April 6, 2006

The Empire of Darkness Series #31: Bush/Cheney: War Criminals!

Hello everyone!

It has been almost a month since I last emailed you a compilation. As you may imagine such a respite from this time-consuming task was much welcomed and probably many of you also appreciated having less material to review. In about a month from now, it will be gardening time here and hopefully by then the remaining 3 feet of snow still on the ground will have completely melted... So, as I do every year, starting in mid-May, I'll also be unable to devote as much time to reviewing my emails and preparing compilations for the whole summertime.

Since I've been back from vacation, I've tried to catch up with the 700+ non-SPAM emails I received while I was away, admittedly an impossible task, and I've found the following worthy of your consideration.

As usual, there is much to ponder...

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator

P.S. Please include the following note and the URL address for the archived copy below along with your forwards, so others may have the opportunity to explore the original copy, if they so choose.

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STATS for this compilation: Over 28,200 words and 120 links provided

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"I read of a man who stood to speak. At the funeral of a friend, he referred to the dates on her tombstone, from the beginning...to the end. He noted that first came her date of birth and spoke the following date with tears. But he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years. (1934 - 1998) For that dash represents all the time that she spent alive on earth... And now only those who loved her know what that little line is worth. For it matters not how much we own; the cars...the house...the cash. What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash. So think about this long and hard... Are there things you'd like to change? For you never know how much time is left, that can still be rearranged. If we could just slow down enough to consider what's true and real, and always try to understand the way other people feel and be less quick to anger, and show appreciation more and love the people in our lives like we've never loved before. If we treat each other with respect, and more often wear a smile, remembering that this special dash might only last a little while. So, when your eulogy's being read with your life's actions to rehash... Would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?"

Forwarded by John Linnell integrity1@primus.ca>


"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

— Dr Martin Luther King Jr Thursday, April 4, 1968, At 6:01 PM, On The Balcony Of The Lorraine Motel In Memphis, Tennessee The Greatest Orator For Peace And Love Was Assassinated By The U.S. Government. - Sent by "Mark R. Elsis" mark@lovearth.net>


"Well, there has been a very serious threat of nuclear war. It's not -- unfortunately, it's not much discussed among the public. But if you look at the literature of strategic analysts and so on, they're extremely concerned. And they describe particularly the Bush administration aggressive militarism as carrying an “appreciable risk of ultimate doom,” to quote one, “apocalypse soon,” to quote Robert McNamara and many others. And there's good reasons for it, I mean, which could explain, and they explain. That's been expanded by the Bush administration consciously, not because they want nuclear war, but it's just not a high priority. So the rapid expansion of offensive U.S. military capacity, including the militarization of space, which is the U.S.'s pursuit alone. The world has been trying very hard to block it. 95% of the expenditures now are from the U.S., and they're expanding. All of these measures bring about a completely predictable reaction on the part of the likely targets. They don't say, you know, ‘Thank you. Here are our throats. Please cut them.’ They react in the ways that they can. For some, it will mean responding with the threat or maybe use of terror. For others, more powerful ones, it's going to mean sharply increasing their own offensive military capacity. So Russian military expenditures have sharply increased in response to Bush programs. Chinese expansion of offensive military capacity is also beginning to increase for the same reasons. All of that threatens -- raises the already severe threat of even -- of just accidental nuclear war. These systems are on computer-controlled alert. And we know that our own systems have many errors, which are stopped by human intervention. Their systems are far less secure; the Russian case, deteriorated. These moves all sharply enhance the threat of nuclear war. That's serious nuclear war that I'm talking about."

— Noam Chomsky - Taken from http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/31/148254 where you can watch his interview or listen to him.


"Few of us will have the will to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."

— Robert F Kennedy


On the Bible and the Constitution: On Wednesday, March 1st, 2006, in Annapolis, at a hearing on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at AU, was requested to testify. At the end of his testimony, Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs said: "Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?" Raskin replied: "Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible." The room erupted in applause.

- Forwarded by Star Light andromedan01@yahoo.com>


"Take what you like and leave the rest. Jean Hudon is an incredible man who puts these together week after week. We get a meditation and then supporting things that suggest what we are meditating on. It is always an incredible compilation. If you don't subscribe you don't know what you are missing."

— Virginia eeching2004@yahoo.com> along with her forward of Meditation Focus #149: Healing Mother Earth


NOTE: This Wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date was 01:02:03 04.05.06 - That won't ever happen again...


Worthy of Your Attention

Impeachment actions sweep the country! (March 28, 2006)
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/News2?JServSessionIdr011=3v3pjewy82.app7b&page=NewsArticle&id=5129&security=1&news_iv_ctrl=1041
The Impeach Bush movement has drawn in millions of people in this country. The mass media tried to not cover this story. We have placed full page newspaper ads from ImpeachBush.org in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe and other newspapers and the results from this “media attention” has been overwhelming. A mass movement has been ignited from the grassroots. Now impeachment headlines are being generated daily in response to actions from people at the local level.In the next weeks this momentum will keep growing through more newspaper ads, radio spots, mass rallies, petition gathering, and growing participation in the People's Impeachment Lobby and the Impeach Bush referendum. (...) Every historic mass movement started at the grassroots. The corporate-owned mass media tried to silence the movement by refusing to provide honest coverage. But thousands of people generously donated so that we could purchase full page newspaper ads around the country and tear the down curtain of silence. The huge response is just what we expected as people have learned how to join the ImpeachBush.org movement. Now there is Impeachment activity in every state in the country. If you have never donated to http://www.ImpeachBush.org please consider doing so now. CLIP

The Meatrix II: Revolting
http://www.meatrix2.com

Suggested: first watch The Meatrix (1)
http://www.themeatrix.com

The Money Masters (Part I) (2 Hour Video)
http://tinyurl.com/ogndk
How International Bankers Gained Control Of America

The Money Masters (Part 2) (1 hour 35 Minute Video)
http://tinyurl.com/q4frxFederal
MUST SEE videos recommended by "Mark R. Elsis" mark@lovearth.net>

Federal Reserve
http://Federal-Reserve.net

Celestine Prophecy - movie flash
http://www.celestinemessages.com/flash.cfm

Hubble shots
http://m1e.net/c?47933269-8vHWxzyhgrdFM%401460613-.6BvwSyXX14NQ
Recommended by "Ginger Gibson" ggdolfin1@earthlink.net> who wrote: "IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THESE BEFORE, THEY ARE REALLY MAGNIFICENT! ESPECIALLY WITH THE MUSICAL BACKGROUND."

Your immediate action needed to save the polar bear!
Thanks to courtroom pressure applied by NRDC, the Bush administration has agreed to consider federal protection for the polar bear, which is mortally threatened by global warming. But now we've really got to turn up the pressure! The Bush administration is taking comments from the public until April 10 before making its decision about whether to protect the polar bear. Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/polar/takeaction.asp right now and tell the Bush administration to protect the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. Global warming is rapidly pushing the polar bear to the brink of extinction.Over the past three decades, more than a million square miles of the Arctic sea ice that polar bears depend on for survival has disappeared. And on the western coast of Canada's Hudson Bay, the ice is melting about three weeks earlier in the spring than it used to. Polar bears range over hundreds of miles of sea ice in order to find mates, hunt for seals and fatten themselves up for dormancy. But according to the best available scientific data, global warming could cause the polar bear's sea ice habitat to completely disappear by 2100! No sea ice, no polar bears. It's that simple. If the polar bear receives federal protection, the Bush administration will be required by law to ensure that any new federal actions -- including those affecting global warming -- do not jeopardize the bear's survival or harm its essential Arctic habitat. Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/polar/takeaction.asp and tell the Bush administration to ensure that global warming doesn't drive these majestic natives of the far north to extinction. Thank you for all your efforts to protect polar bears and slow global warming.

Revealing News Articles
http://www.WantToKnow.info/060403newsarticles
Big Oil's Big Profits, FBI Monitors Activists, 9/11 in Media, More

Poll Results: MSNBC - Did Bush Lie us into war? LIVE VOTE
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8248969
Do you believe President Bush misled the nation in order to go to war with Iraq?
* 73930 responses Yes: 94% - No: 6%

WORLD'S FIRST BROADBAND ENVIRONMENTAL TV CHANNEL LAUNCHES TODAY: UN AGENCY
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0604/S00012.htm
New York, 1 April 2006 - The world's first broadband TV channel dedicated to environmental issues called green.tv and developed with support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is being launched today, aiming to become a "one-stop shop" of broadcast information on the environment covering everything from climate change to children's stories on wildlife. UNEP said green.tv would also go live today as a podcast on iTunes as well as having a front-page listing, courtesy of Apple computers. It will carryfilms from around the world produced by non-governmental organizations(NGOs), community filmmakers, public sector bodies and companies with a firm interest in protecting the environment. (...) It will have seven channels covering: air, land, water, climate change, people, species and technologies, in each of which there will be a feature, a news item and a children's story. With the look and feel of a global TV channel, green.tv will combine this with the best elements of the internet, giving users access to online chatrooms and the ability to watch video on demand, UNEP said. CLIP - Recommended by Susan Zipp suezipp@mcn.org>


CONTENTS

1. Government in secret talks about strike against Iran
2. Former Head Of Star Wars Program Says Cheney Main 9/11 Suspect
3. Returning to the Scene of the Crime: War Crimes in Iraq By Noam Chomsky
4. Feds Squelch Capitol Hill Blue
5. March 18 Message from Matthew
6. The US: Rogue Nation
7. The Secret War Against the Defenseless People of West Papua
8. Important message from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
9. World’s Forests Continue to Shrink
10. Caribbean Coral Suffers Record Bleaching, Death
11. Stop AOL Email Tax - Yahoo is evil


See also:

Bush Administration Media Collusion Memos Surface (April 3, 2006)
http://www.fox-news.us/story/0,3566,190215,00.htmlFOXNEWS.COM
WASHINGTON — In a disturbing turn of events for an administration already plagued by sagging poll numbers and waning support for the Iraq war, Friday's revelation that the Bush Administration issued direct guidelines for programming to media outlets is troubling even die-hard conservatives. Late Friday a series of memos between senior Bush Administration officials and management at Viacom, Inc. were leaked calling for the media giant to focus on stories and programming choices that "reinforce the Administration's positions" and to "ignore and/or discredit points of view in opposition to the Bush Administration's foreign policy objectives for the purposes of National Security." Democrats and key civil rights figures were quick to comment on this latest chapter of alleged government malfeasance. Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer issued a statement calling for a congressional inquiry. "This is it. This is a smoking gun. For years we've been saying that liberal and moderate points of view aren't being accurately reflected in the media and this proves our point. The Bush Administration is clearly out of touch with the American people, and Viacom should be ashamed."Other prominent figures were less forgiving. Rev. Al Sharpton called the memos "treasonous" and "genocidal" and reiterated his desire for impeachment proceedings to commence. CLIP - FORWARDED BY "Mark Graffis" mgraffis@gmail.com> WHO LATER ADDED: "I apologize for sending this out earlier today. It turned out to be a hoax. The real URL for Fox news is http://www.foxnews.com/ and not http://www.fox-news.us - I have to say it is pretty funny. Anyway I should have known better."

Flashback: July 5, 1987 - REAGAN AIDES AND THE SECRET GOVERNMENT
http://qwstnevrythg.blog-city.com/virtual_parallel_government.htm
Lt. Col. Oliver North, for example, helped draw up a controversial plan to suspend the Constitution in the event of a national crisis, such as nuclear war, violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition to a U.S. military invasion abroad.... http://qwstnevrythg.blog-city.com/virtual_parallel_government.htm

Audacity and Mendacity (March issue)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040406C.shtml
The audacity and mendacity of the Bush Administration mount by the day. This Presidency has become an increasing menace to our constitutional system. Days after the Katrina disaster, and minutes after he woke up to it, Bush promised to cooperate fully with any Congressional inquiry. "Congress is preparing an investigation, and I will work with members of both parties to make sure this effort is thorough," he said. But that was then. Now Bush is buttoning the lips of the entire Administration. (...) All critics want is for Bush to follow the law and go to the FISA court to get a warrant to wiretap that call. The FISA court has granted 99.97 percent of Bush's requests for such warrants. What's so hard about asking for a warrant? The fact that the Bush Administration chose to bypass the court suggests that it was engaging in a vast spying enterprise without probable cause. Bush pretended in his State of the Union address, just as he has in his actions, that the FISA law doesn't even exist. He didn't mention it at all, even as he tried to defend the warrantless spying. He added that "appropriate members of Congress have been kept informed," but the Congressional Research Service studied this and concluded that Bush did not fully inform the intelligence committees and thus acted in a way "inconsistent with the law." That is the trademark of this Administration: "inconsistent with the law." Or, more accurately, scornful of the law.

US Uses Front Companies for "Rendition"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040506K.shtml
Human rights group Amnesty International accused the United States on Wednesday of using front companies to transfer individuals to countries where they have faced torture or ill-treatment.

Alarm at UK Call on International Law
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040506G.shtml
Politicians and human rights campaigners reacted with dismay Tuesday to British Defense Secretary John Reid's call for international laws, including the Geneva Conventions, to be redrawn.

First Mushroom Cloud in Decades Will Rise Over Nevada (March 30, 2006) http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1788259
Military Tests New Bunker-Busting Technology

Launch of Iranian oil trading hits wall (15 March 2006)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060314.RIRAN14/TPStory/Busineor
Oil exchange unlikely to begin till at least midyear - As the nuclear standoff pitting Iran against the West continues, some conspiracy theorists are more focused on another plan that the Middle Eastern nation is pursuing. But they are jumping the gun if they still figure Iran is within days of launching a new international oil exchange that would sell its own and other Middle Eastern oil producers' black gold in euros rather than U.S. dollars -- and which, the theory goes, could ultimately torpedo the greenback and the U.S. economy. Despite repeated reports over the past 18 months or so that the planned bourse would finally open for business on March 20, 2006 -- and go head to head with the New York Mercantile Exchange and the ICE Futures Exchange in London -- the start date has been postponed by at least several months and maybe more than a year. "In the middle of 2006, we are able to start the bourse," Mohammad Asemipur, special adviser on the project to Iran's Oil Minister, said when reached in Tehran. The plan is to trade petrochemical products first, with a crude oil contract coming last, a rollout that likely will take three years, he said. (...) Mr. Cook dismissed the idea that Iran's goal is to use the bourse to sabotage the greenback. "I have a technical term for that," he said. "Bollocks!" As for trading oil in euros, he said the Iranians likely would find it very difficult, at least in the next several years. "Basically, there aren't enough euros in circulation, and nor are there likely to be," he said. Mr. Cook cited a recent article on Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online by William Engdahl, who specializes in the geopolitics of oil. "For the euro to begin to challenge the reserve role of the U.S. dollar, a virtual revolution in policy would have to take place in Euroland," Mr. Engdahl wrote. "First the European Central Bank . . . would have to surrender power to elected legislators. It would then have to turn on the printing presses and print euros like there was no tomorrow." A full challenge to the U.S. dollar as the world central bank reserve currency, Mr. Engdahl added later, would entail a "de facto declaration of war on the 'full-spectrum dominance' of the United States today," and that is something no country or group of countries is yet willing to launch.

Why Iran's oil bourse can't break the buck
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HC10Ak01.html
A number of writings have recently appeared with the thesis that the announced plans of the Iranian government to institute a Tehran oil bourse, perhaps as early as this month, is the real hidden reason behind the evident march to war on Iran by the Anglo-American powers. The thesis is simply wrong for many reasons, not least that war on Iran has been in planning since the 1990s as an integral part of the United States' Greater Middle East strategy.More significant, the oil-bourse argument is a red herring that diverts attention from the real geopolitical grounds behind the march toward war that have been detailed on this website, including in my piece, A high-risk game of nuclear chicken, which appeared in Asia Times Online on January 31. (...) Since 1979 the US power establishment, from Wall Street to Washington, has maintained the status of the dollar as unchallenged global reserve currency. That role, however, is not a purely economic one. Reserve-currency status is an adjunct of global power, of the US determination to dominate other nations and the global economic process. The United States didn't get reserve-currency status by a democratic vote of world central banks, nor did the British Empire in the 19th century. They fought wars for it.For that reason, the status of the dollar as reserve currency depends on the status of the United States as the world's unchallenged military superpower. In a sense, since August 1971 the dollar is no longer backed by gold. Instead, it is backed by F-16s and Abrams battle tanks, operating in some 130 US bases around the world, defending liberty and the dollar. (...) Since the shocks of September 11, 2001, and the ensuing declaration of a US "global war on terror", including a unilateral decision to ignore the United Nations and the community of nations and go to war against a defenseless Iraq, few countries have even dared to challenge dollar hegemony. The combined defense spending of all nations of the EU today pales by comparison with the total of current US budgeted and unbudgeted military spending. US defense outlays will reach an official, staggering level of US$663 billion in the 2007 fiscal year. The combined annual EU spending amounts to a mere $75 billion, and is tending to decline, in part because of ECB Maastricht deficit pressures on its governments.So today, at least for the present, there are no signs of Japanese, EU or other dollar holders engaging in dollar-asset liquidation. Even China, unhappy as it is with Washington's bully politics, seems reluctant to rouse the American dragon to fury. CLIP

France's Political Crisis Grows as 3 Million Take to Streets (05 April 2006)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1747145,00.html
Police fought running battles with rioters in central Paris last night as youths attacked officers with bangers, bottles and concrete at the end of a mass demonstration against a youth employment law that has caused a political crisis for Jacques Chirac's ruling party. Trade unionists and student leaders said up to three million people took to the streets across France yesterday - the second time in eight days that the country has seen its biggest street demonstrations in almost 40 years. The protests, including one by hundreds of thousands of students and scholars who marched through central Paris,?were mainly peaceful.    They were marked by a carnival atmosphere somewhere between a victory parade for the demonstrators and a funeral march for the "first employment law" as the ruling party prepared to begin negotiating its way out of the crisis. (...) The "easy hire-easy fire" measure at the heart of the protests was pushed through parliament last month, in an attempt by the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, to address France's crippling youth unemployment of 23%. Paradoxically, the law made it easier for businesses to sack workers aged under 26 after two years without explanation. The government believed employers would be quicker to take young workers on if they were spared rigid employment rules that make it difficult to get rid of staff.After two months of protests in which hundreds of schools and universities have been blockaded, closed or occupied and workers joined in a national strike, Mr Chirac signed the law on Sunday but asked for changes: the probation period for workers would be only one year and employers must give a reason for dismissal. He also ordered talks with unions. CLIP

Top Scientist Advocates Mass Culling 90% of Human Population
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/030406massculling.htm
A top scientist gave a speech to the Texas Academy of Science last month in which he advocated the need to exterminate 90% of the population through the airborne ebola virus. Dr. Eric R. Pianka's chilling comments, and their enthusiastic reception again underscore the elite's agenda to enact horrifying measures of population control.Pianka's speech was ordered to be kept off the record before it began as cameras were turned away and hundreds of students, scientists and professors sat in attendance. (...) At the end of Pianka's speech the audience erupted not to a chorus of boos and hisses but to a raucous reception of applause and cheers as audience members clammered to get close to the scientist to ask him follow up questions. Pianka was later presented with a distinguished scientist award by the Academy. Pianka is no crackpot. He has given lectures to prestigious universities worldwide. One horrified observer was able to make notes on the speech and our gratitude goes to Forrest M. Mims for bringing this sickening display to the attention of the world. (...) Pianka's doomsday warning of the population bomb, for which Mims claims he presented no evidence whatsoever, is complete pseudo-science. Populations in developed countries are declining and only in third world countries is it expanding dramatically. Industrialization itself levels out population trends and even despite this world population models routinely show that the earth's population will level out at 9 billion in 2050 and slowly decline after that. "The population of the most developed countries will remain virtually unchanged at 1.2 billion until 2050," states a United Nations report. Conservation International's own study revealed that 46% of the earth's surface was an untouched wilderness, that is land areas not including sea. It is commonly accepted that the entire world population could all fit into the state of Texas and each have an acre of their own land. Think about the magnitude of Pianka's statements. He wants to kill nine out of every ten members of your family and he wants to kill them in one of the most painful and agonizing ways imaginable. (...) Pianka's ideology is in the same league as Hitler, Pol Pot, and the rest of history's despots who advocated mass extermination and had the temerity to dress it up in a 'noble' Straussian facade. We demand that he be investigated for openly calling for mass murder. CLIP

Pentagon eyeing weapons in space (March 14, 2006)
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/03/14/pentagon_eyeing_weapons_in_space/
The Pentagon is asking Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars to test weapons in space, marking the biggest step toward creating a space battlefield since President Reagan's long-defunct ''star wars" project. The Defense Department's budget proposal...includes money for a variety of tests on offensive and defensive weapons. Arms-control specialists fear the tests will push the military closer to basing weapons in space than during Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative in the mid-1980s -- without a public debate of the potential consequences. The descriptions included in the budget request mark only what is publicly known about the military's space warfare plans. Specialists believe the classified portion of the $439 billion budget, blacked out for national security reasons, almost certainly includes other space-related programs. Under President Bush, the White House has emphasized what's known as ! ''space dominance" -- the notion that the United States must command space to defend the nation, but the budget request marks a transition from laboratory theory to reality. The Bush administration has sought to keep the military's options open despite international opposition to weapons in space. CLIP

Bush Administration Unveils Nuclear Weapons Complex Blueprint (April 6, 2006 ) http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-nuke6apr06,0,5989419.story?coll=la-home-headlines
The Bush administration on Wednesday unveiled a blueprint for rebuilding the United States' decrepit nuclear weapons complex, including restoration of a large-scale bomb manufacturing capacity. The plan calls for the most sweeping realignment and modernization of the nation's massive system of laboratories and factories for nuclear bombs since the end of the Cold War. Until now, the nation has depended on carefully maintaining aging bombs produced during the Cold War arms race, some several decades old. The administration, however, wants the capability to turn out 125 new nuclear bombs per year by 2022, as the Pentagon retires older bombs that it claims will no longer be reliable or safe. CLIP

Add to Bush's follies the rape of his own country (March 12, 2006)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1729154,00.html
The despoilment of the Appalachians is typical of the President's bankrupt environmental policies - Eastern Kentucky is a long way from Britain. What do we care if another million acres of the Appalachian mountain range are lost to strip mining? If the habitat of the flying squirrel and the cerulean warbler is blown up and bulldozed? If one of the oldest temperate forests in the world with some 80 species of trees is destroyed by the greed of a few coal companies? Why should it matter to us? I'll tell you why. First, because this story exposes the pathological destructiveness of the Republican political and religious elite. Not content with the ruin it has caused in Iraq, George W Bush's administration lays waste the great American wilderness in a way that tests your faith in the reason of man.Second, this campaign against nature is being plotted, sanctioned and carried out by men - it is exclusively men - who are on their knees in little, white churches every Sunday praying to a god whom they believe created this earth. The same people who reject Darwin and promote the idea that life on earth is too complex and varied to have been created by evolution, a theory known as intelligent design, are the ones who show such contempt for God's creation.And let's not forget the last crucial point. With the United States accounting for 30 per cent of the world's CO2 emissions, much of it from heavily polluting, coal-burning power stations, we may all to some extent consider ourselves downwind of what's going on in the coal industry of Kentucky and parts of West Virginia. In Britain, we are not exposed to the horrors of 'mountaintop removal', but owing to a new book by Erik Reece, Lost Mountain: A year in the Vanishing Wilderness, which I happened on in a New York bookshop, I learned that it has nothing to do with coal mining in the traditional sense. Mountaintop removal is just that. You blow up the top of the mountain with a mixture of ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel, the same combination used by Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing, and bulldoze the millions of tons of debris into the valleys and streams below. A slender seam of coal is then exposed, at which point a fearsome machine called a dragline is deployed to strip out the coal.The result is that local water supplies are polluted with mercury and the chemicals used in the mining process; the uninterrupted habitat of many rare creatures and plants is destroyed; and the landscape is ruined forever. The scars that you are now able to see on satellite pictures will be there until the end of time.In the American media, you will find little mention of this shocking state of affairs. Indeed, people generally know more about the burning of Amazon rainforests than they do about the devastation wrought by their own people in their own country. CLIP

US Bases in Iraq: A Costly Legacy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040306L.shtml
United States taxpayers have spent an inflation-adjusted $1 trillion to keep military bases in South Korea since the war ended there in 1953. Those bases remain in place, though they are shrinking. Some military analysts wonder if 20 or so years from now the US will still have costly "enduring" bases in Iraq. ("Permanent" is a term the Pentagon generally avoids in referring to the hundreds of bases it has around the globe.)

Government Says Aspartame Is Good For You (April 5 2006)
AP calls study independent, omits previous human studies showing Aspartame danger - The deadly toxin Aspartame which is included in more than 6,000 food and drink products around the world is good for you according to a new government study. The Associated Press falsely labels the results as independent and omits referencing previous human studies undertaken by groups with no corporate or government ties that concluded the opposite. Associated Press health correspondent Marilynn Marchione seems to revel in suggesting the study is beyond reproach because it uses human subjects rather than rats."A huge federal study in people -- not rats -- takes the fizz out of arguments that the diet soda sweetener aspartame might raise the risk of cancer," smarms the article in an attempt to discredit last year's Italian study which linked aspartame to an increased risk of leukaemias and lymphomas in female lab rats "at doses very close to the acceptable daily intake for humans."In putting the study in this context, the Associated Press has lied by omission. Numerous independent controlled studies (not ones conducted by corporations or government) using human subjects have concluded that aspartame is deadly. They are Camfield (1992), Elsas (1988), Gulya (1992), Koehler (1988), Kulczycki (1995), Spiers (1988), Van Den Eeden (1994), Walton (1993). Why doesn't the AP mention any of these studies? Why doesn't the AP mention the fact that "out of 90 independently-funded studies, 83 of them found one or moreproblems caused by aspartame. But out of the 74 studies funded by the aspartame industry (e.g., Monsanto, G.D. Searle, ILSI, etc.), every single one of them claimed that no problems were found?" CLIP

China Risks Environmental Collapse, State Official Warns http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/11/AR2006031101258.html
BEIJING, March 11 -- China must sharply improve environmental protection or it could face disaster following two decades of breakneck growth that have poisoned its air, water and soil, the country's top environmental official warned Saturday.The director of the State Environmental Protection Administration said that more than half of China's 21,000 chemical companies are near the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, which provide drinking water for tens of millions of people, and accidents could lead to "disastrous consequences." "Facts have proved that prosperity at the expense of the environment is very superficial and very weak," Zhou Shengxian said at a news conference during the annual meeting of China's parliament. "It's only delaying disaster." China's cities are among the world's smoggiest, and the government says its major rivers are badly polluted, leaving hundreds of millions of people without clean drinking water.Protests have erupted throughout the country over farmers' complaints that uncontrolled factory discharges are ruining crops and poisoning water. Environmental protection took on new urgency for Chinese leaders after a Nov. 13 chemical spill in a northeastern river forced a city to shut down its water supply and sent pollutants flowing into Russia.

Pollution soaring to crisis levels in Arctic (March 12, 2006)
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1729253,00.html
Scientists plead for action to save poles from 'tipping point' disaster - Researchers have uncovered compelling evidence that indicates Earth's most vulnerable regions - the North and South Poles - are poised on the brink of a climatic disaster. The scientists, at an atmospheric monitoring station in the Norwegian territory of Svalbard, have found that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere near the North Pole are now rising at an unprecedented pace.In 1990 this key cause of global warming was rising at a rate of 1 part per million (ppm). Recently, that rate reached 2 ppm per year. Now, scientists at the Mount Zeppelin monitoring station have discovered it is rising at between 2.5 and 3 ppm.'The fact that our data now show acceleration in the rise of carbon dioxide level is really a source for concern,' said Professor Johan Strom, of Stockholm University's department of applied environmental science, which runs the Mount Zeppelin station. 'The increase is also seen at other stations, but our Zeppelin data show the strongest increase.'The news of the latest carbon dioxide figures comes as scientists prepare to announce details of the forthcoming International Polar Year programme, which will involve teams of scientists from around the world making a concerted attempt to understand the impact of global warming in the world's high latitudes. In particular, they will concentrate on the social impact of climate change there and also the threats to the regions' wildlife, such as polar bears and walruses.In the last two decades, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen from 350 to 380 ppm and scientists warn that once levels reach 500, there could be irreversible consequences that would tip the planet toward disaster: glacier melts triggering devastating sea-level rises and spreading deserts across Africa and Asia.Scientists and campaigners are desperate for politicians to reach agreements that will prevent the 500 ppm 'tipping point' being breached in the next half-century. These new data suggest they may have a far shorter period of time in which to act. CLIP

Libby's Lawyers Want Fitzgerald to Step Down
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040206Y.shtml
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is narrowing the description of his powers in an effort to counter calls for dismissal of the criminal case he brought against Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.

Internet Freedom of Speech Must Be Preserved, Says U.S. Scholar (24 January 2006)
http://www.iwar.org.uk/news-archive/2006/01-24.htm
Washington -- It is critically important that governments and citizens remain committed to the free flow of information on the Internet even if the ideas presented are unpopular or controversial, said Jim Harper of the Cato Institute in Washington during a webchat January 24. “The Internet is a very powerful, open communication tool. Much more good comes from it than bad, and it is important to preserve the good, the freedom that it gives to so many people,” Harper said. “For that reason, I am very suspicious of rules that would tell people what they can and cannot say on the Internet.” (...) Harper expressed concern about corporations divulging online records to governments. “The government should not be able to dip into private databases whenever they want, for whatever reason they want. If you allow that, they will collect more and more data. Before long, the private sector will just be an arm of the government,” he said.It is also dangerous to free speech when governments are the owners of the telecommunications systems, Harper said. “This puts them in a position to monitor and control what people in their country are saying … and it creates power that government officials can abuse.”“One important thing is to have many different communications systems that are not owned by the government,” he said. (Much more on various topics through http://www.iwar.org.uk)

'Buddha Boy' Goes Missing in Nepal
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=278893&rel_no=1&isPrint=print
Ram Bahadur Bomjon disappears after nearly 300 days of meditation

Omega-News Collection 11. March 2006
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1683058/

Omega-News Collection 18. March 2006
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1713609/

Omega-News Collection 25. March 2006
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1744932/

Omega-News Collection 1. April 2006
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1776775/

A man enters a bar and orders a drink. The bar has a robot bartender. The robot serves him a perfectly prepared cocktail, and then asks him, "What's your IQ?" The man replies "150" and the robot proceeds to make conversation about global warming factors, quantum physics and spirituality, evidence against the official version of 9/11, biomimicry, environmental interconnectedness, string theory, nano-technology, and sexual proclivities of Amazon Basin tribes. The customer is very impressed and thinks, "This is really cool." He decides to test the robot. He walks out of the bar, turns around, and comes back in for another drink. Again, the robot serves him the perfectly prepared drink and asks him, "What's your IQ?" The man responds, "about a 100." Immediately the robot starts talking about football, trucks, NASCAR, baseball, supermodels, favorite fast foods, guns, and women's breasts. Really impressed, the man leaves the bar and decides to give the robot one more test. He goes out and returns, the robot serves him the drink and asks, "What's your IQ?" The man replies, "Er, 50, I think." And the robot says, real slowly, "So....ya gonna vote for Bush again?"