World-News

Truly shocking. Please forward.

Gary


In October of 2001, my sister started getting very sick. She had stomach spasms and she was having a hard time getting around. Walking was a major chore. It took everything she had just to get out of bed; she was in so much pain.

By March 2002, she had undergone several tissue and muscle biopsies and was on 24 various prescription medications. The doctors could not determine what was wrong with her. She was in so much pain, and so sick...she just knew she was dying.

She put her house, bank accounts, life insurance, etc., in her oldest daughters name, and made sure that her younger children were to be taken care of.. She also wanted her last hooray, so she planned a trip to FL (basically in a wheelchair) for March 22nd.

On March 19th I called her to ask how her most recent tests went, and she said they didn't find anything on the test, but they believe she had MS. (Multiple Sclerosis)

I recalled an article a friend of mine E-mailed to me and I asked my sister if she drank diet soda? She told me that she did. As a matter of fact, she was getting ready to crack one open that moment... I told her not to open it, and to stop drinking the diet soda !!! I E-mailed her the article my friend, a lawyer, had sent.

My sister called me within 32 hours after our phone conversation and told me she had stopped drinking the diet soda AND she could walk!!!! The muscle spasms went away. She said she didn't feel 100% but she sure felt a lot better. She told me she was going to her doctor with this article and would call me when she got home.

Well, she called me, and said her doctor was amazed! He is going to call all of his MS patients to find out if they consumed artificial sweeteners of any kind... In a nutshell, she was being poisoned by the Aspartame in the diet soda... and literally dying a slow and miserable death.

When she got to FL March 22nd, all she had to take was one pill, and that was a pill for the Aspartame poisoning! She is well on her way to a complete recovery and she is walking!!! No wheelchair!!!

This article saved her life. If it says "SUGAR FREE" on the label, DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!!

I have spent several days lecturing at the WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE on "ASPARTAME," marketed as 'NutraSweet,' 'Equal,' and 'Spoonful.' In the keynote address by the EPA, it was announced that in the United States in 2001 there is an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus. It was difficult to determine exactly what toxin was causing this to be rampant.

I stood up and said that I was there to lecture on exactly that subject. I will explain why Aspartame is so dangerous: When the temperature of this sweetener exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic acidosis. Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants. The methanol toxicity mimics, among other conditions, multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus. Many people were being diagnosed in error. Although MS is not a death sentence..., methanol toxicity is! Systemic lupus has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis, especially with Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. The victim usually does not know that the Aspartame is the culprit. He or she continues its use; irritating the lupus to such a degree that it may become a life-threatening condition.. We have seen patients with systemic lupus become asymptotic, once taken off diet sodas.

In cases of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, (when in reality, the disease is methanol toxicity), most of the symptoms disappear. We've seen many cases where vision loss returned and hearing loss improved markedly.

This also applies to cases of tinnitus and fibromyalgia.

During a lecture, I said, "If you are using ASPARTAME (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc.) and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting, pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, unexplainable depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss..., you probably have ASPARTAME poisoning!"

People were jumping up during the lecture saying, "I have some of these symptoms." Is it reversible?" Yes! Yes! Yes! STOP drinking diet sodas and be alert for Aspartame on food labels! Many products are fortified with it!!!

This is a serious problem. Dr. Espart (one of my speakers) remarked that so many people seem to be symptomatic for MS and during his recent visit to a hospice; a nurse stated that six of her friends, who were heavy Diet Coke addicts, had all been diagnosed with MS. This is beyond coincidence! Diet soda is NOT a diet product! It is a chemically altered, multiple SODIUM (salt) and ASPARTAME containing product that actually makes you crave carbohydrates. It is far more likely to make you GAIN weight!

These products also contain formaldehyde, which stores in the fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs. Formaldehyde is an absolute toxin and is used primarily to preserve "tissue specimens."

Many products we use every day contain this chemical but we SHOULD NOT store it IN our body!!!

Dr. H. J. Roberts stated in his lectures that once free of the "diet products" and with no significant increase in exercise; his patients lost an average of 19 pounds over a trial period.

Aspartame is especially dangerous for diabetics. We found that some physicians, who believed that they had a patient with retinopathy, in fact, had symptoms caused by Aspartame. The Aspartame drives the blood sugar out of control. Thus diabetics may suffer acute memory loss due to the fact that aspartic acid and phenylalanine are NEUROTOXIC when taken without the other amino acids necessary for a good balance. Treating diabetes is all about BALANCE. Especially with diabetics, the Aspartame passes the blood/brain barrier and it then deteriorates the neurons of the brain; causing various levels of brain damage, seizures, depression, manic depression, panic attacks, uncontrollable anger and rage.

Consumption of Aspartame causes these same symptoms in non-diabetics, as well.

Documentation and observation also reveal that thousands of children diagnosed with ADD and AHD have had complete turnarounds in their behavior when these chemicals have been removed from their diet. So called "behavior modification prescription drugs" (Ritalin and others) are no longer needed. Truth be told, they were never NEEDED in the first place!

Most of these children were being "poisoned" on a daily basis with the very foods that were "better for them than sugar." It is also suspected that the Aspartame in thousands of pallets of diet Coke and diet Pepsi consumed by men and women fighting in the Gulf War, may be partially to blame for the well-known Gulf War Syndrome.

Dr. Roberts warns that it can cause birth defects, i.e., mental retardation, if taken at the time of conception and during early pregnancy. Children are especially at risk for neurological disorders and should NEVER be given artificial sweeteners. There are many different case histories to relate of children suffering grand mal seizures and other neurological disturbances due to the use of NutraSweet.

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to convince people that Aspartame is to blame for their child's illness. Stevia, which, which is a sweet herb, NOT A MANUFACTURED ADDITIVE, helps in the metabolism of sugar, which would be ideal for diabetics. It has now been approved as a dietary supplement by the FDA. It is known that for many years the FDA outlawed this true sweet food," due to their loyalty to MONSANTO Chemical Company."

Books on this subject are available: EXCITOTOXINS: THE TASTE THAT KILLS written by Dr. Russell Blayblock (Health Press 1-800-643-2665) AND: DEFENSE AGAINST ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE-written by DR H. J. Roberts, also a diabetic specialist.

These two doctors will soon be posting a position paper with case histories on the deadly effects of Aspartame on the Internet. According to the Conference of the American College of Physicians, "We are talking about a plague of neurological diseases directly caused by the use of this deadly poison."

Herein lies the problem: There were Congressional Hearings when Aspartame was included 100 different products and strong objection was made concerning it's use. Since this initial hearing, there have been two subsequent hearings and still, nothing has been done. The drug and chemical lobbies have very deep pockets. Sadly, MONSANTO'S patent on Aspartame has EXPIRED!!

There are now over 5,000 products on the market that contain this deadly chemical and there will be thousands more introduced.

Everybody wants a "piece of the Aspartame pie." I assure you that MONSANTO, the creator of Aspartame, knows how deadly it is. And isn't it ironic that MONSANTO funds, among others, the American Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association and the Conference of the American College of Physicians? This has been recently exposed in the New York Times. These cannot criticize any additives or convey their link to MONSANTO because they take money from the food industry and are required to endorse their products.

Senator Howard Metzenbaum wrote and presented a bill that would require label warnings on products containing Aspartame, especially regarding pregnant women, children and infants. The bill would also institute independent studies on the known dangers and the problems existing in the general population regarding seizures, changes in brain chemistry, neurological changes and behavioral symptoms. The bill was killed.

It is known that the powerful drug and chemical lobbies are responsible for this, letting loose the hounds of disease and death on an unsuspecting and uninformed public.

Well, you're informed now!!!! YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW!!!! Please print this out and/or e-mail to your family and friends. They have a right to know too.

Mike Nash
Author: Aggressive Health
Managing Director: Raw Perfection Ltd
Tel: 01908 316853
Fax: 07092861318



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

Atomenergie: Diskussionen über Konsequenzen nach dem Beinahe-GAU in Schweden (04.08.06)

Nach dem Störfall im schwedischen Atomkraftwerk Forsmark fordert das Bundesumweltministerium von den Bundesländern und den Betreibern deutscher Atomkraftwerke (AKW) genaue Auskunft über ihre Notstromsysteme. Nach Angaben einer Ministeriumssprecherin sollen die Atomaufsichtsbehörden der Länder so schnell wie möglich berichten, ob in den Atomkraftwerken jene Notstrom-Anlagen von AEG geliefert wurden, die in Schweden möglicherweise Ursache des Störfalls waren. Die Betreiber sollen mögliche Erkenntnisse mitteilen, ob ein Störfall wie in Schweden auch in deutschen Anlagen möglich wäre. Die deutsche Atomwirtschaft hält nach ersten Analysen in deutschen Kernkraftwerken einen völlig identischen Störfallverlauf mit dem in Schweden nicht für möglich. Nach Einschätzung der atomkritischen Ärzteorganisation IPPNW kann hingegen bereits ein Kurzschluss - beispielsweise infolge eines Unwetters - in Deutschland jederzeit zum Super-GAU führen. Die Umweltorganisation Greenpeace fordert von der Bundesregierung eine Beschleunigung des geplanten Atomausstiegs. Ein Atomausstieg sei bei entsprechendem politischen Willen bereits in fünf bis sieben Jahren "technisch machbar", ohne dass hierfür zusätzliche Kohlekraftwerke benötigt werden würden.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14151



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

Seltsame Einigkeiten beim Thema Bürgergeld oder Grundeinkommen
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/23/23216/1.html

"Rep. John Murtha recently attracted considerable attention, and the wrath of the Bush administration, by expressing the opinion that it is past time to put forward a plan for US withdrawal from Iraq. Mr. Murtha is in an especially good position to make such a judgment based on his distinguished service as a Marine and on his many years with the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette points out.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406G.shtml



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

Specter's White House-endorsed plan to formally legalize the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program ran into more political problems yesterday in the Senate as Democrats successfully maneuvered to block a committee vote on the proposal.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406B.shtml

"The new politics has consistently selected politicians of a particular type, with a particular personality. The type is not the true outsider who comes in with completely radical notions about the system but, instead, the intellectual maverick who has risen within the system and who has succeeded by 'thinking outside the box,'" writes Stirling Newberry.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406A.shtml

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Prosecutors_mull_preelection_indictments_in_Congress_0804.html

Federal prosecutors are unsure whether they should issue indictments for members of Congress prior to the November elections, as the decision might “throw their congressional races into disarray,” The WALL STREET JOURNAL is reporting today.


Informant: David Diggins

The U.S. military is poisoning the very citizens it is supposed to protect in the name of national security.

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/39723/


Informant: bigraccoon

Through Spike Lee's Eyes

From the beginning, Spike Lee knew that Hurricane Katrina was a story he had to tell. Watching the first television images of floating bodies and of desperate people, mostly black, stranded on rooftops, he quickly realized he was witnessing a major historical moment. As those moments kept coming, he spent almost a year capturing the hurricane's sorrowful consequences for a four-hour documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," to be shown on HBO this month.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406P.shtml

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton called Thursday for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, hours after excoriating him at a public hearing over what she said was a "failed policy" in Iraq.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406O.shtml

Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bid to combine a tax cut for the wealthy with a wage increase for the working poor last night, adding a volatile economic issue to this fall's Congressional campaigns.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406M.shtml

Two congressmen said Thursday that someone at the Interior Department may have deliberately removed provisions from offshore drilling contracts, giving oil companies a multibillion-dollar windfall.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406K.shtml

"The most horrifying testimony of the day was when we met with 'Dr. Nada,' an Iraqi doctor who stayed in Baghdad to help her people during the sanctions and the invasion," writes Cindy Sheehan. "Dr. Nada told us about seven harrowing days she spent working in an emergency room in Baghdad between April 2 and April 9 in 2003. She said that over 100 casualties PER HOUR were coming through her hospital alone and that many died because they could not be helped in time."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406J.shtml

The Corkman - Cork, Ireland ...

“Mobile phone masts are the biggest biological experiment ever commissioned on human beings ... O’Donovan who is also PRO for the Fermoy anti-mast group echoed ...

http://www.unison.ie/corkman/stories.php3?ca=38&si=1664969&issue_id=14456

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/constitutionincrisis


Informant: David Swanson

From ufpj-news

A new jobs report should silence administration spin that its economic policies are working.

http://www.tompaine.com/uncommonsense/

White House Behind Bars

by Jennifer Van Bergen, TomPaine.com
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/08/03/white_house_behind_bars.php

Yanquí Cuba

by David Sirota, TomPaine.com
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/08/04/yanqu_cuba.php

by Jared Bernstein, TomPaine.com

For once, Democrats and moderate Republicans stood up to cynical election-year politics and faced down the leadership.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/08/04/the_day_the_system_worked.php

Clean water is one of our most important resources. The Clean Water Act was written to ensure that all of the nation’s lakes, rivers, coastal waters, streams, and wetlands are safe for people to drink, swim and fish in, and to provide clean, healthy habitats for fish and wildlife.

All of this depends on keeping the water free of pollution. But now the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – the federal agency charged with keeping the water clean – is proposing a rule that would do just the opposite!

The new EPA rule threatens the health and safety of all of the nation’s lakes, rivers, coastal waters, streams, and wetlands. Click here to urge the EPA to withdraw its proposal for this harmful rule before the August 7th deadline.
http://ga3.org/campaign/CleanWater_EPA/

The proposed rule would threaten our health and the health of fish and other wildlife by exempting projects that pump polluted water into cleaner water sources from the Clean Water Act. For example, under this new rule, polluted run-off could be pumped from a canal system into a drinking water source without a permit or any restrictions. This kind of activity is currently prohibited by the Clean Water Act. Instead of preventing pollution, the EPA's new plan would spread it from one body of water to another.

The EPA is only accepting public comments on this dangerous proposal until August 7, so click here to share your two cents on this today!
http://ga3.org/campaign/CleanWater_EPA/

Toxic chemicals, harmful algae, sewage and bacteria, fish-killing sediment, invasive species – all of these pollutants could be legally pumped from dirty water into clean water under this proposed rule without any federal permit or restrictions.

Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA is charged with making our waters cleaner, NOT dirtier. Pumping polluted water into clean water without a permit is dangerous and unacceptable and must remain illegal under the Clean Water Act—click here to submit your comments to the EPA now.
http://ga3.org/campaign/CleanWater_EPA/

Watering down (no pun intended) the laws that protect our environment is an insidious practice and is a direct route to a public health and environmental disaster.

Once you’ve contacted the EPA, please click here to tell at least three friends, family members or co-workers about this urgent issue and encourage them to join you in submitting their comments before the EPA stops accepting public input on August 7th.
http://ga3.org/campaign/CleanWater_EPA/forward

Thank you for your help on this issue.

Sincerely,

Julie Waterman
Campaign Director,
SaveOurEnvironment.org
info@saveourenvironment.org

Senator John Kerry, during a speech on the floor of the United States Senate, said: "Mr. President, this is more than an important period, this may well be the moment that decides the security of the Middle East itself, and it's time the Administration was candid about the situation and got to work on rescuing what's salvageable in Iraq. With at least 2,578 Americans killed, over 19,000 wounded, and no end in sight, we simply cannot sit idly by as more of our kids die for a policy that isn't working. And we cannot be silent while this Administration continues to deny reality and repeat the same mistakes."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406Z.shtml

Strike the Root
by Zachary Perry

08/03/06

It is clear that this policy of worldwide intervention has achieved nothing but to waste incomprehensible sums of taxpayers' money, vastly enrich weapons manufacturers, and provoke dislike of Americans throughout the world...

http://www.strike-the-root.com/62/perry/perry1.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

from Reason to Freedom
by "The Melinda"

08/04/06

As events played out it became gut wrenchingly obvious to me that Bush and Cheney had not just overlooked their oaths of office; they had shredded the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, documents that any American should respect. Torture in the name of freedom? Taping Americans in the name of security? Someone has obviously lost their mind or is following an agenda that has nothing to do with their rhetoric. I understand why Republicans can't take this necessary step; the Republican Party was quietly taken over by the NeoCons who run the Bush Administration, starting a while ago. ... Why is the Democratic faction of Congress tip toeing around, pretending that all is well in Congressland?

http://tinyurl.com/rpddf


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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

Washington Post

08/0/06

A draft Bush administration plan for special military courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such 'commissions' to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and are not directly involved in acts of international terrorism, according to officials familiar with the proposal. The plan, which would replace a military trial system ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in June, would also allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will to those under the military court's jurisdiction. The two provisions would be likely to put more individuals than previously expected before military juries, officials and independent experts said...

http://tinyurl.com/jbmoy


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Christian Science Monitor

08/03/06

At the bottom of the world, more than two miles beneath the wind-blasted surface of Antarctica, sits a wonder of the last untouched continent. Locked deep in the Antarctic ice is Lake Vostok, the seventh-largest body of fresh water in the world, yet one that has never been glimpsed by human eyes. To scientists, it is nothing less than an alien world, where the surroundings are so extreme that they could harbor previously undiscovered forms of life. Yet just 420 feet above its unseen surface, a Russian drill is poised, ready to break through and potentially pollute a pristine and unique environment. The Russians' goal is scientific, but it points to a growing threat in the Great White South, as a new boom of activity erodes Antarctica's isolation. Once the domain of doughty explorers such as Scott and Shackleton, Antarctica is becoming increasingly crowded by curious tourists, spellbound scientists, and countries hungry for oil and minerals...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0803/p05s01-woap.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Der in der beigefügten Website http://www.elsa-freiburg.de/beregm05.php dargestellte Fall ist inzwischen entschieden: Die zwangsweise medizinische Verabreichung von Brechmitteln verstößt gegen die Menschenwürde und ist Folter. Ein Schadensersatz in Höhe von 10.000.- Euro wurde vom Europäische Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte zugesprochen (Az.: 54810/00), wie am 11. Juli bekannt gegeben wurde. (auch die Ärztezeitung berichtet darüber: http://www.aerztezeitung.de/docs/2006/07/19/132a0702.asp?cat=/politik

Es ist ein sehr gutes Zeichen, dass auch die psychiatrischen Zwangsbehandlungen endlich als Folter von diesem höchsten Europäischen Gericht gesehen werden und nach der Entscheidung zugunsten von Vera Stein letztes Jahr bald entsprechende Urteile anderer Opfern psychiatrischer Folter zugesprochen werden. Deshalb unser Hinweis: Eine Klage immer konsequent weiter verfolgen, auch jenseits des Bundesverfassungsgerichts, der Europäische Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte fällt offenbar immer wieder sehr gute Entscheidungen.

Werner-Fuß-Zentrum
im Haus der Demokratie und Menschenrechte
Greifswalder Str. 4
10405 Berlin
http://www.psychiatrie-erfahrene.de

http://www.arcticbeacon.com/2-Aug-2006.html


Informant: Milo

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Full memo from Leo Wanta to Vice President Cheney http://www.tomflocco.com/fsimage/RcObl/TSecretDoc911PaymtFunds.gif

Files on Ambassador Leo Wanta
http://tinyurl.com/gmjqa


Informant: Finn MacCool

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The biggest financial story in history

Greg's special guest was Michael C. Cottrell, financial expert and Treasurer of the AmeriTrust Groupe, Inc., explaining the details of what has become known as The Wanta Plan. Cottrell verified all previous statements made by Ambassador Leo Wanta concerning the $4.5 trillion dollar settlement earmarked for the American people and being illegally withheld in a Bank of America account in Richmond, Va., by President George W. Bush and the Federal Reserve Board.

Don't miss this startling interview, as this story has been described as the biggest financial story in the history of the world.
http://mp3.rbnlive.com/Greg/0607/20060727_Thu_Greg.m3u

Source: http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149495;article=103285;title=APFN

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The Leo Wanta story draws the line between the good and the bad, the rich and the poor
http://tinyurl.com/rt3u4

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CRIMINAL DIVERSION OF WANTA FUNDS CONTINUES
http://www.worldreports.org/news/15_highest_office-holde

Criminal Organisations Trading Wanta Plan Funding
http://tinyurl.com/rhfyn

Disturbing Twists and Turns in Release of Wanta Money and $4.5 Trillion for American People
http://www.arcticbeacon.com/31-Aug-2006.html

US Implementation of The Wanta Plan forthwith: 02 September 2006 Critical Update
http://tinyurl.com/mr97q

Amendments Tampered with by NSA T-2 Programme
http://tiny.bz/0pe/

EUROPEANS PLACE 'STOP ORDERS' ON $100M+ DEALS
http://www.worldreports.org/news/23_outrage_as_treasury_

Wanta Confident $4.5 Trillion Will Be Released As Corrupt U.S.Authorities Backing Themselves Into A Corner
http://tinyurl.com/zesfg

WANTA DEFAULT TRIGGERS RECALL OF $70+ TRILLION
http://www.worldreports.org/news/25_wanta_default_trigge

Close Associate of Wanta Verifies His Story
http://www.arcticbeacon.com/28-Sept-2006.html

U.S. TREASURY DEFAULTS AGAIN ON THE WANTA PLAN
http://www.worldreports.org/news/28_treasury_securities_


Informant: Ambassador Leo E Wanta

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No Release Yet Of $4.5 Trillion Of Wanta Funds
http://www.rense.com/general73/wwant.htm



The Leo Wanta Affair---A Multi Trillion Dollar Theft -- CO-OP Radio Monday noon PDT

TOPICS: A Multi Trillion Dollar Theft of the People/A Call to Action PROGRAM CONTENT:

Clips from a 2 hour radio interview by Greg Szymanski
( http://arcticbeacon.com ) with Leo Wanta regarding a struggle to appropriate for the people of the US a massive $27.5-plus trillion fund. The interview will touch on the formation of the fund, its initial purpose, its use, how it has accumulated to its immense value, and who is trying to seize the fund. For a primer on the radio program, go to http://arcticbeacon.com/26-Mar-2006.html . Also on the program will be an historic clip of Alex Jones' recent Call to Action. Don't miss this program. Record it if you can. PROGRAMMER: Don Nordin. DATE AND TIME OF PROGRAM: Monday, September 4, 2006. Noon to 1 pm PDT. LISTEN AT: On the internet at http://coopradio.org . On cable throughout B.C. in most major cities. On Star Choice satellite system on channel 845. On the radio in Greater Vancouver and surrounding area on CFRO, 102.7 fm.

Bea Note: Background info on this very intriguing and important, but little known issue http://www.worldreports.org/news/21_geopolitical_insight



$4.5 Trillion Wanta Story Not Over By A Long Shot
http://www.rense.com/general73/antss.htm

CONSPIRACY TO STEAL WANTA’S $4.5 TRILLION EXPOSED
http://www.worldreports.org/news/33_conspiracy_to_steal


Informant: ranger116

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LEO WANTA AND THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SHOWDOWN
http://www.worldreports.org/news/8_u.s._website_reprodu

FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD IMPEDES THE WANTA PLAN
http://www.worldreports.org/news/10_bernanke_defies_the

BUSH PREVENTS LEO WANTA PAYING TAX: A FELONY
http://www.worldreports.org/news/13_white_house_and_fede

BANKSTERS AND OFFICIALS TIGHTENING OWN NOOSE
http://www.worldreports.org/news/16_criminal_organisatio

URGENT WANTA PLAN DEFAULT SEQUEL & UPDATE CHINESE USING POUND STERLING FOR OIL PAYMENTS
SITUATION DETERIORATING BY THE HOUR
http://www.worldreports.org/news/24_chinese_using_pound_

CHENEY BRIBES OFFICIALS TO ABORT WANTA PAYMENT
http://www.worldreports.org/news/47_investigators,_cia_'


Informant: maintzger

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Wanta Group Verfies Head of U.S Treasury Detained In Germany Over Failure To Release $4.5 trillion in Wanta Funds
http://www.arcticbeacon.citymaker.com/articles/article/1518131/67026.htm

Informant: Finn MacCool

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CHENEY, PAULSON DOUBLE-CROSS THE WORLD COURT
http://www.worldreports.org/news/44_devious_u.s._treasur


Informant: Mikal Haley

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LEO WANTA REQUESTS AN FBI CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
http://www.worldreports.org/news/55_world's_worst_financ


Informant: Sharen

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Who is Leo Wanta?
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8&q=Leo+Wanta

Ambassador Leo E Wanta
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8&q=+Ambassador+Leo+E+Wanta

From: Al palmbeach411
Why was there a media blackout concerning GAO report????

G A O (Government Accounting Office) Admits Computer Voting Terminals RIGGED. A report released by the GAO October of 2005 confirms the 2004 Election results was routinely altered. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electionfraud2004/
Read it and Weep! But Then You Knew it all along.

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR VOTE WENT DEPARTMENT

See http://www.heartcom.org/22reasons.htm
General Accounting Office Report Confirms Key 2004 Stolen Election Findings

As a legal noose appears to be tightening around the Bush/Cheney/Rove inner circle, a shocking government report shows the floor under the legitimacy of their alleged election to the White House is crumbling.

The latest critical confirmation of key indicators that the election of 2004 was stolen comes in an extremely powerful, penetrating report from the General Accounting Office that has gotten virtually no mainstream media coverage.

The government’s lead investigative agency is known for its general incorruptibility and its through, in-depth analyses. Its concurrence with assertions widely dismissed as “conspiracy theories” adds crucial new weight to the case that Team Bush has no legitimate business being in the White House.

Nearly a year ago, senior Judiciary Committee Democrat John Conyers
(D-MI) asked the GAO to investigate electronic voting machines as they were used during the November 2, 2004 presidential election.

The request came amidst widespread complaints in Ohio and elsewhere that often shocking irregularities defined their performance.

According to CNN, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee received “more than 57,000 complaints” following Bush’s alleged re-election. Many such concerns were memorialized under oath in a series of sworn statements and affidavits in public hearings and investigations conducted in Ohio by the Free Press and other election protection organizations.

The non-partisan GAO report has now found that, “some of [the] concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes.”

The United States is the only major democracy that allows private partisan corporations to secretly count and tabulate the votes with proprietary non-transparent software. Rev. Jesse Jackson, among others, has asserted that “public elections must not be conducted on privately-owned machines.” The CEO of one of the most crucial suppliers of electronic voting machines, Warren O’Dell of Diebold, pledged before the 2004 campaign to deliver Ohio and thus the presidency to George W. Bush.

Bush’s official margin of victory in Ohio was just 118,775 votes out of more than 5.6 million cast. Election protection advocates argue that O’Dell’s statement still stands as a clear sign of an effort, apparently successful, to steal the White House. Among other things, the GAO confirms that:

1. Some electronic voting machines “did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, thus making it possible to alter them without detection.” In other words, the GAO now confirms that electronic voting machines provided an open door to flip an entire vote count. More than 800,000 votes were cast in Ohio on electronic voting machines, some seven times Bush’s official margin of victory.

2. “It is easy to alter a file defining how a ballot appears, making it possible for someone to vote for one candidate and actually be recorded as voting for an entirely different candidate.” Numerous sworn statements and affidavits assert that this did happen in Ohio 2004.

3. “Falsifying election results without leaving any evidence of such an action by using altered memory cards” can easily be done, according to the GAO.

4. The GAO also confirms that “access to the voting network was easily compromised because not all digital recording electronic voting systems (DREs) had supervisory functions password-protected, so access to one machine provided access to the whole network.

“ This critical finding confirms that rigging the 2004 vote did not require a “widespread conspiracy” but rather the cooperation of a very small number of operatives with the power to tap into the networked machines and thus change large numbers of votes at will. With 800,000 votes cast on electronic machines in Ohio, flipping the number needed to give Bush 118,775 could be easily done by just one programmer.

5. Access “to the voting network was also compromised by repeated use of the same user IDs combined with easily guessed passwords,” says the GAO. So even relatively amateur hackers could have gained access to and altered the Ohio vote tallies.

6. “The locks protecting access to the system were easily picked and keys were simple to copy,” says the GAO, meaning, again, getting into the system was an easy matter.

7. “One DRE model was shown to have been networked in such a rudimentary fashion that a power failure on one machine would cause the entire network to fail,” says the GAO, re-emphasizing the fragility of the system on which the Presidency of the United States was decided.

8. “GAO identified further problems with the security protocols and background screening practices for vendor personnel,” confirming still more easy access to the system. In essence, the GAO study makes it clear that no bank, grocery store or mom & pop chop shop would dare operate its business on a computer system as flimsy, fragile and easily manipulated as the one on which the 2004 election turned. The GAO findings are particularly damning when set in the context of an election run in Ohio by a Secretary of State simultaneously working as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign. Far from what election theft skeptics have long asserted, the GAO findings confirm that the electronic network on which 800,000 Ohio votes were cast was vulnerable enough to allow a tiny handful of operatives—or less -

* to turn the whole vote count using personal computers operating on relatively simple software. The GAO documentation flows alongside other
crucial realities surrounding the 2004 vote count. For example:

* The exit polls showed Kerry winning in Ohio, until an unexplained last minute shift gave the election to Bush. Similar definitive shifts also occurred in Iowa, Nevada and New Mexico, a virtual statistical impossibility.

* A few weeks prior to the election, an unauthorized former ES&S voting machine company employee, was caught on the ballot-making machine in Auglaize County

* Election officials in Mahoning County now concede that at least 18 machines visibly transferred votes for Kerry to Bush. Voters who pushed Kerry’s name saw Bush’s name light up, again and again, all day long. Officials claim the problems were quickly solved, but sworn statements and affidavits say otherwise. They confirm similar problems in Franklin County (Columbus). Kerry’s margins in both counties were suspiciously low.

* A voting machine in Mahoning County recorded a negative 25 million votes for Kerry. The problem was allegedly fixed.

* In Gahanna Ward 1B, at a fundamentalist church, a so- called “electronic transfer glitch” gave Bush nearly 4000 extra votes when only 638 people voted at that polling place. The tally was allegedly corrected, but remains infamous as the “loaves and fishes” vote count.

* In Franklin County, dozens of voters swore under oath that their vote for Kerry faded away on the DRE without a paper trail.

* In Miami County, at 1:43am after Election Day, with the county’s central tabulator reporting 100% of the vote - 19,000 more votes mysteriously arrived; 13,000 were for Bush at the same percentage as prior to the additional votes, a virtual statistical impossibility.

* In Cleveland, large, entirely implausible vote totals turned up for obscure third party candidates in traditional Democratic African- American wards. Vote counts in neighboring wards showed virtually no votes for those candidates, with 90% going instead for Kerry.

* Prior to one of Blackwell’s illegitimate “show recounts,” technicians from Triad voting machine company showed up unannounced at the Hocking County Board of Elections and removed the computer hard drive.

* In response to official information requests, Shelby and other counties admit to having discarded key records and equipment before any recount could take place.

* In a conference call with Rev. Jackson, Attorney Cliff Arnebeck, Attorney Bob Fitrakis and others, John Kerry confirmed that he lost every precinct in New Mexico that had a touchscreen voting machine. The losses had no correlation with ethnicity, social class or traditional party affiliation---only with the fact that touchscreen machines were used.

* In a public letter, Rep. Conyers has stated that “by and large, when it comes to a voting machine, the average voter is getting a lemon the Ford Pinto of voting technology. We must demand better.” But the GAO report now confirms that electronic voting machines as deployed in 2004 were in fact perfectly engineered to allow a very small number of partisans with minimal computer skills and equipment to shift enough votes to put George W. Bush back in the White House. Given the growing body of evidence, it appears increasingly clear that’s exactly what happened. Source: The Free Press http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1529

For specifics on voting machine fraud, read summary at http://www.heartcom.org/22reasons.htm


Half the problem is denial of the problem. Now that you know better, do better. Network far and wide so that TRUTH WILL PREVAIL. ”Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.”—Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)


Informant: Milo

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/07/the-old-law-myth/


Informant: Milo

Only weeks after the Supreme Court declared illegal the Bush Administration’s military commissions — which were set up to try and convict detainees held indefinitely without basic due process protections — the White House and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales are pushing Congress on an illegal proposal that violates the Supreme Court’s decision and abandons the rule of law.

The Bush plan would ask Congress to rubber-stamp these illegal commissions, effectively reversing the Supreme Court decision. It would also violate the Geneva Conventions, which were ratified by Congress, taking away the most basic process protections from detainees who are being held indefinitely. Don’t let the White House strong-arm Congress and the Supreme Court.
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=C6tAnCA7NCZR9hFYYQ2XzA..

Go to http://action.aclu.org/tribunals to send a message to your Senators and Representative that the United States must abide by the Geneva Conventions and uphold American values of due process.

Specifically, the White House proposal would:

* Gut the enforceability of important Geneva Convention protections

* Allow the use of evidence obtained through coercion, including horrific abuse

* Sanction convictions based on secret evidence

* Bar a defendant from being present at his or her own trial

* Allow the use of hearsay evidence

During Senate hearings yesterday, even the Pentagon’s top military lawyers agreed that no one should be convicted based on secret evidence and that every defendant has the right to be present at his own trial. They also made clear that coerced evidence — such as “confessions” beaten out of witnesses — has no place in any trial.

Your Senators and Representatives need to hear from you that Americans want the rule of law restored. Tell them that any legislation on criminal trials of detainees being held indefinitely must protect the Geneva Conventions and maintain basic due process protections respected by all Americans.

Take action now at http://action.aclu.org/tribunals

Tell Congress that it should not take away the protections of the Geneva Conventions and basic American values like due process when trying detainees being held indefinitely by the federal government.

Thank you for taking action today.

Sincerely,

Signature

Caroline Fredrickson
Director, Washington Legislative Office
American Civil Liberties Union

A bill approved last week in the House of Representatives promises to raise the federal minimum wage, but one obscure provision has some worried that the purported wage hike actually amounts to a back door pay cut for millions of low-income workers.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080306LB.shtml

Dirty water and contaminated fish in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries pose a public health threat, but spotty monitoring and tourism industry worries could block the public from learning the full picture.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080306HA.shtml

Reporters vs. the White House
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306T.shtml

Yet another sordid chapter in the murky annals of Halliburton might well lead to the indictment of Dick Cheney by a French court on charges of bribery, money-laundering and misuse of corporate assets.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040112/ireland


From Information Clearing House

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has pressed Congress to refine the definition of war crimes prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, as the Bush administration and lawmakers continue to debate the rules for treatment and trials of terrorism suspects.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/03/news/detain.php


From Information Clearing House

Four US soldiers accused of killing three Iraqi prisoners refused to give evidence as a military hearing heard that one of the captives' brains were blown out as he lay injured.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14345.htm



US probe suggests coverup in Iraqi shootings

Military investigators believe that there is enough evidence to suggest that members of a Marine Corps unit deliberately gunned down 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha last year, and that their commanders tried to cover it up.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14347.htm



Iraq war’s hidden toll: civilians killed accidentally by U.S. troops

Americans have scant idea of how often such episodes occur. The Pentagon releases no figures on Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. fire. Each of these unsung civilian deaths creates enmity toward U.S. troops from the friends, family and tribe of the dead.

http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=12833


From Information Clearing House



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

The head of the U.S. Central Command on Thursday said sectarian violence in Baghdad was as bad as he has ever seen and could lead to a civil war.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060803/ts_nm/iraq_civilwar_abizaid_dc


From Information Clearing House



British diplomat warns of Iraq civil war

A confidential report from Britain’s outgoing ambassador to Iraq warned the country is sliding toward civil war and is likely to divide eventually along ethnic lines, according to a news report Thursday.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14344.htm

...GOOGLE MORE:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=OPEN+VOTING...DIEBOLD+FRAUD+EXPLAINED&spell=1


Source: http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=103430;show_parent=1

http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/salon027.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

Today Comcast - the nation's largest cable company - announced they would broadcast ImpeachPAC's TV ad criticizing Joe Lieberman in advance of Tuesday's primary in Connecticut.

There is one simple reason why they changed their minds - because HUNDREDS of you called Comcast's President, Brian Roberts, and politely asked Comcast to support the First Amendment.

YOU made the difference. THANK YOU!!!

Our ad was meant to have an impact, but some thought it was confusing. So we produced a shorter ad that packs a more direct punch.

It's called "Lie and Die" and you can watch it here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=FV6Fbgp3J-s

The ad features lies by Bush, Cheney, and Lieberman. Each lie is separated by a photo of an Iraqi child who has died because of these lies. It then quotes John Kerry as he declares, "Our policy is not 'cut and run.' Their policy is 'lie and die.'"

And it concludes with a simple question about Joe Lieberman: "6 More Years?"

That's the choice Connecticut voters will make on Tuesday. And it will be a truly historic choice.

If you know any Connecticut Democratic voters, please forward this message to them and ask them to watch our ad - YOUR ad. http://youtube.com/watch?v=FV6Fbgp3J-s

Ask them if they want "6 More Years" of George Bush's single most important ally - Joe Lieberman.

If they can't decide, help them make the right choice. Because this vote won't affect only Connecticut - it will affect our nation and our whole world.

If you'd like to help us reach more Connecticut voters with our ad, please contribute here: http://www.actblue.com/page/impeachpac3

And if you live in or near Connecticut, please help Ned Lamont directly with his final push: http://www.nedlamont.com/page/content/finalpush/

Thank you for all you do.

Bob Fertik,
President ImpeachPAC.org Democrats.com



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

I just received this to my email. If you haven't signed it, I urge you to sign it today. Thanks for supporting the cause. If you have already signed, please disregard it.

Suzanne

Sign petition to keep wilderness free from war on wildlife(DUE 8/7/06) http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/PEER/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=4880

In June 2006, the U.S. Forest Service proposed a rule with sweeping changes that dramatically increase the conditions under which predators may be killed in federally designated wilderness areas and on Forest Service research natural areas.

It would allow previously banned cyanide guns, predator control by interested individuals rather than a federal agency and increased motorized access for hunting in wilderness areas.

The deadline for public comments is August 7, please sign the petition today!

Comparing "Vietnamization" to "Iraqification," Judith Coburn writes: "One of the great, failed, unspeakably cynical, blood-drenched policies of the Vietnam era, whose carnage I witnessed as a reporter in Cambodia and Vietnam, was being dusted off for our latest disaster of an imperial war. Some kind of brutal regression was upon us. It was the return of the repressed or reverse evolution."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306D.shtml

The White House and Congress, caught unaware by Fidel Castro's illness, prepared Wednesday for a possible showdown in Cuba as lawmakers drafted legislation that would give millions of dollars to dissidents who fight for democratic change.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306B.shtml

The military's top uniformed lawyers, appearing at a Senate hearing yesterday, criticized key provisions of a proposed new US plan for special military courts, affirming that they did not see eye to eye with the senior Bush administration political appointees who developed the plan and presented it to them last week.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306A.shtml

The Army has begun training the oldest recruits in its history, the result of a concerted effort to fill ranks depleted during the Iraq war. In June, five months after it raised the enlistment age limit from 35 to just shy of 40, the Army raised it to just under 42.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306P.shtml

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the US government could "indefinitely" hold foreign 'enemy combatants' at sites like the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.


http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306O.shtml



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

"The Justice Department is giving the impression that it is less concerned that elections be lawful and fair than that they come out a particular way," writes the New York Times Editorial Board.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306N.shtml

"This is the way it's supposed to work: A law makes its way through both houses of Congress and lands on the president's desk. He signs it and it's the law. Or he vetoes it and the veto can be overturned by a super-majority of Congress," write Barb Guy. "Those were the days. It's no longer that simple. President Bush doesn't even inform Congress when a signing statement precedes his signature."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306M.shtml

Britain's outgoing ambassador to Iraq has advised his government that the country is more likely headed to "low intensity civil war" and sectarian partition than to a stable democracy.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306K.shtml

Carlos Arredondo spends most of his days traveling up and down the East Coast with a flag-draped coffin. He takes it to parades and protests, schools and state fairs. Today it's in front of the Russell Senate Building, next to 78 pair of combat boots representing the number of US troops killed since June 15, when Congress voted to "stay the course" in Iraq.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306J.shtml

AN application for a phone mast in West Watford has prompted opposition from residents.

T-Mobile is proposing to install one on the roof of Rembrandt House in Whippendell Road, directly opposite the home of Dr Claire Scott and David Scott.

The couple, who live in Oakhurst Place, say the mast will be unsightly, and suggest T-Mobile shares the Vodaphone antenna already on Rembrandt House, or one of the other installations in the area instead.

They also suggest that masts could be concealed in the roof of the building, as the T-Mobile installation at the Shell garage, in Rickmansworth Road, appears to have been.

They also raised concerns about the mast's impact on health.

Chairman of the council's planning committee, Councillor Alan Burtenshaw said the installation of the mast could be blocked on aesthetic grounds, if it was thought to be visually intrusive.

He said however, the council had lost a planning appeal after opposing a mast on health grounds, because there is no proof they are detrimental to people's health.

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

He said: "The situation is that, whereas most people like being able to use mobile phones, they don't like the masts that go with them."

He said building owners can decide not to have masts on their property, just as the council has decided not to have any on the Town Hall, because it is a locally listed building.

The planning application is expected to come before the council's planning committee in September.

Readers interested in the location of mobile phone masts can visit www.sitefinder.radio.gov.uk, to see where local masts are.

T-Mobile were unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

© Copyright 2001-2006 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.864232.0.residents_unhappy_with_phone_mast_plan.php

Vier Atomkraftwerke abgeschaltet: Beinahe-Unfall im schwedischen Atomkraftwerk Forsmark-1 (03.08.06)

Im schwedischen Atomkraftwerk Forsmark-1 ist es am 26. Juli offenbar beinahe zu einem Unfall gekommen. Wie die atomkritische Ärzteorganisation IPPNW mitteite, führte nach den bislang vorliegenden Informationen ein Lichtbogen und ein Kurzschluss außerhalb des Vattenfall-Atomkraftwerks dazu, dass es zu einer Trennung des Kraftwerks vom Stromnetz kam. Danach sei es auch zum Versagen der Stromversorgung des Atomkraftwerks durch den kraftwerks-eigenen Generator gekommen. Damit sei "der gefürchtete Notstromfall" eingetreten, so dass die Stromversorgung der wichtigsten Sicherheitssysteme durch die Notstromdiesel-Aggregate hätten gewährleistet werden müssen. Zwei Dieselaggregate seien allerdings nicht automatisch angesprungen, da es in der Kraftwerkssteuerung zu so genannten Überspannungen gekommen sei. Lars-Olov Höglund, der als langjähriger Chef der Konstruktionsabteilung des schwedischen Vattenfall-Konzerns für deren Atomkraftwerk in Forsmark zuständig war und den Reaktor gut kennt, kommentierte: "Es war ein reiner Zufall, dass es zu keiner Kernschmelze kam." Wäre der Reaktor nur sieben Minuten länger nicht unter Kontrolle gewesen, wäre die Katastrophe laut Höglund nicht mehr aufzuhalten gewesen. "Das ist die gefährlichste Geschichte seit Harrisburg und Tschernobyl", erklärte er am Mittwoch im Stockholmer Svenska Dagbladet. Die IPPNW verweist auf einen Notstromfall im deutschen Atomkraftwerk Biblis B, der "Parallelen" zu den Geschehnissen in Schweden aufweise.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14150

The first step for organic consumers to make long-term positive changes, is to know where our elected public officials and their challengers stand on the key issues of health, justice, and sustainability. After we know where they stand, we'll know who deserves our support and who needs to be removed from office. Next week, in conjunction with our lobbying ally, the Organic Consumers Fund (OCF), we will email you the Organic Consumers 2006 Political Candidate Survey. This Survey will help you identify candidates seeking office in 2006 who are willing to shift government resources from our current self-destructive path toward a healthy, greener and re-localized economy, a stabilized climate, a more democratic media and electoral process, and peace and justice--with organic agriculture and Fair Trade leading the way.

The Organic Consumers Candidate Survey will tell us who supports the following New Directions:

* Adequate funds for American farmers to make the transition to organic

* Universal health care with a focus on prevention, complementary medicine, and good nutrition

* 80% greenhouse gas reductions

* Increased access for low-income communities to organic information and food

* Internet freedom

* Publicly funded elections, and a guaranteed paper trail for electronic voting

* A thorough re-localization and greening of the economy, transferring funds from the current annual $500 billion military budget

For a sneak preview of the 2006 Candidate Survey, click here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_1387.cfm. If you are willing to help us circulate this Candidate Survey via email to the campaign organizations of politicians in your area and state (including Congressional candidates) please email us here: volunteer@organicconsumers.org

By Chris Johnson

RESIDENTS are furious after the Government vetoed a council's decision to reject the installation of a phone mast.

Greenwich Council twice declined phone company T-Mobile's application to install an 11.7m 3G mast in Rochester Way, Eltham.

But the phone giant appealed against the council's decision last year and now the Government's Planning Inspectorate has approved the application.

Residents and councillors are concerned the mast will be an eyesore next to Oxleas Woods a site of special scientific interest.

The council received letters of objection in response to both proposals, which were submitted in April and then August last year.

Chris Rusher, of Crookston Road, says the Planning Inspectorate did not listen to residents' views in making its decision.

He said: "It's shocking not just our objections but also Greenwich Council's decisions seem to have been completely ignored.

"I am also deeply concerned as my wife is pregnant and it's a worry a developing child will have to needlessly live about 100m from this mast."

Conservative Eltham north Councillor Spencer Drury has been fighting the proposal since the first application.

He said: "This mast is being built at the bottom of green, beautiful land and it will undoubtedly spoil it.

"The council knew this wasn't right for the area so how can it be some faceless inspector can allow this to happen?"

Eltham MP Clive Efford has written to T-Mobile demanding a meeting to see if the company will move the mast's position eastwards so it is hidden behind trees.

Greenwich Council says it will not appeal the Planning Inspectorate's decision.

The Planning Inspectorate's inspector, Jonathan Bore, said the application had been approved to "remedy a shortfall in 3G coverage" and said the impact on Oxleas Woods would "not be significant".

He added: "I have considered all the representations and all the matters raised by the objectors. I consider the proposed scheme is entirely acceptable on its own merits."

T-Mobile was unavailable for comment.

© Copyright 2001-2006 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/lewgreennews/display.var.859318.0.anger_as_mobile_mast_goes_ahead.php

As July temperatures soared, the number of unhealthy days did too from coast to coast. Southern California had the worst air quality.

By Janet Wilson
Times Staff Writer
August 3, 2006

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-heatsmog3aug03,1,2599988.story

July's scorching heat wave created a "blanket of smog" from California to Maine, with the number of unhealthy days up from last year in 38 states, according to data compiled by a watchdog group.

Public health standards for ozone smog were exceeded more than 1,000 times at official air pollution monitors last month, according to Clean Air Watch. The trend could continue this week with record-breaking temperatures in many parts of the country.

"California by far has had the worst air quality. But we are even seeing problems at some unusual places — a lot in Colorado, some in Washington state and Oregon, even Martha's Vineyard," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, which had volunteers review government data.

Southern California once again had the highest smog levels in the nation. The worst single day — an average of 142 parts per billion — was July 25 at Crestline in the San Bernardino Mountains. The worst single hour, at
175 ppb, was on July 22 in Glendora.

The federal government has set safe limits at 85 ppb; California has a tougher standard of 70 ppb. Above those levels, senior citizens, infants, asthma sufferers and others can experience serious health problems, according to scientific studies.

"This is not a freak thing. This is a horrifically hot summer … and it's hazardous to your health," said William Becker, executive director of a national association of local air quality officials. "The conditions for creating smog and unhealthy air are extremely ripe … and it's vitally important EPA take swift and aggressive actions, including regulating locomotives and marine vessels … which in the next 10 or 15 years are going to be the predominant source of smog."

Air quality advocates said the heat wave was perfect for producing peak smog levels, and they warned that reductions in smog in past decades could be eroded by global warming.

Ozone is a colorless pollutant formed when heat and sunlight "cook" nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds from vehicles and industrial sources.

"Long-term we have made improvements … but this heat wave and the accompanying smog is a very graphic reminder that we still have a significant problem," O'Donnell said. "Unless we start getting serious about global warming, predicted temperature increases in global temperatures could mean continued smog problems in the future. And that will mean more asthma attacks, disease and death." EPA spokesman John Millett did not dispute the survey findings, although he noted that the group analyzed raw data from government monitors that still needed to be verified.

"We've had some awful, hot weather," he said, with conditions "some of the worst we've seen for the formation of ozone in a number of years."

But Millett said, "If we'd experienced these same conditions 10 years ago, we would be having much more severe air quality problems…. Ozone pollution concentrations have declined about 20% since 1980" due to regulation of power plants, car fuel and other measures.

He said even if temperatures continued to rise in coming years, new programs to control emissions from diesel trucks and farming equipment, and requiring cleaner diesel fuel would help reduce smog levels further.

He said a new rule to regulate marine vessels and locomotives was expected by year's end, and added that technological challenges in developing equipment had delayed its implementation.

Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said the agency needed as much help as possible from the federal government to reach legal smog levels by a 2021 deadline.

He said Crestline often experiences the state's highest smog levels because it catches ozone from across the Los Angeles Basin as it is blown inland by marine breezes and trapped by the mountains.

Glendora, he said, "is a bit more of a throwback." He noted that the city had high smog levels in the 1990s, but since fuels had been improved, it usually took longer for fumes to swirl through hot air to form smog — meaning smog now usually develops farther inland. He said he didn't know why the city would have had the highest hourly reading last month.

Other major metropolitan areas with high smog days included New York; Philadelphia; Washington; Baltimore; Atlanta; Denver; Dallas; Houston; Salt Lake City; San Diego; Sacramento; St. Louis; New Haven, Conn.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Baton Rouge, La.

[foto] The Eastern Seaboard and parts of the Midwest broiled Wednesday under excessive heat that strained power grids and taxed patience. Lifeguards sit above a sea of umbrellas on the beach at Coney Island, where New Yorkers fled to escape temperatures of 102 degrees (Jason Decrow / AP) August 2, 2006



Informant: binstock

Ice in Southeast vanishing twice as fast as expected

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/080206/loc_20060802017.shtml

The glaciers of Southeast Alaska are shrinking twice as quickly as scientists had previously estimated, according to a new study.

The findings from Fairbanks and Juneau glaciologists are slated for publication in a leading scientific journal.

During a 52-year period, the Panhandle lost ice in 95 percent of its glacier-covered areas, said Roman Motyka, of Juneau, one of the study's co-authors.

The scientists participating in the study pinpointed the amount of ice loss by analyzing changes in the elevation of Southeast Alaska's glaciers between 1948 and 2000.

Their measurements show Southeast Alaska lost an average of roughly 14.6 cubic kilometers of ice per year during that time period.

A cubic kilometer roughly equates to 264 billion gallons of water - about a quarter more than Los Angeles consumes in one year, according to estimates by NASA.

"It's a pretty substantial loss of ice," Motyka said, noting the melting of Panhandle glaciers raised global sea levels by roughly 0.4 millimeters per year. In all of the years combined, Panhandle ice loss caused the world's oceans to rise roughly 2.4 millimeters, according to the study.

Scientists involved in the study said this week the Panhandle's ice reservoirs have retreated more drastically during the past couple of years.

The study's lead author, Chris Larsen, also of the Geophysical Institute, plans further measurements this month at Panhandle glaciers, ranging from Petersburg's Stikine Icefield to the St. Elias Mountain Range.

Scientists aren't the only ones noticing the wastage of most of the Panhandle's glaciers.

Juneau residents and tourists visit the retreating Mendenhall Glacier daily. Some of the most dramatic ice losses in the Panhandle are underway at lake-terminating glaciers, such as the Mendenhall, fed by the Juneau Icefield, according to the study.

"I just few over the Juneau Icefield three days ago. I was absolutely shocked by how dry and shrunken it looked," said Nick Jans, a Juneau author, on Tuesday.

Further to the south, the amount of ice loss at Tracy Arm's South Sawyer Glacier is "not even conceivable," said Juneau photographer Mark Kelley.

Kelley has photographed the glacier for the past 25 years and recently collaborated with Jans on a 40-page book about Tracy Arm's glaciers. In
2004, the South Sawyer Glacier retreated approximately one-half mile, clogging the water with icebergs.

"Just think about that volume. The glacier was 1,100 feet thick and a mile across," Kelley said.

Motyka is concerned a runaway process - initially triggered by climate warming but now controlled by glacial calving dynamics - may already be underway in Southeast Alaska.

More of the same could be in store for world's other coastal glaciers, he said.

"We have a lot of ice (in Southeast Alaska), but Greenland has more," Motyka said.

In Greenland, Motyka and other Geophysical Institute scientists are attempting to learn how dramatic loss of ice at the base of a large tidewater glacier, the Jakobshavn, is affecting the ice sheet at the top.

"I worry that these (tidewater) glaciers will bring down the ice sheet, no matter what happens with climate," Motyka said.

"If Greenland goes unstable, a lot more water will be going into the ocean. This could cause problems with ocean currents," Motyka explained.

The Panhandle study - now under review by third-party scientists - is the first to measure ice loss at all major Panhandle glaciers.

The study measured changes in glacial elevation at 74 individual glaciers. "It's total coverage," Larsen said.

A previous study, published in 2002, profiled ice loss at 12 glaciers in Southeast Alaska. When those results were extrapolated to the rest of the Panhandle, the result was a significant underestimate of regional ice loss, Motyka said.

The new study was enabled by a 2000 NASA Endeavour space shuttle project called the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission. Among other duties, the shuttle mission produced a new three-dimensional radar map of Southeast Alaska.

Motyka and his colleagues collected the NASA maps and compared them to topographical maps and high-resolution photographs of Southeast Alaska dating back to 1948.

After final revision, a paper describing the Panhandle study will be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Elizabeth Bluemink can be reached at elizabeth.bluemink@juneauempire.com

[foto] Brian Wallace / Juneau Empire A landmark in retreat: Tourists, above, look Tuesday at the Mendenhall Glacier, which has retreated about three quarters of a mile since the summer of 1982, shown below. The glacier partially covered Nugget Falls 24 years ago. A new study shows glaciers in Southeast Alaska are shrinking twice as fast as previously estimated.


Informant: binstock

By SETH BORENSTEIN
The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 2, 2006; 7:10 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/02/AR2006080201229.html

WASHINGTON -- America in recent years has been sweltering through three times more than its normal share of extra-hot summer nights, government weather records show. And that is a particularly dangerous trend.

During heat waves, like the one that now has a grip on much of the East, one of the major causes of heat deaths is the lack of night cooling that would normally allow a stressed body to recover, scientists say.

Some scientists say the trend is a sign of manmade global warming.

A top federal research meteorologist said he "almost fell out of my chair" when he looked over U.S. night minimum temperature records over the past
96 years and saw the skyrocketing trend of hot summer nights.

From 2001 to 2005, on average nearly 30 percent of the nation had "much above normal" average summertime minimum temperatures, according to the National Climatic Data in Asheville, N.C.

By definition, "much above normal" means low temperatures that are in the highest 10 percent on record. On any given year about 10 percent of the country should have "much above normal" summer-night lows.

Yet in both 2005 and 2003, 36 percent of the nation had much above normal summer minimums. In 2002 it was 37 percent. While the highest-ever figure was in the middle of America's brutal Dust Bowl, when 41 percent of the nation had much above normal summer-night temperatures, the rolling five-year average of 2001-05 is a record - by far.

Figures from this year's sweltering summer have not been tabulated yet, but they are expected to be just as high as recent years.

And it is not just the last five years. Each of the past eight years has been far above the normal 10 percent. During the past decade, 23 percent of the nation has had hot summer nights. During the past 15 years, that average has been 20 percent. By comparison, from 1964 to 1968 only 2 percent of the country on average had abnormally hot nights.

"This is unbelievable," said National Climatic Data Center research meteorologist Richard Heim. "Something strange has happened in the last 10 to 15 years on the minimums."

But it is not surprising because climate models, used to forecast global warming, have been predicting this trend for more than 20 years, said Jerry Mahlman, a climate scientist at National Center for Atmospheric Research and a top federal climate modeler.

It is a telltale sign of global warming, Mahlman said: "The smoking gun is still smoking; it's not shooting people yet."

One reason global warming is suspected in summer-night temperatures is that daytime air pollution slightly counteracts warming but is not as prevalent at night, said Bill Chameides, a climate scientist for the advocacy group Environmental Defense.

The records for summer-night low temperatures are part of a U.S. Climate Extremes Index developed by the National Climatic Data Center. Last year, in large part because of record hurricane activity, saw the most extreme weather in the United States since 1910.


On the Net:

U.S. Climate Extreme Index: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cei/cei.html

© 2006 The Associated Press


Informant: binstock

A Chemical Imbalance

By Usha Lee McFarling
Times Staff Writer
August 3, 2006

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-ocean3aug03,1,3902653,full.story

As she stared down into a wide-mouthed plastic jar aboard the R/V Discoverer, Victoria Fabry peered into the future.

The marine snails she was studying — graceful creatures with wing-like feet that help them glide through the water — had started to dissolve.

Fabry was taken aback. The button-sized snails, called pteropods, are hardy animals that swirl in dense patches in some of the world's coldest seas. In 20 years of studying the snails, a vital ingredient in the polar food supply, the marine biologist from Cal State San Marcos had never seen such damage.

In a brief experiment aboard the federal research vessel plowing through rough Alaskan seas, the pteropods were sealed in jars. The carbon dioxide they exhaled made the water inside more acidic. Though slight, this change in water chemistry ravaged the snails' translucent shells. After 36 hours, they were pitted and covered with white spots.

The one-liter jars of seawater were a microcosm of change now occurring invisibly throughout the world's vast, open seas.

As industrial activity pumps massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the environment, more of the gas is being absorbed by the oceans. As a result, seawater is becoming more acidic, and a variety of sea creatures await the same dismal fate as Fabry's pteropods.

The greenhouse gas, best known for accumulating in the atmosphere and heating the planet, is entering the ocean at a rate of nearly 1 million tons per hour — 10 times the natural rate.

Scientists report that the seas are more acidic today than they have been in at least 650,000 years. At the current rate of increase, ocean acidity is expected, by the end of this century, to be 2 1/2 times what it was before the Industrial Revolution began 200 years ago. Such a change would devastate many species of fish and other animals that have thrived in chemically stable seawater for millions of years.

Less likely to be harmed are algae, bacteria and other primitive forms of life that are already proliferating at the expense of fish, marine mammals and corals.

In a matter of decades, the world's remaining coral reefs could be too brittle to withstand pounding waves. Shells could become too fragile to protect their occupants. By the end of the century, much of the polar ocean is expected to be as acidified as the water that did such damage to the pteropods aboard the Discoverer.

Some marine biologists predict that altered acid levels will disrupt fisheries by melting away the bottom rungs of the food chain — tiny planktonic plants and animals that provide the basic nutrition for all living things in the sea.

Fabry, who recently testified on the issue before the U.S. Senate, told policymakers that the effects on marine life could be "direct and profound."

"The potential is there to have a devastating impact," Fabry said, "for the oceans to be very, very different in the near future than they are today."

The oceans have been a natural sponge for carbon dioxide from time immemorial. Especially after calamities such as asteroid strikes, they have acted as a global safety valve, soaking up excess CO2 and preventing catastrophic overheating of the planet.

If not for the oceans, the Earth would have warmed by 2 degrees instead of
1 over the last century, scientists say. Glaciers would be disappearing faster than they are, droughts would be more widespread and rising sea levels would be more pronounced.

When carbon dioxide is added to the ocean gradually, it does little harm. Some of it is taken up during photosynthesis by microscopic plants called phytoplankton. Some of it is used by microorganisms to build shells. After their inhabitants die, the empty shells rain down on the seafloor in a kind of biological snow. The famed white cliffs of Dover are made of this material.

Today, however, the addition of carbon dioxide to the seas is anything but gradual.

Scientists estimate that nearly 500 billion tons of the gas have been absorbed by the oceans since the start of the Industrial Revolution. That is more than a fourth of all the CO2 that humanity has emitted into the atmosphere. Eventually, 80% of all human-generated carbon dioxide is expected to find its way into the sea.

Carbon dioxide moves freely between air and sea in a process known as molecular diffusion. The exchange occurs in a film of water at the surface. Carbon dioxide travels wherever concentrations are lowest. If levels in the atmosphere are high, the gas goes into the ocean. If they are higher in the sea, as they have been for much of the past, the gas leaves the water and enters the air.

If not for the CO2 pumped into the skies in the last century, more of the gas would leave the sea than would enter it.

"We have reversed that direction," said Ken Caldeira, an expert on ocean chemistry and carbon dioxide at the Carnegie Institution's department of global ecology, based at Stanford University.

When carbon dioxide mixes with seawater, it creates carbonic acid, the weak acid in carbonated drinks.

Increased acidity reduces the abundance of the right chemical forms of a mineral called calcium carbonate, which corals and other sea animals need to build shells and skeletons. It also slows the growth of the animals within those shells.

Even slightly acidified seawater is toxic to the eggs and larvae of some fish species. In others, including amberjack and halibut, it can cause heart attacks, experiments show. Acidified waters also tend to asphyxiate animals that require a lot of oxygen, such as fast-swimming squid.

The pH scale, a measure of how acidic or alkaline a substance is, ranges from 1 to 14, with 7 being neutral. The lower the pH, the greater the acidity. Each number represents a tenfold change in acidity or alkalinity.

For more than a decade, teams led by Richard Feely, a chemical oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, have traveled from Antarctica to the Aleutian Islands, taking tens of thousands of water samples to gauge how the ocean's acidity is changing.

By comparing these measurements to past levels of carbon dioxide preserved in ice cores, the researchers determined that the average pH of the ocean surface has declined since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution by 0.1 units, from 8.16 to 8.05.

Geological records show that such a change has not occurred in 650,000 years, Feely said.

In April, Feely returned from a cruise to the North Pacific, where he took pH measurements at locations the team first sampled in 1991. This time, Feely's group found that the average pH in surface waters had dropped an additional 0.025 units in 15 years — a relatively large change for such a short time.

The measurements confirm those taken in the 1990s and indicate that forecasts of increased acidity are on target, Feely said.

If CO2 emissions continue at their current pace, the pH of the ocean is expected to dip to 7.9 or lower by the end of the century — a 150% change.

The last time ocean chemistry underwent such a radical transformation, Caldeira said, "was when the dinosaurs went extinct."

Until recently, the ocean was seen as a potential reservoir for greenhouse gases. Scientists explored the possibility that carbon dioxide could be trapped in smokestacks, compressed into a gooey liquid and piped directly into the deep sea.

Then the results of Jim Barry's experiments started trickling in.

A biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Barry wanted to know what would happen to sea creatures in the vicinity of a large dose of carbon dioxide.

He anchored a set of small plastic rings onto the seafloor to create an enclosure and sent a robot down to squirt liquid carbon dioxide into the surrounding water. Then he waited to see what would happen to animals in the enclosures and those that happened to swim through the CO2 cloud.

Sea stars, sea cucumbers and sea urchins died immediately. Eighty percent of animals within three feet of the carbon dioxide died. Animals 15 feet away also perished in large numbers.

"When they were adjacent to the CO2 plume, pretty much, it killed everything," Barry said.

Experiments in Germany, Norway and Japan produced similar results. The evidence persuaded the U.S. Department of Energy, which had spent $22 million on such research, including Barry's, to pull the plug . Instead, the department will study the possibility of storing carbon dioxide in the ground and on decreasing emissions at their source.

Scientists say the acidification of the oceans won't be arrested unless the output of CO2 from factories, power plants and automobiles is substantially reduced. Even now, the problem may be irreversible.

"One thing we know for certain is it's not going to be a good thing for the ocean," Barry said. "We just don't know how bad it will be."

Scientists predict the effect will be felt first in the polar oceans and at lower depths, because cold water absorbs more carbon dioxide than warm water. One area of immediate concern is the Bering Sea and other waters around Alaska, home to half of the commercial U.S. fish and shellfish catch.

Because of acidification, waters in the Bering Sea about 280 feet down are running short of the materials that corals and other animals need to grow shells and skeletons. These chemical building blocks are normally abundant at such depths. In coming decades, the impoverished zone is expected to reach closer to the surface. A great quantity of sea life would then be affected.

"I'm getting nervous about that," Feely said.

The first victims of acidification are likely to be cold-water corals that provide food, shelter and reproductive grounds for hundreds of species, including commercially valuable ones such as sea bass, snapper, ocean perch and rock shrimp.

By the end of the century, 70% of cold-water corals will be exposed to waters stripped of the chemicals required for sturdy skeletons, said John Guinotte, an expert on corals at the nonprofit Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Bellevue, Wash.

"I liken it to osteoporosis in humans," Guinotte said. "You just can't build a strong structure without the right materials."

Cold-water corals, which thrive in waters as deep as three miles, were discovered only two decades ago. They harbor sponges, which show promise as powerful anti-cancer and antiviral agents; the AIDS drug AZT was formulated using clues from a coral sponge. Scientists fear that these unique ecosystems may be obliterated before they can be fully utilized or appreciated.

Tropical corals will not be affected as quickly because they live in warmer waters that do not absorb as much carbon dioxide. But in 100 years, large tropical reefs — called rain forests of the sea because of their biodiversity — may survive only in patches near the equator.

"Twenty-five percent of all species in the ocean live part of their life cycle on coral reefs. We're afraid we're going to lose these habitats and these species," said Chris Langdon, a coral expert at the University of Miami who has conducted experiments showing that corals grow more slowly when exposed to acidified waters.

Warm-water corals are already dying at high rates as global warming heats oceans and causes corals to "bleach" — lose or expel the symbiotic algae that provide vivid color and nutrients necessary for survival. Pollution, trampling by tourists and dynamiting by fishermen also take a devastating toll. An estimated 20% of the world's corals have disappeared since 1980.

"Corals are getting squeezed from both ends," said Joanie Kleypas, a marine ecologist and coral expert at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

The question for scientists is whether living things will adapt to acidification. Will some animals migrate to warmer waters that don't lose shell-building minerals as quickly? Will some survive despite the new chemistry? Will complex marine food chains be harmed?

One laboratory experiment showed that a strain of shelled plankton thrived in higher CO2 conditions. But most research has shown that shelled animals and corals stop growing or are damaged.

"We put a lot of faith in the idea that organisms can adapt," Kleypas said, "but organisms have probably not evolved to handle these big changes."

The best analogy to what is occurring today is in the fossil records of a
55-million-year-old event known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, when the Earth underwent one of the most abrupt and extreme global warming events in history.

The average temperature of the planet rose 9 degrees because of an increase in greenhouse gases. Balmy 70-degree days were common in the Arctic. The sudden warming shifted entire ecosystems to higher and cooler latitudes and drove myriad ocean species to extinction.

Geologists agree that a great warming occurred as a result of greenhouse gases, but until recently were uncertain about the volume of gas involved or how much the acidity of the oceans changed.

James Zachos, a paleo-oceanographer at UC Santa Cruz, made an important discovery in 2003 by drilling into seabed sediments more than two miles beneath the ocean's surface. This muck contains layers of microscopic plankton shells. Their chemical composition reveals what ocean conditions were like when they formed.

Zachos' international team analyzed sediments from a series of cores taken from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean 750 miles west of Namibia. At the bottom of the cores, the team found normal sediments, rich in calcium carbonate from shells — the sign of a healthy ocean.

But higher up, at a point in geologic history when the last major global warming event occurred, the whitish, carbonate-rich ooze gave way to a dark red clay layer free of shells. That condition, the researchers concluded, was caused by a highly acidified ocean. This state of affairs lasted for 40,000 or 50,000 years. It took 60,000 years before the ocean recovered and the sediments appeared normal again.

In a paper published last year in the journal Science, Zachos' team concluded that only a massive release of carbon dioxide could have caused both extreme warming and acidification of ocean waters.

Zachos estimated that 4.5 trillion tons of carbon entered the atmosphere to trigger the event.

It could take modern civilization just 300 years to unleash the same quantity of carbon, according to a variety of projections by researchers.

"This will be a much greater shock," Zachos said. "The change in modern surface ocean pH will be much more extreme than it was 55 million years ago."

Times staff writer Kenneth R. Weiss contributed to this report.


Informant: binstock

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-oceans-series,0,7842752.special


Informant: binstock

Military prosecutors and investigators probing the killing of three Iraqi detainees by US troops in May believe the unit's commanders created an atmosphere of excessive violence by encouraging "kill counts" and possibly issuing an illegal order to shoot Iraqi men. At a military hearing Wednesday on the killing of the detainees near Samarra, witnesses painted a picture of a brigade that operated under loose rules allowing wanton killing and tolerating violent, anti-Arab racism.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306Z.shtml

The Nation
by John Nichols

When the votes are counted on August 8, the whole of the Connecticut primary, and much of the national debate over the direction of the Democratic Party, will be boiled down to a one-line pronouncement. It will either be 'Antiwar challenger trounces Lieberman' or 'Lieberman prevails over war foes.' The reduction of this complex contest to a headline may not be entirely fair, or entirely accurate. Yet it will be understandable, because to the surprise of just about everyone, the man Democrats nominated for Vice President in 2000 is in a fight for his political life with a previously unknown candidate who decided a few months ago to surf the wave of anger stirred by Lieberman's emergence as the loudest Democratic defender of the occupation of Iraq... (for publication 08/14/06)

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060814/nichols


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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

Christian Science Monitor
by Christopher Walker & Sanja Tatic

08/02/06

The difficult, ongoing battle to achieve governance that is effective, democratic, and responsive to ordinary citizens faces a particularly pernicious obstacle: entrenched corruption. A source or symptom of wider problems confronting society, corruption is both a barrier to strengthening democratic institutions and harmful to development. And while every country confronts this scourge to one degree or another, for transition countries whose democratic reforms hang in the balance, this is an especially critical challenge. In order to acquire a stronger understanding of the forces at work inhibiting the establishment of democratic governance, Freedom House's study of governance, 'Countries at the Crossroads,' examines 30 strategically important states around the globe that are struggling to consolidate democratic institutions...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0802/p09s02-coop.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Von ver.di bewertet: Eckpunkte zur Gesundheitsreform

In einer Synopse stellt ver.di die Vorhaben der Bundesregierung dar und gibt eine erste Bewertung ab (pdf) http://gesundheitspolitik.verdi.de/finanzierung/reform_2006/gesundheitsreform_2006/data/Eckpunkte%20zur%20Gesundheitsreform

Siehe dazu das ver.di-Special zur Gesundheitsreform 2006 http://gesundheitspolitik.verdi.de/finanzierung/reform_2006/gesundheitsreform_2006


Nützlicher Lärm

Gesundheitsfonds: Verdi und die Kassen haben den Protest begonnen. Aber er ist noch zu unpolitisch. Artikel von Michael Jäger in Freitag vom 4.8.06 http://www.freitag.de/2006/31/06310901.php


Protest gegen die Gesundheitsreform

Ulla Schmidt hat den Krankenkassen, die öffentlich und gegenüber ihren Mitgliedern Kritik an der Gesundheitsreform äußern will, „aufsichtsrechtliche“ Schritte angedroht. Jeder, der sozialversicherungspflichtig und in einem fest Beschäftigungsverhältnis steht, kann sich hier maßgeblich „unterstützend“ einschalten. Einfach (am Besten brieflich / per Email) der Kasse mitteilen, dass man sie wechselt, falls sie sich dem Diktat der Regierung fügt. Die Mitglieder haben so eine ziemlich gute und legale Möglichkeit “unterstützend“ einzuwirken. Siehe dazu einen Beispielbrief an die Krankenkasse http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/wipo/gesund/protest2006.html

Aus dem Text: „…ich begrüße es sehr, dass einige Krankenkasse beschlossen haben, die Interessen ihrer Mitglieder auch gegenüber der Regierung zu vertreten und die geplante sog. „Gesundheitsreform“ öffentlich zu kritisieren. (…) Ich kann auch anderen Sozialversicherungspflichtigen nur empfehlen, ihre weitere Mitgliedschaft in der jeweiligen Kasse auch davon abhängig zu machen, ob diese deren Interessen konsequent vertritt. Schließlich handelt es sich bei der geplanten sog. „Gesundheitsreform“ nicht um eine Auseinandersetzung zwischen Regierung und Verwaltung der Kassen, sondern um eine Auseinandersetzung zwischen jetziger Regierung und den Interessen der Krankenkassenmitglieder an einem günstigen und qualitativen Gesundheitswesen. In diesem Sinne, erwarte ich eine konsequente Vertretung meiner Interessen als Versicherter durch meine Krankenkasse – auch gegenüber der derzeit regierenden Politik.“


Zitat zum Thema „Gesundheitsfonds"

Wenn man von den bisherigen Erfahrungen mit Investmentfonds ausgeht, wird die Einrichtung eines Gesundheitsfonds in Deutschland folgende unwesentliche Änderungen bringen: Die Renditeversorgung für Kapitalanleger auf Rezept, die Verlagerung der kompletten ärztlichen Versorgung und der Kliniken nach Polen, China oder Thailand (bei gleichbleibend freier Arztwahl) – und die anschließende endgültige Abwicklung der letzten Reste der sozialen Gesundheitsvorsorge in Deutschland nach spätestens einem Jahr.“ Aus: Deutscher Einheit(z)-Textdienst von Werner Lutz 8/2006


Aus: LabourNet, 3. August 2006

Anton Kobel über das neue ver.di-Schwarzbuch zu Lidl in Europa
http://www.labournet.de/branchen/dienstleistung/eh/lidl_sbeu.html


Aus: LabourNet, 3. August 2006

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-kwiatkowski/drunk-on-power_b_26246.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

"House congressional candidates are ready to hit the campaign trail touting their vote in favor of the minimum wage. It's an appealing political strategy: 66 percent of minimum wage earners are women, the voting block that every candidate wants to sway. But this long overdue increase in the minimum wage comes at an unacceptably high price to women and families," writes Linda Basch.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080206WA.shtml

Dr. Gottlieb Is Not Happy

While discussing on NPR whether government science panels are fair and balanced, Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman described the exchange between Dr. Nissen, chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and Dr. Gottlieb, deputy commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs at the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Nissen blasted Dr. Gottlieb on the "imbalance of power between the FDA and industry."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080206HB.shtml

Global fresh water use tripled during the second half of the twentieth century as the population more than doubled and as technological advances let farmers and other water users pump groundwater from greater depths and harness river water with more and larger dams. As global demand soars, pressures on the world's water resources are straining aquatic systems worldwide.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080206EB.shtml

Unions representing thousands of staff scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency say the agency is bending to political pressure and ignoring sound science by allowing a group of toxic chemicals to be used in agricultural pesticides.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080206EA.shtml

Camp Casey in Crawford is more important than ever, now. Not only has this administration, with the eager approval of Congress, committed genocide on a massive scale, they are taking away our civil rights and our right to be heard and counted. We cannot allow these same leaders who accuse the peace movement of a political agenda to use our soldiers and the babies of Iraq as political game pieces in the folly of elections when there is so much overwhelming evidence that our elections have been compromised, and while election after election is stolen, no one does anything about it. It is up to us all, nobody else," urges Cindy Sheehan.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206S.shtml

After two internal inquiries evaluating a mission that had taken place in northern Iraq on May 9, Pfc. Corey Clagett and three other soldiers from the 3rd Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division expected to return to their duties without a stain on their characters. Three of the four have since been arrested, accused of premeditated murder, and placed in a US military jail in Kuwait. In their sworn affidavits, the three accused soldiers, along with others in the unit, say they received unusual but unequivocal rules of engagement for the task ahead. They say that they were given repeated and explicit orders to "kill all military-age males."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206R.shtml

An Indian non-governmental organisation says samples of Coca-Cola and Pepsi products are showing even worse levels of pesticides than in a previous study.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5239758.stm


From Information Clearing House

The White House is seeking legislation that would allow people not affiliated with terrorism to be prosecuted in military commissions -- with far fewer rights than afforded civilians.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/15176692.htm


From Information Clearing House

Washington decided that the Union of Islamic Courts was a threat, and in February CIA planes delivered large amounts of money and guns to the three warlords who dominated Mogadishu. They named themselves the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, and started trying to suppress the UIC.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14328.htm

The former chief of ISI, Maj. Gen (R) Hameed Gul has "predicted" that America would definitely attack Iran and Syria simultaneously in October.

http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=100487


From Information Clearing House

Col. Michael Steele, whose heroics were portrayed in the movie "Black Hawk Down," is under investigation for allegedly encouraging his men to go on a killing spree.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=nation_world&id=4423503


From Information Clearing House

A U.S. soldier testified Wednesday that four of his colleagues accused of murdering three Iraqis during a raid threatened to kill him if he told anyone about the shooting deaths.

http://tinyurl.com/e8pn7


From Information Clearing House

Evidence collected on the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha supports accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot the civilians, including unarmed women and children, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/15180243.htm


From Information Clearing House



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

Sen. Evan Bayh has introduced the Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act to increase the use of alternative fuels and cut our dependence on foreign oil.

Despite the widening war in the Mideast - and the heat wave at home - Senate Republicans want to go home without acting on this urgent bill!

I hope you'll sign his petition to call on your Senator to support the Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act.
http://mail.democrats.com:81/CT00010301MTE0MDc2MQAA.HTML

Bob Fertik


Did you know that right now, the U.S. is more dependent on oil from unstable Middle Eastern countries than we were on September 11, 2001?

And as if putting our national security on the line weren't enough, our economic security is at risk with record gas prices on the rise again.

We need a solution to this problem. That is why I have introduced the Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act - which will reduce our oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels a day - an amount equal to 100 percent of what we currently import from the Middle East.

But to pass it, I need you help. Can I count on you to help me spread the word and push for passage of this crucial legislation?

Click here to send a message to your U.S. Senators asking them to support the Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act.
http://mail.democrats.com:81/CT00010302MTE0MDc2MQAA.HTML

It's time to break our dependence on foreign oil and make our country safer and more secure. This energy plan would do just that by:

* Providing incentives for the production of renewable, clean-burning ethanol so that, instead of importing oil from the Middle East, America's farmers will produce America's fuel;

* Speeding development of new fuel-efficient vehicles such as plug-in hybrids, and accelerating the use of advanced lightweight materials in automobiles;

* Offering tax incentives for buying hybrids and other fuel efficient vehicles to make them more affordable and accessible to more American families; and

* Requiring the federal vehicle fleet to reduce its overall oil consumption by 30 percent by moving toward alternative fuels like ethanol and bio-diesel.

And it has an added benefit: creating good jobs here in the United States. My bill has strong bi-partisan support with 27 co-sponsors from both parties. But given the importance of this issue, we simply cannot take anything for granted.

Click here to send a message to your Senators today!
http://mail.democrats.com:81/CT00010303MTE0MDc2MQAA.HTML

Once you've taken action, we'll still need your help. It's important that we recruit the support of as many people as possible to show just how many Americans are demanding a real solution to our energy crisis! Please forward this message to five of your friends and ask them to join us now.

Thank You,

Evan Bayh

http://tjh.elequity.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=831



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