Nach der Verabschiedung des Gesetzes zur Telekommunikationsüberwachung im Bundestag droht seitens der Gegner eine Massenklage vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht. Der Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung kündigte am 9. November an, die mit rund 7000 Teilnehmern die bisher "größte Verfassungsbeschwerde" einzureichen, wenn das Gesetz im Bundesgesetzblatt veröffentlicht wird.
Friedensforscher um Professor Mohssen Massarrat von der Universität Osnabrück appellieren an die Bundesregierung, nicht länger zum drohenden Krieg der USA gegen den Iran zu schweigen. "Wir sind sehr besorgt, dass die täglichen Kriegsdrohungen aus dem unmittelbaren Umfeld des US-Präsidenten in einen Krieg münden könnten", heißt es in einer Resolution, die auf einem Symposium in Osnabrück am 2. November verabschiedet wurde. "Die Indizien für unsere Befürchtungen sind erdrückend." Präsident Bush spreche offen davon, einen Dritten Weltkrieg verhindern zu wollen.
Salt Lake City Mayor Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson says: "Today, as we come together once again in this great city, we raise our voices in unison to say to President Bush, to Vice President Cheney, to other members of the Bush administration (past and present), to a majority of Congress, including Utah’s entire congressional delegation, and to much of the mainstream media: 'You have failed us miserably and we won’t take it any more.'"
Joshua Holland and Raed Jarrar, from AlterNet, report: "The United Nations Security Council, with support from the British and American delegations, is poised to cut the Iraqi parliament out of one of the most significant decisions the young government will make: when foreign troops will depart."
Jason Leopold, Maya Schenwar and Matt Renner, reporting for Truthout, write: "A year after Democrats took control of both houses of Congress, due in large part to the public's frustration with the occupation of Iraq, Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a new plan Thursday that ties additional war funding to the withdrawal of US troops from the region."
Paul Krugman writes for The New York Times, "The United States spends far more on health care per person than any other nation. Yet we have lower life expectancy than most other rich countries. Furthermore, every other advanced country provides all its citizens with health insurance; only in America is a large fraction of the population uninsured or underinsured."
William Glaberson, of The New York Times, reports, "The administration's problem-plagued military commission system started up here [in Guantanamo Bay] again Thursday, but it began with contentious new claims that the war crimes cases are unfairly stacked against detainees. Military defense lawyers said that on the eve of the hearing, military prosecutors told them for the first time of a government witness who might be able to help a detainee, Omar Ahmed Khadr, counter the war crimes charges on which he was arraigned Thursday."
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 3:58 PM
Subject: Lakota Land Victory
OWE AKU & BLACK HILLS SIOUX NATION TREATY COUNCIL defeat URANIUM CORPORATION
(From Owe Aku International Human Rights and Justice Program, New York City)
As explained in the following article, Owe Aku, a grass roots Lakota organization, just utilized the principle of free, prior and informed consent as set forth in the recently passed United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. Plaintiffs, including Owe Aku and the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, argued that a third-party corporation could not come to the reservation for the purpose of uranium exploration without following established procedure and without providing adequate information thereby violating the principle of “free, prior and informed consent” as set forth in the Declaration on Indigenous rights. Does this mean that the Declaration may now be used as defacto precedence in Oglala Lakota tribal court?
Two weeks ago, members of Owe Aku’s leadership team were in New York presenting a documentary film called Standing Silent Nation on their struggle to develop industrial hemp on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota reservation. The New York trip was right in the middle of the uranium court case. Nonetheless they took the time to bring their efforts on a different issue to the people of New York . Production of industrial hemp would have been a solution to the overwhelming poverty and environmental degradation created by most industries in the region. So of course, the federal government put a stop to that. The Monday after the New York trip, Owe Aku was back on Lakota treaty territory taking on a mining company and, on Tuesday, WINNING.
Owe Aku has had a long term, multi-phases action and education campaign in place to stop uranium mining in and around Lakota treaty territory for the past several years. This has included extensive research on the process of uranium mining, the environmental and health effects, the direct effects on Pine Ridge and the possibility for oppositional coalitions. Earlier this year though a uranium mining company calling itself (for no apparent reason) Native American Energy Group (“NAEG”) descended on Pine Ridge and, through deceit and less than ethical maneuvering, started taking steps to expand uranium mining within reservation borders.
Owe Aku took immediate action, going door-to-door on the reservation educating the people about uranium mining, and eventually filing an action in tribal court. Unlike NAEG, Owe Aku was not represented by attorneys but, as is the case with all our work, was represented by our own members. In this case, our Executive Director Debra White Plume, often found herself examining witnesses and testifying. Given the Court’s ruling, an excellent job was done using tribal and treaty law, as well as some international standards.
The mission of Owe Aku is to preserve, restore and revive traditional Lakota values. Owe Aku’s efforts are focused at the most basic grassroots level in order to create real change – both in our people’s lives and in the world around us. Throughout our work, our goal is to find positive solutions to economies and societies based solely on consumption and exploitation of people and resources.
JUDGE ISSUES RULING…N.A.E.G. EXCLUDED FROM PINE RIDGE
Pine Ridge , SD … On October 29, OST Chief Judge Lisa Adams issued an exclusion order to remove the Native American Energy Group (N.A.E.G.) from the Pine Ridge reservation, declaring that the company has been trespassing on tribal lands. The finding gave NAEG 30 days to vacate the reservation.
The Judge also noted that N.A.E.G. ignored a tribal resolution that accepted the OST Environmental Technical Team’s recommendation that the Tribe not enter into any working relationship with N.A.E.G. Further, the order stated that OST Member, Eileen Janis, failed to inform N.A.E.G. about OST ordinances prohibiting exploration and mining for uranium.
Plaintiffs in the case, Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council (Oglala Delegation) and Owe Aku, were pleased with the exclusion order. “Judge Adams showed great respect for the Treaty Council during this hearing. However, we must update the language in our outdated Tribal Law and Order Code to combat new mining and exploration techniques. N.A.E.G. is gone, but they could try and return in another form and there are many other companies out there that will try to bribe their way onto our homeland,” stated Floyd Hand, Treaty Council delegate.
N.A.E.G., a New York-based oil/gas/mining company, approached OST tribal officials in early 2007 with a written proposal to embark on a multi-phase plan to mine uranium on the reservation. Once this proposal was disclosed to the public, tribal members expressed outrage that a mining company had been on the reservation for so many months without following protocol. The Treaty Council, along with Owe Aku, a non-profit environmental activism group, took action and filed a motion in early September, to exclude the company from Pine Ridge.
“The Pine Ridge Reservation and 1868 Ft Laramie Treaty Territory has been declared a nuclear free zone by both the Tribal Government and the Treaty Council. The court action brought by Owe Aku and the Treaty Council to stop this company from desecrating our sacred Mother Earth has been decided in our favor. It has been a challenging experience to fight an energy company, but worth the effort to protect our Treaty Territory . Companies who come to our land need to come with full disclosure of their intentions to do business with our people, our leaders need to enforce such a policy so we are not faced with a similar situation in the future,” said Debra White Plume of Owe Aku.
This past May, in an unheralded and almost unnoticed move, the Energy Department signaled a fundamental, near epochal shift in US and indeed world history: we are nearing the end of the Petroleum Age and have entered the Age of Insufficiency. The department stopped talking about ‘oil’ in its projections of future petroleum availability and began speaking of ‘liquids.’ The global output of ‘liquids,’ the department indicated, would rise from 84 million barrels of oil equivalent (mboe) per day in 2005 to a projected 117.7 mboe in 2030 — barely enough to satisfy anticipated world demand of 117.6 mboe. Aside from suggesting the degree to which oil companies have ceased being mere suppliers of petroleum and are now purveyors of a wide variety of liquid products — including synthetic fuels derived from natural gas, corn, coal and other substances — this change hints at something more fundamental: we have entered a new era of intensified energy competition and growing reliance on the use of force to protect overseas sources of petroleum...
It was 53-40 for Mukasey. 6 Democrats jumped ship. I won’t blame each and every member of the party (and I invite you to re-read that as many times as you deem necessary), but as far as I can tell a filibuster was possible. 40 Democrats voted against Mukasey, and one of the 7 not voting was The Dodd. (Respect The Dodd.) If it had gone to a filibuster, the Dodd could have been brought in to make it 41 votes. (The Dodd abides.) So a filibuster was possible. The lack of a filibuster suggests that there are some serious institutional/leadership issues here...
Bill Moyers interviews best-selling historian Thomas Cahill in a far-ranging interview that takes viewers from the Coliseum in Rome to death row in Texas and examines what our attitudes toward cruelty can tell us about who we are as Americans.
John Dunbar for The Associated Press: "For the second time in four years, the government is rewriting media ownership rules, a process that probably will allow big companies to get even bigger."
Christopher Doering for Reuters: "Congress on Thursday overturned President George W. Bush's veto last week of a popular water projects bill, marking the first time lawmakers have mustered enough votes to override the president."
Bush Finally Tops Nixon -- In Unpopularity -- As Call for Iraq Pullout Hits New Peak
For almost two years, President Bush has been threatening to unseat Richard M. Nixon as the most unpopular president in the history of the Gallup poll, and it finally happened this week.
The number of homes entering some stage of foreclosure jumped almost 100% in the third quarter from the same time a year ago and 30% from last quarter.
The U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday publicly held U.S. debt breached $9 trillion this week for the first time ever, just five weeks after Congress had raised the statutory borrowing limit.
Federal Liabilities Now Equal $175,000 for Every American
Deficit spending and promised benefits for federal entitlement programs have put every man, woman, and child in the United States on the hook for $175,000, says a new report by David Walker, comptroller general of the United States.
Think the estimated subprime debt load carried by the big international banks is big, at $1 trillion? How about this: Americans now owe nearly as much - a record $915 billion - on their credit cards alone.
The next president will have to deal with yet another crippling legacy of George W. Bush: the economy. A Nobel laureate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, sees a generation-long struggle to recoup.
There would be "severe" consequences in many forms if the United States bombs Iran, Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Thursday.
Paying tribes to keep the peace is nothing new. It was one of Mr. Hussein's tools in his selective patronage system designed to weaken and control all institutions outside his Baath party. The British also tried it when they ruled Iraq last century.
House Democrats said Thursday they would send President Bush $50 billion for combat operations on the condition that he begin withdrawing troops from Iraq.
America is finished, washed up, kaput. Foreign investors and central banks around the world have lost confidence in US markets and are headed for the exits. The dollar is sinking, the country is insolvent, and its leaders are barking mad.
Among the possible targets, in addition to nuclear installations like the centrifuge plant at Natanz: Iran's ballistic missile sites, Republican Guard bases, and naval warfare assets that Tehran could use in a retaliatory closure of the Straits of Hormuz, a vital artery for the flow of Gulf oil.
Israel still fails to understand that strongarm tactics won't win it secrurity
Israel provided yet another example on Thursday of the double standards by which it feels entitled to operate on the world stage. Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz demanded that the international community replace Mohamed ElBaradei as the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, saying that he has not done enough to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Peter Grier, reporting for The Christian Science Monitor, writes: "Much of the opposition to retired federal judge Michael Mukasey's nomination to be the next attorney general has centered on his refusal to call the harsh interrogation technique of waterboarding torture. But some senators, both Republicans and Democrats, are concerned about another aspect of Mr. Mukasey's view of the law: his embrace of expanded wartime powers for the president."
Michael M. Grynbaum and Peter S. Goodman, reporting for The New York Times, write: "Stock markets plummeted and the dollar sank to a record low against the euro today as investors worldwide grew skittish over rising oil prices and the prospect of a substantial economic slowdown in the United States."
Renee Schoof, reporting for McClatchy Newspapers, writes: "The practice of waterboarding would be outlawed specifically, along with other extreme interrogation techniques, under legislation pushed by two Democratic senators."
Manu Raju and Mike Soraghan, reporting for The Hill, write: "Four powerful lawmakers are working on a new Iraq plan for the Democratic Congress in the hope it will reignite the war debate as soon as this week."
Bundesinnenminister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) hält die derzeitigen Möglichkeiten der Ermittlungsbehörden zur akustischen Wohnraumüberwachung für völlig unzureichend. Inzwischen sei dieses Fahndungsinstrument "faktisch nicht mehr im Einsatz", obwohl es im Grundgesetz abgesichert sei, behauptete der Minister am 7. November vor der Justizpressekonferenz in Karlsruhe. Verantwortlich dafür sei die "öffentliche Debatte" nach dem Urteil des Bundesverfassungsgerichts zum "Großen Lauschangriff" vom März 2004.
BBC News: "Land clearances in Indonesia to meet the growing global demand for palm oil pose a serious threat to the environment, a report has warned. Forests are being burned and peat wetlands drained for plantations, causing huge releases of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Greenpeace said."
The macho super patriots who support the Bush regime still haven’t caught on that US superpower status rests on the dollar being the reserve currency, not on a military unable to occupy Baghdad. If the dollar were not the world currency, the US would have to earn enough foreign currencies to pay for its 737 oversees bases, an impossibility considering America’s $800 billion trade deficit. When the dollar ceases to be the reserve currency, foreigners will cease to finance the US trade and budget deficits, and the American Empire along with its wars will disappear overnight...
I’ve written about how the lunatic fringe of the GOP has taken over the party. Well, the takeover is so complete that those looking to lead the party have come to the conclusion that the only way they can win is to compete for the 24 percent of the country that does not think we are headed over the edge of a cliff. They are all vying to be voted head wacko of the lunatic fringe. Running on a platform of heightened Bushism, they seem to think the reason three-quarters of the country has turned against the president is because he just wasn’t extreme enough. So the problems of the GOP will only intensify when Bush packs his bags...
We are regularly told by our government that we and our government are virtually the same thing … that someone who attacks or criticizes our government is attacking our people and our ‘way of life.’ Our politicians love to talk about WE, and US, attempting to instill the idea that every action they take is in our national interest and that we, the people, must stand behind those actions if we are to survive as a nation. They would have us believe that WE and our government are synonymous, and that to believe otherwise is to be disloyal to our nation. Those are lies, and we must REJECT those lies... (originally published 2005; posted 11/05/07)
Federal law defines torture as an act ’specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering.’ It defines ’severe mental pain or suffering’ as ‘the prolonged mental harm’ caused by, among other things, ‘the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering’ or ‘the threat of imminent death.’ Is there any way that tying someone down, tipping him backward, covering his face with cloth or plastic, and pouring water over him to produce the sensations of drowning would not qualify as torture?
On Oct. 4, the New York Times blew another ten-foot hole in the Bush administration’s torture cover-up. The Times revealed that the Justice Department produced a secret legal opinion in early 2005 permitting CIA interrogators to use ‘combined effects’ on detainees, including head slapping, waterboarding, frigid temperatures, manacling for many hours in stress positions, and blasting with loud music to assure sleep deprivation. The Times labeled the memo as an ‘expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.’ Within hours of the paper hitting the streets, President Bush issued the same moth-eaten denial he has used many times since Abu Ghraib: ‘This government does not torture people. You know, we stick to U.S. law and our international obligations.’ But it is the ‘law’ as contorted by administration lawyers who rubberstamp whatever methods Bush or Cheney demand. The same lawyers who tell Bush he has ‘inherent authority’ to wiretap Americans’ phone calls also tell him he has authority to redefine torture, regardless of the English-language precedents dating back to Chaucer...
Federal prosecutors plan to ask a grand jury Thursday to indict Rudy Giuliani’s ex-police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, on a variety of corruption and tax fraud charges. If the grand jury votes today to indict, the charges would be unsealed tomorrow. Kerik has made arrangements to surrender, rather than be arrested by U.S. marshals, the sources say. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia plans to seek an indictment charging Kerik tried to influence a probe of allegedly mob-linked contractor, Interstate Industrial Corp., according to two sources familiar with the matter. Garcia will also ask a grand jury sitting in White Plains to charge Kerik with providing false information on his application when President Bush nominated him — on Giuliani’s recommendation — to be homeland security czar, the sources say...
Truthout contributor Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III says that "In today's political lexicon, the term family values has been hijacked by the Christian political right as a way to define an ambiguous set of moral beliefs and standards that they use to further a morally defenseless political agenda. In the early 1980's, individuals such as Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson, through The Christian Coalition, began to target the Republican Party as the vehicle through which they could promote their conservative religious agenda and inject that religious agenda into mainstream American politics. They successfully combined their moral conservatism with political conservatism, resulting in a politics that is neither morally nor ethically based."
Margaret Kimberley writes for Black Agenda Report: "Now Giuliani is running for the Republican presidential nomination and he is the very worst of a bad lot. He unabashedly supports the occupation of Iraq and a military attack on Iran. He doesn't think simulating drowning via water boarding is torture and agrees wholeheartedly with the Bush destruction of civil liberties. If a potential Giuliani presidency in any way resembles a Giuliani mayoralty then the country would be in for a truly awful time."
Jessica Holzer reports for The Hill, "Lobbyists for the private equity and hedge fund industries have targeted vulnerable freshmen who may need cash for tough reelection battles in order to stave off a tax hike on fund managers’ carried interest."
Erik Eckholm reports for The New York Times, "More than 400 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have turned up homeless, and the Veterans Affairs Department and aid groups say they are bracing for a new surge in homeless veterans in the years ahead."
The dangers behind Blackwater's rise to power have not been told among the hours of coverage by the mainstream media, so Truthout's Geoff Millard sat down with Jeremy Scahill, author of a new book on the mercenary firm. In this interview, Scahill delves deep into the real dangers of a private mercenary army as powerful as Blackwater.
A local Green Party councillor has called on the county council to make a concerted effort to elevate mobile phone masts as far away from built up areas as possible.
Cllr Alan Price questioned government assurances that so far there was no evidence of adverse short or long-term health effects from exposure to the radio-frequency signals from mobile phone activity.
„Nach ihrem Coup mit der Einführung von Studiengebühren gelungen, ausgedacht und durchgesetzt vom „Zentrum für Hochschulentwicklung (CHE)" – einer Bertelsmann-Stiftungs-Organisation im Zusammenwirken mit der Deutschen Hochschulrektorenkonferenz, liegen die nächsten Pläne für Bildungsgebühren für Sekundarstufe II und I bei der Bertelsmann-Stiftung bereits in der Schublade…“ Artikel von Erich Katterfeld in NRhZ-Online - Neue Rheinische Zeitung, Online-Flyer vom 07. November 2007 http://www.nrhz.de/flyer/beitrag.php?id=11680
Der Intendant des Bochumer Schauspielhauses, Elmar Goerden, hat für den 11. November zu einer Lesung mit Norbert Lammert und Jürgen Flimm unter dem Titel “‘S IST LEIDER KRIEG” eingeladen. Dies ist eine Wiederholung einer Aufführung vom 7. Oktober in Duisburg im Rahmen der Ruhrtriennale. In Bochum regt sich dagegen starker Widerstand und auch der ehemalige Intendant des Bochumer Schauspielhauses, Frank-Patrick Steckel, schrieb dazu in einem Offenen Brief: „meine langjährige Verbundenheit mit dem Schauspielhaus Bochum ist es, die mich zu der Bitte an Sie bewegt, den Herren Norbert Lammert (CDU) und Jürgen Flimm (SPD) den Auftritt auf einer der Bühnen Ihres Theaters zu verwehren. Die Bühnen eines Schauspielhauses sind der Verstellungskunst der Schauspieler vorbehalten - für die Heuchelei von Berufspolitikern und Kunstfunktionären ist da kein Platz. Und was kann es anderes sein als Heuchelei, wenn Angehörige der kriegstreibenden Bundestagsparteien Texte gegen den Krieg lesen? Der schöne Trug des Schauspiels wird erniedrigt, wenn neben ihm der hässliche Trug machtpolitischer Interessen Fuß fasst…“
The growth in human population and rising consumption have exceeded the planet's ability to support us, argues John Feeney. In this week's Green Room, he says it is time to ring the alarm bells and take radical action in order to avert unspeakable consequences.
The dollar fell the most since September against the currencies of its six biggest trading partners after Chinese officials signaled plans to diversify the nation's $1.43 trillion of foreign exchange reserves.
The pound climbed to $2.10 for the first time since 1981 this morning, boosted by speculation that China was preparing to shift its foreign reserves out of dollars.
The dollar has fallen beyond $1.47 per euro, according to Reuters data, bringing its losses this year to around 10 percent. It also set record lows against a basket of six major currencies, on track for its biggest one-day fall since November 2006.
Oil stormed towards $99 a barrel on Wednesday, closing in on a triple-digit all-time high, driven by a slumping U.S. dollar and concern about a fuel supply crunch heading into the peak demand winter season.
In a key victory in the war against torture, today a federal court ruled that the lawsuit against a private military contractor in Iraq should be heard by a jury of Americans.
As far back as the U.S. occupation of the Philippines after the 1898 Spanish-American War, U.S. soldiers were court-martialed for using the "water cure".
Michael Mukasey ultimately owed his approval by the Committee to the two Democrats who broke with their party to support him: Chuck Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California.
The U.S. Navy launched a series of exercises in the Gulf to enhance skills required in any war with Iran which, according to British press reports, could occur in early 2008.
The Neoconservative Agenda to Sacrifice the Fifth Fleet
The New Pearl Harbor
By Michael E. Salla, M.A., Ph.D.
Neoconservatives within the Bush administration are aggressively promoting a range of military actions against Iran that will culminate in Iran attacking the US Navy's
Fifth Fleet with sophisticated cruise anti-ship missiles. Iran has sufficient quantities of cruise missiles to destroy much or all of the Fifth Fleet which is within range of Iran's mobile missile launchers strategically located along its mountainous terrain overlooking the Persian Gulf.
Blix said that by staying in Iraq, the US military would also be able to keep a close eye on neighbouring Iran -- a country he said was treated differently to another state with nuclear ambitions, North Korea.
First we stop the killing, and then we restore the Constitution. These are our two main priorities. And that's why I'm voting for Ron Paul. He is the only candidate (with a chance to win) who's promising to do either. And he'll keep his word. That makes him the only truly American candidate running for president.
It's no secret that the dollar is on a downward spiral. Its value is dropping, and the Fed isn't doing a whole lot to change that. As a result, a number of countries are considering a shift away from the dollar to preserve their assets. These are seven of the countries currently considering a move from the dollar, and how they'll have an effect on its value and the US economy.
If a U.S. citizen, soldier or official were waterboarded somewhere overseas, would Americans hesitate for a moment to call it torture? A filibuster might give the Mukasey supporters like Schumer and Feinstein pause to reconsider.
TONY BLAIR privately conceded two weeks before the Iraq war that Saddam Hussein did not have any usable weapons of mass destruction, Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary, reveals today.
Where does that big bling go? Dividend checks from selling out American jobs to commie counties like China. Corporate America no longer represents America, they have dumped on the very people who built them. But, as the middle class is now getting a glimpse of poverty staring them in the face if things don't turn around, they're waking up to the reality that these greedy corporations care nothing about US, only about their hundred million dollar CEO packages. Remember what I said in an earlier column: Hungry bellies make for angry mobs.....
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
