The Bush administration and corporate lobbyists have long sought sweeping "tort reform" to limit lawsuits and massive jury awards - without much success. But in the last year, they have quietly been winning much of what they've wanted on a case-by-case basis in the Supreme Court.
Not long before Lynndie England ever set foot in Iraq, long before she became the poster-child for torture, she was a whistleblower at Pilgrim's Pride's chicken factory in Moorefield, West Virginia - a notion that doesn't quite fit with her current image.
House Democrats on Thursday denounced Vice President Dick Cheney’s idea of abolishing a government office charged with safeguarding national security information — and criticized him for refusing to cooperate with the agency. Cheney’s office — over the objections of the National Archives — has exempted itself from a presidential executive order that seeks to protect national security information generated by the government, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform...
The House Oversight Committee is demanding that Vice President Cheney explain himself. Is his office part of the executive branch? Part of the legislative branch? Or is Cheney suggesting that as far as federal rules are concerned, his office essentially doesn't exist? The issue at hand is Cheney's insistence that his office is exempt from an executive order issued by President Bush in 2003 requiring all federal agencies or "any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information" to report annually on its activities regarding the classification, safeguarding and declassification of national security information.
We were reminded again this week that in this administration, no good deed goes unpunished, and that no scandal is so great that it can't be hidden until it's forgotten. The sad spectacle that transpired inside the crumbling walls of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came roaring back to life with Seymour Hersh's on-target article in The New Yorker magazine telling the story of an honest general who investigated and reported on events that shocked the world.
„Bei Antragstellung verlangen die Sozialbehörden die Vorlage von Kontoauszügen. Dies nicht nur bei erstmaliger Antragstellung auf Arbeitslosengeld II, sondern auch bei allen Wiederholungsanträgen. Die Optionskommune Göttingen verlangt zum Beispiel bei jedem Wiederholungsantrag alle halbe Jahr die Vorlage der Kontoauszüge der letzten drei Monate. Dies würde bei Beachtung dazu führen, daß die Sozialbehörde im Zeitraum eines Jahres die Kontoauszüge eines halben Jahres eingesehen hätte. Obwohl die Datenschutzbeauftragten immer wieder darauf hinweisen, daß die Vorlage von Kontoauszügen nur bei erstmaligem Bezug von Alg II angemessen sei oder bei Bestehen eines Betrugsverdachtes, so ignorieren die Sozialbehörden dies und verlangen pauschal mit jedem Antrag die Vorlage der Kontoauszüge. So stellt sich die Frage, wie die Sozialgerichte dieses Thema beurteilen…“ Artikel von Herbert Masslau vom 11. Juni 2007 http://www.herbertmasslau.de/pageID_4361094.html
Aus: LabourNet, 21. Juni 2007
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Kritische Bewertung des Urteils des Bundessozialgerichts – Arbeitslose müssen Kontoauszüge vorlegen
(Ein Gast-Artikel von Martin Behrsing) - Die Eingangsinformation war eine Meldung in der Abendzeitung München vom 20.9.: "KASSEL- Arbeitslose müssen künftig ihre Kontoauszüge vorlegen, um Hartz IV-Leistungen zu erhalten. Tun sie das nicht, darf ihnen das Arbeitslosengeld II wegen fehlender Mitwirkung gestrichen werden, entschied das Bundessozialgericht. Auszüge dürfen aber zum Schutz sensibler Informationen teilweise geschwärzt werden".
„Der neue Verein "borderline-europe" will das Elend der Flüchtlinge an Europas Außengrenzen öffentlich machen. Am Mittwoch ist UNO-Weltflüchtlingstag. Der Verein "borderline-europe - Menschenrechte ohne Grenzen" nimmt dies zum Anlass, sich erstmals öffentlich zu präsentieren. Er will zukünftig auf das Drama der Flüchtlinge an den Außengrenzen der EU aufmerksam machen und aufklären. Vor allem die Fluchtwege über das Mittelmeer und den Atlantik werden für Tausende von Flüchtlingen aus Afrika und Asien zur tödlichen Falle…“ Artikel von Waltraud Schwab in der taz vom 20.06.2007 http://www.taz.de/index.php?id=459&art=961&no_cache=1
Siehe dazu auch:
borderline-europe - Menschenrechte ohne Grenzen e.V.
„borderline-europe ist als gemeinnütziger Verein unabhängig von politischen Parteien oder Regierungen. Unsere Arbeit ist als Akt des zivilen Widerstands gegen die Abschottung der EU und ihre tödlichen Folgen gedacht. Ziele sind die umfassende Information der Öffentlichkeit, die Vernetzung europäischer Initiativen und die Lobbyarbeit auf nationaler- und EU-Ebene.“ Die Vereinshomepage http://borderline-europe.de/
Hier beginnt die Reise
„Während die Länder der EU im Kampf gegen »illegale« Einwanderung immer enger zusammenarbeiten, zeigt die Situation auf Malta, dass die totale Abschottung Europas unmöglich ist…“ Artikel von André Callus und Niklas Luhmann, Malta, in der Jungle World vom 20. Juni 2007 http://jungle-world.com/seiten/2007/25/10154.php
Aus: LabourNet, 21. Juni 2007
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„Laut Aussagen der Überlebenden, ist bei dem Schiffbruch am 19. Juli, bei dem 88 MigrantInnen den Tod fanden, das Cayuco (Holzboot) von der Küstenpatroullie absichtlich gerammt worden - Zwangsjacken und Helme sollen die Regel bei Abschiebungen werden. Heftige Kritik u.a. von AI und SOS-Rassismus. Das neue spanische Sicherheitsprotkoll muss verhindert werden...“ Bericht von „diverse“ vom 11.09.2007 bei indymedia http://de.indymedia.org/2007/09/194058.shtml
Erneuter Prozess gegen Retter aus Seenot in Italien - Retter riskieren bis zu 15 Jahren Gefängnis
„Am 8. August 2007 retten zwei tunesische Fischerboote mit sieben Mann Besatzung 44 MigrantInnen in der Nähe von Lampedusa von einem havarierten Schlauchboot. Unter den MigrantInnen befinden sich ein behindertes Kind und eine Hochschwangere. Sie kommen aus dem Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea und Marokko. Unter ihnen befinden sich potentielle Asylsuchende. Seit dem 22.August stehen die tunesischen Seeleute wegen Beihilfe zur illegalen Einreise vor Gericht in Agrigento (Sizilien). Ihnen wird vorgeworfen, die 44 MigrantInnen nicht gerettet, sondern geschleust zu haben…“ Artikel von LZ Saarland in Linke Zeitung vom 11.09.2007 http://www.linkezeitung.de/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3339&Itemid=248
Menschenrechte an der EU-Außengrenze. Empfehlungen an die Bundesregierung
„Die Einwanderung ist in diesen Tagen eines der Hauptthemen auf der Agenda der Europäischen Union. Bald wird das Europäische Parlament die Debatte über einen Vorschlag für eine Richtlinie über 'gemeinsame Normen und Verfahren in den Mitgliedstaaten zur Rückführung illegal aufhältiger Drittstaatsangehöriger' aufnehmen… Machen Sie mit bei der Kampagne für die Schließung der Aufnahmelager für Migranten! Europa! Unterzeichnen Sie diese Petition!...“ Aufruf auf der Aktionsseite mit vielen weiteren Infos http://www.keine-festung-europa.eu/showPage.jsp
Das Buch (132 Seiten, € 12,-, ISBN 978-3-936096-77-4) ist erschienen im Verlag Hamburger Edition. Siehe weitere Informationen zum Buch beim Verlag http://tinyurl.com/39zgp3
Verstöße. IG Metall stellt Zeitarbeitsfirmen an den Pranger
„Beim Einsatz von Leiharbeitern gibt es gravierende Missstände, klagt die IG Metall. Viele Aushilfen würden diskriminiert und erhielten nicht einmal den ohnehin niedrigen Tariflohn…“ Artikel von Eva Roth und Johannes Bentrup in der Frankfurter Rundschau vom 21.06.2007 http://www.fr-online.de/in_und_ausland/wirtschaft/aktuell/?em_cnt=1158422&
Autobranche setzt auf Leiharbeiter. Billigkräfte helfen nicht nur in Spitzenzeiten
„An den Bändern deutscher Automobilfabriken stehen immer mehr Leiharbeiter. Sie werden von den Herstellern traditionell auf Zeit angeheuert, um sie bei Produktionsspitzen oder beim Anfahren neuer Modelle einzusetzen. Doch auch darüber hinaus steigt Gewerkschaftsangaben zufolge der Anteil der billigeren Kräfte an den Belegschaften…“ Artikel in der Frankfurter Rundschau vom 18.06.2007 http://www.fr-online.de/in_und_ausland/wirtschaft/aktuell/?em_cnt=1156336
Aus: LabourNet, 21. Juni 2007
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Arbeitsbedingungen in der Leiharbeit/PSA
Zeitarbeitsfirmen - Gedrückte Arbeitnehmer
Zeitarbeitsfirmen drücken Arbeitnehmer immer stärker und immer häufiger jenseits des Legalen: kein Urlaub, keine Lohnfortzahlung im Krankheitsfall. Manuskript des Beitrages von Christine Nobereit-Siegel in der MDR-Sendung FAKT vom 02.07.2007 http://www.mdr.de/fakt/aktuell/4640588.html
Leiharbeit und Gewerkschaften: Kann der Sklavenhändler-Tarifvertrag etwa ein Fehler gewesen sein?
Beschäftigte zweiter Klasse
„Bayerns Metaller starten Kampagne zur Eindämmung der Leiharbeit. Deren Dresdner Kollegen richten Petition an den Bundestag, um Mißbrauch des »Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetzes« zu unterbinden…“ Artikel von Claudia Wangerin in junge Welt vom 03.07.2007 http://www.jungewelt.de/2007/07-03/044.php
Matecki: Zunahme der Zeitarbeit wird zur Gefahr
„Die Konjunktur in Deutschland brummt. Viele Unternehmen stellen wieder Mitarbeiter ein - aber in vielen Fällen sind es Zeitarbeiter. Hier sieht Claus Matecki, Vorstandsmitglied im Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), ein immer größer werdendes Problem…“ Artikel von Gerhard Krüger in den Lübecker Nachrichten vom 29. Juni 2007, gespiegelt beim DGB http://www.dgb.de/dgb/gbv/beitraege/matecki_zeitarbeit.htm/
Hieraus unser Unzitat des Tages:
„"Wenn in einem Unternehmen drei bis vier Prozent Zeitarbeiter beschäftigt sind, ist dagegen nichts zu sagen. Doch diese Quote wird häufig bei weitem mit 20 oder gar 30 Prozent überschritten. Das gilt auch für Lübecker Unternehmen wie beispielsweise Dräger", sagt Matecki. Das sei im Grunde für die Unternehmen unklug. "Denn mit dem Abschmelzen der Stammbelegschaft geht viel Know-how verloren. Gerade das aber macht die Stärke der deutschen Wirtschaft aus. "
Wir hatten kurz erwähnt, dass sich die Bundesregierung für die Bespaßung der JournalistInnen während des G8-Gipfels in Heiligendamm professionellen Rat bei der Tourismusbranche und ihren Lobbyisten geholt hatte. Wie das Ergebnis aussah (vom Champagner über Tourismusprogramm bis hin zum Wellness-Bereich), lohnt sich bei Spiegel TV anzugucken oder an verschiedenen Stellen nachzulesen, u.a. bei Medienlese, bei Ethienne Rheindahlen oder im Tagesschau-Blog.
Was die Regierungs-PR und die mediale Resonanz darauf betrifft, erleben wir zur Zeit wirklich einen Gipfel. Da wird von einem großen Erfolg für die Klimapolitik beim G8-Gipfel gesprochen und davon, dass die USA erstmals für gemeinsame Klimaverhandlungen unter dem Dach der UN gewonnen werden konnten. Dabei waren die USA schon immer bei den Klimaverhandlungen dabei - nur ob sie am Ende unterschreiben, bleibt offen. Auch nach Heiligendamm.
Lobby gegen Klimaschutz - Vorträge in Rosenheim, München und Augsburg.
Die Lobby heizt das Klima an - unter diesem Titel berichtet Ulrich Müller von LobbyControl nächste Woche in Rosenheim, München und Augsburg über die Gegenlobby gegen Klimaschutzmaßnahmen. Die Daten:
Rhetorisch sind alle längst Klimaschützer - doch die Realität sieht anders aus: Konkrete Klimaschutz-Maßnahmen stoßen immer wieder auf erbitterten Widerstand betroffener Unternehmen und ihrer Lobbyorganisationen.
So finanziert der Ölkonzern ExxonMobil hinter den Kulissen marktradikale Denkfabriken, die den Klimawandel in Frage stellen sollen. 10.000 Dollar bot eine dieser Denkfabrik Wissenschaftlern schon letztes Jahr für Artikel, die den aktuellen UN-Klimabericht kritisieren sollten. Auf europäischer Ebene blockiert die Autolobby weiterreichende CO2-Reduktionen und mobilisiert dabei die Unterstützung der Bundesregierung...
Die Vorträge bieten eine Einführung in die Welt des Lobbyismus in Berlin und Brüssel und skizziert, wie der Klimaschutz durch Konzernlobbying behindert wird. Veranstaltet werden sie von lokalen Attac-Gruppen mit weiteren Partnern wie dem Bund Naturschutz, Mehr Demokratie und dem Sozialforum München.
Kurz vor dem G8-Gipfel - aber abseits der öffentlichen Aufmerksamkeit - findet von heute bis Sonntag das jährliche Treffen der sog. Bilderberg-Gruppe statt, dieses Jahr in Istanbul. In vertraulicher Runde kommen hierbei ca. 120 Vertreter der Einflussreichen in Wirtschaft, Politik, Militär und Medien aus aller Welt zusammen, um sich über die Zukunft der Weltwirtschaft und -politik auszutauschen. Wir haben mal bei den potentiellen deutschen Teilnehmern angefragt.
Fotogalerie von Stephanie Tkocz zu den Aktionen rund um den G8-Gipfel in Heiligendamm 2007
Was lange währt, wird endlich gut - die (teils kommentierte) Photogalerie zu den G8-Protesten rund um Heiligendamm ist online. Die Photographin Stephanie Tkocz begleitete die Proteste vom 02.06. bis zum 07.06. mit der Kamera und präsentiert hier eine Auswahl an Photos, die keinen Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit erhebt, sondern eher Stimmungen zu vermitteln sucht. http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/wipo/seattle/g8-07/galerie/index.html
Es gibt ein kleines "Jubiläum" zu "feiern": gestern vor fünf Jahren lief die erste Marienhof-Folge in der ARD mit verdeckter Schleichwerbung der Arbeitgeber-Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (INSM). Insgesamt ließ die INSM für 58 670 Euro in sieben Folgen der ARD-Serie Marienhof ihre Botschaften platzieren.
Zur letzten Sendung von Sabine Christiansen am kommenden Sonntag haben wir in einer Pressemitteilung noch mal unsere Kritik an der Talkshow betont und für die Fortführung mit Anne Will eine stärkere Ausgewogenheit und mehr Transparenz über die Hintergründe der Gäste gefordert. Sabine Christiansen hat mit ihrer Sendung über lange Zeit den neoliberalen Zeitgeist gefördert. Mit ihrer Unausgewogenheit und Intransparenz war die Sendung kein Ruhmesblatt für die ARD und ihren Informations- und Bildungsauftrag.
LobbyControl hat in einer Studie von September 2006 die Gästelisten von Januar 2005 bis Juni 2006 ausgewertet. Dabei ergab sich ein deutliches Übergewicht der Unternehmer und Wirtschaftsverbände gegenüber den Gewerkschaften sowie marktliberaler Sozialstaatskritiker gegenüber Befürwortern des Sozialstaats. Stimmen aus der Zivilgesellschaft - aus Bürgerinitiativen oder Verbraucherorganisationen - kamen kaum zu Wort. Der Frauenanteil war mit gut 12 Prozent auffallend niedrig. Außerdem wurden die Interessenverflechtungen mancher "Experten", z.B. mit der arbeitgebernahen Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft oder der Versicherungsbranche, nicht kenntlich gemacht .
Bad Wildbad: Symposium zum Thema "Mobilfunk und Gesundheit, Auswirkungen auf Mensch und Natur" am 30. Juni 2007
Am Samstag, den 30. Juni 2007 findet in Bad Wildbad ein Symposium statt zum Thema "Mobilfunk und Gesundheit Auswirkungen auf Mensch und Natur".
Mediziner und Erkrankte werden das Thema in Vorträgen, Dokumentationen und einer Exkursion beleuchten.
Dr. med. Cornelia Waldmann-Selsam berichtet über das Krankheitsbild des Mikrowellen-Syndroms. Sie wird die Symptomatik, Diagnostik und Therapiemaßnahme anhand von Beispielen vorstellen.
Dr. med. Markus Kern referiert zum Thema Mobilfunk "Auswirkungen auf unser biologisches System". Er wird über maßgebliche Studien informieren und eine Kompetenzinitiative vorstellen.
Die durch Mobilfunkstrahlung erkrankte Christine Kind spricht zum Thema "For a better world for you: Unser Leben im Hauptstrahl einer Mobilfunksendeanlage."
Von Ewald Strodl ist der Bericht eines am Arbeitsplatz Erkrankten zu hören.
Dr.-Ing. Volker Schorpp wird biologische Wirkungen anhand von Schädigungen an Bäumen aufzeigen. Sein Vortrag und Fotodokumentation haben den Titel: "Ist die Ursache des Baumsterbens auch in den chronischen Hochfrequenzbelastungen zu suchen?"
Ergänzt wird dieser Vortrag durch eine Exkursion auf den Sommerberg in Bad Wildbad, auf dem Baumschäden vor Ort aufgezeigt werden. Es folgen Diskussion, Fragen und Austausch.
Als Tagungsbeitrag sind 10 - 20 Euro, je nach Selbsteinschätzung, zu entrichten. Veranstalter sind Bürgerinitiativen in Bad Wildbad und Bad Herrenalb, die Umweltgruppe Straubenhardt und der "Ärztliche Qualitätszirkel".
Zeit und Ort sind von 9:30 bis 17:30 Uhr im Ludwig-Hofacker-Haus in der Hohenlohestr. 2 in Bad Wildbad. Ab 8:45 Uhr ist Einlass und Begrüßung mit einem kleinen Imbiss. Das Symposium widmet sich einem vieldiskutierten Thema, das immer mehr Beachtung findet. Es richtet sich an Ärzte und Angehörige medizinischer Berufe sowie andere mit dem Thema befasste Personen. Es richtet sich an Ärzte, Heilpraktiker, medizinisches Fachpersonal sowie an interessierte Laien. Anmeldungen werden bei Frau Heidi Frohna-Binder in Straubenhardt erbeten unter der Telefonnummer 07082-8553 oder per e-mail an hfrohna-binder @web.de. Hier sind auch weitere Informationen zu erhalten.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
für die Organisatoren
Heidi Frohna-Binder, Dipl.Min., Baubiologin (IBN)
Ganzhornweg 18/2, 75334 Straubenhardt, 07082-8553
Die regionale Presse hat uns größtenteils ignoriert, sogar trotz einer bezahlten Anzeige.
Von drei regionalen Blättern erschien nur ein Vertreter, der aber inhaltlich auch nichts brachte, nur über den Tagungsablauf erschienen ein paar Zeilen. Das "Schweigekartell" Mobilfunk, "Funkstille über Strahlenschäden" von Uwe Krüger (siehe Message 1/2007) [ http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Uwe+Krüger] , funktioniert.
A central premise of the ‘realist’ critique of the neoconservative agenda is that it promotes a dangerous instability, which shows that the realists just don’t get what neoconservatism in the foreign policy realm — and particularly when it comes to the Middle East — is all about. The idea is to create — and preside over — a condition of permanent instability. There is no better way to justify the permanent presence of U.S. troops and plenty of aid to U.S.-backed authoritarian regimes. Nihilism and neoconservatism are brothers under the skin, and nothing illustrates this more starkly than the horror unfolding presently in Iraq...
The absurdity of present-day Congress is obvious. The treasonous voting records of ‘representatives’ are extraordinary, documented, and anti-constitutional. Couple this with the brazen anti-constitutional actions of the Executive Branch, and one cannot help but wonder if Congress is being phased out of power. Such a dialectic maneuver would be another brilliant achievement for the global elite. In essence, have the American people demand that Congressional madness cease and desist, whereby solving the global dilemma of congressional oversight...
Fears that the governments of both the US and the UK are conspiring to break international safeguards preventing the return of prisoners held without charge or trial to their home countries — where they face a serious risk of torture and abuse — have gained prominence in the last few days. On Saturday, I wrote on these pages about the case of Abdul Rauf al-Qassim, a Libyan prisoner in Guantánamo who is struggling to prevent his enforced return to the country of his birth, and on Tuesday the Pentagon announced that two Tunisian prisoners in Guantánamo, cleared for release since last year, had been returned to Tunisia on Sunday...
Zachary Katznelson, a lawyer from the British human rights group Reprieve, said bin Omar, who had been held without charge since August 2002, faced "grave risk" of abuse and torture in Tunisia for his involvement with Ennahdaha, which he described as a non-violent Islamic political party.
A New York-based human rights advocacy group is trying to halt the imminent transfer to Libya of a Guantanamo Bay detainee, imprisoned for more than five years without charge or trial, because his lawyers claim he will "likely be tortured and possibly killed." The Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents Abdul Ra'ouf, says that despite "diplomatic assurances" received by the US, "the fact of Abdul Ra'ouf's detention at Guantanamo - and the US government's false and unsubstantiated allegations that he was associated with a group hostile to the Qadhafi regime - put him at grave risk of indefinite detention, torture and death if forcibly returned to Libya."
Overlooked in the reports about Guantánamo detainee Abdullah bin Omar, a Tunisian who, on Sunday, was sent back to the country of his birth, where there are fears that he will be subjected to torture and abuse, is the story of the other Tunisian who, shackled and bound, shared a US plane with him.
Presidential hopeful Gov. Bill Richardson [D-N.M.] addressed Take Back America, and as far as I know, this was the first time he criticized Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards by name for not supporting his position on Iraq: ‘I would leave zero troops behind, not a single one.’ Calling for a ‘New Realism For Foreign Policy,’ Richardson proposed replacing US troops with an “all-Muslim peacekeeping force,” then convening a ‘national reconciliation conference’ and a conference with Iraq’s neighbors including Iran and Syria. ‘That’s how we avoid a regional war,’ said Richardson...
Competitive Enterprise Institute
by Steven J. Milloy
06/18/07
What should conservatives do about global warming? Jim Manzi suggests in his June 25 National Review cover story (’Game Plan’) that conservatives embrace junk science and ‘manage’ global climate change so that they can ‘peel off’ 1 percent of the votes from the ‘opposing coalition’ in some future presidential election...
The Democratic presidential contenders squabbled over Iraq on Tuesday, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a target of criticism for her 2002 vote to authorize the war and her suggestion some U.S. troops may be there for years. The leading Democrats in the 2008 race touted their judgment and their plans to bring home the troops during separate appearances before two of the party’s biggest voting blocs: union members and liberal activists...
Christian Aid predicts that by 2050 there will be 1 billion people around the world displaced by global warming, dwarfing the number of those now fleeing conflicts and persecution -- nearly 10 million refugees and almost 25 million internally displaced people.
Iran will never discard the use of crude oil as a weapon against the U.S. so long as the U.S. doesn't denounce the use of force in its standoff with Iran over the latter's nuclear program, a senior Iranian oil official said Tuesday.
U.S. President George W. Bush said Tuesday that "all options are on the table" with regard to Iran's nuclear issue and warned that Iran must face consequences for its actions.
Accused al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla was never overheard using purported code words for violent jihad in intercepted telephone conversations and spoke often about his difficulties in learning Arabic while studying in Egypt, the lead FBI case agent testified Tuesday.
China sold more US treasury bonds in April than any time in at least seven years, a signal that the nation may be diversifying the world's largest foreign-exchange reserves, Shanghai Securities News reported today.
The United States will not release five Iranians detained in a U.S. military raid in northern Iraq until at least October, despite entreaties from the Iraqi government and growing behind-the-scenes pressure from Iran, according to U.S. officials.
Anti-war activists should be heartened that U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW) is hosting a U.S. tour of two Iraqi labor leaders, providing people in this country a civilians-eye view of the Iraq war.
Anyone who wants to understand what really goes on in the Mideast should have a look at the scandal that erupted earlier this month over the outsized character of Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia.
Seymour Hersh Reveals Rumsfeld Misled Congress over Abu Ghraib. How Gen. Taguba says the military has unpublished photographs and videos that show the abuse and torture was even worse than previously disclosed. That includes video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomizing a female detainee, and information of the sexual humiliation of a father and his son.
The two-star Army General who led the first military investigation into human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has bluntly questioned the integrity of former US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, suggesting he misled the US Congress by downplaying his own prior knowledge of what had happened.
A recent report by the United Nations has revealed that not a single country in sub-Saharan Africa is on track to achieve the internationally agreed target for halving extreme poverty by 2015.
Near the town of Carbo in western Virginia on July 10, 2006, 75 people stood on a bridge between massive coal trucks and the Clinch River power plant. As the coal trucks stopped, two people locked themselves to the trucks' frame. They flattened the tires of the coal trucks and prevented them from moving forward.
Five years behind schedule, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to propose new primary eight-hour ozone ambient air quality standards, or smog standards. In one corner, a coalition of public interest groups, scientists and academic advisors. In the other corner, industry lobbyists.
The Center for American Progress and Free Press today released the first-ever statistical analysis of the political make-up of talk radio in the United States. It confirms that talk radio, one of the most widely used media formats in America, is dominated almost exclusively by conservatives.
Do you have free will? You may think that is a stupid question. However, many materialist philosophers and social scientists believe that free will does not exist. They state that all human action is automatic at all times, that nothing can be credited to human will, inner control, or volition. They say we became what we are by the process of evolution, and everything we do depends on material conditions. Heredity and environment determine our destiny. We have no real part in making ourselves what we are or what we will become.......
The worst is yet to come for the US housing market. "It's a blood bath," said Mark Kiesel, executive vice president of the Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., and the manager of $668 billion in bond funds. "We're talking about a two- to three-year downturn that will take a whole host of characters with it, from job creation to consumer confidence. Eventually it will take the stock market and corporate profit."
Michael Winship writes: "Here he is the other day, responding to the aborted attempt in the Senate to legislatively declare 'no confidence' in Attorney General 'Fredo' Gonzales: 'They can try to have their votes of no confidence,' the president said, 'but it's not going to determine - make the determination - who serves in my government.' MY government? Now that's entitlement. And you thought George Bush didn't have a vision for America."
Roger Morris begins a three-part series on Robert Gates today stating: "It was a failed administration's ritual scapegoating, the ousting last winter of its ruinous secretary of defense. But in the sauve qui peut confirmation of his replacement - 'The only thing that mattered,' said a Senate aide, 'was that he was not Don Rumsfeld' - there was inadvertent irony.'"
Robert Gates has returned to Washington as secretary of defense with a quiet vengeance and with all the skills acquired in his rough-and-tumble years in the intelligence bureaucracy still intact. His laden resume, gathered over many decades, is evidence that Washington’s tortuous, often misguided foreign policies did not begin with the Bush administration, and will not end with it. In this three-part series, Roger Morris, formerly a senior staffer of the National Security Council, provides not just a portrait of the real Robert Gates, but a history of America’s global covert action and intervention...
Jim Hightower writes: "Since the Carter years, Washington has drifted toward more and more outsourcing of public functions to private contractors, but Bush Incorporated has turned that gradual increase into a fullblown, jet-powered rush to privatization. The shadowy and highly lucrative world of government contracting has boomed under George W., rising 86 percent since he's been in office and now totaling nearly $400 billion a year. Get this: There are now more people doing federal jobs under corporate contracts than there are people employed directly by the government. In other words, in today's government, corporate servants outnumber civil servants."
William Rivers Pitt writes "There is something happening today in America. With the right kind of ears, you can hear it in the sound of millions of brows slowly furrowing in anger and disgust. It feels like those tense moments just before the eruption of a summer thunderstorm, those moments when the air is electric, the ozone reek of spent lightning fills the world, and you know something very loud is about to happen. What is happening, what can be heard and smelled and sensed all across the land, is the cresting wave of rage, betrayal and fury that is, finally, roaring across the shores of our collective American heart."
A recent article appeared in Vitality Magazine that compared compact fluorescent lights (CFL), to full spectrum light bulbs (article linked below). Studies have indicated that the high frequencies caused by CFLs, appear to be harmful to many people. Dr Magda Havas has sent a letter to the editor about the article which provides much information that is of interest to WEEP e-mail readers.
Here is the letter -
----- Original Message -----
From: Magda Havas
To: editorial@vitalitymagazine.com
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 11:34 AM
Subject: comment on CFL and Full Spectrum Bulbs Sept 2007
Letter to the Editor: Vitality Magazine.
Not all compact fluorescent lights are the same and not all full spectrum lights are safe.
I just read Rob Ferraz's article in Vitality Magazine "Earthwatch-Compact Fluorescents vs. Full Spectrum Bulbs" [ http://www.vitalitymagazine.com/earthwatch_5 ] and agree that there are problems with CFL that go beyond the mercury problem. Some of these hearth concerns were alluded to in the article, namely that some people complain of irritability, depression, hyperactivity, fatigue, headaches etc. The articles goes on to state that if full spectrum lights are used this problem goes away. It's not that simple.
Compact fluorescent lights (CFL) produce radio wave frequencies. These frequencies radiate directly from the bulbs and go on the electrical wiring in the home or school causing poor power quality or dirty electricity. The closer you sit to the bulb the greater your exposure. Because the high frequencies travel along the wire you can be exposed in other rooms of your home as well as the room that contains the CFL.
Not all CFL bulbs produce the same amount of dirty electricity. Some are worse than others. Our research on CFL will be released to the public this fall so shoppers can decide which bulbs they want to buy based on energy efficiency, cost, and potential health impacts to their family.
Full spectrum lights mimic the sun and can reduce seasonal affective disorder or SAD especially during our northern winters when natural sunlight is limited. But some full spectrum bulbs also produce high frequencies that some people are sensitive to. This sensitivity is known as electrical sensitivity (ES) or electrohypersensitivity (EHS) and is becoming a growing concern because of our increasing exposure to electromagnetic energy from electronic equipment and wireless devices. As many as 3% of the population have full blown EHS and are unable to live is a modern electrical environment. Many complain that they cannot be in a room with fluorescent lights because they feel "unwell". These people have difficulty shopping in large department stores because of the lighting and often go with list in hand and spend as little time in the store as possible. Their cognitive functions diminish and some have difficulty recalling where they parked their car.
Putting lights on dimmer switches exacerbates the problem. The dimmer switch converts the electrical signal into high frequency transients that result in dirty electricity. Even clean incandescent lights will produce dirty electricity if a dimmer switch is used. Most CFL are incompatible with dimmers.
Ontario moved too quickly promoting CFL and David Suzuki should have done his homework before he allowed his picture to be used to promote CFL. Yes they will save us green house gases but at what cost to our health?
-magda havas
Dr. Magda Havas is Associate Professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University and does research on electromagnetic pollution.
You may receive more than one copy of this survey. Please complete it ONLY once and discard the rest. All submissions must be electronic to facilitate analysis.
We are conducting a survey to determine how electrically sensitive people respond to different types of lights. To complete the survey please click on the link below.
This survey has 8 questions and can be answered quickly. Please answer EVERY question or you will not be able to submit your response. You can opt out of the survey at any time and the survey will NOT be submitted.
Individuals cannot be identified and all response are confidential.
The results of the survey, which should be available by the end of February, will be sent to various websites for posting.
The purpose of the survey is to help us design a rigourous scientific study on the effects of lighting on electrically sensitive individuals.
Please forward this email to others who may be interested.
Deadline for submissions is February 9, 2008.
Thanks for your help.
-magda havas
A concern to be aware of - there are some interesting photographs of CFLs, taken in various places in Canada, at this link.
We have just finished conducting a study with 38 different energy efficient bulbs. We measured the frequencies they generate through the air and the frequencies they put on electrical wires. The difference are astounding between different makes and models. We also measured magnetic field exposure, currently voltage, power used, luminosity, etc. but are most interested in the radio frequencies in the kHz range.
The purpose of the survey that you received is to give us a better sense of what people are responding to and it will provide us with some information about how to conduct phase two of the study, which is testing the response of living subjects who are EHS. We know the frequencies the bulbs produce and once we test the response of sensitive people we will know which frequencies are the most harmful.
We know which bulbs put high frequencies on wire and which ones put high frequencies through the air. Also, we can shield the air and filter the wire, so we have a very detailed study planned for phase two. The response we intend to measure will be both subjective and objective and it should get us a little closer to understanding the important biological frequencies.
You made some assumptions about our survey and our intent that are false and the survey is not "bs...", to use your own words. It is already providing useful information.
-magda
Dear Magda,
First of all, I appreciate the study you published under the title: "Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity: Biological Effects of Dirty Electricity with Emphasis on Diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis". Concerning your last questionnaire about bulbs, I haven't received your first survey and I don't know about what was done. We already know that electric distribution and appliance are harmful. I have a study from Spain done in 2001 that shows that at 0,1 microTesla, we have 20 % more breast cancer for the womans. We already know, from a lot of studies all around the world, that at 0,2 microTesla we have more cancer and that at 0,3 to 0,4 microTesla, we double the children leukemia. If you visit the WHO website, they finally accept partially this fact, but are more interested to know how much it will cost to protect populations instead of taking measures to lower the values of the guidelines. I went to their workshop in June 2007. When I denounced publicly the demeanor of Michael Repacholi, they just feign to pretend or affect innocence to what I was saying. I'm just tired of all happens today. We already know that electrical appliance could be harmful, but guidelines are not up to date. So don't built your home or live under an electrical distribution, nor sleep near electrical appliance. There are solutions about dirty electricity. Like a bio switch. This means that you have to install this bio switch BEFORE the fuse. It will just send 9 Volts DC in the line when nothing is in use. When you turn a device on, it will give the 110 or 220 alternative Volts back. But today, mobile phone technology is everywhere, more WiFi, Bluetooth, DECT phones and other wireless technology. In Switzerland, with 7'500'000 people, they sent 62'000'000 messages by mobile phone for last Christmas and 100'000'000 for the New Year... Modulated frequencies and high frequencies pulsed with low frequencies are much more harmful and there are poor solutions to stop them trying to isolate your home. We have electricity since about 100 years, dirty electricity came later and sparsely around the world. But if you look the english studies at this web page: http://www.alerte.ch/alertes/alertes_01.php you will find that sickness and death are increasing much more since the introduction of wireless technology and worthily since the introduction of mobile phone. In attached file, I'm sending to you a study showing the same problem with Alzheimer, done by Örjan Hallberg and Olle Johansson.
So, your study seems to me like that the conclusions will be biased, as the study managed by the WHO about malignant melanoma, because the survey ask for sunlight exposition and UV, but there is absolutely not any question about exposition of modulated frequencies and high frequencies pulsed with low frequencies.
When the castle is burning, we don't care about the stable. This means that when we have several environmental factors involved, we have to act urgently to stop the worst which is certainly the crazy mania of wireless technology. It seems that humans have learned nothing about the past mistakes. Finally, people all around the world should be aware of what is worst. Between others, birds, insects, butterflies, bees are disappearing at an accelerated rate all around the world. We are in a real bad shape ! We are in a global process of all life disappearance, because people want to be joined everywhere at anytime.
Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who faces prison soon in the CIA leak case, asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to step in and delay the sentence. The former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, Libby was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for lying and obstructing an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity.
Senate Democratic leaders moved on Tuesday to force a vote on organized labor's top legislative priority: a bill that would make it far easier to organize workers. But Republican leaders vowed to kill the measure, voicing confidence that they could defeat a motion cutting off debate and bringing it to a vote this week. The bill, already approved by the House but facing the threat of a veto by the Bush administration, would give employees at a workplace the right to unionize as soon as a majority signed cards saying they wanted to do so.
The wife of a soldier missing in Iraq could face deportation, her lawyer told a television station. Army Specialist Alex Jimenez, who has been missing since his unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12, had petitioned for a green card for his wife Yaderlin, whom he married in 2004, Boston's WBZ-TV reported on Tuesday.
In January 2002, at a retreat in West Virginia, Karl Rove gave a PowerPoint presentation to at least 50 managers at the Department of the Interior to discuss polling data, and emphasized the importance of getting Oregon Senator Gordon Smith, a Republican, reelected that year.
ACTORS Neil Morrissey, Joe McGann and Cliff Parisi join MP Lynne Featherstone on a protest in Stroud Green.
THERE are at least five within 100 metres of the Clock Tower on Crouch End Broadway. The rooftops along Muswell Hill Broadway and Wood Green's town centre are also lined with them.
And on the streets below everyone is jabbering into a mobile phone.
A new mobile phone mast has been put up - disguised as a tree.
Locals are furious after town mayor, Councillor Vernon Whitlock, suggested the bizarre scheme in an off-the-cuff comment. And telecoms giant O2 took him at his word.
Now residents in Rosemount Lane, including a former mayor, have slammed the pole, encrusted with a dark brown, textured coating that resembles bark.
Consider the history of excellent and amazing products - Asbestos, Lead additive in petrol, tobacco.
Yes, they all owed their long and massively profitable existences to the solid efforts of establishment 'sound' science to reassure the public to keep using and buying.
The denigration of dissent and marginalising of critics were of course key strategies.
Watch Chris Bryson's 28 minute video clip covering the history of toxic technologies -
Last month, Brian Kelly of Carlisle, Pa., was riding with a friend when the car he was in was pulled over by a local police officer. Kelly, an amateur videographer, had his video camera with him and decided to record the traffic stop. The officer who pulled over the vehicle saw the camera and demanded Kelly hand it over. Kelly obliged. Soon after, six more police officers pulled up. They arrested Kelly on charges of violating an outdated Pennsylvania wiretapping law that forbids audio recordings of any second party without their permission. In this case, that party was the police officer. Kelly was charged with a felony, spent 26 hours in jail, and faces up to 10 years in prison. All for merely recording a police officer, a public servant, while he was on the job...
The US military’s attempts to win hearts and minds of tribal leaders in Iraq’s bloody al-Anbar province with armor, arms, vehicles and cash have taken a deadly toll. Instead of reducing violence, the divide-and-conquer strategy has increased resistance to the US occupation and increased tensions within the local community...
Oil-price gouging -– specifically, whether the US needs a new federal law that would prohibit such profiteering -– has emerged as one of the most controversial aspects of the energy legislation the Senate is considering this week. Many Democrats think price gouging should be a federal crime. They’ve included a provision in the energy bill that would make it illegal to reap ‘excessive’ profits at the pump in times of a national energy emergency. But the White House says the proposed new law is so vague that it’s unenforceable -– and that antigouging efforts are really backdoor price controls. President Bush will veto the broad energy bill if it contains the provision, according to administration officials...
The Army is considering whether it will have to extend the combat tours of troops in Iraq if President Bush opts to maintain the recent buildup of forces through spring 2008. Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren testified Tuesday that the service is reviewing other options, including relying more heavily on Army reservists or Navy and Air Force personnel, so as not to put more pressure on a stretched active-duty force...
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday switched his party status from Republican to unaffiliated, a stunning move certain to be seen as a prelude to an independent presidential bid that would upend the 2008 race. The billionaire former CEO, who was a lifelong Democrat before he switched to the GOP for his first mayoral run, said the change in voter registration does not mean he is running for president...
On 7th July there will be 'Live Earth' concerts all around the globe to bring attention to climate change. The tickets are all sold and the perfomers are already chosen.
But at http://www.aliveearth.org an alternative concert is already underway- a concert which welcomes all visitors and performers. The online concert is the brainwave of a small non-profit organisation in Oxford England which felt that the mega concerts were not doing enough to support a wider range of voices on climate change.
One day after the launch there are already nearly 60 performances in the alternative concert- mostly music, but including comedy and poetry. We welcome postings of all kinds of performances- big and small, amateur and professional, in the Hollywood Bowl and in the bedroom. We invite entries to be as angry, happy, whimsical, political, or bizarre as they like providing that they have something to say about climate change, accept the reality of the science and are not offensive.
On 7-7-07 the performances that receive the most votes and hits will be compiled on the site for the full alternative concert. It won't be live, it will be ALIVE!
And, because this concert will be on the web, there will be no executive jets, no cars, no floodlighting, no air conditioning, no paper, no plastic, no cans. Truly low carbon.
This project is independent of the Live Earth concerts. It wishes them every success.
If you like this idea please post up your performance, send this announcement to everyone you know, put a link or button on your on your site and share your favourite performances with your friends.
“Paris Hilton's Symptoms Said to be from Prescription Drug Withdrawal,” was the headline news on Fox News Network on June 13, 2007. This was the 56th headline on Paris Hilton covered by Fox in the previous 30 days. Even the New York Times got in on the Paris Hilton hoopla with a front-page story June 9 entitled “Celebrity Justice Cuts Both Ways for Paris Hilton. “
Regular readers of Project Censored are familiar with our annual list of Junk Food News – in which we select a list of the dumbest, least important, most overplayed stories of the year. Almost certainly, the incarceration of Paris Hilton will feature prominently in our next years Junk Food edition, but it will have to wait until then to be considered.
Meanwhile, here are the Junk Food News stories of Project Censored’a annual April-to-April listing for 2006-07:
1.Brittany Spears has a meltdown
2. Anna Nicole has a baby
3. Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie have a baby and adopt others
4. Jon Benet “killer” is a fraud
5. The rise and fall of OJ Simpson’s book
6. The feud between the Donald and the O’Donnell
7. Miss USA “party girl” drinks and takes drugs
8. Paul McCartney’s Divorce
9. An astronaut wears a diaper to attack her romantic rival
10. Madonna adopts an African baby
Moving up from number seven last year to number one on this year’s Junk Food list is none other than Britney Spears. On February 17, Ms. Spears was photographed in a Los Angeles salon receiving a buzz cut. The corporate media went into frenzied overdrive, offering incessant speculation on why poor Britney might be coming unglued. While undeniably important to thirteen-year-olds, adults might have been interested to hear about the newly released analysis of 2005 census figures showing that nearly 16 million Americans are currently living in deep or severe poverty. Mainstream news anchors had enough time to wonder if Ms. Spears was too young and immature for the pressures of motherhood. Yet, they weren’t able to squeeze in the fact that female-headed families with children account for the lion’s share of the severely poor. During the recent Paris Hilton exposition the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act, without a peep from Fox or the New York Times. Apparently the corporate media is too busy entertaining us to cover the most serious civil liberties issue in America. The Military Commissions Act of last October made it legal for the President to suspend Habeas Corpus for any person, citizen or not. While Democrats in the Senate are trying to restore this basic legal right, the corporate media seems more concerned with keeping us up-to-date on how much phone time Paris gets while in jail.
On September 7, 2006, Anna Nicole Smith gave birth to a baby girl and everyone held his or her breath for the ultimate piece of the puzzle, who was the father? For those of you who missed it, the birth certificate listed none other than Anna Nicole’s personal attorney Howard K. Stern. Now, for those of you who didn’t miss the Anna Nicole goings-on, here’s what you did miss: A September 2006 report found that the Iraq violent death toll for August was three times larger than the preliminary count. The final tally disproved official US and Iraqi claims that a “security crackdown” had led to a drop in the number of deaths that month.
In the early afternoon of February 8, 2006, Anna Nicole Smith was found unresponsive in her hotel room, rushed to the hospital, and pronounced DOA at 2:49 pm. While this story filled the corporate media in the US, that same week, the former US Ambassador of Iraq failed to explain what happened to $12 billion in newly printed, shrink-wrapped, $100 bills that he had flown to Baghdad, and had since been misplaced.
We are now, in an era, of witnessing corporate media’s complete failure to keep us informed on powerful issues, which concern all Americans. We deserve better and must remedy this situation by building tax supported independent media and returning investigative reporting to the American people.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University. Kate Sims is a staff researcher with Project Censored. SSU students Jocelyn Thomas, Toni Faye Catelani, Jenni Leys, and Christina Carey assisted with research on this op-ed. The full report can be seen at: http://www.projectcensored.org .
Advances in radiology have radically transformed medical practice, but the downside is that Americans are being exposed to record amounts of ionizing radiation, the most energetic and potentially hazardous form of radiation.
Bob Herbert writes: "You won't see these stories on television, but Marian Wright Edelman and Dr. Irwin Redlener could talk to you all day and all night about children whose lives have been lost or ruined because they didn't have health insurance. This is not a situation one associates with a so-called advanced country. That you can have sick children wasting away in the United States, the wealthiest nation on the planet, because medical treatment that could relieve their suffering is withheld by men and women with dollar signs instead of compassion in their eyes is beyond unconscionable."
Gregg Shotwell is one of the founders of the Soldiers of Solidarity movement, a group of dissident UAW members who feel let down by both their union and their employers. They've picketed auto shows and corporate headquarters, held rank-and-file meetings that challenged union leadership and openly talked about striking.
Three powerful lobbying forces - automakers, electric utilities and the coal industry - are confounding Democrats' efforts to forge a less-polluting energy policy.
Senators Kennedy and Whitehouse have sent a letter to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, demanding a probe by the DoJ's Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility into "allegations that the Republican National Committee engaged in 'vote caging' during the 2004 elections."
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's probe into prewar intelligence has again postponed a hearing, scheduled for today, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who refuses to testify publicly despite a panel subpoena.
Rudolph Giuliani's membership on an elite Iraq study panel came to an abrupt end last spring after he failed to show up for a single official meeting of the group, causing the panel's top Republican to give him a stark choice: either attend the meetings or quit, several sources said.
Bei Monsanto sieht man genau, wie eine Zulassungsbehörde (FDA) unterwandert wurde um die Gentechnik ohne wirkliche Risikoabschätzung eingeführt wurde. Parallelen nicht nur zeitlich ergeben sich zu dem Komplex Mobilfunk, Siemens, Alcatel und der Privatisierung der POST zu Telekom und RegTP in Deutschland.
Landwirt Christoph Zimmer traut seinen Augen nicht. In drei unauffälligen Aktenordnern schlummert brisantes Material - ein Patentantrag auf Schweine. Genforscher des großen amerikanischen Biotechnologie-Konzerns Monsanto haben bestimmte Abschnitte des schweinischen Erbgutes entschlüsselt und beschrieben. Diese wollen sie nun weltweit als Patent anmelden. Im Falle einer Erteilung wäre Schweinezucht nur noch mit der Genehmigung des Konzerns möglich. Das alarmiert die deutschen Züchter.
Christoph Zimmer befürchtet, dass auch bei seinen Sauen und Ferkeln diese Gene längst vorhanden sind. betrifft folgt ihm auf seinem Weg durch deutsche Schweineställe. Mit DNA-Tests will er beweisen, dass in den Patentanträgen keine Erfindungen stehen, sondern dass hier ein Teil Natur, nämlich das ganz normale Schwein, in die Hände einer einzigen Firma fallen soll. Die Konsequenz für die Bauern: Würde das Patent genehmigt, müssten sie für jedes Schwein, das diese Genmarker trägt, Geld an Monsanto überweisen. Bei Futtermitteln, wie z.B. dem Genmais, ist das längst der Fall.
Aber es ist nicht nur die Frage des Geldes, der betrifft nachgeht, sondern auch die Frage, welche Risiken diese Nahrungsmittel für den Verbraucher haben. In Amerika gibt es bereits Fälle von Unfruchtbarkeit bei Tieren, die mit dem entsprechenden Genmais gefüttert wurden. Was geschieht mit dem Menschen, wenn er das Schwein isst?
Die Prognose von deutschen Genforschern lautet: Kleine Züchter werden wohl bald aufgeben müssen, weil weltweit nur noch ein paar große Konsortien im Wettstreit um ein marktgerechtes Schwein erfolgreich sein werden.
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Gabriel: Neue Erkenntnisse zur Wirkung der Strahlung auf den Menschen stärker berücksichtigen
Strahlen wirken möglicherweise stärker auf Menschen ein als bisher angenommen. Auf einer Konferenz über neue Erkenntnisse zur Wirkung ionisierender Strahlung in Berlin hat Bundesumweltminister Sigmar Gabriel die schnelle Umsetzung des neuen Wissens in das Strahlenschutzrecht und den praktischen Vollzug gefordert. "Es geht darum, jeden der neuen Sachverhalte eingehend zu prüfen und klare Antworten auf die Frage zu geben, ob unsere bestehenden Schutzsysteme den Stand des Wissens noch richtig und angemessen abbilden. Wo dies nicht der Fall ist, muss unverzüglich gehandelt werden", so Gabriel. Dies sei der grundsätzlichen Verpflichtung der Umweltpolitik zur rechtzeitigen und angemessenen Vorsorge gegen Umwelt- und Gesundheitsrisiken geschuldet und gelte sowohl für das europäische wie auch für das nationale Strahlenschutzrecht. Gabriel: "Die Schutzstandards dürften dem Wissensstand nicht hinterherhinken. Gleiches gilt für den praktischen Vollzug." Die Strahlenschutzkonferenz findet heute in Berlin im Rahmen der deutschen EU-Ratspräsidentschaft statt. Vorgestellt und diskutiert wurde die neue Grundsatzempfehlung der Internationalen Strahlenschutzkommission (ICRP) zum Strahlenschutz (Dr. Lars-Erik Holm). Über diese Empfehlung hinausgehend wurden aktuelle wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zu strahlenbedingten Krebserkrankungen bei Kernkraftwerksarbeitern (Dr. Elisabeth Cardis), zum Lungenkrebsrisiko durch Radon (Dr. Margot Tirmarche) und zu Besonderheiten der Strahlenempfindlichkeit, insbesondere der Frau und des Ungeborenen (Prof. Dr. Wolfgang-Ulrich Müller), vorgetragen. Die neuen Erkenntnisse wurden intensiv mit Wissenschaftlern und mit Vertretern von Regierungen verschiedener europäischer Staaten und der Europäischen Union diskutiert. Es wurde deutlich, dass Erkenntnisse auf dem Tisch liegen, auf die der Strahlenschutz in nächster Zeit reagieren muss. Obwohl die bestehenden Strahlenschutzkonzepte nicht grundsätzlich in Frage gestellt werden, muss über Präzisierungen, Anpassungen und Korrekturen nachgedacht werden. Im Zentrum der Debatte standen folgende Aspekte: Krebserkrankungen bei Kernkraftwerksarbeitern. Die Wirkung niedriger Expositionen wird bisher zweifach unterschätzt. Das relative Strahlenrisiko im Bereich der beruflichen Strahlenexposition ist durchaus vergleichbar mit dem bei hohen Expositionen. Bereits bei Beruf-Lebenszeit-Dosen, die mit den derzeit geltenden Grenzwerten verträglich sind, werden erhöhte Krebsraten beobachtet. Eine Senkung der Grenzwerte muss dringend geprüft werden. Lungenkrebs durch radioaktives Radon in Wohnräumen: Das radonbedingten Lungenkrebsrisiko in Wohnungen steigt um ca. 8 % pro 100 Becquerel pro Kubikmeter (Bq/m³). Bereits zwischen 100 und 200 Bq/m³ werden zusätzliche Krebserkrankungen beobachtet. Jährlich sterben in Deutschland etwa 1.800 Menschen an Radon, also alle vier Stunden ein Mensch. Möglicherweise trägt Radon auch zur kindlichen Leukämie bei. Es besteht dingender Handlungsbedarf, die Radonexpositionen zu senken. Zielwert für Neubauten: 100 Bq/m3, Orientierungswert für Sanierungsentscheidungen an Altbauten: 200 Bq/m3. Strahlenempfindlichkeit: Die Strahlenempfindlichkeit des Ungeborenen ist besonders hoch und die Strahlenempfindlichkeit der Frau scheint etwa doppelt so hoch zu sein, wie die des Mannes. Zudem ist die Strahlenempfindlichkeit der Augenlinse höher als bisher angenommen. Die Forschungen sind fortzusetzen und zu intensivieren, eine Senkung des Grenzwerts für die Augenlinse muss dringend geprüft werden. Bundesumweltminister Gabriel sprach sich dafür aus, die Kompetenz im Strahlenschutz zu erhalten und gezielt weiter zu forschen. Mit der Gründung des "Kompetenzverbundes Strahlenforschung" in Deutschland, der eine enge Kooperation zwischen Forschungszentren und Hochschulen gewährleiste und wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs fördere, werde dieses Ziel angestrebt. Kompetenzerhaltung beziehe sich aber auch auf die Vollzugsbehörden, denn der praktische Vollzug werde nur bei ausreichender Personalausstattung und guter Qualifikation Schritt halten können. Besonders begrüßte Gabriel, dass der Gedanke der Nachhaltigkeit des Schutzes der Umwelt nun auch von der ICRP für den Strahlenschutz aufgegriffen werde. Die Umwelt auch unabhängig vom Menschen zu schützen, sei ein wesentliches Element nachhaltiger Umweltpolitik.
Senator Chuck Schumer wants to amend the immigration bill to require you to get a new Social Security card with biometric information embedded in it. Creating this new card would . . .
* Cost $9 billion (before the usual government cost over-runs)
* Require the Social Security administration to hire an additional
60,000 employees
* Require you to spend time getting the new card
* Require you to give the central government sensitive personal information
*In the past, only criminals had to supply the state with things like* fingerprints, DNA, or retinal scans. Now, if Schumer gets his way, law abiding citizens will have to do it too, just for the privilege of earning a living. Meanwhile . . .
The people this card is supposed to control will continue to live underground, work on the black market without papers, or forge documents. The real control will be over you, not them.
So why does Schumer want this Biometric Social Security card on top of the REAL I.D.?
It could be because the REAL I.D. Act is in big trouble and the politicians are looking for an alternative that doesn't require the cooperation of state governments. After all ...
New Hampshire just voted to NOT COOPERATE with the REAL I.D. requirement!
This New Hampshire decision is a big victory for our side, but a real challenge to Big Brother politicians like Schumer. Biometric Social Security cards may soon take the place of the REAL I.D., unless we stop the whole thing dead in its tracks, right now.
This Biometric Social Security card is evidence that the politicians are going to come at us from all angles. If they can't come in through the door (REAL I.D.), then they'll try to come in through a window (Biometric Social Security cards). We need to use the same tactic to defeat this tactic, fighting fire with fire.
We need to attack these Big Brother proposals from all angles. That's why we're devoting the entire week to defeating the immigration bill. We need for you to send a new message about this each day. Every message will ask the Senate to oppose the immigration bill as a whole. But then . . .
In your personal comments we want to ask you to add a specific objection -- a different one for each day. Yesterday, we asked you to tell your Senators that ...
You've heard rumors that earmarks are being offered in return for voting yes on the immigration bill, and you're going to be very ANGRY if that turns out to be true. If you sent this message yesterday, thank you. If you did not, please do so now HERE: http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=73
Today, send another message, and use your personal comments to ask your Senators to oppose Senator Schumer's Biometric Social Security Card amendment. You can do so HERE: http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=73
Tomorrow, we'll be back with another message for you to send on this issue. In the meantime, could we ask you to put in a little extra effort today, and also send a message calling for the repeal of the REAL I.D. Act. Tell them you know New Hampshire has refused to participate, and you think it's time to just repeal REAL I.D. entirely. You can send that message HERE. http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=30
This is important because the more objections the Senate receives to national I.D. card schemes the more likely it is that the REAL I.D. Act will be repealed, that provisions related to it will be stripped from the immigration bill, and that Schumer's Biometric Social Security Card amendment will also be defeated.
PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE WITH SEVERAL OTHER PEOPLE. Almost no one is going to like the idea of a Biometric Social Security card, and we need everyone's help to defeat them.
Finally, the Producers of "9/11 Press for Truth" have given us permission to post the video on our website, where you can watch it, and make your own evaluation of it for free. The video is posted here.
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I believe that the current obesity pandemic in the Western world is not solely caused by bad diet and lack of exercise. If you look at the fact that exposure to EMF radiation causes an imbalance of NO in our body and this in turn disrupts the functioning of the mitochondria in our cells, it is not surprising that some of immediate effects of mitochondropathy, which are - amongst others - obesity and diabetes - are on the rise...
Obesity
I have thought for a long time that the increase in the size of the population in general could be linked to emr. I am constantly amazed when people tell me how heavy they weigh - but don't look it. I believe that there could be swelling of organs, tissue, etc., coupled with fluid retention because of the irritation caused by the pulsed microwaves. I also believe that the lymph system is affected - I find that, what a doctor once described as a "pump" in the calf, just below the knee towards the inside of the leg, is affected when I am exposed for long periods. This results in a swelling of my legs and feet. Goes when I remove myself from the offending environment.
Humanity's epitaph may well read "Much Potential, but Cut and Burnt Themselves to Death". Nearly every environmental crisis can be traced to burning hydrocarbons for energy, and cutting and clearing vegetation for a variety of reasons. Sadly, even as climate change awareness has grown, an understanding of root causes of environmental crises such as over-consumption remains dreadfully lacking. So now, at this late date in the Earth's decline, it is proposed to cut and burn cellulosic ethanol biofuel produced from biomass including forest and agricultural "waste".
Vain attempts to fuel gluttonous, over-populated humanity -- that is well past the Earth's carrying capacity already -- from biomass may well be the final step in the destruction of Gaia's biosphere and our human habitat.
Everyone is green since the Goracle has spoken. But the fact that half-baked half-measures to try to maintain gluttonous western lifestyles remains the focus means really no one (or very few) truly approach individual ecological sustainability. Our techno-capitalist ideological faith assures us that climate change, forest loss, water scarcity and ocean decline all have technological fixes. We see capitalism's "more is good" ecocidal policy in chimerical promises of untested "clean coal"; the myth that "healthy forests" requires industrial management, and false claims that ancient forests should and can be "certifiably sustainably" logged.
Pie-in-the-sky climate techno-fixes divert attention from reducing individual and societal emissions – the only way to save the climate, the Earth and thus ourselves. Appropriate technologies have a role but their primacy in the discussion diverts attention from the immediate need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions now, yesterday, 10 years ago. Fast, really fast. As climate change becomes a huge fucking business, very little attention is paid to whether a particular product, method or way of addressing the problem will truly be effective. Do something, anything (that does not require real sacrifice), and worry later whether it was the right thing or ultimately caused more problems than it solved.
Burning More Biomass NOT the Climate Answer
Using woody cellulose rich biomass for energy to power industrial societies that have already passed their carrying capacities will spell the death knell for forests, humans and all of life. Cellulosic ethanol fuel is produced from cellulose found naturally in cell walls of plants such as wood, straw and grass. Those that propose producing cellulosic ethanol from these materials state there is a large amount of wasted biomass from agricultural and forestry sources that is currently being discarded and can be drawn upon to fuel our automobile culture in particular. We are about to embark upon fueling our society from woody "waste" that may or may not exist.
Cellulosic ethanol is all the rage these days as a business opportunity to address climate change and surging energy demand. President Bush in his 2006 State of the Union address proposed expanding the use of cellulosic ethanol by some 20 billion gallons per year by 2017. Since cellulose cannot be digested by humans, at least production of cellulose does not compete with the production of food. Biofuels from food sources such as corn, sugar, palm oil and other crops were all the rage just a couple years ago and growth continues apace, but significant problems are emerging and it is unlikely food biofuels have a sustainable and equitable future, are green, or will meaningfully address climate change.
It is illustrative to further review these problems with food biofuels which were heavily sold as green and sustainable. Yet now we find food prices are soaring globally while actual biofuel production has limited if any benefit for climate change, sustainability, equity or justice. Paramilitary groups are taking land in Colombia for biofuels, Indonesia's rainforests are being cleared for Europe's fuel releasing more carbon than saved by oil palm biofuel, the price of food around the world such as corn in Mexico is skyrocketing. Who was the genius that thought of burning food for energy? Must not have been one of the billions that are poor, hungry or landless.
Cellulose Biofuels Will Destroy Forests and Land Productivity
First let's smash the fallacious myth that cellulose as a raw material is plentiful, readily available with little negative residual impact. Energy from non-food organic biomass is only going to increase pressure on land and forests. It is the next step in the biological simplification and destruction of the Earth.
As with other capitalist environmental failings; the push for cellulosic ethanol is oblivious to limits to growth including finite amounts of land, and solar energy to power terrestrial biomass growth. Already humanity uses the majority of the Planet's arable land and net primary production. Increased demand for cellulose will certainly mean fewer natural forests, reduced land productivity, and increased land conflict.
Cellulose based biofuels will lead to more ill-advised forest thinning projects to fight fires while using woody cuttings for fuel, and to genetically modified plantations of fast-growing cellulose rich trees. Most agricultural waste is ultimately returned to the land to fertilize and build soil structure, or fed to livestock; while much forest waste is in fact nutrients for the next generation of forests. There will be even more pressure upon ancient primary forests to be converted to agriculture and fiber plantations.
Ethanol produced from cellulose ultimately represents a mining of soil nutrients and of the Earth's productive capacity. More pressure upon the land to produce ever more agricultural and plantation products will come at the cost of further deterioration of the Earth's terrestrial ecosystems, as natural ecosystems that are already failing are asked to give yet more. We can expect a whole range of follow-on problems including genetic pollution, water diminishment, and toxic chemicals associated with industrial plantations and agriculture.
As if enough forests have not been lost from Europe's bastard child, the industrial revolution, which commoditized everything, including forest ecosystems; and globally from waves of ecological imperialism as Europeans brought their capitalism, religion, cocks and forest destruction to the Americas and the world. The Earth's forests and land do not have the capacity to power human society while maintaining ecosystem services and species, and land productivity. Cellulose biofuels will kill.
Human Society's Downsizing: Starts with Less Cutting and Burning
Global environmental sustainability depends critically upon reducing the extent and scale of human impact upon natural ecosystems. All remaining primary vegetation must be protected, and large scale restoration of ecological systems where they historically occurred commenced. Humanity's overall population; as well as per capita consumption, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions must be dramatically downsized immediately. Any solutions that propose more biomass cutting and perpetuates burning for energy production exacerbates rather than solves the Earth's ecological crises.
Humanity simply can not maintain excessive energy dependent lifestyles through yet another ill-considered and environmentally damaging energy source -- cellulosic ethanol biofuels -- that further draw upon the biosphere and primary production of biomass. It will not work and will doom the Earth, human habitat and all of Gaia's creatures. Who is going to rise up and fight off the flim-flam, charlatans, con artists selling us biofuels, geoengineering, carbon offsets and more consumption and growth as the keys to a climate change solution?
The only solution to global heating and the myriad of other global ecological emergencies is to immediately begin deintensifying human impacts upon the biosphere and her natural ecosystem patterns and processes. In terms of climate, this requires targets for mandatory national emission cuts while meeting our energy, food and other needs for a reduced human population from permaculture systems and renewable, non- polluting and non-destructive energy sources that are truly ecologically sustainable. There are no easy solutions to save the Earth; they all require sacrifice, as well as changed lifestyles and societies.
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
