World-News

Taking Oil Out Of The Equation

by Michael T. Klare, TomPaine.com
http://ga3.org/ct/Bp20pgF18Xu3/

Tainted Science

by Frank O'Donnell, TomPaine.com

The EPA just made a decision that will cause thousands more deaths than tainted spinach.

http://ga3.org/ct/B720pgF18Xux/

The 'Harder To Vote' Act

by Wade Henderson, TomPaine.com
http://ga3.org/ct/Xd20pgF18Xud/

Four government auditors who monitor leases for oil and gas on federal property say the Interior Department suppressed their efforts to recover millions of dollars from companies they said were cheating the government. The auditors contend that they were blocked by their bosses from pursuing more than $30 million in fraudulent underpayments of royalties for oil produced in publicly-owned waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092106O.shtml

Senate Democrats Plan Probes Into Iraq War

Senate Democrats, accusing Republicans of failing to adequately monitor the conduct of the war in Iraq, announced their own series of hearings into what they called a failed policy. This month's devastating wave of suicide attacks in Afghanistan is a grim reminder that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, under fire for his role in Iraq, has been the architect of not one but two failing wars - and of a dangerous vision for how to apply American power.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092106M.shtml

Molly Ivins writes: "A debate on torture. I don't know - what do you think? I guess we have to define it, first. The White House has already specified 'water boarding,' making some guy think he's drowning for long periods, as a perfectly good interrogation technique. Maybe, but it was also a great favorite of the Gestapo and has been described and condemned in thousands of memoirs and novels in highly unpleasant terms."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092106K.shtml

Robert Parry writes: "Having gone through the diplomatic motions with Iran, George W. Bush is shifting toward a military option that carries severe risks for American soldiers in Iraq as well as for long-term US interests around the world. Yet, despite this looming crisis, the Bush Family continues to withhold key historical facts about US-Iranian relations."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092106J.shtml

Subventionierung der Fischereiflotte: "Die Thunfischbestände im Mittelmeer stehen kurz vor dem Zusammenbruch" (21.09.06)

"Die Thunfischbestände im Mittelmeer stehen kurz vor dem Zusammenbruch" – Das war die dramatische Botschaft einer Anhörung des Fischerei-Ausschusses des Europaparlaments, die am 12. September stattfand. Fischereiexperten, Umweltschützer und Branchenvertreter waren sich offenbar einig darin, dass dringender Handlungsbedarf bestehe: Die jährliche Fangmenge von 50.000 Tonnen müsse halbiert werden, um eine Regenerierung der Bestände zu gewährleisten. Die EU habe in den vergangenen Jahren den Fischfang durch die Subventionierung der Fischereiflotte gefördert. Jetzt wird über neue Subventionen für die Verkleinerung der Flotten diskutiert.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14386

Evelyn Cronce
El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

http://www.dchieftain.com/news/64883-09-20-06.html

The Environmental Protection Agency this month announced their decision to cancel the registration of most uses of the pesticide carbofuran after a prolonged review.

This means that the chemical would no longer be able to be registered for most uses.

"The first step in attempting to remove the product from the shelves is for the EPA to ask the manufacturer for a voluntary recall," said Caroline Kennedy, from Defenders of Wildlife. "I believe there is a hearing scheduled for October with the company."

The pesticide is sold by the FMC Corporation under the name Furadan. The corporation says the pesticide's threats are being exaggerated.

According to the American Bird Conservancy, the chemical has been responsible for the deaths of millions of wild birds since its introduction in 1967.

"American Bird Conservancy applauds EPA for removing one of the deadliest bird killing pesticides, carbofuran, from the market," said Dr. George Fenwick, President of American Bird Conservancy in a press release.

The cancellation is immediately effective for the main uses of carbofuran, for alfalfa, corn, cotton, potatoes, and rice. Its use will be phased out over four years for other minor uses including artichokes, chili peppers in the southwest, cucumbers, spinach for seed, sunflowers and pine seedlings. The cancellation also applies to use on most major imported agricultural products. This means that countries wishing to export agricultural produce to the United States will not be able to use carbofuran on those crops.

In its 2005 ecological risk assessment for carbofuran, EPA stated that there were no legal uses of carbofuran that did not kill wild birds. If a flock of mallards were to feed in a carbofuran treated alfalfa field, EPA predicted that 92 percent of the birds in the flock would quickly die," said Dr. Michael Fry, director or the conservancy's pesticides and birds campaign.

"Millions of bird deaths have been averted," said Rodger Schlickeisen, the president of Defenders of Wildlife. "The toll these dangerous chemicals have taken on wildlife cannot be overstated, to say nothing of the threat they pose to human health. The EPA made the right call today, letting science chart the best course forward for the health of our nation's citizens and natural heritage."

"According to EPA's own analysis, carbofuran was a threat to human health through contaminated food, drinking water, and occupational exposure. In light of the health risks to people, including high risks to children and to workers, and given the availability of less toxic alternatives, EPA did the right thing," said Dr. Jennifer Sass, Senior Scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council in a recent publication, who also campaigned for the cancellation of carbofuran.

For more information contact Gavin Shire, American Bird Conservancy, (202) 234-7181 extension 207, or

Michael Fry, American Bird Conservancy, (202) 234-7181 extension 205, or Caroline Kennedy, Defenders of Wildlife, (202) 682-9400.
ecronce(at)dchieftain.com


Informant: binstock

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/appeal_against_vodafone_dismissed.htm

For those of you interested we have now posted the Inspector's decision letter for the Hearing held in Woking last month which resulted in GRAM's victory (so far) against Vodafone.

The direct link is at
http://nomasts.org.uk/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=20&Itemid=109 .

It is about 200K, so will take a minute or so for non-broadband people.

Best Wishes,

GRAM nomasts.org.uk

Marsha Mcclelland has sent you an important action alert - read below for more info, and take action at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/236574986

Hi Friends,

I have just read and signed the petition: "Don't let Congress Contaminate Food Safety Laws"
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/236574986

Thanks!

Salvage Logging: Review Needed

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial board says: "A poorly conceived House measure to expand logging of damaged or threatened trees may come up for a Senate vote this week ... The plan ignores the increasing scientific evidence that forests recover from fire at least as well or better without salvage operations."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/092006EC.shtml

With barely seven weeks until the midterm elections, Americans have an overwhelmingly negative view of the Republican-controlled Congress, with substantial majorities saying that they disapprove of the job it is doing and that its members do not deserve re-election, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. The disdain for Congress is as intense as it has been since 1994, when Republicans captured 52 seats to end 40 years of Democratic control of the House and retook the Senate as well.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092106Z.shtml

Strike the Root
by Kristina Gronquist

09/20/06

'Are we safer?' This is a question being bandied about at this juncture, five years after 9/11 and nearly four years into the war on Iraq. The banal and selfish nature of this question is mind-boggling. Are we safer? Think about this in context to how the Iraqi people must feel today. Their nation was illegally invaded under false pretenses (Iraqis having nothing to do with terror) and now the beautiful 'land of two rivers' has literally been torn apart by the Coalition forces and the chain of violence they began. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died and suffered, and hundreds die weekly. And we in the US have the arrogance and insensitivity to only ask one question, 'Are we safer?'

http://www.strike-the-root.com/62/gronquist/gronquist1.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The Price of Liberty
by Lady Liberty

09/06

So, Mr. President, you want to know if I feel safer today than I did five years ago? Mr. Senator, you want me to tell you I think you've done a great job taking actions to enhance my security? Mr. Congressman, you'd like my vote because you've worked so hard to prevent terrorism? I've got a single answer consisting of a single word to cover all of your questions: No. No, I don't feel safer. No, I don't think you've done a great job making me more secure. And no, I don't think you've done all that great a job preventing more terror attacks. (Politicians would like me to think they have because we haven't had any more attacks since 9/11, but given the circumstances outlined above, I'm thinking that a lot of that has more to do with luck and a lack of completed plans for attacks than it has with effective preventive measures.) I'll tell you what I do feel, though, and that's less free...

http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/06/09/18/ladylib.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AntiWar.Com
by Brendan O'Neill

09/21/06

First they said it was a war against al-Qaeda. Then, when they failed to find Osama bin Laden and his henchmen, they said it was a war to topple the Taliban and liberate women from the burqa. Now, as Western troops continue to dig themselves into Afghanistan more than five years after 9/11, they're calling it a 'war on drugs.' One of the key justifications for the continuing presence of American, British, Australian, Spanish, Italian, and other forces in Afghanistan is to stem the growth of poppy fields, which reportedly provide the raw materials for 90 percent of the world's heroin. According to Condoleezza Rice, if this 'drug economy' is left unchallenged Afghanistan might well become a 'failed state' and threaten stability around the world with its ceaseless export of narcotics. Nothing better sums up the folly of Western intervention in Afghanistan than this latest metamorphosis into a 'war on drugs'...

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/oneill.php?articleid=9722


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CNN

09/20/06

President Bush said Wednesday he would order U.S. forces to go after Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan if he received good intelligence on the fugitive al Qaeda leader's location. 'Absolutely,' Bush said. The president made the comments Wednesday in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Although Pakistan has said it won't allow U.S. troops to operate within its territory, 'we would take the action necessary to bring him to justice.' But Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, told reporters Wednesday at the United Nations that his government would oppose any U.S. action in its territory...

http://tinyurl.com/e5tng


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Chambersburg Public Opinion

09/20/06

Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed landed more than 100 meetings inside the Bush White House, according to documents released Wednesday that provide the first official accounting of the access and influence the two presidential allies have enjoyed. The White House released the Secret Service visit records to settle a lawsuit by the Democratic Party and an ethics watchdog group seeking visitors logs for the two GOP strategists and others who emerged as figures in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal...

http://tinyurl.com/joxgs


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

USA Today

09/20/06

President Bush's embattled anti-terrorism [sic] agenda got a boost Wednesday when a wiretap bill was revised and a Senate Republican leader said he was hopeful a deal was near on treatment of detainees. Progress on the two critical issues before Congress recesses next week for the midterm elections was seen as crucial to Republicans as they defended their majorities in the House and Senate. In the Senate, neither the White House nor the rebellious senators had the votes necessary to move to move forward on how to handle the nation's most dangerous terror suspects, however. ... Heather Wilson's bill initially would have given legal status [sic] to Bush's domestic surveillance program only after an attack. Instead, her bill now would grant the administration's plea to allow wiretapping against Americans without warrants when it is believed a terrorist attack is 'imminent'... [editor's note: I really don't see what the argument is about. Neither proposal is constitutional, and Bush has already established that he does whatever he happens to feel like whether it's legal or not anyway - TLK]

http://tinyurl.com/p7grc


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

San Jose Mercury News

09/21/06

California filed a lawsuit against the six largest automakers operating in the United States, contending that car and truck emissions are causing global warming, injuring the state's environment, economy and endangering public health. The complaint, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Oakland, is the latest escalation in an ongoing clash between states and the U.S. auto industry over global warming. The California complaint contends that under federal and state common law the automakers have created a public nuisance by producing millions of vehicles that collectively emit massive quantities of carbon dioxide...

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/15571350.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Campaigners against a phone mast have organised a public meeting next week.

And they are hoping that speakers from any other groups who have successfully held back the mast-tide will join them.

Astley Against Mobile Masts (AAMM) was formed after Vodafone announced a bid for a 36 feet high mast at the Astley Labour Club site in Manchester Road.

They argue that the mast is being planned for a heavily populated residential area and in the centre of their local village shopping area.

If approved it will be in "close proximity" to Astley's amenities, two private day nurseries, two primary schools and a large Catholic high school.

And they are looking for help and advice from other successful anti-mast campaigns around Wigan who should contact AAMM's Debbie Jones by e-mail at debbiejones20(at)hotmail.co.uk AAMM spokesperson Adele Woodward said: "We want masts to be placed at a distance away from schools, nurseries and residential areas until there is adequate research to reassure us that it is safe.

"Why can't the new mast be installed at an existing site that is away from the community and amenities?

"The fact is that thousands of children walk, or travel, in close proximity to the site, five days per week to get to the local school.

"The emission of electro-magnetic waves and the limited on-going research available means that we can't currently prove or disprove their safety.''

The group now want Wigan Council planning committee to make a site visit to the location – preferably at a time when children are starting or leaving school.

THE meeting will be held at the Pensioners' Centre in Manchester Road, Astley (between St Ambrose School and bungalows) on Thursday September 28, at 7.30pm. Research information is available at Blackmoor Service Station, 363 Manchester Road, Astley between the times of 9.30am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday and 9 am and 12 mid-day on Saturdays.

21 September 2006

All rights reserved © 2006 Johnston Press Digital Publishing.

http://www.leightoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=69&ArticleID=1780685

September 21, 2006

By FELICITY BARRINGER

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/washington/21roads.html

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 --- In the latest round of legal Ping-Pong over the future of 49 million roadless acres of national forests, a federal judge in California on Wednesday reinstated Clinton-era protections against logging and mining on the land and invalidated the Bush administration's substitute policy.

The judge, Elizabeth D. LaPorte of Federal District Court in San Francisco, said the new policy had been imposed without the required environmental safeguards.

The reversal, however, does not cover nine million acres of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska because a separate set of legal opinions determines their use.

Judge LaPorte ruled in a suit filed by a coalition of environmental groups and states that objected to the decision last year to scuttle what was widely known as the "roadless rule" of 2001.

The administration replaced that rule with a policy of state-by-state management under which governors submit recommendations for the use of national forest lands within their borders.

Judge LaPorte said that the original rule had laid out "the inherent problems in this kind of local decision making," particularly "the failure to recognize the cumulative national significance of individual local decisions."

In repealing the 2001 rule, she said, the Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, had failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires agencies to conduct detailed environmental analyses of alternative approaches.

Judge LaPorte said the Forest Service had failed to consult federal agencies responsible for protecting endangered species. Among other points, her order enjoined the service "from taking any further action contrary to the roadless rule without undertaking environmental analysis."

Justice Department lawyers had argued that such analyses and endangered-species consultations would be performed as decisions were made on managing individual forests and that giving states the right to petition was more procedural than substantive.

The legislative director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Anna Aurilio, said that the judge's ruling "sort of took it back to the first principles of environmental protection and said, you can't just ride roughshod over the environment."

"They can't just trample on all the laws," Ms. Aurilio said of the administration.

Two Agriculture Department officials said they had not decided whether to appeal the decision and would continue to accept and review state petitions.

"As a general matter, we disagree with it, but the court's order is what it is," Deputy Under Secretary David P. Tenny said.

Mr. Tenny said working closely with states to gather information was "more effective in managing roadless areas properly than a sweeping approach that deals with all areas at one time."

"We'll do our level best to keep working with the states," he added.

Six states have submitted requests under the changed policy. Five of them --- California, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia --- sought protection for their entire inventories of roadless areas.

Idaho, with the largest inventory of roadless acres outside Alaska, submitted its petition on Wednesday. It sought full protection for 1.7 million of its 9.3 million roadless acres and the option for logging and road construction in what state officials called the remaining "backcountry" areas.

A state environmental official, James L. Caswell, said that such logging would in general be intended to protect forest health and manage fire risks.

Kristen Boyles, the lawyer for Earthjustice who argued in support of the roadless rule, said the governors' petitions were "never a guarantee that we would get the protections." The repeal of the rule "was illegal, Ms. Boyles said, because the Forest Service didn't look at the environmental consequences or the alternatives."

In June, the Forest Service sold timber leases on two small roadless tracts of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest near the Oregon coast despite the explicit objections of Gov. Theodore R. Kulongoski.

Fire ravaged the area in 2002.

The merits of the roadless policy and its successor have been argued in three federal courts --- in Idaho, Wyoming and, now, California --- for six years.

The rule was first enjoined by a judge in Idaho, an injunction that the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned.

A judge in Wyoming then enjoined the rule nationwide, and the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit did not rule on that appeal until after the Agriculture Department had rescinded the rule and set up the system of state petitions in May 2005. Thereafter, the 10th Circuit said, any ruling would be moot because the roadless rule was no longer in effect.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company


Informant: Teresa Binstock

--------

Judge reinstates road ban in national forests

Great Falls Tribune

09/21/06

A federal judge reinstated a ban Wednesday on road construction in nearly 50 million acres of pristine wilderness, overturning a Bush administration rule that could have cleared the way for more commercial activity in national forests. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte sided with states and environmental groups that sued the U.S. Forest Service after it reversed President Clinton's 'Roadless Rule' prohibiting commercial logging, mining and other development on 58.5 million acres of national forest in 38 states and Puerto Rico...

http://tinyurl.com/ru22q


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

"We need to figure out a way to have ISPs retain data for a sufficient period of time that would allow us to go back and retrieve it."

http://news.com.com/Gonzales+ISPs+must+keep+records+on+users/2100-1028_3-6117455.html


From Information Clearing House

Americans need to decide whether we are still a country of laws - and if we are, we need to decide whether a President who has determined to ignore or evade the law has not acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government.

http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/commentary/20060109_bergen.html


From Information Clearing House

President George W. Bush’s defense of abusing detainees betrays basic American and global standards, Human Rights Watch said today.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/09/06/usdom14139.htm


From Information Clearing House

Shaker Aamer, a 37-year-old resident of Britain, was placed in isolated confinement Sept. 24, 2005 and has been beaten by guards, deprived of sleep and subjected to temperature extremes, according to the motion filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15034.htm



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

Any President who can start and then lose two brushfire wars, thereby revealing for the whole world to see that the American empire is a spent force, can't be all bad.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north477.html


From Information Clearing House

Report

The World Bank receives more from developing countries than what it disburses to them says a new report released Tuesday as finance ministers endorsed a controversial new Bank plan to tackle corruption in developing countries.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34780


From Information Clearing House

The outside world has not the slightest intention of taking military action in Sudan. The Sudanese government knows this and gives not a fig for other sanctions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1876418,00.html


From Information Clearing House

Rendering Unto Syria

What an outrage for the president to invoke the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in his address to the United Nations, a day after a Canadian government commission accused the U.S. of rendering a Canadian to Syria for torture. Did no one on his staff inform the president that Article 5 of that declaration explicitly states, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”?

http://snipurl.com/wqh7


From Information Clearing House

An offer of aid could be your own death sentence, an Iraqi reporter writes.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15038.htm

Before You Enlist!

Video

Straight talk from soldiers, veterans and their family members tells what is missing from the sales pitches presented by recruiters and the military's marketing efforts.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15043.htm

By New Zealand Herald

Captive Iraqis were beaten with iron bars, kicked, starved, and forced to drink their own urine during abuse which led to the death of a prisoner, the first court martial of British troops accused of war crimes was told yesterday.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15039.htm

--------

UK soldier 'enjoyed' Iraqis' pain

A British soldier "enjoyed" hearing Iraqis call out in pain as they were kicked and punched while in a detention centre, a court martial has heard.

http://snipurl.com/wqgr


From Information Clearing House

Controversial pesticide is safe and effective against malaria, world health body says

Bette Hileman
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/84/i39/8439WHO.html

On Sept. 15, the World Health Organization strongly endorsed the indoor spraying of DDT to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes in developing countries. At a press conference, WHO spokesmen repeatedly called the pesticide "safe."

LINE OF DEFENSE -Cyhalothrin insecticide is being sprayed on the walls of a house in Angola to prevent malaria.

The U.S. and other industrialized countries banned outdoor spraying of DDT in the early 1970s because of its environmental toxicity, and for many years WHO did not promote its use for malaria control. But after DDT use was restricted, malaria resurged, and the disease now kills more than 1 million people per year, mostly children in Africa.

A number of malaria-plagued African countries—Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe—had already been using DDT for interior residual spraying to prevent malaria. But seven others, including Uganda, where malaria is endemic, have refused to use it.

Arata Kochi, who leads WHO’s global malaria program, said at the press conference: "One of the best tools we have against malaria is indoor residual house spraying. Of the dozen insecticides WHO has approved as safe for house spraying, the most effective is DDT." The small amounts of DDT used for indoor spraying are not dangerous, he claimed.

WHO's announcement is highly controversial, however. Some environmental organizations, such as Environmental Defense, which campaigned to phase out DDT in the 1960s and 1970s, now support its use for interior spraying. Other groups, such as Beyond Pesticides, say dependence on DDT will cause greater long-term problems than would other methods of malaria control. It believes "it is possible to effectively fight malaria without poisoning future generations of children in malaria hot spots."

Indeed, WHO's announcement comes at a time of increasing reports of potential human health threats from DDT. For example, at the recent American Chemical Society national meeting in San Francisco, researchers presented evidence that past exposure to the pesticides DDT or dieldrin may speed up the development of Parkinson's disease. There is also evidence that infants exposed to DDT in the womb may experience slow or stunted mental or physical growth (C&EN, July 24, page 30).

Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2006 American Chemical Society


Informant: binstock

* MR. BUSH'S SECOND CRUSADE

By Peter Montague
Rachel's Democracy & Health News #872,
Sept. 14, 2006

http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_2406.cfm


Informant: binstock

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5119/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

The LAVA proposal (below) would make our November 2006 auditable and ensure that all legal voters can cast ballots.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brad Friedman
Date: Sep 20, 2006 2:10 PM
Subject: [BradBlogAlert] THE LET AMERICA VOTE ACT - Legislative Language

URL: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3502

THE LET AMERICA VOTE ACT - Legislative Language Here's the Bill Calling for Emergency Paper Ballots at Every Polling Place in America this November!

Yesterday I called on Congress to pass an emergency measure to require Emergency Paper Ballots be made available at the polls during this November's general election. I spelled out several reasons for this last-ditch, "Hail Mary" attempt to try and mitigate just some of the myriad problems and disenfranchisment that will occur at polling places this year thanks to new, poorly designed, malfunctioning, unsecure electronic voting machines now deployed across the nation.

In primary after primary this year, voters have been told to "come back later" or, at best, given a provisional ballot (which may or may not ever be counted) when voting machines either failed to work or, frequently, weren't even present by the time voters showed up to vote. That is voter disenfranchisement, pure and simple, and it affects voters of any and all political stripes.

I'm urging all American citizens to contact their Congress Members — as well as their state and local officials — to demand that non-provisional Emergency Paper Ballots be made available at the polls this year! This is simply common sense.

For more reasons and information on why this legislation needs to be passed by both Houses of Congress and signed by the White House with Terry Schiavo-like speed in the last days before they recess for the election -- and for the complete suggested legislative language for the bill, and a few words in response to naysayers -- you can read my latest article here: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3502

Contact your Congress members here: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
Contact your local media here: http://www.townhall.com/actioncenter/writeeditors.aspx

My complete suggested language for the LET AMERICA VOTE ACT is posted below. It will take you 30 seconds to read in its entirety. Please do whatever you can to help it find sponsorship and see it passed by Congress immediately! American democracy is worth the effort!

LET AMERICA VOTE ACT
(EMERGENCY PAPER BALLOT MANDATE OF 2006)

WHEREAS significant failures of electronic voting machines have occurred in various jurisdictions during primary elections held in Illinois, Texas, Georgia, Maryland and other states during 2006, and

WHEREAS such failures have forced legitimate, registered voters to have been turned away from the polls by the thousands so far in 2006 primary elections simply because neither voting machines nor paper ballots were available for use when the voters arrived at their polling place, and

WHEREAS the probability exists that such failures will continue and the adverse results of such failures will be multiplied and increased in magnitude by the additional number of voters participating in the November 7, 2006 General Election, and

WHEREAS the potential exists for massive disenfranchisement of American voters in the November 7, 2006 General Election, by such failures of electronic voting machines,

NOW THEREFORE be it enacted that:

A. For the November 7, 2006, General Election, each election jurisdiction shall be required to prepare and print Emergency Paper Ballots of the proper ballot style for all races and propositions which shall be contested in that jurisdiction.

B. Such Emergency Paper Ballots shall be printed in sufficient quantity to guarantee that every voter who requests the use of such an Emergency Paper Ballot shall be able to receive such an Emergency Paper Ballot.

C. As with all provisional ballots, such Emergency Paper Ballots shall be printed in all languages specified for ballots in that jurisdiction.

D. Any voter eligible to vote in the jurisdiction in which he or she requests an Emergency Paper Ballot shall be entitled to receive and cast such Emergency Paper Ballot, regardless of the type of ballot that shall have been specifiied in that jurisdiction through operation of law, without further qualification, request, proof or furnishing of reason for such request.

E. Such Emergency Paper Ballots shall be official ballots for purposes of casting, tabulating, audits, redundant counts and recounts, and shall not be considered provisional ballots.

F. Emergency Paper Ballots shall be cast and tabulated in the same manner as all other ballots cast on November 7, 2006.

G. The associated costs to states for this mandate will be reimbursed out of Help America Vote Act funding.

H. This Act shall terminate and cease to have effect on February 28, 2007.

URL: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3502


Brad Friedman


Informant: Kathy Dopp

20 September 2006

A GROUP of residents is hoping to drum up more support for their phone mast battle as they face round three at a council meeting tonight.

About 50 Blackfen residents are due to attend Bexley council's planning control committee meeting tonight at the civic centre in Bexleyheath to protest against O2's application to install a 12.5 metre phone mast outside shops on Days Lane.

This is the mobile phone company's second application for a phone mast in the same road.

A previous application, submitted in June, was withdrawn after intervention by the Highways Agency.

Paul Crudge, of Berwick Crescent, who is leading the No Transmitter campaign branded the new application, which proposes putting the mast on a footway island outside numbers 189 to 193, 'ridiculous'. He said: "The mast would be between two schools and literally on top of people's houses. It's not good.

"O2 have just moved it from one spot where the pavement was narrow to another space outside shops. It's a ridiculous place to put it."

Earlier this year, the father of two successfully led a campaign against T-Mobile's plans to install a telegraph-pole style mobile phone mast at the junction of Days Lane, Berwick Crescent and Fen Grove.

T-Mobile withdrew the application after Bexley council received 300 objections from residents who are concerned about the effect the mast could have on their health and on house prices.

Mr Crudge said: "If we can get enough local support for our campaign I'm sure we can do it again."

O2 have always stressed that residents should not be concerned about the effect the phone mast would have on health.

A spokesman said: "We have got a lot of scientific evidence that actually concludes that there is nothing to fear. We are only too willing to talk to residents about it."

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

For more information about the campaign, go to http://www.notransmitter.co.uk .

Copyright © 2006 Archant Regional. All rights reserved.

http://tinyurl.com/luf8d

This may be a QUICK, SIMPLE & VERY HELPFULL tool for Democratic Campaign Headquarters around the country to MAKE SURE our Democratic voters ARE PROPERRLY REGISTERED TO VOTE!!!

Fwd: "Google" Your Voter Registration at http://mydem.democrats.com/


Informant: Jack Topel

Media Consolidation Shuts Out Women and Minorities
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0920-05.htm

State of Female and Minority Media Ownership a ‘National Disgrace’
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0920-04.htm

Report Shows
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0920-09.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0920-02.htm

Scandal Behind the HP Scandal
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0920-25.htm

http://www.safehaven.com/article-5917.htm


Informant: ranger116

http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9720


Informant: Lew Rockwell

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060919_gore_vidal_reflections_9_11/


Informant: Lew Rockwell

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/ellsberg1.html



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

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5122/


Informant: jensenmk


From ufpj-news

Take Action on this Issue:
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/cooperative_conservation_2

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

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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

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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