Septermber 23, 2004

Hybrid Series #25: Straining to Keep up With a Growing Infoglut


Hello everyone

I guess the title says it all. And believe me, this is just skimming the surface, the proverbial tip of the iceberg... And not a word about all the hurricanes swirling in the Atlantic (because it is already in the news) and the horrendous death tolls (in Haiti particularly) and the widespread destruction they cause...

That's my only political compilation for this week.

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator


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"In the years before the Civil War, antislavery voters were told they had to vote for the lesser evil -- slave-owning Whigs like Henry Clay. They refused, in small but growing numbers. The Whigs collapsed, the Republican Party was born, Lincoln became president, and the slaves were freed. Today, anti-corporate voters are being handed the same lesser-evil logic. But the sweeping political changes we need will only come when voters refuse this logic and thereby force the collapse of the two-party monopoly."

-- John C. Berg jberg@world.std.com>
http://www.cas.suffolk.edu/berg/jberg.html


"Political campaigns are the graveyard of real ideas and the birthplace of empty promises."

-- Who said that? Teresa Heinz in the Utne Reader, just before she married Kerry.


"I wanted to tell you .....Thank YOU for the excellent newsletters. I am EXCITED every time I see a new one. It is very loving work that you do. I appreciate it... I, like many now, am ardently seeking... and many items in the ERN newsletters... I have missed and am grateful for you bringing them out. Sometimes... when I am low.... There in the newsletter is the encouragement I need to go on."

- Annie smilingmoon14@yahoo.com>


Worthy of Your Attention

New Karel Documentary on President Bush (6/24/2004)
http://www.publicedcenter.org/stories/world-according-to-bush/
The World According to Bush is the latest film from award-winning French director William Karel. Among other topics, Karel examines the Bush family's ties to prominent Saudis, including the bin Laden family, and dissects the administration's war in Iraq. NSNS's Joe Trento appears throughout the film.

Depleted Uranium (Flash) by Dennis Kucinich (A MUST SEE! INCLUDING THE SECOND PART!)
http://www.kucinich.us/dkdu.html

The Buying of the President
http://www.publicintegrity.org/bop2004/

Freak Rock to Buzz Earth (September 17, 2004)
http://www.wired.com/news/space/0,2697,64986,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_6
Astronomers are keeping their telescopes trained on what they call a "potentially hazardous asteroid" passing close to Earth this month. The 3-mile-wide space rock, known alternately as Toutatis or asteroid 4179, will come within 960,000 miles of Earth on Sept. 29. Though that's too far away to incite panic, the asteroid is the largest known rock to come that close in more than a century. And given that its orbit is so eccentric that it can't be predicted for more than a few hundred years in the future, astronomers want to use the flyby to learn as much about the freakish rock as possible. Based on observations made during Toutatis' first recorded flyby in 1992, at a distance of 2.5 million miles, astronomers believe the asteroid is composed of two rocks in contact with each other. Together, these rocks tumble in a complex pattern around an axis that is continually wobbling. Such a rotation is rare in our solar system, and scientists believe it may be due to repeated collisions with other asteroids. Toutatis will reach its closest point to Earth at 6:37 a.m. PDT. It will zip by at more than 24,500 mph. More on Asteroid Toutatis at http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Toutatis+Asteroid&btnG=Search+News

Guantanamo on the Hudson (Sept 16)
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=66605&type=otherpress
Did the Republican Party rent Pier 57 for the purpose of creating a political Gulag & stuffing political dissenters into it with the collaboration of NYC Police? CLIP Read the entire story at http://resist.ca/story/2004/9/14/153017/220 as well as "Maui student caught up in mass arrests at convention" at http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=1082

Omega-News Collection 18. September 2004 (ASTOUNDING COLLECTIONS, A MUST SEE!)
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/335196/

Omega-News Collection 22. September 2004 (LIKEWISE!)
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/339387/

Check also http://www.lovearth.net/news.php to access tons of other essential news and articles.


CONTENTS

1. Feedback about John Kerry
2. Support for John Joseph Kennedy
3. The "time" is NOW for John Joseph Kennedy as the next US President
4. World leaders focus on global poverty on the eve of UN meeting
5. Japanese TV pursuing the 9-11/Bush Conspiracy Theories
6. Allegations that bin Laden has been dead for six years and that Kerry is running to lose
7. North Korean Explosion Not Nuclear (?!...)
8. Stealth Cell towers and the 2004 U.S. Presidential Elections
9. A popular Revolt
10. Total Control
11. Bush Deserves a Dishonorable Discharge
12. It's the Climate Changing, Stupid
13. Crude Dudes


See also:

Eyeing Iran Reactors, Israel Seeks U.S. Bunker Bombs (21 September 2004)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6293408
Jerusalem - The United States plans to sell Israel $139 million worth of air-launched bombs, including 500 "bunker busters" able to penetrate Iran's underground nuclear facilities, Israeli security sources said on Tuesday. The Haaretz newspaper quoted a Pentagon report as saying the planned procurement sought "to maintain Israel's qualitative advantage and advance U.S. strategic and tactical interests." The U.S. embassy in Israel had no comment, referring queries to Washington. Israel's Defense Ministry also declined comment. But a senior Israeli security source who confirmed the Haaretz story told Reuters: "This is not the sort of ordnance needed for the Palestinian front. Bunker busters could serve Israel against Iran, or possibly Syria." Haaretz quoted Israeli government sources as saying the sale, including 4,500 other guided munitions, was not expected to go through until after the U.S. elections in November. Earlier this month, Haaretz said Israel sought to obtain the U.S.-made, one-ton "bunker buster" bombs for a possible future strike against arch-foe Iran's atomic development program, which the Jewish state considers a strategic threat. "This relationship has a long history. The United States has given Israel more advanced weapons than this," a spokesman for Iran's Defense Ministry said. "This could be psychological warfare to test us," he added. Tehran denies hostile designs, saying its nuclear program has peaceful purposes only. This week, it rejected international calls to comply with a U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency demand that it halt all uranium-enrichment activities. Among the nuclear facilities that Iran has declared are uranium mines near the city of Yazd, and a uranium-enrichment plant in Natanz incorporating large underground buildings that could accommodate thousands of gas centrifuges. Western diplomats accuse Iran of having several undeclared facilities close to Tehran thought to be related to uranium enrichment, a process the United States and some other countries believe Tehran will use to produce fissile material for weapons. The exiled Iranian opposition group known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) says Iran is constructing numerous secret facilities under its Defense Ministry. CLIP

US Debates Military Strikes On 'Nuclear Iran' (Sept 17)
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/eed88be8-0741-11d9-9672-00000e2511c8.html

Detention Camps for US Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision
http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/lead-story13.htm
Attorney general shows himself as a menace to liberty. John Ashcroft's announced desire for camps for U.S. citizens he deems to be "enemy combatants" has moved him from merely being a political embarrassment to being a constitutional menace. Ashcroft's plan, disclosed last week but little publicized, would allow him to order the indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them enemy combatants. The proposed camp plan should trigger immediate congressional hearings and reconsideration of Ashcroft's fitness for this important office. Whereas Al Qaeda is a threat to the lives of our citizens, Ashcroft has become a clear and present threat to our liberties. CLIP

The Wall: There, and Here (VITRIOLIC COMMENTARY)
http://www.coastalpost.com/04/08/17.htm
The tragedy of Palestine would be impossible without history's greatest job of mind management. Lincoln was wrong; you can fool most of the people, most of the time. The physical apartheid wall in Israel is possible only because of a mental apartheid wall in American consciousness. The theft of a people's homeland, their exile, occupation and slaughter, is seen as the survival struggle of an oppressed Jewish nation. People otherwise able to differentiate between their heads and their buttocks still believe that a persecuted minority is innocently trying to create a haven for itself, escaping from the savagery of a heartless western world, to live in the savagery of a heartless Arab world. (...) The apartheid wall has been censured by an international court, but that decision means nothing to the dominant twin state, USrael. That malformation is the most powerful military force in the world, exemplifying a universal truth even stronger than the golden rule of capital, that he who has the gold rules: He who has the weapons, is the law. The people most responsible for perpetuating this tragedy , Americans, must do something to stop it. Economic sanctions may be the only way to help Israel become part of the real world, and end its pariah status as a bloody religious theme park , which cuts itself off from most of humanity, and wonders why it is despised for doing so. CLIP - Recommended by Ed Elkin EdElkin@aol.com> who wrote: "Here is one of the most lucid articles on this most disturbing issue."

Kerry: 'Bush Planning to Call Up Reserves after Election'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904Z.shtml

Draft? Bush’s war needs troops (22 September 2004)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092304Y.shtml
Alarm is spreading that President Bush may seek a military draft, or mobilize more of the National Guard and Army Reserve, to obtain enough combat troops to wage his bogged-down Iraq war. Two bills pending in Congress would launch a new draft for all young Americans ages 18 to 26, both male and female, with no college exemption. Also, a new border agreement with Canada is designed to prevent young Americans from fleeing northward to elude the draft. CLIP

U.S. Plans Year-End Drive to Take Iraqi Rebel Areas (19 September 2004)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092004Y.shtml
BAGHDAD - Faced with a growing insurgency and a January deadline for national elections, American commanders in Iraq say they are preparing operations to open up rebel-held areas, especially Falluja, the restive city west of Baghdad now under control of insurgents and Islamist groups. A senior American commander said the military intended to take back Falluja and other rebel areas by year's end. The commander did not set a date for an offensive but said that much would depend on the availability of Iraqi military and police units, which would be sent to occupy the city once the Americans took it.

Microwave gun to be used by US troops on Iraq rioters (19/09/2004)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/19/wirq319.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/09/19/ixworld.html
Microwave weapons that cause pain without lasting injury are to be issued to American troops in Iraq for the first time as concern mounts over the growing number of civilians killed in fighting.The non-lethal weapons, which use high-powered electromagnetic beams, will be fitted to vehicles already in Iraq, which will allow the system to be introduced as early as next year.Using technology similar to that found in a conventional microwave oven, the beam rapidly heats water molecules in the skin to cause intolerable pain and a burning sensation. The invisible beam penetrates the skin to a depth of less than a millimetre. As soon as the target moves out of the beam's path, the pain disappears. (...) Rich Garcia, a spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico, where the systems were developed, took part in testing the weapon and was subjected to the microwave beam which has a range of one kilometre. "It just feels like your skin is on fire," he said. "[But] when you get out of the path of the beam, or shut off the beam, everything goes back to normal. There's no residual pain." A heated battle on a crowded Baghdad street last week that left 16 Iraqis dead, highlighted once again the pressing need to reduce the number of civilian casualties, and at the same time prevent further damage to relations between American troops and the Iraqi population. American commanders later admitted using seven helicopter-launched rockets and 30 high-calibre machine gun rounds in last Sunday's incident. CLIP

Cat Stevens Deportation 'A Slap in the Face' (22 Sep 2004)
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=353146911:58am
(UK)By John-Paul Ford Rojas, PA NewsThe refusal to allow singer Yusuf Islam into the US on national security grounds was a “slap in the face of sanity”, a Muslim group said today.The star, formerly known as Cat Stevens, was stopped from flying into Washington yesterday after his name appeared on a security watchlist. His plane was diverted 600 miles to another airport where Islam was questioned. He was being detained there today ahead of being sent back to Britain. Islam has become a prominent member of the UK Muslim community since abandoning his pop career and changing his name in the 1970s to devote himself to charity work and peace campaigning.(...) Spokesman Anas Altikriti said such actions prevented “open, constructive and positive dialogue” between the US and Muslims around the world. He added: “It seems that the US officials would rather that the untrue and distorted images of Islam and Muslims persist in the minds of its own citizens.” CLIP More on this at http://news.google.com/news?num=30&hl=en&ned=us&ie=utf-8&q=Cat-Stevens

Millions Blocked from Voting in U.S. Election (22 September 2004)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=6306466
Washington - Millions of U.S. citizens, including a disproportionate number of black voters, will be blocked from voting in the Nov. 2 presidential election because of legal barriers, faulty procedures or dirty tricks, according to civil rights and legal experts. The largest category of those legally disenfranchised consists of almost 5 million former felons who have served prison sentences and been deprived of the right to vote under laws that have roots in the post-Civil War 19th century and were aimed at preventing black Americans from voting. But millions of other votes in the 2000 presidential election were lost due to clerical and administrative errors while civil rights organizations have cataloged numerous tactics aimed at suppressing black voter turnout. Polls consistently find that black Americans overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. CLIP

NASA ACCUSED OF SKULLDUGGERY WITH MARS DATA
http://www.atlantisrising.com/issue13/ar13marsdata.html
On September 11 Richard Hoagland and his Enterprise Mission flung a gauntlet squarely into NASA's face. The challenge was twofold. First, there was a morning protest on the traffic island directly opposite the main entrance to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena to demand NASA change its priorities and re-image Cydonia now! The second, held at the Pasadena Double Tree Hotel, was an eight-hour conference with evidence alleging that NASA has systematically censored and suppressed Pathfinder imagery to hide unambiguous evidence of a purported advanced, long-extinct Martian civilization. Additional charges were also made and evidence presented that NASA has been pursuing a hidden agenda on Mars, one allegedly involving weapons and the occult! CLIP More such interesting articles at http://www.atlantisrising.com/issue13/ar13contents.html

George W. Bush vs. Jesus H. Christ
http://jshawvan.homestead.com/bushcampaignad.html

Iraq Had No WMD: The Final Verdict
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092004Z.shtml

Madonna's Pilgrimage Plea for World Peace (19 Sep 2004)
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3520187
Pop diva Madonna today called for world peace at a conference on Jewish mysticism – a highlight of her five-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Extinction nears for whales and dolphins (May 14, 2003) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3024785.stm
Some whales, dolphins and porpoises are now so endangered they could vanish within a decade, scientists say. Cetacean diversity, like all biodiversity worldwide, is crumbling William Perrin, IUCN The warning comes from an international group of cetacean experts at IUCN-The World Conservation Union. They say species like the baiji (the Yangtze River dolphin) are unlikely to last for another 10 years. Other small cetaceans and several of the great whale species are almost as endangered, they believe. The experts issue their warning in Dolphins, Whales and Porpoises: 2002-2010 Conservation Action Plan for the World's Cetaceans. (...) William Perrin said: ""Some progress has been made, but... grave threats to the continued existence of many cetaceans still exist, and some threats are worsening. North Atlantic right whale (Image: Noaa)"Cetacean diversity, like all biodiversity worldwide, is crumbling, so we must redouble our efforts." Threats to cetaceans include the deliberate killing of some species for food and predator control. Animals die after becoming entangled in fishing gear, or colliding with vessels. Some species are targeted to supply the demand from aquaria for live animals. Glimmers of hope Fishing depletes food sources, coastal habitats are damaged by development, and new types of military sonar can apparently cause lethal damage to deep-diving cetaceans. But the CSG sees some signs for hope. It says: "Several populations of southern right whales, humpbacks in many areas, grey whales in the eastern North Pacific, and blue whales in both the eastern North Pacific and central North Atlantic have begun to show signs of recovery." The plan includes recommendations for action to protect some of the most threatened species. These include modifications to fishing methods that would benefit the baiji, vaquita, and Hector's dolphin.

Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster -Study (Sept 21)
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=2004092121540002011311&dt=20040921215400&w=RTR&coview=
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Glaciers once held up by a floating ice shelf off Antarctica are now sliding off into the sea -- and they are going fast, scientists said on Tuesday. Two separate studies from climate researchers and the space agency NASA show the glaciers are flowing into Antarctica's Weddell Sea, freed by the 2002 breakup of the Larsen B ice shelf.

Despite bumper harvest, world's cupboard grows bare
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0923/p17s01-cogn.html
Grain reserves worldwide have fallen to their lowest level in 30 years. Population continues to mushroom. Bumper harvests this year probably will meet demand, but only barely.

The American Traveler International Apology Shirt
http://www.cafepress.com/americanapology


LAST MINUTE ADDITION

NOTE FROM JEAN: I watched the French version of this amazing documentary shown in prime time on TV across Canada on RDI (Réseau de l'information - owned by CBC) in 2 parts, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings this week. Even more revealing than Fahrenheit 911, if this was shown likewise on US TV in prime time, there would be so many epiphanic awakenings that Bush would definitely never get re-elected...

From: http://www.flachfilm.com/film.php?id_film=79&lang=en

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BUSH

A film by William Karel
in collaboration with Eric Laurent
author La guerre des Bush and Le monde secret de Bush (Editions Plon)

Eight years apart, George Bush and his son, George W. Bush, have succeeded each other at the head of the world's most powerful nation. An unprecedented phenomenon in American history. The key events of the last twelve years have taken place during their terms in office: the collapse of the Soviet empire and the Communist bloc, the first Gulf War, the events of September 11, the globalisation of terrorism and the new conflict with Baghdad.

Who are the Bushes? Apparently, the “quiet dynasty” of modern America. But in reality a “dynasty” whose inconceivable family secrets are painstakingly concealed. The grandfather of the current President, Prescott Bush, made his fortune by managing Nazi companies after Hitler seized power. In 1942, his companies were confiscated for collaboration with the enemy. George Bush Senior, Ronald Reagan’s Vice-President and then President from 1988 to 1992, armed and financed Saddam Hussein. He approved the shipping of germ warfare strains to Iraq, thus enabling the country to launch a chemical attack against Iranian troops and the Kurdish population.

This film aims to pass through the looking glass and to show how the Bushes, father and son, have not only dined with the devil but have often invited themselves to his table. The bin Ladens and the Bushes have always been business partners and the family of the future terrorist chief indirectly financed George W. Bush’s political career. This unnatural alliance has continued since the September 11 attacks: Bush Senior is a top official in one of the biggest private investment funds in the USA, Carlyle, a group that has invested heavily in the arms industry: the Bradley tanks and the missiles used in the latest war against Iraq are made by firms controlled by Carlyle… and the bin Ladens. For the latter are Bush’s associates within this investment fund.

"The World According to Bush" is based on fully verified facts and eyewitness accounts. It offers a disturbing and striking portrait of the exercise of power at the head of the world’s leading democracy, as well as of the unacceptable alliances that have been forged and that remain painstakingly concealed.

The Bushes’ feelings of total impunity have attained their peak during the professional career and the political ascension of George W. Bush. His decision to attack Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime already appears as one of the most fascinating historical and political conundrums for historians to ponder over in the coming years.

No thriller or political fiction screenplay could have imagined the workings of such an intricate plot. Unfortunately, its actors are not fictional characters but, on the contrary, a man and a team who hold the fate of the world in their hands. For the first time in the political history of the USA, a small group of people, working together for thirty years, has more or less taken over American foreign policy and totally overhauled it, silencing all opposition. Behind the proclaimed global strategy, we find not only considerable economic interests but also a possibly more disturbing aspect, a religious project that George W. Bush identifies with completely, initiated by extremists who are part of the President’s direct entourage. Religion has taken on an all-important role since his arrival at the White House.

Never before in the history of the world’s democracies have one man and his team acted with such arrogance and impunity, defying international law and creating an unprecedented grouping of interests: the project blends politics and personal interests in an atmosphere of total cynicism. The latest war against Iraq, with its totally unforeseeable consequences, hides another danger, that of seeing America launch further "civilizing" operations of a similar type, imposed by force, fired by ideas that are at best naïve and at worst totally hypocritical, calculated over a dangerously short term.

With, opposite Washington, the rest of the world confined to the part of a mere extra…

More information at http://www.flachfilm.com/film.php?id_film=79&lang=en including a revealing trailer and an extract from the film.

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