is not to upset people unecessarily but if people want mobile phones they need the equipment to make them work."

The currentT-Mobile mast giving coverage to the town is on land off Southwell Lane - but that will have to come down soon to make way for 70 Stamford Homes houses.

The T-Mobile spokesman said although they were making the decision to look elsewhere out of 'public sensitivity' he reiterated there is 'no convincing scientific evidence' mobile phone masts cause 'adverse affects'.

Omega this is not true. See under:
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Wissenschaft+zu+Mobilfunk/
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Cancer+Cluster
http://www.buergerwelle.de/body_science.html

21 July 2006

All rights reserved © 2006 Johnston Press Digital Publishing.

http://www.horncastletoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=825&ArticleID=1643364



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Queen+Elizabeth%27s+Grammar+School

Thank you, Mr. Bush

In These Times
by Terry J. Allen

07/20/06

Feeling grateful to the Bush administration is a rare experience. But sometimes the White House can do something right, even if for the wrong reasons. The administration’s gift to the nation was to openly attack journalists. ... Now with Bush’s failure as palpable as a crowbar to the kneecap, the media are regularly reporting on the dismal state of the war, recognizing global warming as fact, outing NSA surveillance and interviewing former prisoners from America’s far-flung gulags. Bush has responded with open antagonism. It’s about time. The press and those in power are not allies, buddies or teammates -- not even in the war on terror. If their interests sometimes coincide, their roles do not. They are -- they should always be -- adversaries, and if there is not tension, profound distrust and occasional loathing on both sides of the equation, the press is not doing its job...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2738/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

LewRockwell.com
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

07/20/06

Two hundred years ago, when the United States was a modest commercial republic, the president could take a walk down Pennsylvania Avenue -- by himself -- and talk to anyone who approached him. If he wasn’t on a walk outdoors, he was most likely at home, and you could speak to him by knocking on the door of the White House and presenting yourself...

http://tinyurl.com/l75qa


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Cause of Mid East violence right in front of us

Strike the Root
by Harry Goslin

07/20/06

In his book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, Johnson documents the often perilous position many Americans face as they travel throughout the world, all because of what their government has done, mostly without their knowledge, to nations and peoples throughout the 20th Century...

http://www.strike-the-root.com/62/goslin/goslin4.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The NewStandard
by Catherine Komp

07/19/06

Constitutional law experts and civil rights advocates are slamming the latest legislative proposal from US Senator Arlen Specter to address the government’s warrantless wiretapping program. 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. 'It’s really basically a sell-out,' said Shayana Kadidal, a staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a legal organization that filed a lawsuit on related matters against President Bush and the NSA in January...

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3435



Craven image
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/07/21/120.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Wiretapping Unbound

by Aziz Huq, TomPaine.com

The Specter bill is no compromise -- it actually locks in the president's authority to act without oversight.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/07/24/wiretapping_unbound.php



Wiretapping Unbound

Aziz Huq writes that the Specter bill is no compromise - it actually locks in the president's authority to act without oversight. "From the Iraq conflict to the handling of captured terrorists, the present administration has demonstrated a remarkable knack for barging in with excessive force in ways that fail to respond to threats. Secrecy is then used to cover up the resulting mess. Boundless license and the renunciation of oversight will only be a recipe for even worse disasters."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072406E.shtml



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

ISIS Press Release 21/07/06

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho explains how oceans determine climate and influence climate change. Urgent need to shift away from fossil fuels to renewable options (Which Energy?)

Oceans of life

Oceans are vast, deep, and mysterious. They cover 71 percent of the earth’s surface and contain approximately 97 percent of the earth’s water [1]. The average depth of the ocean is almost 4 000 metres [2], and nearly half the area is over 3 000 metres deep.

The oceans are home to the majority of plant and animal life on earth, accounting for 90 percent of the world’s living biomass, and many new species are being discovered from the depths. The Census of Marine Life (COML), an international alliance of scientists from 70 countries, discovered some 13 000 new species in 2003 alone [3]. COML is amassing data to create a map of the distribution of 38 000 marine species from plankton to whales.

According to one theory, life on earth originated around hydrothermal vents in the deep seafloor that heat up the water to 450 C [2]. Rare creatures living there today are still able to obtain energy from chemical reactions in the same way as the primordial life forms, and do not need to depend directly or indirectly on photosynthesis for food like 99.97 percent of the biosphere.

Oceans and climate

Oceans affect climate in many ways [4]. As the major reservoir of water, oceans dominate the movement of water, supplying most of the water vapour in the atmosphere by evaporation. Of this evaporated water, 91 percent is returned to the oceans as precipitation, the remainder is transported and precipitated over landmasses. Runoff and groundwater from land flow back to the oceans [5].

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

· Study finds massive drop in key habitat areas · More protection urged to save wild populations

James Randerson,
science correspondent
Friday July 21, 2006
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1825712,00.html

Tigers, among the planet's most iconic and secretive creatures, have been near the top of the endangered list for some time. But yesterday, a landmark study by leading conservationists warned that their plight is even more serious than previously feared.

The big cat, the report warns, is close to extinction and the area in which it lives has been nearly halved in the last 10 years.

The area occupied by tigers is 41% smaller than 10 years ago and is just
7% of its historical "range" before habitat loss and hunting slashed its numbers, according to scientists at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, the World Wildlife Fund and the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington. Tigers once ranged across Asia from eastern Turkey to the Russian far east.

In India, for example, where 60% of the world's tigers live, the population fell from 100,000 in the 19th century to 3,600 now. Many researchers believe the true figure is less than half the official estimate.

"The current trajectory will surely cause wild populations to disappear in many places, or shrink to the point of 'ecological extinction' - where their numbers are too few to play their role as the top predator," the authors write. "Now more than ever, tigers need homeland security." This grim prediction will come true in 20 years, the authors estimate, unless urgent action is taken.

The study is a follow-up to similar work carried out in 1995. It draws together satellite data on habitat type, information on poaching in different regions and data on tiger numbers.

Counting tigers is notoriously difficult because they are extremely secretive and very spread out. Data is collected either by counting paw prints or setting camera traps which snap unsuspecting tigers on their nightly prowl.

The study, paid for by the Save the Tiger Fund, identifies 76 "tiger conservation landscapes" - places with habitat which has the best chance of supporting viable tiger populations. Half would be able to support 100 tigers or more.

The grim headline figure is not simply a measure of how much tiger habitat has been destroyed since 1995, although much has been lost. The data take into account whether habitat that has become fragmented would be big enough to support a tiger population. The cats are reluctant to cross open areas and so need well connected forest. Also, it takes into account whether heavy poaching of the tigers' prey means that there would not be enough food for females to raise cubs.

"The last decade has been catastrophic for tigers and they simply can't afford another one like that," said Eric Dinerstein, chief scientist with WWF and one of the study's authors. But the news is not all bad, he said. "Like the Dow Jones, there are some stocks that are up while the rest are down."

The tiger population in the Russian far east, for example, has increased over the past half century from around 50 to 500. Also, the survey shows that targeted conservation efforts can pay off. "Just by applying a little bit of protection, they can rebound dramatically," said Dr Dinerstein. Tigers breed quickly for a large mammal and do not require pristine habitat to survive, so preventing poaching can lead to a rapid recovery of a local population. Apart from physical habitat destruction, the main threat comes from hunters. A tiger skin can fetch more than £5,000 and the penises, used in traditional Chinese medicine, are worth £14,000 a kilo.

"A lot of money is involved and a lot of people are involved," said Tito Joseph with the Wildlife Protection Society of India. Criminal gangs with links to drugs and arms trading smuggle tiger parts from India to China and Tibet. Skins are popular as garments called chubbas, and are also traded to collectors in the west.

Contrary to popular belief, tiger penises are not used as an aphrodisiac in Chinese medicine, but in cures for fevers and rheumatism. The Chinese government and NGOs are working with traditional medicine sellers to promote alternatives. The bones of a common mole rat called the sailong are now often used.

"There is cause for optimism," said Sabri Zain, advocacy and campaign director of Traffic, an NGO that combats illegal wildlife trade. "In terms of trade there is an appreciable reduction in demand for tiger bone-based medicine."

The authors of the report - Setting Priorities for the Conservation and Recovery of Wild Tigers 2005-2015 - advocate a "tiger summit", involving the heads of state of the 13 countries which still host the species. They believe this would galvanise political will and raise funds for conservation. To safeguard the remaining animals, the report says increased protection of the 20 most important tiger habitat areas should be a priority. Of the six tiger sub-species, the Javan tiger, Caspian tiger and Bali tiger have already become extinct.


Informant: binstock

http://www.socialistappeal.org/content/view/227/71/


From LabourNet, 21. July 2006

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/vote-j17.shtml


Informant: Martin Greenhut

By Ross Findon

CONCERNS over a proposed mobile phone base station at a 19th century church have been raised by residents.

The base station would be located in a flagpole that would replace an existing pole at St Michael and All Angels' Church, Ryde.

Plans for the mast were put forward by mainland company QS4, which invited comments from the public. The company is the church's approved installer of telecommunications on its property.

Fr Malcolm Jones said siting the mast on the church could provide essential income for the church.

"I have calculated it costs about £400 a week to keep the church going.

Every year the quota we pay to the Church of England for stipends and the upkeep of clergy houses goes up.

"All the money that would come from having the mast at the church would be used for the upkeep of this church," Fr Jones said.

"In my own mind and having looked at the issues, I am happy there is no more danger to health than many other things in our lives, such as microwaves and televisions.

"If I had any concerns, I would raise them."

However, nearby resident John Bettenson said he and others were concerned about a potential impact on health.

"I was approached by a number of concerned residents in my road and asked what could be done about the siting of such a mast, which is to be erected approximately 80 yards from Swanmore Middle School," said Mr Bettenson, of St Michael's Avenue.

He said he had contacted Island MP Andrew Turner and the area's IW council member, Cllr Charles Chapman, about the issue.

He said he was concerned about possible effects of radio and microwave electromagnetic radiation emitted from the base station.

However, QS4's church relationship manager, John Horsley, said all masts had to operate under strict international guidelines for emissions set by the International Commission for Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).

The guidelines set by the commission were stricter than previous levels suggested by the UK's National Radiation Protection Board (NRPB) and many masts operated well below the ICNIRP levels, added Mr Horsley.

Omega read "Base Stations, operating within strict national and international Guidelines, do not present a Health Risk?" under: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/771911/

Cllr Chapman said he was concerned people in the surrounding area were not told what was going on.

"I have sent a letter to residents advising them of the plans for a mast. I was concerned they did not know what was happening.

"A single pole mast is probably a relay mast and would probably cause no more problems than a television aerial but the government has not given us definitive guidance on the subject of telephone masts," said Cllr Chapman.

Picture in the Friday, July 21, County Press.

21 July 2006

All rights reserved © 2006.

http://www.iwcp.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1252&ArticleID=1643916

By Melanie Vass

A CONTROVERSIAL phone mast erected following a legal blunder is set to stay, to the fury of local residents.

A town hall inquiry into the mistake has concluded there is little chance of forcing Vodafone to take down the mast at Fisherman's Walk or submit a new planning application.

And cabinet members have now agreed not to pursue the matter through the courts.

The mast, which is situated on the corner of Wentworth Avenue and Fishermans Avenue in Southbourne, was originally turned down by planning officers.

But the decision notice sent to Vodafone was incorrectly worded, allowing the phone company to go ahead and put the mast up anyway.

Deputy leader Cllr Adrian Fudge said: "After efforts to identify alternative sites and gain the co-operation of the mobile phone operator in relocating the Fisherman's Walk mast proved unsuccessful, we sought legal advice on options available to us through the courts.

"Regrettably, having investigated every avenue, counsel's advice is that we would be unlikely to succeed in such legal action.

"Cabinet considered the conclusions of the planning board and have agreed that no legal action be taken."

He added they would continue to negotiate with mobile phone operators on future applications, encouraging them to site masts sensitively and consult with residents.

But Portman Crescent resident Charmaine Despres said she was "totally devastated" by the decision.

"As far as I'm concerned, this gives out the message the council has little or no power to correct their own errors," she said. "I don't blame the operator at all. They have gone completely by the book. This is the council's fault."

"I don't believe the council has made any effort to identify any alternative sites. Vodafone have told me that the only suggestions made to them came from me."

And Jane Frapwell, spokes-person for Vodafone, defended the company's actions.

"The mast is operational and providing a service for local people. Our position always was that we had the legal right to install it," she said."We took our own advice with regards to this installation and we do appreciate local views.

"The problem for us is getting the balance between providing a service for people and keeping visual impact to a minimum and we feel that we've done that in this case."

The cabinet's decision will be discussed by full council next Tuesday.

11:06am today

© Copyright 2001-2006 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.thisisdorset.net/display.var.844727.0.anger_as_legal_blunder_allows_mast_to_remain.php

Published on 21/07/2006

By JOSEPH TULIP

OBJECTORS who successfully fought off plans to erect a mobile phone mast on top of a Hexham nightclub are preparing for a new battle at an appeal hearing.

And a residents’ action group has issued a warning to phone company Hutchinson 3G “we won’t let you walk all over us.”

Hutchinson 3G’s plans for an 8ft mast on the roof of the town’s Studio night club on Priestpopple were unanimously turned down by Tynedale Council in May last year.

But the international company will once again stake its claim for the mast at an appeal in Hexham on August 15.

Phil Roe, of Vine Terrace, says he and other members of 3G Concern are worried the mast would have serious health implication, and that it would be an eye sore in the centre of Hexham.

“We had a meeting on Monday, and if the inspector allows us to speak, we are prepared. The visual impact this mast would have on Hexham is frightening.

“We are talking about England’s favourite market town; it is a privilege to live here, and we have to protect our heritage.

“There are health implications as well. There is a nursery and a school nearby, and a lot of businesses.

“I don’t care how big a company it is, we will not sit back and let it walk all over us.”

Mr Roe and other members of the group gathered a 570 signature petition against the plans before they were turned down last year.

Since then, he says the action group has grown, with more concerned residents and business people joining the group.

Hutchinson 3G says the mast would look like a white flagpole, and that emissions from it would be thousands of times lower than the guidelines supported by the World Health Organisation.

Omega read "Base Stations, operating within strict national and international Guidelines, do not present a Health Risk?" under: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/771911/

http://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=392007

FDA Scientists Pressured to Exclude, Alter Findings
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0720-13.htm

Wednesbury Action for the Removal of Telephone masts. http://www.w-a-r-t.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5195910.stm

With the population becoming addicted to having either a mobile pressed to their head or an MP3 player plugged into their ears most of the time, it's no wonder they are becoming oblivious to the world around them and getting mugged. They are totally absorbed in their own parallel universe cut off from reality, where TV, film and DVD's constantly treat bad language, under age sex and violence as normal behaviour. With so called "Celebrities" encouraging and promoting loutish behaviour, bad language, promiscuity etc on these "Reality" TV shows, it's no wonder we have an increase in crime when there is no respect for values and good taste. Even program writers constantly depict disrespect of police, teachers and anyone in authority by the actors in the programs.

Youngsters are unable to speak the Queens English (don ya fink vats ry ? ), have the retention span of a Goldfish, and are loosing the ability to read anything other than TXT mssg wrds. And these are the generation that will be taking "Media Studies" at skule an goin inta va telly bisnus. Sorry for banging on.

God help us.

A Grumpy Old Man

A message from June

Original Message:

This was on the Greenpeace group post. I had not seen it before. Please sign petition to save the whales from Navy sonar deployment.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/709123154

Please pass this along to others

Thanks!

Judy



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

Krieg der Religionen
http://www.iivs.de/~iivs01311/H.Krieg/Index.htm

One or more Iranians witnessed North Korea's recent missile tests, deepening U.S. concerns about growing ties between two countries with troubling nuclear capabilities, a top U.S. official said Thursday.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/20/korea.north.usa.reut/index.html


From Information Clearing House

http://tinyurl.com/f7re6


From Information Clearing House



Third of Lebanon casualties are children, says UN
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14086.htm

Video

Will work for food. Will die for oil. This music video touches on America's economic corporate control, struggles of workers, conditions of veterans, war in Iraq, and the prison industrial complex.

Click here to view
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14098.htm



No Bravery

A nation blind to their disgrace

Video. Click here to watch
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11799.htm

By Fiona Macrae
Daily Mail
July 19, 2006

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=396612&in_page_id=1770

A third of male fish in English rivers are changing sex due to 'gender-bending' pollution, alarming research shows.

Experts say female hormones from the contraceptive pill and HRT are being washed into our rivers and causing male fish to produce eggs.

The problem -- which is country-wide -- has raised fears that the pollutants could also be contaminating our drinking water -- and even be affecting the fertility of men.

The Environment Agency study looked at the health of more than 1600 roach found in 51 rivers and streams around the country.

Overall, a third of the male fish were between sexes. However, in one waterway, near a particularly heavy discharge of treated sewage more than 80 per cent had female characteristics.

Tests showed the males developed female sex organs and were producing eggs. Such fish also produce less sperm and the sperm that is produced is of low quality. Females may also be affected, producing abnormal eggs.

Previous studies have that cod, trout and flounders are all being feminised.

Researcher Professor Charles Tyler said that the fish are swimming in a soup of oestrogen-like compounds, found in the Pill and in HRT.

The hormone, which is also produced naturally by women and found in industrial waste, is released into our waterways after surviving the sewage treatment process.

Prof Tyler, one of the country's leading authorities on the effects of oestrogen, said: 'There is a soup of oestrogen compounds, all with different degrees of potency and they are interactive in their effects -- if you add them together, you add there are additional effects.

'This soup of oestrogen is responsible for causing these changes to the fish. It is abnormal. These fish should be male or female. The fact that we have got such a large proportion right across the country is not right.'

The Exeter University professor said it is too early to say what the long-term implications will be for Britain's fishlife.

While it may not initially have a big impact on stock levels, a reduction in the number of breeding males could lead to all sorts of genetic problems in later years.

'Effects like a change in how many males can contribute to the population can change the genetic structure of the population,' he said. 'In five years' item, the whole system could go belly-up.'

Human health could also be at risk, with oestrogen from contaminated food and water building up in our bodies.

Although there is no conclusive proof, it is thought the hormone, which has similar actions in fish and humans, could be partly to blame for falling sperm counts in men.

British men's sperm counts dropped by almost a third between 1989 and 2002, and one in six couples now have difficulty conceiving.

Prof Tyler said: 'There is certainly the potential for it to have an effect in humans -- and possibly a marked effect.'

The Environment Agency is looking at ways of improving the sewage treatment process, to either remove oestrogen during the process or reduce the amount that is discharged into our waterways.


Informant: NHNE

Programmer Clint Curtis (a Republican former NASA programmer), testified that he was hired to write vote-flipping software by Republican Congressman Feeney of Florida.

Video at: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=1050


Informant: sasha

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

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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

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