World-News

Michael Isikoff reports for Newsweek: "After John McCain nailed down the Republican nomination in March, his campaign began wrestling with a sensitive personnel issue: who would manage this summer's GOP convention in St. Paul, Minnesota? The campaign recently tapped Doug Goodyear for the job, a veteran operative and Arizonan who was chosen for his 'management experience and expertise,' according to McCain press secretary Jill Hazelbaker. But some allies worry that Goodyear's selection could fuel perceptions that McCain - who has portrayed himself as a crusader against special interests - is surrounded by lobbyists. Goodyear is CEO of DCI Group, a consulting firm that earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients. Potentially more problematic: the firm was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Burma's military junta, which had been strongly condemned by the State Department for its human-rights record and remains in power today." And, The New York Times' Michael Cooper reports on Goodyear's Saturday resignation: "The executive, Doug Goodyear, said in a statement that he was stepping down as the coordinator of the convention, which will be held September 1-4 in Minneapolis-St. Paul, 'so as not to become a distraction in this campaign.'"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051108Y.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McCain
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=lobbyists
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Exxon
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+Isikoff

http://tinyurl.com/5l6vsd



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

In TomDispatch.com, Bill McKibben writes: "Even for Americans, constitutionally convinced that there will always be a second act, and a third, and a do-over after that, and, if necessary, a little public repentance and forgiveness and a Brand New Start - even for us, the world looks a little Terminal right now."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051108H.shtml

--------

CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS TODAY Civilization's

Last Chance: Major Greenhouse Gas Emission Cuts (and Even Removals) Needed Immediately

Climate Ark a project of Ecological Internet, Inc. http://www.climateark.org/ -- Climate Change Portal

May 11, 2008 OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet

Bill McKibben writes in "Civilization's last chance" (below) the best summing up of the known threats facing humanity now from climate change if major emission cuts are not pursued immediately. His latest campaign efforts highlight the number 350, which he calls "the most important number on Earth" because of scientific understanding that if carbon emissions are not stabilized at 350 ppm, it will not be possible "to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed."

It has been noted here that at 383 ppm we are already well past this threshold, and thus achieving 350 ppm will require gargantuan efforts if we are to survive much less prosper
( http://www.climateark.org/blog/2007/12/have_we_gone_to_far_re_dangero.asp ). The McKibben piece is a clarion call that long predicted limits to growth have arrived and the fate of civilization depends upon urgent massive emission cuts now, tomorrow, next year and certainly for the years and decades well before 2050 as is being proposed. g.b.

To comment: http://www.climateark.org/blog/2008/05/major_ghg_emission_cuts_needed.asp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bill+McKibben
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Glen+Barry

According to Truthout contributor Ann Wright, "The presence of the US military, 63 years after World War II, is a huge source of anger for the citizens of Japan, Korea, Germany and Italy. On the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the US military uses an artillery firing range known as Yausubetsu. The range is small in comparison to ranges in the United States and Germany - only 30 kilometers by 10 kilometers - but the source of irritation to Japanese farmers whose land was taken for the range and for those who live near the range is large. The peaceful rolling hills and valleys of the area are the home of the dairy industry of Hokkaido. The Japanese have used a cartoon of an angry dairy cow with boxing gloves as their symbol of protest of the US military's use of the range."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051108F.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=military+bases
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ann+Wright

Jennifer C. Kerr of The Associated Press writes: "Increasing numbers of US troops have left the military with damaged bodies and minds, an ever-larger pool of disabled veterans that will cost the nation billions for decades to come - even as the total population of America's vets has begun to shrink."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051108D.shtml



Homes for Our Troops Building 32 Houses for Disabled Veterans

Mary Susan Littlepage, Truthout: "Since Homes for Our Troops was founded in 2004, the organization has built 54 homes for disabled veterans, and 32 homes currently are in various stages of construction around the country."

http://www.truthout.org/homes-our-troops-building-32-homes-disabled-veterans57635



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=veterans
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=disable+veteran
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mary+Susan+Littlepage

In The Politico, Jim VandeHei and David Paul Kuhn say, "In case you've been too consumed by the Democratic race to notice, Republicans are getting crushed in historic ways both at the polls and in the polls."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051108B.shtml



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

The New York Times's Adam Nagourney and Jeff Zeleny write: "Senators John McCain and Barack Obama are already drawing up strategies for taking each other on in the general election, focusing on the same groups - including independent voters and Latinos - and about a dozen states where they think the contest is likely to be decided this fall, campaign aides said."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051108A.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McCain
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Adam+Nagourney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jeff+Zeleny

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/09/8826/


Informant: Dorothee Krien



http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tina+Susman

Forrest Hylton: The US is promoting secessionist movements to break up countries it cannot control.

http://tinyurl.com/672dyb

http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0508-18.htm



Judge May Make CIA Torture Memo Public

ACLU Lawsuit Prompted A Federal Judge To Examine The Controversial Document.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/09/8824/


Informant: Dorothee Krien



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Lieberman
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=homegrown+terrorism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=ACLU

http://freepagenews.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/verichip-secrets/



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

http://freepagenews.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/white-house-will-use-laser-weapons-on-iran/

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=9/11

Thomas Powers writes in The New York Review of Books: "There is a working assumption among the American people that a new president enters the White House free of responsibility for the errors of the past, free to set a new course in any program or policy, and therefore free - at the very least in constitutional theory, and perhaps even really and truly free - to call off a war begun by a predecessor. No one would expect something so dramatic on the first day of a new administration but it remains a fact that the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces, and the power that allowed one president to invade Iraq would allow another to bring the troops home."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051108Z.shtml

by Professor Steven Yates

By the end of last year, seven states had passed laws prohibiting implementation of REAL ID in their state: Maine, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Washington, New Hampshire, and Georgia. That number became eight on April 9 of this year when Idaho joined up. Ten states had laws that were passed in one house but not the other. Eight more states had introduced such laws. Twelve had passed nonbinding resolutions denouncing REAL ID. That’s a 38-state rebellion!.......

http://www.newswithviews.com/Yates/steven36.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Homeland+Security
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/Yates

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/11/fishing.food


Informant: Teresa Binstock

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/5769046.html


Informant: bigraccoon



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mad+cow+disease

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered a review of the handling of the remains of US war dead and apologized after learning that some were cremated in a commercial facility that also cremates pets, the Pentagon said.

http://tinyurl.com/5q3gvn


From Information Clearing House

"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Carter said. "We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime to which they are accused."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/10/carter.torture/


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Carter
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Geneva+Conventions
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Abu+Ghraib
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo

There were calls today for the US either to show evidence of "high level Iranian government involvement in the supply of weapons to militias in Iraq" or to retract their allegations.

http://www.payvand.com/news/08/may/1091.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/

By Bill Fletcher, Jr.

US history has a basic narrative: The settlers were heroes; the indigenous people were either heathens or naive primitives, but in either case they were in the way of progress. Slavery was an unfortunate episode that was cleaned up by the Civil War, though it has never been quite clear that the former slaves were ever meant to rule themselves, let alone anyone else.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19898.htm



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

By Joel S. Hirschhorn

If you feel compelled to vote, then vote for Ralph Nader. - If honesty, integrity, intellectuality, independence, courageous policy positions and true political reforms matter to you, then Nader merits your support. This man of principles deserves your principled vote.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19902.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ralph+Nader
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Hillary
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joel+S.+Hirschhorn

Editorial

Companies enriched by taxpayers in the war boom should not be able to compound their profits by not paying their fair share of taxes. Congress must do far more to bring them to a full accounting.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19905.htm



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

By Vincent Bugliosi

There is direct evidence that President George W. Bush did not honorably lead this nation, but deliberately misled it into a war he wanted. Bush and his administration knowingly lied to Congress and to the American public - lies that have cost the lives of more than 4,000 young American soldiers and close to $1 trillion.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19903.htm

--------

Prosecuting Bush
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2153



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

By Ramzy Baroud

If Al-Qaeda indeed exists on such a large and influential scale in so many countries, isn't it time to question the logic used by the Bush administration's "war on terror" that was meant to weaken and destroy Al- Qaeda in the first place?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19900.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ramzy+Baroud

By M K Bhadrakumar

Rarely does a top diplomat speak so openly from a public forum as Negroponte did on the centrality of Pakistan for the US's national security.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19895.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pakistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Negroponte
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bhadrakumar

The aviation industry's failure to curb its soaring carbon emissions could lead to the "worst case scenario" for climate change, as envisaged by the United
Nations.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741683587ms99



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=carbon+emissions

Zu einem Stolperstein für den Schutz des Klimas kann die von den Energiekonzernen ins Spiel gebrachte Abscheidung und Speicherung von Kohlendioxid (CO2) aus Kohlekraftwerken werden.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741683581ms99



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Energiekonzern
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kohlekraftwerk

Derzeit verzeichnen die badischen Imker trotz schönsten Wetters massive Schwächungen, ja Zusammenbrüche ihrer Bienenvölker entlang der Rheinschiene.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741683573ms99



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

Vor allem Insekten sind durch Klimawandel bedroht. http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741683571ms99

Matthew Simmons war einer der ersten Öl-Experten, der schon 2006 einen Ölpreis von 200 Dollar pro Barrel vorausgesagt hatte.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741683565ms99



Bald fünf Euro für einen Liter Benzin?

Vor 10 Jahren kostete ein Fass Öl 15 Euro, vor einem halben Jahr schon 80, jetzt 120 und in dieser Woche hat die iranische Regierung angekündigt, dass „in naher Zukunft“ mit 200 Euro zu rechnen sei. Kostet der Liter Benzin bald fünf Euro?

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741683553ms99

Neue Dienstwagen-Erhebung der Deutschen Umwelthilfe zeigt ernüchterndes Ergebnis: Die meisten Minister lässt die Treibhausdebatte kalt.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741683558ms99

http://www.nationalexpositor.com/News/1218.html


Informant: Dorothee Krien



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

http://tinyurl.com/6jra37



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=FDA
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Aspartame

James Risen reports for The New York Times: "Last fall, Blackwater Worldwide was in deep peril. Guards for the security company were involved in a shooting in September that left at least 17 Iraqis dead at a Baghdad intersection. Outrage over the killings prompted the Iraqi government to demand Blackwater's ouster from the country, and led to a criminal investigation by the FBI, a series of internal investigations by the State Department and the Pentagon, and high-profile Congressional hearings. But after an intense public and private lobbying campaign, Blackwater appears to be back to business as usual."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051008Y.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=contractors
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Risen

Reuters reports that "A US judge ordered the Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday to submit to the court a 2002 memo said to specify harsh interrogation methods used on suspected terrorists held abroad."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051008A.shtml



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

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/30/europe/greece.php


Informant: Dorothee Krien

http://www.meta-info.de/?lid=31242



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

Two articles that appeared in the Staten Island Advance, a local newspaper in New York City.

City removes 3 antennas at Totten Intermediate
by Staten Island Advance
Friday May 02, 2008, 8:00 PM
(Printed May 2, 2008- Pg1)

Who says you can't fight City Hall? Amid concerns about radiation, the city's Department of Information, Technology and Telecommunications has taken down "temporarily" three radio antennas it placed atop Totten Intermediate School in Tottenville.

The 14-foot antennas were erected over last summer as part of the $75 million Citywide Radio Network designed to improve communication between firefighters and EMS and dispatchers.

"We certainly want to make it clear that we're not walking away from the school site -- we're temporarily taking down the antennas," said Vincent Grippo, chief of staff for the department. "This is absolutely vital; firefighters not being able to communicate poses an extreme danger to the community." Some parents were outraged upon learning that the city had built -- without much public notification -- three antennas on top of a roof that covers the heads of the 1,178 students enrolled there.

"Our kids are literally separated by a roof from a huge antenna, and no one told us anything about it," said Ed Armstrong, whose 12-year-old daughter attends the school. "Show me one study that says it's safe -- they can't, because one hasn't been done."

The city says that the radiation from the antennas doesn't even approach thresholds set by the Federal Communications Commission, and that to be in potential danger one would have to be standing right next to the array. The American Cancer Society says the energy released is too low to cause cancer, and in urban environments is often lower than that from other sources, like broadcast television and radio signals.

Armstrong and others point to the BioInitiative Report, which casts doubt that federally accepted limits for cell phone and wireless tower radiation levels are safe, and have been linked to childhood leukemia and brain tumors. The antennas on top of Totten Intermediate were never turned on.

The Citywide Radio Network comprises 40 antennas throughout the five boroughs designed to boost communications between first responders.

Once in place, the network should let the FDNY speak directly to other agencies, like the Office of Emergency Management, and will let individuals talk directly to dispatchers using hand-held radios. The DoITT says it hopes to have the system working by June.

The company contracted to construct the network, Motorola, had found that the only building tall enough in the area to be of any use was the school, but will go back and look for alternative sites, the department said.

The department experienced similar opposition when it was revealed it planned to build a wireless data antenna, part of a different, $500 million NYCWiN network, on top of PS 30 in Westerleigh.

The DoITT has put off construction and scheduled meetings with school administrators and the public for later this month.-- Contributed by Phil Helsel



City pulls plans to put wireless antenna on Staten Island school

by Staten Island Advance
Tuesday May 06, 2008, 5:07 PM
(Printed May 7, 2008 Pg A3)

In the face of mounting opposition from worried parents, the city has backed off plans to build a wireless communication antenna on top of a primary school in Staten Island's Westerleigh neighborhood.

The city's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, or DoITT, has sent its engineers back to the drawing board after parents blasted a plan to mount an antenna on top of PS 30.

"It was made very clear to us that there was going to be a lot of opposition to anything at the school site," said department spokesman Nick Sbordone.

The planned antenna is part of the $500 million New York City Wireless Network, or NYCWiN, designed to speed up communication between city agencies.

The city says that such devices -- there are already about 50 on Staten Island -- are safe and emit far less radiation than federal safety thresholds, but parents and some scientists are unconvinced.

"Believe me, I understand after 9/11 we need this technology, but to put it on top of a school is just asinine," said Carol Aponte, whose 8-year-old daughter attends PS 30. "Let them tell us whatever they want, but they can't tell us that in 10 years there's not going to be health effects."

The DoITT was scheduled today to hold a private meeting with school officials and concerned parents, including Mrs. Aponte, but canceled it after being told Friday that opponents were seething, Sbordone said.

It has also put off a planned May 27 public meeting to discuss the project, and instead has asked network engineer Northrop Grumman to come up with alternatives to the school site.

Those won't be returned until July at the earliest, after 98 percent of the system has already gone online.

A group of scientists, including Columbia University professor of physiology and cellular biophysics Martin Blank, published last year a report questioning federally-accepted levels or wireless and cellular radiation. "We don't know what the risks are, but we know they're not zero," Blank said on Friday. -- Contributed by Phil Helsel



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=school+mast

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/deforestation-the-hidden-cause-of-global-warming-448734.html


Informant: Jean Hudon



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

The expulsion order was given some days ago but was only revealed by the state department on Thursday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7390499.stm


From Information Clearing House

Presstitute and war pimp alert:

Another week, another British fatality - and yet more evidence of Iran's lethal meddling on the battlefields of the war on terror.

http://tinyurl.com/3ltobg



The Iran Consensus Grows More Dangerous
http://tinyurl.com/5vm2qz



U.S. declines to help present nuclear deal to Iran

World powers will in the coming days offer a revised package of incentives to Iran but Washington has refused to send its own envoy to help present the deal.

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=160696



Iran to offer new deal to break nuclear deadlock

"My government has worked out a new package, a new initiative, which is going to be put forward in the near future to deal with all aspects of our relationship," Movahedian said.

http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-17/0805094619090502.htm



Shell, Repsol not to pull out of Iran

Royal Dutch/Shell and Spain's Repsol reportedly intend not to capitulate to US pressure by backing away from an energy project in Iran.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=54429&sectionid=351020103



Iran in Secret Talks With al Qaeda, U.S. Officials Say

According to U.S. officials familiar with highly sensitive intelligence on this issue, the contacts are on the status of high-level al Qaeda operatives, including two of Osama Bin Laden's sons.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/International/story?id=4954667&page=1



Bush Prepares a Messy Iran Handoff

The news this week that A. Q. Khan's now-defunct international nuclear smuggling network once possessed blueprints for advanced nuclear warheads - and could have sold them to Iran - gave new urgency to Washington's stalled efforts to halt Tehran's pursuit of nuclear capability.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1815748,00.html?xid=rss-nation



No 'proof' to establish Iran was developing nuclear weapons: Russia

"We support the right of Iran to have access to modern, peaceful nuclear technology. Russia will support Iran to the extent of fulfilling its expectation for lawful and legal sharing of nuclear technology."

http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0806176898200924.htm


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=war+pimp+alert

The US Company Defense Security Services (DSS) has been snapping up retired Bulgarian soldiers and policemen to work as guards in Iraq the company said.

http://www.bulgaria-news.eu/articles/86122.php



From Information Clearing House

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese455.html



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

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/7429/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/7430/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2008/05/09/war-with-iran-might-be-closer-than-you-think/


Informant: Kev Hall

--------

Chorus of voices saying attack on Iran may be near
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/7432/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news



http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Philip+Giraldi