The Cell Phone Trap

By Joel S. Hirschhorn - Global Research, November 4, 2010
It is now inconceivable that our world could function without the 5 billion cell phones used globally. The new book by Devra Davis “Disconnect” deserves your attention. Indeed, if you use a cell phone a lot it should be mandatory reading.
It also seems inconceivable that the trillion dollar cell phone industry and governments worldwide could have pushed this technology without ever having solid research results proving the safety of cell phones. If true that would be deadly frightening. But that is exactly the reality.
Is this a bizarre slip up or an intentional conspiracy between corporate and government interests? The more you learn the more you fear. Nightmarishly, cell phone technology has become too big to fail, no matter its deadly risks. Government won’t protect you, so you have to protect yourself.
Let me note that I rarely use my cell phone. Very few people have my number and I rarely turn it on, except when I need to make a call. As a former professor of engineering I have always seen technology as offering risks, not just heavily commercialized benefits. The risks are often dismissed, poorly studied or just plain ignored.
And by now everyone should be concerned that neither government regulations nor corporate responsibility protect us very well from harmful foods, prescription drugs and manufactured products.
Facing the truth is often painful, but if you care about protecting your health and the health of people you love, then this is a book you definitely want to read and get others to read. Make no mistake, what you learn will upset you, but beyond getting angry at companies and the government for not adequately protecting against a man made public health disaster, you will be motivated to change your behavior. The subtitle sums up the theme: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family.
Here are some of the eye-popping facts and insights I picked up from reading of this book.
Tests show young men who keep their phones in a pants pocket have reduced sperm counts.
Some scientists have, for decades, known about the adverse effects that radiofrequency causes in the brain. For example, radiofrequency allows chemicals and toxins from the blood, which are normally kept away from the nervous system, to enter the brain and cause disease.
The work of Dr. Lennart Hardell in Sweden should make cell phone users reconsider their practices. Swedes who have used cell phones the most and for the longest times have more malignant brain tumors than others. After a decade of use the risk of brain tumors is doubled. Similar results were found by scientists in Israel , Finland , Russia and England . Hardell has also found that teenagers using cell phones end up after a decade with four times more brain cancers.
The book highlights what the distinguished research scientist Dariusz Leszczynski said: “we clearly showed that radiation from a phone had a biological impact. After this work, which in fact repeated that of many others…the world could no longer pretend that the only problems with cell phones occurred after you could measure a change in temperature. This view was always mistaken, of course, and our work showed that.” In other words, much lower power than in microwave ovens does not mean the absence of effects on our bodies.
Davis makes the inescapable point at the end of the book that “we need to invest in cell phones’ safety as we do with other modern technologies.” But it is not clear whether that is proceeding as it should. Do you think industry and government will do the right thing and risk getting research results that could devastate cell phone usage? With corporate interests corrupting Congress it is highly unlikely that what is needed in terms of research and regulation will happen.
What should cell phone users do? They and children in particular should not be using cell phones without "ear buds." They should not keep cell phones that are turned on in their clothing next to their body. Use the speaker option. Recognize that texting and other phone functions can be less dangerous than holding a phone next to your head to hear. Remember that cordless phones also pose similar radiation hazards, so minimize their use at home.
I wonder whether the richest and most powerful people in society, like President Obama (and his children), have been strongly advised to not hold cell phones next to the head.
Bottom line: Your addiction to cell phone use just might be your downfall. How much risk do you want to take? Smart phones are the rage. Now we need a lot more smart people. Disconnect. The more you use your cell phone, the more trapped you are.
[Contact Joel S. Hirschhorn through delusionaldemocracy.com.]
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

SO WHAT HAPPENED?

Source: United Nations Department of Public Information, NY
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Preamble
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, therefore,
The General Assembly,
Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11
1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14
1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15
1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16
1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17
1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21
1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23
1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25
1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26
1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27
1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29
1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Source

US criticized for rights violations

US criticized for rights violations
Fri Nov 5, 2010 4:38PM
The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council called on the White House to 'investigate allegations of torture in US detention centers abroad.'
The US has faced much criticism at the UN top human rights assembly over allegations of torture and delays in the closure of Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.
The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council called on the White House to investigate allegations of torture in US detention centers abroad.
The ambassadors of 47 member-states urged the swift closure of US detention centers in Guantanamo in Cuba and Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.
European countries including Britain, as well as Australia, recommended a moratorium or abolition of the death penalty
France urged President Barack Obama to "honor his promise" in 2009 to close Guantanamo where a total of 172 of the 242 detainees, from when Obama took office in 2008, are kept. France insist on the need for help from Congress, the courts and US allies willing to host ex-detainees.
Cuban ambassador Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez called on the US to "halt war crimes and the killing of civilians." Venezuela's German Mundarain Hernandez recommended that Washington "put to trial those responsible for victims of torture."
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that former US president George W. Bush wrote in his new memoir that he personally gave the go-ahead for CIA officers to waterboard alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The 36-member US delegation tried to downplay the human rights violations committed by Washington, but recognized that the US record was "not perfect."
"While there were some politically-motivated conversations, overall the conversation was constructive dialogue on international human rights," delegation chief and assistant secretary at the US State Department, Esther Brimmer told reporters afterwards.
Although no action is taken in the four-yearly "Universal Periodic Review" it exposes governments to examination by their peers and the UN. The US had refused to join the UN council under the Bush administration.

Source

Footnote from chela: Please see separate post on Human Rights - odd I was thinking about human rights and this story was in my face - curiouser and curiouser?

Wikileaks calls for probe into US crimes

The whistleblower website Wikileaks urges the US to probe the criminal conduct of its military forces instead of going after those responsible for the expositions.
"It is time the United States opened up instead of covering up," said Julian Assange, the founder of the website, which has released classified documents pointing to major breaches of human rights by the US military.
Wikileaks has blown the cover off around 500,000 of secret documents, which detail US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It says the tally of the Iraqi fatalities outnumbers that of the US' by 15,000.
Wikileaks has released around 400,000 classified documents on the presence of the US military in Iraq following the invasion of the country in 2003.
One of the documents suggests that the American forces had decapitated an Iraqi last year on the order of their higher-up, who bore personal grievance against the victim.
Washington has launched, what Assange referred to as, an "aggressive investigation" into his apparatus.
He singled out for criticism, the US authorities' imprisonment of a former army intelligence analyst, who reportedly leaked to the website a video, featuring a 2007 US helicopter attack on the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The material showed trigger-happy troops killing 12 people, including two Reuters employees, in a shooting spree.
"The only action to date has been to threaten this organization, to place the alleged whistleblower Bradley Manning into prison," Assange said. A 52-year jail sentence hangs over Manning.
Wikileaks says it could release around 15,000 more documents on the war in Afghanistan as well as an Afghanistan video file.
An estimated 655,000 civilians have been killed since the US-led invasion.
Iraqi people have blamed rising civilian casualties on the continued presence of foreign troops.

Source

OK Readers why a probe/investigation has not happened is because of us - we make no demands - why? The truth is in our faces - are we all so frightened to act?
Always questions I can not find the answers but I will not give up trying.

The party game is over. Stand and fight

"Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
Which in sleep had fall'n on you:
Ye are many - they are few."
(There is a separate post for the poem if you are interested)
The party game is over. Stand and fight - John Pilger
These days, the stirring lines of Percy Shelley's "Mask of Anarchy" may seem unattainable. I don't think so. Shelley was both a Romantic and political truth-teller. His words resonate now because only one political course is left to those who are disenfranchised and whose ruin is announced on a government spreadsheet.
Born of the "never again" spirit of 1945, social democracy has surrendered to an extreme political cult of money worship. This reached its apogee when £1trn of public money was handed unconditionally to corrupt banks by a Labour government whose leader, Gordon Brown, had previously described "financiers" as the nation's "great example" and his personal "inspiration".
This is not to say parliamentary politics is meaningless. It has one meaning now: the replacement of democracy with a business plan for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope, every child born.
No rationale
The old myths of British rectitude, imperial in origin, provided false comfort while the Blair gang built the foundation of the present "coalition". This is led by a former PR man for an asset stripper and by a bagman who will inherit his knighthood and the tax-shielded fortune of his father, the 17th Baronet of Ballintaylor. David Cameron and George Osborne are essentially fossilised spivs who, in colonial times, would have been sent by their daddies to claim foreign terrain and plunder.
Today, they are claiming 21st-century Britain and imposing their vicious, antique ideology, albeit served as economic snake oil. Their designs have nothing to do with a "deficit crisis". A deficit of 10 per cent is not remotely a crisis. When Britain was officially bankrupt at the end of the Second World War, the government built its greatest public institutions, such as the National Health Service and the arts edifices of London's South Bank.
There is no economic rationale for the assault described cravenly by the BBC as a "public spending review". The debt is exclusively the responsibility of those who incurred it, the super-rich and the gamblers. However, that's beside the point. What is happening in Britain is the seizure of an opportunity to destroy the tenuous humanity of the modern state. It is a coup, a "shock doctrine" as applied to Pinochet's Chile and Yeltsin's Russia.
In Britain, there is no need for tanks in the streets. In its managerial indifference to the freedoms it is said to hold dear, bourgeois Britain has allowed parliament to create a surveillance state with 3,000 new criminal offences and laws: more than for the whole of the previous century. Powers of arrest and detention have never been greater. The police have the impunity to kill; and asylum-seekers can be "restrained" to death on commercial flights.
Athol Fugard is right. With Harold Pinter gone, no acclaimed writer or artist dare depart from their well-remunerated vanity. With so much in need of saying, they have nothing to say. Liberalism, the vainest ideology, has hauled up its ladder. The chief opportunist, Nick Clegg, gave no electoral hint of his odious faction's compliance with the dismantling of much of British postwar society. The theft of £83bn in jobs and services matches almost exactly the amount of tax legally avoided by piratical corporations. Without fanfare, the super-rich have been assured they can dodge up to £40bn in tax payments in the secrecy of Swiss banks. The day this was sewn up, Osborne attacked those who "cheat" the welfare system. He omitted the real amount lost, a minuscule £0.5bn, and that £10.5bn in benefit payments was not claimed at all. Labour is his silent partner.
The propaganda arm in the press and broadcasting dutifully presents this as unfortunate but necessary. Mark how the firefighters' action is "covered". On Channel 4 News, following an item that portrayed modest, courageous people as basically reckless, Jon Snow demanded that the leaders of the London Fire Authority and the Fire Brigades Union go straight from the studio and "mediate" now, this minute. "I'll get the taxis!" he declared. Forget the thousands of jobs that are to be eliminated from the fire service and the public danger beyond Bonfire Night; knock their jolly heads together. "Good stuff!" said the presenter.
To the barricades
Ken Loach's 1983 documentary series Questions of Leadership opens with a sequence of earnest young trade unionists on platforms, exhorting the masses. They are then shown older, florid, self-satisfied and finally adorned in the ermine of the House of Lords. Once, at a Durham Miners' Gala, I asked Tony Woodley, now joint general secretary of Unite, "Isn't the problem the clockwork collaboration of the union leadership?" He almost agreed, implying that the rise of bloods like himself would change that. The British Airways cabin crew strike, over which Woodley presides, is said to have made gains. Has it? And why haven't the unions risen against totalitarian laws that place free trade unionism in a vice?
The BA workers, the firefighters, the council workers, the post office workers, the NHS workers, the London Underground staff, the teachers, the lecturers, the students can more than match the French if they are resolute and imaginative, forging, with the wider social justice movement, potentially the greatest popular resistance ever. Look at the web; listen to the public's support at fire stations. There is no other way now. Direct action. Civil disobedience. Unerring. Read Shelley and do it.

Source

The Mask of Anarchy-Percy Shelley

The effect of grotesque images created by Shelley’s use of language leaves the reader feeling unsettled, uncomfortable, and disturbed both by the event being detailed as well as by the poem itself. AND SO IT SHOULD..........
Written on the occasion of the massacre carried out by the British Government
at Peterloo, Manchester 1819

As I lay asleep in Italy
There came a voice from over the Sea,
And with great power it forth led me
To walk in the visions of Poesy.

I met Murder on the way -
He had a mask like Castlereagh -
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him:

All were fat; and well they might
Be in admirable plight,
For one by one, and two by two,
He tossed the human hearts to chew
Which from his wide cloak he drew.

Next came Fraud, and he had on,
Like Eldon, an ermined gown;
His big tears, for he wept well,
Turned to mill-stones as they fell.

And the little children, who
Round his feet played to and fro,
Thinking every tear a gem,
Had their brains knocked out by them.

Clothed with the Bible, as with light,
And the shadows of the night,
Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy
On a crocodile rode by.

And many more Destructions played
In this ghastly masquerade,
All disguised, even to the eyes,
Like Bishops, lawyers, peers, or spies.

Last came Anarchy: he rode
On a white horse, splashed with blood;
He was pale even to the lips,
Like Death in the Apocalypse.

And he wore a kingly crown;
And in his grasp a sceptre shone;
On his brow this mark I saw -
'I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!'

With a pace stately and fast,
Over English land he passed,
Trampling to a mire of blood
The adoring multitude.

And a mighty troop around,
With their trampling shook the ground,
Waving each a bloody sword,
For the service of their Lord.

And with glorious triumph, they
Rode through England proud and gay,
Drunk as with intoxication
Of the wine of desolation.

O'er fields and towns, from sea to sea,
Passed the Pageant swift and free,
Tearing up, and trampling down;
Till they came to London town.

And each dweller, panic-stricken,
Felt his heart with terror sicken
Hearing the tempestuous cry
Of the triumph of Anarchy.

For with pomp to meet him came,
Clothed in arms like blood and flame,
The hired murderers, who did sing
'Thou art God, and Law, and King.

'We have waited, weak and lone
For thy coming, Mighty One!
Our Purses are empty, our swords are cold,
Give us glory, and blood, and gold.'

Lawyers and priests, a motley crowd,
To the earth their pale brows bowed;
Like a bad prayer not over loud,
Whispering - 'Thou art Law and God.' -

Then all cried with one accord,
'Thou art King, and God and Lord;
Anarchy, to thee we bow,
Be thy name made holy now!'

And Anarchy, the skeleton,
Bowed and grinned to every one,
As well as if his education
Had cost ten millions to the nation.

For he knew the Palaces
Of our Kings were rightly his;
His the sceptre, crown and globe,
And the gold-inwoven robe.

So he sent his slaves before
To seize upon the Bank and Tower,
And was proceeding with intent
To meet his pensioned Parliament

When one fled past, a maniac maid,
And her name was Hope, she said:
But she looked more like Despair,
And she cried out in the air:

'My father Time is weak and gray
With waiting for a better day;
See how idiot-like he stands,
Fumbling with his palsied hands!

He has had child after child,
And the dust of death is piled
Over every one but me -
Misery, oh, Misery!'

Then she lay down in the street,
Right before the horses' feet,
Expecting, with a patient eye,
Murder, Fraud, and Anarchy.

When between her and her foes
A mist, a light, an image rose,
Small at first, and weak, and frail
Like the vapour of a vale:

Till as clouds grow on the blast,
Like tower-crowned giants striding fast,
And glare with lightnings as they fly,
And speak in thunder to the sky,

It grew - a Shape arrayed in mail
Brighter than the viper's scale,
And upborne on wings whose grain
Was as the light of sunny rain.

On its helm, seen far away,
A planet, like the Morning's, lay;
And those plumes its light rained through
Like a shower of crimson dew.

With step as soft as wind it passed
O'er the heads of men - so fast
That they knew the presence there,
And looked, - but all was empty air.

As flowers beneath May's footstep waken,
As stars from Night's loose hair are shaken,
As waves arise when loud winds call,
Thoughts sprung where'er that step did fall.

And the prostrate multitude
Looked - and ankle-deep in blood,
Hope, that maiden most serene,
Was walking with a quiet mien:

And Anarchy, the ghastly birth,
Lay dead earth upon the earth;
The Horse of Death tameless as wind
Fled, and with his hoofs did grind
To dust the murderers thronged behind.

A rushing light of clouds and splendour,
A sense awakening and yet tender
Was heard and felt - and at its close
These words of joy and fear arose

As if their own indignant Earth
Which gave the sons of England birth
Had felt their blood upon her brow,
And shuddering with a mother's throe

Had turned every drop of blood
By which her face had been bedewed
To an accent unwithstood, -
As if her heart had cried aloud:

'Men of England, heirs of Glory,
Heroes of unwritten story,
Nurslings of one mighty Mother,
Hopes of her, and one another;

'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.

'What is Freedom? - ye can tell
That which slavery is, too well -
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own.

'Tis to work and have such pay
As just keeps life from day to day
In your limbs, as in a cell
For the tyrants' use to dwell,

'So that ye for them are made
Loom, and plough, and sword, and spade,
With or without your own will bent
To their defence and nourishment.

'Tis to see your children weak
With their mothers pine and peak,
When the winter winds are bleak, -
They are dying whilst I speak.

'Tis to hunger for such diet
As the rich man in his riot
Casts to the fat dogs that lie
Surfeiting beneath his eye;

'Tis to let the Ghost of Gold
Take from Toil a thousandfold
More that e'er its substance could
In the tyrannies of old.

'Paper coin - that forgery
Of the title-deeds, which ye
Hold to something of the worth
Of the inheritance of Earth.

'Tis to be a slave in soul
And to hold no strong control
Over your own wills, but be
All that others make of ye.

'And at length when ye complain
With a murmur weak and vain
'Tis to see the Tyrant's crew
Ride over your wives and you -
Blood is on the grass like dew.

'Then it is to feel revenge
Fiercely thirsting to exchange
Blood for blood - and wrong for wrong -
Do not thus when ye are strong.

'Birds find rest, in narrow nest
When weary of their wingèd quest
Beasts find fare, in woody lair
When storm and snow are in the air.

'Asses, swine, have litter spread
And with fitting food are fed;
All things have a home but one -
Thou, Oh, Englishman, hast none!

'This is slavery - savage men
Or wild beasts within a den
Would endure not as ye do -
But such ills they never knew.

'What art thou Freedom? O! could slaves
Answer from their living graves
This demand - tyrants would flee
Like a dream's dim imagery:

'Thou art not, as impostors say,
A shadow soon to pass away,
A superstition, and a name
Echoing from the cave of Fame.

'For the labourer thou art bread,
And a comely table spread
From his daily labour come
In a neat and happy home.

'Thou art clothes, and fire, and food
For the trampled multitude -
No - in countries that are free
Such starvation cannot be
As in England now we see.

'To the rich thou art a check,
When his foot is on the neck
Of his victim, thou dost make
That he treads upon a snake.

'Thou art Justice - ne'er for gold
May thy righteous laws be sold
As laws are in England - thou
Shield'st alike the high and low.

'Thou art Wisdom - Freemen never
Dream that God will damn for ever
All who think those things untrue
Of which Priests make such ado.

'Thou art Peace - never by thee
Would blood and treasure wasted be
As tyrants wasted them, when all
Leagued to quench thy flame in Gaul.

'What if English toil and blood
Was poured forth, even as a flood?
It availed, Oh, Liberty,
To dim, but not extinguish thee.

'Thou art Love - the rich have kissed
Thy feet, and like him following Christ,
Give their substance to the free
And through the rough world follow thee,

'Or turn their wealth to arms, and make
War for thy belovèd sake
On wealth, and war, and fraud - whence they
Drew the power which is their prey.

'Science, Poetry, and Thought
Are thy lamps; they make the lot
Of the dwellers in a cot
So serene, they curse it not.

'Spirit, Patience, Gentleness,
All that can adorn and bless
Art thou - let deeds, not words, express
Thine exceeding loveliness.

'Let a great Assembly be
Of the fearless and the free
On some spot of English ground
Where the plains stretch wide around.

'Let the blue sky overhead,
The green earth on which ye tread,
All that must eternal be
Witness the solemnity.

'From the corners uttermost
Of the bounds of English coast;
From every hut, village, and town
Where those who live and suffer moan,

'From the workhouse and the prison
Where pale as corpses newly risen,
Women, children, young and old
Groan for pain, and weep for cold -

'From the haunts of daily life
Where is waged the daily strife
With common wants and common cares
Which sows the human heart with tares -

'Lastly from the palaces
Where the murmur of distress
Echoes, like the distant sound
Of a wind alive around

'Those prison halls of wealth and fashion,
Where some few feel such compassion
For those who groan, and toil, and wail
As must make their brethren pale -

'Ye who suffer woes untold,
Or to feel, or to behold
Your lost country bought and sold
With a price of blood and gold -

'Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with measured words that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free -

'Be your strong and simple words
Keen to wound as sharpened swords,
And wide as targes let them be,
With their shade to cover ye.

'Let the tyrants pour around
With a quick and startling sound,
Like the loosening of a sea,
Troops of armed emblazonry.

Let the charged artillery drive
Till the dead air seems alive
With the clash of clanging wheels,
And the tramp of horses' heels.

'Let the fixèd bayonet
Gleam with sharp desire to wet
Its bright point in English blood
Looking keen as one for food.

'Let the horsemen's scimitars
Wheel and flash, like sphereless stars
Thirsting to eclipse their burning
In a sea of death and mourning.

'Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war,

'And let Panic, who outspeeds
The career of armèd steeds
Pass, a disregarded shade
Through your phalanx undismayed.

'Let the laws of your own land,
Good or ill, between ye stand
Hand to hand, and foot to foot,
Arbiters of the dispute,

'The old laws of England - they
Whose reverend heads with age are gray,
Children of a wiser day;
And whose solemn voice must be
Thine own echo - Liberty!

'On those who first should violate
Such sacred heralds in their state
Rest the blood that must ensue,
And it will not rest on you.

'And if then the tyrants dare
Let them ride among you there,
Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew, -
What they like, that let them do.

'With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away.

'Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek.

'Every woman in the land
Will point at them as they stand -
They will hardly dare to greet
Their acquaintance in the street.

'And the bold, true warriors
Who have hugged Danger in wars
Will turn to those who would be free,
Ashamed of such base company.

'And that slaughter to the Nation
Shall steam up like inspiration,
Eloquent, oracular;
A volcano heard afar.

'And these words shall then become
Like Oppression's thundered doom
Ringing through each heart and brain,
Heard again - again - again -

'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.'

The two wars part 2

If you listened to Part 1, you will not miss Part 2

Source

MP3

The two wars part 1

Worth a listen - definitely.

Source

Audio MP3

Cyberattack knocks out tribal rights organization

The Cyber War continues:

Human rights organization Survival International has been targeted by a massive cyberattack, knocking its website offline.
Survival believes the attack is likely to originate with the Botswana or Indonesian authorities, or their allies.
The attack comes one week after Survival reported on a shocking video of Indonesian soldiers torturing Papuan tribal people, and four weeks after calling for tourists to boycott Botswana over the long-running persecution of the Kalahari Bushmen.
Starting with a test attack at 5pm (London time) on Wednesday 27 October, and building to a very sophisticated ‘distributed denial-of-service’ onslaught that evening, many thousands of PCs around the world simultaneously bombarded Survival’s website, knocking it offline.
Other organizations that hosted the torture video have also had their websites attacked.
Similar attacks occurred during Survival’s campaign against the Botswana government, after the Bushmen were evicted from their traditional lands.
Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘This isn’t a couple of geeks in a shed, it’s an expensive and sophisticated attack amounting to cyberterrorism. The damage to Survival International may be substantial but is of course nothing compared to that inflicted on West Papuan tribes or Botswana’s Bushmen. This is not just a local struggle for the survival of the few hundred remaining hunting Bushmen in Africa, or the more than one million oppressed tribespeople in Indonesian West Papua, it also epitomizes the onslaught against those who dare to reject the domination of money and government over human rights. The forces ranged against us are colossal, and may have won this round, but we will never give up.’
Note to Editors: The website of the following organizations have also come under attack:
Friends of People Close To Nature
West Papua Media Alerts
West Papua Unite
Asian Human Rights Commission
Free West Papua Campaign
West Papua Unite

Source

Julian Assange

[not a hair on his head,
you know we are true;
a ghost ship easily delivers
nightmare realities.]

Source

Massive crater opens up in German town

Another one this is happening worldwide. Mother Earth is suffering from the human virus. The earth is giving way under our feet!

A giant landslide under a residential street which claimed a car and left another car hanging over the edge is seen in Schmalkalden,

Source

The American Mind

I would like to think that not ALL Americans have lost it. I know our minds have been dumbed down for decades but surely our sense of right and wrong oh never mind!

The wretched mind of the American authoritarian, By Glenn Greenwald
Decadent governments often spawn a decadent citizenry. A 22-year-old Nebraska resident was arrested yesterday for waterboarding his girlfriend as she was tied to a couch, because he wanted to know if she was cheating on him with another man; I wonder where he learned that? There are less dramatic though no less nauseating examples of this dynamic. In The Chicago Tribune today, there is an Op-Ed from Jonah Goldberg -- the supreme, living embodiment of a cowardly war cheerleader -- headlined: "Why is Assange still alive?" It begins this way:
I'd like to ask a simple question: Why isn't Julian Assange dead? . . . WikiLeaks is easily among the most significant and well-publicized breaches of American national security since the Rosenbergs gave the Soviets the bomb. . . .
So again, I ask: Why wasn't Assange garroted in his hotel room years ago?
It's a serious question.

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Aboriginal Responsibility

Aunty Bess Price has very eloquently spoken words that have given me a greater understanding of the root problem between the black and white fellas. (The later of which I am almost ashamed to be part of.
I will watch and look for ways in which I can assist.
"We have to take our share of the blame" By Aunty Bess Price
(A speach given in Alice Spings on 22 October by this senior Warlpiri woman from Yuendumu.)
My mother and father were born in the desert. They lived their childhood out of contact with whitefellas. They were terrified when they first saw a whitefella.
They taught me the Old Law that our people lived by. That Law worked when we were living in tiny family groups taking everything that we needed from the desert.
It is Sacred Law. There was strong Law for sacred business. If the sacred Law was broken both men and women could be killed.
There was strong Law for who we could marry. Men had the power of life and death over their wives.
Young girls were forced into marriage. Men too had no choice in who they married.
There was no law for property except that everything must be shared. There was no law for money because we didn’t have any.
There was no law for houses, cars, grog, petrol or drugs – we didn’t have any except for bush tobacco which was shared like everything else we had.
The only way to punish was physically, by beating or killing the law breaker. They couldn’t be fined, we had no money or wealth to take. They couldn’t be locked up, we had no jails.
Everybody knew what they had to do to make sure that everybody survived. We all knew how to make a living from our country. We lived from day to day.
Everybody was taught to fight. We only had our family to defend us. We had no army, no police, no courts.
Everybody needed to know how to use a weapon, women and men both learned to fight and knew they would have to do that sometime.
We also believe that our Law Man can make magic, they can heal the sick but they can also make people sick and die by magic. That is what all my people believe. We kept the peace by fear of violence and magic.
Now we live in a world ruled by a new law that is not sacred, that doesn’t accept that magic exists.
Now we are all equal citizens with human rights. Now we have property, houses, cars, grog, drugs, pornography.
Now we live off welfare, other people’s money or we need to get a whitefella education and get a job.
We still share everything and this keeps us poor. We can’t say ‘no’ to our family even when we know they are drinkers and gamblers and will waste our money or destroy themselves with it.
Now too many of our men still think they have the power of life and death over their wives.
My people think all property should be shared and we think whitefellas are just greedy and stingy.
We don’t plan for the future, we don’t budget or invest – we share and consume. All this has happened too quickly.
The Bath report on the failure of child protection in the NT tells us that our kids live in a chaotic world where they are at terrible risk.
My community of Yuendumu has been torn apart by feuding. These problems show us that government has failed but is also shows us that Aboriginal Law has failed too.
Aboriginal organisations have failed as well. Aboriginal politics that focused on the ‘Stolen Generation’ and ‘Deaths in Custody’ also failed.
Aboriginal politicians forgot about our women and kids, forgot about the violence on the remote communities, forgot about the problems we are causing for ourselves.
We can’t just keep blaming the government without taking our share of the blame. That is the only way we can find our own way out of these problems.
Our old Law worked really well in the old days but it was not about human rights. It was about unconditional loyalty to kin, to family and following the sacred Law.
It was about capital and physical punishment. There were wise old people who tried to make sure that there was justice. But they are all dying now.
Those like my own parents who were born and grew up in the bush, are all getting very old and passing away.
But even they could not stop the grog and the violence that came from the new world we were living in. There is nothing in our old Law that helps us deal with grog and drugs.
All these new things that whitefellas brought in we have no law for. But we still respect our ancestors and we still want to keep our culture.
The Two Laws, whitefella and blackfella, are based on opposing principles. My people are confused.
If they go the blackfella way they break whitefella law, if they go whitefella way they break blackfella law.
Our young men are caught in the middle, they are still initiated into the old Law but they live in a world run by the new law, that’s why they fill up the jails.
Con Vaskalis is right when he says that we don’t have effective leadership. We have wonderful old people who know the old Law but are confused and worried by the new.
They are truly wise when they have real authority, when they are in small, family based communities away from towns.
They are ignored by the drinkers and the young people who are rushing to take the benefits of the whitefella way without learning whitefella law.
Too many don’t know either law now. We have Aboriginal people who speak out all the time but don’t live in the communities and don’t speak an Aboriginal language – who don’t have any idea what life is like for my people.
We have Aboriginal people who others call leaders who we know are only looking after their own families, their own interests and not those of the whole community.
We have very good people who want to do the right thing but are too worried and confused and who are continually grieving over the deaths of their loved ones.
We have white radicals and NGO’s with their own agendas who want to use us like political footballs.
When we women talk out about our problems they either ignore us or tell the world that we are liars and trouble makers.
Some of my people who carry on about human rights and attack governments every time they try to do anything new run away from their own kin and communities when there is trouble.
They never find it hard to find a gullible human rights lawyer to back them up in public but they don’t do anything in their own communities to make things better for their own people.
Too many lawyers are only interested in the rights of the perpetrators. Because they are worried about racism and they don’t like a particular government they will do what ever they can to make sure that murderers and rapists and child abusers are protected from the new law.
they will only advocate acknowledging traditional law when they think it will work better for their clients, the perpetrators. But they don’t know how the old Law worked.
They never worry about the victims who are also Aboriginal and victims of racism, who have had their basic human rights ignored and trampled on by members of their own communities, their own families.
It seems to us that human rights lawyers only worry about the black victims when the perpetrators are white. It is not somehow more acceptable to be raped, abused and murdered when the one doing it to you has the same colour skin.
Our problem is that we want to keep our culture. We want to respect our ancestors and their Law but we also want to be equal citizens and we want human rights. We can’t do that without changing our Law.
But we need to change it ourselves, others can’t do that for us. Only we can solve our own problems and we will do it in our own way. But we really need the support of governments and our fellow citizens.
You need to listen to the voices that are usually drowned out by the strong, the noisy and the powerful. You need to find a way to listen to those who don’t speak English, who are the most marginalised and victimised in our own communities.
You need to listen to our own women and young people, the ones who don’t have a voice under the old Law. If you really want us to have human rights then you have to find ways to protect the victims of black crime as well as white crime.

indymedia.org.au

Rupert Murdoch-a land of opportunity

I am realising what a silly old bugger murdoch has become. He chose to leave his citizenship of the great southern land for more money pastures in other lands. I say how dare he speak as if he is an australian. If education is his current hobby horse donate some of the lots of $'s he has to prove his worth. Put your money where your mouth is murdoch. Or RETIRE from the world stage.
This is a land of opportunity, says Rupert Murdoch
Tom Dusevic - From: The Australian
AUSTRALIA is a wonderful land of opportunity as long as it harnesses strong leadership and educates its people, says Rupert Murdoch.
He also urged voters ignore the Greens.
Speaking last night at an event in Sydney as part of the The Australian's Smart Business series, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, publisher of this newspaper, urged governments to invest in nuclear power, teacher quality, research and the education of all Australians.
"Being poor is no excuse for being badly educated," he said. "Having bad teachers is the only excuse for being badly educated."
Mr Murdoch said Australia's economy was in much better shape than the languishing US, and that Western governments had used the excuse of the global financial crisis to "waste tens of billions of dollars".
"This country is sailing forth. It is a wonderful land of opportunity, with the right leadership, the right government, the right bureaucrats and so on."
He warned that the Greens were a threat to prosperity and scarce resources. "Whatever you do, don't let the bloody Greens mess it up," he said, urging Australians to be patient about energy.
"I can assure you that in a very few years it will be possible to have all the energy we want from economic and cheap and small nuclear plants -- which is anathema to a lot of people. But it would be safe. There would not be an energy waste problem. We don't have to rush into a lot of mad schemes, fouling up the country with windmills and other crackpot ideas which are very, very expensive."
The Australian's editor-in-chief, Chris Mitchell, announced a new Australian Leadership Alliance next year to bring together great minds to solve the nation's problems.
Mr Murdoch admitted education in English-speaking countries was his current hobby horse.
"We can congratulate Julia Gillard for what she's done, and is doing, to improve teacher quality," he said. "Universities need money. We're throwing billions around on all sorts of crackpot things when we could actually be spending it on getting some of our universities to be really world-class centers of excellence."
Australia should try to emulate the investment in education incentives of countries such as Singapore, which was attracting the best brains in the world.
"If we are going to use this boom we're getting from mineral resources and make something for the long term . . . it's important that everybody be educated and that innovation is going on and that new industries are being started," Mr Murdoch said.
Glen Boreham, managing director of IBM Australia, which partners The Australian in the Smart Business program, urged Australians not to become complacent "and think we are sitting pretty".
"Technology isn't and never will be a substitution for leadership," he said.

Source

Obama Losing Votes

Obama Coalition Is Fraying, Poll Finds By JIM RUTENBERG and MEGAN THEE-BRENAN
Critical parts of the coalition that delivered President Obama to the White House in 2008 and gave Democrats control of Congress in 2006 are switching their allegiance to the Republicans in the final phase of the midterm Congressional elections, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
Republicans have wiped out the advantage held by Democrats in recent election cycles among women, Roman Catholics, less affluent Americans and independents. All of those groups broke for Mr. Obama in 2008 and for Congressional Democrats when they grabbed both chambers from the Republicans four years ago, according to exit polls.
If women choose Republicans over Democrats in House races on Tuesday, it will be the first time they have done so since exit polls began tracking the breakdown in 1982.
The poll provides a pre-Election Day glimpse of a nation so politically disquieted and disappointed in its current trajectory that 57 percent of the registered voters surveyed said they were more willing to take a chance this year on a candidate with little previous political experience. More than a quarter of them said they were even willing to back a candidate who holds some views that “seem extreme.”
On the issue most driving the campaign, the economy, Republicans have erased the traditional advantage held by Democrats as the party seen as better able to create jobs; the parties are now even on that measure. By a wide margin, Republicans continue to be seen as the party better able to reduce the federal budget deficit.
The public wants compromise from both sides, though it thinks Mr. Obama will try to do so more than Republicans will. Yet for all of its general unhappiness, the electorate does not seem to be offering any clear guidance for Mr. Obama and the incoming Congress — whoever controls it — on the big issues.
While almost 9 in 10 respondents said they considered government spending to be an important issue, and more than half said they favored smaller government offering fewer services, there was no consensus on what programs should be cut. There was clear opposition to addressing one of the government’s biggest long-term challenges — the growing costs of paying Social Security benefits — by raising the retirement age or reducing benefits for future retirees. Support for one of Mr. Obama’s main economic proposals — raising taxes on income above $250,000 a year — has declined substantially over the course of this year.
Though Republicans have managed to keep Democrats on the defensive over the health care plan they enacted this year, the poll also shows Americans remain divided over Republican promises to repeal it. Forty-five percent said the law should stand, and 41 percent said it should go.
The poll does not measure the strength of individual candidates in specific districts, where indeterminate factors like voter turnout and even weather can affect results. And the poll, taken nationally Thursday through Tuesday with interviews of 1,173 adults, did not ask about United States Senate contests, as 14 states do not have Senate races this year. (The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.)
But it does offer a clear indication of party strength at the end of what has been a particularly intense and hard-fought midterm campaign with more bad news than good for Mr. Obama and his party.
Over all, 46 percent of likely voters said they would vote for Republicans and 40 percent said they would support Democrats.
A higher percentage of Americans continues to have a more favorable opinion of the Democratic Party than of the Republican Party, with 46 percent favoring Democrats and 41 favoring Republicans. But the Republicans’ favorability rating in the New York Times/CBS poll is at its highest level since September 2006.
Disapproval of Congress, however, remains near its highest level in the history of the Times/CBS poll: 76 percent of respondents disapproved, 14 percent approved, and 10 percent expressed no opinion.
Mr. Obama’s approval rating remains below 50 percent. It is 43 percent among registered voters, which is about where President Bill Clinton’s approval rating was in the 1994 midterm elections when Republicans swept control of the House and the Senate.
Yet nearly 60 percent of Americans were optimistic about Mr. Obama’s next two years in office and nearly 70 percent said the economic slump is temporary. Half said the economy was where they expected it would be at this point, and less than 10 percent blamed the current administration for the state of the economy, leaving the onus on former President George W. Bush and Wall Street.
Still, Mr. Obama and the Democrats in Congress have their work cut out for them if they intend to rebuild the voting coalition that gave them their current positions at the levers of power, whatever the outcome on Election Day.
In the case of women — a traditionally Democratic-leaning group that the White House has been courting actively in recent weeks — the shift toward the Republicans was marked in the latest poll, especially when compared with their stated preferences in the last Times/CBS poll, in mid-September.
In the earlier poll, women favored Democrats over Republicans by seven percentage points. In the latest poll, women said they were likely to support a Republican over a Democrat by four percentage points, suggesting Republican gains among women who were undecided as of last month.
But the shift extended geographically, as well. Among poll respondents from the Western United States, more said they expected to vote for Republicans this year than said they expected to vote for Democrats; majorities of voters from that region voted for Mr. Obama in 2008 and for Congressional Democrats in 2006, according to the exit polls taken in those elections.
The Democratic House speaker, Representative Nancy Pelosi, clearly emerged as a political liability for her party in the latest Times/CBS poll. Over all, 43 percent of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of Ms. Pelosi; 15 percent had a favorable opinion, and 40 percent said they had no opinion. The minority leader in the House who would probably become the speaker if Republicans win the majority, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, remains largely unknown. Three quarters of respondents said they had no opinion of him.
In a follow-up interview, one poll respondent, Judy Berg, an independent from Morton Grove, Ill., said she voted for Mr. Obama in 2008 because she was “looking for a change,” adding, “the change that ensued was not the change I was looking for but something totally out of left field.”
This year, Ms. Berg, a registered nurse, expressed a preference for Republicans because “I’m pro-life and I’m also looking at the immigration issues and the tax issues.” She added, “I like the Republican agenda on these issues better than the Democratic agenda.”
Like several other national polls, the latest Times/CBS poll shows a considerable “enthusiasm gap” between Republicans and Democrats. Six in 10 Republicans said they were more enthusiastic about voting this year than usual. Four in 10 Democrats said the same.
The poll includes indications that Republicans will have their own challenges should they gain control of one or both chambers of Congress with a new crop of lawmakers who identify with the Tea Party.
About 6 in 10 Republicans who are likely to vote think the views of most Republicans are consistent with those of the Tea Party movement, which, though diffuse, has had success this year in arguing that Republicans have been too eager to choose compromise over principle.
Yet 78 percent of respondents said they believed Republicans in Congress should compromise some of their positions to get things done and 15 percent said they should stick to their positions even if it means getting less done. Similar percentages said they wanted Democrats to choose compromise over principle.
Marjorie Connelly, Dalia Sussman and Marina Stefan contributed reporting.

nytimes.com

Global Warming Data Secrets

Companies fight to keep global warming data secrets Author: DINA CAPPIELLO
Date: Oct 28, 2010 AP News
Some of the country's largest emitters of heat-trapping gases, including businesses that publicly support efforts to curb global warming, don't want the public knowing exactly how much they pollute.
Oil producers and refiners, along with manufacturers of steel, aluminum and even home appliances, are fighting a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency that would make the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that companies release — and the underlying data businesses use to calculate the amounts — available online.
While gross estimates exist for such emissions from transportation and electricity production and manufacturing as a whole, the EPA is requiring companies for the first time to submit information for each individual facility.
The companies say that disclosing details beyond a facility's total emissions to the public would reveal company secrets by letting competitors know what happens inside their factories. More importantly, they argue, when it comes to understanding global warming, the public doesn't need to know anything more than what goes into the air.
"There is no need for the public to have information beyond what is entering the atmosphere," Steven H. Bernhardt, global director for regulatory affairs for Honeywell International Inc., said in comments filed with the agency earlier this year. The Morristown, N.J.-based company is a leading manufacturer of hydrofluorocarbons, a potent greenhouse gas used in a variety of consumer products. Honeywell wants the EPA to reconsider its proposal, which the company said would damage its business.
Other companies are pressing the agency to require a third party to verify the data, so they don't have to submit it at all, or to allow them to argue on a case-by-case basis to keep some of it confidential, a suggestion the EPA warned would delay public release.
The EPA says it's necessary to make the data public in order for the companies' calculations to be checked.
"It is important for outside groups and the public to have access to this information so they can essentially see and check EPA's and the company's math — giving the public greater confidence in the quality of data," the agency said in a statement.
As the EPA prepares to regulate greenhouse gases, the data companies are being required to submit will help determine what limits eventually are put in place and whether they are working.
The EPA required companies responsible for large amounts of heat-trapping pollution to begin this year collecting 1,500 pieces of information. The data, which is due to be reported by March, will be used in the first-ever inventory of greenhouse gases, a massive database that will reveal most sources of greenhouse gases in the United States.
Suppliers of fossil fuels, which when burned release greenhouse gases, plus manufacturers of engines and vehicles, and facilities that release 25,000 tons or more of any of six heat-trapping gases, all must comply with the regulation, the first by the government on pollution blamed for global warming.
Most companies don't have a problem telling the government or the public how much they pollute; they already do it for other types of pollution, such as toxic chemicals and sulfur dioxide, the gas that forms acid rain.
What they oppose — almost unanimously — is the public disclosure of the underlying data necessary to calculate the annual amount of greenhouse gases.
The EPA wouldn't need that information if companies actually measured greenhouse gas pollution at its source. But that equipment is expensive and for many companies would cost millions of dollars.
Even the Federal Trade Commission has weighed in, and asked the EPA to treat data used in emissions equations as confidential since it could lead to collusion among companies and raise prices for consumers.
Aluminum smelters want 11 of the 15 data fields the EPA intends to make public kept confidential, according to comments filed by the Aluminum Association.
Koch Nitrogen Co. LLC, a fertilizer producer, questions the EPA's desire to make unit-specific or facility-specific emissions available, calling it "misguided" since a change in pollution from a single factory is unlikely to influence policy on a global problem.
For DuPont, a founder of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership — a group of businesses that support controls on global warming pollution — the proposal has caused heartburn, according to Michael Parr, senior manager of government affairs. Many of the company's plants, including a titanium dioxide factory in New Johnsonville, Tenn., release greenhouse gases when generating power.
"We actually lobbied for this reporting bill because we think it is a very good idea," Parr said in an interview. "What we are trying to get across is that if you take that information about how the plant runs and you make that available to the public it does not make the public any better informed about what is coming out of my plant. It exposes the fruits of all my innovation."
If there is one polluting sector that is supportive of EPA's plans for full disclosure, it's electricity producers, which make public much of the data already.
Companies that sell information to investors and businesses want even more disclosure. They argue it is necessary to know how efficient a facility is, which is the amount of greenhouse gases released per unit of production. Bloomberg LP, which has provided greenhouse gas data to the financial community since 2005, is asking the EPA to make public production volume data even if it is not used to calculate emissions.
In the company's comments it says, "Greenhouse gas emissions are not meaningful in isolation."
Copyright 2010 AP News / Copyright (c) Mochila, Inc.

thefreelibrary.com

Harrison Ford act decisively to save our world

We must act decisively to save our world By Harrison Ford, Special to CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Harrison Ford calls on ministers to set "bold, ambitious targets" to protect nature
* Says the earth's ecological foundation "is already severely stressed"
* Urges leaders to back policies to protect at least 25 percent of Earth's land mass by 2020
* Calls on the U.S. to ratify the Convention on Biodiversity
Nagoya, Japan (CNN) -- This week, I have had the opportunity to meet with ministers and country delegates from around the world who have gathered in Nagoya, Japan, to set a global conservation action plan for the next ten years.
This is a critical moment in time for environmental ministers gathered here to work together to set bold, ambitious targets to protect nature and the services it provides. Decisions made here will not only impact our planet's environmental health, but every person, family, and nation that depend on nature to survive and thrive.
Biodiversity is the foundation of all life on Earth. Human societies cannot provide for themselves the essential services provided by nature and healthy ecosystems. Among them: A stable climate, clean air, fresh water, insect populations that pollinate our food crops, healthy soils, and sources of pharmaceuticals for human health.
However, biodiversity loss and ecosystem destruction pose a global challenge of unprecedented proportions. The current rate of species extinction is 1,000 times the expected natural rate.
While the concept of biodiversity can be complicated, think of it as is the very fabric of life on earth and each species a thread. How many threads can we lose before the fabric is in tatters?
No matter how powerful our drive for improving the human condition we will not succeed over the long haul if Nature is not healthy.
Evidence is everywhere around the globe.
For example, more than one billion people currently lack reliable access to clean drinking water, and 2.6 billion lack adequate access to sanitation. Global fish stocks -- food security for one billion people -- have fallen by 90 percent.
NATURE doesn't need people. PEOPLE need nature.
Over the next 30 years, three billion people are expected to join us. Within this short space we will need to double our food output and fresh water availability. And all of this must be achieved on a planet whose ecological foundation is already severely stressed.
If we honestly assessed the economic value of the services that nature proves humanity, we would understand that we have undervalued our healthy ecosystems.
These are daunting problems, but a solution to these challenges is available.
Protected areas -- both on land and in our oceans -- constitute a pivotal cornerstone in halting biodiversity loss.
In fact, in a world facing tremendous pressure to convert intact ecosystems into other forms of land use -- from agriculture to urbanization -- protected areas are likely to be the ONLY intact natural environments that will remain in many regions impacted by human activity.
To this end, I urge our global leaders to strongly support policies to protect at least 25 percent of Earth's land mass and 15 percent of Earth's oceans by 2020.
As important as the number is the fact that these areas are chosen carefully. They must include those areas of our planet that are particularly important to global biodiversity AND ALSO provide critical ecosystem services. Simply put -- those areas that nature and humanity most need to survive.
It is clear that the costs of protecting intact ecosystems, with their multitude of services, are far outweighed by the benefits.
Protecting biodiversity is in our self-interest. As the father of five children, I can think of no greater responsibility.
While important decisions are being made here in Nagoya about the future health of our planet, one country is missing: The United States.
Seventeen years ago, President Clinton committed the United States to ratifying the Convention on Biodiversity. It has still not happened. We are essentially alone in refusing to join this agreement that we, as a nation, were instrumental in drafting.
What this means is that our country does not have a seat at the table in shaping global environmental policies that support the protection of nature and long-term sustainable economic development. Our national interests in the agricultural, research, pharmaceutical and biotech sectors will be affected, but we will have no vote. That makes no sense.
As an American citizen I urge my government to ratify this convention's treaty. I hope you join me in encouraging your political leaders to do the same.
The future of each of our nations, of the entire community of nations, will be impacted by the choices made this week. Our world is at a tipping point, and we can choose to save it -- and ourselves -- but we must act decisively, and we must act now.
There has been news that gives us cause for hope with the announcement of the "Life in Harmony" Initiative by the Government of Japan. This $2 billion investment provides critical assistance to countries that are focused on the conservation and sustainable use of their natural ecosystems.
This is exactly the type of leadership that is needed by our governments to ensure the protection of our global biodiversity, and the future of humanity.
The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Harrison Ford.

cnn.com

Note: Actor and environmentalist Harrison Ford is also the Vice Chairman of Conservation International, an organization that seeks to protect and conserve the Earth's natural resources. He's at the Convention on Biological Diversity conference in Nagoya, Japan, where delegates are working to agree new targets for biodiversity over the next 10 years.

"courage is contagious"

Thinking we were all suffering overkill from wikileaks, I was not sure if I wanted to read or gather more information? But how can we close our ears and eyes to the horrors of the wot. Well actually I do not believe there is such a war. What we have had imposed on us since (or before) 9/11 is an orchestrated plan for what final scene I dare not to try to imagine.
There are man made abominations killing humans, the are man made abominations killing the planet to what end?
Would we have time now to stop the decline of the human race, the destruction of the planet, can we turn things around?
Thinking I could give up trying was wrong, I will keep fighting for truth and peace until I take my last breath and I hope and pray that the thousands of others who know the truth inside them will keep fighting also.
What did wikileaks say : "courage is contagious" spread it around.

Cowardly Lion: Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot? What have they got that I ain't got?
Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman: Courage!
Cowardly Lion: You can say that again! Huh?

Julian Assange - Wikileaks

Updates:
'You should be ashamed': WikiLeaks boss blasts astonished Larry King after he's quizzed over sex abuse claims, By David Gardner

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Pack Assange off to Guantanamo, US conservatives tell Obama, By David Usborne in New York

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IVAW Statement on the Iraq War Logs - A Call for Accountability
The recent Wikileaks release--The Iraq War Logs--has shed important light on the high rate of civilian death and widespread atrocities, including torture, that are endemic to the war in Iraq. As veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are outraged that the U.S. government sought to hide this information from the U.S. public

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China - Oh Dear

I am speechless...
China forces woman into abortion at EIGHT months for breaching one-child policy
By Peter Simpson
An eight-months pregnant woman was dragged from her home and forced to have an abortion because she had broken China’s one-child-per-family law.
Twelve government officials entered Xiao Aiying’s house where they hit and kicked her in the stomach, befoe taking her kicking and screaming to hospital.
There, the 36-year-old was restrained as doctors injected her with a drug to kill the unborn baby.
Her husband Luo Yanquan, a construction worker, yesterday described the moment officials burst into his family home.
‘They held her hands behind her back and pushed her head against the wall and kicked her in the stomach,’ he said. ‘I don’t know if they were trying to give her a miscarriage.
‘Our ten-year-old daughter has been excited about having a little brother or sister but I don’t know how I can explain to her what has happened.’
He recalled how a month before the child was due to be born officials told the couple they weren’t allowed to have another baby because they already have a daughter.
His wife, who was filmed in hospital with large bruises on her arms and her dead child still inside her, said: ‘I have had this baby, feeling it moving around and around my belly. Can you imagine how I feel now.’
Her harrowing experience in Siming, near the city of Xiamen, south-west China, on October 10, comes a month after the government in Beijing said there would be no relaxation in strict family planning laws.
Most Chinese families are allowed only one child to reduce the 1.3 billion-plus population and cut unsustainable demand on resources.
The policy leads to an estimated 13 million abortions every year, with many of those ordered by local authorities. Infanticide is also widespread in many rural areas.
Those who violate the one child law can be fined up to £25,000.
But two decades of economic boom mean many middle class parents now earn enough to pay the fine to expand their family.
For those without cash and connections like the Luos, gruesome summary justice is meted out.
Forced abortions are banned under Chinese law, but this doesn’t prohibit or define late-term abortions.
An official with the Siming district family planning commission said the procedure on Mrs Luo was undertaken voluntarily and that Mr Luo had approved it - a claim he denies.
The couple fear official retribution after making their ordeal public on a blog.
Ordinary Chinese have expressed disgust at the Luos’ ordeal, labelling the family planning officials ‘cruel’ and ‘inhuman’.

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60

On the morning of my 60th birthday (yikes) I do not know how I feel anymore.
Oh my health is ok, my mind active BUT my heart is full of painful yearning or sorrow:
I have an aching heart.
What happened to our world, why have we allowed the deceit and hate to grow like a cancerous tumor.
We have passed the tipping point I really do not think we can proceed as a human race until we expose the truth and eradicate the vermin spreading the disease.

HOW? I am open to suggestions

"So Much Blood has been Spilt in Iraq"

Letter to His Holiness Pope Benedict XIV: "So Much Blood has been Spilt in Iraq"
By Felicity Arbuthnot, Global Research, October 26, 2010
An Open Letter :
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, His Grace The Archbishop of Canterbury, His Grace the Archbishop of Westminster, The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon., David Cameron, The Deputy Prime Minister, The Rt., Hon., Nick Clegg, The Foreign Secretary, The Rt. Hon., William Hague.
Your Holiness, Your Graces, Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary,
I apologise for this multiple sending, but time is of the essence. So much blood has been spilt in the illegal invasion of Iraq, that it is hard to comprehend, with the upper figure of deaths, since 2003 being estimated at 1.4 million. Nearly five million souls (4.7) are displaced, internally and externally, according to UNHCR, a million widows and five millions orphans have been created, according United Nations Agencies.
Now, after the sickening lynching of the country's legitimate President, and close colleagues, a country whose: "sovereignty and territorial integrity", was guaranteed by the U.N., his Deputy, Tareq Aziz, a Chaldean Christian, is to be executed, it has been announced today. This on top of the invasions's blood letting, on a Biblical scale - and in the light of the appalling revelations of "liberation's" realities, in last days, by Wikileaks.
Wikileaks, of course also revealed the terrorism rained on the people of Iraq by the imposed "Vichy" government's forces, "mentored" by U.S., and U.K., troops.
The charge against Iraq's former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, is religious discrimination. Ironically, half a million Iraqi Christians, have fled, due to persecution, since the invasion. Uncounted numbers have been murdered. They had lived side by side with the majority Muslim population, since, seemingly 33 AD., when it is believed, St Thomas founded Christianity in Mesapotamia.
The charge relates to an assassination attempt on Aziz and Saddam Hussein, in Dujail, Iraq, by affiliates of the Iranian backed Dawa party, in 1982. The same Dawa Party to which Nuri al Maliki adheres. (I have not put "Prime Minister", since he no longer is, in rudderless Iraq.) The retribution in Dujail was certainly woeful, but it was a decision made by the President. In context, it pales, however, against the massacre meted out to the population of Fallujah, in 2004 by America's forces, in retribution for the murder of four mercenaries, and reaction against U.S., troops, who had been killing men, women and children, unaccountably since the invasion.
The blood-shed in Iraq is on the hands of all the citizens of the United States and the United Kingdom. We live with it where ever we travel, with the shame and disgrace of their governments' actions. Further, there was no Presidential immunity for Iraq's illegally overthrown government, a usual legal norm, yet the occupying forces, could have halted their murders. As the dominant, remaining occupying force, America is now responsible for every human rights violation.
Mr Aziz was part of a government that far from religiously discriminating, gave annually, proportionately, equally, to all religions for upkeep of their places of worship and related offices. Punishments were meted out not on basis of religion, but for crimes committed. Harsh they indisputedly were, but it is shaming to reflect that they pale, in comparison to that which has occurred, and continues to occur, under the occupying powers, from the day of the invasion.
Tareq Aziz gave himself up the United States authories, in good faith. That faith was ill founded and abused. He is an elderly man and was in poor health long before the invasion. His days are anyway, surely numbered. I beg you to take at least this chance to save just one life. Mr Aziz is a nationalist, as all his government, they could have fled. They chose to stay in Iraq, because they are Iraqis through and through - unlike the current government, with their foreign loyalties and passports, largely.
Tareq Aziz went to the Vatican, prior to the invasion, to see the Head of the Church in which he had put his faith, all his life, to beg intervention to halt the destruction of his people and the land of Ur of the Chaldees, mentioned, of course three times in the Book of Genesis: 11:28, 11:31, 15:7. His plea fell on deaf ears.
Your Holiness, Your Graces, Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, please do not let him down again. Britain and America may never anyway, wash the blood from their hands. "To save one, is as if to save the whole of mankind" is a belief common to all faiths.
Please act now. Time is running out. If it does and you have done nothing, in spite of your collective influence and contacts, his body will lie at your feet, throughout your lives. Further, any lack of action, which results in another lynching, will impose that horror on any citizen of conscience, since we are, so we are told, a democracy. I beseech you to act.
Today we were warned of a real danger of a terrorists attack, we have already committed uncountable acts of terrorism - please do not let us be a party to another, which, with the will, is wholly preventable.
Yours sincerely,
Felicity Arbuthnot, journalist, human rights corresponent, Global Research
Tony Benn, Veteran former British MP, author, CND founder

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Wikileaks and the Pentagon

The Secret War Between Wikileaks and the Pentagon, By Danny Schechter
Global Research, October 25, 2010
Much of this commentary first appeared on the AlJazeera website. http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2010/10/2010102410827506430.html

aljazeera

It happened on a Friday, the anniversary of the first US casualties of the Vietnam War way back in l957. It was also the anniversary, in l964, of French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre’s announcement that he was turning down the Nobel Prize. He later sat as a judge on Bertrand Russell’s Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal, which indicted that conflict’s carnage and lies.
It was the day this year that the often shadowy Wikileaks, chief nemesis of the Pentagon, maybe their worst nightmare—considered perhaps even more dangerous than the Taliban-- surfaced again with the largest public drop of secret military documents in history. Wikileaks is a public web site run by the Sunshine Press, a non-profit group.
For understandable reasons, the Pentagon is at war with its information war against the war—literally.
Wikileaks introduced the significance of their immense treasure trove of secrets on their website this way: “The 391,832 reports ('The Iraq War Logs'), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a 'SIGACT' or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.”
This time around, and unlike the earlier dissemination of what they called Afghan “war logs, they sanitized these documents to remove names that might become targets for retribution. The gesture did not satisfy the Pentagon that said they would provide aid and comfort to the enemy. Forcibly retired General Stanley McCrystal called the release “ sad.”
The Los Angeles Times reported, “In addition to the Times, the documents were made available to the Guardian newspaper in London, the French newspaper Le Monde, Al Jazeera and the German magazine Der Spiegel, on an embargoed basis.
The New York Times said it had edited or withheld any documents that would "put lives in danger or jeopardize continuing military operations.'' It said it redacted the names of informants, a particular concern of the Defense Department
The Pentagon had been bracing for the release for months. Fearing more compromises of national security and more embarrassment for practices they wanted hidden, they had set up a Wkileaks war room staffed with 120 operatives in anticipation. The Central Command in Tampa Florida has been fully engaged in trying to get newspapers not to run “stolen” documents.
A special intelligence unit called the Red Cell was involved. The task has been to prod the American spy networks to operate in a cleverer and more intelligent manner. (Ironically, Wikileaks had leaked some of their internal reports earlier.)
One report dealt with perceptions abroad that the US supported terrorists. Another was oriented toward how to sell support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in Western Europe, counseling that “counting on apathy is not enough."
I can testify to their savvy. I met members of the unit at a University of Westminister conference in London in September on war and terrorism. There were three of them. Two stood out because of their crew cuts and military demeanor. A third was a Muslin woman. They were clearly on a reconnaissance mission probably linked to Wikileaks detection since it been reported that English students were helping the covert citizens agency target covert government activities.
I spoke at some length with their leader, an active duty Army Major in plain clothers, who told me that his unit in Iraq handled high value prisoners including Saddam Hussein. (They escorted him to the hangman, he revealed.) He was very friendly, made no secret of his affiliation but clearly was not at a leftist academic conference to collect footnotes.
As we know now, the Pentagon were unable to stop the release but may have pressured Wikileaks not to name names. We may never know what happened until Wikileaks finds some document about their anti-wikileaks operations.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange accused the Pentagon or more than document editing. CNN reported, “The founder of Wikileaks was denied a Swedish residency permit on Monday and said his whistleblowing website had been cut off by a company that handled many of its donations. Julian Assange blamed the financial cutoff on the U.S. government, which denied any involvement.” Reports of Death Squads have received little pick up even as they were routinely reported during wars in Central America.
He had earlier intimated the US might have been behind the other incidents in Sweden that led to his being accused of sexual harassment, So called “honey pot” traps used in seduction scenarios have always been part of espionage operations.
It’s not just the government that's been out to discredit Ausaage or perhaps try to prosecute/persecute him. On Sunday, the New York Times ran a front page “profile” of the leader of WikiLeaks that many reders in the comment session saw as a hit job because it insinuated a mass defection in his organization and painted him as arrogant and unstable. It spoke of his problems in Sweden where he was threatened with arrest without noting no charges were filed. Later, CNN seemed to take its cue to go on the offensive and grilled him more on his personal life than the issues the new Wikileaks disclosures raised. He ended up walking off the set in the middle of the tabloid-style "interview."
A week earlier, an American veteran of the Iraq “surge” published an open letter urging the Administration to heed the revelations and change its policies.
Josh Stieber wrote, “Dear members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and other willing parties,
This is an anticipatory letter aimed to advise you on your response and responsibility for the coming Wikileaks release, expected on October 23rd. Based on the White House’s response to the last leak about Afghanistan, the temptation seems strong to once again divert attention away from accountability.
I write as a young veteran who once fully embraced the concept of a preemptive war to keep my fellow citizens safe and, as President Bush declared, because “America is a friend to the people of Iraq.” I now hope to preempt your response to the information regarding that war in which I fought”
The full brunt of the US response has yet to be felt. The media outlets that worked with Wikileaks have a new scoop of unprecedented depth and dimension. Yet, the different ways media outlets reported the disclosures reveals continuing media biases against allegations of torture. Few newspapers reported that the documents about civilian deaths minimized the total or that it was US troops that trained Iraqis now accused of abuse.
The New York Times played up the revelations in a page one spread but downplayed their meaning writing : , “…the Iraq documents provide no earthshaking revelations, but they offer insight, texture and context from the people actually fighting the war.”
Not surprisingly, reports of widespread torture that American forces knew about, and in some cases reported with nothing done, is not “earthshaking.” 15,000 unreported civilian deaths are also minimized. The Times devoted more ink to evidence of abuses by Iraqi forces without mentioning most were trained by Americans who were the occupying power. It fleshes out US military allegations of Iranian intervention more than reports of killings by American soldiers, an emphasis that conveniently contributes to the demonization of Iran by American politicians.
Contrast this with the Guardian coverage which called its package "Iraq: The War Logs", and goes high with revelations of "serial detainee abuse" and "15,000 [previously] unknown civilian deaths."
The Times approach infuriated writer Rob Beschizza who came up with what he called “The New York Times Torture Euphemism Generator!”

Here

“Reading the NYT's stories about the Iraq War logs, I was struck by how it could get through such gruesome descriptions ­ fingers chopped off, chemicals splashed on prisoners ­ without using the word 'torture.' For some reason the word is unavailable when it is literally meaningful, yet is readily tossed around for laughs in contexts where it means nothing at all.” Oddly, the New York Times- owned Boston Globe had no reservations in using Torture in its headline.
The New York based Columbia Journalism Review surveyed global coverage and, weirdly, criticized Al Jazeera for a video it produced, “All in all, Al Jazeera's coverage of the secret files is straightforward, “except perhaps” (my emphasis) for a six-and-a-half minute documentary video posted prominently throughout the site, a video that is awkwardly edited and features weird, cable-TV-style reenactments and dramatic readings of some of the reports.” This condescending comment betrays a lack of insight into the differences between TV coverage and newspaper formulas.
While all of the press seems to be reporting the story, few media outlets are going back to their own coverage and acknowledging how they had failed.at the time, to report many of the atrocities we now know the US military knew about, and covered up. One glaring example: The killings that took place in Falujah where Al Jazeera correspondents were banned.
Much of the media, as we now see, especially leading American media outlets, were complicit in a multi-year cover-up of truths and crimes that continue to this day, not just in Iraq or Afghanistan, but in our living rooms at home.
News Dissector Danny Schechter wrote two books and made the film, WMD,(Weapons of Mass Deception) about media coverage of the war in Iraq. He edits Mediachannel.org and can be reached at dissector@mediachannel.org His new film is Punderthecrimeofour time (Plunderthecrimeofourtime.com)
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Iraq War Logs

Excellent Video Presentation of Iraq War Logs