World-News

Paradoxical Putsch
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092106H.shtml

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.

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

"One hundred and eight democratic nations in the world have explicit language guaranteeing the right to vote in their constitutions, and the United States - along with only ten other such nations - does not," writes John Nichols. "As a result, the way we administer elections in this country changes from state to state, from county to county, from locality to locality. The Secretary of the Commonwealth must fight for a Constitutional amendment that affirmatively guarantees the right to vote in the US Constitution."

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

Leslie Thatcher writes: "Ann Jones spent three years paying attention in Afghanistan, and while her fine book was not the result she originally intended, it strips the rest of us bare of any excuses for not taking responsibility for what our country has done to Afghanistan, as it reveals the chasm between what the Bush administration promised and continues to describe as delivered and the reality on the Afghan ground."

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

The New York Times states: "One of the cornerstones of the Republican Party's strategy for winning elections these days is voter suppression, intentionally putting up barriers between eligible voters and the ballot box. The House of Representatives took a shameful step in this direction yesterday, voting largely along party lines for onerous new voter-ID requirements. Laws of this kind are unconstitutional, as an array of courts have already held, and profoundly undemocratic. The Senate should not go along with this cynical, un-American electoral strategy."

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

Study


[foto] An iceberg calved from a glacier floats in the Jacobshavn fjord in southwest Greenland. A new University of Colorado at Boulder study indicates Greenland continues to lose ice mass, and the rate of loss is accelerating.

http://denver.yourhub.com/BOULDER/Stories/News/General-News/Image.axd?imageid=103058&copytype=2

Provided by: Konrad Steffen, CU-Boulder

http://denver.yourhub.com/BOULDER/Stories/News/General-News/Story~127278.aspx

Contributed by: CU-Boulder News Services on 9/20/2006

Data gathered by a pair of NASA satellites orbiting Earth show Greenland continued to lose ice mass at a significant rate through April 2006, and that the rate of loss is accelerating, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.

The study indicates that from April 2004 to April 2006, Greenland was shedding ice at about two and one-half times the rate of the previous two-year period, according to CU-Boulder researchers Isabella Velicogna and John Wahr. The researchers used measurements taken with the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, to calculate that Greenland lost roughly 164 cubic miles of ice from April 2004 to April 2006 -- more than the volume of water in Lake Erie.

The new study, published in the Sept. 21 issue of Nature, follows on the heels of a study published in Science in August by a University of Texas at Austin team using GRACE that showed Greenland lost 57 cubic miles of ice annually from 2002 to 2005. The new CU-Boulder study indicates the speed-up in ice mass loss charted by the researchers has been occurring primarily in southern Greenland, said Velicogna.

"The acceleration rate really took off in 2004," said Velicogna, a researcher at the CU-Boulder-based Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. "We think the changes we are seeing are probably a pretty good indicator of the changing climatic conditions in Greenland, particularly in the southern region."

Studies by several research groups indicate temperatures in southern Greenland have risen by about 4.4 degrees F in the past two decades, she said.

The CU-Boulder findings also are consistent with studies charting a dramatic acceleration of the Kangerdlugssaq and Helheim glaciers in southeast Greenland using satellite radar observations, said Wahr. A 2006 study by researchers at the University of Wales, for example, showed the two glaciers have doubled their speed and are dumping twice as much ice into the sea as they did five years ago.

"Our results correlate well with independent observations of glacier acceleration in the south of Greenland," said Wahr, also a professor of physics at CU-Boulder. "It's a fairly straightforward story -- the ice loss in Greenland increased dramatically in 2004, particularly in the south, and it is continuing."

CIRES Director Konrad Steffen, who has maintained more than 20 climate stations in Greenland for nearly two decades, said temperatures have warmed by more than 4 degrees F along the western slope of its ice sheet since 1990. "The increased surface melt of snow and ice provides additional meltwater to lubricate the bottom of the ice sheet and increases the ice flow velocity toward the coast," said Steffen, a CU-Boulder geography professor who was not involved in the Nature study.

Launched in 2002 by NASA and Germany, the two GRACE satellites whip around Earth 16 times a day at an altitude of 310 miles, sensing subtle variations in Earth's mass and gravitational pull. Separated by 137 miles, the satellites measure changes in Earth's gravity field caused by regional changes in the planet's mass, including ice sheets, oceans and water stored in the soil and in underground aquifers.

A change in gravity due to a pass by GRACE over a portion of Greenland imperceptibly tugs the lead satellite away from the trailing satellite, said Velicogna. A sensitive ranging system allows researchers to measure the distance of the two satellites down to as small as 1 micron -- about 1/50 the width of a human hair -- and to then calculate the ice mass in particular regions of Greenland.

In March 2006, Velicogna and Wahr used GRACE to determine that the Antarctic ice sheet -- which holds 70 percent of Earth's freshwater -- lost up to 36 cubic miles of ice annually from April 2002 to August 2005. Greenland, the largest island in the world, harbors about 10 percent of the world's freshwater in its ice sheet, which is up to two miles thick in places. If the Greenland ice sheet melted completely, the world's oceans would rise more than 20 feet, according to scientists.

Significant ice loss in Greenland has the potential to have severe effects on the climate of the Northern Hemisphere, said Velicogna, who also is affiliated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which manages GRACE for NASA. Scientists believe that large amounts of freshwater purged from Greenland's eastern coast could help to weaken the counterclockwise flow of the North Atlantic Current, lowering water and wind temperatures and potentially triggering abrupt cooling events in northern Europe.

CIRES is a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Animation of the GRACE mission is available on the Web at
http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/gallery/animations/ .

By Rick Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, September 21, 2006; D01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001903.html

The disclosure last month that American long-grain rice has become widely contaminated with traces of an experimental, gene-altered rice has provoked an economic crisis for farmers and reignited a long-smoldering debate over the adequacy of U.S. oversight of biotech food.

Already, Japan has banned U.S. long-grain imports, noting, as have other countries, that the genetically altered variety never passed regulatory muster. Stores in Germany, Switzerland and France have pulled American rice off their shelves. And at least one ship last week remained quarantined in Rotterdam, awaiting word of whether its contents would be diverted or destroyed.

"Until this happened, it looked like rice farmers were finally going to make a profit this year," said Greg Yielding, executive director of the Arkansas Rice Growers Association. Instead, U.S. rice prices have slumped about 10 percent, and some expect market losses to reach $150 million.

Scientists are just now figuring out how LLRICE601 made its way into the nation's commercial rice supply. The company that developed it, Bayer CropScience of Research Triangle Park, N.C., says it abandoned the project in 2001.

The unapproved rice poses no threat to human or animal health, federal officials have assured the public. And the level of contamination is minuscule, on the order of just six genetically engineered grains in every
10,000.

But the growing economic fallout from LL601's unwanted and illegal reappearance -- including a handful of lawsuits against Bayer -- is a reminder that when it comes to food, public perception is as important as scientific assurances.

"We've been warning for years that something like this could happen," Yielding said, citing a December 2005 report from the Agriculture Department's inspector general that lambasted the government for not keeping a closer eye on companies developing new crops. "This is one of those deals where you hate to be right."

Genetically engineered crops are common in the United States, where 60 to 90 percent of the corn, soybean and cotton plants are enhanced with genes from bacteria and other organisms. Most of the added genes allow the plants to make their own insecticides or, as in LLRICE601, confer resistance to commonly used weedkillers.

But motivated by scientific, cultural and economic concerns, most countries around the world are finicky about biotech crops and allow relatively few in. That, in turn, has created tension for U.S. agriculture.

Although U.S. farmers say they favor, in theory, further development of the crops, many have called for delays in field testing or marketing until other countries agree to accept them. With few mechanisms in place to segregate engineered from conventional varieties, and wide availability of tests able to detect minute quantities of foreign DNA, they say it is not worth the risk that shipments will become contaminated and rejected.

"Once it's in the pipeline, it's very hard to get it out," said Jeffrey Barach, a vice president at the Food Products Association, a D.C. trade group.

Concerns have been especially high among rice growers, who sell big portions of their harvests to Kellogg for Rice Krispies, Anheuser-Busch for beer and Gerber for baby food, said Eric Wailes, an agricultural economist at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

"These are companies with huge brand equity," Wailes said, and are unwilling to risk their reputations.

In fact, many experts suspect that pressure from the food industry was a major reason why Bayer mysteriously dropped LL601 five years ago without seeking USDA approval for it. The company has refused to answer questions about its biotech rice program, which produced two other varieties. The Agriculture Department deemed those two safe for sale, but Bayer opted not to market them.

In recent weeks, tests by researchers in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana have begun to unveil how LL601 persisted even after Bayer quit. The rice had been grown in several test locations, including Louisiana State University's rice research station near Crowley from 1999 to 2001.

Analyses in the past two weeks of samples of other rice varieties that were grown over the years at the same research station found that at least one -- a long-grain rice known as Cheniere -- was contaminated with LL601 at least as far back as 2003.

Records indicate that the affected plot of Cheniere rice, which was used to grow "foundation stock" from which much larger amounts were produced over the next few years, was located at least 160 feet from the LL601 plot, farther apart than what USDA required, said LSU spokeswoman Frankie Gould.

Exactly how and when the crossover of the genetically altered rice occurred remains uncertain. It could be, experts said, that some grains of LL601 got mixed inadvertently with grains of Cheniere, so that future plantings of Cheniere were really plantings of both. That could have gone unnoticed for years until someone tested for the errant gene -- which is how Riceland Foods Inc. of Stuttgart, Ark., happened upon the problem this year.

Or it may be that LL601 plants fertilized some Cheniere plants, creating a gene-enhanced Cheniere. Rice pollen does not usually go far afield, but it can.

Tests on more than a dozen other LSU varieties have come up negative for the LL601 gene, as have tests from Texas and Arkansas plots; results from Mississippi are pending. But because many varieties of rice are mixed in huge bins after harvest, it could be difficult to rid the U.S. rice crop of the illegal variety.

"The damage has been done and it is still being done," said Adam J. Levitt, a partner in the Chicago office of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLC, who led a class action lawsuit that won $110 million for farmers after gene-altered and unapproved StarLink corn appeared in food in 2000. "They've really in a very substantial way poisoned the well."

How Bayer will deal with the international ramifications of LL601's escape is uncertain. But its domestic strategy became clear on Aug. 18, the day Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced the problem. That day Bayer filed a petition seeking USDA approval -- or "deregulation" -- of LL601.

If the petition is successful, the variety's presence would no longer violate U.S. regulations -- but the strategy has raised some hackles.

"Post hoc approval strikes us as really cynical," said Bill Freese, science policy analyst for the District-based Center for Food Safety. "Bayer has no intention of bringing this rice to market. Clearly this is an effort to avoid liability."

Last week Freese's group filed a petition asking USDA to reject Bayer's request and to rescind its earlier approval of the company's other two engineered rice varieties.

The petition argues that the herbicide resistance trait is sure to make its way into red rice, a weedy wild relative of white rice that is already rice growers' biggest pest. Any advance likely to make red rice herbicide-resistant, the petition claims, would force farmers to turn to more potent weedkillers and violate the Plant Protection Act.

Even if Bayer succeeds in deregulating LL601, farmers will still face international rejection -- a potentially major hit, since most rice profits are from overseas sales.

On Friday the European Commission said the rice "is not likely to pose an imminent safety concern." But it also made plain that the rice is illegal and offered no hints it would soften its stance.

Of even greater concern is whether Central American nations -- the biggest foreign buyers of U.S. rice -- and Mexico, the second biggest, will adhere to their strict rules on engineered foods. Talks were underway late last week, Yielding said.

The December inspector general report scolded USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service for failing to conduct required inspections of test plots and in some cases not even knowing where experiments it had approved were being conducted.

APHIS spokeswoman Rachel Iadicicco said the shortcomings cited in that report have been remedied.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company


Informant: binstock

Most of them are thinning at twice the rate previously estimated, according to a study

By MATT VOLZ

http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2006/0922/life/stories/melting_glaciers.htm

JUNEAU, Alaska — Less than 10 minutes after lifting off from the airport, the helicopter entered the frozen world suspended above Alaska's capital.

Snowcapped mountains rose on either side as the small team of scientists and students peered down at a jagged blue carpet of ice below. The pilot turned up one arm of Mendenhall Glacier only to find the way blocked by a wall of fog. The storm was moving in; the work would have to be done quickly.

Hydrologist Eran Hood used a handheld global positioning system to guide the pilot higher up the ice field on a clearer path. Circling low, the scientists spotted what they were after: A tiny pyramid of wire nearly invisible in the field of white.

In this lonely corner of an ice field larger than Rhode Island, the packed snow crunching under their boots, the group set up shop. They were about to find out just how much this part of the glacier had melted over the summer and how fast it was moving.

Advertisement Hood and physicist Matt Heavner, his colleague at the University of Alaska southeast, measured at least 10 feet of ice loss since May there and at two other spots on the glacier.

Rain was beating down on the tourists at the glacier's terminus below. The year's consistently bad weather has been dreary for the visitors, but something of a reprieve for the melting Mendenhall Glacier.

"It's a good summer to be a glacier," Hood said.

There haven't been too many, judging by the rate at which southeast Alaska's rivers of ice are melting.

Most of the glaciers stretching from Yakutat Bay to the Stikine Icefield, which goes into northwestern British Columbia, are thinning at twice the rate that was previously estimated, according to a new study co-authored by Hood's mentor, glaciologist Roman Motyka of the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute.

Comparing radar mapping data from a space shuttle mission six years ago with air photos taken between 1948 and 1979, Motyka, UAF colleague Chris Larsen and three other scientists pinpointed the extent of the glaciers' volume change.

They found that 95 percent of southeast Alaska's glaciers are thinning. Some glacier surface elevations had dropped as much as 2,100 feet since
1948, such as the Muir Glacier in the popular Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.

With the more precise data, they figured the rate of thinning was greatly underestimated from the last study done in 2002.

The scientists calculated that an average of nine cubic miles of glacier ice melts each year in the region due to a combination of climate change and glacier dynamics. They say even that may be an understatement of the actual rate of melting.

Mendenhall Glacier is a relatively small river of ice compared to the rest of southeast Alaska's extensive network, but it stands out. It is Alaska's most visited glacier, drawing 367,000 people to the U.S. Forest Service's visitor center last year.

The glacier is rapidly shrinking up the mountainside — as rapidly as glaciers can, anyway. Visitors who have observed the glacier see the change themselves. Motyka estimated that the glacier's terminus will pull out of Mendenhall Lake entirely within 10 years.

Hikers can trek up the side of the glacier along craggy rock that was under a deep layer of ice just two years ago. They can poke around in ice caves that weren't there at the beginning of the summer — and which will be gone by the season's end.

"We don't want to spend too much time underneath," Hood said in one such cave, as water from the blue roof dripped all around. "These are all pretty ephemeral."

Southeast Alaska's glaciers are very sensitive to climate change because of their large surface areas at low elevations. In Juneau, the winters have been getting warmer and rainier — 6.8 degrees warmer compared to 50 years ago, according to Laurie Craig, a naturalist for the Tongass National Forest.

Those warmer temperatures can disrupt a glacier's surface mass balance, the balance achieved between the melting period of summer and accumulation period of winter.

"Little work has been done to investigate the potential effects of winter warming on the distribution and type of winter precipitation," the authors of the new study wrote.

For many Alaska glaciers at lower elevations, warmer temperatures are causing the equilibrium line that separates the accumulation zone from the melting zone to rise. Yakutat Glacier, for example, has lost nearly all of its accumulation zone.

"This icefield will likely disappear completely under current conditions," the study's authors write.

While climate change causes equilibrium shifts and thinning, it isn't the only reason Alaska's tidewater glaciers are retreating from lakes and the sea. The retreat may be triggered by warmer temperatures, but then the dynamic cycle of a tidewater glacier takes over.

The speed of the glacier increases, drawing down the ice from above at a faster rate and increasing calving below. In southeast Alaska, the ice loss at their terminus can cause tidewater glaciers to retreat more than half a mile a year — and that loss can't be directly attributed to climate change, the scientists say.

"Once initiated, these calving losses are largely independent of climate change and can be an order of magnitude greater than ice losses driven solely by climate change," they wrote.

Then there are the anomalies. Five percent of the glaciers studied, such as the Taku in the Juneau Ice Field, are expanding and thickening.

Many of these glaciers extend higher in elevation, giving them a larger zone where snow can accumulate.

Glacier dynamics have the opposite effect with these glaciers. Their accumulation zones are expanding and their melting zones are shrinking. The result is a different kind of imbalance, one that causes the glaciers to advance.

Motyka said scientists will have a better understanding what has happened to the glaciers since the 2000 space shuttle data once new photos taken this summer are analyzed. With the last analysis showing glaciers melting at twice the rate previously thought, he said he expects more of the same.

"Presumably, things have accelerated," he said.

On the Net:
University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/
University of Alaska Southeast: http://www.uas.alaska.edu/
Tongass National Forest: http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/


Informant: binstock

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/toxics/index.cfm?uNewsID=80661

A survey of common European food items reveals that industrial chemicals such as pesticides, PCBs and flame retardants have been found in food consumed throughout Europe — from dairy products to meat and fish. Many of the compounds are found in a concentration range of 0.1 to 10 ng/g, with the exception of phthalates for which typical concentrations are two orders of magnitude higher. Brominated flame retardants have been found in 19 of 26 samples, with the highest concentrations in meat.

Published by World Wildlife Fund - UK.



EPA Closing Its Headquarters Library October 1

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility Thursday 21 September 2006 http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/092106EB.shtml http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_42535.shtml



Congress asks for review of effects on research, regulation and enforcement.

The US Environmental Protection Agency is closing its Headquarters Library to the public, as well as its own staff, effective October 1. This shutdown is the latest in a series of agency library closures during the past few weeks, according Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As with the other library collections, the books, reports and research monographs in the EPA Headquarters Library have been boxed up and are currently inaccessible to anyone.

The Headquarters Library collection contains 380,000 documents on microfiche (including technical reports produced by EPA and its predecessor agencies), a microforms collection that includes back files of abstracts and indexes, 5,500 hard copy EPA documents, as well as more than 16,000 books and technical reports produced by government agencies other than EPA.

EPA will not say when any of this material will again become available to its staff or the public either via the internet or through inter-library loans. As the agency claims that the library closures are for budgetary reasons, it has no dedicated funds for digitizing hard copies, making microfiche available online or re-cataloguing the tens of thousands of documents that will be relocated to large storage areas called "information repositories."

"EPA is busily crating up and locking away its institutional memory," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that more than
10,000 EPA scientists and other specialists are protesting the library closures as hindering their ability to do their jobs. "Despite its 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' public statements, EPA has no coherent plan let alone a timetable for making these collections available."

EPA made a formal announcement of this latest library closure in a Federal Register notice published on September 20, 2006, just days before the complete shutdown takes effect. The notice is required under a federal policy (Office of Budget & Management Circular A-130) requiring that the public be notified whenever "terminating significant information dissemination products."

Curiously, EPA issued no similar public notice for its closures of its regional libraries in Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City, even though these three libraries provide services for the general public in 15 states and 109 tribal nations.

EPA's library closures (which the agency euphemistically calls "deaccessioning procedures") are sparking congressional scrutiny. On September 19th, the Ranking Members of the House Committee on Science, Energy & Commerce and Government Reform (Reps. Bart Gordon (D-TN), John Dingell (D-MI) and Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), respectively) asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the effects that the EPA library closures will have on access to environmental information and the impacts on scientific research, regulatory quality and enforcement capability.

"EPA is taking the hard copies and microfilms and placing them in three giant information dumps, which they call 'repositories,'" added Ruch, pointing to the agency promise to create three such repositories
(one at its D.C. headquarters with the others in Cincinnati and Durham) to serve the entire nation. "Once these mountains of documents are moved into the repositories, what happens next is anyone's guess."


Informant: binstock

Sep 22 2006

By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

CHURCH officials at the centre of a mobile phone mast row feel they have been misled by the telecommunications company.

Residents of Clayton West are protesting about Hutchison 3G putting a new aerial on top of the village's United Reformed Church in Church Lane.

Resident Audrey Booth, along with more than 100 other villagers, is worried about the mast on health grounds.

They also feel the church has not been entirely straight with them over the planning process.

Previously a spokesman for the church had refused to comment.

But now a statement on behalf of the church and the URC Yorkshire Synod has been issued.

It said that Hutchison 3G had put a mobile phone aerial on the church roof.

It went on: "The church is being paid £6,000 per annum by the company.

"It is already using the money to provide new toilets and to improve disabled access for the local community.

"Among the groups using its premises are a youth club and a men's group every two weeks."

The statement added that Hutchison had told church trustees that people could object to the planned aerial to Kirklees Council planners when the planing application was submitted.

It goes on: "Neither the church nor the trustees were aware, until recently, that this information was incorrect.

"We have since been advised that installations of this type do not need permission, because they are treated as `permitted development' by the planning regulations.

"The church shares the concerns of local residents that they appear to have been misled about any objections being heard as part of planning process.

"When the request was received from Hutchison 3G the church elders obtained professional advice and support and also held a public consultation for local residents."

A Hutchison 3G spokesman said: "We appreciate the church's concern about the consultation process undertaken for our proposed radio base station.

"We are committed to undertaking further discussion with those in the local community who have concerns about the proposals, in order to provide additional information and address the key issues."

Mrs Booth, who lives near the church, said of church officials: "There must have been a point when they knew the mast was going ahead, at least at the signing of the contract.

"Did they ever consider the people at all at that time?"

© owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales Limited 2006

http://tinyurl.com/jfvxm

NSA whistleblower Russell Tice says his choice to reveal what he says were unlawful acts at the National Security Agency while he was working there has cost him his career and livelihood: "My case, from beginning to end, is a testament to the utter and complete failure of whistleblower protections for federal employees who work within the most crucial aspects of national security."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092206I.shtml



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

Mel Sembler, who is board chairman of the Sembler Company, a real estate and shopping center development company, said he has worked hard to raise money for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's legal defense fund. Sembler describes himself as "dear friends" with Cheney. Tammy Sun, a spokeswoman for Lieberman, said the Lieberman campaign is "grateful for Mel Sembler's support."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092206G.shtml



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

"What we need is action, and this is the week for it," writes David Swanson. "The Declaration of Peace has organized massive plans for civil disobedience. And, in a nod to our national insanity and future genocides, the Declaration of Peace - although begun by religious groups - is largely refraining from promoting religion."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092206F.shtml



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

Former US president Bill Clinton criticized Bush administration proposals for treating suspected terrorists, saying it would be unnecessary and wrong to give broad approval to torture and that any decision to use harsh treatment in interrogating suspects should be subject to court review.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092206E.shtml

Strains on the Army from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have become so severe that Army officials say they may be forced to make greater use of the National Guard to provide enough troops for overseas deployments.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092206B.shtml

Christian Science Monitor
by Carl Robichaud

09/21/06

This month's devastating wave of suicide attacks in Afghanistan (including three attacks on Monday, which brought the total number to 69 since 2005) 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. August 2002 was Afghanistan's 'Mission Accomplished' moment. Mr. Rumsfeld declared the military effort 'a breathtaking accomplishment' and 'a successful model of what could happen to Iraq.' America had routed the Taliban, disrupted Al Qaeda, and set Afghanistan on a course for stability and democracy -- and it had done it Rumsfeld's way, at little cost and with minimal loss of life...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0921/p09s02-coop.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBAM7JZDSE.html


Informant: Kev Hall

"War Signals" By Dave Lindorff, The Nation As reports circulate of a sharp debate within the White House over possible US military action against Iran and its nuclear enrichment facilities, The Nation has learned that the Bush Administration and the Pentagon have issued orders for a major "strike group" of ships, including the nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower as well as a cruiser, destroyer, frigate, submarine escort and supply ship, to head for the Persian Gulf, just off Iran's western coast. This information follows a report in the current issue of Time magazine, both online and in print, that a group of ships capable of mining harbors has received orders to be ready to sail for the Persian Gulf by October 1. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061009/lindorff

Sign the Don't-Attack-Iran Petition

http://www.dontattackiran.org


Sign the Petition to End the Occupation of Iraq
http://www.pdamerica.org/petition/mcgovern-petition.php


What We Can Do When We Get Together

See the videos, photos, and reports from Camp Democracy: http://www.campdemocracy.org


"Google" Your Voter Registration at MyDem.org

On our first day, over 5,000 Democrats "googled" their voter registrations to make sure they were not removed from the voter list by corrupt Republican election officials like Katherine Harris or Ken Blackwell.

http://mydem.org

If you are not registered to vote, register here
http://www.govote.org/?t1=84

Avoid long lines and hackable machines - vote absentee! (Rules vary by state)
https://electionimpact.votenet.com/declareyourself/absentee/index.cfm

Hans-Böckler-Stiftung: Angeblich jeder dritte Arbeitnehmer ohne unbefristeten Vollzeitarbeitsplatz (22.09.06)

In Deutschland haben immer weniger Beschäftigte einen unbefristeten Vollzeitarbeitsplatz. Das sei das Ergebnis einer Berechnung der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, wie die "Bild"-Zeitung berichtet. Danach hatten im Jahr 2005 bereits 34,5 Prozent der Arbeitnehmer entweder eine Teilzeitstelle, eine Zeitarbeitsstelle, einen Minijob oder einen befristeten Arbeitsvertrag. Laut Hans-Böckler-Stiftung waren dies 2001 nur 31,3 Prozent.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14397

22.09.06

Die Umweltschutzorganisation Robin Wood hat Ankündigungen des Energiekonzerns RWE, eine Laufzeitverlängerung für den Atomreaktor Biblis A zu beantragen, scharf verurteilt. "RWE will Atomausstieg abwürgen, bevor er richtig begonnen hat", so Robin Wood. Die Minister Gabriel und Glos sowie Kanzlerin Merkel fordert die Organisation auf, einen entsprechenden Antrag von RWE abzulehnen. Statt längerer Laufzeiten fordern die Umweltschützer die sofortige Stilllegung des Atomkraftwerks Biblis. Auch alle anderen Atomanlagen in Deutschland müssten vom Netz, da anders eine sichere, umweltfreundliche und effiziente Energieversorgung in Deutschland nicht zu gewährleisten sei.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14398

Tom Engelhardt writes: "Abu Ghraib prison is the place where Saddam's functionaries tortured (and sometimes killed) many enemies of his regime, and where Bush's functionaries, as a series of notorious digital photos revealed, committed what the US press still likes to refer to as "prisoner abuse." Now, there are no prisoners to abuse and the prison itself is to be turned over to the Iraqi government, perhaps to become a museum, perhaps to remain a jail for another regime whose handling of prisoners is grim indeed."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092206O.shtml

United Nations human rights investigators said on Thursday that legislation proposed by President Bush for tough interrogations of foreign terrorism suspects would breach the Geneva Conventions. Washington's admission of secret detention centers abroad pointed to very serious human rights violations in relation to the hunt for alleged terrorists.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092206N.shtml

The US intelligence agents involved in wrongly kidnapping a German citizen of Arab descent could soon face warrants for their arrest. Clues to their identity have turned up from Spanish authorities and German TV journalists.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092206L.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Masri

Patrick McElwee writes: "In the past few weeks, we've been reminded that public opinion can constrain the actions of government officials who seek to bring us into conflict with other nations. The Bush administration's attempt to pressure Congress into granting it immunity to abuse and torture detainees - not only in the future but also for acts committed over the last five years - has been slowed and may be halted."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092206K.shtml

The Globalization Excuse

by Susan B. Hansen, TomPaine.com
http://ga3.org/ct/3720pgF1kX7T/

Monster Stomping The States

by Kristina Wilfore, TomPaine.com
http://ga3.org/ct/3d20pgF1kX7Y/

Torture Exhibit A

by William Fisher, TomPaine.com
http://ga3.org/ct/3p20pgF1kX7H/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060921/ap_on_he_me/hiv_testing


Peace - Anna

When compared to nearly two dozen other industrialized countries, the US has the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy for people who have reached the age of 60. The nation's youngest and oldest citizens are suffering the most from a fragmented, wasteful and in some cases, dangerous health care system.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/092106HA.shtml

In the voting booth this fall, voters in states across the country will find ballot initiatives attempting to make deep cuts in social services.

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

Fresh disasters at the polls - and new evidence from an industry insider - prove that electronic voting machines can't be trusted, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reports.

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

An Interview With Howard Zinn

We have done too many bad things in the world. You know, if you look at the way we have used our armed forces throughout our history: first destroying the Indian communities of this continent and annihilating Indian tribes, then going into the Caribbean in the Spanish-American War.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15054.htm

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Department of Defense to release documents detailing mistreatment or disciplinary action taken against detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other information sought by The Associated Press.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6094165,00.html


From Information Clearing House



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

The Bush administration had to empty its secret prisons and transfer terror suspects to the military-run detention centre at Guantánamo this month in part because CIA interrogators had refused to carry out further interrogations and run the secret facilities.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15057.htm

Former Army Lieutenant and a candidate for Congress in VT, Dennis Morrisseau of W. Pawlet, today called for the arrest of President Bush and Vice President Cheney by the American military "if necessary" to prevent an unauthorized attack upon the nation of Iran.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15056.htm

--------

Vermont Congressional Candidate Calls For Arrest of Bush & Cheney by U.S. Military
http://tinyurl.com/gg3kx

Iran could trigger a global terrorist campaign and choke the West's oil supplies in the event of war with America, the top US commander in the region has warned.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/21/woil21.xml


From Information Clearing House

Three and a half years after the occupation began, the US military is no longer the real power in Iraq. As the chief of intelligence for the US Marine Corps revealed in a recent report, US troops have been unable to shake the hold that Sunni insurgents have on the vast western province of al-Anbar.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI22Ak01.html


From Information Clearing House

A confidential Pentagon assessment finds that an overwhelming majority of Iraq's Sunni Muslims support the insurgency that has been fighting against U.S. troops and the Iraqi government

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2470183&page=1



Analysts say violence will continue to increase

Violence in Iraq will continue despite different reconciliation plans being proposed because insurgency and militia actions are a response to the US-led occupation.

http://snipurl.com/wso2


From Information Clearing House

The people with powerful political friends in the White House, who are trying to bring about the end of the world. Julia Bard reports.

Channel 4 (UK) Video Documentary

The leaders of the End Time movement are rich, well-connected and very powerful. Though the USA constitution enshrines the separation of church and state End Timers are frequent visitors to the White House.

Click to view - Real Video and Windows Media.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15032.htm

By Manuel Valenzuela

Knowing the absolute ignorance, gullibility and lack of critical thinking of the American masses, those in power are able, once more, in what has become all too familiar throughout the annals of history, to skew the decision, mentality and vote of large segments of the population by simply reaching to the primitive instincts of human nature and manipulating emotions, psychology and the instinct of survival prevalent in every living organism.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15050.htm

By Stephen Lendman

The US is now at a dangerous watershed moment struggling to save the tattered republic and our sacred constitutional rights. Unless we reverse the present course, our future may be the one Orwell foresaw when he wrote: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face....forever...." Like the totalitarian state of Oceania led by Big Brother in his best known book 1984, we're waging a permanent long war; no one is safe anymore.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15051.htm

Audio and Transcript

“If you repeat it loudly enough it will become the truth” - MIT institute professor of linguistics and author Noam Chomsky speaks out on U.S. hegemony, controlling the domestic population through fear and the historical parallels of current U.S. foreign policy.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15052.htm

by Pastor Chuck Baldwin

Is it just me, or are people really getting meaner? It seems that much of what I hear and read these days indicates that people's actions and attitudes are increasingly rude, crude, and downright cantankerous. Has it always been this way? If it was, I don't remember it.....

http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin322.htm

Is it the PR, or the Policy?
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0921-31.htm

by Byron Richards, CCN

Any North American Union will have military, political, economic, social, and healthcare strategies for implementation. The secret meeting held in Canada this past week brings to light just how seriously and quickly the Bush administration is moving on this issue. It also underscores the importance of a needed Congressional inquiry into the illegal collusion by the FDA and related agencies in Canada and Mexico known as the Trilateral Cooperation Charter.....

http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron9.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0921-28.htm


Informant: NHNE

http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/salon030.html


Informant: Lew Rockwel

http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,,1877300,00.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/news561.pdf

This is brilliant. Well done to all of you who contributed to this and made it happen.

http://www.schnews.co.uk/archive/news561.htm

John E.

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5123/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061009/lindorff


Informant: Kev Hall

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

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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