Making our cars more fuel-efficient is one of the simplest, most effective steps we can take to curb global warming, reduce our dependence on oil, and save billions of dollars every year.
What is there not to like?
Urge your Representative today to support the bi-partisan Markey-Platts fuel economy bill.
In a desperate attempt to make Rudy Giuliani out to be the hero of Tuesday night’s debate, Fox News is continuing to attack Texas Congressman Ron Paul for something he did not say. Gibson’s comment shows how Fox News has been eager to slant the news in favor of Giuliani, who claimed in his famous response to Paul that the congressman had said that the U.S. “invited” the 9/11 attacks. That was false, too......
EU-Sozialkommissar Vladimir Spidla hat den Trend zu Dumping-Löhnen kritisiert. "Wenn es so ist, dass jemand arbeitet und trotzdem zum Sozialamt gehen muss, weil der Lohn zum Leben nicht reicht, dann steht dies im krassen Widerspruch zum europäischen Sozialmodell", sagte Spidla der "Hannoverschen Allgemeinen Zeitung". "Arbeit muss sich lohnen, das heißt, man muss davon leben können", forddert Spidla.
Center For Constitutional Rights: CCR Files FOIA Lawsuit Against NSA and DOJ Demanding Information On Warrantless Spying on Guantanamo Detainee Attorneys.
Kidnap and Torture: New Claims of Army War Crimes in Iraq
By Robert Verkaik
The British Army is facing new allegations that it was involved in "forced disappearances", hostage-taking and torture of Iraqi civilians after the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Remember those photos of Iraqi women triumphantly raising freshly inked fingers for Western cameras after voting in their new democracy? They were presented to the world by the US government as an indication of a policy that would liberate Iraqi women and men. Well, it didn't quite work out that way.
Joe Brewer writes: "We are in the midst of a debate over the meaning of security. This has been ongoing since the end of the Cold War almost 20 years ago and it is taking place behind the scenes right now. Progressives have an opportunity to reclaim our rightful place as the responsible protectors of our nation after a decades-long smear campaign to frame us as weak on security issues. The old idea of national security that dominated US policy at home and abroad during the Cold War can be replaced with a new one that offers a more appropriate perspective on relevant issues in our globalized world. The broad public recognition of the looming climate crisis can be the catalyst for this change."
The editors of the Washington Post write: "It doesn't much matter whether President Bush was the one who phoned Attorney General John D. Ashcroft's hospital room before the Wednesday Night Ambush in 2004. It matters enormously, however, whether the president was willing to have his White House aides try to strong-arm the gravely-ill attorney general into overruling the Justice Department's legal views. It matters enormously whether the president, once that mission failed, was willing nonetheless to proceed with a program whose legality had been called into question by the Justice Department."
Opponents to a mobile phone mast will fight to protect their "little piece of England".
Jackie Williams is against T-Mobile putting a 28ft telecommunications pole on a green in Saltdean.
Brighton and Hove City Council turned the planning application down but the company has appealed.
Mrs Williams is calling on neighbours to write their objections to the Secretary of State.
T-Mobile wants to install a replica telegraph pole housing three antennae on grass between Saltdean Vale and Hempstead Road.
There would also be equipment cabinets next to it.
The council rejected the application because it thought the cabinets would harm the character and appearance of the area.
Mrs Williams, of Heathfield Avenue, said: "Children play on this piece of land. It is a lovely little green and lovely plot of England.
"We moved from Ilford last year where it was too dangerous for children to play outside.
"It's great to be able to see them free to play here like we used to in the Fifties and it would be such a shame if that was taken away from them.
"The pole would be a real eyesore there and I don't understand why it couldn't be put just a few hundred yards up the road where there is a huge piece of land which the children don't use.
"There is no proof there isn't any danger from these poles.
"When this application was turned down by the council I thought that was the end of it."
She is canvassing support against the appeal from people in the area.
The deadline for comments about the application is June 4.
No-one from T-Mobile was yesterday available for comment.
Cate Woodruff interviews Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Margaret Lazarus, who has been confronting issues and encouraging social consciousness in documentary films for over 25 years, about her film "Rape Is...."
A bipartisan group of senators is pushing legislation that would force the CIA to release an inspector general's report on the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz resigned Thursday afternoon, effective June 30, giving in to overwhelming pressure from bank staff and governments around the globe that he depart to end the ethics controversy that has consumed the institution.
A GROUP of campaigners from West Hampstead are furious that mobile phone giant O2 wants to install another telephone mast on their doorsteps.
Vodafone installed a mast in Iverson Road back in 2003 and last year Orange was given permission to put one up near Iverson Tyres.
The installation of the Orange structure has been delayed because the telecommunications giant is seeking planning permission for a series of other masts in West Hampstead.
And now residents are furious that O2 has been given permission to put up a 15 metre mast in a similar spot on Iverson Road.
Trader Colin Slade, who runs clothes shop The Penguin Society on West End Lane, said: "The community as a whole feels very strongly about this mast and the location of it will be blocking the most fabulous view of the sunset."
Candice Temple, who lives nearby, added: "This ugly structure will de-grade the area and turn leafy Iverson Road into an industrial wasteland.
"The Vodafone mast is a graffiti ridden eyesore and it's also supposed to have railings around it, but it doesn't."
Neighbour Samantha Morgan said: "Vodafone don't follow up with cleaning off the graffiti and urine that the mast attracts. It's truly what the residents feared."
The campaigners, who have gathered a petition with 300 signatures, also fear an influx of masts to the area will lead to health risks because of increased radiation levels.
But council chiefs cannot take health concerns into consideration when deciding whether to grant planning permission for masts. They can only look at the suitability of designs and locations.
Roger Tavener, chairman of C. Tavener & Son, who owns the premises opposite Iverson Tyres, is furious that the council didn't consult him over plans for the new mast.
"We're the longest established private company in the area, we've been on this road since the 1930s, and to be ignored is absolutely monstrous. We only hear about these things once they've been rubberstamped."
O2 spokesman James Stevenson said "We believe the mast is perfectly safe. We understand people's feelings on the matter - we will come to speak to them about the masts, about the health issues, about our need to improve our service. I will come to speak to them, or else we can hold a meeting where they can come to us."
In politics, as in medicine, a cure based on a false diagnosis is almost always worthless, often worsening the condition that is supposed to be healed. The United States, today, suffers from a plethora of public ills. Most of them can be traced to the militarism and imperialism that have led to the near-collapse of our Constitutional system of checks and balances. Unfortunately, none of the remedies proposed so far by American politicians or analysts addresses the root causes of the problem. According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, released on April 26, 2007, some 78% of Americans believe their country to be headed in the wrong direction. Only 22% think the Bush administration’s policies make sense, the lowest number on this question since October 1992, when George H. W. Bush was running for a second term — and lost. What people don’t agree on are the reasons for their doubts and, above all, what the remedy — or remedies — ought to be...
As in New York, communities across the country gave police more reasons to stop and frisk people, hence more opportunity to find drugs as drug laws tightened to put more people away for a longer time. America’s prison population nearly doubled in the 1990s, and no one much complained. Prisoners were stripped of legal rights to challenge their conditions, and no one much beyond the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta intervened. State after state restricted the rights of journalists to interview prisoners, and punished prisoner whistleblowers. In the speed of a decade, this self-declared free country had denied more of its people liberty than any country in the world, with stunningly little protest. Having gradually resigned ourselves to the trade-off of liberty for a promise of safety during the supposed good times of the Clinton years, is it surprising that after 9/11 Americans would acquiesce to secret prisons, kangaroo courts, torture as policy, the shredding of habeas corpus and due process, the invasion of our mail and private conversations?
Washington Post
by Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar
Fear can be a strong motivator. It led Franklin Roosevelt to intern tens of thousands of innocent U.S. citizens during World War II; it led to Joseph McCarthy’s witch hunt, which ruined the lives of hundreds of Americans. And it led the United States to adopt a policy at the highest levels that condoned and even authorized torture of prisoners in our custody...
Anti-war Democrats in the Senate failed in an attempt to cut off funds for the Iraq war on Wednesday, a lopsided bipartisan vote that masked growing impatience within both political parties over President Bush’s handling of the four-year conflict. The 67-29 vote against the measure left it far short of the 60 needed to advance. More than half the Senate’s Democrats supported the move, exposing divisions within the party but also marking a growth in anti-war sentiment from last summer, when only a dozen members of the rank and file backed a troop withdrawal deadline....
The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday that he expects the investigation into the firings of federal prosecutors will lead to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ resignation. ‘I have a sense when we finish our investigation, we may have a conclusion to the tenure of the attorney general,’ said Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter. While Specter did not join the growing number of lawmakers from both parties calling for Gonzales to resign or be fired, he did call the Department of Justice ‘close to being dysfunctional’ …
Der Parteivorstand der Linkspartei.PDS unterstützt die Forderungen der Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter der deutschen Telekom. Dazu erklärt der gewerkschaftspolitische Sprecher Harald Werner:
Dass sich die Telekom ihre Profite durch Lohndumping sichern will, ist nicht nur ein Angriff auf die sozialen Grundrechte, sondern auch ein Musterbeispiel für die haltlosen Mythen der Privatisierung und eine Blamage für die Marktgläubigkeit der Neoliberalen. Als in den 90er Jahren Post und Bahn privatisiert wurden, gab es für Maßnahmen dieser Art zwei entscheidende Argumente und ein großes Versprechen. Der erhoffte Wettbewerb sollte den Service verbessern, die Preise senken und trotzdem sollten die sozialen Standards der Beschäftigten sichern. Kein Argument hat sich als richtig erwiesen und das Versprechen wurde gebrochen. Die Kritik am Service von gelber Post und Telekom wird immer lauter und die Preise stiegen zum Teil erheblich. Früher konnte man im Ortsnetz für nur eine Grundeinheit stundenlang telefonieren, heute tickt die Uhr im Minutentakt. Und während damals die Telefonauskunft kostenlos war, kostet sie heute 1,96 . Am schlimmsten aber erging es den Beschäftigten. Allein bei der Telekom gingen seit der Privatisierung 120.000 Arbeitsplätze verloren, bei der gelben Post 35.000. Gleichzeitig entstanden durch die Liberalisierung des Postmarktes Zehntausende Minijobs mit Löhnen weit unter dem Existenzminimum. Sieht man einmal von den kräftigen Profiten ab, hat die Marktregulierung vollständig versagt. Ganz im Gegensatz zum Aberglauben der Marktradikalen verbessert der Wettbewerb nämlich nicht den Service und er senkt auch nicht die Preise, sondern ausschließlich die Löhne und die Zahl der Arbeitsplätze. Jetzt will die Telekom zur Sicherung ihrer Rendite erneut 50.000 Beschäftigten die Löhne senken und die Arbeitszeit verlängern, um mit den Billiglöhnen der Konkurrenz mithalten zu können. Die werden nicht schlafen, sondern den Unterbietungswettbewerb beschleunigen. Und ist das auch Wahnsinn, so hat es doch Methode. Denn anders ließen sich die Renditen der Aktionäre nicht halten. Womit sich denn auch die Frage beantworten lässt, wem das Gerede von mehr Markt und Wettbewerb zu Gute kommt. Die Mitarbeiter der Telekom erwirtschaften in den vergangenen beiden Jahren Profite von sechs, beziehungsweise fünf Milliarden Euro. Die beabsichtigten Lohnkürzungen und verlängerten Arbeitszeiten würden weniger als zehn Prozent davon einbringen. Blieben also immer noch einige Milliarden für die Bedürftigkeit der Shareholder und man möchte meinen das reicht, tut es aber nicht. Denn der Witz an der Sache ist, dass am Markt nicht allein um Preise oder Qualität konkurriert wird, sondern vor allem um die Zuneigung der Aktionäre. Man kann nämlich damit rechnen, dass ein geglücktes Lohndumping den Wert der Telekom-Aktie so nach oben treibt, dass am gestiegenen Börsenwert mehr verdient wird, als am realen Gewinn. Mit sozialer Marktwirtschaft hat das schon lange nichts mehr zu tun, aber auch nichts mit der so genannten Marktwirtschaft, also dem guten alten Kapitalismus. Es ist Casino-Kapitalismus, Shareholder-Kapitalismus oder wie immer man es nennen mag. Auf jeden Fall aber muss die ganze Veranstaltung vom Spielplan der Geschichte abgesetzt werden.
Climate change is accelerating species extinctions and unraveling the intricate web of life, experts fear. Birds, animals, insects and even plants are on the move around the Earth, trying to flee new and increasingly inhospitable local weather conditions.
A new bill in the US Senate will advocate adoption of an "agrichar" method that could lessen our dependence on fossil fuel and help avert global warming.
Bill Moyers Journal looks at the trade deal in the works between the Democrats in Congress and the Bush administration. Has fair trade become a raw deal for America's workers?
Two Senate Democrats said Thursday they will seek a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales over accusations that he carried out President Bush's political agenda at the expense of the Justice Department's independence. Senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California, who have led the investigation into the conduct of White House officials and Gonzales, said the attorney general has been too weakened to run the department.
Undercover officers attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or fellow activists, and infiltrated chat rooms. Although they identified a few people who talked about disrupting the convention, they also monitored many more people who showed no intention of breaking the law.
The Department of Homeland Security is breaking privacy laws by failing to tell the public all the ways it uses personal information to target passengers boarding flights entering or leaving the United States, according to a draft government report.
On the day presidential senior adviser Karl Rove administered a tongue-lashing to an Illinois Republican congressman, disturbing news about his former executive assistant was spread on Capitol Hill.
The likely ouster of Paul Wolfowitz as World Bank president, in another rift between the United States and its European allies, poses an unprecedented challenge to U.S leadership of the global financial system.
Shoulder to shoulder at the White House for the last time before Blair steps down on June 27, the two leaders heaped praise on each other and defended themselves against critics of a war that is increasingly unpopular in both countries.
Blair's partnership with the Bush Administration have supported a very narrow, radical neoconservative agenda in the Middle East, exacerbating conditions for wider instability in the region.
"It's something that affects us every single day," Tina said, "when he's 23 years old and he can't even climb the stairs. He has bad nightmares where he thinks he's back in Iraq."
Iraq is facing several civil wars between a number of rival communities struggling for power and has "fractured'' into regional power bases, a report by an adviser to the U.K. government said.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton voted Wednesday to advance legislation cutting off money for the Iraq war, then refused to pledge to support the measure if it came to a vote, then said she would.
Now, I know this is a lot for the tender ears of Americans to take, who like to think that their government reflects their own values of faith, freedom, and friendliness. But here is the point that libertarians have been trying to hammer home for many years: the US government is the enemy of the American people and their values. It is not peaceful, it is not friendly, it is not motivated by the Christian faith but rather power and imperial lust.
For an administration in which utter smirking defiance of law and the will of the American people is the only operational mode, IMPEACHMENT is the only remedy.
How bad can it possibly get before Congress will act? In explosive testimony this week before the Senate, the former number two official in the Justice apartment, James B. Comey, testified that Alberto Gonzales tried to bully a deathly sick John D. Ashcroft into signing off on a secret and massive domestic wiretap scheme which had already been determined to be profoundly illegal. Even the Washington Post was compelled to editorialize on Wednesday as follows:
"the straight-as-an-arrow former No. 2 official at the Justice Department, yesterday offered the Senate Judiciary Committee an account of Bush administration lawlessness so shocking it would have been unbelievable coming from a less reputable source."
And if that were not bad enough, Gonzales had previously testified UNDER OATH, that there had been no disagreements in the department about implementation of the program. So he just bald-faced lied and perjured himself again, and again, and again. And he's still doing it.
The situation is so bad that 56 members of Alberto's Harvard Law school graduating class took out an ad also in the Post excoriating him for his outlaw abuse of power. The Harvard Crimson further reports that there was NO dissent whatsoever in this from members of that class, even among those who for professional reasons could not sign on publicly.
So what is the response of Congress? Some Democrats today proposed a no confidence vote. What exactly is that supposed to accomplish? How many times have you heard Bush say, "Well, he has my confidence", in the face of dramatically manifest incompetence and malfeasance by his appointed cronies? When is Congress going to confront the fact that we are dealing with a Constitutionally criminal organization in the White House from top to bottom?
When will Congress stop being a damn debating society and exercise the POWER we gave them in November.? What part of exercising power don't they get?
Look at the side show going on right now about another Bush gang member, Wolfowitz, who has long outstayed his welcome the World Bank, and still will not give up power until they pry it out of his fingers. It was actually reported yesterday that Wolfowitz was demanding that the bank accept culpability for some part of his wrongdoing as a condition of stepping down. Isn't that just a little like a bank robber demanding that a bank share guilt for making itself too easy to rob?
We'll frankly be surprised if Bush doesn't demand for Gonzales a seat on the Supreme Court as part of his severance package.
What'cha gonna do, Congress? You better start dusting of that impeachment clause in the Constitution quick, fast and in a hurry. We're really gonna need it.
If the millstone were around the other neck, every right wing cable news pod person would be screaming for impeachment, not only for Gonzales, but for the whole lying, stealing, preemptive war murdering lot of them. Falwell would be howling from his casket right now. Maybe it's time for us do a lot more howling of our own.
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.
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Copyright 2007, Patent pending, All rights reserved
In complement that AC electric devices should not take place in a bedroom, because EHS persons get symptoms since 20 nanoTesla (0,02 microTesla), there is an other important fact. All metallic oblong objects are passive re-transmitters for the microwaves, like the handle of the door. Passive because the handle of the door don't produce energy. But the microwaves stick to it and radiate like a hot spot. All around the house is the AC wiring which carry energy, and works like an active re-transmitter for the microwaves. That's why operators like to install masts on the big electrical pylon or along the electrical railway. Free booster... And probably some relation with bees, butterflies... If one device is off (light, TV, etc), the AC power is still there, to the switch. There is in the market some kind of "bio-switch" which must be placed before the fuse. When no device is on, this bio-switch send a small DC current in the wiring. When you turn a device on, it restores the AC power on the wiring. This can not be installed for your freezer but will be helpful and gives some protection for the bedroom.
Congressman Ron Paul Admits Conspiracy to Create Tyrannical World Government
(further down, Ron Paul introduces a bill to abolish the Federal Reserve)
Eric Rainbolt - audience member asking question of Congressman Paul at event near Austin, Texas on August 30th, 2003: "Congressman Paul, I have a question..."
Moderator: "Over here." (pointing to Eric Rainbolt.)
Eric Rainbolt: "Great! If we can take a look at the big picture, could you tell us, the people in this room, any information that you may have of an international and deceptive conspiracy to overthrow the American Republic and its Constitution & Bill Of Rights in order to set up and usher in a totalitarian World Government likely espoused under the UN also.."?
Congressman Paul: " He asked if there was an international conspiracy to overthrow our government. The answer is "Yes". I think there are 25,000 individuals that have used offices of powers, and they are in our Universities and they are in our Congresses, and they believe in One World Government. And if you believe in One World Goverment, then you are talking about undermining National Sovereignty and you are talking about setting up something that you could well call a Dictatorship - and those plans are there!..."
Because there are a lot of members of Congress who are more sympathetic than the way they vote. They'd like to do better, but they don't think they can buck the system. They know I'll buck the system, but they keep thinking that they'll get hit. But, I think freedom is a popular idea. If you work at it you convince them. Maybe we'll have the last laugh. Find more info about Congressman Ron Paul at http://www.house.gov/paul/. The former was a partial interview of Congressman Ron Paul. You can find the complete interview in Erik Fortman's book, Webs of Power: Government Agencies, Secret Societies, and Elite Legacies, at Amazon.com and other retail outlets. Mr. Fortman is an author and musician from Texas. He has a syndicated show on prisonplanet.tv, and also writes for davidicke.com, propagandamatrix.com, U.S. Legacies and other publications. http://www.underreported.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=175
Below is the final press release on this Saturday's WEST POINT PEACE RALLY. Please Circulate Widely:
Please join us in Highland Falls, NY--the home of the West Point Military Academy--in Orange County of New York State's Hudson Valley. If you are in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut/Pennsylvania area, its a lot closer than you think. Think of this as an investment in all of our futures...
For the complete list of speakers and sponsors, as well as directions, you can check out http://www.westpointrally.org .
If you'd like to see info on this event from YouTube go to:
Guest speakers include Elliot Adams of Veterans for Peace, Brian Becker of ANSWER, Connie Hogarth of the Center for Social Action, Jack Smith of the Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter, Debra Sweet of World Can't Wait, Jim Murphey of Viet Nam Vets Against the War, and many others from organizations like UFPJ, Women in Black, Code Pink and more. Special Guest Speaker is ANN WRIGHT, State Dept official who resigned in protest of the invasion of Iraq. Music by The Flames of Discontent and the Walkabout Clearwater chorus. We are gathering to tell Cheney that his lies and manipulations aren't working any longer---and his own history of five military deferments negates his right to wage any war, let alone one built on deception and greed. Let's demand peace now!
Contacts: Michael Sussman, sussman1@frontiernet.net 845-469-3581, phone/fax 845-294-3991 and 845-294-1623 Bennett Weiss, BenWeiss@aol.com 845-569-8662 Steve Greenfield, bicyclesax@earthlink.net 845-255-2516, 845-532-0280
PEACE GROUPS ANNOUNCE FINAL PLANS FOR PROTESTING CHENEY SPEECH TO WEST POINT GRADUATION, MAY 26, 2007
"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war... I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity. War settles nothing." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 5-Star General, 34th President of the United States, West Point Class of 1915
Hudson Valley, NY - Elected officials, veterans, military families, and grassroots citizen activists for peace, freedom, and justice will hold a march and rally at Veterans Park, Highland Falls, New York commencing at 8:30 am on May 26, 2007 as Vice President Dick Cheney delivers the commencement address to the graduating class of 2007 at the United States Military Academy.
Colonel Ann Wright, who reopened the American Embassy in Kabul but later resigned from the U.S. diplomatic corps over disagreement with plans by the Departments of State and Defense to invade Iraq, will be the featured speaker ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Wright ).
Representatives of various chapters of Veterans for Peace http://www.veteransforpeace.org/ ,
Iraq Veterans Against The War http://www.ivaw.org/ ,
Gold Star Families for Peace http://www.gsfp.org/ ,
and Military Families Speak Out http://www.mfso.org/
will all be on hand to help bolster our demands to end this immoral, illegal, and failed policy and to truly support our troops by bringing them home safely and providing them with proper health care and benefits upon their return. Colonel Wright can be contacted by phone 808-741-1141 and by Email: microann@yahoo.com.
"As a 29 year US Army/Army Reserve veteran who retired as a Colonel and a 16 year US diplomat who reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December, 2001 and who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq, I will protest Vice President Dick Cheney's presence on May 28 at the West Point graduation," said Ann Wright, in announcing her decision to attend the West Point rally. "I strongly believe President Bush and Vice-President Cheney's war of choice on Iraq is a war of aggression, which is a war crime. Their policies of undercutting the Geneva Conventions have put our own soldiers at risk. Encouraging torture in violation of domestic and international law has undercut the professionalism and ethics of our military. Our cadets at West Point are at risk because of these policies. I believe every citizen should be protesting the policies of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. I will proudly do so on Saturday, May 28 at West Point. -- Ann Wright, Colonel (Ret) US Army Reserves (Colonel Wright can be contacted by phone 808-741-1141 and by Email: microann@yahoo.com)
Jim Murphy, who served in Vietnam in 1968, Quang Tri (Northern I Corps), concurred. "When these West Point graduates were first thinking about coming here to serve their country, the Bush Administration was secretly planning this war, a war of choice based on lies," said Murphy, who is speaking on behalf of Veteran's for Peace. "If the war continues, they will be leading young men and women into combat to kill a enemy created by our immoral foreign policy. They will see their own soldiers killed and wounded but equally sad they will bear witness to dead children, dead old people, people that had just hoped to survive. AND like all veterans, whatever they see and whatever they do will always be with them... always," Murphy added.
With over 45 organizations now sponsoring, including several with national reach, and a favorable weather forecast, record attendance is expected. People will begin assembling in Veteran's Park, Highland Falls, at 8:30 AM, and after a period of music and speakers during the gathering period, begin the march to the Thayer Gate by 10:00, followed by the concluding rally back at the assembly point. The main message of the rally is best summed up by Military Families Speak Out, a group consisting of family members of active-duty U.S. servicemembers serving overseas.
"Military Families Speak Out continues to call on Congress to end funding for the war in Iraq, save what is needed to bring our troops home quickly and safely. Funding the war is not supporting our troops. The way to support our troops is to bring them home now and take care of them when they get here."
As Cheney told the graduates of the enemies they may soon face — terrorists ‘who oppose and despise everything you know to be right, every notion of upright conduct and character’ — there were moments when it seemed that he had simply recycled an old speech from 2002. Indeed, long after most members of the Bush administration have distanced themselves from some of the more insidious claims that propelled the U.S. into war with Iraq, the vice president continues to repeat them as fact. … In a subtle irony, the vice president last addressed graduating West Point cadets the very year the class of 2007 entered the academy, in 2003. It was close to a month after the president declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq and Cheney crowed that ‘the battle of Iraq was a major victory in the war on terror.’ At the time, two West Point graduates had been killed in Iraq. Since then an additional 49 tombstones have risen on West Point’s campus …
Al Gore writes in an excerpt from his book "The Assault on Reason": "American democracy is now in danger - not from any one set of ideas, but from unprecedented changes in the environment within which ideas either live and spread, or wither and die. I do not mean the physical environment; I mean what is called the public sphere, or the marketplace of ideas."
Robert Parry writes: "An irony about Al Gore's new book, 'The Assault on Reason,' is that the former vice president blames TV much more than the print media for America's drift into the world of the irrational. Yet, while author Gore has encountered mostly respectful interviews on TV, his book has been savaged by major newspapers and print reviewers, often distorting the contents and resurrecting one of the favorite press themes of Campaign 2000 - that Gore is an obnoxious pedant."
A Texas businessman listed as a major fundraiser for President George Bush has made millions of dollars in profits from a federal reading program that critics say favored administration cronies at the expense of schoolchildren.
Tom Engelhardt writes: "Over the next 100 years - the heart of your life and that of your children - the Earth could lose its glaciers (major sources of water in places like South Asia); the Greenland ice sheet could radically melt down; and up to half this planet's wealth of species could go extinct. You could also experience the onrush - evidently already underway - of ever more extreme weather patterns (massive hurricanes, typhoons, monsoons, 100-year droughts, and the like), the spread of lethal diseases to new locales, and a host of other unnerving phenomena. ...Even those of you who claim to doubt the reality of global warming sense that this is so...."
The editors of The New York Times write: "There were many fascinating threads to the testimony on Tuesday by the former deputy attorney general, James Comey, who described the night in March 2004 when two top White House officials tried to pressure an ailing and hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft into endorsing President Bush's illegal wiretapping operation. But the really big question, an urgent avenue for investigation, is what exactly the National Security Agency was doing before that night under Mr. Bush's personal orders. Did Mr. Bush start by authorizing the agency to intercept domestic emails and telephone calls without first getting a warrant?"
Senate Democrats, spurred by revelations that then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales pressured hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2004 to approve a secret spying program, are stepping up a probe of the Justice Department.
The Justice Department considered dismissing many more US attorneys than officials have previously acknowledged, with at least 26 prosecutors suggested for termination between February 2005 and December 2006, according to sources familiar with documents withheld from the public.
Congressional investigators have learned that the Justice Department considered firing two more US attorneys in Florida and Colorado, states where allegations of voter fraud and countercharges of voter intimidation have flown in recent years. That brings to nine the number of battleground election states where the Bush administration set out to replace some of the nation's top prosecutors.
The ousting of Wolfowitz from the World Bank took a bizarre U-turn with Wolfowitz challenging the bank's directors to vote him out, knowing that the United States would oppose the move. Previously, Wolfowitz had been doing everything in his power to prevent such a vote. In effect, bank officials said, he is using the fear among some European leaders at the bank of a possible rupture with the Bush administration. The saga seems to be playing out according to a time-honored Washington formula: confrontation, impasse and crisis, followed by sudden negotiations to avert a possible breakdown of the institution.
The Justice Department on Wednesday told an angry Senate Judiciary Committee chairman that it does not have the documents described in a subpoena demanding all materials relating to Karl Rove's possible involvement in the US attorney firings. Instead, it said, Rove's lawyer must have them.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales came under renewed pressure on Wednesday as two more Republican senators came out against him and Democrats challenged his truthfulness about President Bush's no-warrant eavesdropping program. And on Tuesday, a quarter-page open letter was published in the Washington Post by 56 members of Gonzales's graduating class at Harvard Law School, excoriating their former classmate for his "cavalier handling of our freedoms."
FEARS surrounding mobile phone masts are nothing new, but they remain a topic that is rarely out of the headlines. With residents in Dorking ready to do battle against plans for a mast at Haybarn House, in South Street, SSIIO uncovers how many other masts are in Mole Valley
WITH mobile phones an essential part of everyday life for the vast majority of Britons,it is not surprising that the likes of Vodafone and O2 are always searching for better signal coverage.
We all want to be able to use our phones whenever and whereever we like and that demand has led to an explosion in the number of telecommunication masts going up around the country.
In the past five years Mole Valley District Council has decided on 110 applications for phone masts or related items. Of these, 74 have been allowed.
Locations for these masts range from railway stations, shops and golf clubs to theatres, post offices and pubs.
Farms are also a popular venue, and there are even some to be found at local churches.
The last full count of masts that Mole Valley District Council carried out was in 2002 when it listed 56 masts across the area.
But it is in the five years since this survey was carried out that the 110 applications were made for mobile phone masts in the area.
The council permitted 69 of these and refused 41. But of those that were refused 14 went to appeal and five were subsequently allowed - bringing the total in the district to 74.
Of all the telecommunication masts found in the region, Mole Valley District Council received rent on just one.
Income from that mast, which was located on the top of Wenlock Edge in Goodwyns,ended in February.
The total rent received amounted to just over £20,000 from the period of March 2002 to February 2007.
Time and again concerns are raised about possible health risks when masts are erected close to homes and schools.
The visual impact on the area is also often cited as a reason not to position a mast in a particular area.
The Ramblers' Association (RA), Britain's largest walking charity, has expressed concerns at the growing proliferation of masts and has been campaigning to ensure that developers are required to consult with communities affected by any mast proposal and that consideration is given to ways to minimising the impact of masts on the landscape.
A spokesman for the group said: "The RA believes that it is important for developers to carefully examine the visual impacts of masts before sites are chosen and high priority should be given to mast sharing and camouflaging in areas of countryside sensitive to visual impacts."
Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Ron Paul once again roiled Republican presidential politics on the issue of foreign policy during last night’s debate, finishing second in the post-debate poll conducted by Fox News and first in the poll conducted by MSNBC. Pointing out that U.S. foreign policy is the root cause of the anger and hatred that has engendered terrorism against the United States, including the 9/11 attacks, Paul suggested that America would be better off ending the U.S. government’s role as world policeman as wells its longtime policy of interventionism...
Soon after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. government mistook Hasan Elahi for a terrorist. On a return trip from Europe, the Bangladesh-born, New York-raised artist was flagged at the airport and interrogated. To prove his whereabouts, Elahi showed them his Palm PDA, a device that yielded enough information — from calendar notes of appointments and classes he teaches at Rutgers University — to placate his interrogators. … The artist hatched a plan. If Big Brother wanted proof of his coordinates, why not surveil himself? Recording his own moves could, theoretically, seal his alibi. And, when conceived of as art project, the action might satirize federal intelligence gathering. From the day in 2002 when Elahi implanted a GPS-enabled device in his cellphone, art and life merged. Several times a day, the artist input his location into the phone and his computer recorded the data (he hopes to incorporate a live GPS tracker soon). He then created a Web site that allowed viewers to see where he is at any given time — you can visit at http://www.trackingtransience.net ...
In 2005, Congress passed the REAL ID Act in the name of national security. By next May, states will have to force their citizens to comply with strict federal standards for driver’s licenses and other forms of identification or their driver’s licenses and IDs won’t be usable for ‘federal purposes’ like passing through airport checkpoints. Civil liberties advocates believe REAL ID reduces Americans’ freedom and privacy, but what’s most important is that it doesn’t appreciably increase security. In fact, the law is likely to reduce Americans’ security in important respects. Add to this that the Department of Homeland Security estimates that the bill cost states and individuals $17 billion — over $50 for every person in the country — and the recipe for state rebellion is complete. Arkansas, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Washington, North Dakota, Colorado, and Hawaii have already passed bills to protest or refuse the REAL ID Act, and there is unrest in other states. Now Illinois is joining the fray...
The World Bank and IMF were created when the United States was the greatest creditor on earth. The bank was to lend for the reconstruction and development of Europe and Asia. The IMF was to provide loans to help members with balance of payments problems. When Europe and Asia recovered, the need for the World Bank came to an end. By 1971, when the United States closed the gold window and let the dollar float, the need for an IMF to maintain fixed rates of exchange, in a world of floating rates, disappeared. Yet both institutions reinvented themselves as lenders of last resort to bankrupt Third World regimes, and Republican presidents and a Republican Congress went along. Why?
Loyalty has always been the alpha and omega of George W. Bush’s presidency. But all the forms of allegiance that have bound together his administration — political, ideological and personal — are being shredded, leaving only blind loyalty. Bush has surrounded himself with loyalists, who fervently pledged their fealty, enforced the loyalty of others and sought to make loyal converts. Now Bush’s long downfall is descending into a series of revenge tragedies in which the characters are helpless against the furies of their misplaced loyalties and betrayals. The stage is being strewn with hacked corpses — on Monday, former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty; imminently, World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz; tomorrow, whoever remains trapped on the ghost ship of state. As the individual tragedies unfold, Bush’s royal robes unravel...
A top Justice Department official thought President Bush’s no-warrant wiretapping program was so questionable that he refused for a time to reauthorize it, leading to a standoff with White House officials at the bedside of the ailing attorney general, a Senate panel was told Tuesday. Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he refused to recertify the program because Attorney General John Ashcroft had reservations about its legality just before falling ill with pancreatitis in March 2004...
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales came under renewed pressure Wednesday, as two more Republican senators came out against him and Democrats challenged his truthfulness about President Bush’s no-warrant eavesdropping program. The developments revived a debate over Gonzales’ fitness to head the Justice Department a day after a former deputy attorney general recounted a dramatic hospital bedside confrontation between Gonzales and his predecessor, John Ashcroft...
LOCAL councillors have reacted angrily to plans for a 15-metre mobile phone mast in Selby, claiming it would be an eyesore.
Mobile network operators Hutchinson 3G have applied for planning permission for the mast on Barlby Road, the old A19, outside the Greencore Foods factory.
A similar application from the company for a mast on the other side of the road was refused several months ago, because of the open aspect of the site.
But Dianne Dumbell, the clerk to Barlby Parish Council, said the new plans would mean the mast was insufficiently concealed.
"The applicants realise the shortcomings of the site as there have been negotiations concerning seven other potential sites," she said.
"Due to the failure to secure one of these sites, they now wish to place their equipment adjacent to the public highway.
"It is stated that this is their least obtrusive equipment and that the mast is not a prominent structure - this is totally unacceptable."
She said the mast would be five metres taller than nearby street lights, and would not be integrated into the street scene.
Coun Stephanie Duckett, who sits on Barlby Parish Council and Selby District Council, said: "The views we're getting from residents around there is that there are better sites available.
"3G are proposing to put it on an open grass verge on a public highway.
"They could put the mast in the Barlby woodland, to the north of Greencore, then it would be hidden better.
"It would also be further away from the houses in Magazine Road. These are housing association properties with young families in them.
"Moving the mast would, I think, give them peace of mind."
Brian Spooner, a spokesman for Hutchinson 3G, said: "As part of our application, we have researched a number of sites.
"A number have been discounted in radio and planning terms.
"The Barlby Road site meets both environmental considerations and the needs of the Hutchinson 3G network."
FRESH plans to erect a 10 metre-high mobile phone pole at Station Yard Industrial Estate are to be contested by community councillors.
Mobile giant T-Mobile wants to position the telegraph pole at the east end of the estate, just off Station Road.
The pole would support three mobile phone antennae inside a plastic shroud.
But a number of concerns were expressed at a meeting of Haddington Community Council.
“We can’t simply say ‘no’ to telecoms mast sites, but should continue our objection to this one on the grounds that the location in Station Yard is the most visually intrusive from the West Road,” said planning liaison officer Norman Lawrie.
“The alternatives outside Station Yard have not in our view been thoroughly examined, and the option of an alternative site inside Station Yard, at the same height or perhaps on a lower location but with a higher pole, has not been considered.”
Chairman Jan Wilson agreed, saying it was important that T-Mobile looked at all options.
“We need to make the point that they haven’t considered other sites in the area,” she said.
Community councillor Effie Renton said she was surprised that proposals for mobile masts had not been submitted closer to the farmland at Letham, which is zoned to have at least 750 new houses built.
“Why do they have to be 10 metres high?” she asked.
Fellow community councillor Colvin Denholm said he suspected this depended on the surrounding area and the ease of transmitting signals over the hills.
In a submission to East Lothian Council planners from T-Mobile’s agent, Daly International, it was claimed that there was a lack of other appropriate sites for such a pole in the area.
“Finding an unobtrusive design for this region of the Haddington area proved difficult due to the prevalence of open parkland and low-rise, medium density residential development,” said the submission.
“For the chosen site a steel structure was considered, as this type of installation is generally preferred in an industrial area.
“However, due to the abundance of trees and shrubbery in the surrounding district it was felt the lowest possible wooden structure that could be installed would be more appropriate.”
The submission revealed that a previous application for a telecommunications installation on the site had been refused “due to design issues”.
The fresh application, however, was considered to have overcome “all of the negative aspects of the original application”.
T-Mobile’s bid follows last year’s proposal by rival firm O2 to install a mobile phone base station in the tower of West Church, Haddington. The plan was ditched following local opposition.
Three mobile phone masts planned for rural sites have been turned down for the second time.
Applications to put the telegraph poles at East Preston, Findon and Rustington were dismissed at appeal. They had already been turned down by planning officials at Arun District Council because of the impact they would have on the countryside around them.
Coun Ricky Bower said: "These are all welcome decisions. The inspector recognises that while national policy encourages the development of the telecommunications network, it also requires that environmental impact be kept to a minimum."
The gripping Congressional testimony yesterday of James B. Comey, former Deputy Attorney General under John Ashcroft, lifts the curtain ever so slightly on the lengths that the Bush White House went to carry out its illegal and secret spying program against the people of the United States.
The hearing was called to investigate the political firings of U.S. Attorneys by the Bush White House. Mr. Comey's testimony reads like a John Grisham novel, except the events are all too real. We have included the New York Times article as a link at the conclusion of this email. The testimony proves the bare knuckle approach to subverting the Constitution, just as Bush has subverted all pretense to honesty about the illegal invasion and war in Iraq.
The big question now, as Bush’s crimes become increasingly exposed and as his political isolation reaches near record levels, is whether our elected officials will be compelled to take action and introduce Articles of Impeachment. The Democratic National Committee insists that no Articles of Impeachment be filed. But why the spinelessness? It is not too late for Congress to do the right thing. Any argument that suggests that impeachment is a bad political maneuver for the Democrats must be rejected. It is a violation of the Constitution to allow high officials to commit criminal acts and avoid responsibility and accountability.
Meanwhile, people all across the country from state to state are organizing, taking action and demanding that articles of impeachment be filed by their elected representatives. This conflict between Congress and the people they are supposed to represent is growing.
Congress' timidity is also based on a failure to understand basic lessons from even recent history.
President Clinton was impeached in spite of enjoying a 70% approval rating. It all took place as his administration was winding to a close. The Articles of Impeachment against Clinton were filed in December 1998 and the Impeachment trial was held in 1999.
Why is it that a popular President can be impeached for lying about an extra-marital affair in the calendar year before a Presidential election, while George Bush can live free from this constitutionally mandated action?
Bush's political base has shriveled and his crimes are so great in comparison to that for which Clinton was impeached: waging an illegal war in Iraq, secretly spying on Americans, permitting torture and targeted assassinations and more.
The Democratic National Committee is without courage or honor. The people must act now to insist that the elected officials keep the oath they swore upon taking office. They must uphold the law of land and the Constitution. They must listen to the people who are demanding impeachment all over the country.
If President Bush and Dick Cheney are not impeached, it tells every future administration that “anything goes” -- that government officials are above the law. It is imperative that we step up the pressure and create such momentum that makes impeachment an irresistible force.
This is a matter of principle and we will not rest. All over the country people are organizing impeachment events, rallies, demonstrations. ImpeachBush.org is helping to sponsor important protests when Bush speaks on May 23 in New London, Ct. at the Coast Guard graduating ceremony and three days later, May 26, when Dick Cheney speaks to West Point’s graduating class.
Canada's vast forests should be protected much more than they are now to preserve wildlife and water and to fight global warming, according to a group of 1,500 scientists from around the world.
Australia's drought is a "wake-up call" on global warming, the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit has heard. Mayors from some of the world's largest urban areas - including Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore - have united and called on cities to take the lead in tackling climate change.
Senate Judiciary Committee members asked Gonzales if he stands by his 2006 testimony that Comey and other Department of Justice officials did not have concerns about the NSA wiretapping program, which would be in contradiction to Comey's testimony yesterday.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Michigan), along with committee members Zoe Lofgren (D-California) and Linda Sanchez (D-California), sent a letter yesterday to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, which pressed him to explain the events surrounding the dismissal of Todd Graves, the ninth US Attorney to be fired.
NASA scientists say they have found mass evidence of the effect of global warming in Western Antarctica where a massive amount of snow and ice had melted in January 2005 in response to warm temperatures.
His departure would include an acknowledgment from the bank that he doesn't bear sole responsibility for the controversy surrounding a generous pay package for his girlfriend, the official said.
Michael Shank interviewed Chomsky about the conflict between Congress and the U.S. president over Iraq and Syria, the scandal enveloping World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz, and the nature of foreign debt.
An angry and bitter Paul Wolfowitz poured abuse and threatened retaliations on senior World Bank staff if his orders for pay rises and promotions for his partner were revealed, according to new details published last night.
Remember, it was Cheney who did everything in his power to hype the Iraq War and scuttle any possibility of a diplomatic solution prior to that conflict. Now he's doing the same with Iran.
While arguing that economic sanctions against Teheran still have a chance of bearing fruit, a top strategic expert predicted on Tuesday that the Bush administration could conduct a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities toward the end of its term in office.
Before we can purge our country of the hatred that is fed by greed, we must purge our own hearts of the hatred that is fueled by bitterness. Let's stand peacefully, yet firmly and fearlessly in the face of the war machine that devours our children with their blood soaked hatred.
When regional control, political interests and economic booty are all at stake, human lives, especially those of these least importance - peasants, nomads and defenceless innocents with little clout - become a pawn in the hands of those who wish for conflict to perpetuate.
I am not going to bother to recite here all the grievous deficiencies of the Gitmo Kangaroo Courts under International Law and U.S. Constitutional Law. But suffice it to say that the Gitmo Kangaroo Courts constitute war crimes under the Laws of War.
Electronic barcodes to replace magnetic strip boarding passes by 2010 Dave Friedlos, Computing, 14 Sep 2006 BA planes
By 2010 UK airline passengers could be checking in and boarding flights using an electronic barcode transmitted to their mobile phone, industry experts predict.
Airlines including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are considering mobile technology as an alternative to traditional magnetic strip-based boarding passes.
International Air Transport Association (Iata) spokesman Eric Leopold says barcode boarding passes, both printed and on mobile phones, will replace magnetic strip-based boarding passes.
‘We believe some UK airlines will have mobile phone check-in capability by 2008, and magnetic strip boarding passes will be replaced by 2010,’ he said.
‘The biggest challenge is installing infrastructure capable of detecting a barcode.’
The technology is already in place at some international airports. At Tokyo and Peking, passengers register their fingerprint for security purposes and a barcode acting as the boarding pass is sent directly to their phone.
However, some airlines are sceptical about the practicalities.
‘Mobile phone check-in is something we are interested in, particularly as the majority of passengers have access to a mobile phone,’ said a BA spokeswoman. ‘However, a few issues need to be resolved, such as standardisation of mobile phone technology.’
Virgin Atlantic ecommerce project manager Lisa Rogers says the airline is also looking into mobile boarding passes, but has no firm plans to implement it.
Ryanair IT director Brona Kernan doubts the technology will be widely adopted in the UK.
‘Mobile phone check-in is more convenient for passengers but not for airlines,’ she said. ‘All we would be removing is a paper ticket that the passenger prints themselves anyway.’
Rudy Giuliani’s much-publicized but misleading put-down of Ron Paul during Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate should have been tempered by a report that Saudi Arabia, the country that spawned most of the 9/11 hijackers, has been one of Giuliani’s lucrative foreign clients. However, Fox News questioners Chris Wallace and Wendell Goler did not bring it up....
Will our love of money birth an anarchy that will make tyranny appear to be the lesser of two evils? Are we not becoming a nation of government dependents accustomed to state’s nipple, long weaned of the adventure of liberty? When the fear-mongers of terrorism shout louder than the lovers of freedom and righteousness, a nation full of emasculated sucklers will cry for government-insured cribs to keep them safe.......
Listening to retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, you sense his intense loyalty to the military. He commanded the Army’s 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, capping a 31-year Army career. So why did CBS News fire him as a paid news consultant? A straight answer from CBS seems as elusive as those Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The short answer: Batiste appeared in a television advertisement sponsored by VoteVets.org, a nonpartisan group that advocates for veterans.
The Earth is entering a new phase in its human caused decline. We are witnessing the advance edge of bioregional and continental scale ecological collapse -- the final stage of environmental decline before global ecological collapse. For millennia human caused ecosystem loss and decline has destroyed plant communities and devastated landscapes, but generally the global matrix of terrestrial, oceanic, aquatic and atmospheric cycling of energy and nutrients continued relatively unabated. Until now, as the cumulative impact of poor land, water and ocean management, and a failing atmospheric system, is becoming widely evident.
Humanity has become the dominant force of nature. We are witnessing the logical consequences of over-developing large regions and even continents without regards to ecology. Given this advanced state of eco-decline, this essay posits that saving the Earth and achieving global ecological sustainability will require development of bold policy decisions and their difficult implementation; rather than half-measures that nibble around the edges but do not get at the root of the Earth's disease. This is demonstrable ecological science based truth, not some apocalyptic vision based upon millennia old myth.
A Whole New Scale and Intensity of Environmental Problems
Australia is an arid, ecologically fragile continent. As such it is not surprising that its current extreme drought conditions are first indications of what to expect with extreme weather caused by climate change. Years of terrible land management including farming marginal lands and clearing sparse forests have greatly exacerbated this lack of water. This is not your garden variety dry spell -- many areas have experienced virtually no rain for years, and the nation's primary river system has essentially gone dry. The Australian Prime Minister has the situation well in hand, asking Australian citizens to pray for rain. If rains are not received to replenish reservoirs soon, within weeks there will be no water for agriculture in the nation's breadbasket.
North America is also beginning to experience spatially extensive environmental decline. The list of symptoms is voluminous, so let's be selective. In past weeks the United States' mid-section suffered major flooding. At the same time the forests of Southern California, Northern Minnesota and Florida and Georgia are ablaze after experiencing severe climate induced drought conditions; again exacerbated by years of terrible land management practices that failed to maintain healthy, intact ecosystems. Another terrible ecological disaster looms as huge numbers of bee colonies are dying. Causes are not clear -- with suggestions ranging from cell phones to some sort of viral disease -- but almost certainly climate change and habitat fragmentation have played a part. Lack of pollinators could devastate the continent's food production.
The situation is much the same around the world. Southern Europe is undergoing extreme desertification threatening to lay barren vast regions. China's river systems are a toxic mess, and they are virtually mining their water aquifers. Their miracle economy exists on the back of a water bubble. Drought and climate change continues to victimize Africa, leading to social strife and widespread death. In all these cases, we are witnessing the phenomena of environmental decline that is of unprecedented scale and intensity. Each involves the interplay of too many people having so diminished terrestrial ecosystems and polluted the atmosphere that as climate change sets in, lack of ecosystems and of resiliency of what remains becomes readily apparent.
The Consequences and What Must be Done
I have written at length on other occasions of the potential for great social and economic harm resulting from broad-scale ecological collapse. As abrupt and run-away climate change, terrestrial ecosystem collapse, droughts, floods, lack of pollinators and a whole host of other environmental malignancies ripple through cosseted human civilizations; we are talking of widespread death and social disintegration. Resource scarcity leads to militancy and conflict. I believe we are talking of the end of being -- either the complete loss of advanced life including humans, or humanity reverting to barbarity, living in a depleted Earth that is a shadow of its former bounty.
As the magnitude of ecological dysfunction increases the only sufficient response is for conservation to think bigger and more ambitiously. As individuals we must all continue changing light bulbs, driving less, eating organic and less meat, having small families; and all the other things we can do to try to bring our lives in line with Gaia. Yet the world is on track to go from 6.5 to 9 billion people, and the vast majority is yet to realize their desired potential consumption levels. The forces destroying the Earth are such that personal efforts are necessary but not sufficient, and there exist societal requirements for global ecological sustainability that must be implemented with all haste. Many are so momentous and revolutionary that to even suggest them is to invite ridicule. But at this late date, there is really no other way to save ourselves and our Earthly habitat.
It all begins with human population and relative consumption levels. Human population growth needs to peak and total human population begin receding soon. Major financial, preferential access to education and other incentives are necessary to promote zero, one and two children households. As we work to cut human population levels by at least 75%, we must discourage excessive conspicuous consumption while ensuring that all humanity's basic needs are met. This will require carbon taxes and means to encourage voluntary sustainable simplicity. Reduced population and equity in consumption are prerequisites for global ecological sustainability -- yet even this is not enough.
Current population and consumption trends have left the biosphere's processes of energy and nutrient cycling and patterns of diversity, structure and function in tatters. We are well past the point where any further natural ecosystems, particularly ancient forests, can be lost or diminished. We must find a way as a society to place all remaining primary forest ecosystems under strict protection as global ecological reserves, and do so in a matter that fairly and justly compensates governments and local peoples for not having deforested or industrially diminished their lands. We must stop treating our atmosphere, inland waters and oceans as garbage dumps. Foremost, there is no place for coal burning that pumps its carbon waste into the atmosphere. And we must begin continental scale ecological restoration one region at a time. The trend lines are so clear that anything less means miserable terror filled death, destruction and pestilence for the future of humanity.
It used to be that a river catching fire, or an oil spill, constituted an environmental catastrophe. Now we are witnessing whole regions drying up, catching on fire, and losing nearly all their life giving potential. As we move from local, to regional and global ecosystem collapse, we are just one step from global ecological collapse and the end of being as we know it. We need to build the political movement to do what is necessary based upon global ecological science to save the Earth, ourselves, and species with who we share existence. Having ended slavery, walked on the moon, and developed freedom and liberty as a form of government; I have no doubt that if the threats are understood and we work hard, humanity can make peace with our Mother Earth. Can you hear Gaia calling? Go to her.
Earth Meanders is a series of personal essays that places questions of environmental sustainability within the context of other contemporary issues. Comments can be made, and past writings can be found, at: http://earthmeanders.blogspot.com/ . Emailed comments will be posted there as well. Permission is granted to reprint this essay provided it is properly credited.
Trump and His Allies...
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/21/trump-and-his-allies-are-clear-and-present-danger-american-democracy?utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter_op
rudkla - 22. Jun, 05:09
The Republican Party...
https://truthout.org/articles/the-republican-party-is-still-doing-donald-trumps-bidding/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=804d4873-50dd-4c1b-82a5-f465ac3742ce
rudkla - 26. Apr, 05:36
January 6 Committee Says...
https://truthout.org/articles/jan-6-committee-says-trump-engaged-in-criminal-conspiracy-to-undo-election/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=552e5725-9297-4a7c-a214-53c8c51615a3
