November 3, 2005

Miscellaneous Subjects #219: Towards a New Era Through Many Tribulations


Hello everyone!

There is a staggering amount of information in these weekly compilations that I hope you can make time to review.

Hopefully it is useful to some of you...

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator


P.S. There will be a new Meditation Focus issued late Saturday night as usual.

You are welcomed to network anything from this compilation, but please also include the following:

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This compilation is archived at http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com/Archives2005/MiscelSubjects219.htm

STATS for this compilation: Over 24,900 words and 110 links provided.

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"Jean, I would like to take this opportunity to convey to you what an important role in my life you serve. I am an ordained Minister of Spiritual Peacemaking and consider myself an emissary of light. As such, I am constantly seeking out information and experiences that will aid my own spiritual evolution and that of anyone I have the opportunity to share time or space with. Without a doubt, your messages are one of my most valuable resources. You, and all who seek to contribute to your mission, are each important emissaries of light. Blessings and thanks to each of you!"

- "Konstanz Kuraz" mii@cfu.net> who also sent this inspiring statement: "We are Peace walking. Through the search for Truth and Balance we Understand with our infinite Hope, Creativity and Integrity that we are Love and Compassion in the world. We are celebrating a Unity of all into a state of Grace, Joy and perpetual Peace."


Reading from Hopi Nation 

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.
And there are things to be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of
the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.
See who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally.
Least of all, ourselves.
For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a
halt. The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we've been waiting for."

– The Elders, Oraibi, Arizona Hopi Nation"

Taken from http://www.omniparticle.com/burning_ice1.html


"The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions."

- Democratic leader Harry Reid - taken from "White House Ducks Prewar Intel Questions"


"I regard you as one of the world's foremost "thinking" mass communicators in this human trek through time and space, as you put it, "from Source to blazingly love-filled oneness with all-that-is". Thank you for your time, effort, and great service! In this light, may I ask you and your many associates if enlightenment or spiritual awakening is likely to lead, as I believe, to abandonment of all the world's divisive "nation-states" in favor of allegiance to the One-Human-Family and, perhaps, a global constitution/cooperative that empowers all people equally, in balance, along the lines of my own service of spiritual-politics: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uniteddiversity ? In the Oneness"

- Triaka SpiritNet@webtv.net>

Worthy of Your Attention

Stop Alito: Put Our Message in Front of the Senate
http://www.moveonpac.org/stopalito/
With his administration growing weaker by the day, President Bush caved to pressure from the radical fringe of the Republican Party and nominated Samuel Alito to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. Alito is a notoriously right-wing judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. He has consistently ruled to strip basic protections from workers, women, minorities and the disabled in favor of unchecked power for corporations and special interests. Bush's ploy to woo the far-right could reshape the High Court for decades to come—but we don't have to let that happen. Today we're joining the campaign to stop him by aiming to collect 500,000 signatures in 48 hours. Can you help us get there? For more information, see our ;action alert. The nomination of Samuel Alito poses a grave threat to the protections Americans count on, including basic workers’ rights, women’s rights, and civil rights. We call on the Senate to stand up for all of us and reject the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court of the United States.

NOV. 2 - THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE BUSH REGIME
http://www.worldcantwait.net/
The Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime -- Sign the call now! --
Your government, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.
Your government is openly torturing people, and justifying it.
Your government puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.
Your government is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.
Your government suppresses the science that doesn't fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.
Your government is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.
Your government enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.
People look at all this and think of Hitler – and they are right to do so.
The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.
More details at http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=16&Itemid=54

Activists mobilize for Hong Kong WTO (20 Oct 2005)
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/826288.shtml
Trade ministers, NGOs, and social movements are all converging on Hong Kong, China, for the 6th Ministerial meeting of the WTO (World Trade Organization), which will take place from December 13-18th, 2005. A network of movement activity is bustling, with hubs including the Hong Kong People's Alliance on the WTO [en | chinese] and the Stop the New Round Coalition (SNRC), among others. Peasants and small farmers from the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Korea are getting organized to come to Hong Kong, mobilize against corporate globalization and present alternative proposals. Conferences, cultural events, mass mobilizations, and direct actions are being planned between December 11th-18th, with the majority of activity during The People's Action Week, opening with a Public Assembly of the movements on the 13th and closing with a mass march on the 18th. CLIP

The Metamorphosis and Sabotage of Canada by our Own Government: North American Union
http://cyberjournal.org/cj/show_archives/?id=850&batch=16&lists=newslog
Summary: The North American continent is being transformed from three sovereign nations (Canada, USA, Mexico) into one regional corporate power base, the North American Union. Unlike the creation of the European Union, there is no public political/ academic discourse on the merits, or pros and cons of a North American Union building up to a vote within each nation as to the wish of the people to join such a union. Instead the union is being created by stealth, is already well on its way to fruition, and is being imposed on us by our own elected representatives and government with no opposition. The driving forces are corporate and military. The Chief Executive Officers of the most powerful corporations operating in the three countries want this union and have been working for some time devising their strategies and goals. Their facilitators are first, unelected officials and bureaucrats who move easily between corporations and government; second, former elected officials like John Manley, former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada; third, the heads of the three nations, Martin, Bush, and Fox; and finally, the governments and the rest of the elected members who apparently just rubber stamp what is put in front of them by the unelected officials- few questions, if any asked. The ultimate enforcement mechanism for the North American Union is a police state. The tools for the police state are "anti-terrorist" laws. Anti Terrorist laws are a ruse to strip the citizens of civil liberties in order to prevent dissent against the police state. The Orwellian justification is "security", "safety". Part one deals with the North American Union of Canada USA and Mexico. It is being created by the corporate side under the North American Task Force, and the military side by the Binational Military Planning group. CLIP By Connie Fogal, Leader, Canadian Action Party and long-time ERN subscriber. This is a must read in-depth analysis! Here is the conclusion of PART One...

(...) So we can see that those two bodies, the trilateral task force and the Bilateral Planning group, are well entrenched in process. The fact is that most Canadians oppose this deep economic and military integration. Now the greedy corporations are staking out a claim on more and more land in a region of North America in order to be bigger, and better and more profitable than a group of corporations from another regional block. The European Union was the first block. There is a rising Asian block. I am not the first to see the USA attacks on the middle east as a means of preventing the Asian blocks from becoming the most powerful . The third region is the Americas. South America has not been an easy go for the globalizers. So the focus is concentrating for now on North America.) By examination of the arrangements and deals happening under our noses but by stealth, we can see that our worries expressed over the years are coming to fruition. The globalizers are well into the process of implementing a clear regime run by them, about them, for them, and enforced by governments. The masses of people do not count except as cannon fodder in the wars of conquest and as slaves for the production process . There is every intention of regime change from democracy to tyranny. Our governments are already the willing whipping boys being the instruments of social control. They have no shame in removing our civil liberties and destroying our constitutional protections .This is happening all around the world with the USA, Britain, Australia and Canada being the most advanced in the regime change process. It is an outrage and a disgrace that Canada is now competing with Britain to become the lowliest lick spittle groveling agent to the USA led regime change process. There is nothing good in this regime change process for the citizen.

6,000+ News Links Published And Archived In 2005 my Mark Elsis
http://Lovearth.net/News.php

À tous les abonné-e-s francophones : voici un site québécois fort complet sur le phénomènes des "chemtrails" que je recommande à votre attention :
http://www.evolutionquebec.com/site/chemtrai.html

À noter également : Marjolaine Caron vient de publier son nouveau livre : Ma vie après ta mort - Il sortira en librairie le 5 novembre cette semaine. Elle participera à l'émission de Claire Lamarche: Faut voir clair à TVA le mercredi 9 novembre à 9hrs PM. Ce sera 1 heure d'émission sur elle et le lancement de son nouveau livre. Recommandé par "Marie Soleil Plante" mariesoleilplante@sympatico.ca> qui a aussi contribué à ce livre. Plus de détails au http://marjolainecaron.com/ et au http://archives.tva.ca/clairelamarche/emissions/129.shtml

Burning Ice
http://www.omniparticle.com/burning_ice.html
Recommended by star light andromedan01@yahoo.com> who wrote: "Please take a look of these updated repose. I think most of them are from ERN except the first one. They all have music now. I had a great time translate the words from your newsletters into choreography."


CONTENTS

1. New message from Matthew
2. Two Years of investigation resulting into a hand slap
3. Seven Day to Save Your Coast
4. Abbas and the Lame Duck
5. Calls for Genocide must be met with compassion
6. Getting Tough With the Mullahs
7. Secret space war
8. Terrible atrocities being done to birds!
9. Current news about the peace pilgrimage in Israel/Palestine
10. More Channeled Confirmations of Bush & Co's Impending Demise
11. The Cabal is Crumbling
12. Merry Fitzmas to all!


LAST MINUTE ADDITION

From: "Susan R. Jason" susieq@mcn.org>
Subject: Fascism at peace rally today
Date: 2 Nov 2005

Hi Jean,

I was shocked at the police violence and intimidation at today's peace rally, and also at the critical-mass bike ride that took place today in Eureka, CA. Eureka pd and the CA highway patrol worked in co-operation with federal marshals to intimmidate and threaten and do violence to peaceful, non-violent protesters.
Tonight's local news on KMUD radio gave an excellent accounting of the goings on. The broadcast will be repeated at 8:00 am tomorrow morning. There is an excellent interview with David Cobb, Green Party presidential candidate in the 2004 election... he was there. I encourage you to tune in and listen on line at 8 am, pst if you get a chance. You can listen at http://www.kmud.org . The news is shocking, but people should be aware of what's going on these days. If I get up that early, I'll tape the news and mail it to you, as well as a recording of tonight's Civil Liberties Monitoring Project’s call in talk-show, which pretty much focused on what happened in Eureka today.

I sure hope we can turn things around SOON, with the help of all of us and the Gallactic Federation and our ET friends. There'll be plenty of us calling our congressional representitives tomorrow morning with lots of questions for them to account to. I'll keep you posted. Also, thank you for posting that important sea-flow action anouncement in your next compilation. I know Mother Earth appreciates all the help She can get.

Much Love,

Susie

---

See also:

Hunger in America rises by 43 percent over last five years (28-Oct-2005) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-10/bu-hia102805.php
More than 38 million Americans go hungry, including nearly 14 million children

Drought Deepens Poverty, Starving More Africans
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/110205HA.shtml
A recent report by the United States Agency for International Development said that Malawi "is now in a near constant state of food shortage, with persistently high levels of nutritional deprivation." Most Malawians cannot finance even a minimally adequate diet.

Tragedy in South Asia: The Earthquake and the U.S. Response
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/2884
The massive earthquake of October 8, 2005 in South Asia has assumed truly horrific proportions, killing upwards of 40,000 people, leaving 50,000 injured, and affecting more than four million people. In keeping with its slow and lackluster response to the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. government initially offered a paltry $100,000 in aid to earthquake victims in Pakistan˜the same amount of aid Afghanistan sent to the United States after Katrina. But since then, U.S. aid for rescue and reconstruction has been ratcheted up to $50 million. With this increase, the United States is behind only Kuwait and the UAE, who have pledged $100 million each. While it is true that enlightened self-interest may have inspired the Bush administration to increase its aid offering to Pakistan, what is needed now more than ever is a recasting of global security in human terms; a recognition that the human implications of such tragedies impinge directly upon the political consequences and cannot be neatly separated. CLIP

Earthquake donations slow, limited (Nov 3)
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/11/3/nation/12497618&sec=nation
PUTRAJAYA: Contributions in cash and kind for earthquake victims in Pakistan are not streaming in as expected, and this has surprised Wisma Putra. However, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said that even donations from Western countries had been slow and limited. “This is probably due to the many natural disasters this year, which have been quite major. “I am surprised by the level of assistance and funds donated by Malaysians towards the victims of the tragedy in Pakistan ... it’s not what we expected,” he told reporters yesterday. Syed Hamid said the Government had also offered Pakistan the use of helicopters and aircraft to carry aid and to transport victims. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), chaired by Malaysia, had extended RM500mil to Pakistan, he added. The earthquake that struck on Oct 8 and subsequent aftershocks killed more than 80,000 people in Pakistan and left three million homeless. Relief organisations, such as Peace Malaysia, are still appealing for help to send winter tents to the homeless as the Pakistani winter approaches. The minister said Malaysia would propose an international relief fund for natural disasters to enable faster coordination and mobilisation of aid for the affected countries. “At present, most countries have their own relief funds for natural disasters. But we think there should be an international fund for the response time for aid to be faster,” he said.

73,000 dead in Pakistan earthquake (Nov. 2)
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20051102-045545-5732r
UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- U.N. officials have put the death toll from Pakistan's October earthquake at 73,000 with at least 69,000 people injured. The figures, from the U.N. Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, cover only casualties in Pakistan. Other parts of South Asia were also affected by the 7.6 magnitude quake Oct. 8. Updated figures from Pakistani officials led to the death toll increasing by some 18,000 in one day nearly a month after the devastating quake. As many as 3.5 million people are still in need of medical care and 3.2 million remain homeless with winter approaching, Kristen Knutson, a UNOCHA spokeswoman said Wednesday. The United Nations asked a donor conference, which some 92 countries participated in last week in Switzerland, for $550 million in emergency funds for earthquake relief. Knutson said the United Nations has received $131 million in pledges and commitments. More related news at http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=pakistan+Earthquake&c=

Fading Beta Leaves Thousands in Shelters (Oct 31, 2005)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hurricane_beta;_ylt=A86.I1ZTTmlD8EMAhxOCbpwv;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Thousands of people remained in shelters in Nicaragua and Honduras on Monday after Hurricane Beta swept across the Central American nations, flooding rivers, downing trees and destroying houses, churches, medical centers and schools. (...) Packing winds up to 105 mph, Beta dumped as much as 15 inches of rain in Nicaragua and neighboring Honduras, where its outer bands of rain caused four rivers to overflow, isolated communities and damaged crops. The record 13th hurricane of this year's Atlantic storm season made landfall Sunday on Nicaragua's central coast, about 200 miles northeast of Managua, as a Category 2 hurricane before quickly weakening to a tropical storm and eventually becoming a tropical depression before beginning to dissipate. Nicaraguan Civil Defense Chief Col. Mario Perez Cassar said 80 percent of the buildings on the central coast were heavily damaged or destroyed. "But miraculously, only four people were reported missing and only one was injured," Perez said.No serious injuries or deaths were reported in Honduras. (...) The region has been pounded recently by hurricanes and heavy rains. Early this month, Hurricane Stan hit southern Mexico at Category 1 strength on Oct. 4, caused flooding and mudslides that killed 71 people in the southern state of Chiapas and left 654 dead — and 828 missing — in neighboring Guatemala. Another 71 died in El Salvador. Hurricane Wilma, which was a category 4 storm when it made landfall earlier this month, killed four people in Mexico, 12 in Haiti, one in Jamaica and 21 people in Florida. More stories on Tropical Storms and Hurricanes at http://news.yahoo.com/fc/World/Tropical_Storms_and_Hurricanes;_ylt=A86.I1s9TmlDuaAAvhtGXMkB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Prosecutor Should Dig Deeper
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103005B.shtml
Scooter Libby lied to cover up greater crimes, the authors argue, and more potential Bush administration crimes should be investigated including lying to Congress, violations of the US Anti-Torture Act and violations of the US War Crimes Act.

Fitzgerald: "Investigation Is Not Over"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102805A.shtml
The CIA leak investigation is "not over," special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said Friday after announcing charges against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.

Libby Indicted, Perjury, Obstruction - Resigns
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102805X.shtml
Vice presidential adviser I. Lewis "Scooter' Libby Jr. was indicted Friday on charges of obstruction of justice, making a false statement and perjury in the CIA leak case.

Deconstructing the Indictment
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102805Q.shtml
Stirling Newberry analyzes the Libby indictment. Stirling deconstructs the indictment and raises the questions that need to be asked.

Cheney, Libby Blocked Papers to Senate Intelligence Panel
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102805I.shtml
Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, decided to withhold crucial documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 when the panel was investigating the use of pre-war intelligence that erroneously concluded Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

Frank Rich: One Step Closer to the Big Enchilada
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103005X.shtml
Frank Rich: To believe that the Bush-Cheney scandals will be behind us anytime soon you'd have to believe that the Nixon-Agnew scandals peaked when G. Gordon Liddy and his bumbling band were nailed for the Watergate break-in.

The White House Criminal Conspiracy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103005Y.shtml
Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega says the Bush administration engaged in intelligence fraud comparable to the accounting fraud of companies like Enron, but with far graver consequences. She examines in detail the evidence that the President and his aides conspired to defraud the United States by intentionally misrepresenting intelligence about Iraq.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Joseph Wilson Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Joseph Wilson speaks in Washington, DC at a National Press Club luncheon. 10/31/2005
http://www.c-span.org/search/basic.asp?resultstart=1&resultcount=10&BasicQueryText=joseph+wilson&image1.x=22&image1.y=8
Recommended by Robert Lederman who wrote : "To understand the real degree of criminality and treason behind the Bush administration's machinations against Valerie Plame-Joe Wilson you've got to see this tape. It was Cheney who sent Wilson to Niger because Wilson was the most qualified person in the US government to look into the yellow cake issue."

For full coverage of the CIA leak investigation
http://www.truthout.org/fitzgeraldcalling.shtml

Who Pays the Bills for the Bush Administration? The "Good" Bad Guys or the "Bad" Good Guys? http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_dr__gerr_051026_who_pays_the_bills_f.htm
With George W. Bush's popularity falling below 40%, it is clear that his administration's ignorance, incompetence and immorality has finally come to the attention of the American people in spite of Bush's pandering to the religious right wing (1). The self-righteous spin and belligerent action (2) taken by the Bush administration on the global stage, in the name of the American people, simply cannot be justified outside of the confines of Old Testament Roman religion.That is precisely why religion is so important to the Bush administration. Without religious justification, the Bush administration has no justification at all, certainly nothing based on factual knowledge. (...) With the fall of religious capitalism, conservatives and liberals will be reunited as a people, and they will have little choice but to pay the bills of the Bush administration, insofar as they are even payable. There is no way to pay off many of Bush's bills. How do you say that you are sorry for tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths in the Middle East? In this evolutionary progression from national corporate democracies to a global people's democracy, America will finally become what America was intended to be, a light unto itself and the world.God bless the people. What would we do without them? They pay for everything. The people have always paid for everything. Moreover, the people have been here all along. They were here before Bush and they will be here after Bush. No wonder Jefferson could see the people as deserving of rights that transcend the daily desires of the wealthy and powerful.When Bush says, in his self-absorbed way, "We'll all be dead," he speaks only for himself. Today's children will dance on his grave, not for the evil he has done, but for the good that will come from the end of his evil.The question for the American people is this: How much more human insult and injury and death will the Bush administration impose on you before you take America back? It is, after all, your country. When you take it back, don't ever give it away again. Recommended by Rudolf Schneider res@ipsgeneva.com>

I Can't Wait
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205Q.shtml
David Swanson: I don't know about the world, but certainly I can't wait any longer to end this war or to impeach this president. One more death, American or Iraqi, is too many. Actually, what I said is not true. We do know something about the world. We know that polls that were done last year were unable to find another country on the planet that would have elected Bush or even made it close enough for him to steal.

US stocks: The visible hand of Uncle Sam
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GJ19Dj02.html
John Embry and Andrew Hepburn provide a valuable entry into the world of finance. The two analysts illuminate the shadowy trail of the "Plunge Protection Team" in its apparent mission to rig the American stock markets.Their account is backed up by considerable indirect evidence, as well as statements by credible insiders. If their account is correct, it means that US markets look a lot like the Japanese markets that were long derided for being subject to repeated official manipulation. A more important conclusion may be that US markets are even shakier than many believe. CLIP

GAO Confirms 2004 Election Stolen (October 26, 2005)
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1529
Powerful Government Accounting Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings -
As a legal noose appears to be tightening around the Bush/Cheney/Rove inner circle, a shocking government report shows the floor under the legitimacy of their alleged election to the White House is crumbling. The latest critical confirmation of key indicators that the election of 2004 was stolen comes in an extremely powerful, penetrating report from the General Accounting Office that has gotten virtually no mainstream media coverage. The government's lead investigative agency is known for its general incorruptibility and its through, in-depth analyses. Its concurrence with assertions widely dismissed as "conspiracy theories" adds crucial new weight to the case that Team Bush has no legitimate business being in the White House. Nearly a year ago, senior Judiciary Committee Democrat John Conyers (D-MI) asked the GAO to investigate electronic voting machines as they were used during the November 2, 2004 presidential election. The request came amidst widespread complaints in Ohio and elsewhere that often shocking irregularities defined their performance. According to CNN, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee received "more than 57,000 complaints" following Bush's alleged re-election. Many such concerns were memorialized under oath in a series of sworn statements and affidavits in public hearings and investigations conducted in Ohio by the Free Press and other election protection organizations. The non-partisan GAO report has now found that, "some of [the] concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes." The United States is the only major democracy that allows private partisan corporations to secretly count and tabulate the votes with proprietary non-transparent software. Rev. Jesse Jackson, among others, has asserted that "public elections must not be conducted on privately-owned machines." The CEO of one of the most crucial suppliers of electronic voting machines, Warren O'Dell of Diebold, pledged before the 2004 campaign to deliver Ohio and thus the presidency to George W. Bush. Bush's official margin of victory in Ohio was just 118,775 votes out of more than 5.6 million cast. Election protection advocates argue that O'Dell's statement still stands as a clear sign of an effort, apparently successful, to steal the White House. Among other things, the GAO confirms that: CLIP

CONDOLEEZA RICE DESPERATE TO GET CANADIAN NORAD 9-11 EVIDENCE 10/26/5
http://cloakanddagger.de/
SHE THREATENS THE LIFE OF CANADIAN GOVERNMENT MINISTER PETTIGREW. Toronto - Canadian officials are left wondering why Condoleeza Rice wants Canada's 9-11 PROMIS SOFTWARE FLIGHT RECORDS so desperately that RICE has resorted to ASSASSINATION threats against a Canadian Government official no less. Of course, Royal Canadian Mounted Police would make NO comment! U.S. Secretary of State, already indicted in the United States CIA LEAK CASE is now being investigated for threatening the life of Canadian Government Minister Pettigrew. She threatened Pettigrew yesterday at their meeting with ASSASSINATION unless Canada hands over the original FLIGHT RECORDS, concerning 9-11, linked to smoking gun evidence gathered by Canada using PROMIS Software that shows alleged 9-11 aircraft well into Canadian airspace at the SAME TIME as the the attack on WTC occurred.

Ending the Fraudulence
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103105O.shtml
Paul Krugman writes that this administration's political triumphs have never been based on its real-world achievements, which are few and far between. The administration has, instead, built its power on myths: the myth of presidential leadership, the ugly myth that the administration is patriotic, while its critics are not. Take away those myths, and the administration has nothing left.

CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205Z.shtml
The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to US and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

US Denies UN Group Access to Detainees
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205R.shtml
Spurning a request by UN human rights investigators, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday the United States will not allow them to meet with detainees at the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects.

Vice President for Torture
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205E.shtml
The Washington Post: Vice President Cheney is aggressively pursuing an initiative that may be unprecedented for an elected official of the executive branch: He is proposing that Congress legally authorize human rights abuses by Americans. He will be remembered as the vice president who campaigned for torture.

Cheney Taps Torture Memo Author to Replace Libby
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205O.shtml
On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney appointed his legal counsel, David Addington, to be his new chief of staff following the resignation of Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Addington once wrote that the war on terrorism has rendered the Geneva Conventions "obsolete."

DON'T LET THEM EXEMPT THE CIA FROM THE MCCAIN ANTI-TORTURE AMENDMENT
http://www.nocrony.com/no_torture.htm
Having already threatened to veto the entire defense bill if restrained in any way from continuing its policy of international torture crimes, administration operatives will try to gut the McCain amendment in conference committee. Although passed 90-9 by the senate, three of the senators who voted for MORE torture, Ted Stevens (AK), Thad Cochran (MS) and Kit Bond (MO) will be on the committee to reconcile the Senate and House versions of the defense bill. And Stevens has already declared he will try to EXEMPT the CIA, the primary offender in acts of illegal torture, from being covered by the provision. Those who are trying to grant Bush the right of an absolute dictator to torture anybody he wants anytime and anywhere he pleases must not be allowed to sneak a CIA "get out of atrocity free" card into the bill. An explicit exemption for the CIA would not only pervert the intent of the McCain amendment, it would cut the heart out of existing law and actually WEAKEN prohibitions on such abominable conduct. CLIP

The Department of TORTURE
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_thepen_051031_the_department_of_to.htm
Where atrocity threatens to become official U.S. foreign policy - The Senate amendment to the new Defense Appropriations Act would explicitly prohibit the U.S. government from subjecting those in its custody to cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment. It's pretty straightforward stuff. Yet despite a rousing 90-9 vote for its passage, there are still dark forces at work trying to subvert the intent of this measure, the language of which must survive the conference committee with the House of Representatives. If the morality perverters have their way, there will be a carve-out to exempt the CIA from this prohibition. They are seeking this with the express knowledge that sadists (acting under the color of CIA authority) have been responsible for the horrific abuses which made necessary further action and clarification of existing law. This exemption would in fact turn the measure on its head to by omission AUTHORIZE torture by a particular agency, diametrically contrary to the amendment's intent. They might as well appoint a "Torture Czar" and make it a cabinet level position. Actually, for all practical purposes we already have a torture czar . . . it's the Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney. Yes, it is Cheney himself who is PERSONALLY pressuring the conference committee to rescind the McCain amendment in this way (just as he was pressuring CIA analysts in the cooking of the justification for war with Iraq). CLIP

Truth about Torture
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205Y.shtml
Army Capt. Ian Fishback is plainly a very brave man. Crazy brave, even. Not only has the 26-year-old West Pointer done a tour in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, he has had the guts to suggest publicly that his boss, Donald Rumsfeld, lied to Congress.

Rumsfeld to Profit from Avian Flu Vaccine
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205I.shtml
The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world. CLIP
Originally from http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/index.htm

U.S. Could Restrict Travel to Prevent Flu
http://channels.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1500&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20051102%2F1023828821.htm&sc=1500
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sustained person-to-person spread of the bird flu or any other super-influenza strain anywhere in the world could prompt the United States to implement travel restrictions or other steps to block a brewing pandemic, say federal plans released Wednesday. CLIP

Army Dumped WMD Offshore in US
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103105J.shtml
Millions of pounds of unused weapons of mass destruction were dumped in oceans before Congress banned the practice in 1972. The threat is still out there, and may be growing.

Bush Stole Election By Computer Fraud, Guilty of 9/11, Lied about W.M.D.'s, Downing Street Memo, Katrina, Illegal War against Iraq, Media Complicity
http://www.bushstole04.com/harpers_fascist_state.htm
DEMAND IMPEACHMENT - Harpers Magazine - Fascist State Now

India sees foreign link to attack (31 October 2005)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4393532.stm
India has not publicly blamed any group for the attacks India says there is evidence that foreign militants were involved in Saturday's bomb attacks in Delhi, in which at least 62 people died. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that he expected Pakistan to honour its promise to end cross-border terrorism. The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder says India believes groups based in Pakistan or linked to them may have been involved. Pakistan says it has no indication that Pakistani groups were involved. A little-known Kashmiri group said it was behind the attacks. Police say they are trying to verify the claim by Islami Inqilabi Mahaz. Gen Musharraf has condemned the bombings and offered Pakistan's support to the Indian investigation. Mr Singh made the comments during a telephone call in which Gen Musharraf offered his condolences for the triple bombings, which happened in quick succession. According to an Indian Foreign Ministry statement, Mr Singh told Gen Musharraf said he "continued to be disturbed and dismayed at indications of external linkages of terrorist groups with the 29 October bombing". He then "drew the president's attention to Pakistan's commitment to ending cross-border terrorism". A Pakistani foreign ministry spokeswoman said the government had no indication that Pakistani groups had been involved in the attacks. "Unless they share the evidence with us, it remains a mere claim which we cannot accept," she said. India and Pakistan have been involved in a long-running dispute over the territory of Kashmir. Earlier on Monday, Gen Musharraf said this month's devastating earthquake in Pakistan and India provided an opportunity to help the two countries resolve their dispute. On Sunday, the two countries opened several points along Kashmir's line of control - the de facto border between the two countries - to provide better access for relief workers to earthquake victims.

Casualty might be Indo-Pak peace (October 31, 2005))
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=57611
New Delhi: Just a few hours after three bombs ripped through the heart of New Delhi, India and Pakistan announced a deal to open LoC for earthquake survivors and relief. Pakistan swiftly condemned the bomb attacks as acts of terrorism. India refused to blame its neighbour--at least not until investigations were complete. The message was clear. For now at least, South Asia's heavyweights do not want the Delhi bomb attacks to derail two years of delicate peace talks. But, if as many here suspect, the bombs which killed 59 people were planted by members of a Pakistan-based militant group, some impact is unavoidable, and some tough issues will have to be tackled.

Gates gives malaria research US$ 258.3 million shot in the arm (Oct 31)
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/4351.html
Microsoft Corp chief Bill Gates, through his charity group Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has announced grants of US$ 258.3 million for research into malaria prevention and control.“Millions of children have died from malaria because they were not protected by an insecticide-treated bed net, or did not receive effective treatment. If we expand malaria control programs, and invest what's needed in R&D, we can stop this tragedy,” Gates said while announcing the grant. “It's really a tragedy that the world has done so little to stop this disease that kills 2000 African children every day. If those children were in rich countries, we would have headlines, we'd take action. We wouldn't rest until every child was protected,” he added. While US$ 107.6 million from the above grant would go to GlaxoSmithKline's Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) would get US$ 100 million, and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine-led The Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) US$ 50.7 million to develop methods of prevention as well as drugs to counter the disease.GlaxoSmithKline would use the grant to complete the trials for an anti-malaria vaccine and apply for its approval, while MMV would try to accelerate the development of new medicines by getting approvals from regulatory bodies. IVCC would use the funds to develop specialized insecticides and other mosquito control methods. According to Gates, a report by Malaria R&D Alliance has shown that malaria is given a paltry US$ 323 million for research, indicating about 0.3 per cent of all expenditure on research into various diseases. This despite the fact that annually, about 500 million are afflicted by the disease, especially children in sub-Sahara Africa. At least two children die of malaria in this region every minute, causing a loss of US$ 12 billion annually for the impoverished country's GDP. “The report confirms what has been clear, and that is that the world isn't investing nearly enough in malaria R&D,” Gates said. (...) IVCC is working towards developing more effective insecticides and improved bed nets to tackle the mosquito menace. “Historically, controlling mosquitoes has been key to controlling malaria, but mosquitoes are developing resistance to insecticides. We need new insecticides that are up to the task today, and that are safe for humans and the environment,” said Dr Janet Hemingway of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. According to the Malaria R&D Alliance report, halving malaria mortality rate by 2010 would require an expenditure of around US$ 3.2 billion annually. This number is 90 per cent more than what is being spent on the prevention and control of the disease as of now.Every year, the disease claims around 2.7 million lives globally, with 75 per cent of the victims being African children.

Parents Turn to Organic Over Food Fears (Nov 2, 2005)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051102/ap_on_he_me/fit_organic_kids;_ylt=A86.I11ZvGlDPzsBFBqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-
WASHINGTON - Erin O'Neal has two daughters and a fridge stocked with organic cheese, milk, fruits and vegetables in her Annapolis, Md., home. She is among the increasing number of parents who buy organic to keep their children's diets free of food grown with pesticides, hormones, antibiotics or genetic engineering."The pesticide issue just scares me — it wigs me out to think about the amount of chemicals that might be going into my kid," said O'Neal, 36. Sales of organic baby food have jumped nearly 18 percent since last year — double the overall growth of organic food sales, according to the marketing information company ACNielsen. As demand has risen, organic food for children has been popping up outside natural food stores. For example, Earth's Best baby food, a mainstay in Whole Foods and Wild Oats markets, just reached a national distribution deal with Toys R Us and Babies R Us. Gerber is selling organic baby food under its Tender Harvest label. Stonyfield Farm's YoBaby yogurt can be found in supermarkets across the country. The concern about children is that they are more vulnerable to toxins in their diets, said Alan Greene, a pediatrician in northern California. As children grow rapidly, their brains and organs are forming and they eat more for their size than do grown-ups, Greene said. "Pound for pound, they get higher concentrations of pesticides than adults do," said Greene, who promotes organic food in his books and on his Web site, http://www.drgreene.com . New government-funded research adds to the concern. A study of children whose diets were changed from regular to organic found their pesticide levels plunged almost immediately. The amount of pesticide detected in the children remained imperceptible until their diets were switched back to conventional food. CLIP

Gore Says It Is Not Too Late to Combat Climate Change
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/102805EA.shtml
Former vice president Al Gore delivered a speech about global warming upon accepting the Global Environmental Citizen Award from Harvard Medical School.

EPA Studies Ways to Cut Warming Pollution
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/102805EB.shtml
Bush's plan would cost utilities $3 billion to $6 billion a year to cut nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury by 70 percent, the EPA said, but would generate up to $143 billion in health benefits by 2020.

Use Arms Cash for Water, Mitterrand Widow Says (October 28, 2005)
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9122
PARIS — One percent of the world's arms budget should be channelled into providing access to drinking water in the most parched corners of the planet, the campaigning widow of former French President Francois Mitterrand said.D anielle Mitterand, whose foundation France Libertes launched an access to drinking water campaign on Tuesday, told Reuters ahead of the initial press briefing that 34,000 people die each day from a lack of fresh water. "The world's arms budget is $1,000 billion annually," Mitterand said. "We are asking that one percent of this budget be used each year for 15 years to finalise a real programme of access to fresh water in those places where the infrastructure is insufficient."According to World Health Organisation figures some 1.5 billion people around the world lack access to fresh water and 2.6 billion lack sanitation. Mitterand's France Libertes aims to reverse that situation. She says that people should be entitled to 40 free litres of water a day and that access to it should be enshrined in constitutions as an inalienable human right. CLIP

Oil Peak in 2005? (30 October 2005)
http://www.lulu.com/allenadale
More evidence is coming in weekly to suggest that world oil production peaked in 2005. Within this past month, two notable petroleum geologists have produced statements to that effect. (...) If world oil production has indeed peaked, then demand and production are diverging and the trend will be towards rising oil prices from here on in. However, the real problem lies not so much with the peak and with the irreversible decline that will follow. How serious our problems will be depends in part on how steep this decline is, and—possibly in larger measure—on how we react to the divergence and decline. So far, the market and the general public has not yet realized that world oil production has peaked, much less the significance of this event. This is because the peak is being masked by specific production problems due to natural catastrophes, wars and civil unrest. At present, neither the market, the media nor the general public has been able to see the forest for the trees. This situation is both bad and good. It is bad for society overall, because it means that we have not started to grapple with the problem. If society would wake up right now and begin to prepare, we could optimize our chances of transitioning into a sustainable paradigm. The longer it takes our society to wake up, the worse our chances will be of making this transition. On the other hand, this social denial is delaying the other shoe (being the economic shoe) from dropping. Once the full realization of what is happening floods into the market, there will be an economic crash in response. This intervening period, which Dr. Bakhtiari calls 'Transition One', will provide a chance for those who are aware of what is happening to quietly prepare. (...) Possibly one of the most important things you can do to ensure community security is to get involved in your local food bank, or start one if none exists in your area. Food banks can serve as a platform from which to launch community gardening programs. And nothing will spell security for your community so much as locally produced food and a system for ensuring that none in your community must starve.

Oil Execs to Be Asked to Justify Profits
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205G.shtml
Top executives of three major oil companies will be asked by senators next week why some of their industry's estimated $96 billion in record profits this year shouldn't be used to help people having trouble paying their energy bills.

Hurricanes Heap Energy Supply Problems on United States (October 27, 2005)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2005/2005-10-27-10.asp
WASHINGTON, DC, (ENS) - It will take "many months" before the oil and natural gas infrastructure on the Gulf Coast is repaired and full production is restored, Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton told a Senate panel on Thursday. Some 68 percent of the region’s oil production and 55 percent of its natural gas production remains offline due to damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Norton said, and repair costs will be in the "billions of dollars." Norton said the slow recovery is due to the extensive damage as well as the "limited amount of repair equipment and skilled personnel." Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman joined Norton at the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee hearing and told lawmakers the nation is dealing with an "extraordinary situation by the one-two punch of Katrina and Rita. "More than 50 percent of the Gulf Coast’s oil and gas pipelines are either damaged or offline and 16 natural gas processing plants remain closed, according to the Energy Department. "The hurricanes have clearly demonstrated the need for diversification of our energy supply," said Norton, who praised Congress for moving forward to open the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas drilling and touted the administration’s efforts to boost drilling in the West. CLIP

Britain Hosts Energy Summit while Failing to Meet Its Emission Targets (Nov 1)
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/110105EC.shtml
Energy ministers from across the world gather in London today to begin the latest chapter in the increasingly urgent international battle against climate change. Their talks open against a background of growing concern about the visible effects of man-made global warming, such as the disappearance of 40 per cent of Arctic sea ice, and the potential impact of rapid growth in China, India and other fast-developing economies. Tony Blair, who invited the ministers to the summit, is expected to address them today. The new dialogue was kickstarted at July's summit of the world's richest nations in Gleneagles, Scotland, where Mr. Blair pushed climate change to the top of the agenda - then disappointed many by appearing to concede too much to the United States, the biggest producer of greenhouse gases. The US has refused to sign the Kyoto agreement on climate change. Britain itself is on course to badly miss its stated target of a 20 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2010. (...) What's the real point of today's climate change meeting in London? The brutally simple answer: to get China on board in the fight against global warming. The meeting, promoted personally by Tony Blair, has sprung from the great issue which remains unaddressed by the Kyoto protocol: what's to be done about China, India and the other big developing nations? For in the decades to come these countries with their huge and rapidly expanding economies will emit colossal amounts of CO2 - China will overtake the US as the biggest carbon emitter by 2025 - yet at the moment they are not required to set any targets to limit their emissions, as the industrialised countries are, under the treaty. What can be done by Britain and her allies to get China and the others on board? The obvious answer is to encourage China and other developing nations to grow, but to grow in a way that does not damage the climate. In practice this means ensuring that the 500 huge coal-fired power stations which the Chinese are going to build between now and 2030 are fitted with the CO2-reduction technology which is just being developed in the West. Known as carbon capture and storage (CCS), this involves trapping the CO2 coming from power station chimneys, liquefying it, and storing it permanently deep underground. It might sound fanciful, but it is already being done successfully by the Norwegians under the North Sea. But how is this technology, and others that are coming on stream, to be transferred to China, and indeed India, Brazil and Indonesia? Who is to pay for it, and how? Is it aid? Is it trade? The meeting is taking an initial look at these very broad issues. How important is the meeting? Some would take the view that it represents the most important step forward since the Kyoto protocol itself was signed in 1997. Climate change cannot be dealt with properly without the co-operation of the whole world; and the issue of what to do about the future carbon emissions from the developing world is at last being addressed. It is fair to say it is a signal success for Mr. Blair and his vision of what could be achieved by putting climate at the top of the agenda for Britain's presidency of the G8.  CLIP

Report Slams World Bank Role in Clean Energy (November 1, 2005)
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/33263/story.htm
WASHINGTON - The World Bank is lagging behind global efforts to promote clean energy instead of leading them and rarely considers climate change strategies when lending for projects in developing countries, a new report said on Monday.The report by environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth, urged the bank to rethink its role in promoting clean energy, amid booming energy demand in fast-growing developing nations. "Based on an examination of publicly available documents for World Bank Group energy lending, the bank has failed to adequately fund and create policies to push the development of clean energy and has failed to meet even its own commitments," the report said. "This failure to adequately fund clean energy misses a tremendous opportunity to use these energy sources to promote development and poverty alleviation, and it continues the Bank's long-standing over-investment in harmful energy sources." The report came on the eve of a meeting in London of the Group of Eight industrial nations to discuss climate change and clean energy. It will be chaired by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.The World Bank was asked by the G8 in July to develop a new global framework for climate change that would remain effective long beyond the 2012 expiration of the Kyoto Protocol. CLIP

Mighty Amazon close to running out of water (October 30, 2005)
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/mighty-amazon-close-to-running-out-of-water/2005/10/29/1130400400043.html
A state of emergency has been declared in the Amazon River basin, which is suffering its worst drought in 42 years. More than 1000 towns and hamlets that rely on the river for transport have been cut off as water levels fall, making the river unnavigable.Several major tributaries, as well as parts of the main river itself, contain only a fraction of their normal volumes of water, and lakes are drying up. The Amazonas Government secretary Jose Melo said hamlets cut off from the outside world by the low river level were running out of drinking water, medical supplies and provisions.The region bakes in intense heat of about 38 degrees at this time of year. The level of the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon, has dropped 12 metres since July to just 16 metres. The Amazon River, South America's largest, has hit its lowest level in the 36 years since records have been kept near its source in Peru.The Amazon is the second-longest river in the world, after the Nile, but discharges far more water at its mouth than any other. "This drought and its effects are really shocking," said Carlos Rittl, Greenpeace Brazil's climate campaigner. "Towns are lacking food, medicines and fuel because boats cannot get through." To make matters worse, as the rainforest becomes increasingly dry, damaging wildfires are regularly breaking out across the region, destroying trees. Greenpeace blames deforestation and climate change for the drought. "The Amazon is caught between these two destructive forces, and their combined effects threaten to flip its ecosystems from forest to savannah," Mr Rittl said.

Satellite Images Reveal Amazon Forest Shrinking Faster - New Methods Detect Twice As Much Logging As Previously Estimated
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1021/p04s01-sten.html

Amazon Forest Hit By Hidden Logging
http://tinyurl.com/atxvb
Damage To The Amazon Rain Forest May Be Twice As Large As Previously Thought Due To Undetected Selective Logging,US And Brazilian Forest Experts Report.

Amazon Logging Twice As Heavy As Thought, Images Show
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1020_051020_amazon.html

Malawi Is Burning, and Deforestation Erodes Economy
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/110105EB.shtml
Malawi is losing nearly 200 square miles of its forests annually, a deforestation rate of 2.8 percent that the Southern Africa Development Community says is one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the wood goes to make charcoal for cooking fires.

Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble - by Lester R. Brown http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB2/Contents.htm

INDUSTRY SNEAK ATTACK ON ORGANIC STANDARDS RAMMED THROUGH CONGRESS
http://www.organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm
Despite receiving over 350,000 letters and phone calls from OCA members and the organic community, Republican leaders in Congress October 27 attached a rider to the 2006 Agricultural Appropriations Bill to weaken the nation's organic food standards in response to pressure from large-scale food manufacturers. "Congress voted last night to weaken the national organic standards that consumers count on to preserve the integrity of the organic label," said Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association. "The process was profoundly undemocratic and the end result is a serious setback for the multi billion dollar alternative food and farming system that the organic community has so painstakingly built up over the past 35 years. As passed, the amendment sponsored by the Organic Trade Association allows: Numerous synthetic food additives and processing aids, including over 500 food contact substances, to be used in organic foods without public review. Young dairy cows to continue to be treated with antibiotics and fed genetically engineered feed prior to being converted to organic production. Loopholes under which non-organic ingredients could be substituted for organic ingredients without any notification of the public based on "emergency decrees." OCA will work to reverse this rider with an "Organic Restoration Act" in Congress in 2006.

What Is Organic? Powerful Players Want a Say
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/110105HA.shtml
As organic food enters the mainstream, evolving from an idealistic subculture rooted in images of granola and Birkenstocks, a bitter debate has ensued over what exactly the word "organic" should mean. And now Congress is jumping into the controversy.

A vulnerable natural-gas supply (November 1, 2005)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20051031-090107-9287r.htm
Among the many lessons of Hurricane Katrina is the serious vulnerability of our nation's natural-gas supply — and the urgent need for Congress and industry to work together to find a way out of what is now nothing short of a national emergency. It is a crisis for the 6-in-10 American families who heat their homes with natural gas and face an average price increase of close to 50 percent or $500 per family this winter. It is a crisis for the chemistry industry, which uses natural gas as a raw material for compounds used in thousands of consumer products — from agriculture, telecommunications and automobiles to pharmaceuticals, health and beauty products and food packaging. It is rippling through the economy in the form of product shortages. Simmons Bedding Company has reported that it cannot obtain enough polyurethane foam needed to make bedding. Goodyear is cutting U.S. tire production by 30 percent due to rubber shortages. Newell Rubbermaid has seen resin costs jump 21 percent in a year, and is looking at switching to alternative materials. And a bottled-water company that wanted to supply water to FEMA found that its suppliers could not provide the plastic needed. Production of carpet and fertilizer are also down. The natural-gas crisis is threatening U.S. manufacturing, economic growth, employment and international competitiveness. More than 96 percent of all manufactured goods are directly touched by chemistry. The industries that rely on chemistry together represent more than a quarter of the nation's entire workforce. Unaffordable natural gas is driving away investment, crippling our manufacturing base and reducing job opportunities. It is transferring to foreign countries the advanced research and technology desperately needed in order to compete on the world stage. In effect, our nation's energy policy has become its de facto manufacturing and national-security policies as well. In the chemistry industry alone, more than 100 plants have closed and more than 100,000 jobs have been lost. These jobs have been literally exported to other countries — in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and China — where natural gas is plentiful and up to 20 times cheaper. CLIP

MURDER IN THE MEDICINE CABINET - PART ONE (February 2, 2005)
http://www.brojon.org/frontpage/murdermedicine1.html
The Deadliest Killer of the 20th Century, With More Deaths Than All the World Wars, Lurks Right Inside Your House, and Threatens to Take You and Your Family. The Story No One Told You. In 1918, a virulent, never seen before, form of influenza seemed to suddenly appear. It seemed to kill within hours, and spread around the world within days. It seemed to appear simultaneously all around the world. Its spread was faster than any then known means of human travel. In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization warned of repeats of such a rapid and deadly pandemic, through such variants of influenza as SARS and Bird Flu. But without knowing what caused the 1918 pandemic or how it spread, how can the CDC or WHO make such a claim? Unless they already know something they are not telling. (...) Normally the progress of a flu is that a virus enters the mucous membrane lining of the lungs, enters cells, then makes many copies of itself, which causes the cell to expand to such an degree that it bursts open. The new viruses then cloak themselves with a coating taken from the old damaged cell wall, thus hiding themselves from the human body's own T-cell antibody immune defense system. To the body's immune system the new viruses simply appear to be pieces of the body's own lung tissue. By creating a fever, the viral infection is slowed down sufficiently so that the body's T cells can find the swollen infected lung cells, surround them and metabolize (literally eat) the damaged cell with strong acids which also breaks down the RNA viruses into basic amino acids. This effectively "kills" the viruses so that they can't reproduce. But viruses are not living things, and you can't kill something that's not alive. All the body can do is destroy or dissolve the RNA amino acid chain which makes up the virus. Not knowing this, most doctors treat the flu with aspirin or fever reducers, as a palliative treatment to ease the aches, pains, and delerium fever effects. The result is that within hours, the fever goes down and the patient feels much better. What neither the patient nor the doctor knows is that with only a normal 98.6F body temperature, the viruses are allowed to reproduce unchecked. Within 72 hours, the viruses have grown from one or two virus bodies to millions or billions. The body is now completely overwhelmed. But while taking aspirin or cold medications, there are no symptoms or warnings of what is yet to come. As a last resort the body tries to quickly flush the infection of billions of viruses from the lungs with massive amounts of T- cells, and fluid in the lungs to "cough out" the virus. This is called viral pneumonia. Soon within hours the patient is in the hospital. The doctors try to treat the now 105 degree fever with more anti-febril aspirins, or related medications to "treat the fever." Then within another 24 hours the patient, suffocating and gasping for breath, is dead. You should note that the original infection did cause a mild fever, aches and pains, which the patient "self-medicated" with over- the-counter products. For the next several days, the patient seemed to have no symptoms, but was actually growing billions of copies of influenza virus in his lungs. Then days later, the patient and doctor seem to see a sudden rapid case of viral flu infection that is now overwhelming the body. Is that what really happened? What caused the patient's death? Was it the original flu virus, or was it the use of Aspirin to lower the flu fever which then shutdown the patient's own immune system response? Obviously, the latter. So how did this cause the massive rapid spread of the 1918 Flu? CLIP

Most Offspring Died When Mother Rats Ate Genetically Engineered Soy (Oct 5, 2005)
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=297
The Russian scientist planned a simple experiment to see if eating genetically modified (GM) soy might influence offspring. What she got, however, was an astounding result that may threaten a multi-billion dollar industry.

Omega-News Collection 29. October 2005
http://www.blog.de/main/index.php/omega_bloggt/2005/10/29/omega_news_collection_29_october~269053