World-News

In an effective rebuke to Mr. Wolfowitz, amid accusations from inside and outside the bank that he has pursued his anti-corruption strategy in a high-handed fashion, ministers from around the globe, who are the ultimate governors of the world’s leading development body, moved to assert control.


http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092006I.shtml



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

Corine Lesnes reports an American businessman's assessment that the American government is no longer a credible messenger: "It says something. In the rest of the world, people don't believe it." In an effort at privatized diplomacy, a business association has been formed to reconcile the United States with the rest of the world by burnishing the United States' brand image.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092006H.shtml

Susan Van Haitsma reviews the film "The Ground Truth," opening in selected cities around the country: "One of the points made by the veterans interviewed in 'The Ground Truth' is that recruiters do not tend to use the word 'kill' when they talk to young people about enlistment. The military recruiters I observed at the career fair encouraged students under age 18 to display their physical strength on the chin-up bar and to fill out cards with their contact information. The students weren't told that the primary purpose of the military is to harness their youthful energy for killing."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092006F.shtml

Bush, with a straight face, tells us that he has never authorized torture, and he thinks he can get away with that lie because the public is mostly unaware that his administration has totally altered the definition of 'torture,'" writes Bernard Weiner.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092006E.shtml

Post Katrina and 9/11, Insight Into the Soul of America

"President Johnson called upon America to use its wealth and resources 'to create new concepts of cooperation, a creative federalism, between the National Capital and the leaders of local communities.' What has become of our 'Great Society?' What has become of the soul of America?" asks Dr. Wilmer J. Leon.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092006D.shtml

Sarah Rich writes about her daughter Suzanne Swift, now being held in military prison. Suzanne went AWOL because she was being sexually harassed by military superiors. "With the increasing media attention, Suzanne has been getting more and more silent, yet solid, support from other active women in the military. This gives us great hope that we are helping effect change for them, as well as validating women veterans' experiences and working to create new hope for the future safety of young women who hope to serve their country without fear of harassment and abuse someday."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092006B.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Suzanne+Swift

William Rivers Pitt writes: "He [Kerry] did not adequately respond to a series of devastating TV ads by Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, a group that questioned Kerry's service in Vietnam and criticized his later opposition to the war. 'They had money behind the lies, and we did not have sufficient money behind the truth,' Kerry laments."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092006J.shtml

"Ich muss erstmal meine Freunde fragen"
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/23/23564/1.html

Seehofer verärgert Bauern und Gentech-Kritiker

Der deutsche Verbraucherminister stimmt in Brüssel für den Import von Rapssamen.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/23/23583/1.html



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

Cuts--new report

An August report released by CPAWS and the Pembina Institute warns that projected development of Alberta's deep oil sands will drive many boreal wildlife species, including caribou, lynx, marten and some forest bird species to local extinction.

-Read the report at cpaws-edmonton.org
http://www.cpaws-edmonton.org/CPAWS-NR-Aug0106.html

Cuts--new report

An August report released by CPAWS and the Pembina Institute warns that projected development of Alberta's deep oil sands will drive many boreal wildlife species, including caribou, lynx, marten and some forest bird species to local extinction.

-Read the report at cpaws-edmonton.org
http://www.cpaws-edmonton.org/CPAWS-NR-Aug0106.html

Boston Globe
by H.D.S. Greenway

09/19/06

George W. Bush likes to think of himself as another Winston Churchill. A bust of the great man adorns the Oval Office. But what Churchill wrote of his own country, when its leaders insisted on staying on a wrong and misbegotten course, could serve as a warning to the Bush administration as it seeks to throw aside justice and values to continue on a downward spiral under wrong and self-defeating policies. 'I have watched this famous island descending incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf,' Churchill wrote. 'It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit the carpet ends. ... A little further on still (the flagstones) break beneath your feet.' The descending staircase has already broken beneath our feet in Iraq, and the carpet of Afghanistan is wearing thin because of neglect. But a far worse danger would be the dark gulf of abandoning the high ground on the treatment of prisoners and giving in to moral decay at home...

http://tinyurl.com/q4e74


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Independent Institute
by Paul Sullivan

09/19/06

Our government budget is in the red. Our national debt is quickly approaching $9 trillion. Lawrence Kotlikoff, a top economist from Boston University, argues in a recent paper that the U.S. Government is already bankrupt. This analysis may be an overstatement, but given likely trends in the balances for Social Security, Medicare, and some potentially huge long-term costs for what has become the 'Long War' in Iraq, one could at least say that things don't look so great over the next few years. The situation looks even worse if we consider the increasing structural and political inflexibility of the budget. Mandatory expenditures have been a greatly increasing proportion of the budget over the last decades. An expanding 'Long War' in Iraq is going to be quite a strain on an already stretched budget. Taxes will go up, regardless of what our political leaders say...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1819


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Tennessean
by Saritha Prabhu

09/19/06

One offshoot of the war on terror has been that it has given rise to a barrelful of easily lobbed-around convenient catchphrases. Some of these are easy on the ear, but upon closer examination either don't make sense, are borderline hypocritical or display callousness. Take one phrase we've heard a million times: 'We are fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here.' President Bush has said this often, also saying that if we call it a day in Iraq, those terrorists/evildoers/Islamofascists will bring the fight to the streets of America. But what does this mean? Does it mean that Iraq is now a terrorist playpen of sorts, that American troops are baby-sitting the terrorists so they won't come to America and wreak mayhem here? If so, this war could wind up lasting much longer than we thought, because there is no dearth of Islamic jihadists, and because this war has become an effective recruiting tool and training ground for them...

http://tinyurl.com/n8bdx


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Washington Post
by Eugene Robinson

09/19/06

I wish I could turn to cheerier matters, but I just can't get past this torture issue -- the fact that George W. Bush, the president of the United States of America, persists in demanding that Congress give him the right to torture anyone he considers a 'high-value' terrorist suspect. The president of the United States. Interrogation by torture. This just can't be happening.It's past time to stop mincing words. The Decider, or maybe we should now call him the Inquisitor, sticks to anodyne euphemisms. He speaks of 'alternative' questioning techniques, and his umbrella term for the whole shop of horrors is 'the program.' Of course, he won't fully detail the methods that were used in the secret CIA prisons -- and who knows where else? -- but various sources have said they have included not just the infamous 'waterboarding,' which the administration apparently will reluctantly forswear, but also sleep deprivation, exposure to cold, bombardment with ear-splitting noise and other assaults that cause not just mental duress but physical agony. That is torture, and to call it anything else is a lie...

http://tinyurl.com/z93ts


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Red Bluff Daily News

09/19/06

President Bush sought to blunt anti-Americanism across the Middle East on Tuesday, asserting that extremists are trying to justify their violence by falsely claiming the U.S. is waging war on Islam. He singled out Iran and Syria as sponsors of terrorism. Bush, in an address to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, tried to advance his campaign for democracy in the Middle East against a backdrop of turmoil in Iraq, Afghanistan and other nations that have embraced the very changes he seeks for the region...

http://tinyurl.com/r99hp


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

By Michael McCarthy,
Environment Editor
Published: 20 September 2006

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1621770.ece

The global sea level rise caused by climate change, severely threatening many of the world's coastal and low-lying areas from Bangladesh to East Anglia, is proceeding faster than UN scientists predicted only five years ago, Professor Chris Rapley, director of the British Antarctic Survey, said yesterday.

Climate change is causing sea levels to rise around the world because water expands in volume as it warms, and because land-based ice, such as that contained in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, adds to the volume when it melts and slips into the sea.

The present prediction of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, from its third assessment report in 2001, is that global sea levels will rise by between 9cm and 88cm by 2100, depending on a number of factors including how far emissions are controlled, with a best guess of about 50cm over the century.

Rises of this order will present a substantial threat of flooding, storm surge and even complete submersion of many of the world's populous low-lying areas,such as Bangladesh, the Nile Delta and even London.

But the new evidence, from a series of scientific papers published this year, indicates that this rate would be exceeded, said Professor Rapley, who runs the world's leading institute on Antarctic science - although he could not say what any new rate would be.

Professor Rapley was speaking at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton, at a meeting of the Climate Clinic, formed by Britain's leading green groups, with The Independent as media partner, to press for tougher political action on climate change. "We have learned in the last 18 months that the ice sheets are capable in selected areas of much more rapid changes and dynamic discharges than we previously thought," he said.

Last week, two American studies showed that the melting of the winter sea ice in the Arctic had accelerated enormously in the past two years, with a section the size of Turkey disappearing in just 12 months.

The global sea level rise caused by climate change, severely threatening many of the world's coastal and low-lying areas from Bangladesh to East Anglia, is proceeding faster than UN scientists predicted only five years ago, Professor Chris Rapley, director of the British Antarctic Survey, said yesterday.

Climate change is causing sea levels to rise around the world because water expands in volume as it warms, and because land-based ice, such as that contained in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, adds to the volume when it melts and slips into the sea.

The present prediction of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, from its third assessment report in 2001, is that global sea levels will rise by between 9cm and 88cm by 2100, depending on a number of factors including how far emissions are controlled, with a best guess of about 50cm over the century.

Rises of this order will present a substantial threat of flooding, storm surge and even complete submersion of many of the world's populous low-lying areas,such as Bangladesh, the Nile Delta and even London.

But the new evidence, from a series of scientific papers published this year, indicates that this rate would be exceeded, said Professor Rapley, who runs the world's leading institute on Antarctic science - although he could not say what any new rate would be.

Professor Rapley was speaking at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton, at a meeting of the Climate Clinic, formed by Britain's leading green groups, with The Independent as media partner, to press for tougher political action on climate change. "We have learned in the last 18 months that the ice sheets are capable in selected areas of much more rapid changes and dynamic discharges than we previously thought," he said.

Last week, two American studies showed that the melting of the winter sea ice in the Arctic had accelerated enormously in the past two years, with a section the size of Turkey disappearing in just 12 months.


Informant: binstock

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist signaled yesterday that he and other White House allies will filibuster a bill dealing with the interrogation and prosecution of detainees if they cannot persuade a rival group of Republicans to rewrite key provisions opposed by President Bush. With Congress scheduled to adjourn in nine days, delaying tactics such as a filibuster could kill the drive to enact detainee legislation before the November 7 elections, a White House priority.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092006Z.shtml

http://www.grist.org/news/muck/2006/09/19/gore/index.html

By Amanda Griscom Little, Grist

Now that he's awakened the nation to the crisis, Gore focuses on the solutions to global warming.

http://ga3.org/ct/g120pgF1nzup/

by Paul Waldman, TomPaine.com

Bush and conservatives get in touch with their inner barbarian.
http://ga3.org/ct/gp20pgF1nzuR/

Call Congress now!
http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M7198671310612138234897365

The HOUSE may vote on this as soon as TODAY! Please call your members of Congress at 888-355-3588 or 800-828-0498 and follow up by submitting the following page.

ACTION PAGE: http://staceyforcongress.com/petitions/pnum508.php

You would never know it from our own propaganda controlled corporate media, but the biggest news story in Canada right now, all over the front pages, is about a totally innocent man who was grabbed by our government and shipped to Syria where he was tortured for a year. So any promise that the Bush administration would not torture people is worthless when they think they can outsource such evil deeds to henchmen in other countries. Axis of evil indeed!

What protection do you or I have against having the same thing happen to us? There is only the writ of habeas corpus, enshrined originally in the Magna Carta of 1215, which required the king to called to account to justify on what charge a person is to be detained. It is by now well known that many of the so-called terrorists being detained in Guantanamo, Iraq, and in a multitude of secret CIA prisons around the world were seized without cause, or worse yet, sold into bondage. And yet, Bush is still trying to jam through Congress a complete gutting of any meaningful rights of these detainees to have a just day in court.

It is a national disgrace that, in an attempt to keep hidden the hideous mistakes of the Bush administration, these detainees should be forever denied a fair hearing in the light of day. The Supreme Court has ALREADY ruled recently that the right of habeas corpus is sacrosanct. How shameful is it that any member of Congress would even consider attempting AGAIN to turn our legal system back to the dark ages of medieval dictators and barbarism?

ACTION PAGE: http://staceyforcongress.com/petitions/pnum508.php

This alert is brought to you through the activism of Stacey Tallitsch, running for the U.S. House in the 1st Congressional district, and one of the leading progressive voices in the state of Louisiana. Many of you have already submitted his action page calling for the troops in Iraq to start coming home now, a policy that is more surely correct with every passing state of emergency in Baghdad.

Stacey has been running call to action radio spots in this district , calling for an end of the obstinate occupation of Iraq, a military escapade which has brought nothing but death and destruction to both their country and our own. And he has produced a new one for the TV, confronting the Iraq lies of the Bush administration. You can see the new spot on this page.

TV SPOT DONATIONS: http://www.staceyforcongress.com/petitions/donations3.php

Nobody can predict how a particular race will turn out. But we know that the spots we ran on impeachment had tremendous secondary impact, as TWO other groups were inspired to run their own call to action ads on this issue as a result of the investment we made in this action. If you are able to do so, please make whatever donation you can to continue the stand we are taking on issue after issue.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.

Powered by The People's Email Network Copyright 2006, Patent pending, All rights reserved

Thom Hartmann: "US workers have almost no right to organize. Every 23 minutes in the United States, a worker is either fired or harassed for trying to unionize. Our president goes around the world, talking about the importance of bringing democracy. We loved Lech Walesa and his union movement in Poland. But today, if the middle class is to survive, we need a Lech Walesa in the United States ..."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/091906LA.shtml

More than 77 million Americans could be left vulnerable to deadly particle pollution if the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) follows through with a proposal to set weak public health standards for the pollutant, according to a new American Lung Association report.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/091906HA.shtml

Despite state laws that limit corporations from giving more than $5,000 a year to political candidates, insurance giant American International Group Inc. has used a loophole to let its subsidiaries give many times that limit to politicians who regulate their business. Campaign reform advocates said such loopholes make campaign finance laws "meaningless."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091906T.shtml

A bipartisan group of Senators on an intelligence panel are seeking to declassify more information from two Senate reports on pre-war intelligence on Iraq, saying too much was kept secret. It's the first time lawmakers have appealed to the Public Interest Declassification Board since it was established in 2004 as a place for members of Congress to appeal if they think federal agencies are unnecessarily classifying material in the name of national security.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091906S.shtml

Thousands of protesters including former American soldiers rallied outside UN headquarters on Tuesday, urging the US government to end the war in Iraq and bring home the troops. While world leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly inside, about 2,000 anti-Iraq war protesters chanted, "Peace can work, no more war," half an hour before President Bush spoke.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091906R.shtml

Nächsten Montag, den 25. September findet ein Vortrag „Elektrosmog und Kinder“ statt.

Infos dazu im Anhang.
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/vortrag_elektrosmog_kinder_chur.pdf


Freundliche Grüsse,

i.V. http://www.mobilfunk-erlenbach.ch

PETER WALSH
20 September 2006 11:47

Mobile phone mast campaigners today reacted with horror after it emerged vital information about the whereabouts of masts could be made secret.

Until now families have been able to find details about where masts are, who owns them and how powerful they are, thanks to a website called SiteFinder.

Run by telecommunications regulator Ofcom, the site was set up after the independent report by Sir William Stewart, who was probing whether there was a link between mobile phone masts and diseases such as cancers.

Although he found no link he called for a precautionary approach to siting masts near schools and homes while further research is carried out and the website became an essential source for people worried about masts near their homes.

But a ruling by privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner has placed the website's future in doubt - to the despair of people fighting for the truth about masts.

The Evening News, through our Put Masts on Hold campaign, has opposed the installation of mobile phone masts near homes and schools until it is proved they are safe.

Dr Ian Gibson, Norwich North MP and long-time supporter of our campaign, said he would be “violently opposed” to the collapse of the site.

“It's the only way we can get information about what they are up to,” he said. “I will be meeting the minister to have talks to try to prevent it.”

After an 18-month investigation the Information Commissioner last week ruled in favour of a request that all information used to compile the site be made available.

Currently the data is used by Ofcom to compile the website and let people know who owns masts within about 500 yards of their front door. Wider searches do not show who owns the masts.

The mobile phone companies fear if all information is made available it will allow competitors the chance to find “holes” in networks, giving them a competitive advantage, or allowing rivals to pitch for business in certain areas where they might get better coverage with another network.

The information is provided voluntarily by the five UK mobile networks, Airwave, and Network Rail, but the firms might now pull out of giving information - which would scupper the site.

“We're concerned by the decision as we believe it may have the effect of removing a source of important information from the public domain,” said an Ofcom spokesman. Ofcom has until October 9 to appeal.

Graham Barker, from Lloyd Road, Taverham, who has campaigned against a controversial Vodafone mast in Fakenham Road, said the facility needed to be kept available to families.

“It would be a shame if it's closed down,” he said. “The more information that is available the better in my opinion, anything that changes that is a retrograde step. Despite what the experts say the long term effects aren't really known.”

Jim Leathers, 73, who lives with his wife Eileen, 77, in the shadow of a mobile phone mast at Thurton near Loddon, said he would be worried if the site collapsed.

“It would be the wrong thing altogether and I don't agree with it,” he said. “I think it should be open knowledge where they are - when people move house or something like that they can check where there's a phone mast. That's useful information.”

In January last year the Evening News used the site to reveal how thousands of children were being taught within about 200 metres of a mobile phone mast.

Our survey found about 20pc of the Norwich area's 76 primary schools had phone masts or antennae within or close to that 200 metre range which experts had claimed could put youngsters at risk.

Are you fighting a mobile phone mast application in your area? Call Evening News reporter Peter Walsh on (01603) 772439 or email peter.walsh@archant.co.uk

Copyright © 2006 Archant Regional. All rights reserved.

http://tinyurl.com/zwsx9

"Fragile" countries, whose deepening poverty puts them at risk from terrorism, armed conflict and epidemic disease, have jumped to 26 from 17 since the report was last issued in 2003.

http://tinyurl.com/k9fed


From Information Clearing House

“Five years after September 11, not a single terrorist has been brought to justice under the President’s flawed policy.

http://democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=263124&


From Information Clearing House

The Bush administration’s new torture policy prompted the export of torture technique from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15023.htm

Vice President Dick Cheney cast the global war on terror on Tuesday as a "war of nerves,'' borrowing a phrase Harry Truman used to describe the Cold War. Cheney asserted that the hopes of the civilized world depend on a U.S. victory.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6090925,00.html


From Information Clearing House

Ret. military leaders & frmr DOD officials say Detainee Treatment Act poses a grave threat to American service-members

Detainee Treatment Act violates the core principles of the Geneva Conventions and poses a grave threat to American service-members, now and in future wars.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2006/09/mil-060912-sasc01.htm


From Information Clearing House

"TRUST US. You're guilty. We're going to execute you, but we can't tell you why." That is how Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, characterized the Bush administration's recent proposal for a draconian new trial system to deal with accused terrorists.

http://tinyurl.com/oxuop


From Information Clearing House

Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15021.htm



How Canada failed citizen Maher Arar

Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen who was deported from the United States to Syria -- where he was tortured as a terrorist suspect -- has suffered "devastating" mental and economic consequences as a result of his ordeal, Mr. Justice Dennis O'Connor says in a report released yesterday.

http://tinyurl.com/fwpno


From Information Clearing House

--------

Canada Plans Official Torture Protest

A formal Canadian protest to Washington appeared to be planned on Tuesday as the result of an official inquiry into the US deportation in 2002 of a Canadian citizen to Syria, where he was subsequently tortured.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092006A.shtml

"The core of the problem is that if Iraq is divided, definitely there will be civil war and definitely neighboring countries will be involved in this," Abdullah Gul said. "The Middle East can't shoulder this. It's too much."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4197045.html


From Information Clearing House

What the occupiers of Iraq still refuse to accept is that the resistance is supported and protected by Iraqis.

http://tinyurl.com/lr4le


From Information Clearing House

Ahmad, a local doctor who withheld his last name for security purposes told IPS. "This city has been facing the worst of the American terror and destruction for more than two years now, and the world is silent."

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34756


From Information Clearing House

Fighting Capitalism One Essay at a Time

By Angie Tibbs

If enough people who care and know the issues do not come forward and demand an end to this madness, dissent will be criminalized. We are at a critical crossroads in our civilization. We have a responsibility to future generations to do better, and time is running out.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15000.htm

By Peter Stern

It is time for the American people to take back their nation from irresponsible and lackluster special interest-motivated elected officials. Impeaching top members of the Bush administration may be in order.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15028.htm



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

Audio and transcript

Both proposed bills in the Senate strip away the right to habeas corpus and cut back the ability of rape survivors of to hold their perpetrators accountable. We speak with Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15027.htm

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran

A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15025.htm

Video and transcript

Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner (Ret.) said, “We are conducting military operations inside Iran right now. The evidence is overwhelming.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15022.htm

By Michael Duffy

A flurry of military maneuvers in the Middle East increases speculation that conflict with Iran is no longer quite so unthinkable. Here's how the U.S. would fight such a war--and the huge price it would have to pay to win it.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15020.htm

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/09/19/noaa/index_np.html


Informant: Teresa Binstock

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1876538,00.html

Read the letter in full here http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2006/09/19/LettertoNick.pdf


Informant: binstock



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

The FCC's dirty secret has been exposed: they destroyed their own study when it proved media consolidation reduces local news coverage.

Rupert Murdoch owns FOX News and rightwing newspapers in key cities like New York (the New York Post) and around the world. Now he wants to buy more media outlets in cities across the U.S. to complete his takeover of America's news. We know what will inevitably follow: more propaganda and lies like those that led to the disastrous invasion of Iraq.

Tell the FCC to say no to media monopolies like FOX News.
http://mail.democrats.com:81/CT00011801MTE0MDc2MQAA.HTML

Bob Fertik



Big media will soon get bigger, unless you help us stop it. The FCC's media ownership comment period ends soon!

Tell the commissioners how you feel about the spin you get from Fox, Time Warner and other big media conglomerates!
http://mail.democrats.com:81/CT00011802MTE0MDc2MQAA.HTML

Last week, the Associated Press revealed a secret study by FCC staff that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage. The FCC had ordered its staff to destroy all copies of this report!

"Adam Candeub, now a law professor at Michigan State University, said senior managers at the agency ordered that 'every last piece' of the report be destroyed. 'The whole project was just stopped -- end of discussion,' he said."

The newly found report contradicts the FCC's 2003 rationale for allowing media corporations to gobble up increased shares of the media market. Millions of comments from people like you stopped them back then, and can stop them again today.

Take a moment now to tell the FCC to stop the underhanded tactics!
http://mail.democrats.com:81/CT00011803MTE0MDc2MQAA.HTML

It's time to listen to America and safeguard a diverse and independent media.

After you have added your thoughts to the public record, please forward this email to five other people who can add their ideas as well. We only have a few days left before the official comment period closes. The FCC needs to hear from us now!

Sincerely,

Morgan Jindrich
HearUsNow.org
A project of Consumers Union
1300 Guadalupe, Suite 100
Austin, Texas 78701

http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2006/09/19/kill-the-messenger/

Tuesday, September 19, 2006
--by Scott Horton --

There’s a new documentary coming out about Sibel Edmonds, http://www.antiwar.com/edmonds/ the famously gagged FBI whistle-blower who found out too much about the criminals who occupy the highest levels of power in this country and others.

It’s called Kill the Messenger.
http://justacitizen.com/KillTheMessenger.html

Watch the trailer here:
http://justacitizen.com/KillTheMessenger/Trailer/KTM.avi

Make sure to follow the links to Lukery’s new Sibel
blog, http://sibeledmonds.blogspot.com/

it’s already full of tons of information as well as his http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.com , of course.


Informant: Kev Hall



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sibel+Edmonds+
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sibel+Edmonds+


Informant: Kev Hall

RESIDENTS in Huntstown are up in arms again over the continued presence of mobile phone masts near a primary school in the area. Two heated public protests took place last week outside the Pinewood House commercial centre as residents vented their anger at the erection of a second mobile mast antenna at the site.

Pinewood House is in close proximity to the Sacred Heart Primary School and the residents fear that radiation from the phone masts could have potential health implications for their children.

Dr Gillian Mulholland, who represents the Huntstown Mast Action Group, told Northside People that they fear a third antenna may also be added.

“We are disgusted by this and will continue to campaign against the erection of such masts near the primary school until such time as something is done about it,” Dr Mulholland said.

Of particular concern to the residents is a new panel antenna that was erected on a side wall of Pinewood House during the summer months.

The residents are also angered by the fact that Fingal County Council is unable to do anything to prevent the masts being erected, due to the fact that they are exempted from planning permission.

An objective relating to mobile phone masts included in the Fingal Development Plan 2005-2011 states that an area of land 200 metres in radius around a school premises should be kept free from the erection of phone masts.

“However, Fingal County Council has told me that this is only valid if the mast requires planning permission,” explained Dr Mulholland.

“Those of the type on Pinewood House do not require planning permission but a mobile mast is a mobile mast regardless.

“They still give out microwave radiation, which nobody will confirm is safe or not for children to be exposed to. In the meantime, no one seems to want to take precautions to protect our children.”

Local Socialist Party TD, Joe Higgins, who joined the residents at the protest last week, said it was outrageous that parents have been obliged to take such steps.

“Such transmitters should not be sited near schools, full stop,” he said. “There are very serious unanswered questions about their health effects, especially on children.”

“The Government carries a responsibility here also for allowing these masts to go up as exempted developments. This is incredible.”

However, a spokeswoman for mobile phone company Vodafone told Northside People that the health and safety of the public, Vodafone customers, employees and contractors is of paramount importance to the company.

“Vodafone ensures that mobile phones and their base stations are designed and operated so that people are not exposed above radio frequency exposure guidelines set by international and national bodies such as the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection ,” she said.
“The guidelines are there to protect all members of the public 24 hours a day.”

The spokeswoman said that expert scientific reviews conclude that it is unlikely that there are adverse health effects linked to the use of mobile phones or living or working near radio base stations when they are operated within the relevant guideline limits.

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

http://www.dublinpeople.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1661&Itemid=49

I thought you might be interested in the index. You can view it at http://www.economyincrisis.org/showarticle.asp?ID=1010

Lauren

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1875587,00.html


Informant: NHNE

--------

Here is an interesting newsletter from the Social Market Foundation It seems to be another one to watch.

Interesting that one of its board members is a director of Ofcom and used to be a director of APCO (EXXON, Philip Morris and manufacturing doubt- see Monbiot article http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1875587,00.html )

http://www.smf.co.uk/index.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=153
Science Risk and the media, do the front pages reflect reality? page 8

Media Myths and scientific risks page 10 mentions phone masts- who is this lib dem MP, someone needs to get on to him.

They are trying to confuse the issue even more!


From Mast Sanity/Mast Network

By Don Plant

Wednesday, September 20, 2006, 12:01 AM

Telus will decide in the next two weeks where it will locate a controversial cellphone tower in South Kelowna.

The company made the announcement at a meeting in Kelowna on Tuesday.

Demand for wireless service is increasing as the city’s population grows, said company spokesman Shawn Hall.

“We need to meet that demand,” he said. “If we were to wait a year, I’d expect to see degraded cellphone service in Kelowna. People wouldn’t have the same service they have now because demand is increasing every day.”

The 42-metre tower is slated to go up in the Todd Road area, where a hole has been dug on Chris Turton’s property. About 140 residents have signed a petition against it, arguing the electrical emissions could affect their health.

Residents who attended Tuesday’s meeting pointed to two international studies that are probing the non-thermal effects of electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) on the human body. They want Telus to delay the project at least until the studies are released.

Mayor Sharon Shepherd, who also attended the meeting, agrees.
“My preference would be that they back off on doing anything until we get those results in,” she said. “I’m very interested in these two major studies.”

A representative of Health Canada told the meeting that scientists regularly review the benchmark they use to gauge cell-tower emissions.

Bob Bradley, director of consumer and clinical radiation, said Health Canada and Industry Canada have integrated previous studies on the non-thermal effects of EMF emissions into the current safety code, said Hall.

The maximum ground-level exposure of the proposed tower’s emissions would be 98 times lower than Industry Canada’s benchmark for human health, he said.

Still, residents are worried the safety code fails to account for whether cell-tower emissions can make neighbours more prone to cancer.

“I believe (Telus) wants to do what’s good for Telus,” said Perry Leibel, a Todd Road resident who attended the meeting.

“There’s a bunch of details out there that Safety Code 6 doesn’t deal with.”

The international studies residents are touting won’t be released for another year or two, Hall said. Health Canada then has to review them.

“We’re at least three or four years until . . . those studies are reviewed and implemented,” he said. “It’s just as likely those studies will result in emission standards being relaxed.”

Residents have proposed seven other tower sites in South Kelowna.

Engineering reports found four of them are unsuitable because they’re either too far away to provide adequate coverage or two towers would have to be built on one site to transmit signals over a ridge of land, Hall said.

The three other proposed sites would be suitable, but they’re closer to residential areas. “I was disappointed there wasn’t a better site that appears to meet their criteria. I would hope no homes (are affected),” said Shepherd.

One family is moving away from Todd Road. Paul White, who devoted more than a year opposing the tower, said he’s tired of wasting his time.

“I have no power at all,” he said. “We’ve been graced with a period when they haven’t built, and I’m grateful for that. It gives us time to move out.”

© Wednesday, September 20, 2006Copyright KelownaDailyCourier.ca

http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/article_3100.php

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/alston4.html

--------

Pentagon Probe Blames Generals for Tillman Case Errors

Nine officers, including up to four generals, should be held accountable for missteps in the aftermath of the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. Senior defense officials said Friday the Defense Department inspector general will cite a range of errors and inappropriate conduct as the military probed the former football star's death on the battlefront in 2004.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032407B.shtml



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

Suzanne Swift is bracing for a possible court-martial. Arrested in June for going AWOL, she detailed three alleged sexual offenses to Army officials, who began an investigation. One incident had already been verified and the perpetrator disciplined. But last Friday, the Army ruled that the two other incidents could not be substantiated. It will soon decide whether to take disciplinary action against Swift for her five-month absence, spokesman Joe Hitt said.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091906F.shtml



Soldier's Harassment Claim Leads to Court-Martial

Spc. Suzanne Swift, who refused to redeploy to Iraq after she was sexually harassed by her superiors, has refused a plea bargain. Now she faces a court-martial in a case that spotlights problems of sexual impropriety and abuse in the military.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/120606WA.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Suzanne+Swift

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin on Monday ordered a formal investigation into why two agency reports on media ownership were never made public. Martin was responding to a request by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who earlier in the day made public a second FCC study that she says was shelved by agency officials.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091906E.shtml

Eugene Robinson writes: "I just can't get past this torture issue - the fact that George W. Bush, the president of the United States of America, persists in demanding that Congress give him the right to torture anyone he considers a 'high-value' terrorist suspect. The president of the United States. Interrogation by torture. This just can't be happening."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091906C.shtml

Report shows that Diebold voting machines are easy to tamper with. The access panel door on a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine - the door that protects the memory card that stores the votes, and is the main barrier to the injection of a virus - can be opened with a standard key that is widely available on the Internet.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091906P.shtml



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

Sarah Olson reports that United for Peace and Justice is marching past the United Nations today, in an anti-war demonstration timed to coincide with President Bush's address to the UN General Assembly. The national anti-war coalition announced: "Enough is enough. We are marching - marching to demand that the troops come home now and to assert our right to peaceful protest."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091906K.shtml

Al Gore says, "Many scientists are now warning that we are moving closer to several 'tipping points' that could - within as little as 10 years - make it impossible for us to avoid irretrievable damage to the planet's habitability for human civilization." Gore proposes ending the payroll tax: "For the last fourteen years, I have advocated the elimination of all payroll taxes - including those for social security and unemployment compensation - and the replacement of that revenue in the form of pollution taxes - principally on CO2."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091906J.shtml

A message from Pilvi

Speak For Those Who Cannot Speak For Themselves

This petition was created to explain and show the importance of animal rights in China.

For those who didnt sign this petition: Please sign/forward and the animals will be thankfull because at least YOU didnt ignore them! http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/607674331

*sign*

Ein bisschen was geht immer?
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/23/23581/1.html

Britische Behörden signalisierten in informellen Gesprächen mit Handelsketten grünes Licht für den Verkauf von illegalem Gentech-Reis LL601.

Send an email to end deep sea trawling
http://www.email.greenpeace.org/sldysb_ybdvqvf.html

Schicken Sie eine E-Mail um die Schleppnetz-Tiefseefischerei zu beenden
http://www.email.greenpeace.org/umqgqm_vmbczvf.html

Speak out to defend the oceans
http://www.email.greenpeace.org/bgekig_ybdvqvf.html

Erheben Sie Ihre Stimme zum Schutz der Meere
http://www.email.greenpeace.org/fgvjvv_vmbczvf.html

The Institute of Science in Society Science Society Sustainability http://www.i-sis.org.uk

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at http://www.i-sis.org.uk/

ISIS Press Release 19/09/06

Wild birds, farmyard chickens and people are the victims of bird flu not the perpetrators ( Fowl Play in Bird Flu http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Fowl-Play-in-Bird-Flu.php ) . Intensive poultry farming and globalised poultry trade are to blame for creating and spreading the virus ( What Can You Believe About Bird Flu? http://www.i-sis.org.uk/WCYBABF.php) ; but what really causes bird flu outbreaks?

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny points the finger at environmental pollutants that disrupt the immune system, especially dioxins

A fully referenced version of this article is posted on ISIS members' website. Details here http://www.i-sis.org.uk/membership.php

Key question ignored

Most people would agree that people become sick with a cold or with the flu when their immune system fails or is suppressed. People and chickens in Vietnam appear much more susceptible to the deadly effects of H5N1. Has anyone considered why their immune system fails to protect them? Has anyone investigated what is suppressing the immune system of migratory birds? I posed the question to Dr. Alex Thiermann, President of OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) at the Bird Flu Summit held in Washington DC in the United States, February 27-28, 2006. He answered: “No one is looking at this, in fact, no one has even thought about it.” Reporters and scientists raised the same point during the coffee break.

I believe that an in vestigation into the immunosuppressive effects of environmental chemicals, particularly dioxins, may shed light on the seemingly scattered and disconnected outbreaks of bird flu around globe. The association between dioxin and influenza may explain the high death rate in Indonesia.

What is Bird Flu?

Influenza viruses are divided into three distinct categories, type A, B, or C, and a large number of subtypes. The outer shell of influenza A viruses is covered with two types of protein antigens: haemagglutinin, (H or HA), and neuraminidase (N or NA). The differences between the H and the N antigens provide the basis for classifying and naming all the many s ubtypes of influenza type A viruses.

Influenza A subtypes are either “mildly pathogenic,” causing minimal or no disease, or “highly pathogenic,” causing serious illnesses and death, particularly among birds. All outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) viruses since the 1980s have been due to antigen subtypes H5 and H7. The bird flu virus in the news is a highly pathogenic subtype H5N1. See Fowl Play in Bird Flu [1] for further details.

Dioxins the most toxic chemical on earth

‘Dioxins' is a general term for a complex family of more than 400 chemicals. Dioxins are by-products of industrial processes that combine chlorine with organic substances such as wood, pulp or paper, in the presence of heat. Production facilities that manufacture pesticides, smelt copper and bleach paper all release dioxins. Dioxins can also enter the environment through the incineration of plastics, particularly those that burn municipal and medical waste.

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

To view a fact sheet on Vernon Evans' case, go to http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/content/factsheets.php

http://wjz.com/topstories/local_story_261174749.html

Sep 18, 2006 5:45 pm US/Eastern

Adam May Reporting

(WJZ/AP) Baltimore, MD A death row inmate's lawyer argued Monday in federal court that Maryland's lethal injection process could cause "horrific and painful death" in violation of the Constitution's ban against cruel and unusual punishment. But the state contended the process was quick and painless.

WJZ's Adam May has been following the case. May spoke with Evans' lawyer who is arguing the state's method of execution is unconstitutional.

A. Stephen Hut Jr., an attorney for Vernon Evans Jr., attacked the way the three-drug cocktail used in the process are administered. He also questioned the qualifications of the execution team.

Hut said his client's veins have been so badly damaged from years of drug abuse that lethal injection could cause extreme pain without more careful attention than has been available in past executions.

But Laura Mullally, an attorney representing the state, said Hut's argument has a "wolf-in-sheep's-clothing aspect." She emphasized that "an execution is not a medical procedure."

"It is the antithesis of medical treatment," Mullally said, adding that American Medical Association rules prohibit doctors from participating in executions. Mullally said medical records indicated none of the five men executed in Maryland since 1994 felt pain while being put to death.

Hut, however, said Maryland's current protocol for carrying out lethal injection in Maryland must be changed to avoid being unconstitutionally cruel. Hut cited a similar process used in Ohio, which announced plans to change its system in June after experiencing a 90-minute delay in putting a man to death because officials could not find a viable vein to inject the lethal drugs.

Hut said witnesses heard moans and groans from behind a closed curtain as a viable vein was sought, and that a witness will testify in Baltimore about what happened.

Maryland uses three drugs during executions. Sodium pentothal makes the inmate unconscious, pancurium bromide paralyzes the inmate's breathing and potassium chloride stops the heart. State law calls for the lethal injection to consist of an "ultra-short acting barbiturate" combined with a "chemical paralytic agent" to cause death.

Hut said the process needs someone trained with knowledge of anesthesiology to be in the execution chamber while the drugs are being injected in case something goes wrong. He also criticized the logistics of the rooms used in the execution.

Hut also questioned the qualifications of people who serve on the execution team, saying supervisors have a "cursory at best" understanding of participants' past professional and disciplinary records.

The case, which is being heard in federal court in Baltimore by U.S. District Judge Benson Legg, will include testimony from doctors and members of the execution team, whose anonymity will be protected by closing the courtroom to the public when they testify.

Evans was sentenced to die for the murders of Scott Piechowicz and his sister-in-law, Susan Kennedy, in 1983. In February, Maryland's Court of Appeals stayed his execution.

The state's highest court heard arguments in four separate cases in May, including a claim that racial bias played a role in the decision by prosecutors to ask that he be executed.

The court has yet to rule on those cases.


Informant: Julien Ball

Fear And Hope in 2006

by Heather Hurlburt, TomPaine.com
http://ga3.org/ct/Md20pgF1yR7l/

by Timothy Karr, TomPaine.com

News today of a second study killed by the FCC should inspire action against the latest media consolidation push.

http://ga3.org/ct/Mp20pgF1yR7p/

Keith Olbermann: "There needs to be an apology from the President of the United States. And more than one. But, Mr. Bush, the others - for warnings unheeded five years ago, for war unjustified four years ago, for battle unprepared three years ago - they are not weighted with the urgency and necessity of this one. We must know that, to you, thought with which you disagree - and even voice with which you disagree and even action with which you disagree - are still sacrosanct to you."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091906Z.shtml

Slate
by Bruce Ackerman

09/18/06

Disdain for the rule of law is infectious. It began in Guantanamo, but it is now invading the American heartland. The Bush administration sees the wiretapping scandal at the National Security Agency as an opportunity to take the constitutional offensive. It has rejected a careful bipartisan effort to adapt existing laws to new technological realities, seeking instead to liberate presidential power from all traditional restraints by Congress and the courts. The Senate judiciary committee's reaction has been no less extraordinary. It hasn't capitulated to the administration's counteroffensive, but it hasn't stood firm against it, either...

http://www.slate.com/id/2149874


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Cato Institute
by Leon Hadar

09/18/06

Many Americans -- reflecting the sense of American Exceptionalism -- assume that if they punish other nations, invade other people, and bomb other countries, well, that's something special. After all, we Americans are good people. Our intentions are benign. Our values are unique. It really hurts us when we have to do all that 'collateral damage' here and there. But, hey, unlike the Romans, the French, the Brits, the Germans, we mean well. In the real world nations use their diplomatic and military power -- their policies -- to advance their interests. And sometimes nations go to war. They punish other nations, invade other people and bomb other countries. And guess what? Those other nations tend to get angry...

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6688


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Found the following piece on page 7 of the current issue of Private Eye, discussing the planned goings on at the forthcoming ruling Labour Party's autumn conference in Manchester. I thought you might be interested.

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/privateeye_clipping.jpg


Informant: Eileen O'Connor

--------

Lib-Dems too

Lib-Dem Conference Brighton 2006

Fringe Event Sponsored by-

Social Market Foundation and Mobile Operators Association

Science fact or science fiction?

How should politicians respond to media scare stories?

Dr Evan Harris MP, Shadow Science Spokesperson;

Alok Jha, Science Correspondent The Guardian;

Mike Dolan, Executive Director MOA.

Chair: Natalie Parry, SMF.

18.15-19.15hrs Tues. 19 Sept.

Norfolk Room, Hilton Brighton Metropole

(artjar)


From Mast Sanity/Mast Network

--------

Conservatives:

1pm Tuesday 3rd Ocotober 2006
Piano Room, Bourne Hall Hotel, 14 Priory Road, West Cliff, Bournemouth BH2 5DN

Science fact or science fiction:

How should politicians respond to media scare stories?

Charles Hendry MP, Shadow Minister for Energy, Science and Technology
Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor, The Times
Mike Dolan, Executive Director, MOA
Professor Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive, Medical Research Council (tbc)
Chair: Natalie Tarry, Director of Research, Social Market Foundation



If you missed it at the LibDem conference, the Mobile Operators Association are also sponsoring the establishment /big biz counter to informed criticism (or 'media scare stories' as they prefer to call them), at both the other main UK autumn Party conferences. Note the other participants - Colin Blakemore, who obligingly helped out Airwave repel health objections during their hour of need, Sir John 'GM' Krebs and Ben 'Bad Science' Goldarce. The Social Market Foundation - is a Blairite pro-market 'think tank', see - http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Social_Market_Foundation


Informant: Eileen O'Connor

http://tjh.elequity.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1125



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

http://www.fcnl.org/action/2006/lam0918.htm


Informant: Martin Greenhut

Imagine an America in which school officials could strip search every student in their school based on the unsubstantiated tip that one of them might have a joint. Congress is voting on a bill Tuesday or Wednesday that could make these police state tactics more common.

http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/091806stripsearch.cfm


From Information Clearing House

In the following report, CREW documents the unethical activities of thirteen Members of Congress: 10 House Members and three Senators.

http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/09/17/the-13-most-corrupt-members-of-congress/


From Information Clearing House

The attorney general warned the US at the weekend that its bill to try to limit its obligations under the Geneva convention while interrogating and trying detainees risked international condemnation.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,,1874783,00.html


From Information Clearing House

“I think that Iran is a great nation and that we can find solutions through dialogue.”

http://snipurl.com/wmcf


From Information Clearing House

Several former U.S. defense officials who maintain close ties to the Pentagon say they've been told that plans for airstrikes - if Bush deems them necessary - are being updated.

http://snipurl.com/wmcd


From Information Clearing House

By Charles Sullivan

We must think beyond geopolitical borders, beyond political parties; past the familiar labels of liberal and conservative. Working class conservatives and working class liberals alike are exploited by those in power. We must set aside the petty differences that keep us apart and seek common ground to defeat our common enemy—corporate Plutocracy.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15016.htm



Ending the Dollar's Tyranny
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15014.htm

By Yitzhak Benhorin

It will take a few days, with thousands of sorties, satellite and laser-guided bombs will be aimed at targets – 1,500 already planned by Pentagon – and will try to infiltrate armed concrete, under which some of nuclear sites are hidden. Meanwhile, Washington launches diplomatic blitz in attempt to promote sanctions on Tehran.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15010.htm

JIM HANSEN ON "THE THREAT TO THE PLANET"

ClimateScienceWatch
Monday, September 11, 2006

http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/index.php/csw/details/hansen-threat-talk/

Jim Hansen's presentation http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/threattalk_complete_05Sept2006.pdf (6.6 MB) this summer at the SOLAR 2006 Conference on Renewable Energy in Denver, which he has made available on his Columbia University Web site, integrates a wide range of scientific findings on global climate change with forthright and striking statements about their implications. Government officials should pay attention to this assessment.

Earlier this year Bush administration political operatives made an unsuccessful attempt to muzzle climate scientist Jim Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Dr. Hansen is now speaking freely about his analysis of the threat of dangerous global climate change. This in itself is a success story. We would like to see more federal climate scientists both able and willing to put forward an assessment of the climate change problem to a wider audience.

But overcoming overt censorship is just one necessary step. We still need to have policymakers and the public pay attention to the analysis, seek to understand it, and give it their most serious consideration. The President saw fit to meet over lunch with science fiction novelist Michael Crichton, author of State of Fear, a piece of pseudo-scientific drivel steeped in the views of the global warming denial machine. We wonder: Are any high government officials having lunch with Jim Hansen and other leading climate scientists?

Hansen's presentation begins with 12 pages of text, which annotates 52 pages of slides, including scientific charts. It should be generally accessible to most attentive non-technical readers. See also his book and movie review http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2006/2006_Hansen.pdf , "The Threat to the Planet," in the New York Review of Books. His Columbia University Web site http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/ contains valuable documents, as does his NASA Web site http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/jhansen.html .


Informant: NHNE

By Dennis Bueckert
Canadian Press Sunday,
September 17, 2006

http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=60ef5280-2704-4150-bf86-e09b79e622a6&k=94705

OTTAWA - Canada and the United States are launching a $17.5-million study to determine why water levels in the upper Great Lakes have declined to near-record lows.

The study by the International Joint Commission will consider a number of possible causes, from climate change to erosion caused by dredging in the St. Clair River.

Environment Minister Rona Ambrose announced $500,000 for the study last week. But officials say that is just the first installment in what will be a major, five-year research effort.

Ambrose noted that water levels in Georgian Bay together with Lakes Huron and Michigan were as much as 45 centimeters below average this summer.

"Clearly, the health of this ecosystem has global significance," she told a news conference at Parry Sound. "Change is already upon us."

Huron and Michigan are at their lowest levels since the 1960s and Lake Superior is at its lowest since 1926, reports the Canadian Hydrology Service at Burlington, Ont.

The decline has caused problems for navigation, recreation, power generation and the ecology of the area. Wetlands are drying up, docks are stranded and beaches in some areas are overgrown with weeds.

"People that have lived along the shoreline and thought they have a million-dollar property no longer do, because instead of having a nice beach or a nice rocky shoreline in front, they've got muck with bullrushes growing in it," said Mary Muter of the Georgian Bay Association.

Citing a study by Blair Associates of Oakville, Muter said the Lake Huron-Michigan water level decreased by 2.4 cm between 2000 and 2005, which she described as a major drop.

"If you converted half a centimeter into volume of water you'd be talking millions of gallons of water."

Yet the lower lakes, Ontario and Erie, are at or slightly above normal levels, which has scientists baffled. Normally, water levels throughout the lakes would rise and fall more or less in tandem.

Computer models simulating climate change predict that water levels will decline throughout the Great Lakes, but don't explain why the upper lakes would be affected more than the others.

"The real thing that's got everybody concerned is not only are Lake Michigan and Huron dropping, but they're dropping relative to Erie," said Frank Quinn, a hydrology consultant at Tecumseh, N.Y.

"The lakes have been low in the past, but the graphs show that all of a sudden starting probably in the late 1980s or early 1990s there came a major difference in the water levels.

"If it was just generally low lake levels you would expect to find the same problem on Erie and Huron."

One possible explanation is that global warming has changed rainfall patterns, said Ralph Moulton at the Canadian Hydrology Service.

There has been unusually low rainfall this year in Northern Ontario compared with the southern part of the province, but it's not clear if that is part of a trend.

Another possible culprit is dredging in the St. Clair River when the St. Lawrence Seaway was being completed. The theory is that the dredging led to accelerated erosion, allowing increased outflow to Lake Erie.

"By dredging they removed the hard covering core of the bottom sediments," said Muter. "Once you remove that layer you expose soft eroding clay to a very high current there."

She said there is a lot of concern about property values around Georgian Bay.


Informant: NHNE

Rachel Gotbaum and Bruce Gellerman of NPR's "Living on Earth" interview guests Dr. Phillip Landrigan, Dr. Gina Solomon and Dale Kemery about the health costs and the consequences of 9/11 and Katrina.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/091806HA.shtml

Illegal logging is threatening the livelihoods of millions of the world's poor, robbing governments of billions of dollars in revenue and undermining legitimate logging businesses, the World Bank said.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/091806EB.shtml

"George W. Bush's September 15 outburst - threatening to stop interrogating terror suspects if Congress doesn't let him revise the Geneva Conventions to permit coercive techniques - is part of a pattern of petulance that dates back to even before the 9/11 attacks but has resurfaced as Bush faces new challenges to his authority," according to Robert Parry.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091806R.shtml

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1403&Itemid=1108


Informant: NHNE

by Pastor Chuck Baldwin

That Rev. Regas and All Saints Episcopal represent a liberal point of view must not cloud the fact that what is at stake here is religious liberty. From the very beginning of our constitutional republic, America's pastors and ministers have courageously engaged the culture. We must not allow the IRS, or any other government agency, to now trample this heritage.....

http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin321.htm

GEORGETOWN UNIV.

"This is a very specail audio files that every American should share!" AUDIO: http://www.apfn.net/pogo/L002I060918-constitution1.MP3

C-SPAN - PRE - READING OF THE CONSTITUTION GEORGETOWN UNIV. AUDIO: (TWO SONGS) http://www.apfn.net/pogo/L001I060918-constitution2.MP3

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/britain-warns-us-over-torture-bill/2006/09/18/1158431644445.html
http://tinyurl.com/ho8zk

--Please Forward--

This is a paraphrase of the urgent CCR letter copied below:

Even though Republicans are balking about supporting Bush's torture proposals, they seem to be caving about saving habeas corpus. Both Warner and Frist versions of the bill strip away the fundamental right to habeas corpus, the right to challenge your detention in a court of law, not to be locked up under the President’s say-so, guilty or innocent, never to be heard from again.

However, an amendment by Specter-Levin will fix this grave problem with the bills.

The rights of victims of rape and sexual assault are also under attack in this legislation, an injustice that is completely under the radar: both bills would change the definition of rape and other torture and cut back on hard-fought victories of victims of sexual violence. Tell your Senators they must uphold the Geneva Conventions and allow survivors of sexual violence to hold their perpetrators accountable.

So please fax your Senators with this FREE FAX using this link (please scroll to the END of page of link to find fax)
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/ccr/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=5215

and/or if you can call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 right away, especially if they are on the list at the end of this email.

Thank you,

Cheryl


The following message is from Center For Constittuional Rights.

EMERGENCY! They Left the Worst Part In

The fight over the military commissions bills today isn’t about politics, it's about lives, and it's not over. Please take a minute from your busy day to help, even if you acted last week.

The debate around these bills misses the point: both versions strip away the fundamental right to habeas corpus, the right to challenge your detention in a court of law, not to be locked up under the President’s say-so, guilty or innocent, never to be heard from again.

An amendment in play could take out this dangerous measure – please use our site to fax your senators and tell them to support the Specter-Levin Amendment on habeas corpus when it gets introduced.
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/ccr/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=5215

The bills are S.3901, The Military Commissions Act of 2006, sponsored by Senator Warner and S.3861, The Bringing Terrorists to Justice Act of 2006, sponsored by Senator Frist. Please call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 IMMEDIATELY, especially if they are among the 26 we’ve identified below as critical in this fight.

Anyone in U.S. custody, at home or abroad, must have the right to challenge their detention in court. Nothing is more fundamental to our democracy than this right. Tell your Senator TODAY that they must vote to save habeas corpus.

The rights of victims of rape and sexual assault are also under attack in this legislation, an injustice that is completely under the radar: both bills would change the definition of rape and other torture and cut back on hard-fought victories of victims of sexual violence. Tell your Senators they must uphold the Geneva Conventions and allow survivors of sexual violence to hold their perpetrators accountable.

This is an emergency—please forward this alert to as many people as you can.


Thank you for your commitment.

Vincent Warren
Executive Director


For more information, please visit our website at http://www.ccr-ny.org .

Make a donation to help us fight for justice.

See a calendar of events.

The votes of the following Senators will be critical:

Kent Conrad (ND) (202) 224-2043
Joe Lieberman (CT) (202) 224-4041
Ben Nelson (NE) (202) 224-6551
James Jeffords (VT) (202) 224-5141
Lincoln Chafee (RI) (202) 224-2921
Richard Lugar (IN) (202) 224-4814
Craig Thomas (WY) (202) 224-6441
Chuck Hagel (VA) (202) 224-4224
Lisa Murkowski (AK) (202) 224-6665
John Sununu (NH) (202) 224-2841
Peter Dominici (NM) (202) 224-6621
Gordon Smith (OR) (202) 224-3753
Arlen Specter (PA) (202) 224-4254
Daniel Inouye (HI) (202) 224-3934
Mary Landrieu (LA) (202) 224-5824
Ron Wyden (OR) (202) 224-5244
Olympia Snowe (ME) (202) 224-5344
Susan Collins (ME) (202) 224-2523
Carl Levin (MI) (202) 224-6221
Hillary Clinton (NY) (202) 224-4451
Richard Durbin (IL) (202) 224-2152
Harry Reid (NV) (202) 224-3542
John Kerry (MA) (202) 224-2742
Lindsey Graham (SC) (202) 224-5972
John Warner (VA) (202) 224-2023
John McCain (AZ) (202) 224-2235

by Nancy Levant

Global governance, as a social and political concept, has a flaw that will render its own demise – a belief that mankind can be forced into intellectual obedience using the weapon systems of money and military. It cannot be done.....

http://www.newswithviews.com/Levant/nancy59.htm

by Tom DeWeese

“Conspiracy theories.” “Fringe nuts.” “Lies.” “Myths.” These are the words being used by officials of the Bush Administration and others to brand those who have reported on the activities of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), currently operating out of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Opponents have charged the SPP will result in the establishment of a North American Union, much on the same lines as the European Union.....

http://www.newswithviews.com/DeWeese/tom63.htm

by Dr. James Howenstine, MD

There are many good reasons to obtain food supplies now. The United States has become a net importer of food for the first time in it’s history. Remember also that the major foods grown and exported by the U.S. are GMO wheat, corn and soy which are very deleterious to human health.....

http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james50.htm

http://www.lewrockwell.com/bonner/bonner293.html

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Caught In The Housing Bubble
http://ga3.org/ct/K720pgF1yRhV/

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Little Big Bubbles
http://www.lewrockwell.com/bonner/bonner311.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Housing+Bubble
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bonner

· Privacy row could end website that shows sites
· Fears mobile companies may stop cooperating

Richard Wray,
communications editor
Tuesday September 19, 2006
The Guardian

The ability of homeowners and concerned parents to pinpoint local mobile phone masts, find out who owns them and how powerful they are, has been jeopardised by a spat between telecoms regulator Ofcom and privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner.

Details of the position of masts - including those for the emergency services' communications network Airwave - are available through SiteFinder, a service set up following the Stewart report into mobiles and health, on the Ofcom website.

But a ruling by the Information Commissioner has placed the site's future in doubt. After an 18-month investigation, the commissioner last week ruled in favour of a request, understood to be from a consumer group, that all the information used to compile the site be made available.

At present that data is used by Ofcom to let people find out who owns masts within about 500 yards of their front door. Searching a wider area merely shows where masts are, not who owns them. While it is technically possible to use a series of local searches to build up a nationwide map, it would take many hours and the data is updated every three months.

The mobile phone companies fear that if all the information is made readily available, it will be easy for competitors to find the "holes" in networks giving them a competitive advantage or allowing rivals to target advertising in specific areas, telling consumers to switch networks if they want better coverage.

The data is provided on a voluntary basis by the five UK mobile networks, Airwave and Network Rail, which uses trackside masts to communicate with drivers. Ofcom can only compel the operators to give data to an accuracy of 100m, which would be pointless in major urban areas where a hectare could include dozens of masts. In addition Ofcom has no way of forcing operators to divulge details of a particular mast's power.

An Ofcom spokesman said the regulator fears that if the ruling is followed, the mobile phone companies will stop giving out the information and SiteFinder will collapse. "We are concerned by the [Information Commissioner's] decision as we believe it may have the effect of removing a source of important information from the public domain," he said. "We are considering our next step." Ofcom has until October 9 to appeal.

A source close to one of the mobile phone networks said the company was very concerned about the impact of the ruling and would almost certainly stop providing information if it was implemented. Ofcom also tried to argue that divulging all information about the location of masts could put the emergency services' communications in jeopardy. But the commissioner rejected this, saying: "Although it would take longer, a determined terrorist or criminal could obtain this information from SiteFinder."

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1875541,00.html#article_continue


Informant: Sandi from Mast Sickness UK