World-News

14.12.06

Mit Inkrafttreten des Umwelt-Rechtsbehelfsgesetzes am 15. Dezember bekommen Umweltverbände mehr Klagerechte im Umweltschutz. Laut Umweltbundesamt können damit Vereinigungen, die sich den Schutz der Umwelt zur Aufgabe gemacht haben, bestimmte behördliche Entscheidungen von den Gerichten prüfen lassen. Vorraussetzung sei, dass die Umweltvereinigungen satzungsgemäß dem Umweltschutz dienten. Sie müssten aber nicht von der behördlichen Entscheidung betroffen sein. Sie können zum Beispiel gegen die Zulassung einer Industrieanlage oder einer Straße vorgehen, falls die Zulassung aus ihrer Sicht bestimmten Vorschriften des Umweltrechts widerspricht. Um klagen zu dürfen, brauchen die Verbände allerdings eine Anerkennung. Diese erteilt das Umweltbundesamt (UBA) in Dessau.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14950

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Umweltminister Gabriel: Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung und Rechtsschutz in Umweltangelegenheiten gestärkt - Weg frei für Ratifizierung der Aarhus-Konvention

Mit drei neuen Gesetzen, die am 15. und 16. 12. 2006 in Kraft treten, verbessert Deutschland die Rechte der von Zulassungsentscheidungen betroffenen Öffentlichkeit. Bundesumweltminister Sigmar Gabriel: "Für die Bürgerbeteiligung und den Rechtsschutz von Verbänden in Umweltangelegenheiten ist das ein erheblicher Fortschritt. Wir erfüllen jetzt die internationalen Kriterien der Aarhus-Konvention, deren Instrumente für eine moderne Umweltpolitik unverzichtbar sind."

Mit dem Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligungsgesetz, dem Umwelt-Rechtsbehelfsgesetz und dem Aarhus-Vertragsgesetz wird EU-Recht umgesetzt und der Weg für die Ratifizierung der Aarhus-Konvention durch Deutschland freigemacht. Kernpunkte des Gesetzespakets sind die Einführung einer Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung bei der Aufstellung bestimmter umweltbezogener Pläne, die Präzisierung der geltenden Bestimmungen zur Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung bei Zulassungsverfahren für Industrieanlagen und Infrastrukturmaßnahmen nach den EU-Richtlinien zur integrierten Vermeidung und Verminderung von Umweltverschmutzung und zur Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfung (IVU- und UVP-Richtlinie) sowie die Eröffnung einer umweltrechtlichen Verbandsklage bei solchen Zulassungsverfahren.

Pressemitteilung des BMU v. 14.12.2006
http://www.bmu.de/pressemitteilungen/pressemitteilungen_ab_22112005/pm/38374.php


Aus: FGF-Infoline vom 14.12.2006
Der Forschungsgemeinschaft Funk e.V. (FGF), gehören alle deutschen Mobilfunkbetreiber an.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.peaceteam.net/impeachment_now.php

First the American people spoke in overwhelming numbers on November 7, soundly repudiating current policy, with ENDING the Iraq war/occupation at the top of their list. The Bush administration heard nothing. Then the Iraq Study Group delivered its report, which despite its timid recommendations on actual troop withdrawal again sent the message that something had to change immediately. The Bush administration did not get it. Instead we are told that Bush is on a "listening" tour, apparently desperately trying to find some half-credible person somewhere who will tell him what he wants to hear, that no fundamental change of course is necessary.

We are told that Bush is asking all the "tough questions." We are told that Cheney is taking "copious notes." One has to wonder how intelligent decisions could have been made by any other previously insular method. But at the same time we hear that Bush is "resolutely defiant," and in fact plans on sending even MORE troops to Iraq. So what we are witnessing is yet another Karl Rove photo-op, a dog and pony show of attentiveness, with absolutely no intention of taking any advice they would not have given themselves in the first place.

When our founders drafted our Constitution, the thing they feared most was that a despot would arise to arrogate dictatorial power, which is why they made repeated references to the procedure of impeachment as the ultimate check and balance. Most of all they sought to guard against the kind of abusive, absolutist power that they had fought a revolutionary war to escape. And what Bush and Cheney have given us if a textbook example of what they strove so mightily to ensure against as our heritage.

All the particular violations of law of the Bush Administration which have become public knowledge already, the illegal wiretaps, the authorization at the highest level of torture, preemptive attacks on other countries on flimsy and mendacious justification, these are just the inevitable symptoms of the root cause. The highest constitutional crime of all is to act as a king. And the confession to that crime was the exclamation, "I'm the decider." The instant charade of intense "listening" is nothing more than an attempt to lull, to stall, to buy time, and ultimately to defy the other two branches of government and the people of the United States ourselves, while every day up to ten or more of our troops die for nothing in an illegal war of hubris.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.peaceteam.net/impeachment_now.php

We no longer have any choice whether or not to press for impeachment. There is no other democratic way left for us to stop the runaway train of seized power. To NOT act as mandated by the Constitution is to toss that revered document into the same trash basket as Bush and Cheney have, smirking as they did all the way. No matter what the disastrous consequences of their actions they will never give up an iota of the power they have stolen without being directly confronted with impeachment. They would not hear any other message. THAT is the message we must send most urgently now.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours.

Powered by The People's Email Network Copyright 2006, Patent pending, All rights reserved May be reproduced for activist purposes



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

J. Sri Raman writes: "'At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.' That was India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, waxing poetic on the eve of India's Independence on August 15, 1947. 'In the wee hours of December 9, 2006, as the world slept,' Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can claim, 'India awoke to a new nuclear status.'"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121406H.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sri+Raman

Under the revisions, federal prosecutors will no longer have blanket authority to ask routinely that a company under investigation waive the confidentiality of its legal communications or risk being indicted. Instead, they will need written approval for waivers from the deputy attorney general, and can make such requests only rarely.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121406F.shtml

Democrats, who will shape fiscal policies in the new Congress, issued a scathing report Wednesday on the "financial mess" they'll inherit from their Republican counterparts next month.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121406E.shtml

Timothy Garton Ash writes: "What an amazing bloody catastrophe. The Bush administration's policy towards the Middle East over the five years since 9/11 is culminating in a multiple train crash. Never in the field of human conflict was so little achieved by so great a country at such vast expense. In every vital area of the wider Middle East, American policy over the last five years has taken a bad situation and made it worse."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121406C.shtml

Two years after an earlier lawsuit temporarily halted mandatory anthrax vaccinations for all 2.4 million service members and some military contractors, another group of military service members and Pentagon civilian contractors are going to federal court to block the controversial vaccine's forced use once again.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121406B.shtml



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

Chris Floyd reports that "just nine months after an American raid that killed 11 civilians, including five children under the age of five, another ground and air assault on suspected insurgents in the area left behind a pile of corpses, including at least two children. As with the earlier incident, Friday's attack has produced conflicting stories of what really happened, but the end result is clear: a multitude of grieving, angry Iraqis further embittered against the American occupation."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121406A.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Chris+Floyd

Die USA müssen ihre Weltraumsysteme schützen, die auch von Terroristen angegriffen werden könnten, aber lehnen kategorisch neue Abkommen zur Beschränkung des Rüstungswettlaufs ab.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24217/1.html

HLV INFO 132/AT

14-12-2006

Astrid Peter 12-12-06

Erhebliche Strahlenbelastung für Kinder durch Warensicherungen
http://www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/news/news.asp?id=26677

10,000 US researchers have signed a statement protesting political interference in the scientific process. The statement, which includes the backing of 52 Nobel Laureates, demands a restoration of scientific integrity in government policy. According to the American Union of Concerned Scientists, data is being misrepresented for political reasons. It claims scientists working for federal agencies have been asked to change data to fit policy initiatives.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121406N.shtml

"The abrupt resignation of the Saudi ambassador to the United States and the postponement of George W. Bush's new Iraq policy speech mark a troubling new chapter for a US strategy for the Middle East that continues to spiral toward catastrophe," writes Robert Parry.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121406M.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Parry

The subpoena raises the possibility that the Bush administration has found a new tool to stop the dissemination of secrets, one that could avoid the all but absolute constitutional prohibition on prior restraints on publication. The disputed document, according to the ACLU, is three and a half pages long and unremarkable and "has nothing to do with national defense." The ACLU said the subpoena was an effort to chill speech about the Bush administration. "The government is involved in a very conscious effort to suppress its critics," said Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU's executive director.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121406L.shtml



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

The Bush administration, responding to an October order by US District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina to release two years of White House visitor logs to the Washington Post, asked an appeals court Wednesday to overrule a federal judge and allow the White House to keep secret any records of visitors to Vice President Cheney's residence and office. The newspaper, researching the access lobbyists and others had on the White House, sought Secret Service records for anyone visiting Cheney, his legal counsel, chief spokesman, and other top aides and advisers.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121406K.shtml



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

by Frank O'Donnell, TomPaine.com

EPA plays Santa to corporate interests, while more Tiny Tims are left to get sick.
http://ga3.org/ct/pp20pgF1CmU9/

SarbOx Under Assault
http://ga3.org/ct/P120pgF1CmUo/



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

The Bloodbath We Created
http://ga3.org/ct/Pd20pgF1CmUl/

By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, December 14, 2006; A21

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/13/AR2006121302039.html

SHANGHAI, Dec. 13 -- For millions of years, the Chinese river dolphin basked in the waters of the mighty Yangtze, a gray phantom more than six feet long with a sharp snout and tiny eyes. The endearing creature, which the Chinese call baiji, was the stuff of legend, a goddess to some, and the delight of fishermen who occasionally saw one break the water's surface.

But China's relentless growth closed in on the baiji over the past 25 years, fouling its habitat with sewage and filling the Yangtze with ships whose propellers disrupted the dolphin's sonar-based sensory system. The numbers declined year after year, until scientists estimated recently that only 50 were left along the river's 1,500-mile main course through central China. The baiji, they warned, risked extinction.

News came Wednesday that they were right: Development in China has in all likelihood extinguished the baiji, erasing the species from the planet. An expedition of some of the world's leading experts, equipped with sophisticated viewing equipment and ultra-sensitive microphones, announced it had ended its mission after five weeks on the river without detecting any sign of surviving baijis.

"It's possible that there are two or three left that we missed somehow, but functionally they are extinct," said August Pfluger, a Swiss conservationist whose Baiji.org Foundation was one of the expedition's sponsors. "It's finished. This is very, very sad."

Pfluger said the baiji's disappearance is a testament to the filthiness of China's rivers and lakes -- the government recently estimated that 70 percent are unacceptably polluted -- just as the threat to giant pandas was evidence of man's incursion into the wooded mountainsides of central China. The difference, he said, is that world conservationists and the Chinese government mobilized to save the panda, but the baiji was allowed to wither away.

"It's nobody's fault," he said. "You can't point to somebody and blame him. In the middle of the most flourishing economy in the world, a little dolphin, nobody cares."

Actually, the baiji was not so little. Fully grown, it measured 6 feet 5 inches to 8 feet long and weighed up to 220 pounds. Its snout was long and narrow. Almost sightless, it relied on sonar-type signals to navigate the Yangtze and sense the presence of the fish that were its main diet.

Scientists estimated the baiji migrated up the Yangtze from the East China Sea as far back as 20 million years ago. It was one of four species of dolphins that make fresh water their exclusive habitat. The three others have survived in the Ganges and Indus rivers on the Indian subcontinent and the Amazon in South America.

As China developed economically, pressure on the baiji grew swiftly. Industrial and residential waste flowed into the Yangtze. The riverbed was repeatedly dragged and reinforced with concrete. Ship traffic multiplied, and the size of the boats grew. Fishermen employed wider and more lethal nets, robbing the dolphin of its food and occasionally killing one in the catch.

Wang Ding, a Chinese expert from the Wuhan Institute of Hydrobiology known as "Mr. Baiji," told reporters that the population had already dwindled to 400 by the 1980s. By 1997, a systematic count by the Agriculture Ministry turned up 13. A four-boat survey in 1999 saw four. The last time anyone made a confirmed sighting was last summer, Pfluger said. On Wednesday, the latest exploration, by two ships with scientists from six nations, turned in its count: zero.

Throughout the trip, experts from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Hubbs-SeaWorld Institute, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, the Japanese Fisheries Agency and Wang's Wuhan Institute manned giant binoculars and underwater microphones to probe for signs of surviving baijis.

"We had some of the best scientists in the world, real experts, and I was the only one who has actually seen one in the wild," Pfluger said, recalling a sighting in 1997 during the first such expedition. "When I saw this animal then, it was very emotional."

As the population headed toward extinction in recent years, scientists and conservationists had argued over the best way to preserve the baiji.

Chinese officials suggested capturing as many as possible and moving them to a 15-mile-long offshoot of the Yangtze that would be protected from contamination. Other experts doubted that could be done, noting that baijis do not instinctively breathe and probably would perish if sedated. Meanwhile, a baiji that was being preserved in captivity died in 2002.

The arguments seemed to turn moot Wednesday. Wang, though, held out hope, however remote, that some baijis may have survived undetected and could still be rescued. He told Chinese reporters that if 20 or so could somehow be found and moved into a preserve, the species could be saved.

But for Pfluger, 45, an economist by training and a longtime conservationist by avocation, it was time to move on to the finless porpoise, another rare and threatened species in the Yangtze.

Chinese scientists estimated in 1993 that 2,700 finless porpoises lived in the river. Fewer than 1,000 live there now, they have concluded, and the just-finished expedition saw fewer than 400. To prevent their extinction, Chinese conservationists have established a colony of about 30 in a nature preserve -- well away from the polluted river -- and are hoping they can reproduce outside their natural habitat.

"Their numbers are declining at an alarming rate," Wang said in the expedition's announcement. "If we do not act soon, they will become a second baiji."


Informant: binstock

Spring gets out of sync
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/14/SPRING.TMP&type=science

This year will be Britain's warmest since records began, say scientists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1971636,00.html


Informant: binstock

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_4834524


Informant: binstock

Slate
by Jacob Weisberg

12/13/06

The American experience in Iraq, as many analysts have pointed out, looks a lot like the American experience in Vietnam. But one element seems to be missing: antiwar protests. There were enormous demonstrations around the world, including in New York and San Francisco, on the eve of the invasion in February 2003. Support for the Iraq war and the president's handling of it are significantly lower than comparable polling numbers for Vietnam and LBJ at an analogous point in 1968. Yet since the war began, antiwar protesters haven't been numerous, visible, or influential. Where have all the flower children gone?

http://www.slate.com/id/2155442


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jacob+Weisberg

Human Events
by Robert Novak

12/14/06

Some 30 invited corporate representatives and other lobbyists gathered at the Phoenix Park Hotel on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to hear two senior mainstream Republican senators pitch the 2008 presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain. They were selling him to establishment Republicans as the establishment's candidate. Nothing could be further from McCain's guerrilla-style presidential run in 2000 that nearly stopped George W. Bush. ... It is beginning to look like 'McCain, Inc.' -- that is, party regulars, corporate officials and Washington lawyers and lobbyists moving toward John McCain, the man it feared and loathed eight years ago. The GOP, abhorring competition and detesting surprises, likes to establish its presidential nominee well in advance...

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18466


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McCain
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Novak

Brattleboro Reformer

12/13/06

The push to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney is once again gathering momentum, and this time it's coupled with a resolution to bring troops home from Iraq. Five percent of the voters in 40 towns across Vermont have signed a petition that would place both questions on ballots as nonbinding resolutions at town meeting in March. It goes hand in hand with a separate resolution to bring troops home from Iraq. The state is also gearing up for a Washington D.C. rally against the war through United for Peace and Justice, an international organization. Vermont has a number of local chapters...

http://www.reformer.com/search/ci_4830155


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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

MSNBC

12/14/06

The nation's top uniformed leaders are recommending that the United States change its main military mission in Iraq from combating insurgents to supporting Iraqi troops and hunting terrorists, said sources familiar with the White House's ongoing Iraq policy review. President Bush and Vice President Cheney met with the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday at the Pentagon for more than an hour, and the president engaged his top military advisers on different options...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16195925/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Kevin Smith - Bognor Regis Observer 14.12.06

Three controversial TETRA antennae could be installed in Bognor Regis town centre. News of the proposed installation comes less than three years after a community campaign to keep the town free from the telecom equipment. Strong fears surround the alleged health risks of the masts which are switched on around the clock providing a modern communication system for the emergency services.

Airwave MM02 has stated it wants to site the new antennae on the top of the town's only multi-story block of flats. It envisages putting up the structures, each about nine metres high, on the roof of the plant room which stands on the top of the roof of the 15-storey building in Queensway. The company's move comes after it was forced to remove the only previous TETRA mast in Bognor in May 2004.

A concerted campaign resulted in the mast being taken down from the roof of the Reynolds depositary in Canada Grove. Company owner Dominic Reynolds backed the campaign once they discovered the mast's presence three months earlier. His support for them meant 02 subsidiary Airwave had to dismantle the mast. Protestors spoke about sleepless nights, headaches, nausea and nosebleeds being caused by the effects of the continuous transmissions.

District councillor Paul Wells (Bognor Hotham) said: "I am extremely disappointed that, after all the hard work that went into removing the TETRA mast in 2004, 02 should want to put up another one in the heart of the town. There were a lot of concerns and fears of local residents about the alleged health risks caused by the previous mast. Now two years later, we are back to square one with regard to having to fight this matter. To have this particular system right in the middle of Bognor where people live and work is unacceptable in my opinion. I can't believe that 02 want to put this mast here after the previous campaign."

A TETRA mast is working in Felpham on the Bognor Regis Golf Club course.
02 threatened to take the club to court last march when it tried to cancel the contract to enable the mast to be sited between its fairways. Alan Taylor of Felpham Residents Against TETRA, said: "We did have a campaign to have the mast removed because we didn't want it there. Some people have alleged it has caused them some distress. If the police are so confident that the system is safe, they should have put the mast on the top of the police station."

Don Proctor, the planning director of RPS Planning, which has issued the consultation documents about the mast, provides details of the intended antennae. He says in a letter; "We are committed to seeking to address concerns regarding telecommunications equipment particularly where the siting of such equipment is near to sites such as schools and hospitals or near to residential areas."

02 has consistently maintained that the TETRA masts pose no danger to the public. It has been said that they meet all the relevant health and safety requirements.


Informant: Dances Alone

EuroMemorandum 2006 der EuroMemorandum Gruppe vom Dezember 2006, dt. Kurzfassung mit 51 Seiten (pdf) http://www.memo-europe.uni-bremen.de/downloads/Euromemorandum_2006_Deutsch_7-12-06.pdf

Siehe dazu: Das ungerechte Europa.

„Europas Wirtschaft ist stark. Aber nicht überall. Die großen sozialen Unterschiede gefährden den politischen Zusammenhalt. Die beiden größten Probleme sind die wachsende Armut und die Massenarbeitslosigkeit, selbst in Ländern, die ein exorbitantes Wachstum vorzuweisen haben. Experten warnen deshalb davor, die neoliberale Wirtschaftspolitik fortzusetzen…“ Dokumentation in der Frankfurter Rundschau vom 14.12.2006 http://www.fr-aktuell.de/in_und_ausland/dokumentation/?sid=6db6312178bd65dcfa035766fbeb280d&em_cnt=1031327


Aus: LabourNet, 14. Dezember 2006



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=neoliberal
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Armut

Anthony Arnove speaks on Ending the Iraq War Now at YouTube and TraprockPeaceTV. This 16 minute video states his persuasive case for immediate withdrawal.

http://www.traprockpeace.org/traprock_video/ or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZTDS0W66x4&eurl=

Anthony Arnove, author of “Iraq: the Logic of Withdrawal” spoke at the plenary session of the Campus Antiwar Network’s Midwest Regional Conference at the University of Illinois at Chicago on April 22, 2006.

He makes the case for immediate withdrawal, and points out the lies that led to war, and the lies that sustain the occupation of Iraq.

Read also Anthony Arnove's current article - The Case for Immediate Withdrawal - in Socialist Worker.
http://www.socialistworker.org/2006-2/613/613_04_Arnove.shtml

See also Anthony Arnove’s debate on occupation of Iraq, in Brooklyn, April 6, 2003
http://www.traprockpeace.org/iraq_debate_06april05.html

"Iraq: the Logic of Withdrawal" is coming out in paperback: http://www.americanempireproject.com/bookpage.asp?ISBN=0805082727

Hear audio of the CAN conference and see photos at http://www.traprockpeace.org/campus_antiwar_midwest_06.html

Other new videos at TraprockPeaceTV

John Rees, Stop the War Coalition (UK) on antiwar activism and turning words to deeds. http://www.traprockpeace.org/traprock_video/index.php/2006/12/11/john- rees-on-activism/

Wal-Mart - Chain of Exploitation by sprawl buster, Al Norman http://www.traprockpeace.org/traprock_video/index.php/2006/12/10/wal-mart-chain-of-exploitation/


Charles Jenks
Chair of Advisory Board Traprock Peace Center
103 Keets Road Deerfield, MA 01342
http://www.traprockpeace.org

From ufpj-news

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Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal

Last Summer, Electronic Iraq featured an interview with Anthony Arnove, author of the book Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal. Now available on paperback, the book remains relevant to anybody trying to understand the argument for withdrawal - an argument often presented without nuance. Arnove's argument is nuanced and direct and deserving of a wide hearing by people on all sides of the withdrawal issue.

http://electroniciraq.net/news/2813.shtml



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

http://jimbovard.com/blog/2006/12/08/american-conservative-bushs-torturedictatorship-scandal/


Informant: Lew Rockwell



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

Nearly two months after DuPont claimed to have evidence that a chemical it uses in the Teflon-manufacturing process is safe for workers, the chemical giant still refuses to release its full findings. Now unions have joined in pressuring DuPont to release the study and other information on the health effects of a chemical used to make Teflon that the Environmental Protection Agency says is potentially harmful to humans.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/121306LA.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=DuPont
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Teflon

Joan E. Bertin and Jay Dyckman write: "Even on the surface, Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency is a hot case. It asks whether the EPA is mandated to regulate greenhouse gases in order to reduce global warming. Twelve states, three cities, and a coalition of environmental organizations point to the Clean Air Act and say yes. The agency says no. But lurking beneath the surface of the Supreme Court dispute are more far-reaching and fundamental questions about government's power to censor scientific knowledge."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/121306EC.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=global+warming

A federal judge called the Bush administration's handling of a Hurricane Katrina housing program "a legal disaster" Wednesday and ordered officials to explain a computer system that can neither precisely count evacuees nor provide reasons why they were denied aid.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306R.shtml



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

A Film by Scott Galindez

http://www.neworleansvfp.org/node/3117

Marine Corporal Grant Collins describes what it was like to participate in the war in Iraq. He also describes what it is like to live with giving orders that resulted in the deaths of civilians.

QuickTime Video (8 Minutes): http://tinyurl.com/yls2kg



Informant: NHNE



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=redress
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Scott+Galindez

Competition and economic fairplay are almost defunct in the U.S. food system. Consumers will pay more for fewer choices; farmers will get paid less --- don't pass go, and don't collect $200 --- that will go to the commodity trader living down on Park Place.

http://tinyurl.com/ycthn6



U.S. eases its tactics on suspect firms

The new policy limits prosecutors' demands in corporate fraud cases. It revises methods put in place since Enron and other scandals.

http://tinyurl.com/yhftl5


From Information Clearing House

US income figures show staggering rise in social inequality
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/ineq-d12.shtml


From Information Clearing House

The National Whistleblower Center, a nationally recognized FBI Watchdog group, has released to the public extensive sworn and documentary evidence concerning the FBI’s actual response to the attacks of September 11, 2001.

http://www.whistleblowers.org/index.html


From Information Clearing House

A new report collating first-hand accounts gives us the clearest view yet of the torture going on in the US's secret prisons.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1970868,00.html



Abusive Interrogations

Unlike the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association considers it acceptable for its members to participate in coercive interrogations at Guantanamo and the various other American detention centers around the world.

http://counterpunch.com/soldz12122006.html



Pinochet: A Declassified Documentary Obit

As Chile prepared to bury General Augusto Pinochet, the National Security Archive today posted a selection of declassified U.S. documents that illuminate the former dictator's record of repression. The documents include CIA records on Pinochet's role in the Washington D.C. car bombing that killed former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his American colleague Ronni Moffitt.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB212/index.htm


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=secret+prisons
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture

In a direct affront to the Bush administration, a Democratic senator spent an hour Wednesday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, asking him to do more to stabilize Iraq.

http://www.examiner.com/a-453654~Fla__Senator_Defies_Bush__Visits_Syria.html


From Information Clearing House

Expensive as nation-building efforts in Iraq have been for US forces, some observers fear that a preemptive strike to disrupt Iran's alleged nuclear-weapons program could backfire and cost the United States an army.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HL14Ak06.html


From Information Clearing House

The American people need to prepare for a long-duration war against radical Muslims who are set to fight for 50 to 100 years to create an Islamist state in the region, a top Pentagon strategist in the war on terror says.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20061213-010657-5560r.htm


From Information Clearing House

Strong support has coalesced in the Pentagon behind a military plan to "double down" in the country with a substantial buildup in U.S. troops, an increase in industrial aid and a major combat offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite leader impeding development of the Iraqi government.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/nation_world/story.asp?ID=164104



Army, Marine Corps To Ask for More Troops

The Army and Marine Corps are planning to ask incoming Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Congress to approve permanent increases in personnel, as senior officials in both services assert that the nation's global military strategy has outstripped their resources.

http://snipurl.com/14w3r



U.S. Commander Says Withdrawal Won't Be Soon

The outgoing top U.S. operational commander in Iraq said on Tuesday that military might alone would not win the war and that the withdrawal of U.S. troops would not happen quickly.

http://snipurl.com/14w3t


From Information Clearing House

Inquiry Sought Over Evangelical Video

Video

In this video, much of which was filmed inside the Pentagon, four generals and three colonels praise the Christian Embassy, a group that evangelizes among military leaders, politicians and diplomats in Washington. Some of the officers describe their efforts to spread their faith within the military.

Click to view. Windows media
http://snipurl.com/14w3k



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

Jefferson Davis

By Charley Reese

What, you might well ask, is a Jeffersonian Democrat? - He believes the Constitution is a binding contract, not a rubbery document that can mean anything a judge or a politician says it means. He believes in a system of checks and balances. In short, he believes in the Declaration of Independence.

http://snipurl.com/14w3h



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Charley+Reese
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Constitution
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Declaration+of+Independence

By Pepe Escobar

Washington at large and President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in particular may apply every contortionist trick in the geopolitical book to save their skins in Iraq - and the reasons are not entirely political.

http://snipurl.com/14w3e



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=staying+the+course
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pepe+Escobar

By Sadiq H. Wasfi, Ph.D and Dahlia S. Wasfi, M.D.

No human being, regardless of race, creed, skin color, ethnicity, or religion, accepts humiliation and subjugation. As such, our military death toll will grow until the day when the rape and pillage of the “New American Century” ends and the troops come home. How much more agony should we force the children of Iraq and America to take.

http://tinyurl.com/ycn4np



http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8&q=New+American+Century

Click:




Informant: C. Clark Kissinger

From ufpj-news

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5408/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5411/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news



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

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1213-20.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Rumsfeld
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Scheer

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1213-30.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=staying+the+course
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=withdrawal

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1213-06.htm



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

#Die Linkspartei.PDS: Pressemitteilungen

13. Dezember 2006

Heute sollen im Haushaltsausschuss des Bundestages mehr als acht Milliarden Euro für die Bundeswehr freigegeben werden. Dazu erklärt der Bundesgeschäftsführer Dietmar Bartsch (MdB):

Für Rüstungsausgaben findet sich im Bundeshaushalt immer genügend Geld. Diesen Beweis wollen SPD und CDU heute erneut im Haushaltsausschuss antreten. Es geht um mehr als acht Milliarden Euro, die die Bundesregierung 2007 für die Rüstung ausgeben will. Schaut man sich die einzelnen Posten an, geht es vorrangig um Projekte, die neben einer Landesverteidigung auch Bestandteil offensiver Einsatzszenarien sein können. Die gebetsmühlenartig in allen Debatten wiederholte Behauptung, es sei kein Geld für mehr Gerechtigkeit, für mehr Sozialleistungen, für mehr Bildung etc. vorhanden, wird damit ad absurdum geführt. Der Bundeshaushalt 2007 mit insgesamt 270 Milliarden Euro ist nicht Nichts. Es ist immer eine Frage des politischen Willens und der demokratischen Mehrheiten, wofür das Geld ausgegeben oder eben nicht ausgegeben wird.

http://sozialisten.de/presse/presseerklaerungen/view_html?zid=34769

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53350


Informant: Amy Sasser

From ufpj-news

http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=T2a-5XT9xWS0FD2v4phh7A..

Take Action
http://action.defenders.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=16461.0&dlv_id=31202&JServSessionIdr011=94s9548hq3.app25a

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/540620110?z00m=8629642


A message from Gwen H.

Tom Engelhardt writes: "Think of the ISG as the clean-up-crew version of the Blue Team of Millennium Challenge '02. Before they even began, Bush family consigliere Baker and cohorts ensured that while the ISG would be filled with notable movers and shakers from numerous previous administrations, no one on it, nor any expert 'team' advising it, would represent the one point of view that a majority of Americans have by now come to support - actual withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq on a set timeline."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306I.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Engelhardt

House Democrats are seriously exploring the creation of an independent ethics arm to enforce new rules on travel, lobbying, gifts and other issues that Democrats intend to put in place on taking power next month.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306H.shtml

The incoming Democratic chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee promised on Wednesday to combat what he denounced as President George W. Bush's war-time trampling of American rights.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306F.shtml



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

Bush, cool to both of the Iraq Study Group's central ideas, had been expected to follow his information-gathering with a pre-Christmas announcement of his own altered blueprint for US involvement in Iraq. But the White House, citing the president's request for more time to refine and game out new policies, said Tuesday that Bush would wait until early next year.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306E.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

The editors of the New York Times write: "Mr. Bush has no more time to waste on 'listening tours' and photo ops. The nation is in a crisis, and Americans need to hear how he plans to unwind the chaos he has unleashed in Iraq. If the president is delaying because he is searching for a good option, he can stop. There are none."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306C.shtml

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5406/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news



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

A message from NANCY

Original Message

Petition ~ To Save Lion Cubs Monday, 7:52 AM

"Save The Rare Abyssinian Lion Cubs" petition at
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/151840600.

Bush v. The Two Majorities
http://ga3.org/ct/Ip20pgF1VmE9/

"The refusal by the National Science Teachers Association to distribute Al Gore's film 'An Inconvenient Truth' has ignited a firestorm of controversy and an avalanche of inquiries that the NSTA continues to mishandle," writes John Borowski.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306O.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=An+Inconvenient+Truth

Mission (Un)accomplished

Sari Gelzer interviews Tom Engelhardt about his new book, Mission Unaccomplished. Gelzer writes, "The collection of interviews surpasses the usual mainstream media's soundbytes and the reader enters the realm of intimate discussion with some of the most interesting and intelligent peace activists, former military personnel, scholars, journalists, and everyday Americans."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306K.shtml

--------

Mission accomplished

AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

01/03/06

The announced war aim of the Bush administration was to rid Saddam of his alleged 'weapons of mass destruction,' and when the WMD myth was finally and definitively debunked, they told us we were there to install a functioning democracy. That didn't pan out, either -- unless one considers Shi'ite death squads, and a campaign of ethnic cleansing that puts the one supposedly initiated by Slobodan Milosevic to shame, legitimate expressions of the demos. America's real war aims are another matter entirely, and they are coming into focus as the situation on the ground develops. After all, why assume that what is currently happening in Iraq isn't part of the program? Surely the Americans knew the dismemberment of the Iraqi state would have to mean Shi'ite hegemony, an empowered Iran, and the prospect of a regionalized conflagration. It defies belief that they didn't: our rulers may be evil, but they sure as heck aren't stupid (and I'm not talking about the president, who is a genuine dolt)...

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10253



Mission unaccomplished

The Nation
by Tom Engelhardt

05/01/07

It had taken much thought and planning that wartime May Day four years ago when George W. Bush co-piloted an S-3B Viking sub reconnaissance Naval jet onto the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. Scott Sforza, a former ABC producer, had ‘embedded’ himself on that aircraft carrier days before the President landed. Along with Bob DeServi, a former NBC cameraman and lighting specialist, and Greg Jenkins, a former Fox News television producer, he had planned out every detail of the President’s arrival — as Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times put it then — ‘even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush’s right shoulder and the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot. The speech was specifically timed for what image makers call ‘magic hour light,’ which cast a golden glow on Mr. Bush’...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=191466


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Bush's Mission Accomplished?
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/22



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Engelhardt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/justin
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tim+Harper

Natural Resources Defense Council's

CALIFORNIA ACTIVIST NETWORK ACTION ALERT

NRDC's California Activist Network was formed to mobilize and provide action tools to Californians and others concerned with protecting the state's extraordinary wealth of natural treasures and the health of its citizens.

December 13, 2006

Urgent alert: Help protect California's coast from Navy sonar
Take action now at http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_121306

California has a crucial opportunity this week to protect whales and other marine life along its coast from Navy sonar, and we need your help to ensure that this opportunity is not missed. The Navy will appear this Friday before the California Coastal Commission in San Francisco, asking for the commission's approval to conduct major sonar exercises off the southern California coast. This will be the commission's first-ever opportunity to weigh in on mid-frequency sonar training.

As you may already know, whales around the world have been found dead or dying following encounters with mid-frequency military sonar. Although the Navy itself has acknowledged the lethal impacts of this technology, which floods vast areas of the ocean with ear-splitting noise, it has made no assurances that it will take common-sense steps necessary to protect marine life. The Navy fails to explain, for example, how it will protect migrating gray whales along California's coast; how it will conduct exercises at night or in other conditions of low visibility; or whether it will enforce robust "safety zones" around sonar vessels to avoid exposing whales to dangerous sound. The Coastal Commission has required these and other protective measures of the Navy and other noise-producers in the past, and it should demand no less here.

== What to do == Send a message right away urging the California Coastal Commission to do all it can to protect whales and other marine life from harmful Navy sonar.

== Contact information == You can send a message to the Coastal Commission directly from NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_121306 Or use the contact information and sample letter below to send your own message.

If you live in the San Francisco area and would like to do more, please attend the California Coastal Commission public hearing this Friday morning (details below) and speak out to make sure the Navy protects marine life when it trains with sonar off California's coast. NRDC attorney Cara Horowitz will be speaking during the hearing, and will be available to answer questions if you choose to attend.

== When and Where == Friday, December 15, 9:00am Hyatt Regency Embarcadero
5 Embarcadero Plaza San Francisco

California Coastal Commission, Att'n: Mark Delaplaine
45 Fremont Street Suite 2000 San Francisco, CA 94105-2219 Email: mdelaplaine @coastal.ca.gov


== Sample letter ==

Subject: Protect California's coast from Navy sonar

Dear Mr. Delaplaine and members of the commission,

I urge the Coastal Commission to do all it can to protect whales and other marine life from harmful Navy sonar training along California's coast.

This is the commission's first-ever opportunity to weigh in on the Navy's mid-frequency sonar training. As you know, whales around the world have been found dead or dying following encounters with mid-frequency military sonar, and the Navy itself has acknowledged the lethal impacts of this technology, which floods vast areas of the ocean with ear-splitting noise. Although training like this has been conducted for decades, we are only now beginning to understand the serious impacts it is having on whales and other coastal resources around the world, and in our own backyard.

That's why the commission must not approve the Navy's proposed training without assurances that the Navy will take all steps necessary to protect marine life. In its application, the Navy fails to explain, for example, how it will protect migrating gray whales along California's coast; how it will protect whales during nighttime exercises or in other conditions of low visibility; or whether it will enforce robust "safety zones" around sonar vessels to avoid exposing whales to harmful sound. The commission has required these and other protective measures of the Navy in the past, and I urge it to stand strong and demand no less here.

Sincerely,

[Your name and address]

Please also forward this message to your friends and co-workers who live in California, and urge them to contact the Coastal Commission as well.

Thank you!



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

Entwurf für eine Volksinitiative vom Erwerbslosen Forum Deutschland (pdf) http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/aktionen/2007/volksini.pdf


Aus: LabourNet, 13. Dezember 2006

„Von Ende Januar bis Anfang März 2007 läuft der Liedermacher Heinz Ratz von Dortmund nach München, um auf die oft sehr verzweifelte Situation von Obdachlosen in Deutschland aufmerksam zu machen. Es ist damit auch ein Lauf gegen den zunehmenden Abbau von sozialen Einrichtungen und die Kürzungen von Sozialleistungen, die eine zunehmende Armut bewirken und ein wachsendes Gefälle zwischen Arm und Reich. Er bewältigt die gesamte Strecke zu Fuß und tritt jeden Abend in wechselnder Besetzung mit seinem Programm „Strom & Wasser“ auf. Die Auftritte sind eintrittsfrei, um auch mittellosen Zuschauern zu ermöglichen, durch einen Besuch des Konzerts ihren Protest gegen den Sozialabbau in Deutschland und ihre Unterstützung für den Lauf auszudrücken. Während der Konzerte werden Spenden gesammelt, welche direkt in die lokale Unterstützung von Obdachlosen fließen. Als special guests treten bei den Konzerten oft bekannte Kollegen auf, welche die Aktion unterstützen. Mit dabei sind z.B. Konstantin Wecker, Götz Widmann und Gerburg Jahnke (ex-„Missfits“)…“ Ausführliche (und immer aktuelle) Informationen gibt es auf der Aktionshomepage http://www.laufgegendiekaelte.de

Siehe dort auch: „Wie kann ich helfen?“ http://www.laufgegendiekaelte.de/start/helfen/


Aus: LabourNet, 13. Dezember 2006

Überarbeitetes und mit Anmerkungen und Literaturverweisen versehenes Manuskript von Michael Wolf in UTOPIEkreativ zum Thema »Erfahrungen aus der lokalen Umsetzung des SGB II – Strukturen, Leistungsprozess, Handlungsbedarfe« http://www.linksnet.de/artikel.php?id=2754


Was tun?

„Den KollegInnen in den Betrieben wird zunehmend klar: „Kein Arbeitsplatz ist mehr sicher. Der Stress nimmt ungeheuer zu. Und was wir produzieren, macht nicht viel Sinn. Nach Feierabend ist der Rest des Tages immer noch von unserer Erwerbsarbeit bestimmt: Abhängen, Passivität, Kräfte regenerieren, Drogen konsumieren. Wo kommen wir in unserem Leben eigentlich noch vor? Unsere eigentlichen Fähigkeiten kommen gar nicht zur Geltung, werden gar nicht gebraucht. Oder wir halten sie bewusst zurück, weil wir keine Perlen vor die Säue werfen wollen. Ist dem nichts entgegenzusetzen? Ist unser einziges Ziel, gesund in Rente zu gehen? Wollen wir erst nach der Erwerbsarbeit leben?“ Viele akzeptieren das nicht, arbeiten mit innerer Kündigung und machen sich bei der Arbeit einen schlauen Lenz und genießen das Leben. Nach Feierabend werden sie erst richtig kreativ und produktiv, in ihren Hobbys, Schreibergärten, Nachbarschaften. Das lässt sich ausbauen, organisieren, zum Erfahrungsaustausch. Menschen, die nicht mit ihrer Firma verheiratet sind, tun sich zusammen, um Erfahrungen auszutauschen, wie mensch die Zwangsarbeit verträglich machen kann…“ Diskussionsbeitrag von Karl-Heinz Thier http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/prekaer/wastun.html


Aus: LabourNet, 13. Dezember 2006

Hartz IV: Leistungen und Auswirkungen

Wenn der Weihnachtsmann nicht kommt. Umfrage: Hartz IV-Betroffene haben kein Geld für Weihnachten - Bundesregierung täuscht die Öffentlichkeit bewusst

Pressemeldung des Erwerbslosen Forum Deutschland vom 07.12.2006 http://www.erwerbslosenforum.de/nachrichten/wenn_der_weihnachtsmann_nicht_kommt.htm


Übersicht über Leistungen der sozialen Grundsicherung für Arbeitsuchende

Broschüre des Evangelischen Bildungswerkes und des Arbeitslosenzentrums Dortmund vom November 2006 (Stand 25.7.06) (pdf) http://www.arbeitnehmerkammer.de/sozialpolitik/doku/05_soziales/sgb_ii/2006_11_00_bruhn-tripp.pdf


Aus: LabourNet, 13. Dezember 2006

Gesetzliche Grundlagen der Lohnersatzleistungen

Vergifteter Köder. Im Rüttgers-Antrag, der vom CDU-Parteitag angenommen wurde, war ein pikantes Detail versteckt

„Jürgen Rüttgers hat es hervorragend eingefädelt, sich mit seinem Vorschlag zur Verlängerung der Bezugsdauer des Arbeitslosengeldes I (ALG I) als Vorkämpfer eines sozialen Flügels der CDU zu inszenieren. Das konnte dem NRW-Ministerpräsidenten nur gelingen, weil der eigentliche Sprengsatz im seinem Antrag, den der CDU-Parteitag vergangene Woche schließlich angenommen hat, nicht diskutiert wurde. Dort steht nicht nur, dass diejenigen, die viele Jahre in die Arbeitslosenversicherung eingezahlt haben, entsprechend längeren Anspruch auf ALG I erhalten, sondern auch, dass die Bedingungen für Hartz IV-Empfänger spürbar verschärft werden sollen…“ Artikel von Gaby Gottwald in Freitag vom 08.12.2006 http://www.freitag.de/2006/49/06490603.php


Sozialleistungen: Staatliche Hilfe nur noch gegen digitale Unterschrift

„Millionen Bürger, die eine staatliche Sozialleistung beziehen, müssen dafür sich künftig eine neue Karte mit einer elektronischen Unterschrift besorgen. Die Regelung soll nach Informationen der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung für alle Staatsleistungen gelten, die vom Arbeitseinkommen abhängen…“ Artikel von Andreas Mihm in der FAZ vom 06. Dezember 2006 http://www.faz.net/s/RubEC1ACFE1EE274C81BCD3621EF555C83C/Doc~E2A14BD1EBAFF42589EAE6A19F4D249B4~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html


Aus: LabourNet, 13. Dezember 2006



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

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/456440372


From Linda H.

Free Market News Network
by Tibor R. Machan

12/12/06

Why do we need values? Because we, humans, are just the sort of living beings that lack instincts. We are born with the instinct to suckle and that is about it -- the rest is a matter of learning. And it isn't only the kind of learning that most higher animals need, namely, being trained in some skills. It is learning on one's own, to figure out ideas, to form principles about life and its innumerable facets. That is what all the fuss is about when we talk about the ethics of merchants, lawyers, doctors, politicians, parents, etc. And while some of this has become submerged in the discipline of psychology -- so that for example such chintzy public forums as the Oprah show and The View will rarely talk about ethics and focus, instead, on psychological problems -- it is still quite inescapable...

http://www.fmnn.com/Analysis/117/6556/america.asp?nid=6556&wid=117



Natural rights as derived from ethical egoism

Rebirth of Reason
by Edward W. Younkins

12/11/06

Unlike Rasmussen and Den Uyl, prominent philosopher of human flourishing, Tibor R. Machan, approaches the derivation of natural rights by way of ethical egoism. For Machan, rights are a moral concept rather than a metanormative one. His strong case for natural rights and the legitimacy of the minimal state rests on a classical egoist account of morality. Building upon the thought of Ayn Rand and Aristotle, Machan argues in a series of books that each person should pursue his rational self-interest as a matter of his primary moral responsibility. He explains that it is from this responsibility that every other moral principle, including the principle of natural rights, gains its justification. Rights are identified by an understanding of human nature as having a moral dimension...

http://tinyurl.com/yc8mgt


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tibor+Machan

As President George W. Bush agonizes over which bits of last week's Baker-Hamilton report to adopt for his forthcoming "new way forward in Iraq" announcement, another consensus is emerging in Washington on how to handle the situation: Blame the Iraqis.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121206T.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Baker-Hamilton+report

In October 2005, less than two months after Hurricane Katrina struck, Pedro Parra-Sanchez was arrested for allegedly stabbing a man with a broken bottle during a fight. With the city's prison damaged by flooding, he was taken to a makeshift jail at the Greyhound bus station, then transferred to a correctional facility about 70 miles away, and later to a prison in southwest Louisiana. That's where Parra-Sanchez sat for more than a year - never seeing a lawyer or setting foot in a courtroom. By law, the district attorney should have brought Parra-Sanchez to court to formally charge him within 60 days. Instead, "he disappeared," said Pamela R. Metzger, director of Tulane University's Criminal Law Clinic. "The system failed."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121206S.shtml



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

US representative Gary Miller has allegedly made a number of moves over the years in which he brought his congressional muscle to bear on personal business matters, according to the former staff members and the correspondence from Miller's congressional office - handwritten notes, letters on Miller's congressional letterhead and emails.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121206R.shtml



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

Fed in bind as Paulsen, Bernanke head to China.
http://tinyurl.com/y4sms5



Greenspan sees more declines in dollar

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said the dollar will continue to drift downwards on growing signs that OPEC nations are shifting their assets out of the US dollar towards the euro and yen.

http://tinyurl.com/yywsga


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=decline+dollar

Oil producing countries have reduced their exposure to the dollar to the lowest level in two years and shifted oil income into euros, yen and sterling, according to new data from the Bank for International Settlements.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/277471c2-8889-11db-b485-0000779e2340.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=shun+dollar
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=decline+dollar

Half of the bank's 29 highest-level executives have departed since Wolfowitz, the former U.S. deputy Defense secretary and an architect of President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, took office in June 2005.

http://tinyurl.com/tn88k



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

Video

Former Guantanamo prisoner talks about his life and treatment by the US forces.
http://tinyurl.com/y4s4wj



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

President George W. Bush will delay announcing a new strategy for Iraq until the new year, the White House said on Tuesday amid polls showing Americans are more pessimistic about the war and want a change.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12333199.htm


From Information Clearing House

Only 4 percent say the U.S. should keep fighting as it is doing now.
http://cbs4.com/topstories/topstories_story_345202005.html


From Information Clearing House

Donald Rumsfeld allowed just one U.S. journalist to accompany him on his taxpayer-funded farewell tour to Iraq: Fox News' Sean Hannity. And when Rumsfeld sat down for an interview with Hannity, it seems that he didn't have much to say.

http://tinyurl.com/yy7n6z



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

In this compelling docudrama by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, the 'Tipton Three' narrate their own experiences in America's controversial offshore detention camp. Three young British Muslims tell the story of how they came to be in US custody at Guantánamo for over two years, and discuss the Kafkaesque horrors that awaited them there, until finally they were released without charge or apology.

http://tinyurl.com/y4njho



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

http://tinyurl.com/yxdbgf



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Pilger

By K Gajendra Singh

It was the Iraqi resistance in Iraq which exposed the limits of US military power sending a resounding warning to aggressors and occupiers of other people's lands.

http://tinyurl.com/y58rb4



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gajendra+Singh
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=quagmire

Joel S. Hirschhorn

The Bush administration successfully talked up the global threat from terrorism while it pursued domestic and foreign policies promoting economic apartheid, a far greater and more pervasive threat to national and global stability.

http://tinyurl.com/yx6ypn

By Mike Whitney

Should we build a little park with Sycamore trees and disabled access so the thousands of amputees, paraplegics and trauma victims can huddle together while they try to cope with the surge of emotion; or amble about in stunned silence trying to make some sense of what they’ve done, or what they’ve seen, or what they’ve lost?

http://tinyurl.com/y5ungd



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Whitney

http://www.net-tribune.de/article/131206-06.php

Vodafone und Telekom decken mit UMTS-Netz weite Teile Deutschlands ab
http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2006-12/artikel-7444796.asp

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lind/lind116.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=hawkish
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/lind

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/loberfeld4.html

On the American dogs of war
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/biddulph1.html

http://www.lewrockwell.com/chartier/chartier49.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/chartier

http://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block68.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/block

http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory126.html



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

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff121.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/rozeff

nlnews @archant.co.uk

13 December 2006

HARINGEY Council makes more than £250,000 a year from mobile phone masts situated on its land and buildings.

The council charges rent on the 25 mobile phone mast sites in the borough on its land, each raking in more than £10,000 in rent per year and totalling £257,000, which the council puts into "central funds".

This is on top of the business rates it earns from all 125 masts sited in the borough, which are collected by central government and redistributed across the country, based on local populations.

The council is now considering turning the tables - approaching mobile phone companies itself and offering its land and buildings for rent, anticipating one new mast will bring in another £10,000 per year.

Anti-phone mast protestor Sarah Purdy, who lives close to Fortismere School, Muswell Hill, argues the money should be ring-fenced to fight company appeals against council decisions to refuse their mast applications.

She said: "One of the reasons the council give for not refusing a phone mast application is that they say, 'Well, they will only appeal and win anyway and it is costly for the council'. So, we're saying, 'Look, you're getting this money from rent so why not use it for the appeal and not have it come from other sources. What are they doing with the mast money anyway?"

A spokesman for Haringey Council said: "As this income is provisional and therefore not guaranteed, it has not yet been allocated to a specific project or scheme and will go into central funds.

"This kind of income helps keep Council Tax bills down and provide much-needed services."

He added: "Potential litigation is speculation at this stage and even if it did occur, we have insurance cover for such situations, therefore there is no need to ring-fence this money.

Copyright © 2006 Archant Regional. All rights reserved.

http://tinyurl.com/ulrrf



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sarah+Purdy

http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/1212-04.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=EPA+Library

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1212-22.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1212-21.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Norman+Solomon

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1212-29.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jesse+Jackson

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1212-02.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=media+consolidation

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1212-01.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Condoleezza+Rice

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1212-07.htm



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

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1212-04.htm



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

http://harpers.org/jrm-centrist-democrats-3402838.html


Informant: Duane Roberts

#Die Linkspartei.PDS: Pressemitteilungen

13. Dezember 2006

Zum morgigen fünften Jahrestag des rot-grünen Beschlusses zum Ausstieg aus der Atomenergie erklärt der stellvertretende Vorsitzende der Linkspartei.PDS Wolfgang Methling:

Die Linkspartei hat vor fünf Jahren den Beschluss der damaligen rot-grünen Bundesregierung als Schritt in die richtige Richtung gewürdigt. Wenn auch damals wie heute gilt: Wir hätten uns eine kürzere Übergangsfrist gewünscht, denn es geht schon heute keine Lampe aus, wenn sofort alle AKW vom Netz genommen würden. Die Störfälle in AKW der letzten Zeit zeigen deutlich: Atomenergie ist nicht beherrschbar und der Ausstieg aus der Atomenergie keine nationale Angelegenheit. So wendet sich die Linkspartei auch gegen den EU-subventionierten Bau von AKW ins Süd-Osteuropa. Wir lehnen die Wiederaufarbeitung atomarer Brennstoffe ebenso ab, wie die grenzüberschreitenden Atommülltransporte. Der Druck der Energiegiganten auf die Bundesregierung mit der Forderung, den Atomausstieg rückgängig zu machen, zeigt, wie notwendig es ist, auch im Interesse der Verbraucher, der Versorgungssicherheit der Bevölkerung und im Hinblick auf zu hohe Energiekosten, die Macht der Stromkonzerne zu begrenzen. Sichere Energieversorgung aller Menschen zu sozialverträglichen Preisen ist ohne jede Einschränkung auch ohne Atomstrom möglich. Deshalb ist die Linkspartei für den generellen Vorrang von erneuerbaren Energien vor allen anderen Energieträgern.

http://sozialisten.de/presse/presseerklaerungen/view_html?zid=34768

http://www.blackagendareport.com/006/006a_gf_obama_winds_of_war.php


Informant: Duane Roberts



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

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/12/05/18335222.php


Informant: Duane Roberts



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

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5404/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news



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